TiVo Community Forums Archives - Want to downgrade software version without losing recordings!!!

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Want to downgrade software version without losing recordings!!!
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Posted by: buxter

Hi, I have a Sony SVR 2000 with a 40 GB disk, and I bought a 160 GB disk from eBay. It had software version 1.3 and all of the manual recording functions worked, but I wanted to use all of the capacity of the new disk so I let it do its daily call (I don't have subscription by the way) to update the software version so it did and after it rebooted and everything I tried to record a show and it didn't work the "Service Message" appeared and it won't let me do anything. I haven't done any hacks or anything to it yet. But what good is 160 GB disk without even being able to record stuff manually? I was really happy with the manual recording function of 1.3 so I didn't need a subscription. The friday newspaper had the TV Guide in it so I knew what was on for the next week. And I could set up a manual recording. I already paid for the hardware and software by buying the TiVo, they should at least let me use it as a basic VCR.

Anywhay I just want to get back to 1.3 somehow while retaining my recordings, and I will just use the 137 GB's of the hard drive. I have a back up of 1.3 but without the recordings I downloaded it from the ftp site a while back, it took me 3 days with 56k, but I still have it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Petar

Posted by: stevel

Something is wrong - your SVR2000 should still let you do manual recordings with the newer software version. What version did it load?

Even with the latest version, you would still be limited to 137GB.

Posted by: classicsat

Did your Tivo ever have 1.3 before? If so, maybe that is why you don't have manual recording.

No, what I'd try is to have the system boot from the alternate partition by altering the boot parameters from the factory configuration menu, or find the panic code to use the previous software version.

Posted by: dsmdriver

Any chance it incrementally updated to 2.0? That didn't allow manual recordings. I'd try and get it to dial in again and see if it updates.

Posted by: buxter

Yes, I had 1.3 and then it updated to 3.0-01-1-010. I wanted to upgrade the software version so I could install the lba48 enabled kernel.

No, it went from 1.3 right to 3.0 I haven't had 2.0 installed on it at all as far as I know. I plugged in the phone line just last night from a long long time. And the strange thing is that my recording time went up with 2 hours on the basic quallity...

Posted by: dsmdriver

Very strange. Any unit that came with 1.3 from the factory should allow manual recordings under 3.0 without any problem or sub required.

Posted by: buxter

Ok, so what's causing it not to work?

Posted by: classicsat

My supposition is that the Sony originally came with 2.0 or greater (if the 40Gig drive was Sony stock, that would be a sure sign there), and the upgraded software knows how to check if the unit is one of the types that allows manual recording or not, in which case, by rights, you are not entitled to recording without subscription, and further discussion would be essentially theft of service.

PS: What is the manuf date on the Tivo, and what software is on the 40 Gig drive, and can it manually record without subscription.

Posted by: buxter

No, my sony came with a messed up hard drive, so I bought a new Maxtor 40GB and put 1.3 image on it. Yeah so I just wanted to know how I can get back to 1.3 without losing my recordings, or is there a way to back them up (not extract) with MFS and then restore them to the new and fresh drive?

How do I do what classicsat suggested?

quote:
No, what I'd try is to have the system boot from the alternate partition by altering the boot parameters from the factory configuration menu, or find the panic code to use the previous software version.

I think I remember how to get to that menu, but what do I do there once I get to it?

PS: The manufactured date is 11-05-00, Right now there is 3.0 on the 40 Gig Hard Drive. And it can't manually record without subscription.

Posted by: Robert S

I'm fairly sure that classicsat's idea is not a good one due to changes in the DB format between the various versions.

Isn't there a script to set the 1.3 flag to permit recordings on later versions?

Posted by: ADent

1) Ig the mfs formats are compatible (say you didn't record anyting since going, but I think even that may not be good) you should be able to restore an old image then hand copy the mfs partition over and cross your fingers.

2) There are extraction and insertion tools available elsewhere. Extract, then insert. But they don't really support v1.3, so I don't know if that will actually work.

3) Why not just pick up another unit? The HDR112's seems to run $40 to $60 on eBay.