# Did I screw up?



## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

I've got a Dish Network ViP 922 HD DVR and filled up the internal hard drive, so I decided to get an external hard drive for more storage. I went with a Western Digital WD Elements 3 TB unit. I hooked it up tonight and the DVR detected it right away and a "USB storage device is formatting, please wait" alert box came up on the screen. The problem is that the green status bar has been blinking for well over two hours now, and it doesn't look like it's going to complete the formatting.

Anyway, I just went on the Dish Network website and I now see that a 2 TB external hard drive is apparently the maximum size that is supported. So am I screwed with the 3 TB unit? If it will not work, I don't know if I can send it back to Amazon for a 2 TB unit since I have technically used it (even though it isn't actually reformatted).

Has anyone ever had any success using a 3 TB external hard drive with a Dish Network ViP 922 HD DVR?


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## l8er (Jun 18, 2004)

Not what you want to hear but I believe the VIP 922 will not be able to use that 3 TB external hard drive. When there's a firmware type size limitation, you have to stay under the limit.


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## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

Unfortunately, that's pretty much what I thought as well. I also called Dish this morning and they positively confirmed the 3 TB HD is a no go, so I am going to get the 2 TB version of the same HD and attempt to send the 3 TB back. Live and learn


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## dbscpa (Sep 29, 2010)

I know this is an old thread but, for people new to Dish like me, it just saved me from making a bad purchase, so I'm bumping the thread up. If this is "bad manners" let me know.

I just got Dish on 11/27 and called CS today, 12/04, to ask about EHD size limitations since previously, I believe, 750GB was the max. The CSR said there was no size limitation any more. BTW, I have the 722k.

Drive are so cheap now I figured I would get a couple of 3TBs - one for recording and one for backup. I guess I'll get two 2TBs instead.

So, Dish newbies like me, before taking Dish CSR statements as "truth" check the DBStalk forums.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

dbscpa said:


> Drive are so cheap now I figured I would get a couple of 3TBs - one for recording and one for backup. I guess I'll get two 2TBs instead.


Glad to see posts here help. There also is a thread here External Hard Drives That Work you might find useful. But....

What do you know that I don't???

Right now we have several threads regarding the drive shortage and skyrocketing prices including Hard disk drive shortage looming and the thread Western Digital Hard Drive Prices.

In the latter I posted:


phrelin said:


> On October 19, 2011, right after reading about the flooding in Thailand I bought a $69.99 Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive from Amazon. That drive is not available directly from Amazon but one of their sellers is offering it right now for $119.96 with the notation "Only 1 left in stock--order soon."


Tonight Amazon has this notice on the pages where they still have some drives available:


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

The size limit for DVR archival drives is 2TB. http://www.dishuser.org/byodvr.php


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

BobaBird said:


> The size limit for DVR archival drives is 2TB. http://www.dishuser.org/byodvr.php


[Check the spelling  - "the 922 supports access to 4 conntected EHDs using a powered external USB hub"]


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

I usually feel typos  . The fix will be loaded later with some other updates.


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## dbscpa (Sep 29, 2010)

phrelin said:


> Glad to see posts here help. There also is a thread here [*dbscpa: *I'm not allowed to post URLs until I have 5 posts, even though it is your URL from your post] you might find useful. But....
> 
> What do you know that I don't???
> 
> ...


I saw the thread about compatible EHDs, but it is over 4 years old (August 2007), so I did not give it too much weight. (Perhaps my error?)

Regarding prices, one of this weekend's adverts in the SF Bay Area had a WD 2TB USB 2.0 EHD for $79. Can't remember which retailer (it was a brick and mortar), but if someone wants me to check, I'll pull the paper out of the recycle bin.

I ended up buying the Verbatim 2TB USB 3.0 (at Office Max) since WD reviews tend to be spotty and the Verbatim comes with a 7 year warranty. It was $120, and although the 722k only has USB 2.0, I want the 3.0 for possible computer hook-up later. (BTW, hook-up was a snap and in my first use, it took 1 hour to offload 10 hours of HD programming. I don't know whether that is fast or slow, but since it all occurred in the background, it did not "bother" me at all.)

I know it is all relative, but even $120 for a 2TB USB 3.0 is inexpensive to me. I know I can wait and get it cheaper down the road, so that is what I am going to do for the second drive.

I still remember paying $300 for 256MB of memory years ago and $400 for a 10MB HDD before that, so just about anything seems cheap to me!!!


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

The 2TB EHD is the maximum amount supported at this time. I have tested a 3TB on a few of our receivers at work and have not had any success completing the format process. Thanks.



DEC said:


> I've got a Dish Network ViP 922 HD DVR and filled up the internal hard drive, so I decided to get an external hard drive for more storage. I went with a Western Digital WD Elements 3 TB unit. I hooked it up tonight and the DVR detected it right away and a "USB storage device is formatting, please wait" alert box came up on the screen. The problem is that the green status bar has been blinking for well over two hours now, and it doesn't look like it's going to complete the formatting.
> 
> Anyway, I just went on the Dish Network website and I now see that a 2 TB external hard drive is apparently the maximum size that is supported. So am I screwed with the 3 TB unit? If it will not work, I don't know if I can send it back to Amazon for a 2 TB unit since I have technically used it (even though it isn't actually reformatted).
> 
> Has anyone ever had any success using a 3 TB external hard drive with a Dish Network ViP 922 HD DVR?


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## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> The 2TB EHD is the maximum amount supported at this time. I have tested a 3TB on a few of our receivers at work and have not had any success completing the format process. Thanks.


I was able to return the Western Digital WD Elements 3 TB unit to Amazon and got the 2 TB unit instead. After hooking up the 2 TB EHD, I had no problem with the formatting process and it has been working just fine.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Big surprise !

[It's many times tested and written many times at the site about 2 TB and 3 TB EHDs]


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## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

Well, it was a surprise to me as a fairly new Dish HD customer at the time. I admit that I should have called Dish or researched the subject better prior to my purchasing the 3 TB EHD, but I guess I was just jazzed that I could have any supported EHD for my Dish HD DVR as compared to the non-supported stance DirecTV takes on the same matter. So, going with a 3 TB EHD initially made sense to me since I didn't want multiple drives and yet wanted to get the most storage for the best price. From a point of logic, that wouldn't have been a bad way to go except for the fact that 2 TB was actually the operational limit.

Anywho, if this thread helps anyone else not to repeat my error, then that's worth it IMO.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

DEC said:


> ...
> Anywho, if this thread helps anyone else not to repeat my error, then that's worth it IMO.


You know ... 
I'm here posting many technical tidbits and do hope it will help ppl get the facts just by Search and reading ... for many years.
But your thread and many more telling - NO WAY ! 
Each month/week(!) someone came with same question again and again. Duh !


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## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

Oh goodness ... not too much of a bloated head attitude going on here. 

Since my thread (or others like it) seem to be beneath your standards of value and worth, my suggestion is not to waste your precious time reading or commenting on same.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

dbscpa said:


> I saw the thread about compatible EHDs, but it is over 4 years old (August 2007), so I did not give it too much weight. (Perhaps my error?)


 Actually the last post is dated 10-06-11 as folks keep adding to it, but HobbyTalk's first post hasn't been updated since 05/20/08.



> I still remember paying $300 for 256MB of memory years ago and $400 for a 10MB HDD before that, so just about anything seems cheap to me!!!


Well, my first HDD was this guy...








...but I've gotten really [strike]cheap[/strike] frugal in my old age.


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## Orion9 (Jan 31, 2011)

My first was a 14" disk with one removable 3MB platter and one fixed 3MB platter. Cost only $9995 and I still can see the scar where my finger had to be stitched up because I got it caught between the disk and a table while uncrating it. 

Yeah - me too on getting much cheaper as I've gotten older. Not to mention I now refuse to uncrate computer parts.


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## mhaneef (Nov 28, 2005)

Well, it's been almost a year since the last post- any update on whether 3 TB drives are now acceptable?


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## DEC (Jan 7, 2008)

I haven't researched it further since I ended up successfully going with a 2 TB EHD. Perhaps Dish has upped that since then, but my advice would be to not make any assumptions and to call Dish to positively confirm what the maximum supported capacity EHD currently is.


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## coldsteel (Mar 29, 2007)

Still only 2 TB max.


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## Rickt1962 (Jul 17, 2012)

As far as i know the only unit that can go beyond the 2tb is Direct HR34 All of Dish and the other D recievers cant


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

A 2+ hour movie in MPEG4 occupies about 3-4 GB of HDD space, so a 2TB drive should hold 570 movies.

There aren't 570 movies inexistence tha Interest me enough to watch them more than once if even that.

If you cut that to 1 hour programs at about 1.75GB each, that exceeds the 999/1000 program limit of the OS and there surely are NOT 999 various episodes of anything I want, especially all crammed on one hard drive.

I keep my EHD programs on seperate drives by program/programming type, needless to say I have 10-15 25GB hard drives that hold my programs, but things are much easier to find and the drives are less than 1/2 full and get little comparative use = last longer.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

It's not a hard and fast rule about time per gigabyte. Some programs have more compression than others. Even what orbital location you are looking at will be a factor!

Here's what happened to me. I had a "mixed arc set-up" (61.5/110/119). This dates back to the Sky Angel days. About the same time as the demise of Sky Angel on 61.5 came my HD locals on the same satellite. This was before "HD Free For All" (I had an HD DVR but no HD service because I did not have an HDTV). When I signed up for FFA I did not bother to fix my mixed arc set-up. Then one day there was a problem with one of the other EA satellites. Suddenly a bunch of SD channels were moved temporally to 61.5. NBD, I still got all the channels I watched in SD, except what used to come from 119 was now coming from 61.5. I had a daily timer for one of the channels that got switched. I periodically moved the recordings from this daily timer to my EHD. One day I noticed the file size per program from this timer shrunk by almost half! It turns out that when the command to move the channels on the EA happened it affected what I was formerly getting off 119. The same networks on 61.5 are in MPEG4 while the same network on 119 was still in MPEG2. The only difference I could see was in the file size.


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## gov (Jan 11, 2013)

LOL,

here's another reason I am not a computer guy. 

Why the system would not format the first 2TB of the 3TB drive and then work just fine for y'all is beyond the dull grasp of my withered intellect.


:lol:


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Because some SW/FW boss did decide it will works that way; then SW coder implement the rule. Your opinion never been counted.


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