# Adding a second internal drive to Tivo HD?



## Y2Bogus (Dec 23, 2005)

I'm in the process of upgrading my Tivo HD unit. It was easier than my original, since WinMFS came along.

When I popped open the unit, I was amazed at how much open space there is.



















I also noticed that the SATA headers are very nice standard connectors. So I got to thinking, would it be possible to put two drives inside the unit and forgo the external port?

The first questions that came to mind when I pondered that was,

A) Has anyone done this successfully?

B) Does the Tivo power supply offer enough current to power two drive simultaneously?

C) Since there is no second mounting plate, is there a third party brackett available (or announced) similar to the ones for Series 2?


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

Sure, there might be enough room to squeeze in a drive over the cablecard readers... but it's a lot more hassle than it's worth. Expanding onto an external drive will give you the exact same results without the decreased airflow, increased internal temps and strain on the power supply. There also aren't very many good anchor points for a bracket inside the unit. You might be able to fashion up something to hold the drive over the cable card readers, but then it's perilously close to the feared white cable, and you still have to solve the problem of getting power to the drive. It's just a lot of work to solve a problem that already has a solution in my opinion.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Y2Bogus: Don't let flatcurve get you down. I've already built a bracket for two additional internal drives. I'm now waiting on the drive spin delay adapters and trying to find some good gromets to mount them. The spin up draw of three drives at the same time is too much for the power supply BUT if you space them out by a second it works. If you are half way decent with a solder iron you can disable the on board array controller and enable direct access to the SATA port on the main CPU. Even if not a Silicon Image SATA to SATA controller with concatenation is supported.

My bracket mounts to the side of the existing drive (since its acoustically decoupled from the case) and then two feet rest between the motherboard and power supply. Odd pulsating vibrations are the main issue I'm currently trying to solve.

Flatcurve: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=390496


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## Tivo_60 (Jun 13, 2003)

@ ciper

I have a dead Tivo HD and downloaded an HD image with a file extension ending in "tbk".

Was that image created with Winmfs or MFS tools? In other words, if I am restoring this image to a new drive, which one should I use to do so ? THANKS


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Tivo_60 : Slightly off topic but yeah I'm the right guy. The image was created and tested with WinMFS but I see no reason it wouldn't work with either software assuming the drive size is supported on your boot CD.

Background: The Tivo was stock and had been in use for 3 months. I made a backup of the regular config (with season passes and such) for myself then put the stock drive back in the Tivo. I initiated C&DE and once it rebooted/finished I took the drive back out and made the image you are referring too. Compressing it with any of the common utilities only resulted in a ~5mb reduction in size so that is why its in the "raw" format.

If you are curious I also increased my VAR and Swap size during my drive upgrade. Look here http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=386645 and also the mfslive thread it links too for instructions on how to do it.


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## Tivo_60 (Jun 13, 2003)

As I suspected ciper.... 

The reason I asked is because of this statement in the WinMFS Guide -Restore:

_"Use this option to restore the image you created with backup. *It will not restore mfstools backup file*. 
As a matter of fact, backup format is totally different.
You will get a "hardware failure" error if you restore the backed up image and install the drive to another TiVo." _

I can only deduce that you *must* use the same program for backup and restore.

So, thank you for that and the additional info! I will definitely use WinMFS.


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

ciper said:


> Y2Bogus: Don't let flatcurve get you down. I've already built a bracket for two additional internal drives. I'm now waiting on the drive spin delay adapters and trying to find some good gromets to mount them. The spin up draw of three drives at the same time is too much for the power supply BUT if you space them out by a second it works. If you are half way decent with a solder iron you can disable the on board array controller and enable direct access to the SATA port on the main CPU. Even if not a Silicon Image SATA to SATA controller with concatenation is supported.
> 
> My bracket mounts to the side of the existing drive (since its acoustically decoupled from the case) and then two feet rest between the motherboard and power supply. Odd pulsating vibrations are the main issue I'm currently trying to solve.
> 
> Flatcurve: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=390496


I never said it was impossible. In fact, it sounds exactly like what I said it would be: A lot of work.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

flatcurve said:


> I never said it was impossible. In fact, it sounds exactly like what I said it would be: A lot of work.


Is it really that much work though? I find the kernel hacks to be fare more involved.



Tivo_60 said:


> WinMFS Guide -Restore:
> 
> _"Use this option to restore the image you created with backup. *It will not restore mfstools backup file*. _


You learn something new every day. How disappointing. The mkswap binary on the CD is broken and now I learn the restore binary isn't compatible with the common tools. I wish it would be fixed  MFSLive was "universal" where as WinMFS obviously requires Windows. Doesn't anyone else see that as a disadvantage?


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## Y2Bogus (Dec 23, 2005)

I was playing around with the interior space a bit yesterday. If I remove the eSATA plug and cable, I can comfortably fit both drives parallel to eachother on the left side of the unit. As a bonus, that makes the eSATA's port's screwholes available as a mounting point for a custom made bracket I can come up with.

The way I see it, the best scenario would be a mount that uses the 4 existing holes from the current mount, and then uses the 2 screwholes from the eSATA port for additional support. The only snag I could see here is clearance for the sata ports on the board, but that could easibly be overcome with some right-angle cables.

I don't see airflow as being too big an issue, I've been running a series 2 with a pair of 7200rpm drives in what is a more cramped space. It doesn't seem like it would be hard for someone to come up with some sort of fan assembly for it like the twinbreeze.

The power thing still worries me a bit. I've been running a series 2 without stagering the boot ups for a good number of years and haven't had any issues.


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## Tivo_60 (Jun 13, 2003)

ciper said:


> You learn something new every day. How disappointing. The mkswap binary on the CD is broken and now I learn the restore binary isn't compatible with the common tools. I wish it would be fixed  MFSLive was "universal" where as WinMFS obviously requires Windows. Doesn't anyone else see that as a disadvantage?


Defintely a disadvanatge. Additionally, if the backups are incompatible, why don't they create with a different file extension, to avoid confusion ?


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