Why is Clear and Delete needed after instantcake?

[Anewman]

Ok the hard drive in my DirectvR10 died so I had an extra 100 gig drive and used Instantcake to bake it. But I noticed that after placing drive back into R10 the recorder seemed to work but I used the Clear and Delete as instructed by instantcake.

Well clear and delete puts the r10 in so much of a out of box condition that the recorder now requires a "phone call" to directv to activate the recorder. WELL I have not had a land line in about 8 months and I do not want to call Directv because of sports subs that "require" landlines.

So what I am really asking is, will forgoing the Clear and delete cause issues later on?
If the recorder works without doing the clear and delete should I just ignore the instructions?
If there are side effects, what should I be looking for?

[funtoupgrade]

I don't think you are going to hurt anything by continuing without it. Hard to predict what problems, if any, might arise. Did you talk to the folks from whom you bought the Instant Cake - they would be in a much better position to advise you on this.

[the new guy]

The InstantCake image was taken from a particular receiver, with a serial number that does not match yours. The C&DE will reset the serial number in the software to match up with your machine. If you try to record without resetting the software, you will most likely get a #51 error, and be unable to record. An unfortunate side effect of the C&DE is that guided setup needs to be run.

If you had made a backup of your original drive before it died, you would not have needed to C&DE or run guided setup, as the serial number would already be correct for your receiver.

Tim

[Anewman]

The InstantCake image was taken from a particular receiver, with a serial number that does not match yours. The C&DE will reset the serial number in the software to match up with your machine. If you try to record without resetting the software, you will most likely get a #51 error, and be unable to record. An unfortunate side effect of the C&DE is that guided setup needs to be run.

If you had made a backup of your original drive before it died, you would not have needed to C&DE or run guided setup, as the serial number would already be correct for your receiver.

Tim
Thank you very much this explains alot, and you are correct it will NOT record. It lets me go throught the motions and create season passes and to do list, but the record never takes place.
So if I want to record I must clear and delete. One question if I take this box to the office and have it place a call there, will there be an issue because the phone numbers do not match?

Does it also call in PPV data during that setup call, because after the clear and delete there is one PPV purchase showing but all the info list as "title not available" and cost is "unkown".

will any of these fake call things work on the R10?

[Dan Collins]

You can only use fakecall if you hack the unit, which on a R10 require a hardware modification (PROM replacement). Different phone numbers will not be a problem.

[classicsat]

It doesn't matter where you phone in from. The setup call is only to the TiVo servers with their 800 number or local POP.