Failed Hard Drive Upgrade.

stvn758 · 19/05/15 - 08:08

Tried changing the dodgy Maxtor in my White Amstrad Sky+ box to a Sata 500gb 2.5inch drive with an adaptor, everything works but the recording, system error 6-0, please ring yada yada! Tried everything, reset, software, format etc, no luck.

Just ordered a 'new' 160gb Seagate IDE drive off Ebay, five quid.

If that goes bad I'll stick the old one back in.

Sky_Guy · 19/05/15 - 10:38

Its been so long since I had one of these I cannot remember what they liked to use for the hard drive, but to be honest I would not bother.

You can get a tested Sky plus HD box on Ebay for £60

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKY-PLUS-HD-BOX-500GB-SKY-AMSTRAD-DRX890-ON-DEMAND-/190939705436?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c74e4b05c

This has a scart connection so can easily replace your white sky plus box.

Ragnarok · 19/05/15 - 11:49

I think the old boxes only supported upto 250gb IDE drives, and they still been to be something like a maxtor quickview, seagate pipeline series drive.

Seriously though, you might be far better off getting a DRX 890 off ebay on a good day you can pick one up for less than £20, and picking up a 2tb HDD. All sky SD boxes including sky+ are legacy products and will not be updated and functionality cannot be guaranteed in the future.

stvn758 · 19/05/15 - 20:05

Thanks, wait until tomorrow, just checked the old drive and it's actually a 160gb Seagate too, so fingers crossed. Worth a fiver to avoid the hassle of dealing with Sky.

stvn758 · 20/05/15 - 16:57

New hard drive worked, a fiver well spent. Just tested it and no apparent tearing when rewound or fast forwarded so it seems the old drive was on it's way out. Tried it with two channels recording just to make sure.

How small are those old drives, with all the fixings I just noticed how flat this Sky one is, one or two platters inside. The one I just bought is a little thicker but pretty much an identical Seagate OEM.

PhilH36 · 22/05/15 - 14:23

Ragnarok wrote: »

All sky SD boxes including sky+ are legacy products and will not be updated

That's been my understanding and assumption but I'm sure there's been a change in my SD box with the smart series links update. I've noticed the series link symbol appearing in the planner entry for the last episode of a series even though there is no new episode the following week. I've also noticed that it seems to appear on the entries for shows that will be returning for another season-such as Blue Bloods and The Flash-but not on shows that have been cancelled and/or are finishing-such as Stalker. I'm sure this never used to happen in that the ejntry for the last episode never contained the series link symbol. I also know that if a show was taken off for a week in the middle of it's run the next episode would eventually be added to the planner seven days before it was due to be shown, but I didn't think series link had been developed to the point where it could 'carry over' for several months and pick up the first episode of the following season!

simon194 · 22/05/15 - 20:54

For the smart series link to work on boxes that support it, the last episode has to be series linked otherwise it won't get flagged for the "next series" in the Scheduled tab. What happens is the last episode is series linked and after I think it's around 10 days and the next episode isn't found the series link is changed to 'Next Series'.

Naturally you will see the last episode of a series get the series link set on any Sky box, even the old OpenTV based ones that haven't had an update for probably well over 5 years now.

PhilH36 · 23/05/15 - 13:09

Thanks for the explanation, I just didn't think the smart series links would have any effect on SD boxes given, as posted earlier, my assumption and belief that they were/are no longer being updated.

stvn758 · 17/06/15 - 12:16

Picture is still messed up, it worked okay for a little while. Have to check what Sky are saying about it, can't imagine what kind of fault would effect certain boxes and cause this.

Seems some people are getting a new HD box for £30 because of it, I don't want to upgrade as it looks like I'll end up paying a lot more for my TV, seems like long time subscribers are getting a better deal on the old packages.

sodafountain · 17/06/15 - 13:09

Not seen you mention the messed up picture before, had you done, i would have pointed you in the direction of this thread, where others have the same problem:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2067663

stvn758 · 17/06/15 - 22:55

sodafountain wrote: »

Not seen you mention the messed up picture before, had you done, i would have pointed you in the direction of this thread, where others have the same problem:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2067663

This is my second thread, that's why I tried the adapter method first because my picture was messed up and I thought if I'm going to open it up I might as well upgrade it to a big sata drive, someone else mentioned the messed up recordings in another thread midway through my endeavour and the culprit was revealed.

Just had a look on EBay at what HD boxes cost and how much one from Sky would and upgraded to a 2TB HD box for £49 and £6 a week extra for the family bundle - that's a con, they've just reduced HD subs by four quid and added six quid to the same channel package and tossed in some odds and sods to make it look like you're getting something extra by the looks of it.

My Mum keeps so many recordings I think I'll be giving her this monster, she's always got 1% left on her planner, this should keep her happy as long as the new style one doesn't cause her any problems.

stvn758 · 18/06/15 - 00:22

Just been looking at the Sky page again and it appears to say upgrading to the Family package means I now have Sky HD?

After another look (they don't make it easy do they) I get none of my movie channels in HD - unless I pay another six quid a month, so it is another Sky slight of hand. On demand, as if there isn't enough bandwidth given over to +1 channels already that could up the quality of the main ones. Box Sets, meh, everything is repeated endlessly.

So over £12 for Sky HD now, some useless extras to fool you into thinking you're getting some extra goodies.

sodafountain · 18/06/15 - 08:17

stvn758 wrote: »

Just been looking at the Sky page again and it appears to say upgrading to the Family package means I now have Sky HD?

After another look (they don't make it easy do they) I get none of my movie channels in HD - unless I pay another six quid a month, so it is another Sky slight of hand. On demand, as if there isn't enough bandwidth given over to +1 channels already that could up the quality of the main ones. Box Sets, meh, everything is repeated endlessly.

So over £12 for Sky HD now, some useless extras to fool you into thinking you're getting some extra goodies.

Nothing to do with slight of hand, on the old system, everyone paid the same for the HD pack, which was £11.25, whether they had the standard pack, movies, or sport, and people without movies or sport complained about having to pay the same.

So now, they split it in 2, half goes on normal channels (by taking the Family Pack), and the other half goes on the HD pack to get sports/movies if you have them.

Hey there!

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Failed Hard Drive Upgrade.

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