DishPVR 501 hard disk change/upgrade

[RWebb71980]

I have a 501, 508, and 721. The 501 is just not doing it for me anymore. I checked spoofee.com and saw a 120gig hard drive for $99. I am willing to void the waranty if this I could swap them out. What would this do? Is there important system or format info on the hard disk? Has anyone tried this? I don't think that the hard drive interfacte is proprietary, so any off the shelf unit should just go in.

I suspect that if it was done, the reciever would be "tricked" into thinking it was new and just reformat and load the system into the new disk. Dish Network may have to hit the reciever to confirm the programming again, but that is no problem..

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
RWebb71980

[Mark Holtz]

Sorry. The drive parameters are burned into the CMOS for the 501. You can't swap the drive at this time.... at least noone has been able to figure out a successful method and be able to repeat it.

[Chris Blount]

Z'Loth is right. Don't even bother. You're best option is to sell the 501 and get another 508. Using E-Bay will probably give you the best return.

[xavier]

yeah, unfortunately no way to upgrade the hard drive on a 501, 508 or 721, the problems is simple, reciever id is burned into hte hard drive, you cant even take a hard drive out of another 501 and put in it. sorry to pop your bubble.

[DmitriA]

Actually, from what I've heard you can do it, but that method is very complicated and involves doing things that I'm pretty sure are illegal under DMCA. So I wouldn't try that if I were you...

[P Smith]

DmitriA, can you share with us the _facts_ about "illegal" replacing bad HDD on PVR50x ?

[Neil Derryberry]

We aren't going to go there on this board. Hack talk isn't allowed here, and this thread is headed down that road. I'll leave the thread open for now, but please police yourselves.

[bogi]

Dont buy the 120gig 501s can only be upgraded to 80gig.

Admin note: Link to hack site deleted

To Mod:It was a site where the upgrade was discovered.

[Steve Mehs]

A few weaks ago in one of the theads about 501 harddrives, I posted a link to a thread at AVS which has step by step directions on upgrading a 501s hard drive. Do a search for that post.

[P Smith]

Can we discuss legal/illegal aspects of the replacement HDD on PVR501/508 , rather "how-to" ?

[P Smith]

Steve Mehs,

please, don't spread the bogus info ! It's a FAKE ... Please.

[Steve Mehs]

I have gotten no indication that the post made at PlanetPVR, that was copied on AVS was a fake. The info seemed reliable and truthful. If it wasn't, so be it. But that is the only somewhat solid info I've seen on upgrading a 501.

[bogi]

Do to a Censored link you can check out this too:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6137

[John_ZD]

The post made at PlanetPVR, that was copied on AVS was and still is fake...
The upgrade that does work is at the URL bogi listed above - it requires no copying of data from the drive so there should be no DMCA issues.

[Lightnin1]

Upgrading your 501 is not illegal. There is nothing illegal about it. The only time i could see getting into hot water is upgrading a 501 that was in a promotion and was not legally yours. If you bye one outright, it is your to do what you want with, it will just void your warranty.

One of the admins at dishretailer.com succesfully upgraded his but only when it was new and before it took the initial software download.

[P Smith]

Actually, I'd like to see the arguments from DmitriA. Why he post his sentence ? What the reason for the post ? Yeah, if he responsible person ...