TiVo Community Forums Archives - Upgrade dying - need advice/backup image

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Upgrade dying - need advice/backup image - help!
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Posted by: mandy

I upgraded my HDR212 about a year ago with an 80GB Western Digital HD. About a week ago I started getting the sputtering video problem. I did a "clear and delete everything" which solved the problem for a couple of days. Things seem OK if I only have a few shows in "now playing" so I'm guessing the Western Digital is dying. I assume Tivo fills up drive A first and them starts using drive B.

I've also learned that these drives are now "married" because Tivo didn't start up all the way when I removed the B drive.

So.....my plan is to reformat the 20GB Quantum in drive A and remove drive B. Unfortunately I no longer have the backup CD that came with the upgrade.

Could someone please send me a PM telling me where I can download a 3.0 backup image for the HDR212? If it turns out the Quantum is bad, will that image work for the Western Digital drive? Also, can I use the image to format the drive with my iMac G4 and an external USB case?

Thank you, thank you...life really sucks with a sputtering Tivo!

Posted by: Robert S

There's very little you can do without access to a PC - MFS Tools is only available as an x86 Linux binary. I suppose you could order an upgrade A drive to replace both your current disks, but that's about it.

If you can get access to a PC you may well be able to get a 'divorced' backup from your current drive set and use that to prepare the 20Gb drive as a lone A drive.

None of your other ideas will work - you can't 'format' a TiVo drive (you must use MFS Tools to prepare it), you can't use a Mac and you can use a USB case.

Posted by: mandy

Thanks for replying!

I do have access to a Windows machine. Is there an HDR212 backup image available online so that I can restore a virgin backup of the 20GB drive without having to "divorce" my two drives?

Posted by: pricezilla

While there do exists sites to download images, or at least there were way back when, this practice is probably illegal and therefore discouraged. Your best bet if you don't have a backup would be to find someone in your area who may be able to give you one.

Also, since you do have access to a PC, if your drive is not actually dead, but, just sputtering, etc, perhaps you could use MFStools to get a good backup of it and then write this onto a brand new drive. MFStools 2.0 will allow you to do the divorce, etc so it should be no problem. This would be my recommendation to try first. I'd definitely recommend getting a 120GB or so drive, though. After having 100GB, going to 20GB may be unbearable! :)