Changing IDE cables changed my available hours

1672 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by classicsat, Jan 17, 2006

dekdout

Discussion Starter · Jan 16, 2006

I have a series 2 DirecTivo hdr40 and I upgraded from a 40GB hd to a 120 (A) + the original 40 (B). After the mfstools part of the upgrade completed it reported I had 171 hours. When I plugged the tivo in the first time to test, it said I had 171 hours as well, but I was getting the error 51. But before I read the forums about this error I reread my upgrade guide and noticed that I had used the wrong ide cable (40 wire instead of 80 wire). So I zipped to the store, picked up and 80 wire ATA 66/100 and put the new cable in. I still got the same error 51, but my hours had dropped to 141.

I also thought that it could have been the positions on the ide cable that A and B were plugged into because they had changed when I put the new cable in. I didn't really think that was the problem, but I was getting the 51 error as well so I thought what the hell. I changed them around and nothing changed. Then I did some reading on the 51 error and cleared and reset the tivo. No error 51 now, but I'm still at 141 hours -- missing 30 hours.

Anyone run into this before? Please tell me I don't have to rip the drives out again and start over.

Thanks,

Anthony

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captain_video

· #2 · Jan 16, 2006

141 hours with 160GB sounds about right. You'll never get more than 1 hour per GB of storage in a DTivo. MFSTools always reports a higher value than what you'll see with the drive in your DTivo. You're not missing anything so don't sweat it.

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Diana Collins

· #3 · Jan 16, 2006

Some rough, rule of thumb numbers:

A 40GB drive will really only hold about 35GB of data, at best. A 120 will hold about 110GB. So, you are starting out with about 145GB. Then, TiVo's system partitions, and the Showcase clips consume about another 10% (mostly the clips). That consumes another 7GB, roughly, leaving a net of about 130GB. The DirecTiVos calculate hours at the rate of 0.9 GB per hour, which would result in 150 hours, under ideal circumstances. That's pretty close to your 141 hours (probably the result of slightly smaller usuable disk space on one drive or the other, and rounding).

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dekdout

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 16, 2006

Understandable and kind of what I thought, but why would it say 171 hours at first? During subsequent reboots did Tivo realize the available space wasn't quite that much? or did the cable have something to do with it?

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Diana Collins

· #5 · Jan 17, 2006

I am not sure what the process is to calculate capacity - it is possible that there were tables that needed to be rebuilt before the report was accurate, or the Showcase clips space had not been enlarged yet (it seems to be a percentage of total diskspace, not a fixed number of MBs).

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dekdout

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 17, 2006

ok, thanks.

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classicsat

· #7 · Jan 17, 2006

MFStools reports Standalone Basic hours (possibly all space), which is calculated differently in the hours screen, and is less for DirecTV DVRs.

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