i have external enclosures that have both firewire & USB2 ports...Neither will work with the STB, you need SATA and specific enclosures and drives. See the external HDD thread, post 1.

Just to be clear, the index for all the programming is on the internal drive and that drive is associated with the specific PVR - hence the need for cloning as mentioned above and in this thread. You can't "remove" the drive and use it elsewhere and watch the programming. I've moved your posts into the internal drive thread.

Hello,

I know if I can use my old "WD1600JB Caviar SE" to put in my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 ", or if it may cause damage to my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300" in terms of compatibility voltage between the two, because I just change my computer and I no longer need the hard drive.

Thank you very much!

Sorry for my English, because I do not have the chance to write often in English! :(

...if I can use my old "WD1600JB Caviar SE" to put in my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 ", or if it may cause damage to my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300" in terms of compatibility voltage between the two...

It should work just fine.

ltj

:cool:

Like some of the other users that were using external drives, and had fan noise/heat issues, I wanted to keep the drive internal. So, I had a spare WD500AAKS SATA drive around, and was able to swap it out using an IDE-SATA/SATA-IDE converter.

Here is what it looks like:
http://satadirect.com/sata_ide_bi-directional_converter.html

I didn't bother cloning the old drive, as I had nothing on there worthwhile keeping.

The converter I bought I would not recommend for this PVR, as it was in a position where the power plug was in the way. I had to rewire the power plug to make it work.

Once it was wired up, I powered it on, let the PVR do it's countdown, rebooted the 2nd time, and I was in business! It worked out perfectly, no glitches or any of that nonsense. I've put the old drive away, in case I would have to return the box back to rogers.

For anyone considering going internal, GO FOR IT! ;)

Dan

PS: I was using a seagate 500GB drive via external, and was getting all kinds of glitching, so that was not going to work for me! I didn't bother keeping it as the internal due to the numerous reported complaints regarding seagate drives in general for this PVR.

Hello,

I know if I can use my old "WD1600JB Caviar SE" to put in my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 ", or if it may cause damage to my "Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300" in terms of compatibility voltage between the two, because I just change my computer and I no longer need the hard drive.

Thank you very much!

Sorry for my English, because I do not have the chance to write often in English! :(
Make sure you use a program to completely erase the hard drive before you put it in the PVR. http://www.killdisk.com/ would work just make darn sure you erase the correct drive. Why replace a 160GB drive with a 160GB drive? I would purchase a 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKB electrically close enough and after a month of use was a wonderfull investment.

Yes Ruby I read your post and that is why I put up my comments. I should have mentioned I did seek test from Hitachi utility also before and after setting power management and noticed no difference in noise level at any point. With newer 8300HD's shipping with Western Digital drives perhaps as part of a Sara upgrade the box now sets power management mode on WD drives! The drive I purchased is silent all the time and I am really impressed. While recording and watching another previously recorded show never any breakup even when I use 4x fast forward to go through commercials. With old Maxtor if recording while watching another recorded show I would have to watch commercials otherwise recording might exhibit some breakup especially at 3X or 4x fast forward. Again I want stress this is my experience with drive I purchased. Hard drives have different firmware and models change with new releases constantly. Computer shops/distributors will purchase hundreds of drives to get a good deal so while what you are buying is brand new it might have been shipped 6 monthes to a year ago. Thanks to everyone's hard work in this thread for making this easier. To everyone reading it's well worth your while to do this.

Agreed - drive specs are changing all the time, as are the contents of the SA8300HD boxes. I just bought another 8300HD recently and upgraded the drive it to give to my parents. The 160GB drive that came with the unit was a Seagate model. I didn't note the model down but I have it at home. The point is that the drive wasn't an old Maxtor or a WD. I put a WD5000AAKB in the unit, and even the new WD drive was slightly different than the same model drive I bought a month ago to put in my own 8300HD. WD has gone through a re-branding of their drives. The new one I purchased this week is from their "Blue" line of Cavalier hard drives. I still recommend connecting it to a computer and changing the acoustic management to 128. The nice thing about this drive is that it doesn't support advanced power management so that can never be turned on, but any drive that anyone purchases which does have this "feature" should be able to use a hard drive software tool to turn this item off for PVR use.

Bokko,

It's not like I want to have the last word on this subjet but I had originally tested the utility on various WD disks, some of them sata. In every instance and on every disks I could hear a difference. There are no disks that you cannot hear the read write eventhough some of them are very quiet.

You just made me curious so I have several computers which have WD inside so I though I would boot with the Hitachi Utility and test it again.

First, it's not power management but Acoustic management we are discussing, they are different options.

I booted from the CD that had the utility.

We are talking about acoustic management aam level
quiet = 128
normal = 254

click Features or ALT-F
click Change Acoustic Level or ALT-A
click TEST

It show you the slider and start a ramdom seek test, move the slider with the arrow key and within 3 number change if you don't hear a change in sound one way or the other you are not doing it properly.

Glad you enjoy the upgrade.

Ruby

http://techreport.com/articles.x/13104

This article is on a Hitachi's 7K1000 drive they use the tool to turn AAM on and off for that Hitachi drive. You will note for that drive it makes almost 4db of difference. Note on the chart the Caviar SE16 (Western Digital Product) is already just as silent as the Hitachi with AAM turned on at WDC factory defaults. It is also much faster than any of the other products in factory default mode. Yes the Hitachi tool can change the power management setting of the Western Digital product while it is turned on. No it can't write the setting permanently to the hard drives firmware. Again do it yourself and post your findings please. This article is from August 2007. That 750GB WDC Caviar makes 53.6 DB C (weighted)of noise least amount of sound in review. Now a year later here are specifications of WD Caviar Blue 500 GB Model: WD5000AAKB drive I and many of you have purchased.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=297

Fifth Heading down:
Acoustics
Idle Mode 28 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 33 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 29 dBA (average)

Seek mode 3 would be AAM enabled which for Western Digital products is adjusted by the task it is preforming dynamically and internally on firmware. Again for our purposes it stays in this mode most and if not all the time by itself without intervention.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/library/sata/2879-701277.pdf

The following statement is out of above PDF product spec sheet of the drive in question.

Quiet — The technology that Tom's Hardware Guide called "very fast and nearly silent" is used throughout this family of drives. Our WhisperDrive™ technology minimizes noise to levels near the threshold of human hearing. To cut seek noise, SoftSeek™ technology streamlines read/write seeking algorithms, resulting in more efficient operation.

I do not want the last word I asked others to confirm this for themselves and post their findings. If others find this not to be the case for this drive please delete my posts. Remember I tried this with two different motherboards on the newer one I ensured that that Intel ICH 8 chipset sata mode was set to IDE (PATA only compatible mode) not AHCI or RAID in bios faster in AHCI especially under Vista.
I purchased two drives knowing IDE is on it's way out. So if this drive failed I would have a spare replacement. Repeated entire procedure again...same finding's took pictures of entire thing PM me your e-mail addy. I'll send you a powerpoint. After saving (clicking OK) the tool said "AAM Successfully enabled". Went back to information screen confirmed is said "Acoustic Management: Current Level. 128 0X00" then shut down PC booted back up checked information screen said: "Acoustic Management: Current Level. 256 0xFE". This procedure was done in my basement on my HTPC no fans in it at all runs cool as a cucumber too. It was quiet enough I could hear my Servers 6 drive raid 5 array grinding away in the next room while my laptop (in livingroom was backing itself up). I would have used my Sound meter for measurements but could not hear the difference. Trust me I wouldn't have spent 5k on Home Theater speakers if I had a tin ear.
In my experience clicking sounds you note in your post are signs of a drive that could fail or is failing. Just ask anyone who has every experienced a hard drive crash. This is the second time you post over someone who is simply explaining their findings asking others to report theirs. Please let others report theirs if several do find it isn't saved will save other people time they can skip this step...I heard no difference using seek test before or after enabling in tool neither did "ghost". Post #109 great pics dude.

Ruby you irked me when you said I "didn't do it properly"

Bokko,

You win, what can I say, and person under the name of //ghost// at the point he said that is the only one saying it did not make a difference because I think that he too did not make the proper change. I think you should go back to that point in the thread and start reading from there, when you have read everything and have reached this post maybe you will have changed your views.

I don't go with internet research papers or reviews, I went with my ears, and that is for not only the disk in my pvr, my brother in law pvr, my sata in my computer, another 2 wd in 2 others computers, funny, they all react and you can hear the heads seek, moving 2 bars down (253) will eliminate the seek noise completely without affecting the speed. Of course you cannot save the setting at 253, I said before even if you try, it will save it at 128.

Now in regards to my saying //you are not doing it properly//

On nov 28, you say

"Adjusting Automatic Acoustic Management with my drive only works until you reboot/power off. I tried Hitachi Feature Tool 2.11, 2.10. Then also MHDD 4.6. Each tool set it fine to 128 but after reboot was returned to 254. I also tried HDDScan_v31 from Windows same issue."

If that was the case, something was not done properly, the mobos have nothing to do with it, you are giving an instruction to the hard disk controller which will stays at 128 until you give the instructions to change the configuration to deactivate acoustic management.

So I hope your are less irked after reading and realizing what you are saying.

You asked a question in your post #333 which I was nice enough to confirm, I didn't have to but I did it to help you.

I did not comment at that point your trying various software to clone your drive, it was your prerogative to do so and you did not ask for an opinion, although if you would have read prior posts, you would have perhaps gone directly to Active.

Now, to close the matter, I am not in business nor am I here to irk people and am sorry if you irked yourself.

I will not respond back again.

Ruby

Good information but lets keep this thread on topic. Thanks.

I recently upgraded my hard disk after a crash to a WD500 based on comments on this site. All went well with recording and playback working as before. One problem, however, and I have been unable to find any references to it elsewhere here. Just about everytime I turn off the 8300, it does a reboot. If I am recording something I lose about 5 minutes of the recording.
Any suggestions as to cause and possible cure will be most appreciated.

Bob

I upgraded my SA8300HD with a WD5000AAK drive and for some reason, the box became "buzzy." If I picked it up and held it in my hand, the buzzing stopped. If I put my ear to the drive, it was silent.

So I'm convinced the drive itself isn't making the noise, but causing the case to resonate.

I tried re-tensioning the mounting screws. The "rubber pad" is still in place, and feels as sticky and pliable as expected. If I put foam rubber pads under each foot, the sound drops considerably.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Cheers, PW.

P.S. This may have little to do with the PVR, but my TV cabinet acts like a "band shell" and sends the sound toward the viewer, making it even more annoying.

And the strange thing -- the original 160 drive doesn't do this.

psm,

When you say the original drive doesn't do this, do you mean before you switch, or after you heard the noise you screwed back the old disk back in the pvr. If you put the old one back in and there are no problem, then it's has to be the new hard disk.

I installed a computer system once and for the first few hours everything was ok, then, the disk started vibrating so much that I could hear the disk from upstairs. You would put your hand on the computer and feel the vibration. WD utility did not detect anything wrong with the disk. They replaced it.

So, if I would be you, I would connect the electrical (no need for the pata cable) and keep the disk in your hand and power it up, you will see what happens.

If it shakes, RMA.

Ruby

I recently upgraded my hard disk after a crash to a WD500 based on comments on this site. All went well with recording and playback working as before. One problem, however, and I have been unable to find any references to it elsewhere here. Just about everytime I turn off the 8300, it does a reboot. If I am recording something I lose about 5 minutes of the recording.
Any suggestions as to cause and possible cure will be most appreciated.

Bob
This is just speculation but maybe there was a problem when the SARA software was being downloaded to the new drive. I would suggest a wipe and reinstall of the software. You will loose all your recordings and scheduled recordings when you do this. See Tips & Tricks for the procedure.

Thanks for the suggestion, bplayer, but I swapped the new drive with another smaller WD drive, that had worked all right before I bought the 500GB, and the same thing happened with this 80 GB drive.

Just want to thank everyone!

I'm new to this site and wanted to share my experience!
I purchased my 8300HDPVR when they first were available for sale.
It hasn't exactly been working the greatest over the past 6 months.
Pixel drop outs etc.
I suspected it was a hard drive and decided to do some research!
That is how I found this site.
I struggled to buy another box from Rogers!

So off I went to Canada Computer to purchase a Western Digital
(WD5000AAKB) and installed it like the forum says....

Result:
My box works like the day I purchased, with more memory of course!

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE HELP!!!!!!!

The only issue I had was my box was slightly different inside than the pictures on this forum!
However that being said it was quite an easy job to install the hard drive!
-3 safety torx on the back...cover off
-3 phillips on the side holding the hard drive in place
-remove cables
-2 torx inside holding the hard drive cage in place
-remove hard drive with cage
-remove cage from hard drive
-replace hard drive and re-assemble (make sure hard drive is set to cable)
-done
-reboot

Anyone having pixel drop out issues, especially on HD channels and owns their own box.....I say upgrade,upgrade,upgrade!!!!!!!

Thanks again......

I upgraded my SA8300HD with a WD5000AAK drive and for some reason, the box became "buzzy."
I ended up with a buzzing noise, as well, when I upgraded my hard drive. For me, it turned out to be the front edge of the top cover buzzing against the front of the unit. I added a small strip of masking tape to the front edge for a firmer fit, which stopped the buzzing.

Another problem that I had was that the original drive was 5400 RPM and the new drive was 7200 RPM. The small vibration at 7200 RPM matched a resonant frequency of my TV stand where my PVR sits, causing a loud hum at 120 Hz. I had to put foam pads under the PVR's foot pegs to stop this.

Sorry if this has been answered already but I haven't noticed it yet. Does one have to clone the hard drive? or can one just replace the drive ?

wow, what a great forum!
This reminds me of xda's website when it comes to modifiying cell phones.
Great place!

Cloning is not required unless you want to keep your old recordings. Cloning is discussed in this thread. Search "clon*" using the "Search this Thread" tab feature (at the top of this thread).