Upgrade Problem w/ InstantCake not adding a drive

[Jeff]

I have a series 2 TCD240080 and purchased a copy of InstantCake to prep a 160GB WD drive for addition to my Tivo. The process seemed to go fine and I received a successful prompt at the end. Tivo won't recognize the drive and I've tried booting using my primary drive and the InstantCake prepped drives by themselves and both load fine. I've checked and rechecked cable seatings and jumpers (primary set to master w/slave present and added drive set to slave) but still cannot figure what I am doing wrong. Any ideas?

[Lou Jacob]

I have a series 2 TCD240080 and purchased a copy of InstantCake to prep a 160GB WD drive for addition to my Tivo. The process seemed to go fine and I received a successful prompt at the end. Tivo won't recognize the drive and I've tried booting using my primary drive and the InstantCake prepped drives by themselves and both load fine. I've checked and rechecked cable seatings and jumpers (primary set to master w/slave present and added drive set to slave) but still cannot figure what I am doing wrong. Any ideas?

1) does the TiVo work with the original drive? if not, that may be the problem
2) did your run manufacturer's diags on the new drive(s)? if not, you should do so; right away!
3) not clear on whether you built your new drive set with one or two drives; at first it sounds like you only used one, then it sounds like used two.

if one drive, then make sure its set to MASTER (not master with slave present), as directed; if two, then one should be master and the other, slave. try building a kit with just one of the drives and make sure that works, first

4) check/replace with a new IDE cable in the TiVo, that could also be a problem...

[Jeff]

Thanks for the response Lou.

1) Yes, I've had no issues with the original drive and it still loads when attached but the second drive is not recognized.
2) Diags produced no problems on the new drive. Not sure if it necessarily matters but the new drive that I used InstantCake on is able to be booted alone in the Tivo...but I'm looking to add this as a second drive.
3) I'm looking to add a drive alongside my original one.
4) Cable is brand new...is there a good way to test it?

Thanks for your help.

[Lou Jacob]

Thanks for the response Lou.

1) Yes, I've had no issues with the original drive and it still loads when attached but the second drive is not recognized.
2) Diags produced no problems on the new drive. Not sure if it necessarily matters but the new drive that I used InstantCake on is able to be booted alone in the Tivo...but I'm looking to add this as a second drive.
3) I'm looking to add a drive alongside my original one.
4) Cable is brand new...is there a good way to test it?

Thanks for your help.

So basically what you are saying is that InstantCake 100% fine. You can just take a drive that is prepared as a 'replacement' and just add it to another drive and have it worked. There is a method to prepare a drive to be used as an add-on drive, however this is not what InstantCake does. In addition, we don't recommend you add a drive to your existing one -- by doing so, they will be coupled together, and if either one fails, you will have nothing until you prepare another drive as a replacement.

So... if you want to pursue prepping a drive to be added, you may want to google around a bit on the use of mfstools, mfsadd, and/or BlessTiVo to do so, but this is way outside the scope of what InstantCake is truly intended to do...