WD 640GB EHD almost full. Recommendations for bigger HD?

airtv

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Apr 1, 2007
57
0
Memphis, TN
I got a Western Digital 640GB Hard Drive and put it in a Antec MX-1 enclosure in May '08. It's worked flawlessly, but now it's getting full (Cinemax for a penny). I paid $100 for my WD back then and just yesterday saw it for $60. I thougt about getting another since the first has been so great. But I think I might prefer to just have one big EHD so that everything is organized on one place.

What is the reliable capacity that can be utilized by the 722 receiver?
And what are the topmost reliable big Hard Drives that work well with this reciever? BTW, always love a good deal.
I recently saw the Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM drive for $100 shipped.
Anybody have succes with this one? I think it's new.

Other recommendations on a good deal? Not just cheap, but good quality value.
 
I would think you would rather have several smaller ones so a drive failure doesn't kill all your data, the old "all your eggs in one basket" idea, but that's just me.
 
I recently saw the Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM drive for $100 shipped.
Anybody have succes with this one? I think it's new.
I have this as the system drive in my Mac Pro. It's quieter than the Seagate 250 GB drive I replaced, but not by much. I can't speak as to the longevity since I've had it for only six months.

Of course, being a computer, I don't worry about the seek noise, but it might be overly loud for an external HDD. Then again, the only time you would hear it was when your ViP was accessing the drive. I guess that depends on your case.
 
I got a Western Digital 640GB Hard Drive and put it in a Antec MX-1 enclosure in May '08. It's worked flawlessly, but now it's getting full (Cinemax for a penny). I paid $100 for my WD back then and just yesterday saw it for $60. I thougt about getting another since the first has been so great. But I think I might prefer to just have one big EHD so that everything is organized on one place.

What is the reliable capacity that can be utilized by the 722 receiver?
And what are the topmost reliable big Hard Drives that work well with this reciever? BTW, always love a good deal.
I recently saw the Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM drive for $100 shipped.
Anybody have succes with this one? I think it's new.

Other recommendations on a good deal? Not just cheap, but good quality value.



If you will look on the dish website under the receivers tab and then expand your hd dvr storage, they list a link to seagate web store and you can buy a 1 tb storage external hard drive that is compatible with the 612/622/722 dvrs. They sell it for 199.99 . They also sell a 500 gb hard drive for $139.99. Also compatible.
 
I find all 5 WD 750 externals and the one Calvary 1TB, which I have, work well and quietly given my hearing or lack thereof. I would not pay more than say $110 for either now. When you get 100-200 recordings on the drive, it sure would be nice if Dish would allow you to jump down the list. The WD's were chosen for the perpendicular recording, which might be more reliable.

I can sometimes press 1 to 9 on the internal drive and get to (n-1)/8 of the list and always can use 1 or 9 to get the ends. On the larger external, I have to plug away with page up/down, 6 lines at a time. It's a little better with folders but most are uniquely named movies. To get to the top, it's often easier to start over. It would also be nice if it would hold its position when you look at a recording or delete one instead of going to the top. I guess a delete could have been multiple and that could be ambiguous. BTW, it does stay when you just look at the description--provided you have not actually looked at the content of any recording in that session--so they can do it.

-Ken
 
Dish has always stated that 750GB is the maximum size supported for an external hard drive. I just checked and their web site still says 750. Yet some people have had success with 1TB drives. And I saw a reference somewhere that Dish plans to increase the maximum, but I don't know if that is really true and I don't how high they will go.

What gives? If I buy a Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB drive will it work? Or should I play it safe and get the 750GB?
 
I have a 1 TB LaCie EHD on my ViP 622 and it works fine. I thought the upper limit on the ViP 622/722 EHD was 1.5 TB?

I saw that WD just annouced a 2 TB 3.5" SATA drive, so we may be talking about "when will Dish support 2 TB drives?" in the near future.
 
Dish has always stated that 750GB is the maximum size supported for an external hard drive. I just checked and their web site still says 750. Yet some people have had success with 1TB drives. And I saw a reference somewhere that Dish plans to increase the maximum, but I don't know if that is really true and I don't how high they will go.

What gives? If I buy a Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB drive will it work? Or should I play it safe and get the 750GB?


The problem is, back about a year ago, anything bigger than 750 in a prebought enclosure actually used 2 hard drives to get the size up. the 722 an 622 can only see 1 hard drive at a time, so that was causing issues. I forgot which chat is was (maybe a tech chat) they said that any size will work as long as it uses 1 drive vs 2 that they were using to fake you out....
 
I have a 1 TB LaCie EHD on my ViP 622 and it works fine. I thought the upper limit on the ViP 622/722 EHD was 1.5 TB?

I saw that WD just annouced a 2 TB 3.5" SATA drive, so we may be talking about "when will Dish support 2 TB drives?" in the near future.

Nope, I asked them to last month.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...r-dish-please-support-larger-hard-drives.html

With respect to the people wanting multiple smaller drives, no thank you. The sweet spot with EHD's is 1TB. I'm not paying more for less. This isn't some business secret or family recipe being stored. It's just TV. EHD's are fairly reliable. They're not used as much as internal drives (which still last about 5 years). I think your fears of drive failures are valid but overblown.
 
The problem is, back about a year ago, anything bigger than 750 in a prebought enclosure actually used 2 hard drives to get the size up. the 722 an 622 can only see 1 hard drive at a time, so that was causing issues. I forgot which chat is was (maybe a tech chat) they said that any size will work as long as it uses 1 drive vs 2 that they were using to fake you out....

Now that is helpful info, but do we have confirmation from fellow forum members that a single drive over 1TB is working reliably. It sounds like 1TB is confirmed.

allargon said:
Nope, I asked them to last month.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-net...rd-drives.html

With respect to the people wanting multiple smaller drives, no thank you. The sweet spot with EHD's is 1TB. I'm not paying more for less. This isn't some business secret or family recipe being stored. It's just TV. EHD's are fairly reliable. They're not used as much as internal drives (which still last about 5 years). I think your fears of drive failures are valid but overblown.

Thanks for the link.
Yes. I don't want to lose my saved programs but, as you said, drives are are more reliable these days and it is just TV. I would rather have one place where stuff is stored and organized.
And I already missed two great deals in duplicating my existing setup. Antec MX-1 from Frys for $20 a few weeks back and the WD 640GB HD for $60 from Newegg earlier this week. Oh well, ya snooze ya lose.

Reliability is why I made the investment in the Antec MX-1 enclosure. It's actively cooled with an internal fan. The WD 640GB drive I use now, came highly recommended and is known for smooth and cool operation. Plus, I only turn my EHD on when I'm using it for archiving or retreival. It's usually off. I use the built in HD as the daily workhorse.

kklare said:
...it sure would be nice if Dish would allow you to jump down the list.

Yeah Ken, I'd like some more done with the practical user interface of the EHDs too. But I was glad to see the improvement made since we first got ours. At first the stuff we put on the drive wasn't organized or consolidated at all. It just stacked up in what ever order it was uploaded.
 
Cant decide.

I too am looking for an EHD, but i want to use mine on my vip 211k. The feature has been activated already i just wanted to know if anyone has any opinions on these two drives i've been looking at. Im definitely buying one, so if anyone has any input on them please share :)

1. Lacie- Neil Poulton designed 1TB

OR

2.Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB

Im leaning more toward the Lacie right now because it looks sleeker. Specs wise they look to be the same.
 
Just an update.

They were sold out of the Lacie, and i got the 1TB WD My book, how ever it doesnt work with the vip211 so i had to return it and get the 750gb
 
yea when i plugged it it, it said checking for device compatibility, then it says this drive is not supported. Must be between 50-750GB
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts