HR2x / HR34 External Hard Drive FYI/Support (eSATA)

[maxlemke]

Good info,
Thanks Masterdeals

I am one that is looking into this type of thing and I am always looking for a good deal.
I would like to get into either a 1 TB or 1.5 TB set up.

Anyone have any suggestions ?

also are the ESATA cables all the same as far as what fits.
I saw the Western Digital site specifically stated that they only use the I to I cable, would this be true with all E SATA drives ? Making the other cables to be used for other applications ?

Jimbo

I bought an internal Hitachi 1TB drive 8 months ago along with a a case that supports eSATA. It has worked without problems with my HD21-700. I bought it because my internal drive was failing after 2 years of service. I noticed that the drive is always on and recording. I guess this is why my internal drive failed. It would be nice if there was a setting in the software that allowed me to turn off the feature of always recording the last 45 minutes of the channel it is tuned. Because of this, I tune the receiver to e music channel believing there is less to record.

 

[Jimbo]

I bought an internal Hitachi 1TB drive 8 months ago along with a a case that supports eSATA. It has worked without problems with my HD21-700. I bought it because my internal drive was failing after 2 years of service. I noticed that the drive is always on and recording. I guess this is why my internal drive failed. It would be nice if there was a setting in the software that allowed me to turn off the feature of always recording the last 45 minutes of the channel it is tuned. Because of this, I tune the receiver to e music channel believing there is less to record.

WOW,

That post was from 3 years ago.

Yes the drives are always recording as they have to always have a buffer available for you.
I doubt that the buffer is causing drives to go bad, if that was the case there would be alot more talk about them.

Btw, if your internal HD is going bad, why did you not call D* and get a new unit ? Why spend your good money on an external when you have a internal that they are responsible for.
I would have got the unit replaced and THEN used the EHD for the new unit.

 

[lynesjc]

Help please...

I had an HR20 with a 1tb external hd attached. The received died and I've hooked up a different receiver with the same external hd.

I get an error message when I playback any of the recordings on the old external hd on the new receiver.

Why is this? Are they somehow tied to the old receiver's access card or serial number?

 

[BobStokesbary]

I had an HR20 with a 1tb external hd attached. The received died and I've hooked up a different receiver with the same external hd.

I get an error message when I playback any of the recordings on the old external hd on the new receiver.

Why is this? Are they somehow tied to the old receiver's access card or serial number?

Yes, it is tied to the old receiver. You can find the information on DirecTV's website. I tried to post the URL here but I get a "forbidden" message.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I just ordered this setup, for my living room HR22-100, due to OTA recording. Past experience with OTA and a 1TB, this should offer around 200 hours.

Western Digital 2 TB AV-GP SATA Intellipower 32 MB AV Hard Drive WD20EVDS
Designed for AV use

Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station

 

[Todd Wiedemann]

Guys -

I'm looking into adding an Iomega "Professional Hard Drive hard drive - 2 TB - Hi-Speed USB / eSATA-300" to my HR20-700. (iomega part number 34527)

I can get it for $165.

Good buy? Will it work?

I've been away from DirecTV for a while (living in a high rise, no place to mount it) and haven't been following the latest in external storage. Sorry if this has been asked/answered but searching came up empty.

Thanks!

 

[raoul5788]

Guys -

I'm looking into adding an Iomega "Professional Hard Drive hard drive - 2 TB - Hi-Speed USB / eSATA-300" to my HR20-700. (iomega part number 34527)

I can get it for $165.

Good buy? Will it work?

I've been away from DirecTV for a while (living in a high rise, no place to mount it) and haven't been following the latest in external storage. Sorry if this has been asked/answered but searching came up empty.

Thanks!

I've always felt that 2tb is too big for a dvr. I know it sounds silly, but here is my reasoning. You will end up putting way more on there than you will ever have the time to view. Then, if you have a problem with the hd, you won't be able to watch what's on there since it is linked to that dvr. A 1tb is the largest I would get. JMHO, YMMV!

 

[Todd Wiedemann]

I've always felt that 2tb is too big for a dvr. I know it sounds silly, but here is my reasoning. You will end up putting way more on there than you will ever have the time to view. Then, if you have a problem with the hd, you won't be able to watch what's on there since it is linked to that dvr. A 1tb is the largest I would get. JMHO, YMMV!

Thanks!

I hear you but for that price it's not a bad leap.

Still, no one has responded if it actually will work. Anyone?

 

[jcrandall]

I've been using two of the 2TB EVDS Western Digital line drives and they seem very reliable. My old 1.5TB seagate drives failed in as little as three months, in fact they failed so often I dumped them cheaply on craigslist after the third warranty exchange and paid much more for the 2TB EVDS line drives.

elwaylite linked them above, but drives that I highly recomend. I installed them in new HR24s and they have worked great. Replacing the drive in the HR24 was easy once I learned how to take the top cover off using the internal clips on the sides.

 

[pmcode]

How did I know you would have this come back. If plugging in an eSATA data cable fries the machine, I will BUY you another one. You have to prove it though. Plugging a data cable in is much different then opening a case, removing power lines, removing a drive, plugging in an unsupported drive internally, and booting this off the INTERNAL power source. That is the danger, not the booting into a different data storage.

I know this post is from forever and ever ago.....but......

Dude, you owe me a new receiver......

HR21-200, ran for about 6 months before finding out about the eSATA ability. From then on, it has been run with an eSATA 1TB HDD in an Antec enclosure. Was watching tv on Wed, when unit starting garbling both audio and video. Checked signal levels, got a few that were kinda low, so I reset the receiver (menu reset) for giggles. Upon reboot, had no guide (when hitting the guide button, all I got was the error "thunk"), no audio and no video, either. Thought maybe it was the external drive, so I again reset, then unplugged the power. Removed eSATA cable from the receiver, rebooted.
Now all I get is after the receiver self-check screen is a sorta BSOD screen with the error of "unable to detect storage device...blah blah.... error code 14-902"
Called D* and they said yup, it's toast.

tl;dr version:
after running with an external drive, internal drive must have died, therefore external killed unit (yeah, I know, pulling some serious you-know-what outta my you-know-where). Hence, you owe me a new unit.



On another note, upon receiving replacement unit, CSR tried to tell me my shows would be fine from the external drive. YEAH, RIGHT!!!! all i get is a stupid generic error about all my shows might not have recorded properly, and it is searching for authorized content.

Anybody know of any solution to this????

Thanks

/ridiculously long post

PmCode

 

[defender007]

Sorry if I'm in the wrong place, but can I connect an external HD on mh HR23 and use both HD's? Internal and external?

 

[olc]

Sorry if I'm in the wrong place, but can I connect an external HD on mh HR23 and use both HD's? Internal and external?

Yes, but not at the same time. The external (and be careful which one you get - not all work) replaces the internal one, so it's like setting up a new receiver for favorites, scheduled recording, etc.

You can go back to the internal drive by removing the external and rebooting.

 

[glen4cindy]

Hello,

I'm not trying to shortcut this thread, but, with 470 some replies, and some really old information, it might be really hard to get good information.

I would like to expand my HR24, but, if I am going to take the plunge, I really don't want to just wade in, I want to go with 2TB if that will work.

I suppose, from what I have been able to read, it is best to go with a device that is designed to be a DVR Expander specifically? Or, is it just as suitable to "build your own" out of the parts, E-Sata dock, power supply, cable, and drive?

Is the 2TB drive the largest drive the HR24 can reasonably manage? I know that from what I have read, a 1TB is approximately 250 hrs of HD content.

My other question is, I know with the Tivo units, there were ways to swap the internal drives for larger units and preserve the recordings while achieving the larger size. Is this something that is possible with the HR24? I've read that it is pretty impossible to open, but, assuming that one can open the unit, can it be expanded in this manner with a larger drive so that an external e-sata isn't needed?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just to update, Im planning a Thermaltake BlacX dock with a 2TB WD EARX drive I have. Hope to install Friday with new HR34. I was just gonna stick with the internal 1TB, but decided on an AM21n for OTA recording, so 2TB's will be better

 

[Jimbo]

Remember guys, those of you with huge HD's, if the recvr has problems and you need to replace it, your recordings go with it, you can't transfer to the new one or another one.

I would not keep anything of importance on it that you can't afford to lose.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I don't keep anything, more than I have too. I just end up being 4 weeks behind by each season break, at 30-40 hours a week. I need some cushion, plus recording OTA eats more space.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well, after 5 days, the TT BlacX and 2TB green drive seem to be playing nicely with my HR34.

 

[jscott70]

WOW! That is terrible. I can't imagine why DirecTV wouldn't allow you to use both drive simultaneously as Dish does. DirecTV REALLY needs to re-visit this method of handling external drives. I like the eSATA interface for speed but they should also allow USB or eSATA. Does anyone know if it's on DirecTV's radar screen to improve the external hard drive situation by allowing use of both at the same time? I can't believe there is no way to preserve recordings in the event of a system failure or upgrade!! With an external on Dish I was able to transfer my recordings onto my external drive when my VIP622's phone port was fried by lightning and I went to a VIP722. Come on DirecTV get with the program here! I like DirecTV's feature set better than Dish but there are some things they do that REALLY have me scratching my head.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just installed the new Thermaltake enclosure which is replacing my BlacX dock. Main reason for this is I wanted to try the enclosure out, and I thought it looked cool when I saw it

Comes with everything you need cable and tool wise, hard drive fits snugly and is cooled by two large TT fans. The blue lighting around the fans can be cut off and on, which is nice, but they arent too bright IMO. The front LED is a bit too bright and it's an activity light, so I toned it down with a Light Dim.

Old Dock

New enclosure

Drive installed

Back

Before drive

I also took the time to use Hard Disk Sentinel to check out the drives health. 184 days as a DVR drive, and test come back clean for 100% health right now.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Thermaltake seems to be working well so far, really like the way it looks.