# Questions about upgrading hard drive in Tivo Series 2 540



## leemoreau (Aug 1, 2008)

Hey everyone,

I have a 540 Series 2 unit that has a 80gb hard drive. Anything other than Best quality looks like garbage over satellite so I only get like 23 hours of recording it says. I read somewhere though that TiVo only supports up to 120gb otherwise you have to do these hacks or something like that. Can't seem to find that anywhere though as I see places sellin gmuch larger hard drives for TiVo. Is it a difficult process to buy a larger hard drive and use my desktop to format it for TiVo? Also are there any drawbacks to adding a second drive versus just upgrading the main?


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

You can get kits
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/category.cfm?SID=1
or software
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/category.cfm?SID=1&Category_ID=5&learnmore=1
Recommend you use new drive but adding on is possible. Hope this helps.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

If you want to do it yourself see http://mfslive.org there are 2 ways WinMFS (Windows Program) or MFSLive (Bootable Linux CD)

The 120G (137G) limit has not existed with the SA Series 2 TiVos for several years, since the TiVo software version 7.1 update. The Limit today is the largest EIDE (PATA) drive that you can afford.

To add a second drive you need a mounting bracket, Interface cable and power splitter TwinBreeze TiVo Upgrade Bracket for 540 and Humax TiVos the drawbacks of having 2 drives are noise, heat and extra load on the Power Supply.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

The 120GB drive limit (120GB being the largest commonly available drive one could commonly get at the time, and one could use all the space on, 160 GB being the next biggest), was based on pre LBA 48 limits of 137 GB.

The 5xx units such as yours, and since software version 7.1 for all other Series 2/3s (6.x for DirecTV TiVos) have LBA48 kernels, so can accept any sized drive and use all of it.

You can easily use your computer to to prepare your new drive for the TiVo, using MFSLive or Win MFS.

You should run one large drive if you can (that is what I do as a matter of practice). Running two drives raises heat and power draw, and a certain risk of failure. With today's large drives , there is no reason to risk it with a relatively small original drive plus large second drive.


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## leemoreau (Aug 1, 2008)

That's great thanks for the help! I've only had it a day so the 25 hour limit may be completely fine for me. I just remember when I had my Rogers PVR a couple years ago it would record around 40 hours and it was the highest quality but I'm sure it wasn't larger than an 80gb drive in a rented unit over 2 years ago, but then again I also had a 27" Tube TV connected with SVideo where as now I have Satellite using SVideo on a 52" LCD


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