# TiVo hard drive



## jimintn (Mar 21, 2008)

Someone in the area I live in is giving away a TiVo Series 2 that they bought, the only thing is, they didn't like it, so they took the 200GB hard drive out and put it in there computer.

What would need to be done to put a new hard drive into this system and get it formatted properly? Would it have to be a 200GB hard drive that was put in?

Thanks,
Jim


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## cdeckert219 (Jan 7, 2006)

An easy solution would be to get an InstantCake CD from www.dvrupgrade.com. You could use that to put in any size drive you'd like (as long as it is at least as large as the original drive in the TiVo box). Given the price of hard drives, I'd opt for at least a 500GB.

So... you'd get a copy of InstantCake (which restores the operating system) and a new hard drive. Use your PC to setup the new drive. Then put the drive in the TiVo and fire it up. It's actually pretty easy.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4882780?site=sa:Hard Drives Memory:Spot1
the current drive bargain good for a couple of days only, that plus instantcake


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## kairee (May 10, 2002)

Just performed a replacement onto one of those seagate 750's and I can hear the clicking from across the room - the drive does not support acoustic management.

Looking for a good drive that does, now.


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

kairee said:


> Just performed a replacement onto one of those seagate 750's and I can hear the clicking from across the room - the drive does not support acoustic management.
> 
> Looking for a good drive that does, now.


Hitachi and Western digital have acoustic management support utilities.

Samsung drives are reported to be very quiet out of the box.

Seagate DB35 drives are specialized for dvr use and are very quiet out of the box.

Just note that any new drive freshly installed in a Tivo does a lot of "indexing" for maybe a day or two, or three. They will be a there noisiest during this time.

Western Digitals seem to be the preferred drives here for self upgraders.


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## joestan (Dec 25, 2007)

I have used the samsung spinout drives and they are akmost silent.


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## kairee (May 10, 2002)

dwit said:


> Hitachi and Western digital have acoustic management support utilities.


I have heard that there is a 'specific model' of hitachi that seems to be preferred. Do you know the model number of the 1tb hitachi you've got in your unit?

Also, the "GP" models from WD I have seen conflicting information on. Some posts have stated that they have an incompatibility with tivos and won't work, while others have said they work great.

Newegg doesn't seem to stock the Seagate DB35 models yet, sadly.


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

kairee said:


> I have heard that there is a 'specific model' of hitachi that seems to be preferred. Do you know the model number of the 1tb hitachi you've got in your unit?
> 
> Also, the "GP" models from WD I have seen conflicting information on. Some posts have stated that they have an incompatibility with tivos and won't work, while others have said they work great.
> 
> Newegg doesn't seem to stock the Seagate DB35 models yet, sadly.


I have the model linked below. It was removed from a Hitachi External unit that was on sale at Bestbuy the week after last Thanksgiving. The bare drive is the exact same model# below:

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 

I also happened to notice they also have the CinemaStar version for a little less. I don't think that's too common and the price is pretty low for that drive. It is pretty much the same as the drive above(same model #) but tuned for dvr use and apparently a better deal right now:

HITACHI CinemaStar 7K1000 HCS721010KLA330

Thenerds.net sells the Seagate DB35 drives. Weaknees also, but as prepared Tivo upgrades. I don't know if he sells them as bare drives.

Here is an pretty informative thread about various upgrade experiences:

Have you done an internal drive upgrade? 

Please note that my post is about hd, S3 platform tivos, and SATA drives, whereas this thread originally concerned S2 units and links to PATA drives.

The aam utilities work on both sata and pata, wd and hitachi drives.


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## jerobi (Sep 28, 2000)

FYI: I needed a fresh drive and noticed a great price drop in the 500GB Seagate DB35.

*http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=377308&highlight=thenerds*


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