D
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I own three SA 8300HD PVRs.
Last night one of them (in my main HT) started displaying a message that basically said that the hard drive is toast.
On the off chance that the unit was smart enough to ignore its internal HD when an external HD SATA device is connected, I connected one such beast that I had kicking around (and which had been previously used with that PVR.) No luck. While it recognized the external drive ok, it still displayed the HD is toast message. (So no pausing, rewinding, accessing recorded programs, recording new ones, etc.) I had a feeling it would be like that.
My cable provider (Rogers) wants >$500 for its latest HD PVR. It rents it for $30 a month. Not too appealing either way.
So I did a little online searching. And while a lot of what's posted is old and somewhat incoherent, there were a few gems - which I'll repeat in a more digestible form here.
First off the old HD is a Western Digital 160GB PATA unit. WD appears to still make a compatible unit of this size, but I did not find anyone selling any new. However from what I can tell, its 320GB unit is fully-compatible and there are sellers. I just ordered a WD model WD3200AAJB from Newegg.ca for $114 delivered. It should arrive next week. Here's the link to WD's current product list. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/catalog/
Secondly you need a security torx bit to remove the SA's three back case screws. They have the same external profile as regular torx but with hollow centres that fit over a "pin/post" in the centre of the screw's head. I bought a full set of good quality bits at Canadian Tire (SKU 25-6272-8) for $17 incl tax. They're stocked in the automotive (not hardware) section.
I had no trouble opening the case and no trouble extracting the old HD (basically two cables and a bunch of screws.)
I'll report back when the new drive arrives and gets installed. Newegg.ca has a 30 day return policy so if it doesn't work I'm not out much. If it does work I'm thinking of ordering a couple of spare drives - just in case WD stops making them (which is really only to support "legacy" products since it's now all SATA). The old drive was manufactured in September 2005. Allowing for shelf time that's a seven year life.
Accessing the old HD's contents is not an issue. It's always been my practice to immediately transfer anything that I want to keep to DVD, and to record anything that I really want to watch on two PVRs. In this case there was one TCM movie that I had recorded just before the HD failed and before I could transfer it. However that movie plays again next month.
Jeff
Last night one of them (in my main HT) started displaying a message that basically said that the hard drive is toast.
On the off chance that the unit was smart enough to ignore its internal HD when an external HD SATA device is connected, I connected one such beast that I had kicking around (and which had been previously used with that PVR.) No luck. While it recognized the external drive ok, it still displayed the HD is toast message. (So no pausing, rewinding, accessing recorded programs, recording new ones, etc.) I had a feeling it would be like that.
My cable provider (Rogers) wants >$500 for its latest HD PVR. It rents it for $30 a month. Not too appealing either way.
So I did a little online searching. And while a lot of what's posted is old and somewhat incoherent, there were a few gems - which I'll repeat in a more digestible form here.
First off the old HD is a Western Digital 160GB PATA unit. WD appears to still make a compatible unit of this size, but I did not find anyone selling any new. However from what I can tell, its 320GB unit is fully-compatible and there are sellers. I just ordered a WD model WD3200AAJB from Newegg.ca for $114 delivered. It should arrive next week. Here's the link to WD's current product list. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/catalog/
Secondly you need a security torx bit to remove the SA's three back case screws. They have the same external profile as regular torx but with hollow centres that fit over a "pin/post" in the centre of the screw's head. I bought a full set of good quality bits at Canadian Tire (SKU 25-6272-8) for $17 incl tax. They're stocked in the automotive (not hardware) section.
I had no trouble opening the case and no trouble extracting the old HD (basically two cables and a bunch of screws.)
I'll report back when the new drive arrives and gets installed. Newegg.ca has a 30 day return policy so if it doesn't work I'm not out much. If it does work I'm thinking of ordering a couple of spare drives - just in case WD stops making them (which is really only to support "legacy" products since it's now all SATA). The old drive was manufactured in September 2005. Allowing for shelf time that's a seven year life.
Accessing the old HD's contents is not an issue. It's always been my practice to immediately transfer anything that I want to keep to DVD, and to record anything that I really want to watch on two PVRs. In this case there was one TCM movie that I had recorded just before the HD failed and before I could transfer it. However that movie plays again next month.
Jeff
