TiVo Community Forums Archives - Series2 upgrd Q's

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Series2 upgrd Q's - Warning: New User!
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Posted by: twm01

I am a newbie, so please forgive any repetetive questions... I have read the FAQs and the guides, but I am frankly not a Unix/Linux guy, and I know nothing of these utilities or how the Tivo itself works (no flames, please!).

OK, I just got a Series2 Tivo, and ordered a 120GB Maxtor 5400 rpm drive.

From what I have been able to glean (is that a word?) from the FAQs and update guides, the Series 2 drive A cannot be replaced with a larger drive (or, more correctly, it can, but will not recognize more than the original drive A size), so the best option is to add the largest B drive that you can (which is 128GB, the largest the Tivo can recognize).

So, that is my plan - add the 120GB drive as the B (slave) in my Tivo. Since I am not doing anything to the A drive, do I need to do a backup?

Once I get the B drive, all I have to do is "Bless" it then add it into my system on the middle connector with the slave jumper (and change the jumper on the master from CS to master, if that is how it came from the factory), correct?

Need a Y-splitter for the power to the drives, and the cable in the drive box should work, I think...

Anything else I am missing, either in parts or plans?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by: zaknafein

It is not mandatory that you backup, but it is highly recommended that you do so. If either your A drive or B drive goes south, the whole rig is hosed. If, in this situation, you have a good MFSTools backup, you can just restore it to another drive and start anew. If you don't, well...

Posted by: markp99

Don't forget the IDE jumper cable... The Series 2 boxes provide only a single connector at each end of the cable (pull it out, throw it away).

Don;t you just hate havig to put your tools down in the middle of an upgrade...to go out and buy some silly $2 cable....? Buy this cable same time you buy the Y-power cable.

You will not need a bracket to mount the new drive in a Series 2... These were designed to accept a new drive in the 2nd bay.

Upgrade is easy. READ the FAQ over and over...

Posted by: Metaluna

Also, you'll need a 24" IDE cable. I tried using a standard 18" cable on my AT&T Series 2, and it wasn't long enough (I think 24" is not strictly within the ATA spec but it seems to work fine). Remember to stuff the extra cable slack above the hard drive tray, not below it, where it will block off all cooling airflow.

I would definitely make a backup. If your new B drive should die, you can't just take it out ... the Tivo software now expects it to be there and will die, unless you restore from your original single-drive backup image.

If you use a boot CD, don't forget to type "noswap" at the boot prompt.

Posted by: Rumpy

You will need an 80-conductor IDE cable. It will most likely have one of the holes blocked and will not plug into the Tivo board until you make a new hole in it. I used a 1/16" drill in a drill press, but others have used hot paper clips and push pins.

You must use MFSTools 1.1 on a series 2. I recommend you use Hinsdales boot CD and copy MFSTools 1.1 to the root of your C drive, (easier that running it from a floppy), then follow the instructions from Hinsdale. Be sure to use the -bzi option when restoring your backup image, (/mnt/dos/mfstool restore -bzi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx).

After that, you should be able to bless the new drive, plug it in, and enjoy slower menu response :).