Maxtor Diamondmax & Series 2...

[Chip Moody]

Hey everybody... Haven't been here in a while - upgraded my Series 1 several years back, and now it's time for Tivo #2.

I've got a brand new 200 Gig Diamondmax drive that it turns out I >don't< need for a computer project, and as luck would have it, a friend that is giving me his 40 Gig Tivo-brand series 2 Tivo. (It's about a year old)

I'm considering making this 200 Gig drive the only drive in this unit - I'm assuming I can hook it and the stock 40 Gig drive to my PC and run utilities that'll make the 200 a functional "A" drive? Anything I should look out for or be aware of?

Thanks,
- Chip

[azitnay]

Just be sure you have TiVo software version 5.x or higher, and that you use one of the LBA48-compatible boot CDs.

Drew

[BobCamp1]

DiamondMax 10 drives don't seem to work in Tivos. It needs to be Diamondmax 9 drive or earlier.

[Chip Moody]

Originally Posted by BobCamp1

DiamondMax 10 drives don't seem to work in Tivos. It needs to be Diamondmax 9 drive or earlier.

Ya' gotta be kidding me...

Okay, how 'bout a 250 Gig Maxtor MaXLine Plus II (7Y250P0)

Thanks,

- Chip

[fredfillis]

Check this thread for a start.

[BobCamp1]

Originally Posted by Chip Moody

Ya' gotta be kidding me...

Okay, how 'bout a 250 Gig Maxtor MaXLine Plus II (7Y250P0)

Thanks,

- Chip

Well, I think it will work. The only way to know is to try it! Please let me know if it works.

[Chip Moody]

Originally Posted by BobCamp1

Well, I think it will work. The only way to know is to try it! Please let me know if it works.

Okay, I'm getting that drive ready to try, so I'll let you know how it works out.

I just took posession of the Tivo itself this morning. It's a TCD24004A, running version 7 of the software.

Do I need to worry about the size of the hard drive I put in to this unit? I thought all series 2 units could handle drives larger than 120 megs, but a few things I've read here have me concerned...

Thanks for all the help everyone. I'm not exactly a n00b, but I guess I feel pretty close to it.

- Chip

[BobCamp1]

The version of software in your Tivo already supports the large hard drives. Just use the PTVUpgrade CD, because it supports LBA48. Download it here:

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/s...1_license.html

[Chip Moody]

Well, I'm honestly suprised that from the time I took the screws off the back of my Tivo to the time I had it in place in my bedroom and all hooked up was under two hours. That included taking the 40 gig drive out, doing the transfer from it to the 250 gig, then putting everything back.

So far so good - thanks for the help!!

- Chip

[ashu]

Originally Posted by Chip Moody

Well, I'm honestly suprised that from the time I took the screws off the back of my Tivo to the time I had it in place in my bedroom and all hooked up was under two hours. That included taking the 40 gig drive out, doing the transfer from it to the 250 gig, then putting everything back.

So far so good - thanks for the help!!

- Chip

So I'm assuming you DIDN'T bother trying the DiamondMax 10 (200GB) drive? I'm looking at getting a 100GB drive in that series to rescue a dying B drive in a 120_80 configuration on my 240xxxx.

[Chip Moody]

Correct - on the advice of Bob Camp, I went with the 250 gig drive instead of the DM10. (And hey, the extra 50 gigs doesn't hurt)

- Chip

[ashu]

Durn and dingjam it
I picked up the $20 100 Gigger anyway. It'll go into a PC< and I'll see whether my DRT800's rescued (it has a 300 Seagate now) 80Gigger has enough bits for a DD from the failing drive It's 5400RPM and 2MB cache, so it *should* run nice and cool. Hopefully.

[spursnut]

So does anyone have actual evidence of someone attempting to use the Diamondmax in a Series2? (Not doubting you, BobCamp1, I just want to know that someone actually tried it and failed). I'd like to buy that 100/120 GB Maxtor that's on sale now...

[ashu]

I bought it anyway. If I can't dd my dying 80 to a spare 80GB I have lying around, then I'll be trying this one. I'm hoping the former option works, however, as my other drive in this 2-drive unit is another 120Gb Maxtor DM 9 power-sucker. I have a feeling, that even with a PowerTrip delaying the spin up on these two, the pair will draw more juice than my Power Supply can handle.

[snoop]

I returned my diamondmax 200GB that I couldnt get to work in a directivo R10. Seagate 160GB worked fine. The maxtor gave me "Not recorded - no signal" when playing a recording, then would play it. Menus were slow. Had unrepeating stuttering on playback. Would reboot itself every couple of days. Very strange.

[spursnut]

OK, so I contacted Maxtor about DiamondMax10 / Series2. Here's their reply:

Thank you for sending your MAXTOR E-mail inquiry.

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 drives can be used in DVRs and there are no incompatibility issues, but our normal drives are not optimized for digital video recording. If you wish to get a Maxtor drive to add to your DVR, I suggest getting one of our QuickView drives. The best place I've found to purchase our QuickView drives is the following link.

(link to weaknees)

[Kevin L]

From what I understand, the DM10 drives either don't have AAM or at least you can't use AMSET to change it to quiet. The DM9 drives work fine, and if set to quiet, are great in a TiVo. Not set to quiet, though, they are very loud when seeking, which is almost always.

[johnsmithtivo]

Amset worked for me for both DiamondMax 10 and DiamondMax 9 Plus just a couple days ago. I have one of each in my TiVo -- so far, so good.

[Kevin L]

That's good to hear that amset works on the DM10s, too, John. Without AAM set to quiet, these drives are way too noisy for a DVR.

[buddhawood]

I tried a DM10 160GB drive in BOTH a S1 & S2 and it would not work, it would stutter every 2 seconds or so. Dropped in WD and Seagate without ANY problems in the same units. Maxtor may say they work but there are alot of us who tried and they don't.

[c3]

Earlier DM10 drives work fine -- I have two of those in my TiVos. Maxtor changed something in recent model(s) of DM10 that causes the stuttering problem. Another user reported that upgrading the TiVo OS to 7.x "solved" the stuttering issue. I don't have personal experience with that because I returned the stuttering drives right away.

[KFJTivo]

I just got done swapping out a 200gb DM10 from an R10. It did "work" but the stuttering drove me to change it (not every 2 seconds, but frequent enough to be annoying). It was also very noisy! I've since put in a Seagate and it's much quieter with no stutter.

[msw323]

Originally Posted by johnsmithtivo

Amset worked for me for both DiamondMax 10 and DiamondMax 9 Plus just a couple days ago. I have one of each in my TiVo -- so far, so good.

Can Amset be used after it has been in the Tivo? i.e. can I just pull out the drive, hook it up to the PC, run Amset and return it back?

[c3]

yes

[johnsmithtivo]

Everytime that I've used amset I've also used MFStools, so I don't know for sure, but don't see any reason why amset won't do its magic on its own. Anyone?

I have a 200GB DM10 and a 200GB DM9+ in there and can't hear a thing.

(Edit: Thanks C3! Boy, am I a slow typist!)

[c3]

Originally Posted by johnsmithtivo

(Edit: Thanks C3! Boy, am I a slow typist!)

To be fair, I only typed one short word.

[Kevin L]

I'll second and third c3 and John. Yes, it can be done after it's been in the TiVo without doing anything else. In fact, I didn't even take the drives out of the TiVo. Just disconnected the power and IDE cables and hooked up cables from the PC. Remember, if you're running WinXP or Win2K on your PC, do NOT boot into the OS with the TiVo drives connected. For safety sake, just disconnect the PC's drive and boot to DOS with the floppy you hace amset on.

[sigma957]

Originally Posted by spursnut

So does anyone have actual evidence of someone attempting to use the Diamondmax in a Series2? (Not doubting you, BobCamp1, I just want to know that someone actually tried it and failed). I'd like to buy that 100/120 GB Maxtor that's on sale now...

Yes, this problem is well documented. I personally had problems when I added a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 drive to my HR10-250. It's not that the upgrade 'fails'. Everything worked fine for a couple of days until I got enough recordings on the Tivo that it started to use both drives. The video would then pause every 10-15 seconds when playing back recorded shows. I exchanged the drive for a WD and have not had any problems since. If you look at the eletrical specs for the Maxtor drives you'll see that they require considerably more 12V current when spinning up than just about any other manufacturer's drives. It is likely that the Tivo power supply, which is much smaller than a typical PC power supply, simply can't handle it.

[johnsmithtivo]

Originally Posted by sigma957

Everything worked fine for a couple of days until I got enough recordings on the Tivo that it started to use both drives. The video would then pause every 10-15 seconds when playing back recorded shows.

This is what I'm afraid will happen to me, but maybe I'll stay lucky. Is it possible to know which drive the TiVo is filling up now? This is my setup:

Master: 200GB DiamondMax 10, Model 6L200R0
Slave: 200GB DiamondMax Plus 9, Model 6Y200P0

So far, so good, but I'm no where near filling up one drive yet. I'm trying! I'm trying!

[c3]

Not related to power requirement. You would have the same problem even if that's the only drive in the system, and the drive is spun up already anyway.