External Hard Drive Problems

[chesbrojim]

I have a (USB 2.0) external hard drive that I have attached to my DISH DVR to provide me with additional storage space. The DISH box stopped recognizing the drive. In fact, when I try to access the contents of the drive it causes the DISH box to reboot.

I attached it to my computer to reformat it and my computer will not assign a drive letter to it. When I try to find it in the device manager, I can see that the computer knows the drive is there but I am unable to access it. Any ideas?

[Wilbur]

There are several dish freak fora which have discussion threads devoted to the viP 622 and 722 DVR boxes, and those guys talk a LOT about their external hard drives and, on occasion, problems with them. Try googling "722 (or 622, whichever you have) external hard drive recognize". With that search I found several discussions of the problem which I don't understand.

[Damon]

Wilbur? who is the manufacture of the hard drive.That would help me out allot. Of course, if the hard drive is bad and the info given would be of no use .Waiting for a reply back, and "who knows what Wilbur might say? No matter what the out come might be, I hope I can help in this issue.

[Wilbur]

Jim's the one with the rogue drive. I don't even have a cool HD DVR yet (still remodeling the room before buying new gear), but I've been sniffin' at them and lurking on those Dish freak forums trying to learn. The ability to augment the DVR's internal HD with an external HD (or several) is very cool and is pulling me in the DishNetwork direction for my HD upgrade because from what I've read DirectTV's box isn't nearly as versatile.

Jim, what brand external?

[chesbrojim]

Originally Posted by Damon

who is the manufacture of the hard drive.That would help me out allot. .

The drive is a 500 GB Simple Tech drive.

[chesbrojim]

Originally Posted by Wilbur

The ability to augment the DVR's internal HD with an external HD (or several) is very cool and is pulling me in the DishNetwork direction for my HD upgrade because from what I've read DirectTV's box isn't nearly as versatile.

I am extremely happy with the the DISH HD DVR. It has an HDMI output and you can run a Cat5 cable to the box and receive more goodies. I haven't plugged in the Cat5 yet.

I have had a little trouble with the ext. HD though. I am trying to determine if I bought a drive that was too slow for this application.

[chesbrojim]

What I need right now is help on getting the computer to recognize the HD so I can reformat it and plug it back into my DISH box. Thanks.

[Wilbur]

Have you tried uninstalling it in device manager and then reinstalling via "add hardware?"

[Damon]

Jim? do you have the cd that came with the HD? "Simpletech"? You can use that to reformat the drive as well.

[chesbrojim]

It did not come with a set up CD. Only a user guide for Mac & PC.

Have you tried uninstalling it in device manager and then reinstalling via "add hardware?" 

Yeah. I tried that.

I first used it on the DVR box. When you do that , it automatically formats the disc using a proprietary Linux program. However, you're supposed to be able to move it back and forth between the DVR and a computer with the provision that it will be reformatted every time you make that switch. Otherwise you might copy TV programs or movies to your computer and we all know that would be wrong.