HR20 storage

external, get an antec mx-1 enclosure with a hard drive like one of the Western Digital GP series or Seagate's in the size you would like.

The MX-1 is good as it has a fan to cool the drive, most externals are not meant to be run 24/7 and get too hot (DVRs put a load on the drive all the time).

To add to what Grentz said, once the external drive is added, the space on the internal drive will not be available for recording. The most popular external drive sizes are 750gb (150 HD hrs) and 1TB (200 HD hrs).

Thank you. This was the way that I was leaning. I never realized that the internal hard drive would no longer be available. How much does the 1TB actually add over the internal drive?

Starchild said:

Thank you. This was the way that I was leaning. I never realized that the internal hard drive would no longer be available. How much does the 1TB actually add over the internal drive?

Click to expand...

The other option is to replace the internal drive - see for more details

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=100894&highlight=internal+sata

I am think of adding either 750GB or 1TB internal drive. The installed internal drive gives about 60 hours MPEG4 HD - it sounds like 750GB will give about 150 hours and 1TB about 200 hours.

I am not going to try to clone the internal drive - I start with new recordings, season passes etc for the new TV season. I'd rather have an internal drive as it is neater than an addition external drive - but an external drive will certainly work well for many.

Starchild said:

Thank you. This was the way that I was leaning. I never realized that the internal hard drive would no longer be available. How much does the 1TB actually add over the internal drive?

Click to expand...

aproximate increase:
500gb = 2x
750gb = 3x
1tb = 4x..

would a Western Digital 500 GB USB 2.0 My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive work? or does it have to be the g series?

turey22 said:

would a Western Digital 500 GB USB 2.0 My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive work? or does it have to be the g series?

Click to expand...

The external drive needs to be an eSATA, usb drives won't work.

As far as how much additional space in a more detailed look at it...

The internal drive is a 300gb (HR20), 320gb (HR21), or 500gb (HR22). Approx. 100gb is always reserved for Directv usage (some debate on the exact amount, could be a bit less). So, you actually have about 200gb HR20, 220gb HR21, 400gb HR22 which brings you back to the numbers houskamp posted:

houskamp said:

aproximate increase:
500gb = 2x
750gb = 3x
1tb = 4x..

Click to expand...

Remember that the receiver will only use one drive (either the external or the internal when the external is not plugged in). So if you bought a 300 or 320gb drive and put it in an external enclosure, you would have the same amount of recording space as before!

If I go with the external drive, will the programs I have saved on the internal drive still be available for viewing? One of my drives is down to around 3 percent left and I don't have enough time right now to clear the shows I have saved. This is why I was looking to add capacity.

No, you will not still be able to view them unless you disconnect the external drive again and reboot the receiver...which some have reported is not best to do as when you go back to reconnect the external drive, sometimes it will reinitialize it and reset it back to factory defaults (aka loose all settings, recordings etc. on the external drive).

When you plug an external drive in it is like a new receiver again (besides already being activated and what not).

so if i get a 1tb-100gs of that 1tb are going towards directv??

Approx. yes. For internal things, etc.

So you would have around 900gb vs. the stock 200gb on your HR20s (approx. 4.5x the space).

Remember my numbers are just based on labeled capacity of the drives...when formated drives do not have their labeled capacity because of the differences in numbering and all that (which is the same wherever you use it, a 300gb Drive is actually 279gb when formatted). But the approx. X number would still be accurate (4.5x the space for a 1TB)