USB corruption for dashcam recording

[Steve_T]

After a couple of hours using dashcam, it stops working. The "dashcam" icon on the main display now includes an "X" instead of a red dot.

Looks like the file system got corrupted. Plugging and re-inserting the drive didn't help. When I swapped in a new drive as the current one, the dashcam icon shows up with a healthy red dot.

Here's what MacOS DIsk Utility says:

Repairing file system.
Volume was successfully unmounted.
Performing fsck_msdos -y /dev/rdisk2s1
** /dev/rdisk2s1

** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT

** Phase 2 - Checking Directories

/TeslaCam/recent-front-2018-10-13_13-41.mp4 has too many clusters allocated (logical=30399291, physical=30539776)

Drop superfluous clusters? yes

** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters

Found orphan cluster(s)

Fix? yes

Marked 371 clusters as free

Free space in FSInfo block (1845657) not correct (1846032)

Fix? yes

169 files, 59073024 KiB free (1846032 clusters)



***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

File system check exit code is 0.
Restoring the original state found as mounted.
Operation successful.

I got the same exact printout from DiskUtility on my 32GB Sandisk Cruzer

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Why are you using such a large memory footprint? It only records for an hour and then writes over it.

Edit - Or maybe I misunderstand how it works/saves the vids?

For a high-write flash device, unused capacity is useful as it will extend the life of the device, and also keep write speeds higher for longer. A given cell of flash memory typically can only be rewritten a few thousand times, and so a process known as "wear leveling" is used to spread the writes out over more physical cells. The less space you use, the more overprovisioning you create (flash devices are already over-provisioned from the factory to some extent), which gives you more lifetime. Also, a device slows down the more writes it experiences - and overprovisioning extends the time it takes to slow down.

Secondly, if you might want to save video sometimes, the disk usage will add up. It's apparently ~1.8GB/hr, but since it saves in 10 minute increments that means every save will add up to ~300MB at a time. So If you don't take the drive out on a regular basis and do save clips, you can eat up space pretty quick.

Third, one theory is that the corruption occurs when the write speed can't keep up, so some are trying faster flash drives, which generally means premium which means bigger.

And of course, some of us are creating two partitions on our flash drives so we can use the second one for music, rather than using a separate drive, and the extra space is handy there

 

[animorph]

I'm trying this SSD, recommended by a post in one of these dashcam threads:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HMW1KB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The key feature is:
"Reliable data protection with RECADATA enterprise ssd. Features Power-off protection, Overvoltage protecting and Short-circuit protecting function. Also Shockproof and vibration resistant."

The post said it has capacitors that power it long enough to properly shut down.

It comes tomorrow, so I have no experience with it yet.

I suppose it is also possible that shutting down in the middle of recording a 1 minute segment file is the problem and this won't be able to fix that.

 

[SpudLime]

Interested. I have that same thing sitting in my amazon cart.

 

[daniel]

I'm trying this SSD, recommended by a post in one of these dashcam threads:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HMW1KB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The key feature is:
"Reliable data protection with RECADATA enterprise ssd. Features Power-off protection, Overvoltage protecting and Short-circuit protecting function. Also Shockproof and vibration resistant."

The post said it has capacitors that power it long enough to properly shut down.

It comes tomorrow, so I have no experience with it yet.

I suppose it is also possible that shutting down in the middle of recording a 1 minute segment file is the problem and this won't be able to fix that.

Fifty bucks seems steep to avoid a problem that Tesla will almost certainly fix in a future update. Especially when you can buy a whole dashcam for less than that.

 

[Twiglett]

I’ve been using a Sandisk 64g usb3 for the past few weeks.
Since formatting it fat32 in a single partition it’s been working fine with no glitches.
Even through the last firmware update.

 

[animorph]

I'm trying this SSD, recommended by a post in one of these dashcam threads:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HMW1KB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The key feature is:
"Reliable data protection with RECADATA enterprise ssd. Features Power-off protection, Overvoltage protecting and Short-circuit protecting function. Also Shockproof and vibration resistant."

The post said it has capacitors that power it long enough to properly shut down.

It comes tomorrow, so I have no experience with it yet.

I suppose it is also possible that shutting down in the middle of recording a 1 minute segment file is the problem and this won't be able to fix that.

This has been working so far for almost three days with no gray X's. Amazing considering we blew through three different USB flash drives which never lasted a day.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Well, I upgraded from my cheapo garbage Microcenter branded flash drive I had laying around to a Samsung 32GB BAR Plus drive. It's been almost a week and no known failures yet, though to be fair I haven't tried removing the drive either (though before it would fail even without doing that). Still using the dual partition setup with dashcam and music.

I picked it because it was inexpensive, easily available at my local Microcenter, and claimed a speed of up to 200MB/s, so I figured the real world write speeds should be good enough (vs the old generic Microcenter branded one which was, let's be honest, garbage at write speeds).

 

[Waited756days]

SOFTWARE UPDATE = REFORMAT DRIVE? Does there seem to be a need to reformat the drive after an update to the software, however minor. Makes the dashcam less than helpful if one needs to reformat it prior to driving the car!

 

[Snow Drift]

Once you get the X is the USB dead or it just requires a reformat again?

 

[GPinzone]

42.2 looks to have fixed the issue with me. It records without issue all day.

However, I do not know how to remove the drive without corrupting it. I tried turning off the recording first, but it still corrupts the drive and the last recorded file is unreadable.

 

[daniel]

Once you get the X is the USB dead or it just requires a reformat again?

The USB is not dead. It just has to be "fixed" with your disk utility program. On Mac you run your disk utility, select the proper drive (your USB stick) and select first aid. You don't even need to reformat it. But you might want to delete the files that are not video files, to recover the space they use. And of course you might want to delete the video files or save them to your computer.

42.2 looks to have fixed the issue with me. It records without issue all day.

However, I do not know how to remove the drive without corrupting it. I tried turning off the recording first, but it still corrupts the drive and the last recorded file is unreadable.

I don't call that "fixed." I call that trading problems. It is fixed when the drive records without issue, and the videos remain playable when you take the drive out and plug it into your computer.

 

[GPinzone]

I don't call that "fixed." I call that trading problems. It is fixed when the drive records without issue, and the videos remain playable when you take the drive out and plug it into your computer.

I call that two problems. One is fixed.

 

[daniel]

I call that two problems. One is fixed.

Or, there was one problem, now there's a different problem.

 

[eladts]

42.2 looks to have fixed the issue with me. It records without issue all day.

However, I do not know how to remove the drive without corrupting it. I tried turning off the recording first, but it still corrupts the drive and the last recorded file is unreadable.

What I do is turn the car off from the settings menu before ejecting the drive. So far this worked every time when the drive wasn't already corrupted.

 

[GPinzone]

Or, there was one problem, now there's a different problem.

No, they both existed prior to 42.2. Now only one does.

 

[jamnmon66]

Third, one theory is that the corruption occurs when the write speed can't keep up, so some are trying faster flash drives, which generally means premium which means bigger.

Also, for the same brand & model of drive, the higher capacity version is usually faster... sometimes significantly.

 

[Lon12]

I have 42.4 now and have not seen the "x". Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

[Alby]

44.1 solved my X problem without me even removing or reformatting at all. Driving for 2 days so far and recordings are working, knock on wood.

 

[Wahbash]

The dashcam seems to be working for me as well - 1 week now and no problems.