# Tivo HD hard drive replacement



## cwag17 (Oct 15, 2005)

Hello,

I have a Tivo HD and recently started getting a lot of pixelation on all of my channels and determined that the HD is starting to go.

I had upgraded my stock HD with a 500GB WD blue drive years ago with a date code of 2009 so I was lucky and got 5+ years out of it.

Can anyone confirm that a WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB will work? I was going to stick another Blue in but the Green seems to offer more power savings.

Searching through the threads there seems to be a lot of talk about different HD's but I could not find anything specific for the HD.

Thanks


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

The WD10EZRX 1TB should work fine. My personal preference is the WD10EURX 1TB. Note that if you spend a little more money you can go with the 2TB version (WD20EZRX or WD20EURX) and get double the storage.

Scott


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## mln01 (Jan 10, 2006)

The WD10EZRX is not a bad choice but the WD10EURX is a better choice, made for DVRs and available online for ~$50 delivered. I bought two from goHardDrive via Amazon last month and installed them in my two TiVo HDs. I am very happy with them.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800015.pdf


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## mln01 (Jan 10, 2006)

And by the way, I used WinMFS for my two upgrades after having used InstantCake and MFSTools years ago to upgrade HDDs in my Philips and Series 2 TiVos. WinMFS was wonderfully easy to use compared to what I remember from those other TiVo HDD upgrades I did years ago.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Just remember, when going with a bigger drive than the previous one, using either the MFS Live cd, v1.4, or the WinMFS program, whether copying the old drive to the new one or restoring a truncated backup image, do not do the expansion as part of that process.

Do not use the 

-x

option on the command line if using the MFS Live cd, and if using WinMFS, when it finishes and says you have extra room on your target drive and do you want to expand, tell it no.

Then make sure, if using WinMFS, that you have the target drive (and not the source drive if you did a copy) selected, and run 

mfsinfo

(if doing the command line it'll be something like

mfsinfo /dev/hd or sd followed by a letter-be sure to use the right one)

and make sure everything looks okay. The partition table should show an Apple Free partition representing the unused space.

Then do your expansion as a separate process with 

mfsadd


(I don't know why it sometimes fails if done as part of the copy or restore process, but sometimes it does, and this way it doesn't)


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## cwag17 (Oct 15, 2005)

Thanks for the pointers. 

From what I can remember I used InstantCake the last time. I plan on using WinMFS this go around.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

cwag17 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have a Tivo HD and recently started getting a lot of pixelation on all of my channels and determined that the HD is starting to go.
> 
> ...


Use WinMFS to copy that 500GB to a WD20EURS or WD20EURX, get a lot more GB/$.

If you're HD has been in contact with the TiVo, Inc., servers recently, then it's been updated to v11.0m of the TiVo OS, and you only have to be up to v11.0h to be able to use a 2TB drive.

If you use WinMFS, you'll make the 500GB the "selected" drive and tell it to copy that to another drive and you'll tell it about the new drive.

When it finishes copying (or finishes restoring from a .tbk truncated image backup file if you have to go that route), it'll tell you you have extra space on the target drive (the new one, the old one is the source), and ask if you want to expand.

Tell it no. Just trust me on this.

Then go back to File, Select drive, and select the new drive.

Then go back to File, and run

mfsinfo

and make sure everything looks okay.

Since you've already upgraded from the original 160GB drive to the 500 and expanded into it, you should have 3 MFS pairs, for a total of 15 partitions, and a 16th Apple Free partition. (Unpartitioned space is accounted for in the Apple Partition Map by being called an Apple Free partition)

Then go back to File, and run

mfsadd

and it should fold that 16th partition into the 15th, the 3rd MFS Media partition, using all of the remaining available space.

However, the HD is one of the 3 Series 3 models, which makes it part of the set of all Series 2 and Series 3 TiVos, which means it may very well have power supply problems, since many of them do.

If it does, the cure is some simple soldering and about $10 or so in the right replacement capacitors.

And if it does have power supply problems, that might be responsible for all sorts of strange symptoms, and you need to eliminate the possibility of power supply problems before being able to rely upon any other troubleshooting or cures.

Read the last 20 pages or so of this thread.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=473394


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## cwag17 (Oct 15, 2005)

I have already replaced all of the capacitors that were swollen. I cracked the Tivo open last month to replace the fan and noticed the 4 1000uf capacitors were all vented. I replaced all 10 or so on the board just for good measure and like you said it cost less than $10 from DigiKey.

Hopefully the replacement drive will be here tomorrow and I will report back on my success or fail.

Thanks for the good info.


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## cwag17 (Oct 15, 2005)

So I got my drive in the mail today and after making a backup and restoring it to the new drive using WinMFS it appears to get stuck in a reboot loop and never gets past the "Almost There" screen.

Here are the steps I performed:

1. Remove original HD and plug it in to PC
2. Open WinMFS and select the source drive
3. File-->Backup Tivo Drive (Truncated)
4. Remove original and insert new HD
5. Open WinMFS and select source drive
6. File-->Restore Tivo Drive
7. After restore said no to auto expand
8. Ran mfsinfo (noticed I only had 14 partitions at this point)
8. Ran MFSAdd

Not sure what I missed. I did end up getting the WD10EZRX (I think I had that instead of the 2TB in the cart) and prior to copying I ran WDIdle3 and disabled the head park, it was set to 12 seconds.

Here is my mfsinfo log after I restored the backup but before I ran Mfsadd (I noticed I only have 14 partitions at this point):

Mfsinfo (Drive 4)

Boot Page
Boot Page: root=/dev/hda4
Active Boot Partition: 3 Active Root Partition: 4
Backup Boot Partition: 6 Backup Root Partition: 7

MFS Super Header
state=0 magic=ebbafeed
devlist=/dev/hda10 /dev/hda11 /dev/hda12 /dev/hda13
zonemap_ptr=1121 total_secs=310728704

Zone Maps
Z0:	type=0
map_start=1121 map_size=1 backup_map_start=589822
next_map_start=263266 next_map_size=6 next_backup_map_start=589816
zone_first=1122 zone_last=263265 zone_size=262144 min(chunk)=262144
free=262144 checksum=58c727a6 logstamp=32690447 num_bitmap=1
Z1:	type=2
map_start=263266 map_size=6 backup_map_start=589816
next_map_start=263272 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=589782
zone_first=589824 zone_last=138215423 zone_size=137625600 min(chunk)=20480
free=675840 checksum=ab57ce89 logstamp=32787894 num_bitmap=14
Z2:	type=1
map_start=263272 map_size=34 backup_map_start=589782
next_map_start=138219520 next_map_size=1 next_backup_map_start=138809343
zone_first=263306 zone_last=589777 zone_size=326472 min(chunk)=8
free=30592 checksum=d75c7e2a logstamp=32787950 num_bitmap=17
Z3:	type=0
map_start=138219520 map_size=1 backup_map_start=138809343
next_map_start=138481665 next_map_size=10 next_backup_map_start=138809333
zone_first=138219521 zone_last=138481664 zone_size=262144 min(chunk)=262144
free=262144 checksum=7c82c966 logstamp=32690447 num_bitmap=1
Z4:	type=2
map_start=138481665 map_size=10 backup_map_start=138809333
next_map_start=138481675 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=138809299
zone_first=138809344 zone_last=310718463 zone_size=171909120 min(chunk)=20480
free=696320 checksum=72341817 logstamp=32787915 num_bitmap=15
Z5:	type=1
map_start=138481675 map_size=34 backup_map_start=138809299
next_map_start=0 next_map_size=0 next_backup_map_start=0
zone_first=138481709 zone_last=138809292 zone_size=327584 min(chunk)=8
free=237008 checksum=1b9c0921 logstamp=32787950 num_bitmap=17

Partition Maps
#: type name length base ( size )
1 Apple_partition_map Apple [email protected] ( 31.5K)
2 Image Bootstrap 1 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
3 Image Kernel 1 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
4 Ext2 Root 1 [email protected] ( 256.0M)
5 Image Bootstrap 2 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
6 Image Kernel 2 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
7 Ext2 Root 2 [email protected] ( 256.0M)
8 Swap Linux swap [email protected] ( 128.0M)
9 Ext2 /var [email protected] ( 256.0M)
10 MFS MFS application region [email protected] ( 288.0M)
11 MFS MFS media region [email protected] ( 65.6G)
12 MFS MFS application region 2 [email protected] ( 288.0M)
13 MFS MFS media region 2 [email protected] ( 82.0G)
14 Apple_Free Extra [email protected] ( 782.5G)

Total SA SD Hours: 165	Total DTV SD Hours: 144 0 % Free
Software: 11.0m-01-2-652	Tivo Model: TCD652160

========================
And here is my log after I ran mfsadd:
========================

Mfsinfo (Drive 4)

Boot Page
Boot Page: root=/dev/hda4
Active Boot Partition: 3 Active Root Partition: 4
Backup Boot Partition: 6 Backup Root Partition: 7

MFS Super Header
state=0 magic=ebbafeed
devlist=/dev/hda10 /dev/hda11 /dev/hda12 /dev/hda13 /dev/hda14 /dev/hda15
zonemap_ptr=1121 total_secs=1951670272

Zone Maps
Z0:	type=0
map_start=1121 map_size=1 backup_map_start=589822
next_map_start=263266 next_map_size=6 next_backup_map_start=589816
zone_first=1122 zone_last=263265 zone_size=262144 min(chunk)=262144
free=262144 checksum=58c727a6 logstamp=32690447 num_bitmap=1
Z1:	type=2
map_start=263266 map_size=6 backup_map_start=589816
next_map_start=263272 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=589782
zone_first=589824 zone_last=138215423 zone_size=137625600 min(chunk)=20480
free=675840 checksum=ab57ce89 logstamp=32787894 num_bitmap=14
Z2:	type=1
map_start=263272 map_size=34 backup_map_start=589782
next_map_start=138219520 next_map_size=1 next_backup_map_start=138809343
zone_first=263306 zone_last=589777 zone_size=326472 min(chunk)=8
free=30592 checksum=d75c7e2a logstamp=32787950 num_bitmap=17
Z3:	type=0
map_start=138219520 map_size=1 backup_map_start=138809343
next_map_start=138481665 next_map_size=10 next_backup_map_start=138809333
zone_first=138219521 zone_last=138481664 zone_size=262144 min(chunk)=262144
free=262144 checksum=7c82c966 logstamp=32690447 num_bitmap=1
Z4:	type=2
map_start=138481665 map_size=10 backup_map_start=138809333
next_map_start=138481675 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=138809299
zone_first=138809344 zone_last=310718463 zone_size=171909120 min(chunk)=20480
free=696320 checksum=72341817 logstamp=32787915 num_bitmap=15
Z5:	type=1
map_start=138481675 map_size=34 backup_map_start=138809299
next_map_start=310728704 next_map_size=67 next_backup_map_start=310730685
zone_first=138481709 zone_last=138809292 zone_size=327584 min(chunk)=8
free=237008 checksum=f855a861 logstamp=32787950 num_bitmap=17
Z6:	type=2
map_start=310728704 map_size=67 backup_map_start=310730685
next_map_start=0 next_map_size=0 next_backup_map_start=0
zone_first=310730752 zone_last=1951670271 zone_size=1640939520 min(chunk)=20480
free=1640939520 checksum=7c828754 logstamp=0 num_bitmap=18

Partition Maps
#: type name length base ( size )
1 Apple_partition_map Apple [email protected] ( 31.5K)
2 Image Bootstrap 1 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
3 Image Kernel 1 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
4 Ext2 Root 1 [email protected] ( 256.0M)
5 Image Bootstrap 2 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
6 Image Kernel 2 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
7 Ext2 Root 2 [email protected] ( 256.0M)
8 Swap Linux swap [email protected] ( 128.0M)
9 Ext2 /var [email protected] ( 256.0M)
10 MFS MFS application region [email protected] ( 288.0M)
11 MFS MFS media region [email protected] ( 65.6G)
12 MFS MFS application region 2 [email protected] ( 288.0M)
13 MFS MFS media region 2 [email protected] ( 82.0G)
14 MFS MFS App by Winmfs [email protected] ( 1.0M)
15 MFS MFS Media by Winmfs [email protected] ( 782.5G)

Total SA SD Hours: 1040	Total DTV SD Hours: 908 84 % Free
Software: 11.0m-01-2-652	Tivo Model: TCD652160

Thanks


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

If your original drive is going bad, your first backup might have a bad spot in it and so you might try grabbing another truncated backup and perhaps be lucky and get a good image. You can use JMFS iso and have it copy the original drive to the new drive. There is some rescuing of the original drive in that copy process. 
Alternatively, find a link on TCF for an image for your model and use that to make your new drive.


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## cwag17 (Oct 15, 2005)

I ended up doing a copy and everything seems to be working fine. The Tivo booted right up with the new drive and I power cycled 2-3 times and it booted every time.


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## TivoRocks193 (Aug 10, 2005)

Did you upgrade the Tivo HD to 1TB or 2TB? Is there any special steps to upgrade to 2TB or will the exact same WinMFS process work?


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