When upgrading Tivo HD internal drive...

[Kevin R]

Comfortable with computers in general, but new to the whole Tivo mod scene.
I've had good luck with Acronis software like Migrate to clone and move operating systems from drive to drive.
When upgrading the HD to a 1T, can I use Migrate to just clone the stock drive and expand it, or is there a specific reason to use the software mentioned?

Thanks, for help with a noob question.

Kevin R

[bkdtv]

Cloning the drive won't allow you to take advantage of the capacity. The tools mentioned in the FAQ don't just copy the drive; they expand the appropriate partitions to allow the TiVo to make use of the added space.

See the expansion sticky (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784) and scroll down to the instructions at the very bottom. They are written for people who don't know anything about computers. If you already have the appropriate torx screwdrivers, and you are comfortable with connecting a drive to your computer, the upgrade from start to finish will probably take less than 35 minutes.

[greg_burns]

Just to expand on that (no pun intended)... Acronis, Ghost, Logicube duplicators etc will also expand partitions after copying but are incompatible with the partition types used on a Tivo drive (apparently).

[Kevin R]

Thanks for the reply, that's what I was wondering.
I know that Acronis etc would expand the drive as well, but
didn't know tivo used a different partition setup.
I was going to wait out the warranty before cracking the case, but
after only 3 months, it's obvious there isn't enough room. Unless we watch everything
soon after recording and don't save anything, we are always wacthing the recently deleted to see if we are running out of room. Especially if any of the programing is HD.
Heaven forbid there is a marathon of Iron Chef, Good Eats, or anything on the Scifi channel.
Could gain more room by lowering record quality, but it's bad enough not having an HD TV yet, let alone purposly degrading SD.

Thanks again,

Kevin R

[hillstones]

Comfortable with computers in general, but new to the whole Tivo mod scene.
I've had good luck with Acronis software like Migrate to clone and move operating systems from drive to drive.
When upgrading the HD to a 1T, can I use Migrate to just clone the stock drive and expand it, or is there a specific reason to use the software mentioned?

Thanks, for help with a noob question.

Kevin R

I went the easy route and just bought a drive from weaknees.com to replace the crashed drive in my Series3. It comes pre-loaded with the TiVo software. All I have to do is swap the drives. Since my drive crashed, that was the only option I had.

[bkdtv]

All I have to do is swap the drives. Since my drive crashed, that was the only option I had.Actually, you did have another option.

DVRUpgrade sells a restore CD for $20 (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm) that will restore the TiVo software to a new drive of your choice (up to 1.1TB). You connect the new drive to your computer and then boot your computer with the CD. The CD restores the TiVo software to the drive and then you install the drive in your TiVo.

[hillstones]

Actually, you did have another option.

DVRUpgrade sells a restore CD for $20 (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm) that will restore the TiVo software to a new drive of your choice (up to 1.1TB). You connect the new drive to your computer and then boot your computer with the CD. The CD restores the TiVo software to the drive and then you install the drive in your TiVo.

That is an option for PC users. I don't have an Intel Mac yet, so that wasn't an option for me.

[bkdtv]

That is an option for PC users. I don't have an Intel Mac yet, so that wasn't an option for me.Understood. That's only an option if you have an Intel-based PC or Mac.

[hillstones]

I have an external drive case that is IDE. If I get an IDE->SATA converter ($5 on eBay), can I access any of the data on the drive? The other option is to run some diagnostics to see if the drive is even usable. However, if there is a bad block that caused the crash, I am always reluctant to use it for storage if I do reformat it.

[JoeTaxpayer]

I was going to wait out the warranty before cracking the case, but
after only 3 months, it's obvious there isn't enough room.
Kevin R

Using TiVo Desktop or Tivo transfer among others, you can move shows off the TiVo to a PC/Mac, and move back to watch them. There's no loss of quality as the files are not recoded, just moved, details and all. On a wired network, my transfer speed is fast enough to pull a show from the computer to the TiVo faster than real time so it's like you need to plan anything in advance. The PC app also shows how much space is used on the TiVo and that can help you decide what to move. Not too much effort to do all this.