You’ve recently got a new computer, and after transferring all of your files over, you had a lot of extra room on your hard drive. You decide to use some of the extra space to hold all of the TV recordings that you make with your Tivo. As you started watching an episode from earlier this year, you then realized it was from before you started recording to an external hard drive! Let us find out how to transfer Tivo Recordings to an External Hard Drive.
So, how do you transfer Tivo recordings to an external hard drive? In this article, we will cover how you can transfer your Tivo recording to your external hard drive.
Tivo also has a streaming service: TiVo Stream – TiVo’s new service lets you stream live TV and recorded shows from your TiVo box directly to your computer, tablet, or smartphone. You can also store up to 500 hours of streaming shows on a free cloud DVR (500 hours will likely be enough for most people). Currently, TiVo Stream only works with Windows computers and Apple products. Note that the first year is free but after that your premium subscription kicks in.
How to transfer Tivo recordings to external hard drives?
The other problem is that you don’t want to run out of space on your Tivo box, so send the recordings as soon as they’re done. However, if the transfer takes too long (5-30 minutes), ideally, you should be able to transfer a recording while it’s still being recorded.
External hard drives can be used to store and back up your recordings so that if your Tivo breaks down you can still watch them.
There are several ways to accomplish this task:
- Hook your TiVo box up to the computer with a firewire cable. The TiVo will show up as a device in My Computer.
- Open up the TiVo and find the “Recordings” directory.
- Copy that directory over to the external hard drive. That’s all there is to it!
There is also software provided by Tivo that is free and allows you to transfer recordings from your Tivo directly to an external hard drive. Tivo Desktop Software is only for Windows computers, however. If you have a Mac or you don’t want to install software on your computer, read on!
The TiVo Desktop Software will let you transfer your recordings to any external hard drive connected to your PC or Mac computer. You can also use third-party software such as Handbrake or AnyDVD HD to rip the content from your TiVo box.
You can use the built-in USB port on your TiVo box to connect and backup your recordings to an external hard drive. This is a great way to free up space on your DVR and keep your recordings safe in case of a power outage or other emergency.
The easiest way to do this is with a USB flash drive (also known as a thumb drive).
Just plug it into one of the front USB ports on your TiVo and you’ll see the option “Backup” under Settings > Recordings.
If you’re also looking for something more permanent, then we recommend using a portable hard drive that has been formatted specifically for use with TiVo. These drives are available from many different vendors in various capacities, so be sure to pick one that fits your needs best! Transferring Tivo recordings to an external hard drive is possible, but it’s not very efficient.
The reason for this is that the process of backing up the recording will take just as long as it takes to watch the show. If you have a lot of Tivo recordings, that could take hours.
If you’re going to back up your Tivo recordings, it’s best to do it when you don’t need to use the Tivo at all. For example, if you’re planning on leaving home for a while and want to make sure there are no problems with your service while you’re away, then backing up now would be a good idea. If you’re trying to free up space on your Tivo because there isn’t enough room left in storage, again this would be a good time to back up.
It’s also worth noting that some people report problems with their TiVo when they try transferring large amounts of data over USB or FireWire connections (more than 50 GB).
Takeaway
It may not be as easy but it is more efficient to transfer Tivo recordings to the external hard drive.
Conclusion
All in all, it is possible to backup Tivo recordings to an external hard drive. If you are planning on doing so, however, you should always first consult the instructions provided by your particular model of Tivo as well as your hard drive’s user manual. Please note that once you have completed the process, make certain that you check your recordings regularly or else you risk losing a lot of content; it is also recommended for you to create a backup for your important data or else it might be lost permanently when there is a major corruption.
Nothing would be worse than spending all of that time and money just to have your files corrupted in the event of a power outage or hard drive failure.
