You can do that - you just need the -r 4 switch which deals with the block size, and overcomes that issue. It's in all of our scripts here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

I've read the instructions at http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com, but I fear I may not have enough drive connectors. I need 4 drives to make my backup (boot CD, FAT32 drive, 2 TiVo drives); this works out fine since my PC has 2 IDE channels (4 drives).

It appears that I need 5 drive connections to do the actual upgrade, though (1 boot CD, 2 old TiVo drives, 2 new TiVo drives), which is one more port than my PC has (it's 5.5 years old, so it has no SATA ports).

1. Is there a bootable floppy image available to do this upgrade (i.e., that supports -r 4)?

2. If not, I have a new PC with a single IDE channel (2 drives) and a bunch of available SATA connectors; fortuitously, I also have 2 new (still in the box) 500GB SATA drives that I haven't yet installed on the new PC. Can I do the mfsbackup | mfsrestore onto the 500GB SATA drives and then repeat the mfsbackup | mfsrestore from the SATA drives onto the new 500GB IDE drives?

Michael, thanks again for your help. I've read many of your posts over the last 7 years (my first TiVo was a Sony SVR-2000), and I want to repeat what many others have said: you are a godsend for the TiVo community. You ROCK, dude!

If I need more IDE channels...

Or should I just suck up the $40 & add another IDE controller to my new PC so I will have all the IDE channels I need (in addition to the SATA CD-ROM)?

Certainly a viable option as well....