The correct upgrade replacement HD?

There is no best one and no size restrictions - just make sure to get a PATA (not SATA) drive.

funtoupgrade said:

There is no best one and no size restrictions - just make sure to get a PATA (not SATA) drive.

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The HD uses an eSATA drive not PATA!

The TCD540 uses PATA (aka EIDE). The S3 and TiVoHD do use a SATA drive. (eSATA is for an external drive on the S3 only and is not officially supported.)

For the 540, as funtoupgrade says, any PATA drive of sufficient capacity will be fine. I would recommend comparing reviews to see which of the drives you're considering is quieter and cooler than others - that's the thing that will make the most difference. Don't worry about performance differences.

Thanks for all the answers, but, even if I was reluctant to open my TiVo before, the help(s) did not really answer my question; so I removed the cover and found that the Hard Drive is a 40 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8, ATA/133. From the looks of the label, this drive must've been specially built for TiVo, since none of the numbers on the drive relate to anything on Seagate's Maxtor Web pages.

No it was not specially built for TiVo but it's not a model that was sold directly to consumers.

Check out www.weaknees.com. They sell preformatted replacement and add-on hard drives for TiVo. Even if you don't want to buy from them you'll find a wealth of information on their site. Their add-on drives come in kit form with everything you need except a screwdriver and very easy to follow instructions. It took me about an hour (I work slow!) to add a second drive. It worked perfectly from the time I reconnected my TiVo.

I just upgraded my Series 2 TiVo with a Maxtor DiamondMax 21 320GB and it works great. Very quiet even though the drive (as do all Seagate drives) does not support acoustic management.

Another recommendation to use Weaknees or another company that provides pre-formatted TiVo drives. More expensive than buying your own and formatting it yourself, but certainly a lot easier and if the OP has never prepared his/her own hard drives before, certainly recommended over the DIY solution.

In addition to Weaknees, there is also Digital Recorder, DVR Upgrade, and others, just type "TiVo upgrade" into your favorite search engine. Occasionally I even see ads for hard drive upgrades on this site as well.

Oh and buy the biggest hard drive your budget will allow. GB's are getting increasingly cheaper by the day, and you'll find that larger hard drives are often not much more expensive (and occasionally a bit cheaper) than smaller ones.