Can I hook up an external hard drive to a DirecTV HD DVR, and if so how would I format the external hard drive?

I see there are inputs for usb and sata, but can I plug an external hard drive into them and expect it to work?

If you have the HR20 or HR21, then the answer is yes.

Connect the eSATA drive and it completely replaces the internal drive. There is nothing you need to do to prepare the drive.

Thanks bfdtv! Do you know if it is possible to use a usb drive? Or do you have to use an eSATA drive?

pretty sure you have to use an esata drive.

peform a search, plenty of information on external drives already here.

USB drives are not supported. You must use eSATA.

Sorry, but I'm still very new at this.

I would like to hook up a 1 terabyte external hard drive to my DVR, does anybody know of any good hard drives that I could use?

Can one switch between the two drives easily to view content, or choose to which drive to record content?

Can one switch between the two drives easily to view content, or choose to which drive to record content?No.

For all practical purposes, consider the internal drive non-existent once you add the external drive.

I would like to hook up a 1 terabyte external hard drive to my DVR, does anybody know of any good hard drives that I could use?Consider sticking a Western Digital WD10EACS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151&Tpk=WD10EACS) into an enclosure like the Antec MX-1 (http://www.provantage.com/antec-mx-1~7ANTG04E.htm). That will run cool and quiet.

Here's a relatively inexpensive 750GB HD the rebate expires 12/5/07

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206181448&adid=17653&dcaid=17653#moreimg

How many hours of HD programming would fit on a 1 terabyte hard drive?

How many hours of HD programming would fit on a 1 terabyte hard drive?From DirecTV's MPEG-4 channels? Over 250 hours.

When you add an external drive to the HR20 and reformat, do you lose what you have stored on the DVR's hard drive or does that automatically transfer over to the external drive?

When you add an external drive to the HR20 and reformat, do you lose what you have stored on the DVR's hard drive or does that automatically transfer over to the external drive?
Neither. It stays there. If you want to watch stuff on the internal drive, restart the DVR with the external drive disconnected.

Sorry, but I'm still very new at this.

I would like to hook up a 1 terabyte external hard drive to my DVR, does anybody know of any good hard drives that I could use?


I'm using 2 of these..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101082 along with a 500GB Seagate Freeagent Pro. The 1TB HDs are being used on two different HR20s.

what software do you recommend to edit the content on the external drive?

Hi, I've tried two different external drives (a Western Digital and a Seagate) with my HR21 - both using the eSATA connection. I pulled the power plug on the DVR, turned on the external drive, plugged in the SATA cable, then replugged the DVR. After waiting a while, the DVR reboots, but it goes back to the internal hard drive. Is there something else I need to do?

These drives come with set-up instructions for use with a PC or a Mac. Do you need to somehow initialize them first, or should the DVR recognize them out of the box?

I haven't tried it myself but it seems it should have worked based on this post > http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14509254#post14509254

It works for my HR 21-700!
Cavalry multibay CADA-SA2 2TB set to raid 0
URL at newegg
Cavalry Manual multibay CADA-SA2 (doesn't come with unit)
URL at Cavalry
Direct Tv instructions for hooking up and disconnecting external HDs.
URL directv

Comes with cables. Hook up to PC and set the raid with USB. Read the manual and instructions. Total setup time about 30 minutes.
$217 invested

Forum won't let me post the URL's , let me know if you can't find em in a search. :rolleyes:

what software do you recommend to edit the content on the external drive?

once the esata external hard drive is connected your directv hd dvr uses the external drive in place of the internal to store the recordings.

there is no software needed to edit any content, just the normal functioning of the directv hd dvr will be accessing the recordings on the new external drive.

Will an external hdd, say 1 TB, improve the speed of the dvr? My HR 22-100 is sloooooooooow and new fix didn't help.

Will an external hdd, say 1 TB, improve the speed of the dvr? My HR 22-100 is sloooooooooow and new fix didn't help.

nope. the drives used on dvrs are not the problem when there is a speed issue.

it's in the processing and software they used.

Can you remove the esata drive from the HD DVR, connect it to your PC, and then burn selective programs from it to DVD? We have a Tivo with a DVD burner. Neither Tivo nor DirecTv offer them anymore. I'm looking for an option that will allow us to keep burning DVDs after my Tivo box quits.

Can you remove the esata drive from the HD DVR, connect it to your PC, and then burn selective programs from it to DVD? No, all recordings are encrypted and tied to the DVR.

I take it then that you can't move the esata drive from one hd dvr to another? For example, if we record 3 footballs games on 2 hd dvrs, I can't remove the esata drive from the hd dvr in the basement that's hooked to the standard tv, and then hook it up to the hd dvr on the main floor that's connected to the big screen hd tv? The basement is an HR20, the main floor one is an HR23.

I take it then that you can't move the esata drive from one hd dvr to another?

No, you can't do this.

I take it then that you can't move the esata drive from one hd dvr to another? For example, if we record 3 footballs games on 2 hd dvrs, I can't remove the esata drive from the hd dvr in the basement that's hooked to the standard tv, and then hook it up to the hd dvr on the main floor that's connected to the big screen hd tv? The basement is an HR20, the main floor one is an HR23.

As far as I know, Dish is the only DVR provider who has accomplished this (moving external hard drives from one DVR to another). Of course, there is no Sunday Ticket on Dish, so it evens out. With Tivos, you can watch content from one networked Tivo on another networked Tivo, but you are stuck with cable or OTA, at least until Tivo starts making DVRs for DirecTV again.

-Ted

Is there a limit on what the HR20-700 can recognize? Will it see a 2TB drive?