# Bolt+ Replacement Drive Options?



## c-collins (Sep 27, 2003)

The Bolt+ I got 3 years ago during the one in a lifetime upgrade sale seems to have have suffered a HDD failure. Getting the flashing lights on the front after I power cycle. 

What are my best replacement options for an HDD? or SSD I cant even find 3TB 2.5 inch drives. 
Week Knees does list them but $299 seems pricey.

Im know I lose all my content will I also lose all my season passes?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Everything is lost once the HD fails. Bolts tend to fail faster since they use the 2.5inch laptop drives. You can also use 3.5 inch drives, but they have to be in an external case and wired directly between the drive and MB.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

c-collins said:


> he Bolt+ I got 3 years ago during the one in a lifetime upgrade sale seems to have have suffered a HDD failure. Getting the flashing lights on the front after I power cycle.
> 
> What are my best replacement options for an HDD? or SSD I cant even find 3TB 2.5 inch drives.
> Week Knees does list them but $299 seems pricey.
> ...


Call TiVo support and see what they'll do for you as they've been offering replacements for Bolt+ drive failures at reduced costs even for units like yours that would not be covered under warranty or Continual Care (in some cases they even contacted the user before the drive failed as it was reporting errors).

Scott


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

c-collins said:


> The Bolt+ I got 3 years ago during the one in a lifetime upgrade sale seems to have have suffered a HDD failure. Getting the flashing lights on the front after I power cycle.
> 
> What are my best replacement options for an HDD? or SSD I cant even find 3TB 2.5 inch drives.
> Week Knees does list them but $299 seems pricey.
> ...


First of all you don't HAVE to replace with a 3TB. As far as I know there are no CURRENT model 3TB (or even 2TB) 2.5" CMR drives being manufactured (you cannot use a SMR drive). But you can get 500GB-1TB 2.5" CMR drives (one example is the WD 1TB 2.5 Red, it is CMR). Or you can go external, it is not that tough and opens up a load of economical large drive size options. You can take a look at my external upgrade thread to see if it is something you want to attempt. It will work with TE3 and TE4. If not and you can live with 1TB or under can still find 2.5" CMR drives.

TE4 Bolt upgrade with external drive

If going external you still have to be careful to buy a CMR 3.5" drive. Exact model numbers are important, for example some WD Reds are CMR (good), others SMR (will not work). This site is rather handy for finding out what model number drives are CMR or SMR.

The HDD Platter Capacity Database

At the time of this posting all WD PURPLES are CMR (and Weaknees uses the purples in at least some of their upgrades). You will most likely lose all recordings and settings if your current drive has completely failed. Only chance of saving I can think of could be cloning the failing drive (cloning, not copying) to a new drive and hope there are few enough errors on current drive where the clone might partially work.

One final thing, the Bolt will format a fresh drive up to 3TB. Anything more you need to use MFSR and/or MFST to use the added capacity. And once you put in a new drive and the Bolt formats it EVERYTHING on your current drive will be lost, even if you don't alter the drive.

Edit 9/3/2020, if using latest version of TE4 it now appears the Tivo will fully format drives over 3TB itself. TE4 (Hydra) only, not TE3 (Classic).


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

HerronScott said:


> Call TiVo support and see what they'll do for you as they've been offering replacements for Bolt+ drive failures at reduced costs even for units like yours that would not be covered under warranty or Continual Care (in some cases they even contacted the user before the drive failed as it was reporting errors).
> 
> Scott


It's definitely worth a shot. However since Xperi took over I have not read a post about them replacing the 3TB Bolt for a reasonable price like they used to (even free occasionally). One person with a 3TB said $149 for the unit and $199 to transfer lifetime service. But a call would not hurt.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

tommage1 said:


> It's definitely worth a shot. However since Xperi took over I have not read a post about them replacing the 3TB Bolt for a reasonable price like they used to (even free occasionally). One person with a 3TB said $149 for the unit and $199 to transfer lifetime service. But a call would not hurt.


I just read that as well after replying here. 

Scott


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

HerronScott said:


> I just read that as well after replying here.
> 
> Scott


Still worth a shot though, not sure if it's some blanket Xperi thing with the 3TB models. After all the reason Tivo replaced cheap or free pre Xperi was kind of a design flaw, ie a drive that can fail very quickly. But technically they don't have to do anything for units out of warranty.............


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## c-collins (Sep 27, 2003)

Thank you everyone for the advice.
After learning the hard way SMR drives won't work with a 2TB WD blue. I ended up buying the 3TB model from weaknees. It is installed and running now.
I opted for internal because of 3 little gremlins in my house who would never leave an external enclosure alone.
I wonder what Tivo or Drive makers are doing that that makes SMR drives incompatible. SMR drives are a big problem in the tech world in general.
I miss the days of Tivo using 3.5 inch drives it was so much easier and cost effective.


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## multiple (Aug 26, 2007)

I started this thread to track drives that are known not to work, but it also lists drives that work:
List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt


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## don911 (May 7, 2014)

Can anyone recommend a 2.5" hard drive I can buy to replace a failing 3TB drive in my Bolt+? Preferably a 3TB or 2TB drive that I can buy new.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

don911 said:


> Can anyone recommend a 2.5" hard drive I can buy to replace a failing 3TB drive in my Bolt+? Preferably a 3TB or 2TB drive that I can buy new.


There isn't any 2.5 inch drive that are recommended. You could have a drive in an external enclosure connected to the internal SATA port (not the external eSATA port) and powered externally.


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## johnbrown44 (May 11, 2015)

Once again, I am reading things on this forum that do not match my experiences.

Someone on this forum _*recommended*_ this drive:Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (15mm) Mobile Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty
It is thicker than the original in my Edge, had to remove the metal "cage" that was on top of the original Edge drive, and the plastic lid still doesn't close fully, but not noticeable. Not sure if your Bolt would have the same problem.

I paid $49.99 shipped. It is *NOT* SMR.

Edge formatted it and was up and running in ~20 min and has worked flawlessly for me since January of this year. Seems to be out of stock at the site linked, may find elsewhere. Might not be currently manufactured. I don't expect the longevity of a 3.5" drive, but I have more than one Tivo, so if one of them pukes I won't lose all of my recordings. Hopefully I would notice problems with the drive prior to complete meltdown, so I could transfer programs, but not a huge deal to me, as I have redundancy.


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## don911 (May 7, 2014)

OK, thanks. I have a lot of old drives lying around, and a couple of them actually worked. A 500GB 2.5" Hitachi HTS545050B9A302 and a 3TB 3.5" Hitachi HDS723030ALA640. But the 500GB is too small and the 3TB has some bad sectors. 

If I have to go the external 3.5" route (and drill a hole in the TiVo for the cables to go through I assume?), are there any new 3.5" drives that are recommended? It seems like the HDS723030ALA640 is still available, but since mine is 10 years old, I would prefer a newer model.

Or is it perhaps better to just use the internal 500GB that is working and then attach an external drive via eSATA for more storage? If so, can you recommend a good 3.5" external for that purpose?


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## johnbrown44 (May 11, 2015)

don911 said:


> Or is it perhaps better to just use the internal 500GB that is working and then attach an external drive via eSATA for more storage? If so, can you recommend a good 3.5" external for that purpose?


I would lean towards drilling the hole and using an external 3.5". I understand when adding an extra drive to the internal via eSATA they become linked, and a failure of either would cause the loss of all data on both drives. I don't know if the Bolt has an eSATA port? The OTA Edge doesn't, but does have a removable"door" that can be removed that a SATA cable could go thru. Power would be a different matter, not sure if the Edge (edit: or Bolt) mobo could supply the needed current for a 3.5" drive.

I used the internal 2.5 2TB because it was only ~$50 shipped, and didn't need to have an extra gizmo and power pack to deal with. But the 3.5" drives will almost certainly last longer, and are typically cheaper than comparably sized 2.5" drives.

I used a WD Red Plus 3TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s, CMR, 128MB Cache, 3.5 Inch - WD30EFZX ($87.99 + tax, shipped) when upgrading my Roamio a few months ago. Contrary to many posts on this forum that the Roamio will format up to a 3TB drive with no user intervention, I had to jump thru some hoops. Could be that my Roamio is running TE3.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

johnbrown44 said:


> Once again, I am reading things on this forum that do not match my experiences.
> 
> Someone on this forum _*recommended*_ this drive:Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (15mm) Mobile Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty
> It is thicker than the original in my Edge, had to remove the metal "cage" that was on top of the original Edge drive, and the plastic lid still doesn't close fully, but not noticeable. Not sure if your Bolt would have the same problem.
> ...


It is difficult to find current production 2.5" drive that works with TE4. The only ones I know of are out of production. So you are either buying pre-owned or new old stock.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## don911 (May 7, 2014)

johnbrown44 said:


> I would lean towards drilling the hole and using an external 3.5". I understand when adding an extra drive to the internal via eSATA they become linked, and a failure of either would cause the loss of all data on both drives.


That makes sense. I just tried another old 3TB drive I had laying around, a Seagate ST3000DM001. That one worked too. So I think I'll just use that drive together with a Male to Female SATA and Power Combo Extension Cable and then drill a hole in the enclosure to get it out to the drive. It seems like the Bolt+ is able to power a 3.5" drive just fine.

I really didn't like the TE4 UI on my new Edge, so I'll probably return it and continue to use my old Bolt+ with TE3 now that it works again. I especially didn't like the navigation changes and that you have to use the back button to get out of every menu/page instead of just using the "scroll wheel". The Edge is also less responsive than my old Bolt+, where everything is instant. Thanks for your help!


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

don911 said:


> ...*I just tried another old 3TB drive I had laying around, a Seagate ST3000DM001. That one worked too. So I think I'll just use that drive* together with a Male to Female SATA and Power Combo Extension Cable and then drill a hole in the enclosure to get it out to the drive. *It seems like the Bolt+ is able to power a 3.5" drive just fine*...


Why don't people use GOOGLE?  Or Bing??  Or DuckDuckGo???  ...*BEFORE* they attempt '*Technical Actions That They Are NOT Familiar With?*'  

Wikipedia: ST3000DM001 - Wikipedia​


Spoiler



The internet, (i.e. using GOOGLE, Bing, DuckDuckGo, is such a *FANTASTIC* resource compared to how I had to trek off to the Public Library 50+ years ago to look things up and pay 10¢ per page to photocopy the 'most important' pages to take home to reference while performing the needed repair(s). 



First, you'll be posting shortly for where to buy a new Bolt Power Supply due to overload, *IF*, second, the Seagate 7200 RPM HDD doesn't fail first (due to KNOWN, widely publicized *reliability defects* ). 


> "...This particular drive model was reported to have unusually high failure rates, approximately 5.7 times higher failure rates in comparison to other 3 TB drives, for which Seagate faced a class-action lawsuit..."


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## don911 (May 7, 2014)

ClearToLand said:


> First, you'll be posting shortly for where to buy a new Bolt Power Supply due to overload, *IF*, second, the Seagate 7200 RPM HDD doesn't fail first (due to KNOWN, widely publicized *reliability defects* ).


OK, thank you. So what would you do then since it seems to be difficult/impossible to find a new 2TB 2.5" drive that works? Buying a new 3.5" drive and power it separately? If so, which 3.5" drive would you recommend? And how would I best give power to a 3.5" drive outside the TiVo? I was thinking of a 15-pin to USB cable? But perhaps a 5V USB port is not enough to power a 3.5" drive? They advertise these cables for 2.5" drives.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

johnbrown44 said:


> I don't expect the longevity of a 3.5" drive


I think you meant a 2.5" drive.


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

don911 said:


> OK, thank you...


You're welcome! 


don911 said:


> ...*So what would you do then since it seems to be difficult/impossible to find a new 2TB 2.5" drive that works? Buying a new 3.5" drive and power it separately? If so, which 3.5" drive would you recommend?*


Back in 2016 / 2017, *BEFORE* SMR HDDs surfaced, the recommended HDD for TiVo units was:

*Western Digital 3TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD30EFRX* (I have 5 of these; was called 'WD Red' then.)​
but around late 2019 (I say around because the manufacturers tried to 'sneak' SMR HDDs into the mainstream), the WD Red became SMR (doesn't work with TiVo :thumbsdown, where previously, for a decade, they were CMR (works with TiVo :thumbsup. IIRC, folks with NAS units discovered this 'attempted cover-up' when they went and bought their 'tried-and-true' WD Red and it failed during a 'RAID Re-build' (There's a 'technical term' for that, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up.  ). In April 2020, WD succumbed to public pressure and confessed but, in what I believe is a moment of utter stupidity, they kept the NEW SMR HDD under the decade-old name of WD Red, which had 100s (1000s?) of positive referrals and created a new line named WD Red Plus for the old, tried-and-true CMR HDDs (just to confuse *ANYONE* who didn't keep up with the whole story): 

*Western Digital 3TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 128 MB Cache, 3.5" -WD30EFZX* (I have 2 of these but I haven't installed them in anything yet.)​


don911 said:


> ...*And how would I best give power to a 3.5" drive outside the TiVo? I was thinking of a 15-pin to USB cable?* But perhaps a 5V USB port is not enough to power a 3.5" drive? They advertise these cables for 2.5" drives.


No, no, no!  You put the 3½" HDD in an External Case with its own SEPARATE power supply and fan and ONLY connect the SATA cable to the INTERNAL / MOTHERBOARD SATA connector on the Bolt, NOT the External eSATA.

The first TCF community member, that I was aware of, to do this was a gent with black framed glasses and a suit in his Profile picture (don't see him post much so I'd have to SEARCH for his name). He did a BEAUTIFUL job, posting many pictures and, IIRC, naming the parts he used.
.
Next one that I remember is @tommage1 ; pictures and part names too, IIRC. He posts often so I see his UserID often enough to remember it.
I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to SEARCH a bit tonight for this info, as I'm currently involved in a major project and only posting during a short (getting longer by the minute as 'Alerts' keep popping up ) break.


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## johnbrown44 (May 11, 2015)

ThAbtO said:


> I think you meant a 2.5" drive.


No, I meant "I don't expect" (the 2.5" drive to have) "the longevity of a 3.5 drive."

I often get lazy and type in somewhat of a shorthand. When proofing what I have written, I will often catch things I write that need clarifying, and edit. I still miss lots of things that could be written more clearly. They seem to make sense to me, but may not to everyone.


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## johnbrown44 (May 11, 2015)

don911 said:


> So what would you do then since it seems to be difficult/impossible to find a new 2TB 2.5" drive that works? Buying a new 3.5" drive and power it separately?


I'm happy with my 2.5" 2TB drive. I like not having a big, clunky external 3.5" hard drive and enclosure, and all the required cables/power supply. But I may be giving up the longevity of a 3.5" drive, time will tell. Worth it to me, YMMV. Part of the appeal of the Edge to me is the small footprint.

As others have mentioned, 2-3 TB 2.5" non SMR drives might take some searching to find, some can be quite pricey. It will be up to you if it is worth the trouble.

Suddenly I'm wanting a Bolt. I like the fact that many of them can run TE3, yet have the speed of the Edge. I understand they can have heat issues, if I get one I will be adding better cooling. Do you know if they have Gigabit networking, as the Edge does?


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## johnbrown44 (May 11, 2015)

jmbach said:


> It is difficult to find current production 2.5" drive that works with TE4. The only ones I know of are out of production. So you are either buying pre-owned or new old stock.


True. Mine was perhaps a year or so old, new old stock, sealed package, so the 3 year warranty lost a bit. In this day and age, I don't put much faith in warranties for lower cost items. Back in the day I can remember sending back drives nearly 5 years old (that I bought used, and had no paperwork/receipt) and getting a new one back in the mail. Those days are probably long gone. I suppose the Red+ and higher end drives may have better warranties, haven't read the fine print. Seems many are cutting back in an effort to keep costs low.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

johnbrown44 said:


> Do you know if they have Gigabit networking, as the Edge does?


Yes the Bolt (and the Roamio Plus and Pro) has GbE. Actual speed is CPU limited.


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

Has anyone tried a ST1000VT001 in a Bolt? This the 1TB version of the Edge drive.

goHardDrive.com - Seagate ST1000VT001 1TB (7mm) 5400RPM 128MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5'' Internal Notebook Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty


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