# Can't get past the 137 limit!



## astrose00 (Aug 20, 2003)

I downloaded the MFStools from the Weaknees interactive upgrade link. I replaced my 80 and 120GB hard drives in my AT&T model (starting with 130) with 2 200GB hard drives. I have software version 7.2 something. I thought this would eliminate the 137 limit for my unit but it did not. What did I do wrong? I was actually following a blend of Weaknees and Hinsdale. I upgraded the drives by creating a boot floppy and connect all 4 drives to the available connectors. I had the Old A drive on Primary master, the old B drive on Primary slave, the new A drive on Secondary Master and the new B drive on secondary slave. I opted to save all my recordings. I noticed at the end of the process, I was getting a bunch of errors which indicated that it was my old A drive that was failing. I didn't bother to check since I was replacing both. Luckily the restore completed anyway and I kept all my recordings. But the problem is that although I put in two 200GBs I only have 339 hours of recording time. That is consistent with the 137GB per drive limit. How did this happen? I used the LBA48... mfstools AND I have software version 7.2.

Can someone tell me what went wrong and how I can go back and recover this unused space? I have seen some posts that talk about copkern, etc. but I don't know how to get it or use it.

Thanks.


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

As far as I know the weaknees download is not LBA48 - you need to download that from PTVUpgrade and start over. Copykern only necessary on series ones.


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## astrose00 (Aug 20, 2003)

Oh, I thought it had the LBA48 kernel. Ah well. Is the free download from PTVupgrade sufficient or shoudl I pay the 5 bucks for the other download. I just want to be up and running quickly with as much space as possible.

Thanks a bunch.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

funtoupgrade said:


> As far as I know the weaknees download is not LBA48 - you need to download that from PTVUpgrade and start over. Copykern only necessary on series ones.


It the original poster followed the weaknees instructions, they would have downloaded this iso, which is lba48 aware.

339 hours hours does not sounds like 137GB+137GB to me. More like 200+120. My guess is that the OP ran out of partitions on one or the other disk, or overall, and it can't expand to fill one of the disks. "pdisk -l" output from both disks would should us what's happening.


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## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

JamieP said:


> I
> 339 hours hours does not sounds like 137GB+137GB to me.


339 sounds about right. I know a 250GB HD provides about 311 hours, so getting 28 more hours from 24 more GBs is accurate.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

mick66 said:


> 339 sounds about right. I know a 250GB HD provides about 311 hours, so getting 28 more hours from 24 more GBs is accurate.


Guess you are right. I stand corrected. Certainly it's worthwhile verifying that the iso used is lba48 aware. A pdisk listing from each disk would provide the most information.


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## astrose00 (Aug 20, 2003)

I think I agree that it's not the 137 limit. But instead of 200 + 120, I think it's more like 200 and 80. I have another Tivo which has a 160 and a 250 and that is about 467 hours with software version 7.2.

Either way, from what I've read it sounds like a partition issue. I am going to transfer the recordings I want to keep (there aren't that many) to my other Tivo and then redo the upgrade WITHOUT saving recordings. I believe someone said that this would eliminate this issue. Do you all agree? Do I need to do anything special? The mfstools I am using is supposed to be LBA48 kernel enabled and I have software version 7.2 anyway.

I would appreciate any additional insight you can give me.

Thanks!


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

astrose00 said:


> ... I believe someone said that this would eliminate this issue. Do you all agree?


Yes.


> Do I need to do anything special? !


There is a rule of thumb that you should have 1MB of swap for every 2GB of disk, so with 320GB of disk space, you'd want 160MB of swap. That's bigger than mfstools 2.0 can properly initialize, so it needs to be initialized with tpip instead. This post explains how to use tpip to do that. This post explains how to check to see if it worked.

Honestly, the swap issue will only come up if you ever run into a green screen of death (GSOD). The theory is that the fsfix program used to repair the disk in this case needs the extra swap space. I'm not sure anyone has ever verified that on a series2. Some argue that if you get a GSOD, your disk is probably about to fail anyway. They argue that the risk of screwing up the process of getting a large swap is high enough that an unexperienced tivo upgrader is better off just sticking with 127MB of swap (the max that mfstools 2.0 can initialize properly). I can't fault that argument, but IMHO, it's better to have the large swap as long as you initialize it right.


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## astrose00 (Aug 20, 2003)

Thanks for the help, JamieP. I actually have 2 200GB drives to put in. I that means I would change the -s 127 to -s 200, right? I will take a look at the tpip link you mentioned to learn how to do it properly.

Thanks again.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

astrose00 said:


> Thanks for the help, JamieP. I actually have 2 200GB drives to put in. I that means I would change the -s 127 to -s 200, right? I will take a look at the tpip link you mentioned to learn how to do it properly.
> 
> Thanks again.


Right.


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## astrose00 (Aug 20, 2003)

JamieP said:


> Right.


I tried using the tpip and it says tpip is not known or recognized. I am using the mfs2tools floppy. What went wrong?


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