Installing a Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme external hard drive on D*tv HR22 DVR.

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Installing a Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme external hard drive on D*tv HR22 DVR.

It has been stated on a few discussion boards that the FreeAgent prefab external drives will not work on the HR22 and for that matter the HR21 (as the HR22 is basically just an HR21 with a bigger hard drive). I have found out why and that this can be overcome.

Follow up:

Referring to the thread eSATA FAQ on the DBSTalk message board
Specifically section 4.

The reason the FreeAgent Xtreme and I must assume the FreeAgent Pro external drives do not work will be the same for any other external drive that does not have a power on and off switch. The hard drive power is switched on by an active input signal from the connected device be it your DVR, Computer or whatever you have it connected to.
So there is a trick to getting the Seagate drives to work on the D*tv HR21 and HR22.

Follow the steps for adding your external drive as if it were any other drive.

1. Plug in the AC power cord for your external drive (wall and drive)

2. Connect the eSATA cable (Fireware and USB are not supported for DVR recording) to the eSATA port on the back of your HR21 / HR22 then connect it to the external hard drive.

3.(this is where we deviate from the normal process) the FreeAgent hard drives also support a USB cable, connect the USB cable to the external hard drive unit.

(Now, you must have access to another devices USB port. In our case we have a cable box on the same stand and it has a USB port on the front. Any USB port will do, so long as it is not an active data sending port. But it cannot be the USB ports on your HR21 / HR22 box. It must be on another device that will stay powered on.)

4. Connect the USB cable from the external drive to another devices active USB port (this will keep the power of the FreeAgent drive on while the D*tv DVR reboots)

5. Disconnect the power cord from the back of your HR21 or HR22 (you can also open the door covering your smart card and push the red reset button), wait a few seconds and reconnect the power to the DVR.

6. Once you see the Blue welcome screen on the TV and the HR21 / HR22 lights are on you may then disconnect the USB cable that you connected in step 4.

You should see a Formatting Hard Drive message at some point on the start up screen.

That’s it.

Now the explanation for steps 3, 4, 6.
The Seagate Drives and probably any other enclosures that do not have a power switch, is they rely on a signal from the connected cable to tell them to be active. The HR21 and HR22 DVR boxes activate the eSATA port just a little too late to allow the drive to be up and running so the DVR can sense the external drive and allow it to operate as your DVR hard drive. So you have to use another devices USB connection to the HD enclosure to keep it powered up.
I have not ventured so far yet but it stands to reason that in the event of a power failure or any other event that would cause your HR21 or HR22 box to reset you will need to repeat this process with the second USB cable to allow the external drive to function properly.

I hope I have explained this well enough.
Please feel free to repost, revise and otherwise pass along this tidbit of knowledge.
Credit would be nice but not required.
Have fun with your new expanded recording, I know we are.

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