Dish 211K and Seagate Showcase 500 as DVR drive. Problems!

[mypc89]

I have a Dish Network 211K receiver and have paid dish network for the conversion to a DVR. I am using a Seagate Showcase 500 drive that was designed for the Dish Network receivers in terms of compatibility. I purchased the drive directly from Seagate in September 2009. Initial installation was simple. Plug in, agree to the upgrade for software for the DVR (1 time charge), and format the drive. I had no problems.

Then in early December I noticed that some programming I had scheduled to be recorded was not on the drive. I thought maybe I had made an error in scheduled, but a couple of weeks later I noticed that when I turned on the receiver and tried to schedule a recording, the receiver showed I did not have a DVR.

I found that if I reset the 211K receiver, the Seagate drive would be recognized.

This concept worked for a while, but after another week, the receiver would not recognize the drive. After some google searching of various forums, I understand there are issues, but most persons with this drive had ended up with getting a replacement under warranty after some painful customer service time. I saw information from the seagate forums about downloading some of their software to a PC and checking the drive. I find that I can run some of the tests, and that the drive is certainly not dead. What is even more interesting is that after doing those tests with the PC, if I return the drive to the receiver and plug it in, it generally is then recognized for a day.

I have noticed the issue where when I unplug the "no longer recognized" drive from the DVR and plug it into my PC, that I get an error from Windows that the drive would have better performance if it was plugged into a USB 2.0 hub. Yet my computer does have USB 2.0 on it and I verified that I get that same error on another computer with USB 2.0. After I run some of the seagate tests on the drive and then disconnect it from the computer, I can reconnect the drive and sometimes I get the error and sometimes I do not. I believe that it is during the times I do not get the USB 2.0 error that is when the drive will now be recognized by the 211K receiver. I will continue to investigate this. I again continue to believe that the drive is not the issue and that it is instead something with the interface.

 

[DefDude]

Not sure on that model but it may be the drive goes to sleep like the others in the seagate family, you would need to download the utility program for that drive at the seagate main site if there is one, then use the adjustment settings to disable sleep setting. like I said I'm not sure about that particular drive but that is a common issue with seagates.

 

[mypc89]

This is actually the very drive recommended by Dish (one of two, the other is 1TB), and certified by both Dish and Seagate as compatible with the 211K DVR conversion. It is not supposed to have the sleep mode/power management issue as it is supposed to have been set up by Seagate to not shut off. The drive is in a cooled enclosure with a quiet continuous fan.

The drive did not initially have this problem. It developed in December 2009 and continues to this day. I had purchased and installed the drive in September 2009. It worked perfectly for the first several months. I have searched various forums including seagate's site and found I am not the only person experiencing this issue with this drive, and it appears the same way. After several months of use, the drive begins to have the problem and it takes a reset of the receiver to get it working. Then the resets stop being effective. I found that I can see the drive just fine with a PC, but even after using the PC with the seagate tools, the drive is not always recognized by the receiver.

I do not know how long the drive is still recognized by the receiver. It appears that sometime in the night, (perhaps when the receiver updates occur??) the drive is disconnected.

If I use the Dish menu to disconnect the drive, and physically remove the USB cable, then the drive should be recognized by the receiver when I plug it back in. It is not recognized.

I will continue trying different tests to see if I can find something that "in the right sequence" gets it working again.

 

[47HO]

I would let the receiver initialize the drive again(reformat).

 

[Brandie]

Welcome to our world. We have been having the EXACT same problems with the EXACT same Seagate EHD.

Every time I think I have it beat, it craps out again. Just this past weekend I thought I had it going again but alas, it was not to be.

This has been going on with us for the same period of time it has been going on with you. I've been on w/tech chat to no avail and have even been told it is a Dish problem and they are working on it.

We did get a $10 credit for 5 months - paid for the activation if you will

 

[Tom_P]

Man, I tried everything with my 211K. I've been using a My Book 500Gb since the 211 DVR conversion started. Never had any problems. Mine started back in Nov 09, and the damn receiver just recognized the EHD when it feels like it. I also has a 1TB My book that I normally used for my 622 and works great on that unit, but I tested the 1Tb model on the 211k(format and everything) and the same thing is happening so go figure.

 

[aklarvanto]

Disable sleep feature. Connect drive to your computer and change settings then connect back to dishbox. I have Segate 500 and that fixed it. Also HDD must have external power source, not powered with USB.