# create your own external expander drive for TIVO Premiere 45-hour?



## rajmhar (Feb 10, 2012)

In order to create my own external expander drive for TIVO Premiere 45-hour, can I just image a bran-new Western Digital My Book Expander drive and then output that image onto my external hard drive, and then just connect it to the tivo?

Why wouldn't this simple procedure work?

Also, will the esata case that I buy and use for the expansion work just as normally as a WD My Book, specifically the issues of overheating, etc.?

Thanks so much for your expert advice.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

rajmhar said:


> In order to create my own external expander drive for TIVO Premiere 45-hour, can I just image a bran-new Western Digital My Book Expander drive and then output that image onto my external hard drive, and then just connect it to the tivo?
> 
> Why wouldn't this simple procedure work?
> 
> ...


As I understand it, the S3 HD, the S3 HD XL, and the S4 TiVos expect a particular Western Digital drive model number. That's the number the drive itself reports back when its firmware is properly queried, not anything the enclosure has to say.

So you have to use that particular model WD 500GB or that particular model WD 1TB drive, connected to the TiVo's eSATA port, regardless of whether you have it inside an enclosure or just lying out there in the open.

If you have not yet married an external to your TiVo, you might want to consider using jmfs to create a larger internal and put the original on the shelf for safe-keeping rather than risk the extra chances of one of two drives failing and taking out all of the shows recorded since the connection of an external.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

I'm not sure sure it's specific to the drive model, but rather the eSATA interface or some other parameter that's being checked. There's a list of compatible external enclosures that can be used somewhere in one of the sticky threads, IIRC. You may be able to use other brands of drives in one of these enclosures. OTOH, didn't WD acquire most of the existing drive manufacturers, essentially making almost any drive currently sold a WD brand?

If you're looking to use an external drive that already comes in an enclosure then I think you are limited to using WD drives. I was using a Fantom 1TB external drive and I'm pretty sure it used a WD drive.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mr.unnatural said:


> I'm not sure sure it's specific to the drive model, but rather the eSATA interface or some other parameter that's being checked. There's a list of compatible external enclosures that can be used somewhere in one of the sticky threads, IIRC. You may be able to use other brands of drives in one of these enclosures. OTOH, didn't WD acquire most of the existing drive manufacturers, essentially making almost any drive currently sold a WD brand?
> 
> If you're looking to use an external drive that already comes in an enclosure then I think you are limited to using WD drives. I was using a Fantom 1TB external drive and I'm pretty sure it used a WD drive.


You will notice I specified everything newer than the original S3 as looking for a particular WD drive number. I believe the list of compatible enclosures you mention is just for the OLED S3.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

You're probably right. I never migrated beyond the S3 model so I didn't follow the thread for later models. Don't you just love how Tivo keeps making things so much easier for us with each new model they introduce?


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