May 25, 2005 9:20 AM

jbrad said:

I recently purchased the PTV upgrade CD and attempted the upgrade, but I ran into the same problem many others did in that it wouldn't work since I have the dormant portion of 6.2 on my HD. I don't want to loose the 100 hours of stuff I have on my current HD, so instantcake is not an option. I have heard of others obtaining a larger HD and after running a backup they were able to transfer their data from the old HD (which didn't transfer the dormant 6.2 for some reason) and then the ptv updgrades worked. This seems like a good solution except for those of us that are fine with our current HD space and can't warrent spending an extra $100 or so for a new HD. Is there any other options for those of us in this predicament? I was thinking perhaps there was a way I could transfer the files from my Directivo HD to my PC by "hooking" the tivo drive to my PC. I would then have the files on my PC and could wipe out the tivo drive with instantcake like suggested. Is there a way I can do this?

Unplug your phone line from the unit and just use the unit for a few more days, possibly longer. Read through this thread:

http://www.dvrplayground.com/forum/thread/11207/

You'll see that the problem in fact may be because the 6.2 slices are PARTIALLY downloaded in your situation. Things may possibly work without building a fresh drive at that point.

Sorry its not worked in your particular situation - to date, as hard as we've tried, we can't even replicate the problem here. And we only know of two people who have had the problem at all (in one case, it went away just by waiting).

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

May 26, 2005 11:08 AM

I think you would be better to wait awhile and not let your unit upgrade to 6.2. 311e is still a better platform for PTVnet right now - you might consider creating a fresh drive by either backing up your existing using mfstools, or using InstantCake, as either method will allow you to use the 311e version of the PTVnet tools without issue - those are your best options.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

May 26, 2005 12:09 PM

jbrad said:

Okay, you got me leaning that way now. Is there any scenario where I can use the ptvnet CD while keeping my current 120g tivo HD? Either by wiping it out or (preferably) by transfering it to a larger drive and keeping the 120g drive for another use?

If you are OK with wiping it out, either back it up using mfstools and restore back to it, OR use InstantCake to restore a fresh copy of 311e. If you want to use a larger drive, you can use mfstools to copy and restore to the larger drive, then use the PTVnet CD.

I'll always take the position that you should keep your old drive as a backup, unless you have InstantCake or a verified good backup. I also think that if you wait a few more days, its possible the PTVnet CD will work fine on your factory drive, as discussed in the previous thread I mentioned, but I am not a proponent of attempting ANYTHING on your original factory drive without a known good backup, as well. The last thing we want to see if people rendering their units inoperable due to any unforseen situations, so tread lightly until you have a good backup you can use.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

May 26, 2005 4:53 PM

jbrad said:

I have my origianal factory (40g) drive that I thought I could use for that purpose. The 120g was from a previous upgrade, so it should be good for making all the mods (once I get it to work). Thought if anything happened to it - or a new one I had down the road - I could just revert back to the 40g drive for an emergency backup until I got a larger HD... I was under the impression though that one couldn't wipe out their current HD and start over - that once an image had been applied to a HD there was no starting over with that particular drive. Thanks for your patience. It's been appreciated.

OK, great that you have the original 40GB drive. You can definitely wipe out your current HD with a fresh image. If you are willing to do that, and lose what you currently have, it will work fine (unless the source of the problem you've been having is other than what we've previously discussed). Good luck.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

May 27, 2005 2:49 PM

jbrad said:

Thanks for all your help. Perhaps one last question for now before I make my decision. Is it possible to make a back up from a larger drive to a smaller drive - or a drive of the same size - as long is there is enough space on that drive to copy the existing files from the old drive? In other words, if my current HD only had 20 hours worth of recordings, could I then copy the files to an extra 40g drive which holds about 35 hours? I could then perhaps run msftools and save the recordings back to my 120g HD. Sounds like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too?

No, that isn't possible. The only way to copy your recordings from one drive to another is if you copy to one that is the same size or larger.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread