I know there is a big post on the subject but most of it relates to how to get it to work and what enclosure. I have more of a usage question and didn't want to have to siff through hundreds of post to find the answer. I am in TWC in Houston (although bought by Comcast) and have a 8300.

1. When you have the esata drive hooked up properly, does the 8300 show it as a separate drive or integrate seemlessly with the internal drive?

2. Can you transfer shows from internal hard drive to esata drive or vice versa? (a twc rep told me you could but i have my doubts)

3. what happens when you unplug the drive? Do the shows on that drive get removed from the recorded list, or is it still there but gets an error when you try to play it?

4. what if you remove the drive and plug it into another 8300? can you play the shows on that esata drive on a different 8300?

5. i presume the format is proprietary, so pc cannot read or process it?

1. When you have the esata drive hooked up properly, does the 8300 show it as a separate drive or integrate seemlessly with the internal drive?

Integrated...the percentage of space available increases.

2. Can you transfer shows from internal hard drive to esata drive or vice versa? (a twc rep told me you could but i have my doubts)

Pretty sure you can't. I haven't seen a way to do it.

3. what happens when you unplug the drive? Do the shows on that drive get removed from the recorded list, or is it still there but gets an error when you try to play it?

I've had the drive vecome disconnected before. The shows are still there on the list of programs but can't be viewed when you select them. Upon reconnecting the drive I was able to watch them again.

4. what if you remove the drive and plug it into another 8300? can you play the shows on that esata drive on a different 8300?

Haven't tried this but from what I've read on this forum it is a no-go. I do have 2 x 8300s but haven't had the need to try this yet. Since you can't tell exactly which shows are recorded on the external drive this may be a pointless exercise.

5. i presume the format is proprietary, so pc cannot read or process it?

AFAIK folks in this forum have tried this without much success.