# No luck upgrading to Seagate 7200.11 1.5 TB on S3



## eziemann (Jun 8, 2005)

I got my Seagate 7200.11 1.5 TB (ST31500341AS) SATA drive on Friday and ran it through diags all night. Everything checked out OK so I thought I would have no problems with the upgrade.

Unfortunately I haven't had any luck with WinMFS or the linux MFSlive boot CD. My S3 starts the boot process, gets to the "just a few minutes more" screen and then reboots. The last thing I see is the clock showing up on the front LCD before the reboot.

I will be posting more details on the mfslive.org forums to try and figure out the problem.

I was just wondering if others had luck with any S3s or THDs with the new 7200.11 1.5 TB?


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

My Seagate 1.5TB($190, from Newegg) is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. Hopefully it arrives tommorrow.

Although it is ultimately for my pc, I did plan on prepping it to test inside my Tivo HD, just out of curiosity.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

any updates?


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

I upgraded my TiVo HD Monday night, and it appeared to work (booted up fine, was able to set up my season passes, could play back recorded shows).

However, last night it failed to record anything, citing 'internal error'.
When I attempted to restart it, it got stuck in a reboot loop.


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

dwit said:


> My Seagate 1.5TB($190, from Newegg) is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. Hopefully it arrives tommorrow.
> 
> Although it is ultimately for my pc, I did plan on prepping it to test inside my Tivo HD, just out of curiosity.


The results with my Tivo HD were the same as op's: reboot loop after "almost there...".


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## eziemann (Jun 8, 2005)

Well I am shelving the plans for upgrading my S3 for the moment. Not having the usual TiVo in the living room was causing me grief from the wife.

I am doing an mfscopy from my basement THD to the 1.5 TB drive and will see if I have any luck with that. Hopefully I can post my results on that tomorrow.


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

Don't buy 1.5 TB drives yet because it won't work in TS3 and THD.

Here's why:

Linux kernel used currently does not support a single partition greater than 2^(n-1) -1 sectors. It basically uses signed interger somewhere in the code. 

So 1.5 TB will create a partition greater than that.

It seems to be an easy fix so I hope TiVo Inc. fixes it soon.


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## KyleLC (Feb 6, 2002)

spike2k5 said:


> Don't buy 1.5 TB drives yet because it won't work in TS3 and THD.


Are you sure? flatcurve in this thread said it worked for him:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=405303&page=4


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

KyleLC said:


> Are you sure? flatcurve in this thread said it worked for him:
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=405303&page=4


I'm not sure if he tested long enough to see the kernel panic.


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## dwit (May 5, 2004)

spike2k5 said:


> I'm not sure if he tested long enough to see the kernel panic.


Has anyone tested it as a external drive only...or would that same "kernal panic" apply?


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## flatcurve (Sep 27, 2007)

spike2k5 said:


> I'm not sure if he tested long enough to see the kernel panic.


I only tested it long enough to boot it up and check the recording capacity. (I'm doing this work in between filling orders and installations)

When I had some time I planned on testing it for much longer. How long before you encountered problems, and what triggered it? I'd say that my units were probably booted and running for about 45 minutes each, since I was just doing it in the background.

I was using a 9.4 image for each machine, btw. except for the dual drive setups I tried, which was 9.2. (both failed)


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

spike2k5 said:


> Don't buy 1.5 TB drives yet because it won't work in TS3 and THD.
> 
> Here's why:
> 
> ...


If it's just a partition size issue I wonder if winmfs might be modified to create a pair of 700-ish gb mfs partitions rather than a single 1.4-ish tb mfs partition.

Kind of like if you'd done mfscopy+mfsadd on two successively larger drives.

Or would that exceed the allowable partition count or otherwise mess up the TiVo?


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

Jonathan_S said:


> Kind of like if you'd done mfscopy+mfsadd on two successively larger drives.
> Or would that exceed the allowable partition count or otherwise mess up the TiVo?


That would exceed 16 partitions and won't work.


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## ray08 (Jan 11, 2006)

Well, they did it to me yet again...can't upgrade to the 1.5TB drives from Seagate (or anyone else if/when they're available). I sure wish I had read these postings last week! I just ran into the problem described in this post. Got my drive 2 days ago and have been fighting the reboot problem for last several hours.

As far as Tivo fixing the signed int vs unsigned int, not likely! The S3 is dead in the water. Don't expect much of anything from Tivo for S3's now. This S3 I'm stuck with is the last one (DVR) I buy from them. I go back to the S1 and also got stuck with a single tuner S2.

At least I can use the 1.5TB HD in my server, which needed upgraded. The S3 will fall back to the 750GB WD HD.

BTW, if Tivo does fix this problem, please get it posted. I assumed it would work when I read the max limit on S3 was 2.2TB. <sigh>


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## ray08 (Jan 11, 2006)

Is the 2.2 tb a limit for each hard drive, or is it a total size limit? Can one put a 1.5tb hd (if/when tivo fixes problem) internal and then add a 1.5 tb external?


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

ray08 said:


> Is the 2.2 tb a limit for each hard drive, or is it a total size limit? Can one put a 1.5tb hd (if/when tivo fixes problem) internal and then add a 1.5 tb external?


My understanding is that that's a total size limit for the Series 3 TiVo.
Theoretically that set-up _would_ work (again: after TiVo fixes the partition size limit issue) on a TiVo HD or HD XL, just not on an original Series 3.

Unless of course, the TiVo software update the fixed the 2^31 sector limit in the kernel (on all 3 units) also upgraded the Series 3 to use the newer TiVo HD's file system setup


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

Jonathan_S said:


> My understanding is that that's a total size limit for the Series 3 TiVo.
> Theoretically that set-up _would_ work on a TiVo HD or HD XL, just not on an original Series 3.
> 
> (Unless of course, the TiVo software update the fixed the 2^31 sector limit in the kernal (on all 3) also upgraded the Series 3 to use the newer TiVo HD's file system setup)


i thought we just established that the 1.5 tb drives don't work on either...


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Adam1115 said:


> i thought we just established that the 1.5 tb drives don't work on either...


Currently true. 
But I was responding to a post that was asking what the situation would be after TiVo fixes that current limitation.

(Which I mentioned briefly in the 2nd half of my post)
But it wasn't as clear as it could have been. Post edited.


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