# HD replacement and service level?



## Doc_Boston (Apr 24, 2009)

I just received 2 TiVos, both series 2. one has a single tuner and 40GB disk, the other is dual tuner, 80GB disk.

The downside is they both have failing hard drives. The up side is they both have lifetime subscriptions.

If I replace the HDDs in these, will it force the boxes to somehow require a re-subscription or require that I call Tivo to re-activate it somehow? I anticipate that when the box phones home for the first time with the new drive, it'll learn that it has a lifetime subscription and just work based on an ID that's burned into the system and not the drive.


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## wedenton (Jun 13, 2002)

No worry - Replacing the drives will not affect the subscriptions. Have fun!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Lifetime is tied to the TiVo's mother board not the hard drive.

You will need to copy the original drive to the new drive in a PC using WinMFS or MFSLive.

If the original drive is bad purchase  InstantCake with the image for your model of TiVo.


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## Doc_Boston (Apr 24, 2009)

It's not likely that I'll be able to get an image off of one of the 2 systems' drives. The dual tuner 80 hour has a hard drive that clicks when it spins up. That's why I'm looking to buy pre-built drives, and drop them into these machines. I don't want to recover any of the content, it's not my content to start with... I just want to treat these as new, un-used machines for home.  So, no interest in copying the source images, which is why I was concerned that I might not retain the service level of these 2 machines by swapping in a freshly imaged drive.

I appreciate the input. Now to find a vendor that can sell me 2 80hour drives for the 2 systems.  Time to shop eBay.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

Contact Drey here, he sells Tivo ready drives. He also sells on ebay. I got a great deal on a new 1TB drive for my Series 3.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Doc_Boston said:


> Now to find a vendor that can sell me 2 80hour drives for the 2 systems.  Time to shop eBay.


Try  DVRupgrade  or  Weaknees . Both have "Drop-in" ready hard drives, no PC required.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

So does Drey's drives and his cost much less.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Resist said:


> So does Drey's drives and his cost much less.


 No clue who Drey is, both the links I posted are established retailers and provide excellent support.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

HomeUser:
Does Resist speak some other language than English? I know it is not: Spanish, German, or Pig Latin. Don't you just love people acting pretentious or omitting key facts. Coming up with later modifiers that completely change the original question and make your answer look wrong.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

rbtravis said:


> Does Resist speak some other language than English? I know it is not: Spanish, German, or Pig Latin. Don't you just love people acting pretentious or omitting key facts.


What more do you want? I listed a member that sells upgrade drives for Tivo. I bought one from him and he was very helpful. It saved me money buying his new Western Digital drive compared to DVRupgrade or Weaknees. Drey buys them in bulk and makes them Tivo ready. I could have done the same thing myself but he saved me a step. This is what I bought from him: http://cgi.ebay.com/TiVo-S3-Series-...ryZ11725QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


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