DVR expander connecting to the eSata port

It has always been an unsupported feature for the DVR. It has always been if it works great if it does not we cant fix it. I will ask around to see if we have any more info on if it will ever work on the WHDVR. It is a new system and my first thought is that the software has not been programed yet to recognize the hard drive.  I will update this post with any new info I can find.

I kind of thought that might be the case mike007.  I am sure hoping the software will eventually make that port active and usable.  Thanks for keeping me in mind when/if you get any more information! 

I got word that we are looking at providing a Cox support hard drive expansion. No ETA on when it will be available.  I did some searching if anyone else has been able to get it to work. I have found some 3rd party forums where people claims to have been able to hook up an external hard-drive to a Cisco 8642.  Problem is I don't know what software is on those boxes.  based on the fact that we are planing to offer our own Hard drive this would mean that at least the port is enable and can work. However, the reason we could not support externals for the Legacy boxes was that not all external hard-drives would work, and we would have no way to tell why they did not work. I remember trying to help customers with those and it was really hit or miss on if it would work. So following the same logic it is possible that a different hard drive may work but I just cant promise that it will.

The hard drive I have actually advertises that it worked on Tivo and Scientific Atlanta which was why I gave it a go several years back.  Those hard drives we too small for much HD recording.  It is a 500G WD My DVR Expander.  I saw those claims too so I was optimistic that it would work.  Not too much detail in those though.  Maybe one of them will see these posts and share that information.  Geeze, too bad I had never gotten you when I would mention that I even had one.  Most on tech support hadn't even heard of them. 

Should I assume that Cox will rent them and not sell them?  I would rather just out right buy on instead of going the rental route.

Thanks again mike 007!

The details about how we will provide them is not known at this time. It could go either way as we have in the past few years started selling a lot more things at our service centers that are not support by cox directly.

Thanks mike007!  I iwll keep checking this forum to see if anyone gets one to work and names the one or Cox begins to sell or rent them. 

I got the whole home DVR installed on Saturday, November 24, 2012.  I have 3 units that will record on the home network.  On two of those I have the WD DVR expander hooked up to the WH DVR.  The 3rd one does not have an expander hooked up to it.  They hooked up fine with no problem. Then on Monday, December 17, 2012 I lost everything saved on the 2 WH DVRs that had the DVR expanders hooked to them.  All of the series I have set to record are no longer in memory.  All the shows saved on those 2 DVRs are gone.  All I have left is what was recorded on the third DVR that did not have an expander attached to it.  For three weeks everything worked fine. I have no clue why they all of a sudden stopped working.  I tried resetting them and it didn't help.  I even tried unhooking the DVR expanders completely, but now I can't even get the TVs to work right.  The guide won't work and it won't show any of the channels.

Did the external drives stop working because of the upgrade? I used to have one plugged into my 8642 and it worked, but I couldn't watch content on the external drive on the non DVR box, i think they call it a "client". I haven't tried hooking the external drive back up since the upgrade, so I don't know if it works differently now.