HDR-FOX T2 HDD cloning

Wingman

New Member
Firstly, thanks to the person/people responsible for the custom software - It's really useful! When I access the PVR remotely, I get a red warning of disk problems, and a comment saying it could be a sign of impending HDD failure. When I bought my HDR-FOX T2 was fitted with a 500Gb HDD. My plan is to change this for a 1Tb HDD. Is anyone able to advise me the best way to copy my existing 500Gb drive to the 1Tb drive, as I'm a little reluctant without more information. My plan is to use Paragon DriveCopy 12, running on a Windows 7 PC, and perform a Raw HDD copy - Is this a viable way to do it? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you - John.
 
My plan is to use Paragon DriveCopy 12, running on a Windows 7 PC, and perform a Raw HDD copy - Is this a viable way to do it?
It's not very sensible as you won't be able to use the extra space for recordings.
Install the new disk in the Humax and let it partition and format it.
Then you can copy the contents of partition 2 from the old disk to the new disk using whatever method you choose. Partitions 1 and 3 only contain stuff which is disposable.
 
Thank you prpr! That's exactly the type of answer I was hoping for. I'll let you know how it goes..

Cheers - John.
 
I have just done this due to changing to an SSD and cloned (not copied) the original drive via Mini Tool Partition Wizard (It's free).

The bad news is I had to buy a 3.5" caddy for £4.00 (delivered) off Ebay) to be able to do it.

I did it two weeks ago and have had absolutely no problems.

There are plenty of instructions out there for Mini Tool and you just run the programme so that it resizes the existing recording partition and that way you will get the extra space.
 
I have just done this due to changing to an SSD
Also was it new? What are your viewing habits that could impact its use?
( E.G. do you have the Humax on just when you watching a recorded programme, or constantly on? Are you more of a radio fan than an HD fan?)
 
It was a second hand Crucial 480 from Ebay for £27.50. Crucials own software shows that it had been used for 336 hours. If it lasts 27.5 months I will be happy and there was one reason and one reason only for changing it and that was to stop the background noise of the HDD which in fairness wasn't that bad but annoyed the hell out of me.

Viewing habits are watching programmes recorded through the Web i.f. and other than absolute silence I have noticed no other differences.

I have used Mini Tool umpteen times over the last 10 years or so and the below sample picture from the internet shows where/how in the programme you deal with the partition sizes. (Ignore where the picture says 'Pro 11', the free one is exactly the same for cloning purposes and it is the free version that I use). You would do it as 'fit partitions to entire disk' and you can even resize the resultant individual partitions further if you want.

copy-disk-5.jpg
 
The reason we are asking is there has been considerable discussion on here whether an SSD would last very long in the 100% duty cycle environment of a PVR. Unless you take measures to turn the function off, the TSR buffer is being written continuously.

I don't notice my drives running, perhaps that is an "advantage" of age. Perhaps you have a particularly noisy drive, or haven't tried isolating the HDR from whatever it's standing on (such as with a thick cloth or softer rubber feet). Or maybe it was the fan all along.
 
I thought about that, but now there is less heat being produced...

(Which I grant is a potential side-benefit of an SSD)
 
From what I have previously read there would have to be an immense amount of TB's written before problems may surface and for £27.50 I don't mind the gamble.

Tried the pvr with padded feet and on thick cardboard. The 'noise' from the HDD was not loud it was just there, more like 'white noise' than anything. I can even hear pc's with HDD's fitted spinning their platters (Not the ones that sang Only You).

Nothing to do with the fan, I could hear it going when the pvr came out of standby before anything warmed up.

Must stress that the noise was not loud, it was just there, in the same way say as a fridge/freezer makes a noise, not loud just there.
 
This one below. A 500gb is more than adequate for me. Mini Tool will automatically/allow you to size the partitions how you want them if you are putting a bigger SSD in. You can even go 500GB HDD to 250SSD.

s-l1600.jpg
 
From what I have previously read there would have to be an immense amount of TB's written before problems may surface and for £27.50 I don't mind the gamble.
Quite - I've "taken one for the team" before now. We're just interested in progress reports.

It's worth noting that (in rough figures) there's 1GB per hour written to disk continuous, which comes to 10TB per year. Different wear levelling algorithms might be more or less effective for PVR duty.
 
Just found this on Crucial's website for the MX500:

Life Expectancy: 500GB drive: 180TB Total Bytes Written (TBW), equal to 98GBper day for 5 years.


I think I should be ok even if Crucial are overstating things, on average per week I watch maximum three hours from the pvr. (I therefore record per week an average of three hours). PVR is only turned on when watching/recording, all other times it is on standby.

At a guess I would say all other mainstream SSD's are similar.
 
It's worth noting that (in rough figures) there's 1GB per hour written to disk continuous, which comes to 10TB per year.
The 10TB per year figure I think assumes 24 hour on usage. I would have thought a more common pattern might be 12 hour on per day.

From the Crucial MX500 data sheet the life expectancy of the 500GB drive is 180 TBW (Terra Bytes Written) which is 98GB per day for 5 years. Clearly it depends on how much a user records and whether the box is put into standby but that sounds to me as though an average user would expect at least a 5 year life.. Also worth noting that the more expensive Samsung SSD drives have larger TBW figures for 500GB drives the 860 EVO is 300TBW, the 860 Pro is 600TBW; they are getting into the same territory for life as conventional rotating drives.
 
The reason we are asking is there has been considerable discussion on here whether an SSD would last very long in the 100% duty cycle environment of a PVR. Unless you take measures to turn the function off, the TSR buffer is being written continuously.
Since I very rarely watch anything live, my boxes are set to turn on to a data channel so that the TSR is not used, reducing disk noise and increasing available throughput. Depending on how you use the box, that would be worth considering here.
 
I would have thought a more common pattern might be 12 hour on per day.
Is it? Engineering practice is to assume worst case, and anyway we know there are a significant number of users who do prefer 24/7 (even if it is on a data channel for much of that time).

Don't fall into the common trap of assuming your usage pattern is the common usage pattern, that's a well-known bias fallacy (and note that although I am a 4x24/7, and I know there are others in this group, I do not assume anything about their percentage of the population). If I were going to hazard a guess, I don't think I would come up with 12h per day... how do you arrive at that?

Since I very rarely watch anything live, my boxes are set to turn on to a data channel so that the TSR is not used, reducing disk noise and increasing available throughput. Depending on how you use the box, that would be worth considering here.
Agreed.

I have to say that, for £27 it's definitely worth a punt. Last time we went around this loop they were a lot more expensive (although I note this is second hand).
 
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