Explorer 8000 or 8300 Hard Drive upgrade - Page 3

So looks like this is a pretty straightforward upgrade...and the external enclosure seems the cheap way to go. But I am using an 8300HD via TWC in the Triad in North Carolina...and the box (as well as the 8300SD) has the Passport OS installed. Anyone figured out how to enable the SATA port on the 8300HD running Passport?

Thanks,
Rob

Not that I'm aware. Checkout the other thread for the SA8300HD w/Passport OS.

I also upgraded today to a 300gb Internal Diamond Max 10 ATA 7200 16mb buffer. (Manufacturers PN 6L300R0) Although an allen key was referenced in an earlier thread, I just needed a Phillips screwdriver and a Security Torx Bit #10. Security Torx bits are DIFFERENT from regular Torx bits in that they are hollow to accommodate the peg in the centre of the screw.

As posted in other threads, a hex countdown begins and I just walked away for an hour. Came back, powered up, tested and all is well. I went this route as I did not want yet another device cluttering things and running all the time. I had tried without success to use the power connector on the 8300 to power the SATA drive, but everything I tried to get it to be able to power down/up with the box failed. So, internal it was.

Interesting...

My friend lives in Winston-Salem and is a TWC customer. His 8300HD has the SARA OS installed.

I'm a writer with Popular Science magazine who's working on an article about upgrading the internal hard drive of the Explorer 8000 series.

I just read the posts, in this forum, from the two guys who successfully opened their boxes and installed after-market hard drives themselves, and I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who found these instructions helpful, or who otherwise successfully upgraded his own box.

Thanks.

STRONTIUM,

Which operating system does your box have -- SARA or Passport?

Thanks

Hi,

Anyone tried upgrade on 8000HD yet?
I would try on my, but it is rented, so I would like to get at least a confirmation on anti-tamper switch first

comer
====

All of ours are rented, except perhaps for the folks in Canada, in which I think some cableco's allow purchase.

And no, I haven't tried this on my 8300 or 8000 yet. Sorry. Still trying to muster the courage (as well as watch and delete everything on the current hard drive).

It is running SARA. It has been running fine since the upgrade on Feb 20th. Nice to have the space to recored HD movies and not have to play 'catch up' with recorded material.

Ok, poped up my 8000HD open. So far so good - no trace of kill-switch or anything that resembles one at least

Does the drive manufacturer matter at all? Like everybody else I got Maxtor installed by default, but I got my hand on a cheap 320GB WD. Anyone installed anything beside Maxtor?

comer
====

EDIT: Re-read the thread and realized most of you have 8300 and WD anyway And it looks like the drive can be anything, not necessarily from the same manufacturer as default, right?

Looks like I've been successfull. Put 320GB drive inplace of 160GB in my 8000HD. When power cable was connected, showed usual "hal2" - "boot" then "powerTV" on the TV screen and then "your terminal is not authorized". I figured it's bacause it has not been in a streem for a few days. Then clock. When powered up TV shows blues screen with "scientific atlanta" logo and nothing else. Turned off (soft) and left like this for a few minutes - clock disappeared from the front display. Turned on - and everything's fine!
Diagnostic shows 625,129,152 total sectors - which is what WD has specified for this drive Trying to record an HD show to see how much space it would take - to estimate total capacity in "hours of HD"

I bought a 300 GB Maxtor SATA drive and a coolmax enclosure, pus a sata1 to sata2 cable. I installed it, all worked fine, but I found the drive was getting rather hot and a couple of times it shut itself off.

So I called up Tiger and arranged for a KingWin enclosure (with a cooling fan). Now it does not get hot and does not shut off but every so often the DVR seems to lose its connection to the drive. When that happens you can only watch programs on the internal disk and the percentage utilization only reflects the internal disk. If you select a program that was recorded on the external disk it just ignores your request and returns to the program list. I can turn everything off an on again and it comes back.

Anybody have any ideas why it loses its connection to the external drive ?

How do I find which OS my PVR is using?
Thanks!
Super

Click the following link for info on how to determine the OS:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post6225742

Seems like it is a external hard drive power supply issue. MOST ext. HDs are not made to run 24/7... I had only experienced this problem with a cheapie external enclosure, and it has not shown up since changing to a better branded enclosure. Also, do you have your DVR and ext. HD on a backup battery? They are so cheap now and really what you are looking for is the line stabilization aspect of the UPS. You may be experiencing random power fluxuations as well.

My attempts to add a Maxtor Quickview 300G, to my 8300 have not worked out. I have tried two of them from Weaknees and both were unwatchable, with pauses, freezes, pixilization, and audio bursts. I guess my sata port is not up to snuff, even though I'm running SARA. JR

strontium, are you with Cox or TW? I have an 8300 on the way and would rather upgrade internal than external. Sounds like you are confirming there is no intrusion detection? Thanks.

For those that added an ext drive, are you having problems with trick-play (rewinding/fast forwarding live TV) as some have reported?

There is no 'Tamper' indication per se, but there is a sticker which is attached to the drive and the drive cage. Do not touch it as the acid in your skin will react with the label and VOID will be displayed. This is mentioned in an earlier thread. If you are careful with the cage though, it is easy to gently ease the drive away from the cage without touching the label, then replace the drive with the new item. I was just careful in case I needed to replace the original drive and maintain my innocence if the mod all went bad. Everything is still working well - loads of space.

I am with Cox.

I went to home depot and they did not know what a security torx bit was. Did anybody get it there? If so do you have a model number?

Thanks

Radio Shack
17 piece rachet screwdriver set
64-1904

Thanks!

Security Torx Bit #10. Security Torx bits are DIFFERENT from regular Torx bits in that they are hollow to accommodate the peg in the centre of the screw.

My bad, sorry.
Check an auto parts store, they may have one to hold license plate frames.
It looks like an Allen Wrench, not a screwdriver. Don't know what size.

Speedskater

On second thought, it may have been a Security Hex.

Parts-express.com has a 33 piece Security Bit Set #360-206, $13.90

MCM www.mcminone.com has a 7 piece Security Torx Bit Set #21-3241, $6.83

Hey everyone, we here at Glyph Technologies are actually working on releasing a drive specifically designed for the DVR market. It will be a modification on our GT050Q Enclosure which is all steel, internal power supply, quiet fan, and quiet metal mounting brackets for the storage mechanism. Additionally, we will be one of the first manufacturers to implement the use of Seagate's DB-35 drive, designed primarily for the DVR market. We will have capacities up through 700GB by the end of summer. If anyone wants some more information feel free to contact me via a personal message here.


-Josh

Indeed, I am anxious for much more HD space. For a variety of reasons I don't want to mess with the internal; when I saw my SA-8300HD had a SATA port, I realized that's THE way to do it (computer stuff I know, hard drives and their interfaces I eat for breakfast!).

However, after a lot of googlin' it seems the issue boils down to what the provider provides (in my case, it's TW-NYC, Manhattan); what I don't know is if it's in the firmware of the box and whether that firmware is updatable and how, or is it in the OS (that obviously is downloadable/updatable). That why posts that say they did and it works without specifying the provider/location are less than useful.

So the relevant question for me (and the "others" on my island!) is "does anyone have any statements by TW-NYC about adding additional HDs to our 8300HD boxes?" Or, does anyone have any scuttlebutt about this issue in our area?

I just wanted to describe what worked for me, and some of the glitches I had to deal with..

My provider is Long Island Cablevision and the 8300HD has the SARA software.

I bought the Azio External SATA HD Kit from Newegg. This kit comes with the proper eSATA cable, no adaptor needed. It is a well designed little box. I was a little concerned because it has no fan, but so far it just gets warm, not hot.

I got a deal at Costco on a WD 7200 rpm SATA 400gig hard drive. Total cost of drive and enclosure was less than $200. As I said, I did not need to buy any extra cable.

At first it didn't work. I had followed Scientific Atlanta's instructions (get the "Connecting the 8300HDC Digital Recorder" guide from their web site) which say to turn off and unplug the 8300HD before plugging in the external drive, and then fire up the drive before plugging the 8300 in.

The 8300HD detected the drive, but said it was not working properly, check the cables, etc. I unplugged and replugged the eSATA cable and retried it several times with the same result.

Then I reversed the cable and this time it detected the drive normally and asked if I wanted to format it, which it then did.

My unit was at about 87% full when I added the external drive, and that did not change. I set it to record some more programs and waited for it to start using the new drive and the show increased space available, but it didn't happen. The space kept decreasing until it was at 98% full.

At this point I unplugged the DVR and rebooted it. It now gave a message that the external storage device was functioning. I checked the available space and it was showing 27%!

My conclusion is that you may need to play around with this stuff to get it to work, but that it is worth it to put your own drive and enclosure together compared to buying a dedicated drive like the Maxtor. The maxtor is over $300 bucks and I think you only get around 160 gigs, while I spent about $200, and got 400 extra gigs. And I can always use the drive with my computer if I get rid of the 8300HD, whereas the dedicated Maxtor drive will not work with a PC.

Thanks, I was having some issues and your post helped me out.

I reluctantly swithed my 5 Directivo's (1 HD) for 5 8300HD's and 1 4300

I will not go into The TIVO Rant but suffice to say I miss the smart menu's. Well the 8300hd has some good points. All the untis are now Dual tuner HD and I like the PIP as well as the greater flexibility to add IO Cable to more rooms.

Well I wanted to add space to the 2 units that are connected to HDTV display's and after reading all the post's decided to just swap the 160gig HD for a 300gig that was in one of my Directivo's.

20min to open 8300hd and swap the drives

10min later after all kinds of wierd numbers on display and 2 reboots everything came up fine and the new 300gig drive showed up in the diagnostics. I saved the original drive in a plastic bag and did not touch the Security sticker so I could reinstall it when I return the box to the Cable company.

I have to get some stuff on it to really be sure how successful it was. if any problems I will post here.

I will put a 500gig in My home theater 8300hd. and Will post if that works or not as well.


As for external SATA I may try to add one in future if needed. I do not archive so I think these present upgrades will suffice for now.


I have North Jersey Cablevision and SARA OS

Gary P.

Gary,

Congrats on the success.

Are we to presume you have SARA OS on your 8300HD's, or any chance you have Passport?

What geography are you in/what cableco.?

Thanks,
dean

Im sorry I have Sara OS

North Jersey Cablevision

I will edit Previoue post witht that.

Gary P.