I don't really know where to put this thread but since it deals with an external hard drive, i'll put it here. I have a cable box that is DVR ready and I have DVR service, so i have been recording videos on the box. My cable company says that I can transfer the videos onto an external hard drive or orginally record them on an external source. However when I hook my WD My book 320gb to the box, i can't find it anywhere. My box is a Scientific Atlanta, Explorer 8300HD and the hard drivecan be connected to the box via firewire or USB. I know that this really isn't the right forum but anybody who can help would be great.

Is the drive formatted? Partitioned?

If so, how?

If I recall, that DVR box runs a form of *nix, so it may not be able to handle NTFS too well.

The manual for the DV box should tell you how the connected hard-disk needs to be setup, for the system to "See" it. Without this info, the box probably won't see the drive at all. I agree with MJC - if it is Linux/Unix based(the DV box software), then it might have trouble with a big external drive, especially if it is already NTFS formatted...

See my issue it that i installed the box at a later date, and I didn't seem to get any info on it. Thats why i was trying to find info online. Now, the drive isn't partitioned to my knowledge, but i have been using it right out of the box so i may be wrong. How could i check that stuff?

The device's pdf manual (http://www.scientificatlanta.com/products/consumers/userguidepdfs/4003986.pdf) shows one usb, one sata and two firewire ports on the box. It only mentions eSATA as being capable as additional storage.

Front 13 USB Port. Connects to external equipment, such as a keyboard.

Back 11 SATA. Connects to an external Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive for expanded recording capacity. Check with your cable service provider for a list of approved hard drive models for use with the 8300HD.

Back 12 1394 Firewire. Connect to display device equipment with a 1394 input. The connector is reserved for future use and may not be available on all 8300HD models.

Your external (http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=222#jump11) has USB and Firewire but no eSATA connections apparently.

Well that makes sense. Thanks. But then my problem of getting the files to my computer is not solved. Unless, could i attach an external DVD burner to the USB up front? Maybe i'm understanding it wrong. I just have to figure out a way to get these video files to disc.

I think you really need an eSATA connection on an external caddy (http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/esata-usb-drive-enclosure.htm) or possibly you could use a SATA to IDE converter (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36036&doy=28m9&C=SO&U=strat15) though you would need to use the PC's power cables in conjunction with it but check with the cable company as suggested in the pdf file. The first link uses a SATA hard drive in the enclosure but I guess if you look around you may find an enclosure with a PATA inside but with both USB and eSATA ports on the outside.

The only other approach I can think of is to temporarily remove the internal hard drive inside the box though this could be awkward enough (not something I have ever contemplated) and could void any existing warranty on it.

I don't see how you would burn DVDs directly from the box unless it was designed to do this.

Ok thanks.