# Another 4TB Drive Bites The Dust



## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

I upgraded my Tivo Bolt to a 4TB drive a year ago and it has operated fine ever since. No problems at all. However, today I unplugged the Bolt and moved it to a different location. When I plugged it back in I got the flashing lights. I tried cycling it a few times but nothing helped. Finally I put the original 1/2TB back in and it started working again. I can only assume the drive is bad or sufficiently corrupted that I can no longer use it.

Is there anyway to recover the recording on this drive or is it simply toast?

Thanks!

Louis


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Well that sucks!!


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> Well that sucks!!


Yep! :-(


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## brobin10 (Jan 19, 2016)

Mathelo said:


> I upgraded my Tivo Bolt to a 4TB drive a year ago and it has operated fine ever since. No problems at all. However, today I unplugged the Bolt and moved it to a different location. When I plugged it back in I got the flashing lights. I tried cycling it a few times but nothing helped. Finally I put the original 1/2TB back in and it started working again. I can only assume the drive is bad or sufficiently corrupted that I can no longer use it.
> 
> Is there anyway to recover the recording on this drive or is it simply toast?
> 
> ...


something similar happened to me when I unplugged everything (including my bolt) and went to Europe for 2 weeks. when I came back the bolt immediately started flashing after its first plug in. what I found works best is that you let it flash for 15+ minutes then pull the power plug and immediately plug it back it....that fixes it every time for me

this morning was no exception. my bolt started flashing overnight at some point and had probably been flashing for hours before I saw it...unplugged it and immediately plugged it back in....rebooted just fine


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

But is shouldn't be flashing at all. Although I keep my TiVos running 24/7/365. I don't disconnect power from them unless it's a last resort and I need to move them for some reason.


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## brobin10 (Jan 19, 2016)

aaronwt said:


> But is shouldn't be flashing at all. Although I keep my TiVos running 24/7/365. I don't disconnect power from them unless it's a last resort and I need to move them for some reason.


yes I know, but its what fixes it for me and no one has been able to determine a 100% fix for the issue.....just wanted to help a fellow tivo'er and let others know what has work for me since this seems to be a common problem for most that swapped drives with a 4tb Seagate drive


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## JOSHSKORN (Aug 27, 2015)

@Mathelo can you post your drive's model number and are you able to get the firimware version of it? You may need to remove it from your TiVo to get this information and plug it into a PC and use Seagate Tools. Long story short, if you have 0004 firmware, you'll probably continually get the 4 flashing lights problem. If it's 0001 like aaronwt's is, then it shouldn't happen, as far as we all know. If you do in fact have 0001, please let us know. A few of us are starting to believe that a firmware upgrade has enabled features of this drive which are catastrophic in a TiVo environment. Maybe even the build date is enough information.

Did you try plugging your TiVo back into the original location just to see if it'll work again? I remember having some funky problem with one of my Minis where I might get some error if I had it on a certain shelf but not another, maybe some sort of interference issue. I could only assume that any TiVo device with wireless capabilities would act similar.


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

Just seeing these posts. Not sure why these are not coming through to my email. 

I'll take a look at the drive tomorrow or the next and let you know what I find. It one one of the first Seagate/Samsung 4TB drives that were recommended when the the Bolt first came out.

This is the backup unit I used: Amazon.com: Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Portable External Hard Drive with 200GB of Cloud Storage USB 3.0 Black (STDR4000100): Computers & Accessories

*Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Portable External Hard Drive with 200GB of Cloud Storage USB 3.0 Black (STDR4000100)*


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

Confirmed as:
Model Number: ST4000LM016-1N2170
Serial Number: W8001RLL
Firmware: 0001

I've also run all the Seagate Tool tests except the "Long Generic" and no issues. Running the "Long Generic" now. I'll report back when it is done. 14 hours to go. 

Just completed and past the "Long Generic" test. Drive seems to be good.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

I know this is not your problem, but I had to unplug my Bolt for a couple seconds and when I plugged it back in I could not get a picture. I finally called TiVo support and they had me unplug it and my TV and then it worked. Seems some problems with the Bolt as the tech knew exactly what to do.


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

Rkkeller said:


> I finally called TiVo support and they had me unplug it and my TV and then it worked. Seems some problems with the Bolt as the tech knew exactly what to do.


Step one when calling tech support for consumer devices...unplug everything, wait several seconds, plug everything back in...It works? great problem solved, have a good day!

-TL


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

Well, I've tried all the tricks suggested here. Nothing worked. The hard disk tests as fine, so some data must be corrupted probably when I unplugged it.


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## inthewoods (Feb 21, 2005)

Did you try the original drive to see if it works? If that is working then it must be something on the 4TB drive.

One last-ditch thing to try before tossing the drive would be to use the Seagate Tools "Instant Secure Erase" (if supported by the drive), or "Overwrite Erase" and then re-install it in the Bolt as if it was brand-new. See the documentation >here<


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

inthewoods said:


> Did you try the original drive to see if it works? If that is working then it must be something on the 4TB drive.
> 
> One last-ditch thing to try before tossing the drive would be to use the Seagate Tools "Instant Secure Erase" (if supported by the drive), or "Overwrite Erase" and then re-install it in the Bolt as if it was brand-new. See the documentation >here<


It works fine with the original drive. The thing is, I've replaced this Bolt with a Bolt+. I was hoping to sell it with the 4TB drive but I think I'm just going to put the original 1/2TB drive back in and sell it that way. I've thoroughly tested the 4TB drive and it seems fine outside of the Bolt. So I'll just put it into service as a backup drive and be done with it.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

MIght have something to do with the size of the drive. I remember you needed to do some special formatting to use a larger drive in a Tivo. Forgot the specifics like the size of the drive and whether that was Bolt or Roamio.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The Bolt will automatically format a 3TB and lower drive size.


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

trip1eX said:


> MIght have something to do with the size of the drive. I remember you needed to do some special formatting to use a larger drive in a Tivo. Forgot the specifics like the size of the drive and whether that was Bolt or Roamio.


Yea, I did all of that. The drive has been working fine for over a year.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Mathelo said:


> Yea, I did all of that. The drive has been working fine for over a year.


Yep I read that, but I still figure the size of the drive could be related to the issue you're having.

Another poster in this thread says he had same problem with a 4 tb drive. He also said it was Seagate brand.

And while you said it was working for a year, the Bolt has received at least a few updates during that time. The software hasn't stayed static.


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