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  • #1

    hard drive lifetime

    My DirecTivo RCA DVR80 seems to be experiencing a drive failure after a little over 2 years with the original drive and about 18 months with a weaknees 160GB add kit, so I will be replacing the two drives with a single new drive.

    The unit is plugged in to a surge protector (although I don't think that's been the case for its entire lifetime) and I plan to add a ups (I get power failures of 1-5 seconds duration every month or two, which can't be good for a hard drive).

    Other postings have suggested that 2-3 years might be the expected lifetime for a hard drive in a DVR, which is very disappointing. Aside from a surge protector and/or a ups, what can be done to lengthen the drive lifetime? Does it help to reduce the amount of recording -- such as not automatically recording suggestions, or not recording a season pass daily for a program I only want occasionally? Or is a 2-3 year lifetime just what we all have to expect for this kind of product?
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  • #2
    My original drive was still running fine when I upraded to a 140 hour drive from WK, I think 4 years ago. I would suspect that much of the shortened life you are experiencing is due to having a 2 drive system, and the heat it generates.

    I'm not sure there's much you can do to reduce drive activity, but I may be wrong. Besides, it may be better to have the drive running continuously then turning it on and off. It's been the subject of great debate with PC's.

    I think your best bet is to return to a single drive system. JMHO, jas.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by jasel View Post
      My original drive was still running fine when I upraded to a 140 hour drive from WK, I think 4 years ago. I would suspect that much of the shortened life you are experiencing is due to having a 2 drive system, and the heat it generates.
      While you may be right, I've never seen an internal temperature reported as anything other than normal. It's always been less than 40, probably less than 35, and now seems to be in the 30-32 range.

      I'm not sure there's much you can do to reduce drive activity, but I may be wrong. Besides, it may be better to have the drive running continuously then turning it on and off. It's been the subject of great debate with PC's.
      I wouldn't want to turn it on and off. That's impractical for a Tivo, IMO. I leave my PC on at all times. I think the PC's hard drive may be slightly flakey by now after 6 years, but not enough that I'm seeing crashes I can attribute to it. It does make a clacking noise every so often.

      I think your best bet is to return to a single drive system. JMHO, jas.
      It can't hurt. From what I've seen discussed, that should make the system run cooler. It will make the system easier to expand again later, if I want. And if a drive fails again, I'll know which one it is

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      • #4
        Originally posted by dhg View Post
        While you may be right, I've never seen an internal temperature reported as anything other than normal. It's always been less than 40, probably less than 35, and now seems to be in the 30-32 range.
        And now that I've replaced the old drive pair with a new drive, it seems to be running in the 35-39 range. Unless I messed up when I did it, or the new drive runs very hot, I can only guess that the difference is the extra fan on the two-drive mounting bracket. I wonder whether it's worth mounting the single drive on the two-drive bracket solely for the benefit of the second fan.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by dhg View Post
          And now that I've replaced the old drive pair with a new drive, it seems to be running in the 35-39 range. Unless I messed up when I did it, or the new drive runs very hot, I can only guess that the difference is the extra fan on the two-drive mounting bracket. I wonder whether it's worth mounting the single drive on the two-drive bracket solely for the benefit of the second fan.
          I made that change, and now I'm getting temperatures in the 27-30 range. Much better.

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          • #6
            single drive in dual bracket

            I'm having freeze-ups and spontaneous resets, and so it looks like I'll need to replace my drives. I just called WeaKness' tech support, and Jeff recommended returning to the single-drive factory bracket. My dual drive unit has the TwinBreeze bracket, so I'm thinking I'd like to do what you did. He said there are no instructions on doing this, but I can't image there's much to it. Wouldn't replacing the bracket just be more work? Was there anything special you had to do to go with the single drive in the dual bracket?

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            • #7
              It's really a pretty obvious installation once you're inside the unit. If you reverse out the TwinBreeze installation instructions (since you have to remove this bracket to install the TwinBreeze) then you'll see what you need to do.
              Been here a long time . . .

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