Is it okay to turn the TiVo off (i.e. unplug) every night?

[lessd]

Originally Posted by poppagene

according to western digital, their av-gp drives are expected to be able to run 24/7 and the mtbf (average time before a drive fails) is 1 million hours or just over 114 years. Many on this forum have such drives in their tivo.

How many people have a series 1 purchased in say the year 2000 to 2001 and still have it running with the original drive, I will admit that drives today are better than drives from 10 years ago, but 114 years at 24/7 WOW. (OK I know that at 114 years 1/2 the drives would have failed, but I still say WOW) But than again another poster in this thread said that a diesel generator, with proper maintenance, could last 50 years running 24/7, this is sure new information for me. (unless proper maintenance is replacing the barrings, rings and all other moving parts plus gaskets at regular intervals as I do agree that the oil pan and engine block should last 50 years as my 1927 Packard original oil pan and engine block are 85 years old and have no problems)

[BobCamp1]

Originally Posted by lessd

How many people have a series 1 purchased in say the year 2000 to 2001 and still have it running with the original drive, I will admit that drives today are better than drives from 10 years ago, but 114 years at 24/7 WOW. (OK I know that at 114 years 1/2 the drives would have failed, but I still say WOW) But than again another poster in this thread said that a diesel generator, with proper maintenance, could last 50 years running 24/7, this is sure new information for me. (unless proper maintenance is replacing the barrings, rings and all other moving parts plus gaskets at regular intervals as I do agree that the oil pan and engine block should last 50 years as my 1927 Packard original oil pan and engine block are 85 years old and have no problems)

I replaced the hard drive in my Series 1 in 2001, and it's been running 24/7 ever since. It's a Samsung Spinpoint 120 GB hard drive. I can tell you that drives today are worse than they were 10 years ago, because like most other things it's about how cheap it can be made. The sizes aren't helping either, we are approaching the physical limits of what you can do with magnetic media while maintaining that form factor.

As you know, don't believe the reliability numbers of any electronic product. They are just educated guesses.

[BobCamp1]

Originally Posted by Dan203

I have a S3 unit that I bought as soon as they were released in 2006. It's connected to a UPS so it never loses power unless I specifically cut the power to it for some reason. (only happened a few dozen times ever)

Dan

Was your UPS an offline/standby model? I hope so. Online UPSs generate insanely noisy power that will eventually ruin whatever power supply is attached to it. Of course, the UPS switching from offline to online can also fry a poorly designed power supply. The best thing you can do is to just use a surge suppressor without a UPS and hope for the best.

Also, the comment "few dozen times" means you power cycled it a lot. It obviously can't be helped, it's just one of those things. Since 2000, I power cycled my Series 1 no more than a dozen times. There are some years I never powered it off or lost power, but I had to power it off to move it a few times and once to put a bigger hard drive in. Also once a year or so the modem would get stuck (remember they had modem problems) and a hard reboot was needed to get it working again.

Having said that, my brother has gone through 4 Tivos so far. In each one either the power supply or the motherboard went bad. Sometimes you just can't win.

[lessd]

I pity the OP who just wanted to know if he could up-plug his TiVo at night, now he knows a diesel generator will last 50 years running 24/7 ETC ETC.