NOOB question on EHD swapping

[John K.]

With the loss of SD channels I'm sure my wife will be filling up the external hard disks on her 2 VIP receivers. My question, is there a procedure to take a "full" disk off and put on a new disk. I know about formatting the new disk but then am I able unplug the new disk at some time and re-connect the "full" disk to extract or play programs from it? I guess I'm asking if I can make a "library" of 2 TB EHDs as she fills them up?

respectfully,
John

 

[tjboston5676]

Should be fine to just disconnect and connect whatever ones you need. I've also heard of people getting powered usb hubs and connecting 3-6 hdd at once.

 

[KAB]

I been running two without a powered hub for years.

 

[bookworm370]

Yup, just disconnect the one you have and connect the other. The only thing you lose is the feature that if you are looking to record a program, you can't see if it's already been recorded on the other EHD as it's not connected. Saves me a lot of duplicate recordings as it tells me that it was already recorded on this date. I can also see if it was recorded on a channel with commercials and if it's now on Showtime or TCM, I can re-record it and then just delete the old one on the EHD.

And as to your 2nd question, as long as you don't go over 7TB of total space there is a procedure to copy over to a larger EHD or even copy some programs to spread them out over 2 or 3. But, if you are not a Linux person, I give advice for food! LOL

 

[bookworm370]

Should be fine to just disconnect and connect whatever ones you need. I've also heard of people getting powered usb hubs and connecting 3-6 hdd at once.

Powered hubs are only good for the mini-EHD's that don't have self power and need USB power. If the EHD has it's own power then they don't do a thing. Also to connect 6 of them, they better each be 1TB or lower!

 

[ppappas]

Powered hubs are only good for the mini-EHD's that don't have self power and need USB power. If the EHD has it's own power then they don't do a thing. Also to connect 6 of them, they better each be 1TB or lower!

With VIP receivers, I thought there is a 2TB limit. I'm still using a VIP 722K and I didn't think you could connect more than one HDD at a time. I have two 2TB external HDDs that I swap as needed and haven't had any problems.

 

[bookworm370]

With VIP receivers, I thought there is a 2TB limit. I'm still using a VIP 722K and I didn't think you could connect more than one HDD at a time. I have two 2TB external HDDs that I swap as needed and haven't had any problems.

Yup, good catch. I missed the VIP part.. tx

 

[John K.]

Ok, more information, 2 receivers 1 VIP722K and 1 VIP612.

So as I understand it only 1 EHD per receiver and 2TB or smaller.
Would the "extra" EHDs have to be kept with the receiver that it started on or could an EHD that was formatted by the VIP612 be connected to the VIP722K at a later time to watch a previously recorded show?

Is there a special order to making the exchange? Like turn off the receiver with the remote, unplug the EHD, plug in the next EHD, and turn on the receiver with the remote. Or do I need to power down further by un-plugging the receiver. Also any cautions about how full the EHD can be to be sure of not losing data or crashing it?
I know this is lots of questions and old equipment but I've lost saved programs before and if mama ain't happy ain't nobody gonna be happy.

 

[TheKrell]

Would the "extra" EHDs have to be kept with the receiver that it started on

Nope. I've done that exact swap.

 

[worstman1]

Yup, just disconnect the one you have and connect the other. The only thing you lose is the feature that if you are looking to record a program, you can't see if it's already been recorded on the other EHD as it's not connected. Saves me a lot of duplicate recordings as it tells me that it was already recorded on this date. I can also see if it was recorded on a channel with commercials and if it's now on Showtime or TCM, I can re-record it and then just delete the old one on the EHD.

And as to your 2nd question, as long as you don't go over 7TB of total space there is a procedure to copy over to a larger EHD or even copy some programs to spread them out over 2 or 3. But, if you are not a Linux person, I give advice for food! LOL

Hey do you know if there's a setting to tell the receiver to check if the program is already on the EHD?
I have a 722k receiver and I know when I first added my EHD it was warning me if already recorded. Now I have to go to the EHD listing and look manually.

 

[Almighty1]

And as to your 2nd question, as long as you don't go over 7TB of total space there is a procedure to copy over to a larger EHD or even copy some programs to spread them out over 2 or 3. But, if you are not a Linux person, I give advice for food! LOL

Where can I actually find instructions for the procedure?