# Tivo Life extension



## dcorbin13 (Nov 21, 2011)

I'm contemplating an offer that will get my make my TiVo (a Premier) a "life time of the device" account. Since hard drives are the most likely point of failure, I'm contemplating what I should do (now) to ensure that I can recover from a hard drive failure (later, when it inevitably happens). I'm a competent hardware guy in general, and did a number of "upgrades" with my old Sony-T60 + DirectTv.

Thanks


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

This only applies if you have a monthly Tivo subscription, since a lifetime Tivo subscription is for the life of the Tivo box and not its owner.

With a Tivo Premiere, when you want to expand its HD recording space or replace it, you would need to use JMFS or DVRBars software, which are free on this forum. If the drive fails, you would need to obtain an image and use the same software it was created from.
Images from another Tivo can be used but recordings are lost because it needs to 'married' to the Tivo by running Clear & Delete Everything, or else it would not be able to record, or playback any recordings that are already on the drive.


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

dcorbin13 said:


> I'm contemplating an offer that will get my make my TiVo (a Premier) a "life time of the device" account. Since hard drives are the most likely point of failure, I'm contemplating what I should do (now) to ensure that I can recover from a hard drive failure (later, when it inevitably happens). I'm a competent hardware guy in general, and did a number of "upgrades" with my old Sony-T60 + DirectTv.
> 
> Thanks


Before spending $399 for your lifetime on a Premier you might want to consider getting a Roamio, any of the three models as that the newest hardware.


----------



## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Plus some people are getting a discounted price on their Premiere when they get a Roamio. (if the Premiere qualifies)


----------



## Cybernut (Oct 1, 2013)

Do go through this thread before plunking down a large amount on lifetime -> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=509228


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

dcorbin13 said:


> I'm contemplating an offer that will get my make my TiVo (a Premier) a "life time of the device" account. Since hard drives are the most likely point of failure, I'm contemplating what I should do (now) to ensure that I can recover from a hard drive failure (later, when it inevitably happens). I'm a competent hardware guy in general, and did a number of "upgrades" with my old Sony-T60 + DirectTv.
> 
> Thanks


Are they offering you the Product Lifetime Service for $99?

Under what circumstances?


----------



## dcorbin13 (Nov 21, 2011)

unitron said:


> Are they offering you the Product Lifetime Service for $99?
> 
> Under what circumstances?


Yes, they are. I've had my Tivo for 4 years, and I was going to cancel service (more due to comcast than Tivo).


----------



## dcorbin13 (Nov 21, 2011)

ThAbtO said:


> This only applies if you have a monthly Tivo subscription, since a lifetime Tivo subscription is for the life of the Tivo box and not its owner.
> 
> With a Tivo Premiere, when you want to expand its HD recording space or replace it, you would need to use JMFS or DVRBars software, which are free on this forum. If the drive fails, you would need to obtain an image and use the same software it was created from.
> Images from another Tivo can be used but recordings are lost because it needs to 'married' to the Tivo by running Clear & Delete Everything, or else it would not be able to record, or playback any recordings that are already on the drive.


I can live without the recordings. My current Tivo has an external drive. I'm just trying to figure out what I have to do NOW. Do I need to buy a drive and make my own image? Is it possible to store the image on a "PC" (like an .iso), or does it have to consume the entire hire drive (as it would when the drive is in the TiVo). I would assume tivo images are not (legally) downloadable from the Net.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Its been done on here and its a file you can download or make a backup from the original. However, the file size may be quite large. With a Series 3, they are about a few 100 megs in size. Premiere images are over 1 GB under DVRBars.


----------



## dcorbin13 (Nov 21, 2011)

ThAbtO said:


> Its been done on here and its a file you can download or make a backup from the original. However, the file size may be quite large. With a Series 3, they are about a few 100 megs in size. Premiere images are over 1 GB under DVRBars.


So, if I can download it, there's no action required to be taken now.


----------



## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

dcorbin13 said:


> I'm contemplating an offer that will get my make my TiVo (a Premier) a "life time of the device" account. Since hard drives are the most likely point of failure, I'm contemplating what I should do (now) to ensure that I can recover from a hard drive failure (later, when it inevitably happens). I'm a competent hardware guy in general, and did a number of "upgrades" with my old Sony-T60 + DirectTv.
> 
> Thanks


As indicated there is a way to backup your Premiere hard drive, you do understand that the lifetime service is tied to the TSN of the TiVo box, not the drive. In the worse case should the drive die all you would need to to do is re-image a new drive and you are good to go, short of course the recordings, best case you have the drive backed up and the recordings will be saved. The worse thing that can happen once you have lifetime tied to a particular TiVo is for the motherboard going bad as hard drives and power supplies can be replaced, even then in a few cases TiVo has allowed some to transfer the lifetime service to another TiVo but with a service charge to do so.


----------

