# What flavor of HDD are people using these days?



## TT Doug (Jan 29, 2004)

It has been a long long long time since I upgraded my HDVR2. I remember when I did it people were only using a handful of different drives. What about now?
Which manufacturer to use and who to avoid?
Same question for HDD models within a manufacturer.

I am looking at picking up a used HDVR2 and building it out with some larger drives. Thinking 320gb minimum.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

Well, personally, I've almost always used Western Digital drives. If you're going to upgrade, make sure you get the 5400 RPM drives for quieter system. I used the 7200 RPM drives for faster playback.

I've always had bad luck with Maxtor Drives, but if you want to go with them, I hear Quantum drives are the way to go.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

Seagates have a great warranty. I have had a couple in place for about 2 years.


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## SteelersFan (Sep 7, 2004)

Anyone see any Seagate 300 or 320 GB drives cheap?


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Seagates have the best warranty (5 years, although the last two years are pretty much worthless) vs. 1-year for Maxtors and Western Digitals (upgradeable to 3 years for $14.95). You can usually get a 3-year warranty with OEM bare drives vs. retail kits.

5400rpm drives work fine and will generate less heat and noise but they're getting harder to find. I've had more WD's crap out on me than any other brand, with Maxtor following close behind. I have at least one dead 160GB and four dead 250GB WDs sitting on my shelf at the moment that were pulled from my own personal Tivos. I've never had a Seagate fail (so far). 

Quantum was bought out by Maxtor a while back so you won't find any new Quantum drives available (but maybe a Quaxtor or two  ). Avoid IBM/Hitachi drives like the plague. I haven't had much experience with Samsungs but have heard scattered good reports about them.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

I used a Seagate 400GB in my first upgrade of my DT, but it sounded like a freight train. I was told it may just be a bad drive, but it was LOUD. So, rather than jumping through all the hoops (and talking to someone I could not understand in India) to get an replacement shipped to me, I just returned it and got a WD 320GB drive from NewEgg. Glad I did. The drive is whisper quiet and works wonderfully so far. It is an OEM drive with a 3 year warranty.


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## jcjones86 (Aug 11, 2006)

supasta, did you try any acoustic settings on that Seagate 400GB drive? I'm in the same boat that you were in. I have the same TiVo unit and considering the Seagate 400GB or the Western Digital 320GB drive on Newegg. I definitely don't want anything that sounds like a freight train, but 80GB more storage is tempting! 

Jared


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## SJAndrew (Sep 30, 2005)

I have (2) 320WD drives in my TiVo with AAM enabled and I cannot hear them (over the weaKnees fan).


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

jcjones86 said:


> supasta, did you try any acoustic settings on that Seagate 400GB drive? I'm in the same boat that you were in. I have the same TiVo unit and considering the Seagate 400GB or the Western Digital 320GB drive on Newegg. I definitely don't want anything that sounds like a freight train, but 80GB more storage is tempting!
> 
> Jared


No, I did not try any acoustic setting on the Seagate drive. I took it back and popped in the WD drive quick as I could. It was far louder than any acoustic setting would fix IMO. However, after explaining my issue with the Seagate drive here on the TCF forums, the general concensus seemed to be that Seagate drives would not accepct any AAM settings.

I DID use AAM acoustic settings on the WD drive, though. Noticed a slight difference.


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## SteelersFan (Sep 7, 2004)

Even with all of the talk that the Seagate 400 GB is noisy I went ahead and ordered one from Fry's for 109.99, free shipping. This is giong into the office unit so any HDD noise won't bother me too much.  
BTW, I put a 120 GB Seagate in my MBR unit and even though it is noisier than stock drives, it isn't that bad. We'll see if the 400 is much different.


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## Kyoootee (Dec 4, 2002)

I am thinking of using a Maxtor 200GB Ultra Ata in my dead HDVR2. Anyone have any experience with this drive. and how many hours of recording time will this size drive give me? Thanks Kyle.


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## Technologist (Dec 4, 2005)

Kyoootee said:


> I am thinking of using a Maxtor 200GB Ultra Ata in my dead HDVR2. Anyone have any experience with this drive. and how many hours of recording time will this size drive give me? Thanks Kyle.


I would also like the answer to this.... I want to replace the drive in my Series 2 40HR TiVo


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

The current crop of Seagates are reported to have loud seek functions and are considerably noisier than their predecessors. If you can find one of the older 7200.7 series drives they are supposed to be about the quietest drives available. If you're planning on using the Tivo in a bedroom or other environment where quiet is preferred then get a Maxtor or even a WD (caveat for WD's still applies). Otherwise, I'd still recommend a Seagate over any other brand.


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## dlmcmurr (Mar 2, 2006)

I just put a Seagate 250gb 7000.9 in my bedroom and a 200gb 7000.7 in my living room. I can tell the 250 is just slightly noisier than my old Maxtor 40, but just slightly. The 200 seems to be a little nosier than the the 250, but either is still very acceptable for bedroom use to me. Like Mr. Unnatural, I've replaced several WD drives in desktop PCs lately, but WD used to be my favorite. Maybe each brand varies in reliability as new models and technologies are introduced?? I remember I had a bunch of Maxtor 540mb drives several years ago at work and they each started failing one by one over a several month period. That had to be something wrong with the design as everything else I had was working fine.

Dave


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

We've had at least 7 PCs crash in my office due to hard drive failues over the last six months. Every drive involved was a Western Digital. What makes it interesting is that they were all IBM PCs so you would have thought they'd use IBM/Hitachi drives.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

I always recommend the excellent Samsung HA250JC if you can get hold of one - 5400rpm, the quietest drive around, and runs as cool as a cucumber (relatively speaking)...

These are the most popular upgrade on my website, with good reason, and you get a 3 year warranty from Samsung too


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## BigBearf (Aug 18, 2005)

I have upgraded both SD and HD DVRs with the Seagate 400Gig 16meg cache with great results. 
Here is the link 
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4596287?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

They are on sale for now for $109-a great buy.

Hope this helps, 
BigBearf


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## reh523 (Feb 28, 2006)

I prefer the ones that are on sale (name brand only) white box is fine by me....


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## TT Doug (Jan 29, 2004)

Ended up getting 2 WD3200SB.
Got them from PageComputers for $95 a piece. Now I just need to find the time to set them up and install them.


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## HeartBurn Kid (Feb 3, 2002)

I've been using a cheapo Magnetic Data Technology drive in my system, with no complaints. Well, I started having complaints a couple of months ago, but I traced those to the "B" drive (which was one of the drives that came with my TiVo), and ever since I pulled that, no worries.

The one thing I can recommend, though, is get a 5400 RPM drive. A 7200 won't last nearly as long under the constant load a DVR puts it under, plus it will make more noise.


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