[aleicgrant]

I have spent 2 weeks trying to get my 2tb esta enclosure back to life. I have done reboots, plug unplug etc etc etc and no matter what I do I cant get it to show up. I have about 1.7tb of movies on there and will be CRUSHED. I have a sig esata cable, do they go bad often??? I did a CE push with the drive connected and ever since then it has never shown up again. I have reverted to the national releases.

HELP HELP HELP I AM READY TO JUMP OUT THE WINDOW

its a cooldrives estata enclosure:

http://www.cooldrives.com/2rasyfor3sah.html

2 western digital green drives that have both worked flawlessly since Oct 07

 

[Paul A]

sounds like a software issue related to the CE. What would be the chances of a hardware failure at the same time of a CE push? Any chances to try another hard drive in the enclosure to eliminate a hardware problem???

 

[aleicgrant]

I do happen to have another drive which I am going to try and see what happens.

Assuming it recognizes the drive, what then would you think the issue is. I assume that even if one of the drives failed, the other would still show up?

 

[aleicgrant]

what mode should I put the enclosure in with just one hard drive. before it was in spanning

 

[Paul A]

I do happen to have another drive which I am going to try and see what happens.

Assuming it recognizes the drive, what then would you think the issue is. I assume that even if one of the drives failed, the other would still show up?

I assume you were in a raid 0 configuration if you recorded 1.7tb of data. Both drives would be recognized only as a single drive (but with 2TB of storage). If one drive did fail, the other drive would not be recognized. The system records to both drives simultaneously splitting up the data. If one drive fails, half the data is lost and the system would not know what to do with half the data missing.

I would say try the other drive to rule out a bad cable, bad enclosure, or bad drive in your current setup.

Paul

 

[Paul A]

what mode should I put the enclosure in with just one hard drive. before it was in spanning

Hmmm, what are your options? Spanning might be the setting for raid 0 but there is no special mode, just "regular" mode for one drive.

 

[aleicgrant]

RAID Level: Striping (RAID 0), Spanning, Mirroring (RAID 1), JBOD

 

[aleicgrant]

this is accomplished by a set of dip switches

 

[Paul A]

what mode should I put the enclosure in with just one hard drive. before it was in spanning

OK, after look at the website it has raid 0 which is stripe mode, or raid 1 which appears to be spanning or mirroring, and JBOD mode.

If you were in spanning (mirroring) mode I think you were making a backup of everything you were recording. I would think if this was the case and one of your drives failed you could still read data off the "good" backup drive.

You might try each of your current drives (one at a time) in Jbod mode. If that doesn't work, try your spare drive (it will reformat that drive so anything on that drive would be lost.

Good luck

 

[aleicgrant]

ok I put in another 750gb that I had and set it to jbod. Power light comes on but when I record something no activity on the enclosure. I did a full reset from the interface but does that wipe the shows on the internal drive? I had some one there and now they are gone. Does that mean its accessing the external or did the hard reset from the menu wipe the internal

weirdness.

 

[aleicgrant]

well its either the cable or the drive. I put the new hd in, did the menu reset and recorded two shows. Went to play one and shut down the enclosure and it kept playing so its running on the internal drive.

My guess is its the enclosure itself.

 

[harsh]

Spanning=JBOD

While some organizations call striping spanning, spanning is just what it sounds like: stacking many drives into one very makeshift volume. It has two advantages over striping in that it can be done with disparate drives and one drive going south may not destroy the whole "volume", but otherwise, it is not a very good system.

 

[Paul A]

ok I put in another 750gb that I had and set it to jbod. Power light comes on but when I record something no activity on the enclosure. I did a full reset from the interface but does that wipe the shows on the internal drive? I had some one there and now they are gone. Does that mean its accessing the external or did the hard reset from the menu wipe the internal

weirdness.

i dont think you internal drive would get wiped due to resets. you are probably accessing the external. try unplugging the external, if you recordings show back up you are then accessing your internal drive. if that happens you have successfully accessed both external and internal drives

 

[aleicgrant]

it did because I turned off the power to the external and fired up the receiver again and all shows are gone except the two I just tried recording. I find the possibility of a cord going bad hard to believe but I am more and more convinced its the enclosure since I never see any blue activity lights any more.

 

[Paul A]

well its either the cable or the drive. I put the new hd in, did the menu reset and recorded two shows. Went to play one and shut down the enclosure and it kept playing so its running on the internal drive.

My guess is its the enclosure itself.

to test the envlosure, do you have a computer with an esata connector? if so, try plugging in the drive enclosure with the spare drive. if the computer recognizes the external spare drive your hardware is working fine

 

[Paul A]

it did because I turned off the power to the external and fired up the receiver again and all shows are gone except the two I just tried recording. I find the possibility of a cord going bad hard to believe but I am more and more convinced its the enclosure since I never see any blue activity lights any more.

could be - test the enclosure with your spare drive on you computer if you can or replace your enclosure

good luck

Paul

 

[Alebob911]

i am sure you have tried this but make sure both ends of the eSata cable are FIRMLY seated. I had mine come loose after about 4 months of use and one day my HR20-700 was not working. I reset the receiver and saw all of my old shows on the internal drive. I checked both ends of the eSata cable and saw the drive connection not fully seated and pushed it in and reset the box and it was back in business. Before you replace your enclosure, I would start with the cable. Its cheaper and usually the first step when replacing stuff. Good luck!

 

[aleicgrant]

yeah I have reseated it about a dozen times to no avail

 

[aleicgrant]

could be - test the enclosure with your spare drive on you computer if you can or replace your enclosure

good luck

Paul

well the enclosure also has USB. if I plug it in to my computer and it finds the drive, perhaps the connector itself is bad? Really going crazy on this one.

 

[Paul A]

well the enclosure also has USB. if I plug it in to my computer and it finds the drive, perhaps the connector itself is bad? Really going crazy on this one.

I see in the picture it comes with an esata board. Install the board in your computer (if you can) and test the esata electronics.

If that doesn't work, replace the cable. If that doesnt work, then the case might be your problem. At that point, if the case is under warranty you might try to have it replaced or you could try flashing the case with an updated driver, if available. Call customer service from your case company first to see if they have a recomendation for any updated drivers.

worth a shot.