External Hard drive hookup

[bsi87]

I've managed to fill my internal 2TB drive which isn't hard as everyone knows. I bought a WD Elements 3TB drive which uses USB 2.0 I believe. Can I hook it up so my recordings roll over to it?

TIA

[rrhorer]

If you're talking about using a USB 2 drive for recording, no. It won't have the required speed, especially if you watch live TV, which writes and reads simultaneously. However, you can use it to transfer recordings for backup purposes. Playback from the usb drive should work fine for DVD quality and viewing on a single display. Beyond that, I don't know.

[KeithAbbott]

Or, you could remove the 3TB drive from the WD external enclosure, and connect it via sata cable directly to your motherboard, assuming there is a spare port available. At that point, it is just a second internal drive, which could be used for live TV, etc. etc.

[DRB]

If you're talking about using a USB 2 drive for recording, no. It won't have the required speed, especially if you watch live TV, which writes and reads simultaneously.

How about USB 3? Will that have the required speed?

Thanks
DRB

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by rrhorer

If you're talking about using a USB 2 drive for recording, no. It won't have the required speed, especially if you watch live TV, which writes and reads simultaneously.

Not true. When I first started using Sage, I had a single, 500Gb external USB2.0 drive, on which I did all my recording. I could record two HD streams and one SD stream (all via HDHR OTA, raw data, no encoding required) while watching another recording via HD100 extender simultaneously. No hiccups. And that was on a single-core, 2.4 Ghz Celeron with 2 Gb of RAM!

The only time I saw hiccups was if I had a fourth program recording, but I suspect that was due to the fact that I had (at the time) a 100Mbps network and I was probably pushing its limits.

[andyvr4]

You should be fine using usb2.0

Most of your recordings will be at most 10gB an hour so you can figure out how much data you'll be writing out below.

10gB * 1000 = 10000 mB - Convert to megaBytes
10000 mB * 8 = 80000 mb - Convert to megabites
80000/3600 = 22.222 mb/s - figure out the megabites per second

usb2.0 is rated at 480 mb/s so for each recording and playback stream in theory you'll only be using around 5% of the available bandwidth of the usb interface.

[panteragstk]

I've used a USB 2.0 drive for recording and playback many times. Works just fine depending on the drive's speed.

[bsi87]

ok how do I do it in Sage?

[panteragstk]

Same way you set up any hard drive. Point sage to the drive letter or unc path in the recording directory section in detailed setup.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by andyvr4

usb2.0 is rated at 480 mb/s so for each recording and playback stream in theory you'll only be using around 5% of the available bandwidth of the usb interface.

This isn't true, per the USB spec, no single device can use more than 50%, as it's shared Master/slave data bus. Saying that, it's still fast enough, as you are only using 10% of the max speed.

[bsi87]

"Same way you set up any hard drive. Point sage to the drive letter or unc path in the recording directory section in detailed setup"

If my full drive is C: and the new one is D:, will Sage roll over to D: if C: is full?

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by bsi87

If my full drive is C: and the new one is D:, will Sage roll over to D: if C: is full?

Yes. I think there is info about this in the Sage software FAQs somewhere. In fact, I think Sage even has some algorithms for equal drive sharing when there is plenty of space on multiple drives, i.e., it won't just fill up the first and then move to the next, but instead will spread your recordings out over all of them. (I may be wrong, I only use a single recording drive, but I feel like I read that somewhere here in the past).

[Rob]

If you have multiple recording drives, by default Sage will use the one with the most remaining space when a recording starts.

There is a setting in detail setup, where you can change it to optimize bandwidth. In this case, Sage will spread multiple simultanious recordings accross multiple drives rather than using the drive with the most free space.

[echo2]

I used a USB 2.0 drive a while back as extra storage for Sage and it worked fine. If you do happen to have problems with it keeping up with live TV or recording multiple things, one thing you could do is move your old recordings to the new external drive, so it's only reading from it and not writing to it. (This is assuming Sage is set up to record to the drive with the most space remaining, and you keep the external drive more full than the internal one.)

It's been a while since I've done this, but if you move recordings, I believe you'll want to first set up the new drive as a recording directory in Sage, then shut down Sage (the service and the application), backup your Wiz.bin file, move the media files to the new drive, then start things back up again.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by echo2

It's been a while since I've done this, but if you move recordings, I believe you'll want to first set up the new drive as a recording directory in Sage, then shut down Sage (the service and the application), backup your Wiz.bin file, move the media files to the new drive, then start things back up again.

I have moved files in the past to a new drive. I told Sage that the directory (on the new drive) was a Video Media Center Import Directory (not a recording location) and Sage was able to find my TV shows when I restarted.

[bsi87]

ok, I'm slow with work and all. I get into the detailed setup for video recording directories. My folder on the new drive is f:\video2. I click on new directory and enter the name f:\video2 and then hit my Enter button. Takes me back to Add a Video Recording Directory page with New Directory, Cancel, Select Current, etc down the left side. At the point I'm lost, it doesn't show the f drive as a selection.

thanks in advance.

[gplasky]

Obviously it doesn't see it as f:. Try browsing to the directory. When you browse to it choose "Select" on the left side.

Gerry

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I have moved files in the past to a new drive. I told Sage that the directory (on the new drive) was a Video Media Center Import Directory (not a recording location) and Sage was able to find my TV shows when I restarted.

I believe when you move them they by default become archived. So if you don't see them in your recordings list, make sure you check in "archived" or "all", not just "current". You can them unarchive them (if you want) and they'll be back to normal.

[NetworkGuy]

That is right, they were marked as "Archived". I used the Web Interface to remove the Archive flag.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Rob

If you have multiple recording drives, by default Sage will use the one with the most remaining space when a recording starts.

There is a setting in detail setup, where you can change it to optimize bandwidth. In this case, Sage will spread multiple simultanious recordings accross multiple drives rather than using the drive with the most free space.

You can also direct any tuner to any drive you want via the "forced_video_storage_path_prefix" mmc/encoders/ option in Sage.properties.