New DVR, Can't Recognize Existing ESata Drive/Programs

[steveKane]

I had a Motorola 7216 DVR box that had an external ESata drive.  The box had three issues:  froze 2-3 times a day for maybe 30 seconds, sound "clipping" during loud sections of shows/movies, and I could never get the Android app or web app to connect to the DVR.  So, I received a new 7232 DVR today.  Prior to disconnecting the old, I did the proper method of ejecting of the ESata Drive.  

I hooked up the new DVR, and (possibly mistakenly) hooked up the ESata drive as well before booting it up the first time.   Did the initialization, all went well.   Went through the routine of adding ESata, rebooted, didn't recognize the drive.   Realize I maybe shouldn't have plugged it in, so unplugged ESata cord, rebooted, did Set-Top Box Auto Correct, then went through the proper routine to add external storage.   However, when rebooting, the box blinks one light for 30 seconds, then the entire display lights up, then it reboots, repeating this routine ad infinitum (nothing ever displays on the TV).   

So, thinking I got a bad box, I hook up the old DVR, get it working, and then run the add ESata routine.  It now is in the same infinite loop as the old box (for 30 minutes now as I type).  

Removing the ESata, and rebooting, back to normal operation, though without ESata and all of the recorded shows.  

Any ideas?   Do you think my "mistake" in hooking up the ESata drive to the new box right off the bat might have messed up the drive?   I'm ordering an ESata to Sata cable so I can hook up the drive to my PC and see if it's accessable.  Maybe I can reformat it, knowing we'll lose all our programs (actually, my wife's programs......no big deal to me )

Or does it take a long time to initialize an existing ESata drive with lots of programs on it?  

[mcorbo]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the programs on an external drive are linked  to a single DVR and can not be used on another.  The only way to reuse the drive is to let the dvr reformat it.  Recording made on your previous DVR are only viewable with that dvr.

[steveKane]

I'm okay if the programs are lost.   But I can't even get the STB to boot to anything when the ESata drive is connected, to either the new or old STB.  (And obviously I can't reformat it if I can't boot.)  

I guess the drive is toast, but I'll see if I can mount it to my PC once my ESATA-SATA cable arrives.  Maybe I can reformat it that way, and plug it back in.  Otherwise, it's still under warranty.  

[steveKane · Accepted solution]

Okay, got everything to work, after some effort:   

-Realized that the eSATA drive also had a USB connection, so I didn't need to wait for ESata-Sata cable from Amazon (a whopping six bucks, but I'll still keep it around).  

-Plugged it into my laptop, reformatted it with NTFS.  

-Went through routine, and this time, it didn't go into infinite reboot, but still didn't recognize the drive. 

-Found this thread:   http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26715921-DVR-Unsupported-eSATA-Summarized

Among other things, it says to format using exFAT, not NTFS.  So reformatted with exFAT.   

-Plugged in, immediately said do you want to erase contents, clicked yes. 

-Voila!.   Didn't even require another reboot. 

So, only downer is that we lost the programs, but my wife can see most of them via streaming online.  As a bonus, I don't have sit through Glee for a few weeks.   That's in and of itself worth all this trouble.   

The DSLReports thread above is excellent, and is a good reference.    

[jeanmarc1]

I'm having the same problem... New Set Top Box won't recognize my external eSATA drive. How do I get the DVR to reformat the drive?

I've been through all the steps to add more storage, when prompted I connect the eSATA drive, then press OK to continue, and am told the device is ready to be activated, press OK to reboot STB and activate the external drive. After reboot, the STB still does not recognize the external drive.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

[armond_in_nj1]

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@jeanmarc wrote:

I'm having the same problem... New Set Top Box won't recognize my external eSATA drive. How do I get the DVR to reformat the drive? ... I've been through all the steps to add more storage ... 

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Have you tried all the steps given in the link just above your message?  Because you haven't given details on your rig, speculation is not helpful.  Give us details on your DVR, external drive, cables and types, wiring setup, steps taken to date, etc., and someone here will probably come up with one or two useful suggestions.

[jeanmarc1]

Greetings, armond_in_nj!

Thanks for your message responding to my plea for help!

OK.... Finally have had time to try everything again AND make notes along the way.

I have a Motorola STB, model HD DVR QIP 7216 P2 500GB.

I have a Western Digital external eSata hard drive, model  WDBABT0010HBK-NESN – 1TB (on the "approved" list).

And yes, I have tried everything mentioned in the post by "steveKane" just above my original. See below at the end for what happened when I tried to re-format my WD drive on my desktop PC.

When I first got my WD external HD several months ago, I had to call Verizon support to get the DVR to recognize the Western Digital external HD, but we finally got that fixed and all was fine (i.e., programs recording to external HD, status visible under DVR/Recorder Status using my remote). Then, around mid-november, when I would schedule programs to record, either when I was asleep or at work, when I went to view them later, often times one program was broken into 2 or more segments. Then a little later, sometimes while watching a recorded program, the DVR would just freeze. I would reset the Set Top Box (STB) and could continue watching the program. But this all got worse and worse and, finally, I called tech support. After a frustrating hour with a tech support person, who declared everything was fine with my STB because I could press RECORD and the DVR would record a short segment of programming. During that hour conversation, we had reset the STB more than 10 times. I finally asked to speak with this technician's supervisor, who finally agreed with me that the STB needed replacing. When I received the new STB, it would not function at all. So.... another call to support, more attempts on their end to re-set the STB, and finally they agreed that I needed yet another new STB. When that arrived, I went through all the proper steps to set up the STB first, without the external HD and, only when the new STB was working properly did I try to get it to recognize my external HD.

The Western Digital instructions for connecting their drive to my DVR are as follows:

1. Power off the DVR box by disconnecting the AC power cord. --- Did that

2. Connect one end of the eSATA cable to your My Book AV and the other end to the DVR box (do not use a USB cable to connect to DVR) -- Did that

3. Connect one end of the AC power cord to the My Book AV and the other end to the electrical outlet. The power LED inlluminates. ---- I did, and it did

4. Waii approximately 15 seconds for the hard drive to reach operating speed. -- Did that

5. Power on the DVR box by reattaching the AC power cord. -- Did that

6. Follow the on-screen instructions.

This procedure did not work. There were no on-screen instructions when I powered the STB back on. So, I did the following:

1. I went to "DVR/Enable more storage" and followed the prompts from there, which at one point told me to connect the external HD to the STB, which it already was. I pressed OK to proceed and got the message that "external storage is active for this STB. To detect the external hard, please press OK to reboot the STB".

2. Did that, waited; during reboot, a white band appears briefly across the TV screen with the words "Please wait" in red, then it goes away as the reboot process continues. Eventually, I get a message that says "Press MENU to watch FiOS TV, or turn your TV off". I press MENU, the screen appears (with red background) saying "Verizon FiOS is starting up - one moment pleast. Initial download in progress. It takes about one minute", then after a minute or so, the TV image appears.

3. I go to DVR/Recorder status, and the external HD is not there.

Since the STB prompted me to connect the external HD during step 1 above, I decided to power everything off, disconnect the eSATA cable from the back of the STB, reconnect power to the external HD, then reconnect power to the STB to reboot.

Everything in step 2 above proceeds as outlined there, but still I got no on-screen instructions after FiOS started back up. So, I went to DVR/Enable more storage, followed the prompts until asked to connect the external HD to the STB, at which time, now, I get a pop-up screen that says "The connected external HD has been previously used with another STB with a different DVR. Using the drive on this STB will remove all existing content on the drive. Do you want to use this drive?" Options are "ACCEPT" or "REJECT". I press OK to ACCEPT, then we go through the whole reboot thing again, and still no sign of the external HD under DVR/Recorder status.

I even tried connecting the WD external HD to my desktop computer (running XP Professional) using a USB cable (following "steveKane's" suggestion in his posting of 12-02-12), thinking I could try to reformat the drive on my desktop. After connecting, I go to Window Explorer and the drive is not there. When I open the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the Task Bar, the drive is visible there. I tried stopping the device, removing it, then waiting a bit and reconnecting it, but get the same results. Not visible in Explorer so that I can try to re-format.

The posting by "mcorbo" right above "steveKane's" posting says "The only way to reuse the drive is to let the dvr reformat it." So how does one get the DVR to reformat the drive????

I hope I have given you the information needed.

I'm at my wits end. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[JohnCF]

Hook up the drive to a computer and format using the exfat format. reconnect and tell the dvr to enable more storage amd reboot.  If that doesnt work, you may need to try different esata cables. I had to go through 3 cables before my drive became reliable.

[jeanmarc1]

See my posting above where I say:

I even tried connecting the WD external HD to my desktop computer (running XP Professional) using a USB cable (following "steveKane's" suggestion in his posting of 12-02-12), thinking I could try to reformat the drive on my desktop. After connecting, I go to Window Explorer and the drive is not there. When I open the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the Task Bar, the drive is visible there. I tried stopping the device, removing it, then waiting a bit and reconnecting it, but get the same results. Not visible in Explorer so that I can try to re-format.

The USB cable I am using is the one that came with my Western Digital drive. I tried this again today and got the same results: Win XP does not assign a drive letter to the drive. As mentioned above, when I open the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the Task Bar, the drive is visible there, along with my other external USB devices, all of which have lettered names (e.g. "H:), but it does not have a lettered name associated with it.

[jeanmarc1]

In the next to last line, the happy face is supposed to be a COLON.... Just plain H followed by a colon. Of course, H+colon is the keyboard shortcut for inserting a happy face, but my face is not happy!