# New Bolt, HDD upgrade questions



## imrf (Apr 18, 2014)

I just received a Bolt and I'm coming from a 2 tuner Premier and I've been looking through threads and the hard drive upgrade options look pretty bleak for the Bolt. Seems only the Toshiba 3TB drive is the only one that is recommended, is that true?

Ideally I'd like a drive under $100, but that seems to be limited to 1TB drives, that could work as my current Premiere has that now. I saw a WD RED 1TB for $70, but wouldn't mind finding a 2TB for 100 or less. What's the consensus on the SMR drives? Anyone use them for a while and have any/many failures?

Going external is not an option I want to pursue.


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## GMonitor (May 24, 2007)

I just upgraded my new Bolt last night with a 2 TB Seagate (STBD2000102) that I got from Best Buy. So far, it seems to be working well. It's supposed to be a PMR drive so I'm hoping it will work well but it's too early to tell. I'll try to update this thread with any updates.


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## tivoboy (Jan 14, 2002)

you can get a 2TB small drive for 100-110$, but honestly the 3TB is only about 124$ from amazon on sale, I know it's another 25$ plus tax, but it's 50% bigger than the 2TB and totally worth it.


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## DrKrizzle (Oct 9, 2016)

Or with a little extra money and a little extra work, you can get the 4TB drive from Amazon for $119 - the guide to do the change is here: A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo. A little extra money will more than double your capacity.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

DrKrizzle said:


> Or with a little extra money and a little extra work, you can get the 4TB drive from Amazon for $119 - the guide to do the change is here: A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo. A little extra money will more than double your capacity.


But there aren't any 2.5" drives available these days that aren't SMR drives. One forum member lucked into a pair of 4TB Seagates with firmware 0001 and they're still running, but AFAIK every other 4TB internal drive has failed within 6 months. If you want 3TB, get the exact Toshiba mentioned in other threads. If you want to go 4TB or larger, use a 3.5" WD Red in an external enclosure.


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## Paulson (Jul 22, 2004)

I can't find any specs on it but I don't think WD uses SMR...

*70 Hours* WD GREEN WD40NPZZ 4TB IntelliPower 8MB 15mm SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" (Blue) | eBay

Pretty pricey but it's a sata 15mm drive with 4TB's and I don't think it's SMR. 15mm drives do fit just fine in the bolt.


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## DrKrizzle (Oct 9, 2016)

..... but AFAIK every other 4TB internal drive has failed within 6 months. If you want 3TB, get the exact Toshiba mentioned in other threads. If you want to go 4TB or larger, use a 3.5" WD Red in an external enclosure.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! I just changed my order from the 4TB and now am getting the 3TB Toshiba.


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## Fant (Sep 1, 2016)

Not saying it makes sense yet but do we think ssd drives will work reliably on the TiVo? Or do they have too limited mtbf for a dvr?


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

I'd trust an SSD over a platter drive that uses SMR technology, but you'd probably still burn it up in a few years with constant writes. 1TB or 2TB 2.5" platter drives are readily available and dirt cheap compared to SSDs.


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## Lee28104 (Sep 28, 2016)

I've been using a Toshiba MQ03ABB300 (3TB) for nearly 7 months and have never had a problem. You can find it on Amazon at $138.88


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