brookheather
Distinguished Member
I thought I would start a new thread with full instructions on how to upgrade the hard drive in a Humax HDR FOX-T2 from 500GB/1TB to 2TB. I will revise this post with any feedback from others who upgrade.
These instructions will preserve any recorded programs on your old hard drive. Your scheduled recordings are not kept on the hard drive (they are probably in flash memory on the motherboard). If you don't need to preserve any recordings then it may be possible to just install a new blank hard drive and format it from within the Humax menu - I haven't tried this myself.
Buy a hard drive
The first step is to buy a suitable hard drive. Currently the Samsung F4EG 2TB and Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB drives have been confirmed as working. Both of these drives have the new 4K sectors (advanced format) and so I do not anticipate problems with any other similar hard drives. It is unlikely that the larger 3TB drives will work as they will require the new GPT partition table which isn't compatible with the Humax. These drives are "green" meaning they spin slower and use less power which is good for a PVR.
Scan.co.uk: 2TB Samsung SpinPoint EcoGreen Hard Drive - HD204UI/Z4
Scan.co.uk: 2TB (2000 GB) Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive - HDD - WD20EARS
Remove the old hard drive
Before removing the old hard drive ensure you have turned off the box and disconnected it from the mains. Observe standard precautions when working with sensitive electronics by using an earthing strap etc. Following these instructions is all at your own risk!
To remove the old hard drive you first need to remove the lid which is held by three screws on the rear of the case. You will need to break the warranty void sticker to do this. I recommend using a magnetic tipped screwdriver so you don't lose any of the screws inside the case.
You then need to unplug the hard drive power connector, SATA cable and fan connector. Then remove the four screws holding the hard drive enclosure and then remove the four screws in the enclosure which hold the hard drive. Then remove the combined SATA power/data cable from the hard drive.
Copying to the new hard drive
You will need a PC with two spare SATA power and data cables - you may wish to disconnect the existing drives in a PC for this purpose.
Download PartedMagic ISO image file and burn the image to a CD to create a bootable Linux partition tool:
Download PartedMagic
Connect the old and new hard drives to your PC and boot the PC using the PartedMagic CD. Choose the default start option and run it in RAM - it will then load the Linux image from the CD and drop you into the Linux desktop.
Run the Partition Editor from the icon on the desktop. It will scan your system and on the right has a drop down list of available drives - check that both of the drives are listed.
Select the new Humax hard drive from this list and choose the "Create Partition Table" menu option - you want the default "msdos" option. This will wipe any data on the new hard drive.
Now select the old Humax hard drive from this list (should be shown as just under 500GB in size). You should see three partitions of about 1GB, 460GB and 10GB.
Select the first 1GB partition on the old drive and press the "Copy" button on the toolbar. Then go to the new drive and select the unallocated space and press the "Paste" button.
For the second partition which holds the existing video files you have two choices. If you are unfamiliar with Linux then go with the easy but slow option which is to Copy/Paste the second 460GB partition from the old drive to the new drive. Before pasting the partition you will need to adjust the size to maximise this partition size so enter 10,500MB for the remaining size - this should give you just under 1,900,000MB for the second partition size.
If you are comfortable with Linux then create the second ext3 partition manually - you can then mount it later and copy the video files manually - this is much quicker.
Last step is to copy/paste the third 10GB partition. Looking at the new drive you should see three partitions with a few MB to spare at the end. You now press the "Apply" button to save these changes to the new drive - this will take some time - allow two to three hours if you are copying the whole 460GB partition.
One this operation has completed you can now shutdown the PC and remove the hard drives. You now just need to install the new hard drive in the Humax. Remember to reconnect all three cables including the fan connector. One tip is to install the hard drive in the enclosure on its side - it makes it easier to line up the holes.
When you start your Humax it shouldn't say anything - it will just start as normal. When you go to your Media page it should now show you a significant boost to your free space! If the Humax asks to format the hard drive then something has gone wrong in following the steps above.
- Simon.
These instructions will preserve any recorded programs on your old hard drive. Your scheduled recordings are not kept on the hard drive (they are probably in flash memory on the motherboard). If you don't need to preserve any recordings then it may be possible to just install a new blank hard drive and format it from within the Humax menu - I haven't tried this myself.
Buy a hard drive
The first step is to buy a suitable hard drive. Currently the Samsung F4EG 2TB and Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB drives have been confirmed as working. Both of these drives have the new 4K sectors (advanced format) and so I do not anticipate problems with any other similar hard drives. It is unlikely that the larger 3TB drives will work as they will require the new GPT partition table which isn't compatible with the Humax. These drives are "green" meaning they spin slower and use less power which is good for a PVR.
Scan.co.uk: 2TB Samsung SpinPoint EcoGreen Hard Drive - HD204UI/Z4
Scan.co.uk: 2TB (2000 GB) Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive - HDD - WD20EARS
Remove the old hard drive
Before removing the old hard drive ensure you have turned off the box and disconnected it from the mains. Observe standard precautions when working with sensitive electronics by using an earthing strap etc. Following these instructions is all at your own risk!
To remove the old hard drive you first need to remove the lid which is held by three screws on the rear of the case. You will need to break the warranty void sticker to do this. I recommend using a magnetic tipped screwdriver so you don't lose any of the screws inside the case.
You then need to unplug the hard drive power connector, SATA cable and fan connector. Then remove the four screws holding the hard drive enclosure and then remove the four screws in the enclosure which hold the hard drive. Then remove the combined SATA power/data cable from the hard drive.
Copying to the new hard drive
You will need a PC with two spare SATA power and data cables - you may wish to disconnect the existing drives in a PC for this purpose.
Download PartedMagic ISO image file and burn the image to a CD to create a bootable Linux partition tool:
Download PartedMagic
Connect the old and new hard drives to your PC and boot the PC using the PartedMagic CD. Choose the default start option and run it in RAM - it will then load the Linux image from the CD and drop you into the Linux desktop.
Run the Partition Editor from the icon on the desktop. It will scan your system and on the right has a drop down list of available drives - check that both of the drives are listed.
Select the new Humax hard drive from this list and choose the "Create Partition Table" menu option - you want the default "msdos" option. This will wipe any data on the new hard drive.
Now select the old Humax hard drive from this list (should be shown as just under 500GB in size). You should see three partitions of about 1GB, 460GB and 10GB.
Select the first 1GB partition on the old drive and press the "Copy" button on the toolbar. Then go to the new drive and select the unallocated space and press the "Paste" button.
For the second partition which holds the existing video files you have two choices. If you are unfamiliar with Linux then go with the easy but slow option which is to Copy/Paste the second 460GB partition from the old drive to the new drive. Before pasting the partition you will need to adjust the size to maximise this partition size so enter 10,500MB for the remaining size - this should give you just under 1,900,000MB for the second partition size.
If you are comfortable with Linux then create the second ext3 partition manually - you can then mount it later and copy the video files manually - this is much quicker.
Last step is to copy/paste the third 10GB partition. Looking at the new drive you should see three partitions with a few MB to spare at the end. You now press the "Apply" button to save these changes to the new drive - this will take some time - allow two to three hours if you are copying the whole 460GB partition.
One this operation has completed you can now shutdown the PC and remove the hard drives. You now just need to install the new hard drive in the Humax. Remember to reconnect all three cables including the fan connector. One tip is to install the hard drive in the enclosure on its side - it makes it easier to line up the holes.
When you start your Humax it shouldn't say anything - it will just start as normal. When you go to your Media page it should now show you a significant boost to your free space! If the Humax asks to format the hard drive then something has gone wrong in following the steps above.
- Simon.
Last edited: