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View Full Version : Can i swap Hard Drive w/a friend?


dan-kc
06-09-2006, 02:17 PM
Hi,

I have a friend who doesn't need much capacity but has a large drive in her tivo, and i have a small drive but need more capacity.

Can i just swap these hard drives? Both are series2 machines. Wondering with both the compatibility of the hardware to accept different hard drives, and also if there would be any issues with tivo/directv sync....maybe info stored on the HD is linked to the one person's account?

Thank you in advance!

JimSpence
06-09-2006, 02:37 PM
The upgrade forum is the better place to ask this question.
Anyway, to my understanding you would need to make a image of the operating system of each hard drive using tools found in the upgrade forum. Then you would put this image on the other hard drive. You wouldn't save any programming, which doesn't seem to be a concern.

Wouldn't it just be easier to add a larger drive to your system?

dan-kc
06-09-2006, 02:46 PM
both hard drives have been working fine in their respective tivos for years. so i don't know why i'd need to install any OS...

rminsk
06-09-2006, 02:50 PM
If they are not the same model of TiVo then the software has to be exchanged between the two hard drives. The software is the same but it is sort of keyed to the manufacture. You will also lose any recordings, season passes, wishlists you have.

Mavrick22
06-09-2006, 02:51 PM
Are they the same model tivo?

If they are then yes a direct swap with a clear and delete everything would work fine.

If they are different models then as the previous poster stated you would have to make an image of the os for that difer model to model and tivo kinda frowns on you using a paticular models os on a differnt model than it was intended for.

Dkerr24
06-09-2006, 05:45 PM
Dan-KC Please don't post the same question in another section of this forum:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=303263

JimSpence
06-09-2006, 05:56 PM
Dkerr24,
Don't come down on the OP. He only followed my advice about asking this in the upgrade forum.

HDTVsportsfan
06-09-2006, 07:45 PM
Dkerr24,
Don't come down on the OP. He only followed my advice about asking this in the upgrade forum.

Off topic....but I can't help but ask the question. Why is it a problem anyway? If someone asked the same queston in say 4/5/6 topic forums I could see why that's a problem. Even if you didn't suggest posting in a "different topic forum", what's the big deal?

Dkerr24
06-09-2006, 08:40 PM
Sorry Dan and Jim... I missed your post at the top where you asked him to post twice.

MurrayW
06-12-2006, 01:01 PM
If they are both series 2 DirecTiVo's, why not just swap the whole units rather than going to the trouble of swapping drives? With the price of hard drives these days (you can always find several large hard drives on sale each week), why not just get a larger drive for your DirecTiVo and leave your friend's alone -- who knows, some day she may use that extra space.

Murray