External Drive with DCX3400

[plummerl]

A number of years ago, Comcast upgraded the firmware of the DCX3400 to allow the eSATA port to be used with an external hard drive. I briefly tested the "new" feature and found that it indeed worked. I continued in the intervening years without one connected. This morning, I decided to go ahead and connect an unused drive.

Plugged it in with the STB off. With the drive powered on, the STB would not power up. Disconnected the drive and the STB powered up. Brought up the DVR menu, powered the drive up and a banner warning appeared "Remove External Drive". Removed the drive and the STB continued normally.

I give up, has Comcast made another change to the DCX3400 removing the feature?????

[ComcastBecker]

Hi Plummerl -

Unfortunately the DCX3400 does not support external hard drives. There may have been a short time where it would have worked when we were testing External Drives a number of years ago, but ultimately support for that model was never made official.

Legacy Motorola Boxes that do support external drives are: DCH3416, DCH6416, DCT3412, DCT3416, DCT6412, DCT6416, DCX3501, and RNG200N.

Most service centers and Xfinity Stores still regularly stock the RNG200N, and this would usually be the model shipped to you if you do not have X1 and requested that a Legacy DVR be shipped to you by one of our customer service representatives.

I hope that helps!

[plummerl]

Actually, after the testing phase, the DCX3400 was included in the models approved for eSATA drives. Look it up. But as usual, what Comcast giveth, Comcast taketh away.

[ComcastBecker]

Gotcha - I did look at my notes but couldn't find anything that listed that device as officially supported. It's certainly possible we needed to pull support for that model for technical reasons after testing had been completed.

Other than the loss of recordings, is there a concern with switching to the RNG200 to move to a model that is supported? Just trying to help. 🙂

[FAUguy]

Myself and others that I know of, all use 2TB External Drive connected to the DCX3400 with eSATA Cable without any problem.

I would suggest that you power off the DCX3400 and external drive, then connect the eSATA cable between the. Next only owner on the DCX3400. Wait a few minutes to make sure it is working and is able to record to the internal driver. Then power on the external drive. It may take a few minutes for the DCX3400 to see it, and you would get a blue box in the screen saying Drive 1 connected.