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Upgrade with one drive or two? Opinions please!
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Posted by: Nightfall

I got two Directivos back in September. I upgraded one of the HDVR2s about 90 days after I got it with two 160GB hard drives. I now have a ton of recording space on that Tivo. My wife and I use it all the time.

I am going to upgrade the second Tivo because I record a lot of hockey on that one and with the NHL playoffs and olympics coming up, that Tivo is going to be used heavily. My question is, would you upgrade just the main drive to 160GB or add another drive and get the max? Money isn't the issue. The issue is the Tivo hard drives crashing for some reason.

I got Seagate 160GB hard drives and these things are great. No crashes or problems, of course I have only had this thing running for 5 months with the upgraded drives. I know if one drive fails, then you lose everything. Having 2 drives gives you two points of failure, which makes me concerned.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Posted by: Mark Ward

Hmm, twice the capacity but twice the risk of failure...For a second TiVo I think I'm with you on the 1 drive solution. With money no object (lucky man!:)) have you considered the 300gb drives? There are now ways of making them work with my series 1 TiVo at full capacity, there may well be a solution for your D0-Tivos too. You'd have 300gb less the Tivo O/S AND a single drive if it is a possibility.

Mark.

Posted by: tac25

Money is no object and apparently you will not be recording more than 150 hours of hockey. Therefore, I also recommend using a single larger drive. I would run the diagnostic software on the new drive before copying on to it. May not be necessary, but at a minimum you can adjust the acoustic properties to minimize noise.

The hacks for larger than 137GB hard drives are complicated and tough to get working. I would say that if you need the reocrding capacity, you are better off going with 2 drives.

Posted by: Nightfall

quote:
Originally posted by Mark Ward
Hmm, twice the capacity but twice the risk of failure...For a second TiVo I think I'm with you on the 1 drive solution. With money no object (lucky man!:)) have you considered the 300gb drives? There are now ways of making them work with my series 1 TiVo at full capacity, there may well be a solution for your D0-Tivos too. You'd have 300gb less the Tivo O/S AND a single drive if it is a possibility.

Mark.

To my knowledge, there is a 160GB limit on the HDVR2 Directivos. Therefore, that would be the limit. I am thinking one drive would work fine.

Any other thoughts?

Posted by: Rcrew

No additional thoughts, just another opinion. When I upgrade my 2nd DTiVo (series 1), I'm going with a single drive replacement.

I feel like I've been lucky with my two drive original upgrade, and have it scheduled to yank the 40/80 pair to substitute in a single 160.

Back when I did that drives weren't nearly as cheap as now, and money is a consideration for me. I just like the single drive solution.