# What is the maximum size hard drive that the XL4 can use?



## True Colors (Oct 19, 2006)

I know that the XL4 comes with a 2 terabyte hard drive standard.

Is it possible to upgrade this to a 3 TB drive?

If so, is it possible to use the app made by comer to do this?

Thanks!

TC


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## GoEagles (Dec 2, 2006)

From a technical standpoint, based off of the file system TiVo uses, it would be about 2.2TB. So practically, an internal drive of 2TB and you can use the official MyDVR expander to expand that by 500GB or 1TB.

WeaKnees also does some type of weird upgrade that pushes the TiVo XL 4 boxes to 4TB. One 2TB internal, and one 2TB external. It's a pretty penny at $849.99


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

GoEagles said:


> From a technical standpoint, based off of the file system TiVo uses, it would be about 2.2TB. So practically, an internal drive of 2TB and you can use the official MyDVR expander to expand that by 500GB or 1TB.
> 
> WeaKnees also does some type of weird upgrade that pushes the TiVo XL 4 boxes to 4TB. One 2TB internal, and one 2TB external. It's a pretty penny at $849.99


While still a bit pricey, it's actually only $449 to *add* a 2TB drive to an existing XL4. $849 is the price for a new XL4 w/2TB external.


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## Samantha Kirk (Apr 18, 2012)

lpwcomp said:


> While still a bit pricey, it's actually only $449 to *add* a 2TB drive to an existing XL4. $849 is the price for a new XL4 w/2TB external.


The TiVo 1TB My DVR Expander Drive by Western Digital, model WDG1S10000VA, is the only TiVo-verified external storage device supported for use with TiVo media devices. It adds up to 200 hours of high definition recording time or up to 400 hours of additional standard definition recording time. This is available for $100 in Amazon website.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Samantha Kirk said:


> The TiVo 1TB My DVR Expander Drive by Western Digital, model WDG1S10000VA, is the only TiVo-verified external storage device supported for use with TiVo media devices. It adds up to 200 hours of high definition recording time or up to 400 hours of additional standard definition recording time. This is available for $100 in Amazon website.


And it's generally considered a non-optimal solution by those in a position to know.


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## Samantha Kirk (Apr 18, 2012)

unitron said:


> And it's generally considered a non-optimal solution by those in a position to know.


Yes found some drawbacks with the device. Saved data from the point you install the drive is striped across both the My DVR Expander and the TiVo itself. If the My DVR Expander loses power, is accidentally unplugged or explodes in a shower of flame, you stand to lose not just the programs on the drive, but potentially all of the content on your TiVo as well.

Sadly, the data on the drive is encrypted, and as noted, striped across both drives, so you can't just plug it into another SATA port on a PC and back up your recordings. For that, you'll need the Home Networking Kit, which has its own interesting limitations. Are there any other drawbacks?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Samantha Kirk said:


> Yes found some drawbacks with the device. Saved data from the point you install the drive is striped across both the My DVR Expander and the TiVo itself. If the My DVR Expander loses power, is accidentally unplugged or explodes in a shower of flame, you stand to lose not just the programs on the drive, but potentially all of the content on your TiVo as well.
> 
> Sadly, the data on the drive is encrypted, and as noted, striped across both drives, so you can't just plug it into another SATA port on a PC and back up your recordings. For that, you'll need the Home Networking Kit, which has its own interesting limitations. Are there any other drawbacks?


Never heard of a TiVo-specific Home Networking Kit, but if the show has the no-copy bit set, networking is of no help.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Samantha Kirk said:


> The TiVo 1TB My DVR Expander Drive by Western Digital, model WDG1S10000VA, is the only TiVo-verified external storage device supported for use with TiVo media devices. It adds up to 200 hours of high definition recording time or up to 400 hours of additional standard definition recording time. This is available for $100 in Amazon website.


What does that have to do with the cost of the 2TB external offered by weaKnees?


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## buddhawood (Oct 9, 2000)

lpwcomp said:


> While still a bit pricey, it's actually only $449 to *add* a 2TB drive to an existing XL4. $849 is the price for a new XL4 w/2TB external.


DVR Dude on ebay did my 2TB upgrade for $200 including the cost of the drive. I sent him my original TB and he sent it back with a 2TB married to it for a total of 4TB


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## True Colors (Oct 19, 2006)

Thanks for all the responses, but....... the only thing that would really be worth it to me would be expanding the single main drive inside the Tivo.

I am not interested in any type of "work around" solution such as marrying drives together or adding an additional external drive or any of that stuff.

Has anyone here even attempted to put a 3TB drive into any of the HD Tivo models? If so, what was your experience?

Thanks,

TC


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

True Colors said:


> Thanks for all the responses, but....... the only thing that would really be worth it to me would be expanding the single main drive inside the Tivo.
> 
> I am not interested in any type of "work around" solution such as marrying drives together or adding an additional external drive or any of that stuff.
> 
> ...


Those big drives will *not boot *on any TiVo even with just a direct copy no expansion as the format of any drive above 2.2Tb is different and TiVo does not recognize it at this time.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

So now that drives bigger than that are becoming almost sanely priced (Fry's ad for 4 TB drive in the $200s), seems like using a drive connected to a computer as "mostly offline" storage is reasonable.. Not running a computer all the time, but once in a while to copy stuff back to the Tivo..


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

A nice low power NAS system with pytivo, vidmgr and jukebox running on it is a great, nearly unlimited media expansion option for one or more tivos.

Currently running about 16TB of media, all available instantly from the tivo menus on any screen in our home. Kindle and a squeezebox too.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Yeah, but that's ridiculously expensive, right?


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

mattack said:


> Yeah, but that's ridiculously expensive, right?


Depends on your definition of rediculous and how big and full featured a NAS you want. There are low end solutions that can be done for $150 plus spindles, maybe less. They DIY guys would have to pipe in.

My Synology 1511 was $600 and supports various raid types, 5 spindles and expansion for 10 more. There are cheaper and much more expensive solutions. All depends on what you want.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I built a WHS for just the cost of the software ($50) using an old PC with a efficient power supply. Anytime I start to fill up, plop in another drive when they go onsale someplace. pyTiVo works great on it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The biggest cost is storage with today's prices. I have over 110TB of storage available on my home network using mostly 2TB drives along with some 1.5TB drives. But most of the 2TB drives cost me less than $75 since they were purchased before drive prices sky rocketed.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

2 TB drives now seem to be fairly reliably back below $100.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mattack said:


> 2 TB drives now seem to be fairly reliably back below $100.


Where?

(I'm in the market)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I don't see any normal prices for $100 but I do see some 2TB drives for $105 and $110 at amazon and Newegg.

That is still 50% more than they were in early 2011.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> The biggest cost is storage with today's prices. I have over 110TB of storage available on my home network using mostly 2TB drives along with some 1.5TB drives. But most of the 2TB drives cost me less than $75 since they were purchased before drive prices sky rocketed.


110TB divided by 2TB works out to 55 2TB hard drives.

You're really running at least 55 hard drives?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> Where?
> 
> (I'm in the market)


Maybe I'm wrong.. I sure thought I saw one at Amazon yesterday.. this is $104.99 now though

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DL003/dp/B004CCS266


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

unitron said:


> 110TB divided by 2TB works out to 55 2TB hard drives.
> 
> You're really running at least 55 hard drives?


Unfortunately, easily more than 55, . I've got 31 drives with my WHS, 22 drives with my first unRAID, 8 drives with my second unRAID, 4 drives with my INTEL NAS, 5 drives with my TIVo Desktop Server, 2 drives with my DLink NAS, plus a couple of Buffalo NAS drives.
And that's just the Network Storage. I still have drives in other PCs, TiVos, etc. plus some unused in storage boxes and USB/eSATA enclosures. And this is after selling around forty five of my 1TB and smaller drives on eBAY while hard drives prices were high in early Winter.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mattack said:


> Maybe I'm wrong.. I sure thought I saw one at Amazon yesterday.. this is $104.99 now though
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DL003/dp/B004CCS266


Sometimes I hate Amazon, when their prices jump up and down several times a week. This drive was $105 when I looked yesterday and today it's $110. Tomorrow it might be $104 or $111 or anywhere in between.

But I do see the 3TB version of this drive is $150 which seems to be the best price per GB right now. I don't own any hard drives over 2TB in size.


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