SKY+ HD Box FTA (Free To Air) Problem

steo2k9

Hi. I have a SKY+ HD box which I use to get FTA TV. A few months ago I decided to remove the HDD thinking it's useless in the box anyway, since recording without a subscription is disabled. After doing so, the box has always been extremely sluggish. I even just threw a spare 40GB 2.5" HDD into it thinking maybe it just needs to detect a HDD, but it's still the same. I no longer even have the files on the HDD so I'm not sure what I can do.

Is the box supposed to be sluggish with no HDD? If it needs one (even thought it's a waste of 500gb, though they're relatively cheap now anyway) can I just clone the HDD from another SKY+ HD box back to the 500gb, then reassemble it and have it work properly again?

Any info is appreciated, it's so slow in this state that I haven't been using it, but I'll need it again since the analogue switch off is soon.

EDIT: Maybe I should have put this in regional for Dublin actually, I wasn't too sure.

Johnboy1951

steo2k9 wrote: »

Hi. I have a SKY+ HD box which I use to get FTA TV. A few months ago I decided to remove the HDD thinking it's useless in the box anyway, since recording without a subscription is disabled. After doing so, the box has always been extremely sluggish. I even just threw a spare 40GB 2.5" HDD into it thinking maybe it just needs to detect a HDD, but it's still the same. I no longer even have the files on the HDD so I'm not sure what I can do.

Is the box supposed to be sluggish with no HDD? If it needs one (even thought it's a waste of 500gb, though they're relatively cheap now anyway) can I just clone the HDD from another SKY+ HD box back to the 500gb, then reassemble it and have it work properly again?

Any info is appreciated, it's so slow in this state that I haven't been using it, but I'll need it again since the analogue switch off is soon.

EDIT: Maybe I should have put this in regional for Dublin actually, I wasn't too sure.

I am posting this so I get notified, sorry no answer.

I have a similar situation and apparently the HDD is continually powered up, with extra elec used and heat generated.
I would think the same as you did .... removing the HDD should not materially affect the STB.

You refer to sluggishness ...... I wonder if you unplugged the ethernet cable at the same time?
That box just loves to communicate with whatever might be listening, and maybe that could be the cause of the sluggishness?

andy1249

It uses the hard drive to swap out data for planner , epg , etc.
Without one it has to make do with internal memory , which soon fills up and makes the box very sluggish.

( any pvr sat box will have this issue, they all need a hard drive or some USB storage or they get sluggish,unstable.)

Sky uses a proprietary format for their hard drives.
For a HD box its going to be looking to reserve at least 140gb for anytime, whether you use it or not so any drive you put in has to be bigger than this.

Normally if you were swapping out a hard drive for a bigger one you would use copy+ to keep all your data safe and transferred onto the new drive.

In your case that doesnt matter ,your going to need to put at least a 300gb drive in there and do a complete system reset.
Press services, then quickly , 4,0,1, then choose option 8

As a general rule, hard drive based PVRs nearly always use some small section of the storage for some system files, dont harvest parts from them unless you are planning on dumping the box.

Johnboy1951

andy1249 wrote: »

It uses the hard drive to swap out data for planner , epg , etc.
Without one it has to make do with internal memory , which soon fills up and makes the box very sluggish.

( any pvr sat box will have this issue, they all need a hard drive or some USB storage or they get sluggish,unstable.)

Sky uses a proprietary format for their hard drives.
For a HD box its going to be looking to reserve at least 140gb for anytime, whether you use it or not so any drive you put in has to be bigger than this.

Normally if you were swapping out a hard drive for a bigger one you would use copy+ to keep all your data safe and transferred onto the new drive.

In your case that doesnt matter ,your going to need to put at least a 300gb drive in there and do a complete system reset.
Press services, then quickly , 4,0,1, then choose option 8

As a general rule, hard drive based PVRs nearly always use some small section of the storage for some system files, dont harvest parts from them unless you are planning on dumping the box.

I guess it could be the EPG for the FTA channels.
The other functions are not available when used without a sub, as far as I am aware.

steo2k9

Right so I'll try put the original 500GB HDD in and reset it to see if that sorts it. 500GB is not even much space nowadays and it's only cheap. I already have a 2TB in my PC so I might just grab a second 2TB just to have since games are huge. I was just under the impression that the box wouldn't have needed a HDD with no sub, but I didn't think of the fact that the box would be caching files to it for the EPG. I guess the other STB's just use internal memory instead for caching while this one must have less internal memory since it had a HDD.

Johnboy1951

steo2k9 wrote: »

Right so I'll try put the original 500GB HDD in and reset it to see if that sorts it. 500GB is not even much space nowadays and it's only cheap. I already have a 2TB in my PC so I might just grab a second 2TB just to have since games are huge. I was just under the impression that the box wouldn't have needed a HDD with no sub, but I didn't think of the fact that the box would be caching files to it for the EPG. I guess the other STB's just use internal memory instead for caching while this one must have less internal memory since it had a HDD.

It will be interesting to know if that cures the problem ...... I suspect it might not, but would like to know before removing the HDD from mine

steo2k9

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It will be interesting to know if that cures the problem ...... I suspect it might not, but would like to know before removing the HDD from mine

Well I'll let you know what happens. I lost the caddy and everything from the HDD but I don't care if I have to double sided tape the HDD in, I won't be moving the box anyway

steo2k9

Sorry for the double post but that seems to have fixed everything. I put the 500GB HDD back in, pressed services and had to press 0 0 1 select. Then I just pressed system reset and now it's back to it's full speed again. It wasn't working with the 40GB because clearly it was too small for it.

Johnboy1951

steo2k9 wrote: »

Sorry for the double post but that seems to have fixed everything. I put the 500GB HDD back in, pressed services and had to press 0 0 1 select. Then I just pressed system reset and now it's back to it's full speed again. It wasn't working with the 40GB because clearly it was too small for it.

Glad you got it back working ...... but I do not see how 40GB could be too little for EPG storage. That should only take a few MBs not GBs.

steo2k9

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Glad you got it back working ...... but I do not see how 40GB could be too little for EPG storage. That should only take a few MBs not GBs.

True, maybe the HDD was just faulty or something, that or else the SKY box needs a certain sized HDD to format the partitions the way it wants.

andy1249

It looks to reserve 140 gb for anytime.
It doesnt care if you have an active sub or not, it still wants its 140gb