# MFStools, WinMFS, InstantCake : What's the difference?



## granpoh (Aug 12, 2007)

As far as I can see, these seem to be the software tools people use for upgrading their Tivos, however, I'm not understanding what exactly the differences are among them. 

Thanks for all help


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

MFSTools2 is the TiVo utilities written by Tiger and is now open source

WinMFS is a port of MFSTools with enhancements that runs in the Microsoft windows enviroment.

InstantCake contains MFSTools and script files that automate the command line so the user does not need to know Linux commands instead just answers questions when the CD boots. InstantCake also has a version for purchase that has added utilities and a copy of the TiVo software in case you do not have a good TiVo hard drive to copy the software from.


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

granpoh said:


> As far as I can see, these seem to be the software tools people use for upgrading their Tivos, however, I'm not understanding what exactly the differences are among them.
> 
> Thanks for all help


To further clarify what HomeUser said, MFSTools and WinMFS will take an existing hard drive from a Tivo, make a backup of it, and then write the backup to a new, most likely larger, hard drive. One works from a command line interface, the other from a Windows environment. Both of these two pieces of software require you to have an existing tivo hard drive to work from.

Instant Cake is a self contained solution. It includes a Tivo operating system image along with the upgrade software so that you can start from scratch, i.e. you do not need an existing Tivo hard drive to upgrade your box. It is very useful if you have a dead hard drive in your Tivo without a backup.


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## granpoh (Aug 12, 2007)

Thanks for both replies. I understand more now, especially from the latter answer.


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