# Best 3TB drive for Roamio



## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

What's the best 3TB drive for Roamio basic right now?

A red like this for $110 from Amazon (WD30EFRX)?
Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Computers & Accessories

What about the cheaper 3TB blue drive for $89 (WD30EZRZ)?
Amazon.com: WD Blue 3TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EZRZ: Computers & Accessories

Or something else?

Thanks.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I would recommend the WD Red, much quieter and use less power. There is also no settings to fuss with, WDIDLE, HDAT, etc.

I have a 4TB Red in mine.

The WD30EZRZ is not a AV drive.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Albert said:


> What's the best 3TB drive for Roamio basic right now?
> 
> A red like this for $110 from Amazon (WD30EFRX)?
> Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Computers & Accessories
> ...


I think the consensus here is that the WD Red's, not the Pro version, are the most used and recommended.


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## skypros (May 19, 2015)

I was able to get the OEM: 
Western Digital 3 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD30EURX
On Amazon for $135 The seller Oceanside store has really good reviews on Amazon and Ebay. I just didn't want to spend $135..... But in the end, I would rather spend a little more to have something that was designed for. I believe they no longer make the "green" series WD hard drives.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

skypros said:


> I was able to get the OEM:
> Western Digital 3 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD30EURX
> On Amazon for $135 The seller Oceanside store has really good reviews on Amazon and Ebay. I just didn't want to spend $135..... But in the end, I would rather spend a little more to have something that was designed for. I believe they no longer make the "green" series WD hard drives.


You could have got the WD30EFRX for $109 instead, also it has a better warranty (3yr vs. 2yr, I believe.)


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## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

Thanks all. I got my replacement TiVo Roamio (basic) today. I'll await a deal on a 3TB red drive and see how it goes in the meantime with only 500GB of space that I have now in my replacement unit. I had a 3TB green drive in my old Roamio that died after a little over two years with green flashing lights (I did a search and could not find out what the green flashing lights meant other than possibly a hardware/motherboard failure).

Oh, the new TiVo seems much faster. Why would that be? Because it's fresh and clean and only 500GB instead of 3TB? Do TiVo's slow down over time? Perhaps the Roamio (basic) was never really meant to handle 3TB? Anyone know if the slowdown was normal or if it was a sign that something was going on that shouldn't have been?


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## dvdvids (Feb 9, 2008)

Which one of these is the best option (not considering rates) -- looks like SATA II vs III

*WD30PURX* - WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache
*WD30EURX *- Western Digital 3 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache

Or is the WD Red a superior option?

Thanks


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Albert said:


> Oh, the new TiVo seems much faster. Why would that be? Because it's fresh and clean and only 500GB instead of 3TB? Do TiVo's slow down over time? Perhaps the Roamio (basic) was never really meant to handle 3TB? Anyone know if the slowdown was normal or if it was a sign that something was going on that shouldn't have been?


I have two basic Roamio boxes. One with WD10EURX and one with WD30EURX. I detect no difference in reaction time. The 1TB dropped my MBT 3C, the 3TB raised my MBT 3C.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

dvdvids said:


> Which one of these is the best option (not considering rates) -- looks like SATA II vs III
> 
> *WD30PURX* - WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache
> *WD30EURX *- Western Digital 3 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache
> ...


The WD Green (WD30EURX) used to be in favor, but is no longer being made, as I understand it; also, if I am recalling correctly, some potential issue developed later, per posts here?

The WD Red now seems to be the drive of choice, with a good warranty and at a sweet-spot pricewise for the 3TB (recently, around $110 at Amazon.com--had been a brief drop in late Nov. sales).


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Albert said:


> Thanks all. I got my replacement TiVo Roamio (basic) today. I'll await a deal on a 3TB red drive and see how it goes in the meantime with only 500GB of space that I have now in my replacement unit. I had a 3TB green drive in my old Roamio that died after a little over two years with green flashing lights (I did a search and could not find out what the green flashing lights meant other than possibly a hardware/motherboard failure).
> 
> Oh, the new TiVo seems much faster. Why would that be? Because it's fresh and clean and only 500GB instead of 3TB? Do TiVo's slow down over time? Perhaps the Roamio (basic) was never really meant to handle 3TB? Anyone know if the slowdown was normal or if it was a sign that something was going on that shouldn't have been?


I have a base Roamio with lifetime that I purchased 9/2013, I stayed with the original 500GB drive until 8/2015 at which point I replaced it with a 3TB WD green drive. There was a noticeable improvement in performance when I installed the new drive (the 500GB drive was full) so there maybe something to performance degrading over time or because a drive becomes full. The 3TB is nearly full now but I mostly view content through my Bolt so it is hard for me to tell if the Roamio has degraded again or not.


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## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

atmuscarella said:


> I have a base Roamio with lifetime that I purchased 9/2013, I stayed with the original 500GB drive until 8/2015 at which point I replaced it with a 3TB WD green drive. There was a noticeable improvement in performance when I installed the new drive (the 500GB drive was full) so there maybe something to performance degrading over time or because a drive becomes full. The 3TB is nearly full now but I mostly view content through my Bolt so it is hard for me to tell if the Roamio has degraded again or not.


I suspect you are right... it probably has more to do with the passage of time and the HD filling up.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

I start getting nervous when any of my Roamios cross 80%, and 85% is my "download or delete" threshold. No facts to back that up, just a gut feeling. After 30 mumble years in IT a drive that's almost full just creeps me out.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

ggieseke said:


> I start getting nervous when any of my Roamios cross 80%, and 85% is my "download or delete" threshold. No facts to back that up, just a gut feeling. After 30 mumble years in IT a drive that's almost full just creeps me out.


Here's my method. I delete recordings after watching. In my Deleted Programs folder, I watch the end. I am now at the first week of October. Its a 1TB drive. When the last program gets erased, I delete the whole month. Then I proceed. I used to delete everything permanently. That was a bad idea since it caused all recording to be on or about the same area of the disk. I guess I spend too much time with my TiVo boxes.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

ggieseke said:


> I start getting nervous when any of my Roamios cross 80%, and 85% is my "download or delete" threshold. No facts to back that up, just a gut feeling. After 30 mumble years in IT a drive that's almost full just creeps me out.


I don't know where the bug is in TiVo (or maybe it was how I did the expansion on the S3 OLED) but I didn't have a problem with free space until I went on vacation and it became 100% full. I had my Season Passes set to keep until I delete. I would watch and delete and keep track of deleted folder to see when I was running out of space. This worked fine until the drive filled up, and now it seems the space for some shows I delete never gets reused. They just sit in the deleted folder and even though I have 10 shows sitting there and nothing scheduled to record, when I try to record something new, it says out of space. Over time I keep accumulating more of these shows that have been deleted but TiVo won't use the space for new recordings. If I permanently delete the shows from the Deleted folder, TiVo still says it is out of space, so it seems it just lost track of these shows and doesn't consider them free space anymore.

I have no idea what causes this situation, but I estimate I probably lost 10-15% of my 2TB drive capacity due to TiVo refusing to reuse empty space. I was thinking maybe this had to do with how the 2TB expansion was done by adding new partitions, but that is just a guess. I think that is how MFSR does the 8TB support also. What I describe might be totally unrelated to how the drive was expanded and maybe if I had set Keep until space needed the whole time I wouldn't have seen any issues.


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## dvdvids (Feb 9, 2008)

Mikeguy said:


> The WD Green (WD30EURX) used to be in favor, but is no longer being made, as I understand it; also, if I am recalling correctly, some potential issue developed later, per posts here?
> 
> The WD Red now seems to be the drive of choice, with a good warranty and at a sweet-spot pricewise for the 3TB (recently, around $110 at Amazon.com--had been a brief drop in late Nov. sales).


Thanks! I see few of WD Red's with different descriptions!, 
is this the one? -- WD30EFRX (WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB)
this one says Intellipower -- WD30EFRX (WD Red 3TB IntelliPower SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 64MB)


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Amazon sellers can give much different descriptions for the same products. 
This one is the same item. Its not Intellipower that has issues on Tivo, but IntelliPark (Roamios are not affected.)


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

And it's the WD30EFRX that is the current "little darling."


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## cybergrimes (Jun 15, 2015)

I've had the WD30EURX in my Roamio since July 2015, plug and play install with zero issues in the past 18 months. It was $109 direct from Amazon at the time though.

I can't remember-- why not the WD30PURX at $99.98? It seems like a surveilance drive would be great in a DVR.


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## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

Thanks all. Just bought a 3TB Red drive for $84.99+tax from Best Buy:
WD 3TB Red Internal HDD; $84.99 + Tax @ BestBuy after VISA checkout discount 01-19-2017


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Albert said:


> Thanks all. Just bought a 3TB Red drive for $84.99+tax from Best Buy:
> WD 3TB Red Internal HDD; $84.99 + Tax @ BestBuy after VISA checkout discount 01-19-2017


Thanks for posting--a great deal! Includes free shipping or store pickup; good through 1-21, subject to availability.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

cybergrimes said:


> I've had the WD30EURX in my Roamio since July 2015, plug and play install with zero issues in the past 18 months. It was $109 direct from Amazon at the time though.
> 
> I can't remember-- why not the WD30PURX at $99.98? It seems like a surveilance drive would be great in a DVR.


They have changed the description and spec sheet since I first looked at the Purples, but they were clearly listed as SMR drives back then with a maximum rating of 1.75TB of writes per year. Even if they really aren't SMR anymore I will never trust them for TiVo use. The Reds have proven solid and the extra year of warranty is worth $10. My peace of mind is worth even more.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Albert said:


> Thanks all. Just bought a 3TB Red drive for $84.99+tax from Best Buy:
> WD 3TB Red Internal HDD; $84.99 + Tax @ BestBuy after VISA checkout discount 01-19-2017


VISA Checkout $25 off $100+ discount offer now has been extended through 1-25-17. Visa Checkout at Best Buy


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

Albert said:


> Thanks all. Just bought a 3TB Red drive for $84.99+tax from Best Buy:
> WD 3TB Red Internal HDD; $84.99 + Tax @ BestBuy after VISA checkout discount 01-19-2017


Shoot... I have about $400 in Best Buy gift cards... I can't get the VISA discount if I purchase with gift cards...


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

ggieseke said:


> They have changed the description and spec sheet since I first looked at the Purples, but they were clearly listed as SMR drives back then with a maximum rating of 1.75TB of writes per year. Even if they really aren't SMR anymore I will never trust them for TiVo use. The Reds have proven solid and the extra year of warranty is worth $10. My peace of mind is worth even more.


The current WD Purple drives have a 3 year warranty.

While WD decision to change there color codes is confusing, it is pretty clear that current Purple drives are not the same as the former Purple drives at all and basing current Purple drives expected performance in a TiVo on the old Purple drives would be fairly foolish.

WD description of the current Purple drives is:

"Built for 24/7, always-on, high-definition security systems. With a supported workload rate of up to 180 TB/yr and support for up to 64 HD cameras, WD Purple drives are optimized for surveillance systems."​
All that said the Red drives still appear to be superior and I am guessing will have a longer average life span. But given that both drives clearly are built for 24/7 usage and both are designed to last longer than 3 years with 24/7 usage how much more one should be willing to pay for a Red drive is unclear and I certainly wouldn't pay more for a Purple drive.


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## timbuckone (Oct 27, 2012)

just ordered a red drive through best buy using visa checkout. It was either upgrade my current roamio or purchase a new bolt.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

timbuckone said:


> just ordered a red drive through best buy using visa checkout. It was either upgrade my current roamio or purchase a new bolt.


Great to hear--nice deal there (better than Amazon Cyber Monday)!  Which size did you go for? Debating if I should . . . .


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## mehndi1 (Nov 4, 2011)

I saw this drive for the Roamio: Western Digital AV-GP WD30EURS 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive. It is a WD30EURS instead of a WD20EURX. Does the "S" make a difference in the Roamio? Any suggestions or recommendations for buying this S drive instead of the X drive is appreciated.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

mehndi1 said:


> I saw this drive for the Roamio: Western Digital AV-GP WD30EURS 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive. It is a WD30EURS instead of a WD20EURX. Does the "S" make a difference in the Roamio? Any suggestions or recommendations for buying this S drive instead of the X drive is appreciated.


I think the EURX is no longer made but can be bought. As for the difference:
http://products.wdc.com/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701250.pdf
There's the spec sheet. I use the EURX in my Roamio. I would not hesitate to use the EURS.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

mehndi1 said:


> I saw this drive for the Roamio: Western Digital AV-GP WD30EURS 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive. It is a WD30EURS instead of a WD20EURX. Does the "S" make a difference in the Roamio? Any suggestions or recommendations for buying this S drive instead of the X drive is appreciated.


These green drives are no longer made and are getting very highly priced on Amazon if they are available.

The recommended drives to use are WD Red (WD10EFRX, WD20EFRX, WD30EFRX,.....) They are low powered drives designed for NAS purposes, but work well in Tivos. (I have a 4TB Red in my own Roamio. Very quiet. The Green drive in my Series 3 is a bit noisy.)


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

EURS drives were replaced by the EURX line (also discontinued) several years ago. It's almost certainly used, or at best the warranty has expired.


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