Hard-drive Format Issue

Hi guys, I have a Dish-Tv S8100-ZA desktop box and have connected a 3T self powered hard-drive to record shows. When I try to format the drive, I select yes to format, add required password and then unit states “media format cancelled”. The instructions haven’t stated a maximum hard-drive size, just that they need to be externally power. Any help rectifying this problem and enabling me to use hard-drive would be greatly appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on March 25, 2018 at 2:26

Hi Lance

I would say you have Zero chance of getting a 3Tb to work with your Dish-Tv S8100-ZA these STB's only support Fat32 and 3tb is way off the limitations of Fat32 .

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on March 25, 2018 at 10:45

There's also another problem with USB Powered HDDs as on most STBs they often just don't have enough current capability to power them satisfactorily. It's always advisable to use external power for external USB HDDs unless the box it's plugged in to is definitely known to have sufficient power to run them.

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 25, 2018 at 10:57

The hard-drive is externally power as recommended, however there’s no maximum hard-drive size recommended in the instructions which is why I purchased the current hard-drive.

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on March 25, 2018 at 13:50

OK so power is not a problem but FAT32 only supports up to 2tb basic drives. You'll need to partition the drive to 2tb max. I don't know if the STB will support 2 x 1.5tb partitions on a USB HDD. They all seem to be rather fussy on what's plugged in and will work on USB.

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Permalink Reply by willis on March 25, 2018 at 14:31

See if you can partition it for 2 drives maybe tv recording and computer backup
Or get a 1 tb drive

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 25, 2018 at 14:36

Thanks Biggles, I have to give that ago, I didn’t know FAT32 only supports up to 2tb and would have liked the instructions to say Max. 2tb as I looked for such advice.