B2 - disc wipe

[sedwar...@gmail.com]

Hi - having had my B2 for a couple of years I have noticed that sometimes the CD-drive doesn't read the CD when inserted, this has been overcome by switching off and on  with the switch at the back, howver, the last time I tried this when it came back on the hard drive was completely cleared of all my previous recordings, some 600 CDs!

I am now patiently rerecording all of my discs which is made more irritating as the CDs are never recognised so all have to be labelled by hand.

Sorry - this is just a rant

[JFBUK]

Hi,

Are you sure the hard drive was wiped ?

This would be very unusual if as you said you only cycled the power.

I assume you have no backup but have you tried looking at the hard drive via NAS from a computer ?

John

[Jeff. M.]

Tried a scan disc?

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

It is VERY VERY unlikely that the B2 lost your music.

Can you please go into the front menus and select the "Use HDD" command, then power off properly and power on again and run a "Scan Disk".

I suspect that your B2 switched to using the SD Card as its music store.

Fred

[sedwar...@gmail.com]

Hi - thanks for the tips - I've pressed HDD on the remote, switched off at wall, switched on and ran scan but no sign of the missing tracks. The web UI on my laptop only shows the recent albums that I have since reloaded.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Sedwar,

I assure you that unless you have run 

or

There is no way your music has just "disappeared"  short of a hardware failure of the HDD. As you B2 seems to be working normally, it is not obvious that your HDD has failed.

Please go to your Web UI and press the "cog" button and send us the information outlined below

Fred

[Jeff. M.]

Try running the use HDD command from front panel? New music could still be going to SD card. Maybe.

[Dennis]

On Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 7:14:54 AM UTC-4 sedwar...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi - thanks for the tips - I've pressed HDD on the remote,

After doing this, did you verify that the front panel shows Source: Hard disk ? 

[PMB]

Hi Sedwar...,

Is your B2 still connected to WiFi and the internet (displaying the clock)?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[sedwar...@gmail.com]

Hi - the Brennan is still connected to the wifi, I've attached a screenshot of the UI - I think you may be right about it using the SD card rather than the HDD as it says SD card for the source - but how do I select 'use HDD' command on the front panel? - has anyone done a command 'tree' for the Brennan so we can find our way through the commands easily?

[Jeff. M.]

Using the remote, menu then navigate to settings, then maintenance, then use HDD. toggle this! The scrolling on your front panel should then say   source HDD

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Sedwar,

Yes, your B2 is definitely the source in the screenshot; your re-ripped music is being loaded onto the SD card and the card is about to run out of space.

The 'Command Tree' is already on the Brennan website on the link below.

https://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/Menus

However I have attached below a PDF version of that tree.

Regards,

Peter.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

From the Front

Main menu > Settings > Maintenance > Use HDD

Also - you now have Music on the SD card - if this is re-ripped stuff that is already on the HDD (but you thought had disappeared) then you would be best deleting this BEFORE switching back to the HDD - 

If this is new music you will need to export it from the SD to USB to move it to the HDD.

Fred

[sedwar...@gmail.com]

Thanks all - problem sorted - but a question remains - how did it switch to the SD card (and what is the purpose of the SD card)?

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

The first Brennan B2 units did not contain an internal HDD but rather used a larger SD Card to hold both the Music and the B2's operating software.

In time Brennan began producing B2's with large internal HDD drives to hold the music and "moved" the music folder off the SD Card. However they still need an SD Card to boot up the little Raspberry Pi computer round which they are built (as this is how a Pi works).

Thus for backwards compatibility with older units (which may still be working and benefiting from software updates) the ability to use the SD Card as a music store remains. It is ALSO used as the place where music is stored when using the "line in" method to record analog music (vinyl or tape) on a B2 before staging this on to the HDD.

As for why your B2 switched to using the SD Card for music storage, I suspect that as you said you:-

" I have noticed that sometimes the CD-drive doesn't read the CD when inserted, this has been overcome by switching off and on  with the switch at the back, "

is probably the cause.

The B2 is a computer at heart and it does things you do not know about/see as part of its operation. Suddenly switching the power off can interrupt an important background activity and may change the state of the system on next boot, even making it impossible to boot!  That is why we, here on the Forum, keep pushing the need for users to shut the B2 down gracefully rather than just powering off. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to simply pull the power on any operating computer!.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi sedwar,

May have been a glitch - did a CD rip stop unexpectedly or any other strange behaviour?

The SD Card holds the B2's operating software that the B2 loads each time you power on - this is happening when the front panel LEDs are flashing.

The SD Card is also used as temporary storage when using the Aux In to record. The recorded music is then transferred to the hard drive.

Probably easier to rip those CDs, that went onto the SD Card, again.

Paul

Brennan Support.