I've read quite a lot about adding an external SATA drive to the DirecTV HD DVR+ (I have the HR21-700). It's universally acknowledged that doing so will cause the unit to ignore the internal drive. However, it's not clear whether there is a method (supported or otherwise) for copying saved programs and settings from the internal drive to the external.

No one on the various forums seems to know how to do it (that I've seen) but WeeKnees offers the service for $59 if you buy their external drive kit (http://www.weaknees.com/hr20-700-directv-hd-dvr.php) for $299 or $399 for 750GB or 1TB. If they can do it, then anyone can do it and not pay any $59 fee for it, either.

Anyone?

I've read quite a lot about adding an external SATA drive to the DirecTV HD DVR+ (I have the HR21-700). It's universally acknowledged that doing so will cause the unit to ignore the internal drive. However, it's not clear whether there is a method (supported or otherwise) for copying saved programs and settings from the internal drive to the external.

No one on the various forums seems to know how to do it (that I've seen) but WeeKnees offers the service for $59 if you buy their external drive kit (http://www.weaknees.com/hr20-700-directv-hd-dvr.php) for $299 or $399 for 750GB or 1TB. If they can do it, then anyone can do it and not pay any $59 fee for it, either.

Anyone?
I take it you've already asked on dbsinfo.com? I'd like to know too (how to copy programs from internal to external)... ;)

That was one of the places I checked. The forum thread talking about eSATA drives runs well over 100 pages, but a search didn't turn up anything useful.

Wouldn't it just be a linux 'dd' of the internal drive to an external disk?

Wouldn't it just be a linux 'dd' of the internal drive to an external disk?
Ah, but wouldn't that involve opening the box, thus breaking the seal and warranty? I was hoping it could be done through the existing eSATA port. I have a question in to WeeKnees to verify that point. If not, sure, I can do that.

Edit to add:

Got this reply from WeeKnees:

Technically, yes, but they generally don't mind. Also be aware that their warranty is only 90 days.

Okay then. Now I just need a SATA add-on card for my old desktop PC. And the new drive, of course. The reason I'm interested is for the Summer Olympics, where there will be hundreds and hundreds of hours of HD programming. The internal drive seems to top out around 35 hours.

Wouldn't it just be a linux 'dd' of the internal drive to an external disk?
I'm no Linux or "dd" expert, but I think the issue with doing a dd is that if you were to dd the contents of the (smaller) internal drive to the (larger) external drive, I'm guessing the DVR OS won't know how to access the additional space that is on the larger drive; dd does a block-to-block transfer of whatever's on the source (internal drive) to the destination (external drive). What's to say that there isn't any non-program info/data on the internal drive that's specific only to the internal drive?

I'm no Linux or "dd" expert, but I think the issue with doing a dd is that if you were to dd the contents of the (smaller) internal drive to the (larger) external drive, I'm guessing the DVR OS won't know how to access the additional space that is on the larger drive; dd does a block-to-block transfer of whatever's on the source (internal drive) to the destination (external drive). What's to say that there isn't any non-program info/data on the internal drive that's specific only to the internal drive?

Not for most filesystems, no. You can 'dd' a drive from a smaller disk to a larger one, and it recognizes the empty sectors.

You just need to make the partition larger on the larger drive that is the one you're copying.

Used to do it a lot on backups of linux laptops.