InstantCake + DirecTivo R10

We have two R10 units (DirecTivo) and have used them fairly hard. We got them right before DirecTV had stopped selling them in stores and put out their own dvr.

We have one in the bedroom and I had Baby Q in bed with us and turned on a Blue’s Clues that was recorded. It played and was nearly done (a noggin card game was actually at the end) and just when the game was to finish, *blonk* the box Self-re-started and never came back to work. It was stuck on “Welcome! Powering up …”

Hitting the reset button only caused the system to try to reboot, but stayed in the same “stuck” position.

The next day I swapped the living room box for the bedroom faulty box. Then I worked on the faulty box, opened it up, made sure cables were in right, etc. That wasn’t the cause. So I started searching the internet and found several threads which indicated I could have a power supply problem (less likely) the hard drive could be bad (likely) and I forget the other things. They weren’t important, in other words.

I looked at sites that have upgrading services and finally settled on Instant Cake. On Friday we were out shopping so we went to Best Buy and got a new hard drive, 320 GB, compared to the previous 80 GB one. I’ve looked into upgrading the capcity of the boxes before, but since we can do very little hacking just said “forget it” and lived with the alright 80 GB’s.

On Saturday I purchased Instant Cake and downloaded it, burned it to a DVD. Then I read through the instructions a few times to be sure I did everything right, and then opened up my desktop computer.

I had just started Baking my cake and my son came in from outside crying that he had a thorn in his foot, and I had to leave the room and take care of that, it was a quick fix, but upon getting back to the computer I found a blank monitor and my system shut off. I have no idea what happened.

I went through to make sure the eide cable was in my motherboard well enough, and found that it wasn’t, so I began the battle to get it to work, when it would have been easier in many ways to just take all peripherals off and unscrew the motherboard and put that MB on the desk by itself, then I could have had much more maneuverability in getting that cable into the ide 2 of the MB … but no, I wrestled with it inside the box. The things are very squished onto the side of the MB, very awkward to use.

I thought my cable was in finally, and ran InstantCake again, but it couldn’t find the HD. So off with the power again, and some more wrestlin, but I got it in better (I never figured how it was so very hard, when the cable plugged into other spots just fine, and I have had an easier time plugging the ribbons for DVD drives into that same spot in question, FWIW.)

I ran InstantCake and very quickly it Baked my HD and was done. Success! If I’d just take my system more fully apart from the start.

I put the HD back into the R10 unit, but didn’t screw things down. I plugged the box in, and the “Welcome! Powering up …” screen came on, and I waited and waited and waited, and just when I was getting more scared that it wouldn’t progress, “Almost there …” wordage came up. Yes!

I let it fully boot, let it get further along in downloading channels for a bit, then decided all was good, pulled the power and did the final screwdown/tightening of the whole box.

Wasn’t long until we were watching with that box again and now have approx. 301 hours of recording capacity. The system is much quicker than the old 80 GB one was for a long time, or maybe ever.

I’m thinking about eventually upgrading the other box, but that one I’ll have to do something about some of the recorded stuff that I don’t want to lose, and probably should do that soon, lest what happened to the other one happens to the one that is still running with 80 GB’s.

It was interesting in Best Buy to see how prices have changed in hard drives, and sizes have increased into such affordable avenues. That hd we bought was the same one we got for my desktop in the recent past, either last Mother’s Day (I picked this present) or the previous one. Anyway it was $79 off the shelf on Friday, and well over $100 when we got the one for my desktop.

In the end I’m very pleased with InstantCake, and would like to build a new computer. I’m tired of my desktop setup, would like to have a better processor and easier working on it like I needed to the other day.

I guess we could keep it as it is. I’ll just build a whole new one, with a T2 hard drive, and a dual-something processor, and way more modern memory, and a blu-ray player/burner, a large case, and an HD widescreen monitor. The children can knock around on the old desktop. 🙂 My wish is not to be fulfilled too soon, it’s not right up there with all the other things that need done. It’s just a hobby that I love tackling and usually have to scrap and fight for getting a chance to upgrade anything, or to get anything new built. It’s been awhile …