Material Archived to external drive disappears

[ActionClaw]

The Machines:
DVR 722K
External HD: Western Digital 1TB My Book

The problem:
In a nutshell: Archiving results in the material being removed from the DVR but not loaded onto the external drive.

Selections are made to archive material (send from DVR drive to the external device)
The procedure appears the same as usual; the process takes the same amount of time, the status displays the same ("Sending selected recordings to your DVR archive..."), same alert received once completed ("Selected recordings successfully sent..."), all appears as normal. However, (the last few weeks,) when finished, one finds that the material has been removed from the DVR but it has not been transferred onto the external drive.

I am not new to this. Despite a few occasional-- and chronic-- unrelated problems with the DVR this particular procedure almost always executed without problem (nothing a quick disconnect/ reconnect of the usb didn't remedy) and we've been successfully using it for the last year or two. This problem just began a week or so ago.

I've tried..
..resetting/restarting both devices multiple times
..restarting with one device on first and then the other.
..sending to and restoring from and getting inconsistent results. I see no pattern
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it does, sometimes the archived program can be restored, sometimes they then disappear while being restored to the DVR.
There never seems to be a problem playing from the drive
There is still plenty of available space remaining on the drive
I have made no recent changes of any type to either device

Again, this has worked fine for quite some time. This failure to appear on the external drive just started recently.

I'd like to determine wherein lies the problem:

• the DVR itself
• the external hard drive
• recent software updates to DVR
• possibly software changes that altered compatibility with my particular hard drive
• possibly software changes that somehow affected copy protection

On my own, the only testing I could do would require purchasing another external drive
I cannot test with someone else's DVR. A replacement DVR would mean losing all the content.

If this is in some way associated with recent software upgrades, surely others would also be affected. Have any of you encountered anything similar?
If so, what did you determine the problem was?

Any other thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

Thanks

 

[tallfence]

How many recordings do you have on the EHD? I think there is a limit to how many will be displayed even though there are more actually recorded.

 

[TheKrell]

How many recordings do you have on the EHD? I think there is a limit to how many will be displayed even though there are more actually recorded.

Yup; IIRC it's a ridiculously low limit of 999. I'll bet you hit the nail on the head and ActionClaw's EHD actually contains those extra, moved programs. He simply can't see them until he deletes some of them first.

 

[Tampa8]

That is the most likely answer! If you were to delete some content it is entirely possible the ones you think did not get transferred, did.

 

[dare2be]

Yep, I only use 500GB drives for that precise reason. Hard to get more than 1000 recordings on a smaller drive.

 

[ActionClaw]

As I deleted some programs, recently archived material began to appear. Apparently you guys hit it right on the head, as usual! ... which is why I posted here first before wasting a minute of my time seeking help from DISH's "technical support department"!

Thank you!

However, doesn't this seem like poor design/programming? Not so much for utilizing only 3 digits, that I understand. After all, who is ever going to have a need to store over 1000 television programs!?

It seems toggling the SORT order should have some influence: ie so that some may not appear alphabetically but SORTing by date would display the newest 999 archived. It isn't a matter of the new title info not being transferred or it wouldn't become available later.

So, you helped me solve one but have brought to my attention (what I consider to be) a much larger problem: one I'd be embarrassed to admit to most other places. I have more than 1000 shows waiting to be watched!

Also, this doesn't account for why some things disappeared upon restoring to DVR? (No, the DVR drive is not maxed out) I'll have to look into this further.

Thanks again,

 

[ActionClaw]

Yep, I only use 500GB drives for that precise reason...

A little off topic but this got me thinking.

Once you set up an external drive it's apparently "married" to one particular DVR (or more specifically, I guess, one DVR user's account).
Is there any problem using several external drives --one at a time, of course-- with one particular DVR?

 

[thomasjk]

It's married to the account. The Hopper can support 2 hard drives at a time.

 

[dare2be]

And you can connect and disconnect individual drives at will. All the content will be there and accessible.

 

[Tampa8]

As many drives as you want. (When separately connected) I have two but our friend has several each set aside for different things - one for movies, one for TV series, one for sports etc Even one just for all the different House Hunters.

 

[raysmith]

With a limit of 999 recordings per EHD, is there an easy way to determine how many you already have on an EHD, short of counting them all? I suppose I could them all into one big folder, but I thought there might be a simpler way I'm just note seeing.

 

[ActionClaw]

..I only use 500GB drives for that precise reason. Hard to get more than 1000 recordings on a smaller drive.

It seems this may be the way to go.
Granted, the primary reason I've consumed so many of the alotted titles is due to 30 min programs (as opposed to lengthier movies). Still, the more I think about it, it seems it may not even be possible to take full advantage of a 2 TB!
...or am I missing something?

 

[KAB]

It seems this may be the way to go.
Granted, the primary reason I've consumed so many of the alotted titles is due to 30 min programs (as opposed to lengthier movies). Still, the more I think about it, it seems it may not even be possible to take full advantage of a 2 TB!
...or am I missing something?

Record more movies.

 

[JTBenson]

With a limit of 999 recordings per EHD, is there an easy way to determine how many you already have on an EHD, short of counting them all? I suppose I could them all into one big folder, but I thought there might be a simpler way I'm just note seeing.

I keep a list of all of mine in a database. However, I only save movies on my hard drives. I have a 2TB one full with exactly 600 movies that I haven't watched yet. I have a second 2TB one that I just got that I have 33 movies on now. I have a 500GB one with movies I have watched, but want to keep. (I don't keep track of those in my database.)

I also keep track of movies I have in my Netflix List, Amazon Prime List, DVDs I haven't watched and movies downloaded on my computer. In total I have 730 movies between all sources that are in my "queues" to watch.

You might say I am a movie geek.

 

[dare2be]

I'm just the opposite. I collect classic and hard-to-find TV shows. The ones I can't get on DVD or Blu-ray or have missing seasons available I back-fill using my Dish DVR. Keeping up with seasons and episode #s makes it even more tedious than cataloging movies.