HR21-700 with 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda HD

[ProntoMarco]

Success! I just installed the new SATA Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200.11 Hard Drive. The process was fairly easy to upgrade the native 320GB Western Digital hard drive of my HR21-700.
I purchased the Barracuda hard drive from Amazon for $179.99. I also purchased the Secure Torx T10 screw driver since all of the external screws were tamper proof.
The replacement of the internal drive took about 15 minutes - The front panel had to be pulled out some via the bottom tabs to allow for the hard drive bracket and hard drive to come out. The internal screws required a regular T8 Torx to remove the hard drive bracket from the mother board.
I swapped out drives and reconnected everything and hoped for the best...
After reconnecting all of the wires and turning on, the HR21-700 went through its normal startup routine and after about 15 minutes i was watching TV again and the new hard drive was ready to go.
I recorded several shows in HD and jumped between programs with no noticeable performance issues. Everything seems to be running great!!

[BillBurn]

Congrats!

Did you install the new drive directly without formatting it or hooking it up externally first? Sounds like a pretty easy process.

Bill

[LarryFlowers]

Success! I just installed the new SATA Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200.11 Hard Drive. The process was fairly easy to upgrade the native 320GB Western Digital hard drive of my HR21-700.
I purchased the Barracuda hard drive from Amazon for $179.99. I also purchased the Secure Torx T10 screw driver since all of the external screws were tamper proof.
The replacement of the internal drive took about 15 minutes - The front panel had to be pulled out some via the bottom tabs to allow for the hard drive bracket and hard drive to come out. The internal screws required a regular T8 Torx to remove the hard drive bracket from the mother board.
I swapped out drives and reconnected everything and hoped for the best...
After reconnecting all of the wires and turning on, the HR21-700 went through its normal startup routine and after about 15 minutes i was watching TV again and the new hard drive was ready to go.
I recorded several shows in HD and jumped between programs with no noticeable performance issues. Everything seems to be running great!!

That's cool and plenty of people have done it... just remember, you just violated your warranty and your lease agreement... make sure you keep the hard drive you took out so you can put it back in if you have to send it back for warranty or any other reason or the bill could get really big.:)

[ProntoMarco]

Congrats!

Did you install the new drive directly without formatting it or hooking it up externally first? Sounds like a pretty easy process.

Bill

Yea - i did not format the drive or do anything to it prior to the installation. I just pulled it out of its packaging and installed it. I was suprised that i did not have to format it or that when it was installed that the receiver did not try to format it for several hours.

Does not get any easier than this. It's a simple upgrade...

Good Luck!

[BillBurn]

Awesome. I will try to follow in your footsteps.

[Crypter]

The question is.... Are you getting the full 1.5 TB of storage? I am not so sure... I wish there was a diagnostic mode that tells you how much space you have available for recordings...

[BattleZone]

Any drive you install that isn't already formatted by the HR will be automatically formatted. Aside from formatting overhead and the 100 GB or so reserved by DirecTV, all additional space is available to the DVR for user recordings. Should be around 1.25-1.3 TB available.

[ProntoMarco]

Looks like it is using about 1.35TB based on some rough calculations... I have already recorded several hours of HD programming and it is showing 96% Free.
I will monitor it's performance, have heard mixed results about the Barracuda drives and media files but so far so good.

[Crypter]

I still do not see what the advantage of upgrading the internal drive is? I can add an External SATA drive and not void the DVR's warranty and it is even easier than replacing the internal drive.

[Rich]

I still do not see what the advantage of upgrading the internal drive is? I can add an External SATA drive and not void the DVR's warranty and it is even easier than replacing the internal drive.

Not only that, but if D* ever gets "upset" about people doing internal work on the equipment that D* actually owns, there is quite a list of people to go after. And that list is generated by people who freely acknowledge that they have broken their agreement with D*.

I'm sure that most people know someone who has been charged with cable service theft. I knew an electrician who would ask anyone he did a job for if they wanted "free cable service" or if they had cable service, he would go up on the pole and give them the HBO and Showtime channels. At the time, we did not receive HBO or Showtime directly from the cable provider, a jumper had to attached in a box on the pole where the connections were made. Now all the programming comes directly to the house. But he got caught, and received a hefty fine in court. What's to stop D* from doing the same thing?

I also knew electricians who would "jump out" the electric meter and then go back every so often and take the jumper out so that there would be something on the meter to generate a bill. They all got caught. And to show you how stupid some people are, one of them got caught by the meter reader.

Could it happen to people who openly boast about putting larger hard drives in 20/21s? I don't know. Wouldn't surprise me.

Do I know how to do it? You betcha. Would I do it? Nobody on this forum will ever know.

Rich

[dave29]

I still do not see what the advantage of upgrading the internal drive is? I can add an External SATA drive and not void the DVR's warranty and it is even easier than replacing the internal drive.

no advantage really, unless you dont have room or want an external drive sitting out. plus, with an external drive hooked up..... you are powering 2 drives instead of 1

[ProntoMarco]

It’s just personal preference... I did not want to add another device into my already crowded TV console. The external hard drive means more cords (Power & eSATA, potentially more noise, shelf space, added heat and the added expense of buying the enclosure and disk versus buying just the disk.

As far as the warranty - just keep the OEM drive that came with the DVR and put it back inside if the DVR has a problem.

[ProntoMarco]

Not only that, but if D* ever gets "upset" about people doing internal work on the equipment that D* actually owns, there is quite a list of people to go after. And that list is generated by people who freely acknowledge that they have broken their agreement with D*.

I'm sure that most people know someone who has been charged with cable service theft. I knew an electrician who would ask anyone he did a job for if they wanted "free cable service" or if they had cable service, he would go up on the pole and give them the HBO and Showtime channels. At the time, we did not receive HBO or Showtime directly from the cable provider, a jumper had to attached in a box on the pole where the connections were made. Now all the programming comes directly to the house. But he got caught, and received a hefty fine in court. What's to stop D* from doing the same thing?

I also knew electricians who would "jump out" the electric meter and then go back every so often and take the jumper out so that there would be something on the meter to generate a bill. They all got caught. And to show you how stupid some people are, one of them got caught by the meter reader.

Could it happen to people who openly boast about putting larger hard drives in 20/21s? I don't know. Wouldn't surprise me.

Do I know how to do it? You betcha. Would I do it? Nobody on this forum will ever know.

Rich

Rich, you are comparing STEALING electricity and cable to that of upgrading a Hard Drive for services and a lease that you are already paying for?

Hmmm - cant say much more...

[Rich]

Rich, you are comparing STEALING electricity and cable to that of upgrading a Hard Drive for services and a lease that you are already paying for?

Hmmm - cant say much more...

Exactly.

Rich

[veryoldschool]

Not only that, but if D* ever gets "upset" about people doing internal work on the equipment that D* actually owns, there is quite a list of people to go after. And that list is generated by people who freely acknowledge that they have broken their agreement with D*.

I'm sure that most people know someone who has been charged with cable service theft. I knew an electrician who would ask anyone he did a job for if they wanted "free cable service" or if they had cable service, he would go up on the pole and give them the HBO and Showtime channels. At the time, we did not receive HBO or Showtime directly from the cable provider, a jumper had to attached in a box on the pole where the connections were made. Now all the programming comes directly to the house. But he got caught, and received a hefty fine in court. What's to stop D* from doing the same thing?

I also knew electricians who would "jump out" the electric meter and then go back every so often and take the jumper out so that there would be something on the meter to generate a bill. They all got caught. And to show you how stupid some people are, one of them got caught by the meter reader.

Could it happen to people who openly boast about putting larger hard drives in 20/21s? I don't know. Wouldn't surprise me.

Do I know how to do it? You betcha. Would I do it? Nobody on this forum will ever know.

Rich
Fred will tell me. :D

[David MacLeod]

one advantage is not having to let esata drive spin up before powering up dvr.

[Davenlr]

7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda drives are all I use in my HTPC and eSATA for HR20... Have never had a problem with any of them...using media files or anything else.

[Rich]

Fred will tell me. :D

As would I, but by email. :lol:

Rich

[Rich]

one advantage is not having to let esata drive spin up before powering up dvr.

So you save 15 to 30 seconds? Not much of an advantage. :rolleyes:

Rich

[Rich]

7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda drives are all I use in my HTPC and eSATA for HR20... Have never had a problem with any of them...using media files or anything else.

My Cuda is working perfectly in the Antec enclosure. Surprisingly easy to install and really quiet. I've always thought that Seagate made the best HDs.

Rich

[evan_s]

So you save 15 to 30 seconds? Not much of an advantage. :rolleyes:

Rich

If you don't have both on the battery back up it can be more than that. A reboot do to power blinking could cause the DVR to boot off the internal HD and stay that way until you are able to fix it manually. Since the Internal HD won't have you Series links etc it could result in missed recordings etc. The easiest and best solution is a UPS but thats another discussion.

[P Smith]

Rich, you are comparing STEALING electricity and cable to that of upgrading a Hard Drive for services and a lease that you are already paying for?

Hmmm - cant say much more...
He is doing cheap PR for DTV to scary out ppl, to cut a freedom to inventions and convinience to use possesed deviced. Those company want to dictate how you should live and think. :( :down:

[Podkayne]

If you don't have both on the battery back up it can be more than that. A reboot do to power blinking could cause the DVR to boot off the internal HD and stay that way until you are able to fix it manually. Since the Internal HD won't have you Series links etc it could result in missed recordings etc. The easiest and best solution is a UPS but thats another discussion.

I do have a UPS on both the HR20-100 and the external esata drive/enclosure. Nevertheless I take the added precaution of keeping the series links up to date on the internal drive, just in case something were to happen and it would boot over to the intenal drive while I'm out of town or otherwise unable to boot it back over to the esata. Until I got the UPS that one precaution saved me about a week of programming. :D

[P Smith]

Would be copy of some file(s) with the series links be an easy simple solution for those who balancing between int and ext storage ?

[StanSimmons]

Not only that, but if D* ever gets "upset" about people doing internal work on the equipment that D* actually owns, there is quite a list of people to go after. And that list is generated by people who freely acknowledge that they have broken their agreement with D*.

I'm sure that most people know someone who has been charged with cable service theft. I knew an electrician who would ask anyone he did a job for if they wanted "free cable service" or if they had cable service, he would go up on the pole and give them the HBO and Showtime channels. At the time, we did not receive HBO or Showtime directly from the cable provider, a jumper had to attached in a box on the pole where the connections were made. Now all the programming comes directly to the house. But he got caught, and received a hefty fine in court. What's to stop D* from doing the same thing?

I also knew electricians who would "jump out" the electric meter and then go back every so often and take the jumper out so that there would be something on the meter to generate a bill. They all got caught. And to show you how stupid some people are, one of them got caught by the meter reader.

Could it happen to people who openly boast about putting larger hard drives in 20/21s? I don't know. Wouldn't surprise me.

Do I know how to do it? You betcha. Would I do it? Nobody on this forum will ever know.

Rich
Are you being serious, or just being a troll? :eek2:

Replacing the HD inside the box is NOTHING like stealing service or electricity. :nono:

DTV already approves expanding the drive space otherwise the external eSata wouldn't work.

The only reason they don't want people changing the internal drive is because most consumers don't know how to work a screwdriver and would end up trashing the box and electrocuting themselves.

[P Smith]

He just did try to mislead ppl. :(

[Richierich]

Where can you find a good price on a 1TB hard drive for replacing the internal drive on an HR21-700???

[Stuart Sweet]

It is pretty plain and simple:
You open the box, you void your warranty and violate your lease agreement.

Very straight forward. That rule isn't there to squash freedom of invention. Or controlling the way you think and live. That is even more out there, then the thought that DirecTV would sue you for millions of dollars because you upgrade your hard drive.

The worst they are going to do is charge you the full purchase price for the unit.

Of course they don't want you in their tinkering around with the chips and everything else, as that could lead to theft of service or you damaging the hardware, or hurting yourself if you don't know what you are doing.
Then it is the expensive call to DirecTV to get it replaced, which costs them money.

To which I can only add, please be kind to each other, because I think that this is a good discussion and I do not wish to close it.

[russdog]

Where can you find a good price on a 1TB hard drive for replacing the internal drive on an HR21-700???
Lots of places.
If you move fast, there's this one: http://www.1saleaday.com/
If you don't move fast, that same item can be found elsewhere, delivered for just $13 more.
(Google is your friend.)

[Starrbuck]

Lots of places.
If you move fast, there's this one: http://www.1saleaday.com/
If you don't move fast, that same item can be found elsewhere, delivered for just $13 more.
(Google is your friend.)
I can't personally recommend this drive. It is sub-7200 rpm and the throughput on the one I have can't seem to keep up with the needs of the HR20, leading to pixelation and other issues.

I just put a Seagate 7200.11 1TB on my HR21 and it seems great so far.

[russdog]

I can't personally recommend this drive. It is sub-7200 rpm and the throughput on the one I have can't seem to keep up with the needs of the HR20, leading to pixelation and other issues.

I just put a Seagate 7200.11 1TB on my HR21 and it seems great so far.
Thanks for the input.
That WD drive works fine for many folks (myself included). Yours is the first report I've seen that it doesn't.
For reasons unknown, the Seagate works fine for some, but not for others. (Who knows why? Not me.)

[MIMOTech]

I have had a 1TB disk in mine for a long time now and find it more reliable then when it was external. Had lots of problems when doing reboots do to it or the cable or just bad start up timing. I eliminated all that by putting it inside. No cooling problems at all and I using a Hitachi 1TB drive.

[Rich]

If you don't have both on the battery back up it can be more than that. A reboot do to power blinking could cause the DVR to boot off the internal HD and stay that way until you are able to fix it manually. Since the Internal HD won't have you Series links etc it could result in missed recordings etc. The easiest and best solution is a UPS but thats another discussion.

I live in a really stable part of the country power wise and rarely have power outages. Can't remember the last time we had one. I even took a generator back because it was just sitting in the box for over a year. Bought it for my sump pumps, and will run and get another if the need ever arises. But that's all I'm worried about, the flooding. I live a block away from a large river.

Rich

[cameron_111]

Is the drive still working for you? This 1.5TB Seagate drive has had a terrible track record installed an an external drive but I'm curious how it performs over the long-term as an internal drive.

[Pantherfan71]

Installed and replaced my internal hard drive with a seagate 1.5 TB working fine got about 57 movies recorded got 84 percent left