Newbie with a N.I.B. series 2

I'm guessing that the warranty probably started running when the first owner purchased that unit, so it's probably expired by now, so get the MFS Live cd, or WinMFS, and make a backup of the Tivo's hard drive, and restore it to another known good drive at least as big, and test it in the Tivo to make sure you've got a good backup.

Better yet, get a new bigger hard drive for the Tivo, and use one of those MFS programs to copy and expand from the old drive to the new drive, and then put the old drive safely away on a shelf somewhere, but make a backup file as well.

Read the readme's for both MFS Live and WinMFS thoroughly before picking either.

Whichever you use to make a backup file is the one you'll have to use to do a restore from it.

Your TiVo uses a PATA/IDE drive, but with the proper SATA to IDE adapter you can use a SATA drive in it, and do better GB per dollar wise.

There's a thread

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=416883

devoted to which drive with which adapter in which TiVo which I consider required reading, and another thread

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784

which started out as a "which drive to use in a Series 3", but has a lot of good info in general about drives for Tivos.

Since it is NIB, it will have the IR blaster, just saying. It will have one RF and one composite A/V cable. IIRC, it never included S-video. It would presume, if you use a box, you have its A/V cables. It also comes with a phone jack splitter and long phone cable.

A Series 1 is not the only way around the subscription fee. Other ways are buying a used TiVo with Product Lifetime, or one of the Toshiba or Pioneer DVD combo units.

To set up, if factory software is below 7.x (*), you may need to set up over phone first, then set up the network, if the ,#401 trick does not work for you.

(*) IIRC, units manufactured in Mexico come with 5.x factory software, units made in China come with 7.2, which has full network setup in guided setup. I think they began manufacuturing them in China in October 2005 or so, and they hit customers by December that year.

ETA:
I just checked, your adapter uses the ASIX AX88772, which requires at least 7.2.2 software, which means even a Chinese made unit needs a software update over phone to use the adapter.

ggieseke said:

WinMFS works beautifully with most USB to SATA/PATA adapters, and at roughly $20 it's handy to have on around anyway. I upgraded all 4 of my S2DTs with a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 and didn't even have to reboot my PC.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that WinMFS is $20?

I downloaded it for free about a month ago.

Are you confusing it with something from the Instant Cake people?

Edit:

Despite your wording it finally dawned on me that perhaps you meant $20 for a USB adapter.

If so, one should be sure it supports modern hard drive sizes. Some of the older ones, especially the PATA only, tend to top out at 400 or 500 MB, leaving one to draw incorrect conclusions about what works with what if one isn't aware of that limit.

I just record everything at the lowest quality, and that if fine on my old TVs, then U really don't need a bigger hard drive. Except if U save stuff, but why save it? delete it! U are not going to watch it again anyway!

The only time I record at the highest SD quality is when recording sports and sometimes music/videos. So I don't really see the need for a larger hard drive unless U going to go with HD Tivos and HD TVs. Then U can really see the difference in quality, and there is a need for larger drives. I have 3 SD Tivos running at all times and they have never deleted anything automatically, and they are only 80 gig boxes. It is amazing how much U can put on a 80 gig box.
As far a Dual tuner SD boxes.... two tivos sold for $157, both with lifetime and G wireless connectors, today on ebay! My point is, don't pay a monthly fee, just buy a lifetime box instead. There is one here in Denver for $40 right now on craigslist. It is a single tuner, so better for OTA too to work with digital converters if U do OTA. U can use a Dual tuner box OTA but it is a pain. U have to do workarounds and U don't get all the dash channels that I have been able to find.

I have 4 or 5 DT Series 2 boxes that I would love somebody to give me $20 bucks to get them out of my basement. Putting them on ebay isn't very cost effective.

As far as buying a new box over a used one, the hard drive is usually what goes bad, and U can get free Tivos off of craigslist if U watch regularly to get a hard drive or power supply to fix your Tivo if U have lifetime. A friend got a free DT SD tivo with a wireless a couple of months ago, as did I off of craigslist.