# Add extra HD to Roamio



## [email protected] (Oct 23, 2014)

Got Roamio, need more space. 
I do not want to open the device, and I see a SATA connection in the back. 

There are You tubes that does "open heart surgery" on the TIVO, I really would like to avoid that. 

Is it as easy as just buy a SATA compatible external drive?
I wish it is.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

There is only one that works, its by WD, and adds 1TB at most. Replacing the drive is as simple as just unscrewing a few screws and plugging in a drive. Super super super easy.


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## dslunceford (Oct 19, 2000)

jrtroo said:


> Super super super easy.


Don't believe it! It's really Super super super-duper easy. If you can use a screwdriver in any capacity, you can swap out the drive with no issue.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Do not add an external drive to your Tivo!
It is a common cause for failure and losing recordings.

You can simply change out the internal hard drive for up to a 3TB and have over 400+ HD hours recording time.

Recommended drives are WD30EUR(s/x) Green, WD30EFRX (Red), 5900 RPM, designed for NAS or 24/7 use.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

ThAbtO said:


> Do not add an external drive to your Tivo!
> It is a common cause for failure and losing recordings.


To be more specific, it's because the two drives are effectively permanently connected, and recordings are done across both drives, so when you lose one of them, you lose both.

Yeah, as other said, putting a new drive internally is easiest.. If paranoid, wait until your warranty is up before doing it, if you haven't reached that point already.. You will of course lose recordings on the existing drive (unless you transfer them to ANOTHER tivo in your house first).. But you can (and I have) put the orig drive back in to watch shows off of it before..


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Why would adding an external hard drives cause premature failure on a Roamio unit?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

damondlt said:


> Why would adding an external hard drives cause premature failure on a Roamio unit?


Two drive points of failure, if either goes the whole TiVo goes, can't save any recordings.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

lessd said:


> Two drive points of failure, if either goes the whole TiVo goes, can save any recordings.


Actually adding an external drive adds more than an additional point of failure. The eSata port on the Roamio can fail, the cable can fail, something with the external drives case/power can fail, and the drive in the external drive can fail.

I used an 500 MB external drive on my TiVo HD for a time and had issues every time the unit rebooted, ended up upgrading the internal drive to 2TB. I also used a 1TB drive on my Series 3 (still attached) and also have issues when it reboots (may take several tries to find the drive again), but I don't use it much so leaving it as is.

I agree with the recommendations to just upgrade the internal drive. If the recordings are not protected one can also move (or auto move) recordings to a computer to manage space. If one is going to use an external drive I would wait until the internal is all most full before added it.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

lessd said:


> Two drive points of failure, if either goes the whole TiVo goes, can't save any recordings.


That isn't true at all, sure if the external goes, you lose your recordings.
If your internal goes same thing, except now your Roamio is shot until it's changed.
Atleast if the external goes, you can still use your internal and still have a functional Roamio.

But to state that any external puts more wear an tear on the Roamio, is bogus.
Cracking open the inside of of a Roamio, and having amature hands playing around inside.
That's by far more risky, and it more than likly voids any warranty.

I know people that have external drives that out lived their internal drives by Years.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> That isn't true at all, sure if the external goes, you lose your recordings.
> If your internal goes same thing, except now your Roamio is shot until it's changed.
> Atleast if the external goes, you can still use your internal and still have a functional Roamio.


Less knows what he's talking about. He did not mean that the Tivo was literally dead if an external drive fails. He meant that if one drive fails, the whole system fails. Of course it can be fixed, but it still fails.



> But to state that any external puts more wear an tear on the Roamio, is bogus.


Who made that claim?



> I know people that have external drives that out lived their internal drives by Years.


Exactly the point that people are trying to make. One drive will fail and the whole system fails. Doesn't matter which drive it is.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> Less knows what he's talking about. He did not mean that the Tivo was literally dead if an external drive fails. He meant that if one drive fails, the whole system fails. Of course it can be fixed, but it still fails.
> 
> Who made that claim?
> 
> Exactly the point that people are trying to make. One drive will fail and the whole system fails. Doesn't matter which drive it is.


Yeah Exactly, Why crack open a Roamio and make more work for yourself, when they are setup for plug and play already.
I've seen plenty of premature failed internals .
I've never seen failed Sata ports ever.

But I'm not trying to argue, but you'll find less than 1% of Tivo users are going to crack open A Roamio and change internals on a receiver they just spend $400-$700 on that's for sure.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> but you'll find less than 1% of Tivo users are going to crack open A Roamio and change internals on a receiver they just spend $400-$700 on that's for sure.


Not the point


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

damondlt said:


> But I'm not trying to argue, but you'll find less than 1% of Tivo users are going to crack open A Roamio and change internals on a receiver they just spend $400-$700 on that's for sure.


It only a guess but I assume the few that do upgrade the recording space, much more than 1% do it with an internal drive rather than an external drive. Of the 40 or so TiVos I know non has gone the external way to increase the recording space. For the Roamio you can purchase a 3Tb Roamio and not have to use an external drive and not crack open the case, and that will give you more recording space at less money than a 500Gb Roamio with an external drive. TiVo has never provided any more than 1Tb external, if so many were selling I am sure TiVo would have a 2Tb or 3 Tb model made for that purpose.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

lessd said:


> It only a guess but I assume the few that do upgrade the recording space, much more than 1% do it with an internal drive rather than an external drive. Of the 40 or so TiVos I know non has gone the external way to increase the recording space. For the Roamio you can purchase a 3Tb Roamio and not have to use an external drive and not crack open the case, and that will give you more recording space at less money than a 500Gb Roamio with an external drive. TiVo has never provided any more than 1Tb external, if so many were selling I am sure TiVo would have a 2Tb or 3 Tb model made for that purpose.


I guarantee you way more people use external HD devices.
You and the 40 others you claim are not the norm by any means.

There are million apon millions of units out there, and Millions of them are also owned by cable companies. 
Far more units out there then Tivo community members that your trying to base your research off of.
But out of the members here, you maybe right they may prefer to install an internal drive.

But again I'll even go one step Higher and claim most customers will never use the 1TB or 3 TB that already come with the Plus and Pro models. 
And the fact that they can be accessed from each other, just adds to the space available.

Not everyone is a recording junkie. LOL


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> Not the point


That is very much one of many points, the machines are made to work with external Hard drives just perfect fine.
These drives are also made to work with these Roamios just fine.

Let's go back cost of the drives, and warranty issues?


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

HEY LESS
I see you have 3 Roamio pluses.
And you upgrade them to 2 and 3 TB

Why didn't you just buy the Pro models?
Just curious.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> That is very much one of many points, the machines are made to work with external Hard drives just perfect fine.
> These drives are also made to work with these Roamios just fine.
> 
> Let's go back cost of the drives, and warranty issues?


Sure it's one of the points you may be making, but how many people upgrade certainly isn't relevant to the reliability of external hard drives which is the topic of discussion.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> HEY LESS
> I see you have 3 Roamio pluses.
> And you upgrade them to 2 and 3 TB
> 
> ...


More for less.
Upgrading a Plus with a 3TB drive is about $100 cheaper than a Pro and offers 30% more capacity.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

How is a 0GB increase 30% more?

New math?


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> Sure it's one of the points you may be making, but how many people upgrade certainly isn't relevant to the reliability of external hard drives which is the topic of discussion.


The topic of this discussion is, the OP doesn't want to crack open his receiver. Period.
External Sata. Drives are fully compatible and approved way to add additional hard drive space.
That is what most users also choose and support.

What is irrelevant is telling customers they should crack open receivers and perform unqualified tampering, which voids warrantys.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> More for less.
> Upgrading a Plus with a 3TB drive is about $100 cheaper than a Pro and offers 30% more capacity.


Don't see that?
Let me see a breakdown.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

Arcady said:


> How is a 0GB increase 30% more?
> 
> New math?


Sorry, I thought the Pro had a 2TB drive, my mistake
I was basing the HD size on Tivo's claim on their website "Up to 3,000 hours of recording capacity" which is only 200 more hours than my Premiere with a 2TB drive.
and my math was wrong, a 3TB HD has 50% more capacity than a 2TB not 30%.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> The topic of this discussion is, the OP doesn't want to crack open his receiver. Period.


That is the topic of the OP, but you are mistaking what the OP asked with what everyone else is discussing.



> External Sata. Drives are fully compatible and approved way to add additional hard drive space.
> That is what most users also choose and support.


Has anyone disputed that?



> What is irrelevant is telling customers they should crack open receivers and perform unqualified tampering, which voids warrantys.


People here are providing options not telling people what they should do.
How is it irrelevant? People answer these questions for everyone that could be reading and have a similar question, not just specifically for the OP's own circumstances. 
You're grasping at straws to find something to be right about and it isn't pretty. Please stop embarrassing yourself.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> That is the topic of the OP, but you are mistaking what the OP asked with what everyone else is discussing.
> 
> Has anyone disputed that?
> 
> ...


No one is grasping at anything.
But this entire thread falsely states that External Hardrives are not recommended. 
Which is 100% ridiculous.

Go back and read instead of thinking you have to have the last word yourself.

I say do what you want.
But if someone starts a topic and has specific request, then the topic shouldn't be generalized incase someone else is reading. LOL.
That's why we have forums and threads with different topics.
But I see here all over these forums, a ton of false information , no moderation. Starting with post number 4.

Now that Doug bought this site back, That will change and that would be welcome.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

[email protected] said:


> Got Roamio, need more space.
> I do not want to open the device, and I see a SATA connection in the back.
> 
> There are You tubes that does "open heart surgery" on the TIVO, I really would like to avoid that.
> ...


Clearly his request went unanswered.

Yes it is easy to buy an External hard drive and plug it into your Roamio. They add 1TB max extra, and they cost anywhere between $99 and $199 from Various sites.
TIVO.COM sells them for $125. 
They are plug and play, they don't void warrantys. 
And are fully supported by Tivo.


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

Don't you need the special torx screw bits? That can be a roadblock for some people. Meaning, we should tell him where to get those.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

damondlt said:


> No one is grasping at anything.
> But this entire thread falsely states that External Hardrives are not recommended.
> Which is 100% ridiculous.


No, the idea that external drives are not recommended is not 100% ridiculous, it's common recommended practice for FORUM MEMBERS.

No one really cares what the other 90% do with their Tivos, and if they want to take the easy way out with a more expensive, prone-to-fail setup then they are welcome to do so. But it is most certainly not the more reliable way to expand storage.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

When the process for adding an external drive was first introduced by TiVo, I jumped on it and added a drive to my OLED S3. It lasted about 4 months and then for some reason the logical marriage between the two drives failed.

TiVo and I tried every kickstart code and reboot process we could think of but could not get the connection resolved. 

Ultimately, I just had to remove the external hard-drive and the TiVo was just find again (Sans all my recordings)

Nothing wrong with either drive, just lost the logical connection. I placed the external drive into my media server and picked up a 1TB drive and upgraded the internal drive in my S3, perfect setup until I sold the S3 a few months ago to another guy that is running strong! (I also gave him the original drive)

Never again will I take a chance on the external drive setup... You couldn't pay me to go through that headache again.

Upgrading the internal drive on a Roamio, is easier, cheaper and far less likely to cause you problems down the road.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

slowbiscuit said:


> . But it is most certainly not the more reliable way to expand storage.


And you have absolutely no solid proof or evidence that your opinion can actually be proved as fact.

What is done in these forums is often against the rules and is often unsupported way of doing things.

Again I say do what yous want, but people looking for solid answer shouldn't be told to tear open their Tivo units and preform hardware modifications when they clearly said in the Very first post that ,They DON'T WANT TO DO THAT.!.

Start another thread with information on changing internal Hardrives on their owned units.
And see if Tivo support will even talk to you after you accomplish such.
Don't buy an extended warranty if your going to crack open your Roamio, because you just voided your warranty and threw out $$.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Back in December, I bought a My Book 1 TB drive direct from WD and connected it to my Cableone Q series Tivo. I followed the instructions, unplugged everything, connected the cables, spun up the external drive first, then the Tivo. It was simple.

Now I have up to 236 HD and 2055 SD hours of recording space. No trouble with any of the components since.

If the external drive lives for a year or more, I'll probably replace it with the same or similar model when it eventually dies.

Or, maybe, SSD will be all the rage by then.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Agree, I very had multiple External Sata drives on my Directv HR23 and HR34.
The External drive survived years without a hiccup, and if I still had Directv I bet it would still work to this day.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> No one is grasping at anything.
> But this entire thread falsely states that External Hardrives are not recommended.
> Which is 100% ridiculous.


This thread doesn't falsely state anything. I couple of people have given their opinions.



> Go back and read instead of thinking you have to have the last word yourself.


I have read and I have fully comprehended what has been posted.



> I say do what you want.


Your complaining says otherwise.



> But if someone starts a topic and has specific request, then the topic shouldn't be generalized incase someone else is reading. LOL.


That's your opinion but it's NOT how this forum or other forums function.



> That's why we have forums and threads with different topics.


The more separated related content is, the harder it is for someone with a question to find the information they need.



> But I see here all over these forums, a ton of false information ,


People having opinions that are wrong is not false information, it's just bad opinions.



> no moderation.


Take that up with someone who has the authority and willingness to do something.



> Starting with post number 4.


???



> Now that Doug bought this site back, That will change and that would be welcome.


Who is Doug? Nobody named Doug owns this forum. Take your own advice and quit posting false information.

Like I said, grasping.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

Grakthis said:


> Don't you need the special torx screw bits? That can be a roadblock for some people. Meaning, we should tell him where to get those.


Torx is no more special than phillips


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

damondlt said:


> And you have absolutely no solid proof or evidence that your opinion can actually be proved as fact.


It is simple statistics. One drive has a MTBF, adding another drive will insert another MTBF into that equation, the net being a chance of failure much greater than one drive acting alone.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

bradleys said:


> Upgrading the internal drive on a Roamio, is easier, cheaper and far less likely to cause you problems down the road.


Excellent point. Replacing a hard does not bring any extra risk of failure. Adding an external hard drive does bring some risk of failure that didn't exist before.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Actually, replacing a drive is better for more reasons: 

If the replacement drive starts to die, you usually have time to get recordings off. When an external starts to die, the first thing it seems to do is lose its marriage to the internal drive, and you lose all your recordings.

If the replacement drive dies, you still have the original TiVo drive, which you can put back in the TiVo or use to image another drive.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> And you have absolutely no solid proof or evidence that your opinion can actually be proved as fact.


So what? It's his opinion. 
Where's your proof?



> What is done in these forums is often against the rules and is often unsupported way of doing things.


Who's rules?



> Again I say do what yous want, but people looking for solid answer shouldn't be told to tear open their Tivo units and preform hardware modifications when they clearly said in the Very first post that ,They DON'T WANT TO DO THAT.!.


Why? Maybe they simply don't understand that replacing the hd in a Roamio is as simple as taking out the old hd and putting in a hd unlike in the past where the software from the old would have to be transferred to the new using a method that many people wouldn't be able to do.



> Start another thread with information on changing internal Hardrives on their owned units.


There's an entire sub-forum devoted to that. These same questions have been answered hundreds if not thousands of times.
Advice is posted as needed or there would be evn more threads for people with questions to sort through to find what they are looking for.



> And see if Tivo support will even talk to you after you accomplish such.
> Don't buy an extended warranty if your going to crack open your Roamio, because you just voided your warranty and threw out $$.


Nobody said it's risk free.
Why didn't you start a new thread to discuss this new topic you just brought up? If you're not willing to do what you're telling everyone else to do, why should anyone listen to anything you have to say?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

damondlt said:


> HEY LESS
> I see you have 3 Roamio pluses.
> And you upgrade them to 2 and 3 TB
> 
> ...


At the time I purchased the Roamios the pro was $200 more than the Plus, and I had the 2Tb drives in my home so I just purchased a 3Tb drive for about $125, and I had a 3 extra 500Gb drive I could sell, I got a net of about $30 each.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> This thread doesn't falsely state anything. I couple of people have given their opinions.
> 
> I have read and I have fully comprehended what has been posted.
> 
> ...


David Bott my Friend!


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

jrtroo said:


> It is simple statistics. One drive has a MTBF, adding another drive will insert another MTBF into that equation, the net being a chance of failure much greater than one drive acting alone.


People have been using massive amounts of External drives for years.
Really don't see the issues!.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> So what? It's his opinion.
> Where's your proof?
> 
> Who's rules?
> ...


Talk about Grasping!


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> Doug Brott my Friend!


David Bott


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> David Bott my Friend!


You edited your post.
But now, even though you finally have the correct name, saying it makes no sense.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> Talk about Grasping!


You can't just say grasping and thing you have a case.
Go ahead have the last word, it's all yours.
And bless your heart.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

"Massive" is a misnomer w/r/t Tivo- there are not "massive" amounts of Tivos to attach them to. Outside of Tivo, rarely are external drives set up in a scenario where they rely on each other so strongly. That is, where if they could fail uniquely only some shows would be lost, but as it works they are all lost. Since they are reliant on each other the two points of failure are higher than any single drive alone.

So, they work. But, statistically, they are not as a reliable of a system. Over time, we know there have been high failure rates of the older 500 GB drives (actually, the enclosures and some bad cords), and the 1TB drives have been better, generally.

The level of effort to change a drive for a Roamio is extremely low. Some don't want to bother taking the 5 minutes to do it. Fine. However, the smart tivo experts here know the reality of minimizing risk, and recommend it.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> You can't just say grasping and thing you have a case.
> Go ahead have the last word, it's all yours.


Im not even sure why we are even arguing?

All I would have liked to see, was solid evidence that replacing the internal is that much better.

Because Quite Frankly, Im not so sure it is.
As I've stated and as others have stated I've had external HD last over 6 years. 
I've replaced a number of internal drives, mainly from lack of proper ventilation due to poor Directv and Tivo designs.
Heat kills, I'll be surprised if these Roamios stock HD last more than 3 4 years.

I would have also liked to have seen someone state the end result of Tampering with the device that clearly states is against tivos terms of service.

At least lay it all on the table.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

jrtroo said:


> "Massive" is a misnomer w/r/t Tivo- there are not "massive" amounts of Tivos to attach them to. Outside of Tivo, rarely are external drives set up in a scenario where they rely on each other so strongly. That is, where if they could fail uniquely only some shows would be lost, but as it works they are all lost. Since they are reliant on each other the two points of failure are higher than any single drive alone.
> 
> So, they work. But, statistically, they are not as a reliable of a system. Over time, we know there have been high failure rates of the older 500 GB drives (actually, the enclosures and some bad cords), and the 1TB drives have been better, generally.
> 
> The level of effort to change a drive for a Roamio is extremely low. Some don't want to bother taking the 5 minutes to do it. Fine. However, the smart tivo experts here know the reality of minimizing risk, and recommend it.


And this is a nice Valid explanation. 

But again, I understand it 2 points of failure, But in my case , Ive had 2 WD externals out last the Stock drives in a number of different receivers 2-1 !


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

damondlt said:


> People have been using massive amounts of External drives for years.
> Really don't see the issues!.


I'm sorry that you don't see that there is a statistically higher chance of one drive failing and taking all your recordings with it when you have two drives spinning vs. one. And as mentioned, you sometimes know that something's going on with a single drive going bad and can take steps to replace it (and possibly save your recordings). When an external starts going bad, you won't know which drive it is and testing is more time-consuming and technically inclined than the simple steps to replace a single drive.

Is it easier to plug in an external? Sure, no one denies that and based on what the OP wrote it's probably the way to go for him. But you're trying to deny that it's just as reliable over time as running a single upgraded drive, which is untrue to anyone with a basic understanding of statistical probabilities.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

slowbiscuit said:


> . But you're trying to deny that it's just as reliable over time as running a single upgraded drive, which is untrue to anyone with a basic understanding of statistical probabilities.


Again let me see Statistics.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

slowbiscuit said:


> Is it easier to plug in an external? Sure, no one denies that and based on what the OP wrote it's probably the way to go for him. But you're trying to deny that it's just as reliable over time as running a single upgraded drive, which is untrue to anyone with a basic understanding of statistical probabilities.


It's interesting that he wants statistics from you but only offers his personal anecdotal experience as if it means something.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

I think this Thread has gotten out of hand, if the OP wants an external drive, he can have one, he can read why we think it is not the best way to go, but that it, nobody has to prove anything, and we don't have to convince the OP to go internal, as it does not matter to us the way the OP goes to get more recording time.
The main reason to get an external drive is one is finding out that your running out of recording space with your TiVo, purchase the 1Tb external drive plug it in and voila you have another 150 hours of record space without having to move programs off your TiVo and then back on. For a new TiVo, IMHO not the way to go.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

damondlt said:


> And this is a nice Valid explanation.
> 
> But again, I understand it 2 points of failure, But in my case , Ive had 2 WD externals out last the Stock drives in a number of different receivers 2-1 !


It's not a question of which drive will last longer. It's the fact that you now have 2 drives that can give you issues, instead of just one.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

swerver said:


> It's not a question of which drive will last longer. It's the fact that you now have 2 drives that can give you issues, instead of just one.


It's not just the 2nd drive either, the connecting ports as well as the cable and even the power supply for the ext hd are additional potential points of failure. That's 5 more things that could fail vs just upgrading the internal hd.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> It's interesting that he wants statistics from you but only offers his personal anecdotal experience as if it means something.


Talk about calling the kettle black. 
Like your experience is more credible than anyone else.
LMAO!

Grasping at straws is clear when you start the personal nonsense comments.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> It's not just the 2nd drive either, the connecting ports as well as the cable and even the power supply for the ext hd are additional potential points of failure. That's 5 more things that could fail vs just upgrading the internal hd.


Again never had External components, or Sata ports ever fail.
But I've had multiple directv HR and Tivo Series internals fail.
But Hey, I've only been using Directv /Tivos since 2002 so what would I know.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

They made it easy to replace the internal with a new drive. It is very simple. 

If you absolutely don't want to open then do an external. But opening the box and replacing the drive is so easy with the Roamio that it is a no-brainer.

IT's a much more elegant solution. It won't take up another power plug, you won't have additional noise and you don't have another cable and device hooked up to your Tivo. also you get more recording space. You can save movies on there for guests or a rainy day or just worry less about shows getting deleted.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

damondlt said:


> I've had multiple directv HR and Tivo Series internals fail.


An internal failure renders everything on both drives unusable on a TiVo, so what's the difference? You have two drives that can cause total failure instead of one, and only one of them has to die at any time.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

778

TC CLUB MEMBER

Quote:

Originally Posted by*dianebrat*

a point of failure that should it die ALL your recordings after installing it are gone

To be fair that's just as true of the internal HDD, and there is no data to suggest that the external drive is any more likely to die then the internal one. Also swapping the internal drive (the easy way) will cause you to lose all the recordings you have on there right now. (as well as your thumbs data and settings*) It will also unpair your CableCARD which means you have to call the cable company to get that reconnected. Adding an external drive is as easy as plugging it in and answering OK to the prompt.

Here post 10 from this thread. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=525318


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Arcady said:


> An internal failure renders everything on both drives unusable on a TiVo, so what's the difference? You have two drives that can cause total failure instead of one, and only one of them has to die at any time.


Yes but atleast when my internal dies, I can unplug my External, Send my Roamio back to Tivo for warranty work, and when I get it back, I can plug my External back into my repaired unit, and I'm good to go.
YOU now have to buy another 3 TB drive, and crack the Roamio open again .
Which is why My 6 year old External is still in my closet, because it's out lived ever other Internal hardriv

And atleast if my External dies, I'll just buy another one and won't miss a minute of tv usage.
Your internal goes , your done.
So again, you aren't gaining anything over one or the other, except space.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

damondlt said:


> Yes but atleast when my internal dies, I can unplug my External, Send my Roamio back to Tivo for warranty work, and when I get it back, I can plug my External back into my repaired unit, and I'm good to go.
> YOU now have to buy another 3 TB drive, and crack the Roamio open again .
> Which is why My 6 year old External is still in my closet, because it's out lived ever other Internal hardrive.


When you plug the drive back in, it will be formatted and everything is lost.

When my drive starts to fail, I can backup the shows to a PC or Mac, send the drive to WESTERN DIGITAL, not TIVO, under my THREE YEAR DRIVE WARRANTY and get a new drive, which I plug back in. Then I recover the shows from the PC or Mac and I'm done.

Of course, this never happens, because I sell the TiVo boxes before they are three years old and none of the drives have ever failed by then. If a drive were to fail out of warranty, I still have the original drive that I can plug in and then sell the box.

What's funny is that all of my current TiVo hardware is totally stock, without any upgraded drives, since TiVo finally started to offer decent sizes. This worries me more than having upgraded internal drives, because I have no backup for the Premiere.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

I'm just going to agree to disagree.
I don't agree changing the internal drive is the most stable choice.

As stated in other posts, It requires hardware swapping, phone calls to the cable companies, and the potential for other issues when you get a bad drive.

Atleast a bad external can be unplugged, and changed at a later date.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Arcady said:


> When you plug the drive back in, it will be formatted and everything is lost.
> 
> .


Yes on the external, but my Roamio will still work just fine.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Arcady said:


> When my drive starts to fail, I can backup the shows to a PC or Mac, send the drive to WESTERN DIGITAL, not TIVO, under my THREE YEAR DRIVE WARRANTY and get a new drive, which I plug back in. Then I recover the shows from the PC or Mac and I'm done.
> 
> Of course, this never happens, because I sell the TiVo boxes before they are three years old and none of the drives have ever failed by then. If a drive were to fail out of warranty, I still have the original drive that I can plug in and then sell the box.
> 
> What's funny is that all of my current TiVo hardware is totally stock, without any upgraded drives, since TiVo finally started to offer decent sizes. This worries me more than having upgraded internal drives, because I have no backup for the Premiere.


I agree with you, I think the space is way more than enough.
Most hard core archivers will tell you rule number one, don't rely on HD DVR's and these types of External Drives for your movie library's.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

damondlt said:


> Talk about calling the kettle black.
> Like your experience is more credible than anyone else.
> LMAO!
> 
> Grasping at straws is clear when you start the personal nonsense comments.


I'm sorry, I wasn't going to respond directly to you any more, but this response from you is just complete bill****.

Where did I post anything in this thread that was an opinion based on my personal experience? and then where did I try to pass it off as anything more than it is?
You are just making **** up to argue about and losing the tiny bit of credibility you may have had. All because you refuse to educate yourself a little on simple 5th grade level probabilities.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I never entered into this thread just to attend an argument. Therefore I AM OUT.

You guys should just GROW UP!


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

scandia101 said:


> More for less. Upgrading a Plus with a 3TB drive is about $100 cheaper than a Pro and offers 30% more capacity.





Arcady said:


> How is a 0GB increase 30% more? New math?





scandia101 said:


> .......and my math was wrong, a 3TB HD has 50% more capacity than a 2TB not 30%.


Huh??? 

EDIT: Nevermind, I understand what's being said now.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

scandia101 said:


> I'm sorry, I wasn't going to respond directly to you any more, but this response from you is just complete bill****.
> 
> Where did I post anything in this thread that was an opinion based on my personal experience? and then where did I try to pass it off as anything more than it is?
> You are just making **** up to argue about and losing the tiny bit of credibility you may have had. All because you refuse to educate yourself a little on simple 5th grade level probabilities.


Again Calling the Kettle black. 
Based on your signature it's clear the one with the problem.
I've provided a number of other posts and experience just the same as anyone else.
You don't agree,and there for can't handle being told anything otherwise.

But go ahead, you can have the last word, and the fact that your swearing,well again also shows how credible you are.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

damondlt said:


> Again Calling the Kettle black.
> Based on your signature it's clear the one with the problem.
> I've provided a number of other posts and experience just the same as anyone else.
> You don't agree,and there for can't handle being told anything otherwise.
> ...


Just give it up, with the significant numbers of well experienced users that have been with Tivo since the dawn of eSATA expansion not recommending it, vs those saying "it's perfect" it's pretty clear you're just heer to argue your point until everyone agrees that you're right.

I'm out, I have no interest in playing this game.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Arcady said:


> When you plug the drive back in, it will be formatted and everything is lost.
> 
> When my drive starts to fail, I can backup the shows to a PC or Mac, send the drive to WESTERN DIGITAL, not TIVO, under my THREE YEAR DRIVE WARRANTY and get a new drive, which I plug back in. Then I recover the shows from the PC or Mac and I'm done.


Can you expand on using your PC to back up your shows? I have a DirecTV Genie that I want to add space to, and I'm deciding which way to go.

If I simply add an external drive, everything on the internal HD will not be accessible. Another possible solution is to ship my Genie to Weakness for a copy service.

But, if I could backup my current shows to my PC, that might be an easier solution.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

RGM1138 said:


> Can you expand on using your PC to back up your shows? I have a DirecTV Genie ...


I don't know of a way to do that with a Genie. I left DirecTV when they stopped supporting the HD TiVo years ago.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

damondlt said:


> I've provided a number of other posts and experience just the same as anyone else.


Last post before I hit the ignore button.

Experience of a few individuals is not yet evidence.

Statistics is a science.

Drive failures age through a bathtub curve- they tend to fail very early, or once the get to a certain age (google it, lots of data). They also all have a mean time between failure (MTBF), as they will all eventually fail. Adding in a new drives to create two dependent drives ALWAYS increases the likelihood of a system failure, statistically, over a single drive. Having two independent drives in a system does not, as they continue to function regardless of each other's failure.

Tivo utilizes a dependent system.

If you are unable, or unwilling, to follow the scientific facts of the matter, then I'm out. It was entertaining while it lasted.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

Arcady said:


> I don't know of a way to do that with a Genie. I left DirecTV when they stopped supporting the HD TiVo years ago.


Yeah that poor excuse for Tivo that Directv released is a poor example of a receiver that shouldn't bear the Tivo name.

While it's software is okay still not very functional enough .
I would like to see a Roamio version .
Not an HR2* version.


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## damondlt (Jan 5, 2014)

jrtroo said:


> Last post before I hit the ignore button.


Knock yourself out Lol!


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