Advice Needed Arris Freesat UHD-4X-500, Dead HD Replacement.

R

RandyHuggins75

New Member
My Satellite Setup
Arris FREESAT UHD-4X Smart 4K Ultra HD Digital TV Recorder - 500 GB
My Location
Brackenll, Berkshire
Hi All,

I’m hoping that somebody might be able to help me with my Arris Freesat UHD-4X-500?

I’ve had this Freesat box since March last year so it’s well out of warranty.

Yesterday I kept getting a hard drive warning whenever it was switched on, I followed the instructions & deleted the recordings on the hard drive/reset the box without success numerous times.

At first I thought it was down to the very hot weather, but after looking into it I would have seen a warning message & the shutting down of the box which never happened.

It lived on the sideboard with nothing blocking the vents & nothing placed above/below the box.

I then opened the box to check the cables & connections with the same results.

I’ve noticed that the hard drive was not spinning up so decided to hook it up to my PC via a hub & came to the conclusion that the HD was as dead as a Dodo!

So, my question is, if I was to get hold of another 500 or 1000GB HD would I be able to swap the drives out & if so, would it work?

Would I need to format it as exFat or NTFS? Or would the box recognise the new HD?

Cheers in advance!

Keith (Randy!)
 
I've seen one person say they swapped the original drive for a 2TB one when new and it worked without any preformatting. The max size is 2TB allegedly.

No guarantees though.
 
What brand & model was the original drive? - then get a newer/larger capacity version of the same or very similar.

NB: make sure it's a drive that's optimised for audiovisual (AV) applications and not for PC/data storage use as the firmware setups are different.

OTOH, you could just try any old HDD just to check if the rest of the box is working OK, before doing the above.

Edited: my "tip" for prolonging the life of a settop box HDD is to never let it get very full, otherwise the record/replay head(s) will be thrashing around to find space to record / replay bits of files - and that shortens the life of the motor.

Personally I always try to keep around 50% "free space" by deleting a lot of stuff that I know we'll never view (or again), and that seems to have worked on our 10yr old DRW895 SKY HD box because it's still on it's original 2TB HDD - whereas one of the Staff members (@Analoguesat) had theirs fail over a year ago because his family kept filling the HDD on its very similar box right up (even though he told them repeatedly not to do that!)
 
Last edited:
ozumo said:
I've seen one person say they swapped the original drive for a 2TB one when new and it worked without any preformatting. The max size is 2TB allegedly.

No guarantees though.
Click to expand...

jeallen01 said:
What brand & model was the original drive? - then get a newer/larger capacity version of the same or very similar.

NB: make sure it's a drive that's optimised for audiovisual (AV) applications and not for PC/data storage use as the firmware setups are different.

OTOH, you could just try any old HDD just to check if the rest of the box is working OK, before doing the above.

Edited: my "tip" for prolonging the life of a settop box HDD is to never let it get very full, otherwise the record/replay head(s) will be thrashing around to find space to record / replay bits of files - and that shortens the life of the motor.

Personally I always try to keep around 50% "free space" by deleting a lot of stuff that I know we'll never view (or again), and that seems to have worked on our 10yr old DRW895 SKY HD box because it's still on it's original 2TB HDD - whereas one of the Staff members (@Analoguesat) had theirs fail over a year ago because his family kept filling the HDD on its very similar box right up (even though he told them repeatedly not to do that!)
Click to expand...

Hi,

I just wanted to update.

I purchased another HD (1TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro) & swapped them out. No problems with the Freesat box working straight away with the new drive.

We never allowed the old drive to get full as it was mainly used as a handy pause button for my mother for when she needs to... & I've checked it regularly for any accidentally recorded programmes.

Thanks for the advice,

Keith.
 
RandyHuggins75 said:
Hi,

I just wanted to update.

I purchased another HD (1TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro) & swapped them out. No problems with the Freesat box working straight away with the new drive.
t
tton for my mother for when she needs to... & I've checked it regularly for any accidentally recorded programmes.

Thanks for the advice,

Keith.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I swopped a couple of SKY HD box HDDs but- unfortunately, before I "knew better" - didn't use AV-spec drives. They worked for about 3 months before the recordings started to stutter badly, after which they became unusable - so watch out for that in a few months!

It was after the 2nd occurence of that problem that I finally lashed out a bought the 2TB box that has since worked for 10 yrs.
 
RandyHuggins75 said:
Hi,

I just wanted to update.

I purchased another HD (1TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro) & swapped them out. No problems with the Freesat box working straight away with the new drive.

We never allowed the old drive to get full as it was mainly used as a handy pause button for my mother for when she needs to... & I've checked it regularly for any accidentally recorded programmes.

Thanks for the advice,

Keith.
Click to expand...
Anyone in the industry will know of Seagate

www.slrlounge.com

Seagate Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Extremely High Hard Drive Failure Rate

Worrying news for those with any Seagate Hard Drives. If it's big enough for a class action suit it could affect your drives, so take precautions.
www.slrlounge.com www.slrlounge.com

Western Digital partnered in the race to the bottom with their Passport backup devices.
 
RandyHuggins75 said:
Hi All,

I’m hoping that somebody might be able to help me with my Arris Freesat UHD-4X-500?

I’ve had this Freesat box since March last year so it’s well out of warranty.

Yesterday I kept getting a hard drive warning whenever it was switched on, I followed the instructions & deleted the recordings on the hard drive/reset the box without success numerous times.

At first I thought it was down to the very hot weather, but after looking into it I would have seen a warning message & the shutting down of the box which never happened.

It lived on the sideboard with nothing blocking the vents & nothing placed above/below the box.

I then opened the box to check the cables & connections with the same results.

I’ve noticed that the hard drive was not spinning up so decided to hook it up to my PC via a hub & came to the conclusion that the HD was as dead as a Dodo!

So, my question is, if I was to get hold of another 500 or 1000GB HD would I be able to swap the drives out & if so, would it work?

Would I need to format it as exFat or NTFS? Or would the box recognise the new HD?

Cheers in advance!

Keith (Randy!)
Click to expand...
Hi, hope you can help, how did you open open the box? I can't find anything on the net. I have removed the guarantee sticker but can't find anything to fit the screw under it. Are there clips to watch out for?

cheers
Paul
 
I replaced the drive in our Sky box with a WD Purple drive about 18 months ago & its been flawless, even though the missus will insist on filling the drive up to 95 or 96% with utter dross, despite the regular warnings it will destroy the drive. Im not swapping it out again if it pops - I shall cancel the Sky subs - she has been warned

(Shes got over 500 episodes of Casualty & Holby City recorder on it - she will NEVER be able to watch them all.)

:-doh
 
Ridgehead said:
Hi, hope you can help, how did you open open the box? I can't find anything on the net. I have removed the guarantee sticker but can't find anything to fit the screw under it. Are there clips to watch out for?

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...
you will need a electronics screw driver set like this below
worth every penny i use mine all the time
remove the 2 security torx screws then run a blade around the top edge and gently pry it apart very easy
 
Maybe Humax would be a good idea.
 
RandyHuggins75 said:
Hi,

I just wanted to update.

I purchased another HD (1TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro) & swapped them out. No problems with the Freesat box working straight away with the new drive.

We never allowed the old drive to get full as it was mainly used as a handy pause button for my mother for when she needs to... & I've checked it regularly for any accidentally recorded programmes.

Thanks for the advice,

Keith.
Click to expand...
Hi there,

I need a new drive for my Arris, what (physical) size are the drives in these machines 2.5" or 3"

Paul
 
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