RTV - Anyone upgrade HDs using a Mac? HELP.

You can upgrade your hard drive using Mac OS X, but it is command-line heavy. If you're not comfortable with Terminal.app, it might be easier to just borrow a Windows box for a few minutes to do the upgrades. [There's a GUI for the Windows tool.]

This topic has been discussed quite extensively. Searh archive.avsforum.com.

You can download the OS X version of RTV_Patch at rtvpatch.sf.net.

Some RTV using mac guy should make a screen movie and sent it to l8er for hosting.

Well, the problem is that it's a CLI app, and every computer will have unique hard drive designations. rtv_patch is pretty user-friendly for a CLI program, but the text console tends to be very intimidating for people not familiar with it.

So, to answer stertz's question. Yes, it can be done on a Mac, and should work with his S-ATA/P-ATA adapter. But past that, he'll just have to give it a go and ask specific questions when he gets stuck.

There used to be a Mac-specific Replay forum out there somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now.

The command line HD upgrade is very easy with the mac. Unfortunately, those instructions were posted on macreplaytv.com which is now defunct. You cannot do the upgrade without knowing some very specific manual input information regarding HD cluster sizes. I'm a little bummed about this because I did the upgrade using a drive in a FW case and even added some info to the macreplaytv forum to make the upgrade easier, but this info has now disappeared. Therefore, you need to either: get somebody on this forum to cough up the old macreplaytv instructions, or; borrow a PC.

stertz - if you have not yet resorted to borrowing a PC and are still hoping to do this on your Mac I encourage you not to be intimidated and give RTVPatch a try. Early this year we compiled RTVPatch version 2.5.1 for OSX, which greatly simplifies the process and converts the command line experience into a user friendly menu system that mimics the windows GUI. See this thread for discussion:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2&page=2&pp=30
specifically post #57 where the binary executable is posted for download and post #68 where my personal disk-mirroring experience is described.
I used two cheap ($10) external USB enclosures to connect the source and target drives - you could use one to supplement the SATA adapter you already have.

All you need to do is download and unzip the executable, connect the two drives to your machine and type "rtvpatch" in the terminal. Type "i" and it will search and find the disks, then follow the example in my post in the thread above.

There is some documentation at sourcefourge's RTV home:
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/
but in general it describes older versions of RTVPatch which makes things sound much worse than it will be with 2.5.1, which never made it to sourceforge.

Post here if you'd like more help with the process and I'll talk you through it. No idea, though, if it will work for your 2000 machine.

Good luck,
Freddy B.

"Windows Free Since 1984"

to upgrade your replaytv to a larger drive. I've done it many times without failure.

First, you need:
(1) a new, large drive
(2) some method to connect it to your mac (I use a firewire enclosure)
(3) a copy of the ReplayTV software, RTV_FILE.rtv, on the hard drive of the mac (for a 50xx replaytv, download RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv to your drive). You can find these through the http://www.replayfaqs.com/ pages.

To prepare the drive for the replaytv, do the following steps:
Step 1 *** check for disks:
In terminal execute the command:
> diskutil list
This will show you what drives are connected to the computer. From the output you can see what drives are the apple computer drives and which drive is the drive you want to prepare. The drive will be known as "/dev/diskN" where N is an integer. For example, if the output of diskutil list looks like:

/dev/disk0
#: type name size identifier
0: Apple_partition_scheme *55.9 GB disk0
1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 KB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Kiki HD 55.8 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1
#: type name size identifier
0: *186.3 GB disk1

then the computer's disk is disk0 and the new disk is disk1.

Step 2 *** write image to disk:
If you are using RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv, cd to the directory where this file is located, then in terminal type:

> dd if=RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv of=/dev/diskN bs=1024 count=517121

which produces an output like:

517121+0 records in
517121+0 records out
529531904 bytes transferred in 286.508004 secs (1848227 bytes/sec)

Notes:
1. the "N" in /dev/diskN is from step 1.
2. This took almost 5 minutes to complete. You can watch the activity light on the drive to see that things are happening.
3. If you are in the correct directory, you can "see" the .rtv file with the ls -l command:
> ls -l

-rw-r--r-- 1 name admin 529531904 Dec 28 2004 RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv

This confirms you are in the right directory and also tells you the size, in this case 529531904 bytes. Note that 517121*1024 = 529531904.

4. For a different file, RTV_FILE.rtv, of size M, choose a blocksize BS (about 1024) number and a CNT number so that M = BS*CNT (EXACTLY). Then run:

> dd if=RTV_FILE.rtv of=/dev/diskN bs=BS count=CNT

in the example, M = 529531904, BS = 1024 and CNT = 517121.

Step 3 *** Run RTVPatch:
I install it in /usr/local/bin/RTVPatch
When I run:
> RTVPatch
I get:
*****
***** RTVPatch version 2.5.1, built on Feb 26 2005, 12:52:25
*****

/dev/diskN : Using binary search drive size detection
/dev/diskN (Drive N) : Detected size = 390721968 sectors

The system contains the following disks:

N /dev/diskN, Drive N, 200GB, ReplayTV Disk (4xxx or 5xxx), NEEDS TO BE PATCHED

Commands:
i Show disks INFO
s Set SOURCE disk (currently not set)
t Set TARGET disk (currently not set)
m MIRROR the first partition (system)
2 MIRROR the second partition (shows)
3 MIRROR the third partition (photo)
p PATCH target disk (currently not set)
a ADD a second drive
f FORCE a disk's size
l LENGTH of the photo partition (currently default)

x EXIT

Enter Command:

Run these commands in this order
> s
> t
> p
> x

Notes:
1. For s pick N (for device /dev/diskN)
2. For t pick N (for device /dev/diskN)
3. For p answer "n" to the question:
** Do you want to try to preserve the shows on the MPEG partition?
** Answer 'yes' here ONLY IF you copied the whole MPEG partition!!!
** The safe answer is 'no'
(y/n)?

Step 4 *** eject source:
diskutil eject diskN

Turn off the power, the disk is ready to be installed in the replaytv.

Hope this helps,
-Chris

I have a copy of RTVPatch for Mac OS X, version 2.5.1, which can be posted on http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/ if someone is interested.

-Chris

Thanks for the info all!

I had brought home a PC from work to do yet another swap on my 4k, only to find out that the old PC had a 137GB drive size limit. I came on to find out if there had been any progress on a Mac rtvpatch a found this thread. I was a little intimidated by the descriptions, but had no problem upgrading from a 40GB to 160GB disk using an emac on 10.3.9 with two firewire enclosures.

If you have the ability to hook up both drives, the procedure seems to be simpler even than the one above (which is never the less very handy and nicely written).

Here is what I ended up doing:
1. Download the 2.5.1 version of the rtvpatch for osx from this thread as mentioned above (for some reason the 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 don't seem to work for me): http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2&page=2&pp=30
2. unzip and run RTVPatch in Terminal (cp to /usr/bin or just run from wherever you put it using "./RTVPatch". Run "chmod a+x RTVPatch" if you get a permission denied error and ls -al RTVPatch is missing the "x"s on the permission list.
3. use "i" command to find the disk# of your old and new disks (for me 2 and 1)
4. use s and t to set source and target (for me s, 2, t, 1)
5. use "m" to copy the system partition
6. use "p" to patch
7. "x" to exit
8. "diskutil disk1 eject" and same for disk2 to make it safe to turn them off

Very cool! Great to have one more piece of the puzzle over on the Mac! I was also very pleasantly suprised to find all of my recording schedule and setup still intact on the new disk. In the past i guess i have always imaged from a downloaded version.

Rob

Rob,
The 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 versions from that same thread are windows executables. The only changes FlipFlop made since 2.5.1 are (I think) to the Windows GUI prompts, so 2.5.1 is the latest Mac compilation needed. Thanks to FlipFlop and gatomon it works perfectly and very easily with two enclosures.

Hope you found a suitable "use" for that old windoze laptop...

Strange. I tried the 2.5.1 binary from here in the forums, and it doesn't list any drives attached to my system. Not the internal, nor the two external drives in firewire cases.

I compiled the latest CVS pull from SourceForge and although it had no errors during compilation, it behaves the same as the 2.5.1 binary I downloaded.

I'm running 10.4.4 on a 1.5Ghz G4 PowerBook if that is of any use.

Thanks!
Steve

Steve,
I just successfully patched a 160GB drive from a 40 using a similar configuration (10.4.4, 1.25 GHz powerbook), with the two drives in external USB cases. From my limited experiences (please Chris, Gary, or other veterans correct me if necessary), I don't believe that rtvpatch should see your internal drive, so there could be a problem in the way your firewire's are connected.

When you plugged them in, did the finder display a message to the effect that "you have inserted a disk that OSX cannot read", then been given the choices to eject, erase, or ignore? You must choose "Ignore" so that the unix system will recognize the disks. They will not show up on the desktop as hard disks normally do, but if you launch "Disk Utility" you will see them there as /dev/disk1 and /dev/disk2 (your internal will be /dev/disk0).

Hope this helps somewhat...

Thanks Freddy, that was the problem. I found that at about midnight last night.

My problem was made worse because I was going to re-use a drive I had been using on the Mac, so it was mounted. I put some debugging stuff in the rtvpatch program to see how far it was getting and when I saw it was failing on being able to open the drive in RW mode I had one of those "Doh!" moments. I unmounted it and all was well.

So I was able to use two external firewire cases to upgrade from my 40GB to a 200GB drive, and was very pleased with the process. My original drive had a considerable number of bad blocks, even though it appeared to be functioning fine. The new drive seems to be working fine as well after being duped from there.

Just an FYI, I had purchased a Hitachi 250GB/8MB cache drive for the purpose, but the replay wouldn't boot from it, so I swapped it with a 200GB Seagate I had in my firewire enclosure. I saw notes about problems with the Hitachi 400GB, so I guess the problem extends beyond that model. I also found a post by someone who had problems with a Hitachi 160GB as well.

I have to remove my showstoppper drive because it got into a mounting loop.
Knowing mpegstreamclip can convert the mpeg to dvd format in Mac OSX is one thing, but the showstopper drive is not mountable !
Another question, I tried to use a previous Mac drive in rtvpatch 2.51 for mac.
But the step stalled with target step because it is not a replaytv drive!
Must i use a brand new virgin drive that has never been formatted by anothe PC/Mac?

You don't need to mount the drive in the Finder. Just use the CLI extract_rtv to suck the MPGs off the RTV disk.

I think this is still the official homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/flipflop7146/

I also have an OS X PPC binary of the app if you have trouble finding it.

I went to the link and could not find CLI extract_rtv for mac osx on the homepage of extract _rtv, where only Window and Linux version is posted.
In addition, does the program work with Showstoppper drive, which i have put in a ext firewire case and not by the ethernet cable like the Replaytv 5000?
Last of all, what do you think about my question whether only brand new unformatted drive to be used?
I ended up using disk utillity to format the drive to MSDOS, but it would not work because there is a boot partition on it, then i zero the drive and partition it to one volume only, and rtv suddenly allows me to use it as target.
At this moment , my mpeg copying is almost done.So will know whether it is successful.

My former Mac drive did work as a new Replaytv drive, formatted as i described.
But as soon as I tried to update the program list, the unit failed with endless restart loop.
My unit is equipped with a Mikeyboy power supply, so I thought perhaps the power supply died again, except i remember the sign was completely different.
As i checked Mikeyboy's home page, i discover this
http://www.replaytvparts.com/3000PowerConnectorFix.html
I followed the instructions, remove the PIM, problem fixed.
Now i just need to figure out how best to extract the mpeg files from the old drive.
CLI has to do with command line instructions, i figured that out myself.
Using rtv patch with two firewire enclosures, patching the old drive to a new drive is definitely the way to go for somebody like me who didn't a thing about terminal.

After reading all the different instructions, I finally figured out how to install image software on a hard drive for ReplayTV. Since I was not transfering data from one hard drive to another, I did'nt need to use the RTVPatch software. I just used the Mac Terminal utility. First I ran a command to show me what hard drives were hooked up.

diskutil list
in the terminal window shows all the hard drives. I had a 40 gig Maxtor inside a firewire case hooked up, and it showed up as a 38 gig drive identified as dev/disk2.

I then used the cd command to get to the directory where the image file for a 40 gig(40 hr) hard drive. The image file I used was RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv
It was on the desktop so I used the commmand
cd desktop

in the terminal window. (cd stands for change directory)
The file path then was then something like david-shipleys-computer-david shipley desktop


I then ran the command to send the Replay factory image file to the 40 gig hard drive. The command was
dd if=RTV_5K_FactoryReset_140.rtv of=/dev/diskN bs=1024 count=517121
(where I subsituted /disk2 for /diskN)

I had to unmount the hard drive, by thowing it in the trash, because it said the drive was busy.
It then after about 5 minutes completed the transfer, and I installed the drive in my ReplayTV, and it worked.
dave

Actually you still should use it. The only time you can get away with not is if you are restoring back to the identical drive model the back-up was created from, or to one slightly larger. Anything larger and you are losing all additional capacity by not patching. If the new drive is smaller, provided it even boots in the Replay, it will crash once it attempts to access the mapped but non-existing sectors.

So it's really much better to always "patch" after loading any image.

Ken hits the nail. If you don't patch, the ReplayTV won't change the drive size. What would happen if you restored to a smaller drive without patching? I'm thinking some really evil things would occur.

Or as Johny Cochran would have said it..

If the size don't match!
You didn't patch!

Last year I reported my "proud"achievement of patching rtv with mac despite not knowing a thing of command line, thanks to people posting here.
Now my replay tv is having trouble to update the channel guide, and i would like to be able to do instant recording. But when i press record, it just said program is finished and won't do the job. Somewhere in the forum said there is a patch to allow that. How do i use mac to achieve that patch?