Humax Foxsat HDR – Upgrade HDD to 2TB

neiljt

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A Condensed Guide to Hard Drive Configuration

Introduction

I upgraded my unit last night, from the 320GB it came with to a Samsung HD204UI 2TB.

I've no idea how good my choice of drive will prove to have been in the long run, but a number of factors were considered. Firstly, ignoring all advice to favour drives specifically designed for AV use, I had previously (several years ago) upgraded a Sky digital box, replacing the default 40GB drive with a 160GB Samsung drive. That drive lasted me for at least 2 years until I canned Sky. And it got a fair hammering. Though I did disable the Sky instant replay feature, which is said to cane hard drives. I'm not sure if the Humax unit abuses drives in the same way. Other considerations in choosing the Samsung were: capacity, economy, price, sound levels. So I'm not necessarily recommending this particular model, it just works for me.

However this is not intended to be a guide to upgrading the hardware. There seems to be a few of those around already. What I struggled to find was a straightforward guide to configuring a new drive such that it can simply be dropped in and run. You cannot just drop in a 2TB and let the unit format it. Well the unit will certainly have a go, but like I did, you will probably find yourself Googling for help once the front panel has displayed “Initializing Parti” for the first 15 mins or so.

I'm comfortable in a Linux environment, but feel free to choose your tools. The main objective for me was to understand the configuration required rather than being too pedantic about how that should be achieved. So this is less a HOWTO, more a WHATTO. If you see what I mean.

Before you start

Please read the whole guide – including the notes – before starting, or deciding whether or not to start at all. You are assumed to be proficient in UNIX administration. If you're not confident in this area, you could be better off with a more user-friendly guide, as this is not intended as a primer. There will be no further health warning or disclaimers in this guide.

Preparation

Remove “old” drive from Humax device.
Hang both the old drive and shiny new 2TB drive off a nearby linux server.
Log in to the root account.

Create partitions & file systems on new drive

Use fdisk to view partition layout of old drive and take a look around
Use fdisk to create 4 primary partitions on new drive as follows:

Code:
Device		  GB		Purpose
/dev/sdc1	   4		Recording schedules [1]
/dev/sdc2	   0.2		EPG [2]
/dev/sdc3	1994		Video data [3]
/dev/sdc4	   1.2		Music & photos [4]

Create ext3 file systems on each of the 4 partitions on the new drive

Migrate existing configuration & data

Mount the devices on the old & new drives on /mnt/old1-4 & /mnt/new1-4
Copy your old stuff across:

Code:
# cp -rp /mnt/old1/reserve.info /mnt/new1 [5]
# cp -rp /mnt/old2/fsatepg /mnt/new2 [6]
# cp –rp /mnt/old3/* /mnt/new3 [7]
# cp –rp /mnt/old4/* /mnt/new4 [8]
Deploy new drive

Install new drive in Humax STB
Check menu->system->HDD for space available [9]

Notes

[1] The size of the original is 2GB, and this was barely dented at 4% use. But it seems silly to be too mean if you've got so much to go at. 4GB should be enough even for an industrial couch potato.

[2] I could be wrong, but just extending archive storage should not affect the size of the EPG. This can remain tiny.

[3] This is the partition you need to make as big as you can.

[4] This one is up to you, though I don't know why anyone would store photos or music on a STB. If you're with me on this, make it as small as possible. I understand that the unit likes this to be a minimum of 1GB. Now this could either be a real minimum value, or it could be (though this is just a theory) that the unit's interface will not let you configure it to be less. Someone please try setting a much lower value, and follow-up here with your findings!

[5] It could be fact or anecdotal, but I'm sure I have read that copying reserve.info & fsatepg to the appropriate partitions on the new drive convinces the Humax unit that the disk has been prepared for use, and it will not format the drive on first boot after upgrade. It's also possible that you must do more than this – or less! It's definitely more or less true, as I followed the steps above and the unit didn't format the drive on startup.

[6] See [5].

[7] Migrating this data is optional, but if you don't do it, it's probably a good idea to create these 2 subdirectories in the partition: cd /mnt/new3; mkdir Video Movie. All ownerships and permissons should be created as required if you are logged in as root. You can confirm this by checking the setup on the old drive.

[8] Nobody actually uses this, do they? Again, if you don't migrate data from the old drive you should probably create 2 default directories here to fool the unit into thinking all is as it should be (i.e. so it doesn't reformat the drive on first boot). These are the 2 you need: cd /mnt/new4; mkdir Music Photo

[9] When I checked mine after first boot with the new drive, it reported 1.9GB (sic) free. I wasn't too concerned, as the same screen displayed free recording time as 245h (HD) or 980h (SD). So I guess that's a limitation in the firmware. I can live with it.
 
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Thanks for posting such a useful guide. I am about to get a sat dish for the first time and wanted to upgrade the Foxsat-HDR hard disk before I got it connected. I'm also a long time Linux user, here are my additions to your post.

My Foxsat-HDR has never been connected to a dish. I've just connected it via HDMI and used the menus to upgrade the firmware, completed the basic system configuration and reformatted/resized the original 320GB hard disk. Here are the partition sizes from the original 320GB disk.

Code:
/dev/sdc1   2.0GB   Recording Schedules
/dev/sdc2   99M     EPG
/dev/sdc3   291GB  Videos
/dev/sdc4   1GB     Music and Photos

This is the contents of the original 320GB disk when when it is pristine, you'll notice there is no EPG data.

Code:
.
|-- /dev/sdc1
|   |-- lost+found
|   `-- reserve.info
|-- /dev/sdc2
|   `-- lost+found
|-- /dev/sdc3
|   |-- Movie
|   `-- Video
`-- /dev/sdc4
    |-- Music
    `-- Photo

Running Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.1 LTS (32-bit) Desktop I used 'fdisk' to create 4
primary partitions on the 2TB drive.

Code:
/dev/sdc1  2.0GB    Recording Schedules
/dev/sdc2  256MB   EPG
/dev/sdc3  1.9TB    Videos
/dev/sdc4  800MB   Music and Photos

I left the 'Recording Schedules' partition at 2.0GB, just as the original disk. I've increased the 'EPG' to 256MB. The 'Music and Photos' partition I've deliberately made smaller than 1GB to test the theory that smaller sizes will work and it is just the Foxsat-HDR UI that limited to creating a 1GB partition.

I used 'mkfs.ext3' from the command line to ensure that all the available hard disk was allocated for use. By default ext3 will allocate reserved space for the super user user, typically 5% is reserved. I'm guessing this is not required for Foxsat-HDR so I disabled the reserved spaced using then '-m 0' option.

I've also used 'tune2fs' to disable file system checking flags, again I'm guessing these will not be required by the Foxsat-HDR.

Code:
sudo mkfs.ext3  -L "Recording Sched" -m 0 /dev/sdc1
sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdc1

sudo mkfs.ext3  -L "EPG" -m 0 /dev/sdc2
sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdc2

sudo mkfs.ext3  -L "Videos" -m 0 /dev/sdc3
sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdc3

sudo mkfs.ext3  -L "Music and Photos" -m 0 /dev/sdc4
sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdc4

The new 2TB drive appears to work in the Foxsat-HDR, reporting 982 Hours SD and 245 Hours HD capacity. Once I get it connected I'll report back, but all looks fine so far. Only 'reserve.info' is required to convince the Foxsat-HDR that that hard disk is correctly prepared. The Foxsat-HDR GUI correctly reports the new size of the "Music and Photos" partition.

If you want to reclaim the space allocated to the super user then the following should do the trick. It will need to be run on each partition in turn.

Code:
sudo tune2fs -m 0 /dev/sdc1
sudo e2fsck /dev/sdc1

Running 'df -h' before and after will show how much space you've claimed back :)
 
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I've just followed these instructions, also using a Samsung Samsung HD204UI 2TB, but seem to have fallen at the last hurdle. All of my files copied across OK (including recordings) - I viewed them in Ubuntu and the disk content looked identical to the 4 partitions on the old drive.

The Humax booted up OK, but shows 0% used and 0% free on the HDD. Nothing is listed under media.

Does anyone have any ideas what to try next?
 
Does anyone have any ideas what to try next?

I'm no UNIX expert by any means, but could it be that the files on the new disk are owned by your username? To be on the safe side, I converted all mine back to root:root.

You can do this with a series of terminal command like:

sudo chown -R root:root partitionname

Where partitionname is the name of each of the four partitions. If you don't know what they are, an ls in /media (in Ubuntu, not sure if this is the same for other distros) should tell you.
 
I've tried to follow this but everytime I insert the new disk back in the HDR it wants to format the drive. If I stick the original drive back in its fine.

alk about frustrating, can anyone provide any further guidance? Thanks

A Condensed Guide to Hard Drive Configuration

Introduction

I upgraded my unit last night, from the 320GB it came with to a Samsung HD204UI 2TB.

I’ve no idea how good my choice of drive will prove to have been in the long run, but a number of factors were considered. Firstly, ignoring all advice to favour drives specifically designed for AV use, I had previously (several years ago) upgraded a Sky digital box, replacing the default 40GB drive with a 160GB Samsung drive. That drive lasted me for at least 2 years until I canned Sky. And it got a fair hammering. Though I did disable the Sky instant replay feature, which is said to cane hard drives. I’m not sure if the Humax unit abuses drives in the same way. Other considerations in choosing the Samsung were: capacity, economy, price, sound levels. So I’m not necessarily recommending this particular model, it just works for me.

However this is not intended to be a guide to upgrading the hardware. There seems to be a few of those around already. What I struggled to find was a straightforward guide to configuring a new drive such that it can simply be dropped in and run. You cannot just drop in a 2TB and let the unit format it. Well the unit will certainly have a go, but like I did, you will probably find yourself Googling for help once the front panel has displayed “Initializing Parti” for the first 15 mins or so.

I’m comfortable in a Linux environment, but feel free to choose your tools. The main objective for me was to understand the configuration required rather than being too pedantic about how that should be achieved. So this is less a HOWTO, more a WHATTO. If you see what I mean.

Before you start

Please read the whole guide – including the notes – before starting, or deciding whether or not to start at all. You are assumed to be proficient in UNIX administration. If you’re not confident in this area, you could be better off with a more user-friendly guide, as this is not intended as a primer. There will be no further health warning or disclaimers in this guide.

Preparation

Remove “old” drive from Humax device.
Hang both the old drive and shiny new 2TB drive off a nearby linux server.
Log in to the root account.

Create partitions & file systems on new drive

Use fdisk to view partition layout of old drive and take a look around
Use fdisk to create 4 primary partitions on new drive as follows:

Code:
Device          GB        Purpose
/dev/sdc1       4        Recording schedules [1]
/dev/sdc2       0.2        EPG [2]
/dev/sdc3    1994        Video data [3]
/dev/sdc4       1.2        Music & photos [4]

Create ext3 file systems on each of the 4 partitions on the new drive

Migrate existing configuration & data

Mount the devices on the old & new drives on /mnt/old1-4 & /mnt/new1-4
Copy your old stuff across:

Code:
# cp -rp /mnt/old1/reserve.info /mnt/new1 [5]
# cp -rp /mnt/old2/fsatepg /mnt/new2 [6]
# cp –rp /mnt/old3/* /mnt/new3 [7]
# cp –rp /mnt/old4/* /mnt/new4 [8]
Deploy new drive

Install new drive in Humax STB
Check menu->system->HDD for space available [9]

Notes

[1] The size of the original is 2GB, and this was barely dented at 4% use. But it seems silly to be too mean if you’ve got so much to go at. 4GB should be enough even for an industrial couch potato.

[2] I could be wrong, but just extending archive storage should not affect the size of the EPG. This can remain tiny.

[3] This is the partition you need to make as big as you can.

[4] This one is up to you, though I don’t know why anyone would store photos or music on a STB. If you’re with me on this, make it as small as possible. I understand that the unit likes this to be a minimum of 1GB. Now this could either be a real minimum value, or it could be (though this is just a theory) that the unit’s interface will not let you configure it to be less. Someone please try setting a much lower value, and follow-up here with your findings!

[5] It could be fact or anecdotal, but I’m sure I have read that copying reserve.info & fsatepg to the appropriate partitions on the new drive convinces the Humax unit that the disk has been prepared for use, and it will not format the drive on first boot after upgrade. It’s also possible that you must do more than this – or less! It’s definitely more or less true, as I followed the steps above and the unit didn’t format the drive on startup.

[6] See [5].

[7] Migrating this data is optional, but if you don’t do it, it’s probably a good idea to create these 2 subdirectories in the partition: cd /mnt/new3; mkdir Video Movie. All ownerships and permissons should be created as required if you are logged in as root. You can confirm this by checking the setup on the old drive.

[8] Nobody actually uses this, do they? Again, if you don't migrate data from the old drive you should probably create 2 default directories here to fool the unit into thinking all is as it should be (i.e. so it doesn’t reformat the drive on first boot). These are the 2 you need: cd /mnt/new4; mkdir Music Photo

[9] When I checked mine after first boot with the new drive, it reported 1.9GB (sic) free. I wasn’t too concerned, as the same screen displayed free recording time as 245h (HD) or 980h (SD). So I guess that’s a limitation in the firmware. I can live with it.
 
I've tried to follow this but everytime I insert the new disk back in the HDR it wants to format the drive. If I stick the original drive back in its fine.

alk about frustrating, can anyone provide any further guidance? Thanks

I'm currently going through this process myself - installing a 2TB Western Digital AV-GP drive.

I had exactly the same problem as you last night, and have removed the new drive and connected to an Ubuntu box and notice that the new drive had been partitioned with GUID - whereas the original drive is using MBR (Master Boot Record).

I have just re-formatted the drive (using Disk Utility) making it MBR, and re-partitioned (using gparted). I have also created all partitions to "cylinder" rather than "MiB" boundaries.

I now have 2.49MiB partition of unallocated space on the disk - which is exactly the same as the original disk.

I have removed the Lost+Found directories on the new disk that were automatically created during the partitioning process - as these do not reside on the original disk either, and will get created by Linux if they are required, so they aren't really needed to begin with.

I am currently re-copying my data across from the original disk to the new disk.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Edit: Well - not very well as t happens....

I re-formatted the drive using MBR like the original, then partitioned, and copied the data over - placed the drive in the Humax, and booted.

The Humax box just sat at the "BOOT" prompt and didn't move! So this particular disk is not playing ball with the Humax - also tried it as an External drive, and the Humax came back saying it wasn't in the correct format! But it is - it has all of the partitions available in EXT3 format!

The main p***er for me was that when I put the original disk back into the Humax, it reformatted it, wiping all of my Schedule, and recorded media! Great!
 
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I've tried to follow this but everytime I insert the new disk back in the HDR it wants to format the drive. If I stick the original drive back in its fine.

alk about frustrating, can anyone provide any further guidance? Thanks

I had the same experience - after setting everything up as described the Humax box immediately tried to format the drive again.

In the end I decided to wait until the new year in case we ended up with no TV over the Christmas holiday. So I put back the original drive and guess what?! It insisted on formatting that one too! Fortunately I had backed up the recordings that I wanted to keep before I started.

Did you ever manage to get the new large drive to work?
 
Hi Guys,

I've just upgraded my Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB to a 2TB WD20EURX, and found the above posts invaluable. Just wanted to say thank you and to share my experience, so that it might help somebody else. I'm a complete linux newbie, and worked with Ubuntu on my laptop. Here's what I did/found – some of it is very basic, but was news to me!

1) The 3.5 inch drives needs an external power source to connect to a laptop. I had a SATA to USB cable which works for 2.5 inch drives, but there's not enough power from the USB Y-cable that connects to 2 USB ports to run a 3.5 inch one. You can get 3.5 inch external hard drive enclosures from amazon (ensure it connects to external power – most of them do), and then you can use the old Humax drive as external storage in it afterwards. The problem with only having one enclosure/external power source though is that you can't transfer videos directly from the old hard drive to the new one (as both need external power) and will have to either transfer them onto your laptop first (if you have enough space) or on to a separate 2.5 inch external hard drive connected via USB and from there back to the new 3.5 inch hard when that's connected via the enclosure.

2) Connect the old Humax drive and note the partitions names/sizes (via Terminal fdisk commands) and what files are in it. Mine was as follows:
sdb1 was 2.2GB and had the reserve.info file on it
sdb2 was 107MB and had the fsatepg folder in it
sdb3 was 471GB and had a “Movie” folder (which was empty) and a “Video” folder (which had all the recordings)
sdb4 was 27GB and had a “Music” and “Photo” folder
Free space was 2.6MB

I then transferred the reserve.info and fsatepg files onto desktop and recordings onto a 2.5 inch external drive that was connected separately to the laptop.

3) I tried partitioning the new drive using Terminal and fdisk (and later using the command tool “parted”), but it kept wanting to start partioning partition 1 from sector 65535 or something and I was getting errors like "The device presents a logical sector size that is smaller than..." Googling told me it had to do with drive alignment or something, and I still wasn't much the wiser after wrecking my head for an hour trying to figure it out. I'm sure smarter people than me can explain it, but I resorted to installing gparted (via Terminal) for partitioning, and it was straight-forward on that. Ubuntu's default “Disks” app only lets you partition in ext4, so you need other means.

4) On gparted, make sure the drive is formatted in MBR (msdos) first and the individual partitions in ext3. I read somewhere that MBR is suitable for a maximum drive size of 2TB, and I'm guessing that's why people have difficulty getting >2TB drives to work with Humax's. When partitioning the new drive, I kept roughly the same size for the first two partitions, and reduced the 4th partition (Music and Photo) down to 5GB. I left a few hundred MB as “free space” (purely just to be cautious and not tempt fate!), and the remaining roughly 1.9TB for partition 3. When creating the partitions, I selected Cylinder as the Alignment option (as opposed to MiB or None), as the old drive seems to be aligned this way. I then copied across reserve.info and fsatepg files/folders into the relevant partitions and then created blank Movie, Video, Music and Photo folders in partitions 3 and 4, and copied across my recordings into the Video folder. I wasn't logged into the root account (didn't get around to figuring out how to do so), so it wasn't straight forward to copy and paste files to/from the hard drives like you can on windows/mac (you'll get an error message saying you don't have permission), but via Terminal you can install nautilus and nautilus-admin which opens up an explorer window which lets you do it. I had a quick look at the files after pasting to ensure they were owned by “root” and not me, and by default they all seemed to be. Side note: If you select “show hidden files” on ubuntu, each partition has a lost+found folder. Have read online that this is a linux thing and not necessarily on the Humax drive itself, so there's no need to save or copy/paste it onto the new drive – or indeed to even go looking for hidden files.

5) My Humax only works with Sata 2 drives (or so the internet tells me! I didn't risk it), and as the WD20EURX is a Sata 3, it was necessary to put a jumper in it connecting pins 5 and 6, which reduces it down to Sata 2 (WD explain it on their website: How to physically install, set jumper settings, and set up a Serial ATA, EIDE, or SSD drive in Windows | WD Support ). I chose this drive because people online reported good results from WD10EURX (the 1TB version of it).

I put the new drive into my Humax and thank God it worked! It boots a bit slower than the last one (and you have to hit the power button twice after disconnecting and reconnecting the mains plug), but otherwise no problems with it so far. The percentage free space that it shows in the Media section is also accurate.
 
Thought I would share my experience, I had to replace a failing drive in a Foxsat PVR, I bought a new WD AV drive and rather than risk setting up then fitting & finding it wanted to reformat, fitted the drive in the Foxsat, got it to format it, then disconnected just the sata connector and plugged that into my usb to sata adaptor so could access on the PC. You need to power off the Foxsat before you do this and then switch back on (and take out of standby) to operate the drive as the Foxsat is providing power (take care you will have exposed conductors with lethal voltages, do not do this if anyone else is about who might put fingers any where near) I then transferred the files from the old drive to the new with the PC making sure I had the new drive folder I was dragging to open as root.

Plugging the drive back into the Foxsat connector (with power off again) then booting back up all my old recordings were there and playable.

Resizing Partitions: Having completed this I then realised I should have set the photo/music partition much smaller and not wanting to reformat and repeat the above decided to do this on my windows PC using my trusty old Mini Tool program (which I`ve always used before) but having connected the drive as above Mini Tool offered the resize option, but then refused to do it! So I tried in a free program from Easeus, that again said it would do it, took some time but came back with cryptic errors saying it couldn't (why does windows love to produce obscure error message that will be meaningless to most!) so I decided, never tried it before, but would see what GParted would do in Linux, should have gone there 1st, it said no problem, if there were any errors it would try and fix them, was very quick and easy to use so job done in no time. Plugged drive back into Foxsat which correctly reported the new partition sizes and all the recordings are still there!
 
You're right GParted is the best tool for any disk / partition manoeuvres.
When I upgraded my Foxsat HDR HDD I used it to copy the partitions over to the new disk and resize the partitions.

The advantage in doing it this way is that I got to keep all the Custom Firmware settings as well as all the recordings.
 
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Thanks for the guide it worked a treat. Was a little worried when I first put the drive back in the Foxsat has it said it needed formating, I quit that menu and then the display said it was formatting but after about 1 min it just went to channel and I can now see my 1.5TB drive. It reports as 1.4GB but the available recording time matches about 1.4TB so I guess its just that the Foxsat doesn't know how to display TB. :)
 
Just upgrading to a 1TB disk, using a Western Digital Purple Disk (Surveillance Disk) designed for PVRs which should be reliable. As it's only 1TB I'm letting the Humax format the disk, but on the first attempt the disk wasn't recognised. I had to get a jumper switch and connect pins 5 and 6 on the hard disk, there's a set of eight pins beside the SATA/Power connectors.
 
Thanks for this information. Thanks to you I managed to upgrade my Humax Foxsat-HDR and replaced the hard drive with a new Seagate ST2000VM003 drive AND keep the original content from the old hard drive.

To be clear, this is the old Humax Foxsat-HDR with twin tuners and 320GB hard drive:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36

After a lot of messing about with no results, I did the following:

I downloaded the free version of EaseUS Partition Master and installed this onto my Windows PC.

Then I mounted the new Seagate ST2000VM003 into a powered USB/SATA cradle and fired up EaseUS.

I used EaseUS to create four PRIMARY EXT3 partitions as suggested by neiljt. The partitions were named /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc2, /dev/sdc3, /dev/sdc3. /dev/sdc1 was set to 4GB, /dev/sdc2 was set to 0.4GB, /dev/sdc3 was set to all remaining size less 1GB leaving /dev/sdc4 to be set to 1GB. I then clicked "apply" and let the software create and format the partitions.

I then tested the prepared new drive by connecting it to the Humax and booting up. To my surprise the Humax did not insist on formatting the disk but accepted it. If this is all you wish to do then you can stop there.

The next step in transferring the recorded content from the old drive to the new drive was more tricky. Basically I copied the contents from the "Video" folder in /dev/sda3 on the old drive to a Linux computer and then copied the "Video" folder from my Linux PC to the /dev/sda3 partition on the new drive. An important factor here is to make sure that "Video" and all it's contents is owned by "root".

I put the new 2TB hard drive back into the Humax and was delighted to see all the recorded content there with everything working nicely. The Humax incorrectly reports the new 2TB drive as 2GB but correctly reports only 12% of space used (as opposed to 98% of the 320GB drive being used).

The machine has been working for a week now with no noticeable drop in performance. It seems exactly as it was with the old hard drive but with a huge amount of space.

Thanks.
 
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Thanks for this information. Thanks to you I managed to upgrade my Humax Foxsat-HDR and replaced the hard drive with a new Seagate ST2000VM003 drive AND keep the original content from the old hard drive.

To be clear, this is the old Humax Foxsat-HDR with twin tuners and 320GB hard drive:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36

After a lot of messing about with no results, I did the following:

I downloaded the free version of EaseUS Partition Master and installed this onto my Windows PC.

Then I mounted the new Seagate ST2000VM003 into a powered USB/SATA cradle and fired up EaseUS.

I used EaseUS to create four PRIMARY EXT3 partitions as suggested by neiljt. The partitions were named /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc2, /dev/sdc3, /dev/sdc3. /dev/sdc1 was set to 4GB, /dev/sdc2 was set to 0.4GB, /dev/sdc3 was set to all remaining size less 1GB leaving /dev/sdc4 to be set to 1GB. I then clicked "apply" and let the software create and format the partitions.

I then tested the prepared new drive by connecting it to the Humax and booting up. To my surprise the Humax did not insist on formatting the disk but accepted it. If this is all you wish to do then you can stop there.

The next step in transferring the recorded content from the old drive to the new drive was more tricky. Basically I copied the contents from the "Video" folder in /dev/sda3 on the old drive to a Linux computer and then copied the "Video" folder from my Linux PC to the /dev/sda3 partition on the new drive. An important factor here is to make sure that "Video" and all it's contents is owned by "root".

I put the new 2TB hard drive back into the Humax and was delighted to see all the recorded content there with everything working nicely. The Humax incorrectly reports the new 2TB drive as 2GB but correctly reports only 12% of space used (as opposed to 98% of the 320GB drive being used).

The machine has been working for a week now with no noticeable drop in performance. It seems exactly as it was with the old hard drive but with a huge amount of space.

Thanks.

Installing the Custom firmware helps here. You can copy the recording folder to a ntfs drive on a PC and copy the contents directly to the Foxsat internal disk either using FTP or Samba. If you stick the old drive in a usb dock connected to one of the Foxsat usb ports you can copy the old the old recordings back or just play them back from usb. You will find populating the media list slower when you have a lot of recordings.
 
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Thanks grahamthompson. I have looked at installing the custom firmware a few times whilst doing this upgrade. I am concerned about choosing the right firmware for my model and bricking my Humax.
 
Thanks grahamthompson. I have looked at installing the custom firmware a few times whilst doing this upgrade. I am concerned about choosing the right firmware for my model and bricking my Humax.

It's not a replacement for the Humax software Installing it in fact updates the Humax firmware to the latest if it's not already running the latest. . It's a add on that allows the box to use open source Linux apps. The UI you see on a connected TV is identical. All the goodies come through a web browser interface, There has not been a single case of it bricking a box. Quite the reverse. The ability to check the hard drive and fix errors has saved many a Foxsat. The only obvious sign it'd installed is the front display during the boot process.
 
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Yesterday I successfully upgraded the 320GB HDD in my Foxsat-HDR to a 2TB model. The notes in this thread were invaluable so many thanks to all who contributed, especially the OP @neiljt, even though it was 10 years ago!

Here's a few additional comments based on my experience, and referring to the OP's original post...

I chose the cheapest 2TB Seagate HDD Amazon had to offer, a Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM008 general purpose drive - Seagate just because that's what the original was but really I could have chosen any manufacturer. Whether the PVR is more demanding than this drive is designed for only time will tell.

I have Raydon's custom firmware installed and wasn't sure how this affected the process. Answer: it didn't, really. I created the partitions pretty much as the OP suggested, except for some reason I made partition 4 (Music & photos) 2GB in size. This turned out to be a lucky move as I discovered (had forgotten) that this is where the custom software is stored, in an "opt" directory. In the scheme of things it doesn't take up a lot of space but had I known this when I partitioned the drive I would have probably doubled its size to 4GB. As I didn't want to have to repartition the drive (I'd already done some of the copying) I removed the few photos I had stored some time in the past and left it with 1GB free, hopefully enough for the unlikely event of my adding further custom software.

The Seagate ST2000DM008 is a SATA 3 drive and I was going to try installing it asis into the PVR, to test the assertion that Foxsat-HDR only supports SATA 2. When the time came I got cold feet, having spent the time partitioning it and copying over the old data I didn't want to risk having to do it again if the PVR decided to re-initialize it, so I jumpered the drive as previously mentioned to force it down to a 1.5 GB transfer speed (SATA 2).

The copying needs to be done using root privileges, as the files are owned by root, so use (on Linux):

sudo cp -rp /mnt/old1/* /mnt/new1 (etc)

I don't know why the OP chose to copy specific files in partitions 1 & 2 when the "copy everything" form of the command can be used for all partitions, and is really better because you do want to copy over everything.

The copy of the Video data partition (3) can take a long time depending on the amount of recordings you have and can easily get interrupted, as mine did. To retry the whole operation use:

yes | sudo cp -frp /mnt/old3/* /mnt/new3

which allows the files already copied to be overwritten without intervention.

When I switched on the re-assembled Foxsat-HDR, it booted OK but after a few moments powered itself off. I thought uh-oh, that's not good. But when powered back on again it came up normally. I vaguely recall that the double boot is something to do with the custom firmware and is normal. Everything certainly looks fine and the recording space is now 11% used instead of the previous 95%.

Overall the process was smooth and was done in a day. One happy user.

UPDATE 12 March

Very soon after posting this I started getting problems on playback. Playback would freeze and a "Channel scrambled or unavailable" message would appear. Initially just pressing play would continue playback, but increasingly if this message appeared it was reluctant to continue, and eventually the Foxsat-HDR would freeze and I had to switch it off completely to recover. This problem strongly suggested an HDD issue.

This I'm sure was caused by my poor choice of HDD - advice I subsequently found (lesson: do you homework first) said that Desktop/PC type HDDs have built-in error checking and recovery, and this can cause problems for video streams which may have bit errors - important for digital data but irrelevant for video playback. The right type of HDD is one for consumer electronics, (CE or ACE). However, this advice was years old and I couldn't find any drives with this designation. It looks to me like the current equivalent are "surveillance" type, designed for CCTV and DVR recording use, so I got a WD WD10PURZ Purple 1TB Surveillance HDD (I'd decided that really didn't need 2TB) and went through the replacement process again - this time quicker as I'd done it before.

A month on and the problems have not recurred and the Foxsat-HDR, which is in daily use, is now working flawlessly.
 
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I have read all of the posts here in preparation for installing a 2TB Seagate Pipeline in place of the 1TB Pipeline which 'died' (aka 'failed to boot' - complete blank, no buttons work, but without the disk the HDR booted to 'boot', then 'Custom FW v4.1.3.', and then to my 'home' TV 'BBC One' station on the display, so that seems conclusive) after 15 months in use with many (almost 300) 'bad sectors' using Easus DiskGenius, as Marc suggested elsewhere, and most of them were in the Ext3 'recordings' area, I think, but a couple in '0', so presumably those were stopping the boot?
To be honest, and as a 79 year-old with almost all my experience in Windows environments, now Win10 64bit, I have not really understood much of the Linux-related material here, and wonder how best to proceed?
Can I safely leave the formatting of a 2TB HDD to the Foxsat-HDR, by simply cabling in the bare drive loosely in a caddy - in case I have to remove it again - and connecting it to my Win10 laptop with USB 2 and internet access, and going to the IP address, and working from there, please? At which stage must I download and reinstall Custom FW v4.1.3. (if that is still the latest version) to this new disk?

Will then switching 'on' the PVR start the formatting process, and what should I expect to happen next, please?

If anyone has time to offer me - or point me to - a 'silver surfer's' guide to this installation, I should be very grateful; the new Seagate Pipeline 2TB has arrived and I am ready to go with some support from you if possible, please.

Many thanks,
 
PS Although I ordered the Seagate 'Pipeline' (and that is what Amazon listed in the purchase) what actually arrived (from Munich!) was badged 'Video 3.5 HDD', so perhaps they have changed the name recently.
 
I have read all of the posts here in preparation for installing a 2TB Seagate Pipeline in place of the 1TB Pipeline which 'died' (aka 'failed to boot' - complete blank, no buttons work, but without the disk the HDR booted to 'boot', then 'Custom FW v4.1.3.', and then to my 'home' TV 'BBC One' station on the display, so that seems conclusive) after 15 months in use with many (almost 300) 'bad sectors' using Easus DiskGenius, as Marc suggested elsewhere, and most of them were in the Ext3 'recordings' area, I think, but a couple in '0', so presumably those were stopping the boot?
To be honest, and as a 79 year-old with almost all my experience in Windows environments, now Win10 64bit, I have not really understood much of the Linux-related material here, and wonder how best to proceed?
Can I safely leave the formatting of a 2TB HDD to the Foxsat-HDR, by simply cabling in the bare drive loosely in a caddy - in case I have to remove it again - and connecting it to my Win10 laptop with USB 2 and internet access, and going to the IP address, and working from there, please? At which stage must I download and reinstall Custom FW v4.1.3. (if that is still the latest version) to this new disk?

Will then switching 'on' the PVR start the formatting process, and what should I expect to happen next, please?

If anyone has time to offer me - or point me to - a 'silver surfer's' guide to this installation, I should be very grateful; the new Seagate Pipeline 2TB has arrived and I am ready to go with some support from you if possible, please.

Many thanks,

It's going to be difficult to do what you want without doing some minor Linux based operations with your PC. Because the Humax uses ext3 as its disk format it can't be natively read by Windows 10. In addition the Foxsat HDR will not natively format drives larger than 1 TB. If you put the 2TB drive in the HDR it will format it, but only to a 1TB volume. So to use all of the 2 TB the video partition would have to be expanded to take up the rest of the unallocated space.

The good news is you don't have to get involved in the full Linux OS. You just make a GParted live CD and boot your computer from that to be able to manipulate the ext3 partitions. This is what I would do if I were you:-

1. Put the new drive loosely in the HDR and connect it up to the sata and power connections.
2. Power up the HDR and let it format the new drive to 1TB.
3. Completely Power down the HDR and remove the disk from the HDR and put it in your USB 2 caddy.
4. Create a GParted live CD and then shutdown your PC.
5. Connect up your HDR disk to the PC then using the live disk boot the PC into Gparted.
6. Using Gparted resize the video partition to so that all the disk space is used.
7. Shutdown the PC and disconnect the the HDR drive from the PC.
8. Replace the the drive back in the HDR connect up and with a bit of luck when you boot up the HDR it will 'see' the full 2TB drive.
9. If step 8. has worked secure the drive in the HDR and it's good to go.
10. Install the custom firmware.

Others may have better ideas but I think that would work. As always with free internet advice no guarantee offered or implied.
 
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Just to add, if you are willing to settle for 1TB instead of 2TB you do not have to do any of the GParted stuff with your PC.

I have read that if you fill a 2TB drive with recordings the HDR can get quite slow to respond which may be why the original design maximum drive size was 1TB. I have a 1TB drive in mine and it's enough, especially since you can archive recordings to either a USB or network drive.
 
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Many thanks Monster900, you have given me much to consider and helpfully a full 'recipe' for boththe 2TB and 1TB versions. The situation has changed this morning, with Seagate (rather grudgingly) agreeing to replace the 1TB which died, so - taking all that you have said (and call me a wimp if you like!) - I'll go for the easy option, wait for the replacement disk , and then allow Foxsat-HDR to do the job, before installing the CF v4.1.3, which I assume is still the up to date version. Finally, Nowster's will complete the job, and I can start collecting again but (this time) archiving material from time to time - very good advice, thank you.
I am very grateful for your assistance,
Ron
 
Just to add, if you are willing to settle for 1TB instead of 2TB you do not have to do any of the Gparted stuff with your PC.
I was going to suggest the same thing. I revised my original decision of a 2TB replacement down to 1TB and like you, I think it's plenty.

Of course, with this simplified process you lose the possibility of copying recordings from the old HDD (assuming it's working sufficiently) to the new HDD, but I guess @RossdaleRon has already accepted this.
 
I was going to suggest the same thing. I revised my original decision of a 2TB replacement down to 1TB and like you, I think it's plenty.

Of course, with this simplified process you lose the possibility of copying recordings from the old HDD (assuming it's working sufficiently) to the new HDD, but I guess @RossdaleRon has already accepted this.

Not entirely.

If the original disk is still readable he could use either a live Linux CD or a Windows 10 ext3 reader app to copy them to a USB drive. Then plug the USB drive into the Foxsat HDR and copy them over.
 
Yes indeed, I have accepted that the 'old' disk recordings cannot recovered easily, and am moving on with the proposals made here, but many thanks for your confirmation, Ceperman. I think with the old disk I have left the original partition sizes, and so the recordings area always appeared very full and I think I took too much notice of that in deciding to have a larger replacement disk.
This time I will re-size that partition early, as I have no Music at all, and few Photos at the moment.
 

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