522 hard drive upgrade

bandoul

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2005
15
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Hey guys, has anyone tried putting a different or bigger hard drive in their 522? I successfully removed the drive from the unit, then imaged it using Norton Ghost 9. I then low level formated it, used it in my computer to move some big VOB files around, formatted it again and then put the ghosted image back on just to see if it would work. It booted back up just fine. So you're asking yourself what sane person would do this and for what insane reason right? Well here is why, most of us have complained about the video quality and sound problems in recorded and live shows right? I found out that the hard drive that ships in these unit is an el cheapo samsung drive so I said to myself what if I could put a same capacity (Linux dosen't adjust well if the drive suddently grows in size) Maxtor QuickView hard drives which are designed for digital video recorders with a cache size of 16MB as opposed to the 2MB in the el cheapo drive? Wouldn't that dramatically improve the quality of the recored shows and live TV viewing? I think so!!! Anyone agree/disagree? Tried this? Thoughts?

If you're worried about the warranty you can preserve the drive you take out intact and put back in if you have to send the unit back for repairs. I've done that already, meaning broke the label seal between the drive and chassis and no problem getting warranty repair or replacement unit.
 
I think one of the concerns is that the faster 7200 RPM hard drives run hotter than the 5400 RPM drives they ship in the units. The 7200 RPM drives will more than likely make the unit perform better, just like in a computer, but the unit may not be able to cool itself properly and overheat. Just a thought.
 
bandoul,

What type of video quality are you talking about. A different hard drive isn't likely to do anything for you. It's all about bandwidth. Picture quality is not going to be effected unless the HDD is not keeping up.

Do you only have problems when the 522 is dealing with multiple streams (two recording + two playback)?

Much of this experimenting has already be done. Go here and read, read, read...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishmod/

There have been a few threads here as well.

Basically, if the 522 (or 625, or 942), get an approved, unformatted HDD the box will automatically format it. I believe it's been reported that only specific hard drives models will work (like the 508, unlike the 921).

So you can't really install a larger hdd (it will not be on the "approved" list). You can install whatever the 625 is using, but that will just get you extra space to be reserved (wasted) for VOD.

Bottom line.... I'd NEVER open up a leased box.
 
Bob Haller said:
does it detect its a 625 and does it add VOD operation?
yes bob it does, but you neead a particular seagate hd that ends in ace ce stands for consumer electronics, but you can only by the drive ending a not ace
i turned my 522 into 625 with vod


in one thread here i have the specific 625 hdd # but i cant find it,
it was a thread started by pepper about swapping hdd in 522
 
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st3250823ace

no I don't remember off the top of my head. it's saved in my ebay favorite searches.

I don't have one yet but glad to hear it works.
 
Good questions

Thanks for you reply and questions David! You can easily see what I am talking about if you momentarily disconnect the Hard Drive. I did this and the results were amazing. I powered down the unit and removed the power cord and then I disconnected the ribbon cable and power cable from the drive. When I powered the unit back up it flashed an error code that there is something seriously wrong with my hard drive and to press OK to continue. I pressed OK, the program guide downloaded and the receiver displayed the channel I was viewing before I powered down. The picture quality was visibly better and even my wife who cares nothing about such things remarked "why is the picture better all of a sudden?". It is simple, the signal was now being sent directly to the unit's video/audio outputs therefore bypassing the bottleneck which in my case is the hard drive's 2MB Cache, 5400 RPM spindle speed, 12.6 ms average seek time and 5.6 ms average latency.
I strongly believe if I get a newer beefier 120GB with an 8MB Cache, 7200 RPM spindle speed, 9.0 ms average seek and 4.17 average latency then the picture would get a lot better since it has to go to the drive before it is displayed. These specs are for the Maxtor QuickView DiamondMax 10 model 6L120P0.
It turns out the unit I have now has a Maxtor QuickView DiamondMax 16 model 4R120L0
Compare the specs for yourself and see.
 
I have a ACE drive from a Motorola DVR box. Works pretty good in my HTPC sitting at my feet. Its a 120 Gig 7200 Rpm drive. Don't think its that model though. Nope its a ST3120025ACE.

I did a froogle on the model Pepper posted and got two hits ranging from $141 - $168 that says its a 250 gig drive. On mine I got 4 all at $134.

stone phillips420
So if I under stand correctly, if I down graded my 625 HD it would probably turn it into a 522 because of HD size. If I placed a 625 HD in a 522 it would turn it into a 625 with VOD. Now how would that work with Dish as the ROO and SOO numbers tell Dish the model of receiver and they activate features based on that info?
 
yes if you put the 120gb drive in 625 you lose vod and it changes from 625 to 522
r00 s00 remain same all that changes is A (field) in sytem info from 625 to 522 or vice versa
522 hdd
Maxtor QuickView DiamondMax 16 model 4R120L0
625 hdd
st3250823ace seagate
 
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could you take a 625 hard drive out of a leased box thats dead and install it in a 522 making it a 625?

i have zero interest in doing this and really dont want VOD but am curious is the hard drive married to the box somehow?

I miss the fun days upgrading the legacy dishplayers to ever larger hard drives
 
Bob, I have an ST3250823ACE drive on the way. That is the identical drive that is in a 625. I will put it in a 522 when it arrives and let you know.
 
Bob Haller said:
could you take a 625 hard drive out of a leased box thats dead and install it in a 522 making it a 625?

i have zero interest in doing this and really dont want VOD but am curious is the hard drive married to the box somehow?

I miss the fun days upgrading the legacy dishplayers to ever larger hard drives
go ahead and swap 721 921 942 522 625, rebuild themselves so hdd marrying isnt an issue in these dual tuners
yes, dish's retail prices are wack
I UPGRADE THE HDD CAPACITY OF EVERY BOX I OWN
 
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bandoul said:
Bob, I have an ST3250823ACE drive on the way. That is the identical drive that is in a 625. I will put it in a 522 when it arrives and let you know.
you will still only be able to record 100hrs. of tv same as 522, the rest of the unused hdd space would be for vod
no real vod
but vod over phoneline rj11 pathetic but it works
enjoy the 522 turned 625
 
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I think the 622 hdd will be the same was as all previous dual tuner dvrs, hdd marrying shouldnt be an issue since the hdd rebuild themselves
we will see soon though
 
stone phillips420 said:
go ahead and swap 721 921 522 625, rebuild themselves so hdd marrying isnt an issue in these dual tuners
yes, dish's retail prices are wack
Not quite that easy with the 721 and 921. These boxes boot from the hard drive (not from flash). The partitions will have to be cloned over (Ghost can do it).

stone phillips420 said:
I UPGRADE THE HDD CAPACITY OF EVERY BOX I OWN
Within limits. The only box that really allowed for different size hard drives was the Legacy Dishplayer 7100/7200.

You can turn a 522 into a 625, but that really doesn't get you any more recording capacity.

The 921 does not look for a specific HDD model. But, the partition sizes are fixed, so any space beyond 250 gig is not used.

A 501 can be turned into a 508/510, but this requires procedures not discussable here (and is beyond the difficulty limit of most users).

The 622 will allow off-loding content onto a Mass Storage compliant USB2 HDD (content only playable on the original box). That'll be sufficient for me.
 
David_Levin said:
Not quite that easy with the 721 and 921. These boxes boot from the hard drive (not from flash). The partitions will have to be cloned over (Ghost can do it).


Within limits. The only box that really allowed for different size hard drives was the Legacy Dishplayer 7100/7200.

You can turn a 522 into a 625, but that really doesn't get you any more recording capacity.

The 921 does not look for a specific HDD model. But, the partition sizes are fixed, so any space beyond 250 gig is not used.

The 622 will allow off-loding content onto a Mass Storage compliant USB2 HDD (content only playable on the original box). That'll be sufficient for me.
Youre right about 721/921
I forgot bout ghost this process was a Pia but there are instructions at *bstalk for 721 only
I didn't increase record time but I swapped 120 for 160
To Surmise the 721 upgrade hdd was involved IMHO


But the 522 to 625 is easy as pie as long as you have appropriate Seagate hdd for 625 no increase in record time but bs vod

my upgrades include my tivos as well thanks to ic
 
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LOL, rolling on the floor peeing my pants...just got off the phone with Dish network. Was on the phone with them for 40 minutes. I started with "hey I want to be able to do Dish on Demand" the guy replies "you need a 625 receiver for that and those are not available for our existing customers" and it went south from there.

Apparently they refuse to offer an upgrade paths to their existing customers!!! Swapping the 522 for the 625 is not an option according to the 3 different supervisors I spoke with but the last one let it slip out of frustration (oh yeah I can do that to people) that the 625 will no longer be available sometime next month and that Dish Network is coming out with new receivers and upgrade options for existing customers.

Well oki doki then, we know about the 211, 411 and the 622 but what are they going to replace the 522 with? What is going to fill the DVR Dual Tuner spot being vacated by the 522/625? Anyone know.

I've cancelled my order for the Seagate CE drive for now, well at least I know where to go get it if I decide I need it but I think getting newer, more sophisticated hardware is the best bet. Let's see what February 1st brings.
 
Remember, the CSRs are completely clueless. Also remember, the CSRs supervisors are only a smidgen less clueless.

In the future all boxes will be hd/mpeg4 capable. The means that the 522/625 will EVENTUALLY be replaced with the vip622.

Feb 1 you'll be able to place an order for a 622 - it'll cost you $299 to get it (the 921/942 people will be offered an extra $200 rebate in April).

It'll be years before they are ready to switch SD to mpeg4 to don't expect the deal to change for awhile.

New SD customers will get a 622 but availability for probably keep them sending out 625's for another 6 months.

bandoul: If you really want the VOD, take the new HDD and install it in your 522. You can always put the original back if in the future you switch to a 622 (I can always find use for extra HDD space). Personally, VOD from sat does nothing for me. I can set up timers for what I want.
 
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David I am not interested in the VOD at all and I really don't care if I am not able to use the extra hard disk space, ie replacing a 120 GB drive with a 250 and thinking I will be able to record more hours. All I am trying to do is replace my 5400 RPM piece of dirt Maxtor DiamondMax16 drive with an optimized high performance 7200 RPM drive. What is still not clear from all these posts is whether or not I can replace the existing drive with a different brand 120 GB drive or does it have to be a Seagate CE drive? I mean if the formatted capacity is the same how does a 522 unit detect and reject a different brand drive? Is it looking in the BIOS of the drive for a vendor string? That would be odd considering the first 522 I had shipped with a Samsung 160 GB drive in it. Does anyone know for sure what the limitation is? Size, Manufacturer or CE designation?


David_Levin said:
Remember, the CSRs are completely clueless. Also remember, the CSRs supervisors are only a smidgen less clueless.

In the future all boxes will be hd/mpeg4 capable. The means that the 522/625 will EVENTUALLY be replaced with the vip622.

Feb 1 you'll be able to place an order for a 622 - it'll cost you $299 to get it (the 921/942 people will be offered an extra $200 rebate in April).

It'll be years before they are ready to switch SD to mpeg4 to don't expect the deal to change for awhile.

New SD customers will get a 622 but availability for probably keep them sending out 625's for another 6 months.

bandoul: If you really want the VOD, take the new HDD and install it in your 522. You can always put the original back if in the future you switch to a 622 (I can always find use for extra HDD space). Personally, VOD from sat does nothing for me. I can set up timers for what I want.
 
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