# What is the easiest and best way to add or change HD



## steff3 (Sep 17, 2005)

Hi,
I currently have the D* HR10- 250 and with the upcoming new TV season, I am considering to increase storage space. I am *mildly to fairly* literate when it comes to my PC. I notice reference to Instant Cake and Weakness. My question is which of these are best recommended for ease of use and quality. Price is of course a concern also.

Is there an easy to follow, step by step, guide to the upgrade that a novice can follow?

I have also read on these forums where some have experienced the unit rebooting quite often after adding a second drive. Would it be better to replace with one larger drive or is it okay to ad say a 500 GB drive to the existing drive? The unit is about 10 months old.

These may seem a tad ridicules to those of you that do this stuff in your sleep and I apologize but the only way to learn............................. 

Thanks to all, I have picked up much from these forums, in fact I hardly even read all my email these days due to I am always checking the forums for the latest, greatest!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

*DO NOT JUST ADD THE 500G DRIVE* the default swap partition on the original drive is not larger enough for the additional space.

The easiest way would be to purchase an pre-configured drive from one of the forum sponsors.

For DYI see Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions (from the sticky at the top of this forum)

NOTE: Instead of the default 127M swap used in the WeaKnees instructions make the swap 250M or larger for the 500G drive Note: Partitions made with MFSTools that are larger then 127 will need adjustment with a program called TPIP before use in the TiVo.


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

I just did a Weaknees 300gb add-a-drive
http://www.weaknees.com/details2/as300hr10.php
Drive comes ready to use, I also am fairly computer literate, but didn't want to deal with prepping a drive, or screwing something up and rendering my TiVo useless, and missing Prison Break on Monday.

Couldn't be easier to install.
20-30 minutes of my time and I now have 70 HD hours, 470 SD hours.

I'd recommend them.

phox


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

> DO NOT JUST ADD THE 500G DRIVE


Down Boy! No need to shout (we can read you just fine).


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## steff3 (Sep 17, 2005)

phox_mulder said:


> I just did a Weaknees 300gb add-a-drive
> http://www.weaknees.com/details2/as300hr10.php
> Drive comes ready to use, I also am fairly computer literate, but didn't want to deal with prepping a drive, or screwing something up and rendering my TiVo useless, and missing Prison Break on Monday.
> 
> ...


Thanks, that is what I was thinking. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks that way.  Install pretty straight forward? Have you had any problems with the unit rebooting as I have read?

Thanks


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

steff3 said:


> Thanks, that is what I was thinking. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks that way.  Install pretty straight forward? Have you had any problems with the unit rebooting as I have read?
> 
> Thanks


ask them what size swap file comes on the drive to make sure they allowed enough room for the size drive. Swap file needs to be at least 1 meg for every two gig of hard drive.

I use the ptvupgrade cd rom and instructions in here. I did it myself because I could get the drive(500gig) for 180$ vs a higher price from weakness for just 300Gig. it was really easy but the drive is fairly noisy as it writes (maxtor) so you get what you pay for. The DT is running smooth and fast even with 7.3.1 updtated on it after I did the hard drive upgrade, not a single reboot or GSOD. Happily complaining because 200 suggestions are hard to look thorugh


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## steff3 (Sep 17, 2005)

ZeoTiVo said:


> I use the ptvupgrade cd rom and instructions in here


by here you mean somewhere in this forum?

.............................


ZeoTiVo said:


> Happily complaining because 200 suggestions are hard to look thorugh


LOL. 

Thanks for the info.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

steff3 said:


> by here you mean somewhere in this forum?
> 
> .............................


Weaknees' thread at the top of this forum.


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

steff3 said:


> Thanks, that is what I was thinking. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks that way.  Install pretty straight forward? Have you had any problems with the unit rebooting as I have read?
> 
> Thanks


No problems at all, booted right up no worries.

It did need to get some info from the satellite before the guide would show up,
and not all my OTA locals were there right away, but they showed up pretty quickly,
but either the instructions or the FAQ said both of these might happen.

phox


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