The Sky box just died, and it's out of warranty. So, it's time to play, while I see how much people are charging for them on eBay.
I've seen enough reports of upgrading the hard drive in a Sky Plus box to be sure that it can be done, but most of the links I can come up with through Google are dead. Anyone got an recent experience on doing the deed, and any pointers. In particular - is there a maximum size of drive that can be installed?
Phone them and tell them you want to cancel your subscription as your box doesn't work. They will put you through to retentions and offer you an engineer to come at a cost to fix it. Tell them you can't afford it and guaranteed they will waive the charge as you have been a good customer etc.
You not having a working box is to their disadvantage especially if you tell them just to cancel your subscription.
Steven.
As it happens i have just upgraded my HD in Sky+ box with a 250gb one as recomended on the digitalspy forums! Works great...masses of room!
steve
I've fitted a 160GB in mine about 18 months ago, works fine.
Use an IDE drive with Fluid Bearings. Maxtor do a few for example.
Here is the procedure I used:
Before dismantling the box, switch off "instant rewind" and note your series links. Turn off box, open with security Torx bit, swap drive. Once your box is fully assembled, power it up, wait two minutes and press the Sky Key. Perform A "Full System Reset" (Press Services,4,01 Select,8 Housekeeping) and wait for box to restart (normally < 3mins for a 120Gb drive and < 45mins for a 250Gb drive), Again wait two minutes and press the Sky Key. Test for correct operation, re-enable "Instant Rewind" and re-enter your Series Links.
Alan.
As already mentioned, there's lots of info on DigitalSpy, but to answer your specific questions, the concensus seems to be that Samsung SpinPoint 5400rpm drives are probably the best to go for, but I've had a Maxtor 7200rpm running fine for 18 months or so..
The Sky+ firmware can only format drives up to 400GB or so. However someone has written a PC utility called Copy+ that formats any size disk to the Sky+ format, and also transfer recordings from the old disk - if it's still working. Details again at DigitalSpy.
You'll probably fnd that the fan stays on all the time if you fit a bigger hard disk.
I know several people who have put larger hard drives in (an easy task) and it seems 160 is about the optimum size. Much larger and it suffers from fragmentation, becoming unacceptably slow.
Hmm, hadn't thought of that tactic. But I'd been planning to have a go at the insides of the box anyway, because I'm nosey that way. Hmm, have to think on that. The time to get a fitter here might be a significant part of the question. Lil'darlin can't stand missing her Simpsons.
The drive that has failed (testing in an external box is showing a chunk of bad sectors) was a 160GB drive, seemingly partitioned up into 80GB for Sky's "AnyTime service" (which I've managed to avoid noticing any mention of being released), and 80GB for the user to store his stuff in. My system isn't happy with an OTS computer hard drive - lots of stuttering.
Hmmm, I don't think that I did this. Re-enabled it now though.
I should have looked at the screws, instead of searching the torx bits out of the bottom of the toolbox. Different fittings on different cases.
Got that over the phone from the people at Sky.
I'm not sure that it took that long though. Hmmm, I'm expecting to lose all settings on it at some point in the near future any way, so I'll remember to note the times of various steps. It looks as if fiddling with the "instant rewind" has not improved the stuttering.
I actually got a Samsung (but 7200 RPM, an SP2514N) drive, but put a Hitachi drive into the Sky box. (I've already got a Samsung SP2514N in use in my NAS, and I want to move that box over to mirroring, so it appeared to be the way to go. The shop didn't have any Maxtors or Hitachis that day.
Met Copy+ after sending my last messages ; it agrees that the drive from the sky box is 160GB of scrap aluminium and iron.
If I stick my fingers in the back, I might find that. Playing in the menus to follow Wossname-Alan's comments I noticed the box can do mono sound instead of stereo, which is a great improvement. I never knew that I'd lost
40~60% of my hearing until we had screening introduced at work, and I've certainly never missed it. I'm told that some people can hear fans, but not me. (Well, not below a few kilowatts of fan power.)HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.