Seagate ST3500630A replacement in Pace V2 box not compatible

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Seagate ST3500630A replacement in Pace V2 box not compatible

Postby discodancer » Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:15 am

I am well fedup and it's my first post to this forum! A winge first...

I bought 2 Seagate ST3500630A HDD costing about £50 a pop to fit into my Pace 3100 and my Amstrad DRX180.

I also went to the expense of buying a USB2 to IDE cable (£10) to use enable my use of Copy+ software.

Not only that I ended up paying £10 for a new IDE cable for the Pace box as I broke it when trying to get it off the old HDD! DOh!

The result...

Amstrad is intermittent - restarts itself over night, but does seem to work!
Pace is not working at all.

Details are as follows for Pace:

Manufacturer: Pace
Model Number: 6.001
Version Number: 9F2105
Operating System Version: 1.31B06
EPG Software Version: 5.04.d

The problem is as follows:

Afer replacement of drive (with auto-rewind off) I have done a full restore (both ways) and the box frezzes up when resording.

I record BBC1, then go to BBC2 and record this channel. The hHDD starts to get active a little more. Then if I live rewind a channel that I am recording, it is about 2 mins. before the box locks up, still in rewind mode, and I have to power off at the plug.

I have tried almost every alternative way suggestwed on various forums etc. I have tried using Copy+ to set the drive at 250 gig and the same situation occurs.

When I replace tihe original HDD everything is back to normal.

Lots of money spend, lots of time spent, lots of people saying that this drive is fine, and that 500 gig drives should be compatible with the new software, lots of people saying Copy+ will sort out my problems, but still no joy!

Help!!!
discodancer
 

Postby pcbbc » Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:36 am

Hi - Sorry you've had problems.

The details of the drives on my Suggested Drives Page have been provided to me by other upgraders, and I hope I made it clear that they are supplied in good faith. But unfortunately I do not have the time, or more importantly money or resources, to check all drives and boxes personally, so all I can do is go on the recommendation of others.

It does sound like this drive may not be suitable, or more likely something has happened (e.g. software upgrade) in order to make it unsuitable. I will add a comment to the page with regard to this, and a link to this post.

But unfortunately I'm not sure what else there is that I can suggest in your case? Sorry. :oops:
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Seagate ST3500630A replacement in Amstrad V2 box

Postby discodancer » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:02 am

Further to my previous message my Amstrad box is having some different successes/failures with its newly upgraded Seagate ST3500630A:


Details are as follows:

Manufacturer: Amstrad
Model Number: A150510
Version Number: 4F2001
Operating System Version: 1.31B03
EPG Software Version: 5.03.g

The drive seemed to go okay at first. there were a few freezes wher a restart was required.

I have however noticed that every morning when I resume from standby the system has reset itself and the SKY welcome channel (can't remember which number) is showing.

The problems with dual channel recording, and clicking etc from the HDD do not seem to be an issue with this box.

Is there any danger with me ruining the box? Is the continual resetting over night a problem?

Help/advice would be appreciated.
discodancer
 

Postby pcbbc » Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:15 pm

I can't see a drive causing permanent damage to the box. However I'm not sure I'd want to run with a box that constantly resets itself?

The only situations I can remember where people have "damaged" their box upgrading are the odd tearing of ribbon cables or bending of pins.

However this does not sound like the problem here - in those cases the drive fails to work altogether.
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Suggested drives?

Postby discodancer » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:06 pm

I know that you wont really want to commit to answering this question but...

What HDD upgrades would you recommed for my 2 sky+ boxes?

I am not really that bothered about getting the largest driove avaiolable, just ones that will be most compatible.

From all of your discussions/research could you suggest drives for Pace V2 and Amstrad V2?

Thanks

David
discodancer
 

Postby pcbbc » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:27 am

You are right, I really wouldn't want to give a definitive answer on that. Especially as I haven't upgraded either of those boxes recently.

But I would always prefer a drive which is explicitly specified for PVR / Consumer Electronics use.

For example the Seagate DB35 series ST???????ACE, and not just the standard desktop variety you have. Sorry. :oops:
And I have just helped my friend with a very successful upgrade of a Thomson V3 box using a 320GB Western Digital AV drive. I don't have the exact model to hand at the moment though.

Sorry I can't be more help. :(
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Suggested new thread?

Postby discodancer » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:35 am

Would you consider setting up a poll for members of this forum to say which drives they have successfully upgrades to?

maybe even have a poll for each Sky+ box? This would enable us to see which HDDs have been most often used/

Just a suggestion. I don't know enough about it to set up the poll

Thanks for your help so far
discodancer
 

Postby pcbbc » Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:13 pm

I could set up a poll, but I'm not sure how much use it would be.

Firstly, people only tend to visit this forum if they have a problem.
Secondly there are a lot of drives to select from, and so which ones would I put on the poll? What if someone else has a different drive to report on?

What we could really do with is more posts in the HDD Compatibility & Reviews forum. But I suspect that most people use drives on my Suggested Drives list, and so there are relatively few people trying out new models unless they happen to "have one lying around". In that respect the list is somewhat self defeating.
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Postby Zappo » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:26 am

I have been using this Seagate drive for some time and I find it no more or less reliable than others.

I did have two issues:

The drive does not seem to spin down even when the sky box goes into standby.

The drive does seem to increase the latency more than some other drives but I think this is just an issue with a larger drive.

What you have to remember is that there are a number of potential technical errors with Sky+ boxes and the way they manage their disks.

Before you use Copy+ you need to make sure that your original disk is in good order. That means removing failed programmes and running the Sky Planner rebuild option from the hidden install menu.

Then make sure your PC is not set to power down after inactivity, if it does this you will lose data, the drive may still work but the copy will not be ideal.

One of the things I do before copying is to run a low level surface analysis of the new drive to map out any bad sectors.

As for Amstrad, reports on AVforums suggest that their boxes are dire at the best of times. If I were you I would buy a 2nd hand identical pace from ebay and then sell your amstad. This will mean that if one of your boxes fails you can just swap out for the other.
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Re: Seagate ST3500630A replacement in Pace V2 box not compatible

Postby Zappo » Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:42 pm

I'm still using this drive. Have had issues when drive gets less than 10%, but copyplus lets me copy off and copy back (I usually leave off a few progs).

I find it best to turn off Sky Auto standby.

If you have a loose IDE cable or THE CONNECTOR IS badly connected to wire or if IDE cable does not have all pins it may explain problems.

Best thing fo rAmstrad is to flog it.
Zappo
 


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