Looks good. i tried this with my own 80gb hard drive and all worked well. thanks!
wowza. whats a hard drive? i think i came across one of those in Thailand. except it wasnt a girl... hmmm. im confused.
mike. yes, your right, hard drives can be found in thailand amoung other places. like the one i helped you find that time the lights went out because danny parked his bike on the extension cord.
Will a 100gb 1.8" HDD work being thats its a 8mb cache.
yes, a 100gb drive will work. pretty much any 1.8" drive with a ZIF connector will work
Clark, well done and thanks for sharing!
I see that Toshiba has a 100GB drive MK1011GAH, which uses the ZIF connector. The question is: does the HDR-SR1 register the remaining record time correctly when a larger hard drive has been installed?
Hi
I want to know if you did some progress on the 30GB that gives you the 31:00 flash on the cam corder.I bought one 30GB hdd to fix my sony DCR-SR 60E.It also flash on my cam corder.
I will appreciate if you have some info for me so that I can get my Sony cam up and running
Regards,
Marius
I replaced the drive in my HDR-SR1 with a MK6008GAH 60GB drive I got for less than $50. My source said it came from a 60GB 5th Gen iPod. It was thicker than the original drive (it probably uses two platters), but still fit perfectly. The camera powered up, tried to recover the data, and then gave up. A quick trip to the format menu got the new drive recognized and the camera showed the newer double capacity and record time. Video and stills get recorded perfectly. I wish Sony would offer a firmware upgrade that would allow the camera to record video as well as still images to the memory stick like the new "Hybrid" HDR-SR20 and other cameras introduced at CESs
Hi dbarbee
I got my DCR-SR60E working.The
zif loom wasn't making good contact so it restore the data and format it so it works again.Cam got wet and sent it in for repair so Sony tell me that it is beyond repair.It wasn't fully insured.So
I shop for a hhd and got it , I striped the cam complete in a LAB and clean it.Put everything back and reboot it.It works 100%.The only thing that was not working
when it got wet was the hdd.So I that all the gays for the reviews it gave my insight on the subject.
Regard
Marius
I'm trying to remove the hard drive from my hdr-sr10, i want to replace it with the 120gb. I'm trying to disconnect the old drive but cannot find how to open the zif connector without distroying it. Someone has pictures on how to do it ?
Thanks
Luc
Hello all. I also have a SR-1 and am looking into upgrading the drive. What is the biggest size that has been tested so far? Thanks to all who have already taken the plunge and documented it.
I decided to bit the bullet and upgrade my HDP-SR1e HD camcorder. All that I could find on the net is people saying that they upgraded to 80gb hard drive and this wasn’t big enough for me as I wanted it BIGGER!!! Im going to Disney world with my kids and wife in a couple of weeks and wanted to record at full HD resolution and therefore need a hard drive big enough to cope with hours of recording.
…..so……. I eventually built up the courage and bought a Toshiba MK1214GAH 1.8 120GB hdd from Ebuyer @ £98 inc free delivery.
When it got delivered I remove the old hdd from the camera and very carefully lifted the black bar which holds the ZIF cable into the hard drive. Once removed I installed the new HDD and locked the ZIF cable into place by pushing the black bar back down….
….. and now was the moment of truth!! I turned on the camera and it said that it couldn’t recover data and flashed up E31:00 error code. I put the camera into format mode and after 30seconds the camera was done. 5100 (85 hours) minutes recording time at SD quality and 980 (16.33hrs) at Full 1080i HD quality.
Has anyone else tried replacing the original HDD in their camcorder with a solid state drive (SSD)? I have a Sony HDR-SR11 and have opened it to see what type of drive it has. It appears to use the ZIF connector 1.8" drive. After doing some research, I see that others have successfully swapped the drive in Sony camcorders (in less than 5 minutes!), but it has never been tried with an SSD.
I am thinking of this because it will greatly reduce battery consumption and eliminate some of the hums and clicks in my videos. Also, HDDs die at a much higher rate than SSDs, as a solid state drive has no moving parts. I have been looking at drives online, and a drive on the big internet auction site (150263664824) seems to be exactly what I need for the best price, especially with that cashback promo that it mentions.
Do you guys think it would be worth it? It seems to be little risk to try, as the worst case scenario would be reselling the drive for a slight profit if it does not work (keeping in mind that I will be keeping the cashback). What I mean is, if it does work do you think the benefits outweigh the cost?
I was wondering if anyone has successfully changed out the drives on an HDR-SR11? I damaged mine after a fall on the rocks in the ocean and had shock damage to the camera and some salt water leakage. I'm theorizing that I could get a new camera and put these drives in it to restore the 4 hours of beautiful Hawaiian footage I cannot duplicate, but I worry about any auto-formatting that might take place if I attempt that, thus destroying the footage
The SR11 does not auto format. I have performed two swaps and it did not auto format either time. You can safely remove the drive, drop it in another SR11 or SR12, and view/extract your vids.
Thanks for your feedback. I will give it a shot.
I have taken the MK6014GAL 60 gb drive out of the SR11. The camera is toast after it was dropped, but I desperately want to get my Hawaiian footage off the hard drive. I have acquired a ZIF to IDE connector and I'm having trouble opening the locking lever that the ribbon connector goes into. I've never done this before and don't want to damage it, so I'm just curious which way the locking lever moves. On this drive there are 2 tiny holes on either side on either side of the lever and I theorize that I have to get a pointy object to press the holes while gently prying the lever up. Does it swivel up?
russ: its not a hard thing to do. just use a big of force... but be gentle. dont be a pussy... if you break the ribbon, you can replace it. the part that connect to the camera is not soldered on.
Perhaps you can help with a problem I have. Recently send a mail but I now discover this post.
New SR-11 with 60Gb HDD. It works fine but when I try recording In HD mode, push the record buttom and STBY sign began flashing and remains that way till I press again Record buttom. After this procedure, I can´t turn the camera Off again nor access the HDD. Only reset will partially resolve the problem but if I want to keep it ok I need setting again to SD quality.
Firmware problem?, configuration? Trasfer bus rate problem? or some simply precautions when recording in HD defintion mode I´m not taking care?.
Apreciate Your help.
Thanks
Jorge de Simone
Hi,
Thanks for the great information, and some useful comments.
I have just bought a SR12 (120GBHDD) and can't wait to open it up.
Do any of you have any links to any whitepapers or tech diagrams, indicating exactly how to open up the camera? Or even to any other sites which have information about this.
I'm pretty sure the only difference between the SR11 and the SR12 is the size of the HDD.
(Twould be great if you could send me or post a link to a pic of the side of the camcorder, with arrows pointing to the screw placing)
Keep up the good work!
Mawalien
So, I tried to upgrade the hard drive and for the life of me cannot get it to work. I am trying to use the MK8009GAH to no avail. I purchase an external enclosure for 1.8" drives, formatted the drive to FAT32, and still I get format errors and the message that the camera cannot access the drive. Any help would be GREATLY appreciate, but I get the feeling this does not work for everyone....
Same here! I tried to replace the original 30GB HD from my SR1 witha 80GB Toshiba MK8009GAH, but it simply didn't work. Camera does not regnize the new HD and keeps saying it can't access it. I tried to format it using the camera but I got an error saying HD is not accessible. Any tips?? I spent US$130 on this HD, and now, I fear it will be useless... Tks!
I am really curious to know why this worked for other people but not for us last two posters. I know the post notes that "apple branded" drives will only work with the iPod, but how can you tell if your drive is apple branded? I didn't get mine from an iPod, yet it behaves exactly like the 12/30/2006 update describes. This also happened to me with another drive, and since I've tested the second drive with a portable hard drive enclosure, I know it's not bad. I even tried to copy any and all files from the stock hard drive to the new hard drive, and still no luck.
Novamat, my drive is a Toshiba, exact same model as described on the 2007 post where it says it worked. But as I said before, I too am getting same error message as if the drive was Apple branded. Maybe it is the handycam... As you put, maybe this will not work for ALL of them. Who knows...?
Need help on my SR11 camera. Everytime reached the recorded indicator to 1039 minutes, HD not accessible after that. I tried to reset but still the same problem. Pls. anyone experience this kind of problem? And how to solve this? Thanks
hi
does anyone know if this same method could be used for a different hard drive camcorder? I have the unfortunate pleasure of owning the dreaded JVC GZ-HD7U and it seems like my hard drives biten the big one. could it be replaced as easy as stated above or should I just sell it for what I can get and buy a decent HD camera?
hi anyone now how to get the ZIF connector 1.8 flex cable mine is broken.
Great work cracking this thing open.
Can anyone tell me what processor (or even just the clock speed) any of the Sony Camcorders use?
thanks,
Justin
I just replaced the hdd on hdr-sr5 to a 120gb, it tried formatting it, failed and now the unit won't switch on at all, neither with a battery or the power adapter. Looks like its toast, or something might have fried inside. Any thoughts ? Even resetting doesn't work.
Hi,
My DCR-SR60E, after switching on, when I proceed to do recording or view recording , the power goes off and come again. Something similar to rebooting.
Suggest if you let me know the cause and solution.
Thanks
JP
Commenting by HaloScan
