External HD results: Drives NOT Working Properly

[KAB]

For the sake of those yet to purchase an external drive/and or still on the fence . An attempt to create an easy access, informal list.

PLEASE REPORT ONLY DRIVES THAT ARE NOTWORKING PROPERLY FOR YOU.

Please include Brand, Model #, GB size and Cache size, and make and model of external enclosure if applicable.

Include BRIEF description of problem. My intention for this thread is mostly for reporting , but discussions that may address problems are welcome. Thanks!

 

[primetimeguy]

Seagate 500gb FreeAgent

Works fine for initial plug in and transfer. Problems are with the spindown of the drive after 15 minutes or so. It will not wake up such that the 622 can see it. Requires reboot of the 622 or drive.

 

[StevenD]

Seagate 500gb FreeAgent

Works fine for initial plug in and transfer. Problems are with the spindown of the drive after 15 minutes or so. It will not wake up such that the 622 can see it. Requires reboot of the 622 or drive.

See the other threads...there is a fix for this.

 

[primetimeguy]

See the other threads...there is a fix for this.

Sort of...if you want your drive running 24/7. Out of the box it does not work as expected so to me this would fit the bill for NOT working for those looking to purchase a drive.

 

[8bitbytes]

Sort of...if you want your drive running 24/7. Out of the box it does not work as expected so to me this would fit the bill for NOT working for those looking to purchase a drive.

How Interesting:

When the external drive threads really got going early this year, I kept talking about how folks would need to find high quality enterprise class hard drives because the cheap stuff sold to consumers would not be very tolerant to 24/7 operation. I was told over and over that NOBODY was going to do that and that most folks would be turning them off MOST of the time.

Well, here we are and I see that what I said would happen has happened. i guess 25 years in computing seems to have given me a little bit of clue as to how most people actually operate!

If you turn on your external drive, move your shows and then turn the drive off, they all seem to work fine.

If you want to move a show to the drive and watch other recorded content, there seems to be glitches on some drives.

If you want to watch a moved show from the external drive, there are some drives that are not handling that either.

I have noticed that the WD AAKS class drives and the Seagate DB35.3 drives seem to be able to handle all these requirements quite well.

Keep the reviews and reports coming folks!

 

[kstuart]

If you can play content directly on the external drive, then I don't see any reason for moving content back to a DVR (unless you suddenly had some desperate need for a hard drive for your PC).

Seems like a 1% case...

 

[redman042]

I'm anxious to hear something from Dish on the FreeAgent issue. I really don't want to disable sleep mode as I think that will really shorten the life of the drive. I'm fairly confident that a minor fix to the software will allow the 622 to wait a little longer for the drive to wake up and send a confirmation signal or something.

So any word from Dish?

 

[RedSavina]

Toshiba MK6021GAS

I have this 2.5" drive (60GB) and get the unsupported message when trying to connect with external enclosures. I tried a MassCool USB2.0 and a MadDog USB2.0 enclosure; neither worked.

This is a standard laptop drive - I would not expect it to have problems since it is within the 40-750 GB range specified by E*.

 

[RedSavina]

I have been using a Fantom Titanium II 500GB drive since the 15th with no problems. I currently have about 100GB of programs on it and can move data in either direction with ease. Playng directly from the USB drive also works flawlessly.

Thanks for the report. Can you please put it in the correct discussion thread? This thread is for drives that are NOT working properly.

Cheers,
Red

 

[KAB]

Thanks for the report. Can you please put it in the correct discussion thread? This thread is for drives that are NOT working properly.

Cheers,
Red

Being the thread originator, thanks for getting people back on track!!

 

[KAB]

I have this 2.5" drive (60GB) and get the unsupported message when trying to connect with external enclosures. I tried a MassCool USB2.0 and a MadDog USB2.0 enclosure; neither worked.

This is a standard laptop drive - I would not expect it to have problems since it is within the 40-750 GB range specified by E*.

Laptops drives, 5400 RPMs . Not for this application. 7200 specified. You need and 3.5 inch drive.

 

[RedSavina]

Laptops drives, 5400 RPMs . Not for this application. 7200 specified. You need and 3.5 inch drive.

First I heard of this - and I thought I was on top of the requirements! Can you point me to more information on this requirement? Especially the part about 5400 RPMs. Some of the external drives I have seen are 5400.

 

[KAB]

First I heard of this - and I thought I was on top of the requirements! Can you point me to more information on this requirement? Especially the part about 5400 RPMs. Some of the external drives I have seen are 5400.

I have read it, but now can't find it. There have been so many thread/posts and this forum's search function is lousy!!! Also, is your drive self-powered? That would probably give you problems as well. BTW, only laptop/GO drives are 5400 rpm these days.

 

[RedSavina]

Also, is your drive self-powered? That would probably give you problems as well.

Yes, but it has external power available; I might give it a try just to see if anything is different.

BTW, only laptop/GO drives are 5400 rpm these days.

Good point - I had not made the connection to 5400 and 2.5" drives. I just looked and every drive I could find that is 3.5" is also 7200. Musta been sleeping to miss that trend! Even so, there are a number of "external" drives that use 2.5"/5400rpm drives. Seems like the E* statement about "most off-the-shelf external drives" would include at least some of these or they would have specifically excluded them. If they did so, I missed it!

 

[RedSavina]

Success!

Good point - I had not made the connection to 5400 and 2.5" drives. I just looked and every drive I could find that is 3.5" is also 7200. Musta been sleeping to miss that trend! Even so, there are a number of "external" drives that use 2.5"/5400rpm drives. Seems like the E* statement about "most off-the-shelf external drives" would include at least some of these or they would have specifically excluded them. If they did so, I missed it!

Success! With the additional power, the drive comes up with the format and reboot prompt. I now have a 2.5", 5400 rpm drive working with the ViP622. I will post accordingly in the other thread. Thanks for the suggestion, KAB!

Cheers,
Red

 

[KAB]

Success! With the additional power, the drive comes up with the format and reboot prompt. I now have a 2.5", 5400 rpm drive working with the ViP622. I will post accordingly in the other thread. Thanks for the suggestion, KAB!

Cheers,
Red

Let us know how it plays back and how long it takes to transfer. And, when you are in the market for a larger drive (probably tomorrow since you only have 60GB ) go for a 3.5 drive.

 

[RedSavina]

The 60GB is kind of a stop-gap for me... I have a 500GB LaCie drive on it's way. Delivery should be Thursday.

I'd like to see the ability to share recordings via DishComm/Ethernet. When that happens I will stick the 60GB on my ViP211 (when DVR-enabled) and keep the 500GB on the ViP622. But I'm not holding my breath.