DVR will not boot up, how can I get to recordings? Can they be pulled and copied to new DVR?

After a storm, both the gateway and DVR were knocked offline. Rebooted gateway, internet and other receiver came back online. DVR receiver keeps saying to restart. Unplugged, rebooted and still nothing. Called and they said they would send new DVR but recordings would be lost. I asked them to try to pull from backup. There is a record somewhere because connectivity has to be in line to record, so there is a backup. AT&T should be able to pull the backup and copy to the new DVR. I've been a customer for nearly a decade and in the past, I have been able to retain recordings. Why can they not do it now or do reps not know about it? I have recordings going back 5 years that I can't find anywhere else that I want to keep watching. I also have Black History month and Juneteenth shows.