External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[redman042]

Just hooked up a FreeAgent 500 GB to my 622, and am seeing some of the same problems reported here. In particular, if I'm playing a recorded program off of the drive, then hit stop, it just freezes. I've found the best workaround (without rebooting) is to go to Live TV, then back to the USB Storage menu. That seems to clear it.

But on the bright side, it IS working and I've successfully moved a large batch of shows over to the drive. It's really awesome to be able to expand my storage capacity like this. I'm sure a fix is on the way for the bugs we are experiencing.

 

[8bitbytes]

I'm using a Seagate AV drive, 320GB Model 35.3 mounted in a generic all aluminum enclosure - I have had no problems or difficulties, the enclosure is barely warm, and archived content thus far plays back beautifully with no hesitation or glitches.

My USB cable is plugged into the back. Maybe we should start noting which jack we are plugged into. Probably nothing but details never hurt.

 

[odbrv]

I'm using a Seagate AV drive, 320GB Model 35.3 mounted in a generic all aluminum enclosure - I have had no problems or difficulties, the enclosure is barely warm, and archived content thus far plays back beautifully with no hesitation or glitches.

My USB cable is plugged into the back. Maybe we should start noting which jack we are plugged into. Probably nothing but details never hurt.

Both of mine are plugged into the back of the receiver.

 

[dfergie]

What do you expect, their beta testers are all staff members of the other forum. (And we see how well they do that.) No wonder why people are reporting bugs.

I totally agree, they (dish) need to let real people beta test new equipment... A work around on the freeze problem is to hit skip forward or skip back instead of ffwd... This is still an awesome development even with the flaws, I can deal with them

 

[kappy44]

I dropped in a 250GB to test before I went out & bought another new drive. transferreed 1 HD movie over to the USB drive, played it for 5 minutes, system locked up for about 2 minutes & finally reverted to live TV. Went back to watch the movie & it was completely gone from the list, however it still shows the space as used.


I have a feeling it's going to take a few software revisions to get this right.... I'm glad I got the service for free.

This exactly what is happening to me....I have lost stuff I saved for a year and transferred and then lost it!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dfergie]

Power boot drive, see what happens...

 

[adidadi]

Having same problem: first transfer was fine with Seagate free agent. Then today, no longer able to send material until I rebooted 622. Since it is hidden in a cabinet, this is hardly convenient. Also, huge pity that you have to reboot whenever swapping drives.

 

[gdarwin]

Same problems here with a FreeAgent 500.

 

[MikeD-C05]

YEs I had to reboot a couple of times using my external hard drives from Seagate . Sometimes the shows are there and other times they are not and I have to reboot to be able to see them again. Sometimes if I go to send to button instead of manage it works better . IT definately needs some work. I shouldn't have to reboot every day just to see the archived shows. You would think that the Seagate would work best with Dish since they had their salesman on the TECH chat hawking it.

 

[sfollenius]

I have a freeagent 320GB same problem. Activated the unit, went to manage device, transfer to device, I got message to call to activate even though I already had. Okay, went back to manage device again, then transfer to, my list came of devices to transfer to, tried to xfer, got error in transferring message. Tried again, same result. Rebooted 622, got message "incompatible drive attached". Rebooted drive, it then worked like a champ, transferred one SD and one HD show. Playback is fine. We'll see what happens today when I try to access the drive.

 

[adidadi]

Same as sfollenius. Needed to reboot 622 to get it to work. Rebooting hard drive caused 622 to not recognize drive.

 

[primetimeguy]

with the Seagate 500gb FreeAgent I also noticed sometimes it would pop and say I still needed to enabel the feature. But if I just tried to Manage Device again it worked. That was al yesterday after watching a few minutes of about 10+ transferred programs without any other glitches.

I have not even checked it today to see if it is still working.

 

[mrhoni]

with the Seagate 500gb FreeAgent I also noticed sometimes it would pop and say I still needed to enabel the feature. But if I just tried to Manage Device again it worked.

This is what is happening to me with Maxtor 500gb One Touch III, when I press to Manage Device it asks for activation, but then 2nd time no message. This has happened each time I go into the menus to Manage Device.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I posted this else where ,but I will post it again. I am using the verticle Seagate external hard drives :500gb and 250gb- just like the ones shown on the tech chat. I found a way to get around the problems with out having to reboot them now. I just unplugged the power cord from the hard drive by the usb outlet on the drive itself. The receiver first said : you have disconnected an external usb device. Then replugged it back into the drive and the receiver said : You have plugged an external usb device , do you want to manage it? THen the archiving features worked like a charm and the shows were easy to access. The external hard drive must go into standby or the receiver doesn't recongnize it after a while. THis work around worked on both receivers with the Seagate drives and I didn't have to reboot. I keep both drives right by the receivers themselves and it was simple to unplug the power to them and replug them in without having to go to the outlet or surge protector. I hope this work around helps those who have had problems like me.

 

[dfergie]

Thats how I have been powering down... easier to get to...

 

[primetimeguy]

I posted this else where ,but I will post it again. I am using the verticle Seagate external hard drives :500gb and 250gb- just like the ones shown on the tech chat. I found a way to get around the problems with out having to reboot them now. I just unplugged the power cord from the hard drive by the usb outlet on the drive itself. The receiver first said : you have disconnected an external usb device. Then replugged it back into the drive and the receiver said : You have plugged an external usb device , do you want to manage it? THen the archiving features worked like a charm and the shows were easy to access. The external hard drive must go into standby or the receiver doesn't recongnize it after a while. THis work around worked on both receivers with the Seagate drives and I didn't have to reboot. I keep both drives right by the receivers themselves and it was simple to unplug the power to them and replug them in without having to go to the outlet or surge protector. I hope this work around helps those who have had problems like me.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight.

 

[8bitbytes]

HEADS UP FOLKS!

If you have an external drive that was already one piece like a My Book or FreeAgent, you may be suffering from automatic spin down or idle mode. Many external USB drives are configured from the factory to spin down after a set number of minutes of idle time. I think this is what is causing the USB disconnect problems and the other communication problems with your 622.

If you bought a separate simple enclosure and put a drive in it, your drive will probably NOT spin down - mine does not.

Read your user guides or give your tech support numbers a call. There may be a way to use a utility to change the automatic idle/spindown from occuring.

 

[8bitbytes]

SPINDOWN ADDENDUM:

From Western Digital Support:
My WD external drive spins down after some inactivity. Can I disable this feature?

Question
Do Western Digital external hard drives spin down after a certain amount of inactivity time? How can I disable this feature?

Answer
The external hard drives listed below will spin down (enter into power saver mode) after 10 minutes of drive inactivity. Once the drive is accessed again, the drive will exit from the power saver mode and spin back up.

Please Note: This is a permanent feature of the external hard drives and cannot be disabled.


MediaCenter
Dual-Option Combo
Dual-Option USB
WD Essentials USB
WD Essentials NetCenter
WD My Book Essential Edition
WD My Book Premium Edition
WD My Book Pro Edition

 

[8bitbytes]

SEAGATE NOTE:

Seagate calls this the Drive Sleep Interval on their FreeAgent Drives and it can be set to NEVER by using the Seagate utilities that came with the drive.

 

[NightRyder]

HEADS UP FOLKS!

If you have an external drive that was already one piece like a My Book or FreeAgent, you may be suffering from automatic spin down or idle mode. Many external USB drives are configured from the factory to spin down after a set number of minutes of idle time. I think this is what is causing the USB disconnect problems and the other communication problems with your 622.

If you bought a separate simple enclosure and put a drive in it, your drive will probably NOT spin down - mine does not.

Read your user guides or give your tech support numbers a call. There may be a way to use a utility to change the automatic idle/spindown from occuring.

From Seagate. For FreeAgent:

Description

How do I change the Drive Sleep Interval on my FreeAgent drive?



Answer

You can choose how long your FreeAgent drive should remain inactive before it goes into power-saving mode. To adjust the drive sleep interval:
Open the Seagate FreeAgent Tools application. Click Utilities in the Command panel.
The Utilities window opens. Click Adjust Drive Sleep Interval.
The Adjust Drive Sleep Interval window opens. Select an interval from the dropdown menu (e.g. Never)
Click Apply to save the Drive Sleep Interval setting.
The Adjust Drive Sleep Interval window confirms that the power setting for your drive has been changed. Click OK to return to the Utilities window.


NightRyder