untivoing a hard drive

[spudlydudly]

is it possible to untivo a hard drive?
i have a hard drive that i want ot use in my pc is it possible to return it back?
it only shows as 9 meg instead of 80 gig.
cheers

[Raisltin Majere]

Is it an original drive?

diskutil or qunlock, I think, are what you need.

A search on here should find them.

[Pete77]

Is it an original drive?

diskutil or qunlock, I think, are what you need.

A search on here should find them.

Any Maxtor or Quantim drive that has been Tivo formatted then needs to go through the Qunlock or Diskutil procedure to get back the full space as I understand it.

It was all done because of a subsidy on the real cost of the hard drives at the time and to stop people using them for anything else.

[spudlydudly]

cheers
for the speedy replies

[hokkers999]

Any Maxtor or Quantim drive that has been Tivo formatted then needs to go through the Qunlock or Diskutil procedure to get back the full space as I understand it.

It was all done because of a subsidy on the real cost of the hard drives at the time and to stop people using them for anything else.

Or you could attach it to your pc and simply delete the partitions? then create a new one?

[blindlemon]

No. You need to unlock it first as the lock is in the firmware!

[Ms_Isis]

Hello, do I need to un-tivo a drive to run a diagnostic? My tivo had the green screen of death. I've run the samsung hutil which showed errors, but this thread has made me consider whether it should be un-tivo'd for an accurate diagnostic? Thanks

[Raisltin Majere]

Is it a Samsung drive than no.

what size is being reported for the drive?

Is it a Samsung drive than no.

Huh? That makes no sense.

If it is a Samsung drive then no

[Ms_Isis]

It's a samsung 160gb drive and it reported the right size. I just wasn't sure if having tivo/linux on it would affect the diagnostic or if bad sectors are just bad sectors regardless of what's on the drive

[Raisltin Majere]

No, the original drives (maxtor/quantum) were locked by tivo to only report something like 9mb.

If your drive is a make other than the above and reporting the correct size the unlocking utils won't work.

I'm not particularly techy so can't help with the problem you have, it may be better to start a new thread - although I don't think bad sectors a) can be fixed or b) can be caused by the type of software installed.

[Pete77]

If your drive is a make other than the above and reporting the correct size the unlocking utils won't work.

Its not that they won't work but just that you don't need them in the first place as other makes of drive don't need unlocking.

[Raisltin Majere]

Its not that they won't work but just that you don't need them in the first place as other makes of drive don't need unlocking.

That's particularly pedantic :) Ms_Isis would like something that will "work" to fix her problem. The unlocking utilities will not "work".

Also, I believe the apps will say "drive not locked" or something and stop "working"

[Ms_Isis]

Thanks for your replies. I emailed for a rma number earlier today as the drive is still under warranty. Not being particularly techie (but I generally get by) this thread made me think perhaps the diagnostic reported errors as the drive was used in a tivo and not in a pc, but on second thoughts I don't suppose that should matter. Anyway, I'll send it back and see what they say. Thanks again

[Ms_Isis]

ALso thanks for the replies to spudlydudly's query. I recently gave our original tivo drive to the bf for extra storage and he had the same issue. Your replies will mean the drive doesn't go to waste after all. Thanks

[mikerr]

Also, I believe the apps will say "drive not locked" or something and stop "working"Wrong unfortunately. Qunlock doesn't check.

Using qunlock on an unlocked (maxtor) drive can kill the drive forever.
Do not use qunlock on a maxtor drive.

Always use diskutil (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148629) which is safe.

[wolflord11]

You can always do a Low Level Format (as different from a Standard format) to totally clear the drive back to original factory specs. :D

[Raisltin Majere]

Yeah, well it was still pedantic :D