Amstrad DRX890/895 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

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Amstrad DRX890/895 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby pcbbc » Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:07 pm

Originally posted by deanoDRX980 on skyuser.co.uk

Basic guide on how I removed the HDD from my Amstrad DRX890-C
If you wish to follow this guide you do so at your own risk

Remove the silver side panels by removing 2 screws on each panel and then slide panels off
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Remove the black case by lifting the black clips and sliding the main unit out
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Remove the two cables from the front panel (they are quite stiff)
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Twist the 4 metal tabs on the top of the case (can be done with fingers to avoid leaving marks on the metal) and then lift the top panel off starting at the front of the box
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Remove the front board by twisting 4 metal tabs and pushing 4 plastic ones back through the board
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Remove all the screws and nuts from the metal panel there are lots of screws (keep them in order) I used a adjustable spanner to remove the nuts from the cable connectors
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Use a knife or thin screwdriver to finish removing the back panel
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Unplug the sata cable and the power cable from the HDD there are buttons on the underside of the cable connectors to release them correctly.
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Remove the screw and fan cable connector from the top board
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Gently wiggle the top board upwards to free from connector shown in next picture
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And the final steps are removing 5 screws holding the HDD in place (shown in the next 2 pictures
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby firthmj » Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:41 pm

Having bitten the bullet, and followed your procedure, I've a couple of suggested updates:

1) It isn't necessary to fully remove the back panel - if you remove the LNB nuts, the screw for the HDMI connector, and the RS232 port pillars, I found it was possible to remove the top PCB leaving the back panel in place.

2) I found it useful to remove the screw (and twist the tabs) holding in the bracket on the inside side of the hard drive, then remove this from the drive when the drive was out of the box

Finally, if you are lucky enough to have an external SATA connection that can fit in the space inside the box (I didn't) it might be possible to attach the drive to a PC "just" by removing the top lid of the box and attaching the PC's SATA connection in place of the Sky box's one.

Regards

Michael
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby pcbbc » Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:27 pm

Thanks for the tips!
I'm sure people will find them useful.
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby robodan » Sun Mar 21, 2010 8:36 pm

Does anyone know if the DRX890 (500GB) box is compatible with a Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB?

Dont want to be met with a noisy fan as per reports on some WD drives
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby pcbbc » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:21 pm

Is it even worth upgrading with that drive? An extra 50% user space only?
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby robodan » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:25 pm

pcbbc wrote:Is it even worth upgrading with that drive? An extra 50% user space only?


I agree with you, I havent bought the drive specifically, it is an unused spare in my Media Centre machine so I think it will be worth the hassle. (If it works that is!!)
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby pcbbc » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:30 pm

OK - Understood.
However for this reason I suspect you are unlikely to get an answer (unless someone else has had the same thought).
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby robodan » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:39 pm

Fair Comment.

I will try it when the new box is installed tomorrow, fingers crossed I dont get the noisy fan.
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby robodan » Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:46 pm

Just to advise anybody thinking of doing this, The drive Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB does make the box's fan noisy.

It remains to be seen if I remove it or not, I shall try it out over the next few days to see if I can bear it!!
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby mrooke » Thu Apr 22, 2010 5:50 pm

Many thanks to deanoDRX980 and pcbbc for sharing this upgrade with us.

I have just successfully upgraded to the WD10EVDS. I had a little panic when the removed hard drive was a Seagate Pipeline HD 2, part number ST3500312CS / 9GW132-012. I assumed it would have been a Western Digital hard drive.

It wasn't too difficult but it's certainly not as easy as upgrading the old Thomson model.
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby adhawkins » Mon May 03, 2010 5:02 pm

Just a bit of extra comment regarding the DRX895. Wanted to copy the programmes from my old Thomson over to it.

There's a screw in the back panel that holds the plastic case on. I think it's just above and to the left of the HDMI connector. It's near the middle of the back panel, quite close to the top.

Had me swearing until I found it! Might be worth an update to this guide.

Andy
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby adhawkins » Tue May 04, 2010 11:32 am

Question to anyone else who's done this. How do you get the plastic case back on?

It seems to be stopping about a centimetre short of where it should be.

Cheers

Andy
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby norm » Sat May 15, 2010 7:19 am

adhawkins wrote:Just a bit of extra comment regarding the DRX895. Wanted to copy the programmes from my old Thomson over to it.

There's a screw in the back panel that holds the plastic case on. I think it's just above and to the left of the HDMI connector. It's near the middle of the back panel, quite close to the top.

Had me swearing until I found it! Might be worth an update to this guide.

Andy


Thank you, thank you, Andy. I printed out the instructions and missed the comments. Spent over an hour last night trying to work out how to slide out the box. Got up this morning and read the whole thread and you solved my problem. I'm now copying my old Thomson backup onto my new 895. I'm glad I'm not trying to upgrade the drive as it looks more difficult to get the drive out. I bought a SATA connector and have just attached it to the drive in situ in the box.

Your comment really should be added to the instructions.

Thanks again.

PS I hope I don't have your problem getting the plastic back on. Did you solve it?

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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby adhawkins » Mon May 24, 2010 9:25 am

Yep, finally got the lid back on. It basically required a bit more 'force' than I had originally expected.

Make sure all the tabs in the plastic case line up with the appropriate holes in the metal lid. Then, good luck!

Andy
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Re: Amstrad 500GB/1TB Bx Upgrade Guide

Postby Jerome32 » Sat Aug 28, 2010 8:19 pm

firthmj wrote:1) It isn't necessary to fully remove the back panel - if you remove the LNB nuts, the screw for the HDMI connector, and the RS232 port pillars, I found it was possible to remove the top PCB leaving the back panel in place.
2) I found it useful to remove the screw (and twist the tabs) holding in the bracket on the inside side of the hard drive, then remove this from the drive when the drive was out of the box


I would concur with firthmj on these 2 points which eases the process of upgrading the drive on the DRX890:
1)remove only the LNB nuts, HDMI connector screw and RS232 port pillars.
There is no need to remove the back panel. Gently wiggle/lift off the top PCB and ease it upwards and away from the back panel. The LNB, HDMI and RS232 connectors (which are attached to the top PCB) will slide out of the back panel cutouts.
2) remove the drive and bracket in one unit. Then remove the bracket from the old drive and attach to the new drive.

It looks more complicated than it really is and anyone who is comfortable installing/swapping drives in a PC will find this reasonably straightforward especially with the helpful pictures. Most of the parts are reasonably robust, so likelihood of damaging anything is small.
The item most likely to be damaged is the ribbon cable join between the two parts of the front PCB (main part and the small part containing the buttons for the stop/play/rec/rw/ff). These two are joined by a ribbon cable held only by solder and glue. Make sure you have freed up the smaller part (4 black plastic prongs) before detaching the main board! At any rate, even if the ribbon cable join is damaged, it's not a big deal for those who typically use the remote control for playback/record functions.
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