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Storage Can i use a sky hd hard drive

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by numanoid, 26 Jun 2011.

  1. numanoid

    numanoid Modder

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    Hi guys
    ive just been given a 500gb hard drive out of a sky hd +
    box, can i use it in a computer if i format it etc
    thanks
    take care
     
    Last edited: 26 Jun 2011
  2. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    yes you can, its a normal sata hd, that might have been optimised for DVR, but works as normal once formatted
     
  3. numanoid

    numanoid Modder

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    Thanks rich
    take care matey
     
  4. jonoiv

    jonoiv What's a Dremel?

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    Out of interest what kind of drive do they have in the hd box, what brand? im guessing it will be a western digital.

    I thought the boxes remained the property of sky ? or is that just virgin im thinking of !:confused:
     
  5. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    No, because you "buy" the box as part of your installation or upgrade, the box is yours. Which is also why, if your box goes wrong, you'll have to stump up for a new one unless you have Sky Protect.
     
  6. numanoid

    numanoid Modder

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    The hard drive in this sky box is a seagate 500gb, fibblebot is right, the box belongs to you as you buy it off sky
    thanks
    take care
     
  7. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    the last skyhd box i took the drive out of had a maxtor 320gb in it.
     
  8. numanoid

    numanoid Modder

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    Lol not this one
     
  9. kenco_uk

    kenco_uk I unsuccessfully then tried again

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    Same here. It was from a Thomson box when I installed a 1TB drive into it. The hdd's still going strong though - it gets about 5.4 WEI on Vista iirc.
     
  10. Yslen

    Yslen Lord of the Twenty-Seventh Circle

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    You can definitely use the drive, but you might have some fun and games getting that far. It seems to be immune to most ordinary methods of formatting.
     
  11. Bungletron

    Bungletron Minimodder

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    maxtor and seagate are the same company now, I have 2 250gb drives that are branded maxtor and seagate respectively but actually look exactly the same. I have seen a 300gb Maxtor drive from a pace pvr so would not be surprised to see seagate/maxtor drives populating pace skyHD+ boxes.
     
  12. MazzaB

    MazzaB What's a Dremel?

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    Anyone found any problems with 1tb or bigger HDS in the old HD boxes - I want to replace my 320gb HDD with a bigger one as I'm always running out of space!
     
  13. kenco_uk

    kenco_uk I unsuccessfully then tried again

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    You can directly replace it but if you're running the new epg Copy+ isn't able to copy any old recorded programs from the old drive to the new drive.
     
  14. MazzaB

    MazzaB What's a Dremel?

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    How can I tell which EPG i'm running? I don't know what the old one looked like (or maybe I do?)
     
  15. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    The new EPG is the one with the preview screen in the top right (I think). It's about a year-18 months old now, so chances are you're running the new version.
     
  16. MazzaB

    MazzaB What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks - it seems the new "darwin" software has changed the whole file structure for the EPG and planner. They have been working on a fix since February, but nothing posted on Copy+ website since then. This is the last post on their own forums.

    http://www.skycopyplus.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1057.

    Basically I'll have to watch everything or scrap it before upgrading the HDD. Thats 50 hours of TV!
     
  17. ArthurB

    ArthurB What's a Dremel?

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    Since the drive is an OEM drive, you won't be able to get Seagate to replace it if it fails.

    I wouldn't use it to store anything important. :)
     

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