VIP211 and external hard drive (EHD) maintenance

[BatGirl]

I have a VIP21 that I love the heck out of - but it is in it's third EHD. Question: can I disconnect it, connect it to my linux computer and defrag it, and will it still be usable on my VIP211 when I reconnect it and the VIP211 not want to re-format it also, as long as the computer did not need to re-format it either? Question: Can I disconnect my EHD once it gets pretty full, then connect a new EHD and record on it - then later disconnect the new EHD and reconnect the old on and view the older recordings?

[ChristinaW]

Hello! Most likely when you connect the external hard drive to your computer, it will reformat and clear out the hard drive. You are able to disconnect the new hard drive, reconnect the previous drive to the VIP 211, and watch the recordings as long as it does not reformat. 

[BatGirl]

Connecting to a Windoz computer would not recognize the EHD's LINUX format and would thus resort to re-format it to Microslop's NTFS or FAT32 formats, but connecting it to a LINUX computer should see the EXT4 format and have no problem seeing and thus no need to re-format - just wondering that if I then used LINUX's "e4defrag" on it to defragment it, would the VIP211 freakout and no longer allow it to be read or something...

Also - another scenario - if I bought another EHD to use once the first one gets pretty full, and archived the old one, would I be able to plug it back in later and still be able to watch the older recordings on it.

[ChristinaW]

You may always try to plug in the external hard drive to the LINUX computer to try to defrag it; however, we are unable to guarantee that you will not lose the recordings. 

Yes, you may still connect the previous hard drive back to the VIP211 and still be able to watch the recordings, as long as it does not re-format.