February 11th, 2013
We’ve gotten a lot of feedback on our post about connecting an external hard drive to your DISH Network receiver. We’ve seen some great questions brought up in the comments and thought it’d be great to share them with everyone.
Do I need to leave my external hard drive powered on all the time when connected to my Dish DVR, or can I power it on only when I want to use it?
It does not need to be powered on at all times; however, it can take a few minutes to load the contents when it is first turned on.
I currently have a 622 receiver with an external hard drive. Would I be able to move the external hard drive to a 922 and not lose my recordings?
As long as both receivers are activated to the same account.
I’ve connected my external hard drive, but my receiver is giving me error message 860: “There is no multimedia device connected to the USB portâ€.
If you’ve had your external hard drive connected before the error message appeared, trying shutting the EHD down, unplugging, then performing a hard reset on your receiver. Once your receiver has powered on again, turn your hard drive back on and once fully on connect to the USB port again. If it’s still not being recognized it’s best to call DISH Tech Support at 800-333-3474 to troubleshoot your receiver.
If you are seeing this error message after the first time you connect your external hard drive, be sure to review the criteria and ensure your external hard drive meets them.
I’ve formatted and installed the software to use my external hard drive with my DISH receiver, but now I’d like to reformat it and use it with my computer.
Plugging the EHD into your computer should prompt for the EHD to be reformatted. If this isn’t happening it’s best to contact your EHD manufacturer for directions on how to format the EHD another way.
The USB port on the back of my 722 is reporting USB failure, and when I plug my external hard drive into the USB port on the front it’s not recognized. What can I do to recover my recordings?
To help with USB failure it’s best to call DISH Tech Support at 800-333-3474 to troubleshoot the issue. If they cannot resolve the USB issues so you can continue to use your external hard drive they will most likely replace your receiver. In that event you will be able to use your EHD with your new receiver. Just be sure not to try to connect the EHD to any other devices, such as your computer, as this will prompt a reformat.
Why does the external hard drive have to have its own power supply?
The EHD must have its own power supply because the USB ports on the DISH Network receivers do not provide power which is necessary for an EHD to read and write.
If you have any more questions about external hard drives and their use with DISH Network receivers, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll answer as soon as possible!
Categories: Equipment & Remotes
July 13th, 2011
Hard drives hold all of our digital information, from family pictures to vital documents, and unfortunately hard drive failure can be caused by many different things and result in data loss or expensive data recovery costs. I learned the hard way to make sure all of my documents were backed up regularly, and in my efforts to protect my digital data I realized most of us overlook the hard drives in our DVRs. It’s easy to do, considering we don’t really look at our receiver as a computer, but your DVR hard drive is likely one of the most used in your house.
There are many benefits to connecting an external hard drive to a DISH Network receiver, such as backing up and protecting your existing recordings, expanding your available hard drive space and transferring recordings from one receiver on your account to another. You can even turn your 211, 211k, or 411 receiver into a DVR by connecting it to an external hard drive and paying a one-time activation fee of $40.
While most major manufacturers’ external hard drives are compatible with DISH Network DVRs, keep in mind the following guidelines when purchasing an external hard drive:
The following external hard drives meet the above criteria:
Once you’ve picked out your compatible external hard drive, simply plug it into an outlet near your DISH Network receiver and then connect it to the USB port on your receiver. Your receiver will prompt you to format the external hard drive, install the software and then your receiver will reset.
Once you receiver turns back on you’re external hard drive will be available to use. Now you can ensure that you’ll never have to worry about losing your DBR recordings. One less hard drive to worry about in your home!
Categories: DISH & TV news