[Kelly7777]

Is there a good step by step 'how to' guide for upgrading a bolt vox from 1tb to 3tb? What software tools do I use? The main issue for me is that I want to transfer my old drive's content to the new drive. Thanks

 

[ThAbtO]

MFSTools 3.3 if you want to copy.
Nothing, if you just swap drives. Although it will be like a fresh install.

 

[Kelly7777]

Is there a detailed guide you could link me to for the procedure? And a download link for the tool? Thanks!

 

[ThAbtO]

In the MFSTools 3.x thread, post #132.

 

[Kelly7777]

I'm not finding that by searching. Search function is less than bad.... Can you simply provide me a link please? Thx

 

[ThAbtO]

MFS Tools 3.2

 

[Kelly7777]

So use the MFSTools 3.32-devel image to create a disk, right? But what are the commands/steps for the process? Thx!

 

[ThAbtO]

Read up on that thread from the beginning... It say to create a CD to boot up from with the Tivo drive and new connected.

It would say like ldisk -l to determine what each drive is designated.
Then mfscopy -ai .... [something] [something] (I am not an expert on that).

 

[Mikeguy]

The low-tech. (and slower) way to do it is, copy the shows you want to save to your PC (only non-copy-protected shows will copy), using pyTivo Desktop or other software; put the 3TB drive in your TiVo box, and have TE3 on the box; and copy the shows over to the new drive. Yes, it takes time for all the copying, but the software is doing all the heavy lifting (best to only queue up for copying over 15-20 shows at a time).

 

[Kelly7777]

The low-tech. (and slower) way to do it is, copy the shows you want to save to your PC (only non-copy-protected shows will copy), using pyTivo Desktop or other software; put the 3TB drive in your TiVo box, and have TE3 on the box; and copy the shows over to the new drive. Yes, it takes time for all the copying, but the software is doing all the heavy lifting (best to only queue up for copying over 15-20 shows at a time).

Can you just use a program like Acronis True Image to clone the disk from one drive to another? If not, why?

 

[Mikeguy]

Can you just use a program like Acronis True Image to clone the disk from one drive to another? If not, why?

That's beyond my pay-grade (altho I have my assumption), but I'm sure that the real tech wonks here will respond shortly. There's a reason why I did it the low-tech. way.

 

[ThAbtO]

When you clone a drive and the new one is bigger, what you are doing is copying from drive to drive, so it would be an exact copy. The 3TB would only have 1 TB worth of space recognized by the Tivo.

If I remember correctly from years back, with Acronis, there is something that is incompatible and would prevent the drive from working in the Tivo.

 

[Kelly7777]

When you clone a drive and the new one is bigger, what you are doing is copying from drive to drive, so it would be an exact copy. The 3TB would only have 1 TB worth of space recognized by the Tivo.

If I remember correctly from years back, with Acronis, there is something that is incompatible and would prevent the drive from working in the Tivo.

Acronis expands the drive when cloning from a smaller drive to a larger one. Just wondering why it would be incompatible though.

But do you know the commands and step by step procedure when using the mfs tools? Thanks

 

[ThAbtO]

Tivo does not use the usual formats as a computer and Acronis would not recognize it to be able to expand.

 

[m_jonis]

Read up on that thread from the beginning... It say to create a CD to boot up from with the Tivo drive and new connected.

It would say like ldisk -l to determine what each drive is designated.
Then mfscopy -ai .... [something] [something] (I am not an expert on that).

Wasn't there a Windows based MFS tools that came out? I know I used that a few years ago with my Tivo Premiere XL4's to copy/expand.

 

[ThAbtO]

DVRBars is a Windows program, but it only backup and restores. Would need to use MFSTools to expand.

 

[tommiet]

DVRBars is a Windows program, but it only backup and restores. Would need to use MFSTools to expand.

Getting ready to upgrade my 1TB to 2 or 3tb. But as a windows user, why could I not just use Windows disk manager to handle the change in the partition? Slide it to max and call it a day... for a normal HD partition change... Or any reason I could use any other partition manager software? MFSTools seems dated... not sure its being updated anymore.

Guess this process would work...
1) Clone the new drive
2) Connect NEW drive to computer
3) Using Windows disk management, change the partition size to use all the unused space
4) Boot in BOLT

So... would changing the partition size in Windows cause an issue?

 

[ThAbtO]

why could I not just use Windows disk manager to handle the change in the partition?

Because they are not compatible. Windows use different partition parameters than Tivo. They are a modified version of Apple partitions. Windows cannot read Tivo drives and perceives them as a new blank drive and attempt to format and erase it (if you let it).

 

[tommiet]

Because they are not compatible. Windows use different partition parameters than Tivo. They are a modified version of Apple partitions. Windows cannot read Tivo drives and perceives them as a new blank drive and attempt to format and erase it (if you let it).

Perfect... Just what I needed to know.

But... It seems that folks with BOLTS are having issues using MFSTools (Google search on "how to use MFSTools" shows issues. Other options to resize the drive without losing data/settings?