# Upgrade Hard Drive Types



## rz1224 (Jun 5, 2003)

Hey all-- I've gotta do some work on my upgraded tivo and I figure I might as well upgrade my (& my sister's & mom's)other tivo as well as long as I've got the pc pulled apart. It's been awhile since I've done an upgrade and I was just wondering if there is now a specific type of harddrive I'll need. I know in the past I've used the 5400 rpm drives as they supposedly ran cooler. is this still a concern as there aren't many of those around anymore?

Found this Maxtor Ultra Series 200GB Hard Drive (7200RPM, Internal, SATA/150) on sale at CompUSA's website for $49.99 after rebates. Seems like a great deal--would it work OK in a Series 2 tivo?


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

Nope. SATA drives only in series 3. You need PATA (parallel) hard drives for any series one or two.

If you are just putting one drive in each tivo then heat is not an issue. Most TiVo gurus are recommending one drive only to simplify diagnosis when there are problems.


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## granoff (Jul 9, 2001)

This thread is unbelievably timely!

My 80hr S2 is beginning to moan and stutter. I am not thrilled at the prospect of having to remove my S2 from the AV cabinet or tear apart a PC, but alas, I guess it must be done. (I'm thinking I will use MFS Live, btw, because I want to save recordings and settings and the like.)

I was wondering, then, if there are any brands or varieties (other than SATA) of drives to favor or stay away from? Is Seagate better than Maxtor better than Western Digital, or what? What's the preferred brand? RPMs? Cache size? Seek time? Will _any_ IDE drive do, or should I get only ATA133? etc...

I'm planning on upgrading if I have to do this as well. Is there a maximum upper size I need to be aware of?

Thanks!

-Mark


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## granoff (Jul 9, 2001)

Another question: Any reason _not_ to use a Perpendicular Recording drive in a TiVo?

-Mark


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

No reason not to use Perpendicular recording, the TiVo won't care.

I prefer WD and Samsung drives. It is my personal choice though. Others may prefer other brands.

Oh, and just likely, you could possibly use PATA to SATA dapters to use an SATA drive on older TiVos.


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## granoff (Jul 9, 2001)

Great. Thanks!

I ordered a 320GB Seagate "Perpendicular Recording" drive from Newegg today for about $97. That'll be a nice upgrade from 80GB! $100 was my spending limit. It looks like a nice drive, with about a 4ms seek time and a 16MB cache.

I am planning on using MFSLive this weekend (assuming the drive shows up in time.)

-Mark


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

classicsat said:


> I prefer WD... Others may prefer other brands.


+1


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

FWIW From my experiences with drive failures: 
Maxtor drives run way too hot and self destruct.
WD drives uses circuit board with tin connections that corrode.
Seagate drives are noisy and consume slightly higher current.​


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## rz1224 (Jun 5, 2003)

Does it matter if it's ATA, ATA/100 or ATA/133?


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## Pauli (Mar 1, 2004)

rz1224 said:


> Does it matter if it's ATA, ATA/100 or ATA/133?


No. If a drive supports ATA/133 then it is backwards compatible with motherboards that only support lower specifications.


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## earl7399 (Feb 16, 2007)

I have a Series 2 80HR TiVo. How do I find out what type of drive it supports? I'm pretty experienced with PC teardowns, builds, and fixes. Are there any issues with installing a new HD in a TiVo that I should know about?

Thanks!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

You need an EIDE drive. Cache and speed are not important total power consumption is.

Forget what you have learned about adding drives in a PC you do not need to pre partition or format the drive MFStools will do that for you. TiVo uses a combination of Linux and modified Apple partitions. Booting windows with a TiVo drive in the system is not good Windows sometimes puts a signature on the drive which corrupts the TiVo boot area.

To copy and expand (add partitions) to a new drive you need a program called MFSTools. there is a new version out called MFSLive you can find interactive instructions on there web site.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

I don't know how widely available Samsung drives are in the US, but they are ideal for TiVo use and very reliable IME. 

The new 400gb HD400LD drives are very quiet and run relatively cool too.


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## granoff (Jul 9, 2001)

I am pleased to report that today I upgraded both of my TiVos successfully, using MFSLive!

I upgraded the failing 80GB drive in my 240-series S2 with a 320GB Seagate drive (as mentioned previously in this thread). MFSLive took about 40 minutes to copy about 54GB of data. I preserved recordings.

This worked so well that I rushed right out and snatched up a 200GB Maxtor drive on sale this week at Staples for $40, and upgraded my 40 hr 540-series S2. MFSLive took about 15 minutes to copy about 34GB of data (recordings preserved).

I am a very happy camper now! 

-Mark


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