# Bolt HDD Replacenent Questions



## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

Hi All!

I'm moving from a Dish Hopper/Joey setup to the Bolt/Mini setup. Been browsing around this forum for a couple of weeks. My biggest remaining concern with the switch is that the Hopper has a factory installed 2TB drive. I've been reading all the posts about upgrading the Bolt hard drive and have some questions. I am an IT professional who builds my own PCs, so I'm not afraid of the upgrade; I'm just unclear about some of the actual results and the steps.

From what I've gathered; the 2TB upgrade is a piece of cake, the 4TB upgrade needs some specific drive preparation to gain access to the full drive capacity and the 3TB upgrade is either easy like the 2TB upgrade or more involved like the 4TB upgrade - it's unclear to me whether anyone has successfully done a 3TB upgrade.

My question:

1.) Has anyone actually done a 2TB, 3TB or 4TB upgrade; including a successful boot, record and playback test?

2.) Is the 2TB upgrade really simply just a drive swap?

3.) Is the 3TB upgrade a simple drive swap too or does it require the MFSR reformatting?

4.) Can somebody provide or point me to the step-by-step instructions for the 3TB and 4TB upgrades; with specific instructions on when and how to do the MFSR prep?

5.) I saw the video for the 2TB upgrade; has anyone done a video for the larger drive (3TB & 4TB) upgrades?

Thanks!!!!


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## Eskimo2 (Dec 14, 2015)

From what I've read, the 3TB is as plug & play as the 2TB - availability of a 2.5" factor 3TB drive is (i think) why you don't see it done more.


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## Robbo1 (Oct 31, 2015)

JTHOJNICKI said:


> 1.) Has anyone actually done a 2TB, 3TB or 4TB upgrade; including a successful boot, record and playback test?


Yes, a number of people. I did a 2TB upgrade a week ago.



> 2.) Is the 2TB upgrade really simply just a drive swap?


Yes.



> 3.) Is the 3TB upgrade a simple drive swap too or does it require the MFSR reformatting?


I believe the 3TB upgrade is also just a swap. The 3TB drives are more expensive and thicker, so it is a tighter fit into the Bolt chasis.



> 4.) Can somebody provide or point me to the step-by-step instructions for the 3TB and 4TB upgrades; with specific instructions on when and how to do the MFSR prep?


Look here -- http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade/#BOLT Note that this website says you need to "bless" 3TB drives, but others say a simple swap works. If you try a swap with a 4TB drive without "blessing" it with MFSR, you will only get to use 2.2TB.



> 5.) I saw the video for the 2TB upgrade; has anyone done a video for the larger drive (3TB & 4TB) upgrades?


The physical install is exactly the same, the only difference is you need to prep the drive first. Here is a old video from 2011 that shows how to use MFS Toools -- 



 . I didn't go this route so can't verify that its still accurate. I'm pretty sure the Intellibeam video you saw ( 



 ) was actually a 3TB upgrade.

The 2TB upgrade gives me about 450 hours of HD recording, which at this point is plenty. One thing to note, I needed to uses a T8 screwdriver to remove the back screw, in addition to a T10 for the rest of the screws


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