# PLEASE READ: Have you had your WD My DVR Expander fail?



## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

we've been hearing a lot of Expanders failing right around the 1year mark, and there's speculation that it's the enclosure, not the drive having issues.

This thread highlighted the issue more than others i've found:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=429589

so hopefully we can get a good response and submit these results to Tivo and WD. 1 year shelf life is NOT acceptable!

ETA: if your drive failed at right around 12 months or a tad over, but were able to get a free warranty replacement due to their grace period, i'd say "within 12 months" is an acceptable answer, since the point of that option is to determine whether it was within the warranty period


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## Jeffho (Apr 8, 2004)

Mine just died at about 19 months. I just upgraded the internal Hard Drive to 1tb and if I knew how easy it would be I would of done it sooner. It is sad though that I have had Hard drives for many years without problems but this one died in less then 2. But now I have almost twice the space and less chance of it happening again.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

yea, that's just it- the hard drive isn't often the issue. I ran diagnostics on mine and it ran fine. Others have put it in their PCs w/o issue. The enclosure though is apparently a problem with this and supposedly other external drives.

I'm hoping my replacement will last. i just don't like the idea of spending $100 in addition to what i've already paid for the Tivo, the service, and the Expander.


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## dolfer (Nov 3, 2000)

Jeffho said:


> Mine just died at about 19 months. I just upgraded the internal Hard Drive to 1tb and if I knew how easy it would be I would of done it sooner. It is sad though that I have had Hard drives for many years without problems but this one died in less then 2. But now I have almost twice the space and less chance of it happening again.


Could you point me to the latest and greatest info/link on this??? Just curious which method you used?

If mine ever fails, I want to go the internal drive route. More space and LESS wires!!! Could you have gone higher than 1TB or is that the limit?


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

dolfer said:


> Could you point me to the latest and greatest info/link on this??? Just curious which method you used?
> 
> If mine ever fails, I want to go the internal drive route. More space and LESS wires!!! Could you have gone higher than 1TB or is that the limit?


Everything you need to know:
Harddrive upgrade thread


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## dolfer (Nov 3, 2000)

Thanks for the link Milo! 

Sorry to hear about your drive... I hope I don't suffer a similar fate... If it ever happens, I will definitely go internal. It's more work but I think the benefits outweigh the extra work. Besides the extra wires and device, I just don't like the idea of my data spread across two drives.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

dolfer said:


> Thanks for the link Milo!
> 
> Sorry to hear about your drive... I hope I don't suffer a similar fate... If it ever happens, I will definitely go internal. It's more work but I think the benefits outweigh the extra work. Besides the extra wires and device, I just don't like the idea of my data spread across two drives.


yea i hear ya. Now since 1TB drives can be had for $100, the cost is definitely good. A year+ ago though, they were double that, so i was fine with getting the plug and play option (and not killing the Tivo warranty by opening the box so soon after i'd bought it). At this point, if the second expander fails after about a year, i'd probably be ok with buying a new internal drive... or who knows, by then there may be a new Tivo HD box out there that doesn't require the freaging Tuning Adapter... one can hope anyway


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## Jeffho (Apr 8, 2004)

milo99 said:


> Everything you need to know:
> Harddrive upgrade thread


Yep. I got all my info in replacing the drive from here. The whole process took about an hour or so. Very easy.


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

Mine didn't "die". It simply never got stable. It clearly wasn't a HD issue -- it was probably just a matter of inadequate connectivity robustness: The TiVo simply couldn't handle how flaky the connection was.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

keep those responses coming! 9 out of 31 replies have a failure?? damn, i know it's not a scientific random sampling, but that's just no good. And of course, 10 of those w/o a failure are still within 1 year of ownership, so who knows!


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

I think I remember reading somewhere that people who have something negative to say do so ten times more so than people who have something positive to say. As you said, this poll isn't scientific, but if we're going to conclude anything from the poll, anyway, we might as well multiply the positive replies by 10 just to help normalize the data a bit.

Also, I wish there was a way to do a follow-up question in the poll: "Would you prefer TiVo would have never offered eSATA support whatsoever?" Personally, I would have preferred that. (It would have saved me some money and aggravation.) However, I suspect that there are a number of people who have had failures who still prefer that TiVo offered eSATA support, as wonky as it is, rather than to never have had offered it at all. Situations like that are very hard to characterize. I'd like to tag TiVo with the "not designed robust enough" label, but I'm willing to accept a counter saying that I'm being unfair -- that even though so many of us have had problems, enough other people have not had problems, and enough of those who had problems were able to get them resolved, such that offering the feature even with this level of inconsistency of customer experience was still the right thing to do.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

bicker said:


> ...I suspect that there are a number of people who have had failures who still prefer that TiVo offered eSATA support, as wonky as it is, rather than to never have had offered it at all.....


Though I haven't had a failure (only had the external drive for four months), I would fall into that category. I paid significantly less than $100 for the drive, so it's loss would not bother me much monetarily. And, since it's on a second TiVo (not my primary recording unit), there would not be a lot of critical data loss. So I'm perhaps a bit unique in that situation. I didn't want the internal installation because of having to mess with my CableCARD settings again. It took my local cableco three tries to get that right. I know I can copy all that, but I prefer the WeaKnees pre-formatted drives. I've had a WK 750GB drive in my original S3 for almost three years without a blip.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bicker said:


> I think I remember reading somewhere that people who have something negative to say do so ten times more so than people who have something positive to say. As you said, this poll isn't scientific, but if we're going to conclude anything from the poll, anyway, we might as well multiply the positive replies by 10 just to help normalize the data a bit.
> 
> Also, I wish there was a way to do a follow-up question in the poll: "Would you prefer TiVo would have never offered eSATA support whatsoever?" Personally, I would have preferred that. (It would have saved me some money and aggravation.) However, I suspect that there are a number of people who have had failures who still prefer that TiVo offered eSATA support, as wonky as it is, rather than to never have had offered it at all. Situations like that are very hard to characterize. I'd like to tag TiVo with the "not designed robust enough" label, but I'm willing to accept a counter saying that I'm being unfair -- that even though so many of us have had problems, enough other people have not had problems, and enough of those who had problems were able to get them resolved, such that offering the feature even with this level of inconsistency of customer experience was still the right thing to do.


oh i know (although i believe the marketing science is that a satisfied customer will tell 3 people, while a dissatisfied one will tell on average 8 people.. but your point is exactly why i made the 'not scientific' statement), but the point that i want to make is that in a community this small, we (as of 8pm EST) already have 43 replies, with 14 people reporting failures. That's insane.

Six Sigma manufacturing standards call for 1 defect in 3.2 MILLION. Most consumer electronics devices aim for 1 or 2% as acceptable. While this may not be scientific, it appears to be a bit more than 1 or 2%. So i'd like to send this info to Tivo and WD to tell them, hey- you may not be getting the Tech support calls as people may just dump the product, but you may want to examine this product and how it's built. Otherwise, you're going to lose customers from the pure frustration.

Remember, people here are fairly technical. Most tivo owners may not be. So they see these problems happening, they're not going to be as patient.


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

By the same token, "fairly technical" people also tend to be more persnickity and less forgiving with regard to their expectations.


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## ctcraig (Mar 16, 2002)

my 750Gb died the day before yesterday. Right at the 12 month mark. I just replaced a dead S3 so I can't go with an internal option. I've ordered a new 1Tb from Amazon. I trust them should I have a problem in the future


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

My 500gb Expander died just under 12 months, so I was able to get a replacement under warranty from Western Digital (although it took a while because they sent me an _internal_ drive first). The replacement has been going for about 10 months now, so I might be due for another one. 

My 1TB Expander has been going for three months, no problems so far.


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

I thought the My DVR Expander was having issues, but it turned out to be the SAt able. I replaces that and things have been better ever since.


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## JTYoung1 (Aug 13, 2006)

I had a WD 500GB drive fail around 14 months, the drive itself was fine, I have it in my computer now, but the electronics in the case apparently died.


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## Hawkeye22 (Aug 8, 2007)

I've had my 500GB expander since 11/07 and haven't had any problems with it at all. My tivo-hd and the expander are not in a cabinet/console so it has plenty of air flow. Anyhow, it's been nearly 2 years with no problems... knock on wood.


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

bicker said:


> Also, I wish there was a way to do a follow-up question in the poll: "Would you prefer TiVo would have never offered eSATA support whatsoever?" Personally, I would have preferred that.


The Motorola DVR used by FiOS has an eSATA port but it's not active and there is no evidence to suggest if it ever will. "Plug n Play" drive expansion sounds better then it seems to work.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bicker said:


> By the same token, "fairly technical" people also tend to be more persnickity and less forgiving with regard to their expectations.


right, but you have Joe Schmo having a problem with the Tivo not recording properly, such a channel freezing constantly, what are they gonna do? Call tech support. How many hours upon hours of troubleshooting will it take for them to diagnose a WD Expander failure, especially one that is the enclosure failing and not the drive? This costs Tivo money.

We, as technical folk, do a lot of troubleshooting ahead of time and research on here. How many times is the Joe going to have to call tech supp back, after running different tests or the SMART diagnostics etc? to them, this is an electronics product, not a computer. So if after all that frustration they have to then dish out another $100 on, well, they're not going to be as understanding.


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

Which leads back to there probably not being any viable business plan for a stand-alone DVR: It can't profitably satisfy the low-end and it cannot profitably satisfy the high-end... what's left?


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bicker said:


> Which leads back to there probably not being any viable business plan for a stand-alone DVR: It can't profitably satisfy the low-end and it cannot profitably satisfy the high-end... what's left?


yep... which is why Tivo's stock price hasn't gone anywhere in 10 years


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

"Word"


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## seattlewendell (Jan 11, 2006)

JTYoung1 said:


> I had a WD 500GB drive fail around 14 months, the drive itself was fine, I have it in my computer now, but the electronics in the case apparently died.


Ditto. I am using the drive in my computer now even though Tivo insisted that it was the drive. My suspicion (since everyone's seem to fail at the same time) is that there was some sort of Tivo software update that did not jive with the enclosure firmware. I tired to get Western Digital to give me an eSata firmware update and they said they could not. They said the firmware is in the little piece of hardware inside the enclosure. The hardware has the eSata port on one side and a square box that connects to the HD on the other. They said there is no way for a home user to flash this so you can't, at least not easily update the firmware on the enclosure. At least that is what they told me 6 months ago when mine failed.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

seattlewendell said:


> Ditto. I am using the drive in my computer now even though Tivo insisted that it was the drive. My suspicion (since everyone's seem to fail at the same time) is that there was some sort of Tivo software update that did not jive with the enclosure firmware. I tired to get Western Digital to give me an eSata firmware update and they said they could not. They said the firmware is in the little piece of hardware inside the enclosure. The hardware has the eSata port on one side and a square box that connects to the HD on the other. They said there is no way for a home user to flash this so you can't, at least not easily update the firmware on the enclosure. At least that is what they told me 6 months ago when mine failed.


you know, i was wondering the same thing because my problems started a week or so after i got 11.0d. My system upgraded on 7/15, right after that, not exactly sure of the date, it started freezing up periodically. Then last week, it just kept happening all the time. So i don't know if it's a hardware failure in the enclosure, a firmware issue, software or what, but if the new drive works for a little while, hopefully it'll mean that the new drives have the update, or i just have about a year before i'm in the risk of the hardware wearing out its life... sighhh


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

man, 82 poll replies, 28 failures. unscientific as it is, that's not a good failure number. I'm curious if i put up a poll asking how many hard drive failures people have had in general if i'd get 28 failures period. I know i've only had 1 bad Hard drive in my computers in 15 years, and that was 15 years ago!


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

Beating a dead horse, milo... read earlier replies.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

I have my own theories about problems after the upgrades. I had problems after one of the 11 upgrades. The expander was only a few months old. I removed the expander drive and eventually replaced the internal drive with a 1TB Western digital rather than replace the expander.

I think I probably could have fixed the issues with a clear and delete all, but the consensus always seems to be "hard drive issues"

The expander diagnosed as being "the problem" went on to a nice long life on another HD tivo running the current software. (Still running fine)

The problems that crop up at upgrade seem to me to be related to data corruption during the upgrade conversion rather than to "bad sectors" on the drive. It just seems statistically improbable that a large group of drives seem to go bad immediately after every upgrade. (Yes I know it moves to new space on the drive...)

I did run all diagnostics on the drive at the time, including the low level disk utilities and all came back fine.


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## johnner1999 (Oct 26, 2002)

milo99 said:


> man, 82 poll replies, 28 failures. unscientific as it is, that's not a good failure number. I'm curious if i put up a poll asking how many hard drive failures people have had in general if i'd get 28 failures period. I know i've only had 1 bad Hard drive in my computers in 15 years, and that was 15 years ago!


I agree I've never had any real computer hard drive issues... BUT

isn't the TiVo drive being used (heads reading and writting all the time with large data clusters)

AND MAYBE (big maybe)

TiVo has a hardware checker and when a drive has any issues it "kills" the drive in a way that makes the user call in for service. Rather then see the unit struggle over time; just end it quicker. which could explain why it still works in a computer?

again not defending them but just a thought

on the WD expander; can I open it and throw in a 1TB drive; as I don't want to open the TiVo?


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

Not all the failures are hard drive related. As a matter of fact, the poll does nothing to differentiate hard drive failures from software or connection-related failures.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bicker said:


> Not all the failures are hard drive related. As a matter of fact, the poll does nothing to differentiate hard drive failures from software or connection-related failures.


yup... i just want to be able to tell tivo and WD that hey, something with your setup here is going bad, work together to fix it. If removing or replacing the Expander fixes the problem people are having, then they need to figure out what the deal is and give us a solution that helps make the Expander last longer.

Whether it's better enclosures, connections, software testing to ensure it doesn't kill the expanders, firmware updates- i don't care. Its their job to figure out what they need to do and to do it.


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## Nomoturbo (Oct 18, 2008)

My WD My DVR Expander failed this last weekend. I don't know what the failure was. Bought it about a year ago. I'm looking for the receipt to find out exactly when I got it. 

On a side note - this was my first post and I have no idea when I registered.

<---- Appearently I registered in October of 08.


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## rdclark (May 2, 2004)

Is there any difference between the 500GB and 1TB My DVR Expander in terms of failure rate?

Is there any indication that there's a relationship between the failures and how well-ventilated the enclosures install location is? (A lot of HD equipment runs very hot.)


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## S3HD4KFL (Oct 30, 2007)

Has anyone removed the disk from the expander & put it in another case such as an Antec and had it accepted by either an HD or HD XL?


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

rdclark said:


> Is there any difference between the 500GB and 1TB My DVR Expander in terms of failure rate?
> 
> Is there any indication that there's a relationship between the failures and how well-ventilated the enclosures install location is? (A lot of HD equipment runs very hot.)


i don't think there's been any correlation. Mine as an example was not in a cabinet, it was sitting outside of it in the back.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

S3HD4KFL said:


> Has anyone removed the disk from the expander & put it in another case such as an Antec and had it accepted by either an HD or HD XL?


It would work just fine although I don't see the point since the case does very little. The TiVo HD software is only looking at the ID of the hard drive to determine if it will allow it.


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## ZXTT95 (Oct 31, 2007)

I voted for <12 months, but the replacement also started acting up in mid-July. The first one was definitely bad, as the diags were failing and the host PC was freezing and locking from the eSATA port not handling the drive's failures well. The replacement Expander was causing the TiVo to freeze/reboot and I haven't tried it on the PC. It's out of warranty since it replaced the first one and the warranty starts with the first one.

I have another Expander still working with my other TiVo, ~1.5 years. I'll replace the broken Expander with a 1 TB internal drive this coming weekend.


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## BarryD99 (Mar 30, 2002)

I've had several Tivos since the original Series I. My Tivo HD/WD external system started having bad problems at around 8 months. I called Tivo support who referred me to Comcast. I then went back and forth between the two like a ping pong ball. Tivo support helped me run the drive diagnostics which showed nothing wrong. I had Comcast come out 5 or 6 times, replace inside and outside wiring, boosters, etc, etc. Had I had to pay for Comcast Service calls, it would have cost me a fortune. Finally I replaced the WD Expander under warrenty. Problem solved (until next time). I'd never buy another external drive, jsut one more thing to fail.

As much as I love the TIVO software, and options like Netflix, using my pc to store content and burn DVDs, the concept of Rhapsody (I think the implementation is embarising), when non power user friends ask, I tell them just to get the Comcast DVR. No initial outlay, no warranty problems, and best of all, no finger pointing. Too bad.


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## Joe-user21 (Jan 11, 2007)

Chiming in - had an external 500 GB a little over a year. It was flaky for much of that time, and gave up the ghost right after, I think, 11.0d hit. Tried a better cable and no luck. Diagnostics would freeze or reboot Tivo. Replaced it a couple weeks ago with a 1 TB internal and all is well again.
As a few have noted, "one less thing to fail". I have a second S3 I upgraded with a 750 GB internal that's been running since the S3 was released with nary a hiccup.
Haven't yet gotten around to diagnosing the enclosure vs. drive.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bumping the thread in case we had some people not see it during the week it was posted...


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## stretch35 (Nov 9, 2007)

my 500 gb died at about 17 months. since I'm a mac user haven't been able to really run diagnostics from wd on it . may get an esata to usb and see if mac can do anything with drive.. seems like something about enclosure is also a problem area..maybe I shouldn't have kept drive in the refrigerator. thought it would cure heat problems but didn't do esata cord any good with door hitting it..


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## discokill (Jul 8, 2004)

Here's a special one - I never got it to work in the first place. 2 RMA's, several hours with both Tivo and WD, the diagnostics run overnight and even purchased that other cable recommended on this site. Still get the unsupported device error. Finally I just gave up.


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

Well, my 18 month old 500 GB WD DVR expander has finally bit the dust. Symptoms included live tv video and audio stuttering almost exlusively with HD video and in my case live sports which was too much to take during playoff baseball and NFL football. I "divorced" the external drive and all is back to normal. I did replace the eSata cable, which unfortunately, did not work. Now, I have to wait and hope my other expander upstairs doesn't fail. I can't see myself replacing the enclosure for this device, but will instead upgrade the internal drive. I know everyone has had great success with the 1TB WD Sata drives, but buying another WD product doesn't sit well with me right now


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

I wouldn't judge WD hard drives based on issues with the DVR expander. I suspect if you put the TiVo software on that hard drive, installed it as an internal drive in your TiVo, it would likely serve you well for many years.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

bicker said:


> I wouldn't judge WD hard drives based on issues with the DVR expander. I suspect if you put the TiVo software on that hard drive, installed it as an internal drive in your TiVo, it would likely serve you well for many years.


which is exactly what i did. The new expander i got (the warranty replacement) started acting up after 1 month, so i took apart the casing and upgraded the internal Tivo drive with the 500GB expander drive. Running smooooth as butta' now.


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

milo99 said:


> which is exactly what i did. The new expander i got (the warranty replacement) started acting up after 1 month, so i took apart the casing and upgraded the internal Tivo drive with the 500GB expander drive. Running smooooth as butta' now.


Was it anymore involved than the instructions here for internal drive upgrades?


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

Follow the instructions here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784

Just make like the hard drive in the expander is to be completely wiped.


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

ajayabb said:


> Was it anymore involved than the instructions here for internal drive upgrades?


nope. take a little care in taking apart the expander casing, but once you get the drive out, it's just any other drive that you're doing an internal upgrade with (it's one of the supported 500GB drive too).

i swear, if i had realized just how easy it was, i would've never bothered buying the expander. I had upgraded my old Series 2 and that was a bit more involved (command line only, booting into Linux etc), so that's why i opted the plug and play route at first. But seriously, with the Windows software, it's cake.

Just make sure your PC has enough SATA power plugs in addition to ports on the motherboard. (i.e. if you have a SATA main drive on your PC, and you want to transfer all your recordings from your current Tivo, you'll need both the old tivo drive and new upgrade drive plugged in all at once, hence 3 SATA plugs. I only had 2, so that meant i had to do 1 step at a time and didn't want to back up the entire drive then uncompress it)


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## TiVotion (Dec 6, 2002)

Count me in as another WD My DVR Expander failure (500 GB Model).

Had one on my TiVoHD for quite some time. Lately, I have had all sorts of odd behavior. Most often, Live TV would be frozen (one or both tuners) when I turn on the TV. Other times, Live TV would stutter, pause, and resume. Recordings would freeze before completion (partial recordings). TiVo would reboot during transfers (either from another TiVo, or from my PC). Lockups on menus, or menus would display the wrong background colors or no show listings.

I ran the kickstart diagnostics. They showed that both hard drives (internal and external) passed.

I tried tuning one of the tuners to an analog channel, and kept the other tuner on an HD channel. This seemed to lessen the amount of freezes on the HD channel.

Finally, I disconnected the WD Expander. Rebooted the TiVo and chose to remove the expander. Of course, lost all my recordings, but I was willing to do that. With the Expander disconnected, I haven't had a single stutter or recording issue yet. So, I deem the failure to be with the WD Expander.

So I go to the WD website, thinking I can do an RMA on the Expander. Nope. Warranty expired on it 11/08. 

I guess I'd try re-adding the expander, but trying a new eSATA cable when I do. I'm doubting that will fix it, but with so many reports of these My DVR Expander failures, I'm not sure I want to give WD any more of my money for an unreliable product.


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## CharlesH (Aug 29, 2002)

TiVotion said:


> So I go to the WD website, thinking I can do an RMA on the Expander. Nope. Warranty expired on it 11/08.


Their quality control seems to be amazing. Expanders consistently failing a month or two after expiration of the one-year warranty.


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## eaayoung (Feb 5, 2008)

Mine died after 2 years so I feel lucky,

Replaced the case with an after-market case and the drive works fine.

Must have been a bad board in the case.


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## TiVotion (Dec 6, 2002)

Well here's an update from what I posted above. I am probably going to jinx myself by even posting this, but here goes.

I disconnected the 500GB WD expander and restarted the TiVo choosing to permanently remove the expander. Let several days go by and all recordings were normal. No more drop outs, freeze ups, or other weirdness. So I decided by buy another eSATA cable from Amazon (one recommended in the drive expansion FAQ on this forum). Reconnected the expander with the new cable, re-added the exapander, and after 3 days (knock on wood) all is functioning fine. So either the cable was loose, the cable was bad, or the WD expander needed to be wiped and re-added. I dunno.


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## jeffw_00 (Sep 19, 2000)

So why don't more people just replace the enclosure? - much cheaper and easier than replacing with internal drive (and you don't lose your programs)


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## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

jeffw_00 said:


> So why don't more people just replace the enclosure? - much cheaper and easier than replacing with internal drive (and you don't lose your programs)


don't know about others, but i didn't because a) i didn't want to spend more money on it, and b) i don't know how well those will last.

i just got tired of having to deal with it. I didn't want a scenario where this stuff starts happening again and i'm stuck trying to figure out if it's the internal drive, external drive or the enclosure or the esata cable. Now, i just have 1 drive. if something goes wrong, i know where the problem is. No more money and time spent on it.


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## navyman (Feb 1, 2002)

Just a quick note for those who may be less technically inclined: 

I was having problems with my 500gb expander drive for a couple of months. It dawned on my slow brain one day to try re-powering the expander drive unit instead of the TivoHD...since then, I've had no problems. It must have reset something important in the expander hard drive/case software? At any rate, try this before declaring your WD expander a failure.


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## mcmnky (Nov 20, 2008)

ajayabb said:


> Well, my 18 month old 500 GB WD DVR expander has finally bit the dust. Symptoms included live tv video and audio stuttering almost exlusively with HD video and in my case live sports which was too much to take during playoff baseball and NFL football.


My TiVoHD and 500 GB expander pooped its pants at almost exactly 18 months. Pixelated video and partial records, exclusively for HD.

I did not vote in the poll, because I did not try running with just the internal drive. I also did not try swapping out the eSATA cable, so I'm not sure it was the expander causing the issue.

I went right to swapping out the original HDD and expander for a 1.5 TB western digital. It's been 2 weeks and no issues with the new drive. Why jump right to the new drive when a cable or drive enclosure could have fixed the issue?

I waffled between the expander and a bigger internal drive when I bought the TiVoHD, and regretted my choice almost immediately. Sound from the external drive was an issue for me. And with the TV, Disc player, receiver, sub woofer, and Wii, I really don't need another wire to plug in.

I was pretty much waiting for an excuse to dump the expander. Plus it didn't hurt to double recording capacity.


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## schmootc (Aug 14, 2008)

My 500GB expander started failing about two months ago, roughly 13-14 months after I bought it. Replacing the cable didn't do anything. I ordered a new one from Amazon and noticed it was stuttering a bit this evening. At least it's under warranty and it cost less than half what the first one did.

I want to try and use the old one with my PC, but don't know how to reformat it. I don't suppose anyone could send me in the right direction as to how to do that? I've plugged it in and the only thing I can see is "unknown device" on one of the USBs in the device manager. It doesn't even show as a drive at all. (Yes - I do have just enough technical skills to be dangerous.)


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## WordsmithPlaya (Jan 2, 2008)

I voted in the poll that it died in less than 12 months, but was thinking (dumbly) that it was asking how recently - mine died yesterday. But I bought it in December of 2007, so sounds like it's 2 year live is better than par for the course, but is still entirely unacceptable in my mind. I paid $200 for it, so $100/year? Bogus.


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## mchief (Sep 10, 2005)

schmootc said:


> My 500GB expander started failing about two months ago, roughly 13-14 months after I bought it. Replacing the cable didn't do anything. I ordered a new one from Amazon and noticed it was stuttering a bit this evening. At least it's under warranty and it cost less than half what the first one did.
> 
> I want to try and use the old one with my PC, but don't know how to reformat it. I don't suppose anyone could send me in the right direction as to how to do that? I've plugged it in and the only thing I can see is "unknown device" on one of the USBs in the device manager. It doesn't even show as a drive at all. (Yes - I do have just enough technical skills to be dangerous.)


When my 500 expander failed, I took it apart and put the drive in my computer. Windows had a heart attack - failing drive. The enclosure was fine, the drive was dead.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

Can someone tell me what happens to my internal HD, all my already made SP's, settings and all that if the external fails? My HD TiVo is now setup as I want it, I am going to add the expander around Christmas.

Thanks,

Rich


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## jeffw_00 (Sep 19, 2000)

if the expander fails, you disconnect it, lose all (or almost all) your programs, but the Tivo remains intact and can continue functioning without the expander. However, if you are out of warranty, you're really silly not to upgrade the internal drive. I'm getting tired of haveing to re-seat the SATA cable every couple of months (and I shelled out for the upgraded cable). 

I did it because i wanted more space on day-1 and didn't want to void my warranty, now that I'm almost a year in, I'm thinking seriously of switching to internal drive before the external one fails and forces the issue


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## fritolayguy (Oct 31, 2002)

S3HD4KFL said:


> Has anyone removed the disk from the expander & put it in another case such as an Antec and had it accepted by either an HD or HD XL?


That is exactly what I did. I replaced the mybook enclosure with an Antec about 3 months ago. We were having many freeze ups, daily restarts (some days more frequently), and overall very poor performance. I was able to save existing recordings, and have not had a blip since then (creaking sound of fingers crossing...):up:


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## dspaeth (Dec 30, 2007)

Mine 500GB expander also died just after the 18 month period. I now have the drive in an external USB enclosure formated for FAT32 for use on my PS3 and seems to be working fine. The only good thing about the failure is this forced me to upgrade my internal drive to a WD10EVDS 1TB. It makes one wonder if heat is an issue being there is no fan in the expander box.


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## wackymann (Sep 22, 2006)

I tried expanding my Series 3 with an Antec case and a 750 GB drive way back when (I think it was before the WD expander was even released), and it never worked right. I quickly abandoned the experiment and used it for offloaded Tivo video storage on my PC. Recently, the fan in the Antec case died, so I replaced the case with a Rosewill. The drive itself is still going strong, and the new case has a replaceable fan. I still think that upgrading the internal drive is the way to go. It is so simple, and my original Series 3 is still going strong more than 3 years after I upgraded its internal drive (750 GB Seagate - biggest drive on the market at the time).


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## pig_man (Jun 4, 2009)

I need to change my vote for my 500 GB Expander. 

I originally voted "No but have had it less than 12 months".

That should be changed to "Yes in less than 12 months".

After only a few months of usage I started getting freezing on playback. I ran Kickstart 54 and it said "FAIL". I took the disk out of the enclosure and ran the WD Lifeguard diagnostics on it. More "FAIL".

Oh well, I used this situation to upgrade to a 1 TB internal drive. Happy Ending!


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## waiting485 (Apr 26, 2009)

I am in a dilemma, recently ordered the 1TB WD expander from Amazon (have not open it yet) and reading about all these failures, now debating whether I should wait for Tivo's warranty to expire (in another 5 months) and then install an Internal Drive or should I attach the WD expander, and whenever it fails then replace Tivo's internal drive .


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## waiting485 (Apr 26, 2009)

Just an update.
Returned myDVR expander to Amazon and ordered WD 1TB WD10EVDS disk, it is arriving tomorrow, even though I still have around 5 months left on my warranty I am ready to take a chance with the internal drive instead of going with the external where the failure rates are much higher.


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## jeffw_00 (Sep 19, 2000)

Let us know if it works for you - there have been issues recently with some of the OTHER WD disk models.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

Can I just get something like this enclosure and add my own HD and it should work?

http://www.amazon.com/Macally-G-S35...9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261597230&sr=8-9

Then if something happens to the HD, I can just pop it out and replace easily.


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