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Internal HDD Replacement - Rogers 8642 PVR - Read Post 1

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#1 ·
I picked up my new 8642 PVR tonight. Should have a chance to set it up on Sunday. I do plan on upgrading the hard drive immediately, warranty or not because as we all know, 160GB is simply not even close to being enough space for HD recordings, and all I record is HD. Will report back soon.

Edit by 57. Please note that certain drives may not work (as we have found in several other internal/external HDD threads). If you experiment with "unproven" drives, be prepared for disappointment.

People considering this upgrade should familiarize themselves with the iHDD thread for the 8300 first and realize that there are differences with this new PVR. For example, this PVR uses SATA drives, not PATA.

SA8000/8300HD - Internal Hard Disk Upgrade Works (Cloning too) See Post 1. - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

As more information becomes available/pertinent, I'll try to add it here


Edit by 57: Does the PVR not report % space properly? Many people have reported the % space doesn't seem correct (internal and/or external), especially if there is not a lot of space used - 8642 User thread. Record at least 10 hours of HD and then see the percentages.
 
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#118 ·
Well, our 8642 started acting up. Screen would freeze for a second at random intervals. Then, a message - something about the recording system not working, then the whole thing shut down. Could not restart. Put the old drive back in, and it works again, but the occassional stuttering remains. I removed a DVD player from above the unit, thinking it may be overheating. That might be helping a bit but has not cured the problem.

So, I'm not sure if this issue is related to the upgraded WD green drive, or not. Putting the small WD blue drive back in at least lets it boot up and work, and TV is watchable and the PVR works, but the output still stutters every few minutes. It's not the recording system, because if you're watching a PVR'ed show and it stutters, you can rewind and play it and not get the stuttering at the same spot again - it's something to do with the output.

I may try the 1TB green drive again, just to see if it will boot up with that drive, but I will probably just send it back first.
 
#120 ·
Rogers 8642 PVR

our hard drive has quit working. is it possible to replace this hard drive with another one, what are the steps involved, where/who do you purchase a new hard drive from
How much does a replacement drive cost

Are they SATA drives in the 8642
Does the BIOS need to be set up on the new hard drive ?
Will a new installed internal drive work the same as a factory install

Will a Rogers Extender500 500GB PVR Expander work, if the internal hard drive has stopped working

Are there any businesses in Missisauga that repair Rogers PVR's

Thanks, Mike
 
#121 ·
watchkeeper

1. Your post was moved to this existing sticky, please read post one and the link there, along with other earlier posts. A 1TB SATA WD Black is recommended. (around $140 now?)

2. You cannot use an eHDD without a working iHDD. There's also a sticky on eHDD.

3. Here's the SA FAQ which contains a post on repair info:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719

4. Here's a post useful for those "new" to the forum - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741
 
#125 · (Edited)
I received a Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue (WD5000AAKX - SATA 6 Gb/s - 3.5 Inch - 7200rpm - 16 MB cache) as part of a barebones computer kit. Not needing 500GB of space in a computer, after testing the drive with a WinXP installation and running some tests (everything ok), I thought I'd swap this new drive with the 160GB drive (WD Caviar Blue) in my PVR.

The install was easy and seemed to go perfectly. However, after test recording 2x 30-minute HD programs, the 'Recording Space Used' screen reported 4% of the drive was filled. That's not right.

I've now cold-booted twice more, and warm-booted twice more, but no change.

Here's pg18 and pg28 from the diagnostics:



Can someone confirm for me that the 'Capactiy' and 'Free Space' of the AVFS shown above is not as it should be -- it's reporting less for each than in the ITFS column.

Any suggestions on what I should do next?

This seems to be the same issue reported by "Poloman" in Post#23 in this thread, who had a Costco-bought 500GB 8642HD:
I recently bought the 500gb version of the 8642(hd3) and I am having issues with the % remaining on the receiver.

Have any of you that have gone to the 1tb drives actually added up the # of hrs of content on the drive to see if you are actually using the entire drive???

The reason I ask is because as I said I have the 500gb version but the firmware thinks its a 160gb.

The reason I know(think) this is the case is because:

1) the drive shows up on page27 as 499gb
2) 1 hr of HD content recorded uses 5% of space....s.b. 1.6%
3) 1 hr of HD content on the 160gb hdd would be exactly 5%

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanx.
 
#128 ·
Everything's good. 9 days later, I finally filled the new 500GB WD 5000AAKX Caviar Blue drive.

Recording only on HD channels, it had stored 75 recordings comprising 90+hrs by the time it reached 100% capacity.



Cisco's 8642HD product brochure says the 500GB can record 62hrs of HD programming and BestBuy's product page for it says "up to.. 60GB", so that seems to indicate that Rogers content delivery is ultra compressed.

Checking the diagnostic pages now, the only change was on Pg18: the AVFS free space was down to 0. After deleting a recording or 2, the AVFS free space # changed to 11580. Not sure how that's calculated, but it doesn't really matter.

I can't imagine ever filling all 500GB again!

Current retail price on this drive is around $90... while 1TB drives are around $110 (a comparative bargain!). But, I found an old TigerDirect email from summer 2011 - the same 500GB drive's price was $39.99 then!
 
#129 ·
Tried upgrading my 160gb to 1Tb but chickened out as the green tamper evident tape is stuck on very well and looks impossible to remove without destroying it - I guess that is the intent LOL. As my box is under warranty, do not want to do this. Any ways of removing this tape without destroying it?
 
#131 ·
Well, I got brave and I carefully tweezed off the tamper evident seal; came off intact except for a few specks of green left behind :D. The rest of the installation of my new 1TB WD Caviar Black was a breeze. Plugged it in, the hard drive immediately started to be formatted and was done before I knew it :D.
Tested by recording a show and all looks well.

Thanks to all the informative posts and posters on this site that made it easy!
 
#132 ·
WD1002FAEX on sale for $119.99 until 5:59 AM EST March 30th

Dell hot deals has the WD Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX on sale for $119.99 until 5:59 AM EST March 30th.
 
#133 ·
This is not an external HDD idea I had but Ive posted it here as it applies to the HDD as a modification.

I have had an interest in modifying the 8642 and I was wondering if anyone had done this. My wife was complaining of the ticks of the 500gb within the new 8642 that I bought.

Has anyone used any external HDDs that were comprised of a 2.5" Solid State drive? Im interested in knowing what drive may be used as I would like to swap out my internal 500gb.

I am aware of the differences between 3.5" and 2.5" formfactors and the costs involved but Im thinking this may be a future trend taking into account issues of power consumption and noise pollution.

Thank you for any input.
EC
 
#134 · (Edited by Moderator)
Drives made by Crucial seem to have amazing read/write performance when compared with others we have tested. However, we did encounter an issue with a specific raid controller and these drives at their current firmware level. Apparently there WILL be a patch / update to the firmware from Crucial at some point.

I have not tried these with any PVRs.

The drive in question is the Crucial M4 512GB Sata 3 drive.
 
#135 ·
Installed my WD Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX last night. Install was seamless and easy. It installed the latest firmware (Software: 3.0.0.1612, UI Version: 3.1.5.24.04.09.11/28392), which is what was running on the old HD.

One interesting outcome has been that I had paused live TV last night and had a couple of instances where I could not get it to stop fast forwarding or rewinding when I hit the keys. Really strange as I did not have that when I had the old 160 GB drive and 500 GB Extender attached.... Strange
 
#136 ·
Ghost the drive

I apologize if this has been asked, I have not read every single post in this thread.

Is it possible to Ghost the original hard drive to a new one in order to save recordings and settings and have it work in the PVR?

Since Ghost is OS agnostic and clones the drive completely I would expect it to work, but I figured asking could not hurt.

Thank you in advance!
 
#138 ·
Caviar Green 1TB working

Yesterday upgraded a second 8642 with a 1TB Caviar Green, 2010 build (sorry forgot to take note of the exact model #). I would've used a Caviar Black but I happened to have the Green already.

PVR is working fine 24h later -- recording seems to recognize the whole TB (haven't tried to fill it). Since the box is on the Whole Home PVR setup the HDD spins continuously (I guess for easy access from other boxes); runs v quiet and cool. Apparently the power-saving spin-down feature is disabled / overridden so no probs. there.

I will post back if I run into any snags with this HDD.
 
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