Hard Drive Problems, & Cable Included in AZbox

[jsattv]

Possible Hard Drive Scams?
Picked up what I thought was a 1 TB WD1000CSRTL Cavier Green HD at a store today - lets just say it's initials are BB. Opened up the HD box at home and found out that the vendor had switched it to a WD10EADS but charged me $99.00 plus Tax. Now this WD10EADS HD is available at a number of other Vendors here starting as low as $59.99. Thought I was paying the extra $40.00 for the WD1000CSRTL which is clearly marked on the Outside of the Green WD Box, and its specs are better than the WD10EADS. Well its going back to the BB Vendor tomorrow and I am going to have a chat with the Manager if available. Guess its buyer beware at Electronics Stores today!!

Cable Connectors for Hard Drive:
Also found out after removing the HD cover plate on AZbox that it appears that the Connector Plug or Socket to connect up the Hard Drive is available inside the AZbox - that is great because I thought I would have to buy separate Power and Sata cables. Is this common with ALL AZboxes??

Unfortunately its back to square one again as no one here appears to carry the 1 TB WD1000CSRTL HD. My only other alternative is a 1.5 TB Samsung Eco Green via mail order from Toronto but I understand via Radar this is too much capacity for the AZbox?? Is this a Formatting Issue or is that HD size just too big?

 

[stargaze]

"Also found out after removing the HD cover plate on AZbox that it appears that the Connector Plug or Socket to connect up the Hard Drive is available inside the AZbox - that is great because I thought I would have to buy separate Power and Sata cables. Is this common with ALL AZboxes??" It is on the Ultra & Premium Plus receivers. On the HD, do you have a staples nearby? Try them if you want that HD. I don't care for BB from the experiences I have had with them.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Possible Hard Drive Scams?


.....found out after removing the HD cover plate on AZbox that it appears that the Connector Plug or Socket to connect up the Hard Drive is available inside the AZbox - that is great because I thought I would have to buy separate Power and Sata cables. Is this common with ALL AZboxes??

Unfortunately its back to square one again as no one here appears to carry the 1 TB WD1000CSRTL HD. My only other alternative is a 1.5 TB Samsung Eco Green via mail order from Toronto but I understand via Radar this is too much capacity for the AZbox?? Is this a Formatting Issue or is that HD size just too big?

It is on the Ultra & Premium Plus receivers.

Yes, the Ultra and the Premium Plus models are very convenient since they have the appropriate connectors routed right up to the HDD bay and it is very simple and fool proof to install and remove the HDD.

Be VERY cautious when installing HDD's in the other variations of the AZBox as what may appear to be logical, simple and direct, is not. On the other models, the board connectors to which you have to attach your own cables (not included in the box) are laid out illogically. The connector that you would logically assume to be the power connection, is in fact NOT. The appropriate connector is off somewhere in left field, away from the data connection bus. Be careful, the incorrect connection will cause damage (so I have read).

As for the HDD size, I am not entirely certain that the 1TB limit is entirely correct. You may be able to go beyond that. All I can relay to you is that the OpenSat company techs have stated that the AZBox is only designed to support a maximum HDD sixe of 1TB. This does not mean that a 1.5 TB HDD will NOT work, it just means that they haven't recommended it.

Another discussion on this subject is that they may not recommend a HDD larger than 1TB, but they also did not indicate whether you could utilize a larger HDD and format it with partitions which are less than 1 TB.

I have read here on this forum that a 1.5 TB HDD is operational. What happens when you fill that HDD with data beyond the 1 TB recommendation is something yet to be learned. Will it continue up to the 1.5 TB capacity w/o problems? Don't know. Will it crash if it goes beyond the 1 TB limit? Don't know.

We are guinnea pigs on this, I suppose. But, that is all part of the hobby and the joy of learning. Of course, if it crashes, that isn't much joy. But, we gotta learn when not to touch a hot stove sometime.

I personally just buy and install the 1 TB drives and work on filling them up, then install a virgin HDD and start over. I expect to have several HDDs that I may just switch in and out easily (with the Premium Plus AZBox). I like trying new things and taking risks to find out this things first hand, but it takes a LONG TIME to fill up a 1 TB HDD. So, why really bother with anything else? I guess you will have to answer that question based on your personal gut feelings, but don't be negative if you happen to lose all your stuff or it won't play back everything that you put on it.

What good is the extra 0.5 TB if you cannot access it or possibly even the rest of the drive? Allow some other gutsy fool to attempt this with their money first, while you are enjoying the use of your 1 TB HDD. By the time you fill that up, someone will likely have found that a larger drive does work and you may upgrade then. You would eventually have to do so anyway. Use what works and is guaranteed for now, then wait for the hard core experimenters to find the definite answers out before you buy something that you might regret.


RADAR

 

[freezy]

If azbox is truly a Linux machine, perhaps these apply

c/p from answers.com

Linux is not limited in and of itself as to the size of it's hard disk. However, the file systems it uses all have different maximum capacities.

ext3 - 32 TB
ReiserFS - 16 TB
XFS - 1 PB
JFS - 16 TBs
FAT32 - 1 TB.

 

[jsattv]

Well I went back to BB to return the WD10EADS that was labelled on the outside of the Box as WD1000CSRTL, and they opened another sealed new box and it was also found to be WD10EADS. The manager said that the fault was not with BB but with the supplier??

This is worrisome because if you mail order a WD1000CSRTL from a Vendor, and it turns out to be the cheaper model WD10EADS, then the buyer is stuck with having to send it back. This makes a good case for being able to purchase a HD locally, as mentioned by Stargaze.

 

[AcWxRadar]

BB

Jsattv,

I would tend to agree with you regarding BB, but I disagree regarding sales over the internet. If you have PayPal and use it for Ebay and other online stores, you should never have too many problems.

When problems DO arise, you can fall back on Ebay and PayPal to assist you with any complaint or disagreement.

RADAR

 

[jsattv]

Jsattv,

I would tend to agree with you regarding BB, but I disagree regarding sales over the internet. If you have PayPal and use it for Ebay and other online stores, you should never have too many problems.

When problems DO arise, you can fall back on Ebay and PayPal to assist you with any complaint or disagreement.

RADAR

Well after visiting Staples as well as BB, I found out that the Recommended WD1000CSRTL 1 TB HD for AZbox is being replaced in Canada with the 1 TB WD10EADS HD. Phoned WD directly on their Help Line and and it was confirmed that this is the case. The gentleman at WD said that Both the WD10 EADS & WD10 EARS Green Cavier HD's are superior and newer Models than the WD1000CSRTL. Also on the WD Web site: support.wd.com there is a comparison chart of ALL the Green Cavier Hard Drives and the WD1000CSRTL is no longer listed there. So the choices here are WD10 EADS (32 MB Cashe) OR WD10EARS (64 MB Cashe). Going to look for the best price on the WD10EARS 1 TB HD which has a larger Cashe. Hope this helps others.