Is the ANY way to backup the Hopper's hard drive???

[quantum7]

Since all HD's eventually will fail I would like to backup the thing up as to not loose all the movies I currently have recorded, but do not see any way of backing it up. Any help appreciated.

Thanks!

Sean

 

[garys]

Backup? No. But you can transfer the recordings to an EHD and store them and still play them on the Hopper. If you want to view from a Joey, you may need to transfer the recording back to the Hopper.

 

[TheKrell]

As gary implied, an EHD is not a backup since programs you move to it are no longer on the Hopper. You've transferred the problem from one disk to another.

That said, you can back up an EHD with any PC O/S that understands the ext3 file system. Or you could make an identical copy of sectors (which makes the file system irrelevant) to an identical disk. In principle you could do the latter with the internal disk as well, or the former if (as I have read somewhere) your O/S understands the xfs file system.

 

[KAB]

If you want to view from a Joey, you may need to transfer the recording back to the Hopper.

No. Joey can access an EHD just fine.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

Here are the requirements for the EHD, in case you are thinking of getting one.

• When using an external hard drive with a ViP 612, 622, 722, 722k, 922, or Hopper, the drive should be no smaller than 50 GB and no larger than 2 TB.
• When using an external hard drive with a ViP 211, 211k, or DISH 411, the drive should be no smaller than 50 GB and no larger than 1 TB.
• The external hard drive must have its own power supply.
• The external hard drive must support USB 2.0.
• The external hard drive must not use flash memory and should only be a single-hard disk drive.

 

[TheKrell]

• When using an external hard drive with a ViP 211, 211k, or DISH 411, the drive should be no smaller than 50 GB and no larger than 1 TB.
• The external hard drive must have its own power supply.
• The external hard drive must not use flash memory and should only be a single-hard disk drive.

I would like to modulate that answer a tad. I believe the 211 series receiver DVR Conversion disk can nowadays be as large as 2TB. (It was 1TB at introduction of DVR Conversion, but that was relaxed later on.)

It is highly recommended by Dish and by some users on this forum that you use an external power supply. However, unsupported though this may be, it is not actually necessary, and I have a USB3 WD My Passport that proves it. I also have a USB2 My Passport that crashes my VIP receivers every time I plug it in. My conclusion is that you absolutely positively MUST not draw more than a half of an amp out of that USB port.

What's wrong with flash memory? I don't recall seeing this prohibition before. I also have a bus powered SSD (256GB Crucial) that works fine, and others have reported that 64GB USB thumb drives work quite well too. I have also seen reports here that hardware raid arrays, that present themselves to the host as a single spindle, also work quite well.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

What's wrong with flash memory? I don't recall seeing this prohibition before. I also have a bus powered SSD (256GB Crucial) that works fine, and others have reported that 64GB USB thumb drives work quite well too. I have also seen reports here that hardware raid arrays, that present themselves to the host as a single spindle, also work quite well.

We have always stated that the EHD need to a single-hard disk drive. Customers may have drives that are different than this, but we do not support them.

 

[John Kotches]

TheKrell:

We're back to the argument of what works versus what is supported. Zach is doing his job in quoting the company line on requirements...

 

[TheKrell]

You will get no argument from me. It's unsupported. Which raises this question in my mind... What kind of support does Dish provide on our own personal EHDs? (I really don't know; it's an honest question; obviously they won't be replacing one that crumps.)

 

[quantum7]

As gary implied, an EHD is not a backup since programs you move to it are no longer on the Hopper. You've transferred the problem from one disk to another.

That said, you can back up an EHD with any PC O/S that understands the ext3 file system. Or you could make an identical copy of sectors (which makes the file system irrelevant) to an identical disk. In principle you could do the latter with the internal disk as well, or the former if (as I have read somewhere) your O/S understands the xfs file system.

Ya, I figured that may be the only way.....BUT when I plug-in the external HD which holds my transfered Hopper movies my laptop will not even recognize the HD at all since it was formatted by the Hopper. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[John Kotches]

qunatum:

Let me guess, your laptop runs windows, right?

Hopper uses Linux file systems which require 3rd party drivers to read/write.

fs-driver.org is an example of one possibility.

This is another possibility.

The above type of stuff is why OpenSource is so powerful.

 

[DishSubLA]

TheKrell:

We're back to the argument of what works versus what is supported. Zach is doing his job in quoting the company line on requirements...

+1 To Zach: You've done a fine job of answering the OP's question. Anything beyond what Dish officially supports is up to the individual. Any criticism of your post is pointless.

 

[dendavis]

No. Joey can access an EHD just fine.

I was about to post a query on this issue, but will tag on to this. I have an EHD connected to my Hopper, but when I try to call up the EHD icon on the Joey menu, it gives me a message that "This feature is not enabled." So, is there a way to enable it on Joey?

 

[garys]

Dish hasn't added it to the software as of yet. Until they do, there is nothing you can do to enable it.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

I was about to post a query on this issue, but will tag on to this. I have an EHD connected to my Hopper, but when I try to call up the EHD icon on the Joey menu, it gives me a message that "This feature is not enabled." So, is there a way to enable it on Joey?

Can you select your EHD from the drop down in the DVR menu?

 

[KKlare]

The DVR menu, which I think you are referring to, (as you name it) is only accessible if it recognizes the disk, so your answer is somewhat circular. Yes if it is in the menu it has been recognized or will need formatting.
-Ken

 

[ZachS@DISH]

The DVR menu, which I think you are referring to, (as you name it) is only accessible if it recognizes the disk, so your answer is somewhat circular. Yes if it is in the menu it has been recognized or will need formatting.
-Ken

I'm referring to "My Recordings" or the screen you get after pressing the DVR button. I want to know if he sees his EHD in the drop down, red hot key. We have an EHD here and are able to see it from the drop down but we get the "This is not an active feature" message if we select External Hard Drive from the Joey, which I believe is normal but I am double checking on that.

 

[navychop]

I just went to my Joey and accessed EHD 1 on a Hopper. It said words to the effect "Please wait while EHD 1 is being prepared" and then worked just fine. S/W version S292.


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[KAB]

This is starting to get a bit confusing. Going back to dendavis' post, it appears he was attempting to access his EHD recordings from EHD in the Main Menu...which is not how it's done. As Zach has mentioned, you get to them via the drop-down menue in My Recordings.

 

[dendavis]

I'm referring to "My Recordings" or the screen you get after pressing the DVR button. I want to know if he sees his EHD in the drop down, red hot key. We have an EHD here and are able to see it from the drop down but we get the "This is not an active feature" message if we select External Hard Drive from the Joey, which I believe is normal but I am double checking on that.

Okay, I do not get "EHD" in the drop down menu from the DVR button/my recordings on Joey. Also, the EHD button within the Joey's Menu screen is still showing "not available." EHD is working fine on the Hopper.