Just about to upgrade - a few last minute ?'s

audiocrawford · 12-26-2006, 11:19 PM

Hey everyone! I've done a lot of research on this, but I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I open up my precious TiVo.

I am trying to upgrade an 80-hour DT unit. I have ordered a PATA hard drive, and have the T10 and T15 bits. I have read and re-read the Weaknees walk-through, and am comfortable with what I need to do.

I am not interested in backing up my 80-hour drive; I am going to put it in a hard drive anti-static sleeve (probably the one the new drive comes in) box it up and put it away in case I ever need it for my TiVo, but it's not worth reusing it so I'd rather just preserve it.

My question is : from what I understand from the instructions, if I have a bare PC (i.e. no hard drive) that has a CD-ROM drive, I can just hook up the TiVo drive as the master, the new drive as the slave, boot from the CD and copy them that way? I have a PC with no HD right now (or, more accurately, one that I was about to remove anyway), and it sounds like I won't have to worry about accidentally booting Windows if there is no Windows drive.

I just want to make sure there isn't something I'm missing. If I do it as I said above, the TiVo drive should become C: and the new drive should become D:, for the purposes of the shell program, right? That's the only part I'm shaky about - I'm horrible at Linux commands, LOL.

Also, I looked at the differences between doing an upgrade and saving the recordings versus doing it without. I have no problem doing it without if that makes it easier, but then again I wouldn't mind if they did transfer. From what I gather by looking at the instructions, the only differences are the initial commands issued and the time it takes. Is there something else I'm missing there? If it just means I have to wait a bit longer, I'll just save them to save the time of transfering them to my PC.

I'm really looking forward to this - thanks so much for the extra help!

AC

Da Goon · 12-27-2006, 12:13 AM

If you are copying one drive to another, make sure the drives are on separate ide controllers. It doesn't matter which one is set to master and which one is slave as long as they're on separate controllers and you use the correct commands. Watch the info as you boot the cd, and it will show you where the drives are. hda =primary master, hdb=primary slave, hdc=secondary master, and hdd=secondary slave. They won't be labeled as C: or D: since this is using a linux system, they will be hda,hdb etc, respectively. As far as copying recordings, it just takes longer than a blank copy, so if you don't have a problem waiting it out, it won't take all that long since you're just copying from an 80 gig drive.

supasta · 12-27-2006, 12:29 AM

www.upgrade-instructions.com

audiocrawford · 12-27-2006, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Da Goon

If you are copying one drive to another, make sure the drives are on separate ide controllers. It doesn't matter which one is set to master and which one is slave as long as they're on separate controllers and you use the correct commands. Watch the info as you boot the cd, and it will show you where the drives are. hda =primary master, hdb=primary slave, hdc=secondary master, and hdd=secondary slave. They won't be labeled as C: or D: since this is using a linux system, they will be hda,hdb etc, respectively. As far as copying recordings, it just takes longer than a blank copy, so if you don't have a problem waiting it out, it won't take all that long since you're just copying from an 80 gig drive.

Thanks, Da Goon! The only part I'm confused about is the "seperate IDE controllers". I assume this means don't chain them up like I would if I was just installing two HD, i.e. one into the master, then from the master into the slave? Thanks for your patience!

Quote:

Originally Posted by supasta

www.upgrade-instructions.com

Thanks for reposting that link, Supasta, but as I said in my initial post I've already reviewed those directions, and I just needed some clarification. Thanks anyway!

AC

Da Goon · 12-27-2006, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiocrawford

Thanks, Da Goon! The only part I'm confused about is the "seperate IDE controllers". I assume this means don't chain them up like I would if I was just installing two HD, i.e. one into the master, then from the master into the slave? Thanks for your patience!

Exactly. You should have 2 IDE cables (controllers) connected to your pc. Put tivo drive "A" on one cable and tivo drive "B" on the other and connect your cdrom to whichever cable is most convenient. Just follow the weaknees guide to a "T" (using hda,hdb,etc appropriately) and you'll be golden. Also, if you copy over any of your past recordings, go in and delete any shows you won't really need before opening the tivo, and you'll cut back on the backup/restoring time.

mick66 · 12-27-2006, 07:08 AM

Just for some clarification:
The drives do not need to be on separate IDE controllers. However, having them on on separate controllers will speed up the process quite a bit if you are copying recordings. If you are not copying recordings, there really is no significant advantage.

audiocrawford · 12-27-2006, 12:38 PM

Thanks DaGoon/Mick66!

I believe I have two IDE controllers, one goes to where the HD's go, and one goes to the CD-ROM drives. If I'm understanding the reasoning behind using two different ones from Mick66's post, it's just to isolate the drives. The reason I asked was because I wasn't sure if one could be on the one leading to the CD-ROMs, but it sounds like that would be fine.

I was just looking over the TiVo I want to upgrade, and it seems like I've already got most of the recordings on my PC, and since my new drive won't be here until tomorrow I have time to transfer the last few over. I'll still put them on seperate IDE controllers if I can manage it, just to make the process go more smoothly, but I think I've decided to just do the software.

Thanks again!

AC