Just how necessary is the "DVR Ready" hard drive when replacing?

[DaveWF]

I have a Series 2 model "TCD140060" that has a failing drive. I'm looking for replacements and saw on the Weaknees site that they only use the Seagate DB35 type drives since they are "DVR Ready" and list all sorts of reasons for it. Is that more expensive type of drive really necessary?
If not, can I use ANY IDE internal drive? I'm looking at a WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKB 500GB 7200 RPM for replacement (only $80 at newegg!) - is there any reason I should NOT go with this drive?

Thanks a bunch!
Dave

[Southcross]

7200 rpm drives can mean high-heat and noise, but not always
any non-AV/non-DVR drive can mean noise, again not always
small cache/slower drives may have streaming issues and noise, again not always

I bought a 320gb WD (WD3200AVJS) for about $60, love the freaking thing... its quieter than the cooling fan in my S2 (I'm using the Weaknes SATA-to-IDE adapter)

I also have an old Seagate, 160gb, SATA 150 drive in my other S2... its loud as h*ll, but otherwise works great

...YMMV

[richsadams]

The drive you've listed is very loud. Average seek acoustics are listed as 33dBA (and manufacturers often understate noise). Specs:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=297

You don't have to buy a dedicated A/V/DVR hard drive to get one that is going to work well, but finding a drive that has something >28dBA would keep you from waking up the entire household at night. BTW, TiVo cannot take advantage of much more than 5400RPM. There is no performance advantage using a faster drive or a large cache. (Stock TiVo drives come with a miniscule 2MB of cache.)

So as Southcross points out a larger, faster drive will only draw more electricity, give off more heat and be annoyingly loud. A slower, quieter drive will do fine...and probably cost less.

BTW, the DB35 line of drives are very, very quiet. I have a 500GB that I used for A/V (until I outgrew it) running in a computer and it is almost impossible to know when it's working w/o looking at the activity light. They are nice, but pricey by comparison to some others.

[DaveWF]

Ok, so I'm looking at a few Seagate drives and just want to confirm... with a proper sata-to-ide adapter, is there such a thing as too big?
I'm looking at a Seagate ST310005N1A1AS 1tb 7200rpm drive for $90 and a Seagate ST315005N4A1AS 1.5tb 5900rpm drive for $120

One other possibility I just found is a Western Digital WD10EADS 1TB 5400/7200rpm model for only $85 It seems like the better alternative. Lower power consumption and quieter is always a good thing, right?

Will any of these work in my early model Series 2?

BTW, where did you find those those acoustic specs? I can't find anything on Seagate

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by DaveWF

Ok, so I'm looking at a few Seagate drives and just want to confirm... with a proper sata-to-ide adapter, is there such a thing as too big?
I'm looking at a Seagate ST310005N1A1AS 1tb 7200rpm drive for $90 and a Seagate ST315005N4A1AS 1.5tb 5900rpm drive for $120

One other possibility I just found is a Western Digital WD10EADS 1TB 5400/7200rpm model for only $85 It seems like the better alternative. Lower power consumption and quieter is always a good thing, right?

Will any of these work in my early model Series 2?

BTW, where did you find those those acoustic specs? I can't find anything on Seagate

Just have a moment to reply. I haven't worked on a S2 in a number of years but, yes, there are partition limits. Some folks closer to them can probably clarify but if you do some searching I'm certain you'll find the answer.

With regard to the drives, I would go with the WD if it is applicable to your S2. I'm almost certain you cannot use anything larger than 1TB but in any case I would stay as far away from the Seagate 1.5TB drives for ANY application as possible. I went through four in as many days...all had problems of some nature and had to be returned. Once I started checking around I realized I should have known better. If you read various drive and computer forums you'll find that the problems are legion and have been since day one.

Do some more searching and you can find specs for any drive, either on their website or elsewhere. Google's your friend.

[mr.unnatural]

The only Tivo that may be able to use the 1.5TB drives is the Tivo HD XL. Your S2 Tivo cannot access the entire drive so stick with a 1TB drive. As for the Seagate 1.5TB drives, I have five of them in an unRAID server that have been running without problems for over a year. This drive has gotten a lot of bad press but I wouldn't avoid it just becauase of a bad batch. The problems are pretty much isolated to earlier versions of the drive that had an older firmware version installed. Current versions should be perfectly fine.

I've used both the DB35 drives and many other types of drives over the years and can't tell the difference between them in terms of performance. The environment your Tivo will be used in should dictate what type of drive you need, but I'd always try to find the quietest models available whenever possible. I'm not convinced that paying the premium price for a DB35 drive is worth the cost. That's something you'd have to decide for yourself. I pulled the 750GB DB35 drive I had in my S3 Tivo and replaced it with a 1TB Hitachi and I can't tell the difference in either noise or performance.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by mr.unnatural

As for the Seagate 1.5TB drives, I have five of them in an unRAID server that have been running without problems for over a year. This drive has gotten a lot of bad press but I wouldn't avoid it just becauase of a bad batch. The problems are pretty much isolated to earlier versions of the drive that had an older firmware version installed. Current versions should be perfectly fine.

Glad to hear your Seagate 1.5TB drives are working well. My experience (and a number of others) was within the last 30 days, so there continue to be problems plaguing them. I should have specified that this was with their newer energy saving 1.5TB LP drives. A quick search will turn up many, many current posts from folks encountering serious problems with them. I gave several a shot in my NAS and all failed or had the "click of death" and were obviously going to fail.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a Seagate man for a couple of decades. They were almost "bullet-proof" by comparison to others. But within the last few years their QC has plummeted while other manufacturers (WD for one) are passing them by. It's too bad, they had a terrific product and reputation, but for whatever reason that just hasn't been the case recently. Hopefully they will recover.

[DaveWF]

Ok, last time... hopefully!
It looks like I waited too long and the drive finally up and died. Screen was blank this morning. Hard booted it and it gets stuck at the "Welcome Powering Up" screen. I finally bit the bullet and picked up the biggest IDE drive at Fry's, a WD Caviar Ble 500gb 7200RPM (please let it be quiet enough!) model WD50000JBRTL beauty for a song with some price matching I talked them into.

My problm now is that, in all likelyhood, I don't have my original drive to grab an image off of. I DO, however have another series 2 in the house. My question is (you knew I was getting there eventually, right?) can I copy the image off of my series 2 model TCD540080 on to my series 2 model TCD140060 if they both have (had) the latest 9.x OS available?

Thanks again!
Dave

[Southcross]

Originally Posted by DaveWF

My problm now is that, in all likelyhood, I don't have my original drive to grab an image off of. I DO, however have another series 2 in the house. My question is (you knew I was getting there eventually, right?) can I copy the image off of my series 2 model TCD540080 on to my series 2 model TCD140060 if they both have (had) the latest 9.x OS available?

Thanks again!
Dave

software is definitely *very* different between models.... follow the banner link at the top of the page to DVRUpgrade... purchase instantcake ($20) and re-image the new drive.

[DaveWF]

I shoud have posted this when I did it, but I DID get the instantcake software and it works PERFECTLY. I have soooo much space on my Tivo now, I'm setting up season passes for shows that I "might someday have a fleeting interest in" - there's THAT much room!!!

The whole imaging process took less time then it too to run through Guided Setup afterwards! Now I'm trying to talk the wife into allowing me to buy another 1/2 gb drive for the other Tivo!

I don't think I mentioned this earlier in the thread... it's really pretty impressive how long the old drive lasted! We got our first Tivo in April of 2002. That's nearly 8 solid years of drive access 24/7! It still died very quickly though. From the time I had the first inkling that there may be issues, it was less then a week to being completely dead and the drive wouldn't even spin up. Just imagine if I was one of the poor fools that didn't know about great communities like this one and actually paid someone else to do that 20 minutes of work for a lot of money. You guys are the best - thank you very much!!

[Southcross]

Originally Posted by DaveWF

That's nearly 8 solid years of drive access 24/7! It still died very quickly though. From the time I had the first inkling that there may be issues, it was less then a week to being completely dead and the drive wouldn't even spin up. Just imagine if I was one of the poor fools that didn't know about great communities like this one and actually paid someone else to do that 20 minutes of work for a lot of money. You guys are the best - thank you very much!!

spin up and spin down are typically the hardest on a drive.... continuous spinning, as long as the bearings hold out...

I chose to go the route of a true AV drive, from WD, as it is a whisper quiet 25db and rated for 1mil hours MTBF in continuous operation... if it truely gives 1mil hours of operation.... thats 114 years!

[DaveWF]

Just a quick update...
I just wanted to let everyone know that the
WD Caviar Ble 500gb 7200RPM WD50000JBRTL has been working perfectly since installation and is quiet enough to use in our bedroom.
NICE :-D