# Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB external drive



## pshetter (Jan 4, 2008)

Hi All,
I am thinking of buying the Seagate FreeAgent Pro ST310005FPA1E3-RK 1TB 7200 RPM USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a (Dual FireWire 400 interface module)/ eSATA External Hard Drive for my HR20-700. Has anyone used it with their HR20-700 and know it works ? Last time I ended up buying a WD My Book which didn't work with my HR20-700 :-( So just making sure Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB works before I end up buying it 

Thanks !
Prashant


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

my 750 FAP works great, so i would assume that the 1TB will work as well.
it is pretty well known that the my book doesnt work, but seagates seem to be a pretty good choice


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## pshetter (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks ! I guess I'll order it


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

www.geeks.com had refurb750gb FAP's for $99 yesterday, not sure if it is still going on or not.
i have never bought a refurb HDD, i dont know if that is a good idea or not


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## pshetter (Jan 4, 2008)

Looks like they are only left with the 500GB ones now. Great price though. Yeah the idea of buying a refurb one sounds a bit dodgy right now considering I have a WD Mybook 1TB one still sitting at home ;-)


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## blmoore (Dec 24, 2006)

pshetter said:


> Thanks ! I guess I'll order it


One word of caution - The FAPs don't seem to be built for 7x24 operation. They get very warm. Search this thread, and you'll see a few instances of these drives starting to fail. Mine did.


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## finaldiet (Jun 13, 2006)

My seagate 750 works great. I have a Costco coupon book showing WD 1TB for $169 come June 16. It is USB 2.0, firewired and Esata. Also available on website.


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

finaldiet said:


> My seagate 750 works great. I have a Costco coupon book showing WD 1TB for $169 come June 16. It is USB 2.0, firewired and Esata. Also available on website.


My understanding is that the WD "My Book" drives won't work on any of the DirecTV HD-DVRs... I have no practical/real life experience... Just what I read here on the forums...


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

MikeekiM said:


> My understanding is that the WD "My Book" drives won't work on any of the DirecTV HD-DVRs... I have no practical/real life experience... Just what I read here on the forums...


That is correct the WD My Book's do not work with DIRECTV DVR's. Actually I don't think they work with any DVR's.


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## eatswodo (Nov 20, 2005)

blmoore said:


> One word of caution - The FAPs don't seem to be built for 7x24 operation. They get very warm. Search this thread, and you'll see a few instances of these drives starting to fail. Mine did.


Mine being one of them.... the problems I've been having certainly seem to be heat-related. I now have the FAP sitting outside the cabinet it was in, and haven't had another problem since. I don't doubt that it's damaged, however, so will be replacing it with an Antec MX1/WD drive combination when the budget allows.


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## edbroun (Dec 18, 2006)

eatswodo said:


> Mine being one of them.... the problems I've been having certainly seem to be heat-related. I now have the FAP sitting outside the cabinet it was in, and haven't had another problem since. I don't doubt that it's damaged, however, so will be replacing it with an Antec MX1/WD drive combination when the budget allows.


See my post: #58 in this thread: Can anyone give me a little insight about the external hard drive?


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

blmoore said:


> One word of caution - The FAPs don't seem to be built for 7x24 operation. They get very warm. Search this thread, and you'll see a few instances of these drives starting to fail. Mine did.


Which is why I am swapping mine out... I have a 750GB working fine on my HR20, but have bought a 1TB AcomData and am in the process of swapping it out...

What "process" am I talking about? The process of watching whatever is important on my FAP before moving over to the AcomData... 

I'll move my FAP over to my computer for back up purposes...


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## eatswodo (Nov 20, 2005)

edbroun said:


> See my post: #58 in this thread: Can anyone give me a little insight about the external hard drive?


I've seen your post. Not sure how it relates to mine....


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Did they ever get the FAP's working with the 21's?


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## Sidewinder (Jul 9, 2007)

Michael D'Angelo;1629796 said:


> That is correct the WD My Book's do not work with DIRECTV DVR's. Actually I don't think they work with any DVR's.


I keep reading this about My Books not working with the HR20, but my 500 GB My Book Premium with USB/Esata works great and has for 3 months.

It essentially doubles the storage over the internal drive.

I got it last year on a great sale with credits for under $100 at BestBuy. But didnt get the right cable initially so didnt mess with it for awhile until 3 months ago, when I got the correct SATA cable for about $12 at a local computer shop, and it has worked fine since. I currently have it almost maxed out and basically have had no issues.

Did I get lucky or did I just hit the jackpot on this particular model of My Book hard drive?


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Sidewinder said:


> I keep reading this about My Books not working with the HR20, but my 500 GB My Book Premium with USB/Esata works great and has for 3 months.
> 
> It essentially doubles the storage over the internal drive.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info. I am wondering if it is only the larger ones (750GB and 1TB) than. There were some reports of them not working so a member here called WD and were told they do not work with DVR's at all. I have seen no reports of anyone getting one to work, at least the 750GB and 1TB.


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## bmachia (Dec 20, 2006)

Now that its summer Re-Run time, I fully expect to watch everything I’ve been hoarding over the past few months and empty out the drive. So, I’m also thinking about a 1TB External for the HR20-700.

But I have two questions;
1) After it’s installed and running, will I continue to hear the clickity-clack from the internal drive?
And
2) How about the reaction speed. Will there be a noticeable difference between the internal drive fetching shows and the external drive?


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

bmachia said:


> Now that its summer Re-Run time, I fully expect to watch everything I've been hoarding over the past few months and empty out the drive. So, I'm also thinking about a 1TB External for the HR20-700.
> 
> But I have two questions;
> 1) After it's installed and running, will I continue to hear the clickity-clack from the internal drive?
> ...


1. it will be running but I don't think it will be seeking..
2. same speed thanks to esata connection.. If your play list gets real long it may take a little bit longer to come up..


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## CKNAV (Dec 26, 2005)

Word of caution, for those buying Seagate FAP. THEY DO NOT WORK WITH HR21 DVR's. If HR20-700 goes bad and you get HR21 replacement, you would not be able to use it at all.


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## CKNAV (Dec 26, 2005)

Herdfan said:


> Did they ever get the FAP's working with the 21's?


No, they do not work with 21's. It is a mismatch with esata chip used by FAP.


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

CKNAV said:


> No, they do not work with 21's. It is a mismatch with esata chip used by FAP.


I bought a 1TB FAP (because of the success I had with a 750GB FAP on my HR20) and I can absolutely confirm that the FAP did not work on my HR21...

I don't understand it... It's external storage...it's eSATA... Shouldn't an eSATA be an eSATA be an eSATA? It's very odd to me...

Anyway, I have yet to hear anyone with a successful mating of HR21 and FAP...


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## HDMike (Dec 15, 2006)

CKNAV said:


> No, they do not work with 21's. It is a mismatch with esata chip used by FAP.


What eSATA does work with the 21? I have an HR21-100 needing more space badly!

Mike


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

HDMike said:


> What eSATA does work with the 21? I have an HR21-100 needing more space badly!
> 
> Mike


I have posted this before, but since you ask, I have a 1TB AcomDATA pureDrive that works fine... Others have stated that Cavalry drives also work...

The most popular set up seems to be the Antec enclosure with a Seagate green bare drive...


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## CKNAV (Dec 26, 2005)

HDMike said:


> What eSATA does work with the 21? I have an HR21-100 needing more space badly!
> 
> Mike


Cavarly works great. It works on HR20 and HR21.


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

CKNAV said:


> Cavarly works great. It works on HR20 and HR21.


I am on Cavalry #3. For me they have been very unreliable. First one crashed within ten days. Second one caused a reboot after two hours and bright BLUE LED went out. Number three came in a sloppy box, serial number taped over, and "warranty void if removed" sticker missing. I have RMA request 4 pending. This one is getting black recordings and IKDs but I don't know if that is a D* or Cavalry problem. I have noticed that the cable fits loosely and slightly nudging the drive will lock up the receiver requiring a RBR.


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

schneid said:


> I have noticed that the cable fits loosely and slightly nudging the drive will lock up the receiver requiring a RBR.


Yup... I've said it before...and I will repeat it here... The cable is a pretty critical piece of having a stable solution here...

I was using some cables from Fry's which did not seat well in the eSATA connection to the drive... I have heard that Monoprice's cables are equally bad (despite the fact that they are great for other cables)...

The one's I finally got (and it was because of postings here at DBSTalk) are ones made by SIIG. They have them at newegg.com, and you can see the reviews there are consistently good... Be sure to get the eSATA to eSATA cable... they come in two sizes I think...I got the 1M length...


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## kfcrosby (Dec 17, 2006)

Add me to another FAP750 user that had the drive go south. It was getting very warm to the touch and Seagate wants ~$22.00 for a warranty replacement. I'll go for the replacement for now, but new users be fore warned. The FAP seems to work great for awhile (if you have a HR20) but be prepared to loose your stuff.

Next up will be a dual drive RAID for me.

Is there still a limit as to what drive size can be used with a HR20?

Kevin


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

MikeekiM said:


> Yup... I've said it before...and I will repeat it here... The cable is a pretty critical piece of having a stable solution here...
> 
> I was using some cables from Fry's which did not seat well in the eSATA connection to the drive... I have heard that Monoprice's cables are equally bad (despite the fact that they are great for other cables)...
> 
> The one's I finally got (and it was because of postings here at DBSTalk) are ones made by SIIG. They have them at newegg.com, and you can see the reviews there are consistently good... Be sure to get the eSATA to eSATA cable... they come in two sizes I think...I got the 1M length...


I read that too, so I bought the SIIG for $25 at Amazon. Unfortunately it is not helping my Cavalry.


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

schneid said:


> I read that too, so I bought the SIIG for $25 at Amazon. Unfortunately it is not helping my Cavalry.


Crap...sorry to hear that... Does it at the very least form a good solid seating? If so, the good news from a troubleshooting perspective, you can probably eliminate bad cable design (but who knows, you might have a bad SIIG cable)...


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

MikeekiM said:


> Crap...sorry to hear that... Does it at the very least form a good solid seating? If so, the good news from a troubleshooting perspective, you can probably eliminate bad cable design (but who knows, you might have a bad SIIG cable)...


No, it is loose. Seems to be Cavalry socket rather than the SIIG cable. The Cavalry drive is one of new WD Green drives so it should be solid. I may just try ditching the Cavalry case. If I could find a small power supply with an SATA plug, I'd just go direct to the drive.


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## redram38 (Dec 7, 2005)

Well on the other side of this. I am on my second Cavalry, both working perfect (knock on wood). I have had one for about 7 mths and the other about 2 mths. They work on Hr20's and HR21's. I am going to get a third when or if my FA Pro dies on me.

QUOTE=schneid;1636678]I am on Cavalry #3. For me they have been very unreliable. First one crashed within ten days. Second one caused a reboot after two hours and bright BLUE LED went out. Number three came in a sloppy box, serial number taped over, and "warranty void if removed" sticker missing. I have RMA request 4 pending. This one is getting black recordings and IKDs but I don't know if that is a D* or Cavalry problem. I have noticed that the cable fits loosely and slightly nudging the drive will lock up the receiver requiring a RBR.[/QUOTE]


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

schneid said:


> No, it is loose. Seems to be Cavalry socket rather than the SIIG cable. The Cavalry drive is one of new WD Green drives so it should be solid. I may just try ditching the Cavalry case. If I could find a small power supply with an SATA plug, I'd just go direct to the drive.


You can also try to shave away some of the plastic housing on the connector to see if you get get a better seating if the plastic looks like it is getting in the way...


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

redram38 said:


> Well on the other side of this. I am on my second Cavalry, both working perfect (knock on wood). I have had one for about 7 mths and the other about 2 mths. They work on Hr20's and HR21's. I am going to get a third when or if my FA Pro dies on me.
> 
> I am probably just having bad luck. I bought the Cavalry after reading here and satellite guys that they were solid. I think my problem is that I got a bad one and it is being replaced with whatever they can throw in the box at Bason Computer, the distributor. The two replacement drives were obviously not new as the packing was amateurish. On the next crash I am going to pull the drive and hook it to an old PC power supply and cable it directly to the bare drive using the included eSATA to SATA cable. It won't be pretty but I bet it will be solid.


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## mbuser (Jul 6, 2006)

Haven't had any problems with my FAP 750, which has been installed for about six months. I've been wondering, however, if you can do a drive to drive copy to another drive before switching over and not lose your stuff, if that becomes necessary later on. Has anyone tried that?


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

mbuser said:


> Haven't had any problems with my FAP 750, which has been installed for about six months. I've been wondering, however, if you can do a drive to drive copy to another drive before switching over and not lose your stuff, if that becomes necessary later on. Has anyone tried that?


Someone pointed me in the direction of some directions to copy over from the internal drive to an external, and my guess is that the instructions could be doctored up to do an external to an external... I'll have to search through the replies that I got to see if I have it somewhere... If not, I did cut/paste the text, so I could post it in this thread...

In the end I decided to just try and watch all the stuff that was a "must view", and give up the rest of it... I am going to move from my 750GB FAP to a new 1TB AcomData that I picked up for $189.99 (I actually picked up two...one for my HR21, and with the price so nice, I also picked up one to replace my FAP since so may people were warning of overheating and failure issues)....

I'll repurpose my FAP into my computing environment for backups...


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

Been busy today, and have not had time to look... I figure I'll just post a cut/paste from the posting here... No credits to me for this post...it is a complete copy/paste job...

Good luck...

============================================================

Copying Content from One Drive to Another
Here is a step by step that worked for me.

First, all the credit goes the other posters in this thread – I am adding nothing new here.

Second, my goal was to add an external ESATA drive without losing my settings and access to my recordings – not to replace the internal HD in the HR20. I was able to position the HR20 close enough to the PC’s SATA & power connections so there was no need to remove the original drive from the HR20. I simply unplugged the power & SATA cables from the original internal HD and plugged in the power & SATA cables from the PC while leaving the original drive in place . 

Step 1 – Let the HR20 format the new ESATA drive.
a) Shut down the HR20
b) Connect the ESATA drive & turn it on.
c) Restart the HR20
d) Confirm that the HR20 is now using the ESATA drive instead of the internal drive.
Step 2 - Perform a “graceful power down”
a) This is achieved by doing a menu reset and disconnecting the HR20’s power just at the point when all the LED lights go off. This is a crucial step – the linux mount commands will fail with a “Can’t read from Superblock” error if this step isn’t taken. It is imperative that both drives experience a “graceful power down” while connected to the HR20.
b) After the HR20 is powered off, turn off the ESATA drive and remove the bare drive from the ESATA enclosure.
Step 3 – Connect the drives to the PC & copy.
a) Get/burn a linux boot cd of KNOPPIX_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN
b) On the PC, connect the new drive to SATA0 and the original HR20 drive to SATA1 and boot up KNOPPIX linux.
c) You can use qtparted in system menu to verify which drive is which under linux. It is very important that you know the drive letter (a or b or whatever) that linux is assigning to each drive so that you get the sd(drive letter) right in the mount commands below. Normally with the new drive on SATA0 and the original HR20 drive on SATA1 linux will see the new drive as sda and the original HR20 drive as sdb - but you should check it to be sure.
d) Click the Terminal Icon to get a linux command line promp and enter the following commands (note: the part you type is underlined - I used a larger Courier font here to make it easier to see where spaces go).

[email protected]:~$ sudo su root
[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mkdir /mnt/fap
[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mkdir /mnt/hr20
[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sda3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/fap
[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb2 /mnt/hr20

(the next line will start the copying process and on my system took about 70 min. to complete)

[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# xfsdump -J - /mnt/hr20 | xfsrestore -J - /mnt/fap

(after the dump/restore has finished enter…)

[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# umount /mnt/hr20
[email protected]:/ramdisk/home/knoppix# umount /mnt/fap
Step 4 – Check it out
a) Shut down Knoppix linux and remove power from the PC
b) Return the new SATA drive to the ESATA enclosure and reconnect the original HR20’s HD power & SATA cables.
c) Close up everything, reconnect everything, turn on the ESATA drive and power-up the HR20.
Step 5 – Enjoy More DirecTV HDTV

------Edit 3/29/2008------

The steps listed above should be all you need if you have an HR20-700 but if you have any other HR2x model you will probably run into the “drive spin-up problem”. Apparently the 320GB drives in these models have to receive a spin-up command from the operating system via the SATA cable before they will spin-up. Most operating systems including KNOPPIX linux do not issue this command to the drives. But the QParted live CD does issues these commands and will spin-up the drive as it boots. Oddly enough, after booting, QParted does not recognize the drive but it will spin it up and that is what you need. The trick then becomes keeping the drive spinning as you shut down QParted and boot KNOPPIX. So here are the additional steps you will need to include in step 3 above.

a) Get/burn a QParted live CD 0.3.4-11
b) After connecting the original and new drives to the PC boot the QParted live CD first (before proceeding with KNOPPIX). Notice that the original HR2x drive is spinning.
c) Close the QParted application by selecting the QParted|Quit menu. This will expose several desktop icons.
d) Double click the red shutdown icon and select “reboot” from the list. Your PC should not power down and you should not lose your “spin-up”.
e) Go ahead and let the PC reboot the QParted live CD again but this time stop at the GNU GRUB menu and swap out the QParted CD for the KNOPPIX CD.
f) Now press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot again – now using KNOPPIX. Through-out these steps the PC should not powered down and the HR2x’s drive should continue to spin.
g) Now you can continue with the rest of step 3 above.

------End Edit 3/29/2008------

I’m afraid that I cannot be of much help should you try this and have problems. I know very little about linux. As I said at the beginning, all the credit goes the other posters in the thread who did all the real work and made all the important discoveries. My only contribution has been to summarize their work and let you know that it worked for me.
__________________


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## diverdra (Feb 20, 2008)

I have an HR21-200 with a 
1TB WD Caviar GP Sata 5400 Rpm 16MB
inside an 
Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure 
connected with
SIIG CB-SA0111-S1 3.3-Feet Serial ATA External Cable

This configuration works great - can't tell the difference from the internal drive. It runs cool and quiet. Only took 10 minutes to install the drive into the enclosure and another 10 minutes to connect to and reboot HR21 (good directions in another eSATA thread helped a lot). All ordered on Amazon for a total of $237.

Setups:
HR21-200 w/ AM21 & 1 w/ 1TB WD / HR21-200 w/AM21
5 LNB Slim Line AU9-S w/ WB68
Mitsubishi Diamond 73" DLP / Pioneer Elite 62" RPTV
Denon AVR 3808ci / AVR 2105
Sony PS3 80GB + 160GB HD / PS3 80 GB
Oppo DV-981HD (for DVD Audio)
Klipsch RF-5 Speakers & RSW-10d Sub / Infinity Ref. Std. 4B
Panamax M5300-PM / M4300-EX
Harmony One / Harmony 880


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## Nobody (Aug 4, 2007)

finaldiet said:


> My seagate 750 works great. I have a Costco coupon book showing WD 1TB for $169 come June 16. It is USB 2.0, firewired and Esata. Also available on website.


Hmmm....

My coupon says $229.99 minus $30.00 coupon equals $199.99. Can you double-check your coupon, because your price sounds better than mine.

(I currently have a Seagate 750 on my editing computer. I'm thinking about replacing it with this WD drive and moving the Seagate to my secondary HR-20.)


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

Nobody said:


> Hmmm....
> 
> My coupon says $299.99 minus $30.00 coupon equals $199.99. Can you double-check your coupon, because your price sounds better than mine.
> 
> (I currently have a Seagate 750 on my editing computer. I'm thinking about replacing it with this WD drive and moving the Seagate to my secondary HR-20.)


Huh???

Are you practicing new math? In what world does $299.99-$30.00 equal $199.99???


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## Nobody (Aug 4, 2007)

MikeekiM said:


> Huh???
> 
> Are you practicing new math? In what world does $299.99-$30.00 equal $199.99???


Not new math, but sloppy typing. I'll edit the above post. Thanks.


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

diverdra said:


> I have an HR21-200 with a
> 1TB WD Caviar GP Sata 5400 Rpm 16MB
> inside an
> Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure
> ...


The Antec's must be hot. The prices have jumped to around $55.


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## 430970 (Nov 21, 2005)

Anyone put a 1TB SATA drive inside the HR21 to replace the drive that comes with it? I know, I know, void warranty, etc. I just don't have a lot of space for another component, so was curious...


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

Not only voiding warranty...but unless you own it outright, I think it voids your lease agreement...

Nope, haven't tried it myself...sounds dead easy though...


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## SDizzle (Jan 1, 2007)

If I decide to add an external drive, how many hours of recording will I get from a 750? Or a 1TB? How do I move my stored recording on my internal drive to the external drive?


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

SDizzle said:


> If I decide to add an external drive, how many hours of recording will I get from a 750? Or a 1TB? How do I move my stored recording on my internal drive to the external drive?


Look at my post #36 above where I cut and paste some instructions for moving your internal drive contents to an external drive... I have not tested these instructions... Just a cut and paste from another forum member here...

As far as the capacity, according to Weaknees, the 750GB will get you 100HD/700SD; and 1TB will get you 145HD/1000SD hours...

They also have a copy service for $59.00

http://www.weaknees.com/hr20-700-directv-hd-dvr.php


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## SDizzle (Jan 1, 2007)

MikeekiM said:


> Look at my post #36 above where I cut and paste some instructions for moving your internal drive contents to an external drive... I have not tested these instructions... Just a cut and paste from another forum member here...
> 
> As far as the capacity, according to Weaknees, the 750GB will get you 100HD/700SD; and 1TB will get you 145HD/1000SD hours...
> 
> ...


Cool, Thanks.


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## flipper2006 (Oct 2, 2006)

MikeekiM said:


> I have posted this before, but since you ask, I have a 1TB AcomDATA pureDrive that works fine... Others have stated that Cavalry drives also work...
> 
> The most popular set up seems to be the Antec enclosure with a Seagate green bare drive...


You will not hear a sound with the WD GP drives. I have it in bedroom and dont hear a sound, I used to have trouble getting to sleep with the clickity of the Hr20-700 drive all night long.


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## finaldiet (Jun 13, 2006)

Nobody said:


> Hmmm....
> 
> My coupon says $229.99 minus $30.00 coupon equals $199.99. Can you double-check your coupon, because your price sounds better than mine.
> 
> (I currently have a Seagate 750 on my editing computer. I'm thinking about replacing it with this WD drive and moving the Seagate to my secondary HR-20.)


I just saw your post. I'll check when I get home. I could have made a mistake.


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

What kind of drives are shipped with the HR's?

I'm still confused on which one to get. From reading on here looks like the My Books won't work. (and they don't even come with an eSATA cable)


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## MikeekiM (Oct 1, 2006)

theratpatrol said:


> What kind of drives are shipped with the HR's?
> 
> I'm still confused on which one to get. From reading on here looks like the My Books won't work. (and they don't even come with an eSATA cable)


None of the eSATA drives I have purchased come with an eSATA cable... They all came with a USB 2.0 cable though...

As far as drives are concerned, a word of advice... Be sure you get your drive from a local store that has a liberal return policy so that you can be sure that it works with your DVR (or choose one of the ones that has 100% validation here to work with your specific HD-DVR model)... It's just a good insurance policy in my opinion...

I have heard that the My Book's don't work on any of the models... So I'd avoid it.

FAPs work on the HR20, but have been said to be poorly designed for 24x7 operation due to overheating problems... I currently have one on my HR20 and am in the process of trying to watch the stuff I really want to watch off of it, and replace it with another drive... I have not heard of anyone getting the FAPs to work with the HR21...

I hear that the Calvalry drives work well on both the HR20 and HR21, but have no experience with them, so it's word of mouth from my perspective...

I am running the 1TB AcomData pureDrive on my HR21 and will be putting another one on my HR20...

Many are very fond of the Antec enclosure and the green bare drive... I have not gone that route, but seems like a very popular solution here...

Be sure to get a good cable that has a good solid seating on both ends of the connection... I am running SIIG cables on both my boxes on the recommendations I have got from this board here... My previous cables worked, but fit very loosely and if the drives shifted position, would sometimes result in an intermittent connection (very loose seating)...


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## alv (Aug 13, 2002)

Cavalry1TB working fine here for about 5 months.


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## atigod (Jun 17, 2008)

I have a HR21 700 and tried two external drive Enclosures, the Antec MX-1 and the Rosewill RX81-MP-SC. the MX 1 worked but its a very cheap plastic and the fan is very loud, since its plastic it cant dissipate heat well, so I wanted to try a new Enclosure the Rosewill RX81-MP-SC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182122 its made of solid aluminum, and it works perfectly. Its the most well built enclosure iv ever used. The aluminum dissipates the heat very well and the drive inside stays cool. The esata cable thats comes with it works fine, but I wanted to use the highest quality cable I could find so I used the SIIG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812191016

For the hard drive I used a Seagate 1 TB drive, this drive has a 5 year warranty and 7200 rpm 32mb cache. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8490625&st=seagate&lp=4&type=product&cp=1&id=1186003683968
I dont buy OEM hard drives, as they can cause problems in the way they ship it, its not as protected as a retail hard drive with is pre boxed and iv had better luck with retail drives. I know this setup isnt cheap but its been working for 2 months now, and its been through many updates and I still have all my recordings. I know there is cheaper Rosewill cases out there but this one works for me 100% and is much better than the MX1 I tried. It really is one of the best enclosure iv ever used its built like a tank and matches my hr21 nicely. Im also using a APC - 750VA Battery Back-Up UPS, and never had a power out with this thing, have just the dvr and external drive connected to it.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8540322&st=ups&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1188559784051 iv been reading these forms for months and needed help on a working drive setup, and you guys helped me so much, that when I found a solid working setup, I had to post. thank you all for the help, the only thing iv found to be better than this setup, is a 2 TB option


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## atigod (Jun 17, 2008)

and a UPS is a must, cant miss WWE RAW in HD oooh yeah!!!


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Thanks for the info. I still don't know which one I'm going to buy though. 

Does anyone know what brand of HD's are shipped with the HR's? What brand does Weakness use?

Thanks


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## DJ iD4 (Jul 5, 2008)

I just read this whole post... so what I've accumulated from reading this, is that FAP drives get hot and it seems that the better way to go is, a 3.5 sata drive, with an Antec MX-1 case, and SIIG eSata cable? 

Any suggestions on what kind of hard drive to get. right now at Fry's they have a 1TB Seagate Serial ATA/300 drive fro 169.99. They also have a Western Digital GreenPower.

Is there something that you all recommend? A certain Buffer/RPM i should go for? 

Any info would be appreciated. I'm a newbie and i've gone through a number of pages of threads, but coudln't find any highly recommended set ups, but i did notice a lot of people going with the Antec case and SIIG cables.

Thanks in advanced for the help.


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## diverdra (Feb 20, 2008)

DJ iD4 said:


> I just read this whole post... so what I've accumulated from reading this, is that FAP drives get hot and it seems that the better way to go is, a 3.5 sata drive, with an Antec MX-1 case, and SIIG eSata cable?
> 
> Any suggestions on what kind of hard drive to get. right now at Fry's they have a 1TB Seagate Serial ATA/300 drive fro 169.99. They also have a Western Digital GreenPower.
> 
> ...


DJ, I'm very pleased with Antec MX-1, SIIG eSata cable and the WD 1TB Caviar Se Sata 5400 RPM 16MB Cache External Hard Drive. Runs cool and quiet. I believe the 5400 RPM is same as the internal HD on the HR21. Amazon has the WD for $211. My guess is you'd be okay with the Seagate. BTW - the Antec comes with an eSATA cable which would probably work just fine but I figured for $12 I'd go with the one most recommended on this forum. My setup doesn't allow easy access for changing cables.


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

diverdra said:


> DJ, I'm very pleased with Antec MX-1, SIIG eSata cable and the WD 1TB Caviar Se Sata 5400 RPM 16MB Cache External Hard Drive. Runs cool and quiet. I believe the 5400 RPM is same as the internal HD on the HR21. Amazon has the WD for $211. My guess is you'd be okay with the Seagate. BTW - the Antec comes with an eSATA cable which would probably work just fine but I figured for $12 I'd go with the one most recommended on this forum. My setup doesn't allow easy access for changing cables.


I agree. I got ripped off on a Cavalry 1tb case and drive that were either used or or refurbs sold through buy.com. Gave up after receiving a third bad one. I think the boards are bad. At least the drive, a WD 1tb green, was good. I had also bought the SIIG cable thinking that was my Cavalry problem. Finally got the Antec MX-1 and have been running w/o any problems at all for two weeks. The case is is of quality construction, it's quiet, and the drive runs cool. I was really impressed with the rubber shock absorber for the drive which isolates its vibrations from the case. If you can assemble Legos, operate a screw driver, and thread a needle you have the skill set to assemble the drive.

Avoid my pain and buy the Antec case, the WD or I imagine any other good SATA drive, and the SIIG cable (although as stated above, the enclosed cable seems okay) rather than fool with the buggy pre-packaged solutions. You'll be better off in the long run.


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## rajeshh (Sep 11, 2007)

DJ iD4 said:


> I just read this whole post... so what I've accumulated from reading this, is that FAP drives get hot and it seems that the better way to go is, a 3.5 sata drive, with an Antec MX-1 case, and SIIG eSata cable?
> 
> Any suggestions on what kind of hard drive to get. right now at Fry's they have a 1TB Seagate Serial ATA/300 drive fro 169.99. They also have a Western Digital GreenPower.
> 
> ...


I had a 750G Seagate FAR that was almost filled up in 10 months. Then I moved to a WD 1TB WD10EACS OEM green power drive. I used the following KingWin ESata enclosure from Frys:

http://shop1.frys.com/product/53880...ZbuqvZyhg**.node2?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

This has been working fine for 3 weeks or so.
I dont know if the WD in Frys is the same as the one I got..I would suggest to go with the WD.


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## CJTE (Sep 18, 2007)

theratpatrol said:


> Thanks for the info. I still don't know which one I'm going to buy though.
> 
> Does anyone know what brand of HD's are shipped with the HR's? What brand does Weakness use?
> 
> Thanks


I unfortunately cant open my case ATM, but there should be notes in the First View threads, I'll check shortly.
My HR10-250 has a WD2500 in it.

Meanwhile
http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-dvr-hard-drive.php
The HD's weaknees ships as replacements.
I dont want to get into a comparison war, but 7 years has taught me to tell everyone I know *stay away from Maxtor*. I personally have had 3 disks (1 sata, 2 IDE) crap out. Thats also what comes stock in iMacs and eMacs, and those things die within 3 years, sometimes sooner.

According to http://hr20.dbstalk.com/docs/hr21_firstlook.pdf, the HR21's ship with a WD3200AVJS, and the HR20's use Seagate drives.


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## finaldiet (Jun 13, 2006)

Have a seagate 750 working for months now. No problems at all. Does feel warm and it sits on top of console. Make sure its esata. Have a UPS for seagate and receiver.


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## DJ iD4 (Jul 5, 2008)

Thanks for all the input! I will def go with the Antec/SIIG combo! I'm in no rush, I will probably wait for prices on all 3 components to get a bit cheaper. I'm a bit disappointed though, because i looked up the price on the SIIG cable last night on Amazon, and it was $5 somethin... but now it jumped back up to $12 and some change... So that would have been a $7 discount on the setup. But yes, thank you for all the suggestions. 

Question, for those who do have a UPS. Do you also have your TV connected to that? Or just your DVR and External Hard Drive? So would I have to buy a pretty expensive one that can store enough power for a TV/DVR/Hard Drive? Or is one that can power the DVR and hard drive sufficient enough?

Is the whole reason for having a backup power supply, so that you can shut down the dvr and hard drive properly? Which can be done blindly with just the remote. Therefore eliminating the need for a backup power source for the actual TV?

Just wanted some clarity on that.

Thanks again for all the input!


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## DJ iD4 (Jul 5, 2008)

BTW... In case anyone reading this is interested in one of those drives here they are. They're not on sale for long, so i'd act quick and pick one up.

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5528610

and

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5478279

What's the difference between at 16mb and 32mb buffer?

What is buffer good for?

I'm leaning more towards the WD drive though, only because I currently already have 4 WD external drives (1 AC powered one sitting on my desk, and 3 portable USB Powered ones). So i am quite pleased with their products. Also because the drive consumes less power? Because it's "green". But if 32MB Buffer is a lot better than the 16, then i may have to go with the Seagate.

Thanks again for all the help!


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## finaldiet (Jun 13, 2006)

Forgot name on mine, but it has 4 plug-ins for battery back-up and 4 plug-ins for non-battery. Receiver and seagate on batt. back-up and tv on straight current. This will last probably an hour or so.


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

DJ iD4 said:


> BTW... In case anyone reading this is interested in one of those drives here they are. They're not on sale for long, so i'd act quick and pick one up.
> 
> http://shop1.frys.com/product/5528610
> 
> ...


Wow those are good deals. I snagged my Antec MX-1 at Fry's while it was momentarily on sale. One just has to keep Googling and jump fast when they spot a deal. Amazon's prices are up and down daily too.


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## GregM5 (Feb 17, 2007)

Has anyone tried the Seagate DB35 Series hard drives?


Product Description:

The Seagate DB35 Series offers high reliability and massive capacity for the next generation of DVRs. The DB35 Series enables new television services such as video on-demand, high definition DVRs and home media centers. It has been designed for worry-free digital video recorder (DVR) operation, season after season. The DVR feature set optimizes video performance, power consumption and content security.


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## atigod (Jun 17, 2008)

I know People like the MX 1 but has anyone tried the Rosewill? its been working perfect, and the all aluminum body keeps the hard drive cool, and it looks so nice!!!! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182122


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

looks nice, twice as much though


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

dave29 said:


> looks nice, twice as much though


Agreed. I snagged my MX-1 at Fry's for $29.99 two weeks ago.

7/17/2008 Update: I am super satisfied with my Western Digital 1TG Green Power drive in my Antec MX-1 case. It runs cool, quiet, and most importantly as absolutely rock solid and trouble free.


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## DavidPoland (Aug 9, 2008)

I have had great luck with a FAP 750g on the HR-20. It's been serving me well for around a year now. Zero trouble.

But I got a second DVR, a HR21, and after getting through the adventure of landing on a Calvary 1tb that works, i have had a couple of electric shutdowns that have created a problem.

First, the dvr and TV blew out. TV was fixed, dvr was replaced. calvary hooked up with the new dvr, but I couldn't bring any of the listed stuff up, so I erased all the entries. Then, we had an outage. After that, the calavary synced, but it presented as a blank hard drive. So I taped a couple of things to make sure that it was the 1tb drive and not the DVR drive. It marked % available as though the calvary was working. But then it got wonky. So I rebooted it all again... and everything was gone again. and again, it started acting out.

So I took the drive and hooked it to my mac - the pc refused to recognize it - and saw that there were three separate files going and I couldn't get to any of them. I tried to erase... and it says it erased... but it also still "saw" those files.

How do I get the calvary back to black and unformatted so the hr21 can reconnect with it and we can start "taping?"


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## MountainMan10 (Jan 31, 2008)

I don't know what the actually application is on a Mac, but you need to use the program that formats and partitions the drives for the first time. You need to delete the partitions on the hard drive. You can probably download a utility from Calvary for this.


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## schneid (Aug 14, 2007)

MountainMan10 said:


> I don't know what the actually application is on a Mac, but you need to use the program that formats and partitions the drives for the first time. You need to delete the partitions on the hard drive. You can probably download a utility from Calvary for this.


Cavalry has no downloadable support. Bason Computers, dba Cavalry Storage, seems to just be a distributor that assembles numerous drives into numerous boxes.

Windows will not see the drive at the Explorer level. Go ControlPanel->AdministrativeTools->Computer Management->Storage->DiskManagement and a list of connected drives will show up. Towards the bottom the non-Windows drive should be listed. You can partition and format it by right clicking on the window.

A member over on DBSTalk had a similar Cavalry crash. Last I read things were not good. Another Cavalry bites the dust. The Cavalry could have other problems such as a bad connector and/or a bad controller board.


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## bsnelson (Jul 6, 2007)

Well, here's my report on the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB: No go on either HR21 nor HR20. The HR21 just hung during startup, and the HR20 wouldn't recognize that a eSATA drive was plugged in. I didn't test the FAP in any other device, so honestly, I don't even know if I have a DOA or not. 

Went right back to Fry's and got a Maxtor 1TB SATA drive and Antec MX-1 enclosure, hooked it to the HR21 and bam, came up on the first try. 

Another lesson learned, I suppose. 

Brad


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

bsnelson said:


> Well, here's my report on the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB: No go on either HR21 nor HR20. The HR21 just hung during startup, and the HR20 wouldn't recognize that a eSATA drive was plugged in. I didn't test the FAP in any other device, so honestly, I don't even know if I have a DOA or not.
> 
> Went right back to Fry's and got a Maxtor 1TB SATA drive and Antec MX-1 enclosure, hooked it to the HR21 and bam, came up on the first try.
> 
> ...


FAP dosent work with a HR21


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## bsnelson (Jul 6, 2007)

JACKIEGAGA said:


> FAP dosent work with a HR21


As I discovered by reading AFTER I bought the stupid thing. I knew I should have consulted DeeBeeStalk first. 

I am surprised with the no-go on the HR20, though; seems that some have had good results with that.

Brad


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## hillyjd (Mar 10, 2009)

I just bought a WD 1TB eSATA external HD and it does not seem to work with my HR21-700. Tried different eSATA cables with no success. System seems to recognize the hard drive, goes through several start up cycles and then turns the external HD off and goes back to the internal. Any suggestions?


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## rsblaski (Jul 6, 2003)

hillyjd said:


> I just bought a WD 1TB eSATA external HD and it does not seem to work with my HR21-700. Tried different eSATA cables with no success. System seems to recognize the hard drive, goes through several start up cycles and then turns the external HD off and goes back to the internal. Any suggestions?


Check the early posts in this thread. If you have a WD MyBook drive, you are out of luck according to what others were saying.


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