# WeaKnees Interactive Online TiVo Upgrade Instructions



## weaknees

We're pleased to announce the release of a new set of TiVo Upgrade Instructions for the do-it-yourselfer who would prefer not to buy a "plug and play" hard drive.

The interactive website will create an individualized set of upgrade instructions based on the specifics of your upgrade (including your specific TiVo model, whether you want to back up your drive, whether you are adding or replacing a drive, and so on).

Our interactive site can and should be used in conjunction with the other upgrade tools and resources (including Hinsdale's guide), and we hope this will prove to be a useful addition to the upgrade resources already out there.

Here's the link:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Enjoy--and good luck!

Michael


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## litzdog911

Very nice! Thanks, Michael!


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## Tiger

Well I just told it to do an upgrade to a DSR6k, replacing both drives, yes backup, no FAT, yes XP/2k, CD, ignore recordings, and not older than 2.5 and I got an error on step 4.


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## weaknees

Tiger-

Thanks for checking out the site. We've fixed the problem you came upon - if you find more, please post again or email us so that we can keep tuning the site.

We're looking for comments like this so that we can make it a complete, streamlined site. 

Michael


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## boxster99t

I set the following parameters:

Sony SAT T-60
Replace with Two Drives
Backup yes
Fat Partition on C yes
Windows XP yes
Boot CD
Save Recordings
Older than 2.5 no

It goes through how to verify the drive sizes, and then how to reinstall the drives in the Tivo without any of the intervening steps to make the back up and pipe the recordings over to the new drive set.

It is very nice, however, on configurations that work. Great tool.

Now, if someone would make one for large hard drives, that would be impressive  

Went through that one on Sunday, flipping back and forth between Todd Miller's instructions, Das Monkey's instructions and Hinsdale. Phew!!!


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## weaknees

boxster99t - 

I've tried this several times and I do get the pipe backup and restore. Are you sure those are the option you used? That does create steps to do the backup first (since you are choosing that option) but later shows the backup|restore step.

Michael


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## boxster99t

very strange, it does work now as you said, but it sure didn't when I wrote my post. And I had to go back and re-selected the parameters when I wrote it. Go figure--it is very nice in any case.


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## weaknees

OK - thanks for checking again. I have made some minor changes in places, but I'm pretty sure nothing would have affected that. In any event, glad to hear that it works correctly now, and thanks again for taking the time to troubleshoot and report back.

Michael


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## boxster99t

> _Originally posted by boxster99t _
> *very strange, it does work now as you said, but it sure didn't when I wrote my post. And I had to go back and re-selected the parameters when I wrote it. Go figure--it is very nice in any case. *


Actually, I take back what I just wrote, but I think it must be something with our server/firewall blocking some of the content. The instructions initially appear, all in grey boxes, but after leaving the window minimized on my desktop, something happens because it displays just like I said in my original post--it now has none of the instructions for performing the backup or piping the content to the new drive set.

I actually tried to save it so I could email you the page, but the version of IE we use won't let you save that page as html. Anyway the problem looks like something on my end.

'D00, DOO, DOO, DOO' welcome to the twilight zone


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## weaknees

Weird. What version of IE and OS are you using?

Michael


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## ebonovic

Here is what I just tried:

GXCEBOT -
Single Large Drive
ect....

I didn't get an option to tell the site, that this is already an UPGRADE DUAL drive system, and I wanted to go back to a SINGLE Larger Drive.

I have the stock 40 and an additional 60 in my DTivo1

I would like to go back to one single drive.

According to Hinsdale, I can do this, but only if I don't keep my recordings.

Great site though.

One recommendation... If there is a way you can give an option to generate a PDF file. This way "in a pinch" if I lose a page of the instructions after computer A is down, I can take that PDF file to another unit and print it out. Or have it in my Handheld unit, vs paper.

Just an idea, as we are converting a lot of our web based reports to PDF files for archiving purposes.


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## weaknees

ebonovic - 

Interesting idea on the PDF. Of course you can always print the page or select the text and email it to your pager, I guess.

On the issue of a non-stock TiVo, that's right, this site only works for stock TiVos. I'll make that clear on the first page.

Michael


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## vanelin

I'm new here so you'll have to bear with me on this one. 

I've gone through your steps weakness and got down to the mfsbackup and mfs restore command but I am running into a problem. 

My setup on my computer is 
c: (ME) - aka hda
d: destination drive - aka hdb
e: cddrive -aka hdc

I've successfully made a backup.bak drive which resides on my c: drive, but I'm not sure I'm gettting the complete command to restore correctly.

I've tried all variations of:
mfsbackup - Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ 

but I keep on getting error messages that I have the source wrong (sorry) i'm on a different OS right now and don't remember the exact message).

What should the hdX and the hdZ be in the above command?

I'm basically taking my original drive and replacing it with a new one.

Thanks in advance,
Vanelin


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## weaknees

vanelin- 

What drive is your original TiVo boot drive?

Michael


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## vanelin

I took the original tivo drive out, it was the hdb. Should that be left in? I assumed (which might be bad on my part) that I could do a restore from the .bak file on my hda drive directly to the hdb drive.

When I first started my setup was:
c: (ME) - aka hda
b: Original Tivo drive - aka hdb
c: CD rom - aka hdc

When I got to the restore, my setup is now:
c: (me) - aka hda
b: new hard drive - aka hdb
c: cd rom - aka hdc

Thanks,
Vanelin


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## weaknees

You can do the restore, but not with recordings. If you want to save your recordings (you chose that option on the site) then you need to leave the original drive in the TiVo. If you don't need the recordings, just re-run the site with "ignore" chosen and you can pick up where you left off. Otherwise, you need both old and new drives in the PC (but not the ME drive now that you've made the backup).

Michael


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## vanelin

So the .bak file is just an image for safe keeping then?

So in the command that I'm having trouble with, I can set my machine up to be:

c: Tivo original - aka hda
d: Tivo new drive - aka hdb
e: cdrom - aka hdc

so the command would be:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore - s 172 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

and this would mean that I'm moving the data from the hda to hdb is this correct?

Thanks,
Vanelin


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## weaknees

Yes, the .bak file is for safekeeping, and yes, that's the right command given the configuration.

Michael


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## walters

So far so good. I decided to get the backup out of the way while I wait for the drive and bracket to be delivered.

One suggestion: You give the impression that the progress indicator will come up almost immediately on mfsbackup, but mine stood at "Scanning source drive" for several minutes. Might make some people nervous.

BTW, you don't need to ask about version 2.5 with HDVR2 and similar. No such version.


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## amgqmp1

absolutely gorgeous! two big thumbs up to the weakness folks!


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## weaknees

walters - 

I made the change - good catch.

Michael


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## vanelin

weakness,

After your help, everything is now working fine with approx 105 hrs of recording time 

Now on to my other unit

Thanks for your help!!! I must say damn you were fast.

Vanelin

ps sorry I posted so late on the results, had to let the copy go overnight and I just got home to test

thanks again


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## weaknees

vanelin -

Glad to hear it!

Is the other unit going to be the same upgrade path?

Michael


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## vanelin

Yes, the other unit should go the same path. 

I've got to quiet down the hard drive (WD 120GB 8MB Caviar) I put in today though before I upgrade the next one since it is a bit too noisy with the drive seeks, so I'm looking for something about that on the forums.

Thanks


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## weaknees

vanelin - 

We haven't used WD drives for years, but be careful. At one point, the trade-off for quieter drive acoustics was hotter drives - never a good thing.

Michael


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## walters

Another thing I noticed about the instructions was that it didn't have testing the backup as a step, not even an optional step. Honestly, I have no idea what the consensus is on this (I'm in the process of my first upgrade--waiting on hardware). Is it that if the backup produced no errors that you're good to go?


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## boxster99t

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Weird. What version of IE and OS are you using?
> 
> Michael *


We're running Win98 and a modified version of IE 6.0


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## rnordvik

Michael,

The guide looks great. However, there is a scenario that I am facing now, that is not covered. That is: replacing a bad 'B' drive (in a Sony T60) with a new drive of similar capacity, while saving recordings. If you added that, then I would consider your guide to be about perfect!

-Rob


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## weaknees

> [B}Another thing I noticed about the instructions was that it didn't have testing the backup as a step, not even an optional step.[/B]


On the list of things to add... hopefully early next week. Good catch!



> The guide looks great. However, there is a scenario that I am facing now, that is not covered. That is: replacing a bad 'B' drive (in a Sony T60) with a new drive of similar capacity, while saving recordings. If you added that, then I would consider your guide to be about perfect!


Well, for the most part, if one of your drives is bad, making a backup is not likely to product much success. You're probably more likely to be successful if the B drive is bad than if the A drive is bad.

At any rate, one of the assumptions we're making with the upgrade site (you'll see this on the home page) is that you're starting with a factory TiVo. We are hoping to add more complexity to the site down the road, but for now, to get the site launched, we omitted the complexities involved if you already have an upgraded TiVo and want to modify the configuration.

As you'll notice, this more complex subject is covered in Hinsdale's guide, which is one reason why our guide is not a complete substitute for Hinsdale's work. We do think, however, that the interactive guide should be included as an additional "go to" resource for first-time upgraders.

Michael


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## weaknees

Added support for Hughes SD-DVR40, Hughes SD-DVR120, and Samsung SIR-S4120R.

Michael


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## Z'Loth

Perhaps at the beginning, you need to start off with "Are you using a standalone TiVo or a DirecTV DVR with TiVo?" 

Also, don't all series 2 DVRs have software that is later than 2.5, making that option useless?


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## weaknees

Second note first - good point. I'll add that to the list.

As far as the first idea - why do that, just to pare down the list of models a bit?

Michael


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## walters

Just completed a flawless HDVR2 upgrade with these instructions (and your bracket). Thanks! :up:


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## weaknees

OK - among other changes, I added instructions (similar to Robert S's plan) to include making a FAT partition temporarily on your new drive and using that to house a backup file. This is in lieu of adding a FAT partition to an NTFS drive - which is a waste of space.

Also - I removed the older software question for newer units where it can't apply.

Michael


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## ObviousMan

Wow! I wish something like this existed when close to 3 years ago I got steal of a deal on 30GB Maxtor (just $80 AC/AR  ) and replaced the original disk in my 112 unit.
Nice job! Major cudos!

OM


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## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by ObviousMan _
> *Wow! I wish something like this existed when close to 3 years ago I got steal of a deal on 30GB Maxtor (just $80 AC/AR  ) and replaced the original disk in my 112 unit.
> Nice job! Major cudos!
> 
> OM *


Actually, it did... It was called: The unofficial TiVo Hackers Site

aka: http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/


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## ObviousMan

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Actually, it did... It was called: The unofficial TiVo Hackers Site
> 
> aka: *


I meant the total dummy oriented, simple as they come, type of interactive instructions... 
OM


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## ObviousMan

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Actually, it did... It was called: The unofficial TiVo Hackers Site
> 
> aka: *


I meant the total dummy oriented, simple as they come, type of interactive instructions... 
OM


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## ObviousMan

> _Originally posted by tivoupgrade _
> *Actually, it did... It was called: The unofficial TiVo Hackers Site
> 
> aka: *


I meant the total dummy oriented, simple as they come, type of interactive instructions... 
OM


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## curiousgeorge

The Pioneer and Toshiba TiVo/DVD units aren't in the guide yet. Is that coming soon?


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## curiousgeorge

The Pioneer and Toshiba TiVo/DVD units aren't in the guide yet. Is that coming soon?


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## missamo80

I'm not sure if I'm sleepy and missing something, but I think I found a problem with the HDVR2 "add a drive" instructions. It goes in to great detail about how to attach the existing drive to my computer, but doesn't seem to talk at all about attaching the second, new drive.

Neil


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## weaknees

missamo80-

Right - that was missing - good catch. Fixed now!

Michael


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## weaknees

OK - we've added to the list of options the ability to get customized instructions to restore from a backup file. So if you have a backup file on your hard drive that you made, a CD-ROM, or you've downloaded one from the internet, you can now get customized instructions on how to load that back on to one or two new drives.

Michael


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## weaknees

FYI - Western Digital seems to have pulled "dlgchk" from their site. We now host it on our upgrade instructions site. Once you pull up your customized instructions, you'll get a link to the file in case you need it. If you want direct access to it, it's here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/downloads/dlgchk.zip

Michael


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## Dan the TiVo Man

Weaknees,
I like the idea of interactive instructions but I have some questions on your linux commands listed for a "replace with one drive" procedure for a SA HDR112 with >2.5 software:

I noticed that the mount command is listed as:
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

But the Hinsdale instructions show it as:
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

Are both correct? Is there a reason to use one over the other?
I noticed that there was no umount command during the procedure, is that correct?
_______________________________________________
Also, the interactive instructions list the backup command as:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
(Hinsdale shows this command for series 2 tivos)

But the Hinsdale instructions list it as: (for series 1 SA's)
mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

What is the purpose of "-f 9999" and are these commands interchangable? Is one preferrable over the other?
_______________________________________________________

I would like to recommend that you include a warning where ever you mention qunlock telling people that it can hose up their hard drives if used incorrectly. I believe the warning is included in the Hinsdale instructions but just in case the upgrader doesn't see it there you might save them some grief...( I am still wondering why anyone still uses qunlock when dlgchk.exe is easier, and as far as I know it will never hose up a hard drive? Does qunlock do something that dlgchk doesn't do?) 

(dlgchk.exe is included on the western digital floppies that come with new hard drives but they call it bios check.)


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## Robert S

Hinsdale creates a new directory to use as a mount point and then mounts on it, weaknees just mounts on the existing /mnt directory. As long as the path to the backup file is correct (ie, no /dos in the weaknees version), the effect is the same. Some of the original TiVo upgrade procedures required you to have a TiVo partition and a DOS partition mounted simultaneously. Even though that's no longer required, Hinsdale hasn't changed his command lines.

Failing to umount before you switch off the PC could seriously damage your C: drive! If you shutdown with Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait for the PC to reboot, Linux should unmount everything for you.

The backup commands are different for the Series 1 and 2 TiVoes. If you forget -f 9999 on a Series 2 your backup will not include the backgrounds for the menu screens.

qunlock is sufficiently ubiquitous that people need to know how to use it safely. It's easier to use than dlgchk, but a lot more dangerous. Ideally we'd get Frey's patch rewritten to unlock the Maxtor drives and get Tiger to make a new MFS Tools 2.0 with that on it. That doesn't seem very likely at the moment, and until that happens, people are still going to blow up their drives with qunlock, whatever we say here.


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## weaknees

We've rewritten our notes to stress that DLGCHK is the preferred option over qunlock.

Michael


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## weaknees

Added support for the new Philips DSR704 and DSR708. If you have one of those units, they are basically identical inside to the Hughes HDVR2, Philips DSR7000 and the other units. Some of these new units have the warranty stickers.

Cosmetically, the fronts of these units are different (busier?) but they do have access doors for the cards, like the HDVR2 and SD-DVR units.

Final note: these units have a new service number, so other software shouldn't be used on them.

Michael


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## tchapin

Should there be a question in this process like:

Have you previously upgraded your TiVo?

If yes, what have you done:

- replaced the original single A drive with a larger one
- added a second drive
- etc...

That would address problems / questions like this one:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147201

which is unclear to me if the current upgrade instructions presented here do.

Todd


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## Jim M

WHEN DO YOU START CHARGING FOR THIS "SERVICE" ? 

I cannot thank you enough for this.......... I had really thought of re-writing the Hinsdale How-To to make it more specific to DirecTV TiVo units. Of course, I printed out the mega page Hinsdale document, downloaded all the files, got a highlighter and finally marked the sections important to me. 

I'll go run and try this with my SDVR40 and DSR7000 soon after things look like they are bug free and fee free. 

Many thanks to Weaknees and Hinsdale and everyone else involved. 

Would this be ok to post at DBSForums.com in the PVR forums? 

Thanks! 

-= jim


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## weaknees

Jim M -

I assume your first question was in jest - but we intend this to remain free.

And you should absolutely post the link wherever you'd like (it's even preformatted on the home page). We pretty much focus our forum efforts here, but we're happy to have you spread the word!

Michael


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## Big-bill3

It looks really useful but I can't find any reference to the Thomson models in the UK


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## weaknees

We've taken the site status from "Beta" to final. Thanks to everyone for all of the comments here and the emails. We believe we have ironed out all of the issues, but as always, some probably remain and we'll keep combing.

In addition, software and best practices do change, and we'll continually update this site for these reasons, as new TiVos come out, and as we can add features. We'll try to update this thread with those notes.

As always, please feel free to contact us here or through the email on the site or at [email protected] with other issues or questions.

Michael


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## weaknees

> _Originally posted by Big-bill3 _
> *It looks really useful but I can't find any reference to the Thomson models in the UK *


Working on it. Can anyone give us a link to a site that has pictures of the inside of those units? We'd like to get detailed hardware installation instructions and we just don't have access to those units.

Michael


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## DCIFRTHS

Hi Guys,

Any chance you'll be adding instructions for the new Pioneer units? The 57H is the one i'm interested in?

Thanks!


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## Big-bill3

I can take some photos while the lid's off and e-mail them.

Let me know asap what shots you need


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## weaknees

Big-bill3,

Sorry for the delay (just trying to keep up with orders here).

If you still have yet to open the unit, a photo of just the inside would probably do the trick. Email it to [email protected] and we'll go from there.

Thanks,

Michael


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## MrBigglesworth

This guide is SWEET! I just scored a free 40GB upgrade, and was poking around here to see if there was any condensed instructions for simply adding a 40GB secondary drive. I love it!


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## Len McRiddles

ßump


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## su_A_ve

Ok,

After doing the OfficeMax deal, I upgraded my HDVR2 with a WD 120 Gb ($25 AR/AC)

Mostly used the Interactive Tivo Upgrade instructions, but was not too clear about one section, so ended up double checking with Hindsale's.

I used the "HDVR2 Replace ONE drive" and all YES options (BK, FAT32, XP, CD, Save Recs).

The problem is after making the backup, the instructions say:

_The software will scan your drive for a few moments. You should see a progress indicator as the backup proceeds. Once the backup is successful, shut down the PC if your destination drive isn't connected by using CTRL-ALT-DELETE and waiting until the Linux has halted. Then boot again as before with the destination drive connected, and enter the following with hdX as your destination drive:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

Then:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ) _

What's confusing is that it says you should *'enter the following with hdX as your destination drive'*

Well, if you do that, YOU'LL MIGHT HOSE the TIVO DRIVE !!! In fact, why do you want to mount the FAT 32 partition ? In this scenario, we'll be copying everything from the old drive to the new...

The WD seems a tad louder, but I guess it needs getting used to.

My .02..


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## weaknees

su_A_ve - 

Sorry for the delay, but we fixed the wording to make this more clear.

Thanks for posting!

Michael


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## weaknees

Based on a few notes in various places here on the forums by Robert S, we conducted some informal tests of various backup compression levels comparing both times and resulting backup sizes. Robert S was, again, right on the money here.

The table with the results is posted on the Upgrade Instructions blog here:

http://tivo-upgrade.blogspot.com

So, as mentioned there, we've changed all of the compression levels from -9 on the site to -1, since that's really the best number in all respects.

Michael


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## Rcrew

Just a thanks for all your hard work, and keeping this guide free. It's a great tool. 

Are there plans to include 2nd upgrade instructions, IE: going from A & B drive units back to A only? Or are there just too many variables. I can see myself eventually desiring to change my GXCEB0T from 40gb A and 80gb B to a single 160gb A. 

I've been doing a few free upgrades for forum members in my area, using the Hinsdale guide. It's still slightly intimidating, although a great reference.

Your tool is right on!


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## weaknees

OK - two more changes:

-changed recommended Maxtor drive unlocking software to DiskUtil

-added a "Clear and delete everything" step for situations that need it (based on a question)

Michael


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## Kylep

I just added two drives to the Hughes SD-DVR40 using these instructions. While it may seem obvious, I didn't realize you HAD to keep your C drive hooked up in order to do the upgrade. The instructions stress that you need to keep the CD hooked up if you want to boot to it but didn't really say anything about the hard drive.

Since it was easier not to have it hooked up (no moving of jumpers, easier cable access) I was trying to run the commands without it. Needless to say I had problems.

Of course, logic dictates you would need to be storing the backup somewhere, but not everyone subscribes to this whole logic thing. (I actually thought it was either the floppy or in memory)

Perhaps it's not a crucial point, but I thought i'd make the observation.

Thanks Weaknees!


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## MighTiVo

Just wanted to say THANKS for giving back to the community!
A DIY information service like this really makes it easy to do bunsiness with you even if all I buy is the breeze.


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## Joey P

Just added an 80gb b drive to my 60 hour series 2 and was only slightly toubled at one point. Like someone else said I wasn't totally sure if I had to keep my C drive in (and if I wasn't going to make a backup, I would have unhooked it, just to eliminate the chance of messing it up), anyways, I hooked my TiVo drive and the new drive as secondary master and slave. I booted the computer from the disk I made (the *.iso image on the CD-Rom wouldn't work for me). It went through it's thing and came to the prompt, I looked for several minutes back and forth and couldn't find the lines you were talking about. I was thinking about just going on anyways, but I thought, that there was a chance I had the drives backwards. I turned off the computer, switched the cable and flipped it back on. As it was booting I saw the lines you mentioned, and the drive sizes were correct. BUT when it came to the prompt and I scrolled back up to look at them again I couldn't find them at all. Strange. Other then that it went fairly smoothly, the only trouble I had was the drive variables you used were a little confusing at times but I figured it all out (this may have to do with the fact that I know NOTHING whatsoever about Linux, so what's confusing to me, maybe something pointless like back in the days of DOS when my dad would copy directions word for word of the installation book, so at the a:\prompt he would type "a:\setup.exe <enter>" ...(No dad just the "setup.exe" part, really))


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## tomlouie

> _Originally posted by Joey P _
> *... I looked for several minutes back and forth and couldn't find the lines you were talking about. ... As it was booting I saw the lines you mentioned, and the drive sizes were correct. BUT when it came to the prompt and I scrolled back up to look at them again I couldn't find them at all. Strange.*


I had the same experience. As the machine was booting up, the lines (hda, hdb, etc) would tell you the capacity of the disk, but after the bootup has completed and you scroll back, the lines only tell you the make & model of the hd.

I noticed one problem with the instructions for:

AT&T 230040
Replace with One Drive
Do not want a backup
Do not have FAT
Am using XP or 2k
Using boot floppy
Save recordings
Not older than 2.5
Not moving software

The instructions say to type:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

However, it doesn't make clear that /dev/hdX is the old TiVo drive, and /dev/hdZ is the new one. While it could be figured out in the context, nervous newbies need explanation & confirmation. 

That said, the instructions were great! My 40GB took 5 hours to copy all the recordings, but it all went fine!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Tom


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## weaknees

OK - I've changed all of the drive attributions to follow this logic:

hdW=FAT 32 drive
hdX=Original TiVo drive
hdY=Second Original TiVo drive (B drive) in two-drive units
hdZ=Target (New) TiVo A drive
hdZZ=Second Target (New) TiVo drive (B drive) in two-drive upgrades

I'll try to color code these also when I get a chance . . .

Michael


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## tomlouie

Michael, I looked at the new instructions, it looks great. Thank you!

Tom


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## Tempest

Great guide, upgrade from single 80gig to a single 160gig and worked great. Saving my original hd in case of failure. Probably add another 120 gig drive down the road.


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## Dirac

I noticed no Samsung SIR-S4040R upgrade instructions option. I would guess the instructions would be identical to the SIR-S4120R, with the possible exception of the drive size affecting the backup options (i.e. replacement A must be at least as large as original A). I have never upgraded a Series 2 so I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.


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## weaknees

Yes, they are identical. We'll try to add them soon.

Michael


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## mattn2

Something is amiss - 
TiVo 140060
Replace w/ 2 drives
NO Backup
NO FAT
NO XP
CD
Ignore recordings
Newer 2.5
No Move

It goes into ... issue backup and restore commands
... backup command to a FAT mount point.
(what??? I want no backup - No FAT)
Then the "restore" is not a pipe - but from the NON-existant FAT mount.

(edit) The pipe command shows up if I choose "to 1 drive"

(edit) same problem appears for all Series 2 SA TiVo's

# Matt


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## weaknees

OK - that problem is now fixed.

In addition, I added the Samsung S4040R to the matrix.

Michael


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## Tivo_60

Michael.....I plan on relacing the orig hdd in my Hughes HDVR2. In reading your instructions f/this model, there is one statement that confuses me :

"Remove the power cable and gray IDE ribbon cable from the hard drive. Also, *remove the ribbon cable from the motherboard. You may not re-use this cable,* but you should keep it either way"

Further down, towards the end of the instructions, it states:

"Install drive onto bracket with the four T-15 screws. *Connect the IDE/power cables* to the drive on the bracket".

Why can't you reuse the ribbon cable and what do you replace it with?
Am I missing something here? TIA


----------



## weaknees

We mean "may" as in: in some cases you do, and in some cases you don't. In your case, you will.

Sorry for the confusion.

Michael


----------



## Tivo_60

OK thanks Michael. I read it as "you may not reuse this cable!" A little too literal I guess and I do want to do this carefully so that I get it right the first time. Great instructions BTW.


----------



## weaknees

Yeah, I'll try to re-word that. It's on the list!

Michael


----------



## BlueXanaX

An added post.

:up:


----------



## bustergonad

Hey thanks weaknees,
I finally got around to upgrading my SVR2000 yesterday, the upgrade went relativity smoothly after I finally got started. I'm now the proud owner of a 144hr SVR2000.

BTW why does the MFSTools disk not support the cyrix 6x86 chips? I tried to do the upgrade on an old PC I had laying around but I got a Kernel Panic message saying I needed a Pentium chip to run the upgrade.
It was quite a pain to unhook my wife's Pentium 3 PC to do the upgrade. 

Again many thanks 

Roy


----------



## dstroot

PLease update this tool for the HR10-250 HD DirecTivo.


----------



## weaknees

Working on it - but we don't have the full set of answers for that unit yet. When we do, we'll update this.

Michael


----------



## JANVideo

I am in the middle of replacing my 2 drive Phillips HDR612 with a single drive of 160 gigs. The machine freezes up every two to three days so I will replace the drives to see if that fixes it. Anyway, I am going the backup route, and I am leaving the new drive off the PC for now and just trying to backup the TiVo OS, no stored video, just the OS. 

I had to unlock both drives and that went OK.

Now, when I try to mount the hda volume to receive the backup, it comes back with:

FAT:Bogus logical sector size 64543
VFS:Can't find a valid fat filesystem on dev 03:00
MOUNT:you must specify the filesystem type.

I rebooted into windows XP and the properties window shows the disk as FAT32. It's a 40gig drive with a C: and D: partition. There is about 19gigs free space between both partitions. Am I doing something wrong? Where will the backup file actually reside?

Also, just for your info, as Linux is booting up, there is a lot of stuff appearing on the screen, and the info about the Tivo drives is there as it's comming up, but when it's all done booting, that info about the size of the tivo disk is NOT in the pageable file that your directions indicate. Using shift pgup or down, that info is nowhere to be found. That might be confusing as it's not available at that time (at least on my system).

So, can you help with the mount problem?
Thanks very much,
Joel


----------



## weaknees

I haven't dealt with DOS drives with multiple partitions for a while, so I'm a little rusty here, but try this:

mount /dev/hda2 /mnt

and also try that with 3 and 4 and see if that helps Linux find your FAT partitions.

Michael


----------



## JANVideo

Thanks for the reply, Michael. I think I tried 2, and that also failed. I'll try 3 and 4 to see what happens.

If this keeps failing, then I'll have to go ahead without the backup and just dump the OS to the new disk.

My new disk is brand new, never been powered up. Do I need to do anything to the new disk or will the software take care of it automatically?

Thanks,
Joel


----------



## weaknees

You don't need to prepare the new disk in any way other than that specified in the instructions.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

Actually your D: drive is probably hda5.


----------



## jeff125va

Before I give up trying to use this guide, can someone tell me if there's a way to use it on a previously upgraded SAT-T60? I'm replacing two 120GB drives,that seem to be on the verge of failing, with two new 120GB drives.


----------



## weaknees

That'll work - just add the second drive designation into the backup strings, assuming you aren't trying to save recordings. If you are, you should look at the other guide for more detailed info on recovering from failing drives.

Michael


----------



## JANVideo

Thanks for the suggestions, Michael, it turns out that I was able to use hda5 as the mount point. Then the backup and restore went fine. I ended up with 165 hours on the machine with one drive. I powered it up and it seems to be fine as I was able to go to the messages and now playing menus. I'll check out the recording functions and everything else later.

Again, thanks for the help, your instructions are superb! As well as the software system.

Joel


----------



## weaknees

Thanks! Glad to hear it's working.

Michael


----------



## JANVideo

Thanks to Robert S. for the hda5 suggestion as well. It seems that the backup file did appear on the D: partition of the hda disk (as seen by Linux). 
Useful info in case anyone else does a backup on the C: drive that has multiple partitions.
Joel


----------



## 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?

Thanks,
Dave


----------



## weaknees

You will see comments all over the forums about people with one drive preference or another. We use and recommend Maxtor QuickView drives and have been extremely pleased. We have used desktop drives in the past, and have found that failure rates have dropped significantly since we moved to the QuickViews.


----------



## Jettaboy954

Will this work if my original hd is dead? I have a maxtor 160 gig drive that I was using for the secondary drive in tivo. Can I switch it to a single drive using just the second drive or do I still need to find a new image file for the drive?


----------



## weaknees

You would need to reformat the drive as a single-drive replacement. We can help you with this if you'd like or you can find folks here who will provide you with an image.


----------



## Jettaboy954

Will IstantCake provide me with the proper image? I have no problem paying for the image or disc. The only problem with instantcake is it take a week to get the disc.

I have been without Tivo for almost 24 hours and I am getting the shakes bad!!!! Now I know what Addicts go through, going cold turkey!

Is there anywhere to download the cd for instantcake. I have a fast broadband connection, so large files are no problem?

Thanks for you knowledge!


----------



## widget

Hi, I'm having a problem I haven't seen here. I've tried the Hinsdale instructions and I've tried the weaknees wizard, and I get the same error. 

I have an HDVR2 which I had previously upgraded with two 120GB drives. One died the other night, and the 240GB capacity made Tivo very slow, so I figure I'll go back to just the one 120GB drive. So I pull them both, toss the dead one, and figure I'll find an HDVR image somewhere I can put on the remaining drive. 

I get an HDVR image, and change the filename from HDVR***.mfs to tivo.bak, just so I'm following instructions literally. I put the Tivo drive on the secondary slave connection, with my C drive (WinXP) on the primary master. Using weaknees' instructions, here's what happens:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt seems to go fine because the dir /mnt command in linux shows a bunch of directories and files that for the most part actually can be seen in my c: root.

Then:

mfrsrestore -a 127 -zxpi /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hdd

-- No such file or directory. 

Same error with the Hinsdale instructions. I know tivo.bak is at c: root.

MFStools is reading both my disks at the correct size. I don't know what could be wrong here. Any thoughts? I'm 72 hours without Tivo now, so step lively please  Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

If you did the filename change in XP, are you sure that it didn't add some extension to it (like tivo.bak.dat) or something like that?


----------



## Robert S

_mfrsrestore -a 127 -zxpi /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hdd_

The name of the command is mfsrestore (or "mfstool restore", if you prefer). I think it's more likely that the problem is that you mistyped the name of the command than the name of the backup file.


----------



## Britlion

Hmm.

THe guides look nice, but don't help me much! Need the instructions for the pioneer DVD recorders. I can't use the series two setups, especially since I read that these boxes are capable of working with >137Gb drives.

I have a nice shiny 200GB drive.

Sadly, the cd images configured for large drives seem to have gone missing lately.


----------



## cl44

Just another thanks for the tut It was very easy to follow and as a result my series 2 now has a brand spanking new 137 gig ~157 hours, yeah


----------



## such

Wondering when the guide for the HR10-250 HD DirecTivo might be available. I've ordered the new Weaknees bracket and just want to be ready when all the pieces arrive. Thanks.


----------



## mjcmjc

For those of you considering an upgrade for the first time,

Hacking your own Tivo is fun and a cool learing experience, but you'll have to learn a new vocabulary to understand a few techy things. Hinsdale's HowTo is a reliable and well written bible. I used it to add a hard drive to my Series 1 Sony 2000. Then, I used it again to pull out the factory drive so that I could have two big drives. I ended up with around 270 hours of recording time.

The Sony drives finally crashed. Since I had purchased the lifetime subscription, I decided to buy a new drive for it. Because I'm using a mac at home now, I didn't feel like doing it all on my own. I bought a Weaknees drive. Man, did that make life easier. if you can turn a screwdriver, you can upgrade your Tivo. Not quite the learning experience, but really fast and easy.

Thanks to the Weaknees crew.
mjc


----------



## whodat1

My weaknees Interactive upgrade instuctions for adding a B drive to an existing A drive have me doing a MFSBACKUP and a MFSADD. Nowhere do I see a MFSRESTORE. Isn't the restore command where the swap file is set to 127Mb? Do I need to do this to add a 120Gb B drive to an existing 40Gb A drive?

I noticed the same thing in the Hinsdale upgrade instructions using option #1 (adding a larger second drive to an existing single drive unit).

Also, I noticed that the Weaknees instructions have the argument -9so in the MFSBACKUP command, while Hindale & the MFS TOOLS guide use -6so.

This is for a Phillips DSR40 (DirecTivo) single drive (40Gb) image.


----------



## weaknees

I thought I caught all instances of -9so and changed them to -1so which is faster and uses just a bit more space. That's the best number to use.

To add swap, you do need to do a restore. The mfsadd command adds the space without adding swap, but for a 40 + 120 configuration, you aren't at the point where it's an issue (assuming you have a Series 2 unit).

Michael


----------



## whodat1

Thank You very much. Thats the info I was looking for. At what point (size) does the swap file become an issue? I thought I had read on this board that 140Gb was the point where you need more swap file space. 

And yes, I assume that I do have a series 2 Tivo since I just purchased it about 2 weeks ago.

BTW; I just received my Twinbreeze bracket & cooling unit from you. Very timely delivery and everything is there and ready to go. Thanks Much!


----------



## weaknees

Thanks for the note!

Swap space gets to be a potential (but rare) problem above the 180 GB mark on your box. So there is no way to get there by simply adding a drive - the 137 GB space limit precludes that possibility.

Michael


----------



## whodat1

Thanks for the advice (and for your website). My upgrade went very well. Less than an hour from unplugging unit to firing it back up. :up:


----------



## mitchsb

I am trying to put in a new b drive into my tivo. I used the how-to guide provided, but when I do the mfsadd command, it says:

mfs_load_volume_header: mfsvol_read_data: Invalid argument
Unable to open MFS drives.


----------



## Robert S

A 'new' B drive? Is there an existing B drive?


----------



## mitchsb

It's a drive I am taking out of my computer to put into the tivo. And, it is a single drive unit.


----------



## Robert S

Can mfsinfo read the A drive?


----------



## DropIt

I plan on simply adding a new drive to my TiVo, but I don't know which drive is optimal to serve as the A drive.

In other words, I just bought a 7200 120GB seagate drive with 8 MB cache. Would this drive serve as a better A drive than the drive that came stock with my model TiVo 140060?

I didn't know if the performance of the system as a whole would be better by the new drive being the A drive. 

Along the same lines, my existing drive is a 60 gig drive, and my new drive is a 120 gig drive, making the total 180 gigs. This puts me on the hairy edge of the swap space right? 

Is making additional swap a requirement, and second if I did do it would it make the system performance increase?

thanks
-DropIt!

PS nice guide weakness


----------



## DropIt

Additional question here, I have a drive that I want to add as drive B (using MFSADD). It was previously drive A and have the file system in tact. 

Should I format the drive before performing MFSADD to drive A? If so what should I use to format the drive?

-DropIt


----------



## DropIt

Ok, I managed to answer my own question:

WARNING: IF A "B" DRIVE IS BEING ADDED WITH MFSADD -x OPTION, ALL EXISTING PARTITIONS WILL BE WIPED. 

so the -x will take care of clearing eveything for me.,

Sweet

-DropIt


----------



## bomberjim

Probably a stupid question, but before I attempt this I just want to be sure. In the WeaKnees instructions it says "shut down by using CTRL-ALT-DELETE and waiting until the Linux has halted" and in another place it says "hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, wait for the shutdown sequence to finish, ..."

My question is, CTRL-ALT-DELETE doesn't "shutdown" it just reboots the CD/Floppy. So am I correct in assuming that I'm supposed to wait until it reboots and then power down the PC?

Thanks,
Jim L


----------



## weaknees

That's exactly right - once the reboot begins, you can shut the power to the PC off. You just want the shutdown sequence to complete first to flush all caches to disk and have the drives properly unmounted.

Michael


----------



## coldtoes

Is this an error (or just demonstrating my lack of Linux knowledge)?

Using the following parameters:
TiVo 240040
Add drive
Backup: Yes
FAT partition: No
XP: Yes
Boot: CD
Recordings: Ignore
Older than 2.5: No
Move SW: No

I get the following command in step 4:


> At the prompt, issue the following command:
> 
> mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt
> 
> Where hdC is the location of the drive that has a temporary FAT partition.


I assume that shouldf be either /dev/hdC1 or /dev/hdC, not W?


----------



## weaknees

Right - the "W" is meant as a variable for your "c:" drive. The fact that Windows calls your boot drive a "c:" drive and that Linux calls the secondary master "hdc" can be confusing, so we put variables in.

Michael


----------



## coldtoes

I get it that W is a variable - I thought you meant to use the variable consistently, saying "Where hd*W* is the location of the drive that has a temporary FAT partition," not "where hd*C*," which implies the drive has to be in the hdc secondary master position. But maybe you do mean the latter.

(My earlier post assumed "C" was the variable, but obviously you wouldn't want to use C as a variable since "hdc" has specific meaning. I'm sorry that made my post unclear.)

I apologize if I'm still not understanding your intent. I'm not trying to get free help, but if there is a typo in the instructions I wanted to point it out.


----------



## weaknees

I think we're in agreement here - you substitute a, b, c, or d for the W based on where your FAT partition is, and what that correlates to in the chart in step 4.

Michael


----------



## subspace100

> _Originally posted by such _
> *Wondering when the guide for the HR10-250 HD DirecTivo might be available. I've ordered the new Weaknees bracket and just want to be ready when all the pieces arrive. Thanks. *


Just tought I'd second such's question... any estimate of when an interactive guide for the HR10-250 will be available?


----------



## Markman07

Hi. I think I found a typo under the Windows XP notes: 

Windows 2000 and XP Notes
-----------------------------------------
Booting into Windows 2000 or XP with a TiVo drive connected to your PC will overwrite key information on the TiVo drive. The TiVo drive wont, then, work in a TiVo. If you do run into this problem, you may be able to fix the drive using software called MakeTiVoBootable.
-----------------
ERROR : The TiVo drive wont, then, work


----------



## bomberjim

I just did a drive replacement today using the following parameters:

240040 TiVo - replacement drive
Backup: yes
FAT: no
XP: yes
Use Floppy
Ignore Recordings
2.5: no
Move software: no

I ran into a small problem after creating the backup. I disconnected the original Tivo drive, rebooted into windows, and copied the backup onto my C: drive. The next instructions were:

"Then, you'll need to reboot in Windows. To do to this, be sure to disconnect the TiVo drive, then remove the CD or floppy, and reboot in Windows. Copy the backup.bak file from the new drive over to your c: drive. Then shut down, reattach the TiVo destination drive, and reboot off your CD or floppy.

Then enter the following with hdZ as your destination drive:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt"

Why do the instructions say "reattach the TiVo destination drive" isn't that drive what I just copied the backup to my c: drive from, and is obviously still attached? At least I took it to mean the destination of the restore command and therefore didn't reattach anything, just rebooted MFSTools.

The next section says "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" but hda is my C: drive, it's NTFS and won't mount.

I'm probably just missing the intent here, but what I ended up doing was burning my backup to my CDRW drive (secondary master) and then sending the command "mount /dev/hdc /mnt". I then restored the backup and so far the new drive is working fine.

But... I'd really like to know what I was misinterpreting. What does "reattach the TiVo destination drive" mean? Is there really a way to mount hda1 given it's my XP/NTFS drive? Just curious.

Thanks for the instructions. Having them custom tailored really convinced me to try an upgrade - great effort.

Jim L


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by Markman07 _
> *Hi. I think I found a typo under the Windows XP notes:
> 
> Windows 2000 and XP Notes
> -----------------------------------------
> Booting into Windows 2000 or XP with a TiVo drive connected to your PC will overwrite key information on the TiVo drive. The TiVo drive wont, then, work in a TiVo. If you do run into this problem, you may be able to fix the drive using software called MakeTiVoBootable.
> -----------------
> ERROR : The TiVo drive wont, then, work *


Reworded for clarity - thanks!


----------



## such

Any update on when we might see the instructions for the HR10-250? I've got the bracket and drive, but given I'm both a Tivo and Linus novice, I'm a little timid trying this using instructions from another unit.


----------



## weaknees

You can look here for more info on the HR10-250:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171445

It's still a bit complicated, but as we get it more data on it, we'll try to add it here.

Michael


----------



## such

Have been following that thread, however, as an upgrade rookie it's a bit intimidating trying to piece the info together the procedure. Just looking for the simple way to add a second drive (no backup or swapping of the original for me).


----------



## 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!


----------



## weaknees

Maybe you have multiple partitions on your c: drive and you are getting the wrong one. You should be able to do this to see what's there:

cd /mnt/dos
ls

By the way, we don't feel that you need to make the /mnt/dos directory.

So if you don't find the file, try a different partition on the c: drive:

mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/dos

Michael


----------



## 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!


----------



## odiej34

I have a bad a drive and just want to replace it with another maxtor 40 gig drive. Here Is what I chose on the options.

1-If you just need to restore an image file:

Restore from backup to 1 drive

2-Would you like to use a boot CD or floppy: CD  Floppy 
Set the drive jumpers

When installing your drive(s) in a PC, be sure to confirm that the jumper settings of your drive correspond to "master" or "slave" depending on the location in the PC (hdb, hdc or hdd) in which you plan to connect the drive(s).

Boot the PC from the Linux Media

I pressed enter and got the # promt

Issue restore commands 
What are the restore commands?
Granted I am a newbie but I have been reading for three days now and I am still lost. I have figured out how to get an image, make a bootable cd and pull the drive but I am a ways away. Are the restore comands in the directions or are they just info I should allready know?
Thanks for helping.
odie


----------



## Robert S

It will be something like

mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc


----------



## dantodd

I was able to download mfstools and boot into the shell etc. The directions were pretty clear and simple. However I am getting a warning from mfsbackup that my zonemap and backup zonemap are both corrupt. 

I am using trying to slavage a failing hard drive on a DSR6000. It is getting stuck in "acquiring information" I suspect that the drive is damaged to the extent that mfs is not able to recreate the data needed to create a new primary drive.

I am totally toast here?

Thanks,
Dan


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like it. You could try to do a "dd" to completely copy the drive in the hopes that it will be able to read the corrupt info, but it's not very likely at this point.

Michael


----------



## dantodd

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Sounds like it. You could try to do a "dd" to completely copy the drive in the hopes that it will be able to read the corrupt info, but it's not very likely at this point.*


Thanks Michael,

Well, I tried dd and the new disk hangs exactly like the original so it looks like I'm going to have to try something else.

If you can help I'd really appreciate anything you can do for me.

Thanks,
Dan


----------



## weaknees

You're really at the point where you have two options:

- get an image online or from a friend with a similar model

or

-buy a drive from a vendor

Michael


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

No Pioneer support instructions?


----------



## weaknees

Working on updating this - those are a bit tougher . . . 

Michael


----------



## edc_k2

Checking instructions on SD-DVR 40 for adding 1 drive...
Backup Yes
FAT No
Xp/2000 Yes
CD
Save recordings

Excerpt from "Issue backup and expand commands":
---- 
At the prompt, issue the following command:

mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt

Where hdC is the location of the drive that has a temporary FAT partition.

----

Is that "hdC" supposed to be "hdW1"? Also, is "hdW1" just "hdW" (from the "Substitue Linux Command - Drive Description" table in the insturctions it is "hdW")

Also, whether I select Save or Disregard recordings the instructions seem to be the same. Is that correct?

Thanks! The online guide is a great tool!
Thinking of adding a 160gb Seagate Barracuda drive (Fry's sale $50 AR) with TwinBreeze Complete Bracket Kit from Weaknees.


----------



## weaknees

Yes on both counts: yes, the hdC should be hdW, and yes, the instructions for saving and disregarding recordings are the same - you'll get them either way, obviously.

I'll edit the site.

Michael


----------



## odiej34

Are their instructions yet for the RCA DVR80. (70 hour combo) I just ordered one from best buy and have not had a chance to open it.
Thanks.
Odie


----------



## weaknees

Same as the RCA DVR40 - we'll be updating for new models soon.

Michael


----------



## odiej34

thanks!


----------



## weaknees

OK - all of the new SD DirecTV TiVos have been added.

Michael


----------



## coldtoes

> _Originally posted by edc_k2 _
> *Excerpt from "Issue backup and expand commands":
> ----
> At the prompt, issue the following command:
> 
> mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt
> 
> Where hdC is the location of the drive that has a temporary FAT partition.
> ----
> 
> Is that "hdC" supposed to be "hdW1"? Also, is "hdW1" just "hdW" (from the "Substitue Linux Command - Drive Description" table in the insturctions it is "hdW")*


 Thanks for saying this more articulately than I was apparently able to in an earlier post. Yes, "hdC" should read "hdW", but you do need the "1". I was confused about this too and wasn't able to get Michael to understand why I thought there was a problem with the instructions, so I'm glad you've cleared it up and he's going to fix it.

Thanks, too, to Weaknees for this great online tool (not to mention the required hardware.) My 40 --> 207 hour upgrade was easy and is going strong. It's awesome!


----------



## weaknees

Sorry for the earlier confusion. I went through all of the site components yesterday and did a global search for the issue and fixed it (only found one instance). So hopefully this will avoid further confusion. Thanks for the posts!

Michael


----------



## garymarshall

I have enjoyed reading the messages in this thread and had some questions. I was looking at buying a Tivo 2 TCD540040 and upgrading the hard drive with two new drives. There seems to be some conflicting info on the max size drives that the TIVO would support. 

If I understand 128gig is the largest supported size between the 2 drives without some risk taking. Correct?

Secondly I have read an increase in the swap file will allow larger hard drives but with some undesirable risk. Is there a safer answer to have above the 128gig avail?

Third, I think I read the MFS 2.0 post correctly that it allowed for the usage of up to 300 gigs on two drives without an increase in the swap file. What risk are there going to this larger size using this utility?


----------



## weaknees

That unit can definitely use all of a 300 GB drive. We sell the unit with two - it's almost 700 hours at Basic Quality.

We haven't published a how-to for this unit at this point. It's a bit complicated, and we're working on some ways to smooth out the process. If we can make this palatable for the end-user, we'll post info.

Michael


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *That unit can definitely use all of a 300 GB drive. We sell the unit with two - it's almost 700 hours at Basic Quality.
> 
> We haven't published a how-to for this unit at this point. It's a bit complicated, and we're working on some ways to smooth out the process. If we can make this palatable for the end-user, we'll post info.
> 
> Michael *


Any plans to add the Pioneer burners to the instruction list?


----------



## weaknees

Yes - those too. They pose their own sets of problems, but they're definitely on the list.

Michael


----------



## edc_k2

While doing my backup
hda = existing 40gb TiVo drive
hdb = new add 160gb Seagate drive (I formatted as 160gb FAT32 with MaxBlast)

command used:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -9so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda

After scanning my TiVo drive it reported 40 hours, reported size of uncompressed backup it will do, then the backup started. After about 5%, it did this...

---
hdb: status timeout: statues=0xd0 { Busy }
hdb: no DRQ ater issuing WRITE
ide0: reset: success
---

Then it continued to backup (right now it is at 54%)

Is that OK?


----------



## weaknees

Might be - try it out when it's done. Your new drive might have an issue.


----------



## edc_k2

uh oh.

I seem to be in a loop. After the backup succeeded. I went about follow instructions to do the add command. My PC reported the increased size and 196 hours (add 155 hours or something like that).

I made the existing Tivo Drive Master jumper, removed the jumper from the Seagate (slave).

Then I installed th hds to the twin breeze, the bracket to the TiVo, the IDE cables, the power cables, the bracket fan...

Now when I plug in Tivo I get the "Welcome powering up..." then after about 40sec to 1 min I get the "Almost there. Please wait a few more seconds please..." then the screen flashes and the loop starts over... ugh. Am I screwed. What can I do to recover if so? =(

Looking direction on what the best next course of action should be. I do have the backup of the existing drive, but you'll note I got that message two posts above when doing the backup.

I'll open myself up to flaming and ridicule (yes I'm stupid) and admit that when screwing the original TiVo hd to the Twin Breeze bracket it slipped and fell about 5 inches to the table. If my original drive is dead. Can I use my new 160gb drive as a replacement A drive? If so, how do I do that?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.


----------



## weaknees

Yes, you can use the new drive as the replacement A drive, assuming your backup is OK. But I think you should test that new drive - errors there would explain all of this. Can you run the Seagate diagnostics on it?


----------



## edc_k2

I booted with the Seagate Install CD that came with the hd.

hda = seagate 160gb
hdc = CD-ROM drive

The Quick self diagnostic of the drive passed. Now started the Full diagnostic (how long does this take?). It's scanning now for bad sectors and still at 0% (been about 3 minutes).... Ah now it's 1% after 5 minutes.

+++
I started a new thread so as to not highjack this one... Please continue to help at the new thread if you can. Thanks for your suggestions thus far...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=192226


----------



## chimmyjim

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *That unit can definitely use all of a 300 GB drive. We sell the unit with two - it's almost 700 hours at Basic Quality.
> 
> We haven't published a how-to for this unit at this point. It's a bit complicated, and we're working on some ways to smooth out the process. If we can make this palatable for the end-user, we'll post info.
> 
> Michael *


I would love to see the instructions for the TCD540xx units. I just had my original series1 die, and bought one of these. Ended up killing the first one trying to upgrade it. 

:wink: If you don't want to post them publicly my PM is on :wink:

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

If you aren't using drives larger than 120 GB, then you're ready to go. For the larger drives, we're still working on a good method to post this. Best bet is to use the info here - it'll apply:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2101784#post2101784

Michael


----------



## MattDing

Just wanted to say I followed your instructions and my upgrade went flawlessly on my Phillips 704. I copied all my programs from my original drive to a new Seagate 160 and it only took about 2.5 hours total from moving the entertainment center away from the wall to sliding back after completing. Thank you for the wonderful instructions, they are a great asset to all of us TiVo addicts. 

I do have one simple question though. Since I was just doing a drive replacement, I didn't perform a backup, since my original TiVo drive is going into safekeeping for emergencies. This is kosher, right? Is there any strong reason to make a backup as well as keeping the drive? Just wondering what other people's opinions are. 

Thanks again. Weeknees rocks!


----------



## weaknees

Keeping the old drive is pretty much just as good - just make sure that the drive is stored well in a good static-free bag, in a dry, cool place.

Glad the instructions worked well for you!

Michael


----------



## Rshnrocket

I am trying to find somone that can help me.... I keep seeing your name all over the posts.... My name is Rshnrocket Please help if u can. I have several posts in the white ribbon forum & the upgrade forum. Please look to see my problem.... Any help u can give me would be greatly appreciated.
thanx


----------



## weaknees

Answered here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2194877#post2194877

Michael


----------



## Iriskitall

In my PC I'm running Win2k with FAT32 C: drive. (Have 2 others connected as NTFS). When attempting this upgrade: 1) Do I leave C: attached (prim master) and add orig Tivo A drive and "new drive" OR do I remove all my drives and just attach the orig Tivo A drive and the new drive? 
2) Do I need to do anything to the new drive (Maxtor160gb) just out of box before configuring it for the Tivo unit?
My machine was built by friend but I'm trying to figure this out....
Thanks.


----------



## bkdtv

weaknees,

When will the new silver Tivos (TCD540040, TCD540080, etc) be added to your interactive Tivo upgrade page?


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by bkdtv _
> *weaknees,
> 
> When will the new silver Tivos (TCD540040, TCD540080, etc) be added to your interactive Tivo upgrade page? *


We're working on it, but for now, you just need to boot into a newer kernel (2.4.20 or newer) and use the instructions as on the pages for 24004A. If your new drive(s) are 120 GB or smaller, you don't need to boot into a newer kernel.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by Iriskitall _
> *In my PC I'm running Win2k with FAT32 C: drive. (Have 2 others connected as NTFS). When attempting this upgrade: 1) Do I leave C: attached (prim master) and add orig Tivo A drive and "new drive" OR do I remove all my drives and just attach the orig Tivo A drive and the new drive?
> 2) Do I need to do anything to the new drive (Maxtor160gb) just out of box before configuring it for the Tivo unit?
> My machine was built by friend but I'm trying to figure this out....
> Thanks. *


You need the FAT32 drive is you are making a backup. Otherwise, you can disconnect it. You can disconnect the others (and should, so you don't format them by accident).

The new drive needs no formatting other than the mfstools work.


----------



## Thaed

Will the new 250 GB Maxtor SATA drives work in the new 540 series TiVos? I was told there was an adapter, but has anyone done this? CompUSA is having a sale on them. I think I'm only going to buy one for now, but I'm really tempted to buy two.


----------



## weaknees

We don't know of anyone trying a SATA drive with an adapter yet - but considering the nature of streaming video, we have our doubts.

Michael


----------



## LarryInAz

> _Originally posted by Thaed _
> *Will the new 250 GB Maxtor SATA drives work in the new 540 series TiVos? I was told there was an adapter, but has anyone done this? CompUSA is having a sale on them. I think I'm only going to buy one for now, but I'm really tempted to buy two.  *


If you live near a Fry's Electronics they also have the Maxtor 250gb IDE w/ 8meg cache on sale for $119 and no rebate hassle.


----------



## Thaed

CompUSA had 200 GB HDs on sale for 100 bucks with the old interface. I bought 2!  I have the 5x software so I am going to try to bridge them tonight in my new TiVo.


----------



## Thaed

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *We're working on it, but for now, you just need to boot into a newer kernel (2.4.20 or newer) and use the instructions as on the pages for 24004A. If your new drive(s) are 120 GB or smaller, you don't need to boot into a newer kernel.
> Michael *


I just downloaded the MFS 2.0 boot disk and burned it and it uses kernel 2.4.4. Hmmm. How do I get an MFS 2.0 boot disk that uses 2.4.20 or later?


----------



## Thaed

D'oh! Answering my own question:

The large HD MFS Tools 2.0 is here.


----------



## verve

The instructions for the backup file uses the name "backup.bak" . Is there anything special about this name? Could I name it anything I want to, for instance, differentiate between different tivo backup files on the same disk (one for my direct tivo, one for my SA tivo)?


----------



## weaknees

Any name you want should work.


----------



## ruc2827

> _Originally posted by bomberjim _
> *I just did a drive replacement today using the following parameters:
> 
> 240040 TiVo - replacement drive
> Backup: yes
> FAT: no
> XP: yes
> Use Floppy
> Ignore Recordings
> 2.5: no
> Move software: no
> 
> I ran into a small problem after creating the backup. I disconnected the original Tivo drive, rebooted into windows, and copied the backup onto my C: drive. The next instructions were:
> 
> "Then, you'll need to reboot in Windows. To do to this, be sure to disconnect the TiVo drive, then remove the CD or floppy, and reboot in Windows. Copy the backup.bak file from the new drive over to your c: drive. Then shut down, reattach the TiVo destination drive, and reboot off your CD or floppy.
> 
> Then enter the following with hdZ as your destination drive:
> 
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt"
> 
> Why do the instructions say "reattach the TiVo destination drive" isn't that drive what I just copied the backup to my c: drive from, and is obviously still attached? At least I took it to mean the destination of the restore command and therefore didn't reattach anything, just rebooted MFSTools.
> 
> The next section says "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" but hda is my C: drive, it's NTFS and won't mount.
> 
> I'm probably just missing the intent here, but what I ended up doing was burning my backup to my CDRW drive (secondary master) and then sending the command "mount /dev/hdc /mnt". I then restored the backup and so far the new drive is working fine.
> 
> But... I'd really like to know what I was misinterpreting. What does "reattach the TiVo destination drive" mean? Is there really a way to mount hda1 given it's my XP/NTFS drive? Just curious.
> 
> Thanks for the instructions. Having them custom tailored really convinced me to try an upgrade - great effort.
> 
> Jim L *


Weaknees, can you respond to this? This is very confusing. This is for the situation where you don't have a FAT32 partition so you use your destination drive to backup your TiVo drive, boot to Windows (presumably with the destination drive attached which is not specified), and copy the backup to your NTFS drive. The instrutions that follow this are confusing. Can you mount a NTFS partition and restore from it? Also, wouldn't booting to Windows with your destination drive corrupt it? I guess not, but this is in contrast to the Windows XP warning. Does this only affect disks that have already had an image restore to them?

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

You are both right - the destination drive is already attached (it temporarily housed the backup) and doesn't need to be reconnected. But you CAN restore from NTFS - you just can't backup to it. NTFS is mounted as read-only.

Michael


----------



## Mr Pieces

2 part question.

I am adding a 250gb drive to my HR10-250 and want to do it with BlessTiVo. 

Q1:

Where can I get BlessTiVo (Is it in MFSTools?)

Q2:

What is the command line assuming the drive I'm adding is on Secondary Master?

Thanks.


----------



## weaknees

BlessTiVo is here:

http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/tivoboot_v3.zip

You just need to boot in a kernel with support for drives that size. The command would be:

BlessTiVo /dev/hdc

Capitalization is important.

Michael


----------



## Mr Pieces

Michael,

I just downloaded the file and went to unzip it and there are no files showing up inside. Can I unzip it in Windows?

Is it better to use BlessTiVo to add a drive to a HR10-250 or mfsadd?

Thanks again.


----------



## weaknees

It's a binary on that disk image.

But the real answer depends on the size of disk. For a 250, either way is fine.


----------



## LarryInAz

I have used BlessTiVo on 2 recent HD TiVo upgrades successfully. I recently added one of the new 540040 standalone TiVo's to my arsenal. I first upgraded the 540040 by pulling the original 40gb drive and replacing it with a 250gb jumping from 40 to 283 hours.

Prices on 250gb drives are so reasonable I wanted to add a 2nd 250, I installed the Twinbreeze rack with the 2nd drive which I ran BlessTiVo on but when I booted up the TiVo it shows the same 283 hours. I know both drives and the fans are powering up. Why is the 2nd drive not being seen?
The drives are jumpered correctly Master and Slave and not as CS.


----------



## weaknees

BlessTiVo can only be used to add a drive to an original factory drive, or any drive with an *un-expanded* image. Once you've expanded an A drive, you can't put a "blessed" drive in there and have it get recognized. In this case, you need to use mfsadd.

Michael


----------



## LarryInAz

If I pull the two drives and run mfsadd am I going to lose everything that's recorded? Or will it be ok to put the two drives in my pc and run mfsadd line and I'll have the extra space and my recordings?


----------



## weaknees

You'll keep everything - you'll just get the new space. You aren't restoring from a backup, just adding partitions and updating the table.

Michael


----------



## Mr Pieces

Will the BlessTiVo on the : Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i (8.7MB) work?

For a 250GB drive going in a HR10-250


----------



## LarryInAz

Yes it will - I had the same "invisible" zipped file problem in XP also after downloading the blesstivo.zip file.

BTW, keep in mind the BlessTiVo command line is case sensitive.


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by Mr Pieces _
> *Will the BlessTiVo on the : Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i (8.7MB) work?
> 
> For a 250GB drive going in a HR10-250 *


To be more specific, the BlessTiVo app will work, but for a 250 GB drive, you shouldn't boot off of that CD because then you'll only gain 137 GB of it. More info is over in this thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171445

Michael


----------



## Mr Pieces

The drive shows up at 251GB in the bios but when I blessed it it came back at 127GB. It is a MAxtor ATA133 250GB drive (7200 rpm) if that makes a difference. Help please.


----------



## Mr Pieces

Any idea how to see the files in the BlessTiVo linked above under Windows XP? When I try and open the zip nothing is in it.


----------



## weaknees

Right - you are booting in a kernel that's too old. You need a Linux kernel version 2.4.20 or newer. In the meantime, DON'T add the drive to your HD TiVo. See the other thread for more details.


----------



## Mr Pieces

Think I got it unzipped. I had to use a regular zip program instead of Windows XP. I am trying now with the floppy version. Believe me, I won't be putting a drive back in the TiVo until I see the correct drive size.


----------



## LarryInAz

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *You'll keep everything - you'll just get the new space. You aren't restoring from a backup, just adding partitions and updating the table.
> 
> Michael *


Thanks again for the assist Michael - the standalone is back up and cooking with 574 hours and all intact.


----------



## Mr Pieces

OK, I got a bookdisk created from the link you provided. The Bios when I boot the PC reports the drive as 251GB yet when I boot into the BlessTiVo floppy it has the drive down as 137GB. I tried to bless it just for kicks and it came back 127GB. Obviously I won't install it in my HD TiVo until I get the correct size reported.


----------



## weaknees

Right - look at the other thread for ways to find a boot disk that has larger kernel support. We're working on one to simplify all of this.


----------



## Mr Pieces

Blessed it with the lba48 cd and it came back 233GB. Sounds right to me. Now I just need to install it and keep my fingers crossed. I have upgraded about 10 regular TiVo's over the years but this was my first time with this $1000 baby and wanted to be 100% before starting. Thanks for all the help!

BTW, I love this Weaknees bracket for the HR10-250. Sweet!


----------



## weaknees

Thanks for the bracket note - we put a lot of time (and money) into it and we've had only good experiences with it.

233GB sounds right.

Michael


----------



## Mr Pieces

JUst booted up the TiVo and it has 63 Hours of record time in HD! Hopefully that will help with some of the season pass issues I was having due to space.

Thanks for all your help.


----------



## garymarshall

Ok - I completed the updgrade and added 2x200 Seagate drives ($89.00 5 year warranty at CompUSA) to a TCD5400XXX drive without a hitch on a series 2. Everything went fine and the extra space is great. I am now ready to buy the bracket - is the extra fan and the delayed start on one of the drives worth the extra money - does it actually cool anything down or just blow around the hot air - Does the delay start actually benefit the power supply. 

Im anxious to put the new bracket in and make my strapped in drive a little more professional.

The second question I have is now that I am upgraded, where can I find the procedures to add ftp and telnet to the new drives. I have read a variety of threads and it seems I need a special FTP to the series 2, Correct?


----------



## weaknees

As far as the bracket, fan, and PowerTrip: we think they all are pretty important. The unit has a 38W power supply, so it can use the help to lessen the load for the PowerTrip. The fan definitely reduces the temperature inside the unit, and it needs the bracket as a mounting spot.

Michael


----------



## garymarshall

great, I will order the bracket/fan/delayed start. Can you give me some pointers on which progam to use for the s2 ftp/telnet and where to find them?


----------



## Carioca_FL

I thought one couldn't use a >120GB HDD on a Series2 Tivo due to the LBA addressing size issue, where only the first 137GB would be seen.

Is there a (easy) way to use a 250GB HDD on a Series2?


----------



## LarryInAz

> _Originally posted by Carioca_FL _
> *I thought one couldn't use a >120GB HDD on a Series2 Tivo due to the LBA addressing size issue, where only the first 137GB would be seen.
> 
> Is there a (easy) way to use a 250GB HDD on a Series2? *


The "new Series 2" 5400xx series TiVo's have a newer Linux Kernel and it will recognize the larger hard drives. Be certain you use the "large drive TiVo" image.


----------



## Carioca_FL

I wish I knew this before... I received two 160GB HDDs to replace the two 120GB HDDs that I had in my server just to put them in the Tivo.

Say, am I looking at too much difference between a 120GB and 160GB, hours-wise?

Thanks for the info, btw!


----------



## LarryInAz

> _Originally posted by Carioca_FL _
> *I wish I knew this before... I received two 160GB HDDs to replace the two 120GB HDDs that I had in my server just to put them in the Tivo.
> 
> Say, am I looking at too much difference between a 120GB and 160GB, hours-wise?
> 
> Thanks for the info, btw! *


the 80gb difference would be nice but if you've already done the upgrade IMHO it's not worth changing. However if you get a good price on some 250gb drives it would be worth it.

250gb drives are the "sweet spot" price wise on large hard drives.

If you live near a Fry's Electornics they've been as cheap as $79.95 [after MIR] for Hitachi and $119.95 2 weeks ago on Maxtor drives - no rebate hassles.

Just my .02


----------



## Carioca_FL

Yeah, no Fry's here in SoFla, and I've already got the two 160GBs in the server and RAIDed them, so I don't think I'm pulling them out...

I guess I'll content myself with 2x120GB. Heck, that's a whole lot more than the original 40hrs I get now.

Say, would you be able to give me a ballpark of how many hours (on medium, high, whathaveyou) I would get with 2x120GBs HDDs?

Thanks again!


----------



## weaknees

FWIW, outpost.com is under the same ownership as Fry's and sometimes has similar specials.

Dual 120 GB screenshot:
http://www.weaknees.com/details2/rd120t544.php

Dual 160 GB screenshot:
http://www.weaknees.com/details2/rd160t544.php

Michael


----------



## Carioca_FL

The two 160GB HDDs I got were from Outpost ($50 after MIR). Thanks for the screenies, btw!
I don't have a FAT32 partition on any of my machines, and I don' t plan on doing a backup of my Tivo HDD (I don't really mind losing shows). 

But what if disaster strikes? Is there a way to get a hold of a Tivo image or is the image tied to my specific Tivo unit?


----------



## weaknees

The image can be moved between similar units. So you could use any image from a TCD540XXX TiVo.


----------



## RoscoeH

I spent a few hours over the weekend upgrading my TIVO Phillips 212 from two 75G IBM deskstar drive to a pair of WD 120G drives. I used the interactive link. DUH? Too simple for words. OUTSTANDING job!

I also noticed someone remarked that the Western Digital drives run hot. Any one reported any failures? 

Finally, I order the DirecTV 'special' deal for $99. But, I don't know what the model of the TIVO unit is. Has anyone else bought into the deal? Any 'gotchas'?


----------



## weaknees

You'll get one of four units from them: RCA DVR40, Philips DSR704, Hughes SD-DVR40, or Samsung S4040R. All are really fine.

Michael


----------



## RoscoeH

Can these units be upgraded with 250g dirves. I'm considering an upgrade after the warranty expires.

Roscoe


----------



## weaknees

Many newer units can be. We're working on updating the instructions to that effect. What model do you have?


----------



## ruc2827

My TiVo was freezing up during playback and on the menus, requiring a reboot, so I assumed the hard drive was bad. I replaced the hard drive per weaknees instructions, restored the old drive to the new one, and TiVo kept freezing up on the menus with the new hard drive. I assumed the image itself was corrupt, thus causing problems, so I backed up a healthy TiVo and restored it. Same problems with the new drive and the good image. It has frozen up on the menus again. Has anyone heard of TiVo freezing up with good hard drives? Is this problem possibly caused by something else (faulty memory, processsor, etc)? Any ideas?


----------



## weaknees

Pretty strange - what model TiVo? Have you tried a new IDE cable?


----------



## ruc2827

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Pretty strange - what model TiVo? Have you tried a new IDE cable? *


TiVo Series 2 240080. I haven't tried a new cable. I'll try that. It is wierd. I was convinced it was a bad HD. It used to stutter during playback and occasionally freeze and spontaneously reboot on the menus. With the new HD and new image it freezes and spontaneously reboots or hangs on the menus like it going out of style. So, I figure its hardware related.


----------



## weaknees

You might also just have another bad HD - chances are low, but it happens.


----------



## ruc2827

I was getting the following error when attempting to restore an image to a drive of identical size:
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

Since the drive is the original size of the backup drive, you have to remove the "-s 127" and x parameters. Weaknees, please update your instructions with the following note:

"Note: Remove the "-s 127" and "x" from the following command line if restoring image to a drive the same size as the original (otherwise the image will not fit)"

I found this answer by looking at the Hinsdale instructions. The correct command when restoring an image to a drive of the exact same size is:

mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ


----------



## weaknees

Thanks - I'll try to put that in.


----------



## Marconi

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *We're pleased to announce the release of a new set of TiVo Upgrade Instructions for the do-it-yourselfer who would prefer not to buy a "plug and play" hard drive.
> 
> ...
> Here's the link:
> 
> http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com
> 
> Michael *


When will these instructions be updated to include (what I believe are) the newest TiVo models, including the one I just ordered, which I believe to be a 540040?

Is it safe to just use the 240040 selection instead?


----------



## weaknees

I'm actually working on that now - you can use the 240040 instructions as long as your drive is a 120 or smaller. Otherwise, I should have the site updated within a few days.


----------



## jimbop99

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just wanted to thank Weaknees for the instructions. I finally got up the courage to upgrade the hard drive on my Hughes D*Tivo. Went from 35 hours to 105 hours with out a hitch. I've had the hard drive sitting in the basement for almost six months and decided it was time to give it a try, especially since if I somehow screwed it up, a new replacement unit can now be had for as little as $50. Thanks again!


----------



## weaknees

We've updated the site to reflect now ALL of the TiVos that can be currently upgraded (the only exclusion being the Toshiba SD-H400). The new models added are:

TiVo 240140
TiVo 540040
TiVo 540080
TiVo 540140

Pioneer 810H
Pioneer 57H

Hughes HD HR10-250

Humax T800
Humax T2500

Samsung SIR - 4080R

In order to support large drives for the units that can handle them:

-we have a CD available for download with mfstools and BlessTiVo on it
-we have some instructions for the new units to work around the 256 GB limitation in mfstools

Good luck upgrading!

Michael


----------



## roar15

Hi weaknees,

noob here,

I've looked around abit and I'm not sure if I found the answer to my question or not....

I've got a Hughes HDVR2 with a failing drive. It was freezing up, so I tried it's (tivo's) reset and delete everything option, and could never get past the startup screen. Took the drive out and ran powermax on it ant it reported back that the drive was failing.

SO here is my question...... Are there any utilities available to or is it even possible to just get my new Maxtor 80gb drive setup as a replacement A drive with out having to try and get an image off of my failing original 40gb drive?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## weaknees

You can ask around for an image file (dig around in this forum) then use these instructions to restore the image file to the new drive.


----------



## roar15

Thank you for the info.


----------



## Marconi

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *We've updated the site to reflect now ALL of the TiVos that can be currently upgraded (the only exclusion being the Toshiba SD-H400). The new models added are:
> 
> TiVo 240140
> TiVo 540040
> TiVo 540080
> TiVo 540140
> 
> ...
> In order to support large drives for the units that can handle them:
> 
> -we have a CD available for download with mfstools and BlessTiVo on it
> -we have some instructions for the new units to work around the 256 GB limitation in mfstools
> 
> Good luck upgrading!
> 
> Michael *


The config setup asks: "Are you using drives larger than 250 GB?"

Does that mean: "Is any drive larger than 250 GB?" or does it mean: "Do your drives total more than 250 GB?"


----------



## weaknees

It means "any one drive" in your upgrade.

Michael


----------



## kimsan

Michael,

Great job on the instructions and continuing support.

And *major* praise for the TwinBreeze kit for the HR10-250. Great instructions and illustrations, beautifully designed bracket, all the parts needed (less disks), and the required Torx drivers to boot! That'll save me running to the Jeep for my multi-drive set in the future.

Shame the -Tao copy/expand took ~32 hrs from a full 250gb to a new pair or 250s, but it was well worth the time. Flawless.

Big thanks for your continuing efforts.


----------



## weaknees

Glad to hear it - if it took 32 hours, the TiVo must have been pretty full, and you clearly need the space!

Michael


----------



## kimsan

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Glad to hear it - if it took 32 hours, the TiVo must have been pretty full, and you clearly need the space!
> 
> Michael *


Very full. Stuff was ready to "age off" without having been viewed. Haven't had that happen since I did an upgrade to my original DSR6000 several years ago.

I wondered if that was a reasonable amount of time on a P4 2.8ghz/1gb RAM system, but since it *did* complete successfully I have to assume it's normal.

If it should have to happen again, it'll be image restore for me. The recordings are just gonna have to take it tough 

Thanks again.


----------



## weaknees

It certainly seems like a long time, but not unheard of. If you didn't have DMA on, then it can slow down a lot.

Michael


----------



## mondoz

Hi

I just wanted to thank you for writing this guide. It was extremely well written, and really useful. (Fedex says I have a pair of bracket/fan kits on the way here, too.) 

I have a question about my recent upgrade experiences.
I added a 120 gb drive to a new 540040 and an older 24008A over the weekend.
The 540040 was new, with no recordings on it. When I backed it up, the backup file was about 600mb.

The upgrade went well, (except when I booted the additional drive into W2k to erase the backup I made to it after mfsadding the drive. Oops. I was able to recover, though.)
When I upgraded the older TiVo, however, the backup was only about 300mb. I told the instruction wizard that I wanted to save the recordings, and used the backup command I was given, but I'm thinking it didn't actually backup the shows.

Fortunately, I didn't need to use the backup file, and everything went well on the second upgrade, but I'm wondering what went wrong with the backup.


Thanks again


----------



## weaknees

Those backup file sizes could certainly be right for each unit. Our instructions allow you to copy recordings, but no configuration on this site will give you info for backing up your recordings to a file, although it is possible.

Michael


----------



## mondoz

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Those backup file sizes could certainly be right for each unit. Our instructions allow you to copy recordings, but no configuration on this site will give you info for backing up your recordings to a file, although it is possible.
> 
> Michael *


Ahh.. I see.

I was under the impression that you could include the recordings into the backup.

Thanks again.


----------



## Global

Thank you weaknees,

I was pretty nervous to upgrade my Tivo but your clear instructions made the upgrade a breeze!

Keep up the great work, it is highly appreciated!


----------



## SteveCA

I have a Hughes HDVR2 that I upgraded from 30 hours to 105 hours (120 GB) many months ago. "Piece of cake." I am now in the process of adding a second 120GB drive. I would like to preserve my recordings.

It appears that in the Hinsdale instructions Configuration #1 (and Weaknees interactive) that all I need to do is run the "mfsadd..." command. However, since I am past the 180GB barrier, the Hinsdale instructions suggest I need to do either Configuration #2 or #3 to increase the swap space. Obviously #3 saves my recordings, but it assumes TWO NEW drives -- not adding a drive as in #1.

Is there a safe way to add 120Gb to a 120 Gb system and save the recordings?

SteveCA


I think I found the answer to my question. I found my notes from my previous upgrade. I had used the "-s 127" parameter when I had previously increased the size of the "A" drive. Thus I just used the "mfadd" command this time to add another drive.


----------



## mike3k

I notice your upgrade instructions seem to require Windows. I only have a PC running Linux and several Macs.


----------



## weaknees

Generally, you don't need Windows at all. What you need is Linux. Try getting the complete steps and you'll see what's needed for your situation.

Michael


----------



## bkdtv

Can we expect a guide for the SD-H400 anytime soon?


----------



## yapaul

Hi Weaknees,

I'm using your most awesome upgrade instructions and am a bit confussed on one section. I have a 540040 (Series 2, 40 hours) and want to change it to a 2 drive configuration. I plan on setting up the drives in my computer in this manner:

Prim. master: boot CD or Windows 2000 harddrive
Prim. slave: original Tivo drive
Sec. master: new Tivo drive 1
Sec. Slave: new Tivo drive 2

From the upgrade instructions, I boot with CD and backup the Tivo drive onto new Tivo drive 1. Then I will swap the boot CD with my Windows 2000 drive, remove the Tivo drive and copy the backup image from the new Tivo drive 1 to Windows 2000 drive. (Is this correct so far?)
Now here is the confusion. The upgrade instructions says to swap back the CD, attach the Tivo drive and do the mfsrestore. But isn't the backup image on the Windows 2000 drive? Shouldn't I attach my Windows 2000 drive instead of my Tivo drive?

Thanks again for your great ugrade instructions!


----------



## weaknees

Yes - you should. I'll have to visit the instructions to see how you found that path. What model is this for?


----------



## yapaul

1 -> Series 2 - TiVo 540040. 
2 -> Replace with two drives.
3 -> Backup - yes
FAT partition - no
Windows 2000 - yes
Recording - ignor
Moving software - no
> 250GB - no

The line is:

Then, you'll need to reboot in Windows. To do to this, be sure to disconnect the TiVo drive, then remove the CD or floppy, and reboot in Windows. Copy the backup.bak file from the new drive over to your c: drive. Then shut down, reattach the TiVo drive, and reboot off your CD or floppy with the destination drives connected, and enter the following with hdX and hdY as your destination drives:

The part about reattaching the Tivo drive is confusing. Shouldnt it be the Windows 2000 drive with the backup image? Would the mount command with a Windows 2000 disk work?


----------



## weaknees

Well, either way will work. Once you've made the backup file and moved it to the Win2K drive, you can either restore from it, or you can again copy off the old TiVo drive, and then restore directly to the new drives with no intervening file, and I'm pretty sure that's the way this has you going. If the resulting command line has both "mfsbackup" and "mfsrestore" in it, then you DO need the old TiVo drive to make that work. If it has only "mfsrestore" in it (which I doubt) then you need the Win2K drive.

Michael


----------



## yapaul

Do you have the command for copying from the original Tivo drive to the new drives without an intervening file? Thanks again for your help!


----------



## weaknees

Just run the instructions and for "backup" choose "no."


----------



## yapaul

Got it! Thanks for your patience! I have ordered your bracket and fans and will try out the procedure once they arrive. I can't wait! I won't have to use the basic record level (pretty grainy).


----------



## weaknees

Just added support for the Humax DRT800 upgrade.


----------



## yapaul

I have a Series 2 - TiVo 540040 unit I want to upgrade with 2 new drives (see my posts above). I just got all my parts together and was beginning to do my upgrade. But one question I have is what exactly do I need to do with my 2 new drives? They are 160GB units. I have read that the maximum size my Tivo can use is 137GB. Should I use fdisk and create a 137GB partition? Do I need to format the drive? I think the online guide should mention something about the new drives, even if it is to do nothing.


----------



## Robert S

Actually, the 540's (any TiVo that ships with software version 5.x) have LBA-48 kernels and can therefore use large drives.

This isn't a partitioning issue; it's a limitation of the original ATA spec. The fix is a new driver that supports an extended command set that allows larger drives to be addressed.

Similarly, what controls whether you've got a 160Gb (or larger) drive, or a 137Gb one, is the kernel in the boot disk you use for the upgrade. If you use the normal mfstools2noJ.iso, you get 137Gb, if you use an LBA-48 one, you get the full capacity of the disk.

This is enough control to make the upgrade go the way you require. The commands you run are always the same.


----------



## weaknees

yapaul-

To add to Robert S's post, once you choose that model of TiVo, your download link will direct you to get a CD that has LBA48 support, so you'll see the full capacity. If you were to choose an older model, the final page would show you a different CD download link.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

We've just added support for the Toshiba SD-H400. 

PLEASE NOTE: This upgrade involves a new and relatively untested component. So we highly recommend making a backup and watching carefully during TiVo OS upgrades.

Michael


----------



## yapaul

Just want to thank everyone who helped me upgrade my Tivo. I now have a TiVo 540040 with 363 hours of record time! Well it's really 93 hours with the high record quality. No more fussy recordings!

To anyone about to do an upgrade, definitely check out the guide. It really works and is quite painless.

Thanks again all!


----------



## uiowa

Help please...

I'm attempting to upgrade my Samsung SIR-S4040R. I've read both your online review and the Hindsdale instructions but I'm running into a problem. I am trying to add a second drive and I've created a backup of the original drive. The problem comes in when I attempt to restore the backup (to verify) to the new drive. Using the command mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc. When I place the new drive back in the tivo it either goes into a reboot cycle (reboots after the almost there screen) or just stays on the almost there screen. 

I've attempted to make two new backups and have attempted to restore multiple times. I know the jumper settings are correct and when I place the old drive using the same cables that I used for the old drive the tivo is fine.

Please help,

Thanks...


----------



## weaknees

Does the original drive still boot fine? If so, this is likely a bad new drive. Can you check it in your PC with the manufacturer's diagnostics software?


----------



## uiowa

The drive is a Maxtor and I was able to do a FAT32 format on the drive using the software suggested by your site (if there isn't a FAT32 drive available for backup). The drive seems to be working fine. I could just do the mfsadd command but if the drive isn't working properly would this screw up my A drive.

If I change the jumper setting to cable select the tivo hangs on the powering up screen. If I make the drive master then the tivo reboots after the almost there screen. 

Do you know of something else that I need to do to the drive?

Thanks for any help.


----------



## freeflier

Went through the instructions last night, and found there
is an error, which may cause some individuals to (possibly?)
do bad things to their original Tivo drive.

I was doing a 2 drive swap for my existing hard drive.
540040, adding two 300gb drives.

Instructions stated:
----------------------------
....
Shut down the TiVo, and set up the PC with the current TiVo A drive and the new TiVo A drive connected. Now, boot from the "Weaknees CD."

Now you can add the extra space back on each drive like this:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdZ /dev/hdZZ

...

-------------------------------

I checked against other mfstools how-tos out there, and the first paragraph is wrong. It should say "New TiVo A drive and New Tivo B drive". I called Weaknees to tell them, and they changed it. Unfortunately, it is still wrong. :-(

...
Shut down the TiVo, and set up the PC with the current TiVo A drive and the new TiVo B drive connected. Now, boot from the "Weaknees CD."
....

As mentioned before, it should say "New TiVo A and New TiVo B". I imagine that it probably wouldn't 'damage' the original/current A drive, but it isn't what is needed to make the new drives the proper size.

Weaknees also sent me the paper instructions with two page 5of7's but no 7of7. I checked their website for a pdf version of the instructions, and they don't have them up there. I told them of these problems also, and hopefully they get it fixed/posted quickly so others don't get confused.


----------



## weaknees

OK - it's Friday . . .

But it's really fixed now. Thanks for the notes.

Michael


----------



## yapaul

Freeflier,

I have the same unit that you have. When I did my upgrade, my PC was set up as:

Primary master - CD
Primary slave - original Tivo drive
Secondary master - new Tivo drive 1
Secondary slave - new Tivo drive 2

I made sure my Windows 2000 drive was out of the picture. I booted with the CD image from Weakness' guide and ran the mfsbackup | mfsrestore command. I did not do the "Backup original Tivo drive" since I was replacing my Tivo drive with 2 new drives so I should be able to keep my original Tivo drive as the backup.

So it was:
1) Download and burn the boot CD disk.
2) Setup the drives in my PC configured as above.
3) Booted my PC and check to make sure all 3 drives were recognized correctly.
4) Ran the mfsbackup | mfsrestore command.
5) Installed the new drives into my Tivo.

Took about 1.5 hours. I saved the original Tivo drive away as my backup.

BTW, 2 300Gb drives!? Sheez!


----------



## apropos

I've read all the post that I could find but no one seemed to have my exact problem. Hopefully someone will be as helpful here as some of the other post.

I have followed the instructions exactly and get the following error when I try to mount hda1:
_Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1 or too many mounted file systems 

So, I tried to mount HDA2 and it was a success. But when I try to backup the image it goes throught the process and fails at 80MB (every time) and gives the following error:

Backup failed: /mnt/backup.bak: sucess

I have tried to mount drive HDA1-HDA18, which is as far as the drives go...they also crap out at 80 MB's....

I have confirmed all the jumpers are correct and that I am using a fat32 system on my c drive...

Anyone else run into this issue?_


----------



## Robert S

_I have tried to mount drive HDA1-HDA18, which is as far as the drives go...they also crap out at 80 MB's...._

Unless you umount /mnt before doing that, it'll have no effect. I doubt there's more than two mountable partitions on that drive.

My guess is that your C: drive is full.

df will tell you how much space is available on the mounted filing systems.

ls will list the files in a directory so you can verify that you have indeed mounted the C: drive.

(BTW, you need a [/i] to close your italics, not _)._


----------



## Klips

I just picked up a Toshiba SD-H400.

I would like to backup the drive but I am having trouble with the "weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso" disk I created. It boots and I see the CD-ROM drive as hdg. Then the last few lines says "Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 1". This continues these lines through from 1 to 5. Then the very last line says "No CD-ROM found".

Has anyone seen this problem? I am hoping that I haven't missed it in the forum here.

Does anyone know if I need the "large disk support" in order to backup this system? I am having no trouble with the normal "mfstools2noJ.iso" disk in backing up any of my other systems.

Thanks for any suggestions...


----------



## erased

Is there a way this simple to upgrade and enable my USB ports on my RCA DVR40 at the same time? I want to add a wireless network card to connect to my network. I want to do this so I can download the guides through the net, I want to kill my landline phone (just bought service through lingo.com). Let me know what I need to do please.

Thanks
Jake


----------



## Robert S

DTV do not want you using the USB ports on your TiVo. So, although it is possible to enable them, there's no 'simple' way to do it.


----------



## berryb

Michael, Great job!

I successfully used Hinsdale's How-to to upgrade my own Phillips DTivo, two years ago. Recently, I offered to upgrade my sister's TiVo and printed your Sony SAT-T60 Interactive instructions on 9/18/04, with the following options:

Backup Y
Fat Y
XP/2000 N
Boot CD
Save Y
Older 2.5 N
Move TiVos N

She arrives tomorrow for the update, so I thought I'd better review any recent posts on the subject, and also review/reprint the latest Interactive version. Whoa!

The previous version had one more page then the current version, 8 pgs. instead of 7. The previous page 5 , had a section "Boot the PC from the Linux Media" and contained an example "Verify Drive Sizes" report; also "Unlock Drive (if necessary)" info.

The newer version contains none of that. Instead the new page 5 starts out with "Hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, wait for shutdown sequence to finish . . ." (even though no previous Boot instructions are given ???)

What changed?


----------



## HDLouco

Michael:
Now that I have managed to backup my original Tivo drive without saving the recordings, I tried doing a backup to another drive and omc;ide the recordings. Per instructions, I issued the command
mfsbackup - Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb.
The process started. and after one hours it had backup about 6000 megabytes. Since the total content was indicated as about 240000 megabytes, it seems that the total time required would be about 40 hours. Am I correct in assuming that? In another thread, someone used 

the command hdparm -d1 /dev/hda and hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb

to enable DMA on the two drives. Would that speed up the backup/restore process? Is the hdparm command included in your boot CD? I tried it and got the indications that the command is unknown.

In another thread someone is using thecommand

dd if-/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

to copy from the original drive to the backup drive. I tried that command and let it run through the night for about 22 hours, but the backup disk does not boot on the Tivo. Is this dd (data dump >) process faster than the mfsbackup and mfsrestore?

I would appreciate a little help from you, but will understand if you are too busy to answer. Thank you very much.


----------



## weaknees

Definitely try the hdparm command. We use that here and it is needed on some PCs to enable DMA. Cancel what you have going with ctrl-z and then run the hdparm and then go back to the other command. We'll try to add that to the instructions in the next revision.

The 'dd' command will be slower because it copies all sectors, whether used or not.

Michael


----------



## HDLouco

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Definitely try the hdparm command. We use that here and it is needed on some PCs to enable DMA. Cancel what you have going with ctrl-z and then run the hdparm and then go back to the other command. We'll try to add that to the instructions in the next revision.
> 
> The 'dd' command will be slower because it copies all sectors, whether used or not.
> 
> Michael *


Thanks, Michael! Will follow your instructions.


----------



## HDLouco

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Definitely try the hdparm command. We use that here and it is needed on some PCs to enable DMA. Cancel what you have going with ctrl-z and then run the hdparm and then go back to the other command. We'll try to add that to the instructions in the next revision.
> 
> The 'dd' command will be slower because it copies all sectors, whether used or not.
> 
> Michael *


Michael: I really don't want to be a pest, but when I type
hdparm -d1 /dev/hda and hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb,
I get the message that the command was not found. Is it included in your boot CD? I also typed hdparm -h for help, but the result was the same: command not found. Thanks for the help!


----------



## weaknees

I'll have to boot in it again and see, but if that didn't work, then it must not be there. We'll try to update it soon.


----------



## HDLouco

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *I'll have to boot in it again and see, but if that didn't work, then it must not be there. We'll try to update it soon. *


Thanks again, Michael.


----------



## AJ500

I have an HDR212 and I need to replace its single drive.

The PC that's available to me is a first generation Pentium and I think it's BIOS-limited to disk drives no larger than 4GB or something like that.

Is that PC capable of being used for restoring an image to an 80GB drive. or do I need to find one that can address a larger drive from its BIOS?

I don't know if the tools are BIOS-limited on disk size.

Thanks.


----------



## weaknees

In general, Linux doesn't need the BIOS to see drives - and even if the BIOS sees them at a smaller size, it'll usually still work. Try turning off drive detection in your BIOS and see if Linux sees the right size in its startup info.

Michael


----------



## HDLouco

Hi Michael!
I started backup my original Tivo drive yesterday, October 26, at 3:08 PM, using the pair mfsbackup | mfsrestore that we discussed before. After scanning, MFS tools indicate the total content of the drive as 227,991 MB. The actual backing-up and restoring started at 3:08 PM. After exactly 24 hours, it has backedup 152,000 MB, equivalente to 66.68% of the total. I am using a Pentium 4 with hyper-threading, 512-KB cache, 1.5-MB dual-channel 400-MHz memory. The original Tivo drive is a Western Digital, and the backup drive is a Maxtor Diamond running at 7200 RPM. Since the Weakness boot CD does not have the hdparm commands to enable DMA, I tried using the new version 3.01 boot CD from PTV-Upgrade, using the same mfsbackup | mfsrestore commands, and with the same switches. However, something in the PTV-Upgrade boot CD does not seem to be compatible with my PC. After the scanning of the original drive, I get a report on the total usage of the drive and the program terminates, and I get the # prompyt back. I tried several times, but it never worked. Your boot CD works very well, and the syntax is exactly the same. Please, do not think I am complaining: I am just indicating that I had no problems using your boot CD to perform the backup. My estimation is that the remaining 33.4 % will take aproximately 8 hours more. Thanks again for being so helpful!


----------



## HDLouco

I failed to indicate that the Pentium-4 CPU in my PC is running at 2.8 MHz, and the front bus is running at 800 MHz.


----------



## weaknees

Yup - we need to get hdparms on the CD . . . it's on the list, but we have a few other things ahead of that. Soon - I promise.

Michael


----------



## HDLouco

The backup of the original Tivo drive completed during the night. It started on Tuesday at 3:09 PM and, at 3:09 PM on Wednesday, it had backed up 152,000 MB. Approximately 6333 MB per hour. I went to sleep at 11 PM and estimate that it completed at 3 AM on Thursday. I installed the backup drive in the Tivo, and it is now working and showing all the recordings I wanted to save. The only problem is that the Maxtor drive makes clicking sounds as the read/write heads move constantly. I read somewhere in this thread that Maxtor has a utility to set their drives to a quiet mode. Hope that will help. I would like to thank you again, Michael, for all your help.


----------



## weaknees

Glad to hear it worked. 

You can use 'amset' to set the Maxtor's acoustic mode to 'quiet.'

Michael


----------



## HDLouco

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Glad to hear it worked.
> 
> You can use 'amset' to set the Maxtor's acoustic mode to 'quiet.'
> 
> Michael *


I did that, Michael! And it worked very well. Thanks again for the help and patience.


----------



## Klips

> _Originally posted by Klips _
> *I just picked up a Toshiba SD-H400.
> 
> I would like to backup the drive but I am having trouble with the "weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso" disk I created. It boots and I see the CD-ROM drive as hdg. Then the last few lines says "Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 1". This continues these lines through from 1 to 5. Then the very last line says "No CD-ROM found".
> 
> Has anyone seen this problem? I am hoping that I haven't missed it in the forum here.
> 
> Does anyone know if I need the "large disk support" in order to backup this system? I am having no trouble with the normal "mfstools2noJ.iso" disk in backing up any of my other systems.
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions... *


Michael,

I still could use some help here. I am unclear as to why the boot CD is not seen after it finishes booting. It obviously sees it to boot from. I see the Weaknees splash screen. But no CD drive after that. I bought this Tivo system as an open-box. I plan to give it to my folks for XMAS, but I want to have a backup image saved away. I am not planning on upgrading it unless the drive dies and is out-of-warantee.

It appeared to backup using the regular Tiger mfstools2. To test my backup, I have tried a couple of different 80GB drives that I have at home. They all come back claiming to not be big enough. I even though I have one drive that had exactly the same cylinders and alike, it still doesn't like it. So, my guess is that I need your large disk support to get this done.

I'm puzzled with both problems...


----------



## weaknees

How do you mean that you don't see the CD? Why do you need to see it?

Are you restoring without the "-s 127" switch?


----------



## Klips

Because I can't issue any of the backup commands. Or at least it appears that way. Maybe I am missing something.

With the regular mfstools2 with noswap, I am following hinsdale instructions which include the -s 127. So yes, I am using it.


----------



## Klips

Is it normal to see this at the end of the boot cycle?

Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 1
Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 2
Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 3
Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 4
Trying to mount the CD_ROM, try 5
No CD_ROM found


----------



## amalux

(I'm posting again here, because I think this is where it belongs. Sorry, not sure how to get rid of the other post )

I have a brand new HNS SDDVR40 DirecTiVo; I want to add a slave drive to the original TiVo 40GB HDD that came with it. Please confirm if this model uses the LBA48 kernel (sorry, It's just not clear from the posts but my gut tells me no!).

If not, I'll be using the mfstools2_boot_cd (floppy as good?) as recommended in the tutorial to setup a 160GB drive (~137GB usable).

In the awesome (if somewhat confusing, to us newbies) interactive guide, I find everything makes sense, except...

In the PC, the TiVo drives jumper settings will correspond to IDE channel hierarchy, right? NOT the jumper settings they will eventually be set to back in the TiVo (seems obvious, but...)

In my PC, the setup will look like this: 

hda = Win-ME_Fat32 HDD (two part'ns) on IDE_Pri-Master, jumper=master

hdb = Orig TiVo 40GB HDD on IDE_Pri-Slave, jumper=slave 
(I'll be making a backup of the original TiVo on the Fat32 HDD, right? Does this drive even require an operating system, or can it be an 'empty' Fat32 drive? I'm setting it up just for this operation, normally I run XP-Pro.)

hdc = DVD-RW(CD-Boot) on IDE_Sec-Master, jumper=master

(OK, this one I'm not sure about...)
hdd = 160GB HDD (new slave for TiVo) on IDE_Sec-Slave, jumper=slave

The instructions don't appear to address my specific upgrade scenario, so I'm really guessing this must be right. If not, I really need guidance here. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU! Eagerly awaiting response, all set up and ready to go!


----------



## weaknees

That unit does NOT have lba48 support. Use the regular CD. In fact, once you choose that unit, you don't even get the option to work with lba48 support.

Right - in the PC, set the jumpers as you need them for the PC. You can change them when you install in the TiVo.

So just substitute hda for FAT partitions, hdb for the original TiVo drive, and hdd for the new drive. The instructions have a table showing you which one to use where.

Michael


----------



## amalux

Thanks Michael,

OK, so it looks like, in my post, I have it right for the drive location/ settings in the PC; The confusion arises in the instructions because it seems that the 'new' drive (160GB, set up here on hdd) is to REPLACE the original TiVo 40GB i.e. upgrade the existing 40GB to 160GB. That is NOT the case here, I want to make a restorable backup for the 40GB (on my Fat C:/ drive)and then RE-Install it to the TiVo unit, ADDING an additional/ new 160GB SLAVE to the mix i.e. going from one 40GB HDD to 40GB (original) + 160GB Slave. Whew! I hope that's made it clear (as mud?) 

Please confirm that this will work, I don't want to end up with TWO 'Master' drives for the TiVo. Also, DO you need an OS installed on the Fat32 C:/ drive for this operation? or can it be an 'empty' formatted drive just for storing backups of this type?

Michael, your the best (smooch, smooch, grovel, grovel)


----------



## weaknees

So do the instructions for adding a new drive and making a backup. One set will give you all of that. That's exactly what this site was designed to do.


----------



## amalux

Fantastic! Thank you again for the help (and the great tutorials!) I'm diving in now, I'll let you know how it goes. 

p.s. DO you need an O.S. installed on that Fat32?


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by amalux _
> *Fantastic! Thank you again for the help (and the great tutorials!) I'm diving in now, I'll let you know how it goes.
> 
> p.s. DO you need an O.S. installed on that Fat32?  *


Nope - no OS is needed to store the backup image there.


----------



## amalux

Thanks again!


----------



## pgold

Thanks for a great set of instructions. I just want to make sure that I fully understand one thing. I have an HDVR2 and with a 40 GB drive. I want to replace it with a 160 GB drive. I do not need a backup as I am going to keep the 40 GB drive as a backup. I just pop the two drives in the machine (I will take the windows dirve out for safety). The original drive will be hda and the new one will be hdb. I then boot with the CD and issue the following command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

This will move everything from the old drive to the new one, including the programming. Is that correct?

Thanks

Phil


----------



## HDLouco

> _Originally posted by pgold _
> *Thanks for a great set of instructions. I just want to make sure that I fully understand one thing. I have an HDVR2 and with a 40 GB drive. I want to replace it with a 160 GB drive. I do not need a backup as I am going to keep the 40 GB drive as a backup. I just pop the two drives in the machine (I will take the windows dirve out for safety). The original drive will be hda and the new one will be hdb. I then boot with the CD and issue the following command:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
> 
> This will move everything from the old drive to the new one, including the programming. Is that correct?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Phil *


I hope Michael won't mind my answering this question. Yes, that is exactly what I did two days ago. I copied a total of 227,991 megabytes from hda to hdb, including many hours of programming. The process is very slow. It took 36 hours in my Pentium 4, 2.8 GHZ, with 800-MHz front-side bus, hyper threading, and 1500 MB of 400-MHz dual-channel memory. But it was work it. Good luck to you.


----------



## HDLouco

I would like to add that the rate turns out to be 6200 megabytes per hour. At the end of the scanning of the original drive, MFS tools indicates the total number of megabytes to be copied over to the new drive. You can then estimate how long it will take if your PC is comparable to mine.


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by pgold _
> *Thanks for a great set of instructions. I just want to make sure that I fully understand one thing. I have an HDVR2 and with a 40 GB drive. I want to replace it with a 160 GB drive. I do not need a backup as I am going to keep the 40 GB drive as a backup. I just pop the two drives in the machine (I will take the windows dirve out for safety). The original drive will be hda and the new one will be hdb. I then boot with the CD and issue the following command:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
> 
> This will move everything from the old drive to the new one, including the programming. Is that correct?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Phil *


That's completely correct - that will do it.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by HDLouco _
> *I hope Michael won't mind my answering this question. Yes, that is exactly what I did two days ago. I copied a total of 227,991 megabytes from hda to hdb, including many hours of programming. The process is very slow. It took 36 hours in my Pentium 4, 2.8 GHZ, with 800-MHz front-side bus, hyper threading, and 1500 MB of 400-MHz dual-channel memory. But it was work it. Good luck to you. *


This is a much smaller drive, so it should be significantly faster . . .


----------



## weaknees

The new TiVo DVD players have been added to the site. These can only hold one drive, but do support larger drives, so a 300 GB drive can be used here. 

The units are:

Humax DRT800
Toshiba RS-TX20
Toshiba RS-TX60

Michael


----------



## coeng

Looking to replace a bad factory drive in my SVR2000, and followed the steps to select a set of instructions, but the instructions provided involve performing a backup of the factory drive. This doesn't make sense since the drive is dead. I basically need to start from scratch. I basically need to Tivo-ize the drive. Where can I find these instructions?


----------



## weaknees

You need to find a copy of the TiVo OS for your unit. Once you do, the instructions can tell you what to do. You'll need the OS either on a TiVo drive, or as an image file on a CD or on a hard drive.


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

'amsat' for Maxtor? kewl....

Will this work for other drives or is their a solutions for Seagate drives (they have liquid bearings, 8mb cache, 7200 rpm, 200GB)


----------



## weaknees

amset, actually.

This will only work with Maxtors.

Michael


----------



## coeng

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *You need to find a copy of the TiVo OS for your unit. Once you do, the instructions can tell you what to do. You'll need the OS either on a TiVo drive, or as an image file on a CD or on a hard drive. *


How/Where do I find a copy of the OS?


----------



## weaknees

If you have a friend with the same unit, you can use theirs, or you can ask around on the forums for an image file. Also, you could buy a "replace" kit from us or another vendor.

Michael


----------



## Guest

The interactive site is great. Thanks. I have one little suggestion -- can you add some sort of rough estimate on how long the backup and/or restore process will take? Maybe a couple boxes where you type in size of original and new drives and then do some very rough guesstimate.

I've seen some references that it can take 24 hours to back up a really big drive, which never occurred to me. I would have to plan ahead for something that long.

Thanks,
Steve


----------



## weaknees

Steve,

The problem here is that the process is so variable based on the PC's hardware, and there are probably too many factors to include and calculate to come up with a reasonable guess. But in the next major revision I'll try to include a note that saving recordings can take quite some time.

Michael


----------



## mjitkop

Michael, just a few words to congratulate you and thank you for these excellent interactive upgrade instructions! 

Thanks to you, I got my DirecTiVo to work again with 3 times as much memory space as before!

Thanks a lot!


----------



## mrtickle

(This is from 20th Dec last year)



> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> 
> Originally posted by Big-bill3
> It looks really useful but I can't find any reference to the Thomson models in the UK
> 
> *Working on it. Can anyone give us a link to a site that has pictures of the inside of those units? We'd like to get detailed hardware installation instructions and we just don't have access to those units.
> 
> Michael *


Hi, has there been any progress so far? The sole UK model is almost the same as a US series 1 standalone as far as upgrading goes. Your pictures for the Philips PTV100, HDR110, (etc) should be fine, the only visible differences are that the Thomson has a champagne case, not black.
The software is 2.5.5, and the mfsbackup instructions need to include the UK-specific bits from Hinsdale. Other than that it should be quite easy to add support for the UK.

HTH


----------



## sc02-steve

Ive read through most posts in this thread and Im still confused as to whether or not a TCD140060 can use all the space on a 160 GB disk. WeaKnees appears to offer a 160GB disk for this model but I believe I saw at least one post that said this older model couldnt use anything larger than 128GB. I have a lifetime subscription and I dont have any interest in doing anything that would cause a problem the next time Tivo pushes an updatelike Tivo-to-Go which is supposed to be available soon. Im ready to begin using WeaKnees instructions to dup the factory WD 60GB to a new WD1600JB and Im just curious what to expect when Im done.


----------



## weaknees

The 140060 can only see 137 GB of a drive. We offer 160s for it since they are the next-largest size.

Michael


----------



## w2jo

I have an old model 1 that (years ago) I updated to include a COPY of the original 40(?) GB HD plus another 120GB unit as drive 2. Things are getting noisy in the disk drive and I want to upgrade to a single 300GB Maxtor unit. I still have the ORIGINAL Tivo disk drive intact with the (OLD) system files.

Is the best procedure to use to take the ORIGINAL drive and update and copy it onto the 300GB drive according to the Weakknees instructions for single drive update to single drive and then execute the LBA48 update? Or is there some other better way? I do not need to save the old video files.
Thanks


----------



## weaknees

Our instructions don't cover the needed steps to make your drive use the full space on that drive.


----------



## w2jo

OK. I thought that it would go up to at least 250GB available. 

Can you please give me a few hints on where to look/go for info on how I should proceed to use the 300GB drive as described above?
Thanks


----------



## Robert S

ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/


----------



## MattElmore

> _Originally posted by ebonovic _
> *Here is what I just tried:
> 
> GXCEBOT -
> Single Large Drive
> ect....
> 
> I didn't get an option to tell the site, that this is already an UPGRADE DUAL drive system, and I wanted to go back to a SINGLE Larger Drive.
> 
> I have the stock 40 and an additional 60 in my DTivo1
> 
> I would like to go back to one single drive.
> 
> According to Hinsdale, I can do this, but only if I don't keep my recordings.
> 
> Great site though.
> 
> One recommendation... If there is a way you can give an option to generate a PDF file. This way "in a pinch" if I lose a page of the instructions after computer A is down, I can take that PDF file to another unit and print it out. Or have it in my Handheld unit, vs paper.
> 
> Just an idea, as we are converting a lot of our web based reports to PDF files for archiving purposes. *


If you are on a Mac, just go to Print and Save as PDF.


----------



## bruntol

If I'm using the "new" drive to hold a temporary OS backup in a fat32 partition, do I remove this partition after I've copied the backup file away to my real windows drive?

I created a 32GB fat32 partition on the new drive, did the backup of the Tivo OS, disconnected the Tivo and reconnected my ntfs windows drive and copied the backup. I've reconnected the tivo drive and its doing the time-consuming mfsbackup/mfsrestore to copy the OS and save all programming.

Will I lose space(32GB) on my new drive or is the fat32 partition wiped-out by the procedure?

Much appreciated!


----------



## weaknees

The FAT 32 partition will be completely overwritten by mfstools - you don't need to do anything in that regard.

Michael


----------



## Taelrand

Well, I had hoped to do this all myself, without pestering the forums, but I'm out of ideas, so here goes.

I've got a SA2 TCD240040 unit which I wanted to upgrade from the original 40GB Western Digital drive (drive A) to that original drive plus an 80GB Western Digital drive (drive B) I picked up. To this end, I got the weaknees DIY upgrade kit with the powertrip, etc.

Using Hinsdale's guide, I got both drives up and running without a lot of trouble, and the Tivo reported the correct new recording size. Emboldened by my success, I re-removed the drives, as I am planning to do certain other things as well. Now, I cannot get the Tivo to boot with both drives.

But wait! Before you assume that I have somehow rendered the software unbootable...

As mentioned, there are other things I'm attempting to do to the Tivo, things which I shall not mention on this this forum. However! I am currently using the original backup image, so I would assume they're irrelevant.

Either drive will boot up the Tivo by itself. Drive A will work with or without the powertrip, as best I can tell. Drive B will only seem to boot up without the powertrip between it and the power supply, but it will boot up, if I mfsrestore the original image to it. This seems to me to rule out either drive being bad, or my previous software fiddlings being the cause.

Whenever I have tried using both drives, I have always used the original drive A as Master (with a variety of jumper settings: CS, no jumper, and Master w/ Slave), and drive B as slave (with jumpers set to Slave). I cannot remember what the jumper settings were, that one time it worked.

I do know that when it worked before, I had used the MFS Tools 2.0 boot CD for everything. After that first successful dual-drive boot, I switched at some point to using the PTVUpgrade LBA48 CD, as it had certain tools included which I needed. It occurred to me this morning that the versions of mfstools may differ between the CDs, so I went back to using the MFS Tools CD until I get this sorted out, but still no luck so far.

Any ideas? At this point, I am only interested in getting the Tivo to boot up with both drives, and preferably understanding why it will not. My only thoughts are that the powertrip or IDE cable is bad in some way, but it did work that first time.

[Edit: Looks like the PowerTrip was messing it up. I took that out and it appears to be going just fine now. :up: ]

Thanks

Aaron


----------



## weaknees

The PowerTrip generally likes drives to not be using CS since the slave drive can necessarily see the Master when it first spins up, since the Master isn't active.

Michael


----------



## stakddek

Re: New Toshiba models with single drive and large capacity:

+++++++++++ from earlier post +++++++++
The new TiVo DVD players have been added to the site. These can only hold one drive, but do support larger drives, so a 300 GB drive can be used here. 

The units are:

Humax DRT800
Toshiba RS-TX20
Toshiba RS-TX60

+++++++++++ End cut post +++++++++

Those this bode well for us Toshiba SD-H400 owners? Can the particular elements that allow the DVD recorder units to work with a single large drive be of any help in getting that same single large drive to be a 400G in our original 80 g type II Toshiba? Or are we talking "firmware chips" that can't be updated, (or replaced).

Of course I wouldn't want to put in a GARGANTUAN DRIVE and not be able to use all it's space. If we are going to be limited to Say a 300G ceiling, there appears to be little sense in "buying" more capacity than the machine can access. Of course if it mapped bad sectors and then replaced them with clean sectors from the unused section, but then it can't go there can it. 

In a single drive space machine, I like the idea of using only one drive. It keeps the installation simple, and reduces the drain (strain) on other components.

Another question. I've used SATA drives in some computers. They are quite fast, quiet, and coming down in price. Is there any chance that a small device might be available to convert the 80 pin signal to an SATA mode and allow us to rear panel a connector out to a standalone external SATA enclosure with an SATA drive in it? This would allow the standalone drive to be easily swapped, powered from a separate supply, and easily updated when required, without having to disassemble the TIVO to gain access to the guts. Not hot swap, of course, but powering down and swapping drives is a lot easier than unscrewing all those covers etc.

Using a hot swap tray in the PC would make updating drives or backing them up at least mechanically simple. SATA appears to be being adopted rapidly, and I am pleased so far with drives I've purchased from WD and Seagate and Toshiba. 

Stakddek


----------



## weaknees

SATA isn't likely ever to be an option in your SD-H400.

That unit can use drives up to about 330 GB (so don't bother going larger than 300 GB, really) with tools currently available. Instructions are on the website.

Michael


----------



## stakddek

Yeah, but I can dream can't I! -- Thanks for your website and all the very helpful information you guys share. I'll probably never be up to speed on all of it, but maybe total immersion for a while will allow me get a little "betterer edukated".

Stakddek


----------



## jsadie

Thanks for the info. Exactly what I had in mind. It sound fairly complicated. 

Cheers
Jsadie


----------



## cybah

I purchased a used 40hr Series 2 from an online classifides for my dad for xmas for 50 bucks. I figured since I have a few 80Ggiggers lying around (and some of them maxtor 5400 drives), why not upgrade his to atleast 80hrs?

These instructions were a snap.. well I also have a unix background *g* but I had the thing up and going in about 20 mins (took me longer to setup the PC than it did anything else).

*grin*

This ROCKS, thanks Weaknees! Makes me wanna run out and double the space on my S2 80hr now because it was so easy to do.

My only complaint is the NOISE from the drive. I read some postings on here why Tivo chose these particular drives (the 40hr was a Maxtor DiamondMax).. its noisy. I may re-crack the tivo and put a silencer on the drive to dump it up a bit. Good thing this is going in dad's living room!

Thanks again Weaknees! Great Job!


----------



## sync

Will these instructions work for someone who has already added a second drive and wants to replace both of them with one drive?


----------



## weaknees

They don't have that specific option, but basically, if you are just careful to watch the drive designations and to do the upgrade with a backup and without recordings, they'll work fine.

Michael


----------



## sync

The second question on step 3 says "Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive:". That doesn't make sense to me. It seems to me it should either say "Is your C drive (partition) formatted with FAT" or "Do you have a FAT partition on your boot drive:".


----------



## mazman

Will my existing recordings & setting be maintained if I simply add a second drive to a single drive system by way of

mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by mazman _
> *Will my existing recordings & setting be maintained if I simply add a second drive to a single drive system by way of
> 
> mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ *


Yes.


----------



## DirecTivoGuy

I just attempted to upgrade my Philips DSR740 DirecTV Tivo. I followed the instructions on tivo.upgrade-instructions.com. The directions were very self explanatory and I believed that everything went off without a hitch. 

I used the instructions for "Add A Drive" while saving my current recordings. I burned the iso onto a CD and was able to boot off of it while only having 2 HDs, A CD-ROM, and a floppy drive connected to the PC. The original 40 GB Tivo drive was the primary master, and the new Maxtor 120 GB drive was the primary slave (I am pretty confident I had them set up correctly as I've built computers before).

I am not familiar with Linux, but the steps were so easy I didn't need to be. I got the "boot" prompt. At first, I didn't realize that I needed to hit the "Enter" key to load the files. I eventually figured that out and when I received the new prompt, I typed:

mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb

The result was so much quicker than I thought it would be. After a second it told me that I was now the proud owner of 179 hours. It also told me this was 139 more hours. I figured that meant everything was successful.

I had read about issues with letting Windows boot up with the drives in place, so I made sure this didn't happen.

So I left the jumpers as they were; Original Tivo 40 GB HD as master, and new 120 GB HD as slave. Neither one of them is on Cable Select, although the 40 GB drive was on cable select when I took it out of the Tivo (another thing I had read from posts).

I am not able to get the system to start up. I am getting the same message that others had seemed to receive for different reasons; "welcome. powering up...". I have read quite a few posts about this. THe general understanding that I got was that this message was from the hardware and not the HD. The difference that I am seeing is after 5 seconds or so, my screen goes to "Almost there. A few more seconds please..." I've actually been staring at that message for an hour now. I am not clear whether this message is from the HD or not.

Here is what DirecTV told me (obviously, I couldn't tell them that I opened the machine and tried to upgrade it). Of course this came from one guy at the tech support dept, so take that for what it is worth:
1. The second message is from the hard drive. Meaning, if I get that far than it is in fact recognizing the HD.
2. Sometimes the HD will attempt to fix itself. He suggested that I let it run for 24 hours and see what happens.

I have tried many different scenarios:
1. Boot up with the original as the master and the new one as the slave, with the jumpers set as such.
2. Boot up with both of them set as cable select, but have the original as the master on the cable.
3. Boot up with both of them set as cable select, but have the new one as the master on the cable.
4. Boot up with just the original, using the Philips single cable.
5. Boot up with just the new one, using the Philips single cable.
6. Boot up without any HDs at all.

I didn't have any luck with any of the above configurations. I am going under the assumption that the original HD should be able to boot up alone. Meaning, eventhough I ran the command to set up two HDs, the master doesn't really care whether there is a slave. What I did find interesting was scenario #6 did not give me the "Almost there." message. Which could mean one of 2 things; either the directv guy is right and that message does come from the master HD, or maybe that message is from the hardware, but it only appears if the hardware recognizes an HD is plugged in at all. Does anyone know for sure about this message?

Also, could anyone tell me if the story about the machine trying to fix itself is true? If so, I'll leave it on for a day if that could help. I should point out that I do not have a phone line and so if the "fixing" requires getting software updates from DirecTV, let me know that too, and I'll try and figure something out.

Is there a way for me to verify that the HDs are okay? If I plugged them back into the PC, would there be a way for me to validate that they can be accessed and are not some how destoryed?

Any advice would be appreciated. 

I'm basically looking for any ideas that you could please supply me. If there is the potential that I messed something up in the process, please let me know. I really want to understand how the Tivo works.


----------



## Robert S

That means that the TiVo is not able to see the B drive.

'Almost there' is printed by the Linux boot script and should be replaced by the TiVo interface after a few tens of seconds. The TiVo software will not start if the MFS set is incomplete (eg, the B drive is missing).

This is potentially Very Bad - if you can't fix the problem, you'll almost certainly lose your recordings.

It is possible that the problem is the result of a faulty IDE cable.

It should be possible to make a compressed backup from the current drive pair (the PC can see the B drive even if the TiVo can't), although it looks like finding a FAT partition to write it to will be a problem. Restoring that backup to the original A drive will get you back to your original configuration, albeit without your recordings.


----------



## DirecTivoGuy

Thank you for the heads up on what prints the 'Almost There' message. I had gotten different responses from calling both DirecTv and Tivo. First DirecTV guy told me that the 'Almost' message meant the HD was found and booted. The Tivo Technician told me the message was not from the HD drive, but he did caveat his response by saying that he was only speaking of Tivo standalones and could not confirm that DirecTV modules were the same. The 2nd Tech from DirecTV agreed with the Tivo Tech and disagreed with the 1st DirecTV Technician.

So it sounds like the first guy was right afterall.

I am still unclear why the 2nd hard drive is not being detected. I don't think the cable is faulty because it is the same one I used in the PC. I am confident that the slave (new) drive has the slave jumper selected and that it is connected via the middle connector on the cable. I'm baffled. I guess it is possible that the first time I hooked the 2 HDs together I didn't wait enough 10s of seconds and tried just hooking up the original HD alone. I had read alot of posts about "marriage". I am starting to think maybe, when I separated the two and just tried the original alone I broke the "marriage". Is that possible? I was trying to fall back on basic troubleshooting rules. If the new config does not work, remove variables, and ensure the original config still works. But maybe that does not apply with Tivo upgrades.

I did make a backup of the original drive. Do think the best thing to do at this point would be to retry with the backup? I would attempt to restore the backup onto the 2 drives. Is that possible? If the backup was from one 40 GB drive, can I use its backup to restore to one 40 GB drive along with one 120 GB drive?

I am going to attempt this with these two commands from the mfstools:

mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt

mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda /dev/hdb

I will burn the backup.bak to the root of a CD. The CD-ROM is the secondary master, the original 40 GB drive is the primary master, and the 120 GB drive is the primary slave.

Does this sound right? Should this work or am I missing anything?


----------



## Robert S

Well, I don't know why the B drive isn't being seen either. Sometimes drives just don't work together in a TiVo.

Restoring the backup to both drives would be dumb! The problem is in the drive hardware, not the images on the disks. Therefore, if you can get the TiVo to see the B drive, your current image will work. If you can't get the TiVo to see the B drive, no two-drive image will work.

It's possible that the TiVo might be able to see both drives if the 120 was the master, so you might try it with the drives transposed.

I'd seriously consider just using the 120 as a lone drive.


----------



## triaker

Here's another glitch on the instructions page. There is no listing for the Hughes GXCEBOTD, only the GXCEBOT. Are the instructions the same for these units?


----------



## triaker

One more question: Can the upgrade/transfer of existing programs and preferences only be done using a Windows-based computer or can I do this using my Mac?


----------



## benman

This is my first time upgrading. I was able to backup and restore to a new drive. The only problem is that all the background images are gone. Just a black screen with the menus over it. All the menus operate fine. 
Any suggestions?


----------



## Robert S

_Any suggestions?_

You either forgot the -f 9999 switch when making the backup or your drive did not detect as the correct size.


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by triaker _
> *Here's another glitch on the instructions page. There is no listing for the Hughes GXCEBOTD, only the GXCEBOT. Are the instructions the same for these units? *


Yes. Those units are the same.


----------



## DirecTivoGuy

I really appreciate the help. I'm not quite sure what has gone wrong in my attempts to upgrade my DirecTivo DSR740, but I fear that I am hosed. I have tried the following scenarios for restoring my backup from the original 40 GB drive (each time, the upgrade was fed from a different CD from that of the mfstools. The CD-ROM is attached as the secondary master). The first command was always; "mount /dev/hdc /mnt" as it didn't appear to like the hdc1:

1. Tried the 40 GB as a master and the 120 GB as a slave
mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda /dev/hdb

2. Tried the 40 GB as a master and the 120 GB as a slave again
mfsrestore -s127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda /dev/hdb

3. Tried the 120 GB as a master and the 40 GB as a slave
mfsrestore -s127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda /dev/hdb

4. Tried the 120 GB ALONE as a master
mfsrestore -s127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda 

5. Tried the 40 GB (original Tivo drive) ALONE as a master
mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda 

None of these worked. Some scearios caused the continuous loop on the "welcome. powering up..." screen, some froze at the "Almost there. A few more seconds please..." screen. I don't remember which scenario resulted in which issue.

I should note that there were no errors reported when the backup was created. The process for creating the backup I used was this:
1. Format new 120 GB drive with a FAT32 partition
2. Use: mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb 
3. With a USB connection, copy from the 120 GB drive to a laptop
4. Burn the backup.bak from the laptop

So what I am unsure of is;
1. Were there any issues with the way in which I created the backup?
2. If the restore does not give errors, but instead tells you how many hours now exist, could there still have been a problem with the restore?
3. Do the grey screen messages I am getting mean Tivo is having trouble finding a master HD, trouble finding the full master/slave pair, can find them but can't boot off them, etc?
4. Could my backup just be bad? Would the restore work if the backup was bad. I am reluctant to buy an image from instantcake, just because I don't want to sink more money into this if it is looking like the box itself is shot.
5. Within the mount command, what is the difference between "/dev/hdc1" and "/dev/hdc". I recieved errors when using the 1.

I double checked the single and dual IDE cables I have been using in the Tivo. They work in a PC. Are they any more suggestions that I could try? I promise I am not a complete moron; I can't for the life of me figure out what I am doing wrong here. The problem is I don't fully understand the Tivo hardware or Linux, so I mindlessly use commands not really knowing what parameters mean. I do understand PCs and HDs, so I am prety confident with my setup of jumpers, IDE cables, connection to Motherboard (red wire in pin 1-2), etc. The Tivo HDs were never booted up by Windows after the restore, in fact the only time the 120 GB was booted up by Windows was immediately after the backup. That's not new to me. But of course I am always open to any suggestions. I've only had the Tivo for 6 months, so it's a shame to have destroyed it already.

Thanks for all the help....


----------



## mshilling

Thanks Weaknees!

I just finished upgrading my series2 (540040) from 40 hours to 174.

For reference, I replaced the 40 GB drive with a seagate 160GB 7200.7 drive. It is not any louder than my cable co. DVR (that I just happily returned). A little louder than the standard maxtor quickview but I shun when thinking of maxtor drives...this seagate has a 5 year warranty.

after following your instructions, it is up and running flawlessly! I opted to save my recordings so it took approx. 4 hours to do the backup/restore.

Thanks again.

Mike


----------



## valley_nomad

Hi, I am new here. I just got a series 2 (540040) Tivo box and want to upgarde it to something larger than 250GB. After reading some posts here and the Interactive Instructions, I have the following understanding. Please correct me if I am wrong.

1. Almost any popular brand drive (e.g. Seagate, Hatachi, Samsung) will work as long as its interface is ATA100 or ATA133. The buffer size also doesn't matter. 2MB will work fine.

2. If I just want to add the B drive without the backup, I don't have to do anything to the original A drive. All I have to do is to BlessTivo the new B drive and then put it into the box.

My challenge is that I only have a laptop. Its CD-ROM is not bootable (the original one is broken). I hope I can find a PCMCIA-IDE or USB-IDE adanptor (e.g 3.5 hard drive enclosure box) which can be recoganized by Linux. Is there a bootable floppy version of tools for 54040?

Any suggestion? 

Thanks.


----------



## rick123

mshilling,

I am upgrading my tivo (540040, not yet used...x-mass gift) with a seagate 200gb drive. This will be in the living room, just wondering since you comment on the noise, how much louder is the seagate than the original? Is it only making noise when recording or is it always making noise? I'm guessing that we are talking about hard drive "grinding" noise, not fan noise?

Just wondering about the noise factor...

thanks

Rick
NH


----------



## mshilling

it is in the living room, with everything in the house off, you can hear it from about 5 feet away, any further than that and its more or less non existant. It does not make excessive noise. It is very quiet and reasonable. if it were in my bedroom, I dont think it would be a problem either - but I would probably do a lot of hard drive research before doing it again for the bedroom because im picky about noise when i sleep.

in other words, its perfectly fine. just like you said its not fans, just clicking of the hard drive. you can not hear it at all when the tv is on (even if on mute...the tv itself makes more ambient noise)


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by valley_nomad _
> *Hi, I am new here. I just got a series 2 (540040) Tivo box and want to upgarde it to something larger than 250GB. After reading some posts here and the Interactive Instructions, I have the following understanding. Please correct me if I am wrong.
> 
> 1. Almost any popular brand drive (e.g. Seagate, Hatachi, Samsung) will work as long as its interface is ATA100 or ATA133. The buffer size also doesn't matter. 2MB will work fine.
> 
> 2. If I just want to add the B drive without the backup, I don't have to do anything to the original A drive. All I have to do is to BlessTivo the new B drive and then put it into the box.
> 
> My challenge is that I only have a laptop. Its CD-ROM is not bootable (the original one is broken). I hope I can find a PCMCIA-IDE or USB-IDE adanptor (e.g 3.5 hard drive enclosure box) which can be recoganized by Linux. Is there a bootable floppy version of tools for 54040?
> 
> Any suggestion?
> 
> Thanks. *


1. We prefer drives that are specifically tuned to the DVR environment, but other drives generally work fine.

2. That will work, but these instructions don't support that configuration. For do-it-yourselfers, we highly recommend making a backup anyway, so you'd need the A drive in a PC for that.

We don't have an lba48 floppy boot disk - and we don't know of one. Best bet is to borrow a desktop PC for the upgrade.

Michael


----------



## Robert S

DirecTivoGuy: 'Almost there' is printed by the Linux boot script, so seeing that is better than not seeing that.

It's not obvious to me why the TiVo software is failing to start. There are some hardware issues (notably a failed modem) that can cause that, but I don't think that's a possible factor here.

The most obvious cause would be MFS corruption, although the cause of that would still be a mystery. When you've got a configuration that gets to 'almost there', try using Diagnostic Mode to trigger a GSOD - sometimes that can fix the corruption and allow the TiVo to boot.


----------



## Lrscpa

I must be missing something - or something is unclear.

I have a TiVo with a dead hard drive. I've unplugged and replugged the unit multiple times. and it gets stuck on the Powering Up Screen. 

Obviously I want to replace this dead drive with a new store bought drive.

I would imagine that I would trash the TiVo's original drive after removing it from the unit. I would use the MFS Tools to copy the software from the MFS Tools CD to the new drive and install it in the TiVo unit.

Or do I need the original Tivo drive to get the TiVo App from and install it on a new drive? Or is the Tivo App on the MFS Tools CD?

Confused!


----------



## sync

The instructions say that 'hdY' is the Second Original TiVo drive. If I have already upgraded and added a second drive would that be 'hdY' also?


----------



## sync

> _Originally posted by Lrscpa _
> *I must be missing something - or something is unclear.
> 
> I have a TiVo with a dead hard drive. I've unplugged and replugged the unit multiple times. and it gets stuck on the Powering Up Screen.
> 
> Obviously I want to replace this dead drive with a new store bought drive.
> 
> I would imagine that I would trash the TiVo's original drive after removing it from the unit. I would use the MFS Tools to copy the software from the MFS Tools CD to the new drive and install it in the TiVo unit.
> 
> Or do I need the original Tivo drive to get the TiVo App from and install it on a new drive? Or is the Tivo App on the MFS Tools CD?
> 
> Confused! *


MFS Tools does not contain Tivo software. If your drive is dead you'll need a Tivo image. Do a search on 'Tivo image' and you'll find a thread that may help you in getting an image.


----------



## mondoz

Chalk up another successfull installation.

This makes number three...
But I only have 2 mounting kits. Looks like I need to place another order. They're great.


Thanks!!


----------



## in2thel2ain

Hi, I'm currently trying to upgrade a 40 hour (54040? series) to a 180 gb hitachi hard drive. I have a few questions:

1. Do you need linux to do the upgrade?
2. Do you just run the program to copy the 40 gb (one from tivo) to the 180 gb hitachi, then just pop in the hitachi and your set?
3. I don't intend to use the 40 gb hard drive... would that suffice as backup? Or do I need to go through the backup process?

Thanks in adance.


----------



## weaknees

Yes, yes, and yes.

The Linux you need is all on the downloadable CD.

Michael


----------



## sync

My last question was poorly worded and I'll try again. I have a standalone series 1 with 1 original drive and one upgraded drive. I want to back up the image and settings and then restore that to one drive. When backing up do I follow the instructions as if the unit had two original drives?


----------



## weaknees

Yes - you'll need both drives in the PC and both drives addressed in the Linux command. Then the resulting backup can be restored to one drive.

Michael


----------



## in2thel2ain

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Yes, yes, and yes.
> 
> The Linux you need is all on the downloadable CD.
> 
> Michael *


For the third yes... is that a "yes the 40 gb suffices as backup" ... or "yes you still need to run through the back up process"? Sorry, I am a little confused... but thanks for your response and thanks in advance if you can help answer this question.


----------



## weaknees

That should suffice as a backup.


----------



## weaknees

I've added the DirecTV R10 to the site. 

Michael


----------



## valley_nomad

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *1. We prefer drives that are specifically tuned to the DVR environment, but other drives generally work fine.
> 
> 2. That will work, but these instructions don't support that configuration. For do-it-yourselfers, we highly recommend making a backup anyway, so you'd need the A drive in a PC for that.
> 
> We don't have an lba48 floppy boot disk - and we don't know of one. Best bet is to borrow a desktop PC for the upgrade.
> 
> Michael *


Thanks for the answers. And I have more questions:

While I am thinking about just doing "Blessing-and-Adding" a new B drive, I have heard people talking about Swap file and GSOD when using MFSTOOLS. I am wondering how the "Blessing-and-Adding" method deals with this issue without touching A drive?

I plan to add one 400GB to my 540040. Is this feasible? I have seen many upgrades with 250GB and 300GB, but not 400GB. Also, is there any performance penalty when using two drives instead of one?

As for using laptop + USB-IDE enclosure, I remember someone did it successfully by replacing hdX with sdX. I may give it a try...


----------



## jon2200

After burning the boot disk, i get message "Missing Operating System" when i try to run it....


----------



## sync

You don't burn it as a file. You burn it as an image. What burning software are you using?


----------



## jon2200

I am using Sonic Record Now -- and made it bootable


----------



## sync

When you look at the burned CD in Windows, do you see the 'MFSTOOLS.2' folder?

Have you ever booted from a CD before?


----------



## Mephisto

Just want to say thanks for your instructions that were indispensable in my S2 tivo upgrade (to dual Seagate 300gb) project. 

I took a short cut (I did not test the drives in tivo before expanding to full capacity) the first time I did it that proved to be a big mistake. The 2nd time around, I followed the instructions to the letter (almost, except for an inconsistency in the backup file name - backup.bak in the mfsback command and tivo.bak in the mfsrestore command), and the upgrade went w/o any problem.


----------



## jon2200

Yes, i can see it when i browse the cd in windows..


----------



## rick123

Jon2200,

I recently have downloaded my disc but haven't used it yet, so I have been following your issue. You say you get the message when you try to "run" the disc. Make sure you are trying to "boot" your computer using the disc, not run it as a program from within windows.

Are you sure that you have your computer set up to boot from the cd drive? If the cd drive is not the first place the computer looks for a system disc (and you disconected the hd as recommended, you might get the message you describe. I think you also have to set up the cd as the primary slave, check that also. 

Rick
NH, USA


----------



## spellow

is it safe to use dual 400's in the HR10-250 ?


----------



## weaknees

Yes - it's totally fine, and we even sell complete HD TiVos with dual 400 GB drives now.

Michael


----------



## JohnTivo

Michael,

You site says your selling dual 400 gig Maxtor Quickview upgrade drives. When did these drives get released?


----------



## weaknees

If you can point us to that page, it would be great. 

The 400 GB drives we have are the Seagate AV drives - not the QuickViews. But the Seagates are really performing quite well and we're very happy with them.

Michael


----------



## tivoupgrade

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *If you can point us to that page, it would be great.
> 
> The 400 GB drives we have are the Seagate AV drives - not the QuickViews. But the Seagates are really performing quite well and we're very happy with them.
> 
> Michael *


http://www.weaknees.com/details2/rd400hr10.php


----------



## weaknees

Lou,

Thanks for the link - we've fixed the text.

Michael


----------



## JohnTivo

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *If you can point us to that page, it would be great.
> 
> The 400 GB drives we have are the Seagate AV drives - not the QuickViews. But the Seagates are really performing quite well and we're very happy with them.
> 
> Michael *


I can't seem the find the page... maybe I was seeing things. 

Edit: Didn't see the next message... Guess I wasn't seeing things.


----------



## valley_nomad

Hi all,

I have a series 2 (540040) Tivo box. I added a new 300GB Seagate HD after using BlessTiVo. The response showed the blessing process was completed with confirming that my new drive has 279GB. But after I connect it to the Tivo box as the second drive, it stuck in "Almost there..." screen. Any suggestion? Thanks much!

VN


----------



## mikestanley

Just used the instructions - everything seems to have gone fine. Replaced the WD (ick) 80 gig drive in my R10 with a Samsung 160. Now it says I have up to 136 hours.

I wanted to preserve my recordings but also wanted to make a settings-only backup for future upgrade/restore purposes. So I followed the "backup but don't preserve recordings" instructions up to the point that I created backup.bak. Then I picked up on the "no backup but preserve recordings" instructions and copied the entire drive over to the 160. Took between 12-16 hours - I had maybe 15 movies and longer shows recorded.

I've labeled my WD drive and will be storing it away just in case, along with the original 40 gig drive I had in my Series 2 SA unit. I made backups in both cases but feel better knowing I have a working drive, although the SA drive is now a couple of versions behind since I now have 7.1.

Couple of questions:

1. The backup.bak I created from the R10 is much smaller than tivo.bak I created from the SA unit. 184 megs for the R10, 439 megs for the SA. Should I be worried about this? I know the only good way to test a backup is to restore it, but after being without my DTivo for all night and into a day I'd rather not do that right now.

2. I put the Samsung 160 into this R10 because I've had good luck with them before and I know they're quiet. Let's say I later decide I just have to have a 300 gig drive in this R10 and want to move the 160 to the R10 in my bedroom. Can I just slap the 160 right into the R10 without doing anything else since they're both R10's? Preserving recordings and settings isn't a big deal - we watch different things upstairs. Mainly just thinking of minimizing the effort here.

2a. If I can't just swap the 160 into the other R10, if I follow the instructions again to make a backup of the second R10 (sans recordings), can I then just restore it onto the 160 or will I need to wipes its partitions first?

3. Seeing as how my SA tivo.bak is 2 software versions old - if I decided I wanted to replace its Samsung 160 with a larger drive (since 7.1 has the LBA48 kernel, right?) could I just treat the 160 as the original drive, make a new backup from it, and restore it to a 250 or 300 gig drive?

Thanks for your time and advice!


----------



## leesweet

A couple of comments on my upgrade experience to 2x400s. The actual upgrade went perfectly using the Seagate 400s, and I now have 102 HD or 692 SD. 

I'd add a note to the boilerplate on two points.

1. When you plug it in with the final drive(s) and it has all the new partitions, it takes a lot longer at 'Powering Up...'. I thought it was fubar'd, but actually the O/S was just scanning the new partitions, I assume. With all the threads here about 'stuck at powerup forever', it would help to have a note saying 'wait five minutes before assuming something is wrong'. 

2. It needs to be clearer that we do or do not HAVE to take the new drive(s) and put them in the TiVo and then come back and mfsadd the other partitions. It is not at all clear whether this is a 'gotto do' step because the TiVo does something, or whether it's just a 'nice check on the intermediate capacity'. I bet a lot of people here who know PCs and Unix well would skip taking the new drive(s) out of the PC, putting them back in the TiVo, taking it/them back to the PC, etc. if they knew it was just a check on the process.

Beyond that, all went fine! I even think the new drives are as quiet or quieter than the WD250, since it has a fan in the disk drive itself. I think the WK fan on the TwinBreeze is quieter than that WD fan.

Thanks for great, customized intstructions!


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by mikestanley _
> *Just used the instructions - everything seems to have gone fine. Replaced the WD (ick) 80 gig drive in my R10 with a Samsung 160. Now it says I have up to 136 hours.
> 
> I wanted to preserve my recordings but also wanted to make a settings-only backup for future upgrade/restore purposes. So I followed the "backup but don't preserve recordings" instructions up to the point that I created backup.bak. Then I picked up on the "no backup but preserve recordings" instructions and copied the entire drive over to the 160. Took between 12-16 hours - I had maybe 15 movies and longer shows recorded.
> 
> I've labeled my WD drive and will be storing it away just in case, along with the original 40 gig drive I had in my Series 2 SA unit. I made backups in both cases but feel better knowing I have a working drive, although the SA drive is now a couple of versions behind since I now have 7.1.
> 
> Couple of questions:
> 
> 1. The backup.bak I created from the R10 is much smaller than tivo.bak I created from the SA unit. 184 megs for the R10, 439 megs for the SA. Should I be worried about this? I know the only good way to test a backup is to restore it, but after being without my DTivo for all night and into a day I'd rather not do that right now.
> 
> 2. I put the Samsung 160 into this R10 because I've had good luck with them before and I know they're quiet. Let's say I later decide I just have to have a 300 gig drive in this R10 and want to move the 160 to the R10 in my bedroom. Can I just slap the 160 right into the R10 without doing anything else since they're both R10's? Preserving recordings and settings isn't a big deal - we watch different things upstairs. Mainly just thinking of minimizing the effort here.
> 
> 2a. If I can't just swap the 160 into the other R10, if I follow the instructions again to make a backup of the second R10 (sans recordings), can I then just restore it onto the 160 or will I need to wipes its partitions first?
> 
> 3. Seeing as how my SA tivo.bak is 2 software versions old - if I decided I wanted to replace its Samsung 160 with a larger drive (since 7.1 has the LBA48 kernel, right?) could I just treat the 160 as the original drive, make a new backup from it, and restore it to a 250 or 300 gig drive?
> 
> Thanks for your time and advice! *


1 - They can vary quite a bit - but both numbers sound reasonable. Just be sure you had the "-f 9999" in each backup command line and they should be fine.

2 - The drives serialize to the units, so you'd have to do a Clear and Delete Everything to make this work.

3 - Yes. We're still testing the kernel issues out, but this looks right.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by leesweet _
> *A couple of comments on my upgrade experience to 2x400s. The actual upgrade went perfectly using the Seagate 400s, and I now have 102 HD or 692 SD.
> 
> I'd add a note to the boilerplate on two points.
> 
> 1. When you plug it in with the final drive(s) and it has all the new partitions, it takes a lot longer at 'Powering Up...'. I thought it was fubar'd, but actually the O/S was just scanning the new partitions, I assume. With all the threads here about 'stuck at powerup forever', it would help to have a note saying 'wait five minutes before assuming something is wrong'.
> 
> 2. It needs to be clearer that we do or do not HAVE to take the new drive(s) and put them in the TiVo and then come back and mfsadd the other partitions. It is not at all clear whether this is a 'gotto do' step because the TiVo does something, or whether it's just a 'nice check on the intermediate capacity'. I bet a lot of people here who know PCs and Unix well would skip taking the new drive(s) out of the PC, putting them back in the TiVo, taking it/them back to the PC, etc. if they knew it was just a check on the process.
> 
> Beyond that, all went fine! I even think the new drives are as quiet or quieter than the WD250, since it has a fan in the disk drive itself. I think the WK fan on the TwinBreeze is quieter than that WD fan.
> 
> Thanks for great, customized intstructions! *


1 - We'll try to add that in.

2 - You absolutely do have to do this - that's when the TiVo changes its partition map and that's one of the keys to the process we've outlined for larger drives.

Glad it all went well!


----------



## mikestanley

Thanks for the response! And thanks for the awesome online instructions - they made this upgrade the easiest yet.


----------



## leesweet

Thanks for the clarifications! It would be nice to add a note for the second point also, since from the instructions' text, it's not clear this is a 'gotta do' step, and not just a step for those that want to test it.

My point is that with all the HDMI issues, people with the HR10-250 may be tempted to skip this step if they aren't sure you have to indeed put the drives in the TiVo twice. My HDMI was flaky/fine on first replacement, and died on the second disconnect/reconnect.


----------



## e_identity

I plant to upgrade my Series 2 TIVO--540040 by adding a second 160 GB HD
I have a question about implementing the Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions from Weaknees.
I have read this thread looking for an answer and Im not quite sure.
I tried implementing Hinsdale's How To Instructions using the PVT CD, but was unable to get past Step 7 (Backup up your TiVo drive(s) with Mfs Tools), Option 1 (BACKING UP A SINGLE DRIVE TiVo). I was unable to get this command to work -- "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" even though I tried replacing the 1 w/ a 5 or a 6.
Now I plan to try again, but to use the Weaknees instructions & CD.

In any case, it seems to me that that most users w/ Win2K or XP will have this question--

But first -- I am very grateful for all the helpful information provided--Thank you very much! I really appreciate your efforts.

Now to the question:

I set the following options:
Do you want to make a backup: Yes
Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive: Yes 
Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000: Yes
Save or disregard recordings: Save
Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another: No
Are you using drives larger than 250 GB? No

The instructions note that if your boot drive is a Windows 2000 or XP drive, it may not have a FAT32 partition on it, and you'll need that for making a backup.

I have created a 2GB FAT32 partition on my C: drive using the free trial of Bootit .

I have:
IDE1 Master/hda -- 40GB NTFS C: drive w/ a 2 GB FAT32 Partition
IDE1 Slave/hdb -- new 160GB Maxtor HD intended to be added to the TIVO
IDE2 Master/hdc -- the original 40 GB TiVo drive
IDE2 Slave/hdd -- my CD Burner

Early on in the Weaknees instructions, it says:

Issue backup and expand commands
At the prompt, issue the following command:
mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt

My question: In my particular set up, that would be
"mount /dev/hda? /mnt"
Should I replace the question mark w/ a 1 or a 2 or a 5 or something else?

I am very ignorant of Linux and would appreciate the help!!

Thanks, e_identity


----------



## weaknees

Right - it should be:

mount /dev/hda? /mnt

and you may have to try several numbers for "?" to find the 2 GB partition.


----------



## tramm

Thanks for this great tool. I upgraded my Series1 DirecTIVO back in the 2002. It took considerable time. Upgraded my Series2 today and it was so much easier.


----------



## magdt

well I for one was not happy with these instructions. I chose my 540040 and chose to upgrade to a single drive. I also picked that I wanted to do a backup.

I burned the cd and then booted to it. Drives looked okay so I went on to run the first command whch was something like

mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt

hdb being my new drive, tivo drive was on hda. That command failed basically saying that it couldn't determine what file system hdb had. 

So the instructions mentioned downloading a program from maxtor that would format the new drive to fat32 so I could do the backup.

I downloaded and put this on a floppy. I then booted to it. The utility basically #$#@$ up the boot sector of my tivo drive so I can't use it and I'm hosed right now.

The instructions recommend this utility and don't say it has the problems of win2k and winxp.

Is there anyway I can fix something like this?


----------



## mzoia

I have a directv samsung s4040r. I first upgaded, using the instructions on weaknees, the original drive (after backing it up) to a seagate 160GB drive. I restored the drive image and the unit powered up fine. I then tried to marry a second seagate 120GB drive and the unit got stuck in the Powering Up screen and then the unit reboots and gets stuck again. I then tried the original harddrive and the unit works fine. I have checked and double checked cables and jumper settings they are correct. I then retried the process from scratch and now I cannot get either of the new harddrive to work with re-installing the back-up. The original HD still works every time. Do I need to format the drives or ??

I am not sure where to go from here any suggestions would be great Thanks.....
Mike Z


----------



## weaknees

Have you tried just making a complete new backup and then restoring that backup in one shot to both drives? Try the "replace with two drives" option and choose the button to make a backup.

Michael


----------



## jaylogs

Hello, I just recently upgrade my series 2 and added a 120 gb hard drive. I went from 40 hours to 189 hours! I am in heaven!! I used Weaknees' interactive instructions and although I was a bit nervous and made a couple of stupid mistakes, I got through it. Thanks to all that contributed!!


----------



## AzLarry

I used the tivo -dot- upgrade-instructions -dot- com website to replace the 40GB drive in my TCD540040 with a Seagate 200GB drive. (I need a few more posts to put a URL... hmmm)

Now I have 64 hours at best quality and 224 hours at lowest! I was expecting about 55 hours at best and 200 at lowest, but was pleasantly suprised.

To backup and restore the Tivo drives, I disconnected my second CD drive and used that IDE cable. Since I booted Linux off of my first CD drive, I didn't even have to disconnect my hard drives.

The process was very easy, but I will have to admit that I was nervous, since my TCD540040 has a lifetime subscription. I was worried about what would happen if I damaged the unit with the lifetime subscription.

Thanks WeaKness!


----------



## neversummer

Help.
I also have a TCD540040.
I went through the weaknees online tutorial.

The only command I entered was

mfsbackup -f 999 -so - /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

to upgrade from
hdd: MAXTOR 6E040L0 (41.1GB Tivo original drive)
hdb: ST3200822A ATA (200GB Seagate)

At the end it transfered 1.8gb and told me that I had 222hours to use on tivo.

Everything sounded good.

I reattached the drive. When I powered back on I got the initial "powering up" screen but my tivo only displays a blank white screen now. What happened?

Thanks
Ryan


----------



## weaknees

Have you checked the jumpers? You had the new Seagate drive set to be a slave in your PC, and it needs to be a master in the TiVo.

Michael


----------



## ryan87500

I was just reading over both the hinsdale instructions and these instructions and it seems like the commands are different for each one. Is there a reason why this would be?

Is one of them more up to date than the other?


----------



## nittany

question: I loaded weakness boot cd and got the welcome message. Got confirmation of the sizes of hard drive and is correct. 
Got weakness# Entered: mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt. 
Got a error message: mount: special device / dev/hdw1 does not exist 

So ideas to what is wrong? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

You need to replace the "W" with the designation for your C: drive - try:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt


----------



## nittany

Replaced the W and got the following:

invaid arguement
FAT: bogus cluster size 0
Can't find valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01

Help! Thanks!

I am running Windows 98SE btw

I also tried change the number to 2 up 10 without any luck...

Any suggestions?


----------



## Guyute1210

I'm trying to use mount an ide drive to use to backup my original 40gb tivo drive. I booted using weaknees iso, and i'm issuing the command:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

where hda1 is a 20gb hard drive formatted using windows ME bootdisk. i get the following error when issuing the above command:

kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_cp437, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_8859-1, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_8859-1, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_8859-1, errno = 2

did i format using the wrong bookdisk? i.e. do i need a winME bootdisk todo the formatting. 

should i have set the partition active in fdisk?


----------



## MannyVjr

Quick question (which might be a dumb one): Could I mount the drives using an external drive kit (which makes and IDE drive into a USB one), so that way I don't have to open up my computer, or I need to use the IDE connections?

ps: did I make any sense?


----------



## neversummer

weaknees said:


> Have you checked the jumpers? You had the new Seagate drive set to be a slave in your PC, and it needs to be a master in the TiVo.
> 
> Michael


Yes. I tried it on both CS and master and still got the white screen.
I'm thinking of retrying with the commands that rick123 used to do the exact same upgrade (except he decided to keep his current recordings).

Here's the command he used:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

Of course, I'll substitude the correct drives for hdc and hdd.

So my question is: 
Will this command overwrite the current failing partitions on my Seagate 200 or do I need to clear the disk first using something like Partition Magic?


----------



## mondoz

MannyVjr said:


> Quick question (which might be a dumb one): Could I mount the drives using an external drive kit (which makes and IDE drive into a USB one), so that way I don't have to open up my computer, or I need to use the IDE connections?
> 
> ps: did I make any sense?


I've wondered the same thing myself.

I would imagine that if the CD had the drivers for the USB connector, it might work.


----------



## rog

regarding using an external USB drive...

the key would be whether or not the linux kernel supports the USB drive. if you can't get the USB drive to mount with the _/mnt_ command, then it isn't going to work.


----------



## rbautch

When the interactive guide asks if I'm using Windows XP or 2000, I selected "no". The link for the bootable mfstools looks like this...

http://hellcat.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2noJ.iso

but when I download the file, the file name is "mfstools2.iso" (missing the "noJ). When I burned the iso, it wouldn't boot in my Windows98 machine, so I figure I didn't get the "no joliet" version of mfstools like I was supposed to. My iso disk boots fine on both my XP computers, but not on the Windows98 machine that I'm allowed to keep disassembled for weeks on end.

Is this a flaw in the guide, or is something else wrong?

p.s. I can boot a Windows98 boot disk, but not the mftools iso.


----------



## TxRider7

Can anyone tell me where I can download the ( Kazymyr's boot CD ) file ??

Hoping this will take care of my Mounting Problem !!!!

Thanks for any help !!


----------



## DannyS

rbautch said:


> p.s. I can boot a Windows98 boot disk, but not the mftools iso.


Check the boot order in the bios of your computer. It could be set up: Floppy, Hard Disk, CD - in which case it will never boot off the CD.


----------



## rbautch

DannyS said:


> Check the boot order in the bios of your computer. It could be set up: Floppy, Hard Disk, CD - in which case it will never boot off the CD.


I'm not that much of a newbie! Boot order is fine. Here's what I've tried:
- Every concievable jumper and IDE position.
- Multiple CD-ROM drives.
- Added CD-ROM drivers to the iso (using Magic Iso)
- Disabled DMA in bios
- Burned CD image multiple times.
- Tried booting my Windows98 boot disk - works.
- Reinstalled Windows98

I've asked PTV Upgrade forum if I can somehow use the kernel from the ptvupgrade disk with LOADIN, allowing linux to be installed as a MSDOS subdirectory in a DOS/WIN system. This allows Linux to be run as an application after I start DOS.

Thanks anyway!


----------



## wigleyd

Upgrading my sd-h400 to 250 gb and I'm stuck at the "welcome..." screen. My jumpers are correct and the coping of the image i downloaded went smoothly, thank GOD. I currently have no lights on the front and hd is active but not seeking. I did format the drive to FAT32 before attempting the upgrade. I'm lost and frustrated.

d-


----------



## rog

wigleyd,

yikes. sorry man. why did you format the drive to FAT32 first? what method and tools were you using for the restore to the new disc? the weaknees and hinsdale howto's, as far as i know, do not mention formatting the disc before putting the image on the drive. i'm not positive it would cause a problem, but i'm curious why you formatted to FAT32.

did the restore process complete without error?


----------



## wigleyd

Oops i formatted again

Well my thninking was that it had to be done in order for the drive to be recognized by the pc. Ok so if you do not format the drive how do i go back now and UNformat a drive to get it back to the origional state.

dan

I used the weakknees boot disc and yes the back up went fine, from mounting to using the special command to make the SD-H400 see larger drives. All went smoothly. But no luck. I am now having dreams about it, or rather night mares.


----------



## weaknees

No need to unformat - mfstools will just write over whatever is already on the drive, for better or worse.


----------



## rog

wigleyd,

is it possible you let your PC boot into windows 2000 or XP with the new TiVo drive still connected? if so, that can cause a problem. see the weaknees howto for the utility to fix it.


----------



## wigleyd

made sure it did not touch the xp booting. Strange that everything went so well in the linux stage and then no dice when it got hooked up. I have the drive set to master in the tivo and no go and the same happens when it is CS. I will image once more. We'll see.


----------



## wigleyd

I got my origional drive to work again after running Maketivobootavle and bam! there it is. I have also been able to then make a backup of the drive and sucessfully made a backup onto my WD 250. I am using Weaknees linux disk version. I also ran the utility for my sd-h400 that allows for large drives... However no dice. Tivo will still boot to the old drive but the new one it just hangs on the "welcome, powering up" screen. Any ideas... And no, no booting to win xp here...

Dan


----------



## weaknees

Are you sure the jumpers are set right?


----------



## wigleyd

I have tried it on cs and Master... and also slave and nothing at all.

plz help... I told my girlfriend that it was a peice of cake and the was a month ago.


----------



## wigleyd

i origionally booted and used an unlock program and maxtor tools disk to format the drive. The created a disk that would not boot in tivo. I went in with the Western Digial disk and through the menu system removed a DDS or something. I then re-restored the imge and plugged it in with fingers crossed... BOOM it's working.

My only issue is that the Western Digital drive is noisy


----------



## rog

I don't really understand exactly what the problem was, but congrats wigleyd! Way to go, that took a bit of work, eh? 

Glad it's working for you now.


----------



## wigleyd

reading and reading and reading of these forums paid off.

I also wanted to know where a good place to get one of the 200gb + Quickview Maxtor drives is. I look on the net and they all seem to be sold out. Any stores like Bestbuy have them?


----------



## TxRider7

You can find just about any size of Maxtor Drives at Comp-USA.

200 Gig HD @ 7200 rpm $ 129.99

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=298845&pfp=cat3


----------



## wigleyd

nope looking for the "quickview" brand of drives. They spin @ 5400 and are designed for DVRs.... Or did i just fall into a marketing ploy?


----------



## TxRider7

Well if you want to pay more and less RPM...go for it !!


----------



## rog

wigleyd said:


> nope looking for the "quickview" brand of drives. They spin @ 5400 and are designed for DVRs.... Or did i just fall into a marketing ploy?


wigleyd, I did a lot of looking into this about a month ago when I upgraded my TiVo. Here's what I ended up doing (I'm pasting this from another thread I posted it in):

_I just finished modding my TiVo by replacing the A drive with a new 200 GB Maxtor Diamond 9 Plus. These drives are going for around $100 online, and I was able to find a site with free 2nd day shipping (zipzoomfly.com).

This is not a QuickView drive, but it does have fluid bearings (I think most Maxtors have FDB). In addition, it's one of the drives which can be configured with acoustic management (AMSET).

I set the drive to "quiet", and it is very quiet in my living room. I can't hear it. Performance is great too; no noticable lag or skips when starting a recording.

Best of all... I now have 229 hours! Super cool._

In short, I don't think you have to have a QuickView drive. Other Maxtor drives have fluid bearings and the ability to be set to quiet mode using a special utility from Maxtor. YMMV.

Here are two threads on the topic:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=211573

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=227620


----------



## CEichhorn

HD TiVo -

Replacing 250 original with two new 300 drives, saving shows.

Backup and then Backup | Restore went fine.

After BlessTiVo command on ZZ, BlessTiVo reports that the ZZ drive is seen as 127 GB. Instructions say it should show 137 GB.

Reboot Tyger CD shows drive as 137439 MB. (Which does not relate to 127 GB afaik.)

Do I ignore the 127 GB report and continue?


----------



## justme_2

I have a Hughes HDVR2 which I upgraded with 2 Maxtor 80 gig Diamond Plus drives about 18 months ago. Today, one of the drives failed and left my unit brain dead. I have the original Tivo drive and two unused WD 120 gig drives so I figured I would install them. Here is what I did....

Downloaded MFStools 2.0, burned it to cd, no problem.

mounted the original Tivo drive and two WD's in a spare PC along with a cd-rom. The cd-rom was already on primary master so I mounted the tivo drive on primary slave and the two WD's on Secondary master/slave. Booted from the MFStool cd with no problem.

Entered this command:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

No problems noted.

Shut down pc and install WD's in tivo. Made sure drives jumpered correctly for master and slave and put the master drive at end of cable, slave in middle.

But I can't get past the intial screen on the Tivo when I boot up. I tried this twice. I had the spare Maxtor 80 gig so I tried a single drive install with same results. I then installed the original drive and it boots up fine. 

What am I doing wrong?? Any help would be appreciated!


----------



## weaknees

Maybe try going to just one of the new drives to eliminate some jumper and cabling issues. Then you can add the second drive if that one drive boots.

Also - does the original drive still boot the TiVo?

Michael


----------



## justme_2

Michael,

Tried both of these ideas already. Tried installing the one still funcational Maxtor drive as a single drive install with no luck. I did install the original Tivo drive and it boots up correctly. Still at a loss as to why a copy of that drive will not boot? Anything else I can check?


----------



## chrispitude

I just upgraded my Series2 540040 from 40GB to 160GB (Seagate Barracuda 7200.7) and this walkthrough and bootable CD made it an absolute *breeze*. The only slight nail-biting moment was when the Tivo didn't boot with the new drive. I then sheepishly realized the new drive was still set as a slave, so I jumpered the drive. It still didn't boot, and I realized that I put the jumper in the wrong place. I guess I was too anxious to try out the new drive. 

Thanks to weaknees for an outstanding contribution to the community.

- Chris


----------



## emanuel

Thanks Weaknees. Directions were great. I upgraded 2 of my Series 2 TiVos without a hitch. :up:


----------



## slaponte

+1 here.

Upgraded my series 2 to 300GB, not a single problem! Great tool!!!


----------



## rangerboy

i am trying to install a 120 in my 240040 (last years model series 2 tivo). i pulled the harddrive out, i formatted my western digital 120 with fat32, and then installed them in the secondary ide channel in my computer. booted up with the newest mfs tools 2.0 and followed the instructions from tivo-upgrade-instructions. somehow, i booted and got an error on the drive that my original tivo was in, so im assuming that i tried to boot from that drive on accident and messed it up. i have spent most of the night attempting to "maketivobootable" on the 120 and was receiving some errors. i could not boot that drive anymore for windows to recognize it. so i tried using partition magic to reformat to fat32 and i received errors, so i used "killdisk" and received some errors. is it possible i fried the drive somehow??? thanks for your help everyone!!!!!


----------



## weaknees

If you got errors on your original TiVo drive, it's unlikely that you'll be able to get a good image off of it. If MakeTiVoBootable didn't fix it, then I think you need a new image.

Michael


----------



## larrystivo

I have a Series 2 TiVo with an 80GB drive that I removed and copied to a larger 160GB drive using DiskJockey by diskology
How can I reclaim the lost 240 some odd GB's.
I only plan on using the new drive.
Can I do the following?
Boot-up from mstools2 boot cd
and issue what command?
Do I leave my existing wind HD in the PC or take it out
Also what should the new drive be, slave or master when it's inthe PC to expand it?
Long time TiVo user, first post/upgrade attempt.
Thanks
larrystivo


----------



## raystrans

I would like to add a 300 gig drive to my R10. I am following the instructions DirectTV R10 -> Add a Drive -> make a backup, have a FAT partition, not using XP or 2K, save recordings, not moving software, using drive larger that 250 gig.

The PC has one 80 gig Win 98 hard drive and one CD-RW drive. In CMOS the hard drive is Pri Master and the CD is Sec Master.

I have downloaded http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso and burned a CD three times with Nero. With Win XP, the CD size is 12.6 meg.

Each time I boot with the CD, I get the following messages that may be significant.
hde is my boot drive, 80 gig 
hdg is my CD
Welcome to the Rescue Disk
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 2
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 3
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 4
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 5
No CD-ROM found.

Then, when I type any command, I get an error message - example

mount /dev/hde /mnt
or
mount /dev/hde1 /mnt
gives the error message

mount: mount point /mnt does not exist.

mount /dev/hda /mnt
gives the error messages

kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k block-major-3, errno = 2
mount: mount point /mnt does not exist.

BlessTiVo gives the error message
sh: BlessTiVo: command not found

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks
Richard


----------



## anilgupte

On the page http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/models.php I looked for my service number but could not find it. My service number begins 540-0001-7074-xxxx I know it is a Series 2 made by TiVo - should I assume that it is the same as the 240 model?

Thanx,
Anil


----------



## weaknees

anilgupte said:


> On the page http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/models.php I looked for my service number but could not find it. My service number begins 540-0001-7074-xxxx I know it is a Series 2 made by TiVo - should I assume that it is the same as the 240 model?
> 
> Thanx,
> Anil


No - that's a 540 model - just to the right of the 240 models on the main page. We'll try to update that page soon.


----------



## anilgupte

Does the 40 80 etc at the end refer to the Hard Drive size?


----------



## weaknees

Basically, yes, except that the 240140 and the 540140 have 120 GB drives, but those give about 140 hours at Basic Quality.

Michael


----------



## coldtoes

Michael -

I'm having problems with the boot CD you reference in this post. When I boot from the disc, it just displays "80 80 80 80 80 80 80" over and over again. I have downloaded two different copies, burned them on two different burners, and booted from two different CD drives, but the results are the same. I can boot from the Tiger and PTV CDs, but I need to use yours as you've indicated it supports Promise cards, which I need to get LBA48 support.

Any ideas as to what might be wrong?

Thanks for your continued advice and support on this forum.

- Kelley


----------



## weaknees

I can only guess that you're having some hardware incompatibility unrelated to the Promise cards. We use this CD constantly and we've had thousands (probably tens of thousands) of downloads and no reports of this problem. Sorry that I can't be of much help here.

Michael


----------



## coldtoes

Rats. I was hoping it would be some known and easily fixable error on my part. Thanks for your prompt reply.


----------



## anilgupte

Is there an alternative to downloading the MFS tools as an ISO image? For example a zip file or something? For some strange reason, my new CD Burner software (Soni RecordNow) will not let me do ISO images. Meanwhile I am desperately searching for my old Easy CD software.


----------



## anilgupte

Another question. Why do your instructions insist on making the TiVo drive anything but a primary master? If I boot off the CD, can I not just copy what I need from the TiVo which is a Primary Master to the new drive which could be a Primary Slave? Of course I am assuming no backup of recordings is required.

Thanx,
Anil


----------



## weaknees

We don't have any way to get you the right CD image except for the ISO file. Those are pretty standard - Nero can burn it.

The primary master isn't supported with some of this software since the authors don't want you to accidentally overwrite your C: drive.

Michael


----------



## BLAZN420

I have Tivo Series2 140*****, I read teh instruction on the site, although it didnt mention if the additional drive needs to be formatted before I begin this process? Also my main PC drive is on the SATA bus, can I just disconnect this drive and place the original Tivo 60gig on the Primary Master and the new drive im adding to Primary Slave and run it like this?


----------



## weaknees

SATA drives don't work in TiVos, so assuming you have a PATA drive, you'd connect it to the appropriate interface.

You don't need to format the drive prior to the upgrade process. 

Michael


----------



## BLAZN420

I wasnt too clear on my last post , the SATA drive is just for my XP OS, I'm using IDE drives for the Tivo unit. So I'm assuming i disconnect the SATA connect the original Tivo drive to Primary Master IDE, and additional tivo drive to the Primary Slave IDE. Then boot off the CD and run the command?


----------



## weaknees

Yup - that should do it. Just boot the PC with the CD first before you attach the other drives to be sure it boots properly.

Michael


----------



## BLAZN420

Cool, hey do you by any chance know about the Scientific Atlanta SA8300 it's Optimum's DVR I have this unit also was wondering if there was any info about unlocking the HD in that unit.


----------



## Guyute1210

anilgupte said:


> Is there an alternative to downloading the MFS tools as an ISO image? For example a zip file or something? For some strange reason, my new CD Burner software (Soni RecordNow) will not let me do ISO images. Meanwhile I am desperately searching for my old Easy CD software.


If you are able to Open a saved "Soni RecordNow" file/image or whatever it is called, then when the Open dialog is displayed, just change "Files of Type" dropdown to *.* (all files), then try to open that iso. That should work, and has worked for me with other programs that didn't explicitly say that i could open ISO images. Let me know if this works.


----------



## BLAZN420

well i followed the instructions put the drives back in and now my tivo has that grey power up screen and it keeps flashing every couple of minutes with a black screen then back to the grey power up screen? Is this supposed to happen?


----------



## maerativo

I have a Sony SAT-T60 with 3.1 software and want to upgrade my old 40 gig HD to a new 300 gig HD. I got my new Seagate 300 gig HD (Ultra ATA/100) and I have a few questions! My home computer is a Dell Precision WorkStation 530, running WXP as the O.S. I have 4 (count em) SCSI hard drives formated in NTFS. When I'm in dos I have NO access to these drives to make a backup copy of my origional TiVo drive into. So how does one do this? Also, I need to format my new 300 gig drive before I install the TiVo copy, can I use "MaxBlast" to do this on my Ultra ATA/100 drive? And, last (I hope) but not least, would it just be easier to purchase "InstantCake" and forget the copy (would like to copy a couple of recordings onto the new drive.)


----------



## weaknees

First, you can do a copy without a backup - and if the old drive is OK, that can be your backup.

Next, our instructions don't support the kernel hacks that would enable you to use all 300 GB on that unit. There are instructions around for that, but they're fairly complicated - much more so than this procedure.

Michael


----------



## HTH

I have two TiVo 240080 units. I have two sets of drives that work in one (orignal, almost full, and a 120 GB drive pair) and the original drive in the other. Both units are running 7.1b.

I plan to upgrade the second, stock 80hr unit with a single 250 GB drive and keeping its original as a backup, and preserving recordings. Then I plan to use HMO to transfer all the recordings from the first unit to that second unit. Then reinstall the two 120 GB drives(*) to the first unit, and then maybe transfer shows back. (You might want to add HMO show migration as another alternative to saved recording retention. It is possible to queue up multiple recordings for HMO transfer between TiVos and leave it running overnight.)

My question is, where do I get the CD I need to upgrade to a 250 GB drive? I've been using the CD that came with Jeff Keegan's book, but things have changed so much and I haven't been keeping up with the latest news, so I don't know whether I can continue to use that CD or if I need another one or whether 7.1b is sufficient for a TiVo 240 to have LBA48 support. I've seen suggestions for sites but no links, or the links take me to a page that says I can't do it with a TiVo 240 model but might not be up to date with 7.1b information.

(*) The reason I haven't been running the two 120 GB drives is because I had random lockup and reboot problems with them which I attribute to their being two Western Digital drives with different firmware revisions. I've picked up a third 120 GB and am in the process of verifying the drives and shifting their data around to have a pair with matching firmware. (It doesn't help that WD's diagnostic CD won't boot on the PC I'm using.) As I've also had stuttering problems on another TiVo mixing Maxtor and WD drives, I suggest to all to try to make sure you have matching drives in your two-drive setups down to the firmware revisions.


----------



## weaknees

I don't know Keegans CD well, so I'm not sure if that's what you need.

But if you choose the large drive support option, you'll get a link to our CD which can do what you want. We haven't updated the site yet to handle large kernels on 240 units, so, for now, use the 540 instructions and choose drives larger than 250 GB as an option.

Michael


----------



## Hampster

After a fairly long 4 or 5 hour ordeal last night, I finally managed to use these procedures & utilities to upgrade my 540040 from a 40GB capacity to 200GB. I replaced the drive with a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 7200RPM 200GB drive (L01P200). Seems to be working great now, and my estimated recording capacity has gone from 40 hours to 229 hours. Very nice.

This drive is just a little noisier than the old one, but it's in my living room, so you don't really notice unless it's at night and fairly quiet. I tried to hunt down the Maxtor amset.exe utility somewhere on the Internet, but couldn't find it anywhere. All traces of AMSET, other than as part of a Linux UltimateCD, now appear to be gone. I didn't want to deal with that given all the other problems I ran into. Again, not really that big of a deal in my situation.

At any rate, I thought I'd post the problems I had with my upgrade to this forum, just in case someone else runs into them. I searched all over both the TiVo Upgrade Center and other forums here at TiVo Community, but didn't see this problem mentioned or addressed.

----------------------------------

First, I picked one of my Windows 98SE computers to do the upgrade. I attempted to boot from the WeaKnees CD before I made any hard drive changes, but had lots of the following errors printed out during bootup:

*hdc: lost interrupt*

This was my CDRW/DVD drive, setup as Secondary Master. Nonetheless, I went ahead and installed all the drives in this PC, first by adding the original 40GB drive as Primary Slave, the CDRW/DVD as Secondary Master and the new 200GB drive as Secondary Slave. Similar problems. I actually waited out the boot process a lot longer this time, and got lots of "hdc: lost interrupt" and "hdd: lost interrupt" messages as well, as it tried to do a drive/file system check on the IDE1 port secondary drives. It then failed to mount the CD, and I ended up with a Linux shell prompt set to the kernel version rather than "weaknees#", and very few shell commands worked as a result.

So, next I moved my drives around and put in a new/spare IDE1 IDE cable (standard 80 conductor M/S variety), just in case it was a drive or cable problem. Now I had the CDRW/DVD as Primary Slave, the original 40GB drive as Secondary Master, and the new 200GB drive as Secondary Slave. Same problem. Lots of "hdc: lost interrupt" and "hdd: lost interrupt" messages. This time, since it was able to mount the CD, I at least eventually finished the boot process and got the "weaknees#" shell prompt. However, an attempt to do the backup step from the original TiVo drive to my FAT32 partition on hda failed with a drive access error to hdc.

Throughout this, I kept checking the Internet for similar problems. Actually, I found a lot of references to this "hdx: lost interrupt" error, but little in the way of solutions. After a couple hours of different Google searches and following breadcrumbs, I eventually came across various references to this problem relative to AMD motherboards.

I have an ECS K7S5A motherboard w/a SiS chipset, and an Athlon XP 2000+ processor. Turns out many Linux kernels, particularly older pre-2.6 ones, have problems with AMD chipsets. Various folks had success in eliminating these lost interrupt errors by disabling chipset features as part of the boot options. In particular, "noapic", "noacpi", "acpi=off", and/or "pci=noacpi" were suggested. The one that did the trick for me was the "noapic" option, which evidently disables advanced interrupt controller features on the AMD chipsets.

So, merely by typing "linux noapic" after the initial LILO "boot:" prompt, rather than just hitting carriage return, I was able to quickly boot with no errors, follow the remaining WeaKnees documented procedures, which now worked, and finish my upgrade. I only took about 1/2 hour to copy the fully loaded 40GB drive (this is my wife's TiVo - it's totally filled with Gilmore Girls episodes) to the new drive. After installing back in the TiVo, it worked like a charm. Again, the magic boot command to fix my problem was:

*boot: linux noapic*

Hopefully this will help out someone else if they try the upgrade on a computer w/an Athlon CPU/motherboard and have similar problems.


----------



## weaknees

Amset is a feature of a program call setacm, and it's located here:

http://service.maxtor.com/rightnow/downloads/setacm.exe

Michael


----------



## DONPN

Upgrade Problem 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have an old series 1 hdr 212 with a 160 gig drive. I have the cd and it boots just fine. When I do the copykern I get.. tpip: unknown block signature: 0x0
It then says Kernal updated.. But the drive when place back into Tivo still only gets 163hrs... any suggestions


EDIT I did the mount cd mount /dev/hdd /mnt then did the copykern. That did get rid of the unknown block signature and changed it to some tpip readonly file
kernal upgraded.... but when back in the tivo, still only 163 hours.... now ?? tia


----------



## anilgupte

Hi!

I tried the steps using your CD. At the end I get the following message:

Restore Failed: Internal error 3.45.79%)

It did seem to be doing its thing when I left it last night, it was up to 2% or so.

All the drives were correctly recognized right away, so I don't think that is problem. I am just replacing the base TiVo drive with a 120GB Western Digital Drive.

Any thoughts?

Thanx,
Anil


----------



## AnotherWin95

Well - I took the leap today after a couple of days of contemplation and reviewing the various sites and instructions I performed an upgrade on my Series2 Stand Alone 540040.

I used the wekaness guide and did not do a backup (I had planned to just replace the 40GB with a 120GB and keep the original as a "backup").

It went very well and I put everything back together and plugged the machine in and then...


"Welcome...powering up" freeze!

My heart started beating faster and I just let it kinda run but knew it never took that long for a restart. 

Came here and did a quick search and grabbed a hint about setting master - some hard drives do not require a jumper for it - BINGO!

I opened the case up - grabbed the jumper and closed it back up again.

Re-attached..etc. etc. etc. Restarted and wallah there it was - just like new.

Except instead of just 40 hours at basic I now have 136 hours at basic - pretty good swap if you ask me.

Speaking of the white cable as well - I found it was well installed and actually hard to cause to bump loose - someone woudl really have to be rough inside the case removing the drive to knock it loose.

Only one issue following the upgrade in a sense - I had a few programs recorded that would not play. TiVo told me there must not have been any signal on the cable when I tried to record them. Works just fine on anything since the upgrade. No big deal in the long run as I was OK with losing the few things I had on there.

Anyway - thanks to the info Weakness and the site here!


----------



## tom4ta

I have a Hughes sd-dvr80. I've tried the syntax below serveral times. The upgrade always appears as though it worked. But when I try to deploy the new drive(s) I'm always stuck at powering on. I'm also using the WeaKness Boot Disk. I've tried moving the jumpers to about a billion locations.

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

Should I use another boot disk, or do I just have problems with my syntax. WeaKness help!

Thanks

tom4ta


----------



## Captain Scarlet

tom4ta said:


> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)
> 
> Should I use another boot disk, or do I just have problems with my syntax. WesKness help!


You might want to ask a guy called Blindlemon who hangs out mainly in the Tivo UK part of the forum.

He has set up a 2 x 400gb drive Seagate based Series 1 uk model lately.

This is how he did it:-

"It was quite a bit of faffing around actually.

Basically:-

1. Restore a good image to the A drive under a non-lba48 aware version of the MFSTools CD
2. Expand with mfsadd -x to the "B" drive (actually I did both in one step)
3. Reboot under a LBA48-aware kernel in byteswapped mode and rebuild both partition tables manually to pick up the full size of the drives. 
4. Reboot again in non-byteswapped (LBA48) mode and expand again with mfsadd -x 
5. Run copykern to copy the LBA48 kernel and initialise the swap partiton (I used 500mb to be well on the safe side!)

It is possible to make a working 400gb "A" drive without rebuilding the partition table by restoring (under the LBA48 kernel) a non-divorced backup taken from a fully expanded 200gb drive and then expanding that again. This works because there are 2 partition pairs using up 200gb of the drive to start with, so the further expansion results in a partition < 274gb. However, I was unable (for some reason) to then expand this to add a 400gb "B" drive without ending up with an unbootable system - so I gave up on that tack and reverted to the more laborious method above.

I've only been testing this system since last night and haven't got many recordings on there yet, so haven't seen the need for a cachecard. However, if 600gb systems are anything to go by, then it will be pretty essential for 800gb "

Or you can read the full thread here:-

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=238291&page=3&highlight=byteswapped+faffing


----------



## HiddenCoyote

Hi ,
First I want to apologize if my question is too stupid , but I read so many posts, and I am really very confused  .
Could I use this very clear guideline , to upgrade series 2.5 or I need to patch the PROM before do it?
Thanks in advance .


----------



## Captain Scarlet

HiddenCoyote said:


> Hi ,
> First I want to apologize if my question is too stupid , but I read so many posts, and I am really very confused  .
> Could I use this very clear guideline , to upgrade series 2.5 or I need to patch the PROM before do it?
> Thanks in advance .


You don't need to upgrade any proms but instead the Linux kernel on version 2.5 if you want to upgrade to any hard drives bigger than 137gb.

Unfortunately the Hinsdale guide has not yet been properly updated to reflect this issue.

The uk website www.steveconrad.co.uk for upgrades on uk Tivo's running 2.5.5 or higher software explains the large hard disk upgrade issues rather better:-

www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/upgrade3.html


----------



## Jasper

Hey Weaknees, great job on the upgrade instructions. I just got done putting two 400GB drives in my HD Tivo and everything works great! The only snags in the operation were my own faulty typing errors 

I'm planning on using my old HD Tivo drive (250GB) in my HDVR2, however, I see the instructions haven't been updated yet to address the 6.2 software update. I was wondering when you think you will have time to update the instructions?? Thanks..


----------



## Captain Scarlet

Jasper said:


> I'm planning on using my old HD Tivo drive (250GB) in my HDVR2, however, I see the instructions haven't been updated yet to address the 6.2 software update. I was wondering when you think you will have time to update the instructions?? Thanks..


Judging by how long we uk Tivo owners have been waiting for Weaknees to upgrade his instructions to cover the uk 2.5.5 Thomson Tivo series 1 models I wouldn't count on anything appearing on this any time this decade.


----------



## HiddenCoyote

Captain Scarlet said:


> The uk websitefor upgrades on uk Tivo's running 2.5.5 or higher software explains the large hard disk upgrade issues rather better:-
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks Captain for your answer , I am still confused may be I read so may post in different forums  , I am no talking about version 2.5.5 of the software; but about the new Tivos hardware called series 2.5 or nigthlighth , as you can see in this post in another forum at the bottom , my model is the # TCD540040 and they said that I need to Patch the prom to skip kernel signature verificacion.
> Sorry if am bothering you ,and thanks again for your reply.
> 
> deal database prom socketing
> 
> A PROM modificiation/socket is only needed for the following models (IIRC):
> * Tivo Model # TCD540040
> * TiVo Model # TCD540080
> * TiVo Model # TCD540140
> * Humax DRT800
> * Humax DRT2500
> * Toshiba RS-TX20
> * Toshiba RS-TX60
Click to expand...


----------



## bnm81002

weaknees said:


> We've updated the site to reflect now ALL of the TiVos that can be currently upgraded (the only exclusion being the Toshiba SD-H400). The new models added are:
> 
> TiVo 240140
> TiVo 540040
> TiVo 540080
> TiVo 540140
> 
> Pioneer 810H
> Pioneer 57H
> 
> Hughes HD HR10-250
> 
> Humax T800
> Humax T2500
> 
> Samsung SIR - 4080R
> 
> In order to support large drives for the units that can handle them:
> 
> -we have a CD available for download with mfstools and BlessTiVo on it
> -we have some instructions for the new units to work around the 256 GB limitation in mfstools
> 
> Good luck upgrading!
> 
> Michael


hey Michael,
I have the Pioneer DVR810H unit and went through the site but couldn't find the information about what you mentioned above, can you help me out please, with a link? thanks :up:


----------



## weaknees

Hi all...

Michael is out on a much-needed vacation...let me see if I can help in the meantime:

To Jasper: If you have 6.2 and want to upgrade your TiVo using large drives, you can safely follow the instructions for upgrading the DIRECTV R10. This unit comes with version 6.1 of the software, which behaves like 6.2 for purposes of upgrading.

Regarding the 810H (to bnm81002): I'm not sure what you are looking for. The Pioneer 810H is an option on the site, and if you answer the questions and go through the steps, you should get instructions. What is the site missing?

Thanks!


----------



## bnm81002

weaknees said:


> Regarding the 810H (to bnm81002): I'm not sure what you are looking for. The Pioneer 810H is an option on the site, and if you answer the questions and go through the steps, you should get instructions. What is the site missing?
> 
> Thanks!


well Michael stated the site has instructions to work around the 256GB limitation in MFS Tools, I want to upgrade my original drive with a larger drive with a 300GB or 400GB one, what is needed to have the Pioneer DVR810H recoginize the full capacity of the drive? 
as someone stated to me in here(wscannell), I should get the LBA48 boot CD, follow the MFS Tools instructions and edit the mfsrestore command to:

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

if that doesn't work then do it in 2 steps:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
mfsadd -x -r 4 /dev/hdc

would this work for my situation? my version is 5.2.2-01-2-275
thanks again


----------



## Jasper

Thanks Weaknees, I was thinking along those same lines, but I wan't sure, so I thought I would ask. I'll give it a shot today


----------



## sc0tty8

This has support for larger drives?


----------



## weaknees

For most units, yes, but not for all units that can use large drives. What model are you upgrading?


----------



## sc0tty8

Its a tivo 240040 unit.


----------



## weaknees

Then just use the instructions for the 540040 to get large drive support, assuming you have OS 7.1 or later on the unit.


----------



## sc0tty8

weaknees said:


> Then just use the instructions for the 540040 to get large drive support, assuming you have OS 7.1 or later on the unit.


I have all the latest updates my tivo could get, I think there was like 3 or 4 of them, I bought the unit used.


----------



## weaknees

You should verify the OS version in the System Information screen before using large drive techniques . . .


----------



## cassiusdrow

I'd also like to add that the Pioneer 810 instructions do not include a reference that the Toshiba unlock utility can be used if the new disk doesn't show as expanded in the TiVo software. This section from the Toshiba SD-H400 should be included as the last command before the user installs the new drive:



> To override the capacity lock on this drive, you now run this utility:
> 
> sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdZ
> 
> You should see a "successful" at the end of the reported info.


----------



## Philly Bill

weaknees said:


> For most units, yes, but not for all units that can use large drives. What model are you upgrading?


Is there a way to tell what models I can use the R10 upgrade instructions for?

I want to replace a 40GB with a 300GB in a Philips DSR704 that has 6.2 on it now.


----------



## weaknees

Those will work just fine if you have 6.2.


----------



## bnm81002

cassiusdrow said:


> I'd also like to add that the Pioneer 810 instructions do not include a reference that the Toshiba unlock utility can be used if the new disk doesn't show as expanded in the TiVo software. This section from the Toshiba SD-H400 should be included as the last command before the user installs the new drive:


can you be more specific please, I will be upgrading my Pioneer unit to a larger drive, don't need any problems that are unwarranted, where does it go exactly in the instructions? thank you


----------



## Captain Scarlet

Weaknees instructions still continue to omit any coverage of the Thomson PVR10UK model extensively documented and photographed at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo

But then perhaps Weaknees is only interested in helping American customers where he has a chance of making a sale??


----------



## cassiusdrow

bnm81002 said:


> can you be more specific please, I will be upgrading my Pioneer unit to a larger drive, don't need any problems that are unwarranted, where does it go exactly in the instructions? thank you


It should be the last command you issue before re-installing the upgraded drive in the 810:

sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdZ

where hdZ is the upgraded drive.

I had to use this command to get my Pioneer 810 to recognize the entire hard drive. There are reports of some 810 images that don't require this command. You may want to try the upgraded drive in your 810 to see if it recognizes all the space before your execute this command, as it may not be needed.


----------



## bnm81002

cassiusdrow said:


> It should be the last command you issue before re-installing the upgraded drive in the 810:
> 
> sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdZ
> 
> where hdZ is the upgraded drive.
> 
> I had to use this command to get my Pioneer 810 to recognize the entire hard drive. There are reports of some 810 images that don't require this command. You may want to try the upgraded drive in your 810 to see if it recognizes all the space before your execute this command, as it may not be needed.


hey thanks, 
so to be for sure the last command from the instructions states:
mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz

so the unlock command would be inserted in as:
mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdz

is that what you mean? thanks


----------



## Jasper

Thanks to everyone in this forum, I was able to upgrade my HDVR2 with a 250GB drive for a total of 221 hours SD.  
I tried following the R10 instructions but they didn't work. I think because there is no large drive option for a single drive restore. Anyway, I followed "Winders" advice from another thread and had sucess. 
Basically, I just did the mfsadd seperate from the mfsrestore. 

mfsrestore-s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hd?

mfsadd -x -r 3 /dev/hd?


----------



## cassiusdrow

bnm81002 said:


> hey thanks,
> so to be for sure the last command from the instructions states:
> mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz
> 
> so the unlock command would be inserted in as:
> mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdz
> 
> is that what you mean? thanks


You would issue them as two separate commands:

mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz

sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdz


----------



## Captain Scarlet

Weaknees instructions still continue to omit any coverage of the Thomson PVR10UK model extensively documented and photographed at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo


----------



## bnm81002

cassiusdrow said:


> You would issue them as two separate commands:
> 
> mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz
> 
> sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdz


ok got it thanks very much


----------



## JimR

Two items, one of which was major:

When upgrading into a very large disk, a "-r 4" or "-r 3" (possibly) must be used in the restore line. Without this, the tivo won't apparently complete a boot (at least on a 400Gb drive.)

Minor typo: The section telling me to "Verify Drive Sizes" was repeated. This happens (at a minimum) when you select the TCD540040, with a single large drive replacement, and discarding the shows on the source disk.

Thanks for a very nice tool!

Jim


----------



## BPatti

I've done a few upgrades but today I'm getting the following message:

Kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_iso8859-1, errno 2

Is the CD rom failing?


----------



## slaponte

Verify : On a 540040 (40Gb) I am ADDING a 300Gb secondary. The interactive instructions is telling me to just BlessTivo the new drive and drop it in there.

Just checking becuase I did this before with a Humax and didn't work right. I had to backup/restore and mfsadd. But the Humax is on 5.4 and the 540040 is on 7.1.


----------



## DwayneP

I originally expanded the 40g drive in my DSR704 to a 120g drive. Now I would like to go from my 120g to a 250g drive while saving my shows. Can I just expanded my 120g drive using the instructions on the weakness website, or must I expand my saved 40g drive?

Thanks!

Dwayne


----------



## weaknees

You'd need to use the 40, and, of course, you won't get the shows on the 120 that way. You can only expand the A drive once, so there's no way to get those shows over to a 250 and use that space.

Why not add the 250 as a B drive?


----------



## skeet4x25

Michael,

I went through the guide, set the choices I need, no backup, no Fat32 ect. The guide came back with:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb 

I want to replace in a Tivo 24004A the 40GB with a 300GB. In some other posts I have read they mention the -r -4 switchs. Can you clarify for me.

Thanks!

Kevin


----------



## slaponte

It is "-r 4" (-r is the flag and 4 is a parameter).

It changes the block factor so you can use larger drives. I have added three 300Gb drives to three separate units and this seems to work great (using the -s 127 -r 4).


----------



## skeet4x25

Slaponte,

Thanks for the input. If I got it right, it would look like this:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb 

Do I still use the -xzpi ?

Thanks Again!


----------



## slaponte

Definetly.

Order is an issue. The "xzpi" and the "-" that follows it go together.

The order you have it in would work fine.


----------



## skeet4x25

Thanks again. As soon as all the parts arrive, I'll give it a shot. Please ignore my PM. AND again, can't thank you enough.

Kevin


----------



## DarkAudit

Worked flawlessly first time out going from 40GB to 80GB. Thanks a bunch for the how to.


----------



## skeet4x25

I looked it up. Mfstool restore -h returned the following for those interested

-xzpi =

x Expand the backup to fill the drive(s)
z Zero out partitions not backed up
p Optimize partition layout
i Input from file, for stdin


----------



## Rockmin

I wanted to add a 300gb Seagate drive to my stock 540040 (7.1b).
I put the Seagate into my Win98se box and booted to thw Weaknees lba_boot_cd and did a BlessTiVo .... It came back with the message 279GB ready. Good Enough!

Set the original Tivo 40 gig as Master and new Blessed 300 gig as slave.
Mounted the original 40 Gig Maxtor and 279Gig Seagate onto my Weaknees Bracket. Cabled it all up and booted my Tivo......

It now sticks at the Almost There screen.

Question: Should I have done something to my 40gig original Tivo drive?
The interactive instructions at Weaknees don't mention anything but it seems like the original 40gig drive should be told about the new 300 gig drive.

The Hinsdale paper mentions mfsbackup, mfsrestore and mfsadd commands.
How are these different from BlessTiVo?

Just trying to understand enough to get me by this frustrating Almost There screen!

(p.s. When booting to the Weaknees lba CD I also got a "Kmod: failed to exec" error. Is this part of the problem?)


----------



## dirtymonkey1

Hi Michael, thanks for your instuction that is very helpful. One quick question: Are those instruction also working for any hard drive larger than 137GB?


----------



## slaponte

Rockmin, this happened to me as well. And the instructions have not been updated/changed.

So, when I have a 40, and want to ADD a 300, what I do is

a) mfsbackup the 40
b) mfsrestore using the "-s 127 -r 4" switches (plus the other params)
c) mfsadd the 300

Works every time. It might or might not be overkill, but if it works, who cares.


----------



## weaknees

dirtymonkey1 said:


> Hi Michael, thanks for your instuction that is very helpful. One quick question: Are those instruction also working for any hard drive larger than 137GB?


Working on an overhaul for the new OS on these units . . .


----------



## Rockmin

Thanks slaponte,
I'll try that when I get home tonight.

To be clear, I should do the following:

*hda=FAT drive, hdb=Stock 40gig A Tivo drive, hdc=CDROM drive, hdd=new 300gig B drive*

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hdd

mfsadd -x -r 4 /dev/hdb /dev/hdd

umount -f -a -r

ctl-alt-del and power down

Thanks


----------



## Rockmin

Just an update on my upgrade.....

I did the commands just as written above and all is good.
I now have about 383 hours regular or 110 hours Best.

For completeness I should mention that after the mfsrestore command
the system said "383 hours available".

And after the mfsadd command
a message came back "nothing more to add".

I guess the adding was done inside the mfsrestore command.

Anyway, everything seems to work fine.

Thanks all.


----------



## maxcat

The interactive upgrade instructions are wonderful. I am going to attempt my own upgrade soon. A couple quick questions from a first timer, though.

1) I have an 3 year old spare pc I can use. there's nothing in it but a floppy drive - I assume I can simply boot from the floppy, there's no need to have an optical hooked up to it, or a windows boot drive, right?

2) How do I prepare my upgrade disk prior to running through the how-to?

Thanks all.


----------



## Philly Bill

How much space is needed on the FAT drive to save a copy of an image (If I decide to do so)?


----------



## winders

slaponte said:


> Rockmin, this happened to me as well. And the instructions have not been updated/changed.
> 
> So, when I have a 40, and want to ADD a 300, what I do is
> 
> a) mfsbackup the 40
> b) mfsrestore using the "-s 127 -r 4" switches (plus the other params)
> c) mfsadd the 300
> 
> Works every time. It might or might not be overkill, but if it works, who cares.


Except that 127MB of swap space is not enough for the amount of disk space you have to recover from a GSOD.

Scott


----------



## slaponte

I haven't hit a GSOD yet, maybe just lucky. I tried to read up on the swap space thread but I tell you that gets very complex in a hurry and haven't found an easy way about it. Some of us don't want to make a tesis on this, just get it to work (once) and go with our lives.

For what I have read, specifying other than -s 127 on the command creates a problem. Seems to me the MFS tools need some bug fixes, but also seems these are "free" "as they come" and well I guess we have to wait until they are fixed.

If you have an easier way to solve the issue please post it. Buying a 40/80GB and adding a second (300+) drive seems to be an extremely common upgrade.


----------



## winders

Sergio,

Look here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=243725

Scott


----------



## slaponte

Scott, I notice there you recommend a -s 192 and -r 3.
You then have to tpip it to fix the header.

But there you are replacing a 40 with a 300, here we just want to add the 300.

Same?


----------



## winders

slaponte said:


> Scott, I notice there you recommend a -s 192 and -r 3.
> You then have to tpip it to fix the header.
> 
> But there you are replacing a 40 with a 300, here we just want to add the 300.
> 
> Same?


Yes....

Scott


----------



## jdavies9

I have a single drive Phillips stand alone Series 1 that I upgraded from the original 30 GB to 120 GB a few years ago (I put the 30GB drive on a shelf). I now want to add a 160GB drive as a second drive, while preserving my recordings.

It appears that in the Hinsdale instructions Configuration #1 (and Weaknees interactive) that all I need to do is run the "mfsadd..." command. However, since I am past the 180GB barrier, the Hinsdale instructions suggest I need to do either Configuration #2 or #3 to increase the swap space, but that assumes TWO NEW drives -- not adding a drive as in #1.

Is there a safe way to add the 160GB?

UPDATE: I checked the old Hinsdale doc that I used when performing the orginal upgrade to the 120 GB drive, and I DID use the -s 127 switch on the mfsrestore. So, does that mean I can simply use mfsadd now to add the 160 GB drive as my B drive?


----------



## bnm81002

weaknees said:


> Working on an overhaul for the new OS on these units . . .


so when exactly will the new UPDATED instructions be up and running? thanks


----------



## weaknees

Sorry - working on it, but it's taking a bit of time . . .


----------



## bnm81002

weaknees said:


> Sorry - working on it, but it's taking a bit of time . . .


but you will announce it on this forum when it's all done, correct?


----------



## Captain Scarlet

weaknees said:


> Sorry - working on it, but it's taking a bit of time . . .


Hmmmm. Must be like the Thomson PVR10UK S1 model instructions. That one is certainly taking a bit of time to resolve.


----------



## Philly Bill

I burned the weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso. When I boot my XP box with it.. it comes up quick to the "boot:" prompt I believe. and I press ENTER to continue and it loads up linux and looks like I'm on my way.

But when I boot it in the Pentium MMX box I want to use to do my upgrade it boots, then when I get the boot: I press enter.. but it just says something like 'loading linux' with one or two dots after it.. then reboots my PC!

I booted up the SAME PC with a PTVUPGRADE LBA CD and it worked fine. I prefer to use the weaknees CD though.

Any thoughts as to why it won't work on THIS PC but will on my newer P4 XP machine?

Bill

*EDIT: Shucks I hoped that by this morning someone might have some ideas on this. Maybe I better dig out another PC and try with that one. *


----------



## slaponte

Hey Bill. I don't think which one comes up matters that much. You just want to make sure the MFS Tools are the latest (or the same between them). If they are, then the only (important) diff is the PVT ones included TPIP in it...


----------



## Philly Bill

Yeah, I'm not worried about that TPIP stuff (as we discussed) but it puzzles me why one PC will boot with the weaknees CD but the other one won't (but WILL from the PTV CD).

Oh well, I'm about ready to give this thing a try I think.  Maybe I'll get some guts to try it tonight or tommorrow.


----------



## Gerhard

Folks,

I just want to be sure of something before I start this...

I've got an 80 hour unit that I upgraded to a 120GB WD Drive.

I want to simply copy that drive's information over to a 300GB large drive, and no loose my recordings, etc...

Based on what I'm seeing so far, it doesn't look like that's possible.

So far, it appears that I've got to perform a backup, and then some how expand the swap space to be more efficent with the new 300GB drive.

Is this correct? (If not, a few pointers would be greatly appricated!!!)

(I've got a TDC240080 unit.)

Gerhard


----------



## slaponte

Gerhard, if you are replacing the 120 with the 300 then you should be able to. Just "pipe" the backup to the restore and the restore will expand and adjust swap as the flags state. It would be something like

mfsbackup -????? /dev/hd(120) | mfsrestore -s 192 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hd(300)
tpip -s /dev/hd(300)

This commands (I would have to look up the precise flags etc) will leave your 120 alone, just copy everything to the 300 and expand swap and space for you.

Keeping the 120 and adding the 300 might be more dificult.


----------



## weaknees

The problem here is in adding one more set of partitions to the A drive - that basically isn't possible. So if you want the extra space out of the 300 GB drive, you'd either need to add it as a second drive, or lose your recordings.


----------



## Gerhard

weaknees said:


> The problem here is in adding one more set of partitions to the A drive - that basically isn't possible. So if you want the extra space out of the 300 GB drive, you'd either need to add it as a second drive, or lose your recordings.


So I take it that that means the piping the copy will not work... or, more to the point, it only works with a non-previously expanded HD?

This is not a huge deal, I just wanted to attempt to save everything.


----------



## bralph

Rockmin said:


> Thanks slaponte,
> I'll try that when I get home tonight.
> 
> To be clear, I should do the following:
> 
> *hda=FAT drive, hdb=Stock 40gig A Tivo drive, hdc=CDROM drive, hdd=new 300gig B drive*
> 
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb
> 
> mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hdd
> 
> mfsadd -x -r 4 /dev/hdb /dev/hdd
> 
> umount -f -a -r
> 
> ctl-alt-del and power down
> 
> Thanks


Is this something I'll need to do too? I have a stock HR10-250 (HD-Tivo) and just bought a 300 GB drive from Newegg to add to it. I printed the instructions from the Interactive Guide, and they also simply say to run BlessTiVo on the new drive but makes no mention of any commands to run on the original drive.


----------



## winders

127MB is not enough swap space for 300MB+ setups.....

Scott


----------



## slaponte

Just running "Blesstivo" didn't do anything for me. You can try, but I seriously doubt it.

And yes, 127 is too small. I would say go with "-s 194 -r 4".
You will then have to TPIP it... (tpip -s /dev/hdX).

One issue I find with these pinned threads is that they are getting too long and too old for their own good. A good review/cleanup should be tried and a new thread pinned with the updated info. The one that "announces" the mfs tools is from 3 years ago!


----------



## Gerhard

Well,

I found a 80GB drive laying around the house, and took my v4 TIVO OS and restored it to that drive.

I connected to the Tivo servers, and the image was updated to 7.1b-xxxxx

I then performed a Tivo2 backup using MFSBACKUP with the following command line:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

For the restore, I used:

mfsrestore -s 192 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo71b.bak /dev/hda

Then:

msfadd -x -r 3 /dev/hda

Then:

tpip -s /dev/hda


I then installed the newly copied too 300GB WD drive and booted the Tivo2 80 hour unit I've got.

It's now sitting at the almost there screen and had been for a LONG time.

Did I do something wrong?

...or will it just take a hour to boot the first time after the restore?

(This is really turning out to be a royal PITA... and it's never been before.)

Gerhard


----------



## slaponte

Well, besides that you backup to tivo.bak and restore from tivo71b.bak (diff files), and assuming the new drive is on hda, seems cool.

This was last night. What happened then?


----------



## Gerhard

slaponte said:


> Well, besides that you backup to tivo.bak and restore from tivo71b.bak (diff files), and assuming the new drive is on hda, seems cool.
> 
> This was last night. What happened then?


Dude... it's driving me nuts!

When I restart the unit, it just stays on the "almost there" screen...

I'm somewhat depressed about this... as I've never has this much trouble before!!

I could do a DD and copy one drive to the other... but then how do I address the need for larger swap space?


----------



## slaponte

You are going with just one drive, right?

We have to wait for better minds. It looks good to me. I would have used "-r 4", but thats just me. For the description of the -r flag on MFS it should work fine.

Another thing to try : above, you restore and then you expand with the mfsadd. You could try to expand on the restore

mfsrestore -s 192 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo71b.bak /dev/hda

Then if you try to mfsadd should respond with "nothing to add" and then

tpip -s /dev/hda.


----------



## Gerhard

slaponte said:


> You are going with just one drive, right?
> 
> We have to wait for better minds. It looks good to me. I would have used "-r 4", but thats just me. For the description of the -r flag on MFS it should work fine.
> 
> Another thing to try : above, you restore and then you expand with the mfsadd. You could try to expand on the restore
> 
> mfsrestore -s 192 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo71b.bak /dev/hda
> 
> Then if you try to mfsadd should respond with "nothing to add" and then
> 
> tpip -s /dev/hda.


Thanks man! I'll give that a try...

One other person commented that I had the new drive as HDA... and that in the past using the primary master as the new Tivo drive has been used to cause problems (byte swapping??).


----------



## slaponte

I only had one problem with HDA, there was a command that wouldn't run. Probably trying to keep me from screwing myself I guess.

Switch them around. You won't be writing to HDA, just reading, and put the new one on hdc. Or since you have an image created already, take off the 80 and put the 300 there.


----------



## Gerhard

slaponte said:


> I only had one problem with HDA, there was a command that wouldn't run. Probably trying to keep me from screwing myself I guess.
> 
> Switch them around. You won't be writing to HDA, just reading, and put the new one on hdc. Or since you have an image created already, take off the 80 and put the 300 there.


Well... this is just plain annoying...

I've been able to get it to work... but I can not use TPIP!

I've restored the drive using my backup of the 120GB I had expanded the original 80GB image to.

(So, I've got a bunch of 80GB OS versions at this point.)

If I use MSFRESTORE -s 127 , etc...etc... Then it works just fine.

However, if I use TPIP -s, etc... it fails every time.

The problem has to be TPIP and it's relation to the swap space.

I know from previous comments that it really needs to be larger than 127MB given the size of the new drive (300GB)...

I've read that if you use MSFRESTORE -s 192... that swap header will not be configured properly for some reason... Is this true?


----------



## jpc112

I have a TIVO TCD24008A. I think the HD died after 15 months. It's stuck on the Powering UP.... screen.

I want to purchase from WeaKnees a 160 hour replacement drive to replace the 80 hour it has. If I do so, do I just have to replace the drive as instructed? Is it basically plug n play with the Tivo recognizing it has 160 hours now? Do I have to mess around with any of the software settings I've read about in the thread...i.e. swap space, hda etc.?

If I wanted to save the data on the old hard drive is it possible to save the data on the HD and restore it to the new drive without it powering up?

Thank you,

Jim


----------



## gdavisloop1

Hello,
re: -r 4 
I can't find a "-r" option on MFStool 2.0.
If I restore without this option, will it simply limit my 300GB drive to 274GB?

re: -s 192
I though there was a bug and -s >127 would not work correctly?

I'm trying to put a 300GB drive in a DirecTiVo that's running 6.2 s/w.
That does have lba48 support, right?

Finally, does anyone have experience swapping to different drives in and out of the same TiVo? Ie, if I have to upgrade without saving my old programs (because apparently you can't upgrade from an upgrade), can I just put the old HD back in the TiVo whenever I want to access it?

thanks!
--Gary


----------



## Gerhard

gdavisloop1 said:


> Hello,
> re: -r 4
> I can't find a "-r" option on MFStool 2.0.
> If I restore without this option, will it simply limit my 300GB drive to 274GB?
> 
> re: -s 192
> I though there was a bug and -s >127 would not work correctly?
> 
> I'm trying to put a 300GB drive in a DirecTiVo that's running 6.2 s/w.
> That does have lba48 support, right?
> 
> Finally, does anyone have experience swapping to different drives in and out of the same TiVo? Ie, if I have to upgrade without saving my old programs (because apparently you can't upgrade from an upgrade), can I just put the old HD back in the TiVo whenever I want to access it?
> 
> thanks!
> --Gary


I THOUGHT that tpip -s /dev/hdx would fix that problem and the mfsrestore would create the new swap space... but could initalize it or something.


----------



## slaponte

Thats what I understand also : the "-s 192" creates the swap but there is some problem with the headers. The "tpip -s" is supposed to fix them.

"-r" as documented on the README file :

-r scale
This option allows you to reduce the amount of RAM TiVo uses by
increasing the block size for the media storage created with the -x
option. The acceptable values are 0 to 4, corresponding to 1, 2, 4,
8 and 16 megabytes. The larger the value, the less RAM will be used
(and the faster menus will respond) but a (small) amount of storage
will be wasted by some recordings. At the extreme small end (-r 0)
some PVRs with a large amount of storage may not be able to perform
some tasks, such as self repair. (A.K.A. Green Screen) The default
is 2 (or 4 megabytes). Any TiVo created partitions are created with
a scale of 0 (or 1 megabyte). It is best to leave this option alone.

WHile the README states it is best to leave it alone, the "-r 3" and "-r 4" becomes necesary when working larger drives which were not as common back when the instructions were written.


----------



## superman199

Ok, im gonna try to explain this as best as possible, and hopefully not sound like too much of an idiot. Im adding a hard drive to my tivo (80 Gig western digital). Going thru the instructions on the site, it says to use the following command 

mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ 

But its coming up with problems... im not exactly sure which of the X's and Z'z to replace with b (the 2nd drive... my jumpers are all set correctly to SLAVE. Can someone please help? what should i actually be typing? i am using MFS2, if that needed to be known. Thanks for the help


----------



## slaponte

Come on, Superman, you can do this :

IDE Channel 0 (primary) Master is hda, Slave is hdb

IDE Channel 1 (secondary) Master is hdc, Slave is hdd

There is not enough info on your description to type out the exact command, but you would:

mfsadd -x /dev/hd<orig tivo drive> /dev/hd<new added drive>

If it helps, what I do is after the boot do shift-pageup until you see the drive assignments, and I write in a piece of paper

example:

hda = original Tivo 40GB drive
hdb = new 300Gb
hdc = CD ROM
hdd = 8GB old DOS drive

And then I review my commands to make sure I got things right. Make the same list after you reboot with the proper assignments, then review the command.


----------



## superman199

ok, so do i need to hook up the old tivo drive also to my PC when fixing the new drive?? I just wanna make sure i do this all right!  Thanks alot!


----------



## slaponte

As far as I know, yes. The original Tivo drive has a set of partitions in it. What the command does is extend that set into the second (new) drive, so together they form a set.


----------



## superman199

OOOHHHHH!!! thats what i was doing wrong! ok, ill try that when i get back home from work and ill let you know what happends! Thanks!


----------



## slaponte

jpc112 said:


> I have a TIVO TCD24008A. I think the HD died after 15 months. It's stuck on the Powering UP.... screen.
> 
> I want to purchase from WeaKnees a 160 hour replacement drive to replace the 80 hour it has.


For starters, I don't see a 160 replacement. I only see a 160 ADD which gets you to 200 hours at Weaknees.

Either way, replacement or add, the drives from Weaknees I understand come ready to install and run.



jpc112 said:


> If I do so, do I just have to replace the drive as instructed? Is it basically plug n play with the Tivo recognizing it has 160 hours now? Do I have to mess around with any of the software settings I've read about in the thread...i.e. swap space, hda etc.?


Again, I don't see the 160GB "replacement", but basically yes, the drive comes setup and ready to plug and run. No, you don't have to do anything else. You basically pull your old drive, screw in this one, connect your cables and go for it.



jpc112 said:


> If I wanted to save the data on the old hard drive is it possible to save the data on the HD and restore it to the new drive without it powering up?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Jim


NOW you are taking a more complex issue. Assuming the existing drive contents are viable (not corrupted), you would have to study and understand the whole backup/restore processes so much talked about around here. As you can see at the Weaknees site, they do offer you (for a fee) to do this for you (again, assuming your data is viable).


----------



## mrbuddy

Kudos, weaknees! Just finished my upgrade (540040, +160GB) with your complete bracket kit. Couldn't have gone better.


----------



## jonmori

Greetings all, 

I just finished my first week with a 40 hour series 2. It finally upgraded to 7.1b early this morning so I was able to get the Tivo to utilize my Wireless Network. 

I had the crazy idea of slapping 2 320GB drives into the Tivo but read somewhere that you cannot replace an original drive with a new drive that is over 256GB larger than the original. 

Is this feasible, or should I scale down the plans to some smaller drives?


----------



## weaknees

As long as you use the "-r 4" switch, those drives will work fine.


----------



## LarryInAz

Where is this "readme" file from with the info on this -r switch?


----------



## slaponte

Its the readme file from the MFS Tools : 

-r scale
This option allows you to reduce the amount of RAM TiVo uses by
increasing the block size for the media storage created with the -x
option. The acceptable values are 0 to 4, corresponding to 1, 2, 4,
8 and 16 megabytes. The larger the value, the less RAM will be used
(and the faster menus will respond) but a (small) amount of storage
will be wasted by some recordings. At the extreme small end (-r 0)
some PVRs with a large amount of storage may not be able to perform
some tasks, such as self repair. (A.K.A. Green Screen) The default
is 2 (or 4 megabytes). Any TiVo created partitions are created with
a scale of 0 (or 1 megabyte). It is best to leave this option alone.

Notice it says to leave it alone. It is an older readme. The default, "-r 2" will work fine as long as the disk space you add is 274Mb or less... (I think 274 is the number, or just abouts). It has to do with the maximum size of an MFS file system created by the Tivo.


----------



## KwikSilvr

I bought a refurbished 40-hour last summer and replaced the 40-gig drive with two 120-gig drives. Now I want to replace the two 120s with a single 300 gig drive. I'm not worried about saving recordings. Do I need to use the -r flag? If so, do I need "-r 3" or "-r 4"?


----------



## weaknees

Best bet is to do it - the A drive would probably be OK, but the B will need it unless you go through a long alternative procedure. Use the "-r 4" switch.


----------



## bnm81002

so are the NEW instructions available yet with the -r 4 switch included?


----------



## slaponte

I think that is an issue here at the comunity. Some of the threads are VERY old and held as stickys. Newbies come, start to read and might not realize they are reading extremely old stuff. The MFS Tools 2.0 thread is up there, those tools are ancient!

Unless you read through all the way to the end you don't realize that a lot of the stuff is designed for small to medium size drives (per today standards).

More and more having 250Gb and more drives is more common, and they continue dropping in price. All the sticky threads need to be reviewed, updated, "trimmed" as it were. Because they stay on top and newbies always think they are current.


----------



## weaknees

The Humax DRT-400 TiVo DVR with DVD recorder has been added to the site.

Michael


----------



## weaknees

*MAJOR UPDATE*
------------------

OK - we've made major changes to the Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions. The new kernels are now supported for the Series 2 Standalone and DIRECTV models. So if you have 7.1 or 6.2 respectively, the instructions support your configuration and the use of larger drives.

Now, this is a major change, and while we've run literally hundreds of possible configurations through the site to test, there may be a few combinations that cause issues. So if you find one, or if you aren't sure, please post here and we'll be sure to check them quickly, and either correct the situation or explain why it's correct.

Tell us how it goes!


----------



## winders

Weaknees,

Your new instructions partially take into account large drives. You added the "-r 4" option to mfsrestore but did nothing to deal with the need for larger swap. Unless, of course, you don't care if folks don't have enough swap space to recover from a GSOD. Is tpip that hard to explain?

Scott


----------



## SteveInNC

No joy for me. I have a HDVR2 with 6.2 and original Maxtor 40Mb. Since 6.2, I've been getting hangs. I bought a WD160 for a replacement. Initially, I used the Interactive Guide's instructions from a week ago, doing a "one drive to one larger drive and save programs". Ran into a bunch of bad sectors (expected), but the piped restore completed, showing about 170 hrs.

Attempting to boot the new disk, I got past the inital boot into the "almost there" screen, whereupon the unit rebooted. Second time into "almost there", GSOD.

The command used was:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

I started looking around in the forum and saw that the new instructions are up as above, and tried those. 

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 124 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

A few hours later, the copy finished. Because of the comment in the post above, I started searching for tpip to see what that was about, finally finding someone that used it correct the swap header (my interpretation). Found a copy on the PTVLBA48-4.01.iso and ran it against the new image:

tpip -s --swapped /dev/hdd

Got what looked like a reasonable response, put everything back together, tried to boot, and got basically the same sequence: boot, almost there, reboot, almost there, GSOD

I'm now letting it sit to see if it can repair itself, but I'm not holding out hope. FWIW, the bad sectors were early in the original volume, around the 1% mark. While that drive was still rebooting successfully to full operation when I removed it, perhaps some critical blocks are trashed, so the mfsbackup just can't get the right stuff done. I'll listen to any hints . Did I screw up by doing the tpip on the second iteration of the volume?


----------



## weaknees

Most likely, the original image is just corrupt, so any copies don't work also. If you dig around on the forums, you may be able to find a way to download an image.


----------



## miadlor

The new commands.........mfsrestore -s 127 *-r 4* -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ

I used the old............mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ

on a S2 single drive 200gb...........Does this mean I have the default 4megs even though I didn't include *-r 2* ?


----------



## slaponte

Correct. "-r 2" is the default.

Steve, you only need tpip if you go over 127Mb swap. So if you use the -s 127 or -s 124 don't worry about tpip. Since you are going 160Gb you should need about 130Mb swap...

Miadlor, for 200Gb the "-s 127" should be more than enough. And yes the default block factor should work fine as well.


----------



## SteveInNC

Just an update on my situation: I got Stan to point me at a 3.1b image and mfsrestored that to the WD160. Everything booted up, walked me through set up, and I got TV. The only outstanding issue was that I got Error #51 in the recording stuff. Searching the board I found the advice to "clear all" to sync up with the right serial number, which it's in the process of doing right now. I also don't have locals, so will have to call the 711 extension to re-ping the box.

I'm actually having to record BSG to video tape (shudder) off of my old Sony A2 while all of this is going on .

Hopefully, the clear will fix the last problem, and I can get it to pull down 6.2 tonight. After that, I'll pull the drive one more time and make a backup image.

One question: given that the saved programs are recorded on a separate partition (my understanding anyway), is it feasible to pull only the program data off of my old failing drive and copy it to a partition on the new drive? Something like: mount both drives under Linux, copy stuff from A to B, without a full root copy et al. Given that the programs would be still on the same unit/card, the encryption should not matter.

I'm an old-school Unix systems guy, and used to have my hands in the hardware all of the time, but it's been awhile since I've jumped through these many hoops


----------



## weaknees

The C&D Everything is what you need to fix the error #51.

Even if you did copy the program partitions over, you would be able to tell the TiVo that they're stored there, essentially, so it's pretty much a no-go.


----------



## SteveInNC

"Darn" about those programs. I should have rolled them off to DVD-R beforehand anyway. I may still try at another time. The C&D took care of the #51. Called 711 and got my locals back. The box is on the phone now, so hopefully 6.2 will land by morning. Thanks for all of the help guys.

The only peculiar thing I've noticed is that the unit shows up as a HDVR3 in the System info.


----------



## weaknees

Right - at one point, an update cause all HDVR2s to become HDVR3s according to the system info . . .


----------



## JBNY

OK I read through this thread and did some searches but did not find my answer.

I have an new R10 that I just upgraded to a 160GB drive. Followed the weaknees instructions for upgrading the drive. With R10 options as follows

no backup
have fat partition
no 2000/XP
disregard recordings
not moving software.

Downloaded and burned the iso from the link given.

Everything worked fine. I used the following command

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

came back with success and 179 hours available.

Put the new drive in the R10 and everything comes up fine but the hours shown in tivo are only 136 hours available.

I have software ver 6.1 on the R10, do I need 6.2? If I wait for the upgrade to download, will I then see the extra hours, or do I need to put the old drive in and wait for the 6.2 to be installed and then do the upgrade again.

Or did I do something else wrong?

Thanks much!
-Joe


----------



## weaknees

That's about right - we typically get 140 hours from our Maxtor 160 GB drives. The 179 that was reported is a guess for standalone TiVos - not DIRECTV TiVos. mfstool doesn't know if the image is for standalones or not.

Looks like you did it all correctly.


----------



## Philly Bill

Looks like you're fine. The 179 was for stand alone TIVO.


----------



## JBNY

Thanks, great, that's what I wanted to hear. 

Great job on the doc for the upgrade. I was done in about 45 minutes about 30 of which I was just making sure I was following things correctly.


----------



## bnm81002

winders said:


> Weaknees,
> 
> Your new instructions partially take into account large drives. You added the "-r 4" option to mfsrestore but did nothing to deal with the need for larger swap. Unless, of course, you don't care if folks don't have enough swap space to recover from a GSOD. Is tpip that hard to explain?
> 
> Scott


WEAKNEES,
so any answer to this question?


----------



## Grentz

Also note software 6.1 on the R10 has the same features as 6.2 on the other Directv Tivos....you will not receive 6.2 for your R10 as there is no need.....


----------



## willbhome

I didn't find any mention of upgrading the High Definition DirecTV Tivo to higher capacities. Is there anything about this yet, or are we stuck with the 30hr HD/200hr SD?


----------



## weaknees

Try the utility - we have full support for that unit, and we've been upgrading those units for over a year. Just choose "HR10-250" as your model - that's the HD model.


----------



## Philly Bill

Replaced stock 40GB with a new 300GB (copying shows and setting up a 192MB swap file) for the third TIVO yesterday.

Just wanted to say THANKS to weaknees for the interactive instructions.


----------



## SrLANGuy

The Weaknees instructions are missing two very important things.

1) You create a backup, but you never test it.

2) When adding very large drives (LBA48), it doesn't have you increase your swap file size.

I have an HR10-250 and I'm adding a 300 GB drive. I want to know that my backup file can be restored and my TiVo will work. I also want to prevent problems by increasing my swap file to 275 MB (needed for a 550 GB TiVo).


----------



## Philly Bill

I believe most of the instructions have you restoring to your new drive USING the backup you just created.

I don't bother though. I just copy from drive to drive using both commands and the pipe '|' and save the original drives for backup.

And yes, you should read THIS: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=251011

thread for a VERY long discussion on setting up the swap file. Its pretty easy but I guess automating it in the upgrade instructions would be tough without knowing the size of the new drive huh?


----------



## twash

I went through the thread at: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...ad.php?t=251011

I GUESS I could do tpip if I had to, but it would be nice if someone would make it easier by summarizing what you would actually need to do for larger drives in just one post.

I just did an upgrade to my two R10's installing a single drive increase to 160 GB hard drives in each one. I expect the 127 swap is big enough. However I may want to install an even bigger drive sometime especially if I lose one of the 160's and it would be nice if I had a cookbook to follow.

It is very nice of Weaknees to furnish the procedure and I appreciate him and all who participated in getting it to where it is. I am sure that an additional procedure for tpip would be no great chore for people as talented as the people who are so willing to help on this forum.


----------



## slaponte

The threads are long because of the long process of trial and error. Also, there are so many long (old) threads around here with old information it takes a long time (and not everybody does) to read the threads and pick out everything you need. Once deciphered, is very simple :

A ) Define your upgrade size
B ) Calculate swap space needed (1MB for every 2GB of disk)
C ) If swap needed < 128Mb, mfsrestore with "-s nnn" where nnn is the swap size. Done.
D ) If swap is 128MB or greater (250Gb disk or more), then

mfsrestore with "-s nnn" and "-r 4" (plus other flags as required)
tpip, to initialize the header.
Done.

Note on tpip :

tpip --version tells you the version you have

V1.1 : command is "tpip --swapped -s /dev/hdX"
V1.2 : command is "tpip -1 -s /dev/hdX"

Where hdX stands for the Tivo drive A.

I think the Weaknees interactive instructions are outstanding. I would hope they can be updated to include this and put many of these threads to rest. Times have changed. Drives 300Gb and bigger are now economically viable. The instructions need to be upgraded.

I would also like to know if anybody owns the MFS code and if it would be possible to fix a couple of bugs and re-issue the tools... Obviously tpip has the header we need, so it shoudl not be impossible to teach MFS to do this right.


----------



## azitnay

The MFS Tools source code is freely available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mfstools/.

I've had the need to look through it for various things at times in the past, but I've never had the need for more than 127MB of swap, so I've never looked at that particular issue.

Drew


----------



## sjp2003

* Lurker de-cloaking * 

Just wanted to poke my head in and thank the fine folks who put this guide together. Upgraded my 80 Hour Series 2 yesterday with a 300GB Seagate and the whole process went amazingly smooth. What drove me to sack it up and try the upgrade was my Tivo had started to constantly lock up and was getting progressivly worse. You could hear the 60GB Maxtor struggling for it's life as the video would pause, chop and eventually freeze entirely. My Tivo now reports "up to 376 hours" and runs smooth as silk. 

Thanks again! Now if only there was better programming to Tivo LOL! 

* Lurker re-cloaking *


----------



## twash

Thank you Sergio! I have attached your post to my Weaknees procedure.


----------



## nickadams

I used the Weakness Interactive Guide as follows:

1) HDVR2
2) Replace 1 drive with 1 drive
3) Backup - yes
4)FAT PArtition - no
5)XP - yes
6) Boot from floppy (CD boot did not worK)
7)Disregard recodings
8)Moving software - no
9)6.2 - yes

By following the instructions, I sucessfully formatted the new tivo drive as a FAT drive; backed up from the old tivo drive to the new FAT drive; copied the backup file from the new FAT drive to my windows harddrive (c; then per the guide, after booting from the floppy, I'm instructed to:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

then:

mfsretore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz

I believe this to be in error as linux will not recognize the hda (windows NTFS) drive. This the error I believe exists.

To solve the problem, I again used the guide, with the indentical sets as above except I said "Backup - no". 

THe guide requires:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

It seems to be working. Thank you Weakness. 2nd tivo upgrade - your help is appreciated.


----------



## nickadams

The upgrade in the previous post was to a Maxtor Diamond Max10, 300 gb drive. Everything seemed to work fine except the "New estimated standalone size: 147 (107 more). Should be closer to 300 gb.

I used:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

While I created a FAT partition on the new harddrive, I understand that MSFTools will write over it. I used the floppy (v. CD) software - does it not support 300 gb harddirves. One problem I did see was I have a Hughes SD-DVR40 not the HDVR2 that I thought (but the directions are the same). In any event, I understand that there are probelms with expanding the drive again (my inclination is to just try it again and see what happens). Any help is appreciated.

Thanks


----------



## w1n78

nittany said:



> Replaced the W and got the following:
> 
> invaid arguement
> FAT: bogus cluster size 0
> Can't find valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01
> 
> Help! Thanks!
> 
> I am running Windows 98SE btw
> 
> I also tried change the number to 2 up 10 without any luck...
> 
> Any suggestions?


I'm getting this error as well

hda = original tivo drive
hdb = new tivo drive replacing original
hdd = cd rom

hard drive info: Western Digital 160GB drive

according to weaknees's guide it said to format the new drive to fat32 so i can back up my old data. so i used WD's utility CD that came with the drive. all is going well until i hit that error. any suggestions? i searched this thread and the error came up once but couldn't find a solution after it was posted

thanks


----------



## weaknees

nickadams said:


> The upgrade in the previous post was to a Maxtor Diamond Max10, 300 gb drive. Everything seemed to work fine except the "New estimated standalone size: 147 (107 more). Should be closer to 300 gb.
> 
> I used:
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
> 
> While I created a FAT partition on the new harddrive, I understand that MSFTools will write over it. I used the floppy (v. CD) software - does it not support 300 gb harddirves. One problem I did see was I have a Hughes SD-DVR40 not the HDVR2 that I thought (but the directions are the same). In any event, I understand that there are probelms with expanding the drive again (my inclination is to just try it again and see what happens). Any help is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks


We don't have a boot floppy that will boot Linux into a new enough kernel to support more than 137 GB of your destination drive. You'd need to boot off the CD and do the upgrade again to get that.

Also, the software instructions should be the same for the SD-DVR40 and the HDVR2.


----------



## weaknees

w1n78 said:


> I'm getting this error as well
> 
> hda = original tivo drive
> hdb = new tivo drive replacing original
> hdd = cd rom
> 
> hard drive info: Western Digital 160GB drive
> 
> according to weaknees's guide it said to format the new drive to fat32 so i can back up my old data. so i used WD's utility CD that came with the drive. all is going well until i hit that error. any suggestions? i searched this thread and the error came up once but couldn't find a solution after it was posted
> 
> thanks


Can you see the newly formatted FAT32 drive from the Windows side?


----------



## w1n78

weaknees said:


> Can you see the newly formatted FAT32 drive from the Windows side?


i didn't want to boot it on windows. i figured it out. there was a post by slaponte to create a "dos" directory and it worked. i'm now in the step where it restores the data from original tivo drive to new. if i have the 80GB tivo drive, how long will it take to transfer it over to my new 160GB. it's been an hour and it's only at 15%, is this normal?

thanks for the help


----------



## weaknees

15% in an hour can be right if you are transferring with recordings. Our systems here generally move a bit faster, but they've been tuned for that type of transfer.


----------



## w1n78

weaknees said:


> 15% in an hour can be right if you are transferring with recordings. Our systems here generally move a bit faster, but they've been tuned for that type of transfer.


wow, so i'm looking at about 6 hour process  lol oh well. thanks for the great guide and help :up:

will post if more problems arise


----------



## weaknees

Sometimes we do copies from HR10s which have 250 GB drives - they take overnight. Hang in there!


----------



## nickadams

Got the CD to boot - works great. Thanks Weaknees.


----------



## w1n78

weaknees said:


> Sometimes we do copies from HR10s which have 250 GB drives - they take overnight. Hang in there!


ya to transfer from 80GB to 160GB, it took 11.5 hours. well worth it, now i have 173 hours of recording time :up: only thing is, i missed a whole day of show 

thanks again for the great guide weaknees. if anyone runs into the same error i did, just create a new directory on the new drive and do the rest there


----------



## weaknees

Sherminator - 

Glad to hear it - what model is it?


----------



## dtebbe

These instructions are outstanding! Used them for my HD upgrade and they were flawless! Top notch service!

DT


----------



## jwardm2

Maybe this goes without saying, and so no one has, but is there any point to doing a backup and restore everything when moving to a new TIVO? If you have to run clear and delete everything won't you lose it all anyway?

If that's true, the weaknees instructions could warn you when that combo is selected. Might save some confusion.

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

jwardm2 said:


> Maybe this goes without saying, and so no one has, but is there any point to doing a backup and restore everything when moving to a new TIVO? If you have to run clear and delete everything won't you lose it all anyway?
> 
> If that's true, the weaknees instructions could warn you when that combo is selected. Might save some confusion.
> 
> Thanks


When we talk about making a backup of your TiVo's OS, we are generally not talking about backing up your programming.


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## slaponte

As one who has done this, it seems not to be worth the effort. I now have the original 80 with an added 300, but I might just buy a 420 and leave the one drive in there.

Is it doable? Yes. Is it worth the hassle? Probably not. Unless you really feel you need to have two 400Gb drives in there or something like that.


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## gobucks100

In the link below, I documented my 40g to 250g upgrade of my hdvr2. I had several problems along the way but eventually got there. I had a few problems with the weaknees boot disc which I document in detail in the link but I was eventually able to complete the task. If anybody has any ideas on what was causing the problems and any solutions, it would be great to know. I searched for the problems I has having and found others who had similar problems but not much discussion on resolving the problem. 

board wont let me put a link in yet so you will need to edit the below link into your browser to see.

tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=257041


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## wlewis

About a year ago, I upgraded my dtv series 1 phillips 6000 to a 160gb drive. All was working well until last week when the picture began to freeze, and a unplug/plug reboot would sometimes get stuck at the powering up screen. I was able to pick up a new seagate replacement drive at circuit city for $50 after rebates, and went to work to replace the drive. When restoring the old to new, however, I kept getting an error message indicating that the new drive did not have enough space. Finally got the following command to work...

mfsbackup - Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdb

No "x" option on the mfsrestore. All seemed to work ok, and the process completed in about 3 hours. Everything is back up and running again. I have not seen any other post without the "x" option. Can anyone confirm that this is a valid copy, or might I see problems??

gracias...


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## slaponte

If you went from a 160Gb to another 160, you didn't need the -x. The -x is to expand after a restore to utilize extra space. But if you restore a 160 to a 160 then there isn't any extra space, so no harm done.

If you had gone from a 160Gb to a 300Gb lets say, then you would need to expand to use the extra gigs...

Also, just a note but "-s 127" creates a 127Mb Swap space. With a 160Gb drive you only need about 80Mb.. so there is a few MB kind of "wasted" there but no harm done. And what is 47Mb in a 160Gb disk? Peanuts!


----------



## wlewis

slaponte, thanks for the confirmation on the command. And yes, it was a 160 --> 160 transfer. All continues to work well. 

As far as I understand, the series 1 dtivos are limited to 137G. Is there anyway around this limitation? As you noted... It's a little frustrating to have that wasted space.

Also appreciate the pointer about reducing the swap space. If I get another harddrive failure, I'll be sure to setup the nest with ~80M.


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## slaponte

The real question is not the Series 1, is it "does my version of software support LBA48". If you post the model and version of software, many here can tell you if it can go > 137 or not.


----------



## wlewis

Thanks for the info... I've got a Phillips DSR6000R with 3.1.0c.


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## slaponte

Minds more informed than mine on S1s, can you verify if 3.1.0c supports LBA48??


----------



## cassiusdrow

From what I've seen, all S1s require hacking (kernel upgrade) to support LBA48.


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## dminches

In the instructions it asks "Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive:"? Is this for the drive in the computer that I using to create the TiVo drive or is this for the new drive itself? I am running XP on a computer that's about 1 year old. How do I check to see if I have a FAT partition?


----------



## azitnay

They're talking about the drive in the computer you're using to perform the upgrade (your Windows XP drive).

To find out if you're using FAT or NTFS, go To My Computer, right-click on C:, and click Properties. Look for "File system".

Drew


----------



## dminches

Thanks for the response. One more question. The instructions ask "Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another." I assume the answer is "no" if you I am replacing the drive in one Directivo machine as opposed to moving the drive from one Directivo to another. Am I correct?


----------



## tibo

upgrade went smooth as silk, only took about 45 minutes start to finish thanks to weaknees... kudo's guys, much better results this time. My first attempt was using hinsdales instuction and I pooched an 80GB maxtor, now it will only format and recognize 12GB.

the only thing I was concened with was the 127 swap size, I upgraded to a 250GB and had to get out a calculator to make sure it was right and of course the quick scramble to the forums after the first set of error msg's after you run the 
mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt command (really need to warn people about that) I damn near had a stoke

Thanks again.

220 hours of couch potato fun


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## Bunny

I have an hr10-250 which I upgraded a couple of months ago with 2 seagate 400gb drives. Unfortunately, at the time the whole swap file discussion had not started yet. As far as I know, I have a 127mb swap file, whereas I understand it shoul be 400mb. I have not seen the GSOD but I do suffer from the occasional stutter, which I think may be related to the swap file size. I can redo the whole procedure again but I rather not want to lose my recordings and I do not have a couple of spare masssive drives to backup to. Is there any other way to do this without doing backup and restore?

Thanks!


----------



## slaponte

Hi Bunny. Answered on the swap thread. Yes, you should have 400Mb. No, I don't think you can resize without backup/restore.


----------



## Bunny

Thanks, Sergio. Was afraid that was the case. I may be able to get the contents down to some 300GB and then with some compression may be able to backup to reasonable size. I guess that mpeg2 content does not compress well, right?

Patrick


----------



## tibo

talking about swap size, I thought the 127mb was for anything upto 250GB drive, but the standard is 1mb for every 2GB, if thats the case, then should the swap file not be 200 on a 400GB drive...

I think I am lost and confused on this whole swap issue


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## HomeUser

tibo, you have it correct 200M for a 400G drive or 400M for 800G (2X400G) drives


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## scooterboy

Ok, I really want to use the Weaknees CD to upgrade a Humax DRT800 to a 300 gb drive, but I need help with TPIP. I want to take Sergio's advice and "copy" TPIP to my FAT32 hard drive but I have no idea how (don't know linux).

I have booted with the PTV CD (which has TPIP), and have mounted the CD-ROM drive and the FAT32 drive using the following:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mkdir /mnt/cd
mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cd

What's the exact command I need to copy TPIP to the FAT32 drive? 

Thanks for any help.


----------



## tibo

HomeUser said:


> tibo, you have it correct 200M for a 400G drive or 400M for 800G (2X400G) drives


hehehe... I missed the whole 2X drive issue...


----------



## azitnay

scooterboy said:



> Ok, I really want to use the Weaknees CD to upgrade a Humax DRT800 to a 300 gb drive, but I need help with TPIP. I want to take Sergio's advice and "copy" TPIP to my FAT32 hard drive but I have no idea how (don't know linux).
> 
> I have booted with the PTV CD (which has TPIP), and have mounted the CD-ROM drive and the FAT32 drive using the following:
> 
> mkdir /mnt/dos
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
> mkdir /mnt/cd
> mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cd
> 
> What's the exact command I need to copy TPIP to the FAT32 drive?
> 
> Thanks for any help.


I'm not too familiar with the PTVupgrade CD, but I'd assume tpip is either /bin/tpip or /usr/bin/tpip. So, since your FAT32 partition is mounted at /mnt/dos, you'll want:

cp /bin/tpip /mnt/dos

or

cp /usr/bin/tpip /mnt/dos

However, why do you want to use the WeaKnees CD instead of the PTVupgrade CD? They're both LBA48-compatible, and I wasn't under the impression that the WeaKnees CD includes anything that the PTVupgrade CD doesn't.

Drew


----------



## scooterboy

azitnay said:


> However, why do you want to use the WeaKnees CD instead of the PTVupgrade CD? They're both LBA48-compatible, and I wasn't under the impression that the WeaKnees CD includes anything that the PTVupgrade CD doesn't.


Just because I've done all my previous upgrades with Weaknees instructions, so I'm comfortable with it. No other reason.

Thanks for the copy info! 

Edit to add: your copy info worked perfectly - upgrade complete. Thanks again.


----------



## tivoupgrade

scooterboy said:


> Just because I've done all my previous upgrades with Weaknees instructions, so I'm comfortable with it. No other reason.
> 
> Thanks for the copy info!
> 
> Edit to add: your copy info worked perfectly - upgrade complete. Thanks again.


FYI, our CD is constructed to be compatible with both the Weaknees and Hinsdale guides.


----------



## slaponte

Note : the idea was to use the TPIP from the web (V1.2) instead of the one on the CD. So what I did is boot on my regular PC, download, extract the TPIP, and copied that (in Windows) to where my image backups are. SO I have a dir

C:\tivobak\image40.bak

and now I also have

C:\tivoutil\tpip

THen, when I go back to boot from the Linux CD, and I mount my DOS drive, the newer TPIP is there.

All that said, the old one (V1.1) works as well.


----------



## Philly Bill

tivoupgrade said:


> FYI, our CD is constructed to be compatible with both the Weaknees and Hinsdale guides.


I've done ALL my drive upgrades using Weaknees instructions and PTVupgrades CD. Works great!


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## slaponte

Add tpip V1.2 to the CD and the Weaknees CD would be perfect.


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## delshin

I keep getting an error unable to mount Cd 1,2,3,4,5 then it kicks out. I wonder if I have something hooked up wrong. oh Bollix, am no good at this stuff. *laugh*

*edit*
Well I am at a loss, I was about to use MFS tools 2.0 and do a DD of my old tivo drive to an old 40gig I had lying around. I can't believe it worked *laugh* But hey got my picture back, so i'm happy.


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## jmattos

I'm still a little foggy, let me work thru this here. I'm replacing the (40gb factory installed) drive in a 540040 that I bought with two drives that I pulled from my old 240040 (two 160 gb drives from weaknees). 

I have pulled the drives out of the old tivo (2x160), and plan to stick them in my windows PC, and DISCONNECT the windows C drive

My question is do I need to run through this procedure twice since I only have two available bays for hard drives in my computer?

the first time though connecting the 40gb drive from the 540040 as the master and the old "master" from the 240040 (160gb) and reformatting it, 

.....then he drive pulled from the 40gb drive from the 540040 as the master and the old "slave" from the 240040 (160gb #2) and reformatting IT?

the options I chose in the wizard are attached! :")


----------



## azitnay

Why do you only have two available spaces for hard drives? Computers typically have two IDE channels that can take two IDE devices each, so even with the necessary CD-ROM drive, you still have room for three hard drives. Those three can be your original 40GB and the two 160GB's.

If there really is a reason why you can't connect more than two hard drives to the computer at once, you have two options as I see it:

1) Create a backup image from the original 40GB, and burn it to a CD. Then, connect the two 160GB drives and restore from the image on the CD.

2) Connect the original 40GB and one of the 160GB's. Do a mfsbackup | mfsrestore from the 40 to the 160 without expanding. Then, power down and put the other 160 in the 40's place. Power back up and run mfsadd -x to expand and add the B drive.

I like option #1 more, as you end up with a backup image at the end, which is always recommended. I actually don't even know if #2 would work... I think it would, but since it's not really the "normal" way of doing things I don't know for sure if there are any technical limitations that would prevent the last step from expanding fully.

Drew


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## jmattos

as a follow up, is there any difference between the BASE software installed on a tivo that is designated the "primary" and the one designated a "slave" by the jumper configuration?

if not, I have no problem, I can simply do this twice, once for each drive.


----------



## weaknees

Right - you basically need two passes:

One to go from the current A drive to the new A drive (either of the drives from the old machine). You'll need the "replace with one drive" option.

Next, you need the two new drives and the "add a drive" option.


----------



## weaknees

jmattos said:


> as a follow up, is there any difference between the BASE software installed on a tivo that is designated the "primary" and the one designated a "slave" by the jumper configuration?
> 
> if not, I have no problem, I can simply do this twice, once for each drive.


Yes - it's different each time.


----------



## jmattos

weaknees said:


> Right - you basically need two passes:
> 
> One to go from the current A drive to the new A drive (either of the drives from the old machine). You'll need the "replace with one drive" option.
> 
> Next, you need the two new drives and the "add a drive" option.


okay, that makes sense. I'm actually excited to try this!


----------



## jmattos

Does the linux command I'll be issuing take care of formatting the drive? Im sure it has lots of crap on it now that I'd prefer to just overwrite.


----------



## fredfillis

azitnay said:


> Why do you only have two available spaces for hard drives? Computers typically have two IDE channels that can take two IDE devices each, so even with the necessary CD-ROM drive, you still have room for three hard drives. Those three can be your original 40GB and the two 160GB's.


Some of us great unwashed have limited 3.5 inch drive bays. I have no room to physically mount another HD in my old POS case. Not with 1 x CD, 1 x DVD, 1 x HD and 1 x Floppy. Sad but true 

I can, however, plug in the power and IDE cables and just hang that sucker in the fresh air. Works for me.


----------



## azitnay

jmattos said:


> Does the linux command I'll be issuing take care of formatting the drive? Im sure it has lots of crap on it now that I'd prefer to just overwrite.


Yes, once you use MFS Tools on a drive, it will lose anything it might have had before.

Drew


----------



## azitnay

fredfillis said:


> Some of us great unwashed have limited 3.5 inch drive bays. I have no room to physically mount another HD in my old POS case. Not with 1 x CD, 1 x DVD, 1 x HD and 1 x Floppy. Sad but true
> 
> I can, however, plug in the power and IDE cables and just hang that sucker in the fresh air. Works for me.


Yeah, don't bother actually mounting these drives during your temporary upgrade configurations... I wouldn't necessarily let them literally hang off the cables, but if you turn your case on its side you should just be able to leave them sitting on top. Just be sure to keep from shorting anything out.

Drew


----------



## bigjohn

azitnay said:


> Yeah, don't bother actually mounting these drives during your temporary upgrade configurations... I wouldn't necessarily let them literally hang off the cables, but if you turn your case on its side you should just be able to leave them sitting on top. Just be sure to keep from shorting anything out.
> 
> Drew


Last time I upgraded, I turned my PC on it's side and it overheated and emergency shutdown. All worked out well, but it was *scary*.


----------



## bidger

Is there an alternative command for <shift><page up> to confirm drive capacity because I'm not able to scroll up with that key combination?


----------



## bidger

bump


----------



## HomeUser

Ttry "cat /proc/partitions"


----------



## fizzx

> Remove the power cable and gray IDE ribbon cable from the hard drive. Also, remove the ribbon cable from the motherboard. *You may not re-use this cable*, but you should keep it either way


 - from the online upgrade guide

Why can't you reuse the IDE cable???


----------



## weaknees

Not sure which model that info is from, but generally, if you put two drives in a newer unit, you need a 3-position cable and the TiVos come with 2-position cables.


----------



## fizzx

weaknees said:


> Not sure which model that info is from, but generally, if you put two drives in a newer unit, you need a 3-position cable and the TiVos come with 2-position cables.


SeriesII 540040

I'm just doing the single drive upgrade and the above part of the guide made me wonder what was special about the tivo IDE cable.

Perhaps that should be edited for future ref?


----------



## azitnay

I think he's right, WeaKnees... If you choose 540040 and replace with one drive, it tells you that you can't use the original IDE cable, which is obviously untrue.

Drew


----------



## fizzx

Did the upgrade today based off the WeaKnees guide with tweaks for the 320GB size ... went from a 40GB drive to 320GB drive 

Story and pics on my blog http://jpowell.blogs.com/jason_powell_church_it/2005/09/diy_tivo_hard_d.html

Only 2 small issues ... couldn't get the mount right to the tpip directory ... thanks to azitnay for the ./tpip command. Then I didn't look close enough when putting the jumper on the new drive...put it in Master (with slave) instead of just Master...DOH! I felt pretty stupid after that one 

Tivo Community Rocks!

Thanks,
Jason


----------



## defucius

Hi, i am a happy new owner of a 240040, and looking forward to upgrade it with a 200g hard drive. I am a little confused on the lba48 support. Does my tivo with 7.2 software support large drivers? I read this entire thread and thought it is "yes", but weeknees instruction does not confirm it. The weeknees iso image name does not have "lba48" in it like ptvupgrade's does, either. Can somebody help we erase my doubt? 

The new drive I bought is a seagate. Does it have a quiet mode that needs to be turned on? 

Thanks.


----------



## azitnay

Yes, your TiVo running 7.2 supports LBA48.

Yes, the WeaKnees CD is just as LBA48-compatible as the PTVupgrade CD. The fact that its filename doesn't contain "lba48" is inconsequential.

Drew


----------



## defucius

Thank for the clarification, drew. 

One more question about the interactive instruction: it asks "Is your system software version older than 2.5". Is this referring to the linux kernel? If so, how do i find out? I've looked at the info screen multiple times, and did not find anything about the kernel? thanks.


----------



## nichols_eric

I have the Samsung-S4040R and performed the instructions for doing:

Replace with one drive

Do you want to make a backup: Yes 
Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive: No 
Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000: Yes 
Would you like to use a boot CD or floppy: CD 
Save or disregard recordings: Save 
Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another: No 
Do you have TiVo OS 6.2 or later? Yes 

After performing all of the steps and hooking it back, I believd that all is well. However, the only problem I have encountered is that when I go into "read new messages," the unit is unresponsive. I have left it alone for long periods of time (hrs) and nothing happens. It still records like normal, just doesn't display messages or respond to the remote. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to properly use it again.

Any ideas why this screen would give problems? I have the original drive still.


----------



## azitnay

defucius said:


> One more question about the interactive instruction: it asks "Is your system software version older than 2.5". Is this referring to the linux kernel? If so, how do i find out? I've looked at the info screen multiple times, and did not find anything about the kernel? thanks.


No, it's referring to your TiVo's software version. You've already stated you have 7.2, which is certainly not older than 2.5 .

Drew


----------



## defucius

Thanks, again. And now I am a happy 229 hours (as reported) Tivo owner! Weaknees rocks! 

Minor suggestion about the tivo version confusion: 

The wordings are different for describing the tivo software version in step 3 as seen below: 
Is your system software version older than 2.5: 
Do you have TiVo OS 7.1 or later? 

It's probably OK for most people, but it somehow leads me to think the first question is about linux kernel, and the second is about tivo software. Using the same wording and rearrange the order to have these two questions together would avoid this confusion.


----------



## weaknees

OK - edited. Thanks for the note.


----------



## nichols_eric

*bump*



nichols_eric said:


> I have the Samsung-S4040R and performed the instructions for doing:
> 
> Replace with one drive
> 
> Do you want to make a backup: Yes
> Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive: No
> Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000: Yes
> Would you like to use a boot CD or floppy: CD
> Save or disregard recordings: Save
> Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another: No
> Do you have TiVo OS 6.2 or later? Yes
> 
> After performing all of the steps and hooking it back, I believd that all is well. However, the only problem I have encountered is that when I go into "read new messages," the unit is unresponsive. I have left it alone for long periods of time (hrs) and nothing happens. It still records like normal, just doesn't display messages or respond to the remote. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to properly use it again.
> 
> Any ideas why this screen would give problems? I have the original drive still.


----------



## weaknees

Never seen that before. You could try a "Clear and delete everything" of course, but that may not be what you want. Does a dial-in change the situation?


----------



## nichols_eric

Dial-in hasn't made a difference. Maybe I f'd up one if the linux commands, but I doubt it. Bummer, but I doubt I'll bother taking it apart for this .



weaknees said:


> Never seen that before. You could try a "Clear and delete everything" of course, but that may not be what you want. Does a dial-in change the situation?


----------



## goony

I have an unhacked SD-DVR40 with V6.2 software that has the same issue - when you go to 'Messages' you get a blank screen and it hangs forever... must pull the plug to get it to recover.

I leave this box with the phone line disconnected for days... I get the 'nag' screen when going into the menus, hit the 'OK'... it's when I don't have any pending message and go into the 'Messages' screen that I get the hang. Dialing in doesn't seem to help any either.


----------



## weaknees

goony said:


> I have an unhacked SD-DVR40 with V6.2 software that has the same issue - when you go to 'Messages' you get a blank screen and it hangs forever... must pull the plug to get it to recover.
> 
> I leave this box with the phone line disconnected for days... I get the 'nag' screen when going into the menus, hit the 'OK'... it's when I don't have any pending message and go into the 'Messages' screen that I get the hang. Dialing in doesn't seem to help any either.


Unhacked as in: it's using the original 40 GB drive?


----------



## Spotty53

From what I understand,
I have a series 2 Hughes SDDVR-80 tivo os 6.2 unhacked, I want to add a 320 gig HD to the original 80. 
The kernel will NOT see anything over 137 gig? 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong. 
If true, is there a way to update my kernel?


----------



## weaknees

The kernel in 6.2 WILL see larger drives.


----------



## nichols_eric

I have to do this when I get home tonight, but I did find this when searching the web... This message seems too old (5-5-05) to be relevant now, but it can't hurt to try.

from http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv2188.htm

We are aware of an issue with TiVo DVRs that have a TiVo Service Number starting with 540 or 590 that may cause the DVR to freeze when viewing TiVo Messages. This issue is solved in the newest TiVo software version, the Summer 2005 software update. To receive this software update, go to tivo.com/priority. In order to upgrade software service, you will need your TiVo service number. (To find your TiVo service number, go to TiVo Central, Messages and Setup, and System Information.) Please note that it may take up to three days to receive your software upgrade.

tv2188


----------



## AllAboutJeeps

Thanks Weaknees! :up: :up: 

Using your guide and disk, and following Sergio (slaponte :up: ) and Drew (azitnay :up: ) instructions on TPIP, I was able to get my 40hour SA upgraded with a $99 300Gig Seagate from CircuitCity last night! I did a 

... mfsrestore -s 210 ...

figuring that if a 150 swap space would do the job, 210 would even be better  ! Very painless, now I just hope to never see a GSOD!

Thanks to you all. Looks like it is time to upgrade my signature.

...danny


----------



## betz

WootWoot!

Just took my 40hr tivo --> 340hrs using a 300GB Seagate drive for $99 from Outpost. Thanks to all who helps out on this forum. This is the first upgrade that I have done all by myself. It took me about 4hrs because I ran into some problems (burned CD incorrectly, etc). But your instructions are so easy, that even I could figure it out, and I know nothing about computer lingo (slaves, IDE, whatever). It took alot of time for me to figure it out, but I did! So THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!

:up: :up: :up: :up: :up:


----------



## DFNYC

I have upgraded a number of TIVOS for myself and friends over the years....

Bought the Upgrade kit from Weaknees and a 200GB Seagate for $49 bucks from Compusa ! Now my Stock 54040 unit is upt to 272Hrs ! Screwing the drives to the bracket took much longer than these great instructions...Couldn't be more painless !

Thanks Weaknees !


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

When I first purchased the Pioneer 810, only the 57 image would work. I replaced the stock Maxtor with a Segate 200, and somehow, everything worked.

Since then, I have had a a couple upgrades, the most recent being the v7.x (tivo to go). The unit started to freeze/lockup.

Tech Support and others said that the swap partition needed to be increased.

So, now I'm back questioning if I need the 57 image, and WHICH CD I need... and what is this about LBA vs non LBA? TPIP? Is that on the some of the CDs? I came across a 810 5.2.1a that is suppose to be expandable and will work with a large drive, but I've also been told that one MUST have the 57h image.

My latest problem is that when I try to mount the source FAT32, i get a message that the OS must be specified. 

What should the swap partion be for a 200GB, especially for the 7.x version....


----------



## azitnay

Your freezing problems could be caused by a dying hard drive.

To upgrade to a drive that's bigger than 120GB, you'll need an LBA-compatible boot CD (i.e. the one provided by PTVupgrade or WeaKnees). The original MFS Tools 2.0 CD didn't support LBA48.

The standard 127MB of swap (-s 127) should be plenty of swap for a 200GB drive. The standard is at least 1MB of swap for every 2GB of hard drive space.

If mount isn't working on your FAT32 partition, you're most likely not getting the command right (or don't really have a FAT32 partition)... Make sure you have the correct number on the end (i.e. mount /mnt/dos /dev/hda*1*).

Drew


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

azitnay:

Thanks... I thought about adding the history, but here is what I did last year, upon receiving the unit...

Using one of the LBA-compatible CD's, I did replace the original with a WD 200GB. I can't remember what the swap size was and I thought I had increased it anyway.

I'm thinking about running the WD tools to see if there are any bad blocks.

In any event, I've COPIED my content (via Tivo 2Go) over to the PC, then I did a "ERASE everything" via the settings.

I still had problems with the freezing, so I did another ERASE, to prepare for a backup, then a restore, with an increase in the swap size.

I've heard about TPIP and didn't know if there was a way that I could adjust the swap partition without having to do a restore, so I was getting ready for the worst.

Next was trying to track down an OLD version of the 57h image, which, last year, was the only option as the 810h image would not work with a larger drive. Some say that there is a 5.2.1a 810h image floating around that will work, then I would get upgraded. Even though I'm on broadband, I thought I would just try and stick to what I have, but then again, if I have a huge swap partition, the HD is good, then maybe the software load didn't take, so I should redownload it, which is why I would have to backup to a previous version.

The CD/ISO/UTIL image that I am using is "weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso", CRC32 $5D6CD04A.

Upon booting, with my 200GB WD (Tivo) as Master and my 60GB WD (PRIMARY-FAT32) as Slave, both are listed, although I thought one said [mac] when I SHIFT-PAGE-UP'ed.

Anyway, when I try to mount either one, I get a error message about a file format needed to be specified. Even when using vfat, I get the message.

I'll try more tonight, I found another sight listing "<vfat or msdos> defaults 0 2", which I'm sure indicates a primary/extended partition and which partition within the extended should be mounted, but since it's all FAT32, I'm a little stumped.

Maybe I'll change it to FAT/FAT16....

I'll pull some more hair out later tonight...
Thanks,
Mike


----------



## azitnay

Are you definitely attempting to mount the correct partition (i.e. /dev/hda1 instead of /dev/hda)? You can run:

cat /proc/partitions

to see the list of partition options.

Drew


----------



## ashu

or
dmesg |grep hda
to see which partitions were noticed at bootup on hda.


----------



## azitnay

TMTOWTDI, indeed.

Drew


----------



## ashu

Hence my sig


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

Yes, I've tried both.

I looked back at my notes from last year and here is what worked - I need to organize a little better though...

Using MFSTools 2.0 CD>

1. vi /etc/fstab
add line "/dev/hda1 /mnt ext 1 1" (or replace the 1 1 with what is directly above)

2. mount /mnt

continue with the backup/restore. I did have "mfstool backup -9so /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hd0" written down from last year...

I did a restore last night with a "-s 1024", figuring that I would OVERSWAP FTHOI....

The [mac] that was appearing was reflecting a "Apple Partition Map/Table" somewhere on the drive. I'm going to Low-Level Format the thing with SeaTools (hopefully), then redo the restore tonight, maybe a -s 512 or just be safe with a 1024 (gb) swap


----------



## LarryInAz

I'm curious if I can add a 2nd larger hard drive to a 540080 TiVo by running the BlessTiVo command and without the need of putting both the original 80gb drive along with the 200gb drive I plan on adding? The reason I ask is I'm upgrading a friends machine who lives a long distance and I was hoping to get the Twinbreeze rack from Weaknees - bless the 2nd drive in my pc at home and then going to my friends house and mount the original drive and the blessed drive on rack and put it in TiVo. 

I'm hoping this should work so I don't have to make 2 x 60 mile round trips to my friends house. 
The other option is hauling my desktop machine to their house. I can't use their computer because it's an older Compaq that is a royal PITA to pull hard drives out and put new hard drives in. That's why I'm hoping I can simply bless a drive by itself and simply pop it in with the rack.  

Thanks in advance for any feedback.


----------



## weaknees

With any standalone TiVo running 7.2, blessing isn't possible anymore. The mechanism that makes it work is different in this OS and the unit just reboots until you remove the second drive. So bring the PC . . .


----------



## LarryInAz

weaknees said:


> With any standalone TiVo running 7.2, blessing isn't possible anymore. The mechanism that makes it work is different in this OS and the unit just reboots until you remove the second drive. So bring the PC . . .


Thanks Michael, that's what I was afraid of. I was probably going to bring my desktop machine as a safety net but wanted to check anyway. My order for *another *Twinbreeze bracket is on it's way.


----------



## shibumi

weaknees said:


> With any standalone TiVo running 7.2, blessing isn't possible anymore. The mechanism that makes it work is different in this OS and the unit just reboots until you remove the second drive. So bring the PC . . .


Does this include mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdY if you're simply adding a second drive? I'm trying to do this with a 140-series that just upgraded to 7.2 and I get "powering up" over and over and over...


----------



## weaknees

No - this is what does still work. Blessing doesn't, mfsadd does.


----------



## saldunn83

Hey guys, just got tivo for the first time and i am already ready to upgrade...have a few questions. 

I am replacing my 40gb with a seagate 300gb drive in my TCD540040 running 7.2 OS

1. In the instructions when you guys refer to FAT you do mean FAT32 right?
2. I have an empty 40gig FAT32 drive..can I use that as my C drive during the process to back up the OS rather than using the 300gb drive?
3. Will i be able to easily format a 300gb drive to FAT32?..if so, will the seagate software work?
4. Is there a need for me to do anything with swap file size ive been reading about?..if so how?
5. what is TPIP and Do i have to do anything with it during this process becuase the instructions say nothing about it?
6. Would there be a need to reboot after the backup if I have all the drives connected during the original startup?


Do you guys forsee any problems that I should be prepared for?
Thanks guys for your responses!

Sal


----------



## azitnay

1) Yes, FAT32 is certainly the most common FAT partition nowadays.

2) Sure, that'll work fine.

3) You could, but you could also just use your preexisting 40GB FAT32 drive.

4) Technically, it's probably a good idea to increase the swap size beyond 127MB. Since you have a 300GB drive, 150MB is ideal.

5) If you give it more than 127MB of swap, you will have to use tpip. Search the forum for more information on how to use it.

6) I can't see why you'd have to reboot.

Drew


----------



## saldunn83

Thanks for the response, I have a few follow up questions...

If i understand you correctly, I don't have to format the 300gb hard drive if i use my old 40 for the backup?...the weakness CD does the format when i do the restore?

would I have to increase the swap file size?...what would happen if i didn't?

The reason i am asking is because even though i am a computer technician and was a comp sci major at one point, i am a windows man and my knowledge of linux at the command line is minimal since the last time i used it was 5 years ago. So I am looking for the easiest way to go through this process without screwing up my TiVo

Thanks for helping me out

EDIT: Did some more browsing...when I restore the image to the harddrive can i just use this line to increase the swap file size?...
mfsrestore *-s 150* -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdz
Can it be that simple?

Thanks


----------



## azitnay

Yes, MFS Tools 2.0 takes care of "formatting" your new TiVo hard drive when you perform the mfsrestore. It doesn't use anything like FAT32, BTW.

I can't say you absolutely have to increase the swap, since if you never see a GSOD it'll most likely not matter. Even if you do see a GSOD, it's debatable whether 127MB really isn't enough for 300GB. But if you're willing to take a couple extra seconds to run tpip, it might be worth it.

Like I said, -s 150 isn't quite all you need... You also need to run tpip. I've never had the need to run it, so I don't know the command-line off the top of my head, but a search of this forum should turn it up.

Drew


----------



## saldunn83

Ok....i think i got it now.....


----------



## Hampster

Hampster said:


> ...I finally managed to use these procedures & utilities to upgrade my 540040 from a 40GB capacity to 200GB. I replaced the drive with a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 7200RPM 200GB drive (L01P200). Seems to be working great now...
> 
> This drive is just a little noisier than the old one, but it's in my living room, so you don't really notice unless it's at night and fairly quiet. I tried to hunt down the Maxtor amset.exe utility somewhere on the Internet, but couldn't find it anywhere.





weaknees said:


> Amset is a feature of a program call setacm, and it's located here:
> 
> http://service.maxtor.com/rightnow/downloads/setacm.exe
> 
> Michael


Following up on this link (finally) about 4 months later, I downloaded setacm.exe, unzipped it, copied it to a Win98 boot floppy, and ran amset.exe on this drive. MUCH better now. Despite the comment above, after 4 months it really got to the point of driving me nuts. Someone on another thread described the sound when the drive is seeking (which is just about 24/7 on a TiVo) as like a "geiger counter." Good description. When I ran the "amset /check" command, it said the drive was set to "Performance" mode. Figures - that explains the relatively loud clicks. After setting it to "Quiet" mode, I've noticed a huge improvement in sound reduction. No more TiVo/geiger counter combo device.

The impetus to finally do this was the fact that I replaced the 40GB drive in my other 540040 with a 160GB Seagate drive, and figured I might as well fix my first upgraded TiVo while I was in the process of mucking around with TiVos and computers in general. Having been down this road before, it was a breeze & I now have tons more space to record on both TiVos. And, this Seagate sounds like it's much quieter out of the box than the Maxtor was before I tweaked it. Thanks again weaknees!


----------



## jmattos

Hey there

I've used the instructions before with great success, so I'm trying it again, but having a problem...

I bought a 540 series 40hr and immediately pulled out the drive and followed the directions for "replace a drive" (without having set up the tivo with the original drive)

after I replaced the new (200gb) in the tivo, it doesnt get past "powering up"

I have now replaced the 40hr tivo drive and am going thru the normal set up and I plan to recreate the 200gigger after that.

thoughts on this? could the 200 gig (maxtor) have arrived polluted by windows? is there a way to undo the horrible things that making a drive windows bootable does?

I never booted the computer with the 200gigger attached into windows either..

help?


----------



## meyerweb

Hi: / help
I'm trying to use the Weaknees procedures and boot CD to replace the original drive in my 24004A with a 250 GB Maxtor drive. I can't get it to work at all. (I've also tried using the new drive to create a backup and save my old recordings without sucess. At this point, I'm willing to lose my old recordings, but can't get that to work either. )

I've got my new drive connected to the second master and my old drive connected to the second slave. The Win2K boot disk isn't connected at all. The messages during the Linux boot disk show the drives correctly (new as hda, old as hdb. I'm entering the following command, straight from the weaknees interactive upgrade insructions:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so -  /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

I get a full page of error messages:

Second MFS drive: No such file or directory
Second MFS drive2: illigal seek
Second MFS drive: No such file or directory
Second MFS drive3: illegal seek
mfs_load_volume_header: Total Sectors (79358967) mismatch with volume header (569569280)
mfs_load_volume_header: loading anyway
mfs_load_zone_map: Primary zone map corrupt, loading backup
mfs_load_zone_map: Secondary zone map corrupt, giving up
mfs-load-zone_map: zone map checksum error
mfsbackup: backup failed to startup. Make sure you specified the right devices and that drives are not locked
restore failed: -: Success

Can anyone tell me what the problem might be?

Thanks.

edit ==> corrected a typo and put the "-" in the proper place in the command.


----------



## JamieP

meyerweb said:


> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda


Your mfsbackup command line is saying to write the backup onto /dev/hdb. Is that what you intended? It looks like you dropped the "-" which says to write the backup to stdout.


----------



## meyerweb

Oops, that's a typo. I did include the "-" before the /dev/hdb. And I checked it very carefully before hitting the enter key:


----------



## JamieP

meyerweb said:


> Oops, that's a typo. I did include the "-" before the /dev/hdb. And I checked it very carefully before hitting the enter key:


The symptoms still look to me like a botched command line. I'd put the original drive back in the tivo to test to be sure it works. Then I'd try following the instructions again, taking the path that preserves recordings, if that's what you want to do. Be extremely careful to avoid typos.


----------



## jmattos

omg im so embarassed it was a jumper setting. thank you all


----------



## DaveLessnau

meyerweb said:


> I've got my new drive connected to the second master and my old drive connected to the second slave. The Win2K boot disk isn't connected at all. The messages during the Linux boot disk show the drives correctly (new as hda, old as hdb. I'm entering the following command, straight from the weaknees interactive upgrade insructions:
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so -  /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda


I don't know if it makes a difference with Linux, but are there supposed to be spaces between those dashes and /dev/hdb and /dev/hda? IOW, is it:

... -/dev/hdb | ... -/dev/hda

or

... - /dev/hdb | ... - /dev/hda

EDIT: Never mind. From other posts, I figured out that either the spaces are supposed to be there or it doesn't matter. Sorry.


----------



## miadlor

I can't seem to find the break-down...............

What does the -r do again? I forgot exactly.
Does anyone have the key for mfs tools........I can't find it.


----------



## DaveLessnau

miadlor said:


> I can't seem to find the break-down...............
> 
> What does the -r do again? I forgot exactly.
> Does anyone have the key for mfs tools........I can't find it.


There might be something more recent, but from the archives here's a link to a thread I started years ago on it ("MFSTools 2.0 Parameters?"):

http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=82204


----------



## HomeUser

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2651877&&#post2651877



> -r n (Mis-labeled -X in the usage, but -r is the actual parameter it looks for)
> This specifies the scale for allocation block size in the partitions added with -x. A value of 0 is identical to what TiVo would use, and specifies 1mb blocks. 1 would be 2mb, 3 is 4mb, and 4 is 8mb. My theory was by reducing this number it would reduce the RAM requirement of things like GSOD (Allowing it to run without increased swap) and let menus and such run faster with more RAM available for other things. In practice, I'm not sure if it really does either of those things. Presently the default is 2 (4mb) but I am likely to change that to 0.


----------



## miadlor

Thanks!


----------



## matt_auer

I'm doing what should be a simple ungrade. 
Replacing 40 gig factory with 160 gig new drive

I created the Boot CD I downloaded from Weaknees website and my PC boots from the CD but gets the 4 lines with error messages like:
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe etc, etc

When I issue the MFSBACKUP command, I get the same error message.

I burned 4 more boot CDs but all have the same bootup error.
Is there a special way to burn the boot CD or is does this error mean something else?


----------



## SteelersFan

Just to make sure I am clear (I am a bit of a noob with upgrading but have done much reading):
1) I think I read that disconnecting the PC HD is safest, true?
2) If so, I will make the original Tivo drive hda and the new drive hdb, correct?
3) The directions for this setup aren't clear for how and when to shut down and power down when the upgrade is done. Do I do a CRTL+ALT+DEL and power off the PC?

BTW, here is my setup:
DTivo DSR704
Replacing 1 original HD with 1 new HD
Backup - No
FAT - No
Win XP - Yes
CD or floppy - CD
Save recordings - Yes
Move Tivo SW - No
OS 6.2 - Yes

Any help is much appreciated.


----------



## azitnay

1) Yes, if you don't need the PC hard drive for anything for the upgrade, disconnect it.

2) That's fine.

3) The standard Linux "halt" command is one way to halt the system.

Drew


----------



## mportuesi

Just wanted to write and say "thanks" for the instructions. I just upgraded my three-year old 240080 Series2 unit. I replaced the stock 80GB drive with a Western Digital 250GB drive, and the upgrade went flawlessly, including transferring all my settings, season passes, and recorded shows onto the new disk.

Advice for first-time upgraders: start at the END of the discussion threads and work backwards when looking for information. Some of these threads have been around a while, and the beginnings of some threads have out-of-date info.


----------



## SteelersFan

How do I know when it is done with the upgrade? After I typed my command line it went to work for only a couple of minutes (I'm saving my old recordings) and now it is sitting at Weaknees#. Is this right? I didn't seem to get any errors.

Edit: I must have had a typo in the command line somewhere. It is now backing up and it looks like it will take a while (37963MB).


----------



## SteelersFan

Well, it was very successful in the end but not without me learning a few things. I didn't know my older PC (PIII) couldn't detect large drives (I have a 40 GB original and a 120GB new drive). The second thing I learned was that on my newer PC (P4 with 2 CD drives), I needed to put the bootable CD in the master CD drive not the slave. After I got those things squared away, it took all of 2 minutes plus 6 1/2 hours of transfer time. As you might guess this was my first time doing anything other than dropping a preconfigured drive into one of my other units. Anyway, I thought this info might benefit someone new like me.


----------



## Christian Dad

I used the Weeknees interactive website and it went smoothly.

I reconnected and powered up the Series 2 540 40 hour (now 189 hour), and it resets repeatedly. I get through the "sunrise" powering up screen, I get into the "just a few more minutes" screen, and then it reports that an error has been detected and it will take about three hours to fix, and not to unplug it. I figure this is TiVo detecting the new drive.

Withing a few seconfs, though, it resets.

*HELP!!!*


----------



## melgar

Hi,

I started with a 40 Gb 24004A system about 1.5 years ago. I upgraded it to dual 160 Gb drives (320 hrs  ) soon thereafter. One of the 160's is starting to fail...well really it's just plain failing  . I want to upgrade again.

I've reinstalled the original 40 Gb drive into the 24004A and have upgraded the OS to TiVo 7.2.

Can I now get more than 320 hrs. using Weaknees' "weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso" and do I need to follow the directions for a model 540xx machine or do the directions for the 24004A work as well?

I've got a 200 Gb and a 160 Gb that I want to install.

Also, I've got a backup of my original 40 Gb on a CD-ROM. The OS on that version is 4.x, I think.

To use the 200 Gb and the 160 Gb to their full capacity, do I need to use the now 7.2 OS upgraded original TiVo drive, or will it work with the backup of the original as well?

TIA for any help,
Michael


----------



## azitnay

Yes, your 240 unit will need software version 7.x to take advantage of the full capacity of the hard drives.

Since you might not be able to pull a valid backup image off the current drive pair, you can always restore the 4.x image you have to a single drive without expanding, then let it download 7.x, and then add the second drive and expand to use the full capacity. It might also be a good idea to make a 7.x backup at that point, since you won't have to worry about doing that annoying dance ever again with a 7.x backup.

Drew


----------



## melgar

Thanks...Did a back up of the original 40Gb drive after TiVo OS had upgraded to 7.2. Then I did the 2 drive upgrade of that, a 160Gb and a 200Gb drive. TiVo is back up and running with no hiccups. And I'm looking at 417hrs recording capacity...WOOHOO! Thanks azitnay for your help and to Weaknees for a helpful upgrade guide & software download...



azitnay said:


> Yes, your 240 unit will need software version 7.x to take advantage of the full capacity of the hard drives.
> 
> Since you might not be able to pull a valid backup image off the current drive pair, you can always restore the 4.x image you have to a single drive without expanding, then let it download 7.x, and then add the second drive and expand to use the full capacity. It might also be a good idea to make a 7.x backup at that point, since you won't have to worry about doing that annoying dance ever again with a 7.x backup.
> 
> Drew


----------



## daflea

Hi, I'm upgrading a Hughes Series 2 from a 40 to a 200GB drive. When I run the lba_boot CD, I get through recognizing all drives down to 

Partition check:
hda:

At that point, it just hangs. I can't type anything at that point. Any reason for that? I could use mfstools 2.0, but want to get the whole 200GB in use... Thanks!


----------



## azitnay

I don't know, but you could use the following CD as an alternative to try:

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/index.html

Drew


----------



## hunters

I have a previously upgraded through weeknees a 2 hard drive 10-250. It now reboots and stutters ALL THE TIME. I've been putting off the inevitable...one of the hd's is dying. So my question is how would I make a good image of my tivo and restore it to 2 working hard drives. I've looked through a lot of directions online, but none have really explained what to do about my particular situation with an exsisting bad hard drive. Any help would be fantastic. 

Thanks


----------



## azitnay

You can attempt an mfsbackup of the drive pair, but it may or may not work due to the failing drive.

I'm assuming you don't have the original drive that came with your unit? Obviously, you could get an image off that.

Worst-case, you can PM StanSimmons to see if he knows of an image for your unit, or purchase InstantCake from http://www.ptvupgrade.com/.

Drew


----------



## hunters

Drew, The original drive that came with the unit is one of the drives in the unit. I added a 2nd hd. 

I've already PM'd Stan for an image.


----------



## Fezzix

I'm trying to update a Series 2 4008A from 80gigs to 250. I burned the weaknees CD and boot up fine, but when I do the command nothing happens. I've checked the directions on tivo.upgrade-instructions and put in the command mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc and it just sits there. Any advise? I'm stuck. Thanks.


----------



## azitnay

Does it just hang (requiring you to break the command), or does it immediately return to the prompt without displaying anything?

Have you verified that the old drive is definitely connected as primary slave, and the new drive is definitely connected as secondary master? What happens when you run:

mfsinfo /dev/hdb

?

You could always try the PTVupgrade CD instead.

Drew


----------



## Fezzix

It was just going right back to the prompt. So I burned the PTVupgrade disc and it went through ok. 282 hours . The best part was I got the drive changed before it failed, as I could hear it clicking and the TiVo was hanging at times. Seems to have full functionality, so it seems to be fine now. Thanks for the advise, not only directly but in all the previous posts.


----------



## jd043053

I am having trouble getting my weeknees boot CD to boot up. I keep getting a boot failure notice. 
I may have not burned it correctly (ie .iso) 
I have another upgrade disc from 'TIVO Companion'. It boots up fine, but is not set up for large drives. I used it previously and it cuts off at 137GB. Only 161 hrs on 250GB drive. 
Anyone have suggestions on either using 'Tivo Companion' to get full 250GB or help with weeknees Boot problem?
BTW - I have BASIC computer skills - take me gently- thanks


----------



## azitnay

Did you burn the .iso as a file to a data CD by mistake? You can find out by putting the CD in while you're in Windows, and seeing if the .iso is just sitting on it as a single file.

If a Linux-based boot CD has only utilized 137GB in the past, it most likely uses a non-LBA48-compatible kernel, and thus it isn't worth worrying about how to make it LBA48-compatible.

Drew


----------



## jd043053

Ok Thanks!

Now I have a bootable CD of weaknees, recognizing my 250GB HD, but now I am getting a 'No CD-ROM Found' after "trying to mount CD-ROM" tries 1-5. ??????

also, the linux commands printed from the upgrade site show spaces in the commands (mount /dev/hdw1 /mnt) I am just guessing NO spaces, right?


----------



## SteelersFan

jd043053 said:


> Ok Thanks!
> 
> Now I have a bootable CD of weaknees, recognizing my 250GB HD, but now I am getting a 'No CD-ROM Found' after "trying to mount CD-ROM" tries 1-5. ??????
> 
> also, the linux commands printed from the upgrade site show spaces in the commands (mount /dev/hdw1 /mnt) I am just guessing NO spaces, right?


Type the commands exactly as they are shown in the instructions, including spaces.


----------



## hawkeye1991

Hi, 

HDVR2. Tryting to replace the 40G drive with 120.

Trying to maintain only one drive

I connected the 120 drive to the primary master (to which my C drive was attached b4)

I'll boot from the CD and instruct to restore to hda. I'll have the jumper on the master (will cable select work?)

Will this work, or do I need to have the C drive on my computer acccesible? 

Thanks for the patience.

chuck.


----------



## azitnay

Assuming you're just doing a direct copy from the 40 to the 120, you don't need your C drive connected for anything in particular.

If you have an image stored on the C drive, though, that's a different story.

Drew


----------



## hawkeye1991

Thanks FOr your response

The only image I have is for the SD dVR-80 ona cd. How dO I go about it? Do I need a HDVR2 image or will I be able to use the image I have. 

If I can use the image I have, how do I do it. Transfer to a C drive and then move it over?

If I can't use the image what are my options for a image which I can add some bells and whistles (no phone line requirement, usb activation etc to?)


----------



## azitnay

You said you're simply replacing the 40GB with a 120GB. You don't need an image -- just do a direct copy (mfsbackup | mfsrestore type of command) from one to the other.

Drew


----------



## alexgav

No problems. Followed the instructions provided in the first post of this thread, did "Replace a drive with a new drive" thing including a backup, and everything worked great. I also saved all of my recordings from the old drive. Went from 40+ hours to 228 hours!

One iteresting bit of info: I set my drive to do "Cable Select" thing - and it booted up and is working fine. 

I had a problem with a 160GB Western Digital drive two month ago where I tried the same thing and couldn't get passed the second screen "Almost there, just a few more minutes...". I tried to set that drive to both Master and Single mode (which are different for WD drives), and neither would work. I don't think I tried Cable Select though. Maybe that was the problem...

Anyway - everything worked perfect! The drive is kinda loud when seeking though, but I can live with it. I tried the IBM/Hitachi utiliy, and it reported that Acoustic Management was not supported. I've read somewhere on the web that Seagate may have their own utility, but haven't contacted them yet. If anyone has any 411 on that, lemme know please.

I am a happy camper!!! Thank you WeekNees. :up: :up: :up:


----------



## khyberman

I want to upgrate from fatory installed version of 5.4 to 7.1 which I beleive is necessary for recognising the USB wireless card from netgear.


Please advice on how I cna upgrade? thanks,


----------



## weaknees

Simply dialing the unit in should accomplish that. Do you have it connected to the TiVo service somehow?


----------



## azitnay

I'd put it on the 7.2.1 priority list to be sure you get the latest and greatest:

http://research.tivo.com/72.1priority/

Drew


----------



## emanuel

I successfully upgraded my TiVo series 4 from a 40 to a 120 drive. I am now trying to upgrade from the 120 to a 200. Everything looks ok except I get an error message for the kmod command.

When I give the command;

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

I get the message that the backup target isn't large enough for entire backup.

Any ideas what I did wrong? I have the 120 TiVo drive on primary master and the new 200 gig drive on primary slave.


----------



## weaknees

The problem is that you can't add another partition to the A drive here - you have already expanded it once. You'd need to do a backup without recordings so that mfstool can re-size your partitions.


----------



## emanuel

weaknees said:


> The problem is that you can't add another partition to the A drive here - you have already expanded it once. You'd need to do a backup without recordings so that mfstool can re-size your partitions.


ok, thanks for the fast answer!


----------



## Lacaramba

I'm new to this discussion group and I must admit I am amazed that you seem to have taken on the world's problem when it comes to updating Tivo's. Your patients is wonderful and I really appriciate it a lot. 

Now to my question. I am about to upgrade a HDR212 using my XP service pack 2 NTFS computer and when reading the how too you mention right after the warning about booting into XP and harming the hard drive to hit CTRL + ALT+ Del. On my machine it only brings up the task manager and does not shut down my XP machine. I guess I am confused because I think you meant to say boot the machine from the CD, not shut the machine down since your next statement is to type in a command. Hard to do that when the machine is down. I guess that part is kind of confusing to me.

WeaKnees, Michael, you guys are fabulous.

Here is what it said....

Windows 2000 and XP Notes

Booting into Windows 2000 or XP with a TiVo drive connected to your PC will overwrite key information on the TiVo drive. The TiVo drive then won't work in a TiVo. If you do run into this problem, you may be able to fix the drive using software called MakeTiVoBootable.

Also, if your boot drive is a Windows 2000 or XP drive, it may not have a FAT32 partition on it, and you'll need that for making a backup.

Hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, wait for the shutdown sequence to finish, and power down your PC. 
Issue backup and restore commands

At the prompt, issue the following command with hdZ as the location of the drive with the temporary FAT partition:

mount /dev/hdZ1 /mnt

etc.


----------



## azitnay

The instructions do look to be a little flawed with respect to the CTRL-ALT-DELETE instructions...  Typically, when you do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE in Linux, it immediately initiates a system shutdown, which stops all running processes, etc. It looks like the first CTRL-ALT-DELETE instructions may have been simply copied and pasted from the second CTRL-ALT-DELETE instructions (which pertain to shutting down the CD-booted Linux after performing the upgrade).

I know for a fact (because I just tried it) that Windows 2000 gives you a "Shut Down" option on the window that comes up after you CTRL-ALT-DELETE, so that is one legitimate way to shut down, and I'm pretty sure Windows XP has something similar. Regardless, you have to shut down Windows and boot into Linux via the boot CD to perform the upgrade.

Drew


----------



## rickbird

I am stumped. I bought a new TiVo box with a 40 GB hard drive. I paid my $299 lifetime subscription. Then, I bought a new Maxtor 300 GB PATA hard drive, a new Seagate 300 GB PATA hard drive, and a Weaknees bracket.

I ran through the Hinsdale instructions but the software recommended would not copy the image to my Windows XP hard drive. After carefully reading, I realized that I needed a FAT32 drive so I flipped a new hard drive in my PC and formatted it with FAT32. The software copied the TiVo backup perfectly.

I then copied the files to the two 300 GB hard drives and installed the bracket with the hard drives in my new 540 Series 2 TiVo box. The system goes through the "Welcome..." screen, and then the "Almost there..." screen, then it shows a green error screen for about 30 seconds and then it reboots.

After reading the threads, I figured that one of the two hard drives was bad, even though both passed the hard drives' utility tests. So, I copied the image on the Maxtor drive alone and installed it in the TiVo box. It worked perfectly. I then copied the image on the Seagate hard drive alone and installed it in the TiVo box and *it* worked perfectly. Both hard drives work perfectly if they are installed alone.

I re-installed the image on the two drives with the Maxtor as the A drive and the Seagate as the B drive. The rebooting started immediately after I installed the drives. I re-installed the image on the two drives with the Seagate as the A drive and the Maxtor as the B drive. The rebooting continued...

I flipped the jumper to be Master/Slave and the rebooting continued... I flipped the jumpers to be Cable Select/ Cable Select and the rebooting continues...

I am at my wits end. My wife thinks that I am nuts for devoting so much time to upgrading the new TiVo box. I guess that I just want to brag about having over 600 hours on my new machine... Maybe I'm just nuts...  

Any ideas?


----------



## weaknees

I think the problem is the "-r 4" switch. If you are still using the Hinsdale instructions at this point, you should try ours (maybe you have since you've posted here, but that would fix this problem).

Basically, without the "-r 4" the mfsadd software will only work properly with partitions up to about 250 GB. So one drive has 40 GB worth of original partitions copied from your factory drive, plus one partition set of around 240 GB (most 300 GB drives are actually about 279GB). 

When you add the second drive, mfsadd is choking because it is trying to deal with a partition larger than 250 GB. That's why the unit won't boot.


----------



## chalooch101

anyone know of any special holiday coupon codes to be used at weakness.com for replacement hard drive purchases? thanks and happy holidays


----------



## rickbird

687 hours on my TiVo!!!!! Oh yea!!!! Thank you very much!!! The correct command to restore the backup was mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd for my setup.

Even though I purchased the upgrade bracket from Weaknees, I was using the Hinsdale instructions because I couldn't find instructions on Weaknees.com. Since you mentioned that the instructions existed, I carefully searched your site and found this link: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Your instructions are awesome! Thank you for the quick response and the assistance. This is my second upgrade using Weaknees bracket kits. You provide high quality products and I appreciate the quick support! Thank you Weaknees!

687 hours of recording time! I love it!!!!!


----------



## Dimarc67

Hi.

I'd like to replace the 40GB WD drive in my Series2 (240040). The factory drive bearings are singing away, and since this is the box in my bedroom, I'd really like to quiet things down. I already happen to have another brand new 40GB WD (Caviar SE), so we're talking a straight swap, and I'd like to copy all of the recordings to the new drive as well. Obviously, the procedure would be text-book, except...

Here's where I get a little stuck:
The only computer I own is an IBM laptop, including a dock with an available PCI slot. I've installed a PCI EIDE card in the slot, and connected the old and new TiVo drives as individual masters on each of the two new IDE channels (original TiVo drive is on channel 1). Since this is basically adding two IDE channels on top of what's already in the laptop, and if I understand Linux's drive assignment nomenclature, I would expect the two drives to be hde and hdg. However, they're not showing up in the bootup output. The only drives listed are the internal hard drive C: and the CD-ROM (hda and hdc, respectively).

It's really odd because the extra two IDE channels are listed in the information--hde through hdh, as predicted--it's just not seeing the drives. Perhaps a driver is needed for the extra IDE card?

At this point, I'm pretty resigned to having to lug the drives into work and using a desktop computer there, but I'd love to understand what might be the issue at home.

Thanks!

David
New York, NY


----------



## HomeUser

Try a different boot CD

This short thread might be of some use 
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3055345&&#post3055345


----------



## Dimarc67

Thanks.


----------



## jeff125va

Is there a way to use these instructions to replace my A drive in my HR10-250, which seems to be failing? I added a 300GB Maxtor Quickview drive from Weaknees, and that seems to be fine. I'd like to preserve my recordings and/or my SPs, etc., but could live without them. If not, where can I figure out how to do that?


----------



## jrn

I had my hard drive fail. I have purchased a new drive to put in it and have downloaded the instructions from the web but I can not see where to can get an image to load on the drive. If the old drive was readable I could use that but it is not. I guess I could order an imaged drive or it appears I can send it it to be imaged but that seems a bit pricey. Is there a place to get the image and do it myself?


----------



## weaknees

You can try here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=62430


----------



## jlee3

I just used your excellent instructions and your bracket to add a 300 GB B drive to my HR10-250 which had a pretty full A drive. How long should it take to boot up. I have been on the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen for 1/2 hour.
Thanks,


----------



## jlee3

Thanks very much for the suggestion but I found the problem. I had the wrong drive in the A position. Extremely stupid pilot error.


----------



## weaknees

metalremains said:


> I ran into some errors when trying to backup my current shows to a bigger hdd using the guide. I didn't find it listed anywhere but all the errors went away (and the backup/restore is going on right now) once I set a raw partition on the new hdd, no formating required. Does this sound correct?
> 
> So new at this, tia.
> 
> metalrms


Do you know what the errors were?

The mfstools software overwrites any partitions when it restores . . .


----------



## MickeS

Hi all, thanks for an easy-to-use and well-written interactive guide. I have a question though!

I used it last week to upgrade my AT&T 230040 from 40+120GB drives to a 300 GB drive.
Everything went fine, and it was easy. I used this command line:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd 

However, afterwards I read on the board about the "-s" tag being for swap file space, and that it needed to be at least 1 MB per 2 GB of storage. That would mean at least 150 in my case. I didn't see anything in the instructions about that though. Is that not required in these instructions because of some other command line attribute, or is it an oversight? Is there anything I can do now to change it? DO I even need to change it?

Thanks!

/Mike


----------



## azitnay

It's only required if the machine ever goes into a GSOD (green screen of death) to try to repair itself. Even then, 127MB -might- be enough for your size drive (hard to say for sure).

The WeaKnees instructions seem to ignore this fact, and a lot of people agree that it's not a huge issue... If you do want to fix the swap, you'll have to look into a utility called tpip, because mfsrestore can't create a correct 150MB swap header on its own.

Drew


----------



## Lannister80

azitnay said:


> It's only required if the machine ever goes into a GSOD (green screen of death) to try to repair itself. Even then, 127MB -might- be enough for your size drive (hard to say for sure).
> 
> The WeaKnees instructions seem to ignore this fact, and a lot of people agree that it's not a huge issue... If you do want to fix the swap, you'll have to look into a utility called tpip, because mfsrestore can't create a correct 150MB swap header on its own.
> 
> Drew


Under what circumsances would a GSOD appear on a TiVo that had previously been working OK? I've heard about lots of people getting them right after they do an upgrade or a hack or something, but once your TiVo is in an (apparently) stable state, can it randomly go bonkers like that? And if so, what kinds of repairs is it attempting?


----------



## azitnay

The most common occurrence of a GSOD is probably due to hard drive failure, in which case it can be argued that a GSOD loop is the least of your worries. However, I have heard it triggering after software upgrades as well, so I suppose the swap problem can't be totally overlooked if a software upgrade on an otherwise-fine system can potentially trigger a GSOD.

You can think of a GSOD like chkdsk or ScanDisk... Fixing up problems with the filesystem.

Drew


----------



## MickeS

Thanks for the reply. Will look into tpip!


----------



## JELaVallee

Hi,

I've used the WeaKnees guide to upgrade two of my HDVR2 systems from 40GB to 120GB. I was helping a coworker do the same over the holiday using one of my original Tivo 6.2 stock 40GB drives as the source drive, we ran into a problem with the source drive becoming unreadable. Here's the setup:

/dev/hda - Original Tivo 6.2 40GB drive (Primary Master pin set)
/dev/hdb - empty
/dev/hdc - CD-ROM drive (Secondary Master pin set)
/dev/hdd - New Tivo Target 120GB drive (Secondary Slave pin set)

I booted to the CD/linux prompt just fine then ran msfinfo on /dev/hda and it reported fine with (~)40 hour capacity.

Then I ran this command:


Code:


mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | msfrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

As per the instructions on the WeaKnees guide.

This ran for somewhere around 7 hours, but around 80% of completion, the original Tivo 40GB drive started making very "crunchy" seek/read noises for a good 10 minutes (~1%) and then stopped. Then around 97.5% it started up again. This time, actual errors were reported to the effect of "I/O error while reading device on IDE(0): /dev/hda2 not ready" (paraphrasing here) for /dev/hda2, hda4, and hda6. At one point it appeared to recover (and the noise stopped) but then went right back into it... Finally the whole operation failed.

When I ran mfsinfo on hda again, it could not read the device at all. When I ran it on the new drive it reported that the drive was Tivo ready but only for 40 hours suggesting that the mfsrestore process never got to the "x" expansion process.

Subsequent attempts to reboot/remount /dev/hda have been unsuccessful with the drive now making a regular intermittent "screach-screach-long-pause" sound which suggests to me complete read failure.

So, my questions are:

Is the mfsbackup|mfsrestore process intensive enough to cause an weakened drive to completely fail?
Is the second drive recoverable other than just re-running the upgrade with another source drive or an InstantCake solution?
Did I screw something up in my drive positioning/config?

Anyway, I'll probably revert to using an InstantCake CD now (as I have several friends/coworkers with HDVR2's who all want either expansion or enhancements) but just was looking for feedback on this and other's experience with disk failures.

Cheers,
Etienne


----------



## Castyn

I selected an upgrade to a larger drive on my 40 hour tivo. I wanted to keep the season passes and recordings. After putting in:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (I used the right drive names)

It backed up the tivo drive, then the screen went blank and has stayed that way for quite a while. Is this normal or should I reboot the computer and hope for the best? Your guide worked perfectly up until this point of my confusion.

Thanks!


----------



## HomeUser

Screen saver, Press the "Any Key"


----------



## blacksurfer

Weeknees,

I have a Philips DSR704 (bought as a reburb on Ebay six months ago) and yesterday the picture froze and the drive was making a clicking sound. I unplugged it and it froze on "powering up", I unplugged it again and read here for about an hour and plugged it in and did a complete erase and it seems to be working. 

But after reading here, I would like to replace the drive (it's the 35 hr drive) with an 80 or 160 hour drive from you. I noticed your drives are all ready for install with no PC necessary. Do you sell the same drives cheaper if I wanted to install the software myself in my FAT32 PC?


----------



## rvahoviak

HI trying to upgrade my drive using Mfs Tools 2.0. Have the original TIVO in Primary Master and New Blank drive in Primary slave. Jumpers seem correct for everything. When booting up the Mfs Tools 2.0 in the cd-rom it recognizes all the drives and them tries to mount the cd-rom a few times and failes. Then it cannot find the commands when I try and run the mfsbackup... command. Any suggestions? Thanks.


----------



## HomeUser

The CD could be bad. 
If you have an add-on IDE card check this message
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3649790&&#post3649790


----------



## 2004raptor

I haven't read through the entire thread (yet) so if any of this has already been covered, I apologize.
My plans are to eventually upgrade 2 tivos. One is mine, the other belongs to someone else.
Regarding my upgrade, i believe the best choice would be to completely replace the current 40GB hd in the tivo and just save it for a backup. 
With that said, I currently have a maxtor ide fluid bearing HD in my desktop pc that I use just to backup drive images, store music, movies, etc. It is not my main drive. I have been using it for ~2yrs. One idea is to replace the maxtor ide with a sata (my mobo has sata onboard) and use that maxtor for my tivo. Would this be advisable or since it's been in an XP environment would it be better to just get a new drive?

Moving forward, when I decide the hard drive situation and get my tivo finished, I want to do one for someone else. Can I do everything that needs to be done on my pc and just take the hard drive over to the other persons house and just remove/install? I just want minimal downtime for them.

I have only begun to look through the upgrade instructions via weakness's guide ( http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php ) but already have a question.

My main hd is a WD 74GB Raptor formatted in ntfs. Do I have to have a FAT file system as my C drive to do this or is there anything special I need to do because of ntfs?
Just want to know a basic game plan of how this is done? 
1. Download the Boot CD image of MFSTool 2.0 and burn to disc.
2. Connect the *new* drive to secondary ide slot.
3. Boot off the MFSTool cd.
4. Follow instructions?????

What basic steps did I leave out? 
Thanks for any help?


----------



## sc0tt

If I use weaknees Boot cd with MFSTools 2.0 and Large Kernel Support to 
replace my HR10-250 original 250mb Drive with a Maxtor Quickview 300mb drive,
will the 300mb drive accept Tivo updates? or will the Tivo updates fail.
I decided not to use 'PTVupgrade LBA48 CD with MFSTools' because of that problem.

Also, My pc's 'C' drive is two SATA 74G Raptors configured as a raid device in Windows XP. Is there any way to reference that raid device in Linux and use it
to backup a Tivo image.

If not I still have an older PC with Win98 installed and 'C' drive setup as a raid device but it is Fat32 not NTFS. But once again how do I reference a raid drive 
in Linux.

Since my HR10-250 supports large drives I will not have to use mfsadd to use all space on new drive? If follow Interactive Tivo Upgrade Instructions for HR10-250 and I should be ok since it does not mention mfsadd.
Thanks,

Scott


----------



## sholleran

sc0tt said:


> If I use weaknees Boot cd with MFSTools 2.0 and Large Kernel Support to
> replace my HR10-250 original 250mb Drive with a Maxtor Quickview 300mb drive,
> will the 300mb drive accept Tivo updates? or will the Tivo updates fail.
> I decided not to use 'PTVupgrade LBA48 CD with MFSTools' because of that problem.
> 
> Also, My pc's 'C' drive is two SATA 74G Raptors configured as a raid device in Windows XP. Is there any way to reference that raid device in Linux and use it
> to backup a Tivo image.
> 
> If not I still have an older PC with Win98 installed and 'C' drive setup as a raid device but it is Fat32 not NTFS. But once again how do I reference a raid drive
> in Linux.
> 
> Since my HR10-250 supports large drives I will not have to use mfsadd to use all space on new drive? If follow Interactive Tivo Upgrade Instructions for HR10-250 and I should be ok since it does not mention mfsadd.
> Thanks,
> 
> Scott


I just did the upgrade, struggled for hours due to my raid array. My recommendation is to throw the jumper to disable raid and pull the power off the raid hd's, so your pc looks to linux like a regular pc.

You're probably going to fdisk & format the new HD as fat32 to get the backup, I recommend making the fat32 partition 5GB - not 1GB as you'll read elsewhere - or so because I also found that once I made the backup I could not boot form the raid array with the near empty fat32 attached. I got an error that my primary hd did not have an OS and couldn't get the bios to boot from raid ahead of the primary master. I installed winXP (tivo drive removed) to my new, almost empty hd that had the backup in a second partition, used that XP to burn the backup to cd, removed the partition to avoid accidentally booting to xp, reattached tivo & finished the upgrade, re-enabled raid. Adds a little time, but worked.


----------



## sc0tt

sholleran said:


> I just did the upgrade, struggled for hours due to my raid array. My recommendation is to throw the jumper to disable raid and pull the power off the raid hd's, so your pc looks to linux like a regular pc.
> 
> You're probably going to fdisk & format the new HD as fat32 to get the backup, I recommend making the fat32 partition 5GB - not 1GB as you'll read elsewhere - or so because I also found that once I made the backup I could not boot form the raid array with the near empty fat32 attached. I got an error that my primary hd did not have an OS and couldn't get the bios to boot from raid ahead of the primary master. I installed winXP (tivo drive removed) to my new, almost empty hd that had the backup in a second partition, used that XP to burn the backup to cd, removed the partition to avoid accidentally booting to xp, reattached tivo & finished the upgrade, re-enabled raid. Adds a little time, but worked.


Sholleran,
I decided not to use my pc with WinXP/NTFS/Raid and Booted a Linux cd on
my PC with Win98/FAT32/Raid. The raid array was recognized - one physical drive as HDE and another as HDG - it appears Linux sees the two drives as raid array device HDE1.

I still wonder if future Tivo Upgrades will work if I use Weaknees Linux Bootcd with MFSTools to replace HR10-250 250mb drive with 300mb drive.

Scott


----------



## sc0tt

sholleran said:


> I just did the upgrade, struggled for hours due to my raid array. My recommendation is to throw the jumper to disable raid and pull the power off the raid hd's, so your pc looks to linux like a regular pc.
> 
> You're probably going to fdisk & format the new HD as fat32 to get the backup, I recommend making the fat32 partition 5GB - not 1GB as you'll read elsewhere - or so because I also found that once I made the backup I could not boot form the raid array with the near empty fat32 attached. I got an error that my primary hd did not have an OS and couldn't get the bios to boot from raid ahead of the primary master. I installed winXP (tivo drive removed) to my new, almost empty hd that had the backup in a second partition, used that XP to burn the backup to cd, removed the partition to avoid accidentally booting to xp, reattached tivo & finished the upgrade, re-enabled raid. Adds a little time, but worked.


Sholleran,

Another option could be to purchase Partition Magic and set up you pc as a duel boot system,one FAT32 and one NTFS for Windows or even have a Linux boot partition. I checked Partiton Magics docs and it does support Raid0 and Raid5.

Scott


----------



## blacksurfer

My old 35 hour drive was freezing up, not powering up and making noise. So I bought the 70 hour drive replace kit from Weakness and had it changed in 10 minutes. Now the menu moves fast and it's quiet!


----------



## Dadygerman

Good morning,

I'm trying to do my first upgrade (replace the 40GB drive in my SD-DVR40 with a 160GB), using the Weaknees instructions, but I get the following error 4 times during boot:

*kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_iso8859-1, errno = 2*

Twice after it has mounted the root and found the rescue CD-ROM, and twice after Mounting CD-ROM. Obviously, I get the same type of errors when trying the

*mount /dev/hda1 /mnt*

command. I've searched this thread and seen the same errors, but I did not find anyone's answer to the questions, which is why I'm asking it again. (ie. I'm not just throwing this out there without having already searched for the answer.)

I'd really appreciate help with this. Thanks!


----------



## Dadygerman

For the benefit of anyone else who runs into this problem, I just downloaded the PTVupgrade "free version" of their boot CD, and it worked perfectly. So, there must have been something wrong/incompatible with the Weaknees CD.


----------



## Sir_Jeeves

Dadygerman:

Thanks for the response and congrats! Questions is...

What steps/commands did u use?

TIA,
Mike


----------



## chefmitch

HELP, please.

I am upgrading a SAT T-60 via the WeaKnees instructions. I am adding a 120gb to the original 40gb.

I ran the mfsadd line (mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ) and got a good message, so I re-booted. 

Since I have an old firmware 2.0, the instructions told me to Run TiVomad and enter the following line:
mad/edit_bootparms hdZ -i

After finding a CD image of TiVo Mad I could burn (the link in the email wouldn't work for me) I entered the command and there was no message, it just displayed another #.

I rebooted and put the drives in and now the TiVo doesn't work. Any ideas?

Please help.


----------



## TiVo Lover

Hi:

I want to upgrade my Humax DRT400 and have a few questions. I am really hoping that someone out there can help me. I upgraded my TiVo Series 1 box a few years ago but this upgrade looks a bit harder for some reason. Here goes with the questions:

1) My PC is set up for NTFS (and Windows XP). Am I going to run into trouble with this set up? The WeaKnees instructions make it sound as though I might.

2) When it asks me if I have a FAT partition on my C drive, I assume I answer "no" to this since I have NTFS. Is that correct?

3) Does anyone have any recommendations as to the hard drive I should purchase (or ones to stay away from)? Is 7200 rpm ok?

4) Does anyone know which hard drives are quieter?

Many thanks in advance for any help that other members can supply.


----------



## astrose00

Nevermind... decided to post elsewhere...


----------



## slaponte

TiVo Lover said:


> 1) My PC is set up for NTFS (and Windows XP). Am I going to run into trouble with this set up? The WeaKnees instructions make it sound as though I might.


Yes in that you need to be carefull NOT to let the PC boot to XP while you do this. An easy way to do that is just disconnect the XP drive while you do the work. Boot from the CD and work from there.



TiVo Lover said:


> 2) When it asks me if I have a FAT partition on my C drive, I assume I answer "no" to this since I have NTFS. Is that correct?


Correct. And the problem with that is that to place the backup into the disk you need a fat partition you can mount. So, if you don't plan to do a backup, again, just unplug the XP/NTFS drive all together. If you WANT to backup the original drive, then you will need a disk with a FAT partition to place the backup into.



TiVo Lover said:


> 3) Does anyone have any recommendations as to the hard drive I should purchase (or ones to stay away from)? Is 7200 rpm ok?


EIDE 5400 or 7200. 5400 might be cheaper and works fine. I rather buy 7200 myself. NO SATA.



TiVo Lover said:


> 4) Does anyone know which hard drives are quieter?


Plenty of 250Gb and 300Gb on sale nowadays. Most ok. I used a pair of Seagate and I am happy so far.

What I recomend to you : get a 300Gb, take out your XP, put in the orig HUMAX 40Gb and the new drive, backup from one into a restore of the other and get it done. There is a thread with step by step instructions. Save the original 40GB as a backup. Install the 300Gb on the HUMAX and be happy.

Watch out for swap space. I haven't been here in a while, but you will need 150Mb of swap for the 300GB and that requires you to "TPIP" it.


----------



## slaponte

Dadygerman said:


> For the benefit of anyone else who runs into this problem, I just downloaded the PTVupgrade "free version" of their boot CD, and it worked perfectly. So, there must have been something wrong/incompatible with the Weaknees CD.


The error is of no consequense. The module refered to doesn;t exists and thats why it fails. Seems their compilation of mount looks for it and gives out that line.

If you can see the drive contents after the mount, you can ignore the error.


----------



## Grimm1

Yesterday I upgraded my TiVo using the WeaKnees CD and instructions. I've done 3 upgrades before over the years using the Hinsdale method and thought I would give the WeaKnees route a go. 

The upgrade worked....eventually. There were a few things that brought my upgrade to a halt until I could research before continuing. 

The first was the.... 
"kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_iso8859-1, errno = 2" 

Message that I got just from booting the CD...that got me to pause but I decided to continue and see what happened. Then came the first command to mount the FAT drive and I got that error again. Then I really put on the breaks. Luckily I had another PC I could run to and look this up and I found a few mentions that the error can be ignored. 

This is information that needs to be in the instructions..so people don't freak out when they see it. 

The second part that really stumped me was this part of the instructions.... 
**** 
The software will scan your drive for a few moments. You should see a progress indicator as the backup proceeds. Once the backup is successful, shut down the PC if your destination drive isn't connected by using CTRL-ALT-DELETE and waiting until the Linux has halted. Then boot again as before with the destination drive connected, and enter the following with hdZ (hdZZ if you have two) as your destination drive: 

mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt 
***** 
So I just backed up to my FAT drive...I shutdown as described. I disconnect my FAT drive and attach my 2 destination drives hdZ and hdZZ then boot again with the CD and the command is to mount hdW1??? Why would I need to do that? At this point I don't even have hdW connected because I am using all 4 IDE connections with the Boot CD Drive, hdX, hdz and hdZZ. 

Again I had to stop and run to the computer...this time after searching and searching I really couldn't find anything that referred to it specifically. It looked like it was an unneeded command at that point...but not really being a linux person I was not 100% sure. I finally decided to skip that command and continue and everything else went as advertised. 

I also found what appeared to be some errors in the instruction for mounting the drives with the twinbreeze upgrade kit. Though I don't know if this would be the place to mention them.


----------



## dumpav

i have a t800 humax tivo and want to replace the 80G to a 300G seagate.

I want to know which boot up cd i should use? the weaknees cd or the cd from Hinsdale?


hda Primary Master = hdX > Original TiVo drive
hdb Primary Slave = hdY > no drive or FAT drive?
hdc Secondary Master = hdZ > NEW 300G seagate
hdd Secondary Slave = hdW > boot up cd rom

and use these commad?

mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt

then

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

then

mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ


thanks

also do i need to insert special command for large swap space (300G drive)?

thanks


----------



## Grimm1

dumpav said:


> i have a t800 humax tivo and want to replace the 80G to a 300G seagate.
> 
> I want to know which boot up cd i should use? the weaknees cd or the cd from Hinsdale?
> 
> hda Primary Master = hdX > Original TiVo drive
> hdb Primary Slave = hdY > no drive or FAT drive?
> hdc Secondary Master = hdZ > NEW 300G seagate
> hdd Secondary Slave = hdW > boot up cd rom
> 
> and use these commad?
> 
> mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt
> 
> then
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX
> 
> then
> 
> mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ
> 
> thanks
> 
> also do i need to insert special command for large swap space (300G drive)?
> 
> thanks


I've used both...I think you just want to make sure you use the WeaKnees instructions if you use the WeaKnees CD and the Hinsdales instructions if you use the Hinsdale CD as there are some differences.

The WXYZ letters are variables...so you need to plug in the correct letter for your particular setup. I believe W is the variable for the DOS drive not the CD Drive. You don't have to have a DOS drive and you can skip that section of the backup if you want but then if something bad happens you won't have a backup to restore from.

So the first 2 commands you listed are for making a small Tivo backup (backs up the Tivo software and settings but not any recorded shows) to a DOS drive. So you would skip those two commands if you are not going to do this.

Also you said your wanted to "replace" your drive....I think the command you listed is for adding a drive..the command for replacing a drive would be...

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

This is assuming the original drive is on hda and the new drive is on hdc as you listed above.

Somehow I get the feeling you have not gone to the WeaKnees Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions page that is listed in the very first post of this thread. If you go there and answer the questions it will generate the instructions for exactly your situation.

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php


----------



## slaponte

*This is information that needs to be in the instructions..so people don't freak out when they see it.*

But then, what fun would we have here???


----------



## dumpav

Grimm1 said:


> I've used both...I think you just want to make sure you use the WeaKnees instructions if you use the WeaKnees CD and the Hinsdales instructions if you use the Hinsdale CD as there are some differences.
> 
> The WXYZ letters are variables...so you need to plug in the correct letter for your particular setup. I believe W is the variable for the DOS drive not the CD Drive. You don't have to have a DOS drive and you can skip that section of the backup if you want but then if something bad happens you won't have a backup to restore from.
> 
> So the first 2 commands you listed are for making a small Tivo backup (backs up the Tivo software and settings but not any recorded shows) to a DOS drive. So you would skip those two commands if you are not going to do this.
> 
> Also you said your wanted to "replace" your drive....I think the command you listed is for adding a drive..the command for replacing a drive would be...
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc
> 
> This is assuming the original drive is on hda and the new drive is on hdc as you listed above.
> 
> Somehow I get the feeling you have not gone to the WeaKnees Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions page that is listed in the very first post of this thread. If you go there and answer the questions it will generate the instructions for exactly your situation.
> 
> http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php


thanks Grimm1, yeah, i went there, in fact those command i copy from that page, but i click the wrong setting. Lucky you remind me, i am Replacing the drive not adding the drive.

also do i use hda or hdX in the command line?

and do i need to concern about those swap file command setting tpip stuff?

thanks


----------



## Grimm1

dumpav said:


> thanks Grimm1, yeah, i went there, in fact those command i copy from that page, but i click the wrong setting. Lucky you remind me, i am Replacing the drive not adding the drive.
> 
> also do i use hda or hdX in the command line?
> 
> and do i need to concern about those swap file command setting tpip stuff?
> 
> thanks


In the command line you would use hda (if that is were your orginal TiVo drive is). Like I mentioned hdX is used as a variable. It means plug in the location of your original TiVo drive be it hda, hdb, hdc or hdd. From what you listed you have yours hooked up to hda so you would use hda in the actual command line.


----------



## Queasy1

Hello,

I'm searching through the forums now for an answer but am not finding anything. Thought it would just be quicker to ask.

I've got a Phillips DSR7000 DirecTivo. I added a second drive to it a couple of years ago when I got it but I'm now trying to replace the two drives with a much larger single drive.

The instructions say:


> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)
> 
> Parentheticals are for two drive to two drive or one drive to two drive situations.


What about two drive to one drive situations? Will that work as well? Will I be able to save my shows?

Thanks.


----------



## GR626

Just upgraded with the Weaknees instructions with no problems at all. Thank you!!


----------



## virent

The Weaknees Interactive does not have instructions for replacing with a drive of the same size.
I am trying to replace the original TIVO DVR80 drive with a new drive of the same size(80GB).
The command below gives an error message that the target is too small.
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

The only way I can copy to the new drive is to omit the -s 127 and -x from the command.
Is there any downside to omitting these two parameters? Is there a better command that I can use?


----------



## azitnay

-s 127 gives you more than the default amount of swap, which you obviously don't need since you're not increasing capacity, and it's also most likely the reason it's complaining about the target being too small (the target is the same size as the source, so there's no room for the extra swap).

-x just expands the restore to fill the rest of the disk, so I'd be surprised to hear that it's causing problems, but you also don't need it, since you're not expanding to a bigger capacity drive.

Drew


----------



## virent

Thanks for the clarification.
I was able to succesfully hack the tivo but the menus items are slightly different than the 6.2 version. The "Standby" menu item is not on the first menu page when you press the DirecTV button. It is under the Setup & Messages menu after the Promos menu item. It is not visible in the Setup & Messages menu unless you scroll past the Promos menu item and go the next page. It is there by itself.
Is this normal? I used Zipper instructions.

Thanks


----------



## mr396

what should the setting be for the swap file size if you are going to 500GB of disk space or 750GB? Can anyone provide any insight?

Thanks


----------



## mr396

Reading through the posts, I have seen people referring to tpip if the swap file is larger than 127MB, does MFStools or weaknees CD take care of this or do you still need tpip to increase swap file larger than 127MB?


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> what should the setting be for the swap file size if you are going to 500GB of disk space or 750GB? Can anyone provide any insight?


Two schools of thought: 
Use 127MB, the maximum that mfstools 2.0 can correctly initialize.
Use the rule of thumb of 1MB of swap for each 2GB of disk. The additional swap _may_ be needed to get through a serious file system corruption GSOD. mfstools can't initialize swap > 127MB, so you need to use tpip for that.
The argument for the first approach is that there hasn't been any proof that the larger swap is needed with current tivo software versions, so keep it simple. It's only an issue if you ever hit a GSOD, and if you do, your disk may be shot anyway.

The argument for the second approach is that it's a small fraction of your total disk space, why not play it safe?

Relevant posts:
swap initialization with tpip
Checking that your swap space is recognized
Argument for staying with 127MB swap
PTVupgrade's position


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

Thanks for this information. Using your rule of thumb would say a swap file size of 250MB would be needed for the 500GB of disk. This is about 2x the max size of 127MB. Have other people installed one 500GB drive, dual 250GBdrives, dual 500GB drives, etc. in a Tivo series 2 machine, kept the swap file at the 127MB, and everything works fine. 

Like you say, I would like to keep it simple?

Where do I find the tpip program anyway?


----------



## azitnay

The PTVupgrade CD includes tpip version 1.1, as far as I can recall (but you're most likely using the WeaKnees CD).

You can download 1.2 from:

http://www.courtesan.com/tivo/tpip.html

Drew


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> Have other people installed one 500GB drive, dual 250GBdrives, dual 500GB drives, etc. in a Tivo series 2 machine, kept the swap file at the 127MB, and everything works fine.


Yes, your upgrade will work fine with 127MB of swap. It's just a question of what will happen if you ever get a GSOD. Follow the link in my earlier post to the "Argument for staying with 127MB swap", and follow the link in that post to the test by Dirac. IMHO, his test does not conclusively prove that you don't need the additional swap to get through a GSOD when you have a corrupt file system.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

Thanks for the info. I will attempt to upgrade my systems again this weekend. I already have 2 - 120GB drives in my Tivo's and woudl like to replace them with 2 -250GB.

Which CD and/or instructions do you feel is best. I used Hinsdale before, but this is the first time to upgrade my system since Tivo's supported LBA48.


----------



## mr396

I am trying to upgrade a series 2 Tivo unit. I have already upgraded from a 40GB drive to a 120 GB HDD and now going to a 250GB drive. When I boot up it does recognize the correct size for the 250GB hdd.

When I type in the following command

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
where
hda is primary master (which is a 120GB drive)
hdb is primary slave (which is a 250GB drive)

I get the following messages:

Source drive is 40hrs
-upgraded to 127 hrs
Uncompressed backup size: 113295 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

I also tried the dd copy command and then mfsadd as well. It did not expand the capacity. It still reported 127 hrs.

any idea on what is going on or what I should do.


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> any idea on what is going on or what I should do.


MFStools 2.0 will only allow you to expand a single drive system and keep your recordings once. You run out of partition slots when you try to expand a second time. You can:
Drop your recordings by "shrinking" in the backup stage.
_or_ Add a second drive rather than replace the drive.
_or_ Live dangerously and apply the partition coalesce idea described here. Not recommend unless you really know what you are doing.


----------



## HomeUser

Try mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
You can not re-expand a series 2 and keep recordings. There is a max number of partitions limitation.


----------



## mr396

Homeuser

Thanks for the insight. I did try the command below. It did expand, but noy copy the movies over. The movies show up in the Now playing list, but when you try to play the data is not there.



> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb


How can you copy the movies as well? Is there another commands for this?

When I do msinfo it does say I can it expand it 3 more times. What is this all about?


----------



## mr396

JamieP

I appreciate the options. I am at an decision point. I really do not want to put a two drive system in this Tivo and not ready to do the coalesce thing. I would really like to keep the movies though.

Does this max number of time to expand also apply if you had a 40hr Tivo, expanded it to 2 -120 GB drives. I would like to expand it again to 2 -250GB drives. Will I lose my recording on that as well?

One other question, what is the -r option for on mfsadd or mfsrestore? I downloaded the latest weeknees iso and burned in on a CD. When i tried to do this option it gives me an errorr message.

Any suggestion or helpful advice.

Thanks


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> How can you copy the movies as well? Is there another commands for this?


Go back and read my post. I outlined your options. You just did option 1). If you want to preserve your recordings, you need to do 2) or 3).

There is another way to preserve your recordings if you have a standalone tivo running 7.2.x: copy them all off with TivoToGo, then restore them after taking option 1. It's slow, but it does work.



mr396 said:


> Does this max number of time to expand also apply if you had a 40hr Tivo, expanded it to 2 -120 GB drives. I would like to expand it again to 2 -250GB drives. Will I lose my recording on that as well?


You probably won't run into the limit there, since you'll have two drives. It is more complicated to do the upgrade though, since you need all four ide chanels for your four disks, leaving nothing for a cdrom to boot from. You could boot from a floppy, but I'm not sure there is an lba48 tivo upgrade boot floppy available.


> One other question, what is the -r option for on mfsadd or mfsrestore? I downloaded the latest weeknees iso and burned in on a CD. When i tried to do this option it gives me an errorr message.


You probably put the option in the wrong place in your command line. -r sets the minimum allocation unit. "-r 4" is needed to create partitions > 274GB.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

A question about expanding on a different series 2 Tivo box.

If I have a 40 hr Tivo series box, that was upgraded to 2 - 120GB hdds. Can I upgrade it to 2 - 250GB disks and still keep all the recordings, etc. using the normal mfsbackup|mfsrestore pipe or does it have the same restrictions or only expanding once as well.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

Thanks for the additional information.

on the 2 drive thread.

If I use the dd command and then the mfsadd command does that get me around needing 4 IDE ports (so I can boot off a cdrom for LBA48 support) and have the same result as mfsbackup|mfsrestore?


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> If I use the dd command and then the mfsadd command does that get me around needing 4 IDE ports (so I can boot off a cdrom for LBA48 support) and have the same result as mfsbackup|mfsrestore?


Won't work. If you dd, you'll run into the partition count limit, since it can't redistribute partitions between the two disks. Your A drive most likely has a full partition table with 16 partitions now. The only way it can be expanded again is if some of the partitions can be moved off to the B drive. An mfsbackup|mfsrestore pipeline can do this if you can run it with all four disks at once. I've heard some people have had success booting a tivo upgrade environment from a usb flash drive.

The easiest thing to do is to backup your most important recordings with TTG and then expand without preserving recordings. You can restore the recordings at your leisure later.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

I could try the USB option, that is a good idea.

If I put in a pci card to add more IDE ports, will the tivo upgrade be able to use them?


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> If I put in a pci card to add more IDE ports, will the tivo upgrade be able to use them?


It depends on the ide card and the boot cd you are using. Here's some background history. If you search around, you might find others.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

I read in the MFStools 2.0 worddoc that it supports upgrading a second time without losing recordings (you can upgrade one drive up to 5 times).

MFStools uses an argument of mfsbackup -aqo. what is the a for? I also noticed MFStolls 2.0 didn't support >137GBdrives as it only reported my 250GB as 137GB.

Some questions:
-does MFStools 2.0 really work to expand over and over again (up to 5 times) without losing recordings
- what is the "a" argument about
-is there a version of MFStools that supports >137GB drives.


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> I read in the MFStools 2.0 worddoc that it supports upgrading a second time without losing recordings (you can upgrade one drive up to 5 times).


Either you misread, or the document is wrong


> MFStools uses an argument of mfsbackup -aqo. what is the a for?


The command line options are described in detail here.


> I also noticed MFStolls 2.0 didn't support >137GBdrives as it only reported my 250GB as 137GB.


Mfstools 2.0 is fine, it's an issue with the linux kernel on whatever boot ISO you are using. If you follow the directions linked to the very first post in this thread, you should be using a ISO that supports LBA48 (required for >137GB disks), as long as you have a tivo that supports lba48.


----------



## mr396

JamieP

On the MFStools 2.0, I used the link from the main "Upgrade Center" page labelled "MFSTOOL" to download MSFtools (it is the second listing under Weaknees). Then used the first thread t download.

In the word doc that comes with MFStools it says


> MFS Tools 2.0 New Features
> MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.
> 
> -	Seamless support for AT&T and Series 2 TiVo
> When restoring a backup of an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo made with MFS Tools 2.0, no longer will it be necessary to give a flag to restore for it to get the byte order right. All Series 2 and AT&T TiVos can be worked on with the same ease afforded Series 1 TiVos, all completely seamlessly.
> 
> -	*Upgrade a second time without losing recordings*Its all over the hack FAQ and the underground. You can only have TiVo upgrade with a blessed drive once. It is set in stone. If you want to upgrade again you have to lose your recordings. Not anymore. Due to research into the workings of TiVo, MFS Tools is now able to upgrade a drive without having to bless it and rely on the TiVo software to upgrade it correctly. In fact, with MFS Tools 2.0, you can upgrade again and again, upgrading one drive up to 5 types (3 for some models).


As far as the Linux iso, it was what came downloaded with the MFStools 2.0 download.

So maybe I got the wrong one?


----------



## JamieP

mr396 said:


> So maybe I got the wrong one?


You must use an "large disk" or "lba48" boot disk. If you followed the http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/ link in the first post in this thread, selected "Click here to start your TiVo Upgrade", then selected a hardware model that had an lba48 TiVo software version (e.g. 6.2 or 7.2), you'd get instructions that included a link to an lba48 iso.


----------



## mr396

JamieP,

Thanks for the suggestion and the link. The link provided is one of the CD's iso's I have tried using (the others being PVTupgrade and MFStools all found from links on this site).

Some questions:
1. If I take the one drive 120GB Tivo system (that has been upgraded from the 40Gb already), expand it to use 2 -120GB drives and then use the process to go to 1 -250GB drive, will that process work and save all the recordings?

2. Why does MFStools say it can upgrade a second time without losing recordings, up to 5 times on one drive, when it does not appear like you can?


----------



## 6stringbass

Gonna jump in the fray to ask....SDDVR40 with 6.2 software. Added another 40 gig drive to the original 40 gig drive. I'd like to go to a single 250gig drive but I'd like to save the recordings. Reading mr396's posts it seems unlikely but I didn't replace the original drive but merely added a second. Will I be able to easily move both drive's data to a single or will I run into the same partition count limit as mr396?


----------



## bnm81002

I will be replacing the original drive to a 300GB drive in 1 of my Philips DTivo unit, so here's my setup in the computer,

Primary Master hda(hdW)>Fat 32 drive
Primary Slave hdb(hdX)>Original Tivo drive
Secondary Master hdc(hdY)>CDRW drive
Secondary Slave hdd(hdZ)>New 300GB drive


I will save the recordings and make a backup of the 6.2 software as well as restore the original drive to the 300GB drive,
is this correct or should it be configured differently? thanks


----------



## tripmaster

How does using tpip 1.2 differ from 1.1?

I read that using 1.1 the command was:

TPIP -swapped s /dev/hdc



azitnay said:


> The PTVupgrade CD includes tpip version 1.1, as far as I can recall (but you're most likely using the WeaKnees CD).
> 
> You can download 1.2 from:
> 
> http://www.courtesan.com/tivo/tpip.html
> 
> Drew


----------



## azitnay

At first glance I thought your handle was t*p*ipmaster, and I was wondering why you'd be asking about tpip .

Anyway, I believe the recommend usage for tpip 1.2 is to simply change the --swapped to -1. Thus (assuming your TiVo drive is indeed /dev/hdc):

tpip -1 -s /dev/hdc

Drew


----------



## bnm81002

bnm81002 said:


> I will be replacing the original drive to a 300GB drive in 1 of my Philips DTivo unit, so here's my setup in the computer,
> 
> Primary Master hda(hdW)>Fat 32 drive
> Primary Slave hdb(hdX)>Original Tivo drive
> Secondary Master hdc(hdY)>CDRW drive
> Secondary Slave hdd(hdZ)>New 300GB drive
> 
> I will save the recordings and make a backup of the 6.2 software as well as restore the original drive to the 300GB drive,
> is this correct or should it be configured differently? thanks


anyone please?


----------



## Grimm1

bnm81002 said:


> anyone please?


I don't think it matters where the drives are connected just as long as you plug in the correct variable in the commands for the proper drive werever it's connected. But as far as the drives you need that should be correct. You'll boot off the CD Drive...backup the TiVo software/settings to the FAT32 drive and then backup everything (software/settings/shows) to the new drive. If you want to hold on to a backup of everything then just hold on to the original TiVo drive.

I should add that I've never upgraded a DTivo so I'm assuming the basics of the process would be the same.


----------



## BillyBob_jcv

I'm using the weaknees instructions to copy from my Philips DSR-708 80GB drive to a Maxtor 200 GB drive. I have the DTivo drive as master and the Maxtor as slave. The command I am using is:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

It reported my source drive as 78 hours and 50098 megabytes.

The operation has now been running for over 4 hours and I am only at 49% complete! Is this normal for this size of a backup? If it is, I will definitely need to schedule my second unit upgrade for an overnight run...


----------



## SethC

I'm attempting to install a new hard drive in my HR10-250 because the existing one was stuttering and rebooting quite often and I followed the Weaknees instructions to a the letter. The drive I installed was a Maxtor 300gb drive. I installed it and tried setting the jumper to master and cable select; both times the Tivo started the boot up process and said "almost there a few more seconds then reboots and starts over. Any easy answers to this?


Thanks. 


I'm positive the drive was never plugged in while I booted up XP so it's not that. The process took about 5 hours and said it was successfull when done.

this was the command line I used:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd


----------



## Grimm1

BillyBob_jcv said:


> I'm using the weaknees instructions to copy from my Philips DSR-708 80GB drive to a Maxtor 200 GB drive. I have the DTivo drive as master and the Maxtor as slave. The command I am using is:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
> 
> It reported my source drive as 78 hours and 50098 megabytes.
> 
> The operation has now been running for over 4 hours and I am only at 49% complete! Is this normal for this size of a backup? If it is, I will definitely need to schedule my second unit upgrade for an overnight run...


It takes a long time. When I upgraded from one drive to two drives the process took at least 10 hours.


----------



## microtogo

Weakness I have a Model TCD24008A and the hard drive just completely went dead. I looked at the How to guide but everything is showing if the original was ok. How can I install a new drive without having the original. Can i find an image? Is there any way to make this Tivo manually record, i thinking of modding this one and buying a new one for now.


----------



## BillyBob_jcv

Grimm1 said:


> It takes a long time. When I upgraded from one drive to two drives the process took at least 10 hours.


Thanks - it finally finished - after almost 10 hours. The good news is that the new drive booted right-up with all my recordings & season passes intact! Tomorrow, the Zipper!


----------



## jschwartz

I just got RCA DVR39 (series2) from ebay. I plugged it into a phone line to let it download 6.2 which worked fine. Next, I removed the drive and set it as hdb (slave) with a 300GB as master hda. I will keep the original as backup so I used the piped mfsbackup | mfsrestore command as such:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - dev/hda

seemed to work fine but with a 300GB drive as destination, I was surprised to only get 147 hours reports by mfs tools 2.0 and only 120 reported by the tivo.

I've seen references to the -r switch but the help doesn't list it and when I tried it, get restore error showing all the proper switches. 

Is that all I should expect from a 300gb drive? Can I re-run this again without doing something to initialize the new drive? 

I just ran the full weaknees command:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

where hdb is original drive and hda is new 300gb... result says est size 147 hours. says it added pair: /dev/hda14 and /dev/hda15

mfsinfo show 6 partitions but /dev/hda14 is zero and had15 is 91800 with total as 130550MiB. Could the drive be locked? it is a Maxtor


----------



## newsposter

My goal is to add more space to my stock HDtivo without a PC. I have win98SE now and dont think i could upgrade big drives anyway could I?

I'm a tad confused about 2 different web pages. A few years ago I saved some recordings from a failing drive to a new drive and also added one to my t60 so I do know what I'm doing from that aspect, I've just become lazy and so have looked at the weaknees page for adding a drive to my HDtivo and dont want to do anything with my computer at all.

When I hit the add a drive option from http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/step3.php and click no for every option, it still says I need to use mfstools.

then if you go to the page http://www.weaknees.com/details2/as250hr10.php it clearly states that "PC usage:

You DO NOT need a computer in any way for this TiVo upgrade kit - this drive is completely formatted for your TiVo here at Weaknees.com - no further modification in a PC is necessary. " and also the online instructions http://www.weaknees.com/instructions/twinbreeze_hd.pdf clearly show no PC is needed.

My guess is the first page above is for people that have non stock hard drives and need to use their PC? I just wanted to confirm that. If so, then I'm assuming there is something special about the $200 250gig drive from weaknees that enables just a drop in procedure.


----------



## shn2006

I am going to try this with the instructions generated by the interactive tool... I am going to use a separate dedicated -offline old NT box that I have for this purpose. I am really not sure of PC bios will recognize my 40GB old HD or the 80 GB new HD... When Booting with Linux CD, does it matter? I know NT4 SP 3 onwards it had capacity to recognize large drives... so PC BIOS should have that capacity (I'm assuming)... Is there a way to make sure though? Looks liek operations take long and I can not take myo pther PC offline for so long...
Thanks for help,
ShN


----------



## spudhorse

I just wanted to put in a plug for acoustic management with the Hitachi Feature Tool (v2.00) at http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm . My Maxtor 120Gb was making so much noise compared to the 40Gb, I was actually thinking I'd need to put the 40Gb back in. The 120Gb quieted right down after adjusting the acoustic setting so that it's now virtually silent. It's probably a 10 minute gig to make the floppy (or CD) and run the utility. Definitely a must have!

I realize that this utility has been described in various other threads. However, adding it to http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com would be a big plus IMO.


----------



## melgar

Is there a place where there are instructions on upgrading from an already upgraded TiVo?

I started with 40 hr. 24004A.

Then pre-lba48 I upgraded to 2-160Gb drives=317hrs

One 160Gb drive failed so I upgraded starting with the original 40 hr. image to a 160Gb & a 200Gb drive=420 hrs.

The other 160Gb has failed now and I want to upgrade to a 250Gb and the 200Gb. Is there a site with instructions on upgrading with an image back-up of the 160Gb & 200Gb (420 hrs total)?

Or is it the same as the Weaknees instructions in spite of the warning that they only have instructions for non-modified TiVo's?

Thanks...


----------



## jaybird13

I want to thank Weeknees for posting these instructions. I paid a pretty penny for one of their preconfigured drives last year and it worked great.

Wanting to avoid that cost to upgrade my 2nd TIVO, I went for it myself. Although the instructions are daunting, the real "work" is typing in one simple command.

40 to 160 in 60 minutes. Thanks.


----------



## newsposter

Melgar i'm didn't look at the instructions you are talking about but can tell you for certain the hinsdale ones can be used to do what you want. I went from a 40 to a 40 and 80...then 2 80s...then one failed so went to 2 160s and used hinsdale

good luck!


----------



## mr396

I am trying to upgrade a dual drive Tivo system with two new larger drives.

1. I put in a Promise PCI card to add more channels. Linux seems to find all the four drives and the CDROM drive ok when booting up. It has hdc, hde, hdf, hdg, and hdh (CDROM)When it tries to mount the CDROM it could not find it. It is located as /dev/hdh. How do I get the CDROM drive mounted

2. When I tried the to use the weakness floppy disk (which I downloaded from the website), it does not appear it support lba48 so this option does not work either.

Any suggestions?


----------



## jaybird13

I have a couple of quick questions. 

I've now performed two succesful upgrades but two simple things I couldn't figure out.

1. How do you scroll back up to read all the boot info? "Shift+PageUp" doesn't work for me. I have to catch it quick while it boots up to make sure my drives are reporting the correct sizes.

2. Once upgrade is complete what's a safe command to shut down?

Thanks!


----------



## azitnay

jaybird13 said:


> 1. How do you scroll back up to read all the boot info? "Shift+PageUp" doesn't work for me. I have to catch it quick while it boots up to make sure my drives are reporting the correct sizes.


Shift+PageUp is definitely the way to go, and I don't know why it wouldn't be working for you... The information *might* be stored in a log file in /var/log as well, but I wouldn't know which one offhand.

Edit: Ahh, now I think I remember: /var/log/dmesg. You should be able to view it by simply typing:

dmesg

or perhaps (so you can read it all):

dmesg | less



jaybird13 said:


> 2. Once upgrade is complete what's a safe command to shut down?


I don't know how necessary it is as long as everything's unmounted, but you should be able to type:

halt

to halt Linux. It should give a message like "system halted" when it's done.

Drew


----------



## Parli

I tried reading through this thread and did not see my problem covered here. I did what I believe to be a succsessful upgrade of my 40GB HD to 120GB HD. Everything works great after I fired the TiVo up except for one thing - the system information page is showing only 40 hours capability. I did a direct copy using the command dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k.

Can anyone shed some light on what the problem may be?

Thanks!


----------



## azitnay

A dd copy will not expand to fill the drive.

You could use mfsadd to expand after the fact. Or better yet, start over and follow:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

Drew


----------



## Parli

Thanks for the quick response! Do I need to reformat the drive or will the process just overwrite what is there?

Also, just a side question. Why can't the backup process be done to a thumbdrive? That would take care of any NTFS issues. Just curious.


----------



## azitnay

If you start over with the instructions above, what you've already done will be overwritten.

If you could manage to mount the thumbdrive in Linux, I'm sure you could backup to it (assuming it's big enough)... But I wouldn't know the first thing about how to accomplish that, or if it's even possible with the limited resources on a boot CD. The following might be helpful, though:

http://www.computing.net/linux/wwwboard/forum/27787.html

Drew


----------



## dandrewk

Greetings, and thanks for all the great advice I have already read in this great thread.

I am about to replace my dying HD on an HR10-250 with a Maxtor Quickview 300GB which should arrive today. I will be backing up and restoring from the old drive to the new one. I have never even cracked open a TiVO before, but have built plenty of PC's so hopefully it won't be too bad. 

I have a few questions, and please forgive if they have been answered here. I have looked.

1. I don't have a FAT partition, so will be using the new drive as a temporary repository. When backing up to the C drive (XP) after backing up the old drive to the new drive, the instructions tell me to hook the new drive and boot up to XP. Silly question, maybe, but won't this make the new drive unbootable to TiVO?

2. How much free space will I need on the C drive? If the old TiVO drive is 250GB, does that mean I need 250GB free space on the C drive? I reckon the old TiVO drive is about 60% full.

3. My PC is dual boot, XP and Linux (debian-xandros). Do I need to boot off the weaknees CD or can I just use my Linux OS with the weaknees apps. available on the CD?

Thanks for any insight, apologies if my questions seem silly. I understand the steps involved, but won't really be clear as to the "why" until I get my hands dirty.


----------



## azitnay

1) Once you mfsrestore to the new drive, it will once again be TiVo-bootable.

2) Backup images are typically under 1GB, often smaller.

3) mfstool definitely runs under most if not all standard Linux distributions, and I've run it myself this way several times. Also, if you do it this way, you can most likely backup directly to your Linux partition, thereby avoiding the hassle of powering back down and copying the backup image to your Windows partition, etc.

Just be sure to test the backup image you create if you decide to go this route (in reality, you should test it no matter what) -- I once created a backup image via mfsbackup under Fedora Linux, and it ended up not working later. I ended up having to boot with a boot CD to get a good backup image. Never bothered to look into why.

Drew


----------



## dandrewk

Drew - many thanks for your quick reply. Two more quick (I hope) questions.

1. I am a bit naive, but how could a ~180gb backup fit into 1gb?
2. How do I test the backup image? Is this just a basic file integrity check?


----------



## azitnay

1) You're not backing up most of the MFS streams (i.e. the recordings), you're only backing up the operating system and some vital MFS streams (menu backgrounds, etc). The vast majority of the hard drive space is reserved for recordings, so the rest isn't very big. Couple that with some compression, and it easily gets down below 1GB (the backup images I currently have range in size anywhere from 159MB to 854MB).

2) You can test it by restoring it to your new drive with mfsrestore.

Drew


----------



## dandrewk

Thanks again, Drew. The task looks a bit daunting atm, but I love a good challenge.


----------



## Parli

Thanks, Drew! That did the trick. I'm all set to go now with the new hard drive. I appreciate your quick and helpful responses!


----------



## dandrewk

Ok. Partial success, and potentially tragic. 

I did the backup, and got the mfsrestore working so I saw the progress bar. It stopped at .19% (same on second attempt), exiting with an I/O error. This I attribute to the old drive being toast - I got a few "unrecoverable errors prior to the restore beginning. (My "smart disk" on BIOS bootup also said it was "bad"). 

So I did the system restore to the new drive, hooked it up and it booted fine. My recordings all show up in the listing, but they are all blank files. Happily, my season pass and other settings transferred.

So... I am left with a few options, and would appreciate advice.

1. Take the new drive and run. Don't try to use the old drive again. Only tragedy can result.

2. Swap back the old drive and see if it can survive for a few more hours, but only as a player. Hopefully, I can eek out it's showing the recorded programming, especially if I remove the satellite feed to prevent the drive having to record two live feeds.

3. Don't give up on restoring from the old drive. I used the Weaknees method. Would any other method work? Hinsdale maybe? I have a Linux dual boot, anyway to do a straight restore from the Linux desktop?

It's not the end of the world if I lose the recorded programming, but there are some things there that are not replaceable. Between iTunes, bitstream, and HBO repeats (Sopranos!) I could make up a lot. But not all those CSI's. How sad.

TIA for any info. At the very least, I now have a larger and quieter drive.


----------



## HomeUser

You could try a hard drive utility by Gibson Research (grc.com) called Spinrite.
SpinRite recovered my 160G HD long enough to do an image copy. SpinRite is $90 the price is kind of high for a single use especially when there is no grantee that it will recover all your data. I justified it because I use it on every new drive before the drive is installed in a computer or TiVo it has saved me a couple of times now.


----------



## azitnay

SpinRite's definitely good stuff... If the price tag isn't worth it to you, though, you could try dd_rescue. I've never used it, but it's supposedly better than dd at recovering data from bad drives. Depending on how bad off the drive is, you could have luck with it.

Keep in mind, though, that every operation you perform on the dying drive is probably killing it even more. So if you're willing to try SpinRite anyway, it's probably not worth trying dd_rescue first.

Drew


----------



## 6stringbass

dandrewk said:


> Ok. Partial success, and potentially tragic.
> 
> But not all those CSI's. How sad.


If the speed at which my second DTivo is filling up with CSI's (ones my other unit has already recorded as well as others) you won't have to wait long to recover all those shows!


----------



## dandrewk

I bit the bullet and purchased SpinRite. After doing a data recovery, it looks like I am getting the bad drive to restore to the new drive. A few I/O errors, but it hasn't bailed yet, and it is a lot farther than it was before. I won't know until tomorrow morning.

Question - when a restore starts, it overwrites whatever was on the new disk, right?


----------



## HomeUser

Yes MFSTools restore overwrites anything that was on the drive before.


----------



## dandrewk

I'm thinking about doing the USB networking upgrade from PTVnet. Does anyone know if this will wipe recorded programming, or does it just activate the USB port?


----------



## uscpsycho

First time upgrader (HR10-250) looking for a little clarification before I take the dive.

My parameters are:
*Backup - yes
FAT - no
XP - yes
save recordings - yes
moving to new TiVo - no*

My questions:

1) Is this a typo in the directions? "mount /dev/hdZ1 /mnt" Should hdz1 simply be hdz where z is a-d?

2) After rebooting windows, where on my C drive should I copy the .bak file? I don't see any arguments in the restore process that point back to the .bak file.

3) I have a question about primary/secondary IDE. When I boot from my C drive I know that my C drive is the primary master (hda) and my CD-ROM is the secondary master (hdc). But if I set my CD-ROM as the boot drive without changing any IDE connections, is the CD-ROM still hdc or does it become hda because it is the boot drive? In other words, is hda always the boot drive, or can hdb / hdc be the boot drive?

4) What should I do to make sure that I have a good copy? If I can boot up and access items in my list is that good enough? Or do you recommend I give the drive a lot of real-world use before I Zipper it?​
How long should I expect for this to take if I'm going from the original 250GB to 300GB + 200GB?

Thank you so much for your help! I would really like to get going with this so I can put everything back together and get all these computer parts out of my living room.


----------



## newsposter

usc's post exemplifies why i just spent the $200 from weaknees instead of saving the $100 and doing it myself. going through all that one time was enough for me 

I can answer that one question. I'm pretty sure they use a character like Z to denote where you need to figure out where your own drive is at. It can get pretty confusing, especially if you have 4 drives attached like i did..fun fun fun


----------



## azitnay

uscpsycho said:


> 1) Is this a typo in the directions? "mount /dev/hdZ1 /mnt" Should hdz1 simply be hdz where z is a-d?


You need the "1" to indicate that it's the first partition (I'm assuming you're backing up to a FAT32 partition here, where it's the only partition on the drive, so it would be partition 1). So, /dev/hda1 would be an example of the partition to mount (assuming the drive you're mounting is the primary master, i.e. hda).



uscpsycho said:


> 2) After rebooting windows, where on my C drive should I copy the .bak file? I don't see any arguments in the restore process that point back to the .bak file.


Doesn't really matter... You can make a new directory called C:\TiVo if you want, and then copy it to C:\TiVo\tivo.bak.



uscpsycho said:


> 3) I have a question about primary/secondary IDE. When I boot from my C drive I know that my C drive is the primary master (hda) and my CD-ROM is the secondary master (hdc). But if I set my CD-ROM as the boot drive without changing any IDE connections, is the CD-ROM still hdc or does it become hda because it is the boot drive? In other words, is hda always the boot drive, or can hdb / hdc be the boot drive?


Primary and secondary IDE are physical connectors on the motherboard. So unless you switch which physical connector the CD-ROM is connected to, it'll stay on the secondary IDE controller. It won't magically switch.



uscpsycho said:


> 4) What should I do to make sure that I have a good copy? If I can boot up and access items in my list is that good enough? Or do you recommend I give the drive a lot of real-world use before I Zipper it?


Assuming you can boot up, play a recording, and record a new recording, without noticing any problems, I'd say it's a good copy.



uscpsycho said:


> How long should I expect for this to take if I'm going from the original 250GB to 300GB + 200GB?


Hard to say exactly... It could take a few hours to do the initial copy, since you're saving recordings.

Drew


----------



## uscpsycho

Thanks for your help!



azitnay said:


> 2) After rebooting windows, where on my C drive should I copy the .bak file? I don't see any arguments in the restore process that point back to the .bak file.
> 
> Doesn't really matter... You can make a new directory called C:\TiVo if you want, and then copy it to C:\TiVo\tivo.bak.


I realized this after posting. I thought that the restore procedure somehow used this file, but that's not so. So the questions arise:

Why bother making the .bak file (a real hassle if you don't already have a FAT partition)? Can't you skip that step altogether since you still have your original TiVo harddrive as a backup?

I haven't come across an explanation of this .bak file. What is in it? Mfsrestore doesn't use it, so how is it used for data recovery? If the new drive were to fail, wouldn't it be best to drop the original drive back in or make a fresh copy of it? After all, any scheduled recordings and such in the .bak file will be quickly outdated.

I feel like I'm missing the point of making the backup file.


----------



## azitnay

The .bak file contains the bare necessities required to image a hard drive for use in your TiVo. Essentially, everything except the recordings.

As you've stated, it's not technically necessary to make one, but I prefer to have a small (always <1GB in my experience) file handy for when the inevitable drive failure occurs. You can keep this file in multiple locations for redundancy, which you can't do with the original TiVo hard drive. Sure, the original drive might not be as susceptible to drive failure as an active drive is, but it's still susceptible to getting lost, etc.

I'm not sure I'd call creating a backup file without an existing FAT32 partition a "real hassle"... It might add half an hour or so to the entire process, which I personally feel is worth it.

Drew


----------



## uscpsycho

azitnay said:


> The .bak file contains the bare necessities required to image a hard drive for use in your TiVo. Essentially, everything except the recordings.


So are you saying that I can image a virgin hard drive from a .bak file?

As it happens I created a .bak file and then somehow hosed my original OEM drive. Am I going to be able to build a new image from my .bak file, or am I going to have to instantcake a new drive?

If I can create a new image from the .bak, please tell me how!

If I have to start with a fresh disk image from instantcake, I assume I'll be able to restore wishlists and such from the .bak file. If not, what good is the .bak file?

Thanks!


----------



## naiLS1

uscpsycho said:


> So are you saying that I can image a virgin hard drive from a .bak file?
> 
> As it happens I created a .bak file and then somehow hosed my original OEM drive. Am I going to be able to build a new image from my .bak file, or am I going to have to instantcake a new drive?
> 
> If I can create a new image from the .bak, please tell me how!
> 
> If I have to start with a fresh disk image from instantcake, I assume I'll be able to restore wishlists and such from the .bak file. If not, what good is the .bak file?
> 
> Thanks!


Yes, you can image a virgin drive with the .bak file. Your .bak file will save any wishlists, season passes you had as far as I know. It's just everything but the recordings. Check out the hinsdale how to or the weaknees how to. They are both pretty straight forward on how to do this.

I just upgraded for the first time a few days ago and it went flawlessly. It took about 5 hours because I copied from the original drive to a new one (recordings are big!). I also backed up my 3 tivos just in case they decide to bite it. I put all of the .bak files on a dvd and I also have the original drive from the one I just upgraded sitting in storage.


----------



## uscpsycho

I tried an upgrade following the Weaknees directions and ran into some problems I'm hoping someone can help me with.

I have an HR10-250 that I was trying to upgrade from the OEM 250GB drive to two 300GB drives. I followed the weaknees directions to the letter and successfully created a .bak file, but that's as far as I got. When I got to copying the data (including the recorded shows) to the new drives I got errors which stopped the process. Then when I put the OEM drive back in my TiVo it wouldn't boot. BIG TROUBLE.

To be safe I ran dd to copy the OEM drive onto one of the new 300GB drives (I got three errors during dd) and restored the .bak file onto the new drive. Now my TiVo boots up with the new drive and SURPRISE! I can watch and record live TV, plus my wishlists, to do list, season passes and playlist look intact. WOO HOO!!!

Not so fast... Trying to watch the programs in my playlist causes problems. I randomly picked one program to watch and it played just fine. Then I pressed the advance button to see if my 30 second skip still works, but the TiVo jumps to the very end of the program and then the TiVo suddenly reboots. I try again with the same program and it reboots a second time. Then I try to watch other programs in my playlist and I keep getting a message that says the program wasn't recorded because there was no signal at the time of recroding or I don't subscribe to the channel (I know these programs were recorded).

So my TiVo is back in business and it *LOOKS *like my previously recorded shows are available but when I try to watch them there's nothing there. Losing my recorded shows was my greatest fear when I started this so I am not happy.

Is there anything I can do to this new drive that might restore these shows?

What if I restore the .bak file to my original OEM drive? Will I have the same problem or will I be more likely to salvage my previously recorded programs on the OEM?

Thank you!

P.S. Drew - You were right about creating the .bak file. Even though things aren't quite the way I want them to be, if not for the .bak file my TiVo would be totally hosed.


----------



## azitnay

First of all, regarding 30-second skip, did you reenable it after the TiVo booted up? If not, that's obviously why it skipped to the end.

As for the recordings, as I mentioned to you in another thread, what you have is probably the best you're going to get now that you've restored from a backup. It sounds like you can at least view some recordings, which is better than what I had expected.

The reason every program you'd expect to be listed is listed in NP is that the NPL entries themselves were saved with the backup. The MFS streams, however, were not. They're still technically present on the drive, but they're obviously not all where the TiVo thinks they are.

Drew


----------



## uscpsycho

azitnay said:


> First of all, regarding 30-second skip, did you reenable it after the TiVo booted up? If not, that's obviously why it skipped to the end.
> 
> As for the recordings, as I mentioned to you in another thread, what you have is probably the best you're going to get now that you've restored from a backup. It sounds like you can at least view some recordings, which is better than what I had expected.
> 
> The reason every program you'd expect to be listed is listed in NP is that the NPL entries themselves were saved with the backup. The MFS streams, however, were not. They're still technically present on the drive, but they're obviously not all where the TiVo thinks they are.
> 
> Drew


As it turns out, all I seem to have is parts of some shows. When I get to a certain point in the programs that I can still access, the TiVo crashes and reboots. I have a feeling nothing made it through in its entireity.

I'll try to recover another copy of my drive using MTB instead of .bak and see if I have any more luck with the previously recorded programs.

Since I ran dd to copy from a 250GB drive to a 300GB drive, will I be able to access the extra 50GB on the new drive or do I need to take another step to free up the whole thing?

Thanks so much for all your help Drew!!!


----------



## azitnay

uscpsycho said:


> As it turns out, all I seem to have is parts of some shows. When I get to a certain point in the programs that I can still access, the TiVo crashes and reboots. I have a feeling nothing made it through in its entireity.
> 
> I'll try to recover another copy of my drive using MTB instead of .bak and see if I have any more luck with the previously recorded programs.
> 
> Since I ran dd to copy from a 250GB drive to a 300GB drive, will I be able to access the extra 50GB on the new drive or do I need to take another step to free up the whole thing?
> 
> Thanks so much for all your help Drew!!!


I just posted an answer to your 50GB question in the other thread.

One final note: If your reboot / slowness problems don't go away after deleting some of these bad recordings, it might be time for a Clear & Delete Everything.

Drew


----------



## VanGoghLikesTivo

Thanks for the guide. I just followed the instructions for my 240040 to replace the original 40 GB drive with a 200GB drive. One minor issue is that the instructions said to remove 4 screws from the back of the unit at the start, however, there are 5 screws on the back of my unit. It took me a while to figure out how to set the jumpers on the drives properly, as there was not much explanation. Also, it was difficult to figure out which of the actual drives were set up as drive a, b, c, d etc. I found the tip in this thread to use shift-Page Up to be able to read the text showing which drive matches with what. It would be useful if the software on the boot-up CD would do a printout of each of the drives it found before the prompt.

Anyway, I got everything working now on my new larger Tivo. Thanks a lot!


----------



## uscpsycho

Is it a good idea to upgrade a TiVo to two drives?

Seems like once you do, you are permanently stuck with those two drives. How can you make any changes from that point forward? Say you install two 400GB drives - if you want to upgrade those drives you need to boot up with those two drives and two new upgrade drives. That leaves no IDE for the CD-ROM.

Trying to decide whether I should add a second drive or stick to one big drive.

Thanks.


----------



## azitnay

If you wanted to upgrade again, you'd probably have to start over with a fresh image anyway (losing recordings)... One way to upgrade from two old drives to two new drives would be to boot up with a CD-ROM drive, the two old TiVo drives, and a third hard drive to temporarily store the backup image. Create the backup image, and then power down, put the new TiVo drives in place of the old ones, and restore from the backup image.

I personally feel it's usually not ideal to upgrade to two drives any more for other chance-of-failure-related reasons, but to me this isn't really one of the reasons.

Drew


----------



## newsposter

as an aside, if you can narrow down the 1 failing drive and catch it in time, you can save some of your recordings. I did this with my T60. Got an advance replacement drive and used dd(i forget what command) and did save some of my programs on the failing drive.


----------



## brotharoach

alright so here's the rundown.

i'm trying to upgrade from the stock 40g to a western digital 250gb eide. of course i went back to weaknees since they helped me upgrade my last series 2. we now have directv and the samsung 4040r. we/i got tired of the horrible cueing on the r15. 

when i dl the cd and try to boot from it i get a message saying "insert boot media and press any key or restart and select correct boot device". when i tried to open it, roxio opened and went to disc copy. i tried to boot from the floppy and couldn't get those files to compress far enough to fit, the floppy was only yielding 1.38mb instead of the 1.42 required for the boot. i also tried to run the "MakeDisk.bat" command and my computer thought i was stupid or something. i tried to put the floppy info onto cd and i got the same error as the new cd dl.

i also want to make sure i have my code right when someone finally helps me figure out what's going on. 

hda: c drive
hdb: original tivo hard drive
hdc: cd-rom drive
hdd: new hard drive

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

this unit also has nothing recorded on it, i received it last night. could that cause problems with the mfsbackup prompt since there's nothing really to back up?

if anyone can help i'd greatly appreciate it.


----------



## brotharoach

works now and everyhting's all good. 

i didn't realize that when the .iso file came up and opened roxio it was putting the data on the cd and not simply the .iso file. duh.


----------



## Starrbuck

azitnay said:


> Hard to say exactly... It could take a few hours to do the initial copy, since you're saving recordings.


I just copied my 250GB drive from my HR10-250 to a new 300GB drive and it took around 30 hours.

Wish me luck, I'll be installing the new drive this afternoon.


----------



## Xtra7973

Starrbuck said:


> I just copied my 250GB drive from my HR10-250 to a new 300GB drive and it took around 30 hours.
> 
> Wish me luck, I'll be installing the new drive this afternoon.


Just wondering how you made out with it. I did the same thing but it wasnt 30 hours but it felt like it only to find out it didnt work and I had to do a clear and delete. I was thinking of giving it another go.


----------



## Starrbuck

Xtra7973 said:


> Just wondering how you made out with it. I did the same thing but it wasnt 30 hours but it felt like it only to find out it didnt work and I had to do a clear and delete. I was thinking of giving it another go.


No problems at all! Following the ~30 hour copy, I popped in the new drive, put the top back on, and powered up to a normal-functioning HR10-250. The previously-recorded shows that I tried played fine.

Going from 250 to 300 gave me an additional 7 hours of HD recording space. Also the new drive seems a touch faster. It's a Maxtor DiamondMax Ultra 16 (L01R300).


----------



## klitton

I recently upgraded a Toshiba RS-TX20 with a 250gb hard drive. Toshiba has since replaced that unti with a RS-TX60. I put the 250gb drive in it and it keeps telling me to activate the unit. It connects to TiVo without problems over ethernet. Also, the activation number shows as all zeros.

Aren't these 2 machines the same? Do I need to reimage the 250gb drive with the drive out of the RS-TX60?

Thanks for your help.

Kev


----------



## weaknees

All you need to do is to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" so that the drive will reserialize to the new unit.


----------



## klitton

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

Kev


----------



## klitton

It looks like it worked. Thanks! Though, I can't believe how much time it takes for the TiVo to process the new info. I also could only connect via phone whereas before I could go over ethernet.

Oh, well.

Kev


----------



## weaknees

What model and what OS do you have?


----------



## supasta

This tutorial seems amazing!

However, will this be updated with instructions for the new S2DT boxes? Thanks!


----------



## weaknees

Yes, when we have some time to devote to it, we'll certainly add the new units.

For now, go ahead and use the instructions for the 540040 units, but just be aware that you can only do a one-drive replacement until there's a bracket to hold a second drive.


----------



## supasta

I will, thank you. I plan on a single 500GB drive anyway....that should be sufficent....for now!


----------



## weaknees

OK - we added support for the 649xxx units. So far, we only added information for replacing with one drive, or restoring from backup to one drive, since there's no second drive bracket at this point . . .


----------



## Grimm1

weaknees said:


> OK - we added support for the 649xxx units. So far, we only added information for replacing with one drive, or restoring from backup to one drive, since there's no second drive bracket at this point . . .


Hi, just wondering why you haven't made any changes related to the problems I ran into and reported back in early feb? The setup I had chosen was to upgrade an 80HR Humax with 2 new larger drives. I answered Yes to all the questions except the last.



Grimm1 said:


> Yesterday I upgraded my TiVo using the WeaKnees CD and instructions. I've done 3 upgrades before over the years using the Hinsdale method and thought I would give the WeaKnees route a go.
> 
> The upgrade worked....eventually. There were a few things that brought my upgrade to a halt until I could research before continuing.
> 
> The first was the....
> "kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_iso8859-1, errno = 2"
> 
> Message that I got just from booting the CD...that got me to pause but I decided to continue and see what happened. Then came the first command to mount the FAT drive and I got that error again. Then I really put on the breaks. Luckily I had another PC I could run to and look this up and I found a few mentions that the error can be ignored.
> 
> This is information that needs to be in the instructions..so people don't freak out when they see it.
> 
> The second part that really stumped me was this part of the instructions....
> ****
> The software will scan your drive for a few moments. You should see a progress indicator as the backup proceeds. Once the backup is successful, shut down the PC if your destination drive isn't connected by using CTRL-ALT-DELETE and waiting until the Linux has halted. Then boot again as before with the destination drive connected, and enter the following with hdZ (hdZZ if you have two) as your destination drive:
> 
> mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt
> *****
> So I just backed up to my FAT drive...I shutdown as described. I disconnect my FAT drive and attach my 2 destination drives hdZ and hdZZ then boot again with the CD and the command is to mount hdW1??? Why would I need to do that? At this point I don't even have hdW connected because I am using all 4 IDE connections with the Boot CD Drive, hdX, hdz and hdZZ.
> 
> Again I had to stop and run to the computer...this time after searching and searching I really couldn't find anything that referred to it specifically. It looked like it was an unneeded command at that point...but not really being a linux person I was not 100% sure. I finally decided to skip that command and continue and everything else went as advertised.
> 
> I also found what appeared to be some errors in the instruction for mounting the drives with the twinbreeze upgrade kit. Though I don't know if this would be the place to mention them.


----------



## High Technology

This was great -- I struggled through a blesstivo upgrade on my HDR-112 when they first came out, and then again when I upgraded a Series 2 to 120GB a couple of years back.

The disc, plus these instructions make life much easier -- THANKS!

Quick Question: I am now upgrading an HR10-250 and had no problems adding another 250GB drive to it. I did the back-up and then MFSADD and all looked good -- will reassemble the TiVo on Monday (ETA for my Weaknees bracket) and boot it up.

I am also trying to save a friend of mine some time by preparing his new second drive for him (they say no good deed goes unpunished ). Does MFSADD change anything on the first drive, or does it just read information off it and do all of its writing on the second drive? 

The reason I ask is that after I did the first drive (his), I powered down the PC and then reattached the second new drive (mine) and tried again. The MFSADD command failed, so I restored from my backup and then did the MFSADD again and it worked fine.

So what will happen if he puts the second drive into his HR10-250 and powers it up? Will his TiVo recognize it appropriately? Or do I need to get his primary TiVo drive and go through the MFSADD routine again? I guess I was thinking the MFSADD was like the old blesstivo where I don't recall it actually needing the primary TiVo drive to prep the new drive.


----------



## azitnay

mfsadd does indeed differ from BlessTiVo, in that it requires both drives be present (essentially, mfsadd marries the two drives on the spot, and BlessTiVo sets it up so that the TiVo will marry the drives upon startup).

I remember WeaKnees reporting problems with BlessTiVo in recent times (causing them to at least temporarily halt the sale of "add" kits), but I believe I've seen a post since then indicating that the problem was resolved somehow (admittedly, I haven't kept up as much around here as I used to).

Drew


----------



## tkorpus

I apologize if this is not the correct place for this post or if this has already been addressed, but I have searched and can't seem to find the answer. Here goes...

I have 2 Hughs SD-DVR80 units that I purchased from Weaknees. At the time of purchase I had them add a second 80GB drive to each unit resulting in 160GB (140 hours) per unit. Now I would like to replace both drives in each unit with 250GB drives (4 total) and keep my previously recorded shows.

I have found instructions in the Weaknees interactive guide and on Hinsdale for upgrading a 2 drive unit to 2 larger drives while preserving previously recorded shows, but it is unclear if this will work for a 2 drive unit that did not start out with 2 drives. I realize that this will require the use of all 4 IDE ports leaving nowhere to connect the CD-drive. The instructions suggest using an MFStools 2.0 floppy which I downloaded and tried to use, but the new drives were only detected as 137GB instead of 250GB. When I performed a backup of my 2 original drives, I used 1 of the new 250GB drives and MFStools on the CD. The CD version of MFStools properly detected the full 250GB drive.

Is there something wrong with the floppy version of MFStools? Am I missing a step somewhere?


----------



## cvbishop

Queasy1 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm searching through the forums now for an answer but am not finding anything. Thought it would just be quicker to ask.
> 
> I've got a Phillips DSR7000 DirecTivo. I added a second drive to it a couple of years ago when I got it but I'm now trying to replace the two drives with a much larger single drive.
> 
> The instructions say:
> 
> What about two drive to one drive situations? Will that work as well? Will I be able to save my shows?
> 
> Thanks.


 Hey...I'm in the same boat you described, but I don't see any direct replies to your post. Did you get help and succeed in the replacement? Thanks, Carl


----------



## johnmsch

I don't see an option for my upgrade scenario. I had added a second drive (bought the kit from you guys) a couple of years ago, and now want to upgrade my main drive from the original 40G to something larger. After selecting my model (24004A), the next step has 3 options: Add a drive, Replace with one drive, Replace with 2 drives. Seems like there should be another option, such as "Replace one existing drive with a new larger drive"???

Thx


----------



## LarryInAz

johnmsch said:


> I don't see an option for my upgrade scenario. I had added a second drive (bought the kit from you guys) a couple of years ago, and now want to upgrade my main drive from the original 40G to something larger. After selecting my model (24004A), the next step has 3 options: Add a drive, Replace with one drive, Replace with 2 drives. Seems like there should be another option, such as "Replace one existing drive with a new larger drive"???
> 
> Thx


The two drives in your unit now are married to each other. You can't simply replace one of two drives. If you want to save the programming thats on the TWO drives you can but it is going be very time consuming and more challenging since you'd be dealing with 4 hard drives and one cd or dvd drive that you'd boot up from.


----------



## johnmsch

LarryInAz said:


> The two drives in your unit now are married to each other. You can't simply replace one of two drives. If you want to save the programming thats on the TWO drives you can but it is going be very time consuming and more challenging since you'd be dealing with 4 hard drives and one cd or dvd drive that you'd boot up from.


Larry,

Time consuming and challenging I can handle! Been programming computers for longer than I care to remember, and have built about a dozen PCs over the years, so the technical part of this doesn't bother me. I'm just very rusty with Linux, and never took the time to research the structure of the drives/partitions the TiVo kernel uses. And yes, I do want to save the programming.

By "4 hard drives", I'm assuming you mean that I'll have to copy the current A/B drives to the new A/B drives? Even though I wasn't planning on replacing my current B drive, if there is no other way, I might as well do that one too. Another assumption on my part would be that the drives would be setup something like this?:
hda - Primary Master - Current "A" drive
hdb - Primary Slave - Current "B" drive
hdc - Secondary Master - New "A" drive
hdd - Secondary Slave - New "B" drive

If that is the case, then what would I need to do to copy the drives, and then make all the new space available?

Thank You!
John


----------



## HomeUser

Not sure if it will work you might try 
Binary copy using Linux cp or dd the original TiVo 'A' drive to the new larger drive. 
Test in the TiVo with both the new (unexpanded) 'A' drive + 'B' drive just to be sure there are no unexpected problems. 
with both the new 'A' and 'B' drive in the PC use the MFSAdd command to expand the 'A' drive.

Mfsadd options from thread New MFS Tools features, and a question 


> MFS Add
> -x / -r
> Same thing they do with restore.
> 
> -X
> Expand only on one of the drives. For example, expand only the A drive or only the (Possibly new) B drive.
> 
> There was a bug in MFS Tools 2 where if you tried to create partitions on a new drive by hand and add them with mfsadd naming the partitions instead of using -x or -X, mfsadd would try and initialize the partition table because it's a new drive, then wouldn't find the partitions. (It doesn't actually initialize the partition table on the disk, just it's data structures.)


----------



## JamieP

johnmsch said:


> Time consuming and challenging I can handle!


It's not that bad. If your A drive is still the original disk, it should have two partitions slots left for expansion. You should verify this by running "pdisk -l" on it. The last ("Apple_free Extra") partition should be #14. If it is, your in good shape. If it is not, it's probably #16, and you are out of partition slots.

Assuming you have two remaining partition slots on the A disk, you can dd (image copy) your old 40GB drive onto a new larger drive. You'll then have to put your new A and the old B drive in the PC together and run "mfs_add -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdY" (with appropriate X and Y) to expand the new A drive to fill the free capacity. You may have to update the partition table to reflect the full disk size as described here. Ignore the recommendation there to use Kazymyr's boot CD: use a current lba48 boot CD instead.

[I guess I smeeked HomeUser.]


----------



## newsposter

LarryInAz said:


> The two drives in your unit now are married to each other. You can't simply replace one of two drives. If you want to save the programming thats on the TWO drives you can but it is going be very time consuming and more challenging since you'd be dealing with 4 hard drives and one cd or dvd drive that you'd boot up from.


question: would it really be that difficult? Time consuming yes. But isn't the following possible? (or did it just work because I had the same size???)

I knew my 2nd T60 drive was failing. so i got a warranty replacement and copied the stuff over to it. Some stuff was saved. I'd assume if the drive wasn't failing, i could copy everything over. So if you wanted to replace your 2 current fully working drives, why couldn't you just do what I did one drive at a time and avoid the 4 drive dilemma?


----------



## johnmsch

Thanks to HomeUser and JamieP. I'll be getting a new drive in a few days, and will give one or both of your suggestions a try. Of course, I'll be doing a full backup of the drives first!!!!!!!!!

John


----------



## LastPlace

azitnay said:


> The PTVupgrade CD includes tpip version 1.1, as far as I can recall (but you're most likely using the WeaKnees CD).
> 
> You can download 1.2 from:
> 
> http://www.courtesan.com/tivo/tpip.html
> 
> Drew


Can anyone help?!

I'm upgrading (trying to anyway) my Series 1 SVR-2000 from its original 30GB hard drive to a 300GB.

After InstantCake didn't work for me I went back to mfsbackup | mfsrestore and successfully got to 

New estimated standalone size: 147 hours (117 more)

Based upon what I've read, I need the TPIP to use the full 300GB but when I try to unzip it I get header errors at "0".

Any suggestions on another way to get it or can you let me know what I might be doing wrong? I've tried downloading it and then unzipping it and when that didn't work I tried just opening it - it was much faster but the same error occured.

Thanx!


----------



## azitnay

What boot CD are you using? Sounds like it's not LBA48-aware, which means you'll only be able to utilize the first 137GB of the drive (147 hours sounds about right).

Beyond that, since your SVR-2000's stock kernel isn't LBA48-aware, either, you'll need to look into copykern to replace the kernel.

The following boot CD might be your best bet (I think it might even come with copykern):

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/index.html

Drew


----------



## LastPlace

Thanx Drew!

So, now I've downloaded the file you recommended (the free version), copied it to CD, booted the TiVo old PC, did mountcd and done copykern. I went through the process answering the questions and put the kernel on my hdc which is where my new TiVo drive is.

I'm at the PTVupgrade /# prompt.

With all the gyrations I've gone through I've managed to get myself confused:

So, am I all set, or am I supposed to go back and re-do mfsbackup | mfsrestore?

Thank you for your patience with my convoluted confusion


----------



## azitnay

You definitely need to use MFS Tools to expand beyond the first 137GB. You could try:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc

However, if you're out of partitions, you'll most likely have to re-do the mfsbackup | mfsrestore.

Drew


----------



## LastPlace

DONE  

Thank You! THANK YOU!!


----------



## tkorpus

Please help.

I never got a response to my earlier post (#866 of this thread). Basically, I have a 2 drive box that Weaknees had expanded from 1 drive to 2 at the time of purchase. Now, I would like to replace both drives with 2 larger drives that exceed 137GB while preserving my recordings. Is there an lba48 aware floppy availible since I will be using all 4 IDE slots with hard drives leaving no room for a CD? Are there any other options for performing this upgrade?

Thanks.


----------



## HomeUser

I searched and I have not found an LBA48 boot Floppy with MFSTools. I boot Linux from a SCSI drive others have used USB drives. 

If your 'A' drive has been expanded you will not be able to expand 2 drives to 2 drives because of a limit on the max number of partitions the 'A' Drive can only be expanded once keeping the recordings.


----------



## tkorpus

Would it be possible to boot from one of the new disks that I will be restoring to?


----------



## HomeUser

No, The boot disk would be locked. Do you have a bootable USB port? There are versions of Linux that boot from a USB Thumb Drive.


----------



## azitnay

If you're just trying to move from two old drives to two new drives for whatever reason, as long as the new drives are as big or bigger than the old drives, you could first hook up the old A and new A drives and perform a dd copy, then hook up the old B and new B drives and perform a dd copy, and you should end up with a working new pair of drives.

After that, you could try to hook up the new drives and mfsadd -x to expand, but if you're out of partitions, you'll be out of luck there.

Drew


----------



## newsposter

thanks for explaining why it worked for me.


----------



## tkorpus

azitnay said:


> After that, you could try to hook up the new drives and mfsadd -x to expand, but if you're out of partitions, you'll be out of luck there.
> 
> Drew


When you say out of partitions do you mean for the drive pair or on an individual basis?


----------



## tkorpus

HomeUser said:


> No, The boot disk would be locked. Do you have a bootable USB port? There are versions of Linux that boot from a USB Thumb Drive.


My computer does have USB ports on the mother board, but I checked the bios and USB is not one of the options in the boot list so I am assuming that I can't boot from a USB port.

I have seen mention of people adding a second controller to connect more than 4 IDE devices...will this work for what I am trying to do? If so, do I need a special controller? Does it matter which devices go on which controller? Do I need to do anything special to access the devices on the additional controller?


----------



## azitnay

tkorpus said:


> When you say out of partitions do you mean for the drive pair or on an individual basis?


Each drive has a set limit of partitions (I don't know how many offhand)... But typically, once you expand a specific drive, you can't expand it again wthout starting over.

Drew


----------



## HomeUser

Tkorpus, I think Azitnay's plan is the easiest dd (image copy) one drive at a time that way you only need 3 IDE ports. Then you can expand the drive(s) with mfsadd.

Yes you can use an add on controller to get the extra EIDE ports the PTV upgrade CD has the drivers for the Promise Ultra100 card. See this archived thread


----------



## tkorpus

Thanks HomeUser. Is that correct, what Drew said about not expanding a previously expanded drive, becasuse I thought I've seen people talke about doing that as long as the two new drives were larger than the original two?


----------



## azitnay

Hard to say for sure... It's certainly worth a shot, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Drew


----------



## tkorpus

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate your replies.


----------



## azitnay

Sounds to me like you probably burned the .ISO as a file to a data CD, and also used your burning software to make it a bootable CD (booting into DR-DOS).

Instead, you need to burn the .ISO as a disc image. Most if not all burning software supports this.

Drew


----------



## tkorpus

tkorpus said:


> Please help.
> 
> I never got a response to my earlier post (#866 of this thread). Basically, I have a 2 drive box that Weaknees had expanded from 1 drive to 2 at the time of purchase. Now, I would like to replace both drives with 2 larger drives that exceed 137GB while preserving my recordings. Is there an lba48 aware floppy availible since I will be using all 4 IDE slots with hard drives leaving no room for a CD? Are there any other options for performing this upgrade?
> 
> Thanks.


I would just like to post an update for everyone's information.

I obtained a Promise Ultra 100 controller card, added it to my system and updated its bios giving me a total capacity of 8 IDE devices. I was then able to expand both of my already expanded systems from 2 80GB drives in each to 2 250GB drives in each and keep all of my shows. This worked without any hitches useing the latest PTV disk. This disk also now includes the latest TPIP version 1.2.

Thanks again for all of the help.


----------



## Sawblade

I have the Humax Tivo with the DVD (DRT800) and decided to upgrade it from a 300gb Maxtor drive to the new Seagate 750gb drive using the Weaknees Interactive Guide.

I had used the interactive guide previously to go from the original 80gb drive to the 300gb Maxtor with no problems. This time I have some recordings (140gb worth) that I need to transfer over and I get an error message saying that the target drive is not large enough and the upgrade fails. I have checked the size and it is properly reported when I boot Linux, so I must be doing something wrong.

Command String:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

the old drive is primary master and the new (target) drive is primary slave


Just for fun, I tried doing it without transferring programs and it works like a charm so is there some size limit in the backup restore process that does not recognize the large drive?

There are about 140 gb of shows to transfer and they "should" fit easily, but have tried twice now and no luck. I will transfer using the network if no one has any ideas on how to get around this.

Thanks so much for any help you may provide!

Sawblade


----------



## HomeUser

Sorry bad news. There is limit of the total number of partitions. You cannot upgrade an all-ready upgraded drive and keep the recordings. 

Your options are 
- Copy the drive without expanding. 
- Make a "shrunk" copy without recordings then expand to fill the drive. 
- use the new drive as a 'B' drive. 

Of corse there are always exceptions there are reports of some tech savvy users using disk tools and binary editors to manually copy and modify the partitions.


----------



## MadHookUp

I bought a modded Tivo off ebay a couple years ago. Its a Phillips HDR 212. The Tivo came with an 80gig HD and an Ethernet addition. It also has the Lifetime service attached.

All the instructions I read keep telling me to back up my old hard drive. I tried the weakness instructions and marked that I am not backing anything up and it still tells me I need to hook up my old drive. Are there any instructions for my situation?

Also, do I need special drivers for my ethernet card? I think its one of those Turbonet things.


----------



## azitnay

While you didn't explictly state what you're trying to do, I assume you're trying to replace the hard drive... Whether or not you make a backup, you still need the old drive connected so you can copy the software to the new drive. I'm guessing the WeaKnees instructions were telling you the right thing.

Drew


----------



## Trinergy

I am trying to add a Seagate ST3300831A (300GB) drive to a Series 2 540040. My Tivo original drive is "hda" (primary master), and the new drive is "hdb". I am not backing up the original just want to add the new space of the drive. I used to configurator and it gave me the command "mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ" where I replaced X with a and Z with b. I was expecting to see a result with the new space added but it just brings me to another # prompt and nothing happens. Just in case I put the drives back in the Tivo booted it up and it only saw the original 40GB. I have looked at other guides and used slightly different commands but to no avail. The drives are being reported with the correct sizes when the linux kernal is booting.

As I was researching the problem I saw that the swap file needs to be enlarged. I am ok with losing all of my recordings but does this lose my settings as well? If not what should I do using this the Weaknees CD to make it work most effectively? Thanks in advance.


----------



## azitnay

Nothing gets printed at all? What happens when you simply type:

mfsadd

with no parameters? Do you see the usage info?

Aside from that, I wouldn't recommend adding a 300GB drive by simply mfsadd'ing, due to the swap issue. As the first step, I'd recommend using WeaKnees' "Replace with One Drive" instructions to replace the 40GB with the new 300GB (you'll be able to add swap, keep your settings, and even keep your recordings if you'd like).

If you really want to, you can add the 40GB drive as a second drive after performing the replacement step (of course, this will require a working mfsadd). However, I'd recommend just sticking with the single 300GB drive, and thus avoiding a two-drive setup.

Drew


----------



## Killerz298

I am going to do an upgrade of my friend's TCD540080. I am going to replace the drive he currently has in it with a new 300gb Maxtor PATA. He wants to keep the recordings and hopefully the season passes. Are the instructions listed at http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com good for this model? Will the full amount of the 300gb drive be able to be used by the tivo? Will the season passes be saved as well as the recordings?

About how long should the process take? The original drive is about 60% full.


----------



## azitnay

Yes, if you follow those instructions correctly, the entire drive will be used, and all settings and recordings will be saved.

The time it takes seems to vary wildly according to past posts on these forums. Anywhere from several hours to over a day.

Drew


----------



## Killerz298

Wow! I don't see why it would take more than a few hours, it is only copying like not even 80gb of data over IDE. Very odd, but thanks for the info, I want his upgrade to go smoothly.


----------



## VOLFAN

Killerz298 said:


> Wow! I don't see why it would take more than a few hours, it is only copying like not even 80gb of data over IDE. Very odd, but thanks for the info, I want his upgrade to go smoothly.


I just completed upgrading my Series 2 40hr with a Maxtor 300gb / 16mb and all went smooth. (From the install link you posted earlier.) Yeah!

Also, my backup took a little over an hour.

Be sure to read the guide carefully and take your time. The only problem I ran into was placing the jumper(s) on Cap Limit instead of Slave. Other than that... smooth as silk.

Let me know if I can help. 

Volfan
<><


----------



## Knyte

Forgive me if this is the wrong thread...I've searched and this seems the most relevant place. If not, please correct/direct me  

OK I bought a Series 1 TiVo (Phillips HDR31204) last year. Been using it as a dumb VCR until this weekend. Got a CacheCard, and two 250 GB's as an upgrade project. This TiVo has been worked on already, as I found a Seagate 80 GB in it. It had software 3.0, telnet, bash, and tivoftp. 

I've been reading heavily, of course, and realize how leery some are about dual drives...but these are brand new with a 5 yr warranty. Really not worried. I've made a couple of images of the original (well, the Seagate 80 GB) TiV0 drive, so if one fails, no big deal, I can recover and get it going without much fuss. So, I'm willing to take the risk(?) in favour of more storage. Oh yes, I'll be using that storage. 

OK so - CacheCard install went well. It's networked very well at the moment. 

Then came the dual 250 GB's. Not so successful. As of this moment I have one installed (w/300 MB swap, initialized, in anticipation of the 2nd drive), and working well, but could not get the pair to work. I tried a direct backup / restore from the original to the two new ones, as well as a restore from the image. Both methods resulted in the same thing: no TiVo  It displays Please Wait While Tivo Starts (or something similar) but does not advance to the CacheCard progress screen. I even tried to bless the B drive (boot CD had an LBA48 compatible kernel), however the confirmation message says 127 GB added (not 250). Looks like BlessTiVo won't work on large drives, hence mfsadd? 

To recap: Installed CacheCard (256 MB SDRAM was all I had on hand) and drivers. 
Attempted to install / upgrade drives - backup OK, mfsrestore to both drives as a pair, and patched the kernel for LBA48 support, all OK, but TiVo would not boot. Tried mfsrestore to one drive, patch the kernel for LBA48, and TiVo boots. Tried mfsadd, TiVo then is in a reboot loop. 

The interactive guide (as well as information from here and other sources) is very straightorward and concise, I'm sure I've followed the directions correctly (several times in fact). 

I've read in here that some TiVo's don't like dual drives and have an issue with the drives' spin up requirements. To rule that out, I tried booting the TiVo with both drives' Molex connector (power) connected, but just the A drive connected to the IDE ribbon. Boots fine. Re-image both drives as a pair, patch kernel, plug both back into the TiVo, and no boot. 

In the mfsrestore and mfsadd commands, I noticed the Weaknees interactive guide recommends the -r 4 switch, with no mention of drive sizes, yet in these forums I've seen it suggested that -r 4 be used when any single drive is > 300 GB. Think this is related? I have been including the -r 4 switch so far where required / suggested. 

Thank you in advance for reading my post! I've left out the commands used unless someone wants them. 

EDIT - looks as though no two Seagate 7200.9's in a TiVo will work, reasons unknown. Likely NOT a power supply issue. 

2nd EDIT - Have swapped out one of the Seagates for a WD of identical size. Works like a champ...640 hrs @ Basic. 

So that confirms it - dual 7200.9's (in my case) do NOT work, and it's NOT a power supply issue. Gotta be a firmware incompatibility somewhere.


----------



## flava

Hi

I have already successfully upgraded a HR10-250 to the original 250gb drive and a second 300gb drive, so I'm not a total newbie, however, that was close to 2 years ago and I don't remember everything I've done nor was I ever clear on it.

So, now I just got another brand new HR10-250 and I want to immediately upgrade it to dual 500gb drives. I don't want to copy anything on the original drive, other than make a backup of it, which I have already done. I am going to post my steps and please tell me if they are correct or something else needs to be done. Last time I upgraded I used the Hinsdale instructions, I plan on trying the Weaknees instructions and CD, but even after reading for a couple afternoons, I have never seen this scenario exactly laid out.

1) I connect
hda - primary master - FAT32 partition
hdb - primary slave - new 500gb (1)
hdc - secondary master - original 250gb Tivo drive
hdd - secondary slave - CD-ROM

2) boot to CD

3) _mount /dev/hda1 /mnt_

4) Backup existing Tivo:
_mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc_

5) This is where I get confused. Do I want to disconnect the original 250gb Tivo drive and connect both 500 gb drives now? If so I would have:
hda - primary master - FAT32 partition
hdb - primary slave - new 500gb (1)
hdc - secondary master - new 500gb (2)
hdd - secondary slave - CD-ROM

6) If I have both 500gb drives connected now, I run:
_mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hdc_
I have read that the -s should really be 500 for 1000gb of disk space, but I'm confused that the -s won't work for 500, and that somehow I have to use tpip, but I can't figure out when or how to do this.
I've also read that I shouldn't expand the drive right away, and that I should just use -zi, and expand it later some other way. I originally used BlessTivo to do this on my original upgrade, but once again I've not sure how I did this or where I even found this utility. Since I am upgrading to dual 500gb drives, I am unsure whether I expand first or TPIP or BlessTivo later or what, so if someone can explain this to me it would really help.

After that, not really sure what to do. So if someone could please let me know what to do to get these drives working properly, I'd greatly appreciate it!

THANKS!


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## mikieminnow

I just upgraded from the original 40 GB to a WD 300 GB drive. My 40 GB was crashing while trying to access recorded programs, now no problem. This could not have been easier!!


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## TravisT

I have an HR10-250 (250 GB) with a failing harddrive. Prior to removing the harddrive the Tivo would lockup at various times. I've also booted Windows XP with the drive connected in order to run diagnostics on it. I now know I shouldn't have done that because the boot sector will get messed up, however the diagnostics did show SMART errors. I just ordered a WD3200JB (320 GB) drive to replace it.

Can I still use the upgrade procedure to prepare the new drive, and possibly even transfer some of my saved programs? Would the bad boot sector and corruped programs get copied to the new drive?

I guess if I can't copy from one drive to another I'll need to download an image. Right?


----------



## SystemJinx

I just replaced the 120GB hard drive in my Toshiba RS-TX20 with a Western Digital 320GB drive. It was almost painless with your detailed instructions and boot CD.

Thank you WeaKnees. :up:


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## azitnay

TravisT said:


> I have an HR10-250 (250 GB) with a failing harddrive. Prior to removing the harddrive the Tivo would lockup at various times. I've also booted Windows XP with the drive connected in order to run diagnostics on it. I now know I shouldn't have done that because the boot sector will get messed up, however the diagnostics did show SMART errors. I just ordered a WD3200JB (320 GB) drive to replace it.
> 
> Can I still use the upgrade procedure to prepare the new drive, and possibly even transfer some of my saved programs? Would the bad boot sector and corruped programs get copied to the new drive?
> 
> I guess if I can't copy from one drive to another I'll need to download an image. Right?


Since your drive is failing, your mileage will vary with respect to being able to image your new drive with its contents. However, if MFS Tools 2.0 is able to pull a valid image (with or without recordings) off the old drive, the fact that you booted into Windows XP should have no affect on the process.

Drew


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## andydumi

i have a tivo series2 40 hour now. i also have 2 80gig harddrives laying around. if i follow the instructions, to replace the one existing drive with 2 new ones, then i dont really need a backup correct? as my original 40 will still contain a "backup" image.


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## supasta

Correct.


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## ottergoose

I've read that this takes a long time... but it's taken so long so far that I'm a bit concerned... the step with "mfsbackup -Tao .... | mfsrestore ... -xzpi - dev/hdZ" has been going for 39 hours on my DirecTV R10 80 GB drive / new Seagate 320 GB drive. The screen says "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment."

When should I be concerned that I'm going to have to start over here? What's the longest it has ever taken for drives of this size? Thanks.


----------



## magnus

Yep, that would be true. However, I'd make a backup anyway. I like to copy it to another drive on my system and then burn to CD rom. From then on all you would need to do is use the cdrom ever you new drives ever crashed for some reason (of course it's only a backup of the software and not any of tthe movies that were recorded).



andydumi said:


> i have a tivo series2 40 hour now. i also have 2 80gig harddrives laying around. if i follow the instructions, to replace the one existing drive with 2 new ones, then i dont really need a backup correct? as my original 40 will still contain a "backup" image.


----------



## ottergoose

ottergoose said:


> The screen says "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment."


Alright... after 50 hours I gave up on it, pulled out the drives, and checked the jumpers. Unfortunately, I missed "Master" and "Master w/ Slave Present" being separate options... After getting that taken care of, I restarted the process and now I've got a message telling me the status (up to 1.78% now) of the restoration process.

Kudos to those that have worked on these tools and this forum, it's an excellent resource.


----------



## SonyTiVoLover

Quick question:

I have an older Hughes dual tuner non-HD TiVo (The HDVR2 I believe) that I've already explanded with two 200GB drives. I'd like to replace those drives with two 500GB drives AND retain all my recorded programs, as well as season passes, etc. Most instructions I've used just backup everything EXCEPT the recorded programs.

Since 400GB worth of recorded programs would make a pretty large backup file, is there a procudure for putting both old drives and both new drives into a PC and transferring everything from the old set directly to the new set (without making a "backup file")?

Thanks for the assistance!


----------



## fotoryder

Just a quick thanks for the upgrade instrucions. I just upgraded my Series-2 540 40 hour Tivo to a 300 GB Maxtor drive. The upgrade probably took about 15-30 minutes, copy and restore the image from the 40 GB drive to the 300 GB drive.We didn't save any ofthe recordings, I'd been copying the stuff I wanted save with TIVO Desktop.

It was easy to follow the instructions, but be sure to read the explanation of the parameters on the mfsbackup and mfsrestore commands.


----------



## gregm

I'm copying from a 160 GB HD to a 200 GB HD, preserving recordings. This is an older upgrade, so it's only using 137 GB on the source. It's been sitting at 99.97% complete for at least 2 hours now. Before that, the percentage was going up about 0.01% per second. I know it says that it may take a long time, but it seems a bit odd for the last 0.03% to take longer than the first 99.97%. Does this sound normal to anyone? Should I pull the plug and start again (shudder)?


----------



## gregm

After another hour, I killed it, and started again.


----------



## HomeUser

What command are you using?


----------



## jkast

I successfully installed a second (500mb) drive (mating it with the original 250mb drive per the Weaknees instructions) and the twin breeze bracket in my hr10-250 last summer. Everything has continued to work well since. Now I have the desire to go bigger yet, maybe by replacing the original 250mb drive with a now much more affordable 500mb drive (I would end up with 2 500mb drives in the box). I usually use Windows XP, so would want to boot from the Weaknees CD... Can this be done? It is not obvious to me that it can.


----------



## pablo1234

I have a series 2 box with a 40gb hard drive which is dying. I have another on the way that I purchased on e-bay for $41 + shipping. Would like to replace dying hard drive to put into my bedroom, but how do you do it? Do you need any software? Is it plug & play? So far, this website seems a bit cumbersome and not a lot of answers. Please help.


----------



## grins

Thanks in advance for even looking. I'm hoping y'all can help me 

Short Version and Questions

1) I've got a 2-disk HDTiVo that's been crashing lately. With the console log showing disk errors, I ran the disk-manufacturer full-surface scan on the disk TiVo said was the problem, which found no errors. I used dd_rescue to copy the entire drive to another device, and that reported no read errors. Is the next step to mfsbackup drives A & B to another device, low-level format the A drive, then mfsrestore? I've got a spare 250GB disk, and I hope I've deleted enough stuff from the HDTiVo to make the full backup fit on that. If so, I think I do the backup like


mfsbackup -ao /dev/hda/bigbackup.bak /dev/hdX /dev/hdY ​
2) If backup-wipe-restore is a valid plan, I know I should increase my swap space, is there anything else I should do? I think the right command to do a basic restore is:


mfsrestore -s 300 -zpi /dev/hda/bigbackup.bak /dev/hdX /dev/hdY
./tpip -1 -s /dev/hdX​
3) Should I also try to decrease the partition count? A is up to 16, B is up to 6. What about trying to recombine the 2 drives to a single--presuming there's space, is that even possible? If I'm trying to divorce the two drives, the restore command might be


mfsrestore -s 150 -zpli /dev/hda/bigbackup.bak /dev/hdX /dev/hdY
./tpip -1 -s /dev/hdX​
Thanks again. I'd love to get the old dog humming again before the fall season starts. 

More Details

I've had my HDTivo for a long time. Somewhere along the way I Zippered it. Love it  Long ago I added a 160 GB B drive. A while ago, the B drive started acting up, and since I now had an instant cake image, I decided to use the original kept-on-a-shelf 250GB HDTiVo drive for the B. Within just a few months, the B drive started acting up again, so I swapped the old A drive, a 250GB, into the B drive and replaced the A drive with a 300GB drive.

Now, though, the new 300 is giving me issues. I can hear clicks just before re-boots, and if the stars align I can be monitoring the console log and see drive not ready errors or seek errors on hda before it crashes. Since I got the 300GB by buying it in a USB enclosure, I can't just do a swap with Maxtor, I'd have to go through joe's discount parts, who knows if I'd get a new drive back. Therefore, I'd like to try wiping the 300 before going through a return process. Can I draw any conclusions from the successful full-surface scan and no errors from dd_rescue reading off the device? Does that mean the errors are logical errors in the mfs structure, not hardware errors on the drive?

As I said above, I get some errors in the boot log, here's the relevant snippet:



Code:


Found rev 'F' Si2433 modem on /dev/cua1
Cleanup /dev/hda9 pass 1
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/hda9 is mounted.
/dev/hda9 was not cleanly unmounted, check forced.
Inode 2052, i_blocks wrong 28 (counted=22).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 2059, i_blocks wrong 24 (counted=16).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 2061, i_blocks wrong 16 (counted=14).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 2050, i_blocks wrong 56 (counted=48).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 2056, i_blocks wrong 242 (counted=238).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 4122, i_blocks wrong 16 (counted=8).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 4119, i_blocks wrong 544 (counted=490).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 4120, i_blocks wrong 208 (counted=186).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Inode 4121, i_blocks wrong 128 (counted=106).  Set i_blocks to counted? yes

Block 1313821194 of inode 4123 > BLOCKS (131072)


/dev/hda9: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
	(i.e., without -a or -p options)
Cleanup /dev/hda9 pass 2
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/hda9 is mounted.
/dev/hda9 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Block 1313821194 of inode 4123 > BLOCKS (131072)


/dev/hda9: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
	(i.e., without -a or -p options)
Can't clean /dev/hda9 - rebuilding
mke2fs 1.06, 7-Oct-96 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/hda9 is mounted.
Linux ext2 filesystem format
Filesystem label=
32768 inodes, 131072 blocks
6553 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
16 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
2048 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	8193, 16385, 24577, 32769, 40961, 49153, 57345, 65537, 73729, 
	81921, 90113, 98305, 106497, 114689, 122881

Checking for bad blocks (read-only test):         0/   131072    18064/   
	131072    36688/   131072    55280/   
	131072    73872/   131072    91632/   
	131072   109088/   131072   126752/   
	131072done
Writing inode tables:    0/  16   1/  16   2/  16   3/  
	16   4/  16   5/  16   6/  16   7/  16
	8/  16   9/  16  10/  16  11/  16  12/
	16  13/  16  14/  16  15/  16done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
Mounting /var to rebuild it
warning: can't open /var/mtab: No such file or directory
Mounting /var
/dev/hda9 on /var type ext2 (rw)
Cleaning up /var/mtab...
Using default TIVO_SVR_ADDR
Mounting initial environment...
Loading input section drivers
cobra module was successfully installed, LNBPA 0x10 LNBPB 0x12
Cleaning up temporary files in /var/tmp and /var/run
Cleaning up old slices and bundles in /var/packages...
Checking space in /var
Found Silicon Labs "Si2433" modem, rev F, skipping modem patch
Scanning for phase1 repair scripts
Initializing TiVo extension...


and it goes on from there. The Inode stuff I'm used to, I'm ass-uming that's just because it crashed, but I've never seen the UNEXPECTED messages or the superblock stuff, or the bad block tests.

Anyway, thanks for your help and ideas--I'm tired of being without my HDTiVo. I know this is a novel, and if you've made it all the way down here, I owe you a beer


----------



## morsadean

I just used the WeaKnees Interactive Online TiVo Upgrade Instructions to upgrade my failing 80 gb hard drive to a 160 gb drive. Everything went smoothly. The instructions are perfect.

The one issue I had was related to the linux code (which I know nothing about). When I tried typing in the command line "mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb", I kept getting a keyboard error. I Googled the error and someone suggested typing "dumpkeys" or "loadkeys", which worked like a charm. 

Overall, it took roughly 8 hours. I wanted to preserve the shows I had recorded (12 hours at best quality). I assume that it would have been quicker with less shows or none at all.


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## mgswed

Hopefully someone can help me. I tried doing a search but here goes. I am upgrading a series 2 tivo 40 hour to 160GB and when i try to mount the drive it says its read only. Thanks for any help. -MG


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## azitnay

Are you attempting to mount your Windows drive, in order to store a backup image on it? If so, your Windows drive is probably NTFS, which means you will only be able to mount it readonly under Linux, and will thus have to find another target for your backup image.

Drew


----------



## mgswed

I used a win98 boot disk to make my new 160 drive Fat32 and want to mount it in order to make a back up, then transfer the backup to the NTFS drive later. Any Ideas?


----------



## DavePurz

I've seen a lot of messages on Swap File Size greater than 127 for large Hard Drives but I have the opposite question . . .

I'm replacing a failing drive in a Hughes SD-DVR40 with a new 80 GB drive. Should I set the swap file option in mfsrestore to -s 40?

Half the GB size of the Hard Drive, right?


----------



## azitnay

No real reason to bump it down from 127MB... The extra 87MB aren't going to result in any noticeable amount of extra recording space.

Drew


----------



## DavePurz

Thanks.

I've been reading these boards for a couple of years and done MRV, etc. to a half-dozen units but hadn't had to do a hard drive change-out (saving recordings) until recently and all the chatter was for LARGE drives and swap files.

Maybe, in the future, some kind person will condense what we've learned on this topic and add it to one of the stickies as a simple "how-to".

Thanks again!



--Dave


----------



## bodjie

I'm trying to replace my 80-hour drive to a bigger one but am having problems. I need some help from the knowledgeble people on this board. 
I keep getting these messages when my restore gets to about 80% or so:

/dev/hdb110 no such file or directory
/dev/hdb/111 no such file or directory
/dev/hdb/112 no such file or directory
/dev/hdb113 no such file or directory


I have a DirecTV R10 and did a backup of the image to a FAT drive using the following:
hdb = Original 80-hour drive from DirecTV R10
hda = 40 gig FAT drive
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb1

All went well on this. I shutdown and then disconnected the original DirecTV R10 drive and plugged-in my 120 gig drive in its place making sure the Master/Slave jumpers were the same. I booted off the CD and try to do the restore using the following:
hdb = New 120-gig drive
hda = 40 gig FAT drive
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hda1

It started chugging along until it got past 80% and gave me that message about /dev/hdb110 up to hdb113 no such file or directory. 

I also tried to do the backup and restore in one shot but got the same message:
hdb = Original 80-hour drive from DirecTV R10
hda = New 120-gig drive
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /dev/hda1

Can someone please tell me what I might be doing wrong? Any help is appreciated.


----------



## tcooper1561

I am attempting to upgrade a TCD140060 with a 250gb Maxtor Quickview drive and I am having a problem using the WeaKnees software. I have my new drive (fat 32 single 250gb partition) on the secondary slave the old Tivo drive on primary slave and my CD/DVD drive is on secondary master. 
When I boot the PC from the weaknees.iso disk and hit enter at the "boot:" prompt and the software finds the drives on the following: old Tivo drive = J, CD drive = K, and new drive = L (all show the proper make and size). It shows hda, c, e & g as "*no response*" and as I said, hdj, k ,l as the proper drive. It does not show any hdb, d, or f at all. 
At the *"SH-2.5b#"* prompt I typed: mount /dev/hdl1 /mnt and I get the error message *"mount: mount point /mnt does not exist"* If I try it from the *"boot:"* prompt I get "*no such image. [tab] shows a list.*" I have also substituted the drive letter d for the secondary slave (mount /dev/hdd1 /mnt) with the same results. From everything I have read in this thread, nowhere have I seen the attached drives come up as anything other than a,b,c & d, so what's up with the j, k & l?

As you can tell I know nothing about Linux. What am I doing wrong???

Also, when and if I ever get a backup.bat made, can I just copy that file from the new 250gb (FAT 32) drive over to my regular WinXP NTFS C: drive on my PC as an archive, or does it need to be copied to a FAT 32 partition?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## wotan6

tcooper1561 said:


> When I boot the PC from the weaknees.iso disk and hit enter at the "boot:" prompt the software finds the drives on the following: old drive = J, CD drive = K, and new drive = L and all show the proper make and size. It shows hda, c, e & g as "no response" and as I said, hdj, k ,l as the proper drive. It does not show any hdb, d, or f at all.


Tcooper, I'm new here, but I did see a similar post where this behavior occurred in the presence of a PCI IDE card with 4 ports. Even when no drives were attached, the ports were allocated. Once the PCI card was removed, behavior was the usual hda, hdb, hdc, hdd or similar.

Anything unusual about your IDE setup?


----------



## tcooper1561

There is no PCI controller other than what is on the mother board. There is however a memory card reader that in "my Computer" shows the different card slots as individual drive letters above D: and of course D: is the restore partition on the PC's factory drive. I belive that may explain the J K & L, but I'm not sure. I have disconnected the card reader from the mother board, but it still reacts the same way. I have also tried MFS Tools and get a similar but different error message.


----------



## wotan6

This is long, but has a lot of useful info all in one place. Hope it helps.

Just finished successfully replacing a FAILING hard drive on my HR10-250 according to the interactive instructions mentioned in the first post of this thread. I replaced the failing OEM drive with a Maxtor 500GB 7200rpm ATA/133 , now Tivo's happy with 63 hrs HD / 426 hrs SD.

It was definitely a nail-biter though, so if you're thinking of doing this, here's what I learned after many hours of thread-searching:

1.) Don't buy a SATA drive! TIVO wants an ordinary IDE drive (also referred to as: ATA, PATA, ATA/133, or ULTRA-ATA ). Ultra-ATA (=ATA/133) would probably be best. I stayed away from the fastest 10,000rpm models due to noise and heat concerns. This 7200rpm is very quiet, and running at 47 Centigrade ("normal").

2.) These Interactive Tivo Upgrade Instructions are very good, and better kept up to date than others such as Hinsdale. These include the latest recommended -r 4 flag for drives larger than 300GB, so you'll get the full capacity of the new drive.

3.) For the HR10-250, you DON'T need L-shaped Torx keys, straight drivers are fine.

4.) The CD-ROM drive on your production machine MUST be bootable (mine wasn't, I had to swap in the one from my main XP machine). To be bootable, the CD drive itself must support it, as well as your BIOS. If the BIOS has settings for CD-ROM in the boot sequence, then you're OK on the BIOS side. There are no floppy based boot disks of MFStools that support large drives (lba48 support) - I looked.

5.) If you're making a backup of your Tivo (a good idea), MFStools must have a FAT32 partition to save it on. FAT(16) or NTFS won't do. My FAT32 partition was on the D: drive. The C: drive was FAT16. For some reason, I couldn't get MFStools to accept terms like hdc2 in place of hdc where applicable, to access the 2nd ( D: ) partition, even after using mkdir and mount commands as suggested in some posts. I ended up hosing the entire backup drive with fdisk from a WIN95 boot disk, which then created a single FAT32 partition for me. Then it worked.

6.) When the MFStools CD booted, I reviewed the data to ensure my drives were being recognized at full capacity - no problem. BUT, I got several scary-looking entries of "kmod: failed to exec". That didn't sound encouraging. Then I found a post that said you could probably ignore that. I did and came out OK, so apparently YOU CAN ignore that kmod garbage.

7.) Then, even scarier, during the final copy&restore phase, my failing Tivo drive caused at least a dozen "UncorrectableError" entries right off the bat, during the first 1/2 percent of progress. They were drive seek errors on certain sectors, probably the cause of the stuttering and slow menu problems that drove me to do this in the first place. Now I'm thinking I've got a BAD image, that I'm going to copy over to a brand new drive. Great. Well, if you get a few dozen "UncorrectableError" entries like I did, don't despair. Allow it to go to completion, but be prepared for...

8.) When Tivo booted up, he did the usual "Welcome, powering up", then "Almost there...", then WHAM! -- the dreaded GSOD, the Green Screen of Death: "A SEVERE ERROR HAS OCCURRED", etc. The Green screen says to wait at least 3 hours while Tivo tries to repair the problem. Searching the posts here yet again, I learned that the GSOD is Tivo's own Scandisk-type utility. After a couple hours of this, I went to my XP machine and downloaded Instant Cake in order to prepare a clean image (but lose all of my recordings and settings - an acceptable Plan B). As I'm in the other room I hear the TV blaring -- it's working! It's OK! The GSOD worked! It managed to handle those couple of dozen bad sectors in the bad image just fine.

End result: in spite of the litany of problems and errors above, I finally got NO STUTTERING, faster menus, and a single 500GB drive running perfectly. Settings and recordings appear to be all there, but I expect a few may be incomplete due to those bad sectors. So don't despair! Plod through it step by step and VICTORY will be yours!

-Doug


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## wotan6

tcooper, it sounds like this is your main machine (running XP?). If so, you're braver than I am. Try to find an older WIN95 or WIN98 machine that somebody has in a closet. Ask around, every nerd has a few! And to think I almost threw it out. It's a perfect Tivo-upgrade workstation, and if I break something, no big deal!

-Doug


----------



## tcooper1561

Thanks Doug, I think you are right. I need to find one of my old PCs and resurrect it for this project. As it is, I am scared to death that I might forget to insert the boot CD and my PC will boot up XP with the old Tivo drive attached. BTW, do you know if I can store the .bak file (once it is created) on my NTFS drive or could I burn it to a DVD ROM?


----------



## BigDaddio

Greetings all. Well, I finally took the big plunge and started the upgrade of my HR10-250 using the PTVnetHD Utility CD for Hughes/DirecTV HR10-250. I am replacing the original drive with a new 400gb and a 2nd 400gb drive, using Weaknees bracket (what a work of art!!). I'm using Hinsdale's instructions to backup/restore the single drive to two drives using this command line.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb 

After putting the drives back in the Tivo, I got the dreaded GSOD and so I went back and ran Seagate Tools (from Hiram's Boot CD ver 8), and both drives were clean. That runs in MS-Dos, so my original drive was safe. I ran the same backup/restore routine again, except I changed the 127 to 400 (per directions that I need .5mb for each 1gb of drive space). 

I'm getting ready to put the drives back in, but I think I need to 'bless' the 2nd drive using BlessTivo, but the cleanup process from the combined backup/restore appears to have done this already. Can anyone clarify this for me? Do I need to 'BlessTivo' before starting with the rest of the upgrade?

Another question, since I have a good Tivo OS, do I need to use Instantcake to get USB & ultimately network functionality? I do not want to C&DE, which appears to be the bottom line. 

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

BigDaddio


----------



## BigDaddio

I put both drives in after finding that MFSTools 2.0 will do the 'BlessTivo', but still got the GSOD. I let the self-repair process run again for a few hours, but it was in a constant reboot loop.

I decided to try upgrading only one drive, so I ran the backup/restore command line from Hinsdale's instructions:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

and I kept the 127, instead of increasing it to reflect the 1mb -> 2gb ratio that some have suggested for swap space, and it worked as expected. The original recordings were intact and the full drive space is recognized by the OS. 

Since this is still the original OS load, I plugged in the phone and will see if I get the D* Upgrade for my HR10-250.


----------



## herby1620

In looking over the instructions that I got (upgrading from a single drive to two new drives), I notice a couple of different options:
On the mfstools 2.0 blurb (howto), it indicates using the options "-aqo" on the backup, and "-xpi" on the restore. The options suggested here are "Tao" (added 'T') on the backup, and "-s 127 -r 4 -xzpi" on the restore. From this I have a couple of questions:
With the '-s 127' I get a swap size of 127 Mbytes. Is theis enough for large dirves? I plan to use a PAIR of 400 Gbyte drives (gotta please the wife!).
I also see '-r 4'. From what I understand (it isn't mentioned in the help I get on mfsrestore), this makes the cluster size of 4. Again, should I make this a bit larger for a pair of 400Gb drives.
The other option I see is the 'z' to zero out all the other stuff. Is this a missing 'secret', as I got hte 'green screen' before. If this actually zeros out things, how long will this take for xxx Gbytes of disk (xxx being quite a bit). How necessary is it?

Can I become "enlightened" as to the meanings of these??

Thanks.


----------



## DHardmanJr

First, thanks to WeaKnees for the guided instructions. I have a bit of a problem though.

I have a Phillips DSR6000R01. The original drivers were 30GB (A) and 15GB (B). I followed the instructions and performed the following command which worked without error.  

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

My drives were in my PC in this way: 
Primary IDE Master: Old drive (A)
Primary IDE Slave: Old drive (B)
Secondary IDE Master: CD-ROM drive (booted to the MFS tools CD)
Secondary IDE Slave: New Drive (160GB Seagate ATA100)

I was happy after the command worked, but when I put the new drive in the Tivo and plugged in the power I got to the "Welcome. Powering up..." and it just stayed.  

With the drive in the Tivo it drive made sound as if it were starting up (I have power to the drive). The IDE cables were snug. I tried both setting the drive to master and setting it to cable select and tried both IDE connectors on the cable to no avail.

Is there some way to validate that the backup/restore I did to the new drive actually has all the pieces/parts of the Tivo software in the right place on the new drive?

Any suggestions?


----------



## Jeremybme

I went to the interactive site to get instructions on upgrading my dual tuner model. And the only option is to replace the original drive. Here is the thing at a minimum i want to add another drive. But i might actually want to replace the original drive with a 160 gb and add a 2nd 160gb. ( i have these drives already)

can i just choose another model and use those instructions? if so can some tell me what the model to choose is?

thanks

Jeremy


----------



## azitnay

The reason for no "Add a Drive" or "Replace with Two Drives" options on the instructions for the DT initially was probably that there wasn't yet a two-drive bracket available for the DT. However, it appears that item is now available:

http://www.wkblog.com/2006/08/dual_tuner_tivo_brackets_are_i.html

I'd imagine WeaKnees will get around to updating the instructions sooner or later, but for now you could probably use the instructions for one of the 540xxx models without any trouble. It might be worth a sanity check (for example, comparing the "Replace with One Drive" option for the DT with the same option for the 540), but I wouldn't expect any differences.

Drew


----------



## rtlemke

Okay, I am new to the TIVO upgrading, and I have read a lot of the posts here and I felt pretty comfortable in trying to upgrade my current drive from an 80 GB Maxtor Diamondmax 16 to a 300 GB Seagate Barracuda. I used the Weaknees interactive TIVO upgrade page, and downloaded the Weeknees .iso file from the site after entering in all of the options. Here is what I selected:

TiVo 24008A
Do you want to make a backup: No
Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive: No
Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000: Yes
Save or disregard recordings: Save
Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another: No
Do you have TiVo OS 7.1 or later?: Yes

After selecting these options, it took me to page four where I downloaded the .iso file. I then used Nero to burn the image file to a CD.

Next I took the original HD from the TIVO and connected it to the Primary Master IDE connector. I connected the new HD to the Primary Slave IDE connector. I put the CD into the Secondary Master CD-ROM, and booted up the machine. (as a side here, I disconnected the HD that was in the computer, so there would be no chance of accidently booting into Windows with the TIVO drive attached) The computer found the boot record on the CD and proceeded to boot into the Linux shell with no problems. I was able to see both HD, and they showed the correct sizes. Everything looked as it should, so I typed in the command that the website gave me:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb 

The process started fine and everything seemed to be going well. After watching it go for the first 3% or so, I left it alone to crunch. When I came back later, I was getting a tom of error messages. The error messages were:

end_request: I/O error, dev 03:40 (hdb). sector *********

where ******** where incrementing sector numbers.

Every so often, I will get a:

Backing up ***** of 76390 megabytes (**.**%)

again where ***** and **.** are incrementing.

From what I can make of this, it seems like it is having troubles writing to the HD attached at hdb, my primary slave, which is the new HD. So, what does this mean? Do I have a bad HD, or did I type something wrong, or do I need to do something to the drive before this procedure. Any ideas?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Rick


----------



## natepenn

I may be missing something in my brain here, but I just can't figure out how to connect the drives to my PC. I have a Dell with two IDE ports. One port goes to the C drive and only has _two_ connectors on the ribbon. The other port goes to the CDR and CD drives and has _three_ connectors on the ribbon. I purchased the twin breeze kit with the purpose of adding a second drive. The kit came with an IDE cable with three connectors, do you think I should put that in the primary port (the one that goes to the hard drive) and then disconnect my C drive and connect the original Tivo drive as master and the new drive as slave? I can't disconnect the CD drive because I need to use it to boot off of. I can disconnect the CDR drive though. Any help is greatly appreciated! 
-Nate


----------



## Jeremybme

Just disconnect the cable that is currently going to your C drive. Replace with the cable from the twin breeze kit. Now connect your primary tivo drive ( make sure jumper is set to master) connect your new drive to the remaining port on the new cable. (make sure this drive is set to slave)

Now both tivo drives are connected.. the C drive is disconnected and the CD drives are still connected. This should hopefully get you going....


Jeremy


----------



## natepenn

Thank you jeremybme, that worked! However, I plugged everything in and booted up the Tivo without any problems, except when I check the Record capacity, it still says 81 hours. Any idea why this is happening? I unplugged everything and put the two drives back in my PC and ran the linux stuff again thinking maybe it will help. The only error i get is 
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe/ -s -k nls_iso8859-1 ,errno=2


----update
plugged it back into the PC making sure the slave was the slave and the master was the master. I checked to see if it recognized the disks storage and it did. I received the same error as mentioned above. Turn the Tivo on with drives installed and it still says up to 81 hours total. What am I not doing right?


----------



## Jeremybme

when you first hooked everything up and followed the instructions, it should have completed and then told you the new recording size did you ever see the new hours prior to disconnecting the drives from your computer?


----------



## LastPlace

0


----------



## natepenn

Jeremybme said:


> when you first hooked everything up and followed the instructions, it should have completed and then told you the new recording size did you ever see the new hours prior to disconnecting the drives from your computer?


I looked all over for the new hours, but I didn't see anything that mentioned "hours" I only saw disk size. Another bit of info for you, the very last line says "Weaknees #" and it just seems to wait for me to enter something in. Maybe its not finishing?


----------



## natepenn

Wow, okay I guess I wasn't thinking clearly last nite. After re-reading the interactive guide for about the 20th time it made sense:
_Issue expand command_

Issue the following command:

mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ
The reason why I didn't understand that this command was for me was because I thought it was *only if I had to unlock the drive.* It just seemed like it was part of the unlocking the drive step. 
Perhaps a little restructuring of the steps or hell, maybe even throw in a NUMBER next to each step? That would have saved me many frustrating hours. Also, if I had enough sleep that could have helped.


----------



## tnedator

Ok, before I pull the trigger, I have a couple questions.

I have an hr10-250 with the stock 250gb drive. I will be upgrading to a 750gb drive and want to preserve my recordings.

If I am reading the interactive guide correctly, once I boot up and if the drive sizes are reported correctly, it becomes a one step process.

Simply issue this command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

_assuming hda=old drive and hdb=new drive_

Is that truely all that needs to be done to copy everything on my old Tivo drive to my new 750gb drive? No Tivo blessing anymore? No mounting of drives prior running commands?

Thanks for the help


----------



## SteelersFan

tnedator said:


> Ok, before I pull the trigger, I have a couple questions.
> 
> I have an hr10-250 with the stock 250gb drive. I will be upgrading to a 750gb drive and want to preserve my recordings.
> 
> If I am reading the interactive guide correctly, once I boot up and if the drive sizes are reported correctly, it becomes a one step process.
> 
> Simply issue this command:
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
> 
> _assuming hda=old drive and hdb=new drive_
> 
> Is that truely all that needs to be done to copy everything on my old Tivo drive to my new 750gb drive? No Tivo blessing anymore? No mounting of drives prior running commands?
> 
> Thanks for the help


You may want read about swap size. Try post 775 of this trhead for starters.


----------



## AjaxKappaSig

Dual Tuner standalone (649080) upgrade to 320g or 320g + 120g. 2 pc to choose from, one is a newer dual-core processor with a single IDE controller on motherboard and 4 SATA. Or, an archaic Pentium 166MHz (that's right, it's got MMX).

A few questions:
1) Is it possible to put two new drives in these dual tuner units? Azitnay's theory that the absence of brackets sounds plausible, but has anyone successfully put two drives in one of these yet and were there any suggestions or deviations you'd like to share?

2) I tried my newer machine first since it was in the next room and the case was open as always. I knew it would likely have an issue with only allowing for two IDE drives, but I saw this as a chance to use my SATA to IDE adaptor, but no such luck in any configuration. I have a PCI IDE controller card somewhere, but I've only seen posts referring to these as theoretical options, but no confirmation from anyone with success. I've also seen referrals to booting via USB jumpdrive, but again I've only seen posts mentioning it, but not confirming that this would work. Would this consist of more than just copying the files from the disk/mounted image? Sorry, I've never booted from a jumpdrive.

3) Is there any reason to leave the original boot drive in when modding a TiVo? It seems to me a bit risky/pointless to leave it attached. Of course that's likely the problem I'm having if it is needed.

4) When I hit the wall(mentally and physically) with the new pc, I got the ol' Pentium 166 out and, after configuring the bios, succeded in booting from the weaknees disc. Got the press enter dialog, pressed enter, loading linux, then I turned away to clean up part of my mess and came back within a few minutes and it appeared as if the pc restarted and froze at the bios screen. My first thought was that maybe the 166 is too slow for the utilities, but then I thought that maybe the motherboard doesn't have support for larger drives. Another option that has occurred to me is that the pc has finally died, although it hasn't been used in 6-8 years.

So.... any suggestions?

Steve


----------



## supasta

1. Yes, it is absolutly possible to put 2 drives in the DT units. People have done a ton of them here on TCF. There are brackets available, auctionook is a seller on ebay that has them and also has a site to order direct (I am not a home with the bookmark otherwise I would post it)

EDIT: WeaKneed also has dual-drive brackets for the DT models.


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## ddruker

I upgraded to 750 GB (250+500) on two different HD-TIVO (HR10-250) units. I followed the Weaknees instructions to the letter, the key command being first to backup the original image, and then to add the new hard drive using
mfsadd -r 4 -x ...

I now see annoying behaviours on both units that did not exist before adding the extra 500 gig drives. About once every two weeks, both systems will stop recording new programs, and will stop playing recorded programs from the "now playing" list if you choose the program by pressing the select key. Both units will however still play recorded programs if you select the program using the "play" key when they are in this state. Occasionally both units also lose the ability to tune any channels - both OTA and Satellite - and report all channels are unavailable.

I posted to the forum and received several responses from other users indicating they have seen exactly this same problem. 

I also received suggestions to fix indicating that I should have increased the swap space on the HD-Tivo when adding a very large second drive - that with 750 gigs of storage the swap space should have been increased beyond the default 127 megabytes. 

This implies you should not use the mfsadd command to add large hard drives to the HD Tivo as shown in the weaknees instructions - rather you need to first backup and then restore specifying a larger swap file, adding the second drive as part of the restore process. 

So I restored both HD-Tivo's and increased swap space to 400MB for each unit. I will report back in a week or so as to whether this solved the problem. There were a couple of gotcha's here to document just getting the 400MB swap file to work...

First - the default swap space for the HD-Tivo is 127 MB. There are many many threads on this forum that indicate there is limited or no benefit to expanding beyond 127 MB. There doesn't seem to be a definitive position on this on the forum that I could find - there are posts both ways. 

Second - there is a known bug in MFS tools where when you do a restore and specify a swap file larger than 127 MB, that the most current version of MFStools 2.0 does not initialize the swap file correctly. This leaves you running without any swap at all, which has the same behavior as with the default swap size in terms of the problems I reported in the beginning of this thread.

Third - you need to use a tool called tpip to correctly initialize the new larger swap file, and then you should check to verify whether the HD-Tivo correctly is using it. You can find tpip version 1.2 by searching google - make sure you get version 1.2, and you need to save a copy on the drive where you put your backup image since it isn't on the weaknees CD so you can actually run it. You can also see directions for using tpip by searching on this forum.

So here is the full procedure:

download and burn the weaknees CD
download tpip 1.2

mount the drive with the fat32 partition to which you have already saved tpip and where you will save the backup of your HD tivo image

mount /dev/hdx1 /mnt

backup your single drive to a single image using mfsbackup as documented in the weaknees instructions.
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdx

install the second drive, and restore the image to both drives using mfsrestore with the expanded swapfile (in my case I used 400MB)

mfsrestore -s 400 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hday /dev/hdaz

Now run tpip to make sure your swap file is properly initialized

/mnt/tpip -1 -s /dev/hdy (where hdy is the primary HDTivo drive)

If you search this forum for tpip you will also find instructions on how to check to make sure the HD-Tivo is actually using the swap file. The general procedure is to reboot the tivo and let it run for a few minutes so it fully boots up, then pull out the plug and reattach the hard drives to your PC. Boot up in linux, mount the primary Tivo hard drive (mount /dev/hdy9 /mnt/var
go to the logs directory (cd /mnt/var/logs)
and finally search for entries about swap (grep -i swap *)

If you do this correctly you will see log records showing that the tivo booted up and found and is using the 400 Meg swap file.

Again I will post again next week to verify whether all this actually solved the original problem, which takes a few days to show up.


----------



## herby1620

After SEVERAL attempts to get my TiVo (DirecTV/Phillips DSR7000) upgraded from the 120 Gbyte single drive to something bigger, I now can report that I am successful.
My current configuration is TWO (look they were $120/ea) 400 Gbyte drives. I went thry and used the 'mfsbackup'/'mfsrestore' with the magic options '-r 4' and '-s 127' on the restore. It went quite nicely (well, it took 2 hours to copy the data, but other than that...). I then mounted the drives in my TiVo, and it was ALL there. No problems. So now I have over 700 hours of record time (wife is VERY happy!). My only comments: Follow the 'one liner' instruction carefully. If you don't, it just won't work. My partitions are now very functional, and I don't anticipate any problems.

Just for the record: Old: 120 Gbyte single drive (about 100 hours). New: 800 Gbyte dual drive (over 700 hours, according to the status screen!).

Good luck to everyone!


----------



## drfinn

I am attempting to replace the two original HD on my Phillips HDR612 with a new one that I bought from Weakness. I was doing okay until I got to the point of removing the screws from the Hard Drive bracket. They will not come out. THey just spin and spin in both directions.

Any easy solution to this problem?


----------



## azitnay

I've never worked with an HDR612, but I'm not sure how much sense it would make that those particular screws would be stripped... Assuming they are, though, the easiest way to get stripped screws out (in general, not TiVo-specific) is often to push the head of a thin flathead screwdriver between the screw and the object it's screwed into, while loosening the screw (i.e. turning it counterclockwise). As it gets looser, you can push lightly towards the object on the handle of the flathead, to make sure the screw keeps coming out.

Obviously, do it in a controlled fashion, so as not to damage anything.

Drew


----------



## drfinn

Thanks, thats pretty much what I ended up doing. I am not sure if they are stripped or deformed. I ended up using a knife to pry the bracket up slightly and that allowed the screw to keep moving upwards. Then I pushed down on the bracket and it skipped the deformed area and continued to unscrew.

Bottom line is I got the new HD in and its calling TIVO now.

Thanks for the help!


----------



## Dojimaster

Hello -

*I backed up my tivo using the following commands:*

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

everything backed up fine

*then rebooted to allow me to attach the new target drive to hdc and restored using:*

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc

everything restored fine (or so it seemed)

reintstalled to tivo, and GSOD

read forums here, decided to try larger swap of 200, so...

*restored using commands:*

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

mfsrestore -s 200 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc

reintalled into TIVO and GSOD, but let it sit and later (<1hr) is was working - BUT....

I intalled a new 320GB hard drive (the old combined was 2 x 120GB) and now I am only getting 123 hours and none of my programs are accessible, but they are in the "Now PLaying" list.

*QUESTIONS*

1) What did I screw up?

2) Can you NOT make a back up to a disk and then resore it? Will this not carry over your recordings?

3) Why only 123 hours?

Help! I originally upgrade all 4 of my DSR6000s and I don't remember this being so challenging!

Jeff


----------



## HomeUser

1 The 200M swap needs to be adjusted with tpip. The un-hacked DSR6000 does not support drives larger then 137G. 

2 There are not enough partitions to restore a full backup of a dual drive system to a back to a single drive without loosing the recordings. The -f 9999 does not backup the program files the s option in the backup removes the extra now empty partitions. The SP's and indexes are included however. 

3 You need the MFSTools2 LBA48 boot CD and a new kernel for the DSR6000 that is modified for large drive support.


----------



## BorisSWort

I bought a new 200gb hard drive to upgrade my 40-hour drive in a standard Tivo. I don't need to save any recordings, but I do want to save my Season Passes and how I connect to the network. Does that mean I want to make a backup? Or, would it be easier to just re-do my season passes and network connection?

If I start this process and it isn't going good, can I just put my current hard drive back in the Tivo and everything will go back to normal? The things that concern me are putting hard drives in my PC. I have never figured out what jumpers and slaves, etc., are.

If I did not need to make a backup or save recordings, could I set up my new hard drive using an old computer before taking out the original Tivo hard drive? In other words, could I have everything set up so I just take out the old Tivo hard drive, put in the new one, and be on my way?


----------



## azitnay

Any upgrade method you choose will save your season passes and network settings.

You don't technically need to make a backup file (although it doesn't hurt)... You can simply copy directly from the old drive to the new drive.

Yes, as long as you don't reverse a command or something the original drive will remain in a state where you can simply plug it back in and go back to normal. The main exception to this would be booting into XP or something with your TiVo drive attached, but even that isn't irreversible.

You need the original drive, so that you can transfer the TiVo software onto the new drive. The only other options would be to find an image elsewhere or buy InstantCake, but you'd lose your season passes and settings.

Drew


----------



## deek_man

I hope this is the right place to post this.

I have upgraded several different units for myself and a couple of friends. I now have a refurbished Hughes SD-DVR40 which I want to upgrade for a friend to two 200 GB hard drives. I've checked the machine and it seems to work properly but it has the 3.xxxxx software. My underestanding is that it has to have the 6.xxxx software in order to recognize the entire 400 GB due to the limits on the older software. I can't activate with DTV and force the new software upgrade since I'm upgrading this for a friend who lives on the other side of the country. My question is this: If I choose the option in the option list that I have less than the 6.2 software version in the weaknees interactive upgrade instructions, will the upgrade process do whatever is necessary to recognize the entire 400 GB? Or will the software have to be upgraded first. If it will not recognize the entire 400 GB, must I have the DTivo upgraded to the higher version software first and can I do that without sending the machine to my friend to activate and force the upgrade, then send it back to me to upgrade with the larger drives?

Any help greatly appreciated.


----------



## deek_man

Can I use a drive from one DTivo (Hughes SD-DVR40) to replace a drive in an identical unit? It could solve the problem I mentioned above.

Thanks in advance for any help.


----------



## Jeremybme

Good Afternoon.

I have a Dual Tuner 80 hour model that i bought a couple of weeks ago
today i followed instructions from The interactive upgrade instructions website and added to the 80 gb drive a 160 gb drive. When i had finished with the mfsadd command it said the new size was 270 hours. 

yet my tivo only shows 259 hours when i boot it up. im slightly confused... is this correct? is the tivo using all of the new drive like it should or did i mess up somewhere.

here is the other reason i have a regular series 2 that has two 80gb drives in it. and under high quality it says 103 hours of recording 

now my dual tuner model has an 80 and a 160.. that is 80gb more then my regular NON dual tuner model and under high quality it says 118 hours. 

so the extra 80gb of drive only got me 15 hours more of high quality tv? or is the dual tuner use more drive space, or again 

is it using all of both drives correctly.
is there any way to verify it sees both 80 and 160 drives correclty

or did i mess up


thanks for your help


Jeremy


----------



## Aethicus

The instructions on adding a second drive are not clear on why I need to do anything to the first drive. why do I need to remove it and install it in my PC and run the utils, why can't I just take my new WS3200 (350G drive) and format it and add it to the system?

I am new here but have been using TV DirectTV units for years


----------



## newsposter

Aethicus said:


> The instructions on adding a second drive are not clear on why I need to do anything to the first drive. why do I need to remove it and install it in my PC and run the utils, why can't I just take my new WS3200 (350G drive) and format it and add it to the system?
> 
> I am new here but have been using TV DirectTV units for years


totally unscientific terms but this is why:

tivo needs to marry or bless (i forget the exact term) the drives so they will work together in perfect harmony.

If you really want to avoid it, pony up the $ like I did and pay for a weaknees drive. Sure it's more money but it's one thing I dont mind paying for since you dont need a PC at all.

For the record, i have gone thru multiple upgrades and replacing bad drives with my T60 so yes i do know how to do it, just got tired of doing it given the placement of my PC case etc.


----------



## Aethicus

newsposter said:


> totally unscientific terms but this is why:...
> .


ok I like the Unscientific terms 

I have no problems doing the upgrade just have questions 

More questions...
if I put the new drive and the TIVO drive in my system both on the 2n IDE chain and I am not making a backup/copy, do I need space on one of my PC drives?

I figured I just boot in the Unix Shell run the commands and pop the drives back into my system.

thanks


----------



## azitnay

No, if all you're doing is mfsadd'ing a second drive, and you don't want to make a backup, you won't need any drive space on your PC.

Drew


----------



## Aethicus

Thanks Drew!

BTW: I see articles when I google around using the USB port on my HR10-250. what can I do with this port?

and to totally mess up the topics  Has anyone put together an external Array of drives for content? I am thinking with the price of drives I could build a 2 Terabyte array and just run a shielded IDE cable to it.

Thoughts?


----------



## y2khardtop

I didn't read all 972 responses, so I apologize if this is a repeat. Simple, but I didn't see anything in the instructions regarding a "screen saver". Anyway, after about 5 minutes into my copy, the screen when BLACK, and I just about had a heart attack! Hitting the space key brought it back, but it scared me. Kid's would kill me if I lost all of their cartoons


----------



## grins

I used the interactive guide to get my backup command. I'm backing up my HDTivo's 250Gb drive to a new 500Gb, and I'm saving shows, so I used

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 300 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

However, it reported that the destination drive is not big enough. checking the boot output I see that it reports that hdb has a bunch of partitions, but for hda (the new disk) it reports "Unknown partition table"

Do I need to do something to the new drive before I can restore to it? How does on format a drive under linux?

Thanks, y'all!


----------



## MichaelK

i think you have your hdb and hda reversed...

blank disks come up as "unkknown"

tivo disks have tons of partitions.


----------



## grins

Thanks for replying michael, but I'm quite sure of the devices.

I used cfdisk to create a linux partition on the new drive

at boot time, I now get hda with 500108 MB and 1 partition, and hdb with 251000MB and lots of partitions.

I issue the backup | restore command, and get
Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment
Source drive size is 281 hours
- Upgraded to 283 hours
Uncompressed backup size 211018 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

Any ideas?


----------



## uclajd

Look, I am certainly no expert on this, but I used the Hinsdale guide (+ the all-important -*r 4* instruction for 274GB+ drives) with great success with a 400GB yesterday. First off, just for the record:

hda = Primary Master (dos/windows fat32 C: drive or partition)

hdb = Primary Slave

hdc = Secondary Master

hdd = Secondary Slave

The existing TiVo drive is jumpered to master and connected to the secondary master IDE port in your PC. Large upgrade drive, for use as your new TiVo A drive, is jumpered to master and attached to the Primary Master IDE connector

And here is command line I used :

*mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda *

I see no reason to deviate from this, unless you don't want to backup recordings.

FWIW

JD, now with a 462-hour Tivo 



grins said:


> Thanks for replying michael, but I'm quite sure of the devices.
> 
> I used cfdisk to create a linux partition on the new drive
> 
> at boot time, I now get hda with 500108 MB and 1 partition, and hdb with 251000MB and lots of partitions.
> 
> I issue the backup | restore command, and get
> Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment
> Source drive size is 281 hours
> - Upgraded to 283 hours
> Uncompressed backup size 211018 megabytes
> Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.
> 
> Any ideas?


----------



## MichaelK

grins said:


> Thanks for replying michael, but I'm quite sure of the devices.
> 
> I used cfdisk to create a linux partition on the new drive
> 
> at boot time, I now get hda with 500108 MB and 1 partition, and hdb with 251000MB and lots of partitions.
> 
> I issue the backup | restore command, and get
> Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment
> Source drive size is 281 hours
> - Upgraded to 283 hours
> Uncompressed backup size 211018 megabytes
> Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.
> 
> Any ideas?


sorry- you have me stumped.


----------



## HomeUser

grins "Source drive size is 281 hours 
- Upgraded to 283 hours" 
Hmm, how did you get a 2 hr upgrade?

For the series 2 and most likely series 3 TiVos mfstools can only upgrade a single drive once and keep recordings. Because your expanded drive is so small you could try using the -s (shrink) option in the backup command this removes the extra partitions that were added with previous expand. Works only if the added partitions are empty you might get lucky if you can delete enough shows to remove all the files stored in the extra partitions. 
your command now becomes 
mfsbackup -Ta*s*o - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 300 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Oh Just in case you do not all-ready know the 300meg swap partition will need to be adjusted with tpip after the upgrade before using in the TiVo.


----------



## hotshot79

OK - this is my first post on this site so first I'll say hello and THANK YOU!!!

My god there is so much info on here it's going to take me years to catch up!!

On to my question - regarding the interactive instructions: I purchased a HRD112 on eBay but it was sold to me without a hard drive in it - It does come with a TiVo CD which is the software or image?

What options would I choose in the interactive instructions for this scenario?

I'm sorry if this question has been answered but I've been looking and searching for about 45mins now to no avail....

Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks


----------



## seven

I've got a TCD14006 that is stuck at "Powering up" since a lightning strike. I found a backup image online and used the interactive guide to get some instructions and just want to double check 1 thing.

The instructions say to use the WeaKnees Large Kernel Support which would see larger drives. But, if I use a larger drive my Tivo still won't see more than 137GB or so will it?

I just want to be sure, because I've got a empty 250GB I was going to use, but if it won't see it all I've got a 120GB or 150GB that I can use after copying the contents to the 250GB

Thanks,
Seven


----------



## ranbou

I recently upgraded my Humax DRT 400 and replaced the 40 GB drive with a 250 GB drive. All went well and the unit booted up with the new drive. I had copied all of the recordings from the old drive to the new one so I watched a few minutes of one of the recordings and it worked fine. 

The next evening I noticed the front of the unit said "Welcome" on the display. I turned on the TV and the unit is stuck on the "sunrise" or "Welcome! Powering up..." screen. I rechecked all of the connections and everything is as it should be. I replaced the upgraded drive with the original and it booted correctly. I replaced the upgraded drive and it hung a the "sunrise" or "Welcome! Powering up..." screen again. I am not sure if it is relevant or not, but I noticed the "sunrise" or "Welcome! Powering up..." screen seemd to reset twice.

Any ideas about what is wrong and how to fix it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!


----------



## ranbou

I didn't get any responses to my original post above, so I decided to try the install again. This time I just skipped the backup part since I will have the original drive when I am done (and it still works).

I booted from the CD and entered this command at the prompt:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

My original Tivo drive is connected to the Primary Slave and my new drive is connected to the Secondary Slave.

It is working right now. I will post again with the results. 

Well guys, no luck. It failed with the error:
Restore failed: Error restoreing MFS data.)

I tried several times and I get the same error. Does this mean my brand new hard drive is bad? Please let me know if there is something else I can try.

Thank you.


----------



## supasta

Does the Weaknees Upgrade CD include USB drivers?


----------



## KGAI

*I have Pioneer DVR-57H and could upgrade from 160GB to 250GB Maxtor without any problem. I bought a used Pioneer DVR-810H recently and replace 80GB with the 57H's 160GB with no problem. I recently bought Maxtor 500GB at Fry's and tried following command but didn't work:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

So I pulled out previous method that I succede with 57H and modified the command slightly. Then it is accepted TiVo but showed only 96hours or so, so I reset TiVo. It went through up to downloading the program guide. but it stucked at Loading Info (Organizing). It has been this status over 8 hours.

What is the status and what should I do.

It is lengthy but I put the procedure that I have done:*

1.	Created Ptvupgradess MFStools 2.0 CD with LBA48 support.

2.	Found an HDD with a capacity of 2GB with FAT 32 (Image HDD); For formatting, use MaxBlast 4 CD ROM came with Maxtor HDD. Chose Windows ME for FAT 32

3.	Remove the HDD from TiVo (TiVo HDD)

4.	Hook up PC with the drivers as follows:
a.	Primary Master: Image HDD 2GB empty FAT32 = hda
b.	Primary Slave: TiVo HDD =hdb
c.	Secondary Master: CD-ROM Drive = hdc

5.	Boot PC to bios and change the boot sequence from the CD drive first.

6.	Boot with MFSTools 2.0 CD

7.	At # prompt, type the following commands to mount the Image HDD:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount/dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

8.	At the next # prompt, type the following to backup the TiVo HDD:

mfsbackup f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb

9.	Unmount the drives and shut down the system

10.	Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to shutdown and reboot. When system started to reboot, power down the PC

11.	Remove the Tivo HDD and replace it with new larger capacity HDD (Larger HDD such as 250GB or 500GB) at Primary Slave:

a.	Primary Master: Image HDD 2GB empty FAT32 = hda
b.	Primary Slave: Larger HDD =hdb
c.	Secondary Master: CD-ROM Drive = hdc

12.	Boot the PC again with MFStools 2.0 CD.

13.	At # prompt, type the following commands to mount the Image HDD:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

14.	At the next # prompt, typed the following to restore the backup TiVo image to the Larger HDD drive:

For 250GB drive:
mfsrestore s 127 zxpi /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb
(This worked with 57H)

For 500GB drive:
mfsrestore s 300 r 4 zxpi /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb

15. Unmount the drivers and shut down the system.

16.	Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to shutdown and reboot.

17.	Install the Lager HDD to TiVo unit and powered up the system. The drive capacity was still a small number (96Hour or so for 500GB).

18.	Clear and Delete everything at the Setup menu

19.	Install program information. After downloaded the program info, it seems it has frozen.

*I have stuck at the last step of Loading info (Preparing to load) It took more than an hour with no change.

After rebooting, it stuck at almost the same place. But this time, the loading itself has been succeeded. However, another long time is taking place at Loading info (Organizing) for more than 8 hours.

Let me know of anything to solve this problem.

KGAI
*


----------



## KGAI

This is follow up of the above posting.

I have done the following again:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

It worked this time except for the capacity.

The original HDD is 80GB and new 500GB is still recognized the same capacity (= 91hours in TiVo information screen.)

How can I let TiVo recognize full capacity of 500GB new drive?

Please let me know.


----------



## KGAI

I tried mfsadd but didn't work:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdb (Maxtor 500GB in Primary Slave)
Current estimated standalone size: 582 hours
Nothing to add!

I wonder what else should I do?

Please help.


----------



## KGAI

Sorry for making a fuss alone. I am releafed that nobody responded my project.

I could solve the problem.

After I learned that there is a problem with the partition list. I was wondering if I had to rewrite it manualy, which is a big job.

I recalled that there was no problem when I upgraded DVR-57H of Pioneer from 120GB to 250GB. So in stead of using, 80GB of HDD from DVR-810H, I used the original 120GB of 57H. 

Then without any difficulty, my new 500GB drive is fully utilized.

It is easier than I thought. 

I don't know what is the difference between 80GB and 120GB (both of them are Maxtor HDD) but there is completely different result anyway.

I am very happy now with comfortable disk space with over 100 hours of very high quality recording.


----------



## KGAI

This is my revised procedure(not original), which worked successfully. Thank you very much for everything for the predecessor's works!

1. Created Ptvupgradess MFStools 2.0 CD with LBA48 support.

2. Found an HDD with a capacity of 2GB or more with FAT 32 (Image HDD); For formatting, use MaxBlast 4 CD ROM came with Maxtor HDD. Chose Windows ME for FAT 32

3. Remove the HDD from TiVo (TiVo HDD) By some reason 80GB disk drive (for 810H) didn't work but 120GB (for 57H) worked.

4. Hook up PC with the drivers as follows:
a. Primary Master: Image HDD 2GB empty FAT32 = hda
b. Primary Slave: TiVo HDD =hdb
c. Secondary Master: CD-ROM Drive = hdc

5. Boot PC to bios and change the boot sequence from the CD drive first.

6. Boot with MFSTools 2.0 CD

7. At # prompt, type the following commands to mount the Image HDD:
*
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount/dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
*
8. At the next # prompt, type the following to backup the TiVo HDD:
*
mfsbackup f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb*

9. Unmount the drives and shut down the system

*umount -f -a -r*

10. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to shutdown and reboot. When system started to reboot, power down the PC

11. Remove the Tivo HDD and replace it with new larger capacity HDD (Larger HDD such as 250GB or 500GB) at Primary Slave:

a. Primary Master: Image HDD 2GB empty FAT32 = hda
b. Primary Slave: Larger HDD =hdb
c. Secondary Master: CD-ROM Drive = hdc

12. Boot the PC again with MFStools 2.0 CD.

13. At # prompt, type the following commands to mount the Image HDD:

*mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
*

14. At the next # prompt, typed the following to restore the backup TiVo image to the Larger HDD drive:

For 250GB drive:
*mfsrestore s 127 zxpi /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb*
(This worked with 57H)

For 500GB drive:*
mfsrestore s 127 r 4 zxpi /mnt/dos/ptivo.bak /dev/hdb*
("-r 4" is for over 300GB drive)

15. Unmount the drivers and shut down the system.

*umount -f -a -r*

16. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to shutdown and reboot.

17. Install the Lager HDD to TiVo unit and powered up the system.

19. Start working as it was, although lose all the programs recorded.
(There are names of programs in "Now Playing List", however, there is no contents since this procedure does not copy the contents. The to do list is still kept intact.)

Enjoy upgrading your TiVo with higher capacity!


----------



## KGAI

ranbou said:


> I didn't get any responses to my original post above, so I decided to try the install again. This time I just skipped the backup part since I will have the original drive when I am done (and it still works).
> 
> I booted from the CD and entered this command at the prompt:
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
> 
> My original Tivo drive is connected to the Primary Slave and my new drive is connected to the Secondary Slave.
> 
> It is working right now. I will post again with the results.
> 
> Well guys, no luck. It failed with the error:
> Restore failed: Error restoreing MFS data.)
> 
> I tried several times and I get the same error. Does this mean my brand new hard drive is bad? Please let me know if there is something else I can try.
> 
> Thank you.


I am not an expert of this issue at all but would like to share the lessen I learned:
1. You'd better make the back-up. Otherwise, it copys the partition list so that there is no increase in the capacity even though you copy the program to a lerger capacity disk. In my case, only 91 hours for 500GB disk.
2. I am not sure but I think 40 GB original disk may need additional steps such as *mfsadd -x *or others. There are may discussion on how to increase the size of the swap file, or how to re-write the partition list. You may have to study those if there is no help from the others.

I would like to hear some opinion from the expert on this issue also.

Good luck!

KGAI


----------



## scarlet knights

Last night I just ordered the complete Twin Breeze.

I found an old Maxtor QuickVeiw 40 GB that I removed from MY old RCA DVR-40 which I would like to add to my newer RCA DVR-40 so to have two drives.

Can I just change the second drive, pin in the back to a slave unit or must I hook up only the second drive to my computer and go through the process? 

Thanks mike


----------



## jbs1136

I use kanotix which is a debian based distro. I hooked the hard drive from my old Hughes sdr40 (which had a new 160gig hdd in it thanks to your instructions) and attempted to read it. It gave me a message that it did not recognize the partition type. The drive was recognized and mounted. The properties told me that it had data but I could not read it. Any suggestions?

John


----------



## acha85

Just to clarify, the instructions didn't say that i have to format my extra hard drive into FAT32 if i'm adding a drive without backing stuff up first. is this true? 

I'm adding a 250GB hdd to my TiVo 240040.

-Adri


----------



## azitnay

No, no FAT32 formatting will be necessary if you don't intend to make a backup.

Drew


----------



## kingcull

Adding an older Maxtor Ultra ATA to my Series 2 60 hour SA. I noticed that pins on this drive and the original WD TiVo drive are slightly different. Will only the Weaknees IDE cable work?


----------



## azitnay

What pin differences have you noticed? Any IDE cable should work.

Drew


----------



## kingcull

Thanks for your response. 

I'm not at home now but I recall the pins at one end of the original TiVo drive were closer together. I couldn't attach the new 3 way 40 pin female IDE cable (do I need to use an 80 pin cable?). Hope I didn't bend the pins when I removed the cable...


----------



## azitnay

Does the original TiVo cable fit easily back into the drive? If not, you may very well have bent some of the pins. You should be able to carefully unbend them.

Also, compare the original and new IDE cables... I'm guessing you won't notice a difference.

Drew


----------



## gbridgeman

*SHORT VERSION:*

Thanks to Micheal and all the folks at Weaknees and thanks to everyone on this forum I went from 39 hours to 487 hours of space with a fully functional OS and with no errors and with all my shows saved! Hurrah!

*VERY LONG VERSION:*

Hopefully, this will help some other folks out.

I've been lurking for a WHILE now. I own Humax Series2 T800 as well as a Humax Series2 DRT400. Software version: 7.3.1-oth...etc on each.

If you're unfamiliar, the T800 has a single 80 GB but is upgradeable to dual disks using a bracket kit. The DRT400 has a single 40 GB and a DVD-RW drive and one can only upgrade the single disk drive as there is a space problem due to the DVD taking up real estate.

I wanted to upgrade both systems so I started researching on the forums.

After deciding I knew finally everything (HAHA!) I ordered 3 each Seagate 400 GB drives from Outpost-dot-com for $109 each intending to upgrade the 40 GB drive in the DRT400 and upgrade the 80GB in the T800 to 2 each 400 GB drives.

I then ordered the complete TwinBreeze bracket adapter system for my Humax T800 and waited for UPS.

_*Aside:* I find it elegant that the T400 and T800 designations will soon be accurate, but that's just my twisted sense of humor_

Well, the hard disks got here first so I went ahead with the DRT400 upgrade.

Using the interactive instructions was fairly clear.

Begin Feedback (For Micheal or whoever at Weaknees):

- I Selected -

Step 1: DRT400

Step 2: Replace with One Drive

Step 3:
Yes-	Do you want to make a backup?
Yes-	Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive?
No-	Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000? 
Save-	Save or disregard recordings?
No-	Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another?

The following text is repeated twice nearly back to back in the instructions in Step 4 using these choices:


Interactive Instructions said:


> _Verify Drive Sizes_
> 
> Press <shift><pageup> repeatedly and you will be able to scroll to see, among other things, whether the PC recognized your hard drive(s). It is critical at this stage to verify that the full size of your TiVo drive was recognized. As you scroll up, you should see something like the following:
> 
> hda: XXX, ATA DISK drive
> hdb: IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM 48X, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
> hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALL CX13.6A, ATA DISK drive
> ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
> hda: ______ sectors (YYY MB) w/ZZZ KiB Cache, CHS=1111/222/33, UDMA(33)
> hdb: ATAPI 17X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
> hdc: 26760384 sectors (13701 mb) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=1665/255/63 UDMA(33)
> 
> (Note: XXX, ____, YYY, ZZZ, 1111, 222, 33 will all vary, as will the size of your drive at hda, hdb, hdc and hdd.)
> 
> When looking at the data reported, you are looking to confirm that each of your IDE drives was recognized and that the size of the drive is reported properly. For example, if you have an SVR-2000 TiVo, you have a 30gb drive and it should be recognized as (give or take) 30000 mb.


End of Feedback

Okay, so I setup my PC in a few different ways.

The one that finally worked best was:
hda	Original 250 GB PC Hard disk with (among others) FAT partition
hdb	Original (Source) Humax DRT400 TiVo 40GB Seagate HDD
hdc	Bootable DVD-ROM where I put in the Weaknees lb48 bootable CD
hdd	New (Target) 400GB Seagate HDD

For those who don't know linux, I'll translate:
IDE01:
MASTER	Original 250 GB PC HDD w/ FAT partition
SLAVE	Original (Source) TiVo 40GB HDD

IDE02:
MASTER	Bootable DVD-ROM loading Weaknees lb48 bootable CD
SLAVE	New (Target) 400GB Seagate HDD

Fiddled with boot settings in BIOS to get it to boot to the CD then booted and successfully backed up the 40 gigger. Used the following commands (Note that ^ indicates I hit enter)

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt ^
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb ^

Then the problems started when I did this.
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd ^

Everything went really well until about 2 hours into that process, I got this:

Uncompressed backup size: 16374 megabytes
Restore failed: Internal error 3. (57.13%)

I thought to myself,"Self, maybe this new drive is bad." I Ran SeaTools on it, zeroed it, and tested it and so on. Booted up, started completely fresh, did everything over, and ... got the same thing.

Uncompressed backup size: 16374 megabytes
Restore failed: Internal error 3. (57.13%)

Aaaarrrgh!

I thought to myself,"Self, maybe this drive is just _funky_ and I should open one of the other two drives I have sitting over there on the coffee table." So I did that, and before I did anything else when I had it installed in the PC, I Ran SeaTools on it, zeroed it, and tested it and so on. Even booted to Partition Magic and made sure I could partition it and so forth.

Booted up, did everything over

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt ^
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb ^
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd ^

and ... got the same thing.
Uncompressed backup size: 16374 megabytes
Restore failed: Internal error 3. (57.13%)

Now, this is with a completely new drive so I looked at the clock. It was late. I thought to myself,"Self, it's late. You might be doing something just plain dumb. Go to bed."

So I did. Slept like a baby. That is to say, I woke up crying several times during the night for no good reason. 

Then I experienced more frustration the next day defining insanity by repeating identical steps and expecting a different outcome UNTILl I finally did this:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt ^

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb ^

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdd ^

Less than 30 minutes later, I went from 39 hours to 487 hours of space on a fully functional drive. No errors. All my settings and shows came over.

NOTE: For other end users, this baby took a HECK of a long time to boot the first time. I had read to simply be patient so I was willing to give it a good 10 minutes before powering down and breaking out the Torx screwdriver. 
It flickered and rebooted a few times, went to Welcome Powering up several times, the lights on the front blinked in ways reminiscent of the original Star Trek. All told, it took just over 8 minutes before the little Tivo cartoon started dancing and singing. If you do this upgrade, I advise that you also be patient on first boot. Eight minutes is a LOOOONNNG time to sweat it out when you are wondering if you did everything right anyway.

Feedback for Weaknees:

Several hardware descriptions are incorrect or omitted from the interactive instructions.

Omitted: The DRT400 I took apart had a grounding strap that ran from the drive to the frame of the TiVo chasis. It was adhered to each with a light adhesive on the ends. I took care to remove it VERY carefully then reatttached it to the replacement drive.

Incorrect: The DRT400 I took apart had absolutely no Phillips head screws. Every screw, including the ones mounting the drive to the brackets, were all T-10 heads. Also, there were no screws on the sides of the chasis but there were 6 on the rear face.

End of Feedback for Weaknees:

Hopefully, this post will help some other lurkers out.

I am eagerly awaiting my TwinBreeze brackets and looking forward to taking on going from a single 80 gigger to twin 400 giggers. Next steps will be upgrading that baby, then sending each off for PROM socketing to explore other options that I won't discuss on this forum. 

Again, thanks to Micheal and all the folks at Weaknees and thanks again, also, to everyone else on this forum that lurkers such as myself quietly appreciate.

Fantastic stuff.

God Bless,
G


----------



## iiigoiii

hi all -

just wanted to write about my upgrade experience in case it can help
anyone else. the key points:

- i used a seagate 7200.7 drive - it's virtually silent, without any
hdd utility tweaking. (Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus ST3160023A
160GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100)

- i put my old failing tivo drive as a secondary master and the new
drive as secondary slave. this caused the new drive to show up in
mfstools as *hdc* which is the 2ndary MASTER (i assume if the real
master is bad it uses the slave as the new master).

- in order to possibly be able to read a failed drive, try different
physical orientations (upside down, edge up, ...).

- there was some confusion on which iso image to use for a bootable CD
(see below).

i have a philips DSR6000R01 directivo series 1 which was doing the
infamous freeze and reboot stuff. i kept power cycling it to watch my
favorite shows while waiting for a new hdd. problem was, it
eventually got to the point where it would not go past 'powering
up...', meaning i might not have had an image to backup/restore from.

restore/backup
--------------

i did a direct single-drive replacement, (no backup, ignore
recordings) using the interactive instructions from weaknees. they
worked great...only hitch was, since my original drive seemed to be
completely shot it wouldn't register at all in mfstools (and caused
the new drive on the slave to show up as the master instead).

facing finding a new image or buying and waiting for the cake CD, i
tried putting the failed tivo drive on its side (edge up) -
evidentally this allowed the drive to work long enough for the backup!

mfstools 2.0 iso image
----------------------
for those of you going to use the bootable CD, here's some notes on
which iso image is which:

- the hinsdale site ISO image link leads you to:
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/MFSTOOLS20.zip in
the zip is exactly one file, MFSTOOLS20.iso.

- the iso image from the http://mfstools.sourceforge.net/ site sends
you to http://www.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2.iso

- these two seem to be the same, with the difference that there is
more stuff on the tyger site disc (what more stuff i didn't bother
to find out).

- on the tyger site there is also a
http://www.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2J.iso
which i'm assuming is the Joliet version that gave everyone problems

- on the tyger site there is a link to a
http://www.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2noJ.iso
which is redirected to
http://www.tyger.org:8080/MFS/2.0/mfstools2.iso
which is not a valid link. i'm assuming it is a link back to the
mfstools2.iso, but has an invalid port number.

i used the http://www.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2.iso.

hope this helps someone!
- bill c.


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## SnoopyToeTag

My thanks to everyone at Weaknees for putting together this interactive upgrade guide. I was able to successfully upgrade my new Series 2 DT from 80 hours to 227 hours (with a 200 GB Maxtor Ultra Series HDD) in just a couple of hours. Everything went smoothly, thanks to the instructions provided. The biggest problem that I had was burning an ISO image to a CD, which required some research and downloading a freeware program, because I couldn't figure out how to do it using Windows XP's CD burning software. Thanks again!


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## smu1997

On 05-16-2005, 05:13 PM raystrans recieved a similiar error while trying to upgrade his tivo "Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1" on 08-06-2006, 09:44 AM 
tcooper1561 received another similair error. I know that these errors have to do with some type of onboard PCI memory reader that causing all of the drives to start at /dev/hde instead of /dev/hda. I have spent the last 6 hours enabling and disabling differrent setting on my Presario. My question is "How do you fix this". I have googled the heck out of this and have spent numerous hours on here and can never find a solution. Please, Please, Please HELP!!!!!!!


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## s2hotty

My Philips DSR7000 DTV/Tivo combo Series 2 has locked up on the Power Up screen... So I am preparing to take on the task of upgrading with the Weakness online guide (very impressive with the detail instructions"

Two questions before I begin:

1. Should I be able to back up my image off of my old tivo hard drive via weakness or is it dead ? If not will I have to PM for a image from someone ?

2. I purchased a Seagate 120 GB Ultra ATA hard drive will that be compatible with this upgrade ?

Thanks for the help in advance from a newbie


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## smu1997

I tried using the download Boot CD image of MFSTool 2.0 here with WeaKnees Large Kernel Support:. I was unable to boot the CD and kept getting an "Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1". How can you fix this


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## Nutter

I recently got a 400GB Seagate drive (ST3400632A-RK) for $95 delivered (buy.com) to upgrade my HR10-250 (v6.3). I sent off for the TwinBreeze bracket and downloaded the MFSTools iso image. The upgrade went without a hitch, the bracket and instructions where first class. Total time taken 30mins.  


John


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## mightygrom

I have a 540-040 which started doing the pause trick, I checked the fan, and it seems to be ok, and the unit was cool while it was running and stuttering. so I guessed it was the drive going bad.

I purchased a maxtor 200gb drive to do the swap, and followed the instructions on the site, and it seemed to work, but when I booted the tivo after installing the drive, it switched from the initial power-up screen to a blank white screen and sat there.

did I miss a step, or something?

-mightygrom
(not feeling so mighty now)


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## dennya

I'm using an Intel Bad Axe motherboard that has only one IDE controller. My goal is to copy my HR10-250's current drive to a new 400GB drive, and then add a second drive 300GB as well. However, the instructions require a pair of IDE controllers to do this.

First, I tried using an old Promise Ultra133TX2 PCI IDE controller to add another IDE channel. When I boot from the Weaknees CD, it sees the additional drives and adds them as HDI and HDJ. However, when I attempt to actually execute the mfsbackup/mfsrestore command, it gives me an error (directory not found) when it attempts to start writing to HDI.

Any ideas/suggestions? I could just do it in two steps -- first back up the old drive to the new one, then install that and add the second drive to the image there. However, that takes both IDE channels, leaving me no way to boot. I can't find an MFSTools floppy with LBA48 support, nor can I figure out a way to get the MFSTools ISO onto bootable Flash Disk. (That step's probably easy for a Linux user, but alas I'm running XP.)

Anyone been in a similar situation? Got a good workaround? It's going to be a more common problem as fewer new PCs are shipping with two IDE channels...


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## jstutman

Just some quick assistance.

Im copying my tivo hdd to a 250 hdd and they show up as

hda-250 new hdd
hdb 80 gig tivo

are these settings correct?

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

Thanks


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## azitnay

You need to pass mfsrestore /dev/hda, not /dev/hdb:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Otherwise, assuming you only want to copy settings and not recordings, it looks correct.

Drew


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## jstutman

azitnay said:


> You need to pass mfsrestore /dev/hda, not /dev/hdb:
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda
> 
> Otherwise, assuming you only want to copy settings and not recordings, it looks correct.
> 
> Drew


yeah just settings, brand new dual tuner out of box. Worked like a champ.
270 hours


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## Jolt

Just replaced a dying drive with a 250g drive and had the old cd mount issue which i cleared up with turning off my SATA raid controller. The drive on my bedroom tivo is great but seeing how easy this was i think ill add a 250g to that one also.


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## weaknees

We've added the TCD648250B units to our upgrade instructions, and we've added a new downloadable CD (still free!) that contains a version of Linux that supports SATA drives. Check it out!


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## w2jo

What is the story on adding an external drive to the Series 3? Is that working yet?
Thanks.


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## weaknees

The external port is just still inactive at this point. Due to all of the restrictions with CableCARDs, we definitely have doubts as to whether it will ever happen.


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## tivoupgrade

weaknees said:


> We've added the TCD648250B units to our upgrade instructions, and we've added a new downloadable CD (still free!) that contains a version of Linux that supports SATA drives. Check it out!


I've been unable to boot using this CD (hangs during bootup at mouse/keyboard input lines). The other CD that doesn't seem to work on this PC is the one that was previously hosted at www.tivolive.org. Same PC works fine with the older mfstools CDs.


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## weaknees

I did have a version that had that problem - I must have uploaded the wrong version. Putting up the new one now.


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## w2jo

Weakknees.. Is there any software limitation on how large the INTERNAL series 3 HD can be? I am thinking about cloning the existing series 3 HD onto the largest SATA HD I can find. I have what it takes to do that easily unless they limited the address space somehow.
Thanks.


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## weaknees

w2jo said:


> Weakknees.. Is there any software limitation on how large the INTERNAL series 3 HD can be? I am thinking about cloning the existing series 3 HD onto the largest SATA HD I can find. I have what it takes to do that easily unless they limited the address space somehow.
> Thanks.


The 750s are the largest SATA drives that exist, as far as we know, and they work just fine, excepting noise issues with some.


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## kkluba

Will the Seagate PATA 750's work? Any experience with them? Noisy?


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## weaknees

PATAs don't work in the Series3 units.


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## spike2k5

tivoupgrade said:


> The other CD that doesn't seem to work on this PC is the one that was previously hosted at www.tivolive.org. Same PC works fine with the older mfstools CDs.


What kind of PC is it?
My cd was being beta tested and I don't remember sending url to you.
When did you grab the iso file?


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## kkluba

weaknees said:


> PATAs don't work in the Series3 units.


Thanks. But they are what works with an HR10-250, no?


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## weaknees

Right - every other TiVo made to date uses PATA drives.


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## coldtoes

Michael -

Just used your instructions again for an upgrade and they are useful and straightforward as always. However I think you have a bad link on your site on the http://www.weaknees.com/upgrade-instructions.php page. When I click the "Replace one drive with one drive" link for the 649 boxes, I get these, which look like they're for a DirecTiVo. It was easy enough to use one of the other two 649 instructions, but I thought you'd want a heads up so you could fix the link.

Thanks again for providing such a great tool to us DIY upgraders!


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## xylium

I'm really new to this but I have found all the instructions on how to change the hard drive. I beleive the hard drive in my Brothers Hughes HDVR2 is bad, we tried to do a system initilization and now it just sits at the formatting screen and never finishes. I assume the hard drive is bad so we would like to change it, question is, will I have problems copying the system from the old drive to the new? Also, are we going to have problems using a Western Digital 160gb from Wal-Mart? 

Thanks,
Robert


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## rtphokie

I'm trying to replace a bad 120GB drive with a new 250gb drive but am having problems with the boot CD. I'm getting a weird error message when booting to this CD. My PC sees the CD just fine and starts the boot sequence. Then I get this:

Welcome to the rescue disk
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 2
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 3
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 4
Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 5
No CD-ROM found​
I'm assuming it has something to do with this, paging up to verify where the PC recognized the drives:


hde is the old TiVo drive
hdf is the new drive
hdg is the DVD drive where the boot CD is currently and is on the secondary master


When booting from the boot CD available in the Hinsdale instructions, everything shifted down 4 slots (i.e. the old TiVo drive is at hda, the new at hdb, the DVD drive at hdc, etc.)

Any ideas?​


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## HomeUser

rtphokie said:


> Welcome to the rescue disk
> Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1
> Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 2
> Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 3
> Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 4
> Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 5
> No CD-ROM found


Rescue Disk? do you happen to have a system Install/Recovery floppy in the drive?

As for the drive letter shift that happens with some add-on IDE cards.


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