# external hard drives?



## lee78221 (Sep 25, 2007)

So I'm new to all this. I have a compatible EHD and here is what I'm wondering.

Can the Dish DVR record new programs on the EHD once the main one is full? or it is only used for storage and playback, not active recordings?

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=171506&highlight=EHD

Found my answer.

OK, so my question is what the hell is this thing good for then(You got to love Dish)? :nono2:


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

lee78221 said:


> So I'm new to all this. I have a compatible EHD and here is what I'm wondering.
> 
> Can the Dish DVR record new programs on the EHD once the main one is full? or it is only used for storage and playback, not active recordings?


Only for Archive and Playback. You can't record directly to the EHD.
If you have more than 1 ViP612/622/722, you can use it for all of them. Both for Playback and for Archive.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

lee78221 said:


> OK, so my question is what the hell is this thing good for then(You got to love Dish)? :nono2:


It's for archiving programs. 
Lots of us do.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

*But DON'T play from EHD !!!* If you intend to keep it longer.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

lee78221 said:


> OK, so my question is what the hell is this thing good for then(You got to love Dish)? :nono2:


I have five EHDs, four 750 GB and one 1TB. Three of the 750 GB drives are filled with 110± HD movies each. One is currently being used to archive movies. The 1 TB is being used to archive programming for season shifting as the internal drives of my 722 and 612 are not large enough to do that.

That's what I use them for on a regular basis.

Also, should the 722 or 612 appear to be failing, I may be able to move recordings to the EHD thus preventing their loss. They never fail, of course, so this is hypothetical.:sure:

And, of course, you can "sneakernet" with them by moving programming between ViP DVR's.

You will see some threads and comments about a problem. Until a recent software release on the 622/722 it was safe to watch directly from the EHD. That software release has a bug. So I watch content on my EHD's on my 612 or move the content back to the 722 before watching. But the bug caused some people to lose archived content.

There is a way to back up your content onto a backup system. But you cannot use it except on a properly formatted EHD drive played through a ViP DVR on the account from whence it came.


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## lee78221 (Sep 25, 2007)

phrelin said:


> You will see some threads and comments about a problem. Until a recent software release on the 622/722 it was safe to watch directly from the EHD. That software release has a bug. So I watch content on my EHD's on my 612 or move the content back to the 722 before watching. But the bug caused some people to lose archived content.


So right now I shouldn't have any problems watching content from my EHD with a 612, right? The bug is not in the 612?

The comment above yours worries me.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

lee78221 said:


> So right now I shouldn't have any problems watching content from my EHD with a 612, right? The bug is not in the 612?
> 
> The comment above yours worries me.


Watch at your own risk.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

lee78221 said:


> So right now I shouldn't have any problems watching content from my EHD with a 612, right? The bug is not in the 612?
> 
> The comment above yours worries me.


The 612 hasn't had a software update since mid-2009 and I have seen no complaints. As near as I can tell the problem appeared on the 622/722 series with the update that began spooling in December and that's when we began seeing the complaints.

Now I admit I've never tried watching something on my 612 that I recorded on my 722. I guess if the problem occurred while watching a 722 recording on the 612, then one would establish in a hurry that the 722 is screwing with the directory on the EHD. But I haven't seen someone talk about this.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Typically, I record on the 612 to the EHD to be viewed on the 722. I'll try it the other way and see what happens.


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## ebaltz (Nov 23, 2004)

Does the Dish box OS run any checks on the EHD, i.e. a check disk or defrag or anything like that?


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

Kent Taylor said:


> Typically, I record on the 612 to the EHD to be viewed on the 722. I'll try it the other way and see what happens.


For me its just the opposite for me. I Archive off the 622 and 722 to be viewed on my 612 when I travel. Getting worried, as I have a Fishing trip coming up, and want the problem resolved before that happens.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

ebaltz said:


> Does the Dish box OS run any checks on the EHD, i.e. a check disk or defrag or anything like that?


Check/repair file OS [EXT3] only.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

P Smith said:


> Check/repair file OS [EXT3] only.


That surprises me. After I delete and add things, I frequently hear about 3 minutes of activity which I thought might be a defrag.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Nope, you always could look into logs if you have ext2 support on Windows or using Linux PC.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

P Smith said:


> Nope, you always could look into logs if you have ext2 support on Windows or using Linux PC.


I believe you. But one of my drives must really be fragmented.


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## bnborg (Jun 3, 2005)

P Smith said:


> Nope, you always could look into logs if you have ext2 support on Windows or using Linux PC.


I can just plug the EHD into my LG-NAS box.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

bnborg said:


> I can just plug the EHD into my LG-NAS box.


What kind of access to the EHD does it have? Can you do a disk copy or file copy for backups?


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## bnborg (Jun 3, 2005)

Now I am having trouble duplicating what I thought I remembered.

I think it may have been on my Archos 605 WiFi. But I remember seeing three "partitions", with a whole bunch of sub folders on the second partition. Each sub folder had three files in it. Not very useful, since the Archos OS did not recognize them as being an openable file type.

If I learn more, I'll post back.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

_Not very useful, since the Archos OS did not recognize them as being an openable file type_
Well, sixth post above your telling you file system type.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

P Smith said:


> *But DON'T play from EHD !!!* If you intend to keep it longer.


I play from it all the time and still have my recordings (at least last time I've looked).

Sometimes (not always) playing directly caused the receiver to lock-up if you pause or stop in the middle. Also recordings sometimes "drop out" of the list, but that does not mean they are erased. The file system seems to be a little bit unstable. In fact I have to pull the USB out and reinsert every time I want to use the EHD or the entire file list is blank! Also I have to keep the EHD plugged in all the time or I risk the DVR not finding it or wanting to reformat it. Twice I had to connect the EHD to my XP machine to wake it back up after it was "resting". I have not had to do that since I started leaving it plugged in 24/7.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Michael P said:


> I play from it all the time and still have my recordings (at least last time I've looked).
> 
> Sometimes (not always) playing directly caused the receiver to lock-up if you pause or stop in the middle. Also recordings sometimes "drop out" of the list, but that does not mean they are erased. The file system seems to be a little bit unstable. In fact I have to pull the USB out and reinsert every time I want to use the EHD or the entire file list is blank! Also I have to keep the EHD plugged in all the time or I risk the DVR not finding it or wanting to reformat it. Twice I had to connect the EHD to my XP machine to wake it back up after it was "resting". I have not had to do that since I started leaving it plugged in 24/7.


FWIW, Michael... until E* Engineering figures out why the EHDs are deleting content, you should refrain from using your EHD for playback.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

HDG said:


> FWIW, Michael... until E* Engineering figures out why the EHDs are deleting content, you should refrain from using your EHD for playback.


Well FWIW, Tulsa1 was somebody having the problem, but now has 6.25 and he now has noticed, so far the problem has gone away with the deletion.


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