Upgrading the Dish Player Hard drive 7200

[Hoosier]

I know I saw some information on this forum somewhere..but can't find that thread..can some one help me..My DP 7100 recently died..I had the extended warranty..so they sent me out a 7200..and gave me free personal TV till 6/2003...so now I would like to look into upgrading my 7200.. Appreciate any advice...sorry for this repeat question..:shrug:

[Dmitriy]

Try this website, it has all the info you need.
ben.reser.org/dishplayer

[virtualsmith]

Upgrading the hard drive of the 7200 is the simplest thing in the world. I how they left that receiver so open. Just remember to get a 5400 drive and I wouldn't go over 80 gigs or so. Other than that, it's just a matter of unscrewing the casetop, unscrewing the harddrive, replacing the harddrive and screwing it all back in. The machine does all the rest of the work for you. Now if only other hardware manufacturers made things this easy...

Granted, it was probably an oversight on D*'s part in not putting any harddrive marrying code or whatever on there.

[virtualsmith]

Umm, I meant E* in that last message, as in Echostar. I was thinking Dish Network, so I said D*...

[Chris Blount]

Here is all of the information you need to upgrade the hard drive:

http://ben.reser.org/dishplayer/upgrade-howto.html

[Hoosier]

Again many thanks for the advice...

[David_Levin]

Most important - stay away from Quantum and Maxtor D540x (rebadged Quantums) - they don't work.

I'm using a Western Digital 120 gig 7200 RPM without any problems.

[virtualsmith]

My Maxtor 40 gig 5400 RPM drive has worked great in my 7200 for over 6 months.

[MarkA]

That's interesting David. Why not? Do they draw too much power?

[David_Levin]

Most Maxtors are fine - I also have a DiamonMax 80 working fine (another died, was replaced under warranty, and is now in my computer).

The Maxtors that are a problem are the ones that used to be Quantums (Maxtor and Quantum merged).

I assume the Quantum problem is a firmware/software issue. A power problem would be more sparatic.

[STXJim]

David,
I never thought about this before but when your hard drive died were you still able to watch TV or did everything shut down?
Were there any warning signs of failure before it died?

[Chris Blount]

Originally posted by STXJim
David,
I never thought about this before but when your hard drive died were you still able to watch TV or did everything shut down?
Were there any warning signs of failure before it died? I had a Western Digital 7200 RPM hard drive fail in the DP. First warning signs were numorous blinkouts and bogus software upgrades every time I turned on the unit. Basically, the unit is un-usable unless the hard drive is working.

[David_Levin]

Originally posted by STXJim
David,
I never thought about this before but when your hard drive died were you still able to watch TV or did everything shut down?
Were there any warning signs of failure before it died?


In that case, I did get warning. Initially then drive seemed slow to spin up. Then, had problems initializing on a cold start (initial power-up). The head would would be stuck seeking (probably looking for partition information). Power cycling (many times) would eventually let the drive initialize.

Interestingly, if I didn't pull the plug on the Dishplayer the drive would be ok (even spinning up and down). Dishplayer must spin down the drive but keep the logic powered.

After I got the new drive I was able to keep the cover off the Dishplayer and swap the drives back and forth till I watched everything I needed off the old one.

I then plugged the old drive into a PC where is miserabely failed the Maxtor Diagnostics.

Sometimes a drive will just die - I guess at a 50% chance where a drive will give some warning.

PS: Yep, if the drive is dead, so is the Dishplayer

[Hoosier]

Saw this model at CompUSA.Do you think it would work ok for the 7200 upgrade?:confused:

[David_Levin]

Originally posted by Hoosier
Saw this model at CompUSA.Do you think it would work ok for the 7200 upgrade?:confused:

Yea, that guy should be fine....

[splitsec]

Has anyone upgraded recently?

I have a 7100 with the stock drive. I just recently tried to upgrade it to an 80 gb drive. But it will not take the update. After looking around, I found a file that contained a blank image, and a virgin drive image that I wrote to the drive. This still won't let me take the update.

So I am wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if Dishnet has changed their processes or something?

[rockerman2k]

What is the reason for using a 5400 rpm HD vs a 7200 rpm HD?

TIA!

Rockerman2k

[Tony S]

Originally posted by rockerman2k
What is the reason for using a 5400 rpm HD vs a 7200 rpm HD?


The 5400 rpm drive draws less power and runs cooler. You don't really need the extra speed that is provided by the 7200 rpm drive. So, for this application the 5400 rpm drive is preferred.

[Jacob S]

I have a rather interesting question. I have read a post to where they are going to start rolling out chips instead of hard drives in which will actually be just a little cheaper than the hard drives right off the bat, which could lead to being a LOT cheaper later on seeing the size and manufacturing cost would be a LOT lower.

I wonder if we could replace the hard drives in the units we have now with a chip(s).

[Hoosier]

Upgraded my 7200 with Maxtor 100 GB 5400 and has went fine so far? Everything is working and my PTV is free! Can't be happier! Thanks for all your advice:)

[rjl]

Hoosier, how did you get free ptv? Mine is still 9.95 month.

[Jacob S]

He must have gotten the 3 year (aka lifetime) ptv service promotion when he bought the dishplayer.

[Hoosier]

I got free PTV from the CSR who help me get my 7200 setup..I had a 7100 for several years and had the extend warranty serviceand it recently diedso to they replaced it and sent me a 7200..when I called to setup the CSR said I could have it for free till 6/03? I guess I just got lucky?

[David_Levin]

Originally posted by splitsec
Has anyone upgraded recently?

I have a 7100 with the stock drive. I just recently tried to upgrade it to an 80 gb drive. But it will not take the update. After looking around, I found a file that contained a blank image, and a virgin drive image that I wrote to the drive. This still won't let me take the update.

So I am wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if Dishnet has changed their processes or something?

We need more details....
Did you try the dial-in update procedure first?
(I'd strongly recommend this over the image method)
Did it attemp to dial out?
How far did it get before it failed (what happened)?
What messages came up?

Seems like the most common causes of failed dial in updates are:
1) Hard Drive not jumpered as master (don't use cable select)
2) Hard Drive not compatible (Maxtor 540x/Quantum)
3) You live in Canada
4) Crappy phone connection
5) Hard drive pre-partitioned in a pc (you'll need to reinstall it in the pc and zero it out)

[slojim]

Have had the Seagate 80GB 7200 rpm HD for over 8 mos. with no overheating or noise problems.
Am thinking of putting it a a PC and going to a 120GB HD.
Hoosier..how many hrs are you getting on your 100GB HD? ~Jim~

[splitsec]

I finally got it working. I ended up putting a different image on it. I got it from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishrip/files/Utilities/Dishplayer%20Image.zip

This has a pretty recent update on it. I need to do some more testing. The phone connection is not working from the location of the dishplayer (not the location in the house, but rather the location of the house, we mostly use cell's). The system took this as a virgin drive with a recent version of the webtv on it. YEAH!

R

[Hoosier]

I don't know yet how many hours..I have...I am assuming at least 80 hours and possibly up to 90 hours...I haven't max it out yet..