# Use the eSATA port with an external drive (up to 8TB DVR Expander) - simple method!



## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

I am so glad that I found this method.

I bought a Bolt VOX with a 1TB drive. Everything that I found on this site told me that the only way to get 4TB of storage (which is what I want) was to drill a hole in the Bolt and connect an external drive to the internal SATA port on the Bolt.

The above advice is NOT the only way to skin this cat. There is a way connect an external drive to the eSATA port without cutting any holes in the Bolt's case.... without paying hundreds of dollars to a 3rd party company (which shall remain nameless).

Yes, that's right. You are *not* limited to using the (discontinued) Western Digital (WD) DVR Expander line of products.

For the naysayers among us:

Yes, I realize that two drives means twice the possibility of hardware failure, and that if the external drive fails... I will lose all of my recordings.

I am willing to live with this risk until the end of my 24 month warrantee.

Also:

Advice for anyone who wants to do this: Choose a 3.5" external drive that uses CMR, not SMR.

I am new to Tivo (I am a Windows Media Center user since 2011). I just converted to Tivo and I really don't want to drill holes in my brand new Bolt until after the warrantee is expired.

So... are you ready to learn how to do this?

First, go to the link below. Download either the ISO or the USB/HD file.
MFS Tools 3.2

Next, burn the ISO to a CD/DVD... or use Balena Etcher (balenaEtcher - Home) to create a bootable flash drive (requires a 2GB or larger flash drive). You could also use Balena Etcher to write the image to an HDD, and use that as the boot device.

Then, configure BIOS on a PC so that it will boot from the CD/DVD, flash drive, or HDD that you created in the step above.

NOTE: I connected the drives to the SATA ports inside an old desktop PC that I had lying around. If you don't have access to an old PC with SATA ports, you can use USB-to-SATA adapters.

WARNING: I wrote the below paragraph because my Bolt was brand new, so I had to go through the setup process on the Bolt before I could use MFS Tools to configure the external drive so that it can connect to the Bolt's eSATA port. If your Bolt already has recordings on the internal drive, following these instructions will delete all of the recorded shows on your Bolt's internal drive.

After you finish the normal setup process on your Bolt, unplug the Bolt and remove the internal hard drive. See video at the link below for instructions on how to disassemble your Bolt:

NOTE: The video says that you need a T10 Torx bit (he calls it a "security" bit). My Bolt VOX needed a T9 bit, so YMMV. Perhaps the older version used a T10? I don't know.






Remove the internal HDD from the Bolt, and connect it to your PC.

Connect the HDD that you plan to use as an external HDD to the PC. I used a Western Digital (WD) WD40EFRX. I purchased it from Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EHBERSE/

Turn on the PC and boot into MFS Tools. It runs a Linux variant.

Once the PC is booted and ready for you to login... enter the username "root" (without quotes) and the password is "tivo" (without quotes). Make sure that CAPS LOCK is turned off. Username and password are lower-case.

Now, type the following command to identify the drives that are connected to your PC:


```
lsblk -o name,size,vendor
```
^^^ those are lower-case L's (ell), not I (eye) or 1 (one).

My Bolt came with a 1TB drive, so the original Bolt drive was something like 997GB. It was "/dev/sdc". My new 4TB drive showed as something like 3.7TB. It was "/dev/sdb".

Now, type the following command, where sdX is the original drive from the Bolt, and sdY is the drive that you will use as the external eSATA drive:


```
mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
```
It should finish in less than a second, with a "success" message.

Now, install your new drive into an external enclosure that has an eSATA port. I used the Rosewill RX304-APU3-35B enclosure. I purchased it here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1Q2M6A/

The Rosewill RX304-APU3-35B comes with all necessary hardware, including an eSATA cable.

NOTE: The developer of MFS Tools told me that external enclosures which encrypt the contents of the drive do not work well. Fortunately, this Rosewill enclosure does not encrypt the contents of the drive.

Next, reinstall the original drive into your Bolt. Reassemble the Bolt (helpful instructions are in the video linked above).

Connect all cables to your Bolt, EXCEPT the power cable. Do not connect the power cable yet.

Connect the eSATA cable to the Bolt and the external HDD enclosure.

Connect the power cable to your external HDD, and turn on the HDD.

Wait a few seconds for the HDD to spin-up.

Finally, connect power to your Bolt.

The Bolt will already be configured for external storage (MFS Tools configured it for you).

Enjoy your newly expanded storage!


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

The lack of replies tells me that this is well-known information.

I hope this post helps other newbies.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

It is known but how well known, I am not sure. It certainly is nice to have a nice write up on it. It certainly will help future users.


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

jmbach said:


> It is know but how well known, I am not sure. It certainly is nice to have a nice write up on it. It certainly will help future users.


jmbach, thank you very much for your work on MFSTools.

I hope that many other people will find this thread... so that they can build an external eSATA drive which works with their TiVo.


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

This information was very difficult to find. I hope that this topic will become easier for other people to find.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Nice work, but frankly, how hard is it to drill a hole in the case? I’ve got an external working and this week plan to cut a small notch in the edge of the cover over the hdd to provide room for the cable. Then I’ll put it all back together. And I won’t have to worry about the 2.5” internal going bad which has happened to me twice now in two years.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

UCLABB said:


> Nice work, but frankly, how hard is it to drill a hole in the case? I've got an external working and this week plan to cut a small notch in the edge of the cover over the hdd to provide room for the cable. Then I'll put it all back together. And I won't have to worry about the 2.5" internal going bad which has happened to me twice now in two years.


Not hard but in his case, he wanted to wait until after his commitment is up which looks like includes a warranty.

Personally, I want something to look professional and have contemplated adding a eSata port to externalize the internal SATA port.

I am still working on trying to figure out why some drives work and others do not. I have yet found a 3.5" drive that does not work when connected internally to the Bolt. 2.5" drives is another matter.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

jmbach said:


> Not hard but in his case, he wanted to wait until after his commitment is up which looks like includes a warranty.
> 
> Personally, I want something to look professional and have contemplated adding a eSata port to externalize the internal SATA port.
> 
> I am still working on trying to figure out why some drives work and others do not. I have yet found a 3.5" drive that does not work when connected internally to the Bolt. 2.5" drives is another matter.


I think perhaps you could use a slightly modified PC esata connector and install it on the left side of the case (on the hdd cover) or maybe on the back of the hdd cover if you removed or moved the fan. I'm not one to worry that much about aesthetics or how professional it looks. I just want it to work!


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

jmbach said:


> Not hard but in his case, he wanted to wait until after his commitment is up which looks like includes a warranty.
> 
> Personally, I want something to look professional and have contemplated adding a eSata port to externalize the internal SATA port.
> 
> I am still working on trying to figure out why some drives work and others do not. I have yet found a 3.5" drive that does not work when connected internally to the Bolt. 2.5" drives is another matter.


Correct. It's a 24 month deal with a 24 month warrantee.

I saw one thread where someone added an eSATA port above the existing eSATA port. My enclosure came with an eSATA port that is intended to be mounted in place of one of the card slots on the back of a PC. I took it off of the metal bracket and checked to see if it will fit in that spot in the Tivo, and it does fit perfectly. So, after my 24 month warrantee is up, I'll probably do that.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

barnabas1969 said:


> Correct. It's a 24 month deal with a 24 month warrantee.
> 
> I saw one thread where someone added an eSATA port above the existing eSATA port. My enclosure came with an eSATA port that is intended to be mounted in place of one of the card slots on the back of a PC. I took it off of the metal bracket and checked to see if it will fit in that spot in the Tivo, and it does fit perfectly. So, after my 24 month warrantee is up, I'll probably do that.


Is 4TB the largest drive you can use for this method?


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

shwru980r said:


> Is 4TB the largest drive you can use for this method?


According to what I read, you can go up to 8TB.

Forget what I wrote above. Please refer to post 12 below. User jmbach actually wrote MFS Tools.

Just make sure to find a CMR drive, not SMR.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

shwru980r said:


> Is 4TB the largest drive you can use for this method?


It depends. The MFS can be expanded 4 times via conventional methods which means you can add up to 8 TB external drive to a standard layout internal drive. Depending on how the internal drive was expanded, that number will go down.

Via non standard methods, you could add up to 16 TB external drive to a standard layout internal drive if you use coalesced partitions rather than standard partition pairs.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

barnabas1969 said:


> The lack of replies tells me that this is well-known information.
> 
> I hope this post helps other newbies.


Well I didn't know you could do this. I don't think I would want to set up my TiVo this way because of doubling the risk of losing a drive, but it's good information nonetheless.

I wonder, could you possibly do the same thing with the internal HD removed or just unplugged. Making the eSATA port live would be wonderful!

Thanks,
craigr


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Well I didn't know you could do this. I don't think I would want to set up my TiVo this way because of doubling the risk of losing a drive, but it's good information nonetheless.
> 
> I wonder, could you possibly do the same thing with the internal HD removed or just unplugged. Making the eSATA port live would be wonderful!
> 
> ...


I read some other posts that asked the same question. Apparently, the answer is no. You need a drive that is plugged into the internal SATA port *AND* a drive that is plugged into the external SATA port to make this work.

In my case, I have a 24 month warrantee on the Tivo box, so I did not want to drill holes in it.

After the 24 month warrantee is expired, I plan to add an eSATA port above the existing eSATA port. The new port will be connected to the internal SATA port, and I will use an external 3.5" drive as the primary (and only) drive.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Well I didn't know you could do this. I don't think I would want to set up my TiVo this way because of doubling the risk of losing a drive, but it's good information nonetheless.
> 
> I wonder, could you possibly do the same thing with the internal HD removed or just unplugged. Making the eSATA port live would be wonderful!
> 
> ...


I can confirm that externalizing the internal drive by attaching it to the eSata port does not work. This was attempted on a Premiere XL.


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## Sam L (Jan 12, 2018)

@barnabas1969 - excellent writeup! thanks for putting this together

I'm curious, are there any lag/speed issues using this external drive setup? Also, does the external drive always have to be plugged in or does the configuration get messed up if tivo is ever powered on without it (ie: is the external HD plug and play)? Finally, can I unplug the external drive and move it to another tivo box that has the external drive link enabled?

Thanks!
Sam


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

Sam L said:


> @barnabas1969 - excellent writeup! thanks for putting this together
> 
> I'm curious, are there any lag/speed issues using this external drive setup? Also, does the external drive always have to be plugged in or does the configuration get messed up if tivo is ever powered on without it (ie: is the external HD plug and play)? Finally, can I unplug the external drive and move it to another tivo box that has the external drive link enabled?
> 
> ...


I do not have any lag issues with my setup which is a 3 TB Bolt + and 8 TB external drive.

Yes the external drive always needs to be plugged in. If the external drive is ever disconnected, the TiVo will ask to divorce the external drive. If you do, you will lose your recordings from the time the external drive was added.

You cannot move the external from one TiVo to another and retain recordings.


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## Sam L (Jan 12, 2018)

So it works just as well and seamless as the original, unmodified tivo bolt? I just want to be extra sure before I move forward with this setup. I think it's great and I'm excited to do the same as you have!


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## exdishguy (May 1, 2004)

barnabas1969 said:


> I am so glad that I found this method.
> 
> I bought a Bolt VOX with a 1TB drive. Everything that I found on this site told me that the only way to get 4TB of storage (which is what I want) was to drill a hole in the Bolt and connect an external drive to the internal SATA port on the Bolt.
> 
> ...


Excellent write up! Thanks for the contribution. I'm having trouble coming close to filling a 3TB but if I ever need more storage this could be a nice option.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Using an eSATA drive as a TiVo expander "works", but I do NOT recommend it unless it is really the only option you have to meet a specific goal. The biggest issue is that if EITHER drive fails, you loose everything on BOTH drives. This is an especially worrisome risk with a Bolt, since we all know they have built a TERRIBLE record of early internal drive failures with that toy 2.5" format they use! There are very good reasons why the standard advice in these forum (not just from me) is to NOT attempt to use any eSATA expander now; there are just much better options to expand your storage space.

I used two different eSATA expanders for may years with a couple of S3 boxes - this was back when our largest internal option was 2TB. What I found during this time was that the eSATA plugs are absolute total garbage - they are touchy and finicky, easily unplugged, and often just develop problems even when they haven't been touched at all (poor pin contacts). In fact, just yesterday I pulled one off the shelf to do a full backup of a computer, and I had to plug the cable in several times before it started working properly!

So if you do decide to use the eSATA expansion method, I suggest that you make sure the TiVo and the external drive are located where they are NEVER touched/moved (think about dusting issues and getting behind them to reach wires going to other components). I do not use an eSATA expander with any TiVo anymore, and I would never Never NEVER consider using one with a Bolt. If I didn't want to modify the Bolt case, I would simply leave the back edge of the drive cover popped up 1/4" to snake a SATA cable in to the main connector so I could get rid of that toy internal drive completely.


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

What is the _SMALLEST_ drive I can set up as an internal for Bolt? I wonder if I could use MFSTOOLS to copy my single internal Bolt drive to a tiny 2.5" internal drive and a big external drive and really discourage Bolt from changing anything on the internal drive. Then I could just keep a backup for the internal drive for when it inevitably dies...


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

drnay said:


> What is the _SMALLEST_ drive I can set up as an internal for Bolt? I wonder if I could use MFSTOOLS to copy my single internal Bolt drive to a tiny 2.5" internal drive and a big external drive and really discourage Bolt from changing anything on the internal drive. Then I could just keep a backup for the internal drive for when it inevitably dies...


Sorry, when you add an external drive on the eSATA port, both drives are used to store movies and you have no control over which recordings go to which drive. Also, if either drive dies, you lose everything.


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

snerd said:


> Sorry, when you add an external drive on the eSATA port, both drives are used to store movies and you have no control over which recordings go to which drive. Also, if either drive dies, you lose everything.


Yeah, but if I happen to have a recording that fills the internal drive (very small) completely and I never delete it?
When I remove an external drive, I still keep the recordings that I had before I added the external drive, so there's _some_ level of control.

The point is, can we stop Bolt from using the internal drive? Put there a zero-size partition or something.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

drnay said:


> Yeah, but if I happen to have a recording that fills the internal drive (very small) completely and I never delete it?
> When I remove an external drive, I still keep the recordings that I had before I added the external drive, so there's _some_ level of control.


True, if and only if that recording existed prior to adding the external drive.

No reason to put a filler in the internal drive. If there is a recording split between the internal and external drive, it will be deleted when the external drive is removed. You will still have recordings that existed before adding the drive.


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

jmbach said:


> True, if and only if that recording existed prior to adding the external drive.
> 
> No reason to put a filler in the internal drive. If there is a recording split between the internal and external drive, it will be deleted when the external drive is removed. You will still have recordings that existed before adding the drive.


The reason to have the filler in the internal drive is to make the internal drive easily replaceable WHILE keeping the external drive with all recordings.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

drnay said:


> The reason to have the filler in the internal drive is to make the internal drive easily replaceable WHILE keeping the external drive with all recordings.


If you replace the internal drive without either cloning it to another drive or use MFSTools to copy the drive to another drive, you will lose all recordings on both drives.

So I am not following you.


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

jmbach said:


> If you replace the internal drive without either cloning it to another drive or use MFSTools to copy the drive to another drive, you will lose all recordings on both drives.
> 
> So I am not following you.





drnay said:


> ...Then I could just keep a backup for the internal drive for when it inevitably dies...


If the contents of the internal drive were not to change, because it's really small and filled up, then I could just restore it from backup.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

I see what you are getting at. You could restore it from the back up, but you will still lose programs from the time the backup was made.


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

jmbach said:


> I see what you are getting at. You could restore it from the back up, but you will still lose programs from the time the backup was made.


Why? Bolt keeps the database on the internal flash, right? What do you expect to be changing on the internal drive after the backup? Like I said, the goal is to minimize the internal drive to the point when nothing is changing there.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

drnay said:


> Why? Bolt keeps the database on the internal flash, right? What do you expect to be changing on the internal drive after the backup? Like I said, the goal is to minimize the internal drive to the point when nothing is changing there.


The inodes are still on the hard drive.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

It is NOT that hard to understand. The Bolt will format ANY NEW DRIVE that it sees. If the drive is not the same one that it saw the last time it was running, it will format the drive.

That is why ONLY a clone of the drive that was last booted will work. If it is a CLONE of the last drive that was active, it cannot tell the difference, so it accepts it as the same drive. But a restore of a backup will NOT be the exact same image as the drive had when the bolt was last shut down, since the restore comes from some older point in time.

I will summarize one more time in hopes that you will FINALLY accept what you have already been told many times:
You can shut down a Bolt, clone the drive that was in there, and it will restart without loosing recordings. BUT ANY OTHER CHANGE TO THE DRIVE WILL LOOSE ALL RECORDINGS AND START WITH A FRESH FORMAT!


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## drnay (Dec 22, 2013)

V7Goose said:


> It is NOT that hard to understand. The Bolt will format ANY NEW DRIVE that it sees. If the drive is not the same one that it saw the last time it was running, it will format the drive.
> 
> That is why ONLY a clone of the drive that was last booted will work. If it is a CLONE of the last drive that was active, it cannot tell the difference, so it accepts it as the same drive. But a restore of a backup will NOT be the exact same image as the drive had when the bolt was last shut down, since the restore comes from some older point in time.
> 
> ...


You're still missing the point. The point was to keep the internal drive immutable, so a copy restored from the backup would be an exact "CLONE of the last drive that was active," so it couldn't tell the difference.
But if it keeps the inode map for both int/ext drives on the internal drive, then we can't keep the internal drive unchanging, so that idea goes down in flames.


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

UCLABB said:


> Nice work, but frankly, how hard is it to drill a hole in the case? I've got an external working and this week plan to cut a small notch in the edge of the cover over the hdd to provide room for the cable. Then I'll put it all back together. And I won't have to worry about the 2.5" internal going bad which has happened to me twice now in two years.


I'm amazed at the thoughts on this board myself about how people are not willing to do this. As if people can tell what the back of the case looks like, and it somehow bothers them. Don't they know what a grommet is? 


Spend a couple bucks at Lowes, HD, Menards, Ace, or whatever local hardware store you have, and install a grommet around your cable and over the hole. Then if they are that worried about it, it would look like it was supposed to be that way.

That they would rather have the box looking good then tv. I can only picture these people having these big tvs in there house, and the screen is facing the walls so instead of watching programs they get to look at those pretty cables and plugs.


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## marcv (Dec 1, 2015)

So is it an option to just leave the case off the tivo bolt and add a drive of any size hanging off the internal SATA port? It seems everyone here is concerned about what will "fit" in the case and not drilling the case. What if my bolt is in the closet and I don't care about what the hell it looks like? Can I keep the cover off (increase cooling) and hang a 3.5" internal off the internal SATA port and just let it "sit" on top without even mounting it? Any risks or downside?


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

marcv said:


> So is it an option to just leave the case off the tivo bolt and add a drive of any size hanging off the internal SATA port? It seems everyone here is concerned about what will "fit" in the case and not drilling the case. What if my bolt is in the closet and I don't care about what the hell it looks like? Can I keep the cover off (increase cooling) and hang a 3.5" internal off the internal SATA port and just let it "sit" on top without even mounting it? Any risks or downside?


YES.

Risks: More dust? Downsides: Well then it won't look "as pretty" on your shelf because of that really cool case design.
My Awesome BOLT Cooling Mods ;-)


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## marcv (Dec 1, 2015)

If I use a 3.5” drive and leave the case off so it fits, do I still have to use external power supply even if hooked up directly to the internal SATA port? From what I have read i think I will still need an extension can,e possibly and external SATA enclosure with its own power supply. Curious if anyone has done this with a 3.5” drive. Looks like poster above left case off but appears to be a 2.5” drive


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

marcv said:


> If I use a 3.5" drive and leave the case off so it fits, do I still have to use external power supply even if hooked up directly to the internal SATA port? From what I have read i think I will still need an extension can,e possibly and external SATA enclosure with its own power supply. Curious if anyone has done this with a 3.5" drive. Looks like poster above left case off but appears to be a 2.5" drive


You will need to power the 3.5" drive with an external power supply. The Bolt does not supply enough power for the larger drives.


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## marcv (Dec 1, 2015)

jmbach said:


> You will need to power the 3.5" drive with an external power supply. The Bolt does not supply enough power for the larger drives.


Got it. So my gameplan would be to unhook the internal 500GB Tivo drive and go with external 3.5" drive, extension eSATA cable and just leave the case off the unit since it is in my closet so aesthetics are meaningless. I'm going pure function over form. I have the Bolt VOX 500GB and that thing is filling up insanely fast.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

marcv said:


> Got it. So my gameplan would be to unhook the internal 500GB Tivo drive and go with external 3.5" drive, extension eSATA cable and just leave the case off the unit since it is in my closet so aesthetics are meaningless. I'm going pure function over form. I have the Bolt VOX 500GB and that thing is filling up insanely fast.


eSATA is not advised. You should just use a long SATA cable from the Bolt plugged directly into the external hard drive but still use the power from the external enclosure.


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## marcv (Dec 1, 2015)

shwru980r said:


> eSATA is not advised. You should just use a long SATA cable from the Bolt plugged directly into the external hard drive but still use the power from the external enclosure.


Ok so here is my shopping list of drive, enclosure and cables. I think I only need one of these cables though. One other poster had the right angle cable but if I'm leaving the top off I don't think I need to spend the 15 bucks on that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

LMK what you think of these choices for upgrading Tivo Bolt 500GB to 3TB (mine is not the OTA Bolt) running TE4 and if any issues might cause this to not work.

3TB Purple WD Hard Drive (this is a PMR drive from what I can tell built for surveillance video 24/7):
https://amzn.to/2SSDFYv

Rosewell Enclosure:
https://amzn.to/2Qbhdb9

Extension cable to run out of the Rosewell Drive enclosure:
https://amzn.to/2Qzf5ZM

Right angle SATA 3 connector (this is one not sure if I need? Waste of 15 bucks? Maybe just use ones below?) 
https://amzn.to/2QBQLpX

SATA 3 Cable (5 in this pack)
https://amzn.to/2sq5wV3

Thanks. I want to do this once and be done since it is a PIA and losing cablecard pairing, settings, recordings, etc. Read various things about some drives not being happy with TE4 but haven't read any specific issues with this drive. I would love to do a RAID 1 setup with 2 drives with an enclosure that presents the 2 drive raid array as a a single drive to tivo. Drives hot swappable in case one fails the enclosure will simply rebuild new drive on swap. I have read some stuff on this but seems not many have gone down this road or provided instructions on a clear successful implementation. Since mine is in a closet aesthetics do not matter and space no limits.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

jmbach said:


> You will need to power the 3.5" drive with an external power supply. The Bolt does not supply enough power for the larger drives.


I've had no issue powering WD 5400 rpm drives off the TiVo power supply.

Instructions: Adding eSATAp connector to BOLT (tech)

craigr


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

CIR-Engineering said:


> I've had no issue powering WD 5400 rpm drives off the TiVo power supply.
> 
> Instructions: Adding eSATAp connector to BOLT (tech)
> 
> craigr


I had issues with 5400 rpm 10 and 12 TB drives powering them off the internal connection on the Bolt.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

jmbach said:


> I had issues with 5400 rpm 10 and 12 TB drives powering them off the internal connection on the Bolt.


The WD drives mostly use 5 watts or less. What drives did you try?

thanks
craigr


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## My Cape is a Recliner (Oct 5, 2019)

Instead of using two drives, why not just use a drive larger than 3tb. That same drive purple drive in 8tb is my plan once I stop being too lazy and cheap to do it.


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## spiderpumpkin (Dec 1, 2017)

jmbach said:


> I had issues with 5400 rpm 10 and 12 TB drives powering them off the internal connection on the Bolt.


I have both a Bolt Vox 6 tuner and Roamio Plus 6 tuner. Does the Bolt Vox internal power have enough power for an 8TB drive? I put an 8TB drive in my Roamio and works great.

I noticed both have the exact same hard drive power connector on the motherboard. Does the Roamio have enough power to power a 10TB, 12TB drive internally with that connector?


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

barnabas1969 said:


> Choose a 3.5" external drive that uses PMR, not SMR.


Just FYI the term is CMR now. PMR is now a generic term, includes CMR and SMR. So a non SMR drive is CMR. Oh for the good old days when a drive was just a drive.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

spiderpumpkin said:


> I have both a Bolt Vox 6 tuner and Roamio Plus 6 tuner. Does the Bolt Vox internal power have enough power for an 8TB drive? I put an 8TB drive in my Roamio and works great.
> 
> I noticed both have the exact same hard drive power connector on the motherboard. Does the Roamio have enough power to power a 10TB, 12TB drive internally with that connector?


My Roamio currently has a 12 TB drive in it and it is operating without issue.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

UCLABB said:


> I've got an external working and this week plan to cut a small notch in the edge of the cover over the hdd to provide room for the cable.


You don't have to cut a notch (though it would be small). Just use a couple shims, back of case. As long as the shims are thick enough where the cable can slide back and forth between them you should be fine.









Note, you can see the cable I ran out of the Bolt has a male Sata connection. I used Sata to Sata, the cable coming out of the enclosure (connected directly to the Sata data connection on the drive) has a regular female Sata connector. So I can separate the Bolt from the enclosure easily. I did not have to cut anything on the Bolt or the enclosure (enclosure a bit dependent, has to have ability to connect power and data to the drive separately and have room to run the data cable out without any cutting)


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

CIR-Engineering said:


> I've had no issue powering WD 5400 rpm drives off the TiVo power supply.
> 
> Instructions: Adding eSATAp connector to BOLT (tech)
> 
> craigr


I went and read your thread, very interesting, and a lot of work (the thread itself, lot of pictures and details).


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

tommage1 said:


> Just FYI the term is CMR now. PMR is now a generic term, includes CMR and SMR. So a non SMR drive is CMR. Oh for the good old days when a drive was just a drive.


I updated the first post.


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## Darin Richardson (Jul 26, 2021)

barnabas1969 said:


> The lack of replies tells me that this is well-known information.
> 
> I hope this post helps other newbies.


I am just starting mine came used with no hd drive so I want to put a terabyte 2.5 inch sata first and after I get up and running then I have plenty of data 3.5 hdd I would like to hook sata 3.5 hd to sata port on TiVo bolt. USB hdd hooked hard drives won't work in USB slot's of TiVo will they?1 terabyte wd blue sata 2.5 can I use it internally?


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Darin Richardson said:


> I am just starting mine came used with no hd drive so I want to put a terabyte 2.5 inch sata first and after I get up and running then I have plenty of data 3.5 hdd I would like to hook sata 3.5 hd to sata port on TiVo bolt. USB hdd hooked hard drives won't work in USB slot's of TiVo will they?1 terabyte wd blue sata 2.5 can I use it internally?


Have some periods on me: .........


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## darin richatson (Jul 26, 2021)

ej42137 said:


> Have some periods on me: .........


Every body's a critic


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## barnabas1969 (Aug 22, 2013)

Well... here I go again. 









I've been running this Tivo Bolt Vox with an internal 2.5" 1TB drive and an external 4TB HDD for 3 years. I bought a 6TB drive and the cables needed to connect it to the internal SATA connector.

Now, I need to combine the data from the 1TB and 4TB drives together onto the new 6TB drive. As I understand, MFS Tools can do this.

To be clear: I want to combine the data from the internal 1TB drive and the external 4TB drive on a single 6TB drive. Then, I want to connect the external enclosure to the "internal" SATA connector inside the Tivo Bolt. I have all of the necessary cables and I am willing/able to cut a hole at rear of the Tivo Bolt enclosure.

I will appreciate any advice, especially from @jmbach


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