# Possible to downgrade a XL 1TB to 250GB?



## bobross (Dec 5, 2004)

So this is the scenario. I have a S3SA with lifetime and a XL with no service. I put the 1TB drive in the S3 for more storage. Is it possible to use a 250GB drive in the XL?

WinMFS restore gives me "Drive is too small" error even though the XL backup image is only 300MB.

Is there someway around this? I would like to sell the XL as it is useless to me. And I'm not trying to scam anyone I will advertise the exact storage space.

Thanks for any info.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

bobross said:


> So this is the scenario. I have a S3SA with lifetime and a XL with no service. I put the 1TB drive in the S3 for more storage. Is it possible to use a 250GB drive in the XL?
> 
> WinMFS restore gives me "Drive is too small" error even though the XL backup image is only 300MB.
> 
> ...


The problem is that the TiVO HD XL ( your designations are rather...odd) came with a 1TB drive. The image is from a 1TB drive and cannot be used on any smaller drive. You _*might*_ be able to use a TiVo HD image but there is no guarantee that it will function at all or if it does, that it will not have issues.


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## bobross (Dec 5, 2004)

lpwcomp said:


> The problem is that the TiVO HD XL ( your designations are rather...odd) came with a 1TB drive. The image is from a 1TB drive and cannot be used on any smaller drive. You _*might*_ be able to use a TiVo HD image but there is no guarantee that it will function at all or if it does, that it will not have issues.


Hmm that is a bummer. Seems like it would be an easy HEX hack or something. Tivo HD image? Like for a Series 3?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

bobross said:


> Hmm that is a bummer. Seems like it would be an easy HEX hack or something. Tivo HD image? Like for a Series 3?


Like for the TiVo HD (model TCD652160) which technically yes, is a Series3. But then so is your TiVo HD XL (model TCD658000). As I said, it _*might*_ work. A drive imaged for an original Series3 a.k.a S3 OLED (model TCD648250) almost certainly won't.

Your best option would be to just buy a new 1TB drive, but believe me, I understand if there are financial considerations preventing that. Not to mention the possible problems with the new AF drives.


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## bobross (Dec 5, 2004)

Ok thanks for the info, I'll give the TCD652160 image a try.


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## bobross (Dec 5, 2004)

TCD652160 Image works on XL with drives under 1TB! Got it working on a 250GB! AWESOME! Thank you *lpwcomp* for the suggestion!!!!!


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

bobross said:


> TCD652160 Image works on XL with drives under 1TB! Got it working on a 250GB! AWESOME! Thank you *lpwcomp* for the suggestion!!!!!


Be on the lookout for unknown "gotchas". Theoretically, there is no real difference between a TiVo HD and a TiVo HD XL so the s/w should be the same, but you never know.


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## bobross (Dec 5, 2004)

lpwcomp said:


> Be on the lookout for unknown "gotchas". Theoretically, there is no real difference between a TiVo HD and a TiVo HD XL so the s/w should be the same, but you never know.


Yeah got a #51 error. Doing an erase and reset all. According to the forums, that _should_ fix it. Everything else seems fine though.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

bobross said:


> Yeah got a #51 error. Doing an erase and reset all. According to the forums, that _should_ fix it. Everything else seems fine though.


That was to be expected. You would have had to do that even if you had put it into a TiVo HD.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

lpwcomp said:


> A drive imaged for an original Series3 a.k.a S3 OLED (model TCD648250) almost certainly won't.


There is no "almost" about it. It absolutely certainly will not work. The hardware is substantially different, the OS is substantially different, most of the applications are substantially different at the source code level (let alone after compiling), and the MFS file system is different.

Obviously since he got it working using your suggestion, that was the way to go. Trying to make an image from an S3 work with any flavor of THD is a non-starter.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

lrhorer said:


> There is no "almost" about it. It absolutely certainly will not work. The hardware is substantially different, the OS is substantially different, most of the applications are substantially different at the source code level (let alone after compiling), and the MFS file system is different.
> 
> Obviously since he got it working using your suggestion, that was the way to go. Trying to make an image from an S3 work with any flavor of THD is a non-starter.


I never thought that using an original S3 image had any chance of working, I just didn't want to make a categorical statement on it w/o any certain knowledge one way or the other.


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