OFFICIAL External Storage Information

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok folks here is the deal...

Someone from Dish saw my message and sent one of the staff members out to buy the exact drive I have and test it.

The good news is that it works fine on the 622. The drive will not format until after it has been activated.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THE FOLKS AT DISH FOR TESTING THIS FOR ME!

So if you plug in a drive and you get the message asking if you want to manage it, then chances are VERY good that it will work after you activate your External Storage service.

Again thank you to Dish for looking into this issu!.

 

[MRUSS]

The receiver only appears to "read" it when you specifically access it. I thought it would integrate the recordings into "My Recordings" but that doesn't sound to be the case.

You can leave them turned on all the time or turn them off when you don't need the shows from them.

Thanks hall, but they will last longer if turned off when not in use, correct?

 

[tsduke]

Ok folks here is the deal...

Someone from Dish saw my message and sent one of the staff members out to buy the exact drive I have and test it.

The good news is that it works fine on the 622. The drive will not format until after it has been activated.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THE FOLKS AT DISH FOR TESTING THIS FOR ME!

So if you plug in a drive and you get the message asking if you want to manage it, then chances are VERY good that it will work after you activate your External Storage service.

Again thank you to Dish for looking into this issu!.

That's good news. I won't have to return my 500gb my book.:up

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I know the 500GB MyBook works. One of the execs at Dish has been using one and he says it works well.

 

[Hall]

Thanks hall, but they will last longer if turned off when not in use, correct?

Yes, No. Ask 100 people and 50 will say "yes" and the other 50 will say "no".

 

[keenan]

Something to note, if you have a power failure, will the external drive power up when the power is returned, or will it need physical intervention like pressing a button to power it up?

When adding external storage to the TiVo S3 we came across this issue, some external enclosures have a hard switch which will allow powering up when power is returned, and some have a soft switch which needs to be activated before the drive will power up.

From what I've been reading, the external drive setup seems a bit different than the TiVo setup as with the TiVo the drive is integrated in the boot/power up process which means if the power to the external drive is off during boot the Tivo will ask if you want to "divorce" the drive.

With the Dish setup it seems that the usage of the external drive is a completely separate operation and the above power issue may not be a problem.

Just something to consider when looking at external drives.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mine powers up whenever it detects power from the USB port of the 622.

 

[jdr01930]

"This will be rough having to get up and go push the power button if I decide to watch something on the hard drive. I'm not to smart on this so someone give me some advice please."

The power button will probably have little use. When I turned mine off with the button, the 622 turns it back on whenever Tv1/Tv2 is turned on. So, If I power mine off with the button, it eventually turns itself back on, even if I'm not doing anything DVR related. However, the drive itself spins down and stays stays down appropriately/automatically, so it shouldn't be an issue.

To keep the drive completely off, I'd have to hit the power button on the My Book after turn after turning on the 622 each time. Don't think I can program my Harmony remote to do that automatically - lol.

 

[Hall]

Mine powers up whenever it detects power from the USB port of the 622.

Which is on all the time, is it not ?

 

[Hall]

I thought it would integrate the recordings into "My Recordings" but that doesn't sound to be the case.

Does anyone know if this is the case ??

 

[jdr01930]

Scott,

Just curious which model 500 Gig My Book are you using? Essentials, Premium, or other?
If you don't feel like flipping it over to get the model number, just post the case color (black or white), and the front LED color (green or blue). I've got the Essentials myself, but by coincidence was working with a couple of Premiums at work today - they are quite different animals actually (although for our purposes here they'll probably all work the same).

Thanks!

Oh yeah, for what it's worth that cool usage gauge on the Premium probably wont work with the 622. The manual states you need to install drivers on the PC it's connect to to make it work. I doubt there's a linux driver, and even if there is I can't imagine how you could get it implemented on a closed system like the 622 - lol.

 

[keenan]

Mine powers up whenever it detects power from the USB port of the 622.

Yes, that could be the case for most all USB drives, I'm not sure. The one I'm going to use appears to do the same, it's a Hitachi 1TB USB enclosure with a 500GB Hitachi drive installed(used the 1TB with the S3). But eSATA enclosures have both types of power setups so that's why the subject came up.

Also, not sure it was mentioned before or not(I may have myself in fact), but many drives can have the firmware adjusted to provide for quiet running, something to consider when it will be sitting in a HT setting.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott,

Just curious which model 500 Gig My Book are you using? Essentials, Premium, or other?

I have the 750 GB My Book Essential Edition.

 

[John Kotches]

Because MS format have 2 modes - Regular, when it read all sectors and Quick - just create file system, so it fast as any other.

John, I think you knew that.

And that's a holdover from the old Floppy days. Why is it still there when the drive can easily handle it's own sector management.

The quick / standard is an antiquated holdover from days of yore but when in Redmond...

 

[John Kotches]

Thanks hall, but they will last longer if turned off when not in use, correct?

X...

There is arguments either way.

For turning off: It lowers the average temperature of the drive. It lowers power consumption.

Against: Power cycling the drive is one of the ways to make it fail You also keep the drive at thermal equlibrium which may be less stressful than bringing it up and down in temperature on a regular basis.

 

[kstuart]

X...

There is arguments either way.

For turning off: It lowers the average temperature of the drive. It lowers power consumption.

Against: Power cycling the drive is one of the ways to make it fail You also keep the drive at thermal equlibrium which may be less stressful than bringing it up and down in temperature on a regular basis.

This is exactly correct.

(In fact I've heard this direct from a Hard Drive Engineer... actually, I was disappointed that Seagate sent a Marketing guy rather than an Engineer. )

 

[jdr01930]

OK, here's a good one (probably for Scott...)

When i call to get external storage enabled tomorrow, do I have to be "on location" (at home) with my 622? I'd like to go through all the waiting on hold crap while at work, so I can dive right in when I get home. I'm thinkin' they might need the serial# stuff off the system info screen, which I could right down easily enough, but anyone know if they'll need us to push buttons or any thing that would require us to be physically present with our 622's for the activation process?

 

[lakebum431]

They should have all of your R00 numbers if you just give them your account number.

 

[Hall]

How/why would Scott know the answer to this ??

I can't imagine that you HAVE to be at the receiver but then again, if you're not, why the rush to enable it ?? If anything, they probably want to verify that it worked while they're on the phone with you.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I will activate mine tommorow, while I am at work....

But can verify everything if they need it.

The Slingbox is a great invention.