Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

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
 
#131 ·
I had an unusual problem arise the other day (New Year's day, actually, nice way to start the year). This could just be a 630 problem, but because it involved my external HDD (a WD 1Tb PVR Expander) I'll post it here. In the early hours of New Year's Day I left the 630 recording a program with a couple more to go.

When I got up, the 630 display was stuck on 7:00; i.e. it appeared that the time was frozen at 7 o'clock, and the unit would not turn on (the bottom dot of the time colon flashed a couple of times, that's all). A couple of front-panel resets did nothing. Same with power and input signal cables disconnect. I then disconnected the eHDD and did another front panel reboot and the 630 returned to normal, with a message that it couldn't find the eHDD. It did have all my recordings listed, but grayed out, and I couldn't access them. I did another front panel reboot to 'reconnect' the 630 with the eHDD but the 630 again showed 7:00 (oh oh!)... then turned to 7:01 (time was passing, once again), and then just as I was despairing that this was going to be a big problem, the correct time appeared, the connection was reestablished with the eHDD, all my recordings were available, the timers were intact, and so on.

The only problem I've found is that one of those programs set to record during the early a.m. hours of New Year's Day stopped before completion (about 20 minutes into a 30 minute program). BTW, that program should have been finished long before 7:00 a.m. so I don't think that the 7:00 display reading was in fact the time (error code?).

I have only been using the eHDD for about 3 weeks, but it installed without incident and has been working fine, and even now I can't say that this event was its fault.
 
#135 ·
I wouldn't say that Bell uses USB2 with no problems. USB2 is too slow for glitch free, real time recording and playback of multiple streams. USB3 is much better but it will be years before it's available on digital receivers. That leaves eSATA, a fast, reliable, well established technology.
 
#136 ·
hooked up external, formatted fine, starting recording one show and receiver locked up. hdd is useless now. cant even get my pc to format it ntfs or anything. anyway my problem is receiver reboots once a day now and each time it asks if i want to remove hdd from receiver permanantly. i say yes. that one 10 second recording still shows on pvr listing as greyed out.

How can i permananetly remove the association to the external and get the recording off my listing?

external hasnt been hooked up to receiver since day one when it locked up
 
#142 ·
hooked up external, formatted fine, starting recording one show and receiver locked up. hdd is useless now. cant even get my pc to format it ntfs or anything.
I don't know if you got this sorted out already, but if you haven't diskpart from the command prompt in Windows should be able to detect the drive, clean out any proprietary partitioning information and restore the ability for Windows to see the drive and format it using NTFS.
 
#137 ·
Trying to get a unit that works for me has become a challenge. I have tried 2different eSata drives and neither worked (Lacie and Startech). Does anyone have a couple of suggestions of units (either complete or case/drive) that are working? I am looking for a 2TB drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
#144 ·
Having problems with my external drive. I believe it is the drive itself. I put an older seagate in an enclosure. It worked fine. We did notice on occasion during playback the 630 would freeze. Had to do a complete power cycle. Often it would freeze at the exact same point, so we would have to 'skip' over that part and continue watching. This became more frequent. I though it was a dying 630, but the longer I thought about it, I focused more on the ext-drive - always during playback.

Because the ext-drive was larger, most of the recordings would be saved there. So for the past few weeks I have disconnected the drive and started using the internal drive only. Problems have gone away. :)

But we have lots of shows still on the ext-drive. So here is what I do. If I need to watch a show from ext-drive (show is grey in DVR list), Make sure nothing is currently recording then reconnect drive and reboot. Watch your show. When finished, once again make sure nothing is recording, the simply disconnect ext-drive, no reboot required. Eventually you can flush out the recorded shows on the ext-drive.

I will replace the drive with something more reliable. I don't know what kind of error tracking, if any, is part of the file system used. I also did notice it got rather warm, so I will likely go with a green variety of drive with lower power consumption.
 
#145 ·
Just added a WD Green 2TB unit (WD20EXRS, $95) to a Vantec enclosure (NST-300SU-BK, $30) which has a dedicated external power supply and eSATA cable connection. I initially wanted a WD20EURS (same capacity but part of WD's 'entertainment' family) but couldn't find a domestic or reasonably priced one. WD tech support confirmed the EXRS is virtually identical to the EURS except that it is SATA III versus the SATA II EURS.

Installation was seamless and just like the 630 manual states, formatting was just a few seconds. Like other posters here, the recorded % went from 46% to 4%.

In researching the requirements and actually adding the eHDD, I had occasion to speak with three different Shaw support reps at various stages with different reasons to do so but used the opportunity to ask each a few identical questions for which I received completely different answers. (Scary!)

Finally determined:
1) You can in fact tell if the 630 can actually see the eHDD (besides just seeing the % change) after being told you couldn't twice and that of course is through the 977 diagnostic, screen R referred to earlier in this thread;

2) The 630 writes to the larger drive of the two drives first and only reverts to the other once the larger is full (confirmed by the most recent recordings being grayed out if the eHDD is switched off) and not the reverse, or 'randomly' as two of the techs advised.

But my question relates to the drive LED contained in the Vantec enclosure. It connects to the drive using a flat three holed plug that has only two of the holes wired, the centre and one outer. The plug connects to three pins on the drive but none of the documentation is clear as to which orientation to use to connect it. Does anyone know if it matters?

In my case, since the eHDD is an external unit powered by a dedicated AC power supply, the drive is always rotating and therefore, I'm assuming is why the blue LED on the front of the enclosure is constantly blinking.

Has everyone who has used a similar enclosure experienced this? Would reversing the LED plug provide a different result, such as it blinking only when the heads are accessing or writing to the discs? Even that, if achievable, may still be as annoying but at least less frequent.

I know I could make the switch and try it but anyone familiar with this enclosure will understand why you may not want to once everything is assembled and connected.

Appreciate your input.
 
#146 ·
The plug connects to three pins on the drive but none of the documentation is clear as to which orientation to use to connect it.
The LED only requires two wires. From what I have been able determine, the LED connector is designed to be connected either way and can be reversed. Since the LED appears to be working correctly, I wouldn't change it.

since the eHDD is an external unit powered by a dedicated AC power supply, the drive is always rotating and therefore, I'm assuming is why the blue LED on the front of the enclosure is constantly blinking.
The drive light blinks when the drive is accessed. The 630 accesses the drive even when it is turned "off." The light will be at a constant level when the drive is not being accessed.
 
#147 ·
Thanks. However, I'm not sure the LED is working correctly in that it is never constant, rather, it's always blinking, at least for the last 48 hours or so since it was first connected to the 630.

The second part of your response makes complete sense but since I've yet to witness a constantly lit level, I then have to ask what it is that would cause the eHDD to be constantly accessed while nothing is recording or being played back.
 
#148 ·
I just bout a Vantec NST-300SU-BK and a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB WD10EZEX for $104.00 taxes and shipping included.

I hope I wont have any trouble having it recognized by the DVR.

I already have a 1TB drive installed in the DVR but its bursting by the seams (I rarely delete stuff after viewing) so with this extra storage it will give me more time to get to watch recorded stuff before the dvr deletes it because of lack of space.
If only the unit was "smarter" and delete the viewed shows first instead of just deleting indiscriminatingly the shows by date.
 
#149 ·
Ochato,
Your setup looks very similar to mine so I can only expect you'll have no issues with the 630 recognizing your new eHDD. In fact, I've discovered after turning off my eHDD a few times using the rear mounted power switch that the 630 reboots and recognizes the eHDD every time it is powered back on.

Please be sure to report back on the behaviour of your NST-300SU-BK LED light once you're up and running.
 
#151 ·
Thanks for the update, glad to hear all went well.

I've since uncovered a few more details:

WD support have confirmed that their drives are designed to not only spin 24/7 but to read/write also. Their words, "Please know that WD20EZRX is intended to efficiently perform read-write 24/7 aside from just spinning. Furthermore, we no longer measure the reliability of our hard drives using Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF). Our current drive reliability is measured using Component Design Life (CDL) and Annualized Failure Rate (AFR). The Component Design Life of the drive is 5 years and the Annualized Failure Rate is less than 0.8%."

Shaw Direct tech support has finally explained why the drives are always at work, it's due to the 'Live-Off-Disk (LOD)' feature which I hadn't even been aware of previously. In other words, as long as you are tuned to a channel you are subscribed to, the drive is 'technically' recording whether the PVR is on or off. I say 'technically' inasmuch as the drives do not retain the info unless you choose to save it and the minute you change the channel, the unsaved data is deleted.

As for the blinking light, I considered simply un-plugging it but decided I'd prefer knowing when the drive is working so I simply filled the slot at the front of the enclosure with a piece of black foam along its full height eliminating having to see the chrome strip which doesn't suit my environment and masking the light enough that you wouldn't know it is blinking unless you really make an effort to watch for it. The degree to which you want to see the light can be adjusted simply by varying the thickness of the foam you cut.

If you don't relish the idea of knowing that you internal and external hard drives are always 'working', I've found that if I tune to a channel I don't subscribe to, (greyed out), the disc activity light goes solid. This is a procedure we use before shutting things off. The only downside is when you go to power up your equipment, the screen is solid black which can lead some household members to think the TV isn't on.

One last thing about the Vantec enclosure (NST-300SU-BK) is that there is no cushioning whatsoever provided with the unit and in my setup, I was able to hear the occasional sound from the drive during totally silent periods. By placing the base on a thin foam rubber sheet (I used something called Grip Ultra Liner) there are no detectable sounds whatsoever.
 
#152 ·
Getting very frustrated with the external hard drive connected to my 630 pvr. I installed a 2TB Buffalo meeting all the requirements as I could not find anything in my area listed on the website. First it had trouble recognising the drive, then when it does, it says its formatting but no lights are flashing and I wait and wait. Finally after an unplug power down, it formats. On the last upgrade it lost the hard drive address and wouldn't recognise the drive. I lost everything. I reformatted and it worked great for 6 weeks. Everything froze one evening after deleting a show. I rebooted everything and was surprised to find that everything worked great...for a week. Tonight I was watching a show and the screen froze. I was able to exit out of the pvr and my screen was black. I waited, but nothing came on. I rebooted the over and external, first it said the external was not connected, but it was. Second reboot it said it was a new drive. Third reboot and waiting 20 min between start up, it said the drive was not connected. No matter what I did, it will not recognise the drive so again I lost everything. It was up to 26%. This is maddening! Shaw direct is sending my second 630 now. But no compensation for their crappy equipment or pvr programming. Has anyone else had any problems like this?
 
#156 ·
esata hrd drive with 630

Now that I have my 3rd receiver installed and the 2TB hard drive attached, thing worked great until the 9.22 update. When I turned on the unit after the update it wouldn't recognise my hard drive. I powered down the hard drive and restarted both the 630 and the drive, but it still didn't recognise it. In the system status it said error: file system unrec. So I unplugged both for 2 or 3 minutes, restarted both and everything has worked great for 4 or 5 days. I cross my fingers, but everything is fine now.
 
#157 ·
Picked up a Vantec enclosure + Seagate 2TB 7200RPM HD.
Plugged in the esata and external power rebooted pvr and voila 72%->8%.
Very quick and easy.
Now that there is more HD content (and the kid loves hitting the record button) now I don't have to prune past shows. Very happy
Thanks or all the advanced advise
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top