External Hard Drive - guidance please

P

peapod1

Member
My Satellite Setup
Edision Mio 4k UHD, Fracarro Penta 85 with Inverto Black Ultra LNB. Technomate 2600 motor. Technomate 6902hd and 1m Gibertini in France.
My Location
Wiltshire UK and Bandol, France
I have on order a Technomate TM-6902 HD T2 receiver which permits recording to an external hard-drive via usb (and possibly eSata?). At present I have a five year old Sony HXD-900 dvr which we use to record SD programmes from the existing Echostar receiver. I also have a Western Digital external hard-drive used for backing up data and photos off the laptop.

My query is whether either of these can be used to record and playback HD recordings off the new Technomate? At least one online store states that "... buying a hard drive from a shop is unlikely to work without considerable preparation software..." Does that mean that a hard-drive requires formatting specifically for the Technomate, and will I be required therefore to buy an external hard-drive dedicated exclusively to the sat receiver? As you can see, I'm a bit baffled by the technology here so would appreciate any guidance on the topic.
 
I can only answer generally on this.

Most external drives arrive pre-formatted with NTFS, which is fine for Windows computers. Unfortunately most (all?) receivers won't recognise this, as NTFS is proprietary to Microsoft. They require the hard drive to be in FAT32 or possibly EXT2 or EXT3.

FAT32 is the easiest as there are freeware FTA32 formatters available (Windows will only offer to format in NTFS) and the FAT32 drive can be easily read by a Windows machine. The disadvantage of FAT32 is that the largest single file size you can have is 4GB - which is easily achievable with an HD recording. EXT2/3 will get round this but it's more difficult to find formatters and readers for Windows - not a problem if you run a Linux computer of course.
 
Thanks Paul. It helps my understanding a bit. I assume the Technomate formats the hdd appropriately.

Overnight frost here in the coastal Var at the moment. Could be quite nippy cycling up Mont Ventoux today. Trust you are escaping the worst in the Wirral.
 
The Technomate may, or may not, have an option to format an attached drive. You'd have to check the menus.

I'd imagine that Ventoux is already blocked off at Mont Serein by now. As I've posted elsewhere, we've only had a few light dustings of snow and a hailstorm last week in Wirral. Glad I'm not trying to make it down through the UK and France at the moment though!
 
peapod1 said:
one online store states that "... buying a hard drive from a shop is unlikely to work without considerable preparation software..."
Click to expand...
I've read that on the SS site. Maybe they put it there to help them sell hard drives.

I don't know about the Technomates but with the Enigma receivers you plug in the hard drive and then just go in the menu and choose "mount". There's no fuss at all.
 
Huevos said:
I've read that on the SS site. Maybe they put it there to help them sell hard drives.
Click to expand...

Thanks Huevos - I rather suspected this might be so, but I presume the Technomate manual must offer some guidance for it to be pvr ready via usb.
 
If it's of any help, I tried a 4GB memory stick in my new Technomate 5402 HD and it worked straight away. All the functions of a PVR were immediately usable no problem.

I've just spoken on the phone to my elder son who's a computer engineer and he's bringing over a couple of spare hard drives he's got tomorrow. I'll let you know what he manages to sort out.
 
I've seen a system where the portable drive is partially formatted in the PC, the remaining unformatted space can then be used by the receiver. It wasn't a Technomate though.
 
peapod1 said:
I have on order a Technomate TM-6902 HD T2 receiver which permits recording to an external hard-drive via usb (and possibly eSata?). At present I have a five year old Sony HXD-900 dvr which we use to record SD programmes from the existing Echostar receiver. I also have a Western Digital external hard-drive used for backing up data and photos off the laptop.

My query is whether either of these can be used to record and playback HD recordings off the new Technomate? At least one online store states that "... buying a hard drive from a shop is unlikely to work without considerable preparation software..." Does that mean that a hard-drive requires formatting specifically for the Technomate, and will I be required therefore to buy an external hard-drive dedicated exclusively to the sat receiver? As you can see, I'm a bit baffled by the technology here so would appreciate any guidance on the topic.
Click to expand...

Hi Peapod,

I have a sony hxd-1090, which has a 500 gb drive. Even though it`s a big drive using best quality even SP , eats away at your space. I wanted to install a 2 tb drive, but read somewhere that my model can not be modified to accept one.

On the other hand I thin you can . You download some software off the net , or you can get an engineer to do it for you by cd. Install the 2 tb drive, install cd pre -installed or downloaded onto your own and it should work. I can not say any more than that.

If you want a good receiver go with a Reelbox or Dreambox , preferably a Reelbox, tuners are really sensitive , plus it`s linux. You can put any size hard drive you like internal or external. I have Reelbox with a total of 3 seperate drives in it , 2 drive of 2 tb and one of 3 tb. 7 tb in total.

Goodluck. Happy New Year !
 
Thanks Robt23, I'll investigate your suggestions.
 
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