DirecTV Tivo software upgrade problems

[KB]

My DVR received the DirecTV software push yesterday and is not working very well since. It did record a few programs after the push but we can't access anything already recorded. I upgraded the Hard drive last year so the DVR is not under warantee any longer. We've reset the DVR a few times since by unplugging it, but I wonder if it can't read the hard drive since the size is different that it originally was.

Has anyone had the software push yet? Any suggestions?

[Arin38]

We received the upgrade a week or so ago and it worked fine, but we haven't done anything to our hard drive.

Try http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/* -- I was just reading it yesterday, considering a "patch" to get the home media option so that I could network 2 Tivos.

[KB]

Thanks for the link. I also have a Sony, but it is only 2.5 years old.
I wonder if reinstalling the original HD would make a difference.

I wish I had disconnected my phone line so I didn't get the upgrade.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, check tivocommunity.com. A lot of people have had problems with the last few upgrades. I havent gotten into the dtv units yet, my old series 1's are still chugging along on their 3rd disk drives, 2nd case fans and in one case, a new power supply.

One thing about upgrades that can be a random problem: there are two 'system partitions' on the "A" drive of the tivo. When an upgrade is downloaded and applied, it is applied to the partition not currently in use. Then the system switches that to the boot partition and off you go, switching back again the next time you're upgraded.

Sometimes one of the two partitions has some 'problems'. Tivo's apparently have a grave problem in dealing with 'bad spots' on the disk under some circumstances. This leads to the user experiencing a 'weird' tivo on every other update. The big problem is the user will have some trouble, get a 'fix' or 'later revision' and the problem sort of goes away, so the fix or revision is determined to be the fix. Then it comes back again a year later at the next revision.

I had this happen to one of my series 1's about a month out of warranty. Tivo wanted me to return it and pay for a new disk drive. I used some of the then fledgling tivo disk tools to copy everything to a new larger faster quieter disk and that solved the problem.

Perhaps using mfstool to copy the disk along with its contents and recordings to a new drive will help. If you cant find anyone with a similar problem on tivocommunity and need a good cheap repair job done, check with http://www.weaknees.com. They fix and upgrade tivos at a reasonable price and are good people to deal with. Plus they're tivo and directv authorized where applicable.

[KB]

Thanks GB.....or th

It's pretty much out of comission now, so weakknees may be my best solution.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Shhhhh...I'm still in disguise...

If you're at all technically adept, try that mfstool copy or do an mfstool copy from the original factory disk to a new drive. You'll lose your recordings in the latter case, but its worth a shot.

In the 'tivo upgrades' section of tivocommunity.com there is a sticky thread explaining how to download and create an mfstool boot cd. You'll need a recent model computer to boot it on, and hook your old and new disks up to the ide channel. If its just an operating system copy it wont take more than a few minutes. If you're going to try to copy the recordings as well, it could take anywhere from several hours to several days depending on the disk size and what vintage the computer is. Its not rocket science but its not trivial either.