WeaKnees Interactive Online TiVo Upgrade Instructions

weaknees · 11-04-2003, 07:32 PM

We're pleased to announce the release of a new set of TiVo Upgrade Instructions for the do-it-yourselfer who would prefer not to buy a "plug and play" hard drive.

The interactive website will create an individualized set of upgrade instructions based on the specifics of your upgrade (including your specific TiVo model, whether you want to back up your drive, whether you are adding or replacing a drive, and so on).

Our interactive site can and should be used in conjunction with the other upgrade tools and resources (including Hinsdale's guide), and we hope this will prove to be a useful addition to the upgrade resources already out there.

Here's the link:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Enjoy--and good luck!

Michael

litzdog911 · 11-05-2003, 02:32 AM

Very nice! Thanks, Michael!

Tiger · 11-05-2003, 03:39 AM

Well I just told it to do an upgrade to a DSR6k, replacing both drives, yes backup, no FAT, yes XP/2k, CD, ignore recordings, and not older than 2.5 and I got an error on step 4.

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 12:12 PM

Tiger-

Thanks for checking out the site. We've fixed the problem you came upon - if you find more, please post again or email us so that we can keep tuning the site.

We're looking for comments like this so that we can make it a complete, streamlined site.

Michael

boxster99t · 11-05-2003, 02:39 PM

I set the following parameters:

Sony SAT T-60
Replace with Two Drives
Backup yes
Fat Partition on C yes
Windows XP yes
Boot CD
Save Recordings
Older than 2.5 no

It goes through how to verify the drive sizes, and then how to reinstall the drives in the Tivo without any of the intervening steps to make the back up and pipe the recordings over to the new drive set.

It is very nice, however, on configurations that work. Great tool.

Now, if someone would make one for large hard drives, that would be impressive

Went through that one on Sunday, flipping back and forth between Todd Miller's instructions, Das Monkey's instructions and Hinsdale. Phew!!!

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 03:30 PM

boxster99t -

I've tried this several times and I do get the pipe backup and restore. Are you sure those are the option you used? That does create steps to do the backup first (since you are choosing that option) but later shows the backup|restore step.

Michael

boxster99t · 11-05-2003, 03:36 PM

very strange, it does work now as you said, but it sure didn't when I wrote my post. And I had to go back and re-selected the parameters when I wrote it. Go figure--it is very nice in any case.

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 03:42 PM

OK - thanks for checking again. I have made some minor changes in places, but I'm pretty sure nothing would have affected that. In any event, glad to hear that it works correctly now, and thanks again for taking the time to troubleshoot and report back.

Michael

boxster99t · 11-05-2003, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by boxster99t
very strange, it does work now as you said, but it sure didn't when I wrote my post. And I had to go back and re-selected the parameters when I wrote it. Go figure--it is very nice in any case.

Actually, I take back what I just wrote, but I think it must be something with our server/firewall blocking some of the content. The instructions initially appear, all in grey boxes, but after leaving the window minimized on my desktop, something happens because it displays just like I said in my original post--it now has none of the instructions for performing the backup or piping the content to the new drive set.

I actually tried to save it so I could email you the page, but the version of IE we use won't let you save that page as html. Anyway the problem looks like something on my end.

'D00, DOO, DOO, DOO' welcome to the twilight zone

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 04:19 PM

Weird. What version of IE and OS are you using?

Michael

ebonovic · 11-05-2003, 05:13 PM

Here is what I just tried:

GXCEBOT -
Single Large Drive
ect....

I didn't get an option to tell the site, that this is already an UPGRADE DUAL drive system, and I wanted to go back to a SINGLE Larger Drive.

I have the stock 40 and an additional 60 in my DTivo1

I would like to go back to one single drive.

According to Hinsdale, I can do this, but only if I don't keep my recordings.

Great site though.

One recommendation... If there is a way you can give an option to generate a PDF file. This way "in a pinch" if I lose a page of the instructions after computer A is down, I can take that PDF file to another unit and print it out. Or have it in my Handheld unit, vs paper.

Just an idea, as we are converting a lot of our web based reports to PDF files for archiving purposes.

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 05:44 PM

ebonovic -

Interesting idea on the PDF. Of course you can always print the page or select the text and email it to your pager, I guess.

On the issue of a non-stock TiVo, that's right, this site only works for stock TiVos. I'll make that clear on the first page.

Michael

vanelin · 11-05-2003, 08:25 PM

I'm new here so you'll have to bear with me on this one.

I've gone through your steps weakness and got down to the mfsbackup and mfs restore command but I am running into a problem.

My setup on my computer is
c: (ME) - aka hda
d: destination drive - aka hdb
e: cddrive -aka hdc

I've successfully made a backup.bak drive which resides on my c: drive, but I'm not sure I'm gettting the complete command to restore correctly.

I've tried all variations of:
mfsbackup - Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

but I keep on getting error messages that I have the source wrong (sorry) i'm on a different OS right now and don't remember the exact message).

What should the hdX and the hdZ be in the above command?

I'm basically taking my original drive and replacing it with a new one.

Thanks in advance,
Vanelin

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 08:30 PM

vanelin-

What drive is your original TiVo boot drive?

Michael

vanelin · 11-05-2003, 08:46 PM

I took the original tivo drive out, it was the hdb. Should that be left in? I assumed (which might be bad on my part) that I could do a restore from the .bak file on my hda drive directly to the hdb drive.

When I first started my setup was:
c: (ME) - aka hda
b: Original Tivo drive - aka hdb
c: CD rom - aka hdc

When I got to the restore, my setup is now:
c: (me) - aka hda
b: new hard drive - aka hdb
c: cd rom - aka hdc

Thanks,
Vanelin

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 08:50 PM

You can do the restore, but not with recordings. If you want to save your recordings (you chose that option on the site) then you need to leave the original drive in the TiVo. If you don't need the recordings, just re-run the site with "ignore" chosen and you can pick up where you left off. Otherwise, you need both old and new drives in the PC (but not the ME drive now that you've made the backup).

Michael

vanelin · 11-05-2003, 08:54 PM

So the .bak file is just an image for safe keeping then?

So in the command that I'm having trouble with, I can set my machine up to be:

c: Tivo original - aka hda
d: Tivo new drive - aka hdb
e: cdrom - aka hdc

so the command would be:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfsrestore - s 172 -xzpi - /dev/hdb

and this would mean that I'm moving the data from the hda to hdb is this correct?

Thanks,
Vanelin

weaknees · 11-05-2003, 08:56 PM

Yes, the .bak file is for safekeeping, and yes, that's the right command given the configuration.

Michael

walters · 11-06-2003, 12:35 PM

So far so good. I decided to get the backup out of the way while I wait for the drive and bracket to be delivered.

One suggestion: You give the impression that the progress indicator will come up almost immediately on mfsbackup, but mine stood at "Scanning source drive" for several minutes. Might make some people nervous.

BTW, you don't need to ask about version 2.5 with HDVR2 and similar. No such version.

amgqmp1 · 11-06-2003, 03:07 PM

absolutely gorgeous! two big thumbs up to the weakness folks!

weaknees · 11-06-2003, 03:11 PM

walters -

I made the change - good catch.

Michael

vanelin · 11-06-2003, 03:54 PM

weakness,

After your help, everything is now working fine with approx 105 hrs of recording time

Now on to my other unit

Thanks for your help!!! I must say damn you were fast.

Vanelin

ps sorry I posted so late on the results, had to let the copy go overnight and I just got home to test

thanks again

weaknees · 11-06-2003, 04:08 PM

vanelin -

Glad to hear it!

Is the other unit going to be the same upgrade path?

Michael

vanelin · 11-06-2003, 04:14 PM

Yes, the other unit should go the same path.

I've got to quiet down the hard drive (WD 120GB 8MB Caviar) I put in today though before I upgrade the next one since it is a bit too noisy with the drive seeks, so I'm looking for something about that on the forums.

Thanks

weaknees · 11-07-2003, 10:35 AM

vanelin -

We haven't used WD drives for years, but be careful. At one point, the trade-off for quieter drive acoustics was hotter drives - never a good thing.

Michael

walters · 11-07-2003, 03:01 PM

Another thing I noticed about the instructions was that it didn't have testing the backup as a step, not even an optional step. Honestly, I have no idea what the consensus is on this (I'm in the process of my first upgrade--waiting on hardware). Is it that if the backup produced no errors that you're good to go?

boxster99t · 11-07-2003, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by weaknees
Weird. What version of IE and OS are you using?

Michael

We're running Win98 and a modified version of IE 6.0

rnordvik · 11-08-2003, 12:59 AM

Michael,

The guide looks great. However, there is a scenario that I am facing now, that is not covered. That is: replacing a bad 'B' drive (in a Sony T60) with a new drive of similar capacity, while saving recordings. If you added that, then I would consider your guide to be about perfect!

-Rob

weaknees · 11-09-2003, 08:33 AM

Quote:

[B}Another thing I noticed about the instructions was that it didn't have testing the backup as a step, not even an optional step.[/b]

On the list of things to add... hopefully early next week. Good catch!

Quote:

The guide looks great. However, there is a scenario that I am facing now, that is not covered. That is: replacing a bad 'B' drive (in a Sony T60) with a new drive of similar capacity, while saving recordings. If you added that, then I would consider your guide to be about perfect!

Well, for the most part, if one of your drives is bad, making a backup is not likely to product much success. You're probably more likely to be successful if the B drive is bad than if the A drive is bad.

At any rate, one of the assumptions we're making with the upgrade site (you'll see this on the home page) is that you're starting with a factory TiVo. We are hoping to add more complexity to the site down the road, but for now, to get the site launched, we omitted the complexities involved if you already have an upgraded TiVo and want to modify the configuration.

As you'll notice, this more complex subject is covered in Hinsdale's guide, which is one reason why our guide is not a complete substitute for Hinsdale's work. We do think, however, that the interactive guide should be included as an additional "go to" resource for first-time upgraders.

Michael

weaknees · 11-11-2003, 06:33 PM

Added support for Hughes SD-DVR40, Hughes SD-DVR120, and Samsung SIR-S4120R.

Michael