HR44 - 14 years old - Beginning to act up

Since the external drive replaces the internal drive, I would go with the external drive.

Thanks, Shannon02!  We have used refurbished Seagate, but this one is an MDD.  Never heard of it before.  We're on an equipment insurance plan, can we get a new dvr, in your opinion?

It is possible you may get an HR54 as the HR44 has been non returnable for years but DTV may push you to upgrade to the HS17 mini client only system with a new 2yr commitment but most likely they will both be refurbished.

As the internal is disabled when the external is in use, and it keeps reverting back to the internal, sounds like the external is having issues.

The Equipment Protection Plan will not guarantee you a "new" DVR. What it does is waive the $19.95 delivery for a warranty replacement. That is what you pay $8.99 a month ($107.88 a year) for. At this point all boxes are expected to be refurbished.

A warranty replacement is same model or newer of the same model line. That means you could get an HR44 or an HR54 as those are the 2nd and 3rd generations of the Genie. However you could also end up with an HR54R1. That revised model does not have an eSATA port. The Genie-2 (HS17) removed the eSATA port after the 1st run. So unless the new owner changes things, they no longer make boxes to support external hard drives.

A note, even with an external drive the recordings are encrypted to their exact DVR. Replacing yours, even with the same model, will result in the old recordings being overwritten with formatting it for the replacement box.

Shannon02 and Juniper,
Thanks, so much!  I put in a Seagate and all is well.  I will not be contacting DTV to trplace!  Don;t want the chance to loose the eSATA!

Great wisdom and knowledge from you both.

OldManSW

Glad it is working. Sounds like you put in a replacement external HDD, so that other one ended up with issues then. At least it wasn't the box.

I'm assuming the removal of the eSATA ports was a cost saving decision. Also the port is known to be a bit delicate, not intended for constant back and forth (such as switching between internal and external). Only swap out connection if needed.

Protection Plan costs more in the long run than those one-time costs when needed. But some people like it as they have a small known cost in every monthly bill instead of having to have reserve funds for delivery of replacement box ($19.95), replacement remote ($15 from DirecTV, but cheaper thru 3rd party retailers), and the rare service call ($99).