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Is my hardrive dying?
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Just come back from two weeks holiday, which was nice, and had lots of good stuff recorded, which was also nice. We tried to watch one episode of Friends and all we got was the info bar and a blue screen, did the usual reboot but still nothing. Watched the final episode of Friends with no problems followed by the Jay Leno Friends special on FTN which jumped all over the place, we watched about 10 minutes before giving up and deleting it.
Next up was ER, first episode was fine the second (season finale) would not play, again got the info bar and a blue screen and on another attempt got the last picture we had watched on sky one along with the play symbol in the bottom left.
Next was NYPD (finally something I recorded for myself) and all was OK for 38 minutes and then it just froze. So now it's screwed one of my programmes I decided to phone Sky. I went through all the usual stuff including taking the viewing card out and putting it in upside down!!! at one stage I couldn't get a signal (with the viewing card back in the right way) and all the guy from Sky said was 'you'll need to get an engineer out as there's a problem with your hardrive'. I finally got the box back to how it was and I haven't tried any other recordings yet.
Does any of this sound familier?
Should I look to replace my hardrive?
The box is two years old.
Next up was ER, first episode was fine the second (season finale) would not play, again got the info bar and a blue screen and on another attempt got the last picture we had watched on sky one along with the play symbol in the bottom left.
Next was NYPD (finally something I recorded for myself) and all was OK for 38 minutes and then it just froze. So now it's screwed one of my programmes I decided to phone Sky. I went through all the usual stuff including taking the viewing card out and putting it in upside down!!! at one stage I couldn't get a signal (with the viewing card back in the right way) and all the guy from Sky said was 'you'll need to get an engineer out as there's a problem with your hardrive'. I finally got the box back to how it was and I haven't tried any other recordings yet.
Does any of this sound familier?
Should I look to replace my hardrive?
The box is two years old.
0
Comments
Horribly.
> Should I look to replace my hardrive?
S'what I'd seriously consider doing.
Regards
Mark
If you're happy holding a screwdriver and comfortable plugging and unplugging IDE cables, then do not pay Sky to send out an engineer - it'll be cheaper to do it yourself. You'll need a set of security screwdriver bits from Maplin (about £8). Swapping a HD is easy-peasy.
The thing that kills the disks is heat. In my opinion the Sky+ boxes are very poor thermal design - the disk sits in a pool of its own heat and slowly roasts. My recommendation is to buy some HD power extensions (daisychain 3 of them), and remove the blanking plate over the interface port on the back of the box. You can then run the power cables and a longer IDE cable out of the hole and have the HD outside the box where it'll run much cooler.
Yes, heat is not a good thing for electronics. Maxtor drives are engineered to operate between 5C and 55C. The Sky+ box is engineered ( use this term lightly here ) to operate between 0C to 40C.
Therefore it is important to ensure that the Sky+ box does not overheat, the disk drive is always rotating the spindle motor creates heat and also remember is that the power supply creates heat. Having the disk drive outside of the case is over kill, just ensure the Sky+ box is well ventilated, if housed in a cabinet with very little ventilation then it box will always be hot.
My Sky+ box is installed on an open shelf and never feels hot, just warm.
Dan.
It's just my opinion, but the air circulation inside the box is so hopeless that it doesn't really matter how well the air circulates externally - you'll still have terrible hotspots inside. The very fact that you've got the lid off to replace the drive is an indicator that these drives do die prematurely inside the box.
Personally I wouldn't recommend putting a high-revving HD inside the box, without at least beefing up the airflow with an additional fan. And in my opinion it's easier to just leave the drive sitting outside the box for peace of mind.
You are quite right, the heat build up around the hard drive is a major problem especially in V1 boxes where the drive was in the front left corner rather than the middle. My solution was to have the fan always on using a fanmate controller to keep the noise to an acceptable level. I also used a dremmel tool to cut out 8 of the slits on the front left side of the cover more than doubling airflow and more importantly forcing cool air over the drive plate. When I was finished smoothing with a grinder the cuttings looked as if they were meant to be there so it didn't disfigure the box (looked quite professional).
Som people also leave the metal plate off the drive to assist in cooling. It's there to prevent vibration and keep the drive secure during transport but some strong elastic bands do just as well.
Zen
I'll start looking into installing one, I think 80Gb will be more than enough, any suggestions which one (and where do you get them?).
Andy
The important things to ensure are that they are fluid bearing (to stop your drive becoming noisy over time as heat damages bearings) and preferably 5400rpm to reduce noise and heat. There is no benefit to getting a 7200rpm drive even while dual recording and FFing another recorded program at 30x.
The old 40gb drive can be used in a PC (I stuck mine in a USB2 caddy for portable storage).
Have you got any part numbers of drives to use in Sky+
I see a lot of you have had success with the Maxtor drives so if I did upgrade the drive that's the make I'd get (and I can use a screwdriver).
Talking it though with the boss and she's talking about the cost of the harddrive and then in weeks or months having problems again so why not go for a new box in the first place! I think I read somewhere else on this forum about the picture quality of V2 boxes not being up to the V1 box, so that's something I'll have to look into (should have it sorted out by christmas!!!).
Thanks for your answers though and I hope it's helped other as well.
Andy
Regards
Mark
I don't understand the economic either!
I think it works along the lines of if the first drive doesn't work correctly I'll buy another and then I'm almost halfway to the cost of a new box!!!
As long as the picture quality of V2 boxes is OK and there isn't any other issues exclusive to V2's then I'll go that route. Happy wife is more important than an extra 40Gb of storage...
Andy
Personally I wouldn't be too sure about that, especially with a V1 box. With the drive over in the other corner, and the all over metal shroud, I still think the drive will eventually cook even with the fan on all the time.
I think extra precautions still have to be taken, such as removing the top shroud cover, opening vents down the side by the drive, or even adding a blowing fan via the expansion plate, to compliment the extract.
Once you've got proper hard disc cooling in place then the system will be one helluva lot more reliable and should last for years.
And I'd do the same even if I was getting a new box, be it V2 Pace or Amstrad. And I'd certainly do it if I'd just fitted a new drive to an older box.
Regards
Mark
But yes, I agree a constant temp is a better situation. With my permanant set up of two fans spinning at about three quarters design speed I get virtual silence and a drive that is always simply 'quite warm'. I think it will last a long time.
Regards
Mark
:cool:
If you don't believe just take the top off, take off the shroud top and try touching the drive. It will be one step away from burning you, fan or no.
And yes I did get the upgrade, but thanks to the cooling system I installed the Sky fan never comes on at all. It's still connected, lying in the bottom of the box.
Regards
Mark
The fan appears to make no difference at all to the operating temperature of the HD, at least in a V1 box. I now have my HD completely outside the box, and the internal fan still comes on just as frequently. To me this indicates that the fan is governed by the heat generated by the power supply and other nearby components, not by any heat from the disk.
If the fan had previously been drawing warm air away from the disk, I would expect the fan to come on less frequently now that a major source of heat has been removed from my box. The fact that the fan still comes on very frequently suggests to me that it never really sucked any warm air away from the disk.
What is important for your sky+ boxes is to ensure you have good ventilation, having them tucked away in a cabinet with no air vents is not good, all the fan will do is recycle hot air and yes, you will cook the hardware. So if you're sky+ box is getting very hot then check the ventilation out, mine sky+ box is installed on an open shelf and feels no hotter to touch than an IBM Low Profile Netvista model 6650 and believe me this PC has very little airflow within the case.
As you can see from above dmjw1 has his drive installed outside of the case and it still gets hot.
Dan
Done that - result.......... 5 degrees above room temperature, which at the time I did the test the room temperature was 19 degrees C. As I said previously this V2 baby really is cool, so I can only assume that as been mentioned by previous posters location location location seems to be a factor. With mine on an open shelf and the fan kicking in three to four times per hour then if my box does die I doubt heat will have been a deciding factor.