Making progress. Connected to network, 29 channels loaded. looks like no need to connect to mytivo.co.nz.

Now loading programme information

Now looks like I am pretty much there. Some programme information loaded but its a bit flakey as is the time. currently 9.`4pm but TiVo showing 3.43. Look like the programme attached to 3.43 is showing.

I presume this will tidy itself up over time.

So now I'll unplug, fully secure hard drive. put cover back on and put it the usual TiVo spot and let it update overnight and see what has happened in the morning.

All in place, 2nd TiVo still going and just goinf to be used fo rplayback until I get that one chipped.

Time has corrected a bit. Now just an hour out.

Looks like there is a week of programmes in the guide.

Though when I hit Find Programmes / search by title (to set up a season Pass) no programmes show in the list.

Well that was the weekend. Seems the tivo is now fully up and running - with the only remaining issue the time. But since the time and programme guide are the same its OK.

But what about costs. Elsewhere it was asked what this exercise would cost so here's my summary.

First up the alternative. A panasonic DVR for $499 which comes up on special from time to time or a Dish for $449. Admittedly both have FreeviewPlus and 1TB hard drives. Plus unhappy wife who has learnt how to use Tivo and is not looking forward to learning something new.

So my costs.

Tivo chip replace $minimal.

a WD 1TB Purple hard drive $97.75 ( I would recommend getting a new hard drive. Since the guts are being looked at and the tivo hard drive is old why not replace while you are at it)

a Unitek Y 1039 USB to SATA 6g Converter $36.65 (yes this works - it was my old HDD that was the problem)

A tin of air duster $16.00 

The Converter and Air I will use again on my second tivo.

Plus my time. Which was quite a lot - but mainly due to a flakey tivo hard drive that I couldn't salvage a backup. If I had a backup the process would have gone much more smoothly.

I'm prepared to offset these costs against my education - this was a great learning exercise. I dont know how to do this stuff. But I learnt so its very satisfying having a tivo that works at the end of this process. 

Cash, I'm down $124 and a bit. But up, a refreshed tivo with bigger hard  drive and a longer life. All up - well worth it!

Happened again at the same point - like it's timing out or something. Figured I'd boot the Tivo up on the big drive and see what I got....Watch this space...g

I did notice that when I closed Winmfs the destination drive spun up again.

Booted up on the destination drive - seemed to come up as normal, and looks like all of the recorded programs there, but system information doesn't see the additional space on the bigger drive. Any clues anybody? Or am I faced with just restoring to the big drive from my backup of the original and losing the recorded stuff?

I do have a cunning Plan B - which will be to hook up my second Tivo (already upgraded to bigger drive but nothing recorded yet) to take care of recording new stuff, and just watch the recorded stuff on the first one until I don't care any more, then just start afresh with it with the bigger drive. But my preference would be to resolve the issue now...

TinMan55:

 

Booted up on the destination drive - seemed to come up as normal, and looks like all of the recorded programs there, but system information doesn't see the additional space on the bigger drive. Any clues anybody? Or am I faced with just restoring to the big drive from my backup of the original and losing the recorded stuff?

 

I do have a cunning Plan B - which will be to hook up my second Tivo (already upgraded to bigger drive but nothing recorded yet) to take care of recording new stuff, and just watch the recorded stuff on the first one until I don't care any more, then just start afresh with it with the bigger drive. But my preference would be to resolve the issue now...

 

I think something went wrong during the clone process. If it had completed, you would have been asked to expand the image to fill the extra space and should now see 400 HD hours. Personally, I'd never copy a drive using a USB adapter. Also, I've had much better success cloning drives using JMFS and using the expand option when finished, and I always connect both drives to SATA connectors. 

Your copy could have failed due to bad sectors on the source drive. In the earlier days, I saw clones just freezing half way for this reason. JMFS seems to handle this better. You could always just do a truncated backup and restore to your new drive if you don't need to keep any recordings. 

TinMan55:

 

Booted up on the destination drive - seemed to come up as normal, and looks like all of the recorded programs there, but system information doesn't see the additional space on the bigger drive. Any clues anybody? Or am I faced with just restoring to the big drive from my backup of the original and losing the recorded stuff?

 

I do have a cunning Plan B - which will be to hook up my second Tivo (already upgraded to bigger drive but nothing recorded yet) to take care of recording new stuff, and just watch the recorded stuff on the first one until I don't care any more, then just start afresh with it with the bigger drive. But my preference would be to resolve the issue now...

 

Looks like the like the last step of expanding the partition size failed to happen, give it a go again.

I've just finished the 1st hard drive upgrade with no issues, 2 more to go, then it's on to the prom upgrade for a friends Tivo.

I do have to say the 1st prom upgrade took me a very long time as my soldering skills were very rusty, but by the 3rd Tivo it's actually been quite easy

TinMan55: Thanks - I only have my trusty laptop so am stuck with trying to do it with a couple of USB adaptors hanging out. What is the other app and where can I find that?

JMFS (I'll PM you a link to it in my Dropbox) is a bootable CD ISO image. It loads inside a mini version of Linux and is very easy to use (menu driven) and is my tool of choice for upgrading drives without losing anything. When the clone is finished, it offers to expand to fit your 1TB or 2TB drive. Don't use the Supersize option as it's apparently not compatible with our S3 Tivos. I've never used it with USB adapters, so can't say how you'll get on. 

Well, I've had a knock back on Tivo #4, knew there was a problem as before anything was done it wouldn't proceed past the "powering up" screen, most likely a hard drive failure, new drive fitted, same problem, ok 2nd possible fix - power supply - swapped from a known working Tivo, no go, ok maybe the HDD was corrupted, used this new drive in a known working tivo, got all the way thru to the start up menu but got error 51 which upon looking up seems normal when drives are swapped between tivo's.

So I know the HDD is good

Power supply is good

Where to now?

I had an idea - being that the Tivo was not recognising the additional space on the new drive, I restored to it from the truncated backup I had taken of the original drive using Winmfs, selecting the option to add the extra space. Now, firing up the Tivo on the big drive, the extra space is there (says 400hrs), but although all of my recorded programs appear to be there, some of them have only the title, and clicking on them says there is nothing recorded. I have to say that I suspected not "seeing" the extra space wasn't the only thing lacking, as the copy had carked about two-thirds through; i.e. not just at the final step. So it looks like my options at the moment are-

Keep the original 320GB drive installed (which is full) so I can watch the stuff on it, while recording new stuff on my second box.

or -

Just go with the new bigger drive and accept the fact that some of the recorded stuff is lost (a higher authority may rule on this!!)

or - try and figure out how to drive JMFS to successfully clone the drive fully.

gregmcc:

 

Well, I've had a knock back on Tivo #4, knew there was a problem as before anything was done it wouldn't proceed past the "powering up" screen, most likely a hard drive failure, new drive fitted, same problem, ok 2nd possible fix - power supply - swapped from a known working Tivo, no go, ok maybe the HDD was corrupted, used this new drive in a known working tivo, got all the way thru to the start up menu but got error 51 which upon looking up seems normal when drives are swapped between tivo's.

 

So I know the HDD is good

 

Power supply is good

 

 

 

Where to now?

 

 

 

After the powering up screen does it just go to the grey screen or what happens? What is the status of the front of the Tivo after it fails to boot?