[sbl]

I replaced the standard 500GB disk in my THR22 with a Seagate Barracuda 2TB. Unfortunately, this seems to have resulted in recordings with repeatable stutter, blackouts and more. I have ordered a Seagate Pipeline AV disk (also 2TB), which is the same model as came with the THR22.

Is there a straightforward way to copy the old disk to the new? I figure it would probably work with a "dd" copy, or some other sector-by-sector method. This would also probably take ages... I am hoping to avoid setting up all my wife's season passes again, and it would be nice not to lose recordings.

 

[BAMCAT]

Hi Steve,
I think that there are only users here on this forum, no software guru's.
You might post over at the AVS TiVo underground forum. You may get an answer over there.
Hope that someone comes out with a program like WinMfs to do what you need.
Post if you are able to copy your programs over to a larger drive and have the expanded space available.
Found a seller on Ebay that sells the 2GB pipeline drives for less than $120 and a 1GB pipeline drive for less than $80 so if recordings can be moved to a larger drive, these drives make a very inexpensive way to upgrade the THR22.
Good luck on your project!

 

[BAMCAT]

Steve,
Wonder if Weaknees could answer your question, or offer a service to move your recordings to a larger drive.
If they can do this, then they might use your new drive to do this and just charge you a fee for the service.
You could just put another drive in your 22 so you could use it until they shipped your drives back.
Thought that you would get an answer to your question by now, guess the "Techies" around here haven't played with this unit, or they don't want to admit that they have.
I am guessing that if you do a bit copy of the drive, then use Linux to enlarge the partition space for the recordings if it is using Linux as its operating system. Nobody has talked about what operating system the THR22 is using, but guessing that it is Linux. I'm not a software guy. The last time I wrote a software program was back in 1978 using DR Dobbs tiny basic on an IMSAI 8080 with a 33ASR. Guess that dates me!

 

[P Smith]

I recall someone (or a couple guys) posted here, they did replacement HDD in THR22 ... or used external instead ...

 

[BAMCAT]

Any luck Steve?

 

[harsh]

The problem may lie in using Seagate drives. They aren't typically on the recommended list for eSATA use with the HR series so there's not much reason to expect that they are particularly well suited to THR use.

I absolutely cannot explain why drive choice is so critical but there's overwhelming evidence that there are numerous unsuitable drives on the market. One should not casually dismiss the experiences of those with HR2x receivers.

 

[BAMCAT]

He is talking about replacing the internal drive, not using an external one.
Why use an external drive and burn another 25 watts of power 24x7. Its bad enough to be burning 45 watts 24x7 with the DVR.
The problem is that he wants to save the recordings that he has. He needs a procedure for copying his original drive over to the larger drive and expanding the partition to take advantage of the extra recording space.
I have never had any problems running the standard seagate drives. Have been using them in my HR10's for years without any problems. Like the eveready bunny, they just keep going. On the other hand, I have used Western digital drives, and they have failed after a few years of use.
Haven't tried the Seagate pipeline drives, but they are a low power consumption drive and built for 24x7 use.

 

[BAHitman]

I replaced the standard 500GB disk in my THR22 with a Seagate Barracuda 2TB..

The OP already replace the 500G with the 2TB according to his post... he simply is changing to an AV drive.

Is there a straightforward way to copy the old disk to the new? I figure it would probably work with a "dd" copy, or some other sector-by-sector method. This would also probably take ages... I am hoping to avoid setting up all my wife's season passes again, and it would be nice not to lose recordings.

dd is one way, otherwise, you might consider looking at something like clonezilla (http://www.clonezilla.org/).

that program will, if the filesystem is supported, only copy the used sectors, else will clone all sectors with dd.

 

[sbl]

Correct - I am, at this point, replacing an internal drive with another of the same capacity, with the new one being the exact same line as came with the THR22, just bigger.

I will be trying it this coming weekend. Interesting suggestion to use clonezilla - had not thought of that.

My experience with Seagate drives is mixed, but in this application, I am seeing dropouts and freezes on many HD channels (though, curiously, not HGTV). The errors are in the recordings, they repeat when played back. It isn't a satellite problem as my HR21 has no issue with these, and the problem started as soon as I installed the Barracuda drive. I also suspect part of the problem is that the Barracuda has various "green" features which are probably inconsistent with what a DVR needs. I have used Seagate, Maxtor, WD, Samsung and Hitachi drives in the past without issues.

 

[BAMCAT]

I connected an external drive to my THR22, the DVR configured it then I set it up. I then made several recordings. I took the drive off of the DVR and connected it to my computer and tried to look at the drive, but Linux did not recognize the file system.
Thought that it was a Linux operating system like the HR10. Wonder what TiVo used for the operating system on the THR22.
Anybody know?

 

[sbl]

There are many partitions on the THR22 disk, similar to other TiVos, but unlike those there is no Linux directly on the disk. Some of the partitions are TiVo's proprietary MFS. You won't be able to make much sense of it. Here is a partition map I found elsewhere:

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/sdb'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Version 1 1 @ 2148865904
3: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865905
4: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865906
5: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865907
6: Ext3 mdi 15626240 @ 2148865908 ( 7.5G)
7: Ext2 Devl 524288 @ 2164492148 (256.0M)
8: Swap Linux swap 262144 @ 2165016436 (128.0M)
9: Ext2 /var 524288 @ 2165278580 (256.0M)
10: MFS MFS application region 589824 @ 2172094324 (288.0M)
11: MFS MFS media region 1733755196 @ 2173273972 (826.7G)
12: MFS MFS application region 2 589824 @ 2172684148 (288.0M)
13: MFS MFS media region 2 2148865840 @ 64 ( 1.0T)
14: Ext3 SQLite 6291456 @ 2165802868 ( 3.0G)

 

[P Smith]

Is it THR22's drive or TiVo Premiere ?

Seems to me it is not the THR22...

 

[BAMCAT]

Hi Steve,
Do you know what program you would have to use in order to view the partitions on the drive?
Guess there isn't much of a chance of copying your original drive recordings over to a larger drive and gaining more recording space without what ever software program that allows you to view and modify the partitions.
Not even sure witch one of those partitions you would need to enlarge.
Perhaps, down the road, the software guru's will come up with a program to copy the recordings over to a new drive and expand the partition(s) like the winmfs program does, but for now, guess that all you can do is put the larger drive in and start from scratch then re record the programs you want to save.
With the THR22, the the best thing for anyone to do is put a larger drive in the unit when you get it.
Too late for me as my drive is loaded with movies and programs that I don't want to loose, so will have to more closely manage my remaining space available on the drive.
Would hate to have to start all over reloading my programs and movies that I like to have resident on my DVR.
Down the road if you find a way of getting your programs copied over to a larger drive and expand the partition, post the method.
It took a while for the Guru's to develop the process for the HR10, so hopefully in time they develop a program for the THR22.

 

[P Smith]

Use MFSLive CD or JMFS, connect the drive to PC, boot from CD and take the info; don't forget to post here - I'm still puzzled if we seen real THR22's drive info here ...

 

[harsh]

He is talking about replacing the internal drive, not using an external one.

The failing in your argument is that in the grand scheme, there isn't much procedural difference between an internal and an external drive. The logical assumption is that how a drive works on the outside should be a good indicator of how it will work on the inside.

What was the case with old Humax hardware has little to do with with the (T)HR22 and the demands it places on mass storage. If a drive is fitful under an HR22 externally, there's a pretty good chance it is going to behave similarly on an THR22 internally. It neither case is it reasonable, but the compatibility issues are pretty well documented nonetheless.

 

[BAMCAT]

Non sequitur statement.

 

[BAMCAT]

A friend of mine looked at this and said that:

ext2 is the old orig Linux partition type. Not used much anymore.
ext3 is the newer journaling partition still used currently
swap is still the standard Linux swap and also for Solaris, BSD, etc




> Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/sdb'
> #: type name length base ( size )
> 1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
> 2: Version 1 1 @ 2148865904
> 3: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865905
> 4: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865906
> 5: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865907
> 6: Ext3 mdi 15626240 @ 2148865908 ( 7.5G)
> 7: Ext2 Devl 524288 @ 2164492148 (256.0M)
> 8: Swap Linux swap 262144 @ 2165016436 (128.0M)
> 9: Ext2 /var 524288 @ 2165278580 (256.0M)
> 10: MFS MFS application region 589824 @ 2172094324 (288.0M)
> 11: MFS MFS media region 1733755196 @ 2173273972 (826.7G)
> 12: MFS MFS application region 2 589824 @ 2172684148 (288.0M)
> 13: MFS MFS media region 2 2148865840 @ 64 ( 1.0T)
> 14: Ext3 SQLite 6291456 @ 2165802868 ( 3.0G)
>
>

 

[P Smith]

We knew that for old TiVo drive.

The first thing first: we need to know if the partitioning info from THR22's drive ?

A friend of mine looked at this and said that:

ext2 is the old orig Linux partition type. Not used much anymore.
ext3 is the newer journaling partition still used currently
swap is still the standard Linux swap and also for Solaris, BSD, etc

> Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/sdb'
> #: type name length base ( size )
> 1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
> 2: Version 1 1 @ 2148865904
> 3: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865905
> 4: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865906
> 5: Rsvd 1 @ 2148865907
> 6: Ext3 mdi 15626240 @ 2148865908 ( 7.5G)
> 7: Ext2 Devl 524288 @ 2164492148 (256.0M)
> 8: Swap Linux swap 262144 @ 2165016436 (128.0M)
> 9: Ext2 /var 524288 @ 2165278580 (256.0M)
> 10: MFS MFS application region 589824 @ 2172094324 (288.0M)
> 11: MFS MFS media region 1733755196 @ 2173273972 (826.7G)
> 12: MFS MFS application region 2 589824 @ 2172684148 (288.0M)
> 13: MFS MFS media region 2 2148865840 @ 64 ( 1.0T)
> 14: Ext3 SQLite 6291456 @ 2165802868 ( 3.0G)
>
>

 

[BAMCAT]

Just going on what Steve said as I am not a software guy.
I only have a Linux boot disk, and tried to look at the drive that I formatted on the external port, but couldn't read anything.

 

[sbl]

I will be starting this tonight and will see if I can display the partition map myself. The map I copied was alleged to be from a THR22.

I am not looking to enlarge any partitions - 2TB is the largest drive that can be used. I have not looked to see if tools exist to enlarge partitions on the THR22.

I am a software guy.