[Crunchy Doodle]

I'm quite pleased with my most recent 5000 series upgrade. This being my first dual-drive conversion. So, for what it's worth, here's a little history:


I bought one of those 5060 refurbs from DNNA during their clearance sale. It has worked pretty well for the month I've had it in service. So now it's time to upgrade. I had decided early on that I was going to look at adding a second drive instead of simply replacing the original as I did in the two other upgrades. This is in part because I wanted to, and in part it could be less expensive since my wife and I have used up all the legitimate Maxtor rebates we are entitled to. At least I think we have. Anyway . . . . I looked for a source of the exact model of Maxtor used in the ReplayTV so as to minimize any problems with spin-up timing and other possible performance issues that might come from using mismatched drives in an environment that was not necessarily designed for it. I found a place in Texas that carries a large variety of Maxtor drives, including the exact models used in ReplayTV units.

http://www.axiontech.com


I got a 120 GB drive of the same type as the original for $90. Not a great bargain compared to what you get at Fry's with a rebate, but like I said, my wife and I have managed to wrangle three rebates out of Maxtor in the last six months, and I don't think we can get any more. Can we?


Being somewhat conservative, I low-level formatted the new drive with the Maxtor diagnostics available on their web site. I then pulled the original drive out of the 5060 and connected to my PC as a master, along with the new drive as a slave. I then used RTVPatch_2.2.4.exe to first make a backup of the original 5060 ( 5.0 110 build ) image. I then patched the original drive to use the full 80 GB. I preserved the shows and photographs. Then I selected the new drive as the second drive of a two-drive system and issues that patch. Again, I did not reformat any partitions so as to keep all of my original material. This all went well and took only a few minutes.


It took me a while to come up with a suitable mount for the new drive. I settled on using a set of 3.5" to 5.25" drive adapter brackets attached kind of upside down to the sides of the drive. That way the drive would have these "feet" to sit on and be raised a bit above the air vent it would be sitting over. Rather than screws, I choose to use adhesive Velcro strips from our earthquake supply kit on the mounting feet. I think this will work for me, as I don't plan shipping this thing anywhere.


I removed the original 80-line IDE cable with the ferrite choke collar and replaced it with a new standard 80-line dual-drive IDE cable. With some careful folding, the cable dresses fairly well. For power, I added a standard Y-cable after verifying the lines weren't crossed ( I reported my step-son blowing up his 5060 with a crossed Y-cable some weeks ago. ). With a few tie-wraps to neaten it up, I was done.


And it works very well. I have the full 200 GB available, and all my shows are just where I left them.


Again, I thank all of those who worked on the RelayTV patching project. You did good.


Bye.


PS. Oh, my step-son . . . he just settled for one big drive, and also has managed to father twin grandchildren for me due in February of next year.

 

[BaysideBas]

Congratulations Crunchy on a job well done. The toots is green with envy.


As to multiple rebates, I've always held the position that a rebate offer effective during a different period of time, or amount, or different store (when store specific) is a brand new game. I've submitted several such rebate requests to Maxtor and never been denied on grounds that I already got a rebate.

 

[Crunchy Doodle]

While I think there should be no limit on how many times you get a rebate - assuming you legitimately buy the product, that's not what the fine print says. My wife was denied a rebate on her ReplayTV 5080 because I had gotten one a month earlier. I say pooh to that. She's her own person and used her own money, we just happen to be married and live in the same house and share the same last name.


I know it's up the the discretion of the agency handling it, along with random acts of incompetence.


Well, my wife just mailed out our Maxtor rebate request number four. Her previous one was a CompUSA purchase, and this one is Fry's. I have two Fry's / Maxtor rebates that I've received, one at our home and one at work. We will see what happens this time.


Bye.

Quote:

Originally posted by BaysideBas Congratulations Crunchy on a job well done. The toots is green with envy. As to multiple rebates, I've always held the position that a rebate offer effective during a different period of time, or amount, or different store (when store specific) is a brand new game. I've submitted several such rebate requests to Maxtor and never been denied on grounds that I already got a rebate.

 

[Cobalt_Crysalis]

Hey Crunch,


Congrats on the dual setup... out of curiosity, how did you determine whether the Y-cable for power was "crossed" or not? I'd hate to undertake something like this with so much at stake without all my bases covered. Thanks...


CC

 

[Crunchy Doodle]

A simple visual inspection of the Y-cable is all that's required.


I couldn't believe my eyes when my step-son showed me the Y-cable that blew up his 5060. It was so obvious that the yellow wire and red wire were crossed on one of the connectors. Of course, most people wouldn't think to look for something like this. How could such a simple thing be made wrong? Obviously quite easily!


Just look carefully at the cable and be sure the wires seem symmetrical in the way they go from connector to connector. I will be doing that from now on.


Bye.

Quote:

Originally posted by Cobalt_Crysalis Hey Crunch, Congrats on the dual setup... out of curiosity, how did you determine whether the Y-cable for power was "crossed" or not? I'd hate to undertake something like this with so much at stake without all my bases covered. Thanks... CC

 

[icecow]

Anyone got any good plans on how to fasten a second drive when doing a dual drive 5xxx upgrade. I upgraded someone's 5xxx and now they want two drives.


Links and little explaination is fine.


p.s. if you know a Cheap, quiet thin(original replay fan thinness) fan, pls lemme know.


cow

 

[Crunchy Doodle]

I was so pleased with myself when I thought up the idea of using a standard set of 3.5" to 5.25" drive adapter brackets mounted to the drive to act as kind of wide feet, then placing industrial strength Velcro on the feet for a bolt-less attachment to the bottom of the case - until I later saw some pictures where others had thought of the same thing way before I did.


Look around this web site. I found a couple of links to some nice detail pictures on how I did it.


Bye.

Quote:

Originally posted by icecow Anyone got any good plans on how to fasten a second drive when doing a dual drive 5xxx upgrade. I upgraded someone's 5xxx and now they want two drives. Links and little explaination is fine. p.s. if you know a Cheap, quiet thin(original replay fan thinness) fan, pls lemme know. cow

 

[kspeters]

Crunchy Doodle, can you give me the model number of the drive you used? I am thinking about doing the same thing and don't want to get the wrong drive.

 

[Jeff D]

This is what I've seen too. Every drive that's not a bare bone package has the 3.5 to 5.25 rails. You just need to attach the rails to the side of the drive and put velcro on the rail and on the replay interior. Very simple and worked well.


Note there are several different types of "velcro" you can even get a plastic to plastic barbed stuff that grips VERY well. This is the stuff toshiba uses to keep the speaker grills on with the RPTVs they sell. This stuff holds VERY well, you feel like you are going to break something as you pull the grill off the TV.