8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! - Page 200

I did. Possibly just a bad case that made it past their quality control. I like Apricorn and have used other products from them, but I'm going to give the Antec MX-1 a try. (FWIW, before this set-up I had a KINGWIN SS-350S-BK and a Segate 400g Barracuda 7200.8 running for over 2 years without glitchs and it never disconnected from the 8300HD. The Barracuda died, so I decided to upgrade to 500g and a new encosure (sending the Barracuda in for a replacement to use for other purposes)).

In hinsight, it would have been easier if I just replaced the Barracuda 7200.8 with the warrany replacement drive ...but then I would not have had fun playing with new equipment ;-)

Tony

'Bought a Western Digital 500Gig DVR Expander at BB over the weekend. Installation was a breeze and straight-forward -also comes with eSATA cable. My Cox SA8300HD was able to recognize the external drive.

One of the beautiful things about adding external drives to these boxes is that "behind-the-curve" SATA drives work just fine. I, personally, wouldn't go "back" as far as 5400rpm, but otherwise it's all good.

Any of you guys have trouble with shows on the external drive disappearing?

When I had the Passport software with an external drive that appeared to be recognized and work initially, later several shows in the list would not play. Eventually it seemed so corrupted that I had to trade it in for a new box.

TWC San Diego no longer gives out Passport boxes; the only thing I can get is a Navigator box which has inferior features but appears to be more stable.

Just last week I plugged in an I-Rocks case with Maxtor 320GB drive that appeared to work. After recording several new shows on the external drive, none of them would play (blank screen), but at least the box did not crash. After rebooting, the new shows are no longer even in the list.

???

I assume "behind-the-curve" SATA drives means IDE drives. Don't we have IDE/ATA drives IN our 8300HDs?

I didn't mean Integrated Device Electronics or the formal name, Advanced Technology Attachment, when I said SATA. I'm pretty sure that there are IDE drives in our boxes though I only know what mine are and those of members who post. I don't recall anyone adding an IDE drive externally. By behind-the-curve, I simply meant not the latest and greatest.

I have been using a Rosewill eSATA/USB enclosure http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173043 with a Seagate 750GB drive with no problems other than not being able to instant replay live shows. I believe the instant replay is a bug for all eSATA drives. Is this going to be fixed by the monopoly?

Dan
TWC SE Wisc SA8300HD/Passport

Actually, (loss of) "instant replay" (of live TV) is a bug for all eSATA drives attached to Passport SA8300HD's.

Nice save. You knew I was ready to post, didn't you?

So, I finally went to get a new box today, and of course they were out of them.

Then the lady told me the expected "we don't support that feature" line, but wanted me to bring in my external hard drive and test it out on their TV when I came for the new box. I don't think she had any clue what she was talking about. She also told me that none of the additional ports on the box work including the HDMI output. I've been using the HDMI output the whole time I've had the box.

A very odd experience. Bottom line, I'll be waiting at least another week to try a new DVR.

I accepted that kind if ignorance back when the 8300 first came out, but to get that kind of comment today is nothing short of plain stupidity. I hope you take it upon yourself to educate them and then demand some free services.

But on the other hand, never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

I agree. I've seen what those poor customer service folks have to go through. I try to be a friendly as possible.

No one suggested getting nasty about it. It's easy enough to educate these folks. All you have to do is send them a nice email and ask them to get it to the appropriate folks to add it to the CSR/tech info. If they choose not to use it, then at least you tried.

Well I got the Apricorn 500g DVR Xpander (ADVRX-500) yesterday.

http://www.apricorn.com/product_deta...e=family&id=37

I have Cablevision (Central NJ) running SARA software. So far so good. The box recognized the device right away. It was supposed to show a message after formatting, but after 20 mins, no message and no decrease in storage size. I called Apricorn's site and the guy told me to power off the xPander and I should get a meassage that the device has been disconnected. I turned it off and got the message. I waited about 15 sec and powered the xPander back on. My TV screen froze for about 5-10 seconds and then returned to normal. I checked my available space and it went from 87% full to 19% full.

I will post this to the database, once I get the SARA version #.

Thank you!

Do you know what kind of disk is in the box?

I don't know for sure, but according to the live chat support I did with Apricorn before I ordered it, it's a Western Digital HD.

I have a WD 300g HD that's been working fine for a couple years (with 8300 SARA). All of a sudden I can only view 3 of 16 recorded programs, the others just give me the "Playback" screen that says hit the List button or the channel up/down button. Says disk is 10% full, usually it's 30 or 40%. But it shows all 16 recordings in the list. What's odd is on the second reboot try, it said 28% full when I first looked at it, then it said 10% full after trying to play one of the programs (that wouldn't play).

Tried unplugging the HD and SA box 3 times. Any other ideas?

Unrecoverable loss of all previously recorded content on the external drive. I don't recall anyone ever regaining access. Delete the entries on the list that are no longer playable. Start over.

Thanks, kind of what I figured. Erased all the others, down to 2. Tested a new recording and plays back fine. Any clue what would cause that? Maybe an electrical outage? Kind of odd my AT&T DSL connection has quit sometime during the day for the past 3 days, and I've had to reboot its modem (and there's big trucks and trenches down the road laying cable). Wonder if its related... That hasn't gone out for a year either.

Hard Drive going bad??

Not necessarily. If he has more trouble with the combo (drive + 8300), I'd suggest putting it to use on his computer, chances are good it will be 100% fine there.

You might want to record several programs to make sure something goes to the external drive and then replays. As long as the recordings are going to the internal drive, you probably won't notice a problem.

Also, what happens when you just disconnect the external drive? Do you get a message saying it has been disconnected or something like that?

I recorded a movie last night, so I have 4 hours of HD recordings. Says disk is 21% full. That tells me it's all going to the internal drive (right?). When I go to diagnostic pages, it does show the 300g external - I'm not techy enough to know much more than that. After a reboot, I do get the message external device is working properly (or something like that). I just unplugged the SATA cable and got the message "external drive has been disconnected, you will need to reboot the DVR..." I didn't reboot and it's playing fine.

I've got two 8300HDs with external drives attached. Since using them, we've had about six power outages of varying duration. Out of those twelve incidents (six outages x two boxes), I experienced exactly what you experienced one time. All other times when power was restored I got the "your external drive is attached and working (or some such thing)" and it worked like nothing had ever happened.

Recordings should go to the drive with the most free space (based on percentage, I believe). That is why I would simply record several hours of whatever to see what happens. The internal drive should record around 20 hours of HD. If you have 4 hours now and are 21% full, something doesn't seem right to me. 4 out of the 20should be about 20%, but the 300G should give you an added 30+ hours. 4 out of 50+ should be less than 10% full. Even though it "seems" to recognize the external drive, I don't think it's using it at all. Anyone else seeing the same thing I am or am I missing something?

I've decided my drive is fried. I tried formating it on my computer, just sat there at 1% forever. Then started clicking, 5 load clicks then spun down, then spun up, then 5 clicks... etc.... It was a 500 gig, not 300 now that I've looked at it.

What's the best deal these days, and the most reliable drive? I have the AZIO case. Time for a fan!

Sorry to hear that, but I kind of thought that might be the case. Look in the databases (links in 1st post or xnappo's sig) and see what appeals to you. You might read a few pages back too, there are some posts from folks who bought recently.