Adding a SATA Drive To Pace HDPVRs.

[Jetranger]

Have you tried powering down both units, powering up the Expander and then the Tahoe about a minute later?

I would also highly recommend getting a UPS. Even a small one for $50 or so would be better than nothing and could save you a lot of headaches from problems like this in the future.

[Brent McKee]

Originally Posted by Jetranger

Have you tried powering down both units, powering up the Expander and then the Tahoe about a minute later?

I would also highly recommend getting a UPS. Even a small one for $50 or so would be better than nothing and could save you a lot of headaches from problems like this in the future.

I tried this after reading your post and had no luck. I'm pretty much convinced that the expander drive is dead even if the indicator light still glows. I'll see about getting a replacement expander in a few days. Unfortunately the only ones available are all 1 TB units and I know that the Tahoe was restricted as to the amount of drive space it could use.

The UPS is something I should get, although its something I rarely think about when it comes to TV and TV related equipment, and I should.

[Jetranger]

You should also try a different eSata cable as previously suggested in this thread. That could be a much cheaper fix for you if it's the problem. You can even try unplugging and replugging the one you have now.

[nuckscelts]

Hi guys. Just want to start off by apologizing as I'm sure this has been asked 1 million times but I am on a slow phone and will take forever to browse. I have shaw hd cable with an hd pace dc758d anyways I have a brand new e sata hard drive encloser and a 750gig western hard drive in it. I powered down hd box, plugged in external hard drive let stand for a minute and re booted hd box. Didn't ask me to format and when I press list command says DVR service is unavailable or not connected. Do I need to pre formatt hard drive. Any help to as what I am doing wrong, let me know. Thanks so much in advance.




Kurtis.

[GamerGuy]

By "powered down" do you mean via power button or unplugging the power cord?

The latter is what you want to do. I used to own the same box.

You do not want to format the drive in advance. Just leave it blank and the Pace box will do what it needs to do.

[nuckscelts]

I did both.

[billdag]

I've got a couple of 758D's and have been playing with them for the last 2 - 3 Yrs. Been pretty reliable since the last big firmware but for one thing - the hard drives are clattering incessantly even when shut down. Would be nice if they just spun silently but the heads are working furiously 90% of the time. This cannot be good for the longevity of the hard drive. Just replaced a WD20EADS installed in a Vantec eSATA case. Got 3 yrs out of it but it was just thrashed at the end. New sector errors coming up every day.
Anyway, I've added lots of hard drives off and on and this is the procedure I've used successfully all this time:
1) Turn off Pace box and unplug
2) Turn off ext. Hard Drive and unplug power and SATA cable.
3) Plug power back in and turn on Hard drive. Wait 10 - 15 seconds.
4) Plug SATA cable back in
5) Plug in power cable for Pace 758D
6) Pace does a little diagnostic warm up and then should ask if you want to format Hard drive (assuming it's a new hard drive that hasn't done its handshake with the 758 yet).
click the right > and then click OK/Select and wait a minute or two while the hard drive formats.
7) After the red light comes on and you turn on the machine, you may have to wait a few minutes until the hard drive is recognized.

ON ANOTHER NOTE - I bought some tools to remove the case cover and security screws. There is a nice bit of room inside for a 2.5" laptop hard drive as well as a convenient power source (just like a computer). So I popped in a 500GB and attached it with a regular SATA cable to the SATA connection that was originally intended for the external eSATA connection. It formatted beautifully and has been wroking fine for the last 12 Hrs. or so. The best part is that the noisy hard drive issues are gone. They're not really gone, it's just that the little laptop HD doesn't make much noise.
I also replaced the 500GB in my DCX3400 with a WD20EARX 2TB. Works great and all 2TB are recognized.
It is kind of nice to not have to deal with external hard drives if you don't need to.

[nuckscelts]

I followed that step by step, and nothing. a bunch of numbers a808a and c847c (for example) and some dashs, never asked to connect to anything.. Hmmm

[nuckscelts]

I cant think of anything. I bought a brand new wd 750gb sata drive put in the enclosure. And followed all those steps.

The format step never happens. It comes up on the small digital screen? Mine does a few codes then the button turns red

[Jetranger]

Did you try waiting longer on Step #3? I would suggest a minimum of 30 seconds and probably more like a minute or even longer. Just a suggestion as I have had that happen on occasion but I don't have your specific model of PVR.

[nuckscelts]

I took your advise, re did all steps, and let this external boot for a good 3 minutes, it paused on a05a for 2 minutes, then went to a41a then booted up and asked me if i would like to format the hard drive (was so stoked) I pressed okay, and it said "Unable to format hard drive" Perhaps this wasn't meant to be hahaha. Jeez. ever had this problem?


Update, thought I would retry, it all booted up, asked to format right away, and worked successfully. all is working well. Thanks so much guys.

[Jetranger]

Great news, thanks for sharing. Moral of the story when trying to connect a stubborn external drive: try, try again.

[nuckscelts]

Haha. For sure. Also I am running a western digital 750G hard drive in a nexstar 3x enclosure, its silent. Dont hear it at all even in a silent room

[008]

Any hint on how to setup 2.5" SATA HDD with the Pace DC758?

I think it may have timing issue. When I used the Pace USB port to power the 2.5" SATA HDD, the Pace never detect the drive. When I switched the 2.5" enclosure to use external USB power, then turn on the Pace after the HDD, the Pace detects it. Is it by-design? Anyway to avoid the external power adapter?

thanks

[frosty vibe]

Thanks for the great tips guys!

I was able to re-purpose a 500gb Comstar external HHD that has a USB 2.0 interface to a PVR expander.

I took apart the original HDD which has a Hitachi HDD inside, I then went the local computer store and bought a Vantec NST300 which has USB 2.0 and e-SATA for $25.

The first time I hooked up the external HDD, it didn't work and the PVR seemed to have erased all the previously recorded contents. *panic*

So I unhooked everything and followed the instructions very closely and waited the proper amount of time for each step then viola!

The PVR was about 86% full with about 16 hours of HD recording on it. Now's down to 15% and I figure I should be able to have about 100 hours of HD contents.

One minor side effect of the upgrade was the "info" for the existing shows were erased, so it only shows the titles but no summary/plots anymore. The new recordings are all fine.

Thought I'd share my experience.