Upgrading HD21-700

[LoCoZx10R]

I am new to this site and have a few questions about this upgrade. How big of an internal drive will I be able to use? Is there a certain brand I need and will the DVR recognize the extra space of the new hard drive? I have never upgraded a DVR before and is there anything else I need to look at before doing the upgrade? Thanks in advance!


If you have an HR21-700, removing the hard drive has the following steps once you have the cover off.

1. Find the ribbon cable that connects the front panel to the mainboard. On the mainboad end, there is a plastic pull-tab on the connector. Gently pull on it to disconnect the cable.

2. Disconnect the SATA power and data cables from the old drive.

3. Unlatch the tabs holding the front panel onto the chassis and remove the front panel.

4. There is an L-shaped metal plate attached to one edge of the hard drive and the mainboard. Using a #2 Philips screwdriver, remove the screw attaching the plate to the mainboard. Leave the screws attached to the drive for now.

5. From the front of the unit, remove the two Philips screws securing the drive to the front of the chassis.

6. Lift out the old hard drive. Remove the remaining screws on the L-shaped plate

Reverse process to install new drive. Don't forget to reinsert the front panel ribbon cable.

[PlainBill]

Well, it depends. DirectTV does not provide a HD21-700. So it's a little hard to be precise.

Now, the HR21 IS a DirecTV product. The maximum size drive is 3.5". At present, the largest CAPACITY drive is 1 TB. But that will change as larger drives become available.

There are about 50 posts in the 'Upgrading the drive' thread you quoted. Several people have confirmed this is possible. Do you think they would be doing this if the additional capacity was not recognized?

As far as the rest of the questions, there are several links to another site in the 'upgrading the drive' thread. Try there.

PlainBill