# Transfering external HD files to new HD



## Snydley (Mar 30, 2007)

I've got a Western Digital 500G external hard drive connected to my VIP 622 with about 300G filled up with programs. I just bought a Samsung 1T hard drive and would like to transfer the contents of the WD drive to the Samsung drive and start using that with my VIP622. I'm putting the Samsung drive in a USB 2.0 external hard drive enclosure. Is there any way to do that without loosing the programs that are on the WD drive?


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## JackDobiash (Jul 20, 2005)

Transfer the recordings back to your DVR, plug in and format the new drive then transfer them to it. You might have to do it in more than one batch if you are low on space on your DVR or if you have more recordings on the EHD than your DVR can store.


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## Snydley (Mar 30, 2007)

JackDobiash said:


> Transfer the recordings back to your DVR, plug in and format the new drive then transfer them to it. You might have to do it in more than one batch if you are low on space on your DVR or if you have more recordings on the EHD than your DVR can store.


I guess I should have been more specific in my question, I realize I can do it that way. I was looking for a way to connect both drives to USB connections on my computer and transfer the data directly without using the VIP622
I've got WAY too much stuff recorded on the external and internal drive in the VIP 622. I would have to delete everything off of the internal drive to have enough room, and I don't want to do that.


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## bbomar (Oct 18, 2004)

Snydley said:


> I guess I should have been more specific in my question, I realize I can do it that way. I was looking for a way to connect both drives to USB connections on my computer and transfer the data directly without using the VIP622
> I've got WAY too much stuff recorded on the external and internal drive in the VIP 622. I would have to delete everything off of the internal drive to have enough room, and I don't want to do that.


Imaging programs may not work if they expect and take advantage of Windows file formats. I have used PCI Clone Maxx to make identical copies of hard disks, regardless of the data format, but I don't know if it will work with USB. It is a free program though. Another option might be Norton Ghost.

http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/clone_maxx/info.htm?Language=1

"PC INSPECTOR™ clone maxx can be started directly from a boot diskette. The copying process is always based on the physical drive and is independent of the file system (e.g. FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, NTFS, Ext2, Reiser, etc.) or the number of partitions."


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

One thing to keep in mind with disk imaging or copying programs, you may end up with the new partition matching the old one so if your going from a 300GB drive to a 1TB drive you may end up making that other 700GB of space unusable, unless you have a way to grow the partition. 

Personally if it was me I would just take the time to restore and re-archive to the new drive.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Better yet, just keep the other drive around and plug it in when you want to watch something that is stored on it. It isn't like on the other side where you have to re-program the DVR every time you plug in an external drive.


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## Snydley (Mar 30, 2007)

Rob Glasser said:


> One thing to keep in mind with disk imaging or copying programs, you may end up with the new partition matching the old one so if your going from a 300GB drive to a 1TB drive you may end up making that other 700GB of space unusable, unless you have a way to grow the partition.
> 
> Personally if it was me I would just take the time to restore and re-archive to the new drive.


I don't really want to invest that much time, hell I'll probably never watch half the crap that's on there, but I like to know that I can if I want to. :lol: 
I've used Ghost before and if you restore an image that's , let's say, 250G to a 500G drive, after reboot you still have a 500G drive with 250G of it "used". You're still able to access and use the other 250G.
The thing I'm wondering about is, even if I do get the programs on the new hard drive, in the correct file format, is the VIP622 gonna reformat the drive before I can use it anyway? If that's the case, then this whole thing is a moot point anyway.


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## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

As far as I've read, the entire drive will be reformatted when connected to the 622. I haven't tried to do otherwise so don't know from personal experience, but all documents indicate you have to dedicate the drive to DVR recordings only.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Charise said:


> As far as I've read, the entire drive will be reformatted when connected to the 622. I haven't tried to do otherwise so don't know from personal experience, but all documents indicate you have to dedicate the drive to DVR recordings only.


That's true if the drive is recognized as not being formated for use with the 622. It MIGHT be possible to copy the disk via one of these other programs so that it appears identical to the original by the 622.


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## JackDobiash (Jul 20, 2005)

It is also possible that you could get the new drive formatted by the DVR, then plug both drives into a Linux based PC and copy all of the folders over, that *might* work based on some things I've read.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

I find many smaller drives to be a more prudent choice, even though the price per GB is higher.

Should one large drive fail (and you know it will), you lose everything.

Should one smaller drive fail (and it will), only part is lost.

I have a SATA drive dock where I can just turn the dock off, pop in a different drive and turn it back on. Takes about 30 seconds.


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

Snydley said:


> I just bought a Samsung 1T hard drive


I thought there was a 750 GB limit on the EHD capacity, and larger drives are not supported. Has this been changed?


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## device manager (Apr 11, 2006)

ShapeShifter said:


> I thought there was a 750 GB limit on the EHD capacity, and larger drives are not supported. Has this been changed?


While they may not be "officially" supported there are several people in the massive EHD thread using 1TB drives without a hitch.


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## ShapeShifter (Apr 21, 2008)

device manager said:


> While they may not be "officially" supported there are several people in the massive EHD thread using 1TB drives without a hitch.


That's good to know. There are two meanings of "supported" -- one means that the software doesn't support it, and it can't work; while the other means that there isn't a software/hardware limit, but the technical support won't help you if there are problems.

I guess we now know which definition of "supported" applies here.


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