# Upgrade HDD - Avoid Cable Card Re-pairing?



## cnewsgrp (Feb 9, 2010)

Update: I was just put the 3TB drive in and did Tivo setup. Call to Verizon or re-pairing was not needed. Thanks all

Hi,

I have Tivo Roamio with Verizon Cable Service. I want to upgrade by HDD (already ordered WD Red 3TB), I don't care if I lose by current recordings or one pass, but I want to avoid a call to cable company.

What do I do?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

cnewsgrp said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have Tivo Roamio with Verizon Cable Service. I want to upgrade by HDD (already ordered WD Red 3TB), I don't care if I lose by current recordings or one pass, but I want to avoid a call to cable company.
> 
> What do I do?


Replace the HDD, then hope all your channels work. Some feeds, especially for premium channels, use the equipment ID number. That will probably change when the HDD changes. Some feeds don't care. Some feeds use the H/W ID even if you don't have premium channels.

So it's unpredictable.


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## cnewsgrp (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks, but there should be someway to clone the HDD and preserve cable card pairing.

Anyone?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

If you just do the HD swap, then its starting over like its brand new.

If you use MFSTools 3.2, its possible, but you need both drives hooked up to the PC at the same time.


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## cnewsgrp (Feb 9, 2010)

ThAbtO said:


> If you just do the HD swap, then its starting over like its brand new.
> 
> If you use MFSTools 3.2, its possible, but you need both drives hooked up to the PC at the same time.


Thanks.

- Is this the link I should read? MFS Tools 3.2
- Do I still need to do cable card pairing if I use MFS Tools to clone everything from my current 500GB drive to 3 TB drive?


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

cnewsgrp said:


> Thanks.
> 
> - Is this the link I should read? MFS Tools 3.2
> - Do I still need to do cable card pairing if I use MFS Tools to clone everything from my current 500GB drive to 3 TB drive?


Yes, that is the correct one to use, up to 4TB's.


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

cnewsgrp said:


> Thanks, but there should be someway to clone the HDD and preserve cable card pairing.
> 
> Anyone?


 roamio and bolt I think store cc info on motherboard not hard drive


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## buccobruce (Aug 25, 2007)

For my premium channels, my cable card pairing was dependent on hard drive size. Changing the hard drive sized unpaired the cable card, requiring a call to the cable company. This is even after cloning. From what I recall at the time, the cable card generates some kind of key and one of the input variables is hard drive size. I have Comcast in Atlanta, and I don't know if things are different elsewhere. However, Comcast does have online cable card pairing now (never tried it)....

bb


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I think the DataID number changes with the drives.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

ThAbtO said:


> I think the DataID number changes with the drives.


Just to clarify, Data ID is for Motorola CableCARDs only. Cisco/ScientificAtlanta/Technicolor CableCARDs only have the CableCARD ID and Host ID.

Scott


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## cnewsgrp (Feb 9, 2010)

ajwees41 said:


> roamio and bolt I think store cc info on motherboard not hard drive


You are right. I was just put the 3TB drive in and did Tivo setup. Call to Verizon or re-pairing was not needed. Thanks all


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