DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

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DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby phurren » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:58 pm

Hi all, I've been lurking for a little while and decided that it was time to post. I've just had Sky+HD installed today after almost 15 years of having standard Sky. The box I have is a DRX 890-Z and is 250gb. Can anyone answer these questions as I'm a bit confused having been reading the forums here...

Can this be upgraded to a bigger drive?
Can I upgrade as far as 2TB?
Any recommendations for best drives to go for?
Will Copy+ work for me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Pete
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby pcbbc » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:41 pm

phurren wrote:Can this be upgraded to a bigger drive?
Yes, but Copy+ does not currently support the new Darwin software or disk format on these boxes.
You would need to seek out an image from a HD box prior to Darwin and restore that.

Can I upgrade as far as 2TB?
Yes, as long as your box has Darwin but the image you restore from does not (confusing I know).

Any recommendations for best drives to go for?
Same make and model family as in the DRX 890/5?

Will Copy+ work for me?
Not unless you have or can find a pre-Darwin image.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby scotal » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:03 pm

I have a pre-darwin image you can use. I've posted a link to it in other threads. If you can't find it let me know and i'll post a link here.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby phurren » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:46 pm

Thanks for the answers, this is all slowly making sense to me.

So, I now have...

Copy+ downloaded and the non-darwin image file downloaded.

Am I right in thinking that I use the non-darwin image file as my 'source file' in Copy+ and then my new big hard drive [which I haven't bought yet by the way!] as the 'destination drive'. Therefore I don't use the drive that is currently in the Sky+ box at all and therefore don't get to keep the recordings that are already on there?

Am I also right in thinking that by doing this I could upgrade to a 2TB box in this way and not lose any of that increased size? [what I mean is that it is worth me getting a 2TB hard drive and not a 1TB one].

This being the case, what is the benefit of using Copy+ ? Would I not be able to get the Sky+ box to format the 2TB box?

Sorry if these sound like simple questions, I'm still learning after having been a Tivo user for about a decade until it finally gave up the ghost before Christmas. My hard drive on that was huge and I loved it, so the standard size Sky+ box I've been allocated from Sky feels really small!

Thanks for your help,

Pete
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby scotal » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:13 pm

Hi, there is currently no way for you to get your old recordings from your old drive onto your new one because copy+ isn't yet compatible with the new sky software. It will be eventually but no timescale has been set so if you're in no rush and you really want to keep your recordings then your best bet is probably to hold off and keep an eye out on the copy+ website for a 'darwin' compatible update.

The reason for using copy+ to restore a blank pre Darwin image is because the box itself is not capable of formatting hard drives of that size (2TB) so the amount of useable disk space would be reduced considerably if you just stuck the drive straight in the box.

The way you mention to restore the image to your new drive is correct. It's very straightforward and lets you use the full capacity of your drive (minus space allocated for sky anytime automatically by the box).
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby phurren » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:37 pm

Thanks so much, it's great to be on a forum where people are so helpful!

Next step then is to buy a 2TB drive. This thread suggests that a Western Digital WD20EVDS 2TB would be a good way to go: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=856

Does that sound right?
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby phurren » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:40 pm

OK, just realised that the Western Digital drive is a 'Caviar Green' which I have seen that some people have had problems with. Would a Seagate PIpeline 2TB be the way to go?
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby scotal » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:02 pm

My 1TB drive is a caviar green and I've had no problems with it all. It seems to depend on your specific model of sky box as to which type of drive will work. You're probably wise to avoid the caviar green, although it worked with me, I was probably in the minority there. Having said that I think it's more the EARS model of caviar green is the one that has been giving most people problems whereas I believe the EVDS mentioned on that thread appear to be more suitable for this sort of application.

I can't really recommend a specific drive for your model of box although the Seagate pipeline does seem to be a very popular choice. Best place to look is in the HDD section of this forum where people will have commented on suitable drives for your box. Or other forums e.g. Avforums should be able to help you make sure that you buy the right type of drive.

Good luck :P
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby phurren » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:13 pm

Thanks scotal, you are a god-send. I now feel as secure as I'm going to feel in doing this, just got to make sure I buy a good drive!

Thanks again.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby scotal » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:20 pm

No worries, these forums helped me greatly so I'm happy to pass on what I've found out. I only upgraded my box a couple days ago so it's still fresh in the memory banks. If you have any problems just post on this thread and I'll help if I can.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby baseliner » Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:51 pm

Hi Scotal,

Would you be able to post me a link for a Pre Darwin Image (I didn't realise that the original 320 GB disk that I took out of my old Samsung HD would have been an ideal donor, for a new 1 TB disk I've just bought, until I put it in my Box to test something and of course it upgraded the disk to Darwin)
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby MrData » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:25 pm

If you search for this topic "Installing 1Tb HDD in Pace (Darwin) HD box" it has a link on one of the posts. Hope that helps. I haven't installed it myself, am waiting till the weekend when I will have more time.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby StevePritchard » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:29 pm

MrData wrote:If you search for this topic "Installing 1Tb HDD in Pace (Darwin) HD box" it has a link on one of the posts. Hope that helps. I haven't installed it myself, am waiting till the weekend when I will have more time.

I'm hoping to use that image to put a 1TB Seagate Pipeline in my new Amstrad DRX890 tomorrow, when the drive arrives. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Steve.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby StevePritchard » Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:16 pm

StevePritchard wrote:
MrData wrote:If you search for this topic "Installing 1Tb HDD in Pace (Darwin) HD box" it has a link on one of the posts. Hope that helps. I haven't installed it myself, am waiting till the weekend when I will have more time.

I'm hoping to use that image to put a 1TB Seagate Pipeline in my new Amstrad DRX890 tomorrow, when the drive arrives. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Steve.

It went like a dream. I put the 1TB drive in after pushing the pre-Darwin image onto it. When the SkyHD box was switched on I had to wait a little while, and then everything looked normal. It looks like it all worked ok, and 1 hour HD programmes are only reporting 1% usage requirements on the planner, so I think it has definitely taken the new disk size - I think I should now have 750Gb available, with 250Gb still reserved for Anytime.

Cheers,

Steve.
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Re: DRX 890-Z - upgrade suggestion

Postby johnyboynw » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:53 pm

Hey Guys, can anyone point me to a 1tb or 2tb Pre-Darwin image for the Amstrad DRX890 please. im having great difficulty finding one :cry:
I upgraded a old skybox and a friends skybox about 8/9 months ago using skycopy+ and it all worked fine and was easy.
I recently got a new skybox and had never heard of darwin until skycopy plus didn’t work and i started google'ing it.
My sky box is currently in several bits on the kitchen table and a swift reply would be appreciated, I have either a 1tb or 2tb drive i can place in there so either image would be fantastic (preferably 1tb image tho).

Thanks in advance for your time

A newbie sky box upgrader...
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