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8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! - Page 37

post #1081 of 8986
12/13/05 at 7:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

Are you getting the same behavior with material streaming from the internal drive?

Actually, I do get skips/freezes when playing back from the live buffer, which I assume is on the internal drive. But I don't seem to have any problems at all playing back recorded programs from the internal drive, though admittedly I haven't tried since the reformat.
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post #1082 of 8986
12/13/05 at 7:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RaveD View Post

Actually, I do get skips/freezes when playing back from the live buffer, which I assume is on the internal drive. But I don't seem to have any problems at all playing back recorded programs from the internal drive, though admittedly I haven't tried since the reformat.

Have you considered exchanging the box for a new one? If it's misbehaving with both internal and external, it may be a box problem.
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post #1083 of 8986
12/14/05 at 3:41pm
Just wanted to post that I had success last night adding an external SATA drive, purchased locally at the CompUSA store.

I'm located in N.Alabama and have Knology as my cable provider. Running SARA, but couldn't catch the firmware level easily.

I purchase a 250GB SATA drive from CompUSA
Then had to call AcomData to purchase the appropriate external power supply cord. The included one assumes you'll be attaching the drive to the also-included PCI computer card -- which also provides power without a 'brick'.

The correct power cord is about $20 + $8 Fedex.
YOU ALSO need the right data cable, which is the same SATA to eSATA cable from Cruz systems (another ~$25). The AcomData drive uses the older SATA connector, so you need the conversion cable.

I have emailed AcomData and will discuss with their engineer (I have talked with already) about putting together a cable bundle to at least drop the price to around $40 or so for the bundle. Then they can offer at least slightly cheaper and one stop shop. We'll see if they bite...

Went from 80% full to 17% full. :-) I did try to plug the unit into the switched socket on the back of the 8300HD, but there are some bootup timing issues apparently where the drive isn't ready when the unit checks on it. Once I plugged it into my power strip, everything worked fine after that.
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post #1084 of 8986
12/16/05 at 11:16am
For those of you that added a 300, 400 or 500gig external drive, how long did it take for SARA to format the drive and display a message indicating it was ready and available?

Thanks
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post #1085 of 8986
12/16/05 at 11:43am
It took about 1-2min for my 300GB Seagate drive.
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post #1086 of 8986
12/16/05 at 12:08pm
I have added 2 300gig drives to my HD8300 here in Tampa.

Agree with DEIFan, about 2 min for a new blank drive.

I got this link from the headder on this thread page of AVS. It is a GREAT summary on the do's and cant's. A bit pricy in comparison to roll your own, but a nice and clean adder AND it supports our forum!

http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_qvx.php

Steve
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post #1087 of 8986
12/16/05 at 7:47pm
Hey guys, i have been browsing through these forums for a while and have not seem many problems with the external sata. i have had mine working great for a few months ago and i had acquired a bunch of shows on the drive. Yestderday, when I turned the unit back on, all the shows that were on the external sata were gone! i had not made any changes to the unit or hd or touched any cables for that matter. I am getting a message wen i start the unit that the box is not authorized which i have not been getting b4. If n e ones knows anything about this, please help. thanks.
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post #1088 of 8986
12/16/05 at 10:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BT1 View Post

I have added 2 300gig drives to my HD8300 here in Tampa.

Agree with DEIFan, about 2 min for a new blank drive.

I got this link from the headder on this thread page of AVS. It is a GREAT summary on the do's and cant's. A bit pricy in comparison to roll your own, but a nice and clean adder AND it supports our forum!

http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_qvx.php

Steve

Huh?

I must have missed something. You can add 2 300Gig Drives? How?
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post #1089 of 8986
12/17/05 at 6:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic View Post

Huh?

I must have missed something. You can add 2 300Gig Drives? How?

I saw that and wondered about it, too. I guessed that he had TWO 8300's and added a drive to each. Or he added a second drive after the first one blew up.
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post #1090 of 8986
12/17/05 at 6:32am
Sorry guys if I caused any confusion.

I do have two (2) separate external drives dedicated to one (1) 8300HD, BUT can only use one (1) at a time. I am forced to boot the 8300HD when changing drives.

I posted earlier that this is not the best situation because of the 8300HD listing menu issues. But, with juggling only two (2) external drives I feel I can keep track of the contents without too much trouble. If it becomes too much of a problem, I will switch to one (1) 500 gig drive when the price becomes more reasonable.

I have switched them back and forth about 3 times now without any problems I am aware of.

Steve
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post #1091 of 8986
12/17/05 at 6:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BT1 View Post

Sorry guys if I caused any confusion.

I do have two (2) separate external drives dedicated to one (1) 8300HD, BUT can only use one (1) at a time. I am forced to boot the 8300HD when changing drives.

I posted earlier that this is not the best situation because of the 8300HD listing menu issues. But, with juggling only two (2) external drives I feel I can keep track of the contents without too much trouble. If it becomes too much of a problem, I will switch to one (1) 500 gig drive when the price becomes more reasonable.

I have switched them back and forth about 3 times now without any problems I am aware of.

Steve

This completely contradicts "conventional wisdom."

vegggas - HELP!!
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post #1092 of 8986
12/17/05 at 7:58am
pepar,

I did go back and review several posting from vegggas regarding this issue and all I can say is that apparently, until I get some corruption of list memory files I can get away with what I am doing. If this is true I will convert to the 1 single larger external drive sooner rather than later.

I just went up to the theater room and again swaped the existing external drive. Re-booted the 8300 (0:02:15 boot time). 8300 said all is good with the swapped drive and I was able to access files there.

I stand forewarned that I may loose the files on both external drives if corruption occurs. Just an excuse to take the time to watch the HD movies now.

Steve
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post #1093 of 8986
12/17/05 at 8:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by liquidsg View Post

Hey guys, i have been browsing through these forums for a while and have not seem many problems with the external sata. i have had mine working great for a few months ago and i had acquired a bunch of shows on the drive. Yestderday, when I turned the unit back on, all the shows that were on the external sata were gone! i had not made any changes to the unit or hd or touched any cables for that matter. I am getting a message wen i start the unit that the box is not authorized which i have not been getting b4. If n e ones knows anything about this, please help. thanks.

First of all, PLEASE put your LOCATION in your profile. When it comes to cable systems it is EXTREMELY important that we know where you are located.

If you are getting a message saying the box is not authorized, it sounds like the message is pertaining to the DVR itself, not the external drive. I'd suggest unplugging the DVR, then unplug the external drive, plug the DVR back in while Pushing the POWER button (hard boot). If you get the "Not Authorized" message, call the cable company - they might have something messed up with your authorization. Once the DVR is authorized and operating, then connect the external drive again (DVR power off), have it up and spinning and then do the Hard boot thing again. A new index will be built from the external hard drive contents. If the cable company determines that your DVR is defective and replaces it, any contents of the external drive will be gone.
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post #1094 of 8986
12/17/05 at 8:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BT1 View Post

pepar,

I did go back and review several posting from vegggas regarding this issue and all I can say is that apparently, until I get some corruption of list memory files I can get away with what I am doing. If this is true I will convert to the 1 single larger external drive sooner rather than later.

I just went up to the theater room and again swaped the existing external drive. Re-booted the 8300 (0:02:15 boot time). 8300 said all is good with the swapped drive and I was able to access files there.

I stand forewarned that I may loose the files on both external drives if corruption occurs. Just an excuse to take the time to watch the HD movies now.

Steve

Whatever you do, don't look down! Wile E Coyote could run off a cliff and stand on thin air - until he looked down.

Just curious, does ALL of the recorded material appear on the list regardless of which drive is connected, or just the programming on the "live" drive?
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post #1095 of 8986
12/17/05 at 9:23am
[quote=pepar]Whatever you do, don't look down! Wile E Coyote could run off a cliff and stand on thin air - until he looked down.

Hey, I have a habit of finding myself in that very situation much too often.

Yes, ALL of the recorded material (all 3 drives, 1 internal and 2 external) shows up on the menu list of the internal drive. If I select one that is not on an available drive, it just prompts me to return to the list.

I did recently do some house cleaning (back-up to DVD) of the internal and 1 of the external drives and they were properly removed from the listing. I have several DVD recorders. A philips (magnavox MDV630) can record 480i thru the component cables. Nice quality. Fine for 55"RPTV, not so good thru a 720p FP on 100" screen.
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post #1096 of 8986
12/17/05 at 9:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

Just curious, does ALL of the recorded material appear on the list regardless of which drive is connected, or just the programming on the "live" drive?

All recorded material from all drives should appear on the list. The data list is maintained on the internal drive and accessed within Ram. The Ram list gets corrupted, but the act of rebooting helps refresh the Ram from the internal drive's catalog storage file. I've always said that more drive space increases the amount of Ram needed and the possibility of corruption of various types and that it MAY cause problems. That's just one of many factors, including buffers, multiple additions/deletions or deletions of incomplete files, etc, etc, that help contribute to problems. The amount of free memory available to handle these tasks varies wildly between systems and the way the STB is used.
Using two external drives will also take some commitment from the user to make sure they do not try to access content on the non-connected drive. That varible may cause erratic problems and corruption of the Ram and possible the catalog file on the drive being detected as a deleted file.

vegggas
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post #1097 of 8986
12/17/05 at 10:51am
Your summation seems quite clear to me.

It sounds like the newer 500 gig HD's may show some similar problems with taxing the onboard ram.

This thread should give us feedback on that issue soon. Many have stated that is the drive they are buying. We will have to wait.

I think I will just watch all I have on 1 of the external drives, then erase them on the menu and stick with only 1 until we get more feedback on the 500's. Throw it back in the HTPC.

Thanks again for the info,

Steve
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post #1098 of 8986
12/17/05 at 11:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HaloBox View Post

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817145660
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ctCode=100600-1
http://www.satacables.com/html/sata...nal_cables.html (SS-1ESS)

FYI, the Hitachi drive I received appears to be defective. I have tried it with my laptop in the enclosure above (via USB 2.0), with my Dell PC via SATA (directly and via the enclosure), and of course connected to the SA 8300.

I cannot partition and format the drive from my laptop or Dell PC. The SA 8300 detects the drive but won't format and add it to the system.

So now I get to ship the drive back to zipzoomfly.com and let them ship me another drive. I'm guessing that will take 2-3 weeks considering they are going to test the drive and apparently don't plan to ship me one straight away.

The enclosure fan is almost silent. The drive I have is also whisper quiet, but considering it isn't working, who cares.

UPDATE: I received the replacement 500gig Hitachi drive Friday. I had problems with it in the enclosure as well. So, I decided to take a different approach. I backed up one of my machines with Ghost 9 since it has a 300gig Maxtor SATA as drive c:. I pulled the drive and replaced it with the 500gig Hitachi and ran the restore. It runs flawlessly there.

After verification of my data, apps, mce shell works, etc., I dropped the 300gig drive in the enclosure and started running some tests. It worked flawlessly in my USB tests so I powered the SA 8300 down and connected it.

It formatted the 300gig drive and has been working nicely for about eight hours now. I recorded several HD programs. Right now, I'm recording two HD programs and watching a recorded HD program.

I think the problems I encountered were two fold. First of all, I think the external hard drive case referenced above may be limited to <400gig drives. I thought initially they just didn't bother to update the docs and marketing after the 500gig drives came out. In this cases case, it may be true. the 500gig drive would not work, and the 300gig does.

Second, it could also have been the SA 8300 didn't like the 500gig drive due the reasons previously described in this thread. It's hard to tell.

At this point, I got another 200gig upgrade to my PC, and a 300gig upgrade to my HD DVR so I'm happy they both work. For those of you planning a 500gig solution, I'd probably steer clear of this case. It's a really nice case for the price but I wanted to warn you about the possible capacity limit.

Merry Christmas
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post #1099 of 8986
12/18/05 at 8:49am
I note that CompUSA has a TODAY ONLY sale of a 250GB Maxtor SATA Internal drive for only $59.99 after rebates. This drive has formed the basis for many of the folks here that have built their own.

http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/pr...05076&pfp=cat3
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post #1100 of 8986
12/18/05 at 1:00pm
Just a reminder to those that experience drop outs when using the external drive, it is a good idea to FDISK and FORMAT the drive you are using as an external - I was having lots of problems with a new Maxtor 240GB SATA so I pulled it out of the 8300 and put it in my PC and formatted it =. Since then it has run flawlessly. I think the format on the 8300 is too fast and it does not detect any errors. Naturally if you do this after you have recorded some shows, you will lose all the recordings, so its best to do the format before installing.

Pat
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post #1101 of 8986
12/19/05 at 9:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HaloBox View Post

UPDATE: I received the replacement 500gig Hitachi drive Friday. I had problems with it in the enclosure as well. So, I decided to take a different approach. I backed up one of my machines with Ghost 9 since it has a 300gig Maxtor SATA as drive c:. I pulled the drive and replaced it with the 500gig Hitachi and ran the restore. It runs flawlessly there.

After verification of my data, apps, mce shell works, etc., I dropped the 300gig drive in the enclosure and started running some tests. It worked flawlessly in my USB tests so I powered the SA 8300 down and connected it.

It formatted the 300gig drive and has been working nicely for about eight hours now. I recorded several HD programs. Right now, I'm recording two HD programs and watching a recorded HD program.

I think the problems I encountered were two fold. First of all, I think the external hard drive case referenced above may be limited to <400gig drives. I thought initially they just didn't bother to update the docs and marketing after the 500gig drives came out. In this cases case, it may be true. the 500gig drive would not work, and the 300gig does.

Second, it could also have been the SA 8300 didn't like the 500gig drive due the reasons previously described in this thread. It's hard to tell.

At this point, I got another 200gig upgrade to my PC, and a 300gig upgrade to my HD DVR so I'm happy they both work. For those of you planning a 500gig solution, I'd probably steer clear of this case. It's a really nice case for the price but I wanted to warn you about the possible capacity limit.

Merry Christmas

I'm using that case with a 500GB drive and it works perfectly. Maybe it is just hit and miss and I'm just really lucky, but I haven't had any problems.
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post #1102 of 8986
12/20/05 at 4:12pm
I'm getting one of these by the end of the week for my home server, but before it gets put into service, i'm going to plug it into the 8300 and see what happens...

5-Bay eSATA Hot-Swap...
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post #1103 of 8986
12/20/05 at 5:05pm
WORKS IN NORTH GEORGIA MARKET WITH ADELPHIA Hello all! i used the Kingwin SS-350s-BK case from Newegg. Used a Maxtor 300 GB HD. I have SARA. Went from 85% to 28% !!!! yeah.... THanks everyone!!! Now i have to do like 5 more....!!! I did have to reboot 3 times and showed that external device not working properly 3 times. Now i have to hook up my new 4 way hdmi switcher from monoprice i got also today.
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post #1104 of 8986
12/21/05 at 12:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeAlletto View Post

I'm using that case with a 500GB drive and it works perfectly. Maybe it is just hit and miss and I'm just really lucky, but I haven't had any problems.

I wish I had been lucky, too. No matter, I moved the 500gig drive into my PC and it's happy there. I'm probably going to add a VBOX HD tuner to it anyway.
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post #1105 of 8986
12/21/05 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by donleycott View Post

Just a reminder to those that experience drop outs when using the external drive, it is a good idea to FDISK and FORMAT the drive you are using as an external - I was having lots of problems with a new Maxtor 240GB SATA so I pulled it out of the 8300 and put it in my PC and formatted it =. Since then it has run flawlessly. I think the format on the 8300 is too fast and it does not detect any errors. Naturally if you do this after you have recorded some shows, you will lose all the recordings, so its best to do the format before installing.

Pat

Unfortunately it didn't work for me.

I took the drive out, did a full low-level format, then FDISK, then full format of the drive in Windows XP. Put it back in the 8300HD, cold boot.

If anything the problems are now worse than before. Still get freeze-ups. It's playback related -- the box will freeze for 10 seconds or more but if I rewind to the same spot it plays back flawlessly.

This using the same model hard drive and enclosure that others here have reported no problems with.

I guess I'll have to try getting a new cable box at some point...
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post #1106 of 8986
12/21/05 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RaveD View Post

Unfortunately it didn't work for me.

I took the drive out, did a full low-level format, then FDISK, then full format of the drive in Windows XP. Put it back in the 8300HD, cold boot.

If anything the problems are now worse than before. Still get freeze-ups. It's playback related -- the box will freeze for 10 seconds or more but if I rewind to the same spot it plays back flawlessly.

This using the same model hard drive and enclosure that others here have reported no problems with.

I guess I'll have to try getting a new cable box at some point...

I'm not sure how this got started, but "low level" formatting is not what's happening when using a PC's BIOS. It is actually a read/write verify of the drive's user data sectors. And FDISK creates a partition FOR A PC FORMAT. The 8300HD does NOT use a PC-compatible format, so that is useless. Important drive information (servo, sector layout, and defect management, etc.) is stored in the low-level format at the factory. This information is designed to last the life of the drive and therefore it is not possible to low level the drive outside the factory. However, an honest-to-goodness low level format may be possible with a utility from the drive manufacturer. If available, it would be found on the manufacturer's website.
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post #1107 of 8986
12/21/05 at 8:29pm
I agree with pepar.
In my experience, the MaxBlast utilities for Maxtor drives work very well. I believe they do a defect management update with their specific drive utility.

vegggas
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post #1108 of 8986
12/22/05 at 6:37am
I was one of the people that reported positive results after doing an FDISK and format with a PC. As a refresher, I had an new external drive that had lots of problems. It was exchanged under warranty for a factory refurbished drive. The second drive was even worse. After the PC procedure it was totally flawless.

I subsequently disconnected it for a couple of months and put it in storage. It was reconnected yesterday and was back to its old problems. Very strange. I will be trying the PC procedure again.

While this was going on I had a second drive that worked almost perfectly, even after being turned off for weeks.

Once again I am at a loss to understand what is going on.
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post #1109 of 8986
12/22/05 at 7:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BPlayer View Post

I was one of the people that reported positive results after doing an FDISK and format with a PC. As a refresher, I had an new external drive that had lots of problems. It was exchanged under warranty for a factory refurbished drive. The second drive was even worse. After the PC procedure it was totally flawless.

I subsequently disconnected it for a couple of months and put it in storage. It was reconnected yesterday and was back to its old problems. Very strange. I will be trying the PC procedure again.

While this was going on I had a second drive that worked almost perfectly, even after being turned off for weeks.

Once again I am at a loss to understand what is going on.

Perhaps something mechanical that the physical act of removing, doing the PC thing with it and then reinstalling it "fixed" . . loose internal connection, perhaps. When you moved it again, the problem reocurred . . loose internal connection seems like a good candidate . . .

Just my $.02. And worth every penny.
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post #1110 of 8986
12/22/05 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

I'm not sure how this got started, but "low level" formatting is not what's happening when using a PC's BIOS...

Yes, I know.

I did a low-level format using the Maxtor MaxBlast diagnostic software.
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