Great to hear you found it relatively painless!! 
We wonder why tablo doesn’t come up with utility for this… but really considering the mass variety of systems people use would make it a great challenge. (but if they make it PC specific would help)
ppssstttttt, you’d probably have used Linux based system 
I just changed out my failing HD to a SSD unit and was able to save my recordings. The process was painless using free utilities. I used the Macrium Reflect and GParted utilities to do this. Macrium Reflect was used to copy the Tablo EXT4 linux drive partition to the new drive. GParted was used to resize the Tablo partition to the new drive. My situation was a little odd in that I migrated to a drive that was slightly smaller (it’s what I had laying around). I used GParted to shrink the partition on the original Tablo drive by 25G or so. I was then able to use the Macrium Reflect to copy from old to new. GParted was then used on the new drive to maximize the partition to the drive. Macrium Reflect is a Windows utility that installs like any Windows software. GParted is Linux based and comes on a disk image that needs to be burned to a DVD that you boot from to use the utility. If any of this sounds like Greek to you, find a tech to help you out with your HD change.
hope you never need to know FYI, you can boot gparted via USB (live Linux distro have it). It also has a facility to copy partitions - one stop shop!
you don’t even need Windows
Thank you for this post Steve. Worked like a charm. Took almost 7 hours to clone my 2TB drive, but works great.
I had a wee problem with my electrical, and became proactive in replacing a drive. 1TB Samsung to an older 500GB that has been in storage for years. I use taboo ripper to pull recordings off and eventually find way into plex.
Nothing lost, no time spent copying drives. Just wish I could find a way to rip files offline, not through the network.
It may be possible to have ffmpeg concatenate the segments, or create an playlist from a directory listing.
You might be able to run an HTTP server on your PC and tweak the playlist to use ffmpeg.
Note:. these are just “maybe”,. I haven’t tried any myself - but the remote possibility may exist.
I’m in the same position - off-line hard drive with recorded programs. Would be awful nice if someone wrote a program to pull files off, combining segments into individual broadcasts. That would save people from blown Tablos, overburdened networks, or potentially corrupted databases that Tablo cannot read but where the harddrives have many “valid” broadcasts still recorded.
However, “would be awful nice”…
November 2019: Still no official method or tool.
No, not official tablo way. They do have a method to move a drive to a new tablo.
In the #tablo-apps:third-party-apps-plex there’s a back-up utility which may help. It works for backing up your current drive, and if necessary, restoring everything thing to another one in the event of failure… or just a new/different drive.
All,
Will this migration method (rsync via Linux) work between an external drive from my old 4-Tuner, and the 2.5" drive I plan to format inside my new Quad?
I have a feeling the answer is “no” just because the devices are different (different ids).
While the “migrate” recipe is not a Nuvyyo supported thing, maybe they can clarify and support or not support what I just said.
This is just a big, what if…
First try this method - Moving your recordings to a new Tablo official method to move your drive to your new tablo.
When your new tablo has all the metadata settings from your previous device – then try the process of migrating to a different drive, by which ever method.
I’ve done it a long time ago, but forgot just what works best, but that’s subjective and relative. Someone has since wrote a backup/restore 3rd party app - Backup-tablo.sh - Backup all recorded shows from a Tablo - which may come in handy as well.
As there’s no official method, I’m only guessing/suggesting and you’ll have to think for yourself. (I image the support necessary for this process would overload the system)
Thanks, that’s decent advice.
Browsing the http://tablo.lan.ip.address:18080/pvr/ files is fascinating. I can backup those before moving the drive.
What is the most tried/tested method of migrating data? I started reading this and other threads but there is a lot of info.
I do have access to Linux and am comfortable with it. Should I:
If I use rsync method, will I be copying any tablo config data/scheduling data I want to avoid migrating? Or is that stored someplace other than the HDD?
You will need to let tablo format it. It knows the UUID and “authorizes” it. You my want to look at the back taboo script it you run Linux. It backups and tells you to rsync this and that.
You really don’t need to backup, but start at the restore
Do you know where I can find “back taboo” script? Wasn’t able to find it with search. Thanks!!
I am so sorry, was trying to work from a tablet… quickly
Backup-tablo.sh - Backup all recorded shows from a Tablo
FritzThird this process worked for me. Was able to copy all the data to a new drive. One learning - try and use different USB ports - preferably USB controllers to speed up the process. Had a USB hub which would have required a full day to transfer the data, using two different USB-C ports with USB adapters was able to do it in 5 hours.
Babblebit’s 14-step procedure worked for me. I have just one suggestion for improvement to the procedure. Be sure that the Tablo is turned on when you plug in your new USB hard drive. Otherwize it won’t prompt you to format it. It would show the status of the drive is “unformatted” and “unavailable” but will do nothing about it if the new hard drive is powered up and plugged in when you restore power to the tablo.
Some updated information for all of you also. After formatting my new 4 terrabyte drive (WD Elements) using my Tablo, I shut it down and plugged the new drive into my Windows 7 desktop computer. Tablo formatted the drive as an EXT4 partition, while older documentation talks about EXT3. I installed the latest EXT2Fsd software and I found that this software now fully supports EXT4 and successfully copied all of my “REC” folder data from my old hard drive to my new drive in EXT4 format from Windows 7 Explorer. It worked great!
For me, my old Tablo 4-Tuner hard drive was failing and had lots of bad sectors. It had been causing Tablo to hang when I try to play a recording. With Babblebit’s method, Windows File Explorer simply gave me an error saying that a file had “read errors.” I selected “Skip File” and clicked the “do this for other cases of the same error” and it ran to successful completion. Tablo seems to be working fine with my new 4 Terrabyte hard drive. Thanks Babblebits!
software updates from Windows Update that help protect your PC are no longer available