Large Capacity External HDD for PVR (SVRHDT500)

[Anonymous]

Good Morning all.

I am wondering if anyone can help me.  I purchased a WD Elements 3TB external harddrive, and connected it up to the SVRHDT500 recorder yesterday, to my dismay it wouldnt even detect the drive.  In the manual it says that 160GB is needed for a minimum, but there is no maximum stated.  I thought that I could buy a large capacity drive, and then the PVR can format it to the filesystem that it needs (XFS?).  I contacted sony support (phone) yesterday, but the person on the phone was not that knowledgeable and was just reading off a computer script.

It seems that there is a general lack of information on external hdd;s connecting to sony equipment.

Can someone please advise me on what is the largest capacity external hard drive that i can put on this PVR and which one works?

Thank you very much.

[Bravia55HX]

Hi,

the use of hard drives for Sony products has been raised a few times now and still the Sony boffins wont shed any light on the subject, since you are halfway there by using a recommended drive i can tell you, and this information is correct for tv's and can only assume the same for pvr's is you need to format the drive in FAT32 in order for it to be recognised,

try that and see how you get on.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to format a 3TB hdd to FAT32?

[rooobb]

FAT32 supports disks up to 8TB however there are some utilities that are not able to create partitions this big (i. Windows XP). For reference see the attached MS KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463.

I have no clue if FAT32 solve your problem.

[Bravia55HX]

Hi,

i have no idea as i have not done it, i have never had a drive that large.

edit-

seems the answers no you cant, theres a piece of software called SwissKnife that will allow formatting of drives up to 2TB.

Back to your original question, apparently your HDT500  is supposed to format it to XFS for use on it, but be aware once done you cannot move the drive for use on your pc unless you format it back to NTFS, and from what i gather this can only be done in Disc management  and the partition deleted and re formatted back to NTFS!.

Bit of a palaver if you ask me.

Message was edited by: Bravia55HX923

Message was edited by: Bravia55HX923

[Anonymous]

Thank you guys for responding.  It has given me an idea on how I can do this.

I cant really afford to faff around with the 3TB hdd as there seems to be a lot of discrepencies on formatting it to FAT32.  The company I bought it from, is offering me a full refund.  I will instead buy the 2TB variety instead.

As I dont have a computer at home (incidently, I can not post on these forums from my PS3 or NX723 Bravia TV so I am typing this at the local library) and once the 2TB version is delivered, I will take it to a local computer shop for them to format it to FAT32 instead.

I will update this forum of what happens with hopefully good news.

Once again, thanks guys.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Good Morning all.

Just to let you know the good news, I replaced my 3TB WD Elements HDD for a 2TB one.  As I dont have a computer at home to re-format it to FAT32, I plugged it into my NX723 Bravia TV, and registered it.  After that, I plugged it into the PVR recorder and it seemed to detect it.  Fomatted it to the file system that it needed via the hdt500, and now am in the process of moving 420GB of stuff onto it (which is taking a bloody long time mind you).

Thank you all.