Help wanted copying from Sky+ box

Hope this is the correct forum to raise query and that someone can help!

My Sky+ box has suddenly started to mis-behave and will not allow access to the hard drive either to play recordings already made or to make a new recording. The box went into standby and I was unable to switch on by pressing the Sky button on the remote. When I phoned Sky they talked me through an update of the software but when that was finished I still couldn’t get out of standby. In a further call to Sky they offered me a new Sky+ HD box for free but with self set-up, which I have accepted. Next morning I was able to switch on the box but still no access to the hard drive.

As the existing box contains a number of recorded programs that I do not wish to lose, I am considering downloading free software called Copy+ in order to copy those recordings to my PC and then to copy them to the new Sky+ HD box. Could someone please answer the following queries: -

• The existing box is about 80% full so how much space would I need on my PC’s HDD to accept the copied recordings?
• I have an external caddy into which I can put the hard drives from the Sky boxes for copying the recordings.
• Is there anything I need to do with the new Sky+ HD box BEFORE copying the recordings from my PC to the new box hard drive – e.g. do I need to perform part or all of the ‘set-up’ procedure?
• I have read that once the card is inserted into the new box it will not be possible to replay recordings on the old box. This does not appear to be a problem as I am unable to do this at present anyway.
• I realise that opening the new box to remove the hard drive will invalidate the guarantee, but have read that if a problem occurs, the Sky engineer will not check if the box has been opened. Are there \any visible signs that the box has been opened?

All suggestions will be gratefully received.

This isn't really Windows 7-related... but anyway:

1. Depends how big the Sky+ hard drive is - their website says 1TB, so if yours is 80% full then you'll need about 800GB to transfer everything.
2. Regarding the Sky box itself, the Copy+ software should have instructions about the requirements.
3. Not sure about the new cards blocking old recordings. We had Foxtel in Australia which is linked to Sky (same remote control, so...) and when we moved house they put us on a new account. We were then unable to play any previously recorded content (pretty ridiculous).
4. For the warranty, there will most likely be a sticker over one screw that you will need to remove to open the case. If this sticker is removed, it cannot be stuck back on. The engineer should spot this - his checklist should start with "check warranty sticker - if it's missing, pack up your tools and leave; it's the customer's problem."

Hope that helps at least a little!