# Using Hard Drive?



## derrick111 (Jul 16, 2007)

Hello, this is my 1st post... I have taken the hard drive out of my old TiVo and want to use it in my computer. I am more fammiliar with electronics, but I have enough experiance with computers that I should be able to do this with a little help. My problem is that the hard drive only shows about 600MB free space left when I tried to put Win2000 on it. I assume it's because there is already a bounch of video and OS already on there... I couldn't figue out how to format it. Someone suggested that this is because TiVo used Linux and it's a "stronger" OS then Windows so I will have to figure out some way to reformat it so I can use it in my computer. Help! Please  
Thanks so much!


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

When you install WIn 2000 there is always the option to reformat the drive which you should do.


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## derrick111 (Jul 16, 2007)

Well, maybe I reformatted the small 600MB section but not the complete drive. That's the problem I seem to be having... the drive seems to be partitioned, but unless I missed the option, I don't seem to be able to format the hard drive other then the 600MB showing up. I was wondering if this could have to do with the OS TiVo uses? Is it Linux? Someone thought It was Linux and that Linux is stronger then Wondows so I would have to use Linux to format or something. That's over my head to do myself. Any ideas?
Thanks!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

TiVo uses a different partition structure than most computers. A PC should see it just as a blank drive.


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## derrick111 (Jul 16, 2007)

You would think. Doesn't seem to though...


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## morse213 (Nov 27, 2004)

Go to the drive manufacturer's website and download their utility software. This will let you format and repartition the drive.

Jim


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## derrick111 (Jul 16, 2007)

Thanks Jim. I'm not having a lot of luck with that. It's a Sony drive and there seems to be a sea of stuff to wade through and I'm not sure exactly what to download...


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## wolflord11 (Jan 17, 2007)

Use a Third Party utility. I use PC Doctor Plus.

Do a "Low Level Format" not a standard format. A Low level format basically resets the HD to factory specs.

Also, yes Tivo's use the Linux OS, that has different file structures than Microsoft use.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

When I installed an old TiVo HD into an XP desktop I had to mount the HD through the Storage option menu screen. Then the PC "saw" the drive and then I was able to format it.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

I doubt that the TiVo partitions is the problem, check the BIOS settings and drive jumpers W2K out of the box has the LBA48 limit and will only load in the first 137G of the drive.

In any case you could use the MFSTools CD and pdisk to remove all partitions this will also verify that the Computer can access the drive.


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