External HDD not detected

[.: JaCkPoT :.]

Hi,
I have a 250gb external HDD and it is formatted in NTFS and the box will not detect it. Any ideas? From the PC i cant format it to anything else other than NTFS. It is connected by USb and is powered from the mains. Any ideas what i can do, or shall i open it and use it by sata?

[Oily]

I tried for ages to get my external usb hdd to be seen by my DM800,I gave up in the end after trying several different images/scripts etc
In the end I took it out of the enclosure,used the SATA lead supplied,hooked it up to the sata and took 12V from the fan supply to power it and placed it back in its enclosure!

[freck]

The DM 800 works VERY well with an external disk connected to its USB 2.0 port. At the end of the day, manipulations of the remote control are identical to those with an internal disk or an external disk connected to the eSATA port.

But, in order to get there, you must begin with a bit of tweaking. The following explanation supposes that you are capable of giving Unix/Linux line commands to a Dreambox (See other threads if necessary...)

Enigma 2 pre-supposes that the disk on which you intend to record (or read) movies be mounted on /media/hdd/ and that it itself contains a movie/ subdirectory.

If you already have an eSATA internal or external disk mounted on your DM 800, you must first unmount it:


Code:
umount /media/hdd
Then, you must mount the disk connected to the USB 2.0 port in its place:


Code:
mount /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /media/hdd(Note that the disk seems to be on a SCSI bus, although this is NOT the case. It's a rather ordinary Linux trick to emulate a USB bus as a SCSI bus (via the driver) in order to simplify device access for the kernel.)

To make the mount command for your USB disk persistant through reboots, you must modify or add a line to the /etc/fstab file.
If there is already a line meant to mount an eSATA disk that you wish to replace with a USB disk, erase it. It looks like:


Code:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /media/hdd auto defaults 0 0In order to mount the USB disk at boot time, add the following line:


Code:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /media/hdd auto defaults 0 0
Taken from elsewhere....thanks to kegnkiwi
Freck

[Oily]

But for the above to work doesn't the hdd have to be powered up all the time?

Mine was great IF I kept the USB hdd powered up 24/7 but as soon as I switched it off I was back to square one.

[real_highlander]

With some images on the DB800sHD (s=Sat) e.g. Dream elite ESATA drive problems seem to be a known problem. This is supposed to be rectified in one of the next new images. Although mounting may be possible when initialising after reboot it seems that due to a software glitch this is not possible in the “right” way at present. E.g. on next reboot mounting information’s were lost. WORKAROUND: I installed a Gemini image first no problems with mounting and initialising. After reboot recording and else was possible. Then I installed a dream elite image afterwards. Now mounting was possible and after reboot recording was possible instantly without initialisation. (Beware: If you initialise again you may lose the drive again, sadly) This seems to be a work at present.
Powering the ESATA down and up caused no further problems. E.g. you may have to mount the ESATA again if you cut off the power to the drive of accidentally.
This looks to be a problem only coming up with ESATA not internal SATA drives

[porter1]

dont want to hijack thread,but would this be similiar problem i have with internal hdd which keeps vanishing,on nabilo blackhole now still the same on dream elite,annoying,sorry for interuption

[frankharrison]

Theres a program called formater32 try this to format drive. Normally used for memory sticks.

I had same problem with NTFS.

Frank

[.: JaCkPoT :.]

what format shall i try? FAT32? NTFS? ext2/3? etc. please help. also will usb 1.0 work on the dm800 or is it just 2.0?

[cunny]

what format shall i try? FAT32? NTFS? ext2/3? etc. please help. also will usb 1.0 work on the dm800 or is it just 2.0?

My external is in NTFS and my box reads it fine going through usb 2

[alec]

Should use ext3 format, but might initialize using Fat 32.
I have'nt heard anyone mounting the hd successfully using NTFS

[.: JaCkPoT :.]

I will make three seperate partions on it, one with Fat32, one with NTFS, and one with ext3 and the i can see which if any is picked up

[silkcut]

Try the plugin called USB2HDD it was the only way i could get my external HDD to work. Have a look in plugin menu or search online.