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I did the exact same thing and had the same problem. i returned 2 of them thinking it was the trm4 but it wasn't.
first you have to add the hard drives when the ex470 is off. second make sure the cables are in all the way. then turn the trm4 on first, let it get up and running then turn the ex470. after they are both up and running log onto the ex470 console and look in the server storage tab. you should see the hard drive that you added, highlight the drive and click on "add" here is where is sucks, follow the prompts and if all goes well it should add the drive to your array. but it won't it will fail to add the drive. so you will have to keep trying to add the drive, and it should work after the 17th time, seriously....
it works best if you have a brand new hard drive because the "MBR" is new and the trm4 has problem using used hard drives.... if it is a used hard drive you will have to erase the MBR...Google "trouble EX470 and TRM-4" and you will see some post of some results...
I have added 2 drives using this method
Categories: Hard Drives/Storage
I recently purchased the Sans Digital TR4M-B Port Multiplier to use with my HP MediaSmart EX470 Home Server. I had read that the earlier server models support port mulitpication provided it is limited to 4 drives.
I received the port multiplier today, installed a 500gb sata drive and plugged it into the esata port on the server. However, the server does not recognize the new drive. I removed the drive, formatted it, and tried a second time but the server still does not recognize the new drive.
Has anyone successfully integrated a Sans Digital TR4M-B Port Multiplier with the HP MediaSmart EX470, and if so, how did you do it???
Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Ken
I plugged the TRM-4 into my pc (not the server) last night and it recognized and accessed the drive instantly - so I know the drive and TRM-4 are working properly. Must be that the EX470 is just being finicky... I'll give it a try. Thanks!
Ken
I read somewhere that it only works with the suplied card when pluged into a home PC
I just tried your suggestion and it worked on the second try. I shut down the server, plugged in the Sans Digital box and then restarted the server. At first I got a message that the Hard Disk was failing and I needed to run repair. I restarted the server and it initialized correctly on the second try. Luckily, when I added the hard drive through the server storage software - it worked on the 1st try.
Even though it's working, I don't have a good feeling about what's going to happen when I try to move the box, or add another drive later on.
Thanks for your help!
Ken
no worries!!!
but you have to make sure that the sans is on and running before you turn the ex470 on, it has to see the sans digital on on boot. in other words there is no real plug and play. if you shut down the ex470 for what ever reason make sure you shut it down first then the sans digital. when you turn them on turn on the sans digital first let it boot up (2min) then boot the ex470. while it might be a pain remember turning the ex470 and moving it should not be a daily thing so if you do it one in a while it's no big deal. also the cable connection suck, so don't move these two while they are on...
I just picked up one of these TR4M-B for my ex470 as well. WHS does not see my drive at all. I've done the whole power down, start the TowerRaid first, connect everything up procedure, but WHS refuses to see the enclosure. Any other tips?
it should at least see the drive...if you can connect the pci card to a desktop and see if it then works
No, it doesn't show up at all. I went into disk management, no drives. Obviously the WHS console doesn't show it either. I know the eSATA port on my ex470 works, because I had a WD My Book plugged into it prior to this. Now, either my HDD is defective, or the Toweraid is. Can anyone tell me if the tower itself shows up under Device Manager? I see a Marell 61xx Marell RAID Controller and a SIS 0182/1182 RAID controller in my devices. I know one of them is from the ex470. Is the other one from the TR4M-B?
i think it is the tower raid dont risk getting stuck with it return it but first call there tech department
Tamorgen,
Be careful with the Sans Digital Box. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the server or the box itself, but from my experience, the device is unstable as a port multiplier.
While I did eventually get the server to recognize the Sans Digital box; two days after install the box disappeared from the server with a message that the drives were either "failing or missing". Unfortunately for me, the server had already reallocated my data across the new drives. I was not able to recover it, despite having the data duplicated on the server.
Since I was beyond my return period with Amazon, I ended up buying 4 new large hard drives to put in the Media Smart Server and installing the Sans Digital box on my pc using the supplied esata card. I use it as a redundant backup device for the HP server. Since installing the box on the pc two weeks ago - I have had no issues with the device and I am using the same hard drives as those that previously "failed". I have to conclude that the problem is with the esata connection on the server itself and not the Sans Digital box.
While I have read that several people have had success in using the Sans Digital box as a port multiplier for the HP Server - I did not have a successful or pleasant experience in my efforts to do so.
Good Luck
Ken
Ken (or anyone else),
What would you recommend? I've confirmed that even my desktop cannot see the enclosure. I suppose it's possible that the HDD is bad, but it seems more likely from people's experiences that it's the enclosure. I'm planning on returning it and finding another enclosure. Can anyone recommend one that works well?
there are 2 other ones that work with the ex470. the trm5 and the roswill version of the one you already have
Hmmm. I have a EX470 with a TRM4 fully loaded that fired up and was recognized on first pass. All diska are identified and temp readings work, just like internal drives, and the transfer speed is 3-4 times better than the USB drives. Been running steady for over 6 months.
Hope you can get your's up and running. If all hardware is healthy, I would expect long and reliable use of the device.
Tamorgen,
The only other thing I can suggest that you try is to move the hard drive(s) around in different bays within the Sans Digital Box to see if the box initializes that way. I don't have my documentation handy to check but I believe that I read somewhere (perhaps in a post - I can't remember) that if you have only one drive that you need to have the drive in bay 4. You can try contacting Sans Digital Tech support to verify that but I did not have luck with contacting them. I have yet to receive a response to emails I sent several weeks ago to their tech support email address.
Currently, I have my drives in bays 1 and 4, and the PC sees them fine. When I eventually came to peace with the fact that I was going to have to use the box on my pc, I put the 1st drive in bay 4 and got the box up and running. I then added an additional drive in bay 1. The 2nd drive initialized immediately as well. I then ran the raid utility and set the box up on a two-disk raid 0 configuration. The box has been operating perfectly with this configuration for over two weeks. Not sure if this made a difference - but I did reformat both drives before installing them in the Sans Digital Box. If you have not reformatted the drive(s), I suggest that you give that a try as well.
If that doesn't work - then I think Raaaaaa is correct and you may have received a defective Sans Digital Box.
Ken
I tried putting it in 4 (the top one) and I got the same result. I'm not planning on using RAID, instead I'll be using JBOD. It still cannot see the drive. The drive I'm putting in has not yet been used, so I'm not sure if there is a need to reformat. WHS should format it anyway when it finally sees it. I have a feeling I'm going to be returning this and buying something else.
what do you mean, that is obvious and you should have done that from the beginning
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I had the same problem with my CFI 4 port multilpier over 1 year ago. (They may be the same enclosure)
This problem drove me nuts for months!
I tried all the suggestions above (and then some) !
The one that finally worked for me was to remove drive 4(top) from the HP Mediasmart EX470 and replace it with the problem drive. The drive that was in bay 4 was moved to the CFI.
The problem drive was immediately recognized and added to the pool. Everything has been working fine since then.
I've also added 2 more drives to the CFI without any problems.
Here is the old thread.
http://www.mediasmarthome.com/forum/thread/11026/Problem-adding-drive-to-pool/?highlight=spawndude
I finally ended up getting my issue fixed. It turns out I had BOTH a bad enclosure, and a bad drive. I returned the enclosure, and bought another one from StarTech, which actually has both USB 2.0 and eSATA connections. Since I am limited to one eSATA connection with the ex470, I can always purchase another one of these enclosures and use the USB connection if need be. I finally got the replacement drive back from NewEgg yesterday, and I plugged it into the new enclosure, and my WHS recognized it right away.
I really thought it was just the enclosure, but after plugging a known good drive in, and it didn't work, I knew the enclosure was suspect #1. I also plugged the HDD I was trying to mount into it into my desktop, and my desktop didn't see it either, so that gave me two suspects. Finally, I ran a utitlity disk from the HDD manufacturer, and their disc didn't see the HDD, so that's how I knew that both were bad.
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