Good Wayne

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

TiVo Redux

I had two big goals for the weekend.

1. Fix TiVo
2. Start Sorting the Lego

On Friday, I downloaded the MFS tools for fixing TiVo. It's a Linux boot for the PC so you can use the tools and backup the TiVo harddrive. TiVo actually still works. I plugged it back in on Saturday and everything seems fine. We even watched an episode of the Twilight Zone it had recorded back in August right before she went all squirrely. I let TiVo go through its setup process because it's been so damn long since it was connect. Is it me or does that sound dirty in some way?

The plan now was to backup the unit onto the new hard drive, but put the old drive back into TiVo and let it fail on it's own. Sort of like the AE35 Unit on Discovery I (you're a real dork if you got that). Because it could be a week or a month or whole other year before it goes belly-up and we might as well get the most out of it.

I updated the software (and that took an hour or so) and then proceeded to disassemble the unit. From there, I had to hook it up to the old PC to run the tools. But here's where it's gets funky. The back appears to start okay, and then if flunks out. Because I'm running a Linux boot, I have to reboot the PC every time I want to see Windows and what it's done.

I do this about 10 times. I'm not really familiar with Linux commands, although they do look a little like DOS commands. In fact, over this whole freakin' ordeal, I figured them out by osmosis...

So I finally get to the point where it's just not working. It keeps flunking out for whatever reason. Gets to about 25 of the 775 MBs and stops. And confusingly, its says Backup failed... [code]: Success!

Nice.

Rebooting Windows and I've got a 500 MB swap file just whoring up all the space.

This appears to be Problem Number 2: The Windows hard drive on that computer is the smallest drive I own. 2 GB. In my infinite wisdom so many moons ago, I decided that Windows could have a whole HD to itself, and, thus, chose the smaller unit. I have always regretted that decision, and here it is biting me in the ass once again.

This is the old PC, which is mostly a collection of cast off parts from over the years. I'm using it for a number of reasons. First, if something catches fire, it won't be my newer system. Second, it's running Win98 and thus has FAT32 partitions. WinXP runs NTFS - something I'll admit I didn't know until this ordeal, but the MFS tools need FAT32 to work or something like that.

Anyone buying this?

I figure that the swap file is now taking too much space. I start worrying about having to reinstall Windows on one of the larger drives. I uninstall everything I can on the drive. I even defrag it (which takes about 4 hours) and then I try it again.

Nope. Fucker won't go... Then I give up.

But it bounces around my head the next couple of days. I surf the TiVo community boards and try to get an answer to my problem. Sigh. It also occurs to me that I've been booting a Linux install. I'm not sure why it would need Windows in there...

Yes, I am a freakin' idiot.

Today I've had enough. I surf around and hit upon a command I didn't try. Well, I got nothing to lose at this point, so I rewire the whole thing, but I use one of the larger drives as the C drive. Bingo, the whole thing starts backing up. Then, just to save myself some grief, I restore it onto the new drive. Now it should be ready to go if-and-when TiVo finally gives up the ghost.

I reassemble the unit and plug it in. At this point it's about 10 mins to 8 o'clock. I thinking that if it works, I can TiVo Lost and not worry about taping it. TiVo powers up and then comes on, but you have to hit the TiVo button on the remote. One thing about TiVo, there are no buttons on the face. Nothing. It's all operated by a remote that's like $30 to replace.

So I turn to where I think I've left it and... it's gone. Mutherfucker! I tear up the downstairs and there's still no bloody remote. WTF?!? I come all this way to be stopped by a stupid misplace?!? I go upstairs - I rummage around the kitchen, the bathroom - it's nuts to have come this far and be stopped by this stupid freakin' thing. GAH!

I give up on TiVo-ing Lost and fall back on taping it. At this point if I find the remote I could really screw it up and I really need to see the next episode.

So while it's taping and the TV is off (because The Boy doesn't allow you to watch TV... that's a whole other story), I take one more look around. I pull the couch out, I rummage through some of the bins in case it fell in when I wasn't looking. We're more and more suspecting that maybe The Boy has thrown it away. He's been very eager to chuck things whenever we're not really paying attention.

I give up. It's gone. I surf over to bestbuy.com and see if you can buy them in the store. Fuck. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I get on the floor and look under the couch again, you know, because it may have magically appeared. But no. So as I sit there I look under the TV again. We've got a Rubbermaid bin with most of the DVDs there. It just fits under the TV on the shelf. Tine says something about checking there. I say I had and look again. Nope, don't see it. But then I reach under to be sure. Or maybe to get sucked under by the little troll that lives under there. But instead my hand closes around a remote. The Remote! Fuck yeah.

So it's all working now. For how long, I haven't a clue, but at least there's a backup plan for when it does fail.

In case you were wondering, I never got to #2 on my list.

Fuck.

posted by Evil Wayne | 11:03 PM

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