# RCA DVR40 newbie questions



## xirin (Oct 7, 2007)

Hi there!
I'm contemplating upgrading a hard drive in my RCA DVR40, but since I'm fairly new to that idea, I had a few questions.

Since I don't feel like buying an upgrade kit, I figured to just buy a 400 gig IDE hard drive and image from instantcake.

And here's to the questions:

1. Do I need the image, or should I be able to just copy my existing hard drive? Assuming that I can copy it using winmfs, how safe is it towards the original? I'd rather keep the option of reverting to the original hard drive, even though it freezes on me constantly.

2. Since I'd also like to get rid of the phone line, I'll need to hack it to enable USB port. Can anyone suggest USB wireless network cards that are TiVo friendly? 

3. The image from instantcake is not hacked (I believe). So is Zipper what I'm looking for?

4. What is TivoWeb? I found the thread with the download and install instructions, but I still don't fully understand what it does?  Did I mention that I'm a newbie yet? 

Thank you!


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

xirin said:


> Hi there!
> I'm contemplating upgrading a hard drive in my RCA DVR40, but since I'm fairly new to that idea, I had a few questions.
> 
> Since I don't feel like buying an upgrade kit, I figured to just buy a 400 gig IDE hard drive and image from instantcake.
> ...


If the drive keeps freezing it may be going bad. Replace it is the safest solution.
with ptvnet from dvrupgrade it will enable USB ports and give you TiVo web. It uses the following adapters:All versions of PTVnet for SD DirecTiVo units running 6.2 or 6.2a will work fine with the following adapters:

* Netgear FA120
* Hawking UF200
* Linksys USB200M (v1 and v2)
* Trendnet TU2-ET100 (available directly from DVRupgrade)
you may not need the zipper, that is serious hacking. everything else is available from www.dvrupgrade.com an excellent company and supporter of this forum.


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## xirin (Oct 7, 2007)

rbtravis said:


> If the drive keeps freezing it may be going bad. Replace it is the safest solution.
> with ptvnet from dvrupgrade it will enable USB ports and give you TiVo web. It uses the following adapters:All versions of PTVnet for SD DirecTiVo units running 6.2 or 6.2a will work fine with the following adapters:
> 
> * Netgear FA120
> ...


Thank you so much! The main reason I'm thinking about just getting a hard drive and doing the rest myself is the sad size of my wallet  And, having read about PTVnet, it seems like it's very similar to the zipper, but more user friendly. Since I don't mind messing with my PC's entrails, I'll give the zipper a shot, and then buy PTVnet when the first step blows up in my face.

Now, do I need instantcake, or can I rely on winmfs to make a copy of my original hard drive without windows messing it up?


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

xirin said:


> Thank you so much! The main reason I'm thinking about just getting a hard drive and doing the rest myself is the sad size of my wallet  And, having read about PTVnet, it seems like it's very similar to the zipper, but more user friendly. Since I don't mind messing with my PC's entrails, I'll give the zipper a shot, and then buy PTVnet when the first step blows up in my face.
> 
> Now, do I need instantcake, or can I rely on winmfs to make a copy of my original hard drive without windows messing it up?


you can rely on winMFS as long as your drive is in good shape


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

PTVnet mostly just enables networking. The Zipper does much more. 

TiVoWebPlus allows you to manage your TiVo from a web browser on your computer. Although not as elegant, it can do some things the TiVo UI cannot.


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