External Hard Drive Database Western Digital 500 gig

[dlsnyder]

Until recently I had a WD My Book Essentials 500GB unit that I was using as an EHD with my 622, and it worked flawlessly. Then it died without warning about 2 days after the one year warranty expired. Maybe I just had bad luck, but then again, maybe not. The next one I get will not be in a plastic case. I am going to go the DIY route and get an internal drive and a good enclosure.

 

[sds39]

I was thinking of purchasing a WD external hard drive to go with my VIP211. I had called Dish and they advised against one with a sleep mode. Can you set the sleep mode to off on any of these or have you found they work ok without doing it?

 

[jerryez]

I have the WD 500gb my book essential drive and it does not have a sleep mode that I know of.

 

[KAB]

I was thinking of purchasing a WD external hard drive to go with my VIP211. I had called Dish and they advised against one with a sleep mode. Can you set the sleep mode to off on any of these or have you found they work ok without doing it?

If you are going to leave the drive on 24/7 which you would naturally want to with the 211, DO NOT buy a plastic enclosure drive. Get a WD AAKS series internal drive and an aluminum enclosure. Sale on 500gb this weekend at newegg.

 

[chidancer]

Had a WD 500 gig for 16 months and it just crashed. It was on all the time. Just bought a 1 TB Seagate for $150, copied the computer info from a smaller Seagate and put it on the Dish and kept the bigger one on the computer. Even though I formatted the Dish bound drive first, it reformatted and gives only half the gigs it did on the computer. Happy with the new 1TB thought.

 

[fredp]

I have the WD My Book Essentials 500GB EHD. There is no way to power it down (without unplugging it from the wall) and the blue light stays on all the time. Is this ok, or will it wear out the drive sooner? I was thinking of buying a power strip with an on/off switch and plugging it into that so I could power it off when the receiver is off and I'm not planning on recording anything. Is this a good idea? I have a VIP 622, but am also thinking of getting another of these EHDs for my 211 when they activate the DVR function in the 211. Thanks for any replies...

I bought a $3 powerstrip. The drive may not use much power over its life to add up to the cost, but its just the way I was raised..

 

[dlsnyder]

Has anyone tried out one of the WD Elements EHDs? They come in a metal enclosure and appear to have vent holes on the ends. They have an 8MB cache.