'Tested' Hard Drives

General Discussion
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@leathn, sorry you had bad luck with that drive. I have p/n HDTC720XK3C1 which is a 2TB Toshiba Canvio Connect drive as well. It is working fine. Your p/n ended in CK3C1. I purchased mine at BestBuy at the end of May. Perhaps models have different sector size now.

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@jerseyjayhawk It was a kick in the pants but not the end of the world. I’ll just use for pc backups and keep an eye out for possible firmware fixes. Using a 1 TB WD Passport now with no issues.

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@leathn @JerseyJayhawk - We have found that even among the same brand and style, the sector sizes can be different. Makes it hard for users which is why we’re working on getting a fix for the sector size issue. 

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@tabloTV Good to know. The more communication between vendor and user the better. Especially when other users are chipping in. 

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@leathn - We’re always around if you have any other questions :) 

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So it says Seagate backup plus is a good option, so I buy the Seagate backup plus desktop. Reading here, it sounds like the desktop backup is a bad (or even a totally dead) option. Very frustrating and silly from an end user perspective, that I buy a drive brand/model that is listed as a recommended one, but apparently should have read more forum prior to purchasing.

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@phatone17 - Sorry to hear you picked up a bad hard drive.


If you read the blog post (http://www.tablotv.com/blog/back-away-from-that-flash-drive) carefully it says: “portable USB powered hard drives”.
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I too can confirm the Seagate STDR2000100 Backup Plus Slim works awesome.

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@phatone17 - Sorry to hear you picked up a bad hard drive. If you read the blog post (http://www.tablotv.com/blog/back-away-from-that-flash-drive) carefully it says: "portable USB powered hard drives".

appreciate the condolences, however…expecting a customer to read carefully prior to purchasing a HDD is a bit of a lofty expectation IMO. The HDD caveat should be much more apparent if you want to have a broader potential consumer base. I’m certain that if I messed this up nearly everyone else in my family would have messed up just as bad or worse.

I’m running a backup plus slim great now, just need to offload this 2TB paper weight :slight_smile:

90

I have been using a Western Digital Elements 1 TB drive (WDBUZG0010BBK – 03) since I got my beta Tablo in Dec/Jan.  Since the last firmware update the drive has been disconnecting.  Support sent me a new Tablo, but still seeing the same problem.  Wondering if anyone else has seen this with the Elements drives.

I basically have to cycle the power on the Tablo for the drive to reappear.  Am considering sending it back to WD for warranty replacement.

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CONFIRMED: Good
BRAND NAME: Western Digital AV-GP/Sabrent Enclosure
PRODUCT NAME: Western Digital WD AV-GP WD5000AVDS 500GB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive Bare Drive-WD5000AVDS-FR
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Lay-Flat Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD
SIZE: 500GB
LINK: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236030
COMMENTS: This is a drive made especially for DVR applications with 32MB of RAM.  End user interfaces much faster w/ this drive (almost instantaneous). Only $29 at Newegg (refurb).  I checked the ext3 partition layout and it started at correct offset for 512 or 4K alignment.  This drive only has 3.5W power envelope, and I found this to be much better performance than the 2.5 drives I tested.  This Sabrent enclosure requires power, but that is not an issue.  I don't see how powered USB enclosures would be worse other than the fact they may have more 4K drives in them, inherently power from a wall wort is more stable than USB powered through the bus.

Also note:  This is last generation, replaced w/ WD Purple meant for DVR/Surveillance and go to a bigger 64MB cache. Purple use advanced format, so YMMV.

92

So, what are the symptoms of a incompatible HDD? I got a Fantom GForce3 2TB USB 3.0 drive (wall-powered) and it works. It records. It plays-back. So, it seems to be fine.


But, I have had some Tablo lock-ups. Times when the device becomes non-responsive and needs a power cycle (beyond clicking the reset button). I have contacted support and hope to hear back soon.

As far as this thread goes… is an incompatible HDD simply one that won’t format?
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So, what are the symptoms of a incompatible HDD? I got a Fantom GForce3 2TB USB 3.0 drive (wall-powered) and it works. It records. It plays-back. So, it seems to be fine.

But, I have had some Tablo lock-ups. Times when the device becomes non-responsive and needs a power cycle (beyond clicking the reset button). I have contacted support and hope to hear back soon.

As far as this thread goes… is an incompatible HDD simply one that won’t format?

Yes, that is correct.  An incompatible hard drive just isn’t recognized by the Tablo and won’t format.


Lockups and other issues are likely cause by other sources than the hard drive.

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Lockups and other issues are likely cause by other sources than the hard drive.

@snowcat, thanks.

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@cedarrapidsboy RE: Our ticket, this isn’t always the case. When a Tablo detects a drive with a 4K (incompatible) drive, it will send out an error message letting you know straight away.


However, if the drive is drawing too much power, disconnects frequently, or is corrupt, the Tablo might not be able to communicate this appropriately, and could suffer as a result.
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CONFIRMED GOOD (VERY GOOD) BRAND: Syba  Can use any brand 5.25 inch internal hard drive(supports 2.5 inch drives but I have not tested them)

PRODUCT NAME: Syba SY-ENC35026 USB 3.0 Hard Disk Docking Station Supports 3.5" and 2.5" Drives
SIZE: ANY   (Tablo only supports up to 2TB but larger drive can be used) 

I can confirm this works and is an awesome inexpensive option for using an existing hard drive.  Currently using an old 750GB Seagate drive ST3750640AS 

97
CONFIRMED: BAD
BRAND NAME: Western Digital
PRODUCT NAME: My Passport (WDBBEP0010BBK-01)
SIZE: 1 TB
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B006Y5UV4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411223451&sr=8-1&keywords=WDBBEP0010BBK-01
COMMENTS: It worked for 2-3 weeks, but then all recordings would fail and was unable to stream live TV.  The drive still works fine for other uses, but not for Tablo..
98

Is the current 2GB drive size limit something which can increased via software update or it a hardware limitation?

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http://www.pcworld.com/article/235088/everything_you_need_to_know_about_3TB_hard_drives.html


This is an interesting article from a few years ago describing the issue of moving from a 2TB drive to a 3TB drive.  Since the Tablo has a 2TB limit, it must be using the legacy addressing scheme.   It also seems to have an issue with 4K sector sizes (which are used with hard drives of varying sizes).

The question is whether the Tablo can update its own firmware/software/BIOS to support the bigger addressing scheme.
100

I’ve had my tablo (4 tuner) for couple days now. Having issues with recordings not finishing, frequents disconnects from the tablo. I have eliminated  Wifi as the culprit by connecting the PC directly to the router. Both the IPad (wifi) and the PC (connected to router) would “disconnect” from the tablo at the same exact time. I am thinking this is related to the hard drive then (wish I had a better way to confirm this). I have an older WD Elements 1TB (WDBAAU0010HBK) external drive. I tried the “disable the sleep/timer” idea from a previous post, but I am unable to update the firmware/drivers on the external drive as the PC doesn’t recognize it after its been formatted by tablo. Will cross my fingers and hope a different drive solve the frequent disconnects. If anyone has had similar symptoms and was fixed by different drive, please share.