# PVR box not recognizing USB stick after shutoff. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886 "2015-01-25T22:19:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/1 "2015-01-25T22:19:08Z")
Here’s the situation, which I recognize may not be answerable, but I’ll give it a shot: I canceled my cable TV and bought a digital to analog converter for my old non-digital TV. It works well and I get plenty of programming, so I’m satisfied with that. This is my set top box: [Mediasonic HW180-STB.](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00G5RXM16) It’s cheap, but comes with a PVR function, similar to a cable company DVR. I bought a cheap 64Gb memory stick, which the manual says is supported. I got that to work. I can record and play back shows and even pause live TV. The problem I have is that if I shut the box off, then turn it on again later, it won’t recognize the memory stick. It says “unsupported format” and I can’t access any previously recorded shows on it. I have to go through the process of formatting it again, and obviously I lose anything I have saved on it. The stick is in the FAT 32 format. As I said, it works well after formatting, and the obvious solution is not to turn off the media box, but this could be a problem if the power goes off. Does anyone have any suggestions so that the converter still recognizes the USB drive after being shut off then turned on again? ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/2 "2015-01-25T22:36:03Z")
Have you tried other flash drives? That one could be defective. It accepts USB hard drives also up to 2 TB. If you have one of them around, try it. You could certainly record a lot more shows with a USB hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/3 "2015-01-25T22:48:04Z")
Yeah, I’m cheap. I only paid $8.00 for a cheap memory stick from China. I certainly don’t have any hard drives lying around. That’s probably the problem then, but since programming is free and I don’t record anything more important than old Lone Ranger and Addams Family reruns, I guess I’ll live with it. At least it does work. I’ll take a chance on the power not going off. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/4 "2015-01-25T23:49:43Z")
Something in your OP is drawing me to post here… How are you shutting off the box? Is there a power switch, or are you unplugging it? Do you have the same issue if you remove and re-insert the USB stick without powering off the box? It’s possible that the box isn’t flushing out all data to the USB stick, and an uncontrolled shutdown is leaving it in a bad state. If this is the case, the only real fixes are 1. Don’t Do That or 2. Firmware update for the PVR (might or might not be possible) You could also get a basic UPS to backup the power on the PVR…even a small one should be enough to get through a momentary power outage. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/5 "2015-01-26T00:50:15Z")
I hit the power off button on the remote, which puts it on standby, so it’s not fully powered off. I make sure it’s out of the PVR menu, just in regular TV mode. I didn’t try removing and reinserting the stick with the power on. AFAIK, it has the latest firmware. It does support updates, but there’s no newer one available at this time. I don’t have a lot of money available for a UPS, and it’s just not that important to me. I use it mainly for timeshifting. There’s nothing irreplaceable on it and if it goes off and I lose a few Newhart reruns or something like that it’s no big loss. As I said, it’s free and I spent a total of $25 on the box and USB stick and it works for what I paid. It’s cheaper than going back to cable and renting a DVR. I can live with remembering not to turn the box off. I don’t want to spend a lot of money or do anything complicated. I can live with it if it’s not a simple fix that I’ve overlooked. I do appreciate the answers so far. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/6 "2015-01-26T01:47:04Z")
Just hitting the power button on the remote for the PVR causes this to happen? That’s surprising. I mean, I can come up with technical reasons it would happen…I’m just surprised that a product that does that hit the market. Then again, doing it right costs more money, and there is (obviously) a market for the cheaper version. Any chance you can borrow a USB stick from a friend next time you’re all caught up on shows, and see if it performs any better? I just looked at the Amazon reviews and I don’t see anyone really complaining about this. Hmm…I do see this comment, which indicates _something_ a little flaky in the recordings: > [@](#): > > The issue I had was that I plugged a hard-drive with 150PVR recordings on it into the 180STB. It recognized the drive, listed the recordings, but wouldn’t play them. I recorded several things using the 180STB onto this drive- it interspersed/listed these new recordings with the old, and played the new recordings just fine. They were also listed as .mts recordings, same as the older ones. I’m stumped. I went to the mediasonic forum to see if I could find out anything there, and thought updating the firmware on both might resolve the issue. But both units seem to have the latest firmware. I plugged the drive into the 150PVR, and likewise, it couldn’t play the NEW recordings. I plugged the drive into my computer, and VLC Media Player played BOTH units’ recordings just fine. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/7 "2015-01-26T02:02:27Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yeah, I’m cheap. I only paid $8.00 for a cheap memory stick from China. consider the possibility that it may not even be the capacity it says it is. It’s trivial to alter the firmware of these things to have- say- a 2 GB stick report that it’s 8 or 16. problems happen after you try to write data past the boundary of the actual flash capacity, then everything gets corrupted. [You get what you pay for.](http://www.ebay.com/gds/All-About-Fake-Flash-Drives-2013-/10000000177553258/g.html) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/8 "2015-01-26T02:13:28Z")
Yeah, I agree. I considered that possibility. I wouldn’t cheap out on a piece of equipment for a PC that I trust to hold important data. I just couldn’t justify paying more for a memory device than I spent on the converter, though, and after all, they’re just TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/9 "2015-01-26T03:04:52Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yeah, I agree. I considered that possibility. I wouldn’t cheap out on a piece of equipment for a PC that I trust to hold important data. I just couldn’t justify paying more for a memory device than I spent on the converter, though, and after all, they’re just TV shows. I don’t get this. it’s not like you couldn’t use said USB drive for other things. seriously, legitimate USB thumb drives are so cheap (I just bought a real Sandisk 16 GB drive for $13) that cheaping out on one is dumb. and having just re-read your OP, if you got a “64GB” drive for $8 it is most assuredly counterfeit and doesn’t actually have 64GB of memory on it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/10 "2015-02-09T21:48:41Z")
Update: The problem was what everyone suspected. The cheap memory stick I bought from Hong Kong was indeed a piece of crap. I bought a [PNY](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FDUHDAC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1423518218&sr=8-1&keywords=64+gb+usb) 64 Gb stick from Amazon and this one works properly. The PVR recognized it right away and continued to work after rebooting the PVR box. So lesson learned. The next time I’ll do some research and not buy cheap crap off eBay. Even at $25 - original price $60 - the PNY stick saved me money and was a better value. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/11 "2015-02-10T02:09:49Z")
Cool…glad you have something working now! And thanks for following up in the thread. Inquiring minds like to know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/12 "2015-02-10T02:27:35Z")
things not to buy off of eBay: - USB thumb drives - SD/Memory cards - laptop batteries ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pvr-box-not-recognizing-usb-stick-after-shutoff/710886/13 "2015-02-10T02:34:44Z")
memory (RAM, USB, HD, SSD) all are in constant use and crucial. best to buy brand name from a good vendor.