Looking for suggestions & guidance

[mebgoin]

Hello All,

I have yet to touch the internals of my DTivo S2 RID box, I'm trying to learn as much as possible so I don't screw things up when I do get started. That being said, here's my dilema:

I've almost filled the 40 gig drive that it came with, and I really want to lose as little as possible off of that. At the same time, I want to upgrade to 4.0 and a larger drive. The way I see it I have 2 options:

1) Upgrade the current drive to 4.0 using the "slice" method I've read about, then put in my new 160 gig drive behind it.

or

2) Start out with 4.0 on the fresh 160 gig drive I'm planning on adding to my system, then figure out how to get the shows off my old drive while still keeping it intact in case I screw things up.

Any suggestions as to which would be the smarter route? And any pointers as to where to start would be greatly appreciated. I've been searching and reading this forum for weeks and I still can't quite get a bearing on where to start.

Also, my ultimate goal is to be able to extract shows off the tivo onto my PC in order to archive them and burn them to DVD ... I don't know if that will have any bearing as to how I should do this.


Thanks for helping out the total newb ...

[hxmiller]

Read more before attempting any of this and never write to the original drive.

Here are some basic steps that will get you to your goal.

- Duplicate your existing drive onto your new drive to preserve your recordings (dd or mfsbackup/mfsrestore)
- use the killhdinitrd method to enable the usb ports and enable networking.
- load tivowebplus and the backup module to backup season passes
- load mfs_ftp
- monte into the s2_unscramble kernel and follow the directions to decrypt and extract. This will allow you to remove and unscramble the recordings (in TMF) using mfs_ftp and save them for later on a PC.

At this point you have backed up your recordings and are ready to install 4x.

- use the 4x RID method to load 4x onto your new drive.
- load applications and patches (superpatch, set MRV name, twp, mfs_ftp etc.)
- I suggest loading the backported usb drivers and unified_mfs
- insert extracted recordings using mfs_ftp and run the csoscout.tcl script
- restore season passes

You should be able to do everything in a single weekend. Most of the time will be backup/restore of recordings. But this can be done overnight.

Good Luck and READ and READ more. Everything you need is in DDB.

[mcomer]

Your first proposed solution would be the easiest way to preserve your current recordings, but is somewhat harder for an inexperienced person to pull off. You'll need to watch and manage the installSw process and correct any problems that occur.

Your second option is far easier, but will require you to export and import your crypto keys if you want to keep your current recordings. Because your DTivo is currently unhacked, your shows are being recorded encrypted and will not play back on the hacked machine unless you restore the crypto keys.

Best bet - don't worry about the recordings, get the new drive setup using the 4.x on RID instructions, add the old drive once that's all up and running.

-Matt

[PlainBill]

I really don't recommend making major changes to your current drive. It would be nice to have a known good drive on hand when something goes wrong. Why not do the upgrade in the other sequence? WARNING: I don't have a RID box, so I haven't done the 4.x on RID process yet.

You'll need an LBA-48 2.4.4 (i.e. 3.1.1x software) kernel, and must do an in-line monte using the process outlined by NutKase, AlphaWolf, and others.

1. Use an LBA-48 compatible boot cd (PTV Upgrade LBA-48 3.01) and use MFS Tools to upgrade your 40 Gig drive to the 160 Gig. Before booting it in the TiVo, do the in-line monte. The first kernel will be the killhdinitrd 3.1.1c from the above cd. The second kernel (vmlinux.px) will be the 3.1.1 unscramble kernel (sorry, I don't remember who compiled it). This will preserve all your recordings, and give you the full capacity of the new drive.

2. Use AlphaWolf's slices to upgrade to 4.x, followed by the 4.x on RID update (must be done at the same time).

3. Add the rest of the hacks, etc. Voila! 4.0.1b on a 160 Gig drive in a RID system.

Alternatively, borrow a 40 or 80 Gig drive, copy your current drive to that, (do NOT expand), then follow the upgrade process you described. It is REALLY a bad idea to make changes to your original drive.

PlainBill

[mebgoin]

Thanks for the quick replies!

After posting it dawned on me to expand my 40 onto the 160 and just save the 40 as an original ... no problem with that, especially if I eventually get to the point where I can extract fron the tivo onto my PC, 160 will be plenty of room then. PlainBill, I think what you've outlined sounds pretty much like what I want to do. I have quite a bit of computer experience, but I'm learning linux as I go along here. I agree that doing anything to my orignal would be baaaaad. I feel like I'm at least getting to the point where I can start figuring out what I want to do, I feel like I've been reading through posts for the past 2 weeks straight! Of course, I'm sure that won't stop any time soon ... thanks for the help and I'm welcome to any other suggestions.