# 3TB Bolt hard drive gone after just 1 1/2 years!



## Johnstac (Feb 6, 2016)

Two parts to my post here. The first is just the frustration of paying over $400 and losing the system after such a short time. My Premier lasted over three years until I replaced it because I just wanted something newer. Just angry. I think the part that hurts the worst is all of the programs I had saved and now I have no way to recover them. I wish there was a way to keep my TiVo backed up in an event like this.

The second part is asking if anyone knows what 3 tb hard drive I could replace it with. I’m assuming it’s the hard drive because I have the four flashing lights on the front that persists even after leaving the unit unplugged for a day and then plugging it back in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Johnstac said:


> Two parts to my post here. The first is just the frustration of paying over $400 and losing the system after such a short time. My Premier lasted over three years until I replaced it because I just wanted something newer. Just angry. I think the part that hurts the worst is all of the programs I had saved and now I have no way to recover them. I wish there was a way to keep my TiVo backed up in an event like this.
> 
> The second part is asking if anyone knows what 3 tb hard drive I could replace it with. I'm assuming it's the hard drive because I have the four flashing lights on the front that persists even after leaving the unit unplugged for a day and then plugging it back in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


WeaKnees sells what appears to be the original drive, unfortunately for a hefty price. Note that, at least the last I checked, they also were paying a bounty--really--off the price of the replacement for the sending in of the defective drive, and so that gets the price down some.

Otherwise, people here historically have liked the Toshiba 3TB 2.5" drive, model MQ03ABB300. Although Toshiba has stopped manufacturing it, it still can be found in stores, although at a higher price than earlier.

update: Yep, the WeaKnees bounty is still there. TiVo Bolt Plus and Bolt VOX 3TB TiVo Upgrade Kits and Hard Drives


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Btw, very sad to hear of your loss.  These things just should not die.


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## minimeh (Jun 20, 2011)

Johnstac said:


> ...The first is just the frustration of paying over $400 and losing the system after such a short time...


Before you do anything, be sure to check with Tivo support. I have seen reports here that, even though the Bolt may be out of warranty, Tivo has replaced the Bolt with another for $49 or $179. Unfortunately for me, I went with a WeaKnees $300 replacement drive before I knew about the out of warranty replacements. As @Mikeguy said, there is a $75 refund for your broken drive (probably funded by Tivo or Western Digital because of the overwhelming early failures of the HD), but it is on you to ship the broken drive to WeaKnees for about $12. Also, all things considered, the $29 2 year extended warranty seems like a prudent idea, so add that to the real cost.

All in all, try for a Tivo out of warranty replacement first.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

I recently thought my hard drive failed but it turned out to be the power adapter. Just saying... you need to check the hard drive health with some computer utility. There's a chance you may still have all your programs on a perfectly good hard drive that could be reinserted into the same Bolt using a more robust power adapter. That's what happened to me, albeit with a Roamio.

Other threads have said this one works with a Bolt, the difference being it's 12 volts can handle up to 5 amps rather than the maximum 3 amps of the 12V power adapter that comes with the Bolt.
https://www.amazon.com/Kastar-Adapt...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5XM46F46BVWEBRS8J1A6


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

As stated above, there is a possibility that your current recordings might still be there (or possibly recoverable), but with a Bolt, you need to step VERY carefully until you are sure the drive is really dead. If you try to test the Bolt by switching drives, then you can never put the original drive back without loosing any recordings that are on it, so try that test LAST.

I suggest you try a different power supply first. Next, there are tools to clone the existing drive or just copy the current recordings to a new drive (see the upgrade forum). We know the Bolt can be VERY finicky about what drives it will work with, so perhaps the existing drive is developing problems, but might still be readable on a computer? On the chance that maybe the drive can be read, I'd try to clone it to a replacement drive and see if the Bolt will boot with that (if the drive is a clone of the one that was last booted in the same Bolt, the recordings should still be there if it works).

Finally, if you determine that the drive is really dead, then I suggest you replace with with an external 3.5" drive, not another less-reliable and overpriced 2.5" choice.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

Johnstac said:


> I think the part that hurts the worst is all of the programs I had saved and now I have no way to recover them. I wish there was a way to keep my TiVo backed up in an event like this.


The third-party programs pyTivo and kmttg will do that.


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## Johnstac (Feb 6, 2016)

Thank you for all of the replies. What I have done is ordered the power supply from Amazon. At the same time, I have also ordered a replacement from Tivo. They waived the $49.99 which surprised me but welcomed anyway. I did go with their advanced replacement service because otherwise I would’ve had to wait until they received my box before they shipped their box. Instead, I paid them a deposit of $499 and then when they receive my box they will refund the amount. I will get the power supply first and go ahead and try that. If by some miracle it works, I will just send TiVo’s box back to them. As all of you would surely agree, preserving the the media on the original drive is priority one. Another frustrating aspect of the defective Tivo is that apparently if the hard drive is defective you cannot watch TV either. I don’t understand why that is. Even if I can’t record, it should still at least be able to pass through a signal so I can watch TV.

Anyway, I will certainly post the results when I have them. Thanks again everyone.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Even "Live TV" isn't really live on a TiVo. It's all recorded to disk first, then read back from there so that you can rewind, pause, etc. You have to put it in Standby mode to get a true passthrough.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Question to op
Did you use any aftermarket cooling on your bolt Plus? Just curious I use a fan on mine. Do you know what your temps were before it crashed on you? Temperature is monitored in TiVo settings listed as ODT value stands for on die temperature. My fan under my bolt blowing air up brought my temps down considerably. My bolt just sits on top of it it's a large 140 mm fan. Pretty quiet to


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## Johnstac (Feb 6, 2016)

So I did receive the ac adapter in just one day from Amazon. Have to admit, I was excited. The prospect of it only being the ac adapter and saving all of my programs ........all for not unfortunately. Plugged the new cord in. Saw the green light come up for about 15 seconds which is exactly what the old AC cord did as well. But then all the lights went to rapid flashing again on the front. Hey, it was worth a shot. So now we wait for the new reconditioned box to arrive. Kind of bummed me out when I asked the rep from Tivo how long this reconditioned box was warranted for she told me that if for any reason it didn’t work in the first 30 days it could be returned. 30 days? Really? I hope she’s wrong about that and that it’s good for a year or something. 

Anyway more to follow.


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## Johnstac (Feb 6, 2016)

leiff said:


> Question to op
> Did you use any aftermarket cooling on your bolt Plus? Just curious I use a fan on mine. Do you know what your temps were before it crashed on you? Temperature is monitored in TiVo settings listed as ODT value stands for on die temperature. My fan under my bolt blowing air up brought my temps down considerably. My bolt just sits on top of it it's a large 140 mm fan. Pretty quiet to


 I used no aftermarket cooling on my Bolt because anytime I am watching TV it's 72° or lower in the room. The Tivo unit sat on a shelf away from other heat sources and was not confined by a cabinet window or anything. The only thing I will say is that I was in Las Vegas the night of the 6.9 earthquake and my wife told me the power went out for a short time and then came back on. There is always a chance that a surge could have happened but I have it plugged into a Tripp Lite Isobar which is supposed to protect it from such things. In the 40 years I've been gaming and building my own computers, this is the first hard drive failure I have experienced.


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## minimeh (Jun 20, 2011)

Johnstac said:


> ...The only thing I will say is that I was in Las Vegas...In the 40 years I've been gaming and building my own computers, this is the first hard drive failure I have experienced.


Wow, you need to spend more time in Vegas because you are clearly a very lucky guy! ;-)


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Johnstac said:


> I used no aftermarket cooling on my Bolt because anytime I am watching TV it's 72° or lower in the room. The Tivo unit sat on a shelf away from other heat sources and was not confined by a cabinet window or anything.


Cooling measures (using risers; removing the cablecard hatch door; employing a fan) still will get the ODT (on-die temperature) down further, even significantly so. Some Bolt boxes seem to run hotter than others; these methods help all around.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Johnstac said:


> So I did receive the ac adapter in just one day from Amazon. Have to admit, I was excited. The prospect of it only being the ac adapter and saving all of my programs ........all for not unfortunately. Plugged the new cord in. Saw the green light come up for about 15 seconds which is exactly what the old AC cord did as well. But then all the lights went to rapid flashing again on the front. Hey, it was worth a shot. So now we wait for the new reconditioned box to arrive. Kind of bummed me out when I asked the rep from Tivo how long this reconditioned box was warranted for she told me that if for any reason it didn't work in the first 30 days it could be returned. 30 days? Really? I hope she's wrong about that and that it's good for a year or something.
> 
> Anyway more to follow.


While you wait, why not pull the drive and see if your computer can read it with MFSTools or a cloning dock? You might still be able to clone it and see if the old Bolt will boot with the new drive - only option left to possibly save your recordings.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

V7Goose said:


> While you wait, why not pull the drive and see if your computer can read it with MFSTools or a cloning dock? You might still be able to clone it and see if the old Bolt will boot with the new drive - only option left to possibly save your recordings.


That is a good idea. Maybe check the drive with one of the drive health software programs too. I would make the clone/copy using your computer and copy type program though, no cloning dock as if there are errors on the drive the dock will just keep trying to read/copy and can burn out. When using computer (MFSTools or some other cloning method) you should see errors when copying if there are any.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

Johnstac said:


> I used no aftermarket cooling on my Bolt because anytime I am watching TV it's 72° or lower in the room. The Tivo unit sat on a shelf away from other heat sources and was not confined by a cabinet window or anything. The only thing I will say is that I was in Las Vegas the night of the 6.9 earthquake and my wife told me the power went out for a short time and then came back on. There is always a chance that a surge could have happened but I have it plugged into a Tripp Lite Isobar which is supposed to protect it from such things. In the 40 years I've been gaming and building my own computers, this is the first hard drive failure I have experienced.


I wouldn't worry about the heat or the surge. Those Bolt+ Tivos are simply unreliable. You're not the first to complain, and they usually fail at around the 18 month mark.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

BobCamp1 said:


> I wouldn't worry about the heat or the surge. Those Bolt+ Tivos are simply unreliable. You're not the first to complain, and they usually fail at around the 18 month mark.


I think the best thing to do is use a good quality PMR (not SMR) 3.5 drive in an external enclosure hooked up directly to the Sata port on the Bolt MB and getting the power from the external enclosure. I don't think there are any good quality PMR 2.5" drives that will last nearly as long as a good quality 3.5. Not to mention price and size capabilities.


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