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Questions about adding an external Hard Drive to the FIOS DVR

ProfessorG

I want to add an external hard drive to my DVR. I have the eSata connector and the model supports it.

1) How much recording time do you get on an 1 GB external hard drive (time for both HD and standard TV)?

2) What is the size of the drive that is already in the DVR?

3) Can the drive be powered through the eSata cable or does the drive have to have it's own power supply?

4) If it can be powered through the eSata cable, does it supply the 12v and the 5v or just the 5v?

5) Does anyone know what all of the models of the hard drives that worked with the DVR and any that did not work?

Thank you, everyone.

Comments

ProfessorG

The DVR I am using is a QIP 72161. Right now I have 7 hours and 23 minutes recorded in HD and it shows 59% full. I did the math and the maximum amount of HD it can record is 12 hours and 30 minutes.

Does anyone know how big the drive inside is based on these numbers?

Hubrisnxs

@ProfessorG wrote:
I want to add an external hard drive to my DVR. I have the eSata connector and the model supports it.
1) How much recording time do you get on an 1 GB external hard drive (time for both HD and standard TV)?
1TB eSATA (7216, 7232), 900GB Content Volume
SD : 619.6 hours
HD : 147.8 hours
in order to work fully any drive will require a 100 Mb throughput rate as well as no sleep mode.
2) What is the size of the drive that is already in the DVR?
Depends what model you have. The model is found under the Verizon logo.
QIP 6416 and 7216 are 160 GB drives
QIP 7232 and Cisco 435 are 500 GB
160GB (6416, 7216), 135GB Content Volume
SD : 85.8 hours
HD : 20.5 hours
500GB (7232), 440GB Content Volume
SD : 298.6 hours
HD : 71.2 hours
3) Can the drive be powered through the eSata cable or does the drive have to have it's own power supply?
I am pretty confident it needs it's own power cable, I haven't seen one that doesn't. Someone else may correct me if I am wrong.
4) If it can be powered through the eSata cable, does it supply the 12v and the 5v or just the 5v?
Depends which model External hard drive you purchase.
5) Does anyone know what all of the models of the hard drives that worked with the DVR and any that did not work?
Western Digital – WDBACS5000EBK-NEVZ – 500GB
Western Digital – WDBACS0010HBK-NEVZ – 1TB
Western Digital Retail – WDBABT0010HBK-NESN – 1TB
There is a lengthy discussion about unsupported drives found here.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26715921-DVR-Unsupported-eSATA-Summarized

ProfessorG

Thank you for your help.

It looks like the 1GB should be enough to satify most people including me.

venturen

I researched this as well. I ended up with a WD av 2TB WD20EURS ($116) and sabrent ECUEIS7 $25(though I have heard good things about the Rosewill) I ended up formating my drive on my PC though I may have failed to see the tab where external drive shows in DVR menu. Best of luck. I did try a fantom 1TB, but the drive was doa.

Kelso998

rosindabow, when you say,

I am attempting to set up my new external eSata drive with my DVR. It recognizes the drive without a hitch and after it re-boots I get this message: you will lose all previously recorded programs if you begin using the new external eSata drive. Is there any way to keep my old programs and just add on to them? I have programs that we haven't viewed yet as well as some old ones I want to keep. Is there any way to get around this or did Verizon truly implement the use of this drive in this fashion?

Are you saying you can lose all programs you recorded on your Verizon DVR that came with your service? Not the external eSata drive.

cuznsteve

after resetting dvr lost all movies recorded on external hd , now will not connect to dvr again or to repplacement dvr.why?tried everything , all the connections undone and done again and again . i guess its a newone for me , and which 1 tb will be compatable with 7232.2 dvr. cuznsteve thanks

avemaria92

though this post is old, I think they meant 1TB instead of 1GB above

PJL

@cuznsteve wrote:
after resetting dvr lost all movies recorded on external hd , now will not connect to dvr again or to repplacement dvr.why?tried everything , all the connections undone and done again and again . i guess its a newone for me , and which 1 tb will be compatable with 7232.2 dvr. cuznsteve thanks

From this page:

"Verizon recommends the eSATA hard drives below for use with FiOS DVR. Customers choosing to install other drive types will assume the risk of compatibility with FiOS DVR and Verizon will not assist with compatibility or performance issues should they arise.

Western Digital – WDBACS5000EBK-NEVZ – 500GB
Western Digital – WDBACS0010HBK-NEVZ – 1TB
Western Digital Retail – WDBABT0010HBK-NESN – 1TB

sienajoe2

A little late in posting but having reasearched this topic, I thought someone would benefit with this posting.

Now, for awhile I have been using a 1.5TB Hitachi drive connected via eSATA to my STB. This was a single drive using a SANS Disk enclosure. Worked great. However, I was concerned that I did not have a back up of the content. Yes, I know if my STB screws up, i'm hosed as the STB is somehow linked to the back up (BTW, this is so short sighted on the part of Verizon. Can you at Verizon think a little wider than trying to control everything!!!).

Anyway, today I ended up getting a SANS Digital 4 bay RAID storage enclosure. This has the RAID controller built in and thus the STB does not need a RAID controller. I installed three 2TB Hitachi drives and set it up for RAID 5. I also connected it to my PC and formatted the discs. In RAID 5, the 3x2TB drives resulted in approx. 4TB (3.78TB) of usable storage. However, this is where my luck ran out. Try as hard as I may, I was not able to get the STB to recognize the drive. The STB reported an 'unknown' external drive connected. It seem to connect but did not show up as an external drive.

In final frustration, I installed two, 2Tb drives and set it up for RAID-1. Happy to say, the STB recognized the drive. As it is RAID 1, it provides approx. 1.8TB of usable storage with mirroring. I'm happy but not happy - would have liked to had the RAID 5 configuration work!

What I'm not sure is, was the STB not able to work with RAID-5 or was there a storage limit (ie. the 3.78TB of storage resulting with RAID 5 was greater than the capacity the STB could handle). Verizon - would LOVE to hear and answer to this question. If anyone knows, pls. advise too.

Hope this helps...

Buythepound

I have a QIP 7232 DVR I just added a 2tb Fantom AV drive. When I connected it I think it formatted the drive although it didn't actually say it, something about losing all data. It recognized the drive right away but after reboot it didn't show the drive, I tried multiple times but after reboot it is always missing. If I plug it in when asked and just wait it comes up as working as long as I don't choose reboot it will show up as a second drive. Which I thought would be good but the DVR starts acting weird. Recorded show on internal drive start freezing shows on the external if I hit skip goes back to the beginning and eventually reboots and I have to start all over. Any help would be appreciated I have read that this drive does work but can't figure out how.

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