Re-using upgrade kit drives

[e_sechrest]

I have a Phillips PVR100 (Tivo #2) that has been upgraded w/ weaKnees dual 160GB Maxtor QuickView drives. (BTW, that upgrade was everything weaKnees advertises!) For reasons I'll leave out, I want to purchase a used Series 2 / Series 2 DT (Tivo #3) with a product lifetime service and transfer the upgrade drives to the used Tivo box (Tivo #3) and I'm unsure if I can.

Assume that I will be purchasing the necessary TwinBreeze mounting hardware and PowerTrip for the Tivo #3 box.

1) Do the instructions require that the 'replacement' (dual 160GB Maxtor QuickView) drives be blank? If so, how should I format them? Or will the step 'mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ /dev/hdZZ' automatically format/overwrite the existing contents?

2) If I make a backup file of my existing drive (the original drive from a TCD540080, call it Tivo #1) and save it somewhere safe, is it safe to use the drive from Tivo #3 and follow the 'Add a Drive' steps to add it to Tivo #1? Or should I put my original drive from Tivo #1 somewhere safe and purchase an upgrade 'add a drive' kit?

[WK-Michael]

1 - No - the instructions will just overwrite anything on the destination drives.

2 - Sorry - do you have TiVo #1 or just the drive? I'm confused, but if you can try again, I'll try to get you a workable answer.

[e_sechrest]

I own (Tivo #1) a Tivo TCD540080 that's never been opened/upgraded.
I was given a (Tivo #2) Phillips PVR100 that I upgraded the single 14 hr drive with dual 160GB drives purchased from weaKnees. The renewed service plan finally expired, so I want to re-use those drives in a used Tivo that has a product lifetime service plan.

I'm planning on purchasing either a newer Series 2 or a Series 2 Dual Tuner to install the dual 160GB drives in. Question 2 was intended to find out what to do with the drive(s) in whatever Tivo I end up buying. What's the safest method to upgrade my existing 80 hr Series 2? Add the drive from the purchased (used) system to it after backing it up, or just adding a pre-configured drive purchased from weaKnees? And if I do that, should I take the time/extra steps to backup the original 80 hr drive in case it fails before the Tivo box/new drive fails?


Thanks for the quick answer to question 1.

[WK-Michael]

It's definitely safest to add a new drive. Adding a used drive could cause problems pretty quickly - if it fails, it takes the whole system out. If you do add a used drive, you should make a backup.