How-To Upgrade your TiVo

[RickHan]

I was asking a technology question. At this point I'm using a PVR, but easily could be using a TiVo unit later when I give up on E*.
Does anyone know if the disk formats are the same?
I'm totally sold on digital video recording for TV, not any specific vendor.....

[clherv]

Thanks to Robert and Michael's responses, I have been able to do some Linux stuff--enough to mount devices, copy to/from floppy, use ls command, etc. I used the more command to read the MFSTools README. I then copied the README to floppy, and then printed on my iMac.


Thanks for listing up the commands.

I understood Hindsdale's document to say that after I get my compact backup (the one that I am going to put on the CD), then I should:
>>temporarily put the compact backup on the new HD to test.
>>If Tivo shows the compact backup is good, then
>>Re-attach the new HD to the PC so it can then receive the full backup (the one with my recordings preserved).
>>Then the drive is ready for use.

Is that right? Could that be why some of my commands looked duplicate? I think I may have had an extra restore and backup for that reason.

If I am reading him right, then he is saying I need too test the compact backup before having confidence in the CD.

I am asking for clarification because the instructions are necessarily complicated to cover all possibilities, so I am left a little unsure even after reading a few times.

Thanks.

[Robert S]

Yes, that would explain the duplicated commands.

[weaknees]

I'm not sure why you need to test the backup before making the new drive since you'll also have your old drive as a backup, but I suppose it's not a bad idea - just a lot of extra time.

Michael

[DevdogAZ]

Thanks to Hinsdlae, Tiger, Robert S, and everyone else who has contributed to this thread and created the software I used this weekend. With relatively little complication and virtually no experience with any of this kind of thing, I was able to add a 120 GB drive to my stock SVR-3000 on Saturday and I now have 184 hours. YAHOOOOO!

Thanks to all!!!

devdogaz

[opthos2002]

I am going to try the tivo upgrade but my PC has RAID SCSI for the boot drive.
I have both primary and secondary IDE but they are currently only the CD-ROM and a 30gb storage drive.

Anyone know what linux will do without a primary IDE dos boot drive or does it matter?

Thanks

[Robert S]

All you need is a FAT partition to write the backup to. If the ATA drive is formatted NTFS or whatever, put a small FAT partition on your upgrade drive, backup to that and copy the backup somewhere safe. Then you can do one of the direct transfer upgrades to move the TiVo system to the new disk.

[clherv]

When we are booting the Linux, we get the pages of information referenced in Hindsdale's instructions. All of the devices--hda, hdb, hdd except hdc show in those pages. That is when the hdc is the old Tivo 40G drive.

When we put our formated 1.2G dos drive in the hdc position, but the old Tivo in the hda position, then they both were displayed. Why???

Another question:

When we typed the command mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos (it was the dos at this time), the screen displayed: "mount: you must specify a filesystem type"

What does that mean??

Kent

[Robert S]

You have to mount hda1, not hda. (Working from an old copy of Hinsdale are we?)

Not sure why the drive wouldn't be recognised on the secondary bus. Might be a BIOS issue. You can put the drive on primary master if necessary (substitute hda for hdc and vice-versa). Unlike other TiVo boot disks, doing this with the MFS Tools 2.0 boot disks does not cause a problem.

[clherv]

Not very old (but it is from one of his), but I feel really stupid. If you scroll up you will see that I even listed it as hda1.

Oh well, please forgive me.

Just by moving things around we got everything to mount. We don't know why it didn't.

Kent

[clherv]

We seem to now be successfully running the mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc command--only hdd instead of hdc--that was part of the moving around.

Thanks again.

[clherv]

I did the hHindsdale test thing. We restored the tivo.bak to the new drive, and took to the Tivo to test. The old Tivo drive was connected to the middle connector in the IDE cable!!?? We think we remember that the 40G was set to CS, but we set it to Master because that is what Hindsdale said. It would not boot, but did when we changed to CS??? Doesn't it seem strange that Sony shipped it with the drive connected to the middle connector?? Should we put it like Sony had it, or at the end of the cable??


Also, now we are getting ready to do the full backup/full restore. It is supposed to take 4-8 hours. Can we go to bed with it running and check it in the morning?

Kent

[weaknees]

Many TiVo models do ship with drives set to CS, but we generally recommend not using CS, partially so that the order on the cable (or even the cable itself) can be reversed.

Go to bed - you'll see the results in the morning.

Michael

[clherv]

Thanks. I completely understand the second part.

About the cable thing. When connected in the middle, it worked on CS, but not on master. Are you saying that in this case we should strap Slave and it leave middle? It is all coiled as Sony left it, and so I think getting to the end of the cable would be tough.

Thanks.

Kent

[clherv]

Thanks to Michael, Robert, and everone else.

I wish I could do more than say thanks.

About my cable question. When I got up this morning my son had already installed the drive with CS and it was working reporting 106 hours.

If I need to change it, I will--probably won't be able to convince him to do it for me. Otherwise, I will leave as is until I mfsadd the second someday.

Silly as it sounds, I am already thinking: "106 does not sound like a lot. That is only 3 times what we had."

Thanks again.

Kent

PS: If I had been awake when it finished I would probably not been able to resist some ls before shutting down the Linux OS.

[jmathey]

Robert,
I just ran the same command and I am working with MFS 2.0, and I too got the "you must specify a filesystem type" in response to the mount command.

Thanks
John

[Robert S]

Cross post (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=127606)

[vandiman]

One HDVR2 down ... one to go.

Thanks to all that have posted to the site for the insight on the upgrade and the how to's.

John,
On the must specify a file system type error .... ignore it. The mount happened. As long as you can read and write to /mnt/dos the backup and restore will succeed (assuming you have enough space).

[Robert S]

Where did you get that idea? If mount succeeds it prints no output at all. Getting that error message means the mount failed and /mnt/dos is just a directory in the RAM disk. Use ls to list the files in /mnt/dos and check that it is your C: drive if you're unsure.

[opthos2002]

Thanks for the info, I ran the update over the weekend.

Did a full back of the orginal A drive and then added a B drive of 80 Gb.

138 hours of capacity!!!!!

[HerbM]

--re: Working from old instructions

I certainly was -- working from an old copy of the notes (both Tiger's and Hinsdale's) with the "mount /dev/hda" instead of "hda1" -- and kept getting errors for "file system type" must be specified.

The obvious "mount -t fat32 ..." didn't work and seemed unsupported even.
Working from a FAT32 volume created on Win2003 Server, figured I had arrived at a "new set of problems" until, I found another post with "/dev/hda1" for the 1st partition.

Ok, backup is almost finished.

Sanity check: I have 2 drives, the first a copy of the original 15 Hour/20 Gig
and the second an added 80 Gig.

The first drive is actually an 80 Gig I bought when first doing the upgrade (I had faith in your folks figuring this out.)

Now, A needs to go from 20->80, B needs to stay 80, and keep the data.

Can I do this?

I am trying to follow "new larger A drive" instructions but suspect that A+B must be copied to "new A" and my A drive is really the same size as the "upgraded B" alone.

I have plenty of spare larger drives (right now) so if moving this to a 137 (really a 200) will help I can make two moves if necessary.

[weaknees]

HerbM -

You can just do a "dd" of the old A to the new A, then do an "mfsadd" to get the use of the extra space. The only potential issue here is the lack of additional swap, but with what you are doing, I don't think you can fix that.

Michael

[Robert S]

Actually it would be -t vfat, but there's no filing system on hda (or at least, not where the OS is looking for it), so it still fails. -t vfat can be handy if you don't get long filename support by default.

You can expand the A drive by running mfsadd, but if you're planning to use a larger A drive than the current one, then copy the drive now (you only need to copy the first 15Gb, of course) because when you expand it you add a pair of partitions to the drive and you only have room for three pairs of MFS partitions on the A drive.

See page 6 of the 160Gb thread at the top of the Underground for a way to use the full capacity of that 200Gb drive.

As for swap, see the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to increase the size of your swap partition before you run mfsadd. If you're using the 200Gb drive be aware that you'll need more than 127Mb of swap.

[HerbM]

Originally posted by weaknees
HerbM -

You can just do a "dd" of the old A to the new A, then do an "mfsadd" to get the use of the extra space. The only potential issue here is the lack of additional swap, but with what you are doing, I don't think you can fix that.

Michael

I was coming to that conclusion too. I have an (old) 13 Gig image on an 80 Meg A, with an (old) 80 Gig upgrade B drive.

So the space is right there on A, and I think that I can just mfsadd the extra space on A without doing a (new) copy -- I have the extra drive if the copy is important.

My other choice is double copies to other spare drives and back (I have a 165 that I don't want to waste as a 137 max.)

Current:
14 Gig + 80 Gig (residing on two 80 Gig)
(Also: have a no data backup in Fat32 volume file,
and also on original 14 Gig drive tested)

(Temporarily) Available for working space:
80 Gig drive (another)
165 Gig
195 Gig (this is currently holding the Fat32 volume
but that can be moved to somewhere else on the net.)

[HerbM]

I am thinking:

DD copies BOTH A (14/80 Gig in use) and B (80/80) to spare (80 and another larger drive) -- treat this as A +B and do the MFSBackup...| MFSRestore... "pipe" command back to current A + B

If I only copy 14+80 (onto 165 + 80) with DD, I think then I can follow the instructions for putting this back on (80+80) with the Backup/Restore pipe command and get the bigger swap file at the same time?????

[Robert S]

While that would work, manually creating a larger swap partition as I suggested would be /much/ quicker.

[HerbM]

Originally posted by Robert S
While that would work, manually creating a larger swap partition as I suggested would be /much/ quicker.

Sorry, you post hadn't appeared when I last posted --
I will go back and read that and see if it's too late.

(I just MFSadd'ed the extra space.)

[gregs]

I tried following your instructions, but I do not have an original TV drive to backup. It wasn't obvious to me how to load the mfg tools onto a new disk drive. I bought my TIVO on ebay without hard disks. I went to Fry's Electronics and bought an 80 GB disk and want to install the TIVO programs and utilities so I can turn on my service. Please advise how to best get my system working.

[weaknees]

gregs

You need an image file - that contains the OS. Without that, you have no way to make the TiVo work. You can either buy a 'replace' type upgrade kit from an upgrade company (like us) or you can buy a pull. You can also post a thread that you are looking for an image and someone should help you out.

Michael

[docbrock]

I'm using the Hinsdale how to guide and Dylan's Linux boot disk to save a copy of my TIVO OS. I bought my HDRV2 already upgraded to 120GB and just wanted a copy in case there are future problems. My problem is that after I mount my C drive with the command "mkdir /mnt/dos" and then "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" the command "mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc" results in "mfsback up: not found".
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or how to fix it? Thanks

[weaknees]

You can try:

mfstool backup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

But are you sure you're using a version 2.0 CD? It sounds like you have an older version.

Michael

[bckncook]

Three main questions below labelled A, B, C.

Have a SAT-T60. Started freezing on "Welcome... Powering Up."

Decided to replace with a new hard drive, so got a Maxtor 160GB.

Using Hinsdale for MFSTools 2.0.

Tried to make backup of old drive. Old drive stuck on "Scanning Source Drive".


(A) Does this mean it's impossible to recover settings/recordings from old drive, or is there ANY way possible to save anything from my old drive?


If so, I think I found an image file online called “ice2.5t-60comp.bak”. It’s a 129 MB download!


(B) Is this a good file to use?


If so, I can find no good instructions for adding this new image to a new drive.

I saved the image file in my root c:/ directory.

In Hinsdale Step #8 (Restoring Mfs Tools Backup Image), I replaced “tivo.bak” with “ice2.5t-60comp.bak” in the following line of code: “mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb”.

Executing that line of code resulted in something like File Not Found.


(C) If my HD is bad, and if this image file is good, what are the steps for getting this image functioning on the drive?


Thanks in advance for any help!


P.S. We’ve been TiVo-less for a month now and are experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms, so please hurry with the answers!!! : )

[weaknees]

There's really no way to get your settings back from a dead drive.

I can't tell you if that file works or not, but you should edit your post to omit the location of the file, since that's not permitted here.

What steps are you using before you attempt the mfsrestore step?

Also, realize that with a 160 GB drive, you only get 137 GB of recording space.

Michael

[mickyw]

Word of warning...
although its been posted on here many times that upgrading your tivo will void your warranty, it should also be noted that if you use the tivo service, TIVO will know the day you change your unit. They keep a log of all contact to them. I am in the middle of tracking down a Program Data problem and they informed me that I upgraded my unit on June 2!!! and that they could not help me anymore.


Keep that in mind!

[weaknees]

They are usually still quite happy to help - what type of problem are you having?

Michael

[mickyw]

Michael,
I posted this under the Big Brother thread a bit ago, which sounds a bit like a rant.

My Program Guide Data disappears after two weeks. This started happening after the upgrade. I'm not sure if it was the upgrade (I think it was) or the 4.0 software push.

The unit reports that it can communicate no problem. Calls are successful (via broadband by the way, wired USB network).

I can get the program guide data back after a repeat guided setup. But it won't automatically do it with the call.


Any suggestions?

[weaknees]

When you did the upgrade, did you use your own software, or did you get an image from someone?

Michael

[mickyw]

Michael,

I just used my old harddrive backed up the image to another harddrive (which I might still have around) and restored that image to the new drive.

I only have one drive in there now ( the new one).

So I guess I used my own software with the MFS Tools 2.0.


I remember that I downloaded the MFS Tools 1.x stuff first and had some problems...but then I found the MFS tools 2.0 stuff.

I saw an old thread that said that if my unit couldn't update the clock that this might happen...but it was a bit dated and he stated that his firewall was the issue. My firewall hasn't changed at all so I'm not sure if that could be it.

This unit worked fine pre upgrade.

Thanks again!!

[weaknees]

Do you get backgrounds on the menu screens?

Michael

[mickyw]

Michael,
Yes I have backgrounds.

[Joyster]

I upgraded my TiVo last night using MFSTools 2.0. What a breeze! I went from 42 hours to 136 in a short evening - even preserving all my recordings!
Thanks hinsdale et al!

[weaknees]

mickyw,

You should probably try your stock drive and see if it can update, then, if so, try the upgrade again.

Michael

[mickyw]

Michael,
Unfortunately, I don't have that drive any more...could I go buy one that was stock (recognized by TIVO)?

Also,
I started a similar thread in here called Program Data Guide Big Brother. Could you take a look and give me your input?


Thanks so much,
Micky

[weaknees]

I'll look over there, but a stock drive wouldn't have the TiVo OS on it.

Michael

[mrscott]

I have a new Hughes DirecTivo, and I have copied my hard drive onto a new 120gb drive, and it works in my reciever. I am trying to figure out now how to expand the capacity so that it reports greater capacity (system information still reports "variable, up to 35 hours". The how to guide says series 2 does not allow expansion of A drive; does this apply to my machine? Other utilities that I see do not work with Windows XP, and that is the operating system on my all my PCs. I have Kazymyr's TiVo Boot CD that I used a couple of years ago to upgrade a standalone Tivo unit. What is my next step? Thank in advance. :)

[Robert S]

Wow, what an out-of-date procedure you're trying!

Try reading New Hinsdale (linked at the top of this thread). There are several /major/ pitfalls for that model of TiVo.

[docmanhattan]

I just wanted to extended my thanks to hindsdale for the informative HOWTO and weaknees for the stellar dual drive/fan mount for a DSR7000.

I've now got a 217 hour DirecTiVo. :D

I'll venture forth into TiVoWeb and such later, but for now, I'm just digging have lots of recording capacity.

Thanks!

karl

[SteinyD]

I'm about to buy a DirecTV DVR and will want to immediately replace the hard drive with a larger one (WD 160gb) that I've purchased recently. I have to basic questions though I have read the guides online, either I've missed the answer or they aren't there:

1) Is there anything that needs to be done to the new drive to prep it for installation (special formatting, Tivo OS install, etc.)?
2) Of the 3 DirecTV Tivos (HDVR2, DSR7000R & DVR39), do any of them pose any particular difficulties or shortcomings to enabling a drive upgrade/replacement?
3) Do any of these 3 DirecTV DVRs not allow for any of the other upgrades/hacks that are available for the DirecTV DVR units?

Thanks in advance for the help!

David

[Robert S]

You need to follow the instructions in the How-to linked in the first post. The procedure described there does everything required to prepare the disk.

Those models are all virtually identical.

Although it is possible to hack the Series 2 TiVoes, it's very much more difficult than hacking the Series 1 models.

[SteinyD]

You reference my question by comparing 'series 1' to 'series 2'. I know the DirecTV units do not have the USB ports enabled. However, I've seen the newer units I referenced as being series 2. Is that not the case?


Originally posted by Robert S
You need to follow the instructions in the How-to linked in the first post. The procedure described there does everything required to prepare the disk.

Those models are all virtually identical.

Although it is possible to hack the Series 2 TiVoes, it's very much more difficult than hacking the Series 1 models.

[Robert S]

Yes, but, more generally, the lock-down that prevents you modifying the software on the Series 1 TiVoes is easy to break (or absent). The lock-down on the Series 2's, both stand alone and combo is much harder to break. So, if you're thinking of running TiVoWeb etc, then you'd better research it carefully.

[DCIFRTHS]

I have been reading this thread for a long time, and I am still confused. I hope that someone will be able to answer my question.....

My upgrade is a Series 2 with one factory drive. I am going to remove the factory drive and install 2 120 gig drives.

Using the following information and the SECOND command to restore both A and B drives using the small backup (instructions from Hinsdale How To)..... (questions finished at the end of the quoted instructions)

Note for those with already tested image: If you are restoring a previously tested backup image and are not concerned about preserving recordings, you can use Mfs Tools to restore the image and expand your drives at the same time ? saving the mfsadd at Step 10 (this will overwrite any image/recordings existing on the destination drives).

With your new upgrade TiVo A drive as Secondary Master and new upgrade TiVo B drive (if any) as Primary Slave, you can use the following command to restore your Mfs Tools backup image to your new large upgrade drive(s) and expand them at the same time:

Restore and expand in a single step using ONE of the following commands:

Note: Series 2 units restoring a backup image created using old Mfs Tools 1.X should also include the -b option in either command line used below (-xzbpi instead of -xzpi).

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (restore/expand to single new larger A drive)

or

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb (restore/expand to new A and new B)

Mfs Tools will report drive progress and results. Once completed you can unmount and power down (see below) and then skip to Step 11 and install your new TiVo upgrade drives.

.....will I have the same image on both upgrade drives or does mfsrestore setup the drives to work as an A and B drive?

Thanks and sorry if my question has been answered before.

[Robert S]

It creates a married pair of drives, not two A drives. The drive listed first (hdc in Hinsdale's plan) becomes the new A drive and the drive listed second (hdb, ditto) becomes the new B drive - that's why Hinsdale has you jumper them as master and slave respectively.

[DCIFRTHS]

Originally posted by Robert S
It creates a married pair of drives, not two A drives. The drive listed first (hdc in Hinsdale's plan) becomes the new A drive and the drive listed second (hdb, ditto) becomes the new B drive - that's why Hinsdale has you jumper them as master and slave respectively.

Ah. Thanks !

[Cedric]

I just upgraded my RCA Series 2 DTiVo and thought I would report a couple of obvious, but frustrating things that I learned:

1. I used a computer with Windows 98 on it to avoid the issues with XP. I had two computers to choose from and it became obvious after a few hours that I had picked the wrong one.

First Lesson; use the newest computer you can.

In my case the "wrong one" was a PII with an older BIOS that wouldn't recognize the drives as listed in Hinsdale's FAQ. After much BIOS tweaking and drive jumpering, I was able to get the drive backed up. I later used the newer computer to run MFSADD and was able to get the drives to recognize on both Primary and Secondary channels with no problem.

Second Lesson; test the drives before putting them in the TiVo.

I first upgraded my 14 hour stand alone Series 1 about 2.5 years ago in the pre Hinsdale, pre-TivoMad era. I didn't (and don't now) have extra bucks laying around to pick up another TiVo if my main one bit the dust, so I decided to run the drive manfacturer's full level diagnostics prior to doing the upgrade. Back then I ran the tests overnight so I don't know how long they took to finish, but this time on a WD 120Gb it only took 45 min. In my view a wise use of time. Maybe I've been lucky, but I never had a single frozen frame or stopple during my entire TiVo life.

Third Bonus Lesson; drink beer AFTER the upgrade is complete.

I'm not the most techie guy so the combination of master/slave/cable select jumper settings with linux hda/hdb/hdc designations was potentially confusing enough that I needed to approach this project with all the wits I have still intact.

I hope this might help someone else. Thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger & the folks at Weaknees. Also a shout back in time to Mr. Belboz & Dylan who made this possible for about 90% of us around here.

Stats: 40 Gb stock A drive + 120Gb new B drive = 141 hours on DTivo Series 2.

[jbodden]

blesstivo not found. :confused:
Blesstivo not found
BlessTivo not found
BlessTiVo - bingo!!!

after everything else checked out, after hunting for a floopy disk that works (who uses those now?) and booting into linux with the 'latest blesstivo' from the 'official site' , the 120 gb drive is ready and recognized, I type in 'blesstivo /dev/hdb' and get bupkis, blesstivo not found.
Did your instructions leave out a little something?
:mad:

:rolleyes: I found the problem. "BlessTiVo" works, and the caps have to be in the right places!

Says drive is ready to go, but make backup first.
OK now, I got the mfs tools - so what am I supposed to do with them?
Presumably they are linux - so how do I get them onto a floopy with no linux box? :eek:
Thanks Michael - editing previous note here - but I know my master from my slave. Was married once.:up:

[weaknees]

Scroll up through the boot info (shift-pgup) and see what letter the drive is recognized with - it may not be hdb.

Michael

[EricG]

Thanks again Hinsdale and Tiger for another easy upgrade!

[ThreeSoFar]

Could someone PM me a ftp site to d/l a Sony Series 1 SVR-2000 image?

TIA!

[etavadia]

I just recently made the jump from Ulitmate TV to Tivo Series 2 w/ DirectTV. In your opinions, should I upgrade the hard drive right off the bat before doing anything with my new Tivo unit. I have an existing 120gb HD in my UTV right now and would like to drop into my Tivo. Does Tivo need to initialize back to DirectTV or anything like that.

Thanks for help in advance.

ET

[mike3962]

Many, many thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger for making this whole thing so painless. Thanks also to the dozens of people with tips on doing the upgrade, advice on quietest drives available, etc, etc.

My stock HDR312 was starting to have stopples - more and more frequently and I didn't want to be in the position of having to upgrade/replace from a dead old drive. Got a decent deal on a Seagate Barracuda V 120G and sat down to put it in place of the original Quantum Fireball 40G.

The whole process was quick (maybe 3 hours, went to work in the shop for a while during the process of copying all of my shows over to the new drive) and reasonably easy. System info now reports 142 hours @ basic.

I should have replaced the clock battery while I was in there. All of the shows recorded after the upgrade (until the next AM when I forced a call) were recorded at the wrong time. Bought this TiVO a long time ago, but I don't think the clock has ever worked when the power was off. I keep planning to put the TiVo on a UPS, so don't bother to do the obvious fix.

[Robert S]

etavadia: There's no reason to hurry or to wait. Your upgrade will be the same either way. About the only consideration is that if you make a recording you want to keep on the original A drive you will have to copy the whole drive if you want to take that recording to the new configuration and increase the size of your swap partition.

[etavadia]

Thanks a bunch Robert. I think I'm just going to add an extra hard drive to the original stock.

Thanks,
ET

[EBJ]

Hello

My original query was started in a different thread entitled “Swap Files…again”, and was kindly addressed by Robert S. However, it is now I realise that my issues really relate to this subject matter and I should have read the FAQ section with more attention. Anyway, my problem is as follows: I have a UK based Thomson TiVo with a 40Gb drive. I want to add a further 120GB drive. Following guidance from the Hinsdale instructions, I have created a boot up floppy and managed to backup the original Quantum TiVo drive, which was initially locked but I unlocked using the qunlock utility. Restoring the backup image was also successful, as well as the tests on the new drive in my TiVo. The hiccup occurs when I try to perform the recording capacity upgrade. Following instructions from Robert S (and the various advice from the forum), I opted to copy my old A drive to my new A drive using:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

My TiVo drive shows 40Gb, but I notice an unknown partition table line on both the TiVo and new drive. Settings of the drives are as follows:

TiVo drive: Secondary Master, jumper set to Master
New 120GB Drive: Primary Master, jumper set to Master

However, I continually get Invalid Option –x errors. To be honest, I have entered a series of instructions, some of which I have forgotten and I am now left in a worse state. Whenever I return my original drive back to my TiVo, I get the irritating “Almost there” loop. It is incredibly frustrating, as I had managed to upgrade another TiVo with an 80GB drive. I am wondering whether the key to the problem is the “Unknown Partition tables” line? Any help would be gratefully appreciated. No doubt I have screwed up along the way as I cannot even go back to the very beginning by performing the initial backup procedure.

Regards

Eric

[Robert S]

The unknown partition table is just a byteswapping issue. It's the normal behaviour for the MFS Tools 2.0 disks with a Series 1 TiVo.

Is it possible you got the old and new drives muddled up at some point? It's almost as if the original A drive thinks it should have a B drive.

Anyway, you're pretty much hosed at this point, I think you'll have to restore a backup file to get things working again.

[EBJ]

Thanks for the quick response Robert. Yes, it is extremely likely that I have linked the B drive to the A drive. I may have entered an inappropriate command somewhere along the way. Ok, if I restore, I take it I am performing a restore from my B drive to my A drive. Will this overwrite my recordings? Which command do you suggest? Do I need to change jumper settings?

Regards,

Eric

[Robert S]

Well, it might be worth trying to make a compressed backup off the drive pair, although I was assuming that you've wiped the B-drive image off the new one.

You'll need a FAT partition that you can write the file to, but it's a perfectly standard operation, well documented in Hinsdale (don't forget the -l 32 as it's a UK TiVo).

Failing that, you'll need an existing backup file.

[EBJ]

Just about to make a compressed backup off the drive pair. After that procedure, what do you suggest I try next?

Thanks in advance.

[Robert S]

Restore it to the 80Gb drive and see if your TiVo boots.

If it does boot, you may be able to salvage your recordings.

[EBJ]

Getting failure message:
mfs_load_volume_header: Total Sectors (7725158) mismatch with volume header (278562816). A series of error messgaes follow resulting with a "Backup failed to start up?" Any ideas?
Thanks,
Eric

[Robert S]

Yes, it's looking for a B drive and not finding it.

Is the the 80Gb drive being detected correctly? Is it listed on the mfsbackup command line?

[EBJ]

Drive B shows up on the computer as hdb and I am using the following command:
mfsbackup -l32 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

TiVo drive still set to Master on hdc and new B drive set to slave on hdb

[Robert S]

That's toast, then.

You did make a backup before you started, right?

[EBJ]

Yes, I did make a backup. I take it I can restore this onto my A drive. Do you think my recordings will still be intact?

[Robert S]

Yes, you recordings should survive. Restore with just -i <filename>, no p, x or -s 127.

[EBJ]

So should I use the following command?
mfsrestore -i /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Prior to this command. I am assuming I will also have to mount my FAT partition by entering the following:
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/dos

[EBJ]

I went ahead and carried out the restore. I shall try it in the TiVo this evening. Hopefully, I won't get that painful loop. If it works, do you think I should start again?

[EBJ]

Thanks for your kind assistance Robert S - restoration successful. Recordings are fine and I am very relieved. Am I tempting fate by starting again?

[Robert S]

That's not a question I'm in a position to answer.

[Maruzo]

Hi all:

I have a dual drive 60hr Tivo. I've upgraded Drive A (30GB) with a maxtor 120GB drive several months ago. It has been running great. I get about 50 hours of best quality recording. For the last 4 weeks, I've been tempting to upgrade the second drive (an oem quantum 30gb) with another Maxtor 120GB drive.

Anyway, I finally got the nerve today to open up my tivo and attempt the Tivo Canal (i liken the experience to a root canal for my tivo. :P )

here's what i did: i connected tivo's drive A as the primary master, drive B as the primary slave, and then my new Maxtor 120GB as the Secondary Master.

i loaded the tool floppy and waited for the 3 drives to boot up. upon seeing the "#", i typed in the following:

dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k

i got the following very quickly:

9+1 records in
9+1 records out

then the "#" comes on again, and i see no hard drive activity light. :(

Can somebody tell me what i'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance! :)

[weaknees]

Sounds like your hard drive is locked. Use qunlock to get it working again for backup purposes - you can dig around here to find locations for it.

Michael

[killerdcc]

Hey.
I had an upgraded DSR6000 (w/ an 80GB B drive). It recently died. So I got a DSR 7000. I order the kit from weakness and I am wondering if I can just drop the "B" drive into the 7000 unit, or if I have to start the process over from scratch.

Thanks!

[weaknees]

You'll need to do some work - we have a bit of info here:

http://www.weaknees.com/diy-upgrade.php

Michael

[etavadia]

Wow, what a weekend. Just got done upgrading my new Hughes with a new WD 120GB harddrive. Noticed that my unit did not have room for a second HD, so I just swapped out my 40GB Maxtor with the WD. I'm now reporting 105 hrs!!!! yeah ha

The directions from Hinsdale were awesome. Also many thanks to Tiger & the folks at Weaknees as well as the rest of folks on this thread for giving your two cents worth.

Here's a quick summary of what I encountered:
Tried an image backup to a Win98 HD. Worked but couldn't get it to restore. It seemed that the WD drive had something funky going on. Tried the qunlock and that also didn't work. I then ran the WD utility that writes a ZERO to the first and last sector of the drive (I think this is a low level format). Did the trick for me and I backed up my entire 40gb in less then 1 hr including all recorded shows.

Everything is working except I can not get my 30 second skip forward to work. I tried SPS30S and it only skips to the very end of the show recorded. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for a quick and detailed guide....

ET

[weaknees]

All sounds good - not sure why the WD didn't work on the first shot.

As far as the 30 second skip - make sure you are playing a recorded show when you enter the commands, otherwise, they wont change anything.

Michael

[etavadia]

Tried using the skip in a recorded show after the upgrade and it just doesn't work.

I'll keep my ears open for this one.

Thanks,
ET

[bigbert]

Anything extra I need to be aware of upgrading my sony Series II?

I am adding a b drive 120 GB Maxtor (new 8mb/7200 rpm)

Have Hinsdale instructions...

Thanks for the advice

Bert

[ThreeSoFar]

Yes, like it won't fit inside without extra hardware? At least I think that's the case with newer Series 2's.

[weaknees]

Actually, the Sony SVR-3000 is a newer Series 2 in many respects except for that one - it actually has a bracket for 2 drives. Hardware-wise, you'll need a power splitter, a three-position IDE cable, and drive mounting screws.

Michael

[bmclaurin]

Long time lurker, new poster here. Just wanted to add to the long list of successful upgrade stories. I've been reading the many, many helpful posts on this board for several months now, and I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my HDVR2. I followed Hinsdale's latest guide to the letter, and everything worked flawlessly. I owe special thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and the many experts that frequent these boards. The learning experiences that are chronicled herein are invaluable to those of us that are going through this for the first time.

Here are the specifics: Replaced the stock Maxtor 40GB drive (Fireball 3) that came in my DTiVo with a brand new Maxtor 160GB 7200 RPM drive (DiamondMax Plus, L01P160). Believe it or not, the 160GB drive was actually cheaper than the 120GB drive after rebates. Increased the capacity from 35 hours to 120 hours!!!!!! For now, I haven't yet added the original drive back to the system--want to wait a few weeks to make sure everything is working. I have already purchased a Weaknees bracket to add the 2nd drive, so it's only a matter of time before I do this for even more capacity.

I had no problems whatsoever with drive locking, etc., even though I understand that others have had difficulties with some of the Maxtor drives. I plan to post my experiences in that regard in the Maxtor/drive locking thread.

Thanks again, everyone.

[rntevans]

I am looking to add an 120 GB drive to my sony series 1 svr2000 and I am confused by the last step of the Hinsdale "how to with MFS 2.0"

specifically there is a note of concern regarding the swap file when upgrading your tivo unit to a combined size >140GB which is exactly what I am planning to do.

Could someone tell me exactly what command I need at this point ? It seems that the simple mfsadd command is not sufficient.

thanks for the help

--Russ

[weaknees]

Russ,

In order to get past that swap size, you can't use mfsadd. You need to do a backup and restore and use the "-s 127" switch when doing so. In addition, adding a drive to a unit that old probably isn't such a great idea. You'd likely be better served by using only the new drive, and keeping the old drive aside as a backup. That old drive could go at any time considering its age.

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by rntevans
I am looking to add an 120 GB drive to my sony series 1 svr2000 and I am confused by the last step of the Hinsdale "how to with MFS 2.0"

specifically there is a note of concern regarding the swap file when upgrading your tivo unit to a combined size >140GB which is exactly what I am planning to do.

Could someone tell me exactly what command I need at this point ? It seems that the simple mfsadd command is not sufficient.

thanks for the help

--Russ

You'd need to make a backup first, then restore with the "-x -s 127" option on one or both drives.

As long as you have a backup, you are fine to add a drive; and it certainly is easier if you keep your original drive as a backup should you have a problem, but there is no reason to be concerned that your original drive is going to go bad any time soon (unless its exhibiting any strange behavior or lound noises, already).

[jenbob67]

I'm having problems with my Tivo and I want to upgrade.
If I upgrade will the Tivo have any problems calling in?
Will Tivo service still recognize my Tivo service plan?:confused:

[Robert S]

I'd love to know where this question comes from - and it comes up quite regularly. As far as I can see the logic goes something like 'I see all these hundreds of people saying how pleased they are with their upgrades, but maybe upgrading completely ruined their TiVo and they either didn't notice or thought that it was too trivial to mention. I'd better ask'.

(Just incase that's an ambiguous reply: Upgrading just gives you more space for recordings, everything else about the TiVo works exactly as before.)

[weaknees]

And just to anticipate the next question, your service plan is tied to a serial number on your motherboard, not your drives. So changing drives has no effect.

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by Robert S
I'd love to know where this question comes from - and it comes up quite regularly. As far as I can see the logic goes something like 'I see all these hundreds of people saying how pleased they are with their upgrades, but maybe upgrading completely ruined their TiVo and they either didn't notice or thought that it was too trivial to mention. I'd better ask'.

(Just incase that's an ambiguous reply: Upgrading just gives you more space for recordings, everything else about the TiVo works exactly as before.)

This question comes from the fact that most people make the assumption that their specific service information resides on the hard-drive, in software. Why? Because that's how it works in most other environments.

The reality is that the service information does reside in software, however its actually stored in a programmable chip (called an EEPROM) which resides on the system-board of the TiVo. So from the perspective of most people, it appears to be encoded into the hardware.

The side-benefit to this is that exchanging drives has no effect on the service ID or the subscription status of the unit in question. This allows folks to mass produce system drives for the large volumes of TiVo units, while allowing each TiVo unit to retain a unique identity.

[Matt_G]

Successful GXCEBOT upgrade!!

Just wanted to also add to the long list of successful upgrade stories. I've been reading the many, many helpful posts on this board for several months now, and I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my GXCEBOT. I followed Hinsdale's latest guide to the letter, and everything worked flawlessly. I owe special thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and the many experts that frequent these boards. The learning experiences that are chronicled herein are invaluable to those of us that are going through this for the first time.

Here are the specifics: Added a brand new Maxtor 120GB 7200 RPM drive along the existing stock Quatum 40GB drive that came in my DTiVo. Increased the capacity from 35 hours to 148 hours!!!!!!

The only thing I would suggest is to have a longer controller cable handy to help with reaching the drives while in the PC and to use in the tivo box. I wound up using the controller end of the Maxtor supplied cable to plug into the master drive and plugged the other end into the controller port. This works in most cases I've read but may not always work depending on the cable. My installation required a cable that would reach two drives sitting side by side.
:rolleyes:

Thanks again, everyone.

:D

[tivoupgrade]

Can you elaborate on the remote control modification you made? That sounds interesting.

[Robert S]

I think he's refering to the IDE data cable and the IDE socket on the mainboard, not the remote control.

It does seem that the normal IDE cables do not have the connectors in the right place for a TiVo (in a PC the hard drives are usually close together and stacked vertically, but quite a distance from the mobo, it's the reverse in a TiVo). You should be able to reverse a 40-way cable, but an 80-way cable may not work if it's backwards.

[weaknees]

Right - IDEs are tricky in TiVos. We have them custom manufactured with better spacing to fit all of these units (except the very long distances in Series 1 standalone units).

But I think the post is referring to the previous post's signature . . .

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

We use custom IDE cables, as well; I have no question there.

I am referring specifically to the modification to the remote control.

[Matt_G]

What I have done with my remotes is an adaptation of a modification I found for the pronto to convert them to be RF.

Basically I have set up a RF reciever next to my tivo and then installed inside my remotes the IR-to-RF transmitter.

To do this I bought a specific IR repeater package called "remote extender". It comes with a receiver unit that sits near your tivo which you string an IR blaster "eye" in from of the tivo. Then I bought the "universal" adapter which is a very small IR-to-RF converter.

Typically this small "universal" unit (the size of a matchbox) is velcro-ed onto the end of you existing remote control. This is a clunky solution. So what I have done is taken the small converter apart and installed the very small PCB (size of a stamp), IR receiver eye, battery holder inside the remote.

I was able to fit it inside the tivo peanut remote, my universal RCA remote and my pronto remote. It is noteworthy that you must remove the IF eye from the PCB and put it on the end of a 5" wire to be able to extend the eye within the remote to the vacinity of the remote's own IR eye. When you hit a button the remote sends the signal out the IR eye and the converter's eye picks up the signal and converts it to RF.

You also need to buy a little battery holder for the special battery that (garage door opener battery) the converter uses. Radio shack carries it. so the PBC the ir eye and the batter are tucked into different spots insode your remote. You would be surpised at the empty space found inside remotes.

In the end I can stroll around the house and change my channels. This is a bit elaborate but it allows me to toss the ol tivo in my A/V distribution closet in the basement.

The only draw back is that I will someday need to pop open the tivo remote to replace the battery. BUT It's been almost 2 years and the battery is still going good. In my RCA remote I was able to cut a access hole in inside of the existing battery port to let me replace the converter battery from there.

Hope this helps. If you search the web for remote extender you will probably come across the equipment I used.

[weaknees]

Yup - here's the thread for that:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66753

We should try to keep that discussion over there and keep this one on target.

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

Thanks for your reply Matt; you can ignore the pundits, your post was very much on-topic; last time I checked, the topic was "How-To Upgrade your TiVo"

[lilzaphod]

I just found your forums last week. Thanks for such a great resource.

I have been a TiVo user for about 3 weeks now. I had to really push the wife to get it. 3 days after installation, the wife asked me if it was ok if we got a 2nd one for the bedroom. Feel the power.

Last night I did the Hinsdale upgrade once my 9th tee bracket came in. It took about 2 hours due to stupid jumper configurations on the drives. Anyway, I got the 120 gig Maxtor added to the original 40 gb drive. I did make a backup, but I skipped the swap upgrade, becasue I didn't want to tick off the wife by deleting her BTVS archive she is slowly building. Is this a horrible thing that I skipped? Will this lack of swap suddnly make me into an RIAA puppet drone, or is it a small chance that anything major will happen to my unit? I have a back on a 6 gig drive I only will be using for TiVo upgrades, so I figgure at the worst case, stuff oges down, I strip the drives out and do the restore.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

[weaknees]

Assuming it's a new Series 2 model, not adding swap when adding a 120 GB drive shouldn't be any problem at all.

And welcome!

Michael

[Robert S]

You can go to 180Gb on a Series 2 - 60+120 is known to be OK. If you add a 120Gb drive to an 80Gb Series 2 then mfsfix will need extra swap.

If you do get a GSOD without enough swap the TiVo will reboot shortly after displaying the GSOD (it takes about 4 minutes for a Series 1, not sure about a S2). See the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to fix that.

[DVDKingdom]

Successfull upgrade on 2 HDVRS thanks.

HDVR2 - (160GB 7200 Rpm/8mb Cache/ Western Digital)
HDVR2 - (120GB 7200 Rpm/2mb Cache/ Seagate)

[yahooo]

TIVO Gurus,

I am a newbie here and am trying to figure out the best possible configuration for my DirecTivo.

I have a 35Hr HDVR2. I also have two hard drives (120GB and 200GB) that I can use for the upgrade. I want to start off slow and just replace the 40GB and later go for the second drive. I've read thru the forums and am a little confused right now.

Please help with directions/suggestions on how to proceed and what I need to purchase to upgrade the Tivo.

Thank you,
yahooo

[weaknees]

How about swapping the 40 for you new 120 and adding swap (-s 127) in the process? Then you'll be all set to add the 200 GB drive down the road.

Just so you know, the 200 GB drive only gets used up to 137 GB in that unit, so if you can get a 160 GB drive cheaper, you might want to.

Michael

[barsongs]

My HDVR2 power supply is going bad and I am buying a new HDVR2 ($99 at circuit city). My existing HDVR2 has the original 40g drive plus another 160g drive and the weaknees bracket (brilliant design...). Can I just pop both HDs into the new HDVR2 and expect it to work?

[weaknees]

Thanks for the compliment!

You can take your TwinBreeze and pop it in, and everything will boot, but you'll be stuck with the error #51 problem - the serialization between software and hardware. So you'll have to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" to get rolling again - losing your settings and recordings. So write down your SPs and wishlists before you switch if you want to re-program them.

Michael

[barsongs]

Michael - thanks. So that means that the new hdvr2 will not read the existing programs already recorded?

[weaknees]

That's right.

Michael

[barsongs]

I have an idea - I will just swap the power supply boards! That should work, shouldn't it? I'll just keep the rest of it for spare parts, or sell it cheap to someone in need.

[weaknees]

You can give it a shot - that would work if you are certain that the power supply is the only issue. By the way, it's pretty hard to move the power supply in those units, but doable.

Keep us up to date!

Michael

[Glennjr_2001]

I need help. I am going to upgrade my Hughes Directv/Tivo so I can extract shows to my pc...can someone please point me in the direction to get my reciever ready to do this. I have ordered the usb network adapter and have the ethernet hub in place. I was told I have to "edit one of TiVo's files to force that chipset's driver (and the USB drivers it depends on) to load on boot"...how do I do this...I haven't yet received my directv/tivo...but I want to be prepared when all the elements arrive! Please can someone help???

Originally posted by hinsdale
You are correct. All you need to do is run BlessTiVo on the new B drive and install (also may need to pull the A drive to change the jumper to master).

However, you need to realize that if something doesnt work or either drive crashes or the OS runs into any corruption - you will have a door stop without a backup. The backup part only takes 20 minutes or so and is definetly worth the effort. :confused: :confused:
Thanks:D

[weaknees]

Extraction is taboo over here - try other forums.

Michael

[sciencewhiz]

I have a TCD140060 (series 2) tivo. I tried to add an 80 gb drive as B, following hinsdale's directions. At first, everything was fine. I got the extra recording capacity, etc. That was last night.

Tonight, I come home from work and see the note that the tivo shut itself down because it overheated. I unplug it and take the cover off and find that I forgot to connect the fan. The inside of the tivo was quite hot. I connect the fan and power it on again and everything is fine.

Then I go off for the evening, and when I get home, my little brother tells me that the tivo rebooted in the middle of whatever he was watching and is stuck at the welcome, powering up screen. So, I power the tivo off, and power it on again, and it gets to the wait a few minutes screen and then reboots and hangs again at the powering up screen.

What is the best way to proceed (while having the best chance of saving my recordings). I've tried just hooking up the original drive, but it still hangs at the powering up screen.

Do I need to restore my backup of the A drive from my computer? Did the tivo get ruined when it overheated?

Thanks for you time

[weaknees]

You may have hurt one of the drives when the unit overheated. Your recordings are most likely toast here. Best bet is to try to restore the backup to your new 80 GB drive and see if the TiVo will boot. At this point, though, you've overwritten your recordings.

If saving recordings is paramount, you might try to do a "dd" of the original drive to a new, third drive, and see if that plus the new 80 will boot.

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by sciencewhiz
I have a TCD140060 (series 2) tivo. I tried to add an 80 gb drive as B, following hinsdale's directions. At first, everything was fine. I got the extra recording capacity, etc. That was last night.

Tonight, I come home from work and see the note that the tivo shut itself down because it overheated. I unplug it and take the cover off and find that I forgot to connect the fan. The inside of the tivo was quite hot. I connect the fan and power it on again and everything is fine.

Then I go off for the evening, and when I get home, my little brother tells me that the tivo rebooted in the middle of whatever he was watching and is stuck at the welcome, powering up screen. So, I power the tivo off, and power it on again, and it gets to the wait a few minutes screen and then reboots and hangs again at the powering up screen.

What is the best way to proceed (while having the best chance of saving my recordings). I've tried just hooking up the original drive, but it still hangs at the powering up screen.

Do I need to restore my backup of the A drive from my computer? Did the tivo get ruined when it overheated?

Thanks for you time


Its more likely that the overheating may have damaged something in your unit other than your drive(s).

When you hooked up just your original drive, were your jumpers set properly? In either case, I would not expect this to work, since you'd already added a drive, and those drives should not function without each other; however, you should have gotten past the powering up screen; the unit should have gotten to almost there, and then either rebooted or given you a green screen.

You should try hooking both drives up again and see if you can reproduce the problem; then run extensive diagnostics on BOTH drives. If neither drives fail, and the unit continues to lock up and/or reboot, its the unit that is damaged.

[sciencewhiz]

I tried just connecting the original drive, with the original cable, and I got to the please wait a few moments screen, but no farther. Is there a way to shrink the amount of space it expects back to the original 60 gigs, so I can try just the original drive?

If I stick them both in my computer, is there a way to check the disks to see if they are ok? IE, can I use "fsck -c" or something like that?

One think I'm considering is that my ide cable went bad. I had to stretch it very tight to get it to fit. I'm going to buy a 24" 80 pin tonight as well as an 18" 40 pin, so I can try reversing that. I can try that cable in my computer too, to see if that is the problem.

Any other suggestions?

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by sciencewhiz
I tried just connecting the original drive, with the original cable, and I got to the please wait a few moments screen, but no farther. Is there a way to shrink the amount of space it expects back to the original 60 gigs, so I can try just the original drive?

If I stick them both in my computer, is there a way to check the disks to see if they are ok? IE, can I use "fsck -c" or something like that?

One think I'm considering is that my ide cable went bad. I had to stretch it very tight to get it to fit. I'm going to buy a 24" 80 pin tonight as well as an 18" 40 pin, so I can try reversing that. I can try that cable in my computer too, to see if that is the problem.

Any other suggestions?

Once you add a drive, they are "married" and won't function without each other without software reconfiguration. You'd need to restore your backup onto just the A drive (or do another backup with both drives connected to your PC) thus divorcing the drives, and then restore back to just the A drive. If you do either of these two things, the most you can preserve are your settings; no video. These issues are unrelated to your original problem however....

In your PC, you can run manufacturer's diagnostics; check Maxtor's web site for POWERMAX, or Samsung or Western Digital, or whatever drives you are running; they all have free diag utilities.

You may have damaged your IDE cable, that can definitely cause hangs and reboots if its bad.

Try to not to do too many things at once; you may cause more problems and you may never know what the problem was.

At this stage you may already have corrupted your software by attempting to boot with only your original drive, so be prepared to have to do a full restore if things don't come up normally regardless of what you try.

[Randy Bryant]

When using Hinsdale's "UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3" there is no mention of using mfsadd, does the restore command do that automatically. I am only going to upgrade the A drive to start with.

[weaknees]

That option is really for copying a drive to a drive of the same size. You probably want:

UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3:

From: Any Single Drive TiVo

To: New A and New B Drive |or| New Single Larger A Drive

Right?

Michael

[Randy Bryant]

My post said Option #3. I want to copy my old 40GB to a new 80GB and preserve the recordings and increase the swap space for a future 120GB additional B drive. So it wasn't clear about mfsadd.

[weaknees]

OK - there's an "Option #3" and an "Upgrade Configuration #3" which are different. I gather you mean the latter.

The "x" switch in the mfsrestore string does what a separate line of mfsadd would do, so you'll be fine.

Michael

[Randy Bryant]

Thanks!!!, and yes I think I said "Upgrade Configuration #3".

One more curiosity question, when using the mfsrestore to 2 drives at the same time, does the second drive get a complete OS, software, swap space; or does mfsrestore realize that the second drive (B drive) only needs a file system?

[weaknees]

Yup - you did say that. I guess that note then goes to myself.

It realizes that the second drive only needs partitioning. That part of the process is just a quick step at the end - you'll see the info on the screen.

Michael

[roven97]

Wow. So far so good! It appears I successfully upgraded my Series 1 Hughes DirecTivo. I installed the Maxtor ATA133 120GB HD as drive B. Thank you so much Hinsdale and everyone else for making this a seamless and painless upgrade!

One question I have is, I failed to note how much the married drives now gave me in space (although I did notice that it recognized my drive as 120GB)? Should I be getting 40+120=160GB? Is that 160 hours? And is there a way to tell how much space is left? That is one thing I miss about my standalone.

[weaknees]

You can't see how much space is left on any TiVo - the best you can do is to turn on TiVo Suggestions and watch as they get deleted, counting the hours based on the programs still there.

Your total (variable) capacity isn't 160 hours - it's closer to 140. Go to Messages and Setup -> System Information to see for sure.

Michael

[akjindal]

Many thanks the Hinsdale for the excellent How-To and Tiger for the MFS tools. I upgraded my 30 hour model to 141 hours!

The biggest problem I had was that the BIOS in my computer couldn't detect the 120G Seagate hard drive I was upgrading to. It is an older computer and the instructions with the HDD suggesting using a capacity limiting jumper, etc. etc.

The simple solution was to disable auto-detection of the HDD in the BIOS and the Linux OS on the MFS boot CD identified it properly on its own. After that it went smooth as silk.

I would suggest adding a note to this effect in step #6 of the How-To in case the BIOS is trying to identify all the hard drives before booting the MFS Tools CD.

[SoCalHowee]

Just a question regarding the legality of upgrading the drives? I am hesitant to allow the daily call after upgrading my hard drive from 40 to 120 gig. If i have no hacks installed is there anything to worry about? Also, if not, at what point then does it become a concern?

[weaknees]

TiVo will fully know that you've upgraded the drive, but they have never expressed any problems on that front.

Michael

[Robert S]

TiVo Inc have never given any indication that they are the slightest bit unhappy with people upgrading their hard drives. As a general rule, the hacks discussed on this site are also condoned by TiVo.

[weaknees]

Robert S hints at a really good point also - TiVo sponsors this site and refers to it from its web page. Certain hacks are forbidden here - most are fully allowed. So you could take this as an implication that if it's allowed here, it's OK with TiVo.

Michael

[roven97]

Ahhh. It says 149 hours. Man that is alot! Thanks for your help Michael.

[SoCalHowee]

So as long as I am running the my subbed card Directv should have no issue iether correct? Sorry if it seems like a dumb question, just want to know where the line is. Thanks for your response.


SoCalHowee

[weaknees]

That seems to be the case - DirecTV (and TiVo) really just want you to be a happy, paying customer. With more capacity, you are just that much happier.

Michael

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by SoCalHowee
Just a question regarding the legality of upgrading the drives? I am hesitant to allow the daily call after upgrading my hard drive from 40 to 120 gig. If i have no hacks installed is there anything to worry about? Also, if not, at what point then does it become a concern?

It is legal. TiVo does not 'officially' condone it, however they have unofficially acknowleged and unofficially support upgrade activity.

Your system configuration is reported to TiVo and/or DirecTV when your unit makes its daily call; TiVo does know how many upgraded units are installed.

Its not something you should worry about unless you are doing something illegal (like stealing service by cloning your system ID) and it would become a concern on the part of TiVo if you were to do something illegal, especially if it affected either TiVo, or their media partners, in the process.

[Darwood]

I'm pulling my hair out here. I'm adding a seagate 160gb drive as a second drive to my tivo series 2 using floppies.

I made a backup of the 'a' drive, restored it to the new drive, tested the new drive as a master (in tivo), set the new drive as a slave (in pc), then ran BlessTiVo on the new drive. Finally I executed the floppy 'noswap': dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hdb count = 64 bs=512 conv=swab.

The I put everything together in the tivo with the original drive 'a' as master and the new drive as slave. When I boot tivo it does not do the expected single reboot and shows my original hours in system (42). Everything is running fine but it doesn't look like the upgrade took hold.

So far I have opened up tivo again, felt the new drive and it was warm. I also re-ran the blesstivo bit. Still no luck. Any suggestions? Am I missing something?

[Robert S]

I'd feel lucky that BlessTiVo didn't work. mfsadd would be a much better choice for this upgrade.

[Darrinr]

Thanks Hinsdale!

I just successfully upgraded my new 40GB Tivo Series 2 to 2 x WD120 GB drives in about 3 hours. Your directions were flawless and the Mfs Tools 2.0 were great! I now have 280 hours of recording time - YAHOO!

Although you did reference the potential acoustic problems in the instructions ("2. Acquire large IDE hard drive(s). Planning your upgrade"), I didn't realise how significant this problem would be (I was just thrilled to perform the upgrade without destroying my Tivo in the process!). Reading through the forum now, I notice that WD drives are probably the noisest and there is no "official" acoustic management software to deal with this problem.

Since my upgraded Tivo is up and running perfectly , I'm very hesitant to open it up again and try the various acoustic software programs that others have suggested. I certainly would have tried it during the upgrade process when the new drives were connected to my PC. Anyway, this is definitely not a complaint about your excellent instructions, but more a frustration with myself for not simply performing the acoustic management as part of the installation. You know what they say about hindsight...?

Thanks again!

[ThreeSoFar]

I just bought a 160G Samsung, which many have said are the quietest and I believe either Weaknees or 9th Tee once said they use in their kits. I used newegg.com, but many sites had about the same price.

It was $106, shipped, no rebate hassle. Their 120's you can probably find a bit cheaper.

With multiple TiVos, multiple drives in each really isn't necessary. 140 hour each, give or take, is plenty, even to archive some shows in perpetuity.

[Darwood]

Originally posted by Robert S
I'd feel lucky that BlessTiVo didn't work. mfsadd would be a much better choice for this upgrade.

Hmm, you're absolutely right. msfadd worked like a charm! I was following hinsdale's guide but somehow got linked to the old one. I found the newer version and all is well.

Thanks Robert S for your terse yet accurate troubleshooting and Hinsdale for a very detailed guide which must have taken weeks to compile.

[weaknees]

Yes - we like the Samsung drives for a variety of reasons, but one is that they are very, very quiet. You often can't tell they're running unless you lay a hand on them and feel for the vibrations.

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

YASUP!!

Thanks, Hinsdale, for the great guide and CD. Used Upgrade Configuration #3:mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdXpreserving all our SPs and recordings, and shelved the original as backup image and hardware. Took only an hour or two.

160G (137G really) now gives us 157h 49m at Basic on our new TiVo Series 2. Hoping some future software rev might let us use the extra 13G.

[Robert S]

Hoping some future software rev might let us use the extra 13G.

Yes, but the partition table on the A drive is now full, so you'll either have to go to a twin-drive configuration or revert to a backup if you want to expand into the extra space.

[TivoJunkyJoe]

About to upgrade TIVO standalone series 2 by adding a 120Gb WD drive. Friend said that I can't do it on my Windows 2000 machine. As I read the hinsdale I was thinking as long as i don't boot into Windows 2000 i'd be fine. Do I need to create a 98 partition to save the current file image to (instead of the 2000 NFS partition)? - After I add the image to my new 120Gb drive, by putting them both back into Tivo will the current 40 Gb drive retain the show information?

Sorry for the messy questions.

[weaknees]

You can use your machine, just be sure not to boot into Windows 2000 with the TiVo drive attached. If you want to make a backup, just make it to your 120 GB drive (formatted as FAT) from the 40, then boot with the Win2K drive as the boot device, and copy the image file over. Then, you'll have the image on your C: drive - go ahead and disconnect the C: drive again and proceed to add the 120 to the 40.

Michael

[TivoJunkyJoe]

weaknees, I just got my bracket in the mail. So I can connect all three drives and my cd-rw drive as it says in hinsdale and follow the steps provided? can i have my new and current tivo drives connected while the windows 2000 drive is in there too, but booting off of the iso image on the cd? if so, what does the hinsdale paper mean when it says create a Fat partition instead of an NTFS one?

Thanks in advance!

[weaknees]

mfstools can't write to an NTFS partition, and presumably that's how your Win2K boot drive is formatted. So you can either create a FAT partition on it, or do as I wrote above so that you don't have to touch the Win2K drive's partitions.

You can certainly boot with the Win2K drive connected just booting off the CD-ROM, but if you make a mistake and boot into Win2K, you'll damage the TiVo drive's software and make the process much, much tougher.

Michael

[TivoJunkyJoe]

Thanks Weak,

to clarify you said this...

then boot with the Win2K drive as the boot device, and copy the image file over.

if i boot with the 120GB (FAT), now with the image that i copied from the original 40GB drive, and Windows 2000, will my new drive become corrupt?

I'm going now..

hoping for the best

[Robert S]

No, at that point the drive is just a DOS drive with a FAT partition on it. It's only when the drive has the TiVo software loaded on it that the change that WinNT makes causes a problem.

Don't fill the whole drive with the FAT partition or it'll take forever to format. 1 or 2 GB is plenty.

[weaknees]

Yes - you need to boot at that point with the Win2K as the boot drive. The new drive wont be corrupt - it will simply be recognized as a FAT drive. You haven't yet put a Linux partition on it.

Then, you boot of the CD again with the 40 back in to get the 120 overwritten and formatted as a TiVo drive.

Michael

[TivoJunkyJoe]

Boy are you guys getting sick of me yet?

Trying to create ISO. Tried with EZ Cd creator last night (3 times)... bad. Tried with Nero 6.0 today. Tried boot computer, but I get a black screen for about 30 seconds then windows starts... I copied using ISO, finalize cd... do i have to hit a key when the cd is being read?

[weaknees]

You might check to make sure you are using the "noj" or non-Joliet version of the ISO image.

Also, you might need to set your BIOS to try the CD first before other boot devices.

Michael

[Rocket Ronnie]

:up: many thanks to Hinsdale for the how-to guide without which I would not have known where to start. Now I have a 120 Gb TiVo, a spare 40 Gb disk ready ToGo & several tivo.bak files ! Tivoweb next !

[Robert S]

If you can't get the CD to boot, just use the floppy. The procedure is the same except you'll need to use qunlock to unlock the TiVo drive.

[Asura]

I am thinking of upgrading a single series 2 drive to a dual, but I am running winXP. The instructions only shows how to make a backup from win 95,98,ME. I read above that it is possible to format the secondary drive with FAT32, make the backup over to the secondary drive, and then the backup over to my primary C drive. The problem is that I do not know linux, so what commands should I use instead for this sequence?

[weaknees]

You should use Windows to format the drive, then shut down, disconnect the c: drive, boot in Linux and make the backup. Then shut down again, connect the c: drive again, start up, and copy the backup over to the boot drive. Then shut down, disconnect it again, and do the rest of the Linux work without the c: drive connected.

Michael

[Asura]

Thanks Weaknees/Michael! For me to make the backup, do I just follow the same prompt commands included in the Hinsdale How to? What about mounting my tivo drive instead of the C:? ex:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

Since i'm not using my C: drive, do I still need to mount it? Or do I make my new drive into the 'C: Drive' and my Tivo drive into the slave and copy that image over and use the same commands as listed? Or the Tivo into the 'C: drive' and the new drive into the slave and use this command instead?

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hda

Because my tivo drive is master now and my new drive slave?
Then what about mounting the drive?

Am I totally confused and should just abandon this idea?

[weaknees]

Yes - you'll need to make your new drive into a FAT drive and mount it with a command similar to "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos". Just vary the A in hda1 to coincide with the position of that drive in your PC.

All of the drive designations can be changed - you just need to watch them carefully to reflect your situation.

Michael

[maddios]

hey guys, got a pair of maxtor 4g120J6 drives, followed hindsdale's howto using mfstools 2.0 plugged them all in, first thing i noticed while reassembling is that tivo used a connector which isn't missing the uata pin in the middle, hence my 80wide cables don't fit... leaving the drives as they are i set them on the tivo mount and plugged in the cable (used a reg ata cable, since that pin is in the way for uata).

plug the tivo in, start her up and it's stuck in the "powering up > please wait just a bit more" screens... then it goes to this green screen that something has happened and nada...

what's up? i checked to make sure that the cable isn't backwards, even tried bending the pin and plugging in an uata cable... still no go, what gives? the mfstools 2.0 app after running for almost 10 hours doing the complete backup/resize completed w/o any errors sayin i'd have 273 hours or something!

any ideas what i might have done wrong? i will try again tomorrow but i really have no idea where i screwed up

[Robert S]

The green screen is a filesystem repair utility and should be given the opportunity to do its stuff. As long as it stays up, there's a good chance it'll fix the TiVo. (If it reboots every four minutes or faster then you don't have enough swap, see the 3rd post of the Fixes thread).

Green screens do seem to be an occasional part of upgrading and don't always indicate a serious problem. If you booted with just the A drive while you were figuring out the cabling, that would trigger a GS when the B drive was attached.

[weaknees]

maddios-

What model TiVo is it and was your original drive working OK? Had the unit been upgraded before? Can you post the exact backup|restore command you used?

Michael

[maddios]

i got it working now... the original command is as per the hindsdale command to get 1 to dual...

i did it a different way, and got it working...

i did the 1drive to 1 larger drive upgrade... then just did mfsadd to the second drive and all is well in tivo land now:)

[weaknees]

Sounds good - if you are adding two larger drives, hopefully you added swap space in the process.

Michael

[maddios]

well i followed hindsdale and he has us run -s 127 switch which as far as i know sets the swap to the max possible... i know there is a work around for more but up to 256gb or so you don't need more...

am i right? or should i pull the drives and try to add more...

[weaknees]

No - that's plenty. More can make the machine unstable. You've got it exactly right.

Michael

[rorschach]

The kernel used for the current boot discs (CDROM and floppy) does not recognize the NVIDIA nForce IDE controller correctly. Therefore DMA is not enabled by default. Left in PIO mode a full MFS backup can be 10-20 times slower than usual. Fortunately DMA can be enabled manually.

Immediately after booting you can check the DMA settings for each drive with "hdparm". To check "hda" you simply use hdparm like this: "hdparm -d /dev/hda". If DMA is disabled (value is 0), enable it with "hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda". You will have to do that for each drive used in the backup/copy process.

This will make a significant speed difference.

[Robert S]

In this thread (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72115), stormsweeper suggests:

hdparm -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hda

To turn on multiblock mode and 32-bit transfers, which are probably Good Things.

[conductorJ]

Hmmm...Foo...San Fran.....would this be Dan (Foo foo), from the Screen Savers/Call For Help?
If so....love the shows.


Originally posted by foo
Just a note of thanks.. a couple of weeks ago I did a DTiVo upgrade to 2 80gb drives for a total of 149 hrs.

foo

[Sleestak]

At the end of the Hinsdale how-to, it mentions that I need a FAT32 partition on my primary boot drive.

Am I missing something? At what point will I be booting into my computer's Windows??

I was planning on removing or disconnecting all my hard drives (all NTFS) before doing anything other than burning the boot CD...until I read the last page.

Do I really need to boot into Windows, and why/when?

[tivoupgrade]

Wow.

"sleestak" now that is a blast from the past! I remember that creepy sound they used to make...

In any case, the fat32 partition is what you would use to store your backup on - you shouldn't need to boot to windows at all, but having a drive with a fat32 partition in your PC is useful for most of the backup/restore scenarios discussed here.

[Sleestak]

Hmmm, didn't work...

Series 2 SA, Sony SVR3000, 80hr. Previously unopened. Ver 3x.
Replacing single 80 with single 120.
Using Hindsdale & Tiger's mfstools Boot CD.

After successfully performing the "small test backup image", I give the restore comand. It gets to 100%, and then says "cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment."

After waiting about an hour, it was clear something went wrong. I turned off the computer and tried testing the image, but froze on "starting up".

I put the drive back in the computer and deleted the tivo.bak from my fat32 drive, and repeated the backup/restore. Now it says "failure" when performing the backup.

Now what? The instructions didn't mention anything about partitioning/formatting the new Tivo drive, so I didn't...should I?
If there's a file on it which needs to be deleted, I can't access it if it isn't formatted.

I guess I'll have to put the old Tivo drive in until I figure it out. ;(

[weaknees]

Does the old TiVo drive still work? This sounds like original drive failure, or possibly FAT drive failure. Can you list the command you used for the backup?

Also, are you sure you have software 3.0 on your SVR-3000? Most have 4.0 at this point.

Michael

[Sleestak]

The old Tivo drive is back in and working. Over the past year, it has had three "spells", when it would malfunction for about a week, and then it's fine until the next spell. It would randomly reboot every 2-20 minutes.

Backup: mfsbackup -f9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Restore: mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

Drives installed per Hindsale's recommendations.

Ya, it's version 4.0.

When I originally asked about my problem, everyone suggested to replace the HD.

[weaknees]

Replacing the HD is the right advice, the problem is that you need a good OS to put on it. It sounds like your old OS may be corrupt. You can certainly try another backup to see if it goes well, but you may have to ask around for a new image file (any friends with the same model?).

When you do the restore to the 120, don't forget the "x" in the restore string (-zxpi - the "b" isn't necessary here). Otherwise, you wont get the use of the extra space on the 120.

Michael

[sfpadmin2]

I'm trying to upgrade my Series 2 Tivo with 2 200GB drives I got cheap.

My computer has only scsi drives and I don't have a cd-burner, so using the MFS boot disk of boot cd isn't an option.

I have rehat linux 9.1 installed and ran the mfstools from there.

When I did the Mfstool restore it expanded to use all 400GB of my two disks.

I didn't think this would work at all, but when I put it in TIVO (software version 4.0.1-01-2-240) it boots up OK and looks like it works.

I have two questions, that I searched thorugh the boards to find answers to and just didn't see anything like my situation:

1) Is my TIVO functional because it booted up or does it only look like it works and will crash once the 138GB is hit? ( I suspect it only Looks like it works ;)

2) Assuimg that my tivo can only have 137GB drives: How can I do the MFSrestore again and make it use only 137GB/disk? or is some other command such as mfsreduce that I can use?

Thanks

[Sleestak]

Originally posted by weaknees
Replacing the HD is the right advice, the problem is that you need a good OS to put on it. It sounds like your old OS may be corrupt. You can certainly try another backup to see if it goes well, but you may have to ask around for a new image file (any friends with the same model?). I have a friend with 4 DVR units, but only two are Tivo, and neither of those are SVR-3000.

Is there a website where people can download standard images for Tivo drives?

[rippy]

I am trying to backup my tivo to my c drive and I get a (file system is read only) error ? Any suggestions? dvr40 version 3.1

[Robert S]

You're using a WinXP PC. Read the note at the bottom of Hindale. (Easiest way forward is probably to put a FAT partition on your upgrade drive for the backup phase).

[weaknees]

Sleestak -

People can't post links to images from this forum, but if you start a thread with a title telling which image you are requesting, someone should Private Message you with a link to an ftp site.

Michael

[Sleestak]

Thanks. ;)

[Krookut]

Sorry if this has been covered, search not working...

Trying to upgrade a DirectTivo 35 hr. Made a boot CD with the mfs tools burned as an *iso file (mfstools2noJ.iso) onto CD-R, computer is set to boot from CD-ROM drive in BIOS, but it loads Windows. The CD drive is accessed during boot up. Is there something else that should be on the CD-R disc?

-Also, I have Windows XP that is actually formatted as FAT32, I'm assuming then that I don't have to do anything with the partition table? Or putting a FAT32 partition on the upgrade drive?

TIA!

[ThreeSoFar]

1) Be careful to make sure XP does not boot with the TiVo drive attached to the IDE cable. I'm not sure what, exactly, is the problem, I just know that's bad. Hopefully you're at the "testing the CD boots" phase and the TiVo HD is not in the PC yet.

2) Your system's BIOS probably has a boot order setting. Put CD higher than HD. How you get into your BIOS varies from one PC to another. What kind of PC is it?

[tommmm]

Just updated a series 1 sony with a 120 G WD drive following the Hinsdale guide. Only difficulties:

1. Confusion over instructions for making MFS Tools CD. With CD Creator the "Create CD from imate..." option was not available, but the "Record CD from..." option worked.

2. My fault, but after testing the disk I missed the point to reinstall it as the slave master for the expanding the drive. Everything was going so well I missed reading all the fine print and reinstalled the drive back in the primary slave position as it was for the back-up.

Thanks for the instrustions.

[Krookut]

Originally posted by ThreeSoFar
1) Be careful to make sure XP does not boot with the TiVo drive attached to the IDE cable. I'm not sure what, exactly, is the problem, I just know that's bad. Hopefully you're at the "testing the CD boots" phase and the TiVo HD is not in the PC yet.

2) Your system's BIOS probably has a boot order setting. Put CD higher than HD. How you get into your BIOS varies from one PC to another. What kind of PC is it?

Yeah I was just checking to see if it worked, haven't even taken Tivo drive out yet.

My boot order has the CD-ROM drive as #1, HD as #2. I would like this to work, just bought a new CD/DVD burner for this purpose.

[ThreeSoFar]

Do you have the new burner AND the old CD-ROM drive still hooked up? Are you sure which is supposed to be booting? Or can you put the original CD drive back in and see if that boots any better?

Have you *ever* booted a CD in this system?

[Krookut]

I only booted from the CD drive before when loading Win XP, it was the default in the BIOS. I have both the old CD drive and the new burner in the computer as master/slave respectively, the CD (master) is the primary boot drive.

[ThreeSoFar]

Do you have *any* bootable CDs that you know boot? Maybe the MFS one didn't burn right?

Maybe try the CD in the other cd drive?

And maybe switch the two cd drives (or remove one)?

Grasping, here, I know...

[weaknees]

Boot floppy?

[Rcrew]

Thank you for the guide, and tools.

Yesterday I upgraded a family member's new HDVR2. Substituted a 120 gb A drive for the original 40gb factory.

Other than some jumper issues, and drives not being exactly according to the instructions, I eventually got it done.

1 down, 4 to go over the next few weeks!

At least now that I have the series 2 image it will be so much easier to do the rest!

[weaknees]

Just remember that your image should only be used on HDVR2s and that you'll need to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" on each of the other units since this image is serialized to the unit that it came from.

Michael

[Krookut]

I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here, but just kind of frustrated after buying a CD burner just for this purpose.

Am I correct in that the only file that needs to be on the boot CD is mfstools2noJ.iso, this should boot the computer into Linux?

BTW ThreeSoFar, I tried the boot CD on a second computer which has only one CD drive, configured as primary boot device, it also booted into Windows. The drives in both computers do show the mfstools2noJ.iso file on the disc so they can read it.

[ThreeSoFar]

Yes and no. The .iso file is all you need, but that file itself should not show up on the CD. Once that image is burned to CD, there are several files/directories visible.

What CD burning software came with your burner? When you right click the .iso file on your hard drive, is "burn to CD" an option?

It sounds like maybe you just copied/burned the .iso file onto a CD, which isn't what you wanted to do. The .iso file means it is an image of a complete file system, which Roxio and other CDR software recognizes as such.

[weaknees]

Some applications can mount and view the contents of the .iso file. If you can get it open, you can just set your burning software to burn those files right to an ISO 9660 format CD.

Michael

[Robert S]

If your software is installed correctly, double clicking the ISO file should open the burning software in the correct mode to burn a bootable CD.

[Krookut]

Thanks guys, that is the problem, I had copied the mfstools2noJ.iso file to the CD. I'm using the software that came with the burner, "B's Recorder Gold5".

I just tried to open the mfstools2noJ.iso file with a program called "Isobuster". It extracted some folders which I then copied to the CD, but it still booted into Windows. Not sure why that didn't work, but maybe I just need to get the Roxio software.

Double clicking on the mfstools2noJ.iso file didn't bring up the CD burning software before. Now double clicking opens it with Isobuster.

[weaknees]

When you burned just the files, are you sure the format was ISO 9660?

Michael

[Krookut]

I am not sure of the format, is there a way to check?

[ThreeSoFar]

Burning the .iso image properly to the CD is easiest. Does your software not handle that? I've never heard of that software name... What brand CDRW is it? With a good brand name you usually get software that's pretty foolproof with this sort of thing.

[Robert S]

file:///C:/Program Files/B's Recorder GOLD5/Doc/Manual/advanced/02/iso.html

[Krookut]

Thanks for your help guys, it's appreciated.

It's an LG burner, and I had never heard of that software either, but this is totally new to me, it's my first CD burner.

Boy, I never had this trouble upgrading my SA Tivo 3 years ago, I thought it was supposed to be easier now, lol.

[ThreeSoFar]

The CD does make it easier, but adds one more thing that must go right for it to work. Between CD-R being new to you and the software's UI maybe being sub-par, you've run into some hiccups getting started.

The backup/restore itself, though, once you get to the Unix prompt on the boot CD (or boot floppy if you give up on the CDR entirely), should be at least as easy as you remember from years ago.

[Krookut]

Thank you Robert S, I followed those intstructions, using mfstools2noJ.iso, now on the CD-R Windows explorer shows one file which it doesn't recognize, is this the way it should be? I tried using it as a boot disc and it didn't work but I'm going to try a few other things.

[Krookut]

Success, finally. I needed to use a fresh CD-R, it booted into the Linux prompt. Thank you Robert S, ThreeSoFar, and Weaknees, you guys are the best!

[weaknees]

Glad you got past that hurdle - hopefully that'll be the hardest part. Just play close attention to the code details as you go.

Michael

[Robert S]

I'll admit to not really understanding the B's stuff either (I have yet to figure out how to make it record a DVD that will play in my DVD player). I'd never tried to burn an ISO with it before, but I just tried it and got the same result you did - a proud declaration of success and a blank disk.

I've always used floppies in the past.

[ThreeSoFar]

A good reason, I'd say, to avoid the no-name CD burners. At least look for one that comes with either Roxio or Adaptec software.

[Krookut]

Originally posted by ThreeSoFar
A good reason, I'd say, to avoid the no-name CD burners. At least look for one that comes with either Roxio or Adaptec software.

<O/T>

Heh, I usually stick with brands like Sony, but LG is an up and coming Korean company with a good reputation and with a strong desire to establish itself, like Samsung, which used to be a second banana. LG does make good products. Their new HDTV tuner is considered the best out there right now. Sony also rebadges it and sells it as the Sony HD-300.

I wasn't considering the bundled software package though.

[Robert S]

I've got no complaints about the drive. The software is just weird, though.

[drtofu66]

Ok, I've decided to make upgrading the Tivo my Thanksgiving vacation project. These are probably very basic and/or silly questions, but it would clarify a lot for me:

1) What is the advantage to using the Boot CD version of MFSTools versus the Boot Floppy version? I was looking over some old articles and it seems that things have changed a bit. I came across one note that said you might have to use qunlock if you use the floppy version (the CD version apparently takes care of that for you)-- but then there was a recent thread about the evils of qunlock that I don't think i'll ever use that. And I'm planning on using a Seagate drive for the Tivo. The whole qunlock thing has me so unnerved that I don't think I'll ever try to use a Maxtor drive in a Tivo. Which leads to the next question:

2) Are Maxtors the only drives that seem to lock?

3) I'm not all that tech savvy and I'm not too clear on the FAT32 question on Hinsdale's new Tivo instructions site. I gather that if you run Win9x you have FAT32, if you run Windows XP or 2000 you probably are using NTFS but could have created a FAT32 partition if you knew what you were doing? Am I right?

4) Since i have an image (software v3.0) to use already and won't need to back up my old drive, will I be able to sidestep the whole locking problem if the new drive goes right from the packaging to the PC and then to the Tivo-- never to come out again unless/until the drive dies (and provided it works)? My understanding is that the Tivo does the locking and that's only a problem if you try to work on it on the PC again.

5) Since I have an image of a drive already (software version 3.0) it looks like I can just jump to the

mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

line and be done with it (after connecting up the new drive to the slave position and verifying the proper size is recognized)? And the whole FAT32 vs NTFS question is moot, since FAT32 is only needed to create the backup?

Am I oversimplifying things?

[ThreeSoFar]

I'll let others address the locking issues. I don't have a firm grasp of it myself. The boot CD does have a message during boot that mentions unlocking drive, though.

#3--sounds right. In (any) windows, you can right click on the C: (or D: or whatever) drive in My Computer and choose properties, and it will say the format.

#4-5 sound about right, though that's not the way I'd go. I'd ignore the image you downloaded and use your original drive as your source. Skip right to step 10) of Hinsdale, "Upgrade Configuration #3". This method allows you to shelve your oroginal hard drive as the backup (and there's always downloading an image from someplace if you need it), and lets you keep all of your recordings and programming. It takes a little while, is all.mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdY

Up to you to make sure the hdX and hdY are right. Once booted to the cd, type this command to see information (size and brand) on each connected hard drive:dmesg | grep hdThe vertical bar thingy is called a pipe and is usually shift-backslash, upper or lower right of the keyboard on most.

Oversimplifying? Not at all. It really is that simple.

[bigbert]

Newbie needs a little clarification....

I will be upgrading my sony 3000 adding a second drive 120g to my existing 80g.

I have read the instructions multiple times but am getting hung up on part #10. Assuming I have made the backup then restored the image per section 8

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mntdostivo.bak /dev/hdb for series 2

I am a little confused on how I now use Config 2 in section 10.

Will this give me my full 200gb or will I have a swap issue.

Hinsdale referencing using the mfs restore option in config 2 but I only see the mfsadd commands under config 2. Should I just move to config 3?

I don't care about preserving existing recordings....

Thanks for the clarification.....

[weaknees]

Yes, option number two will give you both the 127 MB of swap space, and also use of the full 200 GB of hard drive space. You already have the swap as per your "mfsrestore" command. All you are doing now is adding extra partitions to get the use of the extra disk space.

Michael

[bigbert]

thanks for the help......

[PhotonicsMan]

Today I successfully upgraded a standalone 60 hour Series 2 by adding a Western Digital 120 GB drive. The instructions were absolutely flawless. Thanks to all those who made this possible. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

[jadair]

I finally got around to upgrading my two DirecTivo's today with 120 GB drives. Went very smooth, with one exception. After doing the upgrade the menu now has no background, it is just text over the video.

I kind of remember seeing an option for that, but I've been through all of the menus and have yet to see a way to change it. Also checked the message archives for any related threads without luck.

Anyone have any ideas?

[weaknees]

You need to use the "-f 9999" or at least "-f 4138" switch when making the backup. If you don't you lose the backgrounds, and potentially some other resources.

Michael

[Robert S]

checked the message archives for any related threads without luck

You're quite right, a search for "missing" "backgrounds" turns up nothing useful...

[carter.home]

I read in here there is a problem upgrading the Huges DVR40. I want to add a second drive, leaving the original alone. Should I expect any problems?

[Robert S]

Hinsdale lists it as covered by the How-to. You'll need a new drive bracket if you want to mount two drives, but apart from that, I think it's unremarkable.

[abergdc]

Originally posted by drtofu66
. . .

1) What is the advantage to using the Boot CD version of MFSTools versus the Boot Floppy version? I was looking over some old articles and it seems that things have changed a bit. I came across one note that said you might have to use qunlock if you use the floppy version (the CD version apparently takes care of that for you)-- but then there was a recent thread about the evils of qunlock that I don't think i'll ever use that. And I'm planning on using a Seagate drive for the Tivo. The whole qunlock thing has me so unnerved that I don't think I'll ever try to use a Maxtor drive in a Tivo. Which leads to the next question:


I have the same question. I'm replacing an existing single-drive Tivo HD with a single new larger drive. What am I missing going with the floppy instead of the CD? (If it's only the qunlock thing, why is the file so much larger?).

Thanks,

Andy

[weaknees]

Originally posted by carter.home
I read in here there is a problem upgrading the Huges DVR40. I want to add a second drive, leaving the original alone. Should I expect any problems?

You just need to remember to use the "-f 9999" switch if you are making a backup, but otherwise, the mfsadd command would be the same as for any other:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

We specifically cover this model (and the SD-DVR120) here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

[Robert S]

A floppy limits you to 1440Kb, so the Linux system on it has been stripped right down. The CD has more of the usual Linux commands on it.

However, if you're just upgrading the hard drive, MFS Tools is all you need, so apart from the annoyance of qunlock, it makes no difference whether you use the CD or floppy.

[ThreeSoFar]

And once the floppy is booted you can mount the CD and then use those extra Unix utilities that were pared down to save space on the floppy.

[carter.home]

So if I only replace my single 40gb drive with a single 120gb drive and something goes wrong. Can I just replace the original 40gb drive and be O.K.? Also, does GHOST work to copy drive to drive?

[Robert S]

Yes, the original drive will still work in the TiVo.

Ghost is less than ideal.

[Chef]

First, I'd like to thank you (like a bunch of other people) for maintaining the How-To, and doing a great job of keeping it easy to follow. I (mostly) successfully upgraded my 30-hour Series 1 to ~130 hours with a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB 8MB cache drive, and I've got a second drive waiting to go in as soon as the bracket gets delivered by UPS. My wife is thrilled to have the added capacity.

I did want to mention, though, that it might be prudent to make an obivous note somewhere in the document when discussing swap sizes that TiVo's can only handle up to 127MB of swap. This bit me, and as a result I'll have to do a bit of work to fix the swap on my upgraded TiVo so we can once again Browse by Name / Search by Title.

Just a suggestion to keep others like me from mistakenly inferring that "more is better" when it comes to swap, so 300 (for the Pioneer/DVD unit) must be better than 127. :)

Thanks again fro all the hard work,

Chef

[Robert S]

The problem isn't with the TiVo, it's with MFS Tools. -s 127 is the largest setting for -s that results in a working swap partition. If you do -s 128 or greater then you end up with a partition the size you requested (you have a 300Mb 'hole'), but with an invalid swap signature, which causes the TiVo to behave oddly.

127Mb is enough swap for the largest drive set that can be supported by the stock TiVo kernels, which is why Hinsdale doesn't go into great depth. The reason everyone's getting excited about the Pioneer is that it has a new kernel that can address very large disks, and thus can require swap partitions larger than 127Mb. But when you do that, you have to initialise the swap partition yourself.

You don't necessarily have to repeat the transfer, you can initialise the swap partition fairly easily and 200Mb of wasted space is only a few minutes of recording time.

[jadair]

Originally posted by weaknees
You need to use the "-f 9999" or at least "-f 4138" switch when making the backup. If you don't you lose the backgrounds, and potentially some other resources.


Does this also apply when doing a single drive upgrade? The model is the Hughes HDVR2, and I am just copying the 40 MB drive onto a 120 MB.

If so, is this option just added to the mfsbackup line? Does anything change with mfsrestore?

And since I haven't said it yet, a huge thank you for maintaining the site and lending the expertise!

[weaknees]

Yes, you need it with that upgrade also. Nothing changes with mfsrestore.

The right line would probably be:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

Michael

[jadair]

Since I did the single drive upgrade, would this command also work?

mfsbackup -f 9999 -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ


This is with the original drive and new drive both connected of course.

[Robert S]

-Tao means 'take everything', so -f 9999 is redundant. You need it when you make a compressed backup, not when you use a pipe to transfer everything.

[jadair]

Ah, found that out when I tried the -f 9999 option. So we're back to the original question on the disappearing menu backgrounds. It happened on two units, using different source and destination drives, so it's not a one time fluke.

Anything I can check that would help narrow the problem down?

Would using a different backup method be worth a try?

I'll try one copy using a different size and brand destination drive, just for kicks, but if there is anything else I can look at I'll give it a shot.

[weaknees]

So you used the "-Tao" backup | restore and didn't get the backgrounds? Are you sure you have the backgrounds on the original (source) drive?

Michael

[jadair]

Yes, and yes.

The original copy was done with -Tao in a drive to drive copy. I immediately noticed the missing backgrounds when I tried out the new drive.

FWIW, tried a Maxtor 160 GB drive and got the same results. Also used
"-f 9999 -To" just to be different.

Kind of strange - everything else works ok, just this minor annoyance. Do you think a dd copy would work any better?

[Robert S]

If the A drive is not recognised as the correct size when the PC boots, that can also cause this problem.

Always check that Linux sees the correct sizes, every time you boot up the TiVo boot disk. Do "dmesg | grep hd" if you miss it when it boots.

[Chef]

Originally posted by Robert S
... But when you do that, you have to initialise the swap partition yourself.

You don't necessarily have to repeat the transfer, you can initialise the swap partition fairly easily and 200Mb of wasted space is only a few minutes of recording time.

Just to confirm something for myself, since either I'm not understanding the docs I'm finding, or I'm just not finding the right docs, I'm getting the impression that to initialize the swap partition via a TiVo boot cd, I cannot use the MFSTools CD? The only other TiVo boot cd I've found is the one at 9th Tee. Should I use that one?

Also, when I used the MFSTools 2 cd to do the upgrade, I did an 'fdisk -l' out of curiosity to see what the partitions looked like, but all I got was "invalid partition table" on the original TiVo disk. Do I need to boot in byte-swapping mode to see the partitions & mount the filesystems or make the swap?

Thanks

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by Chef
Just to confirm something for myself, since either I'm not understanding the docs I'm finding, or I'm just not finding the right docs, I'm getting the impression that to initialize the swap partition via a TiVo boot cd, I cannot use the MFSTools CD? The only other TiVo boot cd I've found is the one at 9th Tee. Should I use that one?

Also, when I used the MFSTools 2 cd to do the upgrade, I did an 'fdisk -l' out of curiosity to see what the partitions looked like, but all I got was "invalid partition table" on the original TiVo disk. Do I need to boot in byte-swapping mode to see the partitions & mount the filesystems or make the swap?

Thanks


Chef -

If you are doing a 'large drive' (> 137GB) upgrade and want the bigger swap file, you can use the CD here; it has MFStools 2, as well as tpip on it (for initializing the swap partition):

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/support/bigdisk/

Lou

[Robert S]

This is covered in some detail in the large-drive How-tos, as well as the top of the Fixes thread, but as you asked: Series 1 TiVoes are byteswapped relative to the PC, Series 2 units are not. The MFS Tools 2.0 CD does not byteswap by default. fdisk expects to see a DOS-style partition table, the equivalent for TiVo is pdisk.

[jadair]

Originally posted by Robert S
If the A drive is not recognised as the correct size when the PC boots, that can also cause this problem.

Always check that Linux sees the correct sizes, every time you boot up the TiVo boot disk. Do "dmesg | grep hd" if you miss it when it boots.

My 40 GB source drive is reported as 33 GB, and the 120 GB is reported as 120 GB.

Trying a DD copy now and won't expand it, will keep you posted.

[Robert S]

Until you get that drive recognised as 40Gb, you ain't going anywhere.

[weaknees]

Must be a jumper issue, but I don't remember seeing that setting on 40 GB drives.

Michael

[jadair]

Originally posted by weaknees
Must be a jumper issue, but I don't remember seeing that setting on 40 GB drives.

Michael

We have a winner! Had it jumpered for a slave drive but the jumper was on the wrong row of pins. Fixed it, and now have a 40 GB drive.

Trying the MFSBackup now, but sounds like we're headed in the right direction.

Thanks to both of you for the help!

[weaknees]

OK - so I guess 40 GB drives have that setting also. Was it marked for a limit to 32 GB, or is this an undocumented "feature" of the drive?

Michael

[jadair]

Undocumented, at least according to the diagram on the drive.