Hard Drive Too Small - and - Another bone to pick about the Interface

I've got a question - or probably more so a comment (since I searched formus allready) - about hard drive space.  I have the VIP 1225 box, and only 8 series, and keep only 2 per.  these vary from 30 mins to an hour a piece.  I am constantly running our of hard drive space - specially when I decide to record something not in a series.  Is it just me, or is the hard drive way too small?  Is there a way to get a larger hard drive (legitimately) or get a USB drive?

To help this situation I have opted to record a few in standard defenition.  This is where I have a bone to pick with the UI (not my first - see my other post about Guide interface).  I swiitched from Dish Network, and if I chose to record something in SD, it was as easy as choosing this option in the recording preferences.  In order to record in SD on uVerse I had to UnHide the SD channel from the Guide (which I dislike so much) so that I could have the option to record from the SD channel.  Now, when I view the guide I have the SD channels on my list.

ATT please start making upgrades to this system - It is horrble.  I'd be more than happy to be in a test user group.