Best hard drive replacement/upgrade?

Advertisements

I own a Tivo Roamio 1TB OTA that I purchased new on Black Friday exactly 3 years ago. It has served me well, but it still contains the original WD10EURX 1TB hard drive that it came with when new.

I have already had to open up this unit to replace the small internal fan, which got noisy, so I do know how to get into the box to replace things. Also, I am an experienced Linux and Clonezilla user.

Because the original hard drive had a 3 year warranty, I'd like to replace it now before it fails and takes all of my saved recordings with it. I had planned to buy an identical drive and just use Clonezilla to make a perfect copy of my current drive onto the new/identical replacement drive. I tried buying a "new" WD10EURX from an Amazon third-party seller, but of course, the S.M.A.R.T. data show that it is really just a factory refurb unit, and I have no idea how long that might last.

Also, I have only just stumbled onto this thing called MFSTools, which sounds great, and will be, if it actually works to copy my existing saved recordings onto a new and perhaps larger drive.

I would certainly like to replace the current 1TB drive with a larger 2TB drive if possible.

I gather that WD doesn't even manufacture the Green drives anymore. :-(

I have perused the forums here a little bit and different people are recommending different colors of WD replacement drives for the Roamio. Some say "blue" but others say "red" and still others say "purple".

So my question is simple: What is the best and least-hassle *brand new* 2TB drive that I should buy for my 2017 vintage Roamio OTA 1TB, given that I want maximum life/reliability, going forward, and that I plan to use MFSTools to copy over my existing saved recordings?

Please provide exactly model numbers if possible, and also please let me know if you merely -think- that your recommended drive will work, or if you have actually seen it work. If the drive(s) you recommend will require some fiddling, e.g. of internal setting, before installation into the Tivo, then please indicate that also. Thanks.

P.S. I have a nice PC setup here, and I can easily clone drives, e.g. using Clonzilla, or, I guess, MFSTools.

 

Advertisements

OK, so what's the difference between red & purple?

What would be the model number for a suitable purple 2TB replacement?

And lastly, what's bad about the WED20EFAX versus the WD20EFRX?

 

OH CRAP! I think my plan just went down the toilet! It seems that the www.tyger.org web site, which is where all of the MFSTools stuff much be downloaded from, has been offline since December 1, 2020.

Now what?

 

Thank YOU!

 

Just wanted to say "THANKS!" to everybody who chimed in.

I'm gonna go with a RED 2TB, because the consensus view, here and elsewhere, seems to be that RED will do the job nicely, and at 5400 rpm I have some hope and faith that it will stay cool in the Tivo.

One thing that I *am* still wondering about however is whether or not the REDs will power themselves down when inactive for a time. I supposed that it is not really important, as long as the RED drive does what it is supposed to do, but didn't those old GREENs, like the original one that came with my Tivo when new, do that?