# 4th DTivo activated



## OrlandoJoe (Sep 6, 2006)

I finally got around to building the 160GB HD for my "new" Hughes GXCEBOT. I got the unit for $1 on ebay because the HD was fried. Bought a new HD at BestBuy and a $20 InstantCake CD. For those who have never done this, it was actually fairly easy (and even fun in a nerdy way). I now have 3 DTivo's on my main TV and a fourth on my son's TV in his room. I do have two questions:
1) I seem to remember people on this forum recommending a 3rd party peanut-like remote with an a/b switch, but can't find the thread or a vendor on the web. Can anyone help jog my memory? 
2) Does it make any sense to try to use a utility program to fix the bad sectors of the original HD and use it as a second HD in another DTivo? My wife's machine, which is only 40Meg, could use some updating. Will InstantCake reformat the disk and mark the bad sectors unusable?


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

1) Not sure about the remote.

2) No, don't do it. Your Tivo has twice the chance of failure with two hard drives. And an even greater chance if one of those two drives was already flakey to begin with.


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

There seems to be a lot of conficting opinions regarding a dual drive Tivo setup, mostly from people that only read about the reported problems and don't experiment with them firsthand. Personally, I've been running dual drive DTivos for over five years and have only had one drive fail out of literally dozens. 

Someone once said that there are only two kinds of hard drives - dead and dying. There is no solid evidence to indicate that your chances of failure double with two hard drives. That's like saying you have twice the chance of failure by having two Tivos. While it may be true to a point, it's not actually relevent.

Granted, two drives in a single enclosure will generate more heat. OTOH, the temperature in a dual drive DTivo vs. a single drive is only slightly warmer by a few degrees at most, assuming you allow for proper ventilation. I think you'll find that noise will be more of an issue than drive failures. If you pick a drive that's relatively quiet then it shouldn't be a problem.

Western Digitals tend to be more prone to failure than any other brand I've used. The latest Seagates have the best warranties but tend to draw more power and also are much noisier than their predecessors. Dual Seagates can overtax your power supply to the point where it may not boot at all. I've found it's best to use another brand in conjunction with a Seagate drive and make the Seagate the B drive and not the A drive. 

I've not had any problems using Maxtors so far in a dual drive configuration. I have a stack of dead WD drives as testament to their reliability. Mostly all of them are from single drive Tivos and were the OEM drives.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

captain_video said:


> Someone once said that there are only two kinds of hard drives - dead and dying. There is no solid evidence to indicate that your chances of failure double with two hard drives. That's like saying you have twice the chance of failure by having two Tivos. While it may be true to a point, it's not actually relevent.


That depends. Will failure of either drive cause the whole Tivo to fail? If so, then it's two single-points-of-failure, and it would be relevent.

Not sure if it's true, but if it is, then it may be relevent.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

ApK said:


> That depends. Will failure of either drive cause the whole Tivo to fail? If so, then it's two single-points-of-failure, and it would be relevent.
> 
> Not sure if it's true, but if it is, then it may be relevent.


Yes, if either drive in a two drive TiVo setup fail... it is a total failure.
Basically the two drives are "striped" together... If one goes... you might as well format the other.


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## OrlandoJoe (Sep 6, 2006)

captain_video said:


> That's like saying you have twice the chance of failure by having two Tivos.


Actually, you have twice the chance of failure with a single HR20...

Thanks for the input...

I've had fairly good success with PC hard drives over the years, but I'm not sure the risk is worth the reward. I'll probably just stay with the single drive configuration.


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

Single drives are certainly easier to set up but two drives aren't that much more work to configure. If a drive fails in a Tivo, you'll need to restore the image to either one or both drives, depending on the configuration. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's more of a risk to install two drives vs. one. Based on years of personal experience I wouldn't hesitate to install a 2nd drive in a Tivo. In fact, every Tivo I've ever owned has been upgraded to two drives and they've been every bit as reliable as any single drive Tivo. 

It all boils down to the reliability of each individual drive you use. If a drive is headed for an early demise it's going to fail no matter what configuration you use. The only caveat is that it may fail earlier in a two-drive setup, but I would guess the difference in lifespan could be measured in days or hours vs. weeks or months. The upside is that if it's going to fail it would be more likely to occuwr while it's still under warranty in a two-drive setup. A slightly longer lifespan doesn't mean much once the warranty runs out.


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## Andrew_J_M (Feb 11, 2005)

captain_video said:


> Single drives are certainly easier to set up but two drives aren't that much more work to configure. If a drive fails in a Tivo, you'll need to restore the image to either one or both drives, depending on the configuration. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's more of a risk to install two drives vs. one. Based on years of personal experience I wouldn't hesitate to install a 2nd drive in a Tivo. In fact, every Tivo I've ever owned has been upgraded to two drives and they've been every bit as reliable as any single drive Tivo.
> 
> It all boils down to the reliability of each individual drive you use. If a drive is headed for an early demise it's going to fail no matter what configuration you use. The only caveat is that it may fail earlier in a two-drive setup, but I would guess the difference in lifespan could be measured in days or hours vs. weeks or months. The upside is that if it's going to fail it would be more likely to occuwr while it's still under warranty in a two-drive setup. A slightly longer lifespan doesn't mean much once the warranty runs out.


The Spirit of St Louis was a singled-engined plane because Lindbergh thought that two engines meant twice as much opportunity for fail. I think like-wise for DVRs. PCs are different because failure in one drive doesn't affect the other.


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## A J Ricaud (Jan 11, 2006)

OrlandoJoe said:


> 1) I seem to remember people on this forum recommending a 3rd party peanut-like remote with an a/b switch, but can't find the thread or a vendor on the web. Can anyone help jog my memory? ?


Go to tivo.com, "buy tivo", "tivo gear", "tivo accessories"; and, scroll down and you will see 4 remotes with the feature you want. I am using the $29.99 and $34.99 ones:

Sorry, I can't post URLs yet.


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## OrlandoJoe (Sep 6, 2006)

A J Ricaud said:


> Go to tivo.com, "buy tivo", "tivo gear", "tivo accessories"; and, scroll down and you will see 4 remotes with the feature you want. I am using the $29.99 and $34.99 ones:
> 
> Sorry, I can't post URLs yet.


Thanks A J. I actually stumbled on the site earlier but didn't update this post because the answer was so obvious. Like, "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" or "What city is famous for Boston Baked Beans?"


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## rfc (Sep 28, 2006)

OrlandoJoe said:


> Thanks A J. I actually stumbled on the site earlier but didn't update this post because the answer was so obvious. Like, "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" or "What city is famous for Boston Baked Beans?"


Not as obvious as you think:

The "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" joke stems from a 1950s game show; it was supposed to be an easy question, but the contestants thought it was a trap and got it wrong. Who is buried there? Well, no one actually. Mr. and Mrs. Grant are not buried. Their sarcophagi lie above ground.

The answers regarding the HR20, and Boston Baked Beans are more obvious and have more in common: They both give you wicked gas.


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