Any Way to Backup Hard Drive?

I can understand that you're upset.  I'm not sure the motives you ascribe to the decision making process are accurate, but none of us actually know.  The short of it is the programming on a hard drive is encrypted and cannot be copied.  It can be recorded in SD during real time playback but that isn't very practical.

None of us here are Directv employees just users like you so not much to be gained from a long discussion as to what we wish were true.  As an aside, I personally make sure I don't get too attached to any of the recordings and have a three week rule.  It gets watched in three weeks, or it goes in the trash.  You are correct that the DVR is a time shift device but it was never intended for long term storage.

Thanks for the response and your sympathy. As you point out, we don't truly know the motivations by DirecTV or the designers of the product, so I don't know how you can know that the DVR was not intended as a long-term storage device. In reading the many, many discussions on the subject all over the internet, lots of people are certainly using it that way. I also don't know how you can predict what can or cannot be gained from a long-term discussion on the subject.

The "three-week rule" isn't why I got a DVR, and it was not marketed to me that it only be used to time shift. I just think that people should be warned at the time they sign up.

Because all of the lengthy discussion usually amounts to a bunch of words on the screen and no tangible change.  Folks who get hung up on what they wish were available seem to me to actually contribute to their own misery.  However, if you'd like to carry on feel free.  The DVR is well known as a time shift device.  A storage medium generally has the ability to copy etc. but you can call it whatever you like.  I'll leave it at that.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting

.... and because this is a technical support forum, not a general discussion forum. 

I have a few shows recorded that I would like to keep. One of them is a show in which my husband and I are members of the audience. When I spoke with a DirectTV technician a couple of months ago, he said that the company was working hard to make sure the subscribers will be able to transfer their favorite recordings onto a disc or another device. Seems to me that this should be easy enough to do in this day and age. 

sure, take a look at the DirecTV Nomad.  www.directv.com/nomad  it will let you take your show on your portable devices.  But this is not made a storage o copy device.  the only way you can copy your shows is via DVD recorder or VCR or computer with video capture hardware/software. and this continent is not on HD and it has to be reordered in real time

Forget about NOMAD for storage and backup, the programs are automatically deleted at the end of 30 days.

There is a company that will sell you outrageously overpriced external hard drives and transfer all your recordings for an additional $59. Of course you get to pay $300 for a 1 terabyte drive, or $400 for a 2 terabyte drive. But if you desperately need those programs go ahead and be ripped off.

I did not suggest the Nomad as a storage and back. if you read the quote I responded to in post # 7, I was advising the OP to use the Nomad as a way to transfer their shows to a mobile device!

wyadams/bartman707/mary24,

As eluded to by user peds48_installs, any recordings on a HD DVR can be copied real-time in SD to a DVD Recorder, a VCR or a PC via a video capture device attached to the PC without anything additional on the HD DVR. I copy HD movies from my HR20-700 HD DVR to a DVD Recorder at 480p resolution via S-Video and RCA Stereo connections all the time and am very pleased with the copied movies(not HD but VERY close to the video quality of a store-bought regular DVD). But, by design and the demands of the Hollywood studios, DirecTV does not allow digital bit-level copying of DirecTV DVR content. There is no way around this and you can thank the Hollywood studios and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for that(it is not a DirecTV "choice").

To all interested posters in this thread. Another user claims to have found a way to copy existing content from an eSATA drive connected to a DirecTV HD DVR to another eSATA drive in a manner that would make the new eSATA containing the copied content usable ON THE SAME DVR. If you are interested in doing this and willing to take the chance that it may not "always" work(but did for this user) read the thread in the link below:

http://forums.directv.com/message/10975801#10975801

I have an HR20-700 HD HDV.  There seems to be a problem with the hard drive. Live TV works fine but paused or previously recorded plays back very choppy ... sound cuts out, it plays normal, slows down, plays normal ...

DTV wants to replace the device. Is there anyway at all to offload the recorded shows to my home network and then restore them back when I get the replacement device? They're data files so I'm thinking there has to be a way to move and copy it? I don't have a VCR and the DVD recorder is on my HP laptop but I bet I could borrow one from somebody.  Any suggestions on what to do and the process, would be appreciated.

On a related note, is there a way to preserve my recording settings (the shows we've set up to record)?

Thank you!

Unfortunately, no to both questions.  Recording the shows from your dying DVR to a VCR, DVD Recorder, or PC's video capture hardware/software is the only way.  

Be sure to run the drive diagnostics just to be sure ....

Run the Built in Self-test (BIST) to try and repair your hard drive. To run the hard drive checks, please follow these steps:

* Reboot DVR via red button inside card door.

* When you see "Running receiver self-check" press select

* You will see "Entering Diagnostics Mode..."

* Select Advanced Tests Menu -> Hard Drive utilities -> Short Smart test

You can also run the file test, and the DVR can sometimes repair a bad file report.

* If the other tests pass, run the surface test.   Warning: This process could take several hours to complete. You may want to run it overnight.

The good news is that every attempt is made to save programming. This is less destructive than a reformat all and could provide you with a more stable system if you are having problems that appear to be related to the hard drive.  

litzdog911,

Thanks for the details on the BIST hard drive utilities. When my eSATA first acted up a few weeks ago, it displayed "A problem has been detected in your hard drive" error message and automatically ran the surface test....13+ hours for that 1.5TB drive. I tried the Short Smart Test since then when my DVR "booted out of the blue" and got stuck in the "Running Receiver Self-Check" stage but it didn't help(it's kinda weird neither test showed any errors, not even the long surface test). I haven't tried the file test you mentioned though and may try that while I'm waiting on Thailand to start producing hdd components again so dealers will receive some of the Western Digital AV-GP drives(like the WD20EURS) that are specifically designed for DVR usage(the regular Caviar Green drive only lasted me about 2 years even in an actively cooled Antec MX1 enclosure). Nobody, but nobody has any AV-GP drives in stock due to the floods in Thailand:0( The file test may not help either but it's worth a try to see if I can salvage the existing eSATA.

mdezrin,

Yes, unfortunately I can confirm that user litzdog911 has given you the only options you have. And I feel your pain......over the holidays the 1.5TB external eSATA drive I have connected to my HR20-700 HD DVR began displaying the same symptoms as you described. In addition, every couple of hours, my HR20 would re-boot and when it entered the "Running Receiver Self-Check" stage described by litzdog911 it would stay there for 1-2 "hours" before finally coming back up. If I turned off the external eSATA drive, the HR20 would boot up normally in 5-10 minutes and seems to record/playback just fine.......another really bad sign for the external drive:0(

In addition, I think you would find out if your HR20's internal drive is dying like my external drive is, you probably would not be able to save any recordings to DVD, VCR or PC Video Capture device as described by user litzdog911. I had the whole "Only In America, with Larry The Cable Guy" series recorded on my external drive(since July) and I tried to archive them to my DVD Recorder and when I tried to play/record them they all had audio dropouts just like you were describing that your HR20 was doing on recorded content:0(

I also had 120 "preemo" movies recorded on the drive that fortunately I had already copied to DVD before it started dying:0)

Sounds like both of us are out of luck(you will need a new HR2X HD DVR and I will need a new eSATA drive)!!

DJ, Be sure and run the file test.  It checks areas not touched by the other tests, and can actually repair itself on occasion.