Hi, I just wondering if some could suggest me the cheapest 80Gb/160Gb HDD replacement for my DHD 4000. I know that some HDD can create few problems (lockups, etc), and I'd rather avoid it, since my tommy is working fine with its original HDD. Thank in advance.

Don't have any specific recommendation except that you should look at the spec sheets and pick the one that uses the least power. That seems to be the difference between ones that work (low power) and ones that don't.

Thanks TrevorPH. I've jus wanted to know if someone has recently successfully upgraded the HDD and which brand/model he used.

I have tried various larger hard disks in my DHD 4000 and ended up re-installing the original 40GB drive as they all seemed to have problems. I've tried the 160GB version of the same model that it came with originally (worked but increased the frequency of lockups by a large amount), a Western digital 160GB drive (didn't work at all), a Samsung 120GB drive (didn't work as it had a firmware level known not to work with the Thomson and turned into a doorstop when I tried to flash it) and lastly a Toshiba 2.5" 100GB laptop drive. The laptop drive was the best alternative but it just stopped working one day for no apparent reason - still works in my wife's laptop but acts like it's dying if installed in the Thomson.

I reinstalled the original drive and it is still working now. Ended up buying the newer Thomson DTI6300-16 for more capacity. Its biggest drawback is the EPG which is fairly useless but it has 160GB out of the box (250B models now available). Since I paid £80 for that and then sold the 'free' Setanta card that came with it for £15 on Ebay, it turned out to be a fairly cheap way to upgrade. You can't run them both though as they share the same remote control codes

Thanks again, ThrevorPH. I would have never thought about getting the new thomson PVR.... I just thought that maybe I could get away with a cheap new HDD without too much hassle. It there a tehcnical reason why bigger HDD's seem not to work properly ?

Probably the larger drives demand more current.

The DHD4000 runs quite hot normally anyway, so it would be logical to presume that it is running at, or almost at full capacity. It is likely that the capacitors are slowly being fried.

It has been said elsewhere, that the power supply is from a satellite box. These apparently are known for their failure, but there are capacitor upgrades/repair kits available. Somone else managed to get hold of a kit and replaced the capacitors, restoring operation.

I have successully upgraded my DHD4000 from its original 40Gb to a Seagate Barracuda 160 GB. No problem at all. I went for the seagate purely because the original 40gb is a seagate!!

As far as I am aware the box will take any IDE 3.5inch hard drive.

Two things to remember :

If you pick a drive with a higher spin speed than the original (5400 rpm) then it will be nosier than the original. FACT.

The gotcha - the box is firmware limited to only see 132GB of space anyway so don't waste your money on a 250 or higher, it will still only see 132 and can't be changed.

When actually changing the disk, just remember where all those screws went, there seems to be loads screwing the damn thing together!!

Thanks peter1910uk. As far as you know, you're not having any sort of problem running a 7200rpm HDD, right ? And one last question: is the BARRACUDA 7200.9 Ultra ATA/100 160GB that you're using ?

Not having any problems at all. The disk is ever so slightly noisey than the 5400 spin speed drive but you really won't notice it.

Remember you need a drive with an IDE connector not SATA (the one you quoted in your last post was a SATA drive).

It's not. Ultra ATA is parallel ATA(IDE), not serial, so would fit the bill. It's probably the one you're using.
Last edited by PTD : 07-03-2008 at 22:32

Thanks yes your right PTD I wasn't reading it correctly. It is the drive I'm using.

Just to add to this, I now believe that lockups on the DHD400 are entirely (or almost entirely!) power supply related.

I replaced the drive in one of mine with a 160GB one I had lying around from a broken external drive unit (the USB failed). 7200 RPM, but configured for lowest noise using a utility from the manufacturer. The Thomson wouldn't boot, so I now power the drive from its own PSU - a small switch mode unit I also had lying around (from the same external drive unit!). It worked perfectly, and I haven't had a single lock-up in nearly 6 months of quite heavy use. It's never been so stable.

Maplins have reduced heat & low power consumption drives for PVRs only (not PC) might be worth a look.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?...enu=y&doy=14m3

Hi, before swap the HDD, should I do anything on the new one ? Does it need to be formatted ? Thanks

You need to jumper your new drive as 'cable select', then when put back together and powered up access "setup menu" then "Technical help" once screen opened enter 1004 from remote this will take you into the engineering menu. You can format the disc from here (even if new worth doing) and also set the fan to "OFF" so that it only works when the unit is being used and not be on all the time, this really stops the noise (probably worth accessing this to see what I mean before changing harddrive). Also worth changing to "Macro Blooking" from this menu. Beware some drives do not work. No longer have DHD 4000 so cannot comment on what latest drive to use. Best of luck.

I have just swapped in a 160GB Western Digital WD1600AABB drive, so far no problems. Will report back if I get any issues.

The drive is silent itself, it is now clear almost all the noise you get from this product is the fan.

Hmm, now I am thinking about trying to find a large/silent fan to install.

Hi, I've just managed to buy a Seagate Barracuda 160GB ( ~£24 used), and I don't see any problem so far.
It's slightly noisier that the 40GB, although I can really tell you, maybe it's just me having more attenstio to the noise.
Just recently, I've been experiencing problem with FILM4 and all the channels on MUX D (some are unwatchable, i.e. black screen, whereas others are locking ups quite often).
I don't think it's related with the HDD, because I had this problem before swapping the HDD. Thank you

Hi

I tried various 120 and 160 Gb 3.5 inch drives from Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi etc. all draw too much current from the power supply and caused intermittant crashes/lock-ups.

My final solution, which has been trouble free for 4 months now, was to remove the hard drive frame (and noisy fan). Fit a Seagate 120Gb 2.5 inch drive, with a 3.5 to 2.5 IDE adaptor, on suitable mounting pillars and a 50mm 3pin Akasa SILENT running fan over the base ventilatiom slots. I also fitted a 40mm heatsink and fan assembly to the main processor chip.
Finally I blocked all the slots in the right hand side of the lid, so all the air has to flow out past the power supply!
Total cost £45 per unit.

I now have 2 DHD4000 boxes that run cool and almost silent and have not failed in 4 months

I've used one of these too but mine gave up the ghost after about 6 months of use. Acted like the drive was playing up so I took it out and put the old 40GB drive back in and it's been perfect ever since. The 2.5" drive that came out has been running in my wife's laptop for the last 6 months since then without a single problem so I can only assume that the DHD4000 isn't really designed to supply enough current on the 5V rail to sustainably use a 2.5" drive for a long period of time. When it worked it was great but it didn't seem to be a long term solution for me.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I managed to get hold of 2 x Seagate 4200 class ST9120824A drives which draw a lot less current than the latest 5400 rpm units. Only a maximum of 0.4A from the 5 volt when running, which is less than the original, and nothing at all from the 12 volt supply.

Hi, in my last reply I forgot to ask a question. I had lots of unwatched stuff in the old HDD and if I copied all the files to the new HDD, will I be able to watch them ? Could I do something wrong and lose the stuff on the new HDD ? Thanks.

Sorry, I may be wrong but I don't think there is any way of copying the files to another drive for use in the 4000.

I think the only option is to extract the video files to a computer using the Syphon or Fusion Viewer software.

Some useful tips there - thanks guys...