InstantCake activate DVR?

[colbs]

Dear Guys & Gals,

My SIR-4080 has been acting up, and I'm looking at the InstantCake solution of replacing the hard drive in it. My biggest problem with replacing the drive is that I don't have an phone line to activate the TiVO portion of the DVR. I'm wondering if either the InstantCake CD will automatically activate the TiVO, or will fakecall.tcl solve it?

Any suggestions?

[the new guy]

After installing the InstantCake image, you would need to run a C&DE, which means the unit would have to be run through guided setup to be able to record. If you are going to hack, fakecall.tcl, followed by a reboot, will work effectively.

Another alternative would be to make an image from the existing drive, if it isn't too far gone, and then restoring the image to a new drive. If you follow that route, you will not need to run through guided setup, as the image will match your receiver. Instructions are here.

Tim

[colbs]

The idea of transfering over the image would be a fantastic. Sometime ago I attempted to perform that task just for fun n' giggles and I wasn't being patient enough. Now, I have more patience to give this a shot.

If the source drive has potential bad sectors, would creating an image potentially capture those bad sectors and put them onto the new drive? (Did that come out right?).

Thanks

[the new guy]

If you were copying the drive using the data dump method, probably, since that is just a bit-for-bit copy. MFS tools (I believe) copies the boot and software partitions, then creates the MFS and alternate partitions when the image is restored. This should greatly reduce the chances of copying bad sectors. The only potential problem would be corrupt software on the HD, but you would probably know if that were the case.

Tim