NiceGuyBo; please follow up later and let us know of any recording/playback issues, and whether you also have an external drive. Thanks!

I've been thinking of upgrading my 8300HD as well. Do you think the WD5000AVJB is a good choice? 84.99 at Newegg. I know that the AV stands for audio/Video but I wish I knew what the JB meant?
Anybody have any comments?
Jim

I've been thinking of upgrading my 8300HD as well. Do you think the WD5000AVJB is a good choice? 84.99 at Newegg. I know that the AV stands for audio/Video but I wish I knew what the JB meant?
Anybody have any comments?
Jim
Search this forum for models that others have successfully used and try to get the same drive. If you cannot find one of these drives, then get one that closely matches the specifications of those drives (not just the letters in the model of the drive).

I cannot recall seeing any posts of drives not working, but why risk it if you have a choice.

Thanks for the reply. I've been reading this thread and found most people are using the WD5000AAKB. The WD5000AVJB is a drive designed for AV performance.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=289

The specs say that its designed for

Long-Term Reliability - With a MTBF of 1 million hours, these drives are designed to last in high temperature always-on streaming digital audio/video environments such as PVR/DVR, DVR recorders and surveillance video recorders.

It's not a lot of money but I thought I would ask before I bought it.
Jim

3 years ago I installed 2 WD3200AVJB drives in my son's and my SA8300HDs. I'm pretty easy on mine, but my son never watches live TV, usually watching a recorded show while recording a second and sometimes a third. Both have worked flawlessly. At that time the AV drive was very hard to locate, but I'm glad I did.

Hello all,

I just recently switched over from DirecTV Tivo service to Brighthouse Cable (in Apopka, FL). I was given two of these SA8300HD units (they are running the Navigator software). They have the standard Maxtor 160GB drive in them. I need more space.

From what I have read on these boards, I have the following options:

1. Switch out the internal drive with a larger IDE PATA drive (looks like 500GB is the max out there).

2. Add an external SATA drive (available in 1TB+ sizes).

3. Replace the internal PATA drive with a larger SATA drive (with a bridge connector).

I tried option 1 (larger internal PATA drive) and swapped out the Maxtor drive with a Seagate 500GB drive (ST3500641A). This was a 2nd drive I had previously in my Tivo box, which was working flawlessly. The install went as described, a bunch of codes on the machine, a few reboots, and it came up successfully after about 15 minutes.

I was pretty happy with this swap until I started seeing the dreaded 'glitches' (picture and sound pixelization). These were ocurring every minute or so, on live tv and on recordings. So I ended up re-installing the original 160GB drive and I am now back to square one.

From what I have seen on these posts. Some people have done this internal drive swap with the Western Digital Caviar Blue drive (WD5000AAKB). I would like to know if they are experiencing any of these gliltches with this drive.

Also, If there is anyone out there who has installed one of those external DVR Expander external drives (Western Digital, Apricorn, Iomega, etc), I would like to know if they are seeing any glitches on these as well.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I believe you'll find fewer problems with the WD drives than with Seagate, as discussed often in this forum for these 8300 units. We don't know exactly why, however, the threads seem to bear this out - seems to be a compatibility issue with some drives, which has been born out in this and the following thread.

For the eHDD option, please see the following thread on that topic:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=23773

Start by reading post 1 completely and carefully, along with the details/links there. Then browse the last few pages of the thread for what people have been doing lately. People who go with "known, working" drives are rarely disappointed. People who wish to experiment are often disappointed..

Thanks for the quick reply 57.

I will pick up a WD5000AAKB and try the swap out again. I will report back my findings.

Thanks again.

Leadfoot
I bought my WD5000AVJB from Newegg just this week.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136142&Tpk=wd5000AVJB

I checked the drive with this software and the acoustic management is not supported.
http://hddguru.com/software/2006.01.22-HDDScan/

I have the drive hooked up to my computer and it seems very quiet just the same. I haven't installed it in the PVR yet but I feel an AV drive would be better in this situation.
Jim

UPDATE - I got my WD5000AAKB drive and performed the swap as described above. After about a week of use, the system is working without errors. No glitches!!!

Thanks.

Just did my upgrade an hour ago. My origional hardrive was distorting and getting pixels when pausing or recording. Problem solved! +k for the op.

Btw. I wouldnt worry about the #10 security hex driver. A standard #10 hex will work. I just used a pair of scissors and popped out the center of the screw (very easily) so the reg #10 works.

I wouldn't recommend breaking the security screws, if the PVR is still under warranty. The proper security Allen bits are readily available and inexpensive.

I agree with not breaking them if its under warranty. Not sure I would even upgrade if that was the case. I have owned my box for about 5yrs, so well outside the warranty period. :)

Thanks to this thread it was a breeze. I had been having freezing problems for a couple of months and after two tech house calls by Rogers to check out what they thought were signal problems I finally figured out it was the HD.

It finally croaked two days ago and I replaced it with the 320GB WD Caviar Blue. It started up first try and perfectly recorded the first show.

I had bought the box a little over three years ago when Future Shop had them on sale for $299. Heck of a better deal than Rogers $24.95/mo rental.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Also read post #468 here (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=993643&postcount=468). A member here used a Seagate DB35 750GB PATA 7200RPM drive. They are hard to find though.

Seagate Specs on the ST3750840ACE
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=6828cd2655bfd010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US

Thanks for the update guys!!

I have also looked into the 500gb drives and do you know if there is a specific one that I should go with or will any of these work?

Western Digital WD5000AAJB - Have not been able to locate locally

Western Digital WD5000AAKB - Canada Computers and a few other places

Western Digital WD5000JBRTL Caviar Blue - Found it at BB, Staples and a few other places

The price of the drives are about the same so I really have no preference...other than to make sure I get the RIGHT one!!

Thanks again for the help

Cheers.

Lorne

Search this thread and you will see which WD is most popular. I do not recall any WD drive being problematic. The newer AV rated drives seem to be working well.

i.e. WD5000AVJB

Solid performers from the past include the WD5000AAKB.

Just want to thank everyone for the posts and help. My PVR was completely dead (no TV and no PVR), I searched out the error codes, found this thread, bought the WD5000AAKB and the torx set at Princess Auto and put it all together today. Works great. My PVR is alive well in advance of the NFL games tomorrow. Cheers.

My attempt at using a larger PATA drive didn't go well. I swapped in a 500GB Seagate 7200.9 but after the system readied it for use, I noticed the following. First, the drive didn't spin up until about 40 seconds after the power button was pushed. Second, the AV would break up for a second every two to three minutes. The 500GB drive tested fine elsewhere. I wondered if the PVR might have been damaged during the transfer but putting the original 160GB Seagate 7200.10 solved both issues.

I have a 8300 HD PVR with an external drive. About 6 months ago the external drive case died forcing me to buy a new one. Unfortunately my original case was PATA to USB and eSATA and I wasn't been able to locate a replacement locally so a purchased a SATA to eSATA and USB case and a new SATA 500gig Western Digital drive. I cloned the PATA drive (a Maxtor 200 gig) onto the new 500gig Western Digital SATA using Active Drive Image and my shows were preserved and we were back in business. This week the internal drive started acting up. Error messages like unrecoverable write error and there is a problem with the hard drive, recording is not available at this time. I figured the old Maxtor worked as an external why not try it as an internal. So I cloned the faulty internal drive (a PATA 160gig Western Digital) to the Maxtor, and once again things were good. A few days ago again the problems reoccurred. Same messages. Now I'm figuring it's a heat problem. So I add a fan. Didn't help. Back to the store to buy a new PATA 500 gig Western Digital. Clone the Maxtor to the new Western but Active Drive Image reports an error during the clone process. The Maxtor can't be read completely. The clone fails and when I put the new WD in it says I have no recordings. I trying cloning the original WD 160 gig internal to the new WD 500 gig. Cloned successfully. Put it in and all my old recordings are restored, both on the internal and external. Because of these failures my space has increased from 160 + 200 to 500 + 500. Some silver lining in all this.