SA8300HD - External SATA Drive Works, Please Read Post 1 and Post 1 Links

[slyboy]

jlet,
I too would be interested in seeing some pictures of that setup. I'd also like to know what the noise level is like... I'm guessing that fan is almost noiseless?

[jlet]

I don't have a digital camera, so can't provide a picture but I used common sense for the setup. The enclosure is a standard double decker 36" wide TV stand. The larger bottom deck has smoked glass doors with an oval opening in the back for the cables, and a top-rear slit opening for ventilation. Both the SA8300HD and external drive are in the bottom deck. The SA8300HD sits on top of 2 old (unused) VCRs, and the external drive is on the left of the SA8300HD with an air gap of about 2.5" on both sides. I use the popular Vantec NexStar3 case for the external drive. The Vantec rests on its side on top of a piece of foam to damp its low frequency vibration. The PC fan is placed on top of the Vantec case at its front end. I screwed 2 large plastic corks at the base of the fan to prevent it from tipping. I also experimented with the height of the fan (by placing spacers under the foam pad) to find the optimal height. In my case, the optimal height was when the top of the fan lined up with the center of the SA8300HD. The fan is near the front of the glass door (~2.5") blowing air toward the back across the Vantec large flat surface. The air exits via the cable opening (at the back of the stand) and enters from the top-rear slit going above and around the front of SA8300HD to complete the air flow path. The front of the SA8300HD and VCRs are also near the glass (~2.5"). This provides a front channel for the air flow. That air flow path amazed me.

The 12 V fan is powered with a 6 V (not 12 V) switching type AC adapter (from "The Source"). The fan is very quiet at 6 V and provides a gentle breeze cooling down both the Vantec case and the SA8300HD PVR. I bought the large 120x25mm SilenX 12 V PC fan online from bigfootcomputers.com (Code 1036), and the 6 Vdc switching type AC adapter from "The Source" (part # 2731763).

[ilyo]

I received my DVR expander today...well for those that don't feel like messing with finding the proper SATA cable, compatible enclosure, etc. Well then this is for you. 500GB drive in a nice solid enclosure...ready to go for less then 200 bucks! Take out of box...follow the simple steps outlined in post#1 and you are up and running!!

Nice and easy!

[rfielder]

Just tried an experiment, and it seems to have worked.

Had a 500Gb Seagate 7200.11 SATA drive in a Vantec case. It seemed to be OK, not too hot. It had a couple of shows captured, one in hidef, one in SD.

Just moved that drive into an Antec MX-1 case, and attached it to the PVR. The PVR found the space, and has no trouble viewing the shows!

I went to the Antec MX-1 case because it has a fan. The Seagate 7200.11 seem to have a fair number of failure reports in some places, plus I am putting this case into a somewhat enclosed area, so I wanted the best protection for the drive possible.

So far, so good. If it is still running well a year from now, I will be happy.....

I think this makes me the second person with the MX-1 case here to report success.

[rfielder]

I just did a bit of work on a drive that had been attached to my PVR. This is a Seagate 200Gb 7200.7 AT3200822AS.

It was attached to my 8300HD with a Vantec case, and worked well. However, I didn't like the heat being generated by the case, so I pulled it before any shows could be stored on the drive. It has been replaced by a 500Gb drive in an Antec MX-1 case - and that case has a fan.

When it was attached to the PVR, it was used to capture one show, and view the show, to ensure all was OK. That test went well. The PVR also showed a huge jump in available space.

What was very strange was when the drive was attached to a PC. It was reporting only 128Gb space available.

Just had a chance to attach it through the Vantec case and check the drive using XP's Disk Managment utility. Sure enough, it had been partitioned, with a 128Gb partition, and 56Gb of unused space.

That means that less than the entire drive was used by the PVR!

Anyone else ran into this?

I think I will pull the drive now attached to the PVR, plug it into another PC, and see if the full capacity of that drive has been used.....

[57]

You can check the capacity of the HDD when connected to the PVR by going into the diagnostics of the PVR. One of the pages (I believe around page 30) shows the drive size, etc.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719

[schteevie]

I'd like to report I set up the recommeded 500 gig WD drive with the vantec nexstar3 case about a year ago, and had flawless operation until this month...

I am now getting regular glitches (maybe one or two per hour) where the picture and sound will flicker, macro block and/or stop for up to 15 seconds at a time.

It has been there during live TV and whn I watch recordings... but I was never sure if it was my drive or the broadcat.. Then I noticed it one day while watching live TV with a recording going on an other channel... I switched over and checked the recording and sure enough the same duration of glitch happened at that point in the recording, so I know i was my local drive and not the broadcaster...
Is it safe to say running the drive 24/7 will cause it to fail wth in a year?

the drive is now worth $79 (compared to $130 when I got it), so at that price I don't mind replacing once per year.

[Jake]

schteevie, if the external HDD and PVR has been "up" for a long time it may benefit from a cold reboot (switch off and pull power cords). Mine will occasionally get that way.

[57]

Also make sure you check your signal strength and S/N ratio - link in the post above yours. If it happens with live programming (for example when you switch to a new channel), then it's likely not the HDD itself.

[schteevie]

my drive has been up for over 6 months (I use a UPS) so I'll try a power down and cold reboot...
I'll also look into that signal strength thing... thanks guys!

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by schteevie

my drive has been up for over 6 months (I use a UPS) so I'll try a power down and cold reboot...

Wasn't there a discussion, which included a recommendation to do this about once a month for the 8300HD PVR?

[scottwin]

Check the WD website Schteevie and key in your serial #, you'll likely find your warranty will cover a replacement. Haven't done this yet myself but my HDD is good for a 2 year warranty when I checked. As long as you have proof of purchase you should be golden.

[macemuscle]

As I had previously reported, my 1TB Apricorn DVR eXpander failed back in early June (started with freezing/glitches on some recordings, then some recordings became unplayable and then finally the drive was no longer recognized by the PVR). Also as I had mentioned, the culprit seemed to be the 1TB WD drive inside (the enclosure seemed to work fine with another drive when I was troubleshooting). Anyway, after speaking with Apricorn’s tech support, they asked me to ship them the old unit and said they will replace it.

Finally, I have received the replacement unit yesterday. I installed and did a little bit of testing and everything seems to be in order. It seems that they have sent me a brand new unit. Also, the new unit’s power indicator light is now green instead of red. Not sure if this means that they have made some changes to the enclosure (otherwise it looks identical to my old one).

I still don’t know why the WD drive failed. It had worked flawlessly for 6 months so I’m hoping that was a fluke and I don’t have to go through this again in 6 months. Btw has anyone else using the 1TB WD drive have any problems with it??

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by macemuscle

I still don’t know why the WD drive failed. It had worked flawlessly for 6 months so I’m hoping that was a fluke and I don’t have to go through this again in 6 months. Btw has anyone else using the 1TB WD drive have any problems with it??

Sorry if there are details earlier in this discussion - I could not find them.

One true enemy of hard drives is heat. How is the enclosure cooled? Does it have a fan?

[macemuscle]

The enclosure has a fan... I don't recall the old one running too hot, but I'm 100% sure... I'll need to check the new one and see how hot it's running