I want to upgrade the hard drive in Amstrad HD Box

mfqy94 · 06/12/10 - 19:09

Hi All
I want to replace the standard 500Gb drive in my new Amstrad box with 1TB drive I currently have in my dying Thomson. Can anyone give me any pointers on how to open up the box and get to the drive. I can open up the Thomson no problem , but the Amstrad is proving more difficult. I have seen reference to a few web pages on here but all the links are dead. Instructions with pictures would be great if any one can oblige

Thanks in advance

simon194 · 06/12/10 - 21:33

Follow the link in here. The pictures still work but be aware, you have to dismantle most of the box because the hard drive in underneath the mainboard.

mfqy94 · 07/12/10 - 10:10

Brilliant . Thanks very much , that's exactly what I was hoping for.

Looks like a bigger job than changing the drive on the Thompson but will be well worth it in the end..... 250GB personal space is way too small when recording HD channels.

Many thanks again.

Restorer · 07/12/10 - 11:56

mfqy94 wrote: »

Brilliant . Thanks very much , that's exactly what I was hoping for.

Looks like a bigger job than changing the drive on the Thompson but will be well worth it in the end..... 250GB personal space is way too small when recording HD channels.

Many thanks again.

It's easy enough if you take your time. But three things to beware of that cost me a lot of frustration:

1. There is a further screw next to the HDMI slot on the back (not mentioned in the guides for some reason) that needs to come out before sliding out from the plastic part of the case.

2. The connector holding the top deck of the board to the bottom is very stiff. Hold firmly and wiggle gently.

3. Before sliding the metal box back in, take careful note of how the plastic lugs fit to the top of the metal box. Sliding in blindly will cause it to stick a few mm short.

Good luck.

jeallen01 · 07/12/10 - 19:09

Restorer wrote: »

It's easy enough if you take your time. But three things to beware of that cost me a lot of frustration:

1. There is a further screw next to the HDMI slot on the back (not mentioned in the guides for some reason) that needs to come out before sliding out from the plastic part of the case.

2. The connector holding the top deck of the board to the bottom is very stiff. Hold firmly and wiggle gently.
Comment: use a small screwdriver to lift each end of the connector plug - then it comes out easily

3. Before sliding the metal box back in, take careful note of how the plastic lugs fit to the top of the metal box. Sliding in blindly will cause it to stick a few mm short.
Comment: : And remember to completely remove the subscription card as it can prevent the re-fitting of the front of the case.
Good luck.

See my Comments above.

See also this thread: http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-hd-supertelly/29001-how-upgrade-your-sky-hd-box-hdd.html.

Also, I am in the process of getting my unit to have external, pluggable disks - see Pages 5 & 6 of the above thread! At the moment I have the original disk running in a disk enclosure just behind the 890.

This weekend, I hope to have it on a completely pluggable ESata connection - and I have another disk and enclosure in which I will fit a 1TB disk which I hope to initialise to the full capacity using the info on this page: http://www.skycopyplus.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=127&sid=e84fd5eb044122cda087564c811406f4

Then I should be able to swop between disks in minutes, and only need to completely externally power down the box between the changes.

With practice, and I have had quite a bit recently, you can take one of these apart, and then put it back together, in about 10mins for each operation - and keep all the parts in an old egg box, so you can keep track of what goes where!:D

jeallen01 · 07/12/10 - 20:10

And I should have added that, this way, you don't have to remove the top PCB - just disconnect the Sata cable at the original hard drive end and thread if out through the ventilating slots in the inner metal case top cover, above the large IC on that board - if you don't want to re-use that drive.

srpsrp · 07/12/10 - 23:48

I've just upgraded my DRX 890 to a 1TB drive and it seems to be working. Definitely have a look at the useful pictures and take your time !

I'll have to record a few more hours of HD to be sure, but currently 2 hours worth is showing as 1% used . At an assumed 4Gb an hour and 750Gb usable space this is in the right ball park.

I tried to 'copy+' the original 500Gb drive to the new one, but apparently copy+ no longer works if you have the latest version of the Sky software. Copy+ did not recognise the source drive not matter what I tried.

The 1TB disk would work as is, if I did a full system reset with it in the box however I was not able to confirm from the forums if this would make the full 1TB available. When I put the disk back in the PC it had a 930GB partition on it leaving 100Gb odd unused.

It seems the best way of upgrading currently is to use copy+ to copy an old version planner to the new disk and re-size the partition in the process. I did this by formatting a disk in my old sky plus which presumably has not been updated to the 'Darwin' release yet I was then able to copy this newly formatted disk to my new Sky HD disk and I then converted it as per the intructions .. I still have the case off and testing but it seems to have worked !

I wasn't going to bother upgrading this box, however having used it for a couple of weeks, I found that the Anytime feature really eats into the available space ( especially annoying since it's mostly Movies which I do not subscribe to ) It's not a bad feature though, I've noticed the docs on anytime don't seem to have any adds in them ;-) My old Sky+ never supported Anytime at all.

I have it connected to my new plasma upstairs via a 15m HDMI cable .. with the normal remote eye.. excellent !

mfqy94 · 08/12/10 - 17:03

Thanks everyone for all the advice and tips. I successfully swappped the drives last night and now have a fully functionong 1Tb disc in my shiny new Amstrad. Was a little bit nerve racking having to dismantle the new box so much, but everything worked like clockwork and I dont think the new set up is any slower or any noisier than before.

jeallen01 · 08/12/10 - 22:01

srpsrp wrote: »

I've just upgraded my DRX 890 to a 1TB drive and it seems to be working. Definitely have a look at the useful pictures and take your time !

I'll have to record a few more hours of HD to be sure, but currently 2 hours worth is showing as 1% used . At an assumed 4Gb an hour and 750Gb usable space this is in the right ball park.

I tried to 'copy+' the original 500Gb drive to the new one, but apparently copy+ no longer works if you have the latest version of the Sky software. Copy+ did not recognise the source drive not matter what I tried.

The 1TB disk would work as is, if I did a full system reset with it in the box however I was not able to confirm from the forums if this would make the full 1TB available. When I put the disk back in the PC it had a 930GB partition on it leaving 100Gb odd unused.

It seems the best way of upgrading currently is to use copy+ to copy an old version planner to the new disk and re-size the partition in the process. I did this by formatting a disk in my old sky plus which presumably has not been updated to the 'Darwin' release yet I was then able to copy this newly formatted disk to my new Sky HD disk and I then converted it as per the intructions .. I still have the case off and testing but it seems to have worked !

QUOTE]

Just to confirm - this means you have 750GB usable space & 250GB for the (unused) Anytime partition?

BTW: I wonder:

- how much useable space you would have had if you had proceeded to use the 1TB disk as originally formatted to 930GB + 100GB unused?
(I assume it would be 930-250 = 680GB)

- If, with the Windows Disk Management utility or something else (For W7, I use the freeware Easeus Partition Master V 4.01 as it has more facilities) one could expand the 930GB to the full 1TB so as to leave 1000GB-250 = 750GB free space?
(maybe I will try that to save having to take my old Sky+ box apart to do what you did!)

[Deleted User] · 08/12/10 - 22:08

srpsrp wrote: »

I tried to 'copy+' the original 500Gb drive to the new one, but apparently copy+ no longer works if you have the latest version of the Sky software. Copy+ did not recognise the source drive not matter what I tried.

The current version of copy+ should recognise that the old disc is in the Darwin format and refuse to copy it.

Presumably a Darwin version will eventually become available. At least when I got my 1.5TB Amstrad 895 a few weeks ago the copy to this box was from a Thomson which havent got Darwin yet.

There is an advantage of having a Thomson box:rolleyes:

jeallen01 · 11/12/10 - 15:17

jeallen01 wrote: »

. .....This weekend, I hope to have it on a completely pluggable ESata connection .....!:D

Job done and working in the pluggable Esata enclosure - see here!! http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-hd-supertelly/29001-how-upgrade-your-sky-hd-box-hdd-6.html

rottweiler · 14/12/10 - 23:30

Is there a list of suitable drives for upgrading ?

jeallen01 · 15/12/10 - 21:45

rottweiler wrote: »

Is there a list of suitable drives for upgrading ?

As such, No, but good advice is here: http://www.skycopyplus.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=7

AFAIK, the best advice for current upgrades is the WD10EVDS, ITB, and there is also a Seagate Pipeline drive which I can't currently find the number for it at the moment. They are not the cheapest but they are known to work, whereas others may work or work only for a time.

Also, follow the instructions on the SkyCopyplus website and SkyUser on how to initialise the disk before installation, or you may not get any additional usable disk space!

Finally, stay away from 2TB (e.g. WD20EVDS) until PCBBC manages to sort out the issues that Copy+ is having with the Darwin-upgrade to the operating system

[Deleted User] · 16/12/10 - 13:25

jeallen01 wrote: »

BTW: I wonder:

- how much useable space you would have had if you had proceeded to use the 1TB disk as originally formatted to 930GB + 100GB unused?
(I assume it would be 930-250 = 680GB)

- If, with the Windows Disk Management utility or something else (For W7, I use the freeware Easeus Partition Master V 4.01 as it has more facilities) one could expand the 930GB to the full 1TB so as to leave 1000GB-250 = 750GB free space?
(maybe I will try that to save having to take my old Sky+ box apart to do what you did!)

No, it won't work because the Sky Box does not partition the drive, ti just reserves space for the Anytime files.

rottweiler · 16/12/10 - 18:53

I cant find any info on the link you supplied....
Please help i have my new box waiting and want to put bigger drive in before i start using it.

jeallen01 · 18/12/10 - 09:13

rottweiler wrote: »

I cant find any info on the link you supplied....
Please help i have my new box waiting and want to put bigger drive in before i start using it.

OK - try this one
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-hd-supertelly/29001-how-upgrade-your-sky-hd-box-hdd.html

njeo · 19/12/10 - 22:01

jeallen01 wrote: »

AFAIK, the best advice for current upgrades is the WD10EVDS, ITB, and there is also a Seagate Pipeline drive which I can't currently find the number for it at the moment. They are not the cheapest but they are known to work, whereas others may work or work only for a time.

....

Finally, stay away from 2TB (e.g. WD20EVDS) until PCBBC manages to sort out the issues that Copy+ is having with the Darwin-upgrade to the operating system

Stay away too from the WD15EVDS. I tried this 1.5Tb drive for several months in an Amstrad PVR4 back at the start of this year, and really struggled to keep it stable. I made numerous posts on the Copy+ forum about this at the time.

I cannot confirm the following (i.e., can't remember the URL where I read about this, in order to back this up) but the drive electronics for the Caviar Greens beyond 1Tb are different from smaller-capacity models, so the way the drive hardware works/addresses sectors is subtly different from the WD10EVDS and below. Given time, you may end up (like me) being unable to play back certain recordings, getting blue screens on anything beyond a certain point on the hard disk, and may have stability issues requiring regular reboots. Whilst marketed for DVRs, and while the 320EVDS was the OEM drive, the WD15EVDS was a poor choice for the Amstrad PVR4. Maybe it will fare better in a DRX890.

And 930Gb *is* 1Tb as far as us users are concerned. You can't get 1000Gb usable space from the drive. Sky have one big partition which is used by Anytime and users simultaneously. Anytime steals 250Gb of space from you, and you cannot use Anytime's space even if you disable Anytime.

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