Hi- I use iO digital cable & have an SA 8300hd dvr box. I would like to update from this box to a newer box that i will buy on my own but here is my problem: I want to be able to transfer the harddrive from the sa8300hd box to my new box. Is there any way I can do this?

Thank you.

I'm looking to convert my 1980's home video VHS tapes to digital, which I thought I could do by recording them on my Explorer 8300HD (from Rogers Cable), then connecting the Explorer to my PC and transferring the file. Then I could edit and burn to DVD. I can't seem to see the Explorer on my PC, connecting it to the 1394 connection on the back. Any advice you can give? Thanks a lot

Peter Sutton: What you are describing cannot be done ont he 8300HD. Instead, you should get a video ripping device -- they cost $40-$100 at computer parts stores -- and rip them directly to your computer.

Is the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DLNA certified?

Hi Peter,
I enjoyed your review of the 8300HD which is what I have. I was wondering if it's possible to transfer shows recorded onto the DVR onto a DVD-R or a PC? I want Noggin's cartoons for my kid so I can take them on the road with me.

Please advise, thanks,
-Kenny

A friend just told me that if I use an external hard drive that all the programing already recorded on the internal hard drive will be lost. In other words, the SA 8300 will only recognize the new hard drive and won't let me access anything on the old one. Is this true? I was hoping that I would be able to use both.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark, no, that's not true...at least when I did this, all my existing stuff (on the 8300's internal drive) were still there in the list, just that the available capacity had greatly increased. HTH.

thanks for posting this little handy tutorial, I just got this dvr through cablevision and I realized that 20 hours of HD content is just too little.

I have a SA 8300 (not HD) which has a large accumulation of videos that I'd like to save somewhere ELSE.

Can I use an esata drive on the non-HD 8300? If so, would I be able to move the video from the 8300 to the esata? Is there any "easy" mechanism for "moving" data when an esata drive is attached?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Hi Craig -- I'm also trying to get shows from 8300HD onto my Mac/DVD's, and I'm also (like Peter Sutton) unable to get the Mac to interface with the cable box. When you said that what he was attempting "cannot be done", did you mean the recording from VHS part or the moving from box to computer part? If it's the latter, can you give any advice on what "video ripping device" I should look for for my Mac? Specifically I'd like to get TV shows on my computer in MPEG-4/ avi (anything better than MPEG-2), edit commercials and archive to DVD. Thanks so much.

Rich, when I said what Peter wanted to do cannot be done, I should have said I'm unaware of a way to get the digital file from the 8300HD's hard drive onto a PC. There may be a way, but I don't know what it is. Unfortunately, I've no idea what kind of device might exist for a Mac to permit ripping, but you might start by Googling for 'USB video converter Mac' - that might get you some ideas.

I followed Craig's directions in hooking up a Seagate 1TB external hard drive to my Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR. But when I turn the DVR back on, I get an error message to the effect that there's an error in connecting the external storage unit. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it? Many thanks.

Roy, how was the drive formatted? FAT32 or NTFS or something else? Mine was FAT32, although I don't know for sure that that matters.

You might also check the cable connections...you did get the correct eSATA cable, yes?

Keep trying different combinations of powering off the DVR, unplugging it, etc....eventually, you should get a workable situation (it only has to work once :-).

Good luck!

Craig,

Thanks for the quick response. Does your question about formatting mean that I should have formatted the drive first using a computer? I haven't done that. The Scientific Atlanta 8300HD doesn't appear to be formatting it at all.

The cable I bought at the local Micro Center is an eSATA II data cable made by QVS. It appears to fit properly at both ends.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep trying and will check back here as well.

Roy, no, don't reformat your drive...I was just thinking out loud about anything that might have been a factor...I doubt it came formatted out of the box as anything other than FAT32, which should have worked fine.

The only generally effective way to get things off your 8300 sd or hd is to play it in real time and capture it using a capture device already mentioned above available for $40-200 (depending on sd, hd, internal/external, tv tuner and so on).

What you need to do is get the aforementioned hardware if you dont already have it (the part is kinda the reverse of the TV out feature you see on many laptops), install it and the programs it comes with on your system, then connect it to the pvr using normal A/V equip audio and sound cables, ie RCA plugs for sd.

what you need to do now is play the video in real time and use the Video Encoder/tv tuner hardware capture and save the video to your hard drive. please note, uncompressed video (and compressed) takes up A LOT of harddrive space (more so than it does on the pvr!). I when shopping for a capture device, i would suggest getting one with a built in hardware encoder (most have, some dont), and at this point id suggest getting a full tv tuner card as the option, they usually have this sort of input and capability and usually cost the same or only dollars more than other hardware that could do the job) this way, in the future you can even connect your pc to a live tv source (cable, but no special channels, ie tmn ((unless you record on pvr and manually output as we are discussing here))and even antenna, great way to get free hd in most areas).

when hooking the video encoder up to the pvr, on the 8300 and 8000 line be sure to connect the device to OUTPUT 2 or VCR OUTPUT.

using a scientific atlanta 8xxx model, you can now do 1 of 2 things, play the show you want to rip and watch it in real time while ripping, OR once the show has been selected, instead of the play option, select the "Copy to VCR" option, doing so will cause the show to be played only on the OUTPUT 2 port, you cannot see it on your tv, only on the pc, and you cant use the pvr to fastforward, its pure realtime, BUT you can still use the pvr as normal and watch live or recorded shows.

using software that came with the tuner or capture device hardware, save the video to your hard drive, you may now edit it, then encode it to save space.

as a tip id recommend (both for using the pvr for live-to-pc capture, or saved show rip) that you setup the pvr to record 1 min early and start everything a touch early, since the pvr display will be visible on screen at first as usual, i find that a nasty thing to be pasted on the file.

an extra benefit of the 8000 8300s, using the OUTPUT 2, and record to vcr option, by hooking up a second tv (maybe in another room with a long cable, or a wireless transmitter(a worse option), you can use the pvr to let 2 people watch 2 different things at the same time, the first tv can watch live or saved shows and ff or rw, and the 2nd tv can just watch saved shows and no instant replay, ff or rw.

Unfortunately, you cannot just hook up the pvr to a device, harddrive, or pc with anything either usb, esata firewire whatever and get anything usable. you can only output video, not files, you can, using esata add a second drive or rip out the old drive and replace it (if you own the device) to expand space. even if you took an external hard drive that you hooked up to the pvr with esata, formatted and recorded shows to, then disconnected and connected to a pc, the pc cant do anything with the data, the drive is formatted differently, and the files stored on it are encoded using proprietary software (also why shows recorded on the pvr take up less space than unencoded saved video files of the same length). so your only option is to manually in realtime output the video as described above.

but if you get a good capture device with one or 2 tuners sd or hd, you can hook it up to a cable source (direct coax cable from the wall) or antane, you can use your computer as both a tv and another pvr! please note, you wont be able to tune to channels that you HAVE to have a cable box to watch, its a pvr without the digital box benefits.

remember that video takes up a lotta space, and doing anything with video, playing editing, encoding, recording whatever usually takes a fair bit of system resources, use a reasonably fast pc with lotsa storage, and possibly dont do anything else with the pc while doing any of the described above.

I used to have a system just for this that was spare parts, a amd athlon 1.2g chip (before naming convention change), 1 gig mem, an old ati all in wonder video card and a few old hardrives and a burner. at the time (2006ish) i put together this dedicated tv/pvr PC for about 2-3 hundred bucks, using a couple old spare parts lying around and buying old new/used parts (not including monitor).

hope these rambled mutterings have been of help.

- A

Having the same problems with the seagate 1TB. Did you get it to work Roy?

Dave -- not yet. Going back to Craig's question about whether I had the right cable, I thought I had, because both ends seemed to connect properly, but I couldn't get the SA8300 to recognize the Seagate; it gave me an error message. Noting that the instructions called for a "SATA to eSATA cable," I got one of those, but the SATA end is the L-shaped one, and it fits neither the cable box nor the external hard drive. I've now spent a fair amount of time on line looking at cable ends, and I'll be damned if I can figure out what I need and where to find it.

I did run across an interesting little piece called "How to Get Shows Off the Box" -- which is the final goal -- which advocates using a video converter such as the Pinnacle Dazzle DVD recorder. You can find it here: www.popsci.com/diy/article/2006-04/hack-you-cable-box

I think that's the sort of thing Amanourchehrian is talking about.

Correction: "hack-your-cable-box" not "hack-you-cable-box"

Roy, you don't need a "SATA to eSATA cable", you need just a plain old "eSATA" cable...meant to connect two eSATA jacks. What you need is something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812608191

Roy, Thanks for the update. I do have the esata cable like Craig is explaining and doesn't seem to be working. I have tried a few different ways of rebooting and power up, but none seem to work. I did see a comparable 1TB at Best Buy that said is for DVR's, so I think I'll return the Seagate and give this one a try. Can't remember the brand right now, think it's Western Digital. I'll let you how it works.

OK, I retured the Seagate and purchased the iomega DVR expander drive 500GB. It says on the box "compatible with Scintific Atlanta Explorer" I followed the instructions in the box, and works perfectly. 67% full to 14% full. $139.99 at Fry's Electronics. I just wish they had a 1TB.

I'm glad you got it to work, Dave. Unless you want to "archive" shows on your DVR for a long time, I think you'll find filling up even the 500GB to be a bit of a challenge.

I've got a Seagate 1.5TB hard drive with the NexStar 3 enclosure. When hooked up to my 8300, it seems to work fine but about 10% of the time, the show being recorded will "freeze" part way through and the rest of the show wil be lost. Still other times, all I get for a recorded show is a white screen. I'm using the SATA cable that came with the NexStar enclosure. Anyone have any ideas on how I can get it to work all the time?

Craig,

Thanks for your note of the 21st and the link to the NewEgg site. If this cable doesn't solve my problem, the Seagate goes back and I'll try a different brand. I recall that you like the Acomdata. Any other suggestions?

Roy, as far as eSATA drives go, I've only tried the Acomdata, so I don't have any other recommendations. But I'm really happy with it so far...in fact, I bought a second 750GB drive for backup at the office.

Thanks. I'll let you know how things work out.

And Carl, my son sent me this link to an article about problems with the Seagate 1.5TB:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090121-seagate-cops-to-widespread-hd-problems-vows-full-support.html

Hi-I live up in Montreal and I have a question. My friend has a 8300Hd and the hard drive is no good. Does he have to replace the internal hard drive,or can he just simply connect an external hard drive ?? Thank You Russell.

Russell,

Maybe I'm missing something, but assuming the 8300 came from a cable company, why wouldn't your friend simply return it and get one with a functioning hard drive?

All the tips here have been very helpful.

Alas, there is no way of easily transferring DVR'ed files to mac/pc.

Please post if you find any.

I own an 8300hd and added a 500GB external drive and it worked perfectly.

Recently, the internal Western Digital caviar 160GB drive went and I simply replaced it with a 300GB version of basically the same drive.

I reformatted the internal drive without the external drive being attached and had no problems.

I then attached the external drive and the PVR indicated that it was capable of working with this PVR and I indicated that I wanted to use it.

I couldn't access any of the recordings on the external drive since there was no record of them on the new internal drive. When I went into the system info pages, the PVR indicated that it knew that it had a 320GB internal drive and a 500GB external drive but the space available on the external drive was only about 200GB. I figured that maybe the PVR didn't have the ability to writeover the existing recordings on the external drive, so I diconnected it from the PVR (in the proper manner) and reformatted it on my PC.

Now the PVR recognizes that the 500GB external drive is there but indicates that there is 0 free space on it. When I connected the reformatted drive to the PVR, it asked if I wanted to format it so that the PVR could use it and I instructed it to do so. The formatting lasted about a couple of seconds.

Does anyone have any idea of how I can get the PVR to recognize that there is 500GB of space available on the external drive?

Thanks

Nick, have you formatted the drive on your PC using FAT32 and then gone through the steps above (turn off DVR, install & power up USB drive, turn on DVR, OK format)? If so, try variations on that process...I once had the USB drive shut down on me and then the DVR wouldn't recognize it...I had to do various combinations of power on, insert, etc. before the DVR prompted me to let it use the external drive. The DVR should take a few minutes, not a few seconds, to prepare the external drive for its use.

Hi guys, i was wondering if anyone can explain to me how to expand my SA 8300HD DVR. The ports are not active (USB) and (SATA) so is there any hacks on how to activate them to be able to use the externak HD?
Thank you

Hi guys, i just got the SA EXPLORER 8300 HD DVR
and would like to expand the storage space.
The tech told me that the connections on the back
Sata and USB are not active. could anyone tell me how to hack them or activate them?
thank you

I have the same issue. T W wont activate the ESATA port is there a hack? Thanks

Hi, Same question. TW Manhattan tech support just told me the Sata port was "closed." Any suggestions?

I have the SA Explorer 8300HD. I bought an Esata To Esata Cable and an
AcomData PureDrive 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive PHD10000USE-72. I followed the above directions, but nothing happened when I turned on the DVR. Fellas, any suggestions?

Hey guys.I just spoke to both a TW rep (again)for more info on using my eSATA drive with my SA Explorer 8300HDC box,which i can't get to work properly.I recently bought an Apricorn XPander 750GB eSATA drive since it was advertised to work with the SA Explorer .After it didn't work,the TW tech said the eSATA and USB ports were for diagnostic purposes only.He said the 4250 model is what you need.The TW office said no it doesn't and we don't have any.Can't locate anyone with tech knowledge about this issue.The Apricorn rep said they have a lot of trouble with the 8300 HDC,looks like TW made some change to them.He said go with the 8300HD which will work.I will see if i can exchange the HDC for the HD.When i had connected the Apricorn to the 8300HDC,it was recognized and asked if i wanted to format while displaying a flashing screen.I was able to format the drive only when i hit the "yellow A" button while the flashing format screen was being displayed.Formatting took only a few seconds which i found odd for a 750GB drive.A message then said the drive was ready for use.When i set programs to record,the Apricorn's LED is flashing,however,when completed,the programs don't show in the DVR show list,and that's where i am at present.I will see if i can exchange the 8300HDC for an 8300HD and keep my fingers crossed.

Hi- My friend's 8300 is no longer on warranty,and that is why,instesd of buying a new one,he wants just to connect an external hard drive. Will this work?? Thanks Russell.

I just bought a Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5TB which comes formatted with NTFS out of the box. I connected it to my 8300HD and I was able to find the drive in the diagnostics page of the 8300HD. However, I never received a prompt to format the drive nor my free space increase in any way.

In the threads above I kept seeing questions asked about FAT32 formatting and wanted to know especially from the user that stated that he has the same drive whether this drive needs to be reformatted from NTFS to FAT32 or not.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Hey Craig, great tutorial. I bought the Acomdata external drive you used, only I went for the 1TB model. I followed the instructions and was asked for to format the drive. Like some of the other posters, it only took a few seconds. I opened my recorded list and saw that my used capacity was now 19% rather than the previous 99%. The box froze later and I had to power cycle it...when it came back up, the drive was no longer recognized. I've tried all kinds of drive/STB power and reboot combos but I can't get it to ask me to format again. Any insight? Thanks

Preston,
Try unplugging the drive from the DVR and rebooting/power cycling the DVR more than once. Let it run for a bit, then power it down (turn it off and then physically unplug it from the mains). Power up the drive, plug it in, and then fire up the DVR. Hopefully, that will get the DVR to initiate the external drive activation sequence. If not, keep trying...there's no 100% sure-fire way that I know of to get these things to cooperate. Good luck!

Craig,

Have you experienced hard drive disconnects often? I have a Seagate 1TB with an enclosure and it has frozen or stated on the DVR that it disconnected twice now. Once while I was watching a recorded program.

Miguel, I've only had one drive disconnect with this 750GB AcomData drive I've been using since early December, so no, it's not a frequent thing for me. It sounds like people are having more troubles with the 1GB and larger disks...might be an issue with how the DVR manages those...not sure. Sorry.

Craig, I purchased the Apricorn 1.5TB Expander for my SA 8300HD from Cablevision and though I have run through the rebooting/power cycling sequence several times the most I get is the drive is recognized but it never formats and does not decrease recording space used. Is there another type of reboot sequence which may do the trick? I have tried different combinations. Thanks.

Thanks Craig. It has frozen/hung two more time for me since my last post. I am planning on downgrading to a 750GB from the 1TB drive. You may be correct with your assumption that the 1TB drives are somewhat problematic. I'll update once I've made the swap.

Ozzie, you may be having a similar problem as several other people regarding drives of 1GB and larger. You might try borrowing a smaller drive (750GB or less) and seeing if you can get that to work. If not, your cable provider may have disabled this function in your DVR.

For Craig (Jan 23) - I've had exactly the same problem (Seagate 1.5TB, Nextstar3 enclosure). It works most of the time but sometimes freezes or records nothing but white screen. I've downloaded the updated firmware. It's a little better since then (fewer occurrences) but the problem is still there. Seagate helpdesk is unresponsive. Bottom line? Stay away from Seagate.

HI,

My DVR is 85% full. I only recordered programs I know I want to see again, & again. I want to retain/archive existing cable video. In addition I desire to making room for more future cable programs on my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR. I want to archive existing cable videos on DVD.



So how do I transfer existing video files from my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD to an EXTERNAL Serial ATA hard drive? Then CONNECT that same EXTERNAL Serial ATA Hard Drive to my PC/MAC, Access the video files to view / Burn to DVD AT MY LEISURE? This is what I want to do. Please get back to me or e-mail me with a solution to ACHIEVE THIS. :-D



Thanks

James

My DVR is 85% full. I only recordered programs I know I want to see again, & again. I want to retain/archive existing cable video. In addition I desire to making room for more future cable programs on my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR. I want to archive existing cable videos on DVD.

So how do I transfer existing video files from my Scientific Atlanta 8300SD to an EXTERNAL Serial ATA hard drive? Then CONNECT that same EXTERNAL Serial ATA Hard Drive to my PC/MAC, Access the video files to view / Burn to DVD AT MY LEISURE? This is what I want to do. Please get back to me or e-mail me with a solution to ACHIEVE THIS. :-D

I have the same question but mine is SD version, And I am a customer of Cox Comm. I have had the box for several years and I am holding onto UFC PPV that I dont want to lose, but need to free up space desperately, I want to save my fave fights and watch again... please help... I also have a media HP pc that cld be used to assist me...

Has anyone run into problems retrieving programs recorded once they have connected an external SATA drive to their 8300? They do not seem to be showing up in the list of recordings. The drive was recognised and went from being 40% full to 4% full, but I can't seem to find the recorded programs.

Is anyone having problems with this setup since the recent TWC update? I woke up to hear the drive on the 8300 cycling for hours and then couldn't play back anything that was recorded since the addition of the external drive.
After re-booting a few times, all the new material disappeared from the list - although one thing that I recorded before the addition of the drive was still there and played back fine.
I called TWC and discovered that they had done a firmware update. Since then, I've reformatted the drive, swapped it with another drive, and although they all show up fine after the re-boot, with the external drive connected, the dvr doesn't pause and re-play live tv anymore.
It works fine without the external drive (even though I lost everything that I had recorded) - but now I'm spoiled and want all the extra space I used to have.
Any ideas on how to fix this?

For Hannah (3/30):

I have had the same exact problems with my eSata drive since TWC upgraded the firmware on the 8300HDC. I've tried everything and nothing fixes the issue. I eventually re-formatted the drive and it is recognized by the 8300 but I still cant use the live buffer or record to it. I've looked on some other forums and nobody has found a solution. People have replaced the cable box and the external and still have the same issues. Looks like the upgrade screwed something up. If you find a solution, please let me know.

Thanks Ben,

I checked around as well and it looks like this expansion no longer works for anyone with an explorer 8300hd.
I'm really bummed. Given how crappy the software is on these boxes, the only thing this setup had going for it was the ability to expand the hard-drive.

Hannah, my DVR is still making use of the external drive, but I'm unsure whether TWC here in Cincinnati has updated the 8300HD's firmware. If they do and I lose this expandability feature, I will be highly ticked.

Craig, I'm glad to know someone still has the expansion working - maybe there's hope for the rest of us.
Over at the AVS forum there are lots of people reporting the same issues that Ben and I have experienced and so far no solutions. I'm hoping it's not permanent, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hi, did anyone come up with an answer to the questions about the closed ports (USB/SATA)? Is there a way to get around it or is that something only your service provider can open?

I just bought a Seagate Xtreme 1TB and an eSATA cable (like mentioned at NewEgg.com). I've also read this and other posts ad nauseam.

I have powered off everything completely, connected all items, powered on the 1TB, the plugged in the AC of the DVR 8300HD. When it finally comes on, I get something like "the external storage is not behaving properly". I never see an option to format or such.

I ghosted the drive before I did anything and after the first failed connection, I brought the 1TB back to my PC and deleted the partition. Tried connecting again to no avail.

I came back to my PC and was going to pre-format the drive (it came formatted NTFS), but I saw that MS Windows XP Pro disk management does not permit a 1TB to be formatted in FAT32 format. NTFS is the only option.

Tomorrow, when I have sanity, I will try connecting all over again. Before I connect it, this time, I am going to use Linux (Ubuntu) to format the drive in either FAT16 or FAT32 format. I am hoping Linux will allow me to do what Windows won't.

BTW, my model does NOT have a SATA to eSATA connection requirement. A SATA plug (with the L-shape) does not fit the DVR. The eSATA cable (matching ends) fits the DVR like a glove.

This is a headache, but I know it should work, which is why it's frustrating as all hell! ;-(

OK, got on it tonight, instead, and it failed.



I formatted the drive on Linux to FAT32 and it still has the same issue.



About to record shows tonight - cannot keep playing. I will format a 300G partition tomorrow and see if the system can deal with that. Not that I'd keep it that way, I'm just curious if there's a limit to the disk space on the external drive.

I decided to buy the 1.5TB Seagate Free Agent/XTreme eSata HD to expand my PVR memory.
I disconnected the power from the PVR (Rogers 8300HD) connected the eSata cable to HD and PVR, powered up the HD, waited, then powered up the PVR(which re-booted), turned on the power button after reboot, and I get a message on the TV screen to the effect that there's an error in connecting the external storage unit and to check cables. I have done this numerous times.
However, if I unplug the eSata cable from the back of the HD unit I get the following message:
The external device has been disconnected from the DVR. Reconnecting the external storage device requires a DVR restart.
This is puzzling; on one hand it's telling me to check the cables and on the other hand it senses when a cable is disconnected.
I didn't get a message asking me if I want to format.
Can someone please provide some insight as to how I can make this work.

Peter.

Same issue with the 1TB Seagate Xtreme. I gave up. Off to try a different system/method.

Peter.

Same issue with the 1TB Seagate Xtreme. I gave up. Off to try a different system/method.

Save yourself lost time. Just get the Western Digital "My DVR Expander" for ~US$100. I got mine today at BestBuy for US$103 plus tax.



http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8477105&st=dvr+expander&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1185271084416



Worked the first try. Recognized upon DVR reboot. Ask if I wanted to format, and so I approved with option "A". Five hours later, when we came back home, I cycled the DVR again (pull the AC, 5 seconds, plug back in, full reboot). The capacity said we were using 70% of our disk space ... now it reads 16% used. Nice!!

Alan -

What make of digital cable box do you have and which cable provider are you using?

We recently upgraded our New York City TWC DVR box to a Explorer 8300HD box (although it may be a 8300HDC box) and I'm really not sure if I go get a external drive and try hooking it up. I've heard so much conflicting information about firmware issues and whatnot. Though, I guess if it doesn't work, the harddrive could easily be used as a backup harddrive for one of our computers.

I am looking for a way to record somthing that is coming in from the front "aux in" cables on a SA 8300. I have a security camera that hooks up to my vcr and I thought it would be nice to have it recored to my dvr instead of wasting tapes all the time. I hooked it up and it said " Recording feature not available for auxillary input" So, Is there a way around it?

For what it's worth this is what I have experienced hooking up an external drive to a 8300 HDC with TWC of NYC.
1. The instructions posted on the SA site no longer work.
2. If you buy a barebones drive and an external enclosure from a vendor, the drive has to be "initialized" and "formatted" on a PC. It does not matter which operating system you use or wether you format it as NTFS or FAT32. When the drive gets "re-formatted" by the 8300 HDC it will wipe it out anyway.
3. Have the 8300 powered up and running. Power up the external drive WITHOUT it being connected to the 8300.
4. After the hard drive is spinning, connect the eSATA cable to it and then plug the other end into the 8300.
5. The message to format the drive will appear and you are requested to press the "A" button to continue. The drive will get formatted and notify you after a few moments. That's all that it took for a 1TB drive.
6. Now come the headaches. If you re-boot the box with drive attached you will lose all of the programming that is stored on the external drive. You are warned to UNPLUG the box and wait 10 seconds before attempting to disconnect the hard drive. I don't know yet if this will preserve the hard drive programming.
7. If the box does reboot with the hard drive attached, you will have to "reformat" it on a PC and go through steps 3,4 and 5 again. Otherwise the 8300 won't record shows properly.

I have the SA 8300. I recently got a DVD recorder as a gift. Last weekend I started transferring my recorded shows to DVD. I was going to do more this weekend but my box crashed. It just stays on "boot". Called Cablevision tech and he couldn't do anything. So I have to replace my cablebox. How do retrieve the rest of my recorded shows?
My initial plan is to dump the contents of the HD to a PC, then get a new box, and dump the contents back. Can this be done?

i got the same thing i just got it how to u transfer using usb cable to the computer it self

I thought I'd add my two cents worth on this because I've been lurking and wavering on doing this. On the advice of AlanB66, I bought a Western Digital "My DVR Extender" 1Tb device. And just like AlanB66 said, the hookup was completely painless. Thanks, AlanB66!!

Now, for the stupid newbee questions:
Can you choose which disk to store things on?
Can things be moved from one disk to the other?

Thanks in advance for your help.