FiOS TV Technical Assistance

[#1]

I installed an external 1.5 tb esata hd to my fios box.  Initially it works great.  Everthing seems to be connected properly, the fios box recognises the HD and records no problem.

However, the next day, when I went to check my recordings, it seems the hard drive automatically disconnected itself.  The power for the hard drive is still on, and I didn't touch the cables.  I had to reboot the box in order to have it recognize it again.  It shows the recordings that were previously on it, but of course once the drive was disconnected, all the new shows were recorded on to the fios box erasing the stuff on the fios box instead of recording to the external drive.

Does anyone know why  the drive would automatically disconnect from the fios box?  My only guess is perhaps there was some overnight update to the fios box which could have disconnected it. But then again, if the fios box reboots, would it automatically search for the hard drive again?

This has happened twice in 3 nights.  Help!  Any ideas?

thank in advance.

[#2]

I had the same exact problem using a Fantom 1T GreenDrive that I just bought last week.  The drive would go into sleep mode or whatever the technical term should be used is.  The power was always on with the drive.  It had a green light on the front and when it was "on" and recognized by the STB the light would be lit brightly but when in "sleep mode" the light would be lit dimly and would become disconnected to the STB.  Fantom support could not verify whether the drive would or would not work with the STB just that the drive was designed to be used with computers.  Obviously certain drives will work and some will not.  WD factories in Thailand suffered greatly in October’s torrential flooding, maybe they will soon restart production again of their drives that work with Verizon boxes. I've read that Iomega brand drives will work but I'm not sure exactly which ones.

[#3]

I had the same exact problem using a Fantom 1T GreenDrive that I just bought last week.  The drive would go into sleep mode or whatever the technical term should be used is.  The power was always on with the drive.  It had a green light on the front and when it was "on" and recognized by the STB the light would be lit brightly but when in "sleep mode" the light would be lit dimly and would become disconnected to the STB.  Fantom support could not verify whether the drive would or would not work with the STB just that the drive was designed to be used with computers.  Obviously certain drives will work and some will not.  WD factories in Thailand suffered greatly in October’s torrential flooding, maybe they will soon restart production again of their drives that work with Verizon boxes. I've read that Iomega brand drives will work but I'm not sure exactly which ones.

[#4]

Thanks for your response that helps a lot.  I JUST caught my Fios Box rebooting by itself, the front of the box went blank, then a bunch of - - - - then 8888 and rebooted. Once it finished booting, the hard drive was disconnected.  I will investigate further.

[#5]

The QIP7232 has lost it's eSATA drive twice in the first week.  Rebooting the STB worked the first time.  The second time, it finally came back after I turned off the eSATA drive, turned it back on, waited past the skips in the program as the drive was recognized and rebooted the STB.