Powered vs non-powered hub for powered Ext Hard Drives on Hopper 3

dukiebluedoc

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Pub Member / Supporter
Oct 18, 2004
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Cave Creek AZ
I have a Hopper 3 and several Western Digital hard drives, all powered, all < 6 tB.
I would like to attach them via a USB hub to my Hopper 3.
I have a powered hub now but some of my drives are not recognized when plugged into that hub, even as the only HDs with power on (the hub has separate power on/off switches for each USB drive plugged into it.)
Is a non powered hub a better option, or does the hub power +/- not have any influence on drive recognition?

The whole issue of Hoppers and external drives seems shrouded in mystery.

thanks
Caroline
 
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I have a powered hub now but some of my drives are not recognized when plugged into that hub, even as the only HDs with power on (the hub has separate power on/off switches for each USB drive plugged into it.)
I am not sure what's going on here. If you are using a powered hub with powered disks, then the power switches on the hub won't turn the drive off. I have experienced chaos/confusion by unplugging and plugging back in my EHDs which are directly connected to my H3, but this confusion is further complicated by the existence of my 6TB Seagate. I can plug in a 1.5TB drive which makes the total over 7TB. This disk does not show up! If I reboot the Hopper, then it shows up and the 6TB disk does not.
 
What happens if you plug one of those drives that you don't see directly into one of your Hopper 3's USB ports. Do you see it then?
I am going to try that later today--right now I am in the middle of a long transfer to one of the HDs the H3 does recognize, and getting at the USB ports on the back of the drive involves moving the Hopper receiver out of a cabinet, not easy to do in my setup.
 
I am not sure what's going on here. If you are using a powered hub with powered disks, then the power switches on the hub won't turn the drive off. I have experienced chaos/confusion by unplugging and plugging back in my EHDs which are directly connected to my H3, but this confusion is further complicated by the existence of my 6TB Seagate. I can plug in a 1.5TB drive which makes the total over 7TB. This disk does not show up! If I reboot the Hopper, then it shows up and the 6TB disk does not.
As I understand it, the switches on the USB hub turn off the USB connection to the Hopper, not the power on the ext drives.
 
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Glad it worked for you Bobby. When I had Hopper 2 few years ago, I connected a powered ehd to transfer some recordings. A tech was coming in couple days to replace Hopper 2 with 3. I did a little search. I managed to move files from Hop 2 to ehd. I remember reading at Dish's support site they were not recommending using hubs. There were a lot of complaints in the old Dish forum. Perhaps, Dish made improvements with Hopper 3.
 
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Glad it worked for you Bobby. When I had Hopper 2 few years ago, I connected a powered ehd to transfer some recordings. A tech was coming in couple days to replace Hopper 2 with 3. I did a little search. I managed to move files from Hop 2 to ehd. I remember reading at Dish's support site they were not recommending using hubs. There were a lot of complaints in the old Dish forum. Perhaps, Dish made improvements with Hopper 3.
I have used the same powered hub with a 722, Hopper 2000, and a Hopper 3. Probably 10 years worth. Not a hitch on any of them.
 
I connected my ehd to hopper 3 after all that transfer from older hopper. 3 would not recognize it. Tried all 3 usb ports. Nope. EHD had its own power cord. I simply couldn't find a solution. I was lucky the wifey didn't kick me out. I blamed Dish.:deadhorse
 
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I connected my ehd to hopper 3 after all that transfer from older hopper. 3 would not recognize it. Tried all 3 usb ports. Nope. EHD had its own power cord. I simply couldn't find a solution. I was lucky the wifey didn't kick me out. I blamed Dish.:deadhorse
Did you call Dish and have them send an initialization re-hit to your new Hopper?
 
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Thanks Jim, I have never thought about that. Dummy question. The difference between hard reset at home or Dish doing reset from their headquarters?
 
The difference between hard reset at home or Dish doing reset from their headquarters?
Big difference. The "hit" from Dish comes down via satellite and it re-authorizes the receiver. A hard reset merely reboots the receiver and does not insure it is authorized. Some have had to do this more than once with disappearing EHDs.
 
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Well, after some troubleshooting I discovered that the problem was a switch on the surge power strip I used for the unrecognized two EHDs. Flipped the switch and they came right up.
Thanks to all--I learned a lot from this thread, even though it was prompted by a doofus move on my part! :oops:
 
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