# Bolt+ Failed Drive, is Edge a Downgrade?



## FN128! (Aug 19, 2020)

I have a Bolt+ with a failed drive. TiVo support stated they were no longer replacing drives or units for the Bolt. They offered to replace my Bolt+ with an Edge (cable version.) This seemed like a downgrade to me for the following reasons:


the Bolt+ does both cable and OTA recording (the Edge can only do one or the other, you have to choose the model).
the Bolt+ has a 3TB drive, the Edge has only 2TB.

I do use OTA recording sometimes, and I do use all that storage. I don't need the new audio capabilities of the Edge. Am I missing some other improvement or benefit with the Edge? It seems like I'd be better off putting a new drive in the Bolt+. Any recommendations? Thanks


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

If it were me, I'd replace the drive in the Bolt+ over going to the Edge since the Bolt+ can stay on TE3.
if it were a no cost swap I might consider the Edge since it can format and use larger drives without any additional steps.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

That's a bummer to hear that. 

Out of curiosity, are you out of warranty? How much does TiVo want to charge for such a swap? I may end up in that boat someday. I'm still on the original stock 3 TB drive on my Bolt+ that I received at end of April 2017. The 3 year extended warranty I paid for has expired.

(OTA wouldn't matter to me as I can't get OTA reception worth beans here.)


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

I'd just replace the drive in the Bolt. 2TB 3.5" drives are fairly inexpensive. 3TB 3.5" aren't being manufactured anymore(?) and demand a premium compared to 2TB. I replaced the 500GB drive in my Bolt with a 3TB. When it dies, I'll probably get a 2TB.

As dianebrat mentioned, the Bolt can run TE3. For me this is important because I often transfer videos from a server to my TiVos. PC->TiVo not possible with TE4.

To be fair, the cable Edge has 6 tuners vs 4 (I assume the Bolt+ has just 4, like my 500GB Bolt).


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

dianebrat said:


> If it were me, I'd replace the drive in the Bolt+ over going to the Edge since the Bolt+ can stay on TE3.
> if it were a no cost swap I might consider the Edge since it can format and use larger drives without any additional steps.


Doesn't the Edge use 2.5" drives like the Bolt? Can you find any with more than 2TB capacity anymore? In any case, a larger drive than 3TB would require an external 3.5", right? Or have people successfully put huge (>4TB) SSDs in their Edge? Do they auto-initialize? Even in my Roamio Plus, I stuck with a 3TB internal 3.5" as that was the largest that would auto init.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

justen_m said:


> To be fair, the cable Edge has 6 tuners vs 4 (I assume the Bolt+ has just 4, like my 500GB Bolt).


Bolt+ is 6 tuners, Cable only



justen_m said:


> Doesn't the Edge use 2.5" drives like the Bolt? Can you find any with more than 2TB capacity anymore? In any case, a larger drive than 3TB would require an external 3.5", right? Or have people successfully put huge (>4TB) SSDs in their Edge? Do they auto-initialize? Even in my Roamio Plus, I stuck with a 3TB internal 3.5" as that was the largest that would auto init.


The Edge still takes 2.5" drives and there have been reports of 10TB drives being autoformatted if they route the connections externally, and apparently the Edge is more forgiving about the 2.5" high capacity drives working in it. So in theory an Edge could use future higher capacity 2.5" drives without doing anything other than replacing the drive.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

FN128! said:


> I have a Bolt+ with a failed drive. TiVo support stated they were no longer replacing drives or units for the Bolt. They offered to replace my Bolt+ with an Edge (cable version.) This seemed like a downgrade to me for the following reasons:
> 
> 
> the Bolt+ does both cable and OTA recording (the Edge can only do one or the other, you have to choose the model).
> ...


The Bolt+ doesn't do OTA. So I'm not sure what you have.

I use an externally connected 3.5" drive for my Bolt+. I recommend doing that.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

dianebrat said:


> Bolt+ is 6 tuners, Cable only


Thanks. I was a bit confused as the OP mentioned Bolt+ but also it doing OTA.

My 4-tuner Bolt does OTA or Cable, while my 6-tuner Roamio Plus only does cable. So I thought his/her Bolt+ was like my Bolt. Not exactly sure what the OP has.

Confusing these days. e.g. I've got a 4-tuner OTA|cable Bolt, originally 500GB, now 2.5" 3TB internal.
My Roamio Plus, 6-tuner cable-only, originally 1TB, now 3.5" 3TB internal.

Sort of wish I had gone to, say, 8-10TB with my Roamio instead of the lazy 3TB route. At this point, probably easiest to just pop another drive in my server and put kmttg to work.


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## FN128! (Aug 19, 2020)

cwerdna said:


> That's a bummer to hear that.
> 
> Out of curiosity, are you out of warranty? How much does TiVo want to charge for such a swap? I may end up in that boat someday. I'm still on the original stock 3 TB drive on my Bolt+ that I received at end of April 2017. The 3 year extended warranty I paid for has expired.
> 
> (OTA wouldn't matter to me as I can't get OTA reception worth beans here.)


There was no charge for the swap, although they stated they would ship the Edge now and charge me, and when they received the failed unit from me, they would credit back the charge for the Edge to my credit card.


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## FN128! (Aug 19, 2020)

justen_m said:


> Thanks. I was a bit confused as the OP mentioned Bolt+ but also it doing OTA.
> 
> My 4-tuner Bolt does OTA or Cable, while my 6-tuner Roamio Plus only does cable. So I thought his/her Bolt+ was like my Bolt. Not exactly sure what the OP has.
> 
> ...


Yes, I was wrong on the OTA tuner. I do use it occasionally, but it's not directly through the Tivo and I can't record OTA via Tivo.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

FN128! said:


> Yes, I was wrong on the OTA tuner. I do use it occasionally, but it's not directly through the Tivo and I can't record OTA via Tivo.


When Tivo was replacing with another Bolt +, you only got a 1TB drive so a 2TB edge is twice as much storage. I think the edge has a slightly faster processor than the bolt. I would go with an edge.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

shwru980r said:


> When Tivo was replacing with another Bolt +, you only got a 1TB drive so a 2TB edge is twice as much storage. I think the edge has a slightly faster processor than the bolt. I would go with an edge.


The Bolt+ was always a 3TB drive, not a 1TB, so any Edge is a downgrade in capacity out of the box.
That being said the Edge can format larger drives than the Bolt line by itself.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

dianebrat said:


> The Bolt+ was always a 3TB drive, not a 1TB, so any Edge is a downgrade in capacity out of the box.
> That being said the Edge can format larger drives than the Bolt line by itself.


I thought I read that Tivo was sending out replacements with a 1TB drive.


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## mrsean (May 15, 2006)

FN128! said:


> There was no charge for the swap, although they stated they would ship the Edge now and charge me, and when they received the failed unit from me, they would credit back the charge for the Edge to my credit card.


Make sure you get that in writing beforehand. This is the first time that I am hearing of a no-cost Bolt to Edge swap.


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

mrsean said:


> Make sure you get that in writing beforehand. This is the first time that I am hearing of a no-cost Bolt to Edge swap.


Another person posted that TiVo swapped them a Roamio for an Edge as the Bolt inventory is gone.


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## cabincp (Dec 23, 2018)

I just went through TiVo support with this problem. They gave me a swap for $99 (sticker price was $149, should this tactic have been a warning?). I guess the option of replacing the hard drive in the Bolt+ was and option but it requires taking the Bolt apart, which is beyond my paygrade. The $99 cost seemed like a breakeven choice anyway. Any comments?


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

If you arent comfy swapping hard drives and the like...$99 for a...what are you getting? A Bolt or an Edge? Either way a unit Tivo will back for a period of time is worth the cost. I see you mentioned "swap". I guess they have a Bolt on hand for you.


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## cabincp (Dec 23, 2018)

mattyro7878 said:


> If you arent comfy swapping hard drives and the like...$99 for a...what are you getting? A Bolt or an Edge? Either way a unit Tivo will back for a period of time is worth the cost. I see you mentioned "swap". I guess they have a Bolt on hand for you.


By swap I meant a new Edge. It's coming tomorrow so we'll see. Super Bowl is getting close.


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## Hamstring (Feb 13, 2007)

The hard drive swap in the bolt is easy. I hate doing that kind of stuff. I’d probably just upgrade to an Edge if I had a big discount.


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## multiple (Aug 26, 2007)

dianebrat said:


> The Bolt+ was always a 3TB drive, not a 1TB, so any Edge is a downgrade in capacity out of the box.
> That being said the Edge can format larger drives than the Bolt line by itself.


The Bolt and Edge both auto format drives larger than 3TB. However, this is only under TE4. In general, anything larger than 2TB requires using a 3.5" drive. There are still multiple 3TB and greater 2.5" drives available, but none work under TE4 with one exception. There is one 2.5" 5TB drive that works under TE4, but it is an SMR drive. I'm using it in several Bolts and my Edge. See my thread on all the 2.5" drive options that still work: List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt

Under TE3 you are limited to 3TB auto formatting. Any drives that don't work under TE4 applies to both Bolt and Edge. So all SSDs and many of the 3TB and 4TB drives that work under TE3 no longer work under TE4.


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## cabincp (Dec 23, 2018)

Here's another reason to replace the hard drive and keep the Bolt in your network. Unfortunately I did not do that. The Edge arrived on Thursday after the call to Spectrum to register the new home for the cable card and a call to TiVo support, the Edge began functioning for my attached TV. However, the two minis on the network could not find the Edge and my wife was not happy. I spent an hour with TiVo this morning unplugging, rebooting, menuing to the point of exhaustion only to be told that the Edge needed some new software and this would take a few days. To keep the wife happy, I'm temporarily getting a DVR box from Spectrum. So add to the $99 exchange fee for the Edge $30 or so for the DVR rental and you've got your self a real nice hard drive for the Bolt. But would it have been foolish to think the Bolt would have stayed on the network?
BTW when trying to trouble shoot the network, I noticed a slight discrepancy in the MAC address listed for the Edge and the one listed for it on the network settings for MOCA link history on the minis. Just the last character was off: 94:8F:CF:96:340 vs 94:8f:cf:96:34:d2. I don't know if that means anything.


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