[Ladd Morse]

I've been reading this board for several hours and am only slightly smarter than i was when I started.

My lovely bride's basic TiVo Roamio (TCD846500) died from a nearby lightning strike (as did my Roamio Pro, our heat pump, our garage door opener our Ubiquiti POE switch and cameras and a ever-growing list of other not-inexpensive items).

It is more important to her to maximize the chances of being able to access her recordings on the old 3TB drive than upgrading to a better Roamio or Bolt or Edge. As such, I have ordered from Weaknees a refurbished basic Roamio that is identical to her original, thinking dropping in the old drive might allow access to the recordings on the drive.

If it doesn't either due to drive damage, drive keys being locked to the old motherboard or other reason, then I will replace the 500GB drive with a new 3TB drive and she can start over as I have had to do with the Living Room Roamio Pro.

The old Roamio drive was a WD30EURX Green which is basically unobtainable now. I see some folks have used in their Roamios WD30PURX purple surveillance drives and others like the WD30EFZX Red Plus for NAS drives. There may be others. Every model seems to have its detractors also when used in a Roamio.

What would be the most appropriate 3TB drive for our basic Roamio, given best compatibility, warranty and price?

Is there a Mac-based utility for testing the drive prior to installation to ensure its quality?

Who should I purchase it from to ensure a valid WD warranty? Who should I NOT purchase it from?

 

[josim]

WD30EFZX Red Plus is what has been recommended by the experts here. This has CMR technology. SMR is a no go.

 

[ThAbtO]

You do not have access to the recordings on the drive when you install it in another Tivo. They are encrypted to the original Tivo that recorded it. They would get erased instead.

 

[HerronScott]

My lovely bride's basic TiVo Roamio (TCD846500) died from a nearby lightning strike (as did my Roamio Pro, our heat pump, our garage door opener our Ubiquiti POE switch and cameras and a ever-growing list of other not-inexpensive items).

What are the symptoms on the 2 Roamio's (lights, anything displaying on TV when first started etc) to try and understand what failed (power supply, mainboard, HDMI) and if you can recover. On the Roamio Basic, it's possible just the external wallwart power supply has failed. In either case, if it's just the HDMI port you could download the shows to your PC (or connect them to your TV using the component if available for the Pro and I think the Basic has the option with a breakout cable).

Scott

 

[Ladd Morse]

Thanks for the reply.
There are no lights whatsoever; none on the front panel, none on the motherboard. Additionally, magic smoke came off the motherboard, so I'm pretty sure it is dead!

 

[Don Simard]

Thanks for the reply.
There are no lights whatsoever; none on the front panel, none on the motherboard. Additionally, magic smoke came off the motherboard, so I'm pretty sure it is dead!

did you see if the power supply is providing power? might be what got fried ---

 

[Ladd Morse]

Thanks for the suggestion, but both the power supply wall wart and the motherboard got fried. Each were tested separately.

 

[Don Simard]

Thanks for the suggestion, but both the power supply wall wart and the motherboard got fried. Each were tested separately.

sigh - that does suck.

 

[ccmking]

WD30EFZX Red Plus is what has been recommended by the experts here. This has CMR technology. SMR is a no go.

So is the WD30EFZX the preferred drive for a Tivos since it looks like the WD30EFRX has been discontinued?

 

[dishrich]

So is the WD30EFZX the preferred drive for a Tivos since it looks like the WD30EFRX has been discontinued?

While I understand this was re: newer model WD HDD's, I've been sticking with the previous AV-GP models. Of these I do know either the EURX OR EURS versions will work in Tivo; I've used about 1/2 dozen of the WDxxEURS (both 2 & 3 TB models) since 2017 in different Roamio models, which is the exact same factory drive that came in my Roamio Pro & have never had a single one go bad yet or any other issues. I just swapped out a factory WD10EURX to a WD30EURS in my Roamio Plus; again no issues whatsoever.
While I understand they're no longer made, you can still find them NIB...though obviously the warranty started from the manufacturing date: (as long as it's NIB, it really doesn't concern me)

Amazon.com: Western Digital 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive, 3.5" : Electronics

Amazon.com: Western Digital 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive, 3.5" : Electronics

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