Is it possible to transfer recordings from an old hard drive to a new one? If so, how would I do it?
It's the same box (HDR 1100S), just that the hard drive has been replaced as I was suspecting it was starting to fail but not completely failed as it still works.
I've got a dual HDD docking station and thought I could just transfer the recording files from the old to the new one in the same file/folder structure but my Windows computer doesn't recognise the hard drives.
Thanks
Chubba - 15 hours ago »
Is it possible to transfer recordings from an old hard drive to a new one?
The biggest difficulty in transferring the recordings from inside one HDR-1100S to another HDR-1100S is that at least HD recordings are encrypted by the individual box that recorded them when they were written to the HDD during the recording process. It may be that not only HD recordings are encrypted but also SD recordings. Looking around on the internet the opinion is that not just HD recordings are encryoted but also SD recordings.
For a post with some punch to it see https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/transferring-recordings-between-freesat-pvrs which talks about HDR-1000S but the HDR-11100S file handling will be the same.
Chubba - 15 hours ago »
It's the same box (HDR 1100S)
The model name may be the same but they differ in that they use different encryption keys to record.
Each HDR-1100S uses its own unique encryption key making it impossible for at least HD recordings from one HDR-1100S to be played on another unless you know how to crack the encryption.
The transfer is relatively easy but pointless if they are encrypted.
Chubba - 15 hours ago »
If so, how would I do it?
If you do want to transfer the recordings anyway, then you can still do that via your Windows computer hardware. If you haven't a Linux computer then the easiest way of doing this with Linux partitioned and formatted hard drives is booting your Windows computer from one of the Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu etc.) bypassing the Windows operating system and use the Linux distro instead. There is advice online, and it is the easy part compared with cracking the encryption.
I've never heard of anyone cracking the encryption of an HDR-1100S/HDR-1010S/HDR-1000S.
Chubba - 16 hours ago »
Is it possible to transfer recordings from an old hard drive to a new one? If so, how would I do it?
It's the same box (HDR 1100S), just that the hard drive has been replaced as I was suspecting it was starting to fail but not completely failed as it still works.
I've got a dual HDD docking station and thought I could just transfer the recording files from the old to the new one in the same file/folder structure but my Windows computer doesn't recognise the hard drives.
Thanks
Hi Chubba,
The only option is to copy (in real time) recordings from your 1100S to a DVD Recorder. That's what I do. To do this you simply connect pvr to DVD using AV composite on rear to a Composite AV to Scart converter :
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351446653608?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=NA5hXo3NTBa&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=Bfc_XczBSTq&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I appreciate it's a long winded process, but its the only method I know of to retrieve recordings & burn to disk. If you don't have a DVD recorder (Panasonic models highly recommended) , many good used ones out there for less than £50. Hope this helps you. John L
Thanks Luke and John for your time in replying and offering your advice.
DVD was not really a desirable option as the recordings were not something I wanted to keep forever, just something I didn't want to lose before I'd watched some of the programs (most were ITV or Channel 4 programs so although I could stream them on their apps, it was more having the luxury lazy convenience of being able to fast forward the adverts).
Apologies for the confusion when I said it was the same box - I'd read that encryption was a barrier to transferring recordings. What I meant was that it was my existing box and I'd replaced the internal hard drive rather than it being a different box of the same model.
Thanks for the tip about Linux. I did a bit more research and found instructions on how to boot into Linux (I used Linux Mint) on a Windows machine and lo and behold - the drive appeared!
So I set to work on copying the recordings from the old hard drive to the new one (I'd first formatted the new one when I installed it in the Humax to ensure the file structure was the same) - making sure the files going into the same named folder as on the old drive. It took a long time - about 11hrs for about 900GB of recordings - but once completed, I installed the new hard drive back into the Humax and tried watching a couple of old recordings.
Amazingly it worked so it seems the Humax 'thinks' the hard drive recordings are the original and decrypts them as normal.
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