[newsatuser]

Why can't the H21- use the external and internal drive? I just moved to an area that did not have decent cable and just got DTV. (Not real happy so far) I am trying to add an external esata HDD to my box but I find out it's one or the other not a combined capacity.

Why?

The SciAtl HD DVR combined the storage capacity when I aded it.

 

[harsh]

Welcome!

The H21 is not a DVR so you shouldn't expect it to support DVR functionality.

If you are instead talking about the HR21, this is a design limitation that shows no signs of going away. Making two volumes that look like one is quite easy to do, but it doesn't allow for removing or replacing one of those drives.

 

[goober22]

what harsh said! If you meant the HR21, then it's because they did not/have not written the software to support both drives, like cable has with the SA or Moto DVRs. Complain to D* and maybe they will tweak the software to support both and bounce back between the two like the cable SA boxes do.

 

[evan_s]

The external Serial ATA hd support is unofficially and not supported. To that extent it was the quickest and simplest option possible which is to only use a single HD and not combine the 2.

 

[houskamp]

to me there is very little reason to change how it works now..
reasons:
1 drive space is cheap..
2 to me the worst thing they could do is force me to copy to external drive..
3 if they use both, you still loose everything if anything fails..

 

[TomCat]

I'm really OK with having to boot to change drives, even though that is a bit inconvenient. But, I wish they would cache the NPL from the drives in the flash memory so that you could at least see a list of what is on the currently-unavailable drive. They could also make it so if you tried to play something from that list it would throw up a dialog telling you that program is on the other drive and asking if you want to restart. Ideally, they could combine listings from both drives with currently-unavailable programs greyed out.

 

[GregLee]

Making two volumes that look like one is quite easy to do, but it doesn't allow for removing or replacing one of those drives.

It doesn't? This is a strange comment. "Allow for it" in what sense? It would allow for it, somehow, if the software is well-written; not, if it's not well-written. I never tested the SA-8300, personally, but from others' reports, changing to a new ESATA disk is handled gracefully.

 

[Throckmorton]

It doesn't? This is a strange comment. "Allow for it" in what sense? It would allow for it, somehow, if the software is well-written; not, if it's not well-written. I never tested the SA-8300, personally, but from others' reports, changing to a new ESATA disk is handled gracefully.

It's not clear what you don't understand here but there is no method of creating a multiple disk volume that allows for the loss of a member unless you create a fault tolerant array. This has nothing to do with "well-written" software.

I suppose they could install RAID cards.

 

[ke3ju]

It's not clear what you don't understand here but there is no method of creating a multiple disk volume that allows for the loss of a member unless you create a fault tolerant array. This has nothing to do with "well-written" software.

I suppose they could install RAID cards.

So just have the second drive seen as a second volume, and have the software see both volumes. When one is full, write to the other.

It's very simple. I do that with large data files everyday at work.

Cheers,
Ed

 

[harsh]

So just have the second drive seen as a second volume, and have the software see both volumes. When one is full, write to the other.

As you have no practical ability to look ahead and decide how large the file is going to be, how do you decide when to start recording to the second drive? It is one thing when archiving files of known size and quite another when recording something of unknown size. Your method doesn't allow for spanning drives.

It's very simple. I do that with large data files everyday at work.

How does anyone find these files?

 

[GregLee]

As you have no practical ability to look ahead and decide how large the file is going to be, how do you decide when to start recording to the second drive?

I don't know how SA's software handles that, but the most obvious strategy is to always start new files on the disk with the most free space, and never split files across disks. I don't see the problem.

 

[jwd45244]

Since none of us hear knows how the file system works in the HR2x for sure. The best we can do is speculate. Right now eSATAs are supported how they are supported. The item to use all available space (internal and external) is on the wish list.