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-- Swapping drives across brands and generations (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=180668)

Swapping drives across brands and generations

Hi,

Some time ago I upgraded my 1st generation Philips Directv Tivo to a single large hard drive using what I believe was called the Hindale instructions. Now I also have a second generation Hughes Direct Tivo. Can I just swap the drives between the two units without negative consequences?

Thanks,

Alan

No, you can't swap the drives. Neither will boot with the other's drive.

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Steve

One thousand three hundred thirty-three, zero

Thanks for the help. I thought it might be too much to ask.

Alan

Sort of on the same point...is there any way that recordings (if not SPs and settings) can be copied from hard drives of a Series 1 DirecTivo to a Series 2 DirecTivo? I want to go to a S2 due to the stupid "channels I receive" failure issues on the S1, but don't want to lose all my recordings.

Or, as an alternative (hope this isn't a complete thread hijack), can I leave the S1 hooked up JUST to access Now Playing without having it hooked in as a receiver?

Thanks! (and thanks to OP for question, I was just about to search for such info myself!)

Tig

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3 DSR6000 DTivos - I'm in Tivo heaven!

No problem hijacking the thread. I got the simple answer I was looking for. Your question is the logical follow up. The reason I want to move the drive to the newer Tivo unit is that the older unit for one reason or another will not recognize any signal on tuner 2. Thus, I will now upgrade the drive in the series 2 box and I would also like to be able to copy my old files from series 1 to the series 2 box, so your question is now my question too.

Alan

Hmm.. Let's see..

SPs (and wishlists)- yes, those can be copied. It will require that you have TiVoWeb and the backup module installed on the old and new boxes, and that means they're networked. Oh, can't network a S2 DTiVo? Yes you can, but the instructions for doing so aren't allowed to be discussed here.

Shows. At first blush this would seem to be possible, again with networked boxes and some other hacks. But there's a hitch I didn't know about when I first attempted this - Series 2 DTiVos can't play the sound from a show recorded on a Series 1 DTiVo. You can get picture, but no sound. Oops. There's no known solution for this.

Yes, you absolutely can leave the S1 box hooked up and play the shows on it. I did this in fact when I made this migration (after discovering I couldn't move the shows.)

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Steve

One thousand three hundred thirty-three, zero

I suppose for completeness I should mention a few other things.

First, Series 1 and Series 2 boxes are incompatible at the software level - they use different CPU types and programs compiled for one won't run on the other.

Second, moving a disk to a different model TiVo (first three digits of service number different), even if the CPUs are compatible, will result in what we affectionately call "the moron zone". The box will think it has the wrong software and will repeatedly call TiVo to download the right software, except that it will get it wrong every time. Eventually, TiVo will notice and will shut off your account.

Third, moving disks between DTiVos of the same model in general won't work - the shows are encrypted using a key based on the motherboard serial number. You will get "Error 51". This can be resolved by a "Clear and Delete Everything", which will delete all your shows. I have read that there are ways around this, but I have no personal experience with it.

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Steve

One thousand three hundred thirty-three, zero

quote:

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Originally posted by stevel

First, Series 1 and Series 2 boxes are incompatible at the software level - they use different CPU types and programs compiled for one won't run on the other.

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Tivo is Sony SVR2000, 80 GB HDD.
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Why do you keep rewinding that? Because with TiVo, I can.

Steve, thanks for the info. Sounds like it's much easier to just keep the S1 hooked up so I can get to my recordings (lots of good "background" movies on there, easier to run one of those than to put in a DVD) and not try to move stuff over to S2. That's okay, just gives me more room on S2 - after I upgrade the drives - to record more stuff! And I'll probably keep S1 hooked up as well for backup recording and just not rely on it for "main" recording, the mirror charge is so little.


Tig

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3 DSR6000 DTivos - I'm in Tivo heaven!