Pansat 9200

[dijmum]

I have a Pansat 9200 that I have had for afew years now and it works fine most of the time. Problem that I am having now is with the Esata drive and it being recognized by the receiver.
it worked a few years ago for the most part (does not record ota channels when programmed correctly) but because you have to have a blank receiver when you connect the PVR I did not
want to clear all the stuff in the receiver out.
I was doing a scan a few days ago and when it had gotten done the receiver cleared all the memory out for me so I tried to connect the PVR but the receiver does not recognize it.
The correct way to connect the PVE is to clear all the memory (go back to factory settings) turn power off to receiver, connect esata cable to both units, turn power on to drive first then
turn power on to receiver.
Done that. still does not recognize drive.
Any suggestions? Also would like to know how I can reformat drive to DR-Dos2. I have not formatted this drive to anything but I am thinking that maybe the drive might need it.
Thanks for your help.
Scott

 

[Lone Gunman]

Not sure what the drive configuration you're talking about because I've never heard of an Esata drive before? There are IDE drives and SATA drives though. In order to format it first needs a partition and if it's not partitioned then that may be why it's not being recognized.

How does it connect to your Pansat?

Can you connect this drive to your computer?

 

[Mr Tony]

I thought esata and sata were the same thing..e meaning external

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATA#eSATA

 

[Lone Gunman]

I thought esata and sata were the same thing..e meaning external

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATA#eSATA

Thanks Ice. Thats a new one on me as any drive can be external if you use the right stuff to make it work. I buy those "cheap" SATA/IDE adapters from fleabay for $5 and you can connect any drive using one of those.

If the "E" just designates it as external then it's probably USB so it "should" connect to that computer OK. In Windows you can click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and see if it shows up there. Not sure what disk format the 9200 uses but you can format that thing if it already has a partition. You can find out whether it does or not by a RIGHT click on that drive and selecting "Properties" and a window will open that will tell you what it is. On some Winders systems you can also format the drive from that menu.

 

[Tron]

The eSATA connector was slightly different than a traditional internal SATA connector to make it more durable.

 

[Lone Gunman]

The eSATA connector was slightly different than a traditional internal SATA connector to make it more durable.

Yeah I went looking and found that the drive itself has somewhat different connectors and it may not connect to his computer although some articles I read stated that adapters were available so I'm "assuming" that USB would be one of those?

Ennywho, I guess I haven't been keeping up with the latest technology since I stopped doing computer service work a few years back. Looks like the original poster and I need to read up some more I guess, hey, as these things appear to be a different animal from what a regular SATA drive is!

 

[Hockeynut]

If you had it working yrs ago then it is just a matter of the pansat seeing the drive again.I would take the enclosure to the computer and reformat it in FAT32 then your panny should recognize it.Currently have 2 Pansat 9200`s that each have there own HD 1 500gb and the other a 750gb inside an Antec cooled Esata enclosure and work great.

OTA recording is not a problem,it is setting up a timer on the other hand is useless.

Good luck.

 

[FaT Air]

If you had it working yrs ago, could mean there's been a drive failure in the meantime. About the only way to confirm is with an adapter to USB*. Plug into computer** and see if it see's it. And if so, back-up anything you want to save.
* Like L-Gunman says:"they're cheap and on 'bay". Used 'em many times here also.
** I've had some drives unrecognized under windoze. But were recognized running Ubuntu (Live CD should also work if not wanting to install - Just boot from the CD)

 

[Tron]

There are cheap SATA to eSATA adapters. The hard drive itself is no different, just the connector on the case the drive is installed in.

There are also eSATA cables on fleabay which are designed for connecting an eSATA drive.

 

[Lone Gunman]

While we're having this conversation the OP has been MIA? So I guess that means he's fixed it.

So if the OP is connecting this eSATA drive to his Pansat 9200, what connection is he using? I mean, does a 9200 even have an eSATA port? If not then he already has to be using a USB adapter.

Info I got from my reading adventure on this is that eSATA is designed to connect to either the motherboard (if it has the connectors) or to an add in card in the computer. Main thing is that with eSATA MUCH faster data transfer rates are the norm. The cables for eSATA are said to be shielded and can be something like 5ft long whereas standard SATA cables are limited to something like 18" to 24".

Ennywho, something I've noticed about SATA connectors inside my computer case is that they sometimes loose contact. I've had this happen about once a month on my custom built computer in the shop and also on this Dell 8400 I'm on now. They will start to boot then report no hard drive is installed? I'll open up the case, jiggle the SATA connector then shut it and boot it up, no problem. I've seen this on other systems as well so to me the step up to SATA connections was a step down in dependability as I never have seen a 40 pin cable do this. The only thing I see that was gained was that hard drive cables take up much less room inside the case and also data transfer rates are somewhat higher than the old 40 pin ribbon cables.

From what I can gather, the eSATA connectors are suppose to be much better than the original SATA ones so that connection problem I'm experiencing may be something that was addressed with the newer connectors.

 

[toucan-man]

Ennywho, something I've noticed about SATA connectors inside my computer case is that they sometimes loose contact. I've had this happen about once a month on my custom built computer in the shop and also on this Dell 8400 I'm on now. They will start to boot then report no hard drive is installed? I'll open up the case, jiggle the SATA connector then shut it and boot it up, no problem. I've seen this on other systems as well...

My Win 2000 box does this. It will reassign master / slave which requires some noodling around to fix. Don't like SATA connectors, that box has been like that since day one. I have just one drive plugged into it now as that machine gets used less and less and I don't like going into set-up to get it to boot.

Don't like USB either, all my laptop USB ports are loose as a goose and I have to jiggle thumb drives to have them show up sometimes. Wonder if someone sells an oversize male/undersize female connector that will fit more tightly after these things begin to show wear.

 

[catamount]

My Azbox has 2 usb and one esata port. When I bought my laptop last January, I decided to get one with 2 usb 3.0 ports instead of esata. USB 3 is supposed to be faster than esata. Apparently, there is a new esata/usb combo port on some electronics?

What will they think of next? LOL

 

[Mr Tony]

So if the OP is connecting this eSATA drive to his Pansat 9200, what connection is he using? I mean, does a 9200 even have an eSATA port? If not then he already has to be using a USB adapter.

yes it does

 

[Lone Gunman]

Thanks Ice. Do any other FTA receivers have eSATA ports? I know the ones I have don't have any.

 

[FaT Air]

Of the 'older' receivers the only one to use an esata was the 9200HD by Pansat.(AFAIK)
BUT, being the clock was absolute crap, I never even attempted recording, or even buying a drive for it.
Even the last FW for it didn't fix the clock. For 9200HD e-Sata PVR Ready Hardware Fix Yeah, even put a transistor in wrong.

 

[Corrado]

Mine needed the modification and component resoldering and wasn't able to record with it. I got tired of the buggy operation and need for frequent reboots and stopped using it. Worst receiver I have ever owned.

For the money I could have spent for the add in DVB-S2 card, I bought a used Diamond 9000HD instead and I use to this day for the OTA tuner and DVR duties that I bought the Pansat for.