Reconnecting Tivo's Expander

It sounds like your expander is failing, or maybe the cable.

I'd like to test it before replacing it and I'd like to do that without discarding 100s of recordings. It could have just been a one time hiccup.

contsole said:

I'd like to test it before replacing it and I'd like to do that without discarding 100s of recordings. It could have just been a one time hiccup.

Click to expand...

Pretty certain that if you have already booted all the way to Tivo Central without the expander attached, you have lost any recordings that were made prior to detachment. There should have been a screen advising of this just before detaching.

As far as I know, if you completely boot without the expander attached, the shows cannot be recovered.

Yeah, if you let your TiVo boot without the Expander attached and did the three Thumbs Down to confirm, you divorced the Expander and those recordings are now lost. Your only option is to let the TiVo re-marry the Expander and set it up fresh.

Unplug the Tivo, connect the HD and then replug. If it boots OK, your recording will be there.

contsole said:

My Premier XL was stuck in a rebooting cycle, never getting past the "just a few more minutes" screen. Removing the Tivo Expander allowed the Tivo to properly boot up. I'd like to reattach the Expander with most of the recordings preserved? Is there a way to do it? I get the warning screen that it wants to erase or format the drive when I simply connect it. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I copied all the programs that were on the external drive to my PC...

the list was slim due to the copyright protection...

after I purchased another Tivo this thursday last I could/can transfer them back to the expander...

but, once the expander is connected to a new Tivo all programming is lost...

Try and connect the expander to the Tivo so it is "paired". After it is "paired", unplug and then transfer the movies. They should show up in your shows.

dssxxxx said:

Try and connect the expander to the Tivo so it is "paired". After it is "paired", unplug and then transfer the movies. They should show up in your shows.

Click to expand...

I don't even understand what you're saying there but I'm still pretty sure it won't work.

After you hook an external drive (an expander) to a TiVo, it takes each recording made subsequently and puts part of it on the internal drive and part on the external drive, which means that if either drive goes bad you lose everything recorded after the addition of the external drive.

And of course like with all TiVos, those recordings are keyed to the TiVo's TiVo Service Number, so you can't get anywhere swapping drives around to other TiVos.

Then don't try it........pretty easy. Why try a suggestion when you already know the answer. Works for me.