# /TiVo Premiere & My DVR Expander



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

I just replaced my TiVo Hd with a Premiere and have an external HD it is a My DVR Expander by Western Digital it worked fine with the TiVo HD but the Premiere does not recognize it? Does this model of HD not work with the Premiere?

Thanks Pat


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

If it's a 500gb or 1TB WD Expander, it should work.

Make sure your eSATA connection is secure and reboot the TiVo. It should detect the drive and "marry" it to your new Premiere.

Here's TiVo's FAQ on the subject.


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

I have tried several times & after powering up the Premiere I
go to devices & it says cannot detect external drive?? Am I 
doing something wrong I connect the My DVR Expander & TiVo power the My DVR Expander wait a little then power the TiVo.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

You're doing it right. What's the model number on the back of the Expander? You're connecting it to the eSATA port and not the USB port, right?


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

Yes I am connecting eSATA port just like on the old TiVo don't have the model # in front of me right now will check when I get home thanks for your help.


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

Hey widracer I still don't have a model # but I just thought of something the old TiVo's power supply went bad so I did not disconnect the Expander properly? Would that be my problem? There is no way to disconnect the way they say to. Is there any other way to get uinpaired with the old TiVo?


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

windracer said:


> You're doing it right. What's the model number on the back of the Expander? You're connecting it to the eSATA port and not the USB port, right?


The model # is WD10000F032 it also says TiVo Verffied on the back.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

You don't have to unmarry the drive from the old TiVo, the new TiVo will re-format the drive during the setup process.

Your Premiere has the stock hard drive in it, right? It's not an upgraded one?


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

windracer said:


> You don't have to unmarry the drive from the old TiVo, the new TiVo will re-format the drive during the setup process.
> 
> Your Premiere has the stock hard drive in it, right? It's not an upgraded one?


Correct it is the stock hard drive in the Premiere I have done nothing to it and it still won't detect the Expander??


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

So it's either a problem with the external drive, or your TiVo. 

Do you have an eSATA connection on your PC? You could try and connect the drive to your PC to see if it can be recognized by Windows. Or it could be a bad cable.


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

windracer said:


> So it's either a problem with the external drive, or your TiVo.
> 
> Do you have an eSATA connection on your PC? You could try and connect the drive to your PC to see if it can be recognized by Windows. Or it could be a bad cable.


Good idea I don't have the connection with a pc but I do have another TiVo HD that I could hook it to and see if that one recognizes it. Then go from there I guess I will do that when I get home today. Thanks for walking me through this and giving advice.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Yeah, if you can try it with your other TiVo, that would be a good way to determine if it's the drive/cable or your new Premiere. You don't have to actually marry it to your other box, just see if it's detected when booting.

Good luck!


----------



## PLazovich (May 3, 2006)

Well I got home tried it with the other TiVo & it worked so brought it back to the Premier still not dedected so I called TiVo CS they tell me to disconnect the eSATA cable & then reconnect it with the Expander & TiVo both powered on & it worked! Go figure everything the written guides tell you not to do! Oh well now I have the extra space. Thanks for all your help windracer.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Weird! Oh well, glad you got it working!


----------



## adrianjoheni (Jul 24, 2013)

Hi,


I recently bought a Tivo Premiere 4 and later a WD My Book DVR Expander (Tivo Verified), and at first it took me several different tries to make it work. The problem was that it wasn't been detected by the Tivo box, and then I tried unplugging and plugging back on the DVR Expander with the Tivo box still on, and then it detected it. I ran the setup for the External Storage and it restarted automatically, but when the Tivo box was booting back up, it just didn't see the DVR Expander again, so I had to repeat all the steps again, I did like 3 times until I tried unplugging and plugging the DVR Expander while the Tivo Box was booting up (Right after the yellow light starts flashing), and then it worked. 

This technique seems to work just fine, but every time I have to restart my Tivo box I have to unplug and plug the DVR Expander back in, while the box is booting up (Right after the yellow light starts flashing), it looks like the DVR Expander is perhaps going into some kind of sleep mode, therefore the only solution seems to beto unplug and plug the eSata cable back in while booting, but this isn't suppose to be normal right? 

Anyone knows how to disable that "AutoOff" mode on the WD My Book DVR Expander, if there is such of thing?


Thanks.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

adrianjoheni said:


> it looks like the DVR Expander is perhaps going into some kind of sleep mode, therefore the only solution seems to beto unplug and plug the eSata cable back in while booting, but this isn't suppose to be normal right?


Definitely not normal ... the Expander shouldn't be going "to sleep." If it was, the TiVo would report it as missing right away, and not just during a reboot.

You DO need to allow the Expander to spin up before powering on the TiVo, however. So if you're turning everything off (including the Expander) and then back on again, I would recommend letting the Expander turn on first and sit for a minute before powering on the TiVo. I also highly recommend having both connected to a UPS.


----------



## adrianjoheni (Jul 24, 2013)

windracer said:


> Definitely not normal ... the Expander shouldn't be going "to sleep." If it was, the TiVo would report it as missing right away, and not just during a reboot.
> 
> You DO need to allow the Expander to spin up before powering on the TiVo, however. So if you're turning everything off (including the Expander) and then back on again, I would recommend letting the Expander turn on first and sit for a minute before powering on the TiVo. I also highly recommend having both connected to a UPS.


Thanks. I tried your suggestion of letting the Expander turn on and sit for a minute before booting up the Tivo. But that didn't help. Last night I started to have some video issues only with the recently recorded shows, I tried the Hardware S.M.A.R.T. Test on the Tivo, and the Primary Hard Drive passed all the tests sucessfully, but the Secondary Drive failed them all, except for the first one, "INITIAL STATE" passed, the rest they all failed on that second drive. I think I need to replace this drive.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Yep, I think you nailed it. Get that thing replaced.


----------

