External Hard Drive for Dish Wally receiver

[cpwether]

We have a Wally receiver. I was told by the installer that all I had to do to record was connect an external hard drive. I have an older Maxtor One Touch III external hard drive: Capacity 160GB, Cache Buffer 8 MB, Spin Rate 7200 RPM, Interface 2.0, USB 1.1 Compatible. I plugged it in to the Wally, pressed DVR and get the message (on the TV) to plug in an external hard drive to enable this feature. It's like the Wally does not see that the hard drive is plugged in. Any suggestions? If this hard drive won't work, can you recommend an inexpensive one that will?

Question 2: If I can get a hard drive to work, does the TV and Wally have to be on and on the channel I want to record? From what I am reading it sounds like I can only record whatever I am actively watching.

Thanks in advance for any help you might tell me!

 

[TheKrell]

Did you pay Dish the $40 one-time account fee to activate that feature?

On the 2nd question; that's easy. The TV most assuredly does not have to be on, and the DVR function will change channels for you. When you get this DVR function activated and the EHD reformatted, you will find that you have TWO satellite tuners, allowing you to watch one program while recording another.

 

[cpwether]

Did you pay Dish the $40 one-time account fee to activate that feature?

On the 2nd question; that's easy. The TV most assuredly does not have to be on, and the DVR function will change channels for you. When you get this DVR function activated and the EHD reformatted, you will find that you have TWO satellite tuners, allowing you to watch one program while recording another.

I have DVR on my main account. My main account is my primary residence where I have a Hopper and Joeys. I purchased a Wally for a second location and pay a monthly fee (on the same main account) for the Wally to work. Do I still need to call them to activate this on the Wally? ~Thanks.

 

[TheKrell]

I have DVR on my main account. My main account is my primary residence where I have a Hopper and Joeys. I purchased a Wally for a second location and pay a monthly fee (on the same main account) for the Wally to work. Do I still need to call them to activate this on the Wally? ~Thanks.

The fee for the 211 series, as well as the Wally, is a separate fee from the DVR fee on the native DVRs such as Hoppers or the older VIP DVRs. The good news is that it applies to all 211's and Wallys on your account, no matter how many you activated over the years.

 

[Bobby]

We have a Wally receiver. I was told by the installer that all I had to do to record was connect an external hard drive. I have an older Maxtor One Touch III external hard drive: Capacity 160GB, Cache Buffer 8 MB, Spin Rate 7200 RPM, Interface 2.0, USB 1.1 Compatible. I plugged it in to the Wally, pressed DVR and get the message (on the TV) to plug in an external hard drive to enable this feature. It's like the Wally does not see that the hard drive is plugged in. Any suggestions? If this hard drive won't work, can you recommend an inexpensive one that will?

Question 2: If I can get a hard drive to work, does the TV and Wally have to be on and on the channel I want to record? From what I am reading it sounds like I can only record whatever I am actively watching.

Thanks in advance for any help you might tell me!

The HD must be a minimum 500GB to work. Your HD is too small.

View attachment 149352

 

[cpwether]

The HD must be a minimum 500GB to work. Your HD is too small.

Ahh..thank you!

 

[TheKrell]

The HD must be a minimum 500GB to work.

I think this requirement must be bigger for the 211/Wally than it is for the EHD on a 722. I know I've gotten smallish EHD's to work before. Or else maybe it went up since I was playing long long ago.

 

[Bobby]

I think this requirement must be bigger for the 211/Wally than it is for the EHD on a 722. I know I've gotten smallish EHD's to work before. Or else maybe it went up since I was playing long long ago.

Take a look at the attachment in post 5. It clearly lays out the parameters.

 

[TheKrell]

Take a look at the attachment in post 5. It clearly lays out the parameters.

Yup; it's less for the Hopper (320GB) and less still for my 722 (50GB), which was what I was playing with. IIRC I was using a 64GB thumb drive, just for grins. Worked great, although the capacity is hopelessly inadequate for the 722, much less a Hopper. And OBTW, an SSD works just fine, as do hardware raid arrays.

 

[navychop]

hardware raid arrays.

Singing my song.

 

[jpmarto]

I've had a long string of failures of EHD drives on my Wally. All were 2.5" form factor. They were all labeled "500G", but all had under 500G useable capacity. I have yet to get an answer to my question "500G" (advertised capacity) drive, or, "500G useable space" as I suspected the latter was key. I decided to use a 750G drive just to be sure, and I've had error-free operation since then. YMMV.

 

[Bobby]

I've had a long string of failures of EHD drives on my Wally. All were 2.5" form factor. They were all labeled "500G", but all had under 500G useable capacity. I have yet to get an answer to my question "500G" (advertised capacity) drive, or, "500G useable space" as I suspected the latter was key. I decided to use a 750G drive just to be sure, and I've had error-free operation since then. YMMV.

The Wally software to allow for buffering and recording takes up space on the external hard drive so while you can use a 500G drive a lot of it will be taken up by the operating software.

 

[jpmarto]

The Wally software to allow for buffering and recording takes up space on the external hard drive so while you can use a 500G drive a lot of it will be taken up by the operating software.

Yes! And my suspicion is a "500G" drive which may only have 460-480G usable capacity is inadequate for reliable operation as an Wally EHD. I have the America's Top 250 package - perhaps the size of the 7-day channel guide pushed storage capacity too far? In any event, with the cost of drives today, I'd recommend anyone to go well beyond minimum storage requirements.

 

[Radioguy41]

Yes! And my suspicion is a "500G" drive which may only have 460-480G usable capacity is inadequate for reliable operation as an Wally EHD. I have the America's Top 250 package - perhaps the size of the 7-day channel guide pushed storage capacity too far? In any event, with the cost of drives today, I'd recommend anyone to go well beyond minimum storage requirements.

I've been running a 500G on my Wally for 2 years now without a hitch. Your problem may be more related to the 2.5" form factor than to capacity. I would never use a laptop HD in that application. I suspect if it's a 2.5" it's likely USB powered not wall wart and that can be a problem.

 

[dishdude]

I use this enclosure Amazon product ASIN B08DCW7LHGView: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DCW7LHG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


With ebay hard drives. There are a bunch of brand new 500 GB laptop drives on ebay that were pulled from new machines and replaced with SSDs. Never had a problem.

 

[Roughneck69]

. Yes you do have to call dish and activate the dvr for your Wally. I just got off the phone with customer support to activate mine. It’s a one time $40 fee and will cover any other Wally receivers that you add to your account in the future. So If you upgrade or add another receiver for the bedroom of your RV it will be covered by the one time activation fee.
I have DVR on my main account. My main account is my primary residence where I have a Hopper and Joeys. I purchased a Wally for a second location and pay a monthly fee (on the same main account) for the Wally to work. Do I still need to call them to activate this on the Wally? ~Thanks.

 

[Bobby]

Yes, it's a one time charge.