# How-To Upgrade your TiVo



## hinsdale

*I Want a Large TiVo with Lots of Recording Time*
Here is a recording capacity upgrade How-To for relative newbies that incorporates the newest utilites for hopefully a quick and painless TiVo upgrade experience (includes Boot Cd and floppy instructions).

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

Following the above guide you should wind up with a large TiVo (60 - 330 hrs) in around an hour or so. The instructions function for all U.S. and U.K. makes/models of standalone TiVo's and DirecTV/TiVo combo units (referred to as DirecTiVo's for this document). Remember, however, that you are hacking your TiVo and there are no guarantees of the utilities or instruction provided.

Most common upgrade questions should be covered within the How-To, so read carefully and if still in need of assistance then post requests in the underground forum.


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## George42

Hinsdale,

Thanks a bunch to you and the many other people who contribute to this fourm. With your instructions, a bracket from 9th Tee, and a low-cost Maxtor 5400 rpm 80G drive from newegg, I (and college student son) easily bumped our 30G Sony SA Tivo to 30G+80G.


Thanks!

George


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## dwight

Just wanted to post a quick note thanking you for developing such a comprehensive and complete guide to upgrading a Tivo unit. With no prior Linux experience, I was able to follow your instructions and increase my 30-hr SA Tivo to 145 hours via a 120Gb Maxtor hard drive.

The upgrade when without a hitch. I did encounter one unusual thing, though. When I attempted to use the version of TivoMad for "merged" 2-drive units, it asked me to insert floppy disk #2. Since I didn't have any floppies, I used the standard TivoMad utility (I had a married unit anyway), and everything went fine from that point forward.

Thanks again!


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## Eric Cottrell

Hello,

I got my Philips HR-112 over a year ago. I found
it useful but of limited capacity. I could not
watch Basic quality but the 8 hour medium quality
was okay. I have a pretty full schedule and can
go for a number of days before watching the TiVO.
I turned off the background recording and only
have a few season passes. I was also following
the upgrade threads but put off upgrading because
of the limitations. When I checked last week 
after a few months, WOW!  Thanks to everyone for
their work. I also like the feature of being able 
to upgrade again in the future easily!

I went to a computer show planning to get a
100/120 gig drive but ended up getting two Maxtor
536DX (4W060H4) 60 Gig drives for $105 apiece.
The drives on offer over 60 Gig were all 7200 RPM
drives and cost more per gig.

I found the instructions useful and complete but I 
am not a new computer user. One suggestion is
when a user has multiple operating systems that
the C: partition might not be on /dev/hda1. I run 
three OSes and hda1 is Boot Manager on my machine. 
I used the fdisk program to find the right one
(hda2).

The only problem in burning the CD-R was the
readme had the wrong filename for the iso file.
I used linux to burn the CD-R. I backed up my old 
TiVO A drive using MFStools for a just-in-case
backup and used DD to copy to my new A drive.
I used a SCSI CD-Rom drive without any problems
and it allowed me to put the TiVO B drive on
/dev/hdd.

I was suprised to start the DD copy and have it
complete by the time I finished supper. Having a
fast machine (1 GHZ P3) really helps. All tests
went okay. The Maxtor drives are quiet with some
low volume clicking sounds. A review said they do 
not generate excessive heat.

Thanks also for the suggestion to use tiewraps for 
the B drive. I am planning to get a bracket soon.
I now have 145 hours of (unwatchable) Basic and 85 
hours of (watchable) Medium. I bumped up my
preference to the 64 hour high quality setting and 
will be doing more reprograming to take advantage
of the space. One thing on my wishlist is a way 
to backup the unit without taking out the
harddrive.

Thanks again and 73,
Eric Cottrell


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## Kash76

Last night I went and picked up a WD 100 gig drive and hadn't really done much reading on upgrading. I printed your 20 page upgrade instructions and 2 1/2 hours later....

Walla!! I have a 126 hour DSR6k.

Many thanks to Hinsdale and his thorough instructions!!


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## Rik

Thanks much. I upgraded my Philips DirecTivo unit to 126 hours a couple of months ago. Unfortunately ... I just got a severe error last night and the unit has been unable to repair itself. Are there any step by step instructions for fixing this myself (after identifying which hard drive is the culprit)?


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## Guest

What is the difference between a Quantum Drive and
a regular harddrive? Also where can I find MFS tools?

Thanks,
Robert


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## kroddy

Quantum is (was) a manufacturer of hard-drives.

You will find a link to MFS Tools in the above mentioned how-to


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## Steavis

A big THANK YOU to Hinsdale and all those who put in time and energy to create the TiVo upgrading tools. Thanks to all you guys (and a great deal on a Maxtor 120GB HD at Comp-U-Plus), my HDR212 now sports a whopping 174 hrs. 

Couldn't have asked for a smoother experience--everything fell into place without a hitch. Contrast that to the 5-day headache I had while trying to upgrade my PC's hard drive and re-install Win98 back in September.

Anyway, you guys are appreciated. I applaud your genius!

--Steavis


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## Guest

Never mind...Site is up.

I appreciate your help and feedback, 

TIM


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## Rik

Anybody know why my signature ... which appeared correctly under the previous forum ... now shows up as the code I typed in to create it?


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## Nihilator

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *I Want a Large TiVo with Lots of Recording Time
> Here is a recording capacity upgrade How-To for relative newbies that incorporates the newest utilites for hopefully a quick and painless TiVo upgrade experience (includes Boot Cd and floppy instructions).
> *


I just finished upgrading my Sony SVR2000 from 30 hours to 101 hours by adding a 60GB Western Digital drive that I had sitting around. Now I can bump up the recording quality for most all of my shows, and not have to worry about transferring West Wing to tape so quickly. Hinsdale's instructions made it easy...thanks so much!

Here's a suggestion for future revisions of the How-To doc: As soon as you pull your TiVo's A-drive, get on the web, go to the drive manufacturer's website (Quantum owners, go to Maxtor), and pull down a copy of the jumper spec sheet. My Sony uses a Quantum LS15 drive with a somewhat confusing jumper sticker, and this would have been a little hardship if I didn't have a second computer on the network available for just this task.

By the way, my brother and I purchased a Hughes DirecTV with TiVo unit for my mother (in the West Virginia wilderness) for Christmas. As soon as the wrinkles are ironed out of the upgrade process for these apparently tricky units, I'll give that one a try.

Thanks again, Hinsdale, and of course a huge thanks to all of the wicked smart people (Dylan, TiVoMad, Tiger, and Kazymyr) who laid the groundwork.

-Nihilator


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## cactus46

And yet another thanks, Hindsdale. 

Using your How-to it was a almost painless process replacing my 30 GB A drive with a 100 GB Western Digital WD1000 7200 RPM drive (the price was right ). 

My SA HDR31202 seems to be doing fine with the new drive. I don't notice any excessive noice. Basic recording space is reported as 115 hours now.

It was a bit of a challenge to get the older computer to boot with the 100 GB drive. Finally adjusting the bios setting to a fictional user setup worked and the Linux recognized the proper drive.

Thanks for your detailed instructions on performing this upgrade!

John


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## HTH

The download for the altered larger version of Kazymyr's Boot Cd image v2.6g containing DTiVoMad 4.0 and all necessary utilities is being served as "text/plain" instead of "application/octet-stream". The host serving that file needs to be taught that .iso files require binary transfer and not to assume they are text files, otherwise downloads may become corrupted as CRLF conversions are performed.


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## foo

Just a note of thanks.. a couple of weeks ago I did a DTiVo upgrade to 2 80gb drives for a total of 149 hrs. 

foo


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## Guest

Warning!

Tivo will try to take away your 800 number privilages when you reset under ver 2.5-01-1-011.

I reset just before trying to back up. Then, dummy me, I realized I had not written down the software version number. Tivo made me go thru all the setup screens before I could get to the sys info screen. In the phone setup section, they tried to make me use a long distance number even though I live in the sticks at a ski resort. This was completley different than the procedures with the older ver software.

Another thing they did not warn me about was just how long a sys reset takes. Mine took over an hour and was totally unnecessary for me to do. Shame on rookies like me.


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## tivobernd

A word of thanks!

The upgrade HowTo document is great! Upgraded my DirectTivo to 230 hours today in less than 2 hours total. And it is running like a charm!

Thanks again for the great document and links!!!


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## daveo4tivo

thanks to Hinsdale and the wonderful instructions.

1 TiVo down (68 hour SAT-T60)
2 TiVo's to go


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## dsmith48

Hinsdale:

I see the "last updated" section of your how-to has recently changed. Is there a section in which I can find what exactly has been updated. I am not sure if I should print out another copy, I am days short of an upgrade and my current printed copy is covered with my notes.

Thanks in advance,


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## HTH

> _Originally posted by HTH _
> *The download for the altered larger version of Kazymyr's Boot Cd image v2.6g containing DTiVoMad 4.0 and all necessary utilities is being served as "text/plain" instead of "application/octet-stream". The host serving that file needs to be taught that .iso files require binary transfer and not to assume they are text files, otherwise downloads may become corrupted as CRLF conversions are performed. *


BTW, according to the HTTP standard, the browser _must_ adhere to the Content-Type supplied by the server, and therefore must treat this .iso file as text/plain as declared by the server. Clicking on the link to that file will cause it to appear in the browser rather than the user being prompted to save the file to disk, as well as conversions of line end sequences to CR, LF, or CRLF as appropriate for the platform.

Therefore, downloads may be possible using Internet Explorer which is _infamous_ for ignoring this requirement in the HTTP standard by ignoring the Content-Type header and instead sniffing the downloaded content to determine the type for itself, resulting in more broken server configurations like this.
Still, the trevor server must be reconfigured to not serve .iso files as text/plain, or zip the file, or an alternative server set up for this file that is properly configured.

Does anyone know who to contact directly for problems with that server? There's no identifying information on its root index, and I can't find reference in the Hinsdale FAQ to who runs it.


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## Steavis

dsmith48:

Noticed in your sig that you're not sure whether to shelve your TiVo's 20 GB drive or use your Maxtor 120 GB 5400 rpm as a B drive. 

Thought you'd like to hear about my recent upgrade experience, since I used the exact same hardware (HDR 212 with Maxtor 120/5400 drive). I installed the Maxtor as my B drive without a hitch, adding about 154 hours to my 20 hr. TiVo. That was a week ago today and everything's still working great. If you prefer Medium quality to Basic as I do, keeping your original hard drive will mean about 101 hours total assuming your experience mirrors mine. 

More space is always better than less since you will inevitably find ways to fill it up. The only reason I would consider removing the 20 GB drive is if I had a computer that needed it more. (Actually, I'm considering swapping my 20 from the TiVo with my computer's 40 GB drive). 

Anyway, whatever you decide to do, good luck with your upgrade!

--Steavis


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## dsmith48

Steavis:

Thanks for your input.  

I too agree more is better, however the 20hr drive truly doesn't give all that much more space. I myself cannot stand the look of basic and currently use medium as well at about 12 hours. Upon upgrading, my current intentions are that of using high.

Ultimately I wish to have 120GB + 120GB, simply buying them both at the same time right now is not possible. I am thinking of using the 120GB now as A: then adding an additional B: of 120Gb in the future, this is what I will do. 

*** My question though, is what is more work. Is adding a large drive as B: then upgrading drive A: at a later time more work? If so I would only want to replace my factory A: drive with a large drive and then add a large B: later on in time. 

The loss of any recorded material during any upgrade is not a concern to be, simply I would suck it up and move on only to yet again fill the drive.

I too have a 40GB drive in my home PC in which I do not fill and thought about removing that to use as a B: drive 120GB + 40GB. And using the 22GB TiVo drive in the PC. For some reason that makes me feel like a compulsive gambler doing what ever necessary to feed the addiction, haha.

Can anyone answer the asterisk question above?


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## Steavis

dan--

My limited understanding of the upgrade process tells me that the difference wouldn't amount to more than a few minutes of extra work, especially if you don't care about losing your recordings. There are plenty of people on this board that can answer that question more knowledgeably than I, however.

Ultimately though, if you're going to be utilizing High quality, the extra couple hours probably won't be worth it--easiest thing to do would be to use one large A drive for now. When you get a second large drive, just run BlessTiVo on it and put it in. You won't lose any recordings, and your 22 GB drive could be a backup.


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## thtv01

hinsdale: I have a question about the link in your How-To. It's regarding the link for the updated boot CD (nuboot6.iso). I burned the CD and it has a text file for TIVOMAD and it says version 3.1. Do you know if the text file is wrong? How can I tell if this boot cd has the updated version of DTiVoMad 4.0?
I guess I can boot up using the CD and test it by typing 'maddtb4/setupcd.sh ' to see if it starts the script.


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## thtv01

Never mind...I guess I answered this myself. I booted up the CD and entered the command for DTivoMad 4.0 and it works fine.
I guess I should have done this before posting my question.....
Thanks!


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## KFL

I too wish to thank all those that did the hard work setting up these utilities and getting the cd & instructions together. I found them easier to follow upgrading my DSR6K to 2 160 GIG Maxtor 5400 drives this weekend than when I added a 60 GIG drive to my standalone last year. I now have up to 259 hours of recording time. I'm still using the original fan and my temperature has stabilized at 48C in a 70 degree room.

Thanks once more for an outstanding job!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Breacagan

I ran across several bumps in my upgrade, but every contingency was covered by the HOW-TO. The tools were easy to use. Well done, everyone!

Thank you,
byron


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## Guest

This is my first post to the forum. I would like to express my thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and any others who I didn't see your name (sorry). Yesterday I upgraded my 30 hour Phillips Tivo by adding a 100 GB WD drive. The upgrade went flawlessly and I now have a 154+ hour Tivo! I can only imagine the time and effort that went into the development of this process. How generous of you guys to share it all with us. THANK YOU!

Sam Sharp
Albuquerque, NM


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## tivoboy

to complete the upgrade?


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## Steve O

I'm about to do the upgrade deed, but I had a couple of questions before I got started (better to get them answered now rather than post a "help!" message after it's too late).

My primary master drive in my PC is a 60 G drive that's broken up into 3 partitions. C: is 5 Gig, D: is 10 Gig, and E: is 45 Gig. I'd have to check fdisk, but I think it's a primary partition and 2 extended partitions.

Next, I think those are FAT16 partitions.

Are either of those issues likely to give me any problems when doing the backup and/or blessing portions of the upgrade? Will hda, hdb, etc. be different because of the extra partitions already on the Primary Master drive?

-Steve


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## wookie

I would like to thank Hinsdale for the great upgrade instructions. I ran into a couple snags, one due to flaky hardware , and the other - maybe something I missed in the upgrade instructions, or maybe a place to add a little note to the upgrade guide??

I was doing a "new A" + a "new B" on a new system(2 maxtor 80GB hds from Dell per another discussion thread). 

I ran into troubles at the last step (10 option#2) when I was trying to boot and do the mad/setup.sh step. I had the new A connected to Sec Master, CDROM to SecSlave, and the new B connected to PriSlave... The A drive was being recognized, but the B drive was not. 

It took me a few minutes to remember that I have to have _something_ hooked up to PriMaster in order for the bios to recognize that the slave... (could be an issue of older BIOS? or just the fact that I'm used to using SCSI ...

After connecting another HD as PriMaster, and replacing a flakey CDROM all went smooth as silk. The CDROM problem was a strange one. I was using Kazymyr's boot disk, and it worked fine when I copied the original A to the new A... but failed when I tried to boot with 2 disks in the system. After the Kernel finished loading (..........) it displayed "Ready." and would hang. Confusion rained for a little while as I tried to determine if my second HD was bad, etc... but I finally realized that the CD was bad when I tried booting from another bootCD I have with some diagnostic utilities and found the CDROM spining up and down multiple times before finally booting.

Soo, it took me about 4-5 hours to do the setup (I did a dd copy of the original A drive as I wanted to save the programs which took quite a while - and the flaky CDROM had me going in circles for a couple hours).

I haven't actually re-installed the HDs into the system yet, as I brought the HD's to work and left the unit at home, but I'm confident it's going to work  

Thanks again!


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## Guest

One thing to watch out for: Not all x-gigabyte drives are the same size, so if you attempt to restore an image from a larger drive to one that is slightly smaller, you might not be able to easily. 

This one drove me crazy until I saw that MFS Tool could backup an image without the /var directory. My source drive (40 GB Quantum 5400 RPM-was the orignal drive on my "30 GB" SVR-2000) was 10 MB larger than my destination drive (40 GB Quantum 7200 RPM - Fry's was out of 5400 40 GB Quantum/Maxtors). So I restored the image and told MFS Tool to make /var 118 MB instead of 128 MB. Might not be the best way.


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## harvscar

I too want to say thanks to all the people who made my easy upgrade possible. Except for dealing with my pain-in-the-a** PC case and a coaster I burned of Kaz's BootCD, everything was great. I wish I had the funds to upgrade my other unit


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## Jim Long

Thanks to TiVoMad, Kazymyr, Tiger and Hinsdale for putting together a nice package.

The expanded boot cd from Kazymyr worked flawlessly. TiVoMad's version 4 beta worked like a charm and all was very straight forward.

I did a safety backup. Did a DD of my Tivo A drive to a new 120GB Maxstor, and then added another 120GB for a B drive. Didn't need to qunlock any drive. And haven't use amset /quiet yet. 

Having a DSR6000 DirecTivo I found it an easy exercise to remove the case and unscrew the bracket. Putting it back together was just as easy. And there you go a nice 230hr Tivo with lots of new season passes now being added.

Cheers!

Jim


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## joevivona

Agree with everyone above. Upgraded this week to dual 80GB. Bought them from newegg based upon people's recommendations. Used Hinsdale's instructions and Kazymr's boot disk. Everything was great with just one small bump for me...


We're a heavy Win2K and WinXP house so all my drives are formatted NTFS. You can't mfstool backup onto a NTFS drive because the ability to mount a NTFS drive RW has been removed (from the provided Boot Disk - as per another thread in this forum). After a little searching in this forum of course I found the answer, but could we please, please add it to the FAQ ??

Other than that you guys are great and everything worked wonderful. My Tivo is web enabled, getting updates over the internet and I am a happy camper....

This and my brand new 64inch 16x9 TV and I never have to leave my house....


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by joevivona _
> *We're a heavy Win2K and WinXP house so all my drives are formatted NTFS. You can't mfstool backup onto a NTFS drive because the ability to mount a NTFS drive RW has been removed (from the provided Boot Disk - as per another thread in this forum). After a little searching in this forum of course I found the answer, but could we please, please add it to the FAQ ??
> *


FROM THE HOW-TO:
_It is geared for users of common IDE Bus PC's running Windows 95b, 98, or Me (see note at end for Windows NT/2000/XP users).

_*I have Windows NT/2000/XP:*

_Do not boot into Windows NT/2000/XP with your original TiVo drives attached as a signature can be attached to the drive that will create problems. You will need to have/create a primary or extended fat32 partition on your primary boot drive connected as primary master and know the partition table (run fdisk -l to dispay partitions). Then you can follow these upgrade instructions replacing (if applicable) the /dev/hda1 with the appropriate fat32 partition designation (example /dev/hda5 if first extended partition, /dev/hda6 if second extended partition, etc). Programs like Partition Magic or the free trial of Bootit (link provided) should allow for simple creation of the necessary fat32 partition. However, the easiest method is to simply use/purchase a small 1-2GB (or even smaller) hard drive and format it as fat32._


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## eskin

Thanks for the upgrade info! I successfully added an 80 gig Maxtor 5400 RPM drive to my Sony 30 hour box this morning. From start to finish, the whole process took about an hour.

One thing that I found was that on my PC, I have a PCI fast hard disk controller, with the DVD-ROM and ZIP drive on the secondary internal IDE bus. I unplugged the ZIP drive from the cable and plugged in the new drive after setting the jumpers for slave. The drive came up as hdd in linux, glad I read the instructions to page up and confirm the drive ids before doing the BlessTiVo.

Cheers and thanks,

Michael Eskin


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## farjo08

Thanks for the great upgrade guide!

I just purchased two WD 120 GB hard drives and upgraded my Sony SVR-2000 and now have:

Recording Capacity: 81 hrs, 55 min (Best Quality)
298 hrs, 47 min (Basic Quality)

My only suggestions to anyone else who might be doing an upgrade is to be aware of the following:

If you are running a Windows Operating System with your primary drive/partition formatted as NTFS, the boot cd will be able to mount the drive, but not write to it, which is necessary to create your initial backup.

If you are running a Linux Operating System with your primary drive/partition formatted as ext3, the boot cd will not be able to mount the drive.

Fortunately I had a ghost backup of my XP machine so I just reformatted the drive so I could mount it and write the backup, then restored the ghost image when I was finished.

As for the actual instructions, they were very easy to follow and worked perfectly!


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## Yuterald

upgrading the new at&t one? is there a way to do that?


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## grahamc

As a UK Tivo user my box is a Thomson Scenium, and gives only 12 hours @max quality.
I want to upgrade it by adding a 2nd drive, leaving the existing drive alone(I'm assuming there's only 1 - haven't opened it up yet).
I've read the very detailed hinsdale-how-to, and it seems to me (I know unix/linux) that all I need do is obtain a new drive and run BlessTiVo on it, then install the 2nd drive in the Tivo unit.
Presumably at boot, the tivo software will recognise the extra disk and incorporate it. Nothing I can find in the howto modifies the Tivo A drive, all the other stuff in the howto is concerned with backing up the A drive prior to replacing it, but since I'm not touching it, there is no need for this (apart from peace-of-mind).
Am I correct or have I missed something? Like modifying the fstab file to include the new disk?


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## hinsdale

You are correct. All you need to do is run BlessTiVo on the new B drive and install (also may need to pull the A drive to change the jumper to master).

However, you need to realize that if something doesnt work or either drive crashes or the OS runs into any corruption - you will have a door stop without a backup. The backup part only takes 20 minutes or so and is definetly worth the effort.


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## jayster

Instruction #7, option 3 explains how to copy from one drive to another. The instruction states to hook Tivo to hdb and the blank to hdc. Then it says to type dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=32k. This is in fact backwards...and will copy the blank to your tivo!!! I did two VERY boneheaded things. Not being extremely familiar with Linux, I did not confirm the order. Second, being confident in the ease of how the upgrade appeared to be...I didn't create a backup. A VERY STUPID NEWBIE THING TO DO. And I'm not even a newbie to computers. Of course, it would be illegal to use another's backup...but I really don't want to buy another TIVO...so I'm willing to ask. What makes me really mad is the fact I even followed the directions carefully (except for the most important part, the backup...ARGH) I have a Philips TIVO that I was going to swap the 30 Gig for a 100 Gig. PLEASE HELP ME...


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by jayster _
> *Instruction #7, option 3 explains how to copy from one drive to another. The instruction states to hook Tivo to hdb and the blank to hdc. Then it says to type dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=32k. This is in fact backwards...and will copy the blank to your tivo!!! I did two VERY boneheaded things. Not being extremely familiar with Linux, I did not confirm the order. Second, being confident in the ease of how the upgrade appeared to be...I didn't create a backup. A VERY STUPID NEWBIE THING TO DO. And I'm not even a newbie to computers. Of course, it would be illegal to use another's backup...but I really don't want to buy another TIVO...so I'm willing to ask. What makes me really mad is the fact I even followed the directions carefully (except for the most important part, the backup...ARGH) I have a Philips TIVO that I was going to swap the 30 Gig for a 100 Gig. PLEASE HELP ME... *


From the How-To instructions Step #7, Option #3

_Connect your original TiVo A drive to the Secondary Master IDE connector on your PC (make sure the red/black edge stripe on the IDE cable is closest to the power connector and make sure the power connector is inserted fully. Connect your new upgrade drive to be used as your new TiVo A drive to the Primary Slave IDE connector on your PC._


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## jayster

OK...three mistakes. Since I used hda and hdb, I merely used your document for reference. Upon glancing at it, I saw the original Tivo drive first, so I logically figured that the Tivo goes to hdb. I'm humbled for not reading the words carefully. For someone scared to work on computers, the instructions are well written. For an Engineer (more aptly bonehead) like me...who doesn't carefully read instructions, disaster is imminent. Good news though, I've decided to brush up on my Linux syntax now. Hinsdale is all wise.


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## cyberjef28

I am afraid the MFSTools are not always able to divorce the 2 drives in the Thomson Scenium TiVo UK units. 

There are lots of posts about the UK TiVo backup images that, when restored to a new drive put the TiVo into a continual booting loop. 

This happenned to me and I have noticed that quite a few other UK upgraders have experienced this fault. Yet there is nothing in the guide to warn about this possible problem. In the end I had to source a working TiVo back-up image from someone else.

Might be worth mentioning this as its a little annoying when you've paid almost £200 ($300) on a new hard drive to find that you cannot use it to upgrade your TiVo using the tools specified here.

Jeff.


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## Larry63

I'm getting ready to expand my new virgin DSR6000R01. I haven't even opened it yet!

I work for a small computer reseller and have access to a hard drive programmer.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience using such a device to make backups and larger original disks for Tivo units?

The following link is the disk duplicators web site, the model we have is the D-105.

http://www.greystoneds.com/

I have no doubt that your instructions will work fine, I just wanted to know if our disk duplicator will work with identical drives for back-up, and with larger drives for the upgrade.

It would save time, and I could help out some friends with their units.

Currently for example, if someone were to bring to me a 3.2G HDD with W-98 on it and asked me to give them an upgrade to a larger drive, I say no problem, I take the original 3.2G and copy it to a lets say 40G drive. They take the 40G drive and plug it in to their PC and everything boots up the same, the only difference is they have a larger drive without the headaches, of playing around with software and they still have their old drive as backup.

Any tips before I start on my Philips DSR6000????

thanks


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## jldesq

OK. I did it. My DirecTivo (Philips) started crashing a few weeks ago. It started with constant freezes. Then, the other day, I awoke to the "powering up" and a frozen screen. I was able to reset it by unpluging the power. Did this for 3 days. Then, I wasn't able to reset it at all. All I heard was the sound of a pingpong ball in the harddrive when I powered up. I had to act. I printed out Hinsdale's 18 page guide (someone said 22 pages - did I skip a few steps?  I purchased two 80 Gig HDs from CompUSA - over spent by some 50-60 dollars I bet. But, time was of the essence!  My biggest fear was that the HD was so far gone, I wouldn't be able to get the software (ver. 2.05.01) from it. I know Win2k. I know DOS. I don't know Linux (don't even know how to say it). (That is a testament to how good Hinsdale's guide is).   I broke open the computer case. Broke open Tivo. After a few false starts having to do with my CD ROM Drive not reading my boot CD (made on another computer), (I kept getting "failure to decompress" errors) I swapped out the CD ROM drive and I was able to back up the software from the bad drive. From there, it was easy street. I followed Hinsdale's guide to the letter. Now, I have 143 approx hours and it works too. Thanks Hinsdale. Thanks for everything.


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## DaMightyJ

Please help. I have the 30hr single drive SA. I put the original drive in as Secondary Master, with the intended new A drive (Maxtor 80G 5400) as the Secondary Slave. I ran dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=32k and after some time, it seemed to complete with no errors. After swapping the new A to Sec Master, and the other 80G as Sec Slave, I went to run TiVoMAD and I dont remember the error, but it was number 32, and it said it couldnt find some stuff and reverted back to the original partition.

It gets better.

I put the new A drive in the unit, just to see, and it sits at the initial screen for a long time. I tried rebooted a few times, giving atleast 10 minutes between each reboot, and have now put the original 30G drive back in, which is doing the same thing. I have replaced the new A back in, and am trying to run the mfs tools to see if I can get a backup, and restore that to the new A, but when i attempt to mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos it tells me I have to specify the filesystem. hda1 is simply a 6.4G disk I partitioned and formatted hoping to dump the 150~300MB there for now. 

If anyone can give me advice at this point, I would really appreciate it.

Also, I want one of those TurboNet cards..

Thanks
Josh


----------



## Agent86

Has hinsdale's FAQ been updated with AT&T Broadband (Series2) TiVo information yet?

I have my AT&T Broadband TiVo and an expansion drive on the way and am looking for a good "one stop" resource to follow step by step, troubleshoot from, etc.

It's quite the comprehensive document. Keep up the great work!

- Agent 86


----------



## siddhartha

i want to thanks tivomad, hinsdale and tiger for all of their excellent tools, guide and help.


----------



## hinsdale

In response to many requests, for a limited time I will perform recording capacity upgrades for those of you whom do not wish to or are not comfortable using the How-To provided here. You can either request an upgrade kit or ship me your TiVo unit (Chicago area locals can drop off) and for a minimal fee plus shipping costs (if applicable) I will perform the complete upgrade. This is a service not a business (and therefore $100-$300 less than regular commercial upgraders) and is for those intimidated by the how-to but not wanting to spend so much upgrading. I wont be able to do this for ever and hope that most will attempt using the provided How-To (your cost 0.00).

Details on the drive upgrade kits and upgrade service can be found in the how-to:

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

Note: To those at&Tivo upgraders - i will be upgrading the How-To shortly with specifics for this new hardware.


----------



## Agent86

Wow - thats mighty generous of you hinsdale. That's really going "above and beyond" to support the community.

In the meantime, I'm waiting with baited breath for your update for AT&TiVos. I have my AT&TiVo coming in on Thursday, with the expansion hard drive showing up on Wednesday.

With a little luck, I can get it going just in time for the "Best of Super Bowl Comericals" show and the Super Bowl itself!

Rock on hinsdale, and thanks again for all your help.

Thanks for all the hackers out there that figured this stuff out as well!

- Agent 86


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by Agent86 _
> *Wow - thats mighty generous of you hinsdale. That's really going "above and beyond" to support the community. *


Well i would hardly say that. Its not free, and although I am charging less than commercial upgraders would charge, is priced so as to not be burdensome to those legitimately overwhelmed by the process but also not encourage too many to give up in using the How-To (which _is_ free).

In regards to the AT&Tivo update to the How-To, hopefully I will get to that today.


----------



## Agent86

> Well i would hardly say that. Its not free, and although I am charging less than commercial upgraders would charge, is priced so as to not be burdensome to those legitimately overwhelmed by the process but also not encourage too many to give up in using the How-To (which is free).


I agree. I've been working with computer hardware for years now, so its all like walking to me now, but I remember I was terrified of breaking something when I first started. However, once I got going, I realized it really wasn't so bad if you took your time and followed directions.



> In regards to the AT&Tivo update to the How-To, hopefully I will get to that today.


Awesome. I'll try to take some pictures of the process. I know most of it is software based - which is not very conducive to photographs - but wherever I see a good photo op, I'll take some.

- Agent 86


----------



## SDV

Hi,

I've just upgraded a single 40gb quantum drive UK Thomson TiVo to a 40Gb + 120Gb Maxtor TiVo. Many thanks to hinsdale, TiVoMad, Tiger, Kazymyr and others for all their hard work, making this one easy upgrade!


----------



## DaMightyJ

Finally, after some confusion with byteswapping, etc, everything is good to go. Special shouts to jdm5 and Stan! Thanks!!

HDR312 -> Upped to 193hrs worst quality 50-something bestest true-to-TiVo quality, dual 80G 5400 Maxtors provided for my viewing pleasure.. next stop: the bash.


----------



## spideymac

kroddy:

I have just obtained 2 Hughes DirecTV receivers + Tivo @ $79 each and a WD 100GB HD from Best Buy @ $199 and I'm ready to begin my upgrade hack. I have a bracket from 9th Tee (in case I ended up with a two HD unit) . I am currently using a Mits 73905 with SR-HD500 (Home Theater) and I would like to know the following if you can assist:

1. How are you utilizing/connecting your SR-HD500 with your Tivo, if it is also a combined unit?

2. These Hughes Tivos are only supposed to have one HD in them. Can I leave the original in and add the WD100GB or do I have to replace the original with the WD100GB?

3. Can I use Power Quest's "Drive Copy" to format and copy the Tivo software to the new drive, if I have to replace the original HD?

4. Will there be any problem re: "Drive Copy" introducing any extraneous/proprietary software on to the new HD?

5. Will the Tivo unit then recognize the entire drive capacity?

These are just a few of my major concerns before I start hacking away. I've already dnldd the very nice road map for making the change and I'll begain as soon as I can get my above concerns answered. The use of Drive Copy was an after thought possiblity to copy the Tivo software to the new HD.

I'm saving the second Tivo and using it as-is with another in-house set-up until I can find out what I'm supposed to be doing.

Thanx, spideymac 



> _Originally posted by kroddy _
> *Quantum is (was) a manufacturer of hard-drives.
> 
> You will find a link to MFS Tools in the above mentioned how-to *


----------



## kstuart

I'm using WindowsXP and my C: drive is already FAT32.

The "footnote" for NT/2000/XP seems to assume that you need to create a new FAT32 partition.

For those of us who already are using FAT32 under XP, what is going to be different than using FAT32 under, say, Windows ME?


----------



## hinsdale

It says you will need to _have_ or create a Fat32 partition. You _have_ one so can disregard furthur instructions for those whom need to create one.


----------



## kstuart

Thanks for your reply!

Do I still need to change the numbers as mentioned in the footnote ?, ie


> replacing (if applicable) the /dev/hda1 with the appropriate fat32 partition designation (example /dev/hda5 if first extended partition, /dev/hda6 if second extended partition, etc).


I want to be clear, because although I have written software for both Unix and PC, I'm still taking this as a recipe, rather than trying to understand why and how you are doing each part...


----------



## hinsdale

If its a single large primary partition on your drive then you will use hda1.. however if you have other partitions or the destination is other than the first primary partition on the drive then you will make adjustments. Run fdisk to display your partition table and then make adjustments as necessary based on the partition info.


----------



## Agent86

Hey everyone,

My AT&TiVo came in today and I am looking to upgrade it.

Can someone please tell me how to boot the floppy in "noswap" mode? I can't figure that part out.

Thanks!

- Agent 86


----------



## kstuart

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *If its a single large primary partition on your drive then you will use hda1.. however if you have other partitions or the destination is other than the first primary partition on the drive then you will make adjustments. Run fdisk to display your partition table and then make adjustments as necessary based on the partition info. *


So, if "C:\" is the first partition on my hard drive (of 2 total partitions on the HD), and it is FAT32, then even though I am running WinXP, I should be able to follow the normal directions. Is that correct?


----------



## Agent86

kstuart: Yes. You're ready to roll! 

I might be wrong, and you might want to wait up for someone else to answer. But as far as I know, the mounting commands will mount the first partition on the drive. In this case, yours is FAT32.

Since you are just backing up, if it doesn't work, you'll know. When you mount the drive per the instructions - just do the following

cd /mnt/dos
ls

If that looks like your C drive, you are all set!

- Agent 86


----------



## uclamz

Hi Out There... 

I have already successfully backed-up, restored, blessed and upgraded my Sony Standalone using the Hinsdale guide by adding an 80gig. 

Now, I am attempting to upgrade both of my DirectTivos ... One is the Sony the other a Philips. 

Using the same exact process, as all of my units are factory single drive units, I have run the MFSTools 1.1 backup. Then I attempted to restore it and I am stuck in the endless "Powering Up" loop. 

I've tried it with both DirecTivos and no dice! Same thing. I've tried it about 5 times each .. checking and double checking all cables, connections and jumpers .. with no success. I know I did everything right as I was able to upgrade the Sony stand alone without a problem. 

Any ideas? 

Thanks 
-Mike


----------



## SteveSD

Hi everybody -

I've got a Philips HDR112 and a Maxtor 120 GIG 5400 RPM drive that I want to install as my "B" drive. The computer I'll use for the upgrade has only a SCSI CD-ROM which can boot from the CD (the IDE CD ROM is dead). Is there any reason why I can't run the programs from the SCSI CD reader? Do I need to copy the programs to floppy and boot from floppy?

My Tivo "A" drive and new "B" drive can still be connected using the IDE bus as master/slave.

Thanks all for your input - this forum is awesome!


----------



## hinsdale

You will most likely have problems with the SCSI cd-rom. If you look at Step 4 of the How-to you will find very simple floppy instructions to perform the upgrade of your standalone (almost as easy as using the Boot Cd).


----------



## Agent86

Just wanted to drop the forum a line to say that my AT&TiVo upgrade was successful. I added a 120GB drive.

I followed Hinsdale's instructions, with the changes PoopBeast posted, and it was easy as pie.

I did need to purchase a longer ATA66 cable.

- Agent 86


----------



## disco

I used the Hinsdale How-To, too )), and upgrading my 14 hr TiVo to a 94 hr, was easy. Thanks!


----------



## jeremy Parsons

Hi Thanks for an excellent piece of documentation I upgraded my
40GB system single drive to 2 x 120GB Maxtor Daimondmax Hard Drives giving me 84Hrs Best Quality and 299 basic.

A couple of points came to mind.

The computer was a P III and needed a BIOS upgrade to recognise the hard drives

The harddrives needed the utility downloading to disable the power monitoring

i experemented with the maxtor noise setting (downloaded util)quite settings and quite gave the best noise settings (you would expect it to) and tivo seemed happy with it.

I ordered the bracket from 9th tee and it arrived within 1 week

I was able to backup the disk to an image and copy the entire image to the new 120GB A Drive. This took about 1hr on my PIII 600MHZ with 640MB Ram

This version of the maxtor 540X requires the turbo option to be set to false.

The quantum drive that came with tivo has a confusing diagram for the jumper settings , downloading the pdf installaiton manual from www.maxtor.com/quantum helped a lot.

The only thing that I had a problem with was the turbo setting to false. I did not do this initially and the system did not power up , once I made this change everyting worked fine.


----------



## puppypuppy

If anyone decides to use a Sony Vaio for upgrading a TiVo ... *beware*.

I did an upgrade this past weekend and the only significant problem I had was with the _enhanced_ keyboard on the Sony Vaio. The Linux boot cd just does not handle this keyboard properly. The first problem is that the "page up" keys (all three of them) didn't work so it was impossible to scroll back through the boot log to confirm disk sizes. After struggling for about 30 minutes total trying to figure out how I could be reading Hinsdale's instructions wrong, I decided to just run several boots and try to "catch" the data as it scrolled by .

So after about 10-15 boots (I lost count) I did finally get my disk size info so I proceeded on only to encounter my second problem. I logged in only to find that the some of the other _minor_ keys like "delete" didn't work. So after trying to dredge up my rusty UNIX knowledge about how to remap the keys I was about to give up when, in a flash of brilliance, I finally tired a different keyboard thinking "it can't be that can it?!?!?" and "Viola!" all my problems went away.

Sony Vaio's may be nice machines with lots of slick features but ..... they do a lot of non-standard stuff that can bite one in the butt (even on WindoZZZZZ).


----------



## TwinCityTVHound

Just wanted to say "thanks" to Hinsdale and all the other contributors here. Thanks to your efforts, I'm now cruising into "sweeps month" with a 106 hr. DirecTiVo.

Upgrade was easier than easy; took a little longer than estimated, however (ca. 75 mins.).

Color me overjoyed. Thanks again!


----------



## Junon

Just wanted to say thanks to Hinsdale for his VERY helpful guide and special boot cd. 

Just about everything went smoothly except that I was upgrading a 2 drive machine that I had upgraded previously to a one drive machine with a much larger A drive. As many people reported, my two drive backup image resulted in an endless reboot loop when I restored it to the new A drive. My solution of course, was to restore a virgin 14 hour A drive image to the new 80gb drive. I lost my season passes and such but I needed an excuse to clean everything up anyway. Once I did that, everything booted as it should.

I'll probably crack it open again soon so I can use that maxtor utility to quiet down the drive, anyone have any negative experiences with that? Reduces performance or anything?

Thanks again.


----------



## JohnW

I'm attempting to upgrade my UK 2 drive Tivo but have run into the problem mentioned earlier in this thread by cyberjef28.
After using MFSTools to backup and restore to a maxtor 120G drive, I experience a continual booting loop.
I have tried using MFSTools 1.1 to restore as suggested but still get the same problem.

Can anyone suggest where I go now??


----------



## uclamz

Good luck getting anyone to reply to your post. Mine has been up there for a week, and nothing.

I wish someone would just say, "Nope.. nothing can be done." But I have found this forum to be LEAN ... no, downright worthless ... on information from anyone other than Hinsdale.

Thanks Hinsdale for your input .. but most others just rehash what you have said.

This forum really isn't about solving problems, it seems more to be about people not fully understanding what Hinsdale VERY clearly wrote in his help-file.


----------



## DaMightyJ

I just wanted to say I have recieved help from quite a few people


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by uclamz _
> *Good luck getting anyone to reply to your post. Mine has been up there for a week, and nothing.
> 
> I wish someone would just say, "Nope.. nothing can be done." But I have found this forum to be LEAN ... no, downright worthless ... on information from anyone other than Hinsdale.
> 
> Thanks Hinsdale for your input .. but most others just rehash what you have said.
> 
> This forum really isn't about solving problems, it seems more to be about people not fully understanding what Hinsdale VERY clearly wrote in his help-file. *


This isnt really the thread to post a problem.. most experienced upgraders (who may assist you) have no need to check this thread. I would suggest posting a new thread in the fourm.

As far as your reboot problem. If Mfs tools 1.1 doesnt solve the problem, some DirecTiVo upgraders have used the System Reset and as it goes down, unplug to powerdown before attempting to create an Mfs Tools backup. This may help with the log files that could be the cause of such a reboot loop. Mfs Tools is not perfect , although I must admit that in my 100+ upgrades I have never run into the reboot loop so may be a PC hardware issue. Try performing the backup/restore without compression (leave the 6 out of the -6so) - you can always use winrar or winzip later to compress when you are ready to burn the image to CD. If all else fails.. Tiger's Mfs Tools has allowed for creation and storage of small backup images that are fairly easily exchanged. You will most likely get some positive results by requesting an image. This forum has some very generous and knowledgeable contributors.. although since the How-To has been posted there havent been nearly as many needing assistance and therefore the numbers of those providing assistance have dwindled also.


----------



## uclamz

Thanks Hinsdale ... 

Perhaps it is a hardware issue, but I don't think so. I'm a QA Manager and have access to an entire lab of 40 different configurations of PCs. I've tried this, like I said in my post at least 10-15 different times in different systems to no avail. 

As for trying the -6so without the 6 .. that was one of my first troubleshooting attempts as I know compression/decompression can screw things up from time to time .. no go.

The only thing I do notice is that my two DirecTivo systems were both produced in the last 3 months (Nov 2001) ... a friend of mine here who was able to back up their direcTivo has one that is almost a year older.

Also .. as for posting this as a separate problem ... tried that FIRST ... I put it up on the main forum and had over 150 views with ZERO replies. I'm sorry, but for the most part on this forum, you are about it when it comes to quality info. Like you said, most of those with any knowledge have left with those who needed knowledge.

Thanks .. and I'll keep pluggin' away...


----------



## JohnW

I have just tried the these suggestions (no -6) . 

I still get the boot loop.

I have posted a new thread hopefully someone will reply with a solution

Thanks


----------



## neonleon

I did a back up of a two drive directivo. It has a 30 and a 15 gig in it. I did a restore of the tivo.bak file to an 80 gig quantum/maxtor using mfstool just to test the back up..Now the the drive is reported as a 30 gig drive. I've used qunlock, tried partition magic all to no avail.. I even did a low level format with powermax. How do i get my 80 back ????


----------



## uTivo

Did you update your PC's BIOS to recognize the 80GB drive..maybe it's still configured for a 30GB drive. Otherwise, your BIOS doesn't support large drives.


----------



## dmbong

Hey Mike! I had this with a Hughes DTiVo for about a day before I tried something else. It works fine now.

Originally I did not use MFSTools 1.1 for the backup, but in a retry, I used MFSTools 1.1 for the restore. Also, originally, I used the setup.sh in the mad/ directory rather than the TiVoMad4 stuff. It was all good once I corrected this by restoring with MFST 1.1 and using TM4.

-Brian


> _Originally posted by uclamz _
> *Hi Out There...
> 
> I have already successfully backed-up, restored, blessed and upgraded my Sony Standalone using the Hinsdale guide by adding an 80gig.
> 
> Now, I am attempting to upgrade both of my DirectTivos ... One is the Sony the other a Philips.
> 
> Using the same exact process, as all of my units are factory single drive units, I have run the MFSTools 1.1 backup. Then I attempted to restore it and I am stuck in the endless "Powering Up" loop.
> 
> I've tried it with both DirecTivos and no dice! Same thing. I've tried it about 5 times each .. checking and double checking all cables, connections and jumpers .. with no success. I know I did everything right as I was able to upgrade the Sony stand alone without a problem.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks
> -Mike *


----------



## neonleon

Actually the bios saw one hd as an 80 but the other 80 as a 30...dunno what was going on...finally solved the prob by switching to my other box...it saw bot drives correctly. Thanks for the reply


----------



## synthe

In step 8 of your wonderful instructions, where we are restoring our tivo.bak file to our new A drive, is there any reason why we are putting the new A on the PC as primary slave rather than secondary master? I would think that putting it on as secondary master, and changing the command to restore the backup to:

mfstool restore -zi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

would remove the need to change any jumpers on the drive after we had set it to master.

Needless to say, I haven't done this process yet, my two 120GB drives will be arriving tomorrow, but I have been reading and rereading the instructions to upgrade to make sure I follow how to do everything, and the original instructions kinda stuck out at me as a needless jumper change.


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by synthe _
> *In step 8 of your wonderful instructions, where we are restoring our tivo.bak file to our new A drive, is there any reason why we are putting the new A on the PC as primary slave rather than secondary master? I would think that putting it on as secondary master, and changing the command to restore the backup to:
> 
> mfstool restore -zi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
> 
> would remove the need to change any jumpers on the drive after we had set it to master.
> 
> Needless to say, I haven't done this process yet, my two 120GB drives will be arriving tomorrow, but I have been reading and rereading the instructions to upgrade to make sure I follow how to do everything, and the original instructions kinda stuck out at me as a needless jumper change. *


hdc is secondary master.. and that is where you attach the drive.


----------



## synthe

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *
> 
> hdc is secondary master.. and that is where you attach the drive. *


From your article, in section #8 with the title "Restoring Mfstools backup image" after the indented section it states:


> Whether or not you are replacing your original TiVo A drive, you will want to verify your new small Mfs Tools backup image by restoring to a new upgrade drive and placing in your TiVo to test. The restore command for either the two-drive or single drive backup above will be the same.
> 
> If you have just completed your Mfs Tools backup commands, and your new large upgrade drive is not yet currently connected to your PC, then first unmount your drives using the following command at the linux # prompt:
> 
> umount -f -a -r (umount not unmount)
> 
> Then power down your PC (press Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait for the 'No more processes ... ' message or the system starts to reboot, then power down.) and remove the original TiVo A (and B if applicable) drive(s) and connect your/(one of your) *new large upgrade drive to the Primary Slave IDE connector*. Then power up the PC and get back to the linux # prompt and re-mount your dos C: drive using the same commands as previously outlined in backup section 7 above.
> 
> *Those backing up single drives will already have their new large upgrade drive attached to the Primary Slave IDE connector if following the instructions above.*
> 
> Restore Mfs Tools backup image to your new large upgrade drive using ONE of the following commands:
> 
> (This is assuming you have connected your new large upgrade drive as Primary Slave)
> 
> mfstool restore -zi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak */dev/hdb* (Boot Cd users command)


(sorry about the long quote, but it didn't make sense out of context if I didn't include it all)
What I am suggesting is that if the person didn't already have their new large upgrade drive attached to primary slave, it would make sense to instead attach it to secondary master, and then do the restore to /dev/hdc, therefore not having to change jumpers around a couple times while moving things back and forth between computer and tivo. Does that make sense?


----------



## SuperRob

Hinsdale ...

Thanks for all the great information and help. You're a credit to the TiVo community.

I have a Series|2 due to show up Friday, and am contemplating your 120GB upgrade. Does it come with the necessary cables (IDE, Power) needed?

I know I can get a drive for about $200, but $290 for a painless upgrade is tough to beat. If it includes the cables, you may have a sale.

Shoot me an e-mail if you like.

Thanks again!


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by SuperRob _
> *Hinsdale ...
> 
> Thanks for all the great information and help. You're a credit to the TiVo community.
> 
> I have a Series|2 due to show up Friday, and am contemplating your 120GB upgrade. Does it come with the necessary cables (IDE, Power) needed?
> 
> I know I can get a drive for about $200, but $290 for a painless upgrade is tough to beat. If it includes the cables, you may have a sale.
> 
> Shoot me an e-mail if you like.
> 
> Thanks again! *


Yes the upgrade kit includes the dual port IDE cable and power Y connector when required. However, even though the upgrade kits will function perfectly with the new TiVo Series 2 DVR's - I have not yet gotten my hands on one of these in order to generate a generic virgin backup image. I do have backup images for the Series 2 AT&TiVo and have performed upgrades and shipped upgrade kits for these (and every other Series 1 model of DirecTiVo and Standalone ) but not the new Series 2 DVR. And without a backup image to send along with the upgrade kit, I am not comfortable providing these yet. Hopefully I will be getting one soon, or perhaps one of the many TiVos currently in route for upgrade will be a series 2 and I can generate a generic virgin backup. Should be very shortly, but until then I can only provide the full upgrade option (shipped to me for complete upgrade) and not the upgrade kit for the Series 2 DVR. I will post in the How-To as soon as I get an image.


----------



## SuperRob

Please do! And could you send me an e-mail as well? You'll have a sale as soon as you can provide the service!


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by SuperRob _
> *Please do! And could you send me an e-mail as well? You'll have a sale as soon as you can provide the service!  *


I was just about to go purchase a couple of the new Series 2 DVRs to have on hand and went to the TiVo website and they were out. They are expecting them in on Feb 14, so should have them shortly and can create a generic backup. Once I have the backup, I will also provide the same upgrade kits for the new TiVo Series 2 DVR that I am providing to everyone for all the other model standalones and DirecTiVos - with CD backup image included for safety.

How-To Update note: I have upgraded the How-To with added instruction for the TiVo Series 2 and AT&TiVos for all the do-it-yourselfers wanting to get their hands wet in their new fancy TiVos.


----------



## chesterdad

Well,

I tried my best to do the Hinsdale upgrade myself (from a single drive Phillips 112 to a 120GB Maxtor 540x). I have had a number of problems, many of which may have contributed to my present state. Here is some history:

1) I initially burned the CD as instructed and attempted to use that on my system but when I tried to do the mfstool backup step, I received a message about tivo.bak being "read only". I followed some threads that had been contributed, and mentioned that SCSI based CD-ROM's might cause problems, so I started over with the floppy methods as instructed.

My C drive is multipartioned with the first partion being NTFS, the second FAT32, and so on. I made sure I specified the second partition when issuing the mount command for the C: drive mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/dos

2) Unfortunately, I didn't STOP the script as instructed in the floppy directions (Stupid me) answering all of the questions. So, after that completed, I started over with the floppy backup process. This seemed to go well, as did the restore onto the Big Maxtor. When I installed the Big Maxtor in the Tivo to test it, I got past the startup to something like "A serious problem has occured" which was a green screen, recommending I connect the phoneline and wait for it to restore for 24 hours.

3) Figuring something was wrong, I tried the original Tivo Quantum drive and tested that in the Tivo and got the same screen.

What do I do from here? I was guessing if all else failed i would be able to go back to the original Tivo drive and it would work just fine. Did it somehow get corrupted by running the Tivomad script before doing the backup? 

I don't want to restore the backup to the original Tivo drive if it is going to make things worse, since I don't know how to check the state of the backup. (The restore to the Big Maxtor completed successfully but gave me the Green screen highlighted above, remember.) 

I would love to give this one more shot if I have a reasonable next step before I go to plan B - sending it in to Mr. Regnery. Any ideas?


My software rev is/was 2.5.1.1-01-1-000


Thanks,

jim

Mr. Regnery also CC'ed


----------



## hinsdale

Without snooping around in your partitions or seeing exactly what happened it is difficult to diagnose.

First thing to try is to let the Green Screen work. Its a repair utility and it may recover by itself.

If you have already booted the mistakenly TiVoMaddened A in your TiVo then trevor's backout program wil not work. You may need to get a new image.. posting a request on the forum often is successful.

Its more satisying fixing it yourself, but if you get desperate and just want to send the drives, I get these recovered and backout out same or next day.


----------



## Tattva

I successfully upgraded my Philips 20hr to 112hrs with an 80GB Maxtor 536DX second drive in about an hour via Kazymyr's boot CD, and I just wanted to say thanks to Hinsdale, Kazymyr, and everyone else involved in making this doable.

For $150 + tax for the unit at Walmart and $130 for the hard drive, this thing was darn cheap.

In my opinion, I have a more reliable TiVo now than before, because by far the most likely piece to break in a TiVo is the hard drive, and with my backup image I can quickly restore one of the hard drives if the other goes bad.

Thanks,

Dave

[edit]
One note, upon upgrade, the first thing I tried to do was go to the "Messages and Setup" menu, but every time I clicked on that option I was taken to "Now Showing". I did this a couple of times and then clicked on "Now Showing" and after backing out I could go to "Messages and Setup". Strange but apparently harmless.


----------



## tal

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *I Want a Large TiVo with Lots of Recording Time
> Here is a recording capacity upgrade How-To for relative newbies that incorporates the newest utilites for hopefully a quick and painless TiVo upgrade experience (includes Boot Cd and floppy instructions).
> 
> http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/
> *


[snip..snip]

I too wish to add my testimonial to hinsdale's great howto. The instructions were very clearly laid out.

Things sure have progressed since I first upgraded my 20hour TiVo earlier last year.

When I did my first upgrade back I wanted to back up my original 22G drive, so I got a 30G drive and did a diskcopy from the 22G to the 30G wasting 8G plus the cost of the 30G drive. Then for my second drive I had a 40G, making it a 60hour Tivo.

Thanks to this new howto, I was able to create a ~110M back up image, make the 40G my drive A (using all of this diskspace) and the I dropped in a 120G for my second drive.

Now I have a 193hour TiVo!

I do have a couple of insights to share:

1. All of the references keep referring to having a fat32 "primary Windows boot 'C:' drive on your PC and that this partition should have around 1G or so of free space.

I was afraid that maybe the software was hardcoded to this partition as my boot area was more like the equivalent of F: on the drive.

Fortunately this notation was really just to keep the instructions simple and clear. The exact location of the partition doesn't matter as long as you are aware of which one it is and know how to alter the command line instructions appropriately.

2. Boot Floppy versus Boot CD.
I was really fixated on trying to get the boot CD to work. Thinking I didn't want to have to make a bunch of floppys to do my install off of.

So I spent a couple of hours trying to get my machine to boot off of CD and finally gave up and had to boot with the floppy image instead.

Actually it wasn't too bad all I needed was to create 1 floppy which I used to boot up. The rest of the data was on my HD for me to access. If I had known the floppy install was going to be that painless, I might have just gone with that from the beginning.

Well, thanks again!


----------



## MoneyMINTR

How come I can't mount the floppy drive using the bootcd?

i.e.,

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/foo

will not work. However Dylan's Boot disk was able to mount the floppy drive without any problems.


MM


----------



## dmbong

> _Originally posted by MoneyMINTR _
> *How come I can't mount the floppy drive using the bootcd?
> 
> i.e.,
> 
> mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/foo
> 
> will not work. However Dylan's Boot disk was able to mount the floppy drive without any problems.*


It works for me.

What's the error you get?

Does /mnt/foo exist (ie: did you create it?)?

-Brian


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## bonscott87

Just got my 120 GB drive today in the mail. Took me all of 20 minutes to install and half of that was getting the stupid 3rd screw off near the power supply! 149 hours rules!!!!!

Get Hinsdale's upgrade kits. Well worth it.


----------



## DavidS

Just posting to say thank you to the authors of the instructions and the utilities. Put an 80 gig as a new drive B in my 2 drive D-TiVo, went without a hitch, thanks to the great instructions. I was a complete novice.


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## Will Robinson

Thanks Hinsdale, Tiger, Kazymyr and those who post here - I upgraded my GCXBOT to 106 hours last night, and it went without a hitch.


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## netg0d

hi all . 
i have done a few upgrades but now one has me bumped..
i did a dd from an original 40gb hard disk to a 60gb and was planning on madtivoing the rest of the space ..but i cant get the new 60 gb disk to go past "welcome . powering up" ..
how long should that take usually .. i have never done a dtivo upgrade before .. 

please let me know what i can try.


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## chefmitch

Just wanted to thank Hinsdale and everyone else who helped my upgrade (HDR212) goes smoothly. I added an 80GB hard drive and the TiVo is now Fat and Happy!

Cheers!

Mitch


----------



## flynxx

A friend and I decided to upgrade our T-60's, so we attacked it last weekend. Since I'm a Mac person, he was nice enought to drag his PC with him.

We popped the top off his first. (The two hands on top, push back works great.) After a few false starts, we managed to copy his 40GB drive to an 80GB Maxtor and bless another 80GB Maxtor. Everything went fine. One down, one to go.

When I popped the top off mine, I discovered it was a two drive TiVo. I resigned myself to 'loosing' my recorded shows, and we proceeded to following Hinsdale's instructions to upgrade a two drive.

Flawless. I copied the image to a 80GB Maxtor, expanded the drive and blessed a 120GB Maxtor.

Now it reports up to 190 hours.

I was so happy, that I changed to a Lifetime sub.

Thanks to all that made this so easy to do.


----------



## Babylon5

Hinsdale, Thanks for your good directions. 

Question for you guys. 

I Upgraded my Sony 30hr TiVo about a week ago with two WD 80GB drives. They are 7200 but that is what we have (read I have access to). The system temp seems fine with these in there, and runs at around 33C. Aside from temp do the 5400rpm run more reliably? 

I did this about a week ago and one HD is going bad already. Yesterday the TiVo paused a few times on the video and at the same time started with a clicking noise. I know that sound. So one HD must be going bad already. Since I just did this last week it is not a huge deal to replace the drive. I have a spare. The TiVo really beats the hell out of HDs 

My question is I have not pulled the cover yet to see if it is the Master (A) or Slave(B) drive.
What are my options? 

If it is the A drive do I just restore from my backup image to it then put it back in.? What about the data already on the B drive? Do I need to re-bless it? That is fine but will it just work like when I first upgraded? Will the data on the B drive simply be ignored and overwritten? 

Then if it is the B drive that is going bad do I just put a new drive in? I guess just bless it first? Will the original A drive be confused with a new drive slapped in. With the new drive all the programming would be all messed up right and confuse it right?

What is the best way to recover from this? Do I need to get two brand new drives and start from scratch first? 

I wish the TiVo had a way to shut off the live TV recording for times when you really dont need it to be running like overnight. It would give the read/write heads a break. Keep it spinning of course 8o)

Thanks in advance.

-Jace


----------



## bbalfour

Just wanted to thank Hinsdale and everyone. I borrowed a friends PC (I'm a Mac guy) and we upgraded my 20 hr unit in about an hour today. No I've got a 65hr TiVo and I'm happy as a clam.


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## Adam_M

Thank you Hinsdale, tivocommunity.com and everyone else that made this possible! I replaced my 14 hour drive with a 80gig Maxtor and its now reporting 91 hours basic!

Adam


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## hinsdale

For those that asked me to post when available:

The upgrade kits are now also offered for the new Series 2 TiVo DVR and AT&TiVo as well as all standard Philips, Sony, and Hughes model standalones and DirecTiVos and will include appropriate CD backup image for your model.

Those with Hughes GXCEBOT, AT&TiVo, and TiVo Series 2 DVR will also receive the required dual IDE (ATA100) cable and Y power adapter with their upgrade kit.


----------



## Babylon5

Hey Guys,
Let me re-ask it this way. If I need to start over can I just restore the image back to the A drive (if A is bad) then tell it I have a B drive and let it re-bless (if B is bad) it? Will the data currently on them both simply be written over? Does TiVo during this process over write any data and just re-use the drive? 

It really has not clicked lately at all since that night. Maybe it was just a fluke but I need to know for the time it does go bad. It has to at some point


----------



## tgmii

I just upgraded my vintage tivo (14 hours) with an 80 gig drive! Couldn't be more painless....

Thanks to hinsdale and all the good advice in this forum.

I'll be ordering the second drive bay kit, for the next time Compusa-Bestbuy-staples-officemax has a big sale on drives.

My favorite part was TivoMaddening the drives. 

Tom Madden


----------



## bsnelson

Looks like this thread lost it's "stickyness". Could a kind modulator, er, uh, moderator please "stick it"? 

Brad


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by bsnelson _
> *Looks like this thread lost it's "stickyness". Could a kind modulator, er, uh, moderator please "stick it"?
> 
> Brad *


David has a new sponsor and the temporary upgrade offer mentioned in the How-To apparently ruffled some feathers so it has been set-free.

The How-To may not be sticky anymore.. but will continue to be up-to-date and hopefully thorough.. just have to search alittle harder to locate.


----------



## toolkit

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *
> 
> David has a new sponsor... *


 Well that kind of sucks.

I'm glad we have sponsors. This is a valuable forum, and without sponsors, it would die. But I would think that the sponsors wouldn't want to exert any editorial influence. What's next, give them a delete button so they can just delete what they don't like?


----------



## hinsdale

I would do the same thing in Davids position. He is not saying that the How-To can't be used, just wouldnt be prudent to have competition (small as it may be) highlighted/stickied in the face of paid advertisers.


----------



## Darin

There are ways to help keep hinsdale's great work visible, even if this thread falls, that don't jeopardize David's relationships with his sponsors.


----------



## Chris Williams

I bought a Sony T60 from an AV dealership I deal with on a regular basis. The only unit they had was an open box, but they insisted that it had been opened just to show the unit to someone. I get it home, set it up. The first few times, it doesn't complete booting, finally it boots. I let it do everything, and it upgrades to 2.5 (I believe). My wife and I use it all through the Olympics. After they are over, I decide to upgrade. I get the Hinsdale How-To. It doesn't cover my specific configuration - I want to put in two new drives. But I figure that it is just a matter of doing a single drive replacement, then adding the second one later.

I get the CD ISO from the link in the How-To, make the CD. Everything boots, the drive is correctly identified as a 80 gig drive, the original Tivo drive was a 40 gig.

But here is the nasty part. After I open the drive, I discover that the unit had been opened before. Two of the pins of the IDE connector on the drive had been bent over (the two pins closest to the jumpers) and the plastic barrier had been broken. Some idiot had jammed it it there. I straighten the pins before connecting it to the PC.

I do a back-up to a freshly FAT32 formatted drive, and everything goes well. The backup is 1.3 gigs. But I want to save the two shows on the disk, so I do the dd step as well.

When I put the disk (set as Master) in the Tivo, it does not boot. I get an unstable black screen with white dashes at the top (in the vertical blanking interval). I try my original disk. Exact same results. I've tried restoring to another, fresh 80 gig Maxtor disk with the same result.

Did I wind up with a corrupt backup? I cannot return the unit, as the dealer is in another city. 

Are there any Tivo experts in the city of Chicago (CTA accessible, as I don't own a car) who would be willing to help test this disk? in another unit?


----------



## Chris Williams

I managed to get a 2.5 image, and restored that to one of my new drives and installed that in the T60 configured as Master. No luck. The same black screen.


----------



## Darin

I'm sorry, I don't know WHAT your problem is, but I do know that on a DTiVo, you can't use a 2.5 image from another unit. Beginning with version 2.5, the data on the hard drive is "married" to the serial on the unit, so if you want to restore an image to your unit, it either needs to be a 2.5 image from YOUR unit, or a pre-2.5 from someone else. In each case, it needs to be from the Sony.

However, I thought that you normally got an error, not just a black screen, so that may not be THE issue, but it is AN issue.


----------



## Chris Williams

I'm getting a virgin 2.0 from the same location, specifically for the Sony T60. I hope this works, but I have no idea why I'm not getting an error either.


----------



## Chris Williams

I used mfstools to restore the virgin 2.0 to a drive. Still no luck. Black screen, no text. I'm baffled! What am I doing wrong? I've tried the drive on both Master and Cable Select.


----------



## Rev

I am trying to better understand upgrading my Series 2. When you say you cannot make a larger A drive does that mean you can create a replacement A drive but it is the same size as the old one?? If not then why, during an upgrade do you make a backup of the A when you cannot replace it?? 


Another simple question. I have had my series 2 for a month now and have not yet subscribed and It seems to be working fine. Why do I subscribe?? Is it about to stop downloading the guide??

Final question: I am moving soon to another state and want to know if I will have a local number to download the guide? Can I find a list of the local numbers somewhere?

Thanks for tolerating a new TIVOManiac!


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by Rev _
> *I am trying to better understand upgrading my Series 2. When you say you cannot make a larger A drive does that mean you can create a replacement A drive but it is the same size as the old one?? If not then why, during an upgrade do you make a backup of the A when you cannot replace it??
> 
> Another simple question. I have had my series 2 for a month now and have not yet subscribed and It seems to be working fine. Why do I subscribe?? Is it about to stop downloading the guide??
> 
> Final question: I am moving soon to another state and want to know if I will have a local number to download the guide? Can I find a list of the local numbers somewhere?
> 
> Thanks for tolerating a new TIVOManiac! *


1)If after upgrading with a new large B drive, _either_ of your two drives then develops any problem, your TiVo will no longer function and without backup you will have no remedy. Having a backup allows you to recover from software corruptions, bad blocks, failing hard drives (unit freezes often) or complete disk failures.

2) You get a free trial period of what used to be about two weeks, and then your guide data is propogated about two weeks out from there so you most likely will be running out of guide data shortly.

3)Running though the Phone Setup and entering in the new area code will then generate a call to tivo which will subsequently list all the local phone numbers for that area code.


----------



## Rev

Thank you for the fast response...but I still am curious about one thing...
Can I replace the A drive if it fails?? Or does this have to be done by TIVO?? Do you expect this to change anytime in the near future??

Thanks again


----------



## Babylon5

Did I ask something that has been covered already? I re-read the FAQ and hinsdale instructions and this is not really covered.

I am sorry if it is a lame question but I just need to know this one thing. Everything else went fine.

Do I smell? I took a shower 

Can someone just tell me yes or no that no matter what drive it is that I need to replace, I just start from scratch and put the good one in with the replacement. I guess that is it. I will just start from my original image then and if it is the A drive just re-image it and slap the B in and tell TiVo it is there. If it is the B I will (I assume) just start over again re-imagine to the new A drive even though it is still good then add a new B.

Sorry but I thought it was better to ask in this thread than to start a new one for a simple question.

I apologize if this has been covered and I missed it. 



> _Originally posted by Babylon5 _
> *Hey Guys,
> Let me re-ask it this way. If I need to start over can I just restore the image back to the A drive (if A is bad) then tell it I have a B drive and let it re-bless (if B is bad) it? Will the data currently on them both simply be written over? Does TiVo during this process over write any data and just re-use the drive?
> 
> It really has not clicked lately at all since that night. Maybe it was just a fluke but I need to know for the time it does go bad. It has to at some point  *


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by Rev _
> *Thank you for the fast response...but I still am curious about one thing...
> Can I replace the A drive if it fails?? Or does this have to be done by TIVO?? Do you expect this to change anytime in the near future??
> 
> Thanks again *


Yes you can replace the A drive (no use using a larger drive, but can replace with an equal size drive). That's what the backup is for, it allows you to recover from either failing/failed drives.


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by Babylon5 _
> *Did I ask something that has been covered already? I re-read the FAQ and hinsdale instructions and this is not really covered.
> 
> I am sorry if it is a lame question but I just need to know this one thing. Everything else went fine.
> 
> Do I smell? I took a shower
> 
> Can someone just tell me yes or no that no matter what drive it is that I need to replace, I just start from scratch and put the good one in with the replacement. I guess that is it. I will just start from my original image then and if it is the A drive just re-image it and slap the B in and tell TiVo it is there. If it is the B I will (I assume) just start over again re-imagine to the new A drive even though it is still good then add a new B.
> 
> Sorry but I thought it was better to ask in this thread than to start a new one for a simple question.
> 
> I apologize if this has been covered and I missed it.
> 
> *


Im not sure Im understanding your question (why would your restore to A if A is bad?) but if you mean can you restore/bless over existing tivo drives.. the answer is yes. The tivo utilities overwrite the drives (might want to use the -z option when using mfs tools to be sure to zero out the existing partitions).


----------



## Babylon5

Hey man, thanks for helping me here. As I said in my original post I upgraded with two new 80GB drives. The other week I heard some clicking and the video paused etc.. So one drive, though new, may be a bad one. it has been okay lately but *IF* it does it again I want to replace it to be sure.

So I was just wondering what my options were for each drive since I cannot tell if it was the A or B drive that was clicking. So I meant to restore to A (A new drive) if the current A is the one clicking.

So far it has been okay. Maybe a fluke if I am lucky but I know that sound is usually bad on PC's. Usually the start of problems.

I may even re-image my A drive. if I do can I use the current A drive, if it is good, to create a new A image? No I guess not as it is now married to the new B and only the ogiginal would work. Answered my own question 

Just would have been nice to re-back up the all the season passes I have made in the last few weeks etc...

Thanks!



> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *
> 
> Im not sure Im understanding your question (why would your restore to A if A is bad?) but if you mean can you restore/bless over existing tivo drives.. the answer is yes. The tivo utilities overwrite the drives (might want to use the -z option when using mfs tools to be sure to zero out the existing partitions). *


----------



## NFuqua777

Hinsdale,
Thanks to you and everyone else who contributed to simplifying the upgrade process! It took me about 20 minutes last night to install the 120GB pre-blessed drive I bought from you. (Most of that time was taken up by assembling the 9th Tee bracket that I bought, attaching the drive to it, and melting a hole in the connector of the data cable I also bought from them.) I went from 14 hours to 163 hours, in plenty of time to record "24". I have also changed all my season passes to use Medium Quality. Why did I wait so long?
Thanks again!

Norma


----------



## DaveLessnau

Why doesn't this thread stay stuck at the top of the forum anymore?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by DaveLessnau _
> *Why doesn't this thread stay stuck at the top of the forum anymore? *


I think because Hinsdale is now officially in the upgrade business. I believe that it was the 'how-to' that gave it the stickiness in the first place. To use the 'how-to' stickiness to draw views to the business offering doesn't really seem ethical to me (especially as a competitor who has been around significantly longer than the how-to has even existed) [i'm not suggesting that this was a calculated move, btw], so I'm assuming that may have something to do with the lack of stickiness... I suspect advertisers may have had some opinions as well.

At least that is what I'm inferring. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Lou


----------



## Darin

Just go up a few posts (ok, a little more than a few), he explains why.


----------



## David Bott

This thread is not to be stuck at the top any longer for the reason stated in above posts. Let me say it though so their is not any misunderstanding.

The How Too FAQ guide is great for the members and hinsdale has been a very helpful members. We have other Hack FAQ's that are also available and also a sponsor like The 9th Tee offer a FAQ. The issue came up when he made a ad for his upgrade service in the FAQ that a lot of people visit based it it's placement. 

I was approached by two sponsors and several forum member about the ad (not the members we not upset, just letting me know about the ad and thus the issues with the rules). Even in our other member run FAQ's we do not allow ads other than the ones that run on the site. This one should be no different. Even the other sponsors are helpful on the site but do not push services. (Not that hinsdale is pushing a service.)

I offered ad service to hinsdale, but that still would not allow his upgrade outline to be made in his FAQ. It is just not right and not fair to the others that have also been helpful on the site. The offer was declined based on the fact I asked for his ad to be removed. 

I could have gone as far as removing the URL from the forum itself so it is blocked, but he has been very helpful and thus did not do that. You know that if any other user was doing such a thing, posting links his/her site that sells services, it would be removed and banned for it is not allowed per our rules. But as mentioned, he has helped a lot of people.

I still ask that he remove his ad from the FAQ if the FAQ is to remain for the long hall. The suggestion I offered is that he make mention in the re-turn e-mail to people that he helps that he offers this service. After all, they are e-mail him for help, he gives it freely, thus the person should have no problem with him letting them know he offers a service.

Hope this helps.


----------



## HTH

Does this mean we can't bump it up?

(The worst homonyms are those that are obscure and are in commonly spoken but rarely typed phrases, like "long haul". Don't you agree? (I can't believe I initially misspelled that myself as "hawl"! ))


----------



## David Bott

HTH you bring up a good point...so I guess I will say if this goes out of control with bump vs actual posts...Action will need to be taken. Sorry all that disagree with the action. But my reasons I feel are more then justified. 

Again...I mean no disrespect to the help given.


----------



## hinsdale

Ahh.. adrift again in the open ocean.. wonder if this old bucket is seaworthy?


How-To notes: Floppy instructions have been added for the Series 2 Models (Boot CD instructions already present). I have not had a chance to test the Series 2 floppy instructions (floppy drive has cobwebs), although sound on paper, still appreciate feedback for real-world verification.


----------



## HarryD

Just a quick word of thanks to all for the instructions. Took my 40 gig'er out of my now dissed-DishPlayer and it's now the better half of my Philips 14 hr. Total of 63 hours at basic quality. 

Good stuff... next up.. My Sony UTV


----------



## Flogduh

Took the plunge last night around 10 pm. Upgraded a DTiVo Sat T60 with an additional 80 GB Maxtor hard drive and a new fan. Armed with the fabulous assistance of Hinsdale's How-to and a sleeping wife and daughter, it was smooth sailing with the back up image and bless tivo until I returned the original drive and new drive back into the TiVo.

Got stuck on the "Welcome, powering up" message, so I pulled it apart. Checked the power and IDE cables and all were fine. Figured it must have been the A drive so I checked the master jumper setting on the Quantum, and the slave setting on the Maxtor and all looked A-OK. Still stuck on the powering up. Pulled it apart again and checked the jumpers once more just to be sure. Damned if it looked like I had 'em set correctly. Remembered Hinsdale's suggestion that the jumper diagrams sometimes are from an opposite perspective to what you may think you're seeing. Swapped the right side jumper to the other end and held my breath (man I didn't want my wife to wake up the next morning with a TiVo that wasn't working, I'd never hear the end of it!). 

Hit the power and viola, SUCCESS!!! 108 hours of space and it still wasn't midnight yet, but it did take me a half hour to get it back into my home entertainment set up.

Thanks to all who give others encouragement. IT really wasn't all that tough, just a bit suspenseful at times. Oh, yes, thanks to all the guys, TiVoMad, Kazymyr, Tiger. If I could pull this off, most anyone else could.


----------



## SilverCresent

Just wanted to drop you a note and say thank you for your "How To" on upgrading a Tivo.


----------



## GaryD9

Well, I ordered an AT&TiVo tonight, and they claim I should get it by Friday... Of course, I'll have a new 120GB HDD, rounded ATA100 cable, and power splitter waiting when the unit arrives. I suppose I'll actually use it for 5 minutes or so before I start voiding my warantee 

However, I'm a bit confused about a couple of things in the Hinsdale HOWTO:

1) When using Win2k/XP, why would a seperate FAT/FAT32 boot drive partition be needed? It seems to me that every step of the upgrade requires booting the machine via the boot floppy or boot CD, thereby completely ignoring whatever OS might be installed on the boot drive. If Win2k/XP never boots with the TiVo drive installed, then it wouldn't put a Win32 drive signature on the drive, would it? (I'm not being sarcastic... I just feel like I'm missing something...)

2) While its obviously a good idea to make a backup (and verify it), I almost have the impression from the HOWTO that a second, newly restored HDD must be used as the A drive. If thats not the case, might I suggest noting in the FAQ that steps 8 and 9 aren't "required" when only adding a new B drive (though they might be a good idea no matter what.) As well, step 9 should specifically mention the issue of drive size on Series2 A drives can't (yet) be changed... (So people don't restore on to a 120 GB drive and freak when they test the restore.)

Thanks in advance for any help


----------



## dmbong

Originally posted by GaryD9:
> 1) When using Win2k/XP, why would a seperate FAT/FAT32 
> boot drive partition be needed? It seems to me that every 
> step of the upgrade requires booting the machine via the boot 
> floppy or boot CD, thereby completely ignoring whatever OS 
> might be installed on the boot drive. If Win2k/XP never boots 
> with the TiVo drive installed, then it wouldn't put a Win32 drive 
> signature on the drive, would it? (I'm not being sarcastic... I 
> just feel like I'm missing something...)

I wouldn't say it's required, UNLESS you want to do a backup of the original TiVo drive. I'd also say that what is in the HOW-TO is written in order to be SIMPLE based on the rest of the instructions (which of course, could be even simpler ). It's also not true that it needs to be a boot drive, but for simplicity, it's easiest. You could also likely use some sort of UNIX or linux partition that the boot cd/floppy will understand.

Cheers!

-Brian
.


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by GaryD9 _
> *Well, I ordered an AT&TiVo tonight, and they claim I should get it by Friday... Of course, I'll have a new 120GB HDD, rounded ATA100 cable, and power splitter waiting when the unit arrives. I suppose I'll actually use it for 5 minutes or so before I start voiding my warantee
> 
> However, I'm a bit confused about a couple of things in the Hinsdale HOWTO:
> 
> 1) When using Win2k/XP, why would a seperate FAT/FAT32 boot drive partition be needed? It seems to me that every step of the upgrade requires booting the machine via the boot floppy or boot CD, thereby completely ignoring whatever OS might be installed on the boot drive. If Win2k/XP never boots with the TiVo drive installed, then it wouldn't put a Win32 drive signature on the drive, would it? (I'm not being sarcastic... I just feel like I'm missing something...)
> 
> 2) While its obviously a good idea to make a backup (and verify it), I almost have the impression from the HOWTO that a second, newly restored HDD must be used as the A drive. If thats not the case, might I suggest noting in the FAQ that steps 8 and 9 aren't "required" when only adding a new B drive (though they might be a good idea no matter what.) As well, step 9 should specifically mention the issue of drive size on Series2 A drives can't (yet) be changed... (So people don't restore on to a 120 GB drive and freak when they test the restore.)
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help *


1) The Fat32 partition is needed to store the backup image you will create, not to boot from.

2) Nothing is required. Steps 8 and 9 are an important part of verifying the function of the backup image you create even when just adding a B drive. If you choose to skip then that's your decision.

The How-To already states that the image is restored to the new HDD for testing. It goes on to state that when just adding a B drive- that after testing your backup image, you will overwrite your test image when blessing the HDD for B drive install.

Im not sure why anyone would "freak" when they test the restore, perhaps you missed reading step 9?

Step 9 of the How-To:
_You should now briefly utilize your TiVo to verify that it's working properly. If you check your system information screen, do not expect the TiVo to recognize the full capacity of the drive. You will find that your recording capacity is identical to the recording capacity of your original TiVo A drive (or A+B drive in true dual drive units). This is normal._


----------



## GaryD9

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *
> 
> 2) Nothing is required. Steps 8 and 9 are an important part of verifying the function of the backup image you create even when just adding a B drive. If you choose to skip then that's your decision.
> 
> The How-To already states that the image is restored to the new HDD for testing. It goes on to state that when just adding a B drive- that after testing your backup image, you will overwrite your test image when blessing the HDD for B drive install.
> 
> Im not sure why anyone would "freak" when they test the restore, perhaps you missed reading step 9?
> 
> Step 9 of the How-To:
> You should now briefly utilize your TiVo to verify that it's working properly. If you check your system information screen, do not expect the TiVo to recognize the full capacity of the drive. You will find that your recording capacity is identical to the recording capacity of your original TiVo A drive (or A+B drive in true dual drive units). This is normal. *


Duh, I guess I missed that part while reading through it. That's what I get for trying to read a HOWTO at 2am, and before actually having the hardware in hand.

So, the general idea is to buy a 120GB drive, backup the original A, restore A on the 120GB just to validate a good backup image (and test the 120GB as a drive A), put the 120 back into the PC, bless it, and stick it, along with the original A, into the TiVo?

I'll probably end up burning the backup image and newer mfstools on to a CDR and storing it with the boot CD... just in case.

Sounds easy enough... thanks for the pointer to the lines I missed..


----------



## sbonds

First off, thanks to everyone who has spent the time and energy not only to reverse engineer the TiVo disk layouts, but for taking the time to make the BlessTivo and/or TivoMad utilities so simple to use!

My Sony 30GB upgrade was a complete success on the first try. I used a Maxtor 160GB 5400RPM drive (DiamondMax D540X, part number 4G16ØJ8), since those seemed to be the preferred drive in these forums and for resale on TiVo upgrade sites.

In short, I replaced the original 30GB drive with the 160GB drive so I could save the original as the backup and also keep a bay open for a future monster-size TiVo upgrade.

Rather than belabor the exact procedure I used (hey, it's the same one listed in the upgrade FAQ, the Hacking the TiVo FAQ, and the TivoMad README!) here are some areas where I was unsure at the time, and how they all worked out for the best:

A) Backing up the original drive

I could not unlock my drive with the Western Digital utility. Each time after a warm boot, my BIOS came back with 9GB as the size. I also tried the 9thtee.com unlock utility and after a warm boot came back with the same size. After a brief moment of dispair, I cold booted and the drive came up as 30GB. Whew!

The 160GB Maxtor could not be detected (at all) by my motherboard BIOS. Although Linux does not use the BIOS, I wanted the warm fuzzy feeling that the drive was there so I flashed my BIOS with the latest revision and voila! 137GB.

I knew about the 137GB "limit" on ATA100, so I wasn't too surprised. From all I had read the TiVo itself doesn't support over 137GB drives so the rest would just be wasted.

I left the Maxtor set to the "quiet" acoustic setting (it was that way by default). I also left the Maxtor in its default "write verification for the first 10 power-ups" mode. I heard that this can cause skipping sometimes, but if Maxtor doesn't trust their drives to write correctly, why should I?

With the write verification on, the initial copy took a very long time. I just let it run overnight.

Once that was done, the 30GB drive went into a static bag for posterity. I hope I never need it.

B) TiVoMad

This ran just as I expected. The only thing even slightly out of the ordinary I noticed is the boot hangs if there is not a TiVo disk connected to the system. Not a big deal.

I went ahead and answered "yes" to the "will this TiVo ever be over 140GB" on the theory that it's better to have some unused swap than too little.

C) In the TiVo

After the expected reboot during the first power-up, the TiVo came back up quickly and everything seems fine.

Imagine my surprise when basic quality showed 165 hours! I was expecting 120-130ish because of the 137GB limitation. I don't know if my 18-month-old TiVo magically supports ATA-133 addressing or if TiVo upgraded the BIOS for me at some point, or if that 165 hours is just a complete BS number. Time will tell.

The TiVo records fine with no skipping, even at "Best" quality. Write verification should still be enabled. With the Maxtor set to "quiet", I hear no head seeks from my sitting position 12-15 feet away.

So this was a resounding success! My only question is how I managed to get more than 137 hours on a single drive. (Not that I'm complaining!)

-- Steve


----------



## hinsdale

The ratio to calculate hours in a standalone is about 1.2hrs/per GB.

137x1.2 = 164 hours basic


----------



## tivoupgrade

More specifically, when added to a 14-hour unit, a 160GB drive yields the following increase in basic quality:

167 hrs 49 min

and when added to a 30-hour unit, the following:

171 hrs 02 min

why the yields are different, I do not know, however all drives vary in their yield, depending upon the initial size of the unit.

Lou


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *More specifically, when added to a 14-hour unit, a 160GB drive yields the following increase in basic quality:
> 
> 167 hrs 49 min
> 
> and when added to a 30-hour unit, the following:
> 
> 171 hrs 02 min
> 
> why the yields are different, I do not know *


Because a 14hr unit initially has no reserve space, while a 30hr has some?


----------



## tivoupgrade

Not sure... on the 20-hour units, the yields are also different. I don't have the 160GB numbers for the HDR212, however, the 81.9GB drive yield, as follows (again, basic quality) on these units:

HDR112 94 hrs 37 min
HDR212 96 hrs 41 min
HDR3120x 98 hrs 09 min

the differences are similar for 100GB and 120GB drives. Whether this has to do with the 'reserve' space or not, I do not know.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by Otto_
> *Okay, final time, here's the data you need to figure out how much space you lose. All hr's listed are in BASIC quality.
> 
> First, realize that if you started with a 30 hr or a 20 hr single drive unit, you ALREADY had 4 hrs reserved. So if the list below tells you you will have 12 total reserved with 2.0, you'll lose 8 hours , because 12-4=8. Get it? Also remember nothing is final, nothing is settled, and that we figured this out mostly by guesswork. It may not be entirely true.
> 
> Total capacity - Total reserved with 2.0
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Less than 20 hrs - no reserve
> 20 or more hours - 4 hours
> 40 or more hours - 8 hours
> 60 or more hours - 12 hours
> 
> The chart is for ALL units, not just hacked ones. However, every non-hacked box already has the reserve taken right now, so it won't lose any at all.
> Exception to the rule: Phillips 312's (2 drive 30 hr units) have no reserved space.
> 
> So, three examples to help you understand:
> Example 1: You take a Phillips 112 14 hr box, add a 30 gig drive, and get a 52 hr box. 2.0 Upgrade occurs. You lose: 8 hrs, because it had no reserve originally, and now needs 8 hrs according to the chart.
> 
> Example 2: You take a Phillips 31201 30 hr box, add a 60 gig drive, and get a 110 (I think) hr box. 2.0 Upgrade occurs. You lose: 8 hrs, because it had 4 hrs reserved originally, and now needs 12 hrs according to the chart. 12 - 4 = 8.
> 
> Example 3: You take a Phillips 112 14 hr box, add a 60 gig drive, and get a 94 hr box. 2.0 Upgrade occurs. You lose: 12 hrs, because it had no reserve originally, and now needs 12 hrs according to the chart.
> 
> For crying out loud, someone put this in the FAQ as "tentative".*


The taking of the extra space occurs when the extra space is added to the system. Running with 14hrs under 2.5.1 doesn't mean you already have reserve space. The reserve space will be taken out of the new configuration when you upgrade.

The 4 hour discrepancy in storage increase between a drive added to a 14hr and 30hr is because of the 4 hour discrepancy in the reserve space each already had (30hr has 4hrs reserved, 14hr has 0hrs reserved, both end up with 12hrs of reserve). Variation in this figure is due to the reduction of Basic Quality bitrate as of 2.x.


----------



## edrock200

Just wanted to say thanks for the great instructions...threw a 80GB 7200 RPM ($125 at BB this week, not as good as the $99 5400 RPM at CompUSA, but more available.) Within an hour I had a 106 hour Hughes DTivo. The temp jumped from 46 to 54, threw a VHS tape under the unit to prop it up and the temp dropped down to 49. Everything's running great, and the sound is the same! Thanks again!
-Ed


----------



## hinsdale

The 7200RPM drives do tend to generate more heat, noise and vibration than the 5400RPM drives, but if you keep the unit well ventilated you should have no troubles.


----------



## edrock200

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *The 7200RPM drives do tend to generate more heat, noise and vibration than the 5400RPM drives, but if you keep the unit well ventilated you should have no troubles. *


Yeah, I read all the pro's and cons...I've also been over to a friends house who has a 5400 in...in all honesty, the case temp and noise are identical...I did enable the amset /quiet...so maybe that helped.


----------



## tivoupgrade

Proper ventilation for the DirecTiVo units is critical, even for non-upgraded dual-drive units. Propping your unit up so that the bottom vents are exposed was the right thing to do. In my opinion, putting a 7200RPM drive in there is definitely risky, but if you are watching it closely, and can keep it well-ventilated, it should be fine. Keep in mind that if it does overheat, the unit will shut down automatically, so chances are, you won't do damage. With that said, I don't know if its really worth it.

Lou

PS Hinsdale - how long are you planning on extending your temporary offer to upgrade folks who don't want to do it themselves? Since your how-to was once considered to be an objective source of information, have you considered listing other businesses in there as well? There are a few vendors out there who are in it for long-haul, I'm sure some folks would want to know about alternatives from folks who are dedicated to offering the service.


----------



## edrock200

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Proper ventilation for the DirecTiVo units is critical, even for non-upgraded dual-drive units. Propping your unit up so that the bottom vents are exposed was the right thing to do. In my opinion, putting a 7200RPM drive in there is definitely risky, but if you are watching it closely, and can keep it well-ventilated, it should be fine. Keep in mind that if it does overheat, the unit will shut down automatically, so chances are, you won't do damage. With that said, I don't know if its really worth it.
> 
> Lou
> 
> PS Hinsdale - how long are you planning on extending your temporary offer to upgrade folks who don't want to do it themselves? Since your how-to was once considered to be an objective source of information, have you considered listing other businesses in there as well? There are a few vendors out there who are in it for long-haul, I'm sure some folks would want to know about alternatives from folks who are dedicated to offering the service. *


I wouldn't go so far as to call it "risky." Tons of people on these forums have used a 7200...but I agree with you, ventilation is key...I'll probably pop in a better fan IF the units temp ever rises over 55 which I doubt it will....the other advantage here is when 120GB drop in price I will pop a few of those in the Tivo and I'll have a high performance 7200 left over for my PC.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by edrock200 _
> *Just wanted to say thanks for the great instructions...threw a 80GB 7200 RPM ($125 at BB this week, *


Make? I'm suspecting problems with my 80 GB WD and would like to mirror it to a Maxtor.


----------



## edrock200

> _Originally posted by HTH _
> *
> 
> Make? I'm suspecting problems with my 80 GB WD and would like to mirror it to a Maxtor. *


Western Digital


----------



## twehrle

Just wanted to post a reply and say thanks to Hinsdale. I ordered one of his 120Gb upgrade kits, for a reasonable price, and upgraded my AT&Tivo last night. I see he has even dropped his previous prices a few dollars. It took me all of about 45 minutes. I now have a 197 hr (Worst) / 55 hr (Best) Tivo.

Just a question though on cable management. With the power splitter cable and the new, longer IDE cable, the fit of the HD cage was tight. Why not rotate the HD's so the connectors face the back of the machine? There seemed enough overhead room for the IDE and power splitter cable to route over the HD's and plug in on the back side, where there was ample open space.


----------



## GaryD9

I managed last night to add a 120GB 5400 maxtor drive to my AT&TiVo using Hinsdale's HowTo... but not without issues...

First, my computer has a total of 4 IDE channels... Two on the M/B (hda - hdd), and two more on a highpoint RAID (HT370) chip (hde - hdh). The linux boot CD recognized the HT370 controller just fine, and would allow me to mount the drives attached. This was good, as my "FAT32" partition was located on one of those drives....

The "TiVo" original A drive was on hdc and the new 120GB was on hdd.

Running the backup to /dev/hdg1 mounted seemed to work fine, and restoring seemed to work fine as well. However, the restored backup would NOT get past the "powering up" screen. All jumpers/cables/etc were correct. Only after completely ripping apart my computers HDD cofiguration, putting all the drives on hda through hdd, and disabling the HT370 did things work... 

I'm not sure if this is an issue with linux's HT370 kernel driver, or something to do with the kernel only byte swapping hdb through hdd.

While trying to figure that out, however, I mounted one of my Win32 NTFS drives by accident, and was surprised to find out that linux mounts WinXP (NTFS5) drives for both read AND write. Unfortunatly, I was already getting annoyed by the HT370 follies, so didn't check and see if I could have just made the backup file on the NTFS partition... However, if thats possible, it could save some people some time if all they started with were NTFS partitions... (such as myself.)

Perhaps when someone figures out how to expand "A" drives on Series2 units (and I need to do another backup), I'll experiment with it...

Finally, are the various linux filesystem utils on the boot CD? I can't remember the names of them at the moment, but the ones for partitioning drives, creating a file system (mkfs?), etc. They are small, and would have allowed me to partition/format my "spare" drive (the one I put the backup file on) under better conditions then doing it under WinXP...


----------



## hinsdale

I have deleted the ban thread I started, was meant to be informational only but digressed. Thanks to all those that participated in the thread with helpful suggestions and support for the forum and the how-to. I regreted deleting the thread after doing it, just seemed messy and unneccessary at the time

How-To Notes:

I will be updating the How-To this weekend (my day was shot answering emails) and expect to have changes/additions in place by Sunday.

I will be adding a note for those wishing upgrade service, so any companies that wish to be included besides 9thTee, Ptvupgrade, Digitalrecorder.tv can simply send me an email or PM with the webaddress for inclusion.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *I have deleted the ban thread I started, was meant to be informational only but digressed. *


Waah! I didn't get to see an answer to my "Will Hack TiVo For Food" question!


----------



## hinsdale

120GB upgrade kit (Price:20lb Honey Baked Ham, 4 sides mashed potato) - drop-off upgrades have to do the dishes.

Would include a link to Honey Baked.com but want to be fair to other potential Ham providers.


----------



## feldon23

A thread starter deleting a thread is very rude, in my opinion.

I left another forum completely because someone did this.


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by feldon23 _
> *A thread starter deleting a thread is very rude, in my opinion.
> 
> I left another forum completely because someone did this. *


feldon,

I agree with you and I think I already stated that I regretted doing it afterward. My apologies to all.


----------



## Pushwall

> _Originally posted by HTH _
> *
> 
> Waah! I didn't get to see an answer to my "Will Hack TiVo For Food" question!  *


It was a great answer too!


----------



## hinsdale

How-to has been updated:

For those upgraders with March 6 previous version, there was no change to content requiring re-print, only form was changed in regards to upgrade offer.


----------



## alexcue

> _Originally posted by feldon23 _
> *A thread starter deleting a thread is very rude, in my opinion.
> 
> I left another forum completely because someone did this. *


Cmon, feldon23, he already said he regretted deleting it. I don't see the harm.

If it was taking a wrong turn it was his decision to make.

edit: dang, forgot why i originally wanted to post! 

Many thanks Hinsdale. Your how-to has been extremely helpful
Also, thanks to all that contributed to it by actually performing, by trial and error, all that work.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by feldon23 _
> *A thread starter deleting a thread is very rude, in my opinion. *


Would be nice if they had the option to lock their threads instead of deleting them.


----------



## Runch Machine

First, thanks for the great instructions and making all the software easily available. About a month ago I added an 80 Gig B drive to my Sony T-60 Direct tivo and got 105 hours. As nice as this is, I'd now like to replace the A drive with another 80 Gig Drive. I backed up the 40 gig A drive prior to adding the B drive. Reading page 2 paragraph one about previously upgraded Tivos, I am not sure how to best proceed. I would like to back up the current A drive since I have added some season passes and then restore this to the new 80 Gig A drive. However, I am unclear if this will work. My question is, can I backup the A drive and restore it to the new 80 Gig B drive even though it has been used with a B drive, or do I need to restore the previous backup of the A drive that was made prior to adding a B drive. After restoring a backup to the new 80 Gig A drive, I still want to connect the recently installed 80 Gig B drive so I will have a total of 160 Gigs. Do I need to Bless the existing B drive again? 

A review of the instructions makes it sound like if I backup the current A drive, which is used to working with the B drive, then when I do a restore, the restore will only restore to a 120 gig drive, since the A drive image is set to work on 80+40 (120). Or, do I need to do a two drive backup, even though I don't want to save my recorded programs?


----------



## hinsdale

Download and burn nuboot6.iso (found at step 4)

You will need to connect both drives and use the instruction at Step 7) Option #2 - to create a divorced image

Restore this image to one of the 80GB drives - Step 8)

Test the restored image - Step 9)

Run DTiVoMad 4 to expand A and rebless B - instructions at
Step 10) Upgrade configuration #2


all done.


----------



## Michael R

Hinsdale performed his wonderful magic on my 40 hour stand alone machine. Now I have a 184.5 hour TiVo through the addition of a discount Gateway [Maxtor] 120 gig drive. Hinsdale calmed me down when I thought that UPS had lost my TiVo in transit because there was [no] activity during the week logged in the UPS tracking log. Fortunately all turned out OK. Well sort of OK. Despite my fragile, electronics inside warning stickers all over the shipping box UPS managed to poke a good sized hole in one side of the shipping box. Through all of this I know that it is perfectly OK to love your TiVo and Hinsdale's talents and hate UPS.


----------



## dbunin

Help!

About six months ago, I upgraded my Philips 30 hour TiVo unit by adding a 100GByte Maxtor hard drive. This was part of a kit that I purchased from 9thTee. As suggested, I backed up the tiVo's original 30GByte prior to installing the second drive. The install was completely successful, and I have been enjoying the increased capacity since then.

Unfortunately, I have been experiencing a problem with my TiVo losing sound and video sporadically (see the "No sound - until restart" thread in the TiVo Help Center). The problem has gotten so bad that I finally contacted TiVo and received authorization to return the unit for repair or replacement.

Yesterday, I removed the second hard drive and attempted to restore the backed up image onto the original hard drive so that I could send in my TiVo back in it's original state. Here is where my trouble is.

When I attemped to restore the image to Drive A, I received a message that there was insufficient room on the drive. So I decided to format the drive under windows and try again - big mistake! The Original drive is a Maxtor (Quantum) Fireball LCT 15 and Windows will only format it as a 9.4Gbyte drive!! I tried every bios setting that I could think of, but still could not get windows to see the drive as having a 30GByte capacity.

My backed up image is still intact on my backup drive, but I need help in transferring it back to the original TiVo drive.

Can anyone out there offer a suggestion? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David Bunin


----------



## anolin

have you tried the quonlock utility on the original drive yet?
(see Hinsdale's How-To)

these sound like the "locked drive" symptoms found in many previous posts.


----------



## dbunin

> _Originally posted by anolin _
> *have you tried the quonlock utility on the original drive yet?*


Thank you! I will try this as soon as I get home from work tonight!

David Bunin


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## HTH

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *How-to has been updated:
> 
> For those upgraders with March 6 previous version, there was no change to content requiring re-print, only form was changed in regards to upgrade offer. *


So, how long 'til it becomes sticky again?


----------



## tornado

Today I built a swing set for my toddler and upgraded a stock DTiVo to 106 hours (WD 80gb). Both projects went flawlessly.

<insert Tim Allen "Home Improvement" grunt here>

My thanks to Hinsdale, TiVoMad, Tiger, Kazmyr, and my father-in-law (he helped with the swing set).

Tom


----------



## ddhawk

Well I thought I had convinced myself to just buy the upgrade kit and be done with it. But yesterday I spent most of my free time reading the How-To guide to make sure that I knew what to do if I was going to tackle the upgrade myself.

After reading, it sounded simple enough if everything worked and I decided to try it.

On my way home I stopped at CompUSA and picked up a Maxtor 80 GB 536X DiamondMax drive and was ready to take the plunge. From the prices I saw online, I didn't think $139 was too bad and I am Mr. impatient, once I make a decision I want it NOW.

Everything went smoothly after I figured out the cryptic jumper diagram on the Quantum 40 GB drive that came with my receiver (DSR6000). I now have a new B drive giving me a total of 108 hrs.

I know my way around the computer pretty well and was a software engineer using UNIX in a past life (10 yrs ago) so I could follow the directions easily. but I can see that they are very well thought out and useful for the novice user as well, great job.

Many thanks to hinsdale, et al. Great How-to guide!!!

Maybe in the future if I find 108 hours too little, I'll try to upgrade the A drive also.


----------



## TivoChuckster

*THANK YOU!*

I am so grateful to all those people who put it the hard work so that we don't have to! My sincere thanks goes to each and everyone of you who hacked all night instead of sleeping, who knew it could be done and who did it!

A special huge thanks goes to *hinsdale* for such a great document. Wouldn't have upgraded with out it!


----------



## phxbruzer

Thanks Hinsdale, your doc is EXCELLENT. I had a little issue because fat partition was a couple steps deep but once I figured out with hd* to use, everything went flawlessly.    

Thanks Kazymyr for getting all the tools on a bootable CD iso, and making it available for all.


----------



## Runch Machine

First a big Thanks to Hinsdale for the very clear instructions and the quick answer to the question I posted recently. I have now upgraded my Sony T-60 twice. First I installed an 80 Gig B drive, then today I installed an 80 Gig A drive for a total of 160 Gigs and (up to) 140 hours of storage. I followed Hinsdale's instructions and everything worked perfectly the first time. Now I am wondering about the original 40 Gig A Drive, which was used with the 80 Gig B drive. If I were to remove the 80 Gig A drive and re-connect the 40 Gig A drive along with the 80 Gig B drive, would the Tivo work and show 105 hours as it did previously? Would it matter if the B drive that is now in the Tivo was not connected to the original 40 Gig A drive? I took the B drive that was in the Tivo and restored the backup to it and it is now being used as the A drive. The new 80 Gig drive that arrived today is being used as the B drive.


----------



## Hemi

So, how long 'til it becomes sticky again? Otto?


----------



## Kyle

I'll just echo my thanks to everyone who put together instructions, hints, and software tools. My Hughes GXCEBOT now has the original 40GB disk plus a second 80MB disk. I will share two hints with everyone:

1. Be careful of metal edges inside the case!  I got a nice 1/2" slash on my index finger while I was pulling out the power cable from the hard drive. (Not the first time I've been cut by computer hardware... the old Zeos PCs from the early 90s were especially vicious if you weren't careful.)

2. *DON'T FORGET TO REATTACH THE POWER WIRES FOR THE COOLING FAN!*  I forgot, and everything looked great, and my wife & I went out about an hour later and left the kids with a babysitter, and when we came home there was a blue screen saying it had closed down because the maximum internal operating temperature had been reached.


----------



## Steven Krieser

My thanks to everyone who worked on this as well, esp. Hinsdale. And I second the reminder about re-connecting the fan. I watched the upgraded machine as it nudged up to 50C, then 55C, then 61C, and on to 71C. At that point, I shut it down, supposing I had forgotten to hook up the fan, and I was right. Stable now at 52C, just 3 degreesz above its unmodified operating temp.

Thanks everyone!


----------



## Runch Machine

I upgraded my Sony T-60 Directv Tivo on Tuesday afternoon March 19, 2002. The upgrade consisted of backing up the A and B drive using MFS Tools 1.1 restoring to the new drive and using the appropriate version of TivoMad to expand the A drive and re-bless the B drive. I had previously added an 80 Gig B drive and now replaced the original 40 gig A drive with a another 80 gig drive. Both Drives are Maxtor drives. I noticed on Thursday the Tivo Showcase for the Francis Ford Coppola interview. When I selected the interview, the time bar comes up on the bottom of the screen, showing 0 on the left side and 5 on the right side, but it doesn't play. After a few seconds the time bar goes away and nothing happens. It appears to me that the Tivo can't find this file. Could it be that the file was received before the upgrade and is not included in the limited backup? Does anyone know when the video file was sent? Is there some reason that Tivo Showcase files don't work after replacing the A drive in a Tivo? If this is a problem cause by the upgrade, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix what ever the problem may be? The Tivo works great otherwise and shows that it now has up to 140 hours of storage. I do notice that the fan, which I previously replaced with a quieter one from 1 cool PC seems to be running faster as it is a little louder than it was before. The temperature has stayed the same at 48c.

UPDATED Information. As of Sunday morning there are new show case clips and then all show and work properly. Problem must have not had anything to do with the upgrade. I assume that the original clip must have been received before I changed the orignal A drive.


Last edited by Runch Machine on Yesterday at 01:51 PM


----------



## TTop

So I was 99% of the way through upgrading my Sony SVR-2000 with two new 60GB maxtor drives when I hit a snag. I was following Step 10 Upgrade Configuration #2 of the helpful Hinsdale How-to, when I saw the "Note for Sony Standalone". It was kind of lucky I saw this because I was literally at the final yes/no question of the upgrade script. 

Anyway, it implies that I need a special 11 partition backup image in order to expand my 'A' drive. And it says I can get that around here -- does someone have a link or something? Or am I just overlooking it?

Also, it says to "simply restore this image to your new large upgrade A drive." Does this mean that I lose all my recorded programs and season passes, etc (which I so dutifully copied with the 'dd' command)?

Obviously I want to know this answer before I continue, because my currently recorded programs are rather important to me. Unfortunately the HOWTO isn't 100% clear on this, and this is the only place I can find reference to this issue. 

A note to Hinsdale: If you could move this "Sony Standalone" note up to the top of the HOWTO where all the other system-specific notes are, that would be helpful. 

Also, I highly recommend that anyone install Maxtor drives download the spec sheet from their web site in order to get the proper configuration of jumpers. Most unfortunately, the sticker on my Maxtor drives described the jumper configuration incorrectly (an egregious error) and it took me a long time and much experimentation to figure out why the drives weren't being properly recognized.

Cheers,

TTop


----------



## welovetoseeyousmile

Thanks Hinsdale.

You made the TiVo upgrade possible for the non-techie.

I've upgrade two units so far and am contemplating an "upgraded upgrade" 

May your generosity to this community go handsomely rewarded.


----------



## oneman

Thankyou...

14 hrs to 306 hrs...


----------



## georgemoe

Just upgraded our Philips HDR212 tonight with a Maxtor 5400 rpm 160GB "B" drive. Absolutely no problems what so ever. Thanks must go to Hinsdale, TiVoMad, Tiger, and Kazymyr for the How-to and tools. The bracket from 9th Tee was great as well.

Best: 53 hr, 14 min
Basic: *193 hr, 44 min* !!!

Season passes here I come!


----------



## zaknafein

So, what sponsor dropped to allow this thread to be restickyed?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by zaknafein _
> *So, what sponsor dropped to allow this thread to be restickyed? *


I don't think it was an issue of a sponsor dropping. In fact, the forum has one more sponsor now, me. I think it was an issue of a non-sponsor with a sticky-thread that led to a business which is in direct competition of several sponsors. The issue was partially resolved by placing the 'temporary upgrade offer' at the end of the how-to, instead of at the beginning, AND links to alternative sources, some sponsors, and some not sponsors.

At least that is my interpretation of it - definitely subject to correction/clarification.


----------



## Geoff Stott

My Thomson Tivo just turned 12 months old, so as a treat I've done the decent thing and upgraded him to 2 x 120gig drives. Everything went to plan 84Hrs Best 293Hrs Basic. Many thanks to Hinsdale for the How-to guide, TiVoMad, Tiger, and Kazymyr for the tools, that made it all possible. Looking forward to installing the Air Tivo and the extra 16Mb of ram.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by zaknafein _
> *So, what sponsor dropped to allow this thread to be restickyed? *


Probably because it had gone 5 days without a posting and someone with the power to make it sticky finally realized it had gone missing from not only the first page of responses but his default display of 5 days worth of messages.

Or it's just an April Fool's Day gag and it'll be unsticky again tomorrow.


----------



## Mykeys

Just completed my second upgrade on my Sony SA. Thanks to Hinsdale and all others for making it so darn easy.


----------



## schmegs

I just spent part of the day upgrading the dying drive on my TiVo to a new 120GB... 

Thanks to Hinsdale, TiVoMad, Kazymyr, and Tiger for all the tools!! You've saved my TV-watching from utter destruction!


----------



## Adamfield

I have just saved this to acrobat and MS reader so that I can use this on the move (My TiVo is nowher near my PC)

I can post them up if hinsdale has no objections?

-Adam


----------



## hinsdale

No objections .. except frequent changes are made to the how-to so you might mention in your post to check the last modification date at the top of the online How-To to make sure you have the latest copy.


----------



## buzzard

Thank you Hinsdale! I have my Philips DSR6000 all hooked up and it now shows ~149 hours. All in an afternoon's work.


----------



## gbeer

I have come across a refurbished Sony SVR-2000 that was loaded with 1.3.0 and has 13 partitions.



> Note for Sony Standalones: The most recent production model Sony Standalone units released with v2.5.1 OS pre-installed and some older refurbished Sony Standalone units that are running or have run v2.0.2 TiVo OS are not currently able to use TiVoMad to expand A drives (contain non-standard 13 partition structure - can review TiVo drive partition table for verification by using the shift+pageup on boot disk startup).


Based on this part of the faq, I assumed, (there's that word) Sony's that initially reported 1.3.0 couldn't have 13 partitions. After 2 days of messing around with dd, tivomad, alternating with searches the upgrade forum, re-reading the various readmes on K's boot disk... I finally looked at the linux boot messages and saw that my original A disk has an unlucky number of partitions.

I suppose my refurb. Sony could have had 2.0.2 loaded on it sometime in its life. Though there's just no way to know for sure.

So I'm in the market for an 11 partition backup image.

Glenn


----------



## argv

All references to upgrades on this site all refer to recording capacity, not the actual OS. All the useful features (backdoor) that I want are on version 2.5. My _brand new_ tivo has version 2.0. How can I upgrade just the software? and why doesn't this happen automatically?


----------



## dmbong

> _Originally posted by argv _
> *All references to upgrades on this site all refer to recording capacity, not the actual OS. All the useful features (backdoor) that I want are on version 2.5. My _brand new_ tivo has version 2.0. How can I upgrade just the software? and why doesn't this happen automatically? *


If you wait a little bit, it will. It will get the new version during one of its call-ins. I waited about 2 days on my most recent install, but it came!

You didn't say how "new" it is, like how long you've actually been running it.

-Brian


----------



## argv

I got my TiVo about 2 months ago. Seems that if it was going to upgrade the OS, it'd have happened by now.

Is there any way to force the upgrade? How about contacting TiVo to request it directly?


----------



## budgetcomputers

WOW. So simple. Had 14hr added 80 giger for $100 from www.pricewatch.com and now have 109hr unit! Thanks so much!


----------



## geoffb1974

Went through the update last night. All went well. Went from a dead 30 HR svr-2000 to a very alive 91 hour. Thanks all of your who helped


----------



## green

One more thank you to Hinsdale, et al. Upgraded my Philips DSR6000, replacing the 15G B-drive with a 120G. Tivo says I've got ~139 hours! Wahoo!


----------



## Xiidaen

Hi folks,

I went through the upgrade process, but every drive other than my original A: drive hangs at the "Please Wait" boot screen. No errors are reported.

I am running on a XP system, is it possible the drive was marked by the XP system as described at the bottom of the FAQ? 

I've checked the connections, and tried different cable placements (mid connector vs end connector). 

I've tried 4 drives, trying to get a functional A drive: 2 WD 60GB, 1 Maxtor 60GB and the original A: drive 

Once I restored my original image to the A drive, it works fine. Every other drive hangs on the "Please Wait" screen. So, I don't think it's the cable at all, and with three different drives, I can't easily see it as a drive issue, either. 

I even tried using the tools to expand one of the 60GB drives to full size before testing, with no change in results. 

I'm ready to try a new image if I can get one (especially if the smaller MAD images are transferrable) but I wanted to put out one last plea for help. 

HELP! 

Thanks, 

Xiidaen


----------



## stormsweeper

Xiidaen: Did you boot up into XP with the new drive attached?


----------



## hinsdale

What version software is on the unit? If its 2.0 or lower you need to edit your bootparms when restoring to a non-quantum drive - see the note at the end of Step 8 if applicable.


----------



## Xiidaen

I'll check the software version, I don't remember what it had when I got it refurb'd about a year ago. But I can boot up the original A drive and check the version from there.



It is possible the system may have booted in XP, but I doubt it, certainly not a full boot. (I've got a friend working on this with me, so I can't speak for the whole time period).


----------



## Xiidaen

Ok, I think the bootparms did it, I got the green screen first, but it appears to work now.

Thanks for your help!


----------



## Alan Hobson

I have attempted an upgrade on a UK TiVo with 2 120Gb Maxor D540x drives.

each step has been sucessful up until step 10 upgrade configuration #2

mad/setup.sh fails

I've tried both single and dual disk expansion.


Can You Help


----------



## nikkit

Many Thanks Trevor for a pretty painless upgrade.
Nikki 80+40Gb


----------



## pedxing

See this thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56122 for my AT&T Series 2 success story.

Suggestions for the Upgrade FAQ:
*) Moving the original drive in the bracket, using the IDE cable "backwards" and setting the jumpers. Noted in http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45645

*) Setting the PC BIOS to NONE if it's too old to talk to a drive bigger than 36GB. Also note that doing this keeps WVSET, AMSET, and probably QUNLOCK from working... To make these work, the "AC" jumper can be set on the drive which limits the reported size to 36GB. But the AC jumper would probably make BlessTiVo bless it as a 36GB drive! So use AC, detect the drive in the BIOS, and to your WVSET and AMSET work. Then unjumper AC, set the BIOS to NONE for that drive, and bless the drive.


----------



## Richard Casto

Upgraded my HUGHES DirecTiVo this weekend. It went pretty well. My only problem was that when I put my new 80GB drive in my PC I miss read my BIOS autodetect settings for the drive. I was so used to seeing XXXXX *MB* that when it reported XX *GB* I thought I had a drive problem (I was expecting the value to be in MB not GB).

My C: drive is only 6 GB and I thought it was reporting that the new drive was only 80 MB and not GB. It was not until after I had flashed my BIOS (I thought maybe my BIOS was out of date) that I realized what was going on.

Everything went smoothly after than. I even have an updated BIOS in my PC now


----------



## nichols_eric

I just ordered a 120GB Maxtor and Torx screwdrivers and a mounting kit. Hopefully, I'll be upgrading by this weekend! Anybody have any undocumented (from the Hinsdale guide) advice/extras for me?


----------



## budgetcomputers

be sure to have a compressed air can ( you can get them anywhere - stapels, office max etc ) to blow the dust of of the inside of your unit and especaialy the fan as adding the 2nd drive means more heat!


----------



## Redhaze

A minor blooper which kept me scratching my head for a longer time than I care to admit - make sure your CD drive is not set as a master. Mine was and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I wasn't seeing the TIVO "A" drive when I booted up. Once I changed the CD to slave everything went smoothly.

Ok, not totally smoothly as I didn't do the last step to expand the drive and had to go back to do that.

I've found you have to be able to read and follow instructions to do a smooth upgrade. I was perhaps less than adequate at both requirements. Good luck to you.

Aloha


----------



## nichols_eric

> _Originally posted by budgetcomputers _
> *be sure to have a compressed air can ( you can get them anywhere - stapels, office max etc ) to blow the dust of of the inside of your unit and especaialy the fan as adding the 2nd drive means more heat! *


I'll be sure to do that. Thanks.


----------



## nichols_eric

Oh I read in another thread something about forcing UDMA/33 operation only... I don't believe that is documented. Is it really important?


----------



## Avenger

A Cautionary Tale on Backups

I upgraded my father-in-law's Hughes DirecTivo this last weekend by adding a second 40GB hard disk (from Fujitsu.)

24 hours after the successful upgrade, the Tivo began to make an awful knocking noise, and we got the GSOD. Turns out that the new drive was going T.U. I hadn't backed it up, but I had planned ahead, having downloaded a virgin 2.0 disk image for his unit in advance of the upgrade. I had to pull the new drive and re-image his existing drive. This worked like a million bucks. Of course, we had to repeat the whole blasted setup process again, but the machine was up and running again after a few hours.

Be sure to back them up before upgrading them, or at least have a virgin image on hand. Even if everything goes smoothly at the get-go, you never know if that new drive will die after a day or two of service and leave you stranded.

Many thanks to Hinsdale for the instructions, and to everyone who had a hand in devising the boot disk, TivoMad, BlessTiVo, and the other fabulous utilities that saved me from having to send my father-in-law's Tivo away to Hughes for service for God-only-knows how long!


----------



## CaptainTiVO

I have a DSR6000 single drive DTIVO unit. I removed the original 40GB drive, backed it up, restored it to a new 80GB drive and used TiVOMad to expand to fill the 80 gigs. I saved the original drive as a backup-backup in case the 80 gig died (I've had 3 Maxtors die on me!!). After 6 months, I trust the new drive so I would now like to use the 40 gig drive.
What I would like to do is this: either add the 40 gig as a B drive or, failing that, replace the 40 gig as the A drive and move the 80 gig to B drive. BUT.. I want to keep the existing recordings!

After reading Hinsdale's HOWTO, I have these questions:
1. Quoth Hinsdale:
*"Note for previously upgraded TiVo's using TiVoMad or BlessTiVo - standalone or DirecTiVo: Even those who originally upgraded without backup can now use Mfs Tools to quickly create a very small usable single drive backup image (effectively divorcing blessed drives and/or unexpanding TiVoMaddened drives) that can then be used to revert your TiVo back to a single drive unit or expand recording capacity even further using larger drives. You are able to combine any two drive sizes you wish in your new larger configuration as long as your A drive is at least as large as your original A drive. Remember that once you boot an expanded A drive or expanded A+B drive in your TiVo, you will need to restore from backup, or create a new Mfs Tools backup and restore it, in order to further upgrade recording capacity."

And:
"Preserving Recordings:
....
Note 3: Those adding a new B drive to an existing single TiVoMad expanded A drive configuration may also be able to preserve their existing recordings (this does not apply to existing two-drive configurations). After creating your Mfs Tools single drive unexpanded image using the commands above and testing this image on your new upgrade drive, you should then restore this backup image directly back to the originating A drive. This will result in your A drive being un-TiVoMad expanded (and thus capable of further upgrade) and may retain all or some of your existing recordings because Mfs Tools only overwrites the included partitions (your mileage may vary - swap file changes and other factors may effect your results). Finally treat your now unexpanded original A drive as your "new" A drive and follow the instructions at Step 10) Upgrade Configuration #2: New A Drive with New B Drive in order to re-TiVoMad expand your original A drive and Bless your new B drive.*

Hmmm. Obviously, there is a lot about this that I dont understand. If I "Un-TIVOMad" the 80 gig disk, doesn't that make it think that it is only 40 gig? What happens to the pointers to recordings in the second half of the disk? Does this only work for backups from disks that are as big as the new disk? That would seem to defeat the purpose.

Can someone tell me if I can do what I want or do I just have to trash the recordings? Thanks.

Hunter


----------



## jackal

Hello,
Wanted to add my testimonial as the latest in a long string of upgraders grateful to Hinsdale and the community at large. I've been involved in computer engineering for several years, but I never thought I'd try this until Best Buy's recent sale on WD 120s with a rebate ($299 - 100). With a little arm twisting, they did a price match for $199 netting 2 drives for $200 plus tax. Keep your eyes open for such deals! Now boasting a HUGE DirecTivo of 225 hours! Wife is very satisfied!! Now waiting for TurboNet to arrive...


----------



## sker99

At the risk of being _yet another_ "me too", I'll say the Hinsdale instructions were great. I just did a simple upgrade to a larger A drive (got a new Maxtor 120GB) and left the old Quantum on a shelf. Took about an hour, including the dd copy time (and saved all the old recordings to boot).

As a linux sysadmin, the instructions were a breeze. Ain't "dd" wonderful.

Thanks Again Hinsdale and everyone else who made this all possible ...


----------



## mlipshaw

WOW! It really works 

Hinsdale and gang - you guys are great. Upgraded my Tivo from 30 hours to 184 hours (50 best). The whole thing took a couple of hours, and most of it was just re-reading and re-reading the instructions, so I wouldn't screw anything up.

The only 'trouble' I ran in to was my PC was having trouble auto-sensing the original Tivo A drive. I later realized that my PC doesn't need to auto-sense the settings - the Boot CD saw everything just fine and the process was flawless.

Thanks Again!!!

-mark


----------



## llogan

took me all day at work (problems with my PC) but my failing 35 hour DirecTivo is now sporting 225 hours of recording pleasure, thanks hinsdale for all of the help!


----------



## buzzard

I didn't have the time or desire to find a suitable hard drive, open up my PC and my DTiVo, and follow all the info in Hinsdale's instructions even though I have performed many PC motherboard and drive replacements. Instead, I drove over to Hinsdale and he did it for me. I would suggest that anyone who doesn't want the time, hassle or risk of doing their own upgrade, find a reputable upgrader to do it for them. Especially if there is one within minutes of where you live.

Thanks Hinsdale!


----------



## Fezmid

Well, I just added a 120G Maxtor drive (the one Dell was selling a few weeks ago). The install went flawlessly, and I now have "up to 149 hours" of recording time! WOOHOO! And it only took about 3.5 hours (and that included taking apart my PC to make room for the extra drives, and then putting it back together). Thanks Hinsdale!    
CW


----------



## wchittenden

Thanks for the excellent tools. Everything went smoothly installing an 80 MB drive my Philips HDR312. It went from 30 hours to 130 hours. I am in Tivo heaven. 

Thanks again to all who contributed!


----------



## mankypro

Purchased the 120GB Maxtors from Dell at $143.00US each and dropped them in last night. Followed Hinsdale's EXCELLENT how-to, and only messed up once (reversed A&B drives in the TiVo). Other than that I experienced some chopiness last night but I think it was a satellite issue. Wow, what will I do with all this space .


----------



## philhu

Hi

Instructions are great!

One clarification, when you do the backup of your current a/b drives, the BACKUP IMAGE is divorced.

The original drives are just read and no changes are made to them.....

I was a bit leery to do the quick backup to expand my a/b 30/60 to a 120/120 until that was verified to me. I want to put the old 3060 drives in another tivo just to clear off/watch the programs stored there......

The new 120/120 will have my season passes, etc, but no programs


----------



## pauly666

Thank you Hinsdale, for the great instructions (hitch free!).
Thank you TiVoMad and Tiger for great tools.
Thank you TiVo for making it so we can do upgrades!!

My 20 hr SA is now a 171 hr unit! Now I can _really_ watch TV my way, instead of _having_ to watch programs every day to make room for tomorrow's recordings!!

Thank you!


----------



## mankypro

gotta love it, the entertainment indistry is losing their marbles b/c there is the chance that people might FF thru the commercials. Sounds like RIAA to me!


----------



## netuser00

Last Friday night, I upgraded my Philip HDR-112R from 14 GB (7.5 hours high quality) to 80 GB (45 hours high quality) in less than 2 hours.

I am so happy about the increased storage space. Thanks for the tools and instruction.


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by philhu _
> *Hi
> 
> Instructions are great!
> 
> One clarification, when you do the backup of your current a/b drives, the BACKUP IMAGE is divorced.
> 
> The original drives are just read and no changes are made to them.....
> 
> I was a bit leery to do the quick backup to expand my a/b 30/60 to a 120/120 until that was verified to me. I want to put the old 3060 drives in another tivo just to clear off/watch the programs stored there......
> 
> The new 120/120 will have my season passes, etc, but no programs *


From the How-To Step 7 Backup instructions - 3rd sentence:

_Mfs Tools opens your source TiVo drive(s) in read only so your original data/recordings should be unaffected._


----------



## nichols_eric

> _Originally posted by nichols_eric _
> *I just ordered a 120GB Maxtor and Torx screwdrivers and a mounting kit. Hopefully, I'll be upgrading by this weekend! Anybody have any undocumented (from the Hinsdale guide) advice/extras for me? *


I got the dreaded call from Dell yesterday (the day it was supposed to be delivered  ), hard drive is delayed until 5/30. I got my 9th Tee parts though. Oh well, patience is a virtue. I guess.


----------



## Francesco

Wanted to chime in as well!

As an utter newbie in anything other than Windows applications (yikes!), I was planning on using my two SAs as mules to expand my knowledge and practice for future projects. Both have blown modems; one is a dual-drive. Lots of project possibilities!

Then, it happened: the ubiquitous reboot loop started on my GXCEB0T after a blackout.

So, I got to learn all sorts of new things over the last couple of days, and I successfully got a new image onto a new 40G drive using all the wonderful tools. Now my confidence is boosted so that when my TurboNet arrives soon (I hope! Mark?), I'll have no fear about getting started!

Thanks Tiger, TiVoMad, Kazymyr and W. in Hinsdale, and of course TiVo!


----------



## dgilbert

Hi All,
First off, thanks Hinsdale for a problem free upgrade!!! It took over 5 hours, but that includes cooking and eating dinner (burgers on the grill), and a mad dash to two Radio Shack's (before they closed for the night) to find a longer IDE cable.

One suggestion for anyone adding a second drive to a Hughes DirectTiVo: Step 3 mentions that the new IDE cable may need to be shredded or reversed. That's because the distance between the Slave (middle) and Master (end) connector is too short to reach between the drives. The cable that Radio Shack sells (24 inches long) will work fine as long as you reverse the position of the primary and slave drive on the bracket. Put the primary (original) drive on the right, and the slave (new) drive on the left (next to the fan).

Thanks again Hinsdale!


----------



## UncaAndoo

My Philips DSR6000 is now at 240 hours! My hangups were as follows:

--Three failed BootCD coasters. The fourth time, I dropped the speed down to 4x and it worked.

--MfsTools 1.1 was necessary to restore my image, I had the boot loop error.

Thanks a lot all! Time to change the Sig!


----------



## llogan

mine's got 225 hours, what results in the difference in final size? I was using two Western Digital 5400RPM 120 GB drives in my DSR6000...


----------



## UncaAndoo

> _Originally posted by llogan _
> *mine's got 225 hours, what results in the difference in final size? I was using two Western Digital 5400RPM 120 GB drives in my DSR6000... *


First of all, I made a mistake -- it's 230 hours, as stated in my signature. Secondly, a Gig is not necessarily a Gig. One company may have their 120 GB drives be slightly larger/smaller than another. Thirdly, and this is just a guess, some sectors may be bad, or the software may not recognize them. Notice how the instructions give a range for the capacity after TivoMadding.


----------



## llogan

i know that, let me be more specific, what drives did you use?


----------



## UncaAndoo

> _Originally posted by llogan _
> *i know that, let me be more specific, what drives did you use? *


120GB

__________________
Philips 14-hour SA
Philips 230-hour Combo Unit

Just kidding...they were the Maxtors from Dell. I'll check the model number when I get home.


----------



## Rcrew

This seems to be the place to sing the praises of Hinsdale and Tiger!

Took one of my Hughes ~35 hour DTiVos to the 'upgrade bench' today. Kept the Quantum 40GB drive as the primary, added an 80GB Seagate. End result ~106 hours!

I work in a computer center, so there was lots of help. Actually I didn't get to do anything but crack the case. Lots of helping hands, and another TiVo owner doing the connections and linux commands. 

Looks like we'll be upgrading most of the TiVos owned by people in the center over the next few weeks!

Rob


----------



## ivanh

Hi,

How can a new drive A with v2.5.5 software be expanded? TivoMad gets it wrong without reporting errors, it appears...

Thanks

Ivan


----------



## BrianRTS

I am trying to upgrade a Sony SVR2000.. my old computer (233) is seeing the tivo drive as 9meg.. I know I need to unlock it.. however the new drive is a 120gb drive.. the bios is only seeing it as 65535meg. Is this normal for the large drives? I have to check if LBA is on.

Thanks


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by BrianRTS _
> *I am trying to upgrade a Sony SVR2000.. my old computer (233) is seeing the tivo drive as 9meg.. I know I need to unlock it.. however the new drive is a 120gb drive.. the bios is only seeing it as 65535meg. Is this normal for the large drives? I have to check if LBA is on.
> 
> Thanks *


You will need to unlock the TiVo drive as you mentioned.

Dont worry about the BIOS recognizing the 120GB drive.. the linux Boot CD should recognize the full size of the drive - check the readouts when booting up the linux disc to verify the size is reported correctly.


----------



## BrianRTS

Hmm ok.. booted off a dos floppy.. ran qunlock 2.. got a response back of "Unlock command send, power cycle the machine and check capacity"

rebooted server and the tivo drive still reads 9MB.


Ill poke around thre bios to see if there are settings there that could be doing it.,


----------



## BrianRTS

woohoo.. never mind.. had to run the command twice for some reason... now on to the rest of the procedure.. thanks for the help hinsdale


----------



## BrianRTS

Ok... blessed my 120 gb drive... blesstivo sees it as 111GB.. is this around what everyone else is getting?


----------



## BrianRTS

woohoo.. thanks again for all the help guys... I now have a sony svr2000 w/ 49 hours at best qual and 180 at basic! Process went smoothly once I got my own hardware issues banged out. Here is a question tho.. I now have a 30gb "A" and 120 "B". Is it possible to at some time in the future add another 120 gb as the A drive and keep the shows?


----------



## ParadiseDave

> _Originally posted by BrianRTS _
> *Ok... blessed my 120 gb drive... blesstivo sees it as 111GB.. is this around what everyone else is getting? *


That's exactly what I got on my 120Gig that was installed yesterday. I also have a 180 hour standalone (Philips) now!

*Dave*


----------



## NathanJr

TiVo Mad, Tiger, Kazymyr, and Hinsdale, especially: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

I have been lurking around this forum for a long time, wondering if I had what it takes to do one of these upgrades. Your instructions are excellent, detailed, and easy to follow, but I was worried that I could screw up my baby (DSR6K) and be TiVo-less.

You see, I just spent like three weeks with no TiVo while Phillips was swapping mine out. The withdrawals were horrible (first denial, then realization with lots of tears, then deep depression, and finally the anger stage). While it was gone, I discovered this little corner of the forum and decided that I would take steps on my own to prevent another separation, i.e. upgrade and BACKUP!

My problem is that I _barely_ qualify to do this kind of thing. I understand most of the BIOS stuff and HD installation, but when it came to the code entries and Linux in general, I was CLUELESS. I can follow directions, but what if something unexpected happened? Luckily, nothing did, and with Hinsdale's instructions in hand and the Upgrade Forum as a fallback, I felt confident that I could have tackled any unforeseen snags.

The upshot is: I now have a 106hr DSR6k (w/ backup image) AND the gratification of having made it so myself (with your help, of course). Also, I am no longer dependent on the good (but slooooow) people at Philips should I have another HD failure.

You guys are kings-among-men and I thank you again.

Mike a.k.a. NathanJr


----------



## Semore

Long story short I successfully upgraded my Hughes with a second 80 GB HD and now want to upgrade the original 40GB HD to a 120GB and upgrade the 80 GB B-Drive to 120GB as well.
I used Mfstools to backup (divorce) the drives, but when I restore the backup to the 120GB A-Drive and reinstall it sticks on the powering-up screen.
If I connect the original 80GB B-Drive the system boots fine. I then removed the drives and ran the Mfstools script to expand the A-Drive and Bless the B-Drive and it continues to stick on the Almost There Screen. I am assuming I need to start with a virgin Hughes A-Drive to re-upgrade. Can someone either tell me how to fix the above problem or tell me where I can download a Hughes Drive Image.


----------



## llogan

Is there any reason whatsoever to save my old hard drives so long as I have the backup image? (i.e. I'm going to reformat them and use them elsewhere)


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by llogan _
> *Is there any reason whatsoever to save my old hard drives so long as I have the backup image? (i.e. I'm going to reformat them and use them elsewhere) *


Some people go under the "belt and suspenders" theory of having a CD backup and hard drive backup, but I hate to see perfectly good drives sitting on the shelf if you have a verified backup image already.


----------



## llogan

Yeah, that was my thinking. Going to take the former primary (30 GB) and add it to one of the other tivos to replace a 15. Going to take the former secondary (15 GB) and use it in my computer. of course I'm building a new HTPC so....who knows


----------



## One Way

What's an HTPC? A High-Tech PC?

Anyway, can someone tell me how long it takes for the TiVo System Information to correctly report the newly upgraded capacity? I have a couple of Sony SVR-2000 (standalones) and just tried to upgrade them about ten times. (It was so many times that I have all of Hinsdale's HOW-TO commands memorized!) The first nine times or so, I tried the single drive upgrade with a proper eleven partition backup (v2.5.1). Each time at STEP 11 of Hinsdale's HOW-TO, after putting the drive back inside TiVo the second time, System Information still reports 9-Best/32-Basic hours of capacity. Finally, in frustration, I gave up after simply adding a B drive and System Info still reported 9-Best/32-Basic... grrrr! Even restarting the unit didn't help. I unplugged the unit from AC power and just let it sit for a day. After plugging it back in to AC power, I checked the System Information just out of curiosity, and it FINALLY showed 32-Best/120-Basic!

Now I'll have to find time to go back and retry the A drive upgrade to see if it takes it properly. However, it's NBA playoff time and finale week in the U.S. My wife is on my case to record all the season finales. I'll probably have to wait until next week to try again. 

Anyway, is there a way to see the increased capacity sooner? Or is it just wait and see?

Also, does anyone have any recommended easy way to gracefully shut down the TiVo instead of simply unplugging it? I felt bad unplugging the unit each time while I was performing those upgrade attempts. I know one way is probably to go through the serial port and tell it to dismount / shut-down. Anyway, thanks for the input, y'all!


----------



## One Way

If I may ask another quick topic/question regarding Hinsdale's HOW-TO...

Is STEP 9 mandatory or just advisory? If you know that the backup you're restoring from is good, can you skip this step in the future and just apply TiVoMad?

Thanks again!


----------



## llogan

One Way, this link will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about HTPCs (Home Theater PCs).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26

In a nutshell, a home theater PC allows you to take incoming video/audio signals from devices such as your DVD player, DirecTivo, etc., enhances the signal and outputs the improved signal to your display device (computer monitor, plasma screen tv, rear projection tv). I personally don't think such a device is warranted unless you have an HD ready TV capable of displaying the higher resolutions.



> _Originally posted by One Way _
> *What's an HTPC? A High-Tech PC?
> *


----------



## threshar

This past weekend I put an 80G maxtor drive into my at&t tivo. It went very smoothly except for a couple of snafu's - #1: my 80 pin cable had 39 pin ends. Had to use a normal 40 pin cable. This works, but I am gonna replace with a proper 80 pin cable. It seems to work fine with 40 pin though. #2 - didn't jumper the tivo drive to slave right. read the diagram backwards. oops. but after that I boot up and voila! 143 hours of joy!


----------



## EricG

Just finished adding an 80G drive to my DirecTiVo. Man was that easy! Thanks Hinsdale, what a great set of instructions. It took longer to disassemble and re-assemble the PC than the TiVo upgrade.


----------



## One Way

Thanks to the link for HTPC, llogan...

I just wanted to thank Hinsdale for his HOW-TO. It is a great piece of work. It seems like he updated it again today! 

Should I ask questions about STEP 9 outside of this thread?


----------



## nmiller855

I took the easy way out. I sent my first SAT-T60 to Hinsdale with a pre-purchased hard drive. I already got it back and sent the second one to him. I kept trying to talk myself into doing it myself but the thought of screwing it up was more than I could stomach. Thank you, thank you, thank you.


----------



## granoff

Ok, here's a silly question.

I have a Sony SA SVR-2000 (30 hours), unmodified.

Is it an absolute, guaranteed, foregone reality that my unit has ONE drive in it?

I am really tempted to upgrade, the biggest hassle being wrestling the unit out of my A/V cabinet, but I am afraid of what, if any, surprises await me (even with what appears to be a 100% fool proof procedure from Hinsdale).

Thanks,
-Mark


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by granoff _
> *Ok, here's a silly question.
> 
> I have a Sony SA SVR-2000 (30 hours), unmodified.
> 
> Is it an absolute, guaranteed, foregone reality that my unit has ONE drive in it?
> 
> I am really tempted to upgrade, the biggest hassle being wrestling the unit out of my A/V cabinet, but I am afraid of what, if any, surprises await me (even with what appears to be a 100% fool proof procedure from Hinsdale).
> 
> Thanks,
> -Mark *


100% - SVR2000's have only been manufactured with single 30 or 40GB drives.


----------



## Gutless

Wow, everything worked great. I just had one thing to add. My Series 2 came with a Ultra DMA cable (which only had enough connectors for a single drive). The only cable I had that had holes for all the pins on the motherboard connecter was a non-Ultra DMA cable. The Series 2 won't even boot without the Ultra DMA cable, even if I try it with just the original drive by itself. 

I took an Ultra DMA cable and performed the suggested modification to punch a hole in it with a candle-heated paper clip. Works like a charm.

The bottom line is Series 2's MUST use an Ultra DMA cable. Hope that saves other people some headaches.

Thanks again,
Gutless


----------



## nichols_eric

I added a 120GB drive to my 14 Hr Philips. I now have 163 hours at basic! Now I need to scour the forums for all the other features that I never used before . Thanks Hinsdale and everyone else!


----------



## wanzong

Just wanted to echo the many folks who have expressed their thanks to all the people who worked so hard to develop the tools and procedures for upgrading TiVos! 

The upgrade of my DSR6000 to two 120GB drives was completed successfully... despite one of the new drives not working out of the box. After replacing it, all went well! Up to 225 hours... gotta love it!

Thanks again!!!

Mike


----------



## feldon23

Notice the slight, but significant change to my signature.

Thanks *hinsdale*, *Tiger*, *Kazymyr*. You guys do rock. 

Went off without a hitch. I ended up copying and pasting all the relevant bits from hinsdale's guide into a blank Word document.


----------



## Robin

Yet another sucsess!

Yesterday we added the 80 GB drive from Staples to our 20 hour Phillips SA, giving us 120 hours in basic <happy dance>.

Everything went smooth as silk.

A tip for getting the case off: Two people. Neither my husband or I could easily get it off ourselves, but with me bracing the back and him sliding the case, it was off in seconds. You could probably duplicate that with one person by bracing the back against something small (so the case won't hit it) and immoveable.

Another big "thank you" to Hinsdale and everyone involved in the guide and associated utilities.


----------



## VoR

What a memorable Memorial day this wiil be! Yet another Success! 

Thanks for the easy to follow instructions hinsdale!! 

Thanks hinsdale, Tiger, Kazymyr.


----------



## EricG

Upgraded my Second DirecTiVo last weekend.

Thanks Hinsdale, Tiger, Kazymyr !



> _Originally posted by EricG _
> *Just finished adding an 80G drive to my DirecTiVo. Man was that easy! Thanks Hinsdale, what a great set of instructions. It took longer to disassemble and re-assemble the PC than the TiVo upgrade. *


----------



## efilnicafesin

Just wanted to say thanks to Hinsdale and company for such an awesome guide. I just resurrected my dead SA Tivo with a new HD. You don't realize how much Tivo has enhanced TV viewing until you have to watch without it. The only problem I had was trying to sort through the "If you have this model, do this" in the guide.

I would also like to understand what I did while following the guide...What some of the commands mean and the switches in the commands. Is that part of standard Linux software or is there explainations for what some of the commands mean?


----------



## peg4r

Yessssss!!!!! (Celebration of adding an 80G Staples special Maxtor to my 30G for 128Hours at Basic and 35 at Best)
Thanks!!!!!(to Hinsdale, Tiger, Kazymyr and all others for their hard work in developing and documenting these enhancements)
Time breakdown - opening case (day and a half of intermittent attempts, finally succeeding on third try with cable puller) following the rest of the procedure (1 hour, 45 minutes).

I have never done anything with Linux and previous trips into the innards of my computer have been limited to installing a CDRom Drive and an old Bernoulli drive with SCSI card. I am a retired teacher, however, and am very good at both giving and following directions, especially ones as well written as Hinsdale's! You get an A+! If I can do this, anybody can.

Now its off to Radio Shack for some cable ties and rubber feet.

Margaret


----------



## chippyt

I DID IT!!!

I ordered the Staples 80GB HDD last week and received it yesterday via UPS. I have a Hughes DirecTIVO, I backed up the TIVO, tested the backup, then blessed and added the drive. I had a bum Y-power adapter, which took a little bit to fix. Then routing the IDE cable in the TIVO box was a pain. But the guide was perfect and it was very easy to do.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## jerrylin

Wanted to say thanks to Hinsdale too.

Upgraded my DirecTiVo with two 80G drives from Circuit City (Memorial Weekend special price, $99 each). I tried the Staples special but Staples called and said they were out of stock.

Running at 146 hours now, looking good.


----------



## EricG

I had TWO Y-adapters where the pins came out. BOTH from RatShack. Hey? Whad'ay want for $3.99 



> _Originally posted by chippyt _
> *I DID IT!!!
> 
> I had a bum Y-power adapter, which took a little bit to fix.
> 
> THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! *


----------



## mattmarkel

Hinsdale is a God!!! And thank you to many others who posted their input on using a pc with XP and the great 120GB deal online. It took me 2 and a half hours to replace my original 30GB drive (that has been "stoppling") with the 120GB Maxtor from Fry's/Outpost.com. The pack-rat that I am, I had an old 2GB drive... unplugged my c: drive and replaced it with the old 2GB which was already FAT32... had to keep in mind which drive was which slave/master, etc. while following Hinsdale's instructions because my cd drive wasn't recognized when I moved it, and the rest was a cake-walk!
I've got 40 hours at the "best" quality or 145 hours at "basic"... couldn't be happier! Thanks again!

Matt Markel
Sony SVR2000 with 145 Hours as of today!


----------



## neldyn

Is there a maximum amount of GB that can be added to a Sony SVR 2000? Is there a ceiling per drive and/or in total?


----------



## Nighty

Thanks Hinsdale and everyone else!

I have successfully upgraded using the instructions without issue, save for a few of the self-inflicted kind....


----------



## trojanrabbit

Upgraded to a 145 hour TiVo with a new 120GB Maxtor A drive.

Any problems I had were due to operator error (mixed up drives, jumpers, brain not in gear) and the need to nearly completely disassemble my PC to get the drives in with the short cables provided.

Thanks to everyone involved.


----------



## uvasabri

It was much easier than i had anticipated. Thank you so much. Upgraded my 14hr with 2 80GB dives. Now running at 199 hrs.


----------



## Nighty

Upgraded my DTiVo this weekend, and everything went perfect. Replaced the A Drive, with a new 80GB drive.

Now have "Up to 69 hours, variable," doubling the original capacity!

Thanks again!


----------



## EricG

Nighty-

Why didn't you simply add the new 80G drive giving you a total of about 108 hours?


----------



## alexander123

Hello Gutless,

I too have a new series 2, but as it is my first tivo, I am a bit leery of opening it up, and voiding the waranty. I spent a pretty penny for it, and the subscription, so I I figured I would wait until the warranty was over.

Problem is I am having a hard time recording all the world cup games!

So...What drive did you upgrade with, and did it really go that smoothly.

Alexander123



> _Originally posted by Gutless _
> *Wow, everything worked great. I just had one thing to add. My Series 2 came with a Ultra DMA cable (which only had enough connectors for a single drive). The only cable I had that had holes for all the pins on the motherboard connecter was a non-Ultra DMA cable. The Series 2 won't even boot without the Ultra DMA cable, even if I try it with just the original drive by itself.
> 
> I took an Ultra DMA cable and performed the suggested modification to punch a hole in it with a candle-heated paper clip. Works like a charm.
> 
> The bottom line is Series 2's MUST use an Ultra DMA cable. Hope that saves other people some headaches.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Gutless *


----------



## tjd

Just another "thank you". After looking in awe at the 20 pages of instructions, took a deep breath and upgraded without a hitch. It all became "obvious" as I went through the well detailed steps.

Thanks a lot.


----------



## philgrocks

Fry's has 120GB WD drives on sale for $109 so I figured what the heck. My DirecTV Tivo was asking to be upgraded... I used the instructions found here and I added that drive to my system.

30GB (original drive) + 120GB WD drive and I have 124 hours of storage! This is just fantastic!

I used an old 6GB drive to backup to using the mfstool and I am just amazed how well it went.

Lucky I have some Linux in my blood, makes it easier to understand what is going on.

Thanks so much! You guys are great!


----------



## philgrocks

Just added a $109 WD drive to my DirecTV TiVo. Followed these excellent instructions and it went without a hitch... Now my 35 hour unit reports 124 hours... I am a recording fool now!

Excellent software, excellent instructions.. Just well done!

Fantastic!

phil


----------



## StuRothrock

I just wanted to echo like other have concerning upgrading HDs. Many thanks to hinsdale. What an EXCELLENT howTo. Document and software worked as advertised.


----------



## shawnbowlin

My hacked Tivo died. I purchased it off ebay and was not smart enough to make a backup.

Can someone direct me to where I can get a system image so I can replace the primary drive. I have a Phillips.

Thank in advance!


----------



## nnrelay

Hinsdale,

I just killed my disk by mistake and wanted to
suggest a minor change to your otherwise fine HOWTO
to maybe help someone else avoid my fate.
When you boot TivoMad for the first time
- DONT ANSWER QUESTIONS -- hit ctrl-C to kill it.
Otherwise you'll do as I did and TivoMad your
original A disk before you've had a chance to
mfs backup it.

TivoMad's setup.sh ambiguously prompts
"Enter the device name of your TiVo A drive".
I thought it was asking for my original A drive
which was plugged in as hdc but, nooooo, it
expects your target new drive. Later, when
it says "Do you want to continue?" what it means
is "Do you want me to add partitions and modify
your "A" drive now?" . Blam. Too late.

Your howto does say "ctrl-C" the Tivomad script
but I had a momentary lapse and killed my A drive
before I could back it up.

Fortunately the good folks at ptvupgrade.com
sell replacement disks and were quick to reply
to my email.

neal


----------



## nathan_h

Is there anything special (different) about upgrading the AT&T branded series 2 unit? If I understand right, the housing of the AT&T branded unit and the Tivo branded unit differs...

Woops! My bad. I see that the main document refers to the series 2 units and assume that that means if there were special considerations, they'd also be called out in the body of the document.


----------



## neldyn

well, just being thorough and following the instructions to the letter. thank you to everyone involved in the creation of this how-to, the software, 9th tee and everyone else, especially hinsdale. i installed a new 120GB drive on my sony svr-2000 yesterday. everything went EXACTLY as advertised. no problems whatsoever. i am very impressed. it took me just shy of two hours to do the whole process. and now, i am the proud owner of a tivo with 173 hours and 37 minutes of recording capacity!!!! 

thank you very very much!!!

neldyn


----------



## cdo

Using the guide provided here I have added a 120gb B drive to my Sony 30 hr standalone. Best quality now = 50h 42m and Basic = 184h 25m. Backup file of pre-upgrade setup on computer. By God, it worked. Thanks to all.


----------



## Keyser Soze

Thanks to all, upgrade sucess!

Had a few minor problems, but they were hardware related w/ my computer itself. Had to reconfig almost everything on it, to get the new drives in it.

Back up made with ease, came out to be 494 megs.

rearranged drives, and blessed new 120gb Western Digital, program showed it as 111gb.

Put it all together this morning, and fired it up... worked perfect.

So now I have:

Philips Series2 60 hour unit:

Best: 60he 25min
High: 98hr 5min
Med: 130hr 1min
Basic: 220hr 1min 

Big thanks to all that have taken the time to put together the guides, programs, etc.

-k
###


----------



## hinsdale

Administrative note: Although I anticipated having the How-To updated to coincide with the release of Tiger's MFS Tools today, due to a small family emergency I have only partially completed an update which will encompass the added abilities of Mfs Tools 2.0. I expect to have the complete How-To update finished by Tuesday.


----------



## Keyser Soze

I hope all is well.

-k
###


----------



## brettnordquist

With the help of the Hinsdale upgrade instructions I added a $90 Seagate 80 GB drive to my Hughes DTivo this weekend bringing my recording time to 106 hours. 

The most time consuming part of the upgrade was using Partition Magic to create a FAT32 partition for the backup. The only other slow down was finding the right size IDE cable which would reach to both my drives. Luckily I had a few extras around the house and eventually found one that fit. 

The knowledge people are willing to share on this forum is nothing short of amazing. I've been reading people's upgrade experience for about a month now before I felt comfortable doing it on my own. I learned a lot from those who attempted the upgrade, ran into a problem, yet found the answer on the forums. 

Brett Nordquist
Hughes DTivo


----------



## hinsdale

Although wanting to have the new How-To finished for the release on Saturday of Tiger's new Mfs Tools 2.0, due to unforseen circumstances, it was not finished until today.

I have posted the new How-To featuring Mfs Tools 2.0 along with the original How-To featuring TiVoMad, Kazymyrs Boot CD, Bless TiVo, and Mfs Tools 1.1.

I also created a batch file for the easy creation of the Mfs Tools 2.0 boot floppy.

Those with any suggestions, comments, errors etc are welcome to post them in this thread. The new How-To will be updated regularly as more thorough testing of options, command line parameters, etc are performed and any feedback is received.


----------



## johnh

In the UK TiVo Forum, Rob Bellis has pointed out that it is not advisable to upgrade a UK single disc 40Gb machine by adding a 120Gb as the B drive (a relatively simple upgrade). The reason given is that there will not be enough swap space to enable recovery actions such as fsck to complete in the event of a crash. Tiger says "Unless your old space + 1/4 your new space is greater than 140, then you don't need to worry about swap." If there truly is a serious issue here, ought this to be mentioned in your admirable guide?


----------



## hinsdale

Watching/ reviewing threads of hundreds of upgraders adding 120GB/160GB upgrade drives (for the last 6 months since the large drives were released) to their single drive units without increasing swap I have not seen a pattern or reports of any issues with the GSOD not functioing properly. I have also had several upgraded units (without swapfile increase) beyond 140GB hit the GSOD and recover without problem. I am not convinced that the increased swap file space is still required for standalones and may have been addressed in TiVo software changes in versions above 2.0. (although I have not tested this personally). I am also not sure that the swap file addition was ever required in the DirecTiVos or Series 2 (with 32mb RAM). That said, swap file addition only account for a few minutes of lost recording time and are not a bad idea to include when you have the opportunity.

Also when using Mfs Tools 2.0 as Tiger mentioned, swap file increases become even less important.


----------



## klyde

I set up a formatted 13gb drive as c: primary master with a dos system. I connected my master tivo 60gb drive to the secondary master and my B 60gb tivo drive to secondary slave.
I made a linux boot disk with mfstools. 
I as others have not been able to make a boot cd with it, although the earler version I could.

I boot with the linux floppy and as per instructions type
mkdir /mnt I get: File exists
mkdir /mnt floppy
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

I then get the message 
Fat: bogus cluster size 41
VFS: cant find a valid fat file system on dev 02:00
mount: you must specify the file system type

please tell me what I did wrong
thanks


----------



## hinsdale

If you are creating and using the Mfs Tools Boot Floppy you do not need to mount the floppy

Use the makedisk.bat file to create the boot floppy at Step 4)
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html


----------



## Avian

Something that NEEDS to be in the guide:

Upgrading a new (2.5 software pre-installed) Sony Standalone with a bigger A Drive requires that you use DTIVOMAD 4.0 (yes dtivomad). I just upgraded a friend to a 120gb drive after many frustrating hours trying to do it with TiVoMAD 3.


----------



## hinsdale

Not having a Sony 13 partition unit/image to test on I would be interested to hear more specifics on the upgrade you performed and your results using DTiVoMad 4 (loads DirecTiVo map) on a standalone. In theory I imagined that this might work but thought I recalled someone testing this without success when DTiVoMad 4 first was released.

If you can provide some more details, or if anyone else can attempt this and report their results I would be happy to offer this as an A Drive upgrade option for Sony 13 partition units in the original How-To. Mfs Tools 2.0 is another option for expanding A drives in the Sony 13partition units if you see the new How-To.


----------



## Avian

All I know is we imaged the drive over to the 120gig drive, loaded DTiVoMad 4, put the drive back in the tivo and it worked and reported somewhere around 130~ hours. He still has no problems with it, this was 2 weeks ago when we performed it.


----------



## ISWIZ

Thanks to the Hinsdale upgrade instructions and Tigers MFS Tools 2.0, I added a $107 WD 120 GB drive to my Hughes DTivo today during lunch break to bring my recording time to 146 hours. 
Only one glich. The instructions mentioned using the 80 wire ribbon cable, "Dtivo may use the 40". I took that to "use 80" but it didn't work, before any tears fell I switched cables and this weekends Showtime Free Preview is toast.
Tomorrow we tackle my officemates Dtivo for lunch.

Thanks again to all who post here and share so much knowledge!


----------



## watts

Complete novice, successfully upgraded. Previous experience with opening up a PC limited to adding RAM. Can't wait to tell my brother that I used linux! 

Thanks to all that made this possible!! Hinsdale, Tiger, you are the best! 
I love my Tivos


----------



## yknott

Where can I get good deal on a 120 GB hard drive for my AT & T Series 2 Tivo


----------



## xiaoyu

Hi Hinsdale,

I have Philips HDR-112 (software version 1.2.1 ?) I use Kazymyr's Boot Cd. I have followed your instruction of How-To and, I have finished backup stage. After "Backup done!" I started the step 8. After I typed in the command for Boot Cd user, I received some unexpected message that is not on your instruction: 
Usage: restore [option] Adrive [Bdrive] 
Options: 
-i file Input from file, -for Stdin 
-q ......... 
-qq ....... 
-V size ....... 
-s size ...... 
-z ....... 
First I don't understand. Second anything I type in, I will get "command not found" 
after I read the instruction again, I found I need special command due to restoring to non-Quanturm A drive (a WD drive). I try this command, but I got the following message: Invalid signature 0X33c0 on/dev/hdb 
I don't have any idea now. Please help! 
BTW, Can I use new Tager's Mfs Tool 2.0 bootable cd instead of Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i?

Xiaoyu,


----------



## vandoren

I thought I was teckie enough til I read these posts. Can I have a TV Doctor-type shop do the upgrade of my Hughes DirecTiVO? It has dual tuner: does that mean it has two HDs? Finally(?), is it better to have one large or two medium HDs, or go all out for two large HDs?
BTW: when Hughes comes out with series 2 DirecTiVO, this original goes in the bedroom. Should I hold off and only upgrade the newer unit?


----------



## ISWIZ

Your Hughes has one 40GB drive. As you can see above, I added a 120GB drive. It is really quite easy following the directions posted here. Adding a second drive is the easiest and the bracket is already there for it. Good luck.


----------



## ghstridr

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *I Want a Large TiVo with Lots of Recording Time
> Here is a recording capacity upgrade How-To for relative newbies that incorporates the newest utilites for hopefully a quick and painless TiVo upgrade experience (includes Boot Cd and floppy instructions).
> *


I'm a reasonably experienced Unix user so my question may make it seem like I should know hte answer, but I'm just doing a sanity check as the Tivo itself is new to me.
Here we go:
I notice when reading through the new how-to that covers using the new 2.0 cd, all references to installing or backing up a second drive (B drive) are being referenced as /dev/hdb.

Shouldn't this be /dev/hdd if it's connected as Secondary Slave in a system where you have a Windows Fat/32 drive for your backups as Primary Master (/dev/hda), bootable cdrom as Primary Slave (/dev/hdb)? The readme's that I've seen all state that you are supposed to use the secondary IDE channel and not the Primary for any Tivo upgrades/changes.


----------



## ghstridr

> _Originally posted by ghstridr _
> *
> 
> I'm a reasonably experienced Unix user so my question may make it seem like I should know hte answer, but I'm just doing a sanity check as the Tivo itself is new to me.
> *


DOH! Never mind, I was able to answer my own dumb questions!


----------



## dsm363

Any advice about upgrading to one large drive versus adding a second drive? Any difference in performance? Also, I've got a Mac so I would need to borrow someone PC to prepare the spare drive, right? Thanks.
Can't wait to upgrade.


----------



## ghstridr

> _Originally posted by dsm363 _
> *Any advice about upgrading to one large drive versus adding a second drive? Any difference in performance? Also, I've got a Mac so I would need to borrow someone PC to prepare the spare drive, right? Thanks.
> Can't wait to upgrade. *


After what I learned over the weekend, the answer is Yes, you need to borrow a pc and one with a new enough motherboard that will recognize the drives that you will be working with. I didn't do any performance measuring so I can't answer that question. As for advice, work slowly and make sure you understand the instructions. Since you didn't state what type of Tivo setup you already have, no one here can help you as none of us can read minds!

Good Luck!


----------



## JofCoRe

Just wanted to say thanx to Hinsdale for his great instructions on how to upgrade, Tiger for MFS Tools, Kazamyr for the boot cd, and anyone and everyone else who contributed and made upgrading a tivo so easy!

Thanx to the great instructions and tools, I now have a 149 hr DirecTiVo! woo-hoo!

thanx everyone!
(hopefully my drive won't go bad this time  )


k


----------



## luis

Wow, what can I say? Fantastico!

Many, many, many thanks to Tiger, Hinsdale, Kazymyr, Dylan and all the people that have spent so much time and effort reverse-engineering TiVos, writing tools and documenting the procedures.

I bought a SA Series2 60 hours TiVo at BestBuy at the beginning of June. It was originally running 2.x and updated itself to 3.x a few days later.

I had a flawless upgrade in two steps, using MFS Tools v2 and the Hinsdale how-to:

1. Added a new B drive, using a Maxtor 120GB hard disk.
2. A few days later, replaced the original WD 60GB with a new WD 120GB hard disk.

Also connected a USB Ethernet adapter to the Series2 and verified that it can connect to TiVo using my DSL connection.

I can finally watch TV without cursing the networks and/or the cable company every minute, and without having to channel-scan every 10 seconds.

Again, can't thank everyone enough times, you guys are amazing!

Now, if I could just get the telnet daemon and a bash prompt to work on the Series2 ...

Luis en Miami


----------



## Agrajag

Hey guys, I'm thinking about foregoing a backup. I got lucky before with a SA (I made one but then it never actually worked, thought I never needed it). Am I NUTS? 

If so, where can I even buy a tiny 1-2gb drive these days? I have XP and have a 100gb drive here for my Hughes DirecTV with TiVo receiver. Apparently that's major problem and I really want to get this drive added. I already have a Y cable though it sounds as if I also need a ATA133 cable.


----------



## ghstridr

> _Originally posted by Agrajag _
> *Hey guys, I'm thinking about foregoing a backup. I got lucky before with a SA (I made one but then it never actually worked, thought I never needed it). Am I NUTS?
> 
> If so, where can I even buy a tiny 1-2gb drive these days? I have XP and have a 100gb drive here for my Hughes DirecTV with TiVo receiver. Apparently that's major problem and I really want to get this drive added. I already have a Y cable though it sounds as if I also need a ATA133 cable. *


Yeah, yer nuts....even walnuts! 
FOr the drive, goto to something like PriceWatch and look at laptop drives. I think I remember seeing a laptop to pc adapter bracket at 9thTee


----------



## prasadsw

God bless Thunder woo-tang, and hinsdale !!
MFS tools is a lifesaver !!


----------



## Agrajag

> _Originally posted by ghstridr _
> *
> Yeah, yer nuts....even walnuts!
> FOr the drive, goto to something like PriceWatch and look at laptop drives. I think I remember seeing a laptop to pc adapter bracket at 9thTee *


Laptop drives??? Ouch. For something so small and just for backup I was hoping to spend like $20!


----------



## GatorDeb

Question: Since this voids the warranty, isn't this taking a huge risk into a $650 purchase? I'd do it in a hearbeat, but I'm afraid that if the TiVo EVER breaks down (for, say, something unrelated) I'm screwed out of $650.


----------



## luis

Not really, 

I am am pretty sure that I could fix anything short of a hard drive crash anywway or a hardwarwe failure.

For serious hard disk crashes, I have the individual 90 days warranty from TiVo plus the extended warranty (modulo the fact that the TiVo reports back to its masters the HD id's .....) => $250 or so in HDs are safe.

Worst case scenario, I have a couple of IDE drives, still under warranty for 3 years, so those can be replaced at any time, outside of tivo channels.

And if things got realy bad, I will de-upgrade the TiVo into the lowly 60GB it used to be and take advantange of the extended warranty to get it replaced (and repeat upgrade procedure '

I have the original HD in storage, plus a couple of backups, just in case ...

Thanks,

Luis en Miami


----------



## mikebridge

just another thank you note. dad's bday present is installed and working fine so far. (knock on wood). 20-some-odd-hours to 120hours45minutes. now if the stepmom would stop accumulating all those KUID soap operas....
(and a thank you out to geko29 for coming over and looking semi important while i did most of the work. =p)


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## NateF

One more thank you to add to the bunch. The whole primary/slave/secondary thing threw me a bit at first, but I really just needed to step back a second and think about it. Upgraded AT&TiVo from 40 to 197 hours. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in creating the upgrade manual. It's a lot easier than it looks at first.


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## llogan

Don't know how I did it, but I killed a 120GB drive. I couldn't find (nor did I have the patience to deal with the Maxtor diagnostic utilities at the time) but it just wouldn't spin up. I had tested it successfully in the standalone Tivo and was in the process of 'blessing' it and the other drive and it just won't power up. Anyway, Maxtor's going to send me a refurb'd one, so I'm out the cost of shipping and fortunately I had a spare 120GB lying around. Other than that, my second successful, sort of, upgrade. First one was a DirecTivo 35 hours to 225 hours. This one was an upgrade to a 14 hour standalone unit to 245 hours basic (1x120gb and 1x80gb). Thanks!


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## olav

It worked, finally.... I found out that even though under windows my hda shows as one partition in order to get the command : # mount /dev/had1 /mnt/dos to work i had to go to hda2. 
and obviously the mfstoools i copied onto c: wasn't helpful so i copied it to a floppy and after mounting the floppy everything came together. 
so it took me about six hours, of which only less than one was actually needed for the backup etc. the other five where a walk in linux land. i might take acourse in linux after all ;-) 

thanks a lot to the hinsdale guide, to all the software makers and testers, strugling with just one command line makes me shudder if i were to do something really complicated, and thanks to the tivo community. 
even as a dutchman, whose countrymen don't even know what a tivo is i think that televisionwise this is the ninth wonder of the world. 

olav 
now the tired but proud owner of a tivo with 54 hours at best quality


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## Agrajag

Okay, I have two systems in my house and a 100gb drive just waiting to into a Hughes DirecTivo.

I have the cable. I have the interface cable.

What I'm lacking is an understanding of how I'm supposed to get around the Windows XP issue.

What are the exact steps I can take to bless this drive without XP screwing it up with its little stub file? I can format a floppy and boot from that, but that's going to have some form of XP on it, correct?


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## altobeeper

Thanks Hinsdale! Your intructions were extremely easy to use and worked flawlessly.


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## tivoupgrade

We've put together a new bootable CD that has latest MFStools, Turbonet/TiVoNet drivers, BlessTiVo and a bunch of the other popular stuff. In time, we'll get our scripts and utilities on there, as well. We've not released this to the 'general public' yet (ie you can only get to it from the specific link, below) so if any folks out there can download it, give it a whirl, and send me feedback, I'd appreciate it - there was definitely some booting quirkiness with my initial builds of the CD and I'd like to see it tested on as many platforms as possible.

Here's the link:

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/site/downloads/

Thanks,
Lou


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## MrB!

Another Thanks to all for their hard work on creating/documenting the upgrade process. New (1wk) 40hr AT&T Tivo took less than 30min to add a Maxtor 160Gb B-drive! (It took me longer to check-out at CompUSA last night!) My first Tivo and first upgrade so am very pleased (and proud). Your instructions and software could not be easier to use! Reported 216Hrs on first boot! If only I could afford to replace the A drive with a 160 as well! Unfortunately this is only going to give my wife more room to fill with Bob Villa re-runs <sigh>.

Only "catch" was that the IDE cables I have (all high density / fast) had that one pin "plugged" whereas the IDE connector on the Tivo and it's factory cable did not (ie: all pins present on connector on main board so cables would not fit). I used a clothes pin over an open flame to take care of that. Worked like a charm!

Next is the USB-Ethernet to connect over my cable connection.

Question#1: Can anyone tell me what other USB-Ethernet dongles they have used sucessfully? I saw a Linksys one at Frys for under $30. Are the drivers for these built-in to the Tivo?

Question#2: What is the device (possibly Sony) that will allow me to remote control my Tivo and "pipe" content throughout the house? We have 2x Coax runs to each room in the house - maybe that will help too.

Thanks again to all.
Cheers,
Mr B!


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## RoscoePColtrane

I finished upgrading my Tivo yesterday and I am now the proud owner of a ~198 hour AT&TiVo!

Tiger, thank you for the incredible job you did putting together MFS Tools 2.0. I used the floppy version and they worked flawlessly.

Hinsdale, thank you very much for the clear, concise instructions. I edited them down to just the parts germane to my install and used them as a checklist when I upgraded my box.

I also want to thank all the folks at TiVo who put together such a fantastic product. This has really changed the way I watch TV.

My upgrade of my 10-day-old AT&TiVo went very well. My only issues were pre-upgrade and involved setting up a computer that would work nicely. I am detailing the issues here, hoping I can help someone else who may face the same issue. My only available Win9x PC did not have an IDE drive, it only had SCSI. I ended up finding an old IDE drive, adding it to the machine, and formatting it with FAT 16. I then disconnected the SCSI drives and the CD drives (there were three). So for my upgrade the C: drive was a completely blank 2GB drive formatted with FAT 16. I wasn't sure whether or not this would work but the MFS tools reported a successful backup (without recordings) and when I restored my backup to the 'B' drive {120 GB Maxtor 5400 RPM (4G120J6)} the TiVo unit worked flawlessly. When the PC was powered back up with the SCSI drive connected I was able to see the tivo.bak file on the IDE drive and burn it to CD for archiving (total compressed size 101 MB).

I now have a ridiculous number of season passes and wishlists and I never have to look at Basic or Medium quality again!

Thanks again everyone!

p.s. MrB!, I purchased my USB to Ethernet adapter (and my IDE cable and power splitter) from 9th Tee. They shipped out promptly. You can find them here http://www.9thtee.com/.


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## rick_indy

Hinsdale,

More thanks!!! I wish everyone could write Linux how to's as easy as you do. I have successfully upgraded my Tivo HDR 212 with two Maxtor 120 GB following your instructions. So many "Linux Gods" write perplexing documentation that just assumes you were "born knowing" Your simple step by step can permit any computer novice to upgrade their Tivo. I have a hard copy of your documentation ready to go for my next upgrade. Thanks again for all your efforts

Rick


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## Bill Reeves

Two weeks ago, I discovered this site. Last week, I read in detail all about the upgrade process. Monday, I ordered my hard drives (2x120GB IBM DeskStar). Tuesday, I went to Home Depot to buy a Torx screwdriver. Wednesday, the hard drives arrived.

Tonight (Thursday): my Sony SAT-T60 DirecTiVo now reports 232 hours.

A huge thank you to everyone who made it possible - Tiger for the tools, Hinsdale for the how-to, and everyone who has posted here with additional information.

-- Bill


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## MrLatte

I guess I just need some encouragement!

I have an almost 2 year old Philips DSR6000 bone-stock at 35 hours. It has a really low S/N so I'm pretty sure it's a two drive model.

I've been thinking about upgrading by replacing the 2 drives with a couple of 120GB 5400 drives by following Hinsdale's new steps and using MFSTools 2.0. This all seems straightforward but I keep hearing people have booting problems and such.

Are people that are having more problems doing a 2nd upgrade or perhaps standalones have more potential problems with the swapfile and all that?

I hate to screw up my machine that's been rock-steady for this long. Not sure if I'm going to try and save my recordings or not. This time of year I don't have that many critical things on there that it's worth the extra time.


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## Robert S

MFS Tools 2.0 only seems to screw up swap partitions it creates, so if you use dd to copy your drives onto the new media and then use mfsadd to expand you should be fine.

It's not all that hard to fix your swap, anyway.

There are also concerns that MFS Tools 2.0 prevents TiVo recovering from a 'green screen' file system corruption problem. But I think MFSTools 2 is the only option for you anyway, so you'll either have to use it or wait for a fixed version of MFS Tools.


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## mao64

I was watching The Screen Savers the other day and heard them talking about upgrading Tivo. I didn't know this could be done. I have one of the original Tivo's, the one with the 14 hour recording time. I have just read a little bit of the instructions on how to upgrade and some of the comments from other people. I would love to do this if I can. But it still seems awfully complicated, though. Could someone please help me on this? I would like to do this if someone can convince me that it's not that complicated. 

Thanks,

Mark


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## Cpen

Mark:

If you have a PC at home, and have ever opened it up to replace a hard drive or add a second hard drive, this should be a breeze. 

You need to follow Hinsdale's instructions (link at beginning of this thread). 

You basically remove and attach your tivo's hard drive to your PC and make a backup of it. Then you plug your new larger hard drive(s) into your PC and restore the backup to the larger drive(s). Then simply put the larger hard drive(s) into your Tivo - viola!

Because TiVo uses a Linux-based opperating system, you need to boot up your PC into Linux (using Tiger's MFS Tools 2.0). MFS Tools provides you with the proper copy tools to make a backup and restore it to a larger drive.

Spend some time reading and re-reading the Hisndale guide - then surf around here for a week or so, and you'll get the gist of it. I learned a lot by surfing this site to see where others ran into problems. If you have any questions, post them here.

If all of this seems too scary for you, you can either:

1. Order an upgrade kit - search google for "TiVo Upgrade". You'll get a larger hard drive(s) with the Tivo software already installed (you still crack open the TiVo to remove the current hard drive and plug in the replacement/upgrade hard drive).

2. You send your Tivo out to have someone else upgrade it for you (again, search google). 

These two options will cost you more, but you still end up with MUCH more storage.

If you can do it yourself, I'd recommend removing your current 14Hr drive and keeping it as your backup (it's so comapratively small it won't add much, and gives you a VERY secure backup)

P


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## grecorj

Whoo-hoo!

Upgraded my Philips DTiVo last night & I'm now the proud owner of a 106 HR DTiVo!

Thanks to Hinsdale, Kazymyr, Tiger, weaknees.com, ptvupgrade.com, TiVo Community Upgrade Center Forum, and everyone else! Even a "shout out" to Leo on ScreenSavers for showing me that even if ya screw it up the first time, it ain't no big thing!

Upgrade was very quick -- minus making a backup (35 minutes), it was a 25 minute process. Within 1 hr I went from 35 HR ---> 106 HR. Nice!


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## ttb

read ,read and more read the howto guide, here is a tip ,check and see if there is a local linux users group,maybe some of the members have tivos and have upgraded them,after all it is running linux.and if not linux users tend to be more savey than windows users,and would be glad to help you


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## 28415

Thank you all! After several days of lurking, I have finally decided on an upgrade path for my single drive SAT-60.

After much concern over swap issues, and more importantly GSOD recovery with the new MFS 2.0 tools, and with a desire to keep all my saved recordings, and not have to loose them in the future due to failure (GSOD) or deal with another upgrade, I have decided to plow down and install two 120 Gigs in one shot. I will be using a method that has worked successfully for many here.

I plan to copy the image of my existing A drive using dd, then putting in back in and testing it. If all is OK, expanding it with DTivomad, blessing the second drive, then installing the pair and powering up. This upgrade has been reported by several as successfully producing a 230 hour SAT-60 box.

Good luck to all you upgraders out there. I know upgrading is a fun and challenging project for most of us, and serious too! I mean, I cannot live without my Tivo for even one day.  I will report back after my upgrade is complete.

I recently posted the following information in another thread, but it may be of interest to some here:

Circuit City has a decent rebate on Western Digital's 120 Gig 7200RPM (WD1200BBRTL), good 8/04-8/10. 
Retail price is $249.00, - rebate $80.00 = 169.00 (+ Tax)

Another good deal is at <http://www.googlegear.com> The same drive WD1200BB in the non retail package without the mounting screws, cable, and software. This is not a biggie for me, since I will get all that when I purchase the one above. 
Their price is $159.00 + .50 , yes only 50 cents extra for FedEx 2nd day.

This is the drive with the 2MB buffer, not the special edition 8MB. I have 2 of the special editions in my server, and they are not too loud. The original Quantum 40G in my SAT-60 is definitely a wiener. Two of these WD's should not be any worse. I have seen many posts on installed 7200's without much heating issues, and some claim better performance.

I will re-use the mounting screws from my existing A drive, and the retail kit will give me a new cable, and mounting hardware for the second B drive.

I wanted to get this out for those interested in the rebate and pricing info.


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## 28415

Here's my update:

After much lurking, and getting clues to some stumbling blocks along the way from many here, I successfully completed my SAT-60 Upgrade.

My original configuration was a single drive Quantum 40 Gig. I decided to go with two Western Digital 7200 RPM drives. Together, they are quieter than the original drive which had a nasty whine, however, they are definitely hotter. I went with the 7200's because there were some deals on them, and others had commented on a performance boost with the faster drives. Either way, I am already cooling the unit externally with a boxer fan, so I was not overly concerned about heat.

I should point out that I wanted to keep my recordings, and originally just wanted to add a B drive or replace my A drive with a larger one, but after looking around an reading allot, I saw my best bet was just to go to the max now, keep my original A drive as a backup, and not worry about how to upgrade down the road. Currently, MFS 2.0, which allows you to do these upgrades has been reported to have problems with swap, and recovering from GSOD.

After much debate over which tools to use, I went with the TiVomad CD image nuboot6.iso downloaded from the author's site at http://www.trevor.heartfield.zen.co.uk. I had to change the extension to .nrg for Nero burning software to recognize it as an image, and then accepted the Nero defaults.

My upgrade PC only had one IDE plug, (the CD is on a secondary, but with a funny smaller plug) so I had to make due. Here's what steps I did, mostly with info from Hinsdale's how to http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/, and notes I gathered from readme files from the various tools, as well as posts on this forum.

I Pulled my original A drive and put in in the Primary master slot, and put a new WD on the primary slave jumpered as slave. My original drive came jumpered as cable select. I left alone, since it came up fine as primary master.

I read that the image copy using dd goes faster with the noswap option, and it's fine to go this route in my configuration only for dd. I booted the CD and typed noswap at boot:, verified my drive sizes by shift / page up, logged in as root and used dd.
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=32k - In a little over four hours, I had a 1221528+0 records in and records out match.

I jumpered my new WD back to master and put it in the TiVo to test the image copy, and it stuck on the powering up screen while rebooting every few minutes. I came back here and saw posts on a peculiarity of WD drives. I discovered that they should not to be jumpered at all if they are the only drive in the primary slot. I pulled the jumper and JOY. All is good! TiVo boots and works fine, still shows the original 35 hours.

Next I used DTiVomad4 to expand my A, and BlessTiVo to add my B. I found out that DiTivomad4 will not let you use hda, so I jumpered my new A drive to slave and put it on the primary slave, booted to the CD this time with bysteswapping on by just hitting enter. It's the default on this CD.

maddtb4/setupcd.sh - I originally just typed setup.sh, and it was asking for a second disk, so if you're on the CD, it's setupcd.sh

I removed the newly expanded A drive, and jumpered it back to master. It now will need to be jumpered since it will be installed with a slave.

I grabbed another new WD drive, jumpered as slave, put it in as primary slave and blessed it.
BlessTiVo /dev/hdb - Capital letters count here so be sure to do it like it's typed.

Installed both drives together into the SAT-60, and powered up.

Note: Do not boot up the A drive alone at this point If you boot without both drives in the machine, you must start all over!

I saw the reboot that is expected while the DTiVomad software does it thing. After that, it came up normal with 230 hours.

The speed of all operations are certainly much faster than the original configuration. In all areas, performance has been improved dramatically. I can't say if this is attributed to 7200 RPM drives with 2MB buffer, but I am certainly smiling.

I'm sure it will slow down when I load it up with more programs, but I'll have to wait and see.

Cannot report on temperature yet, since the cover is off while I wait for a new Sunon fan http://www.1coolpc.com/case60ho.htm. My original fan bit the dust. Actually, that's what started all of this. I had to get in there to see what was up with the fan. 

I can't thank enough all of the posters that have helped me and so many others out here. It's the reason I'm posting my experience, as I feel I have to give back, and hopefully it will help someone.

Specail thanks to: Trevor, Tiger, hinsdale, Robert S, stormsweeper, and klincoln - for some of his testing which convinced me to finally stay away from MFS 2.0 right now, and go with the full upgrade and old tools.

Right now, I am very happy!


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## LuigiMarconi

Just wanted to say that your latest upgrade guide (and links to necessary tools) worked out perfectly.........again.

Thanks so much for your step by step how to!

I tried to boot to the CD but I could never get past the ACPI section and finally get to a hash mark.

So I downloaded the floppy instead and it worked fine.

I now have two 120GB hard drives running in an original 30hr Phillips single drive unit. This is the second upgrade I've done on this machine.

The system info says I now have 306+ hours of recording time. Amazing!!

I went ahead and kept my shows and that took a wee bit of time......but they're all there!

Thanks again!!

Dave Cerreta


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## phone1

I took the easy way out - ordered a pre-blessed 120 MgB drive from PTV - took about 20 minutes, even with an IDE controller cable confusion issue. (Never put the cover on and connect all the cables without booting first!)

Thanks Lou!


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## schwachs

What's the latest general thoughts...

I have a Tivo Series 1 (original tivo) that I'd like to update... should I use the methods described in:

"2) New Hinsdale-How-To featuring Tigers Mfs Tools 2.0 as an all-in-one upgrade solution" 

or stick with

"1) Original Hinsdale-How-To featuring TiVoMad, BlessTiVo, and Mfs Tools 1.1."

Thanks!


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## Robert S

It depends how lucky you're feeling. The original Hinsdale uses well-proven tools which will give you a very safe upgrade.

MFS Tools 2.0 kind of works, but may corrupt your swap partition and breaks mfsfix, so your TiVo will drop dead if you get any file system corruption.

On the plus side MFS Tools 2.0 seems to cause the TiVo to slow down less. Try to do as much of the upgrade in one command as you can (get both x and p into the command) for maximum benefit, and do check your swap afterwards.


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## TuneGuy!

I've been reading a lot about swap file corruption and mfsfix failure when using MSFT 2.0 and I wonder if one of you gurus would mind looking at what I've done and telling me whether I might have a problem in the future? And I must admit to some memory failure and confusion after reading about a hundred posts on this subject. 

I upgraded my new AT&T TiVo about two weeks ago using MSFT 2.0. It now works fine; daily calls, recording and playback all OK. With the kind of upgrade I did (described below), am I vulnerable to the GSOD if I get a corrupted file some time in the future? It seems to me (a Linux know-nothing) that it might not affect me even though I used 2.0.

I followed Hinsdale's instructions for adding a second drive to a single drive unit. I made an image of the original 40GB drive, tested it on my new Maxtor 120GB which worked fine, used mfsadd to expand the space and installed as directed, with the 40GB as slave. I did not use the -s switch to change swap size so it must still be 64MB and works fine so far. I am not worried about swap, but rather the possible disabling of mfsfix.

Here's my thinking: I really changed nothing on my 40GB drive other than tell it the new drive was there, so did I really break mfsfix? Or is mfsadd the source of the problems mfsfix?

My questions:

1) If you just ADD a drive to a one-drive TiVo without changing the swap size, does it break mfsfix?

2) Is the backup image I made of my original 40GB drive a good image? Would it be useful for correcting a future problem with file corruption?

3) Having used MFSTools 2.0 for this upgrade, where do I stand reference obstacles to a future upgrade of the original 40GB to a second 120GB?

Thanks a lot for your help and patience with a new guy.

John


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## Robert S

The problem with mfsfix does not appear to relate to the swap problem. (You can easily check your swap, instructions in the MFS Tools 2.0 fixes thread, but you would have serious problems by now if you had no swap.)

As far as we know at the moment, any partition created buy MFS Tools 2.0 can not be scanned/repaired by mfsfix, therefore, yes, if you get a filesystem corruption problem your TiVo will not recover.

Your backup should be fine, the problem affects the restore mechanism.

You should be able to expand your A drive. dd the current A drive on to the new drive and then expand with mfsadd.

Keep watching the fixes thread for the latest thinking on the problems with MFS Tools 2.0


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## Merle Corey

> _Originally posted by TuneGuy! _
> *1) If you just ADD a drive to a one-drive TiVo without changing the swap size, does it break mfsfix?
> 
> 2) Is the backup image I made of my original 40GB drive a good image? Would it be useful for correcting a future problem with file corruption?
> 
> 3) Having used MFSTools 2.0 for this upgrade, where do I stand reference obstacles to a future upgrade of the original 40GB to a second 120GB?
> 
> *


The last day has been a busy one, and we've learned some new things. To answer your questions based on that new info:

1) Sometimes. If your new capacity is >140GB, 64MB is not enough swap, and you may be subject to the greenscreen loop. You're at 160GB, so you need additional swap. There are a few emergency mechanisms outlined in the fixes thread - if you're already looping, check 'em out. If you're fine right now, keep an eye on your TiVo and increase your swap when the opportunity presents itself.

2) The image is good. Heck, we even know now that the restore is good. It looks like most of the common problems people have been having with MFST2.0 have been swap related (either bad swap or not enough swap).

3) The future upgrade of the 40GB A to a 120GB A should be non-problematic. Once again, you'll need 128MB of swap for that config, but you need that for your current config anyway.

MC


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## tivoupgrade

for what its worth, our belief is that the required swap size is not a function of the size of the drives you install in your TiVo, but more a function of physical size of memory in your unit. typically, in unix systems, optimal swap sizes are 2-3 times that of physical memory - so 32-64MB is fine for a standalone or DirecTiVo unit. granted, there is the potential issue of corrupt filesystems not recovering from the 'green screen' when larger drives are used as the A drive; but it is not a 'given' that NOT having a 128MB swap size is going CAUSE such a failure.

on our kits, swap size is typically configured to be 64MB; we've had no issues to date, even on larger drives.

Lou
PTVupgrade


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## Merle Corey

Lou:

You are correct - under normal circumstances, swap should be a function of the amount of RAM in a system, not the amount of drive space.

A TiVo isn't normal circumstances.

The big issue, as you note, is fsfix. It actually _does_ require a certain amount of memory be available per GiB. Since the system RAM is fixed (barring a little surface mount work on the 16MB units), it falls on swap to make up the difference.

You are also correct in that 128MB isn't needed for all large drive configs. The largest that is actually needed is around 122MB, and that's for a dual 160 (ie 256GiB of capacity) in a 16MB TiVo. 32MB units will require slighly less swap, but still not enough to make 64MB universally safe.

(And by "safe" I mean "provide enough swap to allow fsfix to run." Whether or not fsfix can repair what's broken is another matter.)

The problem is that a few fairly prominent people have recently suggested that 64MB is now universally safe due to improvements in the TiVo software and/or MFSTools. That is simply not true, but a lot of people put a lot of hope in it, especially because of the -s 128 bug in MFSTools 2.0.

We've now developed a rough working knowledge of the amount of memory fsfix requires per GiB of capacity - specifically, about 512K per GiB. A small part of that will come out of system RAM - on the 16MB SA's, it's about 6MB of RAM. The rest *must* come from swap, or fsfix dies on a signal 11.

I freely acknowledge that it may not be a linear formula, and that results may be inaccurate at the extremes...but we _do_ know that 64MB is _not_ sufficient for very large drive pairs, and that 140GB still looks to be the breaking point beyond which 64MB is no longer sufficient.

My assertion is not that 128MB is some kind of magic requirement. 128MB of swap is, however, large enough that it *is* universally safe.* It's also a nice round power of 2, it's exactly double the standard swap, and it rolls off the tongue much easier than "122MB." 

MC

* Barring any kernel updates or future TiVo platforms allowing even larger drives.


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## Merle Corey

> _Originally posted by Merle Corey _
> *and it rolls off the tongue much easier than "122MB."
> *


There's something funny about that last paragraph, and especially that last statement, in light of the fact that today we've realized that the fix for the -s 128 "problem" is to use -s 127 instead.

Heh.

Anyway, the gist remains the same - 127MB is a universally safe value for large drive pairs, while 64MB is good for anything under 140GB or so.

MC


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## Robert S

Given the falling price of hard drives, and the awkwardness of increasing swap if you want to keep your recordings, I'll be advising everyone to use -s 127 - it costs 63Mb and insures against any future swap-related problems. Once you have 127Mb of swap you can use dd and mfsadd for future upgrades quite safely.


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## JDTUC

I got to the mounting the hard drive into the TiVo rather late in the evening, so I had to McGuyver it a bit.. I used the included brackets from the HD to give the HD "feet" and then hot glued it to the chassis of the Tivo unit. (Martha Stewart would be proud of my Glue Gun Skills.. Wonder if they have TiVo in Prison) 

I went from 20 hours to 147 hours !!! Oh My goodness.. how wonderful, Now I can record all 24 hours of "24" on FX (Actually, I could do it 6 times, but who's counting) 


Thanks again for the information 

Joe


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## Eraser

More thanks to Hinsdale.

I had him upgrade my unit as I didn't want to do it myself. He set up the drives and I had them in just a couple of days. A couple of months later one of the drives we bad. I sent the good drive and a new one to him and he set those up at no charge. All I can say is that if everyone would do business like he does the world would be a better place.

Thank you Hinsdale.


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## rich47

With a lot of trepidation, I successfully swapped a 80gb hd for the 15 gb drive b in my Phillips dtv dsr6000r. I really didn't think I'd be able to do it but followed the directions carefully and got through without any problems.

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice. 

I'll reiterate what others have said -- if you can add a hard drive to your pc, this will be no problem for you.

--- Happily enjoying my 96-hours of TiVo.


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## Barmat

Thank you all so much. Today I upgraded my DirecTivo with a 100 GB hard drive, giving me over 120hrs recording time. I followed Hinsdale's Mfstools ver 2 and the only problems I had were connecting the IDE cable wrong at the end .

Thanks to every one that worked putting this together.


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## Slicker

OK, I tread to read the entire thread, but wow, it's long.

Here's the situation:

I have a sony SVR2000, added an 80G B drive months ago, very successfully

now i'm getting the stuttering and freezes, and i can hear the clicking, so i think the original A drive is dying

I have an 80G here doing nothing, so I plan to replace the A drive with the new 80G, and would like to try to retain my recordings

The instructions seem clear, EXCEPT:

I will now exceed that 140G limit, so my swap won't be big enough. Since I am replacing a single drive (A) I will use Step 7 option 2 to do the backup.

Then, later I will use step 10 configuration #4, which uses dd to do the copy, not MFS, correct? Will dd give me a big enough swap file or not? This is where I get lost......

I am already in withdrawl from Tivo, and it's not even completely dead, so I would like to do this ASAP. Can someone please clear up this question for me? Will my swap file be big enought; do I have do do something to make it big enough?

Thanks so much. This forum rules!


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## Robert S

There's a reasonable chance that you will be able to dd your A drive to the new disk. You are correct, a 160Gb TiVo with 64Mb of swap will not recover from a green screen. dd will not increase your swap, it simply copies one disk or partition onto another.

You have three options.


Don't exapand (seriously paranoid!)
Expand and try not to worry. If your TiVo does green screen, use the emergency swap rescue wer're developing on the MFS Tools 2.0 fixes thread.
Expand and use pdisk to create a new swap partition. This is a similar hack to the emergency swap scheme, but can be left in place permanently (emergency swap must be removed once your TiVo recovers). Looking for guin^H^H^H^Hvolunteers to develop this.

I would definitely consider drive failure to be a more imminent danger than swap problems.


----------



## Slicker

OK, i think I'm going with option #2, expand and don't worry. (Is there a chance I got a bigger swap file on my first upgrade?)

So, other than the potential and less worisome swap problem, I have chosen the correct options above?

Thanks again, and really appreciate the quick reply


----------



## Robert S

You added a B drive with BlessTiVo? No change to swap there, all the swap is on the A drive.

As I said, the priority is to get the data off that disk before it fails. If you don't expand right away, you can think about doing #3 later - once you've expanded, the disk is full so there's no room for more swap.


----------



## Squire_Pug

Robert S,

I'm willing to be a guinea pig for option #3 above (adding a larger, permanent swap partition to my new A drive). What do I need to do? Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

Read the last few posts on the MFS Tools 2.0 fixes thread where gigageek describes how he made a swap partition on his inactive root partition and then swapped the numbers so the TiVo looked to the new partition for its swap space. (You need the inactive root partition for the next software upgrade, so it's strictly an emergency measure).

You'll be doing the same thing, but creating a new 128Mb partition instead of using the inactive root partition.

I'm not sure if you'll run into difficulties if pdisk thinks your drive is no larger than the original A drive. Looking at the TiVoMad script, it doesn't look like you have to do anything special.

You might want to back up your partition table before you start. Mount your FAT drive as per Hinsdale MFS Tools backup and do:

dd if=/dev/hd*X* of=/mnt/dos/tivo.tbl count=64 bs=512

Given this is as yet unproven, restore your backup to your new drive (only takes a few minutes if you don't take recordings) and make sure everything goes to plan before you use your 'live' drive set.


----------



## Slicker

OK, i figure now that I did it, I should again thank everyone involved, esp Robert S, for making it so eay.

Went from a Sony V=SVR2000 30/80 3.0 to a 80/80 3.0, and didn't lose my recordings. And the process took only 2.5 hours.

So, assuming I don't get beat down cause of the smaller swap file, I am once again funtioning, and hopefully will lose all that stuttering/freezing that had been going on lately. 

I'll let ya know in a few days if it keeps working

Thanks again


----------



## dwallyn

hinsdale: I just rec'd a used HDR31201 with a 30 gigger. I have purchased a 120 gig from someone who has made the disk an "A" drive for me. If I wanted to add a "B" drive to this new "A" drive, is all I have to do is Bless the new "B" drive and add it to the case? Or do I have to also make a copy of the new "A" drive, even though I have the original "A" drive as backup? Please let me know hinsdale, or anyone who might know.
Thanks


----------



## llogan

You need to make a backup of your new A drive, then restore either to that same drive or a different one to make your new A drive and then bless your B drive.


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## dwallyn

IF I MAKE A BACKUP, ISHOULDN'T HAVE TO RESTORE IT TO THE SAME NEW DRIVE WOULD I. COULDN'T I JUST SAVE IT ON MY "C" DRIVE ON MY COMPUTER AND BURN IT ON A CDROM? ALSO WHAT SOFTWARE DOES THE COPY IMAGES AND RESTORING?


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## Robert S

RESTORING AN IMAGE TO THE SAME DRIVE IS A TECHNIQUE FOR PREPARING AN A DRIVE THAT WAS PART OF A SET TO TAKE A NEW B DRIVE. MFS TOOLS IS WHAT YOU NEED FOR CREATING BACKUPS AND RESTORING THEM. SEE THE TOP POST IN THIS THREAD FOR DETAILS. USE NEW HINSDALE AND MFS TOOLS 2.0.


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## dwallyn

THANKS ALOT ROBERT. YOU HAVE BEEN VERY HELPFUL. TO MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND, I WILL MAKE A BACKUP IMAGE OF MY NEW "A" DRIVE, AND RESTORE IT ONTO MY NEW "A" DRIVE, USING MFS TOOLS 2.0. IT THEN CAN BE MARRIED TO A NEW "B" DRIVE ONCE THE "B" DRIVE IS BLESSED WITH BLESSTIVO. IS THIS CORRECT?

DENNIS


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## Robert S

DON'T USE BLESSTIVO, IT'S OBSOLETE AND CAN BITE YOU IF YOU USE IT FOR THE WRONG PURPOSE (LIKE THE ONE YOU PROPOSE). USE MFSADD, OR CONNECT THE B DRIVE WHEN YOU DO THE RESTORE AND ADD ITS NAME TO THE END OF THE COMMAND LINE AND MFS TOOLS WILL CONFIGURE IT CORRECTLY.


----------



## domesticbeer

Thanks Hinsdale and Tiger and esp Robert S.


Did my upgrade on my SVR2000 went from 30hrs to 119hrs by adding 2x 80gb maxtor hard drives.


----------



## legalaliens

Successfully upgrade of a two drive DSR6000 to a single (120 gb Maxtor) drive unit!

Thanks to everybody (especially Hinsdale) for the great instructions.

Philips DSR6000 - 109 Hours


----------



## legalaliens

> _Originally posted by grecorj _
> *Whoo-hoo!
> 
> Upgraded my Philips DTiVo last night & I'm now the proud owner of a 106 HR DTiVo!
> 
> Thanks to Hinsdale, Kazymyr, Tiger, weaknees.com, ptvupgrade.com, TiVo Community Upgrade Center Forum, and everyone else! Even a "shout out" to Leo on ScreenSavers for showing me that even if ya screw it up the first time, it ain't no big thing!
> 
> Upgrade was very quick -- minus making a backup (35 minutes), it was a 25 minute process. Within 1 hr I went from 35 HR ---> 106 HR. Nice!
> 
> *


Nevermind my original post - I saw some previous posts with 106 hours - 40 + 80.


----------



## gannett

Me too .. Success Using the most excelent notes
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

My Tivo is now up to 140 Hours (basic) with room for another 140h on a second drive when added. The backup image is on a PC in case of disk crash and the original 30+15 GB drives are in the cupboard as fall back position. The new 120gb Maxtor 540x drive was £1 a Gbyte from Insight.com/uk

The main process difference was that the CD tool automatically unlocked the Maxtor drives during the boot process so that extra step was not needed.

The process was very similar to that described in 
http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/
but I had a 30 + 15 GB drive configuration rather than just a single drive as described.

The CD tool allows the migration from twin into a single drive unit so decided to go for a single 120Gb configuration and keep the original drives intact. This would be quieter and allow for a simpler aditional upgrade next time. The conversion process used kept all the user information ( thumbs, season passes) but not the recordings.

You will know this if you have read all the thread but here goes ...

The process is quite straight forward. You put the drives into a PC that has a 3rd dos drive and is booted off the Tivo tools cdrom. You then use a special backup tool on the CD to read the Tivo drives and make a backup image on the dos disk. You then remove the Tivo disks from the PC and put in the new drive and do the restore. After testing the restored image on the new drive in the Tivo you then put it back in the PC and use another software tool to expand the drive to its full size. ( Can be done in one step at restore time. ) Move the disk back to the Tivo, tidy up the loose cables and fix in the now spare B disk special bracket using some nuts to hold the disk mounting screws, reboot and check out the system information then grin inanely.



It all went smoothly thanks to some assistance and the great notes linked to above.

Gannett


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## Robert S

Steve's diary was written just before MFS Tools 2.0 came out.

It's better to use MFS Tools 2.0:

*mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdb*

(If you have two source drives, list the B drive after /dev/hdc).

Replaces both dd and TiVoMad, plus expands swap (makes adding that B drive safer) and uses a faster partition structure (TiVo hardly slows down at all).

If you do add a B drive, use mfsadd and not BlessTiVo.


----------



## Slicker

Just an update here. The fix I did (replace/upgrade my "A" drive) did NOT fix my problem. Stutter is back, though not as frequently, and doesn't crash the drive completely as often. I suppose it is possible my "B" drive is also failing, but as it is less than 6 months old, that is less likely. So, off I go, going to try to copy/replace my "B" drive, and see if that helps.

One thought I had... I still have my original Quantum drive (the one I removed for the upgrade) and am considering clearing it off, restoring from my backup, and popping it in by itself to see if I still get the problems. Of course, if the drive is really bad, this wouldn't work too well. 

How can I test the drive? What tools do I use on the Tivo upgrade CD? (I have a bootable CD to work with) Also, how do I view the partitions on the "A" drive?

Thanks for any help


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Slicker _
> *Just an update here. The fix I did (replace/upgrade my "A" drive) did NOT fix my problem. Stutter is back, though not as frequently, and doesn't crash the drive completely as often. I suppose it is possible my "B" drive is also failing, but as it is less than 6 months old, that is less likely. So, off I go, going to try to copy/replace my "B" drive, and see if that helps.
> 
> One thought I had... I still have my original Quantum drive (the one I removed for the upgrade) and am considering clearing it off, restoring from my backup, and popping it in by itself to see if I still get the problems. Of course, if the drive is really bad, this wouldn't work too well.
> 
> How can I test the drive? What tools do I use on the Tivo upgrade CD? (I have a bootable CD to work with) Also, how do I view the partitions on the "A" drive?
> 
> Thanks for any help *


It is just as likely to be a new drive as an older drive. You should download diagnostics from here and run the advanced factory test, if you have time, on both drives.

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Lou
PTVupgrade


----------



## Robert S

PowerMax often passes drives that cause TiVo to stutter. Unless you can find other evidence of which drive is failing (error messages in logs?), the only definitive test can be to put an A drive image on both drives so you can run them independently.

If you're restoring to the same drive you backed up from, don't use the -s 127 option as the expanded swap will make the image too big for the drive.


----------



## Slicker

OK, I can try to view the logs. I have put Tivo into backdoor mode and looked at the logs, but not sure what I should actually look for. Which log? And what evidence?

The strangest part of all this is that the same recording that stutters will work fine next time around. Usually, all I have to do is hit the Tivo button on first stutter, pop thru a couple of menus, and the restart the recording. That implies to me that the drive isn't bad, but I know it doesn't rule it out completely.

One other thought: has anyone surveyed which machines this happens to? I have the Sony, and while I love Sony products generally, I truely believe that Sony builds their products to fail after a few years. I've had non-sony TVs last for over a decade, and 3 different sony tvs blow out their tube within 3 years. So, is it mostly (or ONLY) sonys this happens to? Or is it evenly divided amongst the manufacturers.


----------



## Slicker

Oh, and after going to that page, there's a problem for me. I don't have a floppy drive. And the Maxtor page tells me I have to boot from a floppy. 

I have an older PII 266 with a floppy. Will it work there?


----------



## Robert S

Yes, it'll run on most PCs. A few very new ones have IDE controllers it doesn't recognise.


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## Slicker

Two more questions before I try the suggestions:

1. is the Maxtor utility destructive? Will I lose my recordings by running it?

2. I have avoided the factory reset option, again because of losing recordings. If i reinstall my original Quantum drive, and do the factory reset on that one, I wouldn't care about recordings, since they are saved on the two new(er) drives. Do I have to restore my original drive before putting it back in if I intend to do factory reset?

Sorry to keep asking, but I am just very frustrated that I get so addicted to my Tivo, and recommend it to so many folx, and then all these problems start. I'm still suspicious of the 3.0 update, because I had ZERO problems before it.

Thanks again. And again, sorry for so many questions.


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## Robert S

Your problems do seem more like the problems others have reported after the 3.0 upgrade rather than a drive failure. I've suggested people reset Guide Data if they don't want to lose their recordings, but no-one ever came back to say if this fixed the problem.

If your original A drive has only ever been a lone A drive, you can plug it straight in. If it was ever married to a B drive, you'll have to restore the backup to make it a lone A drive again.

PowerMax's 'advanced' test isn't destructive. 'Low level format', as you might expect, is destructive.


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## muchmore44

I just want to say thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger for giving us TiVo users a way to maximize a terrific technology, as well as to Robert S. and Merle C. for refining the swap expansion/correction process.

Last night, I upgraded my Hughes DirectTiVo from 35 hours to 106 hours (went from 40 GB to 120 GB) and it couldn't have gone better! It took approximately 1 hour, 30 min, mostly because I was very, very careful - I could have done it faster, but I didn't want to take any chances. MFSTools 2.0 are the best!

I am the happiest guy in the world right now (at least until the next person upgrades a Tivo!) and wanted to thank you guys for all that you have done.

You guys are Saints!

Thanks,
Muchmore44


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## Slicker

OK, just an update, for those that may be interested. 

You have seen my experience spelled out in a couple posts over the past week or so. Yesterday, I decided to simply unplug my Tivo for a while. It sat unplugged for maybe 3 hours, at which time I powered it back up again. (I'm not sure why I decided to try this, but I did. Usually, when I needed to reset the unit, I would unplug it just long enough for the drives to spin down.)

Since plugging it back in, I have watched live and recorded programs, including some recordings that stuttered quite a bit, and have had not a single hesitation. I realize that this isn't yet much of a result, but so far, this seems to have really helped a lot. 

I will of course keep you posted. But I figure this information may be useful to other for the moment.

*crossing my fingers*


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## Slicker

OK, hopefully this will be the final update

Been 5 days since last update, and all is working fine. Have not had a single stutter since I left the unit off for 3 hours, and started it back up.

Still can't tell if perhaps Tivo snuck a minor update in on me that fixed the problem, since the version numbers are so cryptic. But, nonetheless, all is fine, and my 193 hour Tivo is working as it should.

Has anyone else seen the stuttering disappear?


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## TechGeeNee

Okay....I'm new to all this update business. I read on Tee9 web site that if you upgrade your DirecTivo, then your service may no longer download the guides or the software upgrades may not recognize the new hard drive......Is this true? Has anyone had their Tivo unit turn into a doorstop by upgrading the hard drive? I would like to have a fair amount of confidence that I'm not destroying my Tivo before I upgrade......will anyone reply?


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## Robert S

Will anyone reply? As this thread already has 383 replies, there seems at least some chance that someone might.

Upgrades are very safe. If you are concerned about the effect an upgrade will have on your machine, I suggest you order an upgrade A drive to replace your existing drive(s) - if you have any problem with the upgrade you can simply revert to the previous configuration.

Do read New Hinsdale before you order from an upgrade shop - preparing the drive yourself is easy and saves you money.


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## TechGeeNee

LOL Robert!! I love a man with a little gritt!!

Thank you for the reply. I just wanted to make sure there were going to be no ill effects with my service once the upgrade was done. At least until I get one of the Series II DirecTivo Combo's, I only have the one and I'd be absolutely LOST without my Tivo!!!!

If you say it's safe though, I'll take your word for it. I've seen several of your postings and you seem to know exactly what you're about!!

I'll get the HD and do it myself though. I build computers for a living so the procedure isn't an issue, just concerned about the Service results.


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## dpmiles

Help I added a 120 maxtor drive from outpost.com to my DTIVO about 6 weeks ago and all went very well. However the new drive seems to making a clicking noise and the system freeze up. I can get it started by powering it up a couple of times until I don't here a clicking at boot and then it works. I think maybe the hard drive is going bad?? I would like to keep my show and settings what should I do? Can I copy the Second drive to a new 120 gig drive?


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## Robert S

Yes, use the dd method described in Hinsdale to clone your drive onto a new one - the new must be at least as big as the old for this to work.

Copying 120Gb is going to take a while. Check your DMA settings before you start.


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## steve457

Hi, I'm brand new to this forum, and am now about to attempt to upgrade my Sony T-60 DirecTivo. I've been reading this thread, but just want to make sure when I upgrade I do the right thing. 

My plan is to replace the current A drive in my system with a new 120G drive (my machine only has 1 drive to start). I plan on using MFSTools 2.0, and follow the Hinsdale instructions. My question is:

1) Using MFSTools2.0 do I need to type the special command vmlnodma hdb=bswap to enable byteswapping? I read earlier that the byteswapping was broken using MFSTools2.0 and that I needed to do this, but wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
steve

BTW: This is a great forum! Tons of information!


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## Robert S

MFS Tools 2.0 has internal byteswapping, so you don't need to use the magic incantation if you just want to use MFS Tools 2.0.

Use byteswapping if you want to access the TiVo partitions with any other tool.


----------



## hbracewell

I have a Hughes DirecTivo that has been running with dual WD 80GB, upgraded using TivoMad, for about 6 months. I am experiencing increasing incidents of stopples and stutters in both playback and live TV viewing, leading me to believe one (or both) of the drives may be going south. Restarting the receiver seems to alleviate the symptoms for a while, but not for long. The receiver will occasionally restart itself when it gets stuck in a particularly bad stutter. Backdoors are enabled and I see nothing in the logs to point to any specific error or failure (although I am not that familiar with what I should see in these logs, in any case.) 

Assuming I have to replace one or both of the drives (hopefully under WD warranty), I have a question that I have not seen answered elsewhere (but I might have missed it, so forgive me if this is a stupid question). Is it possible, using MFS 2.0, to make a compressed backup copy of a dual drive system, preserving recordings, then to restore this backup onto two new drives? Or is it the case that recordings can only be preserved by dd copying the drives to new drives of the same or larger capacity?

If a compressed copy can not preserve recordings, I will have to lose them, since I see no other option than to pull the drives and check for errors and probably replace them. Or is there sometihng else I should try first? Thanks for the support!

HBracewell
Hughes DirecTivo and Philips SA (312) both upgraded


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## Robert S

'Compressed backup' and 'save recordings' are mutually exclusive - although you can issue the command, you get a backup the same size as the total of your TiVo's disk space - not terribly useful.

Take a compressed backup ASAP before the problem gets any worse.

Run the Western Digital diagnostics utility (someone got a link?) on your drive to identify which one is failing. You may not have caught it in time, but if you have a drive available you can try using dd to clone the failing drive on to a new one. This will save your recordings. 

It looks to me like you've got bad blocks on the failing drive and dd will probably crash when it hits them.


----------



## NCYANKEE

Thanks to all those who put together the upgrade instructions. Hinsdale, your instruction sheet was amazingly clear and complete. The process was actually even easier than it sounded. I started with a suspect drive in my original SA Philips 14 hour, which had been reset per Tivo customer support instructions. The system with the faulty drive had never been able to complete guided setup, so I was not sure if the upgrade/replacement process would work. Everything went off as smooth as possible.

Again, thanks everyone! Now I'm looking forward to getting the new Series II DTivo when it arrives!

Mark


----------



## Slicker

OK, problems again, and now I'm really confused. 

My Tivo froze, so I had to pull the plug to reboot it. I am now in a reboot loop, get the first graphic screen, then the almost there screen. Then I flash a few colors, and I'm back to the Your tivo is starting up graphic screen. This cycle just repeats. I see no "green screen" that I am aware of. Are the color flashes before the cycle starts over what you're talking about? 

Now what do I do? I don't really understand if I should be doing the MFS 2.0 fix, and even if I were going to try that, do I have to pull both drives and hook them up? Or do I simply pull the A drive?

I'm feeling (and probably sounding) stupid here. 

Summary: Sony SV2000, 1st upgrade added 80G drive, then second upgrade (recent) replaced the original A drive with another 80G drive. Recordings remained intact during both upgrades.

NO GREEN SCREEN. Simply a reboot loop. What problem and solution should I be reading?

Thanks


----------



## Robert S

I've never actually seen a green screen, but it doesn't sound like what you're seeing.

This may not be a hard drive failure - your symptoms are not specifically diagnostic. However, I would start by running PowerMax on the drives to see if there's a problem with the drive hardware.


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## tivoupgrade

sounds like either a hard drive failure, or a software corruption failure. of course, if its the latter, it may be due to an emerging problem with one of the hard drives, anyway -- definitely run the PowerMax, and if it passes the quick test, you should also run the 'advanced test' as it shakes out most problems.

lou


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## Slicker

OK, I'll try that. Would be weird to have a second drive go bad. The drives in the machine are 6 and 1 month old. 

If it passes the quick, and I do the advanced, will I lose recordings/passes/thumbs, etc? Cause if so, I may get another drive (was gonna get one to put inmy PC anyway), can try to copy the "suspect" Tivo drive over first, before I run the advanced test. When I replaced my original Quantum drive that was failing within the past month, I was able to copy it off to the new Maxtor with only minor recording loss. 

If it is another bad drive, I would have to suspect the older of the two, I guess, which would be my B drive. But I will test them both. 

I hope it's not another drive failure. Even with cheap drives these days, replacing drives so often will be a bit pricey.

Thanks. Wish me luck


----------



## Robert S

All the PowerMax tests except Low Level Format are non-destructive.

If it's at the mild stuttering stage you've got a good chance of getting your data off.

I would have to suspect the newer drive.


----------



## Slicker

I'm considering removing both large drives, and trying to get myself back to the original quantum drive, 30 hour unit. I did the powermax test, both the 90 sec one and the advanced one, and the original Quantum passed both. This makes me suspect that the B drive is a problem, and I of course will test that with powermax

What I need to know is if powermax finds errors on the B drive, will it repair them so I can simply pop it back in and all should work? or will I need to replace it, trying to copy the data on it so I can preserve recordings? (This assumes that the B test fails something, and powermax wants to fix it.)

Also, I attempted to restore my original backup from the Quantum drive when it was a virgin 30 hour unit. Told me the drive isn't big enough. Is that because there is still data on the Quantum? Can I do a low-level format on this Quantum drive, then restore it, and try the unit with the single drive to get me running (albiet with a smaller capacity drive) until I get a chance to replace the (hopefully-soon-to-be-found) defective B drive?

While I'm at it, I'll test the newest drive, which is currently an 80G maxtor acting as an A drive. It could be bad, even if it is only a month or so old.


----------



## Slicker

OK, one more thing. The first upgrade was a Western Digital drive, not a Maxtor. Will powermax correctly test this drive? I ask because this drive DID fail. It was the drive added in the first upgrade.


----------



## Robert S

PowerMax will only work on Maxtor drives (Quantum is now part of Maxtor so the current PowerMax will work on Quantum drives too), but Western Digital and Seagate have similar utilities (perhaps someone will post links).

As I said, I would expect that it's the newer drive that's failed - most fatalities occur in the first month - but both drives are pretty new.

You don't need to prepare you Quantum, just make a ordinary MFS Tools backup of your current drive set and restore that to the Quantum (don't use -s 127 or the image will be too big to fit). This will make it a lone A drive with your current data on it.

Depending on how attached you are to your recordings, you may also want to do this to both your new drives. PowerMax may not find a problem, but running them as lone A drives should at least tell you which drive is failing.

PowerMax does have a repair option, but I don't know how effective it is, or how compatible with TiVo. If you don't have any bad blocks on the failing drive you should be able to dd its contents to a new drive and fix the problem. dd tends to crash if it hits bad blocks (actually it's Linux stops the copy because it can't read the data - it's not a fault in dd). You can try dd'ing the disk to /dev/null (will take several hours) to see if dd can traverse the whole disk - if it fails there's probably no way to salvage your recordings.


----------



## Slicker

OK, found a diagnostic for Western Digital on their page, under support. Interestingly, although the drives have been working fine for two weeks, BOTH of them failed the non-destructive tests! I will be contacting Maxtor and WD to get advance replacements, hopefully allowing me to dd the drives to the new ones, and be back where I was with my recordings. (The recordings are not really that important, but there are quite a few things I haven't watched yet.) In the meantime, I have restored my original Quantum drive with my most recent backup, popped it back in, and after a dial in call, am back running again with what I thought was the original problem drive. (ARGH, 30 hours? No way that's enuf!  ) 

I'm really wondering if heat had anything to do with the failures. Since two dif drives from two dif manufacterers failed, makes me think. Although, I have never had an above normal temperature in the machine (per system info, it has gone as high as 46C, but that shows as normal.) I guess it could be coincidence, and they are both under warranty. Anyone have experience with returning a drive that was used in a Tivo as opposed to a PC? Should I leave that detail out when I call them for advance replacement?

Thanks for help. Like I said, at least I have Tivo again, even if it is a lowly 30 hr machine.


----------



## Slicker

Oh, BTW, the link for WD diagnostics is
http://support.wdc.com/dlg/

And thanks again to Robert S for being so kind and patient


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## Robert S

46 seems rather hot for an SA, but the drives are rated to operate at 55 Celsius ambient, so who knows.

Neither WD nor Maxtor will have any interest in the type of computer you were using the drive in - the drives have failed, they're obliged to replace them.


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## sacherjj

Well, I am about 600 into 48111 meg of my upgrade to 2 x 120 gig...

If you have trouble seeing hda and hdb, make sure you plugged in the "Y" power adaptor to more than just both drives. 

Much more painless than I thought. I hope it works...

Just one little tidbit for those of you contemplating cracking the case on your Tivo Series 2. There is no way to tell if the case has been opened. I am keeping my original drive and cable. If I have any problems, I should be able to replace the original drive and get services.


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## comfysofa

well - im sitting here and stuck already

all the drives are in the pc


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## comfysofa

well - im sitting here and stuck already

all the drives are in the pc - tried the qunlock command - twice but it doesnt work - swtiched the bios detection to manual.....but no change

Theres not much more that i think i can do.......

sitting here waiting with machine in pieces hoping someone has got a clue.......anyone...

Ta

Andy


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## Robert S

Have you turned the machine off?


----------



## Ludvig

I'm a new member of the TiVo community and want to relate my experience and thanks to this forum. 

I had been looking at TiVo for some time and was put off on the entry price and the monthly charge. But while reading a thread in the forum about Kmart unloading the Phillips 212 units I rushed out and was luck enough to score two new units!

Got hooked up and ejoyed the freedom TiVo provides. I did find out soon that a 20MB unit was not enough and wondered what to do. Once again through the forum I read the upgrade information and decided to give it a try. I looked around for a 80b hard drive and wondered if the price was competitive and found some references to Newegg online sales (in the TiVo forum) and tried them out. Recieved the 80GB drive two days later without a hassel and installed it (with a little help from my friends) and now I am the proud owner of a 104 hr. Tivo. 

Many thanks and I hope to contribute to this great group in the future.

Ludvig


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## sacherjj

comfysofa - I would up just turning the drives to None in bios. The only drive listed was the CDRom. When Linux Kernel boots, it doesn't use the Bios settings. See if that works for you. Shoudl be able to Shift+PgUp to view the kernel load to see if the drives detect.

Make sure that you didn't have the problem that took me two boots to solve, namely forgetting to plug power into the two new drives.


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## Robert S

If the drives detect as ~10Mb they're locked and no amount of fiddling with the BIOS will help. You have to actually switch the computer off for qunlock to do its thing, it does tell you do this, but a surprising number of people have a sudden attack of illiteracy at the crucial moment.

If the drive detect as ~32Gb then it's a BIOS problem. Strangely, on my machine the drives detect as 32Gb with the BIOS set to None, so some experimentation may be required. You can also use *dmesg | more* to review the boot log and even *dmesg > /mnt/dos/tivoboot.txt* to save it to a file you can read from Windows.


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## comfysofa

yup - it was that - actually this is the next morning........i hit the power to check the cabling and lo and behold it started up and found the correct size......job is now done - so far got 1 160 gig disc in.....the mfs tools said i have 109 hours but the tivo reported back as 145 hours - whats all that about then....... Right, next thing is another 120 gig disc in there.....but i take it thats just the mfsadd command which is a 2 second job. After this im gonna go for the network card upgrade - any one on here done that yet and is it easy ????

Thanks for everyones help so far

Andy


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## steve457

I just recently upgraded my T60 to have one 120gig drive. I'm wondering, how hard would it be to now add a second 120 gig drive? I used MFSTools 2.0, and used mfsbackup | mfsrestore -s 127, so I do have the increased swap on my A drive currently. 

My question is, could I simply use mfsadd to add the 2nd drive? Or would I somehow need to have increased swap on the new B drive as well?

Thanks,
steve


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## hinsdale

If you already increased the swap file then you can just use mfsadd to add your B drive.


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## Impala1ss

I have an AT&T 40G, stand alone Tivo. I have read all the threads about adding a new drive to my Tivo. I have printed out Hinsdale's How to TiVo Upgrade. I'm going out to buy the new Hard Drive. I have more hardware experience than the avg. bear and have built my own computers in the past and added 2nd hard drives to them. I think I'm ready to go but after reading all the problems others have had I'm at the point of the old "paralysis of analysis."

Looking for the way of least potential for problems I am thinking that way would be to buy a 100+ g HD and simply use it to replace the 40g now inside. But I'm also thinking that while I've got everything open I should bite the bullit and add the new drive as a 2nd drive.

In my 450mhz computer, I have 2 HD's , a CDRW burner (about 2 yrs old) and a DVD player. They use up all the IDE plugs. I'm thinking I could make a floppy to use to start rather than the CD's (don't have to go into Bios that way) and disconnect the CD/DVD drives to get the power plugs to use. I guess I'd still have to identify how the HD's are configured - Master/slave or Primary Master/Secondary Master.

Once I figure those out I'll follow Hinsdale's instructions. Are there any other suggestions you guys could make? ANy areas that are really critical (I know all are) but which are the ones most non-techies make mistakes with? I know you have been asked a million what-if's but this is only my first. Thanks in advance. Don S.


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## Robert S

I would use the new drive to replace your A drive, but give it a few weeks to settle before you add the B drive. We've been getting a lot of reports of drives dying in the first few days of use and it's a lot easirr to fix if you haven't trashed your A drive. Also, you might find 120Gb is enough and not feel the need to add more.

The floppy is fine. You need to use qunlock to unlock the original A drive, but MFS Tools is the same on the floppy and the CD.

Use MFS Tools 2.0 as described in New Hinsdale.


----------



## daryey

I got the new drive and installed as per hinsdale directions when I powered up I got the GSOD (green screen of death) what should I do I am not computer savvy to use MFS Tools or even connect the drive to a computer?////


----------



## chris_tivo

Hi just had a go at upgrading my tivo and ran into problems. I followed the hinsdale and some other documents threads and did a dd of the drive (which took over 8 hours). Checked the drive in the tivo and the duplicate was working fine. I then ran the tivomad disk and followed the menu, unfortunately it gets to the boot screen (not as far as the please wait) and keeps rebooting. The only thing wrong I think I may have done is to to say 'yes' to will the tivo have two drives, when I only have one (at the moment). I tried running tivomad again setting 'no' this time but either its too late or something else is wrong.

Anyone any ideas. The drive was error free a couple of weeks ago I checked and is a really quite hassle free 60mb quantum U-series I've been using for the last 4 months. I'll trawl the groups and then try again anyway, but its a hassle waiting 8 hours for it to copy.


----------



## Robert S

daryey: Is the green screen staying up, or is it constantly rebooting? Green screens do seem to be relatively common during upgrades and not necessarily cause for alarm. Unless it's rebooting, just let it do its thing.

chris: Don't use TiVoMad, MFS Tools 2.0 is /far/ superior. I'm afraid you'll have to repeat the upgrade - another 8 hours - but this time, do an MFS Tools pipe:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdb

This will copy your recordings and expand to fill the unused space on the drive in one step.

Use MFS Tools 2.0 as decribed in New Hinsdale.


----------



## daryey

Rob Its constantly rebooting


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## Robert S

This is an upgrade B drive that you've added to your A drive, or did you replace your A drive?

Unless you have the original A drive to put back into the TiVo, you're going to be a /lot/ more computer savvy by they time you've repaired this!

Can I suggest you start a new thread in the Upgrade Centre, this thread is really for comments directly relating to Hinsdale's How-to. It'll be a lot easier for me to follow your posts if you have your own thread - you're getting mixed in with others here.


----------



## daryey

Robert as per your suggestions


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## Slicker

I have received the replacements for my failed Maxtor and WD drives, ran the diags on them (which they passed) and tried to do the dd copy to preserve my old recordings. That didn't work, and I got nothing but errors with the B drive, and the A drive, although it said it completed, did the reboot loop when I tried it in the Tivo. So, since I can no longer even remember what was on the old drives, I did an upgrade, replacing my single (original) quantum drive with the two new drives, and am back to my 193 hour Tivo! I will be keeping the original quantum as is as a backup in case of further failure, but am once again a happy camper. 

Thanks for all the assistance, esp to Robert S!


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## Robert S

You wouldn't expect the A drive from a two-drive set to boot on its own.

I would definitely take an MFS Tools backup from that old drive before you put it in storage.


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## Jorossian

I've decided to simply replace my single 40gb hard drive in my Hughes DirecTivo with a new 120 gb drive and eventually add the original 40 gb drive as a B drive at a later date. I plan on doing the "long way" and saving all my recordings as well.

Alltogether that would give me a 160 GB total....... only 120 for now, but I want to do this with the future upgrade in mind...

So I'm trying to decide whether to go the "dd" route or the mfstools route in bringing the image over to the new drive.

For my Hughes DirecTivo unit, Hinsdale's says that the threshold number for upgrades before requiring an increased swap size to recover from GSOD is "likely" 180. (~140 for standalones)

Am I pushing the envelope here by using the "dd" method to make the cleanest copy while not increasing swap? Or should I use the mfs tools option using the -s 127 line to give me a safer buffer zone?

I like the idea of having an exact copy using the dd option, but I'm nervous about eventually adding the 40gig drive to the 120 drive without adding more swap.

Can I get a recommendation from the TiVo gods?


----------



## Robert S

dd can be faster if you get the DMA settings right, but it's much better to take the extra time and let MFS Tools do the copy so that you can increase swap. As compensation MFS Tools can expand your image in the same step.

Although MFS Tools does the copy slightly differently, apart from increasing the size of the swap partition, the effect of the MFS Tools pipe with -Tao is the same as using dd to copy.

Anyway, you'll still have your old A drive if anything goes wrong.


----------



## Jorossian

I sure hope not.

But it might be good to see the difference in performance between using a dd transfer with no swap increase VS an mfs tools -tao transfer with an increased swap.

I may very well never add a second drive so the dd option is still intruiging to me. I assume I'm totally fine not adding swap if I were to stick with one 120 gig drive (for Hughes DirecTiVo anyway)

It depends. I'll probably do that first. If I have any problems I'll just go back and redo it at another time using mfstools and compare the results. Whichever I use, I'll be hanging onto my A drive for a while before doing anything further.

I've been thinking and I probably will stick with the single 120 gig drive and eventually buy a DVD burner instead of adding an extra TiVo drive. The prices should become quite nice next fall and it'll be a nice complement to the TiVo.

More bang for the buck that way. The biggest hard drive muncher for me is FOOTBALL GAMES. I record all the Detroit Lions games and tape them permanently, but I keep them on the TiVo for a long time because I hate having to transfer them to the crappy format of VHS. DVD will change all that and keep my TiVo nice and clean.


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## Jorossian

I did it!!! Upgraded my Hughes DirecTiVo from 35 Hours to 109 hours (with the option of upgrading to 140 hours in the near future if I want to).

Used Tiger's disk and Hinsdale's How-To without a hitch.

So far so good. 109 hours capacity and my original A drive is safely stored away along with an MFS tools backup image burned onto a CD. If I'm still happy with the results in a month or so the A drive will be added.

Some surprises:

- I never had to use Qunlock at all.

- I did the LONG method (-tao) of mfstools' backup and expand and it ONLY TOOK 1 HOUR (thanks to my Pentium 4 1.4ghz processor I suppose)

- it was easy as hell

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice during the last week (especially Robert S). I definitely would have done things differently had you not steered me in the right direction.

I'll let you all know if any quirks pop up.

~<very happy>~


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## f0gax

Thanks. Went in first time no problem. 

I now have 144:54 at Basic and 39:55 at Best. (Maxtor 120G 5400 RPM)

Thanks again.


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## Dancar

Hinsdale:

Great HOWTO!

Now I'd like to correct something that isn't quite correct:

In the section for Windows NT/2000/XP users you write:

[Q]*You will need to have/create a primary or extended fat32 partition on your primary boot drive connected as primary master*[/Q]

The setup on the computer on which I did my upgrade had the following setup:

Primary Master: Windows 2000 Boot Drive/NTFS
Primary Slave: Hard drive/FAT32

To eliminate the possibility of booting to W2K, which you warn against, I removed the primary master drive and replaced it with the OEM TiVo drive, connected and jumpered as primary master. The upgrade drive was cabled and jumpered as secondary slave.

I didn't change the cables or jumpers on the FAT32 drive or CD because I wanted to restore the computer to its original configuration as simply as possible.

When running MFSTools I simply changed the hd designations to match my configuration and it all worked fine.

So if MFSTools is unable to back up to a NTFS partition, then you just need to say that a FAT32 partition is required _somewhere_, and you need to adapt the MFSTools commands if it's not hda1.


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## Robert S

Some of that is a hold-over from the pre-MFS Tools 2.0 era when the back partition /had/ to be on hda because that was the only un-byteswapped drive.

If you know enough about how Unix addresses hard drives then you can vary things quite a bit. Hinsdale can't really include a Unix tutorial, though - people are welcome to post in the Forum if they need help with an unusual configuration - and needs to stay at it's current 'insert tab A into slot B' style.

There are plenty of traps for the unwary if you vary Hinsdale's instructions without knowing what they mean.


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## Jorossian

Robert S,

One week so far and absolutely zero problems with the upgrade.

I'm beginning to think 109 hours is enough.

But just in case - How long do you feel I should wait before considering adding the original A drive as a new "B" drive.

Is it worth it to hang on to the A drive indefinitely (in case of emergency)and just purchase another cheap Maxtor drive to add as a B drive?

I suppose it's all contingent upon each individual's risk limit. Am I being overly cautious?


----------



## Robert S

I wouldn't think there was any great advantage to hanging on to the original A drive indefinitely - as long as you've got a good MFS Tools backup you can recreate it without too much trouble.

We've been saying wait a month to add more, but I don't think we have the failure curves plotted out. My DOA happened after about 36 hours, so you're doing better than that already!

At some point you'll start to feel confident that your TiVo is stable after the upgrade and want to reuse the A drive. I don't think anyone's going to give you a concrete answer, it's up to you.


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## Jorossian

I figured that would be the answer.

I'm just happy to have come along at a time when the major swap problems of a few months ago were already hashed out.

The "experts" on this forum deserve a huge round of applause. I went into this just expecting to order an upgrade from an outside source, but came out with a whole lot of knowledge about the way my TiVo works and the confidence to do the upgrade cheaply and easily on my own.

It seems to me, now, that ordering a new "drop in" B drive from an outside source is a BAD idea considering you're adding a lot of recording capacity without doing a thing to the swap on the existing A drive.

But most importantly I learned that...........

...Damn I'm glad I didn't get the Ultimate TV reciever instead! =D

Thanks Robert, Tiger, HINSDALE and everyone that "asked the right questions" so I didn't have to.


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## Antebios

I DID IT! My first Tivo HACK! I took advantage of the Maxtor 80 GB 5400 RPM hard drive from Staples for $99, which is a good deal at the moment, and followed the instructions. One thing really sent me over the edge. I was at the step where I have to do the complete backup-restore(Tao)-expand step after I successfully restored the backup image from the original A drive and tested the drive and I kept getting the "not enough space on target drive (?)" error. I was like, "WTF?" After about an hour and a half I looked down at my new hard drive and saw "MAXTOR"! DUH! I kicked myself for wasting that much time. I rebooted with the QUNLOCK disk, unlocked, rebooted and everything was fine. I proceeded to do the slow option of copying my recorded shows along with expanding my drive. 2 1/2 hours later I was done. Put my drive back into the Tivo, put back all my AV/IO wires, crossed my fingers, powered on, prayed some more, BINGO!

My wife was soooooo proud of me! I was the hero of the day! No more stopples, skips, and especially freezes. She's now happy watching her Anna Nicole Smith shows and I'm happy watching The Simpsons and Enterprise.

Thank you Hinsdale! I can now call myself a hacker!


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## Golfnut

Thank you Robert, Tiger and everyone else that made the easy to use instructions on how to upgrade a Tivo.

bought 2 60 gig HD's and went from

Phillips SA tivo with 14 hrs to 63 hr tivo (replaced HD with 60 gig)
Phillips SA tivo with 30 hrs to 104 hr tivo (added the "B" HD with 60 gig)


only problem is I couldn't get the msfadd -x command to work - so I just blessed the new 60gig, added it to the tivo and it recognized the extra space.

I have two direct tivo Phillips single drives, and will probably add a 120 gig HD to that one next weekend - I need to only add the HD and not have to take the old HD out, since I can't for the life of me get the hd bracket off of the directtivo since the screws are so close to the power supply


blessing the tivo and now having to remove the HD that is in the direct tivo will be the best route I think


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## ibx100

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Some of that is a hold-over from the pre-MFS Tools 2.0 era when the back partition /had/ to be on hda because that was the only un-byteswapped drive.
> 
> If you know enough about how Unix addresses hard drives then you can vary things quite a bit. *


Hi.. new to this forum.. I just burnt mfstools2.iso, and
took a look.. I notice from /proc/filesystems that it
supports amongst other filesystems, ext2... I've got
a Linux desktop setup and I can't readily lay my hands
on a FAT32 partition without creating one, so am I
right in thinking that it's OK to use mfstools to back
up my TiVo partitions to a file on one of the
existing ext2 partitions (and then burn that to CD)?

Rgds


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## Robert S

Yes, Ext2 is fine. Some of the partitions on the TiVo are Ext2 and you can mount those if you boot byteswapping.


----------



## Kramer

Many thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger. I just completed my first tivo upgrade, I turned my 14 hour into 84 hours. Thanks again.


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## Deven

Ditto. Many thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger. Mfstools rocks!

I bought two 120GB Western Digital hard drives from Circuit City ($99 after rebate) to upgrade my SAT-T60 and DSR6000. I had to borrow a computer to do the actual upgrade, because mine can't handle drives over 32GB.

The Philips DSR6000 upgrade was fairly straightforward, because it was a single-drive unit, with a 40GB disk. I made a backup of the drive (about 220MB compressed!) and restored the backup to the 120GB drive to test it. This restored copy worked fine, but of course it listed bogus recordings, so I deleted all the recordings, and the upcoming To Do list entries for good measure, then made a new backup without the bogus recordings; this is the one I will keep. (I also restored and tested this backup for good measure.)

I wanted to save all my recordings during the upgrade, so used the -Tao backup/-xzpi restore pipeline to copy the 40GB drive (with recordings) to the 120GB drive. (I also included the -s 127 option to increase swap.) I then installed and tested the 120GB to ensure that it was working, including the recordings. Once satisfied, I did the "mfsadd" command to add the 40GB hard drive as a new second drive, finally overwriting my original drive, once I was sure the new drive had the recordings transferred successfully. My original 40GB A drive is now the B drive, and the new A drive is the 120GB drive I just bought.

The Sony SAT-T60 upgrade was more difficult, because it was a dual-drive unit -- 30GB A drive + 15GB B drive from the factory. I followed the same backup procedures as with the Philips (again deleting bogus recordings to make a cleaner final backup), but the actual upgrade was problematic. I really wanted to use mfstools to copy, not dd, because I wanted to increase the swap space. However, the recommended procedure in Hinsdale's how-to required 4 available IDE ports, and I was using the boot CD for the upgrade, so I had to come up with a new procedure.

Luckily, I had a couple spare (borrowed) 80GB drives available during the upgrade. This was important to me, because it allowed me to safely test the ability to upgrade without clobbering my original drives first. (Remember, I did _not_ want to lose my recordings!) I ended up needing both 80GB drives, but only because I wanted to test the upgrade without clobbering the original drives, in case it failed to copy the recordings successfully. One would have been enough otherwise.

To use mfstools without 4 IDE ports, I had to perform the backup and restore operations separately. Of course, this meant copying the data twice. (And because of my test, I had to make a third copy, because I wanted to reuse the old 30GB A drive as the new B drive.) I created a 50GB partition on the 80GB drive, to have space to hold the 30GB+15GB drives, with some room to spare. I created the partition as ext2fs, but FAT32 would have worked fine too.

To run the backup, I had the 50GB partition mounted on /mnt, and the original A & B drives on hdc & hdd. To avoid problems with files larger than 2GB, I used the "split" command to create multiple files:

cd /mnt; mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd | split -b1000000000

This created a bunch of 1GB files (xaa, xab, xac, etc.) consisting of the backup. (I could have used -b2000000000 as easily and had half as many files, but it didn't matter to me.)

I then shut down the machine, disconnected hdc & hdd, and installed the 120GB drive on hdc and my spare 80GB drive on hdd for the test restore. Again, I mounted the 50GB partition on /mnt, then ran the restore:

cd /mnt; cat x?? | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

This combined all the 1GB files in order, and sent them to the mfsrestore command, much as the normal backup/restore pipeline does. I tested this upgrade, and it worked perfectly. All recordings were in order, so I ran the restore procedure again, this time with the 120GB drive on hdc again, but with the 30GB drive (the old A drive) on hdd, instead of my scratch 80GB drive I used for testing. This was my third time copying ~45GB of data from drive to drive, at about 2-3 hours per copy, but again it worked perfectly. Luckily, I had set aside many hours for this upgrade!

Hisdale, feel free to document this technique as another option in your FAQ!

My Sony SAT-T60 is now 120GB+30GB (150GB total, "136 hours"), and my DSR6000 is now 120GB+40GB (160 GB total, "146 hours"), and I didn't lose any of my recordings or settings in the upgrade process. I finally have breathing room on my TiVo's! I can finally set ALL my regular recordings to "save until I delete", as I should have been able to anyhow... (Will I run out of space again? I don't know, but I hope not!)


----------



## jimjoe

I reviewed the instructions for upgrading drives on tivo at
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

All i want is to put a new maxtor 120gig into drive a in a new tivo that i've never used (and throw away the original drive).

1) Do i still need/want to connect to tivo and start my membership before I put in the maxtor i really want?

2) Is there a particular part of the instructions that applies to me where i can skip the part about backing up, moving exisiting programs, etc.

3) I assume i still need to burn the cd of the tools?

4) I assume even if i have win xp, I don't have to partition my default hard drive on my PC as long as i don't boot from that drive, and just tell bios to boot from my cd?

Thanks!


----------



## Robert S

If you copy the A drive to the new one, when you power up for the first time, you'll be in exactly the same state you would have been had you used the original A drive (with more recording space).

You might want to do Guided Setup and take the software upgrade before you move to the new drive - just to be sure your TiVo is OK. Doing this doesn't make the upgrade any more difficult, the MFS Tools transfer will take about the same time either way.

I recommend making a backup to put on a CD for additional safety, but it's not a vital step in the upgrade. You can put a small FAT partition on the new drive to make your compressed backup - MFS Tools will steam over the FAT partition when you upgrade.

You can modify the MFS Tools pipe to run more quickly:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xpi - /dev/hdb

Would only take about 10 minutes - although obviously it doesn't take the recordings.


----------



## moonslice

Thanks Robert! I now understand i do want to copy the info from the old to the new one, and i have to put both drives in my PC.

But...

When you say to put a small FAT partition on the new drive to make a compresssed backup, is that necessary?

Were you suggesting that as an alternative to partitioning my c drive? Is there any reason i need to partition any drive, as long as i boot up from the CD, or do i have to partition because i have XP on my c drive?

Do I do partition it from some command when i boot up from the tools CD i burned?

When you say MFS Tools will stream over the partition when i upgrade, does that mean it will erase it and give me back the whole drive?

If i make a backup on a cd (for safety), is that something i begin after i boot from the tools CD, or do i start winXP and somehow make a backup?

Thanks again!


----------



## Robert S

If you're running XP, the chances are you're on NTFS. Linux can read files from NTFS partitions, but not write them. Also, it would be a good idea to leave your XP drive disconnected at least until you have a backup.

You'll need to partition and format your new drive with DOS tools before you write the backup - you can resize the partitions on your C: drive, but it's probably better not to mess with it. Get an MS-DOS boot disk (from bootdisk.com if necessary). With only your new drive connected, run FDISK and FORMAT - with reboots as appropriate.

Once you've copied the backup on to your XP drive, you won't need these partitions any more.

MFS Tools will restore over everything on your new drive, there's no need to delete anything.

If you have a CD writer, use your XP CD creation software to write the backup file you created to s CD for safe keeping.


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## moonslice

aren't my mfs tools on the boot cd i burned according to #4 of the instructions?

#7 (backup) says...
Power up your PC with the Boot Cd in your cd-rom. Boot Cd users should hit <enter> to initiate the default boot option. Type "root" or simply hit <enter> to bring up # prompt. At prompt both Boot CD type the following commands to mount your C: drive:
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
Then...
mfstool backup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

It doesn't say anything about partitioning any drive, so are all the tools on my boot cd?

Sorry for all the questions, but I don't want to screw up.

Thanks again


----------



## bdkras

OK, about to make the move to upgrade my single 40GB drive DSR6000 DirecTiVo unit with a Maxtor 120GB 7200 as a replacement A drive.
I plan on doing this using my Dell 8200 running XP.

Here's my basic question: Which of the Hinsdale upgrade methods will be best to use: 
1) Original Hinsdale-How-To featuring TiVoMad, BlessTiVo, and Mfs Tools 1.1
OR
2) New Hinsdale-How-To featuring Tigers Mfs Tools 2.0 as an all-in-one upgrade solution?

I've read over (1) and it sounds pretty straight forward. However the footnote about booting from Windows 2000/NT/XP has freaked me out a bit. Best I can tell, whenever I have the TiVo drives connected to my PC, I'm always supposed to be booted from the CD (not XP). If that's the case, then I don't have to worry about it, right? As long as I only boot from the CD, I shouldn't have to worry about all this creating a fat32 partition stuff, correct?

If this is the case, to be safe I'd like to try booting my PC using the boot CD I created with nuboot6.iso. Any harm in just booting up with my original PC hard drives attached to make sure that my BIOS does indeed boot from the CD?

Thanks very much for the help. Just want to be safe rather than sorry.
Brian.


----------



## bbackman

All you all ( that's Southern USA speak for 'you guys') are fantastic! I just upgraded from a plain old SA 30GB to a SA 120G/30G and it was an absolute SNAP! I followed Hinsdale using Tigers MFS Tools 2.0. It even found my USB keyboard! 

I've been lurking on this forum for nearly a year, 'till I could find a good price on an upgrade drive. I even found that info on this forum! - (Circuit City:WD 120G @ $129-$30 rebate ) 

Again, great work and thank you. Now, after I finish my obligatory recording of Franklin, Dora and Elmo, I can finally record MY shows!

Upgrading to TurboNet as soon as it arrives...


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## Jerry_K

Thank you Hinsdale. Your instructions and a floppy with MFS tools from Tiger made a novice an expert. One Phillips DirecTiVo goes from 30 and 15 to 80 and 60 without a hitch.


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## Robert S

bdkras: Use MFS Tools 2.0 (New Hinsdale) for everything. Follow Hinsdale's instructions - ignore the docs with MFS Tools 2.0.

Like moonslice, I suggest you put a small FAT partition on your new drive to make a compressed backup that you can store on your XP drive or burn to a CD. It doesn't take very long and is good insurance.

You will always be booting from a CD while you have TiVo drives attached, so if you have the XP drive connected with the TiVo drives it's best to make sure your PC is booting off the MFS Tools 2.0 CD (chuck out that nuboot.iso!) before you attach the TiVo drive.

moonslice: _Of course_ MFS Tools is on the MFS Tools CD! You partition the hard drive to make a FAT filing system for MFS Tools to write the compressed backup to!


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## Deven

jimjoe, why would you want to toss the original drive? Why not do what I did? After replacing the A drive with a 120GB drive, I used the old A drive as a new B drive, for even more space! It seems silly to leave just one drive in there when you can have two...

bdkras, I just used MFS Tools 2.0 all the way. Worked like a charm. I don't know why you'd want to use the old tools when this one works so well... (Thanks, Tiger!)

Of course, I'd still test the new drive(s) before clobbering the old one(s), on general principle. (That's what I did, and the tests passed with flying colors.)


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## bdkras

Thanks very much for the advice. I'm upgrading right now. One additional question:

Since I'm now planning on using my original A (40GB) drive and making the new 120GB drive a B drive for a total size of 160GB do I need to worry about using the "-s 127" option to increase the swap size? I would assume not since the doc says that the threshold for DirecTiVos is approx 180GB and I'm only going to 160GB. Any harm in doing it anyway? Any way to increase the swap later if necessary? How often does it really matter anyway? (sounds like it's only necessary in the rare case that the TiVo repari utility GSOD is triggered). What situation would trigger GSOD?

Thanks!


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## Robert S

I recommend replacing the the A drive rather than adding to it. Use an MFS Tools pipe to copy your recordings if you want to keep them, otherwise just do a backup/restore. This allows you to use -s 127 to increase your swap and means that if your new drive develops a problem it'll be easy to fix.

After a month or so, once you're sure your new drive is OK, you can use mfsadd to add the old A drive as a B drive.

You are quite correct, the extra swap only makes a difference when a large TiVo green screens. Your upgrade will not take the TiVo over the threshold. Green screens are very rare - you may never see one. You can temporarily increase swap (see the Fixes thread) to 'rescue' a TiVo that's green screened with insufficient swap.

However, if you were to upgrade to 2x120 later on, it would be very easy if the 40Gb drive is the B drive and you have extra swap (use dd to clone the drive, then mfsadd to expand into the extra space), and trivial if you stay with just the 120Gb drive (run mfsadd to add the new one).

Anyway, if your new drive does fail, and you're trying to figure out how to extricate yourself from a twin-drive configuration, you'll at least have the comfort of knowing you were warned in advance...


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## bdkras

Robert,
Thank you for the advice. I didn't read your post until after I made the decision to keep my 40GB A drive and add the 120GB to it. I just used the mfsadd as in hindsdale and didn't use any -s option. It seems to be working OK and hopefully will stay that way.

Am I correct in understanding that no matter what, I can always start over by simply restoring the backup (tivo.bak) I made to the original 40GB Quantum A drive? So if I wanted to start over and do as you suggested, I could restore my backup to my original A drive and then set up the 120GB to be a new A drive?

Thanks again for your help.


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## Robert S

Yes, you can use the backup to turn any sufficiently large drive into an A drive for your TiVo.

I wouldn't worry too much about the swap. You're still below the threshold where your TiVo will experience problems if it green screens.

If you upgrade further (keeping recordings) you will either have to create a larger swap partition manually or rely on the rescue maneuver to get you out of trouble.


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## clisbeek

for a very non-techie person who loves her 2 year old Philips Model "HDR212BK01" and can't afford to buy the newest Version 2 TiVo, is there anybody near Boston MA that does house calls for memory upgrades like you all are talking about? I'm so bad, this old Compaq Armada laptop I'm writing this message on is owned by my employer and every time it acts up they reimage it and I lose all my Web favorites... obviously I'm a very lost puppy but I am willing to learn.


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## dvdapex

These instructions worked perfectly.

I had used some other instructions and they were filled with typos that turned this "under one hour job" into a 3 hour nightmare.

I downloaded these instructions and in about 45 minutes, I had a DirecTivo with 140 hr recording time.

Thank you very much!


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## Robert S

clisbeek, you need access to a 'proper' PC to prepare the drives yourself (your laptop doesn't have the right connectors for the 3 1/2" drives TiVo uses), so your options are a bit limited if you can't find someone to do the upgrade for you.

However, you could order a pre-prepared drive from Hinsdale or the other upgrade shops (weaknees, 9th Tee, etc). Unless you're desparate to keep your recordings I would go for a replacement A drive (or A+B if you want lots of space!). 

If your TiVo is currently a single drive model (and the A drive hasn't been upgraded), you can order a 'pre-blessed' B drive which will add to your existing space without affecting your existing recordings. It will noticably slow your TiVo down, though.

Replacement/pre-blessed drives are very easy to fit and come with full instructions and often even the tools required to fit them.


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *
> 
> However, you could order a pre-prepared drive from Hinsdale or the other upgrade shops (weaknees, 9th Tee, etc). Unless you're desparate to keep your recordings I would go for a replacement A drive (or A+B if you want lots of space!).
> 
> Replacement/pre-blessed drives are very easy to fit and come with full instructions and often even the tools required to fit them. *


And in some cases, support and a warranty is also included.

Lou


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## MannyVjr

I just want to thank every one involved on this Upgrade Guide.

I received my drives (120Gb Maxtor) yesterday and with my 5+ years old computer hooked them up, made a backup image of my 14hr SA TiVo (god bless that black box) and in less than 2hrs I had a 306hr (basic quality) - 84hr (best quality) without any glitches.

Thanks again.

MannyVjr


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## tonyaldr

Hi, all. I've had two 30 hour HDR312s, and I've never upgraded them but now one of them has a burned out modem. Can I combine the drives in the surviving one? Since they're both original TiVo drives do I need to do anything to either in order to get them to work together? Thanx!!


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## Robert S

No, just use mfsadd to expand the image on to the other drive.

Not tempted to try an external modem or TurboNet to get your TiVo working?


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## jonb

My 15mo old back-up made with MS tools is vers. 1.5 if I remember right. Is it good practice to repeat the back-up with every new major release. I believe 3.0 is current. In other words, will re-install from ver. 1.5 crash on the first daily call? I have lifetime sub. I can't find an answer to this in the how-to. It probably has been asked many times. Please point me to a link, if you don't want to explain again.


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## Robert S

Yes, it is a very frequently asked question!

Your TiVo will upgrade to the current version automatically on its first call.


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## tonyaldr

Hi, Robert. I didn't realize you could use an external modem. Can you point me toward a link that explains how to do that? Also, I'm confused - "just use mfsadd to expand the image on to the other drive?" What image are we talking about? Sorry, but I'm a complete novice and thought that if I had actual TiVo drives that I wouldn't have to do anything fancy to get them to work together.


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## Riptide

I have read through this extensively long thread looking to see if anyone has asked the same question and I apologize if it has been asked / answered already. I believe that I will be using Hinsdales Upgrade Configuration #6 to complete the process. 

I have two standalone TiVos that I want to upgrade again. Originally both TiVos first upgrade occurred over two years ago. 

The first TiVo was a 14 hr unit that was upgraded / married with a 60GB Maxtor (B). The original Quantum was then upgraded again with a second 60GB Maxtor making it a 120GB unit. The second TiVo was a 30 hr unit that was upgraded / married with 60GB Western Digital first then a second 60GB Western Digital in a similar fashion to the first TiVo. Both units have run perfectly and I havent had any problems. I kept many shows saved on both these units and am wanting to upgrade again in order to get more room. 

Can I put in 120GB Maxtors in place of each of the 60GB drives and keep my shows intact? Will both the 60GB drives actually copy onto just one 120GB drive? Also, the 60GB Maxtor drives are slightly larger than the 60GB Western Digital drives not sure if that will affect the process. In reading the Hinsdale notes (Upgrade Conf. #6), it appears that I may be able to do this, but it requires that I have four IDE connectors available. Since I would have to disconnect my CD-ROM drive in order to do this, can I extract the files from MFS Tools 2.0 in order to do this? I was planning on using:

mfsbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xpi - /dev/hdb

so that I could copy the recordings and expand to fill any unused space on the drives in one step. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated and if I have left any important details out, just let me know. 

Thanks


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## Robert S

Possibly. The problem is the number of partitions. You're limited to 16 partitions per drive and 6 MFS pairs in total.

The A drive starts with 11 or 13 partitions and so can only be expanded twice or once (probably twice in your case).

MFS Tools can shuffle the partitions around to make room, so if you upgrade from 2x60 to 2x120, that should work.

The command line would be:

mfsbackup Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore s 127 xpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

And you'd have to boot off the floppy. Hinsdale contains a link to the MFS Tools 2.0 boot floppy, but you already have it on the MFS Tools 2.0 CD.

The floppy is the same as the CD except for the unlock code. Your drives shouldn't be locked anyway, but if they are you'll have to boot the CD or use qunlock to unlock them before preparing for the pipe transfer.


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## ahartman

Well, add my name to the list of happily upgraded DSR6k owners.

Followed Hinsdale's instructions - very easy and very straightforward.

Many thanks!

:up: :up: :up:


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## remster

Another satisfied customer here (doubly so).

I don't know if this has been done yet, but I put together some illustration pictures that could be added to the steps... copyright free, with my compliments. A small attempt to give back to the tivo community.

The pics can be found all in this directory: http://vidalsmonami.hypermart.net/tivo/

Mounting bracket for the new drive, made out of a very common recycled PC part:









Just add some double side foam tape under it. When putting back into tivo, make sure to position other drive first so you don't stick the new drive in the other drive's footprint... once the tape is stuck, it won't move! The new drive can be removed with the side screws.









How to remove the cover. Kneeling in front of the tivo, push forward with right hand, and push on back of the tivo with curled fingers of left hand, while pushing forward with the palm of the hand.








Alternate with the other side, slowly by slowly it'll move.









First fastener cut








Second fastener cut








Discard the fasteners









Showing where the 2nd drive will hookup in the tivo.









If you don't have Torx wrenches, some allen wrenches can do the trick. It can be very hard to turn the screws, so see the pliers trick below.









And if some screws are really tight, a pair of pliers can definitely make it a lot easier. Just make sure to squeeze real hard (so as not to slip), and move slowly. If you are real careful and patient, you can undo all the screws with pliers and fingers, no torx or allen needed. The pliers are also very useful for pulling safely the ATA cables from the hard drive (a frequent manoeuver) without messing up the cables.


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## netmanmc

I read through the upgrade doc but just wanted to confirm before buying a drive that 120GB is the largest I can go. Comments?


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by netmanmc _
> *I read through the upgrade doc but just wanted to confirm before buying a drive that 120GB is the largest I can go. Comments? *


This is incorrect. The largest drive that can be used in Series1 TiVo systems is 200GB right now. The largest we use are 180GB drives. The largest you can use without a significant software undertaking (or utilizing our services) would be the first 137GB of any drive larger than that (160GB would be the obvious choice).

Lou Jacob
PTVupgrade.COM


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## elizc

I'm considering getting a TiVo and am thinking that an 80-hr is the way to go. But from what I've seen, it's not upgradable. Should I get a 60 hr instead so it can be upgraded?

elizc


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by elizc _
> *I'm considering getting a TiVo and am thinking that an 80-hr is the way to go. But from what I've seen, it's not upgradable. Should I get a 60 hr instead so it can be upgraded?
> 
> elizc *


The 80-hour unit IS upgradable. Its just not so easy to add another drive because the mechanicals aren't set up to easily mount a 2nd drive. You can certainly add a drive using 9thTee's modified brackets (see link below), and you can also replace with a larger drive (up to 160GB, yielding 137GB of space).

Lou


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## Riptide

Thank you Robert for your guidance on restoring my hard drives. My new hard drives finally arrive last night so I began the pipeline transfer of my first TiVo. I transferred 2 WD 60GB drives to 2 Maxtor 120GB drives using the recommended string and the boot floppy. After hitting the enter button it started up the restore and then I got an error message (at about 0.16% of the restore). I was afraid that it had failed since it seemed hung on the error message then after about 1 minute it continued the restore. It took about 5 hours to do the complete restore and I plugged the new drives into the TiVo and it booted up fine, I quickly ran through some of the screens, checked the new record times, played the beginnings to a couple of shows, set the 30-second skip and programmed a show to record. Everything seems to have worked properly but I am still concerned about the error messages. The following is what I transcribed during the restore (hopefully I wrote it all down correctly it was late in the evening):

Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment.
Source drive size is 15hours.
-Upgraded to 57 hours
-Upgraded to 127 hours
Uncompressed backup size 112473mb
Starting restore 112473mb
Uncompressed backup size: 112473mb
hda: dma_intr: status= 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error= 0x40 { UncorrectableError } LBA sector=702498, sector=702272
end_request: I/Oerror, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 702272
hda: dma_intr: status= 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error= 0x40 { UncorrectableError } LBA sector=702498, sector=702274
Backing up 112473 of 112473mb (100.00%)
Backup done!
Restoring 112473 of 112473mb (100.00%)
Cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment.
Restore done!
Adding pair /dev/hdc14- /dev/hdc15
New estimated standalone size: 202 hours (75 more)
Adding pair /dev/hdd4- /dev/hdd5
New estimated standalone size: 277 hours (75 more)
#

Should I worry about a failure with my new setup and the error messages? I am planning on doing the same thing to the other TiVo (upgrading a pair of 60GB Maxtors to a pair of 120GB Maxtors) this coming weekend. 

Riptide


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## Robert S

As long as the upgraded TiVo works, I think it'll be OK. Although bad blocks can cause problems, I would expect the copy to be unbootable, or otherwise obviously faulty, so if if it works, I wouldn't worry.

Normally bad blocks cause MFS Tools or dd to crash, so I guess the sector read OK on the retry.


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## ronsch

I upgraded my Philips HDR31202 Tivo almost a year ago by adding an 80GB drive to the existing Quantum. Now I find it's time to expand some more.

I am planning on dual 120's and what I was wondering is can I use a combination of Upgrade configuration #6 followed by Upgrade configuration #1 to accomplish Upgrade configuration #5 using only 3 IDE ports? It would save deinstalling and reinstalling either my dvd-rom or cd burner.

I would just use configuration #5 option 2 but I would feel better with the larger swap file.


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## Robert S

I can never remember Hinsdales #'s!

You may not have enough partitions on the A drive to do it that way, although you probably have an 11 partition A drive, so it should work. Boot a byteswapping boot disk and check.

The alternative, probably preferable, would be to use dd to clone the drives on to their replacements. That does prevent you from increasing swap with MFS Tools, although you could use the manual swap technique from the third post in the Fixes thread.


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## ronsch

Thanks very much Robert!

Sorry about throwing around the configuration numbers like that but I figured it was the best way to avoid any confusion about what I was trying to accomplish.

I like your solution even better than mine. It will allow me to keep both the dvd-rom and cd burner installed. Given my model number and previous upgrade history, will the partition numbers given in post 3 of the Fixes thread be exact for my situation?


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## Robert S

I wasn't being too critical, but Hinsdale is too big to memorize, and has a maze of nested configurations and options!

I decided to assume that what you were suggesting was using MFS Tools to copy the contents of both drives to a new A drive.

The manual swap technique gives the commands for both 11 and 13 partition drive. By the time you get to that step it should be obvious which you have. The 13 partition drives are the newer ones, so I assume that yours is an 11.


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## ronsch

Thanks Again. We'll find out in about two weeks. I'll post my results.


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## tornado

The New How-To mentions software versions up to 3.0. Anybody use it on a Series 1 DTiVo with 3.1 yet?

As luck would have it, my in-laws' DTiVo got 3.1 last night before I could upgrade the B drive.


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## Robert S

It won't make any difference to upgrading the B drive - just dd it over and run mfsadd.

It's possible for upgrades to change the backup parameters (happened on the UK TiVo), but I think we'd have heard by now if 3.1 did that.


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## tornado

Thanks. I hadn't looked at the New How-To until today -- I didn't realize that we could preserve recordings until I did!

So should I still make a backup first or just dd the B drive? (It's a Philips 30/15) I'm paranoid enough to make the backup, but I'm wondering if it's necessary.


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## Robert S

The backup is not a part of this upgrade process.

If you don't have one already, taking a backup is a good idea.


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## ronsch

I picked up a pair of Western Digital 120's at CC yesterday. Price was $129.99 each but after I asked I got a $30 rebate certificate for each one. Apparently the $129.99 is the regular price for the 5400 speed 120GB models now.


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## jcase

I have a T60 that has 3.1 and has never been hacked.

Is there anything special that I need to do other then follow Hinsdale's how-to to increase the drive sizes?

Also, I would like to run turbonet and tivoweb are there specific instructions for 3.1?

I have already hacked a standalone so I have enough experience to be dangerous 

Thanks in advance to the extremely knowledgeable people that make working with the TiVo such a pleasure.


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## gadgetgrrll

I just updated my new HDVR2 and wanted to thank you for the great documentation on the process. It was a piece o' cake!

Kathy


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## gordonph

Hi Folks,
I hope this has not been reported. I followed the new how to directions. I believe I found a small typo in a command line. It is about half way through the doc under section 8, in the part about restoring and expanding at the same time. The line reads...
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (restore/expand to single new larger A drive)

I believe it should be /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hdc 
yes, very small, but it may screw someone up.

I'm still in the middle of my upgrade. I hope to add a new post tomorrow with a yipee!!!

thanks,
gordon


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## OneReality

I have a Sony SAT-T60 with a single drive that is stuck on the Welcome start up screen. After reading the posts on this forum it sounds like the hard drive is toast. Can you recommend a way to test this theory?

I have seen several references to upgrading from a working hard drive to newer larger drives, is it possible to simply replace the failed hard drive and add the missing software? Is there a guide for this. I do not need to retain any of the information on the old drive.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by gordonph _
> *Hi Folks,
> I hope this has not been reported. I followed the new how to directions. I believe I found a small typo in a command line. It is about half way through the doc under section 8, in the part about restoring and expanding at the same time. The line reads...
> mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (restore/expand to single new larger A drive)
> 
> I believe it should be /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hdc
> yes, very small, but it may screw someone up.
> 
> I'm still in the middle of my upgrade. I hope to add a new post tomorrow with a yipee!!!
> 
> thanks,
> gordon *


That's not a typo, see the instructed drive placement above:

With your  new upgrade TiVo A drive as Secondary Master and new upgrade TiVo B drive (if any) as Primary Slave, you can use the following command to restore your Mfs Tools backup image to your new large upgrade drive(s) and expand them at the same time:


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## ronsch

Robert,

Not to beat this to death, but in regard to the issue in post #477, since I've already upgraded once using the original MFS Tools, wouldn't I now have a 13 partition Tivo assuming I started with an 11 and have to create 14 for the new swap partition and then get 15/16 by using mfsadd?


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## RyanRubenstein

I have 2 tivos. One of them is not booting. I tried to duplicate the A drive of the working unit into the non booting drive using dd.

After reading some posts do I need a "virgin image"

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks


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## Robert S

ronsch: Yes, that's what I'm thinking.


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## Deven

> _Originally posted by RyanRubenstein _
> I have 2 tivos. One of them is not booting. I tried to duplicate the A drive of the working unit into the non booting drive using dd.
> 
> After reading some posts do I need a "virgin image"


If they're both SAT-T60 models, you might be able to do this. If they're not the same model, it won't work. Even if the model is the same, you'd need a similar hard drive configuration -- the destination unit should have a hard drive at least as large (in exact number of sectors) as the source unit. If the source unit is a dual-drive system, the same would apply to the second drive. If the hard drive configuration is identical (same exact model numbers) and the TiVo model is identical, I think this may work, or at least I think I've heard of people doing such a thing successfully. (If this works, "dd" would also copy the recordings.)

If the destination hard drive(s) is/are larger, you should probably use "mfsbackup" and "mfsrestore" from the mfstools 2.0 package, so that you can use the full space of the new drive(s). These tools can either copy the recordings or omit them, making a small backup that isn't required to be a "virgin" system. (When I backed up my SAT-T60, I think the backup image was about 1.3 GB, but it was able to compress down to less than 250 MB!)


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## pdvale

Thanks for creating the upgrade documentation. The step by step process was very good and I was able to upgrade from 35 to 149hrs.  

Thanks,
Paul.


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## ronsch

Robert,

Could you review and give any feedback you like, especially on Step 11?
I don't understand the need to mess with partition 9 and what effect renumbering it to 15 will have when mfsadd tries to create two new partitions?

Proposed Tivo Upgrade Procedure

1. Create MFS Tools boot cd. 

2. Find last years qunlock floppy or create a new one.

3. Remove Tivo drives and insert in PC: Hinsdale Steps 5 & 6

4. Create divorced backup using Hinsdale Step 7 Option #2
mfsbackup 6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc/ /dev/hdb

5. Remove original Tivo drives and put in one of new 120gb drives.

6. Restore backup to test as in Hinsdale Step 8: mfsrestore zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb Larger swap shouldnt be required.

7. Place Original B and other new large drive in PC: Hinsdale Step 10, Upgrade Configuration #5, Option #2 - dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k

8. Test backup image: Hinsdale Step 9 while first dd is running.

9. Place Original A and tested new large drive in PC: Hinsdale Step 10, Upgrade Configuration #5, Option #2 - dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k

10. Remove original A drive from PC. Replace with new B drive. Boot again using byteswapping: vmlnodma hdx=bswap where x is wherever new A drive is located and y is where new B drive is located.

11. Create new swap partition:
pdisk /dev/hdx
C
14p
128m
r 14 8
r 9 15
w
y
q
mkswap v0 /dev/hdx8
mfsadd x /dev/hdx /dev/hdy

12. Install new drives in Tivo

13.	Celebrate!


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## Robert S

It would be pretty obvious as you do it - you can press p at any time to print the partition table and see what's going on, and you're not committed to anything until you write the changes out.

r 14 8 moves partition 14 (the new one) down to number 8, this increases the numbers of all the higher partitions, so the old swap partition is now 9 and so on. r 9 15 pushes the old partition up to the end of the list, allowing the other partitions to drop back to their correct positions. You can just delete the old swap partition, but some people like to format it as Ext2 and use it for hacking.

Do let me know if this isn't what happens when you try it - I haven't had a lot of feedback since I wrote that up (it's a fairly specialised hack), just a few people saying it worked for them.


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## ronsch

I see said the blind man. So mfsadd then overwrites the old swap partition and 16 when adding the new app/media pair....


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## Robert S

I think you'll find the old swap partition actually ends up as number 14 (as I say, let me know what happens). If it does become number 15, then r 15 14 should move it down, or you can just delete it.

This has never been enough of an issue before!


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## edrock200

Hey Hinsdale,
Do you know if an image from one hdvr2 can be restored onto another using the clear and delete option after the restore?
thanks in advance,
-Ed


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## ronsch

Robert, 

Will do. I suspect if it left the old swap as 15 then mfsadd might have a problem trying to use 14/16 as a new app/media pair. If that does happen I will do the additional renumber to move it back to 14 before trying the mfsadd.


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by edrock200 _
> *Hey Hinsdale,
> Do you know if an image from one hdvr2 can be restored onto another using the clear and delete option after the restore?
> thanks in advance,
> -Ed *


yes


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## edrock200

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *yes *


Once again, Thank you!

Used your instructions a second time for the the HDVR2 (used them on the Hughes series 1 combo box the first time) without a problem!


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## Jim Wiese

All, 
I just wanted to post my thanks to all who support this forum, as well as my upgrade notes. First off, kudos to all of you in this forum. Secondly, here are my notes about upgrading the AT&T Series2 Tivo TCD230040 (40 Gb model).

1) I purchased the Tivo using the AT&T link for $199 ($20 Shipping, $20 handling) - $50 rebate = $244 + tax. I origionally purchased this because I thought that it would be great to use the serial port to change channels, then realized that my ATT box didn't have a serial port (General Instuments).

2) I purchased the 80Gb Western Digital WD800BB to expand the Tivo, and it is very quiet and the heat is quite low ~ 19C. I did the most research on this and for the price vs. size, I thought it was great (~$107 )here ). The closest competitor was the barracuda, but it was reported to be realitivley loud.

3) After thinking about it for a while, I purchased the hard drive bracket from 9thTee , which was a life & time saver. (Kudos to Mark for some great response time and tech support)

4) I had quite a quandry over how to connect the Tivo to the out side world. I researched the options for this quite a bit because the phone jack was no where near my Tivo. After realizing that the ethernet over power line option was ~$160 and the remote phone jack was ~$64, I purchased the Linksys 100M USB to ethernet adapter and the Linksys WET11 wireless bridge to my home network. This combo was ~$140 and I thought it would be best for future investment opporunities (ie sharing videos with Tivo).

5) I burned 2 CDs with Nero and some other shareware program, but couldn't get the MFS tools 2.0 to boot off of the CD, so I went the boot floppy route instead. As well, and important note, if your hard disk has a large about of *volitle* cache, use the "sync" command before rebooting, it took be 2 hours to figure this out. This will basically synchronize the cache with the disk (I thought this was only pertinent with SCSI, but I was wrong).

6) Don't try to use NTFS, even in read mode, just format partition on your disk with FAT32.

7) Use #401 as the dialing code to dial over the 'net.

8) Plan for about 6 hours to upgrade the first time, and don't forget to print out everything you need before disassembling your machine. Read all of the documentation first, espesically the one about *not* booting into Windows XP with the Tivo disk in (barely read this one in time).

9) 40 Gb + 80 Gb expansion disk gave 132 hours total.

10) Someone should build a windows GUI to take care of the upgrade process (not to upset any Linux bigots), just to make the process easier.

Lastly, I hope this helps someone upgrade their next Tivo...

-Jim


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## lifetap

I'm sorry if this was addressed already.. I read thru several pages and haven't found anything about it. 

Is there a reason the Tivo drives are set on different controllers? Wouldn't it be easier to set up the system drive on primary master with the cdrom drive as primary slave? That would leave open the secondary primary and secondary for Tivo drives.

I guess I'm asking if there is a reason the above wouldn't work. I have a system with win98 I plan on using, currently the setup is everything on primary controller. Was leaving secondary for expansion if needed but could connect two 120gb there to upgrade..

Hope that made some sort of sense...


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## Knouse

> _Originally posted by lifetap_
> Wouldn't it be easier to set up the system drive on primary master with the cdrom drive as primary slave?


When I did my upgrade, my Dell had hard drives with W98 on primary master and W2K on primary slave, a CD-ROM as secondary master and a ZIP on secondary slave. I wondered why the instructions called for the CD-ROM as secondary slave. What does Hinsdale have as his secondary master? In any case I printed out the instructions, highlighted the parts that pertained to my setup and changed the drive references to put the CD-ROM as secondary master.


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## Leeb

> _Originally posted by lifetap _
> *Is there a reason the Tivo drives are set on different controllers? Wouldn't it be easier to set up the system drive on primary master with the cdrom drive as primary slave?*


It is my understanding that as long as the devices are jumpered correctly that it doesn't matter where they are set in the IDE chain... master, slave/ primary, secondary, etc.

With the devices configured exactly as hinsdale recommends then your command lines are exactly as written in his instructions... no need to convert them for your device configuration and risk errors.


----------



## lifetap

OK, Thanks guys. Thats what I thought.. Just wanted to make sure. Wife giving me my gift tonight, will be upgrading it about 5 minutes after. TCD230040, replacing with a 120gb...


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## Robert S

Be aware that most TiVo boot disks byteswap primary slave and both drives on the secondary bus, but not primary master. You therefore can't attach a TiVo drive to primary master. This applies to most TiVo hacks, but not upgrades.

If you're using MFS Tools 2.0 to upgrade, no disks will be byteswapped, so it doesn't matter how you connect your drives.


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## lifetap

Well,

The upgrade went flawlessly. Powered up the system.. looked well so opened the case... Two things I noticed was that the HD mounting bracket was loose and that the power supply board was cracked around one of the standoffs. This is interesting because the system arrived in a second box that had no damage and the nice orange tivo box looked great as well. Wondering if quality control is slipping there.

Went with a backup and restore/expand, took about 5 minutes total time. The mfsrestore claimed I now have 122 hours. Currently the unit is dialed in downloading the first program guide so I can't verify on the unit.. Will give it a try tomorrow for the Farscape marithon on Sci-Fi..


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## Joe Schmuck

While converting my TiVo Series 2 80 hour DVR I ran into a few problems. I did overcome these but would like to know the proper solution.

When booting the MSF 2.0 tools (msftools2noj.iso), I was unable to use the "Shift + Page Up" to view the bootup information. The instructions tell you this is possible and I should verify the drive capacities were proper. To overcome this problem I just skipped it and hoped it was working. My TiVo drive was a WD Performer so I figured it wasn't locked. I was right because I was able to recover the data and create my TiVo backup.

My next problem was I was installing a new Samsung 120Gig hard drive. This item is so quiet that I didn't think I plugged it in. I need another one of these. I was going to reuse my original TiVo drive as a secondary drive. Here's the rationale and if I'm wrong, I hope someone points it out.

1. The docs say that I cannot restore my original backup to my drive and use the -s 127 parameter. It won't fit. Well this presumably causes a problem when I add the 120 gig HD with the rebuilding process should the GSOD occur.
2. I restored my image to the 120 Gig HD with the -s -127 parameter.
3. I attempted to use the TiVo drive as my secondary HD but kept getting errors from mfsadd saying the drive was too small. I don't know what happened here.
4. After fooling around with it for too long, I replaced the "B" drive with a new 60 Gig HD I had laying around. All worked fine.
5. Installed the drives and all works.

So, my problems were the original TiVo drive was unusable. Could it have been locked? Maybe it was sun spots? I understood the docs to say that the drives would be erased by mfstools when performing the operations.

As for the mounting of the "B" drive, I had to manufacture a mount. It was easy but it took me about 3 hours with a nibble tool and 1 minute with a drill. I used a Gateway 3.5" drive bay mount. This is a removable carrage and I cut it to form. If you have something like this and a nibble tool or appropriate tool for cutting metal, I recommend this. Otherwise I would opt for the installation kit from 9th tee. The pictures there gave me the idea for the mounting. It was very easy but I did have one side-effect, my finger is sore from rubbing up against the nibble tool.

Now if someone could give me feedback as to what I did wrong for the "SHIFT + Page UP" and what I need to do to install my 80 Gig TiVo original, I would love it.

Also, the Belkin USB - Ethernet adapter works great. No problems what so ever.

Joe


----------



## Guest

I've read through the latter part of this thread, and don't think I've seen this particular Q asked. 

I'm upgrading a Model 230 from a single 40 gb A drive to a single 120 gb A. Using MFSTools 2 (which is fantastic!) and the new how-to, I ran the backup, ran the restore, and ran the add. When I insert the 120 gb drive, the TiVo will boot, but after it boots, it sits at a black screen. If I hit the TiVo buttion, I'll get the TiVo Central menu, but there will be no green background and the TiVo won't respond to keypresses. (However, if I let it sit long enough, it will go back to live TV, and I can repeat the whole process over again.)

With the original drive inserted, everything works fine... including a nice animation that plays after the TiVo has booted. I assume that the big difference between the two drives is that the animations (and maybe the screen backgrounds?) aren't being copied, or maybe they're copied but corrupted?

In reading this thread, I've seen a few references to a mfsrestore -zpi command, *not* mfsrestore -bzpi. Perhaps I'm byteswapping when I shouldn't be, and that's causing some corruption? I'm not really sure; however, according to my reading of the how-to, I should be using -bzpi:

mfsrestore -s127 -bzpi ... (Any Series 2 units)

Next, I think I'll try restoring without the -b, and/or doing a piped backup/restore with -Tao (to get the video files too). Since there's nothing on the drives, this should be fairly quick, I would imagine.

Anyone have any thoughts? My dog is getting a little confused watching me traipse up and down the stairs, gingerly carrying some box full of electronics, singing "If I Only Had A Brain".

Thx in advance!


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## Guest

Never mind... a little -Ta, a little pipe, and all was well in the world. The TiVo is happily humming away.

Is it a bug that TiVo (basically) hangs when backed up and restored using files and no -Ta option? I tried restoring in both byte swapped and non-byte swapped modes, but neither worked.


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## JMaceW

Thanks a million for making this upgrade so easy.  

I purchased a Western Digital 120 GB drive at CC for $150 (after rebate). I upgraded my Phillips TiVo 30 hour unit. It now shows that it has 180 hours and 36 min (Basic Quality). This is freakin great. Now I can keep my 24 shows and Simpsons forever. (well maybe at least until the DVD's come out)


Thank you,

Jason (Happy TiVo owner) :up: :up: to eveyone that helped put this stuff together


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## Big-bill3

I'm planning to do an upgrade of a Thomson Tivo (in UK)
and have been reading the How to document.
At the end there is a Section Headed "I have Windows NT/2000/XP:"

Sorry I don't understand the significance of this section.

These special instructions for XP et al - which section in the "how to " document do they refer to?

I'm trying to get to a situation where I understand the steps I have to take. The family will cane me if I get it wrong, especially as TIVOs are no longer available in UK.

Is there anyone in UK who has done this successfully (or not) who I may talk to?

([email protected])


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## Leeb

In a nutshell it is telling you not to boot into Windows XP while Tivo drives (new or old) are connected to your computer. You want to always boot from the MFSTools CD-Rom when you've got the Tivo drives connected.


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## mdh

Hinsdale 

Thanks for the guide. I used it to upgrade my AT&Tivo. I had previously gone from 40 to 80 hours using a replacement A drive from you (after my original A had failed). My goal was to make a backup and do a preserve recordings upgrade to a 120G drive (and keep the 80 as a spare) 

The backup went fine, but when I tried to use the Upgrade #3 copy it failed with an error message that the backup target was not large enough for the entire backup by itself. This is a confusing message when going to a larger destination drive! By doing the copy without the -x and then mfsadd I found the real problem is there is no partition table space to add the extra 40G (since the drive had been expanded once already there were 15 partitions in use).
Doing the full copy forces the MFs tools to keep the original partitions the same sizes, so it can't do the expanation that it does in a restore that does not have recordings. 

Since the mfsrestore error message is a bit confusing you may want to add a couple of lines to your How-to to Say that doing the Upgrade #3 from an already upgraded drive may not work. (mfsinfo does not help since it says the drive can be upgraded three more times and does not point out that the other three mfs pairs have to be on another drive.)

Thanks 
Mark


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## dark strider

> _Originally posted by Big-bill3 _
> *I'm planning to do an upgrade of a Thomson Tivo (in UK)
> and have been reading the How to document.
> At the end there is a Section Headed "I have Windows NT/2000/XP:"
> 
> Sorry I don't understand the significance of this section.
> 
> These special instructions for XP et al - which section in the "how to " document do they refer to?
> *


They refer to the note warning you not to boot into these OSs with your tivo drives attached and powered up, as the signature bytes on the tivo drive might get screwed up, and then you're back to a re-formatting of the drive and restoring from the backup you *surely* have..

go for it. The family will get over it...<smile>


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## mcarlton

Hinsdale,
Thanks for the excellent How-to. Third successful upgrade done this weekend. 
Mike


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## Joe Schmuck

Well my upgrade lasted about 5 days before the Western Digital drive died. This is a drive I just purchased 2 months before and had never been used. The model is: WD600AB-00BVA0. It's only a 60 Gig model but with it paired up with the new Samsung 120 it worked fine, well until yesterday.

"CLICK CLICK CLICK" that's the noise the drive was making. It was awful!

Maybe it's just the drive just had to be the 2% that fails, I don't know, but I do know the drive was much louder than the Samsung drive.

Solution: I did what I didn't want to do, I placed my original TiVo 80 gig drive into the until as the "B" drive. I'm in a hurry since I'm leaving the country for 2 months and I need the TiVo to record a few programs I just must have.

Otherwise, my TiVo works great again.


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## TiVoDan

I am planning to upgrade to my Sony SVR 2000 to use a single 120 GB HD, and keep my original drive as a Backup. I don't care about saving previously recorded programs. What seems like the most obvious way to do it isn't in Hinsdales HOWTO:


1. Create MFS Tools boot cd. 
2. Remove Tivo drive and insert in PC ( /dev/hda)
3. Insert new 120 GB drive in PC ( /dev/hdc)
4. copy files using "mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc"
5. Remove original Tivo drive from PC and put away as backup
6. Remove new 120 GBdrive from PC and put place in Tivo.


I'm wondering why this is not the recomended procedure in the Howto, and if there is any reason to do anything differently?


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## Robert S

I think he wants you to make and test a backup file. I would say that's a good idea, but it's not essential to the upgrade.

Note that the filename (in this case - (output to stdout)) is part of -o, so -os will produce an error. -o and -i have to go at the end of their groups, so -so <filename> will work.


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## Joe Schmuck

I was just wondering what I would have to do to create my own Bootable MFS Tools CDROM however with my TiVo.bak file included.

I was looking at the contents of the MFSTools CDROM and it seams to have files that look like I could create this new CDROM I'm desiring.

TIA,

Joe


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## LENBO

Another successful upgrade! This one was performed on a AT&T TCD 130040 unit. I added a 120 gb WDC drive. Followed the instructions to a tee. I used the MFS 2.0 boot CD burned as an ISO image. 

My biggest problem was becoming reacquainted with my PC's IDE configurations. (OS is WinME. I have two IDE hard drives with two partitions each, one IDE CD-ROM, one SCSI CD-RW...lotsa cables.) I also had to replace my TiVo's IDE cable (the existing cable only had one connection) and power connector (I purchased a new 'y' adapter from Radio Shack for $4.59). Total time was around three hours - most of which was taken up by my reading and re-reading. Instructions are detailed and thorough.

MFS Tools reported a gain of 136 hours for a new combined total of 175 hours. Awesome. Puzzling though...TiVo reports the total capacity as 'variable - 196 hours'. Whatever. Thank you!


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## gstrysky

Dear Hinsdale,

I used your procedure to upgrade my Brand New Hughes HDVR2 to an 80 GB Seagate Barracuda drive, Model ST380021QA, which is billed as an almost silent drive. The Maxtor drive was torturing me with its loud high pitched whine, so reducing noise was my priority. I thought, for a few minutes, that something was wrong- upgrades aren't supposed to go so smoothly. I was kind of stunned. After starting up the HDVR2 with the new drive, I just started surfing Direct tv making sure every feature worked. Your directions were perfect. The next project is to quiet down the cooling fan!
Thank you,

gstrysky


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## HeatherA

Hinsdale,

Thank you for your step by step instructions. My DH upgraded my 14 hour TiVo to 109 hours this morning in less than 2 hours. Your instructions saved us about $300! I was going to upgrade to an 80 hour box, but we decided to try this route first.

Now DH and the kids have my old 30 hour unit and I'm pleased as punch over my expanded capacity!

Thanks again!


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## PhredC

My upgrade to a single 120 gig drive seems to have worked well except for one remaining issue. It has been creating the index for about 12 hours now. I am getting concerned since this is 50% longer than the 4 to 8 hours they estimate. It doesn't seem that the program guide should take longer to index with the new drive since that index shouldn't care about the drive size. The drive is also a 7200 rpm so it seems it should index faster.

Any thoughts? When I returned from the holidays the machine was rebooting every few minutes. That is what led me to trade out the drive. Then the reboot seemed to be related to dialing in to the mother ship. Rebooted almost every time I tried to initiate a call using 3 different dial-in numbers in case it was some strange server issue.


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## Big-bill3

My Thomson TIVO has a pair of 30Gb Quantums.
I'm looking at the Samsumg 120Gb unit.
Can I take the image from the pair of Quantums on to the 120Gb unit or do I need to keep two drives? In which case do I just replace one 30Gb unit with the 120. If so does it matter which one I upgrade, A or B?

Also with a Compaq Deskpro 4000 (PII-300) will I hit problems with the BIOS not recognising the 120GB drive?


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## Robert S

Assuming you don't want to keep your recordings, you'd just backup your current drives and restore that backup to the 120. If your TiVo was full when it took the ugprade to 2.5.5, the drives won't 'divorce', but you should find your backup works on the big drive.

If you want to keep your recordings, do an MFS Tools pipe to copy the recordings:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdc

You could also use dd to copy the B drive (which will be a 15Gb drive, BTW) and then expand with mfsadd. But the pipe is probably better.

The Compaq should be OK. You might find that your C: drive isn't hda1. Look at the partition table for primary master to be printed at boot, which will tell you which partitions are valid. My guess is it'll be hda2.


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## Big-bill3

Thanks,

BTW from what I can see both drives are identical at 30Gb


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## Big-bill3

Sorry for the additional post.

One of the things I'm not clear about is, when I do an mfsbackup of drive a and drive b, where does this backup get saved and how much disk space do I need?

Am I correct in assuming that this line:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdc 
is two commands - one for backup and the other to restore? Sorry to be thick but I know little of linux.

Could you expand on the bit about partitions. I'm not sure I fully understand.


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## MikeSTL

hi, im wondering if there is a tivo.bak file out there. so you dont half to make a backup img. 


Thanks,
Mike


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## Robert S

bill: If you want to make a backup file you have to follow Hinsdale's instructions. A UK backup should be about 360Mb. 
The point about partitions was that Hinsdale assumes that your C: drive is the first partition on your hard drive. Compaq tend to do some things a little differently and your C: drive is probably the second partition. So you type hda2 where Hinsdale has hda1.

The command I gave you is a 'pipe' (the | character in the middle is called pipe and directs the output of the command on the left to the input of the command on the right). This allows you to copy the recordings directly from the old drives to the new one.

Mike: Yes, you can find TiVo backups on the net.


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## Dadorama

I think I have this figured out, but thought I would run it by the smart ones on the board.

I plan tonight to transfer all of my recordings, etc., from my Series 2 60 hour / 60 GB hard drive to a new Western Digital 120 GB hard drive. I have been extensively through new Hinsdale (the last updated version of December 16, 2002) and think I have most of it figured out. I have three questions, though.

1) Do the new Hinsdale instructions effectively cover the swap file issue? I think I know the answer is yes, but "no dumb questions"....

2) I have the whole process pretty much figured out. I am confident that I can get to the stage that I have all my stuff transfered over to the 120 GB drive. I have looked in my computer at home and know that the old 60 GB Tivo drive will be located on Secondary Slave (drive d in linux-speak) and my new 120 GB will be on Primary Slave (drive b in linux-speak). What I then want to do is go ahead and expand both drives so that the new 120 GB drive will be my TIVO A drive (with an expanded swap file, I presume) and the old 60 GB will be the Tivo B drive, giving me a total of 180 GB of storage space over the two drives. 

Is the correct command going to be: 

mfsadd -x /dev/hdb /dev/hdd 


Apparently the mfsadd with the -x treats the first listed drive as the main drive (the new A drive in the Tivo) and the second listed drive as the B drive in the Tivo. 

Asked another way, will this command make my 120 GB the Tivo A drive with the upgraded swap space and the old 60 GB the Tivo B drive?

3) Since I will have backed up the image to a tivo.bak file on my computer hard drive and tested it in the Tivo, is there any reason NOT to use the 60 GB drive right away? If I understand correctly, if the 120 GB drive fails, I can restore the tivo.bak file to the old 60 GB drive, drop it in the Tivo and I will be good to go (without my recordings, of course). Any reason to wait before I put the 60 GB to work?

Hope none of these are TOO dumb to ask. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Dadorama


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## Robert S

Sounds OK to me.


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## bigblock66vette

Wow, I opened the box, read the 1 page paper , and opened up my Philips TIVO DSR6000 and bada-Bing, I now have 149 hrs. How cool is that? Anyway, Just another satisfied customer! Thanks

Will Robbins :up: :up: :up:


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## mayweb

Hinsdale,

My Samsung 120 MB drive is on its way and I am planning my upgrade to my HDVR2. I have a question with regards to the Host PC that I will be using for copying the drives. The Primary drive is one physical drive, but I have it divided into

primary
extended with
logical 1
logical 2

The LINUX boot CD shows them as hda: hda1 hda2 <hda5 hda6>

The question is: When following your instuctions, do I use "hda" or "hda1" where called for in the copy steps. The OS is Windows ME and the format is FAT32. I made the assumption that Hda1 was the OS space primary partition --- not sure if thats correct as I am still learning LINUX syntax.


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## N27EZ

I purchased a 120 gig drive for my new Hughes Direct Tive. Picked it up in Hinsdale. Installed it and it worked perfectly on a new unit right out of the box. Best of there is NO NOISE from the Maxtor drive. Dispite warnings that have been posted.


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## Robert S

'hda' is a mis-print in an out-of-date (but very popular) version of Hinsdale. I recommend you work from a current copy of New Hinsdale.

Assuming it's formatted as FAT, hda1 will be your C: drive. hda2 is an extended partition and won't be mountable. hda5 and hda6 should mount if you're short of space on the C: drive.


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## Dadorama

Two nights ago (per my earlier post, see about six posts above) I swapped my 60 GB hard drive over to a new 120 GB hard drive, saving recordings. I only have a PII 300 mz computer at home, but the copying process only took about an hour and 45 minutes. Very pleased there, I thought it would be more along the lines of 10 hours from what the Hinsdale docs warn about.

Unfortunately, I did not have a Y connector for my power supply (actually I did pick one up, but the helpful salesman at my local computer store gave me one with a wrong connector on it...) so I did not expand back over to the 60 GB drive again.

Picked up the RIGHT Y connector yesterday and expanded onto the 60 GB drive, now have right at 220 hours at basic with the 120+60 setup. Temp looks stable at about 41C which is about where it was before any upgrades.

I cannot say enough about how easy it was to use the MFS tools. The hardest part was all the jumper resetting and multiple connect/reconnect processes that I went through, but I followed New Hinsdale to the letter, including testing my backup image and all that, which certainly added to the re-jumpering etc. process.

What I found particularly useful for me was that before I started doing anything, I went through New Hinsdale and cut and pasted out into Word the parts that pertained to my upgrade, which shortened the 20 page document down to about six pages total, which included all explanations relevant to my particular upgrade. I then went through the Word document and got all my hard disk settings adjusted to the way I was going to hook up the hard drives to my computer. This made it that much simpler once I actually started hooking up and jumpering and the like.

I have not seen this particular idea mentioned in the threads. It was very helpful to me to do it this way and I would suggest it to anyone who is upgrading their drives.

Many thanks to all who participated in creating these tools and instructions and to all the participants on this thread to allow me to do this great upgrade.


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *'hda' is a mis-print in an out-of-date (but very popular) version of Hinsdale. I recommend you work from a current copy of New Hinsdale.
> 
> Assuming it's formatted as FAT, hda1 will be your C: drive. hda2 is an extended partition and won't be mountable. hda5 and hda6 should mount if you're short of space on the C: drive. *


Not sure what mis-print you are refering to robert? I believe its always read hda1 in all of my How-Tos.


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## PhredC

Your instructions on this forum definitely say hda1. The ones for the CD download say hda. I hda the same problem until I realized it.


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## brahamt

I have used these tools before, and just today I upgraded my new Tivo to 70hrs (I know not that impressive).

Just wanted to thank all of the people who made this possible. The tools work great.

Eventually I'll upgrade my HDVR2, but the Sony's work great now.


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## sdsu89

The Hinsdale how to and MFS Tools were great and easy to follow and use, Thanks!

I have a hdr112 that I've had for a couple of years and finally upgraded by adding a 30GB hd. Everything went flawlessly until I put in the command to unmount the drive. Once I put the command in a error occurred (wish I had written it down) but it was content to continually scroll up the screen until I forced the computer to reboot. I tested the image on the Tivo; no problem, put it back on the computer and put in the commands to marry the 2 drives and finished; no problem.
Question is: Is there a problem in that the drives were not unmounted? Everything works great, but it is bugging me not knowing if something will come back to bite me.
Thanks


----------



## RonV

For the last 30 days my Sony SAT-T60 HD was whining like a bearing was going bad. I found that Compusa had Maxtor's 200GIG hd on sale for 199 after rebates. This was actually cheaper than a 160 wich was going for 249. I also understand there would be storage unusable above 137 GB due to OS/TiVo constraints. 

But one thing the drive came with a 133/ATA adpater that I could installed in my PC to take advantage of a 80 GIG upgrade I did to that a few weeks ago since the mother board only supports 33 MHz transfers. About a 20 dollar trade off I guess.

Doing the upgrade was the easiest thing in the world using the MFS software and Hinsdale instructions. I was worred about the swap flag setting on the restore commands but I used them as documented and it copied everything just fine from the 40 GB to the 200 GB drive. I reviewed the size of the drive under the boot CD just to confirm that only 137 GB was identified as documented and it was. It took about 2 hours to transfer eveything to the new drive.

I installed the new drive in the TiVo and after booting and turing on live DirecTV the drive chugged like it was cleaning up somthing for about 30 minutes and then became very quiet. Verified that every menu worked and my thumbs and season passes were still there...they were! Powered off screwed everything back togther and powered back on and we are now at 137 Hrs of TiVo bliss.

This new drive is so quite that it seems like something is missing in our family room I guess we got used to the old HD noise. You should have heard how loud it was when I was copying the drive outside of the TiVo unit on my work bench. I'll store this 40 meg away just incase something goes wrong with the new drive.

Thanks again to everyone that made this upgrade so easy!

RonV


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## Ezzie00

Mad props to Hinsdale! Hinsdale is awesome. All bow low to Hinsdale!

Got my itty bitty 40 hour TiVo from TiVo.com, played for a couple of days just to verify it worked well. Enjoyed the experience greatly. Had a Western Digital 120Gig special Edition I got for Christmas just begging to be added to the TiVo so I got it together today. Only a couple things went different then the very thorough instructions from Hinsdale:

1. The power supply "Y" cable wasn't at Radio Shack, or Circuit City, but CompUSA had one for me.

2. TT-15 Torx was not needed (minor note)

3. The ATA 66/100 cable I had has one of the pins covered up. Supposedly so morons don't accidently put it on upside-down. However this motherboard has all 40 pins. The TiVo hard drive only had the normal 39 so I knew it wasn't being used. So I grabbed my handy-dandy dremel and a teensy bit and drilled through the cap on the ATA cable. Worked like a charm.

4. Didn't use the 9th tee solution for mounting a second hard drive in the single drive TiVo. Check out the pictures to see the half plastic fan grill, zip tie, and old 5.25" drive mount as the solution. Quite stable.

This forum rules, you guys are great, keep up the good work! 187 max hours of record time.... I am such a geek for having this much fun!

Pictures: -Sorry, first iteration seemed to fail... have to send you to the album.
http://photos.yahoo.com/ezzie00
Click on Transfer for TiVo pics!

l8r, :up:  :up: 
Ezzie


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## edrock200

> _Originally posted by Ezzie00 _
> *Check out the pictures to see the half plastic fan grill, zip tie, and old 5.25" drive mount as the solution.*


*

Picture links don't work for me...*


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## TiVoAddict

Thanks Hinsdale for the great upgrade procedure!

I had just one problem: I used a 36-inch IDE cable, which according to the cable vendor's web site was supposed to make installation easier. Well, the cable was so long I had to double over the excess. And worse yet, I got random Tivo reboots, roughly every 10 minutes.

The kernel log file showed tht I was getting drive read/write errors on both my old drive and the new drive after I installed this cable and did the upgrade procedure. The errors caused one of the programs to crash, and Tivo's recovery response was to reboot the machine.

I discovered that the official IDE spec allows cables up to 18 inches, only half as long as the cable I bought! Everything worked great once I replaced my cable with a short 18-incher. You may get away with two feet (24 inches), but stay away from the three-footers!

Cable length might be a good hint to add to the procedure documentation, along with the warning someone else posted about the filled-in key slot in an IDE cable creating problems.

David


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## BrentLA

Thank you so much for the guide.

My old series one 60 hour unit began skipping a bit in video and flutuating in the audio. When I would back up , it would play that section OK but then skip elsewhere. This didn't seem like a hard drive problem, but I tried anyway.
I worked great! I was afraid to try it since I'm no computer guru, but I followed each and every step and now have 141 hours by removing the dual drives and replacing with a single WD 120G 7200 rpm drive. I still have an open drive bay to expand up to 282 hours (yikes).

No heat problems and the menu finally works nice and fast like it should have. For all of you that are like I was - afraid to upgrade, Do it! It's well worth the couple hours effort if you can follow step by step directions. 

Thanks again
__________________
Series 1 60 hour dual drive expanded to 141 hour single drive


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## gt5059b

Woo-hoo!!

I just upgraded my Sony SVR-2000 with a new 120GB WD1200JB A drive and used the original Quantum 30GB as the B drive (I swapped the two so I could do the 127 swap). Now i have 49 hours of Best Quality and 180 hours of Basic Quality. No more medium or basic recordings for me.

The only snag I ran into was when putting the two drives back in. I forgot to attach the power to the B drive.  On startup, the unit kept going into that startup loop. After plugging in the second drive, I got the "Green Screen Of Death". So I went through the whole mfsrestore and mfsadd process again, but no problems after that.

I wanna say this is a great site and thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and all the others who made this upgrade possible. 


Jay T.
______________________
Sony SVR-2000 (180 hours)


----------



## Robert S

If you'd left the TiVo plugged in for a bit longer the GSOD would have cleared itself - it's a repair utility, like Scandisk, not a sign that the TiVo is dead.


----------



## kruss

Hinsdale:

Situation:
One original 40GB DSR6000 working OK
One original 40GB DSR6000 with death screen

Purchased Maxtor 80GB hard drive (7200RPM) and used working 40GB DTivo drive to create a working 80GB Tivo hard drive. Installed in death screen DTivo, and it works as promised.

Upgrade process created and saved a tivo.bak file on Win98se hard drive.

When I reinstalled working 40GB DTivo drive the drive would stick "forever" on Powering Up screen. I then restored tivo.bak to this 40GB, but I still can't get beyond Powering Up screen.

What's next? Since the working DRS6000 is 80MB and old DSR6000 is 40MB I can't see how I can recreate a tivo.bak file that would fit on 40GB.

My PC has a 45GB hard drive and a CD rom on Secondary Primary cable.
Does it make a difference if the restore is to a drive on Secondary Slave instead of Primary Slave?

Should I consider trashing both 40GB drives? Money IS an object.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## PhredC

I'm no Hinsdale but did you forget to jumper the drive back to Main? That will cause the TiVo to never boot.


----------



## kruss

PhredC:

Yes, I changed the jumper from slave to master and the DTivo still is holding at the starting screen after more than 12 hours. My issue is really can I take a 40GB image and restore it to a 40B drive (eliminating "-s 127") as noted in the Hinsdale instructions for a single drive to single drive upgrade. I used "-zpi" not "-xzpi" so expanding should not have occurred, besides the tivo.bak image came from the same drive I'm trying to bring back to life. BTW, the tivo.bak file is 23MB, so it should fit without a problem, and the restore was reported as successful so the image should be OK, but it won't boot beyond the startup screen.


----------



## Robert S

That's your problem - your TiVo backup file should be well over 100Mb. You therefore have enough in the backup for Linux to boot (and get you to 'almost there), but the MFS partitions are corrupt and preventing MyWorld running.

You'll have to download a good backup.


----------



## kruss

If my source was from a 40GB drive and it worked just fine when restored to a new 80GB drive, why can't it work when it gets restored to a 40GB drive (without expansion)? The original image on a 40GB drive can't be 100MB, can it?


----------



## Robert S

MFS Tools will give you an error message if the image is too big to fit (due to -s 127, or the drive being smaller than the original), -x won't do anything if there isn't room for expansion.

I believe a single drive DSR 6000 backup should be about 121Mb (this is taken from a 40021Mb hard drive, so it's quite a saving in space).


----------



## kruss

Just checked my hard drive and the tivo.bak file is really 230.6 MB not 23 MB so why doesn't it restore properly? Starting with my 45 GB Windows C drive on Primary Master and the original 40 GB DTivo drive (jumpered as slave) connected to Primary Slave I get HDA as a windows drive, HDB as the DTivo drive and HDC as my CD-ROM. Sizes are shown full size, so I don't need to run gunlock 1. What commands should I use from the # prompt to restore my tivo.bak image file to the DTivo drive?


----------



## koldfyre

Last night I added a Maxtor 120GB to my Sony Tivo SAT20. It was very easy using the Hinsdale instructions. 

Only snag was not having enough free space on the PC C: drive- so I had to use Partition Magic to expand the partition. My PC hard drive has a small 1Gig c: and large D: & E: partitions so it just took some time to do this.

Thanks for all the info on these posts and to Hinsdale !!!


----------



## boomboom69

how big can the hard drives be. I've got an HDVR2 and am thinking of replacing the harddrive and adding another one. I found 2 120gig HDs that I was thinking of using but was wondering if I could go bigger.


----------



## tivoupgrade

you can use 2x160GB hard drives which will yield a total of 243 hours...

Lou


----------



## Knouse

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> you can use 2x160GB hard drives which will yield a total of 243 hours...


How do you overcome the 137GB barrier?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Knouse _
> *How do you overcome the 137GB barrier? *


On Series1 units, it is done using a modification to the linux kernel; on Series2 units, we are currently not supporting drives yielding more than 137GB. IE 2x160 == 2x137

Lou


----------



## theguru1974

Are there any mirrors for the hinsdale how-to? I can't get the page to load. 

Thanks!
Eric


----------



## rxtn

Thanks for all the good information and software.

My TIVO upgrade went OK: Added a 120GB Seagate ST3120023A because that is the quietest drive on the market
right now -- in fact you can barely hear it with your ear on it -- yes I'm sure it was running.

Now I have 3 questions:

1. Can TiVo Inc see that I suddenly have more capacity my 
box after it dials in?
2. Can the swap space only reside on the A drive?
It looks like the swap space can only be increased by 
restoring a backup.
3. What's the point of having a "warranty void if seal is 
broken" sticker on the back of the box if it doesn't break
when the box is opened?
I guess I didn't void my warranty.... but are there any
stories of vendors refusing to repair an upgraded Tivo?

-Raymond


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by rxtn _
> *Thanks for all the good information and software.
> 
> My TIVO upgrade went OK: Added a 120GB Seagate ST3120023A because that is the quietest drive on the market
> right now -- in fact you can barely hear it with your ear on it -- yes I'm sure it was running.
> 
> Now I have 3 questions:
> 
> 1. Can TiVo Inc see that I suddenly have more capacity my
> box after it dials in?
> 2. Can the swap space only reside on the A drive?
> It looks like the swap space can only be increased by
> restoring a backup.
> 3. What's the point of having a "warranty void if seal is
> broken" sticker on the back of the box if it doesn't break
> when the box is opened?
> I guess I didn't void my warranty.... but are there any
> stories of vendors refusing to repair an upgraded Tivo?
> 
> -Raymond *


ANSWERS:

1) yes
2) yes
3) you voided your warranty. vendors will still repair units. i wouldn't be so bold as to claim a warranty repair though - its not ethical. if you have a failure, chances are it will be disk-drive related; and of course, you can fix that yourself.

Lou


----------



## weaknees

Edited: no accurate mirrors out there.


----------



## SEC55

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *On Series1 units, it is done using a modification to the linux kernel; on Series2 units, we are currently not supporting drives yielding more than 137GB. IE 2x160 == 2x137 *


Where is that mod posted?


----------



## Robert S

PTVUpgrade haven't posted their mod. If they've modified GPL software (which I assume they have), then the GPL requires them to release their source to the people who purchase their drives _without imposing restrictions on what those people can do with that code_. But we don't know of anyone who's purchased one of these drives at the moment.

Todd Miller has posted a patched kernel (see the sticky thread in the Underground) which does allow you to see the full size of the drive, but it prevents the indexer functioning correctly.


----------



## KingCurly

I've just tried the hinsdale guide. Upgrade from single 40GB to dual 120GB.

When I put the discs in the Tivo, it does not boot. I get an unstable black screen with white dashes at the top (in the vertical blanking interval). I try my original disk. Exact same results. 

Does anyone know what I can do to get my precious TIVO back working?

I have a UK SA Thomson TIVO.


----------



## Robert S

That's not a drive issue. Even with no hard drive plugged in, the TiVo will still display the 'Welcome, powering up' splash screen generated by the boot PROM.

How is the TiVo connected to the TV?


----------



## KingCurly

I'm connected via the TV scart on the back of the TIVO to my TV. I've tried a different scart cable, but it's the same. (I haven't change anything from before the upgrade!)

I've tried the RF out, but get snow!

I've press any button on the tivo remote and I don't get a light flash on the tivo like I would normally expect!

I don't get any "Welcome screen" either!

Any help please!!!


----------



## ptlinva

Now that I've finished celebrating, I wanted to THANK Tiger...THANK YOU SO VERY KINDLY! for his Mfs Tools product.

With Tiger's software, I was able successfully add an 80 gig drive to my TIVO giving me 128 hours total capacity!

Thanks again Tiger...you did a wonderful job!


----------



## Gondola

Another set of thanks from another successful upgrade. I didn't follow the directions completely at first and got very frustrated. But, I realized the restore from your backup WAS necessary, and now I'm a happy camper with a 60gb drive added on to my HDR212 20gb system = 80gb total.


----------



## irish8990

Thanks to Hinsdale & Tiger and all others on this thread.

Just added Maxtor 120GB as B drive to my Sony T-60 original 40 GB drive. No major hangups. Had to play with master/slave settings to get all drives acknowledged. That 3rd screw is indeed pesky, but finally got it off. 

Appreciate the great tools and manuals. Off to enjoy 140+ hours. Thanks to all!!!!!!!


----------



## CyberTiVo

I just added a second drive to my 30 hour TiVo. When I turn it on it continually reboots at the "grey Almost there" screen. I followed the directions and everything seemed to work. I used "mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb". Any ideas?


----------



## Knouse

CyberTiVo:

I had the same problem on my first upgrade. Be sure to check both drives are strapped properly as master (A) & Slave (B), the IDE cables are connected and the power cables are connected.


----------



## HomieG

Thanks to tivocommunity.com and Hinsdale, I have successfully upgraded my HDVR2 to 105 hours. I used MFSTools 2.0 and the Samsung 120GB drive. A couple of notes:
1. It appears that the instruction documents on the MFSTools2.0 CD image has different command line instructions than those on the current Hinsdale web site. Most notably was when mounting the fat32 drive, needing to use hda1, not hda. In any event, this has been discussed previously on this thread. When I noted that my backup had failed, and confirmed that it did not exist on the fat32 partition, I went to the Hinsdale how-to's and noted the difference. Then the backup went OK.
2. Copying the original drive to the new drive, including about 15 recorded programs took about 35 minutes total.
3. Checking the specs on the original Maxtor drive to the new Samsung drive, I noted that the average and track-to-track seek times of the Samsung were quite a bit better than the original Maxtor.
4. I did have a slight problem when first bringing the HDVR2 back up after the upgrade. It would lock on 70% download from the satellite. I did a restart of the HDVR2 and all came back up fine after that.
Thanks again to this site, and Hinsdale and Weakness for all the valuable tips.


----------



## MikeHerbst

Howdy all, I've ordered a pair of 120G drives for my Series2 60Hr unit, and am readying to do the upgrade.

We have a bunch of stuff my better half won't like to lose, so I'll be doing Upgrade Option 3 (single drive to two new drives, preserving recordings).

On the copy/expand command for two drives, the syntax given in the new Hinsdale is:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi -dev/hda /dev/hdb

However, I see in Step 8 that the mfsrestore command syntax adds the -b option:

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb (Any Series 2 units - Boot CD or Floppy users command)

And the following note just below it:


> Note: Series 2 units restoring a previously created backup image should also include the -b option in either command line used below (-xzbpi instead of -xzpi). It has been reported you may need to remove the -s 127 if restoring a Series 2 80hr image (may not function with incr. swap)


So my question is, should I use the -xz*b*pi syntax when doing the backup/restore pipe command or leave off the "b"?

Thanks much!

EDIT: "Cookbook" steps aside, my ultimate question is "What's the significance of the 'b' command?"


----------



## Robert S

-b and -B tell MFS Tools what byte ordering to use. -B for Series 1's (default) and -b for Series 2's. Normally MFS Tools can figure it out for itself, but I think restoring an MFS Tools 1.1 backup to a Series 2 with MFS Tools 2.0 requires -b to get it right.


----------



## Dawnathan

Another successful upgrade! I went from a 40GB drive to a 120GB drive in an HDVR2. It took about 9 hours because I transferred all my recordings, but it went as smooth as silk with absolutely no problems! I'm comfortable mucking around in computers, so the physical drive hookup were no problem, but I know diddly-squat about Linux (through sheer laziness on my part, I must admit!). I used someone else's tip about reading through the instructions and marking what applied to my situation - that helped a great deal! So now I have an expanded TiVo and a *really* impressed hubby - not bad for a day's work! Now if only Suggestions would stop trying to record the 700 Club and Judge Wapner's nimal Court, I would be a happy camper! Next project - installing the multi-switch for the dual tuners!

Thanks again!

Dawn


----------



## ProfessorRob

I wanted to personally thank the guys at Hilesdale for providing me with such comprehensive instructions and tools.

I have no Linux experience, but was able to follow the instructions without a hitch.

I removed the 40GB hard drive that came with the unit and replaced it with two 80GB Western Digital Hard drives .... upgrading my recording time from the stock 35hrs to 174hrs.

I did run into one problem.

Unfortunately, I bought my hard drives before reading the forum. I bought two Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM drives. These drives generate a lot of heat. Combine the added heat from the hard drives with the fact that I store my TIVO store in a closed audio cabinet with a glass door. There is no surprise that my Tivo overheated and shutdown.

I fixed this problem (I hope) by mounting two hard drive cooling fans (purchases from CompUsa for $9.99) under the drive bay of each hard drive & (this may be over kill) I purchased a $5 personal fan from Walmart and paced in the back of my audio cabinet to pull the heat off my audio components.

Since adding these two fans, I have gotten consistent Tivo internal temperatures of 44 degrees.


Rob


----------



## ProfessorRob

I wanted to personally thank the guys at Hilesdale for providing me with such comprehensive instructions and tools.

I have no Linux experience, but was able to follow the instructions without a hitch.

I removed the 40GB hard drive that came with the unit and replaced it with two 80GB Western Digital Hard drives .... upgrading my recording time from the stock 35hrs to 174hrs.

I did run into one problem.

Unfortunately, I bought my hard drives before reading the forum. I bought two Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM drives. These drives generate a lot of heat. Combine the added heat from the hard drives with the fact that I store my TIVO store in a closed audio cabinet with a glass door. There is no surprise that my Tivo overheated and shutdown.

I fixed this problem (I hope) by mounting two hard drive cooling fans (purchases from CompUsa for $9.99) under the drive bay of each hard drive & (this may be over kill) I purchased a $5 personal fan from Walmart and paced in the back of my audio cabinet to pull the heat off my audio components.

Since adding these two fans, I have gotten consistent Tivo internal temperatures of 44 degrees.


Rob


----------



## acropolis

Let me be the next one to thank you for the guide.

Went from:

a) (Stock) Quantum QML-20000LC-A (30 GB)
b) Maxtor 96147H6 (61.4 GB)

to:

a) Western Digital WD1200BB-OOCAA1 (120 GB)

next step is to run the Maxtor disk integrity program on the Quantum and Maxtor to see which one is failing and add the other as the new b) drive. I can't wait to change my sig as soon as everything is up and running!


----------



## coffeo

Another thank you for the upgrade guide. Unfortunately, I'm running into a problem after 5 days.

Last weekend, I successfully upgraded Series 1 to original 30GB and new Maxtor 80GB. Everything worked fine for the first five days. Now, two days in a row I have found the screen frozen and TIVO unable to respond to commands. In both instances, a reboot brought everthing back to normal.

I'm still looking for clues that might help troubleshooting. I have not actually witnessed TIVO freezing, so everything is a guess. Last night's freeze appeared to occur during a recording since the red light was on and the program failed to fully record (discovered after reboot).

Approximately 23 of 34 hours stored (best quality). (Could this be an a drive problem?)

I've searched forum for potential solutions and have been unable to locate one.

I did backup my original drive, but would hate to go through the whole sequence if I could help it.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.


----------



## weaknees

This really does sound like a hard drive problem. You should check your drives in a PC with the appropriate manufacturer's software. Just know that even drives that pass the extended tests can cause problems in TiVos, but if you do show an error code, you can be pretty sure that's the problem.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

Let's keep the discussion here in the other thread you started.


----------



## coffeo

Regarding frozen TIVO, please use the following new thread to continue the discussion. Sorry for the confusion.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102997


----------



## bb330i

Added a second WD 60gb drive to my series 2 Works great.
Thanks


----------



## jwixted

Just wanted to add my thanks to Hinsdale, Ingineer and the rest of the forum for your words of wisdom here. I successfully replaced the puny 40Gb drive in my Hughes HDVR2 with TWO 120Gb drives, without a hitch! Hooked all the drives up, used Option 3 from Hinsdale's guide at http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html, and took the family to dinner. When we got back, all was done. Slapped the new drives back in the box, plugged it in, and presto! 217 hours of recording time!

Some questions come to mind now:
1. Any suggestions on cooling? These new drives are 7200rpm, so they run hotter than the 5400's (was too impatient to wait for them to come in). Box has been reporting 48C for a few days now, and I know cooler is always better.
2. Is there a way to determine how much recording time is in use?
3. Is there a way to use Ingineer's BASH hack http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90268&highlight=800 AND retain the stuff I've already recorded? Since my box has been upgraded to 3.1.0-01-2-151, I'll have to restore to the 3.1.U5-01-2-151 software...

Thanks again for everyone's help!


----------



## ProfessorRob

I replaced my factory 40 GB hard drive with two 80 GB hard drives. I followed Hilesdale instructions and backed up my factory 40 gb hard drive to an old 2 GB drive that I had around the house. Since I have the image of my original drive saved on the 2 GB drive can I now reformat and re-use the original 40 GB Tivo drive in one of my computers or should I hold onto it and the backup drive in case something happens?

Rob


----------



## Robert S

Yes, your backup can be usied to create an A drive image on any suitably large hard drive. I'd give your new drives a month or two to 'soak', but after that, there's no real benefit to keeping the original A drive.


----------



## EE2909

Just updated my Series 2 60 hr with a 120 GB Samsung. I made the Samsung my new "A" drive and the old drive 60 hr as the "B" drive with the likelihood of upgrading to another 120 GB in the future. With Hinsdale-How-To directions, I completed the upgrade in a little over an hour. Expanded TiVo works great.

Thanks again!


----------



## chh1

Another successful upgrade.

I successfully updated my hdvr2 with 120 GB Samsung. Now I'm getting another hdvr2 and I want to do upgrade to the new one also, the question is Could I use the OLD BACKUP to upgrade the new hdvr2? 

Thanks!

-chh1


----------



## OCDane

Anyone successfully added a second 120GB HD to their Tivo Series2 ?


----------



## njtaz

I have just finished upgrading my Series 2 with a 120 GB Maxtor as a 'B' Drive. The upgrade went extremely well. The hardest things were mounting the second drive. I had bought the mounting equipment from 9th tee. Then also putting the cover back on my Series 2 TiVo. There is Styrofoam on the cover which I had to remove....Is this OK? what was it there for anyway?


----------



## Joe Schmuck

> _Originally posted by njtaz _
> * There is Styrofoam on the cover which I had to remove....Is this OK? what was it there for anyway? *


I think it was for ventilation to ensure the flow of air across the chips. It could have been for additional support of the top but I thought the top was quite sturdy.

Or, here is a good thought. It tells if you have installed a second hard drive into the unit. I pulled mine off very carefully and can replace it if required.

Good Job on the conversion.

Joe


----------



## njtaz

Yeah, I pulled it off carefully also. If needed I can put it back. I was surprised I was able to get off in one piece.


----------



## MikeHerbst

Well, another successful upgrade, thanks everyone!

My Series 2 60Hr is now sporting a pair of Samsung 120s.

The install went flawlessly, and even though we copied all of the recordings over to the new drives, the whole process still only took about 2.5hrs!

Thanks Hinsdale!

EDIT:

Since I had a couple of questions going into this upgrade, I thought I'd add a few observations that might be useful to someone else. I posted these in someone else's thread but thought they were appropriate here.

Observations are for upgrading a Series 2 60Hr with twin Samsung 120G 5400 RPM Drives ($119 shipped each from esystor.com)

1) Note on the Samsung jumper diagram that there are several configurations listed for "Master" and "Slave". There's one for "Capacity < 32", one for "Capacity >= 32" and one for "Capacity >=32 with Limit".

You want to use the jumper configs for "Capacity >=32". Note that these require BOTH jumpers in a specific orientation.

2) As others have said, note that the jumper diagram on the top label is upside down if you're looking at the HD from the top. Note the position of the power plug and IDE connector in the diagram before making jumper changes.

3) Both of my Samsung drives came pre-configured for Master (>=32) and had "Quiet" mode enabled in the HD bios.

4) In my TiVo unit I placed the "A" (Master) drive on the right and the "B" drive on the left (looking from the back of the unit). The IDE cable I ended up using was able to (barely) reach in the "correct" orientation (i.e. Black "end" on the master, grey-middle to the slave, and blue "end" to the board), but several other IDE cables in my stash would not. I later found a couple of more that would have fit even more easily, but I'd already buttoned the unit back up.

The moral of the story: some people have had luck with reversing the IDE cable, but if you want to eliminate possible problems, check to see if you have any cables that will reach the "right way" first. If you're like me, you've probably got a dozen cables lying around from various computer incarnations.

5) I was a little unsure about whether or not to use the -b switch on the mfsrestore command, since the syntax for it varied depending on which step in the instruction you were on. I went ahead and used the -b for both the "test" restore of the backup in step 8 (as indicated), and for the backup/restore pipe command in Option 3 of step 10 (-bxzpi instead of -xzpi).

6) With a fast processor and lots of RAM (1.2GHz, 1G RAM), I was able to copy over about 20Hrs of High-Quality recordings (using option 3) in just over an hour. The instructions imply this can take a REALLY long time, but if you've got a fairly new machine this takes about as long as making and eating a sandwich for lunch.

7) The MFSTools CD was able to see the Samsung drives as UDMA/100, and the Original 60G TiVo drive as UDMA/66. My ancient 3G HD I used for the backup (since I'm a Win2k user) was not UDMA compatible, which probably explains why the step 7 backup and step 8 restore took almost as long as the "real" upgrade which included copying all of the recordings.

8) With the new drives in place I read a steady 38'Celsius in the box, which is up a bit more than I'd like, but I will monitor it for any problems.


----------



## jbaker

Joe, what bracket did you use to install the drives in the HDVR2?

TIA.



> _Originally posted by jwixted _
> *Just wanted to add my thanks to Hinsdale, Ingineer and the rest of the forum for your words of wisdom here. I successfully replaced the puny 40Gb drive in my Hughes HDVR2 with TWO 120Gb drives, without a hitch! Hooked all the drives up, used Option 3 from Hinsdale's guide at http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html, and took the family to dinner. When we got back, all was done. Slapped the new drives back in the box, plugged it in, and presto! 217 hours of recording time!
> 
> Some questions come to mind now:
> 1. Any suggestions on cooling? These new drives are 7200rpm, so they run hotter than the 5400's (was too impatient to wait for them to come in). Box has been reporting 48C for a few days now, and I know cooler is always better.
> 2. Is there a way to determine how much recording time is in use?
> 3. Is there a way to use Ingineer's BASH hack http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90268&highlight=800 AND retain the stuff I've already recorded? Since my box has been upgraded to 3.1.0-01-2-151, I'll have to restore to the 3.1.U5-01-2-151 software...
> 
> Thanks again for everyone's help! *


----------



## jwixted

I used the HDVR2 bracket found at 9thtee: http://www.9thtee.com/tivoupgrades.htm

Good luck! Let me know if you have questions...


----------



## cliffe

i followed the hinsdale instructions. and had a locked tivo drive only read 10 mb. so i used the instructions for qunlock now i have a tivo drive that is still 10mb but now my 80 gb new drive seas its 
an 8mb hard drive. how do i reverse this?
what did i do wrong.my new drive is a 80 gb. maxtor.


----------



## angrytaxman

Thank you so much Hinsdale!!!  You made the upgrade process so easy for everyone. If you can follow directions you can upgrade your Tivo! I'm so happy with the results, and you have every possible combination outlined! It's such a time saver. Thanks again!


----------



## int1

Ditto on the thanks! I added a Samsung 120GB 5400 RPM drive to my Series 2 60hr, and it was a cinch. Yeah Hinsdale and Yeah Tivo!

int1


----------



## mrtickle

Many thanks for adding the clear warnings about the swap file! Hopefully we'll have less people who fall into the dangerous trap of adding large B drives to existing A drives in the future


----------



## southaven

I recently ordered the 120GB A Drive Upgrade kit from Hinsdale for my Hughes DirecTiVo GXCEBOT. I recieved the kit within a couple of days. I came home from work, grabbed the package off the porch, powered down my reciever, popped the top of the TiVo and a beer, and was done within 10 minutes! Went through the guided setup and bam!, done. Only hiccup was I lost my local channels, but a quick call to DirecTV and they sent them through the DBS while I was on the phone.

Highly recommend Bill Hinsdale and his services!

A very happy 109 hour DirecTiVo user,
Wayne


----------



## njtaz

Since I've upgraded my TiVo my recordings automatically get that yellow circle and a day later I also get the yellow circle with the exclamation point. These recordings don't seem to be getting deleted and TiVo suggestions keep on recording. So it would seem the upgrade worked. But why am i getting the yellow dots and exclamation points so soon. I shouldn't be anywhere near having my second drive filled up. 
Upgraded from 80 to 226 hours - Series 2.


----------



## DaveLessnau

The yellow dots and exclamation points aren't based on space available. They're purely based on how long the recording has been sitting on your Tivo. I believe the default is two days and it's marked for deletion. As you noticed, it's just MARKED for deletion. Nothing gets deleted until TiVo needs the space (in your case, that'll probably be annually  ). There's no way to change the default Save Until date.

EDIT: Oops! I forgot about the Keep At Most setting. If your SP/ARWL is set with a KAM entry other than All, recordings will actually be deleted when that number is reached. The default for a new SP/ARWL is KAM=5 (I believe).


----------



## mstroh

Thanks Hinsdale! I upgraded my S2 tonight, it took 1 1/2 hours and I took my time reading and rereading. It was simple! One note, my original drive from my S2 needed to be set to "master with a slave" and not solely to "master" (while perfoming the upgrade) which are two different settings.


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## FMK2

I too thank you, Hinsdale! I upgraded my HDVR2 to a Samsung 120G drive in no time.

I love seeing that "Variable, up to 105 hours" notation in the Recording Capacity!


----------



## solarie

just finished my upgrade -- thanks for the great guide. was no sweat!

one thing you might find helpful (and perhaps someone else has posted it) -- for the SAT-T60s and that really hard to get screw that holds the drive/fan bracket on (the one that requires you to be a contortionist to get around the power-supply...) -- a 3/32 allens wrench works wonders. you've got to be a bit careful, but much easier than plyers or using a torx "at an angle". just an fyi...

again, thanks!


----------



## tedster

Just completed an upgrade from a 45GB UK Thomson Tivo (1 * 30GB and 1 * 15GB) to dual 120GB Samsung Drives with the help of the Hisdale Guide.

Had small issues with the upgrade (mainly the fact that I run XP and the Linux boot CD couldnt copy my image to the NTFS formatted C: drive).

Now have the backup image and the old drives in case of problems.

Now also have 84 Hours and Best Quality and over 270 at basic quality recording space!!!


----------



## JD9900

Well, I took the plunge, upgraded my DSR6000 to dual 120GB maxtor 5400 drives, and I'm in heaven. Hinsdale, thanks again (I know you've heard it a million times)! Your documentation and the organization of your web site had me up and running in about 3 hours, including a 40GB backup and restore to the new drives.


Thanks again!!!

Bob


----------



## insomniackk

I too want to thank Hinsdale for the upgrade notes and Tiger for the great MFS Tools. I wonder how many of us were upgrading our DTivos this weekend?

Easy and painless upgrade - I found that backing up the existing drive to the new Samsung 120Gb drive was the easiest process. I didn't even need the FAT32 drive at all! It took about 3hrs to backup to the new drive. I decided to go this route because I wanted to keep my "99 cent special" recordings intact ;-)

Thanks again and good luck to those who are about to upgrade theirs.


----------



## jahf

Ditto. The how-to + MFS tools made backing up and expanding my Series 2 -much- simpler than doing the same on my Series 1 a year ago. Thanks to all involved!


----------



## abd4evr

Did any of you upgraders add a 2nd HD to a TIVO 60hr series 2 (non sat- TCD 140060)? If so, is a drive bracket and power splitter necessary? I can't quite tell from the instructions, and I don't want to crack my unit 'til I know all the stuff I need.

Thanks!


----------



## Joe Schmuck

> _Originally posted by abd4evr _
> *Did any of you upgraders add a 2nd HD to a TIVO 60hr series 2 (non sat- TCD 140060)? If so, is a drive bracket and power splitter necessary? I can't quite tell from the instructions, and I don't want to crack my unit 'til I know all the stuff I need.
> 
> Thanks! *


As I understand it, your Series 2 unit is the same as my 80 Hour unit. If your gonna add a second hard drive then you will need some sort of bracket. I made my own but if I didn't, I'd go for the TwinBreeze version. It's very straight-forward and sharp looking. You will need a power splitter.

My suggestion is... If your looking to build a video library then by all means add a second drive, but if your looking to something a bit smaller but more than your 60 hour, use a single drive like the Samsung 120Gig. It's quiet and less heat in the case. And of course, Backup your original ! Save that puppy to 3 CD's if you must.

joe


----------



## Ye Ha

No mention of potential damage by accidentally loosening ribbon cable between front panel & motherboard.

Now my remote doesn't work.  

Didn't see warning in separate post until after it was too late.


----------



## weaknees

> *Did any of you upgraders add a 2nd HD to a TIVO 60hr series 2 (non sat- TCD 140060)? If so, is a drive bracket and power splitter necessary? I can't quite tell from the instructions, and I don't want to crack my unit 'til I know all the stuff I need. *


Actually, the 140060 (60-hour TiVo) has a bracket for a second drive already. You will need a power splitter and a new IDE cable.

The TwinBreeze will work in the following TiVos:

Hughes HDVR2
AT&T model 230040 (TCD230040)
TiVo model 240040 (TCD240040)
TiVo model 240080 (TCD240080)

(As of this post, the DSR-7000 and Samsung DirecTV/TiVo units have not been released.)

Before adding a drive to one of the TCD models, you might search around for the threads talking about the power supply in those units.

Please also do look for the "Warning" post. In a nutshell: Don't power up your TiVo if the cable running from the front of the TiVo to the motherboard is not securely fastened. If you do, you could permanently damage your TiVo.

Michael

Edited to add links:

Warning thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105719

Power threads:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104363

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104815

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103265


----------



## schwatoo

Now I have 182hrs in Basic quality and 81hrs in High (my new default).

Took about an hour. Excellent documentation & software.

The only real issue was getting the ATA cable to fit (had to rush out to CompUSA to find a shorter cable and even then had a bit of a fight - how short do ATA cables go?

Oh and for some reason getting the case back on after the bracket was fitted was a bit of a problem - from what I can tell the bracket (from <http://www.9thtee.com/TiVoMtgBracket-s2.htm>) shouldn't have interfered.

Now I'm anxiously watching the temperature rise: at a very healthy 38 degrees now.


----------



## weaknees

You needed a shorter cable? What model unit do you have? What was the problem with the longer cable - just not enough air flow?

Michael


----------



## mikebridge

just a thank you note to hinsdale, tiger, etc. upgraded from a single drive 30hour to a dual 120gig setup, 306hours, 24minutes. woohoo!


----------



## Delta13

Thank you, thank you! I just upgraded my HDVR2 to one of those Best Buy 100+20 drives - works great! It even runs a degree or two cooler than the 5400 40 Gb original drive.

I copied the entire drive (nearly full) over to the new drive, shows and all. If you're wondering how long that takes on your PC, it took about 8 hours using a spare P166 with 48 Meg of RAM.

Thanks to all who worked on the upgrades!


----------



## abd4evr

Thanks to all on this thread, and of course, those kind enough to write and post software to make it work! In case anyone else is upgrading a 1st gen series 2 60 hr, the bracket is already in (original bracket has space for 2 drives, all that's needed is a power splitter and a new IDE cable (comes with retail box drives).

I just added one of those BBY Maxtor 120 ("100+20") drives as a "b" drive and kept my 60gb as an A. I don't know if that was the best option, but it works and I didn't have to do any funky stuff. So far, temp is exactly the same as it was before upgrading. (I wonder where the sensor is, maybe it's upwind of the drives from the fan...)

One thing I ran into is that the command line (whatever it is in linux) for mounting hda before the backup step may not be correct in the 9th tee instructions (sourced from Hinsdale). I couldn't get it mounted right (kept asking for what kind of file system it was) and I checked Hinsdale's instructions, and there was a difference of one character. When I tried that, it worked. So if anyone is frustrated because they can't make it work, that might be the problem. (i'm a complete newbie, so forgive the naivete)


----------



## pengster

I proceeded with an upgrade from 2 drives to a single 120 GB and mfstools came through like a charm. Upgrade option #6 works great, even with just a floppy. Not sure why it says "limited", but it works with my series 1 phillips tivo.

Many thanks!!


----------



## Robert S

I think he just means that this upgrade isn't applicable to most TiVoes. Of course, if your TiVo does meet the criteria, it works like a charm.


----------



## myoung5655

thank you so much for your document. I used it alot this weekend while working over my system after I lost a slave disk...

I have two suggestions. 

(incidently, it's the first hughes model).

the first suggestion is that you put into bold face text the fact that the master disk MUST be on the end of the ide cable. I completely missed this, and went through an entire second imaging process before I happened across it while rereading the directions to see if I'd missed anything. the result was the green immediately after "just a few more" message, then a reboot.

the next suggestion would be small section entitled, "You have no backup for a broken system, but all is not lost." 

for me, the process was simple, once I figured it out. I found an backup image online, then used the command to write it to the disk, expanding and marrying the second disk at the same time.

it was beautiful once I fitured it all out, but it wasn't obvious that it was possible without the original backed up image.

thanks again for the document. 

...myoung


----------



## sleepX

Upgraded my 40h S2 with a 120GB maxtor hd. 

Works puuurfect!

Thanks all!

- SleepX


----------



## ron_b85

Yeii! Hinsdale's website is missing!?!


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by ron_b85 _
> *Yeii! Hinsdale's website is missing!?!  *


Just noticed this also.. am checking into it

EDIT UPDATE: Should be back up and running.. let me know if anyone is having difficulties.


----------



## psywzrd

I still can't get into the site. Can someone please post the url again so I know I'm using an updated link?


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by psywzrd _
> *I still can't get into the site. Can someone please post the url again so I know I'm using an updated link? *


I had a DNS server problem earlier today that has been corrected but may take awhile to correct for all locations, in the meantime you should be able to access using the following urls:

New Hinsdale How-To:
http://207.201.165.30/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html

Hinsdale TiVo Upgrade services:
http://207.201.165.30/hinsdale-how-to/upgradeservice.html


----------



## deaklet

Thanks to the amazing support of the tivocommunity, DH and I upgraded today. We had a GXCEBOT that didn't work with 2 drives--suspected power supply problem. We bought an HDVR2 from Tweeter for my b-day a couple of weeks ago and then marched to BB for a 100+20 GB Maxtor drive. 

The hardest part was figuring out how to get the drive bay out of our HP Pavilion. I'm not real great with computer hardware, but I figured out the cabling and jumpering, and as soon as that was right, we were cruising! It was very fast, since we used a new HDVR2 drive as the backup--moved the GXCEBOT to the basement--and all is well. I do notice the louder drive, however, and will probably be searching for the "quiet utility" soon. 

Thanks, all!

-Leslie


----------



## ron_b85

Leslie, go to maxtor.com and search for AMSET. 

I'm still looking for confirmation to see if I *have* to remove my existing HD in order to just add the new 120G (to a S2 single-drive Sony)...


----------



## weaknees

With 120 GB going to a Sony SVR-3000, you really should remove the boot drive and use the new drive as the A drive so you can add swap space. Then, use the 80 as the B drive. More details are in Robert S's sticky post.

Michael


----------



## ron_b85

I don't mean to sound dumb, but what's a "sticky post"?

It appears that in order for me to make this brandy-new drive work, I do need to put some image on it (which means, I *will* have to back up the original 80G). It'll be a long, slow burn, since it's pretty much full, and I don't want to lose the data on it... 

Thanks for the reply, Michael!


----------



## weaknees

A "sticky post" is a thread that stays at the top of the forum list - like this one.

Anyone, here's the link to the swap thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69952

Michael


----------



## nichols_eric

It's been awhile, but I just upgraded my second TiVo, an old DSR6000 with a new 120 Maxtor. Only problem I has was I had to borrow my neighbors computer, since I only am using 2000 and XP over here! Kudos Tiger and Hinsdale!


----------



## weaknees

Using a PC with XP or 2000 is fine as long as you don't boot that drive. Safest way to be sure is to physically disconnect it for the Linux work.

Michael


----------



## Knouse

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> Using a PC with XP or 2000 is fine as long as you don't boot that drive. Safest way to be sure is to physically disconnect it for the Linux work.


 That's only one problem. You need a FAT32 partition. If your 2K/XP machine only has one drive with one NTFS partition you're gonna need a friend or a neighbor or a friendly neighbor.


----------



## Robert S

Or just put a small (2Gb is plenty) FAT partition on the drive you're about to use for the upgrade and use that for the backup phase.


----------



## boomboom69

I'm having some trouble. I had added a sendond HDD just a 8 gig HDD to a HDVR2 and it worked fine and now I bought a 120 gig to replace the 8gig HDD and I used hinsdales and did the dd copy methond in option 4 I think it is. But when I do the mfsadd command it just gives me the 47 hours that I had with the original 40 gig A and 8 gig B. I'm currently using the the 120 gig but it just wont let me expand it to use the full drive. any help would really be appreciated. thanx.


----------



## weaknees

Have you carefully checked the jumpers on the new 120 GB drive? What does it show as its capacity when Linux boots?

The easy answer is just to do a backup and restore to both drives. You'll lose your recordings, but this should be a no-brainer.

Michael


----------



## boomboom69

the jumpers are fine it works in the tivo but it's not locked otherwise it wouldn't even recognize the 8 gigs that is being used. It reports both the new drive and the original tivo drive with numbers and letters. it doesn't give a capacity.


----------



## weaknees

The Linux Boot CD should report a capacity in MB on startup. Can you look back through a startup sequence? You can use shift-page up to scroll up.

Michael


----------



## marsb

Im trying to upgrade my HDVR2 to 120+120 and after using 

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

MY SCREEN HAS SCROLLING GARBAGE ON IT, And the whole computer is beeping like crazy while this garbage scrolls on the screen.

IS THIS NORMAL OR DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by marsb _
> *Im trying to upgrade my HDVR2 to 120+120 and after using
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb
> 
> MY SCREEN HAS SCROLLING GARBAGE ON IT, And the whole computer is beeping like crazy while this garbage scrolls on the screen.
> 
> IS THIS NORMAL OR DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG? *


You cannot use the 'primary master' for Blessing or creating bootable drives for your TiVo. Try the following, instead:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Connect your CD to /dev/hda and boot from it; connect your TiVo "A" drive as the primary slave, and all should be fine.

Lou


----------



## marsb

OK, so i need ALOT of help. Here's the deal... I want to upgrade the HDVR2 (40gb hd) to 120+120:

This is my setup:

hda --> fat32 windows formatted drive (no windows system on it - BARE)
hdb --> NONE
hdc --> Original Maxtor TIVO A drive
hdd --> dvd rom drive


when i try to backup the TIVO A drive to my fat32 drive i do this:

mkdir/ mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -f 4138 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

AND I GET THIS ERROR MESSAGE:

/dev/hdc10: Success
mfs_load_volume_header:mfsvol_read_data: Input/output error
mfsbackup: Backup failed to statup. Make sure you specified the right devices, and that the drives are not locked.

WHAT DID I DO WRONG???

I have the Hughes HDVR2 DirecTivo by the way...

Help!



SECONDLY,
when i try to just copy the TIVO A to a NEW LARGER WD 120 drive, and add the 120 B drive using:

hda --> new 120 gb A drive
hdb --> new 120 gb B drive
hdc --> Original Maxtor TIVO A drive
hdd --> dvd rom drive

and use the command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc

my screen pauses for a little bit, it tells me that it's checking the drive, and then a million things start scrolling on the screen (looks like garbage/code) and it keeps going and going and ... you get the idea (IS THAT WHAT IT's supposed to happen???)

Another thing that i could think of... i have WD 120 gb drives with 8mb buffers. I believe the BIOS is recognizing them at ATA66 (should i have it in 33 mode?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


----------



## jwixted

I did exactly what you're trying to do about 6 weeks ago. check out post http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1025015#post1025015 - Just follow the Hinsdale guide (link is in post) EXACTLY, and it'll work like a charm...


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by marsb _
> *OK, so i need ALOT of help. Here's the deal... I want to upgrade the HDVR2 (40gb hd) to 120+120:
> 
> This is my setup:
> 
> hda --> fat32 windows formatted drive (no windows system on it - BARE)
> hdb --> NONE
> hdc --> Original Maxtor TIVO A drive
> hdd --> dvd rom drive
> 
> when i try to backup the TIVO A drive to my fat32 drive i do this:
> 
> mkdir/ mnt/dos
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
> mfsbackup -f 4138 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
> 
> AND I GET THIS ERROR MESSAGE:
> 
> /dev/hdc10: Success
> mfs_load_volume_header:mfsvol_read_data: Input/output error
> mfsbackup: Backup failed to statup. Make sure you specified the right devices, and that the drives are not locked.
> 
> WHAT DID I DO WRONG???
> 
> I have the Hughes HDVR2 DirecTivo by the way...
> 
> Help!
> 
> SECONDLY,
> when i try to just copy the TIVO A to a NEW LARGER WD 120 drive, and add the 120 B drive using:
> 
> hda --> new 120 gb A drive
> hdb --> new 120 gb B drive
> hdc --> Original Maxtor TIVO A drive
> hdd --> dvd rom drive
> 
> and use the command:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc
> 
> my screen pauses for a little bit, it tells me that it's checking the drive, and then a million things start scrolling on the screen (looks like garbage/code) and it keeps going and going and ... you get the idea (IS THAT WHAT IT's supposed to happen???)
> 
> Another thing that i could think of... i have WD 120 gb drives with 8mb buffers. I believe the BIOS is recognizing them at ATA66 (should i have it in 33 mode?)
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. *


Sounds like you need to check your jumper settings - if you are getting lots of errors and timeouts, you could have two drives trying to play the same role as 'master' or 'slave'....

Lou


----------



## boomboom69

Weaknees-- I don't have the cd version for some reason I can't make it boot off the cd. I use the floppy and it doesn't report the MB of the HDD when I plug in my samsung it does for it and just gives some alpha numerick number for my 2 maxtor HDDs'. I wouldn't think the drives are locked especially since I was able to dd copy the 8 gig Hdd on to the 120 but I just can't get it to expand.


----------



## ron_b85

> _Originally posted by marsb _
> *OK, so i need ALOT of help. Here's the deal... I want to upgrade the HDVR2 (40gb hd) to 120+120:
> ...
> SECONDLY,
> when i try to just copy the TIVO A to a NEW LARGER WD 120 drive, and add the 120 B drive using:
> 
> hda --> new 120 gb A drive
> hdb --> new 120 gb B drive
> hdc --> Original Maxtor TIVO A drive
> hdd --> dvd rom drive
> 
> and use the command:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc
> 
> my screen pauses for a little bit, it tells me that it's checking the drive, and then a million things start scrolling on the screen (looks like garbage/code) and it keeps going and going and ... you get the idea (IS THAT WHAT IT's supposed to happen???)
> 
> *


Well, yes, and no. 
Actually, what you need to do is run backup, but *pipe* it to the 'restore' 
command. What you did was say "back up my TiVo data, and send the information to .. THE SCREEN!" (the dash after "-Tao" says "output to file.. no filename specified; use standard-output!", which is your screen.)

I'm certain the scenario you're looking for is in the How-To guide...

HTH!


----------



## marsb

This might seem a really dumb question, but how do i *PIPE* it to the -restore command? All i've been doing with the backup command so far was type the first part of it, before the vertical bar, and pressing enter... and thats when it starts spewing out the garbage... (As you might have guessed i have no idea what i'm doing in linux/unix - so treat me like an idiot and explain it to me step by step without thinking that i know how to do something.) Is that how you pipe it??? or is there a way to get the whole msfbackup/restore command on the screen at the same time???

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Robert S

You have to do exactly what Hinsdale says - you'll find Unix is /very/ unforgiving if you make changes you don't understand.

If you want to make a backup file, you have to give a filename:

mfsbackup <options> -o /mnt/tivo.bak <drive>

If you want to use a pipe to transfer your recordings, you use the | character to connect the stdout of the backup command to the stdin of the restore:

mfsbackup <options> | mfsrestore <options>


----------



## marsb

that's what i was asking... how do i do the PIPE CHARACTER??? I think i hit every key on the keyboard, but can't seem to find it!!!


----------



## weaknees

Its a shift-backslash. The one just above your Enter key.

Michael


----------



## dlambermont

Hello all,

I purchased an upgrade kit from Hinsale a little over a month ago (120 Gig A drive replacement for my HDVR2) and was TiVoing happily until this past weekend. I started noticing "pauses" during playback which became more and more frequent. Even the animation behind menus would freeze for a few seconds, play for a few seconds, freeze again...

Anyway, I restarted the system, and it hung on the "Powering up. Please Wait" screen (tried this maybe 10 times). I took the drive out, installed it in a PC and ran Maxtor's diagnostics -- failed all of them.

So, now I am waiting for the replacement drive to arrive from Maxtor. Rather than shipping the drive back to Hinsale for reimaging, I'd like to try this myself. The drive came with a backup image on CD, so this should be easy. Trouble is, I'm having trouble figuring out where in the HOWTO to start, since this particular scenario is not covered.

I am familiar with Linux, but not with the MFS tools. Can someone get me pointed in the right direction?


----------



## Robert S

Just follow the instructions for restoring a backup image to an A drive. Copy the image from the CD to C:\TIVO.BAK and all will be as in Hinsdale.


----------



## timmy1376

I am trying to replace the factory HD which I think had some bad sectors on it with a 80 GB drive. I have a SAT-t60. I used the guide and copied from the original to the new one, but went to step 10 and did config 3. I got errors restoring the backup. Would a bad original drive cause that??


----------



## scottara

Can i perform the imaging and upgrade using a pc that doesnt have any version of windows on the C drive connected to the primary master, while the drive i am upgrading is connected to the secondary master as hinsdales instrs say?

What i am worried about is my main pc is running xp, so i dont think i can hook up the new drive to that pc on the secondary master and perform the upgrade right?

Please give me some insight...


----------



## Robert S

Yeah, all the software you'll be using is on the boot disk, so as long as there's a filing system on the disk, that's all you need.

Linux can't write to XP's NTFS partition anyway, so disconnecting the C: drive is a really good idea.


----------



## scottara

So i can use my pc that has XP running but shut it down, disconnect the C drive and connect the tivo drive i want to work on to the secondary controller and then boot hinsdale instrs and cd and i should be ok? I dont need a c drive connected at all or i need a c drive connected but if it is blank that is ok?


----------



## weaknees

You basically have it all right - but you will need a C drive or some PC drive if you want to make a backup during the process. If you don't want one (or already have one), then just disconnect your C drive, make sure no Win XP CD boots, and you should be fine.

Michael


----------



## mhoeffner

Thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, etc., I was able to perform an upgrade effortlessly. I was able to expand from about 32 basic hours to 128 for just a little over $100.

Issues:

Getting the original drive out of the Tivo was a pain with the screwdriver that I bought (see below). I got it out, but only with great frustration.

I couldn't get my computer to recognize the new drive as either secondary master or slave. The computer's drive and the bootable CD-ROM made up the primary chain. Going into the BIOS setup and setting both secondary master and slave from "Auto" to "None" fixed it (something similar should be available on all other computers). Windows still wouldn't see the drive, but Linux from the boot CD did.

Unit:

Philips HDR312-01

New Drive:

Dell (Hitachi actually) 80GB 7200 drive (part # 340-3696) - shipped for $72

Misc:

9th Tee mounting bracket - shipped for $22

Radio Shack 17-Piece Ratchet Driver Set (catalog # 64-1904) - picked up for $9

Thanks again to everyone for sharing so much information here.


----------



## weaknees

So what was the problem getting the drive out? The Torx T-10 in your set should have made it pretty easy, no?

As far as the BIOS - Linux doesn't use its drive recognition, so setting it to none is the best answer.

Michael


----------



## djtravis

Upgraded my 80h S2 with a 120GB wd1200bb.

Works purfect!

Only problem was Mfstools2 would not run on my gateway GP7-866, but worked just fine on my old 200mhz pentium pro.
Hinsdale directions were GREAT!

Thanks all!


----------



## mhoeffner

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *So what was the problem getting the drive out? The Torx T-10 in your set should have made it pretty easy, no?*


The problem was that it was a ratchet set and there was only enough room on each side for me to turn it "one click" and more than half of the time, it would pop out from the screw before I had a chance to turn it since it was at an angle. I tried using just the bit without the ratchet, but I was too weak to budge it.  A regular Torx T-10 screwdriver would have been a lot easier, but I figured that I might as well buy a ratchet set that I'm likely to use again in the future.


----------



## weaknees

Ah. If you have any other changeable-tip screwdriver, power screwdriver, or even a drill with the right part, you can use the tips in there - they are universal.

Michael


----------



## bniven

I read the Hinsdale note re: XP users not to boot with XP unless a separate FAT32 partition exists. My C: primary partition with XP loaded on it is FAT32, first extended partition is NTFS for data files. I have plenty of room to create a back up image on the primary partition for my factory 40GB A-drive. No second hardrive installed, so I will configure master/slave as recommended in instructions.

Want to confirm I can use the upgrade instructions as is. From my interpretation, I have no risk of corrupting the original A-drive during the process since the primary boot partition is FAT32 despite having XP on it.


----------



## Robert S

There are two problems with XP. One is that the Linux boot disk used to run the upgrade tools can't write to NTFS partitions (you seem to have this problem under control).

The second is that when XP loads it writes a signature to the boot block of any new hard drives it finds. Although this signature has no effect on a DOS/Windows/Linux drive, it makes a TiVo drive unbootable.

Do not let XP boot while you have a TiVo drive attached.


----------



## tweis001

Has anyone performed a drive upgrade after Ver 4.0?

I'm picking up a hard drive from Circuit City and plan on doing the upgrade but worried 4.0 will be installed before I get to it.

By the way, Circuit City Western Digital 120gb (WD1200BBRTL) for $10 after $150 in rebates.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by tweis001 _
> *Has anyone performed a drive upgrade after Ver 4.0?
> 
> I'm picking up a hard drive from Circuit City and plan on doing the upgrade but worried 4.0 will be installed before I get to it.
> 
> By the way, Circuit City Western Digital 120gb (WD1200BBRTL) for $10 after $150 in rebates. *


It should work fine. Please see here for initial observations:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111669


----------



## petegmi

> _Originally posted by tweis001 _
> *By the way, Circuit City Western Digital 120gb (WD1200BBRTL) for $10 after $150 in rebates. *


Holy friggin' smokes... I thought this was a typo or a joke, but this is for real! It's only until Saturday though that you get all the rebates ($10+$80+60) = $150 in rebates. Orig price $159.99, free shipping. So you're net cost for this HD is $9.99 No joke!!! But, only 4/24 - 4/26. Even if you don't need one, why not get one?!?!

Just My $.02 (with just 499 more $.02 you can get this hard drive!)


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## petegmi

Nevermind . . . I just went to complete my order and they're alllll gone.


----------



## 6speedlt1

I started reading about upgrades yesterday. My HDVR2 was installed today, and I upgraded with no hitches to 105 hours just now. Many thanks.

Luckily I did grab a WD 120GB disk for $10 from Circuit City 

MarkW


----------



## azitnay

Here's to hoping we get that extra $60 rebate... I know they'll go through hell and back with me before I give up on it.

Drew


----------



## tweis001

I ordered a TwinBreeze bracket from Weaknees (should arrive today) and hope to get a chance to upgrade this weekend. I have standalone S2 80hr and I am going to add a 120 as the B drive.

I would like to test my backup by doing a restore to the new 120 drive and seeing if it works. After confirming my backup is good, do I need to somehow delete all the info from the 120 so I can use it as a B drive?

Would there be an advantage to using my 120 as the A drive?

Those that added a 120 to their 60 or 80 hour units - Did you update your swap size via the restore method? I assume you had to do the restore with the extra options back onto the A drive. Correct? 

How important is it to increase the swap size?


----------



## mike5335

Just a quick report before I go back to my couch.

Got add-on kit from Weakness yesterday. The bracket, the power cooling kit and a 120 gig Samsung to add to existing 40 gig Maxtor.

Too chicken/lazy to change my desktop to a FAT machine, all the partitions are NTFS and, while Partition Magic will do it, I just didn't want the hassle. So, the price for the drop in kit seemed worth it.

All went well. It took approximately 35 minutes from start to acquiring satellites. Reports 141 hours.

Noise...my HDVR is (was) noisy. That was the main reason for getting the cooling kit (2 fans...one goes in bracket, one replaces the existing fan). I had tried a separate replacement fan, with no improvement. After the Weaknees kit was installed, disappointingly, the machine was noiser!

I ran it all night, no hitches. Temperature was 35 degrees, about 7 degrees lower than stock. 

Today, I listened carefully, cover off, and the secondary fan was making the lion's share of the noise. I disconnected it. Voila! While the machine isn't dead silent, now, it is BARELY audible from 6 feet away...previously it could be heard from twice that distance. Temperature is now 45 degrees about 3 degrees warmer than stock.

Listening to the Samsung and the Maxtor drives, the Maxtor is a little noiser than the Samsung. But the stock fan and the add-on fan were the main noise culprits.

Great machine and upgrade....back to the couch.


----------



## Robert S

Of course, you could just put a FAT partition on your new drive for the backup before you go on to make it a TiVo disk.


----------



## 6speedlt1

> _Originally posted by azitnay _
> *Here's to hoping we get that extra $60 rebate... I know they'll go through hell and back with me before I give up on it.
> 
> Drew *


I walked in and got an instant rebate when the $60 links dissappeared. So I'm golden.

MarkW


----------



## Les_D

Is it possable to use a disk thas has been used in a WinXP box?

I've got a 120gig drive that I haven't really used in a while.

Can I use a tool like FS_Wipe2 that wipes the entire disk partitions and all???


----------



## Robert S

No need to do anything special. MFS Tools or dd will overwrite everything on the disk. The problems come when you allow Windows XP to run while there's an active TiVo disk attached to the computer.


----------



## spudly

After reading the "how-to", can someone confirm that I can upgrade an upgraded Series I DTiVo? About a year and a half ago I upgraded my standard 35 hr DSR6000 40 hour ("A" drive) with an additional 80GB ("B")drive for a total of ~110 hours. 

Now, I would like to *replace* my 40 GB drive (A) with a 120GB drive but and keep all my recordings which currently reside on my A+B drive. Thus it will retain my recodings and preferences but net me 120 + 80 GBS or ~ 185 hours.


This is doable as per Steps 7, Option #3 & Step 10 - Config #4, no?

TIA,
Glenn


----------



## weaknees

I don't know about the specific numbers in the guide, but essentially, you need to do a 'dd' of the A drive to the new A drive, then an mfsadd of both drives.

The only issue here is the swap space - have you increased that?

Michael


----------



## spudly

Hi Weakness,

I haven't done this "upgrade to an upgrade" yet as I was waiting for some verification that I can in fact do this.

Good point about the swap space - I hadn't considered that.

-Glenn

*Edit to correct typo*


----------



## weaknees

Yeah - for that reason it might be a good idea to just scrap the programming, make a backup, and restore with more swap.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

See the third post in the Fixes thread for a method to increase your swap without losing your recordings. It is much trickier than starting from scratch, though.


----------



## spudly

Thanks Robert S!

After reading through the beginnings of the "fixes" thread I am vascillating as to whether I am even going bother undertaking this or not. Perhaps it may end up being more trouble than it's worth. There is the old addage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" that I can stand by! Maybe I'll just be content with my ~110 hours.

I am quite PC literate but some of the linux commands are a little intimidating as if I make a mistake I'm up a creak. Definately mull this over for a while.

Appreciate the input.
Glenn


----------



## Abiding Dude

I did my upgrade last night successfully. I think I ran into every sort of problem I could possibly run into, but I persevered and now I have my 105 hour Tivo. I had set the jumpers wrong on both the old and new Tivo drives and had unintentionally limited the drives to 30Gb.

I ran thru the backup 4 times trying to figure out why it kept failing half way thru before I discovered my error. I was so happy when the backup finally worked 

Then my restore failed. I had mistakenly named the good back up Tivo.back, but had tried to restore from a previous Tivo.bak backup. 

I tested out the newly restored drive and it wouldn't work! Then I remembered I hadn't set the drive as master again. After I did that, the test worked. When I was putting the case back on I totally yanked the cable-o-death out and freaked out  But it went back into its slot without any problems.

I put the whole thing back together again and plugged all the cables in and started up the unit and it didn't work again  Then I remembered I hadn't plugged in either the IDE nor the power cable on the drive. So I had to disconnect everything and take the unit apart again. When I put it all back together everything worked without a hitch 

So my story has a happy ending and I want to thank all the knowledgable peeps on this board for their magnifiicent minds.


----------



## jangell2

Ok, I've gone thru the instructions with a fine tooth comb and think I understand the process. Since I am an XP user, I want to verify a couple of things.

That note at the end of the instructions says I have to create a fat32 partition to put the backup file in. But a message above seems to say its only important not to allow the computer to boot up in XP with the Tivo drives attached.

My questions are:
1) Do I really need that partition?
2) Can I create both the cd rom boot drive and the floppy boot disck (with qunlock if needed) while running XP?
3) If I screw up and run XP with the Tivo drives attached, can I fix them by simple restoring the backup file on them?

I think I've got another question here. I am a Series 1 DTV Phillips 6000 owner with a dual drive (30gb & 15gb) drives. If I've read the instructions correctly, the original Tivo drive I keep does not get a backup file restored to it. The only thing that gets done to it is the expand command (this is done at the same time as the new drive). Is this correct?

Thank you very much.

johnny


----------



## weaknees

You only need the partition if you want to make a backup - mfstool can't store the backup on an NTFS partition.

You can create what you need under XP.

You can restore a backup file to fix the overwrite problem that XP causes, but, of course, you need a backup file first. If the system boots into XP while you are booting to make the backup, you're toast.

I don't really understand your last question - are you upgrading only one drive?

Michael


----------



## jangell2

> You only need the partition if you want to make a backup - mfstool can't store the backup on an NTFS partition.


I thought a backup was necessary. Isn't the restore of the backup what sets up my new larger drive? If not, what part of the process is actually preparing the new drive to be a tivo drive?



> I don't really understand your last question - are you upgrading only one drive?


Yes. I have a dual drive dtv tivo with a 30gb & 15gb original drives. I have a 100gb maxtor drive that will replace the 15gb drive. Following the instructions, the new drive will be the tivo A drive and the original 30gb drive will become the B drive.


----------



## Robert S

A backup is a good idea, but you can transfer the system directly from the original drive(s) to the new one with dd or an MFS Tools pipe.

Just put a FAT partition (1Gb will be plenty - don't fill the whole disk!) on your upgrade drive and backup to that. You shouldn't ever have to boot with both a TiVo drive and your Windows drive connected at the same time.

NT just corrupts the boot block, so restoring a backup does fix the drive.

You sound like you're not planning to copy your recordings across. If so, I would recommend that you don't add your old A drive as a B drive, just stick with the 100Gb single drive.


----------



## jangell2

> A backup is a good idea, but you can transfer the system directly from the original drive(s) to the new one with dd or an MFS Tools pipe.
> 
> Just put a FAT partition (1Gb will be plenty - don't fill the whole disk!) on your upgrade drive and backup to that. You shouldn't ever have to boot with both a TiVo drive and your Windows drive connected at the same time.QUOTE]
> 
> I don't know linux or msftools so I don't know how to do this. Can you refer me to doc about this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You sound like you're not planning to copy your recordings across. If so, I would recommend that you don't add your old A drive as a B drive, just stick with the 100Gb single drive.
> 
> 
> 
> Why should I do this? I'll be losing 35 hours if I don't use the original drive? Does there tend to be more failures if I use an original drive?
> 
> Thanx for all your help.
Click to expand...


----------



## Robert S

Yes, worrying about drive failures. Your original drives will be getting on in years and brand new drives often fail in their first few days of service.

If you get a problem with a single-drive TiVo, it's obvious which drive needs replacing. This isn't the case with a twin.

I would definitely let your new drive fill up before you add the B drive.

If you want the extra space that badly, why didn't you get a 120 or 160Gb drive?


----------



## i9elcaro

I am following these instructions:
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html
to upgrade from a single A drive to a larger A drive. I am at the step of performing the mfsadd command, but this command does not exist on the boot CD. There exist two directories, called /mad31 and /mad32. Each of these contain files called mfsadd_a and mfsadd_ab. Am I losing my mind, or are the instructions incorrect? Please help...

TIA


----------



## Robert S

mfsadd is an alias for MFS Tools 2.0. I think you've got a TiVoMad CD there...


----------



## savy

Hinsdale,

Just wanted to let you and others know. I purchased a 120GB u/g from you for my Sony 30 hour TIVO. Your service was outstanding, received the drive ready to drop into my unit within 3-4 days from order. Installation instructions were clear and concise. 

I opted to replace my loud A drive with the single upgraded drive, which has taken me from 30 hours to something just shy of 150 hours. I have run setup today and everything is back up and running like a charm. 

Oh yeah I can't even tell my TIVO is on anymore with the new hard drive in it...... Since I moved the TIVO to my bedroom it has been annoying me, but that is solved now as well.....

Thanks again for the excellent support you have provided for guys like me that want to take a drive and just drop it in. For the extra money for the service and piece of mind that you provide it is WELL worth the money and by the way it was not allot extra (so thanks for keeping your mark up reasonable)

For now my 80 hour series two unit is good space wise but when I want more out of it I will be calling on you again....

Savy


----------



## xoff

Thanks to Hinsdale and this forum, I upgraded a single 160gb Maxtor with zero problems.

Total time, including futzing with the pain-in-the-butt screw on the SAT-T60 was *30* minutes.

I now have the original 40gb drive as a spare and the image on CD as well.

Thanks for all your efforts!

Within 10 minutes of the upgrade, the wife had changed all her season passes to "save until I delete". 

Thanks again, Hinsdale and company!


----------



## Kenwood

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Yes, worrying about drive failures. Your original drives will be getting on in years and brand new drives often fail in their first few days of service. *


They sure do. I added a 120 gig HD to my T-60 from a Tivo Upgrade company on Sunday. Everything went smooth on the install. It took me longer to do the wires from my entertainment system, than actual install the extra drive.

Well, last night while watching a Tivo'd program. Everything started studdering and freezing...then the kiss of death. Reboot after reboot. It worked fine for two days after the upgrade, then crash. Now I can't get past "Powering Up" gray screen. I called the company I bought the upgrade drive from and the are overnighting me a two new drives from their "Get Well" package deal. Odds are the add-on drive failed and not my original Tivo drive. They were really cool on the phone and all I really have to pay for is the overnight shipping charges. I'll have it up and running tommorrow. Great customer service. :up:

It just sucks, cause I was still watching "24" and was only on episode 4.  I don't see Fox showing reruns of 24, so I'll have to buy the 2nd season on DVD. Plus I had over 50 season passess worked out in harmony (east & west coast feeds). That's going suck reprogramming everything  Plus my 2 1/2 year old daughter is going to wig-out when she finds out she can't watch Elmo's World or the Wiggles when she gets home from daycare today.


----------



## AnthonyJS

*Just do it!*

I agonized over it until my wife called asking why she could no longer find Max and Ruby on our TiVo. It started deleting my son's shows as space was needed. We also never got any suggestions.

I ordered a preformatted B drive from Hinsdale for my Series 2 60 hour unit. The 120Gb Maxtor drive came right on schedule and slid right in.

It took longer to disconnect the unit from the entertainment center than it did to do the upgrade. The upgrade did require both Torx 10 and 15 size bits.

Perhaps I am too literal, but when you install the power supply wire, install it right onto the existing wire. I started to remove the existing wire before I realized that was not necessary!

To Hinsdale: :up: :up: :up:


----------



## clherv

Desire: Converting my SAT-T60 from single 40G to 40G + 120G.

I know the instructions say it is for a 98, 95, or Me. I have an old 95 machine (OS is b), and a 98 machine with no memory that I can make work by borrowing the memory from my XP, but none of those machines have much HD space at all.

I read a poster saying I could do it without any drive at all, except for the new (as of yet unpurchased--I like apstech.com).

But, I also have a friend who knows a whole lot about PCs, and has a couple of machines running Linux.

I am thinking that he could use the instructions to make the backup drive, and format for the new Tivo drive.

Don't you think so?

?????

Comments???


----------



## weaknees

You can actually really only do this with Linux (although you could use the MacTiVo Blesser in this circumstance) but the key is to never boot in to XP with your TiVo drive attached to your PC. Otherwise, just use the instructions at the top of this thread and you'll be in Linux.

Michael


----------



## clherv

Weaknees, Thanks for the helpful reply.

In reading my post this morning I realized that I was not clear in my sentence: _I am thinking that he could use the instructions to make the backup drive, and format for the new Tivo drive._

I meant that the friend could do the work in Linux on one of his machines already running Linux.

I think Weaknees figured this out, but I wanted to clarify for other responders.

Thanks again.

Kent


----------



## Robert S

MFS Tools runs quite happily under an ordinary Linux install. The only thing you need to worry about is drive locking so you'll need a DOS boot disk with qunlock on it or a TiVo boot CD.

You can do the upgrade on the XP machine if you wish. Put a small FAT partition on the new drive and backup to that. Then use XP to copy the backup off that drive before proceeding with the upgrade. You should not ever need to have the XP drive and a TiVo drive connected simultaneously.

However, I refer you to a couple of posts back in this thread. This upgrade is not a good idea. It would be much better to make the new drive the A drive. You can copy the recordings to the new disk if you want, although this will take a few hour


----------



## weaknees

Another important point about running MFS Tools under a normal Linux install - be careful about using a kernel that's too new. If you do, and you are using 160 GB or larger drives, you'll create lot's of problems.

There's a lot more info on these boards about this, but for now, if you are using 120s or smaller, you would be fine with most installations of Linux.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

Good point, Michael. Of course, as he's got a Series 1, all he need to do is use the Turbonet installer to reflash his PROM (to break the DTiVo lock-down) and dd Todd's kernel on to the disk and he could use a large drive. (If he uses a 120Gb drive then none of this is relevent).

Series 2 users do need to be very careful, though.

This only applies to LBA-48 installations - Linux 2.4.19 or later.

If you don't want to go down the large drive path, check that your large drive is being recognised as 137Gb. You might end up having to do your backup/restore in an LBA-48 environment (so you can get at your Ext3/ReiserFS/whatever partitions) and then booting the MFS Tools 2.0 CD for the expand step


----------



## clherv

Q1: I went back and read the old posts (again), but can't figure why swapping A is better than adding B.

I figured that adding was good for nervous type. I mean, isn't it harder to mess up when adding something versus trying to copy and paste all the data? Not challenging you on that. I just want to understand what you mean so I can make the best decision. Also, I thought there was a thing about having to worry about Tivo upgrades not liking something in the future, and so I need to be able to appear to have the same drive as the one with which I started.

Q2: I tried to read all the pages in this post before I posted. It seemed like virtually nobody with an SAT-T60 had upgraded to a drive bigger than 120G, and those that had on this model or others could not really get much more actual usable space. Is that wrong? That is why I decided to just go to 120G. In general when I buy RAM or HD upgrades, I go as big as the can up until the price point break because I don't want to be tossing the older drive later. I am asking because you seemed to indicate a larger drive might work.

Thanks.

Kent


----------



## Robert S

I regard adding as more risky because your making a change to your working A drive. If you copy your working A drive on to a new drive then if there's a problem you can go back to your original drive and try to figure out what's wrong. If you get a problem with your added drive you'll probably have to restore a backup to your (formerly) working A drive to get working again.

New drives are an unknown quantity. Sometimes they fail in the first few days of operation (my last two drives have done this!) again, it's better if that happens to a single drive than a married pair.

Doing this also lets you increase swap, which is a good thing. If you go beyond 180Gb the TiVo will not be able to recover from a 'green screen' filesystem corruption error (but see the Fixes thread for a rescue procedure) without extra swap. When you copy the A drive with MFS Tools it'll automatically increase swap (because of the -s 127 parameter). Although 40+120 is OK, if you wanted to go to 2x120 later, that would be more difficult.


About a week ago Todd announced that he has fixed the problem with his LBA-48 kernel. Anyone can now fit a large drive to their Series 1 TiVo. It's not particularly difficult. All you do is make the TiVo drive with MFS Tools 2.0 under an LBA-48 version of Linux (Red Hat 8.0 or later, for example) and then use a TiVo boot disk to dd the new kernel on to partition 3 & 6. For a DTiVo you also have to reflash the boot PROM as per the Turbonet installation to break the lock-down.

In terms of swap, if you use -s 127 you have enough swap to go to at least 280Gb (you need 1/2Mb of memory for each Gb of disk space and you have about 6Mb of spare RAM (22Mb spare on DTiVoes and Series 2's) plus 127Mb of swap).

If you wanted to go to 2x250Gb or use a 320Gb drive then you'll need more even more swap. The Linux 2.1 kernel the Series 1 TiVo uses is limited to 128Mb per swap partition. Creating extra swap partitions isn't a problem, but activating them means editing /etc/fstab, which is a bit fiddly.

With one spare entry in the A drive's partition table plus the inactive kernel partition it shouldn't be a problem to get enough swap to repair 2x320Gb and it's also possible to put swap partitions on the B drive, so it should always be possible to get enough swap for mfsfix to complete, but if you're putting in a 250Gb drive you might want to think about doing -s 256. This would mean MFS Tools would give you no swap at all (you have to initialise it yourself as described in the first post of the Fixes thread), but it would make a 256Mb hole in the disk layout into which additional swap could be fitted later if necessary (ie, you added a second large drive).

Anyway, to get back to the actual question: large drives are now possible. The upgrade isn't well tested or properly documented yet, but there's no reason to think it won't work


----------



## John Wilson

I am going to add a 120GB drive to my 60 hour Series 2 TiVo. Would someone who has done this before please look over the following and point out any mistakes/alternatives? This is my 1st experience with MFS Tools 2.0, a Western Digital 7200 rpm 120GB drive and a Series 2. I've done two Series 1 TiVos before however 

1. I've formatted a 6GB Hd as Fat32 under XP and I will use this as my Windows drive and it will connect to the Primary Master IDE channel. To Linux, it will be called out as hda. 

2. I will connect my original TiVo 60 GB drive to the PC's Secondary Master channel as designate it as hdc

3. Connect my NEW WD 120GB drive to the Primary Slave channel and designate it as hdb

4. connect my CD-ROM to the Secondary Slave channel and designate it as hdd
Note: I plan to jumper all of the above drives so that they match the Master/Slave requirement.

5. Using Hinsdale's How-To, I will back up the image to the 120GB using step 7, option #1. After booting off the CD-ROM using the bootable MFS Tools CD, I will confirm that the correct sizes are being recognized. 
Question: Do WD drives ever get locked and if so, is there something like qunlock to unlock them?

At the linux prompt #, I will type:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

and then to backup, I will type:

mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

6. 25 minutes later, I am now ready to restore this image to the 120GB drive for testing in the TiVo. I will type the following to restore the image to the NEW drive:

mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

HERE IS WHERE I AM CONFUSED, should the above command have a "b" in front of the "zpi" because it is a Series 2 or not? The guide is alittle confusing here.  

Also, does the -s 127 part expand the swap space in the backup image and do I really need to for a 60GB + 120GB setup?

7. When the restore is done, I will type:

umount -f -a -r

and then power down the PC, remove the 120Gb drive, jumper it to Master, and place it in the TiVo to test the image. I realize that even though they are listed, my recordings are not there. I DO want to keep these recordings so does that limit me to only option #1 in the Capacity upgrade Step 10?

8. Here is wher I could use some advice. I want to preserve my recordings AND I am concerned about the larger swap space issue. If I use UG Configuration #1, it just uses mfsadd to increase the capacity to include the new drive but doesn't change the swap space as there is no "-s 127" parameter and I'm not changing the image on the original drive. So, should I use #1 with mfsadd and take my chances with the GSOD or should I use Option #3 (which really doesn't match my configuration as I want to use the original A drive plus the new 120GB as the B drive.

What command(s) should I use here to both increase the swap space AND preserve my settings and recordings in my particular configuration?

Sorry this is so long but just typing it out has helped me understand alittle better what is going to happen, hopefully 

Thanks for you help.


----------



## Robert S

60+120 is OK on a Series 2 without extra swap.

You seem rather nervous. Wouldn't it be safer to copy your recordings to the new drive and leave your A drive alone for now?

Use an MFS Tools pipe to copy recordings:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdb

Once you're happy the new drive is OK (I'd at least want to see it full of recordings) then use mfsadd to add the old A drive as a B drive.

-s is an option for mfsrestore (-s with mfsbackup does something completely different). The swap partition is not included in the backup. -s tell mfsrestore what size partition to make.

-b does set the byte-ordering correctly for a Series 2, but MFS Tools can usually figure it out for itself


----------



## comakid

I have an original 30 hour standalone phillips hdr312xx that I upgraded
last year to a 135 hour by adding an 80 gig hd following your instaructions.
The upgrade went fine. I decided to do another capacity upgrade this year
I removed the original 30 gig quantom drive and the "new" 80 gig hard 
drive and replaced both of them with 120 gig wedtern digital drives. Again 
this upgrade worked fine and was easy to follow. Thanks for the how to
instructions


----------



## quoc

Hinsdale's howto - http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/
Tyger's howto - http://www.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/howto.html

After doing 4 upgrades, I now discover that Hinsdale's howto and Tyger's howto are different. I've been using Tyger's since I thought they were the same, and MS Word doc prints out nicer.

I didn't catch this until I read a post about a Tivo Series 2 missing its background after an upgrade. I had the same problem when testing the small backup image. It went away when I did a full backup|restore, so I thought it was a fluke. Now I know that I needed the "-f 4138" option for mfsbackup. Not a problem since I still have the original drive and have now made a new backup image.

Now I find out that my 64MB swap (didn't use the "-s" option with mfsrestore) may be too small, and there's a possibility of a GSOD boot loop (I've printed the rescue procedure.) All upgrades were single-40GB to dual-160GB. There's not much I can do now if I want to preserve my recordings.

Just wanted to let you know that the howtos are different. Use Hinsdale's!

Quoc


----------



## m00nshiner

First off, I want to say thanks for all the great information posted here on upgrading. I purchased a 120g to upgrade my T60. I went to backup my tivo, and the hard drive went out. So I am now pleading that someone will send me a backup image. Thanks in advance!


----------



## MikeekiM

Clarification question: Are both of these relevant to the HDVR2? Or only #1? I used alternative #2 on my Sony... I'd like to try and keep my upgrade process as stable as I can (anything new and I may make mistakes!)...

1) New Hinsdale-How-To featuring Tigers Mfs Tools 2.0 as an all-in-one upgrade solution.

2) Original Hinsdale-How-To featuring TiVoMad, BlessTiVo, and Mfs Tools 1.1.


Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

You MUST use #2 or similar instructions for an HDVR2 - the 'originals' don't work for the HDVR2.

Michael


----------



## ellingsj

I had a problem upgrading my TiVo because my two computers won't boot with a 120Gig HD attached. It just hangs. Even if I disable detection of the drives (boot off CD) or manually enter a fake size that it should like. Regardless, if the large drive is attached, it wouldn't boot. This makes it pretty hard to upgrade <GRIN>. So I installed a Promise Ultra133 card into the system and attached the drives to it. Well, the system would now boot off the CD, but it wouldn't detect the drives on the Promise controller.

I found the answer here: http://www.geocities.com/ender7007/

I booted with "nodma ide2=0xd400,0xd002 ide3=0xb800,0xb402" and all went well. The above URL will show you how to figure out the I/O addresses for any promise controller... and perhaps others as well.

Additionally, I had previously expanded my TiVo from 20GB to 120GB back in the mfstools/bless days (had a computer that was OK with large drives then). Making the backup image worked fine, but if I made the backup with the "-s" option to revert the image back to a 20Gig image, it would not restore onto my new 120Gig drive (old drive was getting noisey and I feared it'd die). I'd get the endless reboot on power-up unless I restored with the "-x" option... in other words, I don't think I could ever go back to a 20Gig drive... and perhaps not anything smaller than the 120Gig I had just imaged.

Needless to say... now I'm happily running on dual 120Gig with 306 hours 24 minutes of video recording love...

Thanks to Hinsdale and Tyger!


----------



## kman007

OK, not exactly a Tivo upgrade question, but definitely related...

I have a 120GB HD I want to add to my 14 hour unit, but I'd rather not open up my computer and fiddle with the HD's that are already in there and mess them up. I have an external USB enclosure that I have a backup 80GB HD in right now. If I open the external enclosure up and replace my backup drive with the 120 for all the prep work, can I just pop the 80 gigger back in when I am done? Will I have to modify bios for either switch? Will I lose data as a result of this? Thanks for any advice.


----------



## Robert S

I very much doubt it. You could try booting a really current Linux (eg Knoppix if you don't want to install Red Hat 9) and see if that can see the drive through the USB ports. If the drive can be seen as a single device node, the I don't see why MFS Tools couldn't use it. No idea what the device node for that would be called, though.

Unplugging IDE drives is not a big deal. If you're really worried about the current drives, just leave them unplugged while you work on the TiVo drives.


----------



## Cedric

A question for Robert S regarding upgrade "safety" ( and reversibility)

I'd like to copy my A drive (Series 2 DTiVo, Hughes HDVR2) to a spare 40 Gb drive and put the original A on the shelf as a backup. 

Assuming that I then use the cloned A drive and marry a new B drive to it, shouldn't I be able remove both drives and reinstall the original A drive in the event of a major problem? (Understanding that recordings, SPs, and any software upgrades will be lost, of course).


----------



## Robert S

Yes, that's something I recommend, at least initially. Copying the A drive shouldn't alter it (considerations about XP signatures, jumper settings etc notwithstanding), so you can go back to it. You can even swap between the two sets if you want.

When my first upgrade died I was very pleased I had copied my A drive rather than adding to it.

After a month or so you can be pretty confident your new drive(s) are OK and reuse the original A drive.


----------



## zac29349

Hi,

I have a dual drive Philips 6000 in which I want to replace the original drives with dual 120 drives.

I followed the Hinsdale instructions, very nice, but I've hit a snag.

My computer's bios doesn't automatically recognize my new 120 GB drives as 120 drives. Rather, the best I can do is type in the cylinders, heads, and sectors info (527 megabytes after using the hard drive manufacturer's instructions). A friend has indicated my computer doesn't support 48 bit LBA? Does that ring a bell?

So I trudged on, hoping for the best. After getting the hard-coded drive info into the bios I ran the mfstools suite and everything seemed to work fine, but the mfsbackup .... | mfsrestore ... commands' results indicated an "additional 63 hours" only. It didn't sound right to me.

I haven't dropped the new drives into my TIVO yet, am I missing something, and if I'm not, what's my best bet to get the TIVO to recognize the full potential of those new drives?

Would the mfsadd command add the space? Do I need to borrow a PC that can adequately recognize the drives?

Am I done and don't realize it?

I hope this isn't a duplicate question, I've sat here for a couple of hours trying to find a similar case on the forum and I cannot seem to find a match.

Thank you....


----------



## Robert S

You really do need to get the drives recognised correctly _by Linux_. It's nice if the BIOS sees them, but it's the sizes printed when Linux boots that's important.

Try setting the BIOS to 'None' on the channels that the big drives are on.

You may well have to use a different PC.


----------



## Dilbertic

Hi,

I have a Sony SVR-2000 30 gig drive I am trying to backup and then replace with a 80gig drive.

I have the drive unlocked and it reports as 30 gigs Q-Fireball Drive and I tried the MFStools 1.0 and 2.0 boot from CD

Config:
HDA - win98 drive
HDB - Empty
HDC - Tivo 30 gig drive
HDD - CDROM

everything works to the point that I type in the command to back the unit up:
mfsbackup_ -6so_ /mnt/dos/tivo.bak_ /dev/hdc

then I end up getting this error:

mfsbackup_ -6so_ /mnt/dos/tivo.bak_ /dev/hdc10: Seccess
MFS_load_volume_header: mfsvol_read_data: input/output error
mfsbackup: Backup failed to startup. Make sure you specified the right devices, and that the drives are not locked.

HELP HELP HELP
I have tried moving the tivo drive to Pri-slave and same thing

Thanks,

Dilbertic


----------



## malloy

I'm just at the spot where I'm going to mount the DOS disk and try to back up my TiVo disk to my DOS/Windows disk. I have an active primary partition (DOS C: Drive), an inactive primary partition (C: backup) and an extended partition with an active logical drive (D: for data) and a number of inactive logical drives (various backups). As it happens, the active primary partition is first on the drive, but this wouldn't have to be true (at least not for Windows 98 to boot just fine). Is the location of the active primary partition important? Is there a different mount command I could use to back up to the active logical (D: data) drive?

The MFS Tools documentation I could find and the Hinsdale How to, don't seem to address any of this explicitly. A search of the forum didn't turn up anything either. Am I the only one still partitioning my hard drives? I'm just a little nervous telling something to scribble on my Windows hard drive without understanding exactly what will happen.

Thanks for any enlightenment.


----------



## Robert S

The 'active' flage is only used by the BIOS to decide which partition to look for a boot loader on. Once the OS is running, it's irrelevent.

Unlike DOS/Windows with its automatic assignment of drive letters, Unix can selectively mount and unmount partitions while it's running. This means you need to know the partition number of the partition you want to mount.

C: is hda1, the other C: is hda2 and D: is hda5. Probably.

You'll see the list of partition on the hard drive printed when in the boot log, so it should be obvious which partitions are valid.

You're not telling anything to 'scribble on the Windows' drive. Unix will mount the filing system exactly as DOS does, it's just that it does it in a way that you control. If you try to mount a non-existent partition then you'll just get an error (probably 'must specify file-system type').

Do make sure you unmount the partition with umount before you reboot/power off.


----------



## malloy

Thanks for the explanation--that helps a lot. I've been in software development for 30 years, even managing development of some Unix products. But, this is my first hands-on exposure to Unix. I appreciate the time y'all have put into this TiVo hacking thing. 

I've noted the warning in your reply and elsewhere to be sure to unmount with umount. What happens if you don't? This must happen now and again due to honest errors, carelessness, Acts of God, etc. How badly can things go?


----------



## Robert S

It's equivalent to rebooting Windows without doing Shutdown. Not necessarily disasterous, but to be avoided if possible.


----------



## TorontoSVR

ok got a Samsung 120GB today and was working through the upgrade process but for some reason my tivo only shows me as having a 32 GB hd even though my bios shows it as being 120 GB I did a mfsinfo on the drive and it shows this 

the MFS volume set contains 4 partitions
/dev/hdc10
MFS partition Size: 512MiB
/dev/hdc11
MFS Partition Size: 27661MiB
/dev/hdc12
MFS Partition Size: 0MiB
/dev/hdc13
MFS partition Size: 3560Mib
Total MFS volume size: 31734MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone Tivo: 33
This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times



Which I know this is wrong what can I do to fix it the drive is reading correctly in the bios so I must just be typing something wrong
Which is wrong


----------



## jwixted

> _ TorontoSVR said:
> ok got a Samsung 120GB today and was working through the upgrade process but for some reason my tivo only shows me as having a 32 GB hd even though my bios shows it as being 120 GB..._


I had this problem, and it turned out to be the jumper settings. Make sure you have the drive set to the first picture on the top row of the "installation Guide" - AB+FH. I think it's irrelevant if the BIOS reports the drive correct, you only care if Linux is reporting it correctly. Once Linux boots, scroll backward (<SHIFT>-<PG UP>), what does it report the drive size to be?


----------



## weaknees

That's right - this is the jumper settings. And just in case it's the next question, no, you can't just switch the jumpers and have the TiVo recognize the extra space. Whatever you did the first time to put the image on the drive, you'll need to do again. If you made a backup, and then restored that, just restore again. If you did a pipe backup|restore, then you need to do all of that again.

Michael


----------



## PeteyBoy23

Wow, what extensive instructions. Excellent job!

What I'm going to do is upgrade a TiVo 60hr S2 on Friday. I took these steps, and removed what I didn't need (as it didn't apply). I was hoping someone can just peruse these steps quickly, and let me know if I'm missing anything.

The bottom line is that I think my drive is crapping out (yeah, after only 6 months), and I want to transfer all data onto a new(er) 80 or 120gb drive. I don't need to reuse the old drive, and will attempt to get it replaced *crosses fingers*, so I can add it back in, in the future.

I would appreciate your feedback on these specific steps. Thanks a ton!

Here's my steps!


----------



## Still

I accidently booted my computer into windows XP with both the original TiVo drive and upgrade drive connected. I did this before completing my backup. I then performed a backup correctly, followed the rest of the directions, but after connecting the drives I cannot get by the powering up screen. Is my backup corrupted? If yes what steps can I take to rectify this?


----------



## Robert S

You need MakeTiVoBootable. The corrupted boot sector will be in your backup too, so you'll either need to make a fresh backup or remember how to use MTB the next time you restore a backup.


----------



## Still

Can we use MTB even though we have already run the restore expand process in the new and old TiVo (we continued on a diff machine with a different new drive after the mistake was recognized)? Can we still use our original TiVo drive to make a backup with MTB?


----------



## Robert S

It looks like MTB creates a boot block from scratch rather than copying from somewhere, so it doesn't matter what state your drives are in.

The backup file will be the same which ever disk you make it from.


----------



## Still

Is it possible to do the backup from a friend's TiVo (it's the same model) and use it on my TiVo? I'm not concerned with my setting or anything.


----------



## Robert S

As long as it's the same brand, series and type (standalone/dtivo).


----------



## ricl

Thanks to Hinsdale's how-to and MFS tools. 
I had added a 100G hard drive to a sony version 1 with software rev 3 a couple years ago. 

When thunderstorms took my modem to bit heaven, it looked like an opportune time to get the 9th tee network card and do the tivo hacks. 

Fortunately I MADE a BACKUP(!!!) using MFS tools 2.0. I then installed the network card. In the Sony box, the rubber feet poke thru and keep the network card from sliding on easily. I undid one of the mounting tangs which allowed me to get it on. I then started on the tivo hacks. For some reason, I had problems when initially using the Steve Jenkins Tivohack directions and could not mount the partitions properly. I then found out about the /tivonet directory on MFS tools and tried to use those directions. After a couple of attempts, the script seemed to work and I put the drive into the tivo. I have been bouncing them back and forth for a while and got careless with setting the drive on the mounting bracket. I plugged in and POOF...the drive was toast b/c the pc board in the bottom of the drive had shorted up against the mounting bracket grommet. 

After getting my bearings, I decided to use the restore function on the 100G hard drive I had. It worked! Thank the Lord! 

I then went back to the Steve Jenkins directions b/c the /tivonet script will not run on a newly restored drive. This time it all worked like clockwork; I have the tivoweb running. After the update, I will make ANOTHER backup to baseline my configuration. 

The hacks are GREAT! It is the kind of media network capability convergence I was looking for. It is not without risk, and I share my story to remind everyone to make a BACKUP and be careful with your drives. 

ric


----------



## Still

I have a TiVo model TCD130040 in which I corrupted my backup file by booting while connected to XP. I have a backup file on my computer for a TCD230040 model. I am wondering if I can expand my 40HR original TiVo drive and a new 120GB drive using the TCD230040 settings and then place these in my TCD130040.


----------



## Robert S

How about using MakeTiVoBootable to fix the boot block on the drive?


----------



## clherv

As some might remember, I posted about my upgrade plans for my SAT-T60 about a month ago. I finally found a 120G WD for a good price.

We took the Tivo drive out last night, but could not get the CD to boot. Turns out the CD drive has a bad power connector. It is toast now. I have three other IDE drives that I can borrow from other machines (I wanted to use the burnt drive to justify buying a new one, but...)

I re-read the Hindsdale instructions today, and edited them down to just what I will need.

A nervous question: Which commands have risk that I will damage the original A drive.??? Maybe by putting a 2 where I needed a 1 or something???

Depending on how risky it is, I might have two other family members check each command before I press the enter key.

As a reference, here are the commands I plan to use:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc 
dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k 
dd conv=noerror,sync if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k 
umount -f -a -r (umount not unmount)
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb 
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc 
<<deleted due to redundancey--sorry>>
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Thank you.

Kent


----------



## weaknees

You've got a lot of duplicative commands there - are you sure you'll need them all?

The only problem you'll have about hosing the A drive is if you mis-specify a drive letter in the process.

But first I'd check that list - you could ugprade three different TiVos with what you have there.

Michael


----------



## clherv

Weaknees,

Thanks for responding.

To answer your question: No, I am not sure that I will need them all. I am not sure what they all do. I do know there is one duplicate: He tells of two ways to do the full backup of the drive. He tells of an MFStools way, and straight Linux OS way. I put them both becuase I can't yet decide which one. I guess you might consider another one a duplicate--the backup that only does only the small backup by compressing all but the show contents. If anyone would not mind explaining them, I would sooo appreciate it. Also, if anyone wants to just tell me the duplicates, that would be welcome too.

I don't know the diference between Hinsdale's instruction's and Tiger's. Should I read his in detail too?

I would really like to understand the commands, but that will require me to learn Linux.
For example, I know what "copy C:\File.txt A:\" means in DOS, but have no idea what the Linux equivalent is. Because I understand the DOS, then I can literally double check the actual meaning of each character before I hit the return key.

Also, I would like a listing of the MFStools commands and their function/structure/parameters. I posted that question on Tiger's thread because I thought that was the appropriate place.

By the way, the plan is to do the compact backup to keep on CD, then do the full backup to the 120G, then keep the CD and the old 40G on the shelf until I desperately need the 40G for some PC thing, in which case I will re-format.

Kent


----------



## Robert S

You might want to look at Installing Linux and Getting Started. The installing bit is obsolete now, but the getting started stuff is still good. The MFS Tools boot disk will give you enough Linux to try the examples. (Download Knoppix if you want to see what the current version of Linux looks like. Like MFS Tools, Knoppix runs from a boot CD.)

There is a README file on the MFS Tools CD that lists all the MFS Tools commands. There are mistakes in this file (everything it says about swap is wrong, some newer TiVoes need different backup options), so plan your upgrade from Hinsdale rather than any of Tiger's documentation.

I recommand using the MFS Tools pipe (mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore ...) instead of dd to clone the disk as this increases your swap size, which is important if you want to add more disk space later (as this is a Series 1 TiVo you can add a HUGE disk if you want, see page 6 of the 160Gb thread in the Underground).


----------



## clherv

Thanks.

I will look at that.


----------



## weaknees

To expand on Robert S's comments, I'll list what you should do to achieve what you want with comments:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (assumes the TiVo drive is secondary master - this makes the backup file for your CD)
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd (I changed the second drive spec to "hdd", so install your new drive at secondary slave - this will copy over everything with your recordings and increase your swap)
umount -f -a -r 

That should do it.

Michael


----------



## clherv

Weaknees,

Thanks,

I just got back to the house, so I will start looking at it all.

Kent


----------



## clherv

I am reading the Linux tutorial from the link you sent. I am learning and practicing. Thanks.

My goal is to learn enough and practice enough so that I can be sure of which is the "from", and which is the "to"

The below is an extract from Hinsdale's document:

hda - Primary Master

hdb - Primary Slave

hdc - Secondary Master

hdd - Secondary Slave 

Question: Is it true that the above is always the Case. This is the reference that Linux always uses??? Means: whatever drive I connect to Sec/Mast will always be referenced on Linux (the copy I have from the MFS Tools CD/floppy) as hdc???

Kent


----------



## Robert S

Yes, that's a Linux standard. You could change it with mknod or mv, but that would be an unusual thing to do.

Unlike DOS/Windows that designates C:, D:, etc at boot, /dev/hda is a pseudo file called a 'device node' that tells the kernel to access a particular device driver with a particular device code. Therefore /dev/hda points to primary master _even if there's no drive connected_. (In contrast C: points to the first FAT partition the BIOS can find).

Of course, normally one would never use /dev/hda - it's only used by the plumbing in the OS - and there is no Unix equivalent of C:, there's a single filing system tree that starts at / and other filing systems are mounting into that tree with mount.


----------



## RickHan

Will these utilities work with a DIshNetworkPVR/DVR 501?
I have a 501 with a 40gb Seagate drive. I have an 80gb Seagate drive.
It didn't recognize the new drive, so I figure I need to format it somehow.
NOTE: THe PVR508 is a 501 with an 80gb drive.....
Any help appreciated..Rick


----------



## Robert S

This Forum describes upgrading TiVoes. This is not a TiVo.


----------



## RickHan

I was asking a technology question. At this point I'm using a PVR, but easily could be using a TiVo unit later when I give up on E*.
Does anyone know if the disk formats are the same?
I'm totally sold on digital video recording for TV, not any specific vendor.....


----------



## clherv

Thanks to Robert and Michael's responses, I have been able to do some Linux stuff--enough to mount devices, copy to/from floppy, use ls command, etc. I used the more command to read the MFSTools README. I then copied the README to floppy, and then printed on my iMac.


Thanks for listing up the commands. 

I understood Hindsdale's document to say that after I get my compact backup (the one that I am going to put on the CD), then I should:
>>temporarily put the compact backup on the new HD to test. 
>>If Tivo shows the compact backup is good, then
>>Re-attach the new HD to the PC so it can then receive the full backup (the one with my recordings preserved).
>>Then the drive is ready for use.

Is that right? Could that be why some of my commands looked duplicate? I think I may have had an extra restore and backup for that reason.

If I am reading him right, then he is saying I need too test the compact backup before having confidence in the CD.

I am asking for clarification because the instructions are necessarily complicated to cover all possibilities, so I am left a little unsure even after reading a few times.

Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

Yes, that would explain the duplicated commands.


----------



## weaknees

I'm not sure why you need to test the backup before making the new drive since you'll also have your old drive as a backup, but I suppose it's not a bad idea - just a lot of extra time.

Michael


----------



## DevdogAZ

Thanks to Hinsdlae, Tiger, Robert S, and everyone else who has contributed to this thread and created the software I used this weekend. With relatively little complication and virtually no experience with any of this kind of thing, I was able to add a 120 GB drive to my stock SVR-3000 on Saturday and I now have 184 hours. YAHOOOOO!

Thanks to all!!!

devdogaz


----------



## opthos2002

I am going to try the tivo upgrade but my PC has RAID SCSI for the boot drive.
I have both primary and secondary IDE but they are currently only the CD-ROM and a 30gb storage drive.

Anyone know what linux will do without a primary IDE dos boot drive or does it matter?

Thanks


----------



## Robert S

All you need is a FAT partition to write the backup to. If the ATA drive is formatted NTFS or whatever, put a small FAT partition on your upgrade drive, backup to that and copy the backup somewhere safe. Then you can do one of the direct transfer upgrades to move the TiVo system to the new disk.


----------



## clherv

When we are booting the Linux, we get the pages of information referenced in Hindsdale's instructions. All of the devices--hda, hdb, hdd except hdc show in those pages. That is when the hdc is the old Tivo 40G drive.

When we put our formated 1.2G dos drive in the hdc position, but the old Tivo in the hda position, then they both were displayed. Why???

Another question: 

When we typed the command mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos (it was the dos at this time), the screen displayed: "mount: you must specify a filesystem type"

What does that mean??

Kent


----------



## Robert S

You have to mount hda1, not hda. (Working from an old copy of Hinsdale are we?)

Not sure why the drive wouldn't be recognised on the secondary bus. Might be a BIOS issue. You can put the drive on primary master if necessary (substitute hda for hdc and vice-versa). Unlike other TiVo boot disks, doing this with the MFS Tools 2.0 boot disks does not cause a problem.


----------



## clherv

Not very old (but it is from one of his), but I feel really stupid. If you scroll up you will see that I even listed it as hda1. 

Oh well, please forgive me.

Just by moving things around we got everything to mount. We don't know why it didn't.

Kent


----------



## clherv

We seem to now be successfully running the mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc command--only hdd instead of hdc--that was part of the moving around.

Thanks again.


----------



## clherv

I did the hHindsdale test thing. We restored the tivo.bak to the new drive, and took to the Tivo to test. The old Tivo drive was connected to the middle connector in the IDE cable!!?? We think we remember that the 40G was set to CS, but we set it to Master because that is what Hindsdale said. It would not boot, but did when we changed to CS??? Doesn't it seem strange that Sony shipped it with the drive connected to the middle connector?? Should we put it like Sony had it, or at the end of the cable??


Also, now we are getting ready to do the full backup/full restore. It is supposed to take 4-8 hours. Can we go to bed with it running and check it in the morning?

Kent


----------



## weaknees

Many TiVo models do ship with drives set to CS, but we generally recommend not using CS, partially so that the order on the cable (or even the cable itself) can be reversed.

Go to bed - you'll see the results in the morning.

Michael


----------



## clherv

Thanks. I completely understand the second part.

About the cable thing. When connected in the middle, it worked on CS, but not on master. Are you saying that in this case we should strap Slave and it leave middle? It is all coiled as Sony left it, and so I think getting to the end of the cable would be tough.

Thanks.

Kent


----------



## clherv

Thanks to Michael, Robert, and everone else.

I wish I could do more than say thanks.

About my cable question. When I got up this morning my son had already installed the drive with CS and it was working reporting 106 hours.

If I need to change it, I will--probably won't be able to convince him to do it for me. Otherwise, I will leave as is until I mfsadd the second someday.

Silly as it sounds, I am already thinking: "106 does not sound like a lot. That is only 3 times what we had."

Thanks again.

Kent

PS: If I had been awake when it finished I would probably not been able to resist some ls before shutting down the Linux OS.


----------



## jmathey

Robert, 
I just ran the same command and I am working with MFS 2.0, and I too got the "you must specify a filesystem type" in response to the mount command. 

Thanks
John


----------



## Robert S

Cross post


----------



## vandiman

One HDVR2 down ... one to go.

Thanks to all that have posted to the site for the insight on the upgrade and the how to's.

John,
On the must specify a file system type error .... ignore it. The mount happened. As long as you can read and write to /mnt/dos the backup and restore will succeed (assuming you have enough space).


----------



## Robert S

Where did you get that idea? If mount succeeds it prints no output at all. Getting that error message means the mount failed and /mnt/dos is just a directory in the RAM disk. Use ls to list the files in /mnt/dos and check that it is your C: drive if you're unsure.


----------



## opthos2002

Thanks for the info, I ran the update over the weekend.

Did a full back of the orginal A drive and then added a B drive of 80 Gb.

138 hours of capacity!!!!!


----------



## HerbM

--re: Working from old instructions

I certainly was -- working from an old copy of the notes (both Tiger's and Hinsdale's) with the "mount /dev/hda" instead of "hda1" -- and kept getting errors for "file system type" must be specified. 

The obvious "mount -t fat32 ..." didn't work and seemed unsupported even.
Working from a FAT32 volume created on Win2003 Server, figured I had arrived at a "new set of problems" until, I found another post with "/dev/hda1" for the 1st partition.

Ok, backup is almost finished. 

Sanity check: I have 2 drives, the first a copy of the original 15 Hour/20 Gig
and the second an added 80 Gig.

The first drive is actually an 80 Gig I bought when first doing the upgrade (I had faith in your folks figuring this out.)

Now, A needs to go from 20->80, B needs to stay 80, and keep the data.

Can I do this?

I am trying to follow "new larger A drive" instructions but suspect that A+B must be copied to "new A" and my A drive is really the same size as the "upgraded B" alone.

I have plenty of spare larger drives (right now) so if moving this to a 137 (really a 200) will help I can make two moves if necessary.


----------



## weaknees

HerbM - 

You can just do a "dd" of the old A to the new A, then do an "mfsadd" to get the use of the extra space. The only potential issue here is the lack of additional swap, but with what you are doing, I don't think you can fix that.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

Actually it would be -t vfat, but there's no filing system on hda (or at least, not where the OS is looking for it), so it still fails. -t vfat can be handy if you don't get long filename support by default.

You can expand the A drive by running mfsadd, but if you're planning to use a larger A drive than the current one, then copy the drive now (you only need to copy the first 15Gb, of course) because when you expand it you add a pair of partitions to the drive and you only have room for three pairs of MFS partitions on the A drive.

See page 6 of the 160Gb thread at the top of the Underground for a way to use the full capacity of that 200Gb drive.

As for swap, see the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to increase the size of your swap partition before you run mfsadd. If you're using the 200Gb drive be aware that you'll need more than 127Mb of swap.


----------



## HerbM

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *HerbM -
> 
> You can just do a "dd" of the old A to the new A, then do an "mfsadd" to get the use of the extra space. The only potential issue here is the lack of additional swap, but with what you are doing, I don't think you can fix that.
> 
> Michael *


I was coming to that conclusion too. I have an (old) 13 Gig image on an 80 Meg A, with an (old) 80 Gig upgrade B drive.

So the space is right there on A, and I think that I can just mfsadd the extra space on A without doing a (new) copy -- I have the extra drive if the copy is important.

My other choice is double copies to other spare drives and back (I have a 165 that I don't want to waste as a 137 max.)

Current:
14 Gig + 80 Gig (residing on two 80 Gig)
(Also: have a no data backup in Fat32 volume file,
and also on original 14 Gig drive tested)

(Temporarily) Available for working space:
80 Gig drive (another)
165 Gig 
195 Gig (this is currently holding the Fat32 volume
but that can be moved to somewhere else on the net.)


----------



## HerbM

I am thinking:

DD copies BOTH A (14/80 Gig in use) and B (80/80) to spare (80 and another larger drive) -- treat this as A +B and do the MFSBackup...| MFSRestore... "pipe" command back to current A + B

If I only copy 14+80 (onto 165 + 80) with DD, I think then I can follow the instructions for putting this back on (80+80) with the Backup/Restore pipe command and get the bigger swap file at the same time?????


----------



## Robert S

While that would work, manually creating a larger swap partition as I suggested would be /much/ quicker.


----------



## HerbM

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *While that would work, manually creating a larger swap partition as I suggested would be /much/ quicker. *


Sorry, you post hadn't appeared when I last posted -- 
I will go back and read that and see if it's too late.

(I just MFSadd'ed the extra space.)


----------



## gregs

I tried following your instructions, but I do not have an original TV drive to backup. It wasn't obvious to me how to load the mfg tools onto a new disk drive. I bought my TIVO on ebay without hard disks. I went to Fry's Electronics and bought an 80 GB disk and want to install the TIVO programs and utilities so I can turn on my service. Please advise how to best get my system working.


----------



## weaknees

gregs

You need an image file - that contains the OS. Without that, you have no way to make the TiVo work. You can either buy a 'replace' type upgrade kit from an upgrade company (like us) or you can buy a pull. You can also post a thread that you are looking for an image and someone should help you out.

Michael


----------



## docbrock

I'm using the Hinsdale how to guide and Dylan's Linux boot disk to save a copy of my TIVO OS. I bought my HDRV2 already upgraded to 120GB and just wanted a copy in case there are future problems. My problem is that after I mount my C drive with the command "mkdir /mnt/dos" and then "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" the command "mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc" results in "mfsback up: not found".
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or how to fix it? Thanks


----------



## weaknees

You can try:

mfstool backup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

But are you sure you're using a version 2.0 CD? It sounds like you have an older version.

Michael


----------



## bckncook

Three main questions below labelled A, B, C.

Have a SAT-T60. Started freezing on "Welcome... Powering Up."

Decided to replace with a new hard drive, so got a Maxtor 160GB.

Using Hinsdale for MFSTools 2.0.

Tried to make backup of old drive. Old drive stuck on "Scanning Source Drive".


(A) Does this mean it's impossible to recover settings/recordings from old drive, or is there ANY way possible to save anything from my old drive?


If so, I think I found an image file online called ice2.5t-60comp.bak. Its a 129 MB download!


(B) Is this a good file to use?


If so, I can find no good instructions for adding this new image to a new drive.

I saved the image file in my root c:/ directory.

In Hinsdale Step #8 (Restoring Mfs Tools Backup Image), I replaced tivo.bak with ice2.5t-60comp.bak in the following line of code: mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb.

Executing that line of code resulted in something like File Not Found.


(C) If my HD is bad, and if this image file is good, what are the steps for getting this image functioning on the drive?


Thanks in advance for any help!


P.S. Weve been TiVo-less for a month now and are experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms, so please hurry with the answers!!! : )


----------



## weaknees

There's really no way to get your settings back from a dead drive.

I can't tell you if that file works or not, but you should edit your post to omit the location of the file, since that's not permitted here.

What steps are you using before you attempt the mfsrestore step?

Also, realize that with a 160 GB drive, you only get 137 GB of recording space.

Michael


----------



## mickyw

Word of warning...
although its been posted on here many times that upgrading your tivo will void your warranty, it should also be noted that if you use the tivo service, TIVO will know the day you change your unit. They keep a log of all contact to them. I am in the middle of tracking down a Program Data problem and they informed me that I upgraded my unit on June 2!!! and that they could not help me anymore.


Keep that in mind!


----------



## weaknees

They are usually still quite happy to help - what type of problem are you having?

Michael


----------



## mickyw

Michael,
I posted this under the Big Brother thread a bit ago, which sounds a bit like a rant. 

My Program Guide Data disappears after two weeks. This started happening after the upgrade. I'm not sure if it was the upgrade (I think it was) or the 4.0 software push.

The unit reports that it can communicate no problem. Calls are successful (via broadband by the way, wired USB network). 

I can get the program guide data back after a repeat guided setup. But it won't automatically do it with the call.


Any suggestions?


----------



## weaknees

When you did the upgrade, did you use your own software, or did you get an image from someone?

Michael


----------



## mickyw

Michael,

I just used my old harddrive backed up the image to another harddrive (which I might still have around) and restored that image to the new drive.

I only have one drive in there now ( the new one).

So I guess I used my own software with the MFS Tools 2.0.


I remember that I downloaded the MFS Tools 1.x stuff first and had some problems...but then I found the MFS tools 2.0 stuff.

I saw an old thread that said that if my unit couldn't update the clock that this might happen...but it was a bit dated and he stated that his firewall was the issue. My firewall hasn't changed at all so I'm not sure if that could be it. 

This unit worked fine pre upgrade.

Thanks again!!


----------



## weaknees

Do you get backgrounds on the menu screens?

Michael


----------



## mickyw

Michael,
Yes I have backgrounds.


----------



## Joyster

I upgraded my TiVo last night using MFSTools 2.0. What a breeze! I went from 42 hours to 136 in a short evening - even preserving all my recordings!
Thanks hinsdale et al!


----------



## weaknees

mickyw,

You should probably try your stock drive and see if it can update, then, if so, try the upgrade again.

Michael


----------



## mickyw

Michael,
Unfortunately, I don't have that drive any more...could I go buy one that was stock (recognized by TIVO)?

Also,
I started a similar thread in here called Program Data Guide Big Brother. Could you take a look and give me your input?


Thanks so much,
Micky


----------



## weaknees

I'll look over there, but a stock drive wouldn't have the TiVo OS on it.

Michael


----------



## mrscott

I have a new Hughes DirecTivo, and I have copied my hard drive onto a new 120gb drive, and it works in my reciever. I am trying to figure out now how to expand the capacity so that it reports greater capacity (system information still reports "variable, up to 35 hours". The how to guide says series 2 does not allow expansion of A drive; does this apply to my machine? Other utilities that I see do not work with Windows XP, and that is the operating system on my all my PCs. I have Kazymyr's TiVo Boot CD that I used a couple of years ago to upgrade a standalone Tivo unit. What is my next step? Thank in advance.


----------



## Robert S

Wow, what an out-of-date procedure you're trying!

Try reading New Hinsdale (linked at the top of this thread). There are several /major/ pitfalls for that model of TiVo.


----------



## docmanhattan

I just wanted to extended my thanks to *hindsdale* for the informative HOWTO and *weaknees* for the stellar dual drive/fan mount for a DSR7000.

I've now got a *217* hour DirecTiVo. 

I'll venture forth into TiVoWeb and such later, but for now, I'm just digging have lots of recording capacity.

Thanks!

karl


----------



## SteinyD

I'm about to buy a DirecTV DVR and will want to immediately replace the hard drive with a larger one (WD 160gb) that I've purchased recently. I have to basic questions though I have read the guides online, either I've missed the answer or they aren't there:

1) Is there anything that needs to be done to the new drive to prep it for installation (special formatting, Tivo OS install, etc.)?
2) Of the 3 DirecTV Tivos (HDVR2, DSR7000R & DVR39), do any of them pose any particular difficulties or shortcomings to enabling a drive upgrade/replacement?
3) Do any of these 3 DirecTV DVRs not allow for any of the other upgrades/hacks that are available for the DirecTV DVR units?

Thanks in advance for the help!

David


----------



## Robert S

You need to follow the instructions in the How-to linked in the first post. The procedure described there does everything required to prepare the disk.

Those models are all virtually identical.

Although it is possible to hack the Series 2 TiVoes, it's very much more difficult than hacking the Series 1 models.


----------



## SteinyD

You reference my question by comparing 'series 1' to 'series 2'. I know the DirecTV units do not have the USB ports enabled. However, I've seen the newer units I referenced as being series 2. Is that not the case?



> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You need to follow the instructions in the How-to linked in the first post. The procedure described there does everything required to prepare the disk.
> 
> Those models are all virtually identical.
> 
> Although it is possible to hack the Series 2 TiVoes, it's very much more difficult than hacking the Series 1 models. *


----------



## Robert S

Yes, but, more generally, the lock-down that prevents you modifying the software on the Series 1 TiVoes is easy to break (or absent). The lock-down on the Series 2's, both stand alone and combo is much harder to break. So, if you're thinking of running TiVoWeb etc, then you'd better research it carefully.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

I have been reading this thread for a long time, and I am still confused. I hope that someone will be able to answer my question.....

My upgrade is a Series 2 with one factory drive. I am going to remove the factory drive and install 2 120 gig drives.

Using the following information and the SECOND command to restore both A and B drives using the small backup (instructions from Hinsdale How To)..... (questions finished at the end of the quoted instructions)

_Note for those with already tested image: If you are restoring a previously tested backup image and are not concerned about preserving recordings, you can use Mfs Tools to restore the image and expand your drives at the same time ? saving the mfsadd at Step 10 (this will overwrite any image/recordings existing on the destination drives).

With your new upgrade TiVo A drive as Secondary Master and new upgrade TiVo B drive (if any) as Primary Slave, you can use the following command to restore your Mfs Tools backup image to your new large upgrade drive(s) and expand them at the same time:

Restore and expand in a single step using ONE of the following commands:

Note: Series 2 units restoring a backup image created using old Mfs Tools 1.X should also include the -b option in either command line used below (-xzbpi instead of -xzpi).

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (restore/expand to single new larger A drive)

or

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb (restore/expand to new A and new B)

Mfs Tools will report drive progress and results. Once completed you can unmount and power down (see below) and then skip to Step 11 and install your new TiVo upgrade drives. _

.....will I have the *same* image on both upgrade drives or does mfsrestore setup the drives to work as an A and B drive?

Thanks and sorry if my question has been answered before.


----------



## Robert S

It creates a married pair of drives, not two A drives. The drive listed first (hdc in Hinsdale's plan) becomes the new A drive and the drive listed second (hdb, ditto) becomes the new B drive - that's why Hinsdale has you jumper them as master and slave respectively.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *It creates a married pair of drives, not two A drives. The drive listed first (hdc in Hinsdale's plan) becomes the new A drive and the drive listed second (hdb, ditto) becomes the new B drive - that's why Hinsdale has you jumper them as master and slave respectively. *


Ah. Thanks !


----------



## Cedric

I just upgraded my RCA Series 2 DTiVo and thought I would report a couple of obvious, but frustrating things that I learned:

1. I used a computer with Windows 98 on it to avoid the issues with XP. I had two computers to choose from and it became obvious after a few hours that I had picked the wrong one.

First Lesson; use the newest computer you can.

In my case the "wrong one" was a PII with an older BIOS that wouldn't recognize the drives as listed in Hinsdale's FAQ. After much BIOS tweaking and drive jumpering, I was able to get the drive backed up. I later used the newer computer to run MFSADD and was able to get the drives to recognize on both Primary and Secondary channels with no problem. 

Second Lesson; test the drives before putting them in the TiVo.

I first upgraded my 14 hour stand alone Series 1 about 2.5 years ago in the pre Hinsdale, pre-TivoMad era. I didn't (and don't now) have extra bucks laying around to pick up another TiVo if my main one bit the dust, so I decided to run the drive manfacturer's full level diagnostics prior to doing the upgrade. Back then I ran the tests overnight so I don't know how long they took to finish, but this time on a WD 120Gb it only took 45 min. In my view a wise use of time. Maybe I've been lucky, but I never had a single frozen frame or stopple during my entire TiVo life.

Third Bonus Lesson; drink beer AFTER the upgrade is complete.

I'm not the most techie guy so the combination of master/slave/cable select jumper settings with linux hda/hdb/hdc designations was potentially confusing enough that I needed to approach this project with all the wits I have still intact. 

I hope this might help someone else. Thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger & the folks at Weaknees. Also a shout back in time to Mr. Belboz & Dylan who made this possible for about 90% of us around here.

Stats: 40 Gb stock A drive + 120Gb new B drive = 141 hours on DTivo Series 2.


----------



## jbodden

blesstivo not found.  
Blesstivo not found
BlessTivo not found
BlessTiVo - bingo!!!

after everything else checked out, after hunting for a floopy disk that works (who uses those now?) and booting into linux with the 'latest blesstivo' from the 'official site' , the 120 gb drive is ready and recognized, I type in 'blesstivo /dev/hdb' and get bupkis, blesstivo not found.
Did your instructions leave out a little something?


 I found the problem. "BlessTiVo" works, and the caps have to be in the right places!

Says drive is ready to go, but make backup first.
OK now, I got the mfs tools - so what am I supposed to do with them?
Presumably they are linux - so how do I get them onto a floopy with no linux box? 
Thanks Michael - editing previous note here - but I know my master from my slave. Was married once.:up:


----------



## weaknees

Scroll up through the boot info (shift-pgup) and see what letter the drive is recognized with - it may not be hdb.

Michael


----------



## EricG

Thanks again Hinsdale and Tiger for another easy upgrade!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Could someone PM me a ftp site to d/l a Sony Series 1 SVR-2000 image?

TIA!


----------



## etavadia

I just recently made the jump from Ulitmate TV to Tivo Series 2 w/ DirectTV. In your opinions, should I upgrade the hard drive right off the bat before doing anything with my new Tivo unit. I have an existing 120gb HD in my UTV right now and would like to drop into my Tivo. Does Tivo need to initialize back to DirectTV or anything like that.

Thanks for help in advance.

ET


----------



## mike3962

Many, many thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger for making this whole thing so painless. Thanks also to the dozens of people with tips on doing the upgrade, advice on quietest drives available, etc, etc.

My stock HDR312 was starting to have stopples - more and more frequently and I didn't want to be in the position of having to upgrade/replace from a dead old drive. Got a decent deal on a Seagate Barracuda V 120G and sat down to put it in place of the original Quantum Fireball 40G.

The whole process was quick (maybe 3 hours, went to work in the shop for a while during the process of copying all of my shows over to the new drive) and reasonably easy. System info now reports 142 hours @ basic.

I should have replaced the clock battery while I was in there. All of the shows recorded after the upgrade (until the next AM when I forced a call) were recorded at the wrong time. Bought this TiVO a long time ago, but I don't think the clock has ever worked when the power was off. I keep planning to put the TiVo on a UPS, so don't bother to do the obvious fix.


----------



## Robert S

etavadia: There's no reason to hurry or to wait. Your upgrade will be the same either way. About the only consideration is that if you make a recording you want to keep on the original A drive you will have to copy the whole drive if you want to take that recording to the new configuration and increase the size of your swap partition.


----------



## etavadia

Thanks a bunch Robert. I think I'm just going to add an extra hard drive to the original stock.

Thanks,
ET


----------



## EBJ

Hello

My original query was started in a different thread entitled Swap Filesagain, and was kindly addressed by Robert S. However, it is now I realise that my issues really relate to this subject matter and I should have read the FAQ section with more attention. Anyway, my problem is as follows: I have a UK based Thomson TiVo with a 40Gb drive. I want to add a further 120GB drive. Following guidance from the Hinsdale instructions, I have created a boot up floppy and managed to backup the original Quantum TiVo drive, which was initially locked but I unlocked using the qunlock utility. Restoring the backup image was also successful, as well as the tests on the new drive in my TiVo. The hiccup occurs when I try to perform the recording capacity upgrade. Following instructions from Robert S (and the various advice from the forum), I opted to copy my old A drive to my new A drive using: 

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

My TiVo drive shows 40Gb, but I notice an unknown partition table line on both the TiVo and new drive. Settings of the drives are as follows:

TiVo drive: Secondary Master, jumper set to Master
New 120GB Drive: Primary Master, jumper set to Master

However, I continually get Invalid Option x errors. To be honest, I have entered a series of instructions, some of which I have forgotten and I am now left in a worse state. Whenever I return my original drive back to my TiVo, I get the irritating Almost there loop. It is incredibly frustrating, as I had managed to upgrade another TiVo with an 80GB drive. I am wondering whether the key to the problem is the Unknown Partition tables line? Any help would be gratefully appreciated. No doubt I have screwed up along the way as I cannot even go back to the very beginning by performing the initial backup procedure.

Regards

Eric


----------



## Robert S

The unknown partition table is just a byteswapping issue. It's the normal behaviour for the MFS Tools 2.0 disks with a Series 1 TiVo.

Is it possible you got the old and new drives muddled up at some point? It's almost as if the original A drive thinks it should have a B drive.

Anyway, you're pretty much hosed at this point, I think you'll have to restore a backup file to get things working again.


----------



## EBJ

Thanks for the quick response Robert. Yes, it is extremely likely that I have linked the B drive to the A drive. I may have entered an inappropriate command somewhere along the way. Ok, if I restore, I take it I am performing a restore from my B drive to my A drive. Will this overwrite my recordings? Which command do you suggest? Do I need to change jumper settings?

Regards,

Eric


----------



## Robert S

Well, it might be worth trying to make a compressed backup off the drive pair, although I was assuming that you've wiped the B-drive image off the new one.

You'll need a FAT partition that you can write the file to, but it's a perfectly standard operation, well documented in Hinsdale (don't forget the -l 32 as it's a UK TiVo).

Failing that, you'll need an existing backup file.


----------



## EBJ

Just about to make a compressed backup off the drive pair. After that procedure, what do you suggest I try next? 

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Robert S

Restore it to the 80Gb drive and see if your TiVo boots.

If it does boot, you may be able to salvage your recordings.


----------



## EBJ

Getting failure message: 
mfs_load_volume_header: Total Sectors (7725158) mismatch with volume header (278562816). A series of error messgaes follow resulting with a "Backup failed to start up?" Any ideas?
Thanks,
Eric


----------



## Robert S

Yes, it's looking for a B drive and not finding it.

Is the the 80Gb drive being detected correctly? Is it listed on the mfsbackup command line?


----------



## EBJ

Drive B shows up on the computer as hdb and I am using the following command:
mfsbackup -l32 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

TiVo drive still set to Master on hdc and new B drive set to slave on hdb


----------



## Robert S

That's toast, then.

You did make a backup before you started, right?


----------



## EBJ

Yes, I did make a backup. I take it I can restore this onto my A drive. Do you think my recordings will still be intact?


----------



## Robert S

Yes, you recordings should survive. Restore with just -i <filename>, no p, x or -s 127.


----------



## EBJ

So should I use the following command?
mfsrestore -i /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Prior to this command. I am assuming I will also have to mount my FAT partition by entering the following:
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/dos


----------



## EBJ

I went ahead and carried out the restore. I shall try it in the TiVo this evening. Hopefully, I won't get that painful loop. If it works, do you think I should start again?


----------



## EBJ

Thanks for your kind assistance Robert S - restoration successful. Recordings are fine and I am very relieved. Am I tempting fate by starting again?


----------



## Robert S

That's not a question I'm in a position to answer.


----------



## Maruzo

Hi all:

I have a dual drive 60hr Tivo. I've upgraded Drive A (30GB) with a maxtor 120GB drive several months ago. It has been running great. I get about 50 hours of best quality recording. For the last 4 weeks, I've been tempting to upgrade the second drive (an oem quantum 30gb) with another Maxtor 120GB drive. 

Anyway, I finally got the nerve today to open up my tivo and attempt the Tivo Canal (i liken the experience to a root canal for my tivo.  )

here's what i did: i connected tivo's drive A as the primary master, drive B as the primary slave, and then my new Maxtor 120GB as the Secondary Master.

i loaded the tool floppy and waited for the 3 drives to boot up. upon seeing the "#", i typed in the following:

dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k

i got the following very quickly:

9+1 records in
9+1 records out

then the "#" comes on again, and i see no hard drive activity light. 

Can somebody tell me what i'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like your hard drive is locked. Use qunlock to get it working again for backup purposes - you can dig around here to find locations for it.

Michael


----------



## killerdcc

Hey.
I had an upgraded DSR6000 (w/ an 80GB B drive). It recently died. So I got a DSR 7000. I order the kit from weakness and I am wondering if I can just drop the "B" drive into the 7000 unit, or if I have to start the process over from scratch.

Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

You'll need to do some work - we have a bit of info here:

http://www.weaknees.com/diy-upgrade.php

Michael


----------



## etavadia

Wow, what a weekend. Just got done upgrading my new Hughes with a new WD 120GB harddrive. Noticed that my unit did not have room for a second HD, so I just swapped out my 40GB Maxtor with the WD. I'm now reporting 105 hrs!!!! yeah ha

The directions from Hinsdale were awesome. Also many thanks to Tiger & the folks at Weaknees as well as the rest of folks on this thread for giving your two cents worth. 

Here's a quick summary of what I encountered:
Tried an image backup to a Win98 HD. Worked but couldn't get it to restore. It seemed that the WD drive had something funky going on. Tried the qunlock and that also didn't work. I then ran the WD utility that writes a ZERO to the first and last sector of the drive (I think this is a low level format). Did the trick for me and I backed up my entire 40gb in less then 1 hr including all recorded shows.

Everything is working except I can not get my 30 second skip forward to work. I tried SPS30S and it only skips to the very end of the show recorded. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for a quick and detailed guide....

ET


----------



## weaknees

All sounds good - not sure why the WD didn't work on the first shot.

As far as the 30 second skip - make sure you are playing a recorded show when you enter the commands, otherwise, they wont change anything.

Michael


----------



## etavadia

Tried using the skip in a recorded show after the upgrade and it just doesn't work.

I'll keep my ears open for this one.

Thanks,
ET


----------



## bigbert

Anything extra I need to be aware of upgrading my sony Series II?

I am adding a b drive 120 GB Maxtor (new 8mb/7200 rpm)

Have Hinsdale instructions...

Thanks for the advice

Bert


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Yes, like it won't fit inside without extra hardware? At least I think that's the case with newer Series 2's.


----------



## weaknees

Actually, the Sony SVR-3000 is a newer Series 2 in many respects except for that one - it actually has a bracket for 2 drives. Hardware-wise, you'll need a power splitter, a three-position IDE cable, and drive mounting screws.

Michael


----------



## bmclaurin

Long time lurker, new poster here. Just wanted to add to the long list of successful upgrade stories. I've been reading the many, many helpful posts on this board for several months now, and I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my HDVR2. I followed Hinsdale's latest guide to the letter, and everything worked flawlessly. I owe special thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and the many experts that frequent these boards. The learning experiences that are chronicled herein are invaluable to those of us that are going through this for the first time.

Here are the specifics: Replaced the stock Maxtor 40GB drive (Fireball 3) that came in my DTiVo with a brand new Maxtor 160GB 7200 RPM drive (DiamondMax Plus, L01P160). Believe it or not, the 160GB drive was actually cheaper than the 120GB drive after rebates. Increased the capacity from 35 hours to 120 hours!!!!!! For now, I haven't yet added the original drive back to the system--want to wait a few weeks to make sure everything is working. I have already purchased a Weaknees bracket to add the 2nd drive, so it's only a matter of time before I do this for even more capacity. 

I had no problems whatsoever with drive locking, etc., even though I understand that others have had difficulties with some of the Maxtor drives. I plan to post my experiences in that regard in the Maxtor/drive locking thread.

Thanks again, everyone.


----------



## rntevans

I am looking to add an 120 GB drive to my sony series 1 svr2000 and I am confused by the last step of the Hinsdale "how to with MFS 2.0"

specifically there is a note of concern regarding the swap file when upgrading your tivo unit to a combined size >140GB which is exactly what I am planning to do. 

Could someone tell me exactly what command I need at this point ? It seems that the simple mfsadd command is not sufficient.

thanks for the help

--Russ


----------



## weaknees

Russ,

In order to get past that swap size, you can't use mfsadd. You need to do a backup and restore and use the "-s 127" switch when doing so. In addition, adding a drive to a unit that old probably isn't such a great idea. You'd likely be better served by using only the new drive, and keeping the old drive aside as a backup. That old drive could go at any time considering its age.

Michael


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by rntevans _
> *I am looking to add an 120 GB drive to my sony series 1 svr2000 and I am confused by the last step of the Hinsdale "how to with MFS 2.0"
> 
> specifically there is a note of concern regarding the swap file when upgrading your tivo unit to a combined size >140GB which is exactly what I am planning to do.
> 
> Could someone tell me exactly what command I need at this point ? It seems that the simple mfsadd command is not sufficient.
> 
> thanks for the help
> 
> --Russ *


You'd need to make a backup first, then restore with the "-x -s 127" option on one or both drives.

As long as you have a backup, you are fine to add a drive; and it certainly is easier if you keep your original drive as a backup should you have a problem, but there is no reason to be concerned that your original drive is going to go bad any time soon (unless its exhibiting any strange behavior or lound noises, already).


----------



## jenbob67

I'm having problems with my Tivo and I want to upgrade.
If I upgrade will the Tivo have any problems calling in?
Will Tivo service still recognize my Tivo service plan?


----------



## Robert S

I'd love to know where this question comes from - and it comes up quite regularly. As far as I can see the logic goes something like 'I see all these hundreds of people saying how pleased they are with their upgrades, but maybe upgrading completely ruined their TiVo and they either didn't notice or thought that it was too trivial to mention. I'd better ask'.

(Just incase that's an ambiguous reply: Upgrading just gives you more space for recordings, everything else about the TiVo works exactly as before.)


----------



## weaknees

And just to anticipate the next question, your service plan is tied to a serial number on your motherboard, not your drives. So changing drives has no effect.

Michael


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I'd love to know where this question comes from - and it comes up quite regularly. As far as I can see the logic goes something like 'I see all these hundreds of people saying how pleased they are with their upgrades, but maybe upgrading completely ruined their TiVo and they either didn't notice or thought that it was too trivial to mention. I'd better ask'.
> 
> (Just incase that's an ambiguous reply: Upgrading just gives you more space for recordings, everything else about the TiVo works exactly as before.) *


This question comes from the fact that most people make the assumption that their specific service information resides on the hard-drive, in software. Why? Because that's how it works in most other environments.

The reality is that the service information does reside in software, however its actually stored in a programmable chip (called an EEPROM) which resides on the system-board of the TiVo. So from the perspective of most people, it appears to be encoded into the hardware.

The side-benefit to this is that exchanging drives has no effect on the service ID or the subscription status of the unit in question. This allows folks to mass produce system drives for the large volumes of TiVo units, while allowing each TiVo unit to retain a unique identity.


----------



## Matt_G

Successful GXCEBOT upgrade!! 

Just wanted to also add to the long list of successful upgrade stories. I've been reading the many, many helpful posts on this board for several months now, and I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my GXCEBOT. I followed Hinsdale's latest guide to the letter, and everything worked flawlessly. I owe special thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and the many experts that frequent these boards. The learning experiences that are chronicled herein are invaluable to those of us that are going through this for the first time.

Here are the specifics: Added a brand new Maxtor 120GB 7200 RPM drive along the existing stock Quatum 40GB drive that came in my DTiVo. Increased the capacity from 35 hours to 148 hours!!!!!! 

The only thing I would suggest is to have a longer controller cable handy to help with reaching the drives while in the PC and to use in the tivo box. I wound up using the controller end of the Maxtor supplied cable to plug into the master drive and plugged the other end into the controller port. This works in most cases I've read but may not always work depending on the cable. My installation required a cable that would reach two drives sitting side by side.
 

Thanks again, everyone.


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## tivoupgrade

Can you elaborate on the remote control modification you made? That sounds interesting.


----------



## Robert S

I think he's refering to the IDE data cable and the IDE socket on the mainboard, not the remote control.

It does seem that the normal IDE cables do not have the connectors in the right place for a TiVo (in a PC the hard drives are usually close together and stacked vertically, but quite a distance from the mobo, it's the reverse in a TiVo). You should be able to reverse a 40-way cable, but an 80-way cable may not work if it's backwards.


----------



## weaknees

Right - IDEs are tricky in TiVos. We have them custom manufactured with better spacing to fit all of these units (except the very long distances in Series 1 standalone units). 

But I think the post is referring to the previous post's signature . . .

Michael


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## tivoupgrade

We use custom IDE cables, as well; I have no question there.

I am referring specifically to the modification to the remote control.


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## Matt_G

What I have done with my remotes is an adaptation of a modification I found for the pronto to convert them to be RF. 

Basically I have set up a RF reciever next to my tivo and then installed inside my remotes the IR-to-RF transmitter. 

To do this I bought a specific IR repeater package called "remote extender". It comes with a receiver unit that sits near your tivo which you string an IR blaster "eye" in from of the tivo. Then I bought the "universal" adapter which is a very small IR-to-RF converter. 

Typically this small "universal" unit (the size of a matchbox) is velcro-ed onto the end of you existing remote control. This is a clunky solution. So what I have done is taken the small converter apart and installed the very small PCB (size of a stamp), IR receiver eye, battery holder inside the remote. 

I was able to fit it inside the tivo peanut remote, my universal RCA remote and my pronto remote. It is noteworthy that you must remove the IF eye from the PCB and put it on the end of a 5" wire to be able to extend the eye within the remote to the vacinity of the remote's own IR eye. When you hit a button the remote sends the signal out the IR eye and the converter's eye picks up the signal and converts it to RF.

You also need to buy a little battery holder for the special battery that (garage door opener battery) the converter uses. Radio shack carries it. so the PBC the ir eye and the batter are tucked into different spots insode your remote. You would be surpised at the empty space found inside remotes. 

In the end I can stroll around the house and change my channels. This is a bit elaborate but it allows me to toss the ol tivo in my A/V distribution closet in the basement.

The only draw back is that I will someday need to pop open the tivo remote to replace the battery. BUT It's been almost 2 years and the battery is still going good. In my RCA remote I was able to cut a access hole in inside of the existing battery port to let me replace the converter battery from there.

Hope this helps. If you search the web for remote extender you will probably come across the equipment I used.


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## weaknees

Yup - here's the thread for that:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66753

We should try to keep that discussion over there and keep this one on target.

Michael


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## tivoupgrade

Thanks for your reply Matt; you can ignore the pundits, your post was very much on-topic; last time I checked, the topic was "How-To Upgrade your TiVo"


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## lilzaphod

I just found your forums last week. Thanks for such a great resource. 

I have been a TiVo user for about 3 weeks now. I had to really push the wife to get it. 3 days after installation, the wife asked me if it was ok if we got a 2nd one for the bedroom. Feel the power.

Last night I did the Hinsdale upgrade once my 9th tee bracket came in. It took about 2 hours due to stupid jumper configurations on the drives. Anyway, I got the 120 gig Maxtor added to the original 40 gb drive. I did make a backup, but I skipped the swap upgrade, becasue I didn't want to tick off the wife by deleting her BTVS archive she is slowly building. Is this a horrible thing that I skipped? Will this lack of swap suddnly make me into an RIAA puppet drone, or is it a small chance that anything major will happen to my unit? I have a back on a 6 gig drive I only will be using for TiVo upgrades, so I figgure at the worst case, stuff oges down, I strip the drives out and do the restore.

Anyway, thanks for the help.


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## weaknees

Assuming it's a new Series 2 model, not adding swap when adding a 120 GB drive shouldn't be any problem at all.

And welcome!

Michael


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## Robert S

You can go to 180Gb on a Series 2 - 60+120 is known to be OK. If you add a 120Gb drive to an 80Gb Series 2 then mfsfix will need extra swap.

If you do get a GSOD without enough swap the TiVo will reboot shortly after displaying the GSOD (it takes about 4 minutes for a Series 1, not sure about a S2). See the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to fix that.


----------



## Blurayfan

Successfull upgrade on 2 HDVRS thanks.

HDVR2 - (160GB 7200 Rpm/8mb Cache/ Western Digital)
HDVR2 - (120GB 7200 Rpm/2mb Cache/ Seagate)


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## yahooo

TIVO Gurus,

I am a newbie here and am trying to figure out the best possible configuration for my DirecTivo. 

I have a 35Hr HDVR2. I also have two hard drives (120GB and 200GB) that I can use for the upgrade. I want to start off slow and just replace the 40GB and later go for the second drive. I've read thru the forums and am a little confused right now.

Please help with directions/suggestions on how to proceed and what I need to purchase to upgrade the Tivo.

Thank you,
yahooo


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## weaknees

How about swapping the 40 for you new 120 and adding swap (-s 127) in the process? Then you'll be all set to add the 200 GB drive down the road. 

Just so you know, the 200 GB drive only gets used up to 137 GB in that unit, so if you can get a 160 GB drive cheaper, you might want to.

Michael


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## barsongs

My HDVR2 power supply is going bad and I am buying a new HDVR2 ($99 at circuit city). My existing HDVR2 has the original 40g drive plus another 160g drive and the weaknees bracket (brilliant design...). Can I just pop both HDs into the new HDVR2 and expect it to work?


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## weaknees

Thanks for the compliment!

You can take your TwinBreeze and pop it in, and everything will boot, but you'll be stuck with the error #51 problem - the serialization between software and hardware. So you'll have to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" to get rolling again - losing your settings and recordings. So write down your SPs and wishlists before you switch if you want to re-program them.

Michael


----------



## barsongs

Michael - thanks. So that means that the new hdvr2 will not read the existing programs already recorded?


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## weaknees

That's right.

Michael


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## barsongs

I have an idea - I will just swap the power supply boards! That should work, shouldn't it? I'll just keep the rest of it for spare parts, or sell it cheap to someone in need.


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## weaknees

You can give it a shot - that would work if you are certain that the power supply is the only issue. By the way, it's pretty hard to move the power supply in those units, but doable.

Keep us up to date!

Michael


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## Glennjr_2001

I need help. I am going to upgrade my Hughes Directv/Tivo so I can extract shows to my pc...can someone please point me in the direction to get my reciever ready to do this. I have ordered the usb network adapter and have the ethernet hub in place. I was told I have to "edit one of TiVo's files to force that chipset's driver (and the USB drivers it depends on) to load on boot"...how do I do this...I haven't yet received my directv/tivo...but I want to be prepared when all the elements arrive! Please can someone help???



> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *You are correct. All you need to do is run BlessTiVo on the new B drive and install (also may need to pull the A drive to change the jumper to master).
> 
> However, you need to realize that if something doesnt work or either drive crashes or the OS runs into any corruption - you will have a door stop without a backup. The backup part only takes 20 minutes or so and is definetly worth the effort. *


   
Thanks


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## weaknees

Extraction is taboo over here - try other forums.

Michael


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## sciencewhiz

I have a TCD140060 (series 2) tivo. I tried to add an 80 gb drive as B, following hinsdale's directions. At first, everything was fine. I got the extra recording capacity, etc. That was last night. 

Tonight, I come home from work and see the note that the tivo shut itself down because it overheated. I unplug it and take the cover off and find that I forgot to connect the fan. The inside of the tivo was quite hot. I connect the fan and power it on again and everything is fine.

Then I go off for the evening, and when I get home, my little brother tells me that the tivo rebooted in the middle of whatever he was watching and is stuck at the welcome, powering up screen. So, I power the tivo off, and power it on again, and it gets to the wait a few minutes screen and then reboots and hangs again at the powering up screen. 

What is the best way to proceed (while having the best chance of saving my recordings). I've tried just hooking up the original drive, but it still hangs at the powering up screen.

Do I need to restore my backup of the A drive from my computer? Did the tivo get ruined when it overheated?

Thanks for you time


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## weaknees

You may have hurt one of the drives when the unit overheated. Your recordings are most likely toast here. Best bet is to try to restore the backup to your new 80 GB drive and see if the TiVo will boot. At this point, though, you've overwritten your recordings.

If saving recordings is paramount, you might try to do a "dd" of the original drive to a new, third drive, and see if that plus the new 80 will boot.

Michael


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by sciencewhiz _
> *I have a TCD140060 (series 2) tivo. I tried to add an 80 gb drive as B, following hinsdale's directions. At first, everything was fine. I got the extra recording capacity, etc. That was last night.
> 
> Tonight, I come home from work and see the note that the tivo shut itself down because it overheated. I unplug it and take the cover off and find that I forgot to connect the fan. The inside of the tivo was quite hot. I connect the fan and power it on again and everything is fine.
> 
> Then I go off for the evening, and when I get home, my little brother tells me that the tivo rebooted in the middle of whatever he was watching and is stuck at the welcome, powering up screen. So, I power the tivo off, and power it on again, and it gets to the wait a few minutes screen and then reboots and hangs again at the powering up screen.
> 
> What is the best way to proceed (while having the best chance of saving my recordings). I've tried just hooking up the original drive, but it still hangs at the powering up screen.
> 
> Do I need to restore my backup of the A drive from my computer? Did the tivo get ruined when it overheated?
> 
> Thanks for you time *


Its more likely that the overheating may have damaged something in your unit other than your drive(s).

When you hooked up just your original drive, were your jumpers set properly? In either case, I would not expect this to work, since you'd already added a drive, and those drives should not function without each other; however, you should have gotten past the powering up screen; the unit should have gotten to almost there, and then either rebooted or given you a green screen.

You should try hooking both drives up again and see if you can reproduce the problem; then run extensive diagnostics on BOTH drives. If neither drives fail, and the unit continues to lock up and/or reboot, its the unit that is damaged.


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## sciencewhiz

I tried just connecting the original drive, with the original cable, and I got to the please wait a few moments screen, but no farther. Is there a way to shrink the amount of space it expects back to the original 60 gigs, so I can try just the original drive?

If I stick them both in my computer, is there a way to check the disks to see if they are ok? IE, can I use "fsck -c" or something like that?

One think I'm considering is that my ide cable went bad. I had to stretch it very tight to get it to fit. I'm going to buy a 24" 80 pin tonight as well as an 18" 40 pin, so I can try reversing that. I can try that cable in my computer too, to see if that is the problem.

Any other suggestions?


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by sciencewhiz _
> *I tried just connecting the original drive, with the original cable, and I got to the please wait a few moments screen, but no farther. Is there a way to shrink the amount of space it expects back to the original 60 gigs, so I can try just the original drive?
> 
> If I stick them both in my computer, is there a way to check the disks to see if they are ok? IE, can I use "fsck -c" or something like that?
> 
> One think I'm considering is that my ide cable went bad. I had to stretch it very tight to get it to fit. I'm going to buy a 24" 80 pin tonight as well as an 18" 40 pin, so I can try reversing that. I can try that cable in my computer too, to see if that is the problem.
> 
> Any other suggestions? *


Once you add a drive, they are "married" and won't function without each other without software reconfiguration. You'd need to restore your backup onto just the A drive (or do another backup with both drives connected to your PC) thus divorcing the drives, and then restore back to just the A drive. If you do either of these two things, the most you can preserve are your settings; no video. These issues are unrelated to your original problem however....

In your PC, you can run manufacturer's diagnostics; check Maxtor's web site for POWERMAX, or Samsung or Western Digital, or whatever drives you are running; they all have free diag utilities.

You may have damaged your IDE cable, that can definitely cause hangs and reboots if its bad.

Try to not to do too many things at once; you may cause more problems and you may never know what the problem was.

At this stage you may already have corrupted your software by attempting to boot with only your original drive, so be prepared to have to do a full restore if things don't come up normally regardless of what you try.


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## Randy Bryant

When using Hinsdale's "UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3" there is no mention of using mfsadd, does the restore command do that automatically. I am only going to upgrade the A drive to start with.


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## weaknees

That option is really for copying a drive to a drive of the same size. You probably want:

UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3: 

From: Any Single Drive TiVo 

To: New A and New B Drive |or| New Single Larger A Drive

Right?

Michael


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## Randy Bryant

My post said Option #3. I want to copy my old 40GB to a new 80GB and preserve the recordings and increase the swap space for a future 120GB additional B drive. So it wasn't clear about mfsadd.


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## weaknees

OK - there's an "Option #3" and an "Upgrade Configuration #3" which are different. I gather you mean the latter.

The "x" switch in the mfsrestore string does what a separate line of mfsadd would do, so you'll be fine.

Michael


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## Randy Bryant

Thanks!!!, and yes I think I said "Upgrade Configuration #3".

One more curiosity question, when using the mfsrestore to 2 drives at the same time, does the second drive get a complete OS, software, swap space; or does mfsrestore realize that the second drive (B drive) only needs a file system?


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## weaknees

Yup - you did say that. I guess that note then goes to myself.

It realizes that the second drive only needs partitioning. That part of the process is just a quick step at the end - you'll see the info on the screen.

Michael


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## roven97

Wow. So far so good! It appears I successfully upgraded my Series 1 Hughes DirecTivo. I installed the Maxtor ATA133 120GB HD as drive B. Thank you so much Hinsdale and everyone else for making this a seamless and painless upgrade!

One question I have is, I failed to note how much the married drives now gave me in space (although I did notice that it recognized my drive as 120GB)? Should I be getting 40+120=160GB? Is that 160 hours? And is there a way to tell how much space is left? That is one thing I miss about my standalone.


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## weaknees

You can't see how much space is left on any TiVo - the best you can do is to turn on TiVo Suggestions and watch as they get deleted, counting the hours based on the programs still there.

Your total (variable) capacity isn't 160 hours - it's closer to 140. Go to Messages and Setup -> System Information to see for sure.

Michael


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## akjindal

Many thanks the Hinsdale for the excellent How-To and Tiger for the MFS tools. I upgraded my 30 hour model to 141 hours!

The biggest problem I had was that the BIOS in my computer couldn't detect the 120G Seagate hard drive I was upgrading to. It is an older computer and the instructions with the HDD suggesting using a capacity limiting jumper, etc. etc.

The simple solution was to disable auto-detection of the HDD in the BIOS and the Linux OS on the MFS boot CD identified it properly on its own. After that it went smooth as silk.

I would suggest adding a note to this effect in step #6 of the How-To in case the BIOS is trying to identify all the hard drives before booting the MFS Tools CD.


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## SoCalHowee

Just a question regarding the legality of upgrading the drives? I am hesitant to allow the daily call after upgrading my hard drive from 40 to 120 gig. If i have no hacks installed is there anything to worry about? Also, if not, at what point then does it become a concern?


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## weaknees

TiVo will fully know that you've upgraded the drive, but they have never expressed any problems on that front.

Michael


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## Robert S

TiVo Inc have never given any indication that they are the slightest bit unhappy with people upgrading their hard drives. As a general rule, the hacks discussed on this site are also condoned by TiVo.


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## weaknees

Robert S hints at a really good point also - TiVo sponsors this site and refers to it from its web page. Certain hacks are forbidden here - most are fully allowed. So you could take this as an implication that if it's allowed here, it's OK with TiVo.

Michael


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## roven97

Ahhh. It says 149 hours. Man that is alot! Thanks for your help Michael.


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## SoCalHowee

So as long as I am running the my subbed card Directv should have no issue iether correct? Sorry if it seems like a dumb question, just want to know where the line is. Thanks for your response.


SoCalHowee


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## weaknees

That seems to be the case - DirecTV (and TiVo) really just want you to be a happy, paying customer. With more capacity, you are just that much happier.

Michael


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by SoCalHowee _
> *Just a question regarding the legality of upgrading the drives? I am hesitant to allow the daily call after upgrading my hard drive from 40 to 120 gig. If i have no hacks installed is there anything to worry about? Also, if not, at what point then does it become a concern? *


It is legal. TiVo does not 'officially' condone it, however they have unofficially acknowleged and unofficially support upgrade activity.

Your system configuration is reported to TiVo and/or DirecTV when your unit makes its daily call; TiVo does know how many upgraded units are installed.

Its not something you should worry about unless you are doing something illegal (like stealing service by cloning your system ID) and it would become a concern on the part of TiVo if you were to do something illegal, especially if it affected either TiVo, or their media partners, in the process.


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## Darwood

I'm pulling my hair out here. I'm adding a seagate 160gb drive as a second drive to my tivo series 2 using floppies. 

I made a backup of the 'a' drive, restored it to the new drive, tested the new drive as a master (in tivo), set the new drive as a slave (in pc), then ran BlessTiVo on the new drive. Finally I executed the floppy 'noswap': dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hdb count = 64 bs=512 conv=swab. 

The I put everything together in the tivo with the original drive 'a' as master and the new drive as slave. When I boot tivo it does not do the expected single reboot and shows my original hours in system (42). Everything is running fine but it doesn't look like the upgrade took hold.

So far I have opened up tivo again, felt the new drive and it was warm. I also re-ran the blesstivo bit. Still no luck. Any suggestions? Am I missing something?


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## Robert S

I'd feel lucky that BlessTiVo didn't work. mfsadd would be a much better choice for this upgrade.


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## Darrinr

Thanks Hinsdale!

I just successfully upgraded my new 40GB Tivo Series 2 to 2 x WD120 GB drives in about 3 hours. Your directions were flawless and the Mfs Tools 2.0 were great! I now have 280 hours of recording time - YAHOO!

Although you did reference the potential acoustic problems in the instructions ("2. Acquire large IDE hard drive(s). Planning your upgrade"), I didn't realise how significant this problem would be (I was just thrilled to perform the upgrade without destroying my Tivo in the process!). Reading through the forum now, I notice that WD drives are probably the noisest and there is no "official" acoustic management software to deal with this problem. 

Since my upgraded Tivo is up and running perfectly , I'm very hesitant to open it up again and try the various acoustic software programs that others have suggested. I certainly would have tried it during the upgrade process when the new drives were connected to my PC. Anyway, this is definitely not a complaint about your excellent instructions, but more a frustration with myself for not simply performing the acoustic management as part of the installation. You know what they say about hindsight...?

Thanks again!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I just bought a 160G Samsung, which many have said are the quietest and I believe either Weaknees or 9th Tee once said they use in their kits. I used newegg.com, but many sites had about the same price.

It was $106, shipped, no rebate hassle. Their 120's you can probably find a bit cheaper.

With multiple TiVos, multiple drives in each really isn't necessary. 140 hour each, give or take, is plenty, even to archive some shows in perpetuity.


----------



## Darwood

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I'd feel lucky that BlessTiVo didn't work. mfsadd would be a much better choice for this upgrade. *


Hmm, you're absolutely right. msfadd worked like a charm! I was following hinsdale's guide but somehow got linked to the old one. I found the newer version and all is well.

Thanks Robert S for your terse yet accurate troubleshooting and Hinsdale for a very detailed guide which must have taken weeks to compile.


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## weaknees

Yes - we like the Samsung drives for a variety of reasons, but one is that they are very, very quiet. You often can't tell they're running unless you lay a hand on them and feel for the vibrations.

Michael


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## ThreeSoFar

YASUP!!

Thanks, Hinsdale, for the great guide and CD. Used Upgrade Configuration #3:


 Code:


mfsbackup  -Tao  -  /dev/hdX | mfsrestore  -s 127 -xzpi  -  /dev/hdX

preserving all our SPs and recordings, and shelved the original as backup image and hardware. Took only an hour or two.

160G (137G really) now gives us 157h 49m at Basic on our new TiVo Series 2. Hoping some future software rev might let us use the extra 13G.


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## Robert S

_ Hoping some future software rev might let us use the extra 13G._

Yes, but the partition table on the A drive is now full, so you'll either have to go to a twin-drive configuration or revert to a backup if you want to expand into the extra space.


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## TivoJunkyJoe

About to upgrade TIVO standalone series 2 by adding a 120Gb WD drive. Friend said that I can't do it on my Windows 2000 machine. As I read the hinsdale I was thinking as long as i don't boot into Windows 2000 i'd be fine. Do I need to create a 98 partition to save the current file image to (instead of the 2000 NFS partition)? - After I add the image to my new 120Gb drive, by putting them both back into Tivo will the current 40 Gb drive retain the show information?

Sorry for the messy questions.


----------



## weaknees

You can use your machine, just be sure not to boot into Windows 2000 with the TiVo drive attached. If you want to make a backup, just make it to your 120 GB drive (formatted as FAT) from the 40, then boot with the Win2K drive as the boot device, and copy the image file over. Then, you'll have the image on your C: drive - go ahead and disconnect the C: drive again and proceed to add the 120 to the 40.

Michael


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## TivoJunkyJoe

weaknees, I just got my bracket in the mail. So I can connect all three drives and my cd-rw drive as it says in hinsdale and follow the steps provided? can i have my new and current tivo drives connected while the windows 2000 drive is in there too, but booting off of the iso image on the cd? if so, what does the hinsdale paper mean when it says create a Fat partition instead of an NTFS one?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## weaknees

mfstools can't write to an NTFS partition, and presumably that's how your Win2K boot drive is formatted. So you can either create a FAT partition on it, or do as I wrote above so that you don't have to touch the Win2K drive's partitions.

You can certainly boot with the Win2K drive connected just booting off the CD-ROM, but if you make a mistake and boot into Win2K, you'll damage the TiVo drive's software and make the process much, much tougher.

Michael


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## TivoJunkyJoe

Thanks Weak,

to clarify you said this...

then boot with the Win2K drive as the boot device, and copy the image file over.

if i boot with the 120GB (FAT), now with the image that i copied from the original 40GB drive, and Windows 2000, will my new drive become corrupt?

I'm going now..

hoping for the best


----------



## Robert S

No, at that point the drive is just a DOS drive with a FAT partition on it. It's only when the drive has the TiVo software loaded on it that the change that WinNT makes causes a problem.

Don't fill the whole drive with the FAT partition or it'll take forever to format. 1 or 2 GB is plenty.


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## weaknees

Yes - you need to boot at that point with the Win2K as the boot drive. The new drive wont be corrupt - it will simply be recognized as a FAT drive. You haven't yet put a Linux partition on it. 

Then, you boot of the CD again with the 40 back in to get the 120 overwritten and formatted as a TiVo drive.

Michael


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## TivoJunkyJoe

Boy are you guys getting sick of me yet?

Trying to create ISO. Tried with EZ Cd creator last night (3 times)... bad. Tried with Nero 6.0 today. Tried boot computer, but I get a black screen for about 30 seconds then windows starts... I copied using ISO, finalize cd... do i have to hit a key when the cd is being read?


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## weaknees

You might check to make sure you are using the "noj" or non-Joliet version of the ISO image.

Also, you might need to set your BIOS to try the CD first before other boot devices.

Michael


----------



## Rocket Ronnie

:up: many thanks to Hinsdale for the how-to guide without which I would not have known where to start. Now I have a 120 Gb TiVo, a spare 40 Gb disk ready ToGo & several tivo.bak files ! Tivoweb next !


----------



## Robert S

If you can't get the CD to boot, just use the floppy. The procedure is the same except you'll need to use qunlock to unlock the TiVo drive.


----------



## Asura

I am thinking of upgrading a single series 2 drive to a dual, but I am running winXP. The instructions only shows how to make a backup from win 95,98,ME. I read above that it is possible to format the secondary drive with FAT32, make the backup over to the secondary drive, and then the backup over to my primary C drive. The problem is that I do not know linux, so what commands should I use instead for this sequence?


----------



## weaknees

You should use Windows to format the drive, then shut down, disconnect the c: drive, boot in Linux and make the backup. Then shut down again, connect the c: drive again, start up, and copy the backup over to the boot drive. Then shut down, disconnect it again, and do the rest of the Linux work without the c: drive connected.

Michael


----------



## Asura

Thanks Weaknees/Michael! For me to make the backup, do I just follow the same prompt commands included in the Hinsdale How to? What about mounting my tivo drive instead of the C:? ex:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

Since i'm not using my C: drive, do I still need to mount it? Or do I make my new drive into the 'C: Drive' and my Tivo drive into the slave and copy that image over and use the same commands as listed? Or the Tivo into the 'C: drive' and the new drive into the slave and use this command instead?

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda

Because my tivo drive is master now and my new drive slave?
Then what about mounting the drive?

Am I totally confused and should just abandon this idea?


----------



## weaknees

Yes - you'll need to make your new drive into a FAT drive and mount it with a command similar to "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos". Just vary the A in hda1 to coincide with the position of that drive in your PC.

All of the drive designations can be changed - you just need to watch them carefully to reflect your situation.

Michael


----------



## maddios

hey guys, got a pair of maxtor 4g120J6 drives, followed hindsdale's howto using mfstools 2.0 plugged them all in, first thing i noticed while reassembling is that tivo used a connector which isn't missing the uata pin in the middle, hence my 80wide cables don't fit... leaving the drives as they are i set them on the tivo mount and plugged in the cable (used a reg ata cable, since that pin is in the way for uata).

plug the tivo in, start her up and it's stuck in the "powering up > please wait just a bit more" screens... then it goes to this green screen that something has happened and nada... 

what's up? i checked to make sure that the cable isn't backwards, even tried bending the pin and plugging in an uata cable... still no go, what gives? the mfstools 2.0 app after running for almost 10 hours doing the complete backup/resize completed w/o any errors sayin i'd have 273 hours or something!

any ideas what i might have done wrong? i will try again tomorrow but i really have no idea where i screwed up


----------



## Robert S

The green screen is a filesystem repair utility and should be given the opportunity to do its stuff. As long as it stays up, there's a good chance it'll fix the TiVo. (If it reboots every four minutes or faster then you don't have enough swap, see the 3rd post of the Fixes thread).

Green screens do seem to be an occasional part of upgrading and don't always indicate a serious problem. If you booted with just the A drive while you were figuring out the cabling, that would trigger a GS when the B drive was attached.


----------



## weaknees

maddios-

What model TiVo is it and was your original drive working OK? Had the unit been upgraded before? Can you post the exact backup|restore command you used?

Michael


----------



## maddios

i got it working now... the original command is as per the hindsdale command to get 1 to dual...

i did it a different way, and got it working...

i did the 1drive to 1 larger drive upgrade... then just did mfsadd to the second drive and all is well in tivo land now


----------



## weaknees

Sounds good - if you are adding two larger drives, hopefully you added swap space in the process.

Michael


----------



## maddios

well i followed hindsdale and he has us run -s 127 switch which as far as i know sets the swap to the max possible... i know there is a work around for more but up to 256gb or so you don't need more...

am i right? or should i pull the drives and try to add more...


----------



## weaknees

No - that's plenty. More can make the machine unstable. You've got it exactly right.

Michael


----------



## rorschach

The kernel used for the current boot discs (CDROM and floppy) does not recognize the NVIDIA nForce IDE controller correctly. Therefore DMA is not enabled by default. Left in PIO mode a full MFS backup can be 10-20 times slower than usual. Fortunately DMA can be enabled manually.

Immediately after booting you can check the DMA settings for each drive with "hdparm". To check "hda" you simply use hdparm like this: "hdparm -d /dev/hda". If DMA is disabled (value is 0), enable it with "hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda". You will have to do that for each drive used in the backup/copy process.

This will make a significant speed difference.


----------



## Robert S

In this thread, stormsweeper suggests:

hdparm -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hda

To turn on multiblock mode and 32-bit transfers, which are probably Good Things.


----------



## conductorJ

Hmmm...Foo...San Fran.....would this be Dan (Foo foo), from the Screen Savers/Call For Help?
If so....love the shows.



> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Just a note of thanks.. a couple of weeks ago I did a DTiVo upgrade to 2 80gb drives for a total of 149 hrs.
> 
> foo *


----------



## Sleestak

At the end of the Hinsdale how-to, it mentions that I need a FAT32 partition on my primary boot drive.

Am I missing something? At what point will I be booting into my computer's Windows??

I was planning on removing or disconnecting all my hard drives (all NTFS) before doing anything other than burning the boot CD...until I read the last page.

Do I really need to boot into Windows, and why/when?


----------



## tivoupgrade

Wow.

"sleestak" now that is a blast from the past! I remember that creepy sound they used to make...

In any case, the fat32 partition is what you would use to store your backup on - you shouldn't need to boot to windows at all, but having a drive with a fat32 partition in your PC is useful for most of the backup/restore scenarios discussed here.


----------



## Sleestak

Hmmm, didn't work...

Series 2 SA, Sony SVR3000, 80hr. Previously unopened. Ver 3x.
Replacing single 80 with single 120.
Using Hindsdale & Tiger's mfstools Boot CD.

After successfully performing the "small test backup image", I give the restore comand. It gets to 100%, and then says "cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment."

After waiting about an hour, it was clear something went wrong. I turned off the computer and tried testing the image, but froze on "starting up".

I put the drive back in the computer and deleted the tivo.bak from my fat32 drive, and repeated the backup/restore. Now it says "failure" when performing the backup.

Now what? The instructions didn't mention anything about partitioning/formatting the new Tivo drive, so I didn't...should I?
If there's a file on it which needs to be deleted, I can't access it if it isn't formatted.

I guess I'll have to put the old Tivo drive in until I figure it out. ;(


----------



## weaknees

Does the old TiVo drive still work? This sounds like original drive failure, or possibly FAT drive failure. Can you list the command you used for the backup?

Also, are you sure you have software 3.0 on your SVR-3000? Most have 4.0 at this point.

Michael


----------



## Sleestak

The old Tivo drive is back in and working. Over the past year, it has had three "spells", when it would malfunction for about a week, and then it's fine until the next spell. It would randomly reboot every 2-20 minutes.

Backup: mfsbackup -f9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Restore: mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

Drives installed per Hindsale's recommendations.

Ya, it's version 4.0.

When I originally asked about my problem, everyone suggested to replace the HD.


----------



## weaknees

Replacing the HD is the right advice, the problem is that you need a good OS to put on it. It sounds like your old OS may be corrupt. You can certainly try another backup to see if it goes well, but you may have to ask around for a new image file (any friends with the same model?).

When you do the restore to the 120, don't forget the "x" in the restore string (-zxpi - the "b" isn't necessary here). Otherwise, you wont get the use of the extra space on the 120.

Michael


----------



## sfpadmin2

I'm trying to upgrade my Series 2 Tivo with 2 200GB drives I got cheap.

My computer has only scsi drives and I don't have a cd-burner, so using the MFS boot disk of boot cd isn't an option.

I have rehat linux 9.1 installed and ran the mfstools from there.

When I did the Mfstool restore it expanded to use all 400GB of my two disks.

I didn't think this would work at all, but when I put it in TIVO (software version 4.0.1-01-2-240) it boots up OK and looks like it works.

I have two questions, that I searched thorugh the boards to find answers to and just didn't see anything like my situation:

1) Is my TIVO functional because it booted up or does it only look like it works and will crash once the 138GB is hit? ( I suspect it only Looks like it works 

2) Assuimg that my tivo can only have 137GB drives: How can I do the MFSrestore again and make it use only 137GB/disk? or is some other command such as mfsreduce that I can use?

Thanks


----------



## Sleestak

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Replacing the HD is the right advice, the problem is that you need a good OS to put on it. It sounds like your old OS may be corrupt. You can certainly try another backup to see if it goes well, but you may have to ask around for a new image file (any friends with the same model?).*


 I have a friend with 4 DVR units, but only two are Tivo, and neither of those are SVR-3000.

Is there a website where people can download standard images for Tivo drives?


----------



## rippy

I am trying to backup my tivo to my c drive and I get a (file system is read only) error ? Any suggestions? dvr40 version 3.1


----------



## Robert S

You're using a WinXP PC. Read the note at the bottom of Hindale. (Easiest way forward is probably to put a FAT partition on your upgrade drive for the backup phase).


----------



## weaknees

Sleestak - 

People can't post links to images from this forum, but if you start a thread with a title telling which image you are requesting, someone should Private Message you with a link to an ftp site.

Michael


----------



## Sleestak

Thanks.


----------



## Krookut

Sorry if this has been covered, search not working...

Trying to upgrade a DirectTivo 35 hr. Made a boot CD with the mfs tools burned as an *iso file (mfstools2noJ.iso) onto CD-R, computer is set to boot from CD-ROM drive in BIOS, but it loads Windows. The CD drive is accessed during boot up. Is there something else that should be on the CD-R disc?

-Also, I have Windows XP that is actually formatted as FAT32, I'm assuming then that I don't have to do anything with the partition table? Or putting a FAT32 partition on the upgrade drive?

TIA!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

1) Be careful to make sure XP does not boot with the TiVo drive attached to the IDE cable. I'm not sure what, exactly, is the problem, I just know that's bad. Hopefully you're at the "testing the CD boots" phase and the TiVo HD is not in the PC yet.

2) Your system's BIOS probably has a boot order setting. Put CD higher than HD. How you get into your BIOS varies from one PC to another. What kind of PC is it?


----------



## tommmm

Just updated a series 1 sony with a 120 G WD drive following the Hinsdale guide. Only difficulties:

1. Confusion over instructions for making MFS Tools CD. With CD Creator the "Create CD from imate..." option was not available, but the "Record CD from..." option worked.

2. My fault, but after testing the disk I missed the point to reinstall it as the slave master for the expanding the drive. Everything was going so well I missed reading all the fine print and reinstalled the drive back in the primary slave position as it was for the back-up.

Thanks for the instrustions.


----------



## Krookut

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *1) Be careful to make sure XP does not boot with the TiVo drive attached to the IDE cable. I'm not sure what, exactly, is the problem, I just know that's bad. Hopefully you're at the "testing the CD boots" phase and the TiVo HD is not in the PC yet.
> 
> 2) Your system's BIOS probably has a boot order setting. Put CD higher than HD. How you get into your BIOS varies from one PC to another. What kind of PC is it? *


Yeah I was just checking to see if it worked, haven't even taken Tivo drive out yet.

My boot order has the CD-ROM drive as #1, HD as #2. I would like this to work, just bought a new CD/DVD burner for this purpose.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Do you have the new burner AND the old CD-ROM drive still hooked up? Are you sure which is supposed to be booting? Or can you put the original CD drive back in and see if that boots any better?

Have you *ever* booted a CD in this system?


----------



## Krookut

I only booted from the CD drive before when loading Win XP, it was the default in the BIOS. I have both the old CD drive and the new burner in the computer as master/slave respectively, the CD (master) is the primary boot drive.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Do you have *any* bootable CDs that you know boot? Maybe the MFS one didn't burn right?

Maybe try the CD in the other cd drive?

And maybe switch the two cd drives (or remove one)?

Grasping, here, I know...


----------



## weaknees

Boot floppy?


----------



## Rcrew

Thank you for the guide, and tools.

Yesterday I upgraded a family member's new HDVR2. Substituted a 120 gb A drive for the original 40gb factory.

Other than some jumper issues, and drives not being exactly according to the instructions, I eventually got it done.

1 down, 4 to go over the next few weeks!

At least now that I have the series 2 image it will be so much easier to do the rest!


----------



## weaknees

Just remember that your image should only be used on HDVR2s and that you'll need to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" on each of the other units since this image is serialized to the unit that it came from.

Michael


----------



## Krookut

I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here, but just kind of frustrated after buying a CD burner just for this purpose.

Am I correct in that the only file that needs to be on the boot CD is mfstools2noJ.iso, this should boot the computer into Linux?

BTW ThreeSoFar, I tried the boot CD on a second computer which has only one CD drive, configured as primary boot device, it also booted into Windows. The drives in both computers do show the mfstools2noJ.iso file on the disc so they can read it.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Yes and no. The .iso file is all you need, but that file itself should not show up on the CD. Once that image is burned to CD, there are several files/directories visible.

What CD burning software came with your burner? When you right click the .iso file on your hard drive, is "burn to CD" an option?

It sounds like maybe you just copied/burned the .iso file onto a CD, which isn't what you wanted to do. The .iso file means it is an image of a complete file system, which Roxio and other CDR software recognizes as such.


----------



## weaknees

Some applications can mount and view the contents of the .iso file. If you can get it open, you can just set your burning software to burn those files right to an ISO 9660 format CD.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

If your software is installed correctly, double clicking the ISO file should open the burning software in the correct mode to burn a bootable CD.


----------



## Krookut

Thanks guys, that is the problem, I had copied the mfstools2noJ.iso file to the CD. I'm using the software that came with the burner, "B's Recorder Gold5". 

I just tried to open the mfstools2noJ.iso file with a program called "Isobuster". It extracted some folders which I then copied to the CD, but it still booted into Windows. Not sure why that didn't work, but maybe I just need to get the Roxio software. 

Double clicking on the mfstools2noJ.iso file didn't bring up the CD burning software before. Now double clicking opens it with Isobuster.


----------



## weaknees

When you burned just the files, are you sure the format was ISO 9660?

Michael


----------



## Krookut

I am not sure of the format, is there a way to check?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Burning the .iso image properly to the CD is easiest. Does your software not handle that? I've never heard of that software name... What brand CDRW is it? With a good brand name you usually get software that's pretty foolproof with this sort of thing.


----------



## Robert S

file:///C:/Program Files/B's Recorder GOLD5/Doc/Manual/advanced/02/iso.html


----------



## Krookut

Thanks for your help guys, it's appreciated.

It's an LG burner, and I had never heard of that software either, but this is totally new to me, it's my first CD burner.

Boy, I never had this trouble upgrading my SA Tivo 3 years ago, I thought it was supposed to be easier now, lol.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

The CD does make it easier, but adds one more thing that must go right for it to work. Between CD-R being new to you and the software's UI maybe being sub-par, you've run into some hiccups getting started.

The backup/restore itself, though, once you get to the Unix prompt on the boot CD (or boot floppy if you give up on the CDR entirely), should be at least as easy as you remember from years ago.


----------



## Krookut

Thank you Robert S, I followed those intstructions, using mfstools2noJ.iso, now on the CD-R Windows explorer shows one file which it doesn't recognize, is this the way it should be? I tried using it as a boot disc and it didn't work but I'm going to try a few other things.


----------



## Krookut

Success, finally. I needed to use a fresh CD-R, it booted into the Linux prompt. Thank you Robert S, ThreeSoFar, and Weaknees, you guys are the best!


----------



## weaknees

Glad you got past that hurdle - hopefully that'll be the hardest part. Just play close attention to the code details as you go.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

I'll admit to not really understanding the B's stuff either (I have yet to figure out how to make it record a DVD that will play in my DVD player). I'd never tried to burn an ISO with it before, but I just tried it and got the same result you did - a proud declaration of success and a blank disk.

I've always used floppies in the past.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

A good reason, I'd say, to avoid the no-name CD burners. At least look for one that comes with either Roxio or Adaptec software.


----------



## Krookut

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *A good reason, I'd say, to avoid the no-name CD burners. At least look for one that comes with either Roxio or Adaptec software. *


<O/T>

Heh, I usually stick with brands like Sony, but LG is an up and coming Korean company with a good reputation and with a strong desire to establish itself, like Samsung, which used to be a second banana. LG does make good products. Their new HDTV tuner is considered the best out there right now. Sony also rebadges it and sells it as the Sony HD-300.

I wasn't considering the bundled software package though.


----------



## Robert S

I've got no complaints about the drive. The software is just weird, though.


----------



## drtofu66

Ok, I've decided to make upgrading the Tivo my Thanksgiving vacation project. These are probably very basic and/or silly questions, but it would clarify a lot for me:

1) What is the advantage to using the Boot CD version of MFSTools versus the Boot Floppy version? I was looking over some old articles and it seems that things have changed a bit. I came across one note that said you might have to use qunlock if you use the floppy version (the CD version apparently takes care of that for you)-- but then there was a recent thread about the evils of qunlock that I don't think i'll ever use that. And I'm planning on using a Seagate drive for the Tivo. The whole qunlock thing has me so unnerved that I don't think I'll ever try to use a Maxtor drive in a Tivo. Which leads to the next question:

2) Are Maxtors the only drives that seem to lock?

3) I'm not all that tech savvy and I'm not too clear on the FAT32 question on Hinsdale's new Tivo instructions site. I gather that if you run Win9x you have FAT32, if you run Windows XP or 2000 you probably are using NTFS but could have created a FAT32 partition if you knew what you were doing? Am I right?

4) Since i have an image (software v3.0) to use already and won't need to back up my old drive, will I be able to sidestep the whole locking problem if the new drive goes right from the packaging to the PC and then to the Tivo-- never to come out again unless/until the drive dies (and provided it works)? My understanding is that the Tivo does the locking and that's only a problem if you try to work on it on the PC again.

5) Since I have an image of a drive already (software version 3.0) it looks like I can just jump to the 

mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

line and be done with it (after connecting up the new drive to the slave position and verifying the proper size is recognized)? And the whole FAT32 vs NTFS question is moot, since FAT32 is only needed to create the backup?

Am I oversimplifying things?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I'll let others address the locking issues. I don't have a firm grasp of it myself. The boot CD does have a message during boot that mentions unlocking drive, though.

#3--sounds right. In (any) windows, you can right click on the C: (or D: or whatever) drive in My Computer and choose properties, and it will say the format.

#4-5 sound about right, though that's not the way I'd go. I'd ignore the image you downloaded and use your original drive as your source. Skip right to step 10) of Hinsdale, "Upgrade Configuration #3". This method allows you to shelve your oroginal hard drive as the backup (and there's always downloading an image from someplace if you need it), _and_ lets you keep all of your recordings and programming. It takes a little while, is all.


Code:


mfsbackup  -Tao  -  /dev/hdX | mfsrestore  -s 127 -xzpi  -  /dev/hdY

Up to you to make sure the hdX and hdY are right. Once booted to the cd, type this command to see information (size and brand) on each connected hard drive:


Code:


dmesg | grep hd

The vertical bar thingy is called a pipe and is usually shift-backslash, upper or lower right of the keyboard on most.

Oversimplifying? Not at all. It really is that simple.


----------



## bigbert

Newbie needs a little clarification....

I will be upgrading my sony 3000 adding a second drive 120g to my existing 80g.

I have read the instructions multiple times but am getting hung up on part #10. Assuming I have made the backup then restored the image per section 8 

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mntdostivo.bak /dev/hdb for series 2

I am a little confused on how I now use Config 2 in section 10.

Will this give me my full 200gb or will I have a swap issue.

Hinsdale referencing using the mfs restore option in config 2 but I only see the mfsadd commands under config 2. Should I just move to config 3?

I don't care about preserving existing recordings....

Thanks for the clarification.....


----------



## weaknees

Yes, option number two will give you both the 127 MB of swap space, and also use of the full 200 GB of hard drive space. You already have the swap as per your "mfsrestore" command. All you are doing now is adding extra partitions to get the use of the extra disk space.

Michael


----------



## bigbert

thanks for the help......


----------



## PhotonicsMan

Today I successfully upgraded a standalone 60 hour Series 2 by adding a Western Digital 120 GB drive. The instructions were absolutely flawless. Thanks to all those who made this possible. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!


----------



## jadair

I finally got around to upgrading my two DirecTivo's today with 120 GB drives. Went very smooth, with one exception. After doing the upgrade the menu now has no background, it is just text over the video. 

I kind of remember seeing an option for that, but I've been through all of the menus and have yet to see a way to change it. Also checked the message archives for any related threads without luck. 

Anyone have any ideas?


----------



## weaknees

You need to use the "-f 9999" or at least "-f 4138" switch when making the backup. If you don't you lose the backgrounds, and potentially some other resources.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

_checked the message archives for any related threads without luck_

You're quite right, a search for "missing" "backgrounds" turns up nothing useful...


----------



## carter.home

I read in here there is a problem upgrading the Huges DVR40. I want to add a second drive, leaving the original alone. Should I expect any problems?


----------



## Robert S

Hinsdale lists it as covered by the How-to. You'll need a new drive bracket if you want to mount two drives, but apart from that, I think it's unremarkable.


----------



## abergdc

> _Originally posted by drtofu66 _
> * . . .
> 
> 1) What is the advantage to using the Boot CD version of MFSTools versus the Boot Floppy version? I was looking over some old articles and it seems that things have changed a bit. I came across one note that said you might have to use qunlock if you use the floppy version (the CD version apparently takes care of that for you)-- but then there was a recent thread about the evils of qunlock that I don't think i'll ever use that. And I'm planning on using a Seagate drive for the Tivo. The whole qunlock thing has me so unnerved that I don't think I'll ever try to use a Maxtor drive in a Tivo. Which leads to the next question:
> *


I have the same question. I'm replacing an existing single-drive Tivo HD with a single new larger drive. What am I missing going with the floppy instead of the CD? (If it's only the qunlock thing, why is the file so much larger?).

Thanks,

Andy


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by carter.home _
> *I read in here there is a problem upgrading the Huges DVR40. I want to add a second drive, leaving the original alone. Should I expect any problems? *


You just need to remember to use the "-f 9999" switch if you are making a backup, but otherwise, the mfsadd command would be the same as for any other:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

We specifically cover this model (and the SD-DVR120) here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael


----------



## Robert S

A floppy limits you to 1440Kb, so the Linux system on it has been stripped right down. The CD has more of the usual Linux commands on it.

However, if you're just upgrading the hard drive, MFS Tools is all you need, so apart from the annoyance of qunlock, it makes no difference whether you use the CD or floppy.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

And once the floppy is booted you can mount the CD and then use those extra Unix utilities that were pared down to save space on the floppy.


----------



## carter.home

So if I only replace my single 40gb drive with a single 120gb drive and something goes wrong. Can I just replace the original 40gb drive and be O.K.? Also, does GHOST work to copy drive to drive?


----------



## Robert S

Yes, the original drive will still work in the TiVo.

Ghost is less than ideal.


----------



## Chef

First, I'd like to thank you (like a bunch of other people) for maintaining the How-To, and doing a great job of keeping it easy to follow. I (mostly) successfully upgraded my 30-hour Series 1 to ~130 hours with a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB 8MB cache drive, and I've got a second drive waiting to go in as soon as the bracket gets delivered by UPS. My wife is thrilled to have the added capacity.

I did want to mention, though, that it might be prudent to make an obivous note somewhere in the document when discussing swap sizes that TiVo's can only handle up to 127MB of swap. This bit me, and as a result I'll have to do a bit of work to fix the swap on my upgraded TiVo so we can once again Browse by Name / Search by Title.

Just a suggestion to keep others like me from mistakenly inferring that "more is better" when it comes to swap, so 300 (for the Pioneer/DVD unit) must be better than 127. 

Thanks again fro all the hard work,

Chef


----------



## Robert S

The problem isn't with the TiVo, it's with MFS Tools. -s 127 is the largest setting for -s that results in a working swap partition. If you do -s 128 or greater then you end up with a partition the size you requested (you have a 300Mb 'hole'), but with an invalid swap signature, which causes the TiVo to behave oddly.

127Mb is enough swap for the largest drive set that can be supported by the stock TiVo kernels, which is why Hinsdale doesn't go into great depth. The reason everyone's getting excited about the Pioneer is that it has a new kernel that can address very large disks, and thus can require swap partitions larger than 127Mb. But when you do that, you have to initialise the swap partition yourself.

You don't necessarily have to repeat the transfer, you can initialise the swap partition fairly easily and 200Mb of wasted space is only a few minutes of recording time.


----------



## jadair

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *You need to use the "-f 9999" or at least "-f 4138" switch when making the backup. If you don't you lose the backgrounds, and potentially some other resources.
> *


Does this also apply when doing a single drive upgrade? The model is the Hughes HDVR2, and I am just copying the 40 MB drive onto a 120 MB.

If so, is this option just added to the mfsbackup line? Does anything change with mfsrestore?

And since I haven't said it yet, a huge thank you for maintaining the site and lending the expertise!


----------



## weaknees

Yes, you need it with that upgrade also. Nothing changes with mfsrestore.

The right line would probably be:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Michael


----------



## jadair

Since I did the single drive upgrade, would this command also work?

*mfsbackup -f 9999 -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ 
*

This is with the original drive and new drive both connected of course.


----------



## Robert S

-Tao means 'take everything', so -f 9999 is redundant. You need it when you make a compressed backup, not when you use a pipe to transfer everything.


----------



## jadair

Ah, found that out when I tried the -f 9999 option. So we're back to the original question on the disappearing menu backgrounds. It happened on two units, using different source and destination drives, so it's not a one time fluke. 

Anything I can check that would help narrow the problem down?

Would using a different backup method be worth a try?

I'll try one copy using a different size and brand destination drive, just for kicks, but if there is anything else I can look at I'll give it a shot.


----------



## weaknees

So you used the "-Tao" backup | restore and didn't get the backgrounds? Are you sure you have the backgrounds on the original (source) drive?

Michael


----------



## jadair

Yes, and yes. 

The original copy was done with -Tao in a drive to drive copy. I immediately noticed the missing backgrounds when I tried out the new drive. 

FWIW, tried a Maxtor 160 GB drive and got the same results. Also used 
"-f 9999 -To" just to be different. 

Kind of strange - everything else works ok, just this minor annoyance. Do you think a dd copy would work any better?


----------



## Robert S

If the A drive is not recognised as the correct size when the PC boots, that can also cause this problem.

Always check that Linux sees the correct sizes, every time you boot up the TiVo boot disk. Do "dmesg | grep hd" if you miss it when it boots.


----------



## Chef

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *... But when you do that, you have to initialise the swap partition yourself.
> 
> You don't necessarily have to repeat the transfer, you can initialise the swap partition fairly easily and 200Mb of wasted space is only a few minutes of recording time. *


Just to confirm something for myself, since either I'm not understanding the docs I'm finding, or I'm just not finding the right docs, I'm getting the impression that to initialize the swap partition via a TiVo boot cd, I cannot use the MFSTools CD? The only other TiVo boot cd I've found is the one at 9th Tee. Should I use that one?

Also, when I used the MFSTools 2 cd to do the upgrade, I did an 'fdisk -l' out of curiosity to see what the partitions looked like, but all I got was "invalid partition table" on the original TiVo disk. Do I need to boot in byte-swapping mode to see the partitions & mount the filesystems or make the swap?

Thanks


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Chef _
> *Just to confirm something for myself, since either I'm not understanding the docs I'm finding, or I'm just not finding the right docs, I'm getting the impression that to initialize the swap partition via a TiVo boot cd, I cannot use the MFSTools CD? The only other TiVo boot cd I've found is the one at 9th Tee. Should I use that one?
> 
> Also, when I used the MFSTools 2 cd to do the upgrade, I did an 'fdisk -l' out of curiosity to see what the partitions looked like, but all I got was "invalid partition table" on the original TiVo disk. Do I need to boot in byte-swapping mode to see the partitions & mount the filesystems or make the swap?
> 
> Thanks *


Chef -

If you are doing a 'large drive' (> 137GB) upgrade and want the bigger swap file, you can use the CD here; it has MFStools 2, as well as tpip on it (for initializing the swap partition):

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/

Lou


----------



## Robert S

This is covered in some detail in the large-drive How-tos, as well as the top of the Fixes thread, but as you asked: Series 1 TiVoes are byteswapped relative to the PC, Series 2 units are not. The MFS Tools 2.0 CD does not byteswap by default. fdisk expects to see a DOS-style partition table, the equivalent for TiVo is pdisk.


----------



## jadair

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *If the A drive is not recognised as the correct size when the PC boots, that can also cause this problem.
> 
> Always check that Linux sees the correct sizes, every time you boot up the TiVo boot disk. Do "dmesg | grep hd" if you miss it when it boots. *


My 40 GB source drive is reported as 33 GB, and the 120 GB is reported as 120 GB.

Trying a DD copy now and won't expand it, will keep you posted.


----------



## Robert S

Until you get that drive recognised as 40Gb, you ain't going anywhere.


----------



## weaknees

Must be a jumper issue, but I don't remember seeing that setting on 40 GB drives.

Michael


----------



## jadair

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Must be a jumper issue, but I don't remember seeing that setting on 40 GB drives.
> 
> Michael *


We have a winner! Had it jumpered for a slave drive but the jumper was on the wrong row of pins. Fixed it, and now have a 40 GB drive.

Trying the MFSBackup now, but sounds like we're headed in the right direction.

Thanks to both of you for the help!


----------



## weaknees

OK - so I guess 40 GB drives have that setting also. Was it marked for a limit to 32 GB, or is this an undocumented "feature" of the drive?

Michael


----------



## jadair

Undocumented, at least according to the diagram on the drive.


----------



## Eupher

From the Hinsdale instructions for adding a new B drive to a single drive DirecTivo:


> all that is remaining to do for this upgrade configuration is to run Mfsadd to make your existing A drive aware of the added space provided by your new large upgrade B drive


This confuses me. In the case of one of Weaknees or Hinsdale's drop-in upgrades (that simply adds a 2nd drive to the existing setup), how does the existing A drive become aware of the capacity of the new B drive? By itself, Hinsdale's instructions seem to imply that something is written to the A drive with mfsadd - but this obviously doesn't happen in the case of one of the pre-packaged, pre-configured upgrades. What am I missing?

The reason I'm asking is because OfficeMax has a sale tomorrow. After rebates, a WD 120Gb drive for $59.99. Obviously it would be cheaper to buy the drive and a Twin-Breeze kit, but I'm a total novice with Linux and I don't want to be "penny wise and pound foolish". Thanks for any input.

Ken S.


----------



## Robert S

The drop-in drives are prepared with BlessTiVo. mfsadd is safer. BlessTiVo doesn't work at all if you're already upgraded your A drive.


----------



## sickal

RobertS and Weaknees-

I have spent the past several days reading all the posts from all the threads, the Hinsdale instructions, and the MFSTools 2.0 ReadMe. I want to upgrade my HDVR2 stock Tivo from a 40GB drive to include a new Maxtor Ultra DMA/133 7200 rpm 120GB drive, and just ordered the Weaknees complete kit. Based on your suggestions and everything I have read, instead of simply adding the new 120GB drive onto my existing 40GB drive (40+120), I want to make the new 120GB the new A drive and keep the old 40GB drive as an added B drive (120+40) so I can increase the swap space and make a future upgrade easier if I eventually replace the 40G B drive with another 120G for a 120+120 configuration.

I have read Roberts suggestion about upgrading to the new 120GB drive and testing it for a month or so and then adding the 40GB back on as a B drive later using mfsadd. However, I would prefer to do the 120+40 all at the same time. Here are my planned upgrade assumptions:

 New 120GB drive as New A drive
 Old 40GB A drive as New B drive
 Create/verify backup image of the old 40GB A drive before upgrading
 Preserve recordings and increase swap to new 120GB A drive

Given these assumptions, can you confirm I am doing the right thing, assuming both the old and new Tivo drives are connected to the pc at the same time with the following configuration (PM = primary master, PS = primary slave, SM = secondary master, SS = secondary slave):

PM hda1	C drive with 2 primary Fat32 partitions (both blank with no os)
PS hdb	New 120GB 
SM hdc	Original 40GB Tivo drive
SS hdd	cdrom drive

Create a backup image of the original Tivo drive to my Fat32 partition with the old 40GB jumpered as master and the new 120GB jumpered as slave. Copy the test image to the new 120GB drive, unmount all drives and power down (Hinsdale steps 7 & 8):

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
mfsrestore s 127 bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdb
umount f a r

Power down and test the new 120GB drive by itself in the Tivo to confirm the image is ok (Hinsdale step 9). Before doing this, change the new 120GB drive jumper setting from slave to master and change the old 40GB drive jumper to slave leaving it in the pc. If the new 120GB drive tests ok in the Tivo, put it back in the pc and bootup from the MfsTools disk again, keeping the new 120GB drive as master and the old 40GB drive as slave.

==>Question #1: Do I need to format the brand new Maxtor drive as Fat32 with the utilities included in the box before I begin the upgrade, or will MfsTools format the drive when its restores the backup image to this drive above? The Hinsdale instructions said diagnostics or low-level formatting were not necessary but did not specifically say the drive should be formatted or not...

At this point, I am at Step 10 Upgrade Config #3 in the Hinsdale instructions (want to preserve recordings). Since I dont have 3 drives, I am leaving my IDE port drive assignments unchanged from the previous step above.

I now have two choices:

Option #1 - Copy the original 40GB A drive to the new 120GB A drive copying over all recordings and increasing the swap space at the same time, put it in the Tivo and test for a while as Robert suggests using:

msfbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdb

then I can add the old 40GB drive as a new B drive later using mfsadd back at Hinsdale Step 10 Option #1 (first changing the jumper on the old 40GB drive to Slave):

mfsadd x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

Option #2 - Copy the original 40GB A drive to the new 120GB A drive copying over all recordings and increasing the swap space at the same time, and adding the old 40GB drive as a new B drive all in the same step, resulting in a 120+40 configuration:

msfbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

==>Question #2: Will option#2 above work? In other words, can I have the hdc (old 40GB drive) listed twice as the source in the msfbackup and the 2nd destination drive in the restore? (Hinsdales instructions assume 3 drives are in the machine here but I only have 2).

==>Question #3: In either case, once I add the old A drive back as a new B drive either separately using mfsadd (option#1) or all in one step (option#2), will the msfrestore command overwrite all partitions on the old A drive with new partitions optimizing them? I assume so since I am using the p and z flags.

==>Question #4: Which option above would you recommend, or is there a better way?

I realize that if I do NOT want to test the backup image I made of the original 40GB drive on the new 120GB by itself (without recordings), I can just go straight from the initial image backup to the combined backup and restore as in:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
msfbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdb
or
msfbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
umount f a r

However, I still am not sure whether its better or not to just copy to the new 120GB A drive and add the 40GB back later or if I can do it all at once (using the 2nd form of the restore above with both hdc as the source and dest.

I also realize that an advantage of upgrading to and using the new 120GB drive by itself for a while is that if a drive failure occurs, it must be the new drive and will be easier to fix, whereas upgrading to use both new and old drives at the same time means I cant know with certainty which drive failed for sure.

==>Question #5: Finally, I seem to recall reading something about an upgrade slowing down the menu operations a bit. Is this true?

Sorry for the long post
Thanks


----------



## weaknees

Q1 - no - you don't need to. The mfstools formatting is all you'll need - anything else would be overwritten by mfstools.

Q2 - No, this wont work. You can't 'pipe' to the same disk. Just omit the trailing /dev/hdc and then do this afterward:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Q3 - Yes, mfstools will overwrite the existing partitions (no confirmation warnings here, so be careful!).

Q4 - Option #2 with my modification in Q2 above is my recommendation. But you can't do it the way listed under Q4 . . . same issue as in Q2.

Q5 - The Now Playing list can slow down a bit with so many extra programs on the drive (four times as many) but generally all other menu functions should be fine.

Michael


----------



## BobNeub

I have a SAT-T60 Tivo and want to upgrade the harddrive, Is there a maximum size Hard drive I can go to?


----------



## weaknees

If you don't want to mess with the kernel, don't use drives over 160 GB (2 drives, max). Your TiVo will use 137 GB of each drive resulting in 260 hours of recording space. If you want to swap out the kernel, more info is here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83342

Michael


----------



## sickal

Weaknees-

Thanks for the response. I just got your kit a few minutes ago and will get started. However in your answer to Q2, you switched the drive designations on me from (b and c) to (c and d). Why?

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

I assume it would still be
#mfsadd -x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
since I did not change any IDE settings and am assuming I can do the mfs add immediately after the piped backup/restore as in:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
msfbackup Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdb
mfsadd -x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
umount f a r

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

That's right - my mistake.

Good luck!

Michael


----------



## sickal

Weaknees,

I successfully upgraded my HDVR2 a few days ago with no problems whatsoever and it's running smoothly in the new 120+40 configuration. Temp is good at 39C and is a little cooler than before (was 41C before the upgrade), so the new fans seem to be working well over the past 2 days. The only thing at all is the new drive is a little noisy and I plan to run the acoustic utilities on it in a few days. Thanks again for a great product and your help with the upgrade.


----------



## weaknees

sickal,

Thanks for posting your results.

What model drive are you using as the second drive? (not sure if the whole kit is from us or just the TwinBreeze . . .)

Michael


----------



## sickal

The new 120GB drive I added was bought separately and is a retail boxed Maxtor Diamond Max Plus Ultra DMA/133 7200 rpm 120GB drive, with an 8MB buffer, model # L01P120. I just got the TwinBreeze Complete kit from you.


----------



## weaknees

The Maxtors can be a bit loud, but are you sure the noise isn't from your boot drive? Those are usually louder.

Anyway, the acoustic management may help - I can't remember if those drives come with it on or off by default.

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Samsungs are almost as cheap (online) as the Maxtor/WD rebate deals out there, but without the rebate hassle. And they're VERY quiet.


----------



## weaknees

Yes - we use Samsungs for our 80, 120, and 160 GB kits and TiVos at this point. They also have a longer warranty, and seem to be more reliable.

Michael


----------



## sickal

The noise is coming from the boot drive (the new Maxtor 120GB drive). I made the new drive the new A and the old stock drive the new B so I could get the increased swap space when I upgraded. Actually the drive is not too loud once I'm watching the TV itself, only when the sound is off and I'm using the Tivo menus. I may just leave the drive the way it is since its probably defaulted to /fast which gives the best performance in the tradeoff of performance vs operating temperature.


----------



## weaknees

It's true that the drives are supposed to give slightly faster (and cooler) performance with the acoustic management set to off, but I don't think anyone has been able to detect a difference in the performance of their TiVo due to that setting. Don't forget that TiVos are designed - to date - for much slower drives than these.

Michael


----------



## sickal

Good point. Sorry I meant to say tradeoff of performance vs noise level, not temperature. The temperature in my Tivo is very normal, its the noise thats a little louder. If people haven't been able to detect much difference in performance, then I will probably run the amset utility to make the drive a little more quiet.


----------



## abergdc

FYI, did my upgrade over the weekend, easy and no problem, works great. 

For me to be comfortable, I had to learn a bit more than I knew previously about what master and slave meant, also how to manipulate the bios, set boot order, check the bios to see which connection was master and slave, etc. 

The hinsdale instructions are great, almost too detailed, in that it pays to most of it all carefullly, even if in the end you use just a couple of commands.

Thanks to all for the help.
Andy


----------



## Tgreer40

My SAT T60 is not working. I purchased a 160 gig drive from you and tried installing it. It keeps coming up as warming up and would stay like that indefinately. I tried installing the slave drive, incase it was just trying to recognize it. This did not work either.

Am lost with what to do. When I recieved your e-mail you stated that you thought I had a different TIVO?

Please help


----------



## weaknees

Tgreer40-

I'm guessing that you are looking for Bill (Hinsdale). He started this thread and maintains the How-To listed here, but he really doesn't use this forum for support. You should email him directly or PM (private message) him by clicking the PM button on the top of his first post.

Michael


----------



## avhokie

Hey guys, I should probably know this (and someone might have asked before) but I'm still confused. I upgraded my Philips HDR112 a while back by adding a second drive. Probably used the original How-To instructions. Now I want to replace the original A drive and keep the upgraded B drive. Which sections of the new How-To should I follow for this upgrade?

Thanks
avhokie


----------



## weaknees

If you want to add swap space in the process, you'll be best off losing your recordings and just making a new backup image and restoring from that with extra swap.

If you want to just swap out the A drive and get the space you'll need to boot the CD, then "dd" your drive with some variation of this:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=1024K

changing hdc and hdd as your drives necessitate.

Then, with the new A and the old B do this:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

and you should get the extra space.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

If you want to keep recordings and increase swap, see the second part of the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to create a larger swap partition after you've run dd, but before you run mfsadd.


----------



## avhokie

hmmm, thanks guys. I think I need to go back and read the how-to's thoroughly instead of skimming them. The first upgrade seemed much more simple.


----------



## jlancton

Greetings all... My new Tivo Series 2 40 Hour will be under the tree in a few weeks, and already I'm thinking upgrade. If I can get the $59.99 OfficeMax 120GB WD drives, is it possible/feasible to replace the stock 40 with a pair of 120's? I figure since I'd be starting from a 'blank' Tivo, I don't have to worry about saving any settings, and I can just keep the 40 in a safe deposit box in case of a later problem. From what I've seen, I'd just have to get a bracket, and maybe the fan... Plus the necessary s/w. Is it a big deal to do this, and with a pair of 120's what hour capacity would that give me? Thanks so much! Can't wait to join the Tivolution!

-Jeff


----------



## Robert S

Yes, lots of people do that (see the previous 51 pages of this thread!). It's not very difficult once you work out which bits of Hinsdale apply to you.

You don't need to keep the 40Gb A drive, you can put that in your PC, or whatever. You'll be making a compressed backup as you do the upgrade, which will allow you to turn any 40Gb+ drive into a new A drive if required. You will want to keep the backup file safe.

I would recommend you start with just 1 large drive. I find 120Gb is plenty for my viewing habits and that avoids the need to get brackets and fans etc. If you need more space, you might be better off getting a DVD recorder so you can move stuff you want to keep off the TiVo. If you still find you need more space, adding the second 120Gb drive is trivial (just run mfsadd again).

It's a good idea to start the TiVo up and run it for a few hours at least before you upgrade. You want to do Guided Setup and get the software upgrade before you make the backup file. That will save you a lot of time and, surprisingly, make the backup file much smaller (you'll find a backup of an uninitialised disk won't fit on a CD).


----------



## weaknees

While Robert S is certainly right about the idea of doing one drive first and then adding a second later if you need it, that means two sessions of taking apart the TiVo and your PC and dealing with the whole thing. Don't forget that one 120 GB drive is 35 hours at best quality . . .

Also, if you are looking for additional resources to help you do the upgrade, we have an interactive site that will specifically apply to your model and upgrade path here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael


----------



## jlancton

Thanks to Robert S and weaknees for the prompt replies. 

Being a PC tech, the idea of two sessions of opening the Tivo and PC doesn't bother me, I guess I was just thinking do it once and forget it. 

If I understand correctly, going with the one drive route, the 40GB original drive is out, and a single 120 is in. Browsing the thread, I have seen that some people put the 40 in as a B drive. Is this not recommended for the Series 2?

35 Hours at Best for a single 120... I have read that things like news can be recorded at a lesser quality due to the lack of motion. Would that logic apply to a regular TV show like West Wing, or ER? Though ER would probably have more motion than WW. I'm thinking in terms of balancing the capacity/quality. 

Is there a consensus among Tivo'ers as to what the Tivo quality levels compare to? Such as VHS SP/EP, SVHS, etc? Currently, I tape on EP for some shows, and although not bad, after about the third re-record, it gets too grainy. I do know that the type of degradation is different from tape, in that it is more pixelated as opposed to grainy. I'm used to that, having digital cable.

Thanks again for the help. This is a great resource.

-Jeff


----------



## Robert S

The point was, if you have two drives, then you need the brackets and fans etc, whereas replacing the current drive avoids that (sorry Michael, don't want to cost you a sale!). Given the ridiculous prices of 120Gb drives these days, if you're going to get the bracket then you might as well use 2 120's.

To some extent people's perception of the video quality depends on their TV. I have a 29" Sony CRT. I do essentially all my recording on High, which seems to me to be about the same quality as the digital cable feed (I don't know if ntl:home's digital cable quality is the same as Cox, or whoever, but it's probably similar). Medium is OK, but adds some hardening to the image. I think Basic is just there to bump up the numbers. I wouldn't use it for anything other than recording radio shows, but some people don't mind.

When you get it, you'll appreciate that TiVo is not something you can understand completely before you buy it. Your TV viewing habits will change, so you can't tell in advance whether 40, 120, or 240 Gb will be enough.


----------



## TivoGeezer

jlancton, not to burst your bubble but, are you going to at least wait until the warrently period expires to do this? I would hope so. If you upgrade right away and then a manufacturing defect shows up, you are on your own. I waited 3 years but only because I was a big chicken. Also the wealth of information and tools now available made me braver and more sure it could be done safely. But even with that, I would wait for the machine to "burn in" before hacking it.

I was glad I got my hands on Jeff Keegan' s book "Hacking Tivo". it came with most of the tools and software available online and step by step instructions which were and continue to be a valuable resource. There are other books out there about this subject but that is the one I have experience with.


----------



## Robert S

I wouldn't worry too much. If the unit itself breaks (hard drive failures are the only really common hardware problem, but it's not unknown for the PSU or modem to fail), just put the original drive back in and TiVo will be none the wiser.


----------



## jlancton

Thanks, I get it now. As you said, with the drive prices, it's probably worth it to just do the two at once and get ~70 hours of Best in one shot. You're right in that I don't know how the Tivo will affect my viewing, but from everything I've read, it's a life changing experience.  

TivoGeezer: Thanks for the warning, I guess being a techie geek makes me more willing to ride the bleeding edge!  Heck, it wouldn't be the first time the box was cracked before the warranty ended.

-Jeff


----------



## TivoGeezer

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I wouldn't worry too much...just put the original drive back in and TiVo will be none the wiser. *


Except for the little label on the back, usually across the chassis seam, which says "Warranty void if removed".


----------



## TivoGeezer

> _Originally posted by jlancton _
> *Thanks for the warning, I guess being a techie geek makes me more willing to ride the bleeding edge! *


I am a "techie geek" as well but I have also had too many expensive electronic gadgets go "belly up" during the warranty period (usually in the first month) to tempt fate. I was ready to start hacking my Tivo right after the 90 day warranty was over but wanted more info on the internal workings. But even with that in hand, I would still burn that sucker in for the 90 days, just to make sure it is solid. 'Nuf said.


----------



## Robert S

> _Originally posted by TivoGeezer _
> *Except for the little label on the back, usually across the chassis seam, which says "Warranty void if removed". *


That's a Series 1 feature, none of the current TiVoes have them. Even then, they didn't always bother about it.


----------



## weaknees

Actually, it looks like the new DSR704 and DSR708 from Phillips have the sticker again . . .

Michael


----------



## austinsho

Hmm....it's not on *my* 704, Michael.


----------



## weaknees

OK - that's good - then it's sporadic, I guess.

Michael


----------



## austinsho

Can I assume the 704/708 ugprades just as nicely and easily as the DSR7000? Please tell me there are no surprises!


----------



## weaknees

Yes - upgrades follow the same path as the DSR7000. We'll be updating our online interactive instructions soon, but for now, just choose DSR7000:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael


----------



## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by austinsho _
> *Can I assume the 704/708 ugprades just as nicely and easily as the DSR7000? Please tell me there are no surprises! *


No suprises, the DSR704 and DSR708 (added these models to the Step 2 model list) follow the same upgrade procedures instructed in the How-To for all model TiVos.


----------



## Big-bill3

Hinsdale, thanks for an excellent guide.

In Step 8 - restoring the backup you supply the command string for Series 1 and for Series 2. What is needed for a UK TIVO.

In Step 7 you supply the UK variant but not in Step 8

Are there any other places where a UK variant is needed?

Thanks

John


----------



## tonycullen

I am in the process of upgrading my UK Tivo to a larger HDD and have been following the instructions in the Hindsdale guide. However when i get to issuing the command: -
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos the message "/dev/hda1: success" then "mount: you must specify the filesystem type" appears.
I ignored the message and went to:-
mfsbakup -l 32 -6so /mnt/dos /dev/hdc /dev/hdd (I have 2 drives 30Gb & 15Gb)
The following appeared:-
Scanning source drive pls wait:
Source drive is 30hours
Upgraded to 44 hours
Backup image will be 44hours
Uncompressed size 1085Mb
Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: success
ls -l in /mnt/dos gave tivo.bak size as 6189056 bytes.
The backup was very quick, less than 1 min.

I am not sure whether the backup has worked, I suspect not.

Any help would be appreciated


----------



## Robert S

bill: The UK TiVo is a Series 1 TiVo. It needs a special option for making compressed backups, but is otherwise unremarkable.

tony: If mount succeeds, it returns the command prompt without comment. If mount fails, then you're writing the backup into the RAM disk created by the boot disk.

Your C: drive is probably not hda1. Try hda2 or hda5 instead.


----------



## tonycullen

Robert: Thanks for that. I should have seen the entry in the mfstools startup report.
I'm done and heading for a g&t.
TC


----------



## codrus

> _Originally posted by jadair _
> *We have a winner! Had it jumpered for a slave drive but the jumper was on the wrong row of pins. Fixed it, and now have a 40 GB drive.
> 
> Trying the MFSBackup now, but sounds like we're headed in the right direction.
> 
> Thanks to both of you for the help! *


Which is the wrong row of pins? I have a SAT-T60 I'm trying to upgrade to 120G, and having the exact same problem (drive reported as 32GB, mounted as slave in the PC where I'm doing the backup, backup/restore appears to work but with new drive it's missing the menu backgrounds).

The drive from my unit has a Maxtor brand name on the top, but Quantum-branded asics on the board. It's got four jumper positions, and the label on the top of the drive indicates that the order is master, CS, slave, but doesn't indicate what the orientation of the drive is to match these up.

Do I need to set the 40G unit as master? What's the "undocumented position"?

thanks,
Ian McCloghrie


----------



## weaknees

To set the 40 GB as Master, you should use the two pins closest to the IDE connector.

Michael


----------



## daves_tivo

Just done the 250GB A-Drive upgrade!

85hrs 52mins high quality/300hrs 50mins in basic...250GB HDD A drive.

This was done in the following way (In case you're wondering)

(Use instructions from "courtesan"/tivo.bigdisk.html)

Unlock old A drive using Windows boot disk with QUnlock added.
Boot from LBA48 version of MFSTools2.0 from "ptvupgrade"
Backup old A drive to PC HDD.
Switch off PC and swap drives over.
Boot from LBA48 version of MFSTools2.0
Restore to new 250GB drive.
Grow partitions to max size.
Update kernel to LBA48 V2.5x
Put drive into TiVo and switch on.

Success...!

There was a point where I was going to kick the 250GB drive through the window, until I realised that I was trying to back up to my CDRom (HDC) rather than the Storage drive (HDD). Once i'd found the MFSToolsV2.0 LBA48 .iso image and the "courtesan" instructions it wasn't too bad.

Many thanks to all those who offered assistance.

Dave.


----------



## Big-bill3

Hope this is in the correct thread.

I can't get the PC I want to use to do the upgrade to recognise two devices on the Secondary IDE port.

Murphy's law - the other PC won't recognise the 120GB drive as the BIOS is too old and I'm having trouble getting the Samsung Disk Manager software to work

Any ideas why?

If necessary I presumably can run MFStools 2 from the floppy drive ?


----------



## weaknees

On either one, you may want to set the BIOS to ignore those IDE ports - that's probably causing the problems on at least one PC. Linux doesn't need the BIOS support for it to work.

Michael


----------



## Big-bill3

thanks
it was a dodgy cable


----------



## Big-bill3

I'm planning to the mfsbackup pipe instruction to copy all the data from my A (15GB) and B (30GB) drives to a new 120GB (A) drive.

I propose to add the 30GB drive later after the 120GB has bedded down (using mfsadd)

The command appears to be

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

but I have two variants : which is correct for a UK TiVo xzpi or just -xpi ??

Also in Upgrade Config #6 there is an indented paragraph that states that this option #6 won't work for a UK Thomson TiVo 

Advice please


----------



## Robert S

z is a rather meaningless option. It just over-writes the inactive system partitions with zeroes. I can't imagine how omitting or including that option could cause a problem. The chances are those partitions are empty anyway and even if they aren't, the TiVo won't try to read any data from them.


----------



## Big-bill3

wot about the paragraph in upgrade config #6 where it suggests this option won't work for a UK TiVo ?


----------



## Robert S

I don't have all Hinsdale's #'s memorized, so it's much easier if you just quote the passage you're referring to. It take it you mean


> Those with dual drive DirecTiVos, dual drive Series 2 units (with user added B drive), the rare factory combined dual drive standalones (see Step 7 Option #2 for description), or dual drive UK Thompson TiVo will not have enough available partitions remaining in order to combine their existing drives onto a single larger A drive and expand to use any remaining space while still preserving their recordings. For further upgrade possibilities of these units see Upgrade Configuration #2 (will not preserve recordings) or Upgrade Configuration #4 or #5 (preserves recordings).


He's referring to the number of partitions on the drive. Under certain circumstances you can run out of partitions. Clearly this isn't the case for your machine as the backup (which didn't divorce) restored and expanded just fine, so the copied partitions will behave the same way.

When this happens, mfsrestore just halts with 'destination drive not big enough', which is a rather confusing error, but at least you don't have to wait 5 hours only to get a message saying the drive can not be expanded.

Usually this problem only kicks in on a second upgrade - TiVoes tend to be either single drive 11 partition, single drive 13 partition or dual drives with a 11 partition A drive, so there's always room to create one more pair of MFS partitions.


----------



## Big-bill3

thanks Robert

It's done the backup / restore but is currently stuck on 27364 of 28186 megabytes (97.09%)


----------



## Big-bill3

no it's not now


----------



## Bootay

Another satisfied customer of the Hinsdale tech and MFSTools. Took about 8 hours to copy a SAT-T60 drive to a 160GB Samsung drive, 2 second to expand it, and now I've got >120hours of capacity.

Why does a linux DD command take SO much longer than a similar Windows process? Even Ghost/Drive Image in DOS are 10x as fast...


----------



## aswindler

I'm trying to upgrade my Dual Drive DSR6000 (30GB + 15GB) to one Samsung 120 GB drive. I've got everything in my PC and they come up with correct sizes in the boot sequence.

When I use the following command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hde /dev/hdf | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

It says "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment." After a few minutes, the following appears:

Source drive size is 30 hours
- Upgraded to 43 hours
Uncompressed backup size: 42158 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.
/# king up 1 of 42158 megabytes (0.00%)

The guide says that you can't use this with dual drive DirecTiVos but I wanted to give it a shot. Does anyone know of a way to get this to work? If not, I assume that my only option is to simply replace one of the drives and continue using the other. I would really prefer to go down to one drive as I am trying to reduce noise. If I do need to replace only one drive, would it make sense to replace the master 30GB or the slave 15GB? Thanks for the help.

aswindler


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Single drive. Use a backup image as your source if you don't have your own.


----------



## Robert S

I refer you to post #1055.

Run "mfsinfo /dev/hde /dev/hdf" and count your partitions. If you already have three pairs of MFS partitions, that would explain your difficulties.

You should be able to replace the B drive with the 120 without any problems.

If you're happy to lose your recordings as ThreeSoFar suggests, you should be able to make a 13 or even 11 partition compressed backup from your current drive set that would allow you to utilise the 120Gb drive on its own.


----------



## aswindler

Thanks for the quick replies - gotta get this thing back up and running!  I should have also mentioned that I would very much like to keep my recordings and I do not have a FAT partition handy for backup. I do, however, have a downloaded backup image for my unit and in a couple of weeks I'm going to be installing a TurboNet so perhaps I could get programs and system settings that way to go back down to one drive.

Here are the results from msfinfo:

The MFS volume set contains 6 partitions
/dev/hde10
MFS Partition Size: 512MiB
/dev/hde11
MFS Partition Size: 11403MiB
/dev/hde12
MFS Partition Size: 512MiB
/dev/hde13
MFS Partition Size: 15746MiB
/dev/hdf2
MFS Partition Size: 4MiB
/dev/hdf3
MFS Partition Size: 14320MiB
Total MFS volume size: 14320MiB
Total MFS volume size: 42497MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 43
This MFS colume may be expanded 3 more times

I have to admit I'm not 100% what all that means. I do have three pairs of partitions, but it says I can upgrade. Unless this reveals some new info to someone I'm just going to try to replace the B drive as Robert suggested. I assume B was suggested so I'll get another 15GB out of reuing the larger A drive. But does one or the other store all system settings that I could shelve for backup? I'd rather have a useful backup drive than 15GB more.

Have I done anything at this point that would prohibit me from starting over and using Hinsdale Method Upgrade Configuration #4?



> From: Any Dual Drive TiVo
> 
> To: New A or New B Drive (replacing only one or the other)


Thanks a ton,
aswindler


----------



## Robert S

Anyway, three pairs of MFS partitions fills the partition table on a single drive. MFS Tools is telling you that there are three spare entries in the MFS table - you could put 1 more pair on the A drive and 2 more on the B drive if you wanted to.

Neither drive on its own is a viable backup. Although the B drive only contains recordings, the MFS partition structure has some similarity to software RAID - it forms a unified whole that doesn't work if any part is missing.

If you want a backup, use MFS Tools to make a compressed backup as described in Hinsdale, burn that on to some CD-R's and put them in safe places.


----------



## aswindler

Doh, sorry for the typo. Fixed now.

Okay, what you say makes sense. I tried making the backup and get this:

Uncompressed backup size: 1365 megabytes
Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: Success

That's a pretty contrary message so I'm not sure if it worked, but the file was indeed created on my C drive.

In any case, you mention this:



> you could put 1 more pair on the A drive and 2 more on the B drive if you wanted to.


Does that mean I could somehow still go down to one drive from these two or should I just run with method #4 and replace one drive?

aswindler


----------



## Robert S

MFS Tools error messages are often confusing. I would use mfsrestore to use that file to turn your upgrade drive into an A drive. Ideally you'd check that in the TiVo, but the chances are that mfsrestore will complain if the backup is corrupt.

You can only have three pairs of MFS partitions on the A drive. You already have two, so when you copy the drives on to one, that gets you your three, precluding expansion into the extra space on the new drive.

The 'upgraded three more times' refers to a table in the MFS system that can list up to six pairs of MFS partitions. As you have three pairs, you have three spare entries in that table. You still have to have enough spare entries in the partition table as well as in the MFS table.


----------



## aswindler

Okay that helps a lot. So basically I can restore from this backup and get one drive with no programs. Or I can replace one drive and end up with 120+30 and all my programs. This might actually still resolve my noise issues as I've discovered from some not-so-scientific testing that the 15GB drive is noisier.

If I replace only one drive, then get my programs off by some other means in the future, will I be able to again upgrade/downsize to one drive? I am concerned by number of upgrade limits/blessed drives etc, but from what I've read it seems that problem has been largely erradicated.

Finally, I believe I mostly understand TiVo's partition logic, but what is this mention of 11 or 13 partition images if you can only have 3 pairs (6 total)?

Thanks so much,
aswindler


----------



## Robert S

You backup should 'divorce' the A drive from the B drive (leaving 13 partitions), so you should be able to restore that to a single drive and expand it. If you emptied out (well, ceased to care about would be a better term) the recordings on the 30+120 drive set, you could make a fresh compressed backup from that set, restore it to the 120 as a lone drive.

The point is, restoring a divorced backup reverts you back to your original A drive, thus resetting the 'clock' on how many upgrades you can do.

There are 9 system partitions on the A drive. Three MFS pairs gets you to 15 partitions in total and there are only 16 entries in the partition table.


----------



## Big-bill3

My thanks to Tiger, Hinsdale and especially Robert S for his patience in leading me through some problems over a noisy phone line.

After a failed restore, it was repeated and away it went. It then took about 2hrs to copy the programs (yes it was essential to keep n hours of Neighbours!) 

When I want to add the old 30GB b drive, will I have to set the new a drive to Cable select from its current setting of Master?

I realise I will need to run mfsadd to add the B drive. Do I need to do execute any other commands before or after?

John


----------



## aswindler

Thanks for all the help Robert, getting my TiVo upgraded. I replaced the B drive without a hitch (except briefly forgetting to plug in the fan power - doh!) and is now running perfectly with 136 hours! I was correct in suspecting the noise from the old B drive and the unit is now very quiet.

I imagine I'll still try to go to the single drive at some point. Just don't trust the original A drive with 3+ years of steady usage. But it seems to be working great for now.

Thanks,
aswindler


----------



## Robert S

Yes, mfsadd does the lot. The normal jumper pattern would be A drive as master and B drive as slave. WD drives have a different jumper setting for lone master and master with slave, which causes some confusion.

If you're concerned, you might want to plug the 30Gb drive in as a slave before you marry it to the A drive and check that the TiVo still boots. The TiVo should boot normally and effectively ignore the second drive (although you should see it mentioned as hdb in the TiVo's logs).

If the drives don't get on, the TiVo may not boot, or may not be able to see the slave drive. Once the drive is married to your A drive, that can be a serious problem.

That's pretty rare, though.


----------



## Big-bill3

where can I see the TiVo's logs you refer to?


----------



## Robert S

I wrote up how to read the logs here.

You probably want to do something like

grep hd /var/log/kernel

to pick out lines refering to hard drives


----------



## dave silva

I just ghosted my original Tivo drive and I just want to make my New Tivo drive larger, I can't find the instructons anywhere. Is there a link for just doing this. I am running the new drive now, but it still is reporting 30 hours with a 120GB drive.

Thanks
Dave


----------



## weaknees

Usually Ghost doesn't work to well, to begin with. But if your drive is working, you can use mfstools to add the extra space. Boot the CD and type:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc

changing hdc to the position of the drive in your PC.

Michael


----------



## Erock68

I want to send out a thanks to Hinsdale. I added one of his "B" drive upgrades and it works flawlessly! 

I have built several custom computers in the past but, recently haven't had much time with being moved to 2nd shift at work (The main reason why I purchased my Tivo in the first place) He has saved the work of getting the drive ready and it installed in a few minutes.

Also...

Thanks to all who make owning a Tivo, just that much better!


----------



## dave silva

thanks for the command. I used ghost 7.5 with the -IR command (raw copy). It works great and I have 129 hours avalible with a 120 GB drive. This was very easy, seem too easy but it worked instantly.

Thanks
Dave


----------



## Austinj

I tried to upgrade my Series2 and now the tivo is dead. When I tried to do the backup using mfstools, I got this error message:

/dev/hdc10: Success
MFS_load_volume_header: mfsvol_read_data: input/output error
mfsbackup: Backup failed to startup. Make sure you specified the right devices, and that the drives are not locked.

The drives are reporting correct sizes, so I don't think they're locked. I tried writing a random file to the destination drive and it worked, so it's not a problem with the new drive. My old tivo drive was working just fine before this. I wrote a longer post in the upgrade section with all my steps if you need more info. I just really want to get my tivo back. Anyone have any ideas? Do I just need to find a backup image from someone else?

Thanks in advance!
Brian

-Edited to clarify the error message. I had copied it down wrong before-


----------



## Robert S

Did you really type hdc10?


----------



## Austinj

Ummm, no, typo. Sorry. I typed hdc, as per the hinsdale write up.


----------



## Robert S

"Read/write error" might be a bad block. Try the drive manufacturer's diagnostics. If it offers to repair bad blocks, do so.


----------



## Austinj

I ran Maxtor diag utility on the drive, and it passed every test, but I'm still getting the same error every time I try it. Just to clarify a bit, I use /dev/hdc in the backup command, and the error message says /dev/hdc10: Success, and so forth. Any other ideas? Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

Sometimes PowerMax shows that disks are fine, and they still don't work in TiVos. There are some other disk utilities out there that stress drives a bit more (like TiVos do) and that might catch errors these miss. You can search here for DriveSpeed - I think that's one.

Michael


----------



## gpepus

Hello All - Just Reporting out on my successful upgrade activity
Model Tivo 2.0 40 Hour 240040 Unit upgraded to 147 Hour Unit.

Issue: Unit's hard drive was squealing. Probably could've lived with it but it was damn annoying. So I purchased a new drive with Fluid Dynamic Bearings which won't ever squeal. Plus I expanded my capacity by almost 3.5 times from 40 Hrs to 147 Hrs.

Method Directions- Hinsdale Mini How-To, Careful study of this forum, Weaknees new Interactive Tivo Upgrade, Hinsdale Full Tivo Upgrade How-To

Process -
1) Backup original Tivo WD 400 (40Gb/40 Hr) drive to Win32/FAT partition. This created the Tivo.bak backup file.
2) Restore Tivo.bak (expanded) to new Seagate 160 Gb / 147 Hr) drive

Obsticals - Mounting the DOS/Win32 drive under the MFS Tools boot CD - Instructions in the Hinsdale 1) Mini How-To shows "mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos, however the command needs to be "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" 

2) Mini How-To gives the MFSToolsBackup command without specific instructions for Tivo series 2. (i.e. mfsbackup -so6 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc). The backup workd but didn't save everything, consequently my first run at backing up didn't get various and sundry graphical streams such as the green/red/blue backgrounds and the Tivo startup video. I studied the Hinsdale full How-To and the Weaknees Interactive guides and determined the right mfsbackup commands (i.e. mfsbackup -f 9999 -so6 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc)

3) mfsrestore command string was incorrect in the mini Howto as it assumed type 1 Tivo. I had to restore twice (which isn't a problem as it was a fast process) because I didn't get the correct swap space and I didn't expand to use full drive. Corrected mfsbackup command as follows:
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

4) This process correctly restored the backup with one exception. It didn't get any of my recorded programs. They show up in the Now Playing on Tivo menus but when you go to play them they immediately click to the Delete screen and then show an error screen. 

Overall Success
Even though I didn't get my existing recorded programs I am happy th e system works as advertized. All functions work correctly. My season passes and other Todo list functions all work. My network (wireless USB) connection is also working fine.

The reason I didn't get the recorded video streams was probably due to not doing the mfsbackup with the -a option (this conflicts with the -f option and initially confused me .. so here I am) ahhh but full understanding comes with time grasshopper so at least I know where I foobared the process. These are nuances that I could have corrected but I didn't want to mess with things any further.

Hope this helps someone in the future.


----------



## CraigHB

> ...because OfficeMax has a sale tomorrow. After rebates, a WD 120Gb drive for $59.99.


 Thanks for tip on OfficeMax. I was looking to upgrade my TDC24004A with a relatively inexpensive large drive so I checked my local retailer. Turns out, they're having a sale until 1/10. I picked up a WD 160GB, 8M, 7200RPM drive for $80 after rebates, awesome deal. I used the instructions at tivo.upgrade-instructions.com to do a drive replacement and they were excellent. I didn't lose any of my settings and it couldn't have been easier.

Thanks to the community for making this so do-able.

- Craig


----------



## barsongs

Michael, i fixed the problem I posted at POST #862. Although the pwr supply pcb is pretty easy to replace, I just changed one of the resistors. There is a 100 ohm 2 watt 5% resistor that runs much too hot on the board. (The color code is brown black brown gold - but after so much overheating it can look like red-black-red (gold)! So measure it just to be on the safe side.) I just replaced it with a 10 watt resistor and everything is now fine. No more burning carbon smell. Only those with proficiency in soldering pcbs should attempt this. Use sleeving on the leads so they don't brush against the nearby capicitor. Use 5% wirewound resistors only. I got mine from Action Electronics for 60 cents plus shipping. And be super careful with that white ribbon cable which connects the pcbs together to make sure both ends are seated properly.


----------



## TivNube

Thanks Hinsdale and everyone who contributes to the knowledge base here. 

I dropped a 120 GB WD drive into my HDVR3 and it worked right away.
Fry's had it for 60 bucks AR. 

It was a little unnerving having the guts of both my PC and my Tivo out on the operating table at the same time. 

The only problem I had was that I had to buy a $15 3.2 GB drive at the computer surplus store for the image backup because my PC drive is NTFS. I didn't bother to check if the new(old and used) drive was formatted as FAT 32. 

After I got some errors trying to run mfsbackup, I used my lifesaver Knoppix Linux bootable CD (that has video and network drivers) to boot up, check the drive and come to the forums here to do some more research. I know very little about linux, but that CD is great.

After reformattin my 3.2Gig drive and about a half a dozen command line entries, it was done. Boom! 105 hours THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My upgrade went so well that I decided to get another 120 Gig drive for my brother for christmas. (60 bucks AR at office max this time) I put my image on it and after a clear and delete everything and waiting overnight for the locals to come back he's up and running now too. 

Thanks again all!

Now I need to find a new project for my tivo.


HDVR3: Replace stock 40 GB with WD 7200 RPM 120GB drive

Tools: Torx T-10 (removing cover) and T-15 (HD bracket)

Commands: (From the Hinsdale How to)
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc 
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb *NOTE* 
umount -f -a -r 




*Note* this is different from the how-to, I replaced hdc with hdb. My new drive was still connected to Primary slave. I skipped a step 10 here, I didn't check the restored image in my tivo and then go back and expand it. I jumped right to the restore and expand command. I was getting nervous with all of the connections and I figured if the backup didn't work, I was screwed anyway.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

120G should be more than 105 hrs, shouldn't it?

Isn't it neat how easy the whole process is? Hinsdale/Tiger: you guys rule.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *120G should be more than 105 hrs, shouldn't it?
> 
> Isn't it neat how easy the whole process is? Hinsdale/Tiger: you guys rule. *


Sounds right. 105 or 106 depending upon the drive manufacturer and swap file size.


----------



## weaknees

ThreeSoFar - 

DirecTiVos typically get about .875 hours per GB of drive space at their "variable" setting. Standalone TiVos generally gain more than an hour (about 1.125 for most models) of capacity at their lowest quality (Basic) per GB of storage capacity.

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Ah. Remember seeingn this now. Never dealt with the DirecTiVo's, unfortunately. No line of sight to the birds.


----------



## Austinj

Well, I ran DiskSpeed on my TiVo hd, but I'm not sure I know how to read the results... It only seemed to report the access speed to each block or whatever. It didn't seem to have any errors, and it was able to read the entire disk without problem... Any other ideas? I've seen that utility, MakeTivoBootable for when you accidently boot into WinXP with the Tivo drive attached, which I know I didn't do. I DID, however, install a fresh copy of Win98SE onto my other hd while the Tivo drive was attached. Would that have screwed it up? Should I try that utility, since nothing else seems to be working, and it's looking like I need a backup image from someone else anyway? Appreciate all the help, guys!

Brian


----------



## weaknees

At this point, I guess there's no reason not to run MTB - it's a bit tricky, but shouldn't make matters worse. I'd try to find an image (pretty hard these days) and go from there - do you have any friends with the same model? That's the easiest way.

Michael


----------



## Austinj

Well, MakeTivoBootable worked for me, I managed to save all my recordings, and the rest of the upgrade went without a hitch!! Thanks SO much for all the help!


----------



## lvirden

I have what I hope is a quick and easy question.

The hinsdale URL on the front page points to a guide that discusses a 137 gig limit for disk drives.
Is that a limit from the perspective of a series 1 tivo or a general limit?

I've a series 2 tivo branded 40 hr unit (one of the 004A units). I was wondering if I should give up hope of adding to this unit a couple of 150-200 gig drives and getting use of the full drive (yes, I know I could just use the smaller amount...)


----------



## weaknees

So far, the only unit that has a native kernel that can see beyond 137 GB is the Pioneer unit (the Toshiba probably has that also, but can't yet be upgraded). Any other stock TiVo kernel will be limited to seeing 137 GB of a drive. You can swap the kernel on Series 1 units, and there are possibilities now of swapping kernels on Series 2 units, but this is still pretty new, and if you get a software update on a Series 2 with an updated kernel, you'll likely be toast.

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Can the Pioneer unit that recognizes LBA drives be upgraded yet? What model is that exactly?

thx


----------



## weaknees

Yes, absolutely. The Pioneer 810H and 57H can both be upgraded with the 57H image. We've been selling 160 and 315 hour units for months now, and also upgrade kits. We've started a thread on the subject here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143213

Michael


----------



## sulli2p

Thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger...

Just finished an error free upgrade of a Philips DSR6000R01. Replaced my original two year old WD 40 gig hard drive, which was starting to fail, with a Seagate 7200.7 120 gig drive (from zipzoomfly.com). System definitely feels faster. Keeping my backup image on an old/unused 1.2 gig Quantum. Entire process took about 2 1/2 hours. 

Instructions were exceptionally complete, MFT 2.0 tools worked like a charm. If you can swap hard drives, and type DOS commands, then a DIY upgrade should be easy with the Hinsdale instructions and MFT tools.


----------



## sportshawg

I followed your instructions and everything appeared to go well...however when I hooked everything back up, (after the power up rpocess) I received a message stating your received has experienced an error and to wait 3 hours for the system to try and repair itself...

I had a 40 GB (35 hr) hughes directtv tivo and added a 40 gb hd...

suggestions?

thank you...


----------



## Robert S

That seems to happen some times. Is the TiVo OK now?


----------



## maldb

Thanks to everyone for your tips and help. I just upgraded my Hughes Series 2 DirecTiVo by adding a 120GB Maxtor drive. Works like a charm! Yes!!!


----------



## mrichard

There are instructions from Hinsdale for creating the boot CD. The readme doc associated with those instructions states that Nero (trial version available at...) will be able to create the necessary image and associated file structure from the mfstools.iso 10.8 meg download onto the burnt boot CD. 

I downloaded the trial version and it does not have this capability and prevents me from burning to disk. Maybe I missed something, but after > 1 hour, I got nowhere. Then I went to my sons old Iomega CD burner. It had the software with the brains to create the boot disk file structure - done in 5 minutes. I came close to dropping the $60 to buy the software my PC did not have for burning cd's with images. That would have blown the project budget -- phew!

Now I'm going to trade in the serial interface hard drive I bought (wrong kind) for an Seagate Ultra ATA/100, 200GB. This wastes ~70GBs, but for $99 at CompUSA - who cares? All this computer geek typing is getting me anxious to get started.

If you doubt my qualifications, I am full time tech support for my families entire network! Because this role often pisses me off, I am grooming my 13 year old to take over.


----------



## dixoncider

Well I'am a little disappointed
this was just to easy, what to do with the rest of the night. 
went from 35hour dtivo to 120 hour.
thanks to all who made this possible at this forum.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Sweet, isn't it? Enjoy!


----------



## tbo

I just replaced the 40 gig drive with a WD 120 gig in my Hughes SD-DVR40.
I didn't make a backup as I will just keep the 40gig in the closet (and that would be my backup I guess).
I used the weakness interactive and CDrom MSFTools using:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd 

Everything works except the blue menu backgrounds are gone.
I have read some posts about the -f 9999 fixing this but am not clear on it's usage in my situation?

From what I've read, I think I would use this string instead of the one above?
mfsbackup -f 9999 - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd 

If so, am I starting over or can I somehow just add the blue screen stuff to the new drive.

If this is not the correct, then what do I do?
thanks


----------



## weaknees

You actually need:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd 

if you don't want recordings and:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

if you do want recordings.

How did you run the instructions so that you didn't get the -f 9999? The first command line doesn't look like it came from the instructions at all - is that right?

Michael


----------



## tbo

Thanks Michael,

There was no mention of a -f 9999 on the page I used.
chose: model Hughes SD-DVR40
chose: 'replace w one drive'
chose: no, yes, no, CD, ignore

The only string I was told to use was :

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ) 

thanks again
tbo


----------



## weaknees

You found a glitch - it's fixed now. Thanks for helping me through the details of what you tried.

More info is in this other thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141538

Michael


----------



## tbo

thanks for the help.
Up and running with 105 hours.

used
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd 

I'm glad I found your glitch for you. I feel sort of famous or something.

thanks
tbo


----------



## macross2b5

Hey guys thanks for all the great info and the guide that helped me so much in upgrading my 40 gig tivo to my monster 120 tivo..With out your wisdom great jedi masters this wouldn't be possible.. Yet again thanks to everyone..And one more thing...Linux does not like to run a NTFS format drive..bye all:up: :up: :up: :up:


----------



## ebonovic

Scroll-Lock Blues....

Weakness / Hinsdale... Can you add a warning to your instructions for upgrades, that the Scroll-Lock key will hamper your upgrade process.

I just waisted about 30 minutes because my scroll-lock was hit. (I was toggling through my KVM, and must have hit it one too many times).

Frustrating.


----------



## Fredzep

Another happy Upgrade!
Took my Series 2 80GB to 247 Hours in less than 3 hours.

Used the 9th Tee kit :up: 

Did not use the mfsrestore -127 option.

Thanks!!!!!!!!


----------



## falc122727

When I turn on my PC I get the following lines scrolling indefinitely:

1002
AX:020A
BX:0000
CX:0309
DX:0100

What am I doing wrong? Something with my Bios?


----------



## bardvern

Just wanted to give THANKS to Hindsdale for his post and link on upgrading my TiVo Drive.

As well as other posters for info and support.

I am in TiVo Heaven thanks to you!


----------



## jdr93

several whiles ago i upgraded my philips directivo from the two original drives to two WD 100GB - 8MB drives, saving the shows and everything. no problems of course, because the advice on this site is so good. now i want to replace the two 100GB drive with two even larger drives, and i need to know if i have to go back to the two original drives or can i just use the two upgrades as if they were the originals and save everything that's on them? nothing's sick, nothing has even hic-cupped, i just want more space. i would relish any information about getting beyond the so called 137MB/drive limit too.


----------



## Robert S

There's lots of info on using big drives in the 160Gb thread at the top of the Underground. (Start at page 5 & 6 and then skip to 21).

The immediate question is how many partitions you've got. Pull the drives out and run mfsinfo on them. If you have two pairs of partitions on the A drive, then you can use dd to copy it and then use mfsadd to expand (mfsadd needs to see both drives, of course) and then dd the other drive and expand again. This might be less daunting than copying the whole lot in one go, but swap space would be an issue.

As long as you have only three or four pairs of MFS partitions (which is what I expect), then you can do a pipe transfer to copy both old drives on to both new ones.


----------



## Nighty

Thank you very much for detailed upgrade instructions! I have just completed the upgrade of my new Series 2, now loaded w/ 105 hours...

That will be more than enough, as for long term archival I can use my new Panny DMR-E80H.


----------



## jlancton

Many thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and PTV Upgrade!! I successfully upgraded my new SA 40 hour 'A' model with a 120 Gig B drive and I now have 189 hours of basic, and 51.5 hours of Best. The entire process took about an hour, and I couldn't be happier. 

I should also note that the sound level hasn't changed a bit. I honestly cannot tell the difference with the added drive. (A Maxtor 120GB)

Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

-Jeff


----------



## MikeNorman

Thank you Hinsdale. I ordered the 120GB A Drive Replacement Kit which (results in ~107hr DirecTiVo) on Friday. I receive the 120GB TiVo A Drive with all software pre-loaded for drop-in install for my Philips DSR6000 the following Monday in the mail. Following Hinsdale one-page instructions I was able to have the Philips DSR6000 back up in about 30 minutes. The Hinsdale disk drive came with TIVO 2.0 because Hinsdale said that you couldnt make an image of 3.0 for security flags. TIVO 3.0 has to download via a telephone line.

I did not remember that 2.0 did not support local channels so I wasted two hours with the agent for DIRECTV who barely could speak English. It was obvious this man did not know what he was doing and kept insisting that I reboot and reacquire the satellite signal. Finally, I asked to speak to his supervisor and he connected me to a telephone that no one answered. I called back and got a lady that knew her stuff. She quickly told me that I had to wait until my software upgraded to 3.0. 

I forced a TIVO call at that time and expected the software to update at 2AM. When I got up this morning it had not. I forced another call and it downloaded 3.0 then. After rebooting I called DIRECTV and the man since the local channels information to the receiver and the local channels came on after downloading the DIRECT satellite information.

Two weeks ago I mailed Hinsdale my Sony SAT-60 receiver and had him to upgrade it to 240Gbytes. He sent back a note with the receiver telling me that it was real simple with his kit and I should have just order the kit and save a lot of time without my receiver and his costs for upgrading.

I now know just how easy it is even for someone who does not know how to fix anything. 

You need to T-10 and maybe T-15 screwdrivers available at Lowe's or any hardware store. You just have to remove four screws holding the case on, two screws holding the disk drive assemble in place, disconnect fan power, lift off the disk drive assemble unplug power and computer connections from the disk drive, remove four screws holding the disk drive to the disk drive assemble then reverse for the new disk drive.

To add the B drive is even simpler for you do not lose your original software so you avoid the hassle with DIRECTV.

Bottom line is give it a try by buying Hinsdale preformatted disk drives if you want it easy and simple!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

The Victorinox CyberTool34 (and maybe the smaller one?) has both those sizes and is really cool.


----------



## Chilli_Dog

Just wanted to say thank you as well. Instructions were very well written, and I couldn't be happier with the results. My Philips DSR704 went from 40GB to 120GB in no time at all. Everything seems to be working perfectly. Thanks again!!!


----------



## csuich

Many thanks to Tiger, Hinsdale and anyone else involed in putting together MFS Tools and the how-to instructions. Just completed my 2nd TiVo upgrade. This one was much easier than the one before a year or more ago. Upgraded Hughes 35 hour to 120MB drive for 100+ hour DirecTivo.

Thanks again
Chris


----------



## FlyingRev

I am using a Mac with OS X (10.3.x) and was wondering if there are any tools for backing up a drive and restoring it onto another drive?

My Series 2 Sony TiVO is a little over 15 months old now and I ordered a second drive from Weaknees about 14 days ago. It arrived, but I am yet to install it. But now the Tivo unit is making a rather loud "Click - Click - Click- etc." noise and the screen goes black. The only way to get the unit up and running again is to unplug it and then allow it to reboot. 

I have had to do this about once every other day or so....

Any Ideas? Is this an 'A' drive failure? I really do not want to lose my existing programming on my drive and am hesitant to open the case and install the new Weaknees 120 gig drive if there is a problem with the 'A' drive.

I would sincerely appreciate your help!

Thanks and God Bless You!


----------



## weaknees

There is blessing software for OS X for use with S1 machines, but nothing newer, nor backup/restore software.

What there is, is here:

http://www.weaknees.com/mactivo.php

Michael


----------



## Robert S

I does sound like a failing drive.

Not an OSX-guy, but I would think that you could use dd to clone the A drive. You'd have to get someone who knows OSX to describe the exact procedure. Your symptoms would indicate a dd copy rather than an MFS Tools copy (which won't work if you've got bad blocks).

So, buy another drive that's at least as large as your current A drive (be aware that Maxtor drives tend to be a little bit larger than other brands, so you either need another Maxtor drive or a larger drive from a different brand. Clone your A drive on to it and thus salvage what you can of your recordings.

(What follows is advice specific to your case, you can not normally do what I'm suggesting!) Add the drive from Weaknees and enjoy your upgraded TiVo. If the opportunity arises to put the TiVo drives in a PC later, make a compressed backup with MFS Tools and then mfsadd to expand the A drive into any spare space on the replacement drive. (If you don't follow the above procedure /precisely/ Very Bad Things will happen, you have been warned!)


----------



## wolverine9827

Hey all,

I just received 2 120 GB Hitachi HDs to upgrade my Tivo Series 2 40 Hour...

I have 2 questions....

1) I've read of issues with Maxtor's (precisely why I didn't order them) - has anyone had any issues with Hitachi's? (nice 3 yr warr and fairly cheap)

2) My system has 2 SATA drives in a RAID-1 config and no other IDE HD's installed - only a DVD and a DVD-RW.... I have a sneaky suspicion that I'll be building a boat anchor system with a cheapo 40 GB drive to do the backup and upgrade procedure...... sound about right?

I appreciate any and all feedback..... just looking out for my "precious"!


----------



## weaknees

Not sure what Maxtor issues you've read about, but most TiVos ship with Maxtor QuickView drives (more info about them here) and they work wonderfully. In fact, Hitachi/IBM drives cause a lot of problems and we really don't recommend them. You may have seen some posters with problems with Maxtor drives, but that's a biased sample (most people use them, so they see the most problems).

You don't need a drive to do a backup - you'll have your 40 GB drive for that. So just do a "Tao" backup/restore and you'll be all set.

Michael


----------



## wolverine9827

Uh oh..... well... I'll give it a shot in the next week or two and see what happens....

I guess since the kernel on the boot CD doesn't recognize SATA I can just hook them up and go to work.....

Thanks for the info.... a little worried but still looking forward to the big 230+ hours.... 

Denny


----------



## weaknees

Post the results back. If you are using our TwinBreeze bracket, note that our PowerTrip isn't certified for use with Hitachi/IBM drives - and we don't recommend it.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

The 'issue' with Maxtor drives is that TiVoes lock them. However, that only applies to Series 1 TiVoes. There are no issues with Maxtor drives in Series 2 TiVoes.

However, I have seen posts suggesting that DeskStars don't work at all in Series 2 TiVoes, so it'll be interesting to see how you get on.


----------



## darnoldarnold

I did a quick backup of my series 2, and installed a 120 GB maxtor as drive B to my original 40 GB (drive A). The next day the new drive B died. 
I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a recovery without loosing my recordings, but I missed it. 
Any Help?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

only if your backup you made kept all the recordings, I think.

Another reason I recommend people replace their 40G drives with a large one, shelving the 40 for backup.


----------



## jdr93

i'm still swimming toward a goal of adding many more hours to a directivo s1 i previously added two 100 MB drives to. one concern i have is how long it will take to transfer all the shows to the larger drives. i bet i have 150 or more hours jammed on the two drives now. if it took, say, six hours to transfer the thirty five or so hours, then will it take 25 hours to move the current crop?

and in addition, thank you robert s for the reply to and advice on my previous post.


----------



## weaknees

A lot of the speed depends on the speed of your PC. If you have a P4 with an ATA 100 or ATA 133 card, it'll be faster (if you have the card drivers available in Linux). 

Michael


----------



## jdr93

thanks weaknees, as far as i remember, the machine i used before and would use again is a p2 400


----------



## weaknees

OK - then don't hold your breath!

Michael


----------



## Robert S

darnoldarnold: Sadly not, TiVo chose a rather strange layout for the partitions on the Series 2's A drive. There's no way to get MFS Tools to use the same layout and thus recover the recordings.

Your new (and blank) A drive will be formatted by MFS Tools, so the next time this happens your recordings will survive (assuming you have a sufficiently fresh backup).

If the B drive isn't completely dead, try using dd or dd_rescue to clone it on to a new disk.


----------



## wolverine9827

Hi all,

I'll let you know what happens with the Hitachi/IBM drives.....

If it fails.... no big deal.... but as a systems engineer it'll be fun....


----------



## darnoldarnold

Thanks everyone. The only thing I really wanted to save was the Superbowl halftime Janice Jackson 'accident' - LOL. My wife had a few things she wanted to watch. 
Well, I had a 200 hr tivo for a while. I'll return the maxtor drive to Fry's and get a new one. Hopefully it will last more than 24 hours.
The mfs tools were great and thanks to Hindsdale and all the other contributers.


----------



## lvirden

Do the various web pages that have been mentioned here over the years of this thread get updated as people find new experiences? Is there one web page that summarizes the web resources - 29 pages of thread is a bit of a read for someone wanting to get up to speed quickly.


----------



## Robert S

All you really need is the Hinsdale How-to, which is currently dated 14th January. It's kept up-to-date with all the stuff that's reported in this thread and elsewhere. It's covers all the 'straight' drive upgrades - things like replacing kernels and breaking the security lock-downs are not covered.


----------



## Lugz

Hinsdale hinsdale we love you!! Thanx for the guide that helped me to enjoy 2 120Gb hardrives in my uk tivo (rather than the old 15+30Gb gag)... thankx again fellas!!


----------



## philks

What can I say ? A combination of the Hinsdale guide, and a few other FAQs on networking have taken my poor old UK Tivo to 2 X 120 Gb Drives, a TurboNet card and TivoWeb ! Absolutely superb ! (and the Orensop HTTPS proxy means I can programme it from work as well !) Heartfelt Thanks to all ...


----------



## Lucis0327

I tried to upgrade my DSR6000 today, had problems. It's a two-drive unit (30+15), and I was trying to upgrade directly to a single 120. When I typed the command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

It said it was scanning the drives, then reported the unit as a 30G expanded to 43G, said it was going to make a 43G backup, taking 41250K, then reported that the output device wasn't big enough! I KNOW that both Linux and the BIOS reported the correct sizes for all drives in question.

Then I did a (don't save the shows):

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

which seemed to work, and reported a drive grown to 120G (which seems reasonable), that image booted fine, and recorded new stuff correctly, but (of course) the shows in Now Playing from before were bogus.

So after that one worked, I tried the -Tao, but it failed again. I've backed up system (sans recordings) to another drive, and I'm about to remount the original drives to see if I hosed something when I first tried... any other hints?

I _may_ have hosed things up on my very first attempt, not sure, don't think so, but I _may_ have forgotten the second minus (output to stdout) in the mfsbackup, but I *really doubt it* because when I intentionally left one of the source drives out in a subsequent attempt, it gave me a very specific error I would have noticed.

HELP?


----------



## Lucis0327

> _Originally posted by Lucis0327 _
> I _may_ have hosed things up on my very first attempt, not sure, don't think so, but I _may_ have forgotten the second minus (output to stdout) in the mfsbackup, but I *really doubt it* because when I intentionally left one of the source drives out in a subsequent attempt, it gave me a very specific error I would have noticed.


I didn't hose anything, it seems, because the original drives are back in the DSR6000 and it's working fine. I'm waiting on some advice before trying again. Just further information, I tried doing the save-everything backup to another drive (a 60G) and it still said there wasn't enough room. I left off the -s 127 and that didn't help anything either. Anyone?


----------



## weaknees

Can you post the exact mfstools response while in Linux? Maybe then someone will spot the problem.

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Thought folks could maybe use some Linux tricks for while booted into the Hinsdale CD:
You can have more than one # prompt. Type Alt-F1 through Alt-F4 to swap between four different terminals. This is helpful since you can view the readme in one window (I forget where it is on the cd, but find it and type "cat readmefilename"), and switch to another one to type in your command.
You can see output that has scrolled off the top of the screen. Shift-pageUp and Shift-PageDown.
Many of the Unix commands are actually done by a single program, called busybox. Type "busybox --help" to see what it does.
Many of the other executables on the distro have usage statements, as well. Try these, too. Note the semi-colon ";" is separating multiple commands on the same line:


Code:


ls --help
mfsinfo --help
mfstools --help
grep --help
mount --help


Try these:


Code:


ls
ls -al
pwd
cd /mnt
dmesg
dmesg | grep hd
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/c ; ls -al /mnt/c
cd /mnt/c ; more hinsdalehowto.txt

(for that last one, you first have to save the Hinsdale HOWTO as a text file on your windows drive and also mount that windows drive from within the booted-CD at the # prompt (the line above that).


----------



## Lucis0327

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Can you post the exact mfstools response while in Linux? Maybe then someone will spot the problem.*


_Scanning source drives
Source drive size is 30 hours
- Upgraded to 43 hours
Uncompressed backup size: 40280 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself._

It did that to both the 60G and 120G drives I have as a destination. I tried:

mfsbackup -Tao /dev/null /dev/hda /dev/hdb

Which completed the copy to the bit-bucket perfectly. I'm absolutely sure that the source drives are okay, and as I said, both the new 120G and the new 60G ran in the DSR6000 perfectly when I did a _mfsbackup -6so_ type copy.

Help me?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Don't see anything. Sorry. hdc must be the new drive if the other way (without shows) worked.

what does mfsinfo /dev/hdc show? Or dmesg | grep hd


----------



## Robert S

Has everyone forgotten about partition counts?

Run mfsinfo against your original pair. If you already have 3 pairs of MFS partitions on there, then you can not copy to a single drive /and expand/. There's only room for three pairs of MFS partitions on a TiVo's A drive.


----------



## Lucis0327

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *Don't see anything. Sorry. hdc must be the new drive if the other way (without shows) worked.*


Correct.
hda = original 30G
hdb = original 15G
hdc = new 120G (or 60G, neither works)
CD on secondary/slave



> *what does mfsinfo /dev/hdc show? Or dmesg | grep hd *


Not sure what you're asking me for... the mfsinfo of the _destination_ after the _-so_ backup? I'll let you know when the wife lets me waste some more time (and take her precious TiVo away)


----------



## Lucis0327

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Has everyone forgotten about partition counts?*


I would have to have known to forget 



> *
> Run mfsinfo against your original pair. If you already have 3 pairs of MFS partitions on there, then you can not copy to a single drive /and expand/. There's only room for three pairs of MFS partitions on a TiVo's A drive. *


This was a factory two-drive unit, is there anything I can do to accomplish what I want? I would prefer to have only one drive due to temperature and noise reasons. Can I still preserve the recordings? What command line is suggested, if possible? I _will_ do an mfsinfo when can next open up the TiVo. For now, it's back in my wife's hands.


----------



## Robert S

Yeah, but Michael and 3SF should have. 

Anyway, if you already have three pairs of MFS partitions, then there's nothing you can do - you can either lose your recordings or have just 45Gb on that 120Gb drive. 

I'm pretty certain this is what's going on as you seem to have eliminated the other possible problems, but you need the output of mfsinfo (or to look at the partition tables) to be sure.

The UK two-drive TiVoes have only on pair on each drive, so you can do this upgrade, but I don't know specifically about the DSR6000's.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I thought about that (too many partitions) but I thought the error he'd be getting would be clearer about what the problem was if that was the case. 

Upgraded a friends SVR2000 yesterday--first I've ever had to deal with a locked drive. I don't like the idea that part of the uprgrade process, if done wrong or when it shouldn't be, could actually destroy the drive and its contents BEFORE any backup is made. Very disconcerting. 

Anyway, used diskutil.exe, found somewhere in this forum. Worked great.

Actually saved a backup image for him, too. Hadn't done that since my first upgrade, but now that images are hard to find online, figured we should.


----------



## Robert S

Yes, MFS Tool's error messages are weird. Not much we can do about it, though.

Fortunately qunlock can't damage the Quantum drives that TiVoes ship with, just current Maxtor ones. However, if you have a Maxtor drive in your PC an accidentally ran qunlock on it, that would be bad. 

So yes, DiskUtil is a good idea, although a lot of people only discover it after they've destroyed a drive.


----------



## wolverine9827

Hello all,

I upgraded my Tivo TCD240040 40Gb drive with one of my 2 Hitachi/IBM Deskstar 120 Gb drives.....

Following the Hinsdale doc proved to be quite painless and everything worked like a charm....

Went from 42 hours to 141 hours! woohoo!

Now I need to get an IDE splitter, Power Y-splitter, and 2nd drive bracket before getting the 2nd drive added in.

Ought to be fun!!

Thanks for all the good reading!

Denny


----------



## cnsf

First, almost a year ago, I successfully upgraded all my Tivos thanks to Hinsdale. Kudos to the excellent work!

My issue now is I don't think I upgrade my HDVR2 with a swap file and would like to put it on now (and save all my recordings and settings), what are the exact steps to do this? Although Hinsdale is a Tivo "GOD", there aren't specific enough instructions for my configuration. I understand this swap file should increase performance on the box. I find it to be super-slow with deletions, season pass priority adjustments and slow processing every so often.

I have an HDVR2 upgraded with the original 40GB drive and a 120GB add on drive. I have an external win98 box with one FAT32 HD about 40GB.

Any thoughts? Can I backup both drives to a single image with all the settings and recordings to the 40GB drive (probably only have about 40 hours recorded now) and restore directly back to the same drives with the swap switch included?


----------



## Robert S

If you followed Hinsdale you would have increased the size of the swap file (although you may not have noticed). The extra swap is only needed for the 'Green Screen of Death'. TiVoes don't swap much in normal operation (the disks are rather too busy for swapping!). Changing the size of the swap partition has no effect on the speed of the TiVo.


----------



## skotman

Thank you for the instructions and the MFS Tools! If I had gotten my image sooner it would of save me 150 bucks, instead I've got a Series 2 and a Series 1 which I'm keeping and upgrading to use as a huge movie library.

thank you!


----------



## FlyingRev

I just upgraded my Series 2 TiVo SVR3000 Sony Unit. I purchased a 120 Gig 'b' drive from Weaknees and before I could install this new drive I noticed some loud clicking from TiVo on occasion and also freezing. An unplug would reboot the unit and all was 'well'.

Anyway, I bought a new 160 gig drive (Western Digital Caviar drive with 8 meg cache and 7200 rpm) and used hinsdale's CD to transfer my programming, setting and all to this new 160 gig drive. It took a few hours, but all seemed fine and reported no errors.

I have now installed this new 'A' drive as well as the drive I ordered from weaknees and I notice all the setting and programming did indeed transfer. The problem is that the Video Recording Quality times are vastly different than what I expected.

On Best Quality the time went from about 24 hours or so to 41 hrs, 2 min
On High Quality the time is now 66 hrs, 31 min
On Medium Quality 88 hrs, 6 min
On basic Quality 150 hrs, 49 min.


Now this is obviously more than before but a lot less that expected and what is listed on weaknees website. The drive was not locked and reported the correct size. 

Did I miss something? I still have the original Maxtor drive and it was still working, but as others have stated before, it appeared that the drive was due to fail in the near future, hence the reason I replaced the 'A' drive. 

I appreciate your insight! You all are blessings!


----------



## Robert S

Does the TiVo boot without the B drive?

Blessed drives can not be added to upgraded A drives. When that happens the partitions on the B drive replace the upgrade partitions on the A drive. This causes a prolonged GSOD and total loss of recordings. And, of course, you get a funny capacity figure because you've got the original A drive partitions plus the B drive partitions.

If the TiVo does not boot without the B drive, then the drives are married. You can use mfsadd to re-upgrade the A drive (I think you need to use pdisk to delete the dead upgrade partitions first). In your case, repeating the upgrade would be a better bet.

And this time, use mfsadd to add the B drive!


----------



## Steveh24

The Hinsdale upgrade instructions appear to be for US models.

I am based in the UK and have a Thompson TiVo, are the instructions good for this model.

Steveh24


----------



## Robert S

Yes, he does cover the UK TiVo (it's virtually identical to the US Series 1 stand alone TiVo, the only difference is the -l 32 for the backup).

See http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/ for details of several common upgrades done on a UK TiVo. With pix!


----------



## weaknees

I think we answered this via direct email, but in case this is another person, the answer is that our add-on drives will only automatically add hours to a factory TiVo drive - not to a newer expanded drive.

Since you've already used mfstools, you just need to boot the CD again and have your TiVo drives attached. Then use this command to add the extra space:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Where hdc is your A drive and hdd is your B drive (change them as necessary to fit the situation).

Michael


----------



## at4tivo

Today I took the plunge and decided to try to upgrade my DirecTV/Tivo unit. It went extremely well!!! In about 2 hours I was able to upgrade my unit from its original 35 hour capacity to an amazing 163 hours using a Maxtor 160gb hard drive in addition to my original hard drive. It was sooooo smooth!!! I just want to thank Hinsdale, Tiger and whoever else is responsible for making this process so easy. I am definitle not a computer "geek" and I had no problems whatsoever. Thank you!!!!


----------



## Rcrew

I get to add to this thread again!

Thanks guys, I just finished another upgrade today using Hinesdale's guide, and MSF Tools 2.0. 

I hooked up with a new forum member, and upgraded his Series 2 DTiVo to a 160gb single drive configuration.

Less than an hour after he walked in the door, he was on his way with a 120 hour DTiVo!


----------



## kperrier

I have a Philips Series 1 (212) and I am trying to replace the A drive with a 120 gig Seagate.

I have downloaded the Mfs tools CD (today) and used Nero to burn the image. 
First, after booting off the CD, it reports my Tivo A drive as 10 meg. Do I need to unlock it?
Second, it appears tthat none of the utilities are executable. I hit control-alt-delete and I get the error "Bummer, could not run '/sbin/reoot': Permission denied
mfsbackup, et. al. are not executable. Is this a problem with the image, or have I done something wrong?

Kent

Edit: more info. After I hit enter to continue, I get an error: cat:/cdrom/.menu/starting: No such file or directory


----------



## Cspot

> _Originally posted by FlyingRev _
> *
> Anyway, I bought a new 160 gig drive (Western Digital Caviar drive with 8 meg cache and 7200 rpm) and used hinsdale's CD to transfer my programming, setting and all to this new 160 gig drive. It took a few hours, but all seemed fine and reported no errors.
> 
> I have now installed this new 'A' drive as well as the drive I ordered from weaknees and I notice all the setting and programming did indeed transfer. The problem is that the Video Recording Quality times are vastly different than what I expected.
> *


Have you reviewed the lba48 thread???


----------



## Robert S

"Have you reviewed the lba48 thread?"

It's nothing to do with LBA-48 issues. There's nothing you can do about that limitation on a Series 2 TiVo anyway.

His mistake was trying to add a blessed drive to an upgraded A drive. Very Bad Things happen when you do that!


----------



## Cspot

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *"Have you reviewed the lba48 thread?"
> 
> It's nothing to do with LBA-48 issues. There's nothing you can do about that limitation on a Series 2 TiVo anyway.
> 
> His mistake was trying to add a blessed drive to an upgraded A drive. Very Bad Things happen when you do that! *


Ooops, my bad, missed the series 2 bit.....lurk mode back on.


----------



## FlyingRev

Thanks to all and especially Weaknees, I was able to get the drives installed (a new 160 gig A Drive with all programming and settings transferred) along with the Weaknees 120 gig B Drive.

Thanks again!


----------



## lvirden

A friend is over and helping me with my Tivo upgrade.

We're attempting to move from a 40 gig series 2 tivo to 2 new replacement drives (the maxtor 160 gig drives), and copying recorded shows, pgm data, etc.

We're at the step running the mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore.

However, in the past hour, the progress report has barely moved - in the first 15 minutes, it blasted through 8.9 percent. However, in the last 40 minutes or so, it's only gotten to 9.02%.

We're getting no error msgs, but we heard the drives clicking about every 5 minutes or so.

We're wondering whether we've a problem here or not - anyone have any recommendations?

We're using the hindsdale as well as the weaknees instructions...


----------



## Robert S

It could easily take 8 hours to copy the drive, so I don't think there's immediate cause for concern.

When people say 'click' they tend to mean a sound that is dramatically louder than the normal head-seek sound. Those are drive resets, probably a result of a bad block.

Bad blocks will probably stop MFS Tools eventually, so it might not be a good idea to proceed. Bad blocks on the source disk are unfortunate, but you can probably use dd or dd_rescue to salvage the disk.

Bad blocks on one of the new disks would be a disaster, so if you think you've got bad blocks, stop and run diagnostics on all the disks to check for that.


----------



## lvirden

quick update - 3.5 hrs later, and the report says 9.05% ... at this rate, it is liable to
be multiple days until it completes...


----------



## Robert S

You should be at least half-way there by now. There must be something interfering with the copy. I would suspect bad blocks, but MFS Tools should have errored out by now. I would give up and start running diagnostics on the disks to see if you've got a faulty one.

A disk that transfers data that slowly ain't going to work properly in your TiVo.


----------



## yowzer

I was wondering if anyone had an idea what I may have done wrong...last year I upgraded a SAT-T60 from it's original 40 gb and added an 80 gb. The unit shows that it has "variable recording capacity up to 61 hours". I am getting ready to drop out the 40 gb drive and add another 120 gb and before I did that I wondered if someone knew what I may have done wrong. It seems to run fine. I would have expected about 108 hours to be listed. I'm still running the 2.5-01-1-011 and thought I followed Hinsdale's correctly. Thanks.


----------



## lvirden

These are the maxtor 160 gig drives that everyone's been talking about. We already ran diagnostics on the drive before we began and the drives were fine. It's now been nearly 12 hrs and still no error messages and the restore still says it has uncompressed only 9.05%.

What specifically can we do at this point - I really want my working tivo - should
have known that all the great stories of success wouldn't necessarily apply to
my attempt to upgrade :-|


----------



## Robert S

yowswer, I would guess that your 80Gb drive didn't detect correctly and you only added 32Gb to your TiVo. mfsadd should be able to add the rest of the drive if you can get it to detect correctly.

lvirden, did you scan the TiVo's drive for bad blocks?


----------



## RBA

Success! Series 1 Philips 6000 upgraded single drive to two 120gig drives. Up to 240 hours. My wife will be able to record 480 episodes of Judge Judy.


----------



## abergdc

Help!

I'm upgrading a Series2SA from a single 120gig samsung (failing) to a single 160gig maxtor.

I succesfully backed up an image on my c drive.

Now I'm running step 10, "mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 - /dev/hdd" [I have the old drive on b and the new one on d]

and I'm getting a message: "restore failed. Backup drive not big enough to backup entire drive by itself." But when I booted off the cd, I saw that the d (new) drive is indeed bigger than the old (b) drive, according to the Linux operating system.

Note: When I execute the mfsbackup command, I'm told that the original drive is 79hours upgraded to 127hours (which is true).

THanks!

Andy


----------



## Robert S

I'm guessing there's an x somewhere between '127' and '-'?


----------



## weaknees

abergdc - 

One option is to just restore the backup to the new drive. It'll have settings, but not recordings.

As far as your backup/restore script, you need something like "-zxpi" in there also. Try this:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi - /dev/hdd

Michael


----------



## abergdc

Yes, sorry, I did indeed type:

"mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd"

I did just restore the backup to the new drive. It worked (in that I got no error messages). Indeed, I ran mfsadd and was told I now had 147 hours.

So I really don't get it.

Thanks for the amazingly rapid replies and sorry about the mistype in my previous post.

Andy


----------



## abergdc

To be clear -- I'd still like to save the old recordings somehow, if possible (those first Power Ranger Wild Force episodes are still on there.)


----------



## weaknees

So you did an "mfsadd" after that command? That should have reported "nothing to add" right? The "x" in your other command does the same thing as this mfsadd would have.

But in any event, you can restore the backup image, but you still get the command about space if you try the -Tao backup/restore?

Michael


----------



## Robert S

My point was, the command should work if you omit the x.


----------



## abergdc

Oh, got it.

Well, it gets worse, in any case.

I put the new drive in the Tivo (after restoring the backup off the c drive and running "mfsadd -x /dev/hdd and getting a message that it was successful).

I turn back on the unit and after the "just a few more moments . . . "screen it goes back to "Welcome. Powering up . ." and then:

"A severe error has occurred."
It tells me to keep the Reciever plugged in and phone line attached for 3 hours to see if it can repair itself. If it hasn't rebooted after 3 hours, call Tivo customer support.

I could
(1) wait the three hours and see what happens.
or (or, after (1) doesn't work):
(2) Take the new drive out and try the mfsrestore without the "x"
(3) Other?

Thanks,

Andy


----------



## weaknees

I think the first thing you should do is to test that drive. Drive errors would be the answer to all of the problems you are having. Use the manufacturer's software to do a full test.

Michael


----------



## abergdc

It seems like quite a coincidence (first the drive I put in two months ago is bad, then this brand new one.

But I'll go ahead and do that test. Thanks.


----------



## abergdc

Update: the self-repair worked after about an hour. The Tivo came up with 150 hours (of course, I lost my old shows, but no biggy). Live TV didn't work and it took me a long time to deduce that (1) a cable was loose and (this was the tricky part) (2) the Tivo had somehow switched the video input to channel 2. Now, all's well, except:

The Maxtor is distinctly noisier than the Samsung. The slight clicking of the seeking heads is easily audible in a quite room in the middle of the night. I suppose I'll have to run down that info about changing the defaults of the drive to make it more quiet, take the drive out and try to adjust it, and go through the reinstall of the Tivo drive from my mirrored back-up. A bit of a pain. Certainly, I would advise people who care a lot about volume to find another drive.

Thanks again for the incredibly prompt help.

Andy


----------



## lvirden

Just to bring my story to its conclusion - after 12 hrs, we still had no success with the software restore.
My friend reran the diagnostics, and this time the new drive we were going to use as master reported an
error. We removed that drive from the setup, changed to restore from the old 40 gig drive to the new 160 gig drive, and was finished in less than an hour.

I am so glad that the drive that went bad (and this drive had been tested just a few weeks ago with no problems!) turned out to be the first one - if it had been the second one, we might have gotten into a situation where the problem didn't show up until after I had started using it.

Anyways, now to print off my return merchandise approval info and send in my old drive.


----------



## dms92969

I can't get this command to work..

HDA = 30Gig Tivo
HDB = 10GIG Tivo
HDC = 120 GIG NEW HD
HDD = CD-Rom Drive


mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc 

It says the hard drive is too small...

I am going to attempt the following

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdc 

Then

MFSAdd -x /dev/hdc

Will that retain recordings and expand the drive??

Please Help...

FYI..

I am able to backup and restore by..

/mnt/dos is a drive with a fat32 partition on it.. 

mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda /dev/hdb

mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc


----------



## dms92969

It didn't work since the drive already has 6 partitions.. oh well..
The user will loose his recordings but gain 120+Hours or recording time..


----------



## abergdc

My (I hope) final update:

amset worked after some trouble -- nice and quiiet, and no troubles with skipping (for some reason, amset didn't recognize my drive when it was on secondary slave, but I tried switching to primary slave and it worked.).

Tne new drive has solved my stopple problems and allowed me to connect to tivo and get the guide (I was getting an "unknown failure" trying to process the new guide, before).

Thanks again for the help.


----------



## noldia

I just bought a new Series 2 TiVo and would like to put in a 40 gig HD that I have laying around here. I am running XP on my computer and have read some things that say I have to do things a little different when preparing the hard drive for my TiVo. I don't want to change the drive that is already in the machine I just want to add this other drive. Anyway I am looking for some guidance on how to go about performing this task.


----------



## weaknees

If you just want to add the new drive, boot into the CD and use something like:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Where hdc is the location of your TiVo drive and hdd is the location of your new 40 GB drive.

This method won't allow you to make a backup - is that what you want?

Michael


----------



## noldia

I am not sure where to get the software that you are talking about.


----------



## weaknees

Hinsdale has it linked in his guide - we also host the floppy image here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/files.html

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Don't bother adding a 40G to a new tivo. Not worth it to add such a small size IMO. Plus you'd need to buy a bracket to even fit a second drive.


----------



## Jeremybme

I followed Hinsdales instructions months ago and added a 40gb drive in addition to the 22gb drive in my HDR112, Yesterday i followed his instructions and copied both of those drives to 2 brand new 80gb drives. Took almost 12 hours, but it works, Now i take the A Drive out and try to set up a bash prompt, And it wont mount any partitions, I get No MSDOS file system can be found, you must specify a valid file system.

Yet when i put the old A drive on to my computer the mount commands work just fine,

Here is the commands im trying to use

mkdir /mnt/7 (THIS WORKS)

mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt/7 (THIS WONT WORK)

is there something that happened in the copying of the two drives that messed up the drives?

any help would be appreciated.


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like the drive might be locked - what size does it show on startup?

Michael


----------



## Robert S

Actually, it's more likely that he's using the MFS Tools 2.0 CD and hasn't twigged to the whole 'byteswapping' thing.

You need to boot in byteswapping mode to mount the partitions of the Series 1 TiVo. See the first post of the Fixes thread or use a different boot CD.


----------



## Jeremybme

they both show the correct size, i already used Qunlock on both of them..


----------



## Jeremybme

let me clarify i used the hinsdale guide and upgraded to a two drive system months ago, yesterday i used the option which copies everything and expands to go from an A drive of 22gb and a B drive of 40gb to 2 80 gb drives
the system works, but i count mount the partitions 4 and 7 to do the bash prompt, I can mount them on the old A drive but that doesnt really help me now does it.. 


-Jeremy


----------



## Robert S

The TiVo will relock them, so you'll need to run qunlock each time they come out of the TiVo. Qunlock is rather dangerous, though, if you're unlocking the drives repeatedly, DiskUtil would be a much safer option as one wrong move with qunlock will cause irreparable damage.

Anyway, things to check for, every time you boot: As Michael said, read the BIOS splash and check the sizes are correct, then check the boot log and check that the TiVo's partition table is being printed out. If you're using the floppy the boot should be slow enough to read all this as it scrolls past.

And, of course, you wouldn't expect both 4 and 7 to mount.


----------



## Jeremybme

Thank you robert, i finally came the conclusion you just gave me, I shouldnt expect both 4 and 7 to boot, so really all along i didnt have a problem. I finally found that info later on in another write up. I got my bash working over serial...

Thank you guys for letting me vent here, and for your help!

hopefully i can get ftp and stuff loaded with out a problem now

-Jeremy


----------



## taxman522

I have a HDR112 unit with two drives, original 13 and upgrade 80. I suspect the orig 13 is bad. I have a spare Maxtor 13 gb drive that I would like to replace the orig with.

Do I need to remove both Tivo drives to do the backup?

Can I just connect the orig Tivo 13 and the new Maxtor and then do the backup and restore?

TIA


----------



## Robert S

You can't do a backup and restore, but you may be able to use dd to clone the disk.


----------



## taxman522

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You can't do a backup and restore, but you may be able to use dd to clone the disk. *


I am new to this. Could you please elaborate on how to clone and use dd?

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

Basic usage of 'dd' booted of the mfstools CD is:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=1024 conv=noerror,sync

where hdc is the existing, possibly bad drive, and hdd is the target drive.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

Well, it's in Hinsdale. It doesn't seem outrageously unreasonable to think that people who post in this thread might have at least a passing familiarity with Hinsdale...

Anyway, just to confuse by disagreeing with Michael: Michael has given you a command with 'conv=noerror,sync', which is a good idea for a 'bad' disk as it tells dd to do its best to get past bad blocks.

However, he's also given 'bs=1024', which is a bit odd as the default for bs is 512, so I'd be surprised if 1024 makes a noticable difference. I suspect he meant 'bs=1024k', which leads to dramatically faster copies.

But, using such a large block size is only advisable for a perfect disk. If you suspect the disk is faulty, a smaller block size is more likely to result in a working copy. I wouldn't go over 32k in any case, but as you're only copying 13.5Gb, you can probably omit the bs= option completely.


----------



## weaknees

My mistake - I meant 1024k. But you're right - you'll lose less data if it finds bad blocks by using smaller blocks. Just leave the default as Robert S suggested.

Michael


----------



## taxman522

Thanks for your help, Robert and Weaknees.


----------



## bbalfour

Thanks to both Hindsdale and Weaknees. I've just upgraded my Phillips 30hr to 128hrs. My second painless upgrade.


----------



## Athenian

I've read the instructions from Hinsdale but I really don't understand what is going on. Is there some reason I can't just put the old TiVO disk in my computer, use Ghost to make an image of the disk, then clone that to my new disk? What do these tools do?

Thank you.


----------



## weaknees

These tools work with Linux partitions and expanding and adding to them and the relevant portions of the tables that see the partitions. You can use Ghost to some extent to make an exact copy, but not to expand or make a backup.

Michael


----------



## Athenian

So I could use Ghost to swap a disk of the same size but not to upgrade to a large disk? I'm just trying to understand because I have a spare 120GB disk here and am thinking about using it in my 1-month old RCA DVR40


----------



## weaknees

That's exactly right. To be complete, you could use the 120 GB drive, but you'd only get 40 GB of use out of it.

Michael


----------



## wilhouse

I have two TIVOs. my older one a series 2 60GB standalone, has a failing hard drive. I would like to make an exact copy on a new 80GB drive I bought, but am not that interested in making a backup.

Can I simply zoom ahead to Hindsdale step 10 to copy and expand the 60 to 80 GB drives?

wilhouse


----------



## Robert S

Yes, you can copy directly from one drive to another. It only takes about 15 minutes to make a backup and it might save your TiVo one day.


----------



## iceperson

I'm going to install a second drive and was wondering if it matters which drive I install where. For instance should the new faster/larger drive be primary or secondary? Would I see better performance either way? Also, are Hinsdale's instructions the only ones out there? I've been going over them all morning and I feel like my heads about to explode. Something about cramming instructions for every possible scenario/model onto a single page is a little hard to follow.


----------



## weaknees

We have instructions here which boils down the process to just what you need:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

If both drives work pefectly (and you should test an old drive before you re-use it if you have any doubts) it won't really matter where you put each drive, except that to add swap space (specificied in our instructions) you'd need the A drive to be larger than the original drive, so likely the new drive is, and we'd recommend using them that way.

Michael


----------



## iceperson

Rock on! That's the bomb. Oh.. and I just got my upgrade kit from you yesterday in the mail. My new drive should be in tonight when I get home. Yippeee =)


----------



## iceperson

OK. Another question. Reading the instructions it tells me to set the jumper on the drive but doesn't mention what it should be set to on which drive. Does it matter as long as one is Master and the other is Slave? I'm putting both the old drive and the new drive in a machine with no hard drives and a CD-ROM. When I'm put them back into the Tivo will I need to change them again? I want the bigger drive (new drive) to be the A drive per your recommendations.
Thanks!


----------



## Robert S

Yes, one drive must be master and the other slave. In the TiVo the A drive must be set to master, but in the PC you can use any setting that's convenient.


----------



## iceperson

OK. Followed the instructions and now all I get is a Welcome powering up screen. At this point all I want to do is get it working again. Is there a command to revert back to before the mfsadd command?


----------



## Robert S

No, not without losing your recordings.

I wouldn't panic just yet, it's more likely to be something fairly trivial like a cable or jumper problem than a major problem.

The A drive should be able to get to 'almost there' on its own. Does that work?


----------



## iceperson

Nope. I tried changing the jumper back to the way it was before I started and using the original cable and it still just sits there. The screen flickers black every once in a while but then just goes back to the grey screen. At this point I'm not too concerned about settings and shows. If there's an easy command to make the large drive and small drive setup right and work then I'd be happy. Right now the large drive is in my other PC as secondary master and the original is in as primary slave.


----------



## Robert S

Although you've typed a fair bit, you haven't actually said very much. What have you actually done with your TiVo and its drives so far?


----------



## iceperson

I took out the original drive and set it up as slave then set the new drive's jumpers for master, next I put the 2 drives in my pc, the original was hdb and the new one was hdc. then I ran mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb. The command completed successfully so I put them back in the Tivo using my instructions and kit from weaknees and nothing but the "Welcome powering up" screen. So then I took the new drive out and setup the Tivo exactly how it was before I started and still only get "Welcome powering up"... The new drive is a seagate 120GB.


----------



## Robert S

As the syntax is mfsadd -x <A drive> <B drive>, you appear to have attempted to add the existing A drive as a B drive to the new (blank?) one. I'm not surprised this didn't work.


----------



## iceperson

Great. Any ideas on where I should go from here? I could really care less about recovering any of the settings/programs at this point but I'd really like to have my tivo back up and running again.


----------



## Robert S

I was rather hoping you'd come back and say, 'no, I didn't do that, what I meant to say was...'.

I would have expected mfsadd to error out if the A drive was blank, but that does not appear to have happened. 

Given that the TiVo is now unbootable, I would think that you'll have to reimage from a backup file.


----------



## iceperson

I didn't get an error. It actually came back and said that it now had 162 hours of record time (or something like that). Is there something I can run to check?


----------



## Robert S

We'll have to ask Tiger to investigate that for the next version of Hinsdale. I don't see why mfsadd wouldn't detect a problem in that case and stop.

Anyway, mfsinfo might be interesting. Try it both ways round (mfsinfo <A drive> <B drive> and mfsinfo <B drive> <A drive>). You can also try to make a compressed backup (just make the filename /dev/null instead of tivo.bak if you don't have a writable partition handy). I would guess that mfsbackup would halt fairly quickly, but it would interesting if it could complete.

It's getting very late here, so I'm going to have to stop there. See you tomorrow.


----------



## iceperson

Well.. I restored a backup to the large drive then ran mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb and installed the drives back into the tivo. I got the GSOD but about 5 minutes later it was back up and running with both drives. Woohoo!


----------



## iceperson

Thought I had it working but something is still wrong  Everything setup just fine but when it tried to record a program it doesn't save them. It switches to the channel it's suppoed to record but doesn't seem to be recording the show into long term storage (only the 30 minute "cache" works). The show then shows up in now playing but when I try to play it I get this message:
_
Error playing a recording

The Tivo DVR was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel. You may have been trying to record on a channel that you don't receive.
_
The channels all come in fine. Here's a little more history. After having problems with adding a drive I did these things to get back up
-----------------------------------------------------------------
umount -f -a -r
mkdir /mnt/cd
mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cd
mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/cd/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Specs
hdc is my new 120GB seagate drive and is set to master in the Tivo
hdb is the original 40GB and is set to Slave in the Tivo


----------



## weaknees

This sounds like a problem with serialization. If you are using an image file from a different TiVo, then you'll need to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" after you boot the new image. This will, of course, remove all settings, wishlists, season passes, and recordings, but it will reset the TiVo to acquire your serial number and then work fine.

Michael


----------



## sandpj

Thank you Robert and Weeknees. Your support made my upgrade possible; just added a 120 GB to a Series 2 40GB.

A couple of questions for clarification:

1. When re-installing the drives into the Tivo, does it matter where the drives are located on the IDE cable? I.E. does the Master drive have to be located at the end of the cable? (I presume not since it is not "cable select")

2. How does Weaknees provide an add-on drive without an mfsadd command on the original drive? How are they "married?" 

Thanks again...Paul


----------



## weaknees

Glad the upgrade went well.

1. If you aren't using cable select, then, no, it doesn't matter.

2. Stock TiVo drives can accept a properly formatted (blessed) drive as a second drive.

Michael


----------



## sandpj

1. If you aren't using cable select, then, no, it doesn't matter.

Well, would it be better to install the new 7200 rpm HD closer to the secondary fan under the assumption it typically runs hotter? Where is the temperature being measured - from the master hard drive or is there a sensor within the Tivo electronics?

2. Stock TiVo drives can accept a properly formatted (blessed) drive as a second drive.

Haven't read about "blessed" drives yet. Will need to read more....


Thanks..........Paul


----------



## weaknees

Yes- installing the hotter hard drive closer to the second fan is a good idea. The thermometer sensor is on the motherboard, but many drives also have internal temp monitoring. The temp you see on-screen comes from the motherboard.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

BlessTiVo is covered in 'Old' Hinsdale. I would recommend using mfsadd as in 'New' Hinsdale if possible.


----------



## sandpj

A couple weeks ago, I added a WD 120 GB as a slave to the Maxtor. Everything working fine as noted above.

Just purchased second WD 120GB to replace original Maxtor. Wanted to backup the Maxtor again since I has added some SP's. Using Boot CD this time (floppy first time). Drive sizes accurately reflected.

After mounting the C drive, typed 
mfsbackup -f 9999 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd (Maxtor installed as Secondary Slave)
Did not work; got series of messages starting with:
MFS Second Drive: No such file or directory

Appreciate the support.....Paul


----------



## weaknees

Well, that's not quite the right command, but I'm not sure it you missed part here or there given those errors. Try:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd

The addition being the "-1so"

Michael


----------



## sandpj

Actually, I did use -6so (Sorry for the mistype above)

This is per Hinsdale. Should it have been -1so ?


----------



## weaknees

We think "1" is the optimum setting, but "6" should work fine also, but just take a bit longer.

But here's the other issue - you now have two drives in your TiVo, right? So you need both in the PC, with the first and second drives specified in the line like this:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd /dev/hdc

Put the A drive first and the B drive second.

Michael


----------



## seanp99

I just want to thank Hinsdale for the easy to follow guide. I replaced the two hd in my unit with an 80gb one. Everything went according to the guide. This was very easy to do, I'm glad I left Win98 on my son's computer. Thanks again for saving me some money and helping me upgrade my Dtivo.


----------



## bwx

I previously upgraded my DSR6000 from the stock 40G drive to a Samsung 120G.

I now have video hiccups (10-15 second pauses with video corruption) I attribute to bad areas on the disk.

I want to replace this Samsung with a new drive, but mfsbackup states that the new drive is not big enough. The new drive appears to be slightly smaller than the old.

There are not many stored shows on the original, but I would like to transfer them to the new drive.

Can I make mfstools copy the contents regardless of this size discrepancy?

Also, is there documentation on mfstools usage and switches (so I know what I am typing)?

Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

Look at the Linux boot log (dmesg | grep hd). How big are the drives as Linux sees them?

If you restore with -x, this will always fail as mfsrestore knows it can't expand as requested.


----------



## bwx

I guess I could have included this.

Old = 120060MB, 14596 cyl
New = 120034MB, 14593 cyl


----------



## Robert S

If you restore without -s 127 (it looks like -s 100 would work), the swap partitio will shrink to 64 (or 100) megabytes, which should be enough to get it to fit. 64Mb of swap is enough for about 180Gb of disk space on that type of TiVo. (100Mb would do about 250Gb).


----------



## bwx

I tried down to -s 64. No joy! (uncomressed backup size: 112803 megabytes) Maybe I should note that this drive is an ex-winxp drive that has not been cleared. Do I need to do a format or other operation to prepare it for mfstools?


----------



## weaknees

mfstools doesn't even look at what's already on the drive in this case - it just writes right over it, so any type of reformatting would have no effect, unfortunately.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

You have taken the x out of the restore side, haven't you?

You can do this transfer with dd, although it's extremely painful. What you ahve to do is create a partition table for the new drive with pdisk. As the new drive is slightly smaller, you have to shrink some of the partitions to make thing fit. The active root partition and all the MFS partitions have to be the same size as before, but the inactive root, swap and /var partitions can lose a little weight without causing a problem.

Then you dd the partitions over from the old drive. Don't copy partition 1 as that's the partition table. You only need to copy the active boot, kernel and root partitions. If you've resize the swap partition you need to use mkswap to reinitialise it, otherwise you can copy it over from the old drive. Similarly, the /var partition can be copied if it's the same size. If it's not, just ignore it and th TiVo will rebuild it itself.

These procedures are described in a slightly different context in the first few posts of the Fixes thread, esp #7.

However, if you can possibly get MFS Tools to do the copy for you, that would greatly simplify things.


----------



## bwx

OK. Anyone have any other ideas? I still don't know how to access details about the use of mfstools. I am unix ignorant, although I do have previous experience with text (command) based OS's. I saw the README file on the CD, but don't know how to display the content. I didn't see anything in help that looked likely.

I used the command: mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

I understand the device spec, I glean the -s 127 MB swap file. I don't know what -Tao or -xzpi are for. I am less than inclined to read through thousands of posts to pick out what means what...

Can anyone point me to how to learn more about mfstools and the paramiters/switches?

Thanks all...


----------



## Nightfall

Just wanted to say that I used this guide when I upgraded my first Tivo last year. A couple days ago, I used this guide again and upgraded my second Tivo. I don't consider myself to be a Linux expert, but I have played on it a little bit. The commands are all right there on paper and no problems popped up. The key is just following the instructions to the letter.

Thanks! This was an easy upgrade process!


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like the drive is bad there. If it's failing in the TiVo also, then this is pretty conclusive. You basically need to get either a replacement drive, or an image.

Michael


----------



## twoehr

I got the following error when running "mfsadd" to expand a new disk in a Sony SVR-2000 Tivo, "would result in too many partitions". Is this the issue where I need to obtain an image with 11 partitions as mine has 13? I would like to confirm before seeking out a new image.

Thanks,

Tim


----------



## jedi

Your TiVo upgrade document is very well done. I ordered a drive this afternoon, picked it up on the way home from work, and in less than 2 hours added 107 hours to my recording capacity. The 2 hours included saving the existing recordings. The doc was easy to follow and covered all of the esoteric details required for a successful upgrade.

Well done.


----------



## Robert S

twoehr: There's more to it than that. Even a 13-partition image can be expanded once. What are you trying to do?


----------



## twoehr

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *twoehr: There's more to it than that. Even a 13-partition image can be expanded once. What are you trying to do? *


I backed up the Sony Tivo's disk, mfsbackup -6so

Then tried to restore (to a new 80 GB Maxtor disk) via, mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi, which failed

I then tried to restore without the expand, mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi, this worked

I verified operation of the new disk in the Tivo, no issues

Then tried to run mfsadd -x to expand the disk, to which I get the error "would result in too many partitions"

In a previous version of the Hinsdale instructions it states that "TiVoMad" can not expand the drives of Sony's with "13 partitions" and that an "11 partition" image needs to be obtained. (I am using the MFSTools 2.0 CD)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Tim


----------



## Robert S

That's a specific limitation in TiVoMad. mfsadd is much more flexible.

What does mfsinfo say? It would seem that you already have six MFS partitions, although I don't see how that's possible.


----------



## SuperRob

Just another thank you to Hinsdale and Tiger for thier excellent tools and walkthrough. I just took a 100GB Western Digital drive that I had lying around and used the instructions to take my 35 Hr. Philips DSR7000 up to 87 Hours. A simple (albeit LONG) dd, followed by a quick and painless expand did the trick. It's working like a charm. Thanks, guys!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Curious, and this seems like the place to get a quick answer, I bet.

I've always used mfsbackup/mfsrestore and never dd. If I want to preserve recordings, it's a mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore all at once.

Is there any advantage to one way or the other? (restore vs. dd)


----------



## Robert S

dd is (a bit) faster and can cope with bad blocks on the disk.

MFS Tools can expand your swap partition painlessly.


----------



## steves36

Just have to say I did this 2nite and it went great with now problems. Thanks so much for the guide. You really made it simple


----------



## twoehr

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *That's a specific limitation in TiVoMad. mfsadd is much more flexible.
> 
> What does mfsinfo say? It would seem that you already have six MFS partitions, although I don't see how that's possible. *


mfsinfo says I have 2 partitons and the volume may be expanded 5 more times. Also the volume header information says there is a mismatch: Total sectors (98847744) mismatch with volume header (57699328), that may be the problem. If so I do not know what to do to fix it.

Volume info:
hda10 512MiB
hda11 47753MiB

Tim


----------



## greyskies

> _Originally posted by abergdc _
> ****
> 
> The Maxtor is distinctly noisier than the Samsung. The slight clicking of the seeking heads is easily audible in a quite room in the middle of the night. I suppose I'll have to run down that info about changing the defaults of the drive to make it more quiet, take the drive out and try to adjust it, and go through the reinstall of the Tivo drive from my mirrored back-up. A bit of a pain. Certainly, I would advise people who care a lot about volume to find another drive.
> 
> Thanks again for the incredibly prompt help.
> 
> Andy *


Question for you. Did you find a way to get the head seeking noise reduced. I have recently upgraded from my original Quantum HD in a Sony SVR-2000 to a 120Gb Maxtor Plus 9. Any insight or guidance to reduce this noise annoyance would be deeply appreciated.


----------



## Robert S

twoehr: You have to run mfsinfo against both drives in a twin-drive set.


----------



## twoehr

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *twoehr: You have to run mfsinfo against both drives in a twin-drive set. *


That doesn't sound good. As I only have one drive. ) Would you agree that I don't seem to be getting a good backup of my original drive if this is what my restores look like? (I've tried restoring a couple more time with the same results.)

Tim


----------



## Robert S

Well, the sector mismatch means the MFS set says it contains more partitions than mfsinfo can see. Normally this happens when people forget the B drive.

Clearly something weird is happening, although it's not obvious to me what's wrong.


----------



## EdAtlanta

Bill,

Here is a public copy of what I sent you early this morning. Thanks again.

Ed

Good morning Bill. When I got home from work yesterday my new drive was
waiting on me. It took me longer to unplug all of the cables and move
the Tivo to the work table than it did to change the drive. 4 hours
later it had upgraded itself twice and was back on the network.

Thank you for your help and prompt service. My 60 hour Tivo is now a
146 hour and the hard drive isn't dying. This new Maxtor drive is also
quieter than the Western Digital that was in it originally.

Thanks again.


----------



## twoehr

Thanks for helping me out Robert. I guess my image was just no good. The only other symptom was that at the conclusion of the restore it hung on the "cleanup".

I got hooked up with a good image and that restored and expanded without a hitch.

Thanks again,

Tim



> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Well, the sector mismatch means the MFS set says it contains more partitions than mfsinfo can see. Normally this happens when people forget the B drive.
> 
> Clearly something weird is happening, although it's not obvious to me what's wrong. *


----------



## dishman

> _Originally posted by greyskies _
> *Question for you. Did you find a way to get the head seeking noise reduced. I have recently upgraded from my original Quantum HD in a Sony SVR-2000 to a 120Gb Maxtor Plus 9. Any insight or guidance to reduce this noise annoyance would be deeply appreciated. *


I just put one of these Maxstor Diamondmax Plus 9 drives in as well (on sale at Buy.com). Noisest thing I've ever heard. I thought for sure the drive was defective.


----------



## dishman

Most of the upgrade instructions I've seen here discuss using a primary/secondary master/slave combination to backup and restore. 
This is hard with a notebook, so I thought I'd try using a USB External drive.
Following Hinsdale's instructions but using /dev/sda rather than /dev/hdX, it worked just fine. 

Thanks Hinsdale and Tiger.


----------



## Robert S

That comes up quite a bit. Tell us more.


----------



## dishman

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *That comes up quite a bit. Tell us more. *


Not much else to tell, really. I used a USB 1.1 external IDE drive enclosure which I normally use as a backup drive for the TiVo drive and my regular C drive as the FAT32 drive. I then followed Hinsdale's instructions but changed the backup to :
"mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/sda" 
and the restore to: 
"mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/sda".
mfsinfo /dev/sda worked fine.

I had to make sure I jumpered the drive going into the enclosure as master, and needed to power down the enclosure and the PC when switching drives in the enclosure (powering down just the enclosure didn't work).

Also, when performing the backup, no progress was indicated for 10 minutes, but then regular progress updates appeared.


----------



## Retiredibm

Thank you to Weakness, PTVupgrade, Hinsdale and Tiger for their excellent tools and walk through. I am a newbie just 41 days since I purchased my 1st Series 2 and now a 2 TiVo owner and addict.(wife claimed the first TiVo and now we are a 2 TiVo HMO family)

I took a 160GB Maxtor Diamond Plus drive, used the instructions to take my Series 2 TiVo 140060 up to 165 Hours ( single drive). 1.3 hours later from, powering down the TiVo to start to watch TiVo. Interesting part was one of my To Do items started up recording while completing the boot up. Amazing! It's working like a charm. The only change I have noted is the MB temp is reporting 45c was 42c. I think that is the fact that the 7200 rpm drive runs hotter.

Thanks, guys!


----------



## troyz

A few months back I replaced my original A drive with a 160gb drive, I keep the drive on a shelf as a back and I have also made a tivo.bak file.

Now I want to add a second B drive, do I really need to do a second backup? Because the software version is the same, if something went wrong I could just pop the single drive back in correct? I would lose my season passes though.

Is my thinking correct?


----------



## weaknees

No - you don't need a second backup, but it might not be a bad idea since you'll already have your A drive in your computer. Putting a new backup on your PC means that if you ever have to restore, you'll have a newer OS and more recent settings. But the old one will work fine also.

Michael


----------



## troyz

Maybe I am remembering this wrong, the backup doesn't take that long does it? I am too busy to spend too much time on this and I am running out of space with my 160gb drive. (I never thought I would have to record the old shows like magnum for the wife) 

It is the restore I did with recordings originally that took quite a few hours now that I think about it.

I think I will do a backup.

Troy


----------



## weaknees

Right - a backup on a reasonably fast PC should take maybe 5 minutes. And a restore without recordings takes even less. But a piped backup-restore could take hours.

Michael


----------



## iosborn

I've run into the dreaded green screen of death on my older Sony 2000 Tivo. I read over the install guides for the formatting of a new hard drive. 

A few clarification questions if you don't mind:

1. Since I want to replace a corupted hard drive with a new one, and don't care about the setting on the old drive, do I ignore the backup/image instructions?

2. Is there a recomendation on the specific HD to buy?

3. I run win2K, so can I just disconnect my current hard drive (that run the MS OS) boot from the linux CD, and image the new TIVO drive on the primary slave channel? Or do I need to create a new MS bootable drive that uses Fat32? (I run NTFS currently)? What is the simplest way? (BTW, I shave a liscence or two of Win98 still - should I use a spare drive to create a win98 install on the primary master, then follow the instructions verbatim?)


----------



## weaknees

1. You need an image any way you slice it. If you can't get one off your existing TiVo HD, then you need to find one somewhere.

2. We highly recommend Maxtor QuickView hard drives. They are drives tuned for PVRs and are now in 80% of shipping units. That's all we use in our upgrade kits.

3. First, be careful to not boot any TiVo drive under Win 2K - it'll render it largely useless in a TiVo without some complicated manuvering. Next, you do need a place for your TiVo image. If you are getting one from your existing drive, you need a FAT32 partition somewhere. If you are getting one as a file, you can put it on an NTFS volume and mount that.

Michael


----------



## iosborn

Where can I get an image?


----------



## weaknees

Post a new thread with that as the title and you might get some help. They're getting pretty hard to find these days.

Michael


----------



## dishman

> _Originally posted by iosborn _
> *Where can I get an image? *


You could purchase a replacement drive ready to go from several firms, such as Weaknees and PTVUpgrade. They only cost a little more than 
a blank drive, and all you'd have to do is plug it in.


----------



## EdAtlanta

That is what I did. Plugged in a new 120gig to replace my original dying 60gig. After a several connections and two service upgrades, it is totally back to normal and with a lot more capacity. I am keeping my original drive as a backup in case I ever need it. It wasn't dead, but dying.

Ed


----------



## BlueXanaX

Another added post.

:up:


----------



## GargleBlast

So I'm following the upgrade directions, getting my hda and hdb etc all in a row. I'm trying to create my image from the original 40 GB from a Philips DSR704. The mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc command lets me know (2 things I forgot, then) the size of my uncompressed image (around 14GB) and then nothing at all happened for around a 1/2 hour. What message should I be expecting and how long should I wait (P4 1.8GHz)? I'd rather have a safe backup than just copy direct to my new single drive A replacement.

J


----------



## weaknees

You should be seeing percentages roll by, and this should take less than 5 minutes on that computer.

Michael


----------



## hdeditor

It took me a few hours, and a bit of head-banging, but I did it. I upgraded by latest EBay acquisition (a Sony SVR-2000) from the stock 30GB drive to a Samsung 120BG drive from ZipZoomFly. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101003

I ran into a bit of trouble because I tried to get the BIOS of the two PC's I used to recognize the drive. Both PC's locked up when trying to detect the drives. I forgot that Linux can probe the drives for the correct parameters. Once I let the CD boot and look for the drives, it was a piece of cake!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who made this possible!


----------



## weaknees

That's great! It's generally easiest to just set your BIOS to totally ignore the IDE locations where the drives will be located.

Michael


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I certainly don't post a "thanks Hinsdale and Tiger" thread after every upgrade, but thought I was due to express my gratitude.

I've got an upgrade of a friend's TiVo running on another system as I type this, the good ol' reliable "mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s127 -xzpi - /dev/hda" method to keep all programs and settings and such.

This makes at least my 12th upgrade. My six, two (or more?) friends' at work, two upgrades to same box of another friend at work, my Dad's and one of my brother's (walked him through it by phone--I count this as mine).

Great job, guys. Thanks for all the TiVo goodness.


----------



## scottym

Hi,

I have a Hughes Series 2 DirecTivo (HDVR2) and I've previously (1 year ago) replaced my A drive with a 120 GB drive using MFSbackup and MFSrestore. I restored to the new A drive using the '-s 127' option so I'm assuming I don't need to worry about increasing the swap partition size when I add another 120 GB B drive.

Since I already have made a backup of my original A drive when I replaced the A drive (saved the old A drive as well), can I go directly to step 10 (upgrade configuration #1) of Hindale's HOWTO and run MFSadd? 

Is it necessary to prepare the new B drive in any way before running MFSadd?

Thanks for your sage council!

Scott


----------



## weaknees

mfsadd is all you need at this point. If it's a used drive, you should check it with some diagnostic software first.

Michael


----------



## cyoung315

Your instructions seem to written extremely well! My only question is do I need the cooling assembly that others suggest using?


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by cyoung315 _
> *Your instructions seem to written extremely well! My only question is do I need the cooling assembly that others suggest using? *


What model TiVo? What upgrade?

Michael


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by cyoung315 _
> *Your instructions seem to written extremely well! My only question is do I need the cooling assembly that others suggest using? *


If your unit is situated in a properly ventilated environment, adding an additional fan is of no apparent benefit; my recommendation would be to consider several things:

1) don't make it harder for the unit's fan to exhaust the warm air - putting additional cooling in the unit may very well do that

2) make attempts to reduce the temperature of the air ENTERING the unit -- make sure your component rack is well-ventilated and that your TiVo is not sitting on something that vents from the top

3) perhaps replace your unit's fan with a more powerful one, however this may create more noise, as well


----------



## josan5885

OK I have an RCA DVR-40. I wanted to replace my 40gb stock HD with a 160GB Western Digital. I followed Hinsdale instructions. This is what I did:

1. made backup of my tivo drive as tivo.bak
mkdir_ /mnt/dos
mount_ /dev/hda1_ /mnt/dos
mfsbackup_ -f 9999_ -6so_ /mnt/dos/tivo.bak_ /dev/hdc

2. Because I want to keep my tivo drive safe for future use, I decided to copy my tivo 40gb drive to my new 160gb upgrade drive by using this command:

dd_ conv=noerror,sync_ if=/dev/hdc_ of=/dev/hdb_ bs=1024k (I wanted to keep all of my recordings)

it seems that everything went fine I left it overnight and I placed it in the tivo. I turn tivo on and it turns on fine. my recordings are there (did not try to play any of them)

When I check in the system info the recorder capacity still is listed as Aproximately 35 hrs. as I re-read the hinsdale instruction it says that that is normal.

Questions
1-Is that OK, How can I make sure what the new capacity of my drive is?
2-Did I miss something? 
3-Do I still need to do This command 
mfsbackup_ -Tao_ -_ /dev/hdc | mfsrestore_ -s 127 -xzpi_ -_ /dev/hda
4-Is there a way to find out how much capacity I have left as I record shows?

Thanks to Hinsdale, Tyger and weaknees for all their work.

Josan

_


----------



## weaknees

If you are doing a one-drive replace, as you wrote, then there is really no convenient way to add more cooling. Our TwinBreeze bracket would work to add extra cooling, but it's primarily intended to add a second drive, and therefore cool the additional heat created.

Your WD drive is probably a 7200 RPM drive so it will run a bit hotter than the stock drive you pulled out of the unit - just watch your temps and you should be fine.

1 - Looks right. You'll need to use mfsadd to get the extra space used. Afterward, go to your System Information screen to verify.

2 - Just mfsadd.

3 - That would replace the "dd" and the "mfsadd" steps - so either way.

4 - Not easily. You can use "TiVo Suggestions" to fill up the unused space and gauge from there.

Michael


----------



## josan5885

this is getting anoying.

Well anyway after successfully following the hinsdale how too to go from a 40gb to a 160gb on a dvr-40. I decided to take the next step on my tivo
so I wanted to make an exact copy of my new hard drive including my recordings (have some veryold 1940's 1950s of a mexican comedian and can't find the dvd's anywhere) to keep as backup.

so anyway I ecided to do the dd command as instructed in hinsdale

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024K

the first time I did this to go copy the 40gb to the 160gb it did it overnight less than 6hrs. now trying to copy the 160gb to a 200gb it has been going for over 12hrs is this normal. I have read sometimes it takes 1-4hr maybe 8hrs.

should I stop it or let it keep going? if I should stop it how can I doit?
and finally how can make a backup of my drive WITH the recordings. 

any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

jose


----------



## weaknees

You can stop it with a ctrl-z.

Depending on the speed of your computer, this might be a reasonable amount of time.

To do a backup with recordings (it'll be huge) try:

mfsbackup -Tao /tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Have space ready.

Michael


----------



## josan5885

Thanks for your quick response

my computer is a 2400+ AMD Athlon with 512 of ram
I just want a copy to have while I try to figure out how to do something I am not suppossed to discuss in this forum. and since I want to experiment I do not want to lose those recordings.

I have a brand new 250gb that I can use for the backup. I was just worry why it was taking so long.

but thanks again.

jose


----------



## tweekerz

Thanks to Hinsdale, I was able to upgrade my ATTivo 40 hour to a 165 hour with an old 160 gb Maxtor 5400 rpm drive I had..

I happened to notice the bracket inside the Tivo.. it has room for another drive..... 

I definately would need to replae the original Panflo fan, and upgrade


Thanks
Matt


----------



## God

You shouldn't upgrade your storage capacity, you are cheating tivo out of the extra money that they earn for selling higher capacity units.


----------



## tweekerz

Shoot, I did tivo a favor and bought their refurbished units off of them, saving them money from having to throw them away!



> _Originally posted by God _
> *You shouldn't upgrade your storage capacity, you are cheating tivo out of the extra money that they earn for selling higher capacity units. *


----------



## Robert S

TiVo have never shown any signs of distress over people upgrading their hard drives (I wonder if TiVoPony and TiVoBill still have their original drives?). It would be trivially easy for them to break the upgrade tools with minor changes to the TiVo disk format.

What they really want is your subscription fees.


----------



## dishman

> _Originally posted by God _
> *You shouldn't upgrade your storage capacity, you are cheating tivo out of the extra money that they earn for selling higher capacity units. *


Until recently the largest you could purchase was 80GB and TiVo does not offer any ability to upgrade an existing unit (surprisingly). I think Robert S is correct, they are focused on growing subscription fees, and HMO sales. If you are not doing anything to take away from them you aren't taking anything away from TiVo. I think everyone on these forums thinks TiVo was a great invention and wants the company to suceed.


----------



## weaknees

Further, I think they don't want to be in the hardware business at all. They would rather have companies like Philips, Hughes, Pioneer, Samsung, RCA, Toshiba, Sony, and Humax do the hardware end, where they concentrate on software. They generally try to do as little hardware as possible and the deal where Humax will begin making standalones soon seems to support this theory.

Michael


----------



## scottym

Hi,

I'm wondering if it's possible to harm your mutliswitch by restoring the wrong image to my HDVR2. I restored an image to my unit and my signal level for that particular drop (bedroom) went to zero for all satellites and transponders. I reloaded the correct image and the tivo seems to work in my other room(living room). Furthermore, I tried hooking-up my SAT receiver from my living room and it also reported zero signal for the satellite drop in my bedroom. This loss-of-signal occured after restoring the wrong image using mfsrestore. Is it possible my activities damaged my multiswitch?

Scott


----------



## weaknees

Never heard of that before. I can see how sending incorrect voltage up the line would harm the multiswitch, but not how a TiVo could be forced to do that.

Michael


----------



## scottym

Thanks for your reply. If you folk's haven't seen this before then it's probably a coincidence my multiswitch died while i was tweaking. Maybe it's not such a big coincidence since I spend a lot of tweaking and the switch had to die someday.

Scott


----------



## weaknees

I'm betting on the coincidence. It's unfortunate - when two things go bad at once, it makes troubleshooting much, much harder.

Michael


----------



## FullThrottleDave

Hello All, 
It is late here so I don't expect I will get a reply until tomorrow. I spent the evening upgrading my Hughes SD40 by adding a Maxtor 120GB drive B. I followed Hinsdale and used a Weaknees bracket. Everything went along fine except I seem to be stuck on "Welcome Powering up" I had already tested the restored backup on the new Maxtor just to make sure the backup was good. Then put it back in the PC and did the MFSADD as directed. I checked the drive cables and jumper settings. The factory drive is set as master and the new Maxtor is set as slave. I powered down and rechecked everything. The Maxtor had been set as CS and I took off the jumper to make it specifically Slave. I have rechecked the white cable several times. Any ideas for me?


----------



## weaknees

Often the factory drive is set as CS and needs to be set as Master. Did you try that?

Michael


----------



## FullThrottleDave

Yes, I followed your included directions which were to move the jumper to the left most position to make sure it was the master.


----------



## Robert S

If you disconnect the B drive, can the A drive get to 'almost there'?


----------



## FullThrottleDave

Well, thanks to your question, I looked at the B drive connector and I had it in upside down.... oops! When turned right side up it powers up fine.
It's not a good idea to be doing the last steps so late at night...

I have up to 144 hours showing now....

I do think I will get a better cable since the one that came with the drive is stretched pretty tight. Then again doesn't that make data flow faster?

Thanks again


----------



## dimindcutr

Are there any drives that _won't_ work with a TiVo? I purchased a Hitachi Deskstar with 164.7 GB capacity. Tried dd. Only took a second then got an error about I/O. Tried using Hinsdale How To. Every time I enter the command for moving from a one drive unit to a bigger one drive unit, I get the old DOS style error about syntax. Do I have to create a partition on the new drive for this to work?

Thanks,

Barry


----------



## Robert S

That's not a problem with the drive and the TiVo, it's a problem with the drive and the PC.

If you get an error about syntax, I think it's more likely that you mistyped the command, rather than a hardware problem.

Hinsdale covers everything you need. No partitioning of the drive is required to prepare it for the TiVo.

An I/O error does suggest a hardware problem. Might want to run the drive manufacturer's diagnostics.

If you come back, include a lot more detail.


----------



## dimindcutr

Ok. Here's what I've got. I boot from the MFSTools CD. Everything looks ok. Shows that I've got hda (new drive @ 137 GB), hdc (Original Tivo drive), hdd (CD drive). I type in "dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hda bs=1024k" It works for a bit and then states something about I/O error with 4367+2 files in and the same out. So I try "mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda" The system immeadiately outputs to the screen this:

mfsbackup [Options] BDrive [ADrive] and lists all of the available options for the mfsbackup command. It does the same thing for the mfsrestore command.

I've completely removed the existing HD from the PC I'm using, but that probably wouldn't matter as it is using Suse Linux.


----------



## Robert S

You appear to have typed the command correctly. Usually this comes down to a space in the wrong place.

You could start by trying to get mfsbackup to run:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc > /dev/null

MFS Tools will run under SuSe Linux. If the mfstool binary on the CD doesn't run, get the statically linked version from Tiger's site. SuSe will probably see the full capacity of the drive, so don't run mfsadd or restore with -x under SuSe. 

However, you should be able to make a compressed backup, which would be a good idea as it looks like your drive may be failing. It should be obvious how to modify Hinsdale's commands to work in your system. Don't work from the MFS Tools README as that was written before your TiVo was designed.


----------



## jlancton

I upgraded my Series 2 DTivo last night, by adding a 120G drive to the existing 40, using the PTVUpgrade bracket and SmartStart. 

Having done a similar upgrade on my SA S2 with the same kit some months ago, with no problems, I was tempted to skip the backup/test of the original image. Fortunately discretion ruled, and I made the backup.

It being a late night, I mistakenly connected the SmartStart to the slave drive when I put everything back together, and when I fired it up, I got the green Severe Error screen. A quick search here pointed me in the right direction, so I checked the SmartStart instructions and discovered my mistake.

So, drives out, back to the PC, restore the backup to the original drive, redo the mfsadd, and back together, SmartStart the right way, and I now have 141 hours on my DTivo, and didn't lose any recordings or season passes.

Just another success story, but one that wouldn't have been possible without a good backup. So, just a friendly reminder, don't skip the backup. It's well worth the extra few minutes.

Thanks for listening, and thanks to PTV Upgrade for a great product!

-Jeff


----------



## Robert S

The GSOD should have resolved itself fairly quickly. There's nothing actually wrong with the MFS system when that happens - the TiVo just sees that it can't connect to the MFS system properly and triggers mfsfix.

It would have GSOD'd every time you powered up with the SmartStart in that position, of course.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by jlancton _
> *
> 
> Just another success story, but one that wouldn't have been possible without a good backup. So, just a friendly reminder, don't skip the backup. It's well worth the extra few minutes.
> 
> Thanks for listening, and thanks to PTVupgrade for a great product!
> 
> -Jeff *


Thanks for your support Jeff, we appreciate the good words, and having you as a customer!

Lou


----------



## Riproarer

I have a TiVo Series 2 Model TCD 240080 standalone and I think it has a fried drive. I come to this conclusion, because I get a persistent message "almost there... just a few more minutes" despite my having unplugged the unit, waited, powered up, and waited, and waited, and waited. The facts are:


I purchased a new ultra series 160GB 7200 rpm Hard drive for $109
I followed Hinsdale's message up to the backup instructions
when I backed up, I got an error message at 22.58% complete
I have, according to Mfs tools, 79 hours of recordings on my TiVo drive
I have a lifetime TiVo membership for which I paid $295
I don't care if I lose my season passes or programs

My questions are:


is there a way to backup my TiVo drive?
do I really need to backup my TiVo drive?
are there critical files that I can save one at a time
is my TiVo membership doomed?
what should I do?

Thanks in advance,

Sid


----------



## Robert S

Well, you can try to use more robust tools like dd or dd_rescue to copy the drive, but it's possible that the copy will have the same problems as the current drive.

The problem is probably not in the system partitions (where you can get at the files fairly easily), but in the MFS system, which is virtually inaccessible outside the TiVo.

If you're really lucky you may be able to find a backup online. If that fails, PTVupgrade sell a recovery CD called InstantCake.


----------



## jlancton

I upgraded my Dtivo, DSR7000 last week by adding a second drive, a 120GB. It has seemed to work fine, but twice while viewing recorded programs, they have stopped part way through, as if someone pressed the pause button. The green bar indicates it has the whole 60 minutes, yet it won't go beyond that point. After one time when that happened, and I went back to the description screen, there was an error message about it not being able to play, and suggested lost signal. The other time it didn't show a message. It's really strange. 

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Jeff


----------



## dwfletcher

I currently have an RCA DVR40 and will be removing the 40 GB drive and adding either and 80 GB or 120 GB drive. Any recommendations on a make and model of drive to achive maximum performance?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Samsung. Quiet. High quality. Affordable. No *#&$*@( rebates.

newegg.com has good prices and free (usually) shipping.


----------



## nkuefler

I just wanted to say thanks for helping me fix my dead hard drive with a new, much larger one. The new drive came within 2 days and took about 10 minutes to put in for someone with almost no experience doing this sort of thing. Everything works perfectly and I am so grateful! Thanks again.

Nancy


----------



## ThreeSoFar

> _Originally posted by nkuefler _
> *I just wanted to say thanks for helping me fix my dead hard drive with a new, much larger one. The new drive came within 2 days and took about 10 minutes to put in for someone with almost no experience doing this sort of thing. Everything works perfectly and I am so grateful! Thanks again.
> 
> Nancy *


 Thought you might want to clarify who it is you are thanking. There's a couple companies that are active here that do exactly that. Plus Tiger who wrote mfstools that they use to do it (I think they use mfstools?). Plus Hinsdale that wrote the HowTo guide. (Plus all the users who do it themselves.)


----------



## JamesonTiVo

Forgive if this is an old question, but I'm new to the scene after performing an additional "add larger B drive" the easy way two years ago.

Now because of a problem with the factory A drive, I've removed A and B and installed a new WeaKnees A drive (A1). I didn't put B back in because 1) I don't know if that will work -- is it dependent on A? and 2) I don't know for sure that both A and B aren't broken.

My question is this: Assuming I can get the data on A restored, which instructions do I want to follow to copy all the A data onto A1 and reinstall A1 and B as my new drives? I believe the 

"UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3:_
From:_ Any Single Drive TiVo
To:__ New A and New B Drive_ |or|__ New Single Larger A Drive"

instructions are for me, since the TiVo was initially a single drive and drive B was just added storage, but I don't know a ton about how this works. Is this the right upgrade configuration for me to follow?

Many humble thanks in advance,
Jameson


----------



## Robert S

Once you put a second drive in a TiVo, you have a two-drive TiVo, even if it originally had one drive. Conversely, if you replace the two drives in your TiVo with a lone A drive, then you have a single drive TiVo, even if it was originally a twin.

The problem with copying the old A drive on to the new is that you might end up with two broken drives. 

Does the TiVo still boot with the original drives?


----------



## JamesonTiVo

> Does the TiVo still boot with the original drives? [/B]


I won't know until I get the original drives back from data recovery. At this point I am assuming that A is not corrupted, the drive just has a hardware failure.

But it sounds like I *should not* try to put drive B back in with drive A1. (This might result in two broken drives?) My only choice to try to preserve the recordings on A and B will be to copy a perfect image of (restored) A onto A1, correct? (The reason to do this instead of just reinstalling A is that A is 40 GB and A1 is 120.)

Thanks!


----------



## Robert S

Well currently A1 will just ignore B. If you mfsadd (NOT BlessTiVo!) B, you forfeit any chance of recovering your old recordings. Obviously if B is the failing drive, marrying it to A1 would not be a good idea.


----------



## JamesonTiVo

This leads me to believe that if I take out A1 and send it to DriveSavers, asking them to restore A onto A1 (assuming A is the failing drive), then put A1 and B back in the TiVo, I'll be fine. A1 will recognize B and B will recognize A1.

Am I missing anything?

Many thanks,
Jameson


----------



## Robert S

You're really going to do data recovery on a _TiVo_ drive???

Anyway, yes, in principle, if you can copy the data off the A drive, it should restore things to working order, but that that's a really big 'if'!

If the problems with the hard drive have corrupted the TiVo image, then copying it to a fresh drive might not solve the problem. So copying on to A1 is probably not a good idea.


----------



## JamesonTiVo

Thanks. DriveSavers said they wouldn't do it unless they could get a clean copy. Based on the symptoms, chances are good that it's a hardware failure with the drive mechanism and not corrupted data.

I appreciate all the advice.


----------



## wlewis

I have a philips directivo, and was able to successfully backup (i think), but the restore is not executing properly. No errors are reported, but a fdisk -l reports that /dev/hdb doesn't contain a valid partition table. I used the following commands from the hinsdale guide:

mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

drives are hooked up as described in the guide, and I am attempting to go from a single 40GB drive to a single western digital 160GB drive. I also confirmed that windows xp could format the new drive (while tivo drive was disconnected), so I think that the new drive is good.

Any suggestions?


----------



## Da King

Just offering more "Thanks" for the Hinsdale instructions. I upgraded my 35 hr DirecTV to 105 hrs today, and everything went flawless. I set aside an entire evening to do it, and wrapped it up within 2 hours. Niiiice.


----------



## wlewis

> _Originally posted by wlewis _
> *I have a philips directivo, and was able to successfully backup (i think), but the restore is not executing properly. No errors are reported, but a fdisk -l reports that /dev/hdb doesn't contain a valid partition table. I used the following commands from the hinsdale guide:
> 
> mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
> mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb
> 
> drives are hooked up as described in the guide, and I am attempting to go from a single 40GB drive to a single western digital 160GB drive. I also confirmed that windows xp could format the new drive (while tivo drive was disconnected), so I think that the new drive is good.
> 
> Any suggestions? *


Just to add more detail... This is a philips DSR6000 series 1, and when powering up Tivo, it does not progress beyond the "powering up" screen. Harddrive spins, jumpers confirmed, ide cable confirmed. I reinstalled the original tivo drive and all boots up ok, so i'm guessing something is not working correctly with the backup/restore process to the new drive???


----------



## weaknees

wlewis-

Your commands look right. What size backup does the first one report? What size drive does the second report? Have you tried mfsinfo?

Michael


----------



## wlewis

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *wlewis-
> 
> Your commands look right. What size backup does the first one report? What size drive does the second report? Have you tried mfsinfo?
> 
> Michael *


Michael -- I guess that the 3rd try really is lucky... stepped through it again, this time confirming that the original drive and new drive had the same config. as reported by msinfo. Put the new drive in TiVo, and it booted fine?!

Thanks for the msinfo tip! Now on to copying the shows...

Wade.


----------



## weaknees

Glad it works - but you are copying shows after you've already moved to the new drives? I don't understand.


----------



## jay8dogg

This is my first time trying to upgrade a TiVo and I've never used Linux but I got a basic understanding of the commands after some reading. I have a Phillips DSR704 DirecTiVo. I'm trying to upgrade from the original 40GB Maxtor to a 120GB Seagate. I downloaded the Tiger Tools 2.0 Boot CD from a link in Hinsdale's instructions. I burned the CD with Nero the way Hinsdale said.

The first problem I had was that I was not able to "Page Up" to see the hard drive sizes to verify them. I had to hit pause in order to freeze the screen to view them and they were correct and not locked.

The next problem I had was when I typed in the command:
mfsbackup -f9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc I got an error
sh: mfsbackup: command not found. I read the readme file for Tiger MFS2.0 software and Tiger shows the commnds being entered as "mfstool backup". So I entered the command as:
mfstool backup -f9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc and the program did the backup with no errors.

I proceeded to step 8. I typed in
mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb Once again I got a
sh: mfsrestore: command not found. I typed in
mfstool restore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb. I got and error
restore: invalid option -- b.
restore: invalid [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
- i file Input from file, - for stdin
- q Do not display progress
- qq Do not display anything but error message
- v size Recreate /var as size megabytes (only if not a backup)
-s size Recreate swap size as megabytes
-z zero out partitions not backed up
/#

The list above does not show b or p as an option. I removed the b from the command and got the same error but for p. Reading through Tigers release notes, b and p should be valid commands. I removed the p and ended up entering
mfstool restore -s 127 -zi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb
and it loaded the image to my new 120GB HDD. I typed umount -f -a -r [using umount -f-a-r, (w/ no spaces) caused another error]. Installed the drive in the TiVo and got stuck on the Powering up screen. I had the jumper configuration set to CS the whole time on the new 120GB HDD since thats what the original TiVo HDD was set to.

I reinstalled the original TiVo drive and it powers backup with no issues.

My questions are: 
1) Is my software bad since it does not have options that should be there?
2) Is there a software difference between the boot floppy and Boot CD?
3) Am I typing in something wrong?
4) Could it be the jumper config on the new hard drive.
5) Should I be following Tigers release notes or Hinsdales instructions?
6) Any other ideas or suggestions?

Please Help!!!


----------



## wlewis

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Glad it works - but you are copying shows after you've already moved to the new drives? I don't understand. *


per the hinsdale guide, step 8/9 was to restore the tivo.bak file and test. step 10 is then to do a full copy of the tivo w/ the shows.... That's where I am now...


----------



## beachkeefes

Thanks hinsdale - your instructions are great...I upgraded my Hughes SD-DVR-40 from 40 hrs to 130 hrs without any problem - keeping the recordings using dd took 9 hours, but everything is present and accounted for!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

FYI, keeping your recordings via the "mfs backup ... | mfsrestore ..." option only takes a couple hours, tops.


----------



## Blackbeard

Ordered another Hinsdale upgrade...and this one was even easier than the first time...that annoying golf tee that you glue in is gone...and it is open, unplug, screw-in plate, plug in, remove styrofoam...close...ready to go...amazing!


Thanks again!!!!


----------



## JohnnyF

Hi, thanks in advance.. quick question for a Series 2 40 GB 240A model. I want to copy the original 40GB drive (to archive the original drive) onto another 40 GB spare drive I have lying around and at the same time add a 120 GB drive.. I'm planning on using the MFSTools backup | restore pipe command with the -s 127 option to increase the swap..

Question: Does anyone know if the 128M swap will fit on a drive that's exacly the same size as the original or does the drive always have to be bigger than the original to increase the swap? 

Thanks in Advance.. (p.s. I did a fly-by review of the forum for this answer, but was not able to find, so apologies if answer is already posted).


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by JohnnyF _
> *Hi, thanks in advance.. quick question for a Series 2 40 GB 240A model. I want to copy the original 40GB drive (to archive the original drive) onto another 40 GB spare drive I have lying around and at the same time add a 120 GB drive.. I'm planning on using the MFSTools backup | restore pipe command with the -s 127 option to increase the swap..
> 
> Question: Does anyone know if the 128M swap will fit on a drive that's exacly the same size as the original or does the drive always have to be bigger than the original to increase the swap?
> 
> Thanks in Advance.. (p.s. I did a fly-by review of the forum for this answer, but was not able to find, so apologies if answer is already posted). *


Most likely, its not going to fit. Use -s 127 not 128 when doing your restore onto the new drive. Also, there is no benefit to increasing your swap in most situations, especially on a small drive.


----------



## JohnnyF

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Most likely, its not going to fit. Use -s 127 not 128 when doing your restore onto the new drive. Also, there is no benefit to increasing your swap in most situations, especially on a small drive. *


Thanks.. I guess I could restore the original image to the 120GB and add the 40GB as the 2nd hard drive, I'm just curious as to whether you can fit a larger swap in a drive restore image to a HD the same size as the original. I'll try it this weekend and post results.


----------



## Robert S

The original image fits on its drive almost exactly, so there's no room to increase swap.

Further, not all 40Gb drives are the same size and the Maxtor/Quantum drives in TiVoes tend to be larger, so sometimes you have to reduce the size of your swap (-s 56 seems to do the trick) to fit a 40Gb backup on to a 40Gb drive.

There's no immediate advantage in increasing swap because your TiVo has 32Mb of RAM and can therefore cope with 180Gb of disk space with its original swap allocation. If you later upgrade the B drive to 120Gb, though, you'll be glad you increased swap at this point.


----------



## Sonny

Can I do a back-up/restore of my HD Tivo HDD with Windows XP? Or do I need to have a Win98 system?


----------



## weaknees

You need to do this in Linux - Windows won't help at all (and may even hurt).

Your hardware is likely fine, just follow a guide to making a CD of Linux and booting from that.

Michael


----------



## slydog75

Does anyone outside of weaknees have any insite/input into the true benefits of using one of their Quickview drives as opposed to a standard Maxtor DiamondMax?


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by slydog75 _
> *Does anyone outside of weaknees have any insite/input into the true benefits of using one of their Quickview drives as opposed to a standard Maxtor DiamondMax? *


Comment One

Comment Two

Comment Three This one was from me. I was questioning Pony because I remember...well, just read the post


----------



## ThreeSoFar

> _Originally posted by slydog75 _
> *Does anyone outside of weaknees have any insite/input into the true benefits of using one of their Quickview drives as opposed to a standard Maxtor DiamondMax? *


 I'll add one more.

The only people I see touting these drives are weaknees.com. Who happens to sell them at a pretty penny.

nice.

Though I don't think they're using those banner ads anymore, so maybe they've stopped doing that.


----------



## sn9ke_eyes

just upgraded a 35 hr to a 105 hour by going from a single 40 GB to a single 120 GB.

Thanks a bunch to hindsdale, tiger, and everyone else who contributed.


----------



## betsos94

I have a Samsung series 2 DTV Tivo upgraded to 120 gig with usb hacks and all
the others but, now my USB to ethernet adapter lights up and flashing but I can not see it on the network, I tried to pinging it nothing, I look for it on my router nothing can see it,

please any help thankx


----------



## otsp

I downloaded an image file named Philips_DSR6k.310c_30G.mfs from StanSimmons and extracted it to the root of my C: drive (not in any folders), then renamed it tivo.bak. Then I followed the directions that I thought would allow me to restore that image to my existing TiVo drive that I want to start completely anew with. But I got a "No such file or directory" error message. Here's exactly what I did...

Booted PC from CD with MFSTool 2.0, clicked Enter at boot options.

Typed the following to mount the C: drive:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

Typed the following to restore to TiVo drive:

mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd

Then got the following message:

/mnt/dos/tivo.bak: No such file or directory!

Any ideas why? Please remember I know nothing about Linux, so I wouldn't know how to check directories, etc. But I do know that file is at that location. Thanks in advance for suggestions!


----------



## budgetcomputers

Hi otsp,

Make a sub dir named dos and put the file there. (i.e. from dos, MD DOS, copy *.bak to c:\dos - i.e. not from LINUX ).

You put the file in your c: drive root not in the sub dir c:\dos. Got it?

Also, I have been PM'ing Stan for the image. If it works, I would love a copy for myself! I have high speed so you can email it to me or email me Stans link.

Thanks a ton!

Rene


----------



## weaknees

otsp,

Posted a response here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2129077#post2129077

Michael


----------



## Robert S

budgetcomputers: The file is supposed to be called c:\tivo.bak. The 'dos' directory is created in the Linux filing system (in a RAM drive) to act as a 'mount point' for the C: drive. After the mount command, the file that Windows sees as c:\tivo.bak appears in the Linux system as /mnt/dos/tivo.bak.

If you had a file called c:\dos\tivo.bak, then Linux would see that as /mnt/dos/dos/tivo.bak.


----------



## otsp

Problem solved! I did not know that there was more than one partition on my C: drive. When I substituted hda2 for hda1, the restore worked! And now my TiVo works! So to summarize, the drive probably got corrupted by booting to XP during the downgrade to 3.1.0b, restoring an image file courtesy of StanSimmons fixed the drive, and I just needed to look for the image file in a different partition to complete the restore. Sounds so easy - so why did it take me a whole week??? Thanks, everyone!


----------



## jmace57

> _Originally posted by aswindler _
> *Doh, sorry for the typo. Fixed now.
> 
> Okay, what you say makes sense. I tried making the backup and get this:
> 
> Uncompressed backup size: 1365 megabytes
> Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: Success
> 
> That's a pretty contrary message so I'm not sure if it worked, but the file was indeed created on my C drive.
> 
> In any case, you mention this:
> 
> Does that mean I could somehow still go down to one drive from these two or should I just run with method #4 and replace one drive?
> 
> aswindler *


I am attempting my first upgrade today, and I am getting a very similar message...

It says I have 1022 megabytes and when I ran the mfsbackup, it got to 178 megabytes and then popped a message up stating: "Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: Success

I went forward figuring that maybe it was OK, but when trying to do the mfsrestore, it hit 178 megs and then failed. I tried again to to the mfsbackup and it failed at the same point.

This was a 40 hour that was working fine. Have I gotten a bad block or something?

I am confused as to what to do next. Do I run some sort of diagnostics on the drive (which I don't know how to do) - it is a Maxtor fireball 3 40 gig drive.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Regards,
Jim

[Edit] - after further searching, it looks like it is a matter of me having multiple partitions on the disk. I believe I can move forward now.

[further edit] - success. thanks for the instructions. Other than this one little glitch, I had no problems.


----------



## mattack

I'm trying to backup/restore a series 1 on a Mac.. I wrote a thread here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=189372

I hope someone can help get these tools running under Mac OS X. (If anybody has them running on a Mac under some Mac Linux and had to make changes to the source, that info would probably be useful too.)


----------



## weaknees

Posted a thought there . . .


----------



## The Percul8or

Please help!

Using Hinsdale instructions, I am trying to upgrade a Series 2 TIVO, 40hr TCD240040 Standalone. This TIVO came with a 40GB Western Digital and I want to replace that with an 80GB, 7200RPM IBM Deskstar, which is in very good condition and has been working in my PC for about 15 months. TIVO Software is 4.0.1b.

Problem : I am hanging at TIVO's "Welcome, Powering Up..." when testing the small backup I made to IBM Deskstar (per Hinsdale instructions) 

---> I used MFSTOOLS2.0 (via CD) to mount, make backup, restore, unmount via Linux: 

In my WIN98SE, pentium 2 pc: 

primary master (hda) : 12GB hard disk drive w/dos & WIN98SE
primary slave (hdb) : 80GB IBM Deskstar for 80hr new large upgrade drive
secondary master (hdc) : 40GB Western Digital w/original 40hr TIVO
secondary slave (hdd) : cd rom

In Linux (/# prompt):

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

umount -f -a -r
(after I typed this there was no response, linux just prompted /#)

I then did CTRL-ALT-DEL, waited for end of all processes, and proceeded.

---> In Hinsdale instructions, I am through step 9. Placed IBM Deskstar w/small backup into TIVO to test, verified IDE cables are connected properly, and that drive is jumpered properly. (new TIVO upgrade drive is a non-Quantum and tivo software is 4.0.1b, so I didn't make runideturbo adjustment).

I am not sure where to go from here, beyond testing small backup. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated - TIA!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Could it be jumpered as a slave still? Must be master or cable select.

And why just 80G? They're so cheap now the 160's are just under $100, shipped. (newegg.com, Samsungs).


----------



## The Percul8or

thank you for your reply....

Yes, the IBM Deskstar in the TIVO is jumpered as master. 

Also, I would like to use the IBM Deskstar because I have it immediately available and would like to put it to good use, save some $$$. If the upgrade is easy enough, using that hdd should be sufficient (this is my first snag). Are you familiar with the issues I've described above and what their solutions might be (aside from what you've mentioned regarding jumpers)?


----------



## The Percul8or

(btw, just as clarification, I had also tried jumpering as cable select, in addition to jumpering as master when the ibm dstar was in the tivo)


----------



## ThreeSoFar

No other ideas based on the detail above. Did the backup report any errors? Did you check how big the .bak file was? Boot to 98 and you'll see it, or do a "ls -alrt /mnt/dos" after the backup or after booting to Linux and mounting again.

Did the restore report any detail? Try a "mfsinfo /dev/hdb".


----------



## Robert S

The current DeskStars are OK, but the older ones are not compatible with Series 2 TiVoes.


----------



## The Percul8or

it's Nov 2002 on the drive, but was purchased early 2003....i don't mean to sound ridiculous but is that somewhat current or no (and therefore could be not a problem of compatibility but of some other nature)?

thank you for the reply and assistance-i am just trying to leave no stone unturned here...............................


----------



## The Percul8or

(also, the backup and restore reported no errors and the .bak file is not bigger than the target ibm deskstar if that was the other question, THREESOFAR - thanks in advance for any further assistance you could provide.........)


----------



## Robert S

_Is a drive that's nearly two years old 'current'_

No.


----------



## The Percul8or

80GB 7200RPM specs on a drive sound like reasonably current standards (at least that was my thinking in asking "is that somewhat current"). 

Would you also suggest a samsung 160gb hard drive or is there another hard drive that you've had better success with in upgrading a series 2 standalone, model 240040 with software 4.0.1b?


----------



## Robert S

A few months ago people started reporting successfully upgrading Series 2 TiVoes with DeskStar drives. Prior to that they only worked in Series 1 models.

What makes you think I've ever actually seen a Series 2 TiVo in person? Such things are but dreams on the far horizon here...

Anyway, all the hard drives currently on sale should be fine in your TiVo. People seem to like the Samsungs, but I've not used one myself.


----------



## The Percul8or

you the man, robert s. the info is much appreciated.


----------



## Nascar24

I did the upgrade to my DIRECTIVO this weekend and everything went great with one small exception. I just replaced the 40GB hard drive with a new 120GB hard drive. I completed all the steps and then pulled the drive out for testing in the TIVO before completing the last step and everything worked, even the blue background. I hooked it back up to the computer and completed the last step with no errors. I then put the hard drive back in the TIVO and everything works but the blue background is gone and you can delete a show and it still plays until you hit the live TV button. Can anyone tell me if there is something I can do to fix this? Thanks for the help.


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like on the "backup" phase you missed the "-f 9999" step.

Michael


----------



## Nascar24

Thanks. So can I just format the drive and start over with no problems?


----------



## weaknees

Sure - you don't really even need to specifically format it, other than to do what you already did right on top of what's there.

Michael


----------



## dalejr

I just upgraded using Hindale's Guide! What a nice piece of work. I had a few problems, but they appeared to be hardware issues. I originally used a Dell Dimension XPS 800 and it reported problems with a few Inodes, then gave me a few problems around 1100 MB, restarted, then around 1500MB, I switched to my P4-3.0GhZ and had no problems, copied all data and recordings from 40GB to new 160GB in less than 4 hours. The commands and the document were awesome! Thanks Hinsdale!

Proud owner of 120Hr DirecTV Tivo RCA 40 (well 160)


----------



## hinsdale

I wanted to say a quick thank you to all those that have emailed since yesterday. I created and continue to maintain the Hinsdale How-to as a resource for those with TiVos who want to upgrade themselves. If the moderators believe that the How-To has outlived it's usefulness to the TiVo community or is no longer worthy of a sticky note then that is their call (sorry there is nothing I can do about it). I will continue to keep the How-To updated/current on a daily basis (for the thousands daily that locate the Hinsdale How-To via the major search engines) and hopefully those in this forum who may find it useful will still be able to locate it. I will also continue to answer (as time allows) the many email questions and private messages I receive from members of this forum. 

I have become hesitant to post as much in this forum because the Hinsdale How-To also links to my Upgrade Kits/service - so it might look like self promotion to refer to the document or generate a large presence on the forum - and that's not my style. But with Robert S around and others helping out it looks like my posting has not been overly missed recently. I will try to continue to participate in the community by keeping the How-To up-to-date for all model TiVos as they are released. The Hinsdale How-to also continues to refer thousands to forum sponsors such as weaknees and 9thtee and refers many to the TiVo Underground forum itself - so hopefully contributes in that way as well.

Good luck in your upgrades and remember if you run into trouble - the problem isn't the instructions  

- Bill Regnery (hinsdale)

PS. On last count (dec 2003), I had received over 31,500 emails over the last three years (and hundreds more since last count) from those that had used the Hinsdale How-To successfully to Upgrade their TiVos and had actually taken the time to send a Thank-you note for the instructions. In a time of reportedly "diminishing civility", I have always been impressed with the class and camaraderie of the TiVo community - these thank-you notes have made contributing a pleasure.


----------



## tivolovit

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *I wanted to say a quick thank you to all those that have emailed since yesterday. I created and continue to maintain the Hinsdale How-to as a resource for those with TiVos who want to upgrade themselves. If the moderators believe that the How-To has outlived it's usefulness to the TiVo community or is no longer worthy of a sticky note then that is their call (sorry there is nothing I can do about it). I will continue to keep the How-To updated/current on a daily basis (for the thousands daily that locate the Hinsdale How-To via the major search engines) and hopefully those in this forum who may find it useful will still be able to locate it. I will also continue to answer (as time allows) the many email questions and private messages I receive from members of this forum.
> 
> I have become hesitant to post as much in this forum because the Hinsdale How-To also links to my Upgrade Kits/service - so it might look like self promotion to refer to the document or generate a large presence on the forum - and that's not my style. But with Robert S around and others helping out it looks like my posting has not been overly missed recently. I will try to continue to participate in the community by keeping the How-To up-to-date for all model TiVos as they are released. The Hinsdale How-to also continues to refer thousands to forum sponsors such as weaknees and 9thtee and refers many to the TiVo Underground forum itself - so hopefully contributes in that way as well.
> 
> Good luck in your upgrades and remember if you run into trouble - the problem isn't the instructions
> 
> - Bill Regnery (hinsdale)
> 
> PS. On last count (dec 2003), I had received over 31,500 emails over the last three years (and hundreds more since last count) from those that had used the Hinsdale How-To successfully to Upgrade their TiVos and had actually taken the time to send a Thank-you note for the instructions. In a time of reportedly "diminishing civility", I have always been impressed with the class and camaraderie of the TiVo community - these thank-you notes have made contributing a pleasure. *


PURE CLASS! Hinsdale, A BIG THANKS!!!


----------



## JamesonTiVo

> _Originally posted by Robert S _ (Post #1340, 06-22-2004 12:17 PM)
> *Well currently A1 will just ignore B. If you mfsadd (NOT BlessTiVo!) B, you forfeit any chance of recovering your old recordings. Obviously if B is the failing drive, marrying it to A1 would not be a good idea. *


I'm back! Thanks so much for the tips. Drive A turned out to be unrecoverable (the failing drive read head apparently scratched the disk surface beyond repair - yikes!), so now I have A1 _in situ_ and B which has returned from DriveSavers, apparently unaffected by the crash of A, but has 80 GB worth of old recordings and won't be recognized by A1. Is there a way to accomplish either of these?

1. Get A1 to recognize B as a secondary drive, without losing the recordings from B?

2. Or, failing that, get B to perform as a primary drive, erase A1 and just make A1 the secondary drive, preserving the recordings on drive B?

Or is my only option to mfsadd B and lose all the old recordings?

Again, many many thanks. 
Jameson


----------



## weaknees

There's no way to recover the recordings from the B drive if the A drive failed. Sorry.

Michael


----------



## dishman

> _Originally posted by hinsdale _
> *
> PS. On last count (dec 2003), I had received over 31,500 emails over the last three years (and hundreds more since last count) from those that had used the Hinsdale How-To successfully to Upgrade their TiVos and had actually taken the time to send a Thank-you note for the instructions. In a time of reportedly "diminishing civility", I have always been impressed with the class and camaraderie of the TiVo community - these thank-you notes have made contributing a pleasure. *


Add another to your count. Your instructions are excellent, and have been very helpful.


----------



## JamesonTiVo

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *There's no way to recover the recordings from the B drive if the A drive failed. Sorry.
> 
> Michael *


Alas. That's too bad; I suppose I'll just forfeit the recordings, mfsadd B to A1 and bump up the swap. Allow me one last query though (sorry to pester, but you can understand my desperation):

If I were to purchase a replacement B drive and undergo the Hinsdale Config #5 instructions, Upgrading a Dual Drive TiVo to a New A and New B Drive, that wouldn't work either would it? It sounds crazy but I had to ask; I'd hate to wipe drive B and then discover something I hadn't thought of once it's too late.

Thanks to all!
Jameson


----------



## weaknees

Sometimes that'll work, but it's very rare. Essentially, you'd have to be lucky enough for the PC to be able to read that data where the TiVo can't. But it does happen, so if you're desperate, give it a shot. But probably 1 in 100 make it.

Michael


----------



## tivolovit

Hey,


Just thought some of you might like to know (I am not sure if this is posted anywhere already, I did a quick search and didn't find it anywhere). Anyway, I just got a friend's Hughes SD-DVR40 to upgrade the storage capacity for him and noticed that the case and fan have been upgraded. They appear to be the same as those on the HR10-250, five screws hold the top cover on now and has a little "notch" cut out by the fan because it has been enlarged to 70mm instead of 60mm (that should help with the cooling.

Just FYI,


----------



## weaknees

Right - this is the "A" case that first showed up with the 24040A.

We have a bracket kit specifically for this model here:

http://www.weaknees.com/tbcompa.php

It doesn't contain a replacement for the case fan, but does have the extra mounting parts.

Michael


----------



## stlrec

I am using mfstools 2.0 to copy my Tivo drive to a new larger drive. I am coping a 40 gig to a 160 gig. 
When I run mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
I get an error message restore failed : backup target not large enough for entire backup byt itself.
King up 1 of 34071 megabytes (0.00%)

I have my tivo drive setup as secondary master and the new drive a Primary master. Both drive read the correct size in both the CMOS and during linux boot.

Thanks Stlrec


----------



## prodigy17

I upgraded my Tivo 540040 last night from a 40 hour to a 139 hour by using the Hinsdale How-To a TwinBreeze bracket and a spare 120GB HD. I'm fairly unfamiliar with Linux and how it accesses a NTFS HD, but following the instruction in the How-To, I was unable to create the backup image on my windows HD because the linux OS from the Boot CD saw my hda drive as Read Only. 

Fortunately this didn't hinder the Tivo upgrade, and I was able to complete the upgrade without a backup image, and have verified that my Tivo system works properly at the upgraded capacity. However, my computer now has a windows 2k problem with a "Limited Virtual Memory" error coming up immediately after logon. Clicking OK on the error message, brings me back to the logon, so I can never actually get into the system to fix it. 

I'm trying to figure out how this could've happened, and what steps can be taken to repair this problem outside of windows. If anyone has any experience with this, or insight, please let me know. Thanks!!!


----------



## Robert S

stlrec: The most likely cause of that is that your 160Gb drive detected as 32Gb. Always read the boot log (dmesg | grep hd if you miss it) to check that all the drives detect as the correct sizes.

prodigy17: Weaknees interactive guide covers this case. If you format your upgrade drive with a FAT32 partition, you can write the backup to that.


----------



## stlrec

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *stlrec: The most likely cause of that is that your 160Gb drive detected as 32Gb. Always read the boot log (dmesg | grep hd if you miss it) to check that all the drives detect as the correct sizes.
> *


drives 
A - Windows 98 - 10005 MB
B - New 160 - 137439 MB
C - Tivo - 40027 MB
I see that my system is not seeing the full 160 but I didn't think that was a problem.
I did do a back up and restores on the drive . I just want my recordings also.
Thanks
StlRec


----------



## weaknees

In your previous message, you had it going to "hda" but here you have the location of the new drive as "hdb" - are you sure you didn't mistake a drive identifier somewhere?


----------



## stlrec

Yeah I was told on another forum that you should never use Primary master to do the upgrade.When I typed the line in I made the drive switch.
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb


----------



## Robert S

The reason for not using hda does not apply to the MFS Tools 2.0 CD.

Does the copy work if you omit the x? 

You would then run mfsadd on the new drive when the copy completes.


----------



## stlrec

That did the trick.
I used 
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /dev/hda

Thanks for all the help.
Stlrec


----------



## weaknees

Don't forget to run mfsadd afterward - with the drive in a different position. Otherwise, you won't see your extra space.

Michael


----------



## stlrec

Well when I did that it gave me an error about to many partitions. I tested the drive and everything works fine so far. It just doesn't show the right size.

Thanks
Stlrec


----------



## weaknees

Had the drive already been expanded?


----------



## stlrec

No it was a brand new drive. When I first could not get the total back up to work I did a restore of the quick backup. Then after your help I got the full back up to work. Should I reformat in Fat32 and start from scratch ?

Stlrec


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## Robert S

What does mfsinfo report?


----------



## stlrec

I haven't run that yet. I'll get back to you after the holiday weekend. Family call.
Thanks Again.
Stlrec


----------



## unsped

anyone done an upgrade on silver 2 series with drive larger than 160?


----------



## weaknees

We have . . .


----------



## bob330i

Ok, excuse the possible rude question from a computer illiterate person: has anyone used both the Weaknees and Hinsdale upgrade instructions? Which one is easier to follow?

I read the Hindsdale one and reading this forum, it appears that a lot of things can go wrong, hda/hdb, missing slashes, etc. especially knowing myself and computers. Unfortunately, most of the things described in the instructions are gobblygook to me but I have a 160G drive that's burning to go into my recently ordered DTivos.

As I mentioned above, I want to replace the current 40G drive with a 160G in a new (S2?) DTivo. I am still waiting for it to come in but want to be ready once I get it installed. When I'm ready I won't be too concerned about keeping recordings so I'll start out fresh, just keeping season passes and such. I'm running Windows XP at home so I need to be concered about the extra instructions noted by Hinsdale.

I'm not meaning to open a thread that bashes either method, just want to know which one would be the easier and more foolproof of the two considering my situation. I also am cheap so unless I blow the Dtivos to heck, I won't consider the plug and play solution from either party.

TIA!

BTW, if this is an inappropriate question, Mods, please feel free to delete/modify.

Bob


----------



## stlrec

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *What does mfsinfo report? *


/dev/hdc10
mfs partition size 512 MiB
/dev/hdc11
mfs partition size 11403 MiB
/dev/hdc12
mfs partition size 521 MiB
/dev/hdc13
mfs partition size 15746 MiB
/dev/hdc14
mfs partition size 4 MiB
/dev/hdc15
mfs partition size 9539 MiB
Total MFS Volume size 37716MiB
Estimated Hours in a Standalone Tivo 39
This MFS volume may be expanded 3 more times


----------



## Robert S

So, the TiVo *had* already been expanded. It originally had a 30Gb drive.

That does cut down your options. You can do any two of the following three things:

Keep your recordings (in the new drive set - they'll remain on the current drive, naturally).

Expand your recording capacity.

Remain with a single drive configuration.

But you can't do all three.


----------



## stlrec

I'm reading that it is a issue with 2.5xtreme. I guess when I put it on that it automatically expanded the drive from 30 to 39. I did a full back up to save my show to a new 160 gig . I didn't realize that it had been expanded till I did the MFSINFO.

So I guess I can either restore a simple back up then do the mfsadd , or keep the original drive in and the do the mfsadd and run a 2 drive configuration?

With it being the original drive I was worrying about it dying soon . That's why I went to the single larger drive.

Thanks Again,
Stlrec


----------



## Robert S

You don't have to keep the current drive.

If you do an MFS Tools pipe (mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore ...) from the current drive to two new ones, MFS Tools will put a pair of partitions on the new B drive to make room to expand the A drive again.


----------



## BigScreen

I've wanted to upgrade my DSR6000 for quite some time, and always found reasons not to. Over the past few months, the drive has begun making more and more noise similar to a bearing going out. Not only was the noise very annoying, I figured a failure was in its future and it was only a matter of time. A recent deal at Best Buy for a Seagate 120GB drive finally made me take the plunge.

Armed with the excellent Hinsdale instructions, and the help of a friend who had done his a year ago, we cracked the box and proceeded to replace the LCT20 Fireball with the new drive.

I was following the path of replacing the existing drive with the new drive, while keeping all shows and settings intact.

When the instructions tell you that it may take 1-8 hours to do the "dd" step, believe them! In my case, it took 6.5 hours from issuing the dd command to getting a command prompt again. This seemed very odd to my friend, since he remembered that his upgrade didn't take nearly as long.

The source drive was on hda, and the destination drive was on hdc. My system drives were completely disconnected, and I used a boot floppy to hold the utils. I figured that this would have been the fastest configuration for making the copy. I don't know how much the CPU or system RAM is involved in the equation, but with a 3.02GHz P4 and 1GB of RAM, that shouldn't have caused any slow-downs either.

After the long wait, doing the mfsadd to expand the drive was quick, and getting everything back together went easily. All in all, an easy upgrade to 106 hours of storage, a quieter drive, and it actually runs a degree cooler than my second DSR6000 single-drive box that hasn't been modified.

My hat goes off to Hinsdale, and to everyone here, that made this process as easy to understand as it is, and for the great support that you provide to those that have questions. TiVo couldn't afford to pay for that kind of support! 

Just out of curiousity, was there something I could have done to make the copy process go faster?


----------



## Blackrowan

ok I went through all the directions up to test the new drive. When I test the new drive I get the first screen that says "wait a moment while tivo starts up"

Then I get the grey screen.

Then I get a blue screen that says severe error. Plug the phone line in and leave it connected for 3 hours to try to repair the error.

should I do that and leave it plugged in like that or is something else the issue? 

Any suggestions would be appreciated


----------



## stlrec

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You don't have to keep the current drive.
> 
> If you do an MFS Tools pipe (mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore ...) from the current drive to two new ones, MFS Tools will put a pair of partitions on the new B drive to make room to expand the A drive again. *


Is there no way to just use the 160 drive that I have now ? I hate to go buy another drive just to expand the 160.

Thanks
Stlrec


----------



## Robert S

Like I said:

_You can do any two of the following three things:

Keep your recordings (in the new drive set - they'll remain on the current drive, naturally).

Expand your recording capacity.

Remain with a single drive configuration.

But you can't do all three._

You have to choose - do you want to take your recordings to the new drive, or to expand the new drive or to purchase another drive or to keep using the current one?


----------



## austinsho

> _Originally posted by bob330i _
> *Ok, excuse the possible rude question from a computer illiterate person: has anyone used both the Weaknees and Hinsdale upgrade instructions? Which one is easier to follow?
> 
> I read the Hindsdale one and reading this forum, it appears that a lot of things can go wrong, hda/hdb, missing slashes, etc. especially knowing myself and computers. Unfortunately, most of the things described in the instructions are gobblygook to me but I have a 160G drive that's burning to go into my recently ordered DTivos.
> 
> (snip)
> 
> Bob *


Bob...you're in exactly the same position I was about a year and a half ago. Here's my experience.

If what you want is a big Tivo with the minimum of hassle and you're not looking forward to your computer and the only reason you're considering doing it yourself is to save a few bucks, don't do it. Just call up Weaknees, buy the prepared drive, slap it in and be happy. The same goes if you're concerned you might damage your Tivo or you have (ahem!) significant other issues (i.e., if you kill the Tivo, your wife will kill you!).

OTOH, if you're interested in how things work, have that spare drive just sitting around and aren't too concerned that you'll mess up the computer, go for it.

If you'd rather change your own oil, do it yourself. If you think paying the service station attendant $29.95 to get himself dirty is a deal, call Weaknees, buy the prepared drive and feel good about paying them for their knowledge.

Hmmm...OTOH, has anyone ever asked if Weaknees will image a drive you ship to them, and if so, how much would they charge?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

> _Originally posted by austinsho _
> *Bob...you're in exactly the same position I was about a year and a half ago. Here's my experience.
> 
> If what you want is a big Tivo with the minimum of hassle and you're not looking forward to your computer and the only reason you're considering doing it yourself is to save a few bucks, don't do it. Just call up Weaknees, buy the prepared drive, slap it in and be happy. *


 I disagree with austinsho. If you know PCs a bit, and have added a hard drive to a PC before, Hinsdale is pretty easy. Unless you're *not* interested in saving a few bucks, I wouldn't use weaknees (or any other) drop-in upgrade. They add a good $100 for the service. If you aren't computer literate enough and know someone who is, that works, too. I've done probably a dozen upgrades for friends for free (well, they bought the hard drive--Samsung, usually, at my recommendation, from Newegg.com).


----------



## stlrec

I will say I thought about buying the ready drive , but said what the heck. What better way to learn. Thanks to nice people like Robert S and Weakness I've learned allot.

Now for the next question. I know this is probably answered in you original response Robert S , but maybe I'm missing something.

I did a quick back up restore and expanded my 160 drive and it was recognized for the full amount. I used the new LBA48 supported MFStools and upgraded the kernel also.
My question is can I now do a full restore to back up all my recordings and keep my expanded drive or will I revert to the same problem I had before ?

Stlrec


----------



## Robert S

Yes, the same limits still apply (LBA-48 doesn't alter the partition table at all).


----------



## austinsho

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *I disagree with austinsho. If you know PCs a bit, and have added a hard drive to a PC before, Hinsdale is pretty easy. Unless you're not interested in saving a few bucks, I wouldn't use weaknees (or any other) drop-in upgrade. *
> 
> Oh listen, I went there myself. My first upgrade was a Weaknees drop-in, the five since then have been home brew.
> 
> But what I'm saying is that there are people who want to learn something...and then there are people who just want to watch TV. Those folks have never taken the case off their PC and don't relish the thought of (possibly) messing up both their PC *and* their new Tivo in the same weekend! Yes, there are folks who don't like to poke and prod around under the hood. And given the construction of some of today's $400 and up PCs (hello Dell?) I can understand the mindset.
> 
> I don't see anything wrong with paying Weaknees for their service, should one be concerned about opening up a PC. You know, different strokes and all that....


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I love Dell cases, actually. What's your beef with them?

That's what I use for my upgrades. Only thing I had to do was replace the IDE cable with a longer one.


----------



## austinsho

Dells? The organization I work for has purchased more the 300+. We're seeing HD failures, DVD-ROM failures, slow bootups, you name it. These are the small footprint boxes and after I took a look inside mine, I'm glad I built my own at the house!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

> _Originally posted by austinsho _
> *Dells? The organization I work for has purchased more the 300+. We're seeing HD failures, DVD-ROM failures, slow bootups, you name it. These are the small footprint boxes and after I took a look inside mine, I'm glad I built my own at the house! *


 We have far more than 300, but they're the larger towers. No problems I know of.


----------



## eyocum

I have a Sony SVR3000. About a year ago I added a second 80gig drive, and things were fine. I decided last Friday that a fun weekend project would be to upgrade again, and this is where I've run into issues.

I have a pair of 120 gig drives I wanted to move the contents of my current A+B to. I followed the steps using config #5, from any 2 drives to any two drives - the command listed under the 4 ports option seemed to work (mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -2 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd). It took about 4 hours to complete, gave me a success message, and seemed to be ok.

I cabled the drives back into the Tivo and it sticks on the "Powering Up" grey screen.

I can restore my original image (tivo.bak) and use it, and my A+B combo still works, so I haven't managed to break anything there... It's just the data transfer that doesn't seem to take.

SO, in looking through this thread I've seen a couple posts that might be work arounds (1304 for example), but I'd like to know if I may be doing something incorrectly - it seems like people are using larger drives, so that isn't the limit.

I'm not sure what I need to provide to aid in diagnosis of my issue here, can somebody give me some pointers?

Thanks for any help!


----------



## Robert S

The most likely cause of that is a problem with the drive installation in the TiVo - jumper settings, cables, etc.

Try the A drive on its own - if it's correctly installed, it should be able to get to 'almost there' and then reboot.


----------



## eyocum

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *The most likely cause of that is a problem with the drive installation in the TiVo - jumper settings, cables, etc.
> 
> Try the A drive on its own - if it's correctly installed, it should be able to get to 'almost there' and then reboot. *


So - take the new upsized A+B drives, after copying over my original A+B and cable in only the new A drive?
If that corrects the problem, will there be an issue plugging in the new B drive, since it wasn't there at power up and recognition of the new A drive?

I'll give it a shot.

For the jumpering point, I had my A drive jumpered to Master, at the end of the cable, then my B drive jumpered to Slave, then the connection to the Tivo.

I used this same set up for the copying, with my original A+B on primary and the new upsized drives on secondary (A on Master at end, B on Slave in middle, then PC Motherboard).

Thanks for the advice.


----------



## Robert S

No, running just the A drive is an attempt to diagnose the problem, not a solution.

Like I said:

_Try the A drive on its own - if it's correctly installed, it should be able to get to 'almost there' and then reboot._

If the A drive is not correctly installed, then it'll reboot before printing 'almost there'.

Therefore, by observing whether 'almost there' is printed or not, one can gather some indication of which drive is at fault.


----------



## bob330i

Austin/Three, thanks for the thoughts. Funny thing is that I'd like to know how things work, in fact, I do most of my own car maintenence and have done some extensive work on the inside of my house. However, it's fairly easy to figure out mechanical and structural issues and it's obvious (at least to me) what's wrong if I miss a step.

With computers, I feel that most of the things happen in the background and it's really not easy to find out why things aren't working. So maybe it's just a perceived intimidation factor here.

I have my stuff as of yesterday and the installers will be in Monday. I have a bit of time to think it over and really comb through both instruction sets. If 35 hrs on each DTivo turns out to be enough, then I'll just let it go.

Thanks again for your thoughts.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

No problem. But 35 hours is not near enough. Take the plunge.


----------



## eyocum

Thanks, Robert -

Trying it with just the imaged (bigger) A drive, jumpered to master on a single connection IDE cable got me to the 'Almost there' screen, then the system restarted back to the powering up screen.

I've done some other brief searches, wanting to know about drive size and partition information to research this problem in general and I've found a post (#1 - Fixes for MFSBoot swap issues) by you, discussing the -s 127 option. 

In the posting you discuss 127mb of swap should be enough for a 274gb set up to recover; my image reports at 277gb at the end of the upgrade from the dual 80's. I was wondering if this swap issue and 277gb had something to do with the system not working when the B drive is cabled in?

In post #3 you discuss how to work with dual drive tivoes - is that information generic to tivoes, or specific to series 1?

Then the last few posts there indicate issues similar to mine (freitas and richard).

Hmm, should I move my questions over the that thread?


----------



## eyocum

Scratch my last reply, my report is about 153 megs, 277 hours i switched those around; so that's not the point I was thinking.


----------



## Robert S

You may be having the same problem as PTravel http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=195474.

Unfortunately, this is not an easy thing to fix, particularly if you don't want to lose your recordings.

It's nothing to do with swap. Even with no swap at all, TiVoes will boot up and run (for a few hours, at least). Lack of swap can prevent a TiVo recovering from a Green Screen of Death, which is what those posts were addressing.


----------



## eyocum

I looked at the link. Both drives are the same model, purcahsed at the same time, I don't think there would be a hardware incompatibility between them?



Well, I might need to bite the bullet and lose the recordings.



On another note, why do the Hinsdale and Tiger instrucrions give different cabling positions and copy commands for the same step of the upgrade?

If that's covered in a posting somewhere, I'm sure I'll find it sooner or later - lot's to read through in the forums. 

Do both sets of options accomplish the same thing, or is that something else I should look into? The thread, 'MFS Tools 2 are a revolution!' has several people saying they're upgrading and saving recordings no problem...


----------



## Robert S

You can use any connection layout you like as long as the command lines reflect the layout.

It's not apparent to me why your upgrade didn't work.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


----------



## Klips

Why is this thread no longer sticky? I have used this guide often, I hate having to keep this in my favorites list. I never have it when I need it.


----------



## litzdog911

> _Originally posted by Klips _
> *Why is this thread no longer sticky? I have used this guide often, I hate having to keep this in my favorites list. I never have it when I need it.  *


I posted the same question a few days ago, but haven't really gotten an answer. I agree that it should be a sticky post again.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=197274


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I asked Bott directly via PM and he was nice enough to reply.

Do the same. If enough people do so, maybe the sticky will be put back.


----------



## Peter and Jim

I spent a few hours this morning and now have a 120 hour standalone rather than the 40 hour I bought last week. Thanks for the instructions, and thanks to all the board participants for asking all the questions and writing such great answers! The interactions here on the board made some of what might have been confusing in the instructions (new to Linux here!).

Rather than even open our good XP machine, I used an old Compaq that had eaten its C drive and then refused to reload Windows. I reformatted the drive, then used the boot CD to run the system, so there was no chance of having that XP problem overwriting the disks. Now the only thing on the drive is the backup file.

I expect to do this all again at some point in the future, when I add a B drive to the system, but for now, WOW!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Cool.

Actually, I always recommend considering a SECOND TiVo rather than a second drive in your existing TiVo. The second tuner (I'm assuming standalone here) to resolve conflicts is of more benefit than just more space is. Of course, you'll want to buy the cheap 40hr unit then upgrade it.


----------



## Peter and Jim

True, I am already (especially with the padding issue and the HMO option to share programs between them) finding that the second TiVo sounds like a wonderful idea. If TiVo figures out some kind of multi-unit conflict resolution, I'll be there immediately.


----------



## weaknees

Right - it seems as if TiVo is basically encouraging this as the answer to not having a dual-tuner cable TiVo (which would be pretty hard to make considering it would need to control two cable boxes, and those cable boxes could conflict . . .). Now that they lowered the monthly service price for the second box, if you have a network and two cable boxes, it's not a bad idea.


----------



## avramd

Hello Everyone,

I've upgraded two Tivo's with Western Digital 160 GB (WD1600JBRTL) drives. Most of the time they work fine, but a handful of programs freeze during playback, and a few others claim not to have been recorded b/c of no video signal or that I don't get the channel (but of course I do). When the programs freeze, I can back-out, start them over, skip to end, and rewind back to around 30 sec after the freeze, and play from there, but if I go to close, it'll freeze that way too.

I've been searching around here for a while, and the obvious next step is to run diagnostics on these drives. But the thing that seems strange to me is that I have the same behavior on both units. Both drives have never been used before this, I bought them about a year ago before finally getting around to this.

I'm wondering if I somehow did something wrong during the upgrade process, and maybe did the same wrong thing on both units. I'm a regular Unix user, so I don't have any trouble understanding the Hinsdale instructions, and the only "tweaking" I did was to use different positions for my drives. One thing that's crossing my mind is that maybe something about the filesystem is messed up, and blocks that are in-use are getting written over occasionally as though they are free.

Anybody have any ideas? Or do people think it's likely that I actually got two bad WD drives at the same time?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by avramd _
> *Hello Everyone,
> 
> I've upgraded two Tivo's with Western Digital 160 GB (WD1600JBRTL) drives. Most of the time they work fine, but a handful of programs freeze during playback, and a few others claim not to have been recorded b/c of no video signal or that I don't get the channel (but of course I do). When the programs freeze, I can back-out, start them over, skip to end, and rewind back to around 30 sec after the freeze, and play from there, but if I go to close, it'll freeze that way too.
> 
> I've been searching around here for a while, and the obvious next step is to run diagnostics on these drives. But the thing that seems strange to me is that I have the same behavior on both units. Both drives have never been used before this, I bought them about a year ago before finally getting around to this.
> 
> I'm wondering if I somehow did something wrong during the upgrade process, and maybe did the same wrong thing on both units. I'm a regular Unix user, so I don't have any trouble understanding the Hinsdale instructions, and the only "tweaking" I did was to use different positions for my drives. One thing that's crossing my mind is that maybe something about the filesystem is messed up, and blocks that are in-use are getting written over occasionally as though they are free.
> 
> Anybody have any ideas? Or do people think it's likely that I actually got two bad WD drives at the same time? *


Its just as likely to have two bad drives as it is to have one (according to the notion of statistical independence)... best to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on them to make that determination, however.


----------



## finaldiet

I noticed that the original thread started quite a while ago. Is there a newer upgrade version available to upgrade tivos? Thanks for your info!


----------



## Robert S

Although this thread has been running for a while, the How-To is regularly updated (the current version was updated on the 11th of August) to reflect changes in thinking about upgrade processes and include new models of TiVo.


----------



## HTH

I have a Series2 recently upgraded with two 120 GB Western Digital drives. The drives are of different vintages, so I made the newer one with the 8 MB cache the master and tthe older one the slave.

Last week the unit crashed and hung at the starting up screen and I missed some shows. Cycling power would get it working again. Recently it has been dead in Standby, so I've avoided putting it in Standby. I've also seen it suddenly stop playback, then resume briefly before a restart occurs that again fails to get past the first screen.

I'm suspecting a drive problem which will work itself out when a GSOD finally occurs, but I'm suspecting the hardware that delays power to the slave drive as the cause for why it doesn't come back up by itself. I'm thinking that stress on the power supply at startup shouldn't be much of a concern for a system that keeps its drives spinning all the time anyway.


----------



## Robert S

The point about staggering the drive start-ups is that the drives draw much more than double their normal load for a few seconds as the spindle runs up to speed. Therefore knowing that the PSU can run two drives continuously doesn't tell you whether it can start two drives simultaneously.

However, I don't think this is a power supply. I had a TiVo get into a similar state. I think the drive is getting into an inconsistent state that is preventing it resetting properly when the TiVo reboots. Disconnecting the power clears all the latches and allows the drive to start normally.

So I'd just follow the procedure for replacing a failing drive and hope that fixes it.


----------



## HTH

Additional observation: it seems to only do these restarts when it is only buffering Live TV. If a recording is in progress, be it a suggestion or a scheduled recording, it stays up. So it could be an issue with recording the buffer.

I'll see in the morning whether or not it decided to die again tonight. If I have to replace, I'll replace the older of the two drives, but both were fresh from their packaging.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *The point about staggering the drive start-ups is that the drives draw much more than double their normal load for a few seconds as the spindle runs up to speed. Therefore knowing that the PSU can run two drives continuously doesn't tell you whether it can start two drives simultaneously.
> 
> However, I don't think this is a power supply. I had a TiVo get into a similar state. I think the drive is getting into an inconsistent state that is preventing it resetting properly when the TiVo reboots. Disconnecting the power clears all the latches and allows the drive to start normally.
> 
> So I'd just follow the procedure for replacing a failing drive and hope that fixes it. *


I believe you've got a bad drive, as well.

FWIW, here is a graphical representation of two-drive startups with/without power staggering devices (one using solid-state design with separate circuits to ramp 5V and 12V power rails, and one using a mechanical relay (data obtained using a digital oscilloscope):

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/smartstart/Comp-Graph.bmp


----------



## Lhach

I am new to the forums, but would like the assistance of any gurus out there. I have a series 2 tivo that I upgraded a while back, adding one 60GB disk to it, to make a pair of 60GB disks. I have now got a failed power supply and need to take it in for service. They (Best-buy) tell me the service center will most likely wipe the disks with everything one them. Ack!

So... I decided to use the MFStools, and the Hinsdale How-to document. I started with the Option #6 turning a dual disk tivo into a single disk tivo using a 120GB disk as the new A drive. My thought was 60+60=120 I should be ok. That doesn't work. So, I went out, and picked up a 160Gb disk, thinking the extra 17GB (137GB limited) of capacity would help. 
Here is the config of the disks in my PC: 
A drive PM
B drive PS
new 160GB disk SM
CD SS

No such luck. Here's what it's telling me, starting with my command:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/# mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdc
Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment.
Source drive is 57 hours
- Upgraded to 128 hours
Uncompressed backup size: 114100 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itelf.
/# king up 1 of 114100 megabytes (0.00%)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
not exactly sure what the "king up 1" statement is, but it puts that on the command line when the restore fails.

Any thoughts or assistance with this would be greatly appreciated, I really miss my tivo... =(

Thanks,

John P.


----------



## Robert S

I think 'king up 1' was originally 'backing up 1', but the first three letters got over-written by the prompt '/# ' because of a problem with linefeeds.

If you omit the x from the restore side, the copy should proceed.

However, as this is a Series 2 TiVo, there's probably no point. The recordings are encrypted with a key that ties them to the mobo serial number. If you try to use drives from this TiVo in the replacement, you'll just get an error #51 until you do a 'clear and delete everything' reset.


----------



## spudly

Hello,

I'll try to cut to the chase but I suppose I need to give a little bit of background:

I have a DSR6000 which was expanded (~ 2 yrs ago) from the original 40 hour to an additional 120 hours of space. The original 40 hour TiVo "A" Drive recently died and I lost all my recordings.

Someone was kind enough to give me a drive image of v3.1 software which I restored to the new "A" drive, the 120 hour drive. After restore, I had to do a clear and delete so it would report the correct number of hours. Then realizing I had an unopened boxed 40 hour drive I figured I would max my capacity by adding that as a "B" drive for 160 hours. So I married them using these Hindsdale instructions.

Recalling how bogged down the TiVo gets at that capacity I figured before I put this unit back in production, I would add the Cachecard as well which I had no previous experience with. After purchase I've had some minor glitches during the install but alas it seems to all work.

Before I put this unit back into service I wanted to do a backup of this image of a married a+b (120 + 4) with cachecard drivers intact, but I am a tad confused by *Step 7, Option 2*, 'backing up a dual drive tivo'. I am unclear whether I should or should not use the *-s* parameter.

FWIW I am executing the mfsbackup command _with_ "-6so" and the display reads:

*
Source Drive size is 30 hours
- Upgraded to 129 hours
- Upgraded to 177 hours 
Backup image will be 30 hours*

This strikes me as odd. Is there something wrong? I want to have a good backup image in case of a problem since I already spent more time than I'd like to get to this point 

Any input?

Thanks,
Glenn


----------



## Robert S

That seems normal. The upgrade partitions only hold recordings, which aren't included in the backup, so you want it to revert to the size of the original A drive.


----------



## Jim Golden

Earlier this year I purchased a second hard drive from Hinsdale for my Samsung 35hr S4040R DirecTiVo. I have now replaced this unit with the new HD DirecTivo unit. My question is, can I remove the hard drive I installed in my Samsung earlier this year, and put it in my new unit with little effort?

Thanks,
Jim


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I was asked via PM for some details on my DRT800 upgrade, so here they are.

I used Hinsdale's (excellent) instructions, which sadly are no longer a sticky thread in this forum, so this thread drops to the bottom.

Hinsdale's original thread is here, but you are already there.

His HOWTO is linked in the first post, but also here.

Particulars: The upgrade I did is identical to those I'd done with the non-LBA48 boot cd. Hinsdale's HOWTO does mention that you need to ignore the initial messages the LBA48 cd pops up. Just hit return to get the root "#" prompt.

The LBA48 CD that supports larger than 137G drives (which can be used with the latest "nightlight" TiVos as well as with the DRT800) can be found here.

My preferred method to preserve shows from the old hard drive to the new one is under part 10), the "UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3" option. If you use that method, and shelve the original hard drive as your backup, you have something to recover from even if you skip the part "7) Backup up your TiVo drive(s) with Mfs Tools".

As always, getting the /dev/hd*X* entries right is imperative. Get it wrong and you could wipe your TiVo source drive, or any other hard drive in that PC at the time. This command is helpful to figure out which is which, especially if they're different brand names (that character in the middle is the "pipe" character, usually shift-\):


Code:


dmesg | grep hd

This is also useful, showing details about that TiVo drive(s) if that's what they are, and this one does not modify/write to that device:



Code:


mfsinfo /dev/hdX [/dev/hdY]

Read Hinsdale's HOWTO for much much more detail. Read it all and, assuming you understand it, you should have no difficulty and run no risks. If you skim or skip parts, or rely only on this message, you may well be screwed, but that will be your problem.

Good luck! And feel free to refer me (see link in my sig for my e-mail) when activating any of your future TiVos if you appreciate the help and have no one else in mind.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *I was asked via PM for some details on my DRT800 upgrade, so here they are.
> 
> I used Hinsdale's (excellent) instructions, which sadly are no longer a sticky thread in this forum, so this thread drops to the bottom.
> 
> Hinsdale's original thread is here, but you are already there.
> 
> His HOWTO is linked in the first post, but also here.
> 
> Particulars: The upgrade I did is identical to those I'd done with the non-LBA48 boot cd. Hinsdale's HOWTO does mention that you need to ignore the initial messages the LBA48 cd pops up. Just hit return to get the root "#" prompt.
> 
> The LBA48 CD that supports larger than 137G drives (which can be used with the latest "nightlight" TiVos as well as with the DRT800) can be found here.
> 
> My preferred method to preserve shows from the old hard drive to the new one is under part 10), the "UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3" option. If you use that method, and shelve the original hard drive as your backup, you have something to recover from even if you skip the part "7) Backup up your TiVo drive(s) with Mfs Tools".
> 
> As always, getting the /dev/hdX entries right is imperative. Get it wrong and you could wipe your TiVo source drive, or any other hard drive in that PC at the time. This command is helpful to figure out which is which, especially if they're different brand names (that character in the middle is the "pipe" character, usually shift-\):
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> dmesg | grep hd
> 
> This is also useful, showing details about that TiVo drive(s) if that's what they are, and this one does not modify/write to that device:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfsinfo /dev/hdX [/dev/hdY]
> 
> Read Hinsdale's HOWTO for much much more detail. Read it all and, assuming you understand it, you should have no difficulty and run no risks. If you skim or skip parts, or rely only on this message, you may well be screwed, but that will be your problem.
> 
> Good luck! And feel free to refer me (see link in my sig for my e-mail) when activating any of your future TiVos if you appreciate the help and have no one else in mind. *


Please do not link directly to the LBA48 CD ISO on our site; refer people 
here:

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/index.html

As the location, names and revisions of the CD's are likely to change.


----------



## rrogan

Does the Tivo drive actually have to be hooked up to your PC in order to boot off the ptv-mfstools2-large-disk.iso image I burned?

I tried booting but when I hit <enter> to continue as it says and nothing happens?

I just want to test the cd boot disk before I proceed with disecting my Tivo


----------



## ThreeSoFar

You can boot just the CD with no TiVo drive connected.

Hitting enter, you should see a text message and then a # prompt.

Type somehting at the # prompt if you see it. Like "mfsbackup" to see its usage.


----------



## weaknees

No - you don't need the TiVo drive attached to make the CD boot.


----------



## Robert S

The presence of hard drives in the PC has no effect on whether the CD will boot or not.


----------



## rrogan

I thought that would be the answer.

When booting off the CD this is what I get

ISOLINUX 1.62 2001-04-2004 COPYRIGHT 1994-2001 H Peter Anvin
welcome to the ptvupgrade bootdisk-on-cd running linux version 2.4.4!

If you need to pass extra parameters to the kernal, enter them at the prompt below after the name of the kernal to boot (vmlinuz or vmlnodma)

Note: In most cases the kernal detects your hardware and parameters are not needed.

boot: <enter>

*************************************************
PTVupgrade LBA48 utility disk version 1.0 Series 1 Units only
************************************************

Visit ptvupgradecom for more information on our 
products and services. Join the tivocommunity.com forums for 
more information and support using the products.
Please hit <enter> to continue!

This is where nothing else happens. It does not respond to me hitting enter.
Have you guys seen this before?


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by rrogan _
> *I thought that would be the answer.
> 
> When booting off the CD this is what I get
> 
> ISOLINUX 1.62 2001-04-2004 COPYRIGHT 1994-2001 H Peter Anvin
> welcome to the ptvupgrade bootdisk-on-cd running linux version 2.4.4!
> 
> If you need to pass extra parameters to the kernal, enter them at the prompt below after the name of the kernal to boot (vmlinuz or vmlnodma)
> 
> Note: In most cases the kernal detects your hardware and parameters are not needed.
> 
> boot: <enter>
> 
> *************************************************
> PTVupgrade LBA48 utility disk version 1.0 Series 1 Units only
> ************************************************
> 
> Visit ptvupgradecom for more information on our
> products and services. Join the tivocommunity.com forums for
> more information and support using the products.
> Please hit <enter> to continue!
> 
> This is where nothing else happens. It does not respond to me hitting enter.
> Have you guys seen this before? *


Haven't seen this. My guess is that it is "hanging" in an attempt to automount your CDROM. Are you certain there is not a "#" sign there?

If not, then try hitting ctrl-c to interrupt the automount script.

By any chance, do you have multiple CD-ROM drives in your PC?


----------



## rrogan

Yes.. One is a dvd-rw/cd-rw the second one is a dvd-rom


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by rrogan _
> *Yes.. One is a dvd-rw/cd-rw the second one is a dvd-rom *


That is most definitely the issue. If you know which device you booted the CDROM from, you can manually mount it with the following command:

mount -o -ro -t iso9660 /dev/hdX /cdrom

where hdX is:

/dev/hda --- primary master
/dev/hdb --- primary slave
/dev/hdc --- secondary master
/dev/hdd --- secondary slave

Oh, and here is the automount script; if anyone can figure out how to make it play well in a multi CD environment, by all means...

#!/bin/sh
#
for dev_name in hd{a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h}; do
{ if { test -e /proc/ide/$dev_name; }; then
{ if { cat /proc/ide/$dev_name/media|grep -q cdrom; }; then
{ export cd_name=$dev_name; };
fi; };
fi; };
done

mount -o ro -t iso9660 /dev/$cd_name /cdrom >& /dev/null


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Or could just having the same CD in both drives do the trick? It'll fine one or the other to mount?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Oh, and here is the automount script; if anyone can figure out how to make it play well in a multi CD environment, by all means...
> *


Fixed one error....didn't have seds to fix change /proc* to /dev/*.

How about this. It should attempt one then the other, breaking out of the for loop on success. I don't have a system with both cd and dvd to test this on though. And I had to use two greps since the busybox grep does not work like egrep, namely egrep "dvd|cdrom" /proc/ide/*/media. But at least grep -l works.



Code:


#!/bin/sh
#
DRIVES=`(grep -l cdrom /proc/ide/*/media ; grep -l dvd /proc/ide/*/media) | sed "s/proc.ide/dev/g" | sed "s/.media.*//g"`
for dev in $DRIVES ; do
    mount -o ro -t iso9660 $dev /cdrom >&/dev/null && break
done


----------



## rrogan

I tried a few of your suggestions with no luck.

My problem is that I never get a #

This is where the boot ends:

*************************************************
PTVupgrade LBA48 utility disk version 1.0 Series 1 Units only
************************************************

Visit ptvupgradecom for more information on our 
products and services. Join the tivocommunity.com forums for 
more information and support using the products.
Please hit <enter> to continue!


----------



## rrogan

I just tried a different iso: ptvlba48-3.01.iso
This one fails too but it gave me an error message:

loading vmlinuz.......................isolinux disk error 10 drive EF


----------



## Robert S

Have you tried a non-TiVo Linux CD like Knoppix? (If Knoppix is too big, use RIP instead).


----------



## rrogan

I downloaded the Knoppox ISO and booted up with no problem.


----------



## Robert S

If you read the LBA-48 thread at the top of the Underground, it explains how to do the upgrade from Knoppix. It's on page 5 or 6 if I recall correctly, and keep reading until you get to explanations of tpip. It's a bit fiddlier than using Lou's script, but it does work.


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by rrogan _
> *I downloaded the Knoppox ISO and booted up with no problem. *


Glad you got it working. Can you tell me a little bit more about your PC? CPU type, amount of memory, manufacturer?

We don't hear about many compatibility problems with the CD, so it would be good to know if there is anything identifyable here...

Thx


----------



## rrogan

FYI
I had overlooked trying the floppy version of mfstools 2
I tried it this am and it works ok too. Just not the CD for some reason.

I have a Sony Vaio PCV-RS430G Pentium 4 2.80GHz 512MB of Ram


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump...and Happy Thanksgiving!


----------



## sickal

Robert S or anyone else...

(1) I upgraded a friend's stock Hughes DVR40 Tivo a few months ago and replaced his original 40GB drive with a new 120GB drive and increased the swap space at the same time during the upgrade using Hinsdale's Upgrade config#3 step. After a few months of making sure the new drive was working ok, we now want to add back the old 40GB drive as a new B drive. Since I already increased the swap before, can I just do Hinsdale's Upgrade#1 step using mfsadd only (after making a backup of the modified A drive of course) or do I need to increase the swap space a second time?

(2) I have a Samsung SIR-4120R unit with a stock 120GB A drive in it. I want to add a new 120GB B drive. Hinsdale's step#1 seemed the best thing to do, but I shouldn't I increase the swap of the old A drive before I marry the new B drive to the unit (using Upgrade config#3 instead of config#1)? If so, how can I do this with the new B drive at the same time since step #3 requires the oldA, newA, and newB drives in the pc at the same time? (i.e. my oldA=newA but just with increased swap). Should I do step#3 on the oldA drive first and increase the swap, test it out, and then go back and do step#1 (like for my friend's above) adding the newB drive?

Thanks


----------



## Robert S

1) mfsadd is the only thing you _can_ do

2) I don't see how you can increase swap in that situation. The 'rescue' from the 3rd post of the Fixes thread should still work.

It would be worth checking the partition table (pdisk -l) to see if the swap partition is still 64Mb (on the off-chance that someone with half a brain was involved with constructing the image for that model and noticed that any expansion would break mfsfix).


----------



## sickal

RobertS, thanks very much. So in #2 I will use pdisk to make sure the swap space is set to 127MB. If it is, I can just use mfsadd. If for some reason as you say the swap is not 127, then rather than keeping the oldA as the newA, I can just make the new 120G drive my new A drive and the old stock drive the new B and do a normal hinsdale upgrade option#3 increasing the swap at the same time, right?


----------



## Robert S

_I don't see how you can increase swap in that situation._

I try _really_ hard to write clearly and make my posts as unambiguous as possible, but somehow people always manage to quote them back to me asking if they really mean the exact opposite of what I wrote.

You new 120Gb is probably smaller than the one in your TiVo. If it's a Maxtor, it might be the same size. To increase your swap by making the new drive the A drive, it has to be bigger than the original in order to allow the image to expand.


----------



## sickal

RobertS,

Your post was not ambiguous, I just did not understand that the expansion drive needed to be greater than (not greater than or equal to as I assumed) than the original A drive.

I checked the stock drive using pdisk and it still has a 64MB partition. So if I don't care about increasing the swap and want to take my chances with the GSOD as you say, I can just add the B drive and if it ever fails, I can try to fix it using your rescue post from the fixes thread (I read it).

Can I increase the swap space of my existing 120GB A drive by backing it up and restoring it to a new 120GB drive (to be the new A) using -s 127 if I DON'T care about preserving recordings, or am limited in this situation to never being able to increase the swap from this drive unless I use a 160GB drive?

Thanks again. I truly appreciate your taking the time to help me out as well as countless others you have helped. I know how much time it takes me to just read the other posts, so the time you take to answer them must be staggering. I truly appreciate your help.


----------



## Robert S

With any other TiVo, reverting to a backup would take you back to 40Gb or so, which would leave plenty of room to increase swap while expanding the image.

But, presumably, your original image is a nice, snug fit into 120Gb, so even if you reimaged the drive, there'd still be no room to expand the swap allocation.

I still don't see how to increase the swap, unless you buy a 160Gb drive.

I would just add the B drive and try not to worry about it. It might be a good idea to print out the 'rescue' post and keep it near the TiVo, just incase you ever need it.

I'm slightly shocked that the swap allocation hasn't been increased.

I guess TiVo's engineers don't read TCF.


----------



## sickal

RobertS, thanks for the advice. I was surprised that for a relatively new Samsung Tivo boasting 100 hours with a 120GB drive (got it last November'03) it still had a 64MB partition. However, I suspect the image may not be snug since my info screen only says there are 100 hours available even though for a normal 120GB drive there should be about 105 to 110. Anyway, I will just add the 120B and hope it works. Thanks again for all of your help.


----------



## Robert S

Well, pdisk will tell you. The last partition - 'Apple_Free' - is the unallocated space on the drive. It's usually a meg or so.

Isn't this a DTiVo? They estimate their disk space based on 1Gb = .9 Hrs, so 100 Hours doesn't seem so far off. The actual data rates used by DTV are actually higher than that, so they could've just upped the estimate rate a bit to reflect that.


----------



## sickal

RobertS,

I decided to skip just adding the new 120G without increasing the swap and upgrade instead from the current 120G to a new 160G (got on sale today for $54) so I can increase the swap space after adding the other 120G drive I had planned to add as a new B drive. So now I will go from a 120G stock A drive configuration to a new 160G (new A) + 120G (new B). That should resolve that problem and let me increase the swap on that Samsung that only had 64MB of swap on it.

In another unrelated matter, about a year ago I had upgraded a stock HDVR2 from 40G to a 120+40 configuation (old 40A to new 120A and added old40A back on as a new 40B) with 144 hours after the upgrade. When I did this upgrade, I did increase the swap. Yesterday I got another 120G drive to replace my 40G B drive with this new 120G B drive. I went through Hinsdale's steps, made the backup image (of the divorced drives), tested the backup image ok, and got to the final upgrade step in #10 of Hinsdale. Since I wanted to preserve my recordings, I selected step#4 to upgrade a dual drive tivo (120+40) to a new 120G B drive (i.e. replacing the old 40G B drive with a new 120G B drive).

I did the dd copy command and it worked fine, showing 39083+1 blocks in and out. However, when I did the mfsadd step immediately below, the response came back

/# mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdc
Current estimated standalone size: 179 hours
Nothing to add!

When I did an mfsinfo on the two drives (old 120A connected as hda, old 40G connected as hdb, new 120G connected as hdc exactly as in hinsdale's recommended IDE config), here's what I got (output condensed):

/# mfsinfo /dev/hda /dev/hdc
MFS Volume set for /dev/hda and /dev/hdc
The volume set contains 8 partitions
/dev/hda10 MFS Partition Size: 512 MiB
/dev/hda11 MFS Partition Size: 16107 MiB
/dev/hda12 MFS Partition Size: 512 MiB
/dev/hda13 MFS Partition Size: 21495 MiB
/dev/hda14 MFS Partition Size: 0 MiB
/dev/hda15 MFS Partition Size: 78100 MiB
/dev/hdc1 MFS Partition Size: 0 MiB
/dev/hdc2 MFS Partition Size: 39080 MiB
Total MFS volume size: 155808 MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone Tivo: 179
This MFS volume can be expanded 2 more times
/#

I am confused because when I did the mfsadd above it said there was nothing to expand and this didn't make sense since the 179 hours was the same number that was reported to me in my previous upgrade from 40 to 120+40. Why am I getting this error? Should I just try to do the mfsadd command again? I expected the mfsadd command to ADD more MFS parir sets in the new 120G drive, something like "Adding pair /dev/hdc3-/dev/hdc4..." that I saw when I initially upgraded the 40 to 120+40 and got "Adding pair /dev/hdc2-/dev/hdc3...".

If I can get the expanded space (roughly 80GB on the new 120 drive to be recognized without losing my existing recordings, that would be best, but if I need to do something that will require me to lose my recordings, that's ok since I can re-record them.


----------



## Robert S

See the 7th post of the Fixes thread.

No-one has figured out why that happens, although it does seem to affect pdisk as well as mfsadd.

Fortunately, as it's your B drive, rebuilding the partition table isn't too hard.


----------



## sickal

Thanks, I thought something was wierd. And it makes sense now since the Apple_Free partition on the new B drive only says about 3.1MB are free instead the roughly 80MB it should be... if I don't care about preserving recordings and just want to recognize the full size of the new 120G drive, can I just do an mfsrestore from my divorced A120+B40 backup to the old A120 and then mfsadd the new B120?


----------



## sickal

RobertS, two Linux questions if you have time: I tried to redirect the output of mfsinfo to a text file on my c drive as follows:

/# mfsinfo /dev/hda /dev/hdc > /mnt/dos/mfsinfo.txt

but it doesn't work (nor does it work with the tee command) and just spools the output to my console. When I do a similar redirect thing with pdisk -l ... it works. Why does mfsinfo not? Also is there a way to cat or redirect or tee the boot output from the MFS Tools 2 disk that we normally scroll backwards 5 or 6 times to confirm the disks were recognized properly).


----------



## Robert S

I've no idea whether that will solve the problem. As I said, the cause is unknown.

However, I am (fairly) confident that restoring the backup to both new drives will work. 

The problem has only been reported for mfsadd on its own, never mfsrestore with -x.


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## sickal

RobertS, I used the 7th post of the fixes thread as you suggested, changed the partition table on my new 120B drive without any problems, did the mfsadd again, and it correctly expanded to use the full size of the new drive. Plugged the drives in my Tivo and now I have 217 hours instead of the 144 I had before. It works! Perfectly! Thank You Thank You Thank You!


----------



## EvilSilverFish

Hi all, I hope you can help me with this...

I have a UK Thomson Scenium, a two disk model.

The disks are both Quantum fireballs. The LHS is 15GB, the RHS is 30GB.

They have been noisey since I bought the Tivo, about two years ago. They have also been thrashing and stuttering quite badly now. I suspected a failing hard drive so sought out a nice quite Samsung 120GB to start the upgrade procedure.

I followed the guide but had lots of problems along the way...

Problem 1. The MFSTools CD wont boot on my computer, so I used the (older?) floppy image instead.
Problem 2. I was not able to carry out a backup because the tools reported that the disk were badly corrupted - I had '00s of disk error messages.
Problem 3. Both disks were locked, I ran the unlock util, but wasnt sure if it was working properly as there is no report. Once I restarted, it did display the right drive space though.
Problem 4. I was unable to copy both old disks to the new large disk, because of disk corruption messages etc.

What can I do next?

Im reasonably technically competent, and would prefer to do this myself, but can I given the disk errors? Or will I need to send the disks to one of the upgrade people out there (if there is one in the UK)?

The disks do work in the Tivo, its just that I get about 3 mins of stuttering for every 30 mins of playback.

Hope you guys can help.

Mike


----------



## EvilSilverFish

Some of the errors were down to a faulty ribbon cable (the rounded Coolermaster variety) replaced that, and applied a new image.

All running smoothly now.

Thanks anyway.

Mike


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## Jolly-Roger-52

Hinsdale,

I want to thank you and Tiger for your work on TiIVO upgrades It even works with newbees. I'm the proud owner of a 120 Hr SAT-T60. I had a minimum of problems. 

I didn't have a grasp of your meaning when you said SLOW on "restore programming too". That turned out to be 6 hour & 20 min to back up the 35hr DIRECTIVO on a fast system.

I did have one scary moment.. After about 30 min of use the unit locked up hard and was sticking at the power up screen after unplugging & replugging. I still don't know why this works but I disconnected both antenna connections and the power cord and waited 15sec before re-hooking everything and re-plugging. It booted like a champ and healed whatever it was upset about.

Enjoy your holidays and thanks again for your work.

Jolly-Roger-52
Newbee but not virgin

Save the Smiley's''


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


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## Jolly-Roger-52

Hinsdale and friends,

A compilation of success and woes with my 35HR SAT-60 DirecTIVO and keep this thread going. I'm not sure of what caused my problems initially .

I started with the very slow copy everything and expand mode, from 1 40GB to 1 160 GB Segate. All seem to be well. I installed the cover and started experiencing crashes. The system finally locked up solid. I installed the original drive to make sure I didn't zap anything, and ran diagnostics on the Seagate drive. All was well. 

This time I restored from the compressed backup image on the Windows drive. reinstalled the upgrade and have been running with the covers off for about two weeks. I suffered one minor crash the first day(auto reboot) and a stall with an error code 4 which cleared up with a manual reboot. 

Every thing seems stable now but, I'm afraid to put the cover back on.

Jolly-Roger-52


----------



## Dawgbone89

Quick question. I have 540040 model, just replaced 40 GB w/ 300GB. Works great. Want to add second 300GB drive. Which can I use,BlessTiVo or Mfsadd, to do this easiest. Thanks


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## Robert S

You can't use BlessTiVo if the A drive has been upgraded (you'd have to restore a backup (without expanding it) if you wanted to use BT).

MFS Tools has a limitation 274Gb per partition, so you'd be better off using a 250Gb drive instead of a 300.


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## n00blarME

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You can't use BlessTiVo if the A drive has been upgraded (you'd have to restore a backup (without expanding it) if you wanted to use BT).
> 
> MFS Tools has a limitation 274Gb per partition, so you'd be better off using a 250Gb drive instead of a 300. *


for reals? I thought we were beyond limitations nowadays? Is it just his model that can't do it because I know I've heard of bigger TiVos...


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## weaknees

If you are willing to lose your recordings (but not necessarily your settings) you can make larger drives work - dual 300s or even larger in the HR10-250.

Michael


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## avramd

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Its just as likely to have two bad drives as it is to have one (according to the notion of statistical independence)... best to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on them to make that determination, however. *


Actually, I have since run the MFR's diagnostics (the extended tests too, not just the quick tests) on both drives and they both came out with no errors.

What direction can I possibly go next to get these programs to stop freezing? The wierd thing is that recently recorded stuff never seems to have any troubles, it's mostly recordings that have been around for a week or more.

Oh, p.s. - Technically it is not just as likely to have two failures as one - it is the square - if something is 1% likely to happen in one instance, then it is 0.1% likely to happen in two independent instances. ;-)


----------



## jdr93

Re: Re: some programs freeze, others fail to record (avramd) re: oh p.s.

well, except .1 is not the square root of 1, 1 is.

and we're likely not talking about random events anyway. if a drive fails, a similar one in a similar setup under similar circumstances is likely to fail in a relatively short period of time.


----------



## avramd

but you are right, my math was wrong - if it is 1% likely to fail, then it is 0.01% likely to fail in two independant instances. If the probability of failure was actually 1, that would mean all drives fail.

Anyway, these drives did not "work and then fail." They are operating fine most of the time still. And the incorrect behavior was there from the first moment on both drives. And again as I said they pass the WD diagnostic tests with flying colors. Whatever is wrong was wrong from the beginning.

I am concerned that there is something else wrong, not the hardware, but perhaps a problem with the filesystem - that somehow blocks are getting overwritten when they should not be. It's as though as time goes on, and more recording gets done, every once in a while, a block from one recording gets used for another recording, and then the first recording chokes when it hits the block that doesn't belong.


----------



## jdr93

avramd - it seems like wiping the two drives entirely and starting over would eliminate the software on the drives as the culprit. but in rereading some of your posts i get the feeling the problem may be a loose connection inside the box, or perhaps a bad solder point on one of the boards. it does seem frustrating, but i'd look at every connection inside, and if you find nothing that makes it run properly, i'd wipe the drives and start over with a new download of the software. (?fan working, temperature good?)


----------



## Robert S

Software problems are unheard of TiVoes (well, there are a few bugs that cause minor problems, but they don't corrupt themselves the way Windows PC's do).

This is a very strange problem and I don't think this is a simple case of a failing hard drive.

I wouldn't wipe these drives, but I might try a different one, just incase the fault is in one of the drives' electronics.

But I'm guessing it's something like a bad RAM chip, although jdr's idea about a loose connection is good too.


----------



## avramd

I was more wondering if I could have somehow screwed up the filesystem when I did the drive upgrade. I did use the LBA-aware upgrade disk (they are 160GB drives), and the instructions I felt were pretty straight forward other than that. I also wonder if it's possible there's a bug in the drive's own firmware - that would certainly explain to identical drives having identical behavior. I tried looking for firmware updates for the drives, and I don't think there were any.


----------



## Robert S

Upgrading to 160Gb or larger drives with the LBA-48 CD and installing them in a TiVo without LBA-48 support is just dumb and you can expect Fate to punish you accordingly.

Is that what you did?


----------



## avramd

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm not dumb, but I suppose that is subjective. My both of my series 2 model #'s were in the list in the Hinsdale How-To of machines that support LBA-48. I did search for whether there was any extra step, and the results I found were "no, those models already have an LBA-48 capable kernel, just use the LBA-48 CD to do the space upgrade, that's it.

Please educate me if I've missed a step!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

The older S2s won't do LBA48---YET! I would bet money once this TTG upgrade comes out (did I hear it will be version 7.*?) that it will support LBA48 regardless of which S2 it's on.


----------



## avramd

ThreeSoFar - do you have a link or quick list of which S2's do/don't support LBA-48? Like I said I'm pretty sure mine were on the list in the Hinsdale How-To.


----------



## avramd

Ok, I just read the latest Hinsdale, and it says "Larger drives will function but you are currently limited to a maximum of 2 drives x 137GB (128GiB) or 274GB (256GiB) of usable space (exception are the Pioneer DVD/TiVo, HR10-250, TiVo TCD540XXX models, and Humax models with large drive support that can address larger drives)."

My S2's are a 140XXX and a 240XXX. 

I SWEAR that when I followed the HowTo about a year ago, there was an explicit list of which S2's supported LBA-48, and both of mine were on that list. Am I on crack? Or did the HOW-TO used to list more S2 models as having LBA-48 support than it currently does?

Was the How-To wrong? Or did TiVo actually do a "downgrade" at some point, swapping in a less capable kernel?

I don't know how I could have screwed this up - I was fully aware of the LBA-48 kernel and >137GB drive issue, and explicitly read the doc looking to determine if I was a candidate for it or not. I remember it saying "consult the list below to determine if your model supports >137 GB drives" or words to that effect. Was I really wishfully thinking with this much detail?


----------



## Robert S

Those models have never had LBA-48 support, although, as 3SF said, we're expecting the release of the TTG software to push new kernels out to all Series 2 stand alones, so your problem may go away on its own fairly soon.


----------



## avramd

Yes, I was thinking I might get lucky and have it "just work" when the upgrade hits. Please forgive me for not searching for this, but... Do we have any tangible reason to expect 7.1 to have an LBA-48 aware kernel? Or is it really more that we are "hoping" it will?


----------



## Robert S

It's difficult to quantify as TiVo haven't said anything about it at all.

The two tangible facts are:

All TiVo software upgrades replace the kernel with a new one, although usually that one is identical to the old one.

Version 5.x runs on an LBA-48 kernel, so TiVo do have one qualified for use on the Series 2 TiVo.


----------



## avramd

What is special about 5.x? Why weren't my machines upgraded to it? I guess the best thing we can hope for is that they would have to make an extra effort to put different kernels in different variants of 7.1, otherwise their boxes wouldn't be able to support large drives either.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


----------



## bobgcampbell

I've got a simple set up and can't get a good copy of my tivo drive.

TCD24004A (40G drive)

hda = new drive, 72G IBM Deskstar
hdb = none
hdc = old tivo 40G
hdd = cd-rom

I've tried all kind of combinations of mfsbackup | rmfsrestore and can't get the 72G drive to boot. I had done this once before on a series 1 without any trouble.

I've tried a mfstools 3.0 and ptvupgrade-4.01 (non-swap) boot cds. I have tried with expansion and without. I've tried with preserving recordings and without. I can't get a copy that will boot.

Every time the mfstools say that the copy was successful, no errors are reported. dmesg always shows drives being detected. mfsinfo shows partitions 1-13 on the old drive and 1-16 on the new drive.

I've followed the instructions from hinsdale and tivo.upgrade-instructions.com, but none of the commands give me a bootable drive.

This drive used to have XP on it, is this a problem. I tried nuking partitions on the new drive using pdisk, but it didn't make any difference.

When I copy without expansion and then try mfsadd, it says nothing to add.

Help!

Bob


----------



## ThreeSoFar

why such a tiny drive? And why an IBM? They really really suck. And drives are so cheap now.

You can get a 160G samsung for $90 from newegg.com.


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## bobgcampbell

ThreeSoFar said:


> why such a tiny drive? And why an IBM? They really really suck. And drives are so cheap now.
> 
> You can get a 160G samsung for $90 from newegg.com.


Well, it's what I had laying around. I want to experiment to make sure I know how the tools work before I do the big drive. I want to get a clean copy, hack it up, then copy to a big one, all while leaving the original 40G untouched. I'm just cautious. Any known problems with IBM?

Bob


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## marquis6461

Don't know if this will help you but I have used the Sleeper Iso Disk for that very purpose of making Backups. I love it. Very easy and quick. No fuss...


----------



## bobgcampbell

marquis6461 said:


> Don't know if this will help you but I have used the Sleeper Iso Disk for that very purpose of making Backups. I love it. Very easy and quick. No fuss...


I haven't tried this yet since I don't have a FAT drive to use for hda, all mine are nfts.

Also, I had read that there are issues with newer hacks (killhdinitrd?) on a sleepered disk. The weethet sleeper page says it is an old process, and also, the instructions are for direct-tivo, although other pages say a SA series2 is the same. I'm still digging through posts to research that one, but since I'm stuck on square one, i'm not worried about that yet.

Bob


----------



## bobgcampbell

I couldn't even load XP or Linux onto it. An 80G seagate worked.

Bob


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## alan

I was going to put in a larger drive in my old Sony SAT-T60 and I created a boot CD from the mfstools 2.0 image, but I was having trouble with byteswapping and getting the 1492/9214 byte-swap problem with these type of errors:

Hdb: Signature 1492, be16 Signature 9214
03:00: block 0 has signature 9214 rather then 1492
unknown partition table

Hdc: Signature 1492, be16 Signature 9214
03:00: block 0 has signature 9214 rather then 1492
unknown partition table

My drives were mounted as:

Hda: DOS disk
Hdb: new TiVo Drive A
Hdc: TiVo Drive A

Anyway, I couldnt seem to get around this and so I got the floppy version from hinsdales how-to and was able to boot, backup the original TiVo drive to DOS, and restore from DOS to my new TiVo drive. I tested it out in the TiVo and things seemed to be okay. So, I reconfigured the drives and started to do the restore (saving recordings) via the specified command:

Mfsbackup  - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127  - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

My config looked like this:

HDA: new TiVo disk A (80GB)
HDB: new TiVo disk B (80GB)
HDC: old TiVo Disk (40GB)

During the copy I got an error saying that:

Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 

The error can be seen here: image

It put out one of these errors, but its still copying and seems to not care that this paging request failed.

Should I be concerned about this or do something about it?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Im wondering if I should go back to the mfstools 2.0 cdrom and try booting with bswap on some of the drives like:

Boot: vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap

Im not sure thats supported on the mfstools 2.0 cdrom image. Anyone know?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


----------



## klobbermeister

Hey all, 

I wasn't sure where to post, but this seemed like as good a place as any.

A bit of background on my situation first: I have a Samsung 4040 (S2 RID unit) which I was upgrading using the Hinsdale guide and PTVUpgrade's lba48 boot disk (despite all the contra-indications not to). The DTivo is sporting 3.1.1e. So, I booted from the lba48 disk, used the "backup | restore" pipeline as per Hinsdale to transfer all my saved recordings to a 200 GB Seagate, and put the new drive back in the DTivo to test it. It showed 177 hours of recording time, which seemed appropriate for the size of the drive....

However, after doing a bit more reading on my next steps, I kept stumbling across the idea that you shouldn't use an lba48-aware boot disk if you aren't going to have an lba48-aware Tivo kernel. Now, according to all of the PTVUpgrade caveats, my SR4040 is not native lba48, yet it recognized a drive >137. Why? I didn't (knowingly) swap in an lba48 kernel. Did the process automatically swap in a hacked kernel? Is the 3.1.1x kernel that I had in the 4040 DTivo somehow automatically aware of lba48? I was reading "somewhere" that the 3.1.1c kernel is just a variant of 2.4.4, which to my understanding, supports lba48. Or am I understanding that incorrectly?

Alternately, will the problems with what I've done come later, when the HDD is starting to fill up (r/w issues?), rather than "seeing" 177 hours worth of HDD?


Any clarification from those "in the know" would be appreciated.

Atis


----------



## tivoupgrade

klobbermeister said:


> Hey all,
> 
> I wasn't sure where to post, but this seemed like as good a place as any.
> 
> A bit of background on my situation first: I have a Samsung 4040 (S2 RID unit) which I was upgrading using the Hinsdale guide and PTVUpgrade's lba48 boot disk (despite all the contra-indications not to). The DTivo is sporting 3.1.1e. So, I booted from the lba48 disk, used the "backup | restore" pipeline as per Hinsdale to transfer all my saved recordings to a 200 GB Seagate, and put the new drive back in the DTivo to test it. It showed 177 hours of recording time, which seemed appropriate for the size of the drive....
> 
> However, after doing a bit more reading on my next steps, I kept stumbling across the idea that you shouldn't use an lba48-aware boot disk if you aren't going to have an lba48-aware Tivo kernel. Now, according to all of the PTVUpgrade caveats, my SR4040 is not native lba48, yet it recognized a drive >137. Why? I didn't (knowingly) swap in an lba48 kernel. Did the process automatically swap in a hacked kernel? Is the 3.1.1x kernel that I had in the 4040 DTivo somehow automatically aware of lba48? I was reading "somewhere" that the 3.1.1c kernel is just a variant of 2.4.4, which to my understanding, supports lba48. Or am I understanding that incorrectly?
> 
> Alternately, will the problems with what I've done come later, when the HDD is starting to fill up (r/w issues?), rather than "seeing" 177 hours worth of HDD?
> 
> Any clarification from those "in the know" would be appreciated.
> 
> Atis


The point of avoiding using an LBA48 boot CD on a unit running 3.1.1 is that the software running on the TIVO does not have an LBA48-aware kernel. Just because the system information screen is reporting the "correct" number of hours, doesn't mean the operating system kernel is going to address the space beyond 137GB without barfing.

If you want to run 3.1.1e on a drive using more than 137GB, it can certainly be done using our tools. Obviously, the popular guides aren't going to mention this because they are written by our competitors.

The other alternative is to wait for your Samsung to upgrade to 6.2 which DOES contain an LBA48 kernel, then upgrade the drive and use the additional space...


----------



## klobbermeister

So, the kernel that's in the kernel partition "post-pipe" is *not* lba48 aware, despite the upgrade process physically pushing the drive out to 177 hours, correct?

Then, practically speaking, I'd need to switch out the 3.1.1x kernel that's in the active kernel partition with one that's lba48 aware, so it doesn't 'barf' past the 137Gb limit? That or just use the 4.x+RID instructions (modified, of course) to monte into an lba48 kernel.

Thanks for the response.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


----------



## Hp_serverdude

Ok guys i am new to this board and forgive me if i ask a few dumb questions. I have read and read and i keep reading. I printed out the new Hinsdale guide and this will be my first attempt at upgrading a TIVO. I have 2 a Samsung SIR-4080R and a Hughs Series 2 70 gig ( cant remember the model number). here are my questions:

1) What speed drive should i buy? 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm and why please?

2) I am very limited in my linux experiance. what do i need to know?

3) What software do i need to get started on all of this and where do i get it?

4) What is the largest drive i can use?

5) what is the best Direct TV Tivo reciever to use?

6) What do i gain and loose from the upgrade?

Please advise.

Thanks


----------



## Hp_serverdude

Bump anyone please>?

THanks


----------



## Dkerr24

Hp_serverdude:

1) any rpm is fine. Won't make any difference in a DTivo unit.

2) no linux experience necessary; just read and follow the guide instructions you printed.

3) read the stickys above in this forum.

4) 137gb is the largest drive a Series 2 DTivo can 'see'. The new R10 can see up to 300gb.

5) There is no 'best' receiver. All DTivos use same parts (with exception of hard drive manufacturers).

6) You have only more recording time to gain. No loss of any functionality at all.


----------



## Hp_serverdude

What is the new R10? Where can i get this and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

Please advise.

Thanks


----------



## Hp_serverdude

bump please


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bump


----------



## Hp_serverdude

Bump again please. What is an R10? Are they any good? should i get one? Please advise.

Thanks


----------



## Maruzo

Hi, another noobie here. I'm trying to upgrade my samsung dtv tivo 80gb with the 6.2 software to a 250gb harddrive. Please post a step by step for the upgrade procedure if possible.

Much obliged!

Mars


----------



## ThreeSoFar

That's what the HInsdale HOWTO guide is. Link:

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html


----------



## Maruzo

Two questions:

1. If i successfully upgraded my samsung's original 80gb with the 6.2 software unto a larger 250gb drive, can i then use the same 80 gb to do another upgrade to another 250gb drive, and then install that 2nd 250gb drive into a philips dvr-708?

I've read somewhere that the motherboards and chipsets on these series 2 directv tivos are all the same regardless of who made these units. Whether samsung or philips all made the same units with the exact same spec. 

So can i do the swap successfully? Has anyone tried it?

2. i want to retrieve a maxtor 200gb drive that was installed on my philips dvr-708 and reuse it as a regular winxp boot drive. I'm afraid that only i plug in the maxtor into a regular pc, it'll be locked up and be seen as an 8mb drive.

Is there any steps that i can take to return this maxtor back to it's original state so i can reformat it in ntfs correctly?

Thanks Very Much!

Mars


----------



## JT-KGY

Tivo go into a rebooting loop after upgrade.

Tivo: Series2 TCD540040 with maxtor 40GB drive
New "B" drive: 300GB seagate

Upgraded using Weaknees and Hinsdale upgrade kit and instructions...

Backed up image from 40GB then restore onto the new 300GB.
Tested with my Series2 and the new 300GB boots up fine.

Then running 

(with Tivo drive in Primary master and New 300G drive in Primary Slave)
mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb

Following Weaknee's instruction.. jumpered original Tivo drive as Master and
new 300GB as Slave. Placed both drive along with fan mounted on the weaknee's
drive bracket (very nice piece).

Boot up Tivo:

1. Powering Up
2. Almost there...
3. DVR has detected a serious problem... may take 3 hours to fix... 
(repeat 1 - 3)

I used mfstool PTVupgrade LBA48 CD v4.01


PLEASE HELP!!


----------



## RaGINaR

You really don't need to post more than once... Someone will help you.


----------



## azitnay

Sounds like the TiVo is getting to the Green Screen of Death (GSOD), and then not being able to finish due to a lack of adequate swap space.

First of all, I'd really recommend you stick with the single 300GB drive as your A drive, and don't use the 40GB drive at all. You're not gaining that many hours with the addition of the 40GB drive, and you're opening your TiVo up to twice the chance of a drive failure, not to mention power and heat issues, etc.

That aside, your current upgrade strategy (simply mfsadd'ing the 300GB drive as B) doesn't allow you to add the necessary swap space for 340GB of total drive space. Since you apparently have a valid TiVo backup image somewhere (let's call it /mnt/dos/tivo.bak), assuming the 40GB is still /dev/hda and the 300GB is still /dev/hdb, you can do:

mfsrestore -s 170 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hda

After that, since the 170 above is greater than 127, you'll need to use tpip to fix the swap header. I don't know the command line for this offhand, but you can do a search.

Lastly, remember that your 300GB drive must now be jumpered as master and the 40GB drive as slave once they're back in the TiVo.

Drew


----------



## jdr93

azitnay said:


> Sounds like the TiVo is getting to the Green Screen of Death (GSOD), -snip-
> 
> Lastly, remember that your 300GB drive must now be jumpered as master and the 40GB drive as slave once they're back in the TiVo.
> 
> Drew


i didn't understand what happened there. it seems you first made the new 300g drive the master by copying the entire contents of the original drive to it, then put the old drive in as the master and jumpered the new drive as the slave.

john


----------



## azitnay

It sounded more to me like he made a backup image, tested it as is recommended on his new drive, and then mfsadd'ed his new drive to the old drive as drive B. Certainly a valid upgrade plan, but lacking the swap addition that appears necessary in this case.

Drew


----------



## JT-KGY

azitnay said:


> It sounded more to me like he made a backup image, tested it as is recommended on his new drive, and then mfsadd'ed his new drive to the old drive as drive B. Certainly a valid upgrade plan, but lacking the swap addition that appears necessary in this case.
> 
> Drew


Drew is exactly right... and I learned it the hard way as according to hinsdale
instruction... adding swap at that stage is only recommended.. but not necessary.

Here what I end up doing... had to give up all the previous recording though.
showthread.php?t=268473


----------



## mhaithaca

Thanks to the Hinsdale instructions and the appropriate PTVUpgrade CD with MFSTools, I've just successfully upgraded my HUMAX 80-hour DVD Recorder TiVo to 372 hours!

I replaced the buit-in 80GB Seagate drive with a 320GB Western Digital Caviar drive from newegg that I got last week for $122. As always, newegg was a pleasure to deal with.

Luckily, I had a friend who'd upgraded her own TiVo in the past come to help, because while I have a Windows box, and am comfortable inside computers, I really haven't had to deal with "primary" and "master" and "slave" and such distinctions in years. I'm a Mac guy.  She helped me figure out a minor change to one of the necessary command lines.

A tip... if you put your TiVo into standby mode before unplugging it at the beginning of process, it's going to go BACK into standby mode after it boots up following the upgrade! After that "Almost there..." screen, having the TiVo go black was disconcerting. Took a moment to remember that I had told it to go to sleep. It was just remembering what I told it to do! Pressing the TiVo button woke it up.

The only other oddity? One of the four torx screws holding the drive bracket into the TiVo was a T8 screw, when all of the others on the drive, bracket, and outer case were T10 screws!

My thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger and anyone else involved in providing these helpful instructions! I'll be donating to the ELF Foundation as suggested. 

I decided to do this not only because the 80-hour capacity was cramping my style, but also because the resulting default recording quality of Medium was feeling inadequate sometimes. It was going to be especially inadequte if I should ever splurge on an HDTV. My top-notch DISH Network standard-definition signal wouldn't look TOO bad on an HDTV via S-Video, but the extra round of compression in the TiVo would make it look lousy unless I plan on using Best quality.

Of course, what I really want is an HD-capable TiVo and HD content from DISH Network, but I know I can't have either just yet.

P.S. My post included useful links to the relevant resources, but apparently I'm not allowed to do that, as a precaution against spam. What a sad world.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

mhaithaca said:


> Thanks to the Hinsdale instructions and the appropriate PTVUpgrade CD with MFSTools, I've just successfully upgraded my HUMAX 80-hour DVD Recorder TiVo to 372 hours!
> 
> I replaced the buit-in 80GB Seagate drive with a 320GB Western Digital Caviar drive from newegg that I got last week for $122. As always, newegg was a pleasure to deal with.
> 
> Luckily, I had a friend who'd upgraded her own TiVo in the past come to help, because while I have a Windows box, and am comfortable inside computers, I really haven't had to deal with "primary" and "master" and "slave" and such distinctions in years. I'm a Mac guy.  She helped me figure out a minor change to one of the necessary command lines.
> 
> A tip... if you put your TiVo into standby mode before unplugging it at the beginning of process, it's going to go BACK into standby mode after it boots up following the upgrade! After that "Almost there..." screen, having the TiVo go black was disconcerting. Took a moment to remember that I had told it to go to sleep. It was just remembering what I told it to do! Pressing the TiVo button woke it up.
> 
> The only other oddity? One of the four torx screws holding the drive bracket into the TiVo was a T8 screw, when all of the others on the drive, bracket, and outer case were T10 screws!
> 
> My thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger and anyone else involved in providing these helpful instructions! I'll be donating to the ELF Foundation as suggested.
> 
> I decided to do this not only because the 80-hour capacity was cramping my style, but also because the resulting default recording quality of Medium was feeling inadequate sometimes. It was going to be especially inadequte if I should ever splurge on an HDTV. My top-notch DISH Network standard-definition signal wouldn't look TOO bad on an HDTV via S-Video, but the extra round of compression in the TiVo would make it look lousy unless I plan on using Best quality.
> 
> Of course, what I really want is an HD-capable TiVo and HD content from DISH Network, but I know I can't have either just yet.
> 
> P.S. My post included useful links to the relevant resources, but apparently I'm not allowed to do that, as a precaution against spam. What a sad world.


Grats.

What swap space did you use? more than -s127 I hope?

If not, you may want to redo it with -s250. After the mfsrestore is done, it then requires


Code:


tpip -s --swapped /dev/hdX

 to initialize that swap properly.


----------



## tivoupgrade

ThreeSoFar said:


> Grats.
> 
> What swap space did you use? more than -s127 I hope?
> 
> If not, you may want to redo it with -s250. After the mfsrestore is done, it then requires
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> tpip -s --swapped /dev/hdX
> 
> to initialize that swap properly.


I wouldn't be so sure about that... In addition to the limited upside of even having a large swap file, I'm pretty sure sure the current TiVo kernels will barf when trying to intitialize their swap if its larger than 127MB.

Its my theory that many people have been attempting to create large swap files, and may actually running with NO swap at all.

A good way to verify this is by looking in your kernel log file for something like this:



Code:


Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Unable to handle swap header version 16777216
Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: swapon: /dev/hda8: Invalid argument

If you don't have a networked unit, just mount your TiVo drive and look on partition /dev/hdX9 in the /log/kernel file.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

tivoupgrade said:


> I wouldn't be so sure about that... In addition to the limited upside of even having a large swap file, I'm pretty sure sure the current TiVo kernels will barf when trying to intitialize their swap if its larger than 127MB.
> 
> Its my theory that many people have been attempting to create large swap files, and may actually running with NO swap at all.
> 
> A good way to verify this is by looking in your kernel log file for something like this:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Unable to handle swap header version 16777216
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: swapon: /dev/hda8: Invalid argument
> 
> If you don't have a networked unit, just mount your TiVo drive and look on partition /dev/hdX9 in the /log/kernel file.


The tpip takes care of that. It's not the TiVo kernel that has a problem, it's the mfsrestore tool itself.

I would like to see someone with an S2 done in this manner confirm this, though. I don't do kernel/Linux crap on my TiVos, just upgrades in size.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

ThreeSoFar said:


> The tpip takes care of that. It's not the TiVo kernel that has a problem, it's the mfsrestore tool itself.
> 
> I would like to see someone with an S2 done in this manner confirm this, though. I don't do kernel/Linux crap on my TiVos, just upgrades in size.


Oh, and btw, I have noticed improvements. Menus a bit faster, and the Humax DRT800 hasn't seized up since I did it. I suppose there's a chance that's from the new drive in it rather than the larger swap.


----------



## azitnay

Simply put, swap partitions smaller than 128MB use a version 0 swap header, which MFS Tools 2.0 has no problem with. Swap partitions 128MB or larger require a version 1 swap header. MFS Tools 2.0 supports this according to the code, but there's a bug somewhere. tpip knows how to correctly generate the version 1 swap header.

Drew


----------



## tivoupgrade

My experience has been that the latest TiVo kernels barf on swap partitions created with mfstools and initialized with tpip 1.1 and tpip 1.2.

ThreeSoFar - there is a difference between initializing the swap file and writing a header (initializing) to the swap partition; the former is what I'm talking about, and the error I posted is one that was generated by a system booting with a large, tpip-initialized swap partition.

I have not done an intensive investigation of this (I've only tested this on a Mandrake system and not even on my own boot CD, which might make a difference) for the following reason:

The only benefit of having a larger swap space is allowing systems with freakishly large drives to potentially recover from the Green Screen of Death (GSOD). A GSOD can be invoked in one of several ways - by manually typing "mfsassert -please", or through filesystem corruption. In the case of the latter, filesystem corruption is a 'symptom' not a problem - the underlying problem is typically a failing hard drive. That means the problem will happen again, probably very soon.

So, the summary is this, larger swap will allow you to recover (temporarily) from a GSOD in certain situations. At best, it buys you some time. Time for what? Time to do a dd_rescue, which will not always succeed either.

For everyone out there who is considering going with a larger swap, we recommend you fully understand these issues - there is minimal upside (there is absolutely NO benefit to performance) and there is potential downside; mainly, you could end up with NO swap (and that will affect performance) or you could end up with the false notion that all is OK, when its not.

I should also mention that in 5+ years of shipping upgrade kits, 4+ of them offering drive sizes larger than what 'fsfix' should be able to successfully repair in the case of a GSOD, we have NEVER received a drive back from a customer that went into a GSOD that was NOT defective. So basically, you are not going to get GSOD's unless you have a defective drive (at least not with normal usage) and unless you plan on using dd_rescue, its just not going to matter...

-----

In any case, my current tests on an HUMAX T800 reveal that the following:



Code:


mfstool restore -x -s 250 -r4 -zi TiVo.bak /dev/hdc

followed by use of tpip 1.2 running on Mandrake:



Code:


tpip -s --series2 /dev/hdc

Will result in an unbootable system, and the following errors in your kernel log file:



Code:


Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Unable to handle swap header version 16777216
Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: swapon: /dev/hda8: Invalid argument

Using



Code:


mfstool restore -x -s 127 -r4 -zi TiVo.bak /dev/hdc

you will get this, instead:



Code:


Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 130044k swap-space (priority -1)

Its my opinion (and I annually post on this issue) that your time would be better spent running advanced diagnostics, and LOW-LEVEL formats of drives, even intensive burn in, prior to installing them in your TiVo, rather then messing with swap.

If I have more time, I will run some more tests, but again, I really do view the whole swap discussion as a bit nitpicky more than anything else; it really isn't something folks should be concerned about.

Please let me know if anyone is observing anything different here, perhaps I've overlooked something; the tests I've run are not exhaustive, and as an Engineer, I am always reticent to post assessments without empirical results.


----------



## JamieP

tivoupgrade said:


> Code:
> 
> 
> tpip -s --series2 /dev/hdc


tpip has a bug in it that causes it to get the byte order wrong in the v1 swap header on series 2 units. The solution is to lie to it and claim that you have a byte swapped S1 unit. Details here. I've reported this to the tpip author.

In general, I agree with your point of view. If you really know what you are doing, running with a large enough swap to get through a GSOD is probably a good thing, although I suppose this is arguable. Otherwise, you're better off sticking with 127MB of swap and hoping that a GSOD never happens. If it does happen, there's a good chance you have a bad disk and will lose everything anyway.

For those that do choose to run with a larger swap initialized with tpip, I highly recommend that you check the logs to be sure the swap is correctly initialized and is being used. Instructions are in the thread I referenced above.


----------



## tivoupgrade

Ah, cool. Thx for that link Jamie.



Code:


tpip -s -1 /dev/hdc

and the log file now shows success:



Code:


Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 255992k swap-space (priority -1)


----------



## ThreeSoFar

How much RAM on an S2 these days, anyway?

Maybe the assumption I'm basing this on is wrong. I am assuming that for things memory intensive (rearranging lists, for example), more memory is better than less.

In any unix system I've used, swap space effectively increases the amount of memory your system has.

Is GSOD truly the _only_ time swap is important or used? I am skeptical about that. I don't mean critical (it will fail without enough), I just mean "good", meaning better with (more) than without.



tivoupgrade said:


> My experience has been that the latest TiVo kernels barf on swap partitions created with mfstools and initialized with tpip 1.1 and tpip 1.2.
> 
> ThreeSoFar - there is a difference between initializing the swap file and writing a header (initializing) to the swap partition; the former is what I'm talking about, and the error I posted is one that was generated by a system booting with a large, tpip-initialized swap partition.
> 
> I have not done an intensive investigation of this (I've only tested this on a Mandrake system and not even on my own boot CD, which might make a difference) for the following reason:
> 
> The only benefit of having a larger swap space is allowing systems with freakishly large drives to potentially recover from the Green Screen of Death (GSOD). A GSOD can be invoked in one of several ways - by manually typing "mfsassert -please", or through filesystem corruption. In the case of the latter, filesystem corruption is a 'symptom' not a problem - the underlying problem is typically a failing hard drive. That means the problem will happen again, probably very soon.
> 
> So, the summary is this, larger swap will allow you to recover (temporarily) from a GSOD in certain situations. At best, it buys you some time. Time for what? Time to do a dd_rescue, which will not always succeed either.
> 
> For everyone out there who is considering going with a larger swap, we recommend you fully understand these issues - there is minimal upside (there is absolutely NO benefit to performance) and there is potential downside; mainly, you could end up with NO swap (and that will affect performance) or you could end up with the false notion that all is OK, when its not.
> 
> I should also mention that in 5+ years of shipping upgrade kits, 4+ of them offering drive sizes larger than what 'fsfix' should be able to successfully repair in the case of a GSOD, we have NEVER received a drive back from a customer that went into a GSOD that was NOT defective. So basically, you are not going to get GSOD's unless you have a defective drive (at least not with normal usage) and unless you plan on using dd_rescue, its just not going to matter...
> 
> -----
> 
> In any case, my current tests on an HUMAX T800 reveal that the following:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool restore -x -s 250 -r4 -zi TiVo.bak /dev/hdc
> 
> followed by use of tpip 1.2 running on Mandrake:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> tpip -s --series2 /dev/hdc
> 
> Will result in an unbootable system, and the following errors in your kernel log file:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: Unable to handle swap header version 16777216
> Jan  2 00:00:43 (none) kernel: swapon: /dev/hda8: Invalid argument
> 
> Using
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool restore -x -s 127 -r4 -zi TiVo.bak /dev/hdc
> 
> you will get this, instead:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
> Jan  2 00:00:55 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 130044k swap-space (priority -1)
> 
> Its my opinion (and I annually post on this issue) that your time would be better spent running advanced diagnostics, and LOW-LEVEL formats of drives, even intensive burn in, prior to installing them in your TiVo, rather then messing with swap.
> 
> If I have more time, I will run some more tests, but again, I really do view the whole swap discussion as a bit nitpicky more than anything else; it really isn't something folks should be concerned about.
> 
> Please let me know if anyone is observing anything different here, perhaps I've overlooked something; the tests I've run are not exhaustive, and as an Engineer, I am always reticent to post assessments without empirical results.


----------



## JamieP

ThreeSoFar said:


> How much RAM on an S2 these days, anyway?


SA: 32MB; 
DTiVo: 64MB;
HDTiVo: 128MB? (not sure about this)


> Maybe the assumption I'm basing this on is wrong. I am assuming that for things memory intensive (rearranging lists, for example), more memory is better than less.


That's a valid assumption, as long as the processes that are maintaining these data structures use all the available memory.

The Tivo processes don't adjust their memory use to available physical memory or swap, as far as I have observed. As long as you have sufficient swap to cover the largest memory demand you will ever see, adding more swap generally won't help. Too little swap, and you run the risk of having processes run out of memory (e.g. "new" or "malloc" fail, or a "fork" fails to create a new process).


> In any unix system I've used, swap space effectively increases the amount of memory your system has.


More *physical* memory usually helps unix/linux systems. Any extra memory not needed for processes goes to the disk buffer cache, which tends to speed up disk access. I suppose it is possible that a larger swap allocation might allow more of the idle processes to be swapped out, freeing physical memory for the buffer cache.


> Is GSOD truly the _only_ time swap is important or used? I am skeptical about that. I don't mean critical (it will fail without enough), I just mean "good", meaning better with (more) than without.


In my experience, a SA running 7.x can't run without swap. Processes die (the aforementioned new/malloc/fork failures) and the box won't even boot fully up. A DTiVo running 6.x does seem to be able to come up with no swap, but there are still process failures and it's not really running right.

On a hacked tivo, you can watch /proc/swaps or /proc/meminfo to see how much swap is being used.

I just took a quick look at my tivos: 
model 240; 320GB (dual drive): using 30MB of swap
model 264; 320GB: using 34MB of swap
model 240; 250GB: using 23MB/swap
model 540; 200GB: using 24MB of swap


----------



## ThreeSoFar

JamieP said:


> In my experience, a SA running 7.x can't run without swap.


Ah, then if that's solid, my -s250 with tpip must have at least given me non-zero swap.


----------



## JamieP

ThreeSoFar said:


> Ah, then if that's solid, my -s250 with tpip must have at least given me non-zero swap.


Probably, if you used the right flags with tpip as described here.


----------



## tivoupgrade

ThreeSoFar said:


> How much RAM on an S2 these days, anyway?
> 
> Maybe the assumption I'm basing this on is wrong. I am assuming that for things memory intensive (rearranging lists, for example), more memory is better than less.
> 
> In any unix system I've used, swap space effectively increases the amount of memory your system has.
> 
> Is GSOD truly the _only_ time swap is important or used? I am skeptical about that. I don't mean critical (it will fail without enough), I just mean "good", meaning better with (more) than without.


I think 32MB, but don't quote me on that.

More memory is better than less when an application's working set requires more physical memory than exists. That is where swap comes in, it serves as an extension of memory so that the OS can 'swap' unused portions of memory to disk when data that needs to be address must be accessed. Anything that 'swaps' will suffer performance; that is the nature of virtual memory systems.

Swap is definitely important and needed as some applications will need more memory at times than at others, swap serves as a place for some of that information to overflow. More is not necessarily better, though. Conventional UNIX systems are generally configured with swap space allocated to 2 to 3 times that of physical memory.

In general, nothing is really going to be slower than when the system needs to read or write to disk (that is why CacheCards are so effective on Series1 units); so a larger swap is really not going to be better than a smaller one, unless the application actually requires more memory than exists in the system, plus what is available to swap. That is when fsfix will 'break' and not allow a system to recover from a GSOD. So again, that is where the notion of 'its not that important' comes from -- other than the GSOD, a larger swap really yields no benefit. And a GSOD is indicative of another problem that recovery will to little to mitigate...


----------



## tecumuman

I have the Hughes HR 10-250. The current software version on the drive is 3.1.5f-01-2-357. I have successfullly been able to make a back up of the drive, so everything is being done on a new drive.

When I attempt to run killhdinitrd on the drive I get the message "invalid kernel version". Is there a different version of killhdinitrd that I need to download in order get this to work?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## Diana Collins

JamieP said:


> SA: 32MB;
> DTiVo: 64MB;
> HDTiVo: 132MB? (not sure about this)


I get the following meminfo on my Series2 DirecTiVos:


Code:


Kitchen TiVo #cat /proc/meminfo
        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:  44937216 42012672  2924544        0  2228224 27201536
Swap: 133165056 14819328 118345728
MemTotal:        43884 kB
MemFree:          2856 kB
MemShared:           0 kB
Buffers:          2176 kB
Cached:          24332 kB
SwapCached:       2232 kB
Active:          18396 kB
Inactive:        12856 kB
HighTotal:           0 kB
HighFree:            0 kB
LowTotal:        43884 kB
LowFree:          2856 kB
SwapTotal:      130044 kB
SwapFree:       115572 kB
Kitchen TiVo #

Which would seem to indicate considerably less than 64MB of RAM - more like 42MB.


----------



## JamieP

Dan Collins said:


> Which would seem to indicate considerably less than 64MB of RAM - more like 42MB.


There is 64MB of memory installed, but some of it is reserved for other devices and is not available to the kernel. Same is true of SA's, that typically have about 24MB available to the kernel, out of the 32MB installed.


----------



## Diana Collins

I figured there was some reserved RAM (I would have been surprised by a 42MB system, I figured it was actually 48MB). 18MB seems pretty intense, versus 8MB for standalones. Any idea what DirecTiVos are doing with this extra 10MB?


----------



## JamieP

Dan Collins said:


> I figured there was some reserved RAM (I would have been surprised by a 42MB system, I figured it was actually 48MB). 18MB seems pretty intense, versus 8MB for standalones. Any idea what DirecTiVos are doing with this extra 10MB?


I'm not all that familiar with dtivo hardware as I have only SA tivo's. If you grab the kernel source form www.tivo.com/linux, you'll see some interesting things in include/linux/tivoconfig-init.h. Here's a couple of excerpts:


Code:


#define BCM_UMA_DTV_MEM \ 
    { kTivoConfigMemSize, 0x04000000 }, /* 64 MB */         \ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion1, 0x00800000 }, /* 8.0MB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion2, 0x00100000 }, /* 1.0MB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion8, 0x00a00000 },  /*10.0MB */




Code:


#define BCM_UMA_SA_MEM \ 
    { kTivoConfigMemSize, 0x02000000 }, /* 32 MB */         \ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion1, 0x00100000 }, /* 1.0MB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion2, 0x00080000 }, /* 512KB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion8, 0x00580000 }, /* 5.5MB */




Code:


#define BCM_UMA_HD_DTV_MEM \ 
    { kTivoConfigMemSize, 0x08000000 }, /* 128 MB */         \ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion1, 0x00C00000 }, /*12.0MB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion2, 0x00200000 }, /* 2.0MB */\ 
    { kTivoConfigContigmemRegion8, 0x01600000 }, /*22.0MB */

I believe this tells us how much physical memory is present on each platform, and how much is reserved in contiguous memory regions, presumably for some of the other hardware devices (e.g. graphics chips, etc). Some of the physical memory is also tied up for the kernel code itself, and is not included in the meminfo output.

If you examine /var/log/messages right after a boot, you should find something like this:


Code:


kernel: Memory: 22156k/32768k available (1222k kernel code, 10612k reserved, 81k data, 64k init, 0k highmem)

 which also tells you you much memory is used by the kernel code and data, and how much is reserved and not available to the kernel.

Guess we've ventured pretty far off topic now.


----------



## burby

Hi Guys....I to am getting the dreaded GSOD. I am a TiVo newb so be easy on me. I have already researched for many hours but nothing is making much sense to me at this point. Below is my setup and what steps I did....

I have the TiVo 40hr TCD540040.

I am trying to install a Western Digital 320gb HD as an upgraded A drive.

I followed these steps....

- mkdir /mnt/dos
- mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
- mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
- mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb (also tried 170 the second time as per another users suggestion)
- Tested new upgrade drive in TiVo and worked but only reconized 40 hours
- mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb
- Put in TiVo....get powering up screen and then GSOD.

I since have done a low level format on the new 320gb drive and repeated steps but get the same exact results. I am possitive that all my jumpers, etc are correct as I work with PCs daily. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions for me? HELP?!?

Thanks in advance...

-Brian


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## burby

Actually, I decided to browse over to the weaknees website and I found some valuable info that made my unit work. FINALLY!

Only thing I did different was....

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb

Anyone care to explain what the difference was from what I was initially doing? I was first using the hinsdale write up, but I guess that wasn't completely up to date. Anywho, it is working now and I'm a happy camper.

It says that I now have 316 hours of recording time....but thats only 100 or so at best. Anyone recomend adding a second large drive? I was thinking about maybe adding another 200 or 300gb as a B drive. Any downsides to doing this? Any problems I may run into?

Thanks.

-Brian


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## ThreeSoFar

Here's your problem. /dev/hdb should be the only argument to this command:



Code:


mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

Assuming, anyway, that you are only replacing the single drive not upgrading to two drives.


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## geishaslave

Upgrade Series 2 80 Hour to 140 Hour

Hello everyone.

Apologies in advance if similar information has been posted earlier.

Just wanted to share my experience with the procedures and files posted at

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html

I was able to successfully change from an 80GB Maxtor hard disk drive to a 120GB Western Digital (WDC).

My task varied a bit from the published steps since I did not want to first make the Tivo back up image.

Here are the basic steps I followed:

1) Cloned entire 80GB Maxtor to 120GB WDC drive using MFS Tools/Linux. This took over 10 hours!

2) Placed 120GB WDC into the Series 2 Tivo and was able to boot up no problems. System info reported max 140 hour recording capacity.

3) Using Disk Management/Windows XP, created 10GB FAT32 partition on the 80GB Maxtor.

4) Using MFS Tools/Linux, backed up 120GB WDC to 80GB Maxtor, creating the tivo.bak image.

5) Burned tivo.bak to CD-R for archival purpose.

I could have first created a FAT32 partition on the WDC drive, backed up the original Maxtor disk, burned the CD-R, then cloned from the 80GB-->120GB.

No difference in amount of effort/time committment. I was worried about the Maxtor failing, and I knew my spouse would want the recordings and settings preserved, thus the reason I did the clone first.

Thanks for this opportunity to share my joy 

Details:

Tivo Series 2 model TCD24008A

OS version 7.2.2b-oth-01-2-140


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## mademan

Hello,

If you need ever to burn ISO to disc I propose you try out ISO-burner tool. This tool is free and never failed me before. Moreover, it is extremely easy to use
ntfs,com/iso-burning,htm


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## timckelley

mademan said:


> Hello,
> 
> If you need ever to burn ISO to disc I propose you try out ISO-burner tool. This tool is free and never failed me before. Moreover, it is extremely easy to use
> ntfs,com/iso-burning,htm


That could have saved me a lot of time during my last upgrade. Getting ISO to burn to disk was my big sticking point, and I went through practically a dozen CDs using different softwares and reading various newsgroups, and posting here, trying to get it to work.


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## ThreeSoFar

Samsung 500G SATA drives (for S3 upgrades) are just $149 at newegg.com, free shipping.


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## spudly

[Sorry that this is a duplicate post as I started a new thread with the situation. I'd still appreciate any answers within this thread!]

Hello,

Here is my situation: Have a Series I Dtvio (Philips DSR6000) from 2001 which I had expanded to 108 hours with second 80GB HD + original 40GB HD way back when. It's been acting flaky the last couple months and afraid one of the hard drives are gonna kick. This was purchased w/CC 5 yr warranty and a call to DTV they actually sent me a replacement unit and was told to "throw away" (hah!) the old one. So they sent me an R10 (series II).

So far so good (until I realized that this couldn't be hacked for TiVo Web, but I digress). I have a 300GB HD I'd like to replace (and remove the original 80 GB) in the R10 which I am confident I can do as the tools have only gotten easier in the past couple of years, but here's the rub..... is there anyway I can copy/move my recordings and season passes from the DSR6000 (series I) that I will retire?

Initially I thought I could just do the "Replace 2 HD w/Signle HD option" but then it ocurred to me that the software would likely be overwritten with the ancient series I on the series II unit.

Any help/suggestions?

TIA!
Glenn


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## zewone

I could use some help. I have a series 2 DirecTivo (RCA DVR39). I was upgrading the set by adding a second drive (80GB Maxtor). I had everything going well until it came to putting the drives back in the unit. I'm using a Twinbreeze and the IDE cable I have would not reach from the motherboard, to both units.

So, I tried something. I saw that there was a blue end on the IDE cable. It looks like this is suppose to be the end connected to the motherboard, but I would be able to connect everything if I connected the blue end to drive B. So, I did. I closed the unit and plugged it in. It was stuck at the "powering up" screen. I figured my idea didn't work and I would need a longer IDE cable.

I wanted to make sure my unit was still working, so I plugged in drive A by itself and put the blue end of the cable back into the motherboard. Boot it up, gets past the "powering up" screen, gets the "almost done" screen then it reboots. I'm worried that I screwed something up. Also, my remote wouldn't respond on the unit. I made sure to be careful about the white ribbon connected to the front, I hope that's not the problem.

If anyone can give me some reassurance that everything will be fine, it would mean a lot to me.  

Sorry for the long post. I hope it's legible, I'm very tired.


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## Downloaderuk

Robert S said:


> Yes, he does cover the UK TiVo (it's virtually identical to the US Series 1 stand alone TiVo, the only difference is the -l 32 for the backup).
> 
> See http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/ for details of several common upgrades done on a UK TiVo. With pix!


This is a great site for Tivo upgrades. Thanks for the link.

DownloaderUK


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## aladdin

Help with HR10-250? I've tried every bootable MFStools and PTVUpgraded Linux tools cd, but everytime I try to backup my current drive (I even did a clear and delete all to see if that would help) and use the command: mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/hr10.bak it goes about 38mb and then stops and never moves again. I also found an image and downloaded, and have tried restoring it to my new 500GB WD drive using: mfsrestore -s 300 -bxzpi /mnt/dos/hr205.bak /dev/hdb and similar problem... after a couple mb, it just hangs. Any help here? What am I doing wrong? I'm using the 3.01 CD with the Kernel48 on it... also tried mfstools 2.01 but doesn't work either. My primary drive is dying, so I really need to get it copied to a new drive before it stops working completely... please msg me if you can help, I would really appreciate it.


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## swob111

I have a quick question. My hard drive died, so I want to know if it is possible to take a completely blank drive, and make it usable for my series 2 single drive. I don't know if the instructions will work because I am not upgrading, I am starting all over.


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## timckelley

Yes, that will work. You're doing a replace instead of an upgrade, and there are replacement instructions available for you to work from.


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## ThreeSoFar

timckelley said:


> Yes, that will work. You're doing a replace instead of an upgrade, and there are replacement instructions available for you to work from.


You will need a source image to recover from. Some individuals have them archived from past upgrades. Also available for a fee, IIRC.


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## azitnay

And if you post your model number here, you might just get a helpful PM or two .

Drew


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## Newbie

Where can I download a test tivo.bak file I can mfsrestore to a new drive so I can see if the new drive works in the tivo? I just need it to boot beyond the initial "tivo is starting up" screen.

I have a philips series 1 dvr 312 although it has been upgraded to 2 drives so it's more like a 612.

My drive upgrade attempt has not worked, so I'm trying to narrow down the problem, starting with the new drive and the PC used to perform the mfsrestore procedure.


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## gfreeman

Hi all. As a Canadian with a Series 2 TiVo, I was wondering what I need to do in order to increase the space for recordings to the maximum I could possibly get.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

G


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## wilhouse

reduce the recording quality to as low as you can stand it.

wilhouse


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## gfreeman

Ah yes, thanks. Already at the lowest quality. I found an excellent page describing how to install a larger drive, which I shall try out as soon as I have a spare day to devote to it.


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## wilhouse

also see http://www.weaknees.com/

and

http://www.tvrevo.com/index.php

for people who would be happy to do it for you.

wilhouse


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## bpl323

I'm getting a Tivo HD and would like to upgrade the HDD. I'm on a Mac and can't seem to find any guide to do it (or any guide that is new enough to support the HD on Windows). Any help would be awesome!


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## wilhouse

ok, Tivo has actually made it easy for you.

Buy a DVR expander. I have two of them (one for each of my two Tivo HD's).

I got mine from Best Buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...p=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

Tivo sells a 1TB unit. You won't need any more space after you buy that one.

http://www.tivo.com/dvr-products/tivo-accessories/extra-dvr-storage/index.html

It's simple to install. Just turn off the tivo, plug the unit into the tivo and reboot.

wilhouse


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