Trouble upgrading DRT800 to Segate 500GB

[VideoChief]

I spent many hours this past weekend trying to replace the OEM 80 GB drive in my Humax DRT-800 with a brand new 500 GB Segate (7200 RPM Baracuda Ultra ATA 16 MB cache, model ST3500641A) to no avail.

My Tivo software is version 7.2.2

Over the last couple weeks I have been reading the various web sites and forums and read over Hinsdale and other instructions a couple times getting ready for this.

I purchased and downloaded the PTVUpgrade Universal Boot CD V11 (with LBA48 support).

After triple checking all my jumpers and IDE cables, I began the process. I followed Hinsdale very carefully (my one complaint is that there are so many different configs and he changes the IDE channels and jumpers too many times, even between backup and restore steps for the same scenario so you have to be on your toes).

The PTV software runs fine and despite the fact that I know almost nothing of Linux, my years with a DOS command line allowed me to be comfortable.

Results:
I can copy an "image" of the OEM drive to my FAT32 disk no problem.

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
I can restore an unexpanded copy of this image to the new 500 GB drive with no problem.

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda
If I stop and put the drive in the Tivo at this point, Tivo will boot and behave fine, as an 80 hr unit.
However, when I try to expand this image,

mfsadd -x /dev/hda
Tivo will give me the dreaded GSOD and goes into an endless reboot loop (I let it do this for 30 or 40 minutes a couple times).

I also tried using the combined restore and expand:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda
I tried a full content copy at least 3 times but got the same result.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
After reading several message threads, I began to believe that I needed a swap file larger than 127 GB. It seems that 2 MB/GB was the rule of thumb so I tried both processes once again with a -s 250 for the swap file, still with no luck.

I read some discussions about initializing the header and tried using TPIP (V 1.2)

tpip -1 -s /dev/hda
I tried this with 127 and 250 GB swap files. Nothing worked.
I got very little sleep Saturday night and worked on this all of Sunday.
I had the OEM drive back in and the system fully booted 3 minutes before it started recording Deadwood.

I have put the OEM drive back in the Tivo for now but would very much like to upgrade. My wife and 2 kids have discovered the power of Tivo and my new second job is sys admin for Tivo and arbitrating who gets how much storage and what gets burned off to DVD. During American Idol season I thought we might need to go to arbitration between my wife and 9 yr old daughter vs my 7 yr old son. If you hadn' t guessed, he's mastered the box and knows how setup season passes and how to protect his shows from being deleted while my wife and daughter only know how to record new programs.

Any help is appreciated.

Oh, by the way...
Though I don't know Linux, I am the Chief Engineer of the television network for a Fortune 100 company so I'm farily tech savy with computers, video, audio, etc.

Thanks in advance,
VideoChief

[funtoupgrade]

This should do it:

mfsrestore -s 250 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda
tpip -1 -s /dev/hda

[VideoChief]

You 'da Man!

That did it.

Oh, but for the sake of -r 4 I would have had a more pleasent Sunday past.

It was a snap to restore the image on my FAT32 drive from last weekend.
It only took me about 30 or 40 minutes from the time I started until TiVo was booted again. Now I am restoring the programs I cached off to another PC (only 7 total so not too bad).

How did you know that? I hadn't come across the need to increase the block size anywhere else. When I read the MFSTools README file, it explained that increasing the HD block size would reduce TiVo's RAM useage and possibly get you past the GSOD but it suggested leaving this parameter at its default.

Thank you again.
VideoCheif

[ThreeSoFar]

And this would have saved your old recordings:mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 250 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdY
tpip -1 -s /dev/hda Where X is your original drive and Y is your new 500G.

[VideoChief]

I see now the importantance of the -r switch with the 4 parameter.

There also seems be a consensus here that the swap file needs to be proportional to the size of the drive. Hinsdale does not reccomend using a swap file larger than 127 MB. Also, there is no mention there of using the -r switch.

Fortunately, I'm all set now. I had a small window of opportunity last weekend where we had no recordings scheduled and I had all but two programs burned off to DVD. Since that time, it has started filling back up.

Restoring my image to the new drive from the FAT32 volume, and "buffering" the subsequent shows on TiVo to another computer using TiVo-To-Go has put me 100% back in business. All shows copied back overnight with all their original metadata.

Thanks for all the help.

[ThreeSoFar]

Right. Hinsdale is, sadly, a bit out of date in those regards (swap and -r).

Glad this is all refreshed in my mind. I'll be restoring a .bak to a new 250G Samsung later this week when it arrives.

Sold my lifetimed (black, 140-xxx) Series2 for $600, including the new drive/upgrade.

Anyone need a 160G drive?

[funtoupgrade]

How did you know that? I hadn't come across the need to increase the block size anywhere else. When I read the MFSTools README file, it explained that increasing the HD block size would reduce TiVo's RAM useage and possibly get you past the GSOD but it suggested leaving this parameter at its default.



I asked the same question on the forum about a week ago with my new 400GB hard drive, and somebody helped me after I spent a couple of days fooling around like you did.