# Roamio OTA Hard Drive Upgrade



## gdoug

I have seen some older threads about this, but I am looking for some current info. Our Roamio OTA (lifetime subscription version) has quickly filled up. I was reading that it comes with a 1TB from the factory and up to a 3TB could be installed. Is it really as easy as I have read to swap the hard drive out? What hard drive would be recommended to put in IE: Western Digital Green, Blue, other low power hard drive, etc? TIA


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## ThAbtO

It comes with a 500GB drive out of the box. You can upgrade but it voids the warranty (if they find out) up to 8 TB. It can take up to 3TB just swapping out the drive without any extra work, but to get to 8TB, you would need to use MSFR, a program designed by one of the forum members here.

Recommended drive is the WD Red (not the Red Pro), such as WD30EFRX (3TB).


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## krkaufman

What ThAbtO said, with the caveat that the drop-in install nor the MFSR prep method would result in your existing content being migrated to the new drive. You would either need to offload the content to a PC for later restoration, or use MFS Tools 3.2 to migrate your existing drive to a new 4TB or smaller drive._ (I believe 4TB is the max size supported by MFS Tools 3.2 for a drive migration.)_

More on mfsr (MFS Reformatter) >here<.

More on MFS Tools 3.2 >here<.

Simply for offloading and restoring your programs, you'd probably want to look into TiVo Desktop or pyTivo.
If you're intrigued by the idea of 8TB, but are wary of the cost... >this post< may be of interest to you.


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## gdoug

We could get to the point where the existing content would not need to be transferred. We would just basically just over with a new drive. While it would be tempting to see how much storage I could get with the Roamio, I am not much into hacking and modding. Just the 3TB hard drive swap would probably be good enough for us.


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## ThAbtO

Roamio basic and OTA hard drive is a 500GB or about 75 HD hrs, a 3TB would yield about 6x that or 450 HD hrs.

I have a 4TB drive in mine which yields about 640 HD hrs.


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## gdoug

ThAbtO said:


> Roamio basic and OTA hard drive is a 500GB or about 75 HD hrs, a 3TB would yield about 6x that or 450 HD hrs.
> 
> I have a 4TB drive in mine which yields about 640 HD hrs.


We bought the lifetime/no monthly service fee version which is advertised as having a 1TB hard drive: Amazon.com: TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR - With No Monthly Service Fees - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player - Compatible only with HDTV Antennas (does not work with cable): Electronics


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## ThAbtO

Ok, that one has 150 HD hrs.


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## krkaufman

gdoug said:


> While it would be tempting to see how much storage I could get with the Roamio, I am not much into hacking and modding. Just the 3TB hard drive swap would probably be good enough for us.


MFS Reformatter is not something that I'd categorize as hacking or modding, really. The only "difficult" part for some people is having a Windows system on which to execute mfsr, or having a USB adapter that enables access to the 8TB drive. Beyond that it's run exe, select drive, click button, wait a bundle of seconds... done.

In case a 4TB drive upgrade were to interest you.


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## jth tv

It was ridiculously easy to replace the hard drive in my Roamio Basic with a 3TB since I did Not care about keeping the content. There aren't any shows these days that it would bother me to miss. Most of the good ones are likely to show up on Netflix, without commercials, anyways.


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## sharpfork

I did the MLS boot cd on one of my hackintosh computers and easily copied my wife's hard drive full of Bravo shows to a new 3tb. The whole process was pretty easy. The physical drive swap was super easy. I got a 3tb WD red drive. I also added a cable card slot very easily with a Craigslist doner.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


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## Teeps

gdoug said:


> I have seen some older threads about this, but I am looking for some current info. Our Roamio OTA (lifetime subscription version) has quickly filled up. I was reading that it comes with a 1TB from the factory and up to a 3TB could be installed. Is it really as easy as I have read to swap the hard drive out? What hard drive would be recommended to put in IE: Western Digital Green, Blue, other low power hard drive, etc? TIA


Upgrade to larger HDD and retain existing recordings:
MFS Tools 3.2


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## JTHOJNICKI

I bought the Roamio OTA 1TB model and once I initialized it, I immediately swapped in a 6TB WD RED NAS drive. Once initialized on the OTA, I simply attached it to my Windows 10 computer and ran MSFR to reformat it properly to get access to all the space. The only issue was that MSFR (or my computer) wouldn't work with the 6TB drive in MY USB drive dock. I simply disconnected one of my internal drives & temporarily plugged in the 6TB drive. MSFR reformatted it quickly. The Roamio OTA works great with all that storage, but we still manage to fill it up. We just purge old stuff occasionally.


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## JTHOJNICKI

One suggestion - for possible warranty/repair service purposes - label the original TiVo HDD and keep it in a safe place in case you ever need to swap it back.


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## PCurry57

JTHOJNICKI said:


> I bought the Roamio OTA 1TB model and once I initialized it, I immediately swapped in a 6TB WD RED NAS drive. Once initialized on the OTA, I simply attached it to my Windows 10 computer and ran MSFR to reformat it properly to get access to all the space. The only issue was that MSFR (or my computer) wouldn't work with the 6TB drive in MY USB drive dock. I simply disconnected one of my internal drives & temporarily plugged in the 6TB drive. MSFR reformatted it quickly. The Roamio OTA works great with all that storage, but we still manage to fill it up. We just purge old stuff occasionally.


Unless you default recordings to keep until you delete why bother purging? Just allow TiVo to expire the oldest content as needed for new recordings. Granted you won't get suggestions recorded this way, but I've got that turned off already anyhow.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (SM-T817P)


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## AntiPC

I just upgraded my 500 mB OTA to 3 TB with the WD red. I'm very happy with the results, and we went from flirting with 100% full to rarely seeing 20%.

Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Computers & Accessories

It is really easy. It resets the box, so you have to rerun guided setup afterwards. You will lose your season passes too, so it'd be a good idea to take a picture of the SP manager screen(s) beforehand so you can put them all back in.


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## ThAbtO

KMTTG will backup/restore season/one passes, plus all the options set within.
instead of just taking a picture.


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## 19972000muskrat

ThAbtO said:


> It comes with a 500GB drive out of the box. You can upgrade but it voids the warranty (if they find out) up to 8 TB. It can take up to 3TB just swapping out the drive without any extra work, but to get to 8TB, you would need to use MSFR, a program designed by one of the forum members here.
> 
> Recommended drive is the WD Red (not the Red Pro), such as WD30EFRX (3TB).


 Is there stickers or anything you have to break to open the case and install the new drive that would show you installed a new drive and void the warranty?


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## JoeKustra

19972000muskrat said:


> Is there stickers or anything you have to break to open the case and install the new drive that would show you installed a new drive and void the warranty?


No, but they can detect it if you call for support. Please keep the old drive for a while.

Amazon.com: WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRX: Computers & Accessories

Western Digital Red NAS Hard Drive Review [WD30EFRX] | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews


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## mattack

gdoug said:


> We could get to the point where the existing content would not need to be transferred.


ok, I'm confused, you first said your drive was full... so if you don't want the existing recordings, why not just delete them instead of replacing the drive?



Teeps said:


> Upgrade to larger HDD and retain existing recordings:
> MFS Tools 3.2


But if at least the first page of the thread is still current, 4 TB is the limit for a single drive.. (You need Windows, and mfsr to go above that, unfortunately.)


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## ggieseke

mattack said:


> But if at least the first page of the thread is still current, 4 TB is the limit for a single drive.. (You need Windows, and mfsr to go above that, unfortunately.)


4TB is still the limit for MFSTools 3.2 on Roamios and Bolts. It uses the standard 2 app partitions / 2 media partitions scheme, and no partition can exceed 2TB.


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## mattack

Bummer.. I really wish mfstools would get updated to do whatever mfsr does.. since I have a 6 TB drive 'acting' like a 4 TB drive in my P4.


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## ggieseke

mattack said:


> Bummer.. I really wish mfstools would get updated to do whatever mfsr does.. since I have a 6 TB drive 'acting' like a 4 TB drive in my P4.


It is possible for Premieres. You would have to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the drive if it was expanded to 4TB with something else, then use it again to add another partition. Roamios & Bolts won't let you add partitions, so 4TB is the max. See the last few pages of jmbach's 6TB Premiere thread in the Upgrade forum. Sorry for any confusion.


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## EnergyStar

My Roamio OTA setup is a Tuning Adapter and Cable Card and after initial setup with the cable company and some test recording over all 4 tuners and over several days, everything was great and I was ready to upgrade the drive from 1tb. After I replaced my 1tb with a 3tb, I am now getting V58 errors and my recordings are no longer working. Actually, anytime I try and record something a generic cable card menu appears with information about calling my cable company and the recording is frozen. 

So the cable card and Tivo config aren't retained in memory on the Tivo, it's all in the software? I am getting some channels - which I couldn't receive until the initial setup previously mentioned so I figured it was all good. I powered down the TA and Tivo and after power-on, same issue. 

So replacing a drive is another call into the cable company? Is that standard ops with a TA and CC setup? I just assumed once the cable card was configured between the Tivo, the TA and cable company, no calls needed to be made after upgrading a drive.


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## ThAbtO

The cable card became unpaired since the data ID may be different with the different hard drive.


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## HerronScott

EnergyStar said:


> My Roamio OTA setup is a Tuning Adapter and Cable Card and after initial setup with the cable company and some test recording over all 4 tuners and over several days, everything was great and I was ready to upgrade the drive from 1tb. After I replaced my 1tb with a 3tb, I am now getting V58 errors and my recordings are no longer working. Actually, anytime I try and record something a generic cable card menu appears with information about calling my cable company and the recording is frozen.
> 
> So the cable card and Tivo config aren't retained in memory on the Tivo, it's all in the software? I am getting some channels - which I couldn't receive until the initial setup previously mentioned so I figured it was all good. I powered down the TA and Tivo and after power-on, same issue.
> 
> So replacing a drive is another call into the cable company? Is that standard ops with a TA and CC setup? I just assumed once the cable card was configured between the Tivo, the TA and cable company, no calls needed to be made after upgrading a drive.


Unless you used MFS Tools 3.2 to copy the 1TB drive to the 3TB (and expand), then yes you will have to get the CableCARD repaired.

Scott


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## EnergyStar

ThAbtO said:


> The cable card became unpaired since the data ID may be different with the different hard drive.


The unpairing of the CC worked. Thank you!


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## EnergyStar

HerronScott said:


> Unless you used MFS Tools 3.2 to copy the 1TB drive to the 3TB (and expand), then yes you will have to get the CableCARD repaired.
> 
> Scott


The unpairing suggested by ThAbtO fixed the issue. Also, I thought MFS tools wasn't necessary on Roamio's unless you were trying to use 4TB+ drives. Is that accurate?


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## JoeKustra

EnergyStar said:


> The unpairing suggested by ThAbtO fixed the issue. Also, I thought MFS tools wasn't necessary on Roamio's unless you were trying to use 4TB+ drives. Is that accurate?


I have 3TB in a basic Roamio and have never used any tools except those for the screws.


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## sfhub

EnergyStar said:


> The unpairing suggested by ThAbtO fixed the issue. Also, I thought MFS tools wasn't necessary on Roamio's unless you were trying to use 4TB+ drives. Is that accurate?


MFS Tools isn't necessary to "use" the 3TB drive. What Scott was saying is if you want to *preserve* data (which includes the CableCARD pairing information) then you would need to use MFSTools to copy the data over. Using MFSTools would also copy over your shows and one passes, but again, you could choose to forego all that, stick the 3TB drive in and start from scratch with no shows. I think the one passes should repopulate if you have the default privacy settings. The CableCARD pairing would be lost though.


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## HerronScott

EnergyStar said:


> The unpairing suggested by ThAbtO fixed the issue. Also, I thought MFS tools wasn't necessary on Roamio's unless you were trying to use 4TB+ drives. Is that accurate?





sfhub said:


> MFS Tools isn't necessary to "use" the 3TB drive. What Scott was saying is if you want to *preserve* data (which includes the CableCARD pairing information) then you would need to use MFSTools to copy the data over. Using MFSTools would also copy over your shows and one passes, but again, you could choose to forego all that, stick the 3TB drive in and start from scratch with no shows. I think the one passes should repopulate if you have the default privacy settings. The CableCARD pairing would be lost though.


What sfhub said. 

Scott


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## EnergyStar

HerronScott said:


> What sfhub said.
> 
> Scott


Excellent! I didn't know MFS Tools preserved the CC pairing. That's very good information and I appreciate both of your replies.


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## Rustyoneal

is there a windows vision of MSF or just command line off of a boot disk?


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## HerronScott

Rustyoneal said:


> is there a windows vision of MSF or just command line off of a boot disk?


Just command line/Linux boot disk version.

Scott


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## ExplodingSidewalk

Quick Question.

Would like to upgrade Tivo Roamio OTA from 3tb to 8tb and preserve recordings.

1. Is it possible to initialize my 8tb drive with Tivo Roamio OTA.
2. Use MFSTools to copy recordings and one pass from 3tb to 8tb (actually only 3tb).
3. Use MFSR to expand 8tb (actually only 3tb) to full 8tb.

-or-

Switch Steps 2 and 3.

Thanks for your help.

Chris


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## krkaufman

ExplodingSidewalk said:


> Quick Question.
> 
> Would like to upgrade Tivo Roamio OTA from 3tb to 8tb and preserve recordings.
> 
> 1. Is it possible to initialize my 8tb drive with Tivo Roamio OTA.
> 2. Use MFSTools to copy recordings and one pass from 3tb to 8tb (actually only 3tb).
> 3. Use MFSR to expand 8tb (actually only 3tb) to full 8tb.


Roadblocks:

MFS Tools 3.2 max target drive size is 4TB.
MFS Reformatter currently only expands fresh drives.

Offloading & restoration may be your only path. (On the bright side, all the shows should be copyable, since it's OTA.)


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## Amber Paige

Forgive me as I know this question has been asked over and over again, but what's currently the best 1T or 2T drive on Amazon to use to upgrade a 500 Roamio OTA?

Addionally are there any safety concerns to the box operating with higher storage than manufacturered? I'm guessing, for the sake of discussion all Bolt's (for example) are the same except for the hard drives installed, meaning all components function well with whatever size storage is in there?

Thanks so much!


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## JoeKustra

Amber Paige said:


> Forgive me as I know this question has been asked over and over again, but what's currently the best 1T or 2T drive on Amazon to use to upgrade a 500 Roamio OTA?
> Addionally are there any safety concerns to the box operating with higher storage than manufacturered? I'm guessing, for the sake of discussion all Bolt's (for example) are the same except for the hard drives installed, meaning all components function well with whatever size storage is in there?
> Thanks so much!


The current suggestion is a 3TB Red: https://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard...ed+3tb+drive&refinements=p_89:Western+Digital I installed one last month. No other changes needed. If the unit has poor ventilation now, a fan could be added. Average is 37C as shown in System Information.


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## ThAbtO

The recommended drive is the WD Red (not pro, 7200+ RPM) drives. No special process needed for up to 3TB (drop in) and up to 8TB with use of program called MSFR.


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## krkaufman

ThAbtO said:


> ... and up to 8TB with use of program called MSFR


MFSR (MFS Reformatter)


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## ThAbtO

(A slip of the fingers. )


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## jeffw_00

I'm about to upgrade my 500GB Roamio, which is -almost- as big as I need. (I never filled up my 1TB TivoHD) and so 2TB feels like it will be oodles of space, and I suspect a 2TB drive is a bit more reliable than 3TB - still, it nags at me that maybe I should go for 3TB, but can't say why....


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## HobokenSkier

jeffw_00 said:


> I'm about to upgrade my 500GB Roamio, which is -almost- as big as I need. (I never filled up my 1TB TivoHD) and so 2TB feels like it will be oodles of space, and I suspect a 2TB drive is a bit more reliable than 3TB - still, it nags at me that maybe I should go for 3TB, but can't say why....


I went with 2 simply because I upgraded my NAS to 2x4gb and had a pair of WD Red 2gb sitting on the shelf.


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## Mikeguy

3TB is a good thing.


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## jeffw_00

2 responses - but not much of a case - maybe there isn't one?


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## Mikeguy

jeffw_00 said:


> 2 responses - but not much of a case - maybe there isn't one?


Unlike the old adage that you can never be thin enough, you indeed never can have too much storage space.


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## jeffw_00

can't help but wonder if 2GB will give me marginally less trouble...


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## Mikeguy

jeffw_00 said:


> can't help but wonder if 2GB will give me marginally less trouble...


I haven't heard of that here. And the 3TB, just like the 2TB, auto-sets itself up in the TiVo box.


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## jeffw_00

Thanks - I Plan to use MFS tools - not interested in the labor to copy off/copy on and re-setup 30+ OnePasses and risk getting the new GUI


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## kpeters59

You can backup/restore your OnePasses with KMTTG.

-KP


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## jeffw_00

Yes - but I've found that with MFS tools I burn a CD, turn off my PC, hook up the drives, boot off the CD, type 3 commands, wait, turn off the PC, drop in the new drive, done - why take the long way (and risk getting the new GUI?)


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## Pito Salas

How long should it take from the first "Welcome" screen until something more happens? My upgrade seems to have gone smoothly but I'm at that screen for about 20 minutes now!


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## JoeKustra

Pito Salas said:


> How long should it take from the first "Welcome" screen until something more happens? My upgrade seems to have gone smoothly but I'm at that screen for about 20 minutes now!


OTA or Plus? In either case I would pull the plug for a minute and see if it hangs again.

see: Upgrading Roamio Plus hard disk -- FAIL!


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## ThAbtO

Pito Salas said:


> How long should it take from the first "Welcome" screen until something more happens? My upgrade seems to have gone smoothly but I'm at that screen for about 20 minutes now!


What model drive did you use? Not all drives work in a Tivo.


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## Mr. Wilson

I'm having the same problem that Pito Salas is was having. I have a new WD20EFAX Red. NASware 3.0. I installed the drive and it never gets past the startup screen. My firmware is 21.9.7v10-846-6-846. Any ideas? I'm going to try downgrading the firmware to see if that makes a difference.


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## lhvetinari

Mr. Wilson said:


> I'm having the same problem that Pito Salas is was having. I have a new WD20EFAX Red. NASware 3.0. I installed the drive and it never gets past the startup screen. My firmware is 21.9.7v10-846-6-846. Any ideas? I'm going to try downgrading the firmware to see if that makes a difference.


EFAX is a DM-SMR disk and is not suited for TiVo use. TE3 (20.x) will accept it but it'll run like dogs---, whereas TE4 often will outright refuse to boot.

You want an EFRX (tougher to find) or a Purple PURZ surveillance drive.


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## Mr. Wilson

Thanks. I didn't pay attention. The EFAX was a bit less expensive.


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## jerryez

Right now, the red 3TB drive is cheaper than a 2TB drive on Amazon.


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## Scott9mm

Digital decided to use shingled tracks on certain red drives and didn't tell anyone. Shingled drives are not suitable for DVR or surveillance.


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## Bill Strohm

New here, please be kind. Have a Roamio model TCD846500 bought Feb. 2014. Recently the unit refused to start: red, orange, and blue LEDs would flash and then unit would quit. Repeated with every attempt to start up. On-line advice recommended disk drive replacement. Opened unit and found the fan dead. Ordered one from WeaKnees and installed it... then the fan worked. While open I removed and replaced the OEM 500 GB Seagate hard drive with a new Western Digital "Blue" WDBH2D0020HNC-NRSN 2 TB hard drive from Best Buy. Went through the guided setup successfully and the repaired/upgraded unit did record from cable and play back. However, it began randomly (in the middle of both recording and playing back) going to a black screen and then "Welcome (etc)...Almost there..." and then coming up on a good display ("My shows"... etc.) which again allowed recording and playback, but still with the random failures. Now it can't even make it through Guided Setup... usually goes bad during Loading. Any suggestions? Should I send it to WeaKnees?


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## ThAbtO

You should get a new power supply for 3amps, the plug should be 2.1mm x 5.5mm center positive.


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## Bill Strohm

ThAbtO said:


> You should get a new power supply for 3amps, the plug should be 2.1mm x 5.5mm center positive.


The current power supply adapter stated output is 12 volts at 1.0 amps. Does the Western Digital hard drive require a 3 amp supply? Can you link me to a source for the power supply adapter you suggest? Thanks!

[Edit: I screwed up... it's actually a 2.0 amp power supply adapter... see my later post.]


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## lhvetinari

12v 1a should not be enough to run a Roamio period. I'd be inclined to think you got a bum supply. 

2.5a is the minimum (and what it was sold with), but 3a is the recommendation here - better to have the extra power and not need it than to need it and not have it.


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## jmbach

Bill Strohm said:


> The current power supply adapter stated output is 12 volts at 1.0 amps. Does the Western Digital hard drive require a 3 amp supply? Can you link me to a source for the power supply adapter you suggest? Thanks!


That does not sound correct. The power supply should be at least 2 amps. I replaced mine with a 3.33 amp power supply.

Also recommend that you run the drive through a complete read and write test with WD diagnostic before installing it in any TiVo.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## ThAbtO

Bill Strohm said:


> The current power supply adapter stated output is 12 volts at 1.0 amps. Does the Western Digital hard drive require a 3 amp supply? Can you link me to a source for the power supply adapter you suggest? Thanks!


The OEM power supply is a 2amp and is barely enough to supply power to the entire unit, including the drive. The ALL lights flashing is the indication.


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## Bill Strohm

Arrgh... my bad. Because of the unbelievable tangle of identical wires behind my TV cabinet, I had accidentally pulled the Blu-Ray player's power supply adapter instead of the TiVo's. The TiVo power supply adapter is actually 12 volts at 2.0 amps. I'm still replacing it with a 3 amp from Amazon. But that may not be the problem. (However, if the WD "Blue" drive requires more power than the OEM Seagate...)


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## lhvetinari

Bill Strohm said:


> Arrgh... my bad. Because of the unbelievable tangle of identical wires behind my TV cabinet, I had accidentally pulled the Blu-Ray player's power supply adapter instead of the TiVo's. The TiVo power supply adapter is actually 12 volts at 2.0 amps. I'm still replacing it with a 3 amp from Amazon. But that may not be the problem.


No, it could still be the problem. As mentioned above, 2A is the minimum for these units - with the shipped drives. Replacements often need a bit more power.


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## Bill Strohm

My thanks to you all for pointing me to the power supply adapter as the possible problem. Turns out you were right! The new 12 volt, 3 amp power supply adapter results in a working repaired/upgraded TiVo Roamio. I had tested the OEM adapter (12V, 2A) into a 6.3 ohm, 25W resistor and its voltage output was 11.1 volts. I tested the new 12V, 3A adapter and its voltage output was 11.6 volts into a 3.6 ohm, 25W resistor. Clearly a more powerful supply, which made the difference. No more random TiVo restarts.


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## ncbill

For future reference the Belkin 12VDC Residential Gateway Battery backup also works well as a power supply for the base Roamio.

Belkin Official Support - Getting to know the Belkin Residential Gateway (RG) Battery Backup REV B, BU3DC001-12V


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