New External HD not showing up

[nwflyboy]

I recently decided to upgrade one of the two external hard drives I've got attached to my Hopper. Old HD was 1.5 TB, went to Costco and got a new 2.0 TB drive to replace it (first I copied all the recordings off old EHD#2 and moved them to EHD#1).

I unplugged old EHD#2, then plugged in new EHD#2. But the new EHD#2 doesn't show up. I'm quite sure it came pre-formatted, but my guess is that maybe it needs a different formatting type. I can hook it up to a PC and reformat and try again easily enough. What's the recommended formatting type for an EHD?

Any other ideas to make this drive suddenly appear?

The drive *is* plugged in via USB and *is* powered up.

Thanks.

 

[Bobby]

Is it the only EHD plugged in? Formatting makes no difference because, when recognized, the Hopper will format it to Dish's protocols....

 

[nwflyboy]

Ah - no, I still have EHD#1 plugged in, also. Good to know that the new one will be auto-formatted once it's recognized.

Next - unplug EHD#1 and see if it recognizes EHD#2? If so, then plug back in EHD#1?

Thanks!

 

[Bobby]

Yep, once you get the new one formatted and recognized, plug the second one back in.

 

[n0qcu]

New drives are usually formatted NTFS (at least the ones I've seen) which DISH receivers will recognize.

 

[sdfntx]

You probably tried rebooting the Hopper with the EHD plugged in, but it might be worth a retry. One of my three EHDs is routinely ignored by the H3 (and HWS previously), and that sometimes corrects things. Good luck!

 

[KAB]

What always works for me... unplug EHD, reset Hopper, plug in EHD.

 

[nwflyboy]

Got it. To add a bit to the description:
EHD#1 was plugged in directly to the back of the Hopper.
EHD#2 (old and then new) was plugged in via a powered USB mini hub.

I unplugged EHD#1, then plugged (new) EHD#2 directly to the back of the Hopper. It immediately recognized it and asked if I wanted to format the new device (yes). After the formatting completed and I confirmed the new EHD was recognized, I unplugged that and restored the original connections: EHD#1 was plugged back in directly to the back of the Hopper. I reconnected the USB mini hub, and plugged (newly formatted) EHD#2 into that hub. Took about 10-15 seconds but it then recognized both EHDs. Looks like it's all set now. I'm currently transferring a few recordings from the Hopper to (new) EHD#2 to ensure all the bits flow as expected. So far, so good, mission accomplished.

The piece that I had not expected was that the Hopper would need to reformat any new HD, and that it only recognizes a new HD (that needs to be formatted) when connected directly to the Hopper - it appears that new HDs connected via a USB hub will not be recognized/formatted; once properly formatted, a device connected via USB hub works fine, but for the initial handshake, it needs to be connected directly to the Hopper temporarily. Hope this is useful info for someone else at some point.

Love this forum - it makes all the difference. Many thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[sdfntx]

<snip>

The piece that I had not expected was that the Hopper would need to reformat any new HD, and that it only recognizes a new HD (that needs to be formatted) when connected directly to the Hopper - it appears that new HDs connected via a USB hub will not be recognized/formatted; once properly formatted, a device connected via USB hub works fine, but for the initial handshake, it needs to be connected directly to the Hopper temporarily. Hope this is useful info for someone else at some point.

Love this forum - it makes all the difference. Many thanks to everyone for the help.

Don't mean to confuse matters, but my last/3rd EHD was connected to a hub when it was first attached and I immediately got the message about reformatting. Don't know if it makes any difference, but both it and the hub (also new) are USB 3.0. Seems like just another example of weird Dishiness, where a Hopper, will do one thing for one user (spontaneous rebooting, needing to be reset daily, not recognizing EHDs, etc.), and another has a very different experience.

Anyhow, glad you got yours working - enjoy!