Frankly, it sounds like your drive is bad, and therefore copying the OS to a new drive is unlikely to help, since you'll just either end up with a corrupt copy, or the copy won't complete. We'd recommend buying a new, pre-formatted drive:

http://www.weaknees.com/sdh4.php

We'll take a look and see what's up with the instructions.

I have a 160gb drive laying around that I would like to try before buying a new one, so fir now I just need the upgrade instructions.
Thanks

I've just tried the site three times - Step 4 works for me every time, with those options (I tried with backup and without). The site doesn't even use cookies . . .

Can you try from a different browser?

With IE instead of firefox I still get:
Please start in Step 1 for the proper instructions.
<a href=http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com>Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions</a>

I started at step 1, I dont know why it doesnt come up for me.


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(c)2003-2007 WeaKnees, the TiVo Superstore. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected under US Copyright laws and should not be duplicated/published in whole or part without permission and is not to be sold/published for commercial gain under any circumstances. The use of this website in any manner (including hyperlinks) in connection with any commercial transaction is expressly prohibited.

Can you give me a full list of the options you choose, from that screen?

Options for your Replace upgrade for your SD-H400:
Do you want to make a backup: No (Saves your TiVo OS to a file on your PC drive for later use.)
Do you have a FAT partition on your C drive: No (Most newer PCs have only an NTFS partition.)
Are you using Windows XP or Windows 2000: Yes
Save or disregard recordings: Ignore
Are you moving this software from one TiVo to another: No (First three digits of 15 digit TiVo Service Number MUST match.)

Works perfectly for me - here's what you'd get (minus the formatting):

----------------


TiVo Replace Upgrade Instructions for your SD-H400:

Support: Use our new dedicated forum for all questions!

For color pictures of the TiVo hardware removal and installation, see the WeaKnees.com TiVo Upgrade Kit Instructions.

WeaKnees recommends using only DVR-specific hard drives in your TiVo. More information is here and bare drives are here.


Special Note to Toshiba SD-H400 Upgraders:

The expansion of this unit relies on new information about how to override a capacity lock in the TiVo OS. Therefore, when the TiVo OS updates, there may be problems with drives that have had their capacity expanded. Please use this upgrade with caution, keep a backup, and be aware of potential problems after an OS upgrade.

First, you need to prepare the boot media:

Download the Boot CD image of MFSTool 2.0 here with WeaKnees Large Kernel Support:

http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso

Burn the CD using any basic CD-burning software package (Adaptec Easy CD Creator works well, as does Nero). Burn as a '.iso' image. If you have difficulties, use data mode 1, block size 2048. If you have trouble booting from the CD, you may need to adjust your PCs BIOS boot options to ‘Boot from CD.’

Then you'll open your TiVo and remove the existing drive(s):


Using a Phillips-head screwdriver, remove (a) the four screws connecting the TiVo’s lid to the case, and (b) the two screws on each side of the TiVo. Set these eight screws aside. Do not confuse the four silver screws from the sides of the TiVo with the other screws that you removed from the back.

Once these screws have been removed, you will be able to remove the lid. To do this, first situate yourself at the back of the Tivo. Reach under the back bottom corner of the TiVo and unclip the lid on each side by pulling the side of the lid out away from the base of the TiVo. Once you have the lid unclipped, rotate the lid up and then slide it toward you. (You will notice that the lid has a lip that is tucked under the front of the TiVo. You will want to rotate the lid up and then slide the lid back.)

With the cover off, you will be able to see (among other things) one hard drive, a ribbon cable that runs to the hard drive and a power cable that runs to the hard drive. The hard drive (IDE) cable is yellow and has a black connector that is plugged into the hard drive(s). You will also see a yellow IDE cable and white/blue power cable that are plugged into the DVD recorder. (The DVD’s IDE cable and power cable are closer to the center of the unit.) Gently remove the yellow IDE cable from the back of the hard drive.

NOTE: If the IDE cable is a bit sticky, be patient and grasp the cable from the plastic connector and gently pull it out from each edge until it comes loose.
The hard drive also has a power connector running into it. The power connector has a white connector (smaller than the black connector referenced above). Remove the power connector from the hard drive. The power cables are sometimes difficult to remove; patience and wiggling back and forth usually does the trick.

Using a Phillips-head screwdriver, unscrew the four screws holding the TiVo hard drive bracket in place. Once the screws are removed, lift the hard drive and bracket out of the TiVo. Remember how your TiVo bracket was installed in the TiVo, because you will be putting the bracket back in the TiVo later.

Connect your TiVo Drive(s) to your PC

Open your PC and connect the drive you removed to an open IDE port, either the primary slave, secondary master or secondary slave. If you have a CD-ROM drive, you must keep that connected if you intend to use a bootable CD. If your TiVo had two factory drives, then you must connect both drives to your PC using two available IDE ports.

You'll also need to connect your new drive(s) to open IDE port(s). We recommend using secondary slave if you only need to connect one drive (hdd). If you are connecting two new drives, we recommend using both connectors on the secondary IDE bus. If you need to connect two new drives, plus your TiVo's boot drive, plus the CD-ROM drive, you may have to disconnect your PC's C drive (primary master).

SPECIAL NOTE about nomenclature: These instructions use the following terminology when referencing the location of a drive in a PC. In "hdX" or "hdY," the X and Y are variables and refer to either a, b, c or d, depending on where the applicable drive is actually installed.

All instructions assume the location of your c: drive (when used) to be in the primary master, or hda, location.

Location on IDE chain Actual command to be typed in lieu of hdX, hdY, hdZ, and hdZZ
Primary Master hda
Primary Slave hdb
Secondary Master hdc
Secondary Slave hdd
Substitute in Linux commands Drive Description
hdX Original TiVo drive
hdY Second Original TiVo drive (two-drive units only)
hdZ Target (New) TiVo drive
hdZZ Second Target (New) TiVo drive (two-drive upgrades only)
hdW FAT PC drive (almost always 'hda')
Set the drive jumpers

When installing your TiVo drive in a PC, be sure to confirm that the jumper settings of your drive correspond to "master" or "slave" depending on the location in the PC (hdb, hdc or hdd) in which you plan to connect the TiVo factory drive (or drives if your TiVo has two factory drives). Note that many TiVo factory drives come preset as "cable select," so you will need to either change that setting to master/slave as appropriate.


Windows 2000 and XP Notes

Booting into Windows 2000 or XP with a TiVo drive connected to your PC will overwrite key information on the TiVo drive. The TiVo drive then won't work in a TiVo. If you do run into this problem, you may be able to fix the drive using software called MakeTiVoBootable.

Boot the PC from the Linux media that you marked "Weaknees CD"

Verify Drive Sizes

Press <shift><pageup> repeatedly and you will be able to scroll to see, among other things, whether the PC recognized your hard drive(s). It is critical at this stage to verify that the full size of your TiVo drive was recognized. As you scroll up, you should see something like the following:

hda: XXX, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM 48X, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALL CX13.6A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: ______ sectors (YYY MB) w/ZZZ KiB Cache, CHS=1111/222/33, UDMA(33)
hdb: ATAPI 17X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
hdc: 26760384 sectors (13701 mb) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=1665/255/63 UDMA(33)

(Note: XXX, ____, YYY, ZZZ, 1111, 222, 33 will all vary, as will the size of your drive at hda, hdb, hdc and hdd.)

When looking at the data reported, you are looking to confirm that each of your IDE drives was recognized and that the size of the drive is reported properly. For example, if you have an SVR-2000 TiVo, you have a 30gb drive and it should be recognized as (give or take) 30000 mb.

If you see a drive larger than 120 GB reported as 137 GB, you aren't booted from the Weaknees CD, which is what you need at this stage. Swap it out and reboot and check again.
Boot the PC from the Linux media

Verify Drive Sizes

Press <shift><pageup> repeatedly and you will be able to scroll to see, among other things, whether the PC recognized your hard drive(s). It is critical at this stage to verify that the full size of your TiVo drive was recognized. As you scroll up, you should see something like the following:

hda: XXX, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM 48X, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALL CX13.6A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: ______ sectors (YYY MB) w/ZZZ KiB Cache, CHS=1111/222/33, UDMA(33)
hdb: ATAPI 17X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
hdc: 26760384 sectors (13701 mb) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=1665/255/63 UDMA(33)

(Note: XXX, ____, YYY, ZZZ, 1111, 222, 33 will all vary, as will the size of your drive at hda, hdb, hdc and hdd.)

When looking at the data reported, you are looking to confirm that each of your IDE drives was recognized and that the size of the drive is reported properly. For example, if you have an SVR-2000 TiVo, you have a 30gb drive and it should be recognized as (give or take) 30000 mb.

If one or more of your TiVo drives is being reported as an unexpectedly small number (eg. 9mb or 10mb), then your drive is locked and you must follow the instructions below.

Unlock Drive (if necessary)

If one or more of your drives is not being reported properly, then you will have to power down (CTRL-ALT-DELETE).

Download DISKUTIL.EXE. Save the file onto a bootable DOS floppy disk. With your TiVo drive(s) connected, boot the floppy. At the DOS prompt, type:

diskutil /PermUnlock 2

The parameter here is case sensitive. The 2 refers to the Secondary Master drive. If you are using Secondary Slave, use a 3 instead. Power down the machine.

Immediately put your boot CD or boot floppy in the appropriate drive.

Again review the output to be confirm that the drive size is being reported properly.

Hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, wait for the shutdown sequence to finish, and power down your PC.

Issue backup and restore commands

Attach both the old and new drive(s) to your PC and boot.

Then:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

Parentheticals are for two drive to two drive or one drive to two drive situations. Replace X, Y, Z, and ZZ with the actual drive identifiers, and remove either the entire parenthetical for one drive to one drive, or the parentheses themselves for other configurations as appropriate. Don't miss the "-" on each part of the equation. The pipe character - "|" - is made by typing shift-backslash.

To override the capacity lock on this drive, you now run this utility:

sd-h400_unlock -w /dev/hdZ

You should see a "successful" at the end of the reported info.

This process will take much time depending on the sizes of the original drives. At the end, you'll see wording indicating the size of the new drive(s) in hours for the newest Series 2 standalone units - you unit may differ.

Align the bracket and screws to your new hard drive. Secure the new hard drive to the TiVo bracket using the four screws you removed.

Now, turn the bracket/drive over and install it back into your TiVo. There are two dimples that connect into two holes on the bracket. Be sure that the screwholes in the bracket align with the holes in the TiVo.

Screw the bracket back into the TiVo using the four screws that you previously removed.

Once the drive/bracket is re-installed, connect the power cable to the drive. Be sure to push on the cable with some force to be sure that it is seated properly. The power cable connects to the drive with the flat-side down (rounded-side up).

Connect the yellow IDE cable to the hard drive. Again, be sure the cable is pushed snugly into the drive. The notch in the cable should face up. Be very careful not to bend any of the hard drive pins.

Look at the front of the TiVo with the lid off. You will notice 9 dimples on a metal strip. In between those dimples and the front of the TiVo is a small gap. Now look at the front of the TiVo lid. You will see a small metal strip along the front of the lid. Hold the lid at an angle and slide the lid’s metal strip inside the gap in the front of the TiVo.

Once the lid is in place, you can lower it down. Pull the sides apart slightly and push the lid down. Once the lid is in place, screw the four silver screws into the sides of the TiVo (two on each side). Then screw in the four screws on the back of the lid.

Finished
You are done! Power the TiVo back up and go to TiVo Central -> TiVo Messages and Setup -> System Information to see the increased capacity.


We're eager to spread the word! Please help - link to us from your blog or site with this code:
<a href=http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com>Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions</a>

(c)2003-2007 WeaKnees, the TiVo Superstore. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected under US Copyright laws and should not be duplicated/published in whole or part without permission and is not to be sold/published for commercial gain under any circumstances. The use of this website in any manner (including hyperlinks) in connection with any commercial transaction is expressly prohibited.

Thanks!!!!

Very timely post! I was considering buying a 500GB blank drive from WeaKnees for my SD-H400. What is the capacity lock on TiVo OS and how do I get around it? I was planning to use the linux utility 'dd' to clone my 80GB drive onto the 500GB and then use the mfstool to make the TiVo recognize the extra space. I don't have a PC at my disposal to use the tools mentioned in the instructions above.

Without a PC, how can you do a 'dd'?

That utility is on the Linux boot disk . . .

I have a Mac and a couple of USB hard drive enclosures that I would use. I've dd'ed hard drives that way before. Thanks for the speedy reply.

Got it.

This utility has to run booted from the Linux boot CD, as far as we know, but you can try it.

I also don't know that you could do the mfstool portion.

Am I typing this correct?
mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdE | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdF

I am trying to replace a 80GB bad drive in a SD-H400 toshiba with a 80GB tivo drive from a tcd540080

It say that backup failed to startup

No, you aren't--please see my reply to your other post for more information.