Samsung HD Box: Step by Step Drive Replacement

Need a guide to upgrading your box? Want to document your upgrade? - This is the forum for you!

Samsung HD Box: Step by Step Drive Replacement

Postby stripester » Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:48 pm

I've just sucessfully replaced my original 320Gig (160GB HD Box) with a 1TB Hitachi Model and thought I'd share the process with you!

My Orignal Drive is Seagate 320Gig (Yes its a 320Gig drive in a 160Gig box!)
Image

Replacement Drive 1Tb Hitachi HDT72100SLA360 picked up from "Aria.co.uk" for around £49.00 on a special (Keep looking out for specials!)

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/1Tb+Hitachi+Deskstar+7K1000.B+SATA-2+Hard+Drive+16MB+Cache+?productId=34559

Image

The Process is REALLY simple :P!


STEP 1 - TAKE TO BOX APART

This is relatively a simple process remove the three screws at the rear and pull the whole black case (front and sides) from the rear, its a snug fit so be firm, I used a flat bladed screwdriver to prise the case forward, be careful for the "on top Switches" as these look delicate once the outer case is removed. Now remove the Screw that holds the "on top switched" on TIP- Take out the viewing card First!!

Image

Watch out for the Lugs on each side of the front of the case -

Image

The Photo below is taken from the rear of the box showing the screws and case removed-

Image

The photo below is taken from the front of the box with the screw removed that keeps the "On top switches" in position -

Image

STEP 2 - REMOVE INNER CASE

The inner case is much easier to remove, just unscrew the two side screws and then pry the metal case off, Place all the bits in a neat pile and remember where the screws came from (you don't want any pocket screws!!) you should now be left with somethink that looks a little like this -
Image

STEP 3 - REMOVE THE HARDDRIVE

Before you start frantically takeing out screws to remove the drive caddy, take a look at the connections on the board, remove the connections to the small fan on the caddy (A bit fiddly, but be carful are its fragile!), the SATA connection (red lead) and the power lead. Once these are removed unscrew the 4 screws holding the caddy in place, you should now be left with something that looks like this -

Image

STEP 4 - COPY THE DRIVE

Okay, so we've done the hardwork, now for the easy bit? No. Depending on you computer configuration this may be a stumbling block. My mother board has two SATA chipsets both raided and I use them, I didn't want to unplug my drives cause I know my RAID chipsets are incomplatible with SATA2 (3.0MBPS) drives which my replacement is. I bought a £15 SATA RAID controller (PCI card) and Installed it (VIA CHIPSET) plugged my new 1TB drive and the Original Drives in (Took power from a spare conneciton within the computer)then I ran Copy+ after making sure the new drive was a basic non-formatted drive. Be patient and let it do the business, make a brew and count all the screws you have!.

Be carefull using drives ouside of caddys! you don;t want to short circuit the boards!

STEP 5 - SWAP DRIVES IN CADDY AROUND

Assuming eveything has worked up to this point, swap the drives around the the caddy, the 1TB drive was thicker than the origninal but it still fits in. TOP TIP. when pacing the caddy back in the box put the "Hold Down Screws" in the caddy BEFORE placing in positon, and remember that the SATA cable goes under the caddy and not around!


Image

:!::!::!:STEP 6 - OPTIONAL BUT DANGEROUS TEST

DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOU ARE EXPRIENCED WITH WORKING WITH LIVE POWER!!

I got to this point and wanted to make sure everything works, so I cabled up the box and plugged the power in last of all, it all lit up and SLOWLY booted up, I gave it 5 minutes and then made sure it worked by recording 2 HD programmes at once and playing back a HD recording, it wall went fine! I powered it down, removed the power cord and un cabled it.


STEP 7 - RE ASSEMBLE

Put the SKY HD box back together again the the reverse order, The outer black case was tricky as its a snug fit, take you time as you don't want to break it.

STEP 8 - MARVEL IN YOU NEW 1TB BOX

I'm hoping its all okay at this point :lol: but a few notes that may be of some use to someone -

The replacement drive was incompatible with my motherboard, I was going to reduce the speed from 3.0mbps 1.5mbps and make it compatible to SATA not SATAII but I didn't need to do this.

I was also going to use hitachi feature tool and manage the acoustics of the drive to a quieter setting but have left it alone. Two reasons for this 1) I couldn't identify the drive in BIOS (Dead End) and 2) I it would reduce the performace and may cause a problem with the box if this was the case.

Screenshot of the planner after surgery -

Image

Technical Information about box -

Image

Thanks to pcbbc for helping out a Newbie!! :wink:
Last edited by stripester on Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:13 pm, edited 4 times in total.
stripester
Newbie
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:07 pm

Postby pcbbc » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:49 pm

A really excellent update guide with some great pictures and tips - Thanks stripester!
User avatar
pcbbc
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1802
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:08 am
Location: London, UK

Box Update

Postby stripester » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:16 pm

Since carrying out the upgrade the box has worked flawlessley (I hope thats spelt wright!) :oops:

I've Hammered it for a couple of days with continual recording of dual HD programmes and HD playback at the same time with no problems, So I am asssuming its case closed :D
stripester
Newbie
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:07 pm

Postby pcbbc » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:14 am

Glad to hear it!
I'm sure people will appreciate the update when they use your guide.
User avatar
pcbbc
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1802
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:08 am
Location: London, UK

Postby Armitage » Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:17 pm

Greetings and thanks for a great guide. I only received my new Samsung SKY+HD box a few days ago, manufactured Feb 2009, but thanks to your guide I was able to source the very same Hitachi Hard Drive and successfully upgraded to 1 TB of disk space !! :shock: :D
Did the same kinda stress tests like: recording 2 HD Movies while watching another HD recording, no probs whatsoever.
I am sure this will encourage lots more people to take the plunge and upgrade their new Samsung boxes. Hope the new EPG won't give us a headache with the new drives?
Thanks again,
Armitage
Newbie
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:05 pm

Postby pcbbc » Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:55 am

Glad your upgrade went well.
Upgraded drives seem to do okay on other boxes with the new EPG (mostly if not all Thomsons so far I beleive) so you can only hope the Samsung will be the same!
User avatar
pcbbc
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1802
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:08 am
Location: London, UK

Postby timmo65 » Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:12 pm

I did this upgrade just a couple of days ago and all went well as per this guide. A couple of things I noticed that may help.
1. I used copy + to copy the old 320gb HDD even though it was empty then used the image to copy and prepare the new 1tb drive.

2. The noise to me of the new drive was annoying. My wife likened to the croaky crackle in the Grudge films. I tried to play it down but it was noitceably louder than the original seagate drive. Turning instant rewind off helped a bit but is not really a fix. I didn't really want to
take it out again but after a little playing it was ok. I downloaded the Hitachi feature tool bootable CD image abd burned it to a CD. Then booted up my pc from this CD without the new 1tb attached. Once it had booted to the DOS program I then attached the new drive via a free SATA connection and ran the program where it recognised the new drive and I was able to lower the AAM. I had a few goes where the pc would not boot at all with the new drive attached so only go it to work in this order. The drive is now silent under all loads and I have turned instant rewind back on.

3.Another thing I noticed, not sure if it was there before upgrade, bit it seems when coming out of standby the box is intermittanly unresponsive to remote commands (the red light doesn't blink). After a while all seems to be ok. I know there are some other threads on this so may be a generall box problem.

Thanks everyone for the information.
timmo65
Newbie
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:59 pm

Re: Samsung HD Box: Step by Step Drive Replacement

Postby steveocole » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:25 pm

The hdd recommended comes to £57 including delivery.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150256 - £52.79inc vat ( Free supersaver delivery)

If you want to save yourself a fiver....

There you go...
steveocole
Newbie
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:51 am

Re: Samsung HD Box: Step by Step Drive Replacement

Postby Dods » Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:20 pm

This looks a great `TUT` Stripestar :) Ive only just thought about doing this ! so i`m going to read and digest and read again.
Thanks again for this tutorial , much appreciated :wink:
Dods
Newbie
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:55 pm
Location: Lancashire


Return to Box Upgrade Guides

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron