Tivo Premeire. Install New Drive before or after Activating?

racerx135 · 12-13-2010, 02:01 AM

Getting new Tivo Premiere today and a 2TB WD Drive

gonna follow procedure to upgrade the unit.

Was planning on doing it prior to activating cable card and setting up the tivo but was wondering if it may be better to activate it and set it up prior to upgrading the hard drive.

ThAbtO · 12-13-2010, 04:57 AM

Its best after its had its software updated, making sure everything works well, first.

Be aware that you will void your warranty so upgrade at your own risk.

jrtroo · 12-13-2010, 08:27 AM

Agreed.

Second reason- let the cablecard get installed and working correctly. Otherwise, you may need to have your cable co authorize it again for your unit if you switch drives down the line.

ciscokid · 12-13-2010, 08:37 AM

It's generally cheaper to get a lifetime subscription on a unit that has NOT yet been activated therefore put in the drive BEFORE you activate it.

I got my discounted lifetime sub from a reseller on ebay who could only offer the deal price on a unit that has not yet been subbed.

If the unit has a problem that you don't discover until AFTER you put in the new drive then just simply put the old one in and reurn it.

Tivo has NO WAY to determine that the unit was upgraded at one time, nor do they really care. There's no seals or anything like that!

If you're going for a discounted lifetime sub, ya gotta do it before you activate it.

slowbiscuit · 12-13-2010, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrtroo

Agreed.

Second reason- let the cablecard get installed and working correctly. Otherwise, you may need to have your cable co authorize it again for your unit if you switch drives down the line.

Exactly - get the card paired first, then upgrade the drive. MUCH easier down the road because you won't have pairing issues.

ciscokid · 12-13-2010, 10:45 AM

If I'm not mistaken, pairing has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the hard drive, pairing is between the cable card and a chip on te motherboard, NOT the hardrive.

bradleys · 12-13-2010, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ciscokid

It's generally cheaper to get a lifetime subscription on a unit that has NOT yet been activated therefore put in the drive BEFORE you activate it.

I am not sure I understand this... Once you activate the unit, changing the drive out will not effect the sub. The biggest issue is that if you activate and get everything set using the OEM drive, you will have a working back-up should something happen to the upgraded drive. A working device (with cablecard configuration) is just a hardrive swap away.

Quote:

Tivo has NO WAY to determine that the unit was upgraded at one time, nor do they really care. There's no seals or anything like that!

If you're going for a discounted lifetime sub, ya gotta do it before you activate it.

That is interesting... I am definately going to upgrade my Premier drive, but I fully expected that TIVO would have a seal to determine if the unit had been opened. Can anyone else verify that no hardware seals exist?

ciscokid · 12-13-2010, 10:59 AM

There is a reseller on ebay that sells discounted lifetime subs but ONLY IF the unit has not been subbed before. Not sure why but that's the way it is.

So if you set up your Tivo and get a sub on it YOU CANNOT BUY THE DISCOUNT LIFETIME. Therefore upgrading to the new drive first would be much easier and CHEAPER!

I bought one from him and have had NO problems.

As far as seals, there ain't none! (At least not on any Tivo I've owned and I've owned three of them.)

bradleys · 12-13-2010, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ciscokid

There is a reseller on ebay that sells discounted lifetime subs but ONLY IF the unit has not been subbed before. Not sure why but that's the way it is.

So if you set up your Tivo and get a sub on it YOU CANNOT BUY THE DISCOUNT LIFETIME. Therefore upgrading to the new drive first would be much easier and CHEAPER!

I bought one from him and have had NO problems.

As far as seals, there ain't none! (At least not on any Tivo I've owned and I've owned three of them.)

Ok, I wasn't following you...

But if you are going to buy the discounted lifetime sub anyway, I am not sure what the difference would be in buying it and activating prior to the upgrade vs. buying it and activating after the upgrade (assuming you do your own image).

The benefit of doing your own image of an activated and fully setup unit is that the hard drive will be ready to use if you ever need it again. However I am sure there is a downside, definitely if you want to purchase a vendor configured hard drive. And I suppose maybe to try to turn it back into a virgin tivo??? (But I doubt that is possible)

BTW - very cool on the seals! That is another benefit of having the hard drive fully configured prior to the upgrade. If you need to send it back to Tivo for service, simply swap the hard drive back to the OEM unit before shipping.

atmuscarella · 12-13-2010, 04:33 PM

I have no idea if swapping a drive in a new TiVo will effect the warranty or not. However TiVo likely knows you have changed the drive and they do not need to physically see the box at all. Along with the recording capacity in the system information section being changed I am sure a TiVo is just like any other computer and has a listing of the internal parts somewhere and I am betting that TiVo knows when any part has been changed.

Thanks,

slowbiscuit · 12-13-2010, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ciscokid

If I'm not mistaken, pairing has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the hard drive, pairing is between the cable card and a chip on te motherboard, NOT the hardrive.

You are mistaken - pairing info is stored on the drive. Many threads from users upgrading drives from weaknees etc. and having to get the cards re-paired.

ciscokid · 12-13-2010, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowbiscuit

You are mistaken - pairing info is stored on the drive. Many threads from users upgrading drives from weaknees etc. and having to get the cards re-paired.

NOPE! Pairing info is NOT recorded ANYWHERE on the Tivo box. It is done on the cableco's equipment.

The fact that others have had to have a unit re-paired after an upgrade is due to their provider's shortcomings NOT a result o the new drive installation.

slowbiscuit · 12-13-2010, 09:31 PM

What you're saying makes absolutely no sense in light of documented proof that Tivos get unpaired after drive swaps. I'm done.

lessd · 12-14-2010, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowbiscuit

What you're saying makes absolutely no sense in light of documented proof that Tivos get unpaired after drive swaps. I'm done.

You are correct unless an exact copy is made of the hard drive.

ciscokid · 12-14-2010, 08:51 AM

You aren't listening.

Pairing does not record anything on your hard drive. Cable companies "pair" thousands of different devices and many of these devices utilize all kinds of different file systems, some proprietary, some normal like Linux or Windows uses, and some do not even have file systems, like a PC tuner card.

Think about it, they would need specific knowledge of each individual device's file system in order to correctly write then read each devices pairing code that you contend they write on each device's hard drive.

Not to mention that some devices that they pair do not even have hard drives or recordable media in them.

Believe me, they interrogate the "cable card information, then they read "the device's (be it a Tivo, a PC tuner, etc.) information", match (or pair) the information in their system, check that it's what they have recorded in THEIR system and that is it.

lessd · 12-14-2010, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ciscokid

You aren't listening.

Pairing does not record anything on your hard drive. Cable companies "pair" thousands of different devices and many of these devices utilize all kinds of different file systems, some proprietary, some normal like Linux or Windows uses, and some do not even have file systems, like a PC tuner card.

Think about it, they would need specific knowledge of each individual device's file system in order to correctly write then read each devices pairing code that you contend they write on each device's hard drive.

Not to mention that some devices that they pair do not even have hard drives or recordable media in them.

Believe me, they interrogate the "cable card information, then they read "the device's (be it a Tivo, a PC tuner, etc.) information", match (or pair) the information in their system, check that it's what they have recorded in THEIR system and that is it.

You also are correct that nothing is recorded to the hard drive but if you do a C&D all, one will not have a paired cable card after that operation, I don't know why or care but that it is true for most but not all cable systems. The host data will change, and if that is needed by your cable co., you must re-pair the card. Comcast in Hartford is one cable co that the above is true.

ciscokid · 12-14-2010, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessd

You also are correct that nothing is recorded to the hard drive .......... data will change, and if that is needed by your cable co., you must re-pair the card. Comcast in Hartford is one cable co that the above is true.

Thank you!

My statement was "Nothing was recorded on the hard drive as a result of pairing........which you concur with.....and...........

Repairing after a HD upgrade is a result of your cableco's shortcomings, which you state in your respnse and obviously concur with also!

racerx135 · 12-14-2010, 04:28 PM

Thanks All

I followed advice and here is what I did

1. Setup tivo including activating M card and letting Tivo get at least a week of program data.

2. took the original drive out and did the copy Procedure as follows.
a. Msf to Copy 320gig to a new WD20EARS 2TB, Expand then supersize. (2.5hrs))
b. Did the Hitachi Acustic quilting mod
c. used wdiddle3 to turn off the intellipark

3. put 2TB drive into tivo

4. make sure all works

5. Lastly hook up the Tuning adapter.

I can report that so far all is Fine and Dandy.

PS: got the WD20EARS 2TB for $99.00 at Micro center. (They are local to me.)

bradleys · 12-14-2010, 04:35 PM

I assume you had no problems with your cablecard connection after the upgrade???

racerx135 · 12-14-2010, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bradleys

I assume you had no problems with your cablecard connection after the upgrade???

Nope, so far everything is working great.

Even the SDV HD channels are fully functional after adding the tuning adapter.

Only difference from before is I now have 317hrs of HD storage