How to backup external DVR expansion Hard Drive to Larger Drive

[FLskydiver]

I just picked up a couple 1.5 terabyte hard drives for $150 a piece.

I currently have a 750gb drive in an external enclosure plugged into my HD DVR via esata.

Two questions:

Can DirecTV HD-DVR's handle external drives with capacities above 750gb, and utilize all the extra space?

Also,

I understand the file format is different than is typical of home computers. Can a bit-by-bit backup utility be used to migrate the content of my current 750gb drive to a new 1500gb drive and still have the drive be recognized by my HD DVR without reformatting it?

Thanks!

[glennb1]

The DIRECTV HD DVR will re-format the drive you connect to it's eSATA port if it wasn't used with the DVR previously.

[FLskydiver]

Originally Posted by glennb1

The DIRECTV HD DVR will re-format the drive you connect to it's eSATA port if it wasn't used with the DVR previously.

I don't think that is correct. It will only format the drive if it is not formatted for DirecTV. I've read that others have moved externals between different DVR's with no issues at all (except of course that programs recorded to the external will only play back on the DVR that recorded them).

I guess there is a rule about posting links to other forums but I found some good instructions elsewhere on how to back up the data.

To answer my other question, it looks like the DVR's are good for a single drive up to 2 TB and arrays are practically unlimited.

Still, if anyone has any actual experience I'd appreciate hearing about it ... and I'll let you know how it works out for me.