Success with adding an external eSATA drive to a Verizon FIOS DVR

August 4, 2012 - Success with adding an external eSATA drive to a Verizon FIOS DVR
I just upgraded from a Comcast DVR to a Verizon FIOS DVR. I upgraded because my old DVR was limited to 500GB (1/2 TB) on the internal drive and the new FIOS DVR allowed for a much larger external eSATA drive. Selecting a viable external drive for the FIOS DVR was easier said than done. The three drives listed on the Verizon web site as compatible with FIOS DVRs are no longer manufactured by western digital and are not available on the market.
The DVR that I received from Verizon was a Cisco "CHS 435 HD DVR" that came with a 500GB (1/2 TB) internal drive. This is one of their "Multi-Room DVRs" that allows other set top boxes (not DVRs) to watch videos recorded on it.
I selected a western digital "WD30EURS" eSATA disk drive because it was a follow on product to one of the three listed as acceptable by Verzion on their web page and it was 3TB in size. I ordered from amazon.com for $170.99. This drive is a "bare drive" so it does not come with an external encloser or a eSATA cable.
According to the Western Digial web site this is a AV-GP drive: "These drives are designed to last in high temperature always-on, streaming digital audio/video environments such as PVR/DVR, IPTV, and video surveillance systems."
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/AAG/ENG/2178-771131.pdf
I got a "Macally G-S350SU Hi-Speed eSata/USB2.0 External Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD" to hold the drive for $34.39. I chose this one because it does not use a fan that could cause continious noise. The box is made out of metal so it cools itself as long as it is exposed to air (not covered up). This box comes with an external power supply that has a small transformer that plugs into a wall outlet.
Then I needed a eSATA cable. I got a "StarTech 6-Feet Shielded External eSATA Cable M/M (ESATA6)" for $6.50 and a 3-foot version for $5.90. I went with the longer one so that the cable would be less likely to become accidentally unplugged if I need to move the drive or the DVR. The cables and the drive houseing came from the same Amazon provider so it saved me on shipping. The drive came from Amazon/Western Digial directly but they do not have external housings or eSATA cables on that site.
The total cost was $255.56 including shipping for all these items.
I went with the largest (3TB) drive from western digial's AV-GP line to avoid a future upgrade from a smaller drive to a larger drive. There is no way to copy videos from one external eSATA drive to another drive because they are formatted by the FIOS DVR in a propriatary format. That would mean that any future upgrade would require losing all recorded files during an upgrade. That also means that there is no way to back up the contents of the drive to protect yourself from hard drive failure.
The installer who setup the DVR did not want me to plug in the drive while he was there and explained that I was on my own when I attached this kind of personal device to the DVR. When I plugged in the new eSATA drive it was automatically discovered. I was asked by the DVR if I wanted to format the new drive. I answered yes and within 2 hours the drive completed formatting. I did not watch the boring format so it could have finished faster.
When I started recording new videos they go directly to the external drive automatically and avoids the internal drive. It had no trouble recording two HD shows and playing a recording at the same time. I now have 20 hours of HD video recorded and the 3TB external drive is 17% full. So far my experience with the external drive has been great. No problems or issues. Learning the new remote control, new DVR menu system, and web browser control of the DVR from a laptop is another story. It will take some time to figure out how to make all the new features work.
It took me a while to figure out how to make this work since the verizon web site made useless suggestions and pointed me to products that are not available any more. I could not tell if this really would work until I plugged it in and then I was pleasantly suprised that it did. I have had this working for 3 days without any issues. I hope this post makes it easier for you to add an external eSATA drive to your DVR.
Here are the three items ordered from Amazon to make this work:
Western Digital 3 TB AV-GP 3 TB SATA 2 Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Driv...
Macally G-S350SU Hi-Speed eSata/USB2.0 External Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
StarTech 6-Feet Shielded External eSATA Cable M/M (ESATA6)

You are right. I can only access 2TB of my 3TB external drive. That gives me a total of 2.5 TB counting the internal (0.5 TB) and external (2.0 TB) drives. This is a significant improvement over the just the 0.5 TB internal drive. I have not been able to find a reason for this limitation. Cisco and Verizon do not mention any limits that I can find. I hope that a future BIOS upgrade could provide access to more space but this would probably require me to reformat the drive and lose everything recorded.
I paid $170.99 for the 3 TB WD30EURS drive at amazon. I could have gotten away with spending only $116.99 for the 2 TB WD20EURS drive. Not worth returning at this point so I will stay with it. Makes me glad I didn't buy the most expensive 6 TB external monster drive available from another company.
I bought: 3TB drive: Western Digital 3 TB AV-GP 3 TB SATA 2 Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive WD30EURS by Western Digital
I could have bought: 2TB drive: Western Digital AV-GP 2 TB SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Hard Drive - WD20EURS by Western Digital
Details of what I learned:
The external 2 TB drive now has 41 hours of HD video recorded and claims to be 34% full (66% free). My estimate would allow me to have aprox 120 hours of HD on the external drive (2TB) and 30 hours of HD on the internal drive (500GB) for a total of 150 hours of HD. This will keep me happy for the near future.
There is a hidden "diagnostic menu" that is not normally accessible or documented by CISCO or Verizon. This menu has a lot of interesting info on the inner working of the DVR. There was an obscure reference to this menu on another forum.
To access this diagnostics menu:
1) Get the DVR into normal live tv mode (no menu, no guide, no pause ...)
2) Go to the Cisco CHS 435 HD DVR (not the remote control) and press these buttons on the front of the DVR: Press both the Left Arrow "<-" button and "OK" button at the same time and hold them both down for aprox 5 seconds.
3) The "Verizon FiOS TV Diagnostics Menu" menu will appear. The menu can then be used by the remote control.
4) I chose "D03 Memory / HDD" and then "Hard Disk Information" and finally "OK"
A five page disk report appeared. With a little bit of interpretation I discovered:
The Internal Drive is know as "drive 1/hdc1" has 461 GB total space with 454 GB free.
The External Drive is split into two partitions "hdc2" and "hdc3" (aka two mount points).
"drive 2/hdc2" has 1007 MB total with 317 GB free
"drive 3/hdc3" has 1007 MB total with 974 GB free
The normal DVR menu has an "Eject" feature that allows you to stop the external drive and make it safe to remove it from the DVR without losing anything via an unplanned drive removal. This can be found at "DVR" button on remote then "Settings"->"External Hard Drive"->"Eject".

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http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/FiOSTV/Other+Hardware/eSATA/129841.htm
Here's a snipet from that page...
Which Verizon FiOS TV DVRs are compatible with eSATA devices?
The following FiOS TV DVRs are compatible with eSATA devices:
Motorola QIP 7216
Motorola QIP 7232
Cisco CHS 435 HDC
Which eSATA external storage devices can I use with my FiOS DVR?
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Western Digital – WDBACS5000EBK-NEVZ – 500GB
Western Digital – WDBACS0010HBK-NEVZ – 1TB
Western Digital Retail – WDBABT0010HBK-NESN – 1TB
I'm not sure why this happened...'Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied.'
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Message was edited by: myhighway

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I am looking for a 2TB external hard drive for my Mac Pro (Quad Core 3GHz) and have a question. The Mac Pro has a 500 GB internal boot drive and three internal 500 GB drives RAIDed into a single 1.5TB drive. I would use an external 2TB drive for backing up the 1.5TB daily with Apple's Backup and will use it for Time Machine when I install Leopard. The computer is used primarily for Final Cut Pro Studio.
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Please see the details below and thank you for your help. I asked the Geniuses at three different Apple Stores and got 3 different answers.
2TB - My Book Pro Edition II (Firewire 800) $600
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=341&language=en
1TB - My Book Home Edition (eSATA) $300
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=357&language=en
eSATA Extender Cable $25
http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php

I am looking for a 2TB external hard drive for my Mac Pro (Quad Core 3GHz) and have a question. The Mac Pro has a 500 GB internal boot drive and three internal 500 GB drives RAIDed into a single 1.5TB drive. I would use an external 2TB drive for backing up the 1.5TB daily with Apple's Backup and will use it for Time Machine when I install Leopard. The computer is used primarily for Final Cut Pro Studio.
Costco has a Western Digital external 2TB drive with Fire wire 800 (800mb/s) for $600 and a Western Digital external 1TB drive with eSATA (3000mb/s) for $300. Either way it's $600 for 2 TB. I would need to purchase an eSATA Extender Cable to utilize the two extra SATA ports found on the Mac Pro's logic board for $25.
*The question is*: Could I connect two of the 1TB eSATA drives with the eSATA Extender Cable and make them a single 2TB RAID with Apple's Disk Utility... and would you recommend doing that over getting the 2TB drive which is 1/4 the speed and the same price?
Please see the details below and thank you for your help. I asked the Geniuses at three different Apple Stores and got 3 different answers.
2TB - My Book Pro Edition II (Firewire 800) $600
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=341&language=en
1TB - My Book Home Edition (eSATA) $300
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=357&language=en
eSATA Extender Cable $25
http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php

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At the last minute, Apple removed the ability to backup to a network share. This limitation did not exist in the developer versions released before October 29. It is reported that Apple removed this capability since there were stability issues. Backing up to network shares is highly desired, but should be bullet-proof before relying on this method of backing up.
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