For a one-time fee of $39, Dish will activate the external HDD feature on all the ViP boxes on your account. This feature allow you to connect an external HDD (with its own external power supply) the USB on your box. You may then transfer, at high speed just about any of the recording on your DVR. While the feature is designed as an archival solution, you can playback from the external HDD on that very same on any other ViP box on your account. You can also put the recording back on the intern HDD of that very same or other ViP box on your account. There is no limit to the number of external HDD's you may archive programs to, however, for now, only one HDD at a time can be seen by the ViP's.
The external HDD you use for the Dish feature will reformat the HDD and make inaccessible any other data that was on it. Also, the HDD used for the Dish feature is designed not to connect to a PC. If you do connect it to a PC, it will be reformatted and "erase" all your recordings. So, the HDD must be used for your Dish archival feature only.
There are several HDD's that can be used, just as long as it is a major brand of HDD. I have found the Western Digital 1TB My Book Home Edition to be a very aesthetic and reliable HDD. Right now, only single drive HDD's are compatible with Dish. In other words, HDD's that have 2 separate 500 GB drives in one casing to achieve a 1TB capacity. You will get lots of suggestions for many other HDD's that work well with Dish.
