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-- TIVO Hard Drive Upgrade 7--


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**All files required for this procedure are available from our Members Area


Step 10: Expanding the Tivo recording capacity


You have now created and tested your Tivo backup image on your new drive, you are ready to reconnect the new large drive to your PC and expand the recording capacity. If you wish to save your recordings during your upgrade, you will have to take an extra step by completely copying your original Tivo drive to your new upgrade drive. Depending on the size of your drive and the speed of your PC, this will take a number of hours, possibly as long as 8 or more. See step 10, option #4 for complete copying details.

Option #1 - Upgrading single drive Tivo with larger A drive and optional B drive.


  1. With your PC powered off, disconnect your Windows C: drive completely. Make sure that your new large upgrade A drive is jumpered to Master and connect it to the Primary IDE cable, master position. (As a rule, on the end of the Primary IDE cable). If you are also adding a new B drive at this time, jumper it to slave and connect it to the Primary IDE cable, slave position. (As a rule, in the middle of the Primary IDE Cable). Ensure that your original Tivo drive is jumpered to Master and connect it to the Secondary IDE cable, master position. Your CD ROM should still be a slave on the secondary IDE cable.

  2. With the boot CD or floppy in the drive, power up your PC. Press enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted to the Linux prompt, choose ONE of the following commands;

    If you only have one drive to upgrade and no B drive to add type:

    mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hda


    If you have an A drive AND a B drive to add type: mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb


  3. This process may take several hours to complete. Once finished, it should report the new drive size and exit. You should now proceed to step 11.


Option #2 - Upgrading dual drive Tivo with larger single drive (No B drive)


  1. This option is if you have a dual drive Tivo and wish to convert it into a single larger drive unit, saving your recordings. This option can be useful as it will allow you to more easily add an additional large drive if you wish to further upgrade in the future. This option is not possible with the Directv with Tivo, UK Tivo or any Series 2 Tivo. It may also not be possible with some of the older series 1 Tivos.

  2. With your PC powered off, disconnect your Windows C: drive completely. Make sure that your old Tivo A drive is jumpered to Master and connect it to the Primary IDE cable, master position. (As a rule, on the end of the Primary IDE cable). Make sure that your old Tivo B drive is jumpered to Slave and connect it to the Primary IDE cable, slave position. (As a rule, in the middle of the Primary IDE cable). Jumper your new large drive to master and connect it to the Secondary IDE cable, master position (As a rule on the end of the Secondary IDE cable). Your CD ROM should be jumpered to slave and in the slave position on the Secondary IDE cable.

  3. With the boot CD or floppy in the drive, power up the PC, pressing enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted, you can verify that the contents of the 2 Tivo drives can be put onto the single drive by typing the following command in the Linux prompt;

    mfsinfo /dev/hda /dev/hdb


  4. You will see a number of lines of output, including a line that says "This MFS volume set contains X partitions" The number represented by X may be 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12. If this number is greater than 4, you will not be able to utilize the rest of the space on your A drive without losing your recording. See step 10, option #6 if this in the case for you.
  5. Once you have verified that this upgrade method will work for you, type the following command in the Linux prompt;

    mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hdc


  6. This process may take several hours to complete. Once finished, it should report the new drive size and exit. You should now proceed to step 11.


Option #3 - Replacing dual drive Tivo with new A drive and B drive


  1. This option is if you have a dual drive Tivo and you wish to replace both drives with larger upgrade drives, saving your recordings. To perform this upgrade, you will need to use the boot floppy as all of your IDE slots will be taken.

  2. With your PC powered off, disconnect your Windows C: drive and your CD ROM completely. Make sure your new large A drive is jumpered to Master and connected to the Primary Master IDE slot(As a rule, on the end of the Primary IDE cable) Make sure your new large B drive is jumpered to slave and connected to the Primary Slave IDE slot(As a rule in the middle of the Primary IDE cable). Ensure that your original Tivo A drive is jumpered to Master and connected to the Secondary Master IDE Slot(As a rule on the end of the Secondary IDE cable). Ensure that your original Tivo B drive is jumpered to slave and connected to the Secondary Slave IDE Slot(As a rule in the middle of the Secondary IDE cable).

  3. With the boot floppy in the drive, power up the PC, pressing enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted, type the following command in the Linux prompt;

    mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hda


  4. This process may take several hours to complete. Once finished, it should report the new drive size and exit. You should now proceed to step 11.


Option #4 - Replacing a single drive in a dual drive Tivo


  1. This option is for those that wish to replace a single drive in their dual drive Tivo with a larger drive. MFS Tools cannot copy just one drive, therefore it will be necessary to use the "DD" copy command. When using the "DD" command, it is extremely important that you type the command exactly. A simple typo could cause you to lose all the data on your source drive, including your recordings and forcing you to backup using the MFS backup you made earlier.

  2. With your PC powered off, disconnect your Windows C: drive completely. Make sure your original drive that you will be upgrading is jumpered to master and connected to the Secondary Master IDE slot. If you are upgrading your A drive, jumper it as Master and connect it to the Primary Master IDE slot. If you are upgrading your B drive, jumper it as Slave and connect it to the Primary Slave IDE slot.

  3. With the boot CD or floppy in the drive, Power up your PC, press enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted, type ONE of the following commands at the Linux prompt;

    If you are replacing your original Tivo A drive:

    dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hda bs=1024k


    If you are replacing your original Tivo B drive:

    dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k



  4. The DD copy procedure will take several hours to complete, depending on the size of the drives. Once it is finished, type the following command to expand the drive so you will be able to use the extra space:

    mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb


  5. If you receive a new size report, the expansion procedure was completed successfully and you can proceed to step 11. If you incur any errors during this command, you will need to restore the backup you made earlier, by following the instructions in Step 10, option 6 and you will lose any recordings that you had on the drive.


Option #5 - Adding a new B drive to a single drive Tivo


  1. This option is the easiest and fastest procedure to perform since there is no copying of data required. You will be keeping the original Tivo drive and simply adding an additional B drive to a factory single drive Tivo.

  2. With your PC powered off, make sure that your original Tivo drive is jumpered to Master and connected to the Secondary Master IDE slot. Make sure your new B drive is jumpered as Slave and connected to the Primary Slave IDE slot.

  3. With your MFS Tools boot CD or floppy in the drive, power on your PC, pressing enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted into the Linux prompt, type the following command;

    mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb


  4. This command should only take a second or 2 to complete. Once it is finished, it will report on your new Tivo drive size. You should now proceed to step 11.


Option #6 - Upgrading to new drive(s) without saving recordings

  1. This option is for those that do not want to spend the time required to copy their existing recordings to their new upgrade drive, or if a previous upgrade attempt failed and you need to use your backup to create a new drive. You should have already restored your backup to a new drive in step 8, so you can use that as your new Tivo upgrade drive. This option will allow you to upgrade a single drive or also an A drive + B drive upgrade as well.

  2. With your PC powered off, jumper your new A drive as Master and connect it to the Secondary Master IDE slot. If you also want to add a new B drive as well, jumper it as Slave and connect it to the Primary Slave IDE slot.

  3. With the boot CD or floppy in the drive, power on your PC, pressing enter to select the default boot option when prompted. Once the system has booted, type the following command in the Linux prompt;

    If you are just adding a new A drive:

    mfsadd -x /dev/hdc


    If you are adding a new A + B drive:

    mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb


  4. This procedure should only take a second or 2. Once complete, you will be given a report on the size of your new Tivo drive. You should now proceed to step 11.





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