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View Full Version : Preserving old recordings during upgrade from CD

Kurtster
03-13-2008, 09:00 PM
i read on another thread that I might be able to fix my startup reboot loop problem on my Instant Caked drive by running the install disk and installing with a preserve data option.

I bought the latest version (6.3f) along with the latest PTVnet (6.3x)and I'm on like the third screen and it's saying "This process will erase everything on the drive you connected".

If I had chosen the "advanced" option on the previous screen would it give me more options? It looked like "advanced" was just for dealing with different drive locations.

I'm stuck and I don't want to lose my old recordings unless it's absolutely necessary. I hope someone sees this tonight and responds so I can continue with the process.

I'm running Seagate's drive diagnostics app on the drive right now and it's saying SMART failed and that it has bad sectors, but I don't know if I trust it's accuracy because it may not be the proper version of their diagnostics for that drive. I would think if the drive's really got a hardware error and is dead I wouldn't get the Powering Up... screen followed by the "Almost There" screen.

Thanks in advance.

****UPDATE***
Seagate's SeaTools found about two dozen bad sectors so I think I'm dealing with a bad drive. It said none of them were data sectors but who knows?
IS THERE A WAY I CAN GET MY MOVIES OFF THE TIVO WITH IT CONNECTED TO A PC WITH AN EMPTY FAT32 DRIVE INSTALLED?

Someone please point me to the instructions for doing this. There has to be a ways to copy JUST THE SHOWS off the damaged drive and restore them to a newly formatted 500GB drive...
Lou Jacob
03-14-2008, 03:12 PM
There has to be a ways to copy JUST THE SHOWS off the damaged drive and restore them to a newly formatted 500GB drive...

There isn't.

The only possibility would be attempting to copy the entire contents of the damaged drive onto a new one, and that is not trivial. The tool you can attempt to use is called "dd_rescue" and although there are no explicit instructions which document the procedure, you can read more about it at tivocommunity.com (http://www.tivocommunity.com) in the upgrade center.

Since you've already verified that your hard drive is defective (it is good that you did that; many people either make that assumption, or attempt to upgrade without verifying it), you might be best to consider starting afresh with a newly prepared drive. It has the potential to save you a lot of time and headache.
Kurtster
03-15-2008, 12:45 AM
Yeah that drive was less than a year old so it has to go back to Seagate.
Bought a new one today and installed PTVnet and Instant Cake but the thing doesn't show up on the network.

One thing that's really frustrating is that the installation shows DHCP as my only choice. I used to have a fixed IP. I don't want to yank all that out of the box again and run it upstairs to the PC again for another reinstall. Grrr.

Is there a way to boot to either the Instant Cake or PTVnet CD then use a command prompt to force a fixed IP address?
Lou Jacob
03-15-2008, 06:30 AM
Yeah that drive was less than a year old so it has to go back to Seagate.
Bought a new one today and installed PTVnet and Instant Cake but the thing doesn't show up on the network.

One thing that's really frustrating is that the installation shows DHCP as my only choice. I used to have a fixed IP. I don't want to yank all that out of the box again and run it upstairs to the PC again for another reinstall. Grrr.

Is there a way to boot to either the Instant Cake or PTVnet CD then use a command prompt to force a fixed IP address?

You don't have to remove the drive to set the box up for a static IP address, so no reason to growl. The screen that mentions why things are set for DHCP also mentions that you can change the configuration to a static IP, and that information is here (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45&highlight=ptvnet+static).

The fact that your unit can't be found on your network though, may be a bigger issue. Make sure that you are using a compatible adapter and that your router is configured properly.

PTVnet instructions are here (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7) and support information here (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20).