# Problems upgrading 2 drives to large single drive



## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

I have an upgraded Philips DSR7000 DirecTiVo that started exhibiting disk issues (picture freeze and completely unresponsive until a power cycle), so I decided just to replace the drives with a single new drive. I'm trying to save the recordings (have whole seasons of shows that I'm just getting around to watching).

The old configuration was the original 40GB A drive expanded with a 120GB B drive. I want to move the recordings on to a single 320GB drive (Maxtor PATA).

I'm using the Hinsdale dated 10/3/06 to guide me through. I used the upgrade configuration #6 (Any Dual Drive TiVo to New Single Large A Drive). I started out using the following command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 160 -xzpi - /dev/hdd​
...but that resulted in an error regarding not enough space to restore image. After digging through the forums, discovered may posts about trying to expand an already expanded drive, so I then went with this command (even through nearly 50% of the drive capacity would go unused)...

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdd​
This worked! 159Gb backed up and restored successfully, no errors (after about 20 hrs).

Installed the single new 300Gb A drive back in the TIVO, jumpered as master, checked all cables and fired up... GSOD that doesn't ever go away (doesn't reboot, it just sits there). Let is sit overnight just in case - no change. Checked the connections, re-jumpered as Cable Select, drive still connected to the far end of the cable, and still get the same thing.

What am I missing?

If I put the drive back on my PC (using the Linux CD) what can I look for?

Thanks for the help!

John


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## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

After digging through the forum some more, came up with two possibilities so far: 

1.) my mfsrestore command should have included the -r 4 switch since the new drive is 320Gb 

2.) should have increased my swap file using -s 160. Didn't think I needed to since the capacity was only going to be 160Gb because I've already expanded once. 

Comments (before I spend the next 20 hrs redoing my backup/restore)? 
Does it look like I'm on the right track? 

Thanks for looking. 
John


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## puffdaddy (Mar 1, 2006)

I've seen GSoD's start after an upgrade when the swap has not been initialized correctly. If you used the -s 160, then your swap would be busted.

The -r 4 switch shouldn't be needed as none of your partitions are larger than 274GB.

A serial cable would might help further diagnose, or pull the drive and inspect the logs.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You don't need/can't use the -x option in the restore, unless you use the -s option in the backup half.

The x option simply makes the available drive space into a media partion , and add is to the empty partition table entry, which you don't have.

The -s option in the backup sets the stock media partitions as null, and unmarries and expanded partition(s), losing recordings in the process.


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## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

On my last attempt I used -s 127 since that's what I used when I expanded originally with the 120Gb drive. Didn't use Tpip since the swap didn't exceed 127. Maybe that was a bad assumption.

Thinking about going with this now, and intializing the swap when done:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 160 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hdd​
Haven't thought of using a serial to see what's going on. Do I need a null modem or regular serial? 9600 8-n-1 OK?

Thanks again.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

Is the Maxtor SATA drive that you listed in the original post a typo? SATA drives cannot be used.

Swap should not be needed greater than 127.

Try a backup without recordings to start just to make sure that the process is working right. It should not take more than about 10 minutes to do this:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hdd


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## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

Yeah, I typo'd. The new drive is definitely PATA - just double checked it and it's labeled Ultra ATA-100 and Pata as well. 

I'll try a no recordings backup to see if that works. My second attempt listed above did not work any better. 

I'm a linux newbe - how can I look at the logs on the drive. I assume I have to mount the drive, then look in /var/log?


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## mintyfresh (Oct 29, 2006)

I have an HD DirecTivo (HR10-250) and it started locking up and rebooting so I figured that the old 250GB WD2500BB was starting to go on it.

I just got a 400GB Seagate Barrcuda, threw both drives into a spare PC, booted from the lastest PTV/mfstools ISO and ran:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hdd

Everything seemed to work like a charm. The restore reported that about 180 additional hours were now available, etc. etc.

After I put the seagate into the DirecTivo and fired it up. The unit is hanging at the grey powering up screen. I wonder if this is a BIOS/firmware screen and this means that the unit isn't booting from the new disk. Could it be that the TivoOS is formatting all of the extra blank MFS space on the new drive? How long should I wait?

Since this is a straight upgrade, what are my options for debugging?

Any help appreciated. I'm very good with Linux but this is my first attempt at a Tivo upgrade.

- Jerry


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

jc4home said:


> On my last attempt I used -s 127 since that's what I used when I expanded originally with the 120Gb drive. Didn't use Tpip since the swap didn't exceed 127. Maybe that was a bad assumption.


No. -s in the restore portion sets the swap size.

I am talking of the backup portion you need to use the -s option (lose recordings), so you can use -x in the restore portion (use all of the drive).


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## mromaszewicz (Feb 24, 2003)

I've had this problem before, and never found a way to restore the tivo to a single drive without losing all the shows. 

The problem is that when you added your second hard drive, the tools that you used created a bunch of extra partitions. The total count of partitions on two drives is more than can fit on a single drive tivo. The issue isn't lack of space, but exceeding the maximum number of partitions.

After trying everything I could think of for a week, I gave up. I passed the "-s" option to backup, which nuked all shows, but I still had a working tivo.


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## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

Well all, I appreciate your feedback. I'm now at the point that I don't think it is a HD issue, but a problem with the DSR7000 itself. Aside from my earlier attempts, I also have tried the following, all of which were unsuccessful: 

- backup/restore with no recordings saved 
- checked all drives for problems with Seagate utilities - no problems found 
- Instant cake image to the new drive 
- put the original drives back in 
- replaced ide cable 
- booted with smart card out and in 
- tried all jumper combinations 

All resulted in a continuous powering up screen (no reboots) . After one of the attempts, I looked at the logs on the drive. Didn't need to even interpret the log since it was obvious that nothing had been written to the drive (none of the files were newer than the date/time I removed the original drives days ago). 

DSR7000's are very inexpensive on ebay, so I'm going that route and will report my results.


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## wscannell (Dec 7, 2003)

Did you happen to allow Windows to boot with your original TiVo drive in the computer? If so, Windows wrote a signature over some important boot information on the drive. If that is the case, you would need MakeTiVoBootable to fix the problem.


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## jc4home (Mar 9, 2002)

No, all pc drives were disconnected (needed 3 ide and cdrom for my upgrade). Also only booted with the Tiger mfstools CD.

But thanks for the idea.


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

jc4home said:


> No, all pc drives were disconnected (needed 3 ide and cdrom for my upgrade). Also only booted with the Tiger mfstools CD.
> 
> But thanks for the idea.


mfstools2 doesn't allow you to expand because
drive A + drive B to new single A drive w/ -x option will produce partitions more than 16 so it's not allowed.
TiVo can only have upto 16 partitions on a single drive.

drive A (13) drive B (2) 
to expand to new A with -x (2 more)

I've written new mfstools that can handle this and it's being beta tested.
If you want to give it a try send me a PM.


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