External HD as DVR extender and network storage??

[ezl]

Thanks in advance for any help.

My DVR (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD) can be extended with an external drive with an eSATA connection. Since the drive would need to be running all the time I'd like to find one that also has a USB port. I'd then connect it to my DVR using the eSATA port and to a wireless USB hub and also use it for networked storage. Tech support at Scientific Atlanta thought it could work, but acknowledged that they hadn't tested for that scenario. The one area that seems like a concern is access contention - if the DVR is recording a show it seems to me that the drive would be locked, but I don't know if a typical HDD (or specific type of HDD) manages that.
Does anyone know if this can be done?

Thanks...

 

[wahnula]

I'm wondering why you would like to share a drive like this in the age of super-cheap hard drives. Chances are the rep was doing his/her job and getting you off the phone, I don't know of any external drives that can handle two concurrent different sources.

Why risk loss of data (or more importantly, TV shows) when the alternative is spending another $100 for a dedicated USB drive?

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[ezl]

To wahnula's question - why share a drive:
well, I guess I never considered getting a network drive at all until I was thinking about extending my DVR. When it did occur to me it seemed like it would be ideal to have a single drive serve both purposes if it was possible. Then you have only one device running 24/7 rather than 2, only one extra piece of hardware floating around instead of 2, etc. It was never really a cost issue, more like an efficiency issue. Also, while I plan to extend my DVR, my need for a network drive isn't great enough to buy another dedicated piece of hardware, leave it running all the time, etc..

 

[wahnula]

ezl,

I see your point. It would be handy, were it just a NAS or shared external drive. My TiVo records two HD programs at once, while accessing its HDD to play yet another source (stored content), so multiple access IS possible...BUT...there needs to be some sort of controller, or "traffic cop", sorting out the read/write requests. In the case of the TiVo it's a flavor of Linux doing the traffic control. I don't think anything short of a NAS would have that sort of control...but I've been wrong before.



Tony

Users helping Users...