SA 8300HD and External Drive Problem

[ovitz]

Hi. I have tried hooking up the 500GB drive that has been on sale at Best Buy this week to my 8300HD, and nothing happens. I have a nice eSATA cable. I don't know what to do. Are there any troubleshooting tips? Should I try it on another box?

[markd]

How do you know nothing happens?  Have you verified drive space via the diagnostics mode?  On the front of the unit (not remote), hold down the select button and then press info (I think someting might flash while you're holding down the select button).  If it doesn't work, try it again.  The first time I tried, it took me a few tries so I may be missing something.

-mark

[MDR]

Here's a link off the AVS Forum.
 
http://www.peparsplace.com/html/22.html

Hope it helps.

[ovitz]

Thanks for the replies. However, I can not get into the diagnostics mode. As I understand it, you have to hold down select on the box until the mail icon blinks, then press info. The mail icon never blinks, though. I"m not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Ah ha! "on the 8300 if you press and hold the select button and the exit button on the front of the box, then press exit to enter the multipage diagnostics mode."

[ovitz]

It does not see the SATA drive. I really would like to get this working. Did I get the wrong eSATA cable? That's about all I can think of, because I have tried this on two cable boxes.

The diag mode shows SATA Authorized, but no drive listed.

[markd]

It's probably not a cable issue.  I have heard of some drives just not working with the cable box.  It sounds like it's kind of hit or miss and that's why there have been some lists of *known* working externals.  What's the make/model of your drive?

-mark

[ovitz]

it's a WD 500GB My Book. Where can I find the list of known drives? Thanks again!

[markd]

There are threads on AVS pertaining to the 8300HD and specifically those running SARA or Passport (do some searches).  Users have shared experiences of specific drives that seem to be working fine but I haven't paid a lot of attention because I don't feel the need for one personally.  I think I remember that the larger the drive is, the sketchier things become.  Over 300GB is kind of hit or miss (drives work one day and not the next).  I thought there were people on *this* board having success with a 300GB Seagate in and eSATA enclosure though (do a search).

FWIW, I was also told by a TWC rep that external firewire drives work but I have not bothered to bring one home from work to test it nor have I read about it anywhere (though I've never looked either).

-mark

[ovitz]

Thank you very much for the information. I will look and see what people are using. I appreciate the help.

[MDR]

Looked up the WD 500 and it has firewire and USB outputs. You need a drive with E-Sata out to have an external drive.
there are links to databases about various configurations tried by others on this page of the AVS Forum.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=516559

Hope this helps.

[ovitz]

I finally got the Seagate 300 GB drive that we all agree works. When I plug it in, nothing still happens. However, when I unplug it, the DVR tells me I have unplugged it, but it is sill not recognized in diag mode. What the heck can I do?

[MDR]

1. Did you follow pepars procedure as outlined in the link in post #3

   2. Try rebooting your 8300hd.

   3. look under DVR AVFS in diag. mode. It doesn't list the drives separately, only total capacity.  I have a 250G external and it lists my capacity as 364G. I'm guessing yours should read around 400G if it sees the drive.

   Good luck.

[ovitz]

1. Did you follow pepars procedure as outlined in the link in post #3

   2. Try rebooting your 8300hd.

   3. look under DVR AVFS in diag. mode. It doesn't list the drives separately, only total capacity.  I have a 250G external and it lists my capacity as 364G. I'm guessing yours should read around 400G if it sees the drive.

   Good luck.

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Not listed in either place.

I have no idea what to do. I know it is recogized, because it yells at me when I unplug it, but it gives me no options to format or use it as a drive.

Thanks

[Mark Strube]

This is gonna sound really basic, but I'll mention it just in case... this drive is powered on, correct? When I first connected mine, it did nothing. Powered the drive on, I got a warning about an improperly formatted drive (or something of that nature). I then rebooted my DVR by holding power, and once it finished rebooting it offered to format the drive, and all was well. You'll know when the drive is working because A. you'll see the activity light flashing a bunch and/or hear drive activity... and B. your live programming rewind won't work at all. (This starts working again when the SATA drive is full, once it's caching live programming on the internal drive again.)

[ovitz]

Thank you. Yes, the drive is on. When I turn it off, I get the "The External drive has been disconnected. Please reconnect this device and restart the DVR." message. But at no time does it tell me that I have connected it, nor does it give me an option to format when I reboot it. Weird.