LG TV ruins HDD

SteveJW

I use an external HDD plugged into a LG TV via USB to record and time shift programs
In the past year I have had two HDD completely fail, connecting to a PC (Windows 10) the drives show up but are not accessible, unable to format etc
Removing the HDD from the caddy and connecting directly to the PC gives the same results
A search on-line gives some answers that when using an external HDD in this way problems can arise as the platters are spinning all the time and can overheat, when used in a PC the platters are not spinning all the time
Saying that I have  WD My Passport connected to my PC and it appears to be spinning all the time
Any comments
Wonder if using a SSD would be better
Thanks Steve

steviebabes

It will spin all the time otherwise the pause/rewind function wont work. I have an old HDD connected to my Samsung TV and it's now 6 years old so I think you have just been unlucky. Not sure if a SSD would last any longer, have you tried a USB thumb drive?

JJ_Egan

(Saying that I have  WD My Passport connected to my PC and it appears to be spinning all the time)

Mine only spins when read/ write to My Passport as is the norm .

Might be better of with a recorder box .

chrisw

Presumably the HDD in a Sky HD box is spinning constantly and, in most cases, last for years.

People can't give away Sky HD boxes now, it might be worth getting hold of a couple of the later ones and salvaging the 500Gb drives from them.

jsmith9

The advantage of the drives in the Sky box is that they are video-rated which means that they are rated to be spinning a lot longer than the ordinary HD to you buy for a PC

alternatively if you do buy a new HDD you could try looking for a video-rated one aka surveillance drives

Tiexen

Or just buy PVR and you can record one channel while watching another - and timer record without the TV having to be on.

Neil_Jones

jsmith9 said:

The advantage of the drives in the Sky box is that they are video-rated which means that they are rated to be spinning a lot longer than the ordinary HD to you buy for a PC

alternatively if you do buy a new HDD you could try looking for a video-rated one aka surveillance drives

The Sky boxes do not use "surveillance" drives.  They are more likely to use Pipeline drives, which are now known as "video" drives for PVR use.  Not the same as the surveillance ones you find in CCTV systems.

The pipelines are the drives that spin at 5900rpm and have more emphasis on the power saving/usage side of things (but are otherwise identical to "normal" hard drives), whereas the surveillance ones (such as the Western Digital Purple drives for example) are designed to run all day every day 24/7/365.

googler

Has the TV reformatted the drive to a non-Windows proprietary format? That would explain a PC being unable to read it. You may be able to access it with the manufacturer's downloadable disk utilities if this is the case. 

Chino

Neil_Jones said:

They are more likely to use Pipeline drives

Not the 1TB Sky Q box shown in this Youtube video:
Sky Q Teardown - YouTube
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2873390.pdf

Neil_Jones

That's my bad, sorry I should have said the Pipelines were Seagate drives.  The WD AV is the Western Digital equivalent of the Seagate Pipeline series, which looks like they may be based on the purple drives.

DiddyDavies

Does the manual for the TV state that the USB port is suitable for a HDD? (my Sony will only take USB flash drives) and when you are removing the drive from the TV, is there anything you have to do to make sure that it's safe to remove?
If the data on the drive is being read or written to when you unplug it, this can corrupt it which might lead to the problem you are having.