# S1 137GB question



## Rovershack (Aug 11, 2004)

Hey,

I have a S1 TIVO that has been running on two 80GB drives for about 6 years. I am starting to get freezes and skips so I am going to replace the drives.

My question is on the 137GB limit.... is it 137GB per drive or 137GB total?

If it's per drive I will upgrade to 2 160GB dirves and just use 137GB. If it's 137GB total, I will just find 2 more 80GB drives and copy the drive images.

Thanks,

James

Unless someone has a step by step lba48 hack detailed, I am not interested in anything larger. If it would be easy, with a detailed step-by-step, I would get one large drive. Not that I don't have the technical ability to make it work, I just don't want to spend very much time on this.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Rovershack said:


> My question is on the 137GB limit.... is it 137GB per drive or 137GB total?


There is no limit. So long as you use an lba48 aware software tool your S1 will recognize ANY size drive you put in it.


> Unless someone has a step by step lba48 hack detailed, I am not interested in anything larger. If it would be easy, with a detailed step-by-step, I would get one large drive. Not that I don't have the technical ability to make it work, I just don't want to spend very much time on this.


There is no need for any hacks or extra time spent...simply use the .iso that is linked here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php


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## puffdaddy (Mar 1, 2006)

Hmm....

Are you sure that the OP won't need to also install an lba48 aware kernel so that the tivo software can access the parts of the disk beyond the 137GB (128MiB) mark?

So answer the OP's original question, the 137GB limit is per drive. So if you're looking to avoid installing an lba48 aware kernel, you could use two individual ~140GB drives to get a combined max ~280GB worth of space.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

puffdaddy said:


> Hmm....
> 
> Are you sure that the OP won't need to also install an lba48 aware kernel so that the tivo software can access the parts of the disk beyond the 137GB (128MiB) mark?
> 
> So answer the OP's original question, the 137GB limit is per drive. So if you're looking to avoid installing an lba48 aware kernel, you could use two individual ~140GB drives to get a combined max ~280GB worth of space.


Correct.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Rovershack: I am using a 500GB drive in my S1 tivo. Previously I was using two 200gb drives. All the space was accessible in both cases

Supasta: Why do you link to an ISO that can't create version 1 swap partitions? 127mb isn't enough to complete a mfsfix with such large drives.


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## pinktri (Aug 7, 2007)

ciper said:


> Rovershack: I am using a 500GB drive in my S1 tivo. Previously I was using two 200gb drives. All the space was accessible in both cases
> 
> Supasta: Why do you link to an ISO that can't create version 1 swap partitions? 127mb isn't enough to complete a mfsfix with such large drives.


Ciper. I'm having the same issue. I tried to upgrade my 160GB to 400GB single A drive. When I booted with my 400GB drive I get the GSD severe error screen. When I go back to my 160 it's working fine. I used the mfstools 2.0 also the ISO link above doesn't work. Ciper can you show me how or where to download the correct mfstools version? Do I have to change the swap file from 127 or something? Please if you have instructions or can point me to the right direction. THANKS


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

pinktri: If you start your own thread I will be glad to help you with your upgrade! There might be more than one updated CD but the one I used recently was from the MFSLive website.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Might I suggest to the OP:

Why not look into InstantCake. Basically automated and includes an lba48 kernel.

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

You could also purchase IC and use that lba48 kernel with MFSTools 2.0 to get full use of the drive space.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Does the instantcake kernel include the extra changes that the one from the TPIP site has? Read about it here http://www.courtesan.com/ftp/pub/TiVo/kernel/README


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

I think there is some potentially bad/misleading information being discussed in this thread. I just want to clarify a few things, and I will answer the specific questions asked, as well.


By default, all Series1 tivo units do NOT have an LBA48-aware kernel installed as part of their operating environment. That means if you use a boot CD that has an LBA48 kernel on it (which runs on your PC NOT your TiVo) to prepare a new drive for your TiVo, you will run into trouble if you use a drive that is larger than 137GB. Why? Because you will have paritioned the drive beyond the boundaries that the TiVo OS kernel can effectively address.

You will run into this problem if you use ANY LBA48 boot CD, UNLESS you ALSO prepare the drive with a TiVo OS kernel that is ALSO lba48 aware.

To do this, you can use the free boot CD linked below in combination with the CopyKern script. The free boot CD includes a modified kernel that can be installed onto your TiVo drive AFTER it is prepared, and it IS lba48 capable. The CopyKern script will do the work of copying the kernel and will also initialize the swap partition for you.

To answer the first question asked... its on a PER DRIVE basis. So if you use 2x80GB drives or 2x120GB drives, you do not have to worry about this issue. The issue needs to be taken into account if you use a single drive that is larger than 137GB. If you use a 160GB drive with a non-lba48 CD, you will only utilize 137GB of it. But if you use a 160GB drive with an lba48 CD, you need to be very careful and replace the kernel, as well.

To answer the second question asked... yes, InstantCake takes care of this for you; but if you are planning on using MFStools to backup / restore your existing image, you do not need to purchase anything; just use the free LBA48 boot CD, use MFStools as documented and then finish up with CopyKern.


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

tivoupgrade said:


> By default, all Series1 tivo units do NOT have an LBA48-aware kernel installed as part of their operating environment. That means if you use a boot CD that has an LBA48 kernel on it (which runs on your PC NOT your TiVo) to prepare a new drive for your TiVo, you will run into trouble if you use a drive that is larger than 137GB. Why? Because you will have paritioned the drive beyond the boundaries that the TiVo OS kernel can effectively address


There is "restore -n" option in MFSLive Linux Boot CD that limits expanding beyond 137GB per drive.


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

spike2k5 said:


> There is "restore -n" option in MFSLive Linux Boot CD that limits expanding beyond 137GB per drive.


Right, so what you are saying (please correct me if I am wrong) is:

Since the MFSlive linux boot CD does contain an LBA48 kernel, you can still have it prepare a drive, larger than 137GB, for a Series1 kernel without having to replace the kernel; by using the -n option, the kernel running on your PC will treat the drive as 137GB and not expand beyond that boundary. Therefore, keeping you out of trouble should you not replace the kernel on your Series1 unit.

BTW Spike, please feel free to snag the copykern/tpip and modded kernels from my CD and bolt it into yours if you see fit. No reason not to create a flag for your mfstools implementation that doesn't automatically stuff the modded kernel in if you want to (you just have to make sure you use the correct kernel, so perhaps invoking copykern might make more sense)...


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## sskraly (Dec 11, 2002)

I'm upgrading a Series 1 with a flaky 80GB HDD with a 300GB drive (it was on sale and I couldn't find a smaller one much cheaper). I don't care if I end up with >127GB, but it would be nice. I'm considering the LBA48 kernel method to recognize the full 300GB, but Todd Miller's guide (http://www.gratisoft.us/tivo/bigdisk.html) says:

"Note that using an LBA48 kernel on your TiVo means that you will have issues when a new version of the TiVo software comes out since the kernel shipped with the new software will not be able to see the entire disk which may cause serious corruption of the media filesystem the TiVo uses to store programs (I don't have a spare large disk to try and see what will actually happen in this case). In the worst case your TiVo might end up in boat-anchor mode. Therefore, you should keep a backup of your TiVo (both before and after you upgrade to the LBA48 kernel) and be sure to do another backup before the roll-out of a new version of the TiVo software. It should be possible to catch the TiVo when it is at the "pending restart" stage and replace the kernel in the newly updated kernel partition but you will need to be vigilant. It's best to have a backup in case something untoward happens. "

Is this still true? If so, I will probably just live with the 137GB limit. I realize that a Series 1 OS upgrade is unlikely, but I don't want to have to worry about it. If this isn't true anymore, how do you avoid this issue?

Thanks...


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You can safely use the copykern command to get full use of your new drive. There is almost no chance of a new update, and if there were, I think it would work fine. 

I went from hacked 4.01b, with an hacked LBA48 kernel on my series 2, to 7.2 just fine.


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## jtown (Sep 26, 2002)

To simplify TivoUpgrade's post...

If you want to make full use of drives larger than 137 gigs, you need two things.

1) An upgrade utility/tool that has an LBA48 kernel.
2) An LBA48 kernel for the S1.

If you don't have #1, you can't properly prepare the drive because you can't access the entire drive with the tool you're using to prepare it. If you don't have #2, the S1 won't be able to access the entire drive that you've just prepared.

FWIW, I had a 300 gig drive in my old SVR-2000 for a while. Worked great with the caveat that the interface got really slow if I had a lot of programs in the now playing list. I mean REAL slow. I fixed that by changing all my recordings to "best". So don't go crazy dropping a pair of terabyte drives in there. Or even one


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