# Swap Drives between Tivos



## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

I have a Series 2 1400060 and a Series 2 2400080. Neither are working due to, I believe, bad hard drives. I see various Tivos for sale on Craigslist, for instance, a Series 2 TCD649080 for $30. Can I take the drive out of the TCD649080 and put it into one of my Tivos? Is there a way to know what will be compatible with my Tivos?


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

curtswanson said:


> I have a Series 2 1400060 and a Series 2 2400080. Neither are working due to, I believe, bad hard drives. I see various Tivos for sale on Craigslist, for instance, a Series 2 TCD649080 for $30. Can I take the drive out of the TCD649080 and put it into one of my Tivos? Is there a way to know what will be compatible with my Tivos?


Didn't you already post this elsewhere? I answered it in your other post but the bottom line is that only certain Tivos have compatible SW and the TCD649 will not plug and play in your older boxes. Good news is that all you need is a new drive and you can get free imaging SW and free images for your boxes. That and a cheap USB to IDE/SATA cable and you can do it yourself.


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## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

I did post it elsewhere but, from your response, I thought you thought I wanted to swap a drive from one of my own Tivos to the other. That is not the case. Both of mine are bad. You suggested I check out this forum so I posted again, trying to be clearer and more specific. I apologize for any breach of etiquette.

I appreciate your response. I have done some reading on the topic of creating my own. I have ATA drives, 160 GB and 200 GB I could use. I am sure I need to delve further but I keep running into snags (real or perceived). 

In reading about the imaging software, it appears they assume you have a working drive to copy. I do not. I see you say there are free images around. I believe that but I've yet to find one. Perhaps you could point me in the right direction.

I also have a laptop rather than a desktop. That appears to be limiting for some software. I see WinMFS might work but it doesn't say it works with Windows 7. Also, it says to use a USB to ATA adapter cable. Will it not work with a drive attached by USB hard drive enclosure? The software I have checked out (and its documentation) appears to be somewhat aged. Are there some that work with laptops and drives in enclosures? 

I apologize for my noobness and I appreciate any help getting started. My thought about buying a cheap Tivo and using its drive was an attempt to take the easy (but still cheap) route.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

The Tivos needs to be the same models to swap drives, then you need to run Clear & Delete Everything. However, you cannot use a TCD649, this is a dual tuner model.


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

curtswanson said:


> I did post it elsewhere but, from your response, I thought you thought I wanted to swap a drive from one of my own Tivos to the other. That is not the case. Both of mine are bad. You suggested I check out this forum so I posted again, trying to be clearer and more specific. I apologize for any breach of etiquette.
> 
> I appreciate your response. I have done some reading on the topic of creating my own. I have ATA drives, 160 GB and 200 GB I could use. I am sure I need to delve further but I keep running into snags (real or perceived).
> 
> ...


You misread my response to your other post. You do not need a working drive to image a new drive unless you have a Premiere or later box. I use WinMFS and a USB to IDE/SATA cable and have imaged S1, S2 (240 and 540), S2DT, and S3HD boxes with no problems. I will PM you a link to a WinMFS 240 image that came from a 40GB drive. That means that you need a 40GB or larger drive to put it on. If you want to use a SATA drive in your S2 boxes then you will need an IDE to SATA adapter that TIvos like. I use the one from WoW parts: http://www.wowparts.com/pata-to-sata-adapter-converter-for-2-5-3-5-hdd-dvd/

Check the sticky at the top of this forum for other adapter/drive options.


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## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

Terrific. Thanks a lot. I'll be back, hopefully with a success story but, more likely, with questions first. Thanks again!


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## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

I took the second drive out of my 140 model and used WinMFS to load an image onto it. I intend to put it into my single drive 240 model. Do I need to be concerned about the jumper settings?

The drive was set as slave in the other Tivo. It has no label or any markings to indicate its manufacturer.


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## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

I just used WinMFS' info capability on the drive and it identified it as Maxtor 4.


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

curtswanson said:


> I took the second drive out of my 140 model and used WinMFS to load an image onto it. I intend to put it into my single drive 240 model. Do I need to be concerned about the jumper settings?
> 
> The drive was set as slave in the other Tivo. It has no label or any markings to indicate its manufacturer.


Probably need to set it as Master for a single drive system.


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## curtswanson (Jan 1, 2006)

A funny thing happened. I plugged my newly re-imaged drive into my Series 2 240 model and the drive did not spin up. As far as I could tell, only the fan worked. It occurred to me that my 250 GB drive from Weaknees, that was in that Tivo when it died, that I assumed was the problem, was actually still good. I ran WinMFS on the drive and it seemed just fine.

I plugged that into my 140 model and it worked. I had to delete and replace everything but it is working.

Now I have to solve my WPA2 wireless problem but that is a different post.

Thanks to all that helped, especially lillevig.


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