# How much memory have I got left?



## nqueripel (Feb 27, 2007)

Hi, I have just got a Tivo, can anyone tell me if there is away of finding out how much of the hard drive has been used and how much is left. I can not find anything in the manual.
Thanks in advance
Neil


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Hi there and welcome to the Tivolution! 

Unfortunately, as far as I know, there's no way to tell how much space there is left on a standard, un-modified unit. So your next assigment is to upgrade your Tivo with a Cachecard and TivoWeb


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## nqueripel (Feb 27, 2007)

Thanks Caryl,
I bought my tivo on ebay, the seller has upgraded to 300g, but did not mention cachecard or any other modifications, can I tell if he has added anything else? Will email him tomorrow but is there a quicker way?

Neil


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

nqueripel said:


> Thanks Caryl,
> I bought my tivo on ebay, the seller has upgraded to 300g, but did not mention cachecard or any other modifications, can I tell if he has added anything else? Will email him tomorrow but is there a quicker way?
> 
> Neil


I think its unlikely he would have overlooked mentioning the Tivo had a network card as that adds quite a bit on to the price.

You can buy Cachecards by typing in cachecard on www.ebay.co.uk and you can find out how to fit them at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo


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## PhilG (Jan 15, 2002)

What you need is the spaceused hack - it puts a neat graph at the top of Now Showing detailing how much disk you are using/have free (see here)

It's one of the nicest things I have added to my Tivo

Mind you, since I also increased the disk to 250Gb and don't let Tivo record suggestions, the graph is never (so far) more than around 40%!


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## SilkMan (Feb 13, 2007)

Before I networked my TiVo, I used to keep an eye on the number of suggestions that were being recorded - when there weren't very many, or they weren't being kept for more than a day or two, then I knew it was running out of space  . With 300GB though, I doubt if space is going to be a problem unless you have a ton of Series Passes and/or never delete anything after you'ved watched it  

BTW Welcome to the wonderful world of TiVo


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## geekspeak (Oct 1, 2002)

nqueripel said:


> Hi, I have just got a Tivo, can anyone tell me if there is away of finding out how much of the hard drive has been used and how much is left. I can not find anything in the manual.
> Thanks in advance
> Neil


Once you get used to your Tivo, you will find you don't need to know how much space is left. Tivo handles space very nicely, so there is really no concept of being "full". Oldest recording are removed first in order to make space for specifically requested new ones. If you have suggestions turned on these are programs Tivo thinks you might like, also removed first before programs you specifically request. You can differentiate between suggestions and your own recording by the different symbol in "Now Playing".

I occassionally check to see how many suggestions are left as it gives me an indication that I need to start to watch the programs I tell it to record.


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## aerialplug (Oct 20, 2000)

Personally, I use TiVo's suggestions as an indication of how much spare space I have left. These days, TiVo records enough requested programmes, I don't have much time to watch the suggeted shows (though a few examples of suggestions comimg up with interesting material still shines through). However, I know that if I have more than a screen full of suggestions, there's going to be enough space on TiVo to record everything I need in the next day or so without losing anything at the bottom of the list of requested programmes.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I use _autospace_. Absolutely essential.

As soon as my used space gets to 80%, I selectively delete items. Leaving the TiVo to delete the oldest recording would be disastrous. Now, if the TiVo were delete items according to the priority of the season passes (where available), that might make more sense. However, most of my older recordings are films, so there is no relevant season pass. It would be nice though to be able to reorder the recordings to indicate their 'deletability'.


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## PhilG (Jan 15, 2002)

PhilG said:


> What you need is the spaceused hack


Why do I keep calling it that  - it's AUTOSPACE (of course) - it tells you how much space you have used.......


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

nqueripel said:


> can anyone tell me if there is away of finding out how much of the hard drive has been used and how much is left.


In general terms you don't need to worry about how much of the drive is used at any time as the TiVo will take care of housekeeping for you.

Trying to figure out how much of the drive is "used" is a bit of waste of time really anyway, as what really matters is whether there _will be _enough space for a new recording _at the time it is made_. As all recordings have an automatic expiry date anyway, the TiVo will delete expired recordings as it needs to to make space when it needs it, and will always tell you if it won't have space for a recording you explicitly schedule, so you shouldn't normally have to worry about making space.

If you want to ensure that a particular recording stays around until you have watched it, then you can set the "save until" date up to 30 days into the future as many times as you like, or set it to "keep until I delete" in which case it will never be automatically deleted.

As others have suggested, enabling suggestions is a good way of getting a feel for whether the number of recordings being watched/deleted is less or more than those being made, as suggestions are always first to go when space is at a premium - so if you have a bunch of suggestions in your Now Playing list then your TiVo isn't desperately short of space.


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## PhilG (Jan 15, 2002)

Maybe....

But it is SO easy to just hit SELECT to record a new program, especially with endpad looking after padding that I never set ANY retention for my recordings - so everything expires pretty quickly whether I've watched it or not

I know I shouldn't be so lazy, but.....

So it's nice to be alerted when space starts to run down.

I also like the latest Dailymail that gives you a running countdown on how your space will diminish in the immediate future!


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

I have an unhacked TiVo, and I monitopr how much space there is available by how many recorded suggestions are showing in Now Playing.


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