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Clone using standalone duplicator?

Discussion in 'TiVo Upgrade Center' started by johncody, Oct 22, 2019.

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  1. Oct 22, 2019 #1 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    I have a 3TB Roamio Pro (w/CableCard) and the drive is 90% full and is approaching 5 years of age.

    So. I want to copy all my shows onto a new drive before the current one fails.

    I read a lot of threads, but most of them dealt with using software to do the copy, but I want to know if I can use a typical stand-alone docking/offline duplicator to clone the hard drive?

    So, I have some questions:

    1) It seems the recommended 3TB drive is the WD Red WD30EFRX which is 3.5" form-factor, is this the BEST recommended replacement for my 3TB Roamio Pro? Or should I get a different brand/model?
    2) If my docking/duplicator device does sector-by-sector copies, can I simply insert my existing drive and the new drive into the duplicator and do a "Clone" and then place the new drive into the Roamio and it will work and have all my recordings? or do I need to do some post-clone procedures?
    3) In one of the threads, it said I might loose "pairing" with a clone - is this "pairing" the cablecard pairing and I will need to contact my cable provider to re-pair my Tivo to the cable card (because the new drive caused the "Host ID" to change)? or will it loose pairing of the hard drive to the Tivo Motherboard? And if so, how do I repair the HD to the Motherboard?

    Any help will be greatly appreciated!
     
  2. Oct 22, 2019 #2 of 19
    ThAbtO

    ThAbtO TiVoholic by the bay TCF Club

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    1. Yes, if the drive contains equal or more sectors than the current drive. Different makes/models can vary in total sectors.
    WD Red is the most recommended, does not use as much power, produces less noise/heat. Red Pro line is not recommended, 7200+RPM.

    You can go to as much as 8TB, MFSTools 3.x should be used to copy/expand. Be prepared as it can take 1/2 to a whole day's (or more) time to copy.
     
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  3. Oct 22, 2019 #3 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    Just to clarify...

    1) I need to find out the sector count for the original drive that came in my Tivo, and compare it to the WD Red sector count. If it the WD contains AT LEAST the same number as in the original drive (or higher), then I can use *an external stand-alone duplicator docking station" to make a "clone" of the original drive?

    2) Since I am NOT looking to "expand" the capacity of my Tivo, then I do NOT need to use MFStools - I can just use an external duplicating/docking station to clone the drive. And when the clone process is complete, I can simply drop the new drive into my Tivo and it should just work without requiring any "re-pairing" or anything else - is this correct?

    3) And lastly, if something goes wrong with the cloning process, I should be able to simply put back in the original drive and everything should go back to working like it was before all this, correct?
     
  4. Oct 22, 2019 #4 of 19
    ThAbtO

    ThAbtO TiVoholic by the bay TCF Club

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    The cable card pairing is not 100% retained.
     
  5. Oct 22, 2019 #5 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    OK, so loosing the pairing is not too bad and can be fixed pretty quickly with my cable company (optimum).

    Cool, so I will now buy a disk duplicator/docking station and the wd red drive and be up and running with a new drive fairly quickly without having to use any software!

    Thank you for all your help :)
     
  6. Oct 22, 2019 #6 of 19
    jmbach

    jmbach der Neuerer

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    Cloning with a duplicating dock is just fine and no pairing is lost.

    The Wd Red drives are recommended as long as they are not the pro series.
     
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  7. Oct 22, 2019 #7 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    Thank you for clarifying those items :)
     
  8. Oct 22, 2019 #8 of 19
    jmbach

    jmbach der Neuerer

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    1) Yes. In reality it should not be an issue since drive size and sector counts have been standardized for about the last 10 years.

    2) Yes

    3) Yes for Roamios. No for Bolts unless you never boot the clone drive. However pairing may be lost in this case if the clone was attempted to boot in the TiVo before the original drive was put back in.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2019
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  9. Oct 22, 2019 #9 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    Thank you for taking the time to respond to each of my issues.
     
  10. Oct 28, 2019 #10 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    I purchased a desktop disk duplicator for $35 and a 3TB WD Red (WD30EFRX) for $99 from Amazon.

    The copy took 7.5 hours to complete.

    Popped in the new drive into the Roamio and it booted up no problem - the cablecard pairing was still working.

    Just wanted to thank everyone for your help.
     
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  11. Oct 28, 2019 #11 of 19
    ThAbtO

    ThAbtO TiVoholic by the bay TCF Club

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    Did you look in System Information and see/tell how many total HD hours? Should be about 450 HD hrs.
     
  12. Oct 28, 2019 #12 of 19
    johncody

    johncody New Member

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    It says 476 HD (or 3270 SD)
     
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  13. Nov 8, 2019 #13 of 19
    bam1220

    bam1220 Member

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    I want to use one of these cloning docks also. My Roamio OTA has a 1.5TB HDD. I am going to clone to a 3TB HDD. Will the whole 3TB disk be available or is there something else I need to do to make the whole drive usable? I am thinking the cloning dock might make the new HDD only 1.5TB. Thanks for any help.
     
  14. Nov 8, 2019 #14 of 19
    jmbach

    jmbach der Neuerer

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    I would recommend to use MFSTools to copy and expand the drive at the same time.

    However, if you clone the drive to the 3TB, you will only be using the same 1.5 TB of space you currently are using. You can expand it with MFSTools and ancillary programs that are on the ISO. But you may limit future expansion.
     
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  15. Nov 9, 2019 #15 of 19
    bam1220

    bam1220 Member

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    Thank you! But maybe I'm dense. But what do you mean by "But you may limit future expansion"?
     
  16. Nov 9, 2019 #16 of 19
    jmbach

    jmbach der Neuerer

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    You can add 3 pairs of partitions to the internal drive of a Roamio or Bolt. Each pair can add 2TB of data. In this case you are adding 1.5 TB using up one of the pairs you can add.
     
  17. Nov 9, 2019 #17 of 19
    bam1220

    bam1220 Member

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    Ok thank you. How about if I clone and expand to a 4TB HDD instead? I wouldn't be adding or cloning again after that. Would I be ok doing that?
     
  18. Nov 9, 2019 #18 of 19
    jmbach

    jmbach der Neuerer

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    That would be my recommendation if you use MFSTools to copy your original drive to the 4TB
     
  19. Nov 9, 2019 #19 of 19
    bam1220

    bam1220 Member

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    Thank you very much. A few years ago when I bought my Roamio OTA I upgraded the HDD to the current 1.5TB drive. I used KMTTG then. I tried to use it this time as well as PyTivo but when copying my shows to my PC I get error messages on almost all of them. So I am going to try this cloning route this time. Thanks again for the help.
     

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