# Need some help with the DSR704



## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

Hi. I'm new to these forums, but seeing as this is where I initially learned to upgrade my single HDD DSR704 (40 GB ~ 35 hrs) to a dual HDD DSR704 (40 GB + 60 GB = 100 GB ~ 88 hrs), I figured that maybe you guys can help me with some questions that I have.

1) If I took my single HDD DirecTiVo and added a second drive to it, can I ever go back to make it a single HDD DirecTiVo again? As I said above, I currently have 100 GB total in my TiVo and I wanted to revert to a single HDD of 160 GB. I tried to follow the directions to make a backup of all the shows and such using the "Interactive Weaknees TiVo Upgrade" page to help me, but the commands that they give me just keep giving me errors. That's why I was wondering if there was NO WAY possible for me to go from 1 HDD -> 2 HDD -> back to 1 HDD. Any help on this would be great.

2) If the above IS possible, what would be the commands to revert my 100 GB TiVo (2 HDD's) to a 40 GB TiVo (1 HDD). I'm thinking the reason why I couldn't get my commands to work was because I had already synchronized the original drive to work with a second drive. If this is possible, can you guys point me in the right direction?

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

You cannot easily go back to a single hard drive and save recordings. You can use mfsbackup with the -s option to back up the hard drives and then expand to a new hard drive with mfsrestore. This will save your settings and season passes, but no programs.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

So I should connect both drives (40 and 60 GB) and back them up. Then restore them to the 160 GB, is that right?


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

That is correct.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX /dev/hdY

The above command is the one used to back up two drives, what is the -s command that you speak of? BTW, I'm not a Linux user, so I'm in the learning stages.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

You have got it in there. The -1so includes the s switch, so this will make a backup of just the system and settings. Also note that the X and Y in hdX and hdY must be replaced with the proper letters associated with where the drives are connected to yout computer.

a=primary master
b=primary slave
c=secondary master
d=secondary slave


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

Okay, thank you very much. 

I have three more questions, then I promise I'll stop.  (maybe)  

1) When I use the -s switch, will it also save my Season Pass info, or just settings. I want to know so that I can at least write down the stuff that I have season passed.

2) Will my 160 GB drive that I am going to put into my TiVo show up as a 160 GB, or as a 137 GB?

3) After I've backed up the two drives onto my FAT32 hda drive, will I ever need to connect my TiVo drives again? I noticed that there is a Linux command that calls for the TiVo drive once again.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

How will this have to be modified to word with my drives? Will it be...

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX /dev/hdY | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

Or will the files be brought from the hda with this command...

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ

-----------------------------

Again, I appreciate the time you are using to help me out.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

1) It saves both settings and season passes.

2)You want to use an LBA48 boot disk to do the upgrade. These are available for free download from both Weaknees.com and ptvupgrade.com. These contain the mfstools on a LBA48 aware (large drive) Linux kernel. I assume that you have software version 6.2 on your TiVo. If you use the LBA48 disk, you will use the full 160 GB.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

haha, you answered so fast that I couldn't edit my text before you did, I had a third question to add...

3) After I've backed up the two drives onto my FAT32 hda drive, will I ever need to connect my TiVo drives again? I noticed that there is a Linux command that calls for the TiVo drive once again.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX (/dev/hdY) | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ (/dev/hdZZ)

How will this have to be modified to word with my drives? Will it be...

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX /dev/hdY | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

Or will the files be brought from the hda with this command...

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdZ

-----------------------------

As for the Linux boot disk, I'm using this one "MFSTool 2.0 here with WeaKnees Large Kernel Support" I'm assuming that is the right one?

I keep reading that even if I do this "upgrade" that my drive will not be able to use the whole drive space, is this true?

Again, I appreciate the time you are using to help me out.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

The mfsbackup -Tao command is used to copy the contents of your hard drive to another. This can only be used if you had not already expanded once.

Use the mfsrestore command - That one is correct.

The linux boot disk sounds correct. You can easily tell when you boot with your new drive attached. Hold the shift key down and press <Page Up> a few times until you see the recognized size of the drive. If you see the drive size as the actual size rather than something near 137GB, you are good.

The information about not using anthing beyond 137GB is fairly old. All series 2 TiVos that have up to date software have an LBA48 kernel. (Yours is a series 2). The limit does still apply to Series 1 TiVos, unless you replace the kernel, so this is why the information seems to be still around.

Glad to help out.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

Okay, yesterday I was trying the 

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

command and I couldn't get the primary master to mount. But what was funny was that it kept telling me that it already was mounted. Does that drive get automatically mounted? Do I really need that "1" after the hda? I've seen some places say that I have to use the 

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos

and then do the

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/dos/backup.bak /dev/hdX /dev/hdY

commands in order to mount the drive and start the backup. Any truth to this? I figured the 

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

command in the "interactive" intructions would just mount the drive and save the backup on the drive without a directory.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

You only need to mount the drive that is the FAT32 partition where you will put your backup or restore your backup from. I assume this is what you are trying to mount. In Linux a directory is created to be the "mount point" for a drive. The top level of the drive is found in this directory after it is mounted. You can use /mnt as the mount point. This is done in some instructions. the /mnt directory is usually found already created on most boot disks.

The dos directory is a subdirectory under /mnt and must be created (using mkdir). Once created, it can be used as a mount point. Stick to one or the other to avoid confusion. The mount command just mounts the drive. In order to make a backup, you must use mfsbackup as you listed. 

Which to mount - You must always mount a partition on a drive. If you have a drive with a single FAT32 partition, /dev/hda1 would be what you would mount. If you have more than one partitio on the drive, you will need to figure out what partition your FAT32 partition is recognized as.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

I have tried the 

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

but it never works. The drive (hda) is FAT32 formatted with 1 partition. Like I mentioned, when I type out

mount

on the prompt it tells me that hda1 is already mounted. Maybe if I had more than 1 partition then I would need to mount it. It seems like the boot mounts it up when it goes through the boot process.

Thanks for the info, I'll be trying this when I get home.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

The error messages from mount are very misleading. I think it is the first message that you should look at.


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## Teach (Jul 26, 2006)

Okay, I figured out the mount command, and did the backup and restore. Everything worked great. Now my 35 hour TiVo is 140 hours. Thanks wscannell.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

You are welcome. Glad it worked out.


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