TiVo Community Forums Archives - Buy an upgraded TIVO or do it myself (for a newbie??)

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Buy an upgraded TIVO or do it myself (for a newbie??)
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Posted by: TIVO newbie

Just a quick question for the TIVO experts out there. I just purchased the 30 hr Sony TIVO and love it. But I'm already hoping that I could have more room on my TIVO.

I'm thinking of either buying an upgraded TIVO, maybe 200 hrs or so, through one of the companies out there (like digitalrecorder.tv) or doing it myself. My question is, since I'm not a very handy person, is it easy to do the upgrade myself? I hear where you can buy all the upgraded parts from a company and all you need to do is pop in the two hard drives and you're good to go. Is that true? Can a non-handy type person like me upgrade a TIVO myself without electrocuting myself???

Any help out there would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

Posted by: Xaa

Mike,

It is SIMPLE. You may have a learning curve, but what you learn upgrading your Tivo you will be able to apply to other things like upgrading componenets in your PC.

With the underground froum as a resource and all the faq's out there, I say DO IT YOURSELF.

It'll be a fun journey and in the end you'll say "That wasn't so tough"

Xaa

Posted by: dslunceford

quote:
Originally posted by TIVO newbie:
I hear where you can buy all the upgraded parts from a company and all you need to do is pop in the two hard drives and you're good to go.

This is exactly the route I took, mostly from a time-savings standpoint. Visit www.9thtee.com and you'll see a variety of kits they sell from PTVUpgrade. Great service and took me all of 20 minutes -- most of that was getting the TiVo in and out of my A/V stack! Works like a charm and reasonable in price.

------------------
--Steve
BrainStorm PR

My DVD Collection

Posted by: Xaa

It takes all of 10 seconds to bless a drive yourself. If you can install from one of these kits, you can certainly do it yourself.

Xaa

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by Xaa:
Mike,

It is SIMPLE. You may have a learning curve, but what you learn upgrading your Tivo you will be able to apply to other things like upgrading componenets in your PC.

With the underground froum as a resource and all the faq's out there, I say DO IT YOURSELF.

It'll be a fun journey and in the end you'll say "That wasn't so tough"

Xaa

It's simple if you are already handy at installing hard drives into a PC and taking apart machiens that use special screws and tools.

You need to gather special screwdrivers, special software, plus you need a PC that you can temporarily comandeer to accomplish the task.

If you have *never* cracked the case on a PC and added a hard drive, I would suggest you not upgrade the TiVo on your own. By one already upgraded, or get a PC savy friend to assist.

------------------
Jeff

Sony SVR-2000
"Let the Tivolution be televised"

Posted by: sbourgeo

I would recommend doing it yourself.

This thread about someone who had two TiVo's damaged when they were sent out for upgrade is kinda scary:
http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/Forum5/HTML/007468.html

------------------
Philips 30 hour TiVo
2.5.1-01-1-000
Philips DirecTiVo
2.5-01-1-001

Posted by: TIVO newbie

Thanks for everybody's help! I seriously don't know anything about "blessing" a drive or anything. The most difficult thing I've probably ever done in my life was upgrade a modem card in my PC but that was just plug and play.

If I can just buy all the upgraded parts from a company like the 9th tee, I would try to go that route so I don't screw up the upgrade. I think I can handle opening the TIVO case and putting in some hard drives. Hope there isn't more to it.

Thanks again for everybody's help.

Posted by: TIVO newbie

Oh, by the way, I have never tried installing or upgrading a hard drive in my PC. I once had a thought of adding a slave drive to my PC, but the thought of lying next to my PC electrocuted made me change my mind.

Posted by: Tuckee

Mike, I would read Jeff's statement carefully, it is easy, but not trivial. Read the upgrade FAQ, if you understand it, and feel comfortable with it, then give it a shot. If you don't know about HD jumper settings and which end of an IDE cable is the master and which is the salve, then you should get some assistance.

Tuckee

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by TIVO newbie:
Thanks for everybody's help! I seriously don't know anything about "blessing" a drive or anything. The most difficult thing I've probably ever done in my life was upgrade a modem card in my PC but that was just plug and play.

If I can just buy all the upgraded parts from a company like the 9th tee, I would try to go that route so I don't screw up the upgrade. I think I can handle opening the TIVO case and putting in some hard drives. Hope there isn't more to it.

Thanks again for everybody's help.

There *is* more to it. You have to take the new drive and put it inside a PC and "bless" it. Also, the recommended procedure is to back up the original drive in the TiVo. That means taking it out of the TiVo, putting it in the PC along with a *second* drive, and running a special backu utility.

Its not hard if you are very comforatable with this type activity, but you say you have never added a drive to a PC. I would advise you the get some assistance from a PC guru.

The people who say it is stone simple are the people who build their own PCs, or have done PC upgrades involving hard drives. Its not *hard*, but it is something you need to learn how to do.

------------------
Jeff

Sony SVR-2000
"Let the Tivolution be televised"

Posted by: adamblast

I had previously installed a CD-writer on my PC, but that was the limit of my experience. I found it simple to do the whole thing myself with a store-bought Maxtor 80gig drive...

Your PC has a pair of wide ribbon cables running through it... If you can figure out which is the primary IDE and which is the secondary, and if you feel comfortable plugging and unplugging devices from this ribbon, you'll probably be fine... And it's good solid experience.

Posted by: Xaa

There might be a learning curve for you. What might take me 10 minutes, might take you 2 hours in this case, but once it's done, you will have the skill to add a drive to your PC. It's not hard and it's not hard to learn.

You will be doing 90% of the work by buying a kit. Adding the preblessed drive to your Tivo is essentially adding a slave drive to a PC.

If you can read and have the ability to learn, the difference between installing a kit and blessing the new drive yourself and adding it is tiny.

Don't worry about lying on the floor electricuted. Pull the plug before you take the top off of either your Tivo or your PC and stay away from The Tivo power source.

I believe you can do this.

The benefits are:

You will save a BUNCH of money.

You will learn things about your Tivo AND your PC

You will feel good about yourself and your accomplishments and growth as a person.

DON'T BE AFRAID.

xaa

Posted by: KKemp

Let's say I upgrade my 14hr that has lifetime service. Is there going to come a time when TiVo decides not to allow hacked boxes to function with their service on future software upgrades? Do I need to re-bless the drive with future software upgrades, or do I upgrade once and never have to fuss with it again (unless I want a bigger HD again)? What are the pitfalls to upgrading?

Posted by: Xaa

Upgrade and you are set.

Tivo has not indicated they will do anything to disable an upgraded box, I wouldn't worry about it.

The only pitfall is that it voids your warranty.

Xaa

Posted by: TIVO newbie

Wow, I must admit everybody here is really helpful.

Given I've never tinkered inside my PC and I really don't know much about IDE cables or stuff, I'll ask around to see if some of my PC savvy friends can help me. Or buy an upgraded TIVO from one of these online sources. Any suggestions on a good reputable company to buy from??

Too bad everybody on this forum lives so far away. Maybe I can fly one of you out here to sunny CA and have a mini vacation while you help me with my TIVO. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Posted by: Xaa

Now you're speaking my language. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Xaa

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by TIVO newbie:
Wow, I must admit everybody here is really helpful.

Given I've never tinkered inside my PC and I really don't know much about IDE cables or stuff, I'll ask around to see if some of my PC savvy friends can help me. Or buy an upgraded TIVO from one of these online sources. Any suggestions on a good reputable company to buy from??

Too bad everybody on this forum lives so far away. Maybe I can fly one of you out here to sunny CA and have a mini vacation while you help me with my TIVO. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Get a PC savy friend to guide you. Also, there are plenty of people on this board that are in the Bay Area.

------------------
Jeff

Sony SVR-2000
"Let the Tivolution be televised"

[This message has been edited by jsmeeker (edited 12-14-2001).]

Posted by: dslunceford

XAA, it's not really a BUNCH of money that's saved. IMO, it's a pretty fair trade for the time savings.

Simply getting my PC tower out of it's built-in area is a 15-20 minute job of unplugging wires and such. Then it's hooking everything back up, multiple boots and such, plus trying to figure everything out.

My time was definately worth the $70 or so premium I paid for a pre-blessed drive and a 20 min upgrade experience, soup to nuts. Plus I got the HD mounting bracket, etc...

I've installed two HD's on my PC, plus other little stuff like memory, interal Zip and CD burner. I'm confident I could do my own upgrade with the time invested to learn, but the plug and play worked great for me and is a route folks shouldn't be afraid of pursuing either.

------------------
--Steve
BrainStorm PR

My DVD Collection

Posted by: scotty321

I just wanted to add one thing...

There is one Torx screw located inside some of the Sony machines that is VERY DIFFICULT to remove. It's in a very tight area and requires a "right angle torx bit" to get into the area. Unfortunately, I went to 3 hardware stores (including Home Depot) and none of them had ever heard of a "right angle torx bit" before, so I ended up buying a standalone torx bit and used a tiny wrench, and eventually got the torx screw out. That was the hardest part of my entire upgrade procedure.

With or without that torx screw, the procedure is easy for those who have tinkered with taking apart computers before, but as mentioned above, it is not trivial at all and could be completely daunting for someone who's never added a hard drive to even a regular computer before. If you're at all squeamish about taking electronics apart, it may not be for you and I would recommend finding someone in the Bay Area to help you out or sending in your unit to one of those "upgrade" companies.

------------------
Scott Rose
President, ScottWorld
Software. Speaking. Solutions. Since 1992.
http://www.scottworld.com

(Sony SAT-T60 DirecTiVo, 72 hours)

Posted by: feldon23

I'm hearing people here advocate adding a second blessed hard drive without first performing a backup of the original TiVo drive. I don't recommend this.

Posted by: dslunceford

quote:
Originally posted by feldon23:
I'm hearing people here advocate adding a second blessed hard drive without first performing a backup of the original TiVo drive. I don't recommend this.

Not advocating that at all. But you could find someone who's nice enough to provide you a CD backup for emergencies/disaster recovery.

I certainly made certain I had bits in hand before doing my upgrade and would recommend others do the same as well.

------------------
--Steve
BrainStorm PR

My DVD Collection

Posted by: Xaa

quote:
Originally posted by feldon23:
I'm hearing people here advocate adding a second blessed hard drive without first performing a backup of the original TiVo drive. I don't recommend this.

I would never advocate that, and you sure won't get a backup from an upgrade kit.

As Steve mentions though, a backup isn't as difficult as it once was to come by. For me, I'm happier knowing I have my own backup.

Xaa

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