eSATA issues

[PhilGold]

I have had 1.9 on my STB for a while as I was in the beta group.  I just got the new 500 GB box (Motorola QIP 7232) and I have a WD 1 TB drive WDBABT0010HBK-NESN).  I have not been able to get this to work and verizon's tech support has ben worthless.  Either I get "this is a new feature and it is not working correctly yet" or "this is a new feature and they have not told us how to deal with it" or the best "This is a new feature and it seems that 500 GB eSATA drives will work, but right now the 1TB  drives are not workign.  They are working on this issue."

I have seen on these forums that others have gotten it to work, so I am hoping someone out there has the answer.  I would really like to see this happen.  Everything has been done according to Verizon's instructions and the eSATA drive I got is one of the three models that Verizon recommends.

Any help would be appreciated as I get none from Verizon (although they did give me the 500 GB DVR for no trade in fee).

Thanks

Phil Goldwasser

[prisaz]

I have heard of plenty of people using the 1TB drives. Have you looked here and tried any of the sugestions in regards to starting up the drive and rebooting the box. The drive may need to be reformatted which could take quite some time for a 1tb dirve if it has been configured for use on something else.

http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/fiostv/other+hardware/esata/129841.htm

[jonw747]

That sounds like the recommended DVR extender. It should work. If it doesn't I'd wonder if there was something wrong with the HD, the cable, or with the eSATA port on the Motorola. You can test the HD out on a PC. If you have another eSATA drive or cable, you could test out the port, or just swap out the DVR.

[golfman3]

Initially when I tried the FIOS instructions for increasing the HDD capacity the 7232 DVR would not pick up the external drive. I left the drive connected but there was no GUI indication that the drive had been recognized until the next day. The DVR was up and the activity indicator on the drive was flashing. This continued for 3 days but then I noticed the DVR go into a spontaneous reboot and when it fully rebooted the external HDD was no longer recognized or active.

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone trying to resolve this but didnt really get any  where with FIOS customer support. Their position was that the HDD had failed.

The next day I connected the 2TB external HDD to my laptop via a USB port, initialized it as it was shown as not initialized by disk management and then ran check disk on it. As expected with a 2TB HDD this took several hours to complete.

I then reran the FIOS external HDD connection sequence and it picked up the drive and has been up and running ever since.

I recommend you try the check disk routine on the drive to make sure the HDD is ok and then see if you can get the DVR to recognize it. Also I have both the external HDD and its companion DVR powered through an UPS.

I got a lot of inconsistent indications and results while working through this so you may have to try the connection sequence several times before it takes.

[dcgaijin]

I didn't have quite so much trouble, but did have the hdd suddenly disappear the first day, after it had been working and even recorded a show. Ran through the setup again only to be told it was all activated and just needed to reboot again. Since then everything has worked, although to be safe I leave the drive turned on rather than trying to have it run out of the outlet in the rear of the DVR. While setting that outlet to switched and plugging the HDD into it could theoretically save some energy, keeping it on all the time works, so I won't fool around with it.

[rickd85]

I bought the correct Western Digital eSATA drive and my dvr did not see it. I contacted Verizon tech support and after 1 1/2 hours was told to contact WDC. WDC told me that the drive was not compatable with my dvr. So I did some research and found out that it was correct. So beware Western Digital tech support is suspect. When I emailed the tech back with a link stating that the drive was correct and basically calling him a **bleep** in a nice way, he told me the drive was defective. I did more research and found out that the cable might be defective. I ordered a cable off ebay and intalled it. The dvr saw the drive and installed it without going through the menu. I contacted WDC and informed them of the problem and if I could be reimbursed for the cost of the cable and they sent me a link to do a customer satisfaction survey. REALLY! So check those cables. I suspect WDC got a batch of bad cabled. hope this helps.

[Sam511]

Awesome! I just received the WD 1TB drive and although my DVR said it was installed, it wouldn't show it as available. Several reboots and restarts didn't make a difference. I changed the cable with one I purchased from Amazon. And Voila! The DVR immediately said there is an external drive connected. Hello WD? What's up with your cable? Thanks for the tip. 

[sangs1]

Yup, I have two of the WD My DVR Book drives and had to swap out the included cable from each of them in order to be recognized by my DVRs.

[EvanO1]

I purchased 3 - 2TB Fantom GreenDrives in July 2011 for my 3 Motorola 7216-1 DVRs.  They all worked after initial setup, but would stop being recognized.  I was getting ready to return them to get the WD drives that were recommended when they suddenly started working perfectly maybe in September of 2011.  Ever since then they have all run without a hitch.  I literally have unlimited storage for HD recordings.  I think that Verizon pushed through a software upgrade that made the drives start working.  Anyway I can vouch for these Fantom 2TB drives with my 7216-1 DVRs.

[jctTexas]

I continue to have problems with my 1TB Approved WD HDD.  The HDD at this moment is not recognized by the DVR.  I have gone through the process three times now to reboot and recognize the drive, but no luck.

FYI  Verizon has sent me two different 7232 DVRs thinking that is the problem... but it is not.  I think their is something wrong with their software somewhere.  My HDD is over 75% full with my recordings but I cannot access it.

I hope they recognize this problem and get it fixed.

I am very frustrated with Verizon.  When my contract is up I am going back to DirecTV.   I have never seen a major corporation completely clueless on how to resolve this ongoing problem.

[nascar]

Buddy of mine just got the WD 1 TB and the WD was bad plus the eSATA cable was loose.   He had to get a new WD and the new one came working with a better eSATA cable too.

I just picked one up myself and it works fine and it came with a better (better fitting) eSATA cable.

[armond_in_nj1]

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@jctTexas wrote:

I continue to have problems with my 1TB Approved WD HDD.  The HDD at this moment is not recognized by the DVR ... Verizon has sent me two different 7232 DVRs thinking that is the problem... but it is not.  I think their is something wrong with their software somewhere ...

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Many users here have observed that the OEM eSata cables shipped by Western Digital have often been faulty from the start.  If you haven't yet done so, try switching out this cable.  I hope you will be pleasantly surprised by the result.  BTW they aren't that costly, so the experiment isn't too expensive.

[Selecao]

I've just decided to take the plunge and expand my DVR (Moto QIP 7216). I was able to put together a 2TB hard drive in a good enclosure with eSATA interface. Everything works until I try to get the service activated, when the prompt tells me the server is unavailable. I've tried it again every few hours, but no luck. The HDD inside is good so far and easily replaceable and the enclosure used is the same one other users have for their DVR expansion drives.

Does anyone else know of this server problem?

[nascar]

I had this happen with the first eSATA drive I tried.   I tried at night and no go but tried it again in the AM and it worked.  Maybe reset/reboot your DVR?  Otherwise maybe a call to the FSC. 

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Selecao wrote:

I've just decided to take the plunge and expand my DVR (Moto QIP 7216). I was able to put together a 2TB hard drive in a good enclosure with eSATA interface. Everything works until I try to get the service activated, when the prompt tells me the server is unavailable. I've tried it again every few hours, but no luck. The HDD inside is good so far and easily replaceable and the enclosure used is the same one other users have for their DVR expansion drives.

Does anyone else know of this server problem?

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[jctTexas]

One of the problems I am having with my 7232 DVR and 1 TB WD Drive is three times now the system has disconnected the WD drive.  Once it lost all my WD recordings.  The other two times I was able to reconnect from the DVR menu and all the recordings were still there.