# eSATA and Cavalry Drive Problems - How Common?



## wmray3 (Dec 30, 2006)

When I saw that someone had figured out how to add an eSATA drive to the S3(thanks!), I immediately went out looking for an external drive. I found (as no doubt many did) that the Cavalry drive that was originally listed as compatible seemed like a great "bang for the buck" buy. I ordered one, but UPS ground has not gotten it to me yet. I am now concerned to see it has been taken off the "compatible list", because of some rebooting issues.

I did a search on the forums for the Cavalry drive and found a few mentioning problems, but also a few that said they had no problems. Are we looking at a quality problem with the drives or an inherent incompatibility issue?

At the price, I would think many bought this drive for this purpose. Is it really a widespread problem, or just that so many bought the drive that we are actually seeing quality issues causing the posted problems? 

Please post your results with the Cavalry drive (good and bad) so maybe we can get a gauge of what exactly the failure rate is. This could help all of us who have purchased this drive make a better decision as to whether to keep it or return it for something else.

Please also post how long your Cavalry drive has been online.

Thanks!


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

I am eager to hear also, I too ordered one based on the compatible list. I believe mine arrives today. I will probably just send it back to buy.com because it was removed and order the Apricorn DVR Xpander.


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

mfrns0123 said:


> I am eager to hear also, I too ordered one based on the compatible list. I believe mine arrives today. I will probably just send it back to buy.com because it was removed and order the Apricorn DVR Xpander.


I am in the same boat, and mine is scheduled to arrive at the house today. I'll wait to even try to hook it up until I see responses here.

Just for my info, where is the compatible list? I can always use the Cavalry drive as an external for my PC, and order a different drive for the S3 if I have to.

Thanks for the help.


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

fritolayguy said:


> Just for my info, where is the compatible list? I can always use the Cavalry drive as an external for my PC, and order a different drive for the S3 if I have to.
> 
> Thanks for the help.


The list is in the very first post in this thread......


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

mfrns0123 said:


> The list is in the very first post in this thread......


I might be a little dense today, but the only reference I see in this thread is to the Cavalry drive.

I did a search (always a good first step!), and found a list of known working solutions on the original thread pertaining to adding an esata drive to a Series 3. Sorry I didn't do the due diligence the first time.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...10&page=1&pp=30&highlight=Cavalry+eSATA+drive


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## hddude55 (Jan 5, 2007)

Keep in mind that this hack is so new that any compatibility issues affecting various drives may be unknown. We may eventually discover that we've all been fools for jumping on this enhancement before TiVo gave us a thumbs up.

Just because a handful of people reported success doesn't mean we won't be hearing about all sorts of problems in the next few weeks. The Cavalry drive was on the "approved" list too until some people reported problems. If you want to be safe, wait a few weeks or months and let those of us who can't wait be your guinea pigs. This poll isn't going to help you much. It's much too soon to say for certain what drive/enclosure combinations -- if any -- are best for purposes of this hack.


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

fritolayguy said:


> I might be a little dense today, but the only reference I see in this thread is to the Cavalry drive.
> 
> I did a search (always a good first step!), and found a list of known working solutions on the original thread pertaining to adding an esata drive to a Series 3. Sorry I didn't do the due diligence the first time.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...10&page=1&pp=30&highlight=Cavalry+eSATA+drive


Sorry I meant to point to that thread...thats the problem with multiple tabs open at the same time.


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## msu2k (Jan 4, 2001)

Mine is working perfectly still. It's got 60 or so suggestions recorded and I've checked random ones at various locations in the list and they play fine. :up: Based on that, I don't think we're dealing with an incompatibility problem. I think we're dealing with individual bad drives. It makes sense that an inexpensive solution might have the most lemons.

Mine has been online since Thursday 5/10.


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## msu2k (Jan 4, 2001)

mfrns0123 said:


> I am eager to hear also, I too ordered one based on the compatible list. I believe mine arrives today. I will probably just send it back to buy.com because it was removed and order the Apricorn DVR Xpander.


You may want to check buy.com's return policy. I believe someone posted in the large eSATA thread that they could only exchange their drive from buy.com for a replacement or store credit, but not a refund.

Here's the post:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5145969#post5145969


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

I did have a problem that cropped up within hours of hooking it up (programs seem to record, but when you try to play them you get a bad-signal error message). Since I was going out of town that night, I disconnected it. I'm back, but I'm going to hold off on experimenting until sweeps is over.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> I did have a problem that cropped up within hours of hooking it up (programs seem to record, but when you try to play them you get a bad-signal error message). Since I was going out of town that night, I disconnected it. I'm back, but I'm going to hold off on experimenting until sweeps is over.


Hehe I keep thinking I'm reading the same thread a few times since I think you wrote this exactly the same in a couple of threads. At least I *think* I'm not crazy.


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## susani8 (Jan 14, 2006)

I also jumped right on the eSata bandwagon and immediately ordered the Cavalry drive. I received it on 5/9 and hooked it up that evening. It's been on and recording every since - not one glitch. I have over 40 HD shows on it now and so far there's no difference at all in speed or reliability to the original drive. I couldn't be happier with it. I also love that it has a "hard on/off" switch for the rare power outage. I also feel that the ones who have had problems must have received problem drives - compatibility doesn't seem to be an issue.


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## wmray3 (Dec 30, 2006)

hddude55 said:


> Keep in mind that this hack is so new that any compatibility issues affecting various drives may be unknown. We may eventually discover that we've all been fools for jumping on this enhancement before TiVo gave us a thumbs up.
> 
> Just because a handful of people reported success doesn't mean we won't be hearing about all sorts of problems in the next few weeks. The Cavalry drive was on the "approved" list too until some people reported problems. If you want to be safe, wait a few weeks or months and let those of us who can't wait be your guinea pigs. This poll isn't going to help you much. It's much too soon to say for certain what drive/enclosure combinations -- if any -- are best for purposes of this hack.


I agree with what you are saying. Regardless of the outcome of this poll, I will probably try the Cavalry drive anyway when I get it, as I don't mind being one of the "guinea pigs". I am in the IT field and have found myself on the "bleeding edge" of technology too many times to count. Besides, we're all guinea pigs anyways whenever Microsoft comes out with a new version of their products(no offense intended to any MS advocates out there)!

I will say, however, that as the days go by without any issue for those that are using the Cavalry drive successfully, the likelihood of them having any problem decreases. MSU2K reports that he has been online for 4 days with heavy usage and no problems. I tend to agree with MSU2K, that, barring a compatibility problem that eventually all drives will exhibit(because the code on the S3 was not ready yet), the Cavalry issue will probably turn out to be a quality issue, as bad internal drives have been the culprit of many of the same symptoms that some Cavalry users have reported.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

NJChris said:


> Hehe I keep thinking I'm reading the same thread a few times since I think you wrote this exactly the same in a couple of threads. At least I *think* I'm not crazy.


Heh. Yeah, it seems every day a new thread starts that's just a little more apropos for my problem. But this one is dead-on, so you won't have to worry about any more sanity tests. 

In light of the theories that it might be bad drives causing this problem, my next step is to hook the drive up to a computer and diagnose the hell out of it.


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

I am one of the few who has had a problem with the 500GB Cavalry drive. But it's been an annoyingly intermittent problem. Since I got the 8.3 update, I had a few days of error-free performance. But then last night when I tried to play some things I again got the "program not recorded due to lack of signal" message on ALL recordings, even those that I knew existed because I already partially watched some of them. I restarted TIVO, and the problem was solved again. All recordings worked as they should. 

I'm not going to give up on this drive yet. Not until the errors start occuring more often. But I'm watching closely. And I have not yet had a program fail to record that was supposed to record.


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## wmray3 (Dec 30, 2006)

TracyMiller said:


> I am one of the one's who has had a problem with the 500GB Cavalry drive. But it's been an annoyingly intermittent problem. Since I got the 8.3 update, I had a few days of error-free performance. But then last night when I tried to play some things I again got the "program not recorded due to lack of signal" message on ALL recordings, even those that I knew existed because I already partially watched some of them. I restarted TIVO, and the problem was solved again. All recordings worked as they should.
> 
> I'm not going to give up on this drive yet. Not until the errors start occuring more often. But I'm watching closely. And I have not yet had a program fail to record that was supposed to record.


I believe I read a post on one of the threads that had a similar issue to yours somewhere here (I'll look and see if I can find it). Anyway, this person was having this issue when they put the S3 in standby mode. If they left the S3 in normal mode, everything worked OK, but whenever the S3 was placed in Standby, the external drive was lost. You are not by chance using Standby mode are you?

Just a thought......


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

wmray3 said:


> I believe I read a post on one of the threads that had a similar issue to yours somewhere here (I'll look and see if I can find it). Anyway, this person was having this issue when they put the S3 in standby mode. If they left the S3 in normal mode, everything worked OK, but whenever the S3 was placed in Standby, the external drive was lost. You are not by chance using Standby mode are you?
> 
> Just a thought......


I saw that thread. But I never use the Standby mode. I leave TIVO up and running 24/7.


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## Tiger17 (Sep 19, 2006)

I purchased a new Cavalry drive last week, and hooked it up last Friday. Initial start-up went just as described in the FAQ and Engagdet. Within hours, however, I had two freeze-ups and spontaneous reboots. My S3 upgraded to 8.3 overnight Friday night, so I had it Saturday morning. A couple more spontaneous reboots Satuday morning, and then everything worked smoothly for 3 days. I had the same experience others have reported of recorded programs becoming inacessible ("lack of signal" message), but then after reboot being fully accessible and fully recorded. I was willing to live with this quirk, until ...

This morning, we were greeted with an ominous green screen saying that there was a serious problem with the DVR. It was trying to fix itself, and we should allow three hours for that to be completed. Warning not to unplug or restart while this process was ongoing. Also warning to turn off the display if it is plasma to avoid a burn-in of the warning message. Yikes!

Within 15 minutes, the DVR was working again as normal.

An hour later, the ominous screen reappeared. Yikes again!

It seems to have recovered again since, but I have decided to remove the Cavalry and return it. Not sure where the problem lies (drive, cable, software), but I have decided to leave it to braver souls with more time on their hands than I have to troubleshoot. Just hope I haven't done permanent damage to my S3.


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

I installed my Cavalry eSata 500gb drive this evening in about 15 minutes (that includes an extra try to hit "62" at the correct time.....)

Everything is working great, but I will keep an eye on the setup to ensure I don't have any of the issues noted here. 

Good luck to others using this drive. Just wanted to post another success.


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## jbdecker (Feb 28, 2002)

Everything worked great for me until I got the 8.31 update. I woke up and had the message for the update, within ten minutes the Tivo restarted by itself. Next thing I know it's trying to recover from a serious error.

Long story short....I unplugged everything and restarted. Tivo noticed I removed the drive and everything is back to normal with one drive (minus a few shows).

I'm heading out of town but will try from step 1 when I get back to see if it was just the update that screwed things up or an incompatibility issue.

Either way...if you're worried about loosing shows I wouldn't play around with the esata thing right away. Or try a different drive at least.


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

Fortunately, I already had the 8.3 update. If not, I would probably have waited based on what I have seen in the forum.


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

I am one of the people who reported a problem with the Calvary 500G drive. My first one was DOA, and not able to be recognized by any device. Due to Buy.com's restrictive return policy, I was forced to take yet another Calvary. I am pleased to report though, that the second drive set up immediately, and took a marriage to the TIVO on first try. Unlike the first drive, I could hear the drive spinning. I recorded a couple of shows; not sure which drive they recorded on but all went well. System shows 98 HD hours. Given that this drive comes with the correct esata cable, has a fan, and on/off power button I will be very happy if it continues to work ok. On a purely irrelevant note, the blue power light coordinates nicely with my Samsung TV and DVD in the entertainment center.  
I will report if I experience any problems over time for others watching the Calvary.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Well, I gave the Cavalry to a friend who has a spare SATA slot in his computer, and he reformatted it, ran low-level diagnostics, and used it for some disk-intensive activities. Everything worked fine. So I hooked it up again yesterday (being extra careful to make sure the connections were tight), and turned on suggestions. It worked fine last night. When I woke up this morning, there were two record lights on the front, one of which was for the morning news and one blank (a suggestion). But there was a frozen image from Angel on the screen, and when I tried to play something from Now Playing, I got the "didn't record because there was no signal" error message. My plan was to wait until the news was over and see what happens--probably reboot--but before then, it rebooted by itself and ended up in the yellow "serious error; wait three hours" screen.

A few minutes later, it was up and running. Apparently, no recordings had been lost, although the morning news was split in two with a gap between them and the suggestion that had been recording when it spontaneously rebooted was nowhere to be seen.

So at this point, I'm not sure what to make of it...


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## ChrisNJ (Mar 7, 2007)

I experienced my first 'glitch' after installing the Cavalry drive last Friday. The first 10 minutes of my Lost recording contained video corruption that happened about once a minute. The audio was fine but the screen paused and pixelated briefly each time, which could be a symptom of overheating. The drive felt hot and I'm thinking that's what was causing the problem. I repositioned the drive and it seemed to be fine after that.

I turned off suggestions afterwards also. Tivo had recorded over 100 suggestions in less than a week and I'm wondering if that was responsible for constant access that caused the heat buildup.

The interesting thing is I did a quick check of the Medium recording that was going on at the same time on the other tuner and I didn't see the same glitches. No one in the Lost thread seemed to have the problem, so I'm assuming it wasn't in the broadcast (Comcast HD in South Jersey).


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## Blazer (May 16, 2007)

In addition to being a Tivo user, I am also in charge of Cavalry Storage operations. Our technical staff has made sure there is compatibility with our SATA drives and TiVo. In some instances damage does occur in shipping the product. We take care of that through our RMA procedures. This will ensure customers get a working product as soon as possible. Technical support is also available through our web site. We strive to produce the best quality product that we can


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## msu2k (Jan 4, 2001)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Well, I gave the Cavalry to a friend who has a spare SATA slot in his computer, and he reformatted it, ran low-level diagnostics, and used it for some disk-intensive activities. Everything worked fine. So I hooked it up again yesterday (being extra careful to make sure the connections were tight), and turned on suggestions. It worked fine last night. When I woke up this morning, there were two record lights on the front, one of which was for the morning news and one blank (a suggestion). But there was a frozen image from Angel on the screen, and when I tried to play something from Now Playing, I got the "didn't record because there was no signal" error message. My plan was to wait until the news was over and see what happens--probably reboot--but before then, it rebooted by itself and ended up in the yellow "serious error; wait three hours" screen.
> 
> A few minutes later, it was up and running. Apparently, no recordings had been lost, although the morning news was split in two with a gap between them and the suggestion that had been recording when it spontaneously rebooted was nowhere to be seen.
> 
> So at this point, I'm not sure what to make of it...


This sounds exactly like the problem I'm having with the Seagate Free Agent Pro 750 GB. Same exact symptoms. I had previously been using a Cavalry 500 GB without any problems for about a week and a half. Very odd. I wonder if it has something to do with a second marriage after a divorce.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

msu2k said:


> This sounds exactly like the problem I'm having with the Seagate Free Agent Pro 750 GB. Same exact symptoms. I had previously been using a Cavalry 500 GB without any problems for about a week and a half. Very odd. I wonder if it has something to do with a second marriage after a divorce.


Mine exhibited the exact same symptoms both times I had it hooked up. Maybe married life just doesn't agree with my S3... 

I've disconnected it yet again; after next week, sweeps are over and the only shows will be cable stuff that have multiple showings, so I can experiment with less fear of losing shows. I'm thinking about jury-rigging the bare drive to see if it's the enclosure that's causing the problem, although I'm not sure how to get power to it...


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

Blazer said:


> In addition to being a Tivo user, I am also in charge of Cavalry Storage operations. Our technical staff has made sure there is compatibility with our SATA drives and TiVo. In some instances damage does occur in shipping the product. We take care of that through our RMA procedures. This will ensure customers get a working product as soon as possible. Technical support is also available through our web site. We strive to produce the best quality product that we can


Blazer, I am still having problems with my Cavalry drive. Today, for example, I was watching a show from my Now Playing List when the show froze, followed by a TIVO reboot, followed by the "Green Screen of Death". Do you have any suggestions for me (or others who are having the same issue), or should we go straight to the Cavalry web site first?


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## TerpBE (Jan 23, 2003)

I got my drive yesterday and installed it last night. Tonight my wife was going from the Now Playing List to Live TV, and it froze up for a while and then spontaneously rebooted.

When it came back up, she had the "serious error...3 hours" green screen of death. About 15 minutes later, everything came up fine.

Blazer, do you have another suggestion besides returning it to buy.com? Their return policy is 14 days from when they shipped it out, so they don't give you a lot of time to explore your options.


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

TerpBE said:


> I got my drive yesterday and installed it last night. Tonight my wife was going from the Now Playing List to Live TV, and it froze up for a while and then spontaneously rebooted.
> 
> When it came back up, she had the "serious error...3 hours" green screen of death. About 15 minutes later, everything came up fine.
> 
> Blazer, do you have another suggestion besides returning it to buy.com? Their return policy is 14 days from when they shipped it out, so they don't give you a lot of time to explore your options.


I would first check the fit of the cables to make sure they are snug. But if not that, then there may be a problem with that drive. Are you leaving the fan on all the time? I would. I got a second Calvary drive from Buy.com, which has been working flawlessly for four days. I have 8.3 update also. I set the Tivo suggestions on, and it has recorded about 25 shows, no problems, no reboots. My first drive would not even kickstart 62.

But with Buy.com, they wil not refund your money. They will send you another replacement. Their first approach is to tell you that it will be over ten days before they inspect the one you sent back to them, then they will send you another. I persuaded them to refund my money on the first, and then I immediately purchased the second (again with 2 day delivery). I hooked up the new Calvary, and it worked from the first kickstart, and has ever since. I was skeptical at first, and would have preferred to ditch the Calvary, but right now, I couldn't be happier given that 1) it works 2) it has the correct esata cable 3) on/off switch 4)on/off fan.

If the freeze happens again, I would give them a call right away to dish it back to them, and buy a new replacement.


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

Anyone still having problems with the Cavalry drive? Mine continues to misbehave. Today I got the usual "program not recorded due to no video signal" message on all shows. I unhooked the drive, cursed at it quite animatedly, reversed the cable, and hooked it back up. It is working again, probably temporarily (although I keep hoping the problem will resolve itself.)

I emailed Cavalry tech support, and they say they are aware of the issue and are working towards a resolution.


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

No problems here, I've have had mine running for about a week straight without a hitch....


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

Had mine for a week. Records every show. No problems with second Calvary, following first defective one.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

TracyMiller said:


> I emailed Cavalry tech support, and they say they are aware of the issue and are working towards a resolution.


"Working towards a resolution"? That seems...odd. As if this is something that can be fixed? Let's hope!

Has anybody experiencing this problem tried using a different cable? That will probably be my next step, although as I said earlier, I'm waiting until sweeps ends (Wednesday, I guess) before I try using the Cavalry again...


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> "Working towards a resolution"? That seems...odd. As if this is something that can be fixed? Let's hope!


Well, the exact wording was "I will notify you for a proper solution as soon as we understand better."


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

Since I reversed my esata cable, I have had three straight days of no problem. And I've been watching a LOT of TV during the last three days. Maybe that helped somehow. Anyone else have better performance after reversing the cable?


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## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

Not a Cavalry but using a Monoprice cable with tivo and FreeAgent Pro, I found the connection to the Tivo was snug and did not easily detach. But the drive side was loose and easily detached. I did reverse my cable and it was still the same - snug on the Tivo and loose on the Drive. I dremelled some plastic off and exposed more metal and it has been working but still loose (but inserts further into the socket).


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

I didn't keep track of which end I was using the two times I had my Cavalry hooked up. I've been trying to find a cable locally, but no luck--even the small build-it-yourself places either said "No" or didn't even know what I was talking about (actually, the one that said "no" didn't know what I was talking bout either, but he brought the only eSATA cable they had, and it was Type I to Type II). After Lost tonight, I'll experiment with hooking up the cable different ways, and keep trying to find another cable.


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## msu2k (Jan 4, 2001)

Going on about 2 weeks of no issues with my Cavalry drive. I never did get the Free Agent Pro 750 to work reliably.


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

TracyMiller said:


> Since I reversed my esata cable, I have had three straight days of no problem. And I've been watching a LOT of TV during the last three days. Maybe that helped somehow. Anyone else have better performance after reversing the cable?


Well, wouldn't you know that within hours of writing this, I had problems again. Same old thing..."Program not recorded due to lack of video signal". Rebooted. Worked for a while, then when I tried to watch a program that was being recorded, same thing. So I lost that recording. I think my patience with this unit is finally at an end. I'm going to get one of the drives that others are having great success with.


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## susani8 (Jan 14, 2006)

2 weeks today - not a glitch - love it.

For those who may be interested in it to give it a try, it's on sale right now at  NewEgg. It's 500 gb for 104.00 + shipping after rebate. It's low enough to take a chance...

So far I'm tickled with mine!


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

Eight days, still no issues. Had my TIVO suggestions running to put it thru the paces. My Tivo suggestions just loved "Charmed" so I had to shut it off. I feel good about this drive, after sending the first defective one back. I think the trick may be to just send the defective ones back till you get one that does work.


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

10 days and no issues for me either. Really sorry for those that are having troubles.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

I'm starting my post-sweeps experimentation. First up, I decided to look inside the box, even though this would theoretically void the warranty. To my surprise and delight, the warranty seal lifts right off! Inside, I see that there is a dual connector (power and data) on one side of the drive, and it rocks off fairly easily. The screws that attach the drive to the frame have big holes (presumably so the drive can be adjusted before tightening it down). I wonder if the drive might perhaps have shifted a bit? So I very firmly reconnected the drive, and then very carefully screwed it back to the frame, put everything back together again, and reconnected it to the TiVo. We'll see if that does any good.

I noticed that the eSATA cable fit to the drive is not as snug as the fit to the S3, although it's not exactly loose either.


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

I jinxed myself by posting that my Cavalry drive has been running with no issues for 10 days.

The wife called me today to tell me that the S3 screen was telling her that the drive had become unmarried, and to continue with one drive hit thumbs down three times... I had her restart the system, and the message on power up was that we had received the Spring Service Update.....once she read the message, she went back into the system info screen, and we still have the 98 hours of HD capacity that was available after I had installed the drive. Everything seems to working perfectly....(trying not to jinx myself again....)

The drive has a power switch and fan that stay on all the time as has been noted here several times.

Is there something inherent to the service updates that this is something that I can expect with every update?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

People have reported similar events on updates--I suspect this is one reason the SATA drive is as yet unsupported.

Maybe the Spring Update fixes this issue!


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Well, it's been 24 hours with no problem, which is longer than the other two times I had it hooked up. Perhaps a loose interior connection is the culprit, although at this point it's way too soon to be breaking out the champagne...or Diet Dr Pepper, as the case may be.

I've also ordered what is reportedly a better cable from Amazon, since the connection on the one that shipped with the Cavalry makes me just a little nervous...


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## peg4r (Oct 11, 2000)

I've had mine set up since Monday, May 14. The first day it rebooted twice, including the "serious error" screen. These reboots, I am sure, were caused by my foolishly trying to reposition the drive from horizontal to vertical and trying to move the cable into a more hidden position in my AV center. The only complaint I have had since then is that I find it rather noisy.


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

I am curious, which Cavalry drive are people having the problems with? The CAXM37500 
or the CAUE37500? I have been using the CAXM37500 for almost 2 weeks now without any problems.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

mfrns0123 said:


> I am curious, which Cavalry drive are people having the problems with? The CAXM37500
> or the CAUE37500? I have been using the CAXM37500 for almost 2 weeks now without any problems.


Mine is the CAXM. 48 hours now, and still humming along--perhaps it really was just a loose interior connection! Knock on wood; let's see how it continues to go...


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

It's been just over five days now, and still no problem. I turned on Suggestions when I re-attached it, and it's been filling up nicely. It might be too early to tell--maybe I've just had a really lucky five days--but at this point I would recommend trying opening the enclosure and re-seating the drive.


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## msu2k (Jan 4, 2001)

Three weeks solid and not a single issue with it.


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## gbrown (Oct 31, 2006)

I got my Calvary Drive yesterday and it worked out of the box.

But I am not thrilled with the noise level.

Can I ever turn the fan OFF?
Has anyone tried replacing the fan with a whisper fan?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Over a week, and still tickin'!

I also just got that new cable from Amazon, and even though things are going fine I powered it all down and hooked up the new cable. The fit on the Calvary end is much snugger.

gbrown, you can turn the fan off, but I don't know how good an idea it would be. And when I took the box apart, I couldn't even find the fan; I suspect it's custom-built.


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## gbrown (Oct 31, 2006)

Rob,
THANX for the response. Do you know if the feature tool from the other thread can be used on thye Calvary drive?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

gbrown said:


> Rob,
> THANX for the response. Do you know if the feature tool from the other thread can be used on the Calvary drive?


I haven't tried, since my drive is almost silent without the fan (I turned off the fan just to see how much of the noise if the fan and how much is the drive, and it was virtually all fan). So making the drive quieter wouldn't do me any good.

It's a Western Digital drive in my Cavalry, if that helps.


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

Three weeks now with no problems with Calvary Drive. I think it is safe to come in the water (as long as you get a non-defective drive and esata cable). Works like a charm.


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## TerpBE (Jan 23, 2003)

Any update on any kind of "fix"?

I only had one problem in the first two weeks, but in the last few days it's happened again 3 times. With the 14-day buy.com return policy, I'm now stuck with it.


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## gbrown (Oct 31, 2006)

I downloaded the "HD Feature Tool", But I don't have a SATA internal connector on my PC to connect and change the noise profile. _But I did change the profile on my PC's drive with satisfaction._

I took apart the Calvary Drive to see if I could swap out the fan for a "whisper" fan, No luck. The fan housing is molded into the circuit board. Darn! I was overjoyed though to discover that I have a Seagate 500GB drive inside. The next step would be to change the enclosure.

I'm wondering if there is anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area who has a MX-1 enclosure who would be kind enough to Private contact me? I'd like to compare the noise level between the Calvary Enclosure and the MX-1 enclosure.


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## susani8 (Jan 14, 2006)

Well it's now been over a month and everything continues to work beautifully. Just needed to say that. I was worried for a while, but not one GSOD, and all of the shows are instantly available and beautiful to behold. So all of the worry was for not.

<knock, knock knock> That's me knocking on wood


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

I just received my replacement Cavalry drive from Newegg.com today. I decided to give Cavalry a second chance, being that there are plenty of people having success with it. It married on the first try, which is encouraging, as my first drive took two attempts. I'll monitor it closely.


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## rjom (Feb 28, 2004)

One month with my (second) Calvary Drive, and working perfectly. No problems whatsoever. Happy camper.


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

Well, my replacement Cavalry hard drive arrived, and it married the first try. No problems for three days, and then today..."Program not recorded due to no video signal...". Same error message that I constantly received with my first drive. I told myself I would give Cavalry a second chance, but because this is my second Cavalry drive, at this point I'm just going to give up and get a refund and get myself a different drive altogether.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

It's been three weeks since I re-seated the drive in the frame, with no problems...


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## mfrns0123 (Mar 25, 2005)

TracyMiller said:


> Well, my replacement Cavalry hard drive arrived, and it married the first try. No problems for three days, and then today..."Program not recorded due to no video signal...". Same error message that I constantly received with my first drive. I told myself I would give Cavalry a second chance, but because this is my second Cavalry drive, at this point I'm just going to give up and get a refund and get myself a different drive altogether.


Which Cavalry drive are you having the problems with? The CAXM37500 or the CAUE37500? 4 weeks now with the CAXM37500 , not one problem. I did trim the cable when it arrived, just for piece of mind. As discussed here, http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=351824


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## TracyMiller (May 12, 2004)

mfrns0123 said:


> Which Cavalry drive are you having the problems with? The CAXM37500 or the CAUE37500? 4 weeks now with the CAXM37500 , not one problem. I did trim the cable when it arrived, just for piece of mind. As discussed here, http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=351824


CAXM37500. Actually I am going to purchase a new cable I read about here and try that before I actually return the drive for a refund.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

TracyMiller said:


> CAXM37500. Actually I am going to purchase a new cable I read about here and try that before I actually return the drive for a refund.


As I said before, the internal connector for the drive rocks loose pretty easily--if you can get it open without breaking the warranty seal (which was VERY easy for me), I'd try unscrewing, re-seating, and re-screwing the drive.


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## gbrown (Oct 31, 2006)

I _highly_ recommend that you swap the Calvary drive enclosure out for an MX-1. When I did this last week, I was amazed at the temperature of the drive inside the Cavalry enclosure. I'm sure that it has something to do with the reported failures.

The Cavalry enclosure has an internal 1" standard fan. The Antec MX-1 has a pancake fan that is about the size of the drive. This allows it to run quieter and push more air.

The job was easy. The process took 10 minutes. I even used the same eSata cable. Now I just have to keep my eyes open for deal on a HD. And I will use the Cavalry case and have an external USB drive for my computer - SWEET.


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## TracySMiller (Oct 14, 2002)

Well, after having the same problems with my SECOND Cavalry hard drive, even after getting a new eSata cable (Tripp-Lite), I finally gave up and got a full refund from newegg.com. I must say I am very pleased with newegg.com being very understanding and not giving me a hard time or charging me a restocking fee.

I was too chicken to open up my Cavarly drive enclosure to check for anything amiss. I didn't want to risk not being able to return it.

I just got a Seagate 500GB drive and the MX-1 enclosure, a combination that many of the forum have praised. It married on the first try, and is running like a charm. I love that enclosure - whisper quiet. I think it will definitely be worth the extra money.


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## TerpBE (Jan 23, 2003)

So has anybody come up with a definite answer on whether it's a problem with the drive or the enclosure? 

Mine has been rebooting every couple of days, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.


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