How-To Upgrade your TiVo

[Eupher]

From the Hinsdale instructions for adding a new B drive to a single drive DirecTivo:all that is remaining to do for this upgrade configuration is to run Mfsadd to make your existing A drive aware of the added space provided by your new large upgrade B driveThis confuses me. In the case of one of Weaknees or Hinsdale's drop-in upgrades (that simply adds a 2nd drive to the existing setup), how does the existing A drive become aware of the capacity of the new B drive? By itself, Hinsdale's instructions seem to imply that something is written to the A drive with mfsadd - but this obviously doesn't happen in the case of one of the pre-packaged, pre-configured upgrades. What am I missing?

The reason I'm asking is because OfficeMax has a sale tomorrow. After rebates, a WD 120Gb drive for $59.99. Obviously it would be cheaper to buy the drive and a Twin-Breeze kit, but I'm a total novice with Linux and I don't want to be "penny wise and pound foolish". Thanks for any input.

Ken S.

[Robert S]

The drop-in drives are prepared with BlessTiVo. mfsadd is safer. BlessTiVo doesn't work at all if you're already upgraded your A drive.

[sickal]

RobertS and Weaknees-

I have spent the past several days reading all the posts from all the threads, the Hinsdale instructions, and the MFSTools 2.0 ReadMe. I want to upgrade my HDVR2 stock Tivo from a 40GB drive to include a new Maxtor Ultra DMA/133 7200 rpm 120GB drive, and just ordered the Weaknees complete kit. Based on your suggestions and everything I have read, instead of simply adding the new 120GB drive onto my existing 40GB drive (40+120), I want to make the new 120GB the new A drive and keep the old 40GB drive as an added B drive (120+40) so I can increase the swap space and make a future upgrade easier if I eventually replace the 40G B drive with another 120G for a 120+120 configuration.

I have read Robert’s suggestion about upgrading to the new 120GB drive and testing it for a month or so and then adding the 40GB back on as a B drive later using mfsadd. However, I would prefer to do the 120+40 all at the same time. Here are my planned upgrade assumptions:

• New 120GB drive as New A drive
• Old 40GB A drive as New B drive
• Create/verify backup image of the old 40GB A drive before upgrading
• Preserve recordings and increase swap to new 120GB A drive

Given these assumptions, can you confirm I am doing the right thing, assuming both the old and new Tivo drives are connected to the pc at the same time with the following configuration (PM = primary master, PS = primary slave, SM = secondary master, SS = secondary slave):

PM hda1 C drive with 2 primary Fat32 partitions (both blank with no os)
PS hdb New 120GB
SM hdc Original 40GB Tivo drive
SS hdd cdrom drive

Create a backup image of the original Tivo drive to my Fat32 partition with the old 40GB jumpered as master and the new 120GB jumpered as slave. Copy the test image to the new 120GB drive, unmount all drives and power down (Hinsdale steps 7 & 8):

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup –f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
mfsrestore –s 127 –bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdb
umount –f –a –r

Power down and test the new 120GB drive by itself in the Tivo to confirm the image is ok (Hinsdale step 9). Before doing this, change the new 120GB drive jumper setting from slave to master and change the old 40GB drive jumper to slave leaving it in the pc. If the new 120GB drive tests ok in the Tivo, put it back in the pc and bootup from the MfsTools disk again, keeping the new 120GB drive as master and the old 40GB drive as slave.

==>Question #1: Do I need to format the brand new Maxtor drive as Fat32 with the utilities included in the box before I begin the upgrade, or will MfsTools format the drive when its restores the backup image to this drive above? The Hinsdale instructions said diagnostics or low-level formatting were not necessary but did not specifically say the drive should be formatted or not...

At this point, I am at Step 10 Upgrade Config #3 in the Hinsdale instructions (want to preserve recordings). Since I don’t have 3 drives, I am leaving my IDE port drive assignments unchanged from the previous step above.

I now have two choices:

Option #1 - Copy the original 40GB A drive to the new 120GB A drive copying over all recordings and increasing the swap space at the same time, put it in the Tivo and test for a while as Robert suggests using:

msfbackup –Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore –s 127 –xzpi - /dev/hdb

then I can add the old 40GB drive as a new B drive later using mfsadd back at Hinsdale Step 10 Option #1 (first changing the jumper on the old 40GB drive to Slave):

mfsadd –x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

Option #2 - Copy the original 40GB A drive to the new 120GB A drive copying over all recordings and increasing the swap space at the same time, and adding the old 40GB drive as a new B drive all in the same step, resulting in a 120+40 configuration:

msfbackup –Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore –s 127 –xzpi - /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

==>Question #2: Will option#2 above work? In other words, can I have the hdc (old 40GB drive) listed twice as the source in the msfbackup and the 2nd destination drive in the restore? (Hinsdale’s instructions assume 3 drives are in the machine here but I only have 2).

==>Question #3: In either case, once I add the old A drive back as a new B drive either separately using mfsadd (option#1) or all in one step (option#2), will the msfrestore command overwrite all partitions on the old A drive with new partitions optimizing them? I assume so since I am using the –p and –z flags.

==>Question #4: Which option above would you recommend, or is there a better way?

I realize that if I do NOT want to test the backup image I made of the original 40GB drive on the new 120GB by itself (without recordings), I can just go straight from the initial image backup to the combined backup and restore as in:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup –f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
msfbackup –Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore –s 127 –xzpi - /dev/hdb
or
msfbackup –Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore –s 127 –xzpi - /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
umount –f –a –r

However, I still am not sure whether its better or not to just copy to the new 120GB A drive and add the 40GB back later or if I can do it all at once (using the 2nd form of the restore above with both hdc as the source and dest.

I also realize that an advantage of upgrading to and using the new 120GB drive by itself for a while is that if a drive failure occurs, it must be the new drive and will be easier to fix, whereas upgrading to use both new and old drives at the same time means I can’t know with certainty which drive failed for sure.

==>Question #5: Finally, I seem to recall reading something about an upgrade slowing down the menu operations a bit. Is this true?

Sorry for the long post…
Thanks

[weaknees]

Q1 - no - you don't need to. The mfstools formatting is all you'll need - anything else would be overwritten by mfstools.

Q2 - No, this wont work. You can't 'pipe' to the same disk. Just omit the trailing /dev/hdc and then do this afterward:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Q3 - Yes, mfstools will overwrite the existing partitions (no confirmation warnings here, so be careful!).

Q4 - Option #2 with my modification in Q2 above is my recommendation. But you can't do it the way listed under Q4 . . . same issue as in Q2.

Q5 - The Now Playing list can slow down a bit with so many extra programs on the drive (four times as many) but generally all other menu functions should be fine.

Michael

[BobNeub]

I have a SAT-T60 Tivo and want to upgrade the harddrive, Is there a maximum size Hard drive I can go to?

[weaknees]

If you don't want to mess with the kernel, don't use drives over 160 GB (2 drives, max). Your TiVo will use 137 GB of each drive resulting in 260 hours of recording space. If you want to swap out the kernel, more info is here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83342

Michael

[sickal]

Weaknees-

Thanks for the response. I just got your kit a few minutes ago and will get started. However in your answer to Q2, you switched the drive designations on me from (b and c) to (c and d). Why?

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

I assume it would still be
#mfsadd -x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
since I did not change any IDE settings and am assuming I can do the mfs add immediately after the piped backup/restore as in:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
msfbackup –f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo40.bak /dev/hdc
msfbackup –Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore –s 127 –xzpi - /dev/hdb
mfsadd -x /dev/hdb /dev/hdc
umount –f –a –r

Thanks

[weaknees]

That's right - my mistake.

Good luck!

Michael

[sickal]

Weaknees,

I successfully upgraded my HDVR2 a few days ago with no problems whatsoever and it's running smoothly in the new 120+40 configuration. Temp is good at 39C and is a little cooler than before (was 41C before the upgrade), so the new fans seem to be working well over the past 2 days. The only thing at all is the new drive is a little noisy and I plan to run the acoustic utilities on it in a few days. Thanks again for a great product and your help with the upgrade.

[weaknees]

sickal,

Thanks for posting your results.

What model drive are you using as the second drive? (not sure if the whole kit is from us or just the TwinBreeze . . .)

Michael

[sickal]

The new 120GB drive I added was bought separately and is a retail boxed Maxtor Diamond Max Plus Ultra DMA/133 7200 rpm 120GB drive, with an 8MB buffer, model # L01P120. I just got the TwinBreeze Complete kit from you.

[weaknees]

The Maxtors can be a bit loud, but are you sure the noise isn't from your boot drive? Those are usually louder.

Anyway, the acoustic management may help - I can't remember if those drives come with it on or off by default.

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

Samsungs are almost as cheap (online) as the Maxtor/WD rebate deals out there, but without the rebate hassle. And they're VERY quiet.

[weaknees]

Yes - we use Samsungs for our 80, 120, and 160 GB kits and TiVos at this point. They also have a longer warranty, and seem to be more reliable.

Michael

[sickal]

The noise is coming from the boot drive (the new Maxtor 120GB drive). I made the new drive the new A and the old stock drive the new B so I could get the increased swap space when I upgraded. Actually the drive is not too loud once I'm watching the TV itself, only when the sound is off and I'm using the Tivo menus. I may just leave the drive the way it is since its probably defaulted to /fast which gives the best performance in the tradeoff of performance vs operating temperature.

[weaknees]

It's true that the drives are supposed to give slightly faster (and cooler) performance with the acoustic management set to off, but I don't think anyone has been able to detect a difference in the performance of their TiVo due to that setting. Don't forget that TiVos are designed - to date - for much slower drives than these.

Michael

[sickal]

Good point. Sorry I meant to say tradeoff of performance vs noise level, not temperature. The temperature in my Tivo is very normal, its the noise thats a little louder. If people haven't been able to detect much difference in performance, then I will probably run the amset utility to make the drive a little more quiet.

[abergdc]

FYI, did my upgrade over the weekend, easy and no problem, works great.

For me to be comfortable, I had to learn a bit more than I knew previously about what master and slave meant, also how to manipulate the bios, set boot order, check the bios to see which connection was master and slave, etc.

The hinsdale instructions are great, almost too detailed, in that it pays to most of it all carefullly, even if in the end you use just a couple of commands.

Thanks to all for the help.
Andy

[Tgreer40]

My SAT T60 is not working. I purchased a 160 gig drive from you and tried installing it. It keeps coming up as warming up and would stay like that indefinately. I tried installing the slave drive, incase it was just trying to recognize it. This did not work either.

Am lost with what to do. When I recieved your e-mail you stated that you thought I had a different TIVO?

Please help

[weaknees]

Tgreer40-

I'm guessing that you are looking for Bill (Hinsdale). He started this thread and maintains the How-To listed here, but he really doesn't use this forum for support. You should email him directly or PM (private message) him by clicking the PM button on the top of his first post.

Michael

[avhokie]

Hey guys, I should probably know this (and someone might have asked before) but I'm still confused. I upgraded my Philips HDR112 a while back by adding a second drive. Probably used the original How-To instructions. Now I want to replace the original A drive and keep the upgraded B drive. Which sections of the new How-To should I follow for this upgrade?

Thanks
avhokie

[weaknees]

If you want to add swap space in the process, you'll be best off losing your recordings and just making a new backup image and restoring from that with extra swap.

If you want to just swap out the A drive and get the space you'll need to boot the CD, then "dd" your drive with some variation of this:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=1024K

changing hdc and hdd as your drives necessitate.

Then, with the new A and the old B do this:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

and you should get the extra space.

Michael

[Robert S]

If you want to keep recordings and increase swap, see the second part of the third post of the Fixes thread for a way to create a larger swap partition after you've run dd, but before you run mfsadd.

[avhokie]

hmmm, thanks guys. I think I need to go back and read the how-to's thoroughly instead of skimming them. The first upgrade seemed much more simple.

[jlancton]

Greetings all... My new Tivo Series 2 40 Hour will be under the tree in a few weeks, and already I'm thinking upgrade. If I can get the $59.99 OfficeMax 120GB WD drives, is it possible/feasible to replace the stock 40 with a pair of 120's? I figure since I'd be starting from a 'blank' Tivo, I don't have to worry about saving any settings, and I can just keep the 40 in a safe deposit box in case of a later problem. From what I've seen, I'd just have to get a bracket, and maybe the fan... Plus the necessary s/w. Is it a big deal to do this, and with a pair of 120's what hour capacity would that give me? Thanks so much! Can't wait to join the Tivolution!

-Jeff

[Robert S]

Yes, lots of people do that (see the previous 51 pages of this thread!). It's not very difficult once you work out which bits of Hinsdale apply to you.

You don't need to keep the 40Gb A drive, you can put that in your PC, or whatever. You'll be making a compressed backup as you do the upgrade, which will allow you to turn any 40Gb+ drive into a new A drive if required. You will want to keep the backup file safe.

I would recommend you start with just 1 large drive. I find 120Gb is plenty for my viewing habits and that avoids the need to get brackets and fans etc. If you need more space, you might be better off getting a DVD recorder so you can move stuff you want to keep off the TiVo. If you still find you need more space, adding the second 120Gb drive is trivial (just run mfsadd again).

It's a good idea to start the TiVo up and run it for a few hours at least before you upgrade. You want to do Guided Setup and get the software upgrade before you make the backup file. That will save you a lot of time and, surprisingly, make the backup file much smaller (you'll find a backup of an uninitialised disk won't fit on a CD).

[weaknees]

While Robert S is certainly right about the idea of doing one drive first and then adding a second later if you need it, that means two sessions of taking apart the TiVo and your PC and dealing with the whole thing. Don't forget that one 120 GB drive is 35 hours at best quality . . .

Also, if you are looking for additional resources to help you do the upgrade, we have an interactive site that will specifically apply to your model and upgrade path here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

[jlancton]

Thanks to Robert S and weaknees for the prompt replies.

Being a PC tech, the idea of two sessions of opening the Tivo and PC doesn't bother me, I guess I was just thinking do it once and forget it.

If I understand correctly, going with the one drive route, the 40GB original drive is out, and a single 120 is in. Browsing the thread, I have seen that some people put the 40 in as a B drive. Is this not recommended for the Series 2?

35 Hours at Best for a single 120... I have read that things like news can be recorded at a lesser quality due to the lack of motion. Would that logic apply to a regular TV show like West Wing, or ER? Though ER would probably have more motion than WW. I'm thinking in terms of balancing the capacity/quality.

Is there a consensus among Tivo'ers as to what the Tivo quality levels compare to? Such as VHS SP/EP, SVHS, etc? Currently, I tape on EP for some shows, and although not bad, after about the third re-record, it gets too grainy. I do know that the type of degradation is different from tape, in that it is more pixelated as opposed to grainy. I'm used to that, having digital cable.

Thanks again for the help. This is a great resource.

-Jeff

[Robert S]

The point was, if you have two drives, then you need the brackets and fans etc, whereas replacing the current drive avoids that (sorry Michael, don't want to cost you a sale!). Given the ridiculous prices of 120Gb drives these days, if you're going to get the bracket then you might as well use 2 120's.

To some extent people's perception of the video quality depends on their TV. I have a 29" Sony CRT. I do essentially all my recording on High, which seems to me to be about the same quality as the digital cable feed (I don't know if ntl:home's digital cable quality is the same as Cox, or whoever, but it's probably similar). Medium is OK, but adds some hardening to the image. I think Basic is just there to bump up the numbers. I wouldn't use it for anything other than recording radio shows, but some people don't mind.

When you get it, you'll appreciate that TiVo is not something you can understand completely before you buy it. Your TV viewing habits will change, so you can't tell in advance whether 40, 120, or 240 Gb will be enough.

[TivoGeezer]

jlancton, not to burst your bubble but, are you going to at least wait until the warrently period expires to do this? I would hope so. If you upgrade right away and then a manufacturing defect shows up, you are on your own. I waited 3 years but only because I was a big chicken. Also the wealth of information and tools now available made me braver and more sure it could be done safely. But even with that, I would wait for the machine to "burn in" before hacking it.

I was glad I got my hands on Jeff Keegan' s book "Hacking Tivo". it came with most of the tools and software available online and step by step instructions which were and continue to be a valuable resource. There are other books out there about this subject but that is the one I have experience with.

[Robert S]

I wouldn't worry too much. If the unit itself breaks (hard drive failures are the only really common hardware problem, but it's not unknown for the PSU or modem to fail), just put the original drive back in and TiVo will be none the wiser.

[jlancton]

Thanks, I get it now. As you said, with the drive prices, it's probably worth it to just do the two at once and get ~70 hours of Best in one shot. You're right in that I don't know how the Tivo will affect my viewing, but from everything I've read, it's a life changing experience. :)

TivoGeezer: Thanks for the warning, I guess being a techie geek makes me more willing to ride the bleeding edge! :) Heck, it wouldn't be the first time the box was cracked before the warranty ended.

-Jeff

[TivoGeezer]

Originally posted by Robert S
I wouldn't worry too much...just put the original drive back in and TiVo will be none the wiser.

Except for the little label on the back, usually across the chassis seam, which says "Warranty void if removed".

[TivoGeezer]

Originally posted by jlancton
Thanks for the warning, I guess being a techie geek makes me more willing to ride the bleeding edge!

I am a "techie geek" as well but I have also had too many expensive electronic gadgets go "belly up" during the warranty period (usually in the first month) to tempt fate. I was ready to start hacking my Tivo right after the 90 day warranty was over but wanted more info on the internal workings. But even with that in hand, I would still burn that sucker in for the 90 days, just to make sure it is solid. 'Nuf said.

[Robert S]

Originally posted by TivoGeezer
Except for the little label on the back, usually across the chassis seam, which says "Warranty void if removed".

That's a Series 1 feature, none of the current TiVoes have them. Even then, they didn't always bother about it.

[weaknees]

Actually, it looks like the new DSR704 and DSR708 from Phillips have the sticker again . . .

Michael

[austinsho]

Hmm....it's not on my 704, Michael.

[weaknees]

OK - that's good - then it's sporadic, I guess.

Michael

[austinsho]

Can I assume the 704/708 ugprades just as nicely and easily as the DSR7000? Please tell me there are no surprises!

[weaknees]

Yes - upgrades follow the same path as the DSR7000. We'll be updating our online interactive instructions soon, but for now, just choose DSR7000:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Michael

[hinsdale]

Originally posted by austinsho
Can I assume the 704/708 ugprades just as nicely and easily as the DSR7000? Please tell me there are no surprises!

No suprises, the DSR704 and DSR708 (added these models to the Step 2 model list) follow the same upgrade procedures instructed in the How-To for all model TiVos.

[Big-bill3]

Hinsdale, thanks for an excellent guide.

In Step 8 - restoring the backup you supply the command string for Series 1 and for Series 2. What is needed for a UK TIVO.

In Step 7 you supply the UK variant but not in Step 8

Are there any other places where a UK variant is needed?

Thanks

John

[tonycullen]

I am in the process of upgrading my UK Tivo to a larger HDD and have been following the instructions in the Hindsdale guide. However when i get to issuing the command: -
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos the message "/dev/hda1: success" then "mount: you must specify the filesystem type" appears.
I ignored the message and went to:-
mfsbakup -l 32 -6so /mnt/dos /dev/hdc /dev/hdd (I have 2 drives 30Gb & 15Gb)
The following appeared:-
Scanning source drive pls wait:
Source drive is 30hours
Upgraded to 44 hours
Backup image will be 44hours
Uncompressed size 1085Mb
Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: success
ls -l in /mnt/dos gave tivo.bak size as 6189056 bytes.
The backup was very quick, less than 1 min.

I am not sure whether the backup has worked, I suspect not.

Any help would be appreciated

[Robert S]

bill: The UK TiVo is a Series 1 TiVo. It needs a special option for making compressed backups, but is otherwise unremarkable.

tony: If mount succeeds, it returns the command prompt without comment. If mount fails, then you're writing the backup into the RAM disk created by the boot disk.

Your C: drive is probably not hda1. Try hda2 or hda5 instead.

[tonycullen]

Robert: Thanks for that. I should have seen the entry in the mfstools startup report.
I'm done and heading for a g&t.
TC

[codrus]

Originally posted by jadair
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!

Which is the wrong row of pins? I have a SAT-T60 I'm trying to upgrade to 120G, and having the exact same problem (drive reported as 32GB, mounted as slave in the PC where I'm doing the backup, backup/restore appears to work but with new drive it's missing the menu backgrounds).

The drive from my unit has a Maxtor brand name on the top, but Quantum-branded asics on the board. It's got four jumper positions, and the label on the top of the drive indicates that the order is master, CS, slave, but doesn't indicate what the orientation of the drive is to match these up.

Do I need to set the 40G unit as master? What's the "undocumented position"?

thanks,
Ian McCloghrie

[weaknees]

To set the 40 GB as Master, you should use the two pins closest to the IDE connector.

Michael

[daves_tivo]

Just done the 250GB A-Drive upgrade!

85hrs 52mins high quality/300hrs 50mins in basic...250GB HDD A drive.

This was done in the following way (In case you're wondering)

(Use instructions from "courtesan"/tivo.bigdisk.html)

Unlock old A drive using Windows boot disk with QUnlock added.
Boot from LBA48 version of MFSTools2.0 from "ptvupgrade"
Backup old A drive to PC HDD.
Switch off PC and swap drives over.
Boot from LBA48 version of MFSTools2.0
Restore to new 250GB drive.
Grow partitions to max size.
Update kernel to LBA48 V2.5x
Put drive into TiVo and switch on.

Success...!

There was a point where I was going to kick the 250GB drive through the window, until I realised that I was trying to back up to my CDRom (HDC) rather than the Storage drive (HDD). Once i'd found the MFSToolsV2.0 LBA48 .iso image and the "courtesan" instructions it wasn't too bad.

Many thanks to all those who offered assistance.

Dave.

[Big-bill3]

Hope this is in the correct thread.

I can't get the PC I want to use to do the upgrade to recognise two devices on the Secondary IDE port.

Murphy's law - the other PC won't recognise the 120GB drive as the BIOS is too old and I'm having trouble getting the Samsung Disk Manager software to work

Any ideas why?

If necessary I presumably can run MFStools 2 from the floppy drive ?

[weaknees]

On either one, you may want to set the BIOS to ignore those IDE ports - that's probably causing the problems on at least one PC. Linux doesn't need the BIOS support for it to work.

Michael

[Big-bill3]

thanks
it was a dodgy cable

[Big-bill3]

I'm planning to the mfsbackup pipe instruction to copy all the data from my A (15GB) and B (30GB) drives to a new 120GB (A) drive.

I propose to add the 30GB drive later after the 120GB has bedded down (using mfsadd)

The command appears to be

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

but I have two variants : which is correct for a UK TiVo xzpi or just -xpi ??

Also in Upgrade Config #6 there is an indented paragraph that states that this option #6 won't work for a UK Thomson TiVo

Advice please

[Robert S]

z is a rather meaningless option. It just over-writes the inactive system partitions with zeroes. I can't imagine how omitting or including that option could cause a problem. The chances are those partitions are empty anyway and even if they aren't, the TiVo won't try to read any data from them.

[Big-bill3]

wot about the paragraph in upgrade config #6 where it suggests this option won't work for a UK TiVo ?

[Robert S]

I don't have all Hinsdale's #'s memorized, so it's much easier if you just quote the passage you're referring to. It take it you mean
Those with dual drive DirecTiVos, dual drive Series 2 units (with user added B drive), the rare factory combined dual drive standalones (see Step 7 Option #2 for description), or dual drive UK Thompson TiVo will not have enough available partitions remaining in order to combine their existing drives onto a single larger A drive and expand to use any remaining space while still preserving their recordings. For further upgrade possibilities of these units see Upgrade Configuration #2 (will not preserve recordings) or Upgrade Configuration #4 or #5 (preserves recordings).

He's referring to the number of partitions on the drive. Under certain circumstances you can run out of partitions. Clearly this isn't the case for your machine as the backup (which didn't divorce) restored and expanded just fine, so the copied partitions will behave the same way.

When this happens, mfsrestore just halts with 'destination drive not big enough', which is a rather confusing error, but at least you don't have to wait 5 hours only to get a message saying the drive can not be expanded.

Usually this problem only kicks in on a second upgrade - TiVoes tend to be either single drive 11 partition, single drive 13 partition or dual drives with a 11 partition A drive, so there's always room to create one more pair of MFS partitions.

[Big-bill3]

thanks Robert

It's done the backup / restore but is currently stuck on 27364 of 28186 megabytes (97.09%)

[Big-bill3]

no it's not now

[Bootay]

Another satisfied customer of the Hinsdale tech and MFSTools. Took about 8 hours to copy a SAT-T60 drive to a 160GB Samsung drive, 2 second to expand it, and now I've got >120hours of capacity.

Why does a linux DD command take SO much longer than a similar Windows process? Even Ghost/Drive Image in DOS are 10x as fast...

[aswindler]

I'm trying to upgrade my Dual Drive DSR6000 (30GB + 15GB) to one Samsung 120 GB drive. I've got everything in my PC and they come up with correct sizes in the boot sequence.

When I use the following command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hde /dev/hdf | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

It says "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment." After a few minutes, the following appears:

Source drive size is 30 hours
- Upgraded to 43 hours
Uncompressed backup size: 42158 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.
/# king up 1 of 42158 megabytes (0.00%)

The guide says that you can't use this with dual drive DirecTiVos but I wanted to give it a shot. Does anyone know of a way to get this to work? If not, I assume that my only option is to simply replace one of the drives and continue using the other. I would really prefer to go down to one drive as I am trying to reduce noise. If I do need to replace only one drive, would it make sense to replace the master 30GB or the slave 15GB? Thanks for the help.

aswindler

[ThreeSoFar]

Single drive. Use a backup image as your source if you don't have your own.

[Robert S]

I refer you to post #1055.

Run "mfsinfo /dev/hde /dev/hdf" and count your partitions. If you already have three pairs of MFS partitions, that would explain your difficulties.

You should be able to replace the B drive with the 120 without any problems.

If you're happy to lose your recordings as ThreeSoFar suggests, you should be able to make a 13 or even 11 partition compressed backup from your current drive set that would allow you to utilise the 120Gb drive on its own.

[aswindler]

Thanks for the quick replies - gotta get this thing back up and running! :) I should have also mentioned that I would very much like to keep my recordings and I do not have a FAT partition handy for backup. I do, however, have a downloaded backup image for my unit and in a couple of weeks I'm going to be installing a TurboNet so perhaps I could get programs and system settings that way to go back down to one drive.

Here are the results from msfinfo:

The MFS volume set contains 6 partitions
/dev/hde10
MFS Partition Size: 512MiB
/dev/hde11
MFS Partition Size: 11403MiB
/dev/hde12
MFS Partition Size: 512MiB
/dev/hde13
MFS Partition Size: 15746MiB
/dev/hdf2
MFS Partition Size: 4MiB
/dev/hdf3
MFS Partition Size: 14320MiB
Total MFS volume size: 14320MiB
Total MFS volume size: 42497MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 43
This MFS colume may be expanded 3 more times

I have to admit I'm not 100% what all that means. I do have three pairs of partitions, but it says I can upgrade. Unless this reveals some new info to someone I'm just going to try to replace the B drive as Robert suggested. I assume B was suggested so I'll get another 15GB out of reuing the larger A drive. But does one or the other store all system settings that I could shelve for backup? I'd rather have a useful backup drive than 15GB more.

Have I done anything at this point that would prohibit me from starting over and using Hinsdale Method Upgrade Configuration #4?

From: Any Dual Drive TiVo

To: New A or New B Drive (replacing only one or the other)

Thanks a ton,
aswindler

[Robert S]

Anyway, three pairs of MFS partitions fills the partition table on a single drive. MFS Tools is telling you that there are three spare entries in the MFS table - you could put 1 more pair on the A drive and 2 more on the B drive if you wanted to.

Neither drive on its own is a viable backup. Although the B drive only contains recordings, the MFS partition structure has some similarity to software RAID - it forms a unified whole that doesn't work if any part is missing.

If you want a backup, use MFS Tools to make a compressed backup as described in Hinsdale, burn that on to some CD-R's and put them in safe places.

[aswindler]

Doh, sorry for the typo. Fixed now.

Okay, what you say makes sense. I tried making the backup and get this:

Uncompressed backup size: 1365 megabytes
Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: Success

That's a pretty contrary message so I'm not sure if it worked, but the file was indeed created on my C drive.

In any case, you mention this:

you could put 1 more pair on the A drive and 2 more on the B drive if you wanted to.

Does that mean I could somehow still go down to one drive from these two or should I just run with method #4 and replace one drive?

aswindler

[Robert S]

MFS Tools error messages are often confusing. I would use mfsrestore to use that file to turn your upgrade drive into an A drive. Ideally you'd check that in the TiVo, but the chances are that mfsrestore will complain if the backup is corrupt.

You can only have three pairs of MFS partitions on the A drive. You already have two, so when you copy the drives on to one, that gets you your three, precluding expansion into the extra space on the new drive.

The 'upgraded three more times' refers to a table in the MFS system that can list up to six pairs of MFS partitions. As you have three pairs, you have three spare entries in that table. You still have to have enough spare entries in the partition table as well as in the MFS table.

[aswindler]

Okay that helps a lot. So basically I can restore from this backup and get one drive with no programs. Or I can replace one drive and end up with 120+30 and all my programs. This might actually still resolve my noise issues as I've discovered from some not-so-scientific testing that the 15GB drive is noisier.

If I replace only one drive, then get my programs off by some other means in the future, will I be able to again upgrade/downsize to one drive? I am concerned by number of upgrade limits/blessed drives etc, but from what I've read it seems that problem has been largely erradicated.

Finally, I believe I mostly understand TiVo's partition logic, but what is this mention of 11 or 13 partition images if you can only have 3 pairs (6 total)?

Thanks so much,
aswindler

[Robert S]

You backup should 'divorce' the A drive from the B drive (leaving 13 partitions), so you should be able to restore that to a single drive and expand it. If you emptied out (well, ceased to care about would be a better term) the recordings on the 30+120 drive set, you could make a fresh compressed backup from that set, restore it to the 120 as a lone drive.

The point is, restoring a divorced backup reverts you back to your original A drive, thus resetting the 'clock' on how many upgrades you can do.

There are 9 system partitions on the A drive. Three MFS pairs gets you to 15 partitions in total and there are only 16 entries in the partition table.

[Big-bill3]

My thanks to Tiger, Hinsdale and especially Robert S for his patience in leading me through some problems over a noisy phone line.

After a failed restore, it was repeated and away it went. It then took about 2hrs to copy the programs (yes it was essential to keep n hours of Neighbours!)

When I want to add the old 30GB b drive, will I have to set the new a drive to Cable select from its current setting of Master?

I realise I will need to run mfsadd to add the B drive. Do I need to do execute any other commands before or after?

John

[aswindler]

Thanks for all the help Robert, getting my TiVo upgraded. I replaced the B drive without a hitch (except briefly forgetting to plug in the fan power - doh!) and is now running perfectly with 136 hours! I was correct in suspecting the noise from the old B drive and the unit is now very quiet.

I imagine I'll still try to go to the single drive at some point. Just don't trust the original A drive with 3+ years of steady usage. But it seems to be working great for now.

Thanks,
aswindler

[Robert S]

Yes, mfsadd does the lot. The normal jumper pattern would be A drive as master and B drive as slave. WD drives have a different jumper setting for lone master and master with slave, which causes some confusion.

If you're concerned, you might want to plug the 30Gb drive in as a slave before you marry it to the A drive and check that the TiVo still boots. The TiVo should boot normally and effectively ignore the second drive (although you should see it mentioned as hdb in the TiVo's logs).

If the drives don't get on, the TiVo may not boot, or may not be able to see the slave drive. Once the drive is married to your A drive, that can be a serious problem.

That's pretty rare, though.

[Big-bill3]

where can I see the TiVo's logs you refer to?

[Robert S]

I wrote up how to read the logs here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=593569#post593569).

You probably want to do something like

grep hd /var/log/kernel

to pick out lines refering to hard drives

[dave silva]

I just ghosted my original Tivo drive and I just want to make my New Tivo drive larger, I can't find the instructons anywhere. Is there a link for just doing this. I am running the new drive now, but it still is reporting 30 hours with a 120GB drive.

Thanks
Dave

[weaknees]

Usually Ghost doesn't work to well, to begin with. But if your drive is working, you can use mfstools to add the extra space. Boot the CD and type:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc

changing hdc to the position of the drive in your PC.

Michael

[Erock68]

I want to send out a thanks to Hinsdale. I added one of his "B" drive upgrades and it works flawlessly!

I have built several custom computers in the past but, recently haven't had much time with being moved to 2nd shift at work (The main reason why I purchased my Tivo in the first place) He has saved the work of getting the drive ready and it installed in a few minutes.

Also...

Thanks to all who make owning a Tivo, just that much better!

[dave silva]

thanks for the command. I used ghost 7.5 with the -IR command (raw copy). It works great and I have 129 hours avalible with a 120 GB drive. This was very easy, seem too easy but it worked instantly.

Thanks
Dave

[Austinj]

I tried to upgrade my Series2 and now the tivo is dead. When I tried to do the backup using mfstools, I got this error message:

/dev/hdc10: Success
MFS_load_volume_header: mfsvol_read_data: input/output error
mfsbackup: Backup failed to startup. Make sure you specified the right devices, and that the drives are not locked.

The drives are reporting correct sizes, so I don't think they're locked. I tried writing a random file to the destination drive and it worked, so it's not a problem with the new drive. My old tivo drive was working just fine before this. I wrote a longer post in the upgrade section with all my steps if you need more info. I just really want to get my tivo back. Anyone have any ideas? Do I just need to find a backup image from someone else?

Thanks in advance!
Brian

-Edited to clarify the error message. I had copied it down wrong before-

[Robert S]

Did you really type hdc10?

[Austinj]

Ummm, no, typo. Sorry. I typed hdc, as per the hinsdale write up.

[Robert S]

"Read/write error" might be a bad block. Try the drive manufacturer's diagnostics. If it offers to repair bad blocks, do so.

[Austinj]

I ran Maxtor diag utility on the drive, and it passed every test, but I'm still getting the same error every time I try it. Just to clarify a bit, I use /dev/hdc in the backup command, and the error message says /dev/hdc10: Success, and so forth. Any other ideas? Thanks!

[weaknees]

Sometimes PowerMax shows that disks are fine, and they still don't work in TiVos. There are some other disk utilities out there that stress drives a bit more (like TiVos do) and that might catch errors these miss. You can search here for DriveSpeed - I think that's one.

Michael

[gpepus]

Hello All - Just Reporting out on my successful upgrade activity
Model Tivo 2.0 40 Hour 240040 Unit upgraded to 147 Hour Unit.

Issue: Unit's hard drive was squealing. Probably could've lived with it but it was damn annoying. So I purchased a new drive with Fluid Dynamic Bearings which won't ever squeal. Plus I expanded my capacity by almost 3.5 times from 40 Hrs to 147 Hrs.

Method Directions- Hinsdale Mini How-To, Careful study of this forum, Weaknees new Interactive Tivo Upgrade, Hinsdale Full Tivo Upgrade How-To

Process -
1) Backup original Tivo WD 400 (40Gb/40 Hr) drive to Win32/FAT partition. This created the Tivo.bak backup file.
2) Restore Tivo.bak (expanded) to new Seagate 160 Gb / 147 Hr) drive

Obsticals - Mounting the DOS/Win32 drive under the MFS Tools boot CD - Instructions in the Hinsdale 1) Mini How-To shows "mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos, however the command needs to be "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos"

2) Mini How-To gives the MFSToolsBackup command without specific instructions for Tivo series 2. (i.e. mfsbackup -so6 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc). The backup workd but didn't save everything, consequently my first run at backing up didn't get various and sundry graphical streams such as the green/red/blue backgrounds and the Tivo startup video. I studied the Hinsdale full How-To and the Weaknees Interactive guides and determined the right mfsbackup commands (i.e. mfsbackup -f 9999 -so6 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc)

3) mfsrestore command string was incorrect in the mini Howto as it assumed type 1 Tivo. I had to restore twice (which isn't a problem as it was a fast process) because I didn't get the correct swap space and I didn't expand to use full drive. Corrected mfsbackup command as follows:
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

4) This process correctly restored the backup with one exception. It didn't get any of my recorded programs. They show up in the Now Playing on Tivo menus but when you go to play them they immediately click to the Delete screen and then show an error screen.

Overall Success
Even though I didn't get my existing recorded programs I am happy th e system works as advertized. All functions work correctly. My season passes and other Todo list functions all work. My network (wireless USB) connection is also working fine.

The reason I didn't get the recorded video streams was probably due to not doing the mfsbackup with the -a option (this conflicts with the -f option and initially confused me .. so here I am) ahhh but full understanding comes with time grasshopper so at least I know where I foobared the process. These are nuances that I could have corrected but I didn't want to mess with things any further.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

[CraigHB]

...because OfficeMax has a sale tomorrow. After rebates, a WD 120Gb drive for $59.99. Thanks for tip on OfficeMax. I was looking to upgrade my TDC24004A with a relatively inexpensive large drive so I checked my local retailer. Turns out, they're having a sale until 1/10. I picked up a WD 160GB, 8M, 7200RPM drive for $80 after rebates, awesome deal. I used the instructions at tivo.upgrade-instructions.com to do a drive replacement and they were excellent. I didn't lose any of my settings and it couldn't have been easier.

Thanks to the community for making this so do-able.

- Craig

[barsongs]

Michael, i fixed the problem I posted at POST #862 (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1456628#post1456628). Although the pwr supply pcb is pretty easy to replace, I just changed one of the resistors. There is a 100 ohm 2 watt 5% resistor that runs much too hot on the board. (The color code is brown black brown gold - but after so much overheating it can look like red-black-red (gold)! So measure it just to be on the safe side.) I just replaced it with a 10 watt resistor and everything is now fine. No more burning carbon smell. Only those with proficiency in soldering pcbs should attempt this. Use sleeving on the leads so they don't brush against the nearby capicitor. Use 5% wirewound resistors only. I got mine from Action Electronics (http://www.action-electronics.com) for 60 cents plus shipping. And be super careful with that white ribbon cable which connects the pcbs together to make sure both ends are seated properly.

[TivNube]

Thanks Hinsdale and everyone who contributes to the knowledge base here.

I dropped a 120 GB WD drive into my HDVR3 and it worked right away.
Fry's had it for 60 bucks AR.

It was a little unnerving having the guts of both my PC and my Tivo out on the operating table at the same time.

The only problem I had was that I had to buy a $15 3.2 GB drive at the computer surplus store for the image backup because my PC drive is NTFS. I didn't bother to check if the new(old and used) drive was formatted as FAT 32.

After I got some errors trying to run mfsbackup, I used my lifesaver Knoppix Linux bootable CD (that has video and network drivers) to boot up, check the drive and come to the forums here to do some more research. I know very little about linux, but that CD is great.

After reformattin my 3.2Gig drive and about a half a dozen command line entries, it was done. Boom! 105 hours THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My upgrade went so well that I decided to get another 120 Gig drive for my brother for christmas. (60 bucks AR at office max this time) I put my image on it and after a clear and delete everything and waiting overnight for the locals to come back he's up and running now too.

Thanks again all!

Now I need to find a new project for my tivo.


HDVR3: Replace stock 40 GB with WD 7200 RPM 120GB drive

Tools: Torx T-10 (removing cover) and T-15 (HD bracket)

Commands: (From the Hinsdale How to)
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb *NOTE*
umount -f -a -r




*Note* this is different from the how-to, I replaced hdc with hdb. My new drive was still connected to Primary slave. I skipped a step 10 here, I didn't check the restored image in my tivo and then go back and expand it. I jumped right to the restore and expand command. I was getting nervous with all of the connections and I figured if the backup didn't work, I was screwed anyway.

[ThreeSoFar]

120G should be more than 105 hrs, shouldn't it?

Isn't it neat how easy the whole process is? Hinsdale/Tiger: you guys rule.

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by ThreeSoFar
120G should be more than 105 hrs, shouldn't it?

Isn't it neat how easy the whole process is? Hinsdale/Tiger: you guys rule.

Sounds right. 105 or 106 depending upon the drive manufacturer and swap file size.

[weaknees]

ThreeSoFar -

DirecTiVos typically get about .875 hours per GB of drive space at their "variable" setting. Standalone TiVos generally gain more than an hour (about 1.125 for most models) of capacity at their lowest quality (Basic) per GB of storage capacity.

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

Ah. Remember seeingn this now. Never dealt with the DirecTiVo's, unfortunately. No line of sight to the birds.

[Austinj]

Well, I ran DiskSpeed on my TiVo hd, but I'm not sure I know how to read the results... It only seemed to report the access speed to each block or whatever. It didn't seem to have any errors, and it was able to read the entire disk without problem... Any other ideas? I've seen that utility, MakeTivoBootable for when you accidently boot into WinXP with the Tivo drive attached, which I know I didn't do. I DID, however, install a fresh copy of Win98SE onto my other hd while the Tivo drive was attached. Would that have screwed it up? Should I try that utility, since nothing else seems to be working, and it's looking like I need a backup image from someone else anyway? Appreciate all the help, guys!

Brian

[weaknees]

At this point, I guess there's no reason not to run MTB - it's a bit tricky, but shouldn't make matters worse. I'd try to find an image (pretty hard these days) and go from there - do you have any friends with the same model? That's the easiest way.

Michael

[Austinj]

Well, MakeTivoBootable worked for me, I managed to save all my recordings, and the rest of the upgrade went without a hitch!! Thanks SO much for all the help!

[lvirden]

I have what I hope is a quick and easy question.

The hinsdale URL on the front page points to a guide that discusses a 137 gig limit for disk drives.
Is that a limit from the perspective of a series 1 tivo or a general limit?

I've a series 2 tivo branded 40 hr unit (one of the 004A units). I was wondering if I should give up hope of adding to this unit a couple of 150-200 gig drives and getting use of the full drive (yes, I know I could just use the smaller amount...)

[weaknees]

So far, the only unit that has a native kernel that can see beyond 137 GB is the Pioneer unit (the Toshiba probably has that also, but can't yet be upgraded). Any other stock TiVo kernel will be limited to seeing 137 GB of a drive. You can swap the kernel on Series 1 units, and there are possibilities now of swapping kernels on Series 2 units, but this is still pretty new, and if you get a software update on a Series 2 with an updated kernel, you'll likely be toast.

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

Can the Pioneer unit that recognizes LBA drives be upgraded yet? What model is that exactly?

thx

[weaknees]

Yes, absolutely. The Pioneer 810H and 57H can both be upgraded with the 57H image. We've been selling 160 and 315 hour units for months now, and also upgrade kits. We've started a thread on the subject here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143213

Michael

[sulli2p]

Thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger...

Just finished an error free upgrade of a Philips DSR6000R01. Replaced my original two year old WD 40 gig hard drive, which was starting to fail, with a Seagate 7200.7 120 gig drive (from zipzoomfly.com). System definitely feels faster. Keeping my backup image on an old/unused 1.2 gig Quantum. Entire process took about 2 1/2 hours.

Instructions were exceptionally complete, MFT 2.0 tools worked like a charm. If you can swap hard drives, and type DOS commands, then a DIY upgrade should be easy with the Hinsdale instructions and MFT tools.

[sportshawg]

I followed your instructions and everything appeared to go well...however when I hooked everything back up, (after the power up rpocess) I received a message stating your received has experienced an error and to wait 3 hours for the system to try and repair itself...

I had a 40 GB (35 hr) hughes directtv tivo and added a 40 gb hd...

suggestions?

thank you...

[Robert S]

That seems to happen some times. Is the TiVo OK now?

[maldb]

Thanks to everyone for your tips and help. I just upgraded my Hughes Series 2 DirecTiVo by adding a 120GB Maxtor drive. Works like a charm! Yes!!!

[mrichard]

There are instructions from Hinsdale for creating the boot CD. The readme doc associated with those instructions states that Nero (trial version available at...) will be able to create the necessary image and associated file structure from the mfstools.iso 10.8 meg download onto the burnt boot CD.

I downloaded the trial version and it does not have this capability and prevents me from burning to disk. Maybe I missed something, but after > 1 hour, I got nowhere. Then I went to my sons old Iomega CD burner. It had the software with the brains to create the boot disk file structure - done in 5 minutes. I came close to dropping the $60 to buy the software my PC did not have for burning cd's with images. That would have blown the project budget -- phew!

Now I'm going to trade in the serial interface hard drive I bought (wrong kind) for an Seagate Ultra ATA/100, 200GB. This wastes ~70GBs, but for $99 at CompUSA - who cares? All this computer geek typing is getting me anxious to get started.

If you doubt my qualifications, I am full time tech support for my families entire network! Because this role often pisses me off, I am grooming my 13 year old to take over.:eek:

[dixoncider]

Well I'am a little disappointed
this was just to easy, what to do with the rest of the night.
went from 35hour dtivo to 120 hour.
thanks to all who made this possible at this forum.

[ThreeSoFar]

Sweet, isn't it? Enjoy!

[tbo]

I just replaced the 40 gig drive with a WD 120 gig in my Hughes SD-DVR40.
I didn't make a backup as I will just keep the 40gig in the closet (and that would be my backup I guess).
I used the weakness interactive and CDrom MSFTools using:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

Everything works except the blue menu backgrounds are gone.
I have read some posts about the -f 9999 fixing this but am not clear on it's usage in my situation?

From what I've read, I think I would use this string instead of the one above?
mfsbackup -f 9999 - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

If so, am I starting over or can I somehow just add the blue screen stuff to the new drive.

If this is not the correct, then what do I do?
thanks

[weaknees]

You actually need:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

if you don't want recordings and:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

if you do want recordings.

How did you run the instructions so that you didn't get the -f 9999? The first command line doesn't look like it came from the instructions at all - is that right?

Michael

[tbo]

Thanks Michael,

There was no mention of a -f 9999 on the page I used.
chose: model Hughes SD-DVR40
chose: 'replace w one drive'
chose: no, yes, no, CD, ignore

The only string I was told to use was :

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

thanks again
tbo

[weaknees]

You found a glitch - it's fixed now. Thanks for helping me through the details of what you tried.

More info is in this other thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141538

Michael

[tbo]

thanks for the help.
Up and running with 105 hours.

used
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

I'm glad I found your glitch for you. I feel sort of famous or something.

thanks
tbo

[macross2b5]

Hey guys thanks for all the great info and the guide that helped me so much in upgrading my 40 gig tivo to my monster 120 tivo..With out your wisdom great jedi masters this wouldn't be possible.. Yet again thanks to everyone..And one more thing...Linux does not like to run a NTFS format drive..bye all:up: :up: :up: :up:

[ebonovic]

Scroll-Lock Blues....

Weakness / Hinsdale... Can you add a warning to your instructions for upgrades, that the Scroll-Lock key will hamper your upgrade process.

I just waisted about 30 minutes because my scroll-lock was hit. (I was toggling through my KVM, and must have hit it one too many times).

Frustrating.

[Fredzep]

Another happy Upgrade!
Took my Series 2 80GB to 247 Hours in less than 3 hours.

Used the 9th Tee kit :up:

Did not use the mfsrestore -127 option.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

[falc122727]

When I turn on my PC I get the following lines scrolling indefinitely:

1002
AX:020A
BX:0000
CX:0309
DX:0100

What am I doing wrong? Something with my Bios?

[bardvern]

Just wanted to give THANKS to Hindsdale for his post and link on upgrading my TiVo Drive.

As well as other posters for info and support.

I am in TiVo Heaven thanks to you!

:D

[jdr93]

several whiles ago i upgraded my philips directivo from the two original drives to two WD 100GB - 8MB drives, saving the shows and everything. no problems of course, because the advice on this site is so good. now i want to replace the two 100GB drive with two even larger drives, and i need to know if i have to go back to the two original drives or can i just use the two upgrades as if they were the originals and save everything that's on them? nothing's sick, nothing has even hic-cupped, i just want more space. i would relish any information about getting beyond the so called 137MB/drive limit too.

[Robert S]

There's lots of info on using big drives in the 160Gb thread at the top of the Underground. (Start at page 5 & 6 and then skip to 21).

The immediate question is how many partitions you've got. Pull the drives out and run mfsinfo on them. If you have two pairs of partitions on the A drive, then you can use dd to copy it and then use mfsadd to expand (mfsadd needs to see both drives, of course) and then dd the other drive and expand again. This might be less daunting than copying the whole lot in one go, but swap space would be an issue.

As long as you have only three or four pairs of MFS partitions (which is what I expect), then you can do a pipe transfer to copy both old drives on to both new ones.

[Nighty]

Thank you very much for detailed upgrade instructions! I have just completed the upgrade of my new Series 2, now loaded w/ 105 hours...

That will be more than enough, as for long term archival I can use my new Panny DMR-E80H.

[jlancton]

Many thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger, and PTV Upgrade!! I successfully upgraded my new SA 40 hour 'A' model with a 120 Gig B drive and I now have 189 hours of basic, and 51.5 hours of Best. The entire process took about an hour, and I couldn't be happier.

I should also note that the sound level hasn't changed a bit. I honestly cannot tell the difference with the added drive. (A Maxtor 120GB)

Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

-Jeff

[MikeNorman]

Thank you Hinsdale. I ordered the 120GB A Drive Replacement Kit which (results in ~107hr DirecTiVo) on Friday. I receive the 120GB TiVo A Drive with all software pre-loaded for drop-in install for my Philips DSR6000 the following Monday in the mail. Following Hinsdale one-page instructions I was able to have the Philips DSR6000 back up in about 30 minutes. The Hinsdale disk drive came with TIVO 2.0 because Hinsdale said that you couldn’t make an image of 3.0 for security flags. TIVO 3.0 has to download via a telephone line.

I did not remember that 2.0 did not support local channels so I wasted two hours with the agent for DIRECTV who barely could speak English. It was obvious this man did not know what he was doing and kept insisting that I reboot and reacquire the satellite signal. Finally, I asked to speak to his supervisor and he connected me to a telephone that no one answered. I called back and got a lady that knew her stuff. She quickly told me that I had to wait until my software upgraded to 3.0.

I forced a TIVO call at that time and expected the software to update at 2AM. When I got up this morning it had not. I forced another call and it downloaded 3.0 then. After rebooting I called DIRECTV and the man since the local channels information to the receiver and the local channels came on after downloading the DIRECT satellite information.

Two weeks ago I mailed Hinsdale my Sony SAT-60 receiver and had him to upgrade it to 240Gbytes. He sent back a note with the receiver telling me that it was real simple with his kit and I should have just order the kit and save a lot of time without my receiver and his costs for upgrading.

I now know just how easy it is even for someone who does not know how to fix anything.

You need to T-10 and maybe T-15 screwdrivers available at Lowe's or any hardware store. You just have to remove four screws holding the case on, two screws holding the disk drive assemble in place, disconnect fan power, lift off the disk drive assemble unplug power and computer connections from the disk drive, remove four screws holding the disk drive to the disk drive assemble then reverse for the new disk drive.

To add the B drive is even simpler for you do not lose your original software so you avoid the hassle with DIRECTV.

Bottom line is give it a try by buying Hinsdale preformatted disk drives if you want it easy and simple!

[ThreeSoFar]

The Victorinox CyberTool34 (http://www.victorinox.com/newsite/en/produkte/neu/inhalt2.cfm?pid=1-7725-T) (and maybe the smaller one?) has both those sizes and is really cool.

[Chilli_Dog]

Just wanted to say thank you as well. Instructions were very well written, and I couldn't be happier with the results. My Philips DSR704 went from 40GB to 120GB in no time at all. Everything seems to be working perfectly. Thanks again!!!

[csuich]

Many thanks to Tiger, Hinsdale and anyone else involed in putting together MFS Tools and the how-to instructions. Just completed my 2nd TiVo upgrade. This one was much easier than the one before a year or more ago. Upgraded Hughes 35 hour to 120MB drive for 100+ hour DirecTivo.

Thanks again
Chris
:D

[FlyingRev]

I am using a Mac with OS X (10.3.x) and was wondering if there are any tools for backing up a drive and restoring it onto another drive?

My Series 2 Sony TiVO is a little over 15 months old now and I ordered a second drive from Weaknees about 14 days ago. It arrived, but I am yet to install it. But now the Tivo unit is making a rather loud "Click - Click - Click- etc." noise and the screen goes black. The only way to get the unit up and running again is to unplug it and then allow it to reboot.

I have had to do this about once every other day or so....

Any Ideas? Is this an 'A' drive failure? I really do not want to lose my existing programming on my drive and am hesitant to open the case and install the new Weaknees 120 gig drive if there is a problem with the 'A' drive.

I would sincerely appreciate your help!

Thanks and God Bless You!

[weaknees]

There is blessing software for OS X for use with S1 machines, but nothing newer, nor backup/restore software.

What there is, is here:

http://www.weaknees.com/mactivo.php

Michael

[Robert S]

I does sound like a failing drive.

Not an OSX-guy, but I would think that you could use dd to clone the A drive. You'd have to get someone who knows OSX to describe the exact procedure. Your symptoms would indicate a dd copy rather than an MFS Tools copy (which won't work if you've got bad blocks).

So, buy another drive that's at least as large as your current A drive (be aware that Maxtor drives tend to be a little bit larger than other brands, so you either need another Maxtor drive or a larger drive from a different brand. Clone your A drive on to it and thus salvage what you can of your recordings.

(What follows is advice specific to your case, you can not normally do what I'm suggesting!) Add the drive from Weaknees and enjoy your upgraded TiVo. If the opportunity arises to put the TiVo drives in a PC later, make a compressed backup with MFS Tools and then mfsadd to expand the A drive into any spare space on the replacement drive. (If you don't follow the above procedure /precisely/ Very Bad Things will happen, you have been warned!)

[wolverine9827]

Hey all,

I just received 2 120 GB Hitachi HDs to upgrade my Tivo Series 2 40 Hour...

I have 2 questions....

1) I've read of issues with Maxtor's (precisely why I didn't order them) - has anyone had any issues with Hitachi's? (nice 3 yr warr and fairly cheap)

2) My system has 2 SATA drives in a RAID-1 config and no other IDE HD's installed - only a DVD and a DVD-RW.... I have a sneaky suspicion that I'll be building a boat anchor system with a cheapo 40 GB drive to do the backup and upgrade procedure...... sound about right?

I appreciate any and all feedback..... just looking out for my "precious"! :)

[weaknees]

Not sure what Maxtor issues you've read about, but most TiVos ship with Maxtor QuickView drives (more info about them here (http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_quickview.php)) and they work wonderfully. In fact, Hitachi/IBM drives cause a lot of problems and we really don't recommend them. You may have seen some posters with problems with Maxtor drives, but that's a biased sample (most people use them, so they see the most problems).

You don't need a drive to do a backup - you'll have your 40 GB drive for that. So just do a "Tao" backup/restore and you'll be all set.

Michael

[wolverine9827]

Uh oh..... well... I'll give it a shot in the next week or two and see what happens....

I guess since the kernel on the boot CD doesn't recognize SATA I can just hook them up and go to work.....

Thanks for the info.... a little worried but still looking forward to the big 230+ hours....

Denny

[weaknees]

Post the results back. If you are using our TwinBreeze bracket, note that our PowerTrip isn't certified for use with Hitachi/IBM drives - and we don't recommend it.

Michael

[Robert S]

The 'issue' with Maxtor drives is that TiVoes lock them. However, that only applies to Series 1 TiVoes. There are no issues with Maxtor drives in Series 2 TiVoes.

However, I have seen posts suggesting that DeskStars don't work at all in Series 2 TiVoes, so it'll be interesting to see how you get on.

[darnoldarnold]

I did a quick backup of my series 2, and installed a 120 GB maxtor as drive B to my original 40 GB (drive A). The next day the new drive B died.
I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a recovery without loosing my recordings, but I missed it.
Any Help?

[ThreeSoFar]

only if your backup you made kept all the recordings, I think.

Another reason I recommend people replace their 40G drives with a large one, shelving the 40 for backup.

[jdr93]

i'm still swimming toward a goal of adding many more hours to a directivo s1 i previously added two 100 MB drives to. one concern i have is how long it will take to transfer all the shows to the larger drives. i bet i have 150 or more hours jammed on the two drives now. if it took, say, six hours to transfer the thirty five or so hours, then will it take 25 hours to move the current crop?

and in addition, thank you robert s for the reply to and advice on my previous post.

[weaknees]

A lot of the speed depends on the speed of your PC. If you have a P4 with an ATA 100 or ATA 133 card, it'll be faster (if you have the card drivers available in Linux).

Michael

[jdr93]

thanks weaknees, as far as i remember, the machine i used before and would use again is a p2 400

[weaknees]

OK - then don't hold your breath!

Michael

[Robert S]

darnoldarnold: Sadly not, TiVo chose a rather strange layout for the partitions on the Series 2's A drive. There's no way to get MFS Tools to use the same layout and thus recover the recordings.

Your new (and blank) A drive will be formatted by MFS Tools, so the next time this happens your recordings will survive (assuming you have a sufficiently fresh backup).

If the B drive isn't completely dead, try using dd or dd_rescue to clone it on to a new disk.

[wolverine9827]

Hi all,

I'll let you know what happens with the Hitachi/IBM drives.....

If it fails.... no big deal.... but as a systems engineer it'll be fun....

:rolleyes:

[darnoldarnold]

Thanks everyone. The only thing I really wanted to save was the Superbowl halftime Janice Jackson 'accident' ;)- LOL. My wife had a few things she wanted to watch:(.
Well, I had a 200 hr tivo for a while. I'll return the maxtor drive to Fry's and get a new one. Hopefully it will last more than 24 hours.
The mfs tools were great and thanks to Hindsdale and all the other contributers.

[lvirden]

Do the various web pages that have been mentioned here over the years of this thread get updated as people find new experiences? Is there one web page that summarizes the web resources - 29 pages of thread is a bit of a read for someone wanting to get up to speed quickly.

[Robert S]

All you really need is the Hinsdale How-to (http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html), which is currently dated 14th January. It's kept up-to-date with all the stuff that's reported in this thread and elsewhere. It's covers all the 'straight' drive upgrades - things like replacing kernels and breaking the security lock-downs are not covered.

[Lugz]

Hinsdale hinsdale we love you!! Thanx for the guide that helped me to enjoy 2 120Gb hardrives in my uk tivo (rather than the old 15+30Gb gag)... thankx again fellas!!

[philks]

What can I say ? A combination of the Hinsdale guide, and a few other FAQs on networking have taken my poor old UK Tivo to 2 X 120 Gb Drives, a TurboNet card and TivoWeb ! Absolutely superb ! (and the Orensop HTTPS proxy means I can programme it from work as well !) Heartfelt Thanks to all ...

[Lucis0327]

I tried to upgrade my DSR6000 today, had problems. It's a two-drive unit (30+15), and I was trying to upgrade directly to a single 120. When I typed the command:

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

It said it was scanning the drives, then reported the unit as a 30G expanded to 43G, said it was going to make a 43G backup, taking 41250K, then reported that the output device wasn't big enough! I KNOW that both Linux and the BIOS reported the correct sizes for all drives in question.

Then I did a (don't save the shows):

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

which seemed to work, and reported a drive grown to 120G (which seems reasonable), that image booted fine, and recorded new stuff correctly, but (of course) the shows in Now Playing from before were bogus.

So after that one worked, I tried the -Tao, but it failed again. I've backed up system (sans recordings) to another drive, and I'm about to remount the original drives to see if I hosed something when I first tried... any other hints?

I may have hosed things up on my very first attempt, not sure, don't think so, but I may have forgotten the second minus (output to stdout) in the mfsbackup, but I really doubt it because when I intentionally left one of the source drives out in a subsequent attempt, it gave me a very specific error I would have noticed.

HELP?

[Lucis0327]

Originally posted by Lucis0327
I may have hosed things up on my very first attempt, not sure, don't think so, but I may have forgotten the second minus (output to stdout) in the mfsbackup, but I really doubt it because when I intentionally left one of the source drives out in a subsequent attempt, it gave me a very specific error I would have noticed.


I didn't hose anything, it seems, because the original drives are back in the DSR6000 and it's working fine. I'm waiting on some advice before trying again. Just further information, I tried doing the save-everything backup to another drive (a 60G) and it still said there wasn't enough room. I left off the -s 127 and that didn't help anything either. Anyone?

[weaknees]

Can you post the exact mfstools response while in Linux? Maybe then someone will spot the problem.

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

Thought folks could maybe use some Linux tricks for while booted into the Hinsdale CD: You can have more than one # prompt. Type Alt-F1 through Alt-F4 to swap between four different terminals. This is helpful since you can view the readme in one window (I forget where it is on the cd, but find it and type "cat readmefilename"), and switch to another one to type in your command. You can see output that has scrolled off the top of the screen. Shift-pageUp and Shift-PageDown. Many of the Unix commands are actually done by a single program, called busybox. Type "busybox --help" to see what it does. Many of the other executables on the distro have usage statements, as well. Try these, too. Note the semi-colon ";" is separating multiple commands on the same line:ls --help
mfsinfo --help
mfstools --help
grep --help
mount --help Try these:ls
ls -al
pwd
cd /mnt
dmesg
dmesg | grep hd
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/c ; ls -al /mnt/c
cd /mnt/c ; more hinsdalehowto.txt(for that last one, you first have to save the Hinsdale HOWTO (http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/) as a text file on your windows drive and also mount that windows drive from within the booted-CD at the # prompt (the line above that).

[Lucis0327]

Originally posted by weaknees
Can you post the exact mfstools response while in Linux? Maybe then someone will spot the problem.
Scanning source drives
Source drive size is 30 hours
- Upgraded to 43 hours
Uncompressed backup size: 40280 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

It did that to both the 60G and 120G drives I have as a destination. I tried:

mfsbackup -Tao /dev/null /dev/hda /dev/hdb

Which completed the copy to the bit-bucket perfectly. I'm absolutely sure that the source drives are okay, and as I said, both the new 120G and the new 60G ran in the DSR6000 perfectly when I did a mfsbackup -6so type copy.

Help me?

[ThreeSoFar]

Don't see anything. Sorry. hdc must be the new drive if the other way (without shows) worked.

what does mfsinfo /dev/hdc show? Or dmesg | grep hd

[Robert S]

Has everyone forgotten about partition counts?

Run mfsinfo against your original pair. If you already have 3 pairs of MFS partitions on there, then you can not copy to a single drive /and expand/. There's only room for three pairs of MFS partitions on a TiVo's A drive.

[Lucis0327]

Originally posted by ThreeSoFar
Don't see anything. Sorry. hdc must be the new drive if the other way (without shows) worked.

Correct.
hda = original 30G
hdb = original 15G
hdc = new 120G (or 60G, neither works)
CD on secondary/slave

what does mfsinfo /dev/hdc show? Or dmesg | grep hd

Not sure what you're asking me for... the mfsinfo of the _destination_ after the -so backup? I'll let you know when the wife lets me waste some more time (and take her precious TiVo away)

[Lucis0327]

Originally posted by Robert S
Has everyone forgotten about partition counts?

I would have to have known to forget ;)


Run mfsinfo against your original pair. If you already have 3 pairs of MFS partitions on there, then you can not copy to a single drive /and expand/. There's only room for three pairs of MFS partitions on a TiVo's A drive.

This was a factory two-drive unit, is there anything I can do to accomplish what I want? I would prefer to have only one drive due to temperature and noise reasons. Can I still preserve the recordings? What command line is suggested, if possible? I _will_ do an mfsinfo when can next open up the TiVo. For now, it's back in my wife's hands.

[Robert S]

Yeah, but Michael and 3SF should have. :)

Anyway, if you already have three pairs of MFS partitions, then there's nothing you can do - you can either lose your recordings or have just 45Gb on that 120Gb drive.

I'm pretty certain this is what's going on as you seem to have eliminated the other possible problems, but you need the output of mfsinfo (or to look at the partition tables) to be sure.

The UK two-drive TiVoes have only on pair on each drive, so you can do this upgrade, but I don't know specifically about the DSR6000's.

[ThreeSoFar]

I thought about that (too many partitions) but I thought the error he'd be getting would be clearer about what the problem was if that was the case.

Upgraded a friends SVR2000 yesterday--first I've ever had to deal with a locked drive. I don't like the idea that part of the uprgrade process, if done wrong or when it shouldn't be, could actually destroy the drive and its contents BEFORE any backup is made. Very disconcerting.

Anyway, used diskutil.exe, found somewhere in this forum. Worked great.

Actually saved a backup image for him, too. Hadn't done that since my first upgrade, but now that images are hard to find online, figured we should.

[Robert S]

Yes, MFS Tool's error messages are weird. Not much we can do about it, though.

Fortunately qunlock can't damage the Quantum drives that TiVoes ship with, just current Maxtor ones. However, if you have a Maxtor drive in your PC an accidentally ran qunlock on it, that would be bad.

So yes, DiskUtil is a good idea, although a lot of people only discover it after they've destroyed a drive.

[wolverine9827]

Hello all,

I upgraded my Tivo TCD240040 40Gb drive with one of my 2 Hitachi/IBM Deskstar 120 Gb drives.....

Following the Hinsdale doc proved to be quite painless and everything worked like a charm....

Went from 42 hours to 141 hours! woohoo!

Now I need to get an IDE splitter, Power Y-splitter, and 2nd drive bracket before getting the 2nd drive added in.

Ought to be fun!!

Thanks for all the good reading!

Denny

[cnsf]

First, almost a year ago, I successfully upgraded all my Tivos thanks to Hinsdale. Kudos to the excellent work!

My issue now is I don't think I upgrade my HDVR2 with a swap file and would like to put it on now (and save all my recordings and settings), what are the exact steps to do this? Although Hinsdale is a Tivo "GOD", there aren't specific enough instructions for my configuration. I understand this swap file should increase performance on the box. I find it to be super-slow with deletions, season pass priority adjustments and slow processing every so often.

I have an HDVR2 upgraded with the original 40GB drive and a 120GB add on drive. I have an external win98 box with one FAT32 HD about 40GB.

Any thoughts? Can I backup both drives to a single image with all the settings and recordings to the 40GB drive (probably only have about 40 hours recorded now) and restore directly back to the same drives with the swap switch included?

[Robert S]

If you followed Hinsdale you would have increased the size of the swap file (although you may not have noticed). The extra swap is only needed for the 'Green Screen of Death'. TiVoes don't swap much in normal operation (the disks are rather too busy for swapping!). Changing the size of the swap partition has no effect on the speed of the TiVo.

[skotman]

Thank you for the instructions and the MFS Tools! If I had gotten my image sooner it would of save me 150 bucks, instead I've got a Series 2 and a Series 1 which I'm keeping and upgrading to use as a huge movie library.

thank you!

[FlyingRev]

I just upgraded my Series 2 TiVo SVR3000 Sony Unit. I purchased a 120 Gig 'b' drive from Weaknees and before I could install this new drive I noticed some loud clicking from TiVo on occasion and also freezing. An unplug would reboot the unit and all was 'well'.

Anyway, I bought a new 160 gig drive (Western Digital Caviar drive with 8 meg cache and 7200 rpm) and used hinsdale's CD to transfer my programming, setting and all to this new 160 gig drive. It took a few hours, but all seemed fine and reported no errors.

I have now installed this new 'A' drive as well as the drive I ordered from weaknees and I notice all the setting and programming did indeed transfer. The problem is that the Video Recording Quality times are vastly different than what I expected.

On Best Quality the time went from about 24 hours or so to 41 hrs, 2 min
On High Quality the time is now 66 hrs, 31 min
On Medium Quality 88 hrs, 6 min
On basic Quality 150 hrs, 49 min.


Now this is obviously more than before but a lot less that expected and what is listed on weaknees website. The drive was not locked and reported the correct size.

Did I miss something? I still have the original Maxtor drive and it was still working, but as others have stated before, it appeared that the drive was due to fail in the near future, hence the reason I replaced the 'A' drive.

I appreciate your insight! You all are blessings!

[Robert S]

Does the TiVo boot without the B drive?

Blessed drives can not be added to upgraded A drives. When that happens the partitions on the B drive replace the upgrade partitions on the A drive. This causes a prolonged GSOD and total loss of recordings. And, of course, you get a funny capacity figure because you've got the original A drive partitions plus the B drive partitions.

If the TiVo does not boot without the B drive, then the drives are married. You can use mfsadd to re-upgrade the A drive (I think you need to use pdisk to delete the dead upgrade partitions first). In your case, repeating the upgrade would be a better bet.

And this time, use mfsadd to add the B drive!

[Steveh24]

The Hinsdale upgrade instructions appear to be for US models.

I am based in the UK and have a Thompson TiVo, are the instructions good for this model.

Steveh24

[Robert S]

Yes, he does cover the UK TiVo (it's virtually identical to the US Series 1 stand alone TiVo, the only difference is the -l 32 for the backup).

See http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/ for details of several common upgrades done on a UK TiVo. With pix!

[weaknees]

I think we answered this via direct email, but in case this is another person, the answer is that our add-on drives will only automatically add hours to a factory TiVo drive - not to a newer expanded drive.

Since you've already used mfstools, you just need to boot the CD again and have your TiVo drives attached. Then use this command to add the extra space:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Where hdc is your A drive and hdd is your B drive (change them as necessary to fit the situation).

Michael

[at4tivo]

Today I took the plunge and decided to try to upgrade my DirecTV/Tivo unit. It went extremely well!!! In about 2 hours I was able to upgrade my unit from its original 35 hour capacity to an amazing 163 hours using a Maxtor 160gb hard drive in addition to my original hard drive. It was sooooo smooth!!! I just want to thank Hinsdale, Tiger and whoever else is responsible for making this process so easy. I am definitle not a computer "geek" and I had no problems whatsoever. Thank you!!!!

[Rcrew]

I get to add to this thread again!

Thanks guys, I just finished another upgrade today using Hinesdale's guide, and MSF Tools 2.0.

I hooked up with a new forum member, and upgraded his Series 2 DTiVo to a 160gb single drive configuration.

Less than an hour after he walked in the door, he was on his way with a 120 hour DTiVo!

[kperrier]

I have a Philips Series 1 (212) and I am trying to replace the A drive with a 120 gig Seagate.

I have downloaded the Mfs tools CD (today) and used Nero to burn the image.
First, after booting off the CD, it reports my Tivo A drive as 10 meg. Do I need to unlock it?
Second, it appears tthat none of the utilities are executable. I hit control-alt-delete and I get the error "Bummer, could not run '/sbin/reoot': Permission denied
mfsbackup, et. al. are not executable. Is this a problem with the image, or have I done something wrong?

Kent

Edit: more info. After I hit enter to continue, I get an error: cat:/cdrom/.menu/starting: No such file or directory

[Cspot]

Originally posted by FlyingRev

Anyway, I bought a new 160 gig drive (Western Digital Caviar drive with 8 meg cache and 7200 rpm) and used hinsdale's CD to transfer my programming, setting and all to this new 160 gig drive. It took a few hours, but all seemed fine and reported no errors.

I have now installed this new 'A' drive as well as the drive I ordered from weaknees and I notice all the setting and programming did indeed transfer. The problem is that the Video Recording Quality times are vastly different than what I expected.


Have you reviewed the lba48 thread???

[Robert S]

"Have you reviewed the lba48 thread?"

It's nothing to do with LBA-48 issues. There's nothing you can do about that limitation on a Series 2 TiVo anyway.

His mistake was trying to add a blessed drive to an upgraded A drive. Very Bad Things happen when you do that!

[Cspot]

Originally posted by Robert S
"Have you reviewed the lba48 thread?"

It's nothing to do with LBA-48 issues. There's nothing you can do about that limitation on a Series 2 TiVo anyway.

His mistake was trying to add a blessed drive to an upgraded A drive. Very Bad Things happen when you do that!

Ooops, my bad, missed the series 2 bit.....lurk mode back on.

[FlyingRev]

Thanks to all and especially Weaknees, I was able to get the drives installed (a new 160 gig A Drive with all programming and settings transferred) along with the Weaknees 120 gig B Drive.

Thanks again!

[lvirden]

A friend is over and helping me with my Tivo upgrade.

We're attempting to move from a 40 gig series 2 tivo to 2 new replacement drives (the maxtor 160 gig drives), and copying recorded shows, pgm data, etc.

We're at the step running the mfsbackup ... | mfsrestore.

However, in the past hour, the progress report has barely moved - in the first 15 minutes, it blasted through 8.9 percent. However, in the last 40 minutes or so, it's only gotten to 9.02%.

We're getting no error msgs, but we heard the drives clicking about every 5 minutes or so.

We're wondering whether we've a problem here or not - anyone have any recommendations?

We're using the hindsdale as well as the weaknees instructions...

[Robert S]

It could easily take 8 hours to copy the drive, so I don't think there's immediate cause for concern.

When people say 'click' they tend to mean a sound that is dramatically louder than the normal head-seek sound. Those are drive resets, probably a result of a bad block.

Bad blocks will probably stop MFS Tools eventually, so it might not be a good idea to proceed. Bad blocks on the source disk are unfortunate, but you can probably use dd or dd_rescue to salvage the disk.

Bad blocks on one of the new disks would be a disaster, so if you think you've got bad blocks, stop and run diagnostics on all the disks to check for that.

[lvirden]

quick update - 3.5 hrs later, and the report says 9.05% ... at this rate, it is liable to
be multiple days until it completes...

[Robert S]

You should be at least half-way there by now. There must be something interfering with the copy. I would suspect bad blocks, but MFS Tools should have errored out by now. I would give up and start running diagnostics on the disks to see if you've got a faulty one.

A disk that transfers data that slowly ain't going to work properly in your TiVo.

[yowzer]

I was wondering if anyone had an idea what I may have done wrong...last year I upgraded a SAT-T60 from it's original 40 gb and added an 80 gb. The unit shows that it has "variable recording capacity up to 61 hours". I am getting ready to drop out the 40 gb drive and add another 120 gb and before I did that I wondered if someone knew what I may have done wrong. It seems to run fine. I would have expected about 108 hours to be listed. I'm still running the 2.5-01-1-011 and thought I followed Hinsdale's correctly. Thanks.

[lvirden]

These are the maxtor 160 gig drives that everyone's been talking about. We already ran diagnostics on the drive before we began and the drives were fine. It's now been nearly 12 hrs and still no error messages and the restore still says it has uncompressed only 9.05%.

What specifically can we do at this point - I really want my working tivo - should
have known that all the great stories of success wouldn't necessarily apply to
my attempt to upgrade :-|

[Robert S]

yowswer, I would guess that your 80Gb drive didn't detect correctly and you only added 32Gb to your TiVo. mfsadd should be able to add the rest of the drive if you can get it to detect correctly.

lvirden, did you scan the TiVo's drive for bad blocks?

[RBA]

Success! Series 1 Philips 6000 upgraded single drive to two 120gig drives. Up to 240 hours. My wife will be able to record 480 episodes of Judge Judy.

[abergdc]

Help!

I'm upgrading a Series2SA from a single 120gig samsung (failing) to a single 160gig maxtor.

I succesfully backed up an image on my c drive.

Now I'm running step 10, "mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 - /dev/hdd" [I have the old drive on b and the new one on d]

and I'm getting a message: "restore failed. Backup drive not big enough to backup entire drive by itself." But when I booted off the cd, I saw that the d (new) drive is indeed bigger than the old (b) drive, according to the Linux operating system.

Note: When I execute the mfsbackup command, I'm told that the original drive is 79hours upgraded to 127hours (which is true).

THanks!

Andy

[Robert S]

I'm guessing there's an x somewhere between '127' and '-'?

[weaknees]

abergdc -

One option is to just restore the backup to the new drive. It'll have settings, but not recordings.

As far as your backup/restore script, you need something like "-zxpi" in there also. Try this:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi - /dev/hdd

Michael

[abergdc]

Yes, sorry, I did indeed type:

"mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd"

I did just restore the backup to the new drive. It worked (in that I got no error messages). Indeed, I ran mfsadd and was told I now had 147 hours.

So I really don't get it.

Thanks for the amazingly rapid replies and sorry about the mistype in my previous post.

Andy

[abergdc]

To be clear -- I'd still like to save the old recordings somehow, if possible (those first Power Ranger Wild Force episodes are still on there.)

[weaknees]

So you did an "mfsadd" after that command? That should have reported "nothing to add" right? The "x" in your other command does the same thing as this mfsadd would have.

But in any event, you can restore the backup image, but you still get the command about space if you try the -Tao backup/restore?

Michael

[Robert S]

My point was, the command should work if you omit the x.

[abergdc]

Oh, got it.

Well, it gets worse, in any case.

I put the new drive in the Tivo (after restoring the backup off the c drive and running "mfsadd -x /dev/hdd and getting a message that it was successful).

I turn back on the unit and after the "just a few more moments . . . "screen it goes back to "Welcome. Powering up . ." and then:

"A severe error has occurred."
It tells me to keep the Reciever plugged in and phone line attached for 3 hours to see if it can repair itself. If it hasn't rebooted after 3 hours, call Tivo customer support.

I could
(1) wait the three hours and see what happens.
or (or, after (1) doesn't work):
(2) Take the new drive out and try the mfsrestore without the "x"
(3) Other?

Thanks,

Andy

[weaknees]

I think the first thing you should do is to test that drive. Drive errors would be the answer to all of the problems you are having. Use the manufacturer's software to do a full test.

Michael

[abergdc]

It seems like quite a coincidence (first the drive I put in two months ago is bad, then this brand new one.

But I'll go ahead and do that test. Thanks.

[abergdc]

Update: the self-repair worked after about an hour. The Tivo came up with 150 hours (of course, I lost my old shows, but no biggy). Live TV didn't work and it took me a long time to deduce that (1) a cable was loose and (this was the tricky part) (2) the Tivo had somehow switched the video input to channel 2. Now, all's well, except:

The Maxtor is distinctly noisier than the Samsung. The slight clicking of the seeking heads is easily audible in a quite room in the middle of the night. I suppose I'll have to run down that info about changing the defaults of the drive to make it more quiet, take the drive out and try to adjust it, and go through the reinstall of the Tivo drive from my mirrored back-up. A bit of a pain. Certainly, I would advise people who care a lot about volume to find another drive.

Thanks again for the incredibly prompt help.

Andy

[lvirden]

Just to bring my story to its conclusion - after 12 hrs, we still had no success with the software restore.
My friend reran the diagnostics, and this time the new drive we were going to use as master reported an
error. We removed that drive from the setup, changed to restore from the old 40 gig drive to the new 160 gig drive, and was finished in less than an hour.

I am so glad that the drive that went bad (and this drive had been tested just a few weeks ago with no problems!) turned out to be the first one - if it had been the second one, we might have gotten into a situation where the problem didn't show up until after I had started using it.

Anyways, now to print off my return merchandise approval info and send in my old drive.

[dms92969]

I can't get this command to work..

HDA = 30Gig Tivo
HDB = 10GIG Tivo
HDC = 120 GIG NEW HD
HDD = CD-Rom Drive


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

It says the hard drive is too small...

I am going to attempt the following

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdc

Then

MFSAdd -x /dev/hdc

Will that retain recordings and expand the drive??

Please Help...

FYI..

I am able to backup and restore by..

/mnt/dos is a drive with a fat32 partition on it..

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

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

[dms92969]

It didn't work since the drive already has 6 partitions.. oh well..
The user will loose his recordings but gain 120+Hours or recording time..

[abergdc]

My (I hope) final update:

amset worked after some trouble -- nice and quiiet, and no troubles with skipping (for some reason, amset didn't recognize my drive when it was on secondary slave, but I tried switching to primary slave and it worked.).

Tne new drive has solved my stopple problems and allowed me to connect to tivo and get the guide (I was getting an "unknown failure" trying to process the new guide, before).

Thanks again for the help.

[noldia]

I just bought a new Series 2 TiVo and would like to put in a 40 gig HD that I have laying around here. I am running XP on my computer and have read some things that say I have to do things a little different when preparing the hard drive for my TiVo. I don't want to change the drive that is already in the machine I just want to add this other drive. Anyway I am looking for some guidance on how to go about performing this task.

[weaknees]

If you just want to add the new drive, boot into the CD and use something like:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Where hdc is the location of your TiVo drive and hdd is the location of your new 40 GB drive.

This method won't allow you to make a backup - is that what you want?

Michael

[noldia]

I am not sure where to get the software that you are talking about.

[weaknees]

Hinsdale has it linked in his guide - we also host the floppy image here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/files.html

Michael

[ThreeSoFar]

Don't bother adding a 40G to a new tivo. Not worth it to add such a small size IMO. Plus you'd need to buy a bracket to even fit a second drive.

[Jeremybme]

I followed Hinsdales instructions months ago and added a 40gb drive in addition to the 22gb drive in my HDR112, Yesterday i followed his instructions and copied both of those drives to 2 brand new 80gb drives. Took almost 12 hours, but it works, Now i take the A Drive out and try to set up a bash prompt, And it wont mount any partitions, I get No MSDOS file system can be found, you must specify a valid file system.

Yet when i put the old A drive on to my computer the mount commands work just fine,

Here is the commands im trying to use

mkdir /mnt/7 (THIS WORKS)

mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt/7 (THIS WONT WORK)

is there something that happened in the copying of the two drives that messed up the drives?

any help would be appreciated.

[weaknees]

Sounds like the drive might be locked - what size does it show on startup?

Michael

[Robert S]

Actually, it's more likely that he's using the MFS Tools 2.0 CD and hasn't twigged to the whole 'byteswapping' thing.

You need to boot in byteswapping mode to mount the partitions of the Series 1 TiVo. See the first post of the Fixes thread or use a different boot CD.

[Jeremybme]

they both show the correct size, i already used Qunlock on both of them..

[Jeremybme]

let me clarify i used the hinsdale guide and upgraded to a two drive system months ago, yesterday i used the option which copies everything and expands to go from an A drive of 22gb and a B drive of 40gb to 2 80 gb drives
the system works, but i count mount the partitions 4 and 7 to do the bash prompt, I can mount them on the old A drive but that doesnt really help me now does it..


-Jeremy

[Robert S]

The TiVo will relock them, so you'll need to run qunlock each time they come out of the TiVo. Qunlock is rather dangerous, though, if you're unlocking the drives repeatedly, DiskUtil would be a much safer option as one wrong move with qunlock will cause irreparable damage.

Anyway, things to check for, every time you boot: As Michael said, read the BIOS splash and check the sizes are correct, then check the boot log and check that the TiVo's partition table is being printed out. If you're using the floppy the boot should be slow enough to read all this as it scrolls past.

And, of course, you wouldn't expect both 4 and 7 to mount.

[Jeremybme]

Thank you robert, i finally came the conclusion you just gave me, I shouldnt expect both 4 and 7 to boot, so really all along i didnt have a problem. I finally found that info later on in another write up. I got my bash working over serial...

Thank you guys for letting me vent here, and for your help!

hopefully i can get ftp and stuff loaded with out a problem now

-Jeremy

[taxman522]

I have a HDR112 unit with two drives, original 13 and upgrade 80. I suspect the orig 13 is bad. I have a spare Maxtor 13 gb drive that I would like to replace the orig with.

Do I need to remove both Tivo drives to do the backup?

Can I just connect the orig Tivo 13 and the new Maxtor and then do the backup and restore?

TIA

[Robert S]

You can't do a backup and restore, but you may be able to use dd to clone the disk.

[taxman522]

Originally posted by Robert S
You can't do a backup and restore, but you may be able to use dd to clone the disk.

I am new to this. Could you please elaborate on how to clone and use dd?

Thanks

[weaknees]

Basic usage of 'dd' booted of the mfstools CD is:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=1024 conv=noerror,sync

where hdc is the existing, possibly bad drive, and hdd is the target drive.

Michael

[Robert S]

Well, it's in Hinsdale. It doesn't seem outrageously unreasonable to think that people who post in this thread might have at least a passing familiarity with Hinsdale...

Anyway, just to confuse by disagreeing with Michael: Michael has given you a command with 'conv=noerror,sync', which is a good idea for a 'bad' disk as it tells dd to do its best to get past bad blocks.

However, he's also given 'bs=1024', which is a bit odd as the default for bs is 512, so I'd be surprised if 1024 makes a noticable difference. I suspect he meant 'bs=1024k', which leads to dramatically faster copies.

But, using such a large block size is only advisable for a perfect disk. If you suspect the disk is faulty, a smaller block size is more likely to result in a working copy. I wouldn't go over 32k in any case, but as you're only copying 13.5Gb, you can probably omit the bs= option completely.

[weaknees]

My mistake - I meant 1024k. But you're right - you'll lose less data if it finds bad blocks by using smaller blocks. Just leave the default as Robert S suggested.

Michael

[taxman522]

Thanks for your help, Robert and Weaknees.

[bbalfour]

Thanks to both Hindsdale and Weaknees. I've just upgraded my Phillips 30hr to 128hrs. My second painless upgrade.

[Athenian]

I've read the instructions from Hinsdale but I really don't understand what is going on. Is there some reason I can't just put the old TiVO disk in my computer, use Ghost to make an image of the disk, then clone that to my new disk? What do these tools do?

Thank you.

[weaknees]

These tools work with Linux partitions and expanding and adding to them and the relevant portions of the tables that see the partitions. You can use Ghost to some extent to make an exact copy, but not to expand or make a backup.

Michael

[Athenian]

So I could use Ghost to swap a disk of the same size but not to upgrade to a large disk? I'm just trying to understand because I have a spare 120GB disk here and am thinking about using it in my 1-month old RCA DVR40

[weaknees]

That's exactly right. To be complete, you could use the 120 GB drive, but you'd only get 40 GB of use out of it.

Michael

[wilhouse]

I have two TIVOs. my older one a series 2 60GB standalone, has a failing hard drive. I would like to make an exact copy on a new 80GB drive I bought, but am not that interested in making a backup.

Can I simply zoom ahead to Hindsdale step 10 to copy and expand the 60 to 80 GB drives?

wilhouse

[Robert S]

Yes, you can copy directly from one drive to another. It only takes about 15 minutes to make a backup and it might save your TiVo one day.

[iceperson]

I'm going to install a second drive and was wondering if it matters which drive I install where. For instance should the new faster/larger drive be primary or secondary? Would I see better performance either way? Also, are Hinsdale's instructions the only ones out there? I've been going over them all morning and I feel like my heads about to explode. Something about cramming instructions for every possible scenario/model onto a single page is a little hard to follow.

[weaknees]

We have instructions here which boils down the process to just what you need:

http://www.upgrade-instructions.com

If both drives work pefectly (and you should test an old drive before you re-use it if you have any doubts) it won't really matter where you put each drive, except that to add swap space (specificied in our instructions) you'd need the A drive to be larger than the original drive, so likely the new drive is, and we'd recommend using them that way.

Michael

[iceperson]

Rock on! That's the bomb. Oh.. and I just got my upgrade kit from you yesterday in the mail. My new drive should be in tonight when I get home. Yippeee =)

[iceperson]

OK. Another question. Reading the instructions it tells me to set the jumper on the drive but doesn't mention what it should be set to on which drive. Does it matter as long as one is Master and the other is Slave? I'm putting both the old drive and the new drive in a machine with no hard drives and a CD-ROM. When I'm put them back into the Tivo will I need to change them again? I want the bigger drive (new drive) to be the A drive per your recommendations.
Thanks!

[Robert S]

Yes, one drive must be master and the other slave. In the TiVo the A drive must be set to master, but in the PC you can use any setting that's convenient.

[iceperson]

OK. Followed the instructions and now all I get is a Welcome powering up screen. At this point all I want to do is get it working again. Is there a command to revert back to before the mfsadd command?

[Robert S]

No, not without losing your recordings.

I wouldn't panic just yet, it's more likely to be something fairly trivial like a cable or jumper problem than a major problem.

The A drive should be able to get to 'almost there' on its own. Does that work?

[iceperson]

Nope. I tried changing the jumper back to the way it was before I started and using the original cable and it still just sits there. The screen flickers black every once in a while but then just goes back to the grey screen. At this point I'm not too concerned about settings and shows. If there's an easy command to make the large drive and small drive setup right and work then I'd be happy. Right now the large drive is in my other PC as secondary master and the original is in as primary slave.

[Robert S]

Although you've typed a fair bit, you haven't actually said very much. What have you actually done with your TiVo and its drives so far?

[iceperson]

I took out the original drive and set it up as slave then set the new drive's jumpers for master, next I put the 2 drives in my pc, the original was hdb and the new one was hdc. then I ran mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb. The command completed successfully so I put them back in the Tivo using my instructions and kit from weaknees and nothing but the "Welcome powering up" screen. So then I took the new drive out and setup the Tivo exactly how it was before I started and still only get "Welcome powering up"... The new drive is a seagate 120GB.

[Robert S]

As the syntax is mfsadd -x <A drive> <B drive>, you appear to have attempted to add the existing A drive as a B drive to the new (blank?) one. I'm not surprised this didn't work.

[iceperson]

Great. Any ideas on where I should go from here? I could really care less about recovering any of the settings/programs at this point but I'd really like to have my tivo back up and running again.

[Robert S]

I was rather hoping you'd come back and say, 'no, I didn't do that, what I meant to say was...'.

I would have expected mfsadd to error out if the A drive was blank, but that does not appear to have happened.

Given that the TiVo is now unbootable, I would think that you'll have to reimage from a backup file.

[iceperson]

I didn't get an error. It actually came back and said that it now had 162 hours of record time (or something like that). Is there something I can run to check?

[Robert S]

We'll have to ask Tiger to investigate that for the next version of Hinsdale. I don't see why mfsadd wouldn't detect a problem in that case and stop.

Anyway, mfsinfo might be interesting. Try it both ways round (mfsinfo <A drive> <B drive> and mfsinfo <B drive> <A drive>). You can also try to make a compressed backup (just make the filename /dev/null instead of tivo.bak if you don't have a writable partition handy). I would guess that mfsbackup would halt fairly quickly, but it would interesting if it could complete.

It's getting very late here, so I'm going to have to stop there. See you tomorrow.

[iceperson]

Well.. I restored a backup to the large drive then ran mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb and installed the drives back into the tivo. I got the GSOD but about 5 minutes later it was back up and running with both drives. Woohoo!

[iceperson]

Thought I had it working but something is still wrong :( Everything setup just fine but when it tried to record a program it doesn't save them. It switches to the channel it's suppoed to record but doesn't seem to be recording the show into long term storage (only the 30 minute "cache" works). The show then shows up in now playing but when I try to play it I get this message:

Error playing a recording

The Tivo DVR was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel. You may have been trying to record on a channel that you don't receive.

The channels all come in fine. Here's a little more history. After having problems with adding a drive I did these things to get back up
-----------------------------------------------------------------
umount -f -a -r
mkdir /mnt/cd
mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cd
mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/cd/tivo.bak /dev/hdc
mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Specs
hdc is my new 120GB seagate drive and is set to master in the Tivo
hdb is the original 40GB and is set to Slave in the Tivo

[weaknees]

This sounds like a problem with serialization. If you are using an image file from a different TiVo, then you'll need to do a "Clear and Delete Everything" after you boot the new image. This will, of course, remove all settings, wishlists, season passes, and recordings, but it will reset the TiVo to acquire your serial number and then work fine.

Michael

[sandpj]

Thank you Robert and Weeknees. Your support made my upgrade possible; just added a 120 GB to a Series 2 40GB.

A couple of questions for clarification:

1. When re-installing the drives into the Tivo, does it matter where the drives are located on the IDE cable? I.E. does the Master drive have to be located at the end of the cable? (I presume not since it is not "cable select")

2. How does Weaknees provide an add-on drive without an mfsadd command on the original drive? How are they "married?"

Thanks again...Paul

[weaknees]

Glad the upgrade went well.

1. If you aren't using cable select, then, no, it doesn't matter.

2. Stock TiVo drives can accept a properly formatted (blessed) drive as a second drive.

Michael

[sandpj]

1. If you aren't using cable select, then, no, it doesn't matter.

Well, would it be better to install the new 7200 rpm HD closer to the secondary fan under the assumption it typically runs hotter? Where is the temperature being measured - from the master hard drive or is there a sensor within the Tivo electronics?

2. Stock TiVo drives can accept a properly formatted (blessed) drive as a second drive.

Haven't read about "blessed" drives yet. Will need to read more....


Thanks..........Paul

[weaknees]

Yes- installing the hotter hard drive closer to the second fan is a good idea. The thermometer sensor is on the motherboard, but many drives also have internal temp monitoring. The temp you see on-screen comes from the motherboard.

Michael

[Robert S]

BlessTiVo is covered in 'Old' Hinsdale. I would recommend using mfsadd as in 'New' Hinsdale if possible.

[sandpj]

A couple weeks ago, I added a WD 120 GB as a slave to the Maxtor. Everything working fine as noted above.

Just purchased second WD 120GB to replace original Maxtor. Wanted to backup the Maxtor again since I has added some SP's. Using Boot CD this time (floppy first time). Drive sizes accurately reflected.

After mounting the C drive, typed
mfsbackup -f 9999 /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd (Maxtor installed as Secondary Slave)
Did not work; got series of messages starting with:
MFS Second Drive: No such file or directory

Appreciate the support.....Paul

[weaknees]

Well, that's not quite the right command, but I'm not sure it you missed part here or there given those errors. Try:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd

The addition being the "-1so"

Michael

[sandpj]

Actually, I did use -6so (Sorry for the mistype above)

This is per Hinsdale. Should it have been -1so ?

[weaknees]

We think "1" is the optimum setting, but "6" should work fine also, but just take a bit longer.

But here's the other issue - you now have two drives in your TiVo, right? So you need both in the PC, with the first and second drives specified in the line like this:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdd /dev/hdc

Put the A drive first and the B drive second.

Michael

[seanp99]

I just want to thank Hinsdale for the easy to follow guide. I replaced the two hd in my unit with an 80gb one. Everything went according to the guide. This was very easy to do, I'm glad I left Win98 on my son's computer. Thanks again for saving me some money and helping me upgrade my Dtivo.

[bwx]

I previously upgraded my DSR6000 from the stock 40G drive to a Samsung 120G.

I now have video hiccups (10-15 second pauses with video corruption) I attribute to bad areas on the disk.

I want to replace this Samsung with a new drive, but mfsbackup states that the new drive is not big enough. The new drive appears to be slightly smaller than the old.

There are not many stored shows on the original, but I would like to transfer them to the new drive.

Can I make mfstools copy the contents regardless of this size discrepancy?

Also, is there documentation on mfstools usage and switches (so I know what I am typing)?

Thanks.

[Robert S]

Look at the Linux boot log (dmesg | grep hd). How big are the drives as Linux sees them?

If you restore with -x, this will always fail as mfsrestore knows it can't expand as requested.