Swapping Drives between THD units

1168 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by aaronwt, Sep 18, 2007

MirclMax

Discussion Starter · Sep 16, 2007

Hey.. if I'm returning a THD box that I've upgraded to 750GB .. and I've gotten a new THD box .. can I put that 750GB drive in that one and be good to go? As in, will I keep all settings, and recordings and things will play correctly?

I accept that I would need to change TSN's on my account .. and get the CableCards rehit .. but the primary question here is .. can you just swap drives straight across?

On a followup question .. if I'm within 30 days on my TiVo account.. does it make more sense to cancel the first box and signup the new box .. rather than replace it... wouldn't that give me 30 days longer? And as I think about that.. what stops people from just canceling @ 29 days .. and signing up again over and over?

Thanks all.

-MirclMax

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megazone

· #2 · Sep 17, 2007

Nope, you have to Clear & Delete Everything to get a drive to work if you move it like that - it gets really unhappy otherwise.

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aaronwt

· #3 · Sep 17, 2007

Each box has it's own unique encryption/decryption key.

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MirclMax

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 17, 2007

aaronwt said:
Each box has it's own unique encryption/decryption key.

Hmm.. that would imply to me that anything recorded would have problems playing back... but do I really need to wipe out all the season pass settings?

*sigh*

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MirclMax

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 17, 2007

MirclMax said:
On a followup question .. if I'm within 30 days on my TiVo account.. does it make more sense to cancel the first box and signup the new box .. rather than replace it... wouldn't that give me 30 days longer? And as I think about that.. what stops people from just canceling @ 29 days .. and signing up again over and over?

Anyone have any thoughts on this part?

-MirclMax

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cr33p

· #6 · Sep 17, 2007

MirclMax said:
Anyone have any thoughts on this part?

-MirclMax

I believe they will see a new TSN associated with the acct and most likely give you 30 days from the time you have the newer unit added to the acct. How come you are returning the unit for another one?

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MirclMax

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 17, 2007

cr33p said:
I believe they will see a new TSN associated with the acct and most likely give you 30 days from the time you have the newer unit added to the acct. How come you are returning the unit for another one?

Improving my return policy.

-MirclMax

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aaronwt

· #8 · Sep 18, 2007

MirclMax said:
Hmm.. that would imply to me that anything recorded would have problems playing back... but do I really need to wipe out all the season pass settings?

*sigh*

You can always back it up with WinMFS.

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MirclMax

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 18, 2007

aaronwt said:
You can always back it up with WinMFS.

So how would that work .. given its the same drive involved..

I take DriveA out of TiVo1 ... I do a truncated backup (I just want the SPs) .. I put DriveA into TiVo2, start it up .. (it does some magic key pairing) .. I then take DriveA back out of TiVo2, do a restore from winmfs .. and then put it back into TiVo2?

Is that what you're suggesting?

Seems to me that I'd be writing the same stuff back on to the drive that was there before I put it in the first time ... but who knows..

-MirclMax

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aaronwt

· #10 · Sep 18, 2007

I guess the backup is only good for that TiVo. I didn't really think about it. I've never used the backup. I just know you can't view the shows if you switch drives. ANd you need to do a clear and delete everything.

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