HElp my upgrade won't work

[astrose00]

Earlier this weekend I upgraded my previously upgraded AT&T 40hr Series2 model. The previous upgrade was to a 120 and an 80GB drive (A&B, respectively). The 120 was dying so I decided to replace both with 2 200GB drives. I created a backup of the upgraded drive (it said it was done successfully). Then I chose to save all my recordings. I had to use the floppy disk since I needed all 4 IDE cables to do the copy. For some reason the upgrade didn't recognize the full capacity of my drives (according to mesage I only got 322 hours after the upgrade). In any case, I put the new drives in Tivo and it seemed to be working fine. I left them in there for 3 days with no problem. According to the system info, I had 339 hours of basic recording time.

Annoyed that I wasn't getting the full capacity, I decided to save the shows I wanted by transferring to my other Tivo. Then I did the upgrade again without saving the recordings. This time I used the Boot CD from weaknees with Large Drive support. I used the image I had save 3 days earlier. Then the message said that I had 462 hours of recording time. I put the drives back into Tivo and it wouldn't completely boot up. Just the endless "powering up..." to "almost there" to green light goes out and starts again.

I don't know what went wrong. I decided to do the upgrade 1 at a time so I could use the CD. That is, upgrade from A+B to just A without saving recordings. Then I would upgrade the new A by adding a new B. I thought maybe the floppy didn't have large drive support. Anyway, still this endless loop. I tried it again without expanding the drive first (in essence, just doing a test of the backup image). No luck. Then I started to wonder if something was going wrong with the actual Tivo. So I put the A (120GB) and the B (80GB) back in the Tivo and it rebooted and worked fine.

I decided to give up and just go back to the scheme that first worked. That is, just save all the recordings and stay with only 322 hours. Not only did the system now say I only had 312 hours (vs. 322 the first time) but now this upgrade doesn't work either! I checked that the A is jumpered to Master while the B is jumpered to Slave. I don't know what is going on. I upgraded my TCD540 model a few months back with absolutely no problem. Went from 40 to a 250 + 160 and it was a breeze. I have about 470 on that machine.

Does anyone know what might be going wrong? I need help. I should mention that I tried using the "-s 127" AND "-s 200" for the upgrade. Some folks told me to increase the swap size in case I ever got the GSOD. I did that in my last upgrade attempt. That is the only difference from the first time it worked and now. Could that be it? I don't care about saving the recordings. I just want a working Tivo. After all these attempts I don't even care if I get the 450+ hours at this point.

I have tried everything. I even tried to switch the new A and B (that is, do the upgrade but use the new B as A and vice versa). I tried doing the upgrade for only one drive. No luck. At this point I may have tried to upgrade at least 10 times yesterday.

Why would it work the first time but not the second? I think I read that you can't make an upgrade from an upgraded image but it worked for me the first time so I don't see how that could be the problem. Maybe I am misinterpreting the thread I read related to that.

Note: I don't have the original image and I am running software version 7.2.1.

To recap: How do I get this upgrade to work without saving recordings and recognizing the full capacity? Does the floppy have large drive support or don't I need it since I have 7.2.1? Can I upgrade from the upgraded image? Could it be that I just need an original image for my Tivo?

PLEASE HELP ME! I need my Tivo.

[funtoupgrade]

You need to restore from an original single drive image, not an upgraded one. Disks can only be upgraded once unless you start over. Swap file should be 200, but run tpip before shutting down.

[HomeUser]

- I do not know of any LBA48 aware boot floppy.

- I think the backup is bad, make one using a compression value smaller then 6. If you use the -f 9999 with the -s MFSBackup should create a image that is the original 40hr TiVo's drive size.

- Do you recall the command options you used with MFSTools?

- You do know about running tpip after creating swap partitions larger then 127 with MFSTools

[JamieP]

I should mention that I tried using the "-s 127" AND "-s 200" for the upgrade. Some folks told me to increase the swap size in case I ever got the GSOD. I did that in my last upgrade attempt. That is the only difference from the first time it worked and now.Sounds like you didn't initialize your swap with tpip. mfstools 2.0 can't initialize swap >127MB. Either stick with -s 127, or initiailze your swap now with tpip. I explained how here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3733521&&#post3733521). You only need the A disk in your PC to do that. The ptvupgrade free lba48 iso has tpip on it.

[astrose00]

Sounds like you didn't initialize your swap with tpip. mfstools 2.0 can't initialize swap >127MB. Either stick with -s 127, or initiailze your swap now with tpip. I explained how here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3733521&&#post3733521). You only need the A disk in your PC to do that. The ptvupgrade free lba48 iso has tpip on it.


Hi, Jamie. I did try the tpip thing in at least one of my many attempts. But I was usings mfstools not ptvupgrade. So tpip wasn't found. ptvupgrade says I have to have a series two that begins with 540; mine is a TCD130 (older series2).

By the way, I went back to just trying to use "-s 127" and that doesn't work now either.

Okay, so let me get this straight. I CANNOT upgrade from drives that were already upgraded? This perplexes me since it worked for me the first time. I even saved all of my recordings. System info told me I had 339 hours. I don't see how this could be possible. In fact, it was in the unit for 3 days with no problems. I only took it out because I wanted to increase the swap and expand to the full capacity. Now it doesn't work at all. I don't understand this.

[astrose00]

- I do not know of any LBA48 aware boot floppy.

- I think the backup is bad, make one using a compression value smaller then 6. If you use the -f 9999 with the -s MFSBackup should create a image that is the original 40hr TiVo's drive size.

- Do you recall the command options you used with MFSTools?

- You do know about running tpip after creating swap partitions larger then 127 with MFSTools

I'm not sure what you mean in your first suggestion. How do I implement that( value smaller than 6)

I tried many different commands but the most common was this:

mfsrestore -s 200 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Of course, I also use "-s 127" and that didn't work either. The restore appeared to work and the message said I had 462 hours.

On my first attempt, I chose to copy everything and this is the command I entered:

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

This worked at first but only produces 322 hours (Tivo said 339). Then I took the drives out to increase the swap and that's when all the trouble started. I even tried to save the recordings again but this time I used "-s 200" and it didn't work.

Right now, nothing is working except the original upgraded hard drives I started with. I just purchased the Instant Cake CD so I am hoping I can just get this working this way. Do you think this will work?

[JamieP]

Hi, Jamie. I did try the tpip thing in at least one of my many attempts. But I was usings mfstools not ptvupgrade. So tpip wasn't found. ptvupgrade says I have to have a series two that begins with 540; mine is a TCD130 (older series2).I'm not sure where you read that the PTVupgrade disk only works on 540 models, but that's wrong. Without running tpip, you'll see the symptoms you described. 7.x won't run without a valid swap partition.
By the way, I went back to just trying to use "-s 127" and that doesn't work now either.Then either your backup is bad, or you did something wrong in the restore. Without details we can't tell which.Okay, so let me get this straight. I CANNOT upgrade from drives that were already upgraded? This perplexes me since it worked for me the first time. I even saved all of my recordings. System info told me I had 339 hours. I don't see how this could be possible. In fact, it was in the unit for 3 days with no problems. I only took it out because I wanted to increase the swap and expand to the full capacity. Now it doesn't work at all. I don't understand this.This was misinformation. You can't expand a single disk configuration a second time without running out of partitions. But you can always make a "shrunk" backup sans recordings and restore it to a bigger drive.

[astrose00]

I'm not sure where you read that the PTVupgrade disk only works on 540 models, but that's wrong. Without running tpip, you'll see the symptoms you described. 7.x won't run without a valid swap partition.Then either your backup is bad, or you did something wrong in the restore. Without details we can't tell which.This was misinformation. You can't expand a single disk configuration a second time without running out of partitions. But you can always make a "shrunk" backup sans recordings and restore it to a bigger drive.


I am going to try again with the ptvupgrade boot cd and this time apply the tpip you told me about before. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is the language I interpreted from ptvupgrade:

"Currently, we recommend the use of this CD for upgrading the following Series2 models:
Pioneer 810H and 57H DVR with DVD
TiVo Series2 TCD540 Models (the newest Series2 standalone units)
HUMAX Series2 standalone units
DirecTV/Hughes HR10-250 DVR with HDTV
DirecTV R10 (the newest Series2 DirecTV systems
These units all contain a newer version of the TiVo Operating System which has an updated kernel and supports drives larger than 137GB (also known as LBA48 support). This means you can use this CD, MFStools and BlessTiVo to restore images on drives with greater than 137GB capacity, and "Bless" drives that are greater than 137GB."

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it!

[JamieP]

I am going to try again with the ptvupgrade boot cd and this time apply the tpip you told me about before. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is the language I interpreted from ptvupgrade:

"Currently, we recommend the use of this CD for upgrading the following Series2 models:
Pioneer 810H and 57H DVR with DVD
TiVo Series2 TCD540 Models (the newest Series2 standalone units)
HUMAX Series2 standalone units
DirecTV/Hughes HR10-250 DVR with HDTV
DirecTV R10 (the newest Series2 DirecTV systems
These units all contain a newer version of the TiVo Operating System which has an updated kernel and supports drives larger than 137GB (also known as LBA48 support). This means you can use this CD, MFStools and BlessTiVo to restore images on drives with greater than 137GB capacity, and "Bless" drives that are greater than 137GB."

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it!That language is out of date and probably ought to be revised. All Series2 stand alone units should now have TiVo software version 7.2.1, which includes an lba48 aware kernel.

Still, if you couldn't get it to work with -s 127, something besides swap is probably wrong and tpip isn't going to help that.

[astrose00]

Here's an update.

I ran ptvupgrade cd and put the backup image on and expanded the new A+B drives. I replaced "-s 127" with "-s 200". Then I typed "tpip -s /dev/hdb" after that was done. I had the Tivo A drive in the primary slave position. The message said seemed to indicate this was successful (I forgot what it said). Then I tried it in my Tivo. It got farther than before (welcome, powering up to almost there) but then the front lights flashed and it went back to "welcome..." again.

I decided to put the Instantcake I purchased today to use. I created a backup image on my hard drive then copied it to the new A+B with the expansion (the "x" thingy). I believe I used -s 200 but I could be mistaken. It said I had 312 hours. I put the drives into my Tivo and it worked!!!! So I MUST have a bad backup. My upgraded A was failing and I guess I was unable to get a good backup from it. So I got past the boot up screens and it went into guided setup.

Anyhow, feeling optimistic, I decided to end the guided setup and now make a backup of image of this brand new set of drives using PTVupgrade. I overwrote my original (bad) backup image. Right after it saved, I immediately put the backup image back on the same A+B using ptvupgrade with the LBA48 enabled kernel. To my sheer joy, it upgraded and expanded to the FULL 462 hours! I used -s 200 and typed tpip -s /dev/hdb after it was completed. Put it back in my tivo and it worked. I am now running throught guided setup. I haven't been able to check and see if Tivo recognizes the full 462 hours. I am not sure if it will since I probably won't have software version 7.1 for a few days at least.

So JamieP, this was my longwinded way of saying YOU WERE RIGHT. I had a bad backup. I guess the additional 130 hours is worth a half hour of guided setup...

Thanks again.

[JamieP]

I am not sure if it will since I probably won't have software version 7.1 for a few days at least.This statement concerns me, for if instant cake installed something older than 7.x, it doesn't have an lba48 kernel. That means you're disk accesses will "wrap around" at 137GB, resulting in file system corruption. This may not happen if you get the 7.2.1 upgrade before you fill your disk beyond 137GB's, but I wouldn't count it on.

What tivo software version did instant cake install?

[astrose00]

This statement concerns me, for if instant cake installed something older than 7.x, it doesn't have an lba48 kernel. That means you're disk accesses will "wrap around" at 137GB, resulting in file system corruption. This may not happen if you get the 7.2.1 upgrade before you fill your disk beyond 137GB's, but I wouldn't count it on.

What tivo software version did instant cake install?


I believe it installed 3.-something. It's loading right nowso I don't know if there is another version being installed right now. Do you think I should do the Instantcake upgrade over adn wait for 7.1 or just see what happens? What's the worst that can happen (not meant to be rhetorical)?

Curiously, Tivo is saying I have up to 508 hours of recording time. I wasn't expecting that. I know version 7.XX lowers that a little but I was expecting around 480 for two 200GB drives. Should I be concerned about this?

[JamieP]

I believe it installed 3.-something. It's loading right nowso I don't know if there is another version being installed right now. Do you think I should do the Instantcake upgrade over adn wait for 7.1 or just see what happens? What's the worst that can happen (not meant to be rhetorical)?It can't be 3.x. It must be 4.x or later. I'd be a little surprised if they weren't making instant cake images with 7.x software now. It's been out more than a year.

Worst that could happen is that you'll get file system corruption as your tivo fills up. This could result in an uncoverable GSOD and you losing all recordings. It's a time bomb waiting to blow up: it might be tomorrow, in a week, or later. Once you've upgraded to 7.x, the timebomb is defused. It's still possible the lba48 issue corrupted mfs in a subtle way that won't manifest itself for a while, but it seems unlikely.Curiously, Tivo is saying I have up to 508 hours of recording time. I wasn't expecting that. I know version 7.XX lowers that a little but I was expecting around 480 for two 200GB drives. Should I be concerned about this?I wouldn't worry about that.

I'd force the upgrade to 7.2.1 ASAP. If you really want to be safe, do the whole thing over. Install the instant cake image first, upgrade it to 7.2.1, then backup and restore to your larger disks with an lba48 upgrade cd.

[astrose00]

How can I force it? By just forcing it to call in? I read that I can get on a priority list. I will look into that.

Thanks.

[JamieP]

How can I force it? By just forcing it to call in? I read that I can get on a priority list. I will look into that.

Thanks.I would expect it to upgrade automatically as part of the normal initial guided setup. You can force a daily call too, if guided setup doesn't do it. 7.x has been out more than a year now; I can't imagine they use a priority list for it anymore.

[BobCamp1]

It can't be 3.x. It must be 4.x or later. I'd be a little surprised if they weren't making instant cake images with 7.x software now. It's been out more than a year.


InstantCake restores your Tivo to the original shipping OS, which not usually a 7.x image. This is only a problem with the original Series 2 Tivos, as the newer Tivos were orignally shipped with kernels that supported LBA48.

I was surprised, too, as their images for Series 1 Tivos all support LBA48!

[astrose00]

It actually was version 3.X. But the story ends well as my Tivo received a 7.2.1 update that same day. I am up and running with a reported 501 hours. So far so good.

Thanks to all for your help.