TVSquad

Ever since TiVo launches the Series3 high definition box last year, users have been staring longingly at the eSATA port on the back of their TiVo units. It's supposed to allow you to plug in an external hard drive, but TiVo hasn't enabled that feature yet.

As is usually the case with these things, the members of the TiVo Community Forum have stepped in to finish the job. So here's the hack to activate that eSATA port on your Series3 TiVo. It only seems to work on an unmodified box, so if you've already cracked the lid and upgraded the internal hard drive, there's no guarantees. Also, this hack has been tested on boxes running TiVo 8.1.1 software.

• Power down your TiVo
• Connect an eSATA drive to the eSATA port
• Power on your eSATA device
• Power on your TiVo
• Point your TiVo remote at your TiVo with the pause button pressed
• Keep pressing until all the lights on the front panel go out
• Next, you should see an orange LED light on the front panel
• Let go of the pause button and type "62"
• TiVo should reboot now, and when its' completed a screen should pop up telling you "your second hard drive has been activated.

Make sure to keep that extra hard drive connected and powered up all the time. If you unplug it or turn it off, you could lose your recordings.

[via Engadget]