External HD w/ Tivo Desktop PC??????

You can use any external hard drive connected to your PC. What concern do you have regarding external hard drives?

You're really only limited when you use a DVR expander which isn't what you're asking about.

takeshi said:

You can use any external hard drive connected to your PC. What concern do you have regarding external hard drives?

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My concern is not purchasing the better or best solution. Also, I know there are two popular formats for external hard rives and FAT32 has a limitation on file size to 4GB (taken from Tivo Desktop intall notes).

I would use an eSata hard drive for that reason. Really, data is data. If you are merely using it for storage (an not using it as an extension of your Tivo, it shouldn't matter much. Just shop for the best deal.

Old Hickory said:

My concern is not purchasing the better or best solution. Also, I know there are two popular formats for external hard rives and FAT32 has a limitation on file size to 4GB (taken from Tivo Desktop intall notes).

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You can reformat, drives are not "married" to a file structure, NTFS, FAT32, xFAT, take your choice and format away.

As stated above, you can use any type of drive you have an external connection to; IDE, SATA etc..

You should format it as NTFS because of FAT32's 4gb file size limitation and 127GB partition size limitation.

Old Hickory said:

What should I be using for an external HD to my PC and Tivo Desktop in order to move and store programming? I'm Windows Vista for now.

This is the external HD to my PC and Tivo Desktop.

Thanks

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You want to make it all one big NT partition and you don't need an external drive with any kind of backup software or automatic backup button or any of that stuff, you want Tivo Desktop to be unaware that the drive is anything other than just another internal partition with a drive letter assigned to it.

You'll need to see if the whole "advanced format" thing is a possible problem for Vista the way it is for XP to see if you need to worry about which model drive to get.

The warranty periods on external drives are so short that you might want to research getting a drive with a 3 or 5 year warranty and then getting a separate USB or eSATA enclosure.

unitron said:

The warranty periods on external drives are so short that you might want to research getting a drive with a 3 or 5 year warranty and then getting a separate USB or eSATA enclosure.

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Note this warranty issue. NewEgg just had 2TB Western Digital bare drives on sale for $70 and they come with a 3 year warranty. You can then buy an USB/eSata enclosure, docking station or even a nas box. I like the docking stations easy to swap drives.

Good Luck,