# Convert ide to sata drive for TivoHD upgrade ??



## WO312 (Jan 24, 2003)

I have a 500 gb Seagate ide drive that I would like to use in my TivoHD. Does anybody know if those ide-sata adaptors that you plug into the back of your ide drive to allow sata connections will work with the TivoHD for upgrade purposes??

I posted in the Series 3 thread but got no replies.


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## tastyratz (Feb 27, 2008)

I would love to find out this as well. I have a series 3 and a pile of IDE hard drives.
Anyone care to comment?
Ill try it myself soon enough if I don't find any information and post, but any help before would be nice.


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## WO312 (Jan 24, 2003)

I still don't know the answer to the question, but I know more now than I did before.

The TivoHD uses a combined data/power cable, not separate ones like I expected. So any adapter would have to have the SATA connectors in the same relative location (side-by-side, like the back of a SATA hard drive). Not sure if they do or not. The one we bought didn't, so we couldn't use it.

Maybe the internal cables could be changed. I didn't look far enough to find out.


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## tastyratz (Feb 27, 2008)

The cable is most likely setup the same as the series 3.
All depends on how far you want to take it and how good you are. Im sure you could chop the wires and stick them in a new connector if you wanted. 

What I wanted to use it for myself is more along the lines of sticking it on an external hard drive and attaching to the esata port with it.


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## dtphonehome (Dec 26, 2006)

I'm curious about the reverse...I want to replace my THD drive with a 1TB, so I'll have a free SATA 160GB that would go nicely in my Humax DRT400. But that uses IDE drives. If I were to use a SATA to IDE adaptor, could I use the drive from the THD in the DRT400?


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

The adapters should work. I use an IDE to SATA adapter for upgrading my S3 Tivo drives in my old PC that only has IDE busses and it works perfectly fine using MFS Tools. My SATA drive is treated just like any other IDE drive as far as the PC's BIOS and MFS Tools software is concerned. The adapters aren't all that expensive so give it a try and post your results. I wouldn't use an adapter if I was going to go out and buy a new drive since the price differential between an IDE drive and a SATA drive is essentially nil but if you want to recycle a drive you already have on hand then it's cheaper to get the adapter. Worst thing that can happen is that you'll blow a couple of bucks on the adapter if it doesn't work.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

The adapters should work - SATA and PATA really only differ by the physical signaling. And early SATA motherboards often shipped with SATA to PATA adapters because SATA disks were hard to find. 

The only real problem would be power, that's about it.

The other problem is finding the adapters - online stores should have them, but retail would be nigh-impossible.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

You can find them posted all over ebay for very little cost. You'll probably pay more for shipping than the adapter itself.


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## LJ.925 (Mar 11, 2004)

Here's one that has pretty good reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812206001

I want to get one of the newer AV drives for my Series 2, but they are all SATA...except for the Seagate db35.


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## dtphonehome (Dec 26, 2006)

DealExtreme has them for a lot less (like $6) with free shipping, but it's from Hong Kong, so it takes a while to get it.


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