722k with 2 external drives

[Joe99]

I have 2 external drives and I keep both of them connected to the wall outlet. What I would like to do is to move the usb cable between the drives to the one I want to use.

My question is whether there is a proper way to do this. Do I turn the receiver off and then move the usb cable? Do I leave the receiver on, will it know that a different drive is now active?

The last thing that I want to do is lose any recorded programs.

The drives are the same model; WD Elements.

Also, does anyone have any idea if Dish will support more than one external drive on the 722/722K?

Thanks for any info/help.

 

[RaymondG@Dish Network]

The receiver will need to be powered on in order to be able to format the new EHD. Once the new drive is formatted you will be able to swap the USB cable between the drives to access your archived programming.

DISH Network does not support more than one EHD connected to the receiver at a time.

If both drives are already formatted and contain recordings, it is always a safe bet to power off the receiver before swapping the USB cable.

 

[navychop]

The nature of USB is that you should be able to move the cable from one to the other, and just get messages to the effect that you have disconnected/connected an USB device. Too bad it doesn't work that way for me at work for FreeAgent backup drives, but it seems to work that way for DVRs. If you see a "reformat" message, just disconnect the drive.

Will Dish ever support multiple EHDs for the ViP722x series like they reputedly do for the ViP922? Who knows? They probably could, but they may now have an incentive to put all their programming talent, and marketing efforts, to the Hopper.

 

[chainblu]

Fear not. I 'hot swap' the usb cable between my two EHDs often. I do wait the few seconds it takes for the receiver to tell me that the drive is disconnected, then clear the warning, THEN plug in the other drive. I don't know if this is necessary, but why take chances..

 

[3HaloODST]

As long as you don't disconnect the drive while it is being accessed (the WD Elements have activity lights that flash quickly when being accessed, steady on/steady off means no access, flashing every 3 seconds is sleep mode,) then you'll be fine. Can also disconnect while they're in sleep mode.

 

[JockeyPete]

Some wise person here clued me into this a couple years ago:

Amazon.com: Connectland CL-U2MNHUB-4B 4 Ports USB V2.0 Mini Hub (Black): Electronics

It's a hub that has independent switches for each of the four ports. In other words, you can leave both of your drives plugged in and just use the switches to control which one the DVR sees. This is better than plugging and unplugging USB cables all the time, IMO.

I used it when I upgraded my EHD from a WD 1TB to a 2TB. Over a period of time I copied events from the 1TB back to the DVR, then up to the 2TB. It took a while, but not having to mess with the cables made it fairly painless. Today I just use it as a regular hub (all switches "on") for the 2TB drive and my Sling Adapter.

Note that the cord on this is pretty short; I used a USB extension cable to make it more accessible.

 

[theoak]

This goes for USB sticks too.

If you plug in a USB stick ... your receiver ... at least my 722 does ... will squawk that it can only support one USB storage device. I have to unplug my EHD if I want to view the pictures on my USB stick.

 

[Joe99]

Thanks everyone for all of the responses. I will try to test things out over the weekend.

Some wise person here clued me into this a couple years ago:

Amazon.com: Connectland CL-U2MNHUB-4B 4 Ports USB V2.0 Mini Hub (Black): Electronics

It's a hub that has independent switches for each of the four ports. In other words, you can leave both of your drives plugged in and just use the switches to control which one the DVR sees. This is better than plugging and unplugging USB cables all the time, IMO.

I used it when I upgraded my EHD from a WD 1TB to a 2TB. Over a period of time I copied events from the 1TB back to the DVR, then up to the 2TB. It took a while, but not having to mess with the cables made it fairly painless. Today I just use it as a regular hub (all switches "on") for the 2TB drive and my Sling Adapter.

Note that the cord on this is pretty short; I used a USB extension cable to make it more accessible.

I think that I will look into this as I am also considering getting a Sling Adapter while the rebate is still good.