Replacement 2TB hdd Sky+ HD

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
The hdd on out 2TB Sky+ box has died. Anyone got any experiences of which of the Western Digital rainbow of colours is the best replacement for the DRX895W??




Not interested in downgrading to SkyQ.
 
Last edited:

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
From "bitter experience" I would make sure that you, if you can, replace the current disk with exactly the same brand and model - because, if you don't, then the replacement may not last very long (6 months was the average in my experience!).:rolleyes:

Therefore, I would take the old one out (that's a pig of a job, but this thread gives gives a good walkthrough with pics), find out what that is and then get the same again.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,536
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Western Digital, you have my sympathy.
 

statalite

Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
766
Reaction score
314
Points
63
My Satellite Setup
Nova-HD-S2, Dr HD D15, Free sat V7S, Free sat v8 finder V-71HD
Zone 1 @ 28.2°E
Zone 2 @ 19.2°E with 28.2°E and 13.0°E
Channel Master 1.0m (to be setup)
Channel Master 1.2m (to be setup)
SMR 1224
My Location
UK Midlands
Might be cheaper to find a second hand 2tb Sky HD box, if price is a factor, less hastle not taking current one apart.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Western Digital, you have my sympathy.
In the photos in the thread I linked, the original disk appeared to be a Seagate, not a WD, one - FWIW, I've had several WD disks, and at least one Seagate (an Enterprise version in one instance!) disk fail. In truth, buying an HDD "by brand" is always a bit of a lottery as they "come and go".

BTW: I think Seagate now owns WD (which, in turn "owns" the Sandisk brand of SD cards - which, in my experience are pretty good and very reliable)!
 
Last edited:

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Western Digital, you have my sympathy.
They are better than the appalling Seagate Barracuda drives. Ive had no end of failures of those pos 500 gig drives in the computers at work.

Ive managed to restart the box somehow and its recognising the drive again so crisis averted for the time being. SWMBO will watch the stuff thats really important and we will see how long it runs for before it expires totally.
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Might be cheaper to find a second hand 2tb Sky HD box, if price is a factor, less hastle not taking current one apart.
It doesnt look too bad too take apart. I got the outer shell off no problem, but would need my pliers which are somewhere in the unlit garage to take the inner apart.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
It doesnt look too bad too take apart. I got the outer shell off no problem, but would need my pliers which are somewhere in the unlit garage to take the inner apart.
Needle-nosed pliers are much recommended for straightening the many chassis-part "lugs" that hold the inner metal sections together.

Edited: when reassembling the receiver be VERY careful to align the pins on the main board with the sockets on the upper daughter - "otherwise"!
 
Last edited:

statalite

Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
766
Reaction score
314
Points
63
My Satellite Setup
Nova-HD-S2, Dr HD D15, Free sat V7S, Free sat v8 finder V-71HD
Zone 1 @ 28.2°E
Zone 2 @ 19.2°E with 28.2°E and 13.0°E
Channel Master 1.0m (to be setup)
Channel Master 1.2m (to be setup)
SMR 1224
My Location
UK Midlands
It doesnt look too bad too take apart. I got the outer shell off no problem, but would need my pliers which are somewhere in the unlit garage to take the inner apart.
In that case I would recommend the WD 2tb purple if you can still get one. I have 2 of these for the last few years and haven't failed, they are more designed for CCTV / PVR application. I chose 2TB because as I hadlve read at the time the software won't detect anything over 2.5TB.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
In that case I would recommend the WD 2tb purple if you can still get one. I have 2 of these for the last few years and haven't failed, they are more designed for CCTV / PVR application. I chose 2TB because as I hadlve read at the time the software won't detect anything over 2.5TB.
Possibly a good idea - the 4Gb Purple drive in my 6 camera CCTV NVR system seems to be working "OK" after nearly a year
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
The box locked up solid again as soon as the missus tried playing something back then lost track of the drive again after I had yanked the power, so a new purple hdd is on order. We will see how it goes..........
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
BTW, that'll depend on how the box "responds" to a Purple drive - ATM, "nobody knows", and thus one hopes for a good result.

Edited: is it worth trying a full "factory reset" with the existing HDD to see if that "fixes" the problem (for at least "a time")???
 
Last edited:

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,536
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Have you tried a diagnostic check with the hard drive slaved into a desktop computer ?
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
@Analoguesat

A couple more thoughts from my own experience:
- I tried to upgrade a DRX890 with a much larger disk,, but, after about 4-6 months of not terribly heavy use, I started to get a lot of stuttering when playing back recorded programmes but the box did not lock up completely - and the same thing happened when I (foolishly!) bought another one from ebay that had been "upgraded"
- OTOH, the DRX895 that I found in a LIDL carpark bin several years ago DID lock up when I tried to record anything, or tried to playback anything on the disk - and that one was "fixed" by a Factory Reset and appeared to work fine afterwards.

Therefore, I now tend to think that your box may not have a failed disk, but really needs that Reset, and then don't let the disk get ANYWHERE near "full" - my "rule of thumb" with the current DRX895 is to never let the free space drop below 40%, and to try to keep it at around 50%, and, so far, that's worked since I bought it in 2012/2013.
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
@jeallen01 Factory reset seems to have cleared the issue for the time being. I will put the spare purple drive into the spares box as we are getting a series of short duration power cuts atm (once a week or so) and any of them could toast the drive
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
@jeallen01 Factory reset seems to have cleared the issue for the time being. I will put the spare purple drive into the spares box as we are getting a series of short duration power cuts atm (once a week or so) and any of them could toast the drive
@Analoguesat

Glad that Factory Reset worked :D

FWIW, I've never had a problem with sudden loss of AC power to the SKY box when I switched that off at the wall socket (usually because it had temporarily locked up through trying to change channel or "pressed an R/C button", multiple times too quickly!). Therefore I doubt that a short duration power outage would damage the HDD in one of those boxes (nor did that happen when the power to the CCTV NVR with the 4GB Purple drive was disconnected, on multiple occasions, whilst I was "experimenting" with it prior to putting it up in the loft).

Don't forget that, even when the AC power is cut off suddenly, it takes a relatively long time (in terms of the speed of the circuits in the box) for the voltage on the supply rails to the HDD to decay to the point where the latter won't operate.

Thus, frankly, unless you have a very good reason for keeping it, I'd return the Purple drive and get your money back (and, within reason, if you have to buy the same drive in the future, it'll then probably cost less than it currently does).

PS: I'd loved to have been a "fly on the wall" when you told your family that all their recordings would be "history" when you had to do that Factory Reset - maybe they''ll now remember to "think" before they record "anything and everything" that they think they might want to watch in the future!:)
 
Last edited:

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Update:

After I did a full reset on the drive things were ok for a couple of days but then the freezing issues came back. The missus put a "keep" lock on one of the faulty recordings and the issue has gone away again at the moment, so I now believe there are indeed faulty sectors on the drive platters, and its likely the drive may well be failing.. Ive still got the purple drive so at some point that will be installed into the box. I will update on progress, although it may well have to wait until the xmas holidays before I get a chance to pull the box apart.
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
There's a program called Copy+ that allows you to transfer what's recoverable on the source drive to the target one. I've done it once - not 100% successful but mostly did the job.
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
The box has packed up completely again this evening. Hard drive swap in the next couple of days........
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,221
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
An interesting development. I dug an old Sky+ receiver out of the depths of the garage and connected it up in the expectation the missus could watch the free channels. I stuck our Sky subs card from the broken box into it & after 24 hours its fully operational despite not pairing the card with it. Al the bottom tier channels are available & its recording. I call that a result. The hdd is a little noisy & its only 1TB, but it will do for the time being.
 
Top