Dish Qualified EHDs?

Keith,

No, DISH does not have a list of compatible EHDs but if you read the forums you can see what works and ones that people have problems with. As for incompatible drives there are a few things to look out for. The first group of drives to avoid are the ones that don't have their own power supply. They are normally drives that are meant to be used on a laptop where power is supplied via the usb port.

DISH says that drives up to 750GBs are supported but some people are using 1 TB drives and don't have problems. If you go that way make sure that the drive has that 1 TB on ONE drive. Some of the 1 TB drives are really two 500 GB drives.

As for brands, a lot of us really like the Western Digital essential drives. They are reasonably priced and work very well on the ViP receivers.

nKeith said:

Does there exist a listing of EHDs that Dish supports as being compatible with ViP622?

Is there a listing of those devices deemed to be incompatible?

Keith

Click to expand...

Western Digital markets a drive called My DVR Expander aimed at Dish Network customers. The press release is here.
It's been widely reported here that certain 622's have problems with external hard drives.

I have the 500Gb. WD My DVR Expander. Had it for a few months now with no issues. The original 622 it was activated on had to be returned. I plugged it into my new refurb box and it worked perfectly.

TulsaOK said:

Western Digital markets a drive called My DVR Expander aimed at Dish Network customers. The press release is here.
It's been widely reported here that certain 622's have problems with external hard drives.

Click to expand...

Thanks to Bill R and TulsaOK for their responses.

I have read WD's blurb on their My DVR Expander, and I wish that it had stated (1) why it was released only as a 500GB drive (and not 750GB), and (2) what features in the "Expander" make it a better match for Dish DVRs (as opposed to other WD EHDs).

I am currently experiencing a problem in transferring files to a WD 750GB My Book (Home Edition). Reading files on the WD presents no discernible problem. It had been performing well up to about two or three weeks ago. I have been in contact with both Dish and WD (Dish saying that they "think" they'll be able to fix via software update --- but nothing so far).

Interestingly, the WD technician in one comment said: As explained previously the My Book Home hard drive is only supported by Western Digital when connected to a computer.

I purchased this particular WD drive after reading the favorable reviews on Amazon from those using it with Dish DVRs!

Keith

nKeith said:

Does there exist a listing of EHDs that Dish supports as being compatible with ViP622?

Is there a listing of those devices deemed to be incompatible?

Keith

Click to expand...

As noted, Dish does not support any EHD. Nor is there a list of "incompatible" hard drives that I know of. There is a thread here, External Hard Drives That Work , which was kept current by one of our members for a long time, but the last update to his list was at the end of May. It's still a valid list and alot of brands that work.

I have three WD drives (750GB). The 500GB Western Digital My DVR Expander works fine, but neither Dish nor WD are able to support it more than the Western Digital 500 GB My Book Essential 2.0 which is basically the same drive and is available at Amazon today for $92.99 and may even be offered elsewhere for less money. Don't get the WD Passport or My Book Premium.

Finally, there are some ViP622's that had problems with the EHD. You probably will not have any problem, but won't know until you try.

Hi phrelin,

Thanks for the encouragement. I see that my current EHD is among the "good ones": WD My Book Home Edition (USB, Firewire, eSATA) 750G.

So... I hope that Dish will soon be able to figure out what is wrong with my configuration. I suspect it has something to do with the rash of recent software updates (currently at L614RBDD-N).

Keith