Hoe To Expand TiVo Bolt storage?

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It might have something to do with the fact that the 3TB WD Blue is rare and priced at about +2x more than the Toshiba drive but I have seen absolutely zero posts saying the Toshiba drives are better, other than yours.

 

Could you please share the model of WD drive your using in the 3TB capacity.

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Based on past postings, he might be talking about the 2TB WD in the same model line.

New Seagate Bolt upgrade option

 

Ok, could someone please share with me the part number or exact model of the 3TB Toshiba HDD that's works with and plays nice with the Bolt 500 gig TiVo as I just pulled the trigger on it a few minutes ago.

Thank you in advance!

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Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm SATA... at MacSales.com

 

Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm SATA... at MacSales.com

 

Thank you!

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You'll hear some folks saying "but these fail too!" but the ratio has been so far below the rate the Seagates that it may just be statistical.

 

I'm researching expanding storage on my nearly 1 year old Bolt and I see some savvy folks here. Seems like a logical thread to ask: What about a SS drive? I would imagine that they would be cooler and more reliable as well as $$ Expensive. Opinions?
Thanks

 

Long running discussion, an SSD offers no significant advantages and since a Tivo constantly writes to the drive leads it down the path to EOL sooner
Search 'SSD Drive" on the assorted forums as a keyword for subject only, you'll find the prior discussions and many many pages of replies.

 

Thank you Diane... Saves me time

 

The Toshiba MQ03ABB300 is also often listed as the Toshiba HDKFB06

 

Why, oh why don’t they just release a Bolt-like model with internal 3.5" drive capabilities? Seems like they just hamstrung themselves with low capacities and little choice in drive models.

 

Perhaps I'm that statistical anomaly, but I installed the Toshiba 3TB MQ03ABB300 into a new Tivo Bolt 6 months ago, and it worked like a charm -- for exactly 6 months. Then one day last week all the lights on the Bolt started flashing and I couldn't watch TV. I swapped the original 500GB drive back in, and everything worked fine again, but I had to reset everything, and of course lost 6 months of recordings. Also FWIW my laptop could read the Toshiba drive fine. It was just the Bolt that stopped liking it. Reformatting and reinstalling the Toshiba didn't help. The Tivo is just rejecting it. I called Toshiba and they issued an RMA under warranty, but FYI they won't replace the drive. They'll just send me a VISA gift card reflecting what they assess as the current market value not to exceed the original purchase price (whatever that is). In other words, neither the drive nor the warranty is all it's cracked up to be. I don't know what's next. I may "downgrade" to the 2TB WD (and lose my recordings again with the swap).

 

FWIW this is the 2TB Seagate hard drive I purchased the same day I ordered the 500G Tivo Bolt in Oct 2015 and knock on wood it has worked fine. Looks like it has gone up in price since then as I got it for $92.

 

All of the above is true of a SSD. I installed one, and am happy so far. Quieter, cooler, faster, less electrical and vibrational noise. The sacrifices being cost, and hard drive space.

 

But some HDDs are specifically designed and rated to handle streaming video. Is this not also true for SSDs?

 

SSDs aren't specifically designed for this, but a MLC SSD should theoretically last for 10+ years, with heavy read/write usage. With the error rate of HDDs, I would say it's a crapshoot whether one would last longer or shorter. If a SSD works, it should last accordingly with its read/write usage.

 

Tivo uses none of the advanced calls of the "AV rated drives" and there are no SSDs that support them so in that respect it's not applicable to Tivo use.

 

10+ years in a desktop/laptop environment is different than a TiVo environment.

A 4-tuner Tivo buffering HD 24/7 is writing 200-300TB/yr

A 512GB or 1TB Samsung 850 Pro is rated at 300TBW.
A 2TB Samsung 850 Pro is rated at 450TBW.

The EVOs are probably 150TBW and 300TBW for those sizes.

This is assuming you have OS Trim support and you 10% overprovision your drives. I don't think TiVo would do any of those, definitely not the overprovision part.

If you use enterprise SSDs you can get them in 6,000+TBW ratings, but they will cost 5x what consumer SSDs cost.

IMO I don't think consumer SSDs are a good choice for TiVo.

Since you already installed, I would highly suggest you have aggressive standby enabled so it doesn't buffer LiveTV 24/7 as often.

Consumer SSDs don't usually fail gracefully at the end of their life, they just die.