A few days ago I installed a new WD Elements 4TB external HDD. I chose this since its recommended model by Nuvyyo.
Anyways, it seems to be working flawlessly but the HDD activity indicator blinks all of the time - steadily every second or so - since its been plugged in. Anyone experience this? My last HDD had no status light so unsure if this is normal or not. Its been about four solid days of blinking so far.
I have two tablo units each with a 1 TB WD Element drive. They have been blinking for over 5 years. I will be sad when they stop.
But I would plug the drive into a PC and run the WD firmware utility to make sure it is up to date.
Curiously, I reset tablo during a point where nothing was being recorded and no one was watching. It came back online, now the light is solid and not blinking.
This info. may be of little or no value to the OP
(as this is a older thread)…but hopefully it will be of some value to others.
A solid light or a fast blinking light indicates some type of drive activity and/or the fact that the drive is spinning. A slow blinking light is a good thing. It means that the drive is in “sleep” mode and isn’t spinning.
A constantly spinning portable drive is risky, as these type of drives weren’t intended for constant use! They tend to degrade much faster under these conditions. Not ideal for DVR purposes.
I believe that the WD “Elements” drives have no built in “sleep” function and therefore, will spin constantly (unless they’re being used with a computer or other device that can be completely powered off).
The WD “Passport/My Passport” portable drives have the built in “sleep” function. They will spin down when there’s no activity (after a pre- determined time) which makes them vastly superior if used with a Tablo!
Ideally, the WD “Elements” drives shouldn’t be recommended for use with a Tablo (due to potential longevity issues).
Some users have had problems with their Tablo not recording shows due to no drive being present. Many times the cause for this message has been traced back to a drive that has gone to sleep and then didn’t spin up fast enough for their Tablo to recognize that there actually was a drive attached.
So, your statement that drives that sleep are vastly superior if used with a Tablo is definitely not correct in all cases. Some drives that go to sleep may work properly with a Tablo, but definitely not all drives that enter a sleep mode when not being used.
Acknowledged…but I was simply referring to the differences between WD portable drives.
I also made it clear that these type of drives are less than ideal for this type of application.
They were intended only for intermittent use.
Not for multiple streams and the overall abuse when attached to a device such as this.
They’re recommended solely because they’re less expensive than standard drives with enclosures and therefore, they fit better into their overall marketing strategy.
Personally, I’m using a high quality standard HDD mounted in a self powered enclosure which is designed to spin down the drive after 10 minutes of inactivity. It works each and every time.
I’ve used almost 4TB of space and have never once had a problem associated with the drive sleeping and waking up. These problems seem to only occur with these inferior portable drives.
It works flawlessly. I wish that the Tablo overall would work as well as my HDD/enclosure combination!!..but that’s an entirely different conversation.
Been using a WD elements 1 TB drive for 6 years so far no problems. IM constantly watching and recording on it so it gets lots of use.
I have many WD Passport bus powered drives in use 5+ years on my Plex. They’ve been pretty reliable.
I use a 1TB bus powered Hitachi Touro on my Tablo units. They’ve also been very reliable.
When I was using a Seagate portable drive, there was software I got from Seagate where you could adjust the sleep time to whatever you wanted (or disable). Maybe this capability is available for other hard drive brands.
FYI, my Seagate with a 10 min sleep ran great with Tablo for years until the drive failed.