kbs
09-18-2008, 06:49 PM
Just thought I'd share my upgrade experience.
I've had my original-drive Series3 for a few years now, and its been having hangs/freezes randomly while playing back shows. So, I figure its time to swap the drive, especially now that 1Tb drives are so inexpensive. After reading this helpful thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=401384 I decided on the Hitachi 7k1000 Deskstar. (Ordered from NewEgg, shipped from California, and packaged well.)
I used the Hitachi Feature Tool to enable Acoustic Management and ATA/300, and used the Hitachi Drive Fitness Tool to do an Advanced Test on the drive to make sure it was in working condition (it passed). At the same time, I learned about the "Kickstart 54" code from the mfsLive FAQ. ( http://mfslive.org/tivofaq.htm ) I used that to run the SMART tests on the original drive still in the Tivo. It passed the first tests, then reported a "FAIL 7" on the extended test. (So I had more evidence that swapping the drive might improve the hangs/freezes).
I attached both drives to the SATA connectors on my 2.2ghz Core2Duo machine, and ran mfsLive's suggested backup | restore commands.( http://mfslive.org/fullguide.htm ) Unfortunately, at about 80% through the copy, the source drive started getting too many read errors, and the command failed. I then ran a truncated backup|restore to the same 1Tb drive, and put it in the Tivo.
The Tivo is running happily, reporting 131 hours of HD recording capacity, and to my surprise: Many of my shows are still there. Some are missing, but there wasn't much I was hoping to keep anyway. I'll probably delete the bad ones and let it be.
On another front, I performed a dd_rescue from the original drive to a 750g PATA drive I had, so I could re-run the backup|restore from that if I wanted to, That seems to be the recommended approach if your original drive is too damaged for a straight backup|restore.
http://mfslive.org/softwareguidep6.htm#ddrescue
Thanks to everyone here and at mfslive for the great help!
I've had my original-drive Series3 for a few years now, and its been having hangs/freezes randomly while playing back shows. So, I figure its time to swap the drive, especially now that 1Tb drives are so inexpensive. After reading this helpful thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=401384 I decided on the Hitachi 7k1000 Deskstar. (Ordered from NewEgg, shipped from California, and packaged well.)
I used the Hitachi Feature Tool to enable Acoustic Management and ATA/300, and used the Hitachi Drive Fitness Tool to do an Advanced Test on the drive to make sure it was in working condition (it passed). At the same time, I learned about the "Kickstart 54" code from the mfsLive FAQ. ( http://mfslive.org/tivofaq.htm ) I used that to run the SMART tests on the original drive still in the Tivo. It passed the first tests, then reported a "FAIL 7" on the extended test. (So I had more evidence that swapping the drive might improve the hangs/freezes).
I attached both drives to the SATA connectors on my 2.2ghz Core2Duo machine, and ran mfsLive's suggested backup | restore commands.( http://mfslive.org/fullguide.htm ) Unfortunately, at about 80% through the copy, the source drive started getting too many read errors, and the command failed. I then ran a truncated backup|restore to the same 1Tb drive, and put it in the Tivo.
The Tivo is running happily, reporting 131 hours of HD recording capacity, and to my surprise: Many of my shows are still there. Some are missing, but there wasn't much I was hoping to keep anyway. I'll probably delete the bad ones and let it be.
On another front, I performed a dd_rescue from the original drive to a 750g PATA drive I had, so I could re-run the backup|restore from that if I wanted to, That seems to be the recommended approach if your original drive is too damaged for a straight backup|restore.
http://mfslive.org/softwareguidep6.htm#ddrescue
Thanks to everyone here and at mfslive for the great help!