I would imagine that you can use the same process that I used to clone the drive.

I would like to install the Seagate audio-video drive ST3500630AV:

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_sv35_7200_2.pdf

Anyone that tried it or knows if it would work or not?

Thanks.

See post #134

Thanks LeadFoot, the worst is that I even read that post and I don't know why I did not realize it was the same disk, go figure ...

Hi everyone

Yesterday, I modded my 8300HD owned box with a Seagate ST3320620A 320GB drive using the same instructions as provided by Ghost (Kudos to Ghost for this useful mod). All went very well, besides the fact that when I power it back on after being in Power Off (Standby) mode, I dont see any picture for few minutes. Here is what happens:

- Box in powered off (standby) mode for over an hour while it has power cable connected.
- Power On shows no picture.
- After 2 - 5 minutes, I hear hard drive spin up and I get the channels and pictures.
- Another 5 minutes into normal operation, pictures goes off and the box starts what appears to be reprogramming sequence by downcounting 3 digits in hexadecimal until the counter gets to r000.
- Then the box reboots and shows nothing on front display
- 5 minutes later, I see clock.
- System is back into normal operation.

This happens everytime after I power up the box that has been in standby mode for over an hour.

- Has anyone else experienced this problem?
- Could this be due to Seagate having powersave functionality that is not compatible with 8300HD?
- Should I go buy Western Digital WD5000AAKB as used by Ghost?
- Should I create RMA with Seagate and get a replacement drive and try?

Any insight on this issue is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Nad

If you read the thread on the external drive upgrade in this forum, you'll see that any drive that has powersave software is not compatible with the SA8300HD.

I don't recall if that has been mentioned in this internal drive thread. I don't know if this software can be defeated/removed.

Thanks for your input 57. I looked through the external SATA drive thread. I have not been able to find any information on what type of powersave logic Seagate firmware operates on in comparison to Western Digital. One thing that I noticed was the power current requirements for both the drives:

Western Digital is listed as:

Current Requirements
12 VDC
Read/Write 460 mA
Idle 450 mA
Standby 6 mA
Sleep 6 mA


and Seagate Technical specs say:

2.8mA

I am inclined to buy WD 500G drive and test it with that.

anyone tried a larger western digital drive as an internal replacement? can i go with 750 ?

On the external side a 750 will work, but not 1 TB (yet), so I'd expect that the appropriate internal would work at 750.

Did anyone try to replace HDD in SA 8000 PVR? The reason why I'm asking that is because SA 8000 is pretty cheap (below $100) and it might be a good choice to PVR-enable every room.

The only problem is relatively small HDD - only 80GB. If 500GB HDD can be installed in SA 8000 or SA 8000HD it would be great news!

Thanks!

Did anyone try to replace HDD in SA 8000 PVR? The reason why I'm asking that is because SA 8000 is pretty cheap (below $100) and it might be a good choice to PVR-enable every room.

The only problem is relatively small HDD - only 80GB. If 500GB HDD can be installed in SA 8000 or SA 8000HD it would be great news!

Thanks!
I did, with a 320GB hard drive. Don't know about using a 500HD though... Might want to check the wattage on it first.

anyone tried a larger western digital drive as an internal replacement? can i go with 750 ?

Western Digital doesn't make an IDE drive larger than 500GB. I did try a 750GB Seagate drive I had and it booted up and formated fine. But I found occasional glitches in the video and audio stream even watching live TV without any other recording happening. I ended up pulling the drive the next day.

Western Digital doesn't make an IDE drive larger than 500GB.
Since the SA8300HD uses an IDE to SATA converter chip for their external E-SATA port, I would bet that you could use one of the available IDE to SATA adapters to install an internal SATA drive. I've never heard of anyone trying it, though.

Here's (http://www.cooldrives.com/sahadradtoid.html) what I'm talking about (first hit on a Google search).

Since the SA8300HD uses an IDE to SATA converter chip for their external E-SATA port, I would bet that you could use one of the available IDE to SATA adapters to install an internal SATA drive. I've never heard of anyone trying it, though.


That looks like it should fit inside the PVR. Please do post how it works.

ok, i have a 500gb external right now and was going to upgrade the internal to 500gb. once i've done that to the internal, can i still view the shows i have saved on the external?

No. You will have to format the internal thus wiping out the index for the external drive. The index for all drives is stored on the internal drive.

Hmm, that sucks. So what's the approach with the external? When, do I need to format it after the new internal install.

Hmm, that sucks. So what's the approach with the external? When, do I need to format it after the new internal install.
There are a few options.

1. You could try cloning the internal drive using the process and software explained in the following post. This would retain all your recordings from both the internal and external HDD's

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=719287&postcount=137

2. If you are planning to continue using the external HDD after the upgrade of the internal, then you should reformat the external. This should be done after the confirming that the internal is working correctly, It can done by connecting it to a PC and doing a reformat, or using the PVR reformat process that I think is outlined in the Tips & Tricks. The latter will also reformat the internal again wiping out any recording or scheduled recordings.

3. Do not use the external HDD with the upgraded internal. If yo need to watch a previously recorded program on the HDD, swap the internal drive and reconnect the external. This is painful, but workable.

hmm... cloning, eh? i already have 3 drives in my pc, so i'd have to buy something like a "ide/sata to usb 2.0" adapter and clone it that way. but that'd cost another $30 i think at tigerdirect, so i guess i'll just lose everyything and start fresh. this 'hobby' is already getting too expensive.

I followed Ghost's instruction for replacing the internal hard drive which worked perfectly. I did not want to lose all of my settings and recording so I created a drive image. Here is what I did.

1. Removed the old Western Digital 160GB IDE drive and installed it into my
computer

2. Installed the new drive into my computer, a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB IDE drive.

Note: you may need to set one of the drives to master and the other to slave to get this working. Be sure to set them back to CS (Cable Select) before you reinstall into the 8300HD.

3. I used Active@ Disk Image version 3.1.5 to create a clone

4. The software has the option of creating a boot image. (ISO) So I created a bootable CD using this image.

5. I booted the CD and chose the clone option.

6. I selected the 160GB as the source and the 320GB as the destination and started the copy.

The copy took about 2.5 hours as it does a sector by sector copy. Once completed I installed the new 320GB drive into the 8300HD and it booted right up. My free space went from 80% in use to 40% in use. I would imagine that Symantec Ghost would also work but I did not try it.

I do own my 8300HD so I was not worried about voiding the warranty. Use these instructions at your own risk! I would recommend reading this entire threat before attempting this upgrade.

Hope this info helps.
why did you create a bootable cd to perform this? could I not install both harddrives as USB (via an external case or adapter) and then clone while in Windows? or does it have to be performed in DOS?