Humax Feesat HDR - Hard Drive Upgrade ?

[szhjcn2]

I have a Humax HDR Feesat box with a 320Gb Hard Drive.

I would like to upgrade this to 1 or 1.5Tb.

Anyone done this already?

I assume the drive is a SATA drive, hopefully SATA II is supported.

Also what is the format of the drive? i.e. can I copy the files over with my SATA Dock where I can install two drives. If it is Ext2 or Ext3, this driver is already on my PC.

I have looked around, but not yet found anything on this.

I also submitted the question to Humax support, but not sure if/when I will receive a reply. Any details received will be posted here.

 

[szhjcn2]

I have a Humax HDR Feesat box with a 320Gb Hard Drive.

I would like to upgrade this to 1 or 1.5Tb.

Anyone done this already?

I assume the drive is a SATA drive, hopefully SATA II is supported.

Also what is the format of the drive? i.e. can I copy the files over with my SATA Dock where I can install two drives. If it is Ext2 or Ext3, this driver is already on my PC.

I have looked around, but not yet found anything on this.

I also submitted the question to Humax support, but not sure if/when I will receive a reply. Any details received will be posted here.

 

[Lazarus]

As long as the Drive is optimised for HDR use, I have seen reports of up to 2TB drives being fitted, but I'll be totally honest and say I've tried to find those reports and haven't succeeded.

Good luck with Humax Support - they have shot themselves in the foot with their dilatory and unsatisfactory responses to recent Application Software updates for Foxsat models and have a long standing reputation for not answering EMails. Use the telephone instead.

 

[Lazarus]

As long as the Drive is optimised for HDR use, I have seen reports of up to 2TB drives being fitted, but I'll be totally honest and say I've tried to find those reports and haven't succeeded.

Good luck with Humax Support - they have shot themselves in the foot with their dilatory and unsatisfactory responses to recent Application Software updates for Foxsat models and have a long standing reputation for not answering EMails. Use the telephone instead.

 

[Lazarus]

I recently tried to fit a 1.5TB into a Humax unit - it does work but the process is significantly more involved than that which would be required for a 1TB or less drive. There seems to be some numeric limits in the software that prevent full function.

If you just swap the drive it is recognised by the unit, the unit boots and attempts to format the drive but gets no further than this. As a warning to other users, if you put the original drive back after failing this format operation the unit insists that it also wants to format the original drive - it seems that the unit knows that it has started a format and partition operation and remembers this and will continue to try to do this until it is successful. I used a different smaller drive at this point, the format and partition were successful, and then swapped back to the original drive to leave the unit unchanged.

In terms of getting the Humax to work with a drive greater than 1TB, I did the following:

- Using a copy of Ubuntu Linux or 'Parted Magic' - you can run from CD or USB key, or in my case on a VM image on a mac - I took the original drive from the unit and copied the reserve.info file which appears on the first of 4 partitions on the drive. I have no idea if the reserve.info file is significant, but I'm just repeating what I did.

- The original 350GB disk is partitioned (ext3) as follows:
Device Volume Size Assumed Purpose
/sde1 /media/disk 2.2GB System info
/sde2 /media/disk-1 106MB ?
/sde3 /media/disk-2 218GB Video
/sde4 /media/disk-3 27GB Music/Pictures

- I then put the new 1.5TB drive into the caddy and split it into 4 ext3 Linux partitions:
Device Volume Size Assumed Purpose
/sde1 /media/disk 10GB System info
/sde2 /media/disk-1 10GB ?
/sde3 /media/disk-2 1000GB Video
/sde4 /media/disk-3 Remainder Music/Pictures

- I then copied the reserve.info file back onto the first partition and put the new drive back into the Humax unit.

- Switching the Humax on it goes to 'boot' then switches itself off again and needs to be woken using the remote. It doesn't attempt to re-format the drive.

The Humax is currently working fine and can record HD and SD without any issues, but all status information on drive size etc is wrong. I think that this is a software issue - somewhere there is a calculation that doesn't deal well with the the larger size of partition. Maybe the output was only ever expected to show 3 digits not 4!

My guess is that this might be fixed if the video partition was reduced to 999GB (or less) so at some point I will do this - or if necessary I will re-partition the whole drive so that it totals to less than 1TB.

If you don't want to go through all of this hassle I would suggest that you only replace the internal unit with a drive of 1TB or less. That way the unit itself can deal with all of the formatting and the change would be very very straightforward.

 

[Lazarus]

I recently tried to fit a 1.5TB into a Humax unit - it does work but the process is significantly more involved than that which would be required for a 1TB or less drive. There seems to be some numeric limits in the software that prevent full function.

If you just swap the drive it is recognised by the unit, the unit boots and attempts to format the drive but gets no further than this. As a warning to other users, if you put the original drive back after failing this format operation the unit insists that it also wants to format the original drive - it seems that the unit knows that it has started a format and partition operation and remembers this and will continue to try to do this until it is successful. I used a different smaller drive at this point, the format and partition were successful, and then swapped back to the original drive to leave the unit unchanged.

In terms of getting the Humax to work with a drive greater than 1TB, I did the following:

- Using a copy of Ubuntu Linux or 'Parted Magic' - you can run from CD or USB key, or in my case on a VM image on a mac - I took the original drive from the unit and copied the reserve.info file which appears on the first of 4 partitions on the drive. I have no idea if the reserve.info file is significant, but I'm just repeating what I did.

- The original 350GB disk is partitioned (ext3) as follows:
Device Volume Size Assumed Purpose
/sde1 /media/disk 2.2GB System info
/sde2 /media/disk-1 106MB ?
/sde3 /media/disk-2 218GB Video
/sde4 /media/disk-3 27GB Music/Pictures

- I then put the new 1.5TB drive into the caddy and split it into 4 ext3 Linux partitions:
Device Volume Size Assumed Purpose
/sde1 /media/disk 10GB System info
/sde2 /media/disk-1 10GB ?
/sde3 /media/disk-2 1000GB Video
/sde4 /media/disk-3 Remainder Music/Pictures

- I then copied the reserve.info file back onto the first partition and put the new drive back into the Humax unit.

- Switching the Humax on it goes to 'boot' then switches itself off again and needs to be woken using the remote. It doesn't attempt to re-format the drive.

The Humax is currently working fine and can record HD and SD without any issues, but all status information on drive size etc is wrong. I think that this is a software issue - somewhere there is a calculation that doesn't deal well with the the larger size of partition. Maybe the output was only ever expected to show 3 digits not 4!

My guess is that this might be fixed if the video partition was reduced to 999GB (or less) so at some point I will do this - or if necessary I will re-partition the whole drive so that it totals to less than 1TB.

If you don't want to go through all of this hassle I would suggest that you only replace the internal unit with a drive of 1TB or less. That way the unit itself can deal with all of the formatting and the change would be very very straightforward.

 

[szhjcn2]

Hi Tivù,

Thanks for your feedback. I will give this a try in the near future.

 

[szhjcn2]

Hi Tivù,

Thanks for your feedback. I will give this a try in the near future.

 

[PaulR]

There are at least two suppliers of HDRs with 1TB drives installed. Putting humax hdr 1tb into the search box at Ebay currently brings up 3 hits.

One of the suppliers is using a WD Caviar Green drive while the other other one does not say. From investigations elsewhere I believe the other supplier is using a Seagate Pipeline drive, the same (but bigger) as fitted as standard - at least it is in mine. The Pipeline series is optimised for AV use. Searching for Pipeline at the computers, storage area of Ebay brings up several hits. Sometimes there are 1TB units for sale and here is where it gets a little difficult.

At 1TB there is a choice between Pipeline and a Pipeline Pro versions. The Pipeline has EXACTLY the same power consumption and other details regardless of size but the Pro has a larger cache and consumes slightly more power. Whether this is important or not I really don't know but so far I've chickened out of this upgrade. Regardless I, personally, wouldn't step outside the Seagate world for my hard drive.

 

[PaulR]

There are at least two suppliers of HDRs with 1TB drives installed. Putting humax hdr 1tb into the search box at Ebay currently brings up 3 hits.

One of the suppliers is using a WD Caviar Green drive while the other other one does not say. From investigations elsewhere I believe the other supplier is using a Seagate Pipeline drive, the same (but bigger) as fitted as standard - at least it is in mine. The Pipeline series is optimised for AV use. Searching for Pipeline at the computers, storage area of Ebay brings up several hits. Sometimes there are 1TB units for sale and here is where it gets a little difficult.

At 1TB there is a choice between Pipeline and a Pipeline Pro versions. The Pipeline has EXACTLY the same power consumption and other details regardless of size but the Pro has a larger cache and consumes slightly more power. Whether this is important or not I really don't know but so far I've chickened out of this upgrade. Regardless I, personally, wouldn't step outside the Seagate world for my hard drive.

 

[Lazarus]

Take care with some Seagate drives.

About a year ago 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB models suffered a firmware problem which in some cases to them locking up and refusing to boot.

It was well publicised at the time:

_http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sea...zing,6558.html (amongst others)

On the Seagate site there's an application somewhere enabling the model number to be entered to confirm whether it's affected or not.

Hopefully this is past history, but perhaps worth posting as a caveat, nevertheless!

 

[Lazarus]

Take care with some Seagate drives.

About a year ago 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB models suffered a firmware problem which in some cases to them locking up and refusing to boot.

It was well publicised at the time:

_http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sea...zing,6558.html (amongst others)

On the Seagate site there's an application somewhere enabling the model number to be entered to confirm whether it's affected or not.

Hopefully this is past history, but perhaps worth posting as a caveat, nevertheless!

 

[PaulR]

Just had a look at the link. Two things; firstly it's talking about the 1.5TB drive and secondly, it's the Barracuda range.

As I said the Pipeline range is optimised for AV use. I wouldn't use ANYTHING that didn't specifically say it could cope with the different satrains that AV use puts on a hard drive

 

[PaulR]

Just had a look at the link. Two things; firstly it's talking about the 1.5TB drive and secondly, it's the Barracuda range.

As I said the Pipeline range is optimised for AV use. I wouldn't use ANYTHING that didn't specifically say it could cope with the different satrains that AV use puts on a hard drive

 

[Lazarus]

Stout fellow. All grist to the OP's mill.

 

[Lazarus]

Stout fellow. All grist to the OP's mill.

 

[szhjcn2]

I will probably look at buying this drive:

Western Digital AV-GP, 32MB, 1TB, SATA-II, 24/7

As it's designed for the job from my understanding.

Maybe first try calling HUMAX support and ask if they plan to add 1.5Tb support.

 

[szhjcn2]

I will probably look at buying this drive:

Western Digital AV-GP, 32MB, 1TB, SATA-II, 24/7

As it's designed for the job from my understanding.

Maybe first try calling HUMAX support and ask if they plan to add 1.5Tb support.

 

[szhjcn2]

Hi,

Meant to post this a few weeks ago but didn't have the time.

Did the upgrade before Xmas mainly so I could set programs to record while away without the danger of running out of space.

Was ca. 80% full After upgrade 20%.

Installed the WD Green power 1Tb AV drive.

Did this by initially just swopping the drives, then once auto-format was complete, tried to copy programs over via the USB on the Humax & a SATA Dock. I soon realised this was a pain, so ripped out the drive again and wacked both drives into my SATA dock, connected to my PC via eSATA and copied all files & folders over (had to add some of the partitions manually in the Ext3 tool).

Plugged the drive back in and all working fine.

So thanks again to the poster of the solution.

 

[Lazarus]

Very good result and thanks for letting us know how you achieved success: It may help others

PS: You are the Original Poster !