All right, my drive went down once again... Somewhat flaky so far. I've checked all my connections and I'll buy a new cable but I suspect there's something else at play...

The strange thing is that when the drive is down, I can not access certain channels. It probably tries to save the information on that disk when I watch it but cannot access it...

ALso the only sure fire way of making sure the disk is connected is by going to the diagnostics page... I relied on the percentage but that was misleading...

I just purchased a WD DVR Expander and I think it worked but how can I check my space utilization to make sure?

I just purchased a WD DVR Expander and I think it worked but how can I check my space utilization to make sure?
You will need to give your operating system (SARA, Passport, Navigator) since they each have different ways. I also believe all 3 are spelled out in the history of this thread (maybe even first message references) /Dan

I believe it said Navigator in the title.

I am using a WD 500gig drive with a TAOETEC enclosure, runing SARA V 1.89.22.2 on Rogers in Ottawa. The setup worked well for several months, I am now getting video freeze ups when watching live HD. The external drive seems to be running fine.

Past posts on this symptom have indicated loose connections or failed external drives. I don't think this the case as programs recorded on the external drive play back without a problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Art

I would check your signal levels in the diags pages.

xnappo


I have done reboots and have had cable service in 2 times. They tell me the signal is fine. Playback is fine from both drives (I have about 33% usage), the freeze up on live TV now happens every couple of minutes on HD. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

If you want to isolate variables, you're going to have to disconnect the external drive for a while and see if the freezes continue...if they continue, drive/connections are innocent and you can focus on your DVR/feed.

If they stop when you disconnect, then try swapping out to another unit...

I am in NYC. Have TWC and an 8300HD with passport. I think the version is 2.6 and the western dvr expander. Suddenly, the external drive was not being recognized so I rebooted many times unsuccesfully. Diagnostics said the external drive was not being read and at one point it said my list was empty.

Then I exchanged the power cord with my other cable box and plugged both the cable and the dvr expander into the wall and not the surge protector and it is working now. However, when you go the the list, the list is covered with green brightly colored squares. Same thing with scheduled recordings and series manager. You can read everything and it works but I am worried it is a bad sign. Also, should I get a different surge protector? Could the switching of the power cable be enough? The surge protector has the TV and a dvd player plugged in that have no problems.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.

My old (SARA) 8300HD internal hard disk went bad and we had to get a replacement box. I started recording before I added hooked up my external drive (which I had used for ~3 years with the previous 8300). When I plug-in the software prompts me to format the external drive, when I choose yes it starts to do something...the light goes from dim blue to bright blue (writing I guess), then the 8300 shuts off and reboots. :eek: Any idea what's going on?

NOTE: I have a Vantec NexStar 3 with a Seagate 400MB (not sure the model number, would have open the enclosure again :rolleyes:) .

NOTE: I have a Vantec NexStar 3 with a Seagate 400MB (not sure the model number, would have open the enclosure again :rolleyes:) .

Try formatting it on your PC first - maybe it does not like that it has data from another DVR.

xnappo

I have a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB, with a SA-8300HD.
The Box sees the drive if I turn it off, an reminds me to turn off the SA before turning off the hard drive.
I have yet to get a prompt to format the drive.
Nor do I see where the drive space is available.

When I plug the drive in, turn it on and then plug the SA in I see the drive reboot.
I have tested the drive on my PC and it appears to work fine.

Suggestions??

I have done reboots and have had cable service in 2 times. They tell me the signal is fine. Playback is fine from both drives (I have about 33% usage), the freeze up on live TV now happens every couple of minutes on HD. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Problem solved! I got rid of the Taotec enclosure and put the hard drive in a new Vantec enclosure. It now works fine.

I guess the Taotec which worked initially had problems writing to the disk as it filled up.

I'm having an interesting problem where I added an external WDC DVR Expander (500GB) to my 8300HD (Passport) and everything went exceptionally well when adding; yet when I watch either recorded shows or cached live, I get glitches every 5-10 minutes, then the picture goes back to being fine. I had added another (cheap) external enclosure late last year and had the same problem, but I'd assumed it was due to the cheap enclosure. Could it be the DVR itself having problems or is this a common issue?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I recently added a 250gb Seagate in eSATA enclosure to my 8300hd. Record and playback is great but I did notice when the drive is attached, I lose the ability to rewind live TV unless I hit the record button and record that channel. Any ideas?

I recently added a 250gb Seagate in eSATA enclosure to my 8300hd. Record and playback is great but I did notice when the drive is attached, I lose the ability to rewind live TV unless I hit the record button and record that channel. Any ideas?
Search "trick play" on here and you will see many (hundreds?) of messages regarding this. I believe it is limited to machines with Passport and only happens when the show is being recorded on the external drive. Has to do with where the show is being buffered (external does not work right). The fix is to hit record and watch the recording instead of the live show. /Dan

Good evening all,
I just successfully hooked up a Caviar WD6400AAKS with Antec MX-1 enclosure to my 8300HDC (Navigator).

Should I leave the external drive on all the time, or power down when not recording? Probably a stupid question, but I was never known for my brains, so I'll ask anyway.

Thanks for the install help xnappo!

Skid

You'll need to leave it on.

I am in NYC. Have TWC and an 8300HD with passport. I think the version is 2.6 and the western dvr expander. Suddenly, the external drive was not being recognized so I rebooted many times unsuccesfully. Diagnostics said the external drive was not being read and at one point it said my list was empty.

Then I exchanged the power cord with my other cable box and plugged both the cable and the dvr expander into the wall and not the surge protector and it is working now. However, when you go the the list, the list is covered with green brightly colored squares. Same thing with scheduled recordings and series manager. You can read everything and it works but I am worried it is a bad sign. Also, should I get a different surge protector? Could the switching of the power cable be enough? The surge protector has the TV and a dvd player plugged in that have no problems.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Still working but I keep thinking not for long.

Anyone?

Just a quick note to let you know my setup is still running perfect. I updated the DB to long term.

Cheers,

Paul

Maybe I shouldn't have been so positive about my post on successfully adding an external drive.

Caviar WD6400AAKS
Antec MX-1 enclosure
SA8300HDC (Navigatored)

Monday night I recorded Heroes. I thought successfully. Both tuners recorded most of the night. Had a few times where the audio dropped out and we got some pixelation.

So Tuesday morning I decided to give the SA8300HDC a soft reboot to see if that would help any.

Now no Heroes. Not a big deal, just a bit curious of why & how. I'm sure it's lost forever. Would like to get an idea of how to avoid this situation in the future.

Anyone have a similar experience and care to share?

Thanks,
Skid

I have a compatible eSATA enclosure, the right cable and a compatible hard drive connected to my 8300HD. It saw the drive, formatted it and says it's ready to use for recordings. But it will not record to the external drive no matter what. My internal drive has been anywhere from 57% to 100% full since I connected the external drive, but it still won't record to the external drive.

Is there some toggle setting I need to switch on the DVR to get this to work?

Or is Cox-Phoenix just screwing with people again?

I have a compatible eSATA enclosure, the right cable and a compatible hard drive connected to my 8300HD. It saw the drive, formatted it and says it's ready to use for recordings. But it will not record to the external drive no matter what. My internal drive has been anywhere from 57% to 100% full since I connected the external drive, but it still won't record to the external drive.

Is there some toggle setting I need to switch on the DVR to get this to work?

Or is Cox-Phoenix just screwing with people again?

I sure hope not. Exactly what brand & model enclosure and hard drive are you using?

Has anyone noticed that on the Cablevision system of northern New jersey spicifically Oakland cablevision.
Since the premeres of new shows started there's been very bad pixilation and audio dropouts. It seems to have started this past tuesday and last evening it was even worse.
Now here's the weired part. This only happens on CBSHD channel 702. It's so bad in fact its unwatchable. I know its not the external drive as I've been using this same enclosure all summer and its been perfect and the drive in the enclosure has been used on this system in different enclosures for the last 18 months. I've disconnected the external and it still happens on the internal although not as bad but still noticable enough to pull you out of the viewing experience. I also noticed that after disconnecting the external and rebooting the sa8300HD DVR it took twice as long to come back up, as if there was a bandwidth issue when the DVR was trying to re-download the software and program guide. Just for the heck of it I did a upload/download bandwidth test from my cable modem and my upload/download speeds have not changed. Not sure if thats an accurate measure of the bandwidth as far as the DVR but it would indicate its not bandwidth problem.

Basically I'm just looking for confirmation that its the cable system and not the DVR. This DVR has worked perfectly for the last 18 months and I would hate to have to replace it if its not the box.

So if anyone is having a similure issue let me know.

Just wanted to add my successful eSATA install today:

Cable System: Cox-Phoenix
Cable Box: SA8300HD
Software: SARA 1.89.27.1
Enclosure: Antec MX-1
Hard Drive: Seagate ST31000340AS 1Tb 32Mb Cache

I assembled the enclosure and powered down the SA8300HD, connected the enclosure, powered it up, then powered up the SA8300HD. Got a message about the drive not functioning correctly. Powered down the drive, removed the 1.5Gb/s - 3.0Gb/s jumper, and formatted it on my PC. Did some more reading in this thread before I tried again.

This time, with the power plug disconnected from the SA8300HD, I connected the drive and turned on it's power. Then I plugged in the SA3800HD and it booted. It recognized the drive and formatted it. I rebooted the SA8300HD again and it came up with the message about the drive working with the DVR and advising to power off the DVR and remove the power cord before disconnecting the drive. Space usage dropped to 8% from 45% I believe (maybe it was more, I can't remember exactly).

I think most of the complications were due to my not reading the thread completely, and things seem to be working now! If anything changes I will post back to the forurm. I'm off to update the database!

TWC in Canyon Country, CA (socal)
Have a 8300HD running passport 2.6.002
have an external WD WD5000AAKS 500gig hooked up with Azio enc311U41 case,
Been running fine for year or more,
however several months ago,
I started noticing the "blue" activity light stopped blinking as much on the drive. I just figured it was writing to the internal drive.

But when I went to access programs that it had recorded to the external,
I'd get the "your external drive isn't connected" So i'd reboot unplug the external plug it back in, it'd find it and it'd work.

Now it looks like the auto-erase feature has been "wiping" programs from the list because it doesn't have the necessary disk space, because it's not detecting the external?

Well when I plug the external back in, reboot.. the programs are still gone from the list.. but when I check my Diskspace it's reporting the external space plus the internal, but it's reporting that my total space is almost full..

I went through every program on the list and deleted any that were on the external (by seeing if the blue-access light on my external enclosure flashed when playing them back)
and the diag is still reporting that my overall diskspace is still almost full (>500 gigs used)

There's only about 10-15 hours HD programming and 20-30 SD hours in the list, definitly not 500+ gigs worth.

any suggestions or has anyone seen this?

I've tried searching but not having much luck.

Is there a way to reformat or repartition a drive via the 8300? Or do I need to do it via a PC?

Is it possible the program list is built/stored on the internal and not reflected by what's actually on the external? So the stupid internal is phantom erasing only the link to the external trying to free up space, but since it's not detecting the external drive, it's not really removing anything but that link and leaving the data?

do you think this "sleeping" on the external's part is due to a faliure of the enclosure/drive or possibly an update on the 8300/passport?

thanks,

jason

do you think this "sleeping" on the external's part is due to a faliure of the enclosure/drive or possibly an update on the 8300/passport?

thanks,

jason

I am not sure - but I had trouble with the Azio case with SARA. Try an Antec MX-1 or Apricorn EZ-BUS.

xnappo

I am not sure - but I had trouble with the Azio case with SARA. Try an Antec MX-1 or Apricorn EZ-BUS.

xnappo

Antec MX-1 is on sale at Buy.com right now:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205851343&adid=17653&dcaid=17653

xnappo

Hello everyone. I just wanted to jump in here quick and mention I have successfully upgraded my internal drive from a WD160GB to a WD500GB. For anyone keeping score I have a 8300HDC box on TW using SARA. I did the upgrading using the instructions from a Canadian forum. The swap process took no more than 20 minutes and the box took another 20-30 minutes to reset with the new drive. It's been about seven hours and so far so good.

Antec MX-1 is on sale at Buy.com right now:

xnappo

Got the MX-1 case, swapped out the drive and all seems to be working.
I did have to re-format the external on a windows box to "erase" all the used space on the drive from it getting out of sync with the list.

Also had to reboot the 8300HD without the external attached first and then attach it to get it to ask to reformat.

My unused space is back to 400+ unused which is what I expected, so far so good.. thanks.

jason

Is there anyway to check the space remaining?

It does not show how many GBS are remaining.

I added the drive and it reformated, but I have no clue if it is running properly.

Is there anyway to check the space remaining?

It does not show how many GBS are remaining.

I added the drive and it reformated, but I have no clue if it is running properly.

If your system is SARA, you can go to DVR, then press B for preferences, and it'll show you % of space used.

I just added my external drive last night, and it went from 88% full to 11% full! :)

It is a Kingwin Z1-35EU-BK with a WD10EACS terabyte drive (old model with the smaller platters). I am a little concerned with the heat this thing is producing and the lack of a fan in the case, since it looks like this is going to have to be on 24/7. I believe it's 5400rpm, so that should help a little, but still... Does anyone know if I'll be able to switch to a different case (e.g. Antec MX-1) without reformatting?

As for my install, I ran into some scary issues, but from browsing around, they all seem normal.
1) When I format the drive, there is no status display that says it's formatting or that it's done. I ended up staring at it for 10 minutes and then trying to listen to the drive to see whether it was doing anything, until I read somewhere that formatting is almost instantaneous. After that, I turned everything off and restarted.
2) After restarting, nothing had changed! I went into the SA8300HD diags, and it saw the drive, but showed that there were 0 bytes available. Luckily I had seen a posting about this and knew that I had to restart one more time.
3) At this point, it said there was a problem communicating with my drive! I turned everything off, reconnected the e-sata cable, turned it back on and it's been fine.
4) Every time the box is turned on, it takes an extremely long time for tv funcionality to return. This is true whether there is an external drive involved or not.

The most important thing to remember is to turn on the external drive first, wait a few seconds, and then turn on (plug in) the SA8300.

Does anyone know if I'll be able to switch to a different case (e.g. Antec MX-1) without reformatting?


Sure. The enclosure has nothing to do with the data inside the drive. It just provides power, protection, and a conduit to the computer/DVR.

Sure. The enclosure has nothing to do with the data inside the drive. It just provides power, protection, and a conduit to the computer/DVR.

Great, thanks! That makes sense.
Too bad the buy.com sale is over.

If your system is SARA, you can go to DVR, then press B for preferences, and it'll show you % of space used.

uuuh yeah, that's the problem, it does not show the total of gigabytes being used, or much is installed.

uuuh yeah, that's the problem, it does not show the total of gigabytes being used, or much is installed.That's right, it doesn't. But you should have noticed a big drop in the % used before and after you added the new drive, like conroy9 did.

Anyone have any experience doing this with with MYSTRO? Assuming that's not the same as SARA.

MYSTRO is actually TW Navigator. Works fine.

athanku. :)

BTW, I just ordered the Antec MX-1 from Amazon for $47.39. If you are patient and can wait, they have free shipping available. With tax, for me, the order came to US$51.25. Not too shabby. I am SO excited to get some breathing room on this box!

Sometime over this past week my external 500GB Seagate SATA drive started experiencing a problem: partway through (but mostly somewhere around the middle) watching a show written to the external drive, the show will just stop. Sometimes I can fast-forward through the spot, but most of the time the dvr just freezes - won't respond to any button commands from the remote or the console - even the power button.

I've tried numerous hard boots and soft boots to no effect, and so far it's occurring on every show I've recorded since Sunday. Yesterday I removed the external drive from the dvr and the shows recorded last night played back fine.
Another odd thing is when I'm watching a show from the external disk, I can hit stop, skip to end, and then rewind to just past the "bad spot" and it plays fine.

I suspect my external drive is going bad, but I'm not sure if I can hook it up to my PC and run diagnostics on it without destroying the shows on it.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Just connected my Seagate 1TB SATA TSD-1000AS BM into a Vantec NexStar3, 3.5" SATA to eSATA/USB enclosure and used the SATA cable included in the enclosure box. the system recognized the external drive and asked for a formating. I press "A" to accept it. After few automatic reboots and un-plug of the DVR, it worked fine. My combined HD usage went from 63% to 7%. Thank you all for your guidance for this simple process in adding an external 1000GB HD. It costs me about $210CAD which is less than a DVR extender 1000GB from Apricon. After all the reading, I assumed it's worth the risk to save more than $100CAD but have to assemble a new HD into an enclosure. Even if I've never done this before. I'm only an accountant.;)

Is there any way to force a format of an external drive? I got the Antec MX-1 enclosure and inserted a 160G Seagate drive that I got from a friend. The drive was previously used in another brand DVR that was being discarded. I assumed I would be prompted to format it but all I get is a message that says "BAD DRIVE PRESS A OR C TO CONTINUE". After that, the box won't respond to any commands at all including powering down or hard reboot.

Anyone have any suggestions before I go buy a new drive?

Thx in advance.

Anyone have any suggestions before I go buy a new drive?

Thx in advance.

Format it on a PC, that will force a new DVR format when you hook it back up.

xnappo

Actually, I was about to try that. Thanks.

TWC in Canyon Country, CA (socal)
Have a 8300HD running passport 2.6.002
have an external WD WD5000AAKS 500gig hooked up with Azio enc311U41 case,
Been running fine for year or more,
however several months ago,
I started noticing the "blue" activity light stopped blinking as much on the drive. I just figured it was writing to the internal drive.

But when I went to access programs that it had recorded to the external,
I'd get the "your external drive isn't connected" So i'd reboot unplug the external plug it back in, it'd find it and it'd work.

Now it looks like the auto-erase feature has been "wiping" programs from the list because it doesn't have the necessary disk space, because it's not detecting the external?

Well when I plug the external back in, reboot.. the programs are still gone from the list.. but when I check my Diskspace it's reporting the external space plus the internal, but it's reporting that my total space is almost full..

I went through every program on the list and deleted any that were on the external (by seeing if the blue-access light on my external enclosure flashed when playing them back)
and the diag is still reporting that my overall diskspace is still almost full (>500 gigs used)

There's only about 10-15 hours HD programming and 20-30 SD hours in the list, definitly not 500+ gigs worth.

any suggestions or has anyone seen this?

I've tried searching but not having much luck.

Is there a way to reformat or repartition a drive via the 8300? Or do I need to do it via a PC?

Is it possible the program list is built/stored on the internal and not reflected by what's actually on the external? So the stupid internal is phantom erasing only the link to the external trying to free up space, but since it's not detecting the external drive, it's not really removing anything but that link and leaving the data?

do you think this "sleeping" on the external's part is due to a faliure of the enclosure/drive or possibly an update on the 8300/passport?

thanks,

jason

Jason, I experienced the same exact problem and your explanation seems to be on the money as far as describing a possible cause. I just got everything connected and it was working fine. Today though, I had to reboot my box because for some reason, I wasn't getting any audio. I believe this has happened to me once or twice before. When it came back up, anything that was recorded since I connected the external drive was no longer being listed yet the % used remained where it was before I rebooted. So, the data is still there I just can't access it. This is troublesome. Has anyone else experienced this? Do we have any leads as to a possible cause?

Another related question - is it a bad idea to plug the HDD enclosure into the outlet on the back of the DVR box? I didn't have another outlet on my surge protector when I connected everything so I figured I'd plug it in there for the time being until I get a new one. Could this possibly have caused the failure I mentioned above? When I rebooted the box I had to unplug it so the HDD powered down as well.

One last question, also somewhat related - I used to be able to reboot the box by holding down the power button for about 10 seconds but I can no longer do that. Is there an alternative way to reboot (aside from unplugging)? I've since gotten a new box and I'm not sure if the 10-second hold was working on this one or not.

Really the last question - how do you access the diagnostics and internal menu system? I used to know how but I've since forgotten.

Thanks for any replies/info.

TWC in Canyon Country, CA (socal)
Have a 8300HD running passport 2.6.002
have an external WD WD5000AAKS 500gig hooked up with Azio enc311U41 case,
Been running fine for year or more,
however several months ago,
I started noticing the "blue" activity light stopped blinking as much on the drive. I just figured it was writing to the internal drive.

But when I went to access programs that it had recorded to the external,
I'd get the "your external drive isn't connected" So i'd reboot unplug the external plug it back in, it'd find it and it'd work.

Now it looks like the auto-erase feature has been "wiping" programs from the list because it doesn't have the necessary disk space, because it's not detecting the external?

Well when I plug the external back in, reboot.. the programs are still gone from the list.. but when I check my Diskspace it's reporting the external space plus the internal, but it's reporting that my total space is almost full..

I went through every program on the list and deleted any that were on the external (by seeing if the blue-access light on my external enclosure flashed when playing them back)
and the diag is still reporting that my overall diskspace is still almost full (>500 gigs used)

There's only about 10-15 hours HD programming and 20-30 SD hours in the list, definitly not 500+ gigs worth.

any suggestions or has anyone seen this?

I've tried searching but not having much luck.

Is there a way to reformat or repartition a drive via the 8300? Or do I need to do it via a PC?

Is it possible the program list is built/stored on the internal and not reflected by what's actually on the external? So the stupid internal is phantom erasing only the link to the external trying to free up space, but since it's not detecting the external drive, it's not really removing anything but that link and leaving the data?

do you think this "sleeping" on the external's part is due to a faliure of the enclosure/drive or possibly an update on the 8300/passport?

thanks,

jason

I had this problem when TWC in KC converted to Navigator (Mystro). When I did a power off reboot, it would show the drive as connected, but not show the list of old shows recorded on the esata. Percent space left indicated some of my esata was used, but the shows did not show.

I finally discovered that if I did a warm boot (hold the power button on the 8300 HD for 10 seconds) the reboot would recognize the drive AND the old shows I had recorded on it. Now I ALWAYS warm boot when necessary!

Jason, I experienced the same exact problem and your explanation seems to be on the money as far as describing a possible cause. I just got everything connected and it was working fine. Today though, I had to reboot my box because for some reason, I wasn't getting any audio. I believe this has happened to me once or twice before. When it came back up, anything that was recorded since I connected the external drive was no longer being listed yet the % used remained where it was before I rebooted. So, the data is still there I just can't access it. This is troublesome. Has anyone else experienced this? Do we have any leads as to a possible cause?

Another related question - is it a bad idea to plug the HDD enclosure into the outlet on the back of the DVR box? I didn't have another outlet on my surge protector when I connected everything so I figured I'd plug it in there for the time being until I get a new one. Could this possibly have caused the failure I mentioned above? When I rebooted the box I had to unplug it so the HDD powered down as well.

One last question, also somewhat related - I used to be able to reboot the box by holding down the power button for about 10 seconds but I can no longer do that. Is there an alternative way to reboot (aside from unplugging)? I've since gotten a new box and I'm not sure if the 10-second hold was working on this one or not.

Really the last question - how do you access the diagnostics and internal menu system? I used to know how but I've since forgotten.

Thanks for any replies/info.

Is your box an 8300 HD or HDC? Mine is the 8300 HD and the 10 second power button works fine, while the unplug/replug does not recover the esata properly.

Mike, it's an HDC. Does the 'C' stand for crappy? :)

Seriously though, if that's going to be the case, and I have to do a warm reboot (assuming I can do it with the HDC) in order to properly keep the DVR and the HDD "aligned" then if I ever have a power outage, I'll lose access to the shows on the HDD? That's not good.

...if I ever have a power outage, I'll lose access to the shows on the HDD? That's not good.I have an 8300HD, not an HDC, but my TV is a Sony rear-projection LCD model I purchased almost three years ago. I recently purchased an Apricorn 1 TB DVR Xpander, but before doing so, I bought a Belkin Pure AV UPS to protect the lamp in the Sony TV and to keep the DVR and external hard drive powered up in case of a brief power outage. A few years back, it wasn't unusual to have two or three brief power outages in a month. Arizona Public Service has improved their service since then, but I don't want to take things for granted.

I thought $129.99 (plus tax) was a reasonable price for a little peace of mind. I know I can't count on having the shows I'm recording "forever", but it has been much easier to schedule shows I think we may want to watch, without having to go through and erase old shows every few days.:cool:

Ron, I was actually considering that as well but man...it's another expense. I do have power outages in spurts here in NY state so it might be something to look into. Thanks for the advice.

...it's another expense.I hear ya. I decided to blow the bucks on the UPS and the hard drive before the recent market upheaval. I'm not sure I would make the same decision now, but maybe we'll end up spending less time at the movies and more time enjoying the stuff that comes down the cable.

Thanks for the advice.YMMV. I mainly wanted to agree with your concern, and to share how I dealt with it. There aren't many of those Home Theater UPS units out there, probably mainly because no one buys the rear-projection TVs any more.

Hi All,

I have a thermaltak eSata/USB case. I finally got it to be recognized with my 8300hdc by using killdisk (learned you cannot have the drive formatted in xp/vista.

Worked for awhile, got a power blip (outage), now the drive is not recognized and I lost my recordings. Last time this happened, I had to use killdisk to blank the drive out, and let the 8300 reformat the drive.

Is this common with everyone, or all cases?? I noticed this case is not on the "acceptable list" Will using a vantec case alleviate this issue? Should I use a UPS?

Thanks in advance ffor the advice

Mike, it's an HDC. Does the 'C' stand for crappy? :)

Seriously though, if that's going to be the case, and I have to do a warm reboot (assuming I can do it with the HDC) in order to properly keep the DVR and the HDD "aligned" then if I ever have a power outage, I'll lose access to the shows on the HDD? That's not good.
I had an HDC box briefly after the change to Navigator. I was not using the warm boot at the time and don't know how you do it, but I'll bet there is a way.

I took my HDC box back to the TWC store and traded it for an HD box. The HD box "feels" crisper, probably due to running on C++ rather than Java on the HDC. There are a few other differences that seem to change with each operating system upgrade. One is I can change the priority of my series recordings, which I could not do with the HDC. My current problem is my HD box now spontaneously reboots when running closed captioning (which I use a lot). Scripted shows do not seem to be a problem, but unscripted things like debates and other live shows are. I'm not sure I could recommend one box over the other, but I'm not sorry I got the HD box back.

I actually prefer the warm boot to the cold boot. Both take several minutes, but I don't have to reach behind the box (in a bookcase) to unplug and replug it.

my 8300HDC box (SARA) just died tonight.

it didn't record any of my thursday shows and wouldn't let me watch any recorded shows. it wouldn't let me pause or rewind live tv either.

i rebooted it and then it came up with a "disk error" message when i hit the list button.

i called time warner and they tried to reset it but no go.

they are bringing a new box out tomorrow.

i guess i'll have to catch up on heroes and the office online.

I thought my TWC cable box was going whack, but I exchanged it and I'm still having the same problems with my recordings. When I try to play a recording all I get is the screen that comes up telling me to press "List" and so on to get to my recordings. I disconnected my ext hd and the recordings seem to be working, so it must be my WD "MY DVR" 500 GB ext hd. Naturally, the 1-yr warranty expired 3 wks ago, ain't that nice?

So is there anything I can do to fix this thing, or am I stuck w/a $170 paperweight?

Thanks much,
Harold

My SOLUTION for making the hard drive work with the eSATA port! It would connect just fine in the past, but when it came to recording, it didn't work...now it does!

Scroll down to my user name, Jon8RFC, and read the comments on my 500gig drive.
baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/main

I just connected successfully

Vox V1 250 GB USB 2.0/eSATA 3.5" External HDD w/OTB
Part No. EXSA-35C-250G5K
on my HD8600SA

Plug in using the SATA cable. First time, I got an error saying the drive cable or power is not connected. I reboot the dvr. (Reboot meaning power down the dvr and unplug the power cable, put back the power cable, wait until the dvr reboot and power up the dvr.)

This time it says Format? Go ahead and format, should take 15 seconds or so. Then nothing. Reboot the dvr again. This time it says drive is recognize by the dvr. The total disc usage falls. And the external drive starts recording whatever you are watching.

From my limited exposure in installing an external drive to the SA8600HD and from reading several posts about difficulties in installing and connecting one, I believe there is some commonalities on how to connect one.

a) The dvr must be power down. Then the external drive must be connected to the back of the dvr and power up. Then the dvr must be power up and rebooted. I believe that when the dvr is powering up is the only time it recognizes that an external drive is connected to it thru the SATA connection.

b) If the external drive is power down for some reason, the dvr must be power down and up for it to recognize the ext drive. The ext drive must be turn on and light on before the dvr is powered up.

c) During the initial install and first power down and up of the dvr, the ext drive is formatted. It seems that the power down and up is required after this for the dvr to start using the ext drive. At least for me, this is what happens.

d) If something is not working right, its always good to power down the dvr and let is reboot. Make sure the ext drv is connected before powering up.

e) If you want the dvr to reformat the ext drv, there is no command in the dvr to do this. I believe you can 'fool' the dvr in reformatting the ext drive by plugging it into a PC, let the PC reformat the ext drv, bring the ext drv back to the dvr and the dvr will format the ext drv because it does not recognize what the heck its format is. To format the ext drv in the PC, I use disc recovery but there may be other utility programs to do so.

f) As for people losing previous recordings in the ext drv, I have not experience this but I would try first is to do the same thing: power down the dvr, connect the ext drv, power up and reboot the dvr. After all, the dvr should not format the ext drv after a reboot.

Presumably "SA8600HD" is a typo and shud be SA8300HD???
[Link in your signature line....]

PS: SA8600/SA8610 is an addressable Home Terminal for
descrambling analog channels and only has a Ch3/4 output.

c) During the initial install and first power down and up of the dvr, the ext drive is formatted. It seems that the power down and up is required after this for the dvr to start using the ext drive. At least for me, this is what happens.This step hasn't been necessary for Navigator.

Presumably "SA8600HD" is a typo and shud be SA8300HD???
[Link in your signature line....]

PS: SA8600/SA8610 is an addressable Home Terminal for
descrambling analog channels and only has a Ch3/4 output.
You are right.

I finally pulled the trigger on an APC s20 UPS/Power conditioner. I want to move all my electronics over to it. I know I can move me SA8300HD/DVR; I just dont know what will happen when I power down the Cavalry eSata drive; I don't want to lose the shows that are on either hard drive; the wife and I are behind in viewing. Does anyone know if there is a procedure for moving both the HD/DVr power and the eSata HD power to my new UPS without the DVR reformatting the external drive?

Help Please?

Sony 60A3000; Denon AVR-4308; Sony PS3 80GB; Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR; Denon DCM-380; DirecTv D10; M&K v75MkII sub, M&K750THX center, 4 x M&K Bookshelf 75.

I finally pulled the trigger on an APC s20 UPS/Power conditioner. I want to move all my electronics over to it. I know I can move me SA8300HD/DVR; I just dont know what will happen when I power down the Cavalry eSata drive; I don't want to lose the shows that are on either hard drive; the wife and I are behind in viewing. Does anyone know if there is a procedure for moving both the HD/DVr power and the eSata HD power to my new UPS without the DVR reformatting the external drive?

Help Please?

Sony 60A3000; Denon AVR-4308; Sony PS3 80GB; Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR; Denon DCM-380; DirecTv D10; M&K v75MkII sub, M&K750THX center, 4 x M&K Bookshelf 75.As far as I know, you shouldn't have any problem. The system only tries to reformat the drive if it hasn't been formatted or it is moved to a new DRV. I've gone through several power failures since attaching a hard drive and it has recovered every time. As an added precaution, you might want to power on the hard drive a few seconds before booting the DVR.

I just added a Antec MX-1 enclosure with a WD10EACS 1TB drive. Everything was going well for a day or two, but sometimes now it won't record the whole show. Sometime 15min sometimes 45min. Other times it recorde fine. I disconnected the external drive and every records normally. I tried a differant enclosure, and a differant drive that didn't make any differance. Anybody got any ideas how to fix this?? Any help would be great!!

I just added a Antec MX-1 enclosure with a WD10EACS 1TB drive. Everything was going well for a day or two, but sometimes now it won't record the whole show. Sometime 15min sometimes 45min. Other times it recorde fine. I disconnected the external drive and every records normally. I tried a differant enclosure, and a differant drive that didn't make any differance. Anybody got any ideas how to fix this?? Any help would be great!!

I have the same setup and had the same problems. A couple of shows did not record at all, a couple of other shows stopped midway through. All I did was power down everything, unplug the drive, and power everything back up. Then I watched everything very closely, but since then it seemed fine. I have no idea why. Now it is running fine for about 2 months.

I tried that when I came home. It made it worse!! Had two show programmed to record. It recorded 1 min of one show, and 3 min of the other. Any other suggestions?? Wife is getting mad now!! Please help me!!!!!!

Admittedly, I haven't read every page, so I must have missed the answer (though I did read for about an hour):

Any difference between using a pre-assembled eSATA drive/enclosure labeled a "DVR expander" and not?

For instance, Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA
vs.
Seagate ST305004FPA1E3-RK FreeAgent Pro 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0/eSATA/FireWire 400 External Hard Drive

Latter is cheaper. Also, do you agree that there is little to no cost savings now to assembling your own external drive/enclosure? Do people simply do it to try to maximize the possibility of compatibility?

Thanks in advance.

Latter is cheaper. Also, do you agree that there is little to no cost savings now to assembling your own external drive/enclosure? Do people simply do it to try to maximize the possibility of compatibility?

Thanks in advance.

I would just say see the databases in my sig. The Freeagent will NOT work well. That isn't to say that any non-DVR solution will not work.

xnappo

Admittedly, I haven't read every page, so I must have missed the answer (though I did read for about an hour):

Any difference between using a pre-assembled eSATA drive/enclosure labeled a "DVR expander" and not?

For instance, Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA
vs.
Seagate ST305004FPA1E3-RK FreeAgent Pro 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0/eSATA/FireWire 400 External Hard Drive

Latter is cheaper. Also, do you agree that there is little to no cost savings now to assembling your own external drive/enclosure? Do people simply do it to try to maximize the possibility of compatibility?

Thanks in advance.
A lot of the "non-DVR" rated eSATA drives have buffers/cache that mess up continuous play TV. Risky to not get a DVR rated one. Also, if it does not work on your DVR you have a better ability to return. The other they may refuse as you are trying to use it for where it is not designed. And yes, costs are getting closer for home built versus pre-built DVR drives. Apricorn has one too (as does Iomega, but less liked). I don't use any so can't comment on quality. See database pointed out in the last message. /Dan

I installed a 500mb WD AAKS? A Vantec eSATA Nexstar 3 about 1.5 yrs ago without any trouble. I wanted to to upgrade to a newer drive and add one to my other Samsung 550 HD with SA 8300HDC DVR running SARA. I would like to find the retailers I used before however I can't find the receipt. What ithe best out there today and can the SA take a 1T drive combo.

I installed a 500mb WD AAKS? A Vantec eSATA Nexstar 3 about 1.5 yrs ago without any trouble. I wanted to to upgrade to a newer drive and add one to my other Samsung 550 HD with SA 8300HDC DVR running SARA. I would like to find the retailers I used before however I can't find the receipt. What ithe best out there today and can the SA take a 1T drive combo.Check database in signature of msg # 7067 based on your system. /Dan

Seems i posted this to the wrong thread before. Hopefully someone can answer this, as its starting to get really annoying!

I connected up my WD 500 GB DVR Extender to my TWC NYC SA 8300 HD (Passport Echo 2.6.002, OS PowerTV 6.14.74.1sp). Although it appears to work fine (drive formatted, space increased), one of the main features that i've used is no longer available. That is, I no longer appear to have the previous hour recorded on a running loop of whatever channel i'm on. I used to come back home from work at 6:15pm, turn the box on and rewind 45 minutes to watch PTI, but now it no longer appears to automatically record the previous hour. In addition, if i pause to answer the phone, i can't fast forward the channel or go to the current spot (using the 'live' option).

Any ideas?

Seems i posted this to the wrong thread before. Hopefully someone can answer this, as its starting to get really annoying!

I connected up my WD 500 GB DVR Extender to my TWC NYC SA 8300 HD (Passport Echo 2.6.002, OS PowerTV 6.14.74.1sp). Although it appears to work fine (drive formatted, space increased), one of the main features that i've used is no longer available. That is, I no longer appear to have the previous hour recorded on a running loop of whatever channel i'm on. I used to come back home from work at 6:15pm, turn the box on and rewind 45 minutes to watch PTI, but now it no longer appears to automatically record the previous hour. In addition, if i pause to answer the phone, i can't fast forward the channel or go to the current spot (using the 'live' option).

Any ideas?
On my SA8300HD with Sara, I have to have the box turn on before it records the current channel I am viewing. It will not record if turn off. If off, it will only record previously program channels.

Seems i posted this to the wrong thread before. Hopefully someone can answer this, as its starting to get really annoying!

I connected up my WD 500 GB DVR Extender to my TWC NYC SA 8300 HD (Passport Echo 2.6.002, OS PowerTV 6.14.74.1sp). Although it appears to work fine (drive formatted, space increased), one of the main features that i've used is no longer available. That is, I no longer appear to have the previous hour recorded on a running loop of whatever channel i'm on. I used to come back home from work at 6:15pm, turn the box on and rewind 45 minutes to watch PTI, but now it no longer appears to automatically record the previous hour. In addition, if i pause to answer the phone, i can't fast forward the channel or go to the current spot (using the 'live' option).

Any ideas?
You have Passport and if it is recording to the external drive you lose live replay. I seem to remember those saying you can hit record and then go back through the recording (or maybe have to record it from the beginning and not after it has started). Only the internal drive buffers the live stuff, so when recording to the external you lose what has been dubbed "trick play". Search "trick play" in this thread and you should find the history of this discussion from the last year or so. /Dan

You have Passport and if it is recording to the external drive you lose live replay. I seem to remember those saying you can hit record and then go back through the recording (or maybe have to record it from the beginning and not after it has started). Only the internal drive buffers the live stuff, so when recording to the external you lose what has been dubbed "trick play". Search "trick play" in this thread and you should find the history of this discussion from the last year or so. /Dan

That's true, and it's one of the only things that represents an improvement for Navigator over Passport, along with easier-to-implement slow motion. Most everything else is a downgrade.

bump...need three posts to post a URL :/

I just added a Antec MX-1 enclosure with a WD10EACS 1TB drive. Everything was going well for a day or two, but sometimes now it won't record the whole show. Sometime 15min sometimes 45min. Other times it recorde fine. I disconnected the external drive and every records normally. I tried a differant enclosure, and a differant drive that didn't make any differance. Anybody got any ideas how to fix this?? Any help would be great!!
If it has a USB port on it, I advise against it, because it isn't a direct connection to the hard drive; to have a USB port requires a "middle man", in the form of a chipset. This is why I never got it to work for me. Everything works when I use an enclosure that contains no processing or if I connect it directly. I just purchased this (http://www.altex.com/6-SATA-Bridge-Cable-KB-109P1-P145365.aspx) SATA to eSATA cable and was able to connect the drive directly. Then I went to Altex (hit up Fry's Electronics if you have one in your area) and found a hot-swap enclosure by Bytecc that only has SATA data and SATA power ports on the back--no chipset for additional ports, like USB or firewire. Any SATA drive I throw in there works.


My DVR is 8240HDC supplied by Time Warner Cable of San Antonio, TX.

My procedure:
1) Connect drive to computer, format to NTFS, then delete all partitions to ensure that the drive has no partitions.
2) Unplug power from the DVR.
3) Connect SATA-eSATA cable to eSATA port on the DVR.
4)Connect power to external drive.
5) Wait a few seconds for drive to spin-up.
6) Plug in power to DVR.
7) Let it sit for a few minutes, until the time displays on the DVR and cannot hear the DVR or external hard drive making any sounds.
8) Turn on DVR and check storage space, attempt to pause live TV and rewind--it works, with any drive now!

OK, here's my problem:

I bought an Antex MX-1 and Western Digital 7500AKS for my mom who has TWC (as I do). I hooked it up to her 8300 HD, it prompted to format. I said yes, and then rebooted the box. It came up and prompted to format. I said yes, rebooted, prompted to format. Detect a pattern? I tried a few things including soft vs hard rebooting but nothing worked. She has a newer 8300 HD with the multistream cablecard support and SARA version 1.90.5.113.

To verify there was no problem with the drive / enclosure I brought it to my house, hooked it to my 8300 HD (no multistream cablecard support, SARA version 1.89.24.1) and it worked right away.

So my question: has anyone out there gotten an external drive working with the newer 8300 HD, SARA version 1.90.5.113? I believe the difference is there is a covered panel on the back that has something to do with a multistream cablecard, but I don't know for sure if there are any other differences. Any help would be appreciated since I want to tell my mom if she should try swapping her box for an earlier model (if there are any available) or just another current model (if others have gotten it working then it might just be her individual unit).

I have the 8300HD running Mystro (TWC - Raleigh/Durham). I also have a 500GB Vox drive for Ecost. I connected the drive and was asked to format it by the 8300. After a minute or so I got a message that the format failed. After that the DVR would freeze up and give me a warning that I should disconnect the drive until 10 seconds after the DVR was turned off. This happened whether I had the drive connected prior to that or not. Now it doesn't do anything. I have four dashes on the boxes display and the on screen display only gets to four white boxes which is where it hangs.

At one point I was able to at least get the box to a point where the proper time was displayed but it wouldn't turn on and eventually rebooted itself and got stuck again. It almost seems like the box is looking for the external drive, it was previously disconnected on all of my other attempts to reboot. The instance I was actually able to get the time displayed was when I tried attaching the drive back and then rebooting. The box doesn't reboot properly with or without the drive at this point.

I've tried leaving the box disconnected for more than a day. I've tried leaving it on on the stick boot sequence for an entire day as well. Nothing works. I am wondering if my drive had one touch backup software on it which caused the initial format failure and now the subsequent problems. Does anyone have any recommendations before I lose ALL of my data :(

Reformatting the hard drive cleared up the problem for a week or so, then it started happening again. I finally broke down and bought a new 1TB Seagate Barracude 7200.11, which so far works fine. Oddly enough, I still have a couple of shows on the old hard drive, and if I reattach it, I can still view them.

Original Post:
---Quote (Originally by emjay0)---
Sometime over this past week my external 500GB Seagate SATA drive started experiencing a problem: partway through (but mostly somewhere around the middle) watching a show written to the external drive, the show will just stop. Sometimes I can fast-forward through the spot, but most of the time the dvr just freezes - won't respond to any button commands from the remote or the console - even the power button.

I've tried numerous hard boots and soft boots to no effect, and so far it's occurring on every show I've recorded since Sunday. Yesterday I removed the external drive from the dvr and the shows recorded last night played back fine.
Another odd thing is when I'm watching a show from the external disk, I can hit stop, skip to end, and then rewind to just past the "bad spot" and it plays fine.

I suspect my external drive is going bad, but I'm not sure if I can hook it up to my PC and run diagnostics on it without destroying the shows on it.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
---End Quote---

Oddly enough, I still have a couple of shows on the old hard drive, and if I reattach it, I can still view them.
This is typical -- you can have (in theory) an unlimited number of shows on your "recorded shows" list by just swapping in/out the correct hard drives (but you have to remember which drive each program is on!). The programs stay on your program list even if the drive that they're on is not attached.

I have had an external (WD10EACS) drive in a Kingwin Z1 enclosure working great for several weeks with my 8300HD with SARA. However, I just went on a 2 week trip and came back to my DVR no longer recognizing the drive.

I've powered everything off and on several times, and held down the power button of the DVR while powering on, and it still is no good. I always power everything off, reconnect cables, then power on the drive, wait awhile, then power on the DVR.

Does anyone have any suggestions or see what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks..

I have had an external (WD10EACS) drive in a Kingwin Z1 enclosure working great for several weeks with my 8300HD with SARA. However, I just went on a 2 week trip and came back to my DVR no longer recognizing the drive.

I've powered everything off and on several times, and held down the power button of the DVR while powering on, and it still is no good. I always power everything off, reconnect cables, then power on the drive, wait awhile, then power on the DVR.

Does anyone have any suggestions or see what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks..

Your external drive may have crashed. My first one got fried in a power surge. It's a constant risk when you're using these things.

Your external drive may have crashed. My first one got fried in a power surge. It's a constant risk when you're using these things.

:(
It seems to power up okay. I suppose I wouldn't be able to run diagnostics without wiping it by connecting it to a computer

Maybe it's time to dump this whole setup and get a tivo

:(
It seems to power up okay. I suppose I wouldn't be able to run diagnostics without wiping it by connecting it to a computer

Maybe it's time to dump this whole setup and get a tivo

A TivoHD will only accept the 500G WD My DVR Expander and does not show any recorded or remaining space information.

I am informed the Tivo Series 3 will accept other drives but I do not know if the space information is present. I had to ditch this model because of incompatability with my big screen.

Bob:)

:(
It seems to power up okay. I suppose I wouldn't be able to run diagnostics without wiping it by connecting it to a computer

Maybe it's time to dump this whole setup and get a tivo

Also you may want to try this fix:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=351824

Bob:)

Also you may want to try this fix:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=351824

Bob:)

That's interesting.. thanks! I'll look into that tonight and report back if I have success.

I was thinking Tivo because I was under the impression that we could add or replace drives internally and avoid these issues with booting in the correct order, etc.

You can replace the Tivo internal drive w/a larger drive, you can also use other ext drives other than the WD:

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784

Your external drive may have crashed. My first one got fried in a power surge. It's a constant risk when you're using these things.

Even when its plugged into a power surge protector which everyone should?

Even when its plugged into a power surge protector which everyone should?

Mine is plugged into a UPS. I guess he's just saying that hard drives can fail at any time. I've been worried that it could be more likely inside these questionable little enclosures.

Anyway, my cable seems to be okay; I'm going to try swapping my drive into an Antec MX-1 as a last resort to see if it's a problem with the enclosure's SATA. This is getting expensive :(.

I saw someone say that with a TIVO SA8300HD DVR you could not see the memory configuration. I am leasing the SA8300 from Time Warner so will not mess with the internals. I wanted to expand memory. I saw the WD My DVR Expander and read the instructions. The instructions say to check the memory useage of the SA8300 before and after plugging in to tell if it is working. I asked TWC how to do this and they gave me instructions to push "list" and "B" to see useage. The tech was reading from online instructions. That does not work. Do I have a bad SA8300 or does the TWC version restrict customers from getting into the software? If anyone has a TWC and knows it should work, please let me know, then I can take my machine back to TWC and get another one.
Thanks.

My SA8300HDC was "upgraded" this morning to the new ODN version of the Navigator software (ver. 3.1.0_7). I had an Apricorn 500GB eSATA external drive attached to it, and every show I had archived was still listed on the saved recordings menu (Show List) afterwards when I checked it, so I thought I was OK, but when I got around to actually trying them, none of the recordings would play back, not even the shows that had been recorded on the internal drive of the DVR long ago, before I added the expansion drive. The screen would just go blank when I tried to play any saved recording (pre- or post-expansion drive).

I called TWC support, and of course they do not support expansion drives, so they had me reboot the DVR with the eSATA drive disconnected and it works fine, but only the programs recorded on the internal drive are available in the show list. So as far as they are concerned, they have satisfied their responsibilities and washed their hands of the problem.

Unfortunately, none of the shows I previously recorded which were archived on the expansion drive are available in the Show List menu anymore, and I have lost 40+ hours of archived recordings. I hooked the expansion drive back up and rebooted the DVR after talking to them, and it recognizes the drive, everything works fine, but now the DVR thinks there are no recordings on it. It shows up as free space now.

There is a new page for disk info on page 11 of the diagnostics, and it shows only 1 device with 611 GB total space. Without the expansion drive, it shows 1 device with 151 GB. Before I rebooted without the eSATA drive connected, it showed 219 GB free space of the 611 GB available. Now it shows 533 GB free space. The 300+ GB of shows I had recorded on the expansion drive are gone to the cornfield.

I am not a happy camper.

TT

Thanks for the heads up. Strange, for a company who doesn't support external drives, they sure seem to tinker a lot with the software that controls them.

Thanks for the heads up. Strange, for a company who doesn't support external drives, they sure seem to tinker a lot with the software that controls them. Yeah, but they sure haven't got it right yet! I was happy with the ver. 2.4.10_11, it finally allowed me to use the eSATA connection reliably, but now for the sake of some new colors in the menus, all my saved programs are toast except for 4 that are recorded on the internal drive.

I wish I had the choice to upgrade or not, but that is not an option with TWC, and there is no notice given to customers before it happens. Given that situation, it would be nice if there were a quick and easy way to back up content from the DVR to optical media somehow, but I'm sure they are concerned about copyright infringement.

TT

My SA8300HDC was "upgraded" this morning to the new ODN version of the Navigator software (ver. 3.1.0_7). I had an Apricorn 500GB eSATA external drive attached to it, and every show I had archived was still listed on the saved recordings menu (Show List) afterwards when I checked it, so I thought I was OK, but when I got around to actually trying them, none of the recordings would play back, not even the shows that had been recorded on the internal drive of the DVR long ago, before I added the expansion drive.
Just a "sanity check" here -- did you try going through the process of unhooking and reattaching your drive again -- just to see if it would recognize it. The same process you had to go through to install it initially?

I'd also suggest rebooting in the correct order. Shut everything down. Boot up the external drive, THEN start up the DVR. Mine had a similar problem about 2 weeks ago (perhaps we got the upgrade earlier).. it took several rounds of this reboot to get it to work again, but once it did, all my recordings were accessable.

My SA8300HDC was "upgraded" this morning to the new ODN version of the Navigator software (ver. 3.1.0_7). I had an Apricorn 500GB eSATA external drive attached to it, and every show I had archived was still listed on the saved recordings menu (Show List) afterwards when I checked it, so I thought I was OK, but when I got around to actually trying them, none of the recordings would play back, not even the shows that had been recorded on the internal drive of the DVR long ago, before I added the expansion drive. The screen would just go blank when I tried to play any saved recording (pre- or post-expansion drive).

I called TWC support, and of course they do not support expansion drives, so they had me reboot the DVR with the eSATA drive disconnected and it works fine, but only the programs recorded on the internal drive are available in the show list. So as far as they are concerned, they have satisfied their responsibilities and washed their hands of the problem.

Unfortunately, none of the shows I previously recorded which were archived on the expansion drive are available in the Show List menu anymore, and I have lost 40+ hours of archived recordings. I hooked the expansion drive back up and rebooted the DVR after talking to them, and it recognizes the drive, everything works fine, but now the DVR thinks there are no recordings on it. It shows up as free space now.

There is a new page for disk info on page 11 of the diagnostics, and it shows only 1 device with 611 GB total space. Without the expansion drive, it shows 1 device with 151 GB. Before I rebooted without the eSATA drive connected, it showed 219 GB free space of the 611 GB available. Now it shows 533 GB free space. The 300+ GB of shows I had recorded on the expansion drive are gone to the cornfield.

I am not a happy camper.

TT

Originally posted on wrong forum but I have a similar problem. On Thursday morning I noticed new colors on Navigator and as I was checking, Time Warner San Diego started another upgrade, this time labeled "Cable Card". After this finished box rebooted and all my previous recordings on Western Digital DVR Expander could not be accessed, eventually all were lost. Several different experiments were unsuccessful, the Expander appears to integrate with recorder, used space reduces indicating correct installation. Can select new shows to record, they appear on scheduled list but when time to record they disappear and do not record. After removing Expander and rebooting, 8300 accepts and records normally. Think this is Time Warner problem, everything went south just after their upgrade. The WG1S5000 Expander is approved by Scientific Atlanta and Time Warner for use on the 8300 but they don't seem to want to support it. If anyone finds a solution, please post.

I originally posted this on the SA 8300HD Tips & Tricks -- SARA thread but it was suggested that I try here.

After my 8300HD froze I did a hard reboot. When it came back up a message prompted me to format the external drive. Not wanting to lose all my recordings I repeatedly performed the Forced Reboot and Hard Reboot outlined on page one of the SA 8300HD Tips & Tricks thread. After about 10 attempts it worked and all was back to normal. However, after powering down the 8300HD, the problem has returned and constant attempts to reboot have failed to let me access the external drive.

Any suggestions on how I might work through this problem?
Thanks!

OK, here's my problem:

I bought an Antex MX-1 and Western Digital 7500AKS for my mom who has TWC (as I do). I hooked it up to her 8300 HD, it prompted to format. I said yes, and then rebooted the box. It came up and prompted to format. I said yes, rebooted, prompted to format. Detect a pattern? I tried a few things including soft vs hard rebooting but nothing worked. She has a newer 8300 HD with the multistream cablecard support and SARA version 1.90.5.113.

I'll answer my own question: my mom returned the cable box for a replacement and I was able to successfully connect the external drive without even the need for a reboot. Good to know that the 8300 HDC (I didn't notice the 'C' before) is still compatible with eSATA drives.

Originally posted on wrong forum but I have a similar problem. On Thursday morning I noticed new colors on Navigator and as I was checking, Time Warner San Diego started another upgrade, this time labeled "Cable Card". After this finished box rebooted and all my previous recordings on Western Digital DVR Expander could not be accessed, eventually all were lost. Several different experiments were unsuccessful, the Expander appears to integrate with recorder, used space reduces indicating correct installation. Can select new shows to record, they appear on scheduled list but when time to record they disappear and do not record. After removing Expander and rebooting, 8300 accepts and records normally. Think this is Time Warner problem, everything went south just after their upgrade. The WG1S5000 Expander is approved by Scientific Atlanta and Time Warner for use on the 8300 but they don't seem to want to support it. If anyone finds a solution, please post.

I am having the same problem as of Thursday - I've tried formatting the external drive on my apple laptop, then re-attaching... the 8300HDC says that it needs to be formatted, press "A". I do that, then I never hear anything from the DVR about the drive again, no matter how many times I re-attach and reboot.

Anybody know how to do a full-reformat of the internal hard drive on this unit? Perhaps that will help - I've tried the holding down of pause for 10 seconds or so on the remote, but that doesn't do anything on this box.

Otherwise, if that don't work, TWC-SD just broke what was finally working - arrrggghhhh.

I am having the same problem as of Thursday - I've tried formatting the external drive on my apple laptop, then re-attaching... the 8300HDC says that it needs to be formatted, press "A". I do that, then I never hear anything from the DVR about the drive again, no matter how many times I re-attach and reboot.

Anybody know how to do a full-reformat of the internal hard drive on this unit? Perhaps that will help - I've tried the holding down of pause for 10 seconds or so on the remote, but that doesn't do anything on this box.

Otherwise, if that don't work, TWC-SD just broke what was finally working - arrrggghhhh.

Felt I needed more frustration so called Time Warner in San Diego Friday and they were no help. Carefully explained that their company worked in conjunction with Scientific Atlanta and Western Digital to permit the 8300HDC to be attached via SATA connector which was placed on this box to allow external hard drives. So what was their answer, they are not responsible for whatever happens when they force updates to their cable system. Told this klunko that maybe their attitude is the reason AT&T and satellite companies are picking up so much of their business. Trying again this week end, if that fails will exchange box Monday as last resort.

Felt I needed more frustration so called Time Warner in San Diego Friday and they were no help. Carefully explained that their company worked in conjunction with Scientific Atlanta and Western Digital to permit the 8300HDC to be attached via SATA connector which was placed on this box to allow external hard drives. So what was their answer, they are not responsible for whatever happens when they force updates to their cable system. Told this klunko that maybe their attitude is the reason AT&T and satellite companies are picking up so much of their business. Trying again this week end, if that fails will exchange box Monday as last resort.

Sounds like you are a glutton for punishment - customer service at TWC is like talking to trained monkey that can only answer to specific questions.

Let us know how it goes with swapping out the box, especially if you get one with the same rev. of the firmware.

I've considered switching to satellite but every time I ask my neighbors who have it they say they have big problems too, just different ones. AT&T has their only 1 HD channel at a time issue, and I hear that DISH compresses their video feeds so much that the quality is awful.

Note: The most successful drives are SATA. Some converters (i.e. to IDE) work, but not well for the SA8300HD(C). I have found the Cisco RNG200 to function exactly as the SA. If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)
Links to the databases can also be found in the sig of xnappo.

How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

PLEASE,

We are here to help. And we need your cooperation to be at our best.

Read the first post and the last two pages-The most recently discussed problems are there. They are also the most recently developing problems. Do not read every page that will only drive you crazy. Older pages likely contain outdated information.

An efficient search will help. Try to use just one highly significant word. For tips on searching or any general questions, please PM me or the ID of a frequent poster, or a high post count, or any member. We may use different terminology!

If you can’t find your answer or are not sure you understand it, ask in any way you are comfortable. Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Tell us where you (or the person with the problem) are-City and State.

Tell us what equipment you are using-HDMI? -All makes and models, and include your video provider (i.e. Comcast, TWC)

Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Be patient-It may take a few days before the best qualified member to answer your question “picks up.”
THANK YOU!

Bob:)
Comcast-Cisco RNG200-SARA 1.90.12.1-Western Digital WD5000CSRTL-Mapower WT H51ES 01 98

I have a 300GB external drive that is almost full. I'd like to replace it with a 500GB drive. I would also like to finish watching all the shows on the 300 GB drive. Can I interchange these for awhile, watching the shows on the 300 GB one and then hooking up the 500 GB to record more shows on? I'm just wondering if I can go back and forth like this until all the shows are off the 300 GB drive. I'd hate to unhook it, and then hook it up again and find 0 shows on it!

I haven't tried it, but there are others on this thread that claim to have done it. However, you probably should identify the software running on your DVR (SARA, Navigator, or Passport) and get confirmation from someone using the same SW.

Just a "sanity check" here -- did you try going through the process of unhooking and reattaching your drive again -- just to see if it would recognize it. The same process you had to go through to install it initially?
Yes, I went through a progressive series of attempts to get it to work. First I tried a warm boot of the STB with the eSATA drive still connected. I had all the archived shows still available in my program list, including those on the expansion drive, but none of them would play, just a blank screen came up. Diagnostics showed 611GB capacity with 200+ GB free space.

Next I tried a cold boot with the eSATA drive connected. Same result. Then I hard-booted with the eSATA drive disconnected, and the only programs in the list were the ones on the internal drive, as expected, and they would play back fine. Device diagnostics showed 151GB capacity. Next I hard-booted after reattaching the eSATA drive and turning it on, waiting for it to spin up before powering on the DVR, just as in the original installation, and it recognized the drive without formatting it, the diagnostics showed the 611GB capacity again, but with 500+ free space! The "List" command only shows the older archived programs recorded on the internal drive. It did not recognize the programs on the external drive anymore.

I had more weird problems happen yesterday. After everything appeared to be working fine for awhile with the eSATA drive attached, later in the day, I found that the direct record (red button on the remote) was not working. When pressed, the "Rec" tag would come up on the right side of the "Info" banner for a moment, and then flicker out, but the red "Recording" light would never light up in the DVR front panel. Nothing would be recorded, and the Recording Log would show an error message of "Channel not available," even though the TV was displaying the channel fine when I pushed the 'Record" button! Live buffering of any channel I tuned to was not working at all, either. I scheduled a future program to record, but it failed, with the same error message in the recording log of "Channel not available."

I cold-booted the DVR this morning with the Apricorn drive still attached, and everything seems to be normal again. I have live buffering of any tuned channel, the direct record button works, and I have successfully scheduled a recording of a future program and it plays back fine. For how long it will work, though, I have no idea, and little faith. I don't know what the problem is, but it is certainly not the Apricorn drive, it is something flakey about the Navigator software. These same kinds of recording glitches were reported by the MDN (8300HD) software users too, at the beginning of the whole Navigator clusterf@#k, so maybe they are due to network problems that will slowly get better? I don't know.

One thing that I noticed--on pg. 1 of the settop box diagnostics that come up when I tune to channel 998, the item for "network connection" comes up in red and says "Not connected" when it refreshes on my STB. Should I be worried about this? Does it only connect when you are using VOD services or something?

I can't believe I pay these clowns at TWC nearly $150/mo. for this kind of service. If there were any reasonable alternative or equivalent competitor, I would bail on them in a heartbeat, with a parting "middle-finger salute."

TT

I'm running Navigator with my external drive. Have others been able to switch 2 drives back and forth?

I have the Nexstar eSata external enclosure with a WD 500GB drive. I left the 8300HD with the Passport firmware powered on, connected the enclosure to the DVR and powered it on. As soon as I powered on, a notice came up on the screen that it needed to format the external drive.

I'm debating on whether or not to keep the external drive connected....the fact that the drive kills the live buffer is a huge No No for me. It's highly annoying and not worth it so far.

Hi guys. Lucky me got a new display recently. While I had my HT torn down, i took my 8300hd sara ext drive (2.5 years of valued service) and connected it to my PC, to see if I could see the file system and files. I thought it might work since I have two different ways to connect to Unix file systems. OK, I lose. Not sure what fs the 8300 is using, but it does not seem to be ext2 or ext3. The ext HDD was never accessed or formatted while I had it connected to my PC. Yet I feel "something" happened, because it "is no longer on talking terms" with my 8300hd. Kinda guess this has been done and been shared here before, but thought I would share this with you vets anyway. If this behavior has been seen before, please consider adding a caution statement to the FAQ's, Stickys or the Tips -n- Tricks thread (page-1). ???

Hate to see another idiot like me lose his recorded stuff, because the ext hdd got connected to something otherthan the 8300hd.

All hard / soft reboot efforts have failed. So I will likely be doing a reformat tomorrow. I am currently giving it a Total Reset effort, letting it sit unconnceted over-nite, but my hopes are little. Still got my dreams tho, and a new respect for my ext drive,... to "just let it be"...

After letting the 8300 sit without any connections for 12 hours -and- following steps shown at page-1 Tips and Tricks Thread,... I am still dead. The 8300 only wants to Format my ext hdd. Oh well. It is going to be a Happy Thanksgiving Day anyway.
Cheers!

Felt I needed more frustration so called Time Warner in San Diego Friday and they were no help. Carefully explained that their company worked in conjunction with Scientific Atlanta and Western Digital to permit the 8300HDC to be attached via SATA connector which was placed on this box to allow external hard drives. So what was their answer, they are not responsible for whatever happens when they force updates to their cable system. Told this klunko that maybe their attitude is the reason AT&T and satellite companies are picking up so much of their business. Trying again this week end, if that fails will exchange box Monday as last resort.

Follow up on original post last Thursday: After trying every trick my WD Extender still does not work with Time Warner San Diego's latest "update". Finally exchanged boxes, got a brand new 8240 as a replacement, this acted exactly as 8300. Then contacted Western Digital who sent me a brand new Extender. Unfortunately this also does not work, during boot got a screen message to push "A" for reformat but did not actually connect. My son who lives in a different area in San Diego apparently did not get the same "upgrade" and his Extender works. Good old Time Warner, looks like I am stuck.

I have read in another forum that the latest ODN version deployed broke eSATA support... perhaps this might be the issue with all the folks experiencing failures??

I have read in another forum that the latest ODN version deployed broke eSATA support... perhaps this might be the issue with all the folks experiencing failures??

I am quite sure that my ext hdd error is my own making. The guy who posted just before us <robertorae> seems to have a case were a cableco 8300 firmware upgrade broke has ext hdd connectivity. Not my case tho. My SARA 8300HD is not reconnecting to my old-n-trusty ext hdd, most likely because I tried mounting the ext hdd with a destop computer,... a stupid move. You did however make me wonder if my 8300HD was flashed by the cableco (Cox) so I checked, and found my system to have SARA 1.89.27.1, which it seems to have been running since May 2008. The attached pic below is from pg 17 of 39, of the diag mode, which shows my SARA and other software id's.

Can someone recommend a good 1TB external drive that works well with the 8300HD and Navigator? I prefer one that comes pre-built that I can just order online.

Can someone recommend a good 1TB external drive that works well with the 8300HD and Navigator? I prefer one that comes pre-built that I can just order online.

With the recent firmware release from TW, unlikely that any of them will work for a bit - I'd hold off until you hear people on here saying the external drive works again.

Does anybody know how to do the complete reset on the 8300HDC (including wiping the internal drive?). The holding down pause for 10 seconds doesn't seem to work - just pauses the current show. Perhaps they changed it when they went to Navigator.

Does anybody know how to do the complete reset on the 8300HDC (including wiping the internal drive?). The holding down pause for 10 seconds doesn't seem to work - just pauses the current show. Perhaps they changed it when they went to Navigator.

You can find the answer to this and many other related question at page 1 of the 8300 Tips and Tricks thread here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=471859)

Can someone recommend a good 1TB external drive that works well with the 8300HD and Navigator? I prefer one that comes pre-built that I can just order online.
Apricorn, WD and now Iomega all make DVR Expanders.

BTW: The latest update to ODN (SA8300HDC, CableCARD DVR) killed eSATA port....
Mystro MDN (SA8300HD) still works...at least in San Diego...

I'm still pissed off that the esata drive kills the live buffer. I'll be unplugging my external drive tomorrow.....I'll hook it back up once that issue is resolved or someone figures out around this problem.....this really SUCKS!!!!

I'm still pissed off that the esata drive kills the live buffer. I'll be unplugging my external drive tomorrow.....I'll hook it back up once that issue is resolved or someone figures out around this problem.....this really SUCKS!!!!

Press the RECORD button - voila! You have a live buffer.

AFAIK, having 100 hours of recording time instead of 20 is well worth losing the buffer. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved eventually.

Once connected, is the Hard drive always on or is it only on when the DVR is turned on?

I'd like to get an enclsoure with a fan but I wouldn't want to hear the fan whining when i'm not watching anything.

Once connected, is the Hard drive always on or is it only on when the DVR is turned on?

I'd like to get an enclsoure with a fan but I wouldn't want to hear the fan whining when i'm not watching anything.
The external hdd has its own power plug. I have mine plug to a different power source than the DVR. This way if their is a power failure and power is coming back on, power to the external hdd turns on the hdd first while the DVR is still rebooting. I believe the DVR recognizes an external hdd is present during reboot.

Press the RECORD button - voila! You have a live buffer.

AFAIK, having 100 hours of recording time instead of 20 is well worth losing the buffer. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved eventually.

Not the same thing and it's a lame work around. The extra hours aren't worth losing the live buffer AND LiveTV button...at least not for me. If they don't fix it soon, I'll just add the drive to my HTPC.

The external hdd has its own power plug. I have mine plug to a different power source than the DVR. This way if their is a power failure and power is coming back on, power to the external hdd turns on the hdd first while the DVR is still rebooting. I believe the DVR recognizes an external hdd is present during reboot.

The DVR will detect an external hard drive without rebooting. That's how I connected mine.

Not the same thing and it's a lame work around. The extra hours aren't worth losing the live buffer AND LiveTV button...at least not for me. If they don't fix it soon, I'll just add the drive to my HTPC.

Your opinion, but unless you don't use the DVR much, doesn't make much sense. My SA8300HD was pretty useless before I added eSATA. Besides having very little recording space, it never worked well as the HD was almost always close to capacity, resulting in poor, flaky performance and missed recordings. Since I added the eSATA, it's worked flawlessly, and I have more space than I need.

Buffer? Not even close in importance. And, the buffer DOES work when the 8300 is using its own drive, about 20% of the time.

I was planning on buying a 1TB external drive to use as a dvr expander for my 8300hdc, but after reading this thread I don't think I'm going to go through with it. It just seems like there are too many issues to get it to work right, along with losing the ability to pause and resume live tv. Oh well, I'm sure eventually Time Warner will update their boxes with bigger hard drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204069
http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/22-204-069-05.jpg

Your opinion, but unless you don't use the DVR much, doesn't make much sense. My SA8300HD was pretty useless before I added eSATA. Besides having very little recording space, it never worked well as the HD was almost always close to capacity, resulting in poor, flaky performance and missed recordings. Since I added the eSATA, it's worked flawlessly, and I have more space than I need.

Buffer? Not even close in importance. And, the buffer DOES work when the 8300 is using its own drive, about 20% of the time.

I pause live TV a lot, so the buffer is very important. Hell, during Football and baseball games the buffer comes in huge for instant replays and whatnot. I guess you don't use the buffer like I do. I just need to watch my shows more often so that my shows don't get erased.

I was planning on buying a 1TB external drive to use as a dvr expander for my 8300hdc, but after reading this thread I don't think I'm going to go through with it. It just seems like there are too many issues to get it to work right, along with losing the ability to pause and resume live tv. Oh well, I'm sure eventually Time Warner will update their boxes with bigger hard drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204069
http://c1.neg

Yep, losing the live buffer ability negates and advantage of the added space....at least in my book. If you don't use the buffer, then the space may be more important.

I pause live TV a lot, so the buffer is very important. Hell, during Football and baseball games the buffer comes in huge for instant replays and whatnot. I guess you don't use the buffer like I do. I just need to watch my shows more often so that my shows don't get erased.

I never watch live TV, so the buffer is irrelevant. The whole point of a DVR is time shifting, and not having to watch commercials! If it's a "live" sporting event, I time-shift only 15 minutes, then skip through the commercials. If you like commercials :confused:, then why can't you press the record button and watch the program one second later with full buffer functionality?

Perhaps you need to watch live TV because you don't have enough space on your HD? :D

Yep, losing the live buffer ability negates and advantage of the added space....at least in my book. If you don't use the buffer, then the space may be more important.

See above...

I never watch live TV, so the buffer is irrelevant. The whole point of a DVR is time shifting, and not having to watch commercials! If it's a "live" sporting event, I time-shift only 15 minutes, then skip through the commercials. If you like commercials :confused:, then why can't you press the record button and watch the program one second later with full buffer functionality?

Perhaps you need to watch live TV because you don't have enough space on your HD? :D

LOL

I just wish that it would work the way it works without the external HDD. I don't want to have to remember to hit record in order to timeshift. If I pause live tv, I can't fast forward.....if I want to get to the Live content, I have to change channels and then go back to that channel and that's just retarded.

To be honest, I just remembered that I received notice over the weekend that FiosTV and Internet will be available in my community in about a month....so I'll be rid of this Crime Warner garbage with their horrid HD lineup and craptastic internet speeds sooner than later...thank God. Now I have to read up on the Fios DVR to see if they have the esata ports enabled for external HDDs! :D

LOL
I don't want to have to remember to hit record in order to timeshift.

Alzheimers?

To be honest, I just remembered that I received notice over the weekend that FiosTV and Internet will be available in my community in about a month....so I'll be rid of this Crime Warner garbage with their horrid HD lineup and craptastic internet speeds sooner than later...thank God. Now I have to read up on the Fios DVR to see if they have the esata ports enabled for external HDDs! :D

What neighborhood? Maybe its mine and I can switch too! :)

The Town of Newburgh, NY in Orange County.....about an hour north of the city.

And it's not alzheimers, it's just a pain. :D

Press the RECORD button - voila! You have a live buffer.

AFAIK, having 100 hours of recording time instead of 20 is well worth losing the buffer. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved eventually.

While going the "record" route will kinda work, don't expect it ever to be "fixed." This is a serious bug in the Passport software that will never, ever get resolved... their focus is on converting everyone to ODN/MDN.

The curious thing is that in my market, they carry HUGE numbers of analog channels... like 70 some odd. They just announced enough HD additions to get us over the 100 mark... and it SEEMS we are fortunate as those of us who want to hold onto our Passport/830OHD will not get MDN as they dropped 40 some off analogs to accommodate 71 in one day.

Add in that I read the latest rev of ODN completely breaks using an external drive, I'm back to contemplating living with the live buffer issue NOW that we are going from 30 to 100 HD channels!

^

After I heard how horrible the Navigator software was, I made sure to keep my 8300 even after the optical port went bad. They're deploying that crap HDC box up here and I wanted nothing to do with it.

I haven't read up on it recently, but has it gotten any better?

Guys,
I need a little help.
I got box - SA8300HD / Cablevision / SARA 1.91.14.102
HD - ST31500341AS (Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB)
Rosewill (eSATA/USB)

HD is shown on debug pages (HDD info) but has 0 bytes available (PARTITION info)
I did reconnect it several times with full power down/power up and did hard and forced reboot - all with the same results. :-(
And there are two slightly different outcomes:
If HD has no partitions – box doesn’t display any message on reboot.
If it has NTFS partition it displays message smth like: “HD is connected to this DVR. Bla-bla-bla please power down with 10 sec delay…”


Here is what I did:
Connected HD with no partitions – get no message on reboot.
Checked debug pages:
HD is shown on debug pages (HDD info) but has 0 bytes available (PARTITION info)

Rebooted 3 times – same result.

Connected to PC, created NTFS partition (100% is used)
Connected to box again with full power down/power up.
Box display message smth like: “HD is connected to this DVR…”

Checked debug pages – same as before:
HD presented, but has 0 bytes available
Rebooted 3 more times – every time box display same message “HD is connected to this DVR..”
And always 0 bytes available on drive 2

Connected back to PC
NTFS partition is still there!
And few files I copied before are there too!

Wiped out partition.
Connected again to the box, rebooted properly.
No messages from the box after reboot – and still 0 bytes available on drive 2
Did it twice – same result…

I guess I can try to create smaller NTFS partition and see if box can pick up the rest of the space…
Just takes too long to reboot every time…
Am I missing something?
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD SARA eSATA Database show this drive and enclosure should work (not together though)
I really appreciate any help.

You can find the answer to this and many other related question at page 1 of the 8300 Tips and Tricks thread here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=471859)

This doesn't seem to work under the "last resort (reformat)" section. Holding the PAUSE button doesn't do anything.

Updates to my post #7135:
Configuration:
SA8300HD / Cablevision / SARA 1.91.14.102
ST31500341AS (Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB)
Rosewill RX-358 (eSATA/USB)

Changes:
Rosewill RX-358 is replaced with direct cable – absolutely no difference –
drive is recognized by DVR and advising to power off the DVR and remove the power cord before disconnecting the drive
DVR have NEVER asked to format it :-(

Changes:
Replaced ST31500341AS with old WD2500JD drive (0.25TB)
Still use direct connect cable – no any enclosure.
I did connected it with DVR powered on (by mistake)
Checked debug page - the drive is recognized and show 0 partition size.
Hot rebooted DVR – it asked to format the drive.
Checked debug page right away - the drive is recognized and still shows 0 partition size.
DVR rebooted itself ~within 30 sec after I have pressed A to confirm format.
Once rebooted, it show message to power off the DVR and remove the power cord before disconnecting the drive.
Checked debug page - shows 250GB partition size on 2nd drive.
Checked space usage – it has dropped from 43% to 16%.
I.e. old drive works just fine – hence there is no problem with cables…

I can try to put enclosure back –I feel it’ll work too.
The only one thing left to try is to put jumper to drop speed to 1.5Gb.
IMO, it won’t help, because drive is always recognized by DVR, but never asked to format it - hence never uses its space.
I don’t think drive firmware update will help ether…

Conclusion:
I guess I was too greedy by jumping on 1.5TB drive. And greediness should never be left unpunished. ;-(
How come it works for other people?
Do I have anything else to try?

Guys,
Do we have a FAQ for dummies like me on how to troubleshoot HD – DVR connectivity?
It’s neither easy to read 7000+ posts to read to get the right answer nor come up with right word to search for to deal with particular problem.

Question:
May I have more than one external drive and swap them (with reboot) without losing content?
I do know I can connect disconnect one drive and recoding will be online and offline.
If yes, I have few more questions.

Searched for “multiple external drives” – got nothing…

Doesn't look like you can switch drives. I wanted to do that too.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830&page=188

Reformatting the hard drive cleared up the problem for a week or so, then it started happening again. I finally broke down and bought a new 1TB Seagate Barracude 7200.11, which so far works fine. Oddly enough, I still have a couple of shows on the old hard drive, and if I reattach it, I can still view them.

This is typical -- you can have (in theory) an unlimited number of shows on your "recorded shows" list by just swapping in/out the correct hard drives (but you have to remember which drive each program is on!). The programs stay on your program list even if the drive that they're on is not attached.

Doesn't look like you can switch drives. I wanted to do that too.There seems to be conflicting testimony on this topic. It may be a matter of which operating system you're using.

I went through the grief of losing my SATA with programs with the 'update' on 11/20/08 @ TWC San Diego. Thinking it was something I could solve, I tried different things for a few days before reading I was not alone in this Forum.

I am not sure if TWC changed anything to help, but last Monday (12/1), after messing with it a lot, I got it working again.

I powered down the 8300, disconnected the SATA cable to the 8300 and took the power cable off the SATA while I was at work.

I rebooted the DVR and left the DVR running during the day(about 12 hours).

When I got home from work, I powered down and unplugged the 8300 for 2 minutes.
I attached the SATA cable to the 8300.
Power up the SATA for about 1 minute.
Plug in the 8300 and let it boot.

I was very deliberate about all of this, I left some real time between each step.

One thing that also may also be important is we had been powering down the 8300 every night and during the day. The last three days we left it on 24/7. If it works for a week, I will try powering it down at night again.

Since then, the space available is back and it has recorded everything it should, .
I have never lost the rewind of live TV, before or after the TWC upgrade.
One thing I saw either here or another Forum is to make sure you get a good 7200 RPM HDD. I am using a WD500 GB. Also, HDD get really hot. For about $ 35 @ Frys, I got an Anatec case with a fan for the drive. On the diagnostics, the internal drive shows 47 degC and the external 30 degC.

The first night it started working again, it responded very slowly to almost every DVR and Guide command, deleting List Programs, scrolling through the list menu, conflict, recording log, etc.. The last two nights, while not fast, is better than it ever was.

To the TWC San Diego 8300 'customers': I can't say I am 100% confident that when I get home it will be working right, it has only been two days. But it has been better than the first week after the upgrade. Maybe enough of us complained? (Yeah right). If anyone tries this procedure and it works again, please reply back.

bdfromds,

Thanks. Very good report. Gives us some hope.

Question: When you finally got it to work, could you access the pre-update programs?

Thanks. Very good report. Gives us some hope.

Well, not knowing which box (HD or HDC) or which IPG, pretty much no conclusions can be drawn... at least we know it's San Diego.

I got "gatored" again last night on my SA8300HDC DVR. After a couple weeks of being able to record on my eSATA drive with no problems, another update was pushed down at 4:20AM this morning in San Diego.

Anyway, I am screwed again, even worse. This version change is 3.1.0_11 dated 11/26/2008, Everything I recorded in the last 2 weeks is gone. Symptoms are exactly the same as I reported in a previous post above. All recordings show in the "List" but none will play (including those recorded on the DVR internal drive). Just a blank screen. Manual "Record" function does not work. No live buffering. Rebooting with the eSATA drive disconnected restores all functionality to the DVR, but all my programming on the expansion drive is inaccessible, only those recorded on the internal drive are available on the "Show List" and they play fine. I'm going to leave the eSATA disconnected until I fill up the internal drive, now, just to minimize the damages when they do this again.

I believe one bug in ver. 3.1.0_7 was fixed by this update, which is that when viewing the guide or any other menu, the picture was not shrinking to the upper right quadrant while the menu was being displayed. The display previously stayed at full size while the menu was on screen (blocking most of it from view). Now with this version, the program shrinks to occupy the window in the upper right corner, so at least you can still see what is going on with your program while looking thru the guide.

The eSATA capability is not totally gone from this version of the ODN software, but it is a little more broken than the last 3.1.0_7 version. This time, when I hook up the eSATA drive, it recognizes the free space and will use it, but the live buffering and the ability to use the manual "Record" button functionality are gone.

Pissed off by TWC in San Diego again,
TT

Well, not knowing which box (HD or HDC) or which IPG, pretty much no conclusions can be drawn... at least we know it's San Diego.I assumed HDC because he's referring to a new release and we know San Diego just got a new ODN update.

I assumed HDC because he's referring to a new release and we know San Diego just got a new ODN update.

I think you're right, bdfromsd must be talking about an 8300HDC, as he mentions 11/20/08, which is when the last ODN update occurred. The new Navigator for MDN users (8300HD) ver. 2.4.4-14 was pushed out earlier, on November 12, 2008.

What I would like to hear from bdfromsd is whether he got updated with the new version of the ODN software today and whether his eSATA drive is still working, with all its original contents. None of the MDN users here complained of losing their archived recordings when the ver. 2.4.4-14 update was pushed out to their HD model boxes. :mad:

TT

I am trying to get an external hard drive working with my Cox Fairfax Virginia HD DVR 8300.

From Microcenter in Fairfax, I bought a VOX External Hard Drive V1 USB 2.0 and Sata 750 GB (Model EXSA-35C-750GK5).

I used the included esata cable and plugged the cable into the drive and into the cable box.

I cannot figure out which setting is on or off on the hard drive so I have tried both. I power down the cable box, then unplug it. Then turn the power button on the hard drive to the other position. Then replug in the cable box. Then turn the cable box back on.

Then I go to the dvr list menu to see how much space is remaining and nothing has changed (I was expecting to see the percentage used drop since I added 750 GB).

Then I did these steps again and switched the power switch on the hard drive to the other position. Still no dice.

Please help.

Thanks,
jctivo

There seems to be conflicting testimony on this topic. It may be a matter of which operating system you're using.

Right! It looks like both SARA & Passport support swapping drives (posts #5623 & #5624)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830&page=188

One more time:
Do we have a FAQ for dummies like me on how to troubleshoot HD – DVR connectivity?
And get answers to all kind of silly questions like the one above or where to find (on debug pages) signal/noise ratio for different software versions.
Common guys, it’s impossible to read through all those threads for a newbie.

Right! It looks like both SARA & Passport support swapping drives (posts #5623 & #5624)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830&page=188

One more time:
Do we have a FAQ for dummies like me on how to troubleshoot HD – DVR connectivity?
And get answers to all kind of silly questions like the one above or where to find (on debug pages) signal/noise ratio for different software versions.
Common guys, it’s impossible to read through all those threads for a newbie.

There isn't one, and I don't feel like writing one, but if someone else wants to put a few FAQs together I can add them to the database web page.

xnappo

I think you're right, bdfromsd must be talking about an 8300HDC, as he mentions 11/20/08, which is when the last ODN update occurred. The new Navigator for MDN users (8300HD) ver. 2.4.4-14 was pushed out earlier, on November 12, 2008.

What I would like to hear from bdfromsd is whether he got updated with the new version of the ODN software today and whether his eSATA drive is still working, with all its original contents. None of the MDN users here complained of losing their archived recordings when the ver. 2.4.4-14 update was pushed out to their HD model boxes. :mad:

TT

I also got the new ODN, 3.1.0_11 and have tried all suggestions to get it to recognize my WD DVR Expander without any success. Obviously Esata is still not supported by Time Warner San Diego, at least not in my area. Strange thing tho, my son lives about 3 miles away, the Expander I bought for him was still working last I heard. Not sure which updates he has, told me he has never seen the new Time Warner logo/screen saver, still sees old "press any button" screen. If anyone has a fix for this, please post. Note: After years under the control of TW we are moving to Oceanside in mid Jan. Understand Cox actually gives a damn, their website even shows how to hook up an external drive to Esata. Good bye TW, I will be returning all your junk very soon!

Is it always the case that an external drive has to always be powered on, whether the DVR is in use or not? I just bought a 1TB drive that I'm not crazy about leaving on all the time. I would think I could extend its life if I could turn it off when not in use.

Has anyone found a way to turn off an external drive when not using it, and still have the DVR recognize it when its turned on, and not have to reformat or anything?

Is it always the case that an external drive has to always be powered on, whether the DVR is in use or not? I just bought a 1TB drive that I'm not crazy about leaving on all the time. I would think I could extend its life if I could turn it off when not in use.

Has anyone found a way to turn off an external drive when not using it, and still have the DVR recognize it when its turned on, and not have to reformat or anything?

You could turn off the drive if you want, but you'd most likely have to reboot the STB and you obviously won't be able to access any stored shows on the drive. I don't think that it should have to format it again if you turn the drive on unless you connect that drive to a PC. It's less of a hassle just to leave it on....if and when the drive does die, drives will be so cheap that it wouldn't matter anyways lol

I've got a RNG200 and a WD DVR Expander - is there any way to force the box to defrag the drives? More and more of my shows are getting choppy.

Never mind, found the answer here: (if it works for the RNG200)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=471859

I also got the new ODN, 3.1.0_11 and have tried all suggestions to get it to recognize my WD DVR Expander without any success. Obviously Esata is still not supported by Time Warner San Diego, at least not in my area. Strange thing tho, my son lives about 3 miles away, the Expander I bought for him was still working last I heard. Not sure which updates he has, told me he has never seen the new Time Warner logo/screen saver, still sees old "press any button" screen. If anyone has a fix for this, please post. Note: After years under the control of TW we are moving to Oceanside in mid Jan. Understand Cox actually gives a damn, their website even shows how to hook up an external drive to Esata. Good bye TW, I will be returning all your junk very soon!
The "solution" is to pester TWC-SD to trade-in the 8300HDC for a 8300HD (without CableCARD).

For testing purposes I had a 160gb sata driving laying around so I went and purchased this external case - Antec - Veris USB 2.0/eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure for 3.5" SATA Hard Drives. I hooked it up and it wanted to format it so now I am going to go buy a bigger hard drive.

After finding out the hard way that a 1TB WD My Book wouldn't work, I purchased a WD Caviar GP 1TB and Antec MX-1. Installation went smoothly and everything is working great except frequent audio glitches, usually about 1 sec and usually after fast forwarding. Video glitches occur maybe once every 10-20 minutes. Since the internal disk in nearly full, most recording is happening on the external drive. My question is would I be better of with a faster drive, such as a Seagate Barracuda? Would the faster speed help reduce the glitching? Good thing about the Caviar GP is that it's only using about 5-6 watts, about half what I expect the Barracuda to use.

As a side note, I'm going to have to swap out the MX-1 as the fan is quite noisy after only a couple of days use.

Well, after 3 weeks, still no glitches. I have been using the Western Digital "My DVR" 500 GB and it works great! I am so pleased with the upgrade since we just bought a new 52 inch Sony and can enjoy HD channels and record tons of shows without hesitation because of hard drive space. I bought it at Best Buy (I try not to frequent the place) This is the Western Digital drive that works for me...

Western Digital "My DVR Expander" 500GB

Scientific Atlanta 8300HD

First, note the recording space used before upgrading. Mine was at 78%.

Powered down the DVR by removing wall plug (120vac) Then plugged in the sata drive then powered sata drive up. Then powered up the Cable box. Waited and waited, then had a message about formatting the new drive and I said okay. Waited again about 30 minutes and powered the cable box down by unplugging power. Then plugged it back in. Came back up and I checked the recording space again and it was at 17%. I have been recording all kinds of shows since then and now we are at about 53%. I will delete some movies that I have enjoyed in 1080i to make room for more. Next stop...Blu-ray!!!

After finding out the hard way that a 1TB WD My Book wouldn't work, I purchased a WD Caviar GP 1TB and Antec MX-1. Installation went smoothly and everything is working great except frequent audio glitches, usually about 1 sec and usually after fast forwarding. Video glitches occur maybe once every 10-20 minutes. Since the internal disk in nearly full, most recording is happening on the external drive. My question is would I be better of with a faster drive, such as a Seagate Barracuda? Would the faster speed help reduce the glitching? Good thing about the Caviar GP is that it's only using about 5-6 watts, about half what I expect the Barracuda to use.

As a side note, I'm going to have to swap out the MX-1 as the fan is quite noisy after only a couple of days use.

I don't think speed is the issue. Years ago people were using slower drives and they worked just fine. I think the issue is that the SATA controller in the 8300, or the low level driver for it is not fully compliant - and some drive's firmware just doesn't work well.

The only advice I can give is to pick something from the database with lots of positive responses.

xnappo

xnappo, are you still in Austin? I'm in NW Austin, and I've been having trouble since I switched out my DVR. I'm wondering if I have a new software version that is causing problems. Also, do you still have an 8300, or have you gotten (or tried) an 8240?

I'm using a Seagate 250GB (don't have the MN on me, 'cause I'm at work right now), enclosed in a Thermaltake casing.

I had an 8300HDC, and the first time I tried connecting the external hard drive (first time ever to any dvr), it worked like a charm. Asked if I wanted to format, I pushed "A" for yes, it popped up a confirmation screen soon after that, and bingo--it worked. GREAT first experience!

6 months later (about a month ago), I started having problems with scheduled recordings disappearing, and other random happenings, so I took it and and got they gave me an 8240. I can't remember if I checked to see if that one worked with the hard drive, but I do remember formatting. (If fact, I think I forgot to check.)

I didn't mess with this DVR for long, because it caused problems with NBA League Pass games not recording correctly (picking them up about half way through), so TWC sent out a tech (last Sat. 12/6) and he replaced the box with an 8300HDC.

I tried to get the external drive working with this one, and it wouldn't. (Same symptoms as I will comment on in a sec below.) It also was not responding well to remote control commands, so I returned it yesterday. Again, they gave me an 8240.

I tried again to get the external drive to work, but to no avail. This is a great description of what I'm experiencing:

HD is shown on debug pages (HDD info) but has 0 bytes available (PARTITION info)
I did reconnect it several times with full power down/power up and did hard and forced reboot - all with the same results. :-(
And there are two slightly different outcomes:
If HD has no partitions – box doesn’t display any message on reboot.
If it has NTFS partition it displays message smth like: “HD is connected to this DVR. Bla-bla-bla please power down with 10 sec delay…”


Here is what I did:
Connected HD with no partitions – get no message on reboot.
Checked debug pages:
HD is shown on debug pages (HDD info) but has 0 bytes available (PARTITION info)

Rebooted 3 times – same result.

Link to Post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15203025#post15203025

The sad thing for me is the next post:

Changes:
Replaced ST31500341AS with old WD2500JD drive (0.25TB)
Still use direct connect cable – no any enclosure.
I did connected it with DVR powered on (by mistake)
Checked debug page - the drive is recognized and show 0 partition size.
Hot rebooted DVR – it asked to format the drive.
Checked debug page right away - the drive is recognized and still shows 0 partition size.
DVR rebooted itself ~within 30 sec after I have pressed A to confirm format.
Once rebooted, it show message to power off the DVR and remove the power cord before disconnecting the drive.
Checked debug page - shows 250GB partition size on 2nd drive.
Checked space usage – it has dropped from 43% to 16%.

Link to Post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15207284#post15207284


The Difference for me: I'm still using the same 250GB drive that worked just two weeks ago.


Do you, or does anyone, have any suggestions?

Tonight I am going to hook it up to my pc and reformat it to see if that helps. But I'm REALLY frustrated that it worked previously, and now with a "newer" DVR it doesn't.

Why does it recognize the drive, but it just doesn't format it?

After finding out the hard way that a 1TB WD My Book wouldn't work, I purchased a WD Caviar GP 1TB and Antec MX-1. Installation went smoothly and everything is working great except frequent audio glitches, usually about 1 sec and usually after fast forwarding. Video glitches occur maybe once every 10-20 minutes. Since the internal disk in nearly full, most recording is happening on the external drive. My question is would I be better of with a faster drive, such as a Seagate Barracuda? Would the faster speed help reduce the glitching? Good thing about the Caviar GP is that it's only using about 5-6 watts, about half what I expect the Barracuda to use.

As a side note, I'm going to have to swap out the MX-1 as the fan is quite noisy after only a couple of days use.

Check out xnappo's database. The safest bet is to get a drive/enclosure combination designed to work with DVRs, although they tend to cost a bit more. If 500GB is enough for you, my suggestion would be WD My DVR Expander; then if you later decide to buy TivoHD, it will still work without workarounds. It also has the advantage of being available in stores (Best Buy), not just online, so is quick to try and see if it glitches.
Also, it may be your DVR's issue. I had glitches every couple of minutes with three different drives, then I replaced the DVR with the same model (8300HDC) and the glitches dissappeared.

I have an Antec MX-1 enclosure and Seagate 320GB 7200RPM. When I connect the combo to the 8300HD, it says its not functioning properly. What can I do in this situation?

I have an Antec MX-1 enclosure and Seagate 320GB 7200RPM. When I connect the combo to the 8300HD, it says its not functioning properly. What can I do in this situation?

What is the exact model number of the Seagate? Have you checked the database?

xnappo

Why does it recognize the drive, but it just doesn't format it?

Sorry, I haven't seen this problem before. My only suggestions are to delete all partitions, repartition, format it with a PC(full format, not quick) and try again, or try another drive... It will behave weird if it thinks you have attached a drive previously paired with one box onto another, so make sure it is totally wiped.

I don't think the box model should matter - others have had success with all varieties. It is possible, I suppose, that some are more sensitive than others. Also recently someone was trying to hook the drive up straight to the box, and it did not work, then they tried it in an Antec MX-1 case, and it did. Normally you would think it would be the other way around, I know, but this compatibility stuff is weird.

xnappo

Sorry if this is a remedial question, but I just got an Apricorn DVR Xpander and it's working great. Is it advisable to leave the unit powered on at all times, or should it be powered off when not in use? Will powering it off when not in use prolong the life of the unit?

Sorry if this is a remedial question, but I just got an Apricorn DVR Xpander and it's working great. Is it advisable to leave the unit powered on at all times, or should it be powered off when not in use? Will powering it off when not in use prolong the life of the unit?

Yes, leave it on at all times. Like the drive in the box, it will spin down after a while when not in use.

xnappo

Some report eSATA is broken on the latest ODN release....and others still work....

Someone on Navigator thread reported he couldn't get a new eSATA
to be recognized with just released MDN 2.4.4-15 version.

Anybody else using eSATA with the latest MDN version du jour???

What is the exact model number of the Seagate? Have you checked the database?

xnappo


nm, i went to sleep and woke up, and it asked if i wanted to format :)

Can one of you 8300HD owners open up the case and tell me if the internal hard drive uses a SATA or PATA connection?

I'm at a dead end with getting a flawless setup with my 8240HDC and an eSATA drive (you can search the SARA database for jon8rfc to see that you don't need to suggest to me proper setup sequence). I don't know if my area is offering the 8300, because a few months ago they said they "just got the 8240" and I got a brand new one.

I think my solution will be a single, internal drive. I've swapped in an old PATA drive to my 8240 and formatted it with success, but the largest PATA drive available is 750gigs; I'm hoping to get my 1.5TB SATA drive functioning properly and not so bipolar.

So, does the 8300 use a SATA connection for the internal drive? Please actually look and don't assume it does because it has an eSATA connection--the 8240 has an eSATA connection but uses PATA internally...I'm not looking to use any interface conversions because that's the main problem with people successfully getting eSATA to work in the first place.

I'd really appreciate it if you'd pop open the case and just look for me! Thanks! If so, then I'll try my hardest to get Time Warner to get me an 8300, because they're using them in other markets, but not necessarily San Antonio just yet.

Sorry. My 8300's got a tamper-evident seal on it. You can bust into your STB all you want, but I'm leavin' mine alone. I don't want the cableco telling me I owe 'em $600 (or whatever they decide the box is worth) when I turn it back in.

Sorry. My 8300's got a tamper-evident seal on it. You can bust into your STB all you want, but I'm leavin' mine alone. I don't want the cableco telling me I owe 'em $600 (or whatever they decide the box is worth) when I turn it back in.Really, what an odd request. I'm on my 4th box in 6 years, these things break down all the time. I wouldn't dream of tampering with mine.

Can one of you 8300HD owners open up the case and tell me if the internal hard drive uses a SATA or PATA connection?It is a PATA connection. Just search for the thread about replacing the internal drive with a larger one to see the details or check this writeup.
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2006-04/hack-your-cable-box

I think you're right, bdfromsd must be talking about an 8300HDC, as he mentions 11/20/08, which is when the last ODN update occurred. The new Navigator for MDN users (8300HD) ver. 2.4.4-14 was pushed out earlier, on November 12, 2008.

What I would like to hear from bdfromsd is whether he got updated with the new version of the ODN software today and whether his eSATA drive is still working, with all its original contents. None of the MDN users here complained of losing their archived recordings when the ver. 2.4.4-14 update was pushed out to their HD model boxes. :mad:

TT


On TWC - San Diego, in Poway.

Had 8240 working great with MyDVR Expander until mid Nov (out of town on travel no less, leaving household in chaos!) Pretty clear that is when new SW was pushed out, causing unit to forget about MyDVR. Went thru living hell as described by others trying various combos, phone calls, etc. Order RMA unit, which actually mates ok, but then fails to work also. Mutiple re-boots, etc. Tried FAT32 formats, etc...

Then out of the blue.... Took "older unit" and did a hot swap e-SATA cable insertion (and power bootup !!!)

It works (for the last 2 hours at least). So, my two cents is to do a cold boot of the MyDVR expander, after the 8240 is stable. Other than this, maybe mine was still pure luck?

Then out of the blue.... Took "older unit" and did a hot swap e-SATA cable insertion (and power bootup !!!)

It works (for the last 2 hours at least). So, my two cents is to do a cold boot of the MyDVR expander, after the 8240 is stable. Other than this, maybe mine was still pure luck?:confused:Huh??? Could you maybe clarify what you finally did to get it to work? Is it really any different than what's recommended for the initial hook-up?

Are there any enclosures that will auto on/off the hard drive? my setup of a Seagate 7200.10 320GB and Antec MX-1 stays on all the time and the whine from the drive is too disturbing when I go to sleep.

Thinking about picking up a Western Digital My Book 500GB which has auto on/off, but that's advertised when it's connected to a computer, what about to the SA 8300HD?


this is VERY disappointing... i can't FF, RW, or instant replay anything at all...

Can one of you 8300HD owners open up the case and tell me if the internal hard drive uses a SATA or PATA connection?

I'm at a dead end with getting a flawless setup with my 8240HDC and an eSATA drive (you can search the SARA database for jon8rfc to see that you don't need to suggest to me proper setup sequence). I don't know if my area is offering the 8300, because a few months ago they said they "just got the 8240" and I got a brand new one.

I think my solution will be a single, internal drive. I've swapped in an old PATA drive to my 8240 and formatted it with success, but the largest PATA drive available is 750gigs; I'm hoping to get my 1.5TB SATA drive functioning properly and not so bipolar.

So, does the 8300 use a SATA connection for the internal drive? Please actually look and don't assume it does because it has an eSATA connection--the 8240 has an eSATA connection but uses PATA internally...I'm not looking to use any interface conversions because that's the main problem with people successfully getting eSATA to work in the first place.

I'd really appreciate it if you'd pop open the case and just look for me! Thanks! If so, then I'll try my hardest to get Time Warner to get me an 8300, because they're using them in other markets, but not necessarily San Antonio just yet.

I believe it's a PATA internally for all 8240/8300 boxes. The Samsung HD-DVR may be SATA internally.

this is VERY disappointing... i can't FF, RW, or instant replay anything at all...

Yep very disappointing. I disconnected mine last week. I'll put it back on once it gets fixed.....if ever. I NEED live buffer more than I need more recording time.

Are there any enclosures that will auto on/off the hard drive? my setup of a Seagate 7200.10 320GB and Antec MX-1 stays on all the time and the whine from the drive is too disturbing when I go to sleep.

Thinking about picking up a Western Digital My Book 500GB which has auto on/off, but that's advertised when it's connected to a computer, what about to the SA 8300HD?How would that work if you have recording scheduled when your 8300 is powered off? I just accept that mine will run all the time and if that burns it out sooner than later, so be it. Drives are dirt cheap these days. And I really don't think there's any way around it, anyway.

Are there any enclosures that will auto on/off the hard drive? my setup of a Seagate 7200.10 320GB and Antec MX-1 stays on all the time and the whine from the drive is too disturbing when I go to sleep.

Thinking about picking up a Western Digital My Book 500GB which has auto on/off, but that's advertised when it's connected to a computer, what about to the SA 8300HD?How would that work if you have recordings scheduled when your 8300 is powered off? I just accept that mine will run all the time and if that burns it out sooner than later, so be it. Drives are dirt cheap these days. And I really don't think there's any way around it, anyway.

How would that work if you have recordings scheduled when your 8300 is powered off? I just accept that mine will run all the time and if that burns it out sooner than later, so be it. Drives are dirt cheap these days. And I really don't think there's any way around it, anyway.

i guess it's more of the DVR's job to turn the external drive on/off. The ANtec MX1 is nice and quiet but the Seagate drive i'm using produces a whine that's audible at night when I sleep. I'm thinking about getting another western digital 640gb for the DVR iunstead and sell the seagate, but this live buffer/instant replay is a feature that i really miss when watching sports. the designers/engineers must have known that would be a big problem...

Ok, so after MUCH frustration, I will report my recent findings.

First of all, to read a summary of the history see this post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15271646#post15271646


I finally got an 8300HD box again, and it didn't take long to have it working again. I will admit that this time was "harder" than the first time, but it still worked. All I did was:

- Connect to PC
- Delete partition information
- Reformat with quick format
- Follow instructions for hooking up
- It asked to format, and I agreed

It never displayed a confirmation, but after about 30 minutes, I checked the diagnostics screens (can't remember the screen number). When viewing the details of my external drive, it had all 0KB (just like I posted previously), with one exception. The "Partition Size" (I believe, I'll check this later) showed 1GB, and everything else showed 0KB. I decided to cycle the power off and back on as a last resort, and sure enough, it gave the confirmation that the drive was ready for use.


So, in my experience, I never was able to get my drive/casing setup to work with an 8240HDC nor an 8300HDC (with LOTs of effort). However, I was able to get it to work on two different 8300HD boxes with little to no effort.

I spoke with TWC tech support MANY times, and quite honestly, I think it's incredibly LAME that they can get away with not knowing anything about this stuff. I had one support person that said I was the second person to ask a question related to the external hard drive in the year that he'd been working there. Another person had no knowledge of this at all and didn't know what I was talking about.

A third person had never dealt with it before, but tried to do "research" while on the phone and ended up providing some interesting information. I'm not sure how much of this to believe, but perhaps he was on to something and perhaps it's related to recent software or firmware updates?? I have no idea, but he said (after about 45 minutes on the phone with me trying various things and him reading in the meantime--like booting) it looked like external drives were not going to work with the 8240 (BTW, I tried 2 different 8240HDC's), and probably not with the 8300HDC either. He didn't say exactly why, but he mentioned something about it didn't "look like it was fully supported." He recommended I go back and specifically ask for an 8300HD, and put that in the tech notes. I returned the box for the 8300HD and like I said, it worked with LITTLE effort.

FWIW, I also contacted Scientific Atlanta for support (b/c one of the earlier TWC techs redirected me there after an hour of no luck), and that rep went through a number of questions with me. She asked about the model number, the steps I'd take, the drive size, the age of the drive, the use of the drive, the symptoms of the problem, and a couple others (sorry I can't remember all of them). Finally, we went to the diagnostic screens and she said that the box is recognizing the hard drive (already new that), and that is all they have control over. She said it was not a hardware issue with the box b/c of the recognition of the drive, but that it had to do with TWC firmware/software options. She said they have the ability to turn on/off certain options, and I'd have to contact them to find out.

Funny enough, TWC techs have no idea what these options are (or at least, none of them will tell me). This is REALLY frustrating and irritating. I wish TWC would put more effort into supporting this, since so many people are wanting to do so these days.

Ok, that's all. I hope this helps someone else. At least mine is back working again. (Although, I'm worried about the problems that prompted me to trade in the 8300HD in the first place--my NBA League Pass games not recording properly--because it already happened again the first game I recorded on League Pass since getting the 8300HD). So I guess I'm :) and :(.

One last thing, I just updated the SARA database with my drive and case, neither of which were on the list before. I'll do the HD recording test when I have a chance and update it again, but I can say for sure that there were no problems previously. I'll check on the current box and update.

Funny enough, TWC techs have no idea what these options are (or at least, none of them will tell me). This is REALLY frustrating and irritating. I wish TWC would put more effort into supporting this, since so many people are wanting to do so these days.I've got to say that you got a LOT more support from TWC than most people who've reported on this forum. Usually they just say they don't support external hard drives and hang up.

BTW: It would help us a lot when discussing your problems to state up front the cable co, HW model, IPG software type (SARA, Passport, Navigator), and version. These things make a big difference in the way the external drives are supported (or not).

this is VERY disappointing... i can't FF, RW, or instant replay anything at all...

This is a problem with Passport firmware in the machine. Those that get a round it record the shows so they have access to previous scenes while watching. Also only happens when recording to external drive. /Dan

Sorry it took a while for me to reply, but I believe I have a 8300HD but to make sure, what is the easiest way to tell the difference?

It has been working fine for almost two weeks since the Nov 25 massacre. Yes, I did lose all my prevously recorded content, but none since.

One other consistant thing I noticed is I have to be patient when issuing commands.

It can take 10-12 seconds to respond to some (not all) commands, but if you get inpatient or think the command did not take and keep pressing buttons, it will lock up like a jammed PC and require a reboot. At that point, you can lose your recordings. It is maddening, but you need to wait.

I wish one of us could provide the answers, but it seems really inconsistant and touchy. Different TWC software, different drives and even the same drive in the same TWC service territory with a different case works differently which I agree makes no sense. My only point about the case is I would recommend getting a decent case with a cooler fan. These drives get hot and heat is an enemy of all electronics.

I can't say I am 100% confident like I was in the months proceeding black Tuesday, but 2 weeks is 2 weeks.

I will get back to you about the HD or HDC. I believe in the front it says just HD and not HDC if that is the way to tell.

I am sorry, it is an HDC we have.

What is the difference between the HD and the HDC?

I am also using a WD5000AAKS external drive.

The last boot the screen shows was last Monday 12/8. It went through that fine, we didn't lose anything,

This combination is not 100%, but it seems the 8300 HDC and the 5000AAKS are a decent combination.

With exception of that day before Thanksgiving and a lot of messing around for a few days after to get it right, it has been working ok, not perfect, but tolerable,
This combination always worked with live rewind.

This may be the calm before the storm, and another update may wipe stuff out again, but so far it is better than before.

I thought the HDC shut off the external drive after 3 hours or something like that..

I thought the HDC shut off the external drive after 3 hours or something like that..That was fixed with a new release weeks ago.

Hi, can I get a quick briefing on how this is working? I have skimmed though some of this thread, but I really don't have time to read 200 pages. :D

I have an 8300 through TWC (Charlotte, NC) running Navigator. I would like to hook up and external hard drive for some additional storage... how difficult is it? Do I just need a SATA hard drive with an eSATA enclosure? Are there any limitations?

Thanks.

I bought and installed the Iomega 500 gig DVR and it worked fine..
but I had lost power to my 8300 hdc box
all the shows that where on the hdc are still there and all the shows that where recorded after i installed the Iomega have gone.. but the space still shows up as 10% so i am sure the box is still there since i had about 10 one hour HD shows on the drive? it did not ask for me to reformat? any ideas where the shows went?

I bought and installed the Iomega 500 gig DVR and it worked fine..
but I had lost power to my 8300 hdc box
all the shows that where on the hdc are still there and all the shows that where recorded after i installed the Iomega have gone.. but the space still shows up as 10% so i am sure the box is still there since i had about 10 one hour HD shows on the drive? it did not ask for me to reformat? any ideas where the shows went?
That happened to me too a few nights ago. Really annoying... Lost about 15 shows. They don't even appear in the recording log anymore, like it never happened.

Hi, can I get a quick briefing on how this is working? I have skimmed though some of this thread, but I really don't have time to read 200 pages. :D

I have an 8300 through TWC (Charlotte, NC) running Navigator. I would like to hook up and external hard drive for some additional storage... how difficult is it? Do I just need a SATA hard drive with an eSATA enclosure? Are there any limitations?

Thanks.

Should have posted in the local thread chief; been doing it for years. I've currently got a WD SE750 drive in an Antec MX-1 enclosure with the fan disconnected. Works great. Just hook it up, turn it on, then turn on (meaning, plug-in for a cold boot) your DVR. It will recognize and format the drive, and you're good to go.

I thought the HDC shut off the external drive after 3 hours or something like that..That was fixed with a new release weeks ago.
Does anyone know what release this was first fixed in? Was it 2.4.10_11? I'm on BHN which gets the updates about 6-9 months after TWC rolls them out. I've had my expander sitting on a shelf for almost a year now waiting for a stable release...

Does anyone know what release this was first fixed in? Was it 2.4.10_11? I'm on BHN which gets the updates about 6-9 months after TWC rolls them out. I've had my expander sitting on a shelf for almost a year now waiting for a stable release...Yes, 2.4.10_11.

Should have posted in the local thread chief; been doing it for years. I've currently got a WD SE750 drive in an Antec MX-1 enclosure with the fan disconnected. Works great. Just hook it up, turn it on, then turn on (meaning, plug-in for a cold boot) your DVR. It will recognize and format the drive, and you're good to go.

I sent you a PM in regards to this Antec Case -

I sent you a PM in regards to this Antec Case -

Do you have issues with said case?

Do you have issues with said case?

Know I was wondering if he has had any problems with the hard drive in it since he unplugged the Case Fan?

I just got the case and added a WD 1tb drive and it is somewhat noisy in my living room so I was wondering if it would be save to unplug the fan or if maybe I should try a different case.

Hi, can I get a quick briefing on how this is working? I have skimmed though some of this thread, but I really don't have time to read 200 pages. :D

I have an 8300 through TWC (Charlotte, NC) running Navigator. I would like to hook up and external hard drive for some additional storage... how difficult is it? Do I just need a SATA hard drive with an eSATA enclosure? Are there any limitations?

Thanks.

The external drives really don't have many complications with installation. The only requirements are that the drive has a constant power source and does not go through some sort of SATA switch. Meaning you can't connect the box directly to an eSATA port on your PC and record to the HDD inside (which is what I originally thought of when I found the eSATA port on the box) If you check out one of my threads, I've recently replaced the 160GB internal HDD of the box with a 500GB unit. Much simpler (in my mind) and certainly less expensive for what you gain.

That was fixed with a new release weeks ago.

Just wondering, did it get fixed for SARA? I did not notice a new update.. Or was it never a problem for SARA?

I need to go get a new box because the one I get after I moved has a bad internal HD and a loose fitting eSATA connector causing many problems.

If all the new boxes here are of the HDC variety, that would stink if I had that 3 hour problem.

Just wondering, did it get fixed for SARA? I did not notice a new update.. Or was it never a problem for SARA?

I need to go get a new box because the one I get after I moved has a bad internal HD and a loose fitting eSATA connector causing many problems.

If all the new boxes here are of the HDC variety, that would stink if I had that 3 hour problem.The 3-hour sleep mode problem was only on HDC boxes with Navigator. I don't recall reading about any problems with SARA.

Well, I'm stuck with my 1.5TB Seagate seeming to work, but ends up flopping when I queue up a bunch of recordings to test. This really is a huge PITA that I've dealt with for many weeks, but there's a new firmware release that newegg is listing:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337

I'll give that a try, and then the only options I'll try next are converting the SATA drive to PATA and trying to use it internally...or getting the largest (only 750GB) PATA drive to swap internally. I've never had such problems with motherboard-hard drive compatibility as I've had with the 8240 and 8300.

I have an 8000 with Navigator. Can I add an external drive. If so, any recommendations or known compatible/not compatible drives? Any size limits? Or should I just try to swap for a 8300 ( I don't know if they're available from local TWC office or not).

Thanks in advance

Hi, I have recently purchased the Fantom Green Drive 1 TB to connect to my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR via the eSATA port with Cablevision as the cable provider. Initially it worked fine. I turned on the HDD, then the DVR box and it formatted it and I was recording to the Fantom and everything worked great.
Then one day I went to play a recorded program and I got the Playback Channel window and I saw that my capacity was back up to 90% (it was down around 15% a day before).
So I tried unplugging everything and turning the Fantom on first, then the 8300HD however it still did not recognize the Fantom and was at full capacity. I then tried formatting the Fantom back to FAT32 using Swiss Knife and for some reason made it one 500GB partition. Regardless the 8300HD still did not recognize.
Has anyone had similar issues with this set up? Any suggestions? I appreciate your help in advance!
-Mike

The 3-hour sleep mode problem was only on HDC boxes with Navigator. I don't recall reading about any problems with SARA.

OIC.. thnx.

I've skimmed through many pages on this thread, but I'm still a bit confused on 1 simple thing. How do you find out what software and version your box is running? I have a SA 8300HD box, and I press and hold the "Select" key on the box until the mail icon blinks. Then I press the "Info" key on the box to get into the diagnostic pages, but NOWHERE on any of the diagnostic pages does my box say SARA or Passport or anything remotely like that. My cable company is TW Kansas City. Also, if someone has a screen shot of the exact diagnostic page with the software info on it, that might help me out, or if anyone can give me the specifics on exactly what I'm looking for and exactly how it should look. Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance!!

A further question actually would be, if I hook up a compatible(assuming I have the correct software/version etc for this to work) external HD. Is there any workaround for the encryption or another way to use my PC to access the recordings? I've heard some people use the pinnacle dazzle DVD recorder (via the RCA outputs on the back of the box) to rerecord the video while playing it, but it seems like someone might of come up with a software hack or workaround for the encryption by now. Then again, I am a newbie to all of this stuff and it might be a lot more complicated than I think.

Thank you to all who respond!

IIRC, TWC-KC (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=234120) has either PASSPORT (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453804) or NAVIGATOR (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830), depending on which box and when you picked it up.

The SARA (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=471859) thread has a First-Post section on determining the type (not version) of software in the first post (look for the color-dy table).

v/r,
C-F

I was gone for 2 weeks over the Christmas and came home to find most of my saved shows gone and my disk space about full :(

I tried numerous attempts to get it working but never got the 8300HD to boot and give the message that it "has" an external HD. After reading the posts on this and other threads I thought maybe it was due to the new Navigator software (2.4.4-15). However I noticed that the external drive kept making the "whirling" noise of trying to "spin up". I replaced the WD drive with a Seagate drive, and booted the SA8300HD. It booted as expected and asked to format the drive. Its been working fine now for 2 hours

One question I have is how do you see the disk information? On page 24 "disk info", it just lists the internal HD info although the drive status is now showing only 15% so it factors in the external drive. Is there somewhere to get information on the drive specs?

Here is my info:

Raleigh, NC.
Time Warner Cable
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD
Apricorn EZ Bus Desktop SATA enclosure.
New Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 500-GB Hard Drive
Old Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500G (lasted about 1.5 years)


thanks
brpostma

wow, after reading through nearly all of this thread and the 'tips' thread I'm thinking of not even bothering with the damn box. We just got a nice Mitz 40148 and want to get the signal upgraded to HD. Currently a Comcast (SF Bay area) subscriber so they can upgrade it for no price change (just the HD box, no DVR) We've been using a Sony HX900 for years with no real issues so I'm starting to think I'll just record with it in SD until somebody comes up with something that actually works. Trying to explain all the details of operating the SA 8300 to my wife would be a total joke.:rolleyes: heck, I just got her up to speed on the new TV remote :p

So, given that I have not committed to anything just yet would you guys suggest I look into sat-tv rather that cable? I have the option of using either Comcast, Dish or Direct.

unrelated:
I talked with a Comast tech today about this external HD issue and he told me to use the USB port and a USB drive, NOT the sata...that's what he uses on his.:confused: has anyone tried this?
I also asked him about the Firewire ports being either enabled in this area or not and they are enabled.

With the recent firmware release from TW, unlikely that any of them will work for a bit - I'd hold off until you hear people on here saying the external drive works again.


are folks ONLY experiencing problems with the 8300hdc, or the 8300hd as well?

i don't know if columbus, oh got the upgrade that seems to have been plaguing san diego, but my 'MY DVR EXPANDER" has gone almost completely unnoticed since the middle of dec. no matter how many times/different ways i've tried rebooting. the only time my 8300HD even acknowledges the my dvr exp. is if i unplug it while the dvr's on. then it gives me the message that i should only disconnect the external drive after powering off the STB.

any ideas? any help? any leads?

are folks ONLY experiencing problems with the 8300hdc, or the 8300hd as well?

i don't know if columbus, oh got the upgrade that seems to have been plaguing san diego, but my 'MY DVR EXPANDER" has gone almost completely unnoticed since the middle of dec. no matter how many times/different ways i've tried rebooting. the only time my 8300HD even acknowledges the my dvr exp. is if i unplug it while the dvr's on. then it gives me the message that i should only disconnect the external drive after powering off the STB.

any ideas? any help? any leads?


Thats what I had too, and its a 8300HD. The Western Digital hard drive in a Apricorn enclosure worked for about 1.5 years. I was away from Dec 16 - 26, returned to find the symptons I described in my previous post and yours (only ack the dvr when I unplug it).

I got mine working by replacing the Western Digital with a Seagate drive that I had on hand. My WD drive was making repeated "spin up" noises so I suspected bad HD. I did put the WD into another enclosure and via USB my PC does see the drive, and I dont hear the noise anymore. I tried putting the WD back on the 8300HD, but I get the same symptoms. I really dont know that the WD drive is bad, but I dont know how to get the 8300HD to work with it.

I really dont want to lose all the programs I had saved on the WD and had planned on watching them this week :) For now I think I will monitor this thread and wait a few weeks before putting the WD on a PC and trying to see if it really is bad.

thanks
brpostma

I've read a number of posts about the last 2 versions of ODN breaking external HD support.

Far as I can tell (by posts) I think the 8300HDC boxes all have ODN, and some but not all 8300HD boxes have the MDN version.

Thats what I had too, and its a 8300HD. The Western Digital hard drive in a Apricorn enclosure worked for about 1.5 years. I was away from Dec 16 - 26, returned to find the symptons I described in my previous post and yours (only ack the dvr when I unplug it).

I got mine working by replacing the Western Digital with a Seagate drive that I had on hand. My WD drive was making repeated "spin up" noises so I suspected bad HD. I did put the WD into another enclosure and via USB my PC does see the drive, and I dont hear the noise anymore. I tried putting the WD back on the 8300HD, but I get the same symptoms. I really dont know that the WD drive is bad, but I dont know how to get the 8300HD to work with it.

I really dont want to lose all the programs I had saved on the WD and had planned on watching them this week :) For now I think I will monitor this thread and wait a few weeks before putting the WD on a PC and trying to see if it really is bad.

thanks
brpostma

so i assume you're TW, too . . .
what city, if you don't mind me asking?

TWC in Raleigh NC, see my post "eSATA still works --- just a bad drive" 12-31-08, 06:16 PM in this thrad

later

I'm on Time Warner Cable NYC (Queens) with an SA Explorer 8300HD running Passport Echo. I successfully added an external HDD but was disappointed to lose the live buffer. From skimming this thread, that seems to be common. Does Passport always do this? Are there any operating systems that don't? I've seen an updated cable box being distributed to recent subscribers in my area featuring a recorded program list sortable by date or title (and packaged with a redesigned, backlit remote). I think this may be the Navigator OS and not an upgraded Passport. Would this new box work with an external HDD while retaining the live buffer? Thanks for any answers.

I'm on Time Warner Cable NYC (Queens) with an SA Explorer 8300HD running Passport Echo. I successfully added an external HDD but was disappointed to lose the live buffer. From skimming this thread, that seems to be common. Does Passport always do this? Are there any operating systems that don't? I've seen an updated cable box being distributed to recent subscribers in my area featuring a recorded program list sortable by date or title (and packaged with a redesigned, backlit remote). I think this may be the Navigator OS and not an upgraded Passport. Would this new box work with an external HDD while retaining the live buffer? Thanks for any answers.

Hit the record button - voila! - live buffer.

Hi, I have recently purchased the Fantom Green Drive 1 TB to connect to my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR via the eSATA port with Cablevision as the cable provider. Initially it worked fine. I turned on the HDD, then the DVR box and it formatted it and I was recording to the Fantom and everything worked great.
Then one day I went to play a recorded program and I got the Playback Channel window and I saw that my capacity was back up to 90% (it was down around 15% a day before).
So I tried unplugging everything and turning the Fantom on first, then the 8300HD however it still did not recognize the Fantom and was at full capacity. I then tried formatting the Fantom back to FAT32 using Swiss Knife and for some reason made it one 500GB partition. Regardless the 8300HD still did not recognize.
Has anyone had similar issues with this set up? Any suggestions? I appreciate your help in advance!
-Mike

I just picked up the same Drive from buy.com... 1G Fantom Green drive. It's stated as 7200RPM, 300MB transfer rate, eSATA with 16M buffer. Great deal at $89 with rebate in an external eSATA enclosure!! Wow..I have the following rig:

SA 8300 HD
Cablevision (Yorktown Heights office)
SARA (late but not sure which rev. Just got the box a couple weeks ago).
Fantom 1TB eSATA, 7200.

I've cued up five recordings overnight. I'm going to try and give the rig a workout over the next week. I'm hoping I don't have the same problems as I was already 59% full with 16 hours recorded!! Ahh, that just won't do. When I added the 1TB I'm at 9% It looks like the 8300HD comes with a 330G internal drive (if I'm doin my math right??). Does that sound right??

I will post again once I have some record of performance. I really hope this works as I want to create an HD Movie library...:cool:

FM

The 8300HD has a 160G internal drive. Folks in Canada seem to be able to swap out the internal drive for a larger one... but I read no credible reports of anyone in the US doing this.

has anyone tried using a USB external drive for these things? I was told by a Comcast (sf bay area) tech that it works.

The USB port does not support external drives.

The USB port does not support external drives.

so I've heard but the tech said otherwise...his own system :confused:
I asked him about which ports were 'active' on the new 8300s and was told the e-sata, both usbs and firewires were all supposed to be operational.
hence, my asking if anyone had tried the usb ports.

The USB port does not support external drives.

Not so sure... we KNOW 100% that the same hardware and the same software can lead to different abilities in different locations. There are things folks can do with the exact same hardware/software that I have that I can not do. Only difference is they are in a different market... even with the same cable company.

Not saying I know of an area that has a functioning USB port for external drivers, but there COULD be given current practices.

so I've heard but the tech said otherwise...his own system :confused:
I asked him about which ports were 'active' on the new 8300s and was told the e-sata, both usbs and firewires were all supposed to be operational.
hence, my asking if anyone had tried the usb ports.

Just because a USB port is active doesn't mean you can hook a drive up to it. He is right - the port is active, plug in a USB keyboard and you can use the arrow keys to change channels. However currently there is no driver for external hard drives.

xnappo

I put an eSATA drive on my TWC (San Diego) 8300HD and it was recognized after format in the diag screen. I did some recording but when I tried to play it back, all I got was a blenk screen. All of last nights recordings were like that. Can anyone suggest why this may be happining??

Thanks..

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the capacity of the external drive you can connect to an 8300HD? Unfortunately I was rearranging some power cords, and when I plugged my faithful Azio enclosure with 400GB drive back in, I got a bunch of sparks from the outlet and now I'm getting a "The external drive is not operating properly" or something like that error. So I think I fried it.

That said, for less than I paid for the enclosure and hard drive a couple years ago I can now get a combo that has 2.5 times the storage. Will I have problems if I connect a 1TB external drive to the DVR?

I was looking at this AcomData (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216041&nm_mc=AFC-Bensbargains&cm_mmc=AFC-Bensbargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA). Any thoughts?

I put an eSATA drive on my TWC (San Diego) 8300HD and it was recognized after format in the diag screen. I did some recording but when I tried to play it back, all I got was a blenk screen. All of last nights recordings were like that. Can anyone suggest why this may be happining??

Thanks..

What drive are you using? What software(Passport)? Did you consult the database?
xnappo

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the capacity of the external drive you can connect to an 8300HD? Unfortunately I was rearranging some power cords, and when I plugged my faithful Azio enclosure with 400GB drive back in, I got a bunch of sparks from the outlet and now I'm getting a "The external drive is not operating properly" or something like that error. So I think I fried it.

That said, for less than I paid for the enclosure and hard drive a couple years ago I can now get a combo that has 2.5 times the storage. Will I have problems if I connect a 1TB external drive to the DVR?

I was looking at this AcomData (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216041&nm_mc=AFC-Bensbargains&cm_mmc=AFC-Bensbargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA). Any thoughts?

Not sure about this drive; you better check the database. But I am currently running a Antec case with a 1 TB Western Digital drive for about 5 months now with absolutely no problems.

What drive are you using? What software(Passport)? Did you consult the database?
xnappo
Regarding what software is in the STB, I have no clue nor do I know how to find out.
It is a Scientific Antlanta 8300HD.
Hard Drive is a WD500 GB SATA that I just plugged into the back of the DVR like I would any SATA drive I use in computers. I have an external power supply of course.
Since my original post, i put the drive inside a eSATA enclosure, fired up the DVR and it did, in fact indicate it detected it and formated the drive. Now when I go to record, it won't even do that. When I press REC, it says it is recording but when I go off that channel then back to the one I was recording, the REC icon is gone and nothing is shown on the list.
All this said, can someone tell me how to find out what SARA or whatever I have?

OK, another update. I just saw the TWC truck outside and had the tech come in and look at my 8300HD. He told me the software was Mystro, not SARA or PASSPORT or NAVAGATOR. Anyone here have a clue about hooking up an eSATA to this version?

OK, another update. I just saw the TWC truck outside and had the tech come in and look at my 8300HD. He told me the software was Mystro, not SARA or PASSPORT or NAVAGATOR. Anyone here have a clue about hooking up an eSATA to this version?Mystro is another name used for the version of Navigator that runs on the non-cablecard 8300HD boxes (also referred to as MDN Navigator). As far as I know, there are no problems using an external drive with MDN Navigator. Check the Navigator database. You'll find the links in xnappo's signiture above.

Mystro is another name used for the version of Navigator that runs on the non-cablecard 8300HD boxes (also referred to as MDN Navigator). As far as I know, there are no problems using an external drive with MDN Navigator. Check the Navigator database. You'll find the links in xnappo's signiture above.

I've read a number of notes about external drive support being absent from the last 2 revs of ODN.

I've read a number of notes about external drive support being absent from the last 2 revs of ODN.Not quite true. The ODN release that most markets seem to be using now is 2.4.10_11. This release works well with external drives. The previous release (I believe it was 2.4.9_3) would work fine until it entered sleep mode at which point it would lock up and require reboot. A few weeks ago there was a report of a new release (3.1.0_11) in California that did not play well with the external drive. However, I seem to recall that someone eventually got it to work.

So, most people with the current ODN release (2.4.10_11) are able to use an external drive with no problems. Testimony from those who've received the 3.1.0_11 is spotty and somewhat inconsistent. I wish more people would report their experiences with it. Personally, I'm praying that TW fixes it before spreading it any further. I'm getting tired of it breaking every other release.

Hi AVS Gang --

Best as I can tell, the most recent info on trick play and 8300HDs with an external HD is that trick play works as long as the internal drive is the one with the most free space. As I just attached a 1TB external drive (VOX EXSA-35C-1TB-K), this solution may take a while to implement (much less being "sub-optimal.") Side note: normal pre-programmed recording seems to work just fine, no issues after 48 hrs of scheduled programming recording as scheduled.

Running Passport Echo 2.6.002 + OS 6.14.74.1sp on TWC Northern Manhattan. To the best of your knowledge is this still the case? With my fading hearing, I depend on trick play quite a bit while random surfing -- so much so that I might forgo the extra storage to get the feature back. Does anyone know if this workaround is still required or if there are any other updates on the situation?

Thanks in advance
Thumbkin

are folks ONLY experiencing problems with the 8300hdc, or the 8300hd as well?

i don't know if columbus, oh got the upgrade that seems to have been plaguing san diego, but my 'MY DVR EXPANDER" has gone almost completely unnoticed since the middle of dec. no matter how many times/different ways i've tried rebooting. the only time my 8300HD even acknowledges the my dvr exp. is if i unplug it while the dvr's on. then it gives me the message that i should only disconnect the external drive after powering off the STB.

any ideas? any help? any leads?

I can't get my WD DVR Expander to work either. My box is a SA8300HDC running Ocap Home Terminal OS 6.20.50.1. I'm on TWC (San Diego). It asked if I wanted to format it, I pressed "A", but it never did format it and start using it. Have rebooted several times. The Hardware menu(hold power button until it starts to flash, release then press power again), shows it but all the partition info is zero. After reviewing this Forum, I discovered that my Seagate Freeagent Pro was not going to work, but this WD DVR Expander was reported to work by many who have this Ocap Mystro software. No go for me. Any suggestions?

Wow what a lot of info in these forums. I am glad I found this thread in particular. I noticed the eSATA port on the back of my STB(SA8300HDC) and read on online manual that said an external HDD could be supported and to call your cable provider. When I called TWC they of course said that an external HDD was not supported.

I am happy to report that after reading through this and other threads I was able to get an external drive to work. I have live recording and so far all works as expected before I added the drive.

I am running a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 32 MB cache with a antec MX-1 case. I have TWC Cincinnati. I want to add to the database but I am a litle unclear on the version of Navigator I am running(or if I am running Navigator). Based on descriptions and screen shots from other threads in this forum I believe I am running Navigator. The version I believe is 2.4.10_11 based on the on screen diagnostics. However when I reboot the system Mystro appears on the screen. So is Mystro just another name for navigator? What should I put in the database?

As newbie to these forums I am not sure of the correct terms. Are navigator and passport considered an Operating System or GUI. And what does ODN stand for?

Thanks for all of the useful info provided already.

It's been a week with my Fantom/8300HD rig. It has already given me grief!! I cued up two important recordings while I was out of town this weekend. They 'appear' to have been recorded as they show up in the recorded list, but they are not playable. If they are selected to play, you are kicked to the DVR Channel page..

I messed around including restarting the box and then I realized that my recording preferences once again showed that my capacity was less than 50%!! This indicated that the external drive was not selected.

I turned everything off and unplugged. I tried rebooting and waiting... waiting... waiting.. rebooted again... nothing. I finally got back to a working 8300HD box and I deleted these two recordings (from the list)... then, I power-cycled the drive (only) and all of a sudden I got a message on the screen saying "the external drive is ready to use with this DVR" (something like this).

Now my capacity is back to 90%... but I hope this isn't going to be a re-occuring problem...

What I learned: Even though the external drive may be 'offline'.. the recording made while it was online are shown in the recorded program list... If you can't seem to see the external drive, try shutting it down while the box is up and running (which is absolutely NOT recommended anywhere) and powering back up... see if your capacity returns. Maybe, then the recording off the external drive will be accessible. Unfortunately I erased these two important recordings including the last episode of Stargate Atlantis, before I got my drive back online..

I don't know if this is a good thing (power-cycling the drive while the 8300HD is on) and I suspect it's not, but...... I had to get the drive back online somehow.. and if it's not being recognized, it's a pretty good bet that nothing is being written to it by the 8300, right?? more to follow...

I just picked up the same Drive from buy.com... 1G Fantom Green drive. It's stated as 7200RPM, 300MB transfer rate, eSATA with 16M buffer. Great deal at $89 with rebate in an external eSATA enclosure!! Wow..I have the following rig:

SA 8300 HD
Cablevision (Yorktown Heights office)
SARA (late but not sure which rev. Just got the box a couple weeks ago).
Fantom 1TB eSATA, 7200.

I've cued up five recordings overnight. I'm going to try and give the rig a workout over the next week. I'm hoping I don't have the same problems as I was already 59% full with 16 hours recorded!! Ahh, that just won't do. When I added the 1TB I'm at 9% It looks like the 8300HD comes with a 330G internal drive (if I'm doin my math right??). Does that sound right??

I will post again once I have some record of performance. I really hope this works as I want to create an HD Movie library...:cool:

FM

Hi all,
I really, really apologize if this has already been answered but I tried searching these giant threads for 30 mins already.

1/ How do you go about ensuring that the box has more free room than the eSATA drive? Won't it always try and squeeze stuff onto its HD before using the eSATA? Presumably there's no way to direct the box to record to a particular drive [internal or eSATA] ?
2/ Are there any other known workarounds? e.g. pleading to TWC, a software hack or hardware hack?

I have the 8300HD with a Cavalry CAXM 500GB eSATA drive and it rocks, apart from the absence of trick-play.

Much obliged,
Pete

Hi all,
I really, really apologize if this has already been answered but I tried searching these giant threads for 30 mins already.

1/ How do you go about ensuring that the box has more free room than the eSATA drive? Won't it always try and squeeze stuff onto its HD before using the eSATA? Presumably there's no way to direct the box to record to a particular drive [internal or eSATA] ?
2/ Are there any other known workarounds? e.g. pleading to TWC, a software hack or hardware hack?

I have the 8300HD with a Cavalry CAXM 500GB eSATA drive and it rocks, apart from the absence of trick-play.

Much obliged,
PeteWe know you have TWC service, but we don't know what SW your box has nor which release. It's generally accepted, I think, that the system records to the device with the highest percentage of free space (but different SW systems may handle it differently). I know of no way to manually manage this. Also, since you are serviced by TWC, you will probabably eventually be converted to MDN Navigator software. AFAIK, it properly supports trick-play with an external drive.

I've searched thru here and have found many posts of issues when pairing the Western Digital eSATA "MY DVR Expander" with an SA8300HD. I've just recieved and installed the Expander and am having the same issues - frame freeze, dropped audio, pixelation, etc. as have been noted in this forum. (When I call WD, I'm told I'm the first person ever to report this!)

Has anyone ever been able to figure out why this is happening and how to resolve it?

Forgive me if it's already been posted - I've been looking around in here for a couple hours now and haven't found anything.

Our unit worked OK from Thanksgiving until last week. We were gone for a couple of weeks over the holidays and it recorded everything and worked fine when we got back. It started messing up again last week, I believe that is when we were upgraded to ODN 3.1.0.11. Since then, the SATA fails every night around 0400 until I get home to mess with it at night. I have to reboot it to get it to work again. This time, the programs scheduled to record between 0400 until I reboot are gone, but the other programs that recorded before 0400 on the external drive are still there.
This is strange that the DVR 'locks up, does not function but the tuner still works.
When I reboot, the DVR will not work (withe the SATA connected) until I program a future recording.
If I reboot and press record, the box does not record the program.
If I reboot and set up a recording to start on a program that starts a few minutes from now, it will start to record that program. After that, I can record a program, FF, REW, etc. like normal. Please, I know this does not make sense, but have you been reading this thread?? I have tried this four consecutive days. It will not record, FF, REW or let me play anthing on the ESATA until I set up a future recording, It seems the future recording re-establishes the index to the E drive.

The other strange thing is, for about a month, the list showed 34% full, no matter how much was recorded or deleted. Last week, we got a real quick blip from the utility and the % remaining started working. We got a real 2 hour outage later that really screwed up the drive. I had to reboot a few times to get the ESATA working again.

Lastly, I show about 27% full, but on the diagnostic, the external disk only shows about 50% available, even after I rebooted and the external showed nothing on it.


Is it the V 3 ODN causing the DVR to fail the last few nights? This failure is different than the past. It seems to go to sleep, even though I record stuff overnight and I leave the box on. It fails to record programs set up after 0400 until I reboot. On the recording log, it shows channel not available for those programs.
I do have to reboot the STB and record a future program, or wait uintil a previously set up recording starts. to get it to work as a DVR again. Also, in the past week or so, unlike in the past, it has not lost the programs recorded on external drive.

So, I get home from work, I reboot the DVR, otherwise I can not play programs recorded on the ESATA. It works fine all night, then sometime after 0500, the DVR stops functioning and it will not record until I reboot some time that night.

Is it the V 3.1.0.11, or is it the HDC box, a bad year??
Would an HD instead of an HDC box work better, even with V 3....? Navigator?
Or is this TW service territory dependant?

Thank you in advance.

Is it the V 3.1.0.11, or is it the HDC box, a bad year??
Would an HD instead of an HDC box work better, even with V 3....? Navigator?
Or is this TW service territory dependant?

Thank you in advance.Thanks for the report.

Because you're not the first to report external drive problems on a system that has been updated to V3, I'd assume it's the software. Unfortunately, we haven't really gotten enough testimony yet from others with this release to get a good picture of what does and does not work.

You're description smells a little like the old sleep mode problem two releases ago. Can you tell how much time has elapsed between its last recording activity and its failure?

What is Sleep Mode? I just noticed on a recording I made that a screen came up saying "DVR entering sleep mode". First time I have seen that. What is going on?

The Navigator system used to enter "sleep mode" when it hadn't seen any recording or user activity after 3 hours. It seemed to merely quit buffering (an annoying feature when watching a long sports program). On the previous release, Navigator had a bug that caused the DVR to lock up (and had to be rebooted) when it entered sleep mode if it had an external drive. Sleep mode may still be around, but I can't say I recall seeing it recently. They may have just made it less obtrusive.

You're description smells a little like the old sleep mode problem two releases ago. Can you tell how much time has elapsed between its last recording activity and its failure?

Yep, my guess is they split the team up and had a group take V2 with the sleep bug and enhance it to V3. In the meantime, the V2 support team fixed the sleep bug, but due to poor coordination, V2 fixes did not all make it to V3.

Pure speculation of course.

xnappo

I got a WD DVR Expander and have a question about hooking it up and effects on copying to DVD. I am currently using SA 8300HD/SARA. My wife has several shows on the DVR, that can not be recreated, as the show has been cancelled. I want to copy them to DVD. I have not yet purchased a DVD Recorder, but want to make sure I don't risk losing her shows, once I connect the Expander. So, the shows are on the 8300HD and I know I can copy to DVD as of right now. If, I connect the Expander, will it impact the ability to copy the shows to a DVD recorder at a later time? Thanks, Joe

scientificatlanta.com/products/consumers/userguidepdfs/4020205.pdf

seems to match the comcast unit (RNG 200)

I got a WD DVR Expander and have a question about hooking it up and effects on copying to DVD. I am currently using SA 8300HD/SARA. My wife has several shows on the DVR, that can not be recreated, as the show has been cancelled. I want to copy them to DVD. I have not yet purchased a DVD Recorder, but want to make sure I don't risk losing her shows, once I connect the Expander. So, the shows are on the 8300HD and I know I can copy to DVD as of right now. If, I connect the Expander, will it impact the ability to copy the shows to a DVD recorder at a later time? Thanks, Joe
Connecting and disconnecting the Expander, using the proper procedures, will not affect any recorded shows on the PVR.

What is the general consensus on the best drive to get for the 8300HD? I didn't get a chance to read all 242 pages! TIA

I have TW with a SA8240HDC box and a Vantec Case with 1TB WD Green Drive attached. My SA box is running the current 2.4.0.11 (?) version in Columbus Ohio. A couple of week ago my SA box died, when I rebooted it it said NO FS and wouldn't boot up at all. So I swapped it out for another SA8240HDC. Now when I playback recorded shows I get picture distortion, choppy audio every few minutes. Is this my external drive? (which worked fine before the SA box died.) Or is this my SA box again? I replaced my eSata cable and that didn't seem to help. Any ideas or suggestions. A TW tech came out to check our lines and everything seemed okay. Any help would be appreciated, I'm lost and confused at this point. Thanks!

Now when I playback recorded shows I get picture distortion, choppy audio every few minutes. Is this my external drive? (which worked fine before the SA box died.) Or is this my SA box again? I replaced my eSata cable and that didn't seem to help. Any ideas or suggestions.You can disconnect the external drive and play back a program that's recorded on the internal drive (you may have to hunt around in your recorded programs list to find one that's stored internally). If you still see the playback problems, then you've eliminated the external drive as the cause of the problem.

You can disconnect the external drive and play back a program that's recorded on the internal drive (you may have to hunt around in your recorded programs list to find one that's stored internally). If you still see the playback problems, then you've eliminated the external drive as the cause of the problem.
I tried that but since my external is 1TB nothing is stored on the local drive.

I tried that but since my external is 1TB nothing is stored on the local drive.But you should be able to disconnect the external drive then record something new. If it plays back OK, then you know your external drive is causing problems.