I am looking at doing that myself. The connection would be esata to
esata. Only a few drives have been verified to work. You can read
about it in the Directv forums. The external drive would be the active
drive and the internal drive would not be used when this drive is
connected. Disconnect it and you would be back to using your internal
drive. The DVR would reformat the external to work with saving programs
for later viewing. I purchased an external esata drive enclosure and
will try a couple of 1GB drives later.
Per Directv:
Increase Recording Capacity on Your DVR or HD DVR
Want to record even more hours of your favorite shows, movies and
sports? You can increase the recording capacity of your DVR or HD DVR
simply by connecting an external hard drive with greater storage than
the receiver's internal hard drive.
First, make sure you have a compatible receiver. Check the model number
inside the small door located on bottom right corner of the front of the
receiver. The model number should read either R22 (DIRECTV Plus^® DVR)
or HR20 or above (DIRECTV Plus^® HD DVR).
You'll need an external hard drive that uses an eSATA connection. The
following hard drive models are recommended:
* Western Digital 500GB (model WDG1S5000)
* Western Digital 1TB (model WDG1S10000)
* Seagate 1TB (model ST31000SCA109-RK)
* Seagate 500GB (model ST30500SCA109-RK)
Follow these steps to connect the external hard drive:
* Turn off your receiver by unplugging the power cord. (Do not rely
on the power button.)
* Look for the port on the back of your receiver labeled SATA.
* Connect the eSATA hard drive with an eSATA cable. Make sure the
cable is firmly connected on both ends.
* Turn on the eSATA hard drive and give it several seconds to spin
up to speed.
* Plug in the power chord of your receiver.
When your receiver reboots, it will automatically see the
newly-connected hard drive. The hard drive inside your receiver will be
disabled.
You now have expanded recording capacity. With a 1TB hard drive, you can
record up to 200 hours of HD programming.
Because the content on the external drive is paired with the HD DVR
receiver it's connected to, you will have to reformat the external drive
if you want to connect it to a different HD DVR receiver. Reformatting
means you will lose the recordings you made with the original HD DVR
receiver.
/Please note: We offer this tip because we want to help you get the most
out of your DIRECTV experience. It is recommended for advanced users who
are comfortable working with electronic hardware. This modification of
your DIRECTV system is not officially supported by DIRECTV. DIRECTV,
Inc. expressly denies any liability relating to any and all injuries and
damages of any and every kind from the use of above equipment. User is
responsible for the loss of or damage to the above equipment and assumes
the costs and expenses of all necessary servicing and repairs. DIRECTV
expressly denies any guarantee or warranty, either express or implied
regarding the quality and performance of the above equipment. i>/
On 10/19/2010 3:45 PM, Dean Kukral wrote:
> I believe, but am not sure, that this is a place to connect an
> external drive to the dvr to effectively increase the amount of
> storage space on your dvr for programs. For example, I bought my
> Directv from Weaknees with a larger hard drive than is normal, so that
> I could record more than the standard drive permits. I don't think
> that my dvr came with a usb interface on the front. On my TIVO, there
> is a place to connect a WD hard drive that also effectively expands
> the recording space. On the TIVO once the hard drive has been
> attached, it is sort of re-formatted and you can no longer take it
> off, I think. It must remain attached to the TIVO.
>
> You should go to the Directv web site to read more about your
> particular dvr model. (Unfortunately their web site is very slow and
> short on details!) You should also check out weaknees at
> http://www.weaknees.com/ to see what they have to say and offer. They
> can give you a definitive answer to this question.
>
> As far as backing up this material, I don't know if you can or not.
> Your computer would have to be able to "see" the drives, and I am not
> certain if the directv software will allow that. Furthermore,
> whether you want to back it up or not is sort of up to you. I have a
> season of "True Blood" on my hard drive, and I don't want to lose it,
> but, after I view it I will delete it. If I lost it, I would have to
> wait until it came out on DVD or until re-runs started. So, to me,
> backing up that stuff is not particularly important. Others may feel
> differently about their tv programs...
>
> HTH
>
> Dean Kukral
>
> On 10/19/2010 11:46 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>> I read with interest the discussion regarding using external hard drives
>> for backup purposes. I'm not really sure if this is the correct
>> forum for
>> my question. I have a DirecTV dvr with a USB port on the front.
>> I'm told
>> it is to allow an external hard drive for recording programs.
>> Having this
>> in mind, would software for backup purposes be redundant or even
>> needed?
>> I've seen the WD My book 2TB external hard drive on sale for less
>> than $150
>> and was considering getting one and plugging it into my dvr. Has
>> anyone had
>> any experience with this? I already use carbonite to backup my pc.
>>
>> TIA,
>> Kevin Nowicki
>>
>> PCBUILD's List Owners:
>> Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
>> Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>
>>
>
> PCBUILD's List Owners:
> Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
> Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
>
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
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