# Old TiVo Hack



## Burger23 (Aug 3, 2007)

I&#8217;ve searched this Forum and cannot figure out where to start.

Issue: endless reboots on Tivo HD. Tried Kickstart 57 and 58. Does not work- never get past black screen.

I bought my TiVo the day it came out- maybe 2 years ago. At that time the eSata external port was not activated- the only way to increase storage was some kind of hack. I cannot remember nor find in this Forum, what that hack might have been. It replaced the original drive (80Gb) with a 750 Gb drive. If I recall, the hack partitioned the drive- one partition for the system- the other with the data. What I hoped to do was to replace the bad system with a new system- doing the same hack over again. And hopefully the other data partition will be intact and I will not lose my saved shows. I removed the hard drive, and hooked it up as a secondary drive in my pc. But, naturally, Windows sees the drive- but does not recognize its format. If worse comes to worse, I still have the original TiVo supplied hard drive- I could reinstall it and attach an eSata drive for increased storage- but then I lose the previously recorded shows.

Anyway, would like to try to restore hacked system partition- but I have forgotten to start. Hopefully, someone here can direct me where to start.


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## Burger23 (Aug 3, 2007)

Just found this thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784&highlight=Drive+Expansion+Upgrade+FAQ

I am pretty sure it is what I used (step 11). I wonder if restoring the image:
_
1.Download the MFSLive Linux Boot CD image and burn it as a CD. Boot your PC from the CD._

Will this affect any shows that may be stored on this drive?

Note: I also have an eSata drive attached


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## Burger23 (Aug 3, 2007)

Ignore this post- I reposted in thread referrenced above


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

Burger23 said:


> I removed the hard drive, and hooked it up as a secondary drive in my pc.But, naturally, Windows sees the drive- but does not recognize its format.


Windows has a bad habit of writing a signature on the drives it sees, and the Tivo doesn't like it. Whatever problem you had originally, there's a good chance you have an additional one now. WinMFS has a utility to fix that, it also has the utilities to copy Tivo drives just like the MFSlive boot CD does, so that's probably your best bet. Don't know about how that will affect the recorded programs on an HD with an external drive since I don't have one, but I'm sure one of the wiser users here will let us know.


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

Burger23 said:


> Ignore this post- I reposted in thread referrenced above


Too late. Guess I took too long typing while watching TV.


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## Burger23 (Aug 3, 2007)

halfempty said:


> Windows has a bad habit of writing a signature on the drives it sees, and the Tivo doesn't like it. Whatever problem you had originally, there's a good chance you have an additional one now. WinMFS has a utility to fix that, it also has the utilities to copy Tivo drives just like the MFSlive boot CD does, so that's probably your best bet. Don't know about how that will affect the recorded programs on an HD with an external drive since I don't have one, but I'm sure one of the wiser users here will let us know.


Thanks for the reply-- Windows XP wanted to initialize the drive. I said NO- but it did recognize the drive. Someone on the other tread suggested TivoDesktop to see if I could move shows off (apparently external drive needs to be divorced first). I will try that tomorrow. That's for tip...


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

halfempty said:


> Windows has a bad habit of writing a signature on the drives it sees, and the Tivo doesn't like it.


That was the case once upon a time, but not true any more (unless you're running Windows 98 or 3.1, etc...then one deserves whatever happens ). Unless you take the time to actually mount the drive using Windows' disk utility, nothing will happen when connecting a bare drive as Mr. Burger found out; winMFS takes care of everything.


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## Burger23 (Aug 3, 2007)

1. Switched TV's and now I can see screen
2. I get the Welcome screen, the Almost Done screen, and then the blue screen reporting External hard drive failure. Tried the repair, but it just recycles with same 3 screens. Tried to remove the external hard drive (clear, 3 down-thumbs, enter)- but apparent unmarrying did not work because after a brief pause when the program attempted to unmarry, the same 3 screens appeared again- the program was not successful in unmarrying.
3. I decided to start from scratch and just follow Step 11. But then I noticed there there were some other options in MFS. There is amost Fix BootPage- option 1 or 2.
4. Would any of these, or other options under Tools, help me save shows- or should I just bite the bullet??


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

richsadams said:


> (unless you're running Windows 98 or 3.1, etc...then one deserves whatever happens ).


I think I have an old laptop buried in a closet somewhere with Windows 95 on it, I'll have to dig it out and test.

The last time I hooked up a Linux disk and forgot to disconnect the Windows drive was with Windows 2000 and you're right, it gave me a dialog box asking me if I wanted to write a signature to the disk rather than just doing it. I haven't made that mistake on XP - yet.


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

Burger23 said:


> Tried to remove the external hard drive (clear, 3 down-thumbs, enter)- but apparent unmarrying did not work because after a brief pause when the program attempted to unmarry, the same 3 screens appeared again- the program was not successful in unmarrying.


The fact that it won't unmarry seems to point in the direction of some type of corruption on the internal drive, but that's guesswork on my part since I've never done dual drives. One of the more knowledgeable folks around here will have to give you a better response.


Burger23 said:


> 4. Would any of these, or other options under Tools, help me save shows- or should I just bite the bullet??


The fix boot page options will only help if Windows did write a signature, but before you wipe the drive it couldn't hurt to try.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

halfempty said:


> I think I have an old laptop buried in a closet somewhere with Windows 95 on it, I'll have to dig it out and test.


I've got a pristine copy of MS Works on a half-dozen floppies in the garage if you're interested!


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