# TiVo HD drive upgrade advice - internal or external?



## donnoh (Mar 7, 2008)

I plan on buying a TiVo HD to replace a series 2 model and want a lot more storage than the 160 Gig that comes with it. I'm thinking of a 1 TB but I am undecided whether to go with changing out the internal drive or adding an external drive. Either way I have to open the box up.

Anyone have any thoughts on what would be the best way to go?

Also what drive should I go with, I've heard of problems with the WD drives and I've got a 500 Gig Seagate DB35 in the series 2 that sounds like a blender grinding ice:down:, so I'm not big on those. Are the Hitachi or Samsung drives good bets?

Thanks for any help making my mind up.


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## kazz244 (Jan 23, 2008)

I have an HD that I upgraded using the Western Digital "green" drives. I used WinMFS, and the upgrade couldn't have been easier. I left the 160 Gig drive in the Tivo for the setup (including cablecard), then removed the drive and did the upgrade. I now have about 140 hours of HD storage available.

I had upgraded a series 2 using MFS tools. I didn't think anything could be easier, but WinMFS is.

I went internal because I didn't want another box and cables cluttering the area of the tv. The WD drive seems quiet enough, but it is in the den where there is other noise.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

If have to open the case (which you have to to use anything but the stock deice and MYDVR expander drive), you might as well go internal.


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## Dan Clarke (Jun 14, 2002)

The MyDVR drive couldn't be any easier though. There are two drawbacks...1. Once it's tied to the Tivo, you can't use it for anything else 2. It requires it's own power (another plug). 

On the bright side, it is insanely easy. Connect the cable to the drive and the tivo, plug in and voila all done Tivo auto detects it.


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## thisisnotadrill (Aug 7, 2008)

Glad this thread exists so I don't have to make my own.

I am in a similar situation. I am moving from an HTPC that was great to play around with but never quite worked as a DVR the way I wanted it. So i already have an SATA drive and eSATA enclosure waiting to expand the tivo (when its delivered today).

But I was wondering since I have to open the box up whether its better in the long run to put the 500GB drive as the internal drive and the 160GB drive that comes with the tivoHD in the eSATA enclosure so that I will have an easier path to upgrade later? I figure once I get the right price on a 1-1.5TB drive I can toss that in the external and only lose what was on the 160GB drive.

Alternately, it seems possible (maybe even probable) that if i got a bigger drive in the future I could just put in as the internal drive and then it wouldn't really matter since either way I have to pull both drives out when I make the switch.

so is there a difference and should I be leaning one way or another?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I don't believe you can ever replace the external drive with another one.. From everything I've read, when the external drive is removed, you lose everything THAT WAS RECORDED SINCE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE WAS INSTALLED.. There is no concept that I know of of "on the internal drive" or "on the external drive", since I believe it is considered to be 'one partition'.

I *believe* (someone correct me) that you could still use the 'standard' hacking tools to go from 'two drives to one' (bigger one, if you want to keep your shows).


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## thisisnotadrill (Aug 7, 2008)

bogus.
I guess I will cross that bridge when the time comes.


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## Skyhawk85u (Dec 4, 2003)

Sorry to revive an older thread, but I have the same question about my 14 month old HD and it looks like things have changed a bit in the last couple of months. I'm looking at hopping over to Best Buy to pick up a My DVR for $150 today and being done with it, or buying a WD10EACS from Newegg for $130 (or a Seagate for $100 - which is better?) and dealing with upgrading the internal. I've done that before - my old S1 with upgraded internal drive from 1999 is still around the house somewhere so I can handle that. Given my history with TiVos the external drive will be more than enough space for me, but my biggest concern is reliability (I've read some of the threads about problems with the external drives.) So what do y'all think is the best way to go from a reliability point of view, internal (cheaper, more storage, but more work to implement)?


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Would this help you decide? Hitachi Deskstar 1000GB $99.99 (After mail in rebate)
Review the upgrade procedures and use the free version of the updated MFSTools2 at http://mfslive.org

If you go with the external drive check the e-SATA cable connection is firm somtimes it fits better if you swap ends. and power both the TiVo and Drive with a battery backup UPS.


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## Skyhawk85u (Dec 4, 2003)

Thanks - although I was thinking of going for this WD, apparently designed for DVRs: http://www.buy.com/prod/western-dig...erial-ata-300-serial/q/loc/101/206827123.html for $142 shipped. It's on the list on the first page of the upgrade FAQ and is supposed to be quiet, which is important to me. Really, I just want reliability. I hate the panic of seeing a crashed TiVo!!


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## txporter (Sep 18, 2006)

There seems to be a lot of issues with external drives lately on the forums (maybe it is just my impression). I had to recently divorce an external drive that was causing reboots on my TivoHD. I would recommend going for an internal drive upgrade. There are just fewer things that can go wrong in the long run since you don't have two drives that could possibly fail, or an enclosure that could fail, or have to worry about the esata connection, etc etc.

Also, should you ever need more recording space in the future...it is much easier to add an external at a later point without loosing any of your recordings.

Jason


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## Skyhawk85u (Dec 4, 2003)

Agreed. I ordered the WD10EVCS above this morning (yeah, I guess I could have saved a few bucks with a different drive, but this one feels more comfortable.) Looks like there aren't as many issues with these drive upgrades, although any drive can fail at any time...


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## donnoh (Mar 7, 2008)

I finally got around to upgrading my HD with the 1 TB Hitachi from Tiger Direct.

Easiest drive upgrade I've ever done, start to finish about an hour using WinMFS and a USB serial ATA adapter, not including taking it to work to use a PC with a serial ATA adapter to run the Hitachi tools on it. I didn't buy two adapters so I lost everything on the old drive but everything I really wanted I put on my PC with T2G.

Drive is very quiet, no difference from the stock WD and the temp is exactly the same, now what to do with 144 hours of HD programming storage!

The big thing now is in what decade will the rebate come?


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