# How long will 1TB drive last?



## GarKar (Dec 29, 2003)

I have a 3.5 year old S3 that I manually upgraded to a 1TB Western Digital drive 3 years ago using WinMFS. I'm still running without noticeable problems, but how long should I expect this to last? I still have the original 3 year old image, but should I make another system image currently in case of problems? Since HD shows cannot be transferred and I have some archived, should I copy the shows too? Should I use any of the kickstart diagnostics to evaluate the drive or is there a better way? Thanks in advance. I haven't been on this forum much since I have been trouble-free for a long time.


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

I have a 1 TB drive on my DirecTV dvr that started its life in my Series 3. It is now 5 years old.

I never had good luck with DVR drives before that, but I bought the same model that was in the TiVo HD (can't remember the exact model.)


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

You can always try the kickstart 54 code which is the S.M.A.R.T. test for the drive and see if there are any issues with it. Since its a 1TB drive you might wanna start it when you leave for work in the morning or when you go to sleep at night because it will take quite a few hours to do.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

My experience based on IDE drives in DVRs, about 5 years on average, but I don't have any failures yet with SATA drives. I have 4 drives running constantly now, 2 160GB, 1 500GB and 1 1TB drive, no failures with 3-4 years on the drives.

It doesn't matter what anybody says in any event, the drive will last a long time or it won't, failures can't be predicted ahead of time. I haven't read anything that makes me believe modern drives will last longer but it is too early to know for sure.


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## GarKar (Dec 29, 2003)

Thank you for the responses. It seemed like I never had an ide drive in my S2 last more than 2-3 years. So far, so good on this 1TB sata. I may try the kickstart 54 test to see if any issues are reported. Would it be a good idea to get a current system image with Winmfs in case of future problems?


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## blacknoi (Jan 23, 2006)

This topic is very timely. I have a HD and an original Series3 with upgraded 1TB drives. They will be 4 and 3 years old respectively relative to when I did their drive upgrade.

No issues so far knock on wood. I have their original hard drives in storage, but might want to make a more recent backup (for season passes etc) from the currently installed drives.

How large is a backup of just the system partitions on an HD and S3 unit (no shows)?


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

GarKar said:


> I have a 3.5 year old S3 that I manually upgraded to a 1TB Western Digital drive 3 years ago using WinMFS. I'm still running without noticeable problems, but how long should I expect this to last? I still have the original 3 year old image, but should I make another system image currently in case of problems? Since HD shows cannot be transferred and I have some archived, should I copy the shows too? Should I use any of the kickstart diagnostics to evaluate the drive or is there a better way? Thanks in advance. I haven't been on this forum much since I have been trouble-free for a long time.


Hard to tell how long it will last. I've had S1 boxes with the original drives still working just fine. As for images, there are ones available if you search the thread in the Upgrade Forum. Any shows you want to save can be copied to your PC (if the copyright flag is not set) using TIvo Desktop, kmttg, or pyTivo. All are free programs.


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## S3-2501 (Jun 2, 2007)

FWIW, yesterday I had a WD10EVDS die on me after almost exactly two years. I had to unplug my TivoHD, and when I plugged it back in the drive made a strange sound like it was struggling to spin up. The Tivo never made it past the powering up screen. Sure enough, after removing the drive and plugging it into a separate power supply, the drive makes strange electronic sounds, but those eventually stop and the drive never manages to spin up. Thankfully, it's still under warranty and I've already arranged for an RMA replacement via WD's website. When the replacement process is complete I will be posting the details of my experience over in the upgrade thread.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

I have a five-year-old S3 with the original drive, and it just died a couple days ago. That's a 250 GB drive, of course, for whatever difference it might make.

It's just old enough to make it tricky to find a replacement drive. Everything's SATA now. I'm looking at a refurbished 250 GB from Newegg.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> I have a five-year-old S3 with the original drive, and it just died a couple days ago. That's a 250 GB drive, of course, for whatever difference it might make.
> 
> It's just old enough to make it tricky to find a replacement drive. Everything's SATA now. I'm looking at a refurbished 250 GB from Newegg.


The S3 uses SATA drives so it should not be a problem finding a drive. Any reason you would not want to go with a 1TB?

I've been very happy with the WD10EVCS and would probably consider the current version.

Scott


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> I have a five-year-old S3 with the original drive, and it just died a couple days ago. That's a 250 GB drive, of course, for whatever difference it might make.
> 
> It's just old enough to make it tricky to find a replacement drive. Everything's SATA now. I'm looking at a refurbished 250 GB from Newegg.


Even if that were a Series 1 or Series 2, it'd work fine with a SATA drive and the right SATA/IDE adapter, as long as it wasn't a Caviar Blue in an S1.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

HerronScott said:


> The S3 uses SATA drives


Does it really? Huh. Shows what I know. Thanks.



> _Any reason you would not want to go with a 1TB?_


None at all. I just had this idea that the S3 still used IDE drives, and I couldn't find a larger one for a good price.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

GarKar said:


> I'm still running without noticeable problems, but how long should I expect this to last?


Touch wood I've had drives last 10 years; I've had drives fail in a couple of years.
The answer is there is no definite answer.
If you are that concerned. Get a replacement drive of the same size. Then after giving it a good torture test.

Do a bit copy of the existing drive. That will preserve all current data.



GarKar said:


> I still have the original 3 year old image, but should I make another system image currently in case of problems?
> 
> Since HD shows cannot be transferred and I have some archived, should I copy the shows too?


See above.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> None at all. I just had this idea that the S3 still used IDE drives, and I couldn't find a larger one for a good price.


No, the original S3 was the first TiVo to use SATA drives. There are some specific drives that can give trouble, most notably Intellipark drives. This issue (won't soft reboot) can usually be circumvented by running the WDIDLE utility and disabling Intellipark. See the S3 hard drive upgrade thread for more info.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

GarKar said:


> Since HD shows cannot be transferred


Who says? HD shows can be transferred like any others. Copy protected (CCI > 0x00) shows cannot be transferred from an unmodified TiVo, but that is true whether the show is SD or HD.


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## sender_name (Feb 12, 2005)

I have a S2 with the original Drive from 2003....Still going strong. I vacuum it out once a year to clear all the dust. I have a backup of the drive image and a S3 with a 1TB in it...

I never came across the WDIDLE utility...what a relief. I had to try 3 different 1TB drives before i got the Retail one that works for the S3 back then. I have a Home Theater network with over 6TB as a result...


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Teeps said:


> Touch wood I've had drives last 10 years


At work I have several dozen embedded systems whose hard drives have been spinning continuously since circa 1994.



Teeps said:


> I've had drives fail in a couple of years.


... and I've had a number fail out of the box.



Teeps said:


> The answer is there is no definite answer.


Good answer.


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## DTxAg (Jun 25, 2011)

The drive I put in the original S3 on its release day is still chugging along fine.


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## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

Teeps said:


> ...Get a replacement drive of the same size. Then after giving it a good torture test.
> 
> Do a bit copy of the existing drive. That will preserve all current data.
> See above.


Would I be able to clone my S3 WD1TEARS harddrive to a 1.5 WD without any problems? or is it better just to use another WD 1T?

I have a dual HDD dock that I plan to use to clone the HD that is in my S3 right now.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

S3 boxes were always easy to go to a larger hard drive using winMFS. I went from the stock 250GB drives, to 500GB drives to the Hitachi 1TB drives when they were released in early 2007. My girlfriend still has two of my original s3 boxes with those Hitachi 1TB, five platter drives in them and they are still going strong, 5+ years later.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

rainbow said:


> Would I be able to clone my S3 WD1TEARS harddrive to a 1.5 WD without any problems? or is it better just to use another WD 1T?
> 
> I have a dual HDD dock that I plan to use to clone the HD that is in my S3 right now.


I don't know if you can use a larger drive if you're copying bit for bit.
The worst thing that can happen is you lose all the data, if it goes wrong or TiVo rejects the copy.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

rainbow said:


> Would I be able to clone my S3 WD1TEARS harddrive to a 1.5 WD without any problems? or is it better just to use another WD 1T?
> 
> I have a dual HDD dock that I plan to use to clone the HD that is in my S3 right now.


I assume you mean a WD10EARS and an original S3 (TCD648250).

You should be able to use

dd_rescue

or something similar to do a byte for byte copy.

I beleive others have used 1.2TB of 1.5TB drives in an original S3, so the drive should work, but you probably won't be able to expand it any further than the 1TB you "Xerox" over to it.

Someone else will have to answer as to whether the dual dock will let you do this or if each drive will need its own connection.


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## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

unitron said:


> ...I assume you mean a WD10EARS and an original S3 (TCD648250)....


correct/original S3 plus upgraded 1T HD, which turns out to be WD10EVDS. My tivo was rebooting every 15min or so last nt, so I went ahead and disconnected it. Was hoping it was not the case, but it is the ..... CAPACITORS...

I have another orig S3 I had bought years ago, but ended up not subbing. So I had that one to compare my lifetime one to. A definite difference. Now I have to find someone to replace them.

I was really bummed last night - missing my TIVO

I figure I will try tonight to clone the HD to a WD2TEARS that I have, just in case.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

rainbow said:


> correct/original S3 plus upgraded 1T HD, which turns out to be WD10EVDS. My tivo was rebooting every 15min or so last nt, so I went ahead and disconnected it. Was hoping it was not the case, but it is the ..... CAPACITORS...
> 
> I have another orig S3 I had bought years ago, but ended up not subbing. So I had that one to compare my lifetime one to. A definite difference. Now I have to find someone to replace them.
> 
> ...


Do you have recordings that you're trying to save?


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## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

unitron said:


> Do you have recordings that you're trying to save?


Yep - a whole bunch. lots of movies I saved when the pay stations were unscrambled that hadn't watched yet and a bunch of other stuff....almost the whole hard drive in fact...


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

rainbow said:


> Yep - a whole bunch. lots of movies I saved when the pay stations were unscrambled that hadn't watched yet and a bunch of other stuff....almost the whole hard drive in fact...


As I mentioned to you or somebody entirely else around here recently, you can use something like

dd_rescue

to "Xerox" a 1TB to a same or larger size drive and then "Xerox" it to another 1TB drive later.

I don't know for certain that an original S3 can handle a 2TB, regardless of how much or little of it is actually used. 1.5 with only 1.2 used may be the limit without some aftermarket voodoo that we mere mortals don't know how to do.

But you can still back up the drive to the 2TB until you can get a replacement 1TB.

It'll go something like

dd_rescue -v /dev/sda /dev/sdb

until you get an EndOfFile error message.

Your drive names may vary.


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## jeffw_00 (Sep 19, 2000)

OP asked a question no-one answered. Archived programs aside, is there any reason to make a new backup every couple of years?


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## GBL (Apr 20, 2000)

jeffw_00 said:


> OP asked a question no-one answered. Archived programs aside, is there any reason to make a new backup every couple of years?


Not really. Having _a_ backup is important if you want to be able to prepare a new HD for your TiVo rather quickly. An older version will get upgraded to the latest version automatically in a few days.


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## jeffw_00 (Sep 19, 2000)

thx


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

Should last as long as any other drive lasts. My original, upgraded, S1 has been reliably putting along since late Y2K. Maybe 10 or less TiVos later I've had only one drive failure...on an upgraded S2DT a few years ago. Have four running at the moment, including the S1.


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## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

ltxi said:


> Should last as long as any other drive lasts. My original, upgraded, S1 has been reliably putting along since late Y2K. Maybe 10 or less TiVos later I've had only one drive failure...on an upgraded S2DT a few years ago. Have four running at the moment, including the S1.


My Philips Tivo S1 is on its 3rd replacement hard drive since 2001. The first upgrade drive in my S3 lasted just over a year, but the second has been running for 3 or 4. I'd estimate well over half of the upgraded drives I've installed for friends or family lasted until the devices themselves were retired.

It's probably part "luck" and part ventilation. YMMV.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Using a UPS should help as well. The power going on and off rapidily over a short time period will not help devices. So a UPS will avoid that.


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

I upgraded my old Series 1 in 2003 with a Samsung drive. It's been running fine since, in use 24x7x365, roughly 9 years ago.

I added a ESATA expansion drive to my Series 3 HD in 2007, also a Samsung mechanism, roughly 5 years ago. Runs great. 

Personally, I've never had a SAMSUNG drive fail on me. Incredible. 

All of my computers, laptops and desktops, have been upgraded to SAMSUNG drives now. 

I have a 11 year old MAC G4 QuickSilver desktop that has been running on a SAMSUNG drive for 9 years without a glitch. 

(all spinning drives will fail at some point, so given that I may be running on borrowed time, when a failure does occur on one of these drives, it will still have gotten outstanding service from SAMSUNG. And no, I don't work for them!)


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## GarKar (Dec 29, 2003)

So I ran the kickstart 54 on my 3 year upgraded 1Tb drive and everything passed with flying colors. I have started experiencing dropouts on my digital channels. Cable co says their signal is fine, but my channels come and go.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

GarKar said:


> So I ran the kickstart 54 on my 3 year upgraded 1Tb drive and everything passed with flying colors. I have started experiencing dropouts on my digital channels. Cable co says their signal is fine, but my channels come and go.


Do you mean dropouts while the channel is on, or the channel can't be found by the TiVo?

'Cause I'm always seeing problems that are in the signal before it ever gets to the TiVo or the TV.


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## GarKar (Dec 29, 2003)

Our new cable company, Baja Broadband, (formerly USCable) added some channels recently. Every time I go into settings to the channel list and add the new channels, when I return to live tv, I begin to experience missing digital channels. Just a black screen when I go to a channel that should work. If I go back into the channel list, the new channels have become unchecked. Then the channels work again and I can see them in live tv.


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## Joe01880 (Feb 8, 2009)

I have owned 2 1TB WD My DVR expanders purchased a few months apart. Each died within 2 years of use and that was it for me with external drives. I bought 2 2TB internal drive for my THD and Premiere from DVR_DUDE on eBay.They are both going strong so far (knock on wood)


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