My first TiVO, need help

[oldjazz]

Hi guys!

I just bought my first TIVO on ebay that haven't a hard drive in it but it got all the cables, remote control you can see what I got on ebay.ca and search for this Item number: 9715004370, so I've put a Maxtor "53073U6" 30.7GB that I've formated in fat32.
I'm using windows XP pro and that drive is in slave mode on primary IDE

Now I've setup my floppy disk and launch it with the cd in and it goes thru RAMDISK image found at block 495
then it ask me for those questions : (??) mean what I put as an answer
1=device name of your tivo (hdb)
2=will your target tivo has 2 drives (no) I only will use one at the moment
3=is your A drive a quantum fireball (no)
4=does your tivo have version 2.0.1 software (yes) in my readme.txt file on the
cd I can read that in itTiVoMad utilities to expand the A drive Version 3.2
5=is your target tivo > 140GB (no) but I also try it on yes but from there I'm always getting that ERROR :
ERROR : 'edit_bootparms' failed
ERROR : The exit code was 4
ERROR : cannot continue.

So do someone know what I should do to fix that or should I sell it ?

By the way, the cd was in the box package, I can read that on it :

TiVo Software Image
TiVo Drive Duplication
Bless TiVo
Read me
Upav 32
Make Disk
Rawrite 2
TiVo.bak

Powered by the TiVO personal TV service

UTILITIES
xxx.tivoparts.xxx

That's all there is on that cd

Behind the TiVO the model number is PTV100

Thanks

[funtoupgrade]

Try answering no to question #4. The TiVo software on the CD is most likely 3.02 not 2.0.1

[dnaman]

- Take the CD that came in the package

- Read the file TiVo Drive Duplication.txt (preferably print it).

- Follow the instructions exactly

- Let us know how you get on

[oldjazz]

here is the file that i find on the CD: TiVo Drive Duplication.txt

NTFS FILE SYSTEM NOT SUPPORTED


1. Copy file “tivo.bak” from CD to the root directory of your C drive.
2. Run program named “MakeDisk” located on your TiVo CD-ROM
3. After running “MakeDisk” shut down computer and proceed to step 4
4. Set new drive to “Slave”
5. Connect new drive to PC as “Primary Slave”
6. Boot the computer using the “MFS Tools” disk made in step 2
7. After computer is finished booting up, press ctrl-c keys to get to a prompt
8. Run the following commands
9. mkdir /mnt/dos
10. mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
11. mfsrestore -s 127 –zxpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb
12. umount -f -a -r
13. Press ctrl-alt-del and shut down system when it starts to reboot.
14. Remove new drive and set jumper to “Master”
15. Install new drive into TiVo

When i'm doing all of those it get stuck on #11, i get that message : mfsrestore : not found

do you know why?

[dnaman]

First off, let me explain that this is the blind leading the blind ... I was part way through doing the same thing when I posted my response.

Since then I've gone further and got the same error message as you. I also searched the floppy and couldn't find the mfsrestore anywhere. I have, however, managed to get the HD prepared as follows:

1. Go to (system insists I delete the url) and get a copy of the MFS Tools 2.0 files. There are two versions: an iso image to give you a bootable CD and a set of files to make a bootable floppy. I actually used the floppy method but I've no doubt that the CD would work too.

2. MFS Tools 2.0 comes with a detailed user guide. Basically it uses the same procedure as the one from the CD that came with your TiVo (the one that you posted above). However, there are some slight differences (since its based on how their backup file was made and using their HD connection). It also shows a number of different procedure variations so it can get a bit confusing.

3. In particular, they use only the -i switch with mfsrestore whereas -zxpi are used in the version on the TiVo CD. If, when you've booted from the floppy, you type mfsrestore /? , you'll see what those switches mean. The backup image seems to be for a small drive and one of the switches expands it to take up the whole of a larger drive which suits me (I have an 80G). The other switches seemed to make sense too.

4. Because of this, I followed the instructions (that you posted) from the Tivo CD exactly except that I used the MFSTools 2.0 boot floppy to boot with. You also don't need the ctrl-c to get the command prompt ... the prompt (#) comes up immediately booting finishes.

5. Oh, also I didn't use the -s 127 switch with mfsrestore either which I don't think is necessary with MFSTools 2.0. So my line for #11 looks like:

....11. mfsrestore –zxpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

6. That gave me a nice, comforting readout showing the image being uncompressed and written and then it confirmed that the HD had 80 hours capacity (for my 80G)

7. Don't forget that the command at #12 is "umount" NOT "unmount"

I'm now up to installing the HD in the TiVo. Before that though, I'm trying to fit my basement computer with a TV Tuner Card (ATI All-In-Wonder) so that I have a device that simulates a TV to run the TiVo with while I'm experimenting. (Saves hacking around with the family TV setup - more peaceful that way). Of couse I'm having trouble getting the ATI card running on that system - wouldn't you know it!

[dnaman]

oldjazz - I've sent the url for MFSTools 2.0 to you in a private message

[oldjazz]

Thanks a lot DnaMan, it's working now.
It was only the Boot_Floppy that I had to download, I don't what was the problem with the CD that I have but thanks to you.

What ATI all-in-wonder do you got?
Maybe I can help, I went thru 3 diff. Radeon card with plenty of new drivers and site to get them.

[dnaman]

When you say "working" do you mean the restoring-the-image part or do you have the whole TiVo up and running?

My AIW is the old AIW-128. When I try to install the Mutilmedia Console (with the TV bit) it mostly gives me a hardware-problem-bsod almost immediately. If it does get beyond that point it says it can't find the MMC (which I think means "Multimedia Console" which I think means it can't find the card).

I have a whole bunch of latest and previous software from the ATI site but it has all the appearance of being an irq problem .... thought we lost those after Win9x (I'm using Win2K). Also the machine is an old HP Visualize. Those machines are a bit inbred and really only like to run with HP recommended hardware.

I have something I want to try today related to irq's.

[oldjazz]

Hi again!

Yes the whole TiVo up and running and it's going great, I just realized that when you turn it on, it began to record with (I think 45min of record).

Maybe the problem you have is a Windows problem with an old ATI card.
Have you tried WinXP or getting back to win98se.

You know that if you have more than one partition on your hard drive that you can install an other windows without erasing the other one and when your PC will start you'll have a start page asking you on wich windows you want to start.

Or it's a compatibility problem with your motherboard brand, more chance if you're using the 4in1 drivers. I know that on the ATI site you can find some patch to repair some compatibility problem with some motherboard brand.

Send me your computer informations (brand and model) and I'll try to help you with that but by using win2k is more stable but have lots of none resolved problem with compatibilitys stuff.

I hope that you've understand all that I'm explaning because I'm french and I'm doing my best in english.

[dnaman]

Great that you have the TiVo running.

I also have the AIW working now ... it seemed to be what I suspected - another card on the bus that was interfering - probably sharing an irq and if I recall the AIW hates that. In any event, I didn't need the other card anyway. Removed it and the install ran just fine.

I do actually run multiple partitions on all my machines but mostly they are alternative versions of Win2K so that I can have "clean" installations to do certain things (such as video processing or, indeed, TiVo experiments). I have one XP partition on one machine but rarely use it. In fact, I find that XP is more fussy about older hardware.

So my next step is to hook up the TiVo and see what happens. I may check back with you if I have any problem - probably via a private message.

Your English is fine .... I wouldn't have known that English isn't your primary language if you hadn't told me. Are you French-French or Canadian-French? (Or indeed ?-French).

[oldjazz]

I'm a french Canadian from Quebec city.

And no problem if you want to contact me from private message or I can also send you my email thru private message if you want.

It would be my pleasure to help you on some other troubles if you need me.