# Series 2 Hard Drive Upgrade



## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

I recently purchases a Series 2 (model: 540040) off craigslist. I would like to upgrade the drive, but want to double check the capacity before I order. I've searched a lot of the threads that said it could take a 1TB drive but I couldn't find anything regard a 2TB being possible. I'm guessing because the S2 is old enough that nobody's doing it??

This is the drive I was thinking about getting: WD20EURS from NewEgg.

I have already bought the IDE/Sata adapter from Weakness.

Any reason this wouldn't work? I was thinking about upgrading my Series 2 DT with these drives/adapters as well.

Thought?

Thanks in advance.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Slope said:


> I recently purchases a Series 2 (model: 540040) off craigslist. I would like to upgrade the drive, but want to double check the capacity before I order. I've searched a lot of the threads that said it could take a 1TB drive but I couldn't find anything regard a 2TB being possible. I'm guessing because the S2 is old enough that nobody's doing it??
> 
> This is the drive I was thinking about getting: WD20EURS from NewEgg.
> 
> ...


Read this

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=416883

for much SATA + adapter wisdom.

Generally the S1 and S2 TiVos are limited to 2 1TB drives (IDE Master and Slave, does that weaknees adapter have an M/S/C jumper? If not, there are other JMicron chipset adapters that do, and at just as good a price, or better.)

Also, despite being S3-centric, the drive upgrade thread

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784

has much wisdom about replacement drives in general, including about which "green" drives need "intellipark" disabled.

You might be able to use 1.2TB of a 1.5TB drive, but I've never actually done it on an S1 or S2, so no guarantees.

I have done 2 1TB drives in an S2 DT.

Get the MFS Live cd v1.4 and also download WinMFS (go to mfslive.org and read, read, read)

(never use the -q switch, it just hides info from you, also you can skip -z and -r)

The weaknees TwinBreeze brackets are a good idea for dual drive upgrades.

You might want to look into a 2TB drive to be used (as a single NTFS partition, FAT32 doesn't handle big enough files) in a computer in conjunction with the free version of TiVo Desktop. (this will let you back up shows and swap them between Tivos on the same account and same home network).

Be aware that the EURS is an "advanced format" drive, and if you put it in a computer running XP you need to do the research on how to handle the conflict, since XP expects 512 byte sectors.

And don't do Tivo drive work on a GigaByte brand motherboard (google "gigabyte hpa" to learn why).


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## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

So, I believe my drive just died in the 540 Series2 unit I have (I went through the setup, it rebooted while I was transferring the lifetime to my name and now it won't get past the "Starting Up" screen). Can I use the image from a Series2 DT when building my drive for the 540, or do I need to use an InstantCake CD?

Thanks.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Slope said:


> So, I believe my drive just died in the 540 Series2 unit I have (I went through the setup, it rebooted while I was transferring the lifetime to my name and now it won't get past the "Starting Up" screen). Can I use the image from a Series2 DT when building my drive for the 540, or do I need to use an InstantCake CD?
> 
> Thanks.


You say it rebooted. On its own? Without the power cord being pulled?

Sounds like you need to read up on Intellipark and wdidle (WD IDLE).

Unless you're talking about the original drive and you haven't opened the machine yet.

If you have opened the machine, were you very carful not to partially dislodge the cable that connects the front panel to the motherboard?

If you wind up having to have an image, I'm hoping to get one placed somewhere for download availability in a day or three.

If it rebooted on its own, without having ever been opened, unplug it overnight and think about something else, then plug it back into the wall socket* the next day and see what happens.

You should probably start reading up on the Kickstart codes as well.

*and of course by wall socket I mean Uninterruptible Power Supply.


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## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

Correct. Rebooted on it's own with the original drive in it (I hadn't even taken it apart yet) and now it sits on the "Welcome" screen. I have let it sit over night then tried it again. No joy.

Can I use the image from the DT Series2 on the 540 Series2 or do I need to find the correct image? Am I looking at an InstantCake CD or is there a place to get the correct image?

I did successfully get the Series2 DT upgraded. I did have to run the wdidle3 utility on it. Works great!

Thanks for everything.


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## CrashHD (Nov 10, 2006)

If you are careful how you set it up, start with a smallmfs image (or in some cases, an instantcake image), you can *probably* fully utilize a 2tb drive.

You have to start with a smallmfs image. It has only one mfs partition pair. 
There are a few hurdles

1) Apple Partition Manager is limited to a maximum total disk size of 2.0TB. This limitation at present cannot be overcome.
2) Partitions must be smaller than 1.0TiB. At present, this limitation can only be overcome with a custom kernel.
3) The tivo "A" drive is limited to a maximum of 16 partitions, meaning a maximum of 3 mfs partition pairs. This limitation can be overcome by complicated means I don't fully understand.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Slope said:


> Can I use the image from the DT Series2 on the 540 Series2 or do I need to find the correct image? Am I looking at an InstantCake CD or is there a place to get the correct image?


You need a 540 image.


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## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

Couldn't find a 540 image, but did find a month-to-month 540 unit on craigslist that was still brand new in the box for $20. So, bought that, swapped drives, did a clear & delete everything, now it's working great.

Question. The software is currently on version 7.something. I want to update it before I upgrade the hard drive. Should I use kickstart code 51, 56, or does it not matter?

Thanks!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

No need for the kick start. Just force a couple of connections and the new version should be downloaded with the guide data. Reboot the DVR to install it when the status is pending restart or something like that.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Slope said:


> Couldn't find a 540 image, but did find a month-to-month 540 unit on craigslist that was still brand new in the box for $20. So, bought that, swapped drives, did a clear & delete everything, now it's working great.
> 
> Question. The software is currently on version 7.something. I want to update it before I upgrade the hard drive. Should I use kickstart code 51, 56, or does it not matter?
> 
> Thanks!


I emailed or PM'ed you about 3 days ago offering you a 540 image. Guess the message didn't get through.

Try forcing it to connect to the mothership each day for about 3 days. Once it downloads 9.whatever it should reboot itself about 2 AM to switch to the alternate boot partitions where it sticks the update.

If that doesn't work, click on my user name and email me and tell me if you need an MFS Live backup or a WinMFS one, or both.


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## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks for all your help! I got both Series2's up and running. I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for all your help.

I'm sorry, I didn't get your email/PM. Not sure what happened, but thanks again for everything.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Slope said:


> Thanks for all your help! I got both Series2's up and running...


Details, man, we need details.

So we'll know if we somehow accidentally gave you good advice.


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## Slope (Apr 29, 2011)

So, my first Tivo I was upgrading was a Series 2 DT box. Got a 1TB WD drive (EURS model), used WinMFS, put it on the Tivo and it wouldn't boot. Disabled Intellipark based on the links provided and it worked like a champ.

The 540 Tivo I purchased I setup (guided setup) worked until I called Tivo to transfer to my account. It rebooted itself then never came back up (at this point it was unopened using original drive). Purchased the same 1TB WD drive, purchased a month-to-month Tivo 540 off craigslist for $20, used that drive to image the 1TB drive for my lifetime 540 using WinMFS, and disabled Intellipark just to be safe. When I finished guided setup it was reporting my drive with a service number of all 0's. Based on information from this forum I did a "clear and delete everything". I followed the advise in this thread to keep forcing a connection, after two connections it updated the software so I could use the wired Ethernet adapter I bought (apparently it wasn't support in version 7.x).

So now, both of my newly acquired Tivo Series 2's are working like a champ.


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## Bob Slone (Aug 28, 2017)

Is winmfs still available for download somewhere?


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