Problem trying to run InstantCake

[Doomster]

[I bought two DirecTV Series 2 HDVR-2 box from EBay. It seems the hard drive (HD) is bad as reported earlier here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=301542

Now, I got the InstantCake CDs, one for HDVR-2 and one for SD-DVR40. I bought a 250GB HD. I only have one. I was planning to "bake" the 250GB HD and then use the original HD from the other Tivo box to "rebake" it. I tried "rebaking" an original HD first (the one from the HDVR-2) and InstantCake says that it's too small for the backup.

I read the instructions on the ptvupgrade website and it advises me not to use the original HDs to "bake" it. But is there any restrictions by InstantCake on a HD? Does the HD have to be > a certain size for InstantCake to work?

I'm curious because what if I just wanted to use InstantCake to "rebake" an original HD gone bad?

Doomster

[stevel]

There are no restrictions other than the new disk must be at least as big as the factory disk. You can do what you suggest - the advice is so that you always have the original disk as a backup (assuming it hasn't failed.)

[Doomster]

the original HD has failed. It's no use to me (other than perhaps reformat it and use it as a 40GB HD on a PC). Shouldn't InstantCake work with this?

Doomster

[stevel]

If the original HD has failed, then discard it. I don't see the point in trying to reuse it.

Look at the InstantCake description of the size of the original disk it was built from. In some cases there are two different versions, one made for a smaller disk (but a larger download). As long as the new disk is at least the size of the one the IC was built from, you'll be ok.

[magnus]

If the original HD has failed, then discard it. I don't see the point in trying to reuse it.

Look at the InstantCake description of the size of the original disk it was built from. In some cases there are two different versions, one made for a smaller disk (but a larger download). As long as the new disk is at least the size of the one the IC was built from, you'll be ok.

I think you'd have to check the script and see if it does an expand, if it does then it seems like it would not work unless you were using a bigger drive. otherwise, seems like you would need to change the script and that would probably go against the simplicity of instant cake.

[stevel]

The Instant Cake first restores an image and then tries to do an expand if there is room. It is pretty smart.

[tivoupgrade]

You should use a disk that is slightly larger than the original drive. The reason for this is that by default, InstantCake creates a slightly larger swap partition, and this means that the drive must be somewhat bigger than the 40GB drive used to make the original backup. You *can* work around this by using the PTVbake-special script which is on our free LBA48 CD.

But, from one of your earlier posts, you indicated that the original disk drive failed. Assuming you verified this with the manufacturer's diagnostics and if that is the case, then you should never re-use that drive.

All of these headaches can be avoided by going with the recommendation in the instructions -- use a drive that is larger than the original and you don't even have to worry about it at all....