Drive Expansion and Drive Upgrade FAQ

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

Thanks. I was looking at a 1TB Green.. that's a pretty nice deal.

Especially for those of us that paid $260 or more for the same drive a little over a year ago.

[Mindflux]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Especially for those of us that paid $260 or more for the same drive a little over a year ago.

Quit chasing technology!

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

Quit chasing technology!

Oh, where's the fun in that?!

[GlenH100]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Especially for those of us that paid $260 or more for the same drive a little over a year ago.

Not to mention that it comes with an external case. The drive runs quite cool, even without a fan.

--Glen

[Mindflux]

Originally Posted by GlenH100

Not to mention that it comes with an external case. The drive runs quite cool, even without a fan.

--Glen

That drive is one that's known to work in the TiVo with no problems right? I was reading about a few drives that would cause the TiVo to 'GSOD' on startup because the drive wasn't in a ready state when the TiVo wanted it?

[GlenH100]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

That drive is one that's known to work in the TiVo with no problems right? I was reading about a few drives that would cause the TiVo to 'GSOD' on startup because the drive wasn't in a ready state when the TiVo wanted it?

Some versions of the WD10EACS are reported to have problems when installed in the S3 box. From what I have read in this thread and others is that all versions work when installed in an external enclosure or in the TiVo HD.

The drive in my Fantom GreenDrive GD1000EU is identified by the TiVo as WD10EACS-22D6B0.

I also have a Fantom G-Force GF1000EU attached to my computer. It has the same WDC drive as the GreenDrive model. The only differences I can tell are the pilot LED, which is green on the GD model and blue on the GF, and the silkscreen model name on the case. However, this may not hold for all of these drives, as a previous poster states that Micronet told him that they use drives from several sources in their products.

--Glen

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

That drive is one that's known to work in the TiVo with no problems right? I was reading about a few drives that would cause the TiVo to 'GSOD' on startup because the drive wasn't in a ready state when the TiVo wanted it?

Glenn is correct, the WD10EACS works as an expansion drive for both TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD. A bare WD10EACS drive will work as an internal hard drive upgrade in a TiVo HD, however it will NOT work as an internal hard drive upgrade in a TiVo Series3 due to a soft reboot problem.

[amarand]

Hello all!

First, I've read the FAQ - it's huge, informative and was a good read. I've also browsed through the 70 pages worth of messages, to get a feel for the questions being asked, and the answers being given.

Second, I'm a Linux/UNIX Support Engineer, have upgraded and hacked three or four of the older systems (S1, S2 and S2DT) for myself and others - no complaints yet. I know my way around a Linux Live CD, and am only concerned that I have enough (e)SATA connectors in my system...time will tell.

Details: I have a TiVo HD coming in, obviously I didn't purchase the XL because that's insane. The HD was $250, so not a bad deal, and the eSATA hard drive I picked up (Seagate FreeAgent XTreme ST310005FPA2E3-RK 1TB 7200 RPM Black External Hard Drive - Retail) is reported to run both cool and quiet - but time will tell. It also has a five year warranty (I heard that Seagate is backing the warranty off to three years effective 2009?) which I like. If all of this stuff fails to work, I won't have lost anything, as I intend to bring things together as soon as the system is activated and the software is updated. I read about the hard versus soft switches, did a little digging and I have no idea which it has, but I also picked up a decent UPS with AVR, so that should do the trick for most short-term power issues.

And now the question: Given that all of this stuff is new, fresh out of the box, which of the following is the most recommended? (Assuming that I will not return any of the items, and will end up using the 1TB drive on one of my systems for some purpose if the TiVo-expansion-thing just doesn't work out.)

1) Take the drive out of the Seagate enclosure and immediately copy the contents of the virginal TiVo-drive, using the tools outlined in the FAQ, to the new Seagate bare drive - placing the original drive in a safe place "just in case," and replacing the internal drive with the new 1TB drive.

2) Take the drive out of the Seagate enclosure, wait until the TiVo has initialized, activated, updated and performed a guide download prior to copying the contents of the not-so-virginal TiVo-drive to the Seagate bare drive - placing the original drive in a safe place "just in case," and replacing the internal drive with the new 1TB drive.

3) Perform the drive marrying procedure virginal.

4) Perform the drive marrying post activation.

I guess the two questions boil down to:

1) Should I use the Seagate drive externally or internally? Using it internally seems like a waste of a pretty sweet enclosure, but I'm getting the feeling that maybe this would be more reliable?

2) Does it matter if I do the work before or after the TiVo is set-up?

Whew...long message, hope these questions weren't addressed elsewhere in detail.

Thanks,

--Amarand

P.S. I love TiVo! <3

-------------------

On a side note, this happened yesterday when I went to upgrade to HD:

Cable Company: Why would you want to use a Cable Card? You'll lose access to Pay Per View, the guide data and all sorts of other features!

Me: Uh, well, I use TiVo, and it has most of those things already, yet somehow better....

Cable Company: But wouldn't you rather have it all bundled in one unit? I had a Cable Card before and I returned it because it didn't do all the things I wanted it to do.

Me: (*Thinking*: Yeah, a Cable Card is pretty useless by itself...) Well, I've heard good things about Cable Cards when used with the TiVo HD so I'll be sticking with that technology. Plus, it's one less box, right?

Wow...I mean, are they pushing their extra services or what? I had a cable company DVR once (and a satellite DVR too!) and it was the saddest experience in my life. Well, not really. But it was pretty sad.

[moxie1617]

Originally Posted by bkdtv

From the FAQ:


If you are going to open your TiVo to use unsupported storage, then you might as well upgrade the internal drive.

I would wait until the firmware updates to the current version and then do as bkdtv recommends.

[bkdtv]

Originally Posted by amarand

1) Should I use the Seagate drive externally or internally? Using it internally seems like a waste of a pretty sweet enclosure, but I'm getting the feeling that maybe this would be more reliable?

You do take a risk when you buy an external drive like that, with an unknown drive inside. We've seen with the TiVo Series3 that some drives will not work as internal drive replacements. For whatever reason, they're just not compatible. We've also seen that some external drives will not work reliably, if at all.

I did a forum search on the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme ST310005FPA2E3-RK, and did not get any hits, so you may be the first to try that product (and/or its bare drive) with the TiVo.

More than likely, it will work, as incompatible drives seem to be the exception. But there's always the possibility that you will be be SOL if you remove the drive, find it doesn't work, and then can't return it.

Originally Posted by amarand

2) Does it matter if I do the work before or after the TiVo is set-up?

I would wait until your CableCards are activated -- if you plan to get CableCards soon -- but waiting for software updates isn't necessary, as your box will get the latest software regardless. It can't hurt though.

[moyekj]

Forgive me if this has been covered and perhaps I missed it but is it possible to do an internal drive update using a laptop with 1 esata port? I would assume that getting a sata->esata cable would do the trick? Is there a way to connect 2 sata drives to the esata port at once so that I can start from Tivo image of my existing Tivo drive? Thanks in advance.

Reason I ask is I don't have a PC with sata connectors. I know about the usb-sata method covered in FAQ which may be plan B, but if sata-esata works that would seem like a better/faster alternative.

[greg_burns]

Out of curiosity, what type of laptop do you have with an eSata port? Generally haven't seen that much at all. (I see a lot of laptops where I work). Mine just has firewire (1394).

I don't believe you can connect two sata drives to a single esata port even with some sort of adapter. But hopefully i will be proven wrong.

[moyekj]

Originally Posted by greg_burns

Out of curiosity, what type of laptop do you have with an eSata port? Generally haven't seen that much at all. (I see a lot of laptops where I work). Mine just has firewire (1394).

I don't believe you can connect two sata drives to a single esata port even with some sort of adapter. But hopefully i will be proven wrong.

I have the HP Pavilion DV7-1020. Has some nice touches such as the esata port, hdmi port, BDROM. Biggest complaint is it came with Vista.

[bareyb]

Originally Posted by moyekj

Forgive me if this has been covered and perhaps I missed it but is it possible to do an internal drive update using a laptop with 1 esata port? I would assume that getting a sata->esata cable would do the trick? Is there a way to connect 2 sata drives to the esata port at once so that I can start from Tivo image of my existing Tivo drive? Thanks in advance.

Reason I ask is I don't have a PC with sata connectors. I know about the usb-sata method covered in FAQ which may be plan B, but if sata-esata works that would seem like a better/faster alternative.

Assuming the adapter works, if you just want to copy over the settings and not all your shows, then yes. One SATA port is all you need. You are basically attaching the TiVo drive first and saving a backup copy of the settings to your PC (it puts it in the same folder with WINMFS by default) and then you connect the NEW drive and copy the disc image over to it. Bam. You're done in about 10 minutes. If you want to save your shows too, then you can always MRV them over to another TiVo if you have one. That's what I did.

If you want to do a direct disc to disc copy with only one SATA port, not sure how you'd do that. Maybe you can save the whole drive as a disc image and restore that to the new drive? Not sure about that one.

[moyekj]

Originally Posted by bareyb

Assuming the adapter works, if you just want to copy over the settings and not all your shows, then yes. One SATA port is all you need. You are basically attaching the TiVo drive first and saving a backup copy of the settings to your PC (it puts it in the same folder with WINMFS by default) and then you connect the NEW drive and copy the disc image over to it. Bam. You're done in about 10 minutes. If you want to save your shows too, then you can always MRV them over to another TiVo if you have one. That's what I did.

If you want to do a direct disc to disc copy with only one SATA port, not sure how you'd do that. Maybe you can save the whole drive as a disc image and restore that to the new drive? Not sure about that one.

OK great, thanks. Yes the most important thing is to transfer all settings over which sounds like it's possible once I get a sata-esata cable. Getting shows over too would be gravy. I'm just getting myself prepared because one of my S3s has spontaneously rebooted itself a few times since 11.0 was installed so I figure I'd be proactive and at least copy an image off Tivo drive before/if it fails. (I still need to run diagnostics on the drive to see if the problem lies there).

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by amarand

I have a TiVo HD coming in, obviously I didn't purchase the XL because that's insane. The HD was $250, so not a bad deal, and the eSATA hard drive I picked up (Seagate FreeAgent XTreme ST310005FPA2E3-RK 1TB 7200 RPM Black External Hard Drive - Retail) <snip>

Welcome to the forum...although a long time lurker it would seem. I applaud you're willingness to dive in and upgrade your new TiVo HD from the get go. You've already gotten some sound advice and I'll throw my two-cents in, but first I have a couple of questions.

Why after reading all of the material did you decide to go with a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme eSATA drive? I'm a Seagate man from way back and believe that they make some of the best hardware in the market. But their FreeAgent line has a very checkered past when it comes to playing well with TiVo. A recent TiVo update specifically notified users of FreeAgent Pro's that their system may no longer work with one attached. Early on FAP users had mixed to poor results. Although the XTreme is a new line (and as mentioned, untested) I'd rely more on historical evidence and steer clear myself. Then the next question is that if you're considering an internal upgrade, as you should, why would you want to void the five-year warranty of the Seagate external drive by opening the enclosure and/or as bkdtv mentioned, losing the ability to return it? Why not just buy a bare drive (for a good deal less), image it and install it?

That said, the more-or-less common recommendation around these parts has been to simply upgrade the internal drive on TiVo HD's. The wisdom being that whatever you do you'll have to pull the internal drive, either to marry it to an expansion drive or to replace it. Why not simply replace it and remove the additional fail point from the equation? Keeping the miniscule OEM hard drive for anything more than a backup just isn't worth it IMO. If you need more than 1TB, you can always upgrade the internal drive plus add an eSATA drive for 2TB's.

So here's my two cents: When your new TiVo arrives, fire it up, run Guided Setup, let it update to the latest software verison (v11.0) use it for a week or so and be sure all is well. During that time have your cableco install one "M" (multistream) or two "S" (single stream) cable card(s), rerun Guided Setup and again, be sure it's a happy camper. When everything is humming along pull the OEM hard drive, use it to image a new drive and put the original on the shelf. That way if something does go south later you can simply pop the OEM drive back in, have a working TiVo and if need be, return it under warranty. Of course you do NOT want mention to a TiVo CSR that you opened it up as that voids the warranty. Now you have a 1TB TiVo with about 157 hours worth of HD recording space and life is good.

If you want to stick with Seagate, buy a bare drive from their dedicated DVR DB35 hard drive line. The drive's seek acoustics are specifically tuned to be <25 bels or so...as quiet or even quieter than the TiVo OEM drive and you'll save somewhere around $25 to $50 depending on the price paid for an XTreme drive. (DB35's also carry a five-year warranty.) Or you can purchase a Western Digital WD10EVCS drive (also specifically for DVR use) and save even more (found for as low as $120 or so recently). They are working quite well for many forum members. You could also consider a WD10EACS for your TiVo HD and set the AAM level yourself (see the first post). With various deals you can find them for about $90 these days. Again, I'm a Seagate guy, but the WD 1TB drive I have in one of my TiVo's has been flawless for over a year now.

BTW, I'm also a Linux guy from way back too, but I've used WinMFS for several upgrades now and it couldn't have been easier. Who needs code? Just a thought.

Happy upgrading and enjoy!

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by moxie1617

I would wait until the firmware updates to the current version and then do as bkdtv recommends.

Not to nit-pick, but you're referring to a software not firmware update. But then I bet you knew that.

[moxie1617]

I hope I did.

[amarand]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Welcome to the forum...although a long time lurker it would seem.

I've owned TiVo products for many years, and have referred a few people too. It really makes me sad to see people going with the cable DVRs by default (and pressure) when they could have a TiVo.

Originally Posted by richsadams

I applaud you're willingness to dive in and upgrade your new TiVo HD from the get go.

My philosophy is this: if I'm going to mess it up, I'd rather do it early in the game. I bought my TiVo from Newegg, which has a 30-day replaceable return policy. Unless there's a hologram seal (didn't they do away with those ages ago?) that they look for on returns, if it fails, I have 30-days. I'm also really careful, use ESD mats (I have two on my work surface, both sent to a common ground, with wrist straps) as I work on everything from PCs to large servers as a part of my day job. I own an "I Void Warranties" shirt that I typically (albeit accidentally) wear to big box shops when making big purchases...they love that. I also have a nice kit or three of specialized and sundry security bits for taking "challenging" things apart. I used to put Heath Kits together as a kid, and am saddened by mass-produced boards with surface mount components you can't fix yourself with an analog oscilloscope, some solder and an iron. Actually, this soldering experience allowed me to install my own plumbing accessories in the house without paying for a plumber and, knock on wood, not a single leak in seven years. But I digress.... If I'm going to mess it up, I want to NOT lose anything more than, say, an hour worth of set-up and download time as that's virtually free. If the family members lose several months worth of "Quality Programming" (Family Guy, South Park and Chowder to name a few) there would be heck to pay. So unless I plan on keeping the sad OEM drive forever, I'm totally pulling it and placing it in an anti-static bag with a note as to which TiVo it was pulled from (I just looked, I have --FOUR-- such bags in my closet...it's sick really.) just in case I need to help someone restore an older TiVo to its original state for someone. The original TiVo Series 1 is ultimately hackable, they took away a lot of the hacks in S2, yet that's where I stayed for the longest time. I really only ever needed to activate two "hacks" anyway, which should have been enabled in the first place by default.

Originally Posted by richsadams

Why after reading all of the material did you decide to go with a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme eSATA drive?

Aaaah, you're assuming a read a single word here prior to making my purchase. In an ideal world, I would have done the research prior to any outlay of cash but, alas, I did not. I decided to go with that drive because I like Seagate, the price was right, I was sucked in by the marketing name - it's XTreme! - but other than that, no actual empirical data was collected or used whatsoever. Well, I read reviews, but those were all folks using it on their PC or Mac - DVR applications (as mentioned probably 100 times in the 70+ pages of this post alone) are totally different. I'm actually glad I read the FAQ and post over the past day because I frankly had only been focusing on the Series 1 and 2 since they both came out, never took the Series 3 seriously (I mean c'mon, $800!?) and the HD has only been a recent development for me television-wise. I now understand that there are acoustic, heat and endurance considerations that are more prevalent with HD model than its predecessors - I didn't consider the fact that HD has a higher resolution video, and would therefore be pushing more data over the same period of time. It's funny, I'll probably get HD cable and TiVo and watch 99% non-HD - but whatever.

Originally Posted by richsadams

I'm a Seagate man from way back and believe that they make some of the best hardware in the market.

It's true, they have a great reputation in general, and that five year warranty was a great benefit. I'm tempted to use the 1TB FreeAgent as a backup drive, or a VMWare image repository - that's a lot of space, for sure. Everything else at my house is protected by RAID1 or RAID5, except for my TiVo but this is definately not mission-critical. My photography? Yeah, that's important. Also my MP3 collection would be terrible to have to replace. But there's always crap on the TV to re-record if I lose a drive for some reason.

Originally Posted by richsadams

But their FreeAgent line has a very checkered past when it comes to playing well with TiVo. <SNIP> Why not just buy a bare drive (for a good deal less), image it and install it?

Points noted! In the end, as is said in the FAQ, if you're going to crack open your TiVo to mess around with hacking it to add an external, you should reduce the additional failure point of an external drive and just go with an internal drive. Oh, and by the way, why doesn't TiVo support drive mirroring? How could would it be to have the peace of mind of a mirrored TiVo drive? Some people are putting their television "lives" on a single drive that could fail at any moment. It's sad that the technology is out there, and TiVo's not using it. Plus, two simultaneous writes don't take much longer than a single write.

Originally Posted by richsadams

That said, the more-or-less common recommendation around these parts has been to simply upgrade the internal drive on TiVo HD's.

This statement compresses a dozen pages worth of discussion, and quite a few FAQ entries, into a single sentence.

Originally Posted by richsadams

So here's my two cents: When your new TiVo arrives, fire it up, run Guided Setup, let it update to the latest software verison (v11.0) use it for a week or so and be sure all is well. During that time have your cableco install one "M" (multistream) or two "S" (single stream) cable card(s), rerun Guided Setup and again, be sure it's a happy camper. When everything is humming along pull the OEM hard drive, use it to image a new drive and put the original on the shelf. That way if something does go south later you can simply pop the OEM drive back in, have a working TiVo and if need be, return it under warranty. Of course you do NOT want mention to a TiVo CSR that you opened it up as that voids the warranty. Now you have a 1TB TiVo with about 157 hours worth of HD recording space and life is good.

And, again, if this isn't in a FAQ entry, it probably should be. I know some folks aren't going to have the luxury of starting out with an HD and upgrading it day one, but if that's something an end-user is considering, this is probably the best-practice I was looking for. One of the things I didn't understand before reading your reply is how the CableCARDs come into the mix. Now that I've read this last paragraph, I understand why it's important to install the cards after the software update, and take the backup after the CableCARDs are installed. It's surprising how little of my day-job's troubleshooting knowledge I'll apply to my consumer electronics purchases at the house.

Originally Posted by richsadams

If you want to stick with Seagate, buy a bare drive from their dedicated DVR DB35 hard drive line. The drive's seek acoustics are specifically tuned to be <25 bels or so...as quiet or even quieter than the TiVo OEM drive and you'll save somewhere around $25 to $50 depending on the price paid for an XTreme drive. (DB35's also carry a five-year warranty.) Or you can purchase a Western Digital WD10EVCS drive (also specifically for DVR use) and save even more (found for as low as $120 or so recently). They are working quite well for many forum members. You could also consider a WD10EACS for your TiVo HD and set the AAM level yourself (see the first post). With various deals you can find them for about $90 these days. Again, I'm a Seagate guy, but the WD 1TB drive I have in one of my TiVo's has been flawless for over a year now.

It doesn't look like there's a 1TB version of the DB35, but I like the 750GB's five year warranty for sure. I have Western Digital products all over the house, but only in RAID configurations as I don't trust them as single drives. Maybe that's changed over the years? Has their quality improved? Or maybe the specs are just better on the DVR-qualified WD drives? I'm not 100% stuck on Seagate for this application (even though I love their products) for sure. What I really want is the highest-quality, best-value, totally proven, sweet-spot 1TB solution that will be quiet, stable and cool (temperature-wise ). It's a really challenging decision for sure!

Originally Posted by richsadams

BTW, I'm also a Linux guy from way back too, but I've used WinMFS for several upgrades now and it couldn't have been easier. Who needs code? Just a thought.

Oh, I do like using the tools like WinMFS for sure. They have safety features that dd and other commandline apps simply don't have. There's a 99% chance that I'll use WinMFS for this upgrade - although I've used commandline step-by-step in the past.

Originally Posted by richsadams

Happy upgrading and enjoy!

Oh I totally will! It's funny, most of the fun is in the upgrading. Once the TiVo HD is installed, although it looks a little different, it's pretty much just like the S2 TiVo with a ton more space, higher resolution digital output and some other third thing. When you watch as much "quality" animation shows as our family, you start to question the benefit of HD, but I think there will be benefits down the line. Star Wars the Clone Wars is out on HD, and the kids like that - so we'll see.

Thanks for taking the time!

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by amarand

Thanks for taking the time!

Glad to give back when I can. There are a lot of great folks here willing to help and ask nothing in return. I just get a little satisfaction when I can help someone avoid the multitude of "TiVo for Dummies" mistakes I've made over the years.

When the snow is approaching six or eight inches deep outside like it is today, I couldn't be happier that we have TiVo with hours and hours (and hours) of HD programs to watch plus YouTube, Amazon or Netflix if all of that doesn't keep us busy.

VMWare Fusion? X on a Mac?! That's like putting grafitti on a Van gogh!

BTW, Lois Griffin looks just a little hotter in HD.

[plumeria]

Originally Posted by GlenH100

..snip..
BTW, the Fantom GD1000EU (WD10EACS inside) is still on sale at MacMall/PCMall/ClubMac/OnSale (all the same company) for $89.99 after rebate ($129.99 less two $20 rebates). They have been playing around with their UPS shipping offer the past month or so. Today it's free on orders over $99; it was $2.99 the other day when I bought it.

--Glen

FYI -
Lowest Shipping varies
Onsale - $4.99
PCMall - $13.82
ClubMac- $4.99
MacMall - "FREE after mail-in rebate up to $40.00 - $14.91 before mail in rebate"

peter

[husky55]

Hey, it's snowing here in Ct and the whole east coast. I did not realize OR has a big storm.

[amarand]

Originally Posted by richsadams

VMWare Fusion? X on a Mac?! That's like putting grafitti on a Van gogh!

Ha! Well, you can run Fusion on your Mac, VMWare on your PC and Linux boxes - virtualization is pretty sweet.

Originally Posted by richsadams

BTW, Lois Griffin looks just a little hotter in HD.

Could it be possible?

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by husky55

Hey, it's snowing here in Ct and the whole east coast. I did not realize OR has a big storm.

Yep...ugly up and down the left coast too. This live traffic cam is about a couple of miles from our house. This web cam is in downtown Portland a few miles north of us. Probably not the kind of thing you guys see, but for us it's supposed to be a 15 year record breaker. Things aren't fit for man nor beast around here right now! T.G. for TiVo!

EDIT: Spoke too soon...we lost power for six hours or so today (Sunday). Early a.m. wake-up call with four different UPS units beeping away...so no TiVo for us. Juice is back on now but more snow and a new ice storm are just coming in. S/b about a foot and a half of snow and ice on the ground by this time tomorrow...and we're only at 500ft. or so...mountain areas are totally covered. One Interstate and many local roads are closed. Storm of the century (well, at least this one) they say. Hopefully the electricity will stay on. Brrrrrrr.

Okay, back to our regular OT programming.

[jlib]

Originally Posted by amarand

...Oh, and by the way, why doesn't TiVo support drive mirroring? How could would it be to have the peace of mind of a mirrored TiVo drive? Some people are putting their television "lives" on a single drive that could fail at any moment. It's sad that the technology is out there, and TiVo's not using it. Plus, two simultaneous writes don't take much longer than a single write...

Back before the era of 1TB drives several S3 upgraders used the inexpensive and quiet Thecus N2050 with dual 500GB drives in RAID 0 configuration for some of the first 1TB expansions by using an eSATA to SATA cable and routing it through a vent hole into the Tivo in lieu of the internal drive.

Now, with readily available 1TB drives you could use two in the Thecus in RAID 1 configuration for redundancy. With the TiVo HD the connection is even easier because one can reroute the Tivo's eSATA port to the internal SATA port by just swapping cables on the TiVo mainboard. You would probably still need an eSATA to SATA cable for the upgrade process in the computer, though (unless the PC happened to have an eSATA port).

Edit: Thecus notes that drives bigger than 500G are not recommended. Not sure if they just mean in RAID 0 (capacity limitation) or if it is for thermal considerations with bigger drives but in any case the above suggestion may not work as I proposed. So, nevermind...

[greg_burns]

Weaknees started selling a drive mirroring kit for Tivos last month...

http://www.wkblog.com/tivo/2008/11/w...ackup-systems/

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by greg_burns

Weaknees started selling a drive mirroring kit for Tivos last month...

http://www.wkblog.com/tivo/2008/11/w...ackup-systems/

Nice but spendy! A good DIY option would cost half that? But for those wanting a turn-key no fuss, no muss setup it looks quite good.

[hoyty]

I just wanted to add another recommendation for the WD10EVCS. At first I upgraded my Series 3 whose drive began to fail with a WD Caviar Black 1 TB. That drive worked wonderfully and was an easy swap. The only downside was it is REALLY loud. The series 3 is in our spare bedroom and my fiancé was complaining it was too loud standing in the hallway outside the room. Her complaining spurred me to replace the drive and I got the WD10EVCS. What an amazing difference. I can't hear the drive at all; I hear the gentle whoosh of the fan more than the drive now. I would definitely recommend this drive. It is as good if not better sound wise than the Seagate DB35's I have in my DirecTV Series 2 and HR10-250 which was impressive.

[BrianL-WA]

I've followed Spike's instructions (from the FAQ) to use mfslive linux CD to run 'backup' to transfer the recordings from my (failing) original Tivo HD 160GB HDD + attached WD 500GB eSATA drive to a new 1TB HDD and then use WinMFS to expand the rest of the 1TB (and thereby no longer retain the eSATA drve).

backup -qTao - /dev/sda /dev/sdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -zi - /dev/sdc

However, when I start the Tivo HD it tells me that an unknown external device is attached and wants to 'divorce' this drive to continue. I do the thumbs-down 3x and then restart, but each time the Tivo prompts me to do this--the divorce doesnt do anything.

Please help! How do i force a 'divorce' on my tivo so i can begin using the new drive? I've also tried the 'fixdivorce' mfslive command and that didnt do anything. (hopefully with all the original programming).

Thanks,
Brian

[txporter]

Originally Posted by BrianL-WA

I've followed Spike's instructions (from the FAQ) to use mfslive linux CD to run 'backup' to transfer the recordings from my (failing) original Tivo HD 160GB HDD + attached WD 500GB eSATA drive to a new 1TB HDD and then use WinMFS to expand the rest of the 1TB (and thereby no longer retain the eSATA drve).

backup -qTao - /dev/sda /dev/sdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -zi - /dev/sdc

However, when I start the Tivo HD it tells me that an unknown external device is attached and wants to 'divorce' this drive to continue. I do the thumbs-down 3x and then restart, but each time the Tivo prompts me to do this--the divorce doesnt do anything.

Please help! How do i force a 'divorce' on my tivo so i can begin using the new drive? I've also tried the 'fixdivorce' mfslive command and that didnt do anything. (hopefully with all the original programming).

Thanks,
Brian

From the MFSLive Guide, it looks like spike wants you to use WinMFS to do a Disk-to-Disk copy to do what you are trying to do. This appears to be for the original Series3 Tivos, but it would expect that it should work if you haven't upgraded your TivoHD (which it looks like you haven't).

Disk to Disk Copy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Slow way but preserves recordings: (avg 2GB/min)

Option 3.20 To copy everything from original capacity (250GB) internal drive and eSATA drive to bigger single drive and expand capacity. If you get "Backup target not large enough" error, chances are you will need to use this command. This option works only if your internal drive is never been expanded with restore -x option.

This option is built into WinMFS so give it a try.

Option 3.21 To copy from expanded internal drive and eSATA drive to new single bigger drive:

This option if not supported yet.

I have never tried this myself, so I can't offer any help based on experience.

Let us know if you are able to accomplish this. Others have asked to do the same thing. I wasn't aware that it was even supported until you posted this and I looked for myself.

Jason