Changing the hard disk drive on a standalone dvd recorder

[atropos]

I have an LG standalone dvd recorder with a 250GB HDD and I want to replace the hdd with a larger (500GB or 750GB) capacity one. (It's amazing how fast these drives fill up, mainly with a load of garbage !!!). Do the hdds on these machines use the standard (E)IDE connections or connections with some type of proprietary interface, and also whether the circuitry on the standalone's motherboard would limit the hdd capacity to 250GB. And would I be able to extract the recorded movies from the 'old' hdd to my computer if I am able to connect it?

Thanx,
atropos

[itchione]

Last year i looked at dvd/stb recorders and found they all used standard hdd mechanicals (mostly ide) with oem specific file system formats (not the common pc formats).

So although it is easy to physically replace the drive with a larger pc drive, it will likely not work unless you can find way to format it. Trying to use the recorder's format function will likely not work. After all the manufacturer would prefer if you paid much more than the cost of a larger hdd and buy it from them. They want to make more money from you and put blocks in place to stop you from doing what you want to do - replace the hdd yourself.

I do remember reading somewhere there was one recorder where someone developed a pc app able to format a hdd on a pc using the recorders special file system. A google search on your specific lg recorder "+replacing hdd" may help locate something.

As for my hunting, i only found one single tuner stb that had a standard pc formatted hdd living in a user replaceable compartment. It was a cheaply manufactured unit and in the end, i didn't buy anything as i really wanted twin high def stb with integrated hdd and burner (and no downgrading to standard def when backing up the fta recordings to dvd for later viewing).

Short of a pc based solution, i haven't seen anything yet that will do what i want (unless i ditch the burner for an ethernet port).

Cheers, Itchione

[atropos]

Thanks itchione
I did go ahead and change the hdd to a 500GB and it works fine, just basically doubling the storage capacity. Here are some numbers.

250GB XP-66hrs SP-129hrs LP-251hrs EP-356hrs

500GB XP-133hrs SP-259hrs LP-506hrs EP-716hrs

However, at present I am still unable to extract the movies from the original hdd to the pc

atropos

[itchione]

so was it a direct replacement without any issues or did you or the player have to reformat the drive ?

can you see all files if you connect the old drive to the pc ?
that is, does the old drive use a pc disk format ?
if so, what are the file types for the saved films ?

cheers, itchione

[m99]

re: atropos

"From_hdd_lg_to_pc v1.07" from this page should help you: http://ifndef.altervista.org/index_eng.html

[atropos]

so was it a direct replacement without any issues or did you or the player have to reformat the drive ?

can you see all files if you connect the old drive to the pc ?
that is, does the old drive use a pc disk format ?
if so, what are the file types for the saved films ?

cheers, itchione

It was a direct replacement and I immediately test recorded on it and fast-dubbed the test to a DVD+RW so no problem there. However after the test recording I did reformat the drive "just in case"

the pc acknowledges that the old hdd has been added but the hdd only shows in Device Manager/Disk Drives and not in My Computer. So unfortunately at present, there's still no access to the files. Thanx, atropos

[atropos]

re: atropos

"From_hdd_lg_to_pc v1.07" from this page should help you: http://ifndef.altervista.org/index_eng.html

Thanx for the link m99. It seems that the bios and firmware on my machine are upto date. There are some very useful guides and info at the link. Thanx, atropos