EHD with recordings from ViP 722K on Hopper 3 not supported anymore?

[ppappas]

There are many threads here where it seems that the Hopper 3 can view and play recordings saved on an external hard drive by a VIP 722. After putting it off for many years, I finally replaced my VIP 722 and two 612s with a Hopper 3 and two Joey 3s. Now, when I connected my EHD to the Hopper, I see nothing and no way to access the drive. The Hopper clearly knows something is connected because if I turn off the EHD, it pops up a window saying a multimedia device was disconnected. When I just finished chatting with a Dish support agent, he emphatically stated that this was not supported. If that was really true, I would expect the Hopper to want to format the disk when connected, but it didn't. I have over 400 recording the 2TB external drive, does that have anything to do with my issue?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Bobby]

There are many threads here where it seems that the Hopper 3 can view and play recordings saved on an external hard drive by a VIP 722. After putting it off for many years, I finally replaced my VIP 722 and two 612s with a Hopper 3 and two Joey 3s. Now, when I connected my EHD to the Hopper, I see nothing and no way to access the drive. The Hopper clearly knows something is connected because if I turn off the EHD, it pops up a window saying a multimedia device was disconnected. When I just finished chatting with a Dish support agent, he emphatically stated that this was not supported. If that was really true, I would expect the Hopper to want to format the disk when connected, but it didn't. I have over 400 recording the 2TB external drive, does that have anything to do with my issue?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Peter

Did you just have the Hopper installed? It takes a new install a few days to 'cogitate' to get the the Hopper up to its full capabilities. If you don't see your recordings after 3 days remove your EHDs and then unplug the Hopper for 30 seconds and then plug the Hopper back in. Let it go through its full reboot. Next pug your EHD back in and you should see a popup telling you that you have plugged it in. The Hopper may possibly reboot itself. Let it go through the process and then see what you have.

 

[ppappas]

Did you just have the Hopper installed? It takes a new install a few days to 'cogitate' to get the the Hopper up to its full capabilities. If you don't see your recordings after 3 days remove your EHDs and then unplug the Hopper for 30 seconds and then plug the Hopper back in. Let it go through its full reboot. Next pug your EHD back in and you should see a popup telling you that you have plugged it in. The Hopper may possibly reboot itself. Let it go through the process and then see what you have.

Yes, it was just installed this afternoon. I will give it a couple of day to see if my recordings show up. I actually have two drives from the 722 but only have once connected right now. What confused me was the service person insisting that the Hopper could not see and play recordings from the 722.
Thanks!

 

[tjboston5676]

Yes, it was just installed this afternoon. I will give it a couple of day to see if my recordings show up. I actually have two drives from the 722 but only have once connected right now. What confused me was the service person insisting that the Hopper could not see and play recordings from the 722.
Thanks!

It won't show up, once you connected to hopper it got reformatted and deleted everything.

The only way to transfer from vip to hopper that I've heard of (never done it myself), is to first plug into hopper and let it format it then plug into 722 then transfer recordings and reconnect to hopper.

 

[n0qcu]

It won't show up, once you connected to hopper it got reformatted and deleted everything.

The only way to transfer from vip to hopper that I've heard of (never done it myself), is to first plug into hopper and let it format it then plug into 722 then transfer recordings and reconnect to hopper.

From experience I can say that the quote here is absolutely wrong

 

[HipKat]

From experience I can say that the quote here is absolutely wrong

Fact. I have successfully "plug and played" an EHD directly from a 722 to a Hopper 3

 

[Jim5506]

Same here. I have quite a few older EHD's recorded when I had a 722 and they play without any problems on my H3.

Patience grasshopper, give the Hopper three or four days to get its "brains" unscrambled and all it faculties aligned.

 

[TheKrell]

I went from an identical configuration (722 and 2 612's) to an H3 and 2 Joeys and the EHD I had on the 722 worked almost immediately. I didn't attach the one on my 612 because the tech erroneously told me I could plug it into a Joey. No you can't! So, by the time I took it down to the H3, months had passed and it exhibited the same symptoms as you report.

The Hopper clearly knows something is connected because if I turn off the EHD, it pops up a window saying a multimedia device was disconnected.

If your EHD doesn't show up in a couple of days, then send it a hit. I think Bobby told me how to do that but of course I don't remember the details.

 

[Bobby]

It won't show up, once you connected to hopper it got reformatted and deleted everything.

The only way to transfer from vip to hopper that I've heard of (never done it myself), is to first plug into hopper and let it format it then plug into 722 then transfer recordings and reconnect to hopper.

The Hopper will not arbitrarily reformat the drive. You get a reformat screen that will ask you if you actually want to reformat the drive and warns you that you will lose every on it.

 

[ppappas]

I went from an identical configuration (722 and 2 612's) to an H3 and 2 Joeys and the EHD I had on the 722 worked almost immediately. I didn't attach the one on my 612 because the tech erroneously told me I could plug it into a Joey. No you can't! So, by the time I took it down to the H3, months had passed and it exhibited the same symptoms as you report.

If your EHD doesn't show up in a couple of days, then send it a hit. I think Bobby told me how to do that but of course I don't remember the details.

Thanks, Dish has to send the hit, correct?

 

[ppappas]

The Hopper will not arbitrarily reformat the drive. You get a reformat screen that will ask you if you actually want to reformat the drive and warns you that you will lose every on it.

Exactly my experience. I thought I remembered another thread where the Hopper needs to index all the recordings on the EHD and that takes time? My 2TB drive has almost 500 movies saved, can that cause a delay?
Thanks!

 

[Bobby]

Exactly my experience. I thought I remembered another thread where the Hopper needs to index all the recordings on the EHD and that takes time? My 2TB drive has almost 500 movies saved, can that cause a delay?
Thanks!

I believe you are on to something there. Leave it plugged in for a few days and see what happens.

 

[TheKrell]

Thanks, Dish has to send the hit, correct?

Log into MyDish and go to My Equipment. Scroll down and click on Wake Up Receivers. It was something like that...

 

[ppappas]

A dish tech was here to deal with a different issue from yesterday's installation and I asked him about my 722 EHD. He also told me that he didn't think it was supported. When I told him that many other users and installers have all done this upgrade with no problems viewing and playing recordings from the 722, he called his manager. So, the official line from Dish is that technically, this should work just fine because the formats are the same, but Dish does not support this and for any problems we are on our own.

 

[Bobby]

A dish tech was here to deal with a different issue from yesterday's installation and I asked him about my 722 EHD. He also told me that he didn't think it was supported. When I told him that many other users and installers have all done this upgrade with no problems viewing and playing recordings from the 722, he called his manager. So, the official line from Dish is that technically, this should work just fine because the formats are the same, but Dish does not support this and for any problems we are on our own.

EHDs have always been on your own. While your tech, and his manager, are telling you that DISH doesn't support it they actually do. If they didn't you wouldn't have EHD access at all. I myself went from a 722 to a Hopper in 2012 and then to a Hopper 3 in 2016. I am still using the same EHD all the way through. I have recordings from HDNet from 2006.

 

[Bobby]

So, ppappas, Do you see your recordings on that EHD yet now that several days have passed?

 

[ppappas]

So, ppappas, Do you see your recordings on that EHD yet now that several days have passed?

No, just checked and still not showing up. I know these are still good because I connected the other EHD to my old 722 (no sats connected) and am able to see and play my recordings. I will give it a little more time and then try your suggestion of disconnecting the EHD, unplugging and replugging the Hopper, and then reconnecting the EHD. If that doesn't work, what else can I try? My other EHD only has 85 recordings instead of 400. I know the Hopper can support more than one EHD, but maybe it's worth connecting only that one first? The are both 2TB 3.5" SATA drives in external USB enclosures and work just fine with the 722.

 

[Almighty1]

There is another issue no one mentioned. I had EHDD's from the Hopper 1 aka Hopper 2000 that were either connected to a HDD dock or with a SATA to USB cable which works fine on the Hopper 1 but some works on the Hopper 3 and some don't. The issue is the bridge that sits between the HDD and the Hopper 3 are not compatible and it will detect it was disconnected, and when conneced, it can either ask to format or it will show but it will not show all the recordings and only a portion of it and when you press select on the recording, there are no Watch and other butons on it. The data is actually fine and the only fix is to use another enclosure or SATA to USB cable that has a compatible bridge chipset and it will work as I have a few drives that work with the previous docking station or cable but not with the Hopper 3 and taking that same bare drive with power attached, a SATA to USB cable that is known to work already with other drives will fix the problem. In my case, the Thermal Take BlackX HDD Dock works with the Hopper 1 and not the Hopper 3 but the same drive using a Unitek USB 3.0 to Serial ATA/IDE converter cable works fine on the Hopper 3 so in your case, you can try the same drive either using a current model external USB enclosure, docking station or converter cable and see if it makes a difference as the chipset that converts it from SATA to USB might not be compaible.

See the following thread for more info:

External HD Recordings not playing back on Hopper 3, recorded with Hopper 2000

I upgraded to a Hopper 3 DVR on February 7, 2016 as a upgrade to the Hopper 2000. I transferred the recordings to a external Hard Drive from the Hopper 2000. I plugged in the Hard Drive to the Hopper 3 on the rear bottom USB 3.0 port and can select the External Device 1. When I choose the...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[ppappas]

There is another issue no one mentioned. I had EHDD's from the Hopper 1 aka Hopper 2000 that were either connected to a HDD dock or with a SATA to USB cable which works fine on the Hopper 1 but some works on the Hopper 3 and some don't. The issue is the bridge that sits between the HDD and the Hopper 3 are not compatible and it will detect it was disconnected, and when conneced, it can either ask to format or it will show but it will not show all the recordings and only a portion of it and when you press select on the recording, there are no Watch and other butons on it. The data is actually fine and the only fix is to use another enclosure or SATA to USB cable that has a compatible bridge chipset and it will work as I have a few drives that work with the previous docking station or cable but not with the Hopper 3 and taking that same bare drive with power attached, a SATA to USB cable that is known to work already with other drives will fix the problem. In my case, the Thermal Take BlackX HDD Dock works with the Hopper 1 and not the Hopper 3 but the same drive using a Unitek USB 3.0 to Serial ATA/IDE converter cable works fine on the Hopper 3 so in your case, you can try the same drive either using a current model external USB enclosure, docking station or converter cable and see if it makes a difference as the chipset that converts it from SATA to USB might not be compaible.

See the following thread for more info:

External HD Recordings not playing back on Hopper 3, recorded with Hopper 2000

I upgraded to a Hopper 3 DVR on February 7, 2016 as a upgrade to the Hopper 2000. I transferred the recordings to a external Hard Drive from the Hopper 2000. I plugged in the Hard Drive to the Hopper 3 on the rear bottom USB 3.0 port and can select the External Device 1. When I choose the...

www.satelliteguys.us

Thanks, that's interesting, too bad it's not my problem.

I do have an update. I disconnected my EHD with the 400 plus recordings and connected my second one with 85 recordings and it shows up! I can switch the DVR to the external drive and see and play any of the recordings (which by the way, I really hate the tile view! Isn't there any way to get the list view? What were the Dish software engineers thinking! At least give us the option.) I try the other EHD again, and still nothing. I can hear and feel the drive being accessed for a few minutes and then just the steady vibration of a spinning disk. Both of these are exactly the same 2TB Hitachi 3.5 inch drives. Both enclosures are also Other World Computing Sata to USB3, same model. And, either one of them can still be accessed on my 722.

 

[Almighty1]

Thanks, that's interesting, too bad it's not my problem.

I do have an update. I disconnected my EHD with the 400 plus recordings and connected my second one with 85 recordings and it shows up! I can switch the DVR to the external drive and see and play any of the recordings (which by the way, I really hate the tile view! Isn't there any way to get the list view? What were the Dish software engineers thinking! At least give us the option.) I try the other EHD again, and still nothing. I can hear and feel the drive being accessed for a few minutes and then just the steady vibration of a spinning disk. Both of these are exactly the same 2TB Hitachi 3.5 inch drives. Both enclosures are also Other World Computing Sata to USB3, same model. And, either one of them can still be accessed on my 722.

Only way to know is by trying since just because everything is the same make, model does not mean the firmware on the HDD, the bridge chipset, the revision is exactly the same as even the ThermalTake BlackX from what I read can be different connecting to a computer as my idea actually came from that, someone had two identical docks and one worked and another didn't. You can also try putting the 400 plus recordings HDD into the enclosure that works and see what happens. Anything is worth a try to see if you can actually access the data or not.