# Very lame service... (External USB Drive)



## Rodsman (Jan 29, 2005)

Just thought I'd share this chat and I hope it's ok to do so as I'm not trying to show anyone up but this is nuts; I may try and reformat the drive on my pc and then hook it back up as others have written?...I'm not particularly technical but I would get slammed at work if I said I just don't know.

I did remove CSRs names but I don't see how CSRs are not "trained" for a service that dish offers and makes you pay for; that's really lame!:grin: 

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You have been connected to (04).
(04)Thank you for choosing Dish Network the leader in HD and DVR. I will be happy to assist you today. Please give me 2-3 minutes to access your account and review the information you have already provided.
Richard Rodriguez: ok, thanks
(04) You're very welcome.
(04) Thank you for your patience.
(04) I'm sorry to hear that you are having a problem. I'd be happy to assist you with that.
(04) Please verify all connections are secure on the USB device and receiver.
Richard Rodriguez: i have done that and it is recognizing the EHD and I can see the transferred recordings i just can't watch them or send them back; i've also done reboot and power reboots, no joy
(04) Verify there are no other hard drives or a PocketDISH connected to the second USB port on the receiver.
Richard Rodriguez: i always get the 855 message
Richard Rodriguez: nope, only the one EHD
(04) Remove the power cable from the USB device. Wait ten seconds, then plug it back in.
Richard Rodriguez: ok but i've tried that as well, 1 sec
(04) Remove the USB cable from the receiver and the USB device, then reconnect it.
Richard Rodriguez: ok did that and now it says unsupport device attached
Richard Rodriguez: sorry i mean support device
(04) : Alright.
Richard Rodriguez: ok that box is gone, now what
(04) : Please check now?
Richard Rodriguez: checking and can see files and trying to restore a small one
(04) Okay.
Richard Rodriguez: this is a sd show and i think i've only had problems with hd recordings now that i think about it
Richard Rodriguez: ok it started at about 3 min and just jumped up to 8 min and isn't doing anything
(04) I apologize for any inconvenience..
Richard Rodriguez: it's a new thing but i'd love for it to work; now it's moving a bit but the progress bar moves a bit but then just stops
Richard Rodriguez: ok; just gave me 855 error box again
(04) In order to help you resolve this issue, I will transfer this chat to Advance Technical Support for further assistance.
Richard Rodriguez: ok will they see what we've said so far
Richard Rodriguez: and thanks
(04) has left the session.
Please wait while we find an agent from the (16) Advanced Tech Support department to assist you.
You have been connected to (05).
(05) Thank you for contacting Riverfront Instant Service Help Desk. I will be happy to assist you. Please give me 2-3 minutes to review the information you have already provided.
(05) You will need to contact the manufacturer of the EHD.
Richard Rodriguez: im sorry but what do you mean
(05) We do not troubleshoot the External Hard drives, you must contact the manufacturer.
Richard Rodriguez: dish offers the service for an EHD but offers no support; the EHD is brand new
(05) I understand that, but this is not our brand equipment. Therefore we are not trained on it.
Richard Rodriguez: i also paid $40 for this service
(05) Ok.
Richard Rodriguez: theres no one at dish that u can transfer me to for this matter
(05) Please contact the manufacturer for further assistance.
(05) No, we do not troubleshoot this piece of equipment.
(05) Is there anything else I can do for you?
Richard Rodriguez: ok but this is not very good support if the service is provided by you...i guess not but thanks
(05) You are very welcome.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

As some know, I'm not a big fan of Dish support.

But with that said, Dish has allowed us all to purchase whatever external drive we want or even put a drive of our choice into the USB case of our choice. From the beginning, a few never worked, some had problems waking from sleep mode, some appear to have worked fine, and a few worked then the drive failed as happens to us all from time-to-time. Then there were the problems moving drives between DVRs - original limit 3. They fixed that by assigning the same hex number to all the DVRs on the same account, but in the process forced many of us to risk rerecognition and reformatting.

At the beginning, Dish could have selected a 500 GB hard drive to sell (for say $299.99) and support. From a PR and marketing standpoint as well as from the view of a profit seeking company, that seems to me to have been a better choice for Dish and for the average tv viewer. But for many of the tech junkies here including me who paid well below MSRP and could find another use for the drive if it never worked, that would have been unacceptable.

Any day now, I expect to lose about 80 movies on one drive. But I keep hoping someone will find a way for me to back them up other than rerecording each movie when it's on again. But I'm a bit nutty about tech stuff, so I play their game. And I know it's going to be a once in a lifetime experience to find someone from Dish on the other end of phone who has more hours working with computer hardware and software then me. That's not bragging, I'm just old and began with mainframes in 1970.


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## jsk (Dec 27, 2006)

E-mail that to [email protected] and don't remove the names. The manufacturer of the HD isn't going to be able to help as they would only support it on a PC and maybe a Mac.

It is possible that the HD is bad. You could try formatting it on a PC and running a hard drive diagnostic. You will loose any programs on the hard drive though.


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

I don't think emailing the CEO over an external HD issue is going to help, unless you want the activation fee back? Emailing the CEO over every little issue is not a solution.

And I can understand Dish's stance, because of the plethora of drives, USB interfaces, some may work fine, some may have issues. You have a couple choices... One... see if another HD works, or see if they will disable the feature and rebate the activation fee.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

normang said:


> I don't think emailing the CEO over an external HD issue is going to help, unless you want the activation fee back? Emailing the CEO over every little issue is not a solution.
> 
> And I can understand Dish's stance, because of the plethora of drives, USB interfaces, some may work fine, some may have issues. You have a couple choices... One... see if another HD works, or see if they will disable the feature and rebate the activation fee.


Dish has tested many hard drives and they know which ones work, or are supposed to work. If a customer calls in using one of the supported drives, they should be able to get some support. I don't believe that Dish would offer the USB drive option, charge $40 for activation and have no idea which drives may or may not work. Of course, I may be wrong about that last statement having read some of the posts here. IMO, this is another example of their lack of quality control over their products.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I agree with the original poster here... since Dish is charging a $40 enabling fee to use the external drives they absolutely MUST troubleshoot to some degree. I can understand that they would not be responsible for an external hard drive failure... but a Dish tech support rep should be able to provide troubleshooting help with the customer in order to prove/diagnose whether it is a receiver problem or an external hard drive problem.

Also, I personally feel like that if Dish has done testing with drives and found some to be more reliable than others... that they should communicate this info to customers as well. They did, for instance, tell us that they would not support anything larger than 750GB drives even though larger ones may work... so that helps let people who 1TB and larger drives know they are pretty much on their own. The rest of us assume we are complying with all known compatibility issues, and I'd expect troubleshooting help if I had a problem.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

At the very least have a list of known working brands/models.


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

TulsaOK said:


> Dish has tested many hard drives and they know which ones work, or are supposed to work. If a customer calls in using one of the supported drives, they should be able to get some support. I don't believe that Dish would offer the USB drive option, charge $40 for activation and have no idea which drives may or may not work. Of course, I may be wrong about that last statement having read some of the posts here. IMO, this is another example of their lack of quality control over their products.


While it would be prudent for Dish to have a recommended list of supported USB Drive models, have you seen one anywhere? If not, then they didn't do it.

And while we may not think its a good idea, an external HD, unless it has a Dish logo is not something they need to support. They can perhaps make some recommendation based on other customer reports or maybe they did do some testing, but I have not seen that either. Maybe they need to work with WD or Maxtor or Seagate to come out with a model with an interface guaranteed to work with the DVR's that support it.

I for one, like many others, didn't think that it was a good thing for the enabling fee. It was just another means to feed the bottomline and it was way to high, still is. It could have also been a deterrent to prevent everyone from wanting to do it instantly. Maybe it will go away some day or at least be only a few bucks to do it.

Also, my two cents is, these receivers need a FireWire port, USB ports are just problematic. Almost every software update I see for an OS, includes some sort of update to USB Drivers.. FireWire, it just works better...


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

I would suspect that USB is not only less expensive hardware wise but is also less expensive to license. It's expensive to license Apple trademarks/IP.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Keep in mind that even a drive make and model that works this week could have problems in a different production run. The makers are always making changes. 

If Dish published a list of models they have tested that work and then the maker changes things so it doesn't work. You'd be on the phone to Dish asking them to pay for your drive. What a nightmarebacking something you have no control over.


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## Rodsman (Jan 29, 2005)

I appreciate the comments here but why charge us for a service that more than likely won't work? I know we're all blazing new trails here and that's fine but $40 bucks for nothing or I'm supposed to keep buying EHD until I find one that works? That just doesn't seem right or fair to me. I'm using a WD 750 GB drive and I've used those for years with my PC with no problems. I'd also like to say that the 622 is a great box or has been for me and that it's leaps and bounds above my old 921. Another option, upgrade to a 722 or is that an upgrade or a new lease? Some threads seem to indicate that the 722 EHD interface is better?


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Where is the information coming from that says it more likely NOT to work? I've had mine since the first few days it was available and have never had a problem.

Here is a thread that has a list of HD that have worked http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=95896


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## Rodsman (Jan 29, 2005)

jsk said:


> E-mail that to [email protected] and don't remove the names. The manufacturer of the HD isn't going to be able to help as they would only support it on a PC and maybe a Mac.
> 
> It is possible that the HD is bad. You could try formatting it on a PC and running a hard drive diagnostic. You will loose any programs on the hard drive though.


So I hooked this drive up to my PC and while it says it's there, no icon shows up for it. Could someone tell me or pm how to reformat the drive or is this thing fried? I don't know why the system says it's there but then doesn't show it? Sorry for my lack of knowledge. I'm running XP and have tried USB and firewire connections. Both say it's there, ugh!

Thanks


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

If the E* receiver formatted it, it is using a Linux file system. Windows can not read a Linux file system. You would need to use a computer running Linux. You can download and burn a Linux "live" CD and boot your computer into Linux via that CD and should be able to format it in a Windows compatible file system.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

First thing to do is look at the threads here. There are messages where people have posted what did and did not work for them.

Simplicity seems to work better. Or to put it another way a USB2 only drive will be more likely to work than a drive with USB2 and firewire or eSATA or all three. I suspect it to be a interaction in the drives chipset and the VIPs USB chipset.

I have had good luck with cheap USB only 500Gb WDs and Generic cases with IDE drives such as the ME320 series.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Rodsman said:


> I appreciate the comments here but why charge us for a service that more than likely won't work? I know we're all blazing new trails here and that's fine but $40 bucks for nothing or I'm supposed to keep buying EHD until I find one that works? That just doesn't seem right or fair to me. I'm using a WD 750 GB drive and I've used those for years with my PC with no problems. I'd also like to say that the 622 is a great box or has been for me and that it's leaps and bounds above my old 921. Another option, upgrade to a 722 or is that an upgrade or a new lease? Some threads seem to indicate that the 722 EHD interface is better?


The 622 that you have will not work with any EHD. It's a problem with the receiver, not the drive(s). 
The ViP722 receivers seem to be extremely reliable with the external drives.


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

I seem to remember awhile back I think it was last year they had someone from Seagate on a Charlie or Tech chat touting the benefits and reliabilty of the Seagate product. It seemed to me at the time E* was recommending the Seagate product. If I was going to get one it would be a Seagate. But I think now I'll wait for the next software version.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Seagates as I seem to remember reading it seem to be more problematic.

TulsaOK, I've had no probelms using the EHD with my 622. Western Digital USB2 only 500Gb and soem ME320 generics that have drives up to 320Gb which is what that case supports AFAIK.

To set up a drive for Windows...

Right Click on My Computer and select Manage

Then Select Disk Management

You should now see all the drives. Being very carefull not to choose any drives you are using. In other words do not choose C: or D: or E: and so on. Only choose the drive that has no drive letter assciated with it. As a Double test unplug the external and make sure the one you think is it goes away and comes back when you replug it. Right click where it shows the space on the drive and choose remove partition. Do this until there are none showing. 

BTW right click on where it shows Drive 4 or whatever # that drive is and right click where it shows the space on the drive. Notice the different functions available? 

That is where you create a partiton and format and initialize the drive. First is Initialize, Windows should offer to do it for you and you choose yes. The where the space is remove partitions, Note that everything will be lost so be carefull. The create a partition, Then format that partition and the drive will be ready for use.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

TBoneit said:


> TulsaOK, I've had no probelms using the EHD with my 622. Western Digital USB2 only 500Gb and soem ME320 generics that have drives up to 320Gb which is what that case supports AFAIK.


I think the majority of the 622's are fine with the EHD's. The unlucky ones that aren't fine will find that no external drive will work. It's a problem with certain production runs of the 622 (IMO). That's the only thing that makes any sense. Dish isn't going to invest a lot of time and effort trying to solve a problem that only affects a small percentage of their customers (IMO). Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend.


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