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WinNT/2k/XP warning in Hinsdale doc
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Posted by: SongMonk

At the bottom of the Hinsdale How-to TiVo upgrade document, it talks about not booting into Win NT/2k/XP while your original TiVo drive is connected.

Do I understand correctly that this is not an issue as long as you are following the upgrade instructions to the letter, because in that case, you will be booting using either the Boot CD or the TiVoMad floppy, correct?

Please let me know if I am misunderstanding, because I certainly don't want to hose my TiVo drive (and before I am able to make the backup, no less).

Thank you.

Mason

Posted by: DaveLessnau

If you boot from the CD or floppy, there's no problem. It's only if you boot INTO those operating system that you'd have problems (they write stuff to every disk they find). Make sure you have the CD/floppy in the drive and the BIOS set to boot from those drives first (perhaps even solely).

Posted by: Metaluna

Hmm, I accidentally booted into Win2K while my original A drive was connected. I then added a 120GB B drive and have not noticed any particular problems (I have an AT&T Series 2). Is there anything in particular I should look out for, or does the fact that my TiVo works at all mean that I'm ok?

Posted by: SongMonk

quote:
Originally posted by DaveLessnau
If you boot from the CD or floppy, there's no problem. It's only if you boot INTO those operating system that you'd have problems (they write stuff to every disk they find). Make sure you have the CD/floppy in the drive and the BIOS set to boot from those drives first (perhaps even solely).

All right, that's what I was hoping to hear. Thank you!

Just out of curiousity then, when *is* it necessary to follow the directions in that addendum to the how-to document? What sort of task would you be doing that would make you have to create the fat32 partition, etc.?

Mason

Posted by: Otto

quote:
Originally posted by Metaluna
Hmm, I accidentally booted into Win2K while my original A drive was connected. I then added a 120GB B drive and have not noticed any particular problems (I have an AT&T Series 2). Is there anything in particular I should look out for, or does the fact that my TiVo works at all mean that I'm ok?

If your Tivo boots, you're fine. You should not boot into Win2k/XP when a Tivo drive is connected because Windows sometimes (often) overwrites the boot sector of all the drives with its own nonsense, and this naturally kills the drive for use in the Tivo. It usually won't boot anymore after that.

Posted by: stormsweeper

There's also the problem of saving your backup to a Win2k drive. But that can be worked around.

Posted by: SongMonk

quote:
Originally posted by stormsweeper
There's also the problem of saving your backup to a Win2k drive. But that can be worked around.

Can you elaborate on this problem or point me to something that expands on this? From what I read in the Hinsdale doc, I can boot into Linux, mount a Win2k drive just fine, and save the backup image normally. What gotcha should I be aware of before actually trying this?

Thanks.

Mason

Posted by: stevel

I assume that by "Win2k drive" what is really meant is an NTFS partition, which the TiVo upgrade tools don't understand. You need a FAT (16/32) partition to use for saving backups.

Posted by: SongMonk

quote:
Originally posted by stevel
I assume that by "Win2k drive" what is really meant is an NTFS partition, which the TiVo upgrade tools don't understand. You need a FAT (16/32) partition to use for saving backups.

Wow, and I was just about to try to do the upgrade just now.

So I can see the NTFS drive from linux and mount it, but if I try to write a backup file there, it won't work?

If I'm running WinXP and I've got all of my disk partitioned as NTFS, I'm kind of screwed then?

I'm not going to want to proceed if I can't safely backup my original TiVo disk first. :-(

Mason

Posted by: zaknafein

quote:
Originally posted by SongMonk

Wow, and I was just about to try to do the upgrade just now.

So I can see the NTFS drive from linux and mount it, but if I try to write a backup file there, it won't work?

If I'm running WinXP and I've got all of my disk partitioned as NTFS, I'm kind of screwed then?

I'm not going to want to proceed if I can't safely backup my original TiVo disk first. :-(

Mason

Correct, the boot CD can mount NTFS volumes, but only read-only. If you can find an old hard drive laying around that is at least 500 megs, you can use it as temporary storage for your backup image. I have a small 2 gig, FAT32 partitioned drive in my desktop machine who's only purpose is writing TiVo backup images to.

Posted by: stormsweeper

Type "mount" by itself when booted up on the Cd and you'll see that the drive is mounted read-only. If you search for NTFS and my handle in this forum you should find a detailed method of shufling the image aound, using your new drive. Takes quite a bit longer than if you have a suitable drive available, but it will work.

edit: I'm in a giving mood today

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...in2k#post525567

Posted by: worms

I believe this is all just myth. I have never seen W2K or XP write things to drives on its own. Now if you boot to 2K/XP, then run disk administrator, then tell it to write a signature to the drive when the prompt appears, that's a different story. Either way, all it does is corrupt the partition -- easily fixed with a backup.

Posted by: stormsweeper

quote:
Originally posted by worms
I believe this is all just myth. I have never seen W2K or XP write things to drives on its own. Now if you boot to 2K/XP, then run disk administrator, then tell it to write a signature to the drive when the prompt appears, that's a different story. Either way, all it does is corrupt the partition -- easily fixed with a backup.

It happened to me when I wasn't paying attention once. Windows sees the Tivo drive as invalid, and writes a signature to the drive.

Posted by: worms

Without the popup box asking if you want a signature written?

Posted by: stormsweeper

quote:
Originally posted by worms
Without the popup box asking if you want a signature written?

Yes.

Windows sees it as an unformatted disk. If it could read the drive, it likely wouldn't do it.

If you don't believe me, try it. Just make a backup first.

Posted by: SongMonk

Thank you for everyone who helped, particularly stormsweeper. I followed your advice for using the new drive as a temporary storage disk for transferring a backup image. I experienced a couple small kinks in the process (mostly based on my own boneheadedness), and I sliced my finger on the mounting bracket (d'oh!) but I now have a 167 hour TiVo. Thank you for everyone's help!

Mason