total n00b here, I need some help with hacking an SD-DVR40

[beowolf]

I have windows xp and I know you are not suppose to boot the tivo drive in windows, but i did not create a fat32 partition. Do i need to? or can I just use a boot disk?

[JohnSorTivo]

I have windows xp and I know you are not suppose to boot the tivo drive in windows, but i did not create a fat32 partition. Do i need to? or can I just use a boot disk?

Depends on what you are trying to do. If you don't need to create an image of your existing drive for restoring to a new drive, then you won't have to connect to a fat32 drive for this purpose of creating a backup image. Just remove your existing Tivo drive and put in a safe place for storage / archival. You can completely disconnect the XP NTFS drive all together from your system, eliminating any risk of accidentally booting up with this drive connected.

Then, when creating your boot disc, before burning the ISO, modify the existing ISO, using something like WinISO by creating a folder with the image, hacks, and utilities you need, so that when you boot up, all you have to have connected to your PC is your ROM drive, and the new drive you are going to be placing in your Tivo, and all of the files you need are available via the folder you've placed on your boot disc.

Some may not like this approach, but for someone who doesn't have a linux and/or FAT32 drive available to them, it will get the job done.