# best compatable ehd to use on my 211



## surfdude85 (Jul 26, 2008)

good evening, i am really considering adding a ehd to my 211, so i can record a lot of my favorite shows. i just have a few questions I need resolved.
1. which external hard drive (through experience) is the best compatable, with the least amount of hicups to use?
2. how many gig's do i really need to watch just a couple of my favorite shows each week?
Thanks in advance for any advice giving... surfdude


----------



## rthomp03 (Sep 29, 2005)

I have a Western Digital MyBook Essentials 500GB drive on my 211K and it's working great. Seagates have a sleep issue you have to disable for reliable operation as a DVR drive.


----------



## surfdude85 (Jul 26, 2008)

so I went out to the local "big box" joint and got me a wd 500gb drive. I hooked it up and got with dish to get it set up. Seems to be working great, but I have a few questions. Is it supposed to be blinking all the time(even when it's not recording). do i need to turn it off when I am not using it to record? Any other precautions I need to take to make sure every thing will run great? thanks for any help...


----------



## GravelChan (Jan 30, 2005)

surfdude85 said:


> so I went out to the local "big box" joint and got me a wd 500gb drive. I hooked it up and got with dish to get it set up. Seems to be working great, but I have a few questions. Is it supposed to be blinking all the time(even when it's not recording). do i need to turn it off when I am not using it to record? Any other precautions I need to take to make sure every thing will run great? thanks for any help...


But, it is recording all the time, that's why you can skip back. It records about an hour then simply deletes anything over an hour old. If you change channels it will delete whatever you were watching and start over. Do not turn the EHD off as that is where the 9 day guide is kept, turning it off will cause the 211 to revert to the 2 day guide.


----------



## Dario33 (Dec 15, 2008)

I just my WB My DVR Expander 500gb in the mail today. Had it set-up and activated in under 10 minutes.


----------



## BernieL (Oct 30, 2009)

I have two VIP211s and two VIP211ks and added a 1TB Seagate Expansion External Drive to each of them about a month ago. No problems whatever with any of them and set up went very smoothly. Each provides 98+ hours of HD or 393 hours of SD recording. I connected them with a 6 ft. usb cable so that they could be placed where they could be in well ventilated, relatively cool locations. I have been very pleased with the four DVRs I now have use of. Cost of Seagate EHD was $104 each.


----------



## karrank% (Sep 20, 2009)

considering this --(oops, can't post URL yet)--Western Digital Element 1TB EHD with power brick and usb port

to use with my 211-k 

seems to satisfy the specs as stated on the Dish website.

Any info you have to share on this would be appreciated, thanks.


----------



## dragon342 (Oct 31, 2009)

karrank% said:


> considering this --(oops, can't post URL yet)--Western Digital Element 1TB EHD with power brick and usb port
> 
> to use with my 211-k
> 
> ...


Oh! yes, you can find the list of compatible hdd on the dish website!, Just make sure that the sleep function on the hard drive that u have is off to prevent the Hiccups!:grin:


----------



## karrank% (Sep 20, 2009)

dragon342 said:


> Oh! yes, you can find the list of compatible hdd on the dish website!, Just make sure that the sleep function on the hard drive that u have is off to prevent the Hiccups!:grin:


thx, my idea is to have a lo-power/low noise drive to avoid that issue.

Was curious the dish site says ehd with >1 platter "may not be recognized"
which has me concerned 'coz most of the larger capacity ehds are multi-platter affairs if I'm not mistaken.

-Anyone have any input/experience on this they wish to share?

-thx


----------



## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

The EHD must be "single LUN," basically one drive in the case. The ones that get to high capacity by adding a second drive, identifiable by their wide case, are generally to be avoided for Dish EHD use.


----------



## karrank% (Sep 20, 2009)

Thanks! 
LUN mystifies me at the moment.
LUN not equal to platter then I take it? I've read other posts that say their 640gb-1tb ehds are perfectly compatible w/ the 211-k; so apparently I'm misinterpreting the dish site requirements (there's a big surprise!)

anyway, thinking of the WD Element 640GB or 1TB and wondering if anyone has experience with one of those (noise, power consumption, heat, reliability, compatibility)

again, thanks for looking!


----------



## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Single LUN means there is only one spindle in the case, as was stated some high capacity drives have two physical drives in the case, these will not work inless they are configured with a hardware RAID0 (mirrored).


----------



## karrank% (Sep 20, 2009)

Thanks! 
Tried unsuccessfully to comprehend the Wikipedia entry--an acronym defined by other acronyms in Jargonese apparently. Ordered the WD 640GB MYbook Essential. I'll report back with any progress.


----------



## karrank% (Sep 20, 2009)

Got a WD 640GB MyBook Essentials plugged it in last night; went onto chat and the rep took my $39.99, authorized, formatted, running no prob so far, test record was The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

Bwaaahaahaa forgot how funny that was. 

Could definitely get used to this.

Anyway, thanks for the help, all. 

btw, the WD is very very quiet. NOT SILENT, but inobtrusive in our living room. Pretty much have to get my ear right up to it to hear it. Obviously generates some heat, but not nearly as much as I'd feared, not as much as a light bulb even. Just sits on the shelf, looking like another book (MyBook, duh!)

Staples says they're clearing these out right now, so for a low-end intro to the DVR scenario, gotta say it's working for us!


----------

