DMInstaller

No, you came here asking for help but you couldn't answer the few questions I asked you. There is a good chance I can't help you, but if you can't answer the questions - what exactly are you expecting me to do? So after two weeks you still don't know ... LOL. Right ... I cam here asking for help two weeks ago and you said you had the answers. Apparently I mis-read that. Thanks anyway. No, I just don't care about your problem anymore. I said there is a good chance I couldn't help you. I wasn't aware that I was obligated in any way to help you, especially when you can't answer the few questions I asked. If you can't take the time to do the research and answer them, why should I spend my time inefficiently troubleshooting your problem? Being the nice person that I am, I'll give you one piece of advice and tell you to rebuild the video index. Beyond that, maybe bpzle can help you, he sure has a lot to say?

No, you came here asking for help but you couldn't answer the few questions I asked you. There is a good chance I can't help you, but if you can't answer the questions - what exactly are you expecting me to do?

What is the full model number? 3.1 188? Did you mean 3.1 168? I didn't think they made a release after 3.1 168. When you first power it on, what version of the bootloader is it running?

Slightly off topic?? this is a thread for DM HD replacement. You come on asking for folks to explain their love affair with DM because you just don't get it. That's completely off topic and should be in it's own thread. Welcome to the forum? I've been here two years before you even joined... Again, I don't care to explain anything to you, I don't care what you install/don't install. DM hard drives are not difficult to replace. I can have drives prepped in two minutes. So if that added two minutes to the time required to swap drives really eats at you, don't use DM!

You are kind of thread jacking a DM repair thread with your anti-DM ranting. I have no interest in getting into a debate regarding one brand vs. another. We get it, you don't see the justification to buy DM. Many people do. I've used Avermedia and supported many others. I now install DM exclusively. Similar to a real estate agent that won't show a house under $500k, I can pre-screen my clientele by the cost of my work. If Avermedia units work the best in your situation, great!

Why are you paying dealer prices? They have a monopoly on hard drives? I've never once sent a unit in for them to upgrade. They post the directions and files you need on their website for download. I see their response as better than most in the CE industry. If a nontechnical owner (store owner, small IT guy) calls them and reads the error on the screen and asks what to do, I ABSOLUTELY expect them to tell them to send it in and they will professionally refurb it. Every company does that. And if it's out of warranty, I expect them to have a cost associated with it. I guess you could ask why people drive a Honda instead of a Ford, they are both just cars right?

Have you read the previous 5 pages of this thread? Page 2 tells you how to connect via FTP. Page 3 tells you how to find the IP address. Read this thread, read it a second time and then follow the directions.. If you still have problems after reading and following the directions THEN post your problem here.

johnharryb, Looking at what you said you did, I think the problem is your step 2. Instead you should be doing what yilmazozer has listed here in steps 3 & 4.

Have you read this thread? viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7369

And for anyone curious, here is a link to the Seagate 1 TB drives that I used. Seagate 1 TB SATA Hard Drive

I used this one from Amazon. Plug it in, set the jumper for slave/master and you are done. SATA hard drive in a Dedicated Micros DVR Ide To Sata Drive Mounted Adapter

Well the 500 GB Western Digital IDE drives were actually 16 MB cache, not 32 but it didn't matter. Despite numerous changes to how I had them installed (1 drive, 2 drives, slave, master) - I could never get the DVR to boot with these drives installed. I really thought these would be up and running in no time and I would have trouble with the SATA drives but it didn't turn out that way. The two 1 TB SATA 32 MB cache Seagate drives? - installed without a hitch. It was a little cramped getting the SATA - IDE adapters in there with them, but once mounted, it was up and running without an issue. I put it in service with the SATA drives in it and kept the original IDE Seagate 750 GB drives (nothing wrong with them) as the spares for the customer. It's nice to know that with the phasing out of high capacity IDE drives, we can keep these units in service with huge SATA drives.

Here is an another update for you. Back in 2008 I successfully upgraded a DS2A 165 (NET) DTVX to (2) 750 GB IDE Seagate drives with 16 MB cache. No problems at all, it has been running like clockwork for nearly 2 years now. I just got it back in the shop as the client would like a "hot" pair of backup drives so if/when it dies they can open the case and have it up and running again in minutes. Since IDE drives are getting harder to come by (and I can't find 750 GB IDE drives at all anymore) I ordered (2) 500 GB IDE Western Digital Drives with 32 MB cache which were the largest I could find. I also ordered (2) 1 TB Seagate SATA drives with 32 MB cache and IDE <-> SATA converters. I'll let you know how it works out with 32 MB cache and trying to get it up to two terabytes by using the SATA/IDE adapters. If the SATA/IDE adapters work, I may try (2) 2 TB drives just for fun...

Just a follow up... I've yet to have a problem with the units I upgraded beyond 320G. The 16 ch that had a single 160G drive has been humming along with 2 500G drives for the last couple months with no problems. I only use Seagate drives in my replacements, although I have had various other brands that I used in testing and never had a problem. I don't think the brand of drive matters so much, just use something new that is quality. I never messed with the 9 ch any further. I just put a single 500G drive in it and put it in service. I did try drives as small as 10G I believe, working my way down from the 500. No matter what it wouldn't boot with a slave drive installed. Oh well, 500G for a 9 ch is decent.

I've had some success replacing and upgrading hard drives in a couple of DM Digital Sprite 2 units so far, and the most important thing I have found is to be sure the unit has an IP address set in it BEFORE it dies or starts having issues. When you set an IP on a unit it is written on the HD as well as the motherboard. When you install a new hard drive the IP will still be retained in the unit. I have yet to find a way to recover a DM unit that has a HD problem and no IP Address. Babitor: Have you tried putting a new HD into the unit after properly formatting it as yilmazozer mentioned? At least in the DS2 units, it will stop at "Halted at Bootloader" when a new drive (correctly formatted) is installed. There are a number of reasons for getting the "Wrong FAT version" message. Here are a few things that have caused it for me. 1. Power lead for HD came off motherboard (found this in more than one DS2) 2. Wrong jumper setting on HD - start with a single drive (even if the unit originally had two drives) and set the jumper to Master. No Cable Select 3. Having a slave HD installed (even when it is correctly configured) on a system that was "locked" to only have one hard drive. Unhooking the slave corrected this. 4. Not properly preparing the drive, just installing a new hard drive without formatting. An interesting note on #3 - I was recently trying to upgrade a DS2 9 channel that was originally a single 160 gig HD to two 500 gig HDs. The primary 500 gig drive boots fine and has no problems. When I add the slave drive, the system will not boot. I tried three different slaves of different sizes, but none of them worked. As soon as I remove the slave, the system boots fine. I decided to call DM about it and see if there was something I was missing. The tech at first was talking through it with me, and stated that some DS units are "locked" and won't allow a slave drive. Once I mentioned that I had also upgraded the primary drive, he immediately refused to talk to me. He stated that I shouldn't do that, that they use special HDs in the units not just regular drives, etc. He then said he was not allowed to comment further as what I was doing was not permitted by DM and ended the call. It's interesting because just a few days ago I took an older DS2 16 ch 160 gig and upgraded it with 2 500 gig drives without a problem. That unit also only had one drive originally. The only difference was that it was older and has different boot software and application software installed. I can't change the boot software on the 9 ch but I might try to install an older rev of the application and see if that resolves it. Most likely it's in the boot software thought. I also might try removing the slave from the 16 and installing it as a slave in the 9 with the folder structure already in place. I don't think that will work, but it's worth a try.