# Seagate 1.5TB: compatible with TivoHD?



## GoldenTiger (Apr 11, 2002)

Has anyone installed the Seagate 1.5TB hard drive as a secondary drive for a TiVo HD unit? I currently have a 500GB drive in as the sole drive, and want to slap this 1.5TB drive into an enclosure then marry it with WinMFS. Do the tools allow for this, and is it stable? I have heard conflicting reports as to whether anything above 1TB works as a stable TiVo HD drive.

Yes, I know about the reliability issues of the drive itself: I'm making sure to get one from the new batch.

Thanks!


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Haven't heard any reports of installing it as a secondary drive. 

I know (from first hand experience) that it doesn't work as the primary drive in a TiVo HD. 

But that's a partition size issue (the main partition is bigger than the current TiVo kernel can handle). And I don't know how the partitions are split up when you configure it for a secondary drive.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

I would avoid the seagate 1.5TB drive - even if it works with TiVo, the drive has issues that would make it unsuitable for TiVo use.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15837
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15863


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

I am not sure if this information is still correct but it seems that with the right tool you could use the 1.5tb drive as the primary on a TivoHD if you limited the used space to 1,258TB. From http://mfslive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=257

Now my question is - with the current latest version of software installed what is the absolute maximum usable space on the A drive? Same question for the B drive.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

There's a firmware issue with the 1.5TB units. You'd need to contact Seagate tech support if your 1.5TB is affected by the firmware glitch. They'll send you a file that you can burn to CD and flash the firmware in the affected drive(s). There are threads at the Seagate support forum and the AVSForums in the Home Theater PC section that discuss the problem in detail. One of the issues involves using the drive with Linux, so it could definitely be a problem when using it in a Tivo.

Here's a link to the discussion thread at the AVSForums:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1080005


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

The "freeze when flushing cache" issue on the ST31500341AS isn't tickled by the TiVO software, as far as I can tell after using one in a tivo for a month or so. I saw it immediately on my linux systems when using the drives in an mdraid. I took the firmware update for the TiVo drive anyway (SD17 to SD1A).

The (9.x) tivo kernels have a partition size limit of 1TiB, which limits the ability to use the full size of the disk on a TiVo. I posted a custom kernel with a patch that fixes this over on DDB, but that's only useful to you if you've replaced your PROM to allow booting an unsigned kernel -- not a solution for the masses.

[edit: It is possible the kernel partition size limit issue has been fixed in the 11.x kernels -- I haven't had a chance to check that yet.]


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

This bug is _EXTREMELY_ similar to the old Quantum bigfoot drives. They would crap out because of downloads from the internet over a 56k modem for essentially the same reason. Qauntum eventually sent a firmware fix but for many it was too late.


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## [NG]Owner (Dec 19, 2006)

JamieP said:


> [edit: It is possible the kernel partition size limit issue has been fixed in the 11.x kernels -- I haven't had a chance to check that yet.]


Anyone check this yet?

[NG]Owner


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

[NG]Owner;6901731 said:


> Anyone check this yet?
> 
> [NG]Owner


It's not fixed in 11.0


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