# Funky goings on with the external hard drive



## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

So, as soon as I got my new VIP 722, I enabled the external hard drive feature, and connected a Maxtor 750 gig (and, btw, I would not recommend that hd at all because it has a very annoying flashing light). 

It worked fine for a few days, and then it started doing strange stuff. For a while, I could view programs stored on the disk without problems but it gave me an error statement everytime I tried to transfer. The fix was always disconnecting the USB cable, and then reconnecting. Each time I did that, the problem cleared up completely. After doing that, I'd sometimes have to reboot to get it to recognize the HD.

The other issue I have is while viewing programs stored on the maxtor external drive. A few times, I hit the pause button, got up and did something, and then came back and hit play. Each time, it ignored the presses of "play" and would not drop out of pause. The work around is to hit the skip back botton which puts it in play mode again. 

Anybody got any clues as to what all this about? 

I'm going to try swaping out the USB cable tonight because I wondered if a lose connection of some kind is at fault.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Those sound to me like symptoms of a hard drive that spins down due to lack of activity and goes into a standby mode. Maybe some others who have hard drives that do that can give some better workaround suggestions.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

That was my thought, as my WD's do spin down so I always do "manage" before attempting to transfer so its spinning. I've never paused long enough for it to spin down so I have no idea what would happen.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

HDMe said:


> Those sound to me like symptoms of a hard drive that spins down due to lack of activity and goes into a standby mode. Maybe some others who have hard drives that do that can give some better workaround suggestions.


I have never even considered that. What a great insight. I'm not sure if this the isuse, but I will give it a try tonight. Thanks!


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

I use the Maxtor 750 gig and love it. I have a bunch of these things for computer backup and have used them for years with very good results. I don't have problems with spin down but I never turn mine on unless I want to use it. And, I like the blinking light so I can tell when it is in use.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

ChuckA said:


> I use the Maxtor 750 gig and love it. I have a bunch of these things for computer backup and have used them for years with very good results. I don't have problems with spin down but I never turn mine on unless I want to use it. And, I like the blinking light so I can tell when it is in use.


I didn't even know you could turn it off. I just have it hidden in my entertainment system. Turned it on once, and have pretty much ignored it since then.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

phrelin said:


> That was my thought, as my WD's do spin down so I always do "manage" before attempting to transfer so its spinning. I've never paused long enough for it to spin down so I have no idea what would happen.


It resumes after it spins up. I do it quite frequently. No problem. I've not seen many problems with folks who use the WD *Essential *drives. They seem to be rock solid.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I have a Western Digital Essential... but I use mine differently than most folks I think. I always disconnect it from the receiver when not in use... so each time I use it, I am connecting it to an already booted receiver ready to go... so it wakes up from standby when plugged in.

Like Phrelin, I've never paused a movie on the hard drive for very long... certainly not long enough for it to go into standby so I actually don't know what might happen. I'll have to test that sometime now and see what happens!

Where I've heard the most troubles has been folks that leave their drives connected all the time... and apparently when the receiver does its nightly update/reboot it doesn't always pick up the external hard drive if already connected so the "fix" seems to be disconnect and reconnect... but I thought I'd read of some other workarounds, so I figured folks who have been experiencing similar issues might jump in.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

HDMe said:


> I have a Western Digital Essential... but I use mine differently than most folks I think. I always disconnect it from the receiver when not in use... so each time I use it, I am connecting it to an already booted receiver ready to go... so it wakes up from standby when plugged in.
> 
> Like Phrelin, I've never paused a movie on the hard drive for very long... certainly not long enough for it to go into standby so I actually don't know what might happen. I'll have to test that sometime now and see what happens!
> 
> Where I've heard the most troubles has been folks that leave their drives connected all the time... and apparently when the receiver does its nightly update/reboot it doesn't always pick up the external hard drive if already connected so the "fix" seems to be disconnect and reconnect... but I thought I'd read of some other workarounds, so I figured folks who have been experiencing similar issues might jump in.


My drives are connected all the time. I've had no problems. I posted my results from pausing until the drive spins down earlier. No problems. But, I have a 722. They seem to work with the EHD far better than the 622.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

TulsaOK said:


> My drives are connected all the time. I've had no problems. I posted my results from pausing until the drive spins down earlier. No problems. But, I have a 722. They seem to work with the EHD far better than the 622.


I have a 722 too.

I don't really pause that long - which is part of what is curious. Most of the time, it is less than a minute or two.


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## jkane (Oct 12, 2007)

Got the Maxtor 750 one touch with the "night lite" on it at Costco for $119 Friday. First thing I did, even before connecting it, was to plug it into a windblows machine and install the software. I set the time out to "never". Reading these forums elsewhere gave that hint before I even bought it.

So far no problems, but have only copied a bunch of stuff to it. I did play from it, so I know that part works. But nothing long term yet.

I hate the sort of the shows! Folders are really important. Wish they would add that.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

jkane said:


> I hate the sort of the shows! Folders are really important. Wish they would add that.


The sort on the EHD reflects the same order as on your internal drive.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

jkane said:


> Got the Maxtor 750 one touch with the "night lite" on it at Costco for $119 Friday. First thing I did, even before connecting it, was to plug it into a windblows machine and install the software. I set the time out to "never". Reading these forums elsewhere gave that hint before I even bought it.
> 
> So far no problems, but have only copied a bunch of stuff to it. I did play from it, so I know that part works. But nothing long term yet.
> 
> I hate the sort of the shows! Folders are really important. Wish they would add that.


Silly me. I didn't even realize you could do that.

Anyway, my problems were NOT due to the disk spinning down. The pause issues occured after only a few seconds and the problem was too sporadic overall.
I believe the real issues have to do with the USB cable provided by Maxtor. It just never seemed to make good connections to the unit. I eventually swaped it out and all my problems seem to have gone away.


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## jkane (Oct 12, 2007)

TulsaOK said:


> The sort on the EHD reflects the same order as on your internal drive.


I am thinking along the lines of putting the same named shows in folders. I guess the actual sort is by date like the internal disk.

However, even if they did that different it would help! I like to see the latest shows at the top of my internal list. But, I want to watch the oldest first on the EHD. I use it as a place to store stuff I want to watch some day, but not this month.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Dish added folders to the EHD screen on the ViP612 with the latest software release. Hopefully, I and everyone else also will see it soon on the ViP622/722's. Don't expect too much. It's just folders by name of show like on the internal hard drive. But it's something that acknowledges that the EHD system could use some upgrades.


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## jkane (Oct 12, 2007)

That's all I ask for.  A little goes a long ways.


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

Please, please, pretty please!!!!!!!!!!!:hair:


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Agreed...I also hope that the folders get added to the 722.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

Well, as it turns out, I was completely wrong about the causes of my problems and several of the above posters were correct. It was all due to the drive powering down. I did as Pkane suggested above - used the software that came with the drive to get it to spin all the time (although that sucks power) and no more problems whatsoever.


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## E91 (Oct 7, 2008)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Agreed...I also hope that the folders get added to the 722.


Completely agree. The way the programs are stored now makes the archiving feature much less useful.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

E91 said:


> Completely agree. The way the programs are stored now makes the archiving feature much less useful.


It's almost startling when I move my "season shifting" EHD up to the 722 and not see folders. It is truly a useful feature. Keeping my fingers crossed.


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