# External HD questions



## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

New to external HD's, so my apologies upfront for my noobness. 

I have (2) 612's and (1) 722 - all HD DVR's. Can I transfer my recordings from one DVR to another using an EHD? If they can't be transferred, can I at least watch them by moving the EHD from DVR to DVR?

One of my 612's needs to be replaced (power supply issues) - replacement on the way. I was told last night by DISH that if I transfer my recordings from my bad DVR to an EHD, then try to transfer them back to the new replacement DRV, the new DVR will want to format the EHD when connecting it, erasing my recordings. Any way around this? I do not want to lose my recordings. :nono2:

Need a 1TB EHD w/ separate power supply....any recommendations? The WD 1TB Elements appears to be OOS about everywhere.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Yes you can transfer recordings from your ViP's with an EHD.
All your receivers contain a code which must match in order to accept an EHD without formatting. Once the new receiver is activated you should be able to transfer your recordings. If it wants to format, please post.
Western Digital My Book Essential would be my recommendation.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

AreWeThereYet said:


> New to external HD's, so my apologies upfront for my noobness.
> 
> I have (2) 612's and (1) 722 - all HD DVR's. Can I transfer my recordings from one DVR to another using an EHD? If they can't be transferred, can I at least watch them by moving the EHD from DVR to DVR?
> 
> ...


As long as the ViP DVR is on your account, your EHD will work with it. When the new 612 arrives, make sure they send a reauthorize hit, before you connect the EHD to it, so the EHD is enabled on the new ViP61 You don't have to move them from the EHD to watch them, just connect the EHD to any of your ViP DVR's.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

For me the EHD has been a great addition. I have a 722 and a 612 and 5 EHDs (3 filled with movies). I regularly move the EHDs between the two DVRs and watch directly from the EHDs.

On these threads, someone referred to this activity as a "sneakernet" which is the perfect description.


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## dakeeney (Aug 30, 2004)

I'm using a seagate 1TB EHD right now. can I swap out the hd that came the the 722k and install a 1TB hd with damage to the reciever?


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## dakeeney (Aug 30, 2004)

Well I guess I can't type. Let me start over. I would like to swap out the
hd that came with the 722k and install a 1TB hd. any recommendations as to which hd might work. I use the seagate 1TB EHD right now.
Thanks


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Try to find one from three approved models for *internal *use:
WDC WD10EAVS-*57*
ST31000335CS
Hitachi HCT721010SLA360.

Not sure if current FW will allow format it, at least it should be accepted.
So far only Hitachi disk seen in Internet stores.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

Kent Taylor said:


> Yes you can transfer recordings from your ViP's with an EHD.
> All your receivers contain a code which must match in order to accept an EHD without formatting. Once the new receiver is activated you should be able to transfer your recordings. If it wants to format, please post.
> Western Digital My Book Essential would be my recommendation.


Thanks Kent for the good news. Can I place the WD Essential on it's side? Really need to place it horizontally. Does it have vent holes on top (chimney effect) when in the vertical position?


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

GrumpyBear said:


> As long as the ViP DVR is on your account, your EHD will work with it. When the new 612 arrives, make sure they send a reauthorize hit, before you connect the EHD to it, so the EHD is enabled on the new ViP61 You don't have to move them from the EHD to watch them, just connect the EHD to any of your ViP DVR's.


Thanks Grumpy! I haven't activated the EHD service yet. I take it I ought to activate it with the defective 612 first, copy contents onto the EHD, then activate (authorize) the replacement 612 before plugging the EHD into the replaced 612?

I just hope the old 612 stays on long enough to do the transfer before rebooting.  How long would it typically take to transfer over 20 hrs of HD content? That's 20 hrs according to the DISH counter, but more like 40 hrs real time content.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

phrelin said:


> For me the EHD has been a great addition. I have a 722 and a 612 and 5 EHDs (3 filled with movies). I regularly move the EHDs between the two DVRs and watch directly from the EHDs.
> 
> On these threads, someone referred to this activity as a "sneakernet" which is the perfect description.


Yep can't wait to "sneakernet" it.  So are the EHD's authorized or is it just the DVR's themselves that are authorized?


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Thanks Grumpy! I haven't activated the EHD service yet. I take it I ought to activate it with the defective 612 first, copy contents onto the EHD, then activate (authorize) the replacement 612 before plugging the EHD into the replaced 612?
> 
> I just hope the old 612 stays on long enough to do the transfer before rebooting.  How long would it typically take to transfer over 20 hrs of HD content? That's 20 hrs according to the DISH counter, but more like 40 hrs real time content.


YES, get the EHD activated on the current ViP612. Call in complain about how much you are losing do to failed equipment push(politely but firmly) that since its a Hardware Failure on Dish's part, you want the EHD activated for free, to save what you can. Then when the new ViP612 arrives activated call in and make sure a reauthorization hit comes down from Dish, this can be done via online chat or on the phone, and then connect your EHD to the NEW ViP612. Its the DVR that gets authorized, not the EHD's, you can connect as many EHD's to DVR as you want.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Thanks Kent for the good news. Can I place the WD Essential on it's side? Really need to place it horizontally. Does it have vent holes on top (chimney effect) when in the vertical position?


The vent holes on mine are on the top.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

GrumpyBear said:


> YES, get the EHD activated on the current ViP612. Call in complain about how much you are losing do to failed equipment push(politely but firmly) that since its a Hardware Failure on Dish's part, you want the EHD activated for free, to save what you can. Then when the new ViP612 arrives activated call in and make sure a reauthorization hit comes down from Dish, this can be done via online chat or on the phone, and then connect your EHD to the NEW ViP612. Its the DVR that gets authorized, not the EHD's, you can connect as many EHD's to DVR as you want.


Lol great minds think alike. :lol: Yes I already "politely" complained and they made a notation on my account to activate the EHD at no charge. Said they would get it going for me as soon as I had my EHD.


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

AreWeThereYet said:


> New to external HD's, so my apologies upfront for my noobness.
> 
> I have (2) 612's and (1) 722 - all HD DVR's. Can I transfer my recordings from one DVR to another using an EHD? If they can't be transferred, can I at least watch them by moving the EHD from DVR to DVR?


Wow, sounds exactly like my setup. I routinely use an EHD to move recordings from my two 612s onto my 722. The 722 is in the RV, so before hitting the road, I move some shows from the two home DVRs into the RV DVR, so we have something to watch on the road. I don't usually watch them directly from the EHD, as it tends to be in the way, so I move them onto the RV DVR, and then put the EHD away. I occasionally move shows from the 722 back to the 612s, but that's only if there is something we didn't get around to watching on the road, and want to watch it when back home.



AreWeThereYet said:


> Thanks Grumpy! I haven't activated the EHD service yet. I take it I ought to activate it with the defective 612 first, copy contents onto the EHD, then activate (authorize) the replacement 612 before plugging the EHD into the replaced 612?
> 
> I just hope the old 612 stays on long enough to do the transfer before rebooting.  How long would it typically take to transfer over 20 hrs of HD content? That's 20 hrs according to the DISH counter, but more like 40 hrs real time content.


Yes, DEFINTELY activate the EHD (and move the shows) while you still have the defective 612. If you wait until the new 612 arrives and the old one is deactivated, you will lose the ability to save your recordings.

For that many shows, I would plan on at least 2 to 4 hours to copy them off the 612 onto the EHD. And plan on 50% more time to copy them back onto the DVR. My experience is that the remaining time estimate is a little bit optimistic when moving to EHD, and extremely optimistic when moving back to the DVR.

It's not the speediest process, but it sure can be valuable.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Lol great minds think alike. :lol: Yes I already "politely" complained and they made a notation on my account to activate the EHD at no charge. Said they would get it going for me as soon as I had my EHD.


there is no reason to wait for your EHD, I would have them send the activation NOW, so its ready and no one forgets to read the notation on your account.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

ShapeShifter said:


> Yes, DEFINTELY activate the EHD (and move the shows) while you still have the defective 612. If you wait until the new 612 arrives and the old one is deactivated, you will lose the ability to save your recordings.
> 
> For that many shows, I would plan on at least 2 to 4 hours to copy them off the 612 onto the EHD. And plan on 50% more time to copy them back onto the DVR. My experience is that the remaining time estimate is a little bit optimistic when moving to EHD, and extremely optimistic when moving back to the DVR.
> 
> It's not the speediest process, but it sure can be valuable.


I seriously doubt the 612 will stay on that long w/o rebooting. The defective 612 reboots quite often when accessing recordings. DISH tech thought it was a power supply issue, I'm thinking it's a HDD issue (bad sectors?) as it freezes on certain scenes, then reboots, then freezes and reboots again on the same scene.

Anyhow, if it freezes and reboots while transferring and it's only transfered say half of my recordings, will those recordings be ok on the EHD or will they be corrupted somehow and not viewable?


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

GrumpyBear said:


> there is no reason to wait for your EHD, I would have them send the activation NOW, so its ready and no one forgets to read the notation on your account.


I ordered the WD Essential and it should arrive tomorrow. I know what you mean though, DISH CSR's are notorious for not noting accts when promised. I'll know tomorrow.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

Typically, how many hours of HD content will 1 TB hold? I realize it depends on the compression used - just a ballpark. What size HDD's are in the 612 and 722?


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Anyhow, if it freezes and reboots while transferring and it's only transfered say half of my recordings, will those recordings be ok on the EHD or will they be corrupted somehow and not viewable?


It will be tedious, but maybe you can move the shows one at a time to minimize the risk?

I don't think a reboot during the move will corrupt the original recording, but I can't say for sure. I think it copies the recording, and then only deletes the original recording after the copy is complete. I personally would be more worried about the EHD being corrupted when the 612 reboots. But, hopefully, all you will have is a partial file on the external drive or some lost sectors.

I did have a problem with my EHD at one point, where something got corrupted. I could move shows into the drive, but when I moved them off they would show up properly on the DVR, but not get deleted from the EHD. If I tried deleting them from the EHD, it would say it did it, but the show would still be there. It took a formatting of the EHD to get it back to normal operation. But the point of all this is that it seems to me that the copy happens first, then the delete. There appears to be at least a short time when the show is in both places at once?


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Typically, how many hours of HD content will 1 TB hold? I realize it depends on the compression used - just a ballpark. What size HDD's are in the 612 and 722?


Good question. When I copy about a dozen shows (mix of full hour, half hour, HD, and SD) I seem to recall seeing that it was about 40 to 50 GB? Not sure, but that's my vague recollection.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

AreWeThereYet said:


> Typically, how many hours of HD content will 1 TB hold? I realize it depends on the compression used - just a ballpark. What size HDD's are in the 612 and 722?


I have just started to use my 1 TB. But my 750GB drives hold about 100 to 120 HD movies which represents roughly about 200± hours.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

AreWeThereYet said:


> .. What size HDD's are in the 612 and 722?


320 and 500 GB


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

P Smith said:


> 320 and 500 GB


Keep in mind that the internal drives have space used for system stuff and for VOD (the channel 501 movies).


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

Thank you everyone for all your help. DISH came through and honored their promise for the free EHD activation. I installed the firmware update for the 1 TB WD Essentials which hides their software everyone complains about. 930GB at the start. 

I've been transferring over movies/shows most of the night, doing it in batches. The present batch I'm transferring is around 15 GB (roughly 9 hrs of HD movies) and estimated time says 2.5 hrs. Seems to vary though from batch to batch. The DVR hasn't rebooted once, so that's good. I aimed a fan to blow over the DVR while transferring thinking heat may(?) have caused my reboots, helped or coincidence, not sure. 

My WD Essentials has vents on 3 sides (bottom, top, back), so laying it down on it's side shouldn't be a problem. Lots yet left to transfer. Need to get this done so I can install the new 612. I think I'm going to really enjoy having the EHD. Will update when done. Thanks again!


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

My WD Essential transfers at 16Gb/hour. It's not the new style and it's on my 722. My 612 is not so fast.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

phrelin said:


> Keep in mind that the internal drives have space used for system stuff and for VOD (the channel 501 movies).


Perhaps you answered to other member - I did answer to simple question about a SIZE of HDD inside of those DVRs.

[I don't need to keep in mind the obvious fact, actually you'll serve better if you'll find my old posts with actual size of USER and VOD partitions]


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

Kent Taylor said:


> My WD Essential transfers at 16Gb/hour. It's not the new style and it's on my 722. My 612 is not so fast.


I have to admit this transferring from the 612 is painfully slow. I'm almost done but damnnnn. :nono2: I'm quite certain I'm not transferring 16GB/hr. Going forward, maybe I should use my 722 more for archival quality movies and the 612 for more everyday use? Hmmm.....


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

AreWeThereYet said:


> I have to admit this transferring from the 612 is painfully slow. I'm almost done but damnnnn. :nono2: I'm quite certain I'm not transferring 16GB/hr. Going forward, *maybe I should use my 722 more for archival quality movies* and the 612 for more everyday use? Hmmm.....


Why? Because you assume it's faster? Don't be so sure until you do your own speed tests.

I do most of my transferring from the 612s to the 722, I rarely go the other way. What I've noticed is that it takes significantly longer (maybe 15% to 50% longer) to move from the EHD to the 722 as it took to move from either of the 612s to the EHD. Maybe moving onto the DVR is slower than moving off? Or maybe the 722 is slower than the 612? I don't know, I haven't done any real timing tests, just some observations.

Whatever the speeds, I've just resigned myself that it's a slow operation. Maybe I just have a slow drive, but I don't think I've ever been anywhere near 16 GB/hr on any of the DVRs in any direction.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

ShapeShifter said:


> Why? Because you assume it's faster? Don't be so sure until you do your own speed tests.
> 
> I do most of my transferring from the 612s to the 722, I rarely go the other way. What I've noticed is that it takes significantly longer (maybe 15% to 50% longer) to move from the EHD to the 722 as it took to move from either of the 612s to the EHD. Maybe moving onto the DVR is slower than moving off? Or maybe the 722 is slower than the 612? I don't know, I haven't done any real timing tests, just some observations.
> 
> Whatever the speeds, I've just resigned myself that it's a slow operation. Maybe I just have a slow drive, but I don't think I've ever been anywhere near 16 GB/hr on any of the DVRs in any direction.


I will compare the two by recording the same program on both DVRs and see which transfers to the EHD the fastest. Maybe the 16GB/hr is SD? I only watch/record HD - can't stomach SD anymore.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

16Gb is 16Gb. A pound of feathers weighs just as much as a pound of lead.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Not in term of transferring data: if you send 16M of 1KB files compare to one file size 16GB.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

P Smith said:


> Not in term of transferring data: if you send 16M of 1KB files compare to one file size 16GB.


Uh-huh.


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## AreWeThereYet (Jan 19, 2010)

All programs transferred over to the EHD no problem with no DVR reboots. I believe the fan helped with that. My last transfer - 3 HD movies which were 15.6GB, took 2 hrs 20 min which equals 6.85GB/hr transfer rate. Will do a speed test to compare the 612/722 later. 

Replaced the defective 612 w/the new one. Works like it should. 

Amazing how much the 1TB EHD will hold....gotta love it! Only problem I have is the power switch on the Essential EHD doesn't seem to work. That is a power switch, correct? No reference to a power switch w/paperwork it came with. For people w/o a power switch, to turn off the EHD, are you just unplugging the USB cable or both USB/power cable? Does it really decrease the life of the HDD to leave it powered on?


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