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Hard Drive Upgrade Info

832K views 3K replies 437 participants last post by  austinsho 
#1 ·
Upgrade your Roamio with a new drive. No discs needed.

What you need:
T8 Screw driver
T10 Screw Driver
New Hard Drive

 
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1
#1,795 ·
I can't truly say "Bad for TiVo users". I can say "untested and unproven for TiVo use", WD's specs not making it sound like it has anything extra to add to TiVos (due to the recording/playback methods TiVo uses for AV content), WD's marketing/specs making it sound like not an ideal single-drive solution, and the "new product factor".

If I had any inkling there was anything better about it, for TiVo uses, or use in a TiVo, I'd consider trying them, and consider asking others to give it a try.

I'd rather keep an eye on the reviews. WD has been getting a lot of black eyes in reviews lately, especially on DOAs, and non DOAs which fail soon after testing and installing...

If these drives seem to be faring better than this trend with the other models (WD Red NAS & WD AV-GP included), I might try one, verify it works properly in a TiVo, then consider passing that data along, so others can make the best informed decisions.

"New isn't always better". Sometime the best-case scenario/result is nothing gained, but nothing lost. Sometimes the worst-case is recommending a new product, then finding out it came with its very own new issues.
Again thanks,, I would never hold anyone to suggestions they make. I appreciate the info that knowledgeable users provide on the forums. The choice will still be mine and I am responsible for the outcomes. The forums give me a much better chance of "getting it right" than choosing in the blind.
Dan
 
#1,796 ·
Again thanks,, I would never hold anyone to suggestions they make. I appreciate the info that knowledgeable users provide on the forums. The choice will still be mine and I am responsible for the outcomes. The forums give me a much better chance of "getting it right" than choosing in the blind.
Dan
@Dan Skip the 2TB and go for the 3TB drive which the Roamio Pro ships with. This gets you another 150 hours of record time for an extra $25. Over 5 years that's an extra $5/yr. Will also help resell value.

Roamio Pro: Up to 450 HD / 3000 SD hours recording capacity (3TB)

Amazon has the Western Digital 3 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD30EURX for ~$125.
 
#1,797 ·
#1,798 ·
Set up my new Roamio Plus yesterday, Unfortunately, my 3TB hard drive shipped to my work address instead of home so I could put the new HD in before I activated it.

Today I installed the Hard drive and ran back through all the setup.

Lost all my premium stations. I called Comcast and they tried re-pairing the card. didnt work. She just kept saying "Its Red" whatever that means...

her solution is to try swapping the cable card. so I guess I'll head over to a Comcast place on Monday and swap it out and see if that works.

BTW, Installed the Western Digital "RED" Nas drive. Located in the South Chicago Suburbs.
 
#1,802 ·
I am planning to follow the good advice here and upgrade to the
WD AV-GP WD20EURX 2TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive. But while I was on Newegg looking at the drive they suggested a newer version made for 24/7.

WD Purple WD20PURX 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236661
Any thoughts on this as one?
Dan
WD seems to be saying the Purple drive are optimized for Surveillance systems and are NOT the right choice for DVRs.

Regarding WD Purple drives for Tivo or DVR applications, this was asked in the WD Forum and a WD Staff member said this:

" The WD Purple drives are for surveillance systems.
You can see more information on the link below:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/surveillance/

The line suitable for DVR's is the following:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=170 "
 
#1,803 ·
WD seems to be saying the Purple drive are optimized for Surveillance systems and are NOT the right choice for DVRs.

Regarding WD Purple drives for Tivo or DVR applications, this was asked in the WD Forum and a WD Staff member said this:

" The WD Purple drives are for surveillance systems.
You can see more information on the link below:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/surveillance/

The line suitable for DVR's is the following:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=170 "
As noted in one or more of my past posts, I came to the same initial impression.

I feel it is worth noting that the AV-GP line, as originally marketed, did not include PVR/DVR use, only surveillance (It was added, not that long ago).

One thing the AV-GP was never marketed for was NAS and/or array use, which the "Purple" is heavily marketed for.

The numbers that truly matter are how many TB/year the drives are supposed to handle. I did the math on "unofficial" 120-150TB/yr RED NAS, and came up with "in excess of the rating", for four tuners at a modest 5TB/hr per tuner for high def. Even the published drives are rated lower than what a 4 tuner unit recording HD comes out to (~200 TB/yr). Do the math on six tuners.

From AnandTech:

"We had covered the launch of the WD Se hard drives for data centers and high end NAS units in May. One of the advertised aspects was the 180 TB/yr workload capacity. Western Digital is unable to commit to a workload capacity for the WD Red lineup because of the varying environmental conditions under which consumer NAS units operate. That said, WD expects (unofficially) the Red drives to be able to handle workloads between 120 and 150 TB/year."

Whole article": http://www.anandtech.com/show/7257/...ed-nas-drive-lineup-with-4-tb-and-25-versions

I'm seriously wondering how underrated a stock 500GB 4-tuner roamio AV hard drive is (IMHO, must be). The smaller the drive, the more each sector is overwritten per year, logically lowering the TB/yr rating, TTBOMK.

I'm also seriously wondering how well plain Green, non-AV, non 24/7 marketed drives will hold up.

It also would seem like (to me) one of the best ways to determine the true life (in P/E operations) of SSDs (Solid State Drives), is to put them into TiVos and see how long each one lasts, then do some math.

From now on, I'll be trying to keep idle tuners on SD music channels. A 4hr recording of one comes out to less than 600MB (yes, MB) total size.

If TiVo provided a way to stop live buffering, preferably with a way to specify how many tuners to allow to live buffer, I'd jump on it...
 
#1,805 ·
I know this is going to be a silly question, but when we swap out a Roamio hard drive that has already gone through guided setup and that already has season passes, a populated to-do list, etc, with a brand new hard drive, our Roamios lose all settings and season passes? Thanks!
Yes. That info is stored on the original drive. But, I think you can get your season passes from the Tivo website. I'm not sure about the settings.
 
#1,806 ·
Yes. That info is stored on the original drive. But, I think you can get your season passes from the Tivo website. I'm not sure about the settings.
thanks!

Now I'm wondering if we took the hard drive out of a Roamio that has recordings, settings, season passes, etc, if we put it in a different Roamio, would that new Roamio overwrite this hard drive, or would all of the tivo data be maintained?
 
#1,808 ·
thanks!

Now I'm wondering if we took the hard drive out of a Roamio that has recordings, settings, season passes, etc, if we put it in a different Roamio, would that new Roamio overwrite this hard drive, or would all of the tivo data be maintained?
The data and recordings are set for a specific Tivo so it would return an error and cannot record. Tivo Service number would return all ZEROs. Clear and Delete Everything must be used to fix it.
 
#1,809 ·
WD seems to be saying the Purple drive are optimized for Surveillance systems and are NOT the right choice for DVRs.

Regarding WD Purple drives for Tivo or DVR applications, this was asked in the WD Forum and a WD Staff member said this:

" The WD Purple drives are for surveillance systems.
You can see more information on the link below:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/surveillance/

The line suitable for DVR's is the following:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=170 "
In my experience one can use any drive except the ones over 7200RPM, the best is any 5400RPM drive, (or green drive) and any color will work for a TiVo, its all about marking and hard drive warranty, most people will get, on the low end, 4 to 5 years on a drive and some people have reported getting up to 7 years or more. I have an old Series 2 from 2005 that I stopped using in 2011, it still works and has over 6 years on a upgraded PATA drive made in 2005, newer drives are better.
 
#1,810 ·
The numbers that truly matter are how many TB/year the drives are supposed to handle. I did the math on "unofficial" 120-150TB/yr RED NAS, and came up with "in excess of the rating", for four tuners at a modest 5TB/hr per tuner for high def. Even the published drives are rated lower than what a 4 tuner unit recording HD comes out to (~200 TB/yr). Do the math on six tuners.

<snip>

From now on, I'll be trying to keep idle tuners on SD music channels. A 4hr recording of one comes out to less than 600MB (yes, MB) total size.

If TiVo provided a way to stop live buffering, preferably with a way to specify how many tuners to allow to live buffer, I'd jump on it...
As usual, massive OCD overthink going on here. As lessd said, any 5400rpm drive will work and they are all equally as random as to when one will fail in the life of a Tivo.

Seriously, ignore all the kvetching about drive types here folks. Get any green drive you want and plop it in.
 
#1,811 ·
While the EVO is supposed to be rated for very long life, with the 1TB version writing 50 GB a day is supposed to give it a 32 year life. My Roamio Pro probably writes around 700GB a day based on 5GBs an hour for each of six tuners. Since it is constantly writing data for every tuner. An SSD will not last long enough under the conditions of a DVR. I know I certainly would not want to rely on it. Especially since there are not any benefits(other than noise or heat) in a DVR using an SSD instead of a platter drive. A TiVo has been designed with a platter drive in mind.
 
#1,812 ·
:up:
As usual, massive OCD overthink going on here. As lessd said, any 5400rpm drive will work and they are all equally as random as to when one will fail in the life of a Tivo.

Seriously, ignore all the kvetching about drive types here folks. Get any green drive you want and plop it in.
:up:
 
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