Any external USB hard drive that uses a 3.5" hard drive (the larger drives they use in desktops) will work. These all come with an external power adapter you must plug into the wall.
The external hard drive units that use the smaller 2.5" hard drives are the ones they use in laptops. These require much less power, and can be powered by the PC's USB port although some do come with an optional power adapter. However the Dish receiver does not send enough power to its USB port to power the hard drive, which is why the tech told you to get one that has an external power supply.
Even then the DVR uses a drive format that your computer may not recognize. I don't know if there are tools out there that will let you connect a hard drive from a DVR, read and convert the TV shows stored there.
Another option is to buy a DVD recorder. This is like a VCR, only it uses a DVD disc and not a video tape. Connect the DVD recorder to the outputs on the DVR, and then set the DVD recorder so it will record from its input. (on my DVD recorder this is "IN2")
Put a blank DVD into the DVD recorder, start playing a show on the DVR, and hit record on the DVD recorder. When the show is finished, hit stop on the DVD recorder to stop recording. The advantage here is you can then play this DVD on any DVD drive. The disadvantage is DVD recorders only record in non-HD. You can still play a show in HD, but the recording you get won't be in HD. Also, the show has to record in real time. So if it's a 60 minute episode, it will take 60 minutes to record.
You can also check this steps:
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Transfer recordings from what/where to a hard drive?
from DVD-R 16x printable DVD's
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