Replacement HDD for Sky+

Russ77

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Hi All

Just came across this site while trying to find out why my Sky+ box wouldn't come out of standby mode.

Found out the the HDD is toast......

I've managed to get the unit working again by installing an old 12Gb drive I had lying about but this isn't going to take long to fill up.

Can I go out and by any HDD or does it have to be a specific make (i.e Maxtor)??

I have tried searching on this but I only picked up some very old posts.

Any advice would be appreciated

Many thanks

Russ
 

rolfw

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I believe that the slower drives are better, as they are quieter and use less power. Maxtors seem to be best for pace boxes, but the Amstrads seem to like Samsung drives.

See here http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/
 

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The older 'slower' drivers are becoming harder to find and more expensive.

The prices on that site are high IMHO

Maybe someone here has an old drive they want to sell cheap!
 

Russ77

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Cheers for the quick reply!

The link was useful but the drive seem a bit expensive, mind you I'm having trouble finding suitable 5400rpm drives
 

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I've had personal experience with XtendedPlay... I bought a drive upgrade kit from them a couple of months back. Their service was prompt and friendly - the drive arrived next day and included a torx wrench set and instructions...

The 250GB drive they supply spins at 5760RPM and they set all the acoustic management settings on the drives firmware to 'quiet' mode, so there was no need for me to take my PC to bits to configure up the drive.

I'd recommend them if you don't mind paying a bit more...

JonB

:-Cbigsmil
 

Russ77

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jonb said:
I've had personal experience with XtendedPlay... I bought a drive upgrade kit from them a couple of months back. Their service was prompt and friendly - the drive arrived next day and included a torx wrench set and instructions...

The 250GB drive they supply spins at 5760RPM and they set all the acoustic management settings on the drives firmware to 'quiet' mode, so there was no need for me to take my PC to bits to configure up the drive.

I'd recommend them if you don't mind paying a bit more...

JonB

:-Cbigsmil

Fair point!

IF I went for say a Maxtor drive that spins at 7200rpm, how necessary is it to upgrade the cooling on the box or is it just a case of more noise?
 

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I've read in a number of place that the Sky+ boxes are very sensitive to heat (unlike my trusty old TiVo), so I would imagine that installing a slower spinning drive would help with the reliability of the Sky+ box.
 

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One other bit of information on upgrading the hard disk drive in the Sky+ box...

Sky+ boxes do not work with some hard drives due to the spin up speed (I believe it needs to be <8 secs). It seems certain models of Maxtor drives work well in Pace boxes (but not all Maxtor drives) and Samsung drives generally work well in Amstrad Sky+ boxes. However, it seems a bit of lottery...

That's why I ended up buying it from someone who had tested it for me!!! :)
 

Russ77

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Well after sleeping on it and getting no where with Sky, I've opted for the xtended play 160 upgrade :-)

Cheers for all the advice and I'll let you know how the install goes.

Russ
 

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Will be interested to hear how you get on Russ, as a pal of mine is thinking of the same upgrade, as his HDD is starting to play up. :)
 

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rolfw said:
Will be interested to hear how you get on Russ, as a pal of mine is thinking of the same upgrade, as his HDD is starting to play up. :)

Will do! :-righton
 

Russ77

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The drive arrived today (only ordered it Sunday night)

Took 20 mins to install including leaving the unit to "discharge" for 10mins after I unplugged it from the mains.

Seems to be working fine with all the functionallity of the original.

Well impressed so far
 

rolfw

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Thanks Russ, wouldn't it be nice if everything went as smoothly. :)
 
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