Premiere Drive Upgrade Instructions - with all-in-one jmfs Live CD

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by kturcotte

Also (This SHOULD go without saying) plug the Tivo into a UPS!! Even a small one to deal with momentary power blips will go a long way to keeping the hard drive healthy! Hard drives don't like to even really be shut down, let alone just lose power completely.

Absolutely!

[True Colors]

The high price you saw for the Seagate drive that I linked above is the list price. The store where I shop sells this thing for a discount. My discounted price will be about $125 or so.

I have used Seagate drives in the past and they were fine. Are they really bad now?

TC

[akaussie]

Rich - Thanks for the information on iMac's. I just had a chance to boot up using the bootdisk and it booted fine.
I don't yet have my Tivo (or a new hard drive) so I can't test anything additional yet.
I'm hoping that is was a glitch because of your drive being from an S3.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by True Colors

The high price you saw for the Seagate drive that I linked above is the list price. The store where I shop sells this thing for a discount. My discounted price will be about $125 or so.

I have used Seagate drives in the past and they were fine. Are they really bad now?

TC

I wouldn't say Seagate drives are "bad" by any means. Lots of folks are using them including yours truly and lots of folks are happy with them. However they used to be at the very top of the QC totem once but based on posts found almost anywhere now, that came to an end a couple of years ago. Perhaps they've just had a run of pretty bad luck here and there but it appears things have changed.

Also as mentioned, they haven't been used for upgrades for any of the TiVo's for quite a while now and AFAIK, none with the Premieres. I don't have any reason to believe that particular drive wouldn't work, but there are some that have been problematic and have never been on the recommended list. The other thing to consider is noise. Since the one you're looking at is a 5900 RPM drive I suspect that it's reasonably quiet, but they didn't publish the acoustic specs so it's hard to say. Unfortunately due to a lawsuit Seagate lost long ago the drive acoustics (AAM) cannot be adjusted on Seagate hard drive so you're saddled with whatever you get. I have one of their DB35 line of dedicated A/V drives and it's been stellar for years and is almost silent (seek noise rated at 23db idle). I also have one of their Barracuda 7200RPM drives and it sounds like a thrashing machine (rated at 33dB).

In any case, for that price I'd opt for one of the WD GP AV drives like this one:

http://bit.ly/9RkNWS

Or even though these are very quiet out of the box, if you don't mind adjusting the acoustics to make it quieter one of these…

http://dell.to/cGOnGs

Again, more info about adjusting the AAM can be found here (Section IV, #32):

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...60#post5616160

Whatever you decide, best of luck and let us know how things go!

[richsadams]

Comer, akaussie and friends…curiosity got the better of me so I pulled our Premiere's hard drive, connected it to my iMac and ran the jfms Live CD and the program recognized the Premier's hard drive! So the issue was with the Series3 drive I tried before, not with anything else. I updated my earlier post if you'd like more details.

So the good news, thus far anyway, is that it appears that the program will work on a Mac. Once I break down and buy a 2TB drive I will try it for myself, but akaussie might beat me to it.

[comer]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Comer, akaussie and friends…curiosity got the better of me so I pulled our Premiere's hard drive, connected it to my iMac and ran the jfms Live CD and the program recognized the Premier's hard drive! So the issue was with the Series3 drive I tried before, not with anything else. I updated my earlier post if you'd like more details.

So the good news, thus far anyway, is that it appears that the program will work on a Mac. Once I break down and buy a 2TB drive I will try it for myself, but akaussie might beat me to it.

Cool! Thanks for update

[akaussie]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Comer, akaussie and friends…curiosity got the better of me so I pulled our Premiere's hard drive, connected it to my iMac and ran the jfms Live CD and the program recognized the Premier's hard drive! So the issue was with the Series3 drive I tried before, not with anything else. I updated my earlier post if you'd like more details.

So the good news, thus far anyway, is that it appears that the program will work on a Mac. Once I break down and buy a 2TB drive I will try it for myself, but akaussie might beat me to it.

It'll prolly be the second week of October before I can upgrade. UPS isn't delivering my unit until Monday and Comcast isn't coming out until Saturday the 2nd to install the cablecard. I want to give it a few days to run before I pull the hard drive just in case any issues crop up.
Very encouraging news though! I'll post once I try it out.

[shaggy2002]

So it looks like lots of people are having success upgrading to 2 TB. I am curious. Are most of the people only using the Wizard from the CD they burn? How many people have had to use command line as well as the wizard? I am trying to decide if I should buy the regular premiere and upgrade to a 2 TB drive or just buy a XL. Please advise.

[comer]

Originally Posted by shaggy2002

So it looks like lots of people are having success upgrading to 2 TB. I am curious. Are most of the people only using the Wizard from the CD they burn? How many people have had to use command line as well as the wizard? I am trying to decide if I should buy the regular premiere and upgrade to a 2 TB drive or just buy a XL. Please advise.

I am not sure I understand how those 2 things are related
You can buy regular Premiere and use either guide or command line. Or you can buy XL and won't have to use CD at all.

[shaggy2002]

Comer, i guess i am looking for instructions. because in the first post I see download the file. But I am just trying do determine what all is needed to be done to see if I can make it work. If I cannot, then buying the XL would be the option so I can have at least a TB. From your post it appears you upgrade the regular premiere all you need to do is go through the guide.

If you get a XL, can you not upgrade that to a 2 TB drive? Or are you saying you just pull the drive and copy over existing drive to new drive and it can already see all of the space on the new drive?

[comer]

Originally Posted by shaggy2002

Comer, i guess i am looking for instructions. because in the first post I see download the file. But I am just trying do determine what all is needed to be done to see if I can make it work.

You need:

1. your original Tivo disk
2. new disk larger than Tivo's
3. computer that you can boot from CD or USB
4. jmfs Live CD

It implies that you also need an ability and willingness to:

1. open/close your Tivo box
2. take harddrive out of the Tivo and put harddrive back into it
3. connect/disconnect the original and the new harddrives to a computer using SATA or USB
4. burn ISO image on CD or set up a bootable USB stick
5. boot up/shutdown a computer using the prepared bootable media
6. follow the guided prompt
7. wait for 2-4 hours for process to finish

From your post it appears you upgrade the regular premiere all you need to do is go through the guide.

Pretty much

If you get a XL, can you not upgrade that to a 2 TB drive?

Yes. Though upgrading non-XL Premiere gives you about the same value (depending on how much you value THX logo) for half the price.

Or are you saying you just pull the drive and copy over existing drive to new drive and it can already see all of the space on the new drive?

No. In addition to that, the disk structure requires some modifications in order to expose all its capacity to Tivo (a la "format" in Windows). That's why we needed a tool.

Adding the requirement above to the instructions is a good idea

[shaggy2002]

you rock comer...sounds good. I will get the reg premiere when I get some time and money and upgraded to the 2 TB. Thanks for your help.

[Crochunters]

Wow Comer... you ARE the man. I just upgraded my 320 gb stock premiere drive with a WD 2 terabyte drive. It works perfectly. Thank you so much for the time and energies you spent perfecting this software cd. You saved me boocoo bucks.

[zordude]

Successful upgrade to 2TB Thanks Comer!

Z

[jdoscher]

Originally Posted by comer

Yes, although it's a bit uglier - video modes are much more limited. I didn't want to hold on the release to investigate that
To make bootable USB, dowanload "Universal USB installer", start it and follow the instructions. When asked what type of Linux, uncheck "download ISO", choose either "Other" or "Slax 6" and navigate to ISO file.

I used the 'Slax 6' option and successfully upgraded a brand new Tivo Premiere to a 2TB 'Green' drive. I followed the on-screen prompts and had no issues. I used a barebones Atom D510 box to do the imaging, and it took about 5 or 6 hours to run.

Thanks Comer!

[retiredqwest]

I was curious as to whether this software would work on my THD.

Computer used is an old P4 Asus MB running XP SP3. Source is the original 160 gigger.

The first drive I tried was a Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB. JMFS booted and recognized both drives. Activated the copy and after several hours it finished and expanded the 1.5TB. THD booted up and it now showed 215 HD hrs.

Next tried a Samsung 2TB, that I pulled from my server. JMFS did its thing again. It took 5:35 to cold boot to the intro animation.... seemed like an eternity.

Now it shows 287 HD hrs. Here's a couple of photos...

[comer]

Originally Posted by retiredqwest

I was curious as to whether this software would work on my THD.

Computer used is an old P4 Asus MB running XP SP3. Source is the original 160 gigger.

The first drive I tried was a Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB. JMFS booted and recognized both drives. Activated the copy and after several hours it finished and expanded the 1.5TB. THD booted up and it now showed 215 HD hrs.

Next tried a Samsung 2TB, that I pulled from my server. JMFS did its thing again. It took 5:35 to cold boot to the intro animation.... seemed like an eternity.

Now it shows 287 HD hrs. Here's a couple of photos...

Cool! Thanks for being a Pioneer (as richsadams put it)! I suspected it could do that, but had no way of testing

[retiredqwest]

Originally Posted by comer

Cool! Thanks for being a Pioneer (as richsadams put it)! I suspected it could do that, but had no way of testing

I'm running it right now to a 1TB just to see how many hours it will show.

I ran Winmfs to a 2TB AV-GP WD20EVDS and it got 180 hrs because of the 1TB limitation.

I ordered a Premier, against my better judgment, and will use the AV-GP WD20EVDS for it.

I need to get the Sammy back in the server....

Scotty

[comer]

Originally Posted by retiredqwest

I ordered a Premier, against my better judgment...

Why is that - what is your better judgment?

[retiredqwest]

My conclusions for my THD:

Using a 1TB WD10EADS It shows 142 hours.
1.5TB = 215 hrs.
2TB = 287 hrs.

And I would like to think this would work for an S3, I don't have one.

Standard Disclaimer: You try this and blow up your original drive don't come crying to me.

Scotty

[retiredqwest]

Originally Posted by comer

Why is that - what is your better judgment?

I've been reading a LOT lately.....

I reserve any more comment until I get mine and see how it goes....

[comer]

Originally Posted by retiredqwest

I've been reading a LOT lately.....

I reserve any more comment until I get mine and see how it goes....

Well, good luck with your Premiere I am quite happy with mine HD i-face is a bit sticky-slow, but that's OK - when I am on a couch I have nowhere to hurry anyway

Originally Posted by retiredqwest

Next tried a Samsung 2TB, that I pulled from my server. JMFS did its thing again. It took 5:35 to cold boot to the intro animation.... seemed like an eternity.

I checked the code once more and I think I know what could be the reason. Some things in Premiere disk structure are different than in THD. I made appropriate adjustements in jmfs in comparison to MFS Tools (for technically inclined: FS pointer offsets I think is most important). So strictly speaking they are not correct in THD. However, Tivo has quite a tolerance for errors and an ability for self-healing. I think that process is what took time.

[kturcotte]

Is there a preferred website to purchase hard drives from (Best packing/safety)? Unfortunately, the ONLY thing we have around here is a Best Buy, and they don't carry it. Also, is there anyway to run a torture test on the hard drive before I do anything, to make sure it's going to last?

[tcfcameron]

Originally Posted by retiredqwest

My conclusions for my THD:

Using a 1TB WD10EADS It shows 142 hours.
1.5TB = 215 hrs.
2TB = 287 hrs.

And I would like to think this would work for an S3, I don't have one.

Standard Disclaimer: You try this and blow up your original drive don't come crying to me.

Scotty

Something stands out here. A 2TB drive in a THD should give you 318 (or, in some cases 319) hours of HD content. This is when using the "Broflovski" image, which doesn't allow for use of the MFS SuperSize feature.

[comer]

Originally Posted by tcfcameron

Something stands out here. A 2TB drive in a THD should give you 318 (or, in some cases 319) hours of HD content. This is when using the "Broflovski" image, which doesn't allow for use of the MFS SuperSize feature.

Probably because it's already "supersized", hence the difference.

[jbell73]

Originally Posted by comer

Probably because it's already "supersized", hence the difference.

I think that is the next and final step in this process -- figuring out how to enable the MFSSupersize feature with this process. Other than that, it's a very simple and successful upgrade process.

-JBell73

[retiredqwest]

Originally Posted by comer

Probably because it's already "supersized", hence the difference.

I ran Winmfs supersize on the 1.5TB and it went from 215 to 237 hrs.
I ran Winmfs supersize on the 1TB and it went from 142 to 157 hrs
I would assume the 2TB would goto the 318 hr or so mark.

So much for my scientific evaluation....

Scotty

[Bai Shen]

Originally Posted by kturcotte

Is there a preferred website to purchase hard drives from (Best packing/safety)? Unfortunately, the ONLY thing we have around here is a Best Buy, and they don't carry it. Also, is there anyway to run a torture test on the hard drive before I do anything, to make sure it's going to last?

I picked up a 2TB Green drive from BB. The only issue is that they have EADS and EARS mixed together, with no way to tell them apart without opening the box.

[kturcotte]

My drive's on the way, should be here Monday. Question-I have a regular, 320 GB Premiere. Say it's full, about how long should everything take?

[comer]

Originally Posted by kturcotte

My drive's on the way, should be here Monday. Question-I have a regular, 320 GB Premiere. Say it's full, about how long should everything take?

Full/not full - does not matter. 2-4 hours.