Adding An EHD To My 722K

[Jimmerinwi]

I finally broke down and bought a 1.5TB HD for extra storage on my 722k. (got it for $80 on eBay, smokin deal!). When i connected it to my receiver, I got the normal, "Reformat The Hard Drive" screen, afterwards the receiver rebooted. I was then able to transfer to the HD. I know that Dish dropped the $40 activation fee, but was unaware that you no longer needed to call and activate the service. It was very nice to just plug and play without having to call "Sharon" in Pakistan. Just thought I'd pass this on to those like me who didn't know.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I guess since E* dropped the activation fee, it's pretty much plug and play. I'm a little surprised 1.5TB HD is able to work as E* only recommends up to 1TB of storage.

 

[KAB]

I'm a little surprised 1.5TB HD is able to work as E* only recommends up to 1TB of storage.

That's the limit for the 211/K. 2T for 6**, 7** and 922.

 

[thomasjk]

The website is incorrect. 2TB works.

 

[3HaloODST]

My question is does that mean EHD will work even without a satellite signal now?

 

[TG2]

Hate to say it.. but there are better deals out there ..

$89 dollars Newegg.com - Seagate Expansion 2TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive ST320005EXA101-RK

2TB Seagate, free shipping, no tax, and an acceptable return policy.

I got my 2 TB Seagate at Costo in January for 99 (+tax).

Now what we really need is the ability to send recordings directly to the External Drive .. rather than deal with moving later ... some stuff I know I want, and want it without taking away from the 55 hours inside the box...

And while "on the needs" Dish should really have looked for a way to make the hard drive accessible.. like in a drive tray ... in my experience, the problem I had with three 625's in a row, was their hard drive failing. Instead of shipping out a whole 625, they could have shipped just a hard drive, and been done with it ... but no.. they think the only way to protect the recordings is to put a stupid void sticker on it.. nutty.

 

[MattG@DISH]

I guess since E* dropped the activation fee, it's pretty much plug and play. I'm a little surprised 1.5TB HD is able to work as E* only recommends up to 1TB of storage.

Our internal site was finally changed, and I imagine dn.com will be updated as well. It now says that anything between 50GB and 2TB works. The EHD feature for DVR receivers no longer requires a call to activate.

 

[MattG@DISH]

Our internal site was finally changed, and I imagine dn.com will be updated as well. It now says that anything between 50GB and 2TB works. The EHD feature for DVR receivers no longer requires a call to activate.

As a correction to my above post:

211 family receivers still only support up to 1TB EHD's (you will need to call to activate)
VIP DVR receivers will support up to 2TB. (you will not need to call)

Sorry about any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

[WilliamD2010]

Hi -- a follow up to this... I will be doing the same, soon. BUT, my 722 tends to lock up hard (either in playback of recorded material or during live TV - did this during Superbowl & other big events). Only way to recover was a hard-reboot... It is repeatable if it occurs during playback of a show. Seems like the 722 is developing bad places on the HD (simply renamed shows with "bad sectors" and it reduces the instances)... anyway.. with this issues that have developed in the last month or so, I expect to have to replace my 722, soon. As we have a lot of shows we would like to retain, I will add an EHD, soon.

And if (or when) I replace my 722 with either another 722 or 922, would like to make those shows available to the new player. In the past you did have to call and activate BOTH receivers. Won't the new 722/922 ask me to reformat the drive (that I copied from the donor receiver)?

 

[TG2]

... and I imagine dn.com will be updated as well.

LOL, And I imagine pigs could fly, but it didn't make it happen in real life ... Just pokin' a little in fun. There are many things on the Dish site that really could use an overhaul ... unfortunately it seems the key points of DN.com is the marketing to new customers. And I would hope that a focus on current customers would be seen there as well.. some day..

Take Comcast.net for example .. a whole lot of activity there.. reminiscent of msn.com, and early aol.com etc.. then Google came along and gave people a home page worth of the "simple needs" folk, and for those wanting more, their iGoogle site. Same with sites like MyWay.com ... the ability to control 99.9% of the page to be useful for the person coming there..

Right now, DishNetwork.com is only controlled by the marketing of Dish to new customers ... old customers, sure we get the ability to do our bills and some pathetic support options ... but for real information, doesn't it strike anyone as unacceptible that we have to go to third party sites to learn of the impending software download? or the change in transponders? sure some of that might be too geeky for most folks, but its like none of that exists on Dish's sites, like they'd expect people to believe the signal comes magically, and that a hard power reset will fix everything. (where's that end rant button)

 

[TG2]

And if (or when) I replace my 722 with either another 722 or 922, would like to make those shows available to the new player. In the past you did have to call and activate BOTH receivers. Won't the new 722/922 ask me to reformat the drive (that I copied from the donor receiver)?

Nope ... or I should say.. *shouldn't* require ... once the policy is in place, it should be automatic on the equipment. You have to activate the receiver to your account, and once that happens, it should see the recordings on the EHD as being with **your** account. This is also the reason you're not able to take an EHD from your house, to your friends, and have it work from *their* dish account ... or so they've said.

I would *not* hook your EHD upto the new receiver for several hours *after* your receiver has been on and in your account, and shows all of its goodies are working for you... you could probably attach it five minutes after its active on your account.. but the extra time would allow you to catch any other issue that's wrong before adding any possible issues from adding the EHD.

 

[WilliamD2010]

Thanks, TG2 -- what I was hoping for...

Now, just need to go home and look at a few diagnostics on my 722. Anything I should be watching for, given my symptoms?

 

[TG2]

Thanks, TG2 -- what I was hoping for...

Now, just need to go home and look at a few diagnostics on my 722. Anything I should be watching for, given my symptoms?

Still learning the diags screens messages.. but for me.. one of the things I would try (having saved all my recordings and backed up my timers) theres a few threads on "hidden" ways to format drives ... I would try formatting the hard drive with one of the methods found..

Posts #2 & #4
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...-magic-hidden-commands-reformat-722-hard.html

There could be more posts.. FYI ... the remotes for the 722k's store the timers from what I was reading in the userguide, though I've not figured it out fully, it seems to "not see" my remote which could be because the window for remote programming is on the side so proximity to the 722k might be key.. ie. 45º angle remote front to box, 45º angle remote side to 722k box front

But this is of course what *I* would do, and I've got an EHD already, so the stuff not on external drive is minor, not highly important and if I foobar something, I've not lost much. Anyone else should tread this path lightly.