# Upgrading an Edge



## tommage1

I have a 2 tuner on the way. Was planning on upgrading it with a 14TB drive. However I did not check far enough into the process........... While the upgrade is easy enough with the Edge have to punch two holes through the label to remove the cover. Which could very easily void the warranty. Other models pretty easy to disassemble and put back together with original parts, with an Edge would end up with those two holes. Not sure if I'm going to keep the Edge or send it back, between original warranty (3 months no cost exchange, 9 months minimal fee) and the continual care (up to 5 years total with tiered exchange fees) giving ALL that up may not be wise? I'd say at minimum run it stock for the 3 month free exchange period, make sure it works fine, then maybe try upgrade?


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## tommiet

Use an external drive or watch more TV.... Sorry... I never could understand why folks _collect _TV shows and not watch them. 14tb, is about 1700-2000 hours of HD programming.

I did the same before VOD. Deleted a very large PLEX collection last year.

Be safe....


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## tommage1

tommiet said:


> Use an external drive or watch more TV.... Sorry... I never could understand why folks _collect _TV shows and not watch them. 14tb, is about 1700-2000 hours of HD programming.
> 
> I did the same before VOD. Deleted a very large PLEX collection last year.
> 
> Be safe....


Well I myself like to "collect" entire old series, many have hundreds of episodes and can take years to get them all. I usually record on two Tivos in case one fails. Though I monitor the age of the drives and would copy/replace if needed. I use all 3.5" CMR drives so could/should last 5 years or more, knock on wood. Since the future of Tivo as a company is in question I want to get as many of those series as possible, can still watch even if Tivo goes under. Yeah, I could just buy DVD/Bluray sets but not as much "fun" 

The Edge arrived. When first hooked up got "serious error screen of death". Came back pretty quick, then ran guided setup. It did an update, then ran guided setup again, seems ok. I will run for awhile to make sure it's working. If I do the upgrade may try to remove the sticker by heating the glue with a hairdryer, don't really want to lose up to 5 years of warranty/continual care by punching holes in it. I'm assuming the 500GB drive is CMR, I know the 2TB model uses an SMR drive but hoping small 500GB is CMR. I'd open the Edge to check model number, but I'd have to punch the holes........... Does anyone who upgraded the 2 tuner 500GB model know the model number of the 500GB drive?


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## tommiet

Why can't use you use an external drive? Also, kinda sux when an Edge has that small of a hard drive. An actual downgrade from a Bolt.

I also purchased some complete DVD series of shows that are my favs. So, I'm not 100% done collecting. Maybe I'm just a closet collector.....


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## tommage1

tommiet said:


> Why can't use you use an external drive? Also, kinda sux when an Edge has that small of a hard drive. An actual downgrade from a Bolt.
> 
> I also purchased some complete DVD series of shows that are my favs. So, I'm not 100% done collecting. Maybe I'm just a closet collector.....


I am/was going to use an external drive. But to do that you have to punch holes in the sticker. And could lose warranty. Unless you mean one of those Tivo brand expansion drives that hookup to the eSata port on the Tivo. That I would NEVER do, just adding another point of possible failure, if either drive fails you lose it all. One drive for me, CMR only, external or internal, internal would be very limited as very few CMR 2.5" drives.


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## Old Roamio 0

WD used to make external drives that could attach to a tivo. I think it is 1T that I have on my Roamio. Do they now? I thought e-sata (as defined by original manufacture) was gone from tivo. Weaknees sells upgrade hard drives, but replacement hdrive for the original sata port inside and a sata to external drive cable [i guess esata] to go out thru the unused cable card slot - according to their video I think on their site.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> WD used to make external drives that could attach to a tivo. I think it is 1T that I have on my Roamio. Do they now? I thought e-sata (as defined by original manufacture) was gone from tivo. Weaknees sells upgrade hard drives, but replacement hdrive for the original sata port inside and a sata to external drive cable [i guess esata] to go out thru the unused cable card slot - according to their video I think on their site.


Yeah, but never great to use two drives, if one fails you lose everything on both. The WDs are not longer manufactured and I think they were 1TB max. You can use eSata expansion drive with MFST but again two drives not recommended. Best thing to do is external, Sata to Sata (no Esata involved, either off the Tivo or a port on the enclosure), CMR drive, 5400RPM. Weakness upgrade will work of course, with their enclosure and their drive. But very easy to do yourself, heck with theirs you have to do most of the work anyway.


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## Old Roamio 0

tommage1 said:


> Yeah, but never great to use two drives, if one fails you lose everything on both. The WDs are not longer manufactured and I think they were 1TB max. You can use eSata expansion drive with MFST but again two drives not recommended. Best thing to do is external, Sata to Sata (no Esata involved, either off the Tivo or a port on the enclosure), CMR drive, 5400RPM. ...


Thanks. I plan to try to upgrade my new tivo Edge (antenna type). Edge I fear might be the end of the line for dvrs. Maybe Xperi the new owners of Tivo, since it has been almost 6ms in, will make more and newer models. But I somehow think for now ota receivers are not their thing.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> Thanks. I plan to try to upgrade my new tivo Edge (antenna type). Edge I fear might be the end of the line for dvrs. Maybe Xperi the new owners of Tivo since it has been almost 6ms in will make more and newer models. But I somehow think for now ota receivers are not their thing.


I think you are right. I doubt there can even be a replacement for the cable card Edge. They could make an ASTC 3.0 OTA DVR but doubt the market is big enough. So enjoy while you can, the antenna version should be good for at least 5 more years, IF Tivo continues to support the guide and does not go out of business completely.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> Thanks. I plan to try to upgrade my new tivo Edge (antenna type). Edge I fear might be the end of the line for dvrs. Maybe Xperi the new owners of Tivo, since it has been almost 6ms in, will make more and newer models. But I somehow think for now ota receivers are not their thing.


Oh, do consider, to upgrade an Edge you have to punch holes in the sticker. Which COULD void the warranty. I myself will wait awhile before doing an upgrade, at least a few months (90 day no cost replacement). And if/when I do the upgrade I will attempt to use a hairdryer to remove the sticker without punching holes in it, I use hairdryers to remove stickers all the time, it softens the glue and makes it easy to peel off. The Tivo sticker is pretty big though.


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## shwru980r

tommage1 said:


> Oh, do consider, to upgrade an Edge you have to punch holes in the sticker. Which COULD void the warranty. I myself will wait awhile before doing an upgrade, at least a few months (90 day no cost replacement). And if/when I do the upgrade I will attempt to use a hairdryer to remove the sticker without punching holes in it, I use hairdryers to remove stickers all the time, it softens the glue and makes it easy to peel off. The Tivo sticker is pretty big though.


Take a picture of the sticker, print it out on a label and make sure it's the same size as the original. If you ever have to return the edge you can remove the old sticker and replace it with your printed version.


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## tommage1

shwru980r said:


> Take a picture of the sticker, print it out on a label and make sure it's the same size as the original. If you ever have to return the edge you can remove the old sticker and replace it with your printed version.


Interesting thought. I've never tried anything like that. Probably need a high res picture or scan and maybe a photo printer. I'll bet a print shop could do it if I can't. For sure will take a picture or make a scan before I try "peeling" it off


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## David Tillman

tommiet said:


> Use an external drive or watch more TV.... Sorry... I never could understand why folks _collect _TV shows and not watch them. 14tb, is about 1700-2000 hours of HD programming.
> 
> I did the same before VOD. Deleted a very large PLEX collection last year.
> 
> Be safe....


To explain why some of us collect shows as you put it Our cable provider (SPECTRUM) only supplies monodirectional cable cards therefore you must rent one of their DVRs that has the bidirectional capability to have access to VOD. Storage is essentially cheap for thousands of hours of high quality video


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## shwru980r

tommage1 said:


> Interesting thought. I've never tried anything like that. Probably need a high res picture or scan and maybe a photo printer. I'll bet a print shop could do it if I can't. For sure will take a picture or make a scan before I try "peeling" it off


I think a smart phone and a home printer could do the job. No different than printing a shipping label from your home printer.


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## Old Roamio 0

There is a difference experimenting with a $290 tivo vs doing the same with a formerly very very expensive Tivo unit with the added lifetime fee. Anyway, ... The fine print says the warranty is void from opening the case. It may be moot (maybe not - I don't know) wheather they recognize the label is damaged or not. It's seems to be the opening the tivo up- which you have to do if unhappy with just 500 gb.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> There is a difference experimenting with a $290 tivo vs doing the same with a formerly very very expensive Tivo unit with the added lifetime fee. Anyway, ... The fine print says the warranty is void from opening the case. It may be moot (maybe not - I don't know) wheather they recognize the label is damaged or not. It's seems to be the opening the tivo up- which you have to do if unhappy with just 500 gb.


That is true, technically opening ANY Tivo can/would void the warranty. Even Weaknees confirms that. Other models you can open, swap drives around, then if something goes wrong you can put back the original parts and no one could tell. The Edge you have to punch those two holes in the sticker. So Tivo could void the warranty. Definitely taking a chance, mine was a special, $289, not a HUGE investment. But some probably paid 600 up to $1000 for cable Edge with lifetime, would be a bit scary since things can go wrong that are NOT user fixable (HDMI port, ethernet port, tuners, flash drive, heck anything on the motherboard).


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## gabrielstern

I won't buy an edge dvr and I will not buy a bolt vox anything that the software can not be downgraded from hydra back to the classic platform, so I bought a used bolt plus from Amazon and added the lifetime subscription to it instead then affixed an 8tb red drive on top not sure if that can be done with an edge though I know the stock laptop 2.5 drives with the bolts are notorious for failing as is probably the case with edge dvrs and with red drives anything over 6tb drives do not use as they were mislabeled I recomend using the western digital purple desktop sized drives and see if with the edge you can affix it on top of the edge I know with bolts it works, as do to the dimensions and the small fan in them and the bolts it gets hot inside due to the smaller exhaust fan, unlike the older tivos, I get no longer using a metal case and going with plastic instead and reducing the size length wise but they should have kept the same height size and the use of the bigger exhaust fan in the back and using desktop size drives as tivo treats all hard drives like a 5400 rpm drive, anything above that generates a lot of heat and noise.


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## tommage1

gabrielstern said:


> I will not buy a bolt vox anything that the software can not be downgraded from hydra back to the classic platform,


Bolt Vox can be rolled back to TE3/Classic. Except the OTA only model. Not sure what you mean about not using Red drives OVER 6TB. 8TB and up are fine, it's the 2-6TB EFAX models that are SMR and not recommended for Tivos. Purples are good 

7200RPM should not matter if using in an external enclosure. The possible extra heat would not matter since not inside the Tivo (and can use enclosure with a fan as I do.) MIGHT be a bit noisier.................


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## tommage1

shwru980r said:


> I think a smart phone and a home printer could do the job. No different than printing a shipping label from your home printer.


Could be. Other than shipping labels are mostly white (so no ink/printing of the background) with black printing. The Edge label is gray background with white lettering. So the entire background would use ink and need to match color exactly since being used as an original. For sure I will try before doing any peeling though


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## tommiet

David Tillman said:


> To explain why some of us collect shows as you put it Our cable provider (SPECTRUM) only supplies monodirectional cable cards therefore you must rent one of their DVRs that has the bidirectional capability to have access to VOD. Storage is essentially cheap for thousands of hours of high quality video


I have Spectrum and use my smart TV for VOD. I actually use the Spectrum app on my smart TV. OR save the hard drive $$ and spend $30.00 or less for a streaming device and watch VOD.

Also ZERO chance of losing your collection using VOD. Hard drive storage is living on the edge for long term savings.

Be safe.


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## johnbrown44

tommage1 said:


> Could be. Other than shipping labels are mostly white (so no ink/printing of the background) with black printing. The Edge label is gray background with white lettering. So the entire background would use ink and need to match color exactly since being used as an original. For sure I will try before doing any peeling though
> 
> View attachment 55591


I don't think a homemade sticker would fool any but the most casual of observers. For sure post if you have success, but most of these security stickers are pretty thin. Some discolor if heated. Worth a try for sure.


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## tommage1

johnbrown44 said:


> I don't think a homemade sticker would fool any but the most casual of observers. For sure post if you have success, but most of these security stickers are pretty thin. Some discolor if heated. Worth a try for sure.


Yeah, I can try it myself (the copy). see how it works. If not good could ask someone at a print shop if they can do it. As for the heating, I would probably test on my Bolt sticker first, it is already out of warranty. Or there are some citrus based "cleaners" (industrial version of De-Solv-It for one, the consumer version has some soap, industrial does not) I've used to remove stickers before. NOT the petro based ones, those will destroy the sticker (well at least fade it).

And actually though I am anxious to test the upgrade on the Edge I think I will just use the 500GB drive for awhile. For sure the 30 day return period. Probably the 90 day free replacement period. Maybe longer, til the 500 gets full or the 12 month $50 replacement period.


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## Old Roamio 0

I tried but was unsuccessful with a simple swap. I hoped to upgrade by just switching out the 500 GB Seagate 2.5 drive it came with, with a 2 TB WD 2.5 drive. It did not work. It just stayed on starting up with a blinking green light. I put the old one back in and at first it did not work anymore either. Starting up for a day. Later I figured out how to make it work again, lucky. (I took the drive out then plugged it the tivo in. Lights blinked a few min. Then unplugged it, and put the drive back in. - It worked then - re original drive.)


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## Old Roamio 0

Tivo's are tricky. I'm afraid to take the drive back out again to try again, might not work after.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> Tivo's are tricky. I'm afraid to take the drive back out again to try again, might not work after.


Bolts and Edge are VERY tricky, do NOT want to swap drives around once up and running. For those who like to fiddle around with drives (like me), best to stick with Roamios. If you are putting in a new drive and not using a MFST copy or copy/expand best to zero out the drive first.


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## Sixto

I went with external enclosures and WD30PURZ Purple drives for both new Edge's. The Purple drives should last a long time, but if any issue I'll just swap out in the enclosure, should take 5 minutes. Hopefully though these Purple drives will last forever. I also just swapped out a 7+ year old AV-GP drive in the Roamio that was fine, but figured would start with all new Purple drives in the 3 DVR's for the next 5+ years hopefully.


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## tommage1

Sixto said:


> I went with external enclosures and WD30PURZ Purple drives for both new Edge's. The Purple drives should last a long time, but if any issue I'll just swap out in the enclosure, should take 5 minutes. Hopefully though these Purple drives will last forever. I also just swapped out a 7+ year old AV-GP drive in the Roamio that was fine, but figured would start with all new Purple drives in the 3 DVR's for the next 5+ years hopefully.


The purples could outlast Tivo as a company


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## Sixto

tommage1 said:


> The purples could outlast Tivo as a company


I believe that.


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## shwru980r

Old Roamio 0 said:


> I tried but was unsuccessful with a simple swap. I hoped to upgrade by just switching out the 500 GB Seagate 2.5 drive it came with, with a 2 TB WD 2.5 drive. It did not work. It just stayed on starting up with a blinking green light. I put the old one back in and at first it did not work anymore either. Starting up for a day. Later I figured out how to make it work again, lucky. (I took the drive out then plugged it the tivo in. Lights blinked a few min. Then unplugged it, and put the drive back in. - It worked then - re original drive.)


I think it's best to hook a new drive up to a PC and use the free CrystalDiskInfo utility to check the health of the drive and then use the windows disk management utility to delete all partitions before trying to use it in a Tivo.


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## Old Roamio 0

shwru980r said:


> I think it's best to hook a new drive up to a PC and use the free CrystalDiskInfo utility to check the health of the drive and then use the windows disk management utility to delete all partitions before trying to use it in a Tivo.


Thank you. I will look up Crystaldiskinfo and try it. I really wanted the Tivo to be more than 500 GB. Thanks.


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## Sixto

I've been using DriveDx, great tool!


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## Rick Keifer

Old Roamio 0 said:


> I tried but was unsuccessful with a simple swap. I hoped to upgrade by just switching out the 500 GB Seagate 2.5 drive it came with, with a 2 TB WD 2.5 drive. It did not work. It just stayed on starting up with a blinking green light. I put the old one back in and at first it did not work anymore either. Starting up for a day. Later I figured out how to make it work again, lucky. (I took the drive out then plugged it the tivo in. Lights blinked a few min. Then unplugged it, and put the drive back in. - It worked then - re original drive.)


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## Rick Keifer

Did you ever get to the bottom of this. I am having the same issue. The old drive shows the 3 blinking lights (bad hard drive) when i replace with a SSD 2tb 2.5 drive it just sits on the starting up screen. Do we need to format the new drive in a particular way? Anyone?


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## tommage1

Rick Keifer said:


> Did you ever get to the bottom of this. I am having the same issue. The old drive shows the 3 blinking lights (bad hard drive) when i replace with a SSD 2tb 2.5 drive it just sits on the starting up screen. Do we need to format the new drive in a particular way? Anyone?


I assume you are talking about an Edge since this is an Edge thread. Edge is TE4 only, cannot use SSDs.


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## Old Roamio 0

After I get a new drive, clone it ... I plan to then increase the partition. thanks.


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> After I get a new drive, clone it ... I plan to then increase the partition. thanks.


If you are want to stick with a 2.5" drive, try this one. Samsung/Seagate 2TB CMR drive, three 667GB platters so only 9.5mm thick, will fit in Edge. Need to find new, might have to be patient, would not pay more than $60-80 myself. Most of the larger capacity 2.5" CMR drives are 15mm, fine for Bolt, really tight squeeze for Edge.

HN-M201RAD / ST2000LM003 2TB


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## Old Roamio 0

tommage1 said:


> If you are want to stick with a 2.5" drive, try this one. Samsung/Seagate 2TB CMR drive, three 667GB platters so only 9.5mm thick, will fit in Edge. ......
> 
> HN-M201RAD / ST2000LM003 2TB


Thanks!


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## Old Roamio 0

The first one I tried - the WD 2.5" drive (2Tb) - it actually did fit into the Tivo Edge's sata port and the surrounding metal enclosure. I could then put the metal lid, and then the outside case back on - it just didn't work. I'm going to order the Seagate - maybe it recognizes that brand better?


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> The first one I tried - the WD 2.5" drive (2Tb) - it actually did fit into the Tivo Edge's sata port and the surrounding metal enclosure. I could then put the metal lid, and then the outside case back on - it just didn't work. I'm going to order the Seagate - maybe it recognizes that brand better?


Was the WD a CMR drive? If not that would explain why it did not work. I think these are the ONLY 2TB 2.5" WD drives that are CMR. Not sure how thick they are. SMR drives usually smaller (less thick) as they use SMR platters which hold more info, ie less platters needed.

WD20NPVX Green
WD20NPVZ Blue
WD20NPVT Green


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## tommage1

Old Roamio 0 said:


> The first one I tried - the WD 2.5" drive (2Tb) - it actually did fit into the Tivo Edge's sata port and the surrounding metal enclosure. I could then put the metal lid, and then the outside case back on - it just didn't work. I'm going to order the Seagate - maybe it recognizes that brand better?


Oh, it's not brand usually, it's CMR vs SMR. And the majority of 2.5" drives over 1TB are SMR. ALL current models.


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## multiple

FYI, when I upgraded my Edge and I noticed I would likely have to puncture the label to unscrew it. So, I thought I would take a chance and peel the sticker off. It was actually fairly easy to remove and did not tear nor leave any sticker bits behind to indicate it had been tampered.


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## Old Roamio 0

WD Blue. the WD20SPZX - It didn't work. It was HN-M201RAD / ST2000LM003 2TB


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## multiple

The WD20SPZX is one of the drives that does not work under TE4 SW.

List of drives that work and don't work on TE4 (not exhaustive): List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt


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## Old Roamio 0

multiple said:


> The WD20SPZX is one of the drives that does not work under TE4 SW.
> 
> List of drives that work and don't work on TE4 (not exhaustive): List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt


Thank you very much.


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## johnbrown44

multiple said:


> FYI, when I upgraded my Edge and I noticed I would likely have to puncture the label to unscrew it. So, I thought I would take a chance and peel the sticker off. It was actually fairly easy to remove and did not tear nor leave any sticker bits behind to indicate it had been tampered.


Would you mind expounding on how you peeled the sticker off? I.E. did you use heat, what did you use to start peeling? Thx.


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## mcmnky

johnbrown44 said:


> Would you mind expounding on how you peeled the sticker off? I.E. did you use heat, what did you use to start peeling? Thx.


I was able to peel back the label on my Edge without putting a hole in the label. No heat or special tools. I was able to lift the corner with a fingernail and slowly peel back to expose the screw. Repeat with the other corner for the other screw. Smooth the label back into place when I was done. The adhesive was pretty gummy and stuck.


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## andydigirolamo

Can anyone tell me what enclosure should I use!!!


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## gabrielstern

andydigirolamo said:


> Can anyone tell me what enclosure should I use!!!


Sorry guys I don't own any edge tivos and never will thanks to te4 tested on my bolts and my romio for 2 years.

And at first te4 worked okay but then was way to hard on the processor with all the updates. As well as the hard drives.

And te4 or hydra fried out my power sata port on my 500 gig bolt but I got it reverted and running but had to power the hard drive via a USB adapter kit. All my other tivos have been reverted also.

As for drives that can be used especially with te4 it must be a 5400 rpm drive and 3 tb and under. Unless mffs reformator will work on edge dvrs. Or mffs tools 3.2 will work.

Also backing up and transferring your recordings back from a computer you can't do with an edge dvr or any Tivo running te4 so unless you also have another tivo running te3 like a romio or bolt your out of luck with that. If you do have a device running te3 you can initiate using tivo online but your chances of it actaully transferring it reliably and completely or 50 percent vs transfering the good old fashioned transfer a recording directly that you can still utilize in a tivo running te3.

Now for the drives that work with te4.

That would be the western digital red plus 5400 rpm drives.

Or purple drives of 3tbs and under. But theu are desktop size drives and you will need to mount them on top and affix a 120 m case fan on top configured as an intake and power that externally. To keep the hard drive cool.

Also the Seagate barracuda drives may work.

I know they work with te3 but not sure about te4.

The barracuda drives work similar to how the western digital green drives worked which is what were in tivos up until the tivo bolts.

Came out but those drives were discontinued in 2017.

Good luck I hope this helps

Just be prepared to do drive upgrades and

And maintenance every 3 to 5 years.

Also please if you are an edge owner please also if you don't own one already please purchase a bolt dvr and downgrade it to te3.

Or purchase a romio dvr. And make sure it is running te3

You will be glad you did if you run into issues with an edge dvr and hydra later on.


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## pl1

andydigirolamo said:


> Can anyone tell me what enclosure should I use!!!


Something like this will work: Sabrent USB 2.0/ESATA TO 3.5 Inch IDE or SATA/SATA II Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure Case with Cooling Fan (EC-UEIS7). What you are looking for is an enclosure that can accommodate an SATA power cord (not something that slides in to the case), so it has to be an IDE plug with and IDE to SATA adapter. Since these are nearly impossible to find, you have a couple of other choices. You could buy a kit from Weaknees. Or, you could buy an external power supply and connect it to the bare drive. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-Drive-Adapter-Converter-External/dp/B00BIE996S/ref=sr_1_4?crid=33S7KHW4GK5X4&keywords=external+sata+power+drive&qid=1640569812&s=electronics&sprefix=exteernal+sata+power+drive,electronics,65&sr=1-4


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## ClearToLand

gabrielstern said:


> ...As for *drives that can be used especially with te4 it must be a 5400 rpm drive and 3 tb and under*...


@jmbach may disagree with you on this... 


gabrielstern said:


> ...Unless *mffs reformator* will work on edge dvrs. Or *mffs tools 3.2* will work...


You've been politely asked SEVERAL TIMES, by more than one person, to please SPELL THE NAMES OF THE TOOLS CORRECTLY so that newbies attempting to learn who SEARCH for them will actually be able to find them...


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## gabrielstern

ClearToLand said:


> @jmbach may disagree with you on this...
> You've been politely asked SEVERAL TIMES, by more than one person, to please SPELL THE NAMES OF THE TOOLS CORRECTLY so that newbies attempting to learn who SEARCH for them will actually be able to find them...


I will work on that it is hard from my phone to copy the link directly utilizing the copy and paste the link method. on my computer I can.

Will tap and talk solve that issue.

So I can copy and paste the direct link.

The Vantec ide / sata to usb 3.0 kit is what I used. For both of my bolts. The downstairs one to power a 120m×25m case fan affixed in top of my hard drive to keep it cool.

And one to power another case fan affixed on top of a 7200 rpm drive on top of my romio right now to keep that drive cool.

As I can't mount it internally and have it stay cool even in my romio.

and 2 more of the kits I mentioned above with one to power the drive on my upstairs bolt..

after hydra fried out the internal power sata port..

something else edge owners have complained about in other forums when you try and remove a hard drive. From a device running hydra.

so for those people that is also an issue with some bolts.

that were upgraded to hydra but then give issues when changing hard drives.

and give a hard time when trying to downgrade.

So what I mentioned above is the fix. If you encounter that issue.

and one final Vantec usb kit to power the case fan affixed on top of my bolt.

Enclosures are not needed I used velcro to affix my drives externally.

I have briefly tested on my series 4 a Seagate barracuda and a Seagate iron wolf.

On my romio I will be testing very soon a Seagate barracuda 8tb drive since that is the only drive I can find in that size that is a 5400 rpm drive.

The 8tb red plus drives are 7200 rpm drives and the same with the purple drives now.

When I tested both of those drives they were hot to the touch.

Necessating a case fan. Affixed on top.

The barracuda and iron wolf in the 6tb and under stayed cool to the touch.

As jmbach and ggiesake have stated several times tivos don't like 7200 rpm drives.

And they generate a lot of heat when powered inside a tivo.

Because the tivos will treat them like a 5400 rpm drove.

Also both have stated several times not to run a tivo off of a solid state drive.

Sometimes when something becomes limited you have to try other drives and types to see if they will work.

Then the next question becomes will a tivo edge and bolt running te4 accept a barracuda or iron wolf 5400 rpm drive.

Also Seagate has barracuda drives in laptop sizes.

But not sure if the laptop size drives have the same issue that the wd blue laptop drives had that were an issue with the bolts.

That's why it's not on the approved list of drives anymore.

As the wd blue laptop drives were noterios for failing within a couple of years when installed in the bolts.

Hope this helps


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## gabrielstern

gabrielstern said:


> I will work on that it is hard from my phone to copy the link directly utilizing the copy and paste the link method. on my computer I can.
> 
> Will tap and talk solve that issue.
> 
> So I can copy and paste the direct link.
> 
> The Vantec ide / sata to usb 3.0 kit is what I used. For both of my bolts. The downstairs one to power a 120m×25m case fan affixed in top of my hard drive to keep it cool.
> 
> And one to power another case fan affixed on top of a 7200 rpm drive on top of my romio right now to keep that drive cool.
> 
> As I can't mount it internally and have it stay cool even in my romio.
> 
> and 2 more of the kits I mentioned above with one to power the drive on my upstairs bolt..
> 
> after hydra fried out the internal power sata port..
> 
> something else edge owners have complained about in other forums when you try and remove a hard drive. From a device running hydra.
> 
> so for those people that is also an issue with some bolts.
> 
> that were upgraded to hydra but then give issues when changing hard drives.
> 
> and give a hard time when trying to downgrade.
> 
> So what I mentioned above is the fix. If you encounter that issue.
> 
> and one final Vantec usb kit to power the case fan affixed on top of my bolt.
> 
> Enclosures are not needed I used velcro to affix my drives externally.
> 
> I have briefly tested on my series 4 a Seagate barracuda and a Seagate iron wolf.
> 
> On my romio I will be testing very soon a Seagate barracuda 8tb drive since that is the only drive I can find in that size that is a 5400 rpm drive.
> 
> The 8tb red plus drives are 7200 rpm drives and the same with the purple drives now.
> 
> When I tested both of those drives they were hot to the touch.
> 
> Necessating a case fan. Affixed on top.
> 
> The barracuda and iron wolf in the 6tb and under stayed cool to the touch.
> 
> As jmbach and ggiesake have stated several times tivos don't like 7200 rpm drives.
> 
> And they generate a lot of heat when powered inside a tivo.
> 
> Because the tivos will treat them like a 5400 rpm drove.
> 
> Also both have stated several times not to run a tivo off of a solid state drive.
> 
> Sometimes when something becomes limited you have to try other drives and types to see if they will work.
> 
> Then the next question becomes will a tivo edge and bolt running te4 accept a barracuda or iron wolf 5400 rpm drive.
> 
> Also Seagate has barracuda drives in laptop sizes.
> 
> But not sure if the laptop size drives have the same issue that the wd blue laptop drives had that were an issue with the bolts.
> 
> That's why it's not on the approved list of drives anymore.
> 
> As the wd blue laptop drives were noterios for failing within a couple of years when installed in the bolts.
> 
> Hope this helps


I have posted a fix on the drives that don't work anymore with hydra and edge forum referenced in a post above. That includes the direct link in that post As the main reason in most cases is not the drives themselves including the barracuda drives I mentioned.

But hydra itself

As I see that jmbach had the same issue with his bolt plus that I had with my 500 gig bolt. Back in January. I think he was working on a downgrade.

Which I was working on back to te3. Back in january

The issue is not the drives themselves but tivo disabling the drive check for hydra.

And the internal power sata ports getting fried out when ever you try and change the hard drive from a stock drive

Jmbach had a partial fix and was working on it.

I did not encounter this on my bolt plus when I downgraded it.

Or with my romio when I downgraded it.

But basically I think tivo did this on purpose with hydra because they did want people using anything but the stock drives the problem is with that, is if the stock hard drive starts to fail.

Then it becomes an issue replacing the hard drive.

But basically the fix is powering the drive externally with the usb kit I mentioned above. Instead of through the internal power sata ports. And affixing a case fan on top of a desktop size drive and powering the case fan as well to keep the hard drive cool and solve a tivo is overheating error that then occurs often at a software update and restart.

Please see my post for a full explanation. On the forum I referenced.

Since I can't copy and paste this forum link directly into this reply from my phone.

Which is why it is not always exact in my posts.

Any way please read my reply in that post as it may also work with edge tivo dvrs as well.

And I hope jmbach reads it and can test to see if it will work with laptop drives mounted internally in the bolts and edge tivos without getting the overheat error.


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## tommage1

gabrielstern said:


> I have posted a fix on the drives that don't work anymore with hydra and edge forum referenced in a post above. That includes the direct link in that post As the main reason in most cases is not the drives themselves including the barracuda drives I mentioned.
> 
> But hydra itself
> 
> As I see that jmbach had the same issue with his bolt plus that I had with my 500 gig bolt. Back in January. I think he was working on a downgrade.
> 
> Which I was working on back to te3. Back in january
> 
> The issue is not the drives themselves but tivo disabling the drive check for hydra.
> 
> And the internal power sata ports getting fried out when ever you try and change the hard drive from a stock drive
> 
> Jmbach had a partial fix and was working on it.
> 
> I did not encounter this on my bolt plus when I downgraded it.
> 
> Or with my romio when I downgraded it.
> 
> But basically I think tivo did this on purpose with hydra because they did want people using anything but the stock drives the problem is with that, is if the stock hard drive starts to fail.
> 
> Then it becomes an issue replacing the hard drive.
> 
> But basically the fix is powering the drive externally with the usb kit I mentioned above. Instead of through the internal power sata ports. And affixing a case fan on top of a desktop size drive and powering the case fan as well to keep the hard drive cool and solve a tivo is overheating error that then occurs often at a software update and restart.
> 
> Please see my post for a full explanation. On the forum I referenced.
> 
> Since I can't copy and paste this forum link directly into this reply from my phone.
> 
> Which is why it is not always exact in my posts.
> 
> Any way please read my reply in that post as it may also work with edge tivo dvrs as well.
> 
> And I hope jmbach reads it and can test to see if it will work with laptop drives mounted internally in the bolts and edge tivos without getting the overheat error.


It seems to me you are focusing on 7200RPM drives. Yes, might not be good internally for a Bolt in particular since it runs hot, maybe an Edge. 2.5" drives, small spaces. But for a Roamio or earlier, especially the Pro or Plus, I don't think 7200 matters, other than a bit noisier. In an external enclosure or "loose" should not matter at all. Most pre-assembled retail externals don't have a fan, even 7200. But you can add one if you like. What you need to focus on is CMR vs SMR. 2.5", 3.5", internal/external, 5400/7200, TE3/TE4, Tivos don't like SMR, especially TE4. Even the SMRs that "work" (which is very few on TE4), will most likely not last very long due to the constant reading/writing in a Tivo. Heck, even a CMR 2.5" will usually not last more than 3 years in a Tivo. Just use a CMR drive, preferably a 3.5, if a Bolt or Edge will have to go external, enclosure or loose with separate power. Would not worry about 7200 for sure if external, would definitely worry about SMR if you want something that will last in a 24/7 AV device.


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## tommage1

tommage1 said:


> It seems to me you are focusing on 7200RPM drives. Yes, might not be good internally for a Bolt in particular since it runs hot, maybe an Edge. 2.5" drives, small spaces. But for a Roamio or earlier, especially the Pro or Plus, I don't think 7200 matters, other than a bit noisier. In an external enclosure or "loose" should not matter at all. Most pre-assembled retail externals don't have a fan, even 7200. But you can add one if you like. What you need to focus on is CMR vs SMR. 2.5", 3.5", internal/external, 5400/7200, TE3/TE4, Tivos don't like SMR, especially TE4. Even the SMRs that "work" (which is very few on TE4), will most likely not last very long due to the constant reading/writing in a Tivo. Heck, even a CMR 2.5" will usually not last more than 3 years in a Tivo. Just use a CMR drive, preferably a 3.5, if a Bolt or Edge will have to go external, enclosure or loose with separate power. Would not worry about 7200 for sure if external, would definitely worry about SMR if you want something that will last in a 24/7 AV device.


Oh FYI, the Iron Wolf you mention is CMR and will be fine. Current model Barracuda (except for the Pro), are SMR which is NOT fine. For sure I would prefer a 7200 CMR drive to a 5400 SMR drive, especially if external.


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## gabrielstern

tommage1 said:


> Oh FYI, the Iron Wolf you mention is CMR and will be fine. Current model Barracuda (except for the Pro), are SMR which is NOT fine. For sure I would prefer a 7200 CMR drive to a 5400 SMR drive, especially if external.


Thanks please see my post for the workaround and explanation in this forum
List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt

I know jmbach was working on a fix.

Also the issue is with the ports frying out as jmbach was explaining.

I encountered this issue in January and fixed it

But from.my testing you need a case fan.

Mounted on top of a desktop drive.

The barracuda drives in desktop size work fine for a series 4 and romio. Running te3

I will be testing an 8tb one as that is the only 8tb drive made that runs at 5400 rpms.

It's the iron wolf pro drives that use the newer technology but the 8tb non pro iron wolf drives are 7200 rpm just like the purple and red plus drives.

I tested a 6tb iron wolf non pro drive on.my series 4 and it worked just like the old red drives did.

The issue is a hydra issue.

As when I went to downgrade my bolt my old red and green 3tb western digital drives would not power on.

Please see my explanation and fix and issues in my post from the forum I posted the link to above.

This may work for edge dvrs as well.

I am curious if also if mffstools3.2 will work with copying and expanding from stock hard drives for edge dvrs and prevent the dreaded hydra issue with the internal power sata ports.

I hope jmbach can answer that question.


----------



## gabrielstern

tommage1 said:


> Was the WD a CMR drive? If not that would explain why it did not work. I think these are the ONLY 2TB 2.5" WD drives that are CMR. Not sure how thick they are. SMR drives usually smaller (less thick) as they use SMR platters which hold more info, ie less platters needed.
> 
> WD20NPVX Green
> WD20NPVZ Blue
> WD20NPVT Green


They are all 3.5 drives the green is no longer made.

The blue has a laptop size drive available that came stock with the bolts but are noterios for failing.

In the bolts.

The only feasible size if you want to find a 500 or 1tb or 3tb in laptop sizes I could find is the Seagate barracuda drives.

In desktop sizes they seem to go up to 8tb sizes and still run at 5400 rpms in that size.

For bolts and edge dvrs in the 3.5 size it would require it to mounted externally with a case fan to keep it cool. And most likely if running hydra to power the drive through a USB adapter vs powering it from the internal power sata connector.

And with a laptop size barracuda might require powering it the same way but mounted internally.

But not sure if it would get the same overheat error screen everytime it restarts.

Which is why the desktop size requires a case fan mounted on top. To keep hard drive cool.


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