Hi guys!

Interested in one of these machines but I have a few questions. I apologise if they have been asked before but a quick scan of the forum hasn't turned up any results).

The 870 has a 160Gb hard drive and the 970 has a 250Gb hard drive.

Are these hard drives standard and is there anything to stop you (eg the disk controller) from putting in a larger hard drive (eg a 320 / 400 / 500 / 750Gb etc)?

Are the drives EIDE or SATA?

I know opening up the machines will invalidate warranty but has anyone tried this upgrade and how easy is it to do (I am computer-hardware literate & can re-build pc's).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Zaph

They are SATA drives, but it's not just a question of chucking a new drive in.

I have written a breif on how to do it, others have also contributed on ways of cloning the remote control.
Look here for details

Hi Nigel.

Can you be more specific?

Is there a hidden engineer's menu like Sky+ for the recorder to initialise/format the drive?

If so, any details would be welcome.

Zaph

sila1999 has explained what you have to do in the AVForums link.

G'day sila1999

Thanks for this info ; )

Just spent a half-hour reading through the 127 posts on the above thread - hence the gap between my posts!

So, bottom line is that it is possible - just tricky if you don't have a Sony Service remote.

Zaph

you dont need the service remote, if you read through the entire thread you wil see that you can use a one for all or the program that is listed there with the codes.
Overall Process takes about 15 minutes.

If you want further assistance i would suggest you post over in that forum
Guy

Hi Guy

Yes, I forgot that I'd read that. Go sort of excited about the discussions about obtaining a Sony Service Remote

I have a '970 on order. Might give the upgrade a shot - I fancy a 500Gb or larger drive as I tend to record series like Lost, BSG and 24.

Might persuade my mother to get an '870 and try upgrading that first.

Thanks

Z