@KoS:
If you can read German check http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=17841 for an instruction to mount an Ext3 partition on the internal hard disk. You cannot simply remove the NTFS partition on your hard disk, because the system requires its existence.

@Duivels
I already have ext3 via this topic http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3138&start=20
Unfortunately I don't know German very much.

Yes, I saw your post there. That solution does not apply to the SDK4 firmware, which requires an NTFS partition for the scan data base in the .Theater folder. I am working on a translation of Steffen's German text, but that may take some time, because unlike Google Translate I try to make sense of my translation. I must understand the procedure without being able to execute it myself, because I have a Mini without internal hard disk.

How can I determine whether my system uses SDK4 firmware? I suppose that having a HD2 device with the latest firmware implicates that it is an SDK4 based firmware or am I wrong?

No, you are right, all "2" models have the SDK 4 firmware and never had the SDK 3 or 0 firmware.

I'm just adding my name to the apparently growing list of people who have lost a lot of data due to the implementation of ntfs on the AC Ryan PlayOn HD2. I only use ftp to transfer files from my PC to the unit and the very frequent result is randomly corrupted files, reporting a size of 0 bytes. We mostly use the unit for viewing pictures and video of our 18-month-old son and would be devastated if we didn't have backups.

I sent an email to AC Ryan support, but received no response at all, not even an acknowledgement. The unit is only 2 months old and now I'm going through grief with a seller who doesn't want to accept a return which is no longer in it original packaging. This has been my first and last purchase of an AC Ryan product I'm afraid.

In the absence of a fix from AC Ryan, I'd love to hear of a work-around because I don't like throwing my money away on products that don't work. And using USB to my PC isn't practical because my PC is at the opposite end of the house. I note that Duivels and Kos mention using ext3 partitions - do you know an easy-to-follow method, preferably in English? If all I lose is the scan database (I have auto-scan switched off anyway) without damaging or affecting my ability to play any of my files, I'd give it a try.

Unfortunately there is no easy to follow method for creating and mounting an Ext3 partition on your internal hard disk. Steffen has written an instruction in German, but he is still improving it and therefore an English translation is not available yet. Currently the easiest solution is an Ext3 formatted USB disk attached to your Playon, for which no modification of the firmware is required.

I recommend that you do not use the internal hard disk of your Playon as a backup medium for really important files. A separate USB hard disk or, even better, a NAS with RAID 1 or 5 capability are much safer for a backup of your PC than the Playon.

@scotchgav: Please let Arne (staff member) know about your problem. He still seems to think the cases of loss of data are few and far between. Sad to see that AC Ryan still is ignoring this problem. The mods are doing a lot better, especially Duivels seems to realise the potential threat. Using an ext3 partition eliminates data loss, but ext3 doesn't play nice with Windows. The problem needs to be acknowledged before it will be solved. No luck so far

Thanks Duivels and vanhal for your responses. Fortunately I backup everything to raid5 NAS (amongst other destinations) so I haven't lost anything permanently, but it's quite painful repeatedly dragging the unit up to my PC to search for zero-byte files and then re-copying them. I don't want to buy an external USB drive as the reason I got the HD2 is I want a standalone media player which also serves as another backup location for photos/videos (I used to have an old MediaGate MG450HD which was great, but it can't play video files from our new video camera).

I know the hard drive itself is fine because I've tried putting it in an external enclosure. I copied heaps of data between it and my PC over several days without errors. I'm 100% positive it's a problem with the AC Ryan.

vanhal: sorry to sound stupid, but how do I contact Arne? I've never used a forum before...

Hi scotchgav,

Arne's profile (incl. PM link) is over here: http://www.acryan.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=23144