Newbie Q about hard drives

shaped the electrons to say:
when the time comes. My question is this: Should I prepare a second HD
in advance and stash it away, or can I format one when the time comes if
the old one is dead?

You'll need a drive image for the new drive. You can make a backup of
your drive now to CD-R, etc. (just the OS image) and keep it around
for future use. No sense buying a drive now - they'll get bigger and
cheaper in time.

There are also sites with images to download if you don't have one
when you need it.

-MZ, RHCE #806199299900541, ex-CISSP #3762
--
Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me..
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-755-4098
URL:http://www.megazone.org/ URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Eris

W7TI wrote:

I have a month-old TiVo series 2 and I have a question about the
eventual demise of the hard drive.

I know HD's fail sometimes and I'm wondering how to do the replacement
when the time comes. My question is this: Should I prepare a second HD
in advance and stash it away, or can I format one when the time comes if
the old one is dead?

The hard drive might fail today, tomorrow, next week, or next decade. I
have two servers running with their original drives - 3.5 and 4 years
old. They get at least as much of a workout as the Tivo unit does. Given
that you could well have that kind of service from your hard drive, the
money you invested in the drive would be wasted. Do what you want, but
me? I have an image I downloaded and should my unit go down I'll pick up
a drive and be back up in less than 24 hours.

W7TI wrote:

I have a month-old TiVo series 2 and I have a question about the
eventual demise of the hard drive.

I know HD's fail sometimes and I'm wondering how to do the replacement
when the time comes. My question is this: Should I prepare a second HD
in advance and stash it away, or can I format one when the time comes if
the old one is dead?

I've read the faqs about how to add a second drive when the original is
still functional, but I haven't seen anything about replacing one that
is dead. Is there a way?

Yes, follow the instructions in the Hinsdale HOWTO.

A backup of the system software + preferences + wishlist + season passes
(but no recordings) is about 200 meg. Keep a copy of that on your PC or
burn it to CD-R. Do that a couple of times a year. When it is time to
install a new disk, use MFStools to install your system data onto it.

There are virgin TiVo disk images available via FTP, but I recommend
keeping the small backup of your current disk image.
-Joe

W7TI wrote:

I have a month-old TiVo series 2 and I have a question about the
eventual demise of the hard drive.

I know HD's fail sometimes and I'm wondering how to do the replacement
when the time comes. My question is this: Should I prepare a second HD
in advance and stash it away, or can I format one when the time comes if
the old one is dead?

I've read the faqs about how to add a second drive when the original is
still functional, but I haven't seen anything about replacing one that
is dead. Is there a way?

All comments appreciated.

I just up graded my directivo to a 120g hd. Rapped my original 40g up in
static-proof bubble wrap, and stored it in my home safe for a backup.
The original hd is a 5400 rpm. Not much use in today's PC.

"JS" == Joe Smith writes:

JS A backup of the system software + preferences + wishlist +
JS season passes (but no recordings) is about 200 meg. Keep a
JS copy of that on your PC or burn it to CD-R. Do that a couple
JS of times a year. When it is time to install a new disk, use
JS MFStools to install your system data onto it.

JS There are virgin TiVo disk images available via FTP, but I
JS recommend keeping the small backup of your current disk image.

About two years ago I got my first TiVo, and bought a 20-hour Phillips
with the express idea that I'd be upgrading it the minute I got it
home. (At that time, the 20-hour cost something like $300 and the
60-hour cost something like $800; I got a 100-hour, give or take, for
about $500.) This summer, the hard drive went south; so I downloaded
a hard drive image from the web and replaced it with two 120GB drives,
and I'm waiting for Maxtor to replace the 100GB drive (which is
probably going to find use in a different computer).

Worrying about backups is foolish, because the thing you really want
to save, more often than not, are the TV shows themselves, and those
take a lot of space to save. It would be nice to back up preferences
as well, but honestly, after about two weeks with the new hard drives,
the Tivo's figured out our tastes pretty well. And if worst comes to
worst, it's easy to download a backup image from the 'net and restore
it -- it's even easier now than it was two years ago.

Charlton

--
cwilbur at chromatico dot net
cwilbur at mac dot com

"Charlton Wilbur" wrote
Worrying about backups is foolish, because the thing you really want
to save, more often than not, are the TV shows themselves, and those
take a lot of space to save.

I think the recordings are important, but I think you'd be surprised
to find out how many people find it not that important.


It would be nice to back up preferences
as well, but honestly, after about two weeks with the new hard drives,
the Tivo's figured out our tastes pretty well. And if worst comes to
worst, it's easy to download a backup image from the 'net and restore
it -- it's even easier now than it was two years ago.

I don't think most people care about the Thumbs ratings they've
built up and understand they can rebuild that if they like Suggestions.
The *big* concern is re-entering the 100 Season Passes and 200
WishLists (or even 25% of that number). That's what you lose if
you just get an image from that FTP site, and that's why many feel
that backups are important. Not for the recorded programs so much.