Replacing HD on pVR

[Tafflad]

I have a Humax PVR and the HDD is starting to fail.
Looking for a replacement HD 3.5" and 2TB

The typical recommendation is a SeaGate ST2000VM003 Pipeline, but this is now manufacturer discontinued, I can find some stock, but as any stock must be 'old' thought it worth also looking for alternatives.

Need a quiet drive, that can work happily in a hot box, this means a CE or AV drives

Ultimate Performance is not critical, quiet running & reliability more important (hence CE or AV drive type)


Been advised to stay away from WD as they try to park the head every 8sec (power saving) not good for AV recording.

Suggestions ?

[DB83]

Good to see you m8. Trust all is well with you and yours.


I can not specifically advise of a HDD although I am somewhat surprised with your comment about WDs since HDDs only park when not in use.


But can you confirm that your PVR supports a 2tb drive. I see many Humax models but only one that has a 2tb drive. And since all HDDs need to be configured by the unit any drive larger than the size it supports will waste space ie a 2tb drive in a unit that only supports a 1tb drive means you can only use 1tb.

[Tafflad]

Happy new Year .... Yep I have a Humax Fox T2 (about 5 yr old)
I run the Hummy Forum custom firmware ... that supports up to 2TB without any config .. plug & play. It can run higher capacity as well, but you have to start doing some clever configuration stuff.
https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/2TB_Disk_Installation_Blog

It is fairly frequently reported on the Hummy forum that WD drives (the realistic alternative) will apparently attempt to park the read heads once every 8 seconds for the life of the HDD, not ideal on a PVR.
I think this comes from the IntelliPark feature which was included on a lot of older WD drives, e.g. the EURS range. This problem can be worked around by using the wdidle3 tool to increase the auto-park time to 5 minutes (WD don't recommend disabling completely for some reason). Newer drives may have IntelliPark feature disabled as default. I think the EURX drives did not have IntelliPark included in the feature set.
I’m no HDD expect hence asking the question about options to the Seagate.

[DB83]

Well if I had to chose between Seagate and WD I would always chose WD.


Consider the following:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/AV-GP-Enterprise-3-5-inch-Internal-Drive/dp/B00DXOJJQQ/ref=sr...s%2C172&sr=1-4


Scroll down for full specs and appropriate useage.

[Tafflad]

OK .. I'll look ... key thing (so PVR forum advises) is that it needs to be a CE or AV drive, (and I see that is AV) to ensure it can run in a box up to 75C and is quiet in use. PC or Surveillance HDD are not suited.

[october262]

OK .. I'll look ... key thing (so PVR forum advises) is that it needs to be a CE or AV drive, (and I see that is AV) to ensure it can run in a box up to 75C and is quiet in use. PC or Surveillance HDD are not suited.

might try checking out this pdf chart for replacement HDDs - http://www.atvideo.com/downloads/reference-guides/MATRIX_DVR_HDD_Compatibility_List_151007.pdf

[Tafflad]

That WD mentioned is also discontinued ... and interestingly is not on this list

[DB83]

When I linked to that WD I had not noticed that it is sent from Germany.


But it is claimed to be new (not reconditioned as some of the comments say) and I have acquired items from Amazon Germany quite often.


One would think that the comments on the Hummy forum would be most relevant but the topic I found


https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/how-do-i-replace-internal-hard-drive.7139/page-2


are not current and the drives mentioned are mostly un-available now.

[Cornucopia]

Is there anything in the manual (or the forums) that say you cannot use an SSD? They would be infinitely quieter, a heck of a lot faster (so no error/corruption due to activity), obviously would have not parking issues. They probably would be hotter though, and costlier, and might have a different lifespan.

Scott

[DB83]

I just took another look at the hummy forum re the above and found a topic/respondent that uses the same avatar as mine.


https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hard-disk-failure-log.2584/#post-31345


For clarity's sake, that user is NOT me


There does not appear to be much written about SSDs but surely the large volumes that the OP requires, with a potential higher failure rate due to its constant useage, does not make it a viable option.

[Cornucopia]

I would have said that 5 years ago, but the lifespan of SSDs has improved greatly. How long & hard are these expected to be used? 3-5 years more? What could it hurt to test one out (an older 64-128GB) for a week to compare viability?

Scott

[DB83]

@ Scott


I fully accept what you say.


But from the Op's POV he wants a drive that will not fail in who knows when - I had a SSD not that long ago that only lasted 2 years or less.


And a 2tb drive will cost appr. 200UKP. No one in their senses would invest in that if there was any doubt that it could fail even in 3-5 years with the constant writes required in the OP's potential agenda.


And I hardly think a smaller drive will be an accurate dependability test for a larger one.


Of course it is not my call and my friend might wish to experiment.

[Cornucopia]

All good points.

[zing269]

While it is 5 years old now, https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead/

tldr: worst performer was 800 TB, best was 2 PB.

[Tafflad]

Just to close the loop ..... I purchase a 2TB Seagate SkyHawk, this is specifically made for Video Surveillance, and to be fair at a superb price of 53 GBP incl p&p.
Installed and transferred over all existing recordings.