I read that you are able to expand the storage space on a SA 8300HD cable box by plugging in an external SATAII hard drive to the eSATA port.
{ http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/3734/279/ }

What happens if the SA 8300HD's internal hard drive crashes? Can you still record to the external drive?
I have read that some owners of the SA 8300HD have swapped out hard drives - does this actually work??

I'm trying to decide if I should pickup a SA 8300HD cable box, but I cannot seem to find an answer to my question.

Thank you all.

There are 2 threads on the topic in the stickies at the top of this forum (I've moved your thread to the correct forum). One thread concerns internal drive swapping/cloning and one on external. You cannot use the external if the internal crashes as the internal stores the index, the IPG, etc. Read post one of each thread, as well as the links there - it's all explained.

After reading those first posts and the links, if you have any questions about internal or external HDD expansion/cloning, please ask the question in the appropriate thread.