Dish recommends an external drive with a separate power supply, but many have reported using a USB powered drive without problems. The maximum size the VIP211 receiver supports is 1TB, but a larger drive may work although the formatting process may still limit it to 1TB.
Agree on this post. I tried a USB powered 500GB external drive. Found it did not work and apparently when the satellite receiver reads the electronic serial number. Then if the drive is not compatable that drive doesn't work on anything (I saw this point was mentioned on this forum a coupe months ago after I tried using the USB drive and unless I'm doing something else wrong it appears to be factual).