Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

USB Harddrives

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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 20, 2008, 12:57 PM

Post #1 of 31 (1897 views)
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USB Harddrives

Hello,

I wanted to upgrade my system for more storage so i went a bought a new
500GB USB drive (no space in case). I am having some issues with it staying
mounted. first i mounted it in fstab per its location /dev/sdh1. Then i
noticed it kept changing locations and umounting. So i mounted it according
to label, LABEL=d3. This worked OK to mount it in the correct directory no
matter on location but for some reason the drive keeps umounting itself.
This is really a issue for Myth as you can imaging. Especially when my
system disk is only 10GB with 2 GB free and I record all OTA digital TV!

So how can i keep this from happening?

Running Fedora 8 2.6.25.4-10.fc8 x86-64.

Thanks,
Mitchell

markknecht at gmail

Jul 20, 2008, 1:11 PM

Post #2 of 31 (1858 views)
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Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 12:57 PM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I wanted to upgrade my system for more storage so i went a bought a new
> 500GB USB drive (no space in case). I am having some issues with it staying
> mounted. first i mounted it in fstab per its location /dev/sdh1. Then i
> noticed it kept changing locations and umounting. So i mounted it according
> to label, LABEL=d3. This worked OK to mount it in the correct directory no
> matter on location but for some reason the drive keeps umounting itself.
> This is really a issue for Myth as you can imaging. Especially when my
> system disk is only 10GB with 2 GB free and I record all OTA digital TV!
>
> So how can i keep this from happening?
>
> Running Fedora 8 2.6.25.4-10.fc8 x86-64.
>
> Thanks,
> Mitchell
>

How did you label the drive partition?

How did you actually mount it?

Provide some info for a better response.

- Mark
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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 20, 2008, 1:16 PM

Post #3 of 31 (1854 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

>
> How did you label the drive partition?
>
when i formated it with gparted

>
> How did you actually mount it?
>

in fstab:
LABEL=d3 /tv/d3 ext3 defaults 0 0
then moutn /tv/d3

Disk /dev/sdj: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8d399bc0

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdj1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux

better?

Mitchell

nick.rout at gmail

Jul 20, 2008, 2:01 PM

Post #4 of 31 (1857 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:16 AM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>> How did you label the drive partition?
>
> when i formated it with gparted
>
>
>>
>> How did you actually mount it?
>
>
> in fstab:
> LABEL=d3 /tv/d3 ext3 defaults 0 0
> then moutn /tv/d3
>
> Disk /dev/sdj: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x8d399bc0
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdj1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux
>
> better?
>
> Mitchell

Its not one of those drives that keeps switching itself off to save
power is it? There was one well known manufacturer's product a few
months back that was having problems with linux because of this
"feature". Cannot recall the drive/manufacturer involved.
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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 20, 2008, 2:09 PM

Post #5 of 31 (1862 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 4:01 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:16 AM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> How did you label the drive partition?
> >
> > when i formated it with gparted
> >
> >
> >>
> >> How did you actually mount it?
> >
> >
> > in fstab:
> > LABEL=d3 /tv/d3 ext3 defaults 0
> 0
> > then moutn /tv/d3
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdj: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> > Disk identifier: 0x8d399bc0
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/sdj1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux
> >
> > better?
> >
> > Mitchell
>
> Its not one of those drives that keeps switching itself off to save
> power is it? There was one well known manufacturer's product a few
> months back that was having problems with linux because of this
> "feature". Cannot recall the drive/manufacturer involved.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

could be its a WD iBook.

peter at vanderwal

Jul 21, 2008, 1:31 AM

Post #6 of 31 (1794 views)
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Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

> On 7/21/08, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes
>> along) i
>> made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully
>> this
>> will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.
>>
>
> With my 1 TB MyBook I had read that the drive would spin itself down
> after about 10 minutes of inactivity, so I set up a cron job to
> 'touch' a dummy file every 5 minutes.

I do hope you are backing up that data.

USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.

I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")

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peter at vanderwal

Jul 21, 2008, 6:11 AM

Post #7 of 31 (1774 views)
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Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 4:31 AM, Peter VanDerWal <peter[at]vanderwal.us>
> wrote:
>>
>> I do hope you are backing up that data.
>>
>> USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
>> drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.
>>
>> I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
>> using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
>> besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
>> is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")
>>
>
> What makes you think the hard drives inside external enclosures are
> any more prone to failure than an internal drive? If you crack open
> the case you'll see they are the exact same drives they sell for
> internal use. Most that I've seen are just be IDE drives with a
> conversion to USB.

I didn't say anything about the external enclosure causing the problem.
You can run external SATA drives. If I was going to use an external SATA
drive, I would definitely have it in an external enclosure.

What I said USB drives.

It seems to me (and I could be wrong) that USB drives have two basic options.
Either:
A) the drive runs continuously (which can lead to early failure) or
B) the USB interface/drive-controller will shut down the drive after a
period of inactivity which will lead to a failure on the Linux side when
it tries to access the drive (pretty much what the original post was
complaining about).

If you pull some trick to get around problem B then you end up with A.

As I said, USB drives aren't really intended to be used this way. I
discovered this the hard way when trying to use USB drives for a NAS.

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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 8:00 AM

Post #8 of 31 (1809 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

>
> Could be its a WD iBook.
>
Actually a myBook.

Anyway i started googling power issues with the MyBook and sure enough there
are reports of this happening all over. Apparently in Windows you load
software the handles power management by turning it off and on when needed.
In linux there is not software so the hardware just turnes itself off after
so long of no activity.

as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes along) i
made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully this
will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.

Mitchell

mrrooster at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 8:11 AM

Post #9 of 31 (1812 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

2008/7/21 Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com>:

> Could be its a WD iBook.
>>
> Actually a myBook.
>
> Anyway i started googling power issues with the MyBook and sure enough
> there are reports of this happening all over. Apparently in Windows you
> load software the handles power management by turning it off and on when
> needed. In linux there is not software so the hardware just turnes itself
> off after so long of no activity.
>

This is probably a fairly sensible design decision.

It might be worth considering a new case (and an internal HD) if this is a
long term storage solution. External USB drives aren't really ment to be
used in this way....

http://www.dansdata.com/gz055.htm

Is worth a read. :)

(Although, according to google heat is less of an issue in drive lifespans.)

Ian

memoryguy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 8:18 AM

Post #10 of 31 (1812 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On 7/21/08, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>
> as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes along) i
> made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully this
> will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.
>

With my 1 TB MyBook I had read that the drive would spin itself down
after about 10 minutes of inactivity, so I set up a cron job to
'touch' a dummy file every 5 minutes.

--
aaron

"Oh oh oh. I'm incoherent with excitement. Please tell me what fascinating
bit of badger-sputumly inconsequential trivia you will assail me with next."
-- Arthur Dent
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markknecht at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 9:08 AM

Post #11 of 31 (1796 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>> Could be its a WD iBook.
>
> Actually a myBook.
>
> Anyway i started googling power issues with the MyBook and sure enough there
> are reports of this happening all over. Apparently in Windows you load
> software the handles power management by turning it off and on when needed.
> In linux there is not software so the hardware just turnes itself off after
> so long of no activity.
>
> as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes along) i
> made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully this
> will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.
>
> Mitchell

Unmounting the drive while Myth is recording, or someone in the house
is playing a recording, sounds like a problem waiting to happen to me.
Couldn't you accomplish the same sort of thing by reading or writing a
file in your cron job? If it's time based why does it require a
unmount/mount operation?

- Mark
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memoryguy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 9:10 AM

Post #12 of 31 (1793 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On 7/21/08, Peter VanDerWal <peter[at]vanderwal.us> wrote:
>
> I do hope you are backing up that data.

I'm not... nowhere to keep it =)

And, it's just TV ;-) although I would be upset if I lost everything.

Also, my system shuts down when not in use.

>
> USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
> drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.

I'd much rather use a "real" drive, but no space in the case, and I
don't tend to see IDE (ie/ PATA) drives in the 1 TB sizes :)

>
> I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
> using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
> besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
> is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")

In my case, my system doesn't have SATA. I considered replacing the
200 GB drive I've got in there now with a larger one, but it was a
pain to get the drive in in the first place and I don't tend to have
enough contiguous free time to reinstall the system (the 200 GB drive
is shared between OS, database and recordings. Yes, the recordings are
on separate partitions, and no I haven't ever run into performance
problems).

--
aaron

"Oh oh oh. I'm incoherent with excitement. Please tell me what fascinating
bit of badger-sputumly inconsequential trivia you will assail me with next."
-- Arthur Dent
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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 9:11 AM

Post #13 of 31 (1796 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

>
>
> Unmounting the drive while Myth is recording, or someone in the house
> is playing a recording, sounds like a problem waiting to happen to me.
> Couldn't you accomplish the same sort of thing by reading or writing a
> file in your cron job? If it's time based why does it require a
> unmount/mount operation?
>
> - Mark
>

This really isnt a issue because the umount will fail if the drive is being
accessed. Therefore I know its mounted and working.

A better solution would be to have Myth or the OS handle this. some small
script that when ever the drive is accessed it verifies its mounted and
writable. Is there anyway to do this?

Thanks,
Mitchell

dbrieck at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 9:19 AM

Post #14 of 31 (1798 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 4:31 AM, Peter VanDerWal <peter[at]vanderwal.us> wrote:
>
> I do hope you are backing up that data.
>
> USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
> drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.
>
> I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
> using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
> besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
> is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")
>

What makes you think the hard drives inside external enclosures are
any more prone to failure than an internal drive? If you crack open
the case you'll see they are the exact same drives they sell for
internal use. Most that I've seen are just be IDE drives with a
conversion to USB.

Yes, I realize there can be heat issues, but those same issues exist internally.
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gmitch at woodlea

Jul 21, 2008, 9:29 AM

Post #15 of 31 (1797 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

The fact that it's eSATA compared to USB shouldn't make any difference to
the longevity of the drive. It's more the fact that it's in a tightly
enclosed box with (generally) poor airflow...

G

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces[at]mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces[at]mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Peter VanDerWal
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 4:31 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] USB Harddrives

> On 7/21/08, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes
>> along) i
>> made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully
>> this
>> will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.
>>
>
> With my 1 TB MyBook I had read that the drive would spin itself down
> after about 10 minutes of inactivity, so I set up a cron job to
> 'touch' a dummy file every 5 minutes.

I do hope you are backing up that data.

USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.

I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")

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tp at gvdnet

Jul 21, 2008, 9:36 AM

Post #16 of 31 (1796 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

Peter VanDerWal skrev:
>> On 7/21/08, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> as a temporary working (well permanent until something better comes
>>> along) i
>>> made a hourly cron job that mounts and umounts the drive. hopefully
>>> this
>>> will keep the drive active enough to not goto sleep.
>>>
>>>
>> With my 1 TB MyBook I had read that the drive would spin itself down
>> after about 10 minutes of inactivity, so I set up a cron job to
>> 'touch' a dummy file every 5 minutes.
>>
>
> I do hope you are backing up that data.
>
> USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
> drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.
>
> I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
> using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
> besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
> is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
Just thought of eSATA ;) ... well seem like I can be happy I didn't
bought any new external device yet,
with all the Linux Power Management issues those WD disks seems to have.

Anyone knows how long time it takes before the drive turns off, and is
the only solution actually to remount those drives?

Just an idea about the sata-drive thing, it is actually possible to buy
a PCI SATA controller card out there, should do the
trick. Of course you still have to find a slot for physically installing
the drive...
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gmitch at woodlea

Jul 21, 2008, 9:39 AM

Post #17 of 31 (1799 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces[at]mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces[at]mythtv.org] On Behalf Of David Brieck Jr.
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 12:19 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] USB Harddrives

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 4:31 AM, Peter VanDerWal <peter[at]vanderwal.us> wrote:
>
> I do hope you are backing up that data.
>
> USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
> drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.
>
> I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
> using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
> besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
> is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")
>

What makes you think the hard drives inside external enclosures are
any more prone to failure than an internal drive? If you crack open
the case you'll see they are the exact same drives they sell for
internal use. Most that I've seen are just be IDE drives with a
conversion to USB.

Yes, I realize there can be heat issues, but those same issues exist
internally.

Agreed... but the head issues tend to be more pronounced in an external box.
Also, once you have the external box, it's a little harder to resolve that
problem than with a full sized box.

G

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goofdad at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 11:48 AM

Post #18 of 31 (1786 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> Actually a myBook.
>
> Anyway i started googling power issues with the MyBook and sure enough
> there are reports of this happening all over. Apparently in Windows you
> load software the handles power management by turning it off and on when
> needed. In linux there is not software so the hardware just turnes itself
> off after so long of no activity.
>

I had similar problems with my Seagate Freeagent Pro. The solution I found
here:

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/FAQ/DealWithAutoSpinDownOnSeagateFreeAgent

worked OK. I only had occasional spin down issues after setting
allow_restart to 1, but it still did happen.

Eventually I pulled the 750G drive out of the enclosure, put it in my new
desktop, and remote mounted it. I gave the enclosure to my sister, who put
a 350G drive in it to use under windows. We both ended up better for the
experience.

If there's no room in your current case, I'd suggest spending a minimal
amount to put together a second machine to serve as NAS. Rip the drive out
of the enclosure and go from there.

--
Doug

gull at gull

Jul 21, 2008, 3:41 PM

Post #19 of 31 (1754 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:39:12 -0400, Graham Mitchell wrote
> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 4:31 AM, Peter VanDerWal
> > USB drives are really not intended to be used this way, and keeping a
> > drive running continuously tends to lead to short lifespans.
> >
> > I'd think if you want to use external drives that you'd be better off
> > using SATA. Any particular reason you folks aren't doing this? I mean
> > besides the fact that USB is a little bit cheaper (I'm pretty sure there
> > is some correlation between "cheap" and "longevity")
> >
>
> What makes you think the hard drives inside external enclosures are
> any more prone to failure than an internal drive? If you crack open
> the case you'll see they are the exact same drives they sell for
> internal use. Most that I've seen are just be IDE drives with a
> conversion to USB.

Yeah, and I've got one external drive that supports both USB and eSATA.

The interface doesn't affect reliability much, except in the case of software
bugs. (For example, suspend/resume and mounted filesystems on USB are a bad
combination in Linux.)

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jstembridge at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 1:46 AM

Post #20 of 31 (1739 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 5:36 PM, Thomas Pedersen <tp[at]gvdnet.dk> wrote:
> with all the Linux Power Management issues those WD disks seems to have.
>
> Anyone knows how long time it takes before the drive turns off, and is
> the only solution actually to remount those drives?

I have a 500gb WD My Book drive that spins down after about 10
minutes. I don't have any problems with this though, when the drive is
accessed it just spins back up again.
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memoryguy at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 5:24 AM

Post #21 of 31 (1727 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On 7/22/08, James Stembridge <jstembridge[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a 500gb WD My Book drive that spins down after about 10
> minutes. I don't have any problems with this though, when the drive is
> accessed it just spins back up again.

I just didn't like the delay waiting for it to spin up (during which
the Watch Recordings screen was "hung," if I recall correctly), and I
was worried it could lead to dropping the beginning of recordings.
That's pretty much the only reason I added my "touch" script... I
should try disabling that and see if it actually does cause any
problems. Best to do it during the summer when nothing overly
important is being recorded... :)

--
aaron

"Oh oh oh. I'm incoherent with excitement. Please tell me what fascinating
bit of badger-sputumly inconsequential trivia you will assail me with next."
-- Arthur Dent
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peter at vanderwal

Jul 22, 2008, 6:32 AM

Post #22 of 31 (1701 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

>> It's more cost-effective to buy a big new hard drive and replace
>> what's there than to run another machine. Newegg had a 500GB drive for
>> $69 this morning.
>>
>> <http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users>
>>
>
> Except for this sentence that wrote last post
> "I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
>> put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box."
>
> I dont want to have a tower machine in my theater. I have a mATX Home
> Theater case that can only hold 3 drives. If i remove the myBook that has
> 2x250 drives and if i add the 120gb thats a total on 6 disks....
>
> If i use a old machine how long would it take to cost me ~130 in Power?
> Considering its a AMD 1800+.

Hard to answer that without knowing for sure how much power your proposed
NAS draws and what electricity costs you.
But a (reallY) rough estimate, your drives are going to draw about 10
watts each x 6 = 60 watts. The rest of the computer (NAS) probably draws
at least 50-60 watts.
Say 120 watts total - 10 watts for the new drive. Assume electricity is
$0.10 per kWh, that means you'll break even in about 16 months. If you
sell the old drives/computer you'll break even a lot sooner.

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backuppc at sundquist

Jul 22, 2008, 8:30 AM

Post #23 of 31 (1711 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

> Agreed... but the heat issues tend to be more pronounced in an external box.
> Also, once you have the external box, it's a little harder to resolve that
> problem than with a full sized box.

I am using one of these:
http://computershopper.com/reviews/antec-mx1-external-hard-drive-enclosure-review
which is fan-cooled. I have had good luck with it, but have not had it
all that long. It does both USB and eSATA. I am using eSATA and it is
as fast as a drive inside the box (as it should be).

I got this plus a 500-GB Seagate at Fry's for about $130, just a couple
of bucks more than the mybooks and ibooks, etc. of the world for the
same storage, but it comes with a fan.

J.S.
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mitchell.gore at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 8:50 AM

Post #24 of 31 (1714 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:30 AM, <backuppc[at]sundquist.imapmail.org> wrote:

> > Agreed... but the heat issues tend to be more pronounced in an external
> box.
> > Also, once you have the external box, it's a little harder to resolve
> that
> > problem than with a full sized box.
>
> I am using one of these:
>
> http://computershopper.com/reviews/antec-mx1-external-hard-drive-enclosure-review
> which is fan-cooled. I have had good luck with it, but have not had it
> all that long. It does both USB and eSATA. I am using eSATA and it is
> as fast as a drive inside the box (as it should be).
>
> I got this plus a 500-GB Seagate at Fry's for about $130, just a couple
> of bucks more than the mybooks and ibooks, etc. of the world for the
> same storage, but it comes with a fan.
>
> J.S.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

At this point im thinking im going to use my old Athlon 1800+ to build a NAS
box. I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to put in my Mythbox but
there is no room in the backend box. I don't really like the idea of having
to turn on another PC 24x7 just to run drives but i guess its necessary. I
cant really move my backend to the NAS/new box because commflag and
transcode will run REALLY slow on a 1.5ghz AMD! Compared to my 5700 X2!

Thanks for the comments. Now i just need to find time to build a
box.....Dam Small Linux looks like a good choice for this project tho.

Mitchell

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 8:55 AM

Post #25 of 31 (1713 views)
Permalink

Re: USB Harddrives [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Mitch Gore wrote:

> At this point im thinking im going to use my old Athlon 1800+ to
> build a NAS box. I do have one other 120gb drive i would like to
> put in my Mythbox but there is no room in the backend box. I don't
> really like the idea of having to turn on another PC 24x7 just to
> run drives but i guess its necessary. I cant really move my backend
> to the NAS/new box because commflag and transcode will run REALLY
> slow on a 1.5ghz AMD! Compared to my 5700 X2!
>
> Thanks for the comments. Now i just need to find time to build a
> box.....Dam Small Linux looks like a good choice for this project tho.

It's more cost-effective to buy a big new hard drive and replace
what's there than to run another machine. Newegg had a 500GB drive for
$69 this morning.

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