HR-21 and an ESATA hard drive

[faust0068]

Hello

I just upgraded from a HR-20 to an HR-21 and I can't get the HR-21 to write to my ESATA drive. It recognizes the (as I boot the receiver the hard drive's light flickers) but it does write to it.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks
Todd

[Capmeister]

Check all your connections? My eSata is on my HR21 and it works fine. Power up and boot the drive for a minute and THEN power up the HR21 and see if that helps.

[faust0068]

Check all your connections? My eSata is on my HR21 and it works fine. Power up and boot the drive for a minute and THEN power up the HR21 and see if that helps.

Thanks. I've tried and it doesn't seem to help.

[STEVEN-H]

What brand esata are you using? HR21's do not work with the FreeAgent Pro.

[faust0068]

What brand esata are you using? HR21's do not work with the FreeAgent Pro.

Its a Thecus enclosure with two WD 500 gb drives .

Todd

[russdog]

Its a Thecus enclosure with two WD 500 gb drives .

Todd
Don't know about that one, but most eSATA drives don't work with with HR21's or HR22's.
Only a very few do.
Nobody knows why.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=142735

[Capmeister]

I'm using a WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EVCS 1TB AV GP SATA II 3.5IN
with a Antec MX-1 Actively Cooled Hard Drive Enclosure.

[faust0068]

I'm using a WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EVCS 1TB AV GP SATA II 3.5IN
with a Antec MX-1 Actively Cooled Hard Drive Enclosure.

Thanks! I ordered your same setup from Amazon.

Again thanks for the help.

[Capmeister]

Thanks! I ordered your same setup from Amazon.

Again thanks for the help.

Let us know how it goes!

[faust0068]

Let us know how it goes!

Hello

I set up my drive on Friday, at first everything seemed to go ok. The receiver would wrtie to the new drive, but I couldn't watch any shows off of it.

Also it would freeze up, or need to be rebooted. Yesterday I went and bought another esata cable to see if that would help, and I was stuck on the "Directv logo Step 1 of 2 screen" for 6 hours.

I finally unplugged the drive.

ANy suggestions?

Todd

[Richierich]

I would Format the Hard Drive/Drives on your PC, then attach them to Your DVR, Power Up Your External Drive Fully and then Power on your DVR!!!

Formatting the drive on your PC seems to make the process easier for the DVR to recognize the external drive.

[faust0068]

I would Format the Hard Drive/Drives on your PC, then attach them to Your DVR, Power Up Your External Drive and then Power on your DVR!!!

Formatting the drive on your PC seems to make the process easier for the DVR to recognize the external drive.

Ok Great. I will try that and let you know how it worked.

Thanks!

[faust0068]

I would Format the Hard Drive/Drives on your PC, then attach them to Your DVR, Power Up Your External Drive Fully and then Power on your DVR!!!

Formatting the drive on your PC seems to make the process easier for the DVR to recognize the external drive.

Should I do a full format or a quick?

[techguy40]

Also should he format fat32 or ntfs?

[russdog]

Hello

I set up my drive on Friday, at first everything seemed to go ok. The receiver would wrtie to the new drive, but I couldn't watch any shows off of it.

Also it would freeze up, or need to be rebooted. Yesterday I went and bought another esata cable to see if that would help, and I was stuck on the "Directv logo Step 1 of 2 screen" for 6 hours.

I finally unplugged the drive.

ANy suggestions?

Todd
No harm in using your PC to format it. Try it both ways and see.
We have lots of reports from folks who use the Antec MX-1 without formatting their HDD, and it works fine.
Some folks do format the HDD first. It doesn't seem to matter with the WD's. (Not sure about the Seagates.)

There are two similar-but-different WD10 HDD's: the WD10EACS and the WD10EVCS.
While most reports about the WD10EVCS are positive, we have a couple reports from folks who said they got one that didn't work.
Not sure, but I think one person just turned the eSATA cable around, swapping which end went into which box, and that fixed it.
Others reported that they returned the WD10EAVS for a replacement (same model), and the replacement did work.
I don't recall seeing reports of the same issue with the WD10EACS, but I could be wrong.

[Rich]

No harm in using your PC to format it. Try it both ways and see.
We have lots of reports from folks who use the Antec MX-1 without formatting their HDD, and it works fine.
Some folks do format the HDD first. It doesn't seem to matter with the WD's. (Not sure about the Seagates.)

My Cuda 1TB made it thru three football games yesterday without a glitch. And it wasn't formatted prior to putting into the Antec enclosure. If I get no glitches today and tomorrow while watching football, I will be buying a few more Cudas and Antecs to replace my 750s.

There are two similar-but-different WD10 HDD's: the WD10EACS and the WD10EVCS.
While most reports about the WD10EVCS are positive, we have a couple reports from folks who said they got one that didn't work.

Not sure, but I think one person just turned the eSATA cable around, swapping which end went into which box, and that fixed it.

I had that same problem with FAPs when I first started using eSATAs and reversing the jumper eSATA cables seemed to fix the problem. But then I swapped eSATAs and swapped back and got confused about which end was which (I know, I should have marked them), and after a while I came to the conclusion that it didn't matter which end went where. The problem seemed to be more in the "seating" of the cable than in which end went where.

Others reported that they returned the WD10EAVS for a replacement (same model), and the replacement did work.
I don't recall seeing reports of the same issue with the WD10EACS, but I could be wrong.

Be interesting to call WD and ask them what the difference is in the two drives. When I called them about the MyBook series of eSATAs they were very forthright in their answers.

Rich

[Starrbuck]

My HR20 will not run on a Seagate 7200.11 1TB drive, but the HR21 has no issues with it.

[Git]

I bought two of the WD10EVCS hard drives for use with the Antex MX-1 enclosure. One worked fine but the other one locked up a couple of times within the first couple of days. That is why I like to buy from Amazon - I simply reported a problem with it and they sent me out a replacement drive and enclosure and paid for the shipping. The second setup has worked flawlessly now for a couple of months

[Rose]

When I fist hooked up my ESATA drive to my HR21, it didn't work. On discussion with others, the cable was suspect. Ordering a high quality ESATA II cable solved the problem.

[Spawn666948]

I would Format the Hard Drive/Drives on your PC, then attach them to Your DVR, Power Up Your External Drive Fully and then Power on your DVR!!!

Formatting the drive on your PC seems to make the process easier for the DVR to recognize the external drive.
+1. I was having problems also with a brand new esata drive. HR21 just refused to use it. Then, using my laptop, I decided to format it with NTFS (Quick) and it seems to work now.

[faust0068]

+1. I was having problems also with a brand new esata drive. HR21 just refused to use it. Then, using my laptop, I decided to format it with NTFS (Quick) and it seems to work now.

Hello

I ordered a new hard drive from amazon, formatted it and it worked. I'm sending the other one back.

Thanks for all the help!
Todd

[carl6]

I just purchased a new Seagate Xtreme drive & my HR21 wont reconize it. I was using an older Seagate drive with my HR20 then when i switched it to the 21 it showed the programs that was recorded on the 20 but that drive refused to work with the 21. I thought maybe the drive had crapped out. Any suggestions?

Not sure what you mean. If you mean that you took an external drive that was connected to an HR20 and moved it to an HR21, then you will NOT be able to watch anything that was recorded while connected to the HR20, but should be able to record on the HR21. If you do record on the HR21, then move the drive back to the original HR20, all of the HR20 recorded shows will work, but the ones recorded while connected to the HR21 will not work.

In other words, you can only view a recording on the same DVR that it was made on.

[Richierich]

I believe that the DVR appends it's Serial Number to each recording and then checks it during the initiation of playback to see if it was recorded on that DVR. If so it let's you view it else it aborts the viewing process.

[maddog707]

Not sure what you mean. If you mean that you took an external drive that was connected to an HR20 and moved it to an HR21, then you will NOT be able to watch anything that was recorded while connected to the HR20, but should be able to record on the HR21. If you do record on the HR21, then move the drive back to the original HR20, all of the HR20 recorded shows will work, but the ones recorded while connected to the HR21 will not work.

In other words, you can only view a recording on the same DVR that it was made on.

The drive I was using with the HR20 was a 750GB Seagate when I moved it to the HR21 it didnt read it @ all. Yesterday I bought a new Seagate Xtreme 1.5TB drive thinking the older drive had crapped out. It didnt read the new drive either.

[Richierich]

Have you reformatted the drive via your PC. Sometimes that helps even though your drive has already been formatted but it could also be that the eSATA cable is loose, etc.

Did you fully power up your externa drive before you powered up your DVR???

[maddog707]

Have you reformatted the drive via your PC. Sometimes that helps even though your drive has already been formatted but it could also be that the eSATA cable is loose, etc.

Did you fully power up your externa drive before you powered up your DVR???

Yes I did all of those things. The DVR hasnt read my older Seagate drive or the new 1 I jus purchased. The cable was securely pluged in on both ends because when u take the cable out of the eSata port on the DVR the hard drive turns off.