# Swapping Tivo Hard Drives



## rwclax (Aug 26, 2007)

I have 2 single tuner Tivo's. One on lifetime service. The other I receive the multi-service discount. I had the following problem on my lifetime unit: I kept getting the Welcome Powering up screen, then the Almost there screen...then the GSOD would show up for about 1 minute before it would reboot and start all over again. Once I unplugged the unit it became stuck on the Welcome Powering screen. From what I have read it appears I may have a bad hard drive. My question is can I take the hard drive from the other unit and put it in the lifetime unit? The reason I am considering this is I was just about to purchase a Tivo HD machine and I was going to cancel the service for the Tivo I pay a monthly fee for and use the Tivo with lifetime service on our 2nd regular TV. Then I would be able to get the multi-service discount on the new Tivo HD box. Hope this makes sense.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

You should be able to swap hard drives, assuming it's the same model Tivo (it may not make any difference as long as they're both SA models). You'll need to perform a a Clear & Delete Everything after installing the new drive to get rid of the hardware error message. You will then have to repeat guided setup on the lifetime unit.

Another option would be to make a backup image of the working Tivo and restore it to a new drive. Install the new drive in your lifetime unit and repeat the process outlined above for the hardware error message. This will give you two working Tivos.


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## rwclax (Aug 26, 2007)

Thanks for the information on swapping the hard drive and the other option as well. Sorry for my ignorance but what is a Clean and Delete and how is it done? Thanks again.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

There's an option on one of the menus. I don't have a SA Tivo so I don't know how the menus are structured. It's going to be on the same menu as the option to restart the Tivo. 

Clear & Delete Everything basically wipes all extraneous data from the Tivo and resets everything back to factory default settings. It also wipes the Tivo service number info that's stored on the drive so it can reacquire it on the next reboot. The Tivo service number is embedded in the hardware and is copied over to the drive when a clean drive is installed. If the Tivo service number on the drive doesn't match what's found in the hardware, you get a hardware error #51 message. The C&DE clears this error and allows the drive to be used in the new Tivo.


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