Do not tinker with your hard drive - solution for ex5000 pvr

[Taxman]

Hi all, I have spent ages reading on how to get a non SG hard drive to fit my PVR - advice ranging from hacksaw the black pin covers to use a dremmel to do the same. One steady hand later and there you go. Tried all this and still no joy. Drastic times etc so I voided the warranty, opened the box and checked the PCB for the HDD. Fine. What stops non-SG HDDS fitting properly is not the pin covers, it is the tray which holds the HDD. Removed the 4 screws and took the tray out. Okay, HDD is a bit wobbly but the box never gets moved. Remember the PVR will only work with 80 - 120Gb HDDs, but it does not need to be a SG drive. Various entries about WDs and others which work - mine is a Samsung 120Gb (bought off fleabay under the guise of a one-touch-record external enclosure for £30...) I cut the covers and got the usual "HDD not installed". Tried all combinations of timeshift etc and found this works to get the HDD initialised in the PVR. 1 - press the pause and then immediately the red record button. Otherwise timeshift would not work first time. 2 - go to EPG weekly and choose any prog about to start. 3 - press the timer key (yellow) and red to save then green to save and exit. hey presto. HDD working. Tried EPG daily / yellow - this works too, as does EPG daily or weekly, then press the red record key and then exit and be prepared to wait 1 minute for the 10sec warning, followed by the 10 second wait as well. Have tried FAT32 / NTSC formats - all work. Problems encountered - the red record button does not work on it's own - recording sound out of synch. . Once HDD working, pause for timeshift works on it's own. If box unplugged, all resets and recordings lost - start again.