RTVPatch Win9x

Single-drive upgrade procedure

• Be VERY careful not to touch any of the exposed power supply components.
• Be sure to observe proper static protection procedures. At minimum you should keep your body connected to the metal chassis of the ReplayTV unit and/or your PC at all times while operating on them. When connecting something up, make sure your body is grounded to the chassis before you make any connections. In other words, connect a ground strap between your body and the computer chassis before you plug in a disk drive. Failure to do this will result in static electricity discharge through the disk drive connector, which will significantly shorten its lifetime.

1. Download the rtvpatch_image_2.4.zip file and extract the files to your PC's hard drive
2. Put a blank floppy disk in your A: drive
3. From a DOS prompt, run the makeboot.bat script. Answer the prompts and it will write the boot disk image to your blank floppy
4. Shut down your PC
5. Stop any recording on your ReplayTV, and turn it off
6. Wait until you hear the disk spin down (typically about 10 seconds)
7. Unplug your ReplayTV
8. Remove the cover from the ReplayTV unit. There are 7 screws to remove from the rear and bottom of the unit.
9. Remove the hard drive from the ReplayTV. There are 5 screws holding the top cover down. Be very careful, especially when removing the screws near the power supply.
10. Set the master/slave jumpers properly on the ReplayTV drive and your new hard drive. Typically you would set the ReplayTV drive to master and the new drive to slave.
11. Connect both hard drives to your PC. Typically you would connect both to the secondary hard drive connector.
12. Boot your PC from the floppy disk created in steps 1-3
13. At the login: prompt, enter "root" and press <ENTER>. If prompted for a password, just press <ENTER> again.
14. Optional, but highly recommended step: Make a backup of your original ReplayTV drive
    This assumes your PC's C: drive is the first partition on the primary master IDE drive, and your original ReplayTV drive is connected to the secondary master IDE drive.
    • Mount your PC's C: drive: "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt"
    • Backup the ReplayTV drive:
      RTV20xx or RTV30xx or ShowStopper: "dd if=/dev/hdc of=/mnt/backup.rtv bs=1M count=310"
      RTV4xxx or RTV5xxx: "dd if=/dev/hdc of=/mnt/backup.rtv bs=1M count=510"
    • Unmount your PC's C: drive: "umount /mnt"
15. From the command prompt, enter "RTVPatch" and press <ENTER>. Note that "RTVPatch" is case-sensitive.
    • If any of the drive sizes do not look correct (like an 80GB drive showing up as 33GB), then exit from the RTVPatch program immediately, and do not attempt the upgrade on that computer and consult with a knowledgeable source.
16. Select the ReplayTV drive as the source by entering "s" and then selecting the ReplayTV drive's number
17. Select your new, larger hard drive as the target by entering "t" and then selecting the new drive's number
18. Mirror the system partition by entering "m". You will be asked the following question:
    • You are are about to mirror disk SOURCE to disk TARGET
      Answer "Yes' only if the SOURCE accurately describes the original ReplayTV drive, and the TARGET accurately descibes your new hard drive.
    It will take a couple minutes to copy the partition.
19. Patch the target drive by entering "p". You will be asked the following questions.
    • You are about to patch disk TARGET
      Compare the disk name and size shown in the prompt. Answer "Yes" only if this describes your new disk drive.
    • Old version asks: Do you want to reset the partition table?
      Answer "No" to this question. If you suspect the partition table on the TARGET is corrupted, you can use this option to try to fix the problem. In general, though, the original partition table will be fine.
    • Do you want to reset the MPEG partition?
      Answer "Yes" to this question so that the MPEG partition directory is cleared. It is possible to copy the shows from the original drive to the new drive, but doing that is not very reliable, and is not recommended.
    • Do you want to reformat the Photo partition?
      (Note: this option is only available when patching RTV4xxx or RTV5xxx units)
      Answer "Yes" to this question so that the Photo partition is sized and formatted as you selected. It is possible to copy the photo partition from the original drive to the new drive, but it is probably easier just reformat and then copy the photos from your PC to the ReplayTV.
20. Exit the RTVPatch program by entering "x"
21. Turn off your computer's power
22. Remove the original ReplayTV drive from your computer, put it in an anti-static bag, and store it in a safe place
23. Remove the new drive from your computer and set the jumper to the "Master" position (Note: some drives, notable Western Digital, have a special "Single" setting for masters without slaves. Check your drive's documentation for details)
24. Connect the new drive to your ReplayTV unit.
25. Screw the unit back together.
26. Test the system out by plugging in the ReplayTV unit. It should power up, show the "Please wait a few moments" screen for about a minute, and then the screen will go blank and the power light will turn off.
27. Push the power button on the front of the ReplayTV unit to turn the power back on, and verify that the proper available space is shown in the ReplayGuide. If not, put the original drive back in your ReplayTV, and get help from a knowledgable source.