[nealbran]

I have recently been trying to upgrade to a 1TB disk in my samsung Sky+ HD box and using a WD10EVCS after every 5 minutes my Samsung box just turns off. It would also stutter on the playback of recordings etc... I used copy+ to copying the programs over without any problems and prepare the new disk.

I fitted the original drive back in the box and it works fine.

I would like to hear other people's experiences and if anyone has long term success with the Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 1TB or any other 1TB disk. It would be particularly interesting to hear if someone had the same problem as me and then used the Samsung hard disk without issue.

I believe as per another poster on box resets its all power related as my WD10EVCS is the same as below and the box can't handle it I believe.

"If you look at the specs. on the top of the drive fitted by Sky:
300GB Seagate DB35.3: +5v 0.72A, +12v 0.52A
Whereas the replacement drives that didn't work are:
1TB Western Digital WD10EACS: +5v 0.70A, +12v 0.55A
400GB Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80: +5v 0.78A, +12v 0.98A
and the one that does work is:
1TB Samsung HD103UJ: +5v 0.70A, +12v 0.50A
So maybe the issue is the 12v power consumption?
My hunch is that any drive which consumes more than 0.52A current at +12v is likely to fail"

Cheers

Neal

[Martin J.]

There is an ongoing thread on this subject just a few posts below your own: http://www.avforums.com/forums/sky-h...b-upgrade.html

[nealbran]

This seemed to relate to box upgrades in general rather than just the Samsung box

[Martin J.]

If you read through to the end, it is primarily Samsung related.

[mudstuff]

Is the 1TB Samsung HD103UJ still working ok? Looking to upgrde my samsung hd box and would rather have 1TB if possible as opposed to the 750GB Seagate everyone seems to be using. If you're gonna upgrade, make it a good one I say!

[Stoofa]

The 750GB Seagate mentioned in the other thread is by far the best drive to use in the Samsung boxes - 100% success rate with them at the moment.

Quite why the Samsung box is having these problems is unclear.
The voltage issues appear to have been a red herring.
A friend of mine who works in Sky R&D also couldn't work out why - a recent software upgrade (released for other reasons) may have had the result that the Samsung boxes would be less picky on upgrade discs.
Alas that didn't happen.

[mudstuff]

Thanks mate, I'll stick with the seagate for now then.

[simon194]

Originally Posted by Stoofa

The 750GB Seagate mentioned in the other thread is by far the best drive to use in the Samsung boxes - 100% success rate with them at the moment.

Quite why the Samsung box is having these problems is unclear.
The voltage issues appear to have been a red herring.
A friend of mine who works in Sky R&D also couldn't work out why - a recent software upgrade (released for other reasons) may have had the result that the Samsung boxes would be less picky on upgrade discs.
Alas that didn't happen.

I thought it was the IntelliPower feature of some WD drives that caused the problem with Samsung boxes or have I got that wrong.

[buffalobill]

I upgraded to the 1TB Samsung HD103UJ drive before I went on holiday last week and all was working fine. I came back yesterday and my planner was bare A planner rebuild didn't bring anything back either.

An average HD movie now takes around 3% whereas straight after the upgrade it took up around 2%. Am I to presume that the drive has been reformatted and treated as 750Gb?

[Stoofa]

Originally Posted by simon194

I thought it was the IntelliPower feature of some WD drives that caused the problem with Samsung boxes or have I got that wrong.

I don't think there has been any definitive answers - only speculation and theory.
A friend of mine works in Sky R&D and I explained the problem to him.
He spoke with the "Expert on Samsung boxes" and he too was a little ost as to why it was happening.

My friend then said "Wait for the next software update" (this was the one prior to the one we've just had).
The software update was being released to fix various things, however he thought it might also fix this disc incompatibility issue on the box (unofficial fix of course as Sky cannot acknowledge HD upgrades etc).
The software update came through however I wasn't in the modd to take my box apart yet again and replace the 750GB drive with a 1TB.

I'd be interested to hear if somebody with a Samsung box that is definitely running the very latest software update has tried a 1TB disc and what their results were.

[buffalobill]

My box is a Thomson one, and I've read success stories with the HD103UJ drive.

Do I run it through Copy+ again or is it doomed to failure?

[-Hitman-]

I upgraded my Samsung HD box last October time to a Samsung 1TB F1 spinpoint and it's been perfectly fine before/after the latest updates!

It is confusing to read reports of some being successful and some not, could well be down to a faulty hard drive, for me no problems with mine.

Just bought a couple of WD WD10EADS 1TB drives cheap as i store tons of HD material, already full on the F1 and also a quick release caddy, with this being powered on it's own i won't be using the HD box's power and so shouldn't cause any power problems with the new drives.

[holcroft]

Originally Posted by nealbran

I believe as per another poster on box resets its all power related as my WD10EVCS is the same as below and the box can't handle it I believe.

"If you look at the specs. on the top of the drive fitted by Sky:
300GB Seagate DB35.3: +5v 0.72A, +12v 0.52A
Whereas the replacement drives that didn't work are:
1TB Western Digital WD10EACS: +5v 0.70A, +12v 0.55A
400GB Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80: +5v 0.78A, +12v 0.98A
and the one that does work is:
1TB Samsung HD103UJ: +5v 0.70A, +12v 0.50A
So maybe the issue is the 12v power consumption?
My hunch is that any drive which consumes more than 0.52A current at +12v is likely to fail"

Cheers

Neal

I have just opened my brand new samsung Sky HD box to upgrade. I had a spare WD10 EVCS which works great in the thomson I have, and have read that these don't work well in the samsung which previous posters have said have a Seagate drive in.

Anyhow the drive in my Samsung is a WD 3200 AVJS which has settings as :
5VDC - 0.65A
12VDC - 0.50A

The WD 10 EVCS settings are :
5VDC - 0.70A
12VDC - 0.55A

I will report if it works, but has anyone upgraded a Samsung that had a WD disk as the original rather than a Seagate and if so what have they used?

[stmary]

Neilbran,
Any luck with the Samsung WD10EVCS upgrade. I am about to try the same thing but wondered if you or any one else has had any luck yet or if I need to but another 1TB drive.

[holcroft]

Originally Posted by stmary

Neilbran,
Any luck with the Samsung WD10EVCS upgrade. I am about to try the same thing but wondered if you or any one else has had any luck yet or if I need to but another 1TB drive.

I have now upgraded two Samsung Sky HD boxes with WD10EVCS 1 TB drives and so far after over 4 weeks I have had no problems whatsoever - both machines working fine. The new EPG not been downloaded to the Samsungs yet but others have reported no problems with the new EPG and larger drives

[mudstuff]

What do you think caused the problem for others? Do you reckon a firmware update solved this?

I'm curious as I still haven't got around to upgrading my Samsung HD box but plan to this month. I'd rather buy a 1TB than the Seagate 750GB if plenty of people can confirm this now works.

Should I check inside the HD box first and only do it if the currently installed drive is WD instead of Seagate?

Any help appreciated.

[Mr X]

I upgraded my ThompsonHD box with a 1TB WD drive and have been very pleased with it. About to take delivery on an additional Samsung HD+ Box and am trying to find out what the best Hard Drive is for the Samsung?

[wellfan]

Originally Posted by Mr X

I upgraded my ThompsonHD box with a 1TB WD drive and have been very pleased with it. About to take delivery on an additional Samsung HD+ Box and am trying to find out what the best Hard Drive is for the Samsung?

What model number of WD drive did you use in the Thomson box?

[Mr X]

1TB Western Digital WD10EVCS

[PE06MCG]

Read somewhere perhaps on this forum that the variation found by users of suitability is caused by assuming the same replacement HDD will suit all STB's.

If this is already known my apologies to you all.

The poster said that his experience is that one should replace a Seagate with a Seagate, a Samsung with a Samsung etc. even if say a Samsung STB does not have a Samsung HDD originally.

I followed his/her advice re my new Amstrad because of problems with the 1 Tb Seagate from my Pace replacement (clicking, heat, noise) which did not occur in the Pace.
It contained a WD so i replaced with a cheap WD10EADS.

Results are fabulous, virtually no heat, no clicking or noise even seems more responsive. Certainly no malfunctions.

[RichardJ]

Tried to upgrade my samsung using a 1TB samsung spinpoint drive that I was using in my pace box (and thomson box before that) and it kept shutting down, as I feared.

Bought a 1TB seagate pipeline HD disk (the same type as was fitted by default in my box) and its working fine and is incredibly quiet compared to the samsung disk. I have the lid off, recording 2 HD channels and playing back an HD recording and can't hear a thing.

The drive is a ST31000533CS Pipeline HD Pro 1TB Hard Drive from ebuyer.

[Fotoman]

I have a Samsung HD box and fitted a 1TB Samsung Drive HD103UJ and it kept going into stand by and froze. Would only reset by pulling power lead, then does same thing again.
So fitted a WD 5000AVVS (500gig) and it worked a treat, also bought a WD10EVVS (1TB) and this has been working for over a week now none stop and its fine. Hope this helps some of you for upgrading. ps: I only have old EPG menu on my box.

[paodin]

Hi I have a Samsung SKYHD box - manufactured Jan 09, it had a WD3200AVJS drive in it.
I just replaced it with a Toshiba drive
The 1Tb Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B HDT721010SLA360 from aria
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=34559

I used copy+ to do the transfer of the old recordings. The whole thing took about 1.5 hours - 1hour for the copying and 30mins to take everything apart and put it back together.

All seems to be working ok. I initially ran the disk with automatic acustic management and it clicks a little bit - about the same as the old WD drive you could only just hear it. I downloaded 2.07 version of the Toshiba tool (not the 2.15 version from the toshiba website as it doesn't have the AAM included anymore) so you have to get 2.07 of the tool using google. Now I can't hear the drive at all. even when you are right next to the box you have to listen carefully to hear it at all ... amazing. Also it works with the new planner - which arrived Tuesday!!! so I just had my first evening with it and I had no probs atall, recording new stuff, watching new and old recordings and giving the planner a good workout.

So looks liket it works, fingers crossed it will stay that way. If I get any problems with the dirve I'll post again.

Good luck all
A.

[JF1980]

Originally Posted by SilverFox2

It contained a WD so i replaced with a cheap WD10EADS.

Results are fabulous, virtually no heat, no clicking or noise even seems more responsive. Certainly no malfunctions.

Still going strong? I couldn't find the WD10EVCS mentioned earlier in this thread but the WD10EADS is still available.

I have a Seagate Barracuda from my Thomson which I could put in my new Samsung box but I'd rather use something proven to work. The lack of acoustic management on the Seagate is annoying too as it is a little noisier than stock.