[claydough2k]

I have a UTV unit I don't use anymore and wanted to strip the IDE HD out for use in my PC. I am very experienced with hardware, but have never seen anything like this. The BIOS of my system recognizes it, but when I try to run FDISK to re-partition the drive, it craps out on me and says "Error reading drive info". I tried every jumper setting available.


Any ideas?


Has anyone else used their old 40gb drive for other use on a normal PC? Any issues?


Thanks!

 

[MGK]

Check here:

http://www.blindsquirrel.org/utv/#ReuseHardDrive


Good luck!

 

[claydough2k]

Hmmm...Well, I don't have 2 UTVs, but the docs did say some people had success with 1. Can someone share how?


Also, it doesn't make sense to me that if you disconnect the IDE cable that the drive would continue to write for 40 min per the instructions. Does that really happen?


Thanks!

 

[deepthinker]

I've never done the upgrade, but as for your IDE cable removal and the drive still running, YES. Your PC doesn't really make the drive run. The controller and firmware of the drive itself is what does that. All your PC really does it send it the command to do so. So, once it's sent the command to write, it really doesn't matter that the IDE cable is removed, as long as the power isn't. Make sense??

 

[lgodavid]

Hi,


The hard drive upgrade procedure for the UTV usually assumes that you have either two UTVs OR that you are upgrading your UTV hard drive.


With that in mind, if you want to simply strip out the IDE Hard Drive and use it in a PC (and NOT upgrade the UTV Hard Drive). You will want either another UTV system OR you'll need to find another Hard Drive to "upgrade". (Taking the place of the "old" UTV hard drive.)


Any ide hard drive that supports Security should be ok...


Good luck,

David T.

 

[dleidy]

I just reclaimed mine this morning after upgrading to a new 120GB drive. I simply re-connected the original drive, powered on the machine, waited about 3 minutes then unplugged the IDE cable but left the power connected. At that point you can hear the drive writing. Came back about 30 minutes later and the drive was idle, so I powered it down, put it into my PC, and the PC recognized and formatted it.


The key here is that the UTV box remembers the last drive it was using. When you connect anything other than the last drive, it reformats the drive and writes the security information to the drive at the end of the process. By unplugging the IDE cable AFTER the format command is underway, you prefent UTV from securing the drive. Obviously it is important to leave the power connected to the drive so the format can complete. Once the drive goes idle it is ready to be installed in your PC.


Since the security process was never completed, the UTV box still sees the previously connect hard drive (in my case, the new 120GB drive) as the authorized drive, so it does not try to reformat it when you put it all back together. Thus, the order of operations are as follows:


1. Remove original drive and replace with your new drive.

2. Let UTV download and install the OS.

3. Once everything is working with the new drive, disconnect everything and reinstall the original drive.

4. Power up the system, and after a couple of minutes disconnect the IDE from the original drive, and allow time for the format to complete.

5. Remove the original drive from the system, and re-install the new drive.

6. The system will not try to re-initialize the new drive since we already did that in step 2.


Worked perfectly for me this morning.


Good luck.

 

[NetworkTV]

Unless I'm missing the mark here, Claydough2k is not swapping a drive but simply wants to take the drive out of the UTV and use it in a computer. The one problem with this is I believe unlocking the drive requires swapping the drive with another. If you happen to have an old unused drive that supports the sercurity feature you could always use that to unlock the UTV drive, but why bother? Sell the unit on ebay and use the money to get a bigger, faster drive that is more suitable for computers. With 60 and 80GB drives often available for less than $100 (and often with rebates) you can't really lose with one of the brand new 7200 RPM ATA 133 drives out there. Often manufacturers will even include the ATA 133 PCI adapter so you can fully use the speed. Lose than 40GB 5400RPM paperweight and get a real drive. With the money you'll get for the UTV (if it's in working condition) you'll probably get enough to buy something in the 120 to 160GB range.

 

[claydough2k]

NetworkTV, you are exactly right, why should I mess with this thing when I can sell the whole unit on ebay.


Truth be told, I was a die hard UTV user and was on a couple of the beta teams, but have lost faith in the support and future expansion of the unit and went over to the tivo-side.


I will sell the UTV on ebay and get a nice chunky drive with the cash. Thanks for the tip!

 

[RangerDoc]

You're going to miss out on a great new software release when this beta is complete.