# Does InstantCake work with TiVo HD SATA?



## HabuBugs (Jul 30, 2006)

When I could not find a copy of WinMFS yesterday, I searched for a way to copy a failing TiVo HD drive. I got frustrated in the search & decided to spend the $40 for an Instantcake CD. My system has no IDE ports. The CD booted ok but when it asked to identify the CD drive (and HDD), I plugged in the value based on the SATA port they were connected to. It did not find the CD so I tried searching each SATA port using a command mentioned on the instant cake instructions. It could not find the CD. It seems odd since it boots just fine.

Has anyone had any luck with the instant cake cd for any SATA series tivo's?


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

I've never used InstantCake but I'm not sure if I've read of any success stories in quite some time (posts like yours have been more typical).

Scott


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

InstantCake has been outdated and should not be used for anything older than a Series 2.

PM sent with WinMFS link.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

ThAbtO said:


> InstantCake has been outdated and should not be used for anything older than a Series 2.
> 
> PM sent with WinMFS link.


I think what you meant to say there was don't use Instant Cake on anything *newer* than a Series 2, i.e, don't expect it to work with a SATA port.

Actually the problem isn't so much the age of the TiVo, it's that IC was written way back when and expects the drive and the cd to be on IDE/PATA ports.


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## HabuBugs (Jul 30, 2006)

Thanks for the link! The other method I used to copy the old drive indicated it worked but when I tried it the TiVo kept rebooting after the "a few minutes more" screen. I'm concerned the old drive issues were transferred to the new drive.

I can't figure out why they sell an IC for a system that only uses SATA if the product will only work with PATA. Is there a way i can use the IC image with WinMFS?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

HabuBugs said:


> Thanks for the link! The other method I used to copy the old drive indicated it worked but when I tried it the TiVo kept rebooting after the "a few minutes more" screen. I'm concerned the old drive issues were transferred to the new drive.
> 
> I can't figure out why they sell an IC for a system that only uses SATA if the product will only work with PATA. Is there a way i can use the IC image with WinMFS?


Series 2 and older uses IDE/PATA drives. Series 3 and up uses SATA. Cake is totally different from WinMFS. You cannot use Cake on SATA drives, but you can use WinMFS on SATA, as well as IDE/PATA.
The image you used may have been bad. What drive are you using? There is also the Intellipark that can get in the way of booting.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

HabuBugs said:


> Thanks for the link! The other method I used to copy the old drive indicated it worked but when I tried it the TiVo kept rebooting after the "a few minutes more" screen. I'm concerned the old drive issues were transferred to the new drive.


Have you checked the power supply capacitors?

Scott


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

HabuBugs said:


> Thanks for the link! The other method I used to copy the old drive indicated it worked but when I tried it the TiVo kept rebooting after the "a few minutes more" screen. I'm concerned the old drive issues were transferred to the new drive.
> 
> I can't figure out why they sell an IC for a system that only uses SATA if the product will only work with PATA. Is there a way i can use the IC image with WinMFS?


You can't use the IC supplied image with WinMFS, but you could probably use it with spike's older creation, the MFS Live cd, which, like IC, is based on MFS Tools, and I need to go refresh my memory on to whom the credit for creating MFS Tools belongs.

However you can find WinMFS based images for whichever S3 model you have in the "Need an image, don't PM me" thread, as well as MFS Live based ones.


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