How do I add an additional hard drive to my HR-20? Is it as simple as using the USB port?

Thanks,

Ryan

Nope, can't do it.

Nope, can't do it.

Well actually, yes you can.

You can add an eSata external enclosure but it overrides the internal drive, in the event you need to access something already on the internal drive you need to shut down the unit and detach the eSata drive. Basically you can switch back and forth between them but not access them both at the same time.

How many Gig is the factory drive?

I believe 320GB. I saw a number of people using a Seagate 750 GB drive over at dbstalk, I believe you can use multidrive enclosures also, they present the discs as one large one over the eSata connector.

I have the Seagate 750 gig eSATA drive connected via the eSATA port. I estimate that I have about 80 to 90 hours of MPEG2 recording time and about 150 hours of MPEG4 using it.

SMK

Thanks for the input guys...

Is it possible to hook multiple drives, from a NAS box or something similar, that the HR-20 would see as one disc? I'd love to create a huge digital library... :D

As others have said, you can use a RAID array with multiple drives that would increase storage space further. You may want to rethink the whole digital library thing, though. The drives will be linked to the one HR20 receiver. You will not be able to disconnect them and attach the drives to another one and watch what is on them. If your H20 craps out, your library is also gone (and that will almost certainly happen at some point). Most people are using larger drives just so they don't have to worry about having hours of content to watch at any given time and having something deleted to make space for new programs. Anything you want to store permanently will have to be done on different media.

SMK

I have the Seagate 750 gig eSATA drive connected via the eSATA port. I estimate that I have about 80 to 90 hours of MPEG2 recording time and about 150 hours of MPEG4 using it.

SMK
Ditto...esata is the way to go! Beware, I believe, you will lose all your information on your existing drive after you reboot your unit, I did

I also think that 2 tb has been tossed around as the current limit the box can use. THat is plenty to store a lot of stuff, but maybe not quite a massive digital library.

I have a 750 gig eSATA right now on one of my HR20's

Ditto...esata is the way to go! Beware, I believe, you will lose all your information on your existing drive after you reboot your unit, I did

You can't access the internal drive when an external drive is attached. I do believe I read you can get to the internal drive again when you unhook the external but I'm not 100% positive.

You can't access the internal drive when an external drive is attached. I do believe I read you can get to the internal drive again when you unhook the external but I'm not 100% positive.

You are correct. You don't lose any data on the internal drive when you hook up an external one, you just can't access it. If you unhook the external drive and restart the tuner, you will now be looking at what is on the internal drive. I went back and forth several times when I first got the external drive so that I could finish watching the programs I had recorded on the internal drive.

SMK