# Can I use any eSATA external hard drive, or only...



## kisby

the WD mybook drive?

I guess that I'd like to get a larger drive. I know there is another thread on external HD, but it does not definitely answer this question.

If possible, which other larger external HDs would you recommend?

I'm buying my Bolt at BestBuy tomorrow, getting tired of my old TWC DVR. I already have the cable card. Hoping setup will be easy.

Thanks for any advice.


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## dianebrat

No, you can ONLY use the approved WD Expander.


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## kisby

why is that? How does the bolt even know which brand / size of external hard drive you are using?


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## dianebrat

kisby said:


> why is that? How does the bolt even know which brand / size of external hard drive you are using?


Why? because they don't want to troubleshoot a million different variations is the main reason, and "because that's the way they do it" is the other.

The Tivo software has an internal list of drives it will mate to for expansion, if it's not on the list, it won't pair, end of story. Except for the original OLED S3 this has always been the case.


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## kisby

dianebrat said:


> The Tivo software has an internal list of drives it will mate to for expansion, if it's not on the list, it won't pair, end of story.


Fair enough. Where is the list? Can I get more that a 1TB external HD?


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## dianebrat

kisby said:


> Fair enough. Where is the list? *Can I get more that a 1TB external HD?*


No, 
The WD Tivo approved 1TB Expander drive is currently the only one available, rumor is there may be another on the way eventually, but at the moment you have a choice of 1 unit unless you want to hunt for one of the older 500GB Expander drives.

However in non-Bolt scenarios the conventional approach is to just upgrade the internal drive instead and eliminate the added potential issue of losing all recordings made after the Expander was attached should either internal or external drives fail.


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## atmuscarella

kisby said:


> Fair enough. Where is the list? Can I get more that a 1TB external HD?


Alternatively you can wait a week or 2 to see if Weaknees.com figures out a way to offer custom alternative storage for the Bolt (you would need to buy the Bolt from them) like they do with the Roamios. They have figured out how to use 6TB external storage on the Roamios but they have to "marry" the drives physically and if anything goes wrong you have to send it all back to them to get fixed.


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## unitron

kisby said:


> the WD mybook drive?
> 
> I guess that I'd like to get a larger drive. I know there is another thread on external HD, but it does not definitely answer this question.
> 
> If possible, which other larger external HDs would you recommend?
> 
> I'm buying my Bolt at BestBuy tomorrow, getting tired of my old TWC DVR. I already have the cable card. Hoping setup will be easy.
> 
> Thanks for any advice.


You might find this thread

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=532530

of considerable interest.


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## jcthorne

dianebrat said:


> However in non-Bolt scenarios the conventional approach is to just upgrade the internal drive instead and eliminate the added potential issue of losing all recordings made after the Expander was attached should either internal or external drives fail.


Same is now true for Bolt.


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## atmuscarella

Well as expected Weaknees.com can now sell you an 8TB bolt upgrade, 2TB internal & 6TB external drive, 984 hrs of HD. I would never pay what they are asking but if someone has money to burn they can help you out: http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-bolt-4k-series6.php


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## DiGNAN17

I'd be willing to add some instability to have expanded recording space. The fact that Tivo only supports that one drive is unacceptable. Amazon currently sells the 1TB WD drive for around $160. That's an absurd price, considering a 4TB standard external drive is only ~$130, and 6TB is only a little more than the DVR drive at $185.

It looks like the WD DVR drive just isn't selling well, and is only carried by a third party. Perhaps they'll start selling more of those and the price will come down, but I'm not holding my breath. I was excited about the Bolt until I saw that it had - at most - half the capacity of my Premiere XL4. I would have been happy to make up the difference with an external drive, but not at these absurd prices.


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## solutionsetc

DiGNAN17 said:


> The fact that Tivo only supports that one drive is unacceptable.


Yeah... Tivo's lone supported drive is a dinosaur and they need to offer up a more up to date solution. Maybe by 2020 (c;


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## kcossabo

solutionsetc said:


> Yeah... Tivo's lone supported drive is a dinosaur and they need to offer up a more up to date solution. Maybe by 2020 (c;


Weakness offers a Bolt with an external 6TB drive but does not seem to offer the drive alone 

I have upgraded the internal drive to the popular 4TB Samsung via http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade/ help, but having odd issues (no tiro suggestions, and can not 'push' recordings to it)

I HATE external storage, but ... with only 2.5" drive space only option at this time.

Why would they have a 4K box with only 1TB + 1TB seems soon 2000ish


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## fcfc2

kcossabo said:


> Weakness offers a Bolt with an external 6TB drive but does not seem to offer the drive alone
> 
> I have upgraded the internal drive to the popular 4TB Samsung via http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade/ help, but having odd issues (no tiro suggestions, and can not 'push' recordings to it)
> 
> I HATE external storage, but ... with only 2.5" drive space only option at this time.
> 
> Why would they have a 4K box with only 1TB + 1TB seems soon 2000ish


Hi,
Regarding the drive sizes, I think Tivo compares their offerings to the boxes offered by most of the cable companies and AFAIK none of those is any larger.
Regarding the upgraded Bolt hard drive, MFS Reformatter, has upgraded their software to be more compatible with the Bolt series.  You might have to wipe the existing partitions on your current 4TB drive to get it right, but if you can transfer the bulk of your recordings to a PC and then start over with MFSR, you might solve the current issues you are experiencing.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528428


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## kcossabo

fcfc2 said:


> Hi,
> Regarding the drive sizes, I think Tivo compares their offerings to the boxes offered by most of the cable companies and AFAIK none of those is any larger.
> Regarding the upgraded Bolt hard drive, MFS Reformatter, has upgraded their software to be more compatible with the Bolt series. You might have to wipe the existing partitions on your current 4TB drive to get it right, but if you can transfer the bulk of your recordings to a PC and then start over with MFSR, you might solve the current issues you are experiencing.
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528428


Thank you for the link, I might try that. Hate too loose a few weeks of commercial skip though....

With Respect To the Cable Companies setting the standard.... I hope TiVo does not lower itself to a Cable company, or I could just rent one of theirs....

Glad that TiVo is as open as they are, and Thank you to cTiVo, pyTiVo, KMTTG, and all the other great tools.

Will check out the MFSR, but I am a Mac guy and I thought that one needed Windows....


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## DiGNAN17

I agree with kcossabo that if Tivo is merely trying to match their cable company competitors, they're going the wrong direction.

Besides, they've offered far more space in the past. I have the Premiere XL4 with 300 hours of HD recording. It's going to be really tough going back to 75 or 150 hours. My storage is constantly at least 70% full, usually around the upper 80's.


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## samccfl99

dianebrat said:


> why? And "because that's the way they do it" is the other.


*AND therein lies the problem with Tivo, Inc., Their way or the Highway.* 

Re-hi Ms Brat...Still the defender of the Empire I see...so sorry...

_OH AND THEN THERE IS STILL THE FACT THAT IF YOU LOSE THE EXTERNAL, YOU LOSE EVERYTHING DUE TO THEIR WONDERFUL PROGRAMMING ABILITY..._


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## dianebrat

dianebrat said:


> Why? because they don't want to troubleshoot a million different variations is the main reason, and "because that's the way they do it" is the other.





samccfl99 said:


> Originally Posted by dianebrat View Post
> why? And "because that's the way they do it" is the other.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *AND therein lies the problem with Tivo, Inc., Their way or the Highway.*
> 
> Re-hi Ms Brat...Still the defender of the Empire I see...so sorry...
> 
> _OH AND THEN THERE IS STILL THE FACT THAT IF YOU LOSE THE EXTERNAL, YOU LOSE EVERYTHING DUE TO THEIR WONDERFUL PROGRAMMING ABILITY..._
Click to expand...

Nothing like only 1/2 quoting the line to change what I said, that's not at all cool, but then since you also threw in a personal attack and lots of colors and emoticons I guess that justifies it


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## Javelin3o4

I'll probably do the internal hdd upgrade at some point. Anyone remember back in the series 2 days when you could slap two hard drives inside a Tivo.


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## aaronwt

Javelin3o4 said:


> I'll probably do the internal hdd upgrade at some point. Anyone remember back in the series 2 days when you could slap two hard drives inside a Tivo.


Yes. I did that with my DirecTV Tivos..


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## rtoledo

dianebrat said:


> Nothing like only 1/2 quoting the line to change what I said, that's not at all cool, but then since you also threw in a personal attack and lots of colors and emoticons I guess that justifies it


ok so I get what you are saying about only the WD 1tb external, they are playing it safe blah blah.

has anyone in this community try to remove the drive from the extender and put one of WD's bigger AV drives ? and does it work ?

Being new to TIVO but not to standards like ESATA and 32bit or 64 bit OS limitations, are they looking for a signature from the Extender that they read, and then approve their Tivo OS to engage/ approve the drive ?

cause with a "normal" OS / BIOS , it's automatically adds the hardware, as for the formatting that depends on 32bit or 64 bit partition limitations

not arguing , just trying to understand WHY , they are so entranched on one product only. beside the "support" calls


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## Chris Gerhard

rtoledo said:


> ok so I get what you are saying about only the WD 1tb external, they are playing it safe blah blah.
> 
> has anyone in this community try to remove the drive from the extender and put one of WD's bigger AV drives ? and does it work ?
> 
> Being new to TIVO but not to standards like ESATA and 32bit or 64 bit OS limitations, are they looking for a signature from the Extender that they read, and then approve their Tivo OS to engage/ approve the drive ?
> 
> cause with a "normal" OS / BIOS , it's automatically adds the hardware, as for the formatting that depends on 32bit or 64 bit partition limitations
> 
> not arguing , just trying to understand WHY , they are so entranched on one product only. beside the "support" calls


The information required by the TiVo is not with the enclosure, it is on the drive itself. Other enclosures will work with an approved drive, although not all, which is of no benefit of course.


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## JoeKustra

rtoledo said:


> ok so I get what you are saying about only the WD 1tb external, they are playing it safe blah blah.
> 
> has anyone in this community try to remove the drive from the extender and put one of WD's bigger AV drives ? and does it work ?
> 
> Being new to TIVO but not to standards like ESATA and 32bit or 64 bit OS limitations, are they looking for a signature from the Extender that they read, and then approve their Tivo OS to engage/ approve the drive ?
> 
> cause with a "normal" OS / BIOS , it's automatically adds the hardware, as for the formatting that depends on 32bit or 64 bit partition limitations
> 
> not arguing , just trying to understand WHY , they are so entranched on one product only. beside the "support" calls


I have removed the 1TB drive from a TiVo supplied WD MyBook. I put the drive into a basic Roamio. It had blocking errors after a few months. I've replaced it with another WD10EURX in the same Roamio and it works better (and cooler?).

If you do decide to remove the drive, please take a lot of pictures. The drive is held in place with four different unique rubber mounts. No screws. It would be quite the challenge to change the drive.

I don't know if there is anything proprietary about the interface. It could be any eSATA box with a 1TB drive would work. But I'm part of the "never external" crowd now.

The drive is formatted by the TiVo on first boot. I have a USB3 enclosure that I used to test the drive. I don't have anyway to test a drive with eSATA. I don't believe there is anything special about the external drive, but I've never played with it. It sits in a box with the 500GB drive that is safe in case I need to put it back for a support reason.

My other basic Roamio has a WD30EURX and no problems. It is a few degrees warmer.

I know this is a Bolt forum, but I hope I can convince you to be cautious.


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## ej42137

If you must have an external drive, consider this thread. Apparently an 8TB external drive is possible.

Personally, based on my own experiences with unreliable external drives, I wouldn't touch one with a 3.048 meter pole.


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## arjaysmithjr

dianebrat said:


> Nothing like only 1/2 quoting the line to change what I said, that's not at all cool, but then since you also threw in a personal attack and lots of colors and emoticons I guess that justifies it


Why is it that I've been misled around here?
I bought a TIVO HD, with NO INTENTION of paying Tivo 
a dime, only to discover it was phased out.
Everyone on this site said it COULD NOT BE USED
as a "dumb" DVR. It had to have a lifetime sub, etc.

BALONEY.

Just don't let the thing call home, and you can use it
to record to your heart's content, MANUALLY.
I have all my OTA channels going through it for
pause and FF etc, and am using it just fine
as a so-called "dumb" DVR,
The clock is off, but I learned addition and subtraction
in 1955,
thank you very much.

Just correcting a FALSEHOOD perpetuated here.

BTW, everything Tivo charges for, and MUCH MORE
can be had for free online.


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## dianebrat

arjaysmithjr said:


> Why is it that I've been misled around here?
> I bought a TIVO HD, with NO INTENTION of paying Tivo
> a dime, only to discover it was phased out.
> Everyone on this site said it COULD NOT BE USED
> as a "dumb" DVR. It had to have a lifetime sub, etc.
> 
> BALONEY.
> 
> Just don't let the thing call home, and you can use it
> to record to your heart's content, MANUALLY.
> I have all my OTA channels going through it for
> pause and FF etc, and am using it just fine
> as a so-called "dumb" DVR,
> The clock is off, but I learned addition and subtraction
> in 1955,
> thank you very much.
> 
> Just correcting a FALSEHOOD perpetuated here.
> 
> BTW, everything Tivo charges for, and MUCH MORE
> can be had for free online.


What on earth does any of your speech have to do with my comment that you quoted?


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## tivoyahoo

dianebrat said:


> What on earth does any of your speech have to do with my comment that you quoted?


exactly. and what does it have to do with a bolt esata thread? was the TivoHD post intended for a Series3 forum thread?


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## unitron

arjaysmithjr said:


> Why is it that I've been misled around here?
> I bought a TIVO HD, with NO INTENTION of paying Tivo
> a dime, only to discover it was phased out.
> Everyone on this site said it COULD NOT BE USED
> as a "dumb" DVR. It had to have a lifetime sub, etc.
> 
> BALONEY.
> 
> Just don't let the thing call home, and you can use it
> to record to your heart's content, MANUALLY.
> I have all my OTA channels going through it for
> pause and FF etc, and am using it just fine
> as a so-called "dumb" DVR,
> The clock is off, but I learned addition and subtraction
> in 1955,
> thank you very much.
> 
> Just correcting a FALSEHOOD perpetuated here.
> 
> BTW, everything Tivo charges for, and MUCH MORE
> can be had for free online.


Where, online, or anywhere else, can you find, for free, a license to legally use the proprietary software TiVo wrote for any of their models?


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## dianebrat

unitron said:


> Where, online, or anywhere else, can you find, for free, a license to legally use the proprietary software TiVo wrote for any of their models?


They're a one and done, we'll never hear from them again IMNSHO


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## Lokerd

Not a BOLT ESATA question, but I am trying to hook up an external drive to a Roamio. I have two drive pulls from previous a failed Roamio (500gb) and a TivoHD Series 3 (160gb). I had programming on both units when they fail. The THD just stopped booting up. The Roamio died from a flashing green light. The drives spin up, but will not mount on a computer in a normal SATA drive case. I got an Esata case, but both drives come up as unsupported when plugged into my new Roamio. Is that correct to have two TIVO drives not even work as TIVO external drives? Is there any hope for the drives anyway? The 160 is too small, but I wouldn't mind putting the 500 to use to back up a computer. That is...after I watch the programming. Thanks for the feedback.


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## dianebrat

Lokerd said:


> Not a BOLT ESATA question, but I am trying to hook up an external drive to a Roamio. I have two drive pulls from previous a failed Roamio (500gb) and a TivoHD Series 3 (160gb). I had programming on both units when they fail. The THD just stopped booting up. The Roamio died from a flashing green light. The drives spin up, but will not mount on a computer in a normal SATA drive case. I got an Esata case, but both drives come up as unsupported when plugged into my new Roamio. Is that correct to have two TIVO drives not even work as TIVO external drives? Is there any hope for the drives anyway? The 160 is too small, but I wouldn't mind putting the 500 to use to back up a computer. That is...after I watch the programming. Thanks for the feedback.


Only the approved 500GB and 1TB eSATA DVR Drive Expanders will work as external drives, an internal drive in a case will not work on a Roamio


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## jrtroo

And even if it did work, the data in a two-drive system is spread across both of the drives, and would not be watchable anyhow.


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