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External (SATA) Hard Disk Drive (eHDD) Discussions for HDPVR 630 - See post 1

159K views 289 replies 83 participants last post by  TZM 
#1 ·
Awesome! Thanks for the update!!

Now, what drive do we buy?

Edit by 57 - thought it would be a good idea to start a new thread specifically for the eHDD for the 630.

From the Firmware thread:

HDPVR 630 External Hard Drive Support

- HDPVR 630 customers can now connect a single eSATA hard drive to expand their recording capacity, up to 2 TB (2000 GB)

- A 2 TB drive would provide over 1360 SD, or 360 HD hours of additional recording capacity!

- Drives must:

- Be connected via eSATA (not USB)

- Be externally powered (i.e. with a cord that plugs into an electrical outlet)

- Be 2.0 TB or smaller

· Drives should:

- Be rated for PVR/DVR usage. These are drives specifically designed to be quieter, run cooler, and support multiple HD streams and 24/7 usage.

- eSATA hotplug is not supported in this release, meaning the receiver must be rebooted if a drive is connected or disconnected. The onscreen menus will then guide the customer through the setup or divorce instructions.
From post 7 - eHDD link on SD:

http://www.shawdirect.ca/promotions/english/hdd/default.asp?WT.mc_id=van_ExternalHDD
 
#188 ·
meandher57 said: Anyone else experienced this skip-forward phenomenon?

Many of us have experienced this with the factory installed hard drive without an external drive prior to the firmware upgrade. Now it doesn't skip ahead during initial playback but, the playback starts late or the start of recording starts late.

I thought media drives spun continuously so there would be near instantaneous access to the drive and so a fast start to recording.
Is that true?

My computer has a solid state main drive and an HD. I put my programs on the SSD and data on the HD. The HD seems to sleep until it is accessed and takes 2 or 3 seconds to wake up.
 
#189 ·
Fantom Greendrive

Anyone have any luck with the Fantom Greendrive Quad? I ordered the 2 TB version, plugged it into my 630 and did a forced reboot via the power button.

When the 630 booted back up, it saw the drive and asked whether I wanted to format it or not. I said yes, and immediately got a message saying the formatting failed.

When I go into the hardware options menu it shows that the drive is connected, but my % usage remains the same. I can try to format the drive again at this point, but I get the same "formatting failed" message.

Any thoughts?
 
#191 ·
...would the recordings be preserved?
I see no reason why not. The operating system of the 630 is capable of using hard drives up to and including 2TB, both external and internal. Both drives are treating just one big drive, in your case one whooping big storage box.

You have a good question; I suggest calling the Shaw Direct mother ship 1-888-554-7827 and find out. It would be great if you would post the answer.

BTW, It would be nice if Shaw Direct sold an HDD-all-in-one-box DVR Expander that a user could just connect to the eSATA jack on the 630.
 
#193 ·
I would NOT call Shaw Direct. The last thing you want is to inform them that you will be swapping out the internal HD.

I would install the new 2tb drive and get the unit working. Then attach the old drive externally - if it asks you to format, then I guess it will not do what you want.

You can always put the old one back in again, so I would leave everything open while you test.
 
#198 ·
I put together the 3.5" enclosure and the 2TB 3.5" drive yesterday shortly after the UPS man delivered the box Oct 30. I connected it to the powered up 630. I then powered up the new external drive. The 630 automatically went into "reset". After a bit of moving yellow leds on the 630, it asked if I wanted to format the new external drive. YES. It took less than a minute to format. What a shock how little time it took.

My PVR HDD went from 69% to 8% filled. I was in the 70%+ range and was watching recorded programs like never before to keep the percentage down until I received my enclosure and HDD. Now I can breathe again ;)

So far so good...
 
#200 ·
External HDD - for WHAT?

A couple of years ago I purchased a 2TB external HD for my 630 DVR thinking I would be free to record forever. Well that is all well and good as long as the DVR is working. Last month, my DVR went dead. Shaw sent me another one and I hooked it up with the external HDD that is still working.

Surprise, surprise: all the recordings that were stored on the external HD were not recoverable and usable with the replacement DVR!! Dozens of programs and movies that had not been viewed yet were gone.

I can understand providers wanting to prevent piracy bla-bla-bla, but this rule is obviously going too far in this particular situation: losing all recordings on a perfectly working external HD just because the HD on the DVR went bad.

The rule should not apply if one has to return a defective DVR and simply replacing it with another one that will be hooked up to the same external drive.

After this incident, I am not sure why bother with an external drive to store gazillion programs.....
 
#202 ·
I believe the HDMI spec requires that recorded shows be playable ONLY on the original chassis that recorded them. Even if SD kept you waiting a week or so while they transplanted your original hard drive into another chassis that you could hook up to your existing external drive, you would still probably be SNAFUed.

The SD receivers going back to 505 have always been very sensitive on HDMI compliance. Many a time even a non-recording receiver would flash HDCP when connected to my garden variety Sony TV.

The remarkable speed of formatting for the external drive is due to the fact that it's not really being formatted. Those "outlying" sectors are just added to the index map on the internal drive, so you can't unplug the external and then play/copy anywhere else. There's no readily available directory on it.
 
#204 ·
I bought a Western Digital 2TB Purple Surveillance HD which is made to handle 24/7 continuous use in less than an ideal environment. I bought a Vantec Velocity eSATA/USB 2.0 enclosure because of recommendations.

I was very happy with my external drive for many weeks until recently. The 630 would intermittently act strange in different ways. Shaw sent me a refurbished replacement 630. All was fine for a while, then the replacement 630 started acting weird.

I read somewhere that the HD enclosure I bought would excessively heat. I checked the enclosure several times and found it not to be overly hot until … Wow it was hot as a cheap pistol.

I removed the drive from the 630 and all is now fine with the world except those HD recordings are quickly filling the 630's internal Seagate 320GB drive.

What do you recommend?
 
#210 ·
We bought an External Hard Drive in 2010, one which has worked with the original Shaw Cable's HD PVR (before the recent models), the Motorola DCX-3400 from Eastlink, and initially worked fine with our HDPVR 630 from Shaw Direct.

However, this week, our PVR has been repeatedly crashing, and only seems to stop when we disconnect the eHDD, which is problematic, since most of our shows are still on the eHDD, a lot of which has not been watched yet.

Now, this may be connected to the most recent firmware update (yes, the one with the Multi-Delete and the changing the Free Preview icon on the Guide for unknown and presumable unnecessary reasons), but I don't know if anyone else has experienced this. We've also deleted a whole bunch of shows during the few times the 630 had it's act together with the eHDD plugged in, but that hasn't made things better. The only other reasons I can imagine is that maybe our house may not have enough power (We live in a hundred year old house out in the middle of nowhere, with just as old wiring).


Is there anyway to fix the current problem, maybe a way to actually have the PVR 630 working with the eHDD without crashing? Or is in not electric power, and the eHDD has just gotten too old?

And if the problem can't be fixed and the eHDD is done for, how could I buy a new one? Will any type of External Hard Drive work, like one designed for a desktop be used and plugged into the 630, or does it have to be one bought for Shaw/Cable/Satellite usage. (Which on a side-note, I can't even find one through the Shaw Direct website.)
 
#211 ·
External Hard Drives - Not Much Help Available

...The only other reasons I can imagine is that maybe our house may not have enough power (We live in a hundred year old house out in the middle of nowhere, with just as old wiring).

... eHDD has just gotten too old?

... Will any type of External Hard Drive work, like one designed for a desktop be used and plugged into the 630, or does it have to be one bought for Shaw/Cable/Satellite usage. (Which on a side-note, I can't even find one through the Shaw Direct website.)
The external drive and the PVR use very little power compared to toasters, microwave ovens, even a number of incandescent light bulbs. Your electrical wiring is just fine.

Drives are mechanical beasts that break down. You may need a new drive. How is your hard drive enclosure?

If you need a new drive, find one that is designed to work continuously for surveillance or for PVR use.

I truly wish that Shaw Direct would market and warranty an external hard drive for their PVRs! It is hard to locate much on internet searches for help, but keep looking. :nerd
 
#212 ·
A refresh might solve your issues, you can do it yourself online or by calling Support, and before you speak to someone you will be offered a refresh, this worked for us after the last up-grade. BUT at 6 yrs old both HD & enclosure are old

WE have 4 PVRs and up-graded the externals on all to larger, faster, cooler and quieter drives enclosed by all aluminum eSATA/USB3:0 externals with a continuous fan. All have been running continuous since without issue.

With more than 1,000 files the Multi-Delete was the favourite part of the last up-grade!
 
#213 ·
Thanks for all the help. We just got a new eHDD from Memory Express (which I recommend to anybody in Vancouver, Alberta or Winnipeg, it was worth the 3 hour trip), which they even set up. Fortunately, we were able to save a number of shows that were left that were still on the 630 itself. The new eHDD contains 2 TB's (actually 1.8 TB according to the info when plugged in), which is an improvement over the 1 TB one that crashed and burned.

And now it's working perfectly fine, and hasn't crashed since the new one was plugged in (although it is interesting to know that PVRs and eHDD actually take up very little energy, you do learn something everyday), and doesn't even delay.

On another note, we found out that the old eHDD was made in 2006, despite being bought in 2010, so I wouldn't have been surprised if it was refurbished or something.

Still once again, thanks for all the help.
 
#217 ·
Vantec Enclosure - NST-366SU3-BK

Has anyone had any experience using a Vantec NexStar 6G enclosure (NST-366SU3-BK) with the 630? Please note that there are three NexStar 6G enclosures but only one supports eSata externally - the NST-366SU3-BK. Thus, only this one may be compatible with the 630.

It has more bells and whistles than what is needed for the 630 (i.e., supports SATA III drives; uses both eSata and usb 3.0 externally), but these features may be useful for life after the 630 (whether with the 630's replacement or with a computer system). Specs can be found at:

Vantec ? Product

What concerns me is the following blurb from the above link:

"This NexStar 6G is also designed with smart and green features to extend the life of the drive by spinning down when the system goes to sleep thus saving energy when it is not in use."

In these circumstances, I often equate the word "green" with "not compatible with 24/7 use". However, this enclosure appears to be the one that a certain Canadian retailer packages with a 1TB or a 2TB drive as the "Vantec PVR Hard Drive Expander".

Thank you for any insights.
 
#218 ·
It Can't Breathe

I think you are right to be concerned about that. Also, I note that the website says "Aluminum Casing Cools Down Your Hard Drive". I would be much happier with a vented case. My "Velocity" enclosure makes a similar claim, but it gets real hot. I think it cooked my hard drive.

...What concerns me is the following blurb from the above link:

"This NexStar 6G is also designed with smart and green features to extend the life of the drive by spinning down when the system goes to sleep thus saving energy when it is not in use.".
 
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