# Picking an eSATA enclosure for a TiVo S3



## JKay (Feb 8, 2001)

On the issue of external eSATA enclosures, Ive had bad luck with small USB enclosures that barely accommodate a full size hard drive. They provide little of no ventilation and Ive had drives fail quickly, which I contributed to excessive heat. 

An external drive supplementing a Series 3 TiVo would, under normal circumstances, be running 24/7. Plus it may well be placed in a confined area thus increasing the potential for over heating. 

I put my USB external hard drives in the large enclosures that will accommodate a CD/DVD drive or a hard drive. The hard drives seem much happier in these larger enclosures with better ventilation.

I am not aware of a LARGE eSATA enclosure, but if such an animal exists it would be on my short list.


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

JKay said:


> On the issue of external eSATA enclosures


People have been adding eSATA expansion drives to their 8300HDs for quite a while ... lots of opinions on enclosures (in similar conditions):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=516559

My gear goes in a closet so I'd probably look at an enclosure with a fan ... I've got a Kingwin external SATA enclsure with a fan hooked up to the 8300HD right now ...
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SS-350S-BLK

Some other similar options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817362002
http://www.cooldrives.com/onba3esusb20.html

But some go fanless ... some put a single drive in a multi-drive bay ... lots of options ...


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

Most of the enclosures I've seen have one connection per drive - how would you connect an S3 to an enclosure that has multiple drives?


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

> Most of the enclosures I've seen have one connection per drive - how would you connect an S3 to an enclosure that has multiple drives?


A number of these dual and quad drive enclosures feature a built-in RAID chipset that effectively combines the drives. To the Series3, these dual and quad drive enclosures appear as a single hard drive.

There is a downside -- if you have an enclosure with 2-4 drives whose storage is combined with RAID, you lose the recordings on all drives if one goes bad.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

When buying an external SATA enclosure, make sure it is a *native* SATA enclosure. Even between native SATA exclosures, performance can vary depending on the chipset controller used. Single-drive enclosures with the SATALink SPIF215A-HF021 chipset currently offer the best performance.

The Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU has come out on top in every SATA enclosure review I have seen.

Xbit Labs compared 9 external enclosures in its review on August 29.


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## ITGuy72 (Aug 10, 2005)

bkdtv said:


> The Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU has come out on top in every SATA enclosure review I have seen.
> 
> Xbit Labs compared 9 external enclosures in its review on August 29.


 I feel much better for just buying this one! Picked it up for $40. Works great on USB too by the way in case you want to use it on the PC while patiently waiting for the S3 to come out...


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## TerryD (May 17, 2002)

JKay said:


> They provide little of no ventilation and Ive had drives fail quickly, which I contributed to excessive heat.


Why did you contribute to the heat if you were worried about it? And how did you contribute to it? I want to be sure that I avoid a similar fate.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

bkdtv said:


> When buying an external SATA enclosure, make sure it is a *native* SATA enclosure. Even between native SATA exclosures, performance can vary depending on the chipset controller used. Single-drive enclosures with the SATALink SPIF215A-HF021 chipset currently offer the best performance.
> 
> The Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU has come out on top in every SATA enclosure review I have seen.
> 
> Xbit Labs compared 9 external enclosures in its review on August 29.


How did it fare with heat running in a 24/7 environment like we will need to do with the S3?


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

> How did it fare with heat running in a 24/7 environment like we will need to do with the S3?


Well, it doesn't have a fan. That makes it very quiet, but it might not be the best choice if you plan to stick it in a cabinet without any circulation.

I recommend the Western Digital 500Gb drive in part because it's one of the cooler-running large capacity drives.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

bkdtv said:


> A number of these dual and quad drive enclosures feature a built-in RAID chipset that effectively combines the drives. To the Series3, these dual and quad drive enclosures appear as a single hard drive.
> 
> There is a downside -- if you have an enclosure with 2-4 drives whose storage is combined with RAID, you lose the recordings on all drives if one goes bad.


Hmm. That's the way it is now with 2 drive S2 tivos. One drive fails, you loose everything. Your saying with the external drive on an S3 it is truly separate. Once it is connected it could be disconnected again without ill consequences? Sounds likely. I was thinking it would behave just like the older S2s with a married drive.

Of course, with having RAID 1 or 5 on board you could opt for mirroring and solve this problem of a failed drive (at the cost of the parity drive).


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## yunlin12 (Mar 15, 2003)

3 questions:

1) Does the S3 have a switched power jack to plug the eSATA driver into (like many A/V receiver, and Motorola DCT-3412 also has one). This way I don't have to plug the eSATA driver into a UPS by itself, but I can use Tivo to control the power on/off of the drive.

2) Any issue with powering on/off the eSATA driver? Any configuration such as turn off write buffer so it's always safe to power off?

3) How is the S3 handling which shows are stored on the external drive? What happens when the extrenal drive is swapped with a different HDD.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

1) No.

2) No configuration, but we were told in Vegas that it's designed to withstand a disconnect

3) My recollection is that you lose access to everything until it is reconnected - it's very much like adding a second drive internally.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

stevel said:


> 2) No configuration, but we were told in Vegas that it's designed to withstand a disconnect
> 
> 3) My recollection is that you lose access to everything until it is reconnected - it's very much like adding a second drive internally.


Can you clarify...

3) Lose access to everything on BOTH drives until it is reconnected? 

If so, how would you ever be able upgrade your external drive in the future. Or would you have to "divorce" it somehow first.

So many questions!  Why does Tivo need to be so mum on these features???


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

greg_burns said:


> Why does Tivo need to be so mum on these features???


Because technically the product hasn't been released yet. They should be able to answer a lot more of our questions tomorrow.

Dan


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

Dan203 said:


> Because technically the product hasn't been released yet. They should be able to answer a lot more of our questions tomorrow.
> 
> Dan


I'm holding you to that.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

I thought eSATA support wouldn't be available initially? If not, it may be a bit before we know these answers. Also, didn't TiVo say that you had to buy the eSATA drive from them (basically just meaning it had to be preformatted)?


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

rainwater said:


> I thought eSATA support wouldn't be available initially? If not, it may be a bit before we know these answers. Also, didn't TiVo say that you had to buy the eSATA drive from them (basically just meaning it had to be preformatted)?


All rumours. The no eSATA support at launch was just assumed since once beta tester wasn't testing it. Bah!

As far as needing to buy a preformatted drive.  Let's hope not.

Tomorrow...


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## talmania (Sep 7, 2006)

greg_burns said:


> As far as needing to buy a preformatted drive.  Let's hope not.
> 
> Tomorrow...


For sure!! Having to buy a tivo-only provided external eSATA drive will seriously damper my enthusiasm for purchasing an S3. Might not kill it completely but it'll be close.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

yunlin12 said:


> 3 questions:
> 
> 1) Does the S3 have a switched power jack to plug the eSATA driver into (like many A/V receiver, and Motorola DCT-3412 also has one). This way I don't have to plug the eSATA driver into a UPS by itself, but I can use Tivo to control the power on/off of the drive.


I don't understand your question. The TiVo never powers on and off, so how could there be a switched outlet on the unit? The hard drive spins 24/7 on a TiVo, so you better hope the same thing happens with your eSATA drive!


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

talmania said:


> For sure!! Having to buy a tivo-only provided external eSATA drive will seriously damper my enthusiasm for purchasing an S3. Might not kill it completely but it'll be close.


Well, even if that is true, it could be figured out rather quickly. Plus, being a eSATA drive, it would be easy to format assuming their was software available to do it.


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## tenement9 (Nov 9, 2005)

Do you think an Esata port replicator would work. Instead of 1 drive, you could have 5 drives, or drive arrays. just a thought.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

tenement9 said:


> Do you think an Esata port replicator would work. Instead of 1 drive, you could have 5 drives, or drive arrays. just a thought.


I think it needs to be seen as a single drive to the Tivo. But who knows?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

greg_burns said:


> I'm holding you to that.


Fell free. The reviews are just starting to roll out now.

Also based on what I've read the eSATA port is listed a "for future exansion" so it's not active just yet.

Dan


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## JKay (Feb 8, 2001)

Dan203 said:


> Fell free. The reviews are just starting to roll out now.
> 
> Also based on what I've read the eSATA port is listed a "for future exansion" so it's not active just yet.
> 
> Dan


It is interesting that TiVo may have initially disabled the eSATA external drive feature, with the possibility that it will be implemented in the future.

I find that scary, because the ability to increase the storage capacity of the S3 would be of paramount importance to me. Without this ability I would have to re-think my decision to buy an S3.


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## showpony (Mar 5, 2005)

Is the eSATA port active on the Series 3 yet? Also, how will the port be used? As a backup or as an expansion of the internal storage amount? If it is a backup, will there be a GUI to contol transfer from the internal disk to the external disk??


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

showpony said:


> Is the eSATA port active on the Series 3 yet? Also, how will the port be used? As a backup or as an expansion of the internal storage amount? If it is a backup, will there be a GUI to contol transfer from the internal disk to the external disk??


It is not active yet. Those that know these answers are under a NDA I'm sure.


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## leopardguy777 (Mar 7, 2007)

well, back to the main point... i've seen external eSATA enclosures on the site of discounTechnology. i dont know if alot of places would carry SATA to eSATA, but at least i found one.


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## ashu (Nov 8, 2002)

Holy Thread Revival, Batman!


Poww!


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## oldnacl (Mar 23, 2007)

Glad I found the thread as I just bought a S3 and have dozens of questions to get answered before my 30 days to opt out are up. This one was a bigggie as I currently have 2 SA8300HDs and I'm planning on the S3 to replace at least one of them. I have 320GB external drives connected to the SAs and I was hoping I could use one of them on the S3. Oh well...


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## ashu (Nov 8, 2002)

You can ... for now it'll be in lieu of the internal, and later it will (may?) add on as a second external storage device.


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