hard drive compatibility

Which replacement drives can you use and which do people recommend?

hard drive compatibility

Postby paolo » Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:10 pm

Thinking of upgrading my Thomson PVR3 box over christmas, could someone ell me if a Seagate ST3320820SCE is a good drive to use.

Cheers
paolo
 

Postby paolo » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:37 pm

Does nobody know.
paolo
 

Postby pcbbc » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:04 pm

paolo wrote:Does nobody know.
Sorry, but all the details I have are on the Suggested Drive Page.
Unfortunately I don't have any more advice to give than that.

A search of the digital spy forums for this drive model also drew a blank - SO the status of this drive is unknown.
If you have one you can try it and it is unlikely to cause any damage, but I wouldn't suggest buying one specially.
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Postby woodface7 » Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:13 pm

Don't buy Seagate ST3320820SCE!

The last three letters tell you it's a SATA drive, and as I understand it, only Sky HC boxes use those.

You want an IDE drive aka PATA aka Ultra ATA.

I expect Seagate do a ST3320820ACE
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Postby pcbbc » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:07 pm

woodface7 wrote:Don't buy Seagate ST3320820SCE!

The last three letters tell you it's a SATA drive, and as I understand it, only Sky HC boxes use those.

You want an IDE drive aka PATA aka Ultra ATA.

I expect Seagate do a ST3320820ACE
Good point, well made.
And well spotted for a first post woodface7. :oops:
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Postby paolo » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:52 pm

Thanks for that Woodface
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Postby adrian emery » Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:33 pm

I may as well post here as it seems to be releated to my query.

We have had our 3rd SkyHD box delivered this week, the last one kept of reseeting randomly and there were numerous failings when I recorded stuff.

Unfortunately last night we already had to dump 2 hours of stuff due to the programme starting and then freezing a short way in.

After the hours of arguments I had with Sky over getting the last box replaced I can't see getting yet another one.

So I have decided to go the whole hog and get a 750Gb+ drive, I have looked at the compatability list for model numbers. Am I correct in assuming that the HD box needs a SATA drive?

I have an old ATA IDE-USB2 drive caddy, is this a compatable caddy or do I need to get a different type?

Thanks for any help given.
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Postby pcbbc » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:23 pm

Hi,
Sorry to hear of your woes. :(
I hope a new drive is the resolution to your problems, although obviously there are no guarantees.
Yes, HD requires a SATA drive. There is a good thread over at the AVForums where they discuss various 1TB drives. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to get to it at the moment.
Also Zork42 has some useful words to say on this thread.
The old caddy would have been okay for Sky+ (IDE drives). But you need a SATA caddy for SkyHD. More details and an example on the other thread of the type needed.
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Postby adrian emery » Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:31 pm

thanks for your quick reply, I thought I would have to get a new enclosure and I'll take a trip to Maplin this weekend (we have had a new superstore opened this month.)

Then I'll have a good look about for a nice drive.

EDIT:

Just found this one on Dabs

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4JML&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=Hitachi+Deskstar&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

is this the right type as it says it is SATAII in the title then says just regular SATA in the description, I hate it when this happens with confliting information.
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Postby pcbbc » Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:39 pm

I have a Maplin one. In fact it bought it the day I decided to start writing Copy+! :lol:

Not the cheapest around, but it did mean I could go and get there and then.
It's also quite nice in that it can do either a PATA or SATA drive internally, so very flexible.

Here's the thread over at the AVForums. You'll want to go to the end where they have moved away from the external Thecus JBOD disk array solution (old hat now) and start to use the native 1TB drives as they become available.

Edit: Yes, that drive at dabs is the Hitachi people are using.
SATA I/II are unofficial names and their use is discouraged.
The official terms are SATA/150 (for SATA I) and SATA/300 (for SATA II). (Wikipedia).
All SATA/300 drives should auto configure and be back compatible with SATA/150. There is often also a jumper to force SATA/150 mode.

Perhaps someone can confirm which standard Sky requires?
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Postby adrian emery » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:47 pm

Thanks for the help, I bought my last PC 18 months ago and I hadn't kept up with all the new technologies since then.

I always worry about compatabilities and to make sure that the connectors etc are going to be correct, as I have big problems in the past, especially stuff from the mid 80's was a nightmare at time to connect up.

So it looks fairly easy enough to do, take old drive out of caddy, use Copy+ to move everything over, slap new drive into caddy then back into Sky HD box.
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Postby pcbbc » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:36 am

adrian emery wrote:So it looks fairly easy enough to do, take old drive out of caddy, use Copy+ to move everything over, slap new drive into caddy then back into Sky HD box.
That's about it.
The important thing to remember is, take things steady and if you do run into trouble - Ask for help!
Do NOT put the original disk back in a Sky box until you have made a successful copy. That way you always have a backup.
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