[TivoHD] Spoofing unsupported HDD's

[SGR215]

I understand TivoHD boxes can only use an external Esata drive sold by Tivo. Would it in theory be possible to modify an unsupported hard drive so that Tivo would recognize it as a "My DVR Expander"? I guess what I should really be asking is how does the TivoHD verify the drive is in fact a MyDVRExpander model?

Basically what I'm thinking is there may very well be other HDD's out there that can be hacked to make it appear as if its supported by Tivo.

[robomeister]

If you visit www.mfslive.org, you will find that you don't need to try to "spoof" anything to get external (eSATA) or larger internal (SATA) drives to work on the TiVoHD. You just use the tools on that site to expand and marry the drives together. You will need a PC with 2 SATA ports to make it happen.

There are reports of 2.2 TB Tivos, both the Series 3 model and the TiVoHD model. That's over 2,000 hours of SD programming. It can be done without any "spoofing."

Happy TiVoing!

[SGR215]

Wow, I was under the assumption the TivoHD's Esata was locked to only accept the "My DVR Expander" drive. Looks like I've got some reading to do. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction robomeister! :)

[classicsat]

An unmodified TiVoHD will recognize only the MyDVR Expander (sold by WD though), by the firmware of the drive. I am guessing it might be possible to install the MyDVR Expander firmware onto a non DVR-Expander WD drive of identical build.

Outside of that, I suppose it is much easier to hack the TiVo itself to expand to unapproved drives, rather than modify a drive to fool an unmodified TiVo to accept it.