External hard Drive for Dish VIP 211K

I just used a Western Digital "My Passport" 1TB drive from Walmart. It is powered through the USB cable.

One of these and one of these. The little enclosure comes with a USB cable. After you install the hard drive in the enclosure plug it into your computer and format the drive. Then use the USB on your receiver. It will power the drive. really easy

X2. Mine is powered through the USB cable, works great! Chino

I used a standard small hard drive in a USB case (laptop size hard drive) commonly used or sold as a backup drive. Laptop drive with USB out to the 211k or z works fine without external power. The 211 has enough to power a small drive like that via the USB. I had the same concern... don't
I paid 55 bucks on amazon for a 1tb drive tons of space works flawless. Forget about external power

I bought this (2Tb) in 2015 for a VIP211K. It did have the external power adaptor.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFRWXV0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used an external case and a hard drive from an old laptop. You can get a "Y" USB cable that divides the data from the power and I plugged the power side into a USB charger that plugs into a 110 outlet.

You could use most any hard drive with the $5 Y cable.

I got a one with external power at best Buy but before I was using one without power and it was working.

I went to the local Best Buy and found the one I use. I don't remember the make or model but Best Buy had a couple of externally powered external hard drives.

A conventional HD can be put into a powered housing, I have two of these and there may be o more advanced ones of these.
external HD case