# Determining dvr hard drive size



## Deja-vue (Mar 24, 2013)

The Hard Drive has a pathetic 160 GB in it, I suppose. For todays DVR's this is pretty small. My DirecTV DVR has 6 TB.
How to upgrade?
Check it out:
https://www.weaknees.com/scientific-atlanta-8240-8300-dvr-upgrade.php


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

A quick Google search shows the same cable box you have on Amazon and the specs show it has a 160GB hard drive.


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## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanks for the help so far. I am still trying to figure out the size of my daughter's dvr from the same provider, so I could possibly have some leverage when I contact my cable company. All I'm finding with Google searches is manuals on how to set it up, but it doesn't list the specs regarding the hard drive size.


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## adamz (May 13, 2018)

Some cable companies will upgrade you with a newer box for free. Bring the old one in and say it no longer works. You'll likely lose your current recordings though.


If you're willing to spend a few dollars, some cable boxes can have an external drive connected to them via USB or firewire to increase the DVR capacity. If you go this route, make sure you can return the drive if the cable box doesn't let you do this. Walmart usually takes returns with no questions, but I'm not certain if they'll take back an external hard drive.


You can probably open the cable box and look inside at the drive. Some cable boxes have diagnostic screens that can be looked at if you know "the back door" secret method. Google this: "Make Model# diagnostics screen" where Make Model# is the actual Make Model# of your daughter's cable box.


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## FrodoOne (Mar 4, 2016)

The set-up instructions for Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC at http://www.imctv.com/pdf/8300HDC/Introducing 8300HDC.pdf state:-

"Connect a Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive for expanded recording capacity."

Page 4, Back Panel, *12 SATA*

(More information is on pages 17 & 18)

You would need an appropriate cable for any such drive - and a place for the drive to "reside'.


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## FrodoOne (Mar 4, 2016)

bucksone said:


> I am still trying to figure out the size of my daughter's dvr from the same provider, so I could possibly have some leverage when I contact my cable company. All I'm finding with Google searches is manuals on how to set it up, but it doesn't list the specs regarding the hard drive size.


https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/video/at_home/Set-Tops/3000_STTs/749244_G.pdf, Chapter 7
provides information on "DVR-Specific Diagnostic Screens"

Pages 128, 129 & 130 provide information on the "DVR HDD Information Diagnostic Screen"
_(HDD - Hard Disk Drive)_

Perhaps you should ask your Daughter to check this Diagnostic Screen for you?


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

bucksone said:


> Thanks for the help so far. I am still trying to figure out the size of my daughter's dvr from the same provider, so I could possibly have some leverage when I contact my cable company. All I'm finding with Google searches is manuals on how to set it up, but it doesn't list the specs regarding the hard drive size.



Looks like your daughters DVR Has the same size hard drive as yours, 160GB. They do offer optional sizes though, so it potentially could be larger. 



http://eastonvelocity.com/files/2018/02/CISCO-8642-PVR.pdf


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## FrodoOne (Mar 4, 2016)

FrodoOne said:


> The set-up instructions for Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC at http://www.imctv.com/pdf/8300HDC/Introducing 8300HDC.pdf state:-
> 
> "Connect a Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive for expanded recording capacity."
> 
> ...


As I said in the above quote, "Connect a Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive for expanded recording capacity.".
The cost would be about $50 for an over six fold increase in recording capacity, if you chose 1TB drive, or about $70 for a 12 fold increase in recording time if you chose 2TB drive.
(See https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Internal-Hard-Drives/zgbs/electronics/1254762011)

I am quite amazed at how much manufactures charge for the HDD in their DVR recorders. To double the size of the HDD they usually charge at least twice the cost of the differential from the HDD manufacturer.
160 GB is a ridiculously small size for any HDD in this day and age. (I have no idea where you could buy a "new" HDD of this small size.)

Things have moved on from whenever these devices were produced and much larger HDDs are available and connectable.


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## KHouse75 (May 14, 2008)

I had an 8300HD from Time Warner that I ran with an external drive for years. It requires an eSATA cable and an external drive enclosure with eSATA. I suppose you could get an eSATA to SATA adapter and run directly to SATA.

The issue I ran into, however, was that the 8300HD is very picky about what make/model of drive it will work with. Out of 6 enclosures I had with eSATA, only one was recognized.

I long ago ditched the DVR from my able provider and switched to Windows Media Center running a Ceton InfiniTV tuner. I get all channels I could get with the 8300HD without the rental cost of the DVR and the cost of the DVR service. I can also add as much disk space as my PC can handle.


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## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanks for the help. With the knowledge gained from this site, I was able to contact my provider and get upgraded to a 500mb dvr that will allow us to record up to six shows at once instead of the two shows we can record now. They even dropped our price and threw in a premium channel as well. We've been with them for 15 years, and the person I spoke with brought that fact up first and said they didn't want to lose us to their competition.


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## That Guy (Aug 19, 2017)

Something to consider with the 1TB+ drives, if the firmware doesnt support a 64bit address space, the DVR wont recognize the drive.


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## Deja-vue (Mar 24, 2013)

That Guy said:


> Something to consider with the 1TB+ drives, if the firmware doesnt support a 64bit address space, the DVR wont recognize the drive.


With due Respect, the 64Bit address space has not much to do with the Hard Drive. It has to do more with the *Memory Size.
*
Example: WinXP 32 Bit could only handle 4 GB of Memory. Just like Vista 32Bit, 7 32Bit, etc.
The new 64Bit Systems can handle more that 120 GB, depending on the Motherboard.
64Bit Systems did come out in 2003, and I actually had a Computer running WinXP 64Bit.
32Bit Systems = 2.2 TB Drives
64Bit Systems = 75 Zetabytes.
And finally, yes, the DVR will be able to handle the 1TB Drive.
:wink2:


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