Re-use of HDD out of Virgin "Tivo" box.

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

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Hello,

Having ascertained that Virgin did not want this box back I waited a few months to make sure. They don't.

There is a 500GB HDD in this box but when I take it out it is not recognised by Windows or the disk manager. Apparently this is because it is "tied" to the box. To save binning this HDD does anybody know how I can get at it to reformat it please. I have a (Linux) raspberry pi.

Any advice please? Thanks.
 
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Yeah I would not recommend re-purposing a HDD from a TiVo box.

TiVo is constantly writing to the hard disk even when you are not recording something, for rewind live TV function.

Even in standby, the default aim of TiVO is to keep the HDD as full as possible, so it will record things which you haven't even set to record. And it will constantly do this over and over again by deleting shows over 30 days old.

This is great feature and it does record interesting things, but from a HDD life point of view it results in a a hard disk I wouldn't want to trust with anything else.
 
I was given two sky boxes with 500g HDD inside and i ripped em out and used both of them just fine in my PC for storing my vids on. :)
 
Hi just to add my experience of re-using old TIVO disk after upgrading to the V6 box. I am running Windows 10, and the old TIVO disk attached via USB is visible in Disk Management as an extra HDD. It does not recognize it, but it can be added and formatted for use on Windows. I was surprised to find that it was a 3.5" SATA HDD, when I expected a 2.5" one. Windows clearly wasn't wasn't interested in what may have been on the disk .... but happy days I have an extra 500GB SATA 3.5" NTFS-formatted drive so I'm not complaining. I removed the disk 'as is' after uninstalling the old TIVO box. Hope this helps.

P.S. I had had the same experience re-using a 250GB 2.5" HDD removed from a previous Freeview Recorder box.
 
koolpc said:
If you have stuff you want to look after, dont be cheap. Buy a new HD from OcUk
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I take your point....but 'never look a gift horse in the mouth'. The old TIVO disk was manufactured in 2015, so there's plenty of life left in it, as HD Sentinal tells me. Ideal for offline storage, I would say. I'm not being cheap, just practical....but 'each to their own', as the saying goes. Seems a shame to bin a disk when it can be re-used.
 
I've lost count of the HDD's I've re-purposed from old Tivo boxes and I've never had one that didn't work,does it need initialising in windows first?
 
If the disk is present in Disk Manager and 'unallocated' you will need to create it which is effectively formatting it. Windows 10 actually prompts you to do so if you select that disk. There is no need to wipe/reformat the disk on Tivo. Windows 10 actually recognises it as a Sata HDD, and disregards whatever is on it from the TIVO box.
 
APM said:
I've lost count of the HDD's I've re-purposed from old Tivo boxes and I've never had one that didn't work,does it need initialising in windows first?
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Well I had previously tried it directly connected to my PC. When I tried it connected in a new USB3 box it appeared as an unitialised HDD. I have initialised it and allocated it a letter. Great. A free 500GB HDD. Thanks. Can now recycle the "empty" Tivo box.
 
careful, virgin emailed me threatening to have the debt recovered if i didnt send my tivo back. I'd tried to a number of times already by that point, but they never sent me the return bags. They contacted me about 6 months after my contract had ended so I would assume they are slow rather than forgetful. They did give up eventually but..be careful lol.
 
Mel_P said:
Well I had previously tried it directly connected to my PC. When I tried it connected in a new USB3 box it appeared as an unitialised HDD. I have initialised it and allocated it a letter. Great. A free 500GB HDD. Thanks. Can now recycle the "empty" Tivo box.
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Good news.
 
james.miller said:
careful, virgin emailed me threatening to have the debt recovered if i didnt send my tivo back. I'd tried to a number of times already by that point, but they never sent me the return bags. They contacted me about 6 months after my contract had ended so I would assume they are slow rather than forgetful. They did give up eventually but..be careful lol.
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It was my daughters who moved 9 months ago. I emailed them quoting a/c number and her name and had a reply - please recycle it!
 
Just upgraded to a new V6 box and the instructions we had were to just recycle the old TIVO box. I might take the drive out of our old one then, was hoping to somehow get the series of Tank Battles off it we had recorded but does not seem possible, shame as you can't buy that series anywhere.
 
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