External hard drive now not recognized by 722k

[jmwomack]

The drive (Seagate 1TB / USB / external power) has been used for more than a few years and never had any issues. It still has lots and lots of recordings on it (which is why I am writing this post seeking help) and has only been connected to this receiver. Over the summer, I had to move the television, receiver, and drive to the upstairs while floor repairs were completed. I continued to record, transfer, delete, etc. while everything was upstairs. After the repairs were completed (it took a couple of months), I set everything back up in our den and I got the "reformat" message. So I guess this means the receiver still recognizes the drive as an acceptable storage device but does not recognize the recordings already stored on it?

Over the last couple of months, I have tried searching previous similar threads and trying suggestions. Things I have tried: reset the receiver many, many times; requested a "Wake Up Receiver" - from both the web button and support chat; unplugged power cords for both and/or single devices and waited; re-seated the drive's USB cable while powered and not powered.

I am hoping that I am missing something and the drive can work again. DISH support was useless and told me I needed to upgrade to Hopper and just reformat the drive. Thanks in advance for any tips!

P.S. I am willing to try data recovery and/or transfer if anyone has actually done that and can guarantee my 722k will read it. Once formatted, I am unsure if external drives are mated to the 722k receiver in general - or to the actual individual receiver.

 

[tjboston5676]

During all the moving of equipment the hard drive probably got bumped, dropped or shaken. Hard drives have a spinning disc with a needle and if it experiences a godd enough bump/shock even when not powered, the needle can scratch the disc rendering it useless.
You can try data recovery first, and if successful copy over to a new drive but it may end up costing more than it's worth.

 

[jmwomack]

During all the moving of equipment the hard drive probably got bumped, dropped or shaken. Hard drives have a spinning disc with a needle and if it experiences a godd enough bump/shock even when not powered, the needle can scratch the disc rendering it useless.
You can try data recovery first, and if successful copy over to a new drive but it may end up costing more than it's worth.

Thanks for the reply! I am not gonna say that is impossible but it is seems unlikely. I was extremely careful moving the equipment, literally hand-carrying the drive and DVR and setting them up at each location. However, I know it does not take much for these older spinning drives. If that was culprit, how does one even attempt recovery?

Do I buy a new drive for the old drive's files to just be be directly copied? Should I connect the new drive to my 722k for formatting and then get it copied? Anybody on here have experience recovering these types of files or point me to. thread with instructions? I am usually pretty good with this stuff on Macs and PCs but have no experience with Linux.

 

[Almighty1]

Easiest way is to find another drive of the same capacity from a vendor like target where you have 30 days to return and since it's the holidays, the 30 days don't start counting until December 25, 2023. Then connect the new drive to the 722k and let it format and see if you can record to it or not just to make sure that part is working first. Then clone the old drive to the new drive on the computer using Macrium Reflect. Assuming it successfully clones without any problems, connect the new drive to the 722k and see if your old recordings are working or not.

 

[Strega]

I would be tempted to look at it with Linux. Possibly copying the files to another drive and possibly trying an fsck. I would guess that coping the files would be better than cloning since an accurate clone seems likely to clone whatever is wrong with it.

 

[Jim5506]

If the old EHD is damaged somehow, you should find an identical EHD, format it as and EHD with your 722 then set up a computer to run linux, connect both the old and new EHDs to the computer running linux and copy the video files from the old disk to the new one.

All the video files are in a certain folder on the Dish EHD, right now I do not recall the exact name of that folder but I will do some digging and try to find it somewhere in this forum.

I found it - the folder is called DISHARC, that's where the video files are, use linux to copy them from the old EHD to the new one

 

[Almighty1]

I would be tempted to look at it with Linux. Possibly copying the files to another drive and possibly trying an fsck. I would guess that coping the files would be better than cloning since an accurate clone seems likely to clone whatever is wrong with it.

Yes, that's true but the problem is not knowing the technical level of the OP with Linux, the cloning is more to see if it's the HDD that is the issue or not as even in my case with a HDD that worked on the Hopper 1 but not the Hopper 3, the issue was not the HDD as both the original and clone worked and not worked depending on the SATA to USB used. As copying might not work because if the files are corrupted, it would have messed up the encryption too so the files would still probably not work.

 

[JS_racer]

could be a bad superblock, in linux . they can be restored. use to have to do it when I had a 622/722 long ago

 

[JS_racer]

could be a bad superblock, in linux . they can be restored. use to have to do it when I had a 622/722 long ago
the superblock repair/restore made the drive back to working again without loosing any data. it just copies the superblock from one of the other locations it is stored

 

[jmwomack]

Easiest way is to find another drive of the same capacity from a vendor like target where you have 30 days to return and since it's the holidays, the 30 days don't start counting until December 25, 2023. Then connect the new drive to the 722k and let it format and see if you can record to it or not just to make sure that part is working first. Then clone the old drive to the new drive on the computer using Macrium Reflect. Assuming it successfully clones without any problems, connect the new drive to the 722k and see if your old recordings are working or not.

Does it truly need to be the same capacity or can it be larger? Same brand and model available on ebay but usually in larger size. I believe the 722k can accept up to 2TB. (Sorry for any duplication but replying to a couple of these that mention getting another EHD.)

 

[jmwomack]

If the old EHD is damaged somehow, you should find an identical EHD, format it as and EHD with your 722 then set up a computer to run linux, connect both the old and new EHDs to the computer running linux and copy the video files from the old disk to the new one.

All the video files are in a certain folder on the Dish EHD, right now I do not recall the exact name of that folder but I will do some digging and try to find it somewhere in this forum.

I found it - the folder is called DISHARC, that's where the video files are, use linux to copy them from the old EHD to the new one

Does it truly need to be an identical EGD or can it be larger? Same brand and model available on ebay but usually in larger size. I believe the 722k can accept up to 2TB. (Sorry for any duplication but replying to a couple of these that mention getting another EHD.)

 

[Jim5506]

Yes, it can be larger since you format the drive then copy individual video files to it.

 

[Almighty1]

Larger will work but the model which is for the external product as a whole will not be the same even if it was the same capacity as they can use different model drives internally and also the SATA to USB bridge used needs to be compatible. That is why I suggested to buy from somewhere that has a return policy in case it didn't work. Target still has 1GB Seagate EHDD's in stock at the stores as the 2GB and larger is Western Digital. Using CrystalDiskInfo in Windows will tell you what the actual model of the drive used internally is.

 

[Almighty1]

could be a bad superblock, in linux . they can be restored. use to have to do it when I had a 622/722 long ago
the superblock repair/restore made the drive back to working again without loosing any data. it just copies the superblock from one of the other locations it is stored

That's true too and hopefully it's only bad superblock(s) and nothing severe.

 

[jmwomack]

JS_racer , Almighty1 , Jim5506 , Strega

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for the lull in activity . . . I had to have unexpected retinal surgery. But now I am back and ready to proceed. I guess I will be learning about Linux over the holidays!

I bought a brand new Seagate 1.5 TB drive off Ebay. It connected and formatted with no problems when hooked up to the 722k. I then tried to look at both drives using DiskInternals Linux Reader (free version). Both Seagate physical drives appeared in the list along with my PC's Kingston and Samsung drives. Their volumes (3 from the 1 TB and 5 from the 1.5 TB) also appeared alongside my PC's C and G drives.

I could select any of the five volumes from the new drive and see folders Lost+Found and DishArc in each one. I could not get the three volumes form the older drive to open.

I am unsure how to proceed from here if I want to repair the older drive. Will I need different software? (There are other menu options available such as "Mount Image" or "Mount to Disk Letter" but they are only available by upgrading the Linux Reader software to the paid version.) I have no clue how to repair a superblock or trying an fsck Any guidance is appreciated!

 

[JS_racer]

some light reading from here... External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

there is also a way to transfer from dish archive folders to copy and restore, but the superblock was what i used most back in the 622 days..

my old cheat sheet I used many times
(pdf was located in the sg thread, as was links, they were not my creation, just passing information along, the scribble sheet posted is all my notes.. )

Advanced Find ext2 ext3 Backup SuperBlock

www.cgsecurity.org

TestDisk Step By Step

www.cgsecurity.org