My HR 10 took a dump , can I use the extra HD?

[stingray]

My HR 10 took a dump. I will be getting thenew HR 20 in 2 days. I upgraded my HR 10 in September with an extra HD. It didnt even last a year.

Can I use the extra Hd on my HR 10 for an extra Hd and back up on my computer?

How is this done? I know the HD for the HR10 was , I cant remember the name, (like reformated for the tivo).

I'm computer savvy but this type of thing is over my head. I actually had Weakness do the upgrade the second time, the first time, I did it with neighbor's help.

And while I am at it , what is the upside and downside of the HR20. I read some threads, I know I cannot upgraded with another HD and I read something about the dual buffer. I not sure what that means.

What else? An upside is that -At least it give you 100 hrs of HD. And i thing I read somewhere that it tells you how many hours you have left to record(?)

[wscannell]

You can use the hard drive in a PC. You can reformat the disk for Windows in XP by going to Control Panel...Administrative Tools...Computer Management...Disk Management. You should then see the drives that are attached to the PC. You should be able to create a partition and format it by right clicking on the drive.

[BruceShultes]

But you cannot use the hard drive to expand the recording space available on the HR20.

If you want to do that see this thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350510

[TyroneShoes]

OK, How about this one. If I have a 2nd drive in a Tivo that the 1st drive died in, can I use that 2nd drive in a different Tivo, as a 2nd drive?

[rminsk]

OK, How about this one. If I have a 2nd drive in a Tivo that the 1st drive died in, can I use that 2nd drive in a different Tivo, as a 2nd drive?If you want too. All the recordings on the second drive can not be recovered unless you can revive the first drive.

I do not like running two drives for a few reasons. The hard drive is the most likely part to fail in a TiVo. Having two drives increases the risk of a drive failure. The extra heat with two drives can cause problems. Also the power supply in the TiVo is not too beefy. The second hard drive may strain the power supply.

If you still want to exapnd to a second hard drive see http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

[bonscott87]

I had a good old T-60 that I had for years that I had added a 120 gb drive to (that was HUGE back in the day). When the T-60 finally gave up the ghost I pulled the 120 back out, formatted it and still use it to this day as a backup drive in one of my computers.

[stingray]

Bonscott87, that is exactly what I want to do. I hate for the Hard Drive to go waste, its a 500 Gb HD.
So, can you break it down. Did you use it as an external drive or did you put it internally?

Break down as you were writing the book, Using the extra HD for dummies. i.e. step one take HD out of the Tivo, making sure you unplug it. I have also an Apple Mini, I wonder if I can use HD there?

[bonscott87]

Bonscott87, that is exactly what I want to do. I hate for the Hard Drive to go waste, its a 500 Gb HD.
So, can you break it down. Did you use it as an external drive or did you put it internally?

Break down as you were writing the book, Using the extra HD for dummies. i.e. step one take HD out of the Tivo, making sure you unplug it. I have also an Apple Mini, I wonder if I can use HD there?

Not sure how I can break it down. Been building computers for over 10 years. Basically you need to know what you're doing in terms of the hardware and connections as well as how to format and so forth. And there are so many different combinations of things that can be different from PC to PC in terms of different cabling, jumpers and so forth. And I won't even talk about having to go into your PCs Bios and change the settings in there (which if you mess up the Bios your computer may no longer boot).

It's easy but not for someone that isn't technical in that way. If you don't already know what you're doing and you're not willing to take the risk to learn then I'd suggest getting a buddy to do it for you. You can start researching the various technical computer sites like Tom's Hardware or AnandTech and see if there are some tutorials (or google search).

Can't answer your question about the Apple, I've never had one.

[JB3]

You can also resurect your HR10 with just the new 500GB drive. You can either reload a backup of the TiVo software if you made abackup when you added the drive or for a couple of bucks you can order a CD with the TiVo software. Just google "instant cake".

[wolflord11]

Yes you can use the HD in a computer. You can put it in as a slave unit in your current computer, then use Windows XP Tools to reformat it.

OR:

Use another Program. I use Partition Magic. It can reformat, or even change the Type for example: Linux to Windows, NTFS, FAT32 etc.

Other options:

As JB3 has said, resurrect the HR10 by using the HD in that.

You cannot use the HD in the New HR20.

[TyroneShoes]

...I do not like running two drives for a few reasons. The hard drive is the most likely part to fail in a TiVo. Having two drives increases the risk of a drive failure. The extra heat with two drives can cause problems. Also the power supply in the TiVo is not too beefy. The second hard drive may strain the power supply...
Thanks for the reply. I agree, and adding an old 2nd HDD to a newer Tivo actually MORE than doubles your chances for a failure. I would guess that if one were to do that and the 2nd drive fails, that you can take that drive out and any recordings on the original drive would still be there, yes?

But, the heat issue can be beat. If you add the Weaknees fan bracket and 2nd fan for about $9. For instance, a stock HR10-250 runs about 10 degrees centigrage HOTTER than a modified HR10-250 with an added 400 GB 2nd HDD and fan bracket (which also makes it a HR10-650 :D ).

[rminsk]

I would guess that if one were to do that and the 2nd drive fails, that you can take that drive out and any recordings on the original drive would still be there, yes?Nope. Once you are in a two drive situation and one of the drives fails you loose all of your recordings.

[TyroneShoes]

$#!+!

[stingray]

I was thinking actually of using the exrra HD for my apple mini which is running out of space. I read there is an external HD kit which uses USB 2.0 plug and pray.

I am not sure how much it cost, anyone ever hear of it?

[JimSpence]

There are any number of manufacturers of hard disk enclosures. They can use either USB or ethernet.

Here's a current thread concerning Network Attached Storage (NAS).
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357249

[stingray]

Thanks for the information.

[pheroy]

Resurrecting this thread due to a problem I'm having with a drive. I've replaced my HR10-250s with an HR-20 and and HR-21, so the 500 GB HD that I was going to upgrade one of the HR10-250s is now targeted for use as a PC backup drive.

Unfortunately, the BIOS sees it (Primary IDE Slave) but then reports SMART status as "Bad - backup and replace", and the Drive Manager won't even display the drive. This HD was actually used in an unsuccessful attempt to copy (using one of the mfstools images and dd command, so it does have linux partition tables) a previous 400 GB HD that seemed to fail after a few weeks in the HR10.

Any suggestions on how to recover this HD, or should I just do a wty exchange?

[JimSpence]

If it still under warranty, then replace it.