[Grasshopper2Ant]

Got the 1T drive from London Drugs.

Put the expander sata cable into the sata of 3416 PVR.

Plugged in both and got the format screen, formatted the expander HDD.

Opened up expander by peeling off rubber moulding, used flat screwdriver and pry plastic tabs that hold case together. You can tell where the tabs are by where it is the tightest on the case. Slides out and unscrew HDD out. It is a WD 10EVDS model.

Instead of a 4.5mm inverted hex driver which I did not have, I used a torx screw with a 25mm head and put it on a vise grip and twisted out the three screws on the PVR. I got my torx screw off a BMW door panel I took off a while ago but you can buy at any automotive outlet like napa or lordco.

Swapped the 1T with the 160gig which I put in the expander box and I was done.

Hope this can help someone else.

 

[JohnnyVic]

I've upgraded with an external 1TB WD Green drive as described earlier. I'm noticing now that my unit is quite sluggish, menu response and play/pause/ff/rew/etc. controls are slow especially when two HD channels are being recorded and a third is playing back.

I'm not sure this is related to the hard drive and I'm wondering if these Motorola units just can't keep up anymore? I'm assuming that Shaw is occasionally updating their transmissions with newer compression schemes and doing firmware updates to the units support the upgraded network and I'm thinking that the Motorola doesn't have the processing power to operate smoothly anymore? Any opinions on that?

 

[upsydaisy]

I've got a 2yr old 1TB WD Caviar Green in my Motorola and it is just as speedy as the original drive.

 

[kjmz]

I have a DCT6412 Phase II and I'm interesting in upgrading the hard drive from 120GB to 1TB. Would it be possible to format the 1TB hard drive externally on a DCT 6412 Phase III and then insert that hard drive into my DCT 6412 Phase II?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Soldat]

kjmz, doubt you could as the 6412 Phase I and II use PATA HDDs (IDE) and Phase III uses a SATA HDD.

 

[Karyudo]

I've read this thread pretty thoroughly, and haven't seen my problem addressed...

I've got a DCT-3416, and a Western Digital 1 TB expander that I've been using for a little while. Today I got the proper security socket (Nintendo 4.5 mm inverted Torx) and swapped out the 160 GB PVR drive with the much-larger expander drive.

After boot up, I expected to lose all my recorded stuff, but I didn't. But I also don't think it's reporting the correct size.

I'd like to re-do everything, by formatting the expander drive as an eSATA device, and then re-swap. But I can't figure out how to re-format the expander drive!

I also don't know how to check the drive size in the PVR menus, which has been mentioned.

Anybody got any wise words?

 

[loracweb]

You only lose recordings when moving the drive to a different pvr externally.

If you want to reformat, do a search for 'motorola dvr wiki'.

As for checking...

Check that the system is properly recognizing your new drive.* Information about the hard drive is displayed in the diagnostic menu.
Turn off the box (press POWER on the remote)
Immediately press the OK/SELECT button. Press it again if the display (black text on white background) does not come up within a second.
DOWN ARROW to d13 and press OK/SELECT. You'll see a screen that lists HDD info.
The HDD size is displayed in Bytes.* A 1TB HDD is roughly 931,000,000,000, where as a 160GB drive is about 152,000,000,000

 

[Karyudo]

Yup -- figured it out.

Here's how to replace the internal 160 GB drive in a Motorola DCT3416 with a 1 TB drive from a Shaw PVR Expander, if you've already hooked up and have been using the Expander with the PVR:

** Warning: you WILL lose all of the stuff you currently have on both the PVR and Expander. **

First step is to access the ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS menu:
• Power off the PVR.
• Press Power followed right away by Select button (maybe twice helps; it did for me.)

Next, using the remote:
• Press the Back button (above the Rewind button) 1 time
• Press the List button 3 times
• Press the Live button 1 time

You are now in the next menu (whether you can see it or not; I couldn't):
• Navigate to FULL FORMAT
OR
• If it reads CLR on the DCT-3416 display (like mine did), press the down arrow and it will quickly clear both the internal and external drives.

Finally, turn off the PVR and the expander drive, and UNPLUG everything before you start opening everything up! There are some big capacitors in there and some other power components that you don't want to mess with.

Now you're in the same position as somebody with a new expander, and you can just swap the expander drive in for the original 160 GB drive, and you're done.

 

[GWNorth]

Upgrading internal drive in 6412 Phase I or II

I'm interested upgrading the internal drive in a 6412 Phase I or II box. I've read through the thread and didn't get to a conclusive yes it can or no it can't be done. It doesn't look promising but would like confirmation if possible.

From what I read, there seems to be two key differences from the later Motorola boxes regarding upgrading the drive:

1. The Phase I and II units use PATA drive instead of SATA
- PATA drives are available for purchase so this doesn't prevent upgrading the drive but does limit the potential drive size. 1TB drives are not available with PATA but 320GB is common (overpriced for size but I guess supply and demand) and the odd 400 or 500GB are around it seems.

2. Formatting the drive is a problem because you can't format the drive externally since there is no external drive connector on these boxes.
- Formatting the drive internally appears to be possible but reports are that it only formats to a small size (30GB or so) if it is not pre-formatted. The pre-formatting I assume means partitioning the drive with the correct FAT type information (gfps from what I've read). I've seen suggestions of using Linux or OS/2 Warp to prepare the drive first and then format within the machine but I have not seen any results of people trying that.

- I had another thought that I don't know is feasible or not. If the box is opened up and a two drive IDE cable is connected to the existing internal drive (master) and new second drive (slave), will this new drive be treated as an external drive and do the correct format that the later Motorola boxes do with the eSATA external drives? Might be tricky to wire up but it would be interesting to see if this works.

Any further information on ways to get the drives formatted for 6412 Phase I or II would be appreciated.

 

[loracweb]

The firmware won't see drives larger than 160GB properly.

it doesn't matter if they have been formatted properly or not.

You can usually find DCT3416 pretty cheap ($150 ish) on CL or KJ. DCT6412 can easily fetch that price from someone on Cogeco (ie. sell it on eBay).

so if you play your cards right, you can probably upgrade for little to no cost.

 

[GWNorth]

Thanks for the confirmation loracweb. I was afraid of the answer but now I can give up thinking of strange ways to get the drive formatted. I picked up the used 6412 fairly cheap so I'm not in it for much money.

I was thinking of using it as is (my first PVR) until (crosses fingers) MoCA support is added to the Motorola 3400/3200 line or Gateway gets cheaper (probably a long way away). Selling it and getting a used 3416 is an option I might consider if I can find a 3416 at that price. Good thought.

 

[jumpy27]

Can the internal drive in a Pace 775 be upgraded with a 1TB drive?

 

[Broly]

Upgrading the internal hard drive for DCX3400

Hi guys,

I am wondering what is the largest possible internal hard drive size I can put in my DCX3400?

I have read people changing out their drives on the Paces, or the DCT* series but I can't find much on the DCX34xx series.

I am of the belief that I should be able to format the drive as an external and then pop it into the actual receiver without issue? And If I do understand this correctly, the limitation on the drive size is NOT 1TB?

I mean, if the box can format a 2TB external, I can't see why this wouldn't then operate normally inside the receiver.

Thanks.

 

[Logun]

Upgrading DCT3416 HDD

Hi;

I've read the other posts but I just wanted to make sure the information was still current as I'm reading conflicting posts.

I have a DCT3416 and I want to swap the 160GB drive for a 1TB one.

I see lots of posts about external drives and expanders, but I only want to remove the 160 and put the 1TB in it's place.

1) I've never touched this pvr since I bought it - do I need to update the firmware first?

2) do I need to do anything to the new drive before I install it?

Thanks!

 

[buckycat]

This thread explains what you need to do.

 

[Logun]

Thanks but I've not found much help in there.

Larger Hard Drive for the 6412 limited to 160 GB by firmware - I assume this link is of no relevance to me since I'm dealing with a 3416? (please let me know if it's still applicable)

Firmware update - happens automatically so I'm good there

and then this bit:

Edit by 57:

Note that it appears that the drive must be formatted (externally) before it can be used internally. See the following page of this thread.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...=111592&page=5

does this still apply? (this was last updated 2 years ago, so I'm not sure if a FW update since then would have alleviated this issue)

 

[loracweb]

Yes it still applies. Don't forget about the tool to open the pvr.

 

[Logun]

is this the esata cable needed? I'm unsure if the PVR will power the external drive or not

 

[Logun]

Can some one post the exact tool to use to remove the security bit from the 3416? I went to home depot and the people there had no idea what I was talking about until one guy said "we got this..." and handed me a 16 piece husky ratcheting multi-bit screwdriver with security bits

None of them fit

I believ I need a 4.5mm bit? But I wasn't able to correlate that to the numbers on this such as T15, T20...etc

 

[Jetranger]

Search this forum or the internet for the tool. It's not a Torx bit. There are several vendors you should find with a google search.