WeaKnees Interactive Online TiVo Upgrade Instructions [Text View] - Page 2

freeflier

10-22-2004, 02:14 PM

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

10-22-2004, 06:49 PM

OK - it's Friday . . .

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

Michael

yapaul

10-22-2004, 07:16 PM

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

10-22-2004, 07:55 PM

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:
[I]Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1 or too many mounted file systems [i]

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:

[i]Backup failed: /mnt/backup.bak: sucess[i]

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

10-22-2004, 08:13 PM

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 [i]).

Klips

10-23-2004, 02:36 AM

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

10-24-2004, 12:33 AM

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

10-24-2004, 07:59 AM

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

10-24-2004, 09:10 AM

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

10-26-2004, 03:28 PM

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

10-26-2004, 03:54 PM

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

10-26-2004, 04:52 PM

HDLouco

10-26-2004, 05:02 PM

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

10-26-2004, 05:07 PM

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

10-26-2004, 06:41 PM

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

10-27-2004, 10:16 AM

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

10-27-2004, 12:29 PM

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

10-27-2004, 06:26 PM

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

10-27-2004, 06:30 PM

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

10-27-2004, 06:33 PM

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

10-28-2004, 12:12 PM

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

10-28-2004, 12:15 PM

Glad to hear it worked.

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

Michael

HDLouco

10-28-2004, 03:13 PM

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

10-29-2004, 12:32 AM

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

10-29-2004, 12:34 AM

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

10-29-2004, 12:36 AM

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

10-29-2004, 12:40 AM

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

10-29-2004, 05:53 AM

(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! :D

weaknees

10-29-2004, 09:02 AM

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

10-29-2004, 12:15 PM

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) :p

weaknees

10-29-2004, 12:34 PM

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

10-29-2004, 12:55 PM

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? :confused:

weaknees

10-29-2004, 01:12 PM

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? :confused:

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

amalux

10-29-2004, 01:27 PM

Thanks again! :)

pgold

10-29-2004, 03:41 PM

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

10-29-2004, 05:11 PM

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

10-29-2004, 05:16 PM

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

10-29-2004, 07:49 PM

weaknees

10-29-2004, 07:51 PM

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

10-31-2004, 12:10 AM

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

11-03-2004, 09:01 AM

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

11-03-2004, 09:03 AM

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

11-03-2004, 12:27 PM

'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

11-03-2004, 01:00 PM

amset, actually.

This will only work with Maxtors.

Michael

coeng

11-03-2004, 04:14 PM

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

11-03-2004, 11:05 PM

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

Stephen M Smith

11-05-2004, 02:07 AM

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

11-05-2004, 08:47 AM

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

11-05-2004, 09:20 AM

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

11-05-2004, 09:36 AM

(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

11-06-2004, 07:20 PM

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

11-06-2004, 09:03 PM

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

Michael

w2jo

11-21-2004, 10:57 PM

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

11-21-2004, 11:11 PM

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

w2jo

11-21-2004, 11:16 PM

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

11-22-2004, 08:05 AM

ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/

MattElmore

11-22-2004, 01:29 PM

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

11-26-2004, 01:44 PM

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

11-26-2004, 01:49 PM

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

Michael

Taelrand

11-28-2004, 05:08 PM

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

11-29-2004, 09:00 AM

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

11-30-2004, 04:31 AM

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

11-30-2004, 08:16 AM

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

11-30-2004, 10:44 AM

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

12-15-2004, 10:27 AM

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

Cheers
Jsadie

cybah

12-18-2004, 10:14 PM

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

12-20-2004, 01:54 AM

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

weaknees

12-20-2004, 09:04 AM

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

12-20-2004, 11:22 AM

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

12-20-2004, 12:06 PM

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

12-20-2004, 12:43 PM

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

12-20-2004, 01:21 PM

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

12-20-2004, 02:44 PM

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

12-20-2004, 03:52 PM

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

12-20-2004, 06:28 PM

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

12-21-2004, 12:44 AM

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

12-21-2004, 12:49 AM

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

12-21-2004, 07:24 AM

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

12-21-2004, 08:40 AM

Any suggestions?

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

weaknees

12-21-2004, 09:05 AM

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

12-21-2004, 11:11 AM

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

12-21-2004, 02:54 PM

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

12-21-2004, 09:57 PM

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

12-21-2004, 10:43 PM

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

12-22-2004, 06:52 AM

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

12-22-2004, 08:24 AM

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

12-22-2004, 01:35 PM

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 (http://alt.org/wiki/index.php/TivoDiagnostics) to trigger a GSOD - sometimes that can fix the corruption and allow the TiVo to boot.

Lrscpa

12-22-2004, 05:25 PM

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

12-22-2004, 07:28 PM

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

12-22-2004, 07:37 PM

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

12-22-2004, 08:59 PM

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

12-23-2004, 04:21 AM

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

12-23-2004, 09:21 AM

Yes, yes, and yes.

The Linux you need is all on the downloadable CD.

Michael

sync

12-23-2004, 10:06 AM

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

12-23-2004, 10:16 AM

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

12-23-2004, 07:32 PM

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

12-25-2004, 12:08 AM

That should suffice as a backup.

weaknees

12-25-2004, 12:09 AM

I've added the DirecTV R10 to the site.

Michael

valley_nomad

12-25-2004, 09:17 PM

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

12-27-2004, 10:03 AM

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

sync

12-27-2004, 11:19 AM

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

jon2200

12-27-2004, 11:33 AM

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

sync

12-27-2004, 07:32 PM

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

12-29-2004, 12:55 PM

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

12-29-2004, 05:25 PM

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

rick123

12-30-2004, 09:16 AM

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

01-18-2005, 09:01 AM

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

weaknees

01-18-2005, 09:23 AM

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

Michael

JohnTivo

01-20-2005, 02:32 PM

Michael,

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

weaknees

01-20-2005, 02:33 PM

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

01-20-2005, 02:46 PM

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

01-20-2005, 02:50 PM

Lou,

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

Michael

JohnTivo

01-20-2005, 03:32 PM

valley_nomad

01-21-2005, 03:52 PM

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

01-23-2005, 02:00 PM

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

01-24-2005, 02:18 PM

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

01-24-2005, 02:22 PM

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

01-24-2005, 02:25 PM

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

01-24-2005, 02:27 PM

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

leesweet

01-27-2005, 02:04 PM

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. :D

e_identity

01-27-2005, 03:14 PM

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

01-27-2005, 04:31 PM

Right - it should be:

mount /dev/hda? /mnt

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

tramm

01-30-2005, 04:55 PM

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

02-06-2005, 01:28 AM

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

02-08-2005, 10:07 PM

:confused: 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

02-08-2005, 11:20 PM

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

02-09-2005, 11:55 PM

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

02-17-2005, 10:41 PM

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

02-20-2005, 06:11 PM

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

02-20-2005, 11:17 PM

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

02-23-2005, 09:10 PM

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

02-28-2005, 09:09 PM

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

02-28-2005, 09:21 PM

You need to replace the "W" with the designation for your C: drive - try:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

nittany

02-28-2005, 09:40 PM

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

03-01-2005, 12:28 PM

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

03-01-2005, 02:27 PM

neversummer

03-01-2005, 07:59 PM

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

03-01-2005, 10:28 PM

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

03-02-2005, 01:05 AM

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

03-05-2005, 07:53 PM

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

03-06-2005, 07:39 PM

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

03-09-2005, 05:45 PM

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

03-09-2005, 05:53 PM

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

03-10-2005, 11:02 PM

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

03-11-2005, 12:25 AM

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

03-11-2005, 06:27 AM

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

03-11-2005, 09:33 AM

No need to unformat - mfstools will just write over whatever is already on the drive, for better or worse.

rog

03-11-2005, 02:04 PM

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

03-11-2005, 03:23 PM

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

03-17-2005, 10:22 PM

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

03-18-2005, 01:54 PM

Are you sure the jumpers are set right?

wigleyd

03-19-2005, 08:55 PM

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

03-20-2005, 01:32 PM

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

03-20-2005, 08:33 PM

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

03-20-2005, 10:44 PM

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

03-21-2005, 12:19 AM

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

03-22-2005, 09:00 PM

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

03-23-2005, 01:50 AM

Well if you want to pay more and less RPM...go for it !!

rog

03-23-2005, 12:15 PM

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

04-16-2005, 11:34 AM

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

04-28-2005, 04:29 AM

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!

:confused:

weaknees

04-28-2005, 08:55 AM

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

04-28-2005, 09:25 AM

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?
:eek:

chrispitude

05-02-2005, 10:24 AM

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

05-07-2005, 09:44 AM

Thanks Weaknees. Directions were great. I upgraded 2 of my Series 2 TiVos without a hitch. :up:

slaponte

05-09-2005, 10:33 AM

+1 here.

Upgraded my series 2 to 300GB, not a single problem! Great tool!!!

rangerboy

05-12-2005, 11:47 PM

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

05-13-2005, 12:28 AM

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

05-13-2005, 05:46 PM

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

05-16-2005, 01:13 PM

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

05-21-2005, 02:04 AM

weaknees

05-21-2005, 02:11 AM

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

05-21-2005, 03:07 PM

Does the 40 80 etc at the end refer to the Hard Drive size?

weaknees

05-21-2005, 05:23 PM

Basically, yes, except that the 240140 and the 540140 have 120 GB drives, but those give about 140 hours at Basic Quality.

Michael

coldtoes

05-21-2005, 10:51 PM

Michael -

I'm having problems with the boot CD you reference in this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2271169&&#post2271169). 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

05-22-2005, 02:08 AM

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

05-22-2005, 11:03 AM

Rats. I was hoping it would be some known and easily fixable error on my part. Thanks for your prompt reply.

anilgupte

05-24-2005, 10:34 PM

anilgupte

05-25-2005, 12:13 AM

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

05-25-2005, 12:40 AM

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

05-25-2005, 01:00 PM

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

05-25-2005, 01:35 PM

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

05-25-2005, 02:58 PM

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

05-25-2005, 03:05 PM

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

05-25-2005, 04:39 PM

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

05-25-2005, 04:56 PM

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

05-25-2005, 09:42 PM

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

05-27-2005, 12:10 PM

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

05-27-2005, 12:21 PM

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

05-30-2005, 12:49 PM

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

05-30-2005, 01:03 PM

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

06-04-2005, 12:03 PM

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

06-04-2005, 12:21 PM

Amset is a feature of a program call setacm, and it's located here:

http://service.maxtor.com/rightnow/downloads/setacm.exe

Michael

DONPN

06-07-2005, 03:43 PM

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

06-11-2005, 10:28 AM

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

06-11-2005, 12:50 PM

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

06-13-2005, 03:38 PM

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

06-13-2005, 04:02 PM

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

06-13-2005, 07:02 PM

Captain Scarlet

06-13-2005, 07:07 PM

Hi ,
First I want to apologize if my question is too stupid , but I read so many posts, and I am really very confused :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

06-14-2005, 07:09 PM

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

06-14-2005, 07:35 PM

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. ;) :rolleyes:

HiddenCoyote

06-15-2005, 11:38 AM

[QUOTE=Captain Scarlet]
The uk websitefor upgrades on uk Tivo's running 2.5.5 or higher software explains the large hard disk upgrade issues rather better:-
[QUOTE]

Thanks Captain for your answer , I am still confused may be I read so may post in different forums :confused: , 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

bnm81002

06-15-2005, 11:42 PM

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

06-16-2005, 12:01 AM

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

06-16-2005, 12:31 AM

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

06-17-2005, 09:26 AM

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

06-20-2005, 03:41 PM

This has support for larger drives?

weaknees

06-20-2005, 03:47 PM

For most units, yes, but not for all units that can use large drives. What model are you upgrading?

sc0tty8

06-20-2005, 04:12 PM

Its a tivo 240040 unit.

weaknees

06-20-2005, 04:17 PM

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

06-20-2005, 04:23 PM

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

06-20-2005, 04:26 PM

You should verify the OS version in the System Information screen before using large drive techniques . . .

cassiusdrow

06-20-2005, 04:38 PM

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

06-20-2005, 05:14 PM

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

06-20-2005, 05:16 PM

Those will work just fine if you have 6.2.

bnm81002

06-20-2005, 06:27 PM

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

06-21-2005, 01:58 AM

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

06-21-2005, 11:20 AM

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

06-21-2005, 07:14 PM

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

06-21-2005, 07:15 PM

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

06-22-2005, 12:38 AM

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

06-22-2005, 04:01 AM

Weaknees instructions still continue to omit any coverage of the Thomson PVR10UK model extensively documented and photographed at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo

bnm81002

06-22-2005, 06:44 PM

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

06-28-2005, 01:38 PM

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

07-07-2005, 01:31 PM

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? :confused:

slaponte

07-08-2005, 02:49 PM

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

07-08-2005, 06:53 PM

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

07-08-2005, 06:56 PM

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

07-11-2005, 11:27 AM

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

07-11-2005, 03:06 PM

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

07-11-2005, 03:35 PM

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

07-11-2005, 04:15 PM

Definetly.

Order is an issue. The "xzpi" and the "-" that follows it go together.

The order you have it in would work fine.

skeet4x25

07-11-2005, 04:32 PM

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

07-11-2005, 04:53 PM

Worked flawlessly first time out going from 40GB to 80GB. Thanks a bunch for the how to.

skeet4x25

07-11-2005, 08:18 PM

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

07-11-2005, 11:56 PM

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?)