Local USB storage capacity not correct

[sporkpirateib]

I just purchased a 2 camera Arlo Pro 3 kit with the VMB4540r2 SmartHub base station. I have a FAT32 formatted 500GB hard drive connected via USB to the hub. On my computer (MacBook pro), the drive is empty and shows as 499.76GB available capacity. When I connect it to the base it only shows as 199.99MB. I have tried reformatting it through my computer and through the hub/app. Looking for other solutions. It is an older hard drive: Maxtor Onetouch iii 500GB.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16822144069

[sporkpirateib]

Tested connecting a different 16GB flash drive. It worked but only shows 14.9GB. Still want to get the larger one working.

[jguerdat]

ANy drive will show less than the full rated capacity since the format takes space which is reserved to keep track of files. Your 16GB thumb drive report is accurate and expected. Your hard drive is not. I wonder if the drive is formatted into multiple partitions which prevents you from having one large partition. When you format it on the computer, does it show as something approraching 500GB or still the ~200GB? If the latter, you need to remove all partitions and format again.

[sporkpirateib]

The larger drive is not partitioned and it was showing roughly 200 MEGABYTES, not gigs. As in, WAY off.

I ended up just buying a 128 gig usb flash drive for $20 for now, but I still want to get the larger one working.

[StephenB]

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@sporkpirateib wrote:
The larger drive is not partitioned and it was showing roughly 200 MEGABYTES, not gigs. As in, WAY off.

If it was formatted it must have a partition.  I am wondering if there is a second very small partition for some reason.

But the real question is why on earth you want to trust your videos to a drive that's over 10 years old.

[Phoney49]

I also have a new Pro 3 system. I plugged in a brand new Seagate 2TB drive, and it also showed only .20GB of storage available, and showing Full after recording 200 MB of video. Any suggestions on how to have the base recognize the 2000GB instead of . 2GB??

[sporkpirateib]

Have you tried formatting the drive using the base station? See link:
https://kb.arlo.com/1146896/How-do-I-format-a-USB-device-for-local-storage-using-my-Arlo-Pro-base-st...

[Phoney49]

Yes, that was the first thing I tried. It still showed .2GB. I also tried a reset of the base, and that did not help.

[Phoney49]

Solved this myself. Backup drive had 2 partitions. Deleted one partition and reformatted and labeled the drive. I also had to put one video file on it or the base station would think it needed formatting. Base station now says I have 1.8TB available. 😊

[michaelkenward]

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@Phoney49 wrote:
Solved this myself. Backup drive had 2 partitions. Deleted one partition and reformatted and labeled the drive.

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You mean you followed the advice from @jguerdat and it was correct? Well done.

I wonder if this also applies to @sporkpirateib.

[sporkpirateib]

It does not apply to me.

@michaelkenward do you have anything productive to add?

[StephenB]

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@sporkpirateib wrote:
It does not apply to me.

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Are you sure? I think the most likely cause is that there is a second partition on the drive. Often USB drives come with some tools that are stored in a separate partition.

I'm not familiar with MacOS disk tools, but FWIW, there is a guide here on how to remove partitions from a disk with MacOS - https://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/06/20/how-to-delete-partition-mac/

[michaelkenward]

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@sporkpirateib wrote:
It does not apply to me.

@michaelkenward do you have anything productive to add?

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Asking if this applied to you was supposed to elicit useful information. Stating "It does not apply to me." is not productive.

The fact that you successfully got other USB drives to work with a hub points strongly at the drive that is not behaving as you expect.

Perhaps you could add something productive by providing more details of what you are using.

[dpl]

I have the EXACT same problem! It shows 199.88 MB when I know I have a freshly formatted WD My Passport 1 TB drive, formatted in FAT32 GUID with no password or encryption.

I formatted it 3 times on my iMac and 3 times from the Arlo App on the base. I don't have any other partitions on it AFAIK.

Any idea?

[dpl]

GOT IT!

It had an EFI bootup partition that didn't show up in Disk Utility, but showed in Terminal.app with the command : diskutil list

Found the solution on Stack Overflow

https://superuser.com/questions/1001369/how-do-i-remove-the-efi-partition-on-my-usb-using-mac-os-x-1...

Format it this way :

[michaelkenward]

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@dpl wrote:

GOT IT!

It had an EFI bootup partition that didn't show up in Disk Utility, but showed in Terminal.app with the command : diskutil list

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Well spotted. Looks like Arlo found the boot partition

At least you did not fall into the trap that has caught some people. They insist time and time again that "it does not apply to me" and there are no partitions on their drives. It can take some people weeks to discover the error of their ways.

[sporkpirateib · Accepted solution]

@dpl I appreciate your helpful input. My disk utility also did not show that EFI bootup partition. In fact, it showed that the device only had one partition. I also figured out that they changed the disk utility app awhile back to only show volumes instead of devices. Here is the process that worked for me (finally).

1. Open the disk utility app (applications>utilities>disk utility)

2. Go to view in the menu bar, then check "Show all Devices". This allows you to erase/format the DRIVE and not the VOLUME. This is crucial so that you can change the partition table or "SCHEME".

3. If your problem is like ours, the disk will still only show ONE PARTITION at this time, however this is technically incorrect due to that partition table (GUID Partition Map versus Master Boot Record).

4. To confirm that this is the issue, open the terminal app (applications>utilities>terminal) and enter "diskutil list" (without the quotation marks). This will show a list of all the drives that are connected. I believe that any external drives will be towards the bottom of the list. Mine looked like this:

   • /dev/disk4 (external, physical):

        #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

        0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk4

        1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk4s1

        2:       Microsoft Basic Data ARLO BACKUP             499.6 GB   disk4s2

     **Again, this EFI partition doesn't show in Disk Utility but it does show up in the Terminal app. I would advise caution when using terminal because it is a Command Line Interface and you are basically in the "guts" of your operating system. The above mentioned command is harmless, but other commands can cause some serious changes. So, use caution.

5. The terminal app has identified the GUID Partition Map. We want to get rid of that. So go back to the disk utility. If you have done step 2 then you should see your device with the volume indented below it. The volume will show the "name" you are used to seeing while the device will likely show the Product name (Such as Device="Maxtor OneTouch II Media" and Volume="Arlo Backup"). You want to make sure that you select the device and note the volume. 

6. **If you have ANYTHING on that device or volume that you want to save then put it on another device or you will lose it. ** Select the DEVICE, then go to the "erase" button. This should show options for "name" "format" and "scheme. If you only have the volume selected then you likely will not see the "scheme" option. Thats the crucial option, so make sure you have the device selected. The options you want are:

   • Name:  whatever you want to call it, I chose "ARLO BACKUP"

     • This names the volume, even though we are erasing the device
   • Format: MS-DOS(FAT)
   • Scheme: Master Boot Record 
7. Go ahead and click erase (this may take a second to complete the process)
8. Once this is complete go back to terminal and run the "diskutil list" command again. This should now show your device as having the correct partition scheme (mine shows as FDisk_partition_scheme) and only one partition.
9. My drive worked immediately with the base station, but if you need to reformat it follow these steps here: How do I format a USB device for local storage using my Arlo Pro base station? 

@jguerdat  was correct that there was space being taken up by the "format".

@StephenB  was correct that there was a second, very small partition for some reason. However, his link didn't account for the Disk Utility app not showing the "hidden" partition. Thus I was left to believe that it only had one partition.

@dpl provided the best direction calling out the EFI boot up partition and using the terminal app to identify this. However, the crucial bit for me was changing the view in Disk Utility to allow me to reformat the actual drive versus the volume.

Figured I would give credit where credit was due for those that actually provided helpful and useful information or guides. It sure is nice to have a community of people that are here to help one another.

Here are some other links that proved helpful:

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/partition-a-physical-disk-dskutl14027/18.0/mac/10.14

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/format-a-disk-for-windows-computers-dskutl1010/18.0/mac...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/10-13-disk-utility-not-showing-partitioning-scheme-options-guid...

https://superuser.com/questions/1001369/how-do-i-remove-the-efi-partition-on-my-usb-using-mac-os-x-1...

@michaelkenward I hope you find a purpose elsewhere.

Now to try and figure out why my videos are recording at 1280x720 instead of 2K like they are supposed to...

[StephenB]

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@sporkpirateib wrote:

@StephenB  was correct that there was a second, very small partition for some reason. However, his link didn't account for the Disk Utility app not showing the "hidden" partition. Thus I was left to believe that it only had one partition.

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FWIW, I'm not a Mac user, so I don't have any personal experience with that utility.  But I have seen similar issues when USB drives are connected to routers and other appliances, and in those cases there was a second partition.

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@sporkpirateib wrote:

Now to try and figure out why my videos are recording at 1280x720 instead of 2K like they are supposed to...

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Is power management set to "best video"?  That is in the camera settings (under video settings).

[sporkpirateib]

I think the issue with that small partition was that it was read as a bootup partition versus a typical partition. In the past when I would manually partition a drive with larger “chunks” they would all show up in Disk Utility.

As far as quality settings, I just double checked and I have both cameras set to Best Video under power management, and I have the base station set to Best Local Recording under storage settings.

Could it be an issue with the signal strength(bounces from good to strong under video bandwidth) or the FOV setting (full vs. wide)?

[StephenB]

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@sporkpirateib wrote:

Could it be an issue with the signal strength(bounces from good to strong under video bandwidth) or the FOV setting (full vs. wide)?

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You should be seeing full resolution no matter what the FOV setting is.

I haven't seen the video resolution drop to 720p at lower signal strengths - I see 2K recordings.  The signal strength in the web client shows 2 bars for two of the cameras, and three for the third.