I would feel better if you posted the brand and model of drives with spotty or no success.
CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND NAME Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME My Passport
SIZE 500GB
COMMENTS Download the WD Drive Utilities and turn sleep mode off. Here’s a link to the utility: https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=171
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Why would you want to turn sleep mode off? My WD Passport 1TB works great, and “sleeps” throughout the day when there is nothing to record.
There have been issues where it goes to sleep in the middle of a recording for whatever reason. So it is best to turn that off.
CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND: Lacie
PRODUCT NAME: LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2, 4TB USB 3.0 7200RPM Desktop External Hard Drive (STEX4000400)]
SIZE: 4TB
LINK: (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GLFCYZ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
COMMENTS: Had this drive available after another project, so decided to use it to test new TabloTV 4-tuner. So far, so good. If ordering from Amazon, you may want to select gift options/conceal contents options, have received a few of these in no shipping box at all, just the Lacie retail box… shudder…
The only issue that I’ve had with the sleep mode has been that when I select a episode to view after a long idle period, the video load pauses. I just back out and restart. Every thing works well after that. Never any problems with recording.
Just from personal experience thumb drives have short lives when used heavily. They get very hot. They never seem to really get the performance they promise (except in short bursts) on any platform. I do use a small USB thumb drive for my Roku TV to allow the pause function built into those TVs but I consider it disposable because worst case I lose 15 minutes of a show and thumb drives are dirt cheap. On a Tablo with 4 tuners your drive will get hammered and you could lose a lot of recording. For the moment I’m using a USB adapter with a Sandisk SSD drive. SSDs are very low power consumption so I’m not using external power. I picked that because it’s literally what I had lying around.
Is this SSD 1TB Fast Enough… Somebody with Money want test this ??
Chas
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WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBU6Y0020BBK-WESN
CONFIRMED GOOD
BRAND: WD
PRODUCT NAME: WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBU6Y0020BBK-WESN
SIZE: 2 TB
LINK: https://goo.gl/DGiFS6
COMMENTS: Had since 2017 no issues
Sorry if this was already posted, but I’m thinking of buying the Tablo for my parents. Based on recommendations it seems the WD elements or some portable variant is recommended. However, is it better to have an external HDD that’s is powered by an outlet rather than USB to prevent the whole waking/sleeping thing? Does using a hdd that is independently powered a good idea to reduce the load/heat on the tablo unit? Or just continue to stick with the WD elements/segate expansion?
Thanks for the advice!
I would always recommend a self-powered drive when portability is not a requirement. I’m using one of these:
So is this tablo approved? I noticed the official approved drives from WD and SG were both 2.5 inch, usb powered hdd, but this also is an “expansion” line of drives. I assume if it’s working for you then it’s fine?
It’s the one Tablo Support pointed me to when they thought my old one was causing issues.
Has anyone had any experience using this hard drive with their tablo? I have attached a link below. Thank you.
WD - My Passport X 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Have had my tablo since march 6 2017 with the same hard drive. Worked perfectly so far. only difference is mine is blue case.
I have the 5tb in this and I can’t get the back on the Tablo. It is thicker than I imagined.
That’s because the 5 TB is 15mm in height.
As it states in the Quad’s Documentation, you can use either 7mm or 9.5mm high 2.5 inch SATA Drives.
Return the 5 TB Seagate for a nice, RELIABLE, 2 TB WD Blue, like this one:
BTW, 2 TB is the largest-capacity Drive in an acceptable height (9.5mm).
If you want to go larger capacity, you will have to investigate a suitable 3.5" Drive and USB 2 (or USB 3) Enclosure. THEN you can go up to a whopping 8 TB !!!
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I believe @TabloTV stated that 10TB or larger should work, but they’ve only tested 8TB so that’s what the website says.
True, for USB-connected drives at least.
SATA drives that ‘fit’ are currently limited to 2TB, but I’m sure the folks who make them are always at work cramming more storage into smaller spaces.