Using 51killer

[Mikell808]

So I have given up trying to solve the hardware problem with my Living room DSR6000. So now I would like to ask if there is a way to take the drive, assuming I can fix that, and somehow use it on the bedroom DSR6000. Further information: the living room dtivo is non-hacked subscribed and fully paid for ( lifetime ) The bedroom Dtivo is currently running Kravens 3.1 with no problems at all. Is there any way to either use the living room drive in the bedroom dtivo or possible copy the recordings to it. I found this file 51killer, but couldn't find any info on how to use it or what it will do to my recordings.

[Narf54321]

When you put the drive in your other tivo box, it will probably complain with a #51 error -- that the software on the drive doesn't match the hardware ID.

I forget exactly which setting it fixes, but 51killer (run from the tivo bash prompt) erases the ID code from the drive, so your tivo will regenerate it from scratch. Normally a Clear & Delete everything will also work, but I think you mentioned having some shows on there you wanted to keep.

You might have another roadblock, since I also believe you said this particular unit hadn't been hacked.

[captain_video]

Here's an excellent post by AlphaWolf that describes exactly what 51killer.tcl does:

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=214987&postcount=13

[Mikell808]

So if I understand you guys correctly there is nothing that I can do to salvage my recording unless I can get the Dtivo to work again. Since the damaged Dtivo was not hacked the recording will therefor be encrytped, even if I use the 51killer the other Dtivo will not be able to see the recordings. I just wanted to make sure I understand correctly.

[Narf54321]

Well, you can always hack your other DTivo. If I understand, you already have the drive out of the unit anyway. (I've always found the hardest part to be digging the PC out from under the desk to put the Tivo drive into it -- but others may feel differently.)

Depends upon how willing you are to hack the box and how much you care about the old shows recorded on it.

[Mikell808]

The purpose of all this is my attempt at salvaging the recordings. That is my goal, and whatever the path is to attain it is what I am willing to do. The drive is out right now and I running sprinrite to repair the damage once that is done I will try it in the old Dtivo one more time. Are you saying there is a way to load 2.52 or 3.1 on a non hacked drive and still manage to keep my recordings in tact.

One more thing, since this is not a hacked drive the only access I will have to the drive is using mfstools. How would I load 51killer that way?

[Narf54321]

Since you have, I believe, a Series-1 Tivo you'll need a boot CD or diskette which handles the series-1 byte swapping.

You can put any extra utilities or scripts (like 51killer) on a floppy disk and mount it manually. Or, use something like UltraISO and add extra tools to the CD' ISO image before burning it.