After two years of use with my quad Legacy, it decided to give me fits. I tried several resets with no luck. I finally pulled the 1 TB hard drive out, reset, and the Legacy worked fine without any hard drive storage. It seems that 1 TB - 2.5 inch hard drives are not being carried by the suppliers. Instead, the 2.5 inch solid state sata drives have taken over. I called tablo support and asked if a SSD drive was compatible. I could not get a definitive answer. So, I decided to give it a try and get one with a 15 day return policy. I installed it in the tablo, did the format procedure, and now it works better that when I bought the tablo. It is faster to look for recordings and it runs way cooler. So, it is a fix that prevents me from going to a GEN 4 tablo and losing my access to the legacy on my pc.
Seagate still makes 2.5" drives.
https://www.newegg.com/seagate-barracuda-pro-1tb-st1000lm049/p/1Z4-002P-009M2
I installed a Toshiba drive an few months ago. Works great.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQX6NNVC
When I first set up my legacy HDMI connected Tablo, I used a 1 TB portable usb drive. Worked fine. I then read a thread on this forum about using a high speed thumb drive. They reported no problems after using it for several years. I decided to try it. I bought the Samsung thumb drive they recommended (high speed, designed for video application). I had zero problems using it for several years until we decided to remove our antenna and switch to Hulu Live. This set up was so much more compact and I’m sure had less power demands on the Tablo power supply than a spinner drive. Plus, the HDMI Tablo and the new one don’t transcode the mpeg2 video so there’s less of the multiple rewrite problems solid state drives can suffer from as they get older.
Hmm, maybe Wal*mart brand doesn’t make portable HDDs, but I’m pretty sure the majority of main brand suppliers still do. Why? Still vastly cheaper than equivalent sized SSD. Now… if the price gets close… sure, I could see them shutting down.
It’s a really good idea to replace your old hard drive with a 2.5" SSD. It really improves speed, reduces heat, and keeps your Legacy Tablo running reliably without having to upgrade to Gen 4.