# Satellite Rx external hard drive.



## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

I just purchased a HD satellite receiver (DISH) It has a USB port used to connect an external hard drive.
When I plugged the drive in, the receiver asked to format the drive, which I allowed.
Everything worked well!
I was curious about what the drive info looked like, so plugged the drive into my computer.
The drive appeared as a hardware device, but did not appear in Windows (Vista) Explorer.
I would have liked to copy the recorded info onto my computer drive, but its not available.
Anybody have any idea why this occurs?


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## Fraggle (Sep 12, 2009)

Hi Wildie - not sure the answer, but here's a long thread with a lot of info in it about trying to use the external DISH HD on your PC:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/15/dish-network-enables-external-storage-ethernet-port-on-dvrs/

Hope that helps and good luck!


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

Fraggle said:


> Hi Wildie - not sure the answer, but here's a long thread with a lot of info in it about trying to use the external DISH HD on your PC:
> 
> http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/15/dish-network-enables-external-storage-ethernet-port-on-dvrs/
> 
> Hope that helps and good luck!


 Thanks for the link! It was interesting.

I have been doing some searching myself on this subject.
One thing that I found out is that the external drives are a Linux format and this is why Windows doesn't recognize it.
Secondly, when the external drive is formatted by the satellite box, a small program is added also. Then if the drive is plugged into a computer, the drive is wiped clean of any recorded info.


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## Fraggle (Sep 12, 2009)

> Secondly, when the external drive is formatted by the satellite box, a small program is added also. Then if the drive is plugged into a computer, the drive is wiped clean of any recorded info.


Man, gotta love draconian DRM.


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

There must be a workaround (a hack)for this! Something like a firewall, that prevents the program from running!


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