External hard drive

i would like to extend my storage capacity and am looking at a 4 T external drive w/ eSata connections. understand that my ”old recordings” stay on the internal drive. my question is in getting to the old recordings.

if i just unpower the external drive and turn on the DVR will it recognize the internal drive ? or do i need to reset the Genie Dvr to switch to the internal drive or do i have to physically disconnect the eSATA cable?

thanks in advance

@Fxinxs

When you connect the external HDD, the recordings on the internal one are left as is. They are not deleted. If you were to disconnect the external and power cycle the DVR, the internal would be in use again so you could access the old recordings.

However, be cautious as the eSATA port on DirecTV boxes was not intended to do this often like you would a regular computer. It was more plug in the external once and leave it there, or perhaps far down the road replace with a different external if needed. So it is not as sturdy as you would find in a computer where modifying the build often could be common.

Only get the 4TB if it is for the Genie (main, not Client as they share the Genie), as regular HDDVRs have a hard cap support of a 2TB external.

If you have any Mini Genie Clients, consider replacing with an HDDVR. More recording space built-in, supports their own external if desired, doesn't rely on the Genie to work, and no difference in monthly cost. Assuming you have one of the regular Genie line, and not the Genie-2 (HS17) that forbids HDDVRs.

thanks for the quick response. in short i can do it but its not recommended to do often. (thats why i asked if juust powering off the external drive and reboot would be better than unplugging.

Where you got me confused is the last 2 paragraphs - i have the HR54/700 Reciever/dvr - want to add the 4 T external to it will it work ?

Yes can be done, but not suggested often per the port isn't built with the same durability as a regular computer.

Sorry for the confusion, this should clear it up:

HR34, HR44, HR54 are the 3 generations of Genie. Using a 4TB external with them is ok. In fact some have used 12TB and higher successfully.

A regular HDDVR (HR24 or earlier) has a hard max on 2TB external. You can have a regular HDDVR instead of a Mini Genie Client, so can be a more capable and reliable system overall.

The new line, the Genie-2 (HS17) is the only model that forbids regular HDDVRs from being on the account. It only allows Clients which hard caps the system. Never upgrade to this model in its current state.

thanks much !!!!