[cvarner]

I currently have a 2 TB eSATA drive connected to a HR20-700. Can I move it to the eSATA port on a HR22-100 and have access to all of the content that was recorded via the HR20? TIA.

 

[spartanstew]

You can move it, but you won't be able to play any of the recordings on it.

 

[dettxw]

In other words, no.
The eSATA (and internal drive for that matter) are associated with a DVR.
Associating drives with accounts rather than DVRs (so that they could be moved around) has long been a wishlist item.

 

[cvarner]

I appreciate it.

 

[P Smith]

Not exactly "associated", actually does not "married" or "associated" per se,

but video/audio is encrypted by unique key for each DVR (opposite for dish, where the EHD "married" to an account and you could move it between similar devices like 622/722/722k/922/813 or 211/411/211k); other files, logs, DB files, etc are the same.

 

[CCarncross]

I appreciate it.

One bonus....since you have an HR20, and if any of the recordings were OTA recordings, they are playable if you move the drive to another dvr...OTA recordings are not encrypted.

 

[SomeRandomIdiot]

If you move it, it will immediately delete every program on the hard drive - clearing out the space - seeing it as a new drive with 100% available space.

 

[jagrim]

If you move it, it will immediately delete every program on the hard drive - clearing out the space - seeing it as a new drive with 100% available space.

The few times that I have moved external boxes between DVR's, I have had to manually delete the recordings.

 

[RunnerFL]

If you move it, it will immediately delete every program on the hard drive - clearing out the space - seeing it as a new drive with 100% available space.

That's never happened to me. As long as the drive is formatted, which it would be if you're only moving it from box A to box B, then the recordings and setup will remain. You would have to delete all the recordings yourself. I've always just done a "reset everything" when moving an eSATA drive to another unit.

 

[CCarncross]

If you move it, it will immediately delete every program on the hard drive - clearing out the space - seeing it as a new drive with 100% available space.

That is not true at all in my experience. I have moved drives between dvrs many, many times and all recordings are intact, even once in the last year. OTA recordings are actually playable, all sat recordings give a message that all or part of the recording is unplayable or something like that and goes to keep or delete IIRC. One nice thing is if you have an extensive Series Manager listing it is still there.

 

[SomeRandomIdiot]

It's happened twice to me between HR20's. Did the same thing on a HR34 10 days ago just to see what would happen.

Your results may vary.

 

[Steveknj]

That is not true at all in my experience. I have moved drives between dvrs many, many times and all recordings are intact, even once in the last year. OTA recordings are actually playable, all sat recordings give a message that all or part of the recording is unplayable or something like that and goes to keep or delete IIRC. One nice thing is if you have an extensive Series Manager listing it is still there.

Wow, the second part of this thread completely contradicts the first part and now I'm confused

So you are saying that you CAN move an external HD from one DVR to the other and it will pick up what's on the HD? That's completely different from what I've been lead to believe for a long time. I have a DVR (I think it's an HR21) that I think has a bad ethernet port (I cannot seem to connect to other DVRs and when I download from OnDemand I get frequent errors). I've been hesitant to call them to have the DVR swapped out since I have a LOT of content to watch, but if I can just swap the HD, then I can replace the problematic DVR.

 

[RunnerFL]

Wow, the second part of this thread completely contradicts the first part and now I'm confused

So you are saying that you CAN move an external HD from one DVR to the other and it will pick up what's on the HD? That's completely different from what I've been lead to believe for a long time. I have a DVR (I think it's an HR21) that I think has a bad ethernet port (I cannot seem to connect to other DVRs and when I download from OnDemand I get frequent errors). I've been hesitant to call them to have the DVR swapped out since I have a LOT of content to watch, but if I can just swap the HD, then I can replace the problematic DVR.

You can move the drive and it will see the content however you will not be able to play the content recorded via SAT. That content is encrypted and only playable on the DVR that was used to record it. OTA content is still playable however because apparently it's not tied to the DVR that recorded it.

In your case if you swap the drive from your HR21 to a replacement the only recordings playable would be OTA recordings, if you have any.

 

[Steveknj]

You can move the drive and it will see the content however you will not be able to play the content recorded via SAT. That content is encrypted and only playable on the DVR that was used to record it. OTA content is still playable however because apparently it's not tied to the DVR that recorded it.

In your case if you swap the drive from your HR21 to a replacement the only recordings playable would be OTA recordings, if you have any.

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. Guess I'm stuck until I catch up on my shows. At that point I might just go for the full Whole Home deal rather than doing it all through Ethernet.

 

[CCarncross]

Wow, the second part of this thread completely contradicts the first part and now I'm confused

So you are saying that you CAN move an external HD from one DVR to the other and it will pick up what's on the HD? That's completely different from what I've been lead to believe for a long time. I have a DVR (I think it's an HR21) that I think has a bad ethernet port (I cannot seem to connect to other DVRs and when I download from OnDemand I get frequent errors). I've been hesitant to call them to have the DVR swapped out since I have a LOT of content to watch, but if I can just swap the HD, then I can replace the problematic DVR.

Looks like RunnerFL just said it better.....

Here's my revised statement:

Everything is there, just not playable unless it was an OTA channel recording... but you still have to go through and delete all the satellite channel recordings. The good news is you dont have to try and re-create your series lists...