# Bolt HDD Upgrades in 2021



## Laughs Brightly (Jan 23, 2016)

Pardon me for asking what seems to have been answered a lot on this forum. I did take the time to search and read a lot of posts, but lots of recommended drives seem to be no longer available (or expensive and used). 

What is the current prevailing wisdom for upgrading a Bolt drive at this time? From some of the forum posts it looks like Purples are now in favor? Also, read in 1 post that with TE4 I can use over 3 TB drives that will be formatted properly by the Tivo - is that true?). I did find a 2 TB WD Red Plus 64MB cache at MicroCenter, but I figure if I'm going to take it apart again and run an external tray (only broke 1 tab last time) I might as well go big.


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## JOSHSKORN (Aug 27, 2015)

It's been awhile since I've even looked into the topic, as I gave up on it. The hard drive I got (4TB Seagate) basically died and killed my Bolt after a couple of months, I ended up getting a Bolt+ to replace it. I can't remember if I had a Lifetime subscription at the time or how that all worked out, but I have that now.

If I remember correctly, there's a difference between PMR and SMR drives. I can't remember which is which, but the hard drive in the Bolt is one of them, and usually, the other is available for purchase for computer hard drive upgrades. I feel like the other type is what was causing hard drives to fail inside of Bolts. I think a TiVo update also broke many third party hard drives as well.

I remember reading about one guy who got lucky with a 4TB hard drive, using very early firmware of that particular drive. I lost touch with him, though, not sure if his setup is still holding out or if he's even still on TiVo.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

The WD Red Plus are CMR, so I would think that would be a good choice for a 3½" drive.
Western Digital adds "Red Plus" branding for non-SMR hard drives


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

My Bolt+ original 6YO+ 3GB HD died last night (all lights flashing). I bought this 2GB one today from Amazon for $53.50:

Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5in Hard Drive (15mm Thickness for TiVo or MiniPC only, not for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty

Smaller than original but way cheaper than anything else....


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## Laughs Brightly (Jan 23, 2016)

Tony_T said:


> The WD Red Plus are CMR, so I would think that would be a good choice for a 3½" drive.
> Western Digital adds "Red Plus" branding for non-SMR hard drives


Thanks.
I did get a 4 TB WD Red Plus with an inland enclosure and so far, so good. I was pleasantly surprised that the Bolt formatted the 4 TB on the drive without issue.


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## MrDell (Jul 8, 2012)

Sparky1234 said:


> My Bolt+ original 6YO+ 3GB HD died last night (all lights flashing). I bought this 2GB one today from Amazon for $53.50:
> 
> Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5in Hard Drive (15mm Thickness for TiVo or MiniPC only, not for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty
> 
> Smaller than original but way cheaper than anything else....


I think that you did the best thing! Not only is this drive cheap, it's proven to perform very reliably and hold up well. A relative just installed this same one and it is working great&#8230;. Good luck with your install!


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

The only problem is that it’s limited to 2T.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

JOSHSKORN said:


> It's been awhile since I've even looked into the topic, as I gave up on it. The hard drive I got (4TB Seagate) basically died and killed my Bolt after a couple of months, I ended up getting a Bolt+ to replace it. I can't remember if I had a Lifetime subscription at the time or how that all worked out, but I have that now.
> 
> If I remember correctly, there's a difference between PMR and SMR drives. I can't remember which is which, but the hard drive in the Bolt is one of them, and usually, the other is available for purchase for computer hard drive upgrades. I feel like the other type is what was causing hard drives to fail inside of Bolts. I think a TiVo update also broke many third party hard drives as well.


You'd want to avoid Shingled magnetic recording - Wikipedia for use in any TiVo unless TiVo themselves has put that specific model in the unit you have or others have found it to work and actually keep working for a long time (e.g. years).

See my replies below, for example:
Is it possible to use an SSD drive in a TiVo BOLT +?
Is it possible to use an SSD drive in a TiVo BOLT +?
Is it possible to use an SSD drive in a TiVo BOLT +?

PMR technology (Perpendicular recording - Wikipedia) shouldn't be an issue.


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## JOSHSKORN (Aug 27, 2015)

cwerdna said:


> You'd want to avoid Shingled magnetic recording - Wikipedia for use in any TiVo unless TiVo themselves has put that specific model in the unit you have or others have found it to work and actually keep working for a long time (e.g. years).
> 
> PMR technology (Perpendicular recording - Wikipedia) shouldn't be an issue.


Thanks for clarifying that, I couldn't remember which one it was. Any knowledge of a list of available PMR drives which the OP can purchase?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

There is no list. The only available 2½ CMR Drive is the 2T Toshiba mentioned above. For 3½", the WD Plus or Seagate IronWolf are CMR. For any other manufacturer, look for their NAS drives (which should be CMR)


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## gsutkin (Oct 7, 2007)

Laughs Brightly said:


> I did get a 4 TB WD Red Plus with an inland enclosure and so far, so good.


tell me about the enclosure: where did you get it? Can it connect sata to sata with the right cable? Does it have a cooling fan?

thanks


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## JonBoy49 (Jan 25, 2016)

Many people on this thread and others recommend the WD30NPRZ as a replacement drive for Tivo Bolt. When I search for this on Amazon I can get it for $80Cdn but it tells me this is an old model and a newer and cheaper (because I can get 1 or 2 Tb capacity) model is available - WD10EZEX.

So my questions to the experts :

1) Will the WD10EZEX work in a Tivo Bolt?
2) Am I correct in thinking that once a new drive is installed that the Tivo will resurrect its OS etc. via the web. And if not what do I need to do.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

JonBoy49 said:


> 1) Will the WD10EZEX work in a Tivo Bolt?


No, it will not work as an internal replacement. That drive is a 3.5" 7200 rpm drive. You need a 2.5" laptop style drive (recommended 5400 rpm). The drive that has worked for most people with a bolt is the Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5in Hard Drive (15mm Thickness for TiVo or MiniPC only, not for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty (Renewed). Unfortunately, it is near impossible to find a new one. But, for $50, it is a great deal.



JonBoy49 said:


> 2) Am I correct in thinking that once a new drive is installed that the Tivo will resurrect its OS etc. via the web. And if not what do I need to do.


You are correct that it will install the OS itself. It will also wipe out all of your season passes, channel lists, cableCARD settings, and recordings. To save all of this, you can copy your old hard drive with MFStools, or, if you only care about your season passes and channels, you can save and restore them with kmttg.


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## A J Ricaud (Jun 25, 2002)

gsutkin said:


> tell me about the enclosure: where did you get it? Can it connect sata to sata with the right cable? Does it have a cooling fan?
> 
> thanks


Check this one out: 
https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Al...&qid=1635272729&sprefix=fideco,aps,134&sr=8-9


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

A J Ricaud said:


> Check this one out:
> https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Aluminium-External-Cooling-Tool-Free/dp/B07D72Z4XD/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3I4J21VNQRS9U&dchild=1&keywords=fideco&qid=1635272729&sprefix=fideco,aps,134&sr=8-9


Have you actually successfully used it with a TiVo Bolt or Bolt+?

You need to be able to go straight from SATA on the drive to SATA on the TiVo mobo. USB for sure is useless. And, SATA from mobo to eSATA (on an enclosure) is almost certainly no longer to work.


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## JonBoy49 (Jan 25, 2016)

pl1 said:


> No, it will not work as an internal replacement. That drive is a 3.5" 7200 rpm drive. You need a 2.5" laptop style drive (recommended 5400 rpm). The drive that has worked for most people with a bolt is the Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5in Hard Drive (15mm Thickness for TiVo or MiniPC only, not for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty (Renewed). Unfortunately, it is near impossible to find a new one. But, for $50, it is a great deal.
> <snp>


Thanks for that. Sadly in Canada the supplies I can see of that drive are nearly $300 for a refurbished drive! that's insane cheaper to buy a new Edge or switch to a Tablo or whatever. Can't escape the feeling that Tivo have pretty much deserted us and just take the monthly fees.

Is there a definitive list of currently available drives that will work anywhere? All of the drives I have seen listed in this thread and checked out are either not currently available or incredibly expensive even in used condition.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

JonBoy49 said:


> Thanks for that. Sadly in Canada the supplies I can see of that drive are nearly $300 for a refurbished drive! that's insane cheaper to buy a new Edge or switch to a Tablo or whatever. Can't escape the feeling that Tivo have pretty much deserted us and just take the monthly fees.
> 
> Is there a definitive list of currently available drives that will work anywhere? All of the drives I have seen listed in this thread and checked out are either not currently available or incredibly expensive even in used condition.


Nothing else for an internal. Your other options include buying a drive from weaknees: *Single 1 TB Internal Drive* or setting up an external drive which has its own power and connects the data cable directly to the Bolt's motherboard SATA. If you decide to go this route, the known to work drives are the Western Digital Red Plus CMR 3.5" 5400 rpm and the Western Digital Purple CMR 3.5" 5400 rpm drives.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

As I mentioned in other threads, the stock 3 TB drive in my Bolt+ recently croaked. Unit was ordered from TiVo in April 2017. Because I gave up (from other threads) on finding a suitable external enclosure for 3.5" drives w/safe SATA power connector and where I could run SATA on the drive to Bolt's mobo, I ended ordering what 2+ TB 2.5" drives I could find at a reasonable price, hopefully not too heavily used from 2.5" 2TB and 3TB CMR drives for Tivo Bolts. 1 TB or less is too small or me.

I skipped over the Seagates. Some of the drives there seem wrong (e.g. have USB connectors on the back).

I ended up getting 1 of each of these:
Western Digital Blue WD20NPVZ 2TB 8MB Cache 15mm SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5'' Hard Drive (For Tivo, MiniPC not fit for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty
WD Blue WD20NPVZ 2TB 8MB Cache 15mm SATA 6.0Gb/s SFF Hard Drive (Tivo, MiniPC) 718037840208 | eBay - yes it's the same but maybe it'll be of a different batch.
Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (15mm) Mobile Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty - Walmart.com - I don't expect it to show up since GoHardDrive doesn't have it. I wanted this just so I had a different model.

It's too bad I couldn't really get anything else. I hope to test all of them, and keep the others as spares since none will live long. Hope they stay working. (I once had a very old 1 GB (yes 1 GB, not 1 TB) WD 3.5" drive that worked great for years and I stored it away properly in a protective box w/proper padding or holders at the ends for hard drives. When I tried it years later, it didn't work any longer.)

I figure if they're this hard to find now, anything like this will be even harder to find a few years from now.

If there's a good source for the MQ03ABB200 or MQ03ABB300, I'm all ears. Ditto if any of the Seagates on that list are any good.

Seagate FireCuda 2TB ST2000LX001 from List of drives that don't boot under TE4 21.x on Bolt is too expensive. Seagate Barracuda ST5000LM000 5 TB 2.5" (SMR) sounds like it'll be a waste of $ and short-lived since it's shingled.

update: Sigh... it seems like GoHardDrive and dbskyusa88 might be one and the same. Both orders were shipped via USPS priority mail w/shipping label created in La Puente, CA and accepted there.

From Googling for _dbskyusa88 goharddrive,_ they may be sketchy but what other choice do I have to get these drives?


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

cwerdna said:


> As I mentioned in other threads, the stock 3 TB drive in my Bolt+ recently croaked. Unit was ordered from TiVo in April 2017. Because I gave up (from other threads) on finding a suitable external enclosure for 3.5" drives w/safe SATA power connector and where I could run SATA on the drive to Bolt's mobo, I ended ordering what 2+ TB 2.5" drives I could find at a reasonable price, hopefully not too heavily used from 2.5" 2TB and 3TB CMR drives for Tivo Bolts. 1 TB or less is too small or me.
> 
> I skipped over the Seagates. Some of the drives there seem wrong (e.g. have USB connectors on the back).
> 
> ...


I installed a Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM about 6 months ago in my Bolt when the stock 3TB died after about 3 years. The drive is working flawlessly.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

Sparky1234 said:


> I installed a Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM about 6 months ago in my Bolt when the stock 3TB died after about 3 years. The drive is working flawlessly.


Interesting. It does not say if they are new or not so I would have to assume they are new (old stock). Also, it is being Sold and shipped by goHardDrive yet, if you go to www.goHardDrive.com you get:

```
You are here https://https://www.goharddrive.com/searchresults.asp?searching=Y&sort=13&search=MQ03ABB200&show=24'Search for "MQ03ABB200"
No products match your search criteria, please try again.
```
I guess it could be an exclusive for Walmart. Has anyone purchased from them recently?


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

cwerdna said:


> Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (15mm) Mobile Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty - Walmart.com - I don't expect it to show up since GoHardDrive doesn't have it. I wanted this just so I had a different model.


I received a shipping notification and tracking # for the above today. Also coming via USPS. We'll see.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

cwerdna said:


> I ended up getting 1 of each of these:
> Western Digital Blue WD20NPVZ 2TB 8MB Cache 15mm SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5'' Hard Drive (For Tivo, MiniPC not fit for Laptop) - 3 Year Warranty
> WD Blue WD20NPVZ 2TB 8MB Cache 15mm SATA 6.0Gb/s SFF Hard Drive (Tivo, MiniPC) 718037840208 | eBay - yes it's the same but maybe it'll be of a different batch.
> Toshiba MQ03ABB200 2TB 5400RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (15mm) Mobile Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty - Walmart.com - I don't expect it to show up since GoHardDrive doesn't have it. I wanted this just so I had a different model.
> ...


Ok. All 3 drives showed up today, including surprisingly, the Toshiba.

They're almost certainly the same biz. All 3 showed up in identical looking boxes.

Goharddrive's return address in La Puente, CA while Dbsky's is in Hacienda Heights, CA. The format of the receipts are very similar. The address for the receipt for GHD is the same as on the box. For Dbsky, the receipt's address is in Las Vegas. All 3 were accepted by USPS in La Puente, CA.

Dbsky's return address seems correspond to a UPS store in Hacienda Heights. The receipt's address likely a mail box in a Mostly Mail store in Vegas.

One of the WD drives has a manufacture date in Dec 2017. The other has no date. They both look like pulls from something as they have some scrapes in the front part of the labels. OF course, WD's warranty checker says they're out of warranty. I will run WD's diagnostics on them.

The Toshiba drive has a date of June 18, 2019 on the top. All 3 came in sealed anti-static bags which means nothing. Not a big deal to buy bags and seal them yourself. They appear to be custom printed w/directions on formatting your drive.

Toshiba's warranty checker says the drive's warranty expires 2022/09/26.

All 3 of them I was able to get my TiVo Bolt+ to boot and reach guided setup.

I originally wanted to use the non-dated WD in my Bolt+ first but now I'm thinking of using the Toshiba since it still has some warranty left.

I couldn't find any official Toshiba diagnostics programs that would actually work on and find the drive.


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/24hoursupport/comments/hcot62/what_hdd_diagnostic_to_use_on_toshiba_drives/fvgbpex
 pointed to a tool. I went to Downloads & Product Archive - EMEA Region - Toshiba Storage Solutions and downloads tools which seem to point to https://www.toshiba-storage.com/wp-...11/ToshibaStorageDiagnosticTool_1.30.8920.zip. The latter seems to be a much newer version of the tool but neither finds the drive.

I need a diagnosis tool of HDDs. | Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation | Americas - United States says


> I need a diagnosis tool of HDDs.
> 
> Toshiba does not provide any diagnosis tool for HDD for personal users.


Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support does find it and I'm using it to test the Toshiba drive.

I wonder how long they'll last w/some AC Infinity drives to cool my Bolt+.

Update: I'm now running my Bolt+ w/the small left cover removed so part of the drive is exposed. I still have an MULTIFAN S4, Quiet USB Cooling Fan, 140mm blowing upwards into the CableCARD area + a likely not too useful MULTIFAN S2, Quiet USB Cooling Blower, 120mm underneath blowing air off to the side.

Drive doesn't feel too warm. Maybe this will be better for it than keeping that cover on. I'll be monitoring ODTs to make sure the Broadcom big chip doesn't overheat.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

cwerdna said:


> Ok. All 3 drives showed up today, including surprisingly, the Toshiba.
> 
> They're almost certainly the same biz. All 3 showed up in identical looking boxes.
> 
> ...


The Toshiba and one of the WD drives (w/no date) passed the extended test of WD's diagnostics. Toshiba drive has now been in use in my Bolt+ for a few days. Too bad it has 1 TB less than the stock WD drive.

The Dec 2017 WD went thru diagnostics VERY slowly a times. which was a bad sign. When it made it to the end, it failed. SMART status got flipped to FAIL and WD's tool said the raw read error rate hit the fail threshold. Sigh... I guess I'll have to get it RMAed.


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## Dino Mastronardi (Nov 16, 2021)

JonBoy49 said:


> Thanks for that. Sadly in Canada the supplies I can see of that drive are nearly $300 for a refurbished drive! that's insane cheaper to buy a new Edge or switch to a Tablo or whatever. Can't escape the feeling that Tivo have pretty much deserted us and just take the monthly fees.
> 
> Is there a definitive list of currently available drives that will work anywhere? All of the drives I have seen listed in this thread and checked out are either not currently available or incredibly expensive even in used condition.


If you are looking for a new drive because your tivo bolt recently stopped working in Canada.... see this Can view Tivo Online, Tivo itself can't display its screens


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## BuddySeattle (Sep 30, 2019)

*Greetings, *
*My Bolt+ just died and I need a new a 3TB drive or larger.*
*The suggested 3TB Toshiba is not available but the similar drive in 4TB is (about $110).*

*Would you experts suggest this as a good option? 
If not what do you suggest for something I can get quick at a reasonable cost and is 3+TB?
Thanks all for the assist!

Toshiba - Q04ABB400
https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Internal-MQ04ABB400-4000GB-5400RPM/dp/B08F7GF7TX*


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## floppydiskz (Sep 13, 2018)

BuddySeattle said:


> *Greetings, *
> *My Bolt+ just died and I need a new a 3TB drive or larger.*
> *The suggested 3TB Toshiba is not available but the similar drive in 4TB is (about $110).*
> 
> ...


Just finished installing this on my 3TB Bolt. Confirmed working!


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

floppydiskz said:


> Just finished installing this on my 3TB Bolt. Confirmed working!


Good luck, that is an SMR drive, not CMR like the original (there are no 2.5" CMR drives over 3TB). I will GUESS you are running the original OS, TE3, very few SMR drives work with TE4 (Hydra). For those who want to use internal 2.5" drive, the recommended drive is the CMR Toshiba 2TB (check posts for model number, it is VERY specific), 3TB CMR 2.5 are difficult to find and expensive if you do. All 2.5" drives over 3TB are SMR, and the largest CURRENT model CMR 2.5" is 1TB. If you are on TE3 as I guessed, do not try "upgrading" to the "new experience", ie TE4, if you do good chance it will not only not work, you could lose all your recordings and settings to boot.


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## floppydiskz (Sep 13, 2018)

tommage1 said:


> Good luck, that is an SMR drive, not CMR like the original (there are no 2.5" CMR drives over 3TB). I will GUESS you are running the original OS, TE3, very few SMR drives work with TE4 (Hydra). For those who want to use internal 2.5" drive, the recommended drive is the CMR Toshiba 2TB (check posts for model number, it is VERY specific), 3TB CMR 2.5 are difficult to find and expensive if you do. All 2.5" drives over 3TB are SMR, and the largest CURRENT model CMR 2.5" is 1TB. If you are on TE3 as I guessed, do not try "upgrading" to the "new experience", ie TE4, if you do good chance it will not only not work, you could lose all your recordings and settings to boot.


Thanks for the tip. I think it's TE4 but not sure (screenshot attached)


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

floppydiskz said:


> Thanks for the tip. I think it's TE4 but not sure (screenshot attached)


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

You are correct, you got one of the few SMR drives that will work with TE4. Hope it lasts for you, if you even need to replace again definitely consider a CMR drive instead of SMR, this is the 2TB model that can still be found for a reasonable price, Toshiba MQ03ABB200. Or better yet check into how to create your own external with a 3.5" CMR drive (there are threads here that document how to do it), MUCH more reliable, cheaper, and pretty much any capacity available. Unless you have been following the group for quite awhile it's hard to know what drives are good/work with TE4 (especially Bolt/Edge), regardless SMR never recommended for a Tivo due to 24/7 read/write, constantly rewriting the shingles. Good luck


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## Laughs Brightly (Jan 23, 2016)

gsutkin said:


> tell me about the enclosure: where did you get it? Can it connect sata to sata with the right cable? Does it have a cooling fan?
> 
> thanks





gsutkin said:


> tell me about the enclosure: where did you get it? Can it connect sata to sata with the right cable? Does it have a cooling fan?
> 
> thanks


SO almost a year later the 4 TB WED Red Plus I bought and the Inland 3.5" External SATA Hard drive enclosure (with fan) PN 410464) are working great. I've been using the same enclosure with a 3 TB Red in an older Tivo. Simple enough to drill a hole in the case of the enclosure and run a flat SATA cable from there into the Bolt (ifixit has a Bolt disassembly guide).


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

Laughs Brightly said:


> SO almost a year later the 4 TB WED Red Plus I bought and the Inland 3.5" External SATA Hard drive enclosure (with fan) PN 410464) are working great. I've been using the same enclosure with a 3 TB Red in an older Tivo. Simple enough to drill a hole in the case of the enclosure and run a flat SATA cable from there into the Bolt (ifixit has a Bolt disassembly guide).


Thanks.

I'm guessing it's Inland 3.5" USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure with Fan - Micro Center which is:
SKU 410464
Mfr Part# 344424
UPC 618996999873

I was unable to find a manual online. Does it have native SATA power or does it have Molex 4-pin where you had to use an adapter?


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

floppydiskz said:


> Just finished installing this on my 3TB Bolt. Confirmed working!


Congratulations on getting an SMR drive to work with your Bolt; I truly hope you have a great experience with it and long life for the drive. But most of us here do not expect it to last long (just based on lots of personal experiences and reported problems with other SMR drives).

I see you are a new member, so I hope you hang around. It would be really great if you kept us updated on your experience with this drive - please consider returning to this thread at least once a year just to let us know if all is still good in toy land. You don't need to type much - just a word or two to let us know if it is still working. And of course, knowing if and when it STOPS working would be even more important.

Personally, I am a firm believer that the only sensible upgrade to a Bolt is with an external 3.5" CMR drive, but it would be really great to hear about a new toy 2.5" drive that works and lasts 2 years or longer in this application.


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## Naftaturbo (Dec 30, 2018)

Thanks to everyone contributing to this forum and especially this subject. I thought I'd add my experience in case it's of use to anyone. I'm relatively illiterate on this stuff and rely on my son's help a lot so excuse any dumb errors in terminology.
I purchased a TiVo Bolt (all-in) in December of 2018 when TiVo was having a very good promotion. I read A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo. and purchased a Seagate BarraCuda 4TB ST4000LM024 (2AN17V-566) 2.5" drive from Amazon ($132) using his link. I completed the installation and commissioning during the first few days of 2019. The unit had been working near flawlessly as a 4TB since then. 
The last few days we'd noticed that our recording of Late Show with Colbert was acting very funny (pixelating, etc). Then this morning we woke up to a dead TiVo. All the lights were blinking simultaneously. I tried rebooting a few times to no avail. So, this drive survived only two years almost to the day.
I removed the drive and reinstalled the original WD 500GB that came with the TiVo. The TiVo boots now but gets past the "just a few more minutes" screen and then pops up a red screen: "Detected software downgrade!" Your TiVo box has encountered an error. Please call Customer Support with the above error code.
But, of course, Customer Support is closed on weekends so I'll have to wait until tomorrow and try to get through. I did try a few of the Weaknees Kickstart codes but all to no avail (on both drives). The Seagate drive is still available from Amazon (now $140) but I don't know if I was lucky to get 2 years out of it, or was unlucky that it failed and try the same one again. I'm waiting for my son to have the time to do some research but it sounds like I'll have to be satisfied with a 2TB drive as recommended in previous threads. (Wish I'd paid more attention to how much of the 4TB I've actually been using over the last two years...)
I'd love to see any feedback from the experts out there, and I'll continue to feed into this thread as I continue the path toward getting my Bolt operational again in the hope that it is of some use to others.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

Naftaturbo said:


> I removed the drive and reinstalled the original WD 500GB that came with the TiVo. The TiVo boots now but gets past the "just a few more minutes" screen and then pops up a red screen: "Detected software downgrade!" Your TiVo box has encountered an error. Please call Customer Support with the above error code.


Here is what I think is happening. When you purchased your Bolt, it was running TiVo Experience 3 (TE3) and your 500GB hard drive is still on TE3. After installing the 4TB drive, you must have upgraded to TiVo Experience 4 (TE4). So, your TiVo device is now running TE4 and your 500GB is still running TE3. (The TiVo box keeps a recent copy of the operating system on its flash drive.)

The fix is really fairly easy. Either install a new unformatted hard drive, or to get up and running now, simply wipe the 500GB drive so it is no longer showing any TiVo OS. Then, when you start the TiVo with the 500GB drive in it, it will format your drive to TE4 and it should startup normally. You realize, at this point, you have lost your cableCARD settings (if you are on cable). If you need to keep the cableCARD settings along with your recordings, One Passes, and channels, there are other options like cloning the drive. But, once you put a different drive in, all other options are off the table.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

And consider a 3½ external CMR drive for more than 2tb


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## Naftaturbo (Dec 30, 2018)

pl1 said:


> Here is what I think is happening. When you purchased your Bolt, it was running TiVo Experience 3 (TE3) and your 500GB hard drive is still on TE3. After installing the 4TB drive, you must have upgraded to TiVo Experience 4 (TE4). So, your TiVo device is now running TE4 and your 500GB is still running TE3. (The TiVo box keeps a recent copy of the operating system on its flash drive.)
> 
> The fix is really fairly easy. Either install a new unformatted hard drive, or to get up and running now, simply wipe the 500GB drive so it is no longer showing any TiVo OS. Then, when you start the TiVo with the 500GB drive in it, it will format your drive to TE4 and it should startup normally. You realize, at this point, you have lost your cableCARD settings (if you are on cable). If you need to keep the cableCARD settings along with your recordings, One Passes, and channels, there are other options like cloning the drive. But, once you put a different drive in, all other options are off the table.


Thanks Pl1 (and Tony_T):
When I received the Bolt, out of the box I tried the TE4 but just didn't like it (compared to the TE3 I'd used at my son's), and since my son was using TE3 I decided to stay with that so we could use each other's systems more easily when visiting; so I downgraded to TE3 and that's what was on the drive original drive when I removed it. After installing the 4TB drive I again "downgraded" to TE3 and that's what I've been using for the last 2 years (and was on the drive when it failed). So my Bolt was running TE3 and the 500GB(original) drive is, as you said, still on TE3. That kind of negates your explanation of why reinstalling the original drive resulted in my getting the red error screen.
Nevertheless, in conversation with my son, we agreed as you suggested that potentially a solution was to wipe the 500GB original drive, reinstall, and allow the Bolt to format that drive. Dunno if it will format with TE4 or TE3. I figured that would loose the cableCARD settings, etc., but at least it would confirm that the problem was indeed the drive and that all other hardware is functioning properly. At that point, I'll go back to the original setup instructions and hope I can get the cableCARD settings reloaded (without or with Spectrum's help).
If that is successful, I'll then try to find instructions on this forum for how to diagnose the "failed" 4TB drive and if possible to clone it to another drive. If I can't figure out how to do that in a less expensive fashion, I may pay Weaknees their fee to attempt to clone the drive onto one of their external kits.
Once I'm done with the above plan, I'll report back into this thread in the hope that it might help someone in the future. Of course I'm way open to anyone commenting on the above plan with any warnings or suggestions (or ridicule if that's what it deserves).
Now, the second part of this saga is that I did finally reach TiVo customer service (as stated in the error screen) before I'd thought through all this. I thought they'd be able to "push" the "correct software" onto the original hard drive but apparently they can't do that.(?) They had me jump through all their usual hoops (reboot, reboot with ethernet disconnected, reboot after rebooting my modem and router, etc.) and of course nothing worked. At that juncture I was told that this meant there is an (are) additional failure(s) of the Bolt. They offered to ship me a new Bolt at what I considered a really good price and move my lifetime service plan to that new Bolt. So I took them up on their offer. I'm hoping that I can get my old Bolt functional again and give it to my son so he'll have the 4K capability (which his old TiVo doesn't have).


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Naftaturbo said:


> I purchased a TiVo Bolt (all-in) in December of 2018 when TiVo was having a very good promotion. I read A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo. and purchased a Seagate BarraCuda 4TB ST4000LM024 (2AN17V-566) 2.5" drive from Amazon ($132) using his link. I completed the installation and commissioning during the first few days of 2019. The unit had been working near flawlessly as a 4TB since then.


All Seagate 2.5" drives are SMR, so that pretty much guarantees why your drive is now shot - but you did get a full three years out of it, which is much more than I would have expected. In contrast, I have never gotten less than 10 years on a 3.5" CMR drive in any of my TiVos. Of course my two Bolts are not 10 years old yet, but the 3.5" drives I am using with them haven't failed yet either!

As has already been stated in this thread, the fix for your Bolt is to simply use a clean CMR drive without any existing content on it - the Bolt should come right up and work fine\last long time. But do your research on any drive before you buy it - there are MANY 3.5" SMR drives being sold (including most Seagate Barracuda drives), and those should not be used in a TiVo. Stick with only PMR/CMR drives if you want it to last long time.

At this point, you cannot clone your old drive, even if it is still readable on a computer. You have already attempted a boot of the source Bolt with another drive, so all of the content on the drive you took out is almost certainly lost forever (this was not a problem with older TiVo models, just the Bolt). There is a very slight chance that you might get away with it IF your Bolt has not yet COMPLETED a good boot with a different drive. If you want to try that, then stop any further testing with that Bolt until you get a good clone with ddrescue to a new 4TB drive, then see if the Bolt will accept it without wiping the contents.


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## Laughs Brightly (Jan 23, 2016)

cwerdna said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I'm guessing it's Inland 3.5" USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure with Fan - Micro Center which is:
> SKU 410464
> ...


I did not use any adapters. I used what was in the enclosure to power the drive and just ran a SATA cable out of the enclosure into the Bolt (enclosure used the brick that came with it). I'm putting it on eBay next week as we're dropping down to a single Tivo and selling everything else so I'll try and take some pictures when I unplug it.


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## djones18 (Jan 6, 2006)

Laughs Brightly said:


> I did not use any adapters. I used what was in the enclosure to power the drive and just ran a SATA cable out of the enclosure into the Bolt (enclosure used the brick that came with it). I'm putting it on eBay next week as we're dropping down to a single Tivo and selling everything else so I'll try and take some pictures when I unplug it.


I purchased from Laughs Brightly on eBay. I intend to drop it into a Bolt with a failing 3TB drive. So, hopefully his hard work will live on in a good home.


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