# Drive Swap.



## Jim5506 (Oct 3, 2004)

I have a TiVo Bolt model 849 that is apparently dead. Constant reboot to splash screen only green led solid. Weakness is not optimistic as it probably is a MB problem.

I've already spent $70 on a 2 TB drive replacement that did not help.

Can I swap the hard drive to my other TiVo Bolt 849 and access the programs that are recorded there or will it reformat the drive from the other Bolt?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

TiVo drives are encrypted/married to the single DVR. The programs won’t be accessible after moving the drive to another unit.

p.s. And I believe on BOLTs … that even temporarily swapping a new drive into a given unit and allowing the system to boot-up will render the contents of the original drive effectively inaccessible.


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## Jim5506 (Oct 3, 2004)

Any way to format a fresh drive on another Bolt then copy programs from the old drive to the new drive and be able to access the programs through the second Bolt?.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Jim5506 said:


> Any way to format a fresh drive on another Bolt then copy programs from the old drive to the new drive and be able to access the programs through the second Bolt?.


No.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Jim5506 said:


> Any way to format a fresh drive on another Bolt then copy programs from the old drive to the new drive and be able to access the programs through the second Bolt?.


Very unlikely you will be able to save anything. It may already be gone, if you put in the new drive and the Bolt tried to format it, it probably updated the flash drive, the flash drive has the map to the recordings. So if the flash drive updated, you no longer have access to the recordings on the original drive, they are there but map to them is gone so you can never access again.

Assuming the map is not updated on the flash drive, you could try running mfsck on the original drive (off MFStools), see if that will get it out of the loop. If it does, if you still get no picture however it seems to have booted up, you may be able to access the recordings from the other Bolt if on same acct. If the drive itself is bad, it might be possible to run ddrescue on it, would attempt to fix errors and copy to a new drive. If drive is not TOO bad may work. But again, if it's in a loop whatever is causing it, if it's the drive, would probably copy to the "fixed" drive. So you'd have to run mfsck on the "fixed" drive also.

Anything tried with a Bolt that involves disk swapping almost ALWAYS ends up with all recordings lost, once any drive other that the original or an exact clone is swapped in. Stick with Roamios  Oh, what is the model of the replacement drive you bought, if it's an SMR drive good chance it will not work, even in a fully functioning Bolt.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

One more comment, for those that use Bolt or Edge with 2.5" drives. Fixing/recovering anything off a drive that goes bad is nearly impossible due to the drive swapping issue and the map on the flash drive. Soooo, the best way to prevent this is every 2-3 years (I'd lean towards 2), CLONE the current drive to a brand new drive. Before the original develops errors (even the best 2.5" CMR drive usually only lasts 2-3 years). And just repeat over time. Don't bother saving the original as a backup, as soon as ANYTHING changes on the new drive the map to the old is lost. So just repurpose.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Oh and DO NOT even try swapping the drive into your functioning Bolt. If you do, the functioning Bolt will probably try to format it, update the flash drive, and you will lose everything on the FUNCTIONING Bolt too........................


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Jim5506 said:


> I have a TiVo Bolt model 849 that is apparently dead. Constant reboot to splash screen only green led solid. Weakness is not optimistic as it probably is a MB problem.
> 
> I've already spent $70 on a 2 TB drive replacement that did not help.
> 
> Can I swap the hard drive to my other TiVo Bolt 849 and access the programs that are recorded there or will it reformat the drive from the other Bolt?


There is no way to access those recordings without the original Bolt working for two reasons. First and foremost the information as to where those recordings are located and their names are stored on a flash drive inside the Bolt. Consequently no other Bolt will know the name and location of the recordings. The other is the drive is locked to the original Bolt.

Have you tried to use the power supply of the working Bolt on the non working Bolt to make sure it is not a power supply issue?

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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

jmbach said:


> There is no way to access those recordings without the original Bolt working for two reasons.


Yes mostly, if it is a video problem, ie you can get the original to boot up just no picture, might be able to access the recordings from another Tivo and/or Tivo online. But HAS to fully boot.

If they tried the new 2TB in the malfunctioning unit it may have updated the flash drive. So everything already gone, at least no access.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

(deleted)


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## Jim5506 (Oct 3, 2004)

I have put a new Toshiba hard drive (one recommended by others here for a TiVo replacement - MQ03ABB200) and the unit never gets past the TiVo splash screen (little TiVo man with TiVo beside him and a smile under the "V") without rebooting. I have consulted with Weaknees and they tell me that all they are able to do with a Bolt is replace the hard drive or replace the power supply and my problem appears to be mother board related (SOL).

My guess is it may never get to even addressing the hard drive but that is moot since evidently even with linux I can't retrieve the content of the original drive since the index is kept internal to the device.

Looks like I have now a spare 500GB drive and a spare 2TB hard drive to play with.

With my old TiVo HD DVR's I could freely swap hard drives without losing content but TiVo seems to have "improved" things in the mean time.

I have two Hd's (model 652), two Premiere's, one Roamio, two (now one) Bolt's, and one Edge OTA, which has a very weak tuner, so I still have plenty to keep me busy.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Jim5506 said:


> I have a TiVo Bolt model 849 that is apparently dead. Constant reboot to splash screen only green led solid. Weakness is not optimistic as it probably is a MB problem.
> 
> I've already spent $70 on a 2 TB drive replacement that did not help.
> 
> Can I swap the hard drive to my other TiVo Bolt 849 and access the programs that are recorded there or will it reformat the drive from the other Bolt?


When it reboots are there any other light flashes just before it reboots or only the green light. 

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## Jim5506 (Oct 3, 2004)

When I plug the power in there is a very short red led flash then after a few seconds the green led comes on solid, then the TiVo splash screen after maybe 60 seconds, video drops and shortly thereafter the TiVo splash screen comes back. The blank screen/splash screen loop has initiated. No other led activity has been noted.

Someone implied that the Roamio is different in its hard drive behavior. Would it be satisfactory to put my 2TB Toshiba in the Roamio or would I lose all the original drive recordings there also.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Jim5506 said:


> When I plug the power in there is a very short red led flash then after a few seconds the green led comes on solid, then the TiVo splash screen after maybe 60 seconds, video drops and shortly thereafter the TiVo splash screen comes back. The blank screen/splash screen loop has initiated. No other led activity has been noted.
> 
> Someone implied that the Roamio is different in its hard drive behavior. Would it be satisfactory to put my 2TB Toshiba in the Roamio or would I lose all the original drive recordings there also.


Roamios are different and you can change drives without losing access to the programming on the original drive. 

I don't know that I would recommend putting a 2.5" drive in a Roamio. 

What size is your one remaining Bolt?

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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

You could use MFSTools to copy the working Bolt drive to the 2 TB drive and not lose recordings while gaining recording space. You would also retain cableCARD pairing as well. 

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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Jim5506 said:


> Looks like I have now a spare 500GB drive and a spare 2TB hard drive to play with.
> 
> With my old TiVo HD DVR's I could freely swap hard drives without losing content but TiVo seems to have "improved" things in the mean time


Haha, "improved", yeah.............. Stick with Roamios, if you want 4K streaming use a dedicated streamer.

As JMbach says you might want to use the 2TB in your functioning Bolt. Depending on how old the original drive is, if 2-3 years it might be getting near failure. Could pull the current drive, do a diagnositic, check for hours and errors. Then use MFST to copy and expand to the 2TB. There is always SOME risk (with Bolt and Edge) when doing this, even if you know what you are doing. If the copy/expand fails, once again can lose everything. Roamios are the last model where you can mostly swap drives around and NOT lose everything on both if something does not work out. Roamios have a flash drive also, but not as much on it as Bolt/Edge (ie not the map to current recordings). Premiere and back everything is on the hard drive, swap away, only issue could be cable card settings.

And no, while you could use the 2.5 in a Roamio 2.5s only last 2-3 years mostly, even "good" CMR. I suppose better than just letting the 2TB sit around but potentially better use is in the functioning Bolt?


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## Jim5506 (Oct 3, 2004)

I HAD two identical Bolt 849500's both with the 500 GB drives and one died. I purchased both of them in 2017 by exchanging the lifetime subscription of two old TiVo HD units for the two Bolts plus, IIRC about $150 for each Bolt.

I got the Roamio in 2016 when I found it in a shelf at WalMart with a deep discount sticker on it.

I'm not sure where my last TiVo HD came from, I have bought five or six of them over the years at yard sales and through Craig's List, etc. all with lifetime service never paying more than $100 for any one. My last one was first activated in 2010 and before that i had several Series 2 units, so I've been around TiVo since about 2002.

The new drive I bought has a manufacture date of 11 Jul 2018 but it appeared to be still sealed in the factory static bag.

I mostly use my TiVos to record and download things of interest to me to my PC where I use Video Redo TVSuite V6 to edit out commercials and trim the beginning and end and archive them when possible to external drives. I have no cable cards everything I record is OTA since the cable company that provides my internet service went digital and I no longer have access to their basic streams.

Most of our TV watching is done through Dish Network and if I must archive something from them I have a Hauppauge PVR 1212 that I can real time copy out of the component ports + Toslink into the Hauppauge and then via USB to a PC. It's been several years since I did one of those.


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