# Cloned drive wont boot



## Swytch (Jan 27, 2006)

I have a DirecTV HR10-250 with software version 3.1.5f.

I am trying to clone my original Tivo drive to a new drive of the same size (250GB). My original boots fine, but the clone will not boot past the "Welcome powering up" screen (it does not seem like the drive even spins up or is accessed).

I have a Backup of my original Tivo drive that I made several years ago, and I also made a new backup yesterday.

I have tried all combinations I can think of and cannot get the clone to boot. I have tried mfsrestore from the original backup, from the new backup, and also drive to drive using a mfsbackup | mfsrestore command. I have been looking at the WeaKnees upgrade instructions (tivo.upgrade-instructions.com) and the Hindsdale how-to. The general command I am using from the WeakNees guide is (hda is a FAT32 drive with the backup files, hdc is my cd-rom, hdd is destination drive):

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/tivo.bak /dev/hdd

I have tried this with and without the "-s 127" option, with and without the "-r 4" option with and without the "-x" option, and with and without the "-b" option. no matter the command I use it finishes, but does not boot.

I am booting from the MFSTools 2.0 CD that I burned a couple years ago.

Thanks in advance for any help.


----------



## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

Have you checked or tried different jumper settings on the new drive? Since you've got it mounted as hdd, are you using cable select or do you have the jumpers set as slave? The drive needs to be set to either "single" or "cable select" when it's installed back in the Tivo.

If that doesn't help, then you could next try doing a drive to drive copy with WinMFS or the MFSLive boot CD. If that doesn't work, then your new drive may just be bad.


----------



## BOBCAT (Nov 28, 2002)

Use WINmfs/MSFlive to copy the drive. It is a GUI point and click based program which makes it very easy to clone TiVo drives. It has a boot sector repair routine that most likely will fix your problem. 
If it doesn't fix it, use MFSlive to copy your drive. It copy's a lot faster than MFStools.

Here is the link for MFSlive:

http://www.mfslive.org/download.htm


----------



## Swytch (Jan 27, 2006)

Yes I have checked the jumper settings, I normally leave it as Cable Select (orig Tivo Drive was installed as CS), and set it to CS when installed in PC, I have also tried it with it set as Master.

Does Winmfs run from within windows (thought booting into XP with Tivo Drive attached would ruin the signature on the Tivo Drive and it would no longer boot)? Will it work from a MFSTools backup image? or can it create its own?

If the new drive was bad wouldn't I get errors trying to write to it?

Thanks for the suggestions/information so far


----------



## Enrique (May 15, 2006)

Swytch said:


> Does Winmfs run from within windows (thought booting into XP with Tivo Drive attached would ruin the signature on the Tivo Drive and it would no longer boot)? Will it work from a MFSTools backup image? or can it create its own?


I believe it can work with MFSTools backup image, but it can also create its own.

(IIRC)That's why you need SP2 or higher for XP, as it no longer auto mounts(So it no longer ruins the Tivo image).



> Mounting drives:
> There are numerous discussions on why connecting a TiVo drive to a Windows machine is bad because it will make the drive not boot. It's partly true. Older Windows OS versions like 2000 did auto mount a drive and assigned a letter if you booted the drive even though it's not mounted. This behavior is changed since Windows 2000 sp2 or later so rest assured. Even if that happens, all it does it overwrite TiVo bootpage which is on sector 0, or first 512 bytes of the hard drive with Windows version of MBR. You can easily fix that problem with the included "Fix Bootpage" tool. You can also backup your bootpage with the backup option.


----------



## Swytch (Jan 27, 2006)

Your quote refers to windows 2000 SP2, are you sure that XP SP2 and above (Im on XP SP3) wont affect the signature on the Tivo drive. I'm really reluctant to boot into XP with my currently only working Tivo drive attached and risk it being unbootable as well. I have read that "MakeTivoBootable" (used to fix drives that were booted into XP) can be a pain to get working.

I also haven't tried restoring my backup images to my orig Tivo in case the backups aren't any good.


----------



## Enrique (May 15, 2006)

Swytch said:


> Your quote refers to windows 2000 SP2, are you sure that XP SP2 and above (Im on XP SP3) wont affect the signature on the Tivo drive.


100%. I have done it myself(On XP SP2/3, Vista SP1 and Win7 current)


----------



## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

Swytch said:


> Your quote refers to windows 2000 SP2, are you sure that XP SP2 and above (Im on XP SP3) wont affect the signature on the Tivo drive. I'm really reluctant to boot into XP with my currently only working Tivo drive attached and risk it being unbootable as well. I have read that "MakeTivoBootable" (used to fix drives that were booted into XP) can be a pain to get working.
> 
> I also haven't tried restoring my backup images to my orig Tivo in case the backups aren't any good.


WinMFS is perfectly safe to run on XP SP2 or SP3. I've used it dozens of times on XP SP2/SP3.

Just go read about it over at Mfslive.org if you are still worried. It lists the System Requirements as "WinXP sp2 or higher" and then states "WinMFS is reported to work on the following Windows Versions: Win XP Sp2 and Sp3, Win XP 64 Sp2, Win2003 Sp1, Win2003 64 Sp1, Vista, Vista 64".


----------



## Swytch (Jan 27, 2006)

I tried WinMFS and it still won't boot. I tried drive to drive copy and tried making a new backup from WinMFS and restoring that. I tried backing up and restoring the bootpage, I tried the swapfix and the bootpage fix.

I also tried another drive and can't get it to boot. I have a Maxtor QuickView 6L250R0 that was upgraded a long time ago (and zippered), but stopped booting over the weekend (reason I am restoring to a new drive). The new drive I am trying to restore to is the same model drive, but brand new (I have had it sealed since I bought it a couple years ago). I also tried another different model Maxtor 250GB drive that I have been using as storage on my PC, but was empty (was using as FAT32 drive for backups) and can't get it too boot either. The original drive that still boots is a Western Digital.

All drives but the Original don't seem to make any noise like the hard drive is being accessed when plugged into the Tivo. IS there a chance that my Tivo just wont recognize Maxtor drives anymore?

I will try MFSLive boot cd later today, does anyone have any other suggestions?


----------



## Swytch (Jan 27, 2006)

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do at this point?

I don't want to buy a new drive, wait for it, and then have it not work either, but I guess this is my only option?

Should I try to restore my image to the original drive to narrow it down to the other drives are bad? or should I not risk a restore that could make my orig drive not work and then I have no bootable drive?

The only other drives I have are SATA, I could buy a SATA to IDE adapter, but I don't know if any of my SATA drives are compatible with TIVO (they arent DVR HDs - I think they are Seagate Barracuda's).


----------



## Eddief66 (Oct 24, 2009)

I just did a straight copy using the following command:



> mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hdb


where hda is the tivo drive and hdb is the new drive and with only those two drives in my computer and it worked perfectly. I don't pretend to be linux literate so I don't know what all the switches are for, it's just part of some instructions I found.

Edit: Note that the "q" is a small "Q".


----------



## coachO (Nov 26, 2004)

Go to tivoundergound and ask your question. I zippered mine a few times but it has been a few years so I don't recall all the details. I just printed out the instructions under hacking series 2 and typed the commands. 

I still use my HR10-250 for OTA sporting events and was thinking I will have to do this again soon also unless the new tivo comes out soon.


----------

