So I finally got around to connecting the external hard drives that I had connected to my old 722. They all worked fine on the 722, but when I connected several of them to the Hopper with Sling I get the message that they need to be reformatted. Some of them connected and work fine, others say they need reformatting. I was hoping not to lose the data that is on those hard drives, is there anything else I can do? They are all WD drives, either 1TB or 2TB drives. Thanks for any information you may have.
External hard drives
- Thread starter olds403
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Try again, especially after power cycling the Hopper. And give it a few minutes to mull it over after you see the msg. Do not reformat.
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If all else fails, call Dish and tell them to send your Hopper a "hit".
When navychop mentioned power cycling I am sure he meant unplug the Hopper for about 30 seconds and then plug it back in and let it do its boot process. Then give it a few minutes before plugging the EHDs with issues back in. Because some of your EHDs work there is no reason for a hit from DISH. When you plug these EHDs in just do one at a time so as not to confuse the receiver.
I've seen some EHD's migrate seamlessly from a 722 to a Hopper and then I've seen some that absolutely refuse to work without being formatted. I don't know why but that's what I've seen. 
I didn't have any issues with my EHD when I upgraded from 722 to HWS.
I’ve used the same EHD from 622 to 722 to HWS.
Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys App. For now.
Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys App. For now.
I used the same EHD from a 722 to a Hopper 2000 to a Hopper 3. Still working just fine including the recordings from all three.
Over the weekend I plugged in an external drive that I wasn’t sure what it contained. I expected to get the Do you want to reformat notice or have it work as a external. I got neither. I pulled the usb and tried again. Still nothing, but I figured I’d let it sit for a bit. After ~30 mins or so, it got the notice that an external drive was connected and ready to watch the recorded shows! Not sure why it took so long (someone suggested a disk check) but it may just take some time. That is, of course, because they were already dish external drives.
If you get the notice that the drive needs to be reformatted, that is not good.
If you have a computer, you can connect the external drive at at least look at the partition scheme and look for the 3 Linux partitions. If not, all the recorded shows are gone, sadly.
If you get the notice that the drive needs to be reformatted, that is not good.
If you have a computer, you can connect the external drive at at least look at the partition scheme and look for the 3 Linux partitions. If not, all the recorded shows are gone, sadly.
Thanks for your feedback. We have been receiving several reports about the External Hard Drive not being recognized so the more reports that we get, the more that our Technical Operations and Engineering team can see about isolating the problem and finding the resolution needed.
After doing a power cord reset on the Hopper, I was able to get most of the hard drives that initially did not work to work correctly. Thank you for the tips.There was still one drive that seems to be stubborn, don't know if there is a physical problem with that one or not.
Perhaps there is hope for me yet to get back my EHD that was a lost a while back after a software update. It will not show up on the HWS but if I plug it into my computer it shows it, even though it doesn't recognize the format. If I load it under disk management it wants to initialize the disk which I'm not about to do. By the way a Dish tech tried to tell me during a chat session that the EHD would automatically format itself just by plugging it into my computer. Bonk.
I have the last Space Shuttle launch on my 722k's internal drive (recorded from when AXS was HDNet, so it's in HD) and I wish I could copy it to an external HD rather than move it, but alas, no such option exists...
Rather than start a new thread or take out a bunch of EHDs to experiment, I thought I might use this thread to ask a related question. How many EHDs can you hook up to the Hopper? I have about eight EHDs that have archived movies from my days with a 722. The movies I've played work well with the Hopper even though they were recorded long ago with the 722. I also have a powered usb hub that has seven ports. Right now I only use two of them and the two EHDs I have hooked up show on my screen and work fine. Will the screen "Other Devices" show all the EHDs I have on the hub, even if I attach all seven of them? It does show the two I have now and I'm just wondering before I take them all out and hook them up if I have a limit on how many EHDs I can have attached and active on my Hopper?
I have successfully booted up a Linux live CD (or DVD) and made copies of the encrypted programs or moved them from one Dish-formatted disk to another. That works, though you must maintain the ownership of the files as root.
I also installed ext2fsd on my Windows computer with success.
Note that, since these program files are encrypted, you can't watch them without a Dish receiver.I had 8 connected to my 722 from a single USB port. I used 3 - 4 port USB switches (with external power supplies) that were daisy chained with 3 EHD's on each 4 port switch, and then the next 4 port switch connected to the 4th outlet on the first switch.
So far I have only one switch connected to the lower USB port on the back (3 EHD's connected to the switch), and then I have a single drive connected to the upper rear USB port for a total of 4 at the moment. I am planning on adding the other 4 drives I have when I get the time to connect them.
The way they are connected I have 2 drives available at any one time in the DVR menu, other devices. To switch drives with the USB switch I simply turn off the power button on the switch for one drive, and then turn on the switch for the drive I want to access.
So far I have only one switch connected to the lower USB port on the back (3 EHD's connected to the switch), and then I have a single drive connected to the upper rear USB port for a total of 4 at the moment. I am planning on adding the other 4 drives I have when I get the time to connect them.
The way they are connected I have 2 drives available at any one time in the DVR menu, other devices. To switch drives with the USB switch I simply turn off the power button on the switch for one drive, and then turn on the switch for the drive I want to access.
