3tb EHD

[Joe99]

Has any one attempted to use a 3tb EHD on a 211 or 722k? I know that 2tb is the stated limit, but sometimes dish does not advertise changes that it makes; so I thought that I would ask.

Will a 3tb format up to the 2tb limit? If so, does that cause any problems?

Thanks for any help.

 

[ChadT41]

It won't work. Many have tried. Many have failed

 

[Bobby]

and just as many have been successful....

 

[ChadT41]

I've heard no success stories. I'm not saying they aren't there. But I have heard none. That was the number one thing, when I was taking calls, that people using ehd called about.

 

[Bobby]

There a many testimonials, right here on this website, that say that a 3tb works just fine. Maybe not on the 211 however...

 

[Joe99]

There a many testimonials, right here on this website, that say that a 3tb works just fine. Maybe not on the 211 however...

Thanks for your reply. Thanks to all who replied.

Most of the success stories that I have seen refer to the Hopper. Any thoughts on a 722K?

 

[jevans64]

I wouldn't mind trying since I'll be receiving a stack of 4TB hard drives for the NAS this week. I just haven't paid for the EHD option. Last time I connected the BlackX with a 3TB drive in it to the 722, it wanted me to pony up $39. Not sure whether that is an indicator of whether it "saw" the drive or not. I wasn't willing to spend $39 only for it to tell me it don't work.

 

[Bobby]

There is no charge any longer except for the 211 series which turns that device into a DVR....

 

[thomasjk]

There is no longer a charge for VIP series DVRs. There is a $40 fee for converting a 211 to a DVR.

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[jevans64]

I didn't know. It must have been a while ago when I last tried it with an empty drive because I got that splash screen. I no longer have empty drives above 3TB -- until I get the 4TBs in. No UPS arrival date, but they aren't far away now. Probably Wednesday I can get stuff moved over and try both the 3TB WD Red and 4TB HGST NAS before they go into the Synology.

 

[Tampa8]

To my memory people successfully used a 3TB drive, the receiver may have just used 2TB of it. And again to my memory that was with a 722. I haven't had good luck searching sometimes since the forum software change, this was a time I had no success.

 

[TheKrell]

Most of the success stories that I have seen refer to the Hopper. Any thoughts on a 722K?

Same here. The last time I tried a 3TB drive on my 722 (non K) about a year ago, it wouldn't accept it at all. I didn't get even 2TB out of it.

 

[dvrexpander]

I was thinking of constructing a 6TB external and try to use it with a hopper here soon. The drive is super cheap but I'm just wanting to see if the logic board will link to it or not. IMO the limit if imposed by Dish on size is stupid and that even goes for hardware limitations if they can't figure out a way to allow you to go higher. The sizes of harddrives are amazing now even that of SSD's which my next smaller EHD will be using a SSD to cut down on power and enhance reliability

 

[KAB]

Personally, I think the limit is wise. The more you put on one drive, the more you lose if it goes bad. I do not exceed 1 TB.

 

[Jim5506]

Does there still exist the 999 recordings viewable on an EHD attached to the Hopper, 722?

I agree with KAB, why does anyone want to attach a very large EHD with failure rate X when you can attach multiple smaller drives each with assumed failure rate X and when that X is met on the super large drive EVERYTHING is GONE!!

I use multiple 250 GB drives, label them and rotate them I and out of my cradles.

I've only lost one, since the time each drive spends working is a small fraction of the time a super large drive would be in service.

 

[thomasjk]

Yes, 999 is still the limit.

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[jevans64]

Personally, I think the limit is wise. The more you put on one drive, the more you lose if it goes bad. I do not exceed 1 TB.

Using smaller drives with a DVR makes perfect sense since the format is proprietary and not easily cloned. I originally bought a Thermaltake BlacX Duo so I could use it both for 1TB storage on the 722 and also to connect to a PC. Once I started getting bigger drives, I just went with using RAID enclosures for my ripped content. I've never even filled up the internal drive in the 722 but still want the option to offload to an EHD. I haven't bothered with it since I dropped to the Welcome Pack and got a Roku 3.

 

[TheKrell]

Using smaller drives with a DVR makes perfect sense since the format is proprietary and not easily cloned.

The EHD is actually some number of ext3-formatted partitions which are quite easy to copy to another receiver-formatted disk. (I have done this.) And of course if you don't have a bootable Linux disk handy, you could also clone the whole disk. (I have not done this.)

 

[jevans64]

I knew it used ext3, which is proprietary for Windows. Most Windows users wouldn't know to get something like Parted Magic on a live Linux disc to do the copy/clone. The only packaged solutions I know of are Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's Boot CD, which I use for other things besides disk cloning.

I got my drives today but didn't get the Mobius, which is has been delayed. It will be the only EHD that will support the 4TB drives, so I'll probably just load a single 4TB in it and connect it to the 722. I doubt 4TB will work because of hardware/addressing limitations.

 

[DishSubLA]

Personally, I think the limit is wise. The more you put on one drive, the more you lose if it goes bad. I do not exceed 1 TB.

and the greater the capacity, the higher the density to achieve it, and such high densities create problems of their own that cause a higher likelihood of the HDD failing. While I would never bother to exceed 3TB, I recognize that even 3TB is entering the density crap-shoot. I generally stick to no larger than 2TB for externals, but I did get a 3TB for my TiVo to replace the internal one. And, yes, there are some who say even the 2TB is asking for some trouble, but considering the risks and real-world reports, I feel OK with 2TB, and breath easier with 1TB.