wtb: Tivo supported External 1tb Expander

You would be better to expand your internal drive rather then to add in an external because when 1 fails, you lose all recordings, and on a 1 drive box, you can reduce the chance of losing them.

You can go to a 2 tb and use JMFS to expand.

ThAbtO said:

You would be better to expand your internal drive rather then to add in an external because when 1 fails, you lose all recordings, and on a 1 drive box, you can reduce the chance of losing them.

You can go to a 2 tb and use JMFS to expand.

Click to expand...

I thought of that but I figured I could get an external 1tb Western Digital for under $100, how much are the internal 1 or 2tb drives? $300 - $400?

An internal 2 tb drive is about $150 at today's prices due to Thailand flooding for a while until it comes back down.

I think they are discontinuing in making the external expander drives, but I'm not sure.

Recently I bought a 2 Tb internal drive for $70 few months ago from amazon.com.

ThAbtO said:

Recently I bought a 2 Tb internal drive for $70 few months ago from amazon.com.

Click to expand...

I'd pay that now if I could find one, but I'd need to format it for Tivo software after that right? that's the only advantage with External Tivo supported is its just plug and play.

Shanezam203 said:

I'd pay that now if I could find one, but I'd need to format it for Tivo software after that right? that's the only advantage with External Tivo supported is its just plug and play.

Click to expand...

When he said he paid that a few months ago, I think he meant before the flooding in Thailand.

You should sell me the old external cheap and put it towards a bigger internal.

If you can find someone selling a WD20EADS I can personally attest that it'll work fine in your HD, and others have had good results with the WD20EARS.

Shanezam203 said:

I'd pay that now if I could find one, but I'd need to format it for Tivo software after that right? that's the only advantage with External Tivo supported is its just plug and play.

Click to expand...

There is no need to format a new drive for a Tivo. The 2 Tb drive I got, took 6 hours to format under Windows, and am using it to store my Tivo transfers.

ThAbtO said:

There is no need to format a new drive for a Tivo. The 2 Tb drive I got, took 6 hours to format under Windows, and am using it to store my Tivo transfers.

Click to expand...

So your 2tb drive is added to your PC and you use Tivo Desktop to transfer recordings back and forth?

Shanezam203 said:

So your 2tb drive is added to your PC and you use Tivo Desktop to transfer recordings back and forth?

Click to expand...

PyTivo and KMTTG, Desktop doesn't work for me any more. There are more abilities with PyTivo, multiple folders to transfer from, push transfers instead of going to Tivo to start transfers, etc.

What I liked about the expander was there wasn't a delay in accessing the media, I could quickly Play or fast foarward any of the movies... with PyTivo it would take time to request the transfer.

I think internal drive upgrade or expander is the way to go for me.

This looks the way to go if I can't find an expander correct?

BRAND-NEW-TiVo-Premiere-2TB-Hard-Drive-Upgrade-Kit

You can use that to swap out your Tivo drive but you then must run Clear & Delete Everything.

Still looking for an expander before upgrading the internal... ttt.

Amazon.com still has a 1 tb expander for $349.95 as new, but it still looks like its been discontinued.

Western Digital Store says its $159.99 but its out of stock.

ThAbtO said:

Amazon.com still has a 1 tb expander for $349.95 as new, but it still looks like its been discontinued.

Western Digital Store says its $159.99 but its out of stock.

Click to expand...

Found one on craigslist for $90 but I didn't jump on it...

Shanezam203 said:

Found one on craigslist for $90 but I didn't jump on it...

Click to expand...

Take the one you have apart and see if the drive is bad or the enclosure.

If the drive is still good, get an eSATA enclosure from somewhere.

As I understand it, what the TiVo checks for is the drive model number in the drive's firmware, not for anything special in the enclosure's electronics.

If the drive is bad, see if you can find another of the same model raw drive, although I think you can forget about getting anything cheaper than $90.

If the one on Craigslist is the actual TiVo approved WD unit, that's probably the best deal you're going to find for sometime.

After the hard drive industry recovers from the Thailand floods, they're probably not going to making any of the older model drives anymore.

ttt

Shanezam203 said:

ttt

Click to expand...

Is that another way of saying "bump"?

to the top... so similar yeah.