johnharryb

I have personally used a Seagate 1 TB SATA Hard Drive with the ide adapter successfully using the method I described above. I used the ones referenced earlier by DMInstaller in his post.

Notes: I have successfully used 80gb, 100gb, 160gb drives and have read posts where larger drives have been used successfully. I have also read posts where sata drives have been used successfully using ide to sata converters. Here are the steps using a usb hard drive enclosure: 1) Get a new ide hard drive 2) Power up the PC 3) Connect the hard drive to a PC using the usb enclosure 4) In Windows Disk Management, create a new primary partition on the drive, using all available space. 5) Use Fat32Formatter or guiformat to format the disk (Windows format does not work). You can download them from here: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ 6) Download the current software for your DVR from Dedicated Micros here: http://www.dedicatedmicros.com/software_re...ex_firmware.php 7) Unzip the software to your computer's hard drive Copy all of the files you extracted from the zip file to the replacement drive 9) Install the hard drive into the DVR 10) Power up the DVR at which point it will check automatically rebuild the drive. (1) Displays "Initializing bootloader" (about 1 minute) (2) Displays "Initializing boot signature" (3) Displays "Ram tests" (4) Displays Hard Drive Info: Drv. Model No. Size Format Status C: Maxtor 6L100PQ 099 GB Fat 32 OK (5) Loading application from disk (goes through loading software and creating storage areas) 11) After a short wait it should boot into the normal menu.

Well, I was doing one thing wrong. In my prior post. I had thought only the disk.zip file needed to be copied to the new hard drive but you must copy all of the files in the original zip file which you download from Dedicated Micros. You do NOT need to FTP the files. You can use a usb hard drive encloseure to format the drive with the 3rd party software and copy the files from the PC to the replacement drive. This has worked for me with both the Echo4 and the Sprite2 units from Dedicated Micros. Notes: I have successfully used 80gb, 100gb, 160gb drives and have read posts where larger drives have been used successfully. I have also read posts where sata drives have been used successfully using ide to sata converters. Here are the steps using a usb hard drive enclosure: 1) Get a new ide hard drive 2) Power up the PC 3) Connect the hard drive to a PC using the usb enclosure 4) In Windows Disk Management, create a new primary partition on the drive, using all available space. 5) Use Fat32Formatter or guiformat to format the disk (Windows format does not work). You can download them from here: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ 6) Download the current software for your DVR from Dedicated Micros here: http://www.dedicatedmicros.com/software_re...ex_firmware.php 7) Unzip the software to your computer's hard drive Copy all of the files you extracted from the zip file to the replacement drive 9) Install the hard drive into the DVR 10) Power up the DVR at which point it will check automatically rebuild the drive. --- (1) Displays "Initializing bootloader" (about 1 minute) --- (2) Displays "Initializing boot signature" --- (3) Displays "Ram tests" --- (4) Displays Hard Drive Info: ------- Drv. Model No. Size Format Status ------- C: Maxtor 6L100PQ 099 GB Fat 32 OK --- (5) Loading application from disk (goes through loading software and creating storage areas) 11) After a short wait it should boot into the normal menu.

I did not have to ftp the files to the echo I copied just the disk.zip file to the echo4 dvr. So I will need detailrd instruction to ftp to the sprite2. And how can I find its IP address? Which files need to be ftp to the unit? ANYONE - PLEASE HELP

with the DM Echo 4 i believe I was able to copy file because the unit had no IP address set for it. The big chip inside says DVTUC on it. I have tride downloadiingthe files from DM as well as I was able to recover the donedrive.zip from original drive. Same results. I'm not sure if this unit is set with an IP address either. When things are correct should I see the files being extracted before I get the bootloader halted message?

I have replaced the hd successfully on an Echo 4 but trying to replace the hd on a Sprint 2 I am having problems. Please advise: 1. I use 3rd party to format drive fat32 2. Copy drive.zip to drive 3. Install drive in DVR 4. Boot DVR 5. Displays "Initializing bootloader" (about 1 minute) 6. Displays "Initializing boot signature" 7. Displays 2 "Ram tests" 8. Displays Hard Drive Info: Drv. Model No. Size Format Status C: Maxtor 6L100PQ 099 GB Fat 32 OK Loading application from disk Halted in bootloader Thats it. Turn Off wait Turn On ... same sequence. PLEASE ADVISE

I have replaced the hd successfully on an Echo 4 but trying to replace the hd on a Sprint 2 I am having problems. Please advise: 1. I use 3rd party to format drive fat32 2. Copy drive.zip to drive 3. Install drive in DVR 4. Boot DVR 5. Displays "Initializing bootloader" (about 1 minute) 6. Displays "Initializing boot signature" 7. Displays 3 "Ram tests" 8. Displays Hard Drive Info: Drv. Model No. Size Format Status C: Maxtor 6L100PQ 099 GB Fat 32 OK Loading application from disk Halted in bootloader Thats it. Turn Off wait Turn On ... same sequence. PLEASE ADVISE