External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[geekboy2000]

Well, I did add another drive, it is one highly recommended HERE

It is a very nice drive, supposed to be an "A/V" class drive, meaning it should have better sustained output bandwidth and also should be able to run 24/7.

It didn't help, the problem is just as noticeable with this drive. In fact, it is quite interesting, this particular drive has a blue power light, and a reddish drive activity light, so you can tell accurately when the VIP722 has to access the drive to pull more data. These skips occur like clockwork on these accesses. Not every single time the drive is accessed, but when it does skip, it coincides with a drive access.

I'm pretty much not going to try to worry about it as much, because I have pretty good success watching other material. (Even music concerts off of HDNET )

I'm using the external drives to move off other stuff and leave enough room on the internal drive to hold 4 or 5 concerts at a time for weekends.

And of course hope for a firmware update that may help someday.

Shouldn't say this, but I'm glad somebody else is having the problem, misery loves company

No problem at all. I was equally happy to find your post!
I'm no engineer, but I think the problem could be solved for everyone, and also allow the use of even the crappiest of external drives, if unit played back by first "buffer recording" to the internal drive. It wouldn't take much space, and yes, there'd be just a bit of a delay before playback began, but if you were, in essence, copying from the external to the internal drive in endless loop fashion, and playing from the internal drive, I think it would likely work perfectly. I'd be happy to give up a few hundred MB of internal drive space for the sake of a buffer.

Mark

 

[kstile]

For those with Seagate FreeAgent drives - this was in the Tech Chat:

Brian: When you use a Seagate Free Agent External HDD after about 10 minutes it will go into sleep mode then you have to reboot it, is there a fix?
A: There is a software update coming to prevent it from going to or pulling it out of sleep mode.

YEAH! For me, I just unplug the USB connection on the back of my 622 to get it to wake up, but, boy, all that getting up off the couch... ;-)

 

[shodobe]

A question, I know and understand the 3 times feature. My problem could be this, My original 622 had a HDMI problem and I replaced it with another 622 which had a problem initiating remote control use. I then got another 622 and hooked it up and everything seemes OK and I initiated the USB EHD feature. This one also failed and they sent out another one! That makes 3. I am now afraid to use the third one because I don't want to lose the EHD content because I might have used Up my third time. I really have lost count because I am not sure If I used it on the second one. Before I would lose anything on EHD will I get a message telling me I have used up the 3 transfers and I can't use the EHD because of this? If so, I might just send back this 3rd one and wait until Dish upgrades the software to allow more movement. Thanks

 

[primetimeguy]

For those with Seagate FreeAgent drives - this was in the Tech Chat:

Brian: When you use a Seagate Free Agent External HDD after about 10 minutes it will go into sleep mode then you have to reboot it, is there a fix?
A: There is a software update coming to prevent it from going to or pulling it out of sleep mode.

YEAH! For me, I just unplug the USB connection on the back of my 622 to get it to wake up, but, boy, all that getting up off the couch... ;-)

I was the one who asked the question and here is the email respons I got back.

"Thank you for your email. Concerning the compatibility issues with Seagate external hard drives, a permanent fix will require a software update to the receiver expected in early 2008. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

 

[David_Levin]

A question, I know and understand the 3 times feature. My problem could be this, My original 622 had a HDMI problem and I replaced it with another 622 which had a problem initiating remote control use. I then got another 622 and hooked it up and everything seemes OK and I initiated the USB EHD feature. This one also failed and they sent out another one! That makes 3. I am now afraid to use the third one because I don't want to lose the EHD content because I might have used Up my third time. I really have lost count because I am not sure If I used it on the second one. Before I would lose anything on EHD will I get a message telling me I have used up the 3 transfers and I can't use the EHD because of this? If so, I might just send back this 3rd one and wait until Dish upgrades the software to allow more movement. Thanks

I suggest you get another external (everyone NEEDS at least two external drives - I have 3).

Setup the new drive (3 moves available). Clear up space on the 622 (move content to the new drive). Move all content from the old to the new external drive (have to restore to the 622 first).

Make sure all the content on the new external drive playable, then plug the old drive into a PC and reformat it (I'd go to the disc manager and delete the 2-3 partitions - MAKE SURE YOU SELECT THE CORRECT DRIVE).

Now you can plug the drive back into the 622 and it will be reformmated as a new drive (you'll have 3 moves available).

I'm using 1 drive for movies, another for TV, and the last for Kid's stuff. I'm considering a 4th for music videos and concerts.

 

[smooth28la]

Actually once the drive is 'empty', the counter starts all over again. There's no need to reformat by PC or 622/722.

I confirmed this myself. But when I recorded a single short 1 minute program on the drive, then the 3-times rule kicks in.

 

[JoeSp]

I just picked up the Buffalo 500gb TurboUSB 2.0 for $79 at Frye's in Atlanta this weekend. Nice feature is that it has two switches in the back. One to turn the drive on and off and the other to select the auto on/off feature. I though this would work well with what I have read so far. Has anyone tried this drive yet?

 

[mntwister]

I am sorry everyone, this has probably been covered but its been a busy weekend so instead of going through the 50 pages here, I'll ask...

I went through and filled up my first hard drive. It's a Freeagent. I bought another Freeagent and wanted to format it tonight so I just took out the usb plug and the power cable from the old one and connected it to the new one. It says that there is no device attatched. I am trying now to reboot the dvr, to see if I can get there. From what I remember, to format this drive you have to go to multimedia on the dvr menu. Is this correct and can one just switch the chords like that? I am aware only 1 can be hooked up at a time, but am not sure how to keep switching them and having them work right away. Anyone?

 

[dfergie]

When you switch/unhook let the 622 notifiy you that a drive has been disconnected, OK it... then connect new drive...

 

[Mark]

wd 500 my book died replace it with a external case. just turn it on when needed.

 

[deuces]

Sorry if this has been covered, but with the DishOnline features can you access your EHDD remotely from your computer?

 

[mntwister]

I've been getting this weird message lately. When I turn on my hard drive (keep it off when not in use) and go into the dvr menu/usb connections and then it comes up and says "this drive in use by other tv." The other tv has never used the external hard drive, and the tv was not even on, and no one tonight went into any setting on that tv, just watched television. This isn't the first time this has happened, later it fixed. Does anyone know why that is coming up?

 

[mntwister]

This might have been mentioned before and it's such a busy time of the year with family that I didn't have time to read the entire thread so sorry if it's a repeat of a problem someone else had.

I own a Seagate Freeagent 750gb pro, and it's full and that has worked perfectly. I then bought a few Seagate Freeagent 500gb drives (not the pro), and started to add movies to the first one of those about 6 weeks ago. Lately, as of about 2 weeks ago, sometimes the DVR (622) reads it, and many times it does not. It sometimes says
a. There is no usb device attatched
b. Devide in use by other tv (never used by that tv, no one even knows how to get there)
c. this is an unrecognized drive or "not a Dish drive."

When I do get it to read, it takes longer to read with the pro, then when transferring movies or watching something, after about 5 minutes it freezes. It did work fine the first 2 weeks I had it (remember this is the 500gb freeanent -not pro model).

Last night I went to watch Meet Joe Black in HD and watched about 8 minutes and it froze, then started playing again, then froze, then played, then froze for good. I then tried to unplug and start over and nothing, not even recognized by the 622, sometimes it does come up with a message like in use by other tv or no drive is connected, Sometimes when I try to transfer movies to it from the 622, it doesn't start, and if it does, it goes for about 5 minutes then says there is no USB drive connected. So I had to watch the dvd, which luckily I have.

I always unplug the drive (the AC outlet, not the usb cord) when I am not using it, and sometimes, though rarely, when I plug it back in the 622 tells me that it has recognized the drive and asks if I want to make changes to it, all fine and dandy, but then the problems start happening. Then at times I enter yes, go to manage devide then get the error, or when I plug it in, many times nothing happens and it doesn't even read.

It has only been used as the external for Dish, right out of the box never used it on the computer. I know there have been problems with sleep mode but that shouldn't activate when just plugging it in, which is always the case, I never leave it on. I have tried rebooting the 622 but usually that doesn't help. Then I will go and try the 750gb pro model and its fine. I really hate to send it back as defective, it's got some of my fave movies in hd which were shown one or two times only.

Does anyone know of this type of problem or had anything similar? It's very frustrating because this drive has all the HD movies I want to watch and some that aren't shown often, maybe once for some, and is 3/4 full. Help would be appreciated. Thanks (and happy holidays)

 

[mntwister]

This really doesn't belong in this thread but....

1. Can you feel the drive spinning with the power plugged in? Any sounds coming from the drive?

2. Have you reset the 622?

3. Hook the drive up to a computer and see if the drive is recognized (Don't let windows initialize it!).

NightRyder

Sorry I posted on the wrong thread, thought this was the problems thread.

 

[NightRyder]

I have 2 of the standard 500GB Freeagent drives and once I turned off sleep mode I have had zero problems with them. Sounds like your drive has other problems.

NightRyder

 

[NightRyder]

Sorry I posted on the wrong thread, thought this was the problems thread.

Not a real biggie. If the mods want they can move the related posts into the HD Bug Thread.

NightRyder

 

[dfergie]

moved to Bug thread...

 

[guruka]

L488 - pause or stop during USB-HD play causes freeze

After receiving the L488 software on my 622, my external USB WD MyBook 750 GB drive is now having problems. Everything works as before EXCEPT, if I hit Pause or Stop while watching a recorded program from the Ext USB drive the picture freezes and will not restart play. I have to press View and then walk back through the menus to restart the recorded program and then FF to where I was. FF RW and skip all work fine. It's just Stop or Pause that causes the problem to occur. Anyone else seeing this?

.....G

 

[dfergie]

Try hitting jump back...

 

[AriesGodofWar]

I have 2 of the standard 500GB Freeagent drives and once I turned off sleep mode I have had zero problems with them. Sounds like your drive has other problems.

NightRyder

x 2, I received all of those error messages until I turned sleep mode off. Once I did, have not had a single issue since. So yes, my drive runs all of the time, and I feel it often for heat, and have not noticed any excessive heat issues. I know this is not the optimal situation, however, I am not about to power on and off over and over again just to be able to use the drive as it is a pain in the reat, plus, doing so is not great for the drive either. Until E* figures out a firmware upgrade to wake the FA drive from sleep mode, I will keep that mode shut off.