I didn't take it out due to it being full...It was a power-outage that caused all of the saved content to disappear...I took the drive out to run recovery software (which seemed to be working), but accidentally knocked the drive down damaging it apparently beyond repair. :-\
I had read in one article that software sometimes automatically downloads to replacement hard-drives, but that doesn't seem to be the case here (or it needs some kind of additional formatting or something). After testing the drive out and seeing that it wasn't recognized, we did leave it in, but I don't think that anything has changed with it. So, unless it's a drive that wouldn't work with the box, I think this system requires some kind of encryption (I can't imagine that it would not be possible to replace the drive, as I think that that's what a company would do with a damaged box in refurbishing it to further capitalize--but, that's what the manufacturer tried to tell me...however, I think that that's what they're told to say and they have concerns regarding piracy or whatnot). The software that recognizes channels and runs the guide has been functioning (not sure if that's something ingrained in the box or the cable card perhaps), but it's working like a non-recording cable box as opposed to a DVR (and was doing the same with the drive completely out).
I had sort of looked into external expansion in the past...But, this wasn't in an attempt for more space (initially--though when I bought a drive, I got a larger capacity one [not sure if that might be part of the issue]).
I wouldn't be comfortable being deceptive about the box--though I also don't agree with the rental-only system or exorbitant rates the company charges, and as there are some visible signs that the box was opened, they'd be likely to see that anyway, and we'd probably be penalized for it. :-\
If I can't find a way to encrypt the drive that we bought, I'm trying to see if I can find someone with the same box that I could get the hard drive from or something. I also don't want to return it without possibly sending the drive to my friend for a deeper recovery attempt. (Not that it's as important as a drive with personal files--I have some of those that I've still not been able to recover
-()--but it's extremely frustrating that we had like 150+ things on there that we now can't access and could be difficult and costly to reacquire.) (It's also extremely frustrating that this whole thing happened initially because of an issue with a power outage, and then because the cable company was not being helpful...Even though the data was still there and recoverable, they just tell people that if you can't see it it's not there.)