Thanks JamesK

I have added a note about cloning in post 1 of this thread. Although a drive apparently can be cloned, the latest firmware will not allow you to take advantage of any additional space on the new drive. For example, you cannot clone from a 160 to a 500 any more to take advantage of the additional space.

Just thought I'd post an update on my 8300HD problem... I did the drive swap between my two units, and after almost a week, the one that received the big drive decided to stop talking to the drive again (ie. the problem followed the drive). So I guess there's something about this drive the PVR doesn't like. I guess I'll pop out and pick up a couple of new ones and upgrade both units.

Then I'll just need to figure out something useful to do with all these spare drives I'm collecting up!

When was the last firmware update?

I have an 8300 with a replaced (PATA) drive. Recently it's started delaying startup. If I turn everything on, there is maybe a 10 second delay before the drive actually spins up. Only after that does the unit send a video signal to the TV.

After it's on, all works fine.

BTW, pre-scheduled recordings do work, but in a couple of shows I've missed a few seconds of the intro recently. I don't know if it's due to this power on delay issue, or just the timing of the show by the TV station.

Here's the firmware sticky, read all of post 1. What you describe is outlined in item 20. The new firmware was rolled out in October/November 2010.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=131572

Ah yes, I should have figured to look there.

Thanks. I will post followups there.

Can i ask what program you are using to clone the drive? I've used Acronis True Image for several clones but i wanted to know if there was any trick to the clone of this type.
I can get the drive out no problem but wanted to make sure i do the cloning process correctly.

As an FYI re cloning. Cloning doesn't allow for additional space since the latest firmware update.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1245816&highlight=clone#post1245816

Please read all of post 1 carefully and the links there.

I recently swapped the iHDD on my 8300HD for a WD5000AAKB. Everything is working fine and the unit even appears more responsive than before.

I just have one question. I have some programs on the old drive that I did not watch, they are not crucial but I wouldn’t mind checking them out. So if I put the old 160G drive back in will the programs on that drive still be there or will the drive be reformatted when the unit is powered up again? Has anybody tried this and if so what was the result?

Provided the old iHDD hasn't had its contents altered by any other system, you should be able to put it back in to allow watching shows recorded on it, or doing anything else, as if it had never been replaced. This might not be guaranteed if the firmware in the PVR has changed since the drive was removed, but I don't think this has been a problem up to this point.

I've sometimes entertained the idea of modifying my PVR to mount the iHDD in one of those removable drive bay systems, to allow a rudimentary form of archiving by just putting in a new drive when one fills up with stuff I want to save. This would be a little easier with the newer PVR that uses a SATA drive internally, instead of IDE, since you can get trayless bays for SATA drives, such as this one:
Startech trayless SATA bay (http://ca.startech.com/product/HSB100SATBK-525-Tray-Less-SATA-Hot-Swap-Bay)

It would be easier to route the SATA and power cable to an barebones SATA drive sitting beside the PVR.

A barebones drive outside the PVR wouldn't look very good, though.

My PVR (and the subject of this thread) is an 8300 which would require running a wide IDE ribbon cable and 4 pin power cable outside the box. These cables aren't so easy to remove and attach.

I guess you could try an internal IDE to SATA converter (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=94262). If it worked, the drives would certainly be less expensive.

A potential problem with standard SATA cables and connectors is that the specification only requires them to be rated for 50 connection cycles. The SATA bay that I mentioned has special ZIF connectors that are rated 50000+ cycles.

If there wasn't room or logistics to put a bay inside the PVR, I'd still consider putting one in an external enclosure (attached to the internal cables), instead of just using bare cables and drives.

When was the last firmware update?

I have an 8300 with a replaced (PATA) drive. Recently it's started delaying startup. If I turn everything on, there is maybe a 10 second delay before the drive actually spins up. Only after that does the unit send a video signal to the TV.

After it's on, all works fine.

BTW, pre-scheduled recordings do work, but in a couple of shows I've missed a few seconds of the intro recently. I don't know if it's due to this power on delay issue, or just the timing of the show by the TV station.
This is now all fixed (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1263775#post1263775), with the new firmware update that came in the past few days. Furthermore, the drive isn't constantly spinning up and down anymore. It seems to just be on permanently.

I recently swapped the iHDD on my 8300HD for a WD5000AAKB. Everything is working fine and the unit even appears more responsive than before.

I just have one question. I have some programs on the old drive that I did not watch, they are not crucial but I wouldn’t mind checking them out. So if I put the old 160G drive back in will the programs on that drive still be there or will the drive be reformatted when the unit is powered up again? Has anybody tried this and if so what was the result?
Just to update on swapping drives. I have re-installed my original 160G drive and was able to view all shows that were recorded on that drive.

So here is my upgrade story of today. Went over to my cousins house (he had a Torx screwdriver as I couldn't seem to find any at the Canadian Tire I visited earlier in the day) to upgrade the lady-friends 8300HD (the unit is purchased and at least 4-5 years old) from the stock drive to a WD5000AAKB (500GB Western Digital) as everyone seems to have done here. He and I followed the how-to/pictures and everything seemed to go smooth. Took it back to the lady-friend's place, hooked it up and the countdown went for formatting the drive. Then the device rebooted again and got the picture back (auto went to channel 1), but when I clicked the 'LIST' button I got the error "Video recorder not ready" and then it went back to the screen. I held the select button for 5-8 seconds, pressed info and went to check the drive status but no information was listed.

Pulled the plug on the unit, let it sit for a few seconds, plugged it back in and after the reboot had the same issue. The lady-friend wasn't happy at this point thinking I had ruined her unit. I then went through 57 FAQ and used the lazy man's method to formatting (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=645759&postcount=905). It took about 2 minutes and then the unit rebooted again. Once I got back into the device and press the 'LIST' button, everything looks normal. After holding select for 5-8 seconds and pressing info, I can see the proper serial number and ID of the hard drive on the DVR HDD Info screen and DVR status now is set to 'READY'. So all appears to be dandy. Did a quick recording on Sportsnet Ontario while watching something off the buffer on NBATV. All was fine on both.

My only concern is, when I go to the HDD Info and Partition Info screens, it shows no data. I think I read in another thread that this info is no longer being provided but I can't seem to find the post. So can anyone verify?

Verified. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=131572 Item 21.

Perfect, thanks 57. Your FAQ also helped. I am just wondering why the first format didn't seem to work properly.

I'll chime in here and mention that I too am finding this "video recorder not ready" message after hard drive swaps now. I did another hard drive upgrade for a client over the weekend and couldn't get this message to go away until I did a manual format of the hard drive. It doesn't appear to be enough to just switch the drive out, even with a brand new hard drive that has no partitions, never Windows Initialized, etc. straight out of the packaging.

57 - this is definitely a new artifact of upgrading. It never occurred when I did your 8300HD PVR upgrade a while back.

If that is true (which also makes me feel a bit better), then it is something we should for sure be adding to the front page of this thread, as well as a link to how to format the drive from the 57 FAQ.

Post 1 updated.