External Hard Drive Question

[Chanute]

I have the VIP622 and recently upgraded the software to support the use of a external hard drive. I've had the external drive (320gb) hooked up and running for about six days and it seems to be a bit glitchie. It will freeze once in awhile, stutter once in awhile and fail to reconize the drive once in awhile. I have to reboot the hard drive when this happens. I'am trying to figure out if this is a box problem or a hard drive issue. Any help, suggestions or similar problems and possible cures would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

[daleb]

There have been some problems with Seagate FreeAgent external drives.
They automatically spin down after 15 sec of inactivity. Your problem sounds similar.
The common fix is to download a utility from Seagate to delay it or set it to never spin down.
I've read of a couple of similar tweaks done on some other drives. But for the most part everyone seems to be able get any USB HD to work satisfactorily with the 622.
You might look at some exclusive satellite forums for similar topics including several references to downloads and more info. Presently, Dish does not seem to be doing anything about this, but I imagine they will if they get enough complaints.
Ironically, they had a marketing rep. from Seagate on the Tech Forum touting the goodness of Seagate and Maxtor drives, last Monday night.
I don't think there is anything 'wrong' with those drives, it seems to have more to do with compatibility.

[Chanute]

Originally Posted by daleb

There have been some problems with Seagate FreeAgent external drives.
They automatically spin down after 15 sec of inactivity. Your problem sounds similar.
The common fix is to download a utility from Seagate to delay it or set it to never spin down.
I've read of a couple of similar tweaks done on some other drives. But for the most part everyone seems to be able get any USB HD to work satisfactorily with the 622.
You might look at some exclusive satellite forums for similar topics including several references to downloads and more info. Presently, Dish does not seem to be doing anything about this, but I imagine they will if they get enough complaints.
Ironically, they had a marketing rep. from Seagate on the Tech Forum touting the goodness of Seagate and Maxtor drives, last Monday night.
I don't think there is anything 'wrong' with those drives, it seems to have more to do with compatibility.

Thanks for your help, the Seagate is the drive I have. I will search for a update from Seagate or look at different drives to help the problem, it's nice to know where the problem lies. Thanks again.

[daleb]

Originally Posted by Chanute

Thanks for your help, the Seagate is the drive I have. I will search for a update from Seagate or look at different drives to help the problem, it's nice to know where the problem lies. Thanks again.

I don't know if other Seagate drives besides the Free Agent series are affected. They might use the same utility.
Last person I read who contacted Seagate was told 'Seagate does not support drives for DVR use.".
Kind of silly, huh?

[Romanticf16]

Beware-the link Sagate provides to download Free Agent tools is programmed so the loader will reformat your drive before it loads-you'll loose all the programming you've saved on the HD. The Seagate techs also say"any change made with Free Agent tools" will be lost if the drive is reformatted to another(DISH) code. This doesn't make sense -once you throw a switch removing the ability to do so again should not change what you have done? I think a "lot of smoke" is being blown at Seagate to cover their Software foul ups. Who would market a high end drive system that is crippled if reformatted by the customer, with no means to resolve the issue?

[daleb]

Originally Posted by Romanticf16

Beware-the link Sagate provides to download Free Agent tools is programmed so the loader will reformat your drive before it loads-you'll loose all the programming you've saved on the HD. The Seagate techs also say"any change made with Free Agent tools" will be lost if the drive is reformatted to another(DISH) code. This doesn't make sense -once you throw a switch removing the ability to do so again should not change what you have done? I think a "lot of smoke" is being blown at Seagate to cover their Software foul ups. Who would market a high end drive system that is crippled if reformatted by the customer, with no means to resolve the issue?

First of all, folks should be aware any ext. drive they use will be formatted by the Dish DVR (assuming it has not already been formatted by the 622/722). Meaning it will be wiped clean. And you can not mix content.

It is possible to already have Dish events on the FreeAgent drive, download the Seagate Pro tools, put the drive on your PC (without formatting) and set tools to select the 'spin down' time which is the only issue, and not have the drive re-format on your PC.
I can only talk to the spin down operation, I can't speak to any other functions included in tools, as I never used them.

To be safe, I restored all the events to the DVR before doing the above operation. I knew after I set tools, it would not matter if the drive reformatted or not on my pc. It would be reformatted when I hooked it up the 622 again if it had. But why take the chance with some 60GB of recorded programs?

Anyway, since setting the spin down to "NEVER" it has been performing flawlessly with my 622. I have connected the AC to my power conditioner which also has a triggered output for powering down components with my receiver. Some receivers have a switched outlet on the back to the do the same, and there are even power sensing outlet strips that do the same, if you don't want your ext. drive to run continuously.

I don't know who's blowing smoke at who. I think it is an issue both Seagate and Dish need to resolve. Seagate support was deterring folks from using this line of drive on DVRs. Even though their own rep recommended it on Dish Tech Chat.

I have read of enough successful fixes based on turning off the spin down to know even if it is only a work-around, and not a true resolution, it works. Obviously the other option is to just use a different drive.

[riderj]

For the record: I recently activated the service on a 622 and hooked up a 1TB Iomege External Drive (two 500s).

It worked without a hickup for about a week and then it was not recognized. I have about 20 programs parked on it. I rebooted the receiver and am back on track for now.

Will keep you posted if anything changes.

[daleb]

Originally Posted by riderj

For the record: I recently activated the service on a 622 and hooked up a 1TB Iomege External Drive (two 500s).

It worked without a hickup for about a week and then it was not recognized. I have about 20 programs parked on it. I rebooted the receiver and am back on track for now.

Will keep you posted if anything changes.

Dish cautions against using a single drive with greater than 750GB capacity. But I read of folks doing it anyway, sometimes successfully.
How it would react to a dual drive, is hard to say.
Maybe the problem was not related to the external drive at all.

[peledre]

My 600GB has been working great. I've just been dumping HD movies to it recently. Was excited to see Borat on HBO in HD last night. It's already recorded!

[Mike Sullivan]

I have a 500GB Seagate. Works great! Only problem is I have to reset it by unplugging the USB cable everytime I want to transfer a recording to the External Hard Drive.

Does anyone know if I switched to Direct TV, can I use the external drive to watch movies I recorded with Dish Network through the HR20?

[daleb]

Originally Posted by Mike Sullivan

I have a 500GB Seagate. Works great! Only problem is I have to reset it by unplugging the USB cable everytime I want to transfer a recording to the External Hard Drive.

Does anyone know if I switched to Direct TV, can I use the external drive to watch movies I recorded with Dish Network through the HR20?

Very doubtful!
In any event, you might check out the 'Seagate Tools'. Maybe save you the inconvenience of having to do a manual reset.

[Jeff Baker]

I had the issue with the Seagate Free Agent external hard drive and bought a Western Digital 750 gb. Would like to use the Seagate Free Agent drive on my PC as a backup drive but having trouble deleting the Dish Network Volumes and getting it formatted back to Windows XP. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[bullydog]

you might try a program called partition magic. or boot to your windows cd and format it in there. i also have a question does anyone know what file system i need to format my drive to in order for it to work on dish dvr 622? is it NTFS like windows is?

[daleb]

Some added info. According the last Tech Talk Dish is planning a software upgrade to resolve the 'sleeping drive' problem experienced in some Seagate units. No date announced, but sounded like it would be 'soon'.

[daleb]

Originally Posted by bullydog

you might try a program called partition magic. or boot to your windows cd and format it in there. i also have a question does anyone know what file system i need to format my drive to in order for it to work on dish dvr 622? is it NTFS like windows is?

I can not tell you what it is, as I do not know. But I do know it is not compatible with Windows.
When you connect a drive to your receiver you get a message that it will be formatted. And a button to push to 'Proceed'.
No way away around that.