Ok I gotta know, you got an unsolicited email from Tivo saying your drive is failing? And they offered you a FREE replacement? And you got it? And you did not send back the other first? Did they charge you for the replacement and say they will refund when they get the "failing drive" Bolt back? If they sent a replacement without a return and without a payment this is something new to me. Not to mention them emailing you saying your drive is failing, did you contact them first mentioning any problems?
I can't speak for how it worked for him, but I had the same scenario. Tivo emailed me out of the blue and said my hard drive was failing and did I want a free replacement. I had not posted to them or anywhere of issues prior.
Amazing. Not sure how they can tell a drive is failing? Or maybe they are doing something where the original drive would not work? Did the replacement come with the exact same model drive? Or a different motherboard, I think they changed the MB when they went to the 1TB Bolt + from the 3TB?
Beats me how they could tell I'm just happy they did! As to what's inside it, no clue. But it was the 3TB Bolt+ just like the one it replaced.
Maybe just a preemptive strike for those that have the 3TB Bolt +. As Mike says that drive can have problems to say the least. Maybe anyone who has a 3TB Bolt + for a certain amount of time gets the email, Tivo wants to replace before the drive fails. I doubt they can tell if a drive is actually failing without someone calling in with a problem. Though I could be wrong.
If the drive is reporting errors to the OS (SMART or otherwise), I'm sure they can get those with the logs uploaded during service connections (same way they can tell that you've upgraded your hard drive if they wanted to look).
TIVO contacted me out of the blue, I did not solicit them first. They sent me the "new" refurbished Bolt+, free of charge; did not need to send the original back first or give them a credit card # either.
