# 3TB upgrade - the easier way



## benw46 (Dec 21, 2015)

All this talk about 4TB upgrades but opening an external drive and cancelling the warranty didn't seem like the way to go. Lacking any other experience, I decided to go with the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3TB 2.5 inch drive with a 3 year warranty. The hardest part was opening the Tivo. The first time I got a boot failure with no error messages, just repeated reboots. The second time I found the SATA cable at the motherboard had popped off (note to Tivo - locking cables are cheap). I rebooted, the Tivo formatter did it's thing, completed setup and updates, and I had a big working Tivo!

To top it all off, System Information says I have 478 hours of HD and 3289 hours of SD. I can only guess that is because I stuck with Tivo's native format. If anyone has a better explanation, I would love to hear it.

One other note, the security screw is a T8 torx security, not a T10. I was able to get it out with a regular torx bit and did not put it back in. The internal screws are regular torx T10.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

If the cable at the motherboard was not on, then maybe it got loose from pulling on the cable? I don't know. I've put drives in Bolts at least seven times now. The motherboard cable has never come loose.


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## rici (Dec 22, 2015)

I can't find that particular Toshiba HD at Newegg. Where did you buy it? Are there other 3TB internal drives that would work? Thanks!


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## colo_artist (Aug 28, 2013)

rici said:


> I can't find that particular Toshiba HD at Newegg. Where did you buy it? Are there other 3TB internal drives that would work? Thanks!


I got my MQ03ABB300 drive from MacSales (OWC). Good company, prompt service. 
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Toshiba/MQ03ABB300/

No problems with the install whatsoever.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

colo_artist said:


> I got my MQ03ABB300 drive from MacSales (OWC). Good company, prompt service.
> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Toshiba/MQ03ABB300/
> 
> No problems with the install whatsoever.


Expensive considering the 4TB drive, in the external enclosure, is under $130. And if someone is careful they could remove it from the enclosure carefully and be able to put it back if there were an issue. But me, I just destroyed the enclosures getting the drives out. And threw the enclosures away.

The 2.5 inch, 4TB drives, should show up soon to purchase by themselves(no idea what the cost would be). And also 2.5 inch, 5TB drives, should show up soon in external enclosures.


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## colo_artist (Aug 28, 2013)

aaronwt said:


> Expensive considering the 4TB drive, in the external enclosure, is under $130. And if someone is careful they could remove it from the enclosure carefully and be able to put it back if there were an issue. But me, I just destroyed the enclosures getting the drives out. And threw the enclosures away.
> 
> The 2.5 inch, 4TB drives, should show up soon to purchase by themselves(no idea what the cost would be). And also 2.5 inch, 5TB drives, should show up soon in external enclosures.


True a 4TB drive would have been $50 less, but 3TB was enough space for me and the drop in and play simplicity of the smaller drive worth it to me. Plus it was something I could do now and not in the future. I'm happy with my 3TBolt. ;^)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

colo_artist said:


> True a 4TB drive would have been $50 less, but 3TB was enough space for me and the drop in and play simplicity of the smaller drive worth it to me. Plus it was something I could do now and not in the future. I'm happy with my 3TBolt. ;^)


Even if I went the route of a 3TB drive. I would still use the same process as the 4TB drive using the MFS Reformatter program. Because 


ggieseke said:


> ..............It aligns the MFS file (application) and inode "zones" correctly for Advanced Format (4K) drives. That should improve performance and reduce wear & tear on the drive..........


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