I have the scientific atlanta HD DVR with a 500gb external SATA drive. Have had the xternal drive for about 1 year. Occasionally, I would chose 1 show from the menu, an older recorded program would play. Upon deleting the older program, the new 1 would again be available.

NOW, I record a show and verify that its viewable. After recroding a few subsequent programs, the older show will no longer play. I get the press LIST to view recordings message on the screen. I used to get that message occasionally, but would select the program a second time, and it would then play. Could the recordings be getting hammered on my SATA? I have about 250 recordings between the 2 devices, and am at around 85% total storage. (I was running in the 90's for a while). Is there a de-frag I can run on the SATA, or some type of maintenance? ANyone else had similar issues, the menu items don't play?

Second, can I just disconnect the SATA drive for now and force new recordings to the DVR itself? Then, when I want to watch an old recording, just plug in the SATA drive? any thoughts? I hate to lose a bunch of movies and my collection of HDNET shows.