# Can I reuse old TiVo drives?



## WebAgents (Jan 3, 2003)

Hi,

I have just replaced my 2x200 GB drives in my TiVo with a 1 TB driveand I was planning on reusing the 200 GB drives in a PC. 

I know they have been running 24/7 for a few years and according to the TiVo are starting to fail but it seems a waste to not try and use them in some way. Is there a utility and I can run on these drives to mark the bad bits bad so that I can use these drives in a PC?

Regards

Bryan


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

powermax might be able to save the drive. I think there are quite a few other drive repair programs, but once they start to fail you might have to resort to hardware repairs. Sadly this is no longer cost-effective for 200GB or smaller drives unless you have all the equipment and expertise. 

Use them for holding your fourth backups of any unimportant data.

You can use them as doorstops, paperweights, and spacers!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

If the drives are giving errors on the Tivo then they are almost certainly finished for any other real world use (data generally being more valuable than the hard drives that it sits on).

The manufacturer should offer a utility for free that lets you check them and mark any sectors as bad that no longer function but I don't think its really worth it.

After several years Tivo use its normally best to bin such drives.

Also you previously posted in one of your several recent threads:-



> *the bottom of the cachecard boot screen said possible hard drive failure* see kernel log.


This is a very rare message indeed to get from a Tivo before the hard drives actually fail and yet still you refuse to take the hint and want to try to continue to use them somewhere else?


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