Getting New TIVO THR22 HD - Want to Install External eSATA - Some Help Please

That hard drive should be fine.  You don't need to format anything.  Just remove the Tivo's AC power, connect the eSATA drive, power up the eSATA drive, then power up the Tivo.  It should recognize and format the drive.  

frankc23b, can you update this thread with the results of adding the external hard drive, please?  I need to go through the same exercise and would like to know of any known working configurations.

Still working on a solution. Will update when I find it.

DirecTV recommended that I try the following:

Enclosure : Antec MX-1
HDD : WD20EADS

I installed them this weekend and so far everything is working correctly on my THR-22 .

Thanks for this! I will give this a try and report back if all works OK. If anything goes wonky on your end, please let us know too!

BTW, who at DirecTV recommended this? I'm just curious! Don't need a name.

Frank

So far, no issues.  It's been working great.  But I will certainly report back if any issues come up.  Regarding who recommended it: I was in discussion with a DirecTV technical support specialist regarding another issue (DVR Scheduler not working with the THR-22); he was extremely helpful so I asked him for a recommendation for an external HDD.  He got back to me with the recommendation mentioned above.

Well, I am sorry to report that when I installed the exact same system..

Enclosure : Antec MX-1
HDD : WD20EADS

...it exhibited a lot of wonky behavior such as pixelated images, stuttering video and freeze-ups. I returned to the internal drive and all is OK. The only other variable was the eSATA cable and I used a SIIG 3.3 footer.

Did you change any pin setting on the HD? Is your system still working great?

Frank

First of all, my system is still working great.  I did not change any of the pin settings on my HDD.  I used the eSATA cable that came with the MX-1 enclosure.

I'm sorry you are having troubles with the identical configuration.

I plan on installing a second hard drive.  Any further info on this topic since the last post on January 24th?

The Western Digital drive comes in 2 TB and 3 TB capacity.  Will choosing one over the other make a difference? Any other comments?

Thanks.

Because of file system limitations the DVR will not address more than 2TB...

Good to know.

and even if it were possible, I think that will be useless.  as this would be archiving the recordings, which at some point when the receivers gets upgraded or replaced, those TB's of showings would be a good as having an empty DVD case.

Another question, if a second hard dive is added, does the internal drive become obsolete or does it continue to be used for storage and then when filled, the new one takes over? 

PEDS48_INSTALLS - could you explain what you meant about "when the receiver is upgraded" ........ Are you referring to a software upgrade?

And just as an aside, TIVO does provide instructions for adding an external hard drive to it's units so it appears that doing this should be OK.

The external replaces the internal drive's storage.  It does not add to it.  

And note that the THR22 is unlike other Tivo's, so don't follow any upgrade instructions you find on Tivo's site or elsewhere.  It's very easy to add an eSATA drive to the THR22 ... just power down the Tivo, connect the eSATA drive, power up the drive, then power up the Tivo.  The Tivo will automatically initialize the eSATA drive.  Any recordings on the internal drive will still be there, just not accessible unless you disconnect the eSATA drive and reboot. 

I meant that since the recordings are "married" to the receiver and you choose to upgrade to a newer model (if one were to come out) those recordings are useless.