# Zipper existing drive without Instantcake?



## fhobgood (Jul 12, 2007)

I have just purchased 3 Directv Tivos on ebay and am looking at doing a whole house MRV setup. I currently have an R10, which I know I can't hack and may replace with one of these units, and a SD-DVR40 that I have upgraded the drive in with Instantcake and also zippered. The 3 units I purchased are 2 with 80G hard drives and one with a 40G hard drive. I don't care about upgrading the size on these since I will only be using them to share shows between rooms. I have backed up all of these drives with WinMFS. I would like to Zipper these units so that I can use MRV and the many other features that come with Zipper. Can I install Zipper directly on the existing Tivo drives without doing anything prior to Zipper? I want to make sure I am on the right track before I trash these drives with good images on them. I know InstantCake and a new drive is the safe way to go since I have used this route before, but I was hoping I could use the existing drives.


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

No problem - but be prepared to loose all your prerecorded shows.


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## ttodd1 (Nov 6, 2003)

You can use the Zipper on an "original" drive and *NOT* loose the recordings. You loose the recordings if you put a new image on it.


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## ForrestB (Apr 8, 2004)

Yes, but since the original recordings are encrypted - the shows aren't as portable as recordings made AFTER installing the Zipper.


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## ttodd1 (Nov 6, 2003)

If all he wants to do is MRV them, he/you can do this whether they are encrypted or not. 

If he wants to "do other things" with the recordings, then yes there will be issues (and require extra work). It sounds like there are no recordings of his own on them anyways since he states he just got them off eBay.


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