# Swap Hard Drives Between Like Tivo's



## Rhughes (Jan 14, 2001)

I found out the hard way today that I received a DirecTivo on Ebay that was in collections. I even checked with Direct before purchase, but the seller sent me a different receiver (different receiver ID) from the one he advertised.

The unit was a Philips DSR708. Unfortunately, I spent the time and money to upgrade the unit with a new 250MB hard drive before I saw today that the receiver ID's were different. I have another Philips DSR708. Is it possible to just swap out the hard drive from one to the other being that they are both the same units? I'm pretty sure I used the image from a 3rd DSR708 that is currently active on my account to create the new drive, so I would think that it would be a simple swap.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

You should be able to swap the drives but you'll have to do a Clear & Delete Everything to get rid of the hardware error #51 message that will occur.


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

On standalone units you can swap hard drives in the same model but you get a hardware error message which can be cleared with a full clear and delete everything. Don't know anything about DirecTV units.


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## Rhughes (Jan 14, 2001)

captain_video said:


> You should be able to swap the drives but you'll have to do a Clear & Delete Everything to get rid of the hardware error #51 message that will occur.


Thanks. I forgot about the clear and delete requirement. Back to the workbench.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

DirecTivo drives can be swapped between like models just like the SA versions. In fact, any series 2 DTivo drive can be swapped between any other S2 DTivo, regardless of make or model or whether it's RID or non-RID. The only adverse effect is that the model the image was taken from will show up in the system information screen. Don't worry, it won't cause your Tivo to have an identity crisis. Your Philips DTivo may think it's an RCA or a Samsung but it won't care and will still function normally.


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## Rhughes (Jan 14, 2001)

captain_video said:


> DirecTivo drives can be swapped between like models just like the SA versions. In fact, any series 2 DTivo drive can be swapped between any other S2 DTivo, regardless of make or model or whether it's RID or non-RID. The only adverse effect is that the model the image was taken from will show up in the system information screen. Don't worry, it won't cause your Tivo to have an identity crisis. Your Philips DTivo may think it's an RCA or a Samsung but it won't care and will still function normally.


I put the drive in the other DSR708 and ran the clear and delete to make sure. Took about an hour and everything seems to be working correctly. I know this DSR708 has no credit problems.

Next will be to get it activated and hope I don't have to buy a new card. I had some trouble with the CSR's today when they deactivated my R10 so I could use the card in the what turned out to be a "bad" DSR708. When we found out the DSR708 couldn't be activated because it was in collections, I said I would put the R10 back like it was. The CSR in activation said she would take care of it. However, when I got the R10 running again, the card and receiver weren't married. Went through two more CSR's who couldn't fix the problem, and I finally ended up with a technician who did get it going after a couple of tries. Both CSR's said I would have to get another card to activate another TiVo, but the technician said if I had talked to him first he could have activated the R10's card in the DSR708 and I didn't need another card. I know this problem with CSRs has been discussed at length, but I don't know how to go directly to a technician with their new telephone system. I'm tempted to just pay the $20 for a new card to avoid the hassle. Maybe that's their plan.


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