Already upgraded to 1TB but hard drive went out, doing the job myself this time, HELP

[82givenchy]

I bought an expensive Series 3 when they first came out 900.00 urgh. Anyway, took my hard drive out went to Hilsdale in Los Angeles, gave him a 1 tb Matox hard drive and it worked like a dream for 5 months. Then day before yesterday. It would freeze and just reboot on live play. Called Tivo, they said I had a hardware issue. I was going to send it back for an exchange but decided to first put in my original hard drive. Yep, it corrected the issue.
Ok, now I bought a Western Digital hard drive the one like in my HDXL and I down loaded the Instantcake software for 19.99. I have a new computer with 1TB quad hard drive with windows Vista 64 bit. Im so not sure what to do now. I made my DVD disk like Instantcake software told me to do. Im just confussed about what they mean by removing the computers hard drive so no to overwrite it. I didnt think it would work if I removed my hard drive, plus I have four hard drives I believe. I dont know which one to unplug. I dont really care about the info that is on my old drive but wouldnt mind having all that back. What Im concerned about is how do I do it and the version they are giving us is 9.2 mine is a 9.4 version. I see there seams to be a lot troubles with that. Can someone please help

[greg_burns]

Cupcake? Or do you mean InstantCake?

[bkdtv]

You could always just follow the instructions in the Drive Expansion and Drive Upgrade FAQ (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784). The step-by-step instructions at the bottom tell you how to copy the software from the original TivoHD drive to the new 1TB drive. This preserves all your settings (season passes, wishlists, etc).

It really doesn't matter what software version you restore, because the TiVo will update to the latest version automatically after a few days.

[greg_burns]

I dont really care about the info that is on my old drive but wouldnt mind having all that back. What Im concerned about is how do I do it and the version they are giving us is 9.2 mine is a 9.4 version. I see there seams to be a lot troubles with that. Can someone please help

Instant Cake gives you a brand new fresh image, not retaining any of your old settings or recordings. It may be an older versions, but your Tivo will quickly update itself back to the latest after a couple connections.

If you want to preserve your old settings (which include cable card pairing) and/or recordings , then you should look into the free WinMFS.

Drive Expansion and Drive Upgrade FAQ (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784)

[greg_burns]

Does WinMFS work on Vista 64 bit?

Edit: yes

http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/

[82givenchy]

I saw that and have read it. I understand that but when I went to download the newer version of 9.3 the file was very small and didnt have any information in it. I deleted the file. I hope Im not opening up a huge can of worms. For what I have spent on this DVR I could have bought two of the cheap XL's. As we know the Series 3 was the Mercedes of machines. It makes me angry they didnt offer a reduced price upgrade to 1TB from Tivo as they should have once they offered the Chevy version.

[82givenchy]

Thats what I need to know if it will work on windows 64 bit

[bkdtv]

Does WinMFS work on Vista 64 bit?Yes, it does. I've done all my upgrades under Vista 64. Just make sure you launch WinMFS by right-clicking on it and selecting "Run as administrator."

I saw that and have read it. I understand that but when I went to download the newer version of 9.3 the file was very small and didnt have any information in it. I deleted the file. I hope Im not opening up a huge can of worms. For what I have spent on this DVR I could have bought two of the cheap XL's. As we know the Series 3 was the Mercedes of machines. It makes me angry they didnt offer a reduced price upgrade to 1TB from Tivo as they should have once they offered the Chevy version.A backup of the TiVo software runs 350-500MB, depending on the version.

It takes around 35 minutes and ~$100 to upgrade any TiVoHD to a 1TB drive. Just follow the step-by-step directions in the link above; the instructions are at the very bottom (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160) of the post.

[greg_burns]

I saw that and have read it. I understand that but when I went to download the newer version of 9.3 the file was very small and didnt have any information in it. I deleted the file.

Did you download this file? winmfs_beta9_3f.zip

It is a compressed zip file. You will need to right click on it and tell it to extract. That will "unzip" the executable: winmfs.exe

[82givenchy]

Yes, I know maybe I can pay someone to transfer my old TIVO hard drive to my new hard drive hint hint BKDTV

[greg_burns]

WinMFS is not hard to use. But, heck, InstantCake is even easier.

Just unplug all your harddrives and only connect your new 1TB. Boot your computer to the CD (CD right? not DVD) you made* (usually by pressing F12 during post) and following the on screen instructions.

What about WinMFS is scaring you from trying it yourself?

*I like www.imgburn.com for free easy to use .iso burning software

[82givenchy]

Ill try and do it I paid for instant cake so we will see how it goes. I didnt know you could unplug you could unplug ALL your hard drives and boot up I burned it on to a DVD I can burn it to a CD if that is better

[greg_burns]

Ill try and do it I paid for instant cake so we will see how it goes. I didnt know you could unplug you could unplug ALL your hard drives and boot up I burned it on to a DVD I can burn it to a CD if that is better

I have a feeling you did not correctly burn it if you put it on a DVD. You are not making a data disc, you need to burn the .iso file to a CD. (Which is different than just burning the .iso file onto a data CD. I am not explaining that very well. Burning an .iso is like adding water and reconstituting the original CD vs. just copying the .iso file onto a disc.) That requires special steps using most burning software. Highly recommend www.imgburn.com. Makes it a snap.

Yeah, your computer will boot to the CD drive if you have "bootable" CD loaded.

[eddielives]

As someone who is new to upgrading the hard drive in my Tivo, I used winMFS, and everything went smooth. No need to burn anything. Just connected the Tivo's hard drive and the new 500GB (kept my original HD in), unzipped the winMFS file to the desktop and opened it, chose the original Tivo hard drive as the source, the new 500BG as destination and waited. Took a long time as I had a lot of recordings still on the original Tivo hard drive, but it worked like a charm.

Just my $.02