# mfsbackup time



## blueshoo (Jun 11, 2001)

So, I finally decided to go ahead and run the zipper and whatever other modifications looked good to my HDVR2. I'd previously upgraded it to a 120GB single HD (when still brand new), and decided I didn't want to lose any recordings during this upgrade (WAF). I have another 120GB drive, that actually reports as 123GB, that I decided to use as the upgrade drive.

Since I didn't want to lose any data, I decided to do a full backup of the existing drive to the new drive, rather than start the new drive from scratch. To do that, I followed the hinsdale instructions and ran *mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/source | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/target*. Unfortunately, I ran into the *Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself* error message. Based on information here, it seemed it was due to the *-x* flag to expand the existing 120GB drive to the 123GB drive running into issues since it'd already been expanded previously. So, I dropped the *x* from the command line, resulting in just *-zpi* for that part. Doing that, the command executed successfully.

So that gets me to the here and now. I was expecting it to take several hours based on the information I'd seen. It's been almost 7 hours now, and it's about 45% complete. Is this cause for concern? At first I thought it was going slower now than when it started, but ran some numbers and seems to be going at a rate of about 1% every 9 minutes, which may be close to what it was when in started. Based on current rate it looks like it'll take another 8hrs 15min.

As I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe the "1-4 or possibly 7 hours" estimate might be based on a 40GB drive, for example, which would mean a 120GB (not completely filled, but still with a decent amount of material) would indeed take longer. But just wanted to check on other people's experience.

Also a big thanks to gunnyman and rbautch for their work, and them and everyone for the support given here. It's a fantastic resource. [Decided not to post in the zipper support thread since this is a mfsbackup question and hadn't gotten to the zipper part yet, but hopefully will be posting a message of thanks there in the near future rather than any requests for support.  ]


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## kimsan (Jan 23, 2002)

blueshoo said:


> As I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe the "1-4 or possibly 7 hours" estimate might be based on a 40GB drive, for example, which would mean a 120GB (not completely filled, but still with a decent amount of material) would indeed take longer. But just wanted to check on other people's experience.]


You're thinking correctly. Image restore takes minutes, but clone-with-recordings takes many hours. If your disk activity light is still lit/flashing and you've gotten no error/abort messages, you're still good.

hint: try this on a 250gb drive from an HR10-250 sometime...then call me back on Monday


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## Endy (Apr 26, 2004)

This seems as good a place as any to bring this up. I recently posted a thread ("Dead or dying HD-112 Phillips Seriies 1?" above, and I think my HDs may be going or gone. assuming I can get them to run enough to back up, I might be able to save my recordings yet, but I'm not sure...what do you guys think?


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## kschauwe (Sep 17, 2003)

blueshoo said:


> So that gets me to the here and now. I was expecting it to take several hours based on the information I'd seen. It's been almost 7 hours now, and it's about 45% complete. Is this cause for concern? At first I thought it was going slower now than when it started, but ran some numbers and seems to be going at a rate of about 1% every 9 minutes, which may be close to what it was when in started. Based on current rate it looks like it'll take another 8hrs 15min.
> 
> As I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe the "1-4 or possibly 7 hours" estimate might be based on a 40GB drive, for example, which would mean a 120GB (not completely filled, but still with a decent amount of material) would indeed take longer. But just wanted to check on other people's experience.
> ]


Do you have the source HD and the target HD on the same IDE ribbon cable? If yes, that will slow you down alot. Put them on different IDE cables, for the fastest copy speeds.


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## blueshoo (Jun 11, 2001)

Thanks for the confirmation kimsan; good to have a sanity check.



kschauwe said:


> Do you have the source HD and the target HD on the same IDE ribbon cable? If yes, that will slow you down alot. Put them on different IDE cables, for the fastest copy speeds.


Ah, good thought; hadn't considered that beforehand. Just got back, and looks like it finished after a little more than 15 hours. Now on to applying the fun stuff!


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