# PSA: WD BLUE WD40NPZZ



## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

I have bought many WD40NPZZ 4TB drives from a very reputable seller on eBay named "central_valley_computer_parts_inc." Right now they have several listings on eBay from NEW with zero hours to low hours with less than 100 hours. I have recommended this drive to forum members in a few posts and have also used them in many of my client's TiVo's.

*The very first one of these drives I bought for myself failed two weeks ago at just over 2500 hours; hence the PSA. *I am still recommending this drive because it is a good PMR drive. I am not sure why the drive failed because the SMART data that this drive reports is very limited and the values it did report all look perfect. However, the drive now only can write at about 20 MB/s where it could write at nearly 100 MB/s when it was new. This manifests as pixelation and skipping while watching live TV or recordings on my BOLT. The problem is progressive and started out with a pixilization here and there, but over weeks it went to totally unwatchable.

The failure was easily diagnosed when I removed it from the BOLT and tested in my Linux server. The drive also fails "preclear" which is a program that reads every sector on the drive, then writes zero's to every sector, then reads it back. preclear reports failure of the readback. *The funny thing is that the drive passes both long and short SMART tests every time.*

*When I first got this drive, I reported that wdidle3 didn't work on the drive. I must have made some mistake, because when I tried wdidle3 on the drive during testing after failure it worked perfectly. * I have since gotten another WD40NPZZ and have disabled parking on it and installed it on my own BOLT. I have also gone back to all my clients and run wdidle3 to fully DISABLE parking on their drives.

*I am not sure that parking is what caused the failure or if I just got unlucky on one after installing about 25 of these drives, but I highly recommend to all who have bought the drive to run wdidle3 on it and fully disable parking.* If you have never used wdidle3 it is not very difficult, but it is command prompt and requires a DOS boot disk (USB stick or CD-ROM). If you have already installed the drive in your BOLT and want to run wdidle3 you will NOT lose any data, you will just have to install the drive into a PC and boot up with the drive attached to the PC to disable head parking. Acording to Western Digital, the PC bios should also have the SATA set to IDE mode in the BIOS, though some people report success without having to switch to IDE mode. I have found it is buggy if not in IDE mode, but have never damaged a drive while remaining is SATA mode.

Using wdidle3 has tutorials are all over the net and information is easy to come by. I also provided instructions with photos a few posts down. This link is the easiest way to run wdidle3 because the author has already created a DOS boot CD-ROM with wdidle3 already on it. All you have to do is burn the ISO to a CD-ROM and boot from it (you may need to enable CR-ROM as your first boot device in your PC bios if it is not already, set SATA to IDE while you are in there).
Ultimate Boot CD with WDIDLE3 Util | www.jzab.de

Link to his boot CD:
https://www.jzab.de/files/ubcd511custom.iso
Instructions:
Ultimate Boot CD with WDIDLE3 Util | www.jzab.de

I prefer using Rufus to create a bootable DOS USB drive and then just coping wdidle3 over to the USB drive. Here is a link to a tutorial which has links to Rufus and wdidle3:
mod & misc: Western Digital idle head parking issue

*I have looked at several OEM TiVo WD drives over the past week with wdidle3; a 500GB BOLT, a 500GB Roamio, and a 1TB Roamio. All three of these drives have had the idle timer DISABLED from the factory!!! I strongly recommend that if you upgrade your TiVo that you use a drive that can have parking disabled.* That's how TiVo sends them out. The newer WD RED drives cannot have parking disabled, but it is set to 5 minutes versus the 8 seconds that the GREEN and BLUE drives ship with. Unfortunately, wdidle3 will not work on newer BLUE drives, but the WD40NPZZ drives are from 2016 and it still works! They are also OEM drives so WD may simply still allow it to work for OEM's.

I will follow this thread and answer questions and provide assistance all I can. I would also offer to disable parking to members for a small fee to cover time, but I think it's probably against forum rules to make that offer.

Again, my drive may have just been a fluke and this may not be necessary. I had my TiVo set to maximum power saving with suggestions turned off. This could have actually hurt the drive by spinning it down too often. I also think it is possible that the mechanical parts of my failed drive are actually OK, but by chance something just failed on the PCB. I think this because the drive still reads fast, but cannot write fast enough anymore.

That said, the parking MTBF duty cycle for this drive is 600,000 parks. With parking at the default 8 seconds it's possible that my drive could have parked 1,125,000 in the 2500 hours it ran. Even if it parked half that many times it's still far too much!

Best regards,
craigr


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Since the eBay seller has many low hr WD drives to sell, I would question where these drives come from. Perhaps they are drives that did not pass WD QC. Better to spend a little more for a new drive.

I have a WD20NPVZ, so can't vote in your poll.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

I talked with the seller in confidence and cannot reveal where they are getting the drives, but they are not WD rejects. They are good drives which is why I have put them in so many client TiVo's.

But to each his own. I can understand NOT wanting to buy a drive on eBay. I swore I would never do it, but the choices for large, high quality drives in a 2.5" for factor are limited.

*EDIT: Also, WD usually puts a white label on drives that are "refurbished."*

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Also, I have been wondering if the high failure rate of Seagate drives may not be due to SMR, but the fact that Seagate has also started setting their drives to park the heads very quickly. I think they are at 8 seconds also...

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

I also just sent some PM's to forum members who I know have bought these drives to alert them of this thread. If you know anyone who has purchased this drive please pass the news around.

Thanks,
craigr


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

CIR-Engineering said:


> ..
> But to each his own. I can understand NOT wanting to buy a drive on eBay. I swore I would never do it, but the choices for large, high quality drives in a 2.5" for factor are limited.


I don't have a problem buying a drive on eBay. I'm suspicious of low hr used drives. I prefer new and would buy new from the same eBay merchant.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Tony_T said:


> I don't have a problem buying a drive on eBay. I'm suspicious of low hr used drives. I prefer new and would buy new from the same eBay merchant.


They do have new WD40NPZZ drives at the moment with zero hours on them. Their inventory fluctuates, but they almost always have the WD40NPZZ in stock.

Me, if I'm going to buy a drive on eBay, I actually prefer to buy a drive with some hours on it. This allows early failures to weed out and for some SMART data to accumulate. In my mind, it makes it much easier to identify a failure more quickly. They have also occasionally been selling the exact drives that TiVo uses in the 3TB BOLT's; the WD30NPRZ. When they have them, the WD30NPRZ are less expensive because they are lower capacity.

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

A little more instructions. Once you have booted from your USB stick or CD-ROM this is the syntax for wdidle3:

_Syntax and options of WDIDLE3:_
_WDILDE3 Version 1.05
Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Western Digital Corp.
Configure Idle3.

Syntax:
WDIDLE3 [/S[]] [/D] [/R] [/?]
where:
/S[] Set timer, units in seconds. Default=8.0 (8.0 seconds).
Resolution is 0.1 seconds from 0.1 to 12.7 seconds.
Resolution is 30 seconds from 30 seconds to 300 seconds.
Note, times between 12.8 and 30 seconds will be set to 30 seconds.
/D Disable timer.
/R Report current timer.
/? This help info._

So the first thing you should do is type:

*wdidle3 /R*

This will look at any WD drive attached to your PC and report how many seconds the idler is set to. On a GREEN or BLUE drive it will be 8 seconds. The output will say, "Idle3 Timer is enabled and set to 8.000 seconds."

They type:

*wdidle3 /D*

This will disable the head parking and the output will say, "Idle3 Timer is disabled."

Then again type:

*wdidle3 /R*

This will look at any WD drive attached to your PC and report how many seconds the idler is set to. It should now say "disabled." The output will say, "Idle3 Timer is disabled."

One more thing; you should disconnect any other drives (especially WD drives) from your motherboard before running wdidle3 because wdidle3 will adjust the parking time on all WD drives attached to the motherboard at the same time.

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Here are more instructions:

_Syntax and options of WDIDLE3:_
_WDILDE3 Version 1.05
Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Western Digital Corp.
Configure Idle3.

Syntax:
WDIDLE3 [/S[]] [/D] [/R] [/?]
where:
/S[] Set timer, units in seconds. Default=8.0 (8.0 seconds).
Resolution is 0.1 seconds from 0.1 to 12.7 seconds.
Resolution is 30 seconds from 30 seconds to 300 seconds.
Note, times between 12.8 and 30 seconds will be set to 30 seconds.
/D Disable timer.
/R Report current timer.
/? This help info_.

First insert your CD or USB boot disc then power down your PC. Disconnect all hard drives from your PC motherboard. Then start your PC and go into your PC BIOS at first boot. Switch from the SATA config from AHCI or from RAID to IDE (you will need to reverse this once you are done with wdidle3).

Here is an example of what my BIOS looks like. Yours will be different (especially if it is EUFI):




























Navigate your BIOS to the BOOT section and make sure your BOOT OPTIONS are set such that you will boot from the CD or USB stick. Save and exit the BIOS.










Now your PC will boot from the CD or USB stick. This is what it will look like once it's done booting.










Type the following and then press enter:

*wdidle3 /r*










You will get the output:

"Idle3 Timer is enabled and set to 8.000 seconds."










Type the following and the press enter:

*wdidle3 /d









*
You will get the output:

"Idle3 Timer is disabled."
*








*
Then again type the following and press enter:
*
wdidle3 /r









*
You shuold see the output:

"Idle3 Timer is disabled."

Remove the CR-ROM or USB boot disc, switch the power off on your computer, remove the TiVo hard drive, reconect your PC hard drives to the computer, start up your computer, enter BIOS setup again, switch the SATA back to AHCI or RAID, switch your boot options back, save the BIOS, exit, and reboot.

Done. It may seem daunting if you have never done it, but I've done this literally hundreds of times and can have the whole thing finished in under five minutes. You can do it!

craigr


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

To fail SMART, the drive has go beyond a certain failure threshold. In other words, a certain amount of drive failure is acceptable. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

jmbach said:


> To fail SMART, the drive has go beyond a certain failure threshold. In other words, a certain amount of drive failure is acceptable.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Just to be clear, the drive is unusable, but all SMART parameters are PERFECT showing no degradation what so ever. That is what I found interesting. One would think that a SMART parameter would show a problem by now. That said, the number of SMART parameters this drive displays is very low.

craigr


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I've had several drives that pass SMART but fail the mfr tests. In my experience SMART is not all that smart.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

You can always have other electrical components go bad that are not monitored by SMART 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Hmm wonder if this also applies to the 2GB WD20NPVZ. I put this in a Bolt for my son and did not even think to check it. 

Scott


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

HerronScott said:


> Hmm wonder if this also applies to the 2GB WD20NPVZ. I put this in a Bolt for my son and did not even think to check it.
> 
> Scott


Yes, you should absolutely disable parking! Good luck and post to the thread if you have any questions.

craigr


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

HerronScott said:


> Hmm wonder if this also applies to the 2GB WD20NPVZ. I put this in a Bolt for my son and did not even think to check it.
> 
> Scott


How long has it been running?

I put a 1TB Blue in my Bolt about nine months ago and haven't any problems, but this thread has me wondering if I will.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

I am not sure if wdidle3 timer has any impact on Roamio or Bolts. It does on Premiere and earlier units.

If those who upgraded their Bolts still have their original drives, check the wdidle3 timer settings and report it here. That should tell us something. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

jmbach said:


> I am not sure if wdidle3 timer has any impact on Roamio or Bolts. It does on Premiere and earlier units.
> 
> If those who upgraded their Bolts still have their original drives, check the wdidle3 timer settings and report it here. That should tell us something.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


I checked on a 500GB BOLT drive, a 500GB Roamio, and a 1TB Roamio (as I said in the original post) and all of those drives had the parking disabled. As I said in another thread, the WD40NPZZ does not report load / unload cycles so I can't say how many times it was parked while in my BOLT.

I did run my BOLT with TiVo suggestions turned off and with maximum power saving enabled. This could have caused the drive to be _underutilized _and made the heads park often. I think with an unmodified GREEN or BLUE drive it may be best to enable TiVo suggestions and disable power saving (set to manual).

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

cherry ghost said:


> How long has it been running?
> 
> I put a 1TB Blue in my Bolt about nine months ago and haven't any problems, but this thread has me wondering if I will.


What would really be awesome is if you could pull the drive and read the SMART data off it. I would love to know the load / unload cycle number. Than we would know more if this is actually any issue.

craigr


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

cherry ghost said:


> How long has it been running?
> 
> I put a 1TB Blue in my Bolt about nine months ago and haven't any problems, but this thread has me wondering if I will.


He just took it back to school and has yet to move the CableCARD from his HD so only a few weeks here after I did the install and moved some shows to it from our Roamio that he wanted.

Scott


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Yes, you should absolutely disable parking! Good luck and post to the thread if you have any questions.


Shouldn't have any as I've done this before for earlier green drives that I used in our WHS server. Up until the Bolt, I've always used AV drives in earlier TiVo's which already had this disabled.

Scott


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

Do WD Purple Drives have Parking Disabled by default ?

(edit: they do)


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Also, I have been wondering if the high failure rate of Seagate drives may not be due to SMR, but the fact that Seagate has also started setting their drives to park the heads very quickly. I think they are at 8 seconds also...
> 
> craigr


That would be awesome if we could use SMR HD's with that minor tweak.


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

Does MFS disable Parking ?

(edit: no)


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

What is PARKING anyways ?

Back in the 1980's I remember we were advised to type "PARK" before we shut the 386 off.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

SalemCat said:


> Do WD Purple Drives have Parking Disabled by default ?


I honestly don't know because PURPLE is the ONLY WD drive I have never used. I suspect that parking is disabled or set to 5 minutes like the REDS.



SalemCat said:


> That would be awesome if we could use SMR HD's with that minor tweak.


Well, Seagate also took away the ability to adjust parking time so there is no option there, you used to be able to. And parking destroying the drives is just a loose guess of a theory. It may very well be that SMR is the problem.



SalemCat said:


> Does MFS disable Parking ?


No. wdidle3 writes to the Western Digital firmware. MFSr cannot do that.



SalemCat said:


> What is PARKING anyways ?
> 
> Back in the 1980's I remember we were advised to type "PARK" before we shut the 386 off.


Parking is when the heads are parked. IOW the heads are moved off the platters and placed (parked) off and away from the platters in the same position as when the drive is turned off. With Western Digital's "Intellipower" the drive then slows the motor to conserve energy. This is possible because the drive no longer needs to spin the platters fast enough to keep the heads floating above the platter. This is also how WD achieves such low power specs for the new BLUE and GREEN drives during idle operation. So excessive parking can cause two problems; the MTBF for parking cycles is 600,000. With parking at 8 seconds (the heads park after 8 seconds of the drive not being written or read) 600,000 cycles can be reached very quickly in certain applications. The other problem is that the motor is slowed during once the heads park and sped up every time parking and unparking is performed.

craigr


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

I'm thinking ANY A/V HD would work fine - however - those are scarce in 2.5" Format.

WD Model WD10JUCT is a 1TB 2.5" AV HD - I use one and love it.


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

Anyone have a Quick Link (or actual description) as how to disable POWER SAVING on a BOLT and on a PREMIERE ?


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

*Ok - BOLT*
TiVo Central
Settings & Messages
Remote, CableCARD, & Devices
Power Saver Settings
Manual

(still trying to figure out Premiere)


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

SalemCat said:


> (still trying to figure out Premiere)


No power saving on a Premiere.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

JoeKustra said:


> No power saving on a Premiere.


Yup that's what's frustrating. I upgraded the Premiere to a Roamio to use the power saving... at least the Roamio uses a lot less powere even while on.

craigr


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

To open a BOLT you need:

YouTube Video
T-8
T-10
Old Credit Cards

Spunger Optional


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

I just worked on my Premiere and two BOLTS. Also my Desktop Computer.

1st 3.5" WD 4TB PURPLE AV WD40PURZ - Parking disabled by default
2nd 3.5" WD 4TB PURPLE AV WD40PURZ - Parking disabled by default
2.5" WD 1TB (color not noted) AV WD10JUCT - Parking disabled by default
2.5" WD 4TB BLUE WD40NPZZ - Parking at 8 seconds (I used WDIDLE3 to disable Parking)


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

SalemCat said:


> I just worked on my Premiere and two BOLTS. Also my Desktop Computer.
> 
> 1st 3.5" WD 4TB PURPLE AV WD40PURZ - Parking disabled by default
> 2nd 3.5" WD 4TB PURPLE AV WD40PURZ - Parking disabled by default
> ...


It helps prove that in DVR applications parking should be disabled. That's how TiVo OEM drives are set (no matter the color), and that appears to be where WD sets all their drives for "intended" for AV applications (surveillance or AV DVR's).

Thanks for checking those PURPLE drives. I thought it had to be 5 minutes or disabled, but I'm glad to know for sure.

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

I posted this in another thread, but if you want to make your BOLT easy to open for future access...

Don’t put any of the screws into the cover and only put the single screw back that only holds the hard drive mount. That way you can pull the entire case off without having to remove the hard drive cover which eliminates the risk of breaking tabs and makes it quick and easy.

craigr


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

The DVRs are constantly recording when not in standby. If the power savings is set to maximum, then the hard drives can only park once every two hours at maximum. Granted, parking should be disabled because on a DVR it's not really necessary. But it's only going to park 4400 times a year, 2200 times if power saving is set to medium or less. So I think you're OK.

The problem with parking used to be in the boot sequence. But apparently the newer Tivos don't have this problem.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

SalemCat said:


> Do WD Purple Drives have Parking Disabled by default ?
> 
> (edit: they do)


The Purples have this unusual reliability number in them: annualized workload of 180 TB/yr. But a 4 tuner Tivo with power savings disabled will record 378 TB/yr assuming a 12 Mbps HD rate. And that's just in recording. If you watch everything you play back that number is doubled at least.

Now if the purples are supposed to be designed for 24/7 use, yet have that weird number on the data sheet, does that mean the Blues shouldn't be used or that the Purples shouldn't be used or both? The Blues are in the stock Bolts.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Here are more instructions:
> 
> _Syntax and options of WDIDLE3:_
> _WDILDE3 Version 1.05
> ...


Just a FYI, you might want to power cycle the hard drive and recheck the wdidle3 settings. I have had a few drives that for what ever reason, the setting did not stick after a power cycle.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SalemCat said:


> To open a BOLT you need:
> 
> YouTube Video
> T-8
> ...


No credit cards needed. I just rip the top right off. So far it has never caused any damage. I've done it at least a couple of dozen times now with seven different Bolts. Now when putting the cover back on? That is when I've broken a tab.


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## pj1983 (Dec 26, 2016)

I am stuck. I have a WD40NPZZ and a WD30NPVX that I bought from the same eBay seller. I've followed the instructions above and cannot get WDIDLE3 to recognize either drive. I also have issues when trying to use the MFSTools disk to run smartctl to verify the hours on the drive. I am using a laptop (have removed the internal drive per post #9) to run the various utilities and am connecting the drives using a USB to SATA adapter. I've tried two different USB adapters with the same result, but was able to run MFSReformatter on the 4TB drive using both adapters.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Why not just put the drives in the Tivo? Wasn't it said here that wdidle doesn't work on newer drives?


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

WDIDLE3 requires a direct SATA connection, and most of the serious functionality in smartctl does as well.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

pj1983 said:


> I am stuck. I have a WD40NPZZ and a WD30NPVX that I bought from the same eBay seller. I've followed the instructions above and cannot get WDIDLE3 to recognize either drive. I also have issues when trying to use the MFSTools disk to run smartctl to verify the hours on the drive. I am using a laptop (have removed the internal drive per post #9) to run the various utilities and am connecting the drives using a USB to SATA adapter. I've tried two different USB adapters with the same result, but was able to run MFSReformatter on the 4TB drive using both adapters.


As stated in my instructions, you must connect the drives directly to a SATA port on a motherboard; a USB to SATA converter will not work. The SATA configuration in the motherboard BIOS should also be set to IDE mode (not AHCI or RAID). It might be possible to remove the hard drive from a laptop and temporarily put the WD drives in the original hard drive's place, but that is a bit unlikely. You would also need the option in the laptop BIOS to change from AHCI to IDE and that is not always possible in a laptop. This is a job more suited for a desktop computer.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

Oh, also, the hours counter on the WD40NPZZ is not available with standard SMART parameters. The way you can check the hours quickly on this drive is to run a short SMART self test and then view all SMART parameters once the test completes (2 minutes). The drive will keep a log of all smart tests and show how many hours were on the drive when the test was run.

Best regards,
craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Tony_T said:


> Why not just put the drives in the Tivo? Wasn't it said here that wdidle doesn't work on newer drives?


It works on the WD40NPZZ. That's what this entire thread is about.

craigr


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## Endymion_ (Sep 9, 2011)

Should this firmware be set before formatting, or can it be done safely afterwards?


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Endymion_ said:


> Should this firmware be set before formatting, or can it be done safely afterwards?


You can set wdidle before or after, doesn't matter. The procedure is nondestructive and will not damage data on the disc.

craigr


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## FishTacoBob (Dec 11, 2007)

I am considering buying a 4TB WD Blue drive (WD40NPZZ), but it only has 8mb's of cache. Even the original 500gb drive that came in my TiVo Bolt has 16mb's of cache. Does anybody else think this could be a problem?


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

CIR-Engineering said:


> You can set wdidle before or after, doesn't matter. The procedure is nondestructive and will not damage data on the disc.


I remember you did a lot of burn-in testing when you first got these drives. Any more failures after the initial one that prompted this thread?


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

FishTacoBob said:


> I am considering buying a 4TB WD Blue drive (WD40NPZZ), but it only has 8mb's of cache. Even the original 500gb drive that came in my TiVo Bolt has 16mb's of cache. Does anybody else think this could be a problem?


I don't think it should matter.

Scott


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

sfhub said:


> I remember you did a lot of burn-in testing when you first got these drives. Any more failures after the initial one that prompted this thread?


That one drive is the only that failed. The replacement and all of my client's drives are still happy.

craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

sfhub said:


> I remember you did a lot of burn-in testing when you first got these drives. Any more failures after the initial one that prompted this thread?


I do wonder if the burn in testing might have done more harm than good.

craigr


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## FishTacoBob (Dec 11, 2007)

So, I ordered a WD40NPZZ 4TB off of eBay from Central Valley Computer Parts. The drive I replaced was the originally suggested external Seagate 4TB drive that you remove from the enclosure. I had been experiencing drop outs, glitches, and pixelation since I installed it. I thought it was an over-the-air antenna signal issue until I started researching on here and discovered that it was probably the hard drive. Someone stated that they had never heard of anyone using that drive and not had it fail. It was way too late to return that drive, so I bit the bullet and bought the WD Blue 4TB. I learned some hard lessons from this experience, as I had 570 shows recorded to the original 4TB drive and thought that I would be able to clone it to the new drive like I had done with every other TiVo drive I had ever replaced. I could not find a way with any of the normal TiVo software that would let me clone the drive, and I believe this is because I had upgraded it to Hydra. I had booted my TiVo with the new WD 4TB drive thinking that might solve the problem with WinMFS not recognizing it...but then I found out that you can't put your original drive back in after you boot it with a different drive or it might format it. It doesn't appear to have done that, but when I tried booting my TiVo with the original 4TB drive...it just rebooted repeatedly. I tried every kickstart code on the list, and on several attempts it looked like it might even work...but no go. So I lost everything. I read a suggestion somewhere on here to fill the drive with recordings when you first install it to test the drive. Well, I found a problem and I am not sure what to do next. It looks like when the TiVo reaches 40% full that it crashes, and then all 4 lights start flashing repeatedly until I unplug it. I have not witnessed this in person, as it always seems to happen when I am not around. So far it has booted back up no problem and appears to work normally. My window to return the WD drive is closing, so I need to move quickly. Has anyone experienced this issue and successfully resolved it? Any suggestions for what I should try next? Thank you in advance!


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

FishTacoBob said:


> So, I ordered a WD40NPZZ 4TB off of eBay from Central Valley Computer Parts. The drive I replaced was the originally suggested external Seagate 4TB drive that you remove from the enclosure. I had been experiencing drop outs, glitches, and pixelation since I installed it. I thought it was an over-the-air antenna signal issue until I started researching on here and discovered that it was probably the hard drive. Someone stated that they had never heard of anyone using that drive and not had it fail. It was way too late to return that drive, so I bit the bullet and bought the WD Blue 4TB. I learned some hard lessons from this experience, as I had 570 shows recorded to the original 4TB drive and thought that I would be able to clone it to the new drive like I had done with every other TiVo drive I had ever replaced. I could not find a way with any of the normal TiVo software that would let me clone the drive, and I believe this is because I had upgraded it to Hydra. I had booted my TiVo with the new WD 4TB drive thinking that might solve the problem with WinMFS not recognizing it...but then I found out that you can't put your original drive back in after you boot it with a different drive or it might format it. It doesn't appear to have done that, but when I tried booting my TiVo with the original 4TB drive...it just rebooted repeatedly. I tried every kickstart code on the list, and on several attempts it looked like it might even work...but no go. So I lost everything. I read a suggestion somewhere on here to fill the drive with recordings when you first install it to test the drive. Well, I found a problem and I am not sure what to do next. It looks like when the TiVo reaches 40% full that it crashes, and then all 4 lights start flashing repeatedly until I unplug it. I have not witnessed this in person, as it always seems to happen when I am not around. So far it has booted back up no problem and appears to work normally. My window to return the WD drive is closing, so I need to move quickly. Has anyone experienced this issue and successfully resolved it? Any suggestions for what I should try next? Thank you in advance!


Well, for starters WinMFS only works for Series 3 and older models.

If you want to see if anything can be done about this, the conversation needs to be in a new thread as it is off topic here.

I don't know if your situation is salvageable but when you start a new thread for this, I would be willing to see what we can do.


----------



## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

I


FishTacoBob said:


> So, I ordered a WD40NPZZ 4TB off of eBay from Central Valley Computer Parts. The drive I replaced was the originally suggested external Seagate 4TB drive that you remove from the enclosure. I had been experiencing drop outs, glitches, and pixelation since I installed it. I thought it was an over-the-air antenna signal issue until I started researching on here and discovered that it was probably the hard drive. Someone stated that they had never heard of anyone using that drive and not had it fail. It was way too late to return that drive, so I bit the bullet and bought the WD Blue 4TB. I learned some hard lessons from this experience, as I had 570 shows recorded to the original 4TB drive and thought that I would be able to clone it to the new drive like I had done with every other TiVo drive I had ever replaced. I could not find a way with any of the normal TiVo software that would let me clone the drive, and I believe this is because I had upgraded it to Hydra. I had booted my TiVo with the new WD 4TB drive thinking that might solve the problem with WinMFS not recognizing it...but then I found out that you can't put your original drive back in after you boot it with a different drive or it might format it. It doesn't appear to have done that, but when I tried booting my TiVo with the original 4TB drive...it just rebooted repeatedly. I tried every kickstart code on the list, and on several attempts it looked like it might even work...but no go. So I lost everything. I read a suggestion somewhere on here to fill the drive with recordings when you first install it to test the drive. Well, I found a problem and I am not sure what to do next. It looks like when the TiVo reaches 40% full that it crashes, and then all 4 lights start flashing repeatedly until I unplug it. I have not witnessed this in person, as it always seems to happen when I am not around. So far it has booted back up no problem and appears to work normally. My window to return the WD drive is closing, so I need to move quickly. Has anyone experienced this issue and successfully resolved it? Any suggestions for what I should try next? Thank you in advance!


I would contact Central Valley Computer Parts right away and tell them that you think you are having an issue with the drive, just to get things rolling with them and stay within your return window. I'd then pull the hard drive and run a short and extended SMART test on the drive. It might pass the SMART tests, but more times than not if there is a problem than it will show up.

If you are OK with loosing your recordings again, you could format the drive for your computer and try filling it with data to write out the whole drive.

Best of luck,
craigr


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Drives are on sale now from "central_valley_computer_parts_inc" for $158 and there is also a 10% off coupon from eBay until 11:00 pst. Coupon code PRIMOTECH during eBay checkout.

WD GREEN WD40NPZZ 4TB IntelliPower 8MB 15mm SATA III 2.5" (Blue) Light Use TiVo | eBay

Today Only! 10% Coupon On All Tech

craigr


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## pj1983 (Dec 26, 2016)

Another day, another eBay coupon. 15% off today until 11pm PT: Today Only! 15% Off Coupon

I wonder if they'll keep doing this through Amazon Prime Day.

Edit: Unfortunately, I mis-read the conditions; this one applies to everything except tech. Mods: Probably should move this post to HH.

Back on topic, I purchased two drives from this seller. One went bad shortly after the exchange period, but they took care of me and sent a replacement for the cost of my return shipping.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

pj1983 said:


> Back on topic, I purchased two drives from this seller. One went bad shortly after the exchange period, but they took care of me and sent a replacement for the cost of my return shipping.


Any idea why your drive failed? Was it very hot? Did you do any testing on it once you pulled it out of the TiVo. I had 1 drive fail and around 30 installed. I tested it once I pulled it and couldn't figure out what failed. The read rate was simply VERY slow.

craigr


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## pj1983 (Dec 26, 2016)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Any idea why your drive failed? Was it very hot? Did you do any testing on it once you pulled it out of the TiVo. I had 1 drive fail and around 30 installed. I tested it once I pulled it and couldn't figure out what failed. The read rate was simply VERY slow.
> 
> craigr


It was more of an "infant mortality" type of situation. I was running various tests on it before installing into one of my Bolts and couldn't get it to talk to MFSTools consistently. Part of the issue was the use of a USB adapter (posted upthread) but even after a direct motherboard connection it was still flaky.


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Thank you Craig- I bought this drive off ebay. Also shout out to Central Valley Computer Store- great response/communication to my phone calls- recommend to get disks from them. I used ebay discount and purchased from ebay. 

However in my eagerness/ignorance  I plugged in to my Bolt to confirm it worked fine. It does  but I see that higher than 3TB disks needs to be re-formatted (I see 285 HD hours)

Should I follow steps of Ggieseke's MFS and enable my 4TB drive? Or since I already loaded bolt SW need to reformat disk and start from scratch?

Regards,
Kishore


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

You can run MFSR anytime once the drive has a valid TiVo signature, but you will lose all your recordings and settings.


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Thank You @ggieseke

Since this was my first attempt, I took a while (my learning curve). Just summarizing for other newbies

- I had to re-partition/restore my HDD from 2TB to original 4 TB. I used freeware AOMEI disk partition software to format to GPT and merge partitions for my PC to see 4 TB. Best and simplest is to use SATA connection
-After standard Tivo boot- for whatever reason only latest MFS version worked on my oldie PC (I thought older versions would work but either my disk was not recognized or I was getting that apple error )
-Though windows did not see new drive, aomei SW and MFS did and just followed instructions
-Used Tivo online to initiate transfer season-pass (and few recordings/not too many)

Overall I miss 6 tuner of Roamio Plus but Bolt is slightly quick in UI response. I feel pic quality is slightly less grainy on big screen wrt cable TV channels.

Thank you folks!

Regards,
Kishore


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Kishore said:


> - I had to re-partition/restore my HDD from 2TB to original 4 TB. I used freeware AOMEI disk partition software to format to GPT and merge partitions for my PC to see 4 TB. Best and simplest is to use SATA connection


If you are talking about your 4TB drive, that eventually goes into the Bolt, this step isn't necessary. It doesn't matter if Windows sees 4TB, only that it sees the drive and whatever interface you are using doesn't suffer from 32-bit limitations. At most you would need to zero out the first block and stick the drive in the Bolt.

TiVo uses a modified Apple Partition Map and mfsr works with that partition map. GPT is just a red herring intermediate step that isn't necessary. It may make you feel good to see Windows recognize the drive as 4TB, but once you put it in the Bolt, it'll just get written over, and when you stick the drive in the PC to run MFSR, windows won't recognize the drive size again.


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

CIR-Engineering said:


> I have bought many WD40NPZZ 4TB drives from a very reputable seller on eBay named "central_valley_computer_parts_inc." Right now they have several listings on eBay from NEW with zero hours to low hours with less than 100 hours. I have recommended this drive to forum members in a few posts and have also used them in many of my client's TiVo's.
> 
> *The very first one of these drives I bought for myself failed two weeks ago at just over 2500 hours; hence the PSA. *I am still recommending this drive because it is a good PMR drive. I am not sure why the drive failed because the SMART data that this drive reports is very limited and the values it did report all look perfect. However, the drive now only can write at about 20 MB/s where it could write at nearly 100 MB/s when it was new. This manifests as pixelation and skipping while watching live TV or recordings on my BOLT. The problem is progressive and started out with a pixilization here and there, but over weeks it went to totally unwatchable.
> 
> ...


What's your take on the Update-O-Death TiVo used to kill the WD40NPZZ last week ?

My wife hit the ceiling at all her lost recordings.

Sadly I immediately reinstalled the original 500GB so she could watch her Hallmark Station, but that may have ruined any chance of accessing the recordings on the WD40NPZZ ever again.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

SalemCat said:


> What's your take on the Update-O-Death TiVo used to kill the WD40NPZZ last week ?
> 
> My wife hit the ceiling at all her lost recordings.
> 
> Sadly I immediately reinstalled the original 500GB so she could watch her Hallmark Station, but that may have ruined any chance of accessing the recordings on the WD40NPZZ ever again.


I have no idea! I have all my clients and myself on the old interface and have not installed Hydra on any system with this drive. I was planning to give Hydra another year but...

craigr


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## Anotherpyr (May 6, 2015)

SalemCat said:


> What's your take on the Update-O-Death TiVo used to kill the WD40NPZZ last week ?
> 
> My wife hit the ceiling at all her lost recordings.
> 
> Sadly I immediately reinstalled the original 500GB so she could watch her Hallmark Station, but that may have ruined any chance of accessing the recordings on the WD40NPZZ ever again.


Did they target that drive specifically or just anything over 3TB


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## SalemCat (Apr 13, 2006)

Anotherpyr said:


> Did they target that drive specifically or just anything over 3TB


Unknown


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

SalemCat said:


> What's your take on the Update-O-Death TiVo used to kill the WD40NPZZ last week ?
> 
> My wife hit the ceiling at all her lost recordings.
> 
> Sadly I immediately reinstalled the original 500GB so she could watch her Hallmark Station, but that may have ruined any chance of accessing the recordings on the WD40NPZZ ever again.


I reunited with my TE4 Bolt with a WD40NPZZ stuck on "Starting up".

I put the original drive back in, went through setup again, and then downgraded to TE3. I took the WD40NPZZ, erased it, ran a full diagnostic twice (two days), and then put it back in the Bolt to format, then ran the program to expand it, went through guided setup again, and everything looked fine on TE3. So then I upgraded it again, and it stuck on "Starting up".

I put the choice to the Decider-in-Chief of 4TB TE3 with transfers among the Tivos or 500GB TE4 with voice and out of home streaming but no transfers, and her choice was TE3.


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Ok I got same 'starting up' issue on my 4TB Tivo bolt (took a break away from home during thanksgiving break and hey no DVR to catch up ).

I have 1 more bolt with me (not set up yet). Is it possible to salvage recordings from my 4TB drive?

Curious about options.

Regards,
Kishore


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

Kishore said:


> Ok I got same 'starting up' issue on my 4TB Tivo bolt (took a break away from home during thanksgiving break and hey no DVR to catch up ).
> 
> I have 1 more bolt with me (not set up yet). Is it possible to salvage recordings from my 4TB drive?
> 
> ...


After I booted up from the original drive, I put the 4TB in: it came up with big red error messages until I completely wiped the drive. I fully expected I would lose everything, so I didn't try hard. YMMV.


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

I too installed a WD WD40NPZZ bought from the ebay seller and it gets stuck at starting up. I guess hydra is the issue. Is there any way to get the Bolt to use this drive? Will cloning from my other Seagate 4TB drive work?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Did you format the 4T to run in the Bolt? (3T and lower do not need to be formatted, the Bolt will do it)


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

ratso said:


> I too installed a WD WD40NPZZ bought from the ebay seller and it gets stuck at starting up. I guess hydra is the issue. Is there any way to get the Bolt to use this drive? Will cloning from my other Seagate 4TB drive work?


That would be very interesting to see if a working 4 TB Seagate Hydra/Mira image cloned to a WD 4TB will work.


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

jmbach said:


> That would be very interesting to see if a working 4 TB Seagate Hydra/Mira image cloned to a WD 4TB will work.


It did not. I cloned the WD successfully with the previous 4tb Seagate BarraCuda, but it hangs on the "starting up" Not sure where to go from here.


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Seems like size is an issue with latest TE4 Wonder if content only can be copied somehow...


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

Kishore said:


> Seems like size is an issue with latest TE4 Wonder if content only can be copied somehow...


I wonder if there is a way to partition it so that the Bolt sees it as a 3tb drive?


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

elorimer said:


> I wonder if there is a way to partition it so that the Bolt sees it as a 3tb drive?


Bingo -my plan is to do something similar -hope I get time next week to do it.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

elorimer said:


> I wonder if there is a way to partition it so that the Bolt sees it as a 3tb drive?


Great idea. I will test it by cloning my working 500 GB drive to my 4 TB WD. If it does not work, then there is something inherent to the drive that does not let it work in the TiVo.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

TiVo will only use 3T of a drive > 3T (see here)
See if attaching the 4T to a computer and re-formating helps (TiVO should only see 3T)


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Tony_T said:


> TiVo will only use 3T of a drive > 3T (see here)
> See if attaching the 4T to a computer and re-formating helps (TiVO should only see 3T)


This will not work to limit the drive but allow TiVo to access the whole 4 TB.

TiVo will format the whole drive correctly but there is a bug internally that when the OS starts adding up all the media partitions, it causes the OS to truncate all 64 bit numbers to 32 bit.

Only possible way to limit what the TiVo sees it is to place a HPA or DCO on the drive.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

jmbach said:


> Great idea. I will test it by cloning my working 500 GB drive to my 4 TB WD. If it does not work, then there is something inherent to the drive that does not let it work in the TiVo.


That is a no go. Cloned working 500 GB image to the 4 TB drive and upon boot up, stuck in "Starting up"


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

Tony_T said:


> TiVo will only use 3T of a drive > 3T (see here)
> See if attaching the 4T to a computer and re-formating helps (TiVO should only see 3T)


From that original post: "Early Bolts get a red screen error message when trying to format drives over 3TB. If it has already updated to 20.5.4a it will act like a Roamio running 20.4.6 or later and make it to Guided Setup. Either way, that's the time to hook the drive up to your PC and run mfsr."
If I put in the 4t drive unformatted to something that was at TE4 I get that red screen error. What I was thinking was the reverse of mfsr: formatting the drive first to a 3TB partition and a 1TB partition, so that the Bolt sees the 3TB partition and works OK with it, ignoring and wasting the 1TB partition.

The thing is, the 4T drive seems to be working fine on TE3, and not on TE4. We know there will be larger 2.5 inch drives soon, so they've done something intentional with their addressing scheme that will be obsolete.


----------



## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

elorimer said:


> From that original post: "Early Bolts get a red screen error message when trying to format drives over 3TB. If it has already updated to 20.5.4a it will act like a Roamio running 20.4.6 or later and make it to Guided Setup. Either way, that's the time to hook the drive up to your PC and run mfsr."
> If I put in the 4t drive unformatted to something that was at TE4 I get that red screen error. What I was thinking was the reverse of mfsr: formatting the drive first to a 3TB partition and a 1TB partition, so that the Bolt sees the 3TB partition and works OK with it, ignoring and wasting the 1TB partition.


The only way of accomplishing that would be to make a HPA or DCO on the drive so hardware wise it looks like a 3 TB drive. As the TiVo will overwrite any non TiVo partitioning.

By cloning my 500 GB TE4 drive to the 4 TB, I effectively partitioned it to a 500 GB space with the rest wasted. The drive did not boot. There must be a setting on the drive that prevents it from booting up. Just have to figure out what that setting is and if it is modifiable. Only other thing would be some whitelist/blacklist thing going on which I doubt.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

According to Central Valley Computer parts, the WD40NPZZ can no longer be used in the Tivo. His email to me after I asked about his 3TB one:
" Thank you for writing. I am not sure on the 3tb version. We had found out that the Tivo company sent out updates that makes this drive not function. I know if you install the original drive it will boot. That's what others have told me. I am sorry that the Tivo company made it so this drive would not function in your system now."
Shawn


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

I was able to downgrade to TE3, not on the original 1tb drive but on its 4tb Seagate replacement. The 1tb original drive would not go into downgrade mode the Seagate would. Once I was at setup I switched the WD drive and it booted to setup too! At this point I can used the WD40 drive as long as I stay in TE3. I wonder at this point if I can go to TE4? If the WD drive is specifically blocked, it should work, but maybe it will as an upgrade?


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## pj1983 (Dec 26, 2016)

ratso said:


> I was able to downgrade to TE3, not on the original 1tb drive but on its 4tb Seagate replacement. The 1tb original drive would not go into downgrade mode the Seagate would. Once I was at setup I switched the WD drive and it booted to setup too! At this point I can used the WD40 drive as long as I stay in TE3. I wonder at this point if I can go to TE4? If the WD drive is specifically blocked, it should work, but maybe it will as an upgrade?


My reading of some of the comments upthread is that upgrading to Hydra/TE4 would brick your WD40NPZZ again. I have a Bolt with a WD40NPZZ running TE3 just fine -- at least for now. I already had no intention of upgrading it to Hydra/TE4, this latest turn of events sealed the deal.


----------



## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

pj1983 said:


> My reading of some of the comments upthread is that upgrading to Hydra/TE4 would brick your WD40NPZZ again. I have a Bolt with a WD40NPZZ running TE3 just fine -- at least for now. I already had no intention of upgrading it to Hydra/TE4, this latest turn of events sealed the deal.


Yes pj I'm afraid you are correct. Having the latest TE4, and loving it, I'm not going to be happy using TE3 anymore. Thanks for everyones help in this!


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

jmbach said:


> This will not work to limit the drive but allow TiVo to access the whole 4 TB.
> 
> TiVo will format the whole drive correctly but there is a bug internally that when the OS starts adding up all the media partitions, it causes the OS to truncate all 64 bit numbers to 32 bit.
> 
> Only possible way to limit what the TiVo sees it is to place a HPA or DCO on the drive.


Will the TiVo recognize the HPA?

craigr


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Will the TiVo recognize the HPA?
> 
> craigr


I used HDAT2 v4.8 to limit the WD40NPZZ to a 3TB drive. The Bolt would still not boot and hung again on starting up. I don't really know if the Tivo sees the HPA however.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

ratso said:


> I used HDAT2 v4.8 to limit the WD40NPZZ to a 3TB drive. The Bolt would still not boot and hung again on starting up. I don't really know if the Tivo sees the HPA however.


If you examine the APM on the drive, you can see what size the TiVo recognizes.

On a side note, not using HDAT but a similar but not as powerful windows program, my WD40NPZZ does not support HPA or DCO. Setting one does not work. Might connect that drive back up to see of the HPA took.

You might try looking at the settings via HDAT on both drives and see if there any differences. If there, you can see if you can set the WD40PNZZ similar to the drive that works and see if that makes a difference.

When I get home I can post my results of the two drives I tested.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Here is the 500 GB drive that came with the unit.

```
ATATOOL v1.3.0.20 x64 [Built Oct 26 2017 22:09:44] Unicode
ATATOOL (c) Data Synergy UK Ltd 2013-2017. Personal / Non-Commercial Use Only

\\.\physicaldrive2
------------------
Model:                 WDC WD5000LUCT-63RC2Y0
Serial Number:         WD-WX41A.......
Fimrware rev:          01.01A01
Major revision:        ATA/ATAPI-8
Minor revision:        0x006d
Logical sector size:   0x200 (512) bytes
Physical sector size:  0x1000 (4096) bytes
Max sectors (DCO):     0x0 (0) 0MB
Max sectors (HPA):     0x3a38602f (976773167) 476940MB
Current last sector:   0x3a38602f (976773167) 476940MB (48-bit)
DCO size limited:      No
HPA present:           No
Partition Granularity: 0x800 (2048) sectors
Windows CHS:           0xed81,0xff,0x3f (60801,255,63)
Current CHS:           0x3fff,0x10,0x3f (16383,16,63)
Default CHS:           0x3fff,0x10,0x3f (16383,16,63)
LBASupported:          Yes
HPASupported:          Yes (Permit disable via DCO: No)
HPASecuritySupported:  Yes (Permit disable via DCO: No)
HPASecurityEnabled:    No
48BitSupported:        Yes (Permit disable via DCO: No)
WriteUncorrectableExt: Yes (Permit disable via DCO: No)
DCOSupported:          Yes WARNING: DCO is empty. It may be *frozen*
BootOffsetSupport:     No
Vendor ECC bytes:      0 (0)

Note: CHS values are as reported by device / OS. These are not BIOS values.
```
Here is the 4TB

```
ATATOOL v1.3.0.20 x64 [Built Oct 26 2017 22:09:44] Unicode
ATATOOL (c) Data Synergy UK Ltd 2013-2017. Personal / Non-Commercial Use Only

\\.\physicaldrive2
------------------
Model:                 WDC WD40NPZZ-00PDPT0
Serial Number:         WD-WX51D.....
Fimrware rev:          01.01A01
Major revision:        ATA/ATAPI-8
Minor revision:        0x0000
Logical sector size:   0x200 (512) bytes
Physical sector size:  0x1000 (4096) bytes
Max sectors (DCO):     0x0 (0) 0MB
Max sectors (HPA):     0x0 (0) 0MB
Current last sector:   0x1d1c0beaf (7814037167) 3815447MB (48-bit)
DCO size limited:      No
HPA present:           No
Partition Granularity: 0x800 (2048) sectors
Windows CHS:           0x76c01,0xff,0x3f (486401,255,63)
Current CHS:           0x3fff,0x10,0x3f (16383,16,63)
Default CHS:           0x3fff,0x10,0x3f (16383,16,63)
LBASupported:          Yes
HPASupported:          No (Permit disable via DCO: No)
HPASecuritySupported:  No (Permit disable via DCO: No)
HPASecurityEnabled:    No
48BitSupported:        Yes (Permit disable via DCO: No)
WriteUncorrectableExt: No (Permit disable via DCO: No)
DCOSupported:          No WARNING: DCO is empty. It may be *frozen*
BootOffsetSupport:     No
Vendor ECC bytes:      0 (0)

Note: CHS values are as reported by device / OS. These are not BIOS values.
```


----------



## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Thank you guys/Jmbach so what does this mean (to non-techie on HDD )

Regards,
Kishore


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Kishore said:


> Thank you guys/Jmbach so what does this mean (to non-techie on HDD )
> 
> Regards,
> Kishore


I will need more context in order to say anything.


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

Suugest if like me, you need to replace or upgrade your HD in your Bolt to follow the suggestions from Ross Walker. They worked for me running TE4!


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Jmbach- wanted brief highlight of differences between two drives (I see from your post description there are) and if there is relevance wrt Tivo FW ...but Ratso- Ahh so you now have 4TB working with TE4 now ? Can you point to post/link please (or PM me). 

Thank You!

Regards,
Kishore


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

LMGTFY: 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.

Not updated for this though, I think, but he sure saw this coming: _However, if you choose to use this to bless a 4TB drive for a BOLT you should be aware that there is no guarantee that it will continue working down the road when Tivo releases various software updates. _


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

Man I have so many TiVo's out in the wild with larger than 3TB drives. I have kept all my clients on TE3 so far. I don't know what I am going to do when TE4 becomes mandatory.

craigr


----------



## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

One of my own BOLT's has an internal 2TB drive and only has a bunch of football games on it. I may copy those games to another TiVo, put in a 8TB drive, then upgrade to TE4 and see what happens. I have been thinking of upgrading that VOX as it's in my theater room and has no Mini clients. Some of the new and developing features would be useful in the theater like HDR and ATMOS. I don't think we will ever see those features on TE3.

I'll let you asll know if I try it and if ir works or not.

Kind regards,
craigr


----------



## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

I was an early adopter of Tivo when I bought the series 1 HDR112 made by Phillips. It had 14 hours of recording ability. That was 14 hours SD! You were able to put in 60GB drive which gave it 6 times as much room. Eventually Tivo upgraded firmware, in part, made 60GB drive unless. How ever 2 years later it worked again because they had raised their own limits. My guess is, that will happen again. They will start releasing larger more expensive products with larger drives and remove the code that once blocked other drives. I'm an optimist.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

My 4TB Seagate 2.5 inch drive is still working fine with Hydra.


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> My 4TB Seagate 2.5 inch drive is still working fine with Hydra.


Out of curiosity, did you also expand it using msft?

I'm wondering if we have tried not doing that? Start with a TE3, erase the hard disk, let the Tivo format it, then upgrade it without expanding it from 3tB to 4TB with msft?


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## Anotherpyr (May 6, 2015)

elorimer said:


> Out of curiosity, did you also expand it using msft?
> 
> I'm wondering if we have tried not doing that? Start with a TE3, erase the hard disk, let the Tivo format it, then upgrade it without expanding it from 3tB to 4TB with msft?


I think this was tried with the WD 4TB drive and had the same results. There are posts that seem to indicate it's only certain drives that aren't working with TE4. The Seagates despite being SMR drives are working.


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

elorimer said:


> Out of curiosity, did you also expand it using msft?
> 
> I'm wondering if we have tried not doing that? Start with a TE3, erase the hard disk, let the Tivo format it, then upgrade it without expanding it from 3tB to 4TB with msft?


It never gets far expanded or not. TE3 does install on the WD, but stalls on upgrade or stalls on format from other TE4 drive.


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## ratso (Aug 23, 2016)

If you get to TE3 after upgrading on a Seagate drive you will notice, as I did, there won't be an app to upgrade from. Tivo, say they need to put in a request, but I think just pressing the VOX button will initiate the update, at least it did for me. Hope this helps.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

elorimer said:


> Out of curiosity, did you also expand it using msft?
> 
> I'm wondering if we have tried not doing that? Start with a TE3, erase the hard disk, let the Tivo format it, then upgrade it without expanding it from 3tB to 4TB with msft?


I used msfr when I first installed the drive. But that was also over three years ago.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## ClefCruiser (Apr 25, 2019)

Forgive if it is there and I missed it, I am getting ready to install the Toshiba 3tB in my Bolt - does it need to have the parking disabled or can it even do that?


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## A J Ricaud (Jun 25, 2002)

ClefCruiser said:


> Forgive if it is there and I missed it, I am getting ready to install the Toshiba 3tB in my Bolt - does it need to have the parking disabled or can it even do that?


It doesn't need parking. Drop it in and it's "plug-and-play".


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