Swapping External Harddrives

[sjf]

My external harddrive (attached to a VIP-622) is nearly full. The question I have is: Is it possible to swap between external harddrives without losing the content of either. I would like to remove the full drive, and replace it with an empty one. Then manually swap between the drives as needed. Is this possible? I don't want to experiment and possibly lose 500GB of programming.

THanks
sjf

 

[dfergie]

I do it all the time, pull the power and USB connector and switch them out, you will of course have to let the receiver format the new drive...

 

[rccase]

I am running 3 drives at present time.

 

[bebop]

I am running 3 drives at present time.

1 at a time, right?

 

[sjf]

Great!
Is it really necessary to pull power to the receiver? It's installed in a rack and that would be problematic. (Access to the drive is no problem.) I do have access to the receivers front panel, of course.

Thanks again,
sjf

 

[allargon]

Great!
Is it really necessary to pull power to the receiver? It's installed in a rack and that would be problematic. (Access to the drive is no problem.) I do have access to the receivers front panel, of course.

Thanks again,
sjf

No. You simply need to disconnect the USB cable from the receiver. You don't have to unplug either drive, etc. You just need to remember that you may only connect one external hard drive to your receiver/DVR at a time.

 

[Pepper]

Here's what I use, get one of these and swap them out with the touch of a button.
Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - External Enclosures

 

[nuttz565]

Here's what I use, get one of these and swap them out with the touch of a button.
Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - External Enclosures

Second this. I currently have 3 different 750 gb hard drives full of movies and I just switch them out as needed, the docking station is awsome.

 

[allargon]

Here's what I use, get one of these and swap them out with the touch of a button.
Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - External Enclosures

Cool, but quite hardcore. You save money on the external premium, too. I guess you can just pop-in 1.5 TB drives (750's are no longer the sweet spot) as needed. Man, that's a lot of TV!

 

[Stargazer]

Is there any switch that allows you to keep them all connected and just switch to the different hard drive to watch content / send content to it so that they dont have to be unhooked / reconnected all the time?

 

[KKlare]

You might find a power strip with individual on/off switches and use a n-way USB combiner/splitter connecter to all. Or, just power all drives and plug in the right USB plugs. I'm doing the latter because I'm feeding 2 722's. One feels a little like a telephone operator of old. But with the modern touch of a computer to organize the shows. Right now I'm rearranging the collection of 2 1TB and 5 750GB drives with both DVRs active, just not getting much sleep and wishing the copying was faster.
-Ken

 

[sjf]

Does this mean you are moving drives BETWEEN 722's? It was my understanding from a forum entry somewhere that there was a limit in the number of times you could move a drive from one DVR to another.

 

[JimK2]

You might find a power strip with individual on/off switches and use a n-way USB combiner/splitter connecter to all. Or, just power all drives and plug in the right USB plugs. I'm doing the latter because I'm feeding 2 722's. One feels a little like a telephone operator of old. But with the modern touch of a computer to organize the shows. Right now I'm rearranging the collection of 2 1TB and 5 750GB drives with both DVRs active, just not getting much sleep and wishing the copying was faster.
-Ken

Use X10 power control appliance module's and usb hub and choose which external drive you want to power up remotely.

 

[JimK2]

Does this mean you are moving drives BETWEEN 722's? It was my understanding from a forum entry somewhere that there was a limit in the number of times you could move a drive from one DVR to another.

I think thats about moving recorded programs back and forth between internal and external drive and that has a limit of 3 times, or something like that.

 

[sjf]

As I recall, the poster was replacing his DVR, and moving the external drive from the old DVR to the new one. When he did so, the new DVR said something about "converting" the drive. Somebody said this could only be done 3 times -- presumably to prevent people from sharing programming by trading drives.

I am not aware of any limits regarding moving programs back and forth from internal to external drives.

 

[KAB]

There are no move limits of any kind any more.

 

[klegg]

Here's what I use, get one of these and swap them out with the touch of a button.
Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - External Enclosures

I have one of these too. I WILL say, NewEgg has the USB/eSATA version on sale right now ($33 after $10 rebate). Even though the ViP series DVRs don't have eSATA, you might as well get the better "dock" for less money. You might use it for something else later.

Here it is:Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5” & 3.5” USB 2.0 & eSATA - External Enclosures

 

[pabeader]

i have heard from a reliable source that is might be possible to daisy chain multiple drives...

 

[Stargazer]

If you daisy chain multiple drives you would still only have 750 gb total wouldnt you?

 

[Smith P.]

i have heard from a reliable source that is might be possible to daisy chain multiple drives...

Citation required !

There is no such thing as USB "daisy chain multiple drives", you could tell that perhaps for FireWire type but not USB.