This is a legacy article. For how to add an external hard drive to a 4th Generation Tablo, go here.
This process will format the external drive. Formatting a Hard Drive removes everything stored on it.
If you've been using an unsupported form of storage (like a USB Flash drive) and need to transition to a supported drive or are simply transitioning to a larger drive for recording storage, take the following steps:
1. Remove the unsupported/old storage from your Tablo's USB port (or from the SATA slot for Tablo QUAD 1TB models).
2. Plug your new supported hard drive into the Tablo's USB port. For internal SATA drives with Tablo QUAD, follow the installation instructions here, then proceed with the next steps.
3. Reboot your Tablo by pressing and quickly releasing its blue reset button which is located on the upper right-hand corner on the back of the box. Wait 1-2 minutes for the Tablo's blue LED to stop flashing.
4. Connect to your Tablo using an Android, iOS or web-based application.
5. Within 10-15 seconds, you should receive an on-screen format prompt which will format your new hard drive for use with Tablo. If you do not receive this prompt, navigate to the Settings screen.
6. Follow the on-screen prompts, ensuring to type the word FORMAT in all caps.
All future recordings will be saved to this disk.
Any recordings which were saved to your previous drive will no longer be accessible. There is no supported method for transferring recordings from one drive to another.