# Additional/External Storage



## brewcrewfan (Jun 27, 2010)

Recently my DVR expander crapped out. I want to get another external hard drive for the Tivo Bolt (do not own the bolt yet). Are there other external hard drives that work with Tivo Bolt?


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## cwicomputers (Jan 9, 2016)

yes the western digital expander 1 tb but they are not made anymore


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## jpierce237 (Oct 19, 2007)

I find it annoying bordering on criminal that TiVo touts the ability to add external storage yet there is no current storage solution available for it. They've told me that my old external drive should work with the ESATA cable they supplied....the drive is recognized but won't marry as the Bolt says it's not a supported drive. The Bolt is technically correct as it's an external drive I built for my TiVo HD, which worked fine until I retired my HD in favor of this Bolt. I am not aware of any utilities to build an external drive for the Bolt, assuming of course that it has different requirements.... which may mean an old WD Expander might not work as well. Best of luck!
Jim


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

jpierce237 said:


> I find it annoying bordering on criminal that TiVo touts the ability to add external storage yet there is no current storage solution available for it. They've told me that my old external drive should work with the ESATA cable they supplied....the drive is recognized but won't marry as the Bolt says it's not a supported drive. *The Bolt is technically correct as it's an external drive I built for my TiVo HD, which worked fine until I retired my HD in favor of this Bolt. * I am not aware of any utilities to build an external drive for the Bolt, assuming of course that it has different requirements.... which may mean an old WD Expander might not work as well. Best of luck!
> Jim


What do you mean by " I built for my Tivo HD"? if you're talking about building a case and drive assembly for an original OLED S3, then that's your issue, only WD Expanders marked for Tivo use are on the approved list, OLED S3s will accept any external due to a grandfather clause they were nice enough to let slip through. However in most cases it's far preferable to just upgrade your internal drive.


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## dexion11 (Feb 7, 2016)

They seem to be available new (1TB) at cox solutions stores. I also googled the model number to see if $99 was fair. Seems they are available online for about 90 but given their age its hard to tell if they were actually new. The cox one I bought was unopened and new.

if you call TiVo they have a list of 8 model numbers that work.

so its not so bad.


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## JoE 15 (Nov 19, 2015)

I actually lucked out today. Found a nice gentleman on Craigslist selling his 1TB WD DVR Expander for $50. 

Still wish there were more options for us with TiVo.


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## jwort93 (Dec 18, 2015)

What is the chance this actually works with the bolt? http://www.ebay.com/itm/4TB-DVR-PVR...estro-Shaw-Gateway-1Y-warranty-/262271163610?

It says it works with TiVos but I am doubting it.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

jwort93 said:


> What is the chance this actually works with the bolt? http://www.ebay.com/itm/4TB-DVR-PVR...estro-Shaw-Gateway-1Y-warranty-/262271163610?
> 
> It says it works with TiVos but I am doubting it.


I give it a zero....


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## jwort93 (Dec 18, 2015)

dianebrat said:


> I give it a zero....


Haha yep, sounds about right.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

dianebrat said:


> I give it a zero....





jwort93 said:


> Haha yep, sounds about right.


and I was being generous...


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## brewcrewfan (Jun 27, 2010)

Just wondering if anyone is actually using this with a Tivo Bolt:

Western Digital 1TB My Book AV DVR Expander External Hard Drive - USB 2.0 - WDBABT0010HBK-NESN

Here is a link from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...liid=I2DRVBWBXN388C&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

I was using two of them for two Bolts and they worked flawlessly. I recently sold them, however, after upgrading the internal drives to 3TB. (FWIW, upgrading the internal drive is quite easy.) But yes, those work with the Bolt.


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## molimelight (Jan 29, 2016)

The TiVO Support Forum's official answer to this is:

Thank you for contacting us. Here is a list of supported expanders. There have been reports of other models that have worked, however we cannot guarantee results with models outside of this list.

WDC WD10000F032
WDC WD5000F032
WDC WD5000AVJS-63TRA0 - Firmware: 12.01C01 - Size: 500 GB
WDC WD5000AVJS-63ZWB0 - Firmware: 01.01B01 - Size: 500 GB
WDC WD5000AVJS-63H0B1 - Firmware: 05.04C05 - Size: 500 GB
WDC WD10EVVS-63E1B1 - Firmware: 01.01A01 - Size: 1000 GB
WDC WDG1S5000VN - Size: 500 GB (My DVR Expander eSATA Edition 500GB)
WDC WDG1S10000VN - Size: 1000 GB (My DVR Expander eSATA Edition 1TB)
WDC WDBABT0010HBK - Size: 1000 GB (This is the Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1TB)

Doesn't look like anything above 1TB.

Read further down in the thread and it gets pretty interesting in that most of the ones listed are not made anymore and may or may not work with the Bolt. Here's the thread link.


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## brewcrewfan (Jun 27, 2010)

Thank you all for your help in this discussion on the "WD 1TB My Book AV DVR Expander External Hard Drive - USB 2.0 - WDBABT0010HBK-NESN"

My follow up to the link I posted earlier (and a link below again for your convenience). This says you can either us USB or Esata. What do you guys recommend using, does it really matter? One thing when using my old WD expander on my Series 3 HD is the Esata seemed to have issues staying plugged in tightly, whereas the USB to my tuning adatper seems to work fine. Just wondering.

Thanks again!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...liid=I2DRVBWBXN388C&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

brewcrewfan said:


> Thank you all for your help in this discussion on the "WD 1TB My Book AV DVR Expander External Hard Drive - USB 2.0 - WDBABT0010HBK-NESN"
> 
> My follow up to the link I posted earlier (and a link below again for your convenience). This says you can either us USB or Esata. What do you guys recommend using, does it really matter? One thing when using my old WD expander on my Series 3 HD is the Esata seemed to have issues staying plugged in tightly, whereas the USB to my tuning adatper seems to work fine. Just wondering.
> 
> ...


Yes, it matters whether you use the USB or eSATA connector. It really, really matters. The TiVo expansion *only* works through the eSATA connection, it does not work through the USB connection.

There's no easy way to predict whether a given drive will pass the whitelist test; all the officially supported drives are no longer in production.

I've had the same issue with eSATA connectors; my suggestion is gaffer tape, but you can also carefully bend the connector slightly to improve the grip if you are brave.


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## beyondthetech (Jan 2, 2015)

Since I'm just jumping into this idea now about external expansion, am I to understand that it's the particular WD eSATA interface that's really what the TiVo needs, or the actual drive that it's looking for?

There are some of these Expanders for sale, but after a few years, I'm wary that the drives have limited life left to them and I was considering gutting them and replacing them with another internal SATA drive.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

beyondthetech said:


> Since I'm just jumping into this idea now about external expansion, am I to understand that it's the particular WD eSATA interface that's really what the TiVo needs, or the actual drive that it's looking for?
> 
> There are some of these Expanders for sale, but after a few years, I'm wary that the drives have limited life left to them and I was considering gutting them and replacing them with another internal SATA drive.


It's the actual drive, specified by the full model number and the firmware version.


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## beyondthetech (Jan 2, 2015)

ggieseke said:


> It's the actual drive, specified by the full model number and the firmware version.


So how is it possible that a company like WeaKnees can sell a Bolt with an external storage up to 6TB?

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-bolt-4k-series6.php



> TiVo Bolt - 3.5 TB for up to 428 HD hours - Upgraded by WeaKnees
> Four tuners are packed into this small form-factor DVR! Works with antenna or cable or FiOS (but only one!). Access to tons of online apps and programming. 180-day parts/labor warranty from WeaKnees.
> Contains a stock 500 GB internal drive and a 3 TB external drive.
> $649.99 IN STOCK - Eligible for FREE SHIPPING


UPDATE: Looks like another thread was talking about this but got no further in details on how they're able to do it, but the devil is in the details:


They sell Bolts with stock internal drives (500GB/1TB) and no external storage, and with them, it comes with a warranty with TiVo.
They sell Bolts with upgraded internal drives (up to 2TB) and the warranty is with WeaKness.
They sell Bolts with stock internal drives and external storage (up to 6TB) *and the warranty is with WeaKness.*

This leads me to believe that the ones, even with stock internal drives, but have external storage require the Bolts to be modified internally in order to accept other drives that are not blessed by TiVo. I can only imagine it's by using a hardware/software JBOD/RAID method and/or a hack of the TiVo software.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Weakness has proprietary software that can force a marriage between two drives so that they are used as one storage area. There is publicly available software that does that for older TiVo models, but not for Roamio nor Bolt (AFAIK). Back when I had a Series 2 I used this software to marry two hard drives and, using a special bracket, mount both of them internally inside the case.

I no longer think this is a good idea. In my experience, the hard drive is the first thing that usually fails, so having two hard drives cuts the mean time to failure about in half. Nowadays I just replace the hard drive with the biggest one I can find that works.


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## randomguy (Feb 18, 2016)

TiVo has 1TB expansion drives back in stock. I guess they bought up somebody's inventory, since WD has discontinued them.

Dunno how long they'll stay available; I ordered one for my Bolt.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/accessories#storage


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## conejored (Jan 29, 2016)

Just ordered one as well since who knows how long it will be until a more current model is readily available....


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## drweb (Sep 17, 2008)

Late to the party, but I guess this is the place to catch-up. Have the Bolt and looking at the expansion options for storage.
Looks like TiVo *used to sell* My Book AV DVR Expander tivo bolt but no longer does, can't find a link to buy on their site. What's the story behind that selling then not selling?
Is it okay to buy the WD My Book AV DVR Expander from Amazon? Is there a model I should get, or not?

Anyway, I guess 1TB would be fine, eSATA hookup, I found instructions online on how to hook it up. Just have too many recordings lol saved to view on my Bolt, so looking to expand.
If there's *better* options, please clue me in. Thanks,
DrWeb
New email: [email protected]


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