DirecTV HD DVR HR10-250 Upgrade Thread [Text View] - Page 6

mattdb

09-09-2004, 09:54 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
Wouldn't that be nice? However he would still lose the logos.

By the way. Is there anybody out there who installed TiVoWebPlus on there HR10-250 who did not have logos before ? If so where you able to add logos with the Logo utility of TiVoWebPlus ?

Is there a post somwhere that details how to get a bash prompt and TiVoWebPlus (and maybe TyTool and mfs-ftp) on HD TiVo boxes ?

I have done exactly this. There is however no one post that fixes it all.

I had to add a slice of the locals first. I had to do alot of digging and don't remember my exact steps. I had to add a slice etc.

Check out this thread for adding locals:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1795023&highlight=loadlogos.tcl#post1795023

Matt

weaknees

09-09-2004, 09:57 AM

Originally posted by Mr Pieces
What is the command line I want to use to make the backup of my original drive? It is a nearly full tivo, any idea how long it will take?

Thanks in advance.

Assuming you aren't trying to get recordings:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/hr10.bak /dev/hdc

the "hdc" assumes the drive is on the secondary master.

FlopShot

09-09-2004, 09:59 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
FlopShot-

Can you describe what you did?

Red Hat 9 drive hooked up as primary master.
Original Tivo drive hooked up as primary slave.
New blank 250Gb drive hooked up as secondary slave.
Booted using PTVupgrade's LBA48 boot CD on secondary master.

Attempt #1
mfsbackup -f 999 -1so /mnt/c/tivo.bak /dev/hdb
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/c/tivo.bak /dev/hdd
Backup took 24+ hrs, then restore got stuck after first 108 of 225000 megabytes

Attempt #2
mfsbackup -Tao /mnt/c/tivo.bak /dev/hdb
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/c/tivo.bak /dev/hdd
Backup took 24+ hrs, file size was about the same as before, then restore got stuck at the same point.

Finally gave up trying to restore either of those backups.

Attempt #3
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -zi - /dev/hdd
Backup and restore took somewhere between 10-18hrs (completed while I was at work). The new drive booted up fine in the HD Tivo with no problem. BlessTiVo a second blank drive, hooked it up using the TwinBreeze, and I was off to the races. Just don't have a valid backup anywhere.

weaknees

09-09-2004, 10:32 PM

In the first backup step, you would have needed "9999" instead of "999" to get a good backup, but that wouldn't explain why it didn't work. I assume you have a directory on your mount point called "c" and that you mounted first, yes? Otherwise, that would cause a problem. And backup shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

#2 should produce a huge file - do you remember how large it was?

Runch Machine

09-14-2004, 10:06 AM

I am having a strange backup problem. I have upgraded several HD-Tivos. If I backup up before going through Guided Setup, the backup is successful. If I backup after doing Guided Setup, the backup fails at around the 60-80% point. The backup command I am using is:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/hdtivo.bak /dev/hdd

I have also tried it with -1so with the same results.
Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone know how I can get a good backup after a receiver has been subscribed? By the way, I have tried this multiple times on 3 different HD-Tivos. I now backup them up before I even turn them on and this works fine.

bigrig

09-14-2004, 10:36 AM

Originally posted by Runch Machine
I am having a strange backup problem. I have upgraded several HD-Tivos. If I backup up before going through Guided Setup, the backup is successful. If I backup after doing Guided Setup, the backup fails at around the 60-80% point. The backup command I am using is:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/hdtivo.bak /dev/hdd

I have also tried it with -1so with the same results.
Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone know how I can get a good backup after a receiver has been subscribed? By the way, I have tried this multiple times on 3 different HD-Tivos. I now backup them up before I even turn them on and this works fine.

I recently did a backup on my activated HDTivo. I just followed the Hinsdale how-to, and used the following command -
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Only difference is I had the Tivo drive on the secondary master. Did a restore to the new drive and it worked fine.

Matt

bigrig

09-14-2004, 10:41 AM

Originally posted by FlopShot
Red Hat 9 drive hooked up as primary master.
Original Tivo drive hooked up as primary slave.
New blank 250Gb drive hooked up as secondary slave.
Booted using PTVupgrade's LBA48 boot CD on secondary master.

Haven't others in this thread reported problems creating a backup with both drives on the same IDE channel?

Matt

weaknees

09-14-2004, 10:47 AM

Originally posted by Runch Machine
I am having a strange backup problem. I have upgraded several HD-Tivos. If I backup up before going through Guided Setup, the backup is successful. If I backup after doing Guided Setup, the backup fails at around the 60-80% point. The backup command I am using is:
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/hdtivo.bak /dev/hdd

I have also tried it with -1so with the same results.
Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone know how I can get a good backup after a receiver has been subscribed? By the way, I have tried this multiple times on 3 different HD-Tivos. I now backup them up before I even turn them on and this works fine.

This is interesting - is there anything else different about the systems after they've been through setup? Obviously, if you've added drives, you can't get a good backup unless you put both drives in your PC.

In any event, we've made numerous backups both ways here (we generally use -1so) and we haven't had any problems.

Michael

flapbreaker

09-14-2004, 12:09 PM

I made a successful backup of mine after activation. The one thing that cause all kinds of trouble for me was having both drives on the same IDE channel. Once I put them on different channels it worked great.

pbolya

09-14-2004, 01:11 PM

My original WD hard drive failed over the weekend. Since I already opened the unit I did not want to return it (no logos and HDMI failure as well though). Even though none of the backup/restore procedures worked as the drive had errors (mfsbackup hanging/DD image resulted in none bootable image) I was able to restore everything including season passes and recordings using telnet, tivoweb and mfs_ftp. In the process I even GOT MY LOGOS BACK.

Here is more info on what I did:

jrock

09-14-2004, 02:47 PM

I'm considdering getting the 300 gig Upgrade drive kit from Weaknees, has anyone here purchased that upgrade? Has there been any problems with it? I am kind of worried because I notice quite a few threads in the HDTiVo forum about there TiVo's just dieing out of the blue, I don't want to help push mine over the edge lol.

-Joe

Bakes11

09-14-2004, 10:51 PM

I upgraded my HR10-250 with weaknees 300gb drive. Everything worked fine until my HDMI failed two weeks later. With few questions asked they are sending me a replacement unit.
I was considering switching the drives between the two machines and sending back the old HR10-250 with the new unused drive. (another words keeping my current drives A and B and installing them in the new HR10250.
Does anyone know if this approach is sound and presents no problems.
Will both units still work and will the warranty be at risk.

LarryInAz

09-14-2004, 10:54 PM

This will work however you'll need to run "Clear & Delete Everything" and you will lose any programs you have accumulated on the 2 drives.

Runch Machine

09-14-2004, 10:56 PM

Just swap the HDMI cards. Assuming the replacement has a good one, put it into your upgraded unit. Put the bad one in the replacement. Then, call Directv, tell them the replacement has a bad HDMI card too, that you are disgusted and will send the replacement back because you don't want to setup another bad one. Then tell them you will wait till later to get the problem fixed.

btwyx

09-14-2004, 11:01 PM

I got the 300G upgrade from Weaknees. It worked quite nicely until I ran across an unrelated problem and had to send the unit back. I had to get the factory drive reformatted before sending the unit back. Now I'm going to keep the factory drive untouched and use a 600G 2 drive upgrade.

Bakes11

09-14-2004, 11:04 PM

I would switch the HDMI cards but as I understand the HDMI problem it relates to the seating of the cards in the unit. Some have had success in wiggling the card and others by placing plastic between the metal pin that holds the card in place. I therefore think to tamper with the new one will result in both units with faulty HDMI's.

aaronwt

09-14-2004, 11:09 PM

This is why I kept the original drive and replaced it with two 250GB Maxtor drives. If I have any warranty problems, I can put the original drive back in before I ship the unit back. I won't find out if my HDMI outputs work, until I get a new HD set next year. Hopefully a 1080P set.

Bakes11

09-14-2004, 11:16 PM

Wouldn't this be the same for me --- putting the new original drive (unused) from the replacement unit they are sending me into the old unit and sending it back.

edrock200

09-15-2004, 11:49 AM

Originally posted by Runch Machine
Just swap the HDMI cards. Assuming the replacement has a good one, put it into your upgraded unit. Put the bad one in the replacement. Then, call Directv, tell them the replacement has a bad HDMI card too, that you are disgusted and will send the replacement back because you don't want to setup another bad one. Then tell them you will wait till later to get the problem fixed.

Uh don't do this. DirecTV is already swapping out a unit that has been opened for you. To then take a working unit and call them up and tell them it doesn't work is wrong. They've done there part in replacing a defective unit with a working one, don't give some CSR a hard time because of some scheme based on lies.

buckeye1010

09-15-2004, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by jrock
I'm considdering getting the 300 gig Upgrade drive kit from Weaknees, has anyone here purchased that upgrade?
-Joe

I did - works like a charm!

Runch Machine

09-18-2004, 11:15 AM

Originally posted by edrock200
Uh don't do this. DirecTV is already swapping out a unit that has been opened for you. To then take a working unit and call them up and tell them it doesn't work is wrong. They've done there part in replacing a defective unit with a working one, don't give some CSR a hard time because of some scheme based on lies.

What's wrong it that 50% of these are coming with DEFECTIVE HDMI CARDS! If this happened for the first month or two, that would be one thing, but these HD Tivos have been out for several months and I am still getting HALF of them with bad HDMI cards. I upgrade about 2 of these a week for others and this is my experience. If Directv didn't sell JUNK then we wouldn't be having this problem. Likewise, if they had the option of buying one with two drives instead of one. 30 hours just isn't enough time.

IF Directv was doing their part, this problem, and the LOGO problem would have been solved a long time ago!

weaknees

09-18-2004, 11:27 AM

Well, we've seen (and upgraded) hundreds of these, and I have to say that we've not seen anything even close to 10% error rates with HDMI. I'd have to calculate it out, but my guess is that it's closer to 2% - not great, but workable.

Michael

AbMagFab

09-18-2004, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by Runch Machine
What's wrong it that 50% of these are coming with DEFECTIVE HDMI CARDS! If this happened for the first month or two, that would be one thing, but these HD Tivos have been out for several months and I am still getting HALF of them with bad HDMI cards. I upgrade about 2 of these a week for others and this is my experience. If Directv didn't sell JUNK then we wouldn't be having this problem. Likewise, if they had the option of buying one with two drives instead of one. 30 hours just isn't enough time.

IF Directv was doing their part, this problem, and the LOGO problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Maybe your "upgrading" is a little rough, and your causing the problem? Weaknees has been around a while, and done an awful lot of these and has a good reputation. I'd be inclined to believe his statistic, and when coupled with yours, it sure seems like the only other variable is, well, *you*.

weaknees

09-18-2004, 01:32 PM

Maybe this info will help explain our numbers a bit more: we didn't upgrade many TiVos from the initial batch, which had the HDMI non-recall recall early on. At that time, our bracket wasn't ready. So we didn't start selling upgraded units until July, by which time the channel was full of newer units.

So maybe the other poster was just working on older boxes that were more prone to problems?

LarryInAz

09-18-2004, 02:27 PM

It'd be interesting what percentage of HR10-250 units in circulation actually are using the HDMI connection. I for one have an older Mitsubishi RPTV and am stuck using component. I do plan on upgrading in the next 12-24 months and getting a DLP that will most likely have HDMI.

I suspect in the coming months/years some of the "early adopters" may find their HDMI does not work. This is one of the reasons I choose to pay $7.99 for D* Protection Plan - kind of an insurance policy.

dswallow

09-18-2004, 03:25 PM

Originally posted by LarryInAz
This is one of the reasons I choose to pay $7.99 for D* Protection Plan - kind of an insurance policy. In reality, you can start this anytime; such as after your 1 year warranty, or when you have problems (even DirecTV tell you that you can do this).

LarryInAz

09-18-2004, 03:51 PM

Originally posted by dswallow
In reality, you can start this anytime; such as after your 1 year warranty, or when you have problems (even DirecTV tell you that you can do this).

True - however they make you wait 30 days before you can file a "claim". For instance when I got my HD TiVo I needed my dish fine tuned to be optimized for HD sat feeds, they said they'd have to charge me a service call unless I wait 30 days. :rolleyes:

dswallow

09-18-2004, 03:53 PM

Originally posted by LarryInAz
True - however they make you wait 30 days before you can file a "claim". For instance when I got my HD TiVo I needed my dish fine tuned to be optimized for HD sat feeds, they said they'd have to charge me a service call unless I wait 30 days. :rolleyes:
I believe you also have the option to prepay for 1 year of the service plan and you can get an immediate service call.

pbolya

09-19-2004, 02:49 AM

Originally posted by LarryInAz
It'd be interesting what percentage of HR10-250 units in circulation actually are using the HDMI connection. I for one have an older Mitsubishi RPTV and am stuck using component. I do plan on upgrading in the next 12-24 months and getting a DLP that will most likely have HDMI.

I suspect in the coming months/years some of the "early adopters" may find their HDMI does not work. This is one of the reasons I choose to pay $7.99 for D* Protection Plan - kind of an insurance policy.

Check out this thread:

I am watching it for the last 5 weeks and even though the number of votes and the complanes doubled since then the percentages only change within 1-2%.

27-30% do not use HDMI (explains why they just taking chances and sending bad units out).
48-50% HDMI is working after 2 weeks.
20-25% failed (3% has multiple returns).

I have to say though that somebody who has HDMI problem is more likely to vote (or even find this thread) on the forum than somebody who is not. Also when Weaknees (thanks again for the wonderful bracket) upgrades the drive I doubt that he has the TiVo's in his hand more than a week or so yet alone runs the HDMI card for a long time. A lot of pepole experience failures way after the first two weeks (mine went out after 6 weeks - though it might have been caused by my upgrade). Lot of other's around 4 weeks without even moving the TiVo an inch. Also I am convinced that some of the reported cases actually caused by TV firmware isses.

Runch Machine

09-19-2004, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Maybe your "upgrading" is a little rough, and your causing the problem? Weaknees has been around a while, and done an awful lot of these and has a good reputation. I'd be inclined to believe his statistic, and when coupled with yours, it sure seems like the only other variable is, well, *you*.

Most of the failures have occured right out of the box before I upgrade it. I am never rough on electronic equipment. In a recent batch of 5, 4 were bad, again right out of the box. I run these for a few days before doing the upgrade due to this problem. Very few have failed after the upgrade.

One was totally dead, with no output, right out of the box. Three others had unstable colors and flickering, also right out of the box.

jeff125va

09-22-2004, 09:04 AM

Originally posted by gr8reb8
I received my brand new HR10-250 yesterday. This is what I did to upgrade to two new 250Gb drives. The original 250Gb will be set on a shelf as a "virgin" backup drive. Overkill? Yes. :cool:

From this page (http://www.ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/index.html)
Download this and burn as ISO to a CD (http://www.ptvupgrade.com/downloads/ptv-mfstools2-large-disk.iso)
Follow hardware guide to remove original drive from Tivo

1. Install original hdtivo drive in secondary master (hdc). FAT32 win98 Hd is primary master, cdrom is primary slave.

2. Configure BIOS to boot to CD. Boot up ptv's lb48 cd. (When prompted, press enter until you get to the Linux prompt.)
If you know your FAT32 drive, your cable and your PC support DMA, turn it on with
hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (this turns it on for your FAT32 disk connected to primary master)
hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc (this turns it on for the drive connected to secondary master (hdtivo drive))

3. Mount drive using following commands
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

4. Backup using this command (should take 5-20 minutes)
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/hd_tivo.bak /dev/hdc

5. Type reboot and when machine has rebooted and stopped at the first prompt on CD, turn off pc.

6. Remove original hdtivo drive from pc.

7. Install brand new 250Gb drive in secondary master (hdc). Leave jumper on "cable-select"

8. Boot up ptv's lb48 cd. (When prompted, press enter until you get to the Linux prompt.)
If you know your FAT32 drive, your cable and your PC support DMA, turn it on with
hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (this turns it on for your FAT32 disk connected to primary master)
hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc (this turns it on for the drive connected to secondary master (new 250Gb drive))

9. mount drive using following commands
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

10. Restore to new drive using following commands (should take 5-15 minutes)
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/hd_tivo.bak /dev/hdc

11. Type reboot and when machine has rebooted and stopped at the first prompt on CD, turn off pc.

12. Remove the newly created hdtivo primary drive. Move jumper to "primary master w/slave present"

13. Install brand new 250Gb (or larger) drive in secondary master (hdc). Leave jumper on "cable-select"

14. Boot up ptv's lb48cd. (When prompted, press enter until you get to the Linux prompt.)

15. Prepare the drive to be used as secondary in the HDTivo using the following command (this should take less than 10 seconds)
BlessTiVo /dev/hdc

16. Type reboot and when machine has rebooted and stopped at the first prompt on CD, turn off pc.

17. Remove the newly created hdtivo secondary drive. Move jumper to "slave".

Follow hardware guide to install the two new drives in Tivo.

Now, enjoying my 63HD hours!
How important is the hdparm stuff in steps 2 & 8? I didn't do that because I wasn't sure and I was trying to get the upgrade done before 10:00 last night, but it seems to have worked fine. What exactly is the purpose of those steps?

weaknees

09-22-2004, 09:50 AM

That just speeds up the process (sometimes pretty significantly) but it should work either way.

shutitd0tnet

09-22-2004, 12:13 PM

Originally posted by shutitdotnet
WD250 is working now, weird.. Im not sure what may of happen do you have any ideas, my guess would be heat, I searched for a picture of the bracket on your site, but unfortunatly i was unable to find it , mind posting some high res pics here or emailing them to me my boss wants to check them out.. some close ups would be nice weakness .. if you could find it in your heart.. LOL
Thanks again and again.
Steve

Dum Dum Dum...
Weakness same problem, After the drives failed and the unit stopped last time I started all over again and used the same drives, this time worked for about 2 weeks almost filled and now it just freezes no activity on the LEDs in the front I power cycled the unit all I get is welcome powering up.. etc etc.. never goes past that no change when pressing crap on the face panel.. this is the second time this has happened with this Tivo, could this be a heat issue ... has anyone else had this prolem..??
Steve

dswallow

09-22-2004, 12:15 PM

Originally posted by shutitd0tnet
Dum Dum Dum...
Weakness same problem, After the drives failed and the unit stopped last time I started all over again and used the same drives, this time worked for about 2 weeks almost filled and now it just freezes no activity on the LEDs in the front I power cycled the unit all I get is welcome powering up.. etc etc.. never goes past that no change when pressing crap on the face panel.. this is the second time this has happened with this Tivo, could this be a heat issue ... has anyone else had this prolem..??
Steve
If/when you pull the drives again, be sure to run the low level tests on the drive that you can get from the dirve manufacturer's web site. There's probably some area of one of them with problems which is causing the TiVo to lock up when it tries to use it.

pbolya

09-22-2004, 12:18 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
That just speeds up the process (sometimes pretty significantly) but it should work either way. Isn't DMA on by default on that CD ? It only took about 2 minutes for me to backup (-6so) and I did not turn DMA on manually either.

Also no matter what I do I just can't boot with byte swapping enabled. This means that I can not see the partitions on the drive (DTiVo S1 SAT-T60). I can boot with byte swapping with the NIC_INSTALL CD but that one is missing some modules (some tools like hexedit would not work), mfs tools and LBA48 support. It was only meant for installing the cards.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Peter

shutitd0tnet

09-22-2004, 12:24 PM

Originally posted by dswallow
If/when you pull the drives again, be sure to run the low level tests on the drive that you can get from the dirve manufacturer's web site. There's probably some area of one of them with problems which is causing the TiVo to lock up when it tries to use it.

No Dice dude, did that already last time it did the exact same thing, ran both extended test on the maxtor and the OEM WD, no errors =o( This sucks, I would feel a little bit better if just one other person has had this problem ..

Robert S

09-22-2004, 01:08 PM

It's a very odd problem. I would be suspecting a hardware issue rather than a software one.

Here's the thing - before the TiVo activates it's MFS partitions (where the recordings live), it prints 'almost there' (the exact wording varies a bit). So, if the TiVo is failing because of a problem with the user side of things (the recordings and things like the Guide DB and the settings), the TiVo prints 'almost there' before it reboots.

So, your problem can not have anything to with how full the TiVo is.

Something is preventing the operating system loading.

I would try imaging both drives as A drives and run them independently for a bit. You'd want to plug them both into the power (so the thermal and power situation is the same), but only one or the other into the data cable.

Hopefully this would cause one drive to fail and the other one to be OK, at which point, it's obvious what to do.

shutitd0tnet

09-22-2004, 01:17 PM

Originally posted by Robert S
It's a very odd problem. I would be suspecting a hardware issue rather than a software one.

Here's the thing - before the TiVo activates it's MFS partitions (where the recordings live), it prints 'almost there' (the exact wording varies a bit). So, if the TiVo is failing because of a problem with the user side of things (the recordings and things like the Guide DB and the settings), the TiVo prints 'almost there' before it reboots.

So, your problem can not have anything to with how full the TiVo is.

Something is preventing the operating system loading.

I would try imaging both drives as A drives and run them independently for a bit. You'd want to plug them both into the power (so the thermal and power situation is the same), but only one or the other into the data cable.

Hopefully this would cause one drive to fail and the other one to be OK, at which point, it's obvious what to do.

Let me just make sure I got what yer sayin... Basically backup each drive to the original OEM image, try running say my Maxtor as a single drive in the unit for a while, make sure there are no errors... and if that works good then try to run the OEM WD with the original image on it for a while and see if it acts up.. all the time having two drives plugged into power supply and present but only one at a time on the IDE cable..
sound aboot right?
LaTe™
Steve

pbolya

09-22-2004, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by shutitd0tnet
No Dice dude, did that already last time it did the exact same thing, ran both extended test on the maxtor and the OEM WD, no errors =o( This sucks, I would feel a little bit better if just one other person has had this problem .. shutitd0tnet,
You maybe able to find out what is wrong by looking into the KERNEL logs:

- Reboot the TiVo and wait 5 minutes even if it hangs (this way we have the boot up messages in the Kernel log.
- Attach the TiVo A drive to secondary master and boot to the LBA48 CD.

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt/var
pico /mnt/var/log/kernel

now you can look through the KERNEL log and see for error messages.

The HR10-250 is much more susceptible to heat issues then the previous models. You will see a little into the boot the following :

Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Start fan control...
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Terminal temp: 71
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Critical temp: 62
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Logging temp: 60
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Target temp: 50

This means that current temperature is 50C.
The unit will start logging (in this file) temperature readings when they are above 60C.
It will report the temperature on the system information screen as critical above 62C.
And will stop working all together at 71C.

My series 1 DTiVo for example runs just fine at 66C without even logging anything to the kernel.

If it is not the heat chances are that you will found out what is wrong from those messages (unless the unit doesn't boot at all like when you set the jumpers wrong).

When you are done exit from pico with ctrl-x and say no to avoid changing the file.

umount /mnt/var
reboot

dwynne

09-22-2004, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by pbolya
Also no matter what I do I just can't boot with byte swapping enabled. This means that I can not see the partitions on the drive (DTiVo S1 SAT-T60). I can boot with byte swapping with the NIC_INSTALL CD but that one is missing some modules (some tools like hexedit would not work), mfs tools and LBA48 support. It was only meant for installing the cards.

On the box I usually use to do Tivo drive stuff (because it is easy to get to) I have to go into the BIOS and turn off all the on board ports - serial, USB, parallel, LAN, etc to get the boot to work. Could that be your problem as well? Just disable anything except the video, keyboard, floppy, and IDE channels. Note that this box has 3 IDE channels and LINUX still works fine with it - but it does not like some of the other things in the box (probably the LAN).

Dennis

pbolya

09-22-2004, 02:07 PM

Originally posted by dwynne
On the box I usually use to do Tivo drive stuff (because it is easy to get to) I have to go into the BIOS and turn off all the on board ports - serial, USB, parallel, LAN, etc to get the boot to work. Could that be your problem as well? Just disable anything except the video, keyboard, floppy, and IDE channels. Note that this box has 3 IDE channels and LINUX still works fine with it - but it does not like some of the other things in the box (probably the LAN).

Dennis dwynne,
The PC boots just fine with both the regular and the 48lba CD and I can backup restore etc just fine as these operations do not address the partitions other then /dev/hda1 (PC dos drive with no byte swapping). They just use the whole disk (e.g. /dev/hdc).

They also work fine with the HR10-250 (LBA48 CD) and presumably with the series 2 DTiVos (regular CD) in every way as they also have no byte swapping (that is why the procedure to look at the kernel logs above will work with the HD TiVo).

However the series 1 DTiVo's have byte swapping enabled in there kernel. Hence unless I boot into noswaping with these CD's I can not see any of the partitions so I can not for example look at any of the partitions like the kernel logs mentioned above as I would need to mount hdc9 in order to do that. All of these CD's claim that they can boot into byte swapping by changing the boot parameters (e.g. enter swap instead of just enter on the boot prompt). But none of them works for me (one of them fails to boot the other seams like still in no swap.

rudolpht

09-23-2004, 08:50 AM

I'm up & good with TivoWebPlus, Telnet, FTP etc. All work fine and have an IP for the unit.

I'm trying to get off the phoneline to do data updates (but not software updates) via ethernet.

Got the ,#401 and tone & line detection off.

Test is failing. Is this not supported on the HDtivo?

Thanks in advance,
Tim

edrock200

09-23-2004, 10:07 AM

#401 is not supported by HDTivo's...also by data updates I assume you mean guide updates? Those come via satellite nightly, software updates come via phone line. (and possibly showcases.)

LarryInAz

09-23-2004, 10:26 AM

Originally posted by edrock200
#401 is not supported by HDTivo's...also by data updates I assume you mean guide updates? Those come via satellite nightly, software updates come via phone line. (and possibly showcases.)

I may be mistaken but the way I understand it the software updates actually come over the satellite as well but require a phone call to the "mothership" to execute them. :confused:

dswallow

09-23-2004, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by LarryInAz
I may be mistaken but the way I understand it the software updates actually come over the satellite as well but require a phone call to the "mothership" to execute them. :confused: Software updates always came in over the phone line; content updates come via satellite. I've never seen it reported that TiVo started software updates via satellite though at one point someone from TiVo said the capability was there, or could easily be there.

dmaneyapanda

09-23-2004, 11:14 AM

huh? as of a new release several months ago software updates definitely come from the sat, but are stored on the HD until a phone call tells the tivo it's time to activate the new software. two demerits, doug!

dswallow

09-23-2004, 11:17 AM

Originally posted by dmaneyapanda
huh? as of a new release several months ago software updates definitely come from the sat, but are stored on the HD until a phone call tells the tivo it's time to activate the new software. two demerits, doug!
See, everyone can learn something here. ;) I did figure they'd do it eventually. I'm surprised I did miss the discussion on them actually having started, though.

btwyx

09-23-2004, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by dswallow
See, everyone can learn something here. ;) I did figure they'd do it eventually. I'm surprised I did miss the discussion on them actually having started, though. Its been discussed in the 3.1.5d upgrade thread, which is how the upgrade happened after a 3 min phone.

rttrek

09-23-2004, 12:52 PM

Originally posted by edrock200
#401 is not supported by HDTivo's
Can anyone confirm this? Do HDTiVo's use broadband for phone calls if hacked for enet support?

edrock200

09-23-2004, 03:08 PM

Mine is hacked, and #401 does not work for me.

rudolpht

09-23-2004, 06:10 PM

Thanks.

It's funny, on it's own it said it had a successful call (with the line disconnected) so I had assumed the "call" had gone over ethernet, despite the fact that I couldn't do a successful test or initiate a call.

Thanks for the heads up & will leave disconnected then.

shutitdotnet

09-24-2004, 06:53 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt/var
pico /mnt/var/log/kernel

With my A drive on HDC booted to the LBA48 CD after i enter "mount /dev/hdv /mnt/var" I get error mount: you must specify a file system.
or something along those lines..

shutitdotnet

09-24-2004, 06:56 AM

haha wait i see you edited the commands after i printer em out, will try again.. LaTe®
Steve

shutitdotnet

09-24-2004, 07:07 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
shutitd0tnet,
You maybe able to find out what is wrong by looking into the KERNEL logs:

- Reboot the TiVo and wait 5 minutes even if it hangs (this way we have the boot up messages in the Kernel log.
- Attach the TiVo A drive to secondary master and boot to the LBA48 CD.

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt/var
pico /mnt/var/log/kernel

now you can look through the KERNEL log and see for error messages.

The HR10-250 is much more susceptible to heat issues then the previous models. You will see a little into the boot the following :

Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Start fan control...
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Terminal temp: 71
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Critical temp: 62
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Logging temp: 60
Sep 22 18:08:21 (none) kernel: Target temp: 50

This means that current temperature is 50C.
The unit will start logging (in this file) temperature readings when they are above 60C.
It will report the temperature on the system information screen as critical above 62C.
And will stop working all together at 71C.

My series 1 DTiVo for example runs just fine at 66C without even logging anything to the kernel.

If it is not the heat chances are that you will found out what is wrong from those messages (unless the unit doesn't boot at all like when you set the jumpers wrong).

When you are done exit from pico with ctrl-x and say no to avoid changing the file.

umount /mnt/var
reboot

Sorry I paged down quite a bit and found the most current date of running the tivo and shutting it down for the 5 minutes as directed, it doesnt show anything about temp its got a lot of looking for group, and the onto some binary crap.. I do see one warning though a couple days ago...

borghe

09-24-2004, 10:28 AM

software updates come from the satellite.. Doug is right in that they used to come over the phone line. Recently though Tivo has been sending out the updates for all models to every system. At 70MB per software, their can be up to seven different version on a series 2 system. No way Tivo is going to make us download 490MB over a phone line.. :P

,#401 has never worked on series 2 directivos. there is currently no way known to make a series 2 directivo (including the HR10-250) call out over the internet.

software updates usually stick around on your hard drive for a little while before installed. Then Tivo changes SwSystemName in /State/ServiceConfig in MFS to the new version and schedules the tivo to reboot. When it sees that SwSystemName and your current system name don't match it installs the new software.

dave77

09-25-2004, 07:59 PM

I successfully added a second 250GB drive a couple months ago, and the unit has worked fine until the last few days when it's started stuttering. At first it was rare, but now it happens often enough to be annoying. I rebooted it and it seems a bit better, but the problem isn't gone. I'm afraid one of the drives is dying, but I don't know which one. I could assume it's the original drive since it's been in use longer and others have had them fail, but how can I be sure?
If I do replace the original drive (or either one for that matter), I'd like to preserve my recordings if at all possible by copying the data from the old one if it's not too far gone. Is there a way to do this?
- Dave

weaknees

09-25-2004, 08:04 PM

You can use "dd" to copy the recordings to new drives.

There's a thread running in the HD area about problems since the new OS update. Have you checked your OS version? Have you checked the drives with the manufacturer's software in a PC?

dave77

09-26-2004, 12:42 AM

Since my last post earlier today it's stuttering so bad it's not really watchable, and the menus hang up a bit as well. I'm really pissed because I wanted to watch a HD movie that I've been saving.

I think I got the update, but I doubt that's causing the problem because it's getting worse quickly and happening with shows I recorded a while ago that had no problem before, as well as on the live TV buffers. I think I need to replace a drive, but I really want to save the recordings if at all possible.

Unfortunately I don't have lots of time to search through the huge amount of information available here to figure out what I need to do, like I did before I added the second drive, but I'd like to get it working again in the next couple days. So if someone happens to know some or all of the answers or could point me specifically in the right direction I would be extremely grateful.

Here's what I need to know:

- What's the best/easiest way to determine which drive is bad? One is the original WD 250GB drive and the other is the retail version of the same drive. I have the CD that came with the retail one, but it's Windows software and I've heard somewhere that booting into Windows with a TiVo drive attached can be bad, so how would I run the diagnostics?

- Can I copy just the data from the bad drive to a new one and replace that drive, and how? Does dd do a complete copy of the drive regardless if it's one drive in a two drive system?

- How can I be certain that a replacement 250GB drive will be big enough? Should I get another WD 250GB? Is the retail version the same size as the original TiVo drive? Is there a better brand that's big enough that is more reliable (backed up by significant statistics - there's way too much anecdotal evidence and personal opinion floating around on this topic)? I really don't want to be doing this every few months.

I'll start looking into these questions myself, but unfortunately the time I can spend on this right now is very limited.

Thanks in advance,
- Dave

weaknees

09-26-2004, 10:28 AM

Dave,

Here are some answers:

1 - You should use the WD software. It runs in DOS - it's called something like DLGCHK. If you can boot your PC from a DOS floppy (or CD or HD) you'll know that you aren't hurting the drive.

2 - 'dd' will do what you need - once you make a copy, it'll work as if it were the orignal drive. Use this command:

dd_ conv=noerror,sync_ if=/dev/hdX_ of=/dev/hdY_ bs=1024k

with "X" as the location of the old drive, and "Y" as the location of the new drive.

3 - This is an important point. A WD drive should be the same size (it won't have the same characteristics, but you likely don't have those in the second drive that you already added). For an extra measure of safety here, though, you could just get a 300 GB drive. To add to the anecdotal evidence, we've seen many more WD drives fail in these units than Maxtors - and any unit we've upgraded has at least one Maxtor, possibly two Maxtors.

Michael

pbolya

09-26-2004, 01:34 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
Dave,

Here are some answers:

1 - You should use the WD software. It runs in DOS - it's called something like DLGCHK. If you can boot your PC from a DOS floppy (or CD or HD) you'll know that you aren't hurting the drive.

2 - 'dd' will do what you need - once you make a copy, it'll work as if it were the orignal drive. Use this command:

dd_ conv=noerror,sync_ if=/dev/hdX_ of=/dev/hdY_ bs=1024k

with "X" as the location of the old drive, and "Y" as the location of the new drive.

3 - This is an important point. A WD drive should be the same size (it won't have the same characteristics, but you likely don't have those in the second drive that you already added). For an extra measure of safety here, though, you could just get a 300 GB drive. To add to the anecdotal evidence, we've seen many more WD drives fail in these units than Maxtors - and any unit we've upgraded has at least one Maxtor, possibly two Maxtors.

Michael Also stock maxtor 250GB drives are larger than WD250's. So you should be ok to go from WD to Maxtor but not the other way.

dave77

09-26-2004, 03:39 PM

Thanks for the quick replies. They were very helpful.

I will try booting in DOS and running the WD diagnostic software. If/when I find a bad drive I'll replace it with a Maxtor and copy the data with dd as described. If I want it today I'll have to pay $180 for it a BB, but at least I'll hopefully have it back up and running soon.

- Dave

SpaceTraveler

09-26-2004, 05:41 PM

After reading gr8reb8 instuctions I set up the drives as instructed. I burned the iso as a boot cd using nero. It did boot from the cd, but I never got to the Linux prompt. Instead it says something like this:

Dr DOS A:/

and the curser is flashing. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next. Did I do something wrong? Did I not do something I was supposed to do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
SpaceTraveler

LarryInAz

09-26-2004, 06:02 PM

Spacetraveler,
Sounds like you created a DOS bootable CD and then copied the *.ISO file to the CD. This is not the way it's done. I don't know Nero, I use Roxio however what you need to do is to tell Nero to use the *.ISO IMAGE and IMAGE to the CD so it will then boot to the Linux prompt.

dswallow

09-26-2004, 06:57 PM

Originally posted by LarryInAz
Spacetraveler,
Sounds like you created a DOS bootable CD and then copied the *.ISO file to the CD. This is not the way it's done. I don't know Nero, I use Roxio however what you need to do is to tell Nero to use the *.ISO IMAGE and IMAGE to the CD so it will then boot to the Linux prompt. Or he's got a floppy in the floppy drive and it's booting from there first. ;)

SpaceTraveler

09-27-2004, 01:12 AM

LarryInAz and dswallow:

Thanks for the help. LarryInAz was right. I couldn't get nero to burn the ISO correctly. I was able to use a different program and now it works perfectly, thanks!

SpaceTraveler

aaronwt

09-27-2004, 07:16 AM

Originally posted by dave77
Thanks for the quick replies. They were very helpful.

I will try booting in DOS and running the WD diagnostic software. If/when I find a bad drive I'll replace it with a Maxtor and copy the data with dd as described. If I want it today I'll have to pay $180 for it a BB, but at least I'll hopefully have it back up and running soon.

- Dave

Just make sure it's a Diamondmax drive and not a Maxline drive. I don't think the MAxline drives work with the acoustic management software. And you need to set the drive to Quiet. The diamond Max drives come set to perofmance. If you don't set it to quiet, the drive will be extremely loud.

dave77

09-27-2004, 02:40 PM

I was able to verify that it was the original disk that was bad using the WD utilities that came with the new drive. It was having some sort of read failures.
Originally posted by aaronwt
Just make sure it's a Diamondmax drive and not a Maxline drive. I don't think the MAxline drives work with the acoustic management software. And you need to set the drive to Quiet. The diamond Max drives come set to perofmance. If you don't set it to quiet, the drive will be extremely loud. I did get a 250GB DiamondMax, and I downloaded the setacm (amset) utility. I started a full copy of the old drive using dd, and it's still going 14 hours later. It took a while for the system to recognize the drive and read from it when I ran the diagnostic on it, and the TiVo boots slow with it, so I figure it's going to be slow to read from because of the errors and will take an extra long time to copy. I really wish the dd program had some kind of progress report, like number of bytes copied. For all I know the drive is so bad it would take a week or more to finish, in which case I could give up now and just restore my old backup and start clean with no saved shows.

I plan to set the drive to quiet after the copy is done. It's fairly quiet now, but that's probably because it's being written to sequentially during the copy so there's not much head movement.

- Dave

dave77

09-27-2004, 02:49 PM

While I have my TiVo open, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to replace the fan. It's fairly slow and doesn't blow much air, but that keeps it quiet. With two drives in there it was getting up to 47 degrees C, and although it was reported as normal that seems a bit hot to me.
The fan appears to be a standard 70mm 12 volt fan. I was thinking of pulling it out and finding a replacement that's rated more powerful, but is still reasonably quiet. Ideally with a potentiometer so I can optimize temperature vs noise. Has anyone done this? I did a search on this forum but nothing useful turned up.

- Dave

bigrig

09-27-2004, 03:19 PM

47*C sounds good to me...I hit that with the factory configuration.

As far as the fan, I've heard it doesn't get 12V from that PCB connector...you can add a splitter off the hard-drive power to feed it a solid 12V for a little more ooomph. ;)

Matt

tivoupgrade

09-27-2004, 03:37 PM

Originally posted by dave77
While I have my TiVo open, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to replace the fan. It's fairly slow and doesn't blow much air, but that keeps it quiet. With two drives in there it was getting up to 47 degrees C, and although it was reported as normal that seems a bit hot to me.
The fan appears to be a standard 70mm 12 volt fan. I was thinking of pulling it out and finding a replacement that's rated more powerful, but is still reasonably quiet. Ideally with a potentiometer so I can optimize temperature vs noise. Has anyone done this? I did a search on this forum but nothing useful turned up.

- Dave

There is absolutely no harm in just leaving things as they are, just keep your unit in a properly ventilated environment.

I know the urge to tinker is too strong for many, but there is no harm in just not messing with it, and risk in doing so.

weaknees

09-27-2004, 03:55 PM

Our opinion is that cooler is always better.

These units weren't originally designed to hold two drives and to ventilate their heat, so all of our dual drive units, upgrades, and bracket kits include a second fan for these HD units.

Michael

SpaceTraveler

09-27-2004, 05:15 PM

I'm using ][ronMan's Hacking Guide v1.10 and I'm having a problem after part 2 of step 5:

5 Killing initrd

1. Mount the floppy that we copied tivoftpd.mips and killhdinitrd onto:

mount /dev/fd0 /floppy

2. Run killhdinitrd from the floppy. All of the new HR10-250's use partition 6 as the active kernel partition.

/floppy/killhdinitrd /dev/hdc6

Then after typing YES to agree to the terms, I get the following error:

fatal: invalid px header (not a valid kernel image)

Any ideas what happened? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

SpaceTraveler

AbMagFab

09-27-2004, 05:39 PM

killhdinitrd won't work on 3.1.5d, only 3.1.5. You need to restore the 3.1.5 kernel (it's pretty much the same), and then run killhdinitrd. The 3.1.5 kernel is on the non-active partition, or you can get it on-line.

AbMagFab

09-27-2004, 05:39 PM

dave77

09-27-2004, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by bigrig
47*C sounds good to me...I hit that with the factory configuration.

As far as the fan, I've heard it doesn't get 12V from that PCB connector...you can add a splitter off the hard-drive power to feed it a solid 12V for a little more ooomph. ;)

Matt Maybe 47 degrees is OK, but cooler couldn't hurt.

I tried running the fan from the hard drive power last night to see if it would make a difference, and it seemed a little bit faster. I measured the voltage with a multi-meter and the regular fan connector was giving 12.02 volts, and the hard drive power was at 12.65 volts. Since fan power is proportional to voltage squared it's about 10% more powerful using hard drive power. Not much of a difference, but maybe worthwhile. However, I measured it with the hard drives removed and no fan, so a load may draw the voltage down in either case and change the real life results, but probably not by much.

I removed the fan today and saw that it's rated at 0.15A at 12V. I just got back from looking at several local computer stores for a more powerful 70mm fan, but I didn't find any 70mm fans at all. It's an odd size and not stocked in many places. I may try to find one online, with good bearings and a potentiometer.

Meanwhile it's been 18 hours and my A drive is still copying.

- Dave

tivoupgrade

09-27-2004, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by dave77
Maybe 47 degrees is OK, but cooler couldn't hurt.

I tried running the fan from the hard drive power last night to see if it would make a difference, and it seemed a little bit faster. I measured the voltage with a multi-meter and the regular fan connector was giving 12.02 volts, and the hard drive power was at 12.65 volts. Since fan power is proportional to voltage squared it's about 10% more powerful using hard drive power. Not much of a difference, but maybe worthwhile. However, I measured it with the hard drives removed and no fan, so a load may draw the voltage down in either case and change the real life results, but probably not by much.

I removed the fan today and saw that it's rated at 0.15A at 12V. I just got back from looking at several local computer stores for a more powerful 70mm fan, but I didn't find any 70mm fans at all. It's an odd size and not stocked in many places. I may try to find one online, with good bearings and a potentiometer.

Meanwhile it's been 18 hours and my A drive is still copying.

- Dave

Just be careful about how you measure "cooer" -- adding a more powerful fan would definitely be the way to go; putting a secondary fan in the middle of the unit might cool the air blowing on the sensors inside the unit, but it will definitely create a competitive scenario when it comes to the fan in the rear of the unit actually exhausting the warmer air - that means that it might get warmer in another part of the unit (eg the power supply).

dave77

09-27-2004, 07:44 PM

Originally posted by tivoupgrade
Just be careful about how you measure "cooer" -- adding a more powerful fan would definitely be the way to go; putting a secondary fan in the middle of the unit might cool the air blowing on the sensors inside the unit, but it will definitely create a competitive scenario when it comes to the fan in the rear of the unit actually exhausting the warmer air - that means that it might get warmer in another part of the unit (eg the power supply). I have no intention of adding a secondary fan, I'm looking for a more powerful exhaust fan to move more air through the unit.

Here are the specs for the stock fan, JMC 7025-12L, at 12V: 22 CFM, 24.3 dB, 2600 RPM.

I've been searching the internet and have found a few more powerful 70x70x25mm fans, but all the ones that flow more air are quite a bit louder. I haven't found anything that's only slightly louder and flows more air, or any with a potentiometer, so I guess the only option is to get a much louder and faster one and some sort of potentiometer and hope I can dial in a speed that has an appropriate balance of better cooling and reasonable noise level. I may not bother since my temperature is not that bad.

I did find a fan that is 5dB quieter and flows nearly as much air (21 CFM - Nexus SP702512M), for those looking to make their unit super quiet, but I only found it bundled with a CPU cooler (Nexus PHT-3600), making it somewhat expensive. If only there was a way to run this at around 14 volts it should flow more air than stock at around the same noise level.

- Dave

aaronwt

09-27-2004, 09:21 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
Our opinion is that cooler is always better.

These units weren't originally designed to hold two drives and to ventilate their heat, so all of our dual drive units, upgrades, and bracket kits include a second fan for these HD units.

Michael

My HDTiVos run between 38C and 40C with the bracket and extra fan.

weaknees

09-27-2004, 09:40 PM

Originally posted by aaronwt
My HDTiVos run between 38C and 40C with the bracket and extra fan.

That's great - those are good temps!

Michael

dave77

09-28-2004, 05:03 AM

After running for 27 hours, dd finally finished copying my old failing A drive to the new Maxtor drive. I set it to quiet and installed it along with the B drive and it booted and seemed to work normally, although it was a bit slow to draw menus. Then I tried watching an old recording, and it worked for maybe 30 seconds then locked up and spontaneously rebooted. It had never done that before, even with the failing drive. When it restarted it came up with a green screen indicating a severe error. I'll let that run overnight and see if it works afterward. Maybe the drive was too bad to get a good enough copy for it to work properly. I hope after all this I don't have to wipe it clean and start from scratch with no shows.

I have an old series 1 that's been working for nearly 5 years with the original drive, and this damn $1000 thing can't go for more than a few months without many people having drive failures. TiVo really screwed up with this drive. It cost me an extra $190 because I wanted to try salvaging my shows instead of getting a replacement from DirecTV, and that may not have even worked. I'm now concerned that the second drive I added (WD retail version) will fail soon and I'll have to go through this all over again.

- Dave

weaknees

09-28-2004, 08:08 AM

You should probably check the new drive in your PC to see if it's a hardware issue with the drive, or just bad software that was copied over from the old one.

Did you get any errors during the copy?

dave77

09-28-2004, 02:10 PM

I did not get any errors during the copy, so I don't know why it got that severe error.

Luckily it seems to have fixed itself overnight. When I got up this morning it was working fine as if nothing was ever wrong, and all my shows are there. Hopefully it stays that way.

Since re-installing the drive I have been running it with the cover off, and the drives are still pretty hot to the touch. I think I will go ahead and try a more powerful fan. The stock one is so quiet that a few more dB would be OK. The drives are noisier than the fan.

- Dave

AbMagFab

09-28-2004, 02:29 PM

Running with the cover off can actually be worse than with the cover on. While the temp sensor might be cooler, since the fan isn't able to pull air across the drives, they will run hotter.

Even with the single fan, you're probably better off with the case closed.

(And they will always be hot to the touch... the temp between okay and bad both feel pretty hot to a human hand.)

dwynne

09-28-2004, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by dave77
Since re-installing the drive I have been running it with the cover off, and the drives are still pretty hot to the touch. I think I will go ahead and try a more powerful fan. The stock one is so quiet that a few more dB would be OK. The drives are noisier than the fan.

- Dave

Try to find a thermostatically controlled fan - I used Vantec ThermalFlow 60mm fans (TF6025) on my non-HD DTivos (and power splitters to run them off of the drive power cable). If it is not hot in the case then the do not turns as fast so less noise, but will move more air (than the stock fan) if it is hot. I don't know what the size of the OEM HDTivo fan is, since mine is still "Stock".

Dennis

weaknees

09-28-2004, 07:48 PM

We've now updated our upgrade instructions site:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

to include the HR10-250 (and all other new models). We have instructions there for any combination of capacity upgrade, and we've done our best to boil down the instructions to the fewest possible steps needed in light of the mfstools limitation of 256 GB per partition. We've also posted our CD with large kernel support.

I'll update the first post also . . .

BrianHDTIVO

09-30-2004, 07:12 PM

First, I'm new to the Tivo world (DirecTV too), so I apologize for asking dumb questions.

I love my new HD Tivo but would love to get some hacks such as the TivoWebPlus, FTP, Telnet. I have searched all over the forums and read up on the hacks, but the first step is escaping me. What is the first step in even getting access to the hard drive to install these tools. Also, will it get me in trouble when software updates come from DTV? I know that the DTivo is behind the SA in features, so I figured the DTivo hacks are probably a special case.

Thanks for any help!

edrock200

09-30-2004, 10:07 PM

Originally posted by BrianHDTIVO
First, I'm new to the Tivo world (DirecTV too), so I apologize for asking dumb questions.

I love my new HD Tivo but would love to get some hacks such as the TivoWebPlus, FTP, Telnet. I have searched all over the forums and read up on the hacks, but the first step is escaping me. What is the first step in even getting access to the hard drive to install these tools. Also, will it get me in trouble when software updates come from DTV? I know that the DTivo is behind the SA in features, so I figured the DTivo hacks are probably a special case.

Thanks for any help!

I pm'ed you a nice step by step guide. Keep in mind it assumes you have the original software version, not the latest software.

borghe

10-01-2004, 08:44 AM

here is a little hint.. if you have the latest software version, just replace all instances of /dev/hda7 with /dev/hda4, run the special program on /dev/hda6, and then from the boot disc execute

bootpage -f -C /dev/hda

dwynne

10-01-2004, 09:14 AM

I think I will FINALLY have time to install my twin breeze bracket and 2nd drive this weekend.

I have two spare 250gb drives so I plan on putting the OEM drive on the shelf.

So I need to:

1) Copy the OEM drive to one of my drives - use dd ?

2) "Marry" the 2nd drive for use with the new main drive ?

3) Install the drives and bracket and go to town recording stuff?

I have done one other multi drive upgrade (YEARS AGO) and tons of single drive ones (small drive out, large drive in) on SA Tivos and DTivos but I have not yet opened my HDTivo.

Thanks in advance for help tips/help!

Dennis

BrianHDTIVO

10-01-2004, 09:36 AM

Originally posted by borghe
here is a little hint.. if you have the latest software version, just replace all instances of /dev/hda7 with /dev/hda4, run the special program on /dev/hda6, and then from the boot disc execute

bootpage -f -C /dev/hda

Thanks, I do have the latest (D) version. I assume this doesn't disable anything the software gave me, right?

I haven't actually received the PM from edrock200 yet, but I'll add this to the steps.

Thanks.

weaknees

10-01-2004, 09:40 AM

Originally posted by dwynne
I think I will FINALLY have time to install my twin breeze bracket and 2nd drive this weekend.

I have two spare 250gb drives so I plan on putting the OEM drive on the shelf.

So I need to:

1) Copy the OEM drive to one of my drives - use dd ?

2) "Marry" the 2nd drive for use with the new main drive ?

3) Install the drives and bracket and go to town recording stuff?

I have done one other multi drive upgrade (YEARS AGO) and tons of single drive ones (small drive out, large drive in) on SA Tivos and DTivos but I have not yet opened my HDTivo.

Thanks in advance for help tips/help!

Dennis

That should basically work - we have a faster method in our upgrade instructions involving a "Tao" instead of a "dd" so you won't spend time copying empty space:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

BrianHDTIVO

10-01-2004, 07:13 PM

Originally posted by borghe
here is a little hint.. if you have the latest software version, just replace all instances of /dev/hda7 with /dev/hda4, run the special program on /dev/hda6, and then from the boot disc execute

bootpage -f -C /dev/hda

Thanks, worked perfectly! Thanks to edrock200 also for the step-by step. I know have a networked HD Tivo.

Now, off to find all the goodies I can get.

edrock200

10-02-2004, 09:18 AM

Glad it worked out for you. Just for the record though, it's not my step by step guide. I'd post a link in this thread however the author also included instructions on extraction, which is a no-no around here.

Rew452

10-02-2004, 09:55 AM

edrock200

Would you please PM me a copy of your step by step too?

Thanks
Rew

edrock200

10-02-2004, 11:52 AM

Sure.

jerrymc

10-02-2004, 02:29 PM

I'm about to back up my 3.1.5 and 3.1.5d kernels to files on my RedHat Kinux system hard drive prior to trying out the hacks for network support, ect... Does it matter whether I boot byteswapped or not? Redhat doesn't do byteswapping and the Boot CDs don't recognize my extra IDE card. Using only my Primary and Secondary IDE busses will be a right royal pain due to the cramped conditions in my case.

If I "dd if=/dev/hde6 of=/tmp/kernel_315.img" in Redhat, will I get a valid copy of the kernel? Same question in reverse for restoring the kernel?

Thanks,
Jerry

jerrymc

10-02-2004, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by jerrymc
I'm about to back up my 3.1.5 and 3.1.5d kernels to files on my RedHat Kinux system hard drive prior to trying out the hacks for network support, ect... Does it matter whether I boot byteswapped or not? Redhat doesn't do byteswapping and the Boot CDs don't recognize my extra IDE card. Using only my Primary and Secondary IDE busses will be a right royal pain due to the cramped conditions in my case.

If I "dd if=/dev/hde6 of=/tmp/kernel_315.img" in Redhat, will I get a valid copy of the kernel? Same question in reverse for restoring the kernel?

Thanks,
Jerry

Nevermind. RedHat won't even recognize the MFS partition table so the question is moot.

KyCats

10-02-2004, 05:52 PM

Hi,

I'm trying to backup my HD Tivo hard drive on a Gateway PII 400mhz.

Is this fast enough for the Weaknees boot cd?

Thanks,

Scott

jbs01

10-02-2004, 06:03 PM

You shouldn't have a problem Scott. I just backed mine up this week with a similar PII. My TIVO HD was almost full and it took approximately 8-9 hours to back it up saving all recordings.

weaknees

10-02-2004, 10:16 PM

The speed of the PC is fine - and it shouldn't take anywhere near 8 to 9 hours if you aren't backing up recordings - it should be just a few minutes.

Michael

pbolya

10-03-2004, 12:14 AM

Originally posted by borghe
here is a little hint.. if you have the latest software version, just replace all instances of /dev/hda7 with /dev/hda4, run the special program on /dev/hda6, and then from the boot disc execute

bootpage -f -C /dev/hda Do not do that. Just copy the 3.1.5 kernel over the 3.1.5d (dd if=/dev/hdx6 of=/dev/hdx3). The new software will happily run with the old kernel. But perhaps I said too much.

dwynne

10-03-2004, 12:20 AM

Originally posted by weaknees
That should basically work - we have a faster method in our upgrade instructions involving a "Tao" instead of a "dd" so you won't spend time copying empty space:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

You site is super! No more using one size fits all instructions - just choose your options and get a "custom" sheet.

One question: How long will it take to copy a nearly full (235gb or so) drive to two new ones? I started it with the mfsbackup about 6 hours ago and I don't think it is even 20 percent done yet! I was doing this because I didn't have anything scheduled but I will have before it gets done at this rate :) My Tivo work machine is a P4/2.4 with 640mb and does UDMA100.

Edit: I am copying everything including the recordings. My OEM drive is master on the primary IDE, the new "a" drive is master on the secondary IDE and the new "B" drive is slave on the secondary IDE.

Also, my twin-breeze kit was missing one of the four rubber spacers for the fan. That was a disappointment.

Dennis

weaknees

10-03-2004, 09:16 AM

Email us directly at info@weaknees.com and we'll get you a new rubber washer.

If you have a full drive, and if DMA isn't set, the amount of time your drive is taking is definitely possible. Is the percentage progressing still?

dwynne

10-03-2004, 01:15 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
Email us directly at info@weaknees.com and we'll get you a new rubber washer.

If you have a full drive, and if DMA isn't set, the amount of time your drive is taking is definitely possible. Is the percentage progressing still?

I can do that, but once the copy is done (if ever) I plan on putting it back together and use it. So I would not put the washer in until I next have it apart.

It is still counting up, getting close to 50% done . It is counting up steadily and the hd access light is on pretty solid - so it does not seem to be having any problems reading the drive. DMA is enabled in the BIOS, but I don't know if the LINUX boot disk is using it. I wonder if my original plan of using dd to copy the OEM drive to the new "a" drive then marry it to the new "b" drive would have been quicker?

Dennis

KyCats

10-03-2004, 02:19 PM

Hello,

Bought a 2nd hard drive with bracket for my Hd-Tivo, installed it, everything looked great, 63 hours of HD.

Went to a previously recorded movie, watched for 2 min. then it froze, and then went to a gray screen, and the Tivo was locked up.

Rebooted, and now its stuck on Powering up....

I then spent the next 12 hours going thru this forum, learning how to do Linix, make a msftools cd, a blesstivo cd, boot floppies to test the hard drives, ect.

I've since found out that my original Tivo WD2500 hard drive has boot or mapping problems, that keeps me from backing up any of the files.

I'm not sure how to fix this problem.

I'm at a point now where I would like to start over fresh, than try and fix up a screwed up hard drive.

I need either a good backup file from a single drive HD-Tivo, or maybe the Instantcake cd?

I'm not sure if the InstantCake cd will make a single hard drive or its just for making the add-on drive work with the HD-Tivo.

I'll take any help.

Scott

borghe

10-04-2004, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by pbolya
Do not do that. Just copy the 3.1.5 kernel over the 3.1.5d (dd if=/dev/hdx6 of=/dev/hdx3). The new software will happily run with the old kernel. But perhaps I said too much.

It's half a dozen of one six of the other.

I "switched back" so that I still had the 3.1.5d kernel available. But really it doesn't matter. I just said bootpage because it doesn't generate any errors. dd if=/dev/hdc6 of=/dev/hdc3 will generate a not enough room error (even though the error doesn't matter)

but really it doesn't matter.

Vizcaya

10-05-2004, 12:10 AM

If adding a second drive to the HDTivo causes the drives to marry each other, what happens when one drive fails.? Lets say the original is fine, and the new added drive fails. Can I just remove the bad drive and will the Tivo still work correctly? do I need to do a clear and delete?

This is what I would like to do. Upgrade the Tivo with a add-on harddrive. And would like to be able to return the tivo system back to normal at any time I would need to. If I had to return to original config, I would not need any recorded programs. Is there a way to revert back to original factory settings after I installed the second drive?

Thanks in advance
Vizcaya

weaknees

10-05-2004, 12:13 AM

Vizcaya,

Once the two drives are married, you'd need to restore a backup to one drive to make the TiVo work with one drive again. Simply removing one will result in a machine that will fail to boot.

Just make a backup and you'll be able to reconfigure whenever you want to.

Michael

dwynne

10-05-2004, 08:19 AM

Originally posted by weaknees
Email us directly at info@weaknees.com and we'll get you a new rubber washer.

If you have a full drive, and if DMA isn't set, the amount of time your drive is taking is definitely possible. Is the percentage progressing still?

Well it got done :)

I had finished when I got home from work last night, so it was something less than 48 hours - which is a long time. No errors and I am showing 63 (or was it 64?) hours HD now (2 x 250gb drive). I recorded some stuff - no problem and played back some of the older recordings copied over from the OEM drive and it all looks good. Still wondering why it took so darn long. I could burn 250gb to DVDs quicker than this - and I only have a 4x burner....

Besides missing a rubber washer I also only had 7 drive mounting screws. I guess I should have inventoried everything back when I got the twin breeze, but I did not. It would be nice if someone could double count this stuff - or even better take the "baker's dozen" approach and just include 1 extra of each part. Then if they miscount I would still have had the right number.

Dennis

weaknees

10-05-2004, 08:25 AM

Wow - we were just remarking about how the guy who puts together the parts hasn't made a mistake in quite a while - and now here are two! It looks like you ordered back in June, so we don't have to take any (more) fingers off him, correct?

If that's you, we'll send the parts out today.

Had you enabled DMA on the PC before the copy? It looks like we need to add that to the instructions since everyones copies are taking so long.

Michael

dwynne

10-05-2004, 08:34 AM

Originally posted by weaknees
Wow - we were just remarking about how the guy who puts together the parts hasn't made a mistake in quite a while - and now here are two! It looks like you ordered back in June, so we don't have to take any (more) fingers off him, correct?

If that's you, we'll send the parts out today.

Had you enabled DMA on the PC before the copy? It looks like we need to add that to the instructions since everyones copies are taking so long.

Michael

I think so, I got in on the pre-order so I got one of the kits right after they came out. I found deals on the drives, but never "got around" to putting the drives in until this past weeked.

DMA IS on in the computer I used for this - DMA100 is supported and it works fine in XP. I have used the same box to do DTivo and SA Tivo copies and upgrades and it seemed a lot faster then (but I didn't have nearly 250gb to copy).

Dennis

bfdhe

10-06-2004, 10:44 AM

I posted this in the Upgrade forum, but it wasn't getting any action, so I hope you don't mind that I posted it here.

HR10-250 does not "see" added drive
I added a 300gb drive to my existing stock drive. I used the Weeknees interactive guide and mfsadd. After performing mfsadd, I was shown the message that the command had completed and it showed me the new estimated capacity.

I put the drives in and booted the TiVo. All works fine, except that in System information the capacity shows 30 hours HD 200 SD.

I have checked all cables, jumpers etc, and everything is correct.

I disconnected the 2nd drive as a test and tried to boot with the single drive, but it will not boot that way.

So am I hosed? Is there another way to check capacity?

Thanks.

weaknees

10-06-2004, 11:50 AM

Wait - if you were adding a 300 GB drive, and using our instructions, you shouldn't have been directed to mfsadd. Are you sure you checked the box on step 3 asking about using drives over 250 GB? If you didn't say "yes" to that, then you would have the problem you had . . .

Michael

bfdhe

10-06-2004, 11:58 AM

Originally posted by weaknees
Wait - if you were adding a 300 GB drive, and using our instructions, you shouldn't have been directed to mfsadd. Are you sure you checked the box on step 3 asking about using drives over 250 GB? If you didn't say "yes" to that, then you would have the problem you had . . .

Michael

Ok, so I screwed up. How can I fix it?

weaknees

10-06-2004, 12:00 PM

First, try removing the second drive and see what happens. If the TiVo still boots fine, just do it all again with the other info.

Michael

bfdhe

10-06-2004, 12:02 PM

It does not boot with only the first drive, but I guess at this point, it couldn't hurt to just try and do it again with the Blesstivo command.

weaknees

10-06-2004, 12:07 PM

NO! Don't do that! Make a backup from both drives using the info on the upgrade-instructions site. Then restore it and go forward.

bfdhe

10-06-2004, 12:21 PM

uhgg... No way to just "un-marry" the 2nd drive?

How long will that backup take with about 15 hours of HD and lots of SD programming?

By the way, thank you for helping me.

edrock200

10-06-2004, 01:29 PM

When you removed the second drive did you reset the jumpers on the primary drive to "Master Only"?

It won't boot unless you change those back.

bfdhe

10-06-2004, 01:41 PM

Originally posted by edrock200
When you removed the second drive did you reset the jumpers on the primary drive to "Master Only"?

It won't boot unless you change those back.

Yes I did put the jumpers back, and I put the original cable back also, just to check that the other cable was good.

I am going to re-try everything tonight when I get home.

weaknees

10-06-2004, 02:25 PM

Originally posted by bfdhe
uhgg... No way to just "un-marry" the 2nd drive?

How long will that backup take with about 15 hours of HD and lots of SD programming?

By the way, thank you for helping me.

The backup without recordings should just take a few minutes - if you want to save recordings, you'll need another large drive to house that.

Michael

Mr Pieces

10-06-2004, 06:08 PM

I get a loud clicking sound from the hard drive when playing back some HD shows. (Doesn't always do it)

It is loud enough to be heard while watching TV with surround. Anyone else having this problem?

HR10-250 with Weaknees bracket and dual 250GB drives (Factory drive + Maxtor 250gb drive)

Any help would be great. This is driving the wife nuts.

weaknees

10-06-2004, 06:14 PM

Are the drives Maxtors or one of each? Did you set the Maxtor to Quiet mode?

Mr Pieces

10-06-2004, 06:15 PM

One drive is WD (Factory drive A) B drive is Maxtor and I didn't know anything about quiet mode. Is it possible to still do this?

dwynne

10-06-2004, 06:17 PM

Originally posted by Mr Pieces
One drive is WD (Factory drive A) B drive is Maxtor and I didn't know anything about quiet mode. Is it possible to still do this?

You download the free utility from Maxtor, connect the drive back up to the PC, and set it for "quiet" mode. It should not harm what is on the drive, but you will get all the fun of un-doing the bracket install and re-doing it :)

I think this should be the correct program:

EDIT to add the link (http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/olh_adp.php?p_faqid=1200)

Dennis

edrock200

10-06-2004, 07:08 PM

Originally posted by Mr Pieces
I get a loud clicking sound from the hard drive when playing back some HD shows. (Doesn't always do it)

It is loud enough to be heard while watching TV with surround. Anyone else having this problem?

HR10-250 with Weaknees bracket and dual 250GB drives (Factory drive + Maxtor 250gb drive)

Any help would be great. This is driving the wife nuts.

I had the same issue. As Dwynne mentioned download the amset utility to set to quiet.

I actually had set mine to quiet, however I didn't realize that newer Dell BIOS's auto sets the acoustic mode every time it boots. If your dell bios has ide acoustic settings make sure it's set to "quiet" and not Performance or Normal. If your Dell bios does have this feature all you have to do is attach the drive, set the bios to quiet and reboot. Once it posts all drives attached to the IDE chain are set to quiet.

Mr Pieces

10-06-2004, 11:51 PM

Has anyone tested changing a drive to quite after it has been in use for a while in a HD TiVo? I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up with my HD TiVo.

tivoupgrade

10-06-2004, 11:56 PM

Mr Pieces

10-07-2004, 12:22 AM

I'll give it a try tomorrow. It really is a loud click that I will not miss.

dave77

10-07-2004, 01:53 AM

When replacing a failing drive in my dual drive HD TiVo recently I decided to see if I could find a replacement fan that would keep the unit cooler. It was reporting 46 degrees C with a room temperature of 76 Fahrenheit, and even though it's in the normal range I figured cooler temps could help preserve the life of the drives.

After digging around on the internet and looking at lots of specs I found a fan that seemed like it might be a suitable replacement for the stock one that had the options for thermal or knob speed control. It was tough to find a 70mm fan that had the right combination of flow and quietness. The one I chose was the fan from the Thermaltake Spark 7+ heatsink/fan package. I could not find the fan by itself, so I had to shell out over $30 for the whole thing with shipping.

I removed the stock fan from the TiVo, removed the Thermaltake fan from the heatsink, and attached both to a computer power supply. I tested the new fan with the knob and with the thermal control. Both fans made about the same about of noise (very little) when I matched the airflow to the stock fan, and of course the new fan got noisier when cranked up, but still reasonably quiet with noticeably more airflow. It got real loud when cranked up all the way, and it generated noticeable thrust, but of course I won't be running it that hard in the TiVo.

I plugged the new fan in to the same pins on the motherboard used by the old fan, making sure the power and ground lined up (there is a third unused wire that is off to the side). I tried at first mounting the fan the same way the old one was, but when the fan spun faster the noise was amplified through the case, so I cut a gasket out of an 1/8" sheet of foam rubber to go between the fan and the case, and used rubber washers on the outside. I used the original screws. I ran the temperature sensor over to the area between the two hard drives.

After replacing the cover and letting it get to a steady state temperature (a few hours with both tuners on HD) it reports the temperature as 41 degrees C, with the same room temperature (76 Fahrenheit). It's a bit louder because the fan spins faster to maintain this lower temperature, but it's not noticeable sitting on top of a stand next to my TV about 7 feet from my couch, except in very quiet scenes when the AC and refrigerator in the nearby kitchen are off. If I wanted it to be a bit quieter (but warmer) I could move the temp sensor to a cooler part of the case (nearer to the vent holes).

So, it now runs about 5 degrees cooler Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) without being too loud, and the heat sensor will make sure the temperature stays reasonable even if the room temperature goes up, like when we go on vacation and set the AC to 80. It will also allow the fan to run quieter if the room is cooler. For those who want manual control instead of thermal, the knob that comes with the kit could probably be removed from the drive bay or PCI slot cover and placed wherever you want, with wires run to it through a vent hole in the bottom of the TiVo case (or a hole could be cut for it to be mounted right on the case somewhere).

This may be a good mod for people who put their TiVo in a cabinet, because not only will the cabinet help hide the extra fan noise, but the fan will automatically compensate for the tendency of the cabinet to be hotter than the room. Another plus is that it does not require modifying the case so it can be easily returned to stock if need be.

- Dave

dwynne

10-07-2004, 08:10 AM

Originally posted by Mr Pieces
Has anyone tested changing a drive to quite after it has been in use for a while in a HD TiVo? I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up with my HD TiVo.

Don't boot your PC with your windoze boot hard drive attached. Win2k and XP can "fingerprint" your drive on boot up should something go wrong. So make the boot floppy with the set program, then when you have the PC powered down to hook up the Tivo drive pull the power connector on the windows hard drive "to be safe" then boot off of the floppy.

Dennis

aaronwt

10-07-2004, 08:17 AM

You have to boot off the CD/Floppy to use the AMset program. I have to boot from CDs since I haven't put a floppy in any of my PCs in almost 5 years. I set mine to quiet after having them in the HD-TiVo. When I put the drives back in the HD-TiVo everything was fine. It makes a huge difference once it is set to quiet.

Mr Pieces

10-07-2004, 10:45 AM

Do you just make a dos book disc to run the program from?

Sorry for all the questions. I just don't want to have to redo the TiVo.

edrock200

10-07-2004, 01:35 PM

Yes, you can use a DOS boot disk. If you don't have one grab one of the standard 95/98 ones from www.bootdisk.com like this one:
http://www.mirrors.org/archived_software/www.bootdisk.com/winfiles1/boot98se.exe

dwynne

10-07-2004, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by weaknees
Email us directly at info@weaknees.com and we'll get you a new rubber washer.

I got my missing washer and drive mounting screw in the mail today - actually I got 4 rubber washers, 3 drive screws, 3 self tapping screws, and 2 metal washers. I guess I am all set if I ever take the HD Tivo apart again. That was fast - mailed on the 5th from CA and arrived on the 7th in TN.

Thanks,
Dennis

Mr Pieces

10-07-2004, 10:10 PM

Ran the /quiet command on the Maxtor drive and WOW what a difference! Thanks for all the help.

jnangano

10-09-2004, 03:18 PM

Super HDTivo!

Well, I got tired of watching Sat 1 lose signal on all of the odd transponders for 101 and decided to do something about it. On top of that, the damn thing was getting unresposive to the remote and stuttering.

This morning was going to be a big day for my HD Tivo.

I ordered and received this week, the twinbreeze upgrade kit, I had purchased to Maxtor 250 GB drives, one to replace my stock WD, the other to expand my capacity. During my web browsing, I found a page on networking your HD Tivo. After reading it, I knew it would be a piece of cake to do.

I removed the WD drive for the Tico and attempted to back it up. No luck, it was pretty much toast, So I located a virgin backup of the HDTivo's 3.1.5 software. I successfully loaded it up on the new Maxtor, reinstalled it on the Tivo and booted up.

I skiped the guided setup and went to Clear and Delete everything to avoid that dreaded error #51. Once that was done, I went thru the guided setup and got the Tivo working with the new drive. I then disconnected the phone line so it doesn't get ruined with version 3.1.5d.

Next step was getting it networked. I followed DSmooth's instructions and got it up and running the first time. TivoWeb saves alot of time when setting up season passes and searching for shows to record. It's like having a whole new Tivo.

Last step was installing the second drive, that too was very easy and it reports a capacity of 63 hours of HD and 430 hour of SD.

I also noticed that with Acoustic Management turned off, the Tivo is quicker than with the stock WD drive.

Networked Tivo on Steroids, gotta love it.

I'm a happy camper.

dwynne

10-09-2004, 04:00 PM

Originally posted by jnangano

I removed the WD drive for the Tico and attempted to back it up. No luck, it was pretty much toast,

At that point, I would have put the OEM drive back in and called in for a free replacement. Not only would you have gotten a good, working 250gb drive (worth $100 or more) you probably would have gotten a new box that would not have the odd xponder problem.

I am glad you are happy, but that is not what I would have done.

Dennis

rttrek

10-09-2004, 04:24 PM

OTOH, jnangano can now put the toast back in and exchange it, then swap back the drives into the replacement unit. :)

buzzword

10-09-2004, 04:25 PM

Originally posted by Rew452
edrock200

Would you please PM me a copy of your step by step too?

Thanks
Rew

edrock200,

can you PM me one as well? Much appreciated!

dwynne

10-09-2004, 04:36 PM

Originally posted by rttrek
OTOH, jnangano can now put the toast back in and exchange it, then swap back the drives into the replacement unit. :)

If you move the drives from one box to another you have to do a clear and delete and lose all your settings, recordings, and season passes. Rather than do all that I would have gotten the new box first, let it update the software and burn in for a few weeks. Then if no problems back up the drive to the new drives and go to town. If there were problems, get another and keep doing that until you get a good one.

One "working theory" is that the new load exposed a faulty component in SOME of the boxes. If this is true, then a replacement box would be only way to fix it.

Dennis

jnangano

10-09-2004, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by dwynne
If you move the drives from one box to another you have to do a clear and delete and lose all your settings, recordings, and season passes. Rather than do all that I would have gotten the new box first, let it update the software and burn in for a few weeks. Then if no problems back up the drive to the new drives and go to town. If there were problems, get another and keep doing that until you get a good one.

One "working theory" is that the new load exposed a faulty component in SOME of the boxes. If this is true, then a replacement box would be only way to fix it.

Dennis

I've already replaced the box once three months ago. But, if I see any other problems with the box, I can always put in the old drive and get a replacement unit. I'm quite happy with what now have and see if it works out OK.

dwynne

10-09-2004, 05:21 PM

Originally posted by jnangano
I've already replaced the box once three months ago. But, if I see any other problems with the box, I can always put in the old drive and get a replacement unit. I'm quite happy with what now have and see if it works out OK.

Be sure and post one way or the other. Lots of folks having problems are all unsure if getting a new box will actually fix the odd xponder problem or not. I only use the HDTivo for HD so I have had no problems, but will likely test it out "sometime" before the warranty is up (depending on what the problem turns out to be).

I put two new 250's in mine last weekend and copied over all the shows - man was that slow, but I have 63 HD hours capability now :)

Dennis

pbolya

10-09-2004, 10:01 PM

Originally posted by jnangano
I've already replaced the box once three months ago. But, if I see any other problems with the box, I can always put in the old drive and get a replacement unit. I'm quite happy with what now have and see if it works out OK. Do not forget that you can back up your season passes with the TiVoWebPlus Backup routine. If anything goes wrong and you need to put your failed drive in and get a new one you can load the backup back to the new drive without having to do a clear and delete. The module backs up your wish lists and season passes as well as the channel data for those channels used in your season passes. When you search you will probably find backup.itcl module version 1.00.0013. It is not ment to be used with HD TiVo's and it will fail out of the box since it sorts channel numbers as integers (HD TiVo has local channels like 13.1 etc.). Before you install it delete words -integer (twice) and -int (twice) in the backup.tcl file. All 4 of these are lsort (list sort) parameters. By removing them channels will be sorted alphabetically.

Anyway it saved me a lot of time. I downloaded about 50 season passes before I replaced my drives and reloaded them after the new drives are installed.

Gotchaa

10-10-2004, 02:29 PM

All, after the 3.1.5d upgrade I noticed my HD-OTA would not lock in. Since I've already added two 250GB drives I figured perhaps the cables for OTA perhaps came loose. I opened up the box and found the cables to be secure. I then tested the OTA signal. My Sony HD-300 locks on at about 60% signal strength, and plugging the HD-Tivo OTA into the same line results in 14-25 numbers without being able to lock into the signal. I tried both an attenuator and a signal booster and no luck, OTA signals just cannot lock in. I don't know if the upgrade caused this or if it was just when I noticed it was out.

Anyone experience the OTA tuner crapping out?

At any rate DirecTV is sending out a new unit next week, and I need to send it back. Question I have is how do I get it ready to go back? I have the original drive, I assume I can just pop it in and boot it up once, make a call in (or is that not even necessary?) And then just swap the new unit's drive with my two upgrade drives again? Or do I need to perform the upgrade all over again?

pixlpush

10-11-2004, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by Gotchaa
All, after the 3.1.5d upgrade I noticed my HD-OTA would not lock in.
.....
then just swap the new unit's drive with my two upgrade drives again? Or do I need to perform the upgrade all over again?

When 3.1.5d showed up in my US manufactured hr10-250 (April 22'nd build) it first began to stutter on playback and eventually started rebooting itself. It got so bad the thing would hardly stay up for 10 minutes in the end.

Directv sent out a replacement then I had to go to work swapping in my 300gig upgrade drive that I originally bought from Weaknees as part of their upgrade kit. I first tried to just swap in the 300gig drive without doing anything and the new tivo didn't recognize it. I finally ran "BlessTiVo" on it from the weakness linux boot disk and everything seems to be working now. I don't think the straight swap will work from everything I've been told, but I'm no expert and just know enough to be dangerous.

As far as the old unit I just put everything back to the way it was physically before I did the upgrade. I didn't even try to see if it will boot up. I'd already spent way to much time screwing around with this problem and I'm just going to play dumb if Directv starts asking questions about the unit I return.

Weaknees was more than helpful with my problem and I'd not have gotten the new unit up and running without their help, great customer support on something that wasn't they're problem to solve.

Good luck with your new hr10-250, I've got my fingers crossed that mine doesn't have anymore problems.

HDLouco

10-20-2004, 12:10 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pixlpush
[B]Directv sent out a replacement then I had to go to work swapping in my 300gig upgrade drive that I originally bought from Weaknees as part of their upgrade kit. I first tried to just swap in the 300gig drive without doing anything and the new tivo didn't recognize it. I finally ran "BlessTiVo" on it from the weakness linux boot disk and everything seems to be working now. I don't think the straight swap will work from everything I've been told, but I'm no expert and just know enough to be dangerous.

Thanks for the info! I also ordered a 300-GB replacement drive from Weakness, and it will be arriving today. I understand that all I have to do is to install this new drive in the place of the original and then run the Tivo setup. Hope I don't have to run BlessTivo because I am not at all familiar with what is involved. Could it be that you had to run BlessTivo because you were installing the 300-GB drive in a different Tivo unit than the original one? Did you have to run BlessTivo on that drive when you originally installed it in your original Tivo unit? If you have the time, I would appreciate a repply.

buckeye1010

10-20-2004, 12:31 PM

HDLouco - you won't have to run any BlessTivo or any software. However, you'll have the new bracket to install. It isn't difficult if you read the directions at least once before you pop the hood open. Things fit a little tight, but it will work!

weaknees

10-20-2004, 12:32 PM

BlessTiVo isn't for replacement drives - just for add-on drives.

buckeye1010

10-20-2004, 12:33 PM

HDLouco

10-20-2004, 01:52 PM

Originally posted by buckeye1010
HDLouco - you won't have to run any BlessTivo or any software. However, you'll have the new bracket to install. It isn't difficult if you read the directions at least once before you pop the hood open. Things fit a little tight, but it will work!

Thanks, Buckeye1010! I appreciate your repply, but I am not addomg a secpmd drove tp ,y Tivo! I am just replacing the original 25-GB drive with a 300-GB one from Weakness. The reason for this is that I have recorded on the original Tivo drive a lot of shows that I would like to retain. Since I have no way of archiving those shows to tape or any other medium, I thought I would just buy another drive for future recordings. And I hope it works! The question will be how to play those recordings when I want to watch those shows in the future! Any ideas? Someone said here that one of those hard-drive removable enclosures might work, but I haven't heard of anyone who has actually done that. I am talking about a 5.25-inch crate that can be added to a PC, with the hard drive installed in a 3.5-inch drawer that mates with the crate. That would allows the easy replacement of the hard drive. At least, the physical replacement. But does that work? I sure would like to know that! Thanks, my friend, for your repply!

HDLouco

10-22-2004, 10:35 AM

Originally posted by weaknees
BlessTiVo isn't for replacement drives - just for add-on drives.

Thanks, Michael! I replaced the original Tivo drive with the 300-GB one I bought from Weakness. After the setup, everything seems to be alright except for the Directv local channels. Somehow, the San Francisco area local channels were not authorized during the setup. I did a reset and ran the entire setup a second time, but the result was the same: no local San Francisco channels. I will try again today. Since I have no recordings on this new drive, I was wondering how long it would take to make a backup of this drive to a Mastor 250-GB one using the instructions at the Weakness website with the command:
msfbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | msrestore -s 127 -xzpi /dev/hdb,
where hda is the 300-GB dirve, and hdb is the 25--GB one.

Also, if I may, after the backup/restore is complete, is there any way to check for the contents of the new drive? I am not familiar with Linus, and what I am asking is: is there in Linus, the equivalent of a DIR command in DOS? I really would appreciate an answer. And thanks once more!

weaknees

10-22-2004, 10:38 AM

Originally posted by HDLouco
Thanks, Michael! I replaced the original Tivo drive with the 300-GB one I bought from Weakness. After the setup, everything seems to be alright except for the Directv local channels. Somehow, the San Francisco area local channels were not authorized during the setup. I did a reset and ran the entire setup a second time, but the result was the same: no local San Francisco channels. I will try again today. Since I have no recordings on this new drive, I was wondering how long it would take to make a backup of this drive to a Mastor 250-GB one using the instructions at the Weakness website with the command:
msfbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | msrestore -s 127 -xzpi /dev/hdb,
where hda is the 300-GB dirve, and hdb is the 25--GB one.

Also, if I may, after the backup/restore is complete, is there any way to check for the contents of the new drive? I am not familiar with Linus, and what I am asking is: is there in Linus, the equivalent of a DIR command in DOS? I really would appreciate an answer. And thanks once more!

Sometimes locals take a day or so to download again, but if you call DirecTV while the box is up and running and you tell them that you've lost your locals, they can send the signal back down to the card right then and there and they should come back immediately.

The backup/restore line will transfer the info to a new drive. Is that what you want? If you want a backup for same-keeping down the road, you need a command more like:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/hr10.bak /dev/hda

With the destination FAT or EXT2 partition mounted as /mnt.

Michael

HDLouco

10-22-2004, 11:58 AM

Thanks for the repply, Michael. I purchased the 300-GB drive from Weakness because I was afraid I might zap the original Tivo drive. But now that I replaced the original Tivo drive with the 300-GB one that I got from Weakness, I would like to make an exact copy of this 300-GB drive using a Maxtor 25-GB drive that I already had. I do not want to make a back up in the form of an image file on a FAT partition. I want to make a copy of the hda drive on the hdb drive. Should I then use the command
mfsbackup -Tao /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /dev/hda ?
Since I don't have any recordings on hda, how long would the backup and restore process take? And what is the expected indication that the process is complete? Is there the equivalent of the DIR command in Linux that allows me to check the contents of a disk drive? I know you are very busy and I shouldn't be asking these questions, but I may not be the only one on this thread who is interested in learning. Thanks again.

weaknees

10-22-2004, 12:00 PM

Unfortunately, you can't use that command to go to a smaller drive, even if you don't have recordings. Re-run the instructions and choose "ignore recordings" and you'll get the right info.

Michael

HDLouco

10-22-2004, 12:10 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by weaknees
[B]Unfortunately, you can't use that command to go to a smaller drive, even if you don't have recordings. Re-run the instructions and choose "ignore recordings" and you'll get the right info.

Thanks, Michael! Will follow your advice.

pbolya

10-24-2004, 02:48 AM

Originally posted by HDLouco
Is there the equivalent of the DIR command in Linux that allows me to check the contents of a disk drive? Yes there is. "ls" However it is not that simple. Before you can use ls on your tivo drive you have to mount the right partition. You can mount your var partion (partition 9) like this:

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdx9 /mnt/var
cd /mnt/var
ls

mkdir will make a new directory (logical at this point).
mount will mount a file system (e.g. the EXT2 file system in partition 9) into the directory created.
cd as you guessed it will change to the directory
and ls will list all the files in that directory

you can use pico to edit a file. e.g. to look at your kernel log file:

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdx9 /mnt/var
cd /mnt/var/logs
pico kernel

Also you can list all the partitions on all disks with pdisk -l (don't use other swithes as you might reformat the hard drive).

Of course replace x with the correct letter (A, B, C or D) in all mount commands.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Peter

HDLouco

10-24-2004, 11:31 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
Yes there is. "ls" However it is not that simple. Before you can use ls on your tivo drive you have to mount the right partition. You can mount your var partion (partition 9) like this:

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdx9 /mnt/var
cd /mnt/var
ls

mkdir will make a new directory (logical at this point).
mount will mount a file system (e.g. the EXT2 file system in partition 9) into the directory created.
cd as you guessed it will change to the directory
and ls will list all the files in that directory

you can use pico to edit a file. e.g. to look at your kernel log file:

mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hdx9 /mnt/var

Thank you very much, Peter! With explanations such as yours, I am certain to start learning fast. If you ever run for office, I will vote for you!
cd /mnt/var/logs
pico kernel

Also you can list all the partitions on all disks with pdisk -l (don't use other swithes as you might reformat the hard drive).

Of course replace x with the correct letter (A, B, C or D) in all mount commands.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Peter

HDLouco

10-24-2004, 11:39 AM

I don't know what is the cause of this, but my answer to you, Peter, was not included in the previous post. Thank you very much for your clear explanations. It encourages me to attempt to learn more about Linux. If you ever run for office, I will certainly vote for you!
Mauro

dmwierz

10-24-2004, 09:05 PM

Been wading through this whole thread while watching the World Series in glorious HD, and had a simple question: I just ordered a 300GB add-on drive from weaknees, and was wondering, if I have the HDMI problem later (haven't had a single issue since the "d" software upgrade, and the recent "e" is also working well), can I just take out the weaknees drive, do a Clear and Delete on the original drive and send the unit back? I have the BB extended warranty, as well as my OEM warranty.

aaronwt

10-24-2004, 11:09 PM

This is why I replaced my original drive. So I could put it back in if there are any warranty issues.

Lee L

10-25-2004, 11:01 AM

If you have backed up your drive using the MFS tools proceedure when you did your initial upgrade, you can take the extra drive out, then back up your old image onto the original drive and send that off.

dmwierz

10-25-2004, 02:21 PM

Originally posted by aaronwt
This is why I replaced my original drive. So I could put it back in if there are any warranty issues.

Maybe I need to make myself clearer. I can't even spell MFS Tools, nor do I want to back up anything by plugging into my PC. That's why I'm buying the upgrade kit, and not doing it myself.

I'm also not replacing BOTH drives, so my original drive won't be available as a spare as aaronwt said.

I assume I'll lose whatever I have on the original drive if I un-install the second drive (or will I?).

So, if I add a second drive and my HDMI port dies, how do I return the TiVo to HDMI-less operation so I can exchange it if this becomes necessary? If I take out the second drive, will the TiVo run with just the original drive, or are the two married, and will I need to do a Clear and Delete before exchanging it?

tivoupgrade

10-25-2004, 02:34 PM

Originally posted by dmwierz
Maybe I need to make myself clearer. I can't even spell MFS Tools, nor do I want to back up anything by plugging into my PC. That's why I'm buying the upgrade kit, and not doing it myself.

I'm also not replacing BOTH drives, so my original drive won't be available as a spare as aaronwt said.

I assume I'll lose whatever I have on the original drive if I un-install the second drive (or will I?).

So, if I add a second drive and my HDMI port dies, how do I return the TiVo to HDMI-less operation so I can exchange it if this becomes necessary? If I take out the second drive, will the TiVo run with just the original drive, or are the two married, and will I need to do a Clear and Delete before exchanging it?

The TiVo won't run without the drive you've just added.

You'd need to restore the original drive, however. Or replace it.

Also, if you remove the drive to put it into a different unit, you'll have to have the drive you removed "reblessed" so it will work in that different unit.

Keep in mind, you've voided your warranty by opening the unit and installing stuff, so its up to you whether to remove the add-on drive and claim a warranty repair on the unit which might now be broken.

dswallow

10-25-2004, 02:36 PM

Originally posted by dmwierz
So, if I add a second drive and my HDMI port dies, how do I return the TiVo to HDMI-less operation so I can exchange it if this becomes necessary? If I take out the second drive, will the TiVo run with just the original drive, or are the two married, and will I need to do a Clear and Delete before exchanging it?
The only way to remove the added drive and be operational is to restore the original drive image, which you won't have unless you perform a backup and make one before installing the second drive.

Alternately, you could get an image from someone else, restore it, and do a clear & delete everything.

btwyx

10-25-2004, 02:40 PM

Originally posted by dmwierz
I'm also not replacing BOTH drives, so my original drive won't be available as a spare as aaronwt said.

I assume I'll lose whatever I have on the original drive if I un-install the second drive (or will I?). That's why I replaced both drives. As well as getting a little more space, you have the original drive to go back to if things do go wrong. That way you can work out if its the TiVo or your upgrade which is the problem.

If you do just add a drive, you can't just take the second one out. Weaknees will reformat your original drive back to factory condition for a small fee.

I'd recommend keeping your original drive safe though, but that is a little more expensive.

dmwierz

10-25-2004, 02:54 PM

Thanks to all who responded. I looks like, should I have an HDMI failure and have to send the unit back, I (or someone else) will have to do something to the original drive to get the unit back to "original" condition, and this will require pulling the drive out of the TiVo and restoring it, whatever that entails.

Yes, TiVoUpgrade, I realize I'll be tampering with the Gods of Warranty, but the HDMI thing is so latent that I might have the problem down the road, and it very well may be independent of anything I am doing with the hard drives. Beyond DirecTV's OEM warranty, I've paid for a 4-year extended coverage at BB for this thing (actually, I received it for free as a promotion - got it instead of 10% off with a coupon at BB 'cuz the coupon said "No DirecTV Products"), but the HDMI thing is so widespread, I'd feel no compunction at returning the unit if it fails regardless of what I have done to the hard drives. I'm already on my second Panasonic Plasma display in the first month, and they only replaced this (also under an extended warranty) with much arguing and hair pulling, after only two weeks of service. They wanted to try and fix the display, and I had to INSIST they replace it. This comes within 9 months of another instance where a DVD-burner I bought from them died 6 weeks into its life last January and I still haven't got it back repair part back-ordered. They also insisted on repairing this unit rather than replacing it, which begged the question "Exactly HOW bad does something have to break before you replace it?"

So, you see, I'm not too keen on cutting BB slack when it comes to warranties.

Sending my HD TiVo to Weaknees is an interesting option. I suppose they'll do the restore and Clear and Delete for me, which will reset the unit to its factory condition?

HDLouco

10-25-2004, 03:04 PM

I am certainly glad Weakness is around to help us out of dilemas like this. I wonder whether it is also possible to return my unit back to the software version prior to D or E? With version D, it seems that when I select a probram to be recorded, the wait is much longer than it used to be before the D upgrade. Any ideas? Thanks!

dwynne

10-25-2004, 03:37 PM

Originally posted by btwyx
That's why I replaced both drives. As well as getting a little more space, you have the original drive to go back to if things do go wrong. That way you can work out if its the TiVo or your upgrade which is the problem.

If you do just add a drive, you can't just take the second one out. Weaknees will reformat your original drive back to factory condition for a small fee.

I'd recommend keeping your original drive safe though, but that is a little more expensive.

If you replace the OEM drive with another 250gb you will not gain any space, and it does not add much to the overall cost. If you watch the deal sites on the web you can find a 250gb drive for a little over $100 (usually after a rebate). That is what I did, so I have my OEM drive sitting on the shelf in case of problems and put in 2 new 250gb drives with a TwinBreeze bracket.

Other than the LONG wait for it to copy my full OEM drive and the missing parts from my kit (1 rubber washer and 1 screw, which has been replaced) it was no problem to do. If you don't have a full Tivo or don't care to save the records it would take a lot less time.

Dennis

HDLouco

10-26-2004, 11:45 AM

Originally posted by HDLouco
I am certainly glad Weakness is around to help us out of dilemas like this. I wonder whether it is also possible to return my unit back to the software version prior to D or E? With version D, it seems that when I select a probram to be recorded, the wait is much longer than it used to be before the D upgrade. Any ideas? Thanks!

I have been acused of having made a smartass remark in answer to someone's post. That is why I am quoting my previous post. Where, please, is the smartass remark?

ken_kimg

11-03-2004, 10:16 AM

Think I screwed this up royally, maybe somebody could possibly make suggestions...

Bought from Weaknees a 'Single 300g Upgrade Kit', intending to add to my stock 250g WD in my HR10-250. Then changed my mind and purchased another 300g Maxtor quietdrive (not formatted) to replace the 250g WD.

Using the computer i dd'ed the image of the 250g onto the unformatted 300g, and the new drive worked ok in the Tivo as a single drive, but showed only 30 /200 hrs capacity.

Using the computer i then mfsadded this drive, and the capacity report in HR10-250 increased to 37/ 250 or thereabouts, so far so good...

Then figured i could add the Weaknees drive as a slave in the TiVo without doing anything special (mistake, i know). I set the jumpers properly (master and slave). All heck broke loose--TiVo failed to boot, severe errors etc. Removed the Weaknees slave drive and tried booting the Tivo with the master drive by itself, TiVo now also refused to boot. Put the STOCK drive back in by itself and everything worked normally (thank goodness).

So what do i do now? (to get the new 300g drives working) Please somebody....

bfdhe

11-03-2004, 10:19 AM

Go here and follow the directions to upgrade from one drive to two.

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

dwynne

11-03-2004, 10:40 AM

A good reason to keep the OEM drive and put in two new drives. With the cost of a 250gb drive being so cheap ($100 or so after MIR) no reason not to.

If you choose to copy everything from the OEM drive to your new primary drive, be prepared to wait a long time - a very long time. My OEM 250gb was nearly full and it took nearly 2 days to copy.

Dennis

ken_kimg

11-03-2004, 10:50 AM

Ok, thanks.

Had studied this and other threads quite alot, but failed to notice in the Weaknees dual upgrade instructions to use MFSTool 2.0 WITHOUT Large Kernel Support...which checks with the other Weaknees posts for properly preparing two 300g drives. Had figured the Weaknees secondary drive was already 'blessed', but with the wrong blessing (assumed the master would be a 250g harddrive). Always something...

Will do the proper procedure after work tonite, thanks

dwynne- Definitely aware of the slow copy time. Drive is only 20 percent or so full at most. It's all standard def stuff anyway, probly dump to dvd then do the non-data-save copy. Thanks for the comment.

ken_kimg

11-04-2004, 06:51 AM

Mission accomplished--77 hours capacity finally! Thanks for the help...

Couple points of information: Had about 10 hours of standard def. recordings I wanted to transfer. Starting the Weaknees procedure, the utility reported about 227gb of data to backup from orig. HR10-250 harddrive. It took about 1/2 hour to do 1 percent. At that rate, approx. total time figures to be roughly two days. Aborted that and used Weaknees' no-data-save command, which was 1.4gb completed in about 1/2 hr.

Sounds like, even if you have a small number of programs to xfer BUT have been saving/deleting for awhile, a lot of garbage (i.e., previously deleted material) gets included, and there's no way around this...?

One other thing: With the new drives in the TiVo, the information and list screens now 'show thru' in the background to whatever you had playing (live TV or a recording and audio). With original harddrive the info screens didn't do that (had DirecTv / tiVo std. background screens & no audio). Seems to work ok this way, but anybody else encounter this, anything to worry about?

weaknees

11-04-2004, 07:42 AM

If you have transparent backgrounds in menus, that generally means that you did a backup and restore, and at the backup phase, you omitted the "-f 9999" switch, or typed it as "-f 999" instead.

Did you do a backup and restore or a direct, no-recordings transfer?

ken_kimg

11-04-2004, 08:17 AM

Michael-

I used Weaknees Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions for no backup, no fat, no XP/2000, Ignore recordings, drives > 250gb:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -zi - /dev/hdZ

So instead, I should do something like...?

mfsbackup -so -f 9999 - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -zi - /dev/hdZ

Would the B drive require a reblessing also? Thanks

weaknees

11-04-2004, 10:23 PM

I just ran that, and, sure enough, the step omits the "-f 9999" switch. It's fixed now. Thanks for posting the exact options you chose - that seems to have been the only combination that would produce the mistake. My apologies.

Yes, you'd need to do the new command, re-bless the B drive, and then mfsadd again.

Michael

ken_kimg

11-05-2004, 03:52 PM

Ok, i redid the above procedure, succeeded in not screwing anything up, the animated backgrounds restored, 77 HD hours reported, everything's hunky dorey...

Thanks Weaknees and everybody else

weaknees

11-05-2004, 05:06 PM

Glad it worked out - sorry for the misstep in the instructions.

Michael

madpoet

11-17-2004, 12:15 PM

Does itmatter what type of hard drive you use? I know that theoretically the "made for DVR" 5400 drives from Maxtor are nice because they spin slower, and thus generate less heat. But I've seen some numbers that say the heat difference is only about 1d C between a 5400 and 7200 RPM drive. Noise is obviously another factor. But 250gb Maxtors are relatively cheap, compared to their 5400 RPM cousins. I bought the twinbreeze bracket, but I don't want to fry my unit if running Maxtor 7200s will do that.

Thanks,
MP

Anubys

11-17-2004, 12:24 PM

Originally posted by madpoet
Does itmatter what type of hard drive you use? I know that theoretically the "made for DVR" 5400 drives from Maxtor are nice because they spin slower, and thus generate less heat. But I've seen some numbers that say the heat difference is only about 1d C between a 5400 and 7200 RPM drive. Noise is obviously another factor. But 250gb Maxtors are relatively cheap, compared to their 5400 RPM cousins. I bought the twinbreeze bracket, but I don't want to fry my unit if running Maxtor 7200s will do that.

Thanks,
MP

I have a 7200 RPM maxtor and I have no problem with high temp...I like the twinbreeze design and the extra fan is great...the internal temp is the same as before the upgrade.

One person, I think it was Doug, who said that you might want to consider getting a 7200 because -- while the 5400 is fast enough now -- you might need that extra speed after software upgrades that give the unit more capability (none that we know of...we're just guessing). I'm sure he said it much better than the way I've just said it...but it hit home with me...I'd rather have too much of a good thing than get an upgrade and find that I have too little...

bfdhe

11-17-2004, 02:06 PM

So, I want to buy two 400 GB drives. Can I use them in my HDTiVo? Anyone done this yet?

kcmchugh

11-17-2004, 04:17 PM

I've already upgrade one HD Tivo using the MFSTools (with LSA support) with no problems. But, the 2nd unit didn't go as planned.

After adding the 2nd drive, running mfsadd, getting the proper notification that mfsadd worked properly with the right number of hours, and putting the drives back in the HDTivo, the system information screen on the TIVO UI still says 30 HD and 200 SD hours.

Even after buying a NEW 250GB WD drive and repeating the entire pricess I get the same results... the Tivo works fine, by the way.

NOTE: Checked and re-checked jumpers, replaced the IDE cables, power seems to be getting to both drives.

What could be the problem? Should I try the BlessTivo command instead?

JohnTivo

11-18-2004, 10:00 AM

Did you expand the first drive when replacing the original? What was the command you used?

I upgraded to a 300 GB drive from the original 250 GB drive with no issues. I will be upgrading again when I can find the new seagate 7200.8 400 GB drive. Any one seen them forsale yet?

bfdhe

11-18-2004, 10:41 AM

Originally posted by JohnTivo
Did you expand the first drive when replacing the original? What was the command you used?

I upgraded to a 300 GB drive from the original 250 GB drive with no issues. I will be upgrading again when I can find the new seagate 7200.8 400 GB drive. Any one seen them forsale yet?

I have not been able to find the Segate, but ZipZoomFly.com has the Hitachi DeathStar 400GB. For $340. (Or at least they did the other day.)

kcmchugh

11-18-2004, 10:57 AM

We issued the mfsadd command, specifically:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

I did not issue any other command beside this, since all I was doing was adding a 2nd 250GB drive.

kcmchugh

11-18-2004, 10:59 AM

UPDATE:

We kind of punted. We bought a 2nd 250GB drive and did a backup, then restored to the new drive; issued the mfsadd command to the new Tivo A: drive and new B: drive and everything works fine.

I still don't know why I couldn't expand the original Tivo drive, but this method seems to have worked--we just lost all the programming (because we didn't want to wait the 12 hours to back up all the programming...).

DJRobX

11-20-2004, 04:05 AM

Ugh, I'm having TOTAL nightmares trying to perform an upgrade on a HR10-250 with two Maxtor 300GB drives.

Basically, whenever MFSTools touches this system in any form, I get a GSOD. Even if I simply backup and restore the original, working drive to the 300GB drive without adding space, it GSODs. The original drive is fine. I've tried performing this dozens of times over the last two weeks and despite many different variables (different computers, different A and B drives, DMA on and off), the results are always exactly the same. I even tried the PTVUpgrade disc vs. the weaknees disc. I'm tellin' ya, I'm desperate here!

Now, if I restore the image and boot and let it sit at GSOD for a while, the tivo will eventually work out the problem and boot up, and all will be OK. I performed the BlessTivo step and it added the extra 127GB without any trouble. However, trying to perform the final MFSADD causes another GSOD. This final GSOD is an endless, rapid loop of GSODs, it's as if it doesn't even try to repair the issue. Perhaps this is the swap space issue I'm reading about? But why aren't the MFSTOOLS working for me, like they seem to be working for everyone else?

weaknees

11-20-2004, 07:49 AM

MFSTool (alone) does not work with dual 300gb drives. We posted special instructions on how to get this upgrade to work...and we also have step-by-step instructions here:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Good luck.

DJRobX

11-20-2004, 11:53 AM

Yes, I was following your instructions and command lines to the letter. See my post above, the only part that does work is the part where BlessTiVo adds 127GB. Something strange is going on, because I cannot get through the simple MFSRestore without expansion, without causing a GSOD. When booting from the weaknees LBA48 disc, the Dell computers appear to recognize the larger disks during boot. Maybe I should try on a non-Dell PC?

-- Rob

weaknees

11-20-2004, 12:00 PM

Well, FWIW, we have a battery of Dell PCs here where we do all of our work. They all work just fine, but you could have a different model.

I can't really see how a GSOD comes up in this process. Are you sure you are shutting down the PC properly before disconnecting the destination drive? Have you tried making a new backup file to use?

DJRobX

11-20-2004, 07:48 PM

I've made 5 different backups. I just retried the entire procedure with an older Compaq. The result is exactly the same; so the Dell is not the problem. I don't have any other HDTiVo images to test with. There must be something wrong with the original A drive's image that prevents it from being able to be backed up / restored properly. Every step of your procedure *seems* like it's going to work; the tools all report numbers that you'd expect them to, but GSOD is the result when you try and boot once it's been touched by any of the MFS tools. It's just strange because the original drive works. Unfortunately I don't have an alternate source for a backup TiVo image for the HR10-250.

-- Rob

dswallow

11-20-2004, 08:48 PM

Did you try sending a PM to StanSimmons? (As in his thread saying PM for info about TiVo images)... might be worth a try at this point.

HDLouco

11-21-2004, 12:08 PM

This post has nothing to do with the problem being discussed. It has to do with an attempt on my part to backup a Tivo drive using a Maxtor 250-GB one that had previously been used in a PC running Windows XP. The backup process completed, but the copy drive did not work in my Tivo. I had to do a low-level reformating of the drive using the Maxtor utilities first. It took many hours overnight! But after that, I managed to do the backup, and the resulting backup disk worked in my Tivo. The low-level reformating aparently overwrites the Windows XP signature on the drive.

DJRobX

11-21-2004, 02:12 PM

Problem solved! This TiVo's original A image, while it does work on it's own, is apparently not upgradable or something about it is incompatible with MFSTools. I acquired a backup image (thanks, you know who you are), and that backup image worked perfectly as prescribed by the weaknees instructions.

Moral: If the upgrade just won't take, try a virgin image!

-- Rob

JohnTivo

11-23-2004, 12:14 PM

I've picked up two of the new seagate 400 gig drives. I'm going to use one of them in my HR10-250.

Since I've already upgraded the orignal 250 gig to a 300 gig, I'm I correct in assuming I can only back up the 300 gig image and restore to the new drive? I cannot keep my existing recordings and expand the new drive?

weaknees

11-23-2004, 12:18 PM

You probably can't expand the A drive again, so you'll need to lose your recordings if you want to use the extra space.

Michael

JohnTivo

11-23-2004, 12:19 PM

That's what I figured. Thanks.

JohnTivo

11-24-2004, 12:27 PM

Just to confirm what I'm doing here:

I've made a backup of the 300 gig using mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX.

Now to restore the back up to a new 400 gig, I'm planning on using:
mfsrestore -zi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX
then
mfsadd -x /dev/hdX

Is this correct?

Thanks

weaknees

11-24-2004, 12:29 PM

Well, if you are only going to one 400 GB drive, then yes. If you are going to two eventually, then you need to do this differently, with the instructions here:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

In fact, if you are going to one drive only, just use "-zxpi" in the first line and you won't need the second.

Michael

JohnTivo

11-24-2004, 12:37 PM

Thanks...

For now I'm leaving it as a single drive unit. If I add a second drive in the future, I'll start over from my backup...

weaknees

11-24-2004, 12:44 PM

Then just do:

mfsrestore -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

Michael

JohnTivo

11-24-2004, 02:19 PM

Well the upgrade is complete...

50 hours of HD... the drive is not as quiet as the maxtor that I replaced, but its still very quiet.

horta

11-26-2004, 10:12 PM

Hey All

Well I have been a long time reader but not very many post. I have also never hacked or upgraded any of my three tivos, espesially not my HR10-250.

Well today I just bought a Western Digital 250GB drive
WDC WD2500JBRTL • 250GB capacity
• For high-storage activities • 8MB data buffer
• Protection/repair software

from CC for $79 (after rebates). I also just ordered the weeknees twinbreeze set for my HD Tivo HR10-250 for $49. My plan is to add this to my stock tivo, so two drives with a total of 500 gig. No I have NO CLUE about kernals and MF tools and such. I am hoping the instructions will CLEARALY explain everything to me.

I have a brand new P4 HP pc runing XP (HP Pavilion a350n).

Do you guys with your experiance think I will have any problems with my upgrade plans. I have NOT oped the box to the new WD 250gig drive? I will not open anything until I get the twinbreeze brakets. I am fairly computer literate if i have good instructions but I have never messed with a tivo. My plan is to follow the twinbreeze instructions.

My HR10-250 is plugged into the phone line and has all the lates tivo software upgrades. It has worked perfectly sence day one. I do not use HDMI port yet and may not ever. I know I should upgrade both drives for warrrenty perposes but am just thrilled I could get one 250gig drive for $79.

Any suggestions will be highly appriciated. My HD tivo is my pride and joy. If I kill it my wife will kill me.

Thanks all
Jerry

weaknees

11-26-2004, 10:25 PM

We have complete instructions for what you want to do here:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

horta

11-26-2004, 10:33 PM

Michael

Yes thanks, thats why I bought you twinbreeze kit. I see many people buying MAXTOR drives. Do you have any fear the the Western Digital i bought will not work properly? It was so cheep I just try to be proactive.

Also sence I have zero experiance with MSF tools will I be OK?

Thanks
Jerry

weaknees

11-27-2004, 12:15 AM

You should be OK without experience - just read carefully.

We really do think the Maxtor QuickViews are the right drives for the job. Western Digital and Seagate also make PVR-specific drives that get used in some TiVos, although QuickViews still account for the majority. Off-the-shelf IDE drives will generally work, but may be noisier and exhibit some other characteristics that aren't perfectly suited to the PVR environment.

Michael

aaronwt

11-27-2004, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by horta
Michael

Yes thanks, thats why I bought you twinbreeze kit. I see many people buying MAXTOR drives. Do you have any fear the the Western Digital i bought will not work properly? It was so cheep I just try to be proactive.

Also sence I have zero experiance with MSF tools will I be OK?

Thanks
Jerry

If you have any problems or would rather have someone else do it, you can send the drive into weaknees to have them prepare it. For both my HD TiVos, I bought two 250GB drives for each unit to repalce the existing WD drive. I think it cost me around $90 for Weaknees to prepare each pair of drives for me. Once I received them, all I had to do was install it in the HD-TiVos with the Twinbreeze brackets. They have been working great ever since the installation. The only thing I had to do was change the Acoustic management of the drives to quiet. The Maxtor dives come defaulted to Performance. Without changing teh AM, the drives would be very loud. Once the AM was changed to quiet, the fan noise was louder than teh hard drives. I found the link to the prices.

Supplying your own drive (http://www.weaknees.com/misc.php)

horta

11-27-2004, 03:51 PM

Well I try doing it. I think I will be ok. One question, I will be doing a back-up of my original drive but I have no idea how much space it will take? Could I in theroy burn this back-up to a DVD so that it does not take up computer space?

I will deleate everything on there minus a couple of HD movies or clips. Whats the min space ofr back-up and is HD material take up 1 gig per hour? Obviously I'll need to keep it under 4.7 gig to fit into a DVD right?

Thanks again.

Now the wait begins for my twinbreez kit.....

Jerry

weaknees

11-28-2004, 10:12 AM

If you do the backup WITH recordings, it'll be huge if you have anything recorded at all - two movies would be larger than a DVD. If you do it without recordings (recommended) the backup will be well under 1 GB - easily small enough to fit on a DVD.

Michael

horta

11-28-2004, 12:21 PM

Michael

Man your the best, thanks for all the advice.

So can I make a backup of the image, season passes, thumbs and other settings with out backing up the recordings? Or do I need to DELEATE ALL recordings before I do the back-up. I hope I dont, but if I do oh well.

Ok last question. I placed my order for the twinbreeze bracket on Friday night. I live in South Florida, do you have any idea by when I should expect it to come it?

I dont think I should mess with my Tivo until I get the braket in my hands.

Thanks
Jerry

Bunny

11-28-2004, 05:44 PM

Just a note that twin seagate 400gb drives do work with the method posted here by weaknees. Just got two of them on black friday at compusa and did the upgrade; 103 hd hrs / 693 sd hrs for the two 400gb drives. Originally had 77 hd hrs on standard WD and 300gb Maxtor. Temperature went down as well from 49 to 43. Waiting for my twinbreeze bracket which may make it even cooler. My original WD died.....

Anubys

11-29-2004, 06:37 AM

Originally posted by Bunny
Just a note that twin seagate 400gb drives do work with the method posted here by weaknees. Just got two of them on black friday at compusa and did the upgrade; 103 hd hrs / 693 sd hrs for the two 400gb drives. Originally had 77 hd hrs on standard WD and 300gb Maxtor. Temperature went down as well from 49 to 43. Waiting for my twinbreeze bracket which may make it even cooler. My original WD died.....

oooh...103 HD hours...that's nice...I want that too!

does it make me a bad person to hate you for that? :D

How much did you pay for those drives?

aaronwt

11-29-2004, 07:07 AM

PROVANTAGE (www.provantage.com) has the 400GB Seagate drives for $240 each. Not worth the premium over the 250GB drives for me.

Anubys

11-29-2004, 07:58 AM

Originally posted by aaronwt
PROVANTAGE (www.provantage.com) has the 400GB Seagate drives for $240 each. Not worth the premium over the 250GB drives for me.

that's a pretty good price...my rule of thumb is that a GREAT deal on a hard drive is about 50 cents per GB...at $240, this is 60 cents per GB...not bad at all...

vstone

11-29-2004, 08:57 AM

Hitachi Deskstar (old IBM line) also makes a 400GB ATA drive with 8GB cache.

Maxtor is now making a 250 or 300 GB drive with 16 MB cache. Some think that an 8 MB cache (over 2 GB) speeds up response time. If this is true will going to 16 MB bring any benefits?

edit: cache sizes edited to indicate MB, not GB

horta

11-29-2004, 09:10 AM

Hey guys quick question. When doing a back-up of my drive before adding a second drive, do I need to deleate all the recorded programs. I just wish to make the basic back-up to keep the file small. Can I grad just the bare essetial and not pick the recorded programs or is it a all or nothing type deal?

I would hate to deleat all the HD movies I have in there now if I dont have too, at the same time I dont want some 20 gig back-up file either. I want to burn it onto a DVD and put it away.

By the way I thought I was doing good adding another 250 gig to the stock set-up. Two 400 gig drives is just mind boggeling.

Jerry

dswallow

11-29-2004, 09:12 AM

A backup won't include recorded programs; it will include the entries for them in Now Playing, so when you restore such a backup, you'll either need to delete them all or just let them roll off on their own and put up with their presence for awhile.

horta

11-29-2004, 10:46 AM

Doug

Thanks you just made my day.

Bunny

11-29-2004, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by Anubys
oooh...103 HD hours...that's nice...I want that too!

does it make me a bad person to hate you for that? :D

How much did you pay for those drives?

Compusa had them this Friday in-store for 239.95 before a $30 mail-in rebate, so final price was 209.95. I think it was a two-day special though. For me this was close enough to the 50 cts/GB which is what we all seem to be aiming at.

JohnTivo

11-29-2004, 04:43 PM

Their online store is now listing the drive @ $299 w/ no rebate. Ouch.

flapbreaker

11-29-2004, 11:47 PM

Quick question.

Has anyone that upgraded their tivo had the hdmi go out. And did you get DirecTv to replace it. Also how did you handle the dual drive issue. I am wondering if I can just swap the drives out when I get the replacement. So essentially they will get my "old" tivo with their new drives and I put my dual drives in the replacement. I understand that I might need to do a "clear and delete" on the replacement after I put my 2 drives in. Thanks.

dmwierz

11-30-2004, 07:08 AM

thread discussing doing exactly this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2395559#post2395559)

Runch Machine

12-03-2004, 04:19 PM

Don't swap the drives out, just swap the HDMI card from the hopefully good replacement unit into the unit you previosly upgraded. Test the replacment unit before you open it up to take out the HDMI card.

Send back the replacement unit with the bad HDMI card and tell Directv that it is also bad and you have decided to wait until they figure out what the real problem is with the HDMI card.

PRMan

12-11-2004, 06:39 PM

I just upgraded my HD TiVo with a 200GB WD drive I bought on Black Friday for $50. I just used BlessTiVo on PTVUpgrade's Series 2 iso CD and their bracket. Everything worked the first time (I have done this before, though). Do make sure you plug the IDE data cable into the existing drive BEFORE tightening down the angle bracket, though.

So, for $70, I almost doubled my space to 57 hours of HD. :)

Also, when I looked at my troublesome HDMI card, I noticed that there is a small tin bracket that is supposed to hold it in place. Unfortunately, they bend it into place and the force of the card trying to escape is supposed to hold it. That will work right up until the truck hits a pothole, in which case the metal springs back upright instead of bent and the card comes loose. I have always had a flaky HDMI card, but after replacing the bracket while I was in there, it's now rock solid!

I highly recommend anyone with a flaky HDMI card to take out the 5 Torx screws and reposition this bracket. It's much easier than sending the unit back to D*. And, unfortunately, if they send you another one, the same thing can happen in shipping. There is no way that they will know whether you attempted this and you are saving them $$$ if you succeed.

dr_mal

12-13-2004, 12:28 AM

I'm pretty sure I have a hard drive dying in my TiVo :( (random stutters on playback of shows that go away after a reboot, random reboots, still on software version D so it's not related to a software upgrade)

I added a 2nd WD 250GB drive a while back, and I'd like to keep my recordings.

If I get another 250GB drive, will the dd command in Hinsdale's Step 10, upgrade configuration #4 do the trick? Or is there anything special I need to be aware of?

(upgrade-instructions.com appears to only have instructions for unmodified systems)

bsnelson

12-13-2004, 01:40 PM

dr_mal, what is the command? Basically, you have to determine which of your drives is bad, then dd the contents of that one to the new drive. If you use the same make and model of drive, you'll probably have no issues, but if you use a different drive, beware: Not all xxxGB drives are created equal. The target must have as many or more LBA blocks as the source for the transfer to work. These numbers are printed on the disk label for most drives.

I would hook the drives to seperate IDE channels in the PC, and do something like this:

dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hdc conv=noerror,sync bs=512c

This means to not stop on errors, pad the target to make up for any unreadable sectors from the source, and copy 512 bytes (characters) at a time. This will be a little slower than using a bigger "bs", but it will give you a better chance at getting as much data as possible from a failing drive.

Brad

dr_mal

12-13-2004, 04:45 PM

Thanks Brad.

The command I was referring to is:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k

(of course, modifying hda to hdb if my TiVo's second drive is the bad one)

The extra parameters you mentioned make sense to me.

I need to run diagnostics against the drives tonight to confirm my suspicion that I have a bad drive, but once that's done, I'll pick up another drive. IIRC, going from WD to Maxtor drives will work, since the Maxtors are generally a bit bigger given the same marketing capacity. Or should I just stick with WD?

Grrr. Doesn't my TiVo know it's next week I have off work and will have time to deal with all this? :)

dr_mal

12-14-2004, 12:05 AM

Boo. The original drive in my HR10-250 doesn't pass SMART testing - the Raw Read Error Rate is 1, where the threshold is 51. The WD disk testing utilities won't even run the quick test since it failed SMART testing.

The TiVo more or less works for a few hours at a time, though. Do I stand a chance of saving the data from this drive?

dswallow

12-14-2004, 12:13 AM

Originally posted by dr_mal
Boo. The original drive in my HR10-250 doesn't pass SMART testing - the Raw Read Error Rate is 1, where the threshold is 51. The WD disk testing utilities won't even run the quick test since it failed SMART testing.

The TiVo more or less works for a few hours at a time, though. Do I stand a chance of saving the data from this drive?
Copying 250GB isn't going to go quickly, but as long as it all could be read, you'd have a chance.

I'd do it in two steps, first a regular backup that can be restored, then a disk-to-disk copy and see if that succeeds.

dr_mal

12-14-2004, 12:33 AM

Thanks for the advice. I'll need to find a FAT drive to make a backup to, I guess. Seemed like a GREAT idea to convert my drives to NTFS :rolleyes:

I guess what bugs me the most isn't that a drive died -- with four working TiVos in the house, the oldest of which dates back to September 2000, and 3 of which have been expanded to dual drives, it was bound to happen sooner or later -- it's that it's the newest drive out of the 7 I have running in a TiVo, and the one that came with the most expensive TiVo yet. Heck, the 2nd drive in my HR10-250 was used in a PC-based HDTV PVR for over a year and checks out OK with WD's tests.

Payday's Wednesday -- I'll pick up a new drive then.

Thanks guys for the feedback.

aaronwt

12-14-2004, 07:47 AM

Dump the WD drives. I removed both my original WD drives and replaced them with two MAxtor drives in each machine. That way I don't have to worry about the WD problems, and if I have a warranty issue, I can always put the original drive back in before shipping the unit back to DirecTV.

kjnorman

12-20-2004, 03:03 PM

Originally posted by dr_mal
Boo. The original drive in my HR10-250 doesn't pass SMART testing - the Raw Read Error Rate is 1, where the threshold is 51. The WD disk testing utilities won't even run the quick test since it failed SMART testing.

The TiVo more or less works for a few hours at a time, though. Do I stand a chance of saving the data from this drive?

Try dd_restore.

You may want to look at this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1898352#post1898352) thread. It saved my recordings after an enormous failure (2208 bad sectors!)

Now this was on just a regular SD Tivo, and the process took about 2 hours (I think) but I did manage to save every program I had (some 77 hours worth) and bring my Tivo mack to life so it is worth a try.

Kerry

dr_mal

12-20-2004, 05:43 PM

That sounds intriguing. I started the dd command suggested above on the 14th at 8:37 pm. On the evening of the 16th, it threw some read errors. After calculating my blocksize and number of blocks reported on the errors, it appeared to be at about the 120GB point of copying 250GB. The dd command still looks like it's running -- the hard drives are busy and I don't have a command prompt back yet. But I would've thought the last 130GB should've been done by now. Unless someone yells "don't!" I'm going to abort the 6-day-old dd command and try the dd_rescue as detailed in the link in the previous post.

dr_mal

12-21-2004, 03:34 PM

Kerry, the next time you're in Denver, I owe you a drink or something. :up:

After six days of staring at the blinking "dd" cursor, I went ahead and tried dd_rescue. About 4 hours later, I had a fully-functional, recordings-saved HD TiVo again.

Thanks everyone for the help.

donaudio

12-26-2004, 09:51 AM

Compusa has a 300 GB Seagate hard drive on sale for $150 after rebates. How do these compare to Maxtor and WD? Thanks, Don

dswallow

12-26-2004, 09:57 AM

Originally posted by donaudio
Compusa has a 300 GB Seagate hard drive on sale for $150 after rebates. How do these compare to Maxtor and WD? Thanks, Don
I've heard different things from different people, and am not quite sure what to believe.

But one thing is certain -- Seagate refused to license the AAM technology so they have disabled the ability to adjust acoustic management on their drives.

Some say the Seagate 300GB is louder than the Seagate 400GB.

Some say the Seagate 400GB is noisy.

Some say the Seagate 300GB is as quiet as the Maxtor with acoustic management on.

Some say the Seagate 400GB is as quiet as the Maxtor with acoustic management on.

Performance-wise it works fine. Any noise is just something you'd have to judge for yourself, I think.