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

800K views 3K replies 480 participants last post by  jmbach 
#1 ·
revision 104 - Nov-06-2010 - with Supersize!

**WARNING**
  1. Software is provided with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. Please read the licence terms (GPL v3).
  2. Opening your Tivo cover will void manufacturer's warranty.
  3. Although program is not designed to do (and actually attempts to prevent) data loss and distruction, it certainly has a potential to do so. It is ultimately YOUR responsibility to backup, stow away and otherwise protect your data.

If you like my work, buy me a beer... or milk... or a harddrive :D

OVERVIEW
This is a bootable Linux CD based on Slax distribution. It includes all software tools known to make a harddrive larger than the standard work in Tivo Premiere with expanded capacity.
Basic usage, suitable for most users who only want to expand their Tivo disk capacity, is fully guided, based on simple prompt-choice automated script.

Once again, for clarity's sake, if youd don't want to tinker, experiment and/or dig in the code or Tivo, the "USAGE BASIC" and some hardware is enough to set you up with larger Tivo Premiere drive!

It was ONLY TESTED ON PREMIERE DISK. Also, it was not tested and probably will not work on multi-disk configurations.

The full procedure of making a larger Tivo Premiere disk contains the following:
  • Taking the original disk out of the Tivo
  • Copying the original disk onto a new larger one
  • Doing modifications of structures on the new disk to make extra space available for Tivo
  • Installing the new disk back into Tivo.
This CD helps in doing steps #2 and #3 of this procedure.​

DOWNLOAD

Current: Download link (Mirror thanks coold8! :up:)
MD5 checksum:
Code:
a5ef24d6841f75c5c5cfd5fd703f6069 *./jmfs-rev104.iso.zip
Previous: Download link (Mirror courtesy of coold8 as well)
MD5 checksum:
Code:
c6241f5838cf5d1f4b451229b184f031 *./jmfs-rev68.iso.zip

REQUIREMENTS and PREREQUISITES
You will 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 harddrive to a computer using SATA or USB
  4. Burn ISO image on a 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

USAGE BASIC

  • Download CD disk image (ISO). For basic usage you only need the "jmfs-*.iso.zip" file. Sources (jmfs-src*.zip) are also in the folder for those who want to build themselves. (download link above)
  • Unzip the ISO and burn it on CD
  • Connect a Tivo disk and a new large disk to a computer. SATA or USB - does not matter, it will work either way, but SATA is faster.
  • Boot that computer from the CD burned in step #2.
  • The guide will be started automatically, follow the prompts.
    • If you are upgrading from stock drive, you will need to do: Copy, Expand, Supersize - in that order.
    • If you are supersizing an already expanded drive, just do Supersize.
If you ever find yourself in a shell (command prompt) you can:
  • Restart the guide by
    • "/root/guide.sh" command
  • Shutdown the system by any of:
    • pressing Ctrl-D
    • "exit" command,
    • "logout" command
    • "poweroff" command
  • Reboot the system by any of:
    • pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del
    • "reboot" command
During the guided process there is a log file created "/root/log.log". If you experience any problems or errors please check that file for any extended error information. It would like to ask for assistance, please copy the log file somewhere, where you can access it later (e.g. mount an external USB drive or existing partitions and copy it there).

USAGE ADVANCED
You are in the root shell, no need to "sudo" anything.
You need to know your disk names. The source Tivo disk and the targer where you want to copy or the one you want to expand. To find harddrive names in the system:
  • run "fdisk -l" and make note of the device names and capacities (for ex. "Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB").
  • run "hdparm -i <device>" (for ex. "hdparm -i /dev/sda") which will output the disk model (e.g. "/dev/sda: Model=WDC WD20EVDS-63T3B0")
All disks are made read-only on boot, so if you are planning to copy and/or expand, make your target drive writable by "chmod u+w <target drive path>" (e.g. "chmod u+w /dev/sda").

There are scripts included to run tools separately, outside of the guided prompt:

  • mfsadd.sh
    Expects 1 parameter - target drive for expansion (e.g. "/dev/sda").
    Drive must already contain copy of the original Tivo disk.
  • diskCopy.sh
    A "shortcut" for "ddrescue", expects two parameters: source disk and target disk or file name
    (e.g. "/dev/sda /dev/sdb" or "/dev/sda /mnt/sdb1/tivo.img").
  • mfslayout.sh
    Prints the layout of a Tivo disk. Usefull for testing/making sure the disk is OK.
    Expects 1 parameter - Tivo drive name (e.g. "/dev/sda").
  • jmfs.sh
    Base script to run a class from jmfs package. All arguments are passed to executed class.

BUILDING
You need Apache ANT 1.7.1 or above and JDK 1.6 or above.
The ANT build script is included with sources. The targets are:
  1. build (default)
    only compiles the sources.
  2. clean
    deletes all built files, so all sources will be recompiled
  3. package
    compiles and creates packages - jar, bin.zip and src.zip for distribution.
 
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1
#3,010 ·
I think if it passed that start up screen, you do not have to do any additional KS checks.

If it connects to the TiVo servers okay and it updates the guide data okay then you do not need to do anymore KS checks.

If the above works, then you consider using MFSTools to upgrade to a larger drive.
 
#3,018 ·
I made an error in my prior post. I was getting mixed up between Premiere and Roamio as I am posting in both threads. I corrected the post.

Supersize works on the current TiVo drive. You do not use 2 drives, only the active TiVo drive.

Supersize gets rid of some TiVo reserved recording space (think ads and showcase) and gives it to the main recording area.
 
#3,022 · (Edited)
Another old school question... does a 32bit copy of the MFSTools iso exist? I saved an old tower PC for just this reason - easy to open and attach both drives, etc., but it's apparently too old now. I downloaded the current version of MFSTools, burned it to a USB drive but I get an error since it's a 64bit program.

I tried booting it up on a current 64 bit all-in-one HP PC (set the BIOS to boot from a USB drive first, etc.) as well as new iMac and MacBook and was going to just use a dual HDD dock and let it run, but it's not recognized by any of those machines at all.

Also tried burning JMFS to a USB drive and none of my computers recognize it. So I'm stuck trying to upgrade my TiVo Premiere XL4.

Thoughts?

TIA!
 
#3,023 ·
Another old school question... does a 32bit copy of the JMFS iso exist? I saved an old tower PC for just this reason - easy to open and attach both drives, etc., but it's apparently too old now. I downloaded the current version of JMFS, burned it to a USB drive but I get an error since it's a 64bit program.

I tried booting it up on a current 64 bit all-in-one HP PC (set the BIOS to boot from a USB drive first, etc.) as well as new iMac and MacBook and was going to just use a dual HDD dock and let it run, but it's not recognized by any of those machines at all.

Also tried burning MFSTools to a USB drive and none of my computers recognize it. So I'm stuck trying to upgrade my TiVo Premiere XL4.

Thoughts?

TIA!
How did you burn MFSTools to the USB drive
 
#3,024 ·
Sorry, I flipped the application names. I should have said that the 64bit/32bit error was with MFSTools, not JMFS and that I couldn't get JMFS to boot on any of my machines. I'll update my post.

I used Universal USB installer to create the MFSTools USB ISO.

Apologies for the confusion.
 
#3,025 · (Edited)
Download the HDD/USB version and unpack it. Then use a program like Etcher to write it to the USB drive.
 
#3,032 · (Edited)
Ah, got it... ultimately this file - MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD from this thread?
If so, yes, I believe that was the first one I tried, but I'll give it another try. :up:

Just tried that file and am getting the balenaEtcher "Missing Partition Table" error.
 
#3,035 ·
Unfortunately I'm back to square one. Used dd to copy/create the iso on a USB drive. MFSTools will initially boot up on the old PC but gives me the "64 bit program vs 32 bit computer" error. It doesn't boot up at all on the newer PC or Macs.

Thanks so much for all of your time on this... far too much for what I'm trying to accomplish. But if you think of something else that I can try, let me know, I'm all ears. Otherwise, have a great weekend!

Thanks again! :praying:
 
#3,039 ·
Hi Everyone,

I recently had a Premiere drive GSOD on me and used JMFS to copy, expand, and super size a working Premiere 320 GB drive to a 2TB drive. I installed the new 2 TB drive after executing these three steps and booted up the Premiere. However, during the boot up, I got a message that the external disk drive was missing i.e. TiVo expected that there was an external drive linked to the internal. This obviously was not the case, so I followed the prompts to disassociate the nonexistant external drive and reboot. When it rebooted, TiVo booted into its OS, but it only showed 75 hours of HD recording space. It is as if the expand step did not take correctly.

I was just wondering if any of you have heard of or experienced this behavior previously and / or have any recommendations. I will try and expand it again this weekend, but if you have any advice or suggestions, I would appreciate any input you might have.

Thanks!
 
#3,040 ·
Hi Everyone,

I recently had a Premiere drive GSOD on me and used JMFS to copy, expand, and super size a working Premiere 320 GB drive to a 2TB drive. I installed the new 2 TB drive after executing these three steps and booted up the Premiere. However, during the boot up, I got a message that the external disk drive was missing i.e. TiVo expected that there was an external drive linked to the internal. This obviously was not the case, so I followed the prompts to disassociate the nonexistant external drive and reboot. When it rebooted, TiVo booted into its OS, but it only showed 75 hours of HD recording space. It is as if the expand step did not take correctly.

I was just wondering if any of you have heard of or experienced this behavior previously and / or have any recommendations. I will try and expand it again this weekend, but if you have any advice or suggestions, I would appreciate any input you might have.

Thanks!
I had that happen. I just went back and expanded/supersized again and it worked properly the next time.
 
#3,042 ·
The "subscription" is married to tge motherboard and not the drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk
 
#3,053 ·
This may work to clone a Roamio drive but will not work to expand the drive.
 
#3,055 ·
For clarity, these are my notes from back then:


1. Burn ubcd535.iso and jmfs-rev104.iso (check for newer versions) to separate CDs
2. Connect the new WD drive to a PC
3. Enter the BIOS, and temporarily change the SATA mode to "IDE" (not AHCI or RAID); note the existing setting
4. Boot the PC with the Ultimate Boot CD
5. Navigate to HDD > Diagnostics > HDAT2
6. Run "hdat2.exe /w" to disable PUIS (if enabled)
7. Reboot again, enter the BIOS, and change the SATA mode back to what it was originally
8. Remove the drive from the TiVo and place it in PC
a. TiVo drive will be 1st, new drive will be 2nd
9. Boot the PC with the JMFS CD
10. Follow the guided prompts to copy/expand/supersize the drive
a. If you are upgrading from stock drive, you will need to do: Copy, Expand, Supersize - in that order
b. If you are supersizing an already expanded drive, just do Supersize
11. Wait 2-4 hours for the process to finish
 
#3,056 ·
Works for a Premiere without an issue as long as you do not use a drive over 2 TB. JMFS 1.04 can only address drive sizes that a 32 bits can address. There is a patched version somewhere that addresses that issue.

If you expand a Roamio with JMFS, the Roamio will promptly reformat the drive.
 
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