[jfh3]

My number one drawback is the voiding of the warranty, not to mention drives aren't available...

Voiding of the warranty I understand, but what do you mean "drives aren't available"?

Seagate DB35 drives (500GB or 750GB) and Hitachi (1TB) drives are readily available and have been used sucessfully by many, myself included.

 

[jfh3]

Drives for the Tivo HD, just to upgrade the Series 3 units...

What??

My hats off to anyone brave nuff to swap out an internal drive. I prefer to add an second drive via the SATA port

It's an eSATA port I can understand why many would consider adding an external drive to be preferable, but also consider that it is still a second drive and another point of failure in daily operation. I'd rather have a single 750GB drive in a box than a 250GB internal and a 500GB external (or whatever).

As for the doing the upgrade, it's tough to imagine how it could be any easier, as long as you are comfortable opening up the Tivo and have a PC with an available power and SATA connector, though it does void the Tivo warranty.

 

[jfh3]

Anyone who is having second thoughts and doubts about upgrading the drive in their Tivo probably shouldn't do it (not everyone has PC repair skills).

On the other hand, if said person has a friend or co-worker who knows the innards of PCs well enough to do the operation for them, a 12 pack of the beverage of their choice works wonders for getting such things done (beverage to be enjoyed AFTER successful upgrade naturally).

I'll do it for 6 ....

If you aren't comfortable opening up your computer and mucking with a few cables, upgrading yourself isn't for you. But there is always to option of getting a pre-upgraded drive from weaknees or dvrupgrade (the swap out part in the Tivo is a bit easier than the PC part). If you are totally uncomfortable with opening a case, then it's wait until later in the year when Tivo releases their plug and play external drive and enables eSATA support.

 

[jfh3]

In another thread the chip snoopers have decided that the external esata port is a *split* not a separate channel. This would degrade the performance if you add a second external drive. Internal upgrade is the way to go unless they are thinking of a RAID setup. A proper RAID config would not degrade performance.

True, though I'm pretty sure someone pointed out that would have an insignificant impact on performance.

 

[jfh3]

Note that the order listed for bkdtv will not copy your existing programs over.

To do that, you'll need to attach both drives at the same time and use mfscopy instead of restore.

 

[jfh3]

What if you have only 2 SATA connectors - couldn't you use MFSCOPY to backup your recordings to the windows drive, then (after connecting the new drive) restore to the new drive?

No, MFSCopy is supported Tivo drive to Tivo or bare drive only.

 

[jfh3]

Not yet but working on it.

WOW! :up: :up: :up:

 

[jfh3]

Please excuse my ignorance, but I just downloaded winmfs beta 5, unzipped it and ran the program. I don't see a pulldown menu for mfscopy. The only pulldowns are File and Help. I have not yet connected my TiVo Drive or the drive I am upgrading too. Please advise. Thanks for your help

You have to select the drive before you will see the options.

You can't select the drive if you don't have it connected ...

 

[jfh3]

If i use a non Seagate DB35 drive, when do i run the acoustic management software?

Before you put the drive in the Tivo

You can run it before or after you expand the drive.

And it's not just a non-Seagate DB35 drive, it's a non-Seagate drive (e.g. WD, Hitachi). If you want AM on a Seagate, you have to buy a DB35 drive.