Re: FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive
rickpoole
Enthusiast - Level 2

There is an important point that Verizon does not explain about using regular computer hard drives as eSata drives with DVRs.  There are special drives for DVRs that have different firmware from normal computer hard drives.  The main difference is the special DVR drives guarantee to handle X simultaneous streams without interruption whereas the normal computer hard drives do not guarantee any uninterrupted streams.  The ones Verizon tested all insure 2 uninterrupted streams.  IIRC the drive models have something like AVR as part of them, which is different than the similar computer hard drives.  I believe the Western Digital website had a decent explanation of why these drives are special.

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Re: FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive
Fis1
Enthusiast - Level 3

@rickpoole that's very helpful.  I didn't know that and wish Verizon would just tell us that instead of assuming that their customers aren't intelligent enough to handle the information.

For the record, after seven months my eSATA drive that was crashing almost daily at first is now mostly stable.  I still get occasional crashes, but it's less than once a month and I am living with that.  Not sure why it stabilized like that.  

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Re: FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive
Underst8
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks for the tip rickpoole, you got me searching and:

Western Digital drives with model numbers beginning AV-GP are "Ideal for PVRs, DVRs, set-top boxes (STBs), and surveillance video recording" and are "Optimized for smooth, continuous digital video playback of up to twelve simultaneous HD streams." http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150

Seagate has a new Pipeline series designed specifically for HD video storage and playback. Those model numbers seem to all end in CS. http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/pipeline-hd/

I'm going with the enclosure mentioned by ILikeFIOS:

$39 - Rosewill METAS Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" USB3.0 & eSATA External Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182245

And the Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB since it's less expensive than the Seagate 2TB and the FIOS dvr doesn't need the extra streams anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136783

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Re: FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive
InFoman1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Just be sure any external drive you add is rated 24/7 AV. Do not use a data drive. The WD family of drives with this spec is: WD AV-GP. I went with a WD20EURS drive (2TB) and it is working fine I initially tried using a WD20EARS green drive and it DIDN'T..

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Re: FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive
InFoman1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Just be sure the drive is rated 24/7 and is for AV use and you should be ok. AV drives do NO error correction and that is what you want for streaming video.. I went with a WD20EURS and it works fine.

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