# cloning tivo hd with laptop, do i need 2 usb sata adapters?



## Electropura21 (Jul 12, 2013)

i know there are many MANY places that discuss how to use winMFS to clone the tivo hd harddrive, and i've watched 2 youtube videos that pretty much walk you through it. the thing is, all the descriptions i've seen use a desktop, which i don't have.

i'm not a techie (more of a dangerous novice), but from what i can tell you need 2 sata adapters and both drives plugged in simultaneously to do a full clone (and keep the programs) using mfscopy.

the harddrive i'm planning on buying is this one from amazon.com, which people confirm worked for their tivo hd.
WD AV-GP 1 TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD10EURX

my problem/questions:
1) am i correct in assuming i need 2 adapters?
2) do i need the "double usb" adapters for extra power, or would a "single usb" adapter work? 
3) my lenovo has 3 usb's on 1 side, and 1 usb on the other. if i need 2 "double usb" adapters, i'm gonna have a problem. could i get away with the "double usb" for the 1TB drive (runs 7200rpm), and a "single usb" for the original tivo hd drive?
4) all things being equal, i'd rather not spend a ton of money on these adapters (although they're nice to have for emergencies, i'm not sure when i'd use one again-- let alone 2). can i get away with the cheap ones under $8 or do i really need to fork out $20+ times two?

those are my big questions. given the fount of knowledge out here, i'm open to adapter recommendations (or any pitfalls i'm missing) too! 

thanks!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Electropura21 said:


> i know there are many MANY places that discuss how to use winMFS to clone the tivo hd harddrive, and i've watched 2 youtube videos that pretty much walk you through it. the thing is, all the descriptions i've seen use a desktop, which i don't have.
> 
> i'm not a techie (more of a dangerous novice), but from what i can tell you need 2 sata adapters and both drives plugged in simultaneously to do a full clone (and keep the programs) using mfscopy.
> 
> ...


The WD20EURS would be a much better buy "amount of storage space per dollar" ratio-wise, assuming you're talking about a Series 3 or newer TiVo.

A laptop is not going to be able to provide enough power to run a 3.5" hard drive via a USB port.

I'm not sure it would be able to power one hooked up in place of its internal 2.5"

You need something for each drive that has its own power supply, and only uses the USB part for data transfer.

You could look into finding a good deal on an external enclosure for a 3.5" SATA drive, and when you're done TiVo upgrading, use it with another drive as a backup for your laptop.

That would leave you with having money tied up in just one of those "naked", or "caseless" adapters that would be sitting around awaiting an emergency.

Or, instead of getting an empty external case and buying a drive for it later, you could get an external drive at least as big as the original TiVo drive, use the one caseless adapter to connect the TiVo drive, copy the TiVo drive to the external, which would wipe out any software that came included with that external drive, like backup software and such (which you could copy to your laptop's hard drive first), then copy from that to the new drive now hooked to the caseless adapter in place of the original TiVo drive, and that would leave you with an external drive for laptop backup.


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## Lensman (Dec 22, 2001)

Note that one of the two USB connectors in the "double" is only for power so you can plug it into a wall-wart USB power cube. You probably already have one so I'm guessing this is a "free" option.

Alternatively you could buy a USB extension cable that would enable the double cable to be plugged into both the left and right side USB ports of your Lenovo laptop.

The most expensive option might be to buy the Startech HDD duplicator I just bought. But for $80 you get a standalone HDD duplicator with separate power supply! It doubles as an external eSATA or USB drive dock. I used it to duplicate and then expand my Premiere drive.

FYI: Watch out for the single drive size limits for the Tivo S3 classic and Tivo HD (Series 3). You're fine with your original plan but as an FYI using standard upgrade procedures the max single-drive capacity is 1.26 TB.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Lensman said:


> FYI: Watch out for the single drive size limits for the Tivo S3 classic and Tivo HD (Series 3). You're fine with your original plan but as an FYI using standard upgrade procedures the max single-drive capacity is 1.26 TB.


As long as you have 11.0k, you can now use WinMFS to go up to 2.0TB.

Scott


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## stamasd (Jun 26, 2002)

unitron said:


> That would leave you with having money tied up in just one of those "naked", or "caseless" adapters that would be sitting around awaiting an emergency.


A "naked/caseless" adapter with its own power supply is $9.99 at dealextreme http://www.dx.com
http://dx.com/p/usb-sata-ide-cable-set-474


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## Lensman (Dec 22, 2001)

HerronScott said:


> As long as you have 11.0k, you can now use WinMFS to go up to 2.0TB.


Dammit! I can't keep up!

Would you tell me where I can look for the documentation on how to do this upgrade?

If I don't care about my recordings because I just divorced my drives and lost all my recordings, do I just do a WinMFS backup of my old drive and then a restore, expand, and supersize of my old drive?

Sorry for the hijacking of the thread.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Lensman said:


> Dammit! I can't keep up!
> 
> Would you tell me where I can look for the documentation on how to do this upgrade?
> 
> ...


Yup.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Lensman said:


> Dammit! I can't keep up!
> 
> Would you tell me where I can look for the documentation on how to do this upgrade?
> 
> ...


I don't think you need to do anything special see WinMFS - Full Guide


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Lensman said:


> Dammit! I can't keep up!
> 
> Would you tell me where I can look for the documentation on how to do this upgrade?
> 
> ...


Check out this post.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9693049#post9693049

Scott


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