Looking for an EHD that reliably works with the Hopper 3

[docdaddy]

When I was with Dish previously, using 722K and 621s, my EHDs worked flawlessly. I never had a problem of any kind, and it was something I really missed when I was with Directv (with the Genie the EHD has to replace the internal HD; also it is tied to that Genie, such that if you have to replace it you lose all your recordings.)

Now I have my Hopper 3 (which I really like, and I much prefer to the Genie) and a fairly new WD 2T MyBook External HD USB 3.0. It has always been a bit flaky, in terms of giving the "Spinning Up" notice and then a black screen that doesn't go away when initially trying to play a program from it, and occasionally disappearing, requiring a reboot or two to get it recognized again.

And now it disappears every day, and sometimes takes up to 3 H3 reboots (simply removing and reinserting the USB cable doesn't work, nor does removing and replacing the power to the EHD) to get it recognized.

Is anyone using a Hopper 3 and an EHD that has no problems at all? I'd be willing to purchase another one just to have one that simply works all the time.

Thanks

 

[Tampa8]

Not the Hopper.. but this might help. I have always used WD including MyBook with my VIP receivers. They have been quite reliable but at times takes awhile to access the programs on it and I too have had the black screen but it always continues on from there. I recently had one fail after many years of use and found they have become much more expensive and a little harder to find. There are very few self powered EHD's out there.

I bought a Verbatim and Wow is it fast and quiet. So far it has been flawless but I have had it only a few months. Price was under $60 for 2TB.

 

[docdaddy]

Not the Hopper.. but this might help. I have always used WD including MyBook with my VIP receivers. They have been quite reliable but at times takes awhile to access the programs on it and I too have had the black screen but it always continues on from there. I recently had one fail after many years of use and found they have become much more expensive and a little harder to find. There are very few self powered EHD's out there.

I bought a Verbatim and Wow is it fast and quiet. So far it has been flawless but I have had it only a few months. Price was under $60 for 2TB.

Which Verbatim was it? I am looking on Amazon and see this:

Verbatim 2TB Store 'n' Save Desktop Hard Drive, USB 3.0, Black 97580
Is that it?

 

[dishrich]

IMO, I think the key to using EHD's that are trouble free, is to use ONLY the type that have no software of their own on it. (ie: backup, defrag, etc.) The receiver does ALL of the formatting needed when the drive is connected for the first time to the receiver. Also, whether it actually works w/out it or not, you really should only use drives with a power supply provided with it. (NOT attempting to power it from the receiver itself)
These are the ones that I continue to use from several years ago & have never had a problem with them. These particular ones are not made anymore, but they are just plain, simple external HDD's with NOTHING else on them, period.
WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Model # WDBAAU0020HBK-01

 

[Tampa8]

Which Verbatim was it? I am looking on Amazon and see this:

Verbatim 2TB Store 'n' Save Desktop Hard Drive, USB 3.0, Black 97580
Is that it?

Yes that is the one I bought. I see they have increased quite alot, both on Amazon and Ebay. I see the second review (at least that comes up for me) is five stars from a DISH user though like me not on a Hopper.

 

[hey]

I recommend self-powered WD EHDs - they probably will still have the spinning up problem, but mine don't disconnect (except for the common error when transferring to them-they will sometimes hang up and require H3 reboot to access the EHD again - it is random and not a huge deal to me)

 

[KAB]

I use powered docks and bare-bone WD drives.

 

[docdaddy]

I recommend self-powered WD EHDs - they probably will still have the spinning up problem, but mine don't disconnect (except for the common error when transferring to them-they will sometimes hang up and require H3 reboot to access the EHD again - it is random and not a huge deal to me)

Well, I currently have a 2T WD self powered MyBook external USB 3.0 drive. I have both the spinning up problem and the disconnect/won't recognize until a hard H3 reset which has become every day (just hit the DVR button this morning, sure enough, no EHD is detected. The reboot from the menu doesn't fix it. And we were watching things on the EHD last night at 11:00 PM last night (I had to do a hard reboot yesterday morning to get it to show up.)

I'm not sure what triggers the disconnect. The EHD is, of course, next to the H3 and connected with a good quality USB cable. Power source for both is solid. Sleep mode on the EHD is turned off. And, while I have always had the spin up black screen issue on first access and the hang up on moving multiple programs to the drive problem, the daily disconnect seems to have started with the new 344 update.

So I'm just looking for an EHD that works with the Hopper 3 all the time - no spin up issues, no problems moving multiple programs at once, no disconnects. With my 722k, I could use just about any USB powered external HD and it just worked, no problems of any kind. This is a huge step backwards.

 

[docdaddy]

I use powered docks and bare-bone WD drives.

I've got a good bare WD drive and a good powered, fan cooled dock I was using for my Genie, but it only has an eSata connection.

 

[camo]

Self powered EHD are almost a thing of the past. You can use a powered hub now along with almost any 2 GB USB EHD.
Verified working combo
Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual Power Switches and LEDs included 5V/2.5A power
WD 2TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYFT0020BBK-WESN

 

[docdaddy]

Thanks for the recommendation! Just ordered the powered hub, and I have a new highly rated portable Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim drive (2T) that will hopefully work with it. if this fixes my H3 EHD problem, I'll owe ya one.

 

[ggw2000]

Self powered EHD are almost a thing of the past. You can use a powered hub now along with almost any 2 GB USB EHD.
Verified working combo
Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual Power Switches and LEDs included 5V/2.5A power
WD 2TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYFT0020BBK-WESN

I just ordered one of these for usage with my 211K and a WD Elements 500GB drive that I already have. I used the self powered WD My Books for years and had good luck with them. But both of them have given up the ghost in the past year. Trying to find a self powered drive is getting very hard in 2TB or less. There's one on Amazon but it's flipp'n $140!! Not going to happen.
I tried one of my WD Elements plugged into the 211K yesterday but it gives me a unknown error. I am assuming that the port just doesn't have enough power to drive the HDD.. Will see how the hub works this week when I get it... Would of liked to have had just one self contained unit but guess that's not going to happen..
Thanks, Gerry

 

[Almighty1]

Usually the problem is not the actual HD itself but rather the controller/bridge aka circuitry that converts the USB signals to SATA which is what the Hopper 3 either works with or doesn't work with so even if you have the same model EHD, the reason one works while another doesn't even if it's a identical model is because that circuitry may not be identical and can be based on a different chipset from the same or another manufacturer.

 

[docdaddy]

Self powered EHD are almost a thing of the past. You can use a powered hub now along with almost any 2 GB USB EHD.
Verified working combo
Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual Power Switches and LEDs included 5V/2.5A power
WD 2TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYFT0020BBK-WESN

I just received the Sabrent USB 3.0 Hub you recommended, and a Seagate 2T USB EHD (recommended on Wirecutter.) Formatting now.

I assume that you cannot attach two EHDs to this Hub and the Hoppper 3 see both at the same time?

 

[docdaddy]

Hmmm. Attached the hub to the Hopper 3 (using the USB 2.0 slot on the H3, I'm currently using the USB 3 slot for my other EHD) and the Hopper 3 immediately recognized that a new drive was connected and asked if I wanted to format it. I said yes, and it formatted it. It then recognized it as drive 2 (the other EHD is still attached and is drive 1.) I tried to test it out by moving one 1 hour program to it, and it showed how much space was available and all of it was free, the amount looked right, so I tried to move the program. It gave me the moving bar as it calculated time remaining to move the program, then said "Operation (or move, can't remember) completed with errors." But it didn't move the program. Tried again, same results.

Rebooted to see if that would fix it. (waiting for reboot to complete.) - OK, try again. Except now when I look, my Hopper 3 doesn't see EITHER drive. Sigh...... Time for another red button reset.

OK - red button reset and both drives are seen. Looks like I can now move programs to the new EHD connected via the powered hub. A bit slow since it's connected via USB 2.0. If this doesn't have the problems of the current EHD I'll move all my recordings from that drive to this new setup. Will take a long time, but that's OK. I'll find another use for the current WD MyBook Destop EHD drive.

But we'll see if this solves the problems of the current EHD and my H3

Edit - well, tried to watch the recording I just moved to the new drive, and had the exact same spin-up/black screen issue I have with the other one. I guess I can live with that if the H3 doesn't lose the drive every day, but it's disappointing to see that spin up problem on a completely new drive of a different type.

 

[hey]

I would guess they all have the spin up issue - I wouldn't want my drive spinning needlessly 24/7, so I'm glad it doesn't.
that said, I would think they could make their software tell the drive to spine when you are actively looking at the drive contents...
not sure if you are aware of this, but AFAIK you have to transfer stuff from one drive to the Hopper, then to the other drive... no drive to drive transfer unfortunately...

 

[docdaddy]

I would guess they all have the spin up issue - I wouldn't want my drive spinning needlessly 24/7, so I'm glad it doesn't.
that said, I would think they could make their software tell the drive to spine when you are actively looking at the drive contents...
not sure if you are aware of this, but AFAIK you have to transfer stuff from one drive to the Hopper, then to the other drive... no drive to drive transfer unfortunately...

Ah, good to know on now to move stuff. Thanks, with the issues I've seen I would have suspected that it was another bug.

 

[camo]

Ah, good to know on now to move stuff. Thanks, with the issues I've seen I would have suspected that it was another bug.

So is it working with the Seagate? It seems fast enough using the 2 GB WD EHD. I've never had an issue transferring or watching transferred material. But not having your same issues of losing EHD either.
1 hour HD programming takes less than 2 minutes to transfer. Seems fast...
I haven't tried multiple HD's into the hub yet because I only have 1 non powered EHD.

 

[docdaddy]

Well, got up this morning and once again, no EHDs connected. Neither one.

So this problem seems unrelated to the EHD type. I've got a WD MyBook Desktop powered EHD and a powered HUB with a Seagate portable USB EHD and the problems for both are exactly the same. Even the spin up/black screen issue. This is both the 3.0 and 2.0 USB hubs on the H3.

Just tried a reset via the menu, as usual that doesn't bring my EHDs back.

Oh and this is the latest software update. I know if I call tech support they'll make me do all kinds of things that make no sense as they read them off their list and then want to replace the H3. When I called tech support last time with an issue, the lady on the phone was nice but not at all knowledgeable- she had no idea you can move your recordings from one H3 to another - I actually walked her through the menus to show her where the option and she asked me to wait while she wrote that down!

Very disappointed.

 

[camo]

docdaddy you might need a replacement H3. My EHD never disconnects and I've tried a couple different EHD's both self powered and hub powered without issues.
Before requesting ask if they can escalate to higher level tech support and explain everything. You have done a factory reset I assume.