After trying the guide on the first post with my new 1.5TB drive I was stumped as it just got stuck on 'Initializing parti' , I eventually realised the Foxsat will only format up to 1TB and therefore you need to partition and format the drive before you put it in.

As I run Windows and the drive needs to be be formatted in Linux Ext3 , this was a bit of an issue until I found the following guide, hope the guide helps someone else

http://www.freesatuser.com/transfer.html

After digesting the contents of this thread, I am seriously considering upgrading the hdd in my Foxsat. My pre-freesat Sky+ box went from its piddly original to a 500gb after a similar trawl through forums.
When researching the Sky+ upgrade, there seemed to be a lot of talk about spin speeds and cache size when it came to compatibility. Were these issues unique to the Sky boxes? Is the Humax more robust in what it can accept?
Also, some of the original upgraders did their boxes nearly two(ish) years ago, how have the drives stood up to daily use? Not that I imagine they have been able to leave well enough alone for this long.
Has anyone found any hdd models which work better or worse? I have done small searches on the usual suspects (ebuyer, scan, aria) but can't seem to find the audio/visual denoted models anywhere. Is it necessary/preferable to get an a/v model?
In summary, which hard drive should I be looking for?
Thanks in advance.

I have had a WD 1TB AV rated drive (it's externally mounted in a drop in cradle) since late 2008. No problems at all. Look for a consumer electronics (AV) drive with low power consumption like the WD Caviar Green range.

Like Graham i went for a WD i went for a 1TB WD10EARS - no problems and the Humax formatted for me.

Thanks to all who started and contributed to this thread, it gave me the confidence to upgrade my HDD to 1TB and, so far all has gone exactly as previous posters have said. On test as I tap, with a recording of 'Doctors' - BBC1 HD! Cheers.

One slight problem, which I hope someone can help me with? There were one or two programmes still on the old hard drive which I would like to view again. I have loaded the old HDD into a 3.5 inch SATA HDD USB enclosure and connected it to the Humax via USB. I can see the USB files in the right hand side of the Media List of the Humax but to matter what I try I cannot get them to copy back to the new HDD of the Humax. Am I hoping for too much as the instructions on p.GB62/64 of the Humax Users Manual leads one to believe that files can be copied to/from external devices? Sorry in advance if this question is in the wrong thread but I could not find anywhere else where this topic has been covered. Thanks in advance, and in hope!

You don't have to copy them back to view them although you can if you wish.

To view in situ

Press media and then red, select the usb device, open partition 3 and the video folder. Playback is identical to internal hdd.

Graham,you are dealing with a thicko this end! I have followed the chain of instructions as far as 'open partition 3' which I do not understand or see how to do!
In the window 'File Manager(Video)' there is nothing listed under HD:/video> in the lh half, in the rh half under usb1:/> is a list of folders:- sda 1(0), sda 2 (1), sda 3 (2) and sda 4 (3). If I highlight any of these folders and press the play button I get a warning circle outside the window that it cannot be done or selecting one folder reverts them all back to one folder. Sorry to try your patience and I hope I have managed to explain as best I can.

sda3(2) is the third partition, the 2 indicates it has two folders. To playback you don't need File Manager at all.

With the drive connected by usb, press Media.

Look at the top of the screen below the coloured buttons, you should see a lozenge box with HDD in it and arrows at both ends. Just to the right and above you should see USB1 indicating a usb device is connected.

Press red (Change Device) HDD is highlighted in red, press right , the lozenge now says USB1, and you have the list of 4 partitions.

Cursor down to SDA3(2) and press OK to open it.

You will see two folders Video and Movies, cursor to Video and press OK to open the folder.

You will now see your list of recordings, some in folders which you have to open using OK or some not in folders. Just press play on any recording in the usual way.

Copying the files in file manager is the same once you have a valid recording highlighted the copy button will be active.

Thanks for the help Graham you are spot on as usual, sorry I have not replied sooner but the 'boss' had her list of things to do first!

''You will now see your list of recordings, some in folders which you have to open using OK or some not in folders. Just press play on any recording in the usual way''.

As a matter of interest, since accessing/playing recordings on the remote HDD using USB, the recordings made on the main HDD now appear as individual thumb nails in the media window! Not a problem, but something has altered it? Thanks again Graham.

Press media then opt+ then set list type to 'simple'.

Thanks for that! I like this box but, as with getting rid of series link future recordings, nothing is as straightforward as I would like. Must be my age!

Hi Graham

Can you clarify the above for me please?
I assume you are saying you have removed the original internal HD and replaced it with the external caddy and new HD. You then have the original in another caddy for other purposes.
If I am correct this arrangement would suit me as I could then use either HD in a caddy to connect via USB to a multimedia player and then to another TV.
We use the Humax box with our main TV but there are occasions when it would be beneficial for my wife to watch programs we have recorded on another TV and this would appear to be a cost effective way to upgrade our storage at the same time as providing a degree of flexibility. I have networked the Humax with my PC as per the work by Raydon covered in another forum but my wife is not into computers so am looking for a more straight forward way without the expense of another box and additional cabling.
I have not yet bought a media player so would welcome any advice on the cheaper end of the market.

Many thanks for any assistance you can provide.

I have removed the drive caddy and connected the motherboard to an external drive using a esata cable. (There is a hole in the bottom large enough to squeeze a esata cable through)

I have 3 of these

http://www.allcam.biz/catalog/produc...roducts_id=693

I have also removed the fan from the drive caddy and mounted it over the cpu.

One further mod (don't try this if you are not sure what you are doing). I got a molex connector from my local computer shops scrap box to fit the motherboard drive power socket. I brought out the 12V power and connected this to a relay which controls the power to both the 1TB drives switching them on when the box is booted.

Because the schedule is on the hdd you lose the schedule if you pop in a different drive to the esata cradle.

You can't of course view encrypted HD externally other than replaying it on the hdr (from usb is fine).

No problem with replay on my laptop using it's esata port with non encrypted material and viewing on a TV using it's hdmi out connection.

Other than the laptop not tried to play back content using a seperate media player.

Hi Graham

Many thanks for reply and clarification. The schedule being on the hdd gives me something to think about as it could get rather confusing.
Not sure about the power mod.
Overall It maybe better to go down the route of upgrading the internal hard disk and using the existing one in a cradle connected via rear USB and copy whatever needs to be watched by my wife on a remote TV via a multimedia player.

Life is never simple!!
Again many thanks

Hi you may find this link interestering :- http://www.astra2d.com/harddrive.html

It's out of date. The Western Dig AV drive range now has AV-GP model nos

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150

The post you replied to is from March last year

That's me alawys behind the times