# Bolt OTA drive upgrade



## BigK53 (Jan 22, 2019)

I just completed upgrade of a new Bolt OTA to a 4GB drive. I got the Bolt on the trade-up deal from a Roamio. 

The swap procedure is much the same as previous Bolt upgrades as seen here, youtube etc.

I did notice a few things:

-It's now a black plastic case, not white. Actually it's not black, but a very dark transparent plastic.

-The case is as hard to open as everyone says. I did manage to break off all 4 of the clips on the end cover over the hard drive. The cover will still go back on and looks OK.

-I used a Seagate ST4000M024 4TB Barracuda which I bought as a bare drive. I checked and this is not an SMR drive. They also have a 5TB version.

-The screws are now standard (not security) Torx. T8 for the screw over the HDMI, T10 for all others.

-The drive swap process is still as described in the videos except that the little antenna wire now routes under the hard drive, which makes the swap very easy since you don't have to mess with the wire, foam clips, etc.

- I took the new Bolt out of the box, never plugged it in at all, opened it, removed the old drive, installed the new drive fresh from the wrapper, and temporarily plugged in the Bolt to a TV. It came right up as normal and wanted to start Guided Setup. I unplugged it at that point.

- I then removed the drive and plugged it into my Windows 10 PC using a Sabrent USB-SATA adapter cable. I then ran MFSR 1004, which recognized the drive, and did the reformat exactly as planned.

- I unplugged the drive from the PC and reinstalled it in the Bolt, and again hooked it to a TV. Again it came right up and wanted to start Guided Setup, which I did. It ran with no problems. I now have 640 HD hours available. yay!

- It did do the Hydra update as part of the Setup, you have no choice. I understand (but have not confirmed) that it cannot be rolled back. This may be a deal breaker for some of you.

This was overall a very easy swap. The only drama of any kind was when I broke the damned clips.

This is my first Bolt. I will report back here if I encounter anything else notable.

Keith


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

The VOX models all would have Hydra/V21.7+.

It adds the VOX button operation.


----------



## BigK53 (Jan 22, 2019)

Yes, of course that would be the reason. This a VOX model and did include the VOX remote.

Since I don't have as much mental investment in the old interface as many here do, I think I can live with the Hydra interface. Frankly the old interface had some annoying shortcomings as well.


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

BigK53 said:


> -I used a Seagate ST4000M024 4TB Barracuda which I bought as a bare drive. I checked and this is not an SMR drive. They also have a 5TB version.


Out of curiosity, how did you check this? Seagate did inherit a non-SMR 4TB drive from Samsung, but I believe it's been out of production for years. All the 5TB drives are SMR.

Even the Seagate "Video" drives (intended for DVRs) are SMR now.


----------



## BigK53 (Jan 22, 2019)

First, I apologize, the drive part number is ST4000LM024.

The Seagate documentation for the drive (https://www.seagate.com/www-content...op-fam/barracuda_25/en-us/docs/100804767c.pdf) states that the recording method is "perpendicular" which I take to mean "not SMR". That would also apply to the 5TB version (ST5000LM000). So maybe there is a decent 5TB out there. Both are in stock at Amazon.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

BigK53 said:


> First, I apologize, the drive part number is ST4000LM024.
> 
> The Seagate documentation for the drive (https://www.seagate.com/www-content...op-fam/barracuda_25/en-us/docs/100804767c.pdf) states that the recording method is "perpendicular" which I take to mean "not SMR". That would also apply to the 5TB version (ST5000LM000). So maybe there is a decent 5TB out there. Both are in stock at Amazon.


Well odd that it reports "Shingled magnetic recording with perpendicular magnetic recording heads/media." Since I don't think we really know why the SMR drives seem to work for a while and then fail in a Bolt, it will be interesting to see if this drives is successful for you in the long run.

I found a patent on PMR head for use with SMR.

US20110085266A1 - Perpendicular magnetic recording head - Google Patents

*1*. A perpendicular magnetic recording head for use in shingled write recording, comprising:
a main pole that generates a recording magnetic field;
a trailing shield positioned on a trailing side of the main pole; and
a side shield positioned in a cross-track direction of the main pole,
wherein a gap length (MP−SS distance) between the side shield and the main pole and a gap length (MP−TS distance) between the trailing shield and the main pole satisfy a relationship:

I've found references that indicate that SMR generally uses a wider head though.

https://documents.westerndigital.co...d-magnetic-recording-helioseal-technology.pdf

The write head designed for SMR drives is wider than required for a single track of data. It produces
stronger magnetic field suitable for magnetizing films of high coercivity. Once one track has been written, the recording head is advanced by only part of its width, so the next track will partially overwrite the previous one, leaving only a narrow band for reading.

Scott


----------



## BigK53 (Jan 22, 2019)

Well, gee, I just went by that document in which there is zero mention of shingled recording.

What/where does it report "shingled magnetic recording"?

If that is true (the drive being SMR) then Seagate is basically deliberately concealing it in their documentation. That sort of dishonesty is never a good sign. 

The drive is still working fine but it's only been a week and it isn't recording a huge number of shows.

Keith


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

BigK53 said:


> Well, gee, I just went by that document in which there is zero mention of shingled recording.
> 
> What/where does it report "shingled magnetic recording"?
> 
> ...


Ah, I see the issue. Your link is to a rev C of this document from October 2016. I was looking at the latest rev E version from February 2017.

https://www.seagate.com/www-content...op-fam/barracuda_25/en-us/docs/100804767e.pdf

It's on the Introduction page (page 6 of 30 or page 5 as the pages are numbered).










A couple of other changes such as 140MB/s versus 130MB/s data transfer rate on the new revision. Both do still show Perpendicular as the recording method under table 2.4 which doesn't match what's in the introduction on the newer revision.

Yours is 15mm tall?

Scott


----------



## BigK53 (Jan 22, 2019)

Damn, I guess you are correct. Interesting how that little detail was just sort of slipped into a new rev of the document without even making it onto the revision list. This does get me a little bit POed. And yes, the drive is 15mm.

I'll leave the drive in for now and see how it goes. 

Thanks for the info.


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

I've had a Seagate 3TB Laptop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (ST3000LM016) running in my Bolt since July 2017. This drive is 15mm too.


----------



## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

There is a way to downgrade from Hydra, necessary for many of us using other large drives in a Bolt.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

BigK53 said:


> Damn, I guess you are correct. Interesting how that little detail was just sort of slipped into a new rev of the document without even making it onto the revision list. This does get me a little bit POed. And yes, the drive is 15mm.
> 
> I'll leave the drive in for now and see how it goes.
> 
> Thanks for the info.


The fact that it does still reference PMR even in the new revision and is one of the taller drives may be a good thing.

Scott


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

BigK53 said:


> The Seagate documentation for the drive (https://www.seagate.com/www-content...op-fam/barracuda_25/en-us/docs/100804767c.pdf) states that the recording method is "perpendicular" which I take to mean "not SMR". That would also apply to the 5TB version (ST5000LM000). So maybe there is a decent 5TB out there. Both are in stock at Amazon.


It's sneaky of them to omit mention of SMR. They are certainly aware that some people will draw the inference you made.


----------

