# Ability to Upgrade R15 Hard Drive



## ronw41 (Nov 17, 2005)

Has anyone tested for or know of a way to upgrade the hard drive? IOW add a larger hard drive to the R15?

Thanks from a DVR Newbie!


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

I saw a message in another forum from a person who removed the original drive and installed a 200 gig. They did nothing else, just plugged it in. It did NOT work. The box basically went through the "starting up..." message, then went dead. Replacing the original drive, everything worked properly.

I have not seen anything where someone has tried to ghost the drive before installing the replacement.

Carl


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## ronw41 (Nov 17, 2005)

carl6 said:


> I saw a message in another forum from a person who removed the original drive and installed a 200 gig. They did nothing else, just plugged it in. It did NOT work. The box basically went through the "starting up..." message, then went dead. Replacing the original drive, everything worked properly.
> 
> I have not seen anything where someone has tried to ghost the drive before installing the replacement.
> 
> Carl


Thanks Carl. It might be possible to remove the drive and image it to a larger hard drive. I was just wondering if anyone has tried anything like that? 
Thanks again!


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## mphare (Nov 15, 2005)

I don't think that's possible without knowing the OS and having partioning tools for that OS's disk drivers.

Using something like Ghost or Partion Magic wouldn't work unless the drive formatting was FAT or NTFS. It might be, but it may not be.

What was the drive format for the DTiVo? Could those be Ghosted?



ronw41 said:


> Thanks Carl. It might be possible to remove the drive and image it to a larger hard drive. I was just wondering if anyone has tried anything like that?
> Thanks again!


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## Blurayfan (Nov 16, 2005)

mphare said:


> I don't think that's possible without knowing the OS and having partioning tools for that OS's disk drivers.
> 
> Using something like Ghost or Partion Magic wouldn't work unless the drive formatting was FAT or NTFS. It might be, but it may not be.
> 
> What was the drive format for the DTiVo? Could those be Ghosted?


No a DirecTiVo could not be Ghosted. The TiVo Os uses its own file system (MFS).


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## JosephB (Nov 14, 2005)

AFAIK the R15 is just running a "custom" os, its not really a PC OS like we're all used to, esp with the TiVo. Its more consumer-electronics based than Tivo. Its not built around a PC platform. I would be surprised if the hard drive is in any kind of format that a PC operating system could read/mount. 

How upgradable are the sky boxes in the UK? Also, as a side note, how upgradeable are the Scientific atlanta and motorola boxes in the digital cable world? The R15 is more like those than it is like a UTV (winCE based) or a Tivo (Linux based)


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

JosephB said:


> How upgradable are the sky boxes in the UK?


Here is a thread from a forum "across the pond" and it indicate just "plug and play." But, only certain drives seem to work...odd. I only read the first page.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

morgantown said:


> Here is a thread from a forum "across the pond" and it indicate just "plug and play." But, only certain drives seem to work...odd. I only read the first page.


Are the skyboxes in the UK the same as the R15?


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

Wolffpack said:


> Are the skyboxes in the UK the same as the R15?


Different hardware, but supposedly the same design team.


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

litzdog911 said:


> Different hardware, but supposedly the same design team.


Definately NDS, and lots of reports that the interface is very similar, FWIW.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

So is this really an OS and disk partitions that NDS developed on their own and from scratch? I would find it hard to belief they didn't start with Linux.

Anyone put a R15 drive in their PC and boot up Linux and run fdisk, or pdisk? Just to see what's there?


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

Wolffpack said:


> So is this really an OS and disk partitions that NDS developed on their own and from scratch? I would find it hard to believe they didn't start with Linux.


Not sure where you got that from. NDS (just like Tivo) is simply the name of the company that developed the software and sold it to DTV. As to where any of the code is originally derived from, I sincerely doubt they started from scratch...

Check out the BskyB DVR related forums, something tells me you'll see linux mentioned more than once.


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## lee1203 (Jul 14, 2005)

morgantown said:


> Not sure where you got that from. NDS (just like Tivo) is simply the name of the company that developed the software and sold it to DTV. As to where any of the code is originally derived from, I sincerely doubt they started from scratch...
> 
> Check out the BskyB DVR related forums, something tells me you'll see linux mentioned more than once.


I have tried:http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3477513&&#post3477513


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

morgantown said:


> Not sure where you got that from. NDS (just like Tivo) is simply the name of the company that developed the software and sold it to DTV. As to where any of the code is originally derived from, I sincerely doubt they started from scratch...
> 
> Check out the BskyB DVR related forums, something tells me you'll see linux mentioned more than once.


Sorry, I'm dumb. I have no idea what "BskyB DVR related forums" are.

I have read posts that stated the R15's run their own OS. I don't believe it.

Regardless, I know it will be years until the R15 even comes close to what my DTivos currently provide, So I'm just planning on sticking with them until I can no longer do that.


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## walters (Nov 18, 2005)

Wolffpack said:


> I have read posts that stated the R15's run their own OS. I don't believe it.


I'd have found it hard to believe they started from scratch, too, mainly because it's sort of a stupid thing to do. However, if they are using Linux, they haven't mentioned it in their manual or anywhere else I can see, which is sort of a no-no under GPL. Even if they didn't make any modifications at all.


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## walters (Nov 18, 2005)

If they didn't start from scratch, you'd expect it might be one of the OSes advertised as supported by the processor:

WinCE
Linux
Windriver
QNX
ATI Nucleus

If it were Linux, as I said, you'd expect a GPL mention somewhere. If it were any of the others, there might be some press release mentioning the partnership (or maybe not). And there almost definitely would have been a mention somewhere in the manual (these companies want the presence of their IP in a product to be known). I didn't bother checking Microsoft, but I didn't see any mention with the others.


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

Wolffpack said:


> Sorry, I'm dumb. I have no idea what "BskyB DVR related forums" are.
> 
> I have read posts that stated the R15's run their own OS. I don't believe it.
> 
> Regardless, I know it will be years until the R15 even comes close to what my DTivos currently provide, So I'm just planning on sticking with them until I can no longer do that.


Well, you may indeed be right. There is no specific mention at all of linux, or any specific reference to the OS that I could find...anywhere. Just conjecture on forums (here, TCF, etc). FWIW, "BskyB" is News Corp's satelitte provider in England -- and their DVR's are often referred to as SKY+ (with NDS software). Lots of forums over there just like this one (google Sky+ forum).

I too am sticking with my Dtivos until a) they die, b) the R15 catches up, or c) DTV offeres enough goodies that only the R15 supports to make it worthwhile. I think it will be later rather than sooner.

Back to the subject at hand, I'm still curious about the HD upgrade process, once someone "figures it out." The inability to upgrade the HD (which I doubt is true) would be another negative for the R15.


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