Hard Drive Upgrade - Internal or External

7627 Views 91 Replies 39 Participants Last post by smolenski, Oct 8, 2008

al4

Discussion Starter · Sep 11, 2008

I just got an HR21-200 and was looking to upgrade the drive. I have a Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1000GB drive.

I am comfortable with opening up electronics (I did my TiVo HD with no issues). I would rather it be powered by the HD DVR and not be external to save space and another power plug on my power switch.

What is the "preferred" method?

1 - 20 of 92 Posts

Grentz

· #2 · Sep 11, 2008

External via eSATA.

Chances are your unit is leased, aka you should not open it and if you do you possibly will be charged the full retail price (around $500-$700) if you ever need to get it replaced or when you terminate service.

If you want to run that risk, it is up to you

al4

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 11, 2008

Aren't all units technically "leased"?

However I'm sure in an Antec MX-1 the drive might stay a bit cooler, it just takes up extra space unless I got creative and moved it out of the way.

Grentz

· #4 · Sep 11, 2008

al4 said:
Aren't all units technically "leased"?

However I'm sure in an Antec MX-1 the drive might stay a bit cooler, it just takes up extra space unless I got creative and moved it out of the way.

No, before March 06 receivers were owned and you can still buy receivers at full price (such as the HR21PRO) and get them owned, all though it can be hard to get them activated as owned since Directv is used to leasing for everything now.

Most likely it would stay a bit cooler, plus the MX-1 matches nicely with the black HR21 units

Janice

· #5 · Sep 11, 2008

Grentz said:
External via eSATA.

Chances are your unit is leased, aka you should not open it and if you do you possibly will be charged the full retail price (around $500-$700) if you ever need to get it replaced or when you terminate service.

Hi, I'm new here and this seems a little odd to me.

So why would opening up the receiver equate to being charged anything assuming the product is returned in the same electro-mechanical condition it was leased with?

If I lease a new car and add headers to it everything is copacetic providing I return the car with the original equipment.

I'm also thinking of replacing the onboard HD with something decent. From just looking in the case I really don't even need to take the HD out as I can just plug in a standard SATA cable to the motherboard.

veryoldschool

· #6 · Sep 11, 2008

Janice said:
Hi, I'm new here and this seems a little odd to me.

So why would opening up the receiver equate to being charged anything assuming the product is returned in the same electro-mechanical condition it was leased with?

If I lease a new car and add headers to it everything is copacetic providing I return the car with the original equipment.

I'm also thinking of replacing the onboard HD with something decent. From just looking in the case I really don't even need to take the HD out as I can just plug in a standard SATA cable to the motherboard.

:welcome_s to DBSTalk.
While it might not "equate" to being charged, you violate the lease agreement and could be liable for the charge.
Given the eSATA option which doesn't, it's seen as the preferred method.
This forum works with DirecTV [thou not owned or supported] and as such "try" to stay within their guidelines.

Stuart Sweet

· #7 · Sep 11, 2008

Your customer agreement does not allow you to modify the leased equipment in any way. Also there is a tamper-evident sticker on the DVR. If you have tampered with your DVR, they are completely within the scope of their agreement to charge you over $470 in fees.

Folks, do so at your own risk, that's all I can say. You won't get a lot of support in this forum for doing something that voids your customer agreement. If you are dead set on replacing your hard drive and your equipment is owned, you'll find some threads here on how to do it. It's not terribly hard but the drives are not designed to be replaced in the field and there's a big risk of fouling things up in there.

Take it from me. I built my first PC in 1989 and I was modding 8-bit hardware for about 5 years before that. I've been inside a DIRECTV DVR -- with their permission -- and pulling the drive's not as easy as you'd think. There's a lot of stuff in there that isn't meant to be dealt with by the end user.

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Janice

· #8 · Sep 11, 2008

veryoldschool said:
:welcome_s to DBSTalk.
While it might not "equate" to being charged, you violate the lease agreement and could be liable for the charge.
Given the eSATA option which doesn't, it's seen as the preferred method.
This forum works with DirecTV [thou not owned or supported] and as such "try" to stay within their guidelines.

Okay that makes more sense. I was just thinking that the drive would be much faster with a native SATA solution as opposed to being put through an additional eSATA port. Also there zero problems with using any SATA drive.

So supposing I go with the external solution what would be a good recommendation for an external RAID setup? I was thinking of using four (4) 1 Tb drives in a RAID mirroring and striping setup.

Janice

· #9 · Sep 11, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
Your customer agreement does not allow you to modify the leased equipment in any way. Also there is a tamper-evident sticker on the DVR. If you have tampered with your DVR, they are completely within the scope of their agreement to charge you over $470 in fees.

Folks, do so at your own risk, that's all I can say. You won't get a lot of support in this forum for doing something that voids your customer agreement. If you are dead set on replacing your hard drive and your equipment is owned, you'll find some threads here on how to do it. It's not terribly hard but the drives are not designed to be replaced in the field and there's a big risk of fouling things up in there.

Take it from me. I built my first PC in 1989 and I was modding 8-bit hardware for about 5 years before that. I've been inside a DIRECTV DVR -- with their permission -- and pulling the drive's not as easy as you'd think. There's a lot of stuff in there that isn't meant to be dealt with by the end user.

Warning is heeded, but mine seems to be missing any sticker :scratchin :grin:

I have also been building computers since before there was anything even called a PC. Also like to OC and watercool If I thought it would run a smidgen better.

Stuart Sweet

· #10 · Sep 11, 2008

Janice, take a look at the back panel near the top center. That's where a sticker would be. If there isn't one, well, there isn't one.

I don't think you'll be able to overclock the DVR, although thanks for the grin when I thought about it

veryoldschool

· #11 · Sep 11, 2008

Read/write speeds aren't going to improve the performance of the DVR.

Ken S

· #12 · Sep 11, 2008

Ooh...OCing a DirecTV DVR...hey...let's go water cooling and put lots of neon on the sides. Hmm...why stop with OC...how about we hang a NOS cannister on the side and really fire things up.

cygnusloop

· #13 · Sep 11, 2008

A flame job would be cool too. And maybe some spinners!

veryoldschool

· #14 · Sep 11, 2008

cygnusloop said:
A flame job would be cool too. And maybe some spinners!

I'd just be happy with "dual pipes" [yeah I'm very old school] :lol:

Ken S

· #15 · Sep 11, 2008

veryoldschool said:
I'd just be happy with "dual pipes" [yeah I'm very old school] :lol:

VOS,

I'll bet you have some pink, fuzzy, dice hanging off your remote.

Janice

· #16 · Sep 11, 2008

Ken S said:
Ooh...OCing a DirecTV DVR...hey...let's go water cooling and put lots of neon on the sides. Hmm...why stop with OC...how about we hang a NOS cannister on the side and really fire things up.

Great minds really do think alike :eek2:

I got this really nice Aqua Computer external water cooling unit that would be perfectly matched to the HR21-200 case. Question is whether I get much faster processing and would I see better performance.

veryoldschool

· #17 · Sep 11, 2008

Ken S said:
VOS,

I'll bet you have some pink, fuzzy, dice hanging off your remote.

Tuck and Roll man....:lol:

garbec

· #18 · Sep 11, 2008

al4 said:
I just got an HR21-200 and was looking to upgrade the drive. What is the "preferred" method?

Al4,

You have quite a few people here trying to convince you to go external. I disagree, when I add my 1TB it will definetly be internal. If you read a little, you will find some external users complaining that their external drives get formated ocasionally and occasionally are not recognized. My thinking is "why not?" The only time the lease lliability comes into play is if you damage the unit during the swap. I have read the instructions, it doesn't seem all that risky to me.

greynolds

· #19 · Sep 12, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
Folks, do so at your own risk, that's all I can say. You won't get a lot of support in this forum for doing something that voids your customer agreement. If you are dead set on replacing your hard drive and your equipment is owned, you'll find some threads here on how to do it.

It certainly makes sense that the forum wouldn't want to be overly supportive of modifying leased receivers given the relationship with DTV. But...

It's not terribly hard but the drives are not designed to be replaced in the field and there's a big risk of fouling things up in there.

Take it from me. I built my first PC in 1989 and I was modding 8-bit hardware for about 5 years before that. I've been inside a DIRECTV DVR -- with their permission -- and pulling the drive's not as easy as you'd think. There's a lot of stuff in there that isn't meant to be dealt with by the end user.

I haven't opened a regular HR21 or HR20, but I have opened one of my HR21 Pros (this one ended up staying with me after I received a warranty replacement because this one kept overheating and rebooting - DTV didn't want it back). Since I owned it AND it wasn't working, I figured I had nothing to lose by opening it up. Other than needing a security torx bit to get inside, replacing the hard drive is extremely simple to do. I honestly feel that the risk of fouling things up is being blown completely out of proportion. Anyone who can install a hard drive or expansion card into a PC should have no problem swapping the hard drives in these DVR's if they feel so inclined. Just be aware of the potential financial penalties if DTV decides to bill you for a modified lease unit.

I'd much rather swap the drives internally rather than use an external case. Doing so will use a little less power (one powered drive instead of 2) and save room in my already overflowing stereo cabinets. Since I own all 3 of my HR21 Pro's and my HR21, I have no problem at all swapping out the internal drives once the 90 day warranties are expired.

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houskamp

· #20 · Sep 12, 2008

greynolds said:
I haven't opened a regular HR21 or HR20, but I have opened one of my HR21 Pros (this one ended up staying with me after I received a warranty replacement because this one kept overheating and rebooting - DTV didn't want it back). Since I owned it AND it wasn't working, I figured I had nothing to lose by opening it up. Other than needing a security torx bit to get inside, replacing the hard drive is extremely simple to do. I honestly feel that the risk of fouling things up is being blown completely out of proportion. Anyone who can install a hard drive or expansion card into a PC should have no problem swapping the hard drives in these DVR's if they feel so inclined. Just be aware of the potential financial penalties if DTV decides to bill you for a modified lease unit.

There are several models of HR2xs that are different inside.. some are easier than others..

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