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Using external USB HDD

J

Jeddy

Member
Hi,
I went for the 500GB 4000T but can see that I'm going to need more storage than that before long. As I see it there are 2 options
1) Replace the internal HDD (and invalidate the warranty)
2) Add a external USB HDD
Since I've only just bought this I'd rather not invalidate the warranty just yet, just in case... so I have a few questions about external USB HDDs please.

How does an external USB HDD work with the 4000T?
Does it automatically use this in conjunction with the internal HDD?
Does it only record to the internal drive and you manually have to move recordings from the internal to the external HDD to leave enough room on the internal drive for it to keep working?
Do recordings on both drives appear together or do you have to flip between the 2 devices?
Any other problems or concerns with just adding an external HDD?
Any recommendations for good external 1TB USB external HDDs which people know to work well?

Come to that any recommendations for a good internal 1 or 2 TB HDD in case I need to go down that route please?

Thanks,
Jeddy
 
Jeddy said:
Hi,
I went for the 500GB 4000T but can see that I'm going to need more storage than that before long. As I see it there are 2 options
1) Replace the internal HDD (and invalidate the warranty)
2) Add a external USB HDD
Since I've only just bought this I'd rather not invalidate the warranty just yet, just in case... so I have a few questions about external USB HDDs please.

How does an external USB HDD work with the 4000T?
Does it automatically use this in conjunction with the internal HDD?
Does it only record to the internal drive and you manually have to move recordings from the internal to the external HDD to leave enough room on the internal drive for it to keep working?
Do recordings on both drives appear together or do you have to flip between the 2 devices?
Any other problems or concerns with just adding an external HDD?
Any recommendations for good external 1TB USB external HDDs which people know to work well?

Come to that any recommendations for a good internal 1 or 2 TB HDD in case I need to go down that route please?

Thanks,
Jeddy
Click to expand...
Hi Jeddy,

Just to kick off ...

I also have the 500GB 4000T, and can confirm that HD recordings soon eat into the HDD space available. I have an external USB drive connected (for some of the issues I've experienced with these see my other postings).

All recordings are made to the internal HDD, and you do need to manually move programs to the external drive - be warned, transfer speeds are VERY slow.
Recordings are visible only on one device at a time, and although recordings are not "lost" they are not always visible to select if the USB drive is left connected.

Having flagged up all these negatives, I'm still persisting with the combo!
 
I can't imagine the 4000T is very different from HDR-FOX in these respects, and I certainly wouldn't expect USB-connected storage to be incorporated into the overall disk space available for recording to.

HDR-FOX allows for copying to/from USB, and can play media files stored on USB storage when navigated to.
 
Black Hole said:
I can't imagine the 4000T is very different from HDR-FOX in these respects, and I certainly wouldn't expect USB-connected storage to be incorporated into the overall disk space available for recording to.

HDR-FOX allows for copying to/from USB, and can play media files stored on USB storage when navigated to.
Click to expand...

That's what one might have expected BH, but your "imagining" is incorrect!
In fact the 4000T has quite different software from the HDR-FOX - I was very disappointed on "upgrading" to find that the straightforward interface of the HDR-FOX has been jettisoned for a far less intuitive set of commands
 
Thanks, I'd not considered the speed aspect!
I'll see how I get on and maybe just replace the internal drive in due course.

I think the main plus of (why I bought) the 4000 is the catch-up TV and 4 tuners. A lot of the other differences are just that, differences which you need to get used to. The lack of CF is a shame, but I can still use the Fox for things I want to 'keep'.
Thanks.
 
Just to clarify - its the speed of moving files to / from the Internal HDD to the USB HDD that is inordinately slow (subjectively this seems even slower than when using the HDR-FOX). If you have files on the external USB drive (whether copied from the internal HDD or another Hummy), these playback OK with no glitches.

I tend to archive programs that I've watched to the USB drive - and leave them copying overnight.
 
Thanks.
Can you batch move files to the USB HDD? e.g. select a few to move and leave them all moving overnight or do you have to select and move them one at a time.

Three tuners, ah yes, I was really referring to being able to schedule 4 recordings at once.
Jeddy
 
Jeddy said:
Thanks.
Can you batch move files to the USB HDD? e.g. select a few to move and leave them all moving overnight or do you have to select and move them one at a time.
Click to expand...

If you have several recordings of a TV series you can select the folder and batch move, if the recordings are of different series they need to be selected individually - hope this helps
 
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