Using EHD on new receiver without recording loss?

[razor2006]

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum. I'm kind of in a hurry to get out the door this morning, so I didn't have time to search the forum to see if this may have been already asked. Sorry if I'm being redundant.

I've been a Dish sub for a month shy of 2 years. I currently have a 211k with a Seagate Free Agent Desk 1TB EHD connected with DVR functionality enabled.

Dish is trying to get me to sign a new 2-year contract by offering me a free receiver upgrade. I'd never use the Slingbox features, so I'm not looking at the 922 (they want $200 to get it anyway), so I've been looking into the 722k. I do enjoy my current setup without having to pay DVR fees and such, however it would be real nice to have a receiver with dual tuners so I can watch one program while recording another. I only have one TV anyway, so the multi-room functionality is irrelevant to me.

I had almost decided to upgrade when I started thinking about my EHD, and my hundreds of recordings. After some research and a Dish support chat, I've come to learn that if I connect my EHD to a new receiver, it will force me to format it before I can use it. This is a huge problem for me as I have a ton of recordings that I am not willing to lose.

Is there any way around this? I know the EHD runs Linux format partitions. I have some limited experience with Linux. Would it be possible to hook my EHD up to my Linux box (or take the necessary steps to allow my Windows 7 laptop to read Linux partitions), copy the recordings off of it, hook the EHD up to the new receiver, format it, then hook it back up to my computer, copy the recordings back, and then be happy and on my way?

I'm an IT consultant, and I'm extremely well versed in all facets of computers, so no matter how advanced such a project may be to pull off, I'm confident I can do it; that is of course, if indeed it can be done. If there is no way to accomplish this, no matter what level of trickery is required, I'm going to greatly rethink, and likely not upgrade my receiver. I have a lot of stuff recorded that I'm simply not willing to give up. Thanks in advance!

 

[vash1090]

I have never tried it, but they told me that your external hard drive could be switched between any compatible receiver on your account. If that is the case it should work once the new receiver is active. if not, it will prompt you before reformatting, so you can always decline it then. If you upgrade, go for the 722, even with the $6 DVR fee it will be the only thing better, since the 222 (HD Duo) is not EHD compatible.

 

[KAB]

I have never tried it, but they told me that your external hard drive could be switched between any compatible receiver on your account. If that is the case it should work once the new receiver is active. if not, it will prompt you before reformatting, so you can always decline it then. If you upgrade, go for the 722, even with the $6 DVR fee it will be the only thing better, since the 222 (HD Duo) is not EHD compatible.

The 211 EHD is not compatible with the DVR receivers (622/722/etc.)

 

[razor2006]

The 211 EHD is not compatible with the DVR receivers (622/722/etc.)

That's lame. So what about I mentioned about possibly copying the raw files off of the EHD, then copying them back over after formatting on the 722k? Or are you saying that the file format itself would be completely different, therefore not compatible even if I were to copy it back over?

 

[garys]

Yep. It will not work as you described.

 

[KAB]

That's lame.

Nothing LAME about it. The tech/software between the two is entirely different. 211 is NOT a DVR receiver.

 

[Peter Parker]

well actually it IS lame. But it is also true.

 

[razor2006]

well actually it IS lame. But it is also true.

Absolutely, haha. Okay, well that's pretty disappointing. That's going to make me rethink upgrading my receiver honestly.

Now, here's another question building on what I've found out here. I've read things about people using PVR Explorer to extract recordings and convert them to a viewable format. Does this work with recordings from a 211k? I'm kind of assuming not since this was an old method, but I thought I'd put it out there.

 

[TheKrell]

No, PVRExplorer does not work on the EHD of any Dish receiver, unfortunately.

 

[razor2006]

Dang. Well I guess I'm screwed if I want to keep my recordings. Guess I'll have to decide if gaining dual tuners is worth losing all the stuff I have recorded.

 

[Jim5506]

I have not seen the reference where physically copying the DISHARC sub-folders (each recording has its own Disharc sub-folder) from a 211EHD to a newly formatted 622/722/722k EHD would result in loss of recordings.

I know you can use this method to copy recordings to a larger EHD rather than doing the offload, upload messy stuff.

Has anyone actually tried direct copying from 211 EHD to a 622/722/722k EHD and can confirm it fails?

 

[dwarren2]

Dang. Well I guess I'm screwed if I want to keep my recordings. Guess I'll have to decide if gaining dual tuners is worth losing all the stuff I have recorded.

Get a DVD recorder and spend a lot of time burning the recordings to dvd.

 

[razor2006]

Get a DVD recorder and spend a lot of time burning the recordings to dvd.

Yeah, that's not going to happen, heh.

I have not seen the reference where physically copying the DISHARC sub-folders (each recording has its own Disharc sub-folder) from a 211EHD to a newly formatted 622/722/722k EHD would result in loss of recordings.

I know you can use this method to copy recordings to a larger EHD rather than doing the offload, upload messy stuff.

Has anyone actually tried direct copying from 211 EHD to a 622/722/722k EHD and can confirm it fails?

I like his thought on this. Not that I'm doubting anyone's earlier replies, but I would be curious to know if this is confirmed as not possible.

 

[razor2006]

I connected my EHD to my PC, and fired up Explore2fs to have a look at what I've got on there. It mounted two partitions, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb3.


Under the /dev/sdb1 partition, I see the following files and two empty folders:

AV_mini_wtch_log
MISC_mini_wtch_log
UPDATE_DISHCOM_MODEM1_0026.AAS
catalog.bak
catalog.cat
dailyScheduleLog.dat
daily_schedule_db.dat
eit_81
eit_82
eit_83
eit_84
eit_85
eit_86
eit_87
eit_88
eit_89
eit_8a
eit_8b
eit_8c
eit_8d
eit_8e
eit_8f
eit_90
eit_91
eit_92
eit_93
eit_94
eit_95
eit_96
eit_97
eit_98
eit_99
eit_9a
eit_9b
eit_9c
eit_9d
eit_9e
eit_9f
eit_a0
eit_a1
eit_a2
eit_a3
eit_a4
eit_raw
eit_status
lost+found (FOLDER)
mini_log_file
mm_tmp (FOLDER)
nal_0.cur
nal_1
nal_10
nal_11
nal_12
nal_13
nal_14
nal_15
nal_16
nal_17
nal_18
nal_19
nal_2
nal_20
nal_21
nal_22
nal_23
nal_24
nal_25
nal_26
nal_27
nal_28
nal_29
nal_3
nal_30
nal_31
nal_4
nal_5
nal_6
nal_7
nal_8
nal_9
pvr_cat_log.dat
raw_hd_debug_log
raw_hd_debug_log_old
reboots
search_file_0.bin
string_user0.hit
string_user1.hit
tmp_results_user0.hit
tmp_results_user1.hit

Under the /dev/sdb3 partition, I see the following files and one empty folder:

1.tsd
2.tsd
3.tsd
lost+found (FOLDER)

In addition to the few mentioned above, I also have on the /dev/sdb3 partition all of the below listed files. There are three files with the same name, and three different file extensions. One being .bm, one being .tsp, and one being .wtt. From what I understood the .tsp is the actual mpeg-4 video recording. I could be wrong on that though. I assume that these files are the actual recordings themselves.

es8000 through es8114
es8117
es8134
es8143
es8144
es8145
es8151
es8173
es8174
es8179
es8189
es8196
es8199
es8210
es8213
es8215
es8216
es8217
es8218
es8221
es8222
es8225
es8226
es8228
es8229
es8231
es8232
es8233

I don't know if this would be of any help, but maybe someone that has knowledge of the files one would find on the 722k formatted EHDs could compare what I've got here to what would be there.

 

[razor2006]

Anyone have any insight on this?

 

[castle rock kid]

I have a 211 with a ehd and if I were you I would take it off line and just use it to view my recordings. Then get a 722k add ehd and your back in business.

 

[razor2006]

That could be an option, however I don't have another EHD to hook up to it, I don't have $100 to buy another one right now, and I'm not sure, but I think Dish might want me to send my 211k back in if I upgrade to a 722k. I guess I'll have to just live with a single tuner, or make the sacrifice and lose what I have recorded thus far.

 

[dwarren2]

Any possibility of keeping the 211 and hooking it up to a 2nd TV and put the 722 on your main TV?

 

[razor2006]

I only own one TV, haha.

 

[dwarren2]

You could support the economy and get a 2nd one for the bedroom!