New Member
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4 Messages
External Hard Drive DVR
We switched from Dish Network to Directv last week and when we were with Dish we had an external hard drive that had some movies and shows on it. When the installer came out to put in Directv he connected the external drive with an eSATA cable but never tested it. With Dish we did not use eSATA but used USB instead. The hard drive never worked and now I am having to call Geek Squad from Best Buy to see if they can make it work.
Has anyone successfully hooked up an external DVR to Directv Genie 2 receiver and had it work. The responses on here are very old and do not apply to current hardware. Thanks for any help.
Mike
litzdog911
ACE - Sage
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46.7K Messages
4 years ago
What is the exact model number of your "Genie 2"?
Only the HR44 and some of the HR54 Genie models support external hard drives. And they only support eSATA drives, not USB.
Why do you want to use an external drive with your Genie 2? Realize that the external REPLACES the internal drive. It does not add storage capacity to the internal drive.
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MikeA747
New Member
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4 Messages
4 years ago
I am not sure of the model number as I am not at home right now but the purpose is to have more space. The external drive is 6TB whereas the internal drive is only 1TB and I love to do a lot of recording for later viewing.
Mike
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DIRECTVhelp
Community Support
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255.7K Messages
4 years ago
Thank you so much for your input @litzdog911.
That's right @MikeA747 you will need an specific receiver as well as eSATA drive in order to have additional storage.
Please confirm with us the model number of your receiver once you're at home.
Thanks in advance.
Camila, DIRECTV Community Specialist
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.3K Messages
4 years ago
AFAIK DTV techs don't carry Esata cables or are trained on adding external drives so where where did the cable come from?
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MikeA747
New Member
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4 Messages
4 years ago
The cable came with EHD when I bought it. They included both eSATA and USB.
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DIRECTVhelp
Community Support
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255.7K Messages
4 years ago
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.3K Messages
4 years ago
Ok, do you know if the tech powered down the Genie before connecting it while it was also powered down, then powered up the external drive then powered up the Genie?
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MikeA747
New Member
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4 Messages
4 years ago
I called home and they told me it is an HS17. Does that make sense?
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litzdog911
ACE - Sage
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46.7K Messages
4 years ago
Yes, that is the Genie Server. You cannot add a hard drive to the HS17.
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.3K Messages
4 years ago
The HS17 has a 2TB hard drive.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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23.4K Messages
4 years ago
DirecTV boxes only support external drives via eSATA, not USB.
Recordings are not transferable between providers, and at least for DirecTV also cannot transfer between boxes. That means everything on that hard drive is lost.
Only the 1st run of the Genie-2 (HS17) had an eSATA port. Going forward the most recent version, including revising the 3rd generation Genie (HR54 to HR54R1), has no eSATA port so does not support an external drive.
If yours has the eSATA port: Completely unplug from power. After a minute power on the external drive (make sure connected first). After giving it a chance to boot up, then plug power back into the Genie-2 (HS17).
The internal drive is disabled while an external is connected to prevent copying. You can return to using the internal if needed by repeating the steps with unplugging the external instead. Caution as the eSATA port is not intended to do this often so careful to minimize risk of it breaking.
The internal of the Genie-2 (HS17) is not 1TB but 2TB. It is the regular Genie line that has the 1TB. Regular HDDVRs (max internal 500GB) have a hard cap of 2TB external, but all main Genies only had originally a suggestion of 4TB external but no official hard cap. Some people have used up to 12TB successfully, though that seems overkill for most households. As long as your exact box supports external drive, your 6TB should be fine as long as you use eSATA, not USB.
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