Backing up your recordings

[DefDude]

if you had one freeagent then you would be able to make copies and transfer to any size EHD
1. record programs or send from your present EHD to your 722/622
2. transfer to a seagate freeagent
3. send copies back to 722/622 after seagate is asleep:sleeo
4. send copy from 722/622 to any size or brand EHD
I guess in your situation you would want to have a seagate as an temporary place to put your stuff depending on what size you have. you would always be able to make copies from your archive by transferring back to 722/622 and then to the seagate and do the whole thing again. just think of the seagate as a copy machine and not a final storage place if you have a lot of stuff.
I am going to make a video of this today and post it later so you can see this in action.

 

[mikejstb]

if you had one freeagent then you would be able to make copies and transfer to any size EHD
1. record programs or send from your present EHD to your 722/622
2. transfer to a seagate freeagent
3. send copies back to 722/622 after seagate is asleep:sleeo
4. send copy from 722/622 to any size or brand EHD
I guess in your situation you would want to have a seagate as an temporary place to put your stuff depending on what size you have. you would always be able to make copies from your archive by transferring back to 722/622 and then to the seagate and do the whole thing again. just think of the seagate as a copy machine and not a final storage place if you have a lot of stuff.
I am going to make a video of this today and post it later so you can see this in action.

Oh - OK, I think I understand what you are doing now.

For me that wouldn't work too well. I have around 300 shows recorded that I want backed up. Doing that one at a time would be too cumbersome. But I can see for doing a few shows that would be a good way to do it without all the complications of putting the drives on another computer, etc.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Question on copying the files, can you take a EHD from a 211k, and copy the files to an EHD from a 622/722 and end up with watchable recordings? From what I read on here, you cant simply put the 211k drive on the 622/722 (it will reformat it) but as I am contemplating an upgrade to a DVR, I am wondering if I can save any of my recordings that are currently being done on my 211k.

 

[mikejstb]

faster imaging

I took the SATA drives out of the USB enclosures and used TrueImage disk clone to do a block by block copy - it took about 3 hours to complete 1 1T drive to another

 

[DefDude]

Oh - OK, I think I understand what you are doing now.

For me that wouldn't work too well. I have around 300 shows recorded that I want backed up. Doing that one at a time would be too cumbersome. But I can see for doing a few shows that would be a good way to do it without all the complications of putting the drives on another computer, etc.

I have been reluctant to try a lot of events at one time but I had two sets of all of the curb your enthusiasm episodes so I tried to copy all 60 or so at once. It took about 2 hours but it worked and now I have 3 sets of them. So you can you this method to do as many as you can at one time as long as you have the space.By the way I was also recording 2 or 3 shows at the same time along with deleting some others while doing the copying all without any problems, so these 722's are very stable machines. the best part was I did it all with just my remote while sitting in my Lazy-Boy. I did make a video and have it posted to you tube, if anybody wants to see it send me a PM and I will send the link.

 

[harshness]

But my opinion is that drives left powered up and spinning will last longer than drives that are frequently power-cycled as long as they are kept cool and vibration-free.

You are obviously welcome to your opinion, but the manufacturers say that you worry too much. Modern Winchester style hard drives are good for around 200,000 power cycles.

A drive that isn't operating can withstand much wider temperature extremes and can take a much greater physical beating as a drive that is spinning. Heads simply don't crash on a non-operating drive.

 

[BuddyBoy]

You are obviously welcome to your opinion, but the manufacturers say that you worry too much. Modern Winchester style hard drives are good for around 200,000 power cycles.

The heads in a Seagate Barracuda 11 drive are only rated for 50,000 contact start-stops, so that puts a much lower limit on the number of times you want to spin up the drive.

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_11.pdf

A drive that isn't operating can withstand much wider temperature extremes and can take a much greater physical beating as a drive that is spinning. Heads simply don't crash on a non-operating drive.

I have no opinion on this, though I do have a BSEE. At startup, there are current spikes through all of the electrical components, which is why things tend to die when initially powered up, rather than while operating. OTOH, heat ages components prematurely. There is some crossover point where the aging due to power cycles is worse than the aging due to heat and operation, but I have no idea where that point is.

 

[guiri]

Hiya boys.

A good while ago, I plugged in one of my freeagent drives and the damn 722 told me it needed to be formatted although it already had a bunch of stuff on there.

I have managed to download stuff to my archos 605wifi successfully and I even seem to remember windows SEEING those files but of course, not reading them.

I assume there still is no way of downloading, converting and burning the stuff to watch on say, your dvd player?

Now, from what I understand, I have to have linux to be able to back my external 722 drives up? IF I am correct in assuming I could see the files on the archos through my pc, why would I not be able to see what's on the other drives?

So, NOT knowing commands and command line stuff, what would I do to copy the stuff and back up on my computer? Do I have to do a dedicated drive or can I store it as an image or what?

I was hope to use Acronis since I have that and find it very easy to use.

By the way, I have poor experience with seagates 1tb, 1.5tb and wd 1.5's too. Just an fyi.

Thanks

George

 

[KKlare]

There is no point to copying external files to your PC because they are encrypted. Perhaps you could copy them to another drive that has been formatted Dish style to back them up--test first. They will only work on your household drives with the same keys.

Archos files are lower resolution (720x480?) and cannot reconstruct the full resolution movies.

Many cases of a drive not being recognized can be cured by a "hit". This will change the household code (see menu+6+3+counters+pages-down) but somehow does not require changes to the disks. Use this if some disks work or were working and other don't or don't work now.

It is not possible to digitally connect by HDMI to capture the show--HDCP. You could use certain DVD-R recorders to capture RGB (actually PrPbY) analog information. It will only be 480i as far as I know but probably better than S-video. Only a few recorders will do this, most just do RF or composite.

There are boards not mentioned here to do more with the RGB or digital signal or internals. You didn't hear it from me.

I have a Cavalry and a Buffalo drive of 1TB (930MB) with the other 5 WD 750MB (698MB) each. They all work and seem to sleep between uses.

-Ken

 

[guiri]

Thanks

Yeah, I'm not really interested in recording stuff in real time. Kinda defeats the purpose I think. What I want to do is record my stuff as usual and then IF I want to save something, save it but preferably on the puter but I guess not huh?

Whole drive you say? Well, that would work but not what I wanted. I guess I may have to give that a shot one day.

Thanks

George

 

[rthomp03]

Can you do a bit by bit clone with Norton Ghost?

Yes. I use Acronis, but any disk cloning/imaging software will do it just fine. I've done it on both my EHDs.