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I have a TiVo Series 2 with a 3 year old 40GB harddrive and I used the tools on WeaKnees to try to upgrade it to a new 160GB harddrive and I have a problem. A huge problem. What is that problem? It actually worked so it's freaking me out.
Saturday I had to replace a defective UV sterilizer unit in my pond (this device kills alge and bacteria). I tried to replace a piece of a screwdriver than had broken (couldn't find one), swapped out the broken Pioneer DVD burner in my Human TiVo, and my 3 week old optical mouse died (Microsoft's sending a new one). In other words it was a fairly normal weekend when it came to working with the joys of modern life. As I was buying the new DVD burner I got inspired to replace the harddrive in my other, and older, TiVo with a shiny new 160GB model. Do I break the cardinal rule of technology, i.e. if it ain't broke don't fix it, or do I give it a shot? For some stupid reason I decided to give it a shot.
I quickly found that inserting the old harddrive into a USB external HD case didn't work because it didn't appear. After a quick search on the web I found weaKnees and tools and instructions for doing what I wanted to do. I printed it out, the print failed (ah technology), I opened the instructions on my other PC, printed again, and managed to staple the document without the staple screwing up on me. I flipped through the directions and my jaded mind thought "this will never work", but then I looked at it again and thought "hum... maybe it would. At the very least it shouldn't actually hurt anything because I could just put the old HD back in the box". So I created my TiVo boot disc (shockingly without issue), connected the two TiVo harddrives, and proceeded.
The process began. It was slow; about 1/5% per minute but it was going. This scared the hell out of me because it reminded me of the early days of DVD authoring. A slow process always means a 99% chance of failure. I then had my first scare: the screen went black. My two PCs share the same monitor so I hit "Scroll Lock-Scroll Lock-Up" to switch to the other PC to pass a little time. I then returned to the other PC and it was still progressing. This happened from time to time and then progress just seemed to stop. It happened a couple times where 1/2 hour periods would pass with nothing happening, yet if I switched PCs I'd find that progress would resume for no apparent reason. Then I figured it out: "scroll lock" basically acts like a "pause" button! After figuring this out progress continued without incident and completed.
Success? It couldn't have. There's got to be some sort of a *gotcha* around the corner. I use Windows XP every day. I know that even when something seems to works that the computer is just preparing you for an even bigger letdown. So what's it going to be? Will the TiVo fail to boot? Will it fail when attempting to play video? Will my TiVo lose the ability to grab programming information? Or will it be something annoying but tolerable like the loss of my content or the inability to use anything beyond my new drive's 40th gigabyte? What error will I see? I installed the drive, closed the case (a big no-no because closing a device increases the likelyhood of error because it makes it more inconvienent to get back to those parts), and plugged in the TiVo.
It booted to the gray screen.
It booted to the TiVo animation.
It went to TiVo central.
Now playing displayed my old content.
I could play content
System information on the TiVo showed I now had 181 hours of capacity.
I went to sleep (the mattress worked)
This morning the TiVo worked as normal
Checking System information showed that it successfully connected to the TiVo service.
I reconnected the drives in the PC I used for the TiVo transfer and the PC works fi...well it works as well as it always has.
I think I just have to accept the fact that the process actually worked.
So
Congratulations you WeaKnees people. You really did a great job on this and gave my TiVo a new life. That original harddrive wasn't showing any signs of failure but it was 3 years old and reading and writing to itself constantly. It couldn't possibly have much more life left in it. Now I probably have another 3 years of life in this thing and with your tools saved I could do this again in 2010!
Thanks a lot!
Saturday I had to replace a defective UV sterilizer unit in my pond (this device kills alge and bacteria). I tried to replace a piece of a screwdriver than had broken (couldn't find one), swapped out the broken Pioneer DVD burner in my Human TiVo, and my 3 week old optical mouse died (Microsoft's sending a new one). In other words it was a fairly normal weekend when it came to working with the joys of modern life. As I was buying the new DVD burner I got inspired to replace the harddrive in my other, and older, TiVo with a shiny new 160GB model. Do I break the cardinal rule of technology, i.e. if it ain't broke don't fix it, or do I give it a shot? For some stupid reason I decided to give it a shot.
I quickly found that inserting the old harddrive into a USB external HD case didn't work because it didn't appear. After a quick search on the web I found weaKnees and tools and instructions for doing what I wanted to do. I printed it out, the print failed (ah technology), I opened the instructions on my other PC, printed again, and managed to staple the document without the staple screwing up on me. I flipped through the directions and my jaded mind thought "this will never work", but then I looked at it again and thought "hum... maybe it would. At the very least it shouldn't actually hurt anything because I could just put the old HD back in the box". So I created my TiVo boot disc (shockingly without issue), connected the two TiVo harddrives, and proceeded.
The process began. It was slow; about 1/5% per minute but it was going. This scared the hell out of me because it reminded me of the early days of DVD authoring. A slow process always means a 99% chance of failure. I then had my first scare: the screen went black. My two PCs share the same monitor so I hit "Scroll Lock-Scroll Lock-Up" to switch to the other PC to pass a little time. I then returned to the other PC and it was still progressing. This happened from time to time and then progress just seemed to stop. It happened a couple times where 1/2 hour periods would pass with nothing happening, yet if I switched PCs I'd find that progress would resume for no apparent reason. Then I figured it out: "scroll lock" basically acts like a "pause" button! After figuring this out progress continued without incident and completed.
Success? It couldn't have. There's got to be some sort of a *gotcha* around the corner. I use Windows XP every day. I know that even when something seems to works that the computer is just preparing you for an even bigger letdown. So what's it going to be? Will the TiVo fail to boot? Will it fail when attempting to play video? Will my TiVo lose the ability to grab programming information? Or will it be something annoying but tolerable like the loss of my content or the inability to use anything beyond my new drive's 40th gigabyte? What error will I see? I installed the drive, closed the case (a big no-no because closing a device increases the likelyhood of error because it makes it more inconvienent to get back to those parts), and plugged in the TiVo.
It booted to the gray screen.
It booted to the TiVo animation.
It went to TiVo central.
Now playing displayed my old content.
I could play content
System information on the TiVo showed I now had 181 hours of capacity.
I went to sleep (the mattress worked)
This morning the TiVo worked as normal
Checking System information showed that it successfully connected to the TiVo service.
I reconnected the drives in the PC I used for the TiVo transfer and the PC works fi...well it works as well as it always has.
I think I just have to accept the fact that the process actually worked.
So
Congratulations you WeaKnees people. You really did a great job on this and gave my TiVo a new life. That original harddrive wasn't showing any signs of failure but it was 3 years old and reading and writing to itself constantly. It couldn't possibly have much more life left in it. Now I probably have another 3 years of life in this thing and with your tools saved I could do this again in 2010!
Thanks a lot!
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