How to Hook Up an External Hard Drive to a DirecTV DVR

By Anthony Oster

A 1TB external hard drive can store up to 200 hours of sports, movies and TV shows in HD.
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Adding an external hard drive to your DirecTV digital video recorder can increase your unit's storage capacity, allowing you to record more of your favorite shows and store space-consuming high-definition programming for later viewing. Unfortunately, not all DirecTV DVRs can utilize an external hard drive; you can only connect an external hard drive to your device if you have a R22 DirecTV Plus DVR or HR20 DirecTV Plus HD DVR. The model number for your device is located on the small door on the front of your receiver.

Step 1

Unplug the DVR from the power supply and locate the port labeled "SATA" on the back of the device.

Step 2

Plug the eSATA cable into the back of your DVR, then insert the opposite end of the cable into the SATA port on the portable hard drive.

Step 3

Plug the hard drive into a power supply and turn it on. It may take several moments for the hard drive to begin spinning. Many eSATA hard drives can be powered by USB or an external power supply.

Step 4

Plug in your DVR and press the "Power" button to start the reboot process. Once restarted, the DVR will automatically detect the new hard drive and use it as the primary storage device.

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