FVP-5000 hard drive upgrade?

B

bob25

New Member
Hi. I've been a long time user of PVR's from the old thomson to various Humax boxes. Some of them have played up (maybe dodgy Ebay sourced ones. So i've been eyeing up a replacement and to be less frugal on my next one.

I thought it would be wise to get a large size HD (I thought 2tb was the max until today reading the CF for the DHR fox) so I'd settled to 2tb.

So I thought i'd get FVP 4000 from CEX who were doing a 500gb version grade B, however I wasn't impressed by the remote supplied? I took it back and went for the 5000 model because I was hoping it would come with the upgraded remote?

So I now have a 500gb FVP 5000 and I want to upgrade the hard drive, originally expecting a 2tb size limit.

So I opened the case up to find a toshiba DT01ABA050V UK. I'd read posts on here that suggested going for the same model, so I've looked at the same model (5900rpm) which seems to be DT01ABA200V for the 2tb version.

Today I've come across post that suggest the older models have a seagate pipe line and these in 2tb form seem to be lower priced. They also seem to be at 5900rpm. The same post also suggested a WD purple?

Also today after reading the Custom Firmware thread for the Fox it mentions that it enables the use of Hard drives larger than 2tb. Would this 2tb limit also be applicable to the FVP 5000?

So basically, What hard drive model and size should I go for? TIA
 
bob25 said:
after reading the Custom Firmware thread for the Fox it mentions that it enables the use of Hard drives larger than 2tb. Would this 2tb limit also be applicable to the FVP 5000?
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The 2TiB HDD size limit is due to the MBR (Master Boot Record) scheme used to specify the geography of the disk to the operating system. The number of binary bits allocated to pointers and sizes (32 bits) cannot hold values which add up to more than 2TiB.

Drives >2TiB are enabled on the HDR-FOX by using custom firmware to alter the operating system so that it can also use the GPT (GUID Partition Table) scheme, which holds pointer values in 64 bit fields (so we're now talking Exabytes) - effectively no practical limit, even if drives are developed which store one bit per atom.

You need to be very clear what you mean by "Fox". Everything written about custom firmware only applies to HDR-FOX T2, HD-FOX T2, and (as a separate development) FOXSAT-HDR. Everything I have written about custom firmware takes care to point this out. I don't know whether the FOXSAT-HDR custom firmware supports GPT, I suspect not.

There is no custom firmware for the FVP-5000T. Therefore you are stuck with whatever maximum size of HDD the operating system for the FVP-5000T supports - most likely 2TiB.

It can be possible to use only the first 2TiB of a larger drive, but (without custom firmware) an HDR-FOX would refuse to format it. If the same applies to FVP-5000T, it would be necessary to recreate the 5000T's partitioning and file system requirements before installing the drive.

I don't even know that it is possible to replace the FVP-5000T's HDD. Search the sources to see whether anybody has done it successfully. If not, be prepared that you might end up with a spare 2TiB HDD.

Glossary (click)
 
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Thanks for your fast reply! When I was referring to the FOX i was thinking freeview HD recorder so the HDR-FOX T2. The custom firmware mentioned hard drives above 2tb and I've seen mentioned in peoples footer posts owners of FOX T2 with 4tb hard drives.

I need to do a bit of thinking in regards to 32 to 64 bit>

Coming back to what I now own i.e. the FVP 5000 then i'll get a new Hard drive 2tb from what is the best priced model? Thanks
 
bob25 said:
Thanks for your fast reply! When I was referring to the FOX i was thinking freeview HD recorder so the HDR-FOX T2. The custom firmware mentioned hard drives above 2tb and I've seen mentioned in peoples footer posts owners of FOX T2 with 4tb hard drives.
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All of mine have 4TB drives; there is even one user who had a 10TB hard disk working, although that required some extra tweaks to the firmware.

bob25 said:
Coming back to what I now own i.e. the FVP 5000 then i'll get a new Hard drive 2tb from what is the best priced model? Thanks
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The Seagate AV drives that spin at 5900rpm are generally a good fit for a PVR application due to the amount of power that they need and their cooling requirements. The WD purple is designed for motion-activated surveillance systems and not for the type of load that a PVR places on it. Avoid enterprise/RAID drives like the WD red.
Make sure that you get a drive with the same interface as the existing one (I don't know what that is for an FVP 5000; probably SATA-III).

Like Black Hole, I'm not sure if anyone has tried replacing a drive in this model, but if it works please let us know!
 
I think for now I'll stick to the FVP 5000 but i'll bear it in mind for the future to get a HDR FOX T2. Maybe get a cheap one for a play? Can you add video files that don't originate from the freeview recorder and play them through the user interface on the HDR-FOX T2 own hard drive?

Back to the HD for FVP5000, I've seen a 2tb seagate pipeline on Amazon for £44. I'm tempted but I'll spend a couple of hours searching being making a decision?
 
bob25 said:
Back to the HD for FVP5000, I've seen a 2tb seagate pipeline on Amazon for £44.
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I am nervous about buying hard drives from sellers on Amazon Marketplace. At least some of them are not new as claimed but have had the SMART data reset to make them appear new. You may consider it worth the risk but personally I prefer to buy direct from a reputable UK seller. I wouldn't expect there to be any problems changing the drive but I certainly haven't done it and I don't recall anybody else posting to say they have done it.
 
MartinLiddle said:
I am nervous about buying hard drives from sellers on Amazon Marketplace. At least some of them are not new as claimed but have had the SMART data reset to make them appear new. You may consider it worth the risk but personally I prefer to buy direct from a reputable UK seller. I wouldn't expect there to be any problems changing the drive but I certainly haven't done it and I don't recall anybody else posting to say they have done it.
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I'll take your advice onboard. I didn't realise that that was possible. I'm not going to buy the drive then and i'll start looking further. I'd decided between the Amazon and one on Ebay. I've disregarded both of these as I suspect they have been tampered with.

So, my search continues!
 
bob25 said:
Maybe get a cheap one for a play?
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Definitely. They go on eBay for around £50 (second hand of course), and you should see here: https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hdr-fox-hardware-commissioning-disassembly-repair.5728/

bob25 said:
Can you add video files that don't originate from the freeview recorder and play them through the user interface on the HDR-FOX T2 own hard drive?
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Yes, as long as the container format and codecs are supported. MP4 is a good choice.
 
MartinLiddle said:
I am nervous about buying hard drives from sellers on Amazon Marketplace. At least some of them are not new as claimed but have had the SMART data reset to make them appear new. You may consider it worth the risk but personally I prefer to buy direct from a reputable UK seller. I wouldn't expect there to be any problems changing the drive but I certainly haven't done it and I don't recall anybody else posting to say they have done it.
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OK, i'm still searching as the available drives seem quite expensive which is not what I was intending!

I've got back to looking at this one on Amazon. www. amazon.co.uk Seagate-ST2000VM003-Pipeline-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B008B0RQ1C

Does it look dodgy from your point of view? TIA

Apparently I can't post links?!
 
But if you buy from Ebyer and have to return something, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops.
I will never buy anything off them again after I had to return a faulty item. The refund took several weeks and multiple emails pointing out their responsibilities under the 'distance selling laws' (as they were called then).
AVOID
 
I'm a bit reluctant to spend £76. I was hoping for less?

Did you check out the Amazon Seagate Pipeline ST2000VM003 @£44.

Too good to be true?
 
MartinLiddle said:
I am nervous about buying hard drives from sellers on Amazon Marketplace. At least some of them are not new as claimed but have had the SMART data reset to make them appear new. You may consider it worth the risk but personally I prefer to buy direct from a reputable UK seller. I wouldn't expect there to be any problems changing the drive but I certainly haven't done it and I don't recall anybody else posting to say they have done it.
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If the SMART data is reset, does that mean the data is completly erased or can it be recovered? TIA
 
bob25 said:
If the SMART data is reset, does that mean the data is completly erased or can it be recovered? TIA
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As far as I know it is completely gone. The giveaway for dodgy drives is that the manufacturing date on the sticker will show it is several years old. You could of course pay the extra £6 to Amazon to get 2 year accident and breakdown cover.
 
MartinLiddle said:
Who knows. Personally I have wasted too much time buying cheap hard drives and usually regretting it.
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I get where you are coming from! I'm trying to keep my costs down but theres always buy cheap, buy twice!

MartinLiddle said:
As far as I know it is completely gone. The giveaway for dodgy drives is that the manufacturing date on the sticker will show it is several years old. You could of course pay the extra £6 to Amazon to get 2 year accident and breakdown cover.
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I think I've seen this scam on Ebay now that you've alerted me this process, like "clocking" on a car. Yes, there is the extra £6 to get 2 year accident and breakdown cover?!" I'm going to ponder a bit more, I think!?
 
Trev said:
I will never buy anything off them again after I had to return a faulty item. The refund took several weeks and multiple emails pointing out their responsibilities under the 'distance selling laws' (as they were called then).
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If the goods are actually faulty, distance selling doesn't come into it - you have a cut-and-dried claim regardless of how the transaction was conducted. It's not like you were returning it just on a whim (as distance selling laws allow).

I would have suggested reporting this to Trading Standards, but they are no longer interested: they now use CAB as their gate-keepers, and it's almost impossible to get past the CAB advice process to file an actual complaint.
 
Yes, the goods were faulty and after a week after they had received it back and some emails to and fro, I got a refund for the goods but not the postage charge. I then had to quote the distance selling a couple of times and eventually they refunded the postage as well. The whole process took about a month. Never again.
 
Trev said:
Never again.
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I've an even simpler test for that trader. Their webshite doesn't work properly in any of my browsers - can't get rid of the cookie message. If they can't get the "front cover" of their business right...
 
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