# Another success!



## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Finished the HDD swap today. Went from the 400GB Seagate that sounded like a train to a 320 Western Digital HDD. Very nice swap. Did not gp as smoothly as the first upgrade but it went and was sucessful.

Very happy with the swap - the new drive is SILENT. *Knock on wood*
The old drive is headed back to Best Buy in the morning. 

What I did not notice in the first place was that the new WD drive is the same series drive as the TiVo stock drive (given I bought the Seagate without knowing what was inside the TiVo stock).

The step down in size lost me over 100 hours, but I will take the sacrafice for the silent drive!

Again, thanks to all for another sucessful upgrade. Hopefully anotehr to come as I am in the market for another TiVo unit!


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## SJAndrew (Sep 30, 2005)

Cool - I'm putting two 320 WD's into mine (to replace two dead and refunded Hitachi drives).

Newegg rocks!


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Yes, thats where I got my drive. I was going to go with a dual drive setup....mabye in the future I will add asecond drive. For now I think a single 320 will suit my needs just fine - I am also very concerned about noise!

BTW - Good to see a local on the boards!


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Ok, I don't get it. Now my perfectly silent WD drive sounds almost as loud seeking as the seagate I pulled out......less than 18 hours after install. I had the thing on all night - watched TV for some time before bed - SILENT. Get up this morning, sounds like a freight train in my living room...........................


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Sounds like a better solution for you would be to mount the Tivo in another part of the house, and control it with a RF remote.


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## jugbugs (Jan 11, 2006)

You can enable quite seek mode for almost all HDD makes and models. Most HDD manufactureres only enable quite seek mode for certain applications as it impacts performance. These applications (that I know of) are Maxtor QuickView (for DVRs) and most HDDs shipped to Japan have this enabled (they must be more sesitive to noise).

However, you can take almost any HDD and enable the quiet seek mode. I have only done this for a Maxtor drive but I am aware of the possibility for Seagate and WD drives as well. WD calls this "Soft Seek" while Maxtor calls it "Quiet Seek."

With Quiet Seek mode enabled you CANNOT hear the HDD seeking over your tivo fan/ HDD spindle motor (which ever is louder).


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Any information on how to do this?


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## SJAndrew (Sep 30, 2005)

You will need the hardware tools available from the HDD mfg.

The behavior you note is not that counterintuitive. As you add data to the HDD and the head needs to seek more and farther, noise will increase.

FWIW, I enabled quiet operation for my drives and didn't notice much of a difference...


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

I have searched and searched. Cannot find any tools anywhere. The HDD I have is a bare drive from New Egg - no cables, software, etc


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## jugbugs (Jan 11, 2006)

SJAndrew said:


> You will need the hardware tools available from the HDD mfg.
> 
> The behavior you note is not that counterintuitive. As you add data to the HDD and the head needs to seek more and farther, noice will increase.
> 
> FWIW, I enabled quiet operation for my drives and didn't notice much of a difference...


What type of drive?

I have enabled this on 10 + drives (all Maxtor) and they have all went from audible to inaudible doing random LBA seeks (worst cast scenario).


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## SJAndrew (Sep 30, 2005)

You can try using Hitachi Drive Tools - I think they work on different brands.

I tried low noise mode on Hitachi drives and didn't hear a noticeable difference.


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

jugbugs said:


> I am aware of the possibility for Seagate and WD drives as well.


Not Seagate, at least not the ones within the past few years.


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

supasta said:


> Any information on how to do this?


Google for "hitachi feature tool".


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

My question really is why is the drive unnoticeably quiet to start, and then loudens overnight?


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

Seek noise is dependent on the access pattern, which is different every second. When TiVo processes the guide data, the noise is likely to be even louder.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

It varies, so that must be what it is. Either way, I am happy that the WD is MUCH quieter than the Seagate, and BB took it on return (luckily). So, for the sake of not having to open my TiVo again, I am going to leave it be.

Besides, soon I will have yet another TiVo box to upgrade, as soon as it arrives.

Thanks for the help all!


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Have you checked to make sure its not the fan making the noise instead of the drive? Seagate drives are among the quietest drives available and I would definitely recommend one over a Western Digital. The one brand I've seen consistent failures with over the years have all been WD drives and an occasional Maxtor. Seagates have been the most reliable for me so far. They also have the best warranty in the industry, although the last two years are a bit of a joke when you read the fine print.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

mr.unnatural said:


> Seagate drives are among the quietest drives available ...


Seagates are quiet at idle, but they tend to be have loud seeks, relative to drives that have an AAM "quiet" mode. Part of the problem is that Seagate dropped AAM support due to a lawsuit from Convolve & MIT.


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## SJAndrew (Sep 30, 2005)

I enabled quiet mode on my (2) WD 320GB drives and they're TONS quieter than my Hitachi drives. I haven't heard them yet....

I used Hitachi Feature Tools to do this.

For anyone looking for drive tools, you may want to consider the Ultimate Boot CD. This one boot CD has TONS of tools, including drive tools for pretty much every make of drive out there (seagate, maxtor, hitachi, ibm, wd, samsung, fujitsu)....all on ONE CD.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

JamieP said:


> Seagates are quiet at idle, but they tend to be have loud seeks, relative to drives that have an AAM "quiet" mode. Part of the problem is that Seagate dropped AAM support due to a lawsuit from Convolve & MIT.


I would NOT suggest a Seagate drive at all if one is looking for a quiet tivo.


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