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DVR eSata Drive Enclosure Change

The external drive on my DVR has been working great, and the hard drive itself is fine. However, it appears that I may need to replace the enclosure. My question is, if I simply remove the drive from the old enclosure, and put it into a new eSata enclosure, should my DVR find it, and accept it, without a formatting issue. In other words, does the DVR recognize the drive itself, more than the enclosure?

Thanks.

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armond_in_nj1

@iluvink wrote:

The external drive on my DVR has been working great, and the hard drive itself is fine ... I may need to replace the enclosure ...does the DVR recognize the drive itself, more than the enclosure? ...

Interesting query. There's been much discussion about building external drives from components, but I don't recall an issue like yours. I presume your concern is maintaining existing recordings in the new configuration.

Questions:

Why is it necessary to replace the enclosure?

What are the signs that it's failing? You mention it's working "great" and the hard drive is "fine," so what exactly is the issue?

Do you intend to use an identical enclosure?

If not, can you match the AV performance specifications on your old enclosure exactly?

_____

I wish I had a definitive answer but I don't. However if you change out the existing for an identical enclosure, you will probably be OK. The same comment applies if your new enclosure has the identical AV-related specifications as the old one. However I am speculating to some extent, so here's a link to a reasonably comprehensive discussion related to this issue:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CIsBEBYwCA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomshardware.com%2Fforum%2F277665-32-esata-enclosures&ei=AC-_UcskoeXgA_vbgNgP&usg=AFQjCNH0lSNlS8ntMcX7ZuBVuZS06mTUNg&sig2=KdqBuzLsFEUDsCZmnUBVDg

Looking forward to learning more about this issue. Good luck.

iluvink

Questions:

Why is it necessary to replace the enclosure?

*The enclosure that I have has fans, and where the TV and DVR sit, is a dust magnet. The fans keeping picking up dust, and get noisy. Plus it is the bedroom DVR, and you can hear them at night. So I was going to buy an enclosure model without fans. Figure that the hard drive isn't under that much load, that it needs a constant cooling system like that.

If not, can you match the AV performance specifications on your old enclosure exactly?

*Good question, I don't know.

_____

I guess that I will just purchase the new enclosure, change the drive to the new enclosure and see if it recognizes it right off, without a prompt from me. As memory serves, it ask me if I wanted to format the drive before it proceeded. If it does want to re-format, just stop and change back to the old enclosure.

armond_in_nj1

@iluvink wrote:

... The enclosure that I have has fans ... The fans keeping picking up dust, and get noisy ...

I guess that I will just purchase the new enclosure, change the drive to the new enclosure and see if it recognizes it right off, without a prompt from me ...

Even if it is recognized and no re-format is required, you may still find that AV-related performance issues adversely affect drive performance. Some alternatives come to mind (in no particular order):

1. Move the drive to another STB (preferably a multi-room DVR) where the noise will be less onerous. You can then replace the bedroom unit with something less noisy, and still watch the content on the old unit.

2. Replace the existing unit with something else that meets your needs. You can always hook up the old unit if you want to view it's content.

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