Upgraded to one Hopper3, Now I need an EHD recommendation.

[toddjb]

My QUESTION
is there a particular list of external hard drives (or one you recommend) that is good for the Hopper3? My installer could not recommend one. I tried a WD MyBook on my Hopper2 and it never worked.

Also, as I have never used an EHD on the Hopper, how do your shows appear in the DVR listing?

My GRIPE is that I had 2 Hoppers w/ Sling (Hopper2?) and 1 Joey. All was good except the Joey was really slow. They talked me into a single Hopper3 and two Joeys because the Joeys are better and you get 16 tuners.
The Joeys are better AND you do get 16 tuners... but I didn't realize they didn't increase the hard drive size going from the H2 to the H3. That's a drag. I went from two hopper that were just over half full, never had an issue with drive space, and now I have a brand new H3 which is at capacity. Had I known that, I would've stayed with two H3s.

So, yes, I need an EHD that works well with the Hopper3. I'm sure any drive should work but as my last go around did not go well, figured I'd ask.

THANK YOU for your help! (I tried a search but got a lot of unrelated Hopper3 threads)

 

[littlecloud319]

My QUESTION
is there a particular list of external hard drives (or one you recommend) that is good for the Hopper3? My installer could not recommend one. I tried a WD MyBook on my Hopper2 and it never worked.

Also, as I have never used an EHD on the Hopper, how do your shows appear in the DVR listing?

My GRIPE is that I had 2 Hoppers w/ Sling (Hopper2?) and 1 Joey. All was good except the Joey was really slow. They talked me into a single Hopper3 and two Joeys because the Joeys are better and you get 16 tuners.
The Joeys are better AND you do get 16 tuners... but I didn't realize they didn't increase the hard drive size going from the H2 to the H3. That's a drag. I went from two hopper that were just over half full, never had an issue with drive space, and now I have a brand new H3 which is at capacity. Had I known that, I would've stayed with two H3s.

So, yes, I need an EHD that works well with the Hopper3. I'm sure any drive should work but as my last go around did not go well, figured I'd ask.

THANK YOU for your help! (I tried a search but got a lot of unrelated Hopper3 threads)

Dish’s only requirements are it needs its own power supply and needs to be 320GB(arguably 500GB). But I would guess in your case it would be well over that minimum anyway. And also the max size the hopper will recognize(unless changed in recent firmware/software update) is 2TB.

 

[littlecloud319]

And also if you want to be 100% sure on compatibility Dish does sell external drives on the MyDish site.

 

[larrykenney]

Also, as I have never used an EHD on the Hopper, how do your shows appear in the DVR listing?

When the EHD is connected to your Hopper you will get a choice of the internal hard drive or the external hard drive when you choose "DVR" on your remote. The two drives are listed separately.

 

[KAB]

And also if you want to be 100% sure on compatibility Dish does sell external drives on the MyDish site.

LOL! Like the time they cross-promoted the EHD capability with Seagate, only to have them not "wake up"?
Best option is to get an internal drive with a Dock. Just Switch out if and when needed.

 

[KAB]

When the EHD is connected to your Hopper you will get a choice of the internal hard drive or the external hard drive when you choose "DVR" on your remote. The two drives are listed separately.

Not exactly. "Sources" will be the EHD(s). Internal is the Default screen for DVR.

 

[toddjb]

Thanks, guys.

Does it have to be formatted in a particular way to be recognized? (FAT32, NTFS, etc.) While I can format from my MacBook, when you buy them they will often say "Mac Ready" or "PC Ready" on the box.

Okay, I'm used to having two Hoppers so I'm aware of how the "Sources" menu works. It sounds like I just choose that to look at the EHD recordings, I suspect, from my Joeys as well.

 

[navychop]

The Hopper will reformat the EHD. If the EHD isn't recognized, format it for a PC. FAT32 would be my choice, but NTFS would probably work too.

 

[charlesrshell]

Thanks, guys.

Does it have to be formatted in a particular way to be recognized? (FAT32, NTFS, etc.) While I can format from my MacBook, when you buy them they will often say "Mac Ready" or "PC Ready" on the box.

Okay, I'm used to having two Hoppers so I'm aware of how the "Sources" menu works. It sounds like I just choose that to look at the EHD recordings, I suspect, from my Joeys as well.

Yes, the EHD is in the Sources menu in the Joeys too. But, you can only see the EHD that is attached to the Hopper that the Joey is linked too.

 

[toddjb]

The Hopper will reformat the EHD. If the EHD isn't recognized, format it for a PC. FAT32 would be my choice, but NTFS would probably work too.

While now you have me wondering...

A lot of devices will only recognize one type. But I guess if the H3 is just going to format it anyway, it doesn't matter.

 

[charlesrshell]

While now you have me wondering...

A lot of devices will only recognize one type. But I guess if the H3 is just going to format it anyway, it doesn't matter.

I don't think it matters. This is all I could find in the DISH site.

External Hard Drive Diagram and Support | MyDISH | DISH Customer Support
External Hard Drive | MyDISH | DISH Customer Support

 

[KAB]

While now you have me wondering...

But I guess if the H3 is just going to format it anyway, it doesn't matter.

No, it does not.

 

[TalonDancer]

While we're on the subject of EHDs attached to a Hooper 3…

What is the best way to disconnect an EHD without damaging the info on it?

 

[charlesrshell]

While we're on the subject of EHDs attached to a Hooper 3…

What is the best way to disconnect an EHD without damaging the info on it?

I just unplug the power cord and then the USB cable. Never had any issue doing it that way.

 

[Bobby]

I've just unplugged the USB cable, many times over the years, and had no issues...

 

[KAB]

I've Hot Swapped drives in docks with no problems.

 

[littlecloud319]

I just unplug the power cord and then the USB cable. Never had any issue doing it that way.

I've just unplugged the USB cable, many times over the years, and had no issues...

I've Hot Swapped drives in docks with no problems.

I’m sure the hopper writes directly to the EHD instead of writing to a cache/buffer then “flushing” the cache/buffer to the HDD like most computers do to make moving files seem faster. If the dish techs who designed the software thought it through they would have realized most customers wouldn’t know better and just unplug it.

 

[joewhite57]

As long as you're not writing to(transferring to) an external drive, corruption is nearly impossible. Much more reliable than when I started building computers in the time of windows 95. Fart when the wind was blowing the wrong direction, crap!

 

[TalonDancer]

Thanks all for your replies....
I asked because after a recent power outage our Seagate EHD did not show up in the DVR sources. We lost hundreds of programs.

It sounds like the heads are not un-parking. So this is probably a hardware issue and not due to a Dish/Hopper problem. But it made me think — Why keep an EHD running if we aren’t either transferring programs to it or playing programs from it? After I install the next EHD we will keep it powered down unless we are actually using it.

 

[littlecloud319]

Thanks all for your replies....
I asked because after a recent power outage our Seagate EHD did not show up in the DVR sources. We lost hundreds of programs.

It sounds like the heads are not un-parking. So this is probably a hardware issue and not due to a Dish/Hopper problem. But it made me think — Why keep an EHD running if we aren’t either transferring programs to it or playing programs from it? After I install the next EHD we will keep it powered down unless we are actually using it.

You could try using a hdd dock with a hard drive designed for use with a/v equipment and DVR’s.

This seagate drive looks like it would do the trick

https://www.seagate.com/enterprise-storage/hard-disk-drives/video-3-5-hdd/

And you could pair it with an eSATA hdd dock for a better connection to the motherboard. Your read and write speeds would then be similar to the internal drive.