sethlabadie
03-14-2008, 04:39 PM
I was finally able to upgrade a Series 3, with a stock Internal and the MyDVR Expander external, to two 1TB drives. And I was (somewhat) able to keep the shows. Here's how.
I tried in the past to use WinMFS and MFSLive to upgrade the two drives to two big 1TB drives. Didn't work. Apparently the software does NOT allow for this solution. You can upgrade a single internal drive to a new internal, or to a new internal and a new external, but you can't upgrade if you've already got an eSATA external married to your Tivo.
So... I would have to divorce the MyDVR Expander. First I had to copy the shows to my computer, using TivoToGo. I used a CAT 6 cable connected directly to the router, and it was "kind of" fast. I copied about 500GB over a long weekend. (with the Tivo wifi device it would have taken months). I didn't copy ALL of the shows--when you divorce the External drive, you will keep recordings that you had before you installed the External. So, I guesstimated and didn't copy over the first 200GB or so of shows, since I first installed the MyDVR Expander after I filled up the internal.
Next, I divorced the MyDVR Expander, and then used the instructions from the upgrade FAQ on this site (or you could use the instructions from www.mfslive.org) to upgrade my original internal to a new internal and a new external.
I decided to reuse the MyDVR Expander case since it looks good. It's a little tricky to remove the case if you don't know where to push in the locking clips, but there are two of them--one on the top and one on the bottom, near the end where the "leaves" of the "book" would be. Then grab the "spine" of the "book" and pull. It'll slide out.
After putting the Tivo back together and plugging in the new enhanced MyDVR Expander, I powered up. It went through a normal power up cycle, about 5-10 minutes. You don't need to marry the new eSATA; WinMFS took care of that.
Sure enough, I had about 250GB worth of shows on it. Then I used TivoToGo to start copying the lost shows back to the Tivo. It's a tedious process, but you can queue them up and let it copy while you are sleeping or at work. If you don't want to do that, you can watch the shows on your computer with Windows Media Player.
I tried in the past to use WinMFS and MFSLive to upgrade the two drives to two big 1TB drives. Didn't work. Apparently the software does NOT allow for this solution. You can upgrade a single internal drive to a new internal, or to a new internal and a new external, but you can't upgrade if you've already got an eSATA external married to your Tivo.
So... I would have to divorce the MyDVR Expander. First I had to copy the shows to my computer, using TivoToGo. I used a CAT 6 cable connected directly to the router, and it was "kind of" fast. I copied about 500GB over a long weekend. (with the Tivo wifi device it would have taken months). I didn't copy ALL of the shows--when you divorce the External drive, you will keep recordings that you had before you installed the External. So, I guesstimated and didn't copy over the first 200GB or so of shows, since I first installed the MyDVR Expander after I filled up the internal.
Next, I divorced the MyDVR Expander, and then used the instructions from the upgrade FAQ on this site (or you could use the instructions from www.mfslive.org) to upgrade my original internal to a new internal and a new external.
I decided to reuse the MyDVR Expander case since it looks good. It's a little tricky to remove the case if you don't know where to push in the locking clips, but there are two of them--one on the top and one on the bottom, near the end where the "leaves" of the "book" would be. Then grab the "spine" of the "book" and pull. It'll slide out.
After putting the Tivo back together and plugging in the new enhanced MyDVR Expander, I powered up. It went through a normal power up cycle, about 5-10 minutes. You don't need to marry the new eSATA; WinMFS took care of that.
Sure enough, I had about 250GB worth of shows on it. Then I used TivoToGo to start copying the lost shows back to the Tivo. It's a tedious process, but you can queue them up and let it copy while you are sleeping or at work. If you don't want to do that, you can watch the shows on your computer with Windows Media Player.