I’ve been using a 150G HDD that just isn’t big enough. I purchased a 1T, but I don’t want to loose what I’ve already recorded, and would like to simply copy the old recordings onto the new drive, to watch them through Tablo apps (not pull them off to play on a computer). This thread: http://community.tablotv.com/discussion/905/transfer-recordings-from-old-hdd-to-new-hdd has some suggestions, but they’re a little vague.
Can I clone a drive with such a big size difference? Could I use the partition system suggested by @AndyW (for another use)?
Before I screw up my old (or new) drive, I’d appreciate a little more substantive advice–thanks!
I have both macs and PCs, but no linux installs.
Can you just clone one HDD to another HDD using Acronis True Image? It should re-size the partition to fully utilize the 1 TB. I have never tried this, it may be too much of a headache and just say good bye to your previous recordings. Cloning a drive will not ruin the host / primary drive so you can actually test this out yourself.
Maybe @TabloSupport can verify this, but below is how I would approach the solving the problem.
Turn off the Tablo and remove the 150GB drive
Download a linux live boot disc iso (preferably one with a decent gui, eg. puppy, ubuntu, or something else simple):
Burn the iso to a disc then shutdown the pc.
Before the next step be very careful, because it can blow away your operating system on your pc.
If you aren’t sure or want to be careful, physically disconnect the hd in the pc before booting from the cd.
Reboot the computer from the linux live boot disc.
Get to the gui.
Plug in the 150 GB drive, and see what it is named, eg /dev/sda, it should pop up on the desktop (if you see multiple partitions /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, ignore that. You want the drive designation that ends in the letter only, eg /dev/sda).
Write this down! This is your INPUT FILE, “if”.
Next, plug in your 1TB drive, and see what it is named, eg /dev/sdb
Write this down! This is your OUTPUT FILE, “of”.
Now unmount all of the partitions (don’t unplug them, but right click or use a prompt to unmount them).
The clone command should be some variant of (be very careful, this is the step that can overwrite your OS or Tablo recordings):
dd if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/sdy bs=512
where sdx is your 150GB drive and sdy is your 1TB drive
Next launch “gparted” and expand the partition size on the 1TB drive to fill the drive. You can search the web for how to do this. dd is not a smart cloning utility, if you don’t use gparted or some other means of “expanding” the drive, the Tablo will think your 1TB drive is only 150GB.
I am guessing that is it, you should be able to plug your 1TB drive into the Tablo and boot it.
The above is probably not completely clear, but you can probably run down the details using the web.
I am curious if the TabloSupport people believe this will work, or if anyone else has had success using the above steps. I may also be looking to jump from a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive in the not to distant future.
Maybe @TabloSupport can tell us where support for bigger disks, two disks, and migrating from one disk to another is on the roadmap.
Hey @TabloSupport, willing to extend a provisional yay or nay on these two suggestions or offer an eta for something better?
Can you just clone one HDD to another HDD using Acronis True Image? It should re-size the partition to fully utilize the 1 TB. I have never tried this, it may be too much of a headache and just say good bye to your previous recordings. Cloning a drive will not ruin the host / primary drive so you can actually test this out yourself.
+1
Can you just clone one HDD to another HDD using Acronis True Image? It should re-size the partition to fully utilize the 1 TB. I have never tried this, it may be too much of a headache and just say good bye to your previous recordings. Cloning a drive will not ruin the host / primary drive so you can actually test this out yourself.+1
Acronis could probably work for this. Though, there is a free alternative that is easy to use that I completely forgot about.
Redo Backup (http://redobackup.org/). It’s got a slick interface and the tools to enlarge the new partition.
I think I’ll go that route when I go to upgrade my drive…
Though, I’m hoping that Nuvyyo addresses this and provides some tools before I get around to it. I’d really like to just get a 3TB or 4TB drive and only do this one time. But, there isn’t currently support for 4k block drives.
Update everyone: I used Acronis (which was a bit cumbersome, but whatever), and it worked PERFECTLY. I’m using my 1T drive, and it recognizes the full partition and has all my previously recorded shows. yay!
Glad to know I was right and that I could help lol I’m thinking of upgrading my HDD so Acronis will be perfect
I’ve encountered a major glitch. All of a sudden my recordings were failing, and I realized it’s because even though my Tablo says ~850 gigs available, it won’t record past ~150 gigs. It seems that the previous partition size has somehow held so I’m kind of back at square one. Any/all ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Probably something to do with the Tablo auto-delete feature. Turn it off and see how things go.
My only suggestion is format the drive and have the Tablo re-initialize it. The Tablo does not currently support swapping drives and keeping your recordings so unfortunately the tip I gave you didn’t work.
I forgot to check up on this thread…
I ended up using clonezilla to clone the drive (using the dd command would have taken forever) and then grew the partition size with gparted. Both of these tools are on different Linux live cds.
Everything appears to be working fine for me… But, I was going from a 1tb to 2tb drive and haven’t gone past 1tb of usage… If there was a bulk erase tool in tablo, I’d fill the drive with a sitcom that gets broadcast a bunch to test it… But, I am not going to do that and have to manually go through and delete the individual shows.
Though, I really don’t think I’ll have a problem because tablo is Linux and I was using Linux tools.
@allthatssolid
Sorry to hear acronis didn’t work for you. I tried that program a number of years ago and it acted unexpectedly, then. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a problem with acronis.
You may still be able to salvage your recordings by using a Linux boot disc and running fsck (filesystem check) to repair the partition. Depending on what it comes back with, it could be a simple fix. It may be even simpler to use gparted to shrink the partition then grow it again. Gparted runs a bunch of checks and could fix the problem without you having to “get under the hood”.
I’m having a hard time recommending Tablo to my buddies when the tools are so primitive and they seem to refuse to publish any sort of roadmap with dates beyond “Coming soon!!!” or “Working on it!!!” which mean nothing. Even the most simple tasks of deleting and listing seem to be beyond them. I hate to be a grouch but this is ridiculous.
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You are nitpicking features. You sound like the device doesn’t even work at all.
Can you watch recordings? Yes.
Can you watch Live TV? Yes
Can you set up recordings? Yes.
Can you delete recordings? Yes.
All works fine on a Roku 3, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPad Air and Nexus 5. All else is gravy.
SAGETV was terrific. Did everything. But my Google bought them and my extenders finally died, so here I am. My point is that everything is competition, especially in this industry. If Tablo can’t provide a basic interface that is useable to the masses, and doing everything from a Chrome based PC isn’t, then they will remain in the hobbiest zone and eventually go out of business, and we’re all back looking for a solution. My comments were not to crap on them but encourage them that being cute about development will kill them. SAGETV was the perfect solution, but they never got beyond the forum stage once Google stepped in and stopped all production. There are a zillion users of Plex who have screamed for a PVR solution to no avail; Tablo fills that perfectly and they could really ramp up in unit sales and subscriptions but not when the user experience is only for those willing to spend about an hour a week deleting old news casts and looking to see what to record in the future from a bunch of thumbnails. I am in Silicon Valley; we see really good companies die every day, I just don’t want them to be one.
SAGETV was terrific. Did everything. But my Google bought them and my extenders finally died, so here I am. My point is that everything is competition, especially in this industry. If Tablo can't provide a basic interface that is useable to the masses, and doing everything from a Chrome based PC isn't, then they will remain in the hobbiest zone and eventually go out of business, and we're all back looking for a solution. My comments were not to crap on them but encourage them that being cute about development will kill them. SAGETV was the perfect solution, but they never got beyond the forum stage once Google stepped in and stopped all production. There are a zillion users of Plex who have screamed for a PVR solution to no avail; Tablo fills that perfectly and they could really ramp up in unit sales and subscriptions but not when the user experience is only for those willing to spend about an hour a week deleting old news casts and looking to see what to record in the future from a bunch of thumbnails. I am in Silicon Valley; we see really good companies die every day, I just don't want them to be one.
+1
Tablo development, at least what has been publicly released over the past 6 months, has been been at glacial pace. I look forward to seeing what they release at CES next week.
You are nitpicking features. You sound like the device doesn't even work at all.Can you watch recordings? Yes.
Can you watch Live TV? Yes
Can you set up recordings? Yes.
Can you delete recordings? Yes.All works fine on a Roku 3, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPad Air and Nexus 5. All else is gravy.
If this is your criteria for a DVR solution, your bar is pretty low. There are many here wishing for Tablo to succeed but they are going to need a lot more than your list to make it beyond being a niche hobbyist device. Maybe they will suprise everyone next week at CES.
I don’t see how that is a low bar - the device is functional. And it will only get better from what we’ve seen so far.
I guess patience is in fact a virtue.