[Jim_Hunt]

My UTV drive failed finally. I have had it running forever and picked this one when they first came out and still love it.


Can anyone tell me what new hard drives still in production work best as a replacement? It seems the WD models I see suggested several places are no longer available.


I am open to any size but of course bigger is better since I got the thing open.

 

[guitars911]

Any new drive built recently should work fine. Just try to pick a drive that has the longest warranty for the least amount of money. 160GB drives seem to be the limit for the UTV as it only sees 137GB anyway. Just set the jumper to master and install.


Retail boxed 160GB IDE / ATA-100 drives have been around $50 for a while now. You generally get a longer warranty with retail boxed drives over OEM ones. Look around and you should be able to find even better pricing. ( I've seen them right at $30 in local office supply & electronic stores on sale. Check your newspaper ads. )


I installed this drive last fall in one of my UTV's: Maxtor 160GB PATA - Model L01V160


It's been working trouble free so far.

 

[daskrabs]

seagate is the way to go. long warranty and great reliability. try newegg.com

 

[DonoMan]

Nope. Samsung. Fastest drives if you count their newer ones. Quietest drives. Good (low) power usage. Reliability is at least on par with any other consumer brand, though in my experience it's #1 between them, Seagate (who were never known for reliable drives, even their enterprise SCSI which I do have experience with), WD (who have been tied for the worst for me) and Maxtor (other worst for me)


People recommend Seagate because they were the first to up warranties bigtime. Other than that, there has never been anything special about them.

 

[NetworkTV]



Quote:
Originally Posted by guitars911 /forum/post/12905079


Just set the jumper to master and install.

Except for the Western Digital drives. Several of those require removing the jumper all together.

 

[guitars911]

Good point NetworkTV. I don't recall which brand it was, but I remember many years ago taping the jumper to the top of a drive, as not to loose it, to get it to work in a PC. One should pay close attention to the jumper setting when installing a drive in any box.


I only bought a Maxtor for my UTV as it was the cheapest I could find on short notice. Mine has a 3yr warranty.


I also recently bought a 500GB external Maxtor for $80 that has a five year warranty. Again it was the cheapest on that day... I use it as my third back up solution. ( if you've ever lost all your digital photos, files, etc., from a drive failure you will know that you can never have enough safe guards in place )


Seagate bought out Maxtor at the end of 2005. I think the Maxtor branded drives reliability has increased dramatically ever since.


One thing to remember in regard to the UTV, it doesn't need a fast drive with lots of cache memory. I would have dropped in a 5400RPM drive if they were still readily available. Less RPM's = less heat = happier UTV.


My PC is another story. Faster is always better there...


Any drive, regardless of manufacture, could go kaput at any given moment, just be prepared and you will have nothing to worry about.

 

[j123]

The only requirement is that it supports ATA security. This means that the drive can be locked to the UTV. Not all drives support ATA security but most newer ones should. I have used the L01V160 from Frys.com in the past but the price is not good right now. They used to be about $50 and now $69.99. The drive I received was one of the thinner ones (less than the standard 1 inch) so that means fewer platters and less heat.

 

[lgodave]

My comment from yesterday didn't post for some reason.


What j123 said. ATA-3 Security is what to look for and any new PATA/IDE Drive you find today should meet that standard.


Quiet and Long Warranty are great options. I'd recommend Seagate since when I started with UTV they had UTV compatible drives, some of the first "Quiet" drives on the market and their Warranty was good (not yet 5 years. Maybe 3?). Since then much of what made Seagate good for UTV/DVR use has been taken up by other HD makers... so for NEW users there isn't that same "edge" going with Seagate.


I've used WD/Maxtor/Seagate drives on much of my PCs. Seagate/WD on my UTVs and Maxtor/Seagate/WD on my DTivo. Had a 5 year Warranty Seagate I was going to use in my DTivo go bad on me. Seagate was very good about getting me a replacement. While I waited only a few days to get the replacement... I decided to pick up a WD at BB and when I got the Warranty Seagate I put that 160GB drive in my Sony UTV. That Seagate still has over 2 years of coverage.

 

[Reginald Trent]

Go with a 120GB or whatever is cheapest as the UTV wont access more than 110GB for recordings.

 

[lgodave]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Reginald Trent /forum/post/12924349


Go with a 120GB or whatever is cheapest as the UTV wont access more than 110GB for recordings.

160GB drives are more common today VS 120GB Drives (and just as cheap or cheaper then 120GB drives you'll find in some cases). While the UTV won't see 23GB of a 160GB (or more on a larger drive) it does offer more Recording space then a 120GB Drive. So I disagree with your 110GB recording "limit". 110 Hours (UTV approx recording time) might be what you ment to say (for 160GB+ Drives).

 

[Jim_Hunt]

Thanks guys...


I ordered the Western Digital WD1600AAJB 160 GB Hard Drive from New Egg for $50.99. I installed without the jumper and it works fine. I now show 110 hours of recording time (& the unit doesn't keep rebooting/crashing).


Thanks again.

 

[NetworkTV]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Reginald Trent /forum/post/12924349


Go with a 120GB or whatever is cheapest as the UTV wont access more than 110GB for recordings.

Actually, the UTV sees 137GB.

 

[NetworkTV]



Quote:
Originally Posted by j123 /forum/post/12916762


The only requirement is that it supports ATA security. This means that the drive can be locked to the UTV. Not all drives support ATA security but most newer ones should. I have used the L01V160 from Frys.com in the past but the price is not good right now. They used to be about $50 and now $69.99. The drive I received was one of the thinner ones (less than the standard 1 inch) so that means fewer platters and less heat.

If it's still valid, I added a link at one point to the FAQ at the top of the page to where you could download the IBM software that will test whether a drive supports ATA security or not.


Edit: Yep, the link still works: http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm


I believe the Drive Fitness Test is what you want.

 

[DonMart]

I'm also about to change out a drive. This will be my first time fooling with this. I have a new unformatted Seagate 120gb ATA drive. Do I have to do anything to this or just install. My system now connects to Direct TV via the sat, but it never connects to the internet via the phone line.

 

[TexasJames]

You need to make sure the drive is set to "Master" -- using the jumper settings on the drive (near the IDE cable and power connectors). That is often the default out-of-box condition. But sometimes they are set to "Cable-Select" or something else. Always worth a double-check with the drive documentation.


When you first install the drive the UTV lights will flash while the drive is formatted and "married" to the UTV. This will take some time so just be patient. (It's been a long time for me, but I think you need to give it a good hour or so.)


After the format, the UTV will try to download the software. Unless you are doing one of the fancy hot-swap, drive-image work-arounds, this will take place via the phone line. So you will need a good phone line connection to complete the download.


I think the FAQ information covers most everything else.


Good luck.

 

[TexasJames]

Oh, and always, always remove your smart card before opening the UTV case!!!

As many times as I did the upgrade or fiddled with my systems, once in a while I still forgot to do that. Bad things can happen when you open the case with card still inserted!

(I was lucky to avoid permanent damage.)

 

[rocket]

You said you never connect to the internet via phone line. Is this because you can't or just don't do it. You will need a connection that is clean enough to get the download.


Note that once you place the new drive in the utv, it is security locked to that utv (we call that marrying the drive to the unit).


If you are pc-builder savey, i.e. you know how to open up pc's and replace drives, and you can find the image and software (like winhex) to do the transfer, you would want to do this before marrying the drive to the utv. Then it's easier to install the utv software as no hot swapping would be needed. You would zero out the beginning of the disk and copy in the O.S. then install in the utv and it should work fine.


Either way, I do all my loading with a usb 2.0 enclosure that I use for these purposes instead of opening up my pc.


If you choose this route let us know.

 

[lgodave]



Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasJames /forum/post/13044588



When you first install the drive the UTV lights will flash while the drive is formatted and "married" to the UTV. This will take some time so just be patient. (It's been a long time for me, but I think you need to give it a good hour or so.)


After the format, the UTV will try to download the software.

If the drive is not previously formatted (new out of the box)... I don't think the UTV will need to "Reformat" (Flashing lights) the drive... So it might just dialup and download the software rather quickly (As fast as a 56K Modem can go).

 

[DonMart]

My system will dial up the internet but it never makes the connection. Its like its dialing the wrong number. Today, I decided I needed to figure this out. After playing with all of the settings, I found that clicking on the box for staying connected if there was in incomming call solved the problem. I now have an MSN account and can connect.

 

[DonMart]

BTW rocket, I do have a USB enclosure and am PC savey, so was thinking of going this way. I don't know about the winhex program or were to get it.