Many newer 5400 RPM drives are as fast as some 7200 RPM drives, so it's really no surprise. (Some are actually 5900 RPM and have large caches to increase speed.) The 6131 has no way of knowing the RPM of the drive, it just requires the data be read or written within a certain time frame.

Opt67, EHD makers (and most manufacturers) reserve the right to change specifications. That includes the make and model of drive in the case. It's why I buy the drive and case separately. The drive warranty is usually longer that was too.

ScaryBob,

I understand production changes... and the fact that the drive I have in the Samsung with a 32MB cache is probably as quick as the original WD-10EA 7200rpm drive they purportedly used. The Samsung easily surpasses the USB 2.0 throughput, so no worries there, and as I mentioned, has worked flawless for me so far. Bottom line... it works, and for the $84 I paid for it on sale, I am happy. I just don't care for it being advertised as 7200rpm drive, when that may or may not be the case depending on when it was made.

Agreed, when you build it, you have exactly what you want. I was actually going to go that route, until I saw this drive on sale and decided to give it a try. Couldn't beat the price and hey... 7 year warranty to boot! Worst case... it didn't work, and I replaced the drive in the enclosure.

Hey opt67, is there any way I can find out if my EHD is what it says it is? IE 7200rpm vs 5400rpm? It works great, but just want to know for myself. Thanks

Yupp... you can just plug it into your computer, and depending on what OS you are using, either use a drive diagnostic tool, it will list all drives attached, or if under window 7/xp, look in your "device manager" then expand "disk drives." It should list out the drives by model #.

Just be sure that you do not try to access the drive, whatever OS you are using might tell you that the drive needs to be formatted to continue. Would hate to see you loose everything you have saved on it.

I'll report back on a 3.0 USB drive, I bought one for Christmas, hooked it up to the 6131 and have had no problems at all to date. So 3.0 drives should be compatible.

USB 3.0 drives should be backward compatible so their should be no problem.

Yes. You will need to swap the drives 3 or 4 times. I did this when switching from a 1TB to 1.5TB drive. You may also need to recreate all the timers. Any future questions regarding this should be posted in the the 9242 owners thread. The 1TB drive should work fine on the 6131. It will need to be reformatted by the 6131 so transfer the data first.
Well, it took about 4 days to transfer 100 hours of HD from my 1TB EHD (on my 9242) to my new 1.5TB EHD (using the 9242 internal hard drive to "hold" 30 hrs of HD programming at a time, and swapping the EHD's each time).

It was brutally long, but at least now I have the 1TB EHD clean, which I can now use on my 6131. If the 6131 gets a firmware upgrade to accept 1.5TB, I am going to be pissed I did all this for nothing.

I bought the 1.5TB thinking it would be supported on my 6131, but *sigh* only the 9242 supports 1.5TB... Live and learn.

And as we both just learned, the 9241/9242 now support 2Tb....

It was brutally long,
That was my experience as well. It also takes a long time transfer the files on a Linux PC. Thank the USB interface for that.

I can confirm that the WD 1TB mybook elite WDBAAH0010HCH-NECS that I picked up from costco for $95 doesn't work with my 6131. I just get the 499 and 390 message.

I wish there was a HCL (hardware compatibility list) of drives previously known to work with the 6131 posted in this thread. This really is something Bell should be doing themselves, but this is unlikely to happen since they aren't all that interested in providing good customer service.

Can anyone provide an exact model number of a current external drive from a major retailer like coscto or best buy? Note that saying something like 1TB mybook esentials is not enough information since the same product has different model numbers with western digital at least. This place looks like it has certified the WDH1U10000N version of the mybook essentials 1TB with the 6131 since they have it forsale, but this model isn't available from a local retailer as far as I can tell.

http://www.canadasatellite.ca/Bell-TV-6131-HD-High-Definition-Satellite-Receiver-p/bell-tv-6131-hd-receiver-1tb.htm

Best buy has a 1TB mybook essentials drive, but it is a different model (WDBAAF0010HBH) so getting it would be a crap shoot for me.

I'm using WD Elements drives on both my 6131 and my 9242. Both formatted quickly, and have worked flawlessly. Purchased cheap from Canada Computers.

And as we both just learned, the 9241/9242 now support 2Tb....
Indeed

Does anyone have any insight as to if and when the 6131 will get a firmware upgrade to 1.5TB?

Also, I have been waiting for quite some time to find an extra 6131 for 99$ (new, not refurb), but it seems that even the boxing day sales have not gone lower than 149$. Anybody know if there are any 99$ deals out there that I am missing?

I just lost all the recorded programs on the hard drive connected to my 6131 for no apparent reason.

Has this happened to anyone. What could be the cause? I assume the information is still on the drive. Anyway to get it back?

Maybe by using a Linux Computer or a Linux Live CD in a Windows machine.

You could also try plugging the drive into another 6131 to see if it is recognized.

Unplug both the 6131 and EHD. Disconnect the EHD USB. Bug them both back in and wait for the 6131 to boot. Reconnect the EHD USB. Might work if it's just a drive recognition problem. If the drive is recognized but the programming is actually erased, it won't do any good.

I have just purchased an 1TB external HDD which meets all of the specs on the bell.ca/pvrmax site for my 6131 reciever. When I plugged it in it was reconized and it started formatting. 21 hours later it is still formatting. Is this normal?

No, formatting for me has never taken longer than around 15 min.

Thanks. I reset the reciever and tried again. 10 minutes later and im in business.