# 1TB Cavalry Esata Drive at Best Buy for $180 Shipped



## muerte33 (Jul 4, 2008)

Has anyone seen/tried this drive in a Series3 or HD yet?
http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-1tb...-external-hard-drive/q/loc/101/206805237.html

This seems like a pretty good deal considering the Mydvr expander is the same price for only 500gb


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## NewtownPA (Jul 4, 2008)

I just ordered one.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

The WD 'green' drive is $160 at Fry's through at least Tuesday.. (I'm now searching for the FAQs to see if that's one of the ones that will work internally)


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

I just bought one of the $160 drives at Frys. It was an EACS-00 model. The ones that failed had EACS-00, but they had different letters after the 00. The ones that worked had EACS-32. I decided not to even try the drive out and have it fail as I don't want to miss Olympic coverage on a gamble, but I'm guessing that it would have failed like the previous EACS-00 models so I returned it today, opened but unused.

I also discovered that the WD10EVCS drive, the one designed for DVR applications and which is known to work in TiVos, is available from Buy.com for only $15 more. $15 isn't much for peace of mind so I'll probably get that one instead.

One more issue that I'd worry about is that DVR's need drives with different error recovery behavior. For computer data you want the drive to keep reading a flaky sector until it gets the verifiably correct information. For a DVR, the time spent trying to reread a sector whose checksum came up bad would cause the video to stutter so it would be better for the drive to give up and move on. This is why the Seagate DB35 models are preferred for TiVo. I'd wager that the EVCS drive is more likely to have this compatible error recovery behavior than the EACS models - another reason to prefer the model designed for the job...


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

I should add that the EACS-00 models are failing mainly on the S3 TiVos. I think they might work OK for TivoHD units, but search and verify that information before you buy. Again, I'd probably still prefer the drive designed for the job...


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

The EACSxxx(whatever) has never been an issue with the Tivo HD.

The *only *drive that has consistently been problematic is only one specific drive; the WD10EACS-00ZJBO, and only when used internally with the original *Series 3* unit.

Well, to qualify, there is the new issue of the Seagate FAP external unit crashing Tivos after the latest software update, but that's a new recent issue.


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

I wish I had written down the full PN from the drive I bought, it wasn't 00ZJB0, but the second number did start with 00. Any idea if the change in the letters after the 00 might indicate it's worth another try in S3s?


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

flar said:


> I wish I had written down the full PN from the drive I bought, it wasn't 00ZJB0, but the second number did start with 00. Any idea if the change in the letters after the 00 might indicate it's worth another try in S3s?


Yes. I think the whole world is waiting to see if the latest incarnation, the -006DB0, will function properly inside the S3. This is their new 3 platter design for the drive.


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

flar said:


> One more issue that I'd worry about is that DVR's need drives with different error recovery behavior. For computer data you want the drive to keep reading a flaky sector until it gets the verifiably correct information. For a DVR, the time spent trying to reread a sector whose checksum came up bad would cause the video to stutter so it would be better for the drive to give up and move on. This is why the Seagate DB35 models are preferred for TiVo. I'd wager that the EVCS drive is more likely to have this compatible error recovery behavior than the EACS models - another reason to prefer the model designed for the job...


TiVo does NOT use the streaming commands, so "DVR drive" doesn't make any difference.


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

c3 said:


> TiVo does NOT use the streaming commands, so "DVR drive" doesn't make any difference.


Now I'm a little confused.

Once upon a time the Seagate DB35 drives were supposed to be preferred because they provided the fast error recovery (basically ignore the error and move on with the video stream). There isn't much else written about this and how it is implemented (all sectors, or just video? via special commands from the disk drivers? etc.) But, there was supposed to be something about the drive that made an actual difference with TiVos (i.e. not a new series of commands which were ignored by the TiVo drivers), even if the problem was only theoretical or rarely encountered.

The EVCS drives are now "designed for DVR" applications as well and they have streaming commands, but is that the only way in which they are "designed for DVR"? Even though TiVo may not use these streaming commands, could there be something else about those drives that would recommend them over EACS or other non-DVR drives?

Are the DB35 somehow better matched due to some other aspect of their nature not related to the streaming commands or the general design that they might share with EVCS? Are we all just going on speculation and anecdotal evidence of what (seems to be) working in our upgraded TiVos?


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

Seagate DB35 drives are essentially Barracudas with quieter seek setting and streaming commands. Barracudas have noisy seeks and cannot be adjusted, so that's the only "DB35 advantage" for people who want Seagate drives.

Hitachi and WD drives support AAM, so there is no reason to buy the "DVR versions" at higher prices, except for the special case that WD10EACS-00ZJB0 does not fully work as an internal S3 drive.


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

Thanks c3 - I was basing my comments on this page over at weaKnees which describes more advantages for the DB35 than you list. I guess this is just marketing smoke and mirrors to sell rare hard drives for a large markup?

On the other hand, they do offer 1TB upgrades using WD drives (unspecified model) so even they don't strictly abide by their own guidelines...


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

"Thermal Control": If a drive cannot handle temperature variations, it would not work.

"Durability": "not fast enough to wear out sooner" is comical. It is true that some drives have higher MTBF (lower failure) ratings, but those number are not meaningful for individual drives.

"Acoustic Management": already discussed.

"A/V Streaming": already discussed.

"Error Recovery": In this context, reduced error recovery applies to streaming commands only. Not applicable to TiVo.


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## jlib (Nov 22, 2002)

flar said:


> Now I'm a little confused...


That is how they want us consumers to be. 

Other than listening carefully to what c3 says you can go to the original source document linked at the end of a previous post here or here.


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## flar (Mar 18, 2003)

jlib said:


> Other than listening carefully to what c3 says you can go to the original source document linked at the end of a previous post here or here.


Thanks jlib - I read those posts. Thanks for the information. I also responded to the first post you list with a question about some other DB35-specific information I found in my research, but I'll leave further discussion to that other thread.


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