External Hard Drive Problems and Discussion - See Facts Link in Post 1.

[Treetops]

Is there any way to force a reformat from the receiver?

If not, should I try reformatting on my PC, then reformat by receiver?

Don't have another HD to try. So why not do reformat...if all else failed?

[ScaryBob]

Connect it to a PC and remove all partitions with Windows Disk Manager. The 6131 will format it when connected again.

[Treetops]

Departitioned and reformatted but it made no difference. 6141 recordings still freeze randomly on playback.
Am now checking the HD using WD extended test sector check tool (8 hrs for 1TB disk!!!). If results are good, I will again departition and reformat.

Short of replacing the HD, this seems to be my last option!

[Goosey]

I just picked up a Vantec NexStar CX NST-300SU-BK with a WD10EARS to connect to my 6131. Like some here, I could not get it to work. I've tried the steps recommended by ScaryBob to no avail. The problem is the enclosure because using my WD10EARS connected to my Thermaltake hard drive dock was sensed and formatted by my receiver quickly and without problems.

Since I'm not the only one who has had trouble getting the CX and WD10EARS combo to work, I wonder why this was recommended in the first place? Did some of us just get a bad batch? I've tried using my Thermaltake hard drive dock power adapter to power the CX and that didn't help. The power adapter for the CX is the Opti PA226SA. The ones that have been identified as defective here is one without the S (not sure if it makes any difference).

Anyhow, any advice on getting the CX to work or an alternative enclosure? The CX works connected to my PC so I won't be able to return it as defective I don't think.

[ScaryBob]

My two CX enclosures have been solid as a rock with WD hard drives and 6131 and 9242 receivers. However, they were purchased was a couple of years ago and Vantec may have made changes since then. First there was the power supply issue. It's quite likely that other changes have been made. WD has changed their hard drives as well.

The CX works connected to my PC so I won't be able to return it as defective I don't think.

Some people exchanged defective external hard drives because they did not work on Bell receivers. They should be compatible with all equipment that adheres to USB standards. That, of course, assumes that Bell receivers implement USB protocols correctly.

[Goosey]

Originally Posted by ScaryBob

My two CX enclosures have been solid as a rock with WD hard drives and 6131 and 9242 receivers. However, they were purchased was a couple of years ago and Vantec may have made changes since then. First there was the power supply issue. It's quite likely that other changes have been made. WD has changed their hard drives as well.


Some people exchanged defective external hard drives because they did not work on Bell receivers. They should be compatible with all equipment that adheres to USB standards. That, of course, assumes that Bell receivers implement USB protocols correctly.

Thanks ScaryBob. The CX I have is the one with eSATA. I wonder if it makes a difference. Sifting throught the thread it seems that the CX works fine with the 9241/9242s and even the 6141 but not the 6131 as many are having problems these days.

Now I just have to decide whether to try another enclosure or just stick with my BlacX dock.

[Treetops]

Update: after departitioning and testing my WD 1TB Mybook HD using WD extended test tools, the drive was perfect. I then wrote zeros to all sectors using the same tool. Then plugged it into the 6141 and reformatted. Absolutely no improvement.
The system continues to stall randomly on playback and seems to get worst as the playback continues. Also the amount of stall time varies from a second to many minutes and no amount of button pushing gets it un-stalled.
This drive worked perfectly for 2 years until a few months ago. I'm pretty sure the 6141 is the problem. Tech support knows of no problems with the 6141.

I'm at V168 software. Is this the latest? Do you know when it updated to this version?
Next step is to borrow and test with another HD...........unless someone has a better idea!!!

[sctlenz]

I am having the same issue with a sea gate 1tb drive. It worked great up until 10 days ago and now starts randomly freezing as you describe. I am also wondering if changes have been made to the 6131 receiver.

[Treetops]

Talked to Western Digital tech support yesterday who told me their MyBook Essential was not meant to be compatible when used as an EHD on sat. receivers..... despite the fact that it may have worked.
He said I should be using their "Mybook Essential AV DVR Expander" which was tested for compatabilty with sat. receivers.
Had not heard of these before. I see they are about $30 more than regular Mybook.
Anybody tried these with a 6141 or other Bell receivers?

[Westvu]

Originally Posted by Spadez2316

Hey I was wondering if this one would work with my 6131 because the other one listed above isn't available in my area. it's a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB External Desktop Hard Drive (STAA500102)


Thanks for any and all help

Yes it will as long as you turn the sleep mode to "never" before connecting to the sat receiver. I have two 1TB and one 2TB and all work just fine.

[thatmarkguy]

I see from the 'facts' thread the following question and answer:

Q: Is it possible to re-plug the EHD into your laptop or computer and watch or copy recordings?
A: No




But my question that I've not seen explicitly answered (saskman asked in February but nobody answered) is: what happens when I do connect a Bell-content-loaded external hard drive to a Windows machine? Does it simply not allow file system access but otherwise leave the hard drive untouched? Does it prompt to format but if you refuse leaves the drive untouched? Or does it forcibly and automatically initiate a format or otherwise neuter/corrupt the contents?

In a nutshell: I've got a hard drive full of programming, but this hard drive does have a sleep mode (so if I want to archive anything to it I need to unplug and replug the USB to 'wake it up'). I have recently discovered that I could use a manufacturer utility on a Windows PC to disable sleep mode, but I don't want to connect this HDD to my PC if that act alone will erase/corrupt/lock my archived recordings. If I can plug it into my PC, run the utility to disable sleep mode, and reconnect it to my Bell box without losing the archived files I'd be a happy man. Do you know if I can do this?

[ScaryBob]

The CX I have is the one with eSATA

I have the USB only models on the Bell receivers. Also have a couple of the USB+eSATA Vantec NexStar III enclosures and they can be flaky at times.

[Treetops]

An update to my quest to get my WD Mybook Essential working again without randomly stalling on playback on my 6141;
I finally gave up and had Western Digital send me a relacement Mybook 1TB unit under warranty. I am happy to say the replacement is working flawlessly.

[Princie1]

Originally Posted by thatmarkguy

what happens when I do connect a Bell-content-loaded external hard drive to a Windows machine? Does it simply not allow file system access but otherwise leave the hard drive untouched? Does it prompt to format but if you refuse leaves the drive untouched? Or does it forcibly and automatically initiate a format or otherwise neuter/corrupt the contents?

No OS should automatically format a drive so nothing should happen. From my experience the drive will be there as an unusable, unformated drive, and you cannot access the information from within windows.

You may be able to shut off sleep mode from Windows, but I highly doubt it as the drive is now Linux based. If you boot into a Linux based OS (ie Ubuntu) you may be able to turn off sleep mode if this can be done through Linux.

At the very least you can boot into Linux, move all the info to another drive, format your drive to a Windows based drive, disable sleep mode in Windows, plug it back into your receiver, format it to Linux, boot back into Linux, and move everything back to the drive. This process will take a long, long time however. A slightly faster method would be to plug another drive into your receiver and move recordings from drive to drive that way.

In my opinion, the unplugging and plugging back in wouldn't really be that much of a hassle compared to what I discribed above.

[ScaryBob]

Sleep mode parameters are set and stored in the drive's firmware area so it does not matter how the drive is formatted. Different makes and models of drives support different options so it may not be possible to turn sleep mode off, though it is possible on most drives. Under Linux, hdparm can be used to set drive parameters such as sleep mode. Under Windows, some drive makers provide utilities to set drive parameters. Don't know of any general purpose utility for Windows but there may be one.