'Tested' Hard Drives

CONFIRMED:  GOOD
BRAND:  Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME:  My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 Backup - Black (WDBZFP0010BBK-NESN)
SIZE:  1TB
LINK:  http://amzn.com/B00E83X9P8
COMMENTS:  $69 and free shipping with Amazon prime.  It's small too & fits right on top of Tablo

CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND: Seagate
PRODUCT NAME: Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive
SIZE: 1TB
Link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/903082REG/Seagate_stbw1000900_1TB_Portable_External_Hard.html
COMMENTS: Found it on sale, TabloTV formatted it without any issues, small, powered over USB, USB 3.0

CONFIRMED GOOD:

Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2 TB Portable External USB.
CONFIRMED: GOOD
BRAND NAME: Seagate
PRODUCT NAME: Backup Plus 2TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STCA2000100)
SIZE: 2TB
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Desktop-External-STCA2000100/dp/B00829TII6/
COMMENTS: At first, it was not recognized.  I then did the Tablo firmware update, restarted the Tablo and tried again. The second time it was recognized and has been working great. Notice that this model is just slightly different (STCA instead of STDT) than the one listed above as confirmed bad.

The blog post linked in original post above seems to be a dead link.  Is there another list somewhere of known good/bad drives?

@danwa, here is the info that was in that blog.  It really wasn’t much, which makes this thread even better:


What do we recommend?

We’ve had excellent success with portable USB powered hard drives from Seagate (especially the Backup Plus line) and the Western Digital (Elements line only). WARNING - We don’t reccomend the Seagate powered 3.5" drives as they can report the wrong sector size or the Western Digital MyPassport line due to frequent USB disconnects.

Updated the link to the blog… Not sure why it was busted. 

CONFIRMED: GOOD
BRAND NAME: Seagate
PRODUCT NAME Backup Plus Slim (STDR2000100)
SIZE: 2TB
COMMENTS: After NOT reading the blog post and getting a Backup Plus Desktop (which of course didn't work), I went to get the 2TB slim. This drive works great so far.
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I’ve also got the Seagate 2TB slim. (STDR2000100) No problems so far.

CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND NAME Seagate
PRODUCT NAME Backup Plus or Backup Plus Slim part # STDR2000100
SIZE 2 TB

CONFIRMED BAD
BRAND NAME Adata HV260
PRODUCT NAME  Adata 2TB USB3.0 2.5" External Hard Drive AHV620-2TU3-CBK Black
Size 2TB

The Adata initially appeared to work OK.  It formatted and worked for a few recordings.  But an over night test with several back to back recordings and I ended up with several failed recordings.  It was worth a try I already had the drive. 

@andersonas25 - Sounds like a disconnect problem. We’ve seen it with a few drives where they connect and format initially but then have random and frequent disconnects which result in failed recordings. 

Yeah probably some sort of power saving spin down mode.  Documentation for the Adata drive is sparse.  I don’t see any utilities to disable a power savings mode it if that is the issue.  I wonder if just touching a file every 60 seconds or so would be enough to keep the power savings spin down from activating.  Does the tablo have anything like cron?

@andersonas25 - We don’t really touch the hard drive aside from connecting to it. Spin up & down is all on the drive firmware side.

I have a Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB drive, using the Seagate Dashboard software I set the drive to spin down after 10 minutes.  The drive spins back up when necessary - have not had any problems with missed or failed recordings.  I had to attach the drive to my PC temporarily to do this; I powered off the Tablo, disconnected the drive, connected it to my PC to change the sleep time, and then re-connected the drive back to the Tablo and powered everything up.

@andersonas25 - Maybe Adata has something similar to the Seagate Dashboard software that would allow you to set a sleep time.

CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND NAME Toshiba
PRODUCT NAME TOSHIBA DT01ACA200
SIZE 2 TB
LINK just google it
COMMENTS internal full size HD installed in generic USB3 container purchased from Amazon.

Here’s an update for some people that might be useful…

My live playback via Roku was acting up and would skip a lot and display “loading…”   I emailed tech support and Nolan provided a tip that worked.  The Western Digital drive had a sleep timer on it set to 30 minutes.  Download the free drive tools from the vendor. You can then disable the sleep timer.  Since doing this the playback has been MUCH better.
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CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND NAME Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME My Passport For Mac
SIZE 2 TB
LINK http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/921638/WD-My-Passport-For-Mac-2TB/
COMMENTS Work great

I decided to keep this drive for portable backups with my Macbook so I swapped the Passport for a desktop SATA drive I had on hand and hooked it up to the Tablo with a Vantec SATA to USB 2 adapter. No issues.

CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND NAME Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME WD20EARS SATA Desktop Drive
SIZE 2 TB
LINKS
DRIVE http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Desktop-WD20EARS/dp/B002ZCXK0I/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398561255&sr=8-1&keywords=wd20ears

ADAPTER http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2477926&SRCCODE=WEBGOOKWL&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCs81CjCE&gclid=CPH6hZu__70CFSdn7Aod1VkAHA

COMMENTS Works great
CONFIRMED: GOOD
BRAND NAME: Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME: My Passport Ultra
SIZE: 2 TB
LINK http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EAS89AG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
COMMENTS:
Small form factor, Large storage, great reviews, great price ($109), Works fine with Tablo.

Just purchased western digital elements hard drive. It is working great but there is a flashing white light in the rear of the hard drive. Anyone kmow how to turn the light off?

another +1 for…

CONFIRMED: GOOD
BRAND NAME: Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME: My Passport Ultra USB3.0
SIZE: 2 TB
1 Like