# Hard Drives



## cwmatthew (Jun 14, 2002)

I have found the following hard drives to replace a faulty hard drive on my Series 2 DirecTv TiVo:

1. Seagate Technologies Internal Hard Drive (ST3200822A-RK) 200GB, 7200RPM, $69.99 after $80 rebates.

2. Western Digital Internal Hard Drive (WD2500JBRTL) 250GB, 7200RPM, $69.99 after $20 savings & $70 rebates.

Would either of these drives be a good drive to replace the faulty one or do you know of a better one.

Thank you for any advice you can give this old lady who is not that knowledgeable on all this. I have a friend that will replace it for me.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

As long as they are IDE drives, both would work just fine. Serial ATA drives are not compatible.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

When looking for a harddrive for a TiVo, I would recommend finding one with some sort of acoustical management capabilities. Neither of those appear to have any.


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## dshinnick (Jun 6, 2003)

Seagate is, to my knowledge, the only company with a 5-year warranty. That speaks volumes to me. They have a good reputation around here, so that would be my vote. I have several and they've done fine by me.


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## Pauli (Mar 1, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> When looking for a harddrive for a TiVo, I would recommend finding one with some sort of acoustical management capabilities. Neither of those appear to have any.


The Western Digital does indeed support AAM. Seagate does not. WD is a good choice and you need to enable AAM through a third-party utility like WinAAM or Hitachi tool.


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## scalo (Dec 28, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> When looking for a harddrive for a TiVo, I would recommend finding one with some sort of acoustical management capabilities. Neither of those appear to have any.


I have the Seagate drive you listed and it is LOUD! so LOUD that I moved it out of my bedroom.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Drive brands really don't matter much nowadays. I've used Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, each seems to be basically the same. If it were me, I'd go with the WD because you'd get an additional 50gb of storage capacity. 

If one of my Tivo's drives go dead, that's about the ideal capacity for the best price. 300gb drives are still over $100 for the most part.


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## Yog-Sothoth (Jun 14, 2005)

> 1. Seagate Technologies Internal Hard Drive (ST3200822A-RK) 200GB, 7200RPM, $69.99 after $80 rebates.


I would go with that one. I wouldn't say that I'm a "die-hard" Seagate (who now owns Maxtor, by the way) fan, but the first Seagate drive I bought (for a home theater PC) was so quiet, I continued only buying Seagate drives, and they are all as quiet as my first one.


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

Samsung hard drives also support an acoustical management utility that you can enable 'quiet mode' on the drives.


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## HDTVsportsfan (Nov 29, 2005)

dshinnick said:


> Seagate is, to my knowledge, the only company with a 5-year warranty. That speaks volumes to me. They have a good reputation around here, so that would be my vote. I have several and they've done fine by me.


I think the 5 year warranty is for the SCSI drives and not the IDE. Over the last couple of years Seagate, Maxtor, and WD have even scaled back the warranty for the IDE drives from three years to one. At least for OEM drives.


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## roamerr (Feb 11, 2003)

I used to love Seagate but the noise on the new drives is horrible. The head seeks are way too loud and there is no way to quiet the seeks. The WD can have the accoustic program ran to make it quiet.

I now only use Samsung drives from Newegg. Acoustic Managemnet is already enabled and they are very quiet. As far as warranty -- I do not care. The time it takes to reformat and replace is the biggest issue. I have 4 Tivo's and have averaged 2 yrs on drives with the exception of a Maxtor that lasted 2 days and a WD that lasted 3 months (both are fine in a PC but bad sectors are definitely an issue in a Tivo).


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## dbish (Aug 30, 2004)

Seagate does indeed offer a 5 year warranty on IDE and SATA drives. THis applies to both retail and oem (at least the ones I have purchased). The Seagate on the Outpost special is fairly loud. It does not bother me at all because of the room it is in. Not sure if I could live with it in a small bedroom. I have purchased around 12 Seagates in the past couple years and they are all still working fine.


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## HDTVsportsfan (Nov 29, 2005)

dbish said:


> Seagate does indeed offer a 5 year warranty on IDE and SATA drives. THis applies to both retail and oem (at least the ones I have purchased).


Hhhhmmm... interesting. I'm a partner (11 years) in an IT support company, the drives we purchase from distributors is OEM and a couple of years back WD, Maxtor, and Seagate scaled back the warranties. I of course could have been mistaken earlier. Now my curiosity is going. I even remember reading in IT trade rags about folks not being happy with the decision to scale back the warranty from 3 to 1 year. I'll have to check into that again.


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## BlindLemonLarry (Jun 19, 2004)

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Hhhhmmm... interesting. I'm a partner (11 years) in an IT support company, the drives we purchase from distributors is OEM and a couple of years back WD, Maxtor, and Seagate scaled back the warranties. I of course could have been mistaken earlier. Now my curiosity is going. I even remember reading in IT trade rags about folks not being happy with the decision to scale back the warranty from 3 to 1 year. I'll have to check into that again.


Last Friday, I purchased a 160GB Seagate for my new DVR4ME DSR-7000. ($40 after rebates.) The box says "Five Year Warranty" on both sides.

I agree with Dkerr24 that there is little difference between the various drive manufacturers. Where possible, I go with Seagate, just for the warranty.


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## HDTVsportsfan (Nov 29, 2005)

BlindLemonLarry said:


> Last Friday, I purchased a 160GB Seagate for my new DVR4ME DSR-7000. ($40 after rebates.) The box says "Five Year Warranty" on both sides.


If I need a HDD I just take one off of our shelve in our shop. I don't pay much attention to the retail stuff at the brick and mortars.

Here's a link to Westerndigital.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp

I guess we're all right to some degree.


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## cwmatthew (Jun 14, 2002)

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I love this board.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

outpost.com has a Seagate 300GB drive(7200.8 version) on sale for $129.99 with a $50 rebate making the final cost for the drive only $79.99 which for $10 more and 100GB more than the 200GB for $69.99 :up:


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

I have a 300gig Maxtor in one of my units and the thing seems to knock louder than my car after I turn the ignition off. I do have other smaller Maxtor's which are fine (40gig units). I guess it could be just a somewhat defective drive, but it still works.


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## wje (Jan 8, 2005)

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Hhhhmmm... interesting. I'm a partner (11 years) in an IT support company, the drives we purchase from distributors is OEM and a couple of years back WD, Maxtor, and Seagate scaled back the warranties. I of course could have been mistaken earlier. Now my curiosity is going. I even remember reading in IT trade rags about folks not being happy with the decision to scale back the warranty from 3 to 1 year. I'll have to check into that again.


I'm pretty sure there was a while where you could get the 'standard' drive with a 1 year warrany, or the 'premium' drive with a 3 or 5 year warranty. Do the drive manufacturers still do this? If I remember correctly, they sold essentially the same drive under two different part numbers, charging more for the longer warranty.


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## PDubs (Oct 5, 2004)

I wrote Seagate off many years ago, but it sounds like it might be a good idea to use them again.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

codespy said:


> I have a 300gig Maxtor in one of my units and the thing seems to knock louder than my car after I turn the ignition off. I do have other smaller Maxtor's which are fine (40gig units). I guess it could be just a somewhat defective drive, but it still works.


Did you run AMSET on it yet?


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

PDubs said:


> I wrote Seagate off many years ago, but it sounds like it might be a good idea to use them again.


I like Seagate drives because of their 5 year warranties, as well as when Outpost.com has sales and rebates on the Seagate drives almost every week :up:


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

bnm81002 said:


> I like Seagate drives because of their 5 year warranties, as well as when Outpost.com has sales and rebates on the Seagate drives almost every week :up:


The 5 year warranty is fine, but the 7200.7 & 7200.8 versions are LOUD with no acoustical management capabilites. Having just purchased one for a TiVo, I would advise others to strongly consider a different manufacturer, unless noise is not an issue.


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

Martin Tupper said:


> Did you run AMSET on it yet?


I'm not familiar with that. If you could refer me to a post on that and I'll research it if it's something that will help me with this drive. (It's currently on my brother's modified HDVR2 Tivo that I got for him a couple of months ago). Thank you.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

codespy said:


> I'm not familiar with that. If you could refer me to a post on that and I'll research it if it's something that will help me with this drive. (It's currently on my brother's modified HDVR2 Tivo that I got for him a couple of months ago). Thank you.


http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Download this and it will create a boot floppy that contains amset.exe

To enable quiet mode, simply type: amset /quiet

It will set all Maxtor drives connected to your PC to quiet (if they support it).


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## baj764 (Jun 9, 2003)

I have a question. If I replace the HD in my DTV TiVo will I lose all of the "knowledge" my TiVo has build up over the last 3 years or so? Or is that info stored somewhere other than the HD? Thanks, BAJ764


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

If the person doing this hard drive swap knows what they are doing, they can use a copy command that will copy over all your existing shows and thumbs up/down selections.

You can't just simply drop in a unformatted drive - it has to have the Tivo software copied to it first from a PC.


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## BlindLemonLarry (Jun 19, 2004)

bnm81002 said:


> I like Seagate drives because of their 5 year warranties, as well as when Outpost.com has sales and rebates on the Seagate drives almost every week :up:


Agreed.

I don't know about Seagates being noisy...the one I just put in my bedroom DSR-7000 is virtually inaudible. The fan is far louder.


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## Mavrick22 (Feb 7, 2006)

I perfer the seagate drive


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## wangmaster (Mar 22, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> The 5 year warranty is fine, but the 7200.7 & 7200.8 versions are LOUD with no acoustical management capabilites. Having just purchased one for a TiVo, I would advise others to strongly consider a different manufacturer, unless noise is not an issue.


interesiting. I have 2 7200.7s and 2 7200.8s of variuos sizes. All 4 are some of the quietest and coolest drives i've had the pleasure of using. The 7200.7 160GB drive in my R10 is surprisingly significantly quieter than the stock 80gb drive. I know this because I took a sound meter and measured pre and post.

I also have another R10 with a stock drive in it, and it's louder than the R10 with the 160GB drive.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> The 5 year warranty is fine, but the 7200.7 & 7200.8 versions are LOUD with no acoustical management capabilites. Having just purchased one for a TiVo, I would advise others to strongly consider a different manufacturer, unless noise is not an issue.


I think the drive's noise/loudness is really based on each individual hearing, some are more sensitive towards sounds, noises, etc. compared to others, some have recommend purchasing the Seagate drives while some say don't buy them, basically what I would do is go to a local retailer, purchase it, ask about the return policy and if it can be returned then try it out to see how "loud" the drive is and then decide to keep it or not


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

wangmaster said:


> interesiting. I have 2 7200.7s and 2 7200.8s of variuos sizes. All 4 are some of the quietest and coolest drives i've had the pleasure of using. The 7200.7 160GB drive in my R10 is surprisingly significantly quieter than the stock 80gb drive. I know this because I took a sound meter and measured pre and post.
> 
> I also have another R10 with a stock drive in it, and it's louder than the R10 with the 160GB drive.


Oh, it's definitely a _cool _drive. And it _spins _VERY quietly.

The problem is that the seeks are noisy and TiVos do a lot of seeking. Seeks are clearly audible from across the room (with the television on). Without any acoustical management capabilities, there is nothing you can do to quiet these Seagate drives down.

Straight out of the box, these Seagate drives *may* be quieter than those other of manufacturers. However, other manufacturers allow the use of utilities to significantly reduce the seek noise, making them more suitable for use in a home theater.


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## wangmaster (Mar 22, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> Oh, it's definitely a _cool _drive. And it _spins _VERY quietly.
> 
> The problem is that the seeks are noisy and TiVos do a lot of seeking. Seeks are clearly audible from across the room (with the television on). Without any acoustical management capabilities, there is nothing you can do to quiet these Seagate drives down.
> 
> Straight out of the box, these Seagate drives *may* be quieter than those other of manufacturers. However, other manufacturers allow the use of utilities to significantly reduce the seek noise, making them more suitable for use in a home theater.


Right, but I sound metered under normal use, with the sound meter in the same position pre and post harddrive update. And the seagate was a couiple of db quieter.


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## hkancyr (Jan 20, 2002)

I am upgrading a bedroom S2 240040 and I put a Maxtor 300Gig in it. Man that thing was noisy. It was a 5400 rpm model too. So after doing a little research I ordered a Samsung spinpoint 120Gig. My spouse has especially sensitive hearing so I hope the Samsung works as quietly as advertised. I'll keep you advised. I put the 300 in the basement 540040 and it's happily singing away and noone cares.


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## rjay717 (Nov 18, 2005)

For those that do like the Seagate: CompUsa will have the 200gb drive on sale tomorrow night from 6 to Midnight for $29.99 after rebates.

Jay


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

hkancyr said:


> I am upgrading a bedroom S2 240040 and I put a Maxtor 300Gig in it. Man that thing was noisy. It was a 5400 rpm model too. So after doing a little research I ordered a Samsung spinpoint 120Gig. My spouse has especially sensitive hearing so I hope the Samsung works as quietly as advertised. I'll keep you advised. I put the 300 in the basement 540040 and it's happily singing away and noone cares.


Did you try running AMSET (Maxtor's acoustical management utility) on that Maxtor? It makes a pretty big difference.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

rjnorthcut said:


> For those that do like the Seagate: CompUsa will have the 200gb drive on sale tomorrow night from 6 to Midnight for $29.99 after rebates.
> 
> Jay


Where did you get this info? I checked their website and weekly ad and found nothing even close.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=6009&t=214866


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

wangmaster said:


> Right, but I sound metered under normal use, with the sound meter in the same position pre and post harddrive update. And the seagate was a couiple of db quieter.


Well, I must just be imagining that seeking noise then. Thanks.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

does the drive's buffer make a difference in terms of the seek noise being loud or not? would a 16MB Buffer be louder in seeking than a 8MB Buffer? thanks


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## Stylin (Dec 31, 2004)

bnm81002 said:


> outpost.com has a Seagate 300GB drive(7200.8 version) on sale for $129.99 with a $50 rebate making the final cost for the drive only $79.99 which for $10 more and 100GB more than the 200GB for $69.99 :up:


Thanks much BNM and all other posters. I just jumped on the above deal.


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

My Samsung DTivo drives are _very quiet_ after using the utility on them... bought them via http://www.newegg.com


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## cpirate (Jan 16, 2003)

StorageReview has quite a few benchmarks that measure idle sound. Most of the newer benchmarks are with sata drives but they should be similar to the ide drives of the same model. They also have a bunch of legacy benchmarks for older drives.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Martin Tupper said:


> http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=6009&t=214866


Ahhh... gotta deal with 3 different rebate forms in order to get that price. I think I'll pass.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

bnm81002 said:


> does the drive's buffer make a difference in terms of the seek noise being loud or not? would a 16MB Buffer be louder in seeking than a 8MB Buffer? thanks


As far as TiVo's are concerned, the buffer is virtually irrelevant. The buffer is used to remember frequently written data. Because TiVos are constantly writing a stream of new data, the buffer really doesn't get used.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

Dkerr24 said:


> Ahhh... gotta deal with 3 different rebate forms in order to get that price. I think I'll pass.


sorry to hear that, it was way to good of a deal to pass up, actually 1 of the rebate forms is done online while the other 2 are mail in rebates, for $40.87 after taxes and rebates for a 200GB drive, it's .20 cents per GB, way worth fighting to purchase one


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## hkancyr (Jan 20, 2002)

No I didn't run amset on it. Sad to say I didn't know about it. Can I run it after it has been installed in a TiVo? If not, how and when do you run it? Is this program on the Maxtor tool disc that comes with the drives? 
At any rate, I'll be putting the Samsung 120Gig in the bedroom TiVo, anyone heard anything about these drives in a TiVo?


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

hkancyr said:


> Can I run it after it has been installed in a TiVo? If not, how and when do you run it?


Most acoustic utilities depend on a PC being booted into a DOS-type state, then a disc inserted and the utility launched. Thus, the HD would have to be removed from the DTivo and temporarily attached to a PC. AFAIK, the drive can be set to 'quiet mode' with no impact to the data on the drive.


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## BillyBob_jcv (Feb 21, 2006)

I just set my Maxtor 200 GB to the quietest setting using the Hitachi drive utility. 
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/ftool_200.iso

Out of the box my Maxtor was set to max seek performance (loudest). The new setting seems to have made a big difference - but I'll know for sure tonight at bedtime.


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## hkancyr (Jan 20, 2002)

Ok. got the Samsung 120Gig in the bedroom and it has been deemed acceptable by my auditorily gifted spouse. Matter of fact she said she didn't even hear it. That is right out of the box, no acoustic util used.
So impressed went and got a 300Gig Samsung for the Livingroom. Upgraded from a 2 drive to reduce temp, was running at 47C now 42C. Odd fan position in the 140's. The series one w/2 drives runs the coolest 36C.
Thanks for the info Goony, I'll yank the 300Gig from the 540 and try the silencer on it.

Speaking of HDD's I just had a DiamondMax 9 go up in smoke on my PC, I had the case open at the time and saw the flame, I thought it was the PSU which was right under the HDD. I replaced the PSU first, then noticed the HDD was dead. Still under warrantee, enroute to Maxtor as we speak. Makes me kinda paranoid as I have 10 Maxtors running in 2 computers, 1 in the 140 and 1 in the 540 right now. Fingers crossed.


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