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Amstrad HD Box - How to change the Hard Drive

24 May, 2009 18:07:00 NewsreadeR

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This guide will show you how to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Amstrad HD Box

This guide will show you how to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Amstrad HD Box

If you wish to upgrade the Thomson HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Thomson HD Box.

If you wish to upgrade the Pace HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Pace HD Box

If you wish to upgrade the Samsung HD Box, please use this guide. How to upgrade the Hard Drive in your Samsung HD Box.

This is one of the newer HD boxes from Sky and Glenn has now successfully managed to upgrade the original Hard Drive

Below are all the steps that he took, documented for everyone to see, to get to the end result.

Following these steps will invalidate your warranty

We have chosen to go with the same Hitachi HDD as used in the Samsung which is the Hitachi DeskStar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache

Step 1

You will need a medium Philips screwdriver, 2 non pointy knifes, new HDD, flat firm service with something soft to place box on (so not to scratch/scuff box) and no kids or distractions.

HD Box start

Step 2

With screwdriver remove one screw from rear of box as indicated.

Remove Screw from rear

Step 3

Turn the box upside down

Remove the 6 screws as indicated.

Remove the 6 screws

Step 4

Using the two knives, gently lift the 3 tabs to release the catches (gently as these can break) and gently slide back and lift the metal box from the plastic casing (will be awkward so patience is neded).

Gently lift the tabs

Step 5

Now removed, remove the 4 screws from the small circuit board on top.

HD Box

Step 6

Turn box on its side and with a knife gently pry the top loose as shown, you will need to do this with both sides then just lift and slide to wards you.

Loosen the lid

Step 7

Remove the 6 screws holding the hard drive in place (there is no caddy).

Remove screws from hard drive

Step 8

Once removed give the fans a little hoover out if dusty, follow the Instructions for using Copy+ and put new HDD back in then closing up is just the reverse of taking it apart.

HD Box

For further help or to ask any questions, feel free to see this thread.

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Comments (10 posted):

on 23 July, 2009 12:08:19

it was easier to unscrew the 2 screws holding the hdd radiator in place and take that out screwed to the hdd...

on 29 October, 2009 15:36:29

Many thanks for this helpful guide - it saved me having to experiment and perhaps damage something!

Tim Hobley on 22 December, 2009 07:09:53

I have an Amstrad Sky+HD box model 1_5.016 version 4f3006 and operating system 1.32b12.When left in standby overnight it will not operate in the morning - no satellite signal. Switch off mains power for half an hour and it will work again. Is this a heating problem common to this model? Satellite shop in town informed me the HDD needs replacing and I am naturally drawn to your article. However in your article you do not say why it is necessary to upgrade the HDD. Is it because of overheating? Would really apprciate your thoughts.

Lee Marples on 23 January, 2010 14:38:28

Great guide for the opening of box. Just a couple of things i'd like to add, after using the knives on the tabs, its worth mentioning you may have to ease the sides of the plastic box out as otherwise metal case does not seem to want to slide out.

Also a samsung HDD ecogreen F2 1TB does work!!
ebuyer link:http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164282

Lewis on 21 February, 2010 14:34:57

I can confirm the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB (0F10383)drive works with the Amstrad Sky+ HD box

Thanks for the guide :)

Ashwin Honmore on 27 February, 2010 11:56:15

Worked with my new 1.5TB Samsung EcoGreen F2 SATA-2 HD154UI which I got for 67 pounds (+ 13 pounds for the caddy). So, I have 7 times the capacity for just 80 pounds. Sky charges 250 for its 1TB box. Only downside is my HDD makes some noise.
Thanks a lot for this post.

Chriso on 06 April, 2010 21:34:06

also just to let you Amstrad owners know, I upgraded my HDD to a 2TB drive a month ago using the above instructions and using COPY+, and its going perfectly. a huge amount of recording space - the drive I used was http://www.ebuyer.com/product/183971

Tadhg on 26 October, 2010 13:42:53

Anyone encounter power supply issues after a few months of upgrading to the 2TB HDD? I heard that because of different power supply specifications, that the bigger HDDs will probably burn out the Sky box Power supply.

Martin on 28 July, 2011 10:16:24

Just wondering as i prepare to upgrade my amstrad sky hd box, do i need to buy anything else for the upgrade besides the hard drive? sata cable etc? is there an upper limit to the capacity of the new hard drive? can you also upgrade/renew the power supply on the sky box? i see a previous comment saying that they can burn out when increasing the size of hard drive

Andrew Washington on 23 February, 2012 23:25:44

As an IT Manager take my word for it you should NOT use a bog standard SATA HDD which will be noisy and get very hot but one specifically designed for what the SKY+ HD box will throw at it.

You NEED a Seagate Pipeline HD 1TB drive:

http://www.ebuyer.com/337318-pipeline-hd-1tb-ce-3-5in-5900rpm-64mb-sata-in-st1000vm002

This blurb will explain why:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-au/products/consumer_electronics/pipeline/

Crux is power consumption, 24/7 use, multiple streams, noise.

Another tip, after choosing the wrong option initially I learned you need to choose 'Little Endian' when prepping the disk with Copy+

Hope this helps.