Western Digital Purple 3TB Surveillance Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30PURX [Old Version]

Great replacement to our home security drive.

I have used Surveillance drives in my DVRs for over 14 years. I bought this one to add storage to my new four tuner Amazon Fire TV Recast. It was immediately recognized and has worked flawlessly. So my Recast now has almost 4TB of storage. I can record on multiple tuners and watch previously recorded programs at the same time without issues.Previously I replaced my TIVO OTA DVR drive with a WD Purple drive and used that for 4 years until I got tired of paying the monthly fees. And before that I had a homebrew PC DVR running the old Snapstream software for several years. That PC system did have drives fail over the years, but the WD Purples just kept chugging.Surveillance drives are designed for continuous use, meaning 24x7x365 always on. They support recording multiple continuous video camera feeds around the clock. That sounds a little like recording multiple video streams from DVR tuners, right? These drives performance specs look weak compared to the speed demon drives out there, but DVRs don't need top speed, they need reliable, continuous, high volume data transfer. Also regular the drives have to do a sort of internal reset regularly. You never notice this using your PC, but it causes dropped frames when recording video.Based on my experience I would highly recommend the WD Purple drives for DVRs or Surveillance. They run cool, continuous and reliable.

Upgraded a 2014 500 gig Tivo Roamio, Series 5, to 3Tb in about 30 minutes. No problems. Did the easy upgrade, simply removed the old drive and saved it - in case there are problems down the road - then put the "rails" on the new drive, installed it, put the cover back on and plugged it in. Wait a bit. The Series 5 absolutely formats a new blank 3Tb disk for you (when it sees a blank disc) and if you're connected to the Internet it looks up your on-file MAC number and registers the machine again. It might, after recent upgrades, do an even larger disk, but I just went for "easy" - because of past reviews I know 3Tb definitely works. After the setup runs for a bit, you'll have to scan again for TV channels, and some other set-up chores like you did when you first bought it, but it's not big deal if you have your different logins handy - which you should. Make a list of shows you want recorded, you'll have to sign them all up again if you take this route. If you don't have the simple tools for the job, go to a Amazon, Best Buy, Micro Center, Fry's, etc. and buy a simple small bit torex tool kit for less than $10.00. You only need two of the most common sizes - but get the set because, who knows, you may have an odd ball screw... This is a very easy upgrade. If you get tangled up, or, forgot something, just put the old drive back in and check your old setting and shows until you're happy. I did not care to do the harder upgrade where you copy the old drive to the new drive and then use Windows disk software to "expand" the drive so the Tivo sees the entire new drive instead of the "old" drive's size. Didn't have a Windows machine and didn't have that many shows I still cared about. Next time, maybe. This is a quality drive, compared to many just a few dollars cheaper. I'm not expecting any problems, but I'll update the review if any pop up.

I got this to increase my recording capacity for my Directv DVR HR44/500 along with the Anker USB 3.0 & eSATA to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005UA3I72/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The install was a breeze, just slide the WD Purple hard drive into the Anker or the docking station of your choosing, connect the eSATA cable from the Anker/docking station to the Directv DVR eSATA port (make sure DVR is turned off by unplugging it), turn on the Anker/docking station, then plug in and turn on the Directv DVR. You'll see the DVR find then format the new drive and you're all set. If you have any issues after you restart the DVR just press the small red button (reset button) located behind the small door on the front right side of the DVR HR44/500 where the Access Card slides in. This should fix any issues you may have so try this first before trying any thing else. Now enjoy the extra storage capacity. Why do it this way instead of buying a standard external hard drive? Most external hard drives are not designed to run for long periods of time but the WD Purple Drives are designed to run 24/7 and it also handles video and multiple streams of video better than the standard external hard drives. With recording multiple movies/shows at a time and hours of recording and playback this setup will last a lot longer than the standard external drives. If you read the reviews for external drives that are being used with DVR's you'll find a good many of the bad reviews complain about failures occurring within the first year. After a lot of research for something that was dependable and verified to work with my Directv HR44/500 DVR I found this setup on several online forums along with numerous recommendation for the Western Digital Red and Purple hard drives. Just keep a couple of thing in mind. First when you press the power off button on your DVR you just put it into standby so recording and guide updates can be done. That's why you need to unplug the DVR or you can run into issues. I do recommend using the reset button after you install and format the drive just to make sure everything is working as it should. Also the internal DVR hard drive can not be seen or used while you have the external drive connected to the DVR. The internal hard drive content DOES NOT GET DELETED when you install an external hard drive. To switch from the external drive to the internal drive you need to unplug the DVR, turn off the external drive, then restart the DVR. Now you can watch whatever you may have on the internal drive. Keep in mind anything you record will record on the internal drive until you switch back to the external drive. This setup is not just an economical alternative for a standard external hard drive but it's far better than any standard eSATA external hard drive you could buy in this price range. One other tip I learned is the only thing that seems to fail on the docking stations is the power button. Many recommended to unplug the docking station instead of using the power button. I have mine plugged into a battery backup with surge and it also regulates output to a consistent 120 volts so I'm not worried about causing any issues by unplugging and then plugging it back in rather than using the power button. You could use a power strip and turn off the power strip instead of using the power button/switch on your docking station.

Didn’t last a month.