Question about swapping HDD's

HughMax

New Member
Guys, this is my first time owning a set-top box with a DVR, it's an OSN Plus box HD (Humax)

It has a 1TB HDD and it is full, i tried to clone the HDD with Acronis True Image, it doesn't work because i think it's encrypted or something.

If i remove the current HDD that has my recorded programs on and insert a brand new HDD and record on it, will i be able to put the old one back in and see my recorded programs or it will be formatted?



Here are some infos for the device if it matters:

Manufacturer ID: 0x67
Model Number: 0xe5
Hardware Version: 0x6c

Driver Version: 7346_HUMAX_NEWCO_PVR_R8070M

Receiver SW Version: 5.5.3.001 Mar 22 2016
 
We are not familiar with this particular product. There is a possibility the recordings are encrypted on disk, but simply encrypting the recordings does not alter them being a file of data within the file system and copyable. You need to check whether you are operating Acronis at the file system level or at the partition imaging level - at the file system level you probably need something that understands Linux disk formats. However, it is also possible the file system itself is encrypted - but again a low-level imaging backup system should be able to cope with it.

will i be able to put the old one back in and see my recorded programs or it will be formatted?

Who knows? You can find out easily enough: put a new drive in, prepare it, make some recordings, take it out, put it back in, see what happens.

I have to say you are making a chore for yourself. Stop acting like a squirrel. Are you really going to watch everything you have stored up? My guess: if it's more than a few weeks old - probably not, because there's new stuff coming in all the time. There's only so much time in a day/week for watching telly, so the average rate of recording stuff doesn't need to exceed the average rate of watching recorded stuff (and then you have to remember to delete what you've watched).

Keeping stuff you've already watched will lead to running out of space eventually, however large the HDD is. It's just like running out of space in the cupboards because of keeping too much clutter.
 
Who knows?

Well that's the idea of me asking on this forum, to see if anyone tried it or knows.



I have to say you are making a chore for yourself. Stop acting like a squirrel. Are you really going to watch everything you have stored up? My guess: if it's more than a few weeks old - probably not, because there's new stuff coming in all the time. There's only so much time in a day/week for watching telly, so the average rate of recording stuff doesn't need to exceed the average rate of watching recorded stuff (and then you have to remember to delete what you've watched).

Keeping stuff you've already watched will lead to running out of space eventually, however large the HDD is. It's just like running out of space in the cupboards because of keeping too much clutter.

I knew someone's going to say that, even though i don't have to explain to you why do i need those recordings, but one of my family member appears on a Gaming TV Show, he wanted me to record all of them.
 
So you need a video recorder rather than a PVR. Yes, no doubt there are many reasons for archiving video, but start with the right tools.

I take it this particular PVR doesn't have the facility to copy to a USB drive?

And when family members want something done, it's not out of the question to point out the difficulty and the cost.
 
@BH. Why do you frequently pick holes in other people's requests and motives? If people want to squirrel away recordings on a hard drive, that's up to them.
@Hugh. Possibly the reason that Acronis 'doesn't work' is that it is likely that the PVR uses a different filing system to that under which Acronis is running. It is unlikely that encryption is preventing a copy, as it's only data, so more likely to be a different filing system that is preventing it. What operating sysyem do you have on your computer?
Can you do a 'sector by sector' or similar in Acronis? I used to have Acronis but can't remember. I found it so intrusive so I uninstalled it, and it's a bugger to get rid of as it leaves a load of stuff behind and changes registry entries and doesn't change them back etc. etc.

If your box is anything like the operation of a Humax box, recordings are encrypted by the box whilst recording, so are thus 'locked' to the box. Any encrypted recording will play on that box from pretty much anywhere (like a different HDD) but not on any other box.
The HDR Fox T2 can be persuaded to decrypt HD programmes on copy to USB (and other places), but that is not necessarily the case on your box.
I think it is extremely unlikely that by putting a new drive into your box will prevent the original drive playing if re-inserted.
But like BH implied, it might be a good idea for the sake of portability to try to find some way of getting your wanted shows on to a different media. For instance, what happens to the recordings if the existing HDD goes tits up?
 
@BH. Why do you frequently pick holes in other people's requests and motives? If people want to squirrel away recordings on a hard drive, that's up to them.
Sometimes it pays to hoard your nuts. I managed to watch an episode of Montalbano one year after I recorded it. I'm glad I saved it for a rainy day.
 
In which case you come under my 'some people' category. :)I have been hoarding my nuts for years.:D
 
@BH. Why do you frequently pick holes in other people's requests and motives? If people want to squirrel away recordings on a hard drive, that's up to them.
As obvious as it might seem to you, not everybody realises that one needs just as much time in one's schedule to watch a recorded programme as to watch it live* - recording it makes it possible to defer viewing to a more convenient time, but it does not create the free time in the first place. Being tidy about it ought to make wibbles about not having enough storage space irrelevant, and not being tidy will make any amount of storage space insufficient eventually.

This may not be the answer a poster wants, but it could be the insight a poster needs.

* Almost - there are economies in watching a recording by cutting the ads and other crap.
 
Although I fully agree with you in principle, I personally would not criticise the person for his choice of recording techniques. But instead I would just try to answer the question. I frequently record stuff I don't get round to watching and subsequently del them later.
It doesn't exactly give newbies a warm feeling about the forum, does it now?
 
You think we're short of newbies? I tell it like it is, and if you can't handle that it's your problem.
 
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