My unit is dying; the internal HD is clicking constantly, and I keep unplugging/pluggin it in to reboot it in order to get the recording function to work. While I can watch tv just fine (it occasionally stutters/freezes), the recording function, as I said above, just dies out, requiring a reboot.

My question - is it possible to buy/connect an external harddrive to the 8300, and use that, so that even though my internal drive is dead, I can still record programs without having to buy a new box?

Many thanks for any help

No, the 8300HD uses both drives simultaneously. If the internal drive is dead, then it will be useless. You might be able to swap drives, but I'm not sure. Do you lease this box from your cable provider? If so, just swap it out.

As far as I know, these DVRs are only available by lease from the cable company. You should get it replaced, but you CAN add an external drive to this cable box. You must have a SATA external drive that is powered constantly and it connects to the box with eSATA cable. I don't think it uses both drives simultaneously, though. It uses whatever drive has the most space available.

It does use both drives.

When I added my external HD to my 8300, I did some research, and the info I found suggested the DVR will always try to record to the drive with more space available. Now if this is true (and I'm not saying it is), I would think the DVR would just always use the external since the internal isn't available. I had a situation where my external HD power supply was damaged by a flood this year. Until I got a new one I could only watch stuff that had been recorded to the internal drive even though everything still showed up in my recorded list. The stuff that did record to the internal drive was available in its entirety. AFAIK this DVR won't split a recording between both drives. I've actually had recordings end early because one drive ran out of space even though the other still had room. I suppose that could also vary by cable company since they all customize their OS on the box I think. I wonder if the actual list of recordings is always saved to the internal, and that's why you need it no matter what?

That said, I agree you should just get it replaced by your provider.

Thanks all - I took it down to my providers office and they just swapped it out with a new one; no more problems

Thanks for all the help

I went down to my local comcast since my 8300HD was acting up. They accidentally gave me one that had a cablecard port in the back. Now, the On Demand doesn't work. They've reset the signal many times and I've done both soft and hard reboots, but no dice. I now have to go back and switch it out again. They'll probably just give me back the one I originally returned.

Still recommend adding the external drive. Your DVR will hold soooo much more stuff.

what's the max GB people have successfully hooked up? I only hooked up a 250GB (although the internal one is 80GB so it quadrupled in size), but was wondering if people have gotten a TB or even 1.5TB.

I've got a 320GB on mine but I did that 2 years ago. I thought I remember reading anything above 500GB would be problematic, but with how cheap drives are now it's worth a try.