July 13th, 2011
Hard drives hold all of our digital information, from family pictures to vital documents, and unfortunately hard drive failure can be caused by many different things and result in data loss or expensive data recovery costs. I learned the hard way to make sure all of my documents were backed up regularly, and in my efforts to protect my digital data I realized most of us overlook the hard drives in our DVRs. It’s easy to do, considering we don’t really look at our receiver as a computer, but your DVR hard drive is likely one of the most used in your house.
There are many benefits to connecting an external hard drive to a DISH Network receiver, such as backing up and protecting your existing recordings, expanding your available hard drive space and transferring recordings from one receiver on your account to another. You can even turn your 211, 211k, or 411 receiver into a DVR by connecting it to an external hard drive and paying a one-time activation fee of $40.
While most major manufacturers’ external hard drives are compatible with DISH Network DVRs, keep in mind the following guidelines when purchasing an external hard drive:
The following external hard drives meet the above criteria:
Once you’ve picked out your compatible external hard drive, simply plug it into an outlet near your DISH Network receiver and then connect it to the USB port on your receiver. Your receiver will prompt you to format the external hard drive, install the software and then your receiver will reset.
Once you receiver turns back on you’re external hard drive will be available to use. Now you can ensure that you’ll never have to worry about losing your DBR recordings. One less hard drive to worry about in your home!
Categories: DISH & TV news