Upgrading the HDD In Sony '90 / '95 Series DVDR's

XXCross

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[ Moderator Comment - The posts immediately below have been moved from THIS thread as they amount to a significant development relating to a different series of machines from those in the original thread, and which warrant a new thread. - End of Mod Comment. ]


In the Service Menu, p1-3, we can see a new line (which didn't exist on 970): HDD USE (just after HDD INT)... trying now to find a way to change this... bye
Do You found any way?
I have new HXD890 and after HDD upgrade process I have still available 160GB as original.

In service menu I see
HDD INIT HDD model number 1000
HDD USE <<<free space>>> 160

and DVD recorder still use 160GB only from larger HDD.
 
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I found a solution to use bigger HDD in x90/x95 models!

1st, upgrade Your MODEL NAME SETTING to 109x. 500GB models are 1090 (MRX-1780/EC1) and 1095 (MRX-1785/EC2 or MRX-1785/CEK for UK)
1. Turn the main POWER ON.
2. Press the following buttons on the service remote controller in this order.:
“ESC” k “CHAP” k “1”
* Confirm that the above operation is performed in the state that the screen has exited all settings such as “Home Menu” or “Simple Setting”.
3. Turn the main POWER OFF.
4. Turn the main POWER ON.
5. Find out the tentative model name from the Correspondence Table (Table 1) for the client machine. Then, enter the 4-digit “Input No.” on the screen using the service remote controller.
6. The model name setting method is complete. (Screen disappears.)
7. Turn the main POWER OFF.
2nd upgrade HDD inside You DVD recorder.
Before doing anything unplug the unit from the mains supply, we don’t want to hear that a member has been electrocuted.
Step 1: Open the case by removing the 5 screws, 1 on each side and 3 on the rear.
Step 2: Remove the HDD drive holder and carefully remove the power and data cables from the HDD
Step 3: Remove the original drive and replace with the new one.
Step 4: Replace drive and reattach the data and power cables and secure using the 4 screws.
Step 5: Reinstall the top Cover.
3rd use solution for x70 models to upgrade HDD.
Now plug the machine back to the mains supply, after pressing the power button you will get “E01” display in the fluorescent display. Don’t Panic!!!
Now power off the unit with the front power button and press “ESC” followed by “P.Run” on the service remote. The unit will now go into diagnostics mode for about 5 minutes; at the end of this process the fluorescent display will display “B Complete”.
Now, You have 500GB space for Your movies. There is no matter if You use 500GB, 750GB or 1000GB HDD inside unit, HDD USE capacity is limited by DVD recorder model number.
 

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Finally I found a solution to access all 1TB space in RDR-HXDx90 models.

This soluiton is for PC guru ONLY!!!

Upgrade Your DVD recorder to 500GB version as is it above, when B-Complete is on front display, then disconnect power cord from recorder and remove HDD.
Connect HDD to Your PC and use some disk edit utility (like Norton DiskEditor or Arconics Disk Director Suite).

Before continue write down maximum number of sectors in HDD. Very often is written on top of disk drive. From this number subtract 8MB => 16384 sectors.
This number we will be call "NoS" (Number of Sectors) (for example my NoS=1953508784 [=1953525168-16384])


To 1st sector (sector No. 0), where is partition table,
to offset 1CA to 1CD write number NoS-4 (for me 1953508780) converted to HEX (for me 74702DAC) but write it backwards!!! (for me AC, 2D, 70, 74).

To 5th (sector No. 4)
to offset 024 to 027 write number NoS/4 (488377196) converted to HEX (1D1C0B6C) and write normaly (1D, 1C, 0B, 6C).

to offset 02C to 02F write number NoS/4 (1D1C0B6C HEX) subscracted by number written in offset 028-02B (00004000 HEX) and subscracted by number 0100 in HEX. (for my numbers: 1D1C0B6C-4000-100 = 1D1BCA6C) and write normaly (1D, 1B, CA, 6C)

to offset 04C to 04F write number NoS/4 (1D1C0B6C HEX) also subscracted by number written in offset 048-04B (00095100 HEX) and subscracted by number 0100 in HEX. (for my numbers: 1D1C0B6C-95100-100 = 1D12B96C) and write normaly (1D, 12, B9, 6C)


To 335,981th sector (sector No. 335980)
to offset 00C to 00F write number NoS/4 (1D1C0B6C HEX) also subscracted by number written in offset 008-00B (000D1300 HEX) and subscracted by number 0100 in HEX. (for my numbers: 1D1C0B6C-D1300-100 = 1D0EF76C) and write normaly (1D, 0E, F7, 6C)

Then disconnect disk from PC and put it back to DVD recoder. You have all capacity available, now.

If You see E02 on front panel, then You write bad informations and/or to the bad positions. Don't worry, power off recorder, press ESC, P.Run and wait until You see B-Complete, then start modification once again. If You are still unable to finish it, then simply use 500GB only.

In attachment You can see photo of my recorder's settings screen (ESC, CX, 0, 1).
 

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You sir are a genius.!! Thanks for the guide, I have successfully changed my model no using your file/guide and a pda with IR, just gotta reinstall the OS on my PC (onto 1tb drive) and put the 500gb system drive into the Sony HDR (not brave enough to go for your step 2 and use the 1tb drive on the hdr)

Cheers, Dave
 
500gb WD replaces the samsung 160gb inside the sony HDR and works a treat. Thanks again:thumbsup:
 
Hi,

I am a real DVD Recorder newbie and I am asking a few questions which may look stupid for most of the AVforumers :

1) I intend to buy the Sony HXD790 and to replace the initial 120Go HDD buy a 500Go HDD

2) Will the following HDD fit with the Sony HXD790?

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500 Go

3) I don't really catch the 5th Step when upgrading the modale name setting. What is the "Correspondence Table (Table 1) for the client machine" and where can I find it?

4) For the last point of the upgrade (after the E01 display) Will I have just to power offthe unit with the front power button and THEN press “ESC” followed by “P.Run” on the service remote.

Many thanks and have a good end of week-end,

pg
 
ad 2) Yes, in recorder will run any SATA HDD. But I will preffer WD AV 500GB (model WD5000AVJS).

ad 3) This table is on page 1-2 in service manual for this device.
PDF with manual I want to post as attachement for this post, but have 9MB and it's over attachement limits...
Page 1-2 (with table 1) is screenshoted and attached to this post as a GIF image.

ad 4) Yes, after see E01 error, power off by button, wait until unit is powered off, then press 'ESC' (and release it) then press 'P.Run' and release it.



For all others - if I don't answer as quick as You want, then send me a Private Message...
 

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SUCCES! The solution in post #3 works for x80 models too! Here's how:

I recently bought an RDR-HX780 and outof curiosity wanted to try and upgrade it's 160 Gb to a huge 1 Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ. The exact recorder model is MRX-1735/EC. I did not have to do model name setting procedure as described in #2. It simply isn't necessary. In short: I formatted the new disk in the recorder and hex-edited the disk in my pc afterwards.

What I did was:

1 I ceated a bootable floppy and added the contents of the zipfile (#102) in this thread: http://www.avforums.com/forums/dvd-...ful-upgrade-hdd-rdr-hxd970-7.html#post6183486
2 renamed remote.txt to remote1.txt and remote2.txt to remote.txt
3 booted an old laptop (that has onboard IRDA) and pressed R to load the service remote control keys in winsamp.
4 unplugged the recorder and connected my new 1Tb harddisk.
5 reconnected the recorder to mains power and executed the remote control keys ESC, P.RUN (buttons 1 and 2 in winsamp) whereby the new disk was formatted to 160Gb, the maximum disk size for my recorder model. This took about 15 mins after which the unit displayed 'B Complete'.
6 Unplugged the unit, disconnected the disk.
7 created another bootable floppy and added DISKEDIT.EXE to it. I took this programm from the NORTON Utilities 2001 Suite. It's somewhere on the installation CD. Other Hex-disk editors will work too. Diskedit isn't very intuitive anyway.
8 Connected the disk to my computer and booted from floppy. Ran diskedit. Followed the instructions as outlined in post #3. I didn't need to calculate anything since the number of sectors on my disk was exacly the same.
9 Powered down, removed the disk, reconnected the disk in the recorder and plugged it in.
10 turned on the recorder to find it now made use of the full 1Tb. It says it can record 457 hours at quality mn21 which is of course a ridiculous amount of time. Using the remote control sequence ESC, CHAP, DiG/ANA I verified that indeed the full 1000 Gb was being used. It was.

XXCross: Thanks a bunch! I'm curious as to how you knew what data needed to be updated on the disk. I never once looked at partition tables etc so I personally wouldn't know where to start looking. And the fact that you came up with the creative solution of modding the disk instead of hacking into the recorder: thumbs up. I think that was rather brilliant.
 
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Hello All,

I too wish to upgrade my 790, and am after the Sony service remote. Being an impatient bugger I don’t want to wait for one to ship from America, do any of the people who purchased one on this forum wish to sell me theirs?

Or loan me one (I would pay of course)?

Thanks,

James
 
... do any of the people who purchased one on this forum wish to sell me theirs?

Or loan me one (I would pay of course)?

Thanks,

James

Please note James that any such arrangement must be conducted via the Classified section of the forums - which you can find here.
 
I recently bought an RDR-HX780 and outof curiosity wanted to try and upgrade it's 160 Gb to a huge 1 Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ. The exact recorder model is MRX-1735/EC. I did not have to do model name setting procedure as described in #2. It simply isn't necessary. In short: I formatted the new disk in the recorder and hex-edited the disk in my pc afterwards.
It's super, because HDD image from 160GB have more differences than image with 500GB compared to 1TB.

XXCross: Thanks a bunch! I'm curious as to how you knew what data needed to be updated on the disk. I never once looked at partition tables etc so I personally wouldn't know where to start looking. And the fact that you came up with the creative solution of modding the disk instead of hacking into the recorder: thumbs up. I think that was rather brilliant.
I'm happy, that another user succeed. I spent a lot of time by formating HDD to different capacity by changing model number (120G, 160G, 250G and 500G) and sector-by-sector backing up of HDD's first 1GB. After this I compare backuped files between us. Also, I have bit easier way, because I know what partition table is. I found all differencies at 3rd try.
 
Now this may seem a silly question but i am trying to enter the model number and all i get is model err, i have a 790 and i am putting in the model 1740 is this correct. Please advise

Sorry i would also like to know how to get the display of all this on your tv, cheers
 
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Now this may seem a silly question but i am trying to enter the model number and all i get is model err, i have a 790 and i am putting in the model 1740 is this correct. Please advise

Sorry i would also like to know how to get the display of all this on your tv, cheers

790 would change to 1090 if you are using a 500 gig hdd , or 990 if using a 250 gig hdd , afaik

where you get 1740 from I have no idea

I would say you should follow the instructions in post 2 , and connect using a scart lead or composite lead to the tv , and use the service remote or similar as instructed in post 2
 
Hi, thanks for your prompt reply but ive decided to leave the original drive in so i need to know what model number for that as mine is 790 and it requires a 4 digit code. I have tried 0790 but no luck. As for the TV display i have tried every way going but dont get anything

Cheers
 
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Anyone please as i now have a brick or is there another way out of this state ???
 
You do the best you can - send me a PM.
I'm not here for long time. This thread is my thanks for informations I receive here.

eddcole said:
Hi there, i am well and truely stuck. I have the above maching and i have started the procedure but have no gui on my tv. the front of my unit shows Model Set and whenever i put in 1090 i get model err. I just want to exit this for now and update it once its backed up but cant get out of this menu.

Please can you help me with an idiots guide to the DVD recorder i.e what buttons to press in order and what figures to put in.

Thank you in advance

EDd
You must connect TV to VIDEO (yellow cinch). There is no service menu on other outputs (maybe should be on HDMI, but I'm not sure at this time and haven't service rc to test it now).
 
Well seeing as i cannot get any display on the tv it looks like i now own a DRD 790 doorstop :(
 
What's your TV and what connection are you use between recorder and TV?
 
I have a phillips 42 plasma and have tried all the combinations of connections i.e scart composite, component, hdmi and svideo so really dont know what to do now. I am really upset as my wife only bought me this a couple of days ago at a bargain price and it will cost alot more to get a new replacement as they dont have anymore :(
 
try 0103 or 0201 or 0102.
Only someone with same model can help you.
I haven't service remote controller at this time. I bought it two times and wait about two weeks before i get it to my hand only for one day.
 
tried them and no luck, is it something like that as i can keep trying different combinations
 

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