There's no logical reason why you can't back up recordings, there maybe however over zealous reasons why freesat don't allow it. So much for free to air, on-demand etc.
There are so many licensing deals going on and people worried about being sued, copyright protection and all that rubbish that things get tied up in knots, and really knotted where the average consumer gets stomach cramps from the whole saga, don't start me on hdcp and hdmi handshaking!. People who illegally download music are three times more likely to buy that music, which just shows how back to front and how little the legal greedy corrupt suits understand.
If you're not worried about warranty you can take the hard drive out and take a disc-image/mirror-image of it, using linux or other tools, and use that as a backup. You won't be able to access any of the content on it with out copying the whole image back as it was (at that point in time) onto the hard drive. This is how backups used to be made and until someone comes out with a custom firmware this is the only way I know of backing up the hard drive.
There's nothing to stop you doing this every few months, take a backup, compress it, and copy it back as and when necessary, obviously taking a new backup first.
I've not noticed a usb stick version of Downton Abbey or Crossroads on Ebay recently and people who want to take a copy and sell it have more than enough other means to do it easier than using a hdr1000s. In the meantime we're left in the position that you can watch live or record a programme onto hard drive, but freesat don't think you're trustworthy enough to make a backup copy for personal use. Just like Sony won't let you play back a dvd in RGB quality on a ps3 because we're all pirates; however a £9.99 dvd player from asda (or other reputable supermarkets) will play back dvd's in RGB with no problem. I seem to remember buying dvd's, cracking/copying it onto a blank disc so that I could play it back properly on my equipment as the original copyright protection stopped me from doing so (you couldn't make this up it's so stupid!). Ironically there was a big advantage in losing all the insidiuos adverts at the start that you couldn't normally click through.
At the moment there's no suitable way of backing up without taking the drive out every time or other hands-on jiggery pokery. Pirates don't have any problems getting around these things and the rest of us that are treated like children and told to sit on the naughty step for even thinking about making a backup just have to live with it.
In the meantime, don't let your hdr1000s overheat, make sure it's well ventilated, always wait for it to power down properly before pulling the plug and treat it with respect like you would a computer and you're unlikely to have problems with it.
