Anyone using an external hard drive to expand their DVR capacity?

[techs]

I was thinking of getting an eSata external hard drive to expand my DVR's capacity.
I was wondering if anyone was already doing this, and how well it works.

I noticed that Western Digital sells a model they advertise as for home dvr expansion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136259
Can I just use any eSata drive? Or do you think their are advantages to the Western Digital?

Thanks

 

[s44]

It depends on the model of your specific DVR. Some will work with anything (buy a MX-1 and stick in your own drive) but some make DIY solutions more troublesome.

Note that one thing to be careful with is the eSATA *cable* -- these things can get quite temperamental, particularly given the constant IO over the connection. The Tivo forum recommends the SIIG CB-SA0111-S1 or Tripp-Lite P950.

 

[Noubourne]

I am using a Seagate 7200.11 750GB hard drive in an enclosure I bought from Newegg and the cheap-o eSATA cable that came with it on my DirecTV HR-20. Works brilliantly. I have hundreds of hours of programming - entire season of Dexter and the entire Firefly series - bunch of movies - most of it in HD. Arrested Development, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Lost, Fringe, Last Restaurant Standing, The F Word, 30 Rock, The Office, Weeds, True Blood, The Universe, Planet Earth, etc etc... I keep it about 75-80% full at all times and only clean out stuff once it gets down below 10%.

I previously used a WD MyBook 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive with a Charter Moxi DVR. That worked great too. That didn't have eSATA - so when I went to DirecTV almost 2 years ago I sold it to my friend, who is now using it on his Moxi.

I helped a friend from work install a Seagate 7200.11 1TB hard drive with an external enclosure up to a Charter Moxi DVR also, and that worked brilliantly as well. Around here, the Moxi is the only DVR Charter uses that allows an external drive. I think it's almost ubiquitous on satellite nowadays.

I have considered grabbing a 1.5TB drive to replace this 750GB - but you have to give up so much to start over ~ If they start to release 2TB drives in the near $100 range - I might have to do it.

 

[Muadib]

You don't mention what dvr you have, but I suggest finding a forum that has users of that dvr, and posting there. I have a DIRECTV hddvr, and quickly learned that not all external drives can be used. I also ended up using the mx-1, and a tb wd drive, for not much more than the drive you linked.

 

[techs]

I have a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC (the C stands for Comcast).
I guess the thing I was wondering about is does the hard drive have to always be on? Or can I shut it down when the cable box is off?

 

[Muadib]

Dvr boxes are never off, they go into a standby mode. Turning off the external drive on mine will cause it to reboot, and come up on the internal drive.

As for your 8300HDC, I believe that the C stands for cablecard. TWC also uses the HDC, as do other cable companies. Some companies don't have the esata port turned on. Have you checked the diagnostic page to make sure your port in on?

 

[Muadib]

Amazon has the MX-1 for $49.

they have the 750GB green series WD for $65

That's 250GB more for just $5!

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Muadib
Dvr boxes are never off, they go into a standby mode. Turning off the external drive on mine will cause it to reboot, and come up on the internal drive.

As for your 8300HDC, I believe that the C stands for cablecard. TWC also uses the HDC, as do other cable companies. Some companies don't have the esata port turned on. Have you checked the diagnostic page to make sure your port in on?

As usual the Comcast people don't know squat. They told me the C stood for Comcast.
I will have to check this new boxes diagnostics. I have to look up the button combo that gets me into that screen, I have it somewhere.

 

[sciencewhiz]

I have the western digital one for my Tivo HD. When Tivo first activated the eSATA port, that was the only one that worked without hacking anything (I don't know if that is still the case). I've been very happy with it over the last year and a half. It's on all the time.

 

[kalrith]

I agree with the above poster about finding a forum specific to your device. I was going to recommend dbstalk, but there's not much (if any) talk about cable on there. Another thing to note is that some DVRs (i.e. Dish) use both the external hard drive and the internal hard drive, whereas others (i.e. DirecTV) will use only the external drive for storage. If yours works like the latter, then be aware that you'll lose the room from your internal drive, and you'll also lose any saved programming on there. There might be a way to ghost it and place it on the external drive, but I'm not sure.