Returning Hard Drive

cabinloop

Hi, I ordered an external hard drive from Littlewoods to connect to my TV for watching films. Unfortunately, when I have opened it and connected it to the TV it doesn't work. Littlewoods say I can't return it to them because I have opened it. Is this correct? Thanks.

davidmcn

It's not correct if the item is in fact faulty (or not as described).

If you haven't already it might of course be easier for you to double-check that you can't solve whatever the problem is (or that you didn't simply order the wrong item for the job).

Spank

Nope not if it's broken.
Are you sure it is actually broken or could it be the usb isn't providing enough power? 

DoaM

Did you check that what you bought was compatible with your TV? For example, a lot of USB ports on TVs are only suitable for connecting pendrives ... they often don't provide enough power to cope with a mechanical HDD.

Does the HDD work if you connect it to your PC?

cabinloop

The hard drive works as it should when connected to the PC. My previous hard drive, 500gb, worked when connected to the TV via USB so I assumed that any hard drive would work - I think this new hard drive being 5tb draws more power from the USB that the TV is able to provide.

DoaM

I'm sure you can get USB adaptor cables that allow you to power the HDD from an external power source yet give the data connection to the TV.

Carrot007

Many questions. As per peiople musings.

What TV?

What drive?

What media format did you put on it?
What do you mean it doesn't work? (is it seen, what exactly happens?).

I would guess you also did not specify to littlewoods the purpose of you getting the drive, so if it works it works and is not a faulty return they can reduce the refund (and you are lookign at a lot for a second hand drive, over 50% I would say given the pain of them selling it on. And even if faulty why would you not want a replacement in that case?

So it all comes down to the questions and really why you want to return it. Of course per your not asking enough question of course you can return it if within the time frame. They can choose to reduce the refund up to 100% as long as they can proove this is valid.

mttylad

What format is the drive in?
A lot of TV's and other electronic items will prefer the drive to be in FAT32 format.
Formatting it to FAT32 on your PC might make it work on the TV, although it may also be that 5tb is over the parameters that the TV can access.

Carrot007

mttylad said:

What format is the drive in?
A lot of TV's and other electronic items will prefer the drive to be in FAT32 format.
Formatting it to FAT32 on your PC might make it work on the TV, although it may also be that 5tb is over the parameters that the TV can access.

Maybe 10 years ago. Any recent tv tend to read ntfs fine too. Or indeed fatx, incase you want to watch something over 4gb (but why bother when those suppoer ntfs also?) .

I doubt 5tb is a issue. But if old tv power maybe as most supply the minimum power, would have gone for a cheaper 3.5 drive with psu if that is the case. And if so then the drive is indeed fit for purpose. The tv manual would have given power spec.

Though my LG is fine with pretty much anything. Depends on how new though. If it plays x265 I would expect it to power fine (maybe not for all ports so another thing to check).

unforeseen

At 5Tb then it will be formatted with GPT instead of MBR. I doubt very much that your TV can cope with GPT formatted drives
Also there is the question of whether the TV USB port can supply sufficient power. 

Carrot007

unforeseen said:

At 5Tb then it will be formatted with GPT instead of MBR. I doubt very much that your TV can cope with GPT formatted drives
Also there is the question of whether the TV USB port can supply sufficient power. 

Well possibly, extensions get round it. And why would it not, unless very old, which again OP has not mentioned.