Using Skybox F3 with IDE Hard Drive

[gullh]

Not exactly a USB stick but my old HP laptop died at the weekend so I've removed the 2.5" SATA drive and I've ordered a caddy for it, hopefully the USB socket will be good enough not to need the second plug connected to a PSU and I'll report back on performance.

Hi there, can I use an IDE drive (from an old laptop) via a usb caddy and record to that?

 

[PaulR]

It'll be a 2.5" drive so should be OK. Just make sure that your caddy is for the earlier IDE disk though.

 

[gullh]

It'll be a 2.5" drive so should be OK. Just make sure that your caddy is for the earlier IDE disk though.

Cheers Paul, Will order one via Ebay and report back on recording results.

 

[gullh]

It'll be a 2.5" drive so should be OK. Just make sure that your caddy is for the earlier IDE disk though.

Hi Paul,
Ive managed to get the IDE caddy and have fitted my 40GB (test hard drive to it)....
I would appreciate it if you could tell me how I go about setting up the box to start recording....

Cheers,

Gull

 

[Lazarus]

I've moved your Posts and replies to a dedicated Thread as the other one was specifically for discussing Skybox F3 Compatible USB Sticks

 

[Lazarus]

Plug Caddy into USB Port, press Menu on the F3 and navigate to the PVR Menu Tree.

In there, you can set Format the Hard Drive and can set Partitions for Recording and/or for Time Shift Recording. The Menus are self-evident.

 

[gullh]

Plug Caddy into USB Port, press Menu on the F3 and navigate to the PVR Menu Tree.

In there, you can set Format the Hard Drive and can set Partitions for Recording and/or for Time Shift Recording. The Menus are self-evident.

Hi there,
I have plugged in a Seagate External drive and only the PVR Information is highlighted.....Nothing else....Any help?

Cheers,

Gull

 

[Lazarus]

In "PVR Information, you should have options as follows:

Yellow - Format

Blue - DVR Set

If you don't have those, then it is possible that the box is not able to supply sufficient power to your IDE Drive.

Others have reported success with SATA Drives not requiring further power, but you are the first to try an IDE device.

I suspect that being older technology, they are greedier.

Sadly, with only one USB port on the F3, you can't use a USB Y connector .............. perhaps the answer might be a cheap powered USB hub?

 

[gullh]

Hi there, got it going. It turns out that the drive was using the ext2 (linux) filesystem. Formatted back to NTFS and that got it going....

Now can you give me some pointers on how to do timer recordings etc.....I mean how do i set up the box and drive to record via timer?

Gull

 

[Lazarus]

You can either use the EPG to highlight the desired prog, then press Green which takes you into a Timer screen with most of the details imported, or you can use the main Menu Tree to set a Timer, or you can just press Record and then press again to give you the facility to alter the standard 2 hour Recording length.

Just experiment .............. it's all very straightforward. We only know what to do because we experimented ourselves.

Glad you got it formatted and working!

If you fancy using FAT 32, the 4GB File Size restriction which is deemed to apply is overcome by the box craftily making a series of smaller files that are invisible in normal use.

 

[gullh]

Hi mate,
What's the benefit of FAT32 over NTFS?

Gull

 

[Lazarus]

Don't know if there is one, in respect of PVR use. Just different.

 

[Rolandh]

I've dumped my 80GB 2.5" SATA Laptop HDD in USB Caddy for a 320GB IDE Desktop HDD in a Mains Powered USB Caddy and it seems far more reliable than the self powered one that I was using, recorded Baseball off of ESPN America HD yesterday afternoon and a film off of Syfy +1 last night and both recorded unlike using the previous HDD when it was hit and miss if it would connect after a power on.

Roland

 

[Lazarus]

I've abandoned the idea of using an HDD in favour of the proeven 16GB USB stick.

Mainly used for Live Pause anyway.

The Disk I tried seemed ok but never actually managed to create and retain Recording files - but it was known to be faulty anyway, so no sad loss. Can't justify buying a new one just for the F3.

 

[Rolandh]

I've abandoned the idea of using an HDD in favour of the proeven 16GB USB stick.

Mainly used for Live Pause anyway.

The Disk I tried seemed ok but never actually managed to create and retain Recording files - but it was known to be faulty anyway, so no sad loss. Can't justify buying a new one just for the F3.

I just used the one that I used for backup with the Laptop, just took off all the Drivers that I need and re-formatted it to NTFS and set it up for recording use. I can't justify buying a new HDD for the F3 when I've got a spare that hasn't been plugged into the Computer for ages anyway.

Roland