Unknown FS! at DVinfo.net

Daniel Moreno · November 7th, 2006, 07:14 PM

Today we spent more than 6 hours shooting a couple of comic sketches for a tv show we have in Costa Rica. We shot with a 330, in HD 24p, as we mostly do.
We stopped for lunch and when we got back and inserted the ProDisc back on the XDCAM HD this error message appeared on the screen: "Unknown FS!". We checked the manual and it means "unknown file system" and the solution to the problem is "Exchange or format disc". We exchanged the disc to continue shooting but I am afraid we lost ALL we had previously shot. I still haven't formatted de disc. I tried accesing the disc via FAM and A/V Ilink modes, it didn't work using the camera and my laptop, neither using the deck and a desktop back at the editing studio.
Deck gives the same error message!!
If anyone has any ideas-solutions it would be great! At least I would like to know what could've caused this because I certainly don't want it to happen again!
As usually happens with new technology, besides all the great improvements, sad surprises usually await! (we had also lost another sketch because a camera man formatted a disc while explaining another guy how the camera works!)

Simon Wyndham · November 8th, 2006, 09:15 AM

This is the first time I have heard of such an error happening.

When you go to the Diagnosis Menu and then Disc Status, what does it say?

Greg Boston · November 8th, 2006, 10:15 AM

As Simon said, go into Diagnostic Menu. There is a choice for Disc Salvage which might get back your footage.

Did the camera suffer a power loss while the disc was running? Were these Sony Prodiscs or TDK? Is your camera running the updated firmware?

-gb-

Daniel Moreno · November 8th, 2006, 10:54 AM

Thanks for the response!
I will try the diagnosis menu this afternoon and see what happens.
From what I know, nothing irregular happened during shooting. the only thing I can think of is that it rained a little bit, but we covered the camera with an umbrella. We are using Sony Prodiscs.

Daniel Moreno · November 9th, 2006, 12:25 AM

Nothing worked! When I insert the disc on the camera the "Unknown FS!" message pops up and it doesn't let you perform any function that has to do with the disc. I entered Diagnosis Menu and salvage was disabled from the available option. Disc status was "no system files" or something like that.
It looks like we lost that material!

Nate Weaver · November 9th, 2006, 01:12 AM

Is it possible the disc got tampered with over lunch?

Anybody try plugging a laptop in and look at proxies while you were away?

Daniel Moreno · November 14th, 2006, 12:31 AM

2 days after the error happened we were shooting again with another disc. Suddenly, the following warning appeared on the screen: "Error 02-026" and the camera wouldn't record anything (the cameraman told me this same error had appeared before the "UNKNOWN FS!" message). The red warning light was blinking and we had to stop the shooting. After a few minutes of trying to restart or reset the camera we took out the disc and called sony's tech support. We gave them the error number, they said they would check and call back. Within a few minutes they were telling us it was a severe damage in the camera's laser, that they would replace the camera and that they were sorry if we had lost any footage. We lost 1.5 days of work indeed!!! (half a day with the first disc that was erased, half a day with the second and half a day with the shooting we had to cancel due to the camera). It appears the damaged laser erases the disc, including the "header" information which holds the "system file" information (I guess its the information that tells the camera the ProDisc was formatted for XDCAM HD, frame rate, etc). The guys at Sony knew about this error, so I guess ours is not the first defective 330. By now we have a new camera and we are reprogramming the lost days of shooting.
In case any of you sees Error 02-026 on your screen take the disc out as soon as possible or you might lose your work as we did!

Simon Wyndham · November 14th, 2006, 02:29 AM

It is a shame that you are having such problems. Never heard of this before. Although have you considered sending your disc to Sony to see if they can recover the data?

Ivan Snoeckx · November 14th, 2006, 03:19 AM

Yesterday, a cameraman from the Netherlands also posted a message on the XDCAM forum having this error (UNKNOWN FS). He wrote that it happened to a collegue after she had changed batteries. All of her data was lost. The camera didn't give an error code.

Simon Wyndham · November 14th, 2006, 03:55 AM

They managed to get the data back by sending the disc to Sony.

Just wondering if the cameras have had one almighty knock to kick to damage the lasers. Those things are extremely robust, but if the camera received a really nasty jolt, say during shipping, then it could have knocked things out of joint I suppose.

Simon Wyndham · November 16th, 2006, 04:51 AM

Okay, new info from Clive Canon over on the XDCAM users website. Apparently if you have the latest firmware installed (1.56) it will attempt to recover the disc from the unknown FS warning error.

Daniel, two things to check on your camera. The first is that it has the latest firmware. The second is that people are not removing the batteries until the blue light on the side of the camera has gone out (indicating that it has finished writing the file system).

Alister Chapman · November 16th, 2006, 05:13 AM

I second Simons comment. XDCAM has been around for 5 years now and unknown FS errors are almost unheard of. It is vital that the battery or power supply is not removed until the blue access light is out, which can be a few seconds after the camera has been switched off.

Greg Boston · November 16th, 2006, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

Did the camera suffer a power loss while the disc was running?

That's what I was essentially asking earlier in the thread. A sudden loss of power or removal of power while the blue light was on.

I know Sony feels pretty confident in the prodisc mechanism because they warranty the XDCAM line for 2 YEARS PARTS AND LABOR. That's more warranty than their other professional stuff.

See attachment.

-gb-

Thierry Humeau · November 16th, 2006, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

That's what I was essentially asking earlier in the thread. A sudden loss of power or removal of power while the blue light was on.

I know Sony feels pretty confident in the prodisc mechanism because they warranty the XDCAM line for 2 YEARS PARTS AND LABOR. That's more warranty than their other professional stuff.

See attachment.

-gb-

Yes, and it was 7 Years on XDCAM SD. That is really unheard off.

Thierry.

Daniel Moreno · November 16th, 2006, 12:11 PM

Since the camera is not mine (the TV station owns it) the best I can do is recommend the firmware update. I am not sure if the cameraman took out the batteries while the camera was still working, but I don't think that happened. Still I'm gonna warn him about that.
For now, Sony gave us a new 330 and our show is looking as good as ever, I hope it was that we just had bad luck with that camera.
Thanks to you all for your replies.

November 7th, 2006, 07:14 PM	#1
Daniel Moreno Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 39	Unknown FS! Today we spent more than 6 hours shooting a couple of comic sketches for a tv show we have in Costa Rica. We shot with a 330, in HD 24p, as we mostly do. We stopped for lunch and when we got back and inserted the ProDisc back on the XDCAM HD this error message appeared on the screen: "Unknown FS!". We checked the manual and it means "unknown file system" and the solution to the problem is "Exchange or format disc". We exchanged the disc to continue shooting but I am afraid we lost ALL we had previously shot. I still haven't formatted de disc. I tried accesing the disc via FAM and A/V Ilink modes, it didn't work using the camera and my laptop, neither using the deck and a desktop back at the editing studio. Deck gives the same error message!! If anyone has any ideas-solutions it would be great! At least I would like to know what could've caused this because I certainly don't want it to happen again! As usually happens with new technology, besides all the great improvements, sad surprises usually await! (we had also lost another sketch because a camera man formatted a disc while explaining another guy how the camera works!)

November 9th, 2006, 01:12 AM	#6
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Is it possible the disc got tampered with over lunch? Anybody try plugging a laptop in and look at proxies while you were away? __________________ My Work: nateweaver.net

November 16th, 2006, 05:13 AM	#12
Alister Chapman Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bracknell, Berkshire, UK Posts: 4,957	I second Simons comment. XDCAM has been around for 5 years now and unknown FS errors are almost unheard of. It is vital that the battery or power supply is not removed until the blue access light is out, which can be a few seconds after the camera has been switched off. __________________ Alister Chapman, Film-Maker/Stormchaser http://www.xdcam-user.com/alisters-blog/ My XDCAM site and blog. http://www.hurricane-rig.com

November 8th, 2006, 09:15 AM	#2
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	This is the first time I have heard of such an error happening. When you go to the Diagnosis Menu and then Disc Status, what does it say?

November 8th, 2006, 10:15 AM	#3
Greg Boston Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: DFW area, TX Posts: 6,117 Images: 1	As Simon said, go into Diagnostic Menu. There is a choice for Disc Salvage which might get back your footage. Did the camera suffer a power loss while the disc was running? Were these Sony Prodiscs or TDK? Is your camera running the updated firmware? -gb-

November 8th, 2006, 10:54 AM	#4
Daniel Moreno Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 39	Thanks for the response! I will try the diagnosis menu this afternoon and see what happens. From what I know, nothing irregular happened during shooting. the only thing I can think of is that it rained a little bit, but we covered the camera with an umbrella. We are using Sony Prodiscs.

November 9th, 2006, 12:25 AM	#5
Daniel Moreno Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 39	Nothing worked! When I insert the disc on the camera the "Unknown FS!" message pops up and it doesn't let you perform any function that has to do with the disc. I entered Diagnosis Menu and salvage was disabled from the available option. Disc status was "no system files" or something like that. It looks like we lost that material!

November 14th, 2006, 12:31 AM	#7
Daniel Moreno Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 39	2 days after the error happened we were shooting again with another disc. Suddenly, the following warning appeared on the screen: "Error 02-026" and the camera wouldn't record anything (the cameraman told me this same error had appeared before the "UNKNOWN FS!" message). The red warning light was blinking and we had to stop the shooting. After a few minutes of trying to restart or reset the camera we took out the disc and called sony's tech support. We gave them the error number, they said they would check and call back. Within a few minutes they were telling us it was a severe damage in the camera's laser, that they would replace the camera and that they were sorry if we had lost any footage. We lost 1.5 days of work indeed!!! (half a day with the first disc that was erased, half a day with the second and half a day with the shooting we had to cancel due to the camera). It appears the damaged laser erases the disc, including the "header" information which holds the "system file" information (I guess its the information that tells the camera the ProDisc was formatted for XDCAM HD, frame rate, etc). The guys at Sony knew about this error, so I guess ours is not the first defective 330. By now we have a new camera and we are reprogramming the lost days of shooting. In case any of you sees Error 02-026 on your screen take the disc out as soon as possible or you might lose your work as we did!

November 14th, 2006, 02:29 AM	#8
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	It is a shame that you are having such problems. Never heard of this before. Although have you considered sending your disc to Sony to see if they can recover the data?

November 14th, 2006, 03:19 AM	#9
Ivan Snoeckx Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Belgium \| Europe Posts: 441	Yesterday, a cameraman from the Netherlands also posted a message on the XDCAM forum having this error (UNKNOWN FS). He wrote that it happened to a collegue after she had changed batteries. All of her data was lost. The camera didn't give an error code.

November 14th, 2006, 03:55 AM	#10
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	They managed to get the data back by sending the disc to Sony. Just wondering if the cameras have had one almighty knock to kick to damage the lasers. Those things are extremely robust, but if the camera received a really nasty jolt, say during shipping, then it could have knocked things out of joint I suppose.

November 16th, 2006, 04:51 AM	#11
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Okay, new info from Clive Canon over on the XDCAM users website. Apparently if you have the latest firmware installed (1.56) it will attempt to recover the disc from the unknown FS warning error. Daniel, two things to check on your camera. The first is that it has the latest firmware. The second is that people are not removing the batteries until the blue light on the side of the camera has gone out (indicating that it has finished writing the file system).

November 16th, 2006, 12:11 PM	#15
Daniel Moreno Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 39	Since the camera is not mine (the TV station owns it) the best I can do is recommend the firmware update. I am not sure if the cameraman took out the batteries while the camera was still working, but I don't think that happened. Still I'm gonna warn him about that. For now, Sony gave us a new 330 and our show is looking as good as ever, I hope it was that we just had bad luck with that camera. Thanks to you all for your replies.