Sky hdd in pc

[ptarmigan]

I pulled a 500gb hdd from a sky box and formatted it with a view to using as extra storage for a project but i do not think it is completely erased as it will now and then spin up despite not using it, at the moment it has 4 volumes i put on it but after formatting it said it was empty, all programs for the pc are on a ssd at the moment so what is your view as i do not want to buy another ssd as the pc is an old one.

 

[RandomGrinch]

i do not think it is completely erased as it will now and then spin up despite not using it,

The drive spinning up or down, will have nothing to do with the drive being erased and empty. It will have more to do with the OS calling for some information, i.e. if you opened file explorer, or it may spin down for power saving.

I pulled a 500gb hdd from a sky box and formatted it with a view to using as extra storage

Using a TV box HDD for storage should be ok, as long as you are not using it to backup critical data.
These HDDs tend to have a hard life, running constantly to save live TV, or make recordings. They are crammed into the small sky box enclosure, with limited ventilation, a lot of dust and a reasonable amount of heat! Don't expect them to be the most reliable device for long term data storage.

at the moment it has 4 volumes i put on it but after formatting it said it was empty,

I don't quite understand what you mean here, but have you tried saving data to the drive and has it retained it?

 

[ptarmigan]

Sorry i got that arse about, it was formatted and then i put the 4 volumes on it.

 

[RandomGrinch]

Sorry i got that arse about, it was formatted and then i put the 4 volumes on it.

I don't know if we are using the same terminology, but you would normally partition the drives into separate volumes, format the volumes and assign them drive letters.

i do not want to buy another ssd as the pc is an old one.

...and don't worry about buying another SSD, it will be hugely faster than the HDD, and if you keep it as a storage drive, it can be easily transferred to your new PC

 

[ptarmigan]

Thanks RG, i will have to bite the bullet and get another pc as this is 15 years old and came to me via a skip, it's the fact that i could lose data on the hdd so it's just not worth trying to do it on the cheap.

 

[foxhole]

Have several old drives from sky boxes , all work fine for back ups .

 

[brig001]

Disk drives for PVRs like in a Sky box need to be optimised for video storage and not accurate data storage
On a video it is better to ignore bad data and carry on to the next frame, so error checking is less rigorous. For PC data it is better to go back and have another go to get the data correct, so I would be wary of using a Sky disk for data
At least this used to be the case, but technology moves on...

Brian

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Have several old drives from sky boxes , all work fine for back ups .

I have used old sky hdd as well in computers, I think the last one, a 2Tb drive cost me £3....