B2 backup stops

[Steve Poe]

I have a problem with the B2 backup that continually pauses and goes out of backup mode after 1300 song entries.  Does it give some kind of message when it is finished?  I had previously backed everything up before sending the unit in for a disc drive problem.  After its return, I loaded about 200 more discs into the hard drive.  When I go through "USB Functions" and "export to C",   It goes through rather quickly to #1283 (out of over 14,000 songs) and then completely stops at 1300.  This all takes about 30 seconds, where the previous backup took hours.  It never seems to get to the new material I have recently added.  

I have followed the backup directions as stated in the Brennan materials and was successful doing this previously. I have not changed the format of the USB drive I placed the backup on previously, nor have I used the USB drive for anything else.  What could be keeping it from going past  song #1300? 

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

Some queries for you on this.

You sent your B2 for repair (a disk drive problem).  When the B2 was returned to you, it sounds like your original music collection was still on the internal HDD.  So what was the original problem with the HDD?  Normally the HDD either works OK, or if it is giving trouble, it will be reformatted (thus losing all of the music content) or if reformatting doesn't work then the HDD will be replaced (again losing all of the music content).

I'm thinking that the 'Export to C' is hitting either a corrupt track/ album or a corrupt patch on the HDD and that this is causing the 'Export' to stop.  Does the 'Export' stop at the same point each time? 

I note your statement that the 'Export' goes to #1283 within 30 seconds and that does not look good to me.  I have done quite a lot of work on Exports and Imports and here are some figures to consider.

The B2 'Export' runs at a fairly steady 27 - 28 GB per hour.  If your collection is all 'flac' format, then 14,000 tracks would take about 11 hours to complete which equates to about 1,350 tracks per hour. So if you watch the track counter during the Export you can evaluate progress.  Getting to #1283 should take just under an hour, so there is something hinky there.

To begin the diagnosis, can you plug your latest 'Export' attempt into a PC or Mac and see how many files have been exported, and what the total 'music' folder volume size is?

Also, if you could post your B2's 'Settings & Status' information then that would be helpful.

Regards,

Peter.

[Steve Poe]

The problem was with the CD drive, which, although it was supposedly repaired, is still not functional.  It will not recognize a cd and then won't give it back.  I get a "no cd mechanism" notice on the display on occasion.  Haven't heard back from the repair shop in RI as yet.

The hard drive was not the issue.  The internal cd drive would not give back my cd.  Eventually got it our both times (pre and post repair) by connecting a USB drive to USB C, turning the B2 on and it would eject.

The export does stop at the same point, at least for the last six times I've tested it.  The original backup done (before I sent it for repair) was an extremely slow process, but I believe what it is zipping through currently is stuff I had placed on the hard drive before sending it off for repair.  I have used an external cd drive since its return to add another 200 CDs.  

Checked the size of the file from the export on my computer and a 1T USB drive has abt 388GB of space used.  I  forgot to write down how big it was after the first backup (was I supposed to think of that, too?  Lol!).

I will gladly give the "settings & status" information, but when I put those words into the Brennan B2 site info, noting comes up.  How do I get that info to give to you?

[Daniel Taylor]

A couple of ways:

In the WebUI, click the Gog icon (looks like a gear).  That will bring up a small window that has the desired info.

Also, you can press the Info button on the remote.  Each successive press on the button brings up more info.

[Steve Poe]

Great and quick response!

As requested:Software Version B2B Mar 22 2021 09:07:23

14698 tracks in 871 albums 474 artists

11564 WAV 3134 FLAC 0 MP3 0 AAC

Capacity 2000.00G Used 422.62Gb

USB 0 tracks in 0 albums 0 artists

0 Youtubes

[PMB]

Hi ssher...,

If you made a backup before sending the B2 for repair and have added 200 or so more items (Tracks and/or Albums) I think 'Export' is only trying to add the newly added ones (the 200 items) to the existing backup.

Plug the backup drive into your computer and see how many folders and files there are - it may not be exact (for example the B2 doesn't include Album Artworks but the computer will) but will indicate if all items have been backed up. You'll need to add Artist and Album folder numbers shown on the B2 together to get to a similar figure to that shown on your computer.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

OK, I understand the issue a lot better now.  Yes, I reckon that you are correct in that the music tracks up to about track 1300 are already in the 'Export' folder, so that's the first query out of the way.

So, I think that the B2 has either a corrupted track/ album at about #1300 or the HDD has become corrupted.

To find out where the Export is stopping you can try the following.

1.  Plug your 'Export' USB drive into the B2.

2.  From the WebUI, open on the 'Settings & Status' window (click on the little 'Cog wheel' icon in left side window).

3.  In the 'Settings & Status' window, click on the 'Wrench' icon; this is the 'Debug' window.

4.  Start up the 'Export' function and watch the 'Debug' window.

5.  You will see lines of data; artist names, album names, track numbers and names.

6.  When the 'Export' stops' highlight the last lines of data in the debug window and cut and paste that information into something like a text file to preserve it. (sequence #, track #, track name, album, artist)

7.  In those last lines of debug data, you should see the last artist and album name and track name  that the Export processed.

8.  I would be inclined to delete that entire album (if it is backed up somewhere else).

9.  Rerun the 'Export' and see if it gets past this stage successfully or not.

Then let us know how you got on.

Regards,

Peter.

[Steve Poe]

Well! I did as directed and it appears that the last two albums listed in all that info are the last two of the 200 albums added after the return of the unit for the cd drive repair.  I GUESS that means that the export function worked this time, as it did slow down around the 1283-1300 spots, but only momentarily.

 I checked the use of space on the usb drive with my laptop and it looks no different than it did before.  

Would you think this means that it successfully added the 200 new albums or not?  I'm totally at a loss. 

[Steve Poe]

BTW, after it names the cd that was the last one ripped, it says "Cannot make directory /media/usbc/b2Export/music/John Sebastian"

Does that have any significance (the "Cannot make directry" part)?

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

Can you post here two sets of data which will help the diagnosis?

1.  From the B2 WebUI, go to the 'Settings & Status' window and post the results shown in that window here.

2.  Plug the USB Export stick into a PC and navigate to the 'b2Export' folder.  Right click on the 'music' folder and then click on 'Properties'.  Post the details here (Size, Size on disk, # Folders, # Files).

I can do a comparison between these two sets of data and hopefully see what is happening.

Regards,

Peter.

[Steve Poe]

Hope this is what was asked for.....

usb drive in "music" folder

Location:   F:\b2Export

Size: 29.5 GB (31,749,149,419 bytes)

Size on disc:  29.5 GB (31,772,409,856 bytes)

Contains:  1,286 Files, 440 Folders

Settings and status:

Software Version B2B Mar 22 2021 09:07:23

14698 tracks in 871 albums 474 artists

11564 WAV 3134 FLAC 0 MP3 0 AAC

Capacity 2000.00G Used 422.62Gb

USB 1095 tracks in 62 albums 28 artists

0 Youtubes

Let me know if the info is not as complete as needed.

Steve

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

That info is very helpful.  My next query is what is the stated capacity of the USB memory stick?

Regards,

Peter.

[Steve Poe]

It's a one (1) T usb drive.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

OK, so from your B2 stats, the 'music' data looks good, numbers of files and ratios to albums and artists looks OK.

One thing that I am a bit suspicious of is that the 'Export' stops at around about the 32GB mark.  The error message from debug is "Cannot make directory /media/usbc/b2Export/music/John Sebastian" and that suggests to me that the USB stick is full and has no more space to create the directory for the next artist/album.  Hence my query to you about the size of the USB stick.

That leads me to think that your 1TB stick might be a fake one.

You can test the USB stick using a small application called ‘h2testw’.  This is a free download and is really good at detecting bad USB sticks (and SD cards)

Here is a link to a post that I did on this subject about 8 months ago and gives some information about running 'h2testw'.

https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2/c/1BakkcoHSQQ/m/sXqO8ZJkBgAJ

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Peter.

[Steve Poe]

Here's the info from checking the capacity of the usb drive that I sent to you by return email. Not sure if you need more

Steve

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

Yes, the 'Properties' show that your USB stick is 1TB, but the only test that will prove that is to run the 'h2testw' application on the stick.  The way that the criminals work is that they 'hack' a smaller USB device's internal memory tables so that the USB device appears to be much bigger than it really is.  So they take a 16GB or 32GB stick, apply the hack to it and then sell it on as a 1TB (for example).   It will show up in Windows or Mac as a larger device, but it really is not.

So if you can run the test on it and then we can see what the outcome is?

We have had a number of problems with 'Exports' not working on this forum and a good proportion of these have been caused by fake USB devices.

Regards,

Peter.

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

Hi Steve,

I am afraid that the screen capture you sent is (for my eyes anyhow) too small to read.

HOWEVER

I am not sure that you were aware of the "import" of Peters questions about the Size of your USB stick.

We (i.e. Peter and others) are concerned that you issues may be being caused because your USB stick may be a "fake" - ie one sold as 1Tb but actually much smaller (there fakes are EXTREEMLY common).

When you plug them in and ask the PC how big they are they report back that they are the size you bought BUT the PC does not actually check the size, it asks the USB stick how big it is (this is part of what the fakers "fake").

If it is much smaller than you think then it COULD be causing the problems you are experiencing.

There are way to DETERMINE proactively the real size of the USB stick  - there is an application that you can download called 'h2testw' that will do this. here is an article on it

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-and-detect-fake-or-counterfeit-usb-flash-drives-bought-from-ebay-with-h2testw/

Fred

On Saturday, 17 April 2021 at 17:04:34 UTC+1 ssher...@gmail.com wrote:

[jeff...@googlemail.com]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been sold fake SD cards a few times. Do the test and see what the results are. A decent 1 tb drive should cost a hundred pounds or so.  Was it an eBay purchase?

[Steve Poe]

This seems to be way over my head.  Assuming I have downloaded the software for "h2testw", please walk me through doing this.  I have the supposedly 1T drive plugged into a usb port, but what do I do from there.  Something called Wave Browser was required (I think), so I agreed to that.  Did I screw up?  As I said, I seem to be way over my head.

Steve 

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

Hi Steve,

First please understand that any too to check the veracity of a storage device MAY corrupt its contents while doing so. In other words you may lose the existing content on your USB drive when testing it.

So lets step back a pace - as yourself how much did the 1 TB USB memory stick cost ?

Here is one for sale on Amazon look at the (UK) price.

Here is another (OF HALF THE CAPACITY) from a reputable UK store and a reputable manufacturer (SanDisk).

So a 1Tb SanDisk stick is going to be more than £119.99 !!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cheaper product may possibly be 1TB in capacity but would you actually trust it as your music backup device?

It is also possible that the cheaper one may also be a fake with with only 64 GB of real capacity - unless you tested it when got it (with one of the tools we pointed you at) you would never know until your backups stopped working or, even worse,

you tried to reload your data!.

I tend to use a SSD device for my backups (I have used this (an older model) reliably since 1016).

--------------------------------------------

Hope this is helpful

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

Sorry, I missed you response for a while.  First of all, Fred's comment that the contents may be corrupted by the verification test.  This very well thought out program asks you if you want to test 'used' and 'unused' sectors.  If you say no to 'used' sectors, the program tests only the unused sectors, so that  is not a problem.

Next, Steve, whatever 'Wave Browser' is you don't need it. 'h2testw' is a stand-alone program.

I'll put some screenshots together today as they might be useful to others, so watch this space.

Regards,

Peter.

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

Hi Peter,

I did not express myself well.

My worry is that Steve has a backup (perhaps his only backup) of his music on what I think may be a "short", fake USB stick that is failing when you try to add more to it.

I feel he is therefore in a precarious position. 

I don't know what the checking tool will do to an "almost full", fake USB stick, I am prepared to believe, as you say, that it will not harm the used sectors, but I was trying to press Steve, into considering acquiring a known "Good" USB backup device

if he is at all unsure of the provenance of the USB stick he is using now.

Cheers

Fred

[Steve Poe]

I understand the problem with the fakes.  When looking in the Google store for apps, there are so many to choose from for the "h2testw" test apps.  Many of them just say for sd cards.  I need some more guidance to choose the right app for the test, or just assurance that any should work for this purpose.

As for the possible corruption, that is something I will just have to decide how to deal with, as I have already spent so very many hours ripping the discs to the B2.  I'd certainly hate to go through that again.  Thanks for the warning about the possible corruption, for sure and for the info about the useless download of the Big Wave browser, which is now deleted, hopefully before any damage was done.

Thanks for trying to help this non-techie!  I did try again yesterday to do the backup, but the same stopping points came up.

Steve

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

I have attached a step-by-step guide in 'PDF' format for guidance for downloading and using 'H2testw'. 

H2testw works on USB sticks, SD cards and microSD cards.

I have no idea where the 'Big Wave' browser download came from.  I downloaded the H2testw from the website given in the attached document and had no problems at all.

Regards,

Peter.

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

Great instructions Peter, Thank you

Fred 

[Steve Poe]

Peter,

Thank you ever so much for walking me through this in a very complete fashion.  The report did say the media was "likely defective" so I have purchased another name brand usb drive and am using it now.  The time and effort were well worth it, in my opinion.

Steve

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the feedback; this is useful to us in the forum to know that proposed solutions work (or don't work!).

The internet is awash with fake USB sticks, but many of these bear reputable brand names, so be careful out there!  One of our forum members bought a branded stick, had a lot of problems with failed Exports, then ran this analysis, only to find that it was failing the test.  So he set it to SanDisk and they responded by saying that it was indeed a fake stick bearing a copy of their brand.

Regards,

Peter.