Drive upgrade = visit from CableCard repair person?

[c-surfer]

I read someplace on the these forums that Comcast "binds" the cable-card to the hard drive so that its necessary for reauthorize the cable cards after upgrading to a larger drive.

Does Time Warner (San Diego) do the same thing, and will I have to have my cable cards reinstalled after upgrading the drive?

[bkdtv]

Yes. Virtually every provider does it except Verizon FiOS.

Note the CableCard pairing (binding) information is preserved when you upgrade the drive using the instructions in the Drive Upgrade FAQ (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784). When you follow these instructions, the pairing information is copied from the old drive to the new.

You only need to re-pair (re-bind) the CableCard when you purchase a prepared drive from ebay, dvrupgrade, or weaknees. Third party vendors have no way to copy the pairing information from your old drive to the new one.