Transferring Single Tuner HD to Dual Tuner

[coolpepper43]

Ok, here's my situation. Right now, refurbished TiVos are on sale and they are selling a 80hr Dual Tuner for $50 + years service. My Mom has a 40hr Single Tuner Tivo and I have a 80 hr + 210hr (added Hard drive) Single Tuner TiVo. I want a dual tuning Tivo and my mom wants more hours. So I thought I could take my 80hr and 210hr hard drives and put them in the Dual Tuning TiVo and add the 80hr hard drive to my mom's 40hr TiVo Or, just put the 80hr hard drive in my old 80hr TiVo box.

Would I have to format everything? Could anything be swapped? How can I do this?

Thanks!

[funtoupgrade]

Depends on the make and model numbers of existing TiVos. Also you would need a custom bracket for the dual tuner since it was not made to hold two hard drives. Are you going to keep two Tivos for yourself? If so, why not just swap TiVos with your mom and then upgrade either or both of yours with new drives?

[lafos]

If you want to move the two drives from a single tuner to the DT, you will have to reformat, as these are clearly different units. I'd give mom the dual drive system, and buy a nice big drive to stick in the DT unit. You can get 250GB for as little as $50, and that would let you keep the original DT drive as a backup.

[coolpepper43]

mine is 540080 and my moms is 540040. I am not sure what the model number of the ones on sale. The link is tivo.co$m/2.1.1.0.ws.asp

I don't really understand what you are saying at the end. In the end I want to end up with a dual tuner with 80hr + 210hr drives, and my mom with either a single tuner with 80hr OR single tuner with 40hr + 80hr and one empty Tivo. I want to be able to try to keep all of my shows and settings with me.

Thanks for your help

[mick66]

I want to be able to try to keep all of my shows and settings with me.

Thanks for your help

Not possible by just swapping drives. In order for a drive to work in another Tivo, it has to be from the same model series as the original and I'm not talking S1 vs S2 vs S3 here. In your case you have some 540xxx tivos. You can swap drives between them, but you have to do a 'clear & delete everything' (there go your recordings and settings) before the drive will actually work in a different unit.
A 649xxx uses different software, so you can't just swap with a 540xxx. The additional drive bracket in your dual drive Tivo will not fit into a 649 so you'd need to get one made for that model.

[lafos]

mine is 540080 and my moms is 540040. I am not sure what the model number of the ones on sale. The link is tivo.co$m/2.1.1.0.ws.asp

I don't really understand what you are saying at the end. In the end I want to end up with a dual tuner with 80hr + 210hr drives, and my mom with either a single tuner with 80hr OR single tuner with 40hr + 80hr and one empty Tivo. I want to be able to try to keep all of my shows and settings with me.

Thanks for your help

The 540080 and 540040 are the same model, where the last two digits indicate the original number of hours. As Mick said, the drives can be swapped, but you'll lose recordings.

If you really want to keep your recordings and get them on the dual tuner unit, you have two choices.

1. Buy a 300GB drive and put it in the DT. You'll get >300 hours ($80-$100), or 250GB for ~$50. Use MRV to transfer the shows from your 540 unit to the DT unit. Then give the 540 unit with two drives to your mom. This will require that you make one software transfer from the original DT drive to the new DT drive. The you can either use the 40hr Tivo or sell it to recoup the costs from buying the bigger drive.

2. Transfer all the shows you want to keep to a PC hard drive using TiVo Desktop. Buy a bracket for the DT unit to hold the second drive, then install the dual drives into the DT unit. Then move the shows back from the PC to the TiVo. Put the DT drive in your mom's 540 unit. This will require a lot of steps, such as

a. Backup the software from the DT unit
b. Install it on the dual drives
c. Back up the software on the 40hr drive to the 80hr drive pulled from the DT unit

Personally, option 1 is simpler and less likely to result in mistakes. I also prefer to have a single drive to reduce heat.

Whichever method you choose, be sure to map out a step-by-step procedure including any backups/restores using a PC, then follow it carefully. Not that this is extraordinarily difficult, but it's easy to forget something along the way.

[classicsat]

You don't want to "add" to 40/80GB drives. You can, but it is not recommended. If it were me, I'd put a new 300 GB or so in a DT, MRV the stuff from the other ST over, and put the 200 GB drive in Mother's Series 2. If economically possible, keep the other Single tuner in service with just the 80 GB drive, for an MRV client and 3rd tuner.