# Best HDD for A Tivo



## Haggis440 (Aug 27, 2009)

Hi All,

Whats the best make of HDD to use for a tivo?

Looking at mayby a 160gb D-I-Y HDD upgrade.

Haggis


----------



## Fred Smith (Oct 5, 2002)

WD Green SATA.


----------



## Haggis440 (Aug 27, 2009)

Mabey I should also ask what hdd's should I avoid


----------



## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

If you did get a SATA drive dont forget Tivo has IDE drives and thus a converter of sorts would be needed.

For such a small size drive by todays standards you may find it easiest to get a drive with the Tivo o/s ready loaded - of course, no way to transfer your recordings unless the vendor offers that service also.

You could look at

http://www.tivocentral.co.uk/

or

http://www.tivoheaven.co.uk

Both vendors have a good track record in the UK.

Also their sites may give a clue to a known suitable drive should you wish to DIY.

Automan.


----------



## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Currently the best and quietest drives for tivo use:

Western Digital "green power" SATA drives,
Samsung "green" SATA drives 

These are both 5400rpm drives, and work fine on tivos with a SATA-IDE convertor.

The only drives to avoid are the recent Western Digital IDE/PATA drives,
as the tivo is incompatible with the firmware on those drives 
- the tivo won't boot, or "see the drive" if you try using one.


----------



## romanpj (Dec 23, 2003)

See:-

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article951-page1.html

Seems to tick all the boxes - quiet, low power, good warranty. I've just splashed out on one which cost me less then £40. Can't see the point in messing around with a 160GB at the current prices.


----------



## tartan_haggis (Jun 13, 2005)

I got 4 Samsung 1Tb drives for around £50 each from Savastore. Just waiting for the SATA-IDE adapters to arrive ...


----------



## tonywalk (Sep 10, 2002)

tartan_haggis said:


> Just waiting for the SATA-IDE adapters to arrive ...


Let us know which adaptors you ordered and where from (pics if poss) and if they work or not.


----------



## tonywalk (Sep 10, 2002)

A further possible option is a 2.5" drive if you want extra cool and quiet. Not sure how well suited they' be to the always-on running of a Tivo. £56 for a 500gb 2.5" Samsung M7 from Dabs with free delivery at mo. (I've got two on the way for other purposes).


----------



## Haggis440 (Aug 27, 2009)

There is one thing I am confused about. I thought I read somewhere about a limit to the size of the drive you could use. and 1Tb would be well over that.

Can someone clarify the issue for me.

And....

Am I right in thinking that I could get a 500Gb drive and add it to my single 40Gb (with a little computer work) to give me lots of free space?


----------



## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

I wouldn't recommend adding a new drive to the old 40Gb.

Unless you need 1TB of space, whilst its still easy enough to get IDE drives, I wouldn't bother getting a SATA and converter, a 500Gb IDE can be picked up still for a reasonable price (just avoid Western Digital).


----------



## DX30 (May 22, 2005)

Haggis440 said:


> There is one thing I am confused about. I thought I read somewhere about a limit to the size of the drive you could use. and 1Tb would be well over that.
> 
> Can someone clarify the issue for me.


ISTR there was an issue with older versions of MFSTools that limited the size of partition you could create, but that was a limit of the tools rather than the TiVo. With the latest tools you can upgrade to at least 1TB.

The other limit you might be thinking of was the TiVo kernel needs updating if you go bigger than ~136GB, but the tools take care of that.

Unless you want to preserve old recordings etc the easiest thing might be to buy a pre-configured drive. It costs a little more but makes the whole process a lot easier, you just swap drives.


----------



## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Samsung 1.5TB EcoGreen drives are now available for £69.99 from Ebuyer

See www.hotukdeals.com/item/498485/samsung-ecogreen-f2-1-5tb-hard-driv

Around 525 hours recording time at Best.

Does Mike think a Tivo should still be able to handle a 1.5TB drive in formatting and access terms? I know the Now Playing menus will run a little slower, even with a Cachecard and 512MB of RAM.


----------



## cleudo (Apr 7, 2002)

bump - my original dual drive TiVo has started making a noise like a circular saw - looks like both the drives will shortly be heading for the bin.

Any updates on the best drive to go for? Not worried about transferring recordings, ok with setting up the various mods, + would like something very power efficient and at least 500GB.

Tempted by 2.5" if the power consumption was markedly better than one of the 'green' 3.5" drives.

Also, any thoughts on brands / suppliers of sata-ide converters?


----------



## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

There are 500 GB 2.5" SATA hard drives out there now but I am sure you would be a pioneer regarding fitting one and/or testing its power consumption in a Tivo.

See www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Internal-OEM/dp/B001JSSDGU


----------

