# WD Red or Purple for upgrade?



## bcw1969

I'm looking to upgrade my Roamio to 3TB and am having trouble finding the WD Green AV-GP drive at a reasonable price. The WD Red and the WD Purple both seem to be options and are both in the $110 range, but other threads give conflicting advice about which is preferable. Newegg actually shows the Purple as the replacement for the Green AV-GP. Other folks here seem to like the Red. I really need to pull the trigger on one and would appreciate some definitive guidance. Thanks!


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## squint

If the price is the same, I'd go with red over purple.


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## bcw1969

squint said:


> If the price is the same, I'd go with red over purple.


OK, thanks. Ordered the Red (on sale at Newegg for less than the Purple) and will try the upgrade for my Plus asap. I'm on TWC, so I believe I may have to call in to have the cablecard repaired, but other than that (from what I've read) it should be a snap.


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## eric102

I didn't need to re-pair the cable card when I upgraded the HDD on my basic, but I'm on Wave Broadband, not TWC.

My WD red has been purring along perfectly for 2 months now, zero issues with the install, just popped it in out of the box with no preinstall testing.


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## jhav

eric102 said:


> My WD red has been purring along perfectly for 2 months now, zero issues with the install, just popped it in out of the box with no preinstall testing.


Can you share which model # red drive you purchased --- there are a ton of options online. I'm looking to upgrade my Plus to 3TB.


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## bradleys

I am sure I will get some flack for this, but I am going to throw out a cheaper solution for you.

Consider a Western Digital Green Drive - WD30EZRX and use WIDDLE to turn off Park (I actually set mine to 300 seconds). At that point it is arguably the same drive.

WD30EZRX green sells for $107 on Amazon
WD30EFRX red sells for $121 on Amazon

The price disparity is even greater at the 4TB level.


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## rainwater

bcw1969 said:


> I'm on TWC, so I believe I may have to call in to have the cablecard repaired, but other than that (from what I've read) it should be a snap.


You shouldn't have to re-pair the cablecard on a Roamio since that info is no longer stored on the drive.


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## HarperVision

bradleys said:


> I am sure I will get some flack for this, but I am going to throw out a cheaper solution for you. * Consider a Western Digital Green Drive - WD30EZRX and use WIDDLE to turn off Park (I actually set mine to 300 seconds). At that point it is arguably the same drive.* WD30EZRX green sells for $107 on Amazon WD30EFRX red sells for $121 on Amazon The price disparity is even greater at the 4TB level.


What happens if you don't turn off park? I think that's the drive I used to upgrade and I never did that.


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## bradleys

I only know what I have read - Green drives have intellipark - a special landing zone built in.

The drive will automatically park itself after being idle for 8 seconds(the default). So if you do a disk read or write followed by at least 8 seconds of inactivity the heads will park. The landing zone is only rated for 250,000 to 350,000 cycles.

This is why Green Drives are not recommended for NAS or Storage Raids. 

Does the issue follow a TiVo? I am not sure, but the smart guys on this forum have always recommended turning intellipark off when upgrading.


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## JWhites

Is there really any benefit with going to Red or Purple I mean TiVo said that the SATA bus is still only SATA 1.5 Gb/s which makes me feel like that levels the field on drives running at SATA 6 Gb/s on the product specs. I'd always recommend the AV class drives because of the way they're specifically designed and built for use in AV projects. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=170 http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/video-3-5-hdd/ Seagate's AV drives run at 5900RPM and Western's AV drives run dynamically. If I couldn't get the AV drive and I want to stick with WD I'd go with Purple because at least it's designed for surveillance which is essentially AV recording but on a larger scale. Also there isn't anything wrong with going with Seagate, some of the TiVo's I've come across use them just fine.


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## JWhites

I don't think has the Intellipark function is enable (or gets a chance to activate) due to the nature of being in a DVR that's always buffering tuners. I think the reason why GD and AV gets floated around together is based on power consumption and efficiency. They took a GD and rebuilt it to be more durable for AV use. Found this cool article. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=508617


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## HarperVision

I sense a very LONG "nooneuknow" post coming!


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## JWhites

Many believe that at the end of the day as long as the drive works, that's all that's important. That's all well and good, I just look 5, 10, 15 years* down the line at if that drive is still running without data loss.

*Based on the fact people still own and use Series 1, 2, and 3 Series TiVo's even today.


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## aaronwt

Unfortunately the drives made today don't seem to be as reliable as they used to be years ago.


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## eric102

jhav said:


> Can you share which model # red drive you purchased --- there are a ton of options online. I'm looking to upgrade my Plus to 3TB.


WD30EFRX, it was $116 at Amazon at that time, $122 today.


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## JWhites

Here's a good question. With so many people using so many different types of drives, has anyone noticed a performance difference between 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB regarding hard drive cache?


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## JWhites

I found this which is really awesome. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507695&page=68


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## nooneuknow

HarperVision said:


> I sense a very LONG "nooneuknow" post coming!


It won't be very long, as I've repeated myself enough in perfectly good pre-existing threads. I feel dumber for having read this thread. This thread should implode from the vacuum of bad info over the good. There are many things improperly explained, with incorrect terminology, from differing technologies... Variable spindle speeds? Really? AYFKM? No such thing exists. WD's "Intellipower" is 5400 RPM constant. (one example of bad info)

My advice, look for some posts by me in this thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507695

Somewhere before the last few pages will have the most current data. I don't suggest reading the thread from the start, as even I have changed my stance on plain "green" drives, and available info on Green vs AV-GP vs Red vs Purple has changed, and increased.

You can verify what I say there, if you aren't one of the "drive data sheets are just a big marketing conspiracy" types who believes "all drives are the same, just with different labels and different pricing".

To summarize what I hope will be my first and last post here, I don't suggest plain "green" drives, I do recommend AV-GP for the "average" TiVo upgrade, and feel the WD Red NAS (not the Pro version) is a good choice for those not wanting a drive so slow and use-limited. I'd use it in a TiVo (and do, with 3 base Roamios x3TB each). I use them for almost everything. The WD Purple is not the drive you are looking for, to put in a TiVo. It's for surveillance RAID arrays, and has 1/3 the TB/yr rating as a Red NAS. It might still be better in a TiVo, than a plain "green" drive, but don't expect any support from WD if you have issues with a Purple in a TiVo.


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## MikeekiM

What about Blue versus Red?

According to Tom's HW forum, blue is a standard drive, red is a performance drive...

Both spin at 5400RPM... Both have 64mb cache...

Red is $110, Blue is $88.

Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Electronics

Amazon.com: WD Blue 3TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EZRZ: Electronics


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## Diana Collins

There is more involved in drive "performance" than spindle speed and cache size. When choosing a drive for use in a DVR you should consider that a Blue drive, for example, is designed to be used in a desktop or laptop. That means that most of the time it is idle and may even be turned off a significant part of the time. A DVR not only stays on 24x7, it is actively writing to the drive almost all the time (it will spin down if you use power saving features). Red drives are designed for NAS use and Purple drives for video surveillance use, both activities where, like a DVR, they spin 24x7 and may be called to read and/or write constantly. Red drives are also more carefully balanced than other lines, since a NAS will typically have lots of drives, very close together, all working at the same time and vibration can be severe if the drives aren't well balanced. While I doubt that extra smooth rotation will effect how noisy the drive is in a DVR, over a period of 5 or 10 years it can have an effect on bearing wear.

IMHO, if you are okay with potentially replacing drives every 2 or 3 years (and losing your recordings), use whatever model you want. But if you don't want to open the DVR back up again unless it is absolutely required, I'd suggest you think about a Red or Purple drive.

BTW, Woot had NEW 3TB AV-GP drives for $75 early last month (I picked up 2 as spares for our Roamio Pros), so they are still out there.


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## ClearToLand

Diana Collins said:


> There is more involved in drive "performance" than spindle speed and cache size. When choosing a drive for use in a DVR you should consider that a Blue drive, for example, is designed to be used in a desktop or laptop. That means that most of the time it is idle and may even be turned off a significant part of the time. A DVR not only stays on 24x7, it is actively writing to the drive almost all the time (it will spin down if you use power saving features). Red drives are designed for NAS use and Purple drives for video surveillance use, both activities where, like a DVR, they spin 24x7 and may be called to read and/or write constantly. Red drives are also more carefully balanced than other lines, since a NAS will typically have lots of drives, very close together, all working at the same time and vibration can be severe if the drives aren't well balanced. While I doubt that extra smooth rotation will effect how noisy the drive is in a DVR, over a period of 5 or 10 years it can have an effect on bearing wear.
> 
> IMHO, if you are okay with potentially replacing drives every 2 or 3 years (and losing your recordings), use whatever model you want. But if you don't want to open the DVR back up again unless it is absolutely required, I'd suggest you think about a Red or Purple drive.
> 
> BTW, Woot had NEW 3TB AV-GP drives for $75 early last month (I picked up 2 as spares for our Roamio Pros), so they are still out there.


Very nice overview Diana.

I'd like to add some personal experience, along with some suggested further reading for those interested:

Back ~5 years ago, I bought a new HP G7 1310-US laptop to use for video (i.e. initially a Hauppauge PVR w/ encoding which progressed to kmttg, pyTiVo, ffmpeg, handbrake). I bought a Hauppauge PVR-1212 to capture / encode the output of my STB, my HP would record it, and a few media streamers around the house would be able to play the .TS files. The Hitachi HDD inside began CLICKing @ ~18 months and died about 6 months later. I replaced it with a WD Blue Mobile which got progressively slower and slower. When I eventually got around to running CHKDSK, it would hang for over a day. I couldn't tolerate this so I went out and got the latest versions of UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and Hiren's Boot CD for their diagnostics. None of the WD DLG versions would run, but finally ViVard 0.4 on the UBCD did run and found over 1,000 CONSECUTIVE BAD SECTORS. This wiped out the 'spare sector bank' built into HDDs and pretty much rendered the HDD, as far as WD was concerned, dead. I kept using it until it got a bad sector where the boot loader was stored (my Tag line over on the AVS Forum includes "_It's only TV" _) and now I can no longer boot the laptop. *BUT*, I can load up either of the above 2 mentioned 'Diagnostic' CDs, get into either Linux or WinXP and I transferred all my shows over my gigabit LAN to an external USB3x HDD hanging off my Vista 32-bit 3GB RAM desktop w/ Newegg add-on USB3x PCIe card.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't expect to run a 'Bottom-of-the-line' HDD 24x7
.
As to Purple vs Red: *GOOGLE:* "WD Rainbow"
.
I like the pugetsystems write up - to paraphrase: "_Purple is optimized for writing and Red is optimized for reading _", both support TLER and are balanced for use in RAID enclosures.
.
*Western Digital AV-GP WD30EURS 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - OEM Packaging* $74.99 @ Woot
.
Sadly, I feel that the WD AV-GP ship has sailed. @MikeekiM replied to a thread where @nooneuknow 's last post was in 2014. WD has done a lot of SHUFFLING since then. The AV-GP line is gone; the Caviar Green line merged into the Green line and the Green line '_kinda _' became the Blue line. So, a non-7200rpm Blue of today (if 7200rpm Blues are still being manufactured - I haven't checked) is Green of yesterday - NOT a candidate for 24x7. Or RAID for that matter. In my daily GOOGLE research, I've come across many instances where WD Green HDDs failed in a RAID scenario. Duh! Well of course - no TLER or balancing - what did you expect? Oh, you didn't expect - well, then you didn't do your homework beforehand.

I read through the recent Comments section on Woot for the WD30EURS that Diana purchased - what a laugh. One purchaser complained that the drive he received was manufactured in November 2012 and the warranty expired in 2016:


> I just received this drive.
> 
> 1) DATE: 26 NOV 2012
> 2) There's dust on the back side
> 3) WD warranty: expired 01/27/2016
> 
> That person who mentioned earlier in the thread that this is not a new drive? Spot on. This is going right back.


Well, *IF* you purchased this NOS HDD from a vendor that WD 'acknowledges as legit' (i.e. not some unknown on eBay; BTW, the eBay LINK in the Comments advertises a $70 "USED, Pulled from working server" HDD for an unbalanced AV-GP!), sending them a receipt with the purchase date '_should _' get the warranty extended. *BUT*, the original warranty on the AV-GP was 3 years and Woot is stating 1 year. Other folks selling the AV-GP online are also stating 1 year, with most 'self-warranting' (i.e. send it back to the vendor, NOT WD). *Buyer beware*.

@Diana Collins , please run WD DLG Diagnostics on your two NOS WD30EURS HDDs as soon as possible - don't just store the unopened packages until you need them.

BOTTOM LINE: The WD30EURS has passed its prime. It came out ~2011 and was superseded in 2013 by the WD30EURX. These are four (750GB) platter SATA II 3Gbps HDDs. The current recommendation for TiVos, WD?0EFRX, 1TB per platter, SATA III 6Gbps HDDs with WD-supported 3 year warranties is the way to go TODAY. This could change _'tomorrow _', just like @nooneuknow's and pugetsystem's writings from 2014 and 2015 respectively.



MikeekiM said:


> What about Blue versus Red?
> 
> According to Tom's HW forum, blue is a standard drive, red is a performance drive...
> 
> Both spin at 5400RPM... Both have 64mb cache...
> 
> Red is $110, Blue is $88.
> 
> Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Electronics
> 
> Amazon.com: WD Blue 3TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EZRZ: Electronics


I just bought four more WD40EFRX Red HDDs from BestBuy yesterday for $94.99ea after $25GC. Some folks don't like the GC idea but this is my 'second round' with BestBuy. In May, I bought four WD Red HDDs (a combination of 3TB and 4TB) which also came with four $25 GCs which I used yesterday. My original plan was to buy ONE more HDD, but $94.99 for a WD Red 4TB was the LOWEST PRICE I've seen since I started looking back around Thanksgiving / Black Friday 2016. This brings my total up to five WD30EFRX and nine WD40EFRX. I have two Mediasonic 4-bay ProBoxes from ~2012 that I never populated so I'm now looking at QNAP NAS enclosures. Newegg had the *QNAP TS-431P 4-bay Personal Cloud NAS with DLNA, Mobile Apps and AirPlay support. ARM Cortex A15 1.7 GHz Dual Core, Chromecast Support* on sale yesterday for $219 and I was tempted, but my research said the low-powered CPU and soldered-in RAM limited its ability as a PLEX Server and PLEX is on my 'Round Tuit' list.

I try to post most WD?0EFRX sales but yesterday was one of my 'up over 24 hours' days and after grabbing the deal, I had to crash. If you can wait, maybe the next 'Hot Deal' will be even better. IIRC, I paid $99.99 for my first WD30EFRX and $120.99 for my first WD40EFRX. My 'Best Deals' were $83.99 for the WD30EFRX and $94.99 for the WD40EFRX but to get these prices you need to be vigilant EVERY DAY. I purchased yesterday's WD40EFRXs @ 0430 EDT. They were OOS by the afternoon.

Good Luck with your upgrade!


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## MikeekiM

Nice posts Diana and ClearToLand... Very informative...

You say that you try to post most of the WD?0EFRX sales...where do you post them? Is there an existing HDD deals thread that you post in?


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## ClearToLand

MikeekiM said:


> Nice posts Diana and ClearToLand... Very informative...
> 
> *You say that you try to post most of the WD?0EFRX sales...where do you post them?* Is there an existing HDD deals thread that you post in?


With 12,638 posts as a TCF member since Jun 25, 2002, you certainly should learn how to use the TCF SEARCH function. 

P.S. Do you have any idea how long it took me to compose and proofread that post? I'm willing to help anyone willing to exert at least SOME effort...


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## Diana Collins

ClearToLand said:


> @Diana Collins , please run WD DLG Diagnostics on your two NOS WD30EURS HDDs as soon as possible - don't just store the unopened packages until you need them.


Done within days of receipt...I run every new drive through diags before putting it in service or shelving it for standby.


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## MikeekiM

Thanks for your time and efforts ClearToLand... I did not intend on causing frustrations on your end... Great post with great information, and much appreciated.

I will go search for your posts...


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## Minok

Ok, its all well and good to recommend the WD Reds but as I only need a 1 TB, and want to purchase from Amazon, they only have a 1TB Purple $50, or at the Red level the 2TB $85.
So rather than spending 70% more than I need to (I really don't need that extra TB of space), and since the Purple is optimized for writing and the Red for reading, but both do both.....
Is there an argument against a WD Purple WD10PURX at $50 delivered?


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## ClearToLand

Minok said:


> Ok, *its all well and good to recommend the WD Reds but as I only need a 1 TB, and want to purchase from Amazon, they only have a 1TB Purple $50, or at the Red level the 2TB $85*.
> So rather than spending 70% more than I need to (I really don't need that extra TB of space), and since the *Purple is optimized for writing and the Red for reading*, but both do both.....
> *Is there an argument against a WD Purple WD10PURX at $50 delivered?*


Replying to the RED QUOTEs above:
Economics: In my book, it's ~$30/TB or less - both of your HDDs fail to meet my criteria.
.
Marketing hype or real world 'firmware tuning' - you decide.
.
Sure:
$50/TB for your WD Purple vs:
- less than $28.00/TB for a WD Red 3TB @ $83.99 'On Sale' @ Best Buy (after $25 GC)
- less than $23.75/TB for a WD Red 4TB @ $94.99 'On Sale' @ Best Buy (after $25 GC)
You can check the warranties yourself
Optimized for WRITING vs optimizing for READING

It's your money - spend it as you wish...


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## gary712

i'm pretty sure my hd is going bad.it is a WD30EURX what is a replacement for it that will last more than 3 years? also can I now just drop a 4tb hd in my romio plus?


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## krkaufman

gary712 said:


> also can I now just drop a 4tb hd in my romio plus?


No, anything bigger than 3TB still requires a tiny amount of drive prep. See: MFS Reformatter.


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## gary712

tiger direct has a blue WD30EZRZ on sale for $89.99 free shipping. Is this good ?Is it an upgrade over what I have now?


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## UCLABB

gary712 said:


> tiger direct has a blue WD30EZRZ on sale for $89.99 free shipping. Is this good ?Is it an upgrade over what I have now?


Did you read clear to land's post? He advises against the Blue. You seem to care about reliability, therefore get a wd red.


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## ClearToLand

gary712 said:


> tiger direct has a *blue WD30EZRZ on sale for $89.99* free shipping. Is this good ?Is it an upgrade over what I have now?


WD Blues aren't designed for the 24x7 duty cycle of a TiVo; WD Reds are. The Blue will fail prematurely - I used a new HP G7-1310US laptop with a HGST 750GB Mobile HDD as a HTPC and the HDD failed within 2 years. I replaced the HDD with a WD Blue Mobile 750GB and it also failed within 2 years. I've now stopped using laptops as HTPCs and have moved back onto desktops (like I used for my decade with ReplayTV).

For my latest experiments (involving multiple PCs, both desktop and laptop), I have (one or more):
*WD Black Mobile 1TB w/ 5 year warranty* for OS & WORK on laptop
- turn on and off as needed (or enable sleep / hibernation to spindown HDD)
*WD Black 1TB w/ 5 year warranty* for WORK on desktop (i.e. ffmpeg or handbrake jobs)
- turn on and off as needed (or enable sleep / hibernation to spindown HDD)
- My desktop OSes will go on SSDs
*WD Blue 1TB w/ 2 year warranty* for temporary DATA / VIDEO Storage (i.e. kmttg)
- turn on and off as needed
*WD Red 3TB and 4TB w/ 3 year warranty* for permanent DATA / VIDEO Storage in NAS
- turn on once a week, run backup, turn back off
*WD Red 3TB or 4TB w/ 3 year warranty* for temporary VIDEO Storage in TiVos
- 24x7
*WD Cloud 4TB w/ 2 year warranty* for temporary DATA / VIDEO Storage
- planning on running this 24x7; we'll see how much activity it gets with PC DATA SYNCs and multiple FTP WiFi cameras and if HDD spindown is an option
Various routers w/ USB 2x|3x ports to 'hang' various HDDs in external enclosures
- 24x7 'Simulated' NAS
Various WD and Toshiba 2.5"|3.5" 500GB|1TB|2TB|3TB External HDDs for temporary DATA / VIDEO Storage
*GOOGLE: "WD Rainbow"*


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## gary712

UCLABB said:


> Did you read clear to land's post? He advises against the Blue. You seem to care about reliability, therefore get a wd red.


So I have decided on the red based on what everyone is saying. If it lasts 2 years, I'll be very happy and with 5 minis running off a single device - the read is going to be what matters more than the write imo.

Now with that said, should I go 5400 or 7200?


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## HerronScott

gary712 said:


> Now with that said, should I go 5400 or 7200?


5400

Scott


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## Diana Collins

5400...there is no advantage to 7200rpm and it runs hotter.


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## gary712

Just for kicks I went to WD website and put in the serial # and it is under warranty until 11/17
I filled out a RMA gave a credit card and I am getting a replacement for no charge. Now before this HD in the romio goes completely bad how do I transfer my season passes and shows I want to keep to my PC and then onto my new HD when it arrives.tia


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## ClearToLand

gary712 said:


> So *I have decided on the red* based on what everyone is saying. If it lasts 2 years, I'll be very happy and with 5 minis running off a single device - the read is going to be what matters more than the write imo.
> 
> Now with that said, *should I go 5400 or 7200?*


For this WD Red 7200rpm HDD you're considering, please post: 
A LINK
The current price
The reasons why you're considering it among your choices for your TiVo


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## HerronScott

gary712 said:


> Just for kicks I went to WD website and put in the serial # and it is under warranty until 11/17
> I filled out a RMA gave a credit card and I am getting a replacement for no charge. Now before this HD in the romio goes completely bad how do I transfer my season passes and shows I want to keep to my PC and then onto my new HD when it arrives.tia


Use kmttg to save your 1P/SP. You can also use kmttg to transfer shows to your PC but I'd probably recommend giving pyTivo Desktop a try (Dan203's update) since it can transfer them to your PC and then you can transfer them back to your TiVo with the new HD (kmttg only lets you download them).

If the drive lasts long enough, you can use MFS Tools 3.2 to copy the old drive to the new drive.

Scott


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## Minok

ClearToLand said:


> Replying to the RED QUOTEs above:
> 
> Economics: In my book, it's ~$30/TB or less - both of your HDDs fail to meet my criteria.
> .
> Marketing hype or real world 'firmware tuning' - you decide.
> .
> Sure:
> $50/TB for your WD Purple vs:
> - less than $28.00/TB for a WD Red 3TB @ $83.99 'On Sale' @ Best Buy (after $25 GC)
> - less than $23.75/TB for a WD Red 4TB @ $94.99 'On Sale' @ Best Buy (after $25 GC)
> You can check the warranties yourself
> Optimized for WRITING vs optimizing for READING
> 
> It's your money - spend it as you wish...


Ok, thanks for providing nothing meaningful to the question I posted. Is there a reason not to get the purple?
If its 'you decide'- then whats the point of the forum if folks only say they cannot say?

The price per TB isn't important, the price of the drive is. A gift card to a store I don't use, when I cannot use the gift card for the purchase, isn't a discount.


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## atmuscarella

Minok said:


> Ok, thanks for providing nothing meaningful to the question I posted. Is there a reason not to get the purple?
> If its 'you decide'- then whats the point of the forum if folks only say they cannot say?
> 
> The price per TB isn't important, the price of the drive is. A gift card to a store I don't use, when I cannot use the gift card for the purchase, isn't a discount.


Honestly enough time hasn't gone by (allot of these drive models are fairly new and haven't been in used in TiVos that long) and we don't have enough data to make definitive statements.

The simplest answer is any 5400 RPM 3.5 inch will work in a Roamio. Best advise is don't use a 7200 RPM drive. Current Western Digital Red & Purple should both be good, they both have 3 year warranties. The current Western Digital Blue has a 2 year warranty and based on it's specs and what it is designed for will likely last a shorter period of time (on average) in a DVR than a Red or Purple drive.

After that you have to balance what size you think you need versus how much you want to spend.

Good Luck,


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## ClearToLand

HerronScott said:


> Use kmttg to save your 1P/SP. *You can also use kmttg to transfer shows to your PC but I'd probably recommend giving pyTivo Desktop a try (Dan203's update) since it can transfer them to your PC and then you can transfer them back to your TiVo with the new HD (kmttg only lets you download them).
> 
> If the drive lasts long enough*, you can use MFS Tools 3.2 to copy the old drive to the new drive.
> 
> Scott


IMO, if the contents of the failing HDD are important to you, the *FIRST* step should always be *STOP USING THE HDD!* Followed immediately by CLONE THE HDD w/ ddrescue and then attempt all recovery actions using the clone:

*ddrescue discussion from May 2017*​


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## ClearToLand

Minok said:


> Ok, *thanks for providing nothing meaningful to the question* I posted. Is there a reason not to get the purple?
> If its 'you decide'- then whats the point of the forum if folks only say they cannot say?
> 
> *The price per TB isn't important, the price of the drive is. A gift card to a store I don't use, when I cannot use the gift card for the purchase, isn't a discount*.


I don't engage in "Pissing Contests" with rude people.  If someone asks for an opinion, I'll willingly share my knowledge and experience, which I believe is *VERY* meaningful / useful:

If you want to know SPECIFICALLY if a WD Purple 1TB (or WD Red 2TB) will work satisfactorily in a TiVo, I can't answer that question because no one, that I recall reading of here on TCF, has posted doing that (recently, at least). The current "Recommendation / '_Sweet Spot _' " appears to be the WD Red 3TB WD30EFRX.
.
If you *MUST* purchase the HDD from Amazon, then, IME, you'll never get the 'Best Price', AFAICT.
- (*BUT*, "*price per TB isn't important*" to you...).
.
If GCs are a problem for you, a few days ago I bought yet another WD30EFRX from Best Buy, this time @ $74.99 (~$25/TB).
- *NO GC!* Best Buy was selling it for $89.99 on both their web site (*VERY* close to the $84.99 "*Best Price Ever*" since last Thanksgiving when I began monitoring) and on eBay when eBay posted a "*$15 OFF $75" Flash Coupon* valid for 6 hours (1400-2000 PDT). This was posted on SD @ ~1700 EDT and I discovered it @ ~2245 EDT; my purchase was confirmed @ ~2259 EDT and the HDD arrived yesterday (Retail version).
I wish you the 'Best of Luck' in your upgrade!


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## tvmaster2

Tried Purples in my SageTV server - returned them four days later and bought HGST drives.


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## ClearToLand

UCLABB said:


> Did you read clear to land's post? He advises against the Blue. You seem to care about reliability, therefore get a wd red.


I don't believe that Millennials are capable of accepting any NEW ideas contrary to what they've already established as FACT '_in their minds _'... 

I see this over-and-over again over at SD...


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## ClearToLand

tvmaster2 said:


> Tried Purples in my SageTV server - *returned them four days later and bought HGST drives*.



Why did you decide to return the WD Purples?
.
Why did you decide to buy HGST HDDs instead of WD Red HDDs?


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## tvmaster2

ClearToLand said:


> Why did you decide to return the WD Purples?
> .
> Why did you decide to buy HGST HDDs instead of WD Red HDDs?


The Purples kept doing some strange, thermal check or something (sorry, can't remember the term) and would cause skips in recordings. I have a Red in my Synology NAS, and knock-on-wood, it's been great for two years now. I have some video files on that NAS, and Plex plays them back fine.
However, Since I needed three drives in my SageTV server, the HGST's were less expensive, so it was economics. I did want at least a three-year warranty, and the HGST drives had that when I bought them. So far so good coming up on over two years...


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## brentsg

I've had a WD 6TB purple in my Roamio OTA for 2 years. I've never seen a skip in a recording, nor have I experienced anything but perfect performance. We beat on it pretty hard too. It hovers around 80% full and we use it a few hours per day.

Not saying it didn't happen, but just wanted to share that for the class.

I don't have anything against WD reds, but I haven't personally haven't used them in a TiVo. I do have 6 of the 8TB units in my NAS doing well. I like HGST as well but usually more pricey.


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