What is the maximum usable space for an EHD with Dish's one time archiving EHD fee?

[LordEnder]

I have read from Dish that the maximum size of the drive is 1TB maximum, yet have seen in a few posts on this forum that people have 'scored' 1.5TB+ drives for the same purpose. Hence, I'd like to know if there really isn't a 1TB limit....or any limit for that matter.

Additionally, though it wouldn't fit in my title, how have people been able to get this fee waived?

Since I believe it may help the with my question, this is for a 722 receiver and is not part of the the 211 'archiving' solution that I've seen - as I understand those, are at least in part, two separate things/fees.


Thank you for your responses.

 

[Juan]

One limitation is that it can only handle 1-platter drives

 

[RickDee]

One limitation is that it can only handle 1-platter drives

This is a new one! Where's your reference for this statement?

 

[Bob Haller]

This is a new one! Where's your reference for this statement?

technicaal chat.

i believe the 1 terra limit has been raised but not certain.

of course you can always use multiple external drives.

 

[smoeke]

i have heard the one the one platter drive issue also, i believe that to be true, but the 1 tb limit i think is simply that dish has only tested upto 1 tb and confirmed to work.

imho if 1.5 works so does 2tb etc.

1tb are availabel cheap, buy 2 or 3 , be safe and not have all your eggs in one basket.

 

[HiDefRev]

EHD

I had a 2TB EHD hooked into my 722 before I canceled DISH a couple of weeks ago. I never had any problems with it.

 

[Laddyboy]

Single spindle, not single platter, I believe. All HDD of any significant size have multiple platters. E* isn't supporting drives that are really two separate physical drives housed in a single external unit. These are often referred to as port multipliers. Some early 1 TB drives were two 500GB drives chained together.

 

[Juan]

Single spindle, not single platter, I believe. All HDD of any significant size have multiple platters. E* isn't supporting drives that are really two separate physical drives housed in a single external unit. These are often referred to as port multipliers. Some early 1 TB drives were two 500GB drives chained together.

nope the tech chat specifically said single platter (That WAS 3 years ago so things may have changed)

 

[HDRoberts]

Single spindle, not single platter, I believe. All HDD of any significant size have multiple platters. E* isn't supporting drives that are really two separate physical drives housed in a single external unit. These are often referred to as port multipliers. Some early 1 TB drives were two 500GB drives chained together.

Exactly, the unit must be a single drive. That is the only restriction. The tech chat may have said single platter, but if that was true, we'd have a lot smaller drives. It will be a little bit before perpendicular recording gets us to 2 terabytes on a single platter.

However, although not announced by dish, because of certain technical architecture limitations of hard drives in general, I'm not sure any drive beyond 2.2TBs would work. Right now, to go beyond 2.2 TBs, you need a GUID Partition Table, which I doubt Dish supports

Of course, I'm only aware of 1 drive that is 3TBs for that very reason. It tries to get around the problem with larger sectors, but I'm not sure it would play nicely with Dish, so I'd avoid it.

But as mentioned, the fee is one time. You can always get more drives.

 

[Juan]

Exactly, the unit must be a single drive. That is the only restriction. The tech chat may have said single platter, but if that was true, we'd have a lot smaller drives. It will be a little bit before perpendicular recording gets us to 2 terabytes on a single platter.

However, although not announced by dish, because of certain technical architecture limitations of hard drives in general, I'm not sure any drive beyond 2.2TBs would work. Right now, to go beyond 2.2 TBs, you need a GUID Partition Table, which I doubt Dish supports

Of course, I'm only aware of 1 drive that is 3TBs for that very reason. It tries to get around the problem with larger sectors, but I'm not sure it would play nicely with Dish, so I'd avoid it.

But as mentioned, the fee is one time. You can always get more drives.

Western Digital does sell TB drives that say Dish Compatible on the box

 

[HDRoberts]

Western Digital does sell TB drives that say Dish Compatible on the box

I'm saying HDs beyond 2 TBs might be an issue. 1 and 2 TBs HDs should be no problem, proved they are not cheap models made with multiple drives.

 

[Ghpr13]

Can you record directly to the EHD, or is it only for archiving? Also, data is sent to the EHD via USB, correct?

Ghpr13

 

[KAB]

Can you record directly to the EHD, or is it only for archiving?

Archiving.

 

[LordEnder]

Has anyone used more than 1TB at a time on their EHD?

Thanks for all of the replies, some of this thread echoed my own investigations. For instance, on the platters vs. drives issue, I think this one line from the brochure on EHD caused the confusion-

The External Hard Drive must:
Be between 50 GB minimum to 1 TB maximum (external hard drives containing more than one physical internal disk may not be recognized by the receiver).

I had originally run through that and thought as some did that it meant a single platter - I'm pretty well convinced that this point that it meant a single drive and not some sort of multi hard disk contraption (NAS, SAN, RAID, etc, etc, etc) - a single platter would be difficult/costly at some of these larger sizes. Whether this single platter issues was the case years ago, I do not have an opinion.

Thanks to all that weighed in, though I would like to hear someone state that they have 1TB+ worth of data on a 1.5/2TB drive that that it is working.

I bought a 1TB drive a week or two ago for this purpose and I have since seen 1.5TB drives (both WD) that are going for almost the same price (non-refurbs) and since I have two 722's, I thought it would be nice to have a driver for each.

Also, anyone that has gotten around the EHD fee, I'd love to hear how.


Thanks again everyone.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

I am currently using a WD 2TB drive and in the past I have used JBOD and Raid 1 successfully for archiving and limited success for play back.

 

[navychop]

I use a RAID also. No problems whatsoever.

You record to the onboard DVR HDD. You then can move the recording to the EHD. You can then play it back from the EHD, or move it back to the DVR and then play it.

There is one advantage to watching from the DVR HDD. When you are done watching the program, it bounces out to a screen that lets you delete it. When watching from the EHD, and you finish a program, it bounces out to the list of programs on the EHD. You then scroll down to that program, pick it, and delete it. I'm sure they'll fix that, someday.

 

[olds403]

I have a 2T WD essentials drive that works correctly. Approx 1.9T available after formatting.

 

[Examiner45]

I have a 2T WD essentials drive that works correctly. Approx 1.9T available after formatting.

OLs403 is spot on. I have the same drive and have achieved exactly the same results. Drive was a good bargain at $115. Replaced a 500 GB Seagate with the sleep problem and I couldn't be happier with the new drive.

 

[LordEnder]

Multi-platter and multi-drive supported with EHD

Well, based on all responses I think we've established a few things:

1-The 1TB limit is false/old/something.
2-The single platter theory isn't true at this point, if it ever was.
3-Multiple drives in a JBOD/RAID config works in some cases (perhaps not best for playback).
4-Trying to use more than 2.2TBs could be ill advised, though I bet this one will remain open until someone is willing to try it.


Thanks all!

 

[Stargazer]

I got mine when it was at a 750 GB limit so that was the drive that I bought. I think 1 TB was about as big as you could get then (around 1 1/2 to 2 years ago - end of 2008).