External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[Jarrod]

Issues with 622 and external drives

I've been a Dish customer for over 10 consecutive years, beginning with the Dishplayer. I've had HD service on the VIP622 since soon after they bought out the VOOM service. I recently (November 2010) re-upped to a 24-month contract to get free HD for life. At that time, I asked to upgrade to a 722 for more space on the DVR. The CSR explained they could not give me both upgrades at once. I settled on free HD for life, and activating the external drive feature for my 622.

I first purchased a 1.5 TB Seagate "Expansion" desktop drive. The drive worked but lost connection to the receiver all the time. I called Dish tech support about this and they concluded that I needed a newer receiver, with updated USB ports. They sent me another 622. I had the same exact problems with the external drive on the "new" 622.

Despite what tech support told me, I decided on my own that the energy-save mode of the Seagate drive was somehow incompatible with the 622. So I searched this and other Dish-related forums looking for info about drive compatibility. I found positive comments about the Western Digital "Elements" drives working with the 622. So I moved all my programs back to the internal 622 drive and bought a 2TB WD "Elements" drive (model WDBAAU0020HBK-01). It worked great and I had no issues like what we had with the Seagate drive. I was pretty happy with this setup for about a month.

Before we left for a two-week holiday, I moved all my programs to the external drive to make space for recordings that would happen while we were away. We then watched a couple things from the external drive - it all seemed fine. After we returned and tried to access the external drive, the receiver tells me that it must format the drive in order to be able to use it, and says that all data will be lost. I did NOT reformat the drive as I didn't want to lose my programs. I called Dish support about this problem today. They walked me through rebooting the receiver and plugging in the drive. That did not work. They informed me there is no fix, I'll need to reformat and lose all the programming on this drive.

This is already quite long so I'll spare the remainder of the details. Bottom line is that I don't trust the external storage feature. After much back-and-forth with Dish, they won't upgrade me to a 722, won't tell me which drives I can (or can't) use to help me avoid all these problems, and are generally unhelpful and apathetic about my predicament. I'm very frustrated. If I hadn't just upped to a 2-year contract, I'd walk to DTV tomorrow.

I'm hoping there is wisdom in this forum that can help me get my 622 setup with reliable expanded storage. Or even some magic that will restore the programs on my drive. Any ideas?

 

[riderj]

Jarrod, I am here to tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I
posted my problems a couple of days ago as documented in my post. Here is the
short story: I sent a personal message to the DISH techs here on the forum at 11:00
last night, and by 11:30 Speedy Gonzales had it working! He did two things,
resent a HIT, and deleted and re-entered the authorization code on my account.

I have a question – did your problem coincide with the Echostar 8 - 77º problems
about two weeks ago? Mine did, as well
as a host of other glitches until they got 77 back up. My problem was swaping
the EHD between two receivers. I think I hear you saying you are only using it
on 1. I have used a variety of drives, but I like the WD 2TB you mentioned. I have
not had any problems really with any of the drives I have used, just this
recent issue.

Send Tommy F a PM and I bet he could get things sorted out.

Good luck

jr

 

[TommyF@DISH Network]

@Jarrod The Seagate one you had you mentioned had a power-saver mode. I personally would recommend trying it with the power-saver mode turned off if possible. As for the EHD by WD, if it gives the option to reformat there is no way to stop that, sorry .

ON THE GOOD SIDE!! I do have some information on the EHD's that are accepted by our system.

Requirements
- USB 2.0
- External Power Source
- Minimum of 50GB/ Max of 2TB

Restrictions
- No dual drives (two drives in one physical case)
- No hybrid drives (flash memory plus traditional disk in one physical case).
- Only one external hard drive can be connected to a receiver at one time.
- The external drive will be working constantly—do not move the drive while it is on.
- The EHD can be connected an unlimited amount of times to compatible DVR Archive models or Converted DVR models but not between the two model groups. (211, 211k, and 411; 612, 622, 722, and 722k
- The EHD can be connected an unlimited amount of times only if connected between compatible non-DVR receivers that are active on the account.
- An EHD can be transferred once but not shared between DVR and non-DVR receivers. Moving each way will require re-formatting which will delete any stored programs.
- Cannot share EHD's between accounts. When the drive is connected to the new receiver, the receiver will prompt to reformat the drive.
- The EHD cannot be shared between a computer and receiver and will prompt to reformat if the EHD is connected to another device.

Other members may be able to provide more information about which EHD's work better than others as we don't have a list of which ones work. I also checked into the 622 and 722's. There's no difference between them besides the 722 has a bit more base recording hours available on it. There aren't any current known product issues with EHD's wanting to reformat after being inactive for awhile, though it may also be because it was inactive for 2 weeks (Anyone with an EHD that can add info to that?)

When you got the replacement receiver, did the same problem happen to it as the first one? Or is it possible you may be able to recreate the scenario to test it? (Making sure the recordings are saved somewhere else first )

 

[Jarrod]

@Jarrod The Seagate one you had you mentioned had a power-saver mode. I personally would recommend trying it with the power-saver mode turned off if possible. As for the EHD by WD, if it gives the option to reformat there is no way to stop that, sorry .

ON THE GOOD SIDE!! I do have some information on the EHD's that are accepted by our system.

Wow, thank you for this great information. I can see this is the right place to come with technical issues...

When you got the replacement receiver, did the same problem happen to it as the first one? Or is it possible you may be able to recreate the scenario to test it? (Making sure the recordings are saved somewhere else first )

I only tried the first drive (Seagate with the power-save issue) on both receivers, and yes, it had the same exact issue on both receivers. i.e. it would power down, and then the next time I tried to access My Media, I'd hear the drive spool up, but the 622 would give an error message (I forget exactly which message but it may have been the one about requiring a format). If I unplugged/replugged the drive, I'd then get the message asking me if I wanted the receiver to manage the storage on the drive. I'd say yes, and the content would all be there. This behavior was exactly the same on both 622s I had.

After I returned the older 622 (I kept the newer one because the internal HDD was quieter, and I hoped newer), I purchased the WD drive that I'm currently having the reformat issue with. I guess at this point I'm running out of options with it. I did see some posts about running an fsck of the drive in Linux to see if that would help. I'm Linux-savvy and could do that if you or others think it might help. I'm not ready to nuke the filesystem with a full reformat on the 622, until I feel I've exhausted all options.

Thanks so much for your reply!

 

[TommyF@DISH Network]

I did see some posts about running an fsck of the drive in Linux to see if that would help. I'm Linux-savvy and could do that if you or others think it might help. I'm not ready to nuke the filesystem with a full reformat on the 622, until I feel I've exhausted all options.

Thanks so much for your reply!

Glad to help! If you wanted to go about the FSCK on your own then feel free.

 

[dennispap]

i hooked up a wd ehd today to my vip722. It seems that the few hd movies that i have transferred take real time. It seems like it should be someone faster than that. I then transferred a 5 min hd show and it took 5 mins. At first the time bar said 2 mins which would seem right but then when it got to about 30 seconds left, it then showed 4.5 mins left and did take another 4.5 mins. Also during a transfer sometimes the green bar is there and sometimes it isnt. Is that normal? Thanks for any replies.

 

[long_time_DNC]

i hooked up a wd ehd today to my vip722. It seems that the few hd movies that i have transferred take real time. It seems like it should be someone faster than that. I then transferred a 5 min hd show and it took 5 mins. At first the time bar said 2 mins which would seem right but then when it got to about 30 seconds left, it then showed 4.5 mins left and did take another 4.5 mins. Also during a transfer sometimes the green bar is there and sometimes it isnt. Is that normal? Thanks for any replies.

Are you using a powered EHD or powering it from the USB port? If the latter, it'll transfer extremely slowly...

 

[dennispap]

It has its own power source. Just doubled checked and it is plugged into the wall.

 

[long_time_DNC]

It has its own power source. Just doubled checked and it is plugged into the wall.

Ok, scratch that one off the list. What model of WD EHD is it?

 

[dennispap]

Ok, scratch that one off the list. What model of WD EHD is it?

wd my book essential 2tb model WDBACW0020HBK-NESN

 

[harshness]

I have a 1.5TB My Book Essential and it moves at 2-3 times real time.

I don't have the model number handy.

 

[long_time_DNC]

wd my book essential 2tb model WDBACW0020HBK-NESN

Hm...how long did it take your 722 to format it? Roughly 15 minutes, or a lot longer? Also, do the programs you've transferred to it play back ok?

 

[dennispap]

Hm...how long did it take your 722 to format it? Roughly 15 minutes, or a lot longer? Also, do the programs you've transferred to it play back ok?

10-15 mins to format. Didnt get to look at any of the transfers. I will check them this afternoon.

 

[KKlare]

The OTA HD MPEG-2 recordings are 2 to 3 times larger than Dish HD MPEG-4 and will take that much longer to record.
Always compare on MB/hr. For recording, MPEG-2 SD is say 800MB/hr, MPEG-4 HD is 1600-2400MB/hr, OTA MPEG2 HD is 5500-6500 MB/hr depending on the number of subchannels restricting the flow. You should use the same basis for comparing your transfers.
A bad USB cable or any switches could slow the transfer, too.
-Ken

 

[long_time_DNC]

I'm also wondering about the USB hub on that 722 and whether or not it'll playback transferred material...

 

[KKlare]

The 722s and even the 622 have front and back ports and you can put multiple ports on those but only one can be active, in total. Un-power or disconnect all drives but one.

Does anyone, know if the photo access and EHD can both be active? Suspect not, suspect Dish does not address them.
-Ken

 

[dennispap]

Thanks guys, i think the multiple usb was the problem. I had the ehd and a small fan plugged into a "4 in 1" usb adapter in the back usb jack. Some of the recordings played ok, but some would play,pause, play, pause. etc. and it also took forever to transfer from dvr to the ehd. I plugged the ehd directly into the back jack and the problem recordings play fine now. I also just transferred a 1 hour hd show in about 14 mins. it would have took an hour or longer with the usb 4 in 1.
Next question, i plugged the fan into my front usb jack, should this affect the ehd in the back usb jack? It doesnt seem to be, but does anyone know for sure? Thanks

 

[Bobby]

Thanks guys, i think the multiple usb was the problem. I had the ehd and a small fan plugged into a "4 in 1" usb adapter in the back usb jack. Some of the recordings played ok, but some would play,pause, play, pause. etc. and it also took forever to transfer from dvr to the ehd. I plugged the ehd directly into the back jack and the problem recordings play fine now. I also just transferred a 1 hour hd show in about 14 mins. it would have took an hour or longer with the usb 4 in 1.
Next question, i plugged the fan into my front usb jack, should this affect the ehd in the back usb jack? It doesnt seem to be, but does anyone know for sure? Thanks

Quick question for you. Is your 4 in 1 USB connector a powered one? If not, there is your problem.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Exactly, if the hub isn't powered, there's your problem. I have a 7 port (powered) hub and 6 drives connected to the hub and as long as I only have one EHD turned on at a time, I have zero issues.

 

[dennispap]

Quick question for you. Is your 4 in 1 USB connector a powered one? If not, there is your problem.

No it ISNT powered. it is a cheapo $10.00
So if i get a powered hub i could use the one ehd and the fan together thru the rear usb?
Also when not using the ehd should i turn it off?