# Replacement drives for bolt



## Norman Ziegelmeyer

Is there a list of 2.5 inch AV drives 1,2,3 or 4TB for replacing internal Bolt drive available? Thanks


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## Mikeguy

There are various threads here on replacement hard drives--have you tried a search (top right) and/or scanning through the thread subject titles?

E.g.:

Upgrading TiVo Bolt to 1TB or higher - instructions?

Tivo Bolt hard drive replacement video


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## atmuscarella

Right now the largest recommend drive (one that people have used and not had allot of failures) is a 3TB Toshiba. There are some posts with the exact model number that you should be able to find with a search.


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## Mikeguy

atmuscarella said:


> There are some posts with the exact model number that you should be able to find with a search.


And in the above.


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## Norman Ziegelmeyer

Thanks all. I wonder if the AV type is really needed?


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## dianebrat

Norman Ziegelmeyer said:


> Thanks all. I wonder if the AV type is really needed?


no...
it's been asked many many many times over the years and while AV or 5400RPM are recommended because they produce less heat, in the Bolt your options are limited and the Toshiba is considered the current front runner with the Seagates having issues.


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## Norman Ziegelmeyer

Thanks


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## ggieseke

AV rated drives are not required, but SMR drives are toxic.


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## Paulson

Going to put that theory to the test...

I bought a 5TB external Seagate drive from Newegg for $159.99

It's a seagate barracuda drive. It's big but it fits in the enclosure just fine (can't have the clips that hold the wifi cable down installed on the drive though, it'd be too tall at that point.)

Seagate 5TB Backup Plus Hard Drives - Portable External USB 3.0 Model STDR5000100 Black - Newegg.com

It's extremely easy to remove from the case. You have a spare case, a spare usb 3.0 to sata adapter that works with an 2.5" hard drive and as long as you're gentle with the case you can pop it back in in case you need to send it in for warranty.

Will update everyone on performance (I literally just installed it.) I used the MFSR formatter on it and it appeared to work just fine. Haven't gotten past the initial setup screen to very though that it all stuck!


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## aphoid

Good luck @Paulson. That drive is definitively SMR: Seagate Introduces BarraCuda 2.5" HDDs with Up to 5 TB Capacity


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## Paulson

I know... I found it after I ordered it that it was such. I figured they would label anything SMR as archive and not barracuda but apparently I was wrong. Fortunately all my recordings get backed up to a readynas and I kept the enclosure so should the drive fail it's going back in it and getting sent back to seagate.

So far so good though. We'll see what happens when the drive has fully filled and has to write over previously written sectors.


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## Lee28104

Your safest best is the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 (3TB 2.5") available on Amazon at $138.88. It comes with a 3 year warranty and is largely trouble free...


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## aaronwt

Paulson said:


> I know... I found it after I ordered it that it was such. I figured they would label anything SMR as archive and not barracuda but apparently I was wrong. Fortunately all my recordings get backed up to a readynas and I kept the enclosure so should the drive fail it's going back in it and getting sent back to seagate.
> 
> So far so good though. We'll see what happens when the drive has fully filled and has to write over previously written sectors.


It never caused me any issues with my 4TB Seagate drives in my Bolts. The first thing I do when I put a drive in a TiVo is fill it up to 100%. SInce then they have hit around 95% full several times. And so far there have been no issues because of this.


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## Norman Ziegelmeyer

Thanks Lee 28104.


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## tivoboy

Lee28104 said:


> Your safest best is the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 (3TB 2.5") available on Amazon at $138.88. It comes with a 3 year warranty and is largely trouble free...


Concur. I've put that drive in three bolts now all running splendidly. 450hd hours is enough for me.


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## tluxon

I'm going with the 2TB WD Blue WD20NPVZ from Amazon ($117 and free two-day shipping for Prime members), primarily because it is on the same spec sheet (family) as the WD30NPRZ that TiVo puts in the Bolt+. I'd love more capacity, but I like going with a drive most similar to what TiVo chose for their high capacity 2.5 inch drive even more.

Of course, I have a network media server with 5 high capacity drives for storage that the TiVo can easily access via Streambaby or pyTivo. Without that added capacity, I'd be more tempted to stick in a larger HDD even if it might generate more heat.


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## Paulson

I haven't had any issues with the drive so far. Transferred 95% full of shows. Records 4 shows at the same time Plus served two minis at the same time with no issues. Good drive in my opinion for $159 shipped.

It also has a gig of ram onboard to store information when it's busy writing tracks or has a slowdown. That solves the issue in my opinion!


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## aaronwt

Paulson said:


> I haven't had any issues with the drive so far. Transferred 95% full of shows. Records 4 shows at the same time Plus served two minis at the same time with no issues. Good drive in my opinion for $159 shipped.
> 
> It also has a gig of ram onboard to store information when it's busy writing tracks or has a slowdown. That solves the issue in my opinion!


??? 1000MB? Are you sure it's not 128MB? That's all I see listed on the spec page for the cache size.

EIther way I hope the 5 platter, 5TB drive works out well. Like my 5 platter, 4TB drives have so far.


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## Paulson

I could have read the article wrong. Said nand and I though they were talking about nand flash memory but it may just be nand cache on the drive.

All the new BarraCuda 2.5" HDDs feature 128 MB of DRAM cache as well as multi-tier caching (MTC) technology, which is designed to hide peculiarities of SMR. Hard drives featuring shingled recording write new magnetic tracks that overlap part of the previously written tracks. This may slow down the writing process since the architecture requires HDDs to rewrite adjacent tracks after any writing operation. To "conceal" such peculiarities, Seagate does a number of tricks. Firstly, it organizes SMR tracks into bands in a bid to limit the amount of overwriting. Secondly, the MTC technology uses several bands of PMR tracks on the platters, around 1 GB of NAND flash cache as well as DRAM cache. When workloads generate relatively small amount of writes, the HDD writes data to NAND and/or to the PMR tracks at a predictable data rate. Then, during light workloads or idle time, the HDD transfers written data from the caches to SMR tracks, as described by Mark Re (CTO of Seagate) earlier this year.


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## derekb

Paulson said:


> I could have read the article wrong. Said nand and I though they were talking about nand flash memory but it may just be nand cache on the drive.
> 
> All the new BarraCuda 2.5" HDDs feature 128 MB of DRAM cache as well as multi-tier caching (MTC) technology, which is designed to hide peculiarities of SMR. Hard drives featuring shingled recording write new magnetic tracks that overlap part of the previously written tracks. This may slow down the writing process since the architecture requires HDDs to rewrite adjacent tracks after any writing operation. To "conceal" such peculiarities, Seagate does a number of tricks. Firstly, it organizes SMR tracks into bands in a bid to limit the amount of overwriting. Secondly, the MTC technology uses several bands of PMR tracks on the platters, around 1 GB of NAND flash cache as well as DRAM cache. When workloads generate relatively small amount of writes, the HDD writes data to NAND and/or to the PMR tracks at a predictable data rate. Then, during light workloads or idle time, the HDD transfers written data from the caches to SMR tracks, as described by Mark Re (CTO of Seagate) earlier this year.


@Paulson, Can you give an update onperformance of this drive in the Bolt?


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## kenquynh

Last night I installed the same Seagate 5TB like Paulson's. Thank you @Paulson! My first time upgrading the hard drive not purchased from weaknees. All went well and Bolt seems to be working just fine. And the whole process was pretty straight forward. $140 for 5TB vs. $299 for 3TB from weaknees. I should have done hard drive upgrades on my own with my other TiVos...


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## aaronwt

Hopefully it continues to work without issues. My 4TB drives are still working but I have firmware 0001. People with later firmware revisions had issues.

The 5TB drive is supposed to be just like the 4TB drive. Both are five platter designs. Only the 4TB has 800GB platters and the 5TB has 1TB platters.

Sent from my Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk


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## JOSHSKORN

I went ahead several months ago and upgraded from the Bolt to the Bolt+, which effectively gave me extra storage and more tuners. I'm one that also tried the upgrade to 4 TB with the Seagate drive and ended up with 4 flashing lights on my Bolt. I'd ruined the hard drive, I believe. I'm admittedly a bit jealous of @aaronwt as many of us are because his actually worked. Before you ask, I'd looked all over, looking for a firmware downgrade with no luck. I even tried putting the Seagate drive into an external enclosure and swapping out the existing SATA connection just to see if airflow was the issue. That, it wasn't. If you look deep enough into the forums, there's a guy that was able to use higher capacity WD Red drives as an external hard drive. It was a bit of work, as he basically cut a hole in the back of his Bolt and mounted a female connector onto the back. I more or less tried the same thing, just leaving the side cover off when trying to put my Seagate into an external enclosure. I haven't followed up on this guy so I wouldn't know if his configuration is still working.


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## kenquynh

@JOSHSKORN How long after the install of the 4TB did you start seeing issue? I've installed Seagate 5TB about 3 days ago and Bolt seems to be working without issue. Just wondering if I should be concern with what's ahead...


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## JOSHSKORN

kenquynh said:


> @JOSHSKORN How long after the install of the 4TB did you start seeing issue? I've installed Seagate 5TB about 3 days ago and Bolt seems to be working without issue. Just wondering if I should be concern with what's ahead...


You know, it's hard to say. It could be any day now, it could be a week, it also could depend on how much you have currently recorded. I don't know what exactly set my White Tivo Bolt off. I mean, do the math. The original drive was 500GB, I stuck a 4TB HDD in, so that's, what....12.5% of the size of the new HDD. I seem to remember crashes around 18% full hard drive, but THAT could've been coincidental for another problem that actually occurred. What I THINK could've happened, and I do believe there's an article somewhere about this, is, later firmware enabled SMR functions on the drive, causing the drive to work harder and burn up quicker. I did try to put the hard drive back into its original casing and plug it into my computer, but it wouldn't register. That said, I think the White bolt effectively killed the hard drive.

Now, I kind of wish I saw this before, but apparently there's a guy that I saw through the forums, that is apparently reselling Bolts on eBay. All he's doing, is opening up the Bolts, swapping out the cable and has made a cut into the frame to lead the cable out. You then connect an external HDD of your choice to it. It seems like the only one that'll work are WD Reds. Not sure if he sells this WITH the external HDD or not, though, and I also wouldn't know if he leaves the original hard drive intact. I realize you already have a Bolt, so it wouldn't make any sense to buy a new one. I mean, if you were willing to attempt to do the same thing he did to yours, that's obviously on you...all for much more storage.

Link to thread: Monster 6TB (960 hrs) External WD RED NAS Drive Bolt Lifetime Service


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## kenquynh

Thanks for the info. I'll report back if I start to run into any issues.


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## JOSHSKORN

kenquynh said:


> Thanks for the info. I'll report back if I start to run into any issues.


You're absolutely welcome. Here are a some other forum threads that will interest you, as well. If you dig deep into these threads, you may find other related working configurations. I tried to find a specific thread, no luck though. It deals with swapping out a SATA cable amd mounting the female end onto a cutout made by owner of that Bolt.
4 Lights Flashing on Bolt
4TB 2.5" drive for Bolt


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## ShinySteelRobot

Hello, @kenquynh , @Paulson ... It's been a while since you installed your drives... How are the 5 TB drives holding up?

Would like to upgrade to 5 TB, but been waiting to see how the trail blazers fare...


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## kenquynh

I haven't had any issues yet, but I've only been able to fill the drive to 15%. With the Fall season starting again, the drive should start filling up more...


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## leswar

Here's the +'s official 3tb WD Hard Drive on sale for Columbus Day. Anybody jumping on this?

WD30NPRZ Western Digital Hard Drive


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## tivoboy

leswar said:


> Here's the +'s official 3tb WD Hard Drive on sale for Columbus Day. Anybody jumping on this?
> 
> WD30NPRZ Western Digital Hard Drive


wow, quite the sale.. 356$ bucks? ouch


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## Mikeguy

leswar said:


> Here's the +'s official 3tb WD Hard Drive on sale for Columbus Day. Anybody jumping on this?
> 
> WD30NPRZ Western Digital Hard Drive





tivoboy said:


> wow, quite the sale.. 356$ bucks? ouch


The well-regarded Toshiba 3TB drive, at under half the price, still seems the way to go . . . .


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## husky55

Just a heads up. I got a couple portable 2 TB, WD and Seagate. When opened, they both have the usb connector incorporated into the drive which makes it impossible to use the drives as a sata drive.


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## DocNo

Just scored the Toshiba for $130 at macsales.com. Amazon has jacked prices due to Tivo bolt upgrades apparently (since the bought with section had a bolt and extra Tivo remote)


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## tivoboy

DocNo said:


> Just scored the Toshiba for $130 at macsales.com. Amazon has jacked prices due to Tivo bolt upgrades apparently (since the bought with section had a bolt and extra Tivo remote)


I picked up one of these earlier in the week, sadly it was DOA.. packaging was pretty poor. It happens. they are sending me another one (cross shipped) and hopefully, it will work. this is the lowest price for these drives and as others, they look like they are OEM (not meant to be manufacturer OEM, but like DELL, IBM, LENOVO OEM)


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## leswar

tivoboy said:


> I picked up one of these earlier in the week, sadly it was DOA.. packaging was pretty poor. It happens. they are sending me another one (cross shipped) and hopefully, it will work. this is the lowest price for these drives and as others, they look like they are OEM (not meant to be manufacturer OEM, but like DELL, IBM, LENOVO OEM)


tivoboy did you call or RMA online them for the new drive?
Just tested the one I purchased from MacSales ( a.k.a. Other World Computing ) with WD DataLifeguard,; had numerous write errors and then reported back as a 800GB drive (probably because DataLifeguard zeros out the bad sectors).


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## sfhub

leswar said:


> then reported back as a 800GB drive (probably because DataLifeguard zeros out the bad sectors).


Is it possible the 800GB is not an issue with the drive but with a 32-bit limitation (with overflow/rollover) on the drive's block addressing for the interface/drivers you are using to access the drive?

This is a common issue when using USB SATA interfaces that do not support larger drives or using older PCs, OSs, drivers, BIOSs


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## leswar

sfhub said:


> Is it possible the 800GB is not an issue with the drive but with a 32-bit limitation (with overflow/rollover) on the drive's block addressing for the interface/drivers you are using to access the drive?
> 
> This is a common issue when using USB SATA interfaces that do not support larger drives or using older PCs, OSs, drivers, BIOSs


Just seeing your message after returning from UPS drop-off. Most interesting. Testing pc = older AMD Athlon X4 processor w/ 1TB hd. DataLifeguard did report that the internal SATA connection was using USB. All I thought at the time was that the test would run much slower than direct to SATA . Didn't know that about issues you touch upon. I think DL initially reported the drive as 3 TB or maybe "no" TB -- can't recall. After a "quick test" (okay) did the "erase test". And that's were the vast numerous "write" error messages appeared after an hour into that test. The "extended test" then ran okay but with the 800mb disk size.

Anyway Macsales csr was very nice and accommodating sending me a prepaid UPS label via email. I cross-posted and they shipped UPS
a new one. Previously the first hd was via USPS which had the hd box inside a flat (non-bubble) plastic envelope.


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## Mikeguy

leswar said:


> Anyway Macsales csr was very nice and accommodating sending me a prepaid UPS label via email. I cross-posted and they shipped UPS a new one. Previously the first hd was via USPS which had the hd box inside a flat (non-bubble) plastic envelope.


Thanks for the info. re the good Macsales customer service--good to know.


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## sfhub

leswar said:


> Just seeing your message after returning from UPS drop-off. Most interesting. Testing pc = older AMD Athlon X4 processor w/ 1TB hd. DataLifeguard did report that the internal SATA connection was using USB.


Your symptoms (other than the bad sectors) sound suspiciously like what is described here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2099478/recognizing-800gb-3tb.html

There is a 32-bit (2TB) limit somewhere (there can be multiple places where you can hit this limit, each with their own solutions). In some cases you can update the Intel RST drivers and it will fix it. In other cases, the limitation might be in some USB chipset. In some cases it might be BIOS.

If all your PCs are older but you have a newer Win10 laptop, one way to get access to full capacity of the drive is to use a USB to SATA adapter.

This is the one I use
Vantec IDE/SATA TO USB 3.0 Adapter
The older USB SATA adapters will have the same 2TB issue. This adapter specifically says it supports up to 8TB and I have tested 6TB.

If you plan on using MFSR on your drive to 4k-align the partitions which aren't already, MFSR will fail if you cannot see the full capacity of the drive in Windows Disk Management so you'd need to resolve that issue somehow.

If all you want is to have TiVo format the drive, then it really doesn't matter what windows sees the drive as, as you'll just plop it in the Bolt and have it format the drive.


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## leswar

Good to know. I have a newer Win7 I-7 (a 6TB hd)machine but was being lazy by not opening it up like I did for testing my 3tb upgrade of my Roamio Plus a couple years ago.
The older pc was more accessible. I think I'll test the new drive on the I-7 and unplug one of the true sata cables being utilized by a hd now.

That Vantec IDE/SATA TO USB 3.0 Adapter looks interesting. Awhile back I did purchase an external Roswell hd enclosure and another dif. usb 3 to sata hd plug-able docking station.

At the time thought about upgrading the bolt with the 3 1/2" drive. I think the docking station was for cloning Roamios via usb w/o hassles of internal mounting hd in pc.

Should I MSFR the Toshiba? I'm not doing 4k television. Is that what 4k alignment is ultimately for? Or for drive life?
Thanks for taking time.


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## sfhub

leswar said:


> Should I MSFR the Toshiba? I'm not doing 4k television. Is that what 4k alignment is ultimately for? Or for drive life?


4k alignment is for longevity (aligning partitions with physical blocks to reduce disk workload). I would do the alignment since you already have the drive out, it is just a small amount of extra work.


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## leswar

okay, thanks


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## leswar

Replacement drive arrived Tuesday. WD Lifeguard Data has finished. Drive checks out good after extended test, erase test, extended test.
Now to run MSFR but I see I better watch the programs on the original HD or transfer them to pc first or risk losing them. (due to the fact the bolt wont re-accept an old drive after it runs partial GS on a new drive, whew dodged that bullet.).

That's about 250GB of shows on the bolt. Let's see the Roamios are at about 90-93% full The + is a 3TB. That's a lot to watch. The Basic is a 500Gb drive. The pc's drives are pretty full too. There's no room to transfer anywhere. Better start watching that Bolt to free it up and get the new drive in it so I can record and transfer even more shows I'm never going to watch. Why do we do this. It's not for the SHOWS. It's because we love hacking the darn thing more than watching it.


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## leswar

If you are looking to upgrade your Bolt 500 GB but cant afford the $130 for Toshiba 3 TB here's a Toshiba 1TB for less than $50
https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-MQ01...1509135169&sr=8-1&keywords=Toshiba+MQ01ABD100

MQ01ABD***V Series | TOSHIBA Semiconductor & Storage Products | Americas
Applications

Video Editing Systems
Set-Top-Box (STB)
Digital Video Recorders (DVR)
Network Video Recorders (NVR)
a.k.a. HDKBB96

and
https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-5400...1509135169&sr=8-2&keywords=Toshiba+MQ01ABD100
see 
Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Toshiba MQ01ABD 1 TB 2.5" Internal Hard Drive MQ01ABD100

Fulfilled by Amazon Prime but 3rd party. Buyer be aware.

The WD 2 TB is two dollars cheaper:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071NLR34Z/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I2RXTEHPZEAXGN&colid=61BQ6UT0ENMR

Halloween Sale! on the WD 3 TB:
WD30NPRZ Western Digital Hard Drive
but mostly posted for a laugh 

Good luck.


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## tivoboy

So, here is an ODD update.. if you look back I had the flashing lights issue, and couldn't even MOUNT the drive anywhere.. gave up and moved on to a new drive (well, haven't actually moved on yet).

But, the interesting part is that when I did these upgrades from 500MB to 3TB, I did this one for me, and ANOTHER one for a friend. about the same time that we did the upgrades. Well, my friend randomly saw me at a party the other day and he said "you know, the other day my Bolt had these four flashing lights" and he did all the tricks from the internet and in the end, it booted up again. But, BOTH Bolts with the same drives and chronological lives on them, had the same flashing lights issue within DAYS or each other. Statistically, this could NOT have been the drives. It HAD to be some sort of software update or data update that put these machines into this mode. It just couldn't be a coincidence like this with a few days of each other - after 355 days?


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## m.s

tivoboy said:


> It HAD to be some sort of software update or data update that put these machines into this mode.


Forcing a restart after a code upgrade, yes. The root cause being the code upgrade, no. There are areas which only get accessed when booting. One drive could have had something go bad there months ago, the other very recently, but the issues were only noticed when a new upgrade came around to force a reboot of both around the same time. If so, seeing the problem would only be coincidental to the code upgrade.


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## tivoboy

m.s said:


> Forcing a restart after a code upgrade, yes. The root cause being the code upgrade, no. There are areas which only get accessed when booting. One drive could have had something go bad there months ago, the other very recently, but the issues were only noticed when a new upgrade came around to force a reboot of both around the same time. If so, seeing the problem would only be coincidental to the code upgrade.


Uh, my english very bad.. does that mean yes? code upgrade and system upgrade could cause this issue, and therefore seeing it nearly simultaneously on two machines is possible? or no possible?


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## m.s

It means that just because things happens around the same time, the cause doesn't have to be the same. Correlation is not causation:


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## Mikeguy

m.s said:


> It means that just because things happens around the same time, the cause doesn't have to be the same. Correlation is not causation:


Well, that's assuming that margarine consumption does not actually cause divorce.


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## 241705

Anyone install Hydra and then replace the hard drive? I still have the original 500GB in my Bolt, and am planning to upgrade. I don't see why things would work any differently but I'd rather be a follower, not blazing the trail.


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## 241705

Replying to my own question: I did just replace my Bolt's 500GB HD with a 2TB. Hydra was was already installed and the HD swap had no issues


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## Tony_T

Well, not already installed, Hydra is d/l'd as part of the Set-up, isn't it?


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## James Michaelsen

apparently when Tivo goes to the final software version of their new user experience, all external drives will no longer be supported.
Verified with Tech support tonight.


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## dianebrat

James Michaelsen said:


> apparently when Tivo goes to the final software version of their new user experience, all external drives will no longer be supported.
> Verified with Tech support tonight.


Tivo Tech and customer support have no crystal ball and their information is frequently inaccurate, I would take that information with a grain of salt.
However since this thread is all about internal drives, it doesn't apply


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## James Michaelsen

Well WD has discontinued their External AV hard drive, so what options will we have.

Has anyone got a larger internal hard drive to work with the new Tivo Bolt VOX units?


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## Tony_T

3TB Toshiba is the popular drive used as a DIY Upgrade for the Bolt


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## James Michaelsen

which module drive?


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## Tony_T

I don't remember, but there's a few threads on the topic.


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## dianebrat

Lee28104 said:


> Your safest best is the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 (3TB 2.5") available on Amazon at $138.88. It comes with a 3 year warranty and is largely trouble free...





Tony_T said:


> I don't remember, but there's a few threads on the topic.


Like the first page of the thread you're in right now..


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## Tony_T

Thanks 
Price of Toshiba MQ03ABB300 on Amazon is now $127.49
(as of today, only 10 in stock)


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## James Michaelsen

Tony_T said:


> Thanks
> Price of Toshiba MQ03ABB300 on Amazon is now $127.49
> (as of today, only 10 in stock)


I Ordered the drive from Amazon.

Transferred all my files from my Roamio PRO to my PC.

So what do I do:

Install the 3 TB drive in the new Bolt VOX when I get it and use Tivo desktop to transfer them to the new larger drive?

Do I need to remove my Roamio Pro off the network to do this? Will the software find the new Bolt VOX?

I don't want to screw this up.


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## Tony_T

See: Can't transfer recordings from Roamio to Bolt
So, *Try*
1) downgrade from Hydra on the Bolt: How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1 (works for the Bolt also), transfer files, then if you want Hydra after that, just hit the Mic button on the VOX remote.
*or Try*
2) transfer using TiVoOnline.


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## James Michaelsen

That would mean I have to have both the roamio and bolt with subscription would it.

I have a a subscription for the Roamio.

I want to copy all my existing recordings to the Bolt with its new hard drive , deactivate the Roamio and then activate the Bolt.

Tivo online will not allow me to copy files over to the new Bolt unless I have a subscription for it I believe.


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## Tony_T

I read that you can't transfer from PC->Bolt with Hydra on the Bolt. I would _guess_ that you can if you rollback from Hydra on the bolt (you can then upgrade back to Hydra after the transfer). Best to ask this in: Easier to use pyTivo

*Keep in mind that you will lose everything (shows, OnePasses, etc) on the Bolt when you rollback* (but since you would be rolling back after initial install, you have nothing to lose)


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## sfhub

James Michaelsen said:


> That would mean I have to have both the roamio and bolt with subscription would it.
> 
> I have a a subscription for the Roamio.
> 
> I want to copy all my existing recordings to the Bolt with its new hard drive , deactivate the Roamio and then activate the Bolt.
> 
> Tivo online will not allow me to copy files over to the new Bolt unless I have a subscription for it I believe.


You can pay for one month of activation, then cancel before 29th day for full refund.


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## verythoughtful

My Bolt 500GB had a 4TB Weaknees external drive attached (purchased 12/2016 with all-in service). The Bolt failed under warranty and Tivo provided a new unit, but the new Bolt does not recognize the Weaknees external drive as an approved drive. Weaknees wants me to send the Bolt and their 4TB drive and $95 and they will make it work. In retrospect, the 4.5TB of Bolt total storage was a little overkill - mainly saving movies I like. Now that I can stream many of those movies, I am trying to think this through.

I am thinking about what my options are.
1) Pay the $95 and get the Bolt back to 4.5TB - All my movies are lost.
2) Live with the 500GB storage. It's what I am doing now with the new Bolt.
3) See if the 4TB drive could go into the new Bolt. I don't know what drive Weaknees put in their branded enclosure.

Thoughts/suggestions?


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## ej42137

verythoughtful said:


> My Bolt 500GB had a 4TB Weaknees external drive attached (purchased 12/2016 with all-in service). The Bolt failed under warranty and Tivo provided a new unit, but the new Bolt does not recognize the Weaknees external drive as an approved drive. Weaknees wants me to send the Bolt and their 4TB drive and $95 and they will make it work. In retrospect, the 4.5TB of Bolt total storage was a little overkill - mainly saving movies I like. Now that I can stream many of those movies, I am trying to think this through.
> 
> I am thinking about what my options are.
> 1) Pay the $95 and get the Bolt back to 4.5TB - All my movies are lost.
> 2) Live with the 500GB storage. It's what I am doing now with the new Bolt.
> 3) See if the 4TB drive could go into the new Bolt. I don't know what drive Weaknees put in their branded enclosure.
> 
> Thoughts/suggestions?


#3 won't work; the external drive from Weaknees is 3.5", it won't fit in a Bolt. If you want more storage, upgrading the internal drive is more reliable but you have to work a little to find 3TB drives that will fit in a Bolt and aren't made unreliable by shingles.


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## Tony_T

verythoughtful said:


> My Bolt 500GB had a 4TB Weaknees external drive attached (purchased 12/2016 with all-in service). The Bolt failed under warranty and Tivo provided a new unit, but the new Bolt does not recognize the Weaknees external drive as an approved drive. Weaknees wants me to send the Bolt and their 4TB drive and $95 and they will make it work. In retrospect, the 4.5TB of Bolt total storage was a little overkill - mainly saving movies I like. Now that I can stream many of those movies, I am trying to think this through.
> 
> I am thinking about what my options are.
> 1) Pay the $95 and get the Bolt back to 4.5TB - All my movies are lost.
> 2) Live with the 500GB storage. It's what I am doing now with the new Bolt.
> 3) See if the 4TB drive could go into the new Bolt. I don't know what drive Weaknees put in their branded enclosure.
> 
> Thoughts/suggestions?


4) Buy a 2T WD20NPVZ


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## Tiger62

Tony_T said:


> 4) Buy a 2T WD20NPVZ


Does this drive need to have it's head parking disabled, or changed? If so, will WDIDLE3 work on this drive? I have this drive but haven't installed it in the Bolt yet. There is discussion that the head parking needs to be changed to 300 seconds but it doesn't appear that everyone believes that's necessary!


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## Tony_T

All I did was install it into my Bolt.
6 months running w/o a problem.


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## jlb

Tiger62 said:


> Does this drive need to have it's head parking disabled, or changed? If so, will WDIDLE3 work on this drive? I have this drive but haven't installed it in the Bolt yet. There is discussion that the head parking needs to be changed to 300 seconds but it doesn't appear that everyone believes that's necessary!


I just dropped one in today and did nothing else to prep the drive

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## aaronwt

Surprisingly my second 4TB Seagate I got in October 2015 is still running great in a Bolt.. I only wish the other one I got back then was still working.


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## jlb

aaronwt said:


> Surprisingly my second 4TB Seagate I got in October 2015 is still running great in a Bolt.. I only wish the other one I got back then was still working.


Because I'm a little OC, I think I will start to figure out KMTTG so I can periodically backup my settings and all in the event I have to replace my upgraded HD

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tony_T

Good idea. I use kmttg to back up my 1passes periodically.
With kmttg you just need to have java installed, then it's easy to use.
(I also used it for auto-commercial SKIP, but not so much now that I use the IFTTT applet)


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## jlb

Tony_T said:


> Good idea. I use kmttg to back up my 1passes periodically.
> With kmttg you just need to have java installed, then it's easy to use.
> (I also used it for auto-commercial SKIP, but not so much now that I use the IFTTT applet)


Thanks. Is there a basic "how to" laying around for it?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tony_T

jlb said:


> Thanks. Is there a basic "how to" laying around for it?


kmttg / Wiki / Home


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## jlb

Tony_T said:


> kmttg / Wiki / Home


Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## markjrenna

I know this is an old thread but wanted to follow up and see how the drives are holding up and was thinking about a 2 TB or 3 TB drive myself. Just not certain which to get.


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## JoeKustra

Bolt Hard Drive Upgrade Choice

Not old.


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## Mikeguy

markjrenna said:


> I know this is an old thread but wanted to follow up and see how the drives are holding up and was thinking about a 2 TB or 3 TB drive myself. Just not certain which to get.


Toshiba
 3.0TB MQ03ABB300 Hard Disk Drive
2.5-Inch | SATA 6Gb/s | 5400RPM | 16MB Cache

Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm SATA... at MacSales.com

Also available in a 1 and 2TB variant.


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## markjrenna

Mikeguy said:


> Toshiba
> 3.0TB MQ03ABB300 Hard Disk Drive
> 2.5-Inch | SATA 6Gb/s | 5400RPM | 16MB Cache
> 
> Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm SATA... at MacSales.com
> 
> Also available in a 1 and 2TB variant.


I read reviews on Amazon and they seemed very conflicted on this drive. I am curious to know the longevity of these different drives people have tried.


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## Mikeguy

markjrenna said:


> I read reviews on Amazon and they seemed very conflicted on this drive. I am curious to know the longevity of these different drives people have tried.


As far as I am aware, this is the drive that "traditionally" had been recommended here.


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## A J Ricaud

I've had 1 in my TiVos for 3 yrs. and a second for 2 1/2 yrs. w/o any problems.


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## kazak99

markjrenna said:


> I read reviews on Amazon and they seemed very conflicted on this drive. I am curious to know the longevity of these different drives people have tried.


I installed my Toshiba 3TB Hard Disk Drive (MQ03ABB300) in July 2017. It is still running with no issues. My Bolt is running the TE3 operating system - never upgraded to TE4/Hydra.


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## exdishguy

I installed a MQ03ABB300 yesterday once I read that Tivo has in fact discontinued the 3TB Bolt. It all went smoothly, however, I am having stuttering video with pixelation issues when I skip back a few times. I have zero RS Correct or Uncorrected errors so it isn't FiOS. I have my trusty Roamio Pro sitting right next to the Bolt and it is as smooth as butter. (btw - realizing now that the Roamio Pro is the PINNACLE of good productID and the by far the best Tivo box ever made). 

So since my warranty is now voided anyway, I'm going to try the WD 3TB that comes in the 3TB Bolt (ordered from Weaknees at an unreasonable rate) and will see how it performs. I hate to jump to conclusions with the MQ03ABB300 but I can hear the thing writing away and it just seems like its not able to keep up. Maybe I got a bad drive. Dunno.


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## JoeKustra

exdishguy said:


> I have zero RS Correct or Uncorrected errors so it isn't FiOS. I have my trusty Roamio Pro sitting right next to the Bolt and it is as smooth as butter. (btw - realizing now that the Roamio Pro is the PINNACLE of good productID and the by far the best Tivo box ever made).


A basic Roamio and Bolt don't display (if they are counted) RS Corrected errors. The Roamio Pro should. To test, just remove the rf feed to both units while they are running. Check the counters.


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## Mikeguy

exdishguy said:


> I installed a MQ03ABB300 yesterday once I read that Tivo has in fact discontinued the 3TB Bolt. It all went smoothly, however, I am having stuttering video with pixelation issues when I skip back a few times. I have zero RS Correct or Uncorrected errors so it isn't FiOS. I have my trusty Roamio Pro sitting right next to the Bolt and it is as smooth as butter. (btw - realizing now that the Roamio Pro is the PINNACLE of good productID and the by far the best Tivo box ever made).
> 
> So since my warranty is now voided anyway, I'm going to try the WD 3TB that comes in the 3TB Bolt (ordered from Weaknees at an unreasonable rate) and will see how it performs. I hate to jump to conclusions with the MQ03ABB300 but I can hear the thing writing away and it just seems like its not able to keep up. Maybe I got a bad drive. Dunno.


Thanks for the report, which is distressing.


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## exdishguy

JoeKustra said:


> A basic Roamio and Bolt don't display (if they are counted) RS Corrected errors. The Roamio Pro should. To test, just remove the rf feed to both units while they are running. Check the counters.


The Roamio Pro (or Plus...3TB version) does show it - or at least it has in the past. I've referred to it a few times when I've had some marco-blocking, etc. issues since I had a terrible RS Uncorrected problem with Fios many many years ago. Totally different and long story.

The Bolt is sitting at 99-100% signal strength and 40 to 41db SNR. I just doubt its the cable feed.

I didn't like spending the money for the Weaknees WD30NPRZ drive but since I now own this thing without warranty (with Lifetime), I may as well minimize the probability that I will suffer hard drive issues down the road. If the WD gives me peace of mind - and hopefully doesn't "stutter" like I saw with the Toshiba last night....then yea! for me. I guess.

Overall, the build quality of the Bolt is just very poor. The design is simply ridiculous. But I do like that its snappier and how fast Netflix loads - even on TE3, it loads exponentially faster.


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## JoeKustra

exdishguy said:


> The Bolt is sitting at 99-100% signal strength and 40 to 41db SNR. I just doubt its the cable feed.


Before doing the hard thing, you might want to add some attenuation to get your Signal down to 90% and SNR should follow to 36%. Close counts. I've had 90% for several years, and last month someone needed more power on my street so I'm running 92% on all boxes. SNR up to 37dB. I have a Premiere also, so I can see RS Corrected and they are still at zero.


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## exdishguy

JoeKustra said:


> Before doing the hard thing, you might want to add some attenuation to get your Signal down to 90% and SNR should follow to 36%. Close counts. I've had 90% for several years, and last month someone needed more power on my street so I'm running 92% on all boxes. SNR up to 37dB. I have a Premiere also, so I can see RS Corrected and they are still at zero.


Thanks. Yea, I can try attenuating. I can in fact see RS uncorrected errors on the Bolt on one of the six tuners. It was at 38dB SNR and there were a 400 or so errors. Good lord I hope that issue isn't back for me with this thing. I went through holy hell with Tivo and Verizon 7 or 8 years ago. I guess the upside is that I have a bunch of attenuators laying in a drawer somewhere...

But first, I am going to swap the drives. It's already on its way.


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## JoeKustra

My normal error count is zero. That is on four Roamio units. Usually in the spring or summer my tap goes bad. I see errors. They start moving and I also get bad blocks on my modem. I call my cable company and they replace my tap. No errors for a year. Been that way for five years. The tap (a splitter) is not enclosed, so weather is one factor and it sits in the sun all day which doesn't help.


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## exdishguy

exdishguy said:


> Thanks. Yea, I can try attenuating. I can in fact see RS uncorrected errors on the Bolt on one of the six tuners. It was at 38dB SNR and there were a 400 or so errors. Good lord I hope that issue isn't back for me with this thing. I went through holy hell with Tivo and Verizon 7 or 8 years ago. I guess the upside is that I have a bunch of attenuators laying in a drawer somewhere...
> 
> But first, I am going to swap the drives. It's already on its way.


Check that. I just threw a -6dB attenuator on and I'm still seeing 100% at 40dB SNR on just about every channel I've tried.

I've read that the tuner in this thing is far more sensitive but I had no idea. I'm not sure this will work, but I'll leave the attenuation on while I await the WD drive and see how it goes tonight. Maybe I'll even drop it another -3dB.


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## JoeKustra

exdishguy said:


> Check that. I just threw a -6dB attenuator on and I'm still seeing 100% at 40dB SNR on just about every channel I've tried.


Try another 6dB. That Signal % only goes to 100%. It could be very hot. On my Roamio it counts by 3%, but SNR counts by 2%.


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## exdishguy

JoeKustra said:


> Try another 6dB. That Signal % only goes to 100%. It could be very hot. On my Roamio it counts by 3%, but SNR counts by 2%.


Done. My signal is now at 92% on average and 37dB SNR. We'll see how it goes tonight.


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## DeltaOne

I've added 12 dB of attenuation to my Comcast signal to achieve signal strengths of 85 to 95%. SNR numbers from 33 to 37. The added attenuation solved some pixelation problems I was seeing.


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## exdishguy

DeltaOne said:


> I've added 12 dB of attenuation to my Comcast signal to achieve signal strengths of 85 to 95%. SNR numbers from 33 to 37. The added attenuation solved some pixelation problems I was seeing.


I ended up at 9dB attenuation on the Bolt. 12dB was too much and caused me to not be able to lock on some channels (namely, the NHL channel on FiOS). So far 9dB is working well in terms of RS counts. I still see some wonkiness with the Bolt when skipping backwards/forwards intermittently. I also found an issue with a recording made on the Roamio and the issue manifest itself on the Bolt in the exact same place, no matter how I transferred the file from the Roamio to the Bolt. Given I can repeat this issue in the same exact place during playback I have to rule out ODT temps, tuner sensitivity issues and hard drive issues (anything random) - this seems to be something to do with the Broadcom chip in the Bolt and its decoding.

Man I sure wish I hadn't upgraded this Bolt and voided my warranty. I've had my Roamio Plus (upgraded to a 3TB "Pro" by Weaknees) since 2011 and it is still a workhorse and just super reliable. So why'd "upgrade?" I wanted the faster app loading, 802.11ac, and MoCA 2.0. I was hoping this thing could replace my Roamio in my family room for daily viewing but right now it may be going in my home theater to be used for occasional movies via Netflix and Vudu. Argghhhhh.....


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## phox_mulder

markjrenna said:


> I read reviews on Amazon and they seemed very conflicted on this drive. I am curious to know the longevity of these different drives people have tried.


I put that drive in my Bolt in April 2017 and haven't had a single issue.


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## exdishguy

phox_mulder said:


> I put that drive in my Bolt in April 2017 and haven't had a single issue.


Cool. I'm not sure it is the Toshiba drive or not in mine nor would I claim that your Toshiba drive is bad. Right now, I'm seeing too many other things contributing to some of the glitches I'm seeing (such as the tuner sensitivity and need for attenuation). As I said, I've ordered the WD to play it safe and (largely) eliminate my Toshiba as being the cause of any issues.


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## phox_mulder

exdishguy said:


> Cool. I'm not sure it is the Toshiba drive or not in mine nor would I claim that your Toshiba drive is bad. Right now, I'm seeing too many other things contributing to some of the glitches I'm seeing (such as the tuner sensitivity and need for attenuation). As I said, I've ordered the WD to play it safe and (largely) eliminate my Toshiba as being the cause of any issues.


Check the temperature when you are seeing the glitching, excess heat can cause all kinds of issues, and the Bolts aren't known for having good cooling.


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## exdishguy

phox_mulder said:


> Check the temperature when you are seeing the glitching, excess heat can cause all kinds of issues, and the Bolts aren't known for having good cooling.


I haven't seen it get over 65C ODT. Not sure what Broadcom chip they are using or the temp tolerances - that doesn't seem crazy high. I'll keep an eye on it though and I guess if I have to throw it on top of a USB laptop cooler I can try that and see if it helps.


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## exdishguy

exdishguy said:


> I haven't seen it get over 65C ODT. Not sure what Broadcom chip they are using or the temp tolerances - that doesn't seem crazy high. I'll keep an eye on it though and I guess if I have to throw it on top of a USB laptop cooler I can try that and see if it helps.


Well I woke up to watch a recording of SNL and it is a complete mess. The Bolt is slow to skip and even pausing the show. Then about a 3rd of the way in there is pixelation so bad that the image froze in a mosaic. I checked RS counters and they are 0. Arggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!


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## shwru980r

exdishguy said:


> Well I woke up to watch a recording of SNL and it is a complete mess. The Bolt is slow to skip and even pausing the show. Then about a 3rd of the way in there is pixelation so bad that the image froze in a mosaic. I checked RS counters and they are 0. Arggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!


Pull the drive, hook it up to a PC and run the manufacturers diagnostic utility. If the drive is bad, the sooner you let Toshiba know, the more money they will pay you for the warranty claim.


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## exdishguy

shwru980r said:


> Pull the drive, hook it up to a PC and run the manufacturers diagnostic utility. If the drive is bad, the sooner you let Toshiba know, the more money they will pay you for the warranty claim.


Sorry guys - not trying to start a pissing match but the WD30NPRZ works absolutely flawless for me. No more stuttering - break ups - slow FF/RW/Skip, etc. Even better news that the temp is now 56c ODT and I haven't touched the fan yet.

I did a full surface scan on the Toshiba and there is nothing wrong with the drive. It's mint.

I know this Toshiba drive worked well for many folks so I'm happy for you all. But for the WD30NPRZ is worth every penny to me.

Now I still might change the fan out since I already bought one. I don't have any noise issues but I've voided my warranty at this point anyway so if I can pick up a couple more degrees of cooling....worth a shot.


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