[tommage1]

Hopefully your "new" Roamio OTA will be fine. I think I mentioned I originally bought the 2.5" drive for my Edge OTA, which only has 500GB, prior to getting the Roamio. A craigslist deal I couldn't pass up. And the Edge setup the 2.5" in 25 mins with no issues, software v4. Roamio is v3, as per post #415.

For now am going to just leave it alone, it is on TE4 (which I don't like) however I can live with it for awhile. I will upgrade the drive eventually, when I do that is when I would try a 2.5 just to see what happens. However I'd still be nervous about the 12V vs 5V, amps are fine as long as you have enough but voltage needs to be near exact. I don't know what the Sata power connection on the Roamio motherboard puts out, for sure 12v, maybe it somehow can sense if a 2.5 is connected that needs 5V. If it only puts out 12V it may work, for awhile, but would probably end up frying the 2.5.

 

[johnbrown44]

Don't think it has anything to do with 12v/5v. Problems were identical on 2.5 and 3.5 drives.

 

[tommage1]

Don't think it has anything to do with 12v/5v. Problems were identical on 2.5 and 3.5 drives.

Maybe. But even though the end result was the same does not mean the issues caused the end result were the same. Since I'm not sure I will test with an older 2.5 I don't care about. I'm sure there is some sort of measuring device that could test the power output of the Sata power connection on the motherboard, maybe there is an electrician here that could answer that. Voltmeter or something like that?

 

[tommage1]

I'll mention one more thing I have some older hard drive docks that can handle 3.5 and 2.5 drives. The power supplies for the docks show 12V 2A AND 5V 2A output. So am guessing somehow the 12V goes to a 3.5 if you put one in, the 5V goes to a 2.5 if you insert one of those.

 

[ClearToLand]

This may be your problem. Roamios use 3.5. 3.5" drives require 12V. Most 2.5" drives only use 5V. So maybe too many volts for a 2.5. In fact maybe so much more it could actually damage the drive. I remember once I tried a 2.5 in a Roamio, got flashing lights, thought if might be because the drive was SMR but maybe it was the volts. I'd stick with 3.5 for Roamio if I were you, would not want to possibly damage the nice 2.5 Toshiba.

For now am going to just leave it alone, it is on TE4 (which I don't like) however I can live with it for awhile. I will upgrade the drive eventually, when I do that is when I would try a 2.5 just to see what happens. However I'd still be nervous about the 12V vs 5V, amps are fine as long as you have enough but voltage needs to be near exact. I don't know what the Sata power connection on the Roamio motherboard puts out, for sure 12v, maybe it somehow can sense if a 2.5 is connected that needs 5V. If it only puts out 12V it may work, for awhile, but would probably end up frying the 2.5.

I'll mention one more thing I have some older hard drive docks that can handle 3.5 and 2.5 drives. The power supplies for the docks show 12V 2A AND 5V 2A output. So am guessing somehow the 12V goes to a 3.5 if you put one in, the 5V goes to a 2.5 if you insert one of those.

Please GOOGLE: "SATA HDD Power Connector Pinout"

and stop posting nonsensical misinformation.

There are 12VDC lines and 5VDC lines, on different industry-standard pins - and no "sensing" is involved.

 

[tommage1]

Please GOOGLE: "SATA HDD Power Connector Pinout"

and stop posting nonsensical misinformation.

There are 12VDC lines and 5VDC lines, on different industry-standard pins - and no "sensing" is involved.

Well did the search, was able to understand some but not all, I am not an electrician.

But the main thing was trying to figure out why the person is having trouble with the Roamio formatting and using a 2.5" drive (formats but then goes into a boot loop) Since you understand better perhaps you could actually say something like "there would be no problem using a 2.5" drive in a Roamio as compared to the stock 3.5". That would definitely eliminate any voltage problem as the cause of what is happening to him and could move on and try to figure out what is actually causing the problem. Since using a CMR drive and they say they did a full format on the drive first it SHOULD work, also said they did a diagnostic on the drive. They say they had problems with 3.5" CMR non original drives under 3TB also, same thing, formats but goes into boot loop. Makes no sense to me, especially since the original works and cloning and expanding the original to the other drives (including the 2.5) seems to work. Something with the relationship between the flash drive and the hard drives I guess, but if drives are totally blanked and error free the Roamio SHOULD format AND not go into boot loop afterwards.

 

[johnbrown44]

The point of my post was that conventional wisdom here stated as fact that Roamio will (don't recall reading should, or most people report that, maybe that's a given) format any drive under 4TB without any special hoops to jump thru, but my experience was not that at all. I'm posting in the event someone else experiences the same problem I did, and perhaps my fix (jmbach's) will work for them. It was not meant to start a discussion about the merits (or lack thereof) of using a 2.5 drive in a machine that originally used a 3.5. People install 2.5 SSD drives in their desktop computers all the time, don't they?

I also stated I had the same issue of reboot loop whether using a 2.5 or 3.5 drive. That debunks the 12v theory. A 2.5 drive will ignore the 12v line if not needed/used. And I will repeat: If the 12v was a problem causing reboot loop, why does the drive now work perfectly after MFSTools? Did it magically turn off the 12v? Wouldn't that cause a problem if the drive were a 3.5? You see, MFSTools doesn't know what size the drive is, no?

Can we just stop with the 12v stuff? I appreciate your trying to help, it was a good guess, that could have been the cause, but it has been proven to not be the cause. Time to stop beating that dead horse and move on with another theory. I am open to other ideas, but quite frankly, I am about finished with this discussion; the drive works. This was my experience, others may have difference results, thus my statement upthread that it is perhaps more an art than a science.

 

[bbddpp]

Hi everyone,

Wanted to first thank the community for what they are doing here. Amazing work. MFStools was awesome and even dealt with all the read sector errors on my bad drive and still made a copy from a 2TB drive to a 5TB that booted right up (I knew the drive was bad and figure some of the cotnent may not play, but overall it looks great).

Further, I have only run the copy command, and have not yet run the mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/SdY command yet. My Roamio is showing 42% capacity (the 2TB was basically full) and 701 HD 4827 SD hours in the sysinfo screen.

My question is, should I still run the mfsadd and the mfsaddfix commands just to be safe? Can it hurt anything to run them? I just want to make sure I am getting the most of my 5TB and it will run properly. Thanks in advance for any help and congrats on an amazing tool.

 

[jmbach]

Hi everyone,

Wanted to first thank the community for what they are doing here. Amazing work. MFStools was awesome and even dealt with all the read sector errors on my bad drive and still made a copy from a 2TB drive to a 5TB that booted right up (I knew the drive was bad and figure some of the cotnent may not play, but overall it looks great).

Further, I have only run the copy command, and have not yet run the mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/SdY command yet. My Roamio is showing 42% capacity (the 2TB was basically full) and 701 HD 4827 SD hours in the sysinfo screen.

My question is, should I still run the mfsadd and the mfsaddfix commands just to be safe? Can it hurt anything to run them? I just want to make sure I am getting the most of my 5TB and it will run properly. Thanks in advance for any help and congrats on an amazing tool.

Before you go any further, answer a few questions.
Are running TE3 or TE4.
What was the copy command line you used.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[bbddpp]

Before you go any further, answer a few questions.
Are running TE3 or TE4.
What was the copy command line you used.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

No problem! I am on TE4.

I ran only this one command before putting the 5TB drive into the Roamio.

sda is the 2tb drive I pulled from the roamio.
sdb is a new 5TB drive.

mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb

 

[jmbach]

No problem! I am on TE4.

I ran only this one command before putting the 5TB drive into the Roamio.

sda is the 2tb drive I pulled from the roamio.
sdb is a new 5TB drive.

mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb

Soooo.....
At your current state you have some room left of your 5 TB drive. One iteration of mfsadd followed by mfsaddfix will get the rest.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[bbddpp]

Soooo.....
At your current state you have some room left of your 5 TB drive. One iteration of mfsadd followed by mfsaddfix will get the rest.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

You rock. Here are the commands I plan to run then (I assume the 2040 doesn't hurt anything even though I probably only have half that left):

mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sdb
mfsaddfix /dev/sdb

Do I have it right? If so I'll take the drive out and try this after tonight's recordings finish. Super thrilled to see the new drive working and all my shows from the 2TB on there as well. Thank you again.

 

[jmbach]

You rock. Here are the commands I plan to run then (I assume the 2040 doesn't hurt anything even though I probably only have half that left):

mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sdb
mfsaddfix /dev/sdb

Do I have it right? If so I'll take the drive out and try this after tonight's recordings finish. Super thrilled to see the new drive working and all my shows from the 2TB on there as well. Thank you again.

Those are correct. And you are correct using the size limitation parameter has no effect if the size is smaller than the parameter.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[bbddpp]

It worked great. Thanks again!

 

[ClearToLand]

For LURKERs following this thread:

It worked great. Thanks again!

EFAX is a DM-SMR disk and is not suited for TiVo use. TE3 (20.x) will accept it but it'll run like dogs---, whereas TE4 often will outright refuse to boot. You want an EFRX (tougher to find) or a Purple PURZ surveillance drive.

...Also, be sure you get a hard drive that is known to work (CMR), most recommend either a WD Red Plus or a WD Purple. That Seagate drive is an SMR drive. So, you can try it, but you might be disappointed.

Spoiler: Sorry, I tried...

I tried for over half an hour to download this Emoji to my PC, shrink it to a more reasonable size, and then upload it as an attachment but, in 'Preview', the forum software kept complaining that I didn't have access to view it?!?

You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action.

Anyways, the point is, let's all wait and see how long this SMR HDD 'Experiment' works in @bbddpp 's TiVo Unit. My observation, from reading MANY of his posts, is that @lhvetinari is fairly knowledgeable about TiVo...

P.S. I try to add 'interest / color / attention grabbers / entertainment' to my posts. When I post simple 'Plain Text', I've found that I have to REPEAT the same question over and over and over again because folks nowadays just don't seem to be capable of absorbing / acknowledging / comprehending it unless it stands out from the rest of the 'Plain Text'. If you and I were standing 'Face-to-Face', you would HEAR the intonations in my voice. By using the forum 'Tools', I attempt to replicate those 'intonations'. Whether I succeed or not is up to the reader. The "Most Vocal" (you *KNOW* who you are ) *COMPLAIN*' that my usage of 'color / bold / etc...' DETRACTS from the believablilty / credibility of my posts. I disagree.

Just my observation / opinion...

P.P.S. If you ENJOY my posts, and gain some knowledge (or entertainment) from them, *BUT* are hesitant to reply PUBLICLY (for fear of scorn / retribution ), please feel free to PM me (or post in my 'Profile'). Volunteering to help others not so knowledgeable is supposed to be FUN. Just because some 'diehards' refuse to acknowledge 'other truths' is no reason to 'diss' them.

It's taken me SEVERAL DECADES to come to the realizations that I now understand...

P.P.P.S. They say that whatever's posted on the Internet is "forever". IME, that's 'somewhat' true - i.e. if the forum that you spent 100s of hours on creating a FAQ is taken down, your 100s of hours of work is also 'taken down' (unless it's in Archive.Org and I'm not aware of it). I'm proud of the posts I make and I trust that they can stand the "Test of Time", compared to the BS (SMS Text 160 character or less) 'snipes' that I see constantly on so many forums . While smartphones may have GREATLY assisted folks like 'law enforcement', IMNSHO, they have greatly DUMBED DOWN the general public .

 

[bmgoodman]

So I'm swapping out my original 3 TB hard drive from my Roamio Pro (TE3). The Roamio has rebooted itself unexpectedly at least twice in the last month and every once in a while I see a bit of a stutter or macroblocking. So it's time.

I bought a 4 TB WD Red Plus and I've run the full erase and now the extended test is nearly done. I've read that the 4 TB drive can be upgraded either using MFSTools or my favorite imaging tool. I've tinkered some with Macrium Reflect, so it's my favorite by default!

Am I supposed to let it auto resize partitions after the copy completes? Or something else?

 

[jmbach]

So I'm swapping out my original 3 TB hard drive from my Roamio Pro (TE3). The Roamio has rebooted itself unexpectedly at least twice in the last month and every once in a while I see a bit of a stutter or macroblocking. So it's time.

I bought a 4 TB WD Red Plus and I've run the full erase and now the extended test is nearly done. I've read that the 4 TB drive can be upgraded either using MFSTools or my favorite imaging tool. I've tinkered some with Macrium Reflect, so it's my favorite by default!

Am I supposed to let it auto resize partitions after the copy completes? Or something else?

It would be best if you use MFSTools to copy your original drive to the new one.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[MrPC]

I have a TiVo Romio Pro TCD840300, Series 5 running 20.7.4d.RC15-840-6-840. I noticed some stuttering video on my TiVo lately and thought maybe the HD was starting to go bad. I did my research and saw this post. I ordered a 6TB CMR drive WD60EFZX to replace my 3TB drive.

I downloaded the latest MFSTools v3.34-2 (live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso). I connected the 2 drives and booted from the image on a USB drive. I verified the drive assignments.

In my scenario I ran the following commands:
sudo mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
I noticed a couple of times msfcopy reported some trouble reading in 2 spots, but successfully finished the copy utilizing 4TB of the drive. I then tested the new 6TB drive in my TiVo. It booted up fine reporting that it had Variable, up to 699 HD or 4811 SD hours, next line Variable, up to 338 HD or 2333 SD hours.

This is where things don't go as planned.

I removed my new 6TB and connected to my PC by itself. I booted up MSF Tools, verified drive assignment and entered sudo mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sda and get the following:

Current estimated standalone size: 5233 hours
Adding pair /dev/sda15-/dev/sda16...
New estimated standalone size: 7167 hours (1934 more)
Done! Estimated standalone gain: 1934 hours
Revalidating partition table on /dev/sda... Sucess!
[email protected]: $ [ 252.445462] Tivo patition [le] seen
[ 252.445482] sda: [tivo] sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 sda 13 sda14
_

This is where all I see is a flashing cursor.
I can hit enter at anytime to get the prompt to continue (I've waited 15 to 8 hours for the prompt to appear before hiting enter). I hit enter, get the prompt and run lsblk -o name,size,vendor to verify the partitions. Here's what I see:

NAME SIZE VENDOR
loop0 377.5M
sda 5.5T ATA
sda1 31.5K
sda2 4K
sda3 4K
sda4 4K
sda5 4K
sda6 4K
sda7 4K
sda8 1G
sda9 768M
sda10 800M
sda11 2T
sda12 800M
sda13 2T
sda14 3G

sdb 7.5G Kingston
sdb1 492M
sdb2 2.4M

I then run: MFSaddfix /dev/sda

Little endian computer detected.

Drive has expected TiVo signature
Will begin to process drive.

Pruning Apple_Free partitions...
Pruning Apple_Free partitions complete.

Converting to 64 bit APM in progress...
Conversion to 64 APM complete.

Contemplating if coalescing the added partitions makes sense.
Coalescing makes sense.

Moving coalescing partitions 15 and 16 to 2.
Finished moving partitions.

Begin correcting the MFS header.
Evaluating MFS header to see if it can be appropriately modified to complete the process.
Correcting the MFS header.
Something is very wrong here! Exiting.....
[email protected]: $ [31408.539407] Tivo patition [le] seen
[31408.540231] sda: [tivo] sda1

Again I have to press enter to get the prompt back.

I put the drive into my TiVo and get External Storage Missing. I clear the missing drive and get the rebooting green screen.

Side notes: Before reimaging the drive after a failed attempt I use Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to quick erase the drive before restarting the process again (should I do a full with WDDLD, maybe dban to erase drive?). After booting the MFSTools the version reports Linux mfslive 4.19.196-tivo. I'm using MFSTools 3.34 should I be using an older version?

Any help would be appreciated... Thanks

 

[jmbach]

I have a TiVo Romio Pro TCD840300, Series 5 running 20.7.4d.RC15-840-6-840. I noticed some stuttering video on my TiVo lately and thought maybe the HD was starting to go bad. I did my research and saw this post. I ordered a 6TB CMR drive WD60EFZX to replace my 3TB drive.

I downloaded the latest MFSTools v3.34-2 (live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso). I connected the 2 drives and booted from the image on a USB drive. I verified the drive assignments.

In my scenario I ran the following commands:
sudo mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
I noticed a couple of times msfcopy reported some trouble reading in 2 spots, but successfully finished the copy utilizing 4TB of the drive. I then tested the new 6TB drive in my TiVo. It booted up fine reporting that it had Variable, up to 699 HD or 4811 SD hours, next line Variable, up to 338 HD or 2333 SD hours.

This is where things don't go as planned.

I removed my new 6TB and connected to my PC by itself. I booted up MSF Tools, verified drive assignment and entered sudo mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sda and get the following:

Current estimated standalone size: 5233 hours
Adding pair /dev/sda15-/dev/sda16...
New estimated standalone size: 7167 hours (1934 more)
Done! Estimated standalone gain: 1934 hours
Revalidating partition table on /dev/sda... Sucess!
[email protected]: $ [ 252.445462] Tivo patition [le] seen
[ 252.445482] sda: [tivo] sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 sda 13 sda14
_

This is where all I see is a flashing cursor.
I can hit enter at anytime to get the prompt to continue (I've waited 15 to 8 hours for the prompt to appear before hiting enter). I hit enter, get the prompt and run lsblk -o name,size,vendor to verify the partitions. Here's what I see:

NAME SIZE VENDOR
loop0 377.5M
sda 5.5T ATA
sda1 31.5K
sda2 4K
sda3 4K
sda4 4K
sda5 4K
sda6 4K
sda7 4K
sda8 1G
sda9 768M
sda10 800M
sda11 2T
sda12 800M
sda13 2T
sda14 3G

sdb 7.5G Kingston
sdb1 492M
sdb2 2.4M

I then run: MFSaddfix /dev/sda

Little endian computer detected.

Drive has expected TiVo signature
Will begin to process drive.

Pruning Apple_Free partitions...
Pruning Apple_Free partitions complete.

Converting to 64 bit APM in progress...
Conversion to 64 APM complete.

Contemplating if coalescing the added partitions makes sense.
Coalescing makes sense.

Moving coalescing partitions 15 and 16 to 2.
Finished moving partitions.

Begin correcting the MFS header.
Evaluating MFS header to see if it can be appropriately modified to complete the process.
Correcting the MFS header.
Something is very wrong here! Exiting.....
[email protected]: $ [31408.539407] Tivo patition [le] seen
[31408.540231] sda: [tivo] sda1

Again I have to press enter to get the prompt back.

I put the drive into my TiVo and get External Storage Missing. I clear the missing drive and get the rebooting green screen.

Side notes: Before reimaging the drive after a failed attempt I use Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to quick erase the drive before restarting the process again (should I do a full with WDDLD, maybe dban to erase drive?). After booting the MFSTools the version reports Linux mfslive 4.19.196-tivo. I'm using MFSTools 3.34 should I be using an older version?

Any help would be appreciated... Thanks

I am not sure if the -tivo kernel is causing some issues. mfsadd added two more partitions but lsblk did not see it. Then mfsaddfix ran into trouble. Might need to notify equinoxe about that if running the ISO without the -tivo kernel enabled results in a successful expansion with the same commands.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[Bane7]

I upgraded my Roamio pro to an 8 TB drive 5 years ago. The drive is starting to go bad. Can I just clone the drive to another 8tb drive (same) size and put the new drive into my roamio or do I still need to use MFS tools?

Thanks,