Anyone successfully replaced the hard drive in 9865 PVR in 2022 ??

[DE_]

Last time I tried a year ago, it was never able to upload software after the replacement drive was physically installed. It was stuck in a pending state waiting for something from the network. No help from Rogers. 

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[57 · Accepted solution]

Lots of people have done it. See the following link over on Digital Home.  Instructions outlined in the links in post 1 of that thread.

https://www.digitalhome.ca/threads/upgrade-or-replace-the-ihdd-on-9865-nextbox-3-0.211002/

The best drive to use is the newer WD Purple, specifically designed for this sort of use.

[DE_]

A lot of those threads are from years ago. It sure looked like Rogers (or cisco) might have in the last year or so dropped support for upgrading as at least 2 people recently got stuck in "pend" state waiting to load the software after replacing the HD. I will try again and see what happens. 

[57]

The most recent successful replacement in that thread appears to be from April 2021.  I seriously doubt that Rogers or Cisco did anything, since everyone is being migrated to IgniteTV and they wouldn't bother spending time on that.  Good Luck and make sure you check out the recent posts from 2020/2021.  Some people did require several attempts...

[erkmac]

I can confirm that the instructions in that forum still work. Yesterday (Jan 18, 2023), I installed an unformatted drive, connected the cable and powered it on. After waiting a while, the box connected, downloaded system files and the drive got formatted. After several reboot sequences, the box is functional again. I didn't have to call Rogers for assistance. However, this may depend on the circumstances. In my case, the 9865 PVR is being used in a Seniors' Residence where Rogers is still supporting the legacy Nextboxes. I'm not sure if Rogers is supporting these elsewhere.