Anybody here add a HD to a DirectTV HD DVR?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’m tired of running out of room on my DirecTV HR-21 - has anyone here plugged a new hard drive in to expand the storage space?

2

Yep, with my HR-20. Works great 99% of the time.

Only caveats:

  1. Once the external drive is active, it doesn’t use the internal drive anymore. So if you have recordings you haven’t watch yet, you’ll want to watch them before installing the new drive.
  2. Every once in a while, after a system update, power failure, or random glitch, the player doesn’t recognize the external drive and reverts back to the internal drive. (And its out-of-date recording schedule…) Getting the player to recognize the external drive again can take a couple of power-down/reboot routines, which take forever.
    2a) #2 has happened four or five times over a couple of years; but one time, when I plugged in the external drive again, the DVR reformatted it. And I lost all the recordings on it. (Happened last summer, so I just lost a bunch of movies we were never going to get around to watch…)
3

Denny, what’s the process for adding the new drive? Is there something in the HR-20 menu to set it up?

Biggest issue for us is probably trying to watch everything recorded before adding the new drive (we constantly have the drive almost filled - which is why I want more space.)

4

Pretty sure it’s just plug-n-reset.

Book recordings over internet:

m.direct.com

5

Very good How-To article with lots of good user comments, including what drives work and don’t work, etc. Article is dated 2008-09-12

6

Very nice - thanks.

7

Wow, I had no idea it might be that easy to set up. I’m continually running out of space on my drive and will have to check that out. Thanks. :)

8

If you want a very quiet enclosure I recommend the antec mx-1. Newegg’s price is a bit higher than normal thought ($30-$40 when on sale).

9

Can you do this with any PVR, or is there something unique about this brand/model?

10

The ‘new’ non-tivo Directv DVRs, the HR20, HR21, and probably the new HR22 can do this.

For the tivo-branded HR10-250s it was much more convoluted, requiring a bootdisk and hooking up the drives to a PC.

11

Any external eSata HD will work - I got the Cavalry 1TB on newegg.com - don’t even bother with instructions - just unplug yr DirecTV DVR, plug in the eSATA, and the new drive will be recognized - it is quieter than the internal drive too…