CONFIRMED: BAD
BRAND: Western Digital
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 2.0 2.5-inch External Hard Drive Mfr P/N WDBABM0010BBK-00
1TB
did not recognize the drive.
however…I thought I read someplace that you MUST have a HDD to watch live TV. That doesn’t seem to be the case…am watching TV perfectly fine without a hard drive. Just can’t record yet. Is this true? Once in awhile, when the lineup changes on the half hour, it will say " no HD detected", then merrily broadcast anyway. oh well…
My understanding is that to watch live TV, you only need the hard drive if you want to pause, rewind, etc. Also, if you want to watch live TV while recording another channel. Otherwise, just to watch live TV, you don’t need the hard drive.
Turns out the used one I got was completely deleted of any i. d. info, and couldn’t format due to win XP not able to handle it. So got a new one and works fine:
Toshiba Canovio Connect II
HDTC810XK3A1
Costco now has a 5TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop drive model STEL5000600. I think it is time for me to supersize my disk - has anyone determined if this is compatible with Tablo??? Thanks IA
Team: is there a more specific list of things the Tablo interface is expecting? There are really two separate parts to an external drive - the enclosure and the drive. Most of the things I’ve seen in this forum are related to packaged backup USB drive solutions, which are not typically as reliable as you would think ( A backup is not complete and known good until you can restore from it…) - that this forum exists essentially proves this point.
Two point/questions - I didn’t see discussion of many appropriate enclosures. This is actually important because those electronics matter much more than the drive itself.
Second - I didn’t see a single mention of Hitachi drives (formerly IBM). At least on the high performance end of the spectrum, Seagate drives in particular have had very poor reliability problems over the last several years, the WD line isn’t much better. Fujitsu and Toshiba really don’t make drives any longer.
I didn’t read through all of the 394 posts - any generalized knowledge for higher end gear which we can reliably consider build and forget? Love the community jumping in on this forum - very nice to see!!!
On recommendations from the Tablo site, I purchased a WD Elements 2TB drive. It worked really pretty great for a couple months, and the drive is still fine as far as I can tell. I began having irreconcilable loops of “connecting”, and then subsequent to a system reset, got a perpetual “No Hard Disc Connected” message.
Unfortunately, Tablo support says that the drive “is pulling more power than the Tablo’s USB ports can provide. Try using a powered USB hub in between your Tablo and hard drive to provide the additional power that is required.”
I’m still trying to work through the problem, but I’m not very happy with this explanation. I got that drive specifically because it was recommended by Tablo and so that I wouldn’t have to add yet another wall-wart to that particular mess. I don’t want to spend another $20 just to make this work under these circumstances.
I believe I’m using 2 of that same drive for over a year on 2 different Tablos: 1 Dual; and 1 Quad.
I have each directly connected to one of the Tablo USB ports, with no external power, nor USB hub.
WD 2TB Elements Portable
My drive model number is: WDBU6Y0020BBK-NESN
If yours is the same, and Tablo Support says the drive is pulling too much power, then I suspect there’s something wrong with that drive.
It could still be the Tablo, but I’d start with the drive first.
Even brand new drives can have issues.
I’ve been using the WD Elements 2TB drive for about a year and a half now with no issues. The reason I went with that particular drive was that at the time, it was one of the largest recommended drives.
I suspect an issue with that particular drive. Less likely is a Tablo power issue with its USB port.
Thank you both VERY MUCH for the replies. Greatly appreciated.
Yes, I am also using WDBU6Y0020BBK-EESN.
How would I know or document that the drive is pulling to much power? I ran the WD Data Life Guard Diagnostics tests on it and it passed everything just fine. i.e. I’m willing to believe that there may be something screwy with the drive, but how do I get WD to do something about it? I purchased the drive through Amazon about 100 days ago.
