SA8300HD Expander

amf1932

After coming back from a little vacation I was sad to say that a few of my scheduled programs didn't record on my DVR. It seems that the internal hard drive was full. This hard drive has a storage capacity of 160 gig, but when recording Hi Def material, it fills up pretty quickly.
At this point I decided to get the Western Digital DVR Expander.
http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334
It works terrifically, and was a cinch to install, so I recommend this upgrade if you find you're in the same predicament as I was.
This new external drive holds 500 gigs plus the 160 gig for a total of 660 gigs......not too shabby!
I might add that you should check with your cable company that the SA8300 series DVR's that they supply will allow this upgrade.
By the way.....my cable company is Cablevision in the NYC area.

Alan

sonyman777

thanks for the info, very helpfull!

drewhat

I went to the Best Buy at Potomac Yards in Alexandria last night and purchased the Western Digital My DVR Expander. Took it home and could not get it to work with my SA 3800HD in the family room after numerous tries. Then disconnected and tried it upstairs with our box and after a couple of tries, it worked. Its great. 84% of my recording space was used before connection and this dropped to 18% after connection. Its kind of finickly hooking it up. Follow the directions for hook-up closely and if it doesn't work at first, keep trying. I am going to purchase another one for the family room.

Before I purchased I called Alexandria, Va. Comcast and spoke to a very knowledgable person and after checking to be sure, she informed me that the SA3800 HD uses the SARA software. This means that you will be able to connect the DVR My Expander

wizardsway1

Does anyone know if Time Warner Albany allows for expansion drive for the SA 3800HD ?

HD-X2A

Hey WW

Good question..I too am in the Albany TW area. I checked OS software on my SA 8300HD recently (2/11) and found that it's SARA...so an expander drive should work.....

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j_lauer

I have an SA 8300HD and just bought an external WD eSATA 1TB drive to expand our recording time. Every time I power on the cable box it states that "an external device is not operating properly, check all power and connections"

I have tried disconnecting the power from the cable box, connecting the drive, power on the drive, then connect the power back and turn it on. Tried turning on the drive while the cable box was on. Tried just the power button on the cable box, hooked up the cables and turned on the drive, then turned on the box. all with no joy.

some people have said that the cable guy has to come out and make some changes, i wonder if i need them too.

since to drive i bought was not labeled as a DVR expander drive, could that have anything to do with it too?

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

If it matters i have Comcast in the eastern Connecticut area.

Thanks again
Jeremy

amf1932

I recall when Cablevision first offered the SA8300HD DVR, the SATA connection was not enabled. In the Instruction Manual it pointed to this input which said, "For future use". Maybe that's where the problem is.

j_lauer

I hope so, I will call them on Monday and see what they have to offer. I tried the online chat for support and they stated that the expansion ports are not covered with their support line.

I would think that any eSATA external drive would work with the boxes.

Thanks
Jeremy

Sooner Al

This old thread, which is a sticky by the way, may be of interest...

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD Manual And Setup Guide

LOL, the thread points right back to this thread at one point...

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zack28

What cable did you use. I have the same WD and I am trying to connect esata to sata, but the sata in the back of mt 8300hd dvr doesn't seem to fit. The esata fits perfect. Will it work if I get esata to esata? Thanks

Ogee

After coming back from a little vacation I was sad to say that a few of my scheduled programs didn't record on my DVR. It seems that the internal hard drive was full. This hard drive has a storage capacity of 160 gig, but when recording Hi Def material, it fills up pretty quickly.
At this point I decided to get the Western Digital DVR Expander.

It works terrifically, and was a cinch to install, so I recommend this upgrade if you find you're in the same predicament as I was.
This new external drive holds 500 gigs plus the 160 gig for a total of 660 gigs......not too shabby!
I might add that you should check with your cable company that the SA8300 series DVR's that they supply will allow this upgrade.
By the way.....my cable company is Cablevision in the NYC area.

Alan
Hi Alan,
I also have a SA 8300HD+ and looked at 3 different External discs which did not work (keep getting error problems relating to cable connections) I first tried a LaCie d2 1 Terabyte disc, then their 500GB disc, followed by a WD My book of 500GB but still got the same error message. Later I found the same one you got, the Western Digital My DVR Expander eSATA, and now ready to purchase it.
I have 2 questions though, which neither CISCO systems (formerly Scientific Atlanta) could not answer and neither my cable provider (Videotron),

1. Will the programs already recorded in my Explorer HD+ get erased once the external disc is formated, and

2. Which size disc can I put; the 1 Terabyte external or only a 500 GB (WD—My DVR Expander eSATA) on my Explorer HD+ (the HD+ has a 320GB internal disc).

Thanks for any help with this!!!!!

Ogee

amf1932

1. The Explorer HD will only format the external drive. The previously recorded program material on the internal drive will not be erased.

2. Since my original post, I have upgraded to a 1 TB Western Digital My DVR Expander eSata. So the choice is yours, 500GB or 1TB. They both work equally as well.

dsskid

I believe Cablevision has won court approval to allow it's subscribers to DVR and store their programs on the Cablevision server, and not limiting the subscriber to the DVR's harddrive capacity. I'm holding off expanding my DVR's capability because of this.

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