# Choosing a new harddrive



## anonymuse (Nov 27, 2005)

I took the easy way out with my first upgrade (bought a pre-imaged HDD and added it). Piece of cake!

Would love do it that way again; however, money is a little tight and there's a lot of 160 GB HDD out there for around $50 (as opposed to approx $150 pre-made--don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work people put into them, just don't have the $$ right now.)

Any advice on RPM? SATA/PATA? 

For example, C**USA has a Seagate 160 GB 7200 RPM SATA-300 8 MB Cache.
C**City has a Western Digital 160 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB Cache ATA-100 (I think).

(Although, I think I'm going to grab an old extra 40 GB IDE drive I have lying around to make sure I can do this myself first.)


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

Series 1 & 2 use PATA
Series 3 uses SATA

Generally Seagate drives are loud so I wouldn't use them for Tivo unless they are DB35 series drives.

WD has AAM feature to quiet down the drive so I would go for that but only comes w/ 1 yr warranty.


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## ti_vorevolution (Feb 26, 2007)

I agree with Spike...I'd steer clear of Seagate drives unless they are the DB35s which are designed specifically for use in DVRs.

In addition, I've also had good luck with Maxtor drives.

Good luck with the upgrade!


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

spike2k5 said:


> WD has AAM feature to quiet down the drive so I would go for that but only comes w/ 1 yr warranty.


If you buy it off the shelf at the Best Buy it only comes with a 1 year warranty...

Buy the SAME EXACT drive from New Egg as an OEM drive and you get a 3 year warranty.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

great luck in the past with Samsung drives from newegg.com.

No rebate hassles and a great price, and very quiet to boot.

Don't worry about RPM speed. Hard to find slower ones anymore and it's really no big deal.

You're _replacing_ the drive, right? I don't recommend two drives....two things to fail....


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## Mars (Sep 13, 2001)

I have been using Western Digitals "Enterprise" drives. They are quiet, the limited error seek make them ideal for video server applications. They have a 1 million hours mtbf rating and a 5 year warranty. You can buy them directly from the WD web site. http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=2


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## anonymuse (Nov 27, 2005)

ThreeSoFar said:


> great luck in the past with Samsung drives from newegg.com.
> 
> No rebate hassles and a great price, and very quiet to boot.
> 
> ...


After reading the posts here, I want to replace my 2 drive system with 1 drive for the exact reasons you mention. I'm having the freezing and rebooting issue and don't want to muck around with 2 anymore.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

anonymuse said:


> After reading the posts here, I want to replace my 2 drive system with 1 drive for the exact reasons you mention. I'm having the freezing and rebooting issue and don't want to muck around with 2 anymore.


Did you make a backup when you first upgraded?

If so, and if you don't mind losing your current content (shows and SPs and such), restoring that backup onto your (single) new drive will do the trick.

If you didn't make a backup, SHAME ON YOU! You can buy one (instantcake) or someone maybe can give you one that matches your unit.

But, if I remember right, restoring your two drive unit onto a single drive is non-trivial. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, maybe, or check the upgrade forum here.


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## anonymuse (Nov 27, 2005)

ThreeSoFar said:


> Did you make a backup when you first upgraded?
> 
> If so, and if you don't mind losing your current content (shows and SPs and such), restoring that backup onto your (single) new drive will do the trick.
> 
> ...


I guess shame on me since basically I ordered a pre-imaged kit and followed their instructions precisely--which were wonderful--and had everything up and running in 15 minutes.

I have to figure what I want right now--just to keep some kind of D* coming in (with or without Tivo) until I can afford a big harddrive. (It only reboots when I'm watching something recorded, but works realtime). Looks like I can get a DVR40 or DVR80 on eBay pretty cheap.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

anonymuse said:


> I guess shame on me since basically I ordered a pre-imaged kit and followed their instructions precisely--which were wonderful--and had everything up and running in 15 minutes.
> 
> I have to figure what I want right now--just to keep some kind of D* coming in (with or without Tivo) until I can afford a big harddrive. (It only reboots when I'm watching something recorded, but works realtime). Looks like I can get a DVR40 or DVR80 on eBay pretty cheap.


Sorry--got the impression you did your own upgrade but skipped the backup. Not sure why I did as your first post clearly states otherwise.

Did you ever say the exact hardware you have? If someone can give you an image for that, you'd be all set with the free tools (bootable CD .iso image with the tools) and your cheap hard drive.

Samsung drives are my preference. Newegg has been my source for at least 15 such drives, most for TiVo upgrades. $61 shipped for this one. $10 more gets you 250G. No rebate hassles here, either. Might find cheaper, but that will likely involve a rebate.


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