Successful internal storage update!

If you consider upgrading your WDTV Live Hub‘s internal Storage, you can do so quite easily.

Some quick facts:

  • Disk height is 15mm (was this high due to the circumstance that older disk had less data density)

  • You can still use a 7,9,12 or 15mm disk!

  • Maximum size of disk addressable by the WDTV Live Hub is 2.00TB (The device will NOT recognize GPT-partitioned drives!)

  • You MUST use the device‘s format tool to properly prepare the new disk for usage in the device.

  • Works well with the WD Scorpio Blue 2TB and, interestingly, even a 5TB disk of Seagate is recognized but formatted with the limits mentioned above (unfortunately).

  • New disk can even be SATA III (6Gbit) as this Standard has downward compatibility. Your disk will still run in SATA II (3Gbit) mode which is still sufficient for most mechanical HDDs as they still are „only“ 160 MB/s at most.

Preparation:

  • Remove the original disk from the device

  • Pop in the new disk as is into it and start the device.
    You‘ll see a notification that the internal disk might need to be preformatted. Accept the pre-formatting (important!)

  • Wait until the preformatting process has finished. Upon success the disk should show as new internal „WDTVLiveHub“ disk in the HDD drive Manager in the Setup.

  • Switch off your WDTV and wait 20 secs for the spin-down of the HDD.

  • Remove the disk again.

  • Connect the disk to a computer (preferably Windows 7+) using an appropriate HDD dock/case/cable.

  • Copy your contents from the Original disk using an appropriate HDD dock/case/cable also attached to your computer.

  • Only copy the contents from the WDTVLiveHub drive, while leaving the other two drives (WDTVLivePriv and unnamed) untouched. This process may take up to several hours depending on the fill grade of your Original disk! Feel free to store more media files in the appropriate Media folder on the new disk.

  • When you‘re done with the copying, stow away the Original disk in a safe spot free from magnetism and high temperature alternations.

  • Pop in the new disk back to your WDTV Live Hub, close the encasing, hook it up to your TV set and start it up. Let it rebuild the media library as long as the appropriate message appears on screen.

  • Once finished, proceed with the system setup and preferences as desired.

If you did it all correctly, you should be rewarded with a similar screen, like this:

Congratulations! You have successfully refurbished your WDTV Live Hub! May it serve you well for the next couple years!

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Wondering why no one has replied to this post and found a lot of other recent topics regarding this type of item.