Need to reset the internal storage of the TV for my external HDD

[rol]

I have 3 external HDDs full of movies connected to my UE40D6500 via the USB connectors. One of these drive is used exclusively for the recordings made by the TV, and is formatted in XFS. It contains the usual SRF, MTA, MDB, INF, ENC and CKF files. There is no problem with that disc.

The two other drives are formatted in NTFS and contain MKV files I've copied myself. The TV cannot write to that discs, and I know that it saves some files (iirc the MTA and probably other files as well) somewhere on its internal storage when the external drives are scanned for content, and when a specific movie is played, to "remember" some characteristics of the files and the chapter thumbnails. Usually, that works well. However, sometimes, the TV cannot access any more some directories on these external drives, and/or the scan never ends, and/or the TV crashes. I think it's because its internal storage is saturated with too many MTA files accumulated over time.

The last time I've had that problem, I did a factory reset, and everything has been fixed automatically. But I have had to reconfigure completely the TV, rescan for channels, and so on. It's time consuming and boring.

I have again the problem, and I would like to find a way to reset the "memory" of the TV to force it to rescan my external drives from scratch, and renew the little files it stores in its own storage.

When I've rooted my TV, I've located the folder containing these files, but I don't remember where it is, and I can't find it any more. Also, I am not sure I can safely delete all files from that directory. Hence my questions:

- In what directory are located that files?
- Is it safe to delete them all?
- Is it another way (beside the full factory reset) to clean that folder and start over?

Thanks in advance for any pointer.

[zoelechat]

I don't know if folders are the same on D, but here (on E) can be safely emptied:
/mtd_contents
/mtd_down/RecentlyPlayed
and also database hidden files TV creates on root of devices, if any: .cm**
Of course reboot then, should be clean

[rol]

OK, thanks.

BTW, I've just found the directory containing the files. It's /mtd_contents, like on the E series.

The directory contains two files: MPDBVersion.mgr and MPDeviceId.mgr
It contains also 3 directories: The directory /mtd_contents/database contains Ace.dat and Ace.log.
/mtd_contents/V0 and /mtd_contents/V3 are probably the sub-folders associated with my 2 external drives. They contain a lot of directories whose names are numbers, and in that directories, a single MTA file with the filename of one of the MKV files stored on an external HDD, but of coursae with the .mta extension.

That files are very similar to the files stored on the disc with the recordings made by the TV, and therefore was almost sure that they can be deleted. Thanks for the confirmation.

I have a /mtd_down directory too, but no RecentlyPlayed sub-directory.

I suppose that I don't have any hidden .cm*, except perhaps on the disc with the TV recordings, but it works fine and I have no reason to clean it.

I guess I have to simply delete the content of /mtd_contents and reboot. Will do it right now...

I have an additional question. Do you know why the TV is unable to scan my external drives any more? Software bug? Too many entries in its database? Disc full? Something else?

[zoelechat]

mmmh I don't know... Maybe /mtd_contents full (?)
You should check using df command (if you didn't empty folder already )
I personnally empty it on every TV boot

[rol]

I've emptied it. But that doesn't solve the problem.

One of my external disc works fine (like before). But when my TV scans the other disc, the scan never ends. And if I try to open any folder, the TV displays that it cannot be read.

It's a new disc, and I've formatted it in NTFS with a larger block size than recommended (because it contains only large files, and that's theoretically better to minimize fragmentation problems). Could it be the reason? It is difficult for me to test, because I don't have any more the original disc, and I haven't enough room on other discs to do a full backup. Damn!

[zoelechat]

Possible if you have issue with only one disc you should first focus on that disc

[rol]

The problem may also be due to a drive signature collision. When I connect the two discs on my PC at the same time, Windows refuse to mount the two, and in the disc manager, it tells that "the drive is offline because it has a signature collision with another drive that is online". It is easy to solve the problem under Windows, but I don't know if it's possible with my TV. And anyway, the drive doesn't work when I connect only that one to the TV. So, unless it has a signature collision with the internal memory, it's not the problem. And I'm not sure Linux uses that drive signature thing at all.

I will continue to search for a solution, and will report here if I find a trick that works.

[rol]

Very strange. I have removed several directories from my HDD, and with only the two most important directories, it worked. Good! So, I've copied back a single directory, and bang! It did not work any more. So, my conclusion was that there must be a file that the TV doesn't like in that directory. I have therefore removed some files, and each time I've tested again... without luck! Now, only the two directories that worked well remain, but that doesn't work any more! Even after having removed the database files and rebooted again! I don't understand!

It is really a pain to have to disconnect the drive from the TV, connect it to the PC to delete or copy some files, then put it back to the TV and reboot it. And this again and again. I need a way to automate some things to facilitate that numerous tests. So, I'm very interested in your way to empty your /mtd_contents at each TV boot. I suppose that it's a shell script that does the job, but what is its exact content, and, above all, where should I put it ? Or, is it a tutorial or example somewhere ?

I'm also interested in a way to mount my NTFS discs in rw mode, so that I can delete or copy some files via FTP. Is it also a guide somewhere that explains how to do it ?

Sorry if they are noob questions. I've not used any unix/linux OS since a while and I don't remember how to do that. And the forum is very difficult to search. Again, thanks in advance for any help.

[zoelechat]

So, I'm very interested in your way to empty your /mtd_contents at each TV boot. I suppose that it's a shell script that does the job, but what is its exact content, and, above all, where should I put it ? Or, is it a tutorial or example somewhere ?

Well it's just a single line I've added to one of my startup scripts (anywhere should be fine)

Code: Select all

rm -rf /mtd_contents/*

I'm also interested in a way to mount my NTFS discs in rw mode, so that I can delete or copy some files via FTP. Is it also a guide somewhere that explains how to do it ?

Sure
[App] NTFS: writable! for D series (arm)

[rol]

Thanks, but what and where are the startup scripts?