# 1T HD recommendations



## Christian Dad (Oct 27, 2005)

Greetings all

Could you guys please provide feedback on these four drives:

Western Digital WD10EACS
Seagate ST31000340AS
Samsung HD103UJ
Hitachi HDS721010KLA330 (0A35155)

I recently bought a TiVo HD, and now need to upgrade to more space. I'm set on a full T-byte. These are all currently priced $249 - $279, but I'm not sure which to get. Is there anything wrong with any of these? Is there anyone who is using a 1TB drive?


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

WD - some people had problem with the OEM version on THD so it's best avoid that model. 
Seagate - No AAM so it's going to be loud. 
Samsung - good.
Hitachi - good.


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## Christian Dad (Oct 27, 2005)

spike2k5 said:


> WD - some people had problem with the OEM version on THD so it's best avoid that .
> Seagate - No AAM so it's going to be loud.
> Samsung - good.
> Hitachi - good.


Thanks, Spike. And thanks for (adopting) the software as well.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

For the new THD I went with the WD now if UPS would just deliver it. Reading the comments about the drive you may need to prep it with the Data Lifeguard Tools in a PC first. I should know more on Friday.

<Venting> Not (currently) happy with NewEgg/UPS. ordered 12/20 paid for the 3 day delivery the package is still bouncing between HODGKINS and FRANKLIN PARK, IL, with a rescheduled delivery Thursday 01/03  1 week after the original delivery estimate. </Venting>


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## Christian Dad (Oct 27, 2005)

HomeUser said:


> For the new THD I went with the WD now if UPS would just deliver it. Reading the comments about the drive you may need to prep it with the Data Lifeguard Tools in a PC first. I should know more on Friday.
> 
> <Venting> Not (currently) happy with NewEgg/UPS. ordered 12/20 paid for the 3 day delivery the package is still bouncing between HODGKINS and FRANKLIN PARK, IL, with a rescheduled delivery Thursday 01/03  1 week after the original delivery estimate. </Venting>


I just ordered the Hitachi from NewEgg  I'll keep y'all posted.


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## chaz155 (Nov 4, 2003)

Christian Dad said:


> Greetings all
> 
> Could you guys please provide feedback on these four drives:
> 
> ...


just upgraded mine with an hitachi cinemastar 1tb drive using winmfs. could not have been easier. less than 30 minutes after cracking the case on the hd, i was up to 144 hrs hd and over 1300 sd.

im happy and i think you will be too with your choice.

C


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

Hopefully, Spike can tell me how I can download winmfs.

I registered there a while back and either I missed the confirmation email or maybe since I never posted there, I cannot log in to download winmfs. It tells me to contact the forum admin but doesn't explain how to contact.

Spike, if you see this post, can you help? PM me if necessary.

I picked up that external 1TB Hitachi @ BB this past Nov and am looking to upgrade the drive in my new Tivo HD.

Is the mfslive boot cd just as easy? I do have that but it seems a little confusing.


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## pcar1947 (Nov 12, 2003)

http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/


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## Christian Dad (Oct 27, 2005)

Greetings all

You're right... easy as can be, with the exception of a bit of my own fear and ignorance.

I started at 11:55 this afternoon by popping the lid to my TiVo HD. After removing the two SATA connectors (power and data), the drive mounting bracket, and the drive from the bracket, I connected both drives via SATA to my PC. I didn't go the USB/SATA route because I'm no stranger to rocket surgery on my PC, and I really couldn't think of a use for the converters outside of this purpose... and I'm a tight-wad at heart 

Windows "detected" the presence of both drives, but did nothing to them. I executed the WinMFS application, selected the TiVo drive. An extra main menu item then appeared. I must say that, having read the direction, this was initially a cause for concern... I wan't sure if there was something wrong.

Anyway. I backed up not only the TiVo drive (sans recordings), the Bootpage, and the Kernel... just in case. Who cares, they're small, and it falls squarely in to the toilet-paper principle... "Better to have and not need, than need and not have". Next was the MFSCopy. Source Drive A (TiVo WD 160GB), and destination Drive A (Hitachi 1TB) and let her rip.

I forgot to disable the screensaver, so I couldn't tell when it was done. When I got tired of waiting, I min-max the the app, and it was OK. The app found some extra space and asked if I wanted to expand... yes... done.

Remounted, reassembled, reconnected, and viola...










There is is folks 

The only thing of note... when disconnecting from my PC, the Hitachi drive was HOT (uncomfortably warm) to the touch. Also, while the TiVo is running, I can hear the drive head click a bit.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Congratulations on your 1TB TiVo.

There is a utility for Hitachi drives that can "Change the drive automatic acoustic management settings" and "Switch between lowest and highest power consumption (maximum performance level)." see Hitachi Downloads and Utilities You probably want to put the drive back in the PC and set some of these.

Update on the WD10EACS I ran the manufactures diagnostics on the drive and SpinRite at level 4. Last night I installed it in a new TiVo HD so far (knock on wood) no problems yet. I was surprised how cool the drive runs after running SpinRite the drive was comfortably warm unfortunately S.M.A.R.T was not accessible so there was no temperature reading from SpinRite.


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

Christian Dad said:


> Greetings all
> 
> You're right... easy as can be, with the exception of a bit of my own fear and ignorance.
> 
> ...


One question: Why didn't you supersize?

Are there disadvantages to supersizing?

I also just upgraded my Tivo HD today with the drive from the Hitachi external TB. I was not able to run the Hitachi utility on this drive, I guess due to my mb not being native SATA(sata drives show as being 3rd and 4th ata drives). I guess it is using kind of built in ide to sata adapters which the utility apparent can't work through. The drive still seems literally silent and is relatively cool. When "idle", it reads at 32C in my 65C room. Right now, it is recording 1 show and transferring another from pc and is reading 40C.

I agree, the backup and upgrade is very easy with winmfs.

However, I was not able to figure out how to use mfscopy, so I just settled for the upgrade with the truncated backup. I did supersize and now have 144hrs HD, 1367 SD.

Thanks again to Spike for enabling me to log in at mfslive.org so I could downlod the program.

Thanks to all here also.


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

dwit said:


> When "idle", it reads at 32C in my 65C room.


I'd hate to pay your heating bill (you meant 65F, right?)


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

lafos said:


> I'd hate to pay your heating bill (you meant 65F, right?)


Oh yeah. Got carried away with the C.


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## mpartyka (Feb 7, 2008)

chaz155 said:


> just upgraded mine with an hitachi cinemastar 1tb drive using winmfs. could not have been easier. less than 30 minutes after cracking the case on the hd, i was up to 144 hrs hd and over 1300 sd.
> 
> im happy and i think you will be too with your choice.
> 
> C


Can someone help me understand why the screenshots in this thread show TiVo's that can record up to 131 hours HD content with a 1TB drive but others are reporting thier TiVo's show 144 hours of HD content capable?

I upgraded my TiVo HD yesterday using the Hitachi 1TB drive and it was VERY easy, but just like the screenshots in this thread my TiVo reports it can record up to 131 hours of HD content. Is there some trick to getting more out of your drive? or is this a difference between WD, and HDS disks? Comcast is coming out to install the Cablecards tomorrow morning so if there is something i can do to get an extra 13 hours of of HD recording i want to do it now.

Thanks,


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## mpartyka (Feb 7, 2008)

mpartyka said:


> Can someone help me understand why the screenshots in this thread show TiVo's that can record up to 131 hours HD content with a 1TB drive but others are reporting thier TiVo's show 144 hours of HD content capable?
> 
> I upgraded my TiVo HD yesterday using the Hitachi 1TB drive and it was VERY easy, but just like the screenshots in this thread my TiVo reports it can record up to 131 hours of HD content. Is there some trick to getting more out of your drive? or is this a difference between WD, and HDS disks? Comcast is coming out to install the Cablecards tomorrow morning so if there is something i can do to get an extra 13 hours of of HD recording i want to do it now.
> 
> Thanks,


Scratch this question, the option i missed was the "Supersize" to gain 10%. I didn't see this option because i used the live CD but X11 didn't start so all i have was the command prompt where i did a backup|restore. I'll do it again in Windows using WinMFS. I used the live CD because i thought the instructions about removing the windows drive and not mounting the TiVo disks in windows confusing. It sounds like the procedure is:

1. power off windows box
2. (do nothing with windows disk) attach TiVo source SATA disk and TiVo destination disk
3. boot into windows normally
4. fire up winmfs executable, use mfsadd to copy to new larger disk and expand capacity
5. again using mfsadd use supersize option to gain 10% extra capacity

If i have this wrong, someone please correct me.

Thx


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## entropy (Apr 1, 2002)

Samsung has a new version of their 1T drive, the F1R. They call it "RAID class" and in enterprise applications (whatever that actually means) it comes with a *seven* year warranty. They claim it's low-power and low-noise, and suitable for 24/7 operation. Street price is rumored to be $300.

http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/disk/samsung-1tb-spinpoint-f1-sata-enterprise


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