Upgrading a Tivo Hard Drive

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sonyxperiageek

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#96486 28-Jan-2012 22:48

Hello guys! I was planning to upgrade my Tivo's 320gb internal HDD to a TB or more. Yes, I know of the consequences and my Tivo warranty is coming to an end. I planned to clone, the new HDD using WinMFS and depending on what HDD I get, I will need to change the AAM settings to quieter (if possible). Is there a limited size our NZ Tivo's support up to? I also read if you upgrade your internal HDD, 'plug and play' expansion won't work.( Which i probably won't need). So will the original Tivo WiFi adapter work then? And any suggestions on a cheap, but good and a 'will-work-on-Tivo' internal HDD out there? Will over-the-air updates work when the new HDD is in?

Also, has anyone had any experiences trying this or something similar? Any tips, suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

Sony

Skolink

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#574534 29-Jan-2012 08:09

You may find the following thread informative on the OzTiVo forums

Jasonsbx

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#582001 15-Feb-2012 19:05

My upgrade was fairly painless except that there was a issue with WD drives and maybe others as well with head parking. In my case wdidle was the fix and it hasn't missed a beat since.

Jaxson

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#589121 1-Mar-2012 23:30

Does the esata connection on the back work?

It's referred to in the documentation somewhere and the port is actually there too.

Spong

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#589124 1-Mar-2012 23:38

Jaxson: Does the esata connection on the back work?

It's referred to in the documentation somewhere and the port is actually there too.

From my understanding it won't work with any hard disk except the official one you can buy through TiVo. I believe it's a WD MyBook with possibly custom firmware or format or both. About a year ago, it was sold at a special price for a while, but otherwise was way over priced. A better option was upgrading the internal HDD but this would probably void your warranty.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

kiwipeter

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#596529 17-Mar-2012 18:56

I know this is a US TiVo, but it is a similar beast to ours. I wonder if someone could try it? I don't have an esata drive alas.

http://m.engadget.com/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/04/how-to-use-your-tivo-series3-esata-port-to-add-an-external-driv/&category=classic&postPage=1

JimmyH

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#596832 18-Mar-2012 17:41

Hybrid did used to sell a 1TB eSATA drive that you can use for this. It doesn't seem to be on the website any longer. From memory:

1. The pricing was *ludicrous* for a 1TB external drive (ie more than the retail cost of a USB3 3TB drive!, and more than the actual cost of a full Tivo on sale).

2. There were stern injunctions that non-approved drives wouldn't work.

3. the integration was just silly - it splits programs over the internal and external drives outside your control, and if you removed the expander drive (or it failed) you lost both the programs on it and any recordings on the internal drive.

If you really need the extra storage then pretty much anything (upgrade the drive yourself, buy the HNP and move files to your PC etc) seemed better in terms of price and robustness than the expander drive.

Personally - I can see the attractions of multi-TB drives in say a MySky. I can't really for Tivo and haven't bothered myself - there simply isn't enough worthwhile content on Freeview for me to need the storage.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

Jasonsbx

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#597873 20-Mar-2012 19:43

kiwipeter: I know this is a US TiVo, but it is a similar beast to ours. I wonder if someone could try it? I don't have an esata drive alas.

http://m.engadget.com/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/04/how-to-use-your-tivo-series3-esata-port-to-add-an-external-driv/&category=classic&postPage=1

Many of the US codes don't seem to work so this may not. The external drive option is pretty messy anyway but can be setup using same procedure as internal drive update.

K1000716

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#603061 31-Mar-2012 21:55

JimmyH: Hybrid did used to sell a 1TB eSATA drive that you can use for this. It doesn't seem to be on the website any longer. From memory:

1. The pricing was *ludicrous* for a 1TB external drive (ie more than the retail cost of a USB3 3TB drive!, and more than the actual cost of a full Tivo on sale).

...

If you really need the extra storage then pretty much anything (upgrade the drive yourself, buy the HNP and move files to your PC etc) seemed better in terms of price and robustness than the expander drive.

I bought one at the time of the sale, would never have even considered it otherwise - the price was truly insane. We use the Tivo a lot so the extra storage was very handy. We'd filled the 320gb internal drive, mainly with tv series and movies I didn't have the time to watch but eventually got around to. We also have heaps of kids stuff saved.

I agree about using the HNP to shift the files around, but you'd then need to transfer them back if you want to watch them. As mine is mainly used by the technophobes/under 8's in the house I took the simpler and more expensive option and made my own life easier. ;)

I'd definitely have preferred having a larger internal drive though, but at the time was reluctant to tear into it. :)

Lee