Does the Tivo HD have a serial ata cable inside the box?

[BlackBetty]

I plan on doing an upgrade tomorrow of the internal drive in my TiVo HD. I ordered the samsung 1TB drive talked about in these forums. The drive came bare bones with no serial ata cable.

So I need a serial ata cable to hook up the tivo drive first to the pc, and then after I make an image I'll need to hook up the samsung drive.

Is there a Sata cable in the HD that I can unplug and use that to connect the drives to the PC?

If not, then I'll try and run out somewhere tomorrow and pick one up. I noticed best buy has one for $20, but no way will I pay that. I'd like to pay $5 or less if possible.

Thanks!

[urkel-Os]

I plan on doing an upgrade tomorrow of the internal drive in my TiVo HD. I ordered the samsung 1TB drive talked about in these forums. The drive came bare bones with no serial ata cable.

So I need a serial ata cable to hook up the tivo drive first to the pc, and then after I make an image I'll need to hook up the samsung drive.

Is there a Sata cable in the HD that I can unplug and use that to connect the drives to the PC?

If not, then I'll try and run out somewhere tomorrow and pick one up. I noticed best buy has one for $20, but no way will I pay that. I'd like to pay $5 or less if possible.

Thanks!

If you only hook up one drive at a time to your PC, you can just use the SATA cable that is inside the THD. You only need a spare SATA cable if you want to connect both drives to the PC at the same time. If this is what you want to do, and you can wait a few days, order the spare from monoprice.com (or similar). Cheapest one I saw on monoprice was $1.10 + shipping. Good luck!

[BlackBetty]

If you only hook up one drive at a time to your PC, you can just use the SATA cable that is inside the THD. You only need a spare SATA cable if you want to connect both drives to the PC at the same time. If this is what you want to do, and you can wait a few days, order the spare from monoprice.com (or similar). Cheapest one I saw on monoprice was $1.10 + shipping. Good luck!

thanks. I plan on hooking up the tivo original drive first and making a back up image. And then hooking up the new drive for the upgrade.

Its good to know that I can use the cable inside of the tivohd box to do this.

[Betelgeuse]

thanks. I plan on hooking up the tivo original drive first and making a back up image. And then hooking up the new drive for the upgrade.

Its good to know that I can use the cable inside of the tivohd box to do this.

I think this is not correct. I'm 90% sure that the cable inside the THD box is not a standard SATA cable. It's one that has both power and data on it and can't plug into a standard computer motherboard. You need (at least) one cable to connect, so if I'm right, you'd need to get a SATA cable. Hopefully, someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my recollection is that you can't hook up a hard drive to your computer with the cable inside the Tivo.

[lrhorer]

'Not only that, but it is extremely short.

[WO312]

I think this is not correct. I'm 90% sure that the cable inside the THD box is not a standard SATA cable. It's one that has both power and data on it and can't plug into a standard computer motherboard. You need (at least) one cable to connect, so if I'm right, you'd need to get a SATA cable. Hopefully, someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my recollection is that you can't hook up a hard drive to your computer with the cable inside the Tivo.
You are correct. You cannot use it. The end at the hard drive is a single power/data molded connector. From that connector, a data cable runs to a connection on the m/b. That end is a std sata connector, but it is only a few inches long. The real problem is that the power cables from that molded connector are hard-wired to the power supply.

Edit: Not sure if it is possible, but if you were REALLY desperate, maybe you could gingerly slice the molded connector between the power and the data portions. You would be left with a 5-6" sata cable that could possibly work.

[ciper]

It is possible to use the internal cable but its a pain in the ass.

I connected the internal sata cable to my USB adapter and then powered up the Tivo so its power supply spun the drive up. No damage is done to the motherboard while the hard drive is not connected.

[lafos]

It is possible to use the internal cable but its a pain in the ass.

I connected the internal sata cable to my USB adapter and then powered up the Tivo so its power supply spun the drive up. No damage is done to the motherboard while the hard drive is not connected.

This is a risky move, as the power supply in the TiVo is not shielded. Dropping anything conductive or touching the wrong component can be very bad for the user and the box. I would not recommend this.

[urkel-Os]

Whoops, I forgot about the power supply issue. Sorry for the misinformation. I upgraded my THD so long ago that this completely slipped my mind. Also, I used SATA-to-USB adapters, which came with all the cables I needed. I still recommend monoprice to the OP. I would only pay $20 to BB for a SATA cable if it was an absolute emergency.

[aaronwt]

Go online and get the cables you need. They are very inexpensive online, but cost several times as much from places like BestBuy.

If you have a local computer store you also might be able to get a good price there too. We have one in my area and they charge the same prices as their online site. Although I do have to pay taxes. But they are an excellent option when you need something quick and don't want to pay the exorbitant prices from so called BestBuy and don't have the time to wait for it to be shipped to you from an online store.

[ciper]

This is a risky move, as the power supply in the TiVo is not shielded. Dropping anything conductive or touching the wrong component can be very bad for the user and the box. I would not recommend this.

While true I wouldn't think this is an issue for members of this forum doing hard drive upgrades.

I can verify that the power supply is dangerous. While hacking my Tivo to use a Micro ATX power supply in place of the original unit I was warming my hands up with the heatsinks in the stock power supply and relaxed my fingers down onto a transformer. Gave me quite a shock literally LOL

[BlackBetty]

Thank you all for your help. I ended up "renting" a cable from best buy. $21!!! unreal.

This upgrade was amazingly easy. I've upgraded about a dozen S2's back in the day and this was much easier than those.

Thanks again. I now have a 157 hour TiVoHD.