# using new Western Digital Caviar drives



## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Hi,

I've upgraded many Tivo Series 1's over the past 4 years, but cannot get anything new to work now. I'm just trying to use an image of HDR112 3.0 (which I've used many times before) to create a new single master drive for my Tivo's. This week, I've purchased a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue (PATA), and a 320GB of the same. 

I did the usual Hinsdale MFSRESTORE -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak.mfs /dev/hdc (my new drive was in my pc as secondary master), followed by copykern. I used MFStools 2.0, and saw all the usual completion messages. However, neither of these drives will boot in either of the Tivo's that I put them in. And, the Tivo's were working ok before I pulled out their disks.

I only get the powering up screen, and it never gets beyond that. I've tried various jumper settings when I put the drives into the Tivo's, but cannot get past the power-up screen. I'm only trying to run them as single, master drive Tivo systems.

Is there something new and different about IDE-PATA drives now that wasn't there 2 years ago?


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

I would recommend looking up the switches, but IIRC the p in the -xzpi tells the command to optimize the partition layout by putting the file system in the middle, and the mfs database at the beginning and end of the disk. On a larger drive this puts the kernel partition(s) past the 137GB marker, an area the boot prom can't see. Try leaving out the -p switch in the restore to see what happens.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Thanks for responding to my query. I tried the MFSRESTORE with -xzi, but still get stuck at the "please wait a moment..." display after putting the disk into my Tivo series 1. I'm looking for a readme on MFSRESTORE that describes the switches, but no luck so far.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Did you try reading the kernel log? If not delete everything in the log folder and then try to boot it again and check the logs.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Hi Cipher,

I think I've done this before, but have no idea right now how to do it. My guess is that I would need the correct mount command to get the TIVO disk visible to "ls" and "more" commands when booted in linux on my pc. I don't know the filesystem type for the large disk TIVO. Can you point me to a place where I might do some reading on this type of thing?


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

What version boot CD are you using, and are you sure it has an LBA48 aware kernel?


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

That made me think (doesn't happen often) how large are the drives you have successfully used that image on? Don't know Series 1 software versions, but can you confirm that the version you are using has an LBA48 aware kernel? If not you can try only using the first 137GB of the disk, again IIRC, the -n switch on mfsrestore.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

I used MFStools 2.0 for the above. I think I've used the disk image for 250GB and maybe 320GB drives before. I use the COPYKERN command to get the LBA48 kernel on to the Tivo disk.

Anyway, I just tried the LBA 4.04 tools, and the
"RESTORE -x -s 300 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak.mfs /dev/hdc" command instead of
MFStools 2.0. The restore seemed to go ok, but got a few errors on the COPYKERN:

"tpip -s -o /mnt/kernel.orig \
-k /cdrom/s1_kernels/kernel-3.0/vmlinux-3.0.px /dev/hdc
Are you ready?" y

/cdrom/s1_kernels/kernel-3.0/vmlinux-3.0.px.gz : No such file or directory
writing 1058304 bytes to '/mnt/kernel.orig'
tpip: unknown boot block signature: 0xdbldfac2
Kernel updated!

I did an "ls" on the [email protected] directory, and it is empty. Not sure what to make of that.
Anyway, resulting disk gets the same response when put in a Tivo system:
"powering up. wait a moment..." sticks there.

I can easily imagine that an empty kernel was written, since COPYKERN didn't seem to find the file it was looking for.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

On another thread, I got the suggestion to issue a "mount /dev/hdd /cdrom" command before the COPYKERN. It worked, and copykern finished without any errors or warnings. 

However, the resultant disk will still not boot my Tivo. So, does anyone know how to read the kernel logs when the Tivo disk is connected to a pc and the pc is booted with an LBA48 aware CD? The issue is probably how to correctly "mount" the Tivo disk, e.g. what file "type" file system does the Tivo disk have.


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

All the logs are in /var/log on the Tivo, /var is partition 9. Mount it in an empty directory on the PC by using the same command you used to mount the CD. Assuming the Tivo drive is on the secondary master on the PC and /mnt is unused it would be "mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt", and the kernel log will be /mnt/log/kernel. You can read it using more or something similar. If you have a serial cable the captured messages during boot should have that information.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Thanks again for the info. However, the "mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt" command only returns the same "mount: you must specify the filesystem type" message that I've been getting trying to mount the tivo disks. Do you happen to know the filesystem type for a Tivo disk?


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

The file system uses ext2. The command would be mount -t ext2 /dev/hdc9 /mnt.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Sorry to keep bothering you, halfempty. The "mount -t ext2 /dev/hdc9 /mnt" returns:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdc9
or too many mounted file systems

I also tried just "hdc", and then hdc1, hdc2, hdc3, hdc4, hdc12, and hdc13 before giving up.

Just "mount" returns:
/dev/fd2 on / type minix (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/hdd on /var/log/mount type iso9660 (ro)
if that tells you anything

I'm using a Western Digital 320GB disk, WD3200AAJB PATA /8MB cache.


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

Does the /mnt directory exist in the file system on the PC? I was using that as an example since a lot of *NIX systems have one as a convenience, but please check. It doesn't have to be /mnt, any empty directory will do. You can create a directory using the mkdir command if you need to. If everything is there and you really have a bad superblock on hdc9 (*NIX errors are sometimes misleading), then something in the image or the restore process might be corrupt. Plan B: buy an InstantCake .iso for your model from dvrupgrade.com, one of the site sponsors, to have a known good starting point and process.


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## Steve Palo (Jan 18, 2002)

Took your advice and bought an InstantCake .iso Odd thing, it gives the same result. Baked both drives in separate sessions. Neither will boot in either of the two HDR112's I try them in. I'm still wondering if there is something fishy with these new Western Digital drives.


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## halfempty (Oct 17, 2008)

Wow, I didn't see that one coming. Now I'm at a loss, hopefully Lou from DVRupgrade will see this post. You might also try posting on their forum at http://www.dvrupgrade.com/forums/ to see if he knows of any incompatibility with that drive.


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

Steve Palo said:


> I'm still wondering if there is something fishy with these new Western Digital drives.


Is the label blue and white?


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## David Black (Jan 8, 2001)

I've been trying a restore to a western digital 200gb caviar se and i get reboot loops for 5 or 6 'boots'. However, if i leave it going it eventually does boot up properly then works fine. I think the drive is ok so may be an issue with some WD's ??

(when i tried a different model of drive with exactly the same restore command it worked first time)

David


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

David Black said:


> I've been trying a restore to a western digital 200gb caviar se and i get reboot loops for 5 or 6 'boots'. However, if i leave it going it eventually does boot up properly then works fine. I think the drive is ok so may be an issue with some WD's ??
> 
> (when i tried a different model of drive with exactly the same restore command it worked first time)
> 
> David


Did you run diagnostics on either or both of the drives?

What are the models of the drives?

Are the labels blue and white?


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## David Black (Jan 8, 2001)

The drive that kept rebooting but eventually would boot is a WD2000JS-22MHB0

The label is black and white with a yellow fragile label in the top right

David


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

David:
Go to www.MFSlive.org and download MFSlive1.4.iso. Burn and Boot the CD. Then run dd_rescue, this program will attempt to repair the hard drive. If it works it is probably time to replace the Hard drive, use the CD to copy the hard drive to another Same size or higher of your choice. The instructions are on the website. If it does not work you should get and image called Instantcake from www.Dvrupgrade.com, the instructions are on it's website under forums. Good Luck.


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