# Upgrade: QuickView vs Normal drive?



## azscottb (Oct 4, 2006)

Has anyone really noticed a big difference between using a disk drive thats designed for DVR, like a QuickView drive, vs just using your basic standard IDE drive? I'm plotting to replace my 80GB drive in my series 2 with a 300GB drive.

I wandered into a local office supply store, and noticed a sale on a Maxtor drive, Model L01R300/L01Y300 300GB Ultra16 PATA Internal Hard Drive with a very nice price of $90.

I was wondering if its really worth it to spend the extra $100 to get the QuickView type drive from a place like Weakness? Logically I can understand the retry stutter logic reason to buy a QV drive, but I wondered whats happening in the real world?

Thanks
Scott


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## BigBearf (Aug 18, 2005)

I have used Seagate 400GB and 750GB drives with 16meg cache with great results. They come with 5 year warranty.

The Seagate 400GB is $109 with free S+H at the following link 
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4596287

Hope this helps, 
Jeff


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

Don't waste your money!


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## davidwsica (Mar 26, 2005)

funtoupgrade said:


> Don't waste your money!


Are you saying don't waste your money on the QuickView/DB35 drives or don't waste them on the previously mentioned Seagate 400 and 750GB drives?


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## Robdec (Oct 3, 2002)

I just picked up the 400 GB Segate ( above link) + ( $25 rebate) and it works great so far.


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## RCY (Aug 12, 2005)

I've upgraded both my DTivos in the last 6 months with these results:

Tivo 1 - Used a Maxtor 300GB (Fry's special, non Quickview) and at first it was quite noisy. Someone pointed out the AMSET utility and after setting the drive to "quiet" mode it is much more quiet, but not completely silent. (That TIVO is in my bedroom)

Tivo 2 - Used a Seagate 400GB (Another Fry's special) and as nearly as I can tell it is "silent". I've stood right next to it trying to listen for disk accesses, and haven't heard any. (Living Room)

Used Weaknees boot disk/instructions for both installs and they went well. You'll find those passionate about various drive manufacturers. I'm convinced some of it is "the luck of the draw" on a particular drive. My experience may lead me back to Seagate, but YMMV.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

I'd like to see concrete specs that show what is really different (if anything) from a "DVR spec" EIDE drive versus a "common" EIDE drive.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

Robdec said:



> I just picked up the 400 GB Segate ( above link) + ( $25 rebate) and it works great so far.


was the rebate from Seagate Tour ....? thanks


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## bob61 (Apr 23, 2002)

In my opinion the whole QuickView line is just a bunch of marketing hype. The QuickView has no special features or specs compared to the "standard" Maxtor drives. Maxtor sold PC drives through the Desktop Storage under the DiamonxMax label. The same drives sold by the Comsumer Electronics division of Maxtor under the QuickView line. Hogwash you say???

Check out these two drive specs for 160GB drive. Here's the data sheet on drive sold through Desktop Storage division data sheet, look for model #6L160P0: DiamondMax 160GB - 6L160P0

Now look at what is sold under the Consumer Electronics division, same 6L160P0 model but now under the QuickView brand:QuickView 160GB - 6L160P0.

Check further and you'll find the specs on these two are the same - they are the same drive with a different label.

Interestingly they also have a serial version available, same model number too between the two divisions! QuickView is just marketing hype, plain and simple.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

As I understand it QuickView is actually a change in firmware. Has something to do with the error correction algorithm. QuickView drives give up re-reading bad sectors earlier letting the DVR software determine if the data is important enough to re-read the assumption is that a lost pixel is less noticeable then a freeze due to data starvation.


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## Robdec (Oct 3, 2002)

bnm81002 said:


> was the rebate from Seagate Tour ....? thanks


Yes it was.


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

Robdec said:


> Yes it was.


so you did get the full $25 back? some people only got partial amounts of the rebate back not the full amount, I purchased the same drive and sent in the rebate, just waiting for it to me mailed to me


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## azscottb (Oct 4, 2006)

BigBearf said:


> I have used Seagate 400GB and 750GB drives with 16meg cache with great results. They come with 5 year warranty.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Jeff


Thanks for that tip. I walked into our local Fry's and almost plunked down $130 for a 250GB drive, but I checked outpost one more time. They had a seagate 250GB drive for $69. Its ordered . I almost got two, but I don't feel like messing with the Weaknees bracket thing right now


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## Pauli (Mar 1, 2004)

HomeUser said:


> As I understand it QuickView is actually a change in firmware. Has something to do with the error correction algorithm. QuickView drives give up re-reading bad sectors earlier letting the DVR software determine if the data is important enough to re-read the assumption is that a lost pixel is less noticeable then a freeze due to data starvation.


I've wondered about this. Many people here report that their systems "stutter" quite a bit as their hard drives start to fail. I assume that these DVR drives would continue to operate more or less normally even as more and more sectors go bad. I'd like to see more detailed information on this feature of DVR drives.


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## JerryZ (Feb 5, 2003)

Hi
Someone just gave me a Series2 240080 Model. Is there a maximum capacity drive I can buy? Will the Fry's 400gb previously mentioned work? All I'm really looking for is around 250gb.

I'd like to order today, so any tips appreciated.

Thanks


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

Any size Parallel ATA drive that you can buy will work. By the way, if you watch Fry's, they have some good discounts on hard drives on theire weekly sales. I looked this week and there does not seem to be anything that I noticed. But they frequently have 400 GB Seagates for around $100.

Edit: Must have missed it - they do have the 400GB for $100.


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## JerryZ (Feb 5, 2003)

Thanks for your prompt reply

Here is the Fry's that was previously mentioned-
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4596287
I assume this will work.

Also, all I need is the Tiger disk and copy my existing software, right?

Thanks


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

That drive should work fine.

I recommend that you look at the following instructions: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

You should use more recent boot CDs than Tyger. You can use the version referenced in the above instructions from weaknees or use the free version from ptvupgrade.com. You need an LBA48 aware boot CD in order to access beyond 137GB of large drives.


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## Netbudda (Mar 3, 2005)

The Seagate 400 GB PATA drive is now $89.99 I just purchased one.
http://shop3.outpost.com/template/harddrives;jsessionid=xekqqc4f8438WpFNiyeRWA**.node2


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## bnm81002 (Oct 3, 2004)

Netbudda said:


> The Seagate 400 GB PATA drive is now $89.99 I just purchased one.
> http://shop3.outpost.com/template/harddrives;jsessionid=xekqqc4f8438WpFNiyeRWA**.node2


I got 1 just last month and another 1 this Friday but for $5 more it's ok with me($94.99-free shipping) 

PS-the models of the drives are different then the ST3400632A model that is listed, I have ST3400620A and ST3400633A drive models


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

$90 for a 400gb Seagate? Wow, that's a bargain!


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## azscottb (Oct 4, 2006)

I snagged a Seagate 250GB hard disk for $70 at outpost on one of their specials. The installation process took about 2 hours, which was mostly me being very paranoid about backing things up, and I had to move the hard disks around for a bit. In the end, I was able to fire up perfectly.

I will admit that every now and then I see some pixelation while watching shows, and I wonder if thats the hard disk in a momentary retry, but it doesn't happen that often (once every three weeks or so). However the menu system really seemed to pick up some speed - that I noticed right out of the gate.

The added disk space was well worth it, and the Seagate drive is very quiet.
I stayed under the 300GB line because I didnt want to run into the swap space issue I keep reading about, and I really dont want to have 300 hours of video around. Actually I'm now recording most everything in best mode. Its very funny seeing somewhere between 70 and 90 deleted shows. It got over 100 briefly!

So do the upgrade yourself! I also like now having a backup drive hanging around, in case things go kerflooey


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