Can't unlock Tivo A drive

[pmc pctech]

I'm a fairly competent IT tech but I've spent 3 days now researching and trying to add a drive to my Tivo Hughes HDVR2. I'm starting to feel like an idiot.

Everyone makes it very clear that a backup of the A drive is critical before adding the B drive. My A drive is locked and I've downloaded diskutil.exe. I've also used the disk installation programs from Maxtor and Western Digital to try and unlock the drive.

My A drive is Maxtor but when that program failed to unlock the drive, I tried the WD program someone recommended but, of course, that only works with WD drives.

When I run diskutil/PermUnlock 3 (A drive is secondary slave) I get a fail message that the drive is not locked. Ark Linux shows that the drive is definitely locked and no backup is possible.

I'm ready to buy a plug and play disk B but I'd still need to backup the A drive, right?

What do I do now?

[wscannell]

What size does Linux show the TiVo drive as? (Use Shift and Page Up to go back in the boot text) The older Quantum drives were the ones that were typically locked.

By the way, you might be better off by replacing the A drive with a larger drive rather than adding a drive. When you add a drive, the pair become "married". If either one fails, then your TiVo is no longer useable until you replace the drives.

[pmc pctech]

My wife insisted on watching Tivo so I can't check the size of the A drive just now. It's a Maxtor 40G drive dated Dec. 2002.

I'll do as you suggest with the bigger replacement drive instead of adding a B drive.

New issue. I blessed my new Maxtor 120G drive. The program said my drive size was 114G. That is a lot more then the 3G max allowed in the instructions. I'm running XP on a 2005 Dell. Should I email the tivodudes as instructed or is that old info? Or should I just ignore it since I'll reload this disk with the backup of the A drive. Assuming I ever get it backed up.

Note to other Tivo upgrade newbies: Everyone seems to assume we would know that a new drive has to be formatted. While I knew that, I didn't know if the BlessTivo program was going to do that or if I needed to format ahead of time. BlessTivo must be run on FORMATTED drives. ( THIS IS NOT CORRECT ACCORDING TO THE REPLY BELOW )

Also, after creating the boot disk with MakeBoot.bat, your Microsoft software may warn you that the floppy is not formatted. It IS formatted, however, and should be used just as it is. Do NOT format the floppy with Windows software.

[wscannell]

It appears that you are using some older outdated instructions. blesstivo is not really used any longer. I do not think that the A drive is locked. Try looking at some of the stickys at the top of the upgrade forum. Good instructions are found at http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

When using these instructions, drives do not need to be formatted. The tools do it for you.

If you are using a drive larger than 137GB, you need to use the LBA48 aware Linux kernel. Boot disks with the tools are available free on weaknees.com and ptvupgrade.com.

[pmc pctech]

Wow, are you sitting there just waiting for me to post? Thanks for the quick and knowledgeable replies.

Ok, the newer tools WILL FORMAT the drive. That's good to know.

Also, there are many sources for updating instructions, not all of them up to date. The link in the reply above is to the interactive (customized to your specific model Tivo) instructions that are the latest and greatest with the best software too.

The wife's still watching Tivo so will have to finish this tomorrow (day 4).

This is a great site for anyone wanting (needing) to learn about Tivo. Thanks for all your help.

[Colbyt]

My A drive is Maxtor but when that program failed to unlock the drive, I tried the WD program someone recommended but, of course, that only works with WD drives.

When I run diskutil/PermUnlock 3 (A drive is secondary slave) I get a fail message that the drive is not locked. Ark Linux shows that the drive is definitely locked and no backup is possible.


As has been pointed out to you yours may not be locked but for the benifit of others who may read this thread,

Diskutil failed to work for me on an older series 1 maxtor drive. I got the same message you did. Downloading and using qunlock solved the problem.

[pmc pctech]

Have made some progress.

I booted with the weaknees boot CD which showed the Maxtor 120g drive had 0 physical heads.

I tried to partition the drive with ArkLinux but the only option was a virtual partition and I didn't think that would work.

I purchased PartitionMagic 8.0 from letushelppm for $20. This seems to be the original version now owned and sold by Symantec for $69. Not sure if this copy is legal but it seems ok. Will know more when I register the program online since the link goes to Symantec.

The installation file came in .rar format so had to download a free trial version of WinRAR. PM 8.0 had no problem formatting the drive with FAT32. Not completely sure if it's a real or virtual partition but I think it's real at this point.

XP listed the drive and showed the correct size and that it was a FAT32 partition.

When I rebooted with weaknees boot CD the drive was recognized with the correct size. I ran the commands to backup from the original Tivo drive to the new Tivo drive and the backup failed because the new drive was LOCKED!

Ok, rebooted with diskutil and that failed saying the disk was NOT LOCKED.

I'll try qulock and let you know how it goes.

Thanks

[wscannell]

Be careful with qunlock. If the drive is not really locked and drive locking is not supported by the drive, qunlock can permanently damage the hard drive. I don't think that the new drive would be locked.

[pmc pctech]

Interesting that you should mention that about qunlock. Where were you 4 hours ago? ;o) Actually the question is where was I? You were right on the money.

I was busy breaking my hardrive with qunlock. My new Maxtor drive is now junk.

I give up. I install satellite systems, home theaters and plasma TVs in addition to the IT work. Soooo, I'm switching to DishNetwork, getting a Model 625 with both IR and RF remotes (can record and view recorded shows from a second room) AND getting paid $165 for my trouble (a lot less trouble than I've had so far trying to upgrade).

I considered this option before I started but didn't think the upgrade would be such an ordeal. Live and learn.

[ForrestB]

You're making this way to complicated. I've upgraded the hard drive in a HDVR2 and a SD-DVR40 and the only program I used was MFSTool2 2 CD and the commands mfsbackup and mfsrestore. Windows is totally unnecessary and you only need a FAT32 drive for making a backup (which is NOT required for an upgrade). I did not need to use Qunlock and I didn't need to format the new drive - that's all done automatically with mfsrestore. I use these upgrade instructions http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html

[pmc pctech]

OK, NOW YOU TELL ME. ;o)

In the interest of learning how to do it CORRECTLY, I'll try your suggestion. I have plenty of drives laying around. If it works, I'll do it again on a large drive.

[ForrestB]

Maybe you can install the new hard drive back in your PC and use the Diagnostic CD that shipped with the hard drive to revive it. If that fails, you should be able to exchange it at the store or get it fixed under warranty.

[BobCamp1]

You also may want to try using the free PTVUpgrade iso image at www.ptvupgrade.com. It has less issues than the Weakness CD on some PCs.

None of your hard drives were ever locked. The Weakness tool CD was incorrectly reporting the drives as being locked. This is a (sort of) known issue with that CD. Try the PTVupgrade CD instead. IF that doesn't work, try using a different PC to perform the upgrade.

Also, use the instructions here: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

They are less complicated and more up-do-date.