DCT6412 Hard Drive Upgrade? [Text View] - Page 2

Hoglard

06-03-11, 06:31 PM

Huh...maybe the DCT6412PIII has a different menu. Or maybe your firmware/software is a bit older. I seem to recall that the menu was the same when I traded my DCT6412PIII for my DCH3416.

Does your DCT6412 has HDMI? I've read that any Motorola cable box that has DVI instead of HDMI can not perform the 1 TB upgrade.

Anyways, here's what it looks like when you hit the Menu button on the DCH3416 (if anybody with a 6412 or 6416 sees the same thing, please chime in)

My DCT6412III has HDMI (no DVI).

Here is a link to reference info on Motorola cable boxes: http://www.motorola.com/Video-Solutions/US-EN/Products-and-Services/Video-Consumer-Premise-Equipment/Analog-Digital-Set-Tops/

This spec sheet here (http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Video-Solutions/_Documents/static%20files/DCT6400%20Data%20Sheet.pdf) gives impression that the only difference between DCT6416III and DCT6412III is the 120GB versus 160GB harddisk (look at the second page).

When I press Menu button (on either the remote or the set top box itself) I get this:

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd468/hoglard/DVR_4-Copy.jpg

....so I assume the difference in GUI appearance must be due to varying firmware versions (likely affected by cable provider customizations, as seen on the picture above).

Hoglard

06-03-11, 07:19 PM

TNO821

06-03-11, 07:25 PM

My DCT6412III has HDMI (no DVI).
Thanks for the info!

When I press Menu button (on either the remote or the set top box itself) I get this
Wow! Your menu looks nothing like mine. I didn't realize there could be so much variance among providers. Good to know.

TNO821

06-03-11, 07:30 PM

This is unrelated question but someone on this thread can know the answer:

The COX branded remote control which came with the DCT6412III DVR box has only Power Toggle IR command assigned to the physical "POWER" button. Does anybody know if this Motorola box supports discrete Power On and Power Off IR commands? This is needed if you run macros on a universal remote.

I don't know. I leave mine on 24/7 and have read that there is not much power savings to be had by putting the cable box into standby mode. (I've read that the 3416 and the DCX 3400 in particular dras no less power when in standby. But I think the 641x is better.

Hoglard

06-03-11, 08:26 PM

I don't know. I leave mine on 24/7 and have read that there is not much power savings to be had by putting the cable box into standby mode. (I've read that the 3416 and the DCX 3400 in particular dras no less power when in standby. But I think the 641x is better.

I leave mine on too. And so the macro on the universal remote does not send out power toggle command.

But that macro unfortunately has no means to realize that somebody physically pressed the power button last night. So the next time that someone wants to watch TV and presses the "Watch Cable TV" macro button and then complains the universal remote does not work :-( ...I hope you caught my drift...

It would also be desirable to power down the DVR box as it is my understanding the hard disk does not buffer signal from the two tuners for time-shifting purposes. Therefore no head movement, less hard disk wear, and little bit less power consumption should result...

TNO821

06-07-11, 11:51 PM

Hoglard

06-08-11, 11:36 AM

For anybody whose cable box refuses to record past 160 GB, there's information in this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1307355) thread. It seems like the problem can only be corrected by your cable company, probably through a guide update (rather than a firmware update).

Thanks for letting us know about this thread. I am with Cox, so it affects me too.

I went ahead and purchased WD10EVDS. I just need some time to image it, swap it with my WD15EARS and fill it up with recordings again. I should report back before the end of the week. We will see how it works with my old Cox firmware/software (we already established that WD10EVDS works).

DCTneo

06-08-11, 12:29 PM

Thanks for letting us know about this thread. I am with Cox, so it affects me too.

I went ahead and purchased WD10EVDS. I just need some time to image it, swap it with my WD15EARS and fill it up with recordings again. I should report back before the end of the week. We will see how it works with my old Cox firmware/software (we already established that WD10EVDS works).

FYI, my brother also applied the 1TB image on a WD15EARS drive and it seems to be working for him so far (his provider is Shaw Cable). I told him to try recording more than 40 hours HD content or 20% of the drive, he confirmed that all is working as expected and he is enjoying many times increased capacity on his PVR. So the ~160G drive usage limitation may be imposed by Cox cable. Hoglard, let us know if Cox lifts this limitation with a software update.

dan74

06-09-11, 10:48 PM

I've been away from the forum quite a while (busy, travelling etc.) and I just returned for the unfortunate fact that my AV receiver just broke down :( but what a nice surprise here! :) To quote TNO821: This. Is. AWESOME!!!!!!! You, guys, rock! :)

I'm so sorry I missed the moment it happened (thank you DCTneo for providing the much sought after image!) but man, I'm so glad it finally proved TNO821's hunch about eSATA formatting was correct! :)

Now I guess I just have to buy a 1TB drive & try it myself, although having to watch HD programming on an old 29" CRT TV instead of the big projector screen + surround sound while my receiver is out of service is no fun :(

Anyway, I will try to provide some answers to some of the questions I saw while I read the last few pages of this thread.

First the Advanced Format disks topic. The worst that can happen performance-wise when you use an AF disk with any kind of read/write operation that is not aligned to the 4k sectors on the AF disk is that a read-modify-write operation will actually be used instead of just a write operation (read operations are not a problem since 2 consecutive sectors are read into the buffer in one single go). This will *significantly* slow down the write operation as the disk has to complete an extra rotation at least.

However I don't think that would affect the DCT performance. If you are interested by the real-life impact the non-aligned writes may have: I tested 2 x 2GB F4 Samsungs on an old Pentium 4 running Linux and the best write throughput I managed to get (using 4kB-aligned write operations at the very beginning of the disks) was around 135 MB/s. The *worst* write throughput I managed to get (using non-aligned writes towards the end of the discs) was 22.3 MB/s. Now I did not actually do the math for the CATV HD bitrates (plus that mixing read and write operations would probably degrade the throughput even more) but I reckon 22 MB/s should be sufficient for recording 2 HD streams while also playing a 3rd HD stream (the most intensive thing I think you could ask a Motorola HD box to do in terms of HDD throughput). So I reckon you should be fine in terms of performance if you use Advanced Format disks (BTW, the Samsungs I tested are 5400rpm disks).

I also believe wear & tear is not an issue for drive longevity as any misaligned sectors are read or written in sequence anyway (the heads don't need to move more, just the discs may have to spin more, but they spin anyway all the time in a DCT so no extra harm inflicted here either). I can't see any increase in noise either since no extra head movement is required.

Capacity should not be an issue as long as your disk has at least the same number of 512-byte sectors (real or "emulated") as the image you're trying to write on it, but I'm not so sure about the geometry thingy - the disk may or may not work in a Motorola box after imaging is complete, depending on how the STB accesses it. Bad blocks remapping can indeed eat into the number of available sectors so that may be a real problem if you end up with too few available sectors.

Right, that was all about Advanced Format disks.

Regarding the electrical power used by a Motorola DCT box. This, from my own point of view really sucks :( I live in this country where 1 kWh of electricity costs just a tad more than 40 USD cents (!). I'm living alone and not using anything too power-hungry except the water heater for the washing machine and I still end up having to pay around 150 USD each month just for electricity! Now you can imagine I am looking for ways to turn greener and greener :) and cut down the cost of electricity. My first "suspect" was the DCT box, which stays really hot even while in "standby". So this weekend I used a P3 Kill a Watt to measure how much electricity the DCT3412 uses. Bad news - it uses around 32 W regardless of whether you're watching TV, recording anything or even putting it in standby! Exact figures are hard to get (the consumption is not fixed, it "wobbles" around certain values) but I'd say it uses around 31 W in standby, 32 W while watching TV and 33 W while recording (all of them with a Power Factor of 0.55 for anybody who's really into this kind of stuff :) ). So no, no power to be saved in standby. In fact I think this makes these deviced *illegal* in the state of California (at least). A real bummer if you ask me, as I have to pay the power company around 10 USD each month just for the Motorola box alone. I would have loved to have a real power-off button to turn it off for good when not in use (no way I can access the power cable behind the furniture for this), even if that meant having to wait for the program guide data to load again after each power on. But that's life.

Now, last thing - a small request. DCTneo, could you please also include things like drive rpm, cache size, geometry & capacity info in the post where you listed the drives that are proven to work? I reckon that would make life much easier for those who are looking to buy a "compatible" drive and are worried about different "batches" of the same manufacturer & model.

Great many thanks again to TNO821 for putting so much dedication into this and to DCTneo for the image! It feels so good - more space for everybodyyyyyy!!!! :)

Cheers!
Dan

DCTneo

06-10-11, 12:36 AM

Done. List of confirmed-to-work drives (including specs) updated as requested by dan74:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20482953&postcount=213

sandbagger

06-10-11, 07:21 AM

Just some more info about my drive/machine

WD10EALX drive
Comcast Detroit, S/W Ver 7853-A28po-4.1005.r-8
Platform 18.77
015.HA_C 18.77
TVGUIDE 78.53
SCVASTB 6.21
MACGINT 34.45

Sitargo

06-15-11, 12:55 PM

Hello to all. After two weeks of testing I can confirm of another successful hard drive upgrade, with a brand new WD10EVDS. My drive is now 60% full, with a lot of HD and SD recordings. I have a DCT3416, firmware version 16.74, and my cable company is Cablevision in Mexico City (the largest cable operator in Mexico). Thanks to all that made this possible, especially to DCTneo and TN0821 for the excelent tutorial.
Greetings from Mexico.

TNO821

06-15-11, 03:41 PM

I've been away from the forum quite a while (busy, travelling etc.) and I just returned for the unfortunate fact that my AV receiver just broke down :( but what a nice surprise here! :) To quote TNO821: This. Is. AWESOME!!!!!!! You, guys, rock! :)
Hey ya, Dan! Good to see you (er, I mean read you) :)

First the Advanced Format disks topic
...
Very good to know! Thanks for posting. I never thought that the reduced performance would be anywhere near enough to prevent the recording of 2 HD streams while playing back a 3rd, but I assumed that there would be extra wear-and-tear on the drive. It's good to know that there really isn't.

Regarding the electrical power used by a Motorola DCT box. This, from my own point of view really sucks
Yeah, that's what others have found about all of the Motorola STB's in the 341x range and newer. I'm 99% sure that I have read a post claiming the 641x STB's consume a lot less power when in standby, but I might be misremembering that.

Anyways, welcome back! And I hope your AVR woes get resolved quickly.

TNO821

06-15-11, 05:58 PM

I'm not liking the sound of that.

I wonder if you could double that (yeah, I know, 320GB is still not really exciting) by putting the original drive onto IDE1 and running them both. I suppose, though, that if it was as simple as all that, someone would have already done it a couple years ago. (Of course, it would have required *two* Moto-formatted drives, which weren't exactly easy to come by or to produce.)
IDE1 is only enabled if the cable company allows the use of external drives. I'm not aware of any cable company in the USA that allows external drives on Motorola DVR's.

For anybody that is with a cable company that does allow external drives, you should be able to get your DVR to format the external drive for you (and it could be up to 1 TB in size). However, I suppose if the firmware or guide software were old, it might not be able to format up to 1 TB in size...it could maybe be limited to 160 GB. But that would get you up to 320 GB (the 160 GB internal drive plus the 160 GB external drive).

Hoglard

06-22-11, 08:59 PM

Thanks for letting us know about this thread. I am with Cox, so it affects me too.

I went ahead and purchased WD10EVDS. I just need some time to image it, swap it with my WD15EARS and fill it up with recordings again. I should report back before the end of the week. We will see how it works with my old Cox firmware/software (we already established that WD10EVDS works).

OK, I am confirming the bad news that my Motorola DVR box with Cox software is NOT utilizing the full hard disk space available. The usage has stabilized now and diagnostic screen on the box shows about 840GB of free space, while DVR content takes about 140GB (the rest is for the system, file system, and DVR index).

Until Cox Communications fix their "Cox customized" DVR software, we do not get to benefit from any hard drive bigger than 160GB.:mad:

TNO821

08-07-11, 03:28 PM

Just FYI: I've read that with the Motorola DCX cable boxes, you can simply swap in a larger hard drive (I think there's still a 1 TB limit) and it will automatically format and use all of the space. So for a DCX cable DVR there's no need to waste time imaging the drive.

That said, I think it's a bad idea to use a DCX cable box, due to their numerous problems that don't occur on the DCH or DCT cable set top boxes. (broken FireWire and the "black screen recording" problems in particular).

I've updated the main post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20396028&postcount=201) with this info as well as the info about needing to set SATA 6 Gb/s hard drives to 3 Gb/s mode.

dan74

08-07-11, 05:40 PM

After what seemed like an eternity :D I got my receiver fixed and I also bought a bigger disk for my DCT (WD10EVDS). I wrote the GPFS image to it, I replaced the old disk in my DVR (120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7) and I've been recording for almost a week now :) HD shows to make sure I can use the entire capacity. Good news - it works as expected! I'm a happier bunny! :)

FYI - once I installed the new (imaged) disk my DCT3412 reported 971,316,920,320 bytes "remaining capacity". After recording some 120 HD shows (around 18 pages in "recorded shows" menu! :) ) it now reports "99% full" and 968,422,158,336 bytes used for "DVR content". So everything works great :)

On top of that I am very impressed by how quiet and fast the WD10EVDS is - it really is "silky smooth". FFWD and RWD are much quicker, smoother and quieter. I'd say the 10 bucks more for the special DVR firmware is worth it.

For reference: my own Motorola DCT3412I box (platform version 16.79, application version Echo_DCT 35.72), provisioned and operating on Flow Jamaica (Columbus Networks USA), WD10EVDS 1TB HDD, MotoSTB_1TB.bz2 image (thanks again DCTNeo for providing the initial much sought-after image! And thanks TNO821 for putting it in the convenient dd+bzip2 format).

Now I only wish my DVR had an "erase all recorded content" menu item :))

Cheers!
Dan

TNO821

08-07-11, 06:34 PM

Now I only wish my DVR had an "erase all recorded content" menu item :))
Yeah, I second that request! Mass deleting recordings sucks pretty bad on Motorola cable box DVR's.

Depending on your software and guide version, you may have a "Manage My DVR" menu with "DVR Cleanup" as an option. It presents all of your recordings with checkboxes that you can mark...after marking all that you want to delete, you select the Delete button and they all get wiped out. It's not super-fast, but it sure beats deleting them one-by-one where you're asked to confirm each deletion (it probably cuts down the clicking by 75%). But it sure would be nice to be able to delete everything all at once (without reformatting and losing all customized settings/series recordings, etc).

Anyways, I'm happy to hear that the larger hard drive is working out for you!

dan74

08-07-11, 06:43 PM

No "Manage My DVR" or "DVR Cleanup" menu on my box, but it's OK, I've already deleted everything - not so bad after all. I don't expect I'll have any need for "mass deletion" going forward, anyway. I guess they didn't see us installing 1TB drives :))

jimichunga

08-27-11, 02:55 AM

Does anyone have a link for the 1TB Motorola DCT3412 image?

TNO821

08-27-11, 04:06 AM

Does anyone have a link for the 1TB Motorola DCT3412 image?

It's the same image as the 6412. There's only one 1 TB image, and it works for all of the DCT and DCH DVR's.

jimichunga

08-27-11, 03:17 PM

It's the same image as the 6412. There's only one 1 TB image, and it works for all of the DCT and DCH DVR's.

Word, I'm dumb and missed this post - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20396028&postcount=201

Thanks!!

jimichunga

09-02-11, 02:32 AM

Hells yes! Working like a charm!!!!

TAHNKX GUISE!!!

TNO821

09-02-11, 03:35 AM

Hells yes! Working like a charm!!!!

TAHNKX GUISE!!!
Awesome! Enjoy!

terraphantm

09-20-11, 03:12 AM

Hi, I'm planning on doing this upgrade soon on my DCH3416... Does anyone know if there are any software variants besides the one installed on Cox boxes that causes the device to only use 160GB? I'm somewhat concerned because the software on my cable box is rather old. My menu looks a lot like the image posted above (except it has my cable provider's logo), and the software installed on my box is ancient (18.46 - August 2008 build). Here are some pics:

http://i.imgur.com/gkjubl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/U4TLPl.jpg

Also if anyone has one of those plastic security tabs to sell, I'd gladly buy one off you. Don't really want to order 5

Alexander63

09-20-11, 07:44 AM

Hi Terraphantum. I recently upgraded a DCH3416 with the WD10EARS. The security tabs cost $34 with shipping, which seems a bit much for a little piece of plastic. PM me and I'll help you out. I was concerned about buying the 4.5 mm tool because a 4.5 mm socket is way too big; however, the 4.5 mm gamebit is just the right size. Also, the Unix command line gave a file or folder not found error for MotoSTB_1TB.bz2 so I renamed the file something simpler and it worked. Probably my error somehow but as long as I stared at the command line, I could not see what was wrong. My computer didn't have a spare SATA connector so I swapped with the existing HD since I was booting off the Unix CD anyway. Lost the guide when I unplugged, of course, but also lost programmed shows and series. Favorite lists and saved searches survived. I'm using a bit less than 1 percent per hour of HD. Speed of all functions unchanged. Can't hear the drive. Thanks TNO821--great job!

chris_h2

09-24-11, 12:10 AM

TNO821

09-24-11, 10:46 AM

Hi, I'm planning on doing this upgrade soon on my DCH3416... Does anyone know if there are any software variants besides the one installed on Cox boxes that causes the device to only use 160GB? I'm somewhat concerned because the software on my cable box is rather old.
I'm not aware of any other systems besides Cox that can't use more than 160 GB of DVR space. With your software being so old, it's a distinct possibility. But one way to look at it is, even if it does only use 160 GB, the newer hard drive will be quieter and run cooler :)

TNO821

09-24-11, 10:56 AM

Lost the guide when I unplugged, of course, but also lost programmed shows and series. Favorite lists and saved searches survived. I'm using a bit less than 1 percent per hour of HD. Speed of all functions unchanged. Can't hear the drive. Thanks TNO821--great job!
Yeah, I was noticing the same thing regarding the Saved Searches (I've never used Favorites Lists, so thanks for letting me know it behaves the same way).

My first assumption was that Saved Searches were being stored on a server at the cable company, which struck me as pretty cool b/c you could swap out the DVR and still retain those searches. But alas, it's not nearly that cool...they're simply storing it in flash memory instead of storing it on the hard drive. I found this out the hard way a few months ago when I exchanged my DVR for another.

TNO821

09-24-11, 10:58 AM

I just wanted folks to know that I found the 4.5 mm tool and a anti-tamper tab on ebay for US$10.49, with free shipping from a seller in canada.

Combo - Security Bit & Plastic Anti-Tamper Tab DCT6416

seller: freehdtv2010
That's a really good deal!

terraphantm

09-25-11, 12:49 PM

I'm not aware of any other systems besides Cox that can't use more than 160 GB of DVR space. With your software being so old, it's a distinct possibility. But one way to look at it is, even if it does only use 160 GB, the newer hard drive will be quieter and run cooler :)

Haha that's true - at ~$60 for the drive it's not really a big deal. At worst I'll just stick it in my PC and have another TB to play with. Currently formatting the drive and will stick it in the cable box soon. Guess I'll just record a bunch of things over the next few days to see if it gets past the 160GB point.

Edit: thanks for the tip on the anti tamper piece + screwdriver combo. I don't really need the screwdriver, but $10 shipped beats $35 shipped!

TNO821

09-25-11, 02:23 PM

Currently formatting the drive and will stick it in the cable box soon. Guess I'll just record a bunch of things over the next few days to see if it gets past the 160GB point.
Let us know how it works out.

Edit: thanks for the tip on the anti tamper piece + screwdriver combo. I don't really need the screwdriver, but $10 shipped beats $35 shipped!
It is a good deal, but don't credit me for finding it. That was chris_h2 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?u=7460472)'s find.

terraphantm

09-25-11, 10:05 PM

Well I got the drive installed and so far it's working fine - performance is much better (especially FF and rewind). I do have one concern though; diagnostic does show about 900GB free, but page 2 indicates that "total size" is 160GB. Not really sure what to make of that

http://img.imgur.com/0E6XB.jpg

http://img.imgur.com/krGBQ.jpg

I do have a ton of HD recordings scheduled, but it might still take some time to get to the 160GB point.

FWIW - As you can see the drive I installed is the WD10EALX. It's 1TB, 32MB Cache, and 7200RPM. It's a SataIII drive, so I put the jumper to limit it to SATAII. When I was testing it in my PC it was extremely fast... 120-150MB/s writes! Drive that was originally in the cable box was a WD1600AAJS (I think it's a 160GB/8MB Cache/7200RPM drive)

TNO821

09-26-11, 02:58 AM

Well I got the drive installed and so far it's working fine - performance is much better (especially FF and rewind). I do have one concern though; diagnostic does show about 900GB free, but page 2 indicates that "total size" is 160GB. Not really sure what to make of that.

Yeah, that's new to me. I don't know what to expect...page 1 was certainly showing that you have well over 800 GB of remaining recording space, but that anomaly on page 2 is strange. It is possible that the thing will simply stop recording when it hits 160 GB.

Keep continuously recording HD content on both tuners (just record crap you'll never watch, such as infomercials overnight) and it should not take long to get up to (or past) 160 GB of recordings.

Come back to that diagnostic screen and do the math to see when you've exceeded 160 GB. If you manage to get past it, I would expect it to let you go all the way to 1 TB.

Hoglard

09-26-11, 04:00 PM

terraphantm

09-26-11, 07:13 PM

Yeah, that's new to me. I don't know what to expect...page 1 was certainly showing that you have well over 800 GB of remaining recording space, but that anomaly on page 2 is strange. It is possible that the thing will simply stop recording when it hits 160 GB.

Keep continuously recording HD content on both tuners (just record crap you'll never watch, such as infomercials overnight) and it should not take long to get up to (or past) 160 GB of recordings.

Come back to that diagnostic screen and do the math to see when you've exceeded 160 GB. If you manage to get past it, I would expect it to let you go all the way to 1 TB.

Well I got past 160GB and it's still going, so I guess everything is working. Don't know why it says 160GB, but as long as it doesn't effect anything I won't complain.

http://i.imgur.com/OI8cS.jpg

Just want to thank everyone who made this possible, finally getting some real use out of this DVR

TNO821

09-26-11, 07:18 PM

Well I got past 160GB and it's still going, so I guess everything is working. Don't know why it says 160GB, but as long as it doesn't effect anything I won't complain.
Very nice! Looks like you've already recorded 194 GB of stuff, so I think you should be fine. Let us know if it lets you record the full 1 TB.

DCTneo

09-26-11, 10:50 PM

Updated list of all those with confirmed successful drive upgrades in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20494374#post20494374

Flacido

10-19-11, 02:28 PM

Adding to the list of working 1TB internal drives for the 6416 Phase III (F/W 16.76):

Seagate Pipeline HD .2, model ST31000322CS. This is a Seagate DVR drive and was initially used for a year or so as a 160GB format. I've also run a 500GB version (ST3500312CS) as a 160GB format daily driver.

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS-98M2B2 and WD10EADX-00T. The model number listed on the retail box for both of these 5400 RPM drives is WDBAAY0010HNC-NRSN. They are not Advanced Format drives. The EADS is the one that is currently installed in the 6416 and it appears to be functioning as it should (52% full). I've not seen any issues arise from recording two HD channels at the same time.

The local cable company does support external hard drives (hence formatting) for the 6416 but the whole hair-pully thing was going to result in baldness if I continued to speak with Customer Service so I moved on to the MotoSTB_1TB image method for all three of the above drives (thanks for posting that up TN0821).

I used G4L (Ghost for Linux) in the RAW mode (local disk) to clone the contents of the larger Seagate (@ 160GB) and the clone works as it should. It did occur to me to have a go at moving the original Seagate contents over to one of the formatted (image) 1 TB WD drives then try extending what is the 'DVR Contents' partition but I'll skip the details and simply say that I hit a bit of a wall on that. Leaves me pining for the earlier firmware [pre Oct/Nov 2010] Scientific Atlanta box that magically did all of this for you.

TNO821

10-20-11, 01:04 AM

I used G4L (Ghost for Linux) in the RAW mode to clone the contents of the larger Seagate (@ 160GB) to the smaller one and the clone works as it should.
Interesting...I'm surprised that G4L was able to copy from the larger drive to the smaller, as I am fairly positive it can't read the GPFS file system. Did the raw mode copy just copy any data on the drive (and maybe the rest had been zeroed out and was therefore ignored)?

It did occur to me to have a go at moving the original Seagate contents over to one of the formatted (image) 1 TB WD drives then try extending what is the 'DVR Contents' partition but I'll skip the details and simply say that I hit a bit of a wall on that.
Were you able to even see the partitions (even just their volume labels)? I'd actually love to hear the details. I've had zero success reading the GPFS file system, so any info you could share may prove useful.

I've read that the GUID identifiers for the file system were altered by Motorola in order to make things even trickier, so that may have impacted you.

But I'm glad that the whole thing worked out for you. And thanks for the info on the hard drive models!

Flacido

10-21-11, 06:22 PM

The wall I referred to is partially a bit of a PC hardware issue, specifically, the PCI SATA II RAID card. In some instances the target drive appeared to be treated as a logical drive and this was messing with things. G4L didn't seem to mind it so much, at least for straight ahead cloning.

Based on what I have read about the Motorola 64** over the years (and no doubt a lot of it forgotten), the hard drive is set up with two partitions, the one containing the recorded content being encrypted, the other not. That said, below is one example of what G4L “saw” with a source drive and a target drive in the cage. From my sparse, scribbled notes (hopefully with no transcription errors) we have:

( ) sda ____488386584 – DISK

( ) sda1 _____2929685 -- DISK

( ) sda2 ___ 151123047 – DISK

( ) sdb ____976762584 – DISK

( ) sdb1 _____3906250 – DISK

( ) sdb2 ____95846092 – DISK

I could select a whole disk, say, sda; or either sda1 or sda2, but not both sda1 and sda2 at the same time. Selecting the whole disk leaves one with another 160GB format on the target disk; yes, a perfectly working clone but not what I set out to do.

I did run a partitioning program that was on the Parted Magic disc whilst the drives were connected, just to see what it would see, and what came out of that for one of the WD 1TB drives with the MotoSTB image was /dev/sda (931.51 GiB) Partition: unallocated | File System: unallocated } Size: 931.51 GiB. Ditto for the 500GB Seagate loaded with content (just a different size). I believe that this program does not officially support GPFS.

Up until your comment about Motorola messing with the GUID identifiers, my main concern in all of this was that the 6416 firmware was going to interfere with the grand plan. At all events, I've got one more iron in the fire (after I straighten out the RAID card) so I won't give up just yet.

I'm going to edit my earlier post and remove the part about the larger to smaller clone (local disk to local disk). I'll report back once I'm able to confirm if the 500GB Seagate is the one that holds the 160GB clone and that I didn't lose track in the shell game of four drives, multiple formats and two cloning sessions. Please be patient, it will be a few weeks before I can get to it. Suffice it to say for now that G4L will make a perfect working clone of a 64** hard drive using the RAW mode (for unsupported file types).

TNO821

10-22-11, 01:03 AM

I'll report back once I'm able to confirm if the 500GB Seagate is the one that holds the 160GB clone and that I didn't lose track in the shell game of four drives, multiple formats and two cloning sessions. Please be patient, it will be a few weeks before I can get to it. Suffice it to say for now that G4L will make a perfect working clone of a 64** hard drive using the RAW mode (for unsupported file types).

Awesome! That'll be great to see what we can figure out. Ideally I'd like to get my hands on a IBM GPFS driver for either Linux or Windows (I know that there is one for Windows Server 2003, but getting it could be beyond difficult). And then I'd like to use a hex editor to change the modified partition GUID's to the normal IBM GPFS partition GUID (which is {37AFFC90-EF7D-4E96-91C3-2D7AE055B174}, according to Wikipedia) and see if the contents of the drive can be read.

We still wouldn't be able to grab shows off of the drive (becase they are doubtless encrypted and can only be played back on the DVR that recorded them) but we may be able to expand the partition size. Frankly I think it'd be pretty cool just to be able to see the files.

DCTneo

10-22-11, 09:05 PM

So is the objective to go beyond 1TB storage in the Motorola DVR unit? That would be nearly mind-boggling, but in a good kind of way. One of my upgraded 1TB DVR units are 57% full, including 53 hours of Sesame Street episodes (which my daughter loves) in HD. I also have a few series recordings that I intend to catch up on during the colder months. Admittedly, my wife is a much more frequent TV watcher than I am but I like to geek out and improve on most things mechanical or electronic.

Flacido, I understand much of your earlier post but am not sure what to add (if anything) to the summary of confirmed working drive setups that I have referenced above. If you have anything I should append to the post just let me know.

TNO821

10-23-11, 11:50 PM

So is the objective to go beyond 1TB storage in the Motorola DVR unit?
Well...eventually. But there are a number of difficult problems to resolve first, so I'm not getting my hopes up that we'll be able to get past the 1 TB barrier.

For now I just want to see what we can learn about the IBM GPFS file system. I haven't even been able to read anything from it, not even partition names, etc.

tricky91

10-28-11, 12:30 PM

I have a Motorola 6412, I've been following this thread for a few weeks now, so I'm very much a newbie to this. I've been working on installing a 1TB hard drive on to my DVR. Each time I ran the process using the Parted Magic OS, my DVR would only allocate approximately 29GB, less than the factory allocated 120GB. Anything you can suggest to get this working for me? I am using a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 3.5mbps, 7200rpm drive. Thanks in advance.

TNO821

10-28-11, 06:02 PM

whetstone1

10-31-11, 10:53 PM

TNO821

10-31-11, 11:46 PM

Well, I have acquired a HDD and gamebit and am a'gonna attempt the upgrade. Wish me luck.

My equipment is:
WD15EVDS (the closest thing I could find to the oft-successful WD10EARS)
DCH-6416 with firmware version 18.87 running guide software 78.44 - A28p-2.0908.r-4 from Charter cable.

I'm kinda concerned because this thread reports two failures and only one success with someone getting a working TB out of a 1.5TB drive; no attempts with a DCH-64xx, and no attempts with Charter STBs.

Before I start cracking open the case, does anyone see any reason for me not to proceed?
I see no reason that it shouldn't work. Also, keep in mind that these forums typically feature mostly complaints. Based on the download numbers, I have a strong feeling that there are quite a few silent success stories out there.

And also remember that you must turn off the 6 GB/sec feature...the drive needs to run in 3 Gb/s. So if the drive is capable of SATA 6 Gb/s, you'll need to change the jumpers to put it into the 3 Gb/s mode.

whetstone1

11-01-11, 02:41 AM

Keep in mind that you must turn off the 6 GB/sec feature...the drive needs to run in 3 Gb/s. So if the drive is capable of SATA 6 Gb/s, you'll need to change the jumpers to put it into the 3 Gb/s mode.

I believe the EDVS does transfer at 3 Gb/s; it's the EALX that needs to be throttled back.

DCTneo

11-16-11, 05:34 PM

Ouch, with the shortage of hard drives lately the prices have gotten insane in short order. I've got a couple of 160GB drives from my DCT6416 DVRs available that I can sell reasonably for anyone that wants a quick and simple upgrade for their 6412 (33% more capacity and no formatting or connecting to a PC needed).

tluxon

11-22-11, 04:50 PM

I just stumbled across this thread and am greatly intrigued.

One of the reasons I got into TiVo a few years back was because of how easy it was to upgrade the recording capacity and the ease of transferring videos on and off of it. About the only reason I've held onto our Comcast DVRs (DCT3416 and DCH3416) is for overflow recording (when the four TiVo tuners are busy), but it's always annoyed me how quickly the drive fills up. I'm lucky if I can get 4 football games on the 160GB capacity and there are sometimes 10 or 15 I'd like to see at least some parts of. I end up setting a bunch of 1-hour manual recordings just so I can delete portions I no longer need right away.

At first glance, it looks like upgrading the drives on these DVRs is just as easy as it is with a TiVo. If so, does it put our contract with Comcast at any risk? And what are the precautions we need to take when pursuing the upgrade? Since TiVo knows about our increased TiVo capacities (but doesn't say anything to us about it), I assume the cableco's home office also knows about your increased capacities. Have any of you had any confrontations/communications from them regarding this?

Alexander63

11-23-11, 02:27 PM

TNO821

11-24-11, 12:50 PM

Tluxon: The technician Comcast sent out to add Voice to our cable service suggested installing a 1 TB drive in the DVR. He said it was pretty easy and I could get directions on the internet. That doesn't mean it is Comcast policy to encourage this, but I think it unlikely that Comcast is doing anything about it at present. As easy as the directions are to follow for us geeks, I think few people would attempt it. What does it hurt if a few folks increase their storage capacity on their own nickle? By the way, I've got a quantity of material saved that would have choked the old drive, but the new one is less than 20% full.
Wow, that's funny...I didn't realize the technicians themselves were nudging people to do this :)

Of course, the official policy is that you are not allowed to open the DVR...they can charge you something like $250 (read the fine print in your agreement). I've never heard of that happening, but it could. This is why my directions include buying replacement security tabs.

The boxes do not include intrusion protection (not cost effective), so the cable company doesn't know you opened it. And I've been told that their software does not have a way to get the size of your hard drive (but that certainly could be changed if they wanted to...I really doubt it's a priority).

The reason the cable companies don't want you opening the DVR is because you potentially could damage it. As long as you're careful and return it in the same condition that you received it, they'll be perfectly happy.

dickintw

12-06-11, 12:33 PM

Hi All,

I just wanted folks to know that I found the 4.5 mm tool and a anti-tamper tab on ebay for US$10.49, with free shipping from a seller in canada. From the ad:

Combo - Security Bit & Plastic Anti-Tamper Tab DCT6416
This is your standard security tab & 4.5mm security bit for Motorola Cable Receivers. Compatible with Motorola DCT5100, DCT6200, DCT6208, DCT6412, DCT6416, DCT3412, DCT3416, DCH6200, DCH6416, DCH3200, DCH3416, DCX3400 and many more.

seller: freehdtv2010

I have no affiliation with this seller and have never used them.

I already have the tool and am going to try to get the tab from another user here, but I thought this might be good info for others in the future.

Chris

I ordered this 4.5 mm tool and anti-tamper tab kit from this seller on ebay and am very happy to report that I got it in about a week, for the price mentioned, and the tool bit is excellent quality solid metal. I'm going to try the HD upgrade this weekend. Thanks to everyone here who figured out how to do it.

terraphantm

12-07-11, 01:49 AM

I just wanted to update this thread. I finally reached recorded the full 1TB on my DVR and everything is still functioning as it should.

I did recently get another DCH3416, and was thinking about upgrading the HDD in there, but the Thailand floods just make it too expensive a venture now. If by any chance someone has a working image for a 500GB or 640GB HDD, I'd be really grateful (I have spares in both those sizes)

sldxstyle

12-14-11, 03:16 PM

I'm about to do the upgrade myself on a Motorola dch3416 (Comcast, Bay Area)

WD hard drives are so pricey now. Anyone successfully install this on a 500gb or smaller than 1TB hard drive? I saw an eBay seller selling a 500gb drive with the image installed.

TNO821

12-14-11, 07:54 PM

WD hard drives are so pricey now. Anyone successfully install this on a 500gb or smaller than 1TB hard drive? I saw an eBay seller selling a 500gb drive with the image installed.

No. The image needs to be restored on a drive that is at least 1 TB in size (or very, very close to 1 TB, minimum).

Somebody in Canada (where eSATA external hard drives are supported), or in South America would need to hook a 500 GB hard drive to the eSATA port and then create an image from the drive.

sldxstyle

01-02-12, 05:01 PM

Thanks TN0821!

For all the WD10EARS users, you guys have no jumpers installed on the hard drive right?

DCTneo

01-02-12, 10:01 PM

For all the WD10EARS users, you guys have no jumpers installed on the hard drive right?

That's correct, the as-shipped default jumper settings seemed to work fine for me.

Grazzhopr

01-05-12, 10:44 PM

DCTneo

01-06-12, 07:14 AM

Did you make the 1TB image? Any change of a 500gig image being created in the future? (no pressure, just asking') I have a perfectly good 500 gig drive that will have no purpose if I go and buy a 1TB drive.

After writing all zeroes to the drive, I formatted a WD10EARS drive externally using my brother's DVR. It was a DCT3416 on Shaw Cable I believe. I then created the initial drive image and shared it with TNO821. There is not likely to be a 500GB image created in the future, unless by somebody else.

TNO821

01-09-12, 11:58 PM

^ yeah, I don't see a 500 GB image (or 750 GB, or 320 GB, or 250 GB) as being likely. It's a lot of effort for someone in one of the few places that allow for the use of external drives.

detekinc

01-23-12, 03:12 PM

Has anyone been able to install the 1TB drive in a DCH3416 DVR from Cox and have it recognize the larger drive? I saw one user that could not get the DVR from Cox to recognize anything over the original 160gb and one with older software that was able to get it to recognize over 160gb. I just moved and started with Cox this weekend and had no idea the DVR was only 160gb, really makes no sense in today's world with HD, can't get many shows recorded with only 160gb.

TIA

Mike

TNO821

01-23-12, 04:33 PM

^as far as I know, no. It's up to Cox to install a newer version of the software that can handle larger hard drives :(

detekinc

01-24-12, 09:16 AM

Thanks. The only other option I can find with Cox is to go with their Whole Home DVR which costs extra but does have a 500gb hard drive, really frustrated at this point and thinking about moving to DISH or Direct, at least they offer DVRs with larger drives.

majiktrix9

02-04-12, 02:28 AM

DCTneo

02-04-12, 10:39 AM

so i just installed a 1TB WD10ealx into my motorola dct3416. i literally just took out old 160 drive and replaced it with new one. it immediately worked with zero programming etc. now that im in diag menu, it shows my HD, clearly identifies it as 1000GB WD10ealx. in "record capacity remaining" it shows 141GB

some of the other info on used space of HD....
System 242688 B
GPFS 1692672 B
DVR content 13 GB
dvr index 23631872 B

what do i need to do to assure i have as much available space as possible? is this a situation where i need to set the jumper between 5-6? im smart enough to be confident on a project like this, however im just shy of fully understanding all the menu/HD config etc.

can anyone help please?

My DVRs don't have a WD10EALX so I can't speak firsthand about the jumper setting, only that others have said that the jumper on pins 5/6 was necessary to work properly. The DVR will automatically format a new / blank hard drive to maximum 160GB capacity. If you want the full 1000GB of recording capacity for your drive you will have to format it using a PC as per the instructions from TNO821. It takes a bit of applied knowledge and borrowed computer hardware initially but worth having 6x more recording capacity. My daughter has 70+ hours of Sesame Street in HD! My wife really enjoys TV and records many programs to watch later and delete afterwards. I tend to record shows (and series) that interest me but may not watch them for several months. We have not filled up our upgraded DVRs yet. A worthwhile upgrade!

TNO821

02-04-12, 02:14 PM

Thanks. The only other option I can find with Cox is to go with their Whole Home DVR which costs extra but does have a 500gb hard drive.
Not a bad idea. That would be a DCX box that you could then upgrade to a 1 TB hard drive (The DCX uses different, newer software that natively supports up to a 1 TB internal hard drive...you could pop in a blank 1 TB drive and it would format it automatically to 1 TB without even needing to follow my DCT/DCH upgrade directions).

BTW, the software used by the DCX is quite different from the DCT/DCH boxes and can't be used on the older boxes (in case you were wondering why Cox doesn't just copy over the same software that they use for the Whole-Home DVR). It seems that Cox may have decided not to spend the money/time/effort to update the software on the ageing DCH and DCT boxes. They may just eventually swap all of those out for the DCX boxes which already support up to a 1 TB hard drive.

TNO821

02-04-12, 02:28 PM

so i just installed a 1TB WD10ealx into my motorola dct3416. i literally just took out old 160 drive and replaced it with new one. it immediately worked with zero programming etc. now that im in diag menu, it shows my HD, clearly identifies it as 1000GB WD10ealx. in "record capacity remaining" it shows 141GB

some of the other info on used space of HD....
System 242688 B
GPFS 1692672 B
DVR content 13 GB
dvr index 23631872 B

what do i need to do to assure i have as much available space as possible? is this a situation where i need to set the jumper between 5-6? im smart enough to be confident on a project like this, however im just shy of fully understanding all the menu/HD config etc.

can anyone help please?

Ummm...did you read my insanely documented, screenshot-filled Motorola DVR 1 TB HDD upgrade guide (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20396028&postcount=201)?

It sounds to me like you just popped in a unformatted 1 TB HDD and are now surprised to see that it only has < 160 GB of space that it can use. That's expected, as Motorola DCT and DCH DVR's are hard-coded to format the internal Hard Disk Drive to a maximum size of 160 GB. The good news is that, because your DVR is already making use of this drive, it proves that your jumper settings are proper.

Now, if you pop an unformatted 1 TB hard drive into a Motorola DCX DVR, it will proceed to automatically format it (up to a maximum of 1 TB in size...I believe it won't even try to format any hard drive larger than 1 TB). But then you're stuck using a DCX box, which sucks balls (flaky software on the DCX is notorious for missing recordings and sometimes recording a black screen instead of your shows, etc...giant...bag...of...hurt).

Anyways, read the guide. Do what it says. Enjoy ~1 TB of recording space.

jeremyhelling

02-05-12, 02:06 PM

Wait a minute here, if I have a DCX series receiver w/Comcrap I can simply install a 1TB HDD into it and it will format & recognize the entire (or nearly) size? I've been following this thread since we had the older boxes and we've had the new boxes since they first came out a couple years ago and I guess I never guessed the process was different. I have a 1TB Seagate that I could throw into one of these pretty quick if that's the case. In fact I had several but sold them off because I didn't have a use for them. I'm going to be even more upset if I find out I've had those HDDs sitting on a desk in my office and have been fighting full DVRs and shows/movies getting deleted as a result and the fix was already in my possession. So, is this the case? Open that puppy up, swap drives and then close & boot it up and let it format? Bam, instant 1TB of storage?? If this is the case can I also then take the old drive and copy the recordings to a PC drive and place them in the same folder of the 1TB drive to be able to keep all my currently recorded shows?

Thanks for the help!

TNO821

02-05-12, 09:43 PM

TNO821

02-05-12, 09:45 PM

^^ No, it is not possible to pull shows off of the hard drive :(. They are protected.

The file system is quite specialized. No tools exist to manipulate it (IBM GPFS).

jeremyhelling

02-05-12, 09:48 PM

^ Yeah, the DCX boxes should automatically format 1 TB hard drives to their full size.

Drives larger than 1 TB will not auto-format at all (I think). You'd need to follow my guide in order to set up 1 TB of recording space on a drive larger than 1 TB.

Thanks for the response. I'm tempted to try this but do you know about my question on copying over already existing files once it's installed? I know it would be a lot of installing and removing of drives back and forth to make happen but is it even possible? Also, will it retain my series recording settings? If I can copy those over and it does retain my series recording settings for sure I can pop open one of my receivers to try right now while we're watching the other one. If not then I will wait until tomorrow so I can get all my series info jotted down and try to figure out what I'm going to do with programming. I should be able to copy files from the same folders between HDD's but am worried about DRM type issues. I'm not sure if it saves your series and other settings to the HDD or onboard memory though.

Anyone know on these?

jeremyhelling

02-05-12, 09:50 PM

^^ No, it is not possible to pull shows off of the hard drive :(. They are protected.

The file system is quite specialized. No tools exist to manipulate it (IBM GPFS).

Ahh... there's my answer. Nuts! That will make things a little more tedious than I had hoped but I am still excited by the idea of being able to expand my storage space so easily and now it's just a matter of watching shows. I guess for all it's ease there has to be some sort of downside otherwise everyone would do it, right? :D

There's a couple of HD movies and such from when we had free HBO/Cinemax that I'm going to miss unfortunately. I wish I had known about this whenever we got these receivers a loooong time ago and I would have done it first thing since I had a few of these drives laying around at the time too.

TNO821

02-06-12, 01:47 AM

will it retain my series recording settings?
No, the Series Recordings are stored on the hard drive. So if you swap in another hard drive, you'll need to reprogram all the series recordings. I have noticed that it appears Comcast is storing the Auto-record search info on internal non-volatile memory (not on the hard drive), so you may not need to reprogram the auto-record search stuff (if your cable company has that feature).

When I swap hard drives in my DVR I must reprogram all the Series Recordings, but I don't have to reprogram the Auto-record search stuff. I initially thought that Comcast might be storing the Auto-record search stuff on their servers, but then I swapped out my DVR and had to reprogram everything, so it probably is stored in flash memory or something...

jeremyhelling

02-07-12, 01:04 PM

No, the Series Recordings are stored on the hard drive. So if you swap in another hard drive, you'll need to reprogram all the series recordings. I have noticed that it appears Comcast is storing the Auto-record search info on internal non-volatile memory (not on the hard drive), so you may not need to reprogram the auto-record search stuff (if your cable company has that feature).

When I swap hard drives in my DVR I must reprogram all the Series Recordings, but I don't have to reprogram the Auto-record search stuff. I initially thought that Comcast might be storing the Auto-record search stuff on their servers, but then I swapped out my DVR and had to reprogram everything, so it probably is stored in flash memory or something...

Thanks for the information. I was set to swap in my 1TB drive this morning until I realized there's special screws and a security tab. I just need to source the special bits and some security tabs and I'll make the swap.

marc86

02-08-12, 08:23 PM

Hi all, proud to say this is my first electronic hack on this level of naughty also first post on AVS. I have purchased a HDD from ebay used but recently rma'd (MDL: WD10EVDS) aswell as 4.5mm gamebit and plastic anti-tamper tab and preped to go BUUUUUT am stuck on number 4 and 5 of the "Upgrading a Motorola cable box DVR to a 1TB hard drive" GUIDE. BTW I am performing the upgrade on a DCT6412/2305 phase 3 comcast. Is anyone having trouble downloading and copying the 1TB image from bitzipper? It may be that I am misunderstanding the procedure. What I am doing is once I am at the sendspace website and click on the download link, with my flash drive attached to my comp using firefox I option to download to the drive. If this is correct than how should this work because the file now on the flash drive is a bitzipper file and do not understand how this file will be accessed by a hdd without the bitzipper program (will this extraction be accomplished by the command bzip -d -c -f /media...etc?). Also have tried dragging and dropping the file into my flash drive but the bitzipper program freezes as evidenced by the "(Not Responding)" text in the program window frame. As you may by now be well aware I am a bit of a newb to this world so any tips or commiseration would be great!

TNO821

02-09-12, 04:59 AM

TNO821

02-09-12, 07:43 PM

^^ By the way, it should not be a surprise that your "BitZipper" app was timing out when accessing the image file. Despite the very small 682 KB file size, that .bz2 file contains one terabyte of information in it (but to be fair, most of it is zeroes, so it compresses very, very, very well).

Most apps would choke for a good long while if you asked them to swallow 1 TB of data in one sitting.

StevenHB

02-12-12, 03:37 PM

I followed these directions for my Comcast / DCT 3412 i using a new WD10EARS. Worked like a charm. Thanks for your efforts!

TNO821

02-12-12, 11:31 PM

You're welcome!

DCTneo

02-25-12, 01:51 PM

You're welcome! I captured the original disk image, which was from an externally formatted hard drive using my brother's DVR.

Most electronic items in my household have had firmware or hardware tweaks already... xbox (hard drive), computer, router (firmware) , video player (firmware), DVR (hard drive).

One of the most useful upgrades I've done has been to upgrade both my DCT6416-III DVRs. Will be nice to be able to catch up on all my recorded programs as I recover after surgery next month.

deeplake21

02-26-12, 11:45 AM

Thanks to everyone in this great thread. I have been following it for a month now. I risked upgrading to a 1TB Seagate drive that was not posted.

I have successfully upgraded to a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 following your exact instructions. The image you guys posted was restored perfectly to this drive, and I got the exact capacity you posted in the instructions. DCT-6416III reports "Record Capacity Remaining 978491277312 B"

I have recorded to the new drive and the PVR seem to show the proper space remaining.

deeplake21

02-26-12, 12:53 PM

DCTneo

02-26-12, 08:57 PM

I had to dig way back into my archives to remember how I copied the original hard drive image (around page 5 of this thread).... My WD10EARS drive was externally formatted using my brother's DVR. I copied the original image from the drive using G4U that is found on UBCD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
"How-To" documentation for G4U can be had here: http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/
The image was subsequently shared with TNO821, who documented the process to prepare the hard drive.

Not all brands or models of hard drives may work in the DVR upgrade, so I thought it prudent to focus on the largest drives that are known to work (which were around $60 at the time). My brother tried to format a 1TB Seagate using his DVR which did NOT work (DVR did not offer to format the Seagate drive when externally connected). The incompatability may be on the initializing from DVR but since the drives are initialized from the computer using the 1TB drive image this may be a moot point.

Various models of Western Digital 1TB are known to work, documented on page 8 in this thread. As the drive format is basically unknown and proprietary (IBM GPFS), normal disk tools cannot understand the disk image sufficiently to expand or shrink the image to fit drives other than 1TB. So to accommodate other sizes of drives the whole imaging process would have to be repeated using a different size of source drive for each image. My brother has since changed his cable provider so I no longer have that resource at my disposal. So unless someone else sufficiently motivated steps forward that has Shaw (or another cable provider that allows the DVR to externally format a hard drive), I suspect the only available image will be for a 1TB drive.

DCTneo

02-26-12, 09:53 PM

I get the impression that there are many more upgrades than replies in this thread. Any other upgrade successes to report?

We heard from the following users in this thread but have not followed up to confirm (or deny) a successful upgrade:

tricky91, whetstone1, tluxon, dickintw, sldxstyle, detekinc, majiktrix9, jeremyhelling, marc86

TNO821

02-26-12, 10:14 PM

Few thoughts.

The leaders in this thread did excellent job with instructions on restoring the 1 TB image to a new drive. But I would have greatly appreciated if there was a detailed post on how to Generate an image of a hard drive, and how to post it for download. This would let other readers with means to generate and post similar images for other hard drive sizes. I have a 500 GB and 750 GB that I could have used.

I agree that having image creation instructions would be great, but I'm doubtful that those will be made. There are not many people that have both the ability (correct geographical location as well as technical ability) and time/drive to exhaustively document it.

Nobody in the USA will even be able to, because none of the cable providers here even enable the Motorola e-sata connection.

randomjester

02-27-12, 04:07 AM

I have a Comcast Motorola DCT6412 III DVR and want/need to increase/upgrade recording capacity from 120 GB to at least 500 GB. So I think I have two options; stick with my current DVR (DCT6412) and swap out its 120 GB hard drive for a new internal 1 TB hard drive, or try to get one of the latest DVR's DCX3400M or DCX3501M (RNG200N) that includes a 500 GB hard drive by default and also has the functional ability to connect an external 1TB eSata Hard Drive to the eSata port (unlike the DCT Series cable boxes).

The latest DCX Series cable boxes Motorola DCX3400M & Motorola DCX3501M (RNG200N) is a lot faster than the previous DCT Series cable boxes thanks to increased processor power, additional flash and S-DRAM.

So why does anyone want to keep using the older, slower, outdated DCT Series cable boxes (DCT6412) instead of upgrading and moving to the newer, faster, latest DCX Series cable boxes Motorola DCX3400M or Motorola DCX3501M (RNG200N) with 500 GB and functional eSata port which will allow you to connect an external 1TB eSata Hard Drive expanding the recording capacity?

If it doesn't cost anything extra to trade in your old DCT Series cable box for a latest DCX Series cable box, why not?
Isn't it better to go with the latest DVR, with the highest default capacity of 500 GB, AND a functional way to easily connect an external 1TB eSata Hard Drive?

TNO821

02-27-12, 09:21 AM

deeplake21

02-27-12, 12:07 PM

DCTneo

02-27-12, 03:45 PM

I have a Comcast Motorola DCT6412 III DVR and want/need to increase/upgrade recording capacity from 120 GB to at least 500 GB.

So why does anyone want to keep using the older, slower, outdated DCT Series cable boxes (DCT6412) instead of upgrading and moving to the newer, faster, latest DCX Series cable boxes Motorola DCX3400M or Motorola DCX3501M (RNG200N) with 500 GB and functional eSata port which will allow you to connect an external 1TB eSata Hard Drive expanding the recording capacity?

I know my DVRs are stable and proven. They work well with and are fully supported by my cable provider. I spend more time watching TV than I do with the guide or menus. Guide or menu speed is acceptable. Video speed is great. No problems scrolling backward or forward through recorded programs, I hit the skip button about 6 times from when the commercials start and I'm watching more of my recorded program again. My upgraded 1TB drive is just about right at more than 6 times the original capacity of my DVRs, and over 8 times that of the 120GB models. I like that the drive sits inside the DVR and doesn`t add to the clutter like an external drive enclosure would. I've got lots of recorded programs to catch up on while I recover from surgery next month. I think that`s reason enough to stick with them.

DCTneo

02-27-12, 03:47 PM

DCTneo:

Would you mind looking back at the command you have used to back-up the 1TB image to zip file (MotoSTB_1TB.bz2) and listing it here.

It must have been a one line linux command, and i am interested in learning it. It would be best if this command was also available in the Parted Magic CD and can be issued from LXTerminal.

Thanks.

Here is the process I used to create the 1TB drive image.

Prepare new drive(s) - Western Digital model WD10EARS.
I started by fully verifying the disk integrity for my new 1TB drive (both of them, one for each of my DVRs),
using latest version of Western Digital DLG (Data LifeGuard) Diagnostic software,
completed operations for both drives were Extended Test and Write Zeros to Drive.
Alternately, Writing all zeros to drive could be done using Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN "Quick Erase" method).
All that blank space is sure to compress very well and ensures maximum compression for capturing the drive image later.

Format drive externally from a cable provider which allows the esata port to be enabled (brother had a DCT3416 on Shaw cable).
Instead of the esata drive enclosure in the step below, I used a sata-to-esata cable and an external power adapter.

More useful info from this thread:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=21274
Get an enclosure and connect your drive via the external port.
Connect the external drive while the enclosure is turned off.
Turn on your external drive enclosure.
As it spins up, the DVR will detect it and you'll see an on-screen message.
Format the drive as requested on the screen.
You'll get a success message that the drive is formatted and ready for use in about 5 to ten seconds.
Turn off your DVR and Disconnect the external drive and remove your DVR formatted drive from your enclosure.
If you hot-plug the enclosure, you get a message that says remove the external drive.
It seems to work best if you just have your DVR on, plug in everything to connect the drive, then turn on the external drive and let it spin-up while pre-connected.
You should get the correct format screen this way.
Unplug your dvr and disconnect everything.
Get the security bit tool mentioned many times already and open the box, breaking the security tab in the process (unavoidable.)
Remove the old drive with a Phillips screwdriver - that's the only tool you need.
Install your larger drive in the unit reversing the process used when removing the old.
Put everything back together, close the box, connect the cable feed, plug it in. Do nothing. In about 5 minutes or less, the red recording light will come on. You may hear the drive whirring loudly for a few minutes - that's normal.
Turn it on and it will work. It will take a long time to load in the guide data and all your scheduled and series recordings will be gone of course.
Check your drive swap by going to the diag screen #13., i.e. power off and immediately hit the select button to bring up the diag screen. Use the arrow down button to scroll down to 13 and select. From there, you'll see a screen with your dvr capacity. Down arrow some more to scroll through the screens that report various data about your dvr. Power off to get out of the diag screen.

Create image using G4U:
http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/#imgcreate
As I recall, I set up an FTP server on another workstation to receive the drive image.
Install the formatted drive by itself in a computer.
Have the computer boot G4U from either USB or optical drive (I used Ultimate Boot CD or UBCD).
The command I would have used would have been something like the following (whole harddisk):
uploaddisk username:password@my.ftp.server.ca MotoSTB_1TB.gz sd0
I emailed the resulting file to TNO821, who successfully deployed the image to another drive and documented the process.

My cable provider will activate DVRs that are the same type as they use with their system (DCT6416III).
Because I own my DVRs (thanks ebay!) I did not replace the security tab, and replaced the silly security screws with normal screws from a computer case.

deeplake21

02-28-12, 12:39 AM

Thanks for the instructions.

I agree about DCT-6416 that it is a reliable machine. I have owned it for several years and it is a workhorse. I have also heard user complaints about newer PVRs from the same cable company.

One thing though is that this Motorola model records with MPEG2 compression. I wonder if the newer Motorola models (DCH or DCX) use the more efficient MPEG4 compression??

TNO821

02-28-12, 08:53 AM

^ Yes, a key difference between the DCX units (versus the DCT and DCH units) is the ability to handle MPEG-4.

Notice I said ability. I am aware of no cable provider who has switched to MPEG-4, as doing so would require them to switch out all older units for DCX 's.

randomjester

02-28-12, 04:06 PM

^
Ha! Somebody hasn't read up on the DCX threads. I wouldn't wish one of those POS's on my worst enemy.

The DCX has numerous software bugs, many of which have gone unaddressed for years.

Major DCX problems:
-Some recordings record nothing but a black screen.
-FireWire, the only way to off-load high-def recordings to PC, Mac, or Digital VHS, is totally and horribly broken on the DCX units.
-Simple tasks such as rewinding or fast-forwarding are buggy on the DCX units, sometimes causing the unit to hang and require a hard reset
-The DCX units suffer from an HDMI bug that causes them to lose their resolution info (720p or 1080i) when connected through an Audio/Video Receiver

Now this is not to say that the DCT and DCH units are perfect, but they are FAR more reliable than the DCX units!

In my experience (having had a DCT, DCH, and DCX unit), the slight increase in remote-control responsiveness comes nowhere near making up for the laundry-list of negatives. The DCT and DCH units are immune to all of those negatives.

So there are only two benefits to the DCX units, responsiveness (when it's not busy bugging out), and a larger hard drive (which is more than negated by the directions in this thread).
Well apparently it's not the hardware but the service/cable provider/network node at fault. I was researching the Motorola DCX3400 and found a site discussing it for the Canada cable provider SHAW. Apparently they have no issues at all with the hardware and it works as advertised, way better than older units.
The motorola DCX series of cable boxes is VASTLY Superior to it’s predecessors both from a hardware and software side of things. The DCX series of cable boxes are ALL DIGITAL and in order for them to work to their PEAK performance they need to be connected to a 100% digital network which is generally FIBER OPTIC based or at least has a FIBER OPTIC backbone. The older DCT boxes were analog/digital hybrids and worked on either fiber/digital (faster) and analog (slower networks).
The problems you were referring to are mostly network related and have little to do with the hardware itself.
SHAW in Canada did a network upgrade before launching the Motorola DCX series pulling FIBER OPTIC cable to all the nodes on the network which were to be serviced by the Motorola DCX, Arris Gateway and other DIGITAL Only products. Once the FIBER – 100% ALL DIGITAL Network upgrades were complete Shaw then required it’s customers to upgrade or swap out their hardware to DIGITAL Versions to be compatible with the new 100% digital network, if they wished to reap the benefits and performance features. I would assume Comcast has not done this and is running a hybrid network Analog/Digital in some of the areas which these problems are occurring and hence hampering the performance of ALL their cableboxes and equipment.
It is important when analyzing and critiquing equipment problems to determine if the cause of the problem is NETWORK and SERVICE PROVIDER related or indeed an internal Hardware Issue with the box itself.
Information sourced from the following:
- Shaw’s New Motorola DCX Series HDTV Cable Boxes
techtipsandtoys.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/shaw-hdtv-cable-boxes/
- Motorola DCX3400 PVR Cable Box Review
techtipsandtoys.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/motorola-dcx3400-pvr-cable-box-review/

TNO821

02-28-12, 05:57 PM

^ well an all-digital network may help with the black screen recordings...maybe...I do a fair bit of programming and would think that proper error trapping should be capable of resetting a blacked-out tuner and retrying without causing a black-screen recording.

But there's simply no way that the digital-network-vs-hybrid-network stuff has anything to do with the FireWire or HDMI errors.

Super Eye

02-29-12, 11:02 PM

Shaw is not 100 percent digital.

GMTech3222

03-02-12, 07:29 PM

I would like to start with Great Big Thank You to TNO821, DCTneo and dan74 for making this all happen.

Just switches to Comcast from Dish Network and took the HDTV plunge at the same time. Got the DCT6412 III and DCT3416 upgraded with a pair of WD10EARS's with no problem at all, thanks again.

I hit the skip button about 6 times from when the commercials start and I'm watching more of my recorded program again. My remote has a skip back button, but no skip forward button, only a fast forward button. Am I missing something?

randomjester

03-02-12, 07:53 PM

My remote has a skip back button, but no skip forward button, only a fast forward button. Am I missing something?
There isn't a skip forward button enabled by default; you must program it to your Comcast DVR remote manually.
Check the following link for more information:
How to use a Motorola DVR/Programming the Remote (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote#Add_30-Second_Skip)
> 1.2.5 Add 30-Second Skip

DCTneo

03-02-12, 08:58 PM

There isn't a skip forward button enabled by default; you must program it to your Comcast DVR remote manually.
Check the following link for more information:
How to use a Motorola DVR/Programming the Remote (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote#Add_30-Second_Skip)
> 1.2.5 Add 30-Second Skip

We use a couple of Logitech Harmony remotes with our 2 DVR setups and are quite happy with them, apart from the buttons not being backlit on the cheaper Harmony remote (used for TV watching in the bedroom). Both include the 30-second skip buttons without additional setup, although we only discovered this after already having used them for some time.

davekaye

04-28-12, 12:56 PM

DCTneo

04-28-12, 01:52 PM

I hadn't read this complete forum, just the instructions on how to build the 1GB disk and that I found in a hyperlink on another forum. Nothing really mentioned which HD to use. So I did not realize everybody is using WD disks. I just order the 1GB HD from Newegg. It is a Samsung F3 1GB SataII. Any reason this should not work? Thank you.
The various WD drives are known to work, others may not. My brother tried a Seagate without any luck, the DVR would not accept it as a valid drive. If you find success with a different drive, please let us know....

cj banks

04-28-12, 10:13 PM

TNO821

04-29-12, 12:51 PM

Can someone update the download links that were on the step by step directions on page 5. I went to try to download and it says that they have expired. Sorry I can't quote it because I just made an account.

I'm not sure what your "page 5" looks like compared to mine (I know that the mobile iPhone site lists page numbers differently than when I use my PC), but I think you're referring to old outdated posts where I was attempting to use some Windows freeware imaging utilities. They suck and can not get the job done reliably, so you need to use my step-by-step directions involving the Parted Magic Linux LiveCD. Those are on page 7 (at least it's page 7 for me on my PC). It's post #201: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20396028&postcount=201

I'll see about editing those older posts with a disclaimer and directing people to post #201.

cj banks

04-29-12, 03:05 PM

I will be trying this next weekend, and thanks for sending me the updated link. I must have somehow missed that link. I hope you all had a good weekend.

Chris.

TNO821

04-29-12, 03:58 PM

^ You're welcome. I know how difficult it can be reading through forum threads with a zillion posts! So let me take this moment to direct new users to the pertinent page and post:

************************************************************ ************************************************************ **************
For anybody looking for step-by-step directions for upgrading your Motorola DVR hard drive to 1 TB of recording space, see this page (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=496586&page=7), and specifically post #201 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20396028&postcount=201)
************************************************************ ************************************************************ **************

chris_h2

04-30-12, 05:20 PM

Not a bad idea. That would be a DCX box that you could then upgrade to a 1 TB hard drive (The DCX uses different, newer software that natively supports up to a 1 TB internal hard drive...you could pop in a blank 1 TB drive and it would format it automatically to 1 TB without even needing to follow my DCT/DCH upgrade directions).

BTW, the software used by the DCX is quite different from the DCT/DCH boxes and can't be used on the older boxes (in case you were wondering why Cox doesn't just copy over the same software that they use for the Whole-Home DVR). It seems that Cox may have decided not to spend the money/time/effort to update the software on the ageing DCH and DCT boxes. They may just eventually swap all of those out for the DCX boxes which already support up to a 1 TB hard drive.

Well Fooey! I am getting rid of comcast (due to the black-screen issues with my DCX3400M) and going back to D*. I was hoping to pull out my hard drive and give it to my neighbor to use in his DCT6412-3 box. It sounds like I will have to reformat it and use the image you provided first.

TNO821

04-30-12, 10:39 PM

Well Fooey! I am getting rid of comcast (due to the black-screen issues with my DCX3400M) and going back to D*.
Yeah, gotta love those long-standing, seemingly unsolvable DCX bugs :) My favorite is the FireWire that just doesn't properly work. [/sarcasm]

I was hoping to pull out my hard drive and give it to my neighbor to use in his DCT6412-3 box. It sounds like I will have to reformat it and use the image you provided first.

Yes, I think that is probably true. However, being that you're going to need to open both cable boxes anyways, I'd suggest reformatting your DCX hard drive and tossing it in your neighbor's DCT to see if it takes. You could possibly get lucky and save yourself having to run through most of my upgrade directions.

What I think will happen is that your neghbor's DCT will "reject" the hard drive and reformat it to a 160 GB partition. But there's at least a chance that it'll work.

If you want to attempt this, I think there's a factory-reset code that will force your DCX to reformat the hard drive...I'm not sure what that code is, so if anybody else reading this knows it, please chime in. Failing that, you could just hook the hard drive to your computer and quick-format it with a FAT32 or NTFS (or whatever filesystem you want) partition, and then put it back into your DCX box for just a few seconds (just long enough for it to perform the quick-format to a clean 1 TB IBM GPFS partition). I'm still fairly sure that your neighbor's DCT will see some kind of identifier for your DCX box and decide to reject it and reformat to 160 GB, but who knows...you may get lucky.

Actually...the more I think about this, the more certain I am that it can't work. After all...if it could, then this whole 6-year "how can I upgrade my Motorola DVR beyond 160 GB" ordeal would have been a hell of lot shorter and simpler. If it was just a matter of dorking around with the internal hard drives of various models of Motorola DVR's, it would have been solved years ago and wouldn't have required the eSATA external drive hoop-jumping, etc.

So basically, yes, you will need to follow my upgrade instructions in order to arrive at a 1 TB hard drive that will agree to work in your neighbor's DCT box.

But, again, if your neighbor is really close (like right next door or something), I figure you're not out much time giving it a shot before running through my upgrade directions...maybe you'll get lucky and it'll work.

davekaye

05-01-12, 10:26 PM

The Samsung F3 1GB SataII from NewEgg formatted flawlessly using the instructions for Parted Magic. When I got the drive it said it was from Seagate. Apparently they bought the Samsung Drive business and it also said Barracuda. The model is ST1000DM005 (It is a SATA II drive/7200). My DCT3416 recognized the drive and showed the drive as 1TB in the diagnostics menu. It seems to be working fine but I'll see after some HD recordings. It is as quiet as my old WD.

TNO821

05-02-12, 06:33 PM

The Samsung F3 1GB SataII from NewEgg formatted flawlessly using the instructions for Parted Magic.
Very nice!! Thanks for sharing!

If you want to be certain that your drive really has 1 TB of recording space, check the diagnostic screen and look for remaining recording capacity. Pictured below is my 1 TB drive filled to 75% of capacity:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f100/TNO821/IMG_1506.jpg

If you take the "Record Capacity Remaining" number (which is listed in bytes) and divide it by 1024 to the power of 3 (1024 ^ 3 = 1073741824), you'll get the number of gigabytes of remaining recording space.

In the picture above this works out to 256003538944 / 1073741824 = 238.421875 GB of remaining recording space. So I've got just over 238 GB of space remaining.

In the picture below, you can see the number of bytes of DVR content that I've recorded:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f100/TNO821/IMG_1510.jpg

So that's 725496459264 bytes of recorded material being stored on my drive.

725496459264 / 1073741824 = 675.6712303161621

So I've got about 676 GB of recordings on my 1 TB hard drive and about 238 GB of remaining space.

That might seem a teeny bit low, as the numbers only add up to 914 GB total, but you need to recall the deceptive way that these hard drives are rated. They aren't really 1000 GB, they are 1000 GiB. My drive is actually 932 GB. (there is a thread on overclock.net that discusses the gigabytes vs. gibibytes controversy here (http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds/1800).)

So my 932 GB hard drive can actually store 914 GB of recordings, with the rest being dedicated to the DVR index and system and guide data and overhead, etc.

So anyways, what you want to do is check both the "Record Capacity Remaining" number and the "DVR Content" number in order to figure out if you are getting past the 160 GB barrier. Or you could just crank up a solid block of 16 hours of HD recordings (just have both tuners record ANYTHING, even stuff you'll never watch) until you're certain that you've gone waaayy past what the old 160 GB drive could hold.

The following post describes how to get into the diagnostic menu:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=20318628&postcount=135

-TNO821