# Direct tv DVR esata external drive



## cyclamate2001 (Apr 10, 2009)

i just hooked up a western digital 2 TB drive with the esata port, and the DVR is "running receiver self check..." for almost an hour now

did i blow this setup?

1) I took the 2 TB drive out of the box and made sure the power was off
2) I powered off the DVR and unpugged it
3) I hooked up the esata cable between the dvr and the external drive
4) I turned on the external drive
5) I waited a minute
6) I plugged in and turned on the DVR

It performed some encouraging diagnostics, then went to "Running receiver self check..."

Anybody have any ideas? Am i just impatient? Is the DVR formatting the external drive? I have no idea what I am doing here ... I come from a world of plug and play

Thanks - d


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

Which Western Digital 2TB drive is this? There are known issues with the "My Book" drives. Check out the eSATA FAQs in the "DirecTV Information & Tips" Forum.


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## DaaQ (Aug 21, 2008)

Well if it is formatting the drive it is goign to take several hours at least for the format of the drive alone. One thing to try is letting it go overnight and see. Do a search here or elsewhere Goo*** to see approx how long a 2 TB drive takes to format.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

DaaQ:
No. It actually only takes a few minutes to configure the drive, assuming it's already been "low level" formatted, which most all new drives are.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Welcome to the forums, cyclamate2001! :welcome_s

Which model DVR did you hook it too as well?

Cheers,
Tom


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

And keep in mind - the port is *eSATA *and the disk [HDD] is *SATA *type.


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## beakersloco (Mar 7, 2006)

Is this a new feature for thr R15(I come up here every few months) to be able to hook up an external hard drive to increase capacity ?


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

beakersloco said:


> Is this a new feature for thr R15(I come up here every few months) to be able to hook up an external hard drive to increase capacity ?


Nope, not on the R15 DVRs. Only the R22 SD DVR and HR20/21/22/23 HD DVRs support external eSATA drives.


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