Lotus_Nut writes:
I configured the drive as a bare drive (on a little stand) with an eSATA to SATA adapter cable, an external power supply and very quiet fan, not in an enclosure (hence, no enclosure interface electronics in the way). It worked!
The performance is at least as good as my internal drive. I even tried simultaneously recording two HD shows to the external disk (I had filled up my internal) while playing back an HD show from the external disk. I didn't have any glitches in playback (well, not beyond what I would normally get from the internal drive).
What worked:
1) Connect the SATA cable plug to the external drive, power up the drive and fan, but don't connect the eSATA cable plug to DVR. I didn't have any jumpers installed on the drive. I waited a few minutes for the drive to fully spin up.
2) Power cycled DVR (unplugged, waited 10 seconds, plugged back in). Turn on DVR and wait for it to fully boot (not just clock showing, but also done booting according to the TV display).
3) Hot plugged in the eSATA end of the cable into the DVR.
4) At this point the DVR recognized the drive, asked me if I wanted to format it, asked me to confirm a few times, and formatted it within a few minutes. After formatting, I checked the available space and it had dropped from 70% used with just the internal drive to 9% used with the external drive connected.
Other notes:
a) The first time I tried it, I plugged in the eSATA cable into the DVR before powering up the DVR. The DVR booted, but didn't recognize there was an external disk. Hot plugging in the eSATA after the DVR was fully booted and the drive was on did work. Apparently the DVR needs to see a signal that there is a new drive after it has already booted. I didn't try having the DVR fully booted with the drive off and eSATA plugged in, and then turning on the drive. That might be something the next person could try.
b) After the drive was initially working, the DVR power cycled itself (off then immediately on) after about 10 minutes of running. I don't know if that was due to adding the external drive, or if the DVR power cable wasn't fully seated. I pushed the power cable in hard, and haven't had a problem since (after 24 hours of operation), and hopefully won't again.
c) With the very quiet fan I am using (Scythe S-FLEX 120 mm), the drive stays cool, which should help it live a long life.
DVR Info:
SA 8240 HDC
ResApp Version: Passport Echo 3.1.084
OS Version: PowerTV 6.20.72.2sp
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