# How do I upgrade the Bolt Laptop hard drive for a Normal Hard drive ( 3.5 inch) ?



## Johnny Danger (Dec 27, 2016)

How do I upgrade the Bolt Laptop hard drive(2.5) for a Normal Hard drive ( 3.5 inch) ?

Can this fit inside or does it need to be external? 

What type of equipment would you need? For example, a USB-to-SATA cable? 

Does the BOLT even suppose enough power for an Internal hard drive? 

Don't the 3.5 hard drive require more power than the 2.5 hard drive?

Thanks.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

A short answer: a 3.5" drive will not fit into the Bolt case (as-is) and generally would have to be placed externally (absent doing surgery on the Bolt case).


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Since there's no room in the case, the power issue is usually moot; one puts it in an external case which would supply power to the HD.

The USB connection does not work for TiVo hard drives, you need a SATA connection. The external SATA also doesn't work unless you use an third party program to marry your drives, which is not generally recommended (full disclosure: although I did this myself I too advise against this course.) A popular scheme is to cut a small hole in the case to run a SATA cable to an external drive.

An internal SSD is another option, though it's more expensive. If you have more money than sense, you can get an 8 TB Micron SSD. (All things being equal, the larger the SSD, the longer it will last before writing becomes an issue.)


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

Easiest method.
Buy and install cheap 2.5" drive.
Buy laptop cooler.
Remove cable card cover and leave off.
Place Tivo on top of laptop cooler, plug laptop cooler into Tivo USB port.
Enjoy a much cooler and more reliable bolt.
My bolt temp dropped 15 degrees with this setup.


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

Narkul said:


> Easiest method.
> Buy and install cheap 2.5" drive.
> Buy laptop cooler.
> Remove cable card cover and leave off.
> ...


That is not the easiest way. It has zero to do with what the OP asked. It doesn't fix anything. Also, heat is not the reason the 2.5" drive is not as reliable as a 3.5" drive.

OP, there is a 34 page thread THREE POSTS down... Put in a little effort to search.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

My Cape is a Recliner said:


> That is not the easiest way. It has zero to do with what the OP asked. It doesn't fix anything. Also, heat is not the reason the 2.5" drive is not as reliable as a 3.5" drive.
> 
> OP, there is a 34 page thread THREE POSTS down... Put in a little effort to search.


Laptops get notoriously hot and can lead to early hard drive failure, especially an older laptop with dust clogged heatsinks. They're also subject to being moved around while the drives are spinning. I'm not suggesting 2.5s are as reliable as 3.5s, but they can last years in the proper environment. I have several 2.5" sata drives that are 10+ years old pulled from broken laptops. They run nice and cool in a well ventilated desktop serving plex to my Tivos and Rokus. The OP didn't say why he wanted to use a 3.5" drive, but I assumed it was for reliability, so I gave him an EASY alternative that works well for me and others and also doesn't destroy the resale value of his Bolt should he want to move on to something else like so many users do these days. It was a much better reply than "put a little effort to search".


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

Narkul said:


> Laptops get notoriously hot and can lead to early hard drive failure, especially an older laptop with dust clogged heatsinks. They're also subject to being moved around while the drives are spinning.


irrelevant



Narkul said:


> I'm not suggesting 2.5s are as reliable as 3.5s,


good, because they aren't



Narkul said:


> but they can last years in the proper environment. I have several 2.5" sata drives that are 10+ years old pulled from broken laptops. They run nice and cool in a well ventilated desktop serving plex to my Tivos and Rokus.


again, irrelevant.



Narkul said:


> The OP didn't say why he wanted to use a 3.5" drive, but I assumed it was for reliability, so I gave him an EASY alternative that works well for me and others


 You wanted to talk about how you did it, not what the OP wants to know.



Narkul said:


> and also doesn't destroy the resale value of his Bolt should he want to move on to something else like so many users do these days.


Now you're just pulling excuses out of thin air, and hoping they fit. "So maybe years down the road, IF the op wants to sell it, and even though they would have upgraded the hard drive, they need to be worried about adding a small hole to a cover that can be replaced??



Narkul said:


> It was a much better reply than "put a little effort to search".


Why because you got to write your opinion? You think writing an answer even if its irrelevant is helpful? Its not (for anyone). I was being helpful to not only the board, but to the OP for the future. I don't need to kiss anyone's behind to help them. Some times a good kick is earned, and hopefully works better, like now.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

My Cape is a Recliner said:


> irrelevant
> 
> good, because they aren't
> 
> ...


Maybe you might want to cut down on the caffeine a little?


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## Johnny Danger (Dec 27, 2016)

Mikeguy said:


> A short answer: a 3.5" drive will not fit into the Bolt case (as-is) and generally would have to be placed externally (absent doing surgery on the Bolt case).


What would be the power supply to the 3.5 inch drive? Can it use the same power from the bolt? Do 3.5 and 2.5 hard drive use the same voltage or is the TIVO bolt capiable of providing power to a 3.5 inch hard drive?

If the hard drive is outside the case, can you use a normal SATA connection or would you require something like an ESATA connector?

Thanks.


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## Johnny Danger (Dec 27, 2016)

ej42137 said:


> Since there's no room in the case, the power issue is usually moot; one puts it in an external case which would supply power to the HD.
> 
> The USB connection does not work for TiVo hard drives, you need a SATA connection. The external SATA also doesn't work unless you use an third party program to marry your drives, which is not generally recommended (full disclosure: although I did this myself I too advise against this course.) A popular scheme is to cut a small hole in the case to run a SATA cable to an external drive.
> 
> An internal SSD is another option, though it's more expensive. If you have more money than sense, you can get an 8 TB Micron SSD. (All things being equal, the larger the SSD, the longer it will last before writing becomes an issue.)


So the most popular way is to cut a hole and run a SATA cable to an 3.5 hard drive. Ok, I have both Western digital and Seagate external drives however the connection provided is a USB 3.0 cable

I could of course open the external case and get the 3.5 hard drive out and connect to the SATA cable but then how would the power be supplied to the 3.5 inch drive?

Do people who follow this popular method use some kind of adapter which allow power to be supplied to an external drive while also giving you access to the SATA cable or is there some kind of USB-to-SATA adapter used? I did look on youtube for perhaps a video of someone doing this but could not find any instructional videos.

Can you let me know the hardware or setup required to do the simple upgrade with the hole in it? Does a picture or parts list exist for this setup?

The SSD option is thousands of dollars, I'm not some oil tycoon.

Finally, why would you recommend against the ESATA option? What does it involve? I believe I have a RAID NAS system which has a ESATA port. If I could hook my NAS directly to a TIVO bolt, I could have a have a 48TB system. What did this method involve? Did you have to like write programming custom code to make it work? If so, this is above my level.

I have upgraded my old roameo before to a 8TB drive and was expecting the same experience with the BOLT. I was absolutely shocked when I saw a laptop hard drive inside.

Please let me know how you connect a SATA to an external drive when the cases both use a USB 3.0 connection?

Thanks.


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## Johnny Danger (Dec 27, 2016)

My Cape is a Recliner said:


> That is not the easiest way. It has zero to do with what the OP asked. It doesn't fix anything. Also, heat is not the reason the 2.5" drive is not as reliable as a 3.5" drive.
> 
> OP, there is a 34 page thread THREE POSTS down... Put in a little effort to search.


I put a lot of research in it. I can't exactly call TIVO and ask them how to hack their box. Can you bottom line it if you know the answer? How does a SATA connection fit into an external hard drive which only has USB 3.0 port on it? that is what I'm trying to figure out.

Is there an adapter or special cable, or special type of external hard drive you are dealing with?

There should really be a sticky post which summarizes the process. This is not obvious at all.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

My Cape is a Recliner said:


> irrelevant
> 
> good, because they aren't
> 
> ...


Your whining, rude presence in this thread is irrelevent to the subject at hand and only serves to intimidate people seeking help. My post may, or may not have been relevent to the OP, I don't care, I just suggested another option.

Sounds like you spend too much time in that recliner.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Johnny Danger said:


> What would be the power supply to the 3.5 inch drive? Can it use the same power from the bolt? Do 3.5 and 2.5 hard drive use the same voltage or is the TIVO bolt capiable of providing power to a 3.5 inch hard drive?
> 
> If the hard drive is outside the case, can you use a normal SATA connection or would you require something like an ESATA connector?
> 
> Thanks.


I haven't done it myself, but posts here going through the process generally seem to use an external enclosure with its own power supply. And it's generally been recommended to use the SATA connection. I'll refer you to the prior posts explaining setups and providing "best" recommendations. (And, of course, for each recommendation, there is someone taking an alternative approach.)


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## cpgny9 (Mar 1, 2006)

I've done the external drive route on my bolt+ (after multiple 2.5 hard drive failures) - its simple to do and has worked great (even helped with some pixelation I was having). You do have to put a hole in the bolt case (I actually just used a dremmel and cut out a bit of the top case side where it come in contact with the bottom case in the back). There's a really good detailed post on this somewhere in the forums (with pics and all), but the gist of it is . . .

You can use this case (I'm not 100% sure, but you may not be able to use the case/drive you described)

https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Aluminum-Temperature-Adjustable-Temperature/dp/B00N1Q2M6A/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Hard+Drive+Enclosure+3.5+Inch+SATA+III+to+USB+3.0+or+eSATA.+Aluminum+Body+&+LED+Display+to+Monitor+Temperature+and+HDD+Working+Speed.+Adjustable+Built-in+Cooling+Fan+Speed+by+Temperature.&qid=1575476821&sr=8-1

This case has a separate connection for power to the hard drive. Then use a SATA wire and connect directly to the motherboard (where you unplugged the original drive from) and directly to the hard drive itself. Another small hole will need to be cut out of the hard drive case to allow for the SATA wire .

These are the wires I used:

Robot Check

https://www.amazon.com/NSI-LK-13526-internal-Female-Extension/dp/B003WFBFZY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=NSI+LK-13526+7-pin+internal+SATA+Male+to+SATA+Female+Extension+cable+-+7+pin+SATA+M/F+-+20+inch+(50+cm)&qid=1575477072&sr=8-1

I used a WD RED 3.5 drive (highly recommend throughout this site) and its worked flawlessly for almost a year now. I left the original 2.5 drive out of the TiVo hoping that would help cool it, but it didn't bring down the temperature all that much. So I used this fan and it brought the temp down to 37 regularly - i was previously at 65-70 (there are tons of different fans out there, this one is a little more on the expensive side, but really any fan(s) will do)

https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Top-Exhaust-Receivers-Components/dp/B01LVW4SLP/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=AC+Infinity+AIRCOM+S7,+Quiet+Cooling+Fan+System+12"+Top-Exhaust+for+Receivers,+Amps,+DVR,+AV+Cabinet+Components&qid=1575477497&sr=8-3

I have the bolt on top of the fan on a open shelf in my entertainment center and the external hard drive is in a fan cooled closed cabinet (the wire from the Tivo box to the external case runs behind the entertainment center) - it looks clean and you don't even see the external drive.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

I just want to mention for people who do not want to drill holes in their Bolt, I used an SATA Gear 30in Red SATA Device Cable Straight to Left Angle. This let me close the Bolt case enough to allow the SATA cable to squeeze through the top of the case without any cutting. (I did leave the small screw off of the back off of the case which allows it to flex a little.)

I also used a Cable Matters 3-Pack 4 Pin Molex to SATA Power Cable (SATA to Molex) - 6 Inches and this case
Sabrent USB 2.0/ESATA TO 3.5 Inch IDE or SATA/SATA II Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure Case with Cooling Fan (EC-UEIS7). With this case, I was able to open up the case, and slip the SATA cable out of the side without cutting anything. I just did not over tighten the side.

I also left the cableCARD cover off for cooling and put small fan under it. AC Infinity MULTIFAN S4, Quiet 140mm USB Fan for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling 



cpgny9 said:


> I've done the external drive route on my bolt+ (after multiple 2.5 hard drive failures) - its simple to do and has worked great (even helped with some pixelation I was having). You do have to put a hole in the bolt case (I actually just used a dremmel and cut out a bit of the top case side where it come in contact with the bottom case in the back). There's a really good detailed post on this somewhere in the forums (with pics and all), but the gist of it is . . .
> 
> You can use this case (I'm not 100% sure, but you may not be able to use the case/drive you described)
> 
> ...


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Narkul said:


> Easiest method.
> Buy and install cheap 2.5" drive.
> Buy laptop cooler.
> Remove cable card cover and leave off.
> ...


I had two HDD failures AFTER using a fan and bringing down the temperature 15 degrees or more. Thus, I went to the external 3.5" drive. It's not the heat, imo.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

UCLABB said:


> I had two HDD failures AFTER using a fan and bringing down the temperature 15 degrees or more. Thus, I went to the external 3.5" drive. It's not the heat, imo.


I'm sure it's a YMMV thing. I've had at least 5, probably more, 3.5" drives fail in my series 1, 2, and 3 Tivos. I've been lucky so far with the Roamio and Bolt though. As my previous post stated, I have several old 2.5" drives that have been running for many years in my media server. I've seen many fail in laptops though. After all the reports of hot Bolts and failing drives, I took some precautions that may or may not pay off, it can't hurt to cool down the box though.


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## Johnny Danger (Dec 27, 2016)

cpgny9 said:


> I've done the external drive route on my bolt+ (after multiple 2.5 hard drive failures) - its simple to do and has worked great (even helped with some pixelation I was having). You do have to put a hole in the bolt case (I actually just used a dremmel and cut out a bit of the top case side where it come in contact with the bottom case in the back). There's a really good detailed post on this somewhere in the forums (with pics and all), but the gist of it is . . .
> 
> You can use this case (I'm not 100% sure, but you may not be able to use the case/drive you described)
> 
> ...


That External enclosure with that ESATA port in the back is the missing link I was looking for. Its a shame the external drive enclosures from Seagate and Western digital don't have these ports. I would literally have to remove the hard drive from one enclosure to put it in another enclosure. Destroying 1 of them and buying a different one. Go figure.

So, you are using normal SATA cables plugged into the external enclosure ESATA port?

There is not a special ESATA cable but rather just a SATA Cable?

Thanks.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Johnny Danger said:


> So the most popular way is to cut a hole and run a SATA cable to an 3.5 hard drive. Ok, I have both Western digital and Seagate external drives however the connection provided is a USB 3.0 cable
> 
> I could of course open the external case and get the 3.5 hard drive out and connect to the SATA cable but then how would the power be supplied to the 3.5 inch drive?
> 
> ...


Here's a link to a 4TB SSD. It's not cheap, but it doesn't cost "thousands of dollars". Even a Micron 8TB drive is less than a grand.

You can't use the USB connection to the TiVo. You either need to take apart the external case or buy one that has a SATA connection. There are connectors that you can buy, NewEgg for example has everything you might need.

External cases are notoriously unreliable; if you connect an external eSATA drive to a TiVo (which would require third-party software), when the drive fails you will lose every recording, even the ones on your existing drive. So this idea is generally poorly regarded.

48TB would not work, because of software limitations in TiVo's firmware.

I think you really need more familiarity with computer hardware to take on this project. Maybe build yourself a PC and get some experience?


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

Johnny Danger said:


> That External enclosure with that ESATA port in the back is the missing link I was looking for.


You will not be able to use the ESATA port on the back of an external enclosure. At one time this worked, but then an update from TiVo broke that function, according to some people. That is why we are telling you it has to be a direct SATA to SATA link from your TiVo to your 3.5" hard drive.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Johnny Danger said:


> That External enclosure with that ESATA port in the back is the missing link I was looking for. Its a shame the external drive enclosures from Seagate and Western digital don't have these ports. I would literally have to remove the hard drive from one enclosure to put it in another enclosure. Destroying 1 of them and buying a different one. Go figure.
> 
> So, you are using normal SATA cables plugged into the external enclosure ESATA port?
> 
> ...


Just buy a bare drive, a power supply and a molex to sata adapter.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

pl1 said:


> You will not be able to use the ESATA port on the back of an external enclosure. At one time this worked, but then an update from TiVo broke that function, according to some people. That is why we are telling you it has to be a direct SATA to SATA link from your TiVo to your 3.5" hard drive.


You're talking about the eSATA port on the Tivo. I agree no one can use that.

But he was talking about the eSATA port on the back of the external enclosure. Why can't he use that? eSATA and SATA are electrically equivalent. He'll need the right eSATA to SATA converter cable with the right genders on both ends, but it'll mean one less hole to cut.

Most people don't bother getting cute with the plumbing and just route a single internal SATA cable into the external enclosure, cutting a hole into it if needed.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

I was in fact talking about the ESATA on the external enclosure. Like I said, people "were" doing that originally until TiVo updated their software. Now you can not use an ESATA to SATA adapter and you must go directly from the TiVo to the Hard Drive SATA to SATA.



BobCamp1 said:


> You're talking about the eSATA port on the Tivo. I agree no one can use that.
> 
> But he was talking about the eSATA port on the back of the external enclosure. Why can't he use that? eSATA and SATA are electrically equivalent. He'll need the right eSATA to SATA converter cable with the right genders on both ends, but it'll mean one less hole to cut.
> 
> Most people don't bother getting cute with the plumbing and just route a single internal SATA cable into the external enclosure, cutting a hole into it if needed.


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## cpgny9 (Mar 1, 2006)

The ESATA on the Hard Drive enclosure will not work. As mentioned, people were connecting some external hard drives via the ESATA (with and without adapters) in the past, but a TiVo software update (I believe last December) stopped that. I think the only external drive that can use the ESATA is the old TiVo certified and sold 1TB WD drive that hasn't been sold in years (and to be honest - not even sure you can still use that one either).

Its really not that difficult to connect SATA to SATA. One end connects to the motherboard in the TiVO (its the exact same plug "socket" that the original drive plug would have been unplugged from) and then connect the other end to the smaller of the 2 plug connectors on the hard drive itself (not the hard drive enclosure, but the actual hard drive).

Depending on the external enclosure you get, the connector to the hard drive may be 1 plug or 2 (Whenever you use an external enclosure, tivo or not, you need to plug the enclosure into the hard drive itself). The enclosure I previously posted has two separate plugs 1) SATA plug 2) power (not the power plug you put in the wall, but the power connector to connect directly to the hard drive itself). Plug the SATA cable coming from the TiVo (that has one end you already connected to the motherboard) directly to the Hard Drive, plug the power connector from the enclosure directly to the hard drive (do nothing with the enclosure's SATA cable), plug the external enclosure's actual power cord into the wall, Plug the TiVo power cord into the wall, turn on your TV if you haven't already, and you will see it going through the start up/set up.

There's a bit more to it if you go over 3TBs, but up to 3 you're good to go.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

cpgny9 said:


> The ESATA on the Hard Drive enclosure will not work. As mentioned, people were connecting some external hard drives via the ESATA (with and without adapters) in the past, but a TiVo software update (I believe last December) stopped that. I think the only external drive that can use the ESATA is the old TiVo certified and sold 1TB WD drive that hasn't been sold in years (and to be honest - not even sure you can still use that one either).


OK. I'm now assuming that the eSATA port on those recommended enclosures isn't directly connected to the SATA port of the hard drive inside but is going through a microcontroller. The one I'm staring at in my lab isn't like that and would work just fine. It's been around a while and unfortunately doesn't have the manufacturer or model number on it.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

BobCamp1 said:


> OK. I'm now assuming that the eSATA port on those recommended enclosures isn't directly connected to the SATA port of the hard drive inside but is going through a microcontroller. The one I'm staring at in my lab isn't like that and would work just fine. It's been around a while and unfortunately doesn't have the manufacturer or model number on it.


If there's no controller between the eSATA port on your enclosure and the drive it's worth a shot.


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

Johnny Danger said:


> How do I upgrade the Bolt Laptop hard drive(2.5) for a Normal Hard drive ( 3.5 inch) ?
> 
> Can this fit inside or does it need to be external?
> 
> ...


I know this thread is kinda old and that not one person answered your question about how to do the upgrade to the 3.5 inch drive but did you ever get it going? I have a WD Red 3.5 inch 2tb drive and an external enclosure all cables and can not find and instructions on how to get a bolt with hydra upgraded to a 3.5 inch drive. All I see is bickering about what people think is best but not saying what to do.


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

skipper64 said:


> I know this thread is kinda old and that *not one person answered your question about how to do the upgrade to the 3.5 inch drive* but did you ever get it going? I have a WD Red 3.5 inch 2tb drive and an external enclosure all cables and *can not find and instructions on how to get a bolt with hydra upgraded to a 3.5 inch drive*. All I see is bickering about what people think is best but not saying what to do.


There are good answers, with LINKS, in this thread and there are multiple other threads, some with lots of pictures, describing how to switch to a 3.5" HDD on a Bolt.

If these instructions are too difficult for you to follow, you might have to re-evaluate your technical abilities and possibly pay someone like Weaknees for a new HDD with installation. Quite a few folks seem to get themselves in over their heads here and then expect volunteers to bail them out (MoCa and WiFi come to mind too).


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

skipper64 said:


> I know this thread is kinda old and that not one person answered your question about how to do the upgrade to the 3.5 inch drive but did you ever get it going? I have a WD Red 3.5 inch 2tb drive and an external enclosure all cables and can not find and instructions on how to get a bolt with hydra upgraded to a 3.5 inch drive. All I see is bickering about what people think is best but not saying what to do.


Thoughts on Using an External HDD With a Bolt


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

ClearToLand said:


> There are good answers, with LINKS, in this thread and there are multiple other threads, some with lots of pictures, describing how to switch to a 3.5" HDD on a Bolt.
> 
> If these instructions are too difficult for you to follow, you might have to re-evaluate your technical abilities and possibly pay someone like Weaknees for a new HDD with installation. Quite a few folks seem to get themselves in over their heads here and then expect volunteers to bail them out (MoCa and WiFi come to mind too).


I guess I failed to explain my complete problem. My bolt hdd is dead and I am stuck on hydra and want to try and upgrade to an external drive. I have searched here for 3 days and have not found any solutions to my specific problem. I have seen your post and that is if your tivo is working and you want to switch drives.

Oh and your condescending attitude is completely unnecessary. You must be pretty proud of yourself.


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

skipper64 said:


> I guess I failed to explain my complete problem. *My bolt hdd is dead and I am stuck on hydra and want to try and upgrade to an external drive. I have searched here for 3 days and have not found any solutions to my specific problem*. I have seen your post and that is if your tivo is working and you want to switch drives...


It doesn't matter if your current HDD is dead or not - if you believe that you have the technical ability to repair it yourself, you use GOOGLE and RESEARCH what HDDs work with TE4. You supply power to the external HDD with an external power source; you use a slightly longer SATA cable to connect the external HDD to your TiVo motherboard; DONE!

Since your current HDD is dead, you have nothing to lose by connecting up a new 3.5" 2TB HDD to your Bolt.

@V7Goose posted a new thread on this topic last Thursday. Since the Bolt came out, there have been MANY threads on this topic over the past few years, some with great pictures. What should be inferred by the fact that you could not find ANY in three days?



skipper64 said:


> ...*Oh and your condescending attitude is completely unnecessary. You must be pretty proud of yourself*.


You originally posted:


skipper64 said:


> ...*not one person answered your question about how to do the upgrade to the 3.5 inch drive*...


which is not true.

I'm capable of finding these posts in this thread, along with other posts in other threads - why couldn't you? Three days?

A tip: use GOOGLE instead of the TCF SEARCH function. There's a LINK at the bottom of my ReplayTV FAQ on the AVS Forum explaining all of the options that one can use with GOOGLE. Start with "Site: tivocommunity.com".

I'm a fan of "Teach a man to fish" over "Give a man a fish".

Many times I'm told that my answers are too technical, too deep, too long. One of the best threads on this topic, that I remember, was maybe a couple of years ago. A gent with dark eyeglasses and in a suit, ~30-40 years old, IIRC, posted LOTs of pictures of an external 3.5" HDD case with a fan with plenty of LINKs - LONG post too IIRC. I have no idea what his name is today - but if I come across it again, I'll leave you a LINK.


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

ClearToLand said:


> ...Many times I'm told that my answers are too technical, too deep, too long. One of the best threads on this topic, that I remember, was maybe a couple of years ago. A gent with dark eyeglasses and in a suit, ~30-40 years old, IIRC, posted LOTs of pictures of an external 3.5" HDD case with a fan with plenty of LINKs - LONG post too IIRC. I have no idea what his name is today - but if I come across it again, I'll leave you a LINK.


GOOGLE: *tivo bolt external case fan site:tivocommunity.com*​
got me a LOT of posts but not until I saw a picture of the Rosewill case ( Armer RX304-APU3-35B - External 3.5" SATA III 6 Gbps Hard Drive Enclosure - Rosewill ) was I able to narrow it down to:

GOOGLE: *Rosewill RX304 site:tivocommunity.com*​
which eventually got me to the post from @Tivogre : Bolt Hard Drive Upgrade Choice



Spoiler



How long did that take?


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

I completely get the teach a man to fish. I have googled it many times and must be entering the wrong words because I keep ending up at the same pages, and there are many, like you and everyone else says, that explain how to hook up an external drive to a tivo bolt.... THAT IS WORKING. I have not seen any posts that explain how to hook up an external 3.5 in hdd on a bolt running TE4 with dead hdd and it just works.
My WD RED drive is not on the list of drives that do not work with TE4, but it does not work. My bolt is on TE4 and the hdd is dead. I followed some posts and hooked up new hdd directly to mb of the bolt and turned on the hdd and then the tivo and it shows tivo then starting up then tivo and just keeps going back and forth. I'm thought it was because of TE4 but mayby I'm wrong.
I love solving my own problems. You Tube has many videos on changing hdd's but they are ALL on working Bolts. 

I will keep googling how to hook up an external 3.5 in hdd to a bolt with dead hdd. Something is bound to show up. 
I feel lucky in a way that I am the only person ever to have my particular problem. That must be why nobody understands what I am trying to ask.
I already have it hooked up it just does not work. That is my problem.


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

skipper64 said:


> I completely get the teach a man to fish. I have googled it many times and must be entering the wrong words because I keep ending up at the same pages, and there are many, like you and everyone else says, that explain how to hook up an external drive to a tivo bolt.... THAT IS WORKING. *I have not seen any posts that explain how to hook up an external 3.5 in hdd on a bolt running TE4 with dead hdd and it just works*...


The condition of the existing / old TiVo HDD doesn't matter.


skipper64 said:


> ...I followed some posts and *hooked up new hdd directly to mb of the bolt* and turned on the hdd and then the tivo and it shows tivo then starting up then tivo and just keeps going back and forth. I'm thought it was because of TE4 but mayby I'm wrong...


If you DID connect the new HDD directly, bypassing all of the electronics in the Rosewill case (except for power), then you need to trying writing zeroes to the new HDD. Use WD Data Life Guard Diagnostics.


skipper64 said:


> ...I feel lucky in a way that* I am the only person ever to have my particular problem*. That must be why nobody understands what I am trying to ask.
> I already have it hooked up it just does not work. That is my problem.


We'll see...


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

skipper64 said:


> Oh and your condescending attitude is completely unnecessary. You must be pretty proud of yourself.


 Get off the horse, and quit your crying when you start off your REQUEST FOR HELP, with this. ​


skipper64 said:


> I know this thread is kinda old *and that not one person answered your question about how to do the upgrade to the 3.5 inch drive* but did you ever get it going? I


You started off condescending yourself. If you searched for three days and couldn't come up with a better thread (which I found in a few minutes), being respectful when asking for help, and starting your own thread about your own problem, with details about where you are, and what you have tried is too much for you. Here you go. TiVo Superstore | Upgraded TiVo DVRs, Remotes, Parts, Repairs

It has been answered many times, and you do not have...&#8230;. your TiVo does not have a unique problem.


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

WOW


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

While I did this to test TE4 on a Bolt it will work just as well on TE3.

TE4 Bolt upgrade with external drive


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

skipper64 said:


> I will keep googling how to hook up an external 3.5 in hdd to a bolt with dead hdd. Something is bound to show up.
> I feel lucky in a way that I am the only person ever to have my particular problem. That must be why nobody understands what I am trying to ask.


Just in case you don't see my latest reply to this thread I will reply direct to you. The fact that your drive is dead makes no difference if you are doing 3TB or under, the Bolt will format the new drive. And will work TE4 or TE3. Strictly a SATA to SATA upgrade, no ESATA involved. No cutting of the case. Entire upgrade (other than the drive) should be under $30. Enclosure (read post for what model I used). two Sata cables (one male at one end, one female so can attach to each other) and a molex to SATA power adapter for inside the enclosure. VERY easy and pretty cheap (depending on which drive you use of course). If you like WD I'd go for purple over red, red has NAS firmware that assumes there are multiple drives, purple has A/V type firmware. Even better the Enterprise model, most expensive but no application specific firmware I think, just like a few years ago before all these application specific drives came out.

Note, I used an older model 3TB Toshiba 3.5 that I KNOW is PMR. Cost me about $40 I think. However unless you are sure you can find a drive you know is PMR probably best to stick with current models.

TE4 Bolt upgrade with external drive


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

tommage1 said:


> Just in case you don't see my latest reply to this thread I will reply direct to you. The fact that your drive is dead makes no difference if you are doing 3TB or under, the Bolt will format the new drive. And will work TE4 or TE3. Strictly a SATA to SATA upgrade, no ESATA involved. No cutting of the case. Entire upgrade (other than the drive) should be under $30. Enclosure (read post for what model I used). two Sata cables (one male at one end, one female so can attach to each other) and a molex to SATA power adapter for inside the enclosure. VERY easy and pretty cheap (depending on which drive you use of course). If you like WD I'd go for purple over red, red has NAS firmware that assumes there are multiple drives, purple has A/V type firmware. Even better the Enterprise model, most expensive but no application specific firmware I think, just like a few years ago before all these application specific drives came out.
> 
> Note, I used an older model 3TB Toshiba 3.5 that I KNOW is PMR. Cost me about $40 I think. However unless you are sure you can find a drive you know is PMR probably best to stick with current models.
> 
> TE4 Bolt upgrade with external drive


Thanks for the info.
I still could not get it to work. I bought another case the Roswell Armer RX304 External 3.5"
and a new sata to sata cable in case the first one was faulty that went directly from the hdd to the mb of the bolt. The hdd was powered from the external case and it still will not get past the starting up screen just like it did when I first tried. There is no excuse but I guess that is why I got so frustrated was people are just pluging in compatible hdd's to a tivo on TE4 and they work. I have all the same equipment they have and it didnt work for me.
Using data lifeguard I checked WD Red 2TB drive for errors, wrote zeros to it and still could not get it to boot up. 
It doesn't make me an expert in anything but I have built 2 computers with raid 0 hdd's so I figured I could hook up a new hdd to the tivo but it was not to be.
I ended up buying an external hd from weaknees and hooked it up and it booted up just like everybody elses did. This one uses a cable that goes from the esata on the back of the weaknees case (which is a silver Roswell case) to the mb of the bolt and it just worked. Don't have a clue what I was doing wrong but thats the way it goes sometimes.

Anyway thanks to you and everyone else who tried to help.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

skipper64 said:


> I ended up buying an external hd from weaknees and hooked it up and it booted up just like everybody elses did. This one uses a cable that goes from the esata on the back of the weaknees case (which is a silver Roswell case) to the mb of the bolt and it just worked. Don't have a clue what I was doing wrong but thats the way it goes sometimes.
> 
> Anyway thanks to you and everyone else who tried to help.


Very strange. I would have guessed you needed to fully format the new drive but you did (writing zeros). Only thing else I could think is there was something corrupted on the motherboard flash drive. Why/how a weaknees drive could get past that I don't know. Too bad it is a Bolt. If a Roamio now that the Tivo is up and running (ie maybe it repaired something wrong on the flash drive if that was the issue) could have tried hooking up the older setup to see if it works now. But CANNOT do that with a Bolt, cannot swap drives around, will lose everything on both in most cases.

Am curious, what size drive did you get from WK? I know you probably won't and probably shouldn't but would be fun to CLONE the drive you got from them. Just to have a backup of what was probably a fairly expensive drive. Would have been best to do it before installing though, now it is "married" to your specific Bolt.

Hang on to whatever warranty you got from WK. I think you are running TE4? With my setup I went Sata to Sata as TE4 software updates sometimes "broke" Sata to Esata setups. I think most if not all of those were user done upgrades though, not sure a TE4 update ever broke a WK Esata upgrade. If you looked inside the enclosure I would LOVE to know the size, make and model of the drive they used


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## skipper64 (Feb 21, 2008)

That would have been interesting to clone it first. I already went through 2 drives way to fast so I bought the 2 year extended warranty. It was $279 shipped with with Roswell case, 3TB WD Purple 3.5" and warranty and it really was plug and play.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

skipper64 said:


> 3TB WD Purple 3.5" and warranty and it really was plug and play.


Thanks, that is REALLY valuable info  Since WK uses the WD Purple kind of confirms my guess it could be one of the best drives to use. Lot of people here looking for best drive for user upgrades (at least for 3.5 upgrades), now we have a good idea  Good luck with your Tivo, glad it works well, I think with this drive you can look forward to years of service (knock on wood!!)


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

One final thing, since you are up and running might be fun to take your original drive, run a full (not quick) format on it, then do a diagnostics, see if it has any bad sectors etc. If it is good then maybe it was the flash drive having problems? I'm stumped why the 2TB Red did not work for you (I assume it was new or had no issues of it's own.) If I ever get another Bolt I may try the Sata to ESate connection with TE4 to see how it holds up, my enclosures also have an Esata connection. I do use a Sata to ESate connection with a couple Roamios on TE3, you can swap drives with Roamios (as long as same OS and must be "married" to the specific Roamio). I use toaster type docks for those, can swap drives anytime I want.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Note, your WD Red, supposedly some WD REDS now use SMR. According to one poster some 2-6TB Reds. That could explain why your 2TB Red did not work with TE4, TE4 DOES NOT like SMR. Just a possibility.


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