TTD Forum

I would like to upgrade the hard disk drive on my TF5510PVR.

Looking at my PVR the hard drive currently being used is a Seagate 80GB U Series 9.
Model: ST380012ACE.
I haven't opened the box so don't know the electrical requirements but searching online here seems to be some specifications (not that much of it makes any sense to me):

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datashe ... /ds_ce.pdf

Also unfortunately I cannot read german as I think there is a lot of advice on this topic in the Hardware section.

So I would like advice as to what hard drive would work well - especially from somebody who has upgraded the harddrive on the 5510.

I would like a hard drive 250GB or above but the manual suggests only up to 160GB is an option. However reading various English forums about the TF5800PVR suggests there isn't a restriction in size generally on the Topfields.

Any advice is much appreciated!!!
And sorry for being so ignorant on this issue.

Hi TF5510PVR,

welcome at the Forum. If whatever is valid for the 5500 yields for the 5510 as well (and I can't see why it should not since they are practically identical), there is actually no limit to the hard disk size but whatever might be limiting a FAT24 file system. If I remember correctly, there are people with terabyte disk arrays attached to their Toppys.

However, Topfield have only approved Samsung and Seagate disks for their PVRs. As you can see in my profile, it works with Maxtor disks as well, but there have been problems with certain other brands.

The good thing about Samsung disks is their AAM feature. Using the HDD Info TAP you can virtually eliminate any head positioning noise from the drive. Seagate disks do not support AAM (no idea whether those special PVR disks are quiet enough without it), but they are available with up to 750 GB of space while the biggest Samsung PATA disk is 400 GB.

If you can get hold of one, you should choose a 5400 rpm model, since they are not as noisy as the modern 7200 rpm disks and they produce less heat.

I hope I did not confuse you any further.

Cheers,
-- mvordeme

[quote=""mvordeme""]Hi TF5510PVR,


The good thing about Samsung disks is their AAM feature. Using the HDD Info TAP you can virtually eliminate any head positioning noise from the drive. Seagate disks do not support AAM (no idea whether those special PVR disks are quiet enough without it), but they are available with up to 750 GB of space while the biggest Samsung PATA disk is 400 GB.

If you can get hold of one, you should choose a 5400 rpm model, since they are not as noisy as the modern 7200 rpm disks and they produce less heat.

I hope I did not confuse you any further.

Cheers,
-- mvordeme[/quote]

Thank you very much for the quick reply. Fortunately you haven't confused me any further. Using the HDD Tap sounds like a living room friendly idea - although to be honest I don't really notice the noise from the current HDD - suggests your suggestion on 5400rpm is a good call as I believe it is 5400rpm.

Only contradiction is that I was just looking through the options from my local shop and everything is 7200rpm so I would have to dig deeper to get one of those. AND then I had just been reading suggestions of UK based people who use the 5800PVR I mentioned who are recommending (on paper - with limited experience) that the Western Digital WD AV 500GB IDE is a good one to go for as the next 5810PVR is supposed to be released with that hard drive. Though of course that doesn't help with being sure that it will work well with the 5510 - just that it probably has good performace.

With regards to PVR HD usage what are the other positives/negatives with regards to 5400rpm v 7200rpm - is there any performance benefit like would be noticed on a PC?

Oh and btw I think I have been on this forum in the long and distant past - however it seems to have been upgraded and my user disappeared. Or maybe there's a similar forum lerking out there somewhere...

[quote=""TF5510PVR""]Only contradiction is that I was just looking through the options from my local shop and everything is 7200rpm so I would have to dig deeper to get one of those.[/quote]They are probably out of stock by now, but I was not sure where you are writing from and they might still be around in other countries.

[quote=""TF5510PVR""]AND then I had just been reading suggestions of UK based people who use the 5800PVR I mentioned who are recommending (on paper - with limited experience) that the Western Digital WD AV 500GB IDE is a good one to go for as the next 5810PVR is supposed to be released with that hard drive. Though of course that doesn't help with being sure that it will work well with the 5510 - just that it probably has good performace.[/quote]I would assume that it will work with the 5510 if it does with the 5810, although I had not heard of this.

[quote=""TF5510PVR""]With regards to PVR HD usage what are the other positives/negatives with regards to 5400rpm v 7200rpm - is there any performance benefit like would be noticed on a PC?[/quote]No. Noise and heat is what matters. There is no such thing as performance. Either the data can be read/written fast enough or it can't. As long as you are not recording HD (as in high definition) programmes, there are no problems with slow disk drives. The only thing that might be affected a little is the starting of TAPs, since they are read from the disk, but they are usually quite small.

[quote=""TF5510PVR""]Oh and btw I think I have been on this forum in the long and distant past - however it seems to have been upgraded and my user disappeared. Or maybe there's a similar forum lerking out there somewhere...[/quote]You are probably thinking of this forum. Topfield have taken over the topfield.de domain and set up their own official forum, so the old forum is all but disused, now.

Hi TF5510PVR,

my own disk is currently filling up, so I have been looking around a bit more. [post=317559]Here[/post] is someone who is absolutely happy with the WD5000AVJB, so I am considering to buy one, myself. He has, however, installed a small fan in his Toppy in order to compensate for the higher power consumption.

Cheers,
-- mvordeme

There is a problem in the up-gradation of the HDD..
One of my friend tried this and due to this he lost all of his data..
So be careful with that..
Don't try to upgrade it by yourself, Hire a qualified person for this purpose...

Hi and welcome aboard.

How did he manage that? It has not happened to anyone here, and considering that you usually even copy your data in the progress, it seems rather unlikely.