Any word yet on if we will be able to upgrade the Hard drive in the premiere?

BlackBetty · 03-16-2010, 11:39 AM

Would like to save a little money and buy the $300 premiere and find a good deal on a 1TB drive to slap in.

Azlen · 03-16-2010, 12:22 PM

I plan on getting the 1 TB My DVR Extender. It's $130 on Amazon.

gweempose · 03-16-2010, 12:40 PM

I'd say it's pretty much a guarantee that shortly after the Premiere ships, you will be able to upgrade it using WinMFS.

AandFDakota2001 · 03-16-2010, 01:34 PM

I'm going to go with the DVR Expander as well. No point in voiding the warranty of a brand new product.

Justin

lessd · 03-16-2010, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gweempose

I'd say it's pretty much a guarantee that shortly after the Premiere ships, you will be able to upgrade it using WinMFS.

Unless TiVo has decided to really lock down the software (if that can be done). I guess if they tie the hard drive SN to the motherboard its all over to do your own upgrade.

wedenton · 03-16-2010, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessd

Unless TiVo has decided to really lock down the software (if that can be done). I guess if they tie the hard drive SN to the motherboard its all over to do your own upgrade.

To me, upgrading has been one of the very best reasons to purchase Tivo. If they screw that up I believe they will lose a lot of sales. I betcha 5 cents they don't.

gweempose · 03-16-2010, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wedenton

To me, upgrading has been one of the very best reasons to purchase Tivo. If they screw that up I believe they will lose a lot of sales.

I agree. It would be extremely unwise for TiVo to risk alienating their diehard supporters.

Bsteenson · 03-17-2010, 04:43 AM

+1. I've upgraded most of the TiVos I have owned and the inability to do so with the Premiere would be a bummer.

That said, I ordered a 1TB My DVR Expander eSata drive from Amazon for $129. That's only $30-$40 more than a bare-bones 1 TB internal drive, and for that amount of money I see these advantages:

1) Doesn't void the warranty. I wasn't worried about this in the past, but this is a brand-new box and who knows what might happen during the first year that might cause me to regret cracking the seal.

2) With the external box I gain the full 1 TB additional space, instead of swapping out a 320 GB drive for a 1Tb and only gaining 680 GB. Doing the math, swapping a 1TB drive that cost $90 but only adds 680 GB is 13.2 cents per gig. A 1TB external drive for $129 that adds the full TB is only 12.9 cents per gig, so it's actually a better deal.

Now, of course if it turns out the new box will support 1.5 TB or 2 TB in a single disk, I may have to reconsider.

Heck, I might eventually reconsider anyway and add an internal 1TB to the external drive.

Tivogre · 03-17-2010, 07:24 AM

You do know, that for the Tivo HD at least, the problem of "not being able to use the full hard drive" has been solved... right.

I've been beta testing a "hybrid" HD / XL image for over a month now; the creator just offered it up for public consumption a few days ago.

Using the image and WInMFS, you can fully use 1.5 and 2TB drives in a Tivo HD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bsteenson

+1. I've upgraded most of the TiVos I have owned and the inability to do so with the Premiere would be a bummer.

That said, I ordered a 1TB My DVR Expander eSata drive from Amazon for $129. That's only $30-$40 more than a bare-bones 1 TB internal drive, and for that amount of money I see these advantages:

1) Doesn't void the warranty. I wasn't worried about this in the past, but this is a brand-new box and who knows what might happen during the first year that might cause me to regret cracking the seal.

2) With the external box I gain the full 1 TB additional space, instead of swapping out a 320 GB drive for a 1Tb and only gaining 680 GB. Doing the math, swapping a 1TB drive that cost $90 but only adds 680 GB is 13.2 cents per gig. A 1TB external drive for $129 that adds the full TB is only 12.9 cents per gig, so it's actually a better deal.

Now, of course if it turns out the new box will support 1.5 TB or 2 TB in a single disk, I may have to reconsider.

Heck, I might eventually reconsider anyway and add an internal 1TB to the external drive.

jcthorne · 03-17-2010, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tivogre

You do know, that for the Tivo HD at least, the problem of "not being able to use the full hard drive" has been solved... right.

I've been beta testing a "hybrid" HD / XL image for over a month now; the creator just offered it up for public consumption a few days ago.

Using the image and WInMFS, you can fully use 1.5 and 2TB drives in a Tivo HD.

Is this posted with instructions somewhere?

Thanks

paladin732 · 03-17-2010, 11:43 AM

It would actually be quite easy (I think) for TiVo to dis-allow it

All they would need to do is hard-code into the software that "no matter what the hard drive is, the TCD746320 will hold X hours[or XX GB of data]. With My DVR Expander 1TB it will hold XX hours!"

This would basically force the extra space to sit there doing nothing

aaronwt · 03-17-2010, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tivogre

You do know, that for the Tivo HD at least, the problem of "not being able to use the full hard drive" has been solved... right.

I've been beta testing a "hybrid" HD / XL image for over a month now; the creator just offered it up for public consumption a few days ago.

Using the image and WInMFS, you can fully use 1.5 and 2TB drives in a Tivo HD.

Too late for me. Hopefully by May my nine S3 and TiVo HD boxes(with 1TB drives) will be gone and in their place will be six to eight premiere units.

lew · 03-17-2010, 06:56 PM

At least one poster suggested the current version of winMFS won't work with Premiere units.

innocentfreak · 03-17-2010, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tivogre

You do know, that for the Tivo HD at least, the problem of "not being able to use the full hard drive" has been solved... right.

I've been beta testing a "hybrid" HD / XL image for over a month now; the creator just offered it up for public consumption a few days ago.

Using the image and WInMFS, you can fully use 1.5 and 2TB drives in a Tivo HD.

Hmm I haven't seen any mention of that and must be missing the thread assuming it is on mfslive.org. If not where can we read up on this?

Tivogre · 03-17-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innocentfreak

Hmm I haven't seen any mention of that and must be missing the thread assuming it is on mfslive.org. If not where can we read up on this?

The single post about it is burried in the big upgrade thread.

The poster (who set up a new userid) says to pM him for the image.

When I installed it, it was very straight forward. Standard WinMFS restore of the provided image to the new drive, and an expansion.

Here's a link to the post:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...70#post7823170

Sorry, all for the thread hijack.

mattack · 03-17-2010, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tivogre

When I installed it, it was very straight forward. Standard WinMFS restore of the provided image to the new drive, and an expansion.

(I read the link you provided, and skimmed many messages from then on..)

So that only makes a new external drive, right? You can't use it to replace an internal drive _while_ keeping the recordings.. right?

innocentfreak · 03-17-2010, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tivogre

The single post about it is burried in the big upgrade thread.

Thanks for the link. I missed that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattack

(I read the link you provided, and skimmed many messages from then on..)

So that only makes a new external drive, right? You can't use it to replace an internal drive _while_ keeping the recordings.. right?

This is for an internal drive. Instead of backing up your original TiVo HD image you just restore using the new expanded image onto a 1.5tb or 2tb drive which has been tweaked to get around the limits. You would lose any recordings since it would be a fresh image and not your own that you are using. It would be the same as if your original drive was bad and you used an image from another drive. This is of course if I have read everything correctly.

ZeoTiVo · 03-18-2010, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paladin732

It would actually be quite easy (I think) for TiVo to dis-allow it

All they would need to do is hard-code into the software that "no matter what the hard drive is, the TCD746320 will hold X hours[or XX GB of data]. With My DVR Expander 1TB it will hold XX hours!"

This would basically force the extra space to sit there doing nothing

yes and the Moxi can hook up at least 5 TB or more externally

bkdtv · 03-18-2010, 12:44 AM

I updated the TiVo Premiere FAQ with answers to these and other questions.

Edit: The answer is no, current tools don't work.

Bsteenson · 03-18-2010, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innocentfreak

Thanks for the link. I missed that.

This is for an internal drive. Instead of backing up your original TiVo HD image you just restore using the new expanded image onto a 1.5tb or 2tb drive which has been tweaked to get around the limits. You would lose any recordings since it would be a fresh image and not your own that you are using. It would be the same as if your original drive was bad and you used an image from another drive. This is of course if I have read everything correctly.

Sweet. I also missed that development (haven't had to do any upgrades for a while.

I'll have to check that out! Thanks.