MFSTools 2.0 and Serial ATA Harddrives

[Rathgar2]

So I have been reading posts and searching for about 2 hours now. My eyes are blurry and I think I have found the answer to my problems, but I need someone to confirm it.

I bought 2 250GB Seagate drives and the brackets and standoffs from 9thTee,com and got all of the parts lined up and then tried to upgrade my DirecTivo Hughes Series 2 SD-DVR40 and ran into a hitch. I had assumed that my Dell XPS system had 2 PATA ports to run the MFSTools and disks from. Instead when I went to install the Tivo 40GB drive in what I thought was the 2nd port it turned out to be a smaller port running a ribbon cable to my 3.5" floppy drive (that I have never used, nor have I used a floppy in the last 10 years!) I just now learned that my main C: harddrive is what I think is a serial connection and that I have only 1 PATA port to use.

So confirm for me would you...1. There is no way I can tweak MFSTools or be able to get a variant program to be able to use the native SATA disk. 2. Also, if I want to proceed then I will have to use a different system with the requisite PATA IDE ports. Oh and 3. I should use the PTVupgrade LBA48 CD with MFStools and Enhancements instead of the plain MFSTools 2.0

Thanx in advance for your time.
WTTW Ken

[wscannell]

2. You would be best off to get a different computer. Even an old Pentium will do the job.

3. Use the free ptvupgrade.com LBA48 boot CD. That is all you would need.

[Rathgar2]

Thanks, from what I have been reading the free PTVupgrade LBA48 CD does not contain the command needed to unlock the USB ports. Am I mistaken? I will need to pull video from a news cast for a documentary I am working on and it looks like unless I pay the $20 I will not be able to get the killhdinitrd software.

Can you confirm this or is there a way around this that I have missed?
WTTW Ken

[wscannell]

If you are just going to get one video, it may be easier to use a video capture card or box that takes audio/video in and connects to the USB port of your computer. Then you just play the video segment while recording it to the PC.

If you want to enable the USB ports to network the TiVo, I suggest you look into the "Zipper". Info about the Zipper can be found on the Underground Forum.

[Rathgar2]

Thanks for the info, you are a gentleman and a scholar. I thought about doing that with the TV capture box, but I may need to teach my boss and start creating in house archives so it would be better to get direct access.

If I am correct my DirecTivo is running OS 6.2, this info is in the System Info Menu page. From the pages I have looked at I cannot tell if the USB ports are already open. Am I correct in assuming that I would still need to run the "killhdinitrd" from the PTVupgrade LBA48 CD?
WTTW Ken

[wscannell]

The USB ports are not enabled on any DirecTiVo. Your best bet would be to use the "zipper".

[Rathgar2]

Thanx again for the confirmation. I've been reading the Zipper pages and will lay hands on an older Pentium and give it all a go on the morrow.