Replaytv Upgrade - Replaytv Hard Drive Upgrade - Increase Replaytv Recording Time

The following information will help you perform a Replaytv hard drive upgrade, upgrading to a larger hard drive to support increased recording time.

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**All files required for this procedure are available from our Members Area

This set of instructions is for people using Windows XP or Windows 2000 only. If you are using Windows 95/09/ME, then you will want to use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Upgrade Guide instead. Should you encounter any problems during the procedure related to Windows XP/2000 or BIOS issues, you can also use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Upgrade Guide instead, since it utilizes a Linux floppy method.

Step 1 - Initial Considerations

A ReplayTV hard drive upgrade is a rewarding project, however there are a number of considerations worth mentioning before you begin. First of all is any modification to your ReplayTV will void your factory warranty. If you have a brand new unit, you may want to wait until the warranty has expired to rule out the chances of a defective unit. The second consideration is risk of damage or non-success. As with any upgrade of this nature, there are no guarantees and there is always the possibility of damaging your unit if you are not careful. Using care and taking your time will help to limit the risks involved however. The third consideration is loss of recordings. Although it is possible for single drive ReplayTV's, it is not highly recommended as it does not always work and it extremely time consuming. Recordings from dual drive ReplayTV's cannot currently be backed up.

Step 2 - Choosing a New Hard Drive

Most newer IDE hard drives on the market will work for a ReplayTV hard drive upgrade. Many people choose Maxtor or Western Digital drives because they generally offer the largest capacities. Your new hard drive must be at least the same size or larger as the original ReplayTV drive. If you will be upgrading using the Windows 95/98/ME method or you have a ReplayTV 2xxx or ReplayTV 3xxx model, you have a ceiling of 137GB per drive limit. Some older ReplayTV 2xxx and ReplayTV 3xxx came with 2 factory drives, so you can upgrade to up to 137GB X 2 drives. You can use a larger drive for the upgrade, however you will be limited to 137GB of usage on the drive and the rest of the space will be wasted. If you are using the Windows XP/2000 method and have a ReplayTV 4xxx or ReplayTV 5xxx model, you can add a drive larger than 137GB as long as you use the special version of the upgrade utility designed for larger drives (Currently 2.1.3Beta). The memory in the 4xxx and 5xxx units should be sufficient to handle up to 320GB of combined storage. Larger upgrades may experience out of memory errors. As a general rule to minimize potential problems, we recommend you not use drives larger than 160GB (137GB actual storage) If you encounter any problems with your hard drive related to your computers BIOS or the drive size, then you will want to use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Hard Drive Upgrade Guide instead.

The preferred method is always to use a brand new, never formatted or partitioned drive. It is possible to utilize a used drive however, provided that you perform a Low Level Format on the drive prior to the upgrade and provided the drive does not have Maxblast, EZ-Bios or any other third party software to overcome BIOS limitations installed on it. The upgrade drive should also be completely free of Windows/DOS partitions as well. If you encounter any problems with your hard drive related to your computers BIOS or the drive size, then you will want to use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Upgrade Guide instead.

Upgrade Method #1 - Single Drive Upgrade

If you are a site Member,

Logon to the Members Download Area, and download the latest version of the Win2kRTVPatch program from the ReplayTVFiles folder. Ensure you download the Win2k version and not the Win9x version which uses a Linux boot disk. If you will be upgrading to drive(s) larger than 137GB, you will want to download the Win2kRTVPatch with large drive support (RTVPatch2.1.3beta.exe)

Power down your ReplayTV and unplug the unit. Remove the cover from the ReplayTV, there are 7 screws to remove on the rear and bottom of the unit.

Once the cover is off, the Replaytv hard drive will be visable. Carefully unplug the power connector and IDE cables from the hard drive, making note of the orientation of the cable. It may help to mark the cable with a felt market to prevent a mixup during re-installation. Be extremely careful not to touch the power supply as it can still contain an electrical charge even if unplugged. It is also a good idea to ground yourself by standing on a wood floor or touching a metal object other than the ReplayTV to prevent damage to the unit from a static electrical discharge.

Carefully remove the hard drive from the ReplayTV. There are 5 screws holding the drive cover down. Use caution around the screws located near the power supply.

Once the original ReplayTV drive has been removed, set the jumpers on the old drive and the new drive. Typically you will want to set the old drive to Master and the new drive to Slave.

Power down your PC and free up any hard drives or IDE devices from your Secondary IDE cable. Connect both drive to your PC's Secondary IDE cable. The original ReplayTV drive will be in the Secondary Master position (As a rule at the end of the Secondary IDE cable) and the new large upgrade drive should be in the Secondary Slave position (As a rule in the middle of the Secondary IDE cable)

Boot your PC into Windows XP or Windows 2000. Run the Win2kRTVPatch program. The program display should look something like this.

If any of the drives on your computer are showing incorrect information in the program, (IE: a 80GB drive reporting 33GB Etc.) then there is a compatibility problem with the upgrade software and you should close down the program immediately and not attempt the upgrade using this method. Instead you will want to use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Upgrade Guide instead. Any questions can be addressed in our PVR Upgrade Forum or another knowledgeable source.

The Win2k version requires you to have administrator privileges in order to access the drives. IF no drives are showing up, log off Windows and log back on with an administrator account.

If using drives larger than 137GB, you must have a drive controller that supports the large drives (IE:ATA-100 or ATA-133 controller) If the drive shows up as 137GB, you will want to verify in your Windows disk management utility that it reports the correct drive size as well. If you are using an older computer that does not support large drives, then you will not be able to utilize any larger than 137GB. You can use a 160GB drive, but the RTVPatch utility will limit your drive usage to 137GB and the rest of the drive will be wasted space.

Make a backup of your original ReplayTV hard drive using the following method:

Select the original ReplayTV drive in the RTVPatch program.

Click the source drive (original drive) "Set" button.

Click the "Backup Source Drive" button.

Enter a file name for the backup. You should save this file to your main Windows c: and burn a copy of it to a CD if possible to prevent a loss should your PC ever crash. The backup image will be a little over 300MB for a ReplayTV2xxx or ReplayTV3xxx and a little over 500MB for a ReplayTV4xxx or ReplayTV5xxx

Your new Replatv hard drive should be shown as "Unknown" with a yellow question mark icon beside it.
** If it shows up as "May be a PC Disk" , stop immediately as there are partitions present on the drive that should not be and you will need to use the Windows disk administrator to remove the partitions from that drive. Another option is a low level format. After removing all partitions from the new drive, reboot and return to the RTVPatch program to continue.**

Select the ReplayTV Drive in the RTVPatch program and click the source drive "Set" button.

Select your new, large upgrade drive and click the Target Drive (new upgrade drive) "Set" button

Click the "Copy System Partition" button. You will be asked the following question: "You are about to mirror disk SOURCE to disk TARGET" Answer yes if the SOURCE accurately describes the original ReplayTV drive and the TARGET accurately describes your new upgrade drive. It will take several minutes to copy the ReplayTV partition.

ReplayTV4xxx and ReplayTV5xxx units only:
If you have a 4xxx or 5xxx unit, you will now want to select the desired photo partition size. You can choose from the following sizes of photo partition: 1MB, 2MB, 5MB, 10MB, 20MB, 50MB, 100MB, 200MB, 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, 5GB, 10GB, and 20GB. Keep in mind that the larger your photo partition, the less room you will have left to record shows on your drive. If you do not anticipate using your ReplayTV for much photo storage, you may want to choose a moderate partition size. If you have photos on the drive, you will want to copy them to your PC using the ReplayTV photo software prior to upgrade.

Click the "Patch Target" button. You will be asked the following questions; "You are about to patch the disk TARGET" Answer yes if TARGET accurately describes your new upgrade drive.
If you are using the older version of RTVPatch with large drive support, you may also be asked: "Do you want to reset the partition table?" Answer no to this question.

"Do you want to reset the MPEG partition?" Answer yes to this question so that the MPEG partition directory will be cleared. It is possible to copy recordings to the new drive, however the process is not very reliable so is not recommended.

"Do you want to completely reformat the MPEG partition using a LARGER cluster size?" If you have a RTV2xxx or 3xxx model, answer Yes. If you have a RTV4xxx or 5xxx model, answer No.

"Do you want to reformat the Photo partition?" (ReplayTV4xxx & 5xxx models only) Answer yes so that the photo partition will be formatted and sized as you selected previously. It is possible to copy the photo partition to the new drive, however is will not allow resizing and it is likely easier to format it and copy them from our PC back to the ReplayTV.

Exit the RTVPatch program and shut down your computer. Remove the old ReplayTV drive and store it somewhere safely for safekeeping in case you should ever need to return your unit to factory condition or restore a lost backup file.

Remove the jumper from the new upgrade drive and set it to "Master" or "Single" position. Reinstall the new drive in your ReplayTV and reconnect the IDE and power connectors and re-secure it with the drive screws. Replace the cover on the ReplayTV and re-secure it with the cover screws.

Test the ReplayTV by plugging it in and turning it on. It should power up and show the "Please wait a few moments" screen for a minute, then the screen will go blank and the unit will power off. Power the unit back on and verify that the proper available space is shown in the ReplayGuide. If is is, you are finished. Any questions can be addressed in our PVR Upgrade Forum or another knowledgeable source.

Upgrade Method #2 - Dual Drive Upgrade

In this method, you will be adding a second hard drive to your ReplayTV in addition to your original one. This will give you all the recording capacity of the first drive, plus the additional capacity of the second drive. It is also possible to upgrade to 2 new large drives as well. If your ReplayTV came with 2 factory drives, you will use your original Drive A as your source drive. This method is not generally recommended for factory single drive ReplayTV's as you will need to fabricate a bracket or other way of securing the second drive to your ReplayTV and the upgrade procedure makes changes to your original drive. If something should go wrong, you will have to restore your drive from the backup image saved on your computer.

If you are a site Member,

Logon to the Members Download Area, and download the latest version of the Win2kRTVPatch program from the ReplayTVFiles folder. Ensure you download the Win2k version and not the Win9x version which uses a Linux boot disk. If you will be upgrading to drive(s) larger than 137GB, you will want to download the Win2kRTVPatch with large drive support (RTVPatch2.1.3beta.exe)

Power down your ReplayTV and unplug the unit. Remove the cover from the ReplayTV, there are 7 screws to remove on the rear and bottom of the unit.

Once the cover is off, the hard drive will be visable. Carefully unplug the power connector and IDE cables from the hard drive, making note of the orientation of the cable. It may help to mark the cable with a felt market to prevent a mixup during re-installation. Be extremely careful not to touch the power supply as it can still contain an electrical charge even if unplugged. It is also a good idea to ground yourself by standing on a wood floor or touching a metal object other than the ReplayTV to prevent damage to the unit from a static electrical discharge.

Carefully remove the hard drive from the ReplayTV. There are 5 screws holding the drive cover down. Use caution around the screws located near the power supply.

Once the original ReplayTV drive has been removed, set the jumpers on the old drive and the new drive. Typically you will want to set the old drive to Master and the new drive to Slave.
Power down your PC and free up any hard drives or IDE devices from your Secondary IDE cable. Connect both drive to your PC's Secondary IDE cable. The original ReplayTV drive will be in the Secondary Master position (As a rule at the end of the Secondary IDE cable) and the new large upgrade drive should be in the Secondary Slave position (As a rule in the middle of the Secondary IDE cable)

Boot your PC into Windows XP or Windows 2000. Run the Win2kRTVPatch program. The program display should look something like this.

If any of the drives on your computer are showing incorrect information in the program, (IE: a 80GB drive reporting 33GB Etc.) then there is a compatibility problem with the upgrade software and you should close down the program immediately and not attempt the upgrade using this method. Instead you will want to use the Windows 9x ReplayTV Upgrade Guide instead. Any questions can be addressed in our PVR Upgrade Forum or another knowledgeable source.

The Win2k version requires you to have administrator privileges in order to access the drives. IF no drives are showing up, log off Windows and log back on with an administrator account.

If using drives larger than 137GB, you must have a drive controller that supports the large drives (IE:ATA-100 or ATA-133 controller) If the drive shows up as 137GB, you will want to verify in your Windows disk management utility that it reports the correct drive size as well. If you are using an older computer that does not support large drives, then you will not be able to utilize any larger than 137GB. You can use a 160GB drive, but the RTVPatch utility will limit your drive usage to 137GB and the rest of the drive will be wasted space.

Make a backup of your original ReplayTV drive using the following method:

Select the original ReplayTV drive in the RTVPatch program.

Click the source drive (original drive) "Set" button.

Click the "Backup Source Drive" button.

Enter a file name for the backup. You should save this file to your main Windows c: and burn a copy of it to a CD if possible to prevent a loss should your PC ever crash. The backup image will be a little over 300MB for a ReplayTV2xxx or ReplayTV3xxx and a little over 500MB for a ReplayTV4xxx or ReplayTV5xxx

Your new upgrade hard drive should be shown as "Unknown" with a yellow question mark icon beside it.
** If it shows up as "May be a PC Disk" , stop immediately as there are partitions present on the drive that should not be and you will need to use the Windows disk administrator to remove the partitions from that drive. Another option is a low level format. After removing all partitions from the new drive, reboot and return to the RTVPatch program to continue.**

Check the "Dual-drive system" setting to select a 2 drive upgrade. Select the original ReplayTV drive (Source) and click the St drive "Set" button.

Select the new upgrade drive (Target) and click the 2ND drive "Set" button.

ReplayTV4xxx and ReplayTV5xxx units only:
If you have a 4xxx or 5xxx unit, you will now want to select the desired photo partition size. You can choose from the following sizes of photo partition: 1MB, 2MB, 5MB, 10MB, 20MB, 50MB, 100MB, 200MB, 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, 5GB, 10GB, and 20GB. Keep in mind that the larger your photo partition, the less room you will have left to record shows on your drive. If you do not anticipate using your ReplayTV for much photo storage, you may want to choose a moderate partition size. If you have photos on the drive, you will want to copy them to your PC using the ReplayTV photo software prior to upgrade.

Click the "Make 2 drive System" button. You will be asked the following questions; "This will attempt to create a 2-drive system where 1STDRIVE is the first drive and 2NDDRIVE is the second drive" Compare the disk names and sizes shown and verify that they accurately describe both your drives. If so, Answer yes.
If you are using an older version with large drive support, you will be asked if you want to reset the partition table. Answer no to this question.

"Do you want to reset the MPEG partition?" Answer yes to this question so that the MPEG partition directory will be cleared. It is possible to copy recordings to the new drive, however the process is not very reliable so is not recommended.

"Do you want to completely reformat the MPEG partition using a LARGER cluster size?" If you have a RTV2xxx or 3xxx model, answer Yes. If you have a RTV4xxx or 5xxx model, answer No.

"Do you want to reformat the Photo partition?" (ReplayTV4xxx & 5xxx models only) Answer yes so that the photo partition will be formatted and sized as you selected previously. It is possible to copy the photo partition to the new drive, however is will not allow resizing and it is likely easier to format it and copy them from our PC back to the ReplayTV.

Exit the RTVPatch program and shut down your computer.

Remove the drives from your computer and set the jumper on the original drive to the "Master" position and the jumper on the upgrade drive to "Slave" position. Connect both drives to your ReplayTV and secure them. You will have to find a way to secure the second drive to the unit. See Here for some ideas.

Replace the cover on the ReplayTV, plug it in and test the unit by powering it up. You should see a "Please wait a few moments" screen for a minute and the the screen should go blank and the unit will power off.

Power the unit back on and verify that the proper available space is shown in the ReplayGuide. If is is, you are finished. Any questions can be addressed in our PVR Upgrade Forum or another knowledgeable source.