# Maximum External Hard Drive



## sheldonlg (Mar 18, 2009)

In doing a little research, it seems that the conversion if 10MB/hr of HD programming. Dish states that the maximum external hard drive is 750MB (which translates to 75 hours of HD). What I would like to know is if anyone has tried a larger hard drive and, if so, is all the space utilized? That is, if you attach a 2TB drive, do you get about 200 hours of HD?


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

Dish says you can use any size single LUN USB2 HDD. That is, any HDD containing a single disk. Many people are using 1T disks. However, consider you are putting all your eggs into that one basket. You might be safer using multiple smaller devices in case of a hardware failure on the HDD.


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## olds403 (Nov 20, 2007)

I have 2 1T drives connected. One is almost full(less than 100G left) and I have approx 200 movies on that drive. 90% of the stuff on that drive is HD. Assuming the average length for one of those movies is 1.5 hours(some longer) I have at least 350 hours of HD on that drive(probably closer to 400).

The largest file size I have seen for one of the movies was about 9G(Casino, a long movie) but most are in the 4-6G range.


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## sheldonlg (Mar 18, 2009)

Actually, Dish does not say you can use any size drive. They say it has to be a minimum of 50MB and a maximum of 750MB. That is what is on the web site and that is what the support people say. That is why I posted here -- to find out if others have actually used greater than 750MB. It looks like the answer is "yes". Thanks.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

They actually talk GB not MB, but on the last Tech Chat, Dan said any size single LUN drive and actually said at least 1 TB. They may not have updated the web site in a while and we all know how up-to-date the CSRs stay. I believe Dan is VP of software development, so I'll take what he says as the limit.


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

sheldonlg said:


> Actually, Dish does not say you can use any size drive. ...


*Actually*, they do. The www site is apparently not up to date.


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## sledhead 700 (Apr 27, 2004)

I have a 1.5tb and it works on both of my 622s


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## Kevin Brown (Sep 4, 2005)

Hee, hee. I remember that just a few months ago, the maximum recommended sized drive to use was 500 GB. Keeps increasing ...



> The largest file size I have seen for one of the movies was about 9G(Casino, a long movie) but most are in the 4-6G range.


 These are the numbers I remember too: 3 - 4 GB per hr. Depends on the material though too.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

ChuckA said:


> They actually talk GB not MB, but *on the last Tech Chat, Dan said any size single LUN drive and actually said at least 1 TB.* They may not have updated the web site in a while and we all know how up-to-date the CSRs stay. I believe Dan is VP of software development, so I'll take what he says as the limit.


Yup. I remember that.


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## moooog (May 10, 2002)

I just purchased the new My Book western digital 2TB drive, and my 722 only recognizes it as 1TB. It is not a mirrored drive, it is the new one. I see someone here is using a 1.5 TB with success - has anyone else tried a 2TB dirve?


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## saiyan (Jul 12, 2006)

ChuckA said:


> Dish says you can use any size single LUN USB2 HDD. That is, any HDD containing a single disk.


Hmm.. A single LUN can represent an array of hard drives so your comment about a single disk does not make sense.

I have tested an external enlosure running two 500GB drives in RAID0. My 722 treats the enclosure as a single 1TB drive and I have no problem moving recording back and forth. So you can definitely use mutiple drives in an RAID array but not JBOD.

I don't use the external enclosure with my 722 anymore because I have been using Thermaltake BlacX HDD docking station which allows easy swaping of HDD.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

Those were the words of Dan from a Charlie Chat as being what Dish supports. If you tried a RAID array and it worked, that's great but it does not mean it is supported.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

moooog said:


> I just purchased the new My Book western digital 2TB drive, and my 722 only recognizes it as 1TB. It is not a mirrored drive, it is the new one. I see someone here is using a 1.5 TB with success - has anyone else tried a 2TB dirve?


I seems to recall reading some posts where some people trying a 2TB drives was having an issue. I would search on 2TB or just TB and you might find the thread I was looking for.

As to the multi-drive post. I would echo ChuckA's comments. My guess is there something there in terms of incompatibility and Dish wanted to try to keep that issue as simple as possible.

My personally recommendation would be to keep it at or below 1GB, but as you mentioned others have been successful with 1.5TB. 1.5TB to me is a lot of space and if something goes wrong you can lose a lot of content...A better strategy I believe is smaller multiple drives.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

The 2 TB disk will be formatted with two DishArc partitions, by 500 GB each. Total will be 1 GB (!).

I did check it recently with WDC WD20EADS. 
IMHO 1.5 TB should be have same partitioning - easy to check, when start using it on first copy screen it will show the size.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Everyone has to make a their own choices, but I use 750GB drives because they seem to hold a few more than 100 HD movies (about 200 hours). I would hate to lose more movies or other recordings than that when the drive crashes or somehow cannot be recognized by my ViP's. Note I used "when" not "if" as I have to be a realist about computer hardware based on 40 years of experience.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Glad to see a computer pioneer here who works with magnetic drums 40 years ago, long before HDD.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

P Smith said:


> Glad to see a computer pioneer here who works with magnetic drums 40 years ago, long before HDD.


Punch cards couldn't be erased.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

phrelin said:


> Punch cards couldn't be erased.


Sure they can...


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Sure they can...


I guess so. And I'm not sure how many it would take to store the data for an HD movie.:sure:


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Ron Barry said:


> ...1.5TB to me is a lot of space and if something goes wrong you can lose a lot of content. A better strategy I believe is smaller multiple drives.


..or a 1:1 mirror.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

phrelin said:


> I guess so. And I'm not sure how many it would take to store the data for an HD movie.:sure:


You know... in some ways it isn't totally off-base to think of burning CDs/DVDs as the same thing as punching punch-cards. Different medium, but same concept and intended use really.

As for the topic... I guess we don't know why a 2TB drive might not work with a Dish receiver. It could be the multiple-LUN problem (Dish only supports single LUN implementations) or they could have a "fixed" limit coded as to the largest hard drive they were able to test at the time.

I am in the school of thought that I kind of like having more smaller drives than a single large one. You can group your movies on different drives in a meaningful way and less movies are lost with a drive failure of 500GB than a 2TB one.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Nick said:


> ..or a 1:1 mirror.


Do you think the Dish OS version will recognize a RAID mirror?


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## moooog (May 10, 2002)

All I archive are HD movies, I have 1.75 TB on two drives, and am out of space - I'm starting to deem fewer and fewer titles each year as "keepers", so I liked the idea of putting my entire collection on 1 drive, with 250 GB left for new movies - and no switching required. I feel the drive is usually hibernating (though I had to disable that on my Seagate), so is there really much chance of overheating and failure? I heard mention of some device that would let me switch back and forth between drives without manual cable switching - that might solve my problem, and it would allow for more accurate archiving (by genre etc.) as I've avoided that due to the hassle of switching cables. What is the reason that data on these drives cannot be categorized - i.e. alpahbetically etc.?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Stewart Vernon said:


> You know... in some ways it isn't totally off-base to think of burning CDs/DVDs as the same thing as punching punch-cards. Different medium, but same concept and intended use really.
> 
> As for the topic... I guess we don't know why a 2TB drive might not work with a Dish receiver. *It could be the multiple-LUN problem* (Dish only supports single LUN implementations) or they could have a "fixed" limit coded as to the largest hard drive they were able to test at the time.
> 
> I am in the school of thought that I kind of like having more smaller drives than a single large one. You can group your movies on different drives in a meaningful way and less movies are lost with a drive failure of 500GB than a 2TB one.


Wrong suggestion. See post#14 for the 2 TB model.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

P Smith said:


> Wrong suggestion. See post#14 for the 2 TB model.


You did read my whole post, right? I gave two possible suggestions of why it might not be working.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

So, I pointed to one also and I did *highlighted it*. Right ?
Counting the fact I posted before about ONE disk setup... I wouldn't be so reactive.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Not to nitpick, but you said my suggestion was "wrong"... My suggestion wasn't wrong based upon your reply. You simply highlighted part of my post without regard to the rest which offered another possible suggestion.

I'm sure there are some folks who have tried a 2TB multi-LUN drive, and that would fail based on part of my suggestion. The other seemingly most-likely reason (which I mentioned in my post) is that Dish might have a limit imposed based upon the largest drive they were able to test at the time.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

OK, perhaps I should made partial quote, didn't realize it will accepted as pointed to your whole post. It was just one aspect. Rest of picture (multi LUN and FW limitation) I'm not questioning at all.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

That's what I figured... I just questioned since you had quoted the whole post, but only bold-ed that part.

I know from your previous-posted experience that even a single-LUN 2TB didn't work.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Strictly speaking, it's working for 622/722 but only two partitions created - 2x500 GB.

Totally opposite case with 211, the 2 TB disk formatted for full amount - 1.8 TB ( 2 TB minus system partitions ) and after reboot warning messages stated it's not supported - need use 50 GB...1 TB size only.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Interesting... and I wonder which is the more desired result, from a consumer perspective. Being able to use the drive, but at reduced capacity? OR being told it cannot be used?

I think I'd prefer the not-able-to-use scenario as it is conclusive. The half-use scenario might make one think he could "share" the drive and use it on his computer for the other TB of space, which I suspect cannot be done based upon previous experiences.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I didn't test that combo approach, but interesting to try. 4th partition was empty, so you could format it as you wish. For sure, it's need to be tested on PC after formatting NTFS/FAT and connecting to 622/722.
I think ppl who using 1.5 TB in same position and could do the test.


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## ehb224 (Apr 4, 2008)

phrelin said:


> Punch cards couldn't be erased.


Punch cards? Those were newfangled technology....how about paper tape?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

ehb224 said:


> Punch cards? Those were newfangled technology....how about paper tape?


Yep, used that too! I was really surprised the Wikipedia has an entry with this picture:










And they talk about "chadless tape" which I guess the voter system folks missed along the way.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Oh, sweet memoirs ... I recall cutting and gluing pieces of the rolls. More - sometimes we did just cover by small pieces unwanted holes - tell me about HW 'editors'.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

OK, we've gone from 750mb EHD's to punch cards and 7 channel ASCII paper tape. 
This really brings back memories from 40 or so years ago, but :backtotop.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Topic already closed by exhausted analysis.

*1 TB is max size for now !*


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

phrelin said:


> Yep, used that too! I was really surprised the Wikipedia has an entry with this picture:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes we all know Ascii, but can anyone here speak Ebcdic or Baudot?

Back in the day, I preferred using Mylar tape for the "more important" archrivals because of its added durability; though it tended to be harder on the punch units, requiring more frequent servicing of the cutter/punch heads.

And if you think a paper cut smarts, try a Mylar cut sometime&#8230;Ouch! :lol:


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

I speak EBCDIC daily, and have for about 40 years.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

So the thread gone side way totally.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

P Smith said:


> So the thread gone side way totally.


I agree. It's closed.


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