Wahat happens to external drive dat if I drop Dish?

[mrschwarz]

It's also the content providers don't want the digital recordings in the wild.

They are encrypted on the EHD.

Well, I guess that ship has sailed!

[Mark A Sparks]

I have read in some other post where someone used something called FSCK / Linux / Ubuntu? to recover data on their EHD.

I don't know what any of those mean, could someone elaborate please?

[RickDee]

I have read in some other post where someone used something called FSCK / Linux / Ubuntu? to recover data on their EHD.

I don't know what any of those mean, could someone elaborate please?

Yes, you can use Linux to "recover" the EHD data, but you still need an active DVR to view. Remember, the data on the EHD is ENCRYPTED and there is no known crack.

[Stargazer]

You would need an active DVR ---> that has EHD enbabled <--- correct?

[dlsnyder]

What I am planning to do should the day come is to make SD copies of the programs on my EHD to my computer. The picture quality will suffer, but at least I will have the content saved until I can build it up again on whatever new platform I choose. I had a similar problem when my first EHD crashed last year. I lost a lot of programs that I would really like to have kept. Other than episodes of TV series that had been cancelled, it took less than 6 months to build up all the lost programs and movies again. With all the repeats on the movie channels it really isn't too big of an issue. Most of the TV programs I watch are also on Hulu now, including episodes from the cancelled series that I had been saving. I rarely even watch anything on my EHD these days.

edit: By making an SD copy on my computer, I mean using a video capture card and recording it real time. Kind of low tech, but legal (I think) and reasonably effective.

[brad1138]

I have read in some other post where someone used something called FSCK / Linux / Ubuntu? to recover data on their EHD.

I don't know what any of those mean, could someone elaborate please?

Linux is an operating system, Ubuntu is a version/brand of that OS (a very good one btw- I am using it now) and FSCK is a File System CHeck program for said Linux/Ubuntu.

[jerryez]

You can always hook the hard drive up to your computer and reformat (erase all movies) it and use
it with the computer.

[dlsnyder]

True, and some other cable/satellite boxes will also let you use an external hard drive. Most of them require ESATA now I think - Tivo is one example if I remember correctly.