# Adding a hard drive to a DCT6200?



## Flexin

Adding a hard drive to a DCT6200?


I have been reading that you can add a external hard drive to a DCT6200. I can get the DCT6208 from my cable company now but if I can add a drive to the 6200 I'll just keep that. If you can do this is there anything else that needs to be done? Thanks for your help.


James


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## Flexin

I just got an email back from Motorola.


Mr. Miller,


The ability to add a hard drive to the DCT6200 is not yet implemented in the firmware. At this

point the only way to save programs with a DCT is with the DCT6208 or DCT6412. The DCT6412 has

50% larger hard drive than the DCT6208 and a dual tuner so you can watch one program and record

a different one without splitting the cable between your TV and the digital cable decoder. Some

cable companies are starting to order the DCT6412 now that we are shipping it. You might want

to get the 6208 model now and trade up later. There is no set date as to when the software

company that make the interactive program guide will add the feature of recording out to an

external hard drive. There are some digital copyright issues that are involved in that process.

The technology is not the gating factor.


Larry Fox

Motorola Broadband Communications Sector

Marketing


James


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## DesolataX

Yes, it actually is possible, (i've done it).

al you need to do is buy a bigger Hard Drive, put it into you computer along with the Hard Drive from the Box, and then ghost it over. Western Digital 200 Gig (IDE) and Maxtor Hard Drives 250 Gig (IDE) work perfectly, the only problem is, it voids your warranty, but if you want a bigger Hard Drive, totally worth it.


Edit: oops, sorry but i was talking about the 6208


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## Felgar

Des, please check your PM.


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## dozens

Quote:

_Originally posted by DesolataX_
*Yes, it actually is possible, (i've done it).

al you need to do is buy a bigger Hard Drive, put it into you computer along with the Hard Drive from the Box, and then ghost it over. Western Digital 200 Gig (IDE) and Maxtor Hard Drives 250 Gig (IDE) work perfectly, the only problem is, it voids your warranty, but if you want a bigger Hard Drive, totally worth it*
Do you own your STB ? If so, where did you buy it ?


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## Felgar

Up here on Shaw cable we're forced to purchase our boxes if we want one. They're actually just being released now for Shaw cable...


If you want one you should be able to order from the FutureShop website soon. The main kicker though is whether your cable company will stand by a box designed for a different provider. I know that the ones for Shaw come pre-loaded with the I-guide.


Edit: I assume we're talking about the 6208 here and not the 6200.


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## DesolataX

i Purchased mine off of ebay, its a US box, but shaw activated it (i had a little trouble, took about 2 hours of arguing.

this explains quite a bit about it, (A PM from Felgar)
Quote:

Felgar wrote on Yesterday 10:45 PM:

On AVS there's precious little information on swapping the 6208's HDD with a bigger one. I think this is mainly because the boxes are all rented and fear of reprisal from the cable stops expirementation.


Well up here in Canada we're required to actually purchase the box if we want it, so aside from voiding the warranty the consequences aren't as severe. Anyways, I'm hoping you can shed some light on upgrading the 6208 drive.


1) You simply ghost the old drive in the box onto your new drive and away you go? The larger space is recognized by the 6208 when the new drive is installed? yes it is


2) I've heard talk of the box having safeguards against tampering - do you know anything about this? So far, im waiting for an email from my friend that works for motorola, asking about this


3) What are your experiences with the firmware handling the extra space. Does it recognize free space properly? Do you seem to be able to record as much extra content as you want - I'm wondering if a TOC or other mechanisms to keep track of the info might overflow as a result of the box having so much more space than it was designed for.


If you can shed any additional light on this I'd really appreciate it. The 6208 just became available yesterday and I'm really contemplating buying it but the small HDD is definately going to be a problem unless I can correct it. Thanks again.
It recognizes the extra space, the only thing is once youve exceeded 80GB of data, the guage that tells you how full the HD is goes past the 100% mark and says you have negative hours of. it is almost like adding a bigger hard drive to Tivo. the only safeguard that this has is a metal box that holds the 80 GB HD, which you have to use a crobar, or something like it to open the case. in the firmware, it doesnt look like there is any safeguards. my cable technician came out because my other box (Motorola DCT2524) needed fixing, (shaw got a new guide and Shaw-on-Demand wasnt working with it), so he checked both of my box, the only thing he said was adding a new hard drive would do was void your warranty. when you open it to add the box. right now i have filled it to 182% (recorded a couple of movies) it works perfectly.

Any more Questions?


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## DesolataX

i'll open up my box and show you guyz some digital pics, but it will take a while, sold my Digital cam, bought a Olympus C-8080 off ebay .


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## Felgar

Where are you located?


Ya I'd love to see some pics...


Oh man hearing this makes me soooo tempted to go drop a K on one and try out the bigger drive.


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## DesolataX

Im in Vernon, BC. So far i am the first person to get this PVR in BC, they only have about 30 of them in BC, but they said that they are going to add a tamperproof firmware feature on this model, but on a later revision (DCT6208/1001). So i guess that you will want to get the DCT6208/1000 version. And does anyone know if you can dump video via the ethernet and/or firewire.


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## Felgar

If your firmware is >= 7.10 (which it probably is) then you can dump to PC with firewwire. See this http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=403695 thread for more info. Even earlier versions will work for Macs.


The 6208's are just being released now... Hmm, interesting about the tamper proof firmware...


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## DesolataX

Thanks, but my version is 7.85, unfortunatley just updated, but ill try it, i just need to get a firewrie 6-6pin


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## Felgar

Des,


Any progress on some pics? I'd love to see the pics of the new drive, what needed to be damaged to install it, and some of the Moto screens that show the additional capacity.


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## DesolataX

Hmmm... Well, If you have Shaw Cable, don't tell them you hacked your PVR, because they "replaced" my 6208 and said that you cannot add a larger hard drive because it "illegal". i am pissed off because they also took my 250GB Hard Drive. Sorry but i wasn't able to get any pictures, because i still have not received my camera. So if anyone else has done this, dont tell shaw cable. If anyone has a 6208 but not with shaw as their Service Provider, try it, because then i will switch (if i can get it out here)

Sorry Guyz, but Shaw is a Bunch of F!%#ING idiots.

Cya


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## DesolataX

-+=Update=+-

Shaw supports the external FireWire Hard Drives, they said anyone will do. and shaw gave me back my 250GB HD, and gave me a Western Digital (WDXB2500JB) 250GB External HD too, so if anyone wants a free 250GB HD, hack your 6208. and its a nice hard drive too


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## dozens

What firmware version does your 6208 have ?


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## Felgar

WHAT!?! Are you telling me that that the external firewire drive is currently working with your 6208 on Shaw?


Someone else who had tried a firewire drive got a message indicating "drive not initialized" or something to that effect. Did you format it specially yourself?


Edit: I think Shaw 6208's are running 08.06 firmware version.


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## DesolataX

I just Checked it out (plugged it in to my computer, but it said "would you loke to format this drive?". later i found out it uses Fat32, it says it was 250GB, which is way past the limit. further investigation showed that they used FastFAT to initialize it (FastFAT log was on the HD). i was finally able to open it( you have to mount it in linux, i used Fedora Core 2) to view the files. I was not able to open it in windows once i used fastfat. if you want to do it here are the steps:

1. Download FastFAT

2. Plugin FW Drive

3. Make the Drive

4. Voila, Plug it in to your DCT6208 and you got more space (to record on FW HD, you have to select it in the setup well... for shaw that is)

To Rip The files:

1. Download Fedora Core 2 from fedora.redhat.com or any Linux distro

2. Install it (DO NOT TRY TO DUAL BOOT WITH XP AND FEDORA, TRASHES THE MBR, CANT RESTORE DATA!!!)

3. Once Fedora is installed, set yourself up with the easy setup tool builtin.

Then Goto The Foot icon (first one on tool bar) then system tools thenb terminal.

4.once in terminal, type mkdir /mnt/cable (or whatever you want it to be_

then type mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/cable

5. **Optional** (if you have more than two HD in your computer) type mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/cable instead of step 4

Hope It works, i would try it if i had another external HD. but i think this should work


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## Felgar

Wow thanks for the info Des.


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## Uwish

what about us poor saps who have the 6800 on Shaw...this procedure will work also? 6802 models are pretty hard to come by...


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## DesolataX

To Felgar: Hey No problem, just want to help

To Uwish: Hmm... Im not sure if it works with the 6200, i dont have any friends that have that box, they all have either the DCT5100HD or the DCT2244, Try it out and tell us your results


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## DesolataX

Found this when i was searching google of you can add a Firewire HD to a 6200, this link syays maxtor is going to make one escpecially for DVRs
http://www.shareholder.com/maxtor/Re..._section=press 

seems interesting


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## Uwish

Thanks for the info, I think I may just try it...


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## Felgar

Couldn't hurt to try... Let us know how it goes.


The hardware of the 6200's definately supports firewire HDD, but the question is whether the firmware does...


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## Mach3

Hey DesolataX, I recently got a Shaw Mot. 6208 box & had a few questions since your the expect on this box up here. I got the Mot 6208 to record off firewire direct to my computer but was wondering how to get a ext. hd working. I have a friend who lend me his Maxtor 80 gig ext. hd but don't know what to format it with. You said something about FastFat & linux but I didn't really understand what you meant. Where did you get the FastFAT from & is that what the ext hd has to be format with for the 6208 to use it. Also what do you mean by Make the Drive? I emailed shaw just after I got this box but they said the firewire port aren't active(ya right! hehehe) but I guess we have all proven that wrong. Also if you know what file format are the mpeg 2 files store in on the hd? Sorry about all these question but starting in sept. I will be recording alot & worry about running out of space.

Thanks in Advance

Mach3


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## APS

Desolatax, i also would be interested if you could be more explicit on how you formatted the drive.


From what i've read, FastFat most commonly refers to 'fastfat.sys' which is the driver that allows certain OS's like winXP and win2000 to read Fat32 partitions larger than a certain size.

It is not a 'filesystem' per se, as i understand it.


Now i have the same 250Gg external 1394/usb2.0 western digital drive, and i'm still unsure how to set this drive up as you have. I've tried formatting the drive under linux as one large

Fat32 partition, linux, afaik has no partition size limit for Fat32...so i thought this was what you meant....nope. By some chance would it work if it were formatted in linux native, ie 'ext2' filesystem? Also, once your properly formatted drive is hooked up, does the external hdd status in the 6208 service menu change frorm something other than 'error' ?...i would assume so.


Thx for any extra help.


Andy.


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## DesolataX

Sorry for the long delay, i was reading my email and i got a email from my friend at motorola, summed up its said:

"i found some information on the 6200 and that you can hook up a linux operated computer, but you cannot use the firewire, you have to use the usb and hook it up to the linux os, linux finds the device, and you can grab the firmware and look at the harddrive."

you'll have to get a special usb cable. someone who knows how to program please try this.


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## APS

........could we trouble you to go over in detail how you formatted the 250Gg Firewire drive to work with your 6208 as you stated in your original posts in this thread. Several of us are dying to know and there doesn't seem to be enough detail in your description to make it work. Thx again.


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## Peepo

DesolataX, yes please explain.


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## Mach3

Anyone know what happen to DesolataX. Did he drop off the face of the earth or something? I need more info

Later Mach3


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## DesolataX

Sorry Guyz, i am in the process of moving to nova scotia and i have not had enough time to get on avs forums (backed up way too much on business).

Ok, the 6800 cannot have a hard drive added easily. you need to solder an IDE connector of some sort to the actual board, i have no idea how, but thats what my friend at moto said. for the ext fw drive you have to have fastfat installed to format the hard drive to its full capacity, or else you hit the barrier.

hope that helps anyone


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## APS

...ok thx, for the step by step howto. That clears the issue up completely. Btw, have you ever considered doing any technical writing? I see a potential 2nd career for you.


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## madpoet

Geez APS, you could drop the sarcasm down a bit. He doesn't owe you anything. We all hope he can and will post the instructions.


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## APS

.....where did i say he 'owed' me or anyone? I'll leave my sarcasm where it is. He's the one who put forth the umm er 'theory' i guess we can call it, that an external firewire hdd will in fact work with a moto 6208...followed up with cryptic comments and 'instructions'. Simply formatting the hdd with a Fat32 partition under an OS like XP which has the fastfat.sys driver, such that all 250Gb are seen does not do it in and of itself, neither does formatting to Fat32 under Unix, or ext2 under unix. Just looking for explicit follow up info from the 'rumor starter' .....geez i'm getting sarcastic again, woops!


Have a nice day.


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## DesolataX

has anyone actually opened up their 6208. i havent. i prolly got all of your hopes up, the shot them downed. everything was a lie. there is no possible way to add a drive, external drive, i made it up. YOU JUST GOT FLAMED!!!!!!! bet your pissed MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!        

suckers


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## sbermunk

Quote:

_Originally posted by DesolataX_
*has anyone actually opened up their 6208. i havent. i prolly got all of your hopes up, the shot them downed. everything was a lie. there is no possible way to add a drive, external drive, i made it up. YOU JUST GOT FLAMED!!!!!!! bet your pissed MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!        

suckers*
Boy, must your life suck if this is the best thing you have to do with your time.


And sorry to burst your bubble, but we had all pretty much concluded already that you are full of it...


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## APS

...let me sum up his existence:


friendless

social zero

virgin

jobless


...any questions?


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## Felgar

Yeah pretty pathetic indeed. And of course some guy coming online with no prior posts and ambigious info about a breakthrough is highly suspect. Oh well, good riddance.


But the question remains, has anyone been trying to replace the drive in the 6208?


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## Groyn_McDuhmas

has anyone successfully added a hard drive to a 6200, because ive got one from shaw calgary, and am hopeing i can add a nother hard drive so i can record my fav shows, but i dont want to open it unless i have a guide,


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## bfdtv

You can't add a drive to the 6200. The current firmware doesn't support it and probably never will.


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## Felgar

He means to the 6208 bddtv. Obviously the 6200 will not have the appropriate firmware, but whether a larger drive can be installed in the 6208 is another question.


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## bfdtv

The available firmware to support external storage on the 6208 is supposed coming in 2005, although it remains to be seen if and when cable providers will use it. Just because it's available from Motorola doesn't mean it will be available from Comcast...


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