^^^^

I currently have 7:15 hours of HD recorded on the new drive and it shows only 8% full. With the old drive, at least a third of the capacity would have been used with that much HD.

So far so good. :-)

I decided to increase the size of the hdd on my SA8300 STB. Purchased the WD5000AAKB. By following the instructions in post 121 and also the shortcut in post 208, it went without a hitch. I plugged everything back in and waited about ten minutes for the time to reappear and voila, works like a charm. I didn't bother to clone the drive as there wasn't anything I couldn't retape. It now says there is 465GB available on Page 33, HDD info. Many thanks to all who posted instructions and tips in this thread. Bill

Finally got the courage (and extra funds) to upgrade my SA8300HD to a WD5000AAKB 500GB drive.

Everything went as planned and explained in this thread, I also cloned the drive and set the acoustic management. I recorded a bunch of HD shows, played them back, recorded 2 watched 1, used ROD etc... to test it an there are no glitches.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed/pioneered this upgrade procedure.

Keith

I now question setting on acoustic management on this disk in the 8300hd.

I orignally purchased 2 WD5000AAKB, they were caviar SE. Both were installed in different 8300hd, and acoustic management was set on both. There was a definitely a sound difference with acoustic on and off. Anyway, it turned out that both units started strange behaviour around the same time. It got to the point where we could not watch recordings. (search my previous posts for details)

Both units were rma and we got WD5000AAKB Caviar Blue as replacements. When I installed those, I left acoustic management off, I can hear the drive more than the previous one but I decided to live with it.

In retrospect, it might have been a fluke that both went sour and I think that the acoustic had something to do with it.

Better safe than sorry.

Ruby

Success !!

Original disk was Seagate 160GB replacement is WD 500GB AAKB (Canada Computers).

CT had T15 security Torx bits but no T10 ones, the T15 DOES NOT fit (anyone want a T15 cheap? :)). Home Depot has a cool 15in1 security bit driver with the T10 (and loads of other bits). $25 was more than I hoped but Prncess Auto is too far for me and I've spend enouth time spearching for cheaper alternatives.

Accoustic setting changed from 256 to 128 using HDDScan (v3.2).

Old drive was removed in less than 5 mins. No need to remove the side panel, just the 3 silver screws securing the drive to the side panel. Peeled off the sticky / spongy layer off the side of the drive (guess it is to dampen the noise / vibration to the casing, maybe heatsink?).

Disks cloned using EaseUS Disk Copy (v2.3). Original 160GB was connected to the master (end) of the IDE ribbon. New 500GB was connected to the slave (middle) of the IDE ribbon. Both drives were left as Cable Select.

Sector by sector diskcopy was completed with 160GB drive as the SOURCE and 500GB drive as the DESTINATION. Pressed Go.

Transfer speed started at 1.8GB/min and ended at 1.65GB/min. The whole diskcopy to exactly 90 minutes. Disk Copy has a nice interface showing progress, elapsed and remaining time accurately.

Replaces new drive into the SA8300HD and put everything back as the original.

Plugged the SA8300HD back in initially Err 60 came up for about a second, probably less, then another error (Err63 ?), then a number of other weird characters. Countdown from 3FF or something like that started. I came back 5 mins later and the normal time was displayed.

Switched on. Normal TV worked fine, all recordings and programming still available. Playback of recordings was fine and my previously 50% full is now 12%.

Thanks for making this so straight forward folks.

RichT.

I came across the following article, I'm sure there are numerous article on this subject.

Have a read on the following link in regards to acoustic management, if the link doesn't work for you, do a cut and paste in your browser.


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/terabyte-hitachi-acoustic,2084-2.html


It is an interesting read, it's not that long of an article and have a look at the power consumption section and of course the conclusion.

I really don't know how it relates to our use in a pvr which is different than being used in a computer.

One thing for sure in my mind, the drive works harder with power management set at 124, of course bear in mind, we schedule recordings sometimes 2 of them at the same time while reading another and of course, the pvr activates the drive for maintenance etc. It actually works quite a bit more than in our computer.

It could shorten the life of the drive. Also, Western Digital does not support changing acoustics on their drive, this could be a clue.

Anyway, to each his own, I for one will stick to 254......

Ruby

I forgot to mention... if you get an ERR 50 when forst powering up after a disk swap.... you forgot to connect the disk wires !!!

Guess how I know :)

Anyway, to each his own, I for one will stick to 254......

Ruby

I out of curiosity checked what my original WD1600JB was set to, and it was at 128. So if I had a WD5000AAKB, I would have no qualms running it at 128.

However, I have Cinemastar Hitachi 7K500, so I'm just talking hypotheticals...

What is more reliable? I don't care about transfering my current recordings to the new drive, but reliability and cost wise, what's better? What's the limit on an internal upgrade, 500GB? I think external can go up to 1.5TB?
Thanks!

When you access a hard drive using these software tools to change settings (such as the Acoustic Management number), you are not given a choice for a setting that the drive does not support. Some drives you plug in the Acoustic Management option is completely greyed out because the seting cannot be changed on that particular drive.

I have set the Acoustic Management setting to 128 for all the drives I have replaced for people on this forum. There is no reason to believe this is an issue for this PVR application.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum, on this subject....

I was having pixelation issues and problem with play back, I had videotron over twice and the signal was corrected however things did not improve.

I ordered a new hard Drive the WD 5000AAKB from NCIX wednesday and recieved it this afternoon. Took all of 15 minutes to swap out the old with the new.

So far no problems at all, I was a bit worried at frist due to the self diagnostics running, but all is just great.

Fully function anf fixed for under $100.00.

Thanks everyone

Ok, my internal HD just die on me and i have read through 36 pages of this topic and looks like the WD5000AAKB is the way to go! But, I don't need 500 GB one b/c I already have a Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU-BL with Western Digital Caviar (WD5000AAKS) 500GB on the extrenal. So, is there a good small size one for the internal besides the WD5000AAKB?

I looked at the pricing for a 320 and there was only $12 difference. You might as well put in the 500 - it's under $100 at the typical stores like Canada Computers.

Then if the external ever goes, you might be able to make do with just the 500 internal for a while too...

Check your signal strength and S/N ratio and report back.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719
Ok this is my results with another HD, same model but same problems still exists as noted before, parital recordings.
http://picasaweb.google.com/fairmang/RogersPVR#
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Your signal level is too low (-13) to be reliable. It needs be to be increased either by removing splits from the line or having Rogers boost the signal. Zero is ideal but down to -6 is perfectly normal.

Are there different required specs when upgrading the internal HDD in an older 8000 PVR (SD)?

I read a post saying any ATA-133 would do, but that was for an 8000HD.

Do I have to worry about RPM or voltage?

I'm considering a W. Digital 250 GB 8MB 7200rpm EIDE WD2500JB. It's an Ultra ATA-100. Will it do?

Thanks!

Wow where did you find that antique. Just kidding. I am pretty sure it will work. The SD version is not very demanding so just about anything made in the last 10 years would work. My original 8300HD had an ultra-ATA100 drive. It should have no trouble with the SD. Keep your old drive just in case. Voltage will not vary. The power consumption may change a little but nothing the power supply cannot handle.

SA8300HD (Rogers ONT. with SA Rev. 2 motherboard)
Western Digital Caviar 1TB Black WD1001FALS (Classic Cavivar Black with 16MB cache & SATA2 interface)
StarTech.com IDE2SAT25
generic MOLEX-SATA power convertor
gereric angle SATA cable
acoustic setting on setting on the WD HD was to 128?
disk cloned with the free easeus disk copy

WD harddrive Jumper 5-6 for 150MB/S transfer speed limit setting
JP 5-6 on WD HD enable (worst - record programs not complete)
JP 5-6 on WD HD disable (better - programs recorded all complete)

My SA8300HD internal IDE/SATA conversation upgrade failed! I gave up after 2 days of use. The modified PVR is not stable enough to use. Picture freezes when watching a HD channel while recording another HD channel. Programs record fine when not watching anything (i.e. power off).

The same WD 1 TB Black works just fine when it is connected via the SA's external SATA port with an external SATA enclosure.

bear2076 - thanks for sharing.
The reliability issue definitely lies in the IDE/SATA converter. They work but they are hit and miss in my opinion. You could be lucky and yours works particularly well, or you can experience a lot of issues with your recordings. I think the introduction of another set of programming logic (in the controller card/SATA adapter) can be problematic for the 8300HD board. My guess is that the glitches people are seeing are caused by latency created in the adapter (delays in writing to the hard disk for example). This would explain broken recordings or freezing of the audio/video, even with a fast hard drive as you're using. Those adapters may work fine in a PC configuration but may be getting asked too much of when used in a realtime application like a PVR. Even if I had one working for a period of time I wouldn't like the fact that they create another point of failure for the PVR, and an inexpensive cheaply made point at that. In other words the adapter becomes the weakest link in your configuration and the most likely point of failure.

Since I have a 1 TB external HDD for my 8300HD, the internal HDD is hardly used.

I am wondering if does the internal HDD spin all the time 7/24 regardless if the power is on or off ?