External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[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.

 

[KKlare]

I think you will find many reports here that to use Seagate drives (this model?) you must disable the sleep mode using a PC. This was true for the 622/722 series and is probably true for the 211. They should not sell it as Dish designed--it is their problem, at least until Dish writes special code for it. I would want my drive to sleep as the WD and 3 others that I have do and recover promptly enough for use.

The software will be gone as soon as it is enabled for Dish--file system change. The size 930GB is 930 x 1024^3 bytes as used by most but this is 1TB=1 x 10^12 bytes as used by the manufacturer. The difference of binary vs. decimal does not indicate the loss of space nor a reservation for software storage but just a different nomenclature for the "G" or "T" in its size.
-Ken

 

[rarhead]

Losing shows

In the last couple of weeks I have been losing movies off my external drive after watching them. I would probably have deleted them anyway. However I am getting concerned about the other shows on the drive. Has anyone experienced this? Is this what is happening to long_time_DNC in the post above? Sorry I am not very tech savvy and this is my first visit to this thread. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Hm...interesting. So I'm not the only one this is happening to, evidently... I'm obviously not putting anything on drive #4 anymore and haven't had the problem occur again since I stopped adding anything to drive #4, and I'm not attempting to put anything with a "limited viewing time" out there on any drive...so this is rather odd...

 

[rarhead]

Both things that were lost were movies from cinemax. This is probably crazy. But I was wondering if there was some kind of 1 time viewing copy protection on some movies?

 

[bookworm370]

Has anyone been able to make a mirror copy of their entire EHD using some flavor of Linux?

Thanks!

Sure, it's actually pretty simple if you have the time as the Linux DD command will literally copy everything bit by bit. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you the IF (input file) and OF (Output File) specs to the right mounts.


dd if=/dev/usbx of=/dev/usby

Where x is the USB root designator of your INPUT (REAL) drive.
and y is the designator of the drive you want to copy to.

Using DD you can copy a 500 gig drive to a 1TB drive but it will copy everything including partition information so your 1TB drive will become a 500G drive when it's done. So like to like works the best.. DD doesn't care what's in a block even if it's empty, it just copies it. You get an exact mirror.

I use it a lot to make exact clones of my VMWare boot USB sticks, in case I want to make a change or one packs it up. In cases, my real USB stick is 2G in size but I grab whatever is around so I even have some 4G sticks that are now 2G after the copy in a drawer. Cheap insurance.

The nice thing about DD cloning is that your encryption is also copied over so it doesn't violate any E*'s TOS agreements. You still can't play that copied drive on someone else's DVR.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Sure, it's actually pretty simple if you have the time as the Linux DD command will literally copy everything bit by bit. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you the IF (input file) and OF (Output File) specs to the right mounts.


dd if=/dev/usbx of=/dev/usby

Where x is the USB root designator of your INPUT (REAL) drive.
and y is the designator of the drive you want to copy to.

Using DD you can copy a 500 gig drive to a 1TB drive but it will copy everything including partition information so your 1TB drive will become a 500G drive when it's done. So like to like works the best.. DD doesn't care what's in a block even if it's empty, it just copies it. You get an exact mirror.

I use it a lot to make exact clones of my VMWare boot USB sticks, in case I want to make a change or one packs it up. In cases, my real USB stick is 2G in size but I grab whatever is around so I even have some 4G sticks that are now 2G after the copy in a drawer. Cheap insurance.

The nice thing about DD cloning is that your encryption is also copied over so it doesn't violate any E*'s TOS agreements. You still can't play that copied drive on someone else's DVR.

Thanks! That's exactly what I want to do...just dupe my 4th drive to a new 750gb drive (like to like) and then use the iffy drive on my PC for non-critical storage...

 

[kenalpine]

External HDD Stuff

Posted this elsewhere, but should have put it in this sticky.

Added a 1TB Seagate "Expansion" drive (89.00 at Office Depot) to a 722 last Saturday; turned into a seven hour process! The 722 detected the drive right away and I called to get activation. CSR took my data and said all was well. Waited a half hour - no activation. Called two more times, same results. Fourth time I asked for a supervisor. He made the apparently loony claim that I had to "download the proper drivers from the Seagate site." When I asked what drivers, he had no answer. So I has to reformat the HDD to NTFS by attaching it to a Windows machine, then go looking for drivers. Ok, done; stupid, but done. Reattach to the 722 which promptly reformatted, wiping out anything I just downloaded from Seagate. Same problem - no activation. Called again and asked for a super, but the CSR swore he could fix it. Apparently there are two EHD recognition flags and everyone else had set only the first. He set the second, gave me a hit, and it worked after just seven hours of trying.

One of the earlier CSR's said that once I had paid the $39.99 I could attach an EHD to my 211 as well. That's pretty neat. However another CSR said that drives could not be swapped from the 722 to the 211 without losing all content.

Finally, the limit appears to be 1TB (see the info PDF) rather than the 750MB on the web site. Fun with technology!!

Also, I asked Seagate about the sleep mode. They said it is in the firmware and can be disabled with software, but the S/W is Windows only and the disable setting will be removed during the E* reformat.

 

[KAB]

Also, I asked Seagate about the sleep mode. They said it is in the firmware and can be disabled with software, but the S/W is Windows only and the disable setting will be removed during the E* reformat.

Formatting does not affect firmware.

 

[kenalpine]

Exactly my point. Disabling the sleep function using the Windows program will be negated by the E* Linux formatting according to Seagate

 

[kenalpine]

EHD Sleep Mode

Another thought - if the Seagate EHD sleep mode is triggered by 15 minutes of inactivity I wonder if they define inactivity as the loss of the USB signal. If so, and the 722 USB ports are always powered up, the sleep mode would never trigger. I think I'll just power down the drive.

 

[KAB]

Exactly my point. Disabling the sleep function using the Windows program will be negated by the E* Linux formatting according to Seagate

No, totally incorrect. Firmware settings, regardless of the OS used to change them, are totally independent. Does not matter what some guy at Seagate tells you. Dozens and dozens of members here have used it successfully. USB power is not a factor, it's drive access...or lack thereof.

 

[geodi58]

Help on mirroring - DD command

Sure, it's actually pretty simple if you have the time as the Linux DD command will literally copy everything bit by bit. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you the IF (input file) and OF (Output File) specs to the right mounts.


dd if=/dev/usbx of=/dev/usby

Where x is the USB root designator of your INPUT (REAL) drive.
and y is the designator of the drive you want to copy to.

Using DD you can copy a 500 gig drive to a 1TB drive but it will copy everything including partition information so your 1TB drive will become a 500G drive when it's done. So like to like works the best.. DD doesn't care what's in a block even if it's empty, it just copies it. You get an exact mirror.

I use it a lot to make exact clones of my VMWare boot USB sticks, in case I want to make a change or one packs it up. In cases, my real USB stick is 2G in size but I grab whatever is around so I even have some 4G sticks that are now 2G after the copy in a drawer. Cheap insurance.

The nice thing about DD cloning is that your encryption is also copied over so it doesn't violate any E*'s TOS agreements. You still can't play that copied drive on someone else's DVR.

Hi, I'm having trouble to get the DD command to work...lsusb gives me the following:
Bus 001 Device 003 ID 1058:1100 Western Digital...etc.
Bus 001 Device 002 ID 0BC2:3010 Seagate...etc.

I want to mirror the Seagate to the Western Digital, so I entered:
dd if=/dev/usb002 of=/dev/usb003 and got "opening '/dev/usb002' : No such file or directory"

After some Googling, I entered
dd if=/dev/bus/usb/002 of=/dev/bus/usb/003 and got "opening '/dev/bus/usb/003' : Is a directory"

Also, I'm trying to mirror the Western Digital out of the box, if this info helps.

I'm a linux newbie...any help? Thanks

 

[smjbh5]

Considering WD My Book Esentials

I heard this EHD has a power save mode. Does this need to be disabled before connecting it to a DVR?

Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN

 

[KAB]

I heard this EHD has a power save mode. Does this need to be disabled before connecting it to a DVR?

Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN

No. Only Seagates.

 

[inazsully]

What's the difference between all the small model number differences. For instance WDBAAU0010HBK NEFR and WDBAAF0010HBK NESN. I also read to avoid NESN models. What's the difference between NESN and NEFR? The two model numbers are the same except for one has WDBAAU and the other has WDBAAF. Very confusing.

 

[KAB]

The NEFR's were the older and discontinued Elements models.
The NESN's are the newer Essentials. No reported problems with the Essentials.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/202770-wd-ehd-better.html

 

[inazsully]

Thanks for the information KAB. My confusion began when I went to amazon and noticed that they still have several NEFR models available. When I looked up the WDBAAF0010HBK NESN and started reading the over 90 reviews I was a bit dismayed at the low ratings and the many complaints. With the large number of posts and the fact that you are a fellow Hoosier, I of course trust your opinion. If you get a chance perhaps you could check out some of the owner reviews at amazon and comment. It seems that WD has issued a software upgrade that addresses some of these complaints. Your insight would be most welcome. I will be ordering this product this week. Can the 722 properly utilize the 1.5 or the 2.0TB drives at this time? Thanks.

 

[olds403]

The newer WD drives have auto backup and drive lock software that DOES need to be disabled. It is called smartware and you need to download a firmware update from the WD website to disable it. I know because I had a brand new 1.5T WD essentials fail because of it.

I am not sure which part of their software caused the failure. After formatting and being correctly recognized by my 722 it failed while copying some files from the 722. Kept wanting to reformat and failing when trying to reformat. Did some diagnosis after connecting to my computer and found some bad sectors. Tried to erase the drive, it failed. Had to return drive for replacement. I removed the smartware BEFORE using the drive this time and it has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[inazsully]

So you are saying that simply plugging the EHD into the 722 and following the prompts to re format will not have everything up and running? I will need to remove or disable the smartware by using my computer? Does the 722 allow for the complete use of the 1.5?