Can I copy the recordings directly off the internal drive?

[Miner]

I believe the internal drive on my HWS is beginning to go south and none of the external drives I have seem to be recognized (even completely blank, unpartioned) with the current CUI.
Before the drive goes completely dead, can I remove the drive, mount it on my Linux box and copy the recordings to a temporary and/or replacement drive?

 

[navychop]

People have reported success in doing that. But I believe it will cause problems with Dish when they see the HDD was removed.

 

[Hall]

With the proper cables, you may be able to do that without physically removing the drive. It has a security tape label that navychop is referring to. Even if you're successful copying them, I'm not sure if copying just the program 'files' is sufficient. So few people have reported doing this with success, it seems that it's not as simple as copying files. You may have better success if you clone the drive or at least the 'user' partition to get the necessary files.

 

[navychop]

Yes, an ext3 Linux clone. I am not up to date so I can't guide that process further. But maybe searching SatGuys could turn up directions.

OR, come to think of it, using cable extensions and a RAID 1 box, and a second HDD, hook them together so that the h/w RAID box "thinks" it needs to clone the "good" drive. Takes hours. But it might work. But then you'd have an internal drive, not suitable for use as an EHD with that content.

Might be time for Hauppauge.

 

[Hall]

When the backup drive is connected to the DVR, if it's not in a specific format, the DVR will ignore whatever is on it and offer to format it. Maybe if it's in ext3 format with an expected partition, it will think it's a normal, backup hard drive with recordings.

 

[Tron2012]

Miner
I messed with this not too long ago. Had a 211 receiver but not a DVR. I had a connected EHD so it was a pseudo-DVR. Drive started failing so I messed about with trying to not lose recordings. I had some limited success but the failing drive was dying so fast it would take an hour to copy a file so I eventually gave up.

Keep in mind, my situation was a LOT easier as they were all external drives and was not voiding any warranty by popping open a DVR and messing about. Think in principal that an internal drive is not any different in the formatting and being recognized by the Hopper, but... If you know what you are doing, good luck!

Here is a post with some pics.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/ehd-issues-comments.352899/#post-3725382

and another more as commentary for another person:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/ehd-options-for-hws.347706/#post-3631926

FYI, if I remember correctly, each recording will have its own folder (but with an internal reference ID, not anything human understandable to see what it includes). In it you might be able to see what the show is because of the png image files for icons. Basically there should be some image files, the recording file and some supporting files for the description and such. If you're doing a drive image or copy then as long as it is formatted properly then hoping it should work.

Keep us posted on the outcome.

 

[Miner]

I was out of pocket for a few days and now back to work. I'll get to it hopefully by the weekend. I own both my HWS boxes. At this point If I can get the recordings off I'll be happy and may get a joey to replace one hopper.

 

[Miner]

Well, rather than open up my HWS and extract the HDD and image it, I was able to use the Ethernet based cope function and got most, if not all recordings onto my newer HWS.
The problem with my questionable HWS is that after about 3-4 days, it reports the drive 100% full and unplugging and restarting the box fixes the problem.
This makes me suspect the drive. Can I reformat the drive w/in the dish UI?
I have a Seagate 500gb drive, any shot it would work in lieu of the 2tb? I don't need the size, just some recording capability. This is of course with my owned equipment.