# How do you add a hard drive to Tivo when your a tech layman?



## Destin (Mar 14, 2006)

I know you guys probably here this all the time but I need help. I searched the forums but I either didn't find or couldn't understand what it was saying. I have a series 2 tivo AT&T 230 for 40 hr set. I want to add 120 gig hard drive but I have a few questions. I only have a laptop and it seems I need some kind of program in the hard drive to make it work for the Tivo is that rite? So if I can't plug a hard drive into my computer can I still use it? Do I have to use a Bracket to make it work? One of the threads I looked at seemed to say I have to have one and I can't shop over the internet, no money cards of any kind (do they sell these in stores?). Also I am very poor in the tech lingo, I don't know what any of those anagrams of words are or what a slave or master is or if I even need to know what they are to upgrade my Tivo. If I need to do more research please tell me. Again sorry for the dumb questions and my overall ignorance.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

I don;t see how you can do this with a laptop and based on not knowing about master/slave etc, you should probably not try it with a standard PC either.

You can buy ready to go drives though (check places like Weakknees and PTVUpgrade who advertise on this forum) and you just install them into the TiVo. You only need a bracket if you install 2 drives. 

Lots of the 3 letter acronyms you talk about are dealing with things you can do beyond just adding hard drive space. IF you just want to add more recording capacity, you do not need to know any of them.

You might call them up to see if you can send a check.


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## Destin (Mar 14, 2006)

Lee L said:


> I don;t see how you can do this with a laptop and based on not knowing about master/slave etc, you should probably not try it with a standard PC either.
> 
> You can buy ready to go drives though (check places like Weakknees and PTVUpgrade who advertise on this forum) and you just install them into the TiVo. You only need a bracket if you install 2 drives.
> 
> ...


Yeah I want to just add a hard drive to the one thats already in there. Can I buy the ready to go stuff in stores because apparently you can't buy things off the internet with cash and thats all I have. So my 120 gig hard drive is useless for upgrading? Because hard drives are expensive and I would rather use the one I already have.


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## MikeMar (Jan 7, 2005)

Do you need to add a fan or anything if you drop in a 2nd drive?


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

The 120 would be a great drive for upgrading, but I don't see how you can add a drive to the current one without having a standard desktop PC and the ability to hook up the 2 drives. Your best way to do it will be to buy a premade drive. 

Otherwise, if you can maybe have a friend who will allow you to borrow an old PC for the process. You will need a bracket to add a drive to what you have and I have never seen any available in a retail store.

The simplest thing will be to borrow the PC, then use it to copy and expand your drive (look for the Hinsdale directions) to teh new one and keep your old one on teh shelf in case somethign goes wrong. IF you can follow directions and type commands in exactly, you can do the upgrade using the MFSTools CD you can download for free, but there is the significant chance to screw something up if you miss a command, hence do not do this on a production PC or with your original drive.


The brackets have a place for an extra fan and often the kits they sell include a better fan for the case as well.


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## PortlandPaw (Jan 11, 2004)

MikeMar said:


> Do you need to add a fan or anything if you drop in a 2nd drive?


I'm sorry, but I just have to ask...you've posted on this forum four thousand seven hundred and thirteen times in the past fourteen months and you need to ask about adding a fan to cool a second drive?


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

cut him some slack Paw, he's just recently crossed over here from the Happy Hour


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## W6FO (Mar 8, 2006)

PortlandPaw said:


> you've posted on this forum four thousand seven hundred and thirteen times in the past fourteen months and you need to ask about adding a fan to cool a second drive?


One thing I've learned over the years of using various online forums is that the number of posts has very little to do with their expertise level.


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## PortlandPaw (Jan 11, 2004)

OK, I apologize...I didn't realize that the post count crossed forum boundaries...welcome, MikeMar!


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## OldTownTreadles (Mar 15, 2006)

Lee L said:


> The 120 would be a great drive for upgrading, but I don't see how you can add a drive to the current one without having a standard desktop PC and the ability to hook up the 2 drives. Your best way to do it will be to buy a premade drive.
> 
> .


What if he put his 120Gig in a hard drive enclosure and hooked that up to his laptop? Has anyone ever tried this? Oh, PortlandPaw, my earlier posts were in a different part of the Forum. First post in this topic area.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

Don't add, replace.

Samsung's are great drives. Quiet, reliable. newegg.com always has a reasonable price, no rebate hassles.

Go with the 200 or bigger.


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

OldTownTreadles said:


> What if he put his 120Gig in a hard drive enclosure and hooked that up to his laptop? Has anyone ever tried this?


Laptops don't have a standard EIDE (aka parallel) 80-pin interface to connect up to a standard drive, desktop PCs do (unless they are ultra-new and have _only_ SATA (serial ATA) connections... I think right now many new PCs have both.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

goony said:


> Laptops don't have a standard EIDE (aka parallel) 80-pin interface to connect up to a standard drive, desktop PCs do (unless they are ultra-new and have _only_ SATA (serial ATA) connections... I think right now many new PCs have both.


Seems this little doohicky might do the trick for a laptop:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156101


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

W6FO said:


> One thing I've learned over the years of using various online forums is that the number of posts has very little to do with their expertise level.


Interesting observation indeed. wonder how much doug and smeek know


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## MikeMar (Jan 7, 2005)

PortlandPaw said:


> OK, I apologize...I didn't realize that the post count crossed forum boundaries...welcome, MikeMar!


No prob. I own 2 tivo's, one for about a year a half, other about 5 months. I have not even opened them up yet, or really thought about upgrading as my 40 hours are fine. And yes most of my posts are either in TV show talk or Happy Hour.

Just starting to get curious about adding a 2nd hard drive later on into one of my units, but not sure.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Add me to the list of members that advise you to stick with a single drive upgrade. 2 drives double all the headaches of a Tivo upgrade.

Get a single 200 to 250gb drive - those sized drives are usually the best value for the dollar. That is what I'll upgrade to when my 160 and 120gb drives give up.


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## MikeMar (Jan 7, 2005)

Dkerr24 said:


> Add me to the list of members that advise you to stick with a single drive upgrade. 2 drives double all the headaches of a Tivo upgrade.
> 
> Get a single 200 to 250gb drive - those sized drives are usually the best value for the dollar. That is what I'll upgrade to when my 160 and 120gb drives give up.


Ok i'll probably do that when I upgrade on in like 6 months. Thanks


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

Dkerr24 said:


> Add me to the list of members that advise you to stick with a single drive upgrade. 2 drives double all the headaches of a Tivo upgrade.


It's a double edged sword when it comes to HD units though. You have to get signficantly higher to get a larger than stock drive to make it worth your while. And if you just add, as you stated, you have 2x the chance of losing everything. However, I'm almost ready to take the plunge and spend the 200 for a 250 gig just to avoid having to rip apart my PC again and go through all that fun stuff again.

Drives arent that cheap yet for me to justify taking out the stock drive and sitting it on the shelf.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

Well, when I upgraded my HR10-250 18 moths agao, hard drives were a littel more expensive so I just added a 250 gig to it. However, I had available to me a computer with the capability to hook all the drives up and run the MFS Tools CD to backup and save the image. There is really no reason not to do the backup method anymore as even if your image is somehow lost, there are others out there that can help you.

However, the OP does not have the computer available so In that case, he would be better off not trying it.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

Lee L said:


> There is really no reason not to do the backup method anymore as even if your image is somehow lost, there are others out there that can help you.
> 
> However, the OP does not have the computer available so In that case, he would be better off not trying it.


True, i forgot about the OP circumstance

And with your double negative I had to read that 2x but I think you are saying that you recommend doing a backup if possible. (or did i misunderstand?) But I sort of take the opposite view. Disregarding the down time and ease of just having a drive on standby (or image i guess), I can't see any other reason to have a backup image. Unless your SP etc are still relatively the same at the point of the crash.

the other thing with 2 drives is you sometimes can recover the 2nd drive if you can figure out which one is bad and copy that data over to a new one. Worked with my sony but boy do i remember that being a PITA.


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

ThreeSoFar said:


> Seems this little doohicky might do the trick for a laptop:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156101


Wow, good to know they are available that inexpensively!

Thanks!!

Goony


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

Sorry about that. What I was trying to say, is that for most people, there is no reason to keep a drive on the shelf. If you backup your image before the expansion, you can always recover from a corrupt drive. Even if you don;t backup, you can get a clean image from various places and use that. It just seems like a waste to keep a 250 gigabyte drive worth $75-$100 on the shelf. Now this applies moreso to the HR10-250 as the cost of the smaller drives is not as bad anymore, but it is still a waste when it is so easy to get things back.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

is the weaknees upgrade drive really just plug and play for HDtivo? I'd assume for 200 bucks it should be  Just seems too good to be true. I'm guessing the limitation that it's a factory setup (mine is) may be a dealbreaker for some, but for people like me that dont wanna go back to my pc and upgrade, it sounds like a pretty good deal if it's that easy to double space in just 5 minutes.


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## Barryrod (Mar 17, 2006)

Dkerr24 said:


> Add me to the list of members that advise you to stick with a single drive upgrade. 2 drives double all the headaches of a Tivo upgrade.
> 
> Get a single 200 to 250gb drive - those sized drives are usually the best value for the dollar. That is what I'll upgrade to when my 160 and 120gb drives give up.


I agree...after the pain I just went through to recover 1 of my drives. I then converted back to a single drive unit and my temp is down about 10deg C in the Tivo. I also kept the twinbreeze bracket installed for the use of the extra fan. I think that helps too.

You can get a single 250gig WD at CC for $79 after rebates.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/West...70860/catOid/-12976/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

It is working great in my RCA DVR40


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

ThreeSoFar said:


> Seems this little doohicky might do the trick for a laptop:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156101





goony said:


> Wow, good to know they are available that inexpensively!
> 
> Thanks!!
> 
> Goony


I seriously doubt that the Linux image on the various tools CDs includes drivers for such a device (an USB Mass Storage drive is bundled with WindowsXP).


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## thechachman (Nov 28, 2004)

Dan Collins said:


> I seriously doubt that the Linux image on the various tools CDs includes drivers for such a device (an USB Mass Storage drive is bundled with WindowsXP).


 You might be pleasantly surprised, every USB drive I've tried (including a few 'microdrive' ones) has mounted as "/dev/sda1" without problems using a PTV disc image (or a MFStools image as well IIRC)


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## OldTownTreadles (Mar 15, 2006)

ThreeSoFar said:


> Seems this little doohicky might do the trick for a laptop:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156101


Cool thing, thanks for pointing it out. But it's essentially an external drive enclosure without the enclosure, right?

It would definitely hook the drive up to the laptop via the USB port. Would that be enough?


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

OldTownTreadles said:


> Cool thing, thanks for pointing it out. But it's essentially an external drive enclosure without the enclosure, right?
> 
> It would definitely hook the drive up to the laptop via the USB port. Would that be enough?


Seems like they are saying it should, but only one way to find out. Someone's bound to try it, especially with so many people having only laptops these days.


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## tekgeek (Feb 8, 2006)

You will need a bracket and a second fan for this project. If you do not have a PC you will need to buy a formatted hard drive. You can get both from weaknees.com. This is also the easiest way to handle the upgrade. Get someone to buy for you and pay them back. You cannot buy the stuff in stores.

Good Luck PM me if you need help.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

Have I said it here yet? I'd recommend you don't add at all. Just replace. The extra 40 or 80 gig is not worth the extra moving part that can die.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

i can now add my own HDtivo upgrade experience. the weaknees drive is really very easy to add and with the extra fan i went from 45 down to 38 degrees. So it absolutely helps. The drop in drive was easy and all the warnings were great except they need to add one about how fragile the IDE strands are and not to clip them when you insert the ide cable on the B drive (new one is on order as we speak). It's pretty darn tight in there


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