Br1600 hard drive problem

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guitaristdan103

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HI guys, my boss br 1600 multitrack recorder has been playing up for the last few days, showing messages that the HDD is full. So i optimized all songs and erased uneeded data and continued to record. Then when loading up another song, it froze. and doesn't do anything ("now loading" message is only on the screen). I turned of the power and tried again but does same thing. The hard cant be full of only 4 songs (4 mins each), i deleted a whole song to create more space but the hard drive shows hdd full! it seems to be getting smaller or something.

Does this mean the Hard Drive is finished, and the data is gone, or can u still retreive the files somehow?? I spent all day recording the solo for this song and to lose that would make me quite frustrated after putting in all that work. Any ideas on how to solve this would be great!thanks
 
Hard drive failures tend to be catastrophic. Sorry, if that's what has happened to you. If you can't get anything but the 'now loading' message, you probably can't retrieve the files, keep trying to throw it into USB mode to move the files.
 
I Think the SCSI HD is dying. You should probably be able to retrieve the data, but I woudn't do that in the BR1600, but in a computer with a SCSI interface if you have one handy...

Probably, the list on the disk's interface that keeps the rotten sectors is full. The disk has more rotten sectors than the list kan keep, so it is "shrinking"...
 
cyrano said:
I Think the SCSI HD is dying. You should probably be able to retrieve the data, but I woudn't do that in the BR1600, but in a computer with a SCSI interface if you have one handy...

Probably, the list on the disk's interface that keeps the rotten sectors is full. The disk has more rotten sectors than the list kan keep, so it is "shrinking"...
Click to expand...

that sounds about right mate. i was constantly deleting tracks and uneeded parts to create more hard drive space but the message keeps coming up (hdd full!) after a while, and now it wont load. If i cant still retreive the data that would great. Have you done this before and whats the SCSI interface?
 
is that a scsi drive??? been along time since i worked on one but iirc... roland uses a proprietery format for these and ya have to get the drive preformatted from them... hope i'm wrong but dont think so...
 
guitaristdan103 said:
that sounds about right mate. i was constantly deleting tracks and uneeded parts to create more hard drive space but the message keeps coming up (hdd full!) after a while, and now it wont load. If i cant still retreive the data that would great. Have you done this before and whats the SCSI interface?
Click to expand...

I do this kind of stuff for a living. Haven't done it on a boss br 1600 disk, tho...

If dementchord is right, you can only do it on the boss br 1600. However, there's help:

WAV-MAKER-1600 Product Information

PC software that will convert the boss format to a standard wav.

And SCSI is one of the older standards for harddisks. Apple, HP and a lot of others used these disks. Then IDE and SATA came along, and SCSI has all but disappeared. Only in older high end servers and things like your recorder you still find SCSI disks. You can still get these disks new, but beware the max. size for the boss. And the software version of your boss. The software version dictates the max. size, if my memory isn't failing. It's been a while since I worked with a boss drive...

If you can't do this yourself, any decent data recovery company should be able to copy everything on a new SCSI disk. Some might try to charge an arm and three legs tho, because it's SCSI AND an non standard format.
 
Sorry, memory failed me. Just dug up my notes. It's a standard IDE harddisk in there. Makes things a lot easier.

You could mount the disk in an external USB case and do the recovery with whatever computer you have on hand. If it's a failed disk. Seems the BR recorders have some other problems too.

Have a look here how to take apart the beast:

Repair Guide: Replacing a Boss BR-1180 hard drive | The Studio Files
 
I dont know if i should do this myself or get a tech to look at it? What about freezing it for few hours is that worth trying?

edit: Ok, my dads friend is a computer tech and recovers data from dead hard drives, so im going to take it to his house tomorow and we will work on it there. I'll let you know what happens if we fix it. Im really only after 4 tracks which contains the solo for the song, i already transferred the bounced data ( the rest of the song) on the computer before. That solo took me hours and hours (2 weeks to get right) so thats whats making me angry. The rest of the songs on there are good but i wouldnt really mind if i can't retreive them.
 
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Don't some of those units have to be reformatted or something to actually delefree up space?

I know on my little Fostex MR-8 you can delete all you want to but it does not free up any HD space. You have to reformat the drive to do that.
So if I were to fill its' drive up, I could delete every single thing on it and it would still show the HD as full.
 
What would you guys recommend for a new hard drive? I dont mind spending a bit extra on decent drive. Would the new drive need formatting before connecting to the boss?any info regarding which drive to get and how to set up would be great. thanks

edit; too late, i bought the western digital 500gb drive. Ive put the drive in the unit already and came up with HD read error, and then went to the normal screen. Should i initialiaze it? It has the options of normal format, div2, div4, div6, div8 etc. which one should i select?? not sure if i have to format it with the computer, before initializing it?
 
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You can format it with the computer before putting it in the BOSS. Choose FAT as a format. I suppose you can format it with the BOSS too. And I suppose "normal" will give you one partition and dv2 will give 2 partitions and so on...

Aso, have you checked the max. size this machine will accept? If the 500 GB is to big, partition it on a computer first. In that case, it's possible the BOSS will only see and use the first partition.
 
I choose 'normal' format which divided it into two partions, 40 gb each (same as old drive). Not sure if The BOSS unit can handle more than 80GB, but still thats heaps, i'll never use more than that, and it works fine. I recorded a few tracks with guitar, and transferred it to the pc without any issues, everythings working normally atm.

I bought a $30 dollar 'portable hard disk enclosure' which i connected my old drive to, which has a usb outlet to connect to a computer. All my songs came up, even the ones i deleted! Maybe i wasn't actually deleting any data and thats why it kept showing hdd full. While on the computer, i scanned the files and an error occured on one file, saying that it was unreadable. So thats what was probably stopping the hdd from fully loading up, but everything else is still there.

Anyway tomorow i'll try an import the files on the br 1600 with the new drive and see if it works.
 
guitaristdan103 said:
I All my songs came up, even the ones i deleted! Maybe i wasn't actually deleting any data .
Click to expand...
That's what I mentioned earlier.
On Fostex machines and my Boss 880 (think that's the model .... it's a rackmount 8 channel) when you delete a song it doesn't free up disc space at all ..... it simply hides the file. So if you're having problems with a HD that's full ...... it's gonna stay full regardless of any deleting or erasing you do. You have to format the drive to actually clear that stuff out.
And some of those machines will do weird things when the drive is full ........ so it could be your old drive still might be functional.
 
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yep i recovered everything and imported it on the new hard drive. I just finished bouncing the song, and just have to master it now. Thanks guys for your help, i'll try an upload an mp3 of my song sometime. :) cheers
 
BR 1600 disk issues

Recently my BR 1600 has been popping up drive busy errors. This is a concern because my band has 20 songs waiting to be finished, and we cannot get through one without this error.

Is it possible to pull the IDE hard disk out and hook it up to a PC through the IDE cable and defragment that way, or at least wipe the free space?
 
Hi Guys:
Could use your help. My husband has the BR-1600 board and has used it for the last few years--great piece of equipment. Over the last week, he's been getting the HDD full message. He's deleted several songs, will start recording again, and just as you all have received the same message, he gets it again "HDD Full". I was wondering if when he deletes songs, if they are really being deleted or if they're hiding somewhere else on the drive. Thought about connecting it to my computer, however, after reading through the manual, it talks about connecting to XP or Windows 2000. Well, the book's a little old. We have Vista. Does anyone know if it's okay to connect this board to Vista? Would love to see if songs were actually deleted or if they are still there. I'd hate to think that the hard drive is bad--have no idea where to take it for help. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
 
You will need to download the current file converters from Boss to move the files to your computer. Once you have done that (make sure they are all there and usable!), reformat the Hard Drive on the BR1600. My guess is that you are deleting the files from use, but the data is still taking up space. There was another similar question here a while back, you might search for that thread.
 
buzzlady1 said:
Hi Guys:
Could use your help. My husband has the BR-1600 board and has used it for the last few years--great piece of equipment. Over the last week, he's been getting the HDD full message. He's deleted several songs, will start recording again, and just as you all have received the same message, he gets it again "HDD Full". I was wondering if when he deletes songs, if they are really being deleted or if they're hiding somewhere else on the drive. Thought about connecting it to my computer, however, after reading through the manual, it talks about connecting to XP or Windows 2000. Well, the book's a little old. We have Vista. Does anyone know if it's okay to connect this board to Vista? Would love to see if songs were actually deleted or if they are still there. I'd hate to think that the hard drive is bad--have no idea where to take it for help. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Click to expand...

the data is still on the HD even after deleting.
as MJB says, you have to reformat to actually remove it and free up HD space.
 
Try this, you lose your recordings but get the machine back,
If the BR-1600CD freezes up when attempting to turn on and boot up, then the hard drive may be fragmented. The only possible solution is formatting the hard drive. Formatting erases all data on the drive.

Note: If you have any files/recordings that you need to keep, you may contact our Roland Customer Support department (323-890-3700 extension 7005) to arrange a "Data Recovery" service. Our service technicians can attempt to recover any data that is on your hard drive. Customer Support is available M-F 8:30am-5:00pm Pacific time.

CAUTION: The following procedure erases all recordings and data on the drive.

With the BR recorder powered off, press and hold the TRACK 5 button (the button beneath fader number 5) and the UNDO/REDO button simultaneously.
With both buttons pressed, turn on the power. Continue holding the buttons until the Test Menu appears in the display.
Press F4 (Initialize) and then press ENTER. The formatting process may take a few hours. Once the initialization has completed, the Test Menu will show in the display.
Turn the TIME/VALUE dial to select "17 POWER OFF," and then press ENTER.
Turn off the power, and then back on again. The hard drive has completed initialization.
Note: If you receive an error message preventing initialization of the hard drive, turn the power off (or disconnect the power) and try the unlocking procedure again. If the problem persists, the BR recorder will need service unfortunately. To get your Roland product serviced, you have two options:

You can use our Service Center Locator at Roland - Support - Service & Repair - Service Center Locator to locate an authorized Roland Service Center in your area, or you can send the unit directly to our facility in Ontario, CA.

To send the product to the Ontario, CA facility, you must first obtain a Return Authorization number (RA).
You can do so by using our online service request form on our site here;
Roland - Backstage - Login

Additional service rate and warranty information can be found here;
Roland - Support - Service & Repair - Warranty Information
 
Hi, This issue is still very topical for me; yet it seems with a variation on the problem.

BR-1600 refusing to load more than a fraction of it's supposed capacity.
Same Hard Drive Error warning saying HD is Full, after only about 1,600 MB of data loaded.
Surface Scanned and Re-formatted the HD (Normal 2 Sections) to still find the same problem.

Encouraged by this forum and elsewhere on line, I ordered a Compatible 80GB Hard Drive replacement for £84.00
Fitted the new one and all seemed well.
After loading about the same amount of data, the very same thing happened with the HD Full message again.
I'm thinking that this can't be a fault with the HD, as it's too coincidental, to have it happen after almost the same amount of data loaded as before.

So could it be a problem with the 'smaller inbuilt brain' in the DRS unit;as opposed to the HD?
Or a malfunction, not allowing more than a smaller number of songs to be listed?

Where do I go from here can anyone help?
 
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