External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

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I just ordered the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB 3.5" USB 2.0/FireWire 400 External Hard Drive. I hope it works good for me. The one on ebay was $130 shipped but I got this one from Amazon for the same price and it is new plus I got $30 off for signing up for the Amazon Rewards card so I will only have $100 in it. I figure this hard drive would be great for backing up computer stuff when needed.

I filled up the hard drive of the 722 in only a few weeks after getting it and have had to delete a few tv series off to make room and have not had much time to watch much tv lately.
 
I also have a Maxtor OneTouch 4 and was having the power boot issue with my 612. It is in fact possible to configure the Maxtor to never spin down, I verified it fixed the issue of the STB not seeing the external HDD.

You need to use the Maxtor manager software that came with the HDD by running it on your PC. Good news is that you don't even need to reformat your HDD, just plug it in the PC, configure the "Power Saving" option to never spin down, and you're good to go.
The Maxtor software can be downloaded from the Seagate website if you don't have it anymore.

Credit goes to Bill R. on alt.dbs.echostar for this solution.

Obvious side effect is I suspect this decreases significantly the lifetime of the HDD, not to mention the impact on power consumption...
 
What is the life expectancy of the hard drive if it runs all the time? Shouldn't it still last for years and years? I thought it was harder on a hard drive to start and stop a lot than to stay running. I also didn't think these hard drives used that much power. They might take what - $2 worth of electric per month to run if that?
 
Off the shelf drives were designed for occasional back-up, not the labor the EHD's go through. They should not be left on all the time. A lot of folks here have had problems with their drives because of that.
 
I power my EHD's up when I need/want to use them and turn 'em off when I don't need them. Why? To conserve on the life of the drive.

I expect them to fail at some point...that's inevitible...but if I can help extend their lifespan by not leaving them on 24/7, then why not help them?
 
long_time_DNC said:
I power my EHD's up when I need/want to use them and turn 'em off when I don't need them. Why? To conserve on the life of the drive.

I expect them to fail at some point...that's inevitible...but if I can help extend their lifespan by not leaving them on 24/7, then why not help them?
Click to expand...
Same here...
 
Sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but does anyone know if Dish fixed the spin down/standby issue with the Seagate Free Agent drives? I was not sure if there was ever a solution, and if so, should probably reset the setting on my drive.
 
Stargazer said:
I thought it was harder on a hard drive to start and stop a lot than to stay running.
Click to expand...
At one time when drives were made of large numbers of platters, it was a good idea to leave them running. Now, most drives are rated for 20,000 power cycles so starting and stopping isn't as much of an issue.
 
I think the best external hard drive for dish boxes. Is Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0,or another model comes with firewire and SATA ur choice, I bought four of them till now and works flawless with my 722 & 612 box. I think if u has dish boxes western digital 750GB my book model , only way to go and works awesome!
Looks like the only minor all brands of external hard drives with dish boxes.. It don’t turn off with boxes. if u want to it off ..U have to unplugged from the outlet! ..Beside that is great thing to have.
GO to beachcamera.com for lowest price to buy.

 
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20, 000 power cycles = 2 times a day for 30 years, 5 times a day for 12 years, 10 times a day for 6 years , 20 times a day for 3 years, 10 times a day every other day for 12 years.
 
Cycles that it takes to fill a 750GB drive with a one hour weekly show: less than 100 (over four years)
 
I have a Western Digital Ext 500gig Drive and here is my problem. I can restore movies, and I can even watch the movies off the Ext HDD, but I cannot delete them at all. When I go to highlight and delete the movie it just flashes the screen for a split second and goes back to the movie list again, with the movie still in the HDD. This is messed up, I have a ton of movies on there I don't want to give up, but I also archived some stuff I don't want anymore and would like to make more space for newer stuff but I can't delete anything off there. And I don't have enough room on the VIP 622 HDD to move all the movies I want to keep off the Ext HDD to the VIP. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
AriesGodofWar said:
Sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but does anyone know if Dish fixed the spin down/standby issue with the Seagate Free Agent drives? I was not sure if there was ever a solution, and if so, should probably reset the setting on my drive.
Click to expand...
They said on last night's Tech Chat there was a fix for the Seagate problem in the next software version. They even mentioned when it will start spooling but I'm old and CSR kicks in frequently:p
 
Short comment regarding the "866"error. I called Dish today, the CSR sent out a "hit" and access to the EHD restored.

Thanks for the information in this thread.:)

Fitzie
 
i put an IDE drive into Mad Dog multimedia's Mega Vault 3.5" aluminum "anodized hard drive enclosure" and my 622 says "you have connected an unsupported device to the usb port" without any option to format the drive. i have paid the fee and connected other USB drives to this 622. what gives?

i connected the drive to my PC and it found i right away; i removed all 3 of the partitions on the drive and that didn't help

the enclosure has a 40GB WD IDE drive inside it
 
have you tried to format the drive on your computer to a fat 32. my western digital wouldn't work till i did that. now it works great. please keep in mind that not all drives are supported.
 
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