HR20 Hard Drive Upgrade

[Lord Darth Vader]

I think the Hitachi Deathstars have a better reputation than the WD.

BTW, I've got an extra cable lying here. It's still sealed in its unopened package.

 

[Ramy]

I don't know how to do the Raid thing, I hear that you have to have a seperate board in your home computer to do it.

I just found the FA 750 at BB today for $ 219, without a cable. and the BB I was at only handled the l type cables (those are for internal)
I also found a WD 1TB internal for $350 and a enclosure w/fan for another $75 so all together it was $ 425 for a TB set up (esata of course).

Seriously considering the Seagate FA 750, $ 219 and find a cable online I guess.

Jimbo

I never had to hook it up. Look in this thread somewhere for my post of what I got. All I did was put the HDD's in the enclosure and boot it up and the rest it history.

 

[Jimbo]

I never had to hook it up. Look in this thread somewhere for my post of what I got. All I did was put the HDD's in the enclosure and boot it up and the rest it history.

So do you have 1 TB for recording or 1 500 with a 500 back up where the show is recording on both for failure protection ?

Also, when adding an ESATA set up, is the display telling you what is used/ left accurate ?

Jimbo

 

[gadgtfreek]

So do you have 1 TB for recording or 1 500 with a 500 back up where the show is recording on both for failure protection ?

Also, when adding an ESATA set up, is the display telling you what is used/ left accurate ?

Jimbo

It shows space used, as for it being accurate I do not know. I went from 3% per OTA hour to 1%.

 

[Ramy]

So do you have 1 TB for recording or 1 500 with a 500 back up where the show is recording on both for failure protection ?

Also, when adding an ESATA set up, is the display telling you what is used/ left accurate ?

Jimbo

I am using the full 1TB of space and yes the accuracy of how much space you have left is dead on.

 

[padarjohn]

Well, I picked up another cable today. And an eSATA adapter for one of my PC's. So I'll be able to tell if it's either the cable or the drive.

Had to go out of town for a few days, so it took me a while to follow up.

The FA750 was not recognized by the PC. I took it back to Costco to get a different one. The guy who runs that section saw me returning it and said,"Another one, eh? What's wrong with it?" I told him the SATA port didn't work and he commented that a lot of them were being returned for that reason.

I picked up another one to try. Hopefully I'll have better luck with this one.

 

[padarjohn]

Had to go out of town for a few days, so it took me a while to follow up.

The FA750 was not recognized by the PC. I took it back to Costco to get a different one. The guy who runs that section saw me returning it and said,"Another one, eh? What's wrong with it?" I told him the SATA port didn't work and he commented that a lot of them were being returned for that reason.

I picked up another one to try. Hopefully I'll have better luck with this one.

Well, I think my HR20 is eating eSATA drives.

I got a new FA750, hooked it up to my PC, applied power to it, and powered up the PC. It recognized the FA750 right off.

So I powered everything down, uncabled the FA750, attached it to the eSATA cable still attached to the (unpowered) HR20, applied power to the FA750, waited a few seconds for it to come ready, put the power cord back into the HR20 and waited. After a while it came back up, but the Playlist still showed the internal drive contents.

I power-cycled everything a couple of times with the same results. I powered everything down and replaced the eSATA cable and powered everything up with the same results.

As a final test I powered everything down, detached the FA750, re-attached it to the PC and powered everything up. Lo, the PC no longer detects the FA750.

I think this is where I stop trying.

Is the internal drive a SATA drive? Maybe I'll just wait until the unit is out of warranty, then open it up and replace the internal drive.

 

[Jimbo]

Is the internal drive a SATA drive? Maybe I'll just wait until the unit is out of warranty, then open it up and replace the internal drive.

What rec are you working with that you are waiting for the warrenty to expire ?
HR20's are all "LEASED " units, so if you ever shut it down/ replace it, you need to return it.

It will always belong to D*.

 

[padarjohn]

What rec are you working with that you are waiting for the warrenty to expire ?
HR20's are all "LEASED " units, so if you ever shut it down/ replace it, you need to return it.
It will always belong to D*.

Yeah, I know. So I'll need to keep the original drive to put back in. But if it's like most of the other stuff I've had like that, by the time I'm ready to give it back they won't want it anymore. I still have some old Cable boxes in my closet

I think they only warranty the thing for 90 days.

 

[macmikey]

Frst post

I got the Seagate FAp 750 and it installed itself and operates beautifully.

Mike

 

[Jimbo]

Frst post

I got the Seagate FAp 750 and it installed itself and operates beautifully.

Mike

Glad to hear, I'm still debating, even thou it's down to $219 in town.
I think I should wait till after Christmas so I have the rest of the gifts bought for before I buy this for myself.

jimbo

 

[gadgtfreek]

Mines still chugging right along. Glad I bought it when it was $199

Im willing to bet there will be a good deal on it after Thanksgiving.

 

[Jimbo]

Mines still chugging right along. Glad I bought it when it was $199

Im willing to bet there will be a good deal on it after Thanksgiving.

Ya, If I see it under 2 I may jump on it, or wait till a 1 TB comes out and down in price, I saw a 1 TB for $ 350. the other day at BB (internal) add that to the $ 75 for a GOOD enclosure, with a fan built in.

Jimbo

 

[jtn]

If in fact the HR20-700S has been discontinued, it may be best not to upgrade an internal drive if you own the unit. Many sites have reported it has been discontinued, and this means the HR21 is replacing it with an external OTA option. So it may behoove you to be patient and take a wait and see approach as to the ability of the HR20 to last for you, based on your use. Some believe that the HR20 units are not quality,and may break down faster than older models. So keep this in mind. Leasing may be best if the technology is going to change often.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well,

I broke down and covered the light strips on the top and sides of the FA with electrical tape.

Way too BRIGHT while trying to watch HD movies at night. I left the Seagate emblem glowing because its not too bad, and looks kinda cool.

Only complaint up to this point.

From what i can tell, the 750 gives you slightly more than 100 hours of HD recording.

 

[Jimbo]

Well,

I broke down and covered the light strips on the top and sides of the FA with electrical tape.

Way too BRIGHT while trying to watch HD movies at night. I left the Seagate emblem glowing because its not too bad, and looks kinda cool.

Only complaint up to this point.

From what i can tell, the 750 gives you slightly more than 100 hours of HD recording.

IF / When I get mine, I will have mine behind the TV, plenty of room now that I have changed TV's, so I don't think that will be a issue.

I have noticed that my current drive is down around 20 % left and I am starting to erase older stuff to make sure my current stuff has enough room ....

Jimbo

 

[gadgtfreek]

IF / When I get mine, I will have mine behind the TV, plenty of room now that I have changed TV's, so I don't think that will be a issue.

I have noticed that my current drive is down around 20 % left and I am starting to erase older stuff to make sure my current stuff has enough room ....

Jimbo

Mines on the bottom shelf in the back of an open ent center, it was lighting up the whole freaking wall. Thing is a lot brighter than expected.

I know the feeling, I travel for work and it was getting irritating to have to come home and spend 3 days watching dvr's so I would not have to delete them. I really like the extra space.

 

[Jimbo]

Well Elwaylite,
I decided to go get the FA 750 today when I DID find that the local BB had a ESATA cable in stock, this is the first I have seen them locally and the first that THEY knew about it too.

So I wandered over to the ESATA HD section and found the unit that I was looking at last week was now $ 279 again, last week Ithought that they were being discounted as they did not have a sale tag on them, they were $ 219 last week.
So I DID NOT buy it this week.
Maybe on Friday, it's definatly a SONY situation.

SONY

Soon
Only
Not
Yet

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well Elwaylite,
I decided to go get the FA 750 today when I DID find that the local BB had a ESATA cable in stock, this is the first I have seen them locally and the first that THEY knew about it too.

So I wandered over to the ESATA HD section and found the unit that I was looking at last week was now $ 279 again, last week Ithought that they were being discounted as they did not have a sale tag on them, they were $ 219 last week.
So I DID NOT buy it this week.
Maybe on Friday, it's definatly a SONY situation.

SONY

Soon
Only
Not
Yet

Geez.

 

[Jimbo]

1 TB Western Digital

Any thoughts on this ESATA WD 1 TB drive ?

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11240846&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|31022|31023&N=4013468&Mo=24&pos=1&No=9&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=31023&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10626-Cat31022&topnav=

Jimbo