[coreyt]

Here's a good one.


If you hook up a eSata drive it becomes part of the filesystem much like Raid0 so if there's a power failure of the eSata while the Tivo is running what happens?

I'm sure the tivo software resides on a partition on the main drive and stays that way while the partition for recordings is separate.

I plan on adding a eSata drive shortly, but if losing power on the eSata causes an entire wipe of the shows that's not a good thing. It would also be nice if the Tivo could talk to a UPS via usb so if the power goes out it shuts down before the battery expires. I have a readyNAS that does this and it's a great feature.

 

[rodalpho]

If the eSATA is removed or turned off, it stops and prompts you to plug it back in. You don't lose any recordings, but the TiVo is unusable.

Do what I did, plug em both into the same UPS. I've been using a 280VA for years now, works fine.

 

[TexasGrillChef]

Yep good Idea to have BOTH your TiVo AND your eSATA drive plugged into a UPS.

I have my S3 & 750gb eSATA both plugged into a 1500va UPS. Did a test the other day. IT will run both with both tuners recording for 1hr 3 min.

TGC

 

[Joybob]

If the eSATA is removed or turned off, it stops and prompts you to plug it back in. You don't lose any recordings, but the TiVo is unusable.

Do what I did, plug em both into the same UPS. I've been using a 280VA for years now, works fine.

I'm fairly certain the Tivo can reformat itself if you take out the external drive.

 

[sfhub]

On the S3 if a married 2 drive setup loses the eSATA drive, the software tells you of the problem and asks you if you want to divorce. It won't continue until you either enable the eSATA drive or divorce the drive. If you divorce the drive, you lose whatever recordings were on that drive or partially on that drive. Recordings that occurred before the marriage or were completely recorded on the internal drive will survive the divorce.

That was how it behaved on 8.3. I don't know about 9.1, 9.2 or the THD.

 

[fred2]

One suggestion (besides waiting for Tivo's OFFICIAL esata drive) is to get an external drive (standalone) or enclosure that has a REAL POWER ON SWITCH. Some "soft" switches need to be manually touched or toggled to turn on the drive while others are always either on or off. So that if there is a power failure and the power returns, PERMANENT ON will allow the drive to spin up without intervention. Whereas, those that toggle will need someone to power on the drive way.

Where the drive powers back on with a return of power, the Tivo will also work without intervention (there might be exceptions, I'm sure). If the drive does not power up, the Tivo will wait for either the drive to be appropriately powered on or for it to be divorced.