Killed my Hard Drive

[ccalabro]

Well after 2 years of TiVo bliss the hard drive has packed it in! (Wife not happy, what's a hard drive, how do you fix it, when will it be working again... you get the idea).

when i got the tivo i got the extra HD braket etc so my question is, should i get 2 reasonably priced HDD's or one big fat one? does the tivo do some form of raid on the 2 drives, do they need to be identicle?

also i am wondering if heat may be an issue because a few months back my modded xbox packed it in also, HD failure.

any comments appreciated.

Charles

[petestrash]

when i got the tivo i got the extra HD braket etc so my question is, should i get 2 reasonably priced HDD's or one big fat one? does the tivo do some form of raid on the 2 drives, do they need to be identicle?

There is no raid on the TiVo's, though generally when drives fail they give some signs before they are totally cactus so shows can be copied to the new drive(s).

A single drive has the benefits of less heat and noise, dual drives have the benefit of being cheaper than 1 big drive and don't need to be identical.

also i am wondering if heat may be an issue because a few months back my modded xbox packed it in also, HD failure.

Heat can certainly be a factor in drive lifespan. it is important that the area under the tivo is clear as this is where the cool air is drawn in, and the rear should also have a clear area for the fan to exhaust the hot air.

if you have it in an enclosed unit, there may not be enough cool airflow to keep everything happy. TiVo would shut down if it the mainboard became too hot, but by that time the harddisk would be well above it's limits.

Apart from that TiVo is very hard on Hdd's, they are constantly writing and reading the buffer 24/7.

Peter.

[ccalabro]

thanks for the comments, gives me a chance to redo the season passes and start fresh, although i am not looking forward to re-tweaking it all back to how it was.

side topic, is the disk failure a common occurance amongst tivo's. i remember reading a post once where a person stated that because the drive was actually running the whole time it was actually better, than starting and stopping all the time. wondering if anyone else has had similar hard drive failures from time to time.

also anyone recommend any particular brand/specifications that would be more 'tivo friendly'?

[petestrash]

side topic, is the disk failure a common occurance amongst tivo's.

2-4 years life seems a fairly common lifespan for drives in a TiVo.

i remember reading a post once where a person stated that because the drive was actually running the whole time it was actually better, than starting and stopping all the time. wondering if anyone else has had similar hard drive failures from time to time.

In general leaving a Hdd powered up is better than turning it on an off all the time. but at least in a PC the Hdd has rest periods where the head is not moving, in TiVo the head never stops moving. It's either recording a show or the buffer 24/7, at the same time it is also either playing back a recording or the buffer 24/7.

also anyone recommend any particular brand/specifications that would be more 'tivo friendly'?

I have Seagates in all my TiVo's the oldest about 3 years old now. They are quiet and come with a 5 year warranty.

But each person will probably recommend their drives, most of the bad apples (IBM deathstars & early Maxtors) seem to have been fixed or dropped from production.

But check the Warranty information of the drive you choose, because at least one manufacturer (Can't remember the company) does not warrant their drives for more than a year if used in a PVR/TiVo.

Peter

[ccalabro]

i guess i will go with a seagate

i really appreciate your replies.