Adding an external hard drive to Satellite receiver

[dannyboy]

I hooked up an external drive to the 9500. It formatted the drive. I moved some PVR programs to the hard drive (I thought the transfer would be quicker with the new drives but took 5 hours to transfer 20 one hour shows) and then tested them. Very quick to access external drive. Playback was no problem. restore was no problem. Deleting programs was difficult. They would not delete using just the menu. It would ask to confirm deletion, but would not delete. However, if I pressed "play" and then fast forwarded to the end of the show, and then delete, it would work.

Anyone know why this would happen? Also should external hard drive be plugged in to a wall outlet. This one powered on from the USB to the PVR. It was a Seagate 1 TB external drive.

Thanks for any assistance.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

The external hard drive needs to be able connect to your receiver via USB and allow you transfer recorded content from your PVR.

Many major external hard drive brands are compatible. The minimum requirements are:

• 7200 RPM rotation speed
• Between 50 GB and 2 TB of capacity
• Holds a single hard drive (enclosures holding two disks are not supported)
• Plugs into an AC power outlet
• USB 2.0 connection
• No sleep mode (cannot power down when idle)

Note:
The external hard drive can only be connected to one receiver. On a different receiver, the hard drive may need to be reformatted. You can move an external hard drive from one receiver to another receiver of the same class (i.e. or PVR) and on the same account.

If the PVR does not recognize an attached external hard drive, you may need to reset the hard drive to its factory default state. This can happen if the hard drive was previously used with a computer. Please contact the hard drive manufacturer for instructions on restoring factory defaults.

If you have a Bell Satellite TV 6131, 6141 or 6400 receivers, learn how you can turn your receiver into a PVR.

Take care.

[Beso]

I am getting a new receiver as my old one is acting up. I have a lot of programs stored on the pvr and want to save a lot of them. I was told on a Bell chat that I could do this by archiving the programs on an external hard drive and then putting them on the new receiver. Even the forum says you can move programs from your receiver with an external hard drive. The specs on the external hard drive are quite limiting so I went to Bell chat for clarification and was told I cannot move programs from the receiver and put them on the new one. My question(s)...can programs be archived on an external hard drive and, if so, can anyone tell me what hard drive to purchase??

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome.

It is somewhat difficult to answer your question based on the limited information you have provided.

Which Bell TV service do you subscribe to? Fibe TV or Satellite TV?

What is the make & model of you existing receiver and your new receiver?

You cannot transfer or archive Bell Fibe TV recordings onto an external hard drive nor move them from one HD PVR to another one. E.g. VIP5662w, VIP2262, etc.

You can transfer & archive Bell Satellite TV recordings to an external hard drive. You may not be able to do so If you are experiencing issues on your existing receiver.

Your new receiver may also not recognize the external hard drive. The external hard drive can only be connected to one receiver. On a different receiver, the hard drive may need to be reformatted. You can move an external hard drive from one receiver to another receiver of the same class (i.e. or PVR) and on the same account.

If the PVR does not recognize an attached external hard drive, you may need to reset the hard drive to its factory default state. This can happen if the hard drive was previously used with a computer. Please contact the hard drive manufacturer for instructions on restoring factory defaults.

How to transfer content from my PVR onto an external device (9500 Whole Home PVR)

How to archive your recordings

How to choose the correct external hard drive to use with my HD receiver

Take care.