External hard drive not detected by Freebox Solved

Question

Hello,  I have been a Free subscriber for more than a year and I have never had any issues until now. I used to connect my hard drive to the Freebox to watch my movies and everything worked well until yesterday. My external hard drive is no longer recognized by the Freebox but is recognized by my PC. I have unplugged and reset the HD Freebox several times but nothing changes. Additionally, when I connect my external hard drive to the Freebox, it is not recognized, and this prevents me from accessing the Freebox settings.  Could someone tell me why and help me solve the problem please?  Thank you in advance for your response.  Fred

Raimbo · Accepted Answer

I just tested with a FAT32 USB drive, it doesn't work either... Strange thing noticed with the disks as well as with the USB drive: the activity light keeps flashing as if the hard drive is being used at full capacity. I think this problem may be due to a power issue, based on what I've read on different forums (but also because I sometimes get ERROR 50 that appears after unplugging the box).

Raimbo · Answer

Hi fredlegu, First of all, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one in this situation; it reassures me. I'm in the same boat as you, I used my external hard drive with the Freebox for the last time 3 months ago, and it worked perfectly. But today I want to watch a movie using the same method, and the Freebox doesn't recognize the device. I tried with an external hard drive formatted in NTFS and with an external hard drive formatted in EXT2 => none of the 3 worked. (I will test a USB stick in FAT32 to be sure...)  Given the new firmware that came out recently, I'm thinking it's a bug on that front or a limitation imposed by Free??

fredlegu · Answer

Hello,  I'm happy to receive your message, I feel less alone!!!! What's strange in my case is that it recognizes my USB key without any issues, it's really only this hard drive that is no longer recognized, really strange all this... I sent an email to Free support yesterday and I'm waiting for their response, I will definitely forward their reply to you, which I hope will be satisfactory!!! In the meantime, I'm transferring my movies as before via FileZilla, it's a bit longer but it's still something!!!  Talk to you soon, I'll keep you updated!!!  Fred

Raimbo · Answer

What format is your USB drive formatted in? FAT32? For your hard drive, you can try completely unplugging your Freebox (power and plug on the Free) for about ten minutes while leaving your drive connected, then plugging your Freebox back in. This solution seems to have worked for some people. I’m waiting for your response from support. I plan to call them in the next few days, and I’ll keep you updated if your problem isn’t resolved by then.

fredlegu · Answer

Hey!  So, believe it or not, Free's support asked me to try another hard drive, which I don't have, and I told them that other people were having the same problem as me, so I don't think that's the issue. I sent them another message to try to get a REAL solution, but I don't have much hope for a response. Otherwise, I've rebooted, restarted, etc... and nothing works!!! So it's still a complete mystery, especially since everything was working fine before and I haven't done anything special to my hard drive for it not to be recognized by the Freebox...  I'm waiting to hear from you too  Talk soon  Fred

Raimbo · Answer

For Free, I simply advise you to lie a little. When they ask you to test with another hard drive and if you don’t have any others, just tell them you did it; anyway, they won’t be able to check. Also, if you tested with a USB key, that test is enough. I will also send them an email, but I have doubts about whether they will actually do anything via email. I think they just give generic responses as presented in the FAQ.

fredlegu · Answer

Here is the second response from Free support:  You indicated that your external hard drive is no longer recognized by the Freebox HD.  I regret to inform you that your request is not supported by Free's technical team.   Thank you for your understanding, and I wish you a good day.  Best regards. Hicham, Free Mailer Service  Not bad, huh????

Raimbo · Answer

Strangely, I'm not even surprised. Their incompetence is astounding. The only qualified people they have are the local technicians, whom you only get after 2 hours of waiting and talking to a robot that has a script of standard answers...  For me, still no response from them. I'm thinking of calling them this afternoon and I’ll keep you updated.

Raimbo · Answer

Yesterday, I spent a good half hour on the phone with Free to request a change of HD box that should arrive within a week. I tested it at neighbors' places and apparently it seemed to work, but I couldn't do too many tests; I'm waiting for the new one to see how it goes. When I plugged my drive in at home, it was constantly flashing as if to say the hard drive was grinding all the time, whereas when I plugged it in at the neighbors, it flashed for 2 seconds and then it was normal.  And for you, Fred, where are you with your problem? A few questions to move things along: 1 - Is your hard drive powered by a transformer? Or is it self-powered? Because if your USB stick works, maybe the problem lies with the hard drive? 2 - Try again with the USB stick and let me know what format it's formatted in, and the same for the hard drive! 3 - Also give me the size of your hard drive and USB stick! 4 - Is it a multimedia hard drive?  I'll keep you updated as soon as I get the new Free one.

fredlegu · Answer

Hey! I'm not any further along, I just reconnected my external hard drive to my Freebox and it's still not detected (when it's connected to the Freebox, it prevents me from accessing the content of the Freebox's hard drive, I press the buttons on the remote but the Freebox doesn't respond, and as soon as I turn off the external hard drive, everything works fine)  So:  1) My external hard drive is powered by a transformer but my USB stick and external hard drive work perfectly with my computer  2) I don't see why it would be the external hard drive or the USB stick since it worked perfectly before  How do you check how your external hard drive or USB stick is formatted, please?  3) external hard drive size is 500 gigabytes and USB stick is 8 gigabytes  4) it's not a multimedia hard drive  What did you say to Free for them to agree to change your external hard drive??? I don't really want to change Freebox because there's just this little issue, the rest works great  Looking forward to hearing from you!!!  Fred

Raimbo · Answer

Re,  For me, the problem was resolved by requesting a change of Freebox. To request a change, you must first perform a cross test (that is to say, test your disk on another Freebox to confirm that it works => you need to find someone in your circle who has Free). Delivery was done by UPS very quickly with a box exchange system, so I was not deprived of TV.  I hope I have clarified things for you. -- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 / Geforce 8800 GTS / 4Go DDR GSkill XMS2 Free 20 Mbits

fredlegu · Answer

So last Sunday, I updated the Freebox just to be sure, and then I reconnected my hard drive and it was detected again, incredible!!! Thanks Free!!!!  No need to change the box after all, I'm closing the discussion  Bye!  Fred

External hard drive not detected by Freebox

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