WD Reds, the CMR SMR fiasco

You should be able to copy and expand using MFST, far as I know. As for keeping old drive, depends, if a Roamio probably yes. If Bolt or Edge probably no, if you are thinking about saving recordings/settings. Because once you put in a different drive the flash drive will expect to see THAT drive when powering up. If not, it will reformat it or do some other strange things. The map to the recordings is on the flash drive, when you swap drives around the map will no longer be correct. With Bolt or Edge could use old drive if you want to start fresh, but would not be able to pop in and have the recordings/settings there (for the most part). Roamio should be fine, as long as the same Roamio and you don't change the OS in the mean time.

 

That would work. But still could not keep the old one as a backup. Because as soon as something changes on the new drive the map on the flash drive will change. So the old one will no longer work. At least not fully.

 

With a Bolt (or Edge) first all all best to use a CMR drive even if SMR works. And best to go external with a 3.5. Since can't keep a backup, thing to do would be buy a new drive every 3-5 years if using CMR 3.5, clone, put in the clone, then repurpose the original. If using SMR and/or 2.5 might want to do a bit more often. That way hopefully will never have a failure where you lose everything. Or buy a second Tivo (lifetime so no fees), Roamio or Premiere. Whenever there is something you want to keep transfer direct to the Roamio or Premiere (Premiere is TE3, if want Roamio I'd use it with TE3 to allow direct transfers.) Just would be using for storage/backup, power down when not in use. Of course could not transfer any copy protected shows.

Yeah, a few things I don't like about Bolt, this is one of them, another 2.5 drive, another the strange shape I'll stick with my Roamios, my one Bolt is mostly for testing.

 

No problem. By the way, the cloning every few years, it would work. UNLESS someone did the clone incorrectly or the clone failed. If the clone failed and you put it in the Tivo the Tivo would try to reformat. So not only would the failed clone not work, you'd also lose what was on the drive you tried to clone since the flash drive would change. Far as I know no way to "check" the clone, other than putting in the Tivo, then too late if it didn't work. The joys of Bolt (and Edge I assume) upgrades........................ Roooaaamio, oh Roamio