DirecTV HD DVR HR10-250 Upgrade Thread

[leesweet]

Anyone have a current (good) source for the Seagate 400s? CompUsa is still $299, and Provantage doesn't seem to even list them (search there returns a max of 300GB). Thanks!

[littymrmrs]

I have had five Hr-10-250 units within a period of 6 weeks. The units that I have been receiving are all from Mexico. I was informed by DirecTV that I needed to receive a unit from a manufacturing site in USA. So I asked them to send me one and they have tried three different times and have failed each time. Still Mexico. My problem now is that when I receive and hook a new unit everything works great for 4 days while using the 3.1.5d software. On the 4th or 5th day Tivo downloads a new software version,3.1.5e. When this happens my ota signal meter stops working all together and the ota tuners ability to hold ota signals weakens.I experience breakup on certain ota stations. I have contacted DirecTV each time and each time I am told they have never heard of that. ( five times with me for sure). My newest receiver was installed yesterday by me and my ota signal meter is working great and no breakup. Meter readings are 85-95 on all ota stations. In less than 4 days Tivo will do there download and I will loose the ota signal meter, and the tuners ability to hold signal. Very upset with Tivo and DirecTV for not moving faster or recording these problems.

[oatnet]

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.

I'd jump on a pair of those if I could find that price on PROVANTAGE, but I can't find it on their website! I see EXTERNAL seagates 400gb for $320, and I see Hitachi 400gb for $380.

Can you help me find the price? I'd really like to get on this.

-John

[leesweet]

Huh? Are *any* made in the USA any more? That was the first batch, and then all production shifted to Mexico. Mine was made in July in Mexico, and is fine. (If they are trying to get you a USA-build, it could be even more likely to have a bad drive, being that old!)

As for e causing all these problems, I'd try swapping out the drive. There's no way for them to tell you did it, and you could just be getting bad units that were returned and reshipped after the image was loaded. Bad drives are bad drives, you can't fix them without replacing the drive, and I've not heard of D* replacing drives as long as they spun up! If e caused these problems directly, we'd have 25,000 flaky machines, and that's not the case at all.

[JohnTivo]

Originally posted by oatnet
I'd jump on a pair of those if I could find that price on PROVANTAGE, but I can't find it on their website! I see EXTERNAL seagates 400gb for $320, and I see Hitachi 400gb for $380.

Can you help me find the price? I'd really like to get on this.

-John

Provantage is not stocking the seagate 400 gb drive right now. The only place that I can find that has them in stock is compusa. Their current price is not that good considering they were selling them just a short while ago for under $200 after rebate.

[leesweet]

Thanks for the update... hm, how desperate am I to upgrade this beast *right now*... ? :)

[jjmpeters]

How big of a drive am I going to need to store the image if I'm trying to retain my recordings? I thought I could eliminate this if I could simply transfer the files from the old A drive to the new A drive. Thanks.



Originally posted by weaknees
It's actually a bit more complicated than that for several reasons. Best bet is to use the info here:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

and just make the backup from your two drives and then follow the steps to restore to two drives.

Michael

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

Originally posted by jjmpeters

I just picked up a 300GB Seagate drive from BestBuy and want to upgrade my upgraded HR10-250. When I first got it, I installed a new 300GB Maxtor as the "B" drive keeping the original drive as the "A" drive.

I now want to replace the original "A" drive with the new Seagate model. If I just do a full backup from the old to the new, and then make sure its expanded to its full capacity, is that all I'd need to do? I want to restore the orginal image to the orginal drive in case I need to replace the unit in the future.

Thanks.

[weaknees]

You could "dd" from the old 250 to the new 300, and then do an mfsadd from there - that's probably your best bet if you want to save recordings. The copy will take quite a while.

Michael

[dswallow]

Originally posted by jjmpeters
How big of a drive am I going to need to store the image if I'm trying to retain my recordings? I thought I could eliminate this if I could simply transfer the files from the old A drive to the new A drive. Thanks.
The backup he's referring to is without recordings; good to have that around in any case -- typically it's around 150MB and can easily be burned to a CD for safekeeping.

There's a couple ways you can preserve recordings when you do an upgrade, but restoring the backup doesn't preserve them. Consider it a simple way to preserve all your settings should you need to go through a disaster recovery later.

[dr_mal]

Originally posted by weaknees
You could "dd" from the old 250 to the new 300, and then do an mfsadd from there - that's probably your best bet if you want to save recordings. The copy will take quite a while.

Michael
And if you have access to another Linux boot CD (or another Linux machine), you might consider using dd_rescue - dd_rescue provides you with feedback as it's copying. dd just gives you a blinking cursor, so you have no idea if you're 1% done, 99% done, or stuck somewhere in the middle.

[longshot94]

I have a few questions, I am using DSmooths method to enable USB ethernet support on my HR10-250 but am having problems. When i go to mount the hdc6 partition to copy over killinihdtrd it says sucessfull but then says i have to define the filesystem

I ran the weakness guide to backup the original drive and restored it to a Seagate 400gb and am using that. I have tested the drive and it works after the backup\restore.

Anyone have any insight?

[buckeye1010]

> I have a few questions, I am using DSmooths method to enable USB
> ethernet support on my HR10-250 but am having problems. When i go to
> mount the hdc6 partition to copy over killinihdtrd it says sucessfull but
> then says i have to define the filesystem
>
That guide is rather old now - it was written before the "e" update. You probably have your kernel on the 3 partition now. Boot up with the boot CD, and use the "bootpage -p /dev/hdX" - where "X' is the drive letter of how your Tivo drive is hooked up to your PC. Bootpage will give you the partition of the root directory. The Kernel directory is one less.

[longshot94]

thx for the tidbit should be able to figure out from there.

[bald_rick]

HELP!

Here's the problem. I am replacing the original WD 250GB with 2 Seagate 300gb. If I install 1 300GB drive, it works great. When I install both, it goes into a reboot loop! I need to get a serial adaptor to get console access, but in the meantime, does anyone have any ideas what I may be doing wrong, or what the problem may be?

Note - I followed the directions carefully before trying a bunch of other things. I have tried 3 different cables (40 and 80 wire) with and without CS and hard-coded master slave, and nothing works.

-rick

[dswallow]

Did you read the info around here somewhere about a ~257GB limit to an MFS partition, such that you need to go through some extra steps to deal with a >250GB B drive?

[bald_rick]

Perhaps I need to be more specific. I followed the directions, including the ones from tivo.upgrade-instructions.com for using >250GB drives. I get a reboot loop.

[dswallow]

Originally posted by bald_rick
Perhaps I need to be more specific. I followed the directions, including the ones from tivo.upgrade-instructions.com for using >250GB drives. I get a reboot loop.
So among the other steps, you booted using the Tyger CD, ran BlessTiVo on the new B drive, saw it say it's blessed for 137GB, then booted with the Weaknees CD and ran the mfsadd -x ... command, right?

I just want to be sure because that's key to getting it to work; from there someone with more experience with large drives on the HR10-250 will have to start trying to help. I haven't gone through this yet myself.

[KFL]

Actually the instructions say to boot with Tyger, run blesstivo, and then put the drives back into the TiVo, let it boot up and then remove them and put them back in the pc, boot the Weaknees lba 48 cd and then do the mfsadd -x command. I did it wrong 4 times before I caught that little thing. I have been running with a 300 as A and a 400 as B for 4 days now. Two Seagate drives and very quiet too.

Thanks to the Weaknees folks for the instructions!!!!!!!!

[spellow]

So I just purchased my HD Tivo.

Do Ya'll reccomend that I wait a bit before I do the upgrade, or should I do it right off the bat?

[PJO1966]

If you're planning on using HDMI, I would wait a bit to make sure it works properly.

[pmaddock]

On the other hand if you wait you'll build up a stack of recordings. Either you'll have to lose them or your upgrade will take longer and require more resources because of the time to save the recordings.

[spellow]

My TV doesn't have an HDMI input so what would be the best solution for my tv. It's a rear projection Hitachi 51SWX20B, supports DVI, SVidio and Y, Pr, Pb Component Video.

what of the below would provide the best picture and how much better picture would I have if I had HDMI?

1. HDMI to DVI converter cable
2. Y, Pr, Pb Component Video Outputs
3. S Video

[dr_mal]

Originally posted by spellow
My TV doesn't have an HDMI input so what would be the best solution for my tv. It's a rear projection Hitachi 51SWX20B, supports DVI, SVidio and Y, Pr, Pb Component Video.

what of the below would provide the best picture and how much better picture would I have if I had HDMI?

1. HDMI to DVI converter cable
2. Y, Pr, Pb Component Video Outputs
3. S Video
The order you've listed them has the best quality at the top and worst at the bottom.

HDMI is just DVI + audio - there's no conversion of the data involved going between HDMI and DVI, so you're not losing any quality. You'll just need to pass the audio to the TV (or your receiver) with a separate cable.

[spellow]

ah, cool...I run Dolby AC3 from the Tivo to my receiver anyway, I don't use my TV for sound at all.

Thanks a bunch for the info..

and I just read that the HD Tivo comes with a HDMI to DVI cable...so I guess I'm all set.

[JaredB]

Hi, I tried out the weaknees bracket for my hidef tivo. It works great, but I bought a cheap hard drive and it died.
Anyway, I'm getting rid of my bracket I think. Does someone want to buy it off me? It's in new condition and comes with all accessories etc.

I looked for a buying/selling section here on these boards but couldn't find one so forgive me if I'm not supposed to list this type of stuff here.

Feel free to emil or pm me directly.

[Kbert5]

<<Hi, I tried out the weaknees bracket for my hidef tivo. It works great, but I bought a cheap hard drive and it died.
Anyway, I'm getting rid of my bracket I think.>>

It sounds like you're giving up on the modification. (?)

[JaredB]

Yeah, I'm giving up on the mod for now. Adding the extra drive with the bracket was the easy part. The problem was in backing up drives and determining which drive went bad etc. I'm on a Mac, not a PC and I realized that most of the software out there for this stuff is PC only.

I'm thinking of buying a cheap PC and then doing an FTP setup with my Tivo in order to back up material. At that point an extra drive would be nice, but not that necessary. Thought I might as well pass it on to someone who can get more immediate use out of it.

I bought it for $50 and I'll try to sell it for $30. If no one wants it, maybe I'll still use it in the future.

[tivoboy]

I just PM'ed you

[JaredB]

Weaknees bracket has been sold.

[tivoboy]

doh!

[leesweet]

CompUSA has the Seagate 400s now at $229 after $30 mail-in and $40 instant rebates! Price good until 1/15, according to:
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=316153&pfp=BROWSE&tabtype=rb#moreinfo

[dean1969]

Okay, I just signed up for this forum and I've seen numerous posts referring to the "Other" forum. Someone please fill me in on where the "Other" forum is.

Thanks

[Anubys]

one possibility is the AVS forum...try is without spaces and add the .com (I don't think we're allowed to post the URL)

[dr_mal]

www.avsforum.com is allowed - both avs and tcf are run by David Bott. The other forum is one where you might want to find a good DEAL in a DATABASE. They discuss things there that, under the most strict interpretations of the DMCA, could get Bott in trouble if his site has links to it, so that's why he doesn't allow links here.

[pmaddock]

Looking for any advice/experience unique to a HDTivo upgrade failure.

I did my upgrade about 8 months ago when we were still learning. Its a dual 250GB HD arrangement where I added the 2nd one via BlessTivo. Fortunately I didn't trust much so I used a DD copy of the original drive. The original drive is still on the shelf from before the upgrade. (In fact my experience was recorded in the early posts on this thread.)

At this point I'm getting stuttering that gotten progressively worse. It started with random pausing but now its progressed to randomly causing the recorder to reboot. I'm not completely certain but I get the impression that deleting recordings seems to buy me some time so it might be a bad spot on the disk and/or a situation where the drive loses it after a certain period of time.

From the other posts out there this seems to look like typical drive failure. At this point the strategy seems to be replace one or both drives - using DD or ddrescue to save the data.

Questions:
1. Is there any foolproof method of determining which drive is going bad and/or how much life it may have before it totally fails?
2. Is there a way I can make lemonade out of this lemon and move to a dual 300 arrangement or is it best to go with the dual 250s as the safest restoration path?
3. I know its an opinion loaded area but any feelings on which drive maker is more reliable lately? The failing arrangement was done on Maxstors. (Sidebar I know the quickview drives have their fans but I really want something I can buy at a store and fix this weekend so I don't lose another episode of Lost.)

Thanks for the input.

[dswallow]

Paul there'll be utilities you can get from the drive manufacturer to perform non-destructive testing on the drives; those usually will identify problems -- though not 100% of the time. Make sure to look at any log files they create, too. Don't rely completely on it coming back with a :this drive has a problem" if the drive is just intermittently having troubles.

Lately I've not got a sense there's any real tendency of one manufacturers drives to fail over anothers. Failures seem to be somewhat across the board; unlike years ago when a version of IBM's Deskstar line had failures due to an overheating chip.

[dwynne]

Like dswallow said, you can download a drive test util for every drive now. If you used Maxtors then the program is "PowerMax". If you purchased retail drives then this is likely on the included CD - or the program to make a boot floppy is. If not, you can download it free from the Maxtor web page. The program is here (http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe) or you can find it by going to maxtor.com, support, US, software downloads, ATA diagnostics.

I have had terrible luck with Maxtor drives in general, and with them in DVRs in particular. I quit buying them and use WD or Seagate - sometimes a Hitachi and have not had any problems with these (knock on wood).

Like you, I have not tried the quickview DVR type drives due to the high prices and limited availability.

Dennis

[pmaddock]

It appears that my drive options may be more limited than I thought. Maxstors seem to have slightly more LBA blocks than the other 'equivalent' drives. So to do the simple dd rescue operation it looks like I'm going to have to go with Maxstor again. Considering I've had a failure like this in a mere 8 months that's not a very good thought.

I've read hints that it might be possible to do a dd to a larger drive and then use MFS tools to create additional partitions. Anyone have any experience doing this on 2 drives at once? (Going from 2x250 to 2x300)

[groovybeat]

Q: Is it possible to replace the HR10-250's existing 250 GB drive with a larger drive (say 300 or 400 GB), and then later (down the road) add a second drive? Or if you're going to go to 2 drives, you must do this all at once (only one chance to upgrade)?

thanks
groovybeat

[groovybeat]

For some more detail on my last post:

I'm in the process of replacing my stock 250 with a new 400 GB A drive. I'm using

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

to copy the contents of the 250 onto the new 400, and expand. I'll
then keep the old 250 on the shelf as a backup.

Now, down the road if I want to add a second drive to my newly
upgraded 400 GB system (say a second 400 GB == total of 800 GB),
what are the proper steps (given I've already upgraded/expanded the
primary drive)?

From what I've read, sounds like it *should* work if you just do a
BlessTivo on the 2nd drive and pop it in (instead of using
mfsadd). But it's not entirely clear...

What's not clear to me is if there's only one chance to do an upgrade. i.e., if I upgrade/expand my A drive, can I still later add a B drive. Btw, I'm aware of some of the issues regarding drives > 256GB and the MFSTools - but not sure if this is only an issue when upgrading 2 drives at once...

[pmaddock]

Small update - I got 2 new Maxstors and am doing the dd rescue now on the B drive. Errors started showing up fairly quickly so it would appear that it was indeed the B drive that was failing. Hopefully copying a new set will work out. I noticed that although the LBA size was the same that the model numbers have changed - perhaps these have been improved a little. I really wish I could have changed brands.

In the meantime I'm learning that having a backup came in handy. When I did the original upgrade I did a dd copy of the original factory drive and put the original on the shelf. It was really nice being able to plug that drive back in the unit and have something to work with right away.

For anyone considering upgrading take this as a lesson - ALWAYS have a backup ready. Either dd copy the factory drive and save it like I did or do an MFSbackup and TEST IT as part of any upgrade!

[buckeye1010]

Originally posted by pmaddock


For anyone considering upgrading take this as a lesson - ALWAYS have a backup ready. Either dd copy the factory drive and save it like I did or do an MFSbackup and TEST IT as part of any upgrade!

No truer words have ever been typed. Got me out of a bind!

-Bruce

[leesweet]

Originally posted by groovybeat
FFrom what I've read, sounds like it *should* work if you just do a
BlessTivo on the 2nd drive and pop it in (instead of using
mfsadd). But it's not entirely clear...

What's not clear to me is if there's only one chance to do an upgrade. i.e., if I upgrade/expand my A drive, can I still later add a B drive. Btw, I'm aware of some of the issues regarding drives > 256GB and the MFSTools - but not sure if this is only an issue when upgrading 2 drives at once... I think you can do it twice, as you say. But I've not seen explicitly addressed here yet, I think partially because most people upgrade it once! (For example, I've got two Seagate 400s at the recent $219 price, and will do it this weekend; I can't see doing it twice when drives are so cheap.)

[pmaddock]

Originally posted by leesweet
I think you can do it twice, as you say. But I've not seen explicitly addressed here yet, I think partially because most people upgrade it once! (For example, I've got two Seagate 400s at the recent $219 price, and will do it this weekend; I can't see doing it twice when drives are so cheap.)

Well for some of the people who did upgrades last year the larger drives weren't so cheap. I would love to look at expanding past my dual 250 arrangement were it not for the crash I'm working with now.

Speaking of the crash - my dd_rescue has been running for over 2 days now. Its processed only the first 10GB with about 100MB of data errors. So, for anyone who has a crash and wants to try this - get ready for a potentially very long recovery window.

[slocko]

Okay. I finally got around to upgrading my Tivo using the Weak bracket. The instructions are excellent and even though I never had upgraded a Tivo before, it went pretty smooth. I am not good with spatial images, so some of the diagrams I had to look at frequently.

Now making the 2nd drive useable by Tivo proved to be a little bit of a challenge. I followed the steps below and immediately ran into some problems. First problem was that the BlessTivo command didn't work. Knowing DOS I figured that the actual command might be in a sub directory. Using dir to search for it, I found it in the Bin directory. First hurdle crossed!

For some reason, the order in which I had my drives connected differed than what the instructions assumed and my bless command didn't work.

I panicked and didn't know what to do. I thought maybe I needed the original drive so I hooked that one up to. Same thing.

The error screen gave me status on the mounted devices and I noticed that one of the drives aid -ro which I assumed meant readonly. Somehow it dawned on me that maybe it was trying to Bless the wrong drive. I tried playing with the mount command to see if I could mount the correct drive, but quickly gave up since I was out of my depth at that point.

I decided to reboot carefully looking at the messages and noticed that Maxtor was being mounted with HDB and not HDC. HDC was my dvd drive.

So I reran BlessTivo with HDB and it seemed to work.

At this point I was sure that somehow I had blessed the original Tivo drive and screwed up everything. With much trepidation, I finished installing the bracket and took my HD-Tivo upstairs and connected. I held my breath and saw that it has booting up. I felt relieved when I saw it finish and thought at least it's working.

I checked my recording and they were all there. Okay, good. At least I didn't lose anything. Then for the big test, I went to system settings and behold!!!! The must beautiful number in the universe, 63 hours!!!!!!!!

I consider myself lucky, that I didn't bless the wrong drive. I am not sure what would have happened.

Now I hope my luck holds out and this unit doesn't head south. I definetely don't want to have to put everything back just to ship it back to D*. I think at that point, I might just buy a drive and do it myself.

So my advice, if you are comfortable swapping drives in pcs and know how to use DOS, go for it.

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!

[oatnet]

Anyone find any more good bargains on the Seagate 400gb? I really want to do the upgrade - but I really want to pay $240/drive or less, not $300+/drive like on ebay...

[corba]

can someone tell me if adding a 2nd disk to HR10 will slow down 'now playing' lists like it did on HDVR2?

[aaronwt]

It didn't on both of my units. I replaced the stock WD drive with two 250GB MAxtor drives in both of my units. I see no difference in the "Now Playing" list. With several pages it pops up very quickly.

[btwyx]

Originally posted by corba
can someone tell me if adding a 2nd disk to HR10 will slow down 'now playing' lists like it did on HDVR2? It may be a bit slow at times, but no where near as bad as a 120GB HDVR2.

[oatnet]

Originally posted by btwyx
It may be a bit slow at times, but no where near as bad as a 120GB HDVR2.

I have been running (2) HDVR2s and a GXCEBOT all with twin 120gb (240gb total). Generally they run pretty fast EXCEPT when I fill them up to the point of approaching capacity. Autorecord Tivo Selections also fills the disk to capacity so I have that turned off. Other than that I have no speed issues with them per se, and they are pretty much as fast as the two HR10-250s I have added. Hopefully when I install twin 400gb's (800gb total each) I'll won't have speed problems.

My only problem now is finding those 400gb at a good price -c'mon someone must have a hookup! :)

John

[weaknees]

Right - keeping these units about 15% free does tend to alleviate many of the slowdowns that full units see. Keeping TiVo Suggestions auto-record off is pretty important for this reason.

Michael

[CCBarnett]

I plan to replace my original 250GB hard drive with 2 400GB hard drives.
I want to backup original TIvo drive on the drive with the FAT32 partition.
I can't get by the first step.

a=original TiVO hard drive
b=Hard Drive 76GB, FAT32, one partiton

Using the"Weaknees" boot disk.

I issued:
mount /dev/hdb /mnt

I got back:

Bogus Logical Sector Size 55438
Can't find valid FAT filesystem
Mount Aborted


Where did I miss the boat? Thanks.


__________________

[boiler11]

Originally posted by CCBarnett

I issued:
mount /dev/hdb /mnt

I got back:

Bogus Logical Sector Size 55438
Can't find valid FAT filesystem
Mount Aborted


You need to specify a partition to mount, not a drive. Also, it's good practice to mount in a directory other than /mnt, i.e. /mnt/fat_partition.

mkdir -p /mnt/fat_partition
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/fat_partition

Of course you don't have to use "fat_partition", you can use whatever you want.

[pmaddock]

Has anyone using the 9th tee bracket had any issues with heat related drive crashes - specifically on the B drive?

The reason I ask is that I did an upgrade with the 9th tee bracket when they first came out last year. I started getting stuttering so I swapped in my backup and have been running rescue to try to restore the data. What I'm finding is that the A drive had no problem at all but the B drive was filled with bad sectors distributed across the drive. I thought this was odd since when I did the upgrade I replaced the A drive so both the A and B drive are the same Maxstor drives bought at the same time.

While running this extended rescue attempt (its been running for many days now) I've noticed that the drive, still mounted on the bracket, seems to be running fairly hot by comparison to the new target drive I've got mounted in the PC case. I don't have any sophisticated testing tools but on visual inspection it looks to me like that bracket doesn't offer much ventilation. The bottom is a solid metal piece as compared to the weaknees bracket which is open at the bottom.

I'm starting to think that the bracket 'cooked' my B drive. I had no idea this was happening as the Tivo reported a perfectly normal overall operating temp.

Any opinions?

[JB3]

I posted this in a "bad drive" thread, but I guess it fits here...

I have an HD TiVo that I was sure had a drive going bad. This all started about a month after I'd added a second 250GB WD drive. The interface would randomly hang and then the box would reboot. It would get stuck at "powering up". If I'd power cycle it then it would reboot fine and then work a while longer.

This started right before the holidays, so I've been lazy in troubleshooting it. There was also about a 2 - 3 week interval where it all worked ok.

Then the problem came back, so I took the time to start trying to figure this out. Backed things up and then I ran the Western Digital Diags on both drives. Both ok on quick scan and full surface scan. I didn't do any destructive writes.

Okay, time to work backwards...what changed last? So, I used DD to copy my recently added second drive to a new drive. I then put the new copied "B" drive back in the TiVo. Still having problems, so I checked the power supply voltages. Looks good. I tried replacing the IDE cable. No change. Double checked internal temps....running 36C...looks ok. I'd used a twin breeze bracket with the fan for the upgrade, so I expected this to be ok.

Last night I restored my backup to a new 250GB WD drive and put only this drive in the TiVo with the original mounting bracket and IDE cable. It booted fine. After clearing out the Now Playing List, I tried to schedule a recording of a HD show that was scheduled to start 30 mins in the future. I clicked on the show in the guide, clicked to record this showing and got the typical Please Wait popup. Well after waiting 3 minutes, the box just goes and reboots.

Okay, now I'm thinking this might not be hardware. What if somewhere along the line, the database that TiVo uses to schedule things was corrupted. So I went thru the pain of erasing and deleting everything. An hour+ later, it looks stable, but then again, there's nothing on the drive right now. Got most of my season passes back in this morning now that I have some guide data to work with. I added a bunch of other recordings to try and stress things a little. Time will tell if this solves anything. I plan to backup the new drive tonight just in case.

Anyone have any similar problems/solutions?

[slocko]

The Maxtor drive I added is making a clicking noise when I fast forward.

Good or bad thing?

[boiler11]

Originally posted by pmaddock
The bottom is a solid metal piece as compared to the weaknees bracket which is open at the bottom.


This doesn't help you any, but the bracket I got from ptvupgrade a few months ago has holes in it.

Originally posted by slocko
The Maxtor drive I added is making a clicking noise when I fast forward.


I put 2 new Maxtors in mine. They were very noisy all the time until I took them back out and turned on acoustic management. Now they are very quiet and everything works just fine.

[TeeSee]

Originally posted by slocko
The Maxtor drive I added is making a clicking noise when I fast forward.

Good or bad thing? Bad thing if you don't like a noisy hard drive. Probably nothing to worry about, though.

You might be interested in this thread. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=180254 This utility you can get from it worked wonders in dampening the loud ticks and clicks in my Maxtor.

[slocko]

okay kewl. it's only when fast forwarding. no big deal.

[leesweet]

I went to check at CompUSA for the Seagate 400s to see the current status, and they are now $350! Whoa!

At that price, you might as well have WK do it for you....

[boiler11]

Originally posted by leesweet
I went to check at CompUSA for the Seagate 400s to see the current status, and they are now $350! Whoa!

At that price, you might as well have WK do it for you....

Newegg has them for $260, but they're out of stock until 2/11/2005 (ETA).

Seagate 7200.8 400GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST3400832A-RK, Retail at Newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-068&depa=1)

[comp4pod]

If noise is an issue, don't buy the Seagate 400's. It's seeks are loud and constant. AAM is not activated so you can't set them to quiet.

[MichaelK]

Originally posted by weaknees
Right - keeping these units about 15% free does tend to alleviate many of the slowdowns that full units see. Keeping TiVo Suggestions auto-record off is pretty important for this reason.

Michael


dont doubt you one bit- but i'm curious if you guys have a hypothesis why this is?

doesn't seem to be a logical reason that i can think of.

[leesweet]

Well, the 'noise' of the 400s may be dependent on the background noise, of course, but I don't hear a lot of noise from mine.

As for the 15%, I can see that one show could have problems from being 'squeezed' into all the fragments left, but beyond, I don't know. Linux filesytems shouldn't care that it's at 85% or 90% or whatever, as long as it's not full.

[dswallow]

Originally posted by MichaelK
dont doubt you one bit- but i'm curious if you guys have a hypothesis why this is?

doesn't seem to be a logical reason that i can think of.
I've attributed any major slowdown to exceeding a certain number of unique Now Playing entries -- somewhere around 150; above that it's extremely slow, below that its noticably faster, albeit somewhat linearly degraded depending on the number of entries -- but there's a point where beyond a certain number, the delay becomes extreme.

Someone recording mostly movies is less likely to see the problem than someone who ends up with lots of 30-minute recordings.

[leesweet]

Or if you have two large drives and have Suggestions on! :D

I might turn Suggestions off in my upgrading unit, and leave it on for the vanilla one....

[slocko]

I think my hard drive might be failing.

I got some really bad pixelations during my recording of the superbowl. It started toward the end of the 2nd quarter and continue through the halftime show and beginning of 3rd quarter.

I checked the forums and didn't see any reports of bad pixelation for the broadcast. At one point, I couldn't even fast forward past a certain point in the recording.

If my extra drive fails, does the entire Tivo fail? Would I need at that point to copy a raw image back to the original drive?

[pmaddock]

Originally posted by slocko
I think my hard drive might be failing.



If my extra drive fails, does the entire Tivo fail? Would I need at that point to copy a raw image back to the original drive?

Sorry to report that the answer is yes - the B drive can drag down the entire Tivo. Remember that the drives are 'married' as such Tivo is treating the 2 drives as a single virtual space.

I'm experiencing the fallout of a similar problem which started with bad pixelization and over time the Tivo basically couldn't record anything new. Per some recent posts I found that the A drive was fine but the B drive had massive errors spread all over the drive.

I would recommend that you shut down your Tivo immediately and check out your drives using appropriate diagnostic software (being careful to never boot up with XP/2000 of course). If the damage is limited you will most likely be able to recover using dd_rescue (which will require a new drive). This approach will hopefully allow you to keep most of your recordings.

Unfortunately dd_rescue can run a REALLY long time - particularly if the drive has a lot of damage. I ran it for 2 weeks and only got through 100GB of the drive. Since I knew that the A drive was fine I'm now trying using normal dd set with the conv parameter to simply null out the bad blocks without attempting to recover them. That was last night and it got through 40GB in about 8 hours.

Of course this path assumes the damage is limited to the programming space. If your Tivo crashes and can't reboot its an entirely different ballgame.

[btwyx]

Originally posted by dswallow
I've attributed any major slowdown to exceeding a certain number of unique Now Playing entries -- somewhere around 150; That'd be me with 320 entries last I looked (only 50-80 were suggestions). Which particular slowdown are we talking about? Navigating the now playing list isn't bad, particularly after you've been through it once (caching it one presumes), but scheduling recording takes minutes and is annoying.

[HDLouco]

I tune my HD Tivo to a non-existing channel just before I start programming it for the day. In my area, channel 3 doesn't exist, so I tune my Tivo to channel 3. Then I start the guide and proceed to program for the shows I want to record. From the time a press Select on the RECORD TGHIS PROGRAM screen, it takes only 11 seconds until I get the guide display back. If the Tivo is tuned to an SD channel it takes much longer, and if it is tuned to an HD channel, it takes even longer! Maybe due to the amount of memory being used or CPU overloading. Thought I would post this in case someone here doesn't know it. Thanks for the attention!

[csuich]

I have Hughes HD 250 TiVo...

I just received replacement from DirecTV for the HDMI problem.
I wanted to upgrade to 2x250 Maxtors.

I used
mfstool backup -f 9999 -1so - /dev/hda | mfstool restore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdc

BlessTiVo /dev/hdd

1st attempt in TiVo resulted in hanging after "Almost there" screen

I low level quick formated drives thinking they may have been WinXP'ed
Then executed backup -> restore again

When I run "pdisk -l on /dev/hdc" I get "no partion map exists".

Of course "pdisk -l /dev/hda" on original drive reports normal looking TiVo partitions.

"mfstool info" reports hdc10 - 13 on both new hdc and hdd drives

Any thoughts?
Is this normal?
Is this then reason TiVo hangs? duh... but I have to ask

Thanks


*******************
Solved my own problem
*******************

I must have been running a host computer that did not support drives larger than 137GB even though Linux recognized drive sizes.

I ran on newer computer and changed backup switch to
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd /dev/hde

All is well!!! Tivo has 64 hours of HD capacity.

[Anubys]

Originally posted by dswallow
I've attributed any major slowdown to exceeding a certain number of unique Now Playing entries -- somewhere around 150; above that it's extremely slow, below that its noticably faster, albeit somewhat linearly degraded depending on the number of entries -- but there's a point where beyond a certain number, the delay becomes extreme.


I've had it with how slow my HD-Tivo is...it took 6 minutes to record a movie off the guide two days ago (I timed it...it was 5 min and 46 sec)...so I jumped at this chance...I did it very late last night but I turned off the suggestions and deleted the 200+ (I stopped counting after 200) shows in the now playing list (the ones that were recorded by Tivo)...

I only had time to check the guide speed before I went to bed but the guide was super fast...I will try to do more tonight and report back on the speed...thanks for the tip!

[MichaelK]

now that you mention the size of the NPL that does correlate to my experience (both an HR10-250 and an HDVR2 that were upgraded).

I acutally find the HDVR2 with a single 160(137) to be worse then the HDVR2 with a 400- probabbly i record mostly HD movies and hour long HD discovery channel stuff on the HR10 but the hdvr2 is full of 30 min kid shows.

THe hdvr2 sometimes wont even respond to the remote for 3-5 seconds when the NPL is full. I can go to the NPL and it will be fine, then if i get distracted for a minute or 2 it seems to go on to something else. So when i hit up or down it wont repond for several seconds (usually long enough that i hit the darn channel down button 5 times so i wind up all the way at the other end of the list...).

Anyhow, hopefully 6.x fixes this. It seems to me the database must be really convulted if the NPL effects some many other things. What's the data displyaed on the NPL take on the disk 8k? The way the thing churns and responds you'd think it is intertwined with 2 gigs of other stuff.

[av8tor2]

I am sure this question had been asked but got sleepy reading the first 30 pages of this thread!

I want to upgrade my HDTivo with a Maxtor 300GB hard drive now and in a few weeks add another drive to it. Is there any problem that will come up by following the WeeKnees to replace the orginal drive with a new one. Then add a second drive by adding a second larger 400GB drive.

Thanks for the info...

Paul

[weaknees]

Won't work that way, unfortunately. You can't add the 400 later to a non-factory A drive due to mfstool limitations. You'd need to add the 400 and the 300 at the same time, or at least following the general steps here:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

The key is that you are forcing two partitions on the new drive by using the blessing feature, which goes away with larger A drives.

Michael

[Anubys]

Following up on my earlier note...after turning off tivo suggestions and deleting all the tivo-suggested entries from the NPL (I have an upgraded unit with a second drive of 250 GB)...

I notice a major improvement in the speed of the guide (still slow, but everything is relative).

I also recorded 2 movies off the guide, each took about 15 seconds to go past the "please wait" screen...this is an improvement off a 5+ minutes worth of waiting before...

I changed the priority on the season pass list and tried to go out...I never timed this but I usually do it and go away because it takes FOREVER to go to the next screen...I say this was easily a 5 minute wait...this time, it took about 2 minutes...again, not good, but better than before...

I have not made any changes to the unit except for the suggestions and the cleaning of the NPL (deleted 200+ entries)...so out of a sample of ONE, I say it made a difference...

[av8tor2]

Okay...I'll wait until I get another drive...Its going to kill me, cause, I have the bracket, got a computer with FAT32, 300GB HD ATA133....just need to get another drive but $340 for a 400GB is way to much.

Now for my last question does it matter that the drives are different speeds, The maxtor is ATA133, and other one the Barracuda 7200.8 400GB, 7200RPM, Internal ATA/100 Hard Drive?

Paul

[boiler11]

$340 for a 400GB is way to much.
Post 1561 (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showpost.php?p=2584156&postcount=1561) (top of this page)


Now for my last question does it matter that the drives are different speeds, The maxtor is ATA133, and other one the Barracuda 7200.8 400GB, 7200RPM, Internal ATA/100 Hard Drive?

Paul

No.

[jjmpeters]

Well I finally decided to give dd a try in completing this upgrade of an upgrade. I installed the TiVo A drive as primary master, TiVo B drive as secondary master, and the new 300GB drive to replace TiVo A as the secondary slave. I input the following:

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

This returned a message of input/output error and returned to the prompt. I then tried:

dd conv=noerror,sync if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdd bs=1024k

This is still running, but has displayed two different messages about input/output errors. The total records match at each of these messages, with this being an example:

132264+6 records in
132270+o records out

When this finishes, what should I do? Proceeed with mfsadd to expand and marry the drives, or give up and go back to my original configuration (if it still works)?

Thanks.




I just picked up a 300GB Seagate drive from BestBuy and want to upgrade my upgraded HR10-250. When I first got it, I installed a new 300GB Maxtor as the "B" drive keeping the original drive as the "A" drive.

I now want to replace the original "A" drive with the new Seagate model. If I just do a full backup from the old to the new, and then make sure its expanded to its full capacity, is that all I'd need to do? I want to restore the orginal image to the orginal drive in case I need to replace the unit in the future.

Thanks.


John

[oatnet]

That's right, my TiVo is DEAD as a doornail - immediately AFTER a successful upgrade.

I upgraded with twin Hitachi 400mb drives, Deskstar HDS724040KLAT80. They seem like good, quiet, solid units. I used the following procedure (preserving recordings,large drives,no XP,etc) that I got from http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/.

Prepare by downloading and burning to CD both the Weaknees and Tyger versions of the software (you need both)
http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso
http://hellcat.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/mfstools2noJ.iso

1) Standard backup of original drive (no problem)

2) Reassemble with these Drive Settings:
HDA: NEW Tivo Drive A (Primary IDE Master)
HDB: NEW Tivo Drive B (Primary IDE Slave)
HDC: CDROM {boot} (Secondary IDE Master)
HDD: original 250gb (Secondary IDE Slave)

3) Boot on Weaknees CD,

4) Run this command:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -zi - /dev/hda
It ran from about 2:00-9:00, roughly 7 hours, no problems, no reports of errors or anything. This was on an old Celeron 366mhz over standard 40-conducter cables.

5) Remove original drive and put in static bag.
HDA: NEW Tivo Drive A (Primary IDE Master)
HDB: NEW Tivo Drive B (Primary IDE Slave)
HDC: CDROM {boot} (Secondary IDE Master)

6) Boot onto "Tyger CD".

7) Run this CASE-SENSITIVE command:
BlessTiVo /dev/hdb
The guide indicated that my drive should come up as 137gb, the maximum that MFSTOOLS could handle (rest of space is allocated in step 11); oddly, it only came up as 127gb, but everything seemed to execute normally in a matter of seconds.

8) Mount the two drives in the TiVo and power it up to the "System Information" screen (this marry's the copied drive to the Blessed Tivo drive).
Using the same IDE cable as in the computer, I loosely connected the drives making sure there was no grounding issue. I made sure that the front-panel ribbon cable was not affected, then powered it up. I forgot exactly what the status screen said - I _think_ it was 62 HD hours.

9) Put the TiVo in standby, disconnect power and let discharge for 5 minutes. Reconnect the drives as before:
HDA: NEW Tivo Drive A (Primary IDE Master)
HDB: NEW Tivo Drive B (Primary IDE Slave)
HDC: CDROM {boot} (Secondary IDE Master)

10) Boot onto the weaknees CD.

11) Run this command (this lets the TiVo allocate the unused space):
mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb
This seemed to execute normally, in a matter of seconds.

12) re-mount the two drives in the TiVo and power it up to the "System Information" screen.
I loosely connected the drives making sure there was no grounding issue. I made sure that the front-panel ribbon cable was not affected, then powered it up. I was a little concerned because the System Status screen said "Account status: Closed, call ####) but the thing was most looking for was there: 103 HD hours! I yelled Yahoo and ran upstairs to get my digital Camera to get a picture of my new success...

The problem?

Oh, the upgrade (my 5th tivo upgrade!) ran smooth as silk, delivered as promised. I think I had a freak hardware problem. I came back downstairs within a minute, and the system had booted itself and was at the Welcome screen. "Uh-Oh" I thought. It booted again as I watched. "Oh NO!" I thought. It did it again - and this time didn't start up again. I pulled the power cord a few times, no boot. Put back in the original drive and ribbon cable (checking the front panel ribbon cable) - no boot. The drives never even spin up! I'd think it was the power supply, but the fan spins - although IT is the only thing showing life, so maybe it is a seperate circuit or something.

I did notice the original IDE cable was a 80pin and I was using a 40pin because all my 80 pins have that one pin blocked off, and the motherboard has all pins on its IDE connector. Not that this should do anything but make it run slower.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is there a Fuse/breaker somewhere?

Do I need to replace the power supply (will the one from a GXCEB0T work?)?

Get a replacement from DirecTV? I'd hate to lose my recordings, can I move the original drive to a new TiVo with impunity?

HELP! <grin>
Thanks in advance to anyone with advice.

John

==========================================================
* UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE
==========================================================

After writing the above novel, I again powered it up with the original drive. The drive spins up, it boots to the "Welcome" message, and it just sits there. Since both sets of drives seem to be having a problem, I think it is a hardware problem with the HR10-250, right?

Thanks Again.
John

==========================================================
* UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * ==========================================================

Um, OK, so I went through my cables and found an 80-conducter IDE cable with an open hole, connected it to the drives, and hooked them to the TiVo on a whim, even though the main drive never came up. Went away for a few minutes, when I came back it was at a 90% complete screen! The system booted, I got screen shots of the capacity, played back SD and HD recordings, messed with they Season Passes... Its been about 20 minutes, so far so good, I hope it keeps running.

I'd think it was the IDE cable except the original drive didn't boot with it's original stubby IDE cable, maybe I didn't wait long enough. I noticed that in step

I've never had an upgrade go this way - with completely unreproducable results.

[leesweet]

I read all of this and didn't have anything to add, so I didn't.. :) But I have noticed in my upgrade that the first time in each step (with the two drives the first time and then after mfsadd) it took so long I thought it was hosed, so I pulled the plug. I asked QK to add a note to their instructions (see way above somewhere) at those two steps to tell people to 'sit down and wait five minutes'. :D

If you follow the instructions, this seems to be the common problem: since there's no progress meter when Linux is finding all the partitions (it's still on the ROM black and white message), then we get impatient.

Glad it's fine now!

(BTW, could have been a flaky cable, also. You never know how those cables take to being pulled several times by the cable, as it were. I'd like ones with a 'pull ring' on the plug to avoid strain on the cable attachment.)

[jerrymc]

That's right, my TiVo is DEAD as a doornail - immediately AFTER a successful upgrade.

...

HELP! <grin>
Thanks in advance to anyone with advice.

John

==========================================================
* UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * UPDATE2 * ==========================================================

Um, OK, so I went through my cables and found an 80-conducter IDE cable with an open hole, connected it to the drives, and hooked them to the TiVo on a whim, even though the main drive never came up. Went away for a few minutes, when I came back it was at a 90% complete screen! The system booted, I got screen shots of the capacity, played back SD and HD recordings, messed with they Season Passes... Its been about 20 minutes, so far so good, I hope it keeps running.

I'd think it was the IDE cable except the original drive didn't boot with it's original stubby IDE cable, maybe I didn't wait long enough. I noticed that in step

I've never had an upgrade go this way - with completely unreproducable results.

I think the most likely explanation is that the power supply is being pushed to its limits when the two 400GB drives are both spinning up simultaneously. I've seen this flaky behaviour twice. On one HDTiVo, it only happens once in a blue moon. On the other one, adding a power up delay device solved the problem. Both Weaknees and PTVUpgrade have them. They attach between your A and B drives with the power supply going directly to B, so that the B drive spins up before A. The part is on the order of $20 I think and should do the trick.

Regards,
Jerry

[buzzword]

FYI,

For future reference it's very easy to unblock the hole in an IDE cable connector.

Take a pin, safety pin or regular pin doesn't matter, and while holding it with pliers heat it with a lighter, then simply push it gently into the IDE connector where the hole should be.

It's not difficult at all, the heated pin melts the plastic very easily and stays hot just long enough to create the hole and slide it out.

I've done this many times without any problems, it works perfectly.

[av8tor2]

Finally upgraded last night/this morning

Started at 9:30 p.m. and finished at 1:30 a.m.

I replaced the TVIO hard drive with two 300 Gigs, and kept my recordings.

It was easy except for a few stupid mistakes...on my part the instructions from Weaknees was easy to follow.

I now have 77 HD and some godly amount of SD! :up:

The Maxtor drive is kinda noisy...but I'll learn to live with it... :down:

Paul

[weaknees]

Did you set the Maxtor to /quiet mode with amset? That'll take the noise down a bit for non-QuickView drives.

Michael

[av8tor2]

No, I didn't do that...guess I'll be taking the drives out of the TIVO this weekend...

Thanks for the information!

Paul

[RF_Eng]

I added a 250GB drive to the original master several moths ago. Started to recently experience strutting so I went and purchased (2) 300Gb drives to replace both 250s. Is there any way to preserve recordings and still use the full capacity of these drives. I can only hook 4 devices to my computer and 1 of them must be the CDROM, I can put the original Tivo A on hda and the (2) 300Gbs on hdb and hdc. What happens to the shows that were on the 2nd 250Gb drive (Tivo B). Would using dd to transfer the contents from each 250 GB drive to its replacement 300gb drive work, and then used BlessTivo and mfsadd. TY.

I have located a computer that has 4 IDE slots so I can hook all 4 drives and a CDROM drive together. I can now issue the following command

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

I now need to find out if I need to do a mfsadd and or a BlessTivo to take advantage of the extra 50MB per drive.

[RF_Eng]

bump

[pmaddock]

Did you set the Maxtor to /quiet mode with amset? That'll take the noise down a bit for non-QuickView drives.

Michael

Side note: For some reason AMset doesn't work with the newer Maxtor drives (DiamondMax10).

[pmaddock]

I added a 250GB drive to the original master several moths ago. Started to recently experience strutting so I went and purchased (2) 300Gb drives to replace both 250s. Is there any way to preserve recordings and still use the full capacity of these drives. I can only hook 4 devices to my computer and 1 of them must be the CDROM, I can put the original Tivo A on hda and the (2) 300Gbs on hdb and hdc. What happens to the shows that were on the 2nd 250Gb drive (Tivo B). Would using dd to transfer the contents from each 250 GB drive to its replacement 300gb drive work, and then used BlessTivo and mfsadd. TY.

I have located a computer that has 4 IDE slots so I can hook all 4 drives and a CDROM drive together. I can now issue the following command

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

I now need to find out if I need to do a mfsadd and or a BlessTivo to take advantage of the extra 50MB per drive.

I'm hoping that someone will pop out now and correct me but as far as I know once you add a drive you are stuck with the size combination due to the partitioning scheme issues. Your only option for using the larger combination would likely involve losing all existing recordings.

[pbolya]

I'm hoping that someone will pop out now and correct me but as far as I know once you add a drive you are stuck with the size combination due to the partitioning scheme issues. Your only option for using the larger combination would likely involve losing all existing recordings.
He still has the original partition structure on the A drive so he has one more MFS partition par to go. On the B drive he has only one MFS partition par used (I assume) so he has planny left. So I do not see why DD-ing his original 250GB disks to the new 300GB disks and using mfsadd to add an extra 50GB partition to both of his new drives would not work.

Also you can attach just the A drive and 1 of the new 300GB disks to your computer. DD it over and use mfsadd to add 50GB to your new disk. Than disconnect the 2 drives and do the same for the B drive and the other new drive. As long as you do not boot the TiVo until you finished with all drives it should be fine.

This whole procedure should not take more than 2 days :D

Regards,
Peter

[pbolya]

I added a 250GB drive to the original master several moths ago. Started to recently experience strutting so I went and purchased (2) 300Gb drives to replace both 250s. Is there any way to preserve recordings and still use the full capacity of these drives. I can only hook 4 devices to my computer and 1 of them must be the CDROM, I can put the original Tivo A on hda and the (2) 300Gbs on hdb and hdc. What happens to the shows that were on the 2nd 250Gb drive (Tivo B). Would using dd to transfer the contents from each 250 GB drive to its replacement 300gb drive work, and then used BlessTivo and mfsadd. TY.

I have located a computer that has 4 IDE slots so I can hook all 4 drives and a CDROM drive together. I can now issue the following command

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

I now need to find out if I need to do a mfsadd and or a BlessTivo to take advantage of the extra 50MB per drive.The x option in mfsrestore will automatically add a new partition to max the drive out. You do not need to use mfsadd or BlessTivo.

Regards,
Peter

[RF_Eng]

Thanks for the replies. I figured it would take a while to dd the 2 drives over so I will attemp this procedure this weekend. I will report back if it works.

[David Ortiz]

I'm upgrading my 2nd HR10-250. This one was stuttering and rebooting. The plan was to go with 2 300GB hard drives and save recordings. They shipped a day apart, so I started by replacing the A drive with a 300GB drive.

mfsbackup showed read errors on the drive. The restore completed. Popped the new drive in the TiVo and can view recordings, but no Live TV.

I'm not sure where to go next. I now have the second new drive and was planning on adding the drive with the BlessTiVo command, but I'm not sure if that will work or not.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

David Ortiz

[weaknees]

First, BlessTiVo won't work in this situation - but we have info here to help you deal with this:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Next, you should try making a backup from your other HR10-250, restoring it to one of these drives, and doing a "Clear and delete everything" to get it to reserialize. Then see if you can see live TV. That way, you know if it's the backup or the unit.

Michael

[David Ortiz]

It seems strange that you cannot follow the steps to Replace with one drive and then at a later time, Add a drive.

Anyway, in hopes of trying to save recordings, I'm trying to find more information about dd_rescue. So far, I've only found this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=190306&highlight=dd_rescue) which I'm not done reading yet, but I wanted to get this reply out while people were around.

Again, thanks

David Ortiz

[David Ortiz]

I used dd_rescue on the original drive. So now I've got a 300GB drive with a copy of the original drive on it. I have a second 300GB drive.

I'm off for a haircut in a few minutes, but I'll leave this question. I plan to put the new drive with copy of original in the TiVo (HR10-250 for those not following) to make sure it works. Then, I want to add the other drive. Should I use the add a drive option? Should I use mfsadd first on the new drive to gain the extra 50GB? Do I need a third drive to do a replace with two drives upgrade?

Thanks for any input,

David Ortiz

[David Ortiz]

First, BlessTiVo won't work in this situation - but we have info here to help you deal with this:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Next, you should try making a backup from your other HR10-250, restoring it to one of these drives, and doing a "Clear and delete everything" to get it to reserialize. Then see if you can see live TV. That way, you know if it's the backup or the unit.

Michael


Well the dd_rescue worked, and after a green screen for three hours, the TiVo rebooted. After going through guided setup again, things are back up.

I have a question, though. If I follow the instructions on the upgrade-instructions site, the first step in the replace with two drives is to do the mfsbackup/mfsrestore from the original drive to the new A drive. Is it okay to put that drive back in the TiVo like I did with my new drive? The second step is to run blesstivo from the Tyger CD on the B drive and then add it. Can I now do that and pick up from there?

Thanks,

David Ortiz

[Richard Chalk]

When I first got my HR10-250, I made an image of the HD, and saved it as "tivoHD.bak". Then I copied this file to a CD-ROM for safekeeping (no subdirectory, it's in the root of the CD).

Now, I want to restore the image to a new Seagate 300 GB Primary Drive, but I don't know how to construct the MFSRESTORE command line to access the CD-ROM drive, and read the file.

For reference, the CD-ROM drive containing the image is the secondary slave (HDD) and the new 300GB drive is the Primary Slave (HDB) The Tools disk is in the first CD-ROM drive, which is the secondary Master position (HDC)

Can someone please help me with the command line structure to restore from the CD, or, alternatively, the steps to copy the image file to the primary HD (HDA), including creating the proper directory and sub-directory, so that the default command line will work?

Thanks for your assistance.

Richard

[pbolya]

When I first got my HR10-250, I made an image of the HD, and saved it as "tivoHD.bak". Then I copied this file to a CD-ROM for safekeeping (no subdirectory, it's in the root of the CD).

Now, I want to restore the image to a new Seagate 300 GB Primary Drive, but I don't know how to construct the MFSRESTORE command line to access the CD-ROM drive, and read the file.

For reference, the CD-ROM drive containing the image is the secondary slave (HDD) and the new 300GB drive is the Primary Slave (HDB) The Tools disk is in the first CD-ROM drive, which is the secondary Master position (HDC)

Can someone please help me with the command line structure to restore from the CD, or, alternatively, the steps to copy the image file to the primary HD (HDA), including creating the proper directory and sub-directory, so that the default command line will work?

Thanks for your assistance.

RichardRichard,
I do not know if anybody helped you with this problem yet but if you have a FAT32 hard drive you can simply copy the file to the root directory (C:/) in either dos or even windows before you boot to linux. Than when you attach that drive to the primary master the standard commands (HDA) will work. You can also read from the CD rom but this method is much easier (provided that you have a FAT32 hard drive and enough space on it).

Regards,
Peter

[TivoLouco]

I would like to know how many partitions are on the hard drive and what type of partitions they are. I have used the mfstools to clone the Tivo drive several times and every one of the copiies worked. I have decided to leanr Linux now and installed Progeny Debian Linux for text mode only on a small 40-GB drive. I have tried to see the Tivo drives when I boot into the Devian Linux system, but have not been able to see the Tivo drive. That is the reason I asked about the partitions on the Tivo drive. Are they different than the Linux ext2 partitions that I created on the Tivo system drive? And, if I am not upseting anyone, in which partition are the recordings on the Tivo drive? Thanks for any repplies.

[gamecox86]

Could someone provide me the instructions for installing networking on the HR10-250?

[dswallow]

Could someone provide me the instructions for installing networking on the HR10-250?
http://www.imbetterthanyou.com/hr10-250/

[gamecox86]

http://www.imbetterthanyou.com/hr10-250/

Thanks!!!

[muadib]

Has anyone used Seagate drives in their upgrade, or is this a no-no?

[weaknees]

We do it all the time. Our 83 hour units use one Seagate and one WD drive (the drive that came in the unit) and our 103 hour units use two Seagate 400 GB drives.

Michael

[gamecox86]

http://www.imbetterthanyou.com/hr10-250/

OK, I've about worked up the nerve to try this. Here is my current situation. My original WD drive was stuttering (play 2 seconds hang for 5). I tried a clear and delete (might have just been on thumb rating/season passes), it stayed on that "clear and delete" screen for several days, even if I powered off/on.

I have a weeknees 300gb drop in replacement drive in hand, but am reluctant to start mucking with it right off the bat. I picked up a Maxtor 200 gb from Staples for $70, so I may do my experimenting with it, using the weeknees drive as the source of my OS software.

Should I do the network install using the original version of the OS? Or should I force upgrade calls to get it to a later version before installing networking? If so, which version?

Do the steps included in the guide above stop the nag screens? If not can someone point me to how to do that?

[dswallow]

You can't use a 200GB drive; you have to start with a drive that's at least as big as the drive where the image you're using was loaded, and no HR10-250's have ever had less than a 250GB drive.

I'm afraid I can't be of much help; I've not bothered to do it yet myself -- maybe in June/July I'll have the time. THe instructions on that page seem pretty version-specific though, as is everything I've seen about the various patches needed to do things like disable encryption, etc. But there might be versions specific to the latest HR10-250 software release you need to use. You'll have to check over in that other unmentionable hacking forum for answers, I fear. ;)

[TivoLouco]

I purchased the Suse 9.3 version of Linux and installed on a spare hard drive. Now I am wondering whether I can copy the MFS Tools from the Weakness CD to the hard drive to run my backups and restores from the hard drive. Has anyone done this? Thanks!

[weaknees]

That should work, especially for this model TiVo. For older models, you'd need an older kernel so that you wouldn't format too much of the drive for the older kernel in the TiVo OS's Linux.

Bottom line is that you don't need to download the CD - you can just download mfstool and install that.

Michael

[TivoLouco]

Thanks, Michael! Will follow your advice and download the tools for installation on my Linux hard drive.

[TivoLouco]

Sorry to bother you again, Michael, but I can't find MFS Tools for download, except for the version that is used to create a bootable CDROM. Can you help me with a link? Thanks!

[jerrymc]

Sorry to bother you again, Michael, but I can't find MFS Tools for download, except for the version that is used to create a bootable CDROM. Can you help me with a link? Thanks!

I've done this on my RedHat Linux 8.0 system and it works fine. You need Tiger's statically linked binaries for MFSTools 2.0. You can down load them from here (http://mfstools.sourceforge.net/) .

Regards,
Jerry

[Richard Chalk]

Has anyone used Seagate drives in their upgrade, or is this a no-no?

I just completed upgrading to two Seagate 300 GB Drives, with no problem (after I discovered the updated instructions for drives greater than 250 GB).

I was drawn by the 5-year warranty, and was able to get them for $119.00 each (after rebate).

An interesting side-note here is the power consumption of the new drives. The original WD is rated as follows:

5 VDC @ 0.75 A = 3.75 Watts
12 VDC @ 0.90 A = 10.8 Watts

Total 14.55 Watts

The Seagate 300 GB drives are rated:

5 VDC @ 0.46 A = 2.30 Watts
12 VDC @ 0.56 A = 6.72 Watts

Total 9.02 Watts.

Total for 2 drives is 18.04 Watts, which is only slightly more than the older single drive. Much cooler running, and less load on power supply, should both add to the life of the unit.

Richard

[muadib]

I ordered two Seagate 300 GB Drives myself, but I don't know if I want to do the upgrade now. I'm in the NYC market, and if rumors are true, then shouldn't DTV be making some sort of swap soon? What do you guys think?

[weaknees]

Considering that there isn't even a prototype of a replacement box out there, we don't think there will be any new hardware any time soon. We think it'll be quite a while.

[HDLouco]

I ordered two Seagate 300 GB Drives myself, but I don't know if I want to do the upgrade now. I'm in the NYC market, and if rumors are true, then shouldn't DTV be making some sort of swap soon? What do you guys think?

The last thing I heard about the new HD DVR for MPEG-4 is that it won't be available until the end of 2005 or after. Based on the delay of the 10-250, it probably won't be offered until the middle of 2006. But, I could be wrong! Hope I am!

[muadib]

Considering that there isn't even a prototype of a replacement box out there, we don't think there will be any new hardware any time soon. We think it'll be quite a while.Have you heard who will be making it?

And what about regular HDTV receivers? Any word on those?

[Mikehdtv]

NDS is making the HD mpeg4 box and Ucentric is making the new Home Media Center
HD/DVR

[swinotai]

Hello Guys... I was wondering if you could help me a little with my hd10-250 upgrade. I am upgrading to 2 x Seagate 400GB. I have followed the Hinsdale and Weaknees instructions three times already, and I am completely stumped.

I have backed up my original A drive and restored it to my upgraded A drive just fine. I plugged it into my Tivo and it worked fine. I expanded the drive and it sees the 50hrs/337hr just fine. It's when I put in the second drive is when it loops with the, "Welcome. Powering up..." -> "Just a second later" loop.

I have followed the Hinsdale instructions. I put in the command "mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb" And it goes to the loop right away after putting in the B drive.

I have followed the Weaknees instructions, and it will loop right after the same mfsadd command. The only difference between the weaknees and the hinsdale instructions for the B drive is that on the Weaknees instructions, I have to Bless the B drive before putting in the "mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb" command.

I have tried the A -> A + B instructions and the A -> larger A, then adding the B drive, but they all seem to fail because of this mfsadd command. Can anyone help me? Thanks! I am running Tivo version 3.1. I just purchased the Tivo last week.

Sam

[weaknees]

This is a pretty complicated issue, but basically the problem is that you have to bless the B drive and add it to the UNEXPANDED A drive in the TiVo, and boot the unit. Then, you power down and mfsadd the extra space on each drive.

So the first round uses only 250 GB of the A drive and 137 GB of the B drive. Then the mfsadd uses the remaining space on each drive.

You'll have to reformat your A drive to make this work.

Michael

[swinotai]

wow.. thanks for the very quick response. So just for clarity, I have to restore (don't expand) my A drive, Bless my B drive, THEN expand both drives? Can I just do a restore to the A drive, or do I actually have to reformat? Thanks!!

Sam

[JamieP]

This is a pretty complicated issue, but basically the problem is that you have to bless the B drive and add it to the UNEXPANDED A drive in the TiVo, and boot the unit. Then, you power down and mfsadd the extra space on each drive.

So the first round uses only 250 GB of the A drive and 137 GB of the B drive. Then the mfsadd uses the remaining space on each drive.There's an easier way that several people have tried and have reported success with: use "-r 4" with mfsadd when creating partitions > 274GB. This avoids the need for the BlessTivo step. It should work with partition sizes up to 1TB. reference (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2842298&&#post2842298).

[swinotai]

Thanks weaknees and JamieP for the solution!

Weaknees, thanks for the advice, but that solution didn't work for me. After saying what to do, it still went through the looping. =( However, JamieP's solution worked. Thanks again... both of you!

Sam

[weaknees]

We haven't fully embraced the "-r 4" routine yet, but many users are reporting success with it.

Michael

[JamieP]

We haven't fully embraced the "-r 4" routine yet, but many users are reporting success with it.Yes, I guess it's worth pointing out that the BlessTivo approach has been around longer and is less "experimental".

[svandive]

All,

I have recently purchased a HR10-250, but I purchased a NR10 not too long before this new purchase.

My questions simple really, but I was having a hard figuring out how to search the forum for an answer so I figured best to ask...

Any way. Since I have not too long ago made everybody in the family suffer through losing everything we had on our old SAT T60 to move to the R10, I don't want to do this to them all again. So I want to pull the shows I have on my R10 and put them on the new HR10-250. I have also been playing with the idea of getting networking setup (via, killhdinitrd ) and or adding another 250 gig drive to the HR10-250. I mention this simply to say that I am already in a position to pull the drives (R10 / HR10-250) and play with them in my linux box so I figure if I can save the shows all the better.

Well thanks for the help...

Scott

[aaronwt]

440hrs!?!! :eek: :eek:

[cjb]

wow.. thanks for the very quick response. So just for clarity, I have to restore (don't expand) my A drive, Bless my B drive, THEN expand both drives? Can I just do a restore to the A drive, or do I actually have to reformat? Thanks!!

Sam

I replaced my 250 Gig A drive with a 300 Gig A drive (I did do a backup and have it still), and already ran mfsadd to get the extra space. Does this mean that I have to go back to the original "virgin" 250Gig backup in order to add another 300 Gig drive in?

Ie:

- Restore the original 250Gig image to the current 300Gig A drive (blowing away the current settings/recordings).
- Bless the new 300 Gig B drive.
- Put them in the Tivo, let it boot.
- Take them back out, then mfsadd the two drives together.

Do I understand this correctly? If this is true, then it sounds like you can only mfsadd once on a Tivo? Or maybe the 250Gig limit is the problem?

-CJ

[boiler11]

I replaced my 250 Gig A drive with a 300 Gig A drive (I did do a backup and have it still), and already ran mfsadd to get the extra space. Does this mean that I have to go back to the original "virgin" 250Gig backup in order to add another 300 Gig drive in?

Ie:

- Restore the original 250Gig image to the current 300Gig A drive (blowing away the current settings/recordings).
- Bless the new 300 Gig B drive.
- Put them in the Tivo, let it boot.
- Take them back out, then mfsadd the two drives together.

Do I understand this correctly? If this is true, then it sounds like you can only mfsadd once on a Tivo? Or maybe the 250Gig limit is the problem?

-CJ


Just a few posts back (#1623 (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2945171&&#post2945171)) JamieP mentioned using the "-r 4" option with mfsadd which should allow you to just add the extra drive without jumping through all the hoops. By saying "just a few posts back", I wasn't trying to be rude, just telling you where to find it.

Sean.

[cjb]

Just a few posts back (#1623 (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2945171&&#post2945171)) JamieP mentioned using the "-r 4" option with mfsadd which should allow you to just add the extra drive without jumping through all the hoops. By saying "just a few posts back", I wasn't trying to be rude, just telling you where to find it.

Sean.

Thanks. Yea, I saw that, but was looking for some clarification on if you can mfsadd twice on a single Tivo. That's basically what I'm trying to do...

I guess worst case, I'll have to restore back to the original backup image... I'll give it a shot this weekend...

[johnvv]

Question on mfsbackup and BlessTiVo behavior. Also need to know how to reformat or delete linux partitions on upgrade drives.

Recently started work on upgrading my HR10-250 to 2 x 300GB Seagate drives. All was going well until the drive motor of the B drive died after testing mfsrestore and marrying the drives (per the tivo.upgrade-instructions for my scenario). Got a replacement Seagate for the failed one, andnow have good copy of the A drive but a virgin B drive. Re-blessing the new B led to the GSOD and the HR10-250 could not recover. So, I decided to re-start from the beginning of the instructions to ensure clean copies and configs for each drive.

Couple of questions:

1. Does the command:

mfsbackup - Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -zi - /dev/hdc

completely delete all info on /dev/hdc? Or, if there is an extra partition on drive, from when A + B we married prior to B failing, will it still be there after the copy is complete?

2. If the the command in #1 (above) does not wipe the target, how do I do that to get the new A drive ready and clean (i.e. reset it) prior to starting a new copy of the original A drive (per #1).

3. The command:

BlessTiVo /dev/hdd

appears to add three partitions to the target B drive. If an attemtped marry of this drive has failed, will re-blessing it 'reset' the partition and drive info for a subsequent marrying attempt? If not, what needs to be done to reset it to a virgin bare drive for the BlessTiVo command to work and the new marrying to be successful?

Finally, I've run BlessTivo on a drive a 300GB drive that had a copy of the original A drive. The 'bless' reprteed 279GB available. Previous blessing of another 300GB drive that did not have a copy of A on it only reported 127 GB. Why the difference? Again, both these blessing occured prior to ever running an mfsadd on either drive.

Thanks for any help.

[FlopShot]

Has anyone been able to get a wireless network connection running on an HR10-250 running 3.1.5f? I was running a Cat5 to the HDTivo via a Netgear FA120 but I just moved into a new house and the HDTivo is nowhere near my network router. I tried using the 2.4.20 kernel backport method to load the wireless drivers for that kernel and it royally screwed up my unit, I had to re-image it from scratch. I previously had my HDVR2 running wireless on a Belkin F5D6050 but I will purchase whatever wireless adaptor I need for the HR10-250. I searched this forum (and the other one too) and it doesn't seem like anyone has found a foolproof method yet. Anyone out here have any luck?

[bfdhe]

Has anyone been able to get a wireless network connection running on an HR10-250 running 3.1.5f?

Since the HR10-250 cannot do wireless, I use the supported Linksys USB200M and plug it into a Dlink Wireless Bridge (DWL-G810).

This gives me wireless on my HR10-250. As a matter of fact, all 4 of my TiVos are connected the same way.

[sbarrier]

With the latest price drop, I'm about ready to take the HD TIVO plunge. I'd like to add a second drive and have just begun reading about what steps to perform.

I've read the weaknees upgrade instructions 3x and just want to make sure that I have it correct. (I want to add a new 300GB drive to the HD TIVO w/o a backup).

Simplified Instructions
1. Install 300GB hdd in PC
2. Boot of off Weaknees Boot CD
3. run "BlessTiVo /dev/hda"
4. Install 300GB hdd in HD TIVO

This should give me ~ 550GB (250GB from original drive + 300GB from newly "blessed" drive). Is that it? Seems to be fairly easy as long as you follow the instructions carefully? If I'm upgrading a new unit, is there any reason to make a backup?

Also, in the post directly above mine, someone mentions connecting the HD TIVO via wireless NIC. Why would you do this? Can you share the files off of it?

Thanks,

Shon

[weaknees]

That's basically right. Just be careful since you're upgrading without a backup.

[FlopShot]

Since the HR10-250 cannot do wireless, I use the supported Linksys USB200M and plug it into a Dlink Wireless Bridge (DWL-G810).

This gives me wireless on my HR10-250. As a matter of fact, all 4 of my TiVos are connected the same way.

I was trying to do this without a bridge but I think I might have to go that route. Someone in the other forum got wireless working on an HR10-250, but he had to manipulate the kernel all over the place, which is how I screwed up my machine trying to mimic him. UBid.com has a Motorola 802.11g bridge for just $54 so it's not worth my hassle messing with the kernel anymore. Thanks.

[Vivid]

With help from the guys from the HD Tivo section I think my HD in my HR10-250 is dying and I need to swap it out. I can get a 320 gb hd for $120, if I do a direct copy of my current HD onto a new HD will it work ok? Or should I follow the steps in the Weaknees interactive upgrade site? thanks, I'm looking for the easiest way to replace a dying HD with out using D* credits to get anew Hr250 when MPEG 4 is not far a way...

[weaknees]

Not sure what kind of direct copy you'd use, but our instructions are basically that, but they make it simple and potentially much faster. If you are considering something like Norton Ghost, don't bother, it won't work.

[Vivid]

thanks weakness. One qu about the HDs, is there an optimal speed, cache for the drives? I am looking at a maxtor maxline plusII 5400rpm and 2mb cache and althought I want to be a cheap as possible but I don't want to run into a bunch of problems just to save $20.

[weaknees]

Basically, speed and cache don't matter here. Most TiVos over the years have shipped with 5400 RPM drives, and while the HR10-250 shipped with 7200 RPM drives, we have used dual 5400s (and single) without any problems. The limiting factor is really the motherboard and not the speed of the drives. As far as the cache, moving this much data through the drive constantly pretty much renders the cache useless.

So save the money, and you should be fine.

[Vivid]

thanks a million

[Deftones17]

So how hard is it to upgrade one of these units. I've got one coming tomorrow, and I am considering upgrading it.

I'm not computer expert, but I've added hard drives, disk drives and ram to my existing system(s) before.

I'd rather not pay to have it done (sorry weaknees ;) ) but I'd rather not screw up my new machine. I think the only real part that worries me is the software side. I've always been good with hardware, just not software.

[weaknees]

No problem here - just be careful to make a backup, don't boot into XP or newer Windows with your TiVo drive connected, and read carefully.

And if you have a problem, post here and you're sure to get some help quickly.

[Deftones17]

I guess I forgot to add a question mark. How hard is it? With someone with a workable knowledge of computers, that is.

[aaronwt]

You could always buy your own drives, send them to be upgraded and buy the bracket and additional fan and they will be sent back with the instructions. This is what I did through Weaknees. It took me 25 minutes for the install on my first unit since I was being extra careful. My second HdTiVo took me less than 10 minutes for the upgrade.

[weaknees]

Well, we do it every day, so it seems easy to us. If you've booted into Linux or even used DOS a bit, the CLI should be familiar. We like to think our instructions make it pretty easy to walk-through. Based on the number of people who use the site and the number who ask questions here and directly by email, we think it must not be too hard.

[dtebbe]

We do it all the time. Our 83 hour units use one Seagate and one WD drive (the drive that came in the unit) and our 103 hour units use two Seagate 400 GB drives.

Michael

Michael,
Is there any problem with replacing the stock 250gb drive with a single 400gb drive? If not, I assume you just follow the standard backup and restore process?

TIA
DT

[weaknees]

Yup - a single 400 works just fine.

[dtebbe]

Yup - a single 400 works just fine.

And sorry for the stupid question, but I prep is no different that when I upgraded my R10 drive to a single 300gb?

1. Make backup image
2. Restore backup image to 400gb drive
3. test backup image in Tivo (should still show 250gb capacity)
4. expand drive using mfsadd
5. install & enjoy

For some reason I was thinking you could not go bigger than 300gb, not sure why..

DT

[weaknees]

We don't think there's any reason to test before expansion - that step doesn't ever seem to be one that can cause problems. Our info here has the details:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Just be sure to use the "-r 4" switch so that you'll get the 400 GB drive working properly.

[Robdec]

Can some one help me out with a quick question. All I want to do is add a 250GB drive to my HR10-250. I have see two ways of doing it.

1) Weaknees says put both drives in a PC and boot off the cd and after doing some basic stuff ( backup etc. ) run " mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ "

2) Then I have seen others that just say put the new drive in the PC boot off the cd then run " BlessTiVo /dev/hdc" and put it in the tivo as a slave and be done.

Whats the correct way if there is one or do they both work.. Thanks

[dtebbe]

We don't think there's any reason to test before expansion - that step doesn't ever seem to be one that can cause problems. Our info here has the details:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

Just be sure to use the "-r 4" switch so that you'll get the 400 GB drive working properly.

thanks so much for the tips, I really appreciate it. I had used another ISO before, but since your directions are so specific I will definately use your ISO and instructions. Hopefully all will go well.

Is there any advantage to doing the backup before the reciever gets activated? I have a "Professional installer" coming out to "install" this unit tomorrow, and somehow I think he is going to insist on activating it before he leaves.

Thanks again, you guys are the best!
DT

[slocko]

hi guys. any one know of any sales on 250 or 300 drives? will be hooking up my 2nd HD tivo soon and want to upgrade it before I schedule any recordings on it.

[weaknees]

dtebbe-

It really doesn't matter, but you might wait until after the unit gets "installed" just on the off chance that if you work on it beforehand and have a problem, then your install gets scuttled.

[dtebbe]

dtebbe-

It really doesn't matter, but you might wait until after the unit gets "installed" just on the off chance that if you work on it beforehand and have a problem, then your install gets scuttled.

I just wanted to thank you for your tips. I installed the single 400gb drive today using your image and instructions with no problems. Reported capacity after upgrade was 50hrs HD, 337 hrs SD.

Thanks again, you guys have awesome service!

DT

[jello25944]

Here's what I did. I just wanted to add a 200gig drive to my existing 250gig drive. I took the new drive to my PC at work, but the CD told me that I couldn't do BlessTiVo on the new drive in the hda position, and I couldnt put in in the hdb position without a master... So I took out my original drive and took it to work with me. I put the original drive as the master at hda, and the new drive as slave at hdb. I just typed in "BlessTiVo /dev/hdb" and it was done within 3 seconds. I put the drives into my HD Tivo, and it shows like, 57 hours HD, so it reflects 450 gigs. Super easy. Just dont forget to type in BlessTiVo, with the capital B, T, and V.


Can some one help me out with a quick question. All I want to do is add a 250GB drive to my HR10-250. I have see two ways of doing it.

1) Weaknees says put both drives in a PC and boot off the cd and after doing some basic stuff ( backup etc. ) run " mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdZ "

2) Then I have seen others that just say put the new drive in the PC boot off the cd then run " BlessTiVo /dev/hdc" and put it in the tivo as a slave and be done.

Whats the correct way if there is one or do they both work.. Thanks

[gsnethen]

My HR10-250 started hanging, recording partial shows and responding extremely slowly (many minutes) to remote control input.

I suspected a bad drive, so I pulled it out to make a backup using the PTVupgrade's large disk version of mfstool. When my PC booted with the TiVo drive, my BIOS warned me that the SMART hardware on the TiVo drive indicated it was failing. Theory confirmed.

Unfortunately, when I attempt a backup, mfstool hangs on the line "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment." and the drive activity light eventually changes from steady on to flashing -- (probably indicating read errors and retries?)

Does anyone have a backed up image of an HR10-250 that they are willing to share with me? I'm legally licensed to use the software and I'm an active paying subscriber to TiVo's service. I just want to repair the damage myself at minimum cost and delay.

If you need proof of my ownership, I'd be happy to send you photos or verify the directory contents on the TiVo's drive (which I can still mount).

Thanks!

---Gary

[boiler11]

You can buy one here (link) (http://downloads.ptvupgrade.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PLST) for $20.

[gsnethen]

You can buy one here (link) for $20.


Thanks for the link! I'll keep it as an avenue of last resort.

It concerns me that some companies (including TiVo, I must assume) are profiting off of distributing duplicate copies of software to existing users, while those same users are being actively prevented from exchanging the software they've already paid for in order to repair their own drives when they fail.

I'm sad to say that TiVo has lost several points on my consumer satisfaction scale today. Given that I paid $1000 for my TiVo, it certainly doesn't seem worth whatever share of the $20 they get (if any).

---Gary

[gsnethen]

Thanks for the link! I'll keep it as an avenue of last resort.

It concerns me that some companies (including TiVo, I must assume) are profiting off of distributing duplicate copies of software to existing users, while those same users are being actively prevented from exchanging the software they've already paid for in order to repair their own drives when they fail.

---Gary

Hmm... I just read InstantCake's licensing agreement:

"InstantCake software is released and distributed under the GNU General Public License, you are free to copy, modify and redistribute it in accordance with the GPL. ..."

Are there copies of the HR10-250 (HDTV 3.1.5f) version of InstantCake available for download? Can anyone give me a pointer to one?

---Gary

[Richard Chalk]

My HR10-250 started hanging, recording partial shows and responding extremely slowly (many minutes) to remote control input.

I suspected a bad drive, so I pulled it out to make a backup using the PTVupgrade's large disk version of mfstool. When my PC booted with the TiVo drive, my BIOS warned me that the SMART hardware on the TiVo drive indicated it was failing. Theory confirmed.

Unfortunately, when I attempt a backup, mfstool hangs on the line "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment." and the drive activity light eventually changes from steady on to flashing -- (probably indicating read errors and retries?)

Does anyone have a backed up image of an HR10-250 that they are willing to share with me? I'm legally licensed to use the software and I'm an active paying subscriber to TiVo's service. I just want to repair the damage myself at minimum cost and delay.

If you need proof of my ownership, I'd be happy to send you photos or verify the directory contents on the TiVo's drive (which I can still mount).

Thanks!

---Gary
I have a backup copy from a recent machine which I will send you for the cost of postage, but I will not be home until Sept 7 or 8, so you will have to wait a few days.

Please note that if you use an image from a different machine, you have to do a "clear and delete everything" before the unit will work correctly.

Mine is a Version E, but you will be able to update once you are up-and-running.

Please let me know by PM if you want it, and your mailing address

[alexcue]

dtebbe-

It really doesn't matter, but you might wait until after the unit gets "installed" just on the off chance that if you work on it beforehand and have a problem, then your install gets scuttled.

Thanks for your guide and advice. I waited a day till trying the update on the off chance i may have a bum unit. I did notice "hiccups" (a pause with black screen of about 3 to 8 seconds) occur while recording Prison Break last night on FoxHD. It would occur every few minutes but stopped after about 45 minutes into the show. What's interesting is i was recording Joey in HD at the same time and it was fine. This was the first time i had seen this, and the only time. I've read other threads on the issue, but i'm hoping it's not a sign of a bad hard drive. I kept watching it late last night and it did not reproduce itself. I checked the recordings it made early this morning and they are all fine.

So i went ahead and did a backup and added thru your excellent directions a Maxtor QV 300GB drive. Since i do these backups on an office computer that still runs Win98, I'll have to check it when i get home in a few hours.

Was very quick and painless. The hardest part? it was not the computer part but putting the bracket into the HR10 correctly!

[jkast]

I have my weaknees bracket and twinbreeze as well as a new hard drive.

Have read through the instructions on the Tivo.upgrade-instructions.com site several times.

Have downloaded the boot cd image from http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso
to my desktop.

I have both DVD+R and CD-RW media at home, but not a CD-R. The drive writes to both.

1 Can I actually build a boot drive from either of these media? (I tried both but when the power up sequence -- which is looking for a cd boot -- gets there it does not find a bootable device.)?

2 Can I just drag and drop the .iso image on the device in my computer using XP? (Seems to write something, but does not boot with either media)?

3 I have an older release of Nero which I used to format the CD-RW media and then proceed to burn the CD-RW drive with the .iso file -- no joy. I specified the write data file option in Nero.

4 I used the same software to burn the DVD+R again selecting "data" as opposed to video or music or whatever..... Again the media is not recognized as bootable by the bios when it searches the optical drive...


I assume I am doing things wrong... could just be not having a cd-r disk, but clearly need help.... :confused:

[azitnay]

You can't simply burn the ISO as a file to a data disc. You need to burn it as an image.

Your Nero software should do the trick... Look for "Burn Image" or the like on the File menu.

Drew

[jkast]

Thanks. I got a bootable weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso image on cd and can successfully (I think) boot into Linux. (I get the Welcome to the WeaKnees Custom Boot CD! /Includes Large Drive Support ... message.)

Do I need to format (FAT) the drive I am planning to add?

Even though the system is booting from the CD drive, I get the message that it is attempting and failing to mount the CD drive multiple times (Trying to mount the CD-ROM, try 1 and so on).

I also get a message "EXT@-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended" followed by "Mounted root (ext2 filesystem)" and Welcome to the rescue disk" Then come the trying to mount messages and "No CD-ROM found"

Then sh-2.05b#

When I type in the "mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb" I get the message "sh: mfsadd: command not found"

Hope someone can point me to the next thing to do....

[jkast]

Well, I switched to another computer and Voila! everything worked....

I now have the original WD 250 gb drive and a new Deskstar 500gb drive for an estimated 97 hours of HD recording time. Everything appears to be working very well.

Thank you so much TivoCommunity and WeaKnees!!!! I am delighted.

[Richard Chalk]

We use custom tools here to perform the dual 300 GB drive upgrades, but we'll outline some steps that should do the trick at home. We've tested this method only a bit, but it shares enough with our custom method that we're pretty certain it'll result in a stable upgrade.

The key is that mfstool won't work with partitions larger than 256 GB. So here's a D-I-Y method for making smaller partitions:

1 - Put the HR10-250 image on the 300 GB drive, without expansion. To do this, make a backup and restore the backup to the 300 GB drive under a newer Linux kernel (2.4.18 or newer). Make sure to use only "-zi" as the switch so that you don't expand the image to fill the drive:

mfstool -zi /tivo.bak /dev/hdX

2 - Bless the second 300 GB drive in "noswap" under an OLDER Linux Kernel - the standard boot CD is fine for this. This will create a 127 GB partition on the drive.

BlessTiVo /dev/hdY

3 - "Marry" the two drives by booting them in the HR10-250. You should be able to verify the extra hours in System Information (I don't have the exact number on me, but HD hours should be in the forties).

4 - Attach both drives back to the PC and boot in a NEWER kernel. Then run:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdY

This will force partitions using the extra space on each drive - and neither drive will have more than (or even close to) 256 GB of space left to partition out.

5 - Put them back in the TiVo and verify the hours.

That should do it!

Michael

I have used this procedure on an HR10-250 HD DirecTiVo, and the machine is working, but I don't see any mention of a Swap File setting.
Should there be a -s127 in this command line? Actually, I used MFSRestore. Is that different from MFSTool?
Thanks.

[mvita]

I thinking about adding a 400gb drive to my stock HR10-250 (keeping the original 250gb drive in place). I'm considering doing the upgrade myself using the WeaKnees upgrade kit. One concern I have is that I've seen references to potential swap space issues when adding hard drive capacity. Is this something I need to be concerned about with this upgrade? I don't see any mention of futzing with swap space in the instructions.

[Andrew_S]

Yes, you need to run the tpip command to initialize the swap space correctly. Unfortunately, tpip is not included on the weaknees boot cd.

See this... (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3156361&&#post3156361)

[mvita]

Andrew,

Thanks for the info.... Is there an recommended alternate boot CD I can download and use which does include the tpip command? (PTVupgrade CD?)

I'm a little confused about what "tpip" does... does tpip actually add more swap space? Does this extra swap space reside on the original drive or the new one? Is it possible to add swap space when adding a second drive and not lose recordings already present on my original A drive?

[Andrew_S]

Those are all very good questions, not sure I know the answers but I'll take a shot...

1. I don't know of an alternate boot cd. I replaced my 250 with a 400. I used the weaknees guide and cd, then booted into an actual linux install and ran the tpip command.

2. tpip doesn't add swap space, it just initializes swap partitions over 127 mb.

3. Using the weaknees guide, it doesn't appear you can add swap space when adding an addtional drive. You would need to backup your existing drive somewhere else, then restore the backup image to the 250 & 400 gb drives. Which as you can tell, is quite a bit of work. And that explains why I replaced my 250 with the 400 and didn't add a 2nd drive.

Maybe someone else can offer additional assistance without creating more headaches for you.

[J Finch57]

My daughters have filled the 250GB drive in 6 weeks and I'm ready to upgrade. Just curious, has anyone tried the Hitachi 500GB drive. Are there limitations to how far you can go? I'm looking at replacing the factory drive with a single 400 or 500, then adding a second down the line. Is that possible, or should I do it at the same time?

[Andrew_S]

My daughters have filled the 250GB drive in 6 weeks and I'm ready to upgrade. Just curious, has anyone tried the Hitachi 500GB drive. Are there limitations to how far you can go? I'm looking at replacing the factory drive with a single 400 or 500, then adding a second down the line. Is that possible, or should I do it at the same time?

I upgraded to a single 400gb Seagate, but if I was going to go dual I would have done it at the same time. Simply because it's easier to do it all at once.

If you plan ahead though, you can replace the 250 with a 500gb than add another drive later. When you create the swap partition, make sure you create it large enough for the final size. That is, if your replacing with a 400gb but intend to go to 800gb in the future, then create a 400mb swap partition. That way, when you add the new drive you won't have to backup to a third drive, then restore to the existing and the new drive.

[mvita]

Upon further review, I think that rather than just adding a second 400GB drive to my (stock) HR10-250, I'm going to bite the bullet and put two brand new drives in. So I've got a 300GB and a 400GB disk on order to serve as the new A and B drives. I plan to back up my original factory 250GB, and just put it on the shelf in case of emergency.

The other goal is that I want to preserve (copy) my existing recordings onto the new disk(s).

Basic question: since I'll have 700GB of total disk space after the upgrade, from what I gather, this means I should ideally allocate at least 350MB of swap space, is that right?

After reading some of the many threads on this topic, here's the mfstools and tpip commands I *think* I need to run to copy/expand my original A drive to the new A+B drives, and also initialize the swap properly... could some kind soul please sanity check these commands for me?

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 350 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

tpip -1 -s /dev/hda (assuming tpip v1.2 is being used)

where:hda = my new A drive (300GB)
hdb = my new B drive (400GB)
hdc = my original A drive (250GB)

Is this right?

My specific concerns/questions are:

1) the "-s 350" argument to mfsrestore should give me the proper 350MB of swap, correct?
2) is the "-r 4" argument to mfsrestore proper in this situation?
3) Is the correct argument to tpip just the new A drive device ("/dev/hda")? (i.e., the new B drive is not involved at all in this tpip operation?)

Thanks in advance....

[bfdhe]

Follow the instructions here and you will be fine:

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

[mvita]

I've looked at those weaknees instructions previously, but they don't seem to address the swap space issue...

[LarryInAz]

I've looked at those weaknees instructions previously, but they don't seem to address the swap space issue...

How recently did you look at them? I do believe they have added the various switches depending upon hard drive size[s].

[mvita]

Just now. :)

The page I got after answering the initial questions (model HR10-250, replace with two drives, save recordings) didn't have any mention of issues with large drive sizes, per se. The key command given on the page was as follows:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)
This would appear to create a 127MB swap partition, which I gather from reading elsewhere in this forum is insufficient to avoid potential GSOD problems down the road if you're going to have >250GB of total disk space after the upgrade.

There's also no mention there of using tpip.

[Andrew_S]

mvita, everything looks good from here. I think you're correct on the switches that need to be used and the tpip command.

[juskie]

Ok, I've looking at backing up my Direct TV HR10-250, and have searched here and other websites and have obtained lots of information, but I am having some trouble.

When using the mfsrestore command does the drive that you are restoring the image to need to be already partitioned and formated? If so with what format? I can't seem to find that info here or on Hinsdale's How to guide.

If not, then how does a 250 gb drive get formatted in 10-25 minutes using the mfsrestore command?

[weaknees]

Nope - the new drive doesn't need to be formatted at all. Mfstool does all of that as part of the restore.

It doesn't zero out the drive, it just sets up the partitions.

[mvita]

So I started the upgrade of my HR10-250 tonight, and I ran into a problem... I first did a backup of my original factory A drive using:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

This all went fine, no errors. Then, I decided to restore the backup to one of my new drives to test it, as recommended in the Hinsdale guide. I used the following command to restore:

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

The restore operation proceeded OK for quite a while, then I started to get a crapload of errors of the form:

mfs_read_inode: Inode XXXXXX corrupt, trying backup
mfs_read_inode: Inode XXXXXX backup corrupt, giving up

What's going on? Is my DOS partition (where the backup file was placed) bad? Or is there something wrong with the new drive that was being restored to?

[mvita]

Just to follow up on my own post above: I think my problem with the "corrupt inodes" error was due to bad arguments to "mfsrestore". I had -bzpi where I should have had -zxpi. I made another backup of my factory drive and restored it directly to my two new drives using -zxpi and now everything is peachy. I also used the -s 400 -r 4 arguments to mfsrestore to create a large swap, and initialized it with tpip. I now have my HR10-250 up and running with the two new drives (320GB+400GB=93 hours of HD). The only change I ended up making from the original plan was that I had to give up on preserving my existing recordings; I initially tried this option, but it ran 7+ hours overnight and was only about 20% complete! Ah well, I guess the upside is now I have even more space available... :)

[dmiraclejr]

Mvita,

Did you check to make sure the larger swap initalized for sure? If so, what commands did you use and did the swap take?

I have an active thread going right now trying to solve the problem of not getting any info from the log on the A drive when I use the "grep" command. I've had no responses in about a day and may end up having to put the drives back in and just hope that the larger swap file took?

Thanks,

Donnie

[shortkidd]

I have my HR10-250 and just ordered the bracket the add a second hard drive. The directions look easy enough to understand to replace the original hard drive with a new one and then add a second drive as long as I add the appropriate amount of swap.

I have not seen any documentation on adding a network adapter to the HR10-250. I was under the impression I could add a network adapter using the USB 2.0 ports. Is that the case? Does anyone have any links to a FAQ or instructions on this?

Thanks for your help.

Shortkidd

[mvita]

Donnie: you might try checking /var/log/Okernel in addition to /var/log/kernel. From what I gather, the "kernel" log file is kept pretty small, and new messages are moved fairly quickly to "Okernel". Here's what I got on my system:

bash-2.02# grep -i swap Okernel
Jan 2 00:00:15 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Jan 2 00:00:15 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 409592k swap-space (priority -1)
Jan 2 00:00:16 (none) kernel: Starting kswapd
Sep 16 16:39:51 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Sep 16 16:39:51 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 409592k swap-space (priority -1)
Sep 16 16:47:47 (none) kernel: Starting kswapd
Sep 16 16:47:47 (none) kernel: Activating swap partitions
Sep 16 16:47:47 (none) kernel: Adding Swap: 409592k swap-space (priority -1)

which I think looks right (409592k == 400MB).

[mvita]

Shortkidd, it is indeed possible to add a USB network adapter to the HDTiVo, though it requires that you modify the TiVo's OS somewhat. I got this working after I did my disk upgrade. I believe discussion of this sort of topic is frowned upon here, but here's a couple links to guides on other sites that can get you started:

Guide #1 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hdtivo/files/HDTIVO_Modification_HOW_TO/)

Guide #2 (http://www.imbetterthanyou.com/hr10-250/)

[shortkidd]

mvita,

thanks sir for directing me to the correct place. i had just seen those sites right before you responded.

thanks for your help.

cheers,
shortkidd

[dmiraclejr]

Mvita,

Thanks for the help but I still get no output to the screen. The computer still goes right back to the "Weaknees#" prompt. No errors, no words of any kind. Just right back to the prompt.

I'm so close to being finished with the upgrade but yet I feel so far away still. I'm just trying to see with my own eyes that the swap file is right and all the trouble I went to was worth it.

Thanks,

Donnie

[hr10-250]

hello,

I need help. I've followed the hinsdale guide and I thought I did it correctly. The problem I'm having is after adding a second 250g drive my tivo still reports only 30 hours of HD capacity. I know the mfsadd completed without error. I'll go back and read somemore but I was hoping someone here could help.

thanks

[hr10-250]

Okay.
My reasoning is that I must have done mfsadd wrong so I tried again. mfsadd comes back with success 300 hours added, but, when I try mfsinfo /dev/hdb I get mfsvol_read_data: Input/ouput error

Is my drive bad?

[HomeUser]

If you added a 'B' drive then mfsinfo needs to know where both drives are something like mfsinfo /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

[hr10-250]

The original tivo drive was hda and the second drive is hdb.

I tried mfsinfo /dev/hda and mfsinfo /dev/hdb. The second drive, hdb, came back with the error.


I remember that I did a blesstivo on the new drive. After reading more I'm not sure I should have done that. ...that is, mfsadd will format it.

Could this be the problem? If so, what can I do about it?

thanks

[HomeUser]

Include both drives with the 'A' drive first "mfsinfo /dev/hda /dev/hdb"

using blesstivo on the new drive should not be a problem mfsadd wipes it.

[Matt L]

OK, I finally got busy on this project, now I need some help.

At this point I have purchased 2 Seagate HD's, a 300g, and a 200g.

I successfully copied my old 250g Hd to the new drives, expanded the cache to 250m, verified with tpip. All in all it took 23 hours...

I successfully booted into the new drives, showed total of 63 hour in HD

I've pulled the drives out and have been beating my head against the wall to install the 3.1.5 kernel with killhdinitrd installed from the upgraded PPTV iso disk.

I discovered that the boot disk does not mount the CDROM after repeated attempts, used the command:

mount -o ro -t iso9660 /dev/hdd /cdrom

My setup is: HDA Tivo 300g A drive, HDB tivo 200g B drive, HDC drive 4.3g FAT 32 drive, HDD HP DVD ROM

I've mounted the HDC1 partition, and have used the following command:

cp /CDROM/s2_kernels/3.1.5/vmlinux.px.gz /tmp

gunzip vmlinux.px.gz

My boot partition is 3 since I'm on the F software. Issued the following command from the /tmp directory

dd if=vmlinux.px of=/dev/hdd3

Get the message :


1+1 records in
1+1 records out

After some time, then umount and reboot. I pull the drives and reinstall them in the tivo but I get caught in the "welcome" boot loop, unit reboots as soon as the red light comes on when I should go to " almost there".

Any suggestions???

(NOTE: I did back up the original kernel prior to doing anything...)

[scottym]

OK, I finally got busy on this project, now I need some help.

At this point I have purchased 2 Seagate HD's, a 300g, and a 200g.

I successfully copied my old 250g Hd to the new drives, expanded the cache to 250m, verified with tpip. All in all it took 23 hours...

I successfully booted into the new drives, showed total of 63 hour in HD

I've pulled the drives out and have been beating my head against the wall to install the 3.1.5 kernel with killhdinitrd installed from the upgraded PPTV iso disk.

I discovered that the boot disk does not mount the CDROM after repeated attempts, used the command:

mount -o ro -t iso9660 /dev/hdd /cdrom

My setup is: HDA Tivo 300g A drive, HDB tivo 200g B drive, HDC drive 4.3g FAT 32 drive, HDD HP DVD ROM

I've mounted the HDC1 partition, and have used the following command:

cp /CDROM/s2_kernels/3.1.5/vmlinux.px.gz /tmp

gunzip vmlinux.px.gz

My boot partition is 3 since I'm on the F software. Issued the following command from the /tmp directory

dd if=vmlinux.px of=/dev/hdd3

Get the message :


1+1 records in
1+1 records out

After some time, then umount and reboot. I pull the drives and reinstall them in the tivo but I get caught in the "welcome" boot loop, unit reboots as soon as the red light comes on when I should go to " almost there".

Any suggestions???

(NOTE: I did back up the original kernel prior to doing anything...)

Perhaps you have a scsi cdrom /dev/sdx, I mount my cdrom without options and type specification, simply mount /dev/hdc /cdrom and it works fine.

Also don't know what you mean by "F" s/w but the proper way to check the boot partition is with bootpage -b /dev/hdx. This command gives you the active fs partition so subtract 1.

If your looking for a virgin kernel, try ftp://tivokernel:tivok@tivosupplies.com IIRC.

[scottym]

Oops I recalled incorrectly, you can find a virgin 3.1.5 kernel 2.4.20 at ftp://tivok:tivokernels@tivosupplies.com .

[scottym]

I successfully booted into the new drives, showed total of 63 hour in HD


I missed this part. If your seeing only 63 hours after doing the mfsrestore -x then there is a good chance you were not using a cdrom bootdisk that supports LBA48.

I'm curious, what exactly were the commands you used to backup and restore?

[boiler11]

I missed this part. If your seeing only 63 hours after doing the mfsrestore -x then there is a good chance you were not using a cdrom bootdisk that supports LBA48.

I'm curious, what exactly were the commands you used to backup and restore?

63 hours HD is correct for 500 GB. They don't really condone hacking talk on this board. You should probably ask your question in the yahoo hdtivo group or at deal database.

[mercurial]

That depends on what you're calling "hacking" if you're just talking about adding drive space, that is not against the rules.

[boiler11]

That depends on what you're calling "hacking" if you're just talking about adding drive space, that is not against the rules.

Yes, but Matt L is asking about more than adding drive space. I'm all for hacking the unit, I'm just saying that Matt probably isn't going to get the advice he needs here.

[Matt L]

Sorry, I just posted at all three boards I go to, didn't even think about the rules here.

[scottym]

Yes, but Matt L is asking about more than adding drive space. I'm all for hacking the unit, I'm just saying that Matt probably isn't going to get the advice he needs here.

So, what are you saying. First you say this is an inappropriate question to ask on this thread. Then you change your mind and say he isn't going to get the answer he needs from this thread. Okay, I made a mistake by suggesting his drive capacity was low, but at least I'm trying to help the guy. I can accept criticism for giving bad advice but don't impugn this forum. What's your problem?

[boiler11]

So, what are you saying. First you say this is an inappropriate question to ask on this thread. Then you change your mind and say he isn't going to get the answer he needs from this thread. Okay, I made a mistake by suggesting his drive capacity was low, but at least I'm trying to help the guy. I can accept criticism for giving bad advice but don't impugn this forum. What's your problem?

Dude, relax. I wasn't trying to be rude to either you or Matt L. I was just stating a fact that 63 hours HD is correct for 500 GB. How did I attack you by saying that? :confused:

Also, I would be more than happy to help Matt with his problem. I'm just suggesting that the discussion be moved to a forum that allows that discussion. I have my TiVo hacked and I actively help people in the yahoo hdtivo group.

[aaronwt]

Why do I have 64 hours for my units? They are MAxtor drives that were configured by Weaknees.

[Nomarian]

It was noted before that if you get 500GB of drive space, that is equal to about 64 hours of HD content. That is correct. Normally, it would show about 32 hours of HD content.


Why do I have 64 hours for my units? They are MAxtor drives that were configured by Weaknees.

[weaknees]

Why do I have 64 hours for my units? They are MAxtor drives that were configured by Weaknees.

Different drives show different amounts of hours at the same capacity. We likely made our screenshots from using dual Western Digital 250s - the drives that came in the units. Maxtors are generally slightly larger than WDs.

[boiler11]

63 hours HD is correct for 500 GB. They don't really condone hacking talk on this board. You should probably ask your question in the yahoo hdtivo group or at deal database.

My choice of words was probably not the best here. I was trying to keep it short and sweet. Let me restate this to remove confusion and so people don't think I'm trying to be a jerk. This is what I should have said:

[better wording]

scottym,

63 hours of HD is about right for 500 GB of disk space. Perhaps you read that as 63 hours of standard def. and that's why you thought it seemed off?

Matt L,

I don't believe the moderators of this forum will allow us to discuss your problem here. We will be happy to try help you if you post this question on the hdtivo yahoo group.

[/better wording]

I have two Maxtor model 6Y250P0 drives in mine and it shows:

"Variable, up to 64 HD or 427 SD hours"

[tivoupgrade]

Yes, but Matt L is asking about more than adding drive space. I'm all for hacking the unit, I'm just saying that Matt probably isn't going to get the advice he needs here.

This may not be the appropriate thread for it, however there is nothing wrong with discussing the majority of hacks on TiVo Community. That is exactly what the Upgrade Center and the Underground are for.

The only types of hacks that are not permitted to be discussed on these forums are those associated with theft-of-service or video extraction.

[boiler11]

This may not be the appropriate thread for it, however there is nothing wrong with discussing the majority of hacks on TiVo Community. That is exactly what the Upgrade Center and the Underground are for.

The only types of hacks that are not permitted to be discussed on these forums are those associated with theft-of-service or video extraction.

I sit corrected. I apologize. I'm used to seeing:

"(Note: No hacking talk please in this area.)"

for the "HDTV TiVo Powered PVRs" forum. I'm also used to seeing people refer to deal database as the "other forum" here because it's a dirty word. I extrapolated that to the entire board.

[tivoupgrade]

I sit corrected. I apologize. I'm used to seeing:

"(Note: No hacking talk please in this area.)"

for the "HDTV TiVo Powered PVRs" forum. I'm also used to seeing people refer to deal database as the "other forum" here because it's a dirty word. I extrapolated that to the entire board.


Certainly understandable. Also to clarify on the issue of the 'dirty word' -I've never been absolutely certain why the moderators tend to block links to DDB however, I know that the underlying concern is more related to any potential liability associated with encouraging folks to do things that are 'illegal' with respect to the DMCA. It is certainly understandable, as the stakes here are high.

With that said, there are definitely more appropriate places to discuss networking, kernel replacements, and other cool things beyond the scope of this thread; then again, the sbuejct is "HR10-250 Upgrade Thread" and there are lots of ways, other than capacity, to upgrade an HR10-250. I'd look in "the underground" for more discussions, however...

[daemon452]

is there any way to download the information from the HR10-250 onto a Computer without taking it apart

[azitnay]

I doubt you'll get very far if you're unwilling to crack the case.

Drew

[jshorr]

Is there a limit to the size of the drive you can add with BlessTiVo to a stock unit? Do you need to enter any special switches into BlessTiVo?

[weaknees]

We've tried it with 400 GB drives, and even 500 GB drives, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Just be sure that you are in the 20 kernel and the reported size is in the right ballpark.

[jshorr]

We've tried it with 400 GB drives, and even 500 GB drives, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Just be sure that you are in the 20 kernel and the reported size is in the right ballpark.

I greatly appreciate the response, and I hate to sound dumb, but could you clarify what you mean by "in the 20 kernel." Thanks.

[Jason T]

I apologize for posting this - I've gone through SOME of this thread, but not all. I've also seen this question asked a couple of times and not answered, so here goes.

All I am doing is adding a second 250 gig drive to a HD TiVo that already has a 250 in it. The big question seems to be on the swap file. Can I just bless the new 250, or do I have to do something to increase the swap? I'm not even sure, now that I think of it, how I can increase the swap, since you can only do that to bigger drive (if I understand it correctly).

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Jason T

[vurbano]

is there any way to download the information from the HR10-250 onto a Computer without taking it apart


The case comes right off, no seals to break .....nothing. Theres no way Directv would ever know youve been in the case as long as you slapped the original drive and cables back into it when the upgrade rolls out.

[tivoupgrade]

I purchased 2- 250 GB Maxtor Maxline Plus II drives from Buy.com
These are what PTV states they use for their 250 upgrade, not the quickview ones:

"Currently, all kits are based upon Maxtor drives. 21 hour and 40 hour add-on kits are based upon 120GB and 300GB Maxtor QuickView Drives, 33 hour add-on drive kit is based upon the MaXLine Plus II ultra-reliable 250GB hard drive. " http://www.ptvupgrade.com/resellers/9thTee/HDD2A-preorder.html



Actually, that information needs to be updated; we are also using Quickview 250GB drives, but also use Seagate 250, 300, and 400GB drives.

[vurbano]

So much for researching the Ptv site to use the exact parts PTV is using..... Ugh

[boiler11]

So much for researching the Ptv site to use the exact parts PTV is using..... Ugh

It doesn't really matter. Any disk will work.

[vurbano]

Are there specific instructions for adding 2 - 250 Gb drives and the PTVnet hacks for USB2.0 if you have version F software on the HDtivo?

[tivoboy]

What is the current best software to use for upgrading an HDTIVO, HR10-250 TIVO? I haven't done this in about three years.

[azitnay]

Either the PTVupgrade (http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/index.html) or WeaKnees (http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso) boot CD's will do just fine.

The PTVupgrade CD might be more ideal, since it includes a version of tpip in case you need it.

Drew

[dsmturbo]

The HR10-250 is not really hackable, am I correct? IE: software upgrade etc.

But as I understand, I can hack to enable larger drive and networking/no call home etc.?

[tivoboy]

thanks all, upgrade went just as easilly as in the past. Added 250GB WD, making HD capacity 64 hours. Don't know why I was thinking it was going to be 70?

what is normal for a 250 GB drive add?

[Anubys]

thanks all, upgrade went just as easilly as in the past. Added 250GB WD, making HD capacity 64 hours. Don't know why I was thinking it was going to be 70?

what is normal for a 250 GB drive add?

63 hours is normal.

[Jason T]

Gonna answer my own question, just in case it helps anyone else.

I got the impression from further readings that a bigger swap SHOULD be done if you're adding a second 250 gig drive, but that most people aren't because it's just easier. The Maxtor 250 gig drive I purchased ended up coming out to about a gig more than the Western Digital 250 that was in the TiVo. So I went ahead and did a full copy of the WD to the Maxtor (took about 8 hours), and during the copy I expanded the swap file to 250. This just meant using the -s 250 switch with mfsrestore, and then running tpip afterwards.

I have no idea if this was necessary, but I feel a little better in having done it this way instead of just blessing the new drive. I'm guessing that I would not have been able to expand the swap if my Maxtor 250 had ended up being a bit smaller.

[tivoboy]

Has anyone had the experience of the image quality degrading, AFTER an upgrade?

I know, I know, it should have no effect at all on the image quality, it is digital, but maybe it was just some bad signals I have been getting?

[vurbano]

Has anyone had the experience of the image quality degrading, AFTER an upgrade?

I know, I know, it should have no effect at all on the image quality, it is digital, but maybe it was just some bad signals I have been getting?

If you do a total upgrade, 2 drives you may have to reset your output resolutions in the setup menus. But in general degraded resolution is due to Dierctv's crappy downrezzing to 1280x1080i at reduced bitrates. AKA HDLITE. :mad:

[azitnay]

The HR10-250 is not really hackable, am I correct? IE: software upgrade etc.

But as I understand, I can hack to enable larger drive and networking/no call home etc.?

The HR10-250 is just as hackable as any other Series2 DirecTV unit AFAIK (except the R10, which isn't as hackable)... But since 6.x hasn't (yet?) been released for it, that might limit what you're able to do. See the TiVo Underground forum for more details.

Drew

[mercurial]

Ok.. So I started the process of replacing my (probably) failing HR10-250 drive with dual 250's at around 11a this morning. I used the command:

New A on primary master, new B on primary slave.
Old drive on secondary slave, CD-ROM boot on secondary master.


mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdz /dev/hdb


It seemed to be fine and reported a 231557MB image to be backedup/restored. The process chugged along and "finshed" around 6p. It reported the following:


Backup done!

Cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment.
Adding pair /dev/hda14-/dev/hda15
New estimated standalone size: 283 hours (2 more)
Adding pair /dev/hdb2-/dev/hdb3
New estimated standlone size: 583 hours (300 more)


It's now sat there for a little over 2 hours with that on the screen and the HD line running. Is that normal?

[dsmturbo]

The HR10-250 is just as hackable as any other Series2 DirecTV unit AFAIK (except the R10, which isn't as hackable)... But since 6.x hasn't (yet?) been released for it, that might limit what you're able to do. See the TiVo Underground forum for more details.

Drew

Where should I be looking for some pointers on way to do a few hacks? All I really need is networking and fakecall etc.

[muadib]

I've finally had time to upgrade my HR10-250. I'm using 2 Seagate 300gb drives, and at first thought I had a dead IDE channel, because my PC couldn't see the drives. I thought I was up the creek, but then read one of the drives. Turns out I had to set them for cable select, and not master, slave like I set them, because the IDE controller in my PC was ata133.

Now here's my question. How do I set them when I put them into the Tivo?

[dsmturbo]

I believe you can set them to Cable Select or Master/Slave in Tivo..but I could be wrong.

muadib, did you apply and hacks like Fakecall/networking ? I have to get started doing mine

[muadib]

No, I didn't do any of the hacks. My Tivo has a phone line, and I don't have a ethernet connection in that room. Could I go wireless? Can you tell me why would I want it on my network anyway?

[azitnay]

It's now sat there for a little over 2 hours with that on the screen and the HD line running. Is that normal?

It didn't return to the prompt after adding the second pair? That's odd if so; don't think I've ever seen that step take more than a few seconds.

You could see if the drive pair boots up anyway... If not, I guess you could try a restore to just the single drive (without -x) at first, and then mfsadd the second drive after, to see if you have more luck with that.

Drew

[azitnay]

Where should I be looking for some pointers on way to do a few hacks? All I really need is networking and fakecall etc.

You might try asking over at the TiVo Underground forum.

Drew

[mercurial]

It didn't return to the prompt after adding the second pair? That's odd if so; don't think I've ever seen that step take more than a few seconds.

You could see if the drive pair boots up anyway... If not, I guess you could try a restore to just the single drive (without -x) at first, and then mfsadd the second drive after, to see if you have more luck with that.

Drew

It never returned, I left it overnight. So the next morning I just did a backup/restore without saving recordings and it failed adding the second drive (don't recall the error). So I just did a good old mfsadd and it passed successfully. Unfortunately, when I went to reassemble it, the power splitter that came with my bracket had a bad pin the popped out so I won't know if it *really* worked until the replacement arrives (cause I'm an idiot and through out all my spare splitters about a year ago when I moved since I hadn't needed one in ages).

[muadib]

Ok, I've upgraded my unit, but things didn't go as planned. One of my drives was bad, so I added a 300GB drive to the original drive. However, when I get my replacement drive back, I want to replace the original drive. I haven't seen a procedure on how to do that on the HR10-250. Can it be done?

[azitnay]

It's not clear (at least to me) what you're asking... Can you spell it out a little clearer?

Drew

[mercurial]

Grumble, grumble... Ok.. After the replacement power splitter arrived and I got the HR10-250 back up and running, the second drive isn't recognized. I tried re-doing the add, deleting the partitions on it and then doing the add again. Not joy. The original drive has comletely given up the ghost now, so I managed to get a backup image off the new Master drive and I restored it back to it as if it was a one drive system and the HR10-250 is up and running. I'm going to get the new slave drive replaced and try it again.

Quite annoying.

[muadib]

It's not clear (at least to me) what you're asking... Can you spell it out a little clearer?

DrewOK, I'll give it another shot. My initial plan was to replace the 250GB drive with 2 300GB drives. After much testing, I found out that one of the 300GB drives was bad. I ended up adding the good 300GB drive to the original 250GB drive. I didn't do a backup though, because I didn't have a fat partitioned drive in my PC.

I sent the bad drive off for repair, and once I get it back I would like to put it in the Tivo, having it replace the 250GB drive. How would I do it now that I have a 2 drive Tivo?

Thanks!

[weaknees]

You could "dd" the 250 to the new 300, then mfsadd the extra space.

[bigcat400]

I tried to do the full backup (clone) of the original tivo drive to replace it with a new drive with the command below. The clone appears to be working ok. However, at the end of the restore there was a message that I dont know what it means.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Restore done!
Not enough extra space to expand on A drive.

I am thinking that this may have something to do with asking it to increase the swap space to 127, but I am not sure. My original drive was pretty full of recordings, perhaps this would explain this? Both drives are 250GB.

I am planning on using mfsadd to add a second drive once it arrives later this week. Does it make sense to proceed with this? How do I take care of the above issue?

Thanks

[weaknees]

Both drives are 250 GB, so there's no space (or need) to expand the partitions to cover more space. That's all. It's right, given the situation.

[tivoupgrade]

I tried to do the full backup (clone) of the original tivo drive to replace it with a new drive with the command below. The clone appears to be working ok. However, at the end of the restore there was a message that I dont know what it means.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Restore done!
Not enough extra space to expand on A drive.

I am thinking that this may have something to do with asking it to increase the swap space to 127, but I am not sure. My original drive was pretty full of recordings, perhaps this would explain this? Both drives are 250GB.

I am planning on using mfsadd to add a second drive once it arrives later this week. Does it make sense to proceed with this? How do I take care of the above issue?

Thanks

Most likely, it was the -x that hurt you. Consider dropping the -r4, as well, it won't make a difference, either (in this case). If you still have a problem, its because your new 250GB is slightly smaller than the old one.

[ncsercs]

Read this thread and did a lot of research but I'm more confused than ever.

I have an HR10-250 with a bad HD, a virgin image from a friend on a FAT32 HD, a Seagate 300GB drive, and a PTVupgrade LBA48 version 4 free utility CD.

I've upgraded TiVo's before but not a HD tiVo.

What command(s) do I need to restore this image to the 300GB Seagate and how long will the restore run?

Thanks!

[jsvette56]

I made a backup when I upgraded my first HR10-250 and wonder if I should creat a backup of the 2nd unit. Or can one backup serve both units in the event I have a disk failure? I just had a disk failure from first unit and fortunately had the backup.