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Fitting a 1tb drive( from Thomson box) into an Amstard DRX890
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As like many other users here I have been told by sky about the box swap/upgrade. I have a Thomson box which has had the PSU fitted with better caps and I have a 1tb drive in there that I installed and I copied some recordings from the original drive using Copy+. I was wondering if I went with the free option of getting the Amstrad DRX890 (the 500 gb) drive would I be able to simply put in my existing drive without any problems?
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Here's the thread
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1448182 (see post #6 which is the relevent bit for you)
So I used Copy+ and made a backup image from Thomson to my PC's hard drive (needs to be big enough of course) then connected the DRX890 and copied the image over to the factory fitted 500GB drive in the DRX890 and all recordings transferred fine.
I think you'll need to do much the same, ie transfer Thomson's 1TB content to a PC hard drive as copy+ 'backup' image file, then install the 1TB drive into the DRX, do a housekeeping Planner Rebuild and/or system reset on the DRX890 to re-initialise the drive for the darwin software and to make the anytime section 250GB (this is when it might trash the contents of the drive) then see if the recordings work, if not then connect the 1tb drive to the PC, use copy+ to transfer the backup image back to the 1TB drive, refit into DRX890, do a housekeeping routine Planner Rebuild (not a system reset) and it 'should' work.
I hope this is correct and before trying make sure another member like Davemurgatroyd or PCBBC confirms the above.
Apologies if I got it wrong!
note to self, don't try and give a long winded answer when you're in a rush
You should be able to transfer directly assuming you make sure there is sufficient free space to make up for the difference in Anytme allocation on the new box. As the Anytime space is allocated on a dynamic quota basis, the box will simply reconfigure to cope.
Of course you must also ensure the hard drive is compatible with the new box and also that the CPU endian is the same. Can not comment on the first issue, but can confirm no endian conversion is required between these boxes.
I may well be going through this procedure soon myself if I get offered a new box for free!
I do hope a straight drive swap will work, as I don't think I've got enough space on my PC to store all my programmes now.
I've just installed a DRX890 and would also like to simply swap over my 1TB drive from the Thomson.
Has anyone actually done this to confirm that it works?
If not I suppose I'll have to be the guinea pig some time in the next few days.
Do let us know what happens.
Recently did this with a 1tb drive from my Samsung into an Amstrad. Getting at the hard disk is much (much!) trickier than it is in the old style boxes and I can't for the life of me get the plastic casing back on properly.
Other than that it all works fine
Getting at the Amstrad HDD is a bit more involved but with the guides available online that shouldn't put anyone off having a go.
Where are these guides....?:)
Here's the one I used.
It's best to read the comments at the bottom of the page before starting to dismantle the box.
Thanks!!
Has the new box got the latest Darwin software with Anytime+ available?
I don't have Sky BB, therefore can't get Anytime+ at the moment. So I honestly don't know whether the software is fully up to date.
Details screen says Version 4F3105,
If so, you are "Anytime+ ready" even though you can't use it at the moment.
Yes there is a Network tab under the "Settings" menu, to input IP Address, Netmask etc. No plans to go over to Sky Broadband ATM though.
incidentally I just found a nice PDF guide on the Sky User forums for those wanting to upgrade the HDD in the DRX 890.
(With thanks to shear69 on that forum)
So, IF I do remove the existing drive just before a new box arrives and IF the old box is taken away would there be any comeback because there is no drive in it?
Just installed a 1TB Western Digital WD10EVDS and the box is nice and quiet. If anything, I'm worried that the fan may now never come ON.
Does anyone know if it is controlled purely by HDD temperature or is there a temp sensor elsewhere in the box?
Does it matter if the Amstrad is on Darwin or not when you put the Thomson disk in?
thanks for the info....
As I understand it that doesn't matter.
It seems that with Darwin the only possible downside is that the box in some way changes the planner format on the HDD, which apparently makes it impossible to reuse that drive/recordings in the Thomson again. Not really a problem normally.