Have you added an eSata drive to your S3?

[Gregor]

Poll coming, just seeing how many folks have done so...

[Amnesia]

I'm waiting for information on how to make it work with an upgraded unit.

[fritolayguy]

I have a drive ordered and will install as soon as it arrives.

[Bierboy]

No way Jose....I already have 750GB internally.

[lcann44]

Added it, disconnected it, Added another, disconnected that one, returned it, and Added another. Since Saturday. ;)

[rdrrepair]

I have a 500g upgrade now. Based on current configuration I'll have to wait for TiVo to "Turn it on".

I just hope that everyone adding esata drive doesn't screw TiVo up with their planned rollout. They may need to revamp that roll out to now account for this setup we're doing in the wild.

[jtown]

I'm with Amnesia. I haven't upgraded yet but I want to make sure I don't upgrade in a way that will lock me out of future upgrades. :) Tho I'm going to upgrade to at least 1tb for sure.

[greg_burns]

I have a 500g upgrade now. Based on current configuration I'll have to wait for TiVo to "Turn it on".

What makes you think Tivo will support aftermarket upgrades? I think you are really going to have to wait on the hackers. :D

[robm15]

I'm not sure I'll ever upgrade to SATA, I have plenty of space with the stock drive, and it would be just one more thing under my TV. But it is nice to know there is a easy upgrade path if I ever do need more space.

[mattack]

Added it, disconnected it, Added another, disconnected that one, returned it, and Added another. Since Saturday. ;)

So what happened to the recordings on the main drive??

[greg_burns]

So what happened to the recordings on the main drive??

I've been doing that all night playing with 2 different eSata drives. Nothing happened (yet) to the recordings on the main drive.

BTW, my crazy idea about Polygamist TiVos (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5130601&&#post5130601) is a no go.

[CTLesq]

Help for the retarded.

eSata will allow me to.............

[Gregor]

Help for the retarded.

eSata will allow me to.............

Add more recording space to your S3 Tivo, with an external disk.

[CTLesq]

Add more recording space to your S3 Tivo, with an external disk.

Thanks.

And this is preferable rather than adding an internal hard drive because (a) its less expensive; and/or (b) you can add more space externally than internally; and/or (c) you don't lose your TiVo for a couple days if you have someone else do it; and/or (d) something else I am missing?

I just am not very familiar with this but I am aware you could, if you wanted, have a bigger internal drive.

[ah30k]

After sinking $800 (early adopter and glad I was) and a lifetime transfer. I have to let the financial pain wear off a bit more before plunking down any more cash. I'm not looking to library anything so the stock drive should work for a while.

[mattyx]

Just added a Seagate 500gb; worked like a charm.

Thanks to those who figured this out and made it easy for the rest of us!

/m/

[lcann44]

So what happened to the recordings on the main drive??

Everything recorded on the main hard drive remained. The recordings I made Sunday night were removed.

My theory is that similar to the SA 8300 it records to the drive with the most disk space available. Just an assumption, it's been pointed out to me that it may record differently by other members.

[lcann44]

So far this poll indicates two things to me. First, my perception about everybody running out and getting a eSATA drive was way off and second, people are a great deal more cautious then I presumed.

One other thing it's showing me by the number of people listed as "planning to add": These folks show me that they are smarter with their wallet, do better research, and have much better patience then I have. :)

[Gregor]

Thanks.

And this is preferable rather than adding an internal hard drive because (a) its less expensive; and/or (b) you can add more space externally than internally; and/or (c) you don't lose your TiVo for a couple days if you have someone else do it; and/or (d) something else I am missing?

I just am not very familiar with this but I am aware you could, if you wanted, have a bigger internal drive.

A) depending on what you do it can be cheaper.
b) the space added is in addition to what's already in the box.
c) correct
d) easier than opening the Tivo, copying disks, reinstalling disk. You keep your existing programs, probably a few others.

[lcann44]

A) depending on what you do it can be cheaper.
b) the space added is in addition to what's already in the box.
c) correct
d) easier than opening the Tivo, copying disks, reinstalling disk. You keep your existing programs, probably a few others.

e) Doesn't void the warranty. I have an extended warranty on my S3.

[CTLesq]

I appreciate the patient responses. I knew nothing about eSata before this thread. I like the idea of not voiding my warranty. On the other hand I like the idea of the cleanliness of it being done internally.

Something to ponder.

[TiivoDog]

I ordered a new 750gb SATA drive ($200 - ebay) and will be pairing that up with a $30 enclosure (http://www.satasite.com/sata-usb-drive-enclosure-sata-ide.htm) / That is a total of $230 to triple the capacity of my Tivo S3 - what a great deal!!!

Also, based on the success of this upgrade, I'll be doing the same with my other 2 Tivo S3 units!! :D :D

[Bierboy]

I appreciate the patient responses. I knew nothing about eSata before this thread. I like the idea of not voiding my warranty. On the other hand I like the idea of the cleanliness of it being done internally.

Something to ponder.I had the standard 90-day warranty. On day 91 I cracked the case and slapped in a pre-formatted WeaKnees 750 GB DB35 unit.

[snathanb]

I ordered a new 750gb SATA drive ($200 - ebay) and will be pairing that up with a $30 enclosure (http://www.satasite.com/sata-usb-drive-enclosure-sata-ide.htm) / That is a total of $230 to triple the capacity of my Tivo S3 - what a great deal!!!


Actually, you are quadrupling the capacity, so even better deal.

[TiivoDog]

Yes - stand corrected!!! Too excited over the increase!!

[classicsat]

Thanks.

And this is preferable rather than adding an internal hard drive because (a) its less expensive; and/or (b) you can add more space externally than internally; and/or (c) you don't lose your TiVo for a couple days if you have someone else do it; and/or (d) something else I am missing?

I just am not very familiar with this but I am aware you could, if you wanted, have a bigger internal drive.

You cannot "add" and internal drive, just replace it.

It would be more expensive, at least in parts, as you need the case and cabling. On the other hand, you need a SATA capable PC to replace the internal drive.

In theory, you could have more capacity with two drives.

Yes, with the current method, adding an eSATA drive is almost instant, compared to the afternoon or so it may take to upgrade the internal drive, or longer if you send it out.

[richsadams]

Interesting poll...even "early adopters" are more cautious than I would have expected as well.

Our 500GB Apricorn DVR Xpander (http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=37) eSATA drive is scheduled to arrive in a couple of days. Woo hoo! (Yeah, could have built one cheaper, but at this point in my life, "plug and play" sounds better everyday. ;) ) I'll post results ASAP.

IMHO I don't see TiVo making any radical changes that would cause eSATA drives added now to not work down the road since it's already built into FW v8.1 and 8.3. If/when they "go public" I'd expect that they would simply push a software update that will automatically recognize a second drive (perhaps after a reboot?).

And ditto the thanks to everyone for all of the feedback! :up:

[Amnesia]

I don't understand why people are using only 500GB external drives. A 750GB drive doesn't cost too much more, yet you're getting 50% more (additional) capacity...and it'll be a real pain to switch from the 500GB to a 750GB later on.

More space is better. You might think that 750GB (250 internal + 500 external) is plenty, but the day will probably come where you wish you had more space...

Personally, I'm holding out for a 1TB external to go with my 750GB internal...

[demon]

Upgraded my S3 with a 500 GB eSATA. Worked like a charm. As for why 500 instead of 750? The 500 GB drive fit my disposable money at the moment better. Besides, I think 98 hours of HD recording capacity will probably be enough for me for some time to come... :)

[Chew]

I'll be the weird one here: no plans to upgrade on either an external or internal basis.

I watch my stuff within a day or two of recording and do not archive anything. The current amount of space allows for a week of HD recordings, which is plenty.

IF I ever go on vacation, the eSATA option sounds good, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. :)

[richsadams]

I don't understand why people are using only 500GB external drives. A 750GB drive doesn't cost too much more, yet you're getting 50% more (additional) capacity...and it'll be a real pain to switch from the 500GB to a 750GB later on.

More space is better. You might think that 750GB (250 internal + 500 external) is plenty, but the day will probably come where you wish you had more space...

Personally, I'm holding out for a 1TB external to go with my 750GB internal...

Good point. But right now we hardly have enough time to watch everything we've recorded on our existing S2's and S3. We'd simply like to have some additional space for those times we're away on vacation, etc. With few exceptions when we've watched something we delete it. My wife rolls her eyes when I tell her we'll soon have about 100 hours of High Def space when all is said and done. So that's enough for us...for now.

Plus our cable company (Comcast) are no speed demons when it comes to adding HD channels so I suspect that there's plenty of time.

I also suspect by the time we need more space I'll take the new 500GB drive and replace the existing external drive on my computer. By that time a TiVo S5 with 2TB of disk space will be available right?

PS. We don't see any need to drive a Hummer either! :D

[lcann44]

I don't understand why people are using only 500GB external drives. A 750GB drive doesn't cost too much more, yet you're getting 50% more (additional) capacity...and it'll be a real pain to switch from the 500GB to a 750GB later on.

More space is better. You might think that 750GB (250 internal + 500 external) is plenty, but the day will probably come where you wish you had more space...

Personally, I'm holding out for a 1TB external to go with my 750GB internal...


More is always better and I thought about it but the reason I went 500gb was right now we pretty much only use 1/2 to 3/4 of our 250gb drive tops. I just don't like it when we are at 3/4 and I see things I like to record and won't because of lack of space.

Now I don't find all that much more I really want to record but going from 32 to 98 hours of HD is more then I'll personally ever use.

[Amnesia]

We'd simply like to have some additional space for those times we're away on vacation, etc.

I also suspect by the time we need more space I'll take the new 500GB drive and replace the existing external drive on my computer. I have a S3 with a 750GB drive and when I went away for a week, I came close to filling up the drive. Not that it was empty before, mind you. In addition to the normal recordings, I've "archived" HD content that is not currently available through HD (or Blu-Ray) DVDs---stuff like the Star Wars hexology, the complete Firefly series, etc. That stuff adds up.

Which brings me to the issue of replacing the 500GB drive. The problem is that if you have any "archived" content on it, I'm not sure how easy it will be to swap it out with a 750GB (or 1TB) drive when you finally decide that you really do want more space...

[bubba1972]

What happens if you move an external drive with programs from one S3 to another? Will the second box recognize them? Will it ignore the programs because of conflicting MAK or TSN?

[rainwater]

What happens if you move an external drive with programs from one S3 to another? Will the second box recognize them? Will it ignore the programs because of conflicting MAK or TSN?

I would assume it would be no different than swapping a internal drive. The recordings will not play on the 2nd TiVo. In fact, CableLabs approval is going to guarantee that is going to happen. :)

[demon]

What happens if you move an external drive with programs from one S3 to another? Will the second box recognize them? Will it ignore the programs because of conflicting MAK or TSN?

When you remove the drive, it would be "divorced" from the unit it was associated with. When you "marry" it to the new unit, it would reinitialize from scratch, so I think it's safe to say any remaining recordings would be obliterated. That might change later (i.e., you might be able to marry the same drive back to the same unit without losing recordings, but not to another), but as I'm not a TiVo employee, I can't back that up. It's just my musings based on what I've read thus far.

[NJChris]

I'm waiting for mine from buy.com. I ordered it monday night and it still shows "sent to warehouse"... ugh.. i picked 2 day shipping so I'd get it sooner. They're mean.

[Bierboy]

More is always better......and who says size doesn't matter?

[lcann44]

I would assume it would be no different than swapping a internal drive. The recordings will not play on the 2nd TiVo. In fact, CableLabs approval is going to guarantee that is going to happen. :)

Absolutely correct, it's married to the original hard drive that you set it up to. If you set it up to another S3 it will format the eSATA hard drive and bye bye recordings. :)

[lcann44]

Gregor, I'd like to a new version of this poll in another week or two. As it stands right now 89 people possibly will have eSATA installed probably sometime this week. I think most of the one's who said they intend to upgrade probably have their drive on order.

Since you can only vote once maybe we can run this poll again and get a better idea of how many people actually did hook up eSATA, at least Forum members.

Part of my curiosity is how low the amount of people who have upgraded is at this time. To me this was the "big" event I've been waiting for and with all the talk about it I really thought many more people would have gone out over the weekend and upgraded. As the day has gone on the amount of people who are choosing to wait for TiVo to formally approve is more along the line of what I expected.

If you don't want to set it up again, I will but I liked your questions they were perfect.

[Gregor]

Gregor, I'd like to a new version of this poll in another week or two. As it stands right now 89 people possibly will have eSATA installed probably sometime this week. I think most of the one's who said they intend to upgrade probably have their drive on order.

Since you can only vote once maybe we can run this poll again and get a better idea of how many people actually did hook up eSATA, at least Forum members.

Part of my curiosity is how low the amount of people who have upgraded is at this time. To me this was the "big" event I've been waiting for and with all the talk about it I really thought many more people would have gone out over the weekend and upgraded. As the day has gone on the amount of people who are choosing to wait for TiVo to formally approve is more along the line of what I expected.

If you don't want to set it up again, I will but I liked your questions they were perfect.

I'll be happy to run it again in a couple of weeks. I'd like to wait until the instructions for the expanded internal drive folks show up.

I would probably change it up a bit to see who's got what...

1) Yes ( original internal drive)
2) Yes (expanded internal drive)
3) Waiting for Tivo device
4) Planning to add non-Tivo device
5) No plans for upgrade (already expanded internal drive)
6) No plans for upgrade (original system)


I think the low number is just due to the infancy of this hack. It's way early in the life cycle, and I think folks are waiting to see what Tivo is going to do about it, and as usual, lots of people are jumping into the pool with both feet.

Myself, I'm trying to be semi-responsible fiscally for awhile. :o

[rainwater]

I'm not sure what a poll on a S3 specific forum will tell you. Obviously, people who frequent this board are a small minority of the S3 owners. Forums members here are surely more likely to upgrade their TiVo before the average user will.

[IJustLikeTivo]

I have a drive ordered and will install as soon as it arrives.

+1, I have the drive, it got here today. Waiting for the cable.

[bareyb]

I decided I have enough storage for now. My S3 is finally working well and I don't think I want to mess with eSATA until Tivo officially supports it.

[susani8]

I received the Cavalry external esata drive from newegg today. :D It's 500 gb and was 135 including shipping (after the original cost and lifetime transfer that's about all I could justify going). It took me a couple of tries (had to figure out the "orange light" thing) and about 15 minutes - and voila! I'm up to 750 gb - and didn't have to image a drive, send my s3 to anyone, or lose any of the shows I've already got stored.

I noticed this evening that what sounds like the fan in the drive is a little noisy, but since it's in the family room I could care less - but it could be a little noisy for a bedroom.

I'm thinking that since it's taken me 6 months to get the point where the drive was consistently filling to capacity, the additional 500 gb should be just about perfect. Now I wish I hadn't erased all of the Planet Earth series from Discovery HD!

By the way the Cavalry has an "always on" button - even if there's a power outage it should turn on and reboot with the s3 just fine.

[richsadams]

I have a S3 with a 750GB drive and when I went away for a week, I came close to filling up the drive. Not that it was empty before, mind you. In addition to the normal recordings, I've "archived" HD content that is not currently available through HD (or Blu-Ray) DVDs---stuff like the Star Wars hexology, the complete Firefly series, etc. That stuff adds up.

Which brings me to the issue of replacing the 500GB drive. The problem is that if you have any "archived" content on it, I'm not sure how easy it will be to swap it out with a 750GB (or 1TB) drive when you finally decide that you really do want more space...
Yep, if you replace a hard drive - either your A drive or the eSata - you will lose whatever was there. Hmmm...guess if you replace your A drive you'll lose everything on both drives?? Ouch! But that's the nature of the beast. Firefly? Thought we were the only ones that watched that! :up:

So I may be kicking myself later...wishing I'd gone for the 750 gig...or the 1TB...or the 4 disk RAID array...or...or... ;)

I'm thinking that since it's taken me 6 months to get the point where the drive was consistently filling to capacity, the additional 500 gb should be just about perfect. Now I wish I hadn't erased all of the Planet Earth series from Discovery HD!
Oooooo...that would have been a good save. It's available on DVD though.

I can't wait for MRV/TiVoToGo to be activated...then we can archive to our heart's content...maybe. :confused:

[Justin Thyme]

Now I don't find all that much more I really want to record but going from 32 to 98 hours of HD is more then I'll personally ever use.I suppose as hard disk prices continue to plummet, it will make it much more difficult for folks to confuse their Tivos with a plate at a buffet style breakfast.

With terabytes of storage available for the same price that early Tivo user's paid for 40 GB machines, the Now Playing list is free to evolve to the next paradigm, where it becomes encyclopedic of one's visual interests. If the paradigm of the buffet breakfast were applied to choosing encyclopedias, then we would demure from purchasing something like an Encylopedia Brittanica because it would have more articles than we could ever possibly read. Or a dictionary with more words than we could ever possibly employ.

There are different etiquettes for what we feed our head versus what we feed our bodies.

Certainly, no one likes being called a glutton (or in some circles, a Hummer driver). But just as clearly, we do not look at a child collecting volumes from the reference section of a library with the same regard as we do an obese child with their smörgasbord plate overflowing with greasy and sugar laden food, half of which they will discard uneaten.

The propensity of populations to continue to think within misapplied paradigms is interesting when there are growing populations who live outside the outmoded paradigm.

[AbMagFab]

You didn't have an option for "Yes, when it works with an already upgraded Tivo."

I suspect a lot of us early adopters are in this camp.

[Leo_N]

You didn't have an option for "Yes, when it works with an already upgraded Tivo."

I suspect a lot of us early adopters are in this camp.

Exactly what I would vote! :up:

[Jerry_K]

Haven't gotten it to work yet.

I think that I might not have set the jumper. DOH

The instructions so far are not detailed enough. Like having to change to ID0 with the remote, jumper positions, speed of entering 62 etc.

I will have lots of time this weekend to mess with the Tivos. Knee surgery will keep my lovely wife from filling up my time with other chores. :)

[TiivoDog]

I was able to successfully add an external 750 GB drive to my OEM internal drive on software 8.3.1, which has now boosted my recording capacity to 131 HD hours and a whopping 1,244 SD hours!! Also, I have provided my hardware configuration for those, who think this upgrade can not be done on the 'cheap':

Hard Drive

750 GB - Seagate ST3750640AS ($220)
500 GB - Can be purchased for approx ($100 - $125)


HDD Enclosure ($30)

http://www.satasite.com/sata-usb-drive-enclosure-sata-ide.htm


Cable ($10)

http://www.coolgear.com/productdetails1.cfm?sku=eSATA-100&cats=&catid=741,736


Endless hours of Tivo pleasure (Priceless!!!!!) :D :D

[bown]

Got 8.3 and connected 750GB drive in same day. I'm giddy!!!! :D :D :D

[jeffsinsfo]

Same here, just an hour ago. I didn't even know I had the service update and that my S3 was pending a restart. I just received my Seagate 500GB eSata, hooked it up to my unplugged S3, then restarted the TiVo to successfully find a lot more storage space and the 8.3 service update! Yeah!

Got 8.3 and connected 750GB drive in same day. I'm giddy!!!! :D :D :D

[Franco]

I don't really have plans to add an external drive. I've been watching the HD material pretty soon after it comes out, so I really don't have to worry about content deleting. I just want me some MRV love from TiVo so I can get the most use out of both my S3s.

[TiivoDog]

As I stated earlier, I did upgrade my storage capacity via eSATA, however I am dying for MRV!!!!!! I have 3 S3 units and it's almost like I have a private jet, but my family is afraid to fly......