Is RED WD{20,30,40}EFRX still the recommended drive for a Roamio?

Yes. Red but not the Red Pro (7200+RPM).

I have a 4TB Red in the Roamio and its very quiet, compared to the Green 1TB in the S3 (a bit noisy).

 

There's a good deal for a 3TB WD Purple Drive right now. This is the replacement line for the WD Green drives recommended previously?

 

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The reds is still the most recommended drive. It's also possible to use the purple drives, but just not 100% recommended for this.

 

Thanks for your insight. Did you have a bad experience with Purple in the past?

 

Just a few used the purple with noted success. What is concerning is the power usage of the drives. Tivo's meager power supply just barely supports even the original drive.

 

I have a 4 TB Red drive (WD40EFRX) that I pulled from one of those crappy WD My Cloud Home enclosures. Anyway, I was thinking of giving it to my Dad who has a 1 TB OTA Roamio. Does this 4 TB version need any drive mods or anything or can I just drop in the replacement? I personally have a 3 TB Red that I put into my Roamio Plus a few years back and it was just that easy. But I had read the larger 4 TB versions, at least a while back, needed special setup. Thanks!

 

For a Roamio any decent PMR 3.5 drive will work. I've used desktop model PMR drives for years with no issues (knock on wood). Preferably 5400RPM as they will run cooler. Make SURE it is a PMR drive though, not easy to tell anymore, SMR/PMR is not usually listed in specs.

And yes, anything over 3TB will need some treatment to work, check other posts/forums for that info, MFSR MFST etc.

 

You would need to erase the drive, remove partitions, etc. Roamio itself will expand up to 3TB, but to get more, need to connect to a Windows 7+ PC, and run MSFR.

 

If your dad has shows he wants to save, you will need to use MFSTools 3.2 or later to copy and expand the image to the 4 TB. Recommend running the $ TB through WD diagnostic full read and write.