# Cloning Tivo Hard Drive



## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

I have been struggling for two weeks to try to figure out how to upgrade my hard drive without losing what is stored on the hard drive that I will be replacing. I have found several programs for transferring recordings off of and back to the Tivo. I have also found a program for cloning the old hard drive to a new one.

Using any of these programs is over my head. So, I was going to try WinMFS because it seemed to be pretty much a click to play program. Unfortunately, I could not get it to download.

Which brings me to my question. Is it possible to use a dual docking station with offline cloning function e.g. wavlink _ to transfer everything from the old hard drive to a new one?


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

People will help you, but you should at least provide which model you have. And maybe post in its forum or the Upgrades forum?

-KP


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## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

kpeters59 said:


> People will help you, but you should at least provide which model you have. And maybe post in its forum or the upgrades forum?
> 
> -KP


Thanks I will delete this thread and post in the upgrades forum.

Update: Sorry, there seems to not be a delete thread option.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Nobody needs to know the model of your TiVo to answer this question. An offline clone station will successfully make a copy of your TiVo's hard drive, but the usable space won't be any different than the original. To do what you want requires learning how to use the software from the Upgrade Forum, or sending your machine off to Weaknees.


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## CaseyJ (Apr 26, 2017)

ej42137 said:


> Nobody needs to know the model of your TiVo to answer this question. An offline clone station will successfully make a copy of your TiVo's hard drive, but the usable space won't be any different than the original. To do what you want requires learning how to use the software from the Upgrade Forum, or sending your machine off to Weaknees.


Will this work on a Bolt? I thought any time a different hard drive was put in a Bolt, it would be be treated as blank and all recordings lost. And when the original is put back in, it would also be treated as blank and all recordings lost.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

kpeters59 said:


> People will help you, but you should at least provide which model you have. And maybe post in its forum or the Upgrades forum?
> 
> -KP


Except EJ...I'd probably remove him from the "People Will Help You" list...

-KP


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## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

ej42137 said:


> Nobody needs to know the model of your TiVo to answer this question. An offline clone station will successfully make a copy of your TiVo's hard drive, but the usable space won't be any different than the original. To do what you want requires learning how to use the software from the Upgrade Forum, or sending your machine off to Weaknees.


Thanks. I found that out when I searched the upgrade forum. I am new to Tivo forums and still learning the ropes. I had searched and thought that the result would be for all sub-forums not just the one I had open. I should have looked at the search options better. 

I am not very computer savy but might give MFS Tools a try. That seems to be the only program that will work for a Roamio. Worst case, if I can't get it to work, I'll just wipe the new drive clean and let the Roamio self-install without saving anything.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

What about copy your shows and backup your OnePasses and Thumbs Ratings with KMTTG?

Then you just replace the drive in the Roamio. It will format the drive for you. Roamio's are easy that way. (that's why I asked what model...) Then restore your backups again with KMTTG.

-KP


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## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

kpeters59 said:


> What about copy your shows and backup your OnePasses and Thumbs Ratings with KMTTG?
> 
> Then you just replace the drive in the Roamio. It will format the drive for you. Roamio's are easy that way. (that's why I asked what model...) Then restore your backups again with KMTTG.
> 
> -KP


I thought about that. I am going to have to learn to use one of the transfer programs (KMTTG, Tivo Desktop, or PyTivo) at some point because I am going to be transferring recordings from my Directv to my laptop soon and will then transfer them to my Roamio.

That would still leave me losing the cable card pairing. I want to preserve that if possible because when the cable card was installed, it took the Comcast tech 2 hours working on his phone with an engineer to get it to work in my Tivo. I am afraid that if I lose the pairing, I will not be able to get it to work again on my own and don't want to pay to have a tech come out. This is actually the main reason want to clone my HDD. Well, that and not wanting to do all transfers in real time.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

audioxcel said:


> That would still leave me losing the cable card pairing. I want to preserve that if possible because when the cable card was installed, it took the Comcast tech 2 hours working on his phone with an engineer to get it to work in my Tivo. I am afraid that if I lose the pairing, I will not be able to get it to work again on my own and don't want to pay to have a tech come out. This is actually the main reason want to clone my HDD. Well, that and not wanting to do all transfers in real time.


Sorry, but changing the hard drive will lose the pairing. Even if you put the original hard drive back after formatting, you don't get pairing. I did that.

However, you do not lose the channel map. I have been living with a non-paired Roamio for months. By that I mean Val: ? but even though my cable feed does use the equipment number during pairing, I'm still working. Note: I have no premium channels.

When I changed my hard drive I was lucky to have another TiVo for transfer. Not saying you should get another TiVo for a few weeks, but I did that (from eBay) when I tested Hydra.


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## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

JoeKustra said:


> Sorry, but changing the hard drive will lose the pairing. Even if you put the original hard drive back after formatting, you don't get pairing. I did that.
> 
> However, you do not lose the channel map. I have been living with a non-paired Roamio for months. By that I mean Val: ? but even though my cable feed does use the equipment number during pairing, I'm still working. Note: I have no premium channels.
> 
> When I changed my hard drive I was lucky to have another TiVo for transfer. Not saying you should get another TiVo for a few weeks, but I did that (from eBay) when I tested Hydra.


How ya been Joe? I remember when you were the Sony DHG-HDD guru on the AVS Forum and fought the good fight when Rovi discontinued support of TVGOS and we all lost our guide and clock.

I got tired of struggling to make manual OTA recordings on my Sony DVR and decided to get Directv. Now, I have decided that I am tired of the subscription rate going up and bought a used Tivo Roamio with lifetime subscription. I also bought a cheap Comcast subscription because I have become addicted to some AXS and MTVLive programs.

And, I bought a used Tivo HD XL (because it would accept NTSC input) and a decent agile RF modulator to try to save the recordings from my DTV DVR on the HD XL. It worked but the quality of the recordings was awful. I could have lived with SD quality but what I got was SD with some kind of glare effect.

Now, I am waiting for a Hauppage HD PVR2 to arrive. I am hoping to use it to transfer DTV recordings to my PC.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

CaseyJ said:


> Will this work on a Bolt? I thought any time a different hard drive was put in a Bolt, it would be be treated as blank and all recordings lost. And when the original is put back in, it would also be treated as blank and all recordings lost.


I think you are correct, but what OP wanted to do was save his recordings and expand his drive by making a clone, and that certainly wouldn't work, whether or not the Bolt would reset the drive. (Well, it would expand it.)



kpeters59 said:


> Except EJ...I'd probably remove him from the "People Will Help You" list...
> 
> -KP


Did you really need to know his model number to tell him cloning wouldn't do what he wants?


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

kpeters59 said:


> What about copy your shows and backup your OnePasses and Thumbs Ratings with KMTTG?
> 
> Then you just replace the drive in the Roamio. It will format the drive for you. Roamio's are easy that way. (that's why I asked what model...) Then restore your backups again with KMTTG.
> 
> -KP


kmttg will not transfer recordings from a PC back to a TiVo; it only downloads from TiVo to a PC. To go both ways you need pyTiVo or TiVo Desktop. (pyTiVo might be challenging for one not fully PC-literate.)

Copy-protected recordings can't be downloaded at all. Whether or not your recordings were copy-protected is a decision made by your cable company; Spectrum, for example, copy-protects everything except broadcast channels like ABC and CBS. Others, such as FIOS, are sometimes less restrictive.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

ej42137 said:


> kmttg will not transfer recordings from a PC back to a TiVo; it only downloads from TiVo to a PC. To go both ways you need pyTiVo or TiVo Desktop. (pyTiVo might be challenging for one not fully PC-literate.)
> 
> Copy-protected recordings can't be downloaded at all. Whether or not your recordings were copy-protected is a decision made by your cable company; Spectrum, for example, copy-protects everything except broadcast channels like ABC and CBS. Others, such as FIOS, are sometimes less restrictive.


C'mon man, you're giving some poor info here. The new Pytivo desktop is very easy to use, takes very little expertise. Spectrum, at least for Charter legacies, copy protects almost no channels except premiums, and not even all of them. This could vary by region.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

UCLABB said:


> C'mon man, you're giving some poor info here. The new Pytivo desktop is very easy to use, takes very little expertise. Spectrum, at least for Charter legacies, copy protects almost no channels except premiums, and not even all of them. This could vary by region.


Apparently you are suggesting that I am wrong in saying that copy protection issues need to be considered by OP. I disagree.

Spectrum/Time Warner Cable is as I have described, it has not changed since the merger. (As you are no doubt aware, Charter had significantly fewer customers than Time Warner Cable did before the acquisition.) OP has Comcast, which is less stringent than Time Warner Cable was. Comcast certainly protects some of its channels, although admittedly not as thoroughly as Spectrum/Time Warner Cable.

Some recordings may not be able to be copied, and that that will depend upon his local cable company and what has been recorded. OP must evaluate his own situation to determine whether the backup and restore method is appropriate for his situation.

As far as pyTiVo goes, even with Dan203's new, easier to use version many people have reported being challenged by installation and configuration problems. In any case, it won't copy protected recordings.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

audioxcel said:


> That would still leave me losing the cable card pairing. I want to preserve that if possible because when the cable card was installed, it took the Comcast tech 2 hours working on his phone with an engineer to get it to work in my Tivo. I am afraid that if I lose the pairing, I will not be able to get it to work again on my own and don't want to pay to have a tech come out. This is actually the main reason want to clone my HDD. Well, that and not wanting to do all transfers in real time.


For CableCARD pairing portion, see if your region can use the online CableCARD pairing tool

Welcome Page

I used to hate pairing on Comcast until they put out this tool. It works (for me) every time with no fuss. No agent trying to "fix" my account causing days of calls with support to undo what they did.

I sometimes pair a couple of times a day to test out units.

Also another mitigating factor is you won't necessarily lose all channels when your pairing is busted. In particular the channels you do lose are the CCI non-zero channels like HBO, SHO, etc. If most of your channels are basic cable, you won't lose those right away. This will give you time to get things fixed.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

audioxcel said:


> How ya been Joe? I remember when you were the Sony DHG-HDD guru on the AVS Forum and fought the good fight when Rovi discontinued support of TVGOS and we all lost our guide and clock.


Hey. I went the TiVo route. My four DHG units are in heaven. TiVo isn't a bad as the Sony, but it's getting closer since Rovi bought them. I have three Roamio and four Mini boxes.

TiVo also depends on the guide for a clock. Life's not fair. -> Clock off in Roamio by 2 minutes


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## audioxcel (Dec 1, 2017)

I was able to use the Hauppage HD PVR2 through a View HD HDMI 1x2 splitter Model VHD-1X2MN3D and HDMI to USB adapter to transfer recordings from my DirecTV box to my laptop. I never bothered to try to send them from my laptop to my Roamio but I think it would be possible in SD at least. Everything has to be done in real time.


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## JJC4545 (Mar 2, 2019)

I am looking to upgrade my Tivo Roamio Plus from a 1 TB to a 4TB and keep the recordings. I'm not worried about licensed content from certain networks, but looking for the best program to do so. I have been trying the direct transfer. It could just be really slow, but I wanted to see if there was a direct program to MFS like in the older series? Any help is greatly appreciated. I am also not a complete NOOB. Just wondering if their is a simpler way to do it.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

With a Cloning Dock, you could make an exact copy of your drive and then use MFSTools to expand it to the full size.

-KP


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## JJC4545 (Mar 2, 2019)

Thank you for replying. What version of MFSTools? The version I have, 1.0.11 doesn't want to communicate with my 1TB drive from my Tivo roamio plus. Also, any suggestions on a cloning dock? I'm surprised I don't have one already, but there are a ton on Newegg.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

MFS Tools 3.2

I recently purchased a 2nd dock mostly by reading random reviews on NewEgg and Amazon. It seems like it was $40ish, which was more than I expected. It's not here right now or I'd tell you the Brand/Model.

-KP


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## justinw (Jan 31, 2007)

Thanks for the tip on the Cloning Docks. I didn't even know these existed as well. It would definitely come in handy.


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## JJC4545 (Mar 2, 2019)

kpeters59 said:


> MFS Tools 3.2
> 
> I recently purchased a 2nd dock mostly by reading random reviews on NewEgg and Amazon. It seems like it was $40ish, which was more than I expected. It's not here right now or I'd tell you the Brand/Model.
> 
> -KP


Any chance you have a copy of 3.2? Sourceforge doesn't have it up now.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

Not me.

You should probably post in that thread.

The creators of that software seem super helpful.

-KP


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

Here's the info on the Cloning Dock I ordered last time:

17-801-119 SYBA USB 3.0 2.5" & 3.5" Dual bay Black SATA III, HDD Docking Station for Easy Clone and Backup, CL-ENC50060
1
$26.75

SYBA CL-ENC50060 Black HD Docking Station for Easy Clone and Backup - Newegg.com

It seems to work fine.

I've also got a Sabrent somewhere around here.

-KP


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## JJC4545 (Mar 2, 2019)

Thanks for all of the help! I'm burning the ISO right now.


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