[Rmcdowell]

I have had my Humax since 2005 and it has done trusty service but the hard drive is dying and gives up every few days. Opening the box, poking around, pulling cables in and out seems to give a boost of life for another week. I've reset the box to factory settings, checked software updates but to no avail.

Can the hard drive be replaced by simply unscrewing a few screws or is it much more complicated than that? Which hard drives have those of you who have done this used? If Youview had been launching soon I wouldn't have bothered and got a new box, but since this is not immiment would like to upgrade my 9200T.

[Big-les]

Originally Posted by Rmcdowell

I have had my Humax since 2005 and it has done trusty service but the hard drive is dying and gives up every few days. Opening the box, poking around, pulling cables in and out seems to give a boost of life for another week.
.....

If you can get it going by "poking around, pulling cables in and out" then I'm not sure why you think the hard drive is at fault, unless the hard drive connections themselves are damaged.

[chrisjr]

I would be tempted to try formatting the drive first. I assume there is nothing on it you wnat to keep as you are contemplating swapping it? It might simply be some sort of disk corruption that a format may sort out.

And if it does sort it then it's cheaper than a new disk drive

[Rmcdowell]

I'll try reformatting the drive again but I suspect the hard drive itself is faulty. When it fails the background hum disappears. When I switch the box back on I can hear the drive kicking into action, or trying to do so, failing and conking out.

[Toen]

It will work with a basic IDE HD.
The actual drive is a Seagate ST3160022ACE
The ACE part indicates that the drive is specially made to enable streaming without too much error checking.
You can replace it with any IDE. Just remove IDE cable and power cable then remove cradle from chassis (4 screws). You can see the HD is attached to cradle with 4 screws (with rubber washers for noise reduction).
You would have to format the drive once in the Humax via menu.

[Luis Essex]

Originally Posted by Toen

It will work with a basic IDE HD.

It certainly does not.
What do you base that on?

The Humax 9200T is very fusy about the drive. Some it will just not work and others it will only recognise every other time it is powered up from standby.

Rmcdowell, If using an IDE drive then it is best to stick to Seagate ACE drives.
A bit of googling should come up with some SATA drive sthat have been succesfully using a suitable adapter.

[Martin Liddle]

Originally Posted by Toen

It will work with a basic IDE HD.
The actual drive is a Seagate ST3160022ACE
The ACE part indicates that the drive is specially made to enable streaming without too much error checking.
You can replace it with any IDE.

And it may or may not work; in particular various types of drive do not come out of standby properly with the 9200.

You would have to format the drive once in the Humax via menu.

Nope; the Humax will automatically offer to format the drive the first time it is powered up.

[fenlander]

There still seem to be some of these drives about, but they all seem to be with US suppliers. Maybe you can find one that will ship to the UK for less than an arm and a leg?

[Toen]

I have two Humax 9200 boxes and I used to regularly swap hard drives in them. I never had a standard IDE fail. I used to copy the files with drive in usb dock using humax reader software.

If you have found some drives that do not work then maybe I have been lucky.

I do not copy the files now since I have Tivo with Virgin media and space is not a problem.

[londonman]

I need a new drive. What format does the drive need to be in as my understanding is that the Humax Format command only formats the file directory.

TIA

[Martin Liddle]

Originally Posted by londonman

I need a new drive. What format does the drive need to be in as my understanding is that the Humax Format command only formats the file directory.

The Humax will do the necessary formatting of the drive even on a completely blank drive so the one thing you do not need to worry about is drive format.