Creating a fat32 partition??

yeah you can't convert back to FAT32. you can only convert from FAT to NTFS.. the only way I know of getting back to a FAT32 file system is to format the drive. Make a dos boot floppy and make sure it has fdisk and the format prog on it and see if you can just fdisk it and start over with FAT32 using the dos format prog. I don't think partition magic will do what you want to do.. it just splits up the partitions and keeps from losing your data. its been a while since I used partition magic so Im not sure if it will do what you want or not. I do know with XP you can boot off the CDROM with the windows XP OS install CD and fdisk the drive and reformat it in FAT32. it will try to install XP but Im sure you can just cancel out of it before it trys to install the XP OS. not sure about win2k tho.


--Bill

 

Partition Magic will do what you want it to do. Just resize the first partition to leave 5MB or so of blank space at the front. Then make the unused space into a FAT32 primary partition. Do your Tivo stuff and then decide whether or not to delete the FAT32 partition and then add the space back to the first partition. If you don't use Partition Magic you will most likely lose some data on your hard drive unless there is unpartitioned space already on the drive.

 

I have xp and encountered the same problem, but I avoided the fat32 issue by simply doing a direct copy from old drive to new drive. This means not having a backup file, but if you're replacing an old drive wih a new one, your old drive is your backup anyway.

The good news is that going the direct copy route, I was able to copy everything, shows and all onto the new drive in about an hour.

The instructions I went by are located in TiVo Community > Underground Playground > TiVo Upgrade Center > Swap hard drive the short instructions

I went from a 40 hour drive to a 280 hour drive, and it took less than two hours from unplugging to replugging the tivo. It was my first time upgrading, but I am very familiar with pc guts.

 

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I am thinking about backing up my dual 250 GB HR10-250.

I also have XP without a FAT32 partition. However, I have another (Maxtor) hard drive connected as a slave (Drive G), for additional storage (not bootable, but all NTFS).

I believe I can make a FAT32 partition using Maxblast on that G drive for the backup. I guess I need to disconnect my main C bootable drive.

Is it true that I would need to connect both TiVo A&B drives on the Secondary Cable or do they just need to be on the same cable?

For some reason Dell has configured my system as Primary Master: CD-Rom/DVD Rom (Drive D), Primary Slave: CD-RW/DVD-RW (Drive E), Secondary Master: Hard Drive C: (XP: NTFS) and I added Secondary Slave: (non bootable-NTFS currently)(Drive G).

Do I need to switch all the cables? I was prepared, as I said to disconnect the master C drive and at least one optical drive in order to backup the two but do the IDE locations really matter?

One more question: Should any of these drives go in the future, what are the ramifications of not having a backup?

Would I definitely need a new unit or is it just that I would lose all Season passes, channels lists, and recordings?

What insurance would I be gaining with the backup?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

THe trick is to format your new drive as a FAT32. You only need to create and format a 3 GB partition.
Make the backup onto it.
Disconnect the old Tivo drive, boot XP, and copy the image backup onto your XP drive.
Disconnect XP, reconnect old Tivo drive, and do backup straight from old drive to new drive.

If you can't make the backup, don't worry. You just lose all your settings and season passes if the drive(s) dies. You can always buy an Instantcake image for your Tivo for $20. Note that your Tivo needs the image to boot.

 

Thank you Bob. I'll think about whether it's more prudent or more risky to bother with the all the drive and cable swapping when InstantCake is there as an option if necessary.