SA8000/8300HD - Internal Hard Disk Upgrade Works (Cloning too) See Post 1.

[gasket]

Originally Posted by alexgarin

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.

[snipes]

Originally Posted by buzzinhornets

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.

[scotta]

Originally Posted by snipes

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 what I'm talking about (first hit on a Google search).

[snipes]

Originally Posted by scotta

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.

[buzzinhornets]

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?

[Jake]

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.

[buzzinhornets]

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

[Bplayer]

Originally Posted by buzzinhornets

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/show...&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.

[buzzinhornets]

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.

[buzzinhornets]

Originally Posted by PDub

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?

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by buzzinhornets

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?

USB drive duplicating is usually a lot slower than with drives attached to an IDE or SATA channel.

Booting from a CD means you get 100% of the system's power. Plus, some -such as the older version of Norton Ghost I use - do run from a version of DOS.

[buzzinhornets]

...i'm confused. I want to do a sector by sector image of a 160 gb harddrive from my HD PVR using acronis true image. the 160gb dirve will be the 'source' and a 500GB drive will be the 'destination'. what i'm wondering is what happens to the extra 340gb on the larger drive? i don't get it.

won't the sector by sector image fill up only the first 160gb of the 500gb drive? then what, create a second partition with the remaining 340gb?

or, will the image just end up on the 500gb drive in one partition leaving me with 340 gb of usuable space?

Edit: ACRONIS True Image has been reported as not working properly.

[ruby1308]

Originally Posted by buzzinhornets

...i'm confused. I want to do a sector by sector image of a 160 gb harddrive from my HD PVR using acronis true image. the 160gb dirve will be the 'source' and a 500GB drive will be the 'destination'. what i'm wondering is what happens to the extra 340gb on the larger drive? i don't get it.

won't the sector by sector image fill up only the first 160gb of the 500gb drive? then what, create a second partition with the remaining 340gb?

or, will the image just end up on the 500gb drive in one partition leaving me with 340 gb of usuable space?

boot with your cd or make a bootable cd
select clone
select automatic
you will have a carbon copy of your data and yes it's only going to be 1 partition as you had before and yes you will have the extra usable space.

Don't forget though, before you start, source is master, destination is slave, then pin it back to cable select for the new disk and the old one, well, it depends what you want to do.

[ruby1308]

Originally Posted by buzzinhornets

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.

simply disconnect your 3 drives, remembering how they were connected.

put in the 2 hard disk in question, well the one already in the pvr and your new one, then follow what i am saying to your next question.....

[buzzinhornets]

if i'm using two of these ide to usb adapters, what would the jumpers be set to?