I was trying to “reformat” my Western Digital MyDVR Expander eSATA external hard drive to argument the storage capacity of my Scientific Atlantic 8300 HDC Set Top Box. I had no luck at home. I had no luck in Charter's office. I had no luck with a new Cisco 8460 HDC Set top Box. I had no luck with a Charter/Prince Telecom tech in my home.
I concluded that the eSATA external hard drives were simply not being detected – even though all the Charter Live Chat Trusted Advisor claimed that there was no blockage in the system that would disenable the eSATA connection.
But I did find out that by using station 2199 I could view the Charter / Passport Echo “Diagnostics” screen – perhaps some 30 separate pages of characteristics that describe the STB functionality. Curiously the “SATA” page of these “Diagnostics” labeled the SATA port “Not Authorized.” The Diagnostics also says “No” und “Features Authorized.”
But it was clear to me that the eSATA port was “active” because sometimes when an install of the external hard drive is attempted - PARTICULARLY A HOT SATA PLUG-IN THE WHILE STB IS ON - results in a pause in programming for about 15 seconds then every thing resumes normal operation.
I researched all the help sites on the Internet that I could find. I stumbled across a reference to a Charter tech team that was dedicated to solving Charter customer problems with an e-mail address (lengthened to pass censor - remove the spaces) - Umatter 2 Charter_AVS (the symbol) chartercom.com . I e-mailed this team and after some preliminary technical skirmishing [the Charter system does not block eSATA external hard drives, it’s a bad external hard drive, it’s a bad STB, you need a local tech to come out & take a look at it] there response was: “I passed your message along and local man made a change which should have resolved your problem. If not, please power cycle the equipment and try again.”
Lo and behold it worked. With some (unknown to me) simple change to the "head end" system at Charter San Luis Obispo the eSATA is now “Authorized” in the Diagnostics – and the external drive became fully functional. And "Diagnostics" now shows 1,391.2 GB in the "DVR AVFS" category (the internal 320 GB and the external 1,000 GB in rounded numbers).
Well not quite that simple. When I used the Western Digital connection procedure [STP unplugged, connect power to external hard drive, connect eSATA cable to drive and STB, reboot the STB] the external drive was not recognized and not reformatted AND all the saved programs were erased.
So I tried an alternate procedure: with STB power off (but not unplugged), plug in the extender power and eSATA cable to the STB; power on the STB; reformat when asked; reboot when asked (probably a "warm" reboot - nothing was unplugged); finally good to go.
Just FYI - because it is so hard to find answers to these technical problems.
I concluded that the eSATA external hard drives were simply not being detected – even though all the Charter Live Chat Trusted Advisor claimed that there was no blockage in the system that would disenable the eSATA connection.
But I did find out that by using station 2199 I could view the Charter / Passport Echo “Diagnostics” screen – perhaps some 30 separate pages of characteristics that describe the STB functionality. Curiously the “SATA” page of these “Diagnostics” labeled the SATA port “Not Authorized.” The Diagnostics also says “No” und “Features Authorized.”
But it was clear to me that the eSATA port was “active” because sometimes when an install of the external hard drive is attempted - PARTICULARLY A HOT SATA PLUG-IN THE WHILE STB IS ON - results in a pause in programming for about 15 seconds then every thing resumes normal operation.
I researched all the help sites on the Internet that I could find. I stumbled across a reference to a Charter tech team that was dedicated to solving Charter customer problems with an e-mail address (lengthened to pass censor - remove the spaces) - Umatter 2 Charter_AVS (the symbol) chartercom.com . I e-mailed this team and after some preliminary technical skirmishing [the Charter system does not block eSATA external hard drives, it’s a bad external hard drive, it’s a bad STB, you need a local tech to come out & take a look at it] there response was: “I passed your message along and local man made a change which should have resolved your problem. If not, please power cycle the equipment and try again.”
Lo and behold it worked. With some (unknown to me) simple change to the "head end" system at Charter San Luis Obispo the eSATA is now “Authorized” in the Diagnostics – and the external drive became fully functional. And "Diagnostics" now shows 1,391.2 GB in the "DVR AVFS" category (the internal 320 GB and the external 1,000 GB in rounded numbers).
Well not quite that simple. When I used the Western Digital connection procedure [STP unplugged, connect power to external hard drive, connect eSATA cable to drive and STB, reboot the STB] the external drive was not recognized and not reformatted AND all the saved programs were erased.
So I tried an alternate procedure: with STB power off (but not unplugged), plug in the extender power and eSATA cable to the STB; power on the STB; reformat when asked; reboot when asked (probably a "warm" reboot - nothing was unplugged); finally good to go.
Just FYI - because it is so hard to find answers to these technical problems.
