Swapping Drives

[Rod Adams]

I've presently got a Humax branded 590, which came with a decent sized drive. (250G I think. 300 basic hrs), lifetimed.

I've been thinking of buying a DT machine to add to the network (and to finally solve my cableco's A/B issue), and they tend to come w/ 80hr drives (entirely too small for a main tivo), however, an 80 ST wouldn't be a bad thing if the DT had more space.

So my question is, could one just swap out the two hard drives, without any reformatting, etc? Or would I have to use mfstools to reformat them?

Basically, I'm a technically compentent fellow, but have never done the Tivo upgrade thing before, so if I can get away with the easy swap, so much the better.

If I'm going to have to reformat both drives, I'll likely just spend $100 for a 300G drive from newegg and put it in the DT.

[classicsat]

I don't think the DT will solve the A/B cable problem, directly anyhow.

You can swap drives, but will have to treat them as blank, as what is on them is useless to another model TiVo.

[Rod Adams]

Yes, I'm acutely aware (and annoyed) that the DT only has a single coax input.

But, it solves the A/B problem in that I'll have one tivo per side. DT for the side with 90% of the channels I watch, ST for the other side w/ 20% of the channels (most OTA networks are on both sides). Put the ST on another TV, and w/ MRV I don't see any issues. Definately better than the silly "Dish that only gets one channel via an old VCR" technique which is a pain to maintain, and only nets one channel.

Besides, now I can record three college football games at a time :D

But you answered my question that I'd have to wipe the drives clean, so it's better and easier to just buy a new drive for the DT. Why Tivo doesn't sell the things with larger drives I'll never understand.

Thanks for the answer!

[mick66]

YWhy Tivo doesn't sell the things with larger drives I'll never understand.

Thanks for the answer!

TiVo does sell a 180 hour DT in addition to the 80 hour unit.
model # TCD649180

[Rod Adams]

TiVo does sell a 180 hour DT in addition to the 80 hour unit.
model # TCD649180

Yes, I know. But when you're considering between a relatively cheap 300G/~350Hr drive or a more expensive 500G/~560hr for upgrade, 180hrs just doesn't cut it.

When I said larger drives, I was refering to the multi-hundred gig drives that are becoming quite inexpensive these days. Humax had a good start with the 250G they put in the T2500, which is why I grabbed one when they were on special, and which spoiled my greatly towards lots of drive space to "buffer" TV viewing at higher qualities.