# Replacing the internal hard drive in the THR22



## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I know that back when the HR20 21,22,23 came out, that all you had to do is replaced the internal hard drive with a larger capacity, fire up the receiver and the receiver formatted the drive and you were up and running.
I wonder if the THR22 will do the same?
Anybody have any info on this?
I know that there is a warranty seal on the back, but not worried about that.
Don't want to deal with an external drive as the unit draws enough power as it is. Don't want to have another 15 or 20 watts of power spinning the meter 24/7.
I guess I could just install one and see what happens, the worst that can happen is it doesn't work, and would have to put the original drive back in.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

I haven't seen any posts where anybody has tried this yet. Just realize that all of these boxes are leased, so you would be violating the lease agreement by modifying the internal hardware.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I'm sure that D* knew when they released these, that people would want a larger hard drive. They should have used a 1TB in the first place if they wanted to avoid having people pop the hood on these. The 500GB drives are becoming less available. Fry's doesn't even have them anymore. 1TB drives are as cheep as the 500GB use to be. Even Weaknees stated that they would have a 2TB drive available for these soon.
Don't think that D* will bust anyone's chops over installing a larger hard drive.
All they will really do is void your warranty and if the DVR fails down the road, D* will not replace it without charging for a new unit. 
I hope that down the road when the next production run on these start up, D* has 1TB drives installed.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I wonder if I connect a 1TB drive to the external ESATA port and let the box format and set it up, then take the drive and install it internally, it would be good to go?
Would be a simple process if that works.
I know that if you connect the external drive, it takes over from the internal drive.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Also, does the external drive copy the now playing recordings over from the internal drive so you don't loose any of you programs? Or are they still accessible from the internal drive.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

No copies.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

So you loose any recordings that you have on the internal drive when the external drive is plugged in?


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I guess I should have said that you have no access to the recorded programs on the internal drive when the external drive is plugged in?


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Is info on replacing the internal drive with a larger one a forbidden subject?
There was a lot of info on this when the HR20 was out back in 2008, but that was the D* DVR software, not the TiVo GUI.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

If it's like the DirecTV Plus DVRs, it is as if the internal disk was replaced by the external. You don't lose what's on the internal but you can't see it either.

I don't know that discussion of upgrading the drive is "forbidden" - after all, Weaknees is selling boxes with upgraded drives - but you do violate your lease agreement if you do so. I expect we'll see discussion of it down the road.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Ok, Thanks Steve.
Guess I'll just run with the 500GB drive and see if the hard drive gets close to being filled before I go for a larger hard drive. No use in jumping right in and hack it up before the real hackers around here start playing with it.
The only thing that I ever did with the HR10-250 was install a 1TB drive, otherwise it is completely stock.
Hopefully, down the road, the drive can be copied over to the larger drive with the recorded programs.


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

BOBCAT said:


> I know that back when the HR20 21,22,23 came out, that all you had to do is replaced the internal hard drive with a larger capacity, fire up the receiver and the receiver formatted the drive and you were up and running.
> I wonder if the THR22 will do the same?............


If you own the unit, yes. It works exactly the same. If you lease it, you violate TOS.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Wonder how weaknees gets away with selling these with a 2TB drive installed?


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

BOBCAT said:


> Wonder how weaknees gets away with selling these with a 2TB drive installed?


They own the units. They bought them. Wehn you get a DVR from D*, you don't buy it. No matter what it is, if you own it, you decide what can or cannot be done with the device. If you do not own it, it is not legal to do anything to that device without the consent of the owner. This is not a difficult concept, and it matters not in the least what you or anyone else would like to do with a device you or they do not own.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I think that in about 6 months to a year, I'll try to get D* to change my THR status from leased to owned. Don't think that I will need more recording space until then. I have heard of people being successful in doing this.
Has anyone seen a posting with a view of the inside of these?


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

Its the same as a stock HR22-100, with the exception of a microchip that is stamped THR22-100 on it with a date.


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## GovGeek (Sep 16, 2007)

stevel said:


> If it's like the DirecTV Plus DVRs, it is as if the internal disk was replaced by the external. You don't lose what's on the internal but you can't see it either.
> 
> I don't know that discussion of upgrading the drive is "forbidden" - after all, Weaknees is selling boxes with upgraded drives - but you do violate your lease agreement if you do so. I expect we'll see discussion of it down the road.


I can confirm the above statement. I had an external 2TB eSATA HDD attached to my HR22-700 that I chose to reassign to my new THR22-100. I left everything intact (recordings, scheduling, etc.) just to see how the new THR would deal with a HDD being attached with HR22 data. But first I set-up the THR without the eSATA and configured a few season passes, suggestions, ect.. I then let it marinate for 24 hours and it did it's job just fine. I then removed power and plugged in the eSATA HDD previously used by the HR22-700. When it powered on, it acted like a factory reset and I had to re-create the entire set-up every step of the way. It also wiped the entire contents of the HDD as well, which I expected to happen.

When it was done, I let it marinate for another 24hours with the eSATA HDD and it also worked normally. For kicks and giggles, I then removed power and unplugged the eSATA HDD. It booted from the internal drive and functioned per the original setup. It was simply began where it left off 48 hours previously configured.

FYI, the HR22-700 which was previously using the 2TB eSATA drive for over 1.5 years, it also started where it last left off 1.5 years ago. The shows, scheduling, etc. was tombstoned and preserved as though it was never used since 1.5 years ago. Interesting.


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## amseven11 (Dec 24, 2011)

Just upgraded my internal drive to a 2TB Samsung 5400 drive, works fine


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## JosephB (Nov 19, 2010)

amseven11 said:


> Just upgraded my internal drive to a 2TB Samsung 5400 drive, works fine


How did you do it? If you just put a new drive in and it formatted it, then that answers why the THR doesn't have the Premiere UI and features--the software is stored in ROM on the box itself and not on the hard drive.


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## amseven11 (Dec 24, 2011)

Yes put new drive it, it formatted itself.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

How about post a photo of the inside of the box since you have opened it.

D* should have known that by putting such a small capacity hard drive in these that people would replace them with the current largest capacity drive available.
They should have released these with at least a 1TB drive, or had made that option available at the time of order.

Lease or not, D* should have expected or known that there are a lot of people out there that archive a lot of their favorite movies and programs and would swap the drive out.

With the operating system on some sort of flash memory on the main board, about the only "hack" that can be done to the box by the average user would be to swap out the hard drive.
It may kill off the warranty, but the user is paying the fee's for the box, and subscribing to D* service, so I don't think that D* get up in arm's over it. In 24 months or so, there will most likely be newer boxes out for everyone to go for, and these boxes will end up at the e waist right next to the HR20's.
Just keep your original drive handy in case you need to return the THR sooner than you expected. Most likely when the box hits the return depot, they just pitch it onto a "to be tested" pile, then re boxed distended for field replacement units.


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## GovGeek (Sep 16, 2007)

amseven11 said:


> Just upgraded my internal drive to a 2TB Samsung 5400 drive, works fine


My specs are EXACTLY the same for my external eSATA 2TB HDD. Neat!


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Using eSATA is a simpler way to go if you are interested in "Archiving", though I'd think that disk swapping for archiving in general is a pain.


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## JosephB (Nov 19, 2010)

BOBCAT said:


> How about post a photo of the inside of the box since you have opened it.
> 
> D* should have known that by putting such a small capacity hard drive in these that people would replace them with the current largest capacity drive available.
> They should have released these with at least a 1TB drive, or had made that option available at the time of order.
> ...


The inside looks exactly the same as the HR-22, because it is an HR-22. Just has different software burned into the ROM.


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## GovGeek (Sep 16, 2007)

JosephB said:


> The inside looks exactly the same as the HR-22, because it is an HR-22. Just has different software burned into the ROM.


I won't believe this is true until we actually see picture evidence of the birth certificate for the THR22. Pics or it doesn't exist.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

It should also look just like the HR21-100, since I have been told that the only difference between the HR21 and HR22 is hard disk size.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

I haven't seen the inside of any of those units.
Just thought it would be nice if he showed us his installation.


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## amseven11 (Dec 24, 2011)

It is the exact same as a HR22, I work on computers for a living so swamping the drive is no trouble but I could see how others would prefer a esata drive. If it's that important I will reopen mine and post a photo if you like but I assume you its the exact same as the HR22 and HR23.


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## JosephB (Nov 19, 2010)

it's a violation of several warranties and agreements to open the boxes. it's known that they're exactly the same hardware. you guys are sounding like certain people after bin laden was killed


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Probably, there would be no need to open the box if D* had specified a 1TB drive installed in these boxes in the first place. 
How short sited was D* in throwing a cheep low capacity drive in these boxes? With all the HD programing that they provide plus all of the local and OTH HD channels, people would need a larger hard drive.
D* should just post a waver on their web site stating that it would be ok to replace the hard drive if the lessee need more capacity.

Since there is no operating system/software resident on the hardware, there is nothing to "hack" on these units, and there are very few people out there that can offload the firmware from the flash rom, modify it and reload it back. 
Anyone with that kind of knowledge to do that type of hacking would do it regardless of the "agreement" not to open the box. 
What is there to gain doing that anyway? 

So D*, since you goofed in not putting a large Hard drive in these boxes, or providing a "special order large capacity hard drive box", post a waver on your site, or leak out the fact that you won't do anything about a hard drive swap out.

If Weaknees can do it, why can't everyone else? Weaknees has now set the precedent in installing large hard drives in the boxes that they will sell. The only consequences of doing this is that D* won't replace the box if it fails. If D* was going to be "hard nose" about this, they could just deactivate any box with a larger hard drive. I am sure that they could poll any of the THR boxes to check the hard drive and have "ET" call home and report if the hard drive has been changed out with a larger drive.

So D*, Post a waver on your web site to allow hard drive swap, at the owners risk, and specify that if the box fails, the there would be no warranty coverage. A lot of people are going to find that the 500GB drive is too small, and a swap out will be done regardless.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

BOBCAT said:


> ....
> ....
> So D*, Post a waver on your web site to allow hard drive swap, at the owners risk, and specify that if the box fails, the there would be no warranty coverage. A lot of people are going to find that the 500GB drive is too small, and a swap out will be done regardless.


Right. Don't hold your breath.

The THR22 has the exact same internal hard drive capacity as the HR22 platform, so it's highly unlikely any larger capacity version will be created. External eSATA drive is the way to go if 500GB is insufficient.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

BOBCAT said:


> The only consequences of doing this is that D* won't replace the box if it fails.


Couldn't you just install the original hard drive and then request an replacement?


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Weaknees isn't going to send you the original drive with their upgraded box.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Yea litzdog911, I know.
It's just a pain to use an external drive, and add another 25 watts or so spinning the power meter 24x7.
Just a more convenient and sanitary setup putting a larger internal drive in the box.
If D* didn't want that to happen, they should have just welded the box shut and potted the inside with epoxy!


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Well, D* does use Security Torx screws, at least in some of their models.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Yup, they sure do, and you can buy a bit set at Fry's electronics or automotive parts store about anywhere in the country.


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## johnd01 (Dec 17, 2002)

What are you afraid of... worst case they may have you buy the box... like that would be 1 in a million chance. They do not want you to be unhappy. Just put the drive you want in the box and go for it. Will 3TB work?


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

johnd01 said:


> ..... Will 3TB work?


Probably not. The maximum supported on the HR22 and other DirecTV HD DVRs is 2TB.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

Has anyone ever heard of D* complaining because a DVR was returned without the warranty seal still in place? Because I haven't.


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## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

The way warehouses work, the returns most likely get tossed into a big pile and wait for someone to test them or toss them into an e waist bin.


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## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

The information I have is that you just put a blank drive into and it will automatically format it and boot to the point where "Just a few more minutes" appears, but goes no further. You have to reboot and as soon as the first screen appears press 0-2-4-6-8 on the peanut remote. This will force a software download and it will then reboot and get all the way through the guided setup. 2 GB maximum size internal drive.


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