How to: Copy and Replace Internal Hard Drive

[marty45714]

** Disclaimer ** This post is for informational purposes only. Opening a leased receiver violates your DIRECTV Customer Agreement. DBSTalk.com does not condone any violation of contract, per our forum rules.

Please DO NOT DISCUSS extracting programs from the DVR in this forum. This will NOT be tolerated by the moderators! Okay, here we go!!!

Thank you's: I did not come up with this process entirely on my own. My desire to do it was based on the fact that I did it in the past to my DirecTivos and I wanted to see if I could do it again. Many thanks to 'P Smith' and 'llowery' who posted the original messages that gave me the knowledge to get started when working with the filesystems. It took a few private messages back and forth from them until I was able to complete this process.

Update: 12/2/2009 - A big thanks to Clambert, who created a photo tutorial of this whole process! Find the tutorial here: Click Here

FYI- I have successfully performed this upgrade on 2 HR20-700's, so this is NOT theory or speculation. It actually works, and I maintained all settings and content from before, plus gained extra space.

First, why did I want to do this?

1) I don't want an external hard drive box on top of or beside my HR-20 making more noise and using more power.
2) I want to retain all of my settings, recording lists, and current recorded shows.
3) The same reason a dogs licks... Well you get the idea, I wanted to do it as a challenge.

Second, What do I need to do this?

1) A T10 Torx screwdriver. My regular T10 worked for me. Another contributor to this thread notes:

The screws holding the cover on my HR20 are security Torx screws so a normal driver will not work. (Driver needs a hole drilled in the tip on the long axis which will fit over the post inside the screw hole.) One source for such a driver is:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=360-097

2) A Phillips screwdriver.
3) A computer with SATA interface.
4) Proper software for the computer. You could possibly do this completely with Linux. I didn't. I used Ghost, MBR Tool and Tiny Hexer.
5) A SATA internal hard drive. I used a 1TB Hitachi Deskstar.
6) A pair of snips.
7) Possibly a pair of pliers depending on your unit.

Lastly, let's get to it!

1) Take out the 5 T10 Torx screws from the back of the unit.
2) Note that you are breaking a seal that violates the warranty when you remove the cover.
3) Slide the cover towards the back of the unit and it will come unlatched, then you can remove it.
4) Remove the SATA connector, Power connector and Fan Power connector from the internal hard drive.
5) Find the 2 plastic fasteners that attach the drive mount to the frame. Place your Torx screwdriver in the center of them and push the plastic pin downward. This will release them and they can be removed.
6) Use a phillips screwdriver to remove the ground wire. You can't remove the Torx side unless you have some type of tamper-proof driver, as far as I can tell.
7) Now is the hardest part. I have done this on 2 different HR20's and they were both different. You have to remove the 2 screws holding the drive mount to the front of the unit. On one of mine, their were nuts holding them, so I just removed the nuts with a pair of pliers. That was fairly easy and I didn't have to remove the front panel. On my other unit, they were screwed in from the front, so you have to remove the front panel and unscrew them with your Torx screwdriver. It takes some patience and coordination to remove the front panel. Good luck!
8) You have to snip the tie wrap on the fan power connector in order to remove the hard drive.
9) Remove the hard drive mount (and hard drive) from the unit.
10) You need to install the new drive into the HR20 temporarily and power it up. Let the HR20 format the drive and then shut it back down. This is important because you have to write down the partition information from the new drive.
11) Now is the fun part. Hook your new drive and current internal drive up to a computer with a SATA interface.

Beginning with the 0.3.7-7 release of the Gparted Live Linux distribution, all of the data copying can now be accomplished using bootable Gparted Live media.

Thanks go to daniellee and ntrance for providing this process through trial and error. To complete this process you need to burn and use the GParted Live CD, gparted-live-0.3.7-7 or later. The version of the CD is important because some models of DVR drives power up in standby mode and therefore must be given the "spin up" command by Linux. This command only occurs using GParted Live versions 0.3.7-7 and later.

Step 1 – Let the HR20 format the new ESATA drive.

a) Shut down the HR20
b) Connect the ESATA drive & turn it on.
c) Restart the HR20
d) Confirm that the HR20 is now using the ESATA drive instead of the internal drive.

Step 2 - Perform a “graceful power down”

a) This is achieved by doing a menu reset and disconnecting the HR20’s power just at the point when all the LED lights go off. This is a crucial step – the linux mount commands will fail with a “Can’t read from Superblock” error if this step isn’t taken. It is imperative that both drives experience a “graceful power down” while connected to the HR20.
b) After the HR20 is powered off, turn off the ESATA drive and remove the bare drive from the ESATA enclosure.

Step 3 – Connect the drives to the PC & copy.

a) Get/burn a linux boot cd of GParted Live CD, gparted-live-0.3.7-7 or later.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

b) On the PC, connect the new drive to SATA0 and the original HR20 drive to SATA1 and boot up GParted Live CD.
c) You can use qtparted in system menu to verify which drive is which under linux. It is very important that you know the drive letter (a or b or whatever) that linux is assigning to each drive so that you get the sd(drive letter) right in the mount commands below. Normally with the new drive on SATA0 and the original HR20 drive on SATA1 linux will see the new drive as sda and the original HR20 drive as sdb - but you should check it to be sure.
d) Get a linux command line prompt and enter the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/fap
mkdir /mnt/hr20
mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sda3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/fap
mount -t xfs -o rtdev=/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb2 /mnt/hr20

(The next line will start the copying process and on my system took about 70 minutes to complete.)

xfsdump -J - /mnt/hr20 | xfsrestore -J - /mnt/fap

(After the dump/restore has finished enter

umount /mnt/hr20
umount /mnt/fap

Step 4 – Check it out

a) Shut down GParted Live CD and remove power from the PC
b) Return the new SATA drive to the ESATA enclosure and reconnect the original HR20’s HD power & SATA cables.
c) Close up everything, reconnect everything, turn on the ESATA drive and power-up the HR20.

Step 5 – Enjoy More DirecTV HDTV

Thanks to Rodhead who posted the process for replacing the drive in the HR20-100.
Here is the process:

Replacing the stock hard-drive in a HR20 model 100 is incredibly easy!

I got two new HR20-100s last week, free from DirecTV. I bought a 1TB Western Digital SATA drive and decided to upgrade one DVR as a trial.

Some notes about previous postings:

a. there is no security tag of any kind on the back.
b. the original drive was set to 300 MB/s transfer rate so there's no need to drop down to 150.

Only Torx T10 and T15 screwdrivers are needed.

Here's the procedure:

1. Remove five screws form the back and slide the cover back a bit, up at the back and then away.
2. The drive is mounted in a black plastic holder. The holder is attached to the box on the front side. A separate black plastic bracket clamps the holder down on the rear side. A fan on the underside of the holder vents out the box through slots in the bottom.
3. Unplug the fan cable from the motherboard. Unplug the SATA and power cables from the drive.
4. Unscrew seven screws and remove the drive holder and bracket.
5. Flip the holder over and detach the drive from the holder by unscrewing four screws. On one side they are clearly visible. On the other side, they must be acecssed through the fan blades.
6. Pop in the new drive and reattach with screws.
7. Put the holder back in the box and reattach the bracket.
8. Plug in the fan cable, power and SATA cables.
9. Close the box.

You're done. Total time, 15 minutes at the most. Obviously, if you want to preserve drive contents you'll have to copy partitions as described earlier.

If you see errors, problems, issues, etc. with this process, please message me and I will edit and make changes. I am also interested in hearing any alternate ways of doing this, or any ways that are easier or will save time.

[Greg Alsobrook]

Please make sure to read the disclaimer and take the poll!

[ntrance]

I do not agree that this is "an improved version" of the thread. The other thread had the same summary first post, plus more information for anyone who wanted to read the all the messages. The poll is now worded with such a strong bias, that there really is no reason to have a poll. How about changing the title of the thread to "How to copy and replace the internal or an external drive." Then add a poll option like, "I plan to upgrade my external drive and keep all my content." That is a perfectly acceptable use for the information and does not violate the lease agreement.

Here's the original closed thread for anyone wanting to attempt the procedure and has some questions that may have already been answered.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=100894

[daniellee]

Glad to see my Steps 1 -> 5 made it over to the new thread. Also glad to see them updated with the latest Gparted information. But if anyone finds some of the instructions a bit confusing it’s probably because the steps were taken somewhat out of context. My goal was not to replace the original drive in the HR2x. My goal was instead to add an ESATA drive without losing my programs and settings. And without having to remove the original drive. If you read the first part of my original post I think the Steps 1-> 5 above will make a little more sense.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?...&postcount=126

So with that small caveat - thank you marty45714. Good job.

[mocarob]

What is the process for copying external to a new external?
It should minimize the steps shouldn't it?
Rob

[ntrance]

Originally Posted by mocarob

What is the process for copying external to a new external?
It should minimize the steps shouldn't it?
Rob

Sure, just leave out the part about screwdrivers, and start with step 1.

[mocarob]

If that was sarcasm I didn't dig it too much.

The last time I read any message on this subject it was Aug 08.
At that time Danny told me that Gparted might not be needed.
That's what my question was based on. Here's what he said:

I’m wondering if the GParted steps were actually needed in your case. I would think that since neither of the drives you were using was the internal HR2x drive you should not have had the spin-up problem. I thought only the 320Gb drives shipped in the DVRs would require these steps.
__________________
-Danny

[ntrance]

Originally Posted by mocarob

If that was sarcasm I didn't dig it too much.

The last time I read any message on this subject it was Aug 08.
At that time Danny told me that Gparted might not be needed.
That's what my question was based on. Here's what he said:

I’m wondering if the GParted steps were actually needed in your case. I would think that since neither of the drives you were using was the internal HR2x drive you should not have had the spin-up problem. I thought only the 320Gb drives shipped in the DVRs would require these steps.
__________________
-Danny

It wasn't sarcasm. There are several item 1's listed, just start with the one labeled "Step 1." gparted-live-0.3.7-7 or later is the only software you will need. You likely wouldn't have had the spin-up problem anyway, and could use older versions or other linux distributions, but since it is simple enough just to complete the whole procedure with that version you might as well use it.

[CTskydiver]

Originally Posted by mocarob

What is the process for copying external to a new external? It should minimize the steps shouldn't it?
Rob

Another testimonial for you all:

I had been using a 750gb Seagate SATA drive in a Antec MX-1 with my HR20-100 for about 6 months or so and was down to 6% free space remaining. I purchased another Antex MX-1 and a Seagate 1.5 TB drive about 2 months ago after reading this article but just now worked up the combined frustration (with my lack of free space) and courage to try the steps I'd read here.

I used the current Gparted Live .iso disc (0.4.1-2) and followed the steps 1-5 exactly as written (including unplugging all four hard drives from my desktop so that I could use my motherboard's sata 0 and sata 1 ports) ... since I had no idea what the syntax I was entering meant, at first, and didn't want to chance a mistake (though the syntax starts to make sense one you do it).

For those wondering, I haven't had any problems with my 1.5 TB Seagate drive's firmware (which has not been updated) and it records and plays back just fine so far. Guess I got one of the good ones. UPDATE: Scratch that! I spoke to soon. New recordings don't play back right at all. Guess I need the new firmware. 2nd UPDATE: I installed the new firmware (now released to public) and everything NOW works fine. Man, I love my 1.5 TB DVR!! Note: I installed the new hard drive firmware AFTER I did the copy process outlined in post #1. You should probably do it first (less scary) but it doesn't seem to matter if you do it before OR after.

The copy (of a nearly full 750gb hard disk to a 1500gb DVR pre-formatted hard disk) took less than four hours to complete. When plugged back into my DVR, I was ecstatic to find everything still there, still playable, and 56% free space!

It boggles my mind how much content I'll be able to archive on this thing. I already had over 100 HD movies saved on the 750 GB drive. And it is doubly nice to know I'll be able to periodically back this monster up to another 1.5 TB drive if I start worring about losing my shows. The only scary thing is knowing that they are all tied to the same DVR - and that when my DVR dies, I'll lose it all.

BTW, I did the whole initialization of the 1.5tb drive and subsequent copy process with each drive inside their Antec enclosures, hooked up via esata to either the DVR or to my motherboard's sata ports with the adapters included with the Antecs. UPDATE: The Seagate firmware update did NOT take when hooked up via the Antecs. I tried twice, and even though the firmware update software said the update took each time, it failed to change the firmware version when checked after with option "S" (or Seagate's drive detection tool). I had to plug the SATA drives DIRECTLY into my PC motherboard (no external SATA adapters allowed) for the update to take. You MUST verify Drive Detect reports the NEW firmware revision number, SD1B!

Thanks so much to all who contributed to this thread (and the one that proceeded it)!

[marty45714]

I'm just thrilled that my original thread lives on! Thanks moderators!!!

[jfuchtm]

Man were were you when I lost all my HD versions of Star War's, not that I attemped to do this.......

[t_h]

Did this using a pair of esata connectors on the back of my desktop with the drives still in their esata enclosures. Took a whole heck of a lot longer than 70 minutes to copy ~600GB of show data from one 1TB drive to another.

Got some funny HANDSHK errors where it reset the interface a few times and eventually decided on a 1.5Gb/s transfer rate. Whole thing took a little more than 4 hours. Maybe the errors were caused by all the esata cabling I was using because of being lazy sticking two esata backplates in instead of fishing the drives out of their enclosures.

The new drive is one of the new Seagate Pipeline drives thats intended for HD DVR's. We'll see if that works out better for me than the old WD Greenpower drive did.

[LlamaLarry]

I just ordered a couple of big drives and will need to copy over the existing drives' content to them. All of the steps look easy enough, but all of my previous HDD replacements were on DirecTiVos (SD and HD). Only part I have a question on is:

xfsdump -J - /mnt/source | xfsrestore -J - /mnt/target

Does the xfsrestore process also expand the partitions to the new max size?

[ntrance]

Originally Posted by LlamaLarry

Does the xfsrestore process also expand the partitions to the new max size?

When you attach the new drive to the DVR for the initial formatting, the partitions are created at the new max size.

[LlamaLarry]

Originally Posted by ntrance

When you attach the new drive to the DVR for the initial formatting, the partitions are created at the new max size.

Well, there you go, you know - Good old Step 1. :::sigh:::

In the other thread weren't some other folks trying to copy and expand the file system onto a bare drive, without having the STB create it first? Folks intent on replacing the internal drive may not have access to a eSATA enclosure for the easy system format.

[mocarob]

Originally Posted by t_h

The new drive is one of the new Seagate Pipeline drives thats intended for HD DVR's. We'll see if that works out better for me than the old WD Greenpower drive did.

What happened with the WD green drive? How long did it last?

[t_h]

Originally Posted by mocarob

What happened with the WD green drive? How long did it last?

I have had a lot of glitching on that receiver with both a Seagate 500GB plain-jane sata drive and the WD greenpower 1TB drive. It seemed worse with the greenpower. The other receiver I have has a 750GB seagate db35 in it and while it has its issues its much less.

Not sure if I have a receiver problem or a disk problem. The dang thing runs for a week problem free and then lays a bunch of eggs for two or three days.

Last week it deleted about half of the shows sometime during the night, I have very slow menu, guide and trickplay remote response times on it and frequent video and audio glitching. Frequently when doing a VOD download it'll tell me there is a network problem. I'm not having any problems with anything else in the house, including a Roku box.

I know some of those symptoms are known problems with the HR software, but I wanted to see if a fast 7200 rpm drive made for HD dvr's would improve things.

We havent used the unit long enough since putting in the new disk to form an opinion on whether its better. It seems zippier, but it always does when freshly rebooted. I'll let it go for a week or so and see if anything bizarre happens.

Another reason why I wanted to get it in place is because a couple of the moderators have urged people to buy WD DVR expanders or the Seagate Showcase models, without explaining why. The only thing special about those are that they're 7200rpm AV model drives made for HD DVR's. My guess is that these will be the drives that Directv will eventually support, and maybe they'll be the only ones that will work for one reason or another. The Pipeline drive is the disk thats in the Showcase product, and I didnt want to spend $330 for a 1TB external drive when the disk is only $130.

[ntrance]

Originally Posted by LlamaLarry

In the other thread weren't some other folks trying to copy and expand the file system onto a bare drive, without having the STB create it first? Folks intent on replacing the internal drive may not have access to a eSATA enclosure for the easy system format.

When replacing the internal drive, you can connect the STB internal SATA and power connectors to the new drive and power up the STB to format the drive. I believe that would be less work and more reliable than trying to create to proper size partitions manually.

[LlamaLarry]

Originally Posted by ntrance

When replacing the internal drive, you can connect the STB internal SATA and power connectors to the new drive and power up the STB to format the drive.

This is what I did and I was a little surprised that the format took only a few seconds; I guess it really just created the partition layout.

Ran into a problem copying the old drive contents as it would not spin up on any of my three (admittedly 'older') computers. The drive would detect in the BIOS but the platters never spun up. I changed power (SATA and legacy), SATA cables, SATA ports and computers, no change. The 1.5TB Seagate (ST31500341AS) would detect and spin up every time.

I will pop over to a local store to pick up an enclosure and give the copy another whirl later today.

[daniellee]

Originally Posted by LlamaLarry

This is what I did and I was a little surprised that the format took only a few seconds; I guess it really just created the partition layout.

Ran into a problem copying the old drive contents as it would not spin up on any of my three (admittedly 'older') computers. The drive would detect in the BIOS but the platters never spun up. I changed power (SATA and legacy), SATA cables, SATA ports and computers, no change. The 1.5TB Seagate (ST31500341AS) would detect and spin up every time.

I will pop over to a local store to pick up an enclosure and give the copy another whirl later today.

Are you sure you are using the latest GParted Live CD as mentioned in Step 3 a) above. It should solve the spin-up problems with the original HR2x drives and is the only Linux you need to complete all the steps.

[LlamaLarry]

Originally Posted by daniellee

Are you sure you are using the latest GParted Live CD as mentioned in Step 3 a) above. It should solve the spin-up problems with the original HR2x drives and is the only Linux you need to complete all the steps.

I downloaded the iso for 0.4.1-2. The drive issues a POST error (Primary Hard Drive Failure) and when I resume the machine appears to lock up. I admit to not waiting very long, mostly because it stalls at a screen that says "Wait" that I had not seen before tht takes place before the gparted boot manager appears.

Should I give it another go and just wait longer? Or maybe hot swap the drive in once I am booted up?

ETA: I tried it on the computer it was hooked up to last (the newest) and this one actually did not hang when I resumed and the drive does appear on the system. Thanks for prompting me to give it another whirl.

[dcapone]

So ignoring what has been posted all over the internet, i attempted to use this procedure to copy my recordings from one DVR to another.

The interesting thing that I had noticed and the reason I am posting is that 2of my recordings played successfully on the new DVR.

Both of the recordings that played were under a week old and now 1 month later, they still play without issue. I wonder if someone familiar with the xfs file system may be able to find a way to alter the timestamps on all of the recordings to fall within the previous week of when the copy was initiated and whether this would allow recordings to permanently be copied from one device to other.

[ntrance]

Originally Posted by dcapone

The interesting thing that I had noticed and the reason I am posting is that 2of my recordings played successfully on the new DVR.

Is it possible that those two recordings were OTA? OTA recordings are not encrypted like the Satellite recordings and play between DVRs.

[dcapone]

Nope.

One was Starz, the other HBO.

[mjbehren]

Hey all,

I know its been a while since I have been around here; new responsibilities at work have unfortunately limited my time spent here.

But I wanted to say MANY THANKS to marty45714 for this procedure. I have been running an external Seagate 750Gb eSATA for a long time... Apparantly too long, since it started to fail... Black screens, random lockups, corrupt recordings, could all be attributed to the failing HD. I let the 750 rest for a couple days and built a 2Tb external enclosure.

I just used this thread to move all of my recordings over to the new external and everything came over first time! I went from 2% free to 67% free. Thanks much... I had some baseball games that I havent burned off to DVD yet (Detroit Tigers with Ernie Harwell announcing)... Ill be doing that very soon.


Thanks,
Mb