Prevent Accidental Erase of All shows

[DishSubLA]

The following is from a post I made to a slightly different topic, but I thought it important enough to give it its own thread as an unambiguous warning/solution available right at the top without having to wade through many other posts:

OK, I'm not saying Scott did this, but I learned by being paranoid and wondering if there was a difference as to "how" I went about this. One can easily make the following mistake and get Scott's result:

If you select Edit first, then scroll "into" the folder, then hit "Select All," every single recording on our DVR is now tagged for whatever operation you do next, as in if you select "Delete," then all you shows will be deleted. If you have only a few shows in the folder, you will see shows outside your folder tagged, but if you have like 40 episodes in the folder, then you will only see your folder contents displayed on screen and would have to scroll down to see that all recording on the HDD are tagged.

HOWEVER, if you first enter the group, THEN select "Edit," then only the items within that folder will be affected to your options, as is in if you select "Delete", then all of the recordings in that folder will be deleted. I have confirmed this several times.

It is an easy error to commit, and you may not even be aware that you have made it, swearing you didn't hit Edit first. While this is not technically a bug, as it appears to function as designed, it certainly is a design flaw as many people (myself included, except I double-checked before I deleted) will intuitively select "Edit" BEFORE truly moving into the folder. I think one solution should be an "All in Folder" button and an "all DVR events on HDD" botton

Now, this is a good example of why Dish needs an UNerase feature such as TiVo has, and this should answer the question of one member who posted a rather condescending post in a thread a few months ago asking what use there would be for an UNerase feature since the Dish DVR's have a pop-up warning to those of us who we would love to have an UNerase feature in Dish DVR's. Of course, TiVO would probably sue over that, too.

 

[whatchel1]

Not the only co?

So is Tivo the only co that ever had an unerase feature. I doubt it seriously. It could be a restore as in Win PC. Restore to yesterday maybe would work?

 

[Tony S]

As I posted in another thread, when I first got my 722 I accidently erased my entire drive using the Select All function (because I thought that it was only selecting items in 1 folder).

Since then I have never used the Select All function because I have been afraid that I will accidently erase the entire drive again. When I want to do a multiple delete, I take the time to check off each item individually before selecting Delete. Even now, after I have read the first post, I will still probably never use Select All.

Once you have erased your entire hard drive you get very apprehensive (gun shy) about letting it happen again. Also, with the number of software bugs that keep cropping up, I am skeptical that Select All will always function as described in the first post.

 

[DishSubLA]

I understand the fear and believe that each person should be free to erase recordings as they chose, and I am not saying that there isn't a bug or that, even if done correctly, there may be some DVR's that may still erase all recordings. So, I support each person doing it they way they fell comfortable. The problem, and my point, is that it is so easy and intuitive to make the "mistake" and think that it is a bug and even think that we did everything as we are supposed to, but, in fact, fell victim to a design flaw.

I wanted to share my experience because I was shocked at how easy it was to erase all my recordings when I believed that I was only going to delete recordings in one group/file, and that, in fact, may be what has happened to some people, not a bug, but a really bad design flaw. Try both methods as described in the OP, that is mark recordings--BUT DON'T PRESS DELETE. You can see how terrifyingly easy it is to do it "the wrong way."

Now, if someone can confirm, absolutely, that all recordings are being erased after having FIRST gone into the folder, THEN selecting Edit, then we will have confirmed a bug.

However, selecting EDIT first, then "Select All"--remember, if there are a lot of recordings in that folder, you won't see that recordings outside that folder have also been tagged unless you scroll down to see them--will tag ALL the recordings on the DVR. It is functioning as it was designed, not a bug. However, it is still poor design and should somehow be changed so that people don't do what is intuitive and end up erasing all recordings on the DVR when they only wanted all recordings in certain files/groups.

 

[DishSubLA]

So is Tivo the only co that ever had an unerase feature. I doubt it seriously. It could be a restore as in Win PC. Restore to yesterday maybe would work?

The precise word for TiVo's "unerase" feature is "Recover Deleted Program." It functions the same as the Recycle Bin on PC's. The "Deleted"--TiVo uses the word "Delete" when one wants to delete or erase a program--program really isn't deleted or erased; that portion of the HDD is tagged as open for future recordings. The program can be "Restored" so long as that portion of the HDD hasn't been overwritten with a new recording. This feature has come to my aid at least a few times, and I LOVE it.

No, it is not a "Restore" feature as in PC's. That feature essentially makes a back-up of the system files, then allows a restore of the system to a previous state, but the data files are completely different matter. So, no, it is not a re-boot feature to "Restore" to a previous firmware, etc.

I am unaware of any other DVR having a "Restore" the deleted program feature. That doesn't mean that other DVR's don't have it. I'm not sure about Moxi; they may have it, but I would have to research that, but TiVo is certainly, at least, one of the few, if not, the only one with such a feature. Perhaps others can answer that question.

Sorry for my imprecision of terms, but I think everybody else got the idea. Even our vaunted Scott--along with many others--makes his share of "not perfect" posts, so I think I am in good company. One is welcome to ask a direct question for a clarification without having to demonstrate one's level of knowledge, or, lack of it.

 

[aquaman67]

Maybe this should be a sticky?