Samsung Sky+HD box HDD upgrade.

[Tony1A]

I wonder if anybody on here has done this! I'll be getting my new (old) Samsung Sky+HD box through any day now and I'm wondering about the possibilities for changing the HDD for one slightly larger. I have just removed the HDD from a working DRX890-C which was no longer required and that is a Seagate Pipeline 500gb. With the right procedure, would it be possible to use that in the Samsung box?

As the box will not update anymore, I hope to be able to use the box with the old blue card without a sub.

 

[Captain Jack]

You can - there was even a tutorial on doing this in the now-defunct What Satellite TV mag. I believe you need some copy program to migrate your recordings to the new drive.

You might be able to simply plonk in a new hard drive as well and hope it initialises properly.

One thing I remember is that it's a bit of a pain disassembling the box and getting to the hard drive. Apparently, it's somewhere well in the bowels requiring removal of 100 screws to get to it.

 

[Archive-8]

Yes there is some magic program you have to run. You plug the old hdd in to one sata port on the pc, then the new drive into another sata port. Pay £20 for the software and then it will only copy the free channels recordings.

Or if you don't want the pre recorded stuff. I am told the sky box can format a new hdd.

I have a couple days ago pulled the 2tb drive out of my sky box to increase my nas drive upto 4tb.

YouTube was my friend for this.

 

[Tony1A]

That's great news! But sadly, the box which arrived an hour ago is not coming out of standby. DAMMIT! Tried a planner rebuild - nothing. Tried forcing an update. Nothing. It's doing naff all!

 

[Archive-8]

You still maybe able to use the hard drive in it.

I know you're after a pvr.

I am using my old vu duo and crossepg, and 1tb hdd.

Have you got another box?

 

[CROSSBONES]

Maybe a power supply issue with the standby problem?

 

[Tony1A]

Well, hush my mouth! This box is making a liar out of me! Just after I posted that it was not doing anything....it came out of standby and started initialising. I think it just needed time to boot as it may have been off some considerable time. I would still like to change the HDD at some point and the good news is the old blue card is working so that's a bonus. I'm going to look towards the Pace, Amstrad DRX 780, Samsung and Thomson boxes as it appears the R011 update prevents the blue card from working. It has updated to R010.

If it is a PSU problem I wonder what can be causing it?? The only other box I have is another DRX 890-C

 

[Captain Jack]

Capacitors in PSUs are prone to failing after a few years in the "oven". Easy to replace.

 

[Analoguesat]

Ive had no end of computers at my work where the box needs to be left with the plug in & the socket switched on for 2-5 minutes to "condition " the power supply before it will boot. As long as its left with it plugged in it boots fine, unplug it for more than a few seconds and you need to leave it again.

All affected computers were in the terminal stages of power supply failure.

 

[Tony1A]

Yeah, it's probably worth upgrading the caps in the PSU. Anyway, since I forced an update it's behaving much better and boots in about 5 minutes or so. The software was probably so outdated it was having trouble starting up. Really want to sort about getting a bigger HDD into it. I do have a Seagate which came out of a Pace box about 3 years ago but it's only 320GB. Shame. I wonder what HDD would go nicely into this beast and would I have any problems fitting a 500GB? If it only gave me 250GB of personal storage that would do us nicely. Any recommendations? I understand the Samsung box does only like certain types of HDD if that is correct. Unless you know differently!

 

[Tony1A]

Just powered the box on again after 2 hours. Stuck in standby again. It's either a duff HDD or bad caps on the PSU. I can hear the HDD making clicking sounds.

 

[Analoguesat]

Loud clicking on an HDD is always bad news.

 

[timo_w2s]

Although it could still be a bad power supply if it's not supplying enough power to get the hard disk spinning.

 

[Tony1A]

So now I'm wondering what do for the best here. Should I try another HDD in the hope that sorts it out or replace caps first. Decisions!!!

 

[Captain Jack]

Caps cost pennies so might as well do both.

 

[Tony1A]

My money is still on bad caps. Is there anywhere that sells a capacitor upgrade kit for the Samsung?

 

[Captain Jack]

Clicking isn't good either.
Just open the box, see what caps they are and get replacements.

 

[Tony1A]

Cheers for that, Jack. Yeah, caps are easy to come by so I'll open this box up today and see what's going on. Can anyone tell me of a suitable HDD that will be compatible with this Samsung? I just want to fit a 500GB to keep things simple as I don't much about this Copy+ and what I have to do.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Cheers for that, Jack. Yeah, caps are easy to come by so I'll open this box up today and see what's going on. Can anyone tell me of a suitable HDD that will be compatible with this Samsung? I just want to fit a 500GB to keep things simple as I don't much about this Copy+ and what I have to do.

Correct high spec capacitors are not so easy to come by - correct ESR and high temp ones. Readily available cheap ones are the problem in many PSUs (Thomson, Grundig, Technomate etc). Copy+ would not work on that box anyway - it is for the old pre-Darwin software and the software you require for that box is ExPVR.

 

[Tony1A]

Oh, this is interesting! I have just replaced the Seagate 320gb with a Seagate 500gb which came out of a DRX 890C. This thing booted in no time. Looks like the PSU is OK! Another interesting fact is that I'm using the old blue card and it recorded!!! I think the HDD was screwed that's why it clicked like crazy and would not boot!! I'm liking this