# External Hard Drives That Work



## HobbyTalk

I know there are a couple of threads about drives that don't work and a few posts about some that do, but the info is scattered in different threads. Maybe we can start a thread that lists the make and model of drives that do work (at the present time) for those that are looking to purchase an external drive.

Here is a list of EHDs that work taken from the posts below
*
Buffalo Technology DriveStation SATA 500GB
Cavalry 500GB
Fantom Titanium 500GB
Hitachi 500GB
HP Personal Media Drive 500GB
I/O Magic Gigabank 500 - 500GB 
IOmega 500GB Desktop
Maxtor 750GB OneTouch 
Maxtor 320GB Personal Storage 3200
Maxtor 500GB Personal Storage 3200
MAXTOR DiamondMax 9 80GB ATA/133 HDD
Maxtor OneTouch II 200GB
Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB
Maxtor OneTouch III 500GB
Maxtor OneTouch IV 500GB
Seagate Baracuda ATA V 120GB
Seagate Free Agent Pro 320GB
SimpleTech 320GB
SimpleTech 500GB
WD My Book Essentials 250GB
WD My Book Essentials 500GB
WD My Book Essentials 750GB
WD My Book Home Edition (USB, Firewire, eSATA) 750G
WD My Book Essentials 1TB
WD My Book Premium Edition 750GB (Some reports of issues on this drive have been reported. See WD thread for more details)
*
*Updated 05/20/08*


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## ChuckA

I've said it a few times now, but I have still not had any problems with the *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch drive.*


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## Ron Barry

Good idea HobbyTalk.

I have a *WD MyBook 250GB* and I have not noticed any issues.


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## twindaddy

If possible, please *highlight/color your drive in red bold *so people can easily skim through this post. Thanks!


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## Ron Barry

Ok... I colored the initial posts. Good idea twindaddy. Will make it easier to scan


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## Farmer Dave

*IOmega 500GB Desktop*


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## mwsmith2

No problems at all. Acquired from Fry's

*500GB Maxtor Personal Storage 3200*


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## David-A

No problems with my second *750GB WD My Book Essentials.* The first one, though, was DOA.


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## Ken Green

*I/O Magic 500GB*
*WD MyBook 750GB*
No issues with either


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## ViP9999

*Seagate Baracuda ATA V 120GB*


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## tedb3rd

*Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch*--no problems thus far. But I would recommend placing the hard drive somewhere hidden because the light on it is bright, flashy, and annoying.


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## dpd146

*WD 750GB My Book Premium Edition*

So far so good.


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## DanoP

WD MyBook 750GB is working well.


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## Marriner

Having good performance so far from my *500GB Maxtor Personal Storage 3200*


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## ChuckA

twindaddy said:


> If possible, please *highlight/color your drive in red bold *so people can easily skim through this post. Thanks!


*What? Skim through the posts? You don't like to read unless it is in red*? :lol:


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## odbrv

SimpleTech 500GB has worked fine


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## TNVOL1111

Is there a list of HD's that consistently *don't* work with the 622?


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## Grandude

Maxtor OneTouch III 500GB Works with no setup or user problems.


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## chiefclerk

odbrv said:


> SimpleTech 500GB has worked fine


Set up:

Early 622
Latest Software

Called to activate hard drive feature.

Attached a SimpleTech 500G drive, brand new. The system reformatted the drive as expected. After the receiver reset itself, the USB Storage function was accessed and gave me the error message indicating no device was attached. A second reset produced no change.


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## hdaddikt

TNVOL1111 said:


> Is there a list of HD's that consistently *don't* work with the 622?


I think the Seagate FreeAgent series is the biggest offender. (although there is a work-around).
There have been a sprinkling of problems with few other drives I've noticed here and there, especially on satelliteguys.. but did not see any real pattern.


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## lilredjettdiwagon

The following drive has so far worked like a charm:

*Western Digital 750GB My Book Essential Hard Drive (WDG1U7500N) * $197.00+tt&L from Circuit City (w/BB price match)

Only had a problem once, and most likely it's my fault, wanted to move data that would take 8 hours to do so. Too much data, the receiver froze, eventually a soft reboot solved the screen freeze, but no data got moved. At least, did not lose any data and that is the best thing.

Thank you E* eventually implementing this feature :glasses: :smaileinh :jumpingja :biggthump


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## ChuckA

I have done archives that took 13 hours without a problem.


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## HobbyTalk

I've taken the different drives listed in the posts above and put them into the first post. I'll update the list as new ones are added.


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## Bill R

Here is another "off the shelf" USB dirve that works great:

WD 500GB My Book Essential

Lately, I have been trying out a lot of "home brew" USB drives. I bought a few USB 2.0 enclosures (some for less than $15) and tried various drives that I had (I put a large drive in my PC so I freed up two drives there). All of them happened to be WD drives of various sizes (250 GBs, 120 GBs). All you have to do is set them up as the master drive (no jumpers on the back of the drive) and put them in the USB enclosure and attach the cables. No problems with either of them. I also had an old WD 120 GB drive that was in my old Dishplayer (model 7100). Put it in the USB enclosure and re-formatted it and it works fine too.

Between my two ViP receivers I am using 5 drives (3 on one and 2 on the other and I do NOT move them between receivers). I have a total of 1.62 TBs of external storage. I use a USB switch (four port so I can add more drives) on each receiver to select which external drive is active.


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## agwood

Simpletech 500GB SP-U35/500 working great. just xfered 90+ Gigs of Video in 6 hours.

Best Buy $119.99 not sure when the sale ends.

Ag


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## rtk

*500GB Maxtor Personal Storage 3200* working well


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## hotspace

Hey guys....Let me just start off by saying "Phew" I found the place to talk about my receiver. Now let just add my Drive to the "rest of the story...."

I have a SimpleTech External USB 2.0 320 GB I had a few problems at first, i.e. I got a message stating that the device wasn't supported. But I reset the receiver and now all is well. The receiver had to format the drive. After formatting, it wasn't recognized. But another receiver reset fixed that. Right now I'm transferring data over and all is looking well.


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## AVJohnnie

*Western Digital My Book Essential WDG1U7500N 750GB 7200 RPM*

$179.99+Tx at Best Buy. Works right. No worries!


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## jcord51

AVJohnnie said:


> *Western Digital My Book Essential WDG1U7500N 750GB 7200 RPM*
> 
> $179.99+Tx at Best Buy. Works right. No worries!


Ditto here!


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## Marriner

Bill R said:


> Lately, I have been trying out a lot of "home brew" USB drives. I bought a few USB 2.0 enclosures (some for less than $15) and tried various drives that I had (I put a large drive in my PC so I freed up two drives there). All of them happened to be WD drives of various sizes (250 GBs, 120 GBs). All you have to do is set them up as the master drive (no jumpers on the back of the drive) and put them in the USB enclosure and attach the cables. No problems with either of them...


Thanks for this info. I have been wandering if drive enclosures with raw drives work with the 622. Have you tried a variety of enclosures or all the same brand?


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## odbrv

chiefclerk said:


> Set up:
> 
> Early 622
> Latest Software
> 
> Called to activate hard drive feature.
> 
> Attached a SimpleTech 500G drive, brand new. The system reformatted the drive as expected. After the receiver reset itself, the USB Storage function was accessed and gave me the error message indicating no device was attached. A second reset produced no change.


I had the same problem. However, when I shut the SimpleTech off/on, not reset the receiver, It all worked fine and has since. My 2nd SimpleTech 500 had no problems at all when added to my 2nd 622.


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## bbomar

*Western Digital Elements 500 GB WDE1U5000N*

No problems so far - about 150 GB currently archived.


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## Bill R

Marriner said:


> Thanks for this info. I have been wandering if drive enclosures with raw drives work with the 622. Have you tried a variety of enclosures or all the same brand?


So far, I have tried three different USB enclosues. One of them is the I/O magic enclosure (sold by Radio Shack) , another one was by "A Power" (sold by Computer Geeks) and the third one was some other brand (I believe I got it from Shop4tech.com).

The only thing that you really need to worry about with USB drive enclosures is: 1) that it is a USB 2.0 enclosure, 2) that the power supply supports the size drive that you want to use (some say that they will only support drives "up to xxx GBs". and 3) that the enclosure supports the type of drive that you want to use, IDE (ATA), SATA. Some enclosures support both but they usually cost a lot more.


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## BobMinn

WD My Book Essentials 750GB Works perfectly.

I returned a 500Gb Seagate Free Agent, that had various problems with the sleep mode, to OfficeMax and bought the WD at BB.

BobMinn


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## cnwade

Our *HP 500GB Personal Media Drive (HD5000S)* works fine. I paid $200 + tax for it - a little more than the others - but if this ext HD archiving project tanks due to digital copyright issues or whatever, I can slip the drive right into our HP Media Center PC. A least that's what I told my wife.... :lol:

Curt


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## igot2gonow

Thank you one and all for posting what works.

I work for dish in ATR and have been getting calls with questions on EHD since day one. We had very little tech info for trouble shooting from the start, but thanks to some great customers who are willing to stay on the phone with us, we are all learning and passing on information to our engineers. 

The biggest problem I am having is very little documentation on "how to" and limitations. The second problem is (no name HD's). It seems that major brand name hard drives work great, but the no names have problems. 

Again, thanks and when you call in for help, share your experience so we can learn and forward info to engeneering. 

One of the TSRIII's that really care. 

igot2gonow


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## HDlover

The first adopter/beta testers should be getting this for free. I , for one, am not trying it unless I get a 30 day money back guarentee. It really should be free as it locks one to Dish. I'm sure Dish will "see the light" and make it free. Then they can just enable it for everyone. No cost to them for all the individual call activations and all this individual technical support.


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## Bill R

HDlover said:


> I'm sure Dish will "see the light" and make it free.


If I were you I would not bet on it. Now that it is an established fee it very likely will never go away.


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## darkstarchuck

Buffalo Technology's DriveStation SATA 500GB USB Hard Drive works fine. There may be others found in this thread.

So after 2 years of constantly running, the drive is failing. Seems to be heat related, or just age, as I could xfer a show (restore) if I had powered down the unit for a while, then tried it. Went out and got a Seagate Freeagent 1TB, and problems started.


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## Ron Barry

There was a couple of posts about some having issues with WD MyBook drives and I moved them to their own thread so further discussion and occur and see if we can establish some possible commonality points.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=96334


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## dld542004

Maxtor OneTouch II 200 GB


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## HDlover

Bill R said:


> If I were you I would not bet on it. Now that it is an established fee it very likely will never go away.


Very short sighted of them if this is the case.


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## Captain591

Has anyone had success adding a hard drive larger than 750GB?


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## ChuckA

The only report I have seen was someone tried a 2 terra byte (JBOD with two drives) and it was not successful.


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## BarneyC

AVJohnnie said:


> *Western Digital My Book Essential WDG1U7500N 750GB 7200 RPM*
> 
> $179.99+Tx at Best Buy. Works right. No worries!


Been kicking it around for a day now, no [problems yet!


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## Zvi

ChuckA said:


> The only report I have seen was someone tried a 2 terra byte (JBOD with two drives) and it was not successful.


Yeah that was my experiment. In short 1tb is fine. After that DVR doesn't recognize the space. I am pretty sure it's either intentional or a bug.

Anyway, Hitachi Deskstar 1tb drives work fine.


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## Ron Barry

Interesting Zvi to hear it is working fine, however, remember that 750GB is the max supported at this point so if you go 1tb you are own so my recommendation is stay withing the 750GB limit.


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## gweempose

Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB


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## clarkbaker

ChuckA said:


> I've said it a few times now, but I have still not had any problems with the *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch drive.*


I concur. My Maxtor 750GB drive is doing great in its new role as HD programming recorder. Its fast enough for playback direct from the drive..


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## ViP9999

*MAXTOR DiamondMax 9 80GB ATA/133 HDD*


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## SingleAction

Can someone that owns the "WD My Book Premium ES WDG1SU5000N", tell me if it has an actual on/off switch?

I've been to several sites, and can't tell. There is no mention of it.


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## Galaxie6411

No, in the book it says it will shut off when your computer shuts off. It does not shut off when you put your receiver on standby so it stays on all the time.


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## TP715

*Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 500GB* (SKU 5192102941)

works perfectly for me, including trick play.

I was surprised, however, at the slow transfer rate. 50GB took more than 3 hours, while at the theoretical maximum USB 2.0 rate, 480 Mbits/s, it should take only about 14 minutes. I guess there's a lot of overhead.


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## Tulsa1

SingleAction said:


> Can someone that owns the "WD My Book Premium ES WDG1SU5000N", tell me if it has an actual on/off switch?
> 
> I've been to several sites, and can't tell. There is no mention of it.


Yes, it does. It is in the center of the round activity light disc on the front


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## SingleAction

Tulsa1 said:


> Yes, it does. It is in the center of the round activity light disc on the front


Tulsa1, Do you actually own this drive, or reading the info from a manual, because I''m getting conflicting information.

Thanks


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## tnsprin

Anyone with L4.43 see a change, hopefully an improvement, with external Hard drives?


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## citico

SingleAction said:


> Tulsa1, Do you actually own this drive, or reading the info from a manual, because I''m getting conflicting information.
> 
> Thanks


No it does not have an on/off switch. Cuts off with computer shut down but not DVR when it goes into standby, See this link for features:

http://www.wdc.com/en/flash/index.asp?family=wdfMyBook_Essential_1U

Click on hard drive to see features(connections,etc)


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## Paradox-sj

Buffalo 1TB Drive statation Duo


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## jltv

I have two Maxtor OneTouch III 500GB 

They work fine are are very quiet. 
Don't like the blinking light, need to move it


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## Bill R

jltv said:


> Don't like the blinking light, need to move it


A lot of drives have that (especially when transferring files). The old "VCR clock fix", some black tape over the offending light, fixes the problem quickly.

I had one drive that had a really bright blue LED and rather than block if out completely I choose to use a small piece of a 3 x 5 card to dim it down. I still can see it blinking during transfers but it doesn't "take over" the room.


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## HobbyTalk

I see that Buy.com has the Cavalry 500GB drive for $95.00. *Here's a link*


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## rmrm

Has anyone used this ?


HobbyTalk said:


> I see that Buy.com has the Cavalry 500GB drive for $95.00. *Here's a link*


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## rhorn01

Maxtor Onetouch III 750 works fine also.


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## patmurphey

rmrm,

Have you checked customer reviews of Buy.com as to their reliability with mail in rebates?


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## garywiley

I returned my Seagate drive and installed a WD MyBook Essential 500 GB drive on my 622 with L4.43, and it works fine.

My only problem is the drive will not remain turned off. When my 622 reboots every morning, it turns on my drive.

I e-mailed WD and they suggested a powered USB hub, which I have not tried.

Gary


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## Grandude

Installed a *Maxtor 250GB drive from my 921* in a Cooler Master enclosure and it works fine. This Maxtor drive has a high startspin current, 2Amps, so not all enclosures will work as I found out.


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## milacqua

garywiley said:


> I returned my Seagate drive and installed a WD MyBook Essential 500 GB drive on my 622 with L4.43, and it works fine.
> 
> My only problem is the drive will not remain turned off. When my 622 reboots every morning, it turns on my drive.
> 
> I e-mailed WD and they suggested a powered USB hub, which I have not tried.
> 
> Gary


How can it turn on or off unless you push the round button on the WD? I guess this would happen if you have the WD plugged in the 622's USB port all the time but why would you want it plugged in all the time? Seems to me the best way to avoid lots of problems is plug the HD in the 622 when you want to archive or play and unplug it when you are finished.


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## Zaphod

The older units had an on/off switch, the new ones do not. The drive sill go into standby when the PC it is attached to shuts down, however our receivers never shut down, so the drive stays active all the time. I have my drives power controled by x-10 and have programed my remote to swich it on and off as needed.


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## lenny

For anyone who doesn't mind putting together their own usb unit so you have the option of installing different disk drives I just bought a Bytecc ME-747SATACOMBO drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145009
and a Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136131&Tpk=wd+se16)

I easily placed the drive into the enclosure and hooked it up to the VIP 622. After I activated the EHD feature with dish the dvr formatted the usb drive with no problems. I moved 2 shows at the same time 1 SD and 1 HD (shows I didn't care if they disappeared since I could re-record them  and watched them both using TrickPlay functions multiple times and checking for any lip sync problems and everything looked perfect. My 622's boot strap version is 1711 (newer version than some) and software version is L443.

As you can tell I decided to use a SATA drive/enclosure. Currently newegg has $10 off the disk drive and $6 off the enclosure for those that are interested in my particular setup.


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## zlensman

I'm using an old *WD 250 GB Dual Option USB*, model WDXUB2500JBNN. These drives are no longer manufactured, so I would not recommend them for a new purchase. However, if you have on old one lying around or can get one these cheap, it works just fine. It worked with 4.41 and still works the same with 4.43.

This drive used to be my primary PC backup drive, but I replaced it with a 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent. Now the old 250 gigger has been put on DVR duty, which I expect will be less stressful. This drive has a power button, so most of the time it will be powered off.


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## rmrm

I have purchased several times from them and they have been prompt. I never had mail in rebates directly from Buy.com, but third party mail in rebates were fine.


patmurphey said:


> rmrm,
> 
> Have you checked customer reviews of Buy.com as to their reliability with mail in rebates?


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## bobukcat

SingleAction said:


> Can someone that owns the "WD My Book Premium ES WDG1SU5000N", tell me if it has an actual on/off switch?
> 
> I've been to several sites, and can't tell. There is no mention of it.


I have the 750GB version of this drive and it DOES have a power button in the middle of the light ring on the front - however I do NOT recommend this drive as it's caused problems, in fact there is an entire thread dedicated to it:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=96334

Interestingly enough these drives seem to have disappeared from Best Buy.com and Circuit City.com, they were on sale at BB three weeks ago when I bought mine. The Essential Edition (USB 2.0 only) are still up there and don't seem to have the problem.


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## lenny

rmrm said:


> I have purchased several times from them and they have been prompt. I never had mail in rebates directly from Buy.com, but third party mail in rebates were fine.


I agree I've had no problems with rebates with buy.com but patmurphey may be referring to reviews of the Cavalry drive itself. Multiple people have posted that the positive reviews of those drives are people working for Cavalry. Before deciding on building my own drive per my post above I looked at reviews for the Cavalry drives and they were not favorable. But, I have no experience myself on those drives so it's only what I've read so I stayed away.


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## tyree91

I don't see any posts regarding the Seagate Free Agent USB drive. Does anyone have any experience with it? Costco & Fry's have some pretty good deals on thes @ 500GB & 750GB. Thanks


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## BobaBird

:welcome_s to DBSTalk!

That's because of the thread title. There's an entire thread detailing the problems with Seagate drives.

Seagate USB Drive users Please Chime in

That's what I got for myself. Had to disconnect the power before I could archive again. Haven't tried playback yet. So there are problems, but also workarounds to be found in that thread.


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## chiefclerk

odbrv said:


> SimpleTech 500GB has worked fine


I too have a SimpleTech 500G connected to a 622. Sometimes when I go to the DVR/USB function it gives me an error message indicating it does not see the HD. When I turn the HD off and on again it comes up.

Is there a solution to this loss of USB connection?


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## chiefclerk

I have a SimpleTech 500G connected to a 622. Sometimes when I go to the DVR/USB function it gives me an error message indicating it does not see the HD. When I turn the HD off and on again it comes up.

Is there a solution to this loss of USB connection?


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## devecho

Add the Maxtor 320GB Personal Storage 3200 to the list of drives that appear to be good. I have transferred about 70 to 75 Gig of data so far to the drive. 9 HD programs took about 3 hours to transfer. File size is about 4.5 to 5 Gig per program. I also have transferred about 25 to 30 SD programs, which took about 2 hours. Average file size was about a gig. That's an approximate transfer rate of about 12 to 15 gig an hour, or about 1 gig every 4 to 5 minutes, which translates to about 3 to 4 megabytes per second. Not a bad transfer rate all things considered. Drive does go to sleep after a while, but spins right up when I go to access the device. Playback seems to work fine. I did all transfers while there were no recordings in progress just to be on the safe side.

One odd thing did happen when I was setting things up. I have 2 ViP622's, one in the bedroom, one in the living room. I have to use the rear USB port for the living room, but I can use the front USB port on the bedroom one. However, I didn't test the rear USB port on the bedroom unit. Initially it seemed like neither the front or rear USB port was working on the living room unit, but they may have been due to how I initially hooked things up. I did plug the power into the hard-drive *after* I had connected it to the front USB port, so I'm wondering if I fried the front USB port somehow. And yes, I did try a hard reboot while trying to use the front USB port .


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## GATER

No problems for me with the Hitachi 500 gb hard drive.


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## He Save Dave

Is there a reason that the Western Digital My Book 500GB model isn't on the list? Does anyone know if it works for the 622?


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## Ron Barry

I don't think so Dave. The WD drives should work though some users are reporting problems with the Premium drives.


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## garyhesq

He Save Dave said:


> Is there a reason that the Western Digital My Book 500GB model isn't on the list? Does anyone know if it works for the 622?


I just hooked up a WD MyBook 500GB and it is working great. I bought two but have not tried the second one yet.


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## hmcewin

He Save Dave said:


> Is there a reason that the Western Digital My Book 500GB model isn't on the list? Does anyone know if it works for the 622?


I have two 500GB WD My Book drives hooked to my VIP 622 through a manual USB switch and they are working fine. They are NOT the premium ones. Cost $119 at Best Buy. I have read where many people are using this drive with no problems.


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## kinglerch

My Cavalry 500GB still going strong, I think there's a WD inside.


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## He Save Dave

Thanks everyone. I was looking to buy a 500GB WD and wanted to make sure it would work ok. I appreciate the responses.


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## Papa

FWIW, I ordered a 500GB WD and it was DOA yesterday. Had to send it back. I'm ordering the SimpleTech 500GB. CC has them on sale.


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## Leprechuan

I'm thinking of getting the Western Digital 320GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive (WDH1U3200N), should I invest my money in this hard drive?


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## Bill R

Leprechuan said:


> I'm thinking of getting the Western Digital 320GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive (WDH1U3200N), should I invest my money in this hard drive?


Looking at the prices of the WD MyBook drives I would go for the 500 GB model (best GB per dollar value). You would be suprised how quick a drive fills up if you are saving HD movies.


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## Leprechuan

Would that be the WDH1U5000 500 GB External Hard Drive?


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## gweempose

Leprechuan,

No offense, but what's up with that crazy font?


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## Bill R

Leprechuan said:


> Would that be the WDH1U5000 500 GB External Hard Drive?


I don't have the model number but it is the 500 GB MyBook essential model.

And I have the same question that gweempose does. Why do you use that really annoying font? I find the blue color a little annoying too.


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## Ron Barry

Do a search on my comments on adding a 1TB drive. Personally I would go with two 500GB drives since 1TB is not officially supported and a software update could render your drive completely useless.


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## He Save Dave

Sorry, I didn't know 1TB drives didn't work. I'll take down the link so nobody buys it thinking it would work.


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## phrelin

WD My Book Essentials 750GB with a 722 easy to set up and works great so far. Was $199.99 at Amazon for a day. It looks like it will hold nearly 100 HD movies. At $2 a movie it seems like a buy if Dish (or AT&T if that comes about) will continue to support it. Since the drive has to be reformatted for a non-Windows operating system, why buy the Premium Edition?


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## F1Fan

Was going to get 750GB WD MyBook, but saw a 320GB USB/eSATA combo Seagate Free Agent Pro on clearance at BB for 34.24 after tax. Works with no problem. I've been transferring video content from 622 upstairs to my new 722 in the living room. I noticed that when I "restore" 622 content to the 722 it actually copied it. Everything is still there (on the external HDD)


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## langlin

Ok correct me if I'm wrong:

My Book™ Premium Edition™ WDG1C5000
Backup Software
Capacity Gauge
SmartPower™

My Book™ Essential Edition™ 2.0 WDH1U5000
instant storage

Essential seems to cost about $30 less than Premium and works fine with 622/722. Some have issues with Premium and none with Essential. Premium seems to have more features but none of the features are used by 622/722.

Based on this I am returning my un-opened Premium to Costco ($149.00) and purchasing a Best Buy Essential for $129.00.


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## jjlawyer

fyi I just picked up a My Book Premium ES Edition from BB for $119. Also, check slickdeals.net for a 10% off BB coupon.


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## langlin

jjlawyer said:


> fyi I just picked up a My Book Premium ES Edition from BB for $119. Also, check slickdeals.com for a 10% off BB coupon.


If your BB is Best Buy, My store did not have Premium My book???


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## jjlawyer

langlin said:


> If your BB is Best Buy, My store did not have Premium My book???


Oh well. Anyway, I hooked up the My Book Premium ES Edition and it seems to be working fine. Wouldn't accept any programs until I pulled the power cord to reset the ehd.


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## bobukcat

There is a whole thread dedicated to this subject and the problems do not show themselves right away, if you just purchased one you may want to consider returning it for an essential or other manufacturer.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=96334


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## ewonder

HobbyTalk said:


> I know there are a couple of threads about drives that don't work and a few posts about some that do, but the info is scattered in different threads. Maybe we can start a thread that lists the make and model of drives that do work (at the present time) for those that are looking to purchase an external drive.
> 
> Here is a list of EHDs that work taken from the posts below
> *
> Buffalo Technology DriveStation SATA 500GB
> Cavalry 500GB
> Hitachi 500GB
> HP Personal Media Drive 500GB
> I/O Magic Gigabank 500 - 500GB
> IOmega 500GB Desktop
> Maxtor 750GB OneTouch
> Maxtor 500GB Personal Storage 3200
> MAXTOR DiamondMax 9 80GB ATA/133 HDD
> Maxtor OneTouch II 200GB
> Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB
> Maxtor OneTouch III 500GB
> Seagate Baracuda ATA V 120GB
> Seagate Free Agent Pro 320GB
> SimpleTech 320GB
> SimpleTech 500GB
> WD My Book Essentials 250GB
> WD My Book Essentials 500GB
> WD My Book Essentials 750GB
> WD My Book Premium Edition 750GB (Some reports of issues on this drive have been reported. See WD thread for more details)
> *
> *Updated 10/16/07*


In case anyone is interested, newegg.com has a 1 TB WD My Book Essential that works out to $199 after incentives. Apply code "emc1126hdd03" and check out with Paypal to receive 20% cash back. Beats waiting in line on black friday!


----------



## Marriner

Just installed a Maxtor OneTouch 4 500 gig (99.95 at Frys last Wednesday) on my second 622. It seems to be working just fine.


----------



## ewonder

ewonder said:


> In case anyone is interested, newegg.com has a 1 TB WD My Book Essential that works out to $199 after incentives. Apply code "emc1126hdd03" and check out with Paypal to receive 20% cash back. Beats waiting in line on black friday!


I activated my WD 1 TB my Book drive and once it was through formatting only recognized 930GB. So besides the fact I didn't get the full 1 TB it is working fine. I archived about 100 GB's worth of shows on it. I hope someday I can utilize the missing capacity, but if I can't oh well.


----------



## kathymoore

ewonder said:


> I activated my WD 1 TB my Book drive and once it was through formatting only recognized 930GB. So besides the fact I didn't get the full 1 TB it is working fine. I archived about 100 GB's worth of shows on it. I hope someday I can utilize the missing capacity, but if I can't oh well.


Are you saying that your *WD 1TB My Book external eSATA drive *
works fine with your *HR20/21*? If so, which *edition* of My Book 
is it? (the *model number* if available)

Thanks!


----------



## HobbyTalk

kathymoore said:


> Are you saying that your *WD 1TB My Book external eSATA drive *
> works fine with your *HR20/21*? If so, which *edition* of My Book
> is it? (the *model number* if available)
> 
> Thanks!


Ummmm.... this is the Dish forum so I would suspect he is talking about connecting it to the vip622 or vip722 Dish reciever.


----------



## ewonder

HobbyTalk said:


> Ummmm.... this is the Dish forum so I would suspect he is talking about connecting it to the vip622 or vip722 Dish reciever.


VIP-622 connected to My Book Essential Edition 1 TB


----------



## Bill R

ewonder said:


> I activated my WD 1 TB my Book drive and once it was through formatting only recognized 930GB. So besides the fact I didn't get the full 1 TB it is working fine. I archived about 100 GB's worth of shows on it. I hope someday I can utilize the missing capacity, but if I can't oh well.


The "missing" capacity is NOT the fault of your receiver. It is the way the disk drive vendors advertise capacity and also depends on the formatting. If you would have set it up on a PC you still would not have had 1 TB of storage.

This site and this site has some information that may help you understand why you don't have 1 TB of storage.


----------



## Albie1200

Will the hard drive work connected through a USB hub? I currently have the rear USB port occupied by a cool mat. I want to hook the Hub to the 622, then the cool mat and drive to the hub. Has anyone tried this?

Thx in advance.


----------



## jurrie

Marriner said:


> Just installed a Maxtor OneTouch 4 500 gig (99.95 at Frys last Wednesday) on my second 622. It seems to be working just fine.


I recently hooked one up as well. There seem to be some drive sleep related issues. There have been a few times when the drive could not be accessed ... it showed up without its contents. The only thing I've found so far to resolve the problem is to remove power from the drive. When the drive is powered back on my 622 sees the drive & contents correctly.

Previous One Touch drives had tunable sleep parameters that could be set prior to hooking it up to a STB. I did not see such settings for this drive using the supplied Mac OS X software. If I knew for sure that these are available some how from OS X or Win I would be willing to go through the effort to get it to perform properly.

I wonder if there's something the 622 could send to an attached drive to get it to spin-up prior to accessing the drive. Ideally the drive would spin down after a period of inactivity. I'd even accept it if a "wake up" call was only done when the STB wakes up from Stand By state.


----------



## TulsaOK

jurrie said:


> I recently hooked one up as well. There seem to be some drive sleep related issues. There have been a few times when the drive could not be accessed ... it showed up without its contents. The only thing I've found so far to resolve the problem is to remove power from the drive. When the drive is powered back on my 622 sees the drive & contents correctly.
> 
> Previous One Touch drives had tunable sleep parameters that could be set prior to hooking it up to a STB. I did not see such settings for this drive using the supplied Mac OS X software. If I knew for sure that these are available some how from OS X or Win I would be willing to go through the effort to get it to perform properly.
> 
> I wonder if there's something the 622 could send to an attached drive to get it to spin-up prior to accessing the drive. Ideally the drive would spin down after a period of inactivity. I'd even accept it if a "wake up" call was only done when the STB wakes up from Stand By state.


FWIW, I have seen no issues with the Western Digital Essential drives posted. I have one and it works flawlessly. I hope I didn't just jinx it.


----------



## Marriner

jurrie said:


> I recently hooked one up as well. There seem to be some drive sleep related issues. There have been a few times when the drive could not be accessed ... it showed up without its contents. The only thing I've found so far to resolve the problem is to remove power from the drive. When the drive is powered back on my 622 sees the drive & contents correctly.
> 
> Previous One Touch drives had tunable sleep parameters that could be set prior to hooking it up to a STB. I did not see such settings for this drive using the supplied Mac OS X software. If I knew for sure that these are available some how from OS X or Win I would be willing to go through the effort to get it to perform properly.
> 
> I wonder if there's something the 622 could send to an attached drive to get it to spin-up prior to accessing the drive. Ideally the drive would spin down after a period of inactivity. I'd even accept it if a "wake up" call was only done when the STB wakes up from Stand By state.


I have not encountered the symptoms noted here. Sometimes there is a delay as the 622 wakes up the drive to see its contents. The delay is never longer than 10 to 12 seconds.


----------



## T-Rex

I have had trouble with my Trouble with Seagate Freeagent Pro 750 GB.
It works, however I have to reboot my 722 every day in order for it to "see" the list of titles stored on the drive, which is quite inconvenient.


----------



## T-Rex

I see several people have apparently successfully exceded the 750 GB "maximum" recommended. I wonder if a 2 or 3 TB drive would work? Does anyone know what the true maximum is, if any? Thanks.


----------



## Bill R

The TRUE supported limit right now is 750GBs. Larger drives _may_ work but if you lose ALL your data with a 1 TB (or larger) drive don't blame Echostar.

Personally, I will NOT use a drive larger than 750 GBs until Echostar says that the software will support larger drives. I advise everyone else to do the same. The risk is not worth it.


----------



## Ron Barry

Yep... good advice Bill R.. one I always give when asked....


----------



## ChuckA

And why would you want to dedicate 3T to video storage anyway? I'm sure there are some who want to save everything ever recorded, but with the current lack of folders and other easy management of recordings on the EHD, you may never find it again if you do save it all.


----------



## HobbyTalk

Plus the "sweet spot" on $/GB is for 500GB and moving to 750GB drives shortly. Generally 2 500GB drives will cost less then one 1TB drive.


----------



## ZBoomer

ChuckA said:


> And why would you want to dedicate 3T to video storage anyway? I'm sure there are some who want to save everything ever recorded, but with the current lack of folders and other easy management of recordings on the EHD, you may never find it again if you do save it all.


+10000 to that. I have "just" a 500GB drive, but it has almost 400 programs on it. It takes like 20 seconds to scroll to the bottom holding down the page-down button. We need folders, bad. Without them anything > 500GB would suck, unless you store primarily HD programs (so would have fewer files.)


----------



## DishSubLA

*Western Digital My Book Home Edition (USB, Firewire, eSATA) 750G:* Absolutely no problems; spins down; Quiet; Small footprint; Aesthetic side-by-side "stacking" black color.


----------



## dmspen

We upgraded our bedroom rcvr to a 622. I decided I neede more storage, but didn't want to pop $100 or so for another drive. I had an old 200GB drive in a dead PC, so I bought a $20 external enclosure. Hooked it up and everything works fine!

The system even recognized that I already had an EDD on my other receiver. Just format and go!


----------



## phrelin

ChuckA said:


> And why would you want to dedicate 3T to video storage anyway? I'm sure there are some who want to save everything ever recorded, but with the current lack of folders and other easy management of recordings on the EHD, you may never find it again if you do save it all.


I'm not quite sure about 3T, but I have about 250 movies on VHS and 100 on DVD. I now have about 60 HD movies on a 750GB EHD. The EHD takes up less shelf space than two VHS tapes or 3 DVDs.

It's a collection, like collecting teacups or baseball cards. Except will I be able to play those movies five years from now? Who knows....


----------



## ChuckA

And that's exactly why using smaller drives makes more sense. You could organize your recordings using multiple smaller EHDs. I doubt you would sit a 3tb drive on your shelf for five years, not using it.


----------



## mtbarr64

I have heard D* guys talking about about taking the eSATA drives that they connect to the D* DVR receivers with shows on them, booting them up on a LINUX box and moving the shows to the computer.

What's up with this? 

Does this view elsewhere work on E* USB drives?


----------



## HobbyTalk

Just picked up a Fantom Titanium 500GB drive from Buy.com for 90 bucks. Nice little fanless drive. Works just fine with my 622.


----------



## harsh

mtbarr64 said:


> I have heard D* guys talking about about taking the eSATA drives that they connect to the D* DVR receivers with shows on them, booting them up on a LINUX box and moving the shows to the computer.


Might be possible to move or copy the files, but they would be useless on a computer.


----------



## ChuckA

mtbarr64 said:


> I have heard D* guys talking about about taking the eSATA drives that they connect to the D* DVR receivers with shows on them, booting them up on a LINUX box and moving the shows to the computer.
> 
> What's up with this?
> 
> Does this view elsewhere work on E* USB drives?


But, did the D* guys say they could watch the movies from their computer? Or are they just using the computer for additional storage and having to copy the files back to the receiver to watch them?


----------



## EXTACAMO

Just received my new WD My DVR Expander WDH1S500N 500Gb. You know the one clearly marked on the box "Compatible with E*". Well after a day everything seems okay. My 622 recognized it and I activated it without a hitch. Moved a buch of stuff to it and played back from it. Don't know what makes it more compatible then the run in the mill My Book. Maybe firmware who knows. I know it cost me about $70 more then the standard models with tax and shipping from WD. Couldn't find this model locally. I'll post any issues I run into.


----------



## dbconsultant

EXTACAMO said:


> Just received my new WD My DVR Expander WDH1S500N 500Gb. You know the one clearly marked on the box "Compatible with E*". Well after a day everything seems okay. My 622 recognized it and I activated it without a hitch. Moved a buch of stuff to it and played back from it. Don't know what makes it more compatible then the run in the mill My Book. Maybe firmware who knows. I know it cost me about $70 more then the standard models with tax and shipping from WD. Couldn't find this model locally. I'll post any issues I run into.


Thanks for being the guinea pig for those of us that wanted to know the difference but haven't tried it out yet!


----------



## TulsaOK

EXTACAMO said:


> Just received my new WD My DVR Expander WDH1S500N 500Gb. You know the one clearly marked on the box "Compatible with E*". Well after a day everything seems okay. My 622 recognized it and I activated it without a hitch. Moved a buch of stuff to it and played back from it. Don't know what makes it more compatible then the run in the mill My Book. Maybe firmware who knows. I know it cost me about $70 more then the standard models with tax and shipping from WD. Couldn't find this model locally. I'll post any issues I run into.


Do you also have Monster Cables?


----------



## EXTACAMO

TulsaOK said:


> Do you also have Monster Cables?


No, I just bought this because of all the reported problems with EHD's and the 622/722. I Just thought maybe this model was designed to address those problems.


----------



## phrelin

I chose to buy my third WD MyBook Essential 750GB hard drive even though I noticed the led looked different. Didn't pay enough attention. Much to my chagrin, the new ones without the round LED are (1) smaller and (2) use a different USB cable with the device end a mini-B instead of the standard USB B that was on the old ones.

The problem is that I leave the cable plugged in to my 722 and just swap by unplugging the USB cable and power cord from the drive. That won't work with the new drive. I bought a USB extension cable so I can continue to swap. No big deal, but I hate surprises.

Fortunately, they use the same power supply.


----------



## Sandman

phrelin said:


> the new ones without the round LED are (1) smaller and (2) use a different USB cable with the device end a mini-B instead of the standard USB B that was on the old ones.


I also bought another 750 and had not set it up yet, after reading you post I had to go look and saw the mini usb, didn't expect that, I was planing on using the existing usb and power, now have to adapt it somehow

Bob


----------



## MrC

I have two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS 750GB Serial ATA (3.0Gb/s) drives in NexStar external USB enclosures. Both work fine.


----------



## Jim5506

I have a Thermaltake BlacX 2.5/3.5 SATA HDD USB Docking Station working flawlessly with several 7200RPM SATA internal hard drives.

One drive is a 250 GB Seagate Barracuda another is a 250GB Western Digital WD 2500JS Caviar SE drive.

I've swapped out drives several times, narry a glitch.


----------



## 919263

hdaddikt said:


> I think the Seagate FreeAgent series is the biggest offender. (although there is a work-around).
> There have been a sprinkling of problems with few other drives I've noticed here and there, especially on satelliteguys.. but did not see any real pattern.


If you could what is the work around for the Seagate....???
I have just attached the Segate 500 GB drive, is giving errors when transfering data fron the 722....
Any suggestions...
Please see my post "722 EDH Question Not Working"

for details...

919263


----------



## tcatdbs

I'll be moving to Dish next week with a VIP722 and VIP211. I notice the 211 has a USB port. Can programs be archived with the 722 to EHD, then watched on the 211? That would be real sweet!


----------



## Ron Barry

Unless I missed the announcement, not at the moment though there was mention of this type of support on a Tech Chat a while back if I recall correctly.


----------



## Nick

I am a returning (HD-only) Dish sub, running VIP 722 and I would like to max out
the 722's external storage capacity.

Currently, Buy.com is offering the following USB Drive for $160 w/free shipping:

*Cavalry 1TB USB 2.0 3.5" External Hard Drive w/ One Touch Back-up - CAUM3701T0*

My questions are:

1. Will the 722 currently support >750GB (i.e., 1TB)?
2. If so, will the 722 support the above Calvary drive?
3. If _yes_ to 1,2 above, is $160 a good price for 1TB?
4. If _no_ to 1,2 above, what would be a good brand/price for a 750GB USB drive?

tia


----------



## Ron Barry

Nick said:


> 1. Will the 722 currently support >750GB (i.e., 1TB)?


Reports are that people have had 1TB works. Dish does not officially support them and still only officially support 750GB max. There is always the possibility that with a software update they would enforce this limit and therefore I always recommend going 750GB max. Last I looked, getting two 500GB drives usually is cheaper and does protect one from having all eggs in one basket.



Nick said:


> 2. If so, will the 722 support the above Calvary drive?


Have not seen any reports of people using them. The rule of thumb here is the less bells and whistles the better. Some user have had problems with esata USB drives.



Nick said:


> 3. If _yes_ to 1,2 above, is $160 a good price for 1TB?


Sounds like a good price, but have not priced EHDs in a while.



Nick said:


> 4. If _no_ to 1,2 above, what would be a good brand/price for a 750GB USB drive?


Lot of people have had good luck with the WD Essentials. Ir you do a search on EHD you will find a number of threads and one of them lists drives people have had success with (This thread actually).


----------



## Charise

My 500 GB Cavalry drive has worked for months with absolutely no problems. Can't believe how fast I filled it up though!


----------



## tcatdbs

I have an eSATA 500g WD drive currently as an external with my TWC SA8300 box. I'll have a VIP722 next week, is there a way to hook up an eSATA via USB?

If not, this seems a good deal, anyone ever heard of this brand (ACOMDATA)?
http://shop1.frys.com/product/5654671


----------



## Nick

Ron Barry said:


> ...Last I looked, getting two 500GB drives usually is cheaper and does protect one from having all eggs in one basket...


Thanks for the response, Ron.

Are multiple (e.g., two 500 or 750 GB) USB drives supported?


----------



## Ron Barry

Nick said:


> Thanks for the response, Ron.
> 
> Are multiple (e.g., two 500 or 750 GB) USB drives supported?


Yes as long as you use one at a time. You can have unlimited amount of drives but you can only use one at a time.

I know people use have one for movies one for kid shows etc.


----------



## timhk

Any one tried the Toshiba portable HDs?


----------



## ChuckA

timhk said:


> Any one tried the Toshiba portable HDs?


I have not tried them or know anything about them but if they don't have their own power supply it could be trouble. Drives that get their power from the USB port usually don't work with the Dish receivers from what other people have experienced in the past.


----------



## tcatdbs

I'm about to buy one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

I keep seeing 500gb and 750gb, any reason a 640GB shouldn't work? I have an existing Azio external esata/USB case with a 250gb Seagate (using with SA8300), I am going to swap out the Seagagte for this 640gb WD drive. From what I've researched it "should" work.


----------



## dbconsultant

Can anyone give me an approximate size per hour of hd/sd so that I'll know how big an external hard drive I really want to buy?

I'm thinking about it because my dvr is semi-full and I want to have it good and empty for the Olympics!


----------



## tcatdbs

I just ordered the 640GB (600 actual), and after reading other posts I'd guess at 4gb per hour = 150 hours HD content (and/or a BUNCH of SD content). I only plan on putting HD movies on it, so maybe 70-75 movies...


----------



## phrelin

On my first 750GB drive used for movies only, I have 105 movies leaving a little space for cushion which implies about 4GB per hour. As more MPEG4 content comes, I should be able to get a few more on my second. Although my third one is also 750GB, even when I record the content of several shows in the fall for "season shift" I have plenty room left. I couldn't store all gazillion hours of NBC Olympics coverage, but there's more than enough for what I want to see.


----------



## dbconsultant

tcatdbs said:


> I just ordered the 640GB (600 actual), and after reading other posts I'd guess at 4gb per hour = 150 hours HD content (and/or a BUNCH of SD content). I only plan on putting HD movies on it, so maybe 70-75 movies...





phrelin said:


> On my first 750GB drive used for movies only, I have 105 movies leaving a little space for cushion which implies about 4GB per hour. As more MPEG4 content comes, I should be able to get a few more on my second. Although my third one is also 750GB, even when I record the content of several shows in the fall for "season shift" I have plenty room left. I couldn't store all gazillion hours of NBC Olympics coverage, but there's more than enough for what I want to see.


Thanks!


----------



## Jim148

I was just looking at the Western Digital web page http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=10 and I noticed that the capacity of the My DVR Expander is only 500 GB, yet the officially support up to 750 GB, Does anybody have any idea why they just didn't go with a 750 GB version?


----------



## mscroggi

On one of the tech chats the 750G limit was explained. It isnt a limit at all. The limitation is that the EHD can only contain a single disk drive. At the time the feature came out, 750G was the largest single drives you could get. Larger enclosures were available, but they all used multiple internal drives.



Ron Barry said:


> Reports are that people have had 1TB works. Dish does not officially support them and still only officially support 750GB max. There is always the possibility that with a software update they would enforce this limit and therefore I always recommend going 750GB max. Last I looked, getting two 500GB drives usually is cheaper and does protect one from having all eggs in one basket.
> .


----------



## mscroggi

I hooked up a 'My Book Essentials 1TB' drive.. it is working fine.



mscroggi said:


> On one of the tech chats the 750G limit was explained. It isnt a limit at all. The limitation is that the EHD can only contain a single disk drive. At the time the feature came out, 750G was the largest single drives you could get. Larger enclosures were available, but they all used multiple internal drives.


----------



## phrelin

Jim148 said:


> I was just looking at the Western Digital web page http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=10 and I noticed that the capacity of the My DVR Expander is only 500 GB, yet the officially support up to 750 GB, Does anybody have any idea why they just didn't go with a 750 GB version?


Money is the root of the My DVR Expander. It's why I have 3 WD MyBook Essential 750GB drives. The Essential is basically the same and it can be purchased cheaper. And by holding down the capacity you sell more drives. It isn't like anyone is offering technical support for the ViP - My DVR Expander combination.


----------



## Bill R

mscroggi said:


> I hooked up a 'My Book Essentials 1TB' drive.. it is working fine.


Yes, they work fine initially but _sometimes_ have problems when you go over the 750 GB mark. As I have said before, I'm just not willing to take that chance with my data (programs). I'll stick to the 750 GB drives until DISH officially "blesses" the larger drives.


----------



## ronnald

Simpletech 750GB working just fine for me.


----------



## Ron Barry

mscroggi said:


> On one of the tech chats the 750G limit was explained. It isnt a limit at all. The limitation is that the EHD can only contain a single disk drive. At the time the feature came out, 750G was the largest single drives you could get. Larger enclosures were available, but they all used multiple internal drives.


You are the first person that has mentioned this. I don't recall dish indicating it is not a limit and though my tech chat watching is hit and miss I do read the recap and the recap threads and I think that would have been mentioned. I do find this odd because at the time the EHD was released I could have swore some people tried 1TB drives and found that they did work.

Anyone else recall this to the be case?


----------



## ChuckA

I recall Dan explaining the single disk thing on a tech chat when the EHD support first became available. I believe it was the one where they had a rep from seagate show some USB drives. But, I also remember him saying that 750 gig was the supported limit. I believe that limit may be because at the time 750 gig was the largest single disk USB drive available, but he did say the supported max size was 750 gig. He did not say the supported limit was the largest single disk drive you can go out and buy.


----------



## BobaBird

ChuckA, good memory. It was the August 2007 Tech Forum.


> Their strong suggestion is to get a single-drive model. Some are dual-disk, usually in a thicker case, and may not be compatible.


----------



## E91

tedb3rd said:


> *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch*--no problems thus far. But I would recommend placing the hard drive somewhere hidden because the light on it is bright, flashy, and annoying.


Totally agree. I got it at Costco for $120, which seemed like a steal. But, it has this flashing white light that is driving me insame. Fortunatelly, it was easy hide 
and I don't even see the light.

I may bring it back to Costco though and get something without a light.


----------



## ChuckA

Just put a piece of black tape over the light. Actually I like seeing mine so you can tell when the drive is being accessed.


----------



## E91

ChuckA said:


> I recall Dan explaining the single disk thing on a tech chat when the EHD support first became available. I believe it was the one where they had a rep from seagate show some USB drives. But, I also remember him saying that 750 gig was the supported limit. I believe that limit may be because at the time 750 gig was the largest single disk USB drive available, but he did say the supported max size was 750 gig. He did not say the supported limit was the largest single disk drive you can go out and buy.


I just turned this feature on a day ago. When I called Dish, they told me 750 was the limit on the phone.


----------



## jstachowiak

BlacX SATA HDD USB Docking Station $35 and Seagate 500GB SATA HD 7200/32MB $70, $105 total from CompUSA. 

Hooked up to my VIP722 no problem. Called Dish to activate and they just put it on my bill. I plugged it into my switched Nachamichi receiver so it is off when the receiver is off. Working great so far. 

Jeff


----------



## arnekaplan

I have a 722 with a Vox 750 GB drive The 722 says it is a non supported product.
I had it working on my 622 before upgrading to 722


----------



## JimDillon1

GoHardDrive N-Series Pro 1TB USB External Drive

$117.50 for 1TB. Installed / formatted and is working flawlessly so far. On the Dish site I've seen references to a max of 750GB - but that does not seem to be the limit. I've been unable to determine the brand of the actual drive in the enclosure, but the enclosure is made by www.EagleTechusa.com.


----------



## JimDillon1

Just to add - the space available display showed 930GB once the drive was formatted, so the 722 seems to recognize the 1TB drive fine.


----------



## Michael P

Will a 1 TB single drive work on a 622? I see 722 owners post that they get the full capacity, but how about the 622?


----------



## EXTACAMO

Michael P said:


> Will a 1 TB single drive work on a 622? I see 722 owners post that they get the full capacity, but how about the 622?


It's not officially supported by E* but that's not saying it won't work. Give it shot. You may get lucky.


----------



## Ron Barry

Michael P said:


> Will a 1 TB single drive work on a 622? I see 722 owners post that they get the full capacity, but how about the 622?


Mike the thread below is a discussion on 1TB drives. Might be useful.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=137412&highlight=EHD+1TB+drive


----------



## Dobe

ChuckA said:


> I've said it a few times now, but I have still not had any problems with the *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch drive.*


I'm new to DISH. I was a D* subscriber. I was thinking of buying the *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch drive.*

It's been over a year since the above post. Is this drive still considered to be one of the best of the 750 GB drives? Thanks.


----------



## TulsaOK

Dobe said:


> I'm new to DISH. I was a D* subscriber. I was thinking of buying the *Maxtor 750 gig OneTouch drive.*
> 
> It's been over a year since the above post. Is this drive still considered to be one of the best of the 750 GB drives? Thanks.


Western Digital My Book Essentials seem to have the best track record.


----------



## Rob Glasser

TulsaOK said:


> Western Digital My Book Essentials seem to have the best track record.


Not for me, I had a WD My Book Essentials - 500GB drive that I bought in May of 2007, it was on my Dish 722 from the day EHD archiving was enabled. It crapped out in September 2008. Since the 'Essentials' line only has 1 yr warranty I had to bite the bullet and buy a new hard drive.

I've got a 300GB Seagate drive as well, about 3 years old now, and it's still working fine. I've had it on my Dish receivers for almost as long as the WD was. I ended up buying another Seagate to replace the dead WD, mainly because of the fact that the one I bought came with a 5 warranty.


----------



## TulsaOK

Rob Glasser said:


> Not for me, I had a WD My Book Essentials - 500GB drive that I bought in May of 2007, it was on my Dish 722 from the day EHD archiving was enabled. It crapped out in September 2008. Since the 'Essentials' line only has 1 yr warranty I had to bite the bullet and buy a new hard drive.
> 
> I've got a 300GB Seagate drive as well, about 3 years old now, and it's still working fine. I've had it on my Dish receivers for almost as long as the WD was. I ended up buying another Seagate to replace the dead WD, mainly because of the fact that the one I bought came with a 5 warranty.


From the posts I've observed, and my own experience, it seems that the WD's report less problems than the other brands. This is my observation and may not agree with others.


----------



## Rob Glasser

TulsaOK said:


> From the posts I've observed, and my own experience, it seems that the WD's report less problems than the other brands. This is my observation and may not agree with others.


Same here, just my observation. Over the years I have had internal drives fail from just about every manufacturer. What irked me was the 1 year warranty, not to mention 500GB of saved movies. Usually hard drives have longer warranties.


----------



## James Long

Tonight's Tech Chat gave a ringing endorsement to WD's 500 MB "My DVR Expander" drives labeled to be compatible with DISH Network.

Press Release (May)


----------



## ChuckA

My Maxtor One Touch still works fine for me. No problems with it yet.


----------



## olguy

James Long said:


> Tonight's Tech Chat gave a ringing endorsement to WD's 500 MB "My DVR Expander" drives labeled to be compatible with DISH Network.
> 
> Press Release (May)


They also said a 1T or larger will work as long as it's a single HD.


----------



## Dobe

James Long said:


> Tonight's Tech Chat gave a ringing endorsement to WD's 500 MB "My DVR Expander" drives labeled to be compatible with DISH Network.
> 
> Press Release (May)


Thanks for the link.

The Western Digital 750 GB 7200RPM 16MB External Hard Drive has also received some good reviews -- although only 2 reviews are on Amazon. Apparently it works well with DISH, according to one review.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-7200RPM-External-Drive/dp/B000WGQ68C

Is there a reason why the "My DVR Expander ™ USB Edition™ 500 GB" would work better with DISH or be more reliable than the 750 GB External Hard Drive, which is also made by Western Digital?

I really want an EHD with 750 GB, BUT if it's less reliable, with DISH, I will go with the more reliable 500 GB unit. I would rather have less space and fewer problems than more space and more problems.  Thanks


----------



## fredp

Dobe said:


> I really want an EHD with 750 GB, BUT if it's less reliable, with DISH, I will go with the more reliable 500 GB unit. I would rather have less space and fewer problems than more space and more problems.  Thanks


Save yourself a few bucks. If you are just using the drive for Dish you don't need the firewire interface. 
$109 for this WD 750 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=17Y81TEBCAP4AZK7HFXM


----------



## Dobe

fredp said:


> Save yourself a few bucks. If you are just using the drive for Dish you don't need the firewire interface.
> $109 for this WD 750 from Amazon:
> http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=17Y81TEBCAP4AZK7HFXM


Thanks. Any truth to what this guy says in his review of the "Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N (Black)"? Do the other EHD's have an on/off switch?



> Hard drives seem to have become a commodity with speed, failure rates and cost per GB being the important factors. I am pleased with the drive, it works as described. ***The one issue I'm having is with the automatic on/off feature. I'm using the drive with my dish network DVR. The drive senses when the computer is turned on and off to turn itself on or off. It does not get the message from the DVR and remains on. There does not appear to be a physical on off switch so I have to unplug the drive to turn it off. I would not buy this drive again for this DVR application.*** I believe it is a good value for a computer drive.


----------



## fredp

Dobe said:


> Thanks. Any truth to what this guy says in his review of the "Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N (Black)"? Do the other EHD's have an on/off switch?


I've been a WD fan for years so I'm prejudice but in truth the absence of a true off/on switch is annoying. I simply have a $3 powerstrip from Lowe's with an off/on switch. There are lots of other manufacturer's that may have a PO/PO switch built in but for me the WD's are just fine and have few if any problems.


----------



## TulsaOK

fredp said:


> I've been a WD fan for years so I'm prejudice but in truth the absence of a true off/on switch is annoying. I simply have a $3 powerstrip from Lowe's with an off/on switch. There are lots of other manufacturer's that may have a PO/PO switch built in but for me the WD's are just fine and have few if any problems.


Since the drive doesn't spin all the time, why do you feel the need for a switch?


----------



## fredp

TulsaOK said:


> Since the drive doesn't spin all the time, why do you feel the need for a switch?


Still wastes electricity even as little as it is. Just the way I was raised.


----------



## 4HiMarks

fredp said:


> I've been a WD fan for years so I'm prejudice but in truth the absence of a true off/on switch is annoying. I simply have a $3 powerstrip from Lowe's with an off/on switch. There are lots of other manufacturer's that may have a PO/PO switch built in but for me the WD's are just fine and have few if any problems.


I have had WD drives fail on me repeatedly. The last time it was a 500GB MyBook that didn't even last a year. Then they lost it when I sent it back for RMA and it took months to get a replacement. I am never buying WD again.

The thing is, I believe the drives themselves are usually OK, but the enclosure fails for one reason or another. Except if you open it up, you void the warranty, so the end user has no way to tell. Although it might cost a little more initially, I think you're better off in the long run to buy an enclosure separately and install an internal HD in it. It makes it easier to upgrade, increase capacity, etc.

If you mostly use it for archiving, you can pull the drive out and set it aside when it fills up.


----------



## Bill R

4HiMarks said:


> The thing is, I believe the drives themselves are usually OK, but the enclosure fails for one reason or another. Except if you open it up, you void the warranty, so the end user has no way to tell. Although it might cost a little more initially, I think you're better off in the long run to buy an enclosure separately and install an internal HD in it. It makes it easier to upgrade, increase capacity, etc.


In my experience you are right about that. I have had three USB drives (NOT WD drives) that have failed in the last few years (all of them were being used on computer systems). On two of them the problem was the power supply and on the other one the USB to IDE board failed. All three of the drives are still in service today (in new enclosures).

Now that DISH has "blessed" (more or less) 1 TB drives I plan on upgrading my external drives to 1 TB. With the bad economy and the cost of drives constantly going down I think that we will see 1 TB USB drives for under $100 soon (maybe in the Christmas selling season).


----------



## fredp

Bill R said:


> Now that DISH has "blessed" (more or less) 1 TB drives I plan on upgrading my external drives to 1 TB. With the bad economy and the cost of drives constantly going down I think that we will see 1 TB USB drives for under $100 soon (maybe in the Christmas selling season).


A C note for a 1TB drive would be sweet. Do you use any kind of Linux utility(ie; Ext2IFS I think thats the name) to back up a copy of your filled drives in case one fails?


----------



## Bill R

fredp said:


> A C note for a 1TB drive would be sweet. Do you use any kind of Linux utility(ie; Ext2IFS I think thats the name) to back up a copy of your filled drives in case one fails?


No, I don't backup my USB drives that are on my DISH receivers. With the "protection" that DISH uses that might not be possible anyway. And is likely something that isn't allowed to be discussed on this board.


----------



## mscroggi

On the latest tech chat the other day, they re-affirmed that as long as the drive is a single drive in a single case, it will work.



phrelin said:


> Money is the root of the My DVR Expander. It's why I have 3 WD MyBook Essential 750GB drives. The Essential is basically the same and it can be purchased cheaper. And by holding down the capacity you sell more drives. It isn't like anyone is offering technical support for the ViP - My DVR Expander combination.


----------



## koralis

Bill R said:


> No, I don't backup my USB drives that are on my DISH receivers. With the "protection" that DISH uses that might not be possible anyway. And is likely something that isn't allowed to be discussed on this board.


You can certainly back up the data on a block basis, it just won't work with any reciever that isn't authorized to be used with. I'm not sure that a filesystem copy would do the trick... I'd wager it wouldn't.


----------



## mscroggi

Yes at the time the 750G drives were the largest ones available. In the tech chat the other day. the 750g limit question was asked again. They re-affirmed that 1TB or larger drives are fine as long as the single drive requirement is met. I personally have a 1TB WD Essentials drive with close to 900G recorded to it.. I have not had a single issue.



ChuckA said:


> ... I believe that limit may be because at the time 750 gig was the largest single disk USB drive available, but he did say the supported max size was 750 gig. He did not say the supported limit was the largest single disk drive you can go out and buy.


----------



## azcoronadog

I got a Maxtor One Touch 4 750G at Costco for $109. It works fine so far.
*** But you must connect it to a computer first and use their configuration software to turn off the sleep timer ***
If you don't, it will not be recognized properly after it goes to sleep, and you'll have to unplug it from the reciever and plug it back in to get it to work.


----------



## Gary T

I don't know if this has been discussed yet, but I have been using a Maxtor One Touch 1.5 TB External drive on a 622 for about 8 months now without a problem. This drive has 2 750GB drives inside. I use to use this drive for ripped dvd's, when I ran out of space I built a new server and decided to try this drive on one of my 622's. It's about 3/4 full and not a single problem.

Sorry if this has already been discussed.

Gary T.


----------



## Grandude

azcoronadog said:


> I got a Maxtor One Touch 4 750G at Costco for $109. It works fine so far.
> *** But you must connect it to a computer first and use their configuration software to turn off the sleep timer ***
> If you don't, it will not be recognized properly after it goes to sleep, and you'll have to unplug it from the reciever and plug it back in to get it to work.


That's a shame. My Maxtor One Touch 3 drives go to sleep but wake up whenever I want to access them. Takes maybe 5 seconds or so. Wish I could find some more of them.
BTW, On the 211s, a hit is sent every few seconds to keep the drive awake and spinning. I would expect that this is coming for the 622/722s in the next software release.


----------



## Dobe

I bought the "Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N". So far so good. I didn't know that Dish charged a $39 activation fee but that's no big deal.

I have a question. I noticed that you can click the radio button to send as many movies/programs as are on the 622/722 harddrive. Is there any problem with selecting 4 or 5 two+ hour movies to transfer. 

I assume as soon as one has tranferred, the next one in line starts transferring. But I don't want to create any problems by asking the software/hardware to do too much at once.

Has anyone had any problems selecting multiple movies to transfer? Thanks.


----------



## harsh

As long as you don't run out of space, you should be fine transferring multiple files.


----------



## Grandude

Dobe said:


> Has anyone had any problems selecting multiple movies to transfer? Thanks.


I've done it more than once without any problems. Needed to do it when I upgraded a 622 to a 722 and moved the 622 to the bedroom. 
Moving multiple programs back to the 722 worked just fine too.


----------



## Dobe

Thanks guys. I tried it this morning and no problems yet.


----------



## phrelin

Dobe said:


> I bought the "Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N". So far so good. I didn't know that Dish charged a $39 activation fee but that's no big deal.
> 
> I have a question. I noticed that you can click the radio button to send as many movies/programs as are on the 622/722 harddrive. Is there any problem with selecting 4 or 5 two+ hour movies to transfer.
> 
> I assume as soon as one has tranferred, the next one in line starts transferring. But I don't want to create any problems by asking the software/hardware to do too much at once.
> 
> Has anyone had any problems selecting multiple movies to transfer? Thanks.


I have three of those drives. Multiple transfers works _*almost*_ all the time. Once in a while, I've had to stop the transfer process and start over with fewer selections. After all, it is a computer system so I don't expect everything to work every time.


----------



## VulcanSoulPatch

Hey all. (My first post here, hence the length and embedded questions.)

My 14-month old 722 just failed  and I was shipped a refurb'd  replacement. I wanted to transfer my 81 recordings, so I bit the bullet and activated the USB port (though I am in complete agreement that $40 for the activation is highway robbery... I'm already paying them $6.98/month just to use the 722's DVR, sheesh!). Since my old 722 was constantly resetting itself, I wasn't sure if I would be able to transfer anything, so I decided the best place to get the EHD was Costco, just in case. (Gotta love their return policy!)

So I swung by last Friday and picked up the *WD 640GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 * for $95 (I didn't see this on the OP list). They had the 500GB w/USB, FW400, & eSATA for $100, but I figured the extra connections wouldn't do me any good at this point (_BTW, there was a little asterisk on the shelftag, which means they are getting rid of them, in case any of you were looking for one._) They also had the 1TB for $130 ($170 - $40 instant rebate), which I believe is also USB/FW400/eSATA, but at the time I didn't think that size would be supported, so I didn't really give it much thought. I also momentarily considered the Maxtor One Touch 4 750GB, but the sleekness of the WD and the absence of the white light convinced me otherwise. Aside from several halted transfers from the 722 resetting, the WD 640 handled the archiving flawlessly. ICYWW, I believe the available space clocked in around 599GB.

Now I am wondering if I should return the 640 and get the 1TB so that I will be future-ready (does anybody know if the 722s/922/221 whatever the hell the new one is going to be called will be outfitted with an eSATA port?), since transferring by USB was PAINFULLY slow. I didn't clock the actual transfer rate, but I had a 1hr OTA HD recording that showed up as 7.4GB and it said it would take 39 mins to transfer (I remember this one, since I attempted to send it 4 different times due to the unit resetting). If my math is correct, that is just over 3MB/s. WTF?!? Does it take this long regardless of which drive you have? Does anybody know if any particular EHD is faster?

ICYWW, I think the old 722 had a failed fan or other heat-related issue, since at first I could only get it to stay on at night and with a floor fan blowing across the case... until this past Monday when the temp here in So Cal dropped about 10 degrees, then I was able to get it to stay on all day and all night long and get *everything *off of the drive. I was sure glad about that! Oh, and that was in two huge multiple transfers, one that started off at 7.5 hrs (and dropped to 5.5 hrs within 5 mins), and the other at about 4hrs. I can't imagine not being able to do multiple transfers, esp. with the amount of files and the slowness of the connection.

As far as the price of the 1TB, let's see what Black Friday brings! I got my Buffalo 500GB Drivestation last year on Black Friday for ~$80 from Fry's. Actually, I didn't go... my wife's cousin went. I was not about to spend 2 hrs waiting to get in and 90 mins at the checkout line!

Anyway, great forum you guys have here. I think I will be visiting often. And to think, if my 722 hadn't failed I never would have stumbled in.

VSP


----------



## harsh

VulcanSoulPatch said:


> (does anybody know if the 722s/922/221 whatever the hell the new one is going to be called will be outfitted with an eSATA port?)


As eSATA support for hot swapping isn't as well supported as it is with USB, I think it unlikely that they will bother with eSATA.

I'm also of a mind that the transfer time isn't determined by the bandwidth of the connection. As the transfer is entirely a background operation, I don't suppose it really matters how long it takes.


----------



## VulcanSoulPatch

@*harsh*
I hear you regarding the hot swappability... I decided to take the plunge and went back to Costco and picked up the *WD 1TB My Book Home Edition* (though it wasn't $130, it was $140... and the original price was $180 w/$40 IR and it is now $170 w/$30 IR), and in the instructions it shows the extra steps you are to take to hook it up to a computer via eSATA. The reason I had mentioned eSATA was when I went to look it up (I have been out of the new tech loop for a while), I found out that Sky Digital in the UK has an eSATA port on their Sky+ HD Digibox. So I says, c'mon E*... get a clue!

Either way, I'm not too upset about the extra $$$, since the $/GB is less for the 1TB than the 640GB, and even if I never use the FW400 or eSATA ports, at least I now have a power button! Woo hoo! No unplugging the drive just to turn it off.

Now, here's the real question: if E* does eventually put an eSATA port on a receiver, will those of us currently using the USB for EHD be required to pay an additional $40 to use the new port? Can you say "call to 'account specialist'"?

As far as the transfer rate, I guess it makes sense that it not interfere with your recordings and general TV viewing experience... though it would be nice if the transfer would ramp up when nothing else it going on (for those of us on transfer deadlines, like I was with the old 722). BTW, as I was doing the initial stage of moving schtuff off of the 722 to the WD 1TB, I mistakenly turned off the receiver, yet the activity lights on the WD were still doing their little dance. Cool! I didn't know that I could turn the receiver off during transfer (the last two transfers with the 640 I just left the 722 on all day and all night).

For those interested, at Costco the 640GB is now $90 and the Maxtor 750GB One Touch 4 dropped to $100, which makes the Maxtor cheaper $/GB than the WD 1TB... but I still like my power button and potential future-readiness.

VSP


----------



## phrelin

My guess is that Echostar has no plans for an eSATA port. They have firmed up the commitment to USB with the ViP211-conversion-to-DVR using a USB HD for direct recording.

My understanding is that DirecTV has a system that allows you to substitute the eSATA drive for the internal drive on DVRs. This is a very different concept than that afforded Dish Network customers. Not that one is better than the other.


----------



## sgluck

Does anyone know anything about the *Fantom 1 terrabyte green drive ? * I just bought one from Buy.com for $99. I plan to use it with my DTV DRV recorder


----------



## Ron Barry

So why are you posting this in the Dish Forum?


----------



## harsh

phrelin said:


> My guess is that Echostar has no plans for an eSATA port.


Other than a handfull of DVRs, eSATA doesn't really seem to be catching on as a storage alternative. I have yet to see a computer that offers a built-in eSATA port.


----------



## FastNOC

harsh said:


> Other than a handfull of DVRs, eSATA doesn't really seem to be catching on as a storage alternative. I have yet to see a computer that offers a built-in eSATA port.


Many motherboards have built in eSata


----------



## phrelin

I have eSata available on three computers, but the plug is in the back and is awkward. So I prefer to use a front USB port with a USB drive.


----------



## Mighty H

On the cable side of things, Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVRs support eSata EHD.

Maybe that's in the future for DISH....SATA transfer rates are a lot better than USB


----------



## davethestalker

Is there a recommended 1TB drive? I'm about to buy.


----------



## Ron Barry

I am not aware of one Dave. The Western Digital (Basic Version) of drives seem to have a good track record.


----------



## davethestalker

Is it safe to assume that a 1.5TB would be okay too? Or are they limiting us to a 1TB?

Is this WD 1TB suitable?

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1233273991&sr=1-2


----------



## James Long

1TB is pushing it. If you buy a 1TB or 1.5TB drive make sure you have another use for it.

Here is the WDC link for the drive you found:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=353

I don't see any immediate red flags.


----------



## davethestalker

James Long said:


> 1TB is pushing it. If you buy a 1TB or 1.5TB drive make sure you have another use for it.


Hmm. My first use will be to backup my PS3 data to put in a 320GB. Then I was going to use it for the DVR. I'm shying away from the 1.5 and looking at the WD 1TB. What problems could arise that probably won't happen with a 750GB?

I thought Dish was supposed to be adding full support for the larger drives?


----------



## djlong

The WD My Book Essentials 1TB external USB drive referenced above has been working *perfectly* on one of my 612s - I even noticed folders on it yesterday.


----------



## AVJohnnie

I’d like to see someone who is using an EHD larger than 750GB post that they have successfully transferred more than 750GB of content to it ~ and still been able to view and/or restore the content.


----------



## davethestalker

My WD My Book 1TB is on it's way. I bought the basic version that stands vertically, not much more than $100 at the River or at the Egg.


----------



## David-A

My first EHD was a 750 GB WD "My Book". This has worked fine on my VIP 622. The only problem I've had is that if I try to transfer more than about 3 movies at once, the DVR eventually hangs up. I'm not sure if that's a DVR or EHD issue.

Since my EHD was almost full, I bought a second drive, a 1.5 TB Seagate Freeagent (for $129 from Dell). I ran into several problems. Sometimes the directory (program list) would come up blank or only partially filled. Sometimes programs would not move over to the EHD. Sometimes when playing back a program from the EHD, the program would terminate in the middle. 

I finally swapped the Seagate with a 1 TB WD "My Book" that was on my computer. The Seagate works fine on my computer and the 750 GB and 1 TB WD (through a mechanical switch from Monoprice) are working fine on the 622.


----------



## TSR

Known EHD Problems

Seagate Free Agent External Hard Drives work at first, but then are not recognized by the receiver

Fix::::::::
Power the Hard Drive off and then back on using the power button on the drive itself. If there
is no power button unplug the USB cable connecting the receiver to the hard drive and plug it back
in again.

DVR content can now be transferred to an external hard drive (EHD) to free up space on the receiver’s internal hard drive. This feature allows for storage and playback of DVR content only. Requirements: 

A one-time External Hard Drive Activation Fee of $39.99 
This fee is associated with the account, not the receiver, so it is only charged once regardless of how many receivers the customer will be using EHDs on. 

A USB 2.0 external hard drive which is larger than 50GB and no larger than 750GB

The hard drive must have its own AC power adapter 

No dual drives (two drives in one case) 

No flash-memory drives 

No hybrid drives (flash memory plus traditional disk in one physical case) 

If the drive comes with sleep mode turned on it should be turned off 

Supported Receivers 
DISH 411™ 
ViP 211™ 
ViP 211k™ 
ViP 612 DVR™ 
ViP 622 DVR™ 
ViP 722 DVR™ 
ViP 722k DVR™


----------



## David-A

TSR said:


> Known EHD Problems
> 
> Seagate Free Agent External Hard Drives work at first, but then are not recognized by the receiver
> 
> Fix::::::::
> Power the Hard Drive off and then back on using the power button on the drive itself. If there is no power button unplug the USB cable connecting the receiver to the hard drive and plug it back
> in again


Actually, I tried that several times. It usually fixed it but then the problem kept coming back. I doubt that the Seagate is defective since it works fine on my PC. I'm happy now with the second WD.

There are many other threads of people successfully using drives greater than 750 GB and reports of Dish saying you can use any size so long as it is a single drive.

I've used my 750 GB WD in sleep mode for over a year (within a couple days of the EHD option being available) and never had any problems other than it taking a couple extra seconds to come up to speed after not being used for awhile.

As far as PC use goes, both the WD and Seagate seem similar. Both are very quiet. The Seagate is a little warmer; perhaps that's because it has almost no ventilation holes compared to the WD. In any case, it isn't an issue. The Seagate is also a little thinner. The Seagate has an optional stand for vertical placement and feet for horizontal placement. The stand is flimsy and the drive can easily be knocked over. The feet aren't very secure either but at least it can't fall over when it is horizontal. The two drives seem to be similar in speed though I haven't done any benchmark tests on them.


----------



## TulsaOK

TSR said:


> A one-time External Hard Drive Activation Fee of $39.99
> This fee is associated with the account, not the receiver, so it is only charged once regardless of how many receivers the customer will be using EHDs on.
> 
> A USB 2.0 external hard drive which is larger than 50GB and no larger than 750GB


The $39.99 charge is for ViPxx2 receivers. If there is a 211/211k receiver on the account there is an additional charge of $39.99.

I use 1Tb drives and they work just fine.


----------



## Bob Ketcham

AVJohnnie said:


> I'd like to see someone who is using an EHD larger than 750GB post that they have successfully transferred more than 750GB of content to it ~ and still been able to view and/or restore the content.


I have. Currently showing 91.6 GB available on my 1 TB drive. It is a Maxtor DiamondMax 1 TB Internal SATA II/300 Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit STM310005N1AAAS-RK mounted in a NexStar3 SATA USB Case. I purchased both at Fry's last fall.


----------



## TSR

David-A said:


> Actually, I tried that several times. It usually fixed it but then the problem kept coming back. I doubt that the Seagate is defective since it works fine on my PC. I'm happy now with the second WD.
> 
> There are many other threads of people successfully using drives greater than 750 GB and reports of Dish saying you can use any size so long as it is a single drive.
> 
> I've used my 750 GB WD in sleep mode for over a year (within a couple days of the EHD option being available) and never had any problems other than it taking a couple extra seconds to come up to speed after not being used for awhile.
> 
> As far as PC use goes, both the WD and Seagate seem similar. Both are very quiet. The Seagate is a little warmer; perhaps that's because it has almost no ventilation holes compared to the WD. In any case, it isn't an issue. The Seagate is also a little thinner. The Seagate has an optional stand for vertical placement and feet for horizontal placement. The stand is flimsy and the drive can easily be knocked over. The feet aren't very secure either but at least it can't fall over when it is horizontal. The two drives seem to be similar in speed though I haven't done any benchmark tests on them.


I'm only letting you know what the agents at Dish are told to inform customers, to my knowledge.

I am not saying that it won't work otherwise, only informing you and others what Dish endorses, per se.

And they may have a problem with the K-series and someone being charged an additional $39.99, on top of the. If that is true, you need to call in so we can document it and validate the problem and make the Engineering Department aware of it.


----------



## TulsaOK

I see WD has a 2Tb single drive unit. Anyone want to be on the bleeding edge? If so, let us know how it works.


----------



## olds403

I have 2 1TB WD mybook drives attached to a usb switch. I had 1 drive almost full, 51GB showing available. Used restore to move content to the 722 and then onto the other drive with no issues. It is a slow process but works. 

I had to organize things a little better, the folders feature is useless. I decided to put scifi/horror on one drive and comedy/drama on the other drive. We really should be able to create our own folders for organizing content on the EHD.


----------



## HumpMan

Bob Ketcham said:


> I have. Currently showing 91.6 GB available on my 1 TB drive. It is a Maxtor DiamondMax 1 TB Internal SATA II/300 Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit STM310005N1AAAS-RK mounted in a NexStar3 SATA USB Case. I purchased both at Fry's last fall.


Interesting. I had lots of problems with my home-built USB hard drives until I tried this case:
Vantec NexStar CX NST-300S2-BK

This is the first EHD I've used that hasn't had a problem in either playback or restore to a ViP 622.

This is more evidence for me that the quality of the EHD is playing a significant role in playback problems. Sounds like sticking to some of the name brand units (WD, Maxtor, Seagate) is the safer way to go.

the HumpMan


----------



## HumpMan

TulsaOK said:


> I see WD has a 2Tb single drive unit. Anyone want to be on the bleeding edge? If so, let us know how it works.


Hey, TulsaOK, I don't know if I'm this crazy, but you never know. :lol:

I will ultimately be getting something like a WD MyBook, but I don't know I'll go 2TB to start!

I think that the current 2TB models are probably dual drive units. It's unclear to me just how bad that is (for DVR use) but it does make sense that it could affect transfers. It could also be that the multi-drive units are good enough so the DVR never knows how many spindles are at the end of the USB cable. I wonder if the multi-drive USB units implement RAID or not. I should think they would, so it would also seem likely to me that such a unit should work with a DVR as an EHD.

the HumpMan


----------



## TulsaOK

HumpMan said:


> I think that the current 2TB models are probably dual drive units.


Here


----------



## HumpMan

Well, I guess I have to believe that it's a single drive inside that case. It certainly isn't "double-wide" like the MyBook Mirror edition that definitely has two drives inside.

A bit more searching did finally turn up the bare 2TB drive:

 Here 

And I do find it on the Western Digital site now as a Green Drive model: here

the HumpMan


----------



## olguy

Regarding the 2T WD, the below is an excerpt from a WD press release. Click here for the full release.



> Largest Capacity Available in Single-drive External Hard Drives for Mac® and PC Users
> 
> BOSTON - (Photoshop World Booth No. 615) - Mar. 25, 2009 - WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today expanded its My Book® family of external hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity, the largest available capacity in a single-drive system. With its wide variety of models, WD offers a solution for every type of user, whether they're a creative power user on a Mac® or a home user on a PC. The new 2 TB My Book family includes: My Book Studio Edition™, My Book Mac Edition, My Book Home Edition™ and My Book Essential Edition™ models.


----------



## Mighty H

http://www.seagate.com/showcase 1TB for $164.99


----------



## Dobe

I have 2 Western Digital external hard drives (EHD). When the 1st one was full, I unplugged the power and the USB plug. I then used those cables with the new EHD. No problems.

However, I've just been told that I can only "move" (plug and unplug) each EHD no more than 3 times. After the 3rd unplugging, I'm told that the EHD won't work with the VIP 722. 

Is this true and if so, is there a USB hub that I can use to switch back and forth from EHD to EHD?

I'm still not clear if DISH is talking about unplugging the power plug, the USB plug or both. If I can keep the power plugged in on both units and just switch the USB cables whenever I want that would be fine. 

If not, would leaving the USB plugged into a hub and switching back and forth defeat the 3x's rule? If so what product do you suggest I buy? Thanks.


----------



## ChuckA

The three swap limit is no longer true. When the EHD was first available you could swap a single EHD between different receivers only three times before it wanted to format the drive. This was eliminated when the household key was implemented so you can now swap an EHD between any ViP receivers on your account. It was never true that you were limited in the number of times you could connect an EHD to the same receiver.


----------



## Dobe

Thanks, great information. A DISH repairman is the one who told me this morning about the 3x's rule. I glad to hear it's not true.


----------



## rbyers

I was just looking at the good EHD list at the beginning of the thread. It's a bit short on Seagate drives. I've used the Seagate Free Agent 500, 750, and 1TB drives without problems ... providing you tell the seagate to never time out. So, I keep my drives on a power strip and shut them down when I'm not going to use them. 

I did have a seagate 750 fail after about a year. Seagate honored their warranty and replaced it with a 1TB version.

Add these drives to the list. 

The only drives that I've seen that really don't work well are those that are powered via the USB port.


----------



## darkstarchuck

darkstarchuck said:


> Buffalo Technology's DriveStation SATA 500GB USB Hard Drive works fine. There may be others found in this thread.
> 
> So after almost 2 years of constantly running, the drive is failing. Seems to be heat related, or just age, as I could xfer a show (restore) if I had powered down the unit for a while, then tried it. Went out and got a Seagate Freeagent 1TB, and problems started.


So I've opened up the drive enclosure to find a WD 500GB SATA drive and I'm waiting for the WD drive (1TB) to replace it (WD's warranty discount program). Hopefully, it is the "sleep" feature of the Seagate that is causing the trouble, 'cause all I have to do is powercycle the drive and it comes right up, otherwise I get a blank EHD menu with the correct remaining capacity shown.  
Maybe an issue with L6.21? Well, having an extra 1TB HD can't be bad, right?


----------



## mikepd

The maximum size hard drive you can use is 1TB according to the Dish website. Whether you do it as a RAID LUN or as a single drive, the max is still 1TB.


----------



## HeyNewbie

Are all the drives in RED listed in the first post *fully* functional?

It appears from reading through some of the threads that only a some of the WD drives really work. Meaning they perform the primary functionality of serving as an EHD for the DVR allowing transfers to and from and playing the recorded events, but also will go into their respective "spin downs", "sleep" or "power saving" modes and return to an active state without errors which others have related are FIXED by unplugging the usb and or power cables or power cycling the drives.


----------



## TulsaOK

HeyNewbie said:


> Are all the drives in RED listed in the first post *fully* functional?
> 
> It appears from reading through some of the threads that only a some of the WD drives really work. Meaning they perform the primary functionality of serving as an EHD for the DVR allowing transfers to and from and playing the recorded events, but also will go into their respective "spin downs", "sleep" or "power saving" modes and return to an active state without errors which others have related are FIXED by unplugging the usb and or power cables or power cycling the drives.


What do you mean by "some of the WD drives really work"? You then describe what an EHD should do and the WD's seem to fill that bill.


----------



## phrelin

HeyNewbie said:


> Are all the drives in RED listed in the first post *fully* functional?
> 
> It appears from reading through some of the threads that only a some of the WD drives really work. Meaning they perform the primary functionality of serving as an EHD for the DVR allowing transfers to and from and playing the recorded events, but also will go into their respective "spin downs", "sleep" or "power saving" modes and return to an active state without errors which others have related are FIXED by unplugging the usb and or power cables or power cycling the drives.


My 4 750GB WD Mybook Essential drives do work as you describe. With that said, I always view the drive's contents so it spins up before transferring to the drive as that is the one function you can theoretically tell it to do without seeing the contents screen. It's just one of those things that makes me feel more secure.

I don't know that they are the only ones the work properly as I thought there was a fix for the Seagate brands.


----------



## HeyNewbie

Kent Taylor said:


> What do you mean by "some of the WD drives really work"? You then describe what an EHD should do and the WD's seem to fill that bill.


Correction: it appears that most of the WD EHDs are fully functional. Some are not as there are postings about using power strips and at least one posting where a WD EHD sometimes fails or hangs up on multiple transfers.

My main question is about the HDs listed in Red in the first post, are they fully functional with the exception of the few that have notes indicated?


----------



## HeyNewbie

phrelin said:


> My 4 750GB WD Mybook Essential drives do work as you describe. With that said, I always view the drive's contents so it spins up before transferring to the drive as that is the one function you can theoretically tell it to do without seeing the contents screen. It's just one of those things that makes me feel more secure.
> 
> I don't know that they are the only ones the work properly as I thought there was a fix for the Seagate brands.


Thank you for the info, I am probably going to try a WD 1TB My Book Home Edition. Now I need to decide on the 5400rpm or 7200rpm. The 7200rpm is only $40.00 more but has a 36 month warranty compared to a 12 month for the 5400rpm.


----------



## TulsaOK

HeyNewbie said:


> Correction: it appears that most of the WD EHDs are fully functional. Some are not as there are postings about using power strips and at least one posting where a WD EHD sometimes fails or hangs up on multiple transfers.
> 
> My main question is about the HDs listed in Red in the first post, are they fully functional with the exception of the few that have notes indicated?


Some of the issues with EHD's are actually problems with ViP622's. I had major problems with my WD 320 until I upgraded from a 622 to a 722. I still believe the Western Digital My Book Essential drives are the most trouble free.


----------



## BobaBird

WD Essentials is fine. No reason to pay extra for the Home Edition since you'll only be able to use the USB port and any software provided will be erased by formatting.


----------



## Michael P

Mighty H said:


> http://www.seagate.com/showcase 1TB for $164.99


I got a 1.5 TB Seagate for about $10 less than that at Staples.


----------



## Michael P

mikepd said:


> The maximum size hard drive you can use is 1TB according to the Dish website. Whether you do it as a RAID LUN or as a single drive, the max is still 1TB.


Well I have ~1300 GB of space on my Seagate 1.5 GB after formatting it for my 622. I believe that's more than 1 GB.

The only thing is I have to "reboot" the drive (i.e. disconnect & reconnect the USB cable) because it sometime does not get recognized, or it says feature not currently available or an error happens when transferring data. After several tries I eventually succeed in transferring programs. And I can play them all back directly off the EHD, although sometimes I have to fast forward the program all the way to the end to stop the program (it freezes when you hit stop about 65% of the time).


----------



## thorrall

This looked like a really nice drive - 2 year warranty and very cool and quiet according to reviews. Only $100 at B&H Photo.

LaCie Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton
Hi-Speed USB 2.0
1TB 

Mine came with a Hitachi drive which I think may have a 5 year warranty. Also black so very unobtrusive visually sitting on top of the 722. However, the 722 apparently can't format it - just hangs while trying.

Before connecting it to the 722 I tried it on the computer and it worked fine. Too bad - guess I'll have to send it back.


----------



## thorrall

I got a very helpful CR in Dish Tech Support that helped me to get the 1 TB LaCie USB drive working. Basically the method was:

1. Disconnect the USB connection to the hard drive.
2. Pull the authorization card out of the receiver, wait 15 seconds, then reinsert. She told me that a hard reset by pulling the power cord would also work but that was difficult for me due to access so she had me pull the card instead.
3. Wait 15 seconds again, then reconnect the drive via USB
4. After the drive spun up I got screen prompts and followed them. Disk now formatted within 2 minutes.

Yea!


----------



## RC Collins

I have one 1TB WD10EASDS and an old Hitachi(I think) 500 gig in a Rosewill dual drive enclosure. Seems to work fine; I've only moved 500 gigs to it so far. Two 1TB drives only showed up as 999.8 gigs on the 722 so I went back to the 500 gig which shows up as ~1300 gigs. Any problems and I'll report back.


----------



## Jim5506

999.8 gigs IS for all intents and purposes 1TB - there is overhead to be dealt with.

I would be concerned with the 500 GB drive that lies to you saying it is 1.3 TB.


----------



## TulsaOK

Jim5506 said:


> 999.8 gigs IS for all intents and purposes 1TB - there is overhead to be dealt with.
> 
> I would be concerned with the 500 GB drive that lies to you saying it is 1.3 TB.


My WD My Book Essential 1Tb didn't show anything close to that. Maybe I should get a 500Gb?


----------



## RC Collins

Just to clarify; it's two 1 TB hard drives in a dual drive enclosure that shows up as just 999.8 gigs. I now have one 1TB drive and one 500 gig drive combined in the enclosure which works as ~1300 gig. For me it seems the 722 doesn't support 2Tb, at least with a dual drive enclosure.


----------



## harsh

RC Collins said:


> For me it seems the 722 doesn't support 2Tb, at least with a dual drive enclosure.


Your findings are consistent with DISH's admonition that you NOT use multi-drive configurations and NOT use configurations larger than 1TB.

http://dishnetwork.com/receivers/expandYourDVR/document/1LDVRStorage.pdf


----------



## VulcanSoulPatch

olds403 said:


> We really should be able to create our own folders for organizing content on the EHD.


I haven't been around for a long while (good thing, I guess... means that I haven't been having problems with my 722 or the WD 1TB EHD), so I decided to drop by. I was catching up on this thread when I saw this statement. I wholeheartedly agree. One of the most confounding things about the EHD is that the browsing features on the internal HDD don't apply to the EHD (i.e., pressing the keypad and having the browser skip down to the first entry of the first letter on that key, then pressing < or > to go backward or forward in the alphabet, and creating folders). Esp. now that the software has been upgraded to allow creating your own "groups" on the HDD, why is E* forgetting about the EHD?

There is probably a "logical" explanation as to why these features are not enabled, but I would *love* for E* to implement them.


----------



## VulcanSoulPatch

Michael P said:


> The only thing is I have to "reboot" the drive (i.e. disconnect & reconnect the USB cable) because it sometime does not get recognized, or it says feature not currently available or an error happens when transferring data.


Ahh... forgot about that. That is one issue I have also been having with the WD 1TB. Every once in a while the "My Media" folder is not there and it appears that the drive has fallen asleep on the job. I have to power down the 722, hit the power button on the WD, and the power the 722 back up again. It is a bit frustrating, but it has only happened 3x since I got it. I am attributing the WD sleeping to inactivity on the DVR. Normally, I record at least one show a day, but there are times when I can go 2 or 3 without anything (esp. during the summer slow period, as I don't have any premium movie channels). Does that sound like it could be the case? Like I said, it has only happened a few times, so it is not bothering me that much. Fortunately I have had no issues transferring programs.

But I just remembered an EHD-lacking feature that does bother me a lot. When watching a program off the EHD, after it finishes, there is no option to delete it from the "post-viewing" menu. You have to select Done, which take you back to the start of the list, navigate all the way back down to the program you were just watching, select it, then select delete. It is a royal pain. Nowadays, I have been planning my EHD watching in advance, and transferring programs (mostly several episodes of a TV series) back to the HDD so that it is easier to get to them and delete them.

So, I reiterate... when is E* going to pay attention to EHD navigation in a future software update?


----------



## jpk

Dish's external disk feature has all the hallmarks of an afterthought.

Functionally, all it does is increase storage. There's no reason the user interface should be any different for shows stored in one place versus another. In fact the user should seldom even be aware of which place a particular show is stored. 

I'm sure Dish understands this. Without a doubt they're well aware that it's a product defect that their playback and navigation are different for external disk. However they've let this stand for over two years. My guess is, unless other vendors bring competitive features to market, this is the user experience Dish is going to provide.


----------



## djlong

Allowing people to have multiple EHDs to swap in and out necessitates the kind of UI they provide. Otherwise, you'd never know what shows you'd "lose" when swapping disks.

Granted I would prefer that my 612's be smart enough to know that I have a particular show's episode on the EHD, just in the same way they check the internal drive to avoid duplicates.


----------



## dbrakob

jpk said:


> Dish's external disk feature has all the hallmarks of an afterthought.
> 
> Functionally, all it does is increase storage. There's no reason the user interface should be any different for shows stored in one place versus another. In fact the user should seldom even be aware of which place a particular show is stored.
> 
> I'm sure Dish understands this. Without a doubt they're well aware that it's a product defect that their playback and navigation are different for external disk. However they've let this stand for over two years. My guess is, unless other vendors bring competitive features to market, this is the user experience Dish is going to provide.


That is all they have ever claimed it was so I feel no ill will towards them. I think it works great for its intended purpose and like you said until they are pressured by the market to add more features why would they? As far as I can tell they are already at a competitive advantage for just "increasing storage space".


----------



## jpk

_Allowing people to have multiple EHDs to swap in and out necessitates the kind of UI they provide
_

If I add a roof rack to my car, do I get a new steering wheel?

_Otherwise, you'd never know what shows you'd "lose" when swapping disks._

There's no need to have an entirely separate UI for this. The location could be visually flagged. It would be acceptable for the DVR not to know about any shows not currently attached.


----------



## jpk

_they are already at a competitive advantage for just "increasing storage space"._

I agree.

Doesn't mean they couldn't have done it better, though.

Making the user go through a lesser interface for shows stored in a particular location is needless pain.


----------



## oldschoolecw

Will this, Western Digital Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDE1UBK10000N (Black) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JTQCU8...e=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B001JTQCU8

Workout with the HD DuoDVR 722?
Thanks
Rich


----------



## barryaz1

Does anyone have experience with this SimpleTech 1 TB drive:

http://www.frys.com/product/5806593

And what about using their fabrik software to clone an existing drive?

Thanks - it's a great price this week.


----------



## Sigifrith

Anyone have an answer for oldschoolecw?

I'd like to buy one of these Western Digital WDE1UBK10000N too if it will work


----------



## Ron Barry

No.. But I followed oldschools link and did a search for "Dish" on the reviews and there was 3 posts of people using them with the Dish DVRs succssfully. I would suggest taking a closer look at the Amazon reviews regarding this drive in a Dish environment.


----------



## phrelin

Has anyone determined if the new and improved WD My Book Essential drives - with the NESN model number suffix and all that nifty new software with locking firmware or whatever it is that everyone hates and you can't get around on a PC - will work with a ViP DVR? I'm assuming they won't.


----------



## Allen_WA

I have the 1GB and it works fine. Almost returned it when I found out about the locked software/firmware but instead hooked it up to my 722 and it worked fine.


----------



## dbrakob

phrelin - I just bought the 1TB new model Western Digital 2 weeks ago. Was worried about the new style with all the new features but I hooked it up right out of the box to my 722 and it works perfectly.


----------



## Dan DRC

I also purchased one of the new style WD essential 1TB drive at Walmart for $99
So far it works great. I am only saving movies from MGM and HDNet on the drive so I don't access it on a daily basis. I am debating if I should leave the drive on all the time or not. Not sure how much wear and tear it would get if I just left it on, there does not seem to be a sleep mode on the drive. It may sound kinda stupid but the power button on the drive is a poor design and it is hard to tell if you have engaged it or not.
But for $99 I guess what do you expect?


----------



## dbrakob

Dan DRC - I leave mine connected and powered all the time. It seems to "hibernate" by itself well and returns when I command it too so I figure go with it.


----------



## Tulsa1

dbrakob said:


> Dan DRC - I leave mine connected and powered all the time. It seems to "hibernate" by itself well and returns when I command it too so I figure go with it.


How can you tell it is hibernating?
Would be good to know


----------



## TulsaOK

Tulsa1 said:


> How can you tell it is hibernating?
> Would be good to know


It (My Book Essential) spins down after a few minutes of inactivity. There's no indication that it has spun down, but if you listen closely enough you can hear it spin back up. I'm not sure how many minutes has to pass for it to spin down.


----------



## harsh

Tulsa1 said:


> How can you tell it is hibernating?
> Would be good to know


The Seagate and Maxtor drives do a slow cycling of the drive activity indicator.


----------



## dbrakob

Tulsa1 said:


> How can you tell it is hibernating?
> Would be good to know


Like mentioned just get close to it and it should be silent. Then go to the My Media and try to access your EHD. You should get a pause with the remote and menu as it spins up and you should hear it also. If that happens then it is hibernating when not in use. Not sure how long until it hibernates but at least this way I know it is hibernating at some point.


----------



## olds403

I just purchased one of the new WD my book drives, a 1.5T drive with the smart power. The 722 saw it and formatted it, it has 1430GB available, so 1.5T will work.


----------



## phrelin

Allen_WA said:


> I have the 1GB and it works fine. Almost returned it when I found out about the locked software/firmware but instead hooked it up to my 722 and it worked fine.





dbrakob said:


> phrelin - I just bought the 1TB new model Western Digital 2 weeks ago. Was worried about the new style with all the new features but I hooked it up right out of the box to my 722 and it works perfectly.





olds403 said:


> I just purchased one of the new WD my book drives, a 1.5T drive with the smart power. The 722 saw it and formatted it, it has 1430GB available, so 1.5T will work.


Thanks for the response guys. So I don't have to worry about being able to buy a new WD MyBook Essential model in the future.

I like them because so far I've had no problem with the four I'm using. I like the fact that I have been able to have one always attached to both of my ViP's. I also like the fact that they remain in hibernation until I do something to spin them up. Over a significantly long period of time (more than a decade) my experience with WD and Seagate drives in computers has been that they both have produced good and bad models and unless you buy a bad model both are reasonably reliable though you can get a lemon. For ViP use and computer backup use, this particular EHD seemed to work well until WD devised clever new software for Windows computers.

Now we need the big question answered. Once the drive has been reformatted by the ViP, can you move it back to your Windows computer and reformat it under Windows and effectively eliminate the Windows software (or firmware?) problem that most complain about not being able to bypass? If that's the case, then the drives will continue to be useful for Windows computers complements of Dish Network.


----------



## TulsaOK

phrelin said:


> Once the drive has been reformatted by the ViP, can you move it back to your Windows computer and reformat it under Windows and effectively eliminate the Windows software (or firmware?)


I am able to do that.


----------



## phrelin

Kent Taylor said:


> I am able to do that.


Good. When I read many posts at Amazon and other sites that the new version of the MyBook had this "impossible to avoid" software (or firmware?), I was disappointed as I like the looks of these drives as well as everything else I said above.


----------



## olds403

After having the new WD drive with smartware hooked up for a day it developed an error. I had transferred about 22GB of content to it from my 722, then it would not show any content on the drive. After disconnecting it and reconnecting the 722 wanted to reformat it again. I tried to reformat on the 722 but it just hung for about an hour. I am in the process of trying to wipe the drive on my computer. Did some online research and apparently there is a firmware update that needs to be done with the drive connected to a windows computer. This update will remove the smartware virtual CD partition that I believe caused my problem. Just a warning, This new WD drive is NOT plug and play for dish users.


----------



## phrelin

olds403 said:


> After having the new WD drive with smartware hooked up for a day it developed an error. I had transferred about 22GB of content to it from my 722, then it would not show any content on the drive. After disconnecting it and reconnecting the 722 wanted to reformat it again. I tried to reformat on the 722 but it just hung for about an hour. I am in the process of trying to wipe the drive on my computer. Did some online research and apparently there is a firmware update that needs to be done with the drive connected to a windows computer. This update will remove the smartware virtual CD partition that I believe caused my problem. Just a warning, This new WD drive is NOT plug and play for dish users.


OK. Good to know that and good to know that they now have a solution to remove the stupid firmware.

Sometimes you really have to wonder "what were they thinking?" I know the drive manufacturers tend to think having clever backup systems are a great marketing gimmick, but the reality is that those who will use regular backup routines don't really need some weird firmware or clever new software preloaded by the drive manufacturer. We need drives that work simply as drives and are reliable. Those will be good Dish EHD's also.


----------



## olds403

> Sometimes you really have to wonder "what were they thinking?" I know the drive manufacturers tend to think having clever backup systems are a great marketing gimmick, but the reality is that those who will use regular backup routines don't really need some weird firmware or clever new software preloaded by the drive manufacturer. We need drives that work simply as drives and are reliable. Those will be good Dish EHD's also.


Exactly, if it ain't broke don't fix it. The previous generation of My Book drives worked great, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.


----------



## olds403

Well apparently my 1.5T drive has bad sectors and is being replaced. I don't know if it was caused by the smart drive firmware or not. I will be updating the firmware to remove the smartware BEFORE connecting it to my 722 this time.


----------



## plasmacat

Target is havng a black friday sale on a Western Digital 1TB Elements hard drive. Has anyone used this drive - any problems?


----------



## olds403

Got my replacement 1.5T my book essentials yesterday. I went through all the steps to remove the smartware and reformatted the drive BEFORE connecting it to the 722 this time. It now works just like the previous generation drives, have no problem transferring movies or watching them from the drive.


----------



## Tulsa1

olds403 said:


> Got my replacement 1.5T my book essentials yesterday. I went through all the steps to remove the smartware and reformatted the drive BEFORE connecting it to the 722 this time. It now works just like the previous generation drives, have no problem transferring movies or watching them from the drive.


I have several WD my book drives but have not purchased one recently.
They have all worked without issues (fingers crossed).
Is there a problem if you connect a current model to the DVR right out the box??


----------



## phrelin

Tulsa1 said:


> I have several WD my book drives but have not purchased one recently.
> They have all worked without issues (fingers crossed).
> Is there a problem if you connect a current model to the DVR right out the box??


See the posts on the previous page. WD just had to make things "better and easier" and if you read reviews on Amazon people were livid even using them on Windows computers. So apparently there's a method to remove the problem on your Windows computer first.


----------



## olds403

Tulsa1 said:


> I have several WD my book drives but have not purchased one recently.
> They have all worked without issues (fingers crossed).
> Is there a problem if you connect a current model to the DVR right out the box??


The smartware software put a virtual CD partition on the drive, it also has auto-backup and lock features. My drive developed a problem after connecting it to my 722. It had bad sectors and had to be replaced(under warranty). Now I am not sure whether my problems were caused by the smartware, but since I had no issues with my other 3 1T mybooks(without smartware) already in use with my 722 I think it is a safe bet. After following the procedure from the WD support site I was able to remove the smartware partition and software and it now behaves exactly like my previously purchased WD drives.


----------



## fredp

WD's web site states that the VCD can be disabled but nothing about being removed. Both a firmware update 1.032(11/16) as well as updated VCD magager sw are needed. Does *disabled * realy mean *removed* so that you can get back the full space of the drive? The model I'm looking in question of is a 1TB(WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN).


----------



## olds403

I misstated myself. The VCD is disabled not removed, you don't get that space back, it is only about 1/2 gig anyways. Not even enough space for a non-HD movie so I don't think that is a huge deal. At least you can disable the stupid software.


----------



## seattlemike

plasmacat said:


> Target is havng a black friday sale on a Western Digital 1TB Elements hard drive. Has anyone used this drive - any problems?


I'd also be interested in knowing if anybody has any input on the Western Digital Elements 1TB hard drive, my understanding is this drive does not have the unwanted software that the WD Essentials drives have?

michael


----------



## CABill

I'm using the WD Elements 1.5GB on a 622/722. It wouldn't be a good pick for a 211(k). It is listed for more than the $100 I paid at Frys now - http://www.frys.com/product/6083208 but it is the WDBAAU0015HBK-NEFR. I went with it because searching THIS thread for Elements showed others using the 1GB successfully. Only the 500GB was specifically menitoned. The 1GB was ASKED about on Ron said he followed the link to Amazon reviews and those reviews were from DISH DVR users. I'd expect you to be OK using the Elements 1TB on a 211/62/722. The 1.5TB works for me (NO 211). I'd avoid a -NESN from what is posted, but I don't know that -NEFR is the only flavor of Elements available.


----------



## Richard King

This is my drive "enclosure" and it works quite well. I can swap them out in no time. Excuse the dust


----------



## plasmacat

I did get the WD 1 TB Elements drive at the Target Black Fri. sale - $60 was too good to pass up. Hooked it up to my 622 and got Dish to activate it. It seems fine. Transferred a bunch of stuff - no problems. Haven't actually tried to play anything from it yet. My model # is WBDAAU0010HBK-NETG.


----------



## jpk

My Seagate 1TB drive proved unusable. Constant errors transferring bits, even seeing the disk. The model wasn't labeled as a FreeAgent but store help advised that all Seagate consumer grade external USB drives are FreeAgent.

My Buffalo 1TB has been OK. Usually functions as intended. Sometimes fails transferring video from DVR to it; Dish tech support has no solution or clue. Still, it's generally reliable, and HD formats require more storage than ViP612s provide, so I'm putting up with its faults.


----------



## sleepy hollow

FWIW, I bought a Seagate 1TB drive at Best Buy for $80 just after Christmas. I connected it to my PC and downloaded the software needed to turn off the sleep timer (after reading about this issue on this forum). Took about 10 minutes to download and then change the setting to "never sleep". Then I connected the drive to my VIP622 which formatted it, etc. 

It has been working without a hitch since New Year's Eve. Moved a whole boatload of recordings to the EHD and have acres of space left. 

This drive is simply called a Seagate external expansion drive.


----------



## rlinsurf

I am totally new to doing this, so please excuse my n00bness.

I wanted to add a 1.5TB eSata to my HDDVR (HR-21??), but I've been told I can either reboot and watch the shows on the new drive, or reboot and watch the shows on the original drive. This seems to me, to suck.

Is there a way to first transfer my original shows to the new drive, so I can avoid this?

Thanks.


----------



## TulsaOK

rlinsurf said:


> I am totally new to doing this, so please excuse my n00bness.
> 
> I wanted to add a 1.5TB eSata to my HDDVR (HR-21??), but I've been told I can either reboot and watch the shows on the new drive, or reboot and watch the shows on the original drive. This seems to me, to suck.
> 
> Is there a way to first transfer my original shows to the new drive, so I can avoid this?
> 
> Thanks.


You may want to ask this in the D* forum.


----------



## rlinsurf

Ah, ok. Sorry


----------



## TulsaOK

rlinsurf said:


> Sorry, again -- which forum?


DirecTV.


----------



## darkstarchuck

rlinsurf said:


> I am totally new to doing this, so please excuse my n00bness.
> 
> I wanted to add a 1.5TB eSata to my HDDVR (HR-21??), but I've been told I can either reboot and watch the shows on the new drive, or reboot and watch the shows on the original drive. This seems to me, to suck.
> 
> Is there a way to first transfer my original shows to the new drive, so I can avoid this?
> 
> Thanks.


I should erase the whole thing...
Nope, The HD receiver you have has been "Tweaked" by Dish to be a DVR with the addition of the external drive. (I have one) The only way would be if you had a 622 or 722 then you could transfer the shows to the internal HD of those recievers, then back to either one of your externals. Sorry, I thought you had a Dish box,the 211.....


----------



## hounddog

Richard King said:


> This is my drive "enclosure" and it works quite well. I can swap them out in no time. Excuse the dust


A little more detail, if you please. What is the Azio model? What hard drives do you use? Can you replay the recorded shows from the hard drives or do you have to transfer them back to the PVR? And how about this ridiculous DISH requirement of "authorizing" the drives at $40 a pop?


----------



## phrelin

hounddog said:


> A little more detail, if you please. What is the Azio model? What hard drives do you use? Can you replay the recorded shows from the hard drives or do you have to transfer them back to the PVR? And how about this ridiculous DISH requirement of "authorizing" the drives at $40 a pop?


Your account gets charged one time and all the ViP DVR's on the account get "authorized."


----------



## GrumpyBear

hounddog said:


> A little more detail, if you please. What is the Azio model? What hard drives do you use? Can you replay the recorded shows from the hard drives or do you have to transfer them back to the PVR? And how about this ridiculous DISH requirement of "authorizing" the drives at $40 a pop?


Looks like Richard is using the Azio Docking station. It supports 2.5 and 3.5 hard drives, has both USB and eSATA outputs. They are kind of cool and not that expensive, in the $20-$25 range I believe.
The $40 isn't per drive, its an activation for ViP Reciever, you wish to have an external drive connected to it. You can use as many drives as you want to for that $40 dollars.


----------



## hounddog

GrumpyBear said:


> Looks like Richard is using the Azio Docking station. It supports 2.5 and 3.5 hard drives, has both USB and eSATA outputs. They are kind of cool and not that expensive, in the $20-$25 range I believe.
> The $40 isn't per drive, its an activation for ViP Reciever, you wish to have an external drive connected to it. You can use as many drives as you want to for that $40 dollars.


So, and forgive my ignorance, I could have as many recordings as I want as long as I kept getting hard drives? I would probably still want to use some type of RAID setup, as I don't trust hard drives to valuable irreplaceable recordings, such as LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints football games that will never be available commercially. Could you suggest a RAID?


----------



## bnborg

Hi HoundDog.

It would have to be a hardware RAID, and appear to the Vip as a single disk, single lun. Possibly something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=raid_enclosure-_-16-111-112-_-Product, or even http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3&cm_re=raid_enclosure-_-17-422-023-_-Product. But I don't really know. The only way to be sure would be to buy one and try it.


----------



## GrumpyBear

hounddog said:


> So, and forgive my ignorance, I could have as many recordings as I want as long as I kept getting hard drives? I would probably still want to use some type of RAID setup, as I don't trust hard drives to valuable irreplaceable recordings, such as LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints football games that will never be available commercially. Could you suggest a RAID?


Save money and backup the DISHARC folder on the harddrives, to a backup system. Dish spec's say single drive, not multiple drives in a single enclouser. Were you may get it to work if something happens, support is the person you see in the mirror. Buy single drives, you should have a good backup system already, and just backup the DISHARC folder. That way you can always restore the shows back, if something happens to the orginal drive.
Just my .02


----------



## Jim5506

Hardware RAID 0 USB EHD will give you 2 copies of all programming, the Dish receiver still sees it as one drive, but the hardware built into the EHD makes 2 copies.


----------



## bnborg

Actually that would be RAID 1, two dirves mirrored.

RAID 0 is an oxymoron, in that it is not redundant. It is two dirives, with blocks interleaved for performance. I guess in this case zero means false, or not.


----------



## hounddog

GrumpyBear said:


> Save money and backup the DISHARC folder on the harddrives, to a backup system. Dish spec's say single drive, not multiple drives in a single enclouser. Were you may get it to work if something happens, support is the person you see in the mirror. Buy single drives, you should have a good backup system already, and just backup the DISHARC folder. That way you can always restore the shows back, if something happens to the orginal drive.
> Just my .02


OK, you threw me. What the heck is the DISHARC folder and how do I back it up? I assume that I would unhook the external USB HDD from the 722 and hook it up to my computer, but would I need a computer with Linux or one of its varieties such as Ununtu? I didn't think a Windows computer would recognize an external HDD formatted by the 722. And as far as "support is the person you see in the mirror", that is about how I feel whenever it comes to problems with DISH. The hard drive in my 722 crashed last month (the 722 was less than a year old) and all the DISH techie could tell me was "sorry" and that she would ship an new one out to me for a $15 shipping charge (which I told her I would not pay). The new one is up and working well, but I wonder how long it will take for this one to crash. (I did purchase a few external fans at http://www.hometheatercooling.com/PQFan.html to help cool the 722, as the DISH techie felt that heat may have been a contributing factor even though my 722 sits out in the open and not in an enclosed cabinet). Now I am getting very paranoid about saving old irreplacable recordings and am anxious to get some type of permanent backup. I was using a Panasonic DVD recorder but, as you know, it only does std def. One more question: can I simply swap out different drives as they get full or do I have to have each one "authorized" by DISH at $40 a piece?


----------



## GrumpyBear

hounddog said:


> OK, you threw me. What the heck is the DISHARC folder and how do I back it up? I assume that I would unhook the external USB HDD from the 722 and hook it up to my computer, but would I need a computer with Linux or one of its varieties such as Ununtu? I didn't think a Windows computer would recognize an external HDD formatted by the 722. And as far as "support is the person you see in the mirror", that is about how I feel whenever it comes to problems with DISH. The hard drive in my 722 crashed last month (the 722 was less than a year old) and all the DISH techie could tell me was "sorry" and that she would ship an new one out to me for a $15 shipping charge (which I told her I would not pay). The new one is up and working well, but I wonder how long it will take for this one to crash. (I did purchase a few external fans at http://www.hometheatercooling.com/PQFan.html to help cool the 722, as the DISH techie felt that heat may have been a contributing factor even though my 722 sits out in the open and not in an enclosed cabinet). Now I am getting very paranoid about saving old irreplacable recordings and am anxious to get some type of permanent backup. I was using a Panasonic DVD recorder but, as you know, it only does std def. One more question: can I simply swap out different drives as they get full or do I have to have each one "authorized" by DISH at $40 a piece?


You do not have to authorize each EHD, once you pay the enabling fee, you can add as many EHD's as you want, at NO extra cost.
If you don't have a backup system of some sort for your home computer system, you should get one. If you have one, you can connect your EHD's and back them up. Even with a windows machine, there are programs or extension that will allow you to see the UNIX partition on the EHD's and you can back up a Single folder on those Drives called DISHARC, you can do a search on this website(search for DISHARC), you will find several threads, and many different ways of doing this, and use what works for you. IF anything happens to a EHD, you can copy the DISHARC back to the EHD and all is well.


----------



## hounddog

GrumpyBear said:


> You do not have to authorize each EHD, once you pay the enabling fee, you can add as many EHD's as you want, at NO extra cost.
> If you don't have a backup system of some sort for your home computer system, you should get one. If you have one, you can connect your EHD's and back them up. Even with a windows machine, there are programs or extension that will allow you to see the UNIX partition on the EHD's and you can back up a Single folder on those Drives called DISHARC, you can do a search on this website(search for DISHARC), you will find several threads, and many different ways of doing this, and use what works for you. IF anything happens to a EHD, you can copy the DISHARC back to the EHD and all is well.


I do have a backup system, but the problem is that is is an external USB hard drive and, as I said previously, I don't trust hard drives. Perhaps it is time to invest in an external RAID 1 for backup. I also use Carbonite and it is very valuable. Thanks for the help.


----------



## hounddog

One more question: is there anything special about a "DVR expander"? I noticed today that DISH is pushing the "Seagate Showcase", although Western Digital has something they call My DVR Expander. Seems to this ignorant person that a hard drive is a hard drive and that Seagate and WD may not be putting the best, most reliable hard drives in these items. I was actually thinking about getting a good external enclosure, such as the Azio E3770S31, and getting the most reliable hard drive I can find.


----------



## phrelin

hounddog said:


> One more question: is there anything special about a "DVR expander"? I noticed today that DISH is pushing the "Seagate Showcase", although Western Digital has something they call My DVR Expander. Seems to this ignorant person that a hard drive is a hard drive and that Seagate and WD may not be putting the best, most reliable hard drives in these items. I was actually thinking about getting a good external enclosure, such as the Azio E3770S31, and getting the most reliable hard drive I can find.


The DVR expander kind of thing is a gimmick.With regard to the Azio, see Richard King's picture above.


----------



## Richard King

hounddog said:


> A little more detail, if you please. What is the Azio model? What hard drives do you use? Can you replay the recorded shows from the hard drives or do you have to transfer them back to the PVR? And how about this ridiculous DISH requirement of "authorizing" the drives at $40 a pop?


I've only used two different drives with it and it works quite well (does everything it's supposed to). There's not a model number on it, but it is meant for SATA drives and has both a SATA and USB output.


----------



## inazsully

OK, I have read this entire post and now comes the nitty gritty question. I have a 722. What EHD should I buy in the 750-1.5 range? I just need extra space for recording HD TV shows and movies. My philosophy KISS.


----------



## TulsaOK

IMO, previous style WD My Book Essential. I think the new style has some firmware that needs to be removed.


----------



## inazsully

Kent Taylor said:


> IMO, previous style WD My Book Essential. I think the new style has some firmware that needs to be removed.


How do I find one? Do you have a model number. How about the WD Elements? Also why do our last few posts not show up on the main forum page?


----------



## TulsaOK

http://tinyurl.com/y9k5ow6http://tinyurl.com/y9k5ow6


----------



## beely

I recall reading on Dish's site that they were limiting user's external HD to 500GB & that a $49 fee was required before the USB port was turned on. Is this no longer true? Are folks in this thread saying that they are using a full 1TB (and larger) drive with their Dish boxes? 

-*-Bill


----------



## Rob Glasser

beely said:


> I recall reading on Dish's site that they were limiting user's external HD to 500GB & that a $49 fee was required before the USB port was turned on. Is this no longer true? Are folks in this thread saying that they are using a full 1TB (and larger) drive with their Dish boxes?
> 
> -*-Bill


You must still pay a one time fee, but it's $39.99 if I'm not mistaken, to turn on external hard drive support. That one time fee covers all supported receivers on your account.

As far as size, that restriction has since been lifted. I know they moved it to 1TB but I think they later may have changed it to any USB 2.0 single drive configuration. I have heard from others that dual drive enclosures have worked for them as well, but I don't think they are officially supported.

I haven't read up on this recently, but this is my understanding.


----------



## mikeyinokc

I have a WD MyBook 500gig that I have had for at least 1 year now. My 722 recently gave me the message that I needed to reformat. I did that and then uploaded some movies to it.

That lasted about 2-3 months, and last week I have the message again. Dish tech help tells me that I must be using a non-compatible HD. 

Seems to me if it is non-compatible that it would never work at all. I have tried the unplug test on the HD, with no success.

Should I look at another brand, or does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks, Mike


----------



## bnborg

Yes, I would look for another brand.

You could also try running the manufacturer's diagnostics on the drive. See http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=108&sid=3&lang=en, or http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en, for WD other drives.


----------



## phrelin

mikeyinokc said:


> I have a WD MyBook 500gig that I have had for at least 1 year now. My 722 recently gave me the message that I needed to reformat. I did that and then uploaded some movies to it.
> 
> That lasted about 2-3 months, and last week I have the message again. Dish tech help tells me that I must be using a non-compatible HD.
> 
> Seems to me if it is non-compatible that it would never work at all. I have tried the unplug test on the HD, with no success.
> 
> Should I look at another brand, or does anyone have a suggestion?
> 
> Thanks, Mike


I have 5 WD MyBook Essentials and have had no problems with them. There are a lot of us out here that use them. The tech is ill informed.


----------



## TulsaOK

phrelin said:


> The tech is ill informed.


You're too kind.


----------



## elbodude

Is anybody here using a potable USB drive with a 622? I am thinking getting a replacement drive that does not have an external power supply, but rather uses the USB port for the power. I tried a 500GB Toshiba, but the 622 did not see it.

Thanks,
elbo


----------



## Tulsa1

You cannot use USB powered drives on these DVRs


----------



## elbodude

Tulsa1 said:


> You cannot use USB powered drives on these DVRs


Thanks!


----------



## Jim148

Now that DISH has announced it will remove the limit on EHD size at the end of March, I suppose I may have to look at this again. Maybe a Western Digital of the 2 TB variety. Did the price fo up from $35 to $49 on this?

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=172613


----------



## inazsully

Kent Taylor said:


> http://tinyurl.com/y9k5ow6http://tinyurl.com/y9k5ow6


I was hoping I could come to this site and have someone call me stupid. Especially a moderator. How hard would it have been to just recommend a model number?


----------



## olds403

I am using the WD 1.5T essentials, model number WDBAAF0015HBK-NESN. It is one of the new drives with smartware. It takes about 10 minutes to connect it to the computer and download a firmware update that lets you disable the smartware. After disabling the smartware it will behave like previous versions of the WD essentials drives. I have had no issues with this model after disabling the smartware. If you want to read about compatibility with DVR's of this model google Western Digital, smartware, DVR and you will find discussions of people using this drive with DVR's and PS3's. The smartware must be disabled for it to work properly in this function. I have heard that the WD elements hard drives work well also, I am not sure if they have the smartware or not.


----------



## JWKessler

I was at Best Buy yesterday and spotted a sleek looking 1TB Toshiba PH3100U-1EXB for $99.00 so I bought it. My VIP722 tells me it's unrecognized. Oh Poop!

I have a 1TB Western Digital connected to my Mac as a backup drive for Time Machine, so I suppose I could swap them. Unfortunately the WD is a Firewire drive (but also supports USB). I paid extra for that feature but won't be able to use it now.

Does anyone have thoughts on how I might get the Toshiba to work before I do anything drastic?


----------



## Tulsa1

I see a lot of complaints about that drive on Amazon.com


----------



## Grandude

_I was at Best Buy yesterday and spotted a sleek looking 1TB Toshiba PH3100U-1EXB for $99.00 so I bought it. My VIP722 tells me it's unrecognized._

Did you try it on your PC to see if the drive is OK or not there? If bad I would return it immediately or maybe just return it anyway as it doesn't work for you the way you had planned.


----------



## phrelin

JWKessler said:


> I was at Best Buy yesterday and spotted a sleek looking 1TB Toshiba PH3100U-1EXB for $99.00 so I bought it. My VIP722 tells me it's unrecognized. Oh Poop!
> 
> I have a 1TB Western Digital connected to my Mac as a backup drive for Time Machine, so I suppose I could swap them. Unfortunately the WD is a Firewire drive (but also supports USB). I paid extra for that feature but won't be able to use it now.
> 
> Does anyone have thoughts on how I might get the Toshiba to work before I do anything drastic?


I'll offer a suggestion to try based on what has worked for other drives.

According to one of the user reviews on Amazon, (assuming you have a Windows computer) Toshiba has a fix on the web site to remove the "virtual CD" partition and then you can reformat it to NTFS which apparently takes four hours. This combination should also remove the "sleep" mode according to the review.

Probably after that the 722 will recognize it and reformat it, maybe.


----------



## JWKessler

Thanks for the suggestions. I took a simpler route instead. I returned the Toshiba drive and picked up a 1TB IOMega Prestige. The IOMega was about $20.00 more, but has the same narrow vertical footprint which lets me tuck it neatly next to the 722. This drive appears to be working just fine for me. It's quiet and runs quite cool. One advantage for home theater users, but possibly a disadvantage for computer users, is the drive activity light is located at the back of the unit on one side. This means you won't see the light if the drive is visible while you are watching your TV.

I must thank Best Buy for their no nonsense return policy.

Now I have to figure out why one of my analog audio channels has started cutting out every few minutes since I installed the drive. It's always something.


----------



## cbjr

Can you play a movie directly from the external hard drive or do you have to copy the movie back to the DVR in order to play it? I have a VIP722 and have ordered the WD My Book Essentials 1TB. Thanks for any help!


----------



## TulsaOK

:welcome_s to the group.
Yes, you can play directly from the EHD. There have been reports of recordings being deleted while viewing from the EHD, so you may want to be careful and not watch anything you may want to keep directly.


----------



## tabort

I have a VIP 722 and want to know how large an external hard drive is it compatible for, I just bought a Western digital 2TB and it formatted just as if it were only a 1 TB harddrive, what gives???


----------



## olds403

There have been reports of that happening. I have a WD 1.5T my book essentials that works correctly, make sure that your 2T drive is a single drive inside the case and not 2 1T drives inside one case. People have tried single drive 2T WD drives and still had problems. Dish is supposed to remove the limit so that the drives larger than 1T(or 1.5 in my case) will work correctly soon.


----------



## inazsully

olds403 said:


> There have been reports of that happening. I have a WD 1.5T my book essentials that works correctly, make sure that your 2T drive is a single drive inside the case and not 2 1T drives inside one case. People have tried single drive 2T WD drives and still had problems. Dish is supposed to remove the limit so that the drives larger than 1T(or 1.5 in my case) will work correctly soon.


With you're WD Essential EHD did you have to get rid of Smartware and if so was it difficult?


----------



## olds403

No it was not difficult. I went to , http://acletras.com/2009/09/28/wd-smartware/ This site had instructions and links to the downloadable firmware that allows the smartware to be disabled. It took about 10-15 minutes from start to finish, including reformatting the drive on my computer after disabling the smartware(don't know if it was actually necessary but I did it anyways). This needs to be done before you connect it to your dvr and dish formats it. After following the instructions it is plug and play on your dvr, I have had no issues with mine.


----------



## inazsully

olds403 said:


> No it was not difficult. I went to , http://acletras.com/2009/09/28/wd-smartware/ This site had instructions and links to the downloadable firmware that allows the smartware to be disabled. It took about 10-15 minutes from start to finish, including reformatting the drive on my computer after disabling the smartware(don't know if it was actually necessary but I did it anyways). This needs to be done before you connect it to your dvr and dish formats it. After following the instructions it is plug and play on your dvr, I have had no issues with mine.


Thanks a lot. I've been kind of waiting for more feed back and info on the EHD's WD has designed and released specifically for DVR back up but I may just go ahead and get the Essentials 1.5 or 2.0.


----------



## db130

the essentials 1.5TB with the smartware "problem" that can be removed after running a recent firmware update dated march 2010 is now $99.99 w/ free shipping and it comes with a $10 gift card for a future purchase at newegg.com.

i just bought the 1TB version for my DVR'd 211k for $75+tax and free shipping at staples(due to the 211's 1TB restriction) but now i am rethinking my decision here..


----------



## inazsully

What is the difference between the Essential and the Elements please?


----------



## srfrdan

hobbytalk said:


> i know there are a couple of threads about drives that don't work and a few posts about some that do, but the info is scattered in different threads. Maybe we can start a thread that lists the make and model of drives that do work (at the present time) for those that are looking to purchase an external drive.
> 
> Here is a list of ehds that work taken from the posts below
> *
> buffalo technology drivestation sata 500gb
> cavalry 500gb
> fantom titanium 500gb
> hitachi 500gb
> hp personal media drive 500gb
> i/o magic gigabank 500 - 500gb
> iomega 500gb desktop
> maxtor 750gb onetouch
> maxtor 320gb personal storage 3200
> maxtor 500gb personal storage 3200
> maxtor diamondmax 9 80gb ata/133 hdd
> maxtor onetouch ii 200gb
> maxtor onetouch ii 300gb
> maxtor onetouch iii 500gb
> maxtor onetouch iv 500gb
> seagate baracuda ata v 120gb
> seagate free agent pro 320gb
> simpletech 320gb
> simpletech 500gb
> wd my book essentials 250gb
> wd my book essentials 500gb
> wd my book essentials 750gb
> wd my book home edition (usb, firewire, esata) 750g
> wd my book essentials 1tb
> wd my book premium edition 750gb (some reports of issues on this drive have been reported. See wd thread for more details)
> *
> *updated 05/20/08*


fyi dtv now states its ok to use esatas and lists a few as well. Ive seen a few htreads that said no but thats changed. I HAVE A 1.5TB SEAGATE THATS WORKED NO PROBLEM SINCE OCTOBER 09 ON MY HR20-700.


----------



## bnborg

I have a Seagate Barracuda LP ST31500541AS and a Rosewill SATA to USB docking station, that have given me no problems on my VIP 722.

In addition, it is super quiet. There is no fan and the only noise is from the spindle motor of the drive. I can't hear it unless I put my ear within a few inches of the drive.


----------



## olds403

srfrdan said:


> fyi dtv now states its ok to use esatas and lists a few as well. Ive seen a few htreads that said no but thats changed. I HAVE A 1.5TB SEAGATE THATS WORKED NO PROBLEM SINCE OCTOBER 09 ON MY HR20-700.


Isn't this thread for EHD's that work with DISH equipment?


----------



## TulsaOK

Yes it is.


----------



## inazsully

I think this is going to be a huge market and I would like to hear recommendations for easy to set up, easy to use, and reliable units in the 1TB-1.5TB-2TB range. Looking at current prices this seems to be the hot button for most desired sizes.


----------



## olds403

Read the thread, there are a lot of recommended hard drives, pick one.


----------



## inazsully

Oh I've read it, and re-read it. Today I'll pick up the WD Element 1.5TB for $99. It seems like the best choice for me and it just happens to be on sale. Thanks for your help everybody.


----------



## inazsully

I bought the WD Elements 1.5 yesterday and I highly recommend this EHD. No software to delete just plug in the power plug and the USB wire and call Dish. A recorded voice asks if you're installing a new DVR or a EHD. They ask if it's OK to charge the $39.99. You say yes and a screen pops up telling you that the EHD is formatting and the DVR will automatically restart when done (15 minutes for the 1.5).
When it's done you hit MENU then MULTIMEDIA then USB STORAGE then you see #1 MANAGE DEVICE. By selecting this you will see a list of everything that is stored on your EHD. Your options from this list is just like the DVR's recording list. Under #1 you will see #2 SEND TO DEVICE. This brings up the DVR recorded list with an option to ARCHIVE. By selecting ARCHIVE the recording transfers to the EHD. A screen pops up telling you how long it will take and would you like to return to watching TV. A screen will pop up telling you that the transfer is complete. FYI, you can watch a recorded show while transferring another. So far today I have transferred 8 episodes of "Life", 6 hours of boxing, 4 concerts and several movies. It's a piece of cake and I highly recommend the Elements.


----------



## eurosteve

inazsully said:


> I bought the WD Elements 1.5 yesterday and I highly recommend this EHD. No software to delete just plug in the power plug and the USB wire and call Dish. A recorded voice asks if you're installing a new DVR or a EHD. They ask if it's OK to charge the $39.99. You say yes and a screen pops up telling you that the EHD is formatting and the DVR will automatically restart when done (15 minutes for the 1.5).
> When it's done you hit MENU then MULTIMEDIA then USB STORAGE then you see #1 MANAGE DEVICE. By selecting this you will see a list of everything that is stored on your EHD. Your options from this list is just like the DVR's recording list. Under #1 you will see #2 SEND TO DEVICE. This brings up the DVR recorded list with an option to ARCHIVE. By selecting ARCHIVE the recording transfers to the EHD. A screen pops up telling you how long it will take and would you like to return to watching TV. A screen will pop up telling you that the transfer is complete. FYI, you can watch a recorded show while transferring another. So far today I have transferred 8 episodes of "Life", 6 hours of boxing, 4 concerts and several movies. It's a piece of cake and I highly recommend the Elements.


I'm expecting a Seagate 500g expansion drive (ST305004EXA101-RK) to arrive any day. I plan to use it with the 211k. I just want to confirm that from the DISH instructions above, I would choose the DVR option? I also have a 722k on the account and I want to avoid having the system activate the wrong receiver. Or does the DISH computer already know which device I'm trying to activate?


----------



## inazsully

They (automated) will ask you if you are hooking up a new DVR or an External Hard Drive. When you say External Hard Drive they will ask you if it's OK to bill you the $39.99. When you say yes they will activate the rear USB port and tell you that your external hard Drive is good to go. The information for how to use the new hard drive, including pictures, is on the Dish web site. You'll love the extra flexibility your external hard drive gives you. I don't have two receivers so I'm not sure how that will be handled. If they activate the wrong one you'll probably have to call them and have them take care of it. I'm sure it's a simple flip of the switch.


----------



## eurosteve

I'm getting caught up in the language used. I can attach my new hard drive to my *211K* and essentially make the *211K* into a DVR *OR* I can attach my new hard drive to my 722K and have a place for additional storage of video.

In the "external hard drive addendum" trouble shooting section (of the installation guide DISH puts out for the *211K*), they state that a "_DVR conversion_ activation fee applies to all ViP211, ViP*211K* and DISH 411 receivers."

So when I activate my new hard drive for my *211K* am I activating a *new DVR* (as in _DVR conversion_) or am I adding an *external hard drive*? Is it 211K=new DVR or 211K=external hard drive? Sorry to be so concrete, but the choice given seems very ambiguous.

Thanks for help clarifying this!!


----------



## inazsully

My only experience is with the 722 and increasing the storage capacity via external hard drive.


----------



## TulsaOK

You are _converting _the 211k to a DVR.


----------



## eurosteve

Thanks, I'll pick the DVR option.


----------



## eurosteve

I just activated my new drive for the 211K. Actually, Dish asks you if you want to activate a receiver or an external hard drive. The choice was obvious.


----------



## felino

have a question, these hard disk external will work on a vip211? i check some on the list and they are external powered with a AC adaptor, they will work no problem on the vip211?


----------



## eurosteve

Yes, an external drive turns the 211 into a DVR.


----------



## BobaBird

felino, the EHDs with an AC adapter are the only ones you can expect to work. USB-powered drives generally do not work.


----------



## Jim148

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0316300

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Western-D...ssential-USB-2.0-External-Hard-Drive/12517497

I am wondering if anybody else here has tried the Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive yet? They are both about the same price from either WalMart.com, Sams Club, and MicroCenter. I have seen other posts on Western Digital My Book Essential, but they have all been less than 2TB.

I bought two these this afternoon at my local Micro Center. One for the 622 and one for my computers. At $159.99 I decided it was time to give this a try. I am very happy to report that this seemed to be a very simple upgrade. It was pretty much plug and play. Just like the online information indicated, I simply had to call the number to authorize the one-time archiving external hard drive (EHD) activation fee. http://www.dishnetwork.com/receivers/expandYourDVR/document/1LDVRStorage.pdf I had been dragging my feet on this for some time. Part of it was waiting for the end of March removal of the External Hard Drive Size limit. Since March 2010 has come and gone I was then trying to decide which one and how much they were going for. I saw that Western Digital seemed to have a lot of posts with success reported with various size units. (Knowing my luck, the price on these will drop to $99.99 tomorrow!)

Now that I am able to archive what is on my current 622, I may have to get serious about upgrading to a newer receiver. Since I have rules out the 922 for now, since it won't do the TV1 and TV2 like the 622, I will now focus on a 722k. I just have to decide if I want to continue to lease or if I want to straight up purchase the receiver.


----------



## olds403

No one has been able to get a 2T WD drive to have all of its disk space available after formatting on a dish DVR. If yours did indeed format and have all space available(past attempts have had 1T available on a 2T drive) that would be awesome. Let us know how much space available shows on your EHD.


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## Jim148

When I select Video: My Media it displays 1861.0 GB available.


----------



## olds403

sweet


----------



## Datalux

500GB My Passport Elite Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 seems to work fine with my VIP-211K.


----------



## Justgrooven

I've filled the 1Tb drive connected to my 622 so based on what I'm reading here I think I will buy a WD 2Tb Element drive. If I understand it correctly my 622 will just see this drive and reformat it as the EHD feature is already activated and then I can switch back and forth between the drives. Am I correct in these assumptions?


----------



## TulsaOK

You are correct,sir.


----------



## bnborg

Good deal at TigerDirect: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=TSD-2000EARS.


----------



## Ray_Schwarz

bnborg said:


> Good deal at TigerDirect: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=TSD-2000EARS.


This is a SATA (vs USB drive).


----------



## Galaxie6411

Picked up a 1TB from Dell for $75, it is a WD I have a 750 that is more o r less full, I have to keep deleting my least favorite things from it to add others to keep my 622 freed up. Now I just want a USB switch that has a remote control, but I don't think they exist.


----------



## bnborg

Ray_Schwarz said:


> This is a SATA (vs USB drive).


That's where a docking station or external HD case comes in.


----------



## bnborg

I am expecting one of the WD20EARS 2 TB drives from TD to be delivered tomorrow.

Assuming that my VIP 722 formats it correctly when I plug it into my docking station, I am planning to copy the contents of DishArc from my other drive(s) to it. I will report back my results.

Note, after TigerDirect.com had them on sale CompUSA.com had them for the same price, with the same $40 rebate. The price has gone up $10 to $109.99 since. Although today's email specials from CompUSA still showed it at $99.99 (after rebate): http://www.compusa.com/email/compusa/comem552.asp?cm_sp=RightNav-_-Email-_-Email COMEM552.


----------



## bnborg

I plugged it in and turned it on. After the VIP 722 formatted it and rebooted, I see 1861.7 GB available on it.


----------



## Tulsa1

bnborg said:


> I plugged it in and turned it on. After the VIP 722 formatted it and rebooted, I see 1861.7 GB available on it.


I understand that we loose some to overhead but 140 GB seems high


----------



## GrumpyBear

Tulsa1 said:


> I understand that we loose some to overhead but 140 GB seems high


Now you get into the drives vs spindles issue, but its still under 10% so thats not to bad. Its the price we pay for these extra large drives, vs having multiple smaller drives, ie Spindles.


----------



## bnborg

This is about the same size as Jim148, see #363 above.

By WD saying it is 2 TB, they mean that it is 2,000,000,000,000 bytes, or 2 * 10**12. The sticker says it has 3,967,029,168 LBA (512 byte sectors), or 2,031,118,934,016 bytes. When Windows or the VIP reports the drive size, they are using the binary/digital convention of 1 K = 1024, or 2 ** 10, etc. This means that WD's 2 TB is actually 1,862 GB. And in terrabytes, it looks even worse, 1.818 TB.

I looked at the empty, formatted drive in Windows using Ext2Fsd. There are four partitions: 1.0 GB, 500 GB, and 500 GB Linux primary partitions, and a 862 GB Linux extended partition.

I copyied 50 subfolders of DishArc from my 640 GB Hitachi EHD to the new WD. I pluged it into the 722 and it mounted with no problems. I am now watching the Montreux Jazz Festival 2005, recorded from Ovation, from the new drive. 

Note, CompUSA.com is still advertizing these at $99.99, after rebate, with "coupon code" EDD2116.


----------



## Galaxie6411

Got my 1TB WD Essential today, hooked it up and formatted and everything worked fine. It was around 940 gigs after format.


----------



## thomasjk

Target has the WD Elements 1TB drive for 69.99. In store only. http://www.target.com/WD-Elements-E...t_com_category-bin,target_com_brand-bin,price. Picked one up and its all formatted and working.


----------



## phobos512

After reading through this thread I decided to risk it and purchased a WD My Book Elite 2TB (it was on sale cheaper than the less feature packed drives so I figured why not), model WDBAAH0020HCH-NESN.

I updated the firmware (it was many revisions behind) and installed the software on the Virtual CD drive and disabled the auto-sleep functionality (I also changed the label on the front to DISH_DVR - pretty neat). Then I downloaded the Virtual CD disabler and ran that. Plugged the drive into my VIP622 and it came right up saying it needed to be formatted, so it looks like I'm good to go. I'll update if I have any further comments/issues.


----------



## TulsaOK

What was the available space after formatting?


----------



## bnborg

I am in the process of filling up my WD 2 GB drive.

I copied all the subfolders and files from my other EHD drives, a 640 MB and a 1.5 TB, to a partition on my NAS box. Then I copied subfolders and the files in them from the NAS to DishArc folders on the 2 TB, filling up the second and third partitions.

I looked at it on the Vip 722 and then moved a few events to it from the 722. Next, I'll view something on it.

One disadvantage of having such a big drive is that it seems to take forever for the menu to open up "My Media". It must be two minutes. I think it must inventory it every time you open it.


----------



## inazsully

Mine takes quite awhile to open also as I get more and more content. I guess that makes sense. Two things I would like to see. Using hours instead of GB to show length of a recording, and allowing a delete option immediately when watching a show is over. EHD's are wonderful additions to any DVR for sure. If your thinking about getting one you won't be sorry.


----------



## inazsully

Fry's Electronics this week. WD Elements 1.5 $89.99. In my experience this is the perfect EHD for USB port use.


----------



## PeterW

Justgrooven said:


> I've filled the 1Tb drive connected to my 622 so based on what I'm reading here I think I will buy a WD 2Tb Element drive. If I understand it correctly my 622 will just see this drive and reformat it as the EHD feature is already activated and then I can switch back and forth between the drives. Am I correct in these assumptions?


Did you ever pick up the WD 2TB Element? If so, how did it work out? Did you need to download from other sites before you were able to use it, or was it Plug n Play?

Dell has this HD on sale for $115 shipped and I'm very tempted as long as reports are good as an EHD.

I'd post the link but I'm a newbie and have the "no links until 5 posts limit"...but Search works great!

Thanks for letting us know.


----------



## Dobe

I've had 2 WD My Book Essential 750 GB EHD's for 2 years. They're connected to my vip 722 and both are full. I've never had any problems with either one.

Amazon has a great deal on the "Seagate Barracuda 7200 1.5 TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31500341AS-Bare Drive"

Is there any problem using this EHD with the vip 722? Should it work as well as the WD's? Thank you!


----------



## Dobe

I notice that the WD states: 

Just connect the power and plug it into a 2.0 USB port to instantly add more storage to your ....

Is the Seagate Barracuda a simple plug and play when used with the 722? 

Thanks again.


----------



## bnborg

Dobe said:


> ....
> 
> Is the Seagate Barracuda a simple plug and play when used with the 722?
> 
> Thanks again.


Yes.

However if it is an internal drive, you will need a SATA to USB docking station or external enclosure.


----------



## Dobe

Thanks.

It sounds as if it would be easier for me to get a 2TB WD Elements USB 2.0 external hard drive (WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN)

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=50390&lid=1305792

.... unless there's something different about it and my current WD 750 GB USB 2.0 plug and play which is a breeze to set-up and use.


----------



## bnborg

It should be just as easy. Mine was.

But I found the additional delay opening up "My Media" to be annoying.


----------



## shortspark

If someone wants a "smaller" (and, hopefully, faster) WD Elements, Target has an in-store special just like the one reported here last month on a 1TB for $69. The 2 TB at Dell is a very good deal but just too big for me. Go to the weekly Target ad and scroll to page 18:

http://weeklyad.target.com/target/default.aspx?action=entryflash&site=weeklyad.target.com


----------



## olguy

I have a 1T Seagate that I never disabled the auto-sleep on. When connected to my 622 if it went to sleep the 622 could not see it and would not wake it up. I assumed it would be the same on my new 922. Not the same. The 922 wakes it right up. Haven't had a problem yet.


----------



## odbrv

I bought a WD Elements 1.5 TB from Dell at $92 delivered. Hooked it up and got 1.38 TB.
When I used it , it seemed to do transfers to/from slower than my Simpltech 500 Gb. It doesn't have a shut off button. Fortunately , my audio receiver has a power connection.


----------



## Dish97

bnborg said:


> I am in the process of filling up my WD 2 GB drive.
> 
> I copied all the subfolders and files from my other EHD drives, a 640 MB and a 1.5 TB, to a partition on my NAS box. Then I copied subfolders and the files in them from the NAS to DishArc folders on the 2 TB, filling up the second and third partitions.
> 
> I looked at it on the Vip 722 and then moved a few events to it from the 722. Next, I'll view something on it.
> 
> One disadvantage of having such a big drive is that it seems to take forever for the menu to open up "My Media". It must be two minutes. I think it must inventory it every time you open it.


How long did all the copying take? Bought the WD elements 2TB. In the process of transferring contents of a 1 TB drive. Using Acronis.(30 day free trial) Seems like it's taking forever. I know it will work though because I tested first with smaller drives. Just checked progress. "Only" six more hours to go. :dozey:


----------



## olds403

I copied a mostly full 1.5T drive to another drive using Ubuntu on my Imac. It does take a while(20 hours) but was much faster than transferring all those files back to the 722 and then to the other drive.


----------



## Dish97

olds403 said:


> I copied a mostly full 1.5T drive to another drive using Ubuntu on my Imac. It does take a while(20 hours) but was much faster than transferring all those files back to the 722 and then to the other drive.


Didn't know Ubuntu would work with macs. Only used Acronis with my 7 yr old single core Compaq because I couldn't find anything to use with my new 24" imac. I'm sure with the mac transfer would have been faster. But everything came out fine. A perfect clone with 1 TB of space left for more recordings.


----------



## bnborg

Yeah, it takes quite a while to copy. But I think one terrabyte took less than a day, but at least overnight.

I use Ext2Fsd, available from SourceForge, to mount the USB attached drives on Windows 7 x64. Xcopy or drag and drop both work fine.


----------



## olds403

Dish97 said:


> Didn't know Ubuntu would work with macs. Only used Acronis with my 7 yr old single core Compaq because I couldn't find anything to use with my new 24" imac. I'm sure with the mac transfer would have been faster. But everything came out fine. A perfect clone with 1 TB of space left for more recordings.


OSX is really a variation on Linux, using the terminal window for command line stuff is quite similar. I am using OS 10.4.11 and created an Ubuntu boot disc, launched it right from the disc, no installation or partitions necessary. Pretty slick after all the crap I went through trying to install virtual box to run Centos, that was pretty slow.


----------



## fudpucker

inazsully said:


> Mine takes quite awhile to open also as I get more and more content. I guess that makes sense. Two things I would like to see. Using hours instead of GB to show length of a recording, and allowing a delete option immediately when watching a show is over. EHD's are wonderful additions to any DVR for sure. If your thinking about getting one you won't be sorry.


Just hooking one up today (about to go get the WD 1T Elements from Target) - really? It shows drive space instead of time of recording? That's disappointing.


----------



## olguy

fudpucker said:


> Just hooking one up today (about to go get the WD 1T Elements from Target) - really? It shows drive space instead of time of recording? That's disappointing.


The reason file size is used is because one hour programs can be varying sizes. I just looked at mine and saw:

CSI:NY = 3.5G
Rookie Blue = 1.7 and 1.9
Haven = 2.5 G

All from satellite. The OTA recordings take even more room.


----------



## fudpucker

OK, got the 1T WD Elements drive from Target (man, hard to believe you can buy 1T for a little over $70!!!) Simply plugged it in, called, and it works. Took a while to transfer the movies over to it, but pretty simple and painless so far.


----------



## plasmacat

I've had the 1TB Elements drive since Target's black friday sale. This week's Target sale price is the lowest I've seen since then (it was $60) so I recommend grabbing it.


----------



## phrelin

That's really cheap. It's available right now from Amazon at $74.99 with free shipping and no sales tax. If I could get to a Target store after tax at $60 it would be about $65. Maybe I'll have my son pick one up for me.


----------



## SDWC

WD Elements 1TB HDD right now for $60 on dealnews.com with free shipping. Just ordered one after hearing that it seems to work well.

http://dealnews.com/Western-Digital-1-TB-USB-External-Hard-Drive-for-60-free-shipping/384447.html


----------



## artcal

Hi!
I'm a newbie to DBSTaik. I recently purchased the Clickfree C2N external hard drive primarily as a portable backup drive for my computers and it does the job for me. At the time, I wasn't thinking about adding additional hard drive storage for my Dish DVR. (My Bad.)

I have the Dish Network VIP 622 DVR but unsure if the Clickfree C2N (640GB) external hard drive will work with it as well. I'm aware of Dish Network's one-time $40 activation fee but I don't want to pay for it and find out it doesn't work with my Clickfree. The additional DVR storage would be nice but not at the cost of buying another external hard drive.

I did search the forum and found nothing regarding the Clickfree. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience using Clickfree C2N with their VIP 622? For your information, out of curiosity, I did connect the Clickfee via USB into the 622 and the external hard drive system lit up so I'm assuming it works but I quickly removed it out of fear of messing something up. 

Any information is appreciated. Thank you in advance.


----------



## GrumpyBear

Are you thinking of using the EHD on you computers and on your 622? That wont work, file systems are vastly different. Have no experience with that drive, but as long as it has its own power source it should work. Worse thing that will happen is the 622 will format the drive, so remove all the files you don't wont lost during the formatting, to a safe place.


----------



## bnborg

GrumpyBear said:


> Are you thinking of using the EHD on you computers and on your 622? That wont work, file systems are vastly different. Have no experience with that drive, but as long as it has its own power source it should work. Worse thing that will happen is the 622 will format the drive, so remove all the files you don't wont lost during the formatting, to a safe place.


As long as you let the DVR format the drive, you can mount on a Linux system or on Windows using software such as Ext2Fsd, the one I use. There is not much you can do with it, other than back up the files and possibly copy them to other EHD's. The files are encrypted.


----------



## GrumpyBear

bnborg said:


> As long as you let the DVR format the drive, you can mount on a Linux system or on Windows using software such as Ext2Fsd, the one I use. There is not much you can do with it, other than back up the files and possibly copy them to other EHD's. The files are encrypted.


Big difference, between mounting the drive for backup, something I do alot of, and storing DVR files on it as well as pictures, music and data files from a windows PC. OP wasn't clear on if he wanted to connect it and use it on both his DVR and Windows PC. That just wont work.


----------



## artcal

This is just a follow-up. After reading all the various threads which have been extremely helpful and excellent answers to my questions from DBSTalk forum folks, decided on a WD Elements 2TB EHD. Contacted Dish to activate feature, EHD reformatted and everything works perfectly. I'm a happy man! Thanks to everyone.

One final question. I have a second receiver (VIP 722). I know that I can exchange the EHD between receivers on the same account. Just wondering if I purchase a second WD Elements EHD and connect it to the second receiver, will it just as easily reformat and work with no problems. Or are there any Dish restrictions preventing this. Don't want to buy a second EHD and find out I can't do this.


----------



## SaltiDawg

artcal said:


> ...
> 
> One final question. I have a second receiver (VIP 722). I know that I can exchange the EHD between receivers on the same account. Just wondering if I purchase a second WD Elements EHD and connect it to the second receiver, will it just as easily reformat and work with no problems. Or are there any Dish restrictions preventing this. Don't want to buy a second EHD and find out I can't do this.


Experiment: Take your drive that you know works on your first receiver. Re-format it on a PC. Take it to your 722, which doesn't "know" that it is a previously used drive, and connect the drive to your 722. If it formats to the Dish requirements, you've answered your own question with 100% assurance.


----------



## artcal

As always, Thanks again!


----------



## HDlover

You can have as many usb drives as you want and access them from both DVRs.


----------



## GrumpyBear

artcal said:


> This is just a follow-up. After reading all the various threads which have been extremely helpful and excellent answers to my questions from DBSTalk forum folks, decided on a WD Elements 2TB EHD. Contacted Dish to activate feature, EHD reformatted and everything works perfectly. I'm a happy man! Thanks to everyone.
> 
> One final question. I have a second receiver (VIP 722). I know that I can exchange the EHD between receivers on the same account. Just wondering if I purchase a second WD Elements EHD and connect it to the second receiver, will it just as easily reformat and work with no problems. Or are there any Dish restrictions preventing this. Don't want to buy a second EHD and find out I can't do this.


I have four 2TB drives, one for each family member and move them between both 722's with no problems. Normally have my drive on the bedroom 722k, and the one of the kids connected to the family room DVR at all times, without any issues.


----------



## Davenlr

GrumpyBear said:


> I have four 2TB drives, one for each family member and move them between both 722's with no problems. Normally have my drive on the bedroom 722k, and the one of the kids connected to the family room DVR at all times, without any issues.


Grumpy, could you put those 4 two TB drives in a raid box, and have a 8TB external connected to your DVR? Will the Dish box work with one of those?


----------



## TulsaOK

I'm assuming that GB has stand-alone USB drives each powered by their own power supply so I doubt he could put those in a RAID box. Interesting question from a D* sub.


----------



## Davenlr

Im just curious if he had tried a Raid setup (or anyone else). Just because I sub to D* doesnt mean I cant learn about E*, right? My cousin is a E* SD customer and about to get his first HDTV, and is asking me all sorts of questions, and I want to give him good answers. I think the EHD is E*s biggest plus. My dvr fries, I just lose everything. Thats why I built my own DVR, so when I record something, I dont have to worry about losing it if the receiver/dvr fries.


----------



## GrumpyBear

Davenlr said:


> Grumpy, could you put those 4 two TB drives in a raid box, and have a 8TB external connected to your DVR? Will the Dish box work with one of those?


I do have a raid array I could give it a try, with some other drives. Right now though, Dish doesn't support raid systems, and doesn't support more than 2TB's, so I haven't bothered to try. 
Another reason I don't even bother, this way, everybody has a personal 2TB DVR, that they have full control of, no accidental deletions, no worries about running out of recording space, plus whats on the internal drive as adding a External drive doesn't disable the Internal drive.

I also have a 622 that I activate for family trips, or for next weeks hunting trip, and will build a road drive, used to be 1TB drives, now its a 2TB drive, of all sorts of shows. Only real issue I have with the drives, is when I back them up. All shows only have encrypted numbers, for names, you have no idea when you backup or restore what you are getting. Have to make a text file that goes in the backup directory for each drive so I know what was on it, and actually added to the backup.

This works well when I upgraded everybodies 1TB drives, they kept the shows they wanted, I backed up the drives, and then restored to the new 2TB drive, so nothing was lost. The old 1TB drives are now added to the Music and Movie server, so they don't go to waste. I don't use EHD's I use Harddrives and a caddy, so it makes it easier to put the old drives anywere I want to, when I upgrade.
To back up the drive you need a Unix computer or Get Microsofts Unix Services, that will allow you mount and backup a NFS device, after you mount the drive, backup the DishARC folder. Don't bother to do just the files, as it wont make any sense, plus when you restore you have to restore the entire DishARC folder.


----------



## Davenlr

Ok, well, if it only can go to 2TB, then that pretty much negates what I was considering.


----------



## bnborg

GrumpyBear said:


> To back up the drive you need a Unix computer or Get Microsofts Unix Services, that will allow you mount and backup a NFS device, after you mount the drive, backup the DishARC folder. Don't bother to do just the files, as it wont make any sense, plus when you restore you have to restore the entire DishARC folder.


Grumpy,

How do you mount a drive with ext3 partitions using NFS? Wouldn't the partitions first have to be mounted on Unix/Linux, and then exported?

I have Microsoft SFU (services for unix) installed, but I have relied on Ext2Fsd to mount partitions on these drives. Problem is that Ext2Fsd can't handle the extended partition on Dish drives larger than about 1.5 GB.


----------



## Jim148

I see that 3 TB external hard drives are now available. Would this be a worthy device for us DISH users?

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=884


----------



## TulsaOK

That's a lot of eggs in one basket.


----------



## phrelin

One could get about 500 movies on 3TB. _When_ (not if) the drive fails, you will likely have set a record for a Dish customer.:eek2:


----------



## Tulsa1

I think you would also find a very long delay each time you wish to access it
after getting over 2TB content on it. This would be very frustrating if your not
loaded with patience.


----------



## thomasjk

Jim148 said:


> I see that 3 TB external hard drives are now available. Would this be a worthy device for us DISH users?
> 
> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=884


I believe the maximum Dish supports is 2TB.


----------



## plasmacat

Just a heads up - Target is having the Elements 2TB HD for $69 on Black Friday. I got the 1TB last year and have had no problems with it.


----------



## ams234

I have a VIP622 and picked up a few 2 TB HD from Target... will they work with the dvr? I thought the max was 1 TB? Is there some way around this? Thanks.


----------



## GrumpyBear

ams234 said:


> I have a VIP622 and picked up a few 2 TB HD from Target... will they work with the dvr? I thought the max was 1 TB? Is there some way around this? Thanks.


Dish changed over to 2TB's about 9 months ago, as the max size.


----------



## SaltiDawg

ams234 said:


> I have a VIP622 and picked up a few 2 TB HD from Target... will they work with the dvr? I thought the max was 1 TB? Is there some way around this? Thanks.


My wife uses a 1.5 TB EHD on her 622.....


----------



## DoyleS

I know the thread is about drives that work well but it could also be helpful to list problem drives. I had been using a 750 GB Simpletech drive and it does work but it has an energy saving feature and shuts down after non use. The 622 can't restart it so it needs to be manually restarted which is a pain. I am pulling it and replacing it with a 2 TB drive. I will just reformat the Simpletech for use on a PC.


----------



## thomasjk

It most likely needs the sleep feature turned off using your PC. See http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2055096&highlight=seagate+sleep#post2055096 for the same problem with Seagate drives.


----------



## DoyleS

thanks thomasjk,

I assume that has to be done before the drive is reformatted by the 622, is that correct? Since some of these drives come preformatted, and in that preformatting any problem sectors get skipped. When the drive is formatted by the 622, does it now allow those problem sectors to be used for data?


----------



## thomasjk

DoyleS said:


> thanks thomasjk,
> 
> I assume that has to be done before the drive is reformatted by the 622, is that correct? Since some of these drives come preformatted, and in that preformatting any problem sectors get skipped. When the drive is formatted by the 622, does it now allow those problem sectors to be used for data?


Yes you have to attach it to a PC first to disable auto sleep. Don't know about preformatting. The 622 OS is Linux based.


----------



## mick70

I was wondering if there was an updated list of EHD that will work with 622 and 722's.


----------



## P Smith

Jim148 said:


> I see that 3 TB external hard drives are now available. Would this be a worthy device for us DISH users?
> 
> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=884


Looks like it hold 2x1.5 TB drives inside, what is NO-NO for EHD.


----------



## P Smith

mick70 said:


> I was wondering if there was an updated list of EHD that will work with 622 and 722's.


The list is updating by US, so try and report what is OK what is not.


----------



## P Smith

DoyleS said:


> thanks thomasjk,
> 
> I assume that has to be done before the drive is reformatted by the 622, is that correct? Since some of these drives come preformatted, and in that preformatting any problem sectors get skipped. *When the drive is formatted by the 622, does it now allow those problem sectors to be used for data?*


Yes.

You should use programs like MHDD (bootable) or Victoria (Windoes) to run Scan and Remap to fix issue with bad sectors, check SMART status.


----------



## harsh

mick70 said:


> I was wondering if there was an updated list of EHD that will work with 622 and 722's.


The list of drives that _don't_ work would probably be shorter.


----------



## harsh

P Smith said:


> Looks like it hold 2x1.5 TB drives inside, what is NO-NO for EHD.


Given that the weight is independent of the capacity, it would appear that this indeed a single spindle device based on the 3TB Caviar Green drive.


----------



## P Smith

harsh said:


> Given that the weight is independent of the capacity, it would appear that this indeed a single spindle device based on the 3TB Caviar Green drive.


I'm not convinced by a couple very serious reasons: - no model ID exist for 3TB drive itself, - no sales of such bare bone drives. It's no tealeaves reading, but manufacturing/sales matter.


----------



## bnborg

harsh said:


> The list of drives that _don't_ work would probably be shorter.


Right on!


----------



## harsh

P Smith said:


> I'm not convinced by a couple very serious reasons: - no model ID exist for 3TB drive itself, - no sales of such bare bone drives.


Look up this model number: WD30EZRSDTL

It is the top item in the table on this page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120

There are reviews of this drive on the Internet and Newegg claims they have them in stock and you can buy just one for $229.99. So much for your feeble theory about a 3TB mechanism not existing.

http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_green_3tb_review_wd30ezrsdtl


----------



## GrumpyBear

I was looking at this My Book Essential Edition 3 TB WDBACW0030HBK, at Bestbuy. Not for a EHD for my 722, but for my laptop. Still not sure about using anything over 2TB's as Dish just updated the Firmware this year to support 2TB's, grabbing a 3TB for $230, for a EHD use could be a waste of money, unless you had another use for it in house.


----------



## P Smith

harsh said:


> Look up this model number: WD30EZRSDTL
> 
> It is the top item in the table on this page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120
> 
> There are reviews of this drive on the Internet and Newegg claims they have them in stock and you can buy just one for $229.99. So much for your feeble theory about a 3TB mechanism not existing.
> 
> http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_green_3tb_review_wd30ezrsdtl


That WD page is MARKETING flayer ! Show me tech specs of it, then we will talk.
Also, if you will look into HDD specs by WD you will know the "WD30EZRSDTL" is not HDD model, but retail box ID.

We will return to the discussion after we will see the 3TB HDD SELLING.

For now you are has future product advertising.


----------



## GrumpyBear

P Smith said:


> That WD page is MARKETING flayer ! Show me tech specs of it, then we will talk.
> Also, if you will look into HDD specs by WD you will know the "WD30EZRSDTL" is not HDD model, but retail box ID.
> 
> We will return to the discussion after we will see the 3TB HDD SELLING.
> 
> For now you are has future product advertising.


P Smith
Seagate 3TB is available for local store pickup.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate...lack/1361508.p?id=1218252977386&skuId=1361508

As is the Western Digital 3TB drive.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western...lack/1261281.p?skuId=1261281&id=1218244145647

Sorry both are real products TODAY, and in stores. Granted I would hold off


----------



## P Smith

GrumpyBear said:


> P Smith
> Seagate 3TB is available for local store pickup.
> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate...lack/1361508.p?id=1218252977386&skuId=1361508
> 
> As is the Western Digital 3TB drive.
> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western...lack/1261281.p?skuId=1261281&id=1218244145647
> 
> Sorry both are real products TODAY, and in stores. Granted I would hold off


OK, are you sure those models has 1x3 TB, not 2x1.5 TB ?

I'm still waiting for official 3TB specs by WD on WD site.


----------



## SaltiDawg

P Smith said:


> ...
> We will return to the discussion after we will see the 3TB HDD SELLING ..


You seem to think you have a corner on being correct - when generally you are way off base. lol


----------



## P Smith

SaltiDawg said:


> You seem to think you have a corner on being correct - when generally you are way off base. lol


Blatant statement - I'm in doubt and questioning and getting no answers...


----------



## GrumpyBear

P Smith said:


> OK, are you sure those models has 1x3 TB, not 2x1.5 TB ?
> 
> I'm still waiting for official 3TB specs by WD on WD site.


I know the WD is single, pretty sure about the Seagate. CNET has a review on several models Here is the specs from WD
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=240
The 3TB is top of the list.


----------



## P Smith

Nope, like this: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701236.pdf

[I could fit two lower profile HDD into 1.9" thick box]


----------



## parlyle

olds403 said:


> OSX is really a variation on Linux, using the terminal window for command line stuff is quite similar. I am using OS 10.4.11 and created an Ubuntu boot disc, launched it right from the disc, no installation or partitions necessary. Pretty slick after all the crap I went through trying to install virtual box to run Centos, that was pretty slow.


If it is at all a viable question, please advise how to go about doing this. I have a MacBook Pro 2,1 "Original 2006",OS 10.5.8. 2.33Ghz, 1T drive. I went to the Ubuntu website and looked around. Not much mention of Mac support. I am getting a WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN drive and wanted to transfer some files from another 750GB WD drive to the new 2T drive. How can I do this without tearing anymore hair out of my already bald head?
Thanks for the responses:

Lyle

I just realized that my question has probably nothing to do with your quote. I will stick with the question though, and continue to ask it.


----------



## P Smith

Perhaps you should post the question in other - dedicated thread "How to Copy ...".


----------



## parlyle

P Smith said:


> Perhaps you should post the question in other - dedicated thread "How to Copy ...".


Thanks for the info. It's been a while since I posted and I didn't know that thread existed.


----------



## oldschoolecw

I have Dish Network being installed this Saturday and was looking at this External Hard Drive. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...UTF8&coliid=I6WFVSK370FPX&colid=2V47QXU4J2AA1

Will this work nicely with my new VIP722K w/ sling? If not please point me in the right direction, thanks


----------



## Jim5506

It appears to meet all the criteria for Dish Network EHD's.

WD hard drives seem to have fewer problem reports than other manufacturers.


----------



## P Smith

It should, if not - return it for full refund.


----------



## oldschoolecw

Jim5506 said:


> It appears to meet all the criteria for Dish Network EHD's.
> 
> WD hard drives seem to have fewer problem reports than other manufacturers.





P Smith said:


> It should, if not - return it for full refund.


Thanks


----------



## prosseda

I can confirm that 2TB is the limit if that helps. I got a WDBACW0030HBK and it will not complete a successful format.

722K L682
622 L633


----------



## bnborg

Jim5506 said:


> WD hard drives seem to have fewer problem reports than other manufacturers.


Maybe. But good luck trying to RMA one.

I guess I have dealt with about a dozen failed drives over the years. The only ones I couldn't send back for a free replacement were WD.

Note, see the DishArc thread for a previous discussion about archiving recordings on EHD's.


----------



## 722921

HobbyTalk said:


> I know there are a couple of threads about drives that don't work and a few posts about some that do, but the info is scattered in different threads. Maybe we can start a thread that lists the make and model of drives that do work (at the present time) for those that are looking to purchase an external drive.
> 
> Here is a list of EHDs that work taken from the posts below
> *
> Buffalo Technology DriveStation SATA 500GB
> Cavalry 500GB
> Fantom Titanium 500GB
> Hitachi 500GB
> HP Personal Media Drive 500GB
> I/O Magic Gigabank 500 - 500GB
> IOmega 500GB Desktop
> Maxtor 750GB OneTouch
> Maxtor 320GB Personal Storage 3200
> Maxtor 500GB Personal Storage 3200
> MAXTOR DiamondMax 9 80GB ATA/133 HDD
> Maxtor OneTouch II 200GB
> Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB
> Maxtor OneTouch III 500GB
> Maxtor OneTouch IV 500GB
> Seagate Baracuda ATA V 120GB
> Seagate Free Agent Pro 320GB
> SimpleTech 320GB
> SimpleTech 500GB
> WD My Book Essentials 250GB
> WD My Book Essentials 500GB
> WD My Book Essentials 750GB
> WD My Book Home Edition (USB, Firewire, eSATA) 750G
> WD My Book Essentials 1TB
> WD My Book Premium Edition 750GB (Some reports of issues on this drive have been reported. See WD thread for more details)
> *
> *Updated 05/20/08*


Is this list really going on 3 years old and/or do I need to sift through this whole thread and make my own current list?


----------



## P Smith

Practically *ANY *USB2 external enclosure with *ANY *drive will works.


----------



## harsh

P Smith said:


> Practically *ANY *USB2 external enclosure with *ANY *drive will works.


I think some of these may be DIRECTV expatriates where only a few combinations are community recommended to work reliably.

As always, it is imperative to point out that the USB drive MUST BE SELF-POWERED and have only one physical drive (no RAIDs).

With such a large gamut of compatible drives, it is surely easier to list those that don't work.


----------



## 722921

The dish website says don't exceed 1 TB, but that does not seem to be true.
Also, can the drive be moved between two DVRs like my 722 and 622 and are there limitations?
Is there a FAQ on this topic to get the skinny?


----------



## P Smith

Reading posts/threads will give more info and factual data.

FAQ ? That thing is REQUIRE a support !

So far only EKB (boba) came with updating DB.


----------



## harsh

The Sanskrit translator appears to be a little off today


----------



## P Smith

harsh said:


> The Sanskrit translator appears to be a little off today


Go ahead (PM or here) to fix it.


----------



## tampa8

WD Elements 1TB and 2TB and 500GB. All work flawlessly and often can be found on sale.


----------



## CABill

722921 said:


> The dish website says don't exceed 1 TB, but that does not seem to be true.
> Also, can the drive be moved between two DVRs like my 722 and 622 and are there limitations?
> Is there a FAQ on this topic to get the skinny?


The external can move between 612/622/722 receivers on the same account, but can't be used on a 211 (without format first). Externals on 211s can be moved between 211s on the same account, but connecting to the DVR will ask to format again.

1TB remains the limit for 211 external drives, making it harder to post a single limit without saying IF. Probably just easiest to leave the web site just saying 1TB, even when larger drives work on ViP DVRs. Getting Darryl to change it isn't easy.


----------



## P Smith

Easy ? Easy to keep your customers in a dark ? Nay.

It should be corrected. Not everyone watching that Cchats...


----------



## 722921

CABill said:


> The external can move between 612/622/722 receivers on the same account, but can't be used on a 211 (without format first). Externals on 211s can be moved between 211s on the same account, but connecting to the DVR will ask to format again.
> 
> 1TB remains the limit for 211 external drives, making it harder to post a single limit without saying IF. Probably just easiest to leave the web site just saying 1TB, even when larger drives work on ViP DVRs. Getting Darryl to change it isn't easy.


Thanks!


----------



## PhantomOG

Can someone give me a rough estimate on how 1TB equates to hours or programming it holds (HD)? I have a 622, which I think the limit is 30hour HD. If I bought a 2TB EHD, how many hours of HD would it hold? I paged though most of this thread and couldn't find this.


----------



## P Smith

1 GB/h 
[this topic has been discussed so many times ..]


----------



## Tulsa1

Newegg has the WD 1.5 TB internal harddrive on sale for $70
http://promotions.newegg.com/neemai...EFL030111-_-EMC-030111-Index-_-E0-_-PromoWord
Scroll down near the bottom to locate it.


----------



## P Smith

Saw 2 TB drive for $79 at Fry's recently.


----------



## Ira Lacher

Anyone familiar with this Verbatim 500GB model?


----------



## P Smith

Ira Lacher said:


> Anyone familiar with this Verbatim 500GB model?


Better if you will try and post a result here.


----------



## Ray_Schwarz

Ira Lacher said:


> Anyone familiar with this Verbatim 500GB model?


Seems to be a relatively high price for a relatively low capacity refurbrished drive.


----------



## Ira Lacher

Lowest I've been able to find, actually.


----------



## XXL

CABill said:


> The external can move between 612/622/722 receivers on the same account, but can't be used on a 211 (without format first). Externals on 211s can be moved between 211s on the same account, but connecting to the DVR will ask to format again.
> 
> 1TB remains the limit for 211 external drives, making it harder to post a single limit without saying IF. Probably just easiest to leave the web site just saying 1TB, even when larger drives work on ViP DVRs. Getting Darryl to change it isn't easy.


Is the part about multiple receivers true?

Talked to a DISH Customer Service Rep a couple of months ago and she had the EHD access activated for my two 622s. I specifically asked if I could use the same EHD on both 622s and was told "yes". (I wanted to transfer recorded programs between the two 622s.) Bought a WD 750 GB EHD, just for DISH 622 use.

The first 622 formatted the EHD and it worked fine and I transferred a number of programs. Hooked up the EHD to my second 622 and received the message that the EHD had to be formatted for use on that 622.

Talked to two DISH Tech Support Reps and they both said that an EHD can only be used on one receiver, even if both are on the same account. They also said that you cannot save your existing programs to an EHD and then transfer them to a new 722k, or whatever, should you upgrade. The EHD would have to be formatted for use on your one new receiver.

Sounds like an EHD can *only* be used to increase storage on one receiver, period. Am I missing something?

Thanks!


----------



## TulsaOK

CABill is correct. ViP622's are notoriously hinky when it comes to EHD's, however. There's a Household Key that must be identical on all your DVR's if the EHD is to be recognized. Check the one that recognizes the EHD then press Menu - 6 - 3 - Counters. Page down about six or seven times and you'll see the counter. Then check your other receiver and see what that one indicates. If they're not identical, calling Dish and asking them to reauthorize that receiver for EHD might work. Actually, one of the Dish folks on the forum might be more likely to help you out.


----------



## XXL

Kent,

Thanks for your quick response!

Shall do what you suggest and check the Counter info ASAP.

(I used go wild digging into menus during my 20 years of using C-Band dishes / receivers. A lot like a hobby, really. Now with DISH, I appreciate the enhanced receiver functionality and very seldom look at all that technical stuff buried below the surface.)

This forum = great resource!

Cheers!


----------



## bluestem

So does the dish single platter requirement still mean anything or is this out dated? It seems some of the listed drives are not single platter but seem to all be reported as working. Just wondering?


----------



## harsh

There was never a single platter requirement. It has always been a single spindle requirement.

Essentially, that's longhand for no RAIDs. It is unclear (and largely unimportant) whether there will be an effort to remove that criterion.


----------



## P Smith

Strictly speaking, that requirement was "*single LUN*".


----------



## harsh

P Smith said:


> Strictly speaking, that requirement was "*single LUN*".


As Logical Unit Number is typically only spoken in SCSI (and more recently SNA) circles, spindles seemed to be something that most could get their head around.

Nothing like a foreign language to confuse the issue.


----------



## P Smith

I've seen LUNs for USB controllers with dual ports for drives: IDE and SATA. Perhaps only certain controllers could do that.

As to original source of the LUN requirement, it wasn't me , it was pronounce during CC when EHD presented a couple years ago.


----------



## bluestem

Many thanks for the additional clarification. I did see references to spindle but confess I did not know the difference between the two concepts.

Bluestem


----------



## harsh

P Smith said:


> I've seen LUNs for USB controllers with dual ports for drives: IDE and SATA.


The LUN thing probably stems from the fact that USB drives used to be mounted in the Pee Cee world via SCSI drivers. IIRC, early SATA drives were mounted as SCSI devices in Linux until native support was added.


----------



## P Smith

That's correct. On PC, under Windows, using SCSI layer.
We don't know what layer dish Linux using, so it could be an issue for it.


----------



## XXL

Kent Taylor said:


> CABill is correct. ViP622's are notoriously hinky when it comes to EHD's, however. There's a Household Key that must be identical on all your DVR's if the EHD is to be recognized. Check the one that recognizes the EHD then press Menu - 6 - 3 - Counters. Page down about six or seven times and you'll see the counter. Then check your other receiver and see what that one indicates. If they're not identical, calling Dish and asking them to reauthorize that receiver for EHD might work. Actually, one of the Dish folks on the forum might be more likely to help you out.





XXL said:


> Kent,
> 
> Thanks for your quick response!
> 
> Shall do what you suggest and check the Counter info ASAP.
> 
> (I used go wild digging into menus during my 20 years of using C-Band dishes / receivers. A lot like a hobby, really. Now with DISH, I appreciate the enhanced receiver functionality and very seldom look at all that technical stuff buried below the surface.)
> 
> This forum = great resource!
> 
> Cheers!


Looked at Menu / 6 / 3 / Counters. Could not see anything that mentioned "Household Key", so am unable to tell if that key is the same on both 622s.

The only obvious (to me) HDD parameters are for the internal HDD -- temp, errors, etc.

After formatting my EHD on one 622, I get the same clear message when connecting it to the second 622; something like, "You must modify (format) this EHD for use on this receiver".

It seems to me that an EHD can only be used to increase the storage capacity on one DVR and nothing else. This begs the question: when upgrading DVRs, how do you transfer existing saved programs from your 622 to a new 722k, or will all saved programs be lost when upgrading?


----------



## James Long

XXL said:


> Looked at Menu / 6 / 3 / Counters. Could not see anything that mentioned "Household Key", so am unable to tell if that key is the same on both 622s.


Go down to the section labeled IRD Seq num Counters:
08) Household Key


----------



## P Smith

Kent Taylor said:


> There's a *Household Key* that must be identical on all your DVR's if the EHD is to be recognized. Check the one that recognizes the EHD then *press Menu - 6 - 3 - Counters. Page down about six or seven times and you'll see the counter.*





XXL said:


> Looked at Menu / 6 / 3 / Counters. *Could not see anything that mentioned "Household Key"*, so am unable to tell if that key is the same on both 622s.





James Long said:


> Go down to the section labeled IRD Seq num Counters:
> 08) *Household Key*


Funny ... when such posts posting together.


----------



## XXL

James Long said:


> Go down to the section labeled IRD Seq num Counters:
> 08) Household Key


Thanks!

Scrolled 6 pages down -- the label "Household Key" and value were split on two different pages. Way too big of a rush looking for it earlier. Sorry.

Value = 0x00000000 (as are several other parameters). Will check the other 622 to see if Household Key value is the same.


----------



## XXL

XXL said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Scrolled 6 pages down -- the label "Household Key" and value were split on two different pages. Way too big of a rush looking for it earlier. Sorry.
> 
> Value = 0x00000000 (as are several other parameters). Will check the other 622 to see if Household Key value is the same.


FWIW, the "Household Key" value is the same (0x00000000) on the other 622.


----------



## klang

Household key needs to be some number besides zeros. Dish needs to hit your receivers again. Hopefully one of the DishIRT folks can help or give Dish a call.


----------



## P Smith

XXL said:


> FWIW, the "Household Key" value is the same (0x00000000) on the other 622.


Hooray ! It the same !


----------



## XXL

Kent Taylor said:


> CABill is correct. ViP622's are notoriously hinky when it comes to EHD's, however. There's a Household Key that must be identical on all your DVR's if the EHD is to be recognized. Check the one that recognizes the EHD then press Menu - 6 - 3 - Counters. Page down about six or seven times and you'll see the counter. Then check your other receiver and see what that one indicates. If they're not identical, calling Dish and asking them to reauthorize that receiver for EHD might work. Actually, one of the Dish folks on the forum might be more likely to help you out.





James Long said:


> Go down to the section labeled IRD Seq num Counters:
> 08) Household Key





klang said:


> Household key needs to be some number besides zeros. Dish needs to hit your receivers again. Hopefully one of the DishIRT folks can help or give Dish a call.


Had DISH give me a re-hit. The Household Key now shows actual numbers and letters and the EHD works on both 622s. Thanks all!

Still puzzled by the two DISH Tech Service Reps that told me that an EHD can be used on only one DVR, period.


----------



## P Smith

XXL said:


> Had DISH give me a re-hit. The Household Key now shows actual numbers and letters and the EHD works on both 622s. Thanks all!
> 
> Still puzzled by the two DISH Tech Service Reps that told me that an EHD can be used on only one DVR, period.


Next time before call, investigate any issue here, check what was promise at ChChat and quote it to any clueless CSR !


----------



## XXL

P Smith said:


> Next time before call, investigate any issue here, check what was promise at ChChat and quote it to any clueless CSR !


Roger that!


----------



## TulsaOK

P Smith said:


> ...check what was promise at ChChat and quote it to any clueless CSR !


That's going to take a while.


----------



## nrj1030

XXL said:


> Had DISH give me a re-hit. The Household Key now shows actual numbers and letters and the EHD works on both 622s. Thanks all!
> 
> Still puzzled by the two DISH Tech Service Reps that told me that an EHD can be used on only one DVR, period.


How did you get them to give you a re-hit??

I started a similar thread a couple of months back and discovered my 722 had a Household Key of all zeroes, while my 622 did not.

I was told by helpful people here to call and ask for a re-hit, and to call back again if I got a rep who didn't understand.

After 5 phone calls and one online chat session I finally gave up, they all kept telling me that I could not move my EHD from one DVR to the other. The last two calls I even tried explaining that I had read on here that it would work if my Household keys were the same, but they still insisted that it would not, they were unwilling to look at the Household key issue. One rep told me that I should not be looking at the diagnostics unless I was instructed by Dish staff. The last one was very friendly but kept insisting that I should read the manual that came with my EHDs for troubleshooting tips.


----------



## olguy

Maybe the next person to have similar problems will refer the CSR to the Dish External Hard Drive page where it says this (emphasis mine):



> An external hard drive can be used to expand the recording storage capacity a compatible receiver model (612, 622, 722, and 722k) and _*transfer recordings from one receiver on your account to another.*_ An external hard drive can also be used to turn your model 211, 211k, or 411 receiver into a DVR. To determine if you have a compatible receiver, check the model name on the front of your receiver or go to dish.com/myequipment. For instructions on how to connect an external hard drive, visit How To Setup EHD.


----------



## XXL

nrj1030 said:


> How did you get them to give you a re-hit??
> 
> I started a similar thread a couple of months back and discovered my 722 had a Household Key of all zeroes, while my 622 did not.
> 
> I was told by helpful people here to call and ask for a re-hit, and to call back again if I got a rep who didn't understand.
> 
> After 5 phone calls and one online chat session I finally gave up, they all kept telling me that I could not move my EHD from one DVR to the other. The last two calls I even tried explaining that I had read on here that it would work if my Household keys were the same, but they still insisted that it would not, they were unwilling to look at the Household key issue. One rep told me that I should not be looking at the diagnostics unless I was instructed by Dish staff. The last one was very friendly but kept insisting that I should read the manual that came with my EHDs for troubleshooting tips.


As suggested above (thanks again *klang*!), I simply called DISH Customer Support and asked them to re-authorized my two 622s for EHD use.

What made this whole process so confusing was:

1) When you connect your EHD to your second DVR, a message states that you must again "format" your EHD to use it on this DVR. "Formatting" would obviously wipe out what you saved from your first DVR. Poor word choice.
2) Some DISH reps tell you that you cannot use an EHD on more than one DVR.
3) I incorrectly assumed that the warning message and the DISH reps were correct until forum members here clued me in. Distracted by other hobbies and having a life, I admittedly didn't explore this fully before posting my first message in this thread.

In your case *nrj1030*, you were misled multiple times by DISH. The suggestion to check your EHD manual is pretty funny. :lol:

There is a training and a communication issue within DISH. I hear a faint voice, "Use the DBSTalk.com Forum, Luke!"

Thanks *olguy* for the DISH link to EHD operation!


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## P Smith

I would say - the issue in not new here, it discussed ad nauseum.


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## 722921

oldschoolecw said:


> I have Dish Network being installed this Saturday and was looking at this External Hard Drive. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...UTF8&coliid=I6WFVSK370FPX&colid=2V47QXU4J2AA1
> 
> Will this work nicely with my new VIP722K w/ sling? If not please point me in the right direction, thanks


I just got the 1.5TB version of this, plugged it in the front port and began moving items.
Nearly 2 hours to move 14 hours of programing?
Does this sound right or should I have plugged into the rear port?


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## Tulsa1

722921 said:


> I just got the 1.5TB version of this, plugged it in the front port and began moving items.
> Nearly 2 hours to move 14 hours of programing?
> Does this sound right or should I have plugged into the rear port?


The ports are the same. That sounds normal for transfer time.


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## 722921

Thanks!


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## Mike109

It appears most EHDs seem to work according to this forum. However some have a problem waking up. This does not seem to be a problem for a lot of people because they disconnect or turn off the EHD except when archiving to it.

However I want to use it for extended recording capacity when I am on vacation. This means the EHD will have to be powered & connected all the time, and be able to communicate with the DVR when called upon. I was thinking about a basic WD Elements Desktop 1 TB such as the WDBAAU0010HBK. Their web site states “Turns on and off with your computer. Enters idle mode when not in use.” Can anyone confirm that this model will turn on and off with the DVR? 

I’m not sure what triggers the EHD to turn on & off. Is it because a signal appears on the USB port? Or the 5V appearing on the port? Since the DVR does not turn on when recording does this create a problem?


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## klang

Mike109 said:


> However I want to use it for extended recording capacity when I am on vacation.


Unless something has changed recently you can't record directly to the external drive.


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## harsh

klang said:


> Unless something has changed recently you can't record directly to the external drive.


That hasn't changed. If you have a Slingbox setup of some sort, you can remotely move the content.


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## Mike109

klang said:


> Unless something has changed recently you can't record directly to the external drive.


Bummer -

The Dish website is misleading. Their home page states "Expand your DVR's recording capacity". Clicking on the link brings up in big bold text "Record Hundreds of hours of your favorite movies and shows!"


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## BobaBird

Also misleading is the Dish Remote Access button for "Manage Disk Space." It does not allow you to move recordings from the internal to the external drive, it's only for deleting. Unless you have a Slingbox setup, you'll need to clear space on the internal drive (by archiving or deleting) before going on a trip.


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## Mike109

I think installing an OTA dual tuner card in my PC should do the job. A lot of programs that I watch are on the Big 4 (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). Use the PC for OTA and the Dish DVR for sat programs. I thought about putting together an HTPC and this may be a step toward doing that.


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## harsh

Mike109 said:


> The Dish website is misleading. Their home page states "Expand your DVR's recording capacity".


In that you can store more recordings, it isn't all that misleading.

If you can find 25+ hours worth of stuff to record in two weeks that you can't record some other time, you probably watch too much TV.


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## Mike109

Before I store recordings I first need the capacity to make them.

Going by Dish's interpretation of "Expand your DVR’s recording capacity”
and “Record Hundreds of hours", you can do the same with a VCR. All you
have to do is be home & keep swapping VHS tapes.


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## tampa8

I have hundreds of hours of movies and specials, and thus have expanded my DVR recording space, just as the Dish website says. You may have a different way that you want to be able to do it, but that does not make what Dish says in anyway misleading. In addition, _right below that_, it shows exactly how to use it, there is no mention that it can or how to record to it directly.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/SupportSection/use-ehd


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## harsh

Mike109 said:


> Before I store recordings I first need the capacity to make them.


Pretty much all DVRs have the capacity to make recordings so there's nothing shady there.


> Going by Dish's interpretation of "Expand your DVR's recording capacity"
> and "Record Hundreds of hours", you can do the same with a VCR.


Yep. The difference here is that you're making digital recordings optionally/preferably in HD. VCRs that could do that are decidedly rare and pretty expensive.

I'm pretty sure a VCR would be a tough sell given the physical space required for tape storage as well as the frequent tape changes required to establish such a collection. The number of timers was pretty limited and getting guide data for satellite recording wasn't an option (and that assumes that your VCR could control your satellite receiver).

There are many DVRs on the market that hold "up to" some relatively small number of hours and that's it. Even at that, most still prefer to use a DVR.


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## ccwf

P Smith said:


> Practically *ANY *USB2 external enclosure with *ANY *drive will works.


Sorry to necro this thread, but I bought a drive that does not work, so I thought I'd let others know to beware.

The problem drive is the Iomega Prestige 2TB (I'm aware that others have reported success with smaller sizes of this same line). This drive comes with bloatware on a virtual CD drive within the drive. But the Iomega did not work with my DISH receiver even after removing the virtual CD drive. Eventually found another complaint online from a DISH customer who could not get this particular drive to work (that customer also removed the virtual CD, and an Iomega rep responded to that complaint saying that the drive should have functioned as an ordinary USB drive afterwards, so they have no idea what's going on).

Replaced the Iomega Prestige with a Hitach XL2000 2TB, and that worked right away. No problems with the Hitachi so far.


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## P Smith

I could help with investigation if someone willing to send such devices to me.


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## altidude

ccwf said:


> Replaced the Iomega Prestige with a Hitach XL2000 2TB, and that worked right away. No problems with the Hitachi so far.


I use the same Hitachi EHD on my 722k and it's been solid. Picked it up at Frys on sale for something like $69 if I recall.


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## harsh

ccwf said:


> The problem drive is the Iomega Prestige 2TB (I'm aware that others have reported success with smaller sizes of this same line).


Any chance that this device features two hard drives???


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## ccwf

altidude said:


> I use the same Hitachi EHD on my 722k and it's been solid. Picked it up at Frys on sale for something like $69 if I recall.


 Interesting. I picked up from Frys, too, since it was on sale. I have a VIP622.



harsh said:


> Any chance that this device features two hard drives???


Because of the virtual CD-ROM, it does show up as two drives initially. Once the virtual CD-ROM drive is removed, it shows up as one drive with the combined capacity.


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## harsh

ccwf said:


> Once the virtual CD-ROM drive is removed, it shows up as one drive with the combined capacity.


I'm not interested in what your personal computer's volume manager tells you. I'm asking if there are two hard drives inside the box.

There are three conditions to a successful EHD setup:
<=2TB
self-powered
one hard drive mechanism
.

Iomega used to put together a lot of external storage units that were RAIDed pairs and if that's the case with the device you have, you have your answer.

Regardless of what the RAID fanboys say. most RAID setups require some manner of driver software (perhaps built into the operating system) to function correctly and that driver doesn't exist in a DISH DVR.


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## DoyleS

Based on a Sept 2010 review, The Iomega Prestige 2 TB has a single ST320005 42AS Seagate Barracuda SATA2 hard drive.


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## harsh

DoyleS said:


> Based on a Sept 2010 review, The Iomega Prestige 2 TB has a single ST320005 42AS Seagate Barracuda SATA2 hard drive.


If the device you have doesn't have two drives, I have no explanation.

It is remotely possible that the utility you used to delete the second partition stunk the drive. Using a Linux-based partition program (or perhaps even your computer OS utility) to remove all partitions might bring it into compliance.

I do recommend avoiding third party manufacturers in the future.


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## TBoneit

FWIW I've had good luck with Western Digital, Hitachi, & Maxtor drives. I never tried my external Seagate drives as they are all NAS not USB.

The Hitachi's are turning up at very good prices recently. I've seen reviews where some are buying them and stripping out the drives for internal use on the 2Tb & 3Tb as they are cheaper than the internal models. The only problem I had was one of them had a rattle. I pulled the front cover carefully and shook out a loose screw.


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## Tecmo SB Guy

I was thinking of getting this external hard drive from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western...lack/1251309.p?skuId=1251309&id=1218242900307

Do you guys think that's okay?

I have a 722K. I saw the original post listed several Western Digital My Book Essential hard drives but not the 2TB that I want here.


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## Ray [email protected] Network

Tecmo SB Guy,

It looks like it should work. It fits the requirements so I do not see why it wouldn't work. Here is a link with the requirements: http://www.dishnetwork.com/SupportSection/setup-ehd . Thanks.


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## davethestalker

I think my WD My Book Essentials 1tb USB 2.0 my be on the fritz. It's starting to make a lot of noise after transferring to it or after viewing - deleting something stored on it.. And my 922 says its only 500GB, not 1TB. TBH I can't remember if it ever said it was 1TB.


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## P Smith

davethestalker said:


> I think my WD My Book Essentials 1tb USB 2.0 my be on the fritz. It's starting to make a lot of noise after transferring to it or after viewing - deleting something stored on it.. And my 922 says its only 500GB, not 1TB. TBH I can't remember if it ever said it was 1TB.


Why not test it thoroughly ? Connect to PC and run Victoria 4.4B - post SMART data before and after run Scan with Remap=ON.


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