The only way my box will die is if it gets hit by lightning or the board fries. By removing the original drive in working order, I can keep the box alive as long as the solid state electronics work. Removing the original drive for safe keeping is something I think eveyone with a Tivo should do.

If your drive dies and you don't have a backup, you can put a blank image of someone else's tivo of the same make and model on a new hard drive. However, there is a serial burned into the Tivo motherboard as well as one on the hard drive. For now, tivo seems to ignore the mis-match when it phones home. But, who knows how long that will last?

Bottom line... replace that drive before it's too late.