Thanks for the replies, i found that some of the other models on the list are a better option and are very cheap even with a one-year warranty, for example the 500gb is only $28.00(with a 1-year warrant) and it is on the approved list.
The models with -57 are now extremely rare and are too expensive so I will stay clear of them in the future, however, dish just offered me a 1:1 replacement at no cost regardless that i own this receiver so I will be required to return this one to them when the replacement arrives. I'm glad i was able to save my recordings(49) after the first time seeing the hard disk failure notification, but i was not so lucky five years ago when the previous drive completely just died, this is actually a replacement drive that i purchased at the time for around $30.00. Also just found out that the vip612 does not have the capability like the 211 to save scheduled timers directly to an external drive(bummer), I will have to save them to the external after just a few recordings and keep a log of them, seeing as to these DVR hard drives are prone to failure every so often.