Upgrade ReplayTV 5504 from 40 hours to 640 hours!

OK, I said I was going to chronicle my ReplayTV upgrade adventure turning my 40 hour unit into a 640 hour unit.

The 5504 unit has a 40 GB hard drive and what I'll be doing is adding two 320 GB drives instead.

   

WHAT WE'LL NEED

• A ReplayTV unit.  I bought a 5504 which is the cheapest unit available.  Technical specs can be found here:http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/DVR/5500/techspecs.asp
• Two huge hard drives.  I decided to go with the WD3200JB from Western Digital.  At press time they sold from the WD Store for $135.99.  Technical specs can be found here:http://westerndigital/com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=117&Language=en
• Hard drive mounting bracket.  This MUST be a set top box bracket though.  Drive rails won't do.  Because the 5500 series only comes with a single drive, there is no bracket to mount the second drive.  There is plenty of space for it, but there is no bracket.
• Y power cable splitter.  These can be picked up at any computer store.  Again, since the current design is for a single drive only, we need a splitter to power the second drive.
• Two connector IDE data cable.  If you bought the hard drives "white box" then you'll need to get this cable extra.  If you bought them "retail box" then they will come with the cable supplied.
• Phillips head screw driver for opening the cover and mounting the bracket.
• A drill & drill bit for drilling the mounting points for the new bracket.
• Some nuts & bolts to hold the bracket and new drive in place.

 

THE UPGRADE STEPS

Before we start, I have to point out the following...

WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO DO WILL VOID THE WARRANTY ON THE REPLAYTV UNIT.  ONCE WE OPEN THE COVER, THERE'S NO GOING BACK.  IF WE MESS IT UP, WE BASICALLY HAVE A PILE OF ELECTRONIC JUNK.

Also, since we are working with computer and electronic components, be sure to ground yourself before commencing...

Now with that out of the way, here's the play by play of the upgrade... enjoy! 

• Setup and activate your ReplayTV unit.  The idea is to upgrade a working unit, so you will need to setup your unit following the instructions that shipped with the unit.
• Power down your ReplayTV unit.  Allow the system 30 seconds to spin down the hard drive.  Ensure you disconnect the unit power cord before proceeding!
• Remove ReplayTV unit cover.  The cover has 10 small Phillips head screws that hold the cover in place.  There is 3 on each side and 4 on the back.  To the top left at the back is the warranty seal and as I pointed out, even though it is very easy to open the cover without actually "breaking" the seal, simply opening the cover, voids the manufacturer's warranty.  Once the cover has been removed, you should see a nice clean unit thus:

• Carefully disconnect the IDE on board connector.  Be careful not to disconnect any of the connectors to the side which has wire running accross the drive to the front of the unit.  The connector is on the green motherboard thus:    

• Disonnect the power connector on the PSU thus:

• Disconnect the hard drive power cord and the hard drive IDE connector.  The power cord can now be set asside, but the IDE data cable is tightly nestled under the drive mounting bracket, so just let it be for the time being thus:

• Remove the 4 Phillips head screws holding the drive mounting bracket in place.  With the cable connectors out of the way, you should now have easy access to all 4 the screws.
• Remove the drive bracket and drive.  The bracket is mounted on some extending mounting points so you need to lift the bracket slightly to get it loose from the mounting points.  Be sure not to disturb the cables connected and running over the top of the bracket and drive.  Once free, gently slide the drive and the IDE data cable out to the side.
• Remove the drive from the drive bracket.  The drive is held by 4 Phillips head screws on the sides.  Remove them and remove the drive.
• At this point you will need an existing Windows system.  In my case I used a Windows XP computer, but a Windows 2000 computer will also work.
• Download the latest version of RTVPatch from Sourceforge.  I used version 2.5.3.  It can be downloaded here:http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net
• Shut down the Windows computer.
• Pull the power plug from the back of the computer.
• Open the computer case, taking care to be propperly grounded before proceeding.
• Plug the dual connector IDE data cable into the motherboard's secondary IDE port.
• Plug the primary (on the tip of the cable) data connector into the 40 GB drive from the ReplayTV.
• Plug the secondary (middle of the cable) data connector into the first 320 GB drive.  Some people will recommend setting jumpters, but the 40 GB drive already has its jumpers set for Master while the 320 GB drive by default has its jumper set to Cable Select (CS).  These settings should work just fine, but in case it does not, set the 320 GB drive's jumper to Slave.
• Plug power connectors to both hard drives.
• Connect the power cable to the back of the computer.
• Boot up the computer.
• Ensure the BIOS detects the drives correctly.  The ReplayTV drive should detect as Secondary Master at 40 GB and the new drive as Secondary Slave at 320 GB thus:

• Locate the copy of RTVPatch you downloaded previously and run it.  Windows XP will give you some warning, but just confirm and start the application.
• Ensure RTVPatch identifies the drives correctly.  Once RTVPatch starts up, it should identify three drives in the system.  If you have more drives, more will be listed and identified, but the key is that your computer's boot (and any other Windows drives in the system) should be listed as "May be PC Disk".  The ReplayTV drive should be listed in the Status column as "ReplayTV 4xxx/5xxx Disk".

• Change the Photo partition size.  If you don't wish to change the size, just keep the No change option.
• Set the source.  Select the ReplayTV drive in the DriveID column and click the Set button to set the Source drive value.
• Set the target.  Select the new drive in the DriveID column and click the Set button to set the Target drivevalue.  Upon completion, the values should be set thus:

• Backup the source by clicking the Backup Source Drive button.  RTVPatch will give you a File Save As dialog window allowing you to choose the location of the backup file.  The file will be saved with a .rtv file extension and should be around 500 MB in size.
• Copy the drive by clicking the Copy System Partition button.  RTVPatch will copy the drive.  This process may take some time to complete.  RTVPatch will popup a warning dialog.  If the drives are not indicated correctly on this dialog, do NOT click the Yes button thus:

• Once the copy process completes, RTVPatch should show the 320 GB drive as a ReplayTV disk by both the icon in the DriveID column and the value in the Status column showing a value of "ReplayTV 4xxx/5xxx Disk" thus:

• Patch the target drive to make it bootable by clicking the Patch Target Drive button.  RTVPatch will give you a warning.  Simply click the Yes button thus:

• Next RTVPatch will ask you if you wish to preserve your shows.  Since we started with an empty unit, just click the No button thus:

• Next RTVPatch will ask you if you wish to preserve your photos.  Again, since the unit is empty, you can just clikc the No button thus:

• End the RTVPatch session by clicking the Exit button.
• Shut down your computer, allowing 30 seconds for drive spin down and ensuring propper grounding as per usual.
• Swap drives and repeat.  Remove the 320 GB drive and replace it with the second 320 GB drive.  Now repeat the process to duplicate the second drive as well.  The step of backing up the source drive should be skipped.  Also skip the steps to PATCH the second drive.  We do not want the second drive to be bootable so it will not be patched!
• When you click the Exit button after duplication is complete, RTVPatch will ask you if you wish to apply the patch.  Simply click the No button.  This is IMPORTANT!  DO NOT APPLY THE PATCH TO THE SECOND DRIVE!!!
• Shut down your computer again allowing 30 seconds for spin down and using propper grounding.
• Swap the 40 GB hard drive out for the first 320 GB hard drive.
• Start your computer and startup RTVPatch again.  The system should correctly identify two ReplayTV disks in the system, each at 320 GB.
• Check the Dual-drive system radio button thus:

• RTVPatch will give you a warning that it is about to create a two drive system.  Click the Yes button thus:

• Once the patch has been applied, shut down your compter.
• Remove the two drives, close your computer as before and we're ready to install the drive set into the ReplayTV unit.  Ensure that you know which drive is the boot drive!  I did this by mounting the drive that the boot patch was applied to on the original 40 GB drive's bracket.

Later
C