# MFSTOOLS and Tivo backups on same disc?



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

I recently backed up my 3 tivos (OS only). The files are a little over 2 gigs combined. I know that if I go to use them they are supposed to be put on a FAT32 drive for access by mfstools. 

Can I put them on the same disc as the mfstools? Can you do this so that you don't need an extra hard drive to hold them?

Has anyone tried this?


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Sure, they can even be put on the Read Only NTFS partition. Linux can read from NTFS just not write.


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

Okay, so weaknees says to use these commands when creating a new Tivo drive from a FAT32 backup:

mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt

Then:

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

Now how would I go about restoring from the cd-rom? What command would I use to direct mfstools to use THAT backup copy instead of directing it to a hard drive backup?

I'd basically like to be able to use just a cd-rom and a new hard drive if I ever have to redo this in the future.


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

The WeakKnees LBA48 boot CD auto-mounts the boot CD at /cdrom. If you have a second drive on the secondary IDE channel as Slave then the command would be 
mkdir /cdrom1 
mount /dev/hdd /cdrom1


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

Wouldn't that be if you were using 2 cd-roms? I'm trying to get the tivo backup image on the mfstools boot cd (or dvd). I want to be able to boot to the mfstools disc and then have access to a tivo image on that same disc. Then be able to restore that image to a new Tivo hard drive. So I want to use only 1 cd-rom and 1 hard drive in this equation. Can that be done?

And if it can be done, what commands would I use to access the tivo image to apply it to a new hard drive? You said it auto-mounts the boot cd-rom at /cdrom so would I just use something like this:

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

assuming the tivo backup.bak image is in the root directory of the cd or dvd disc?


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

> mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /cdrom/backup.bak /dev/hdZ
> 
> assuming the tivo backup.bak image is in the root directory of the cd or dvd disc?


Exactly.

Just in case you want to access backup file on a different CD you can unmount the auto-mounted Weaknees CD with. unmount /cdrom change the CD in the drive then re-mount with mount /cdrom.


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

Thanks for the reply. That's the info I needed. I might have to give this a try. I already upgraded 1 tivo, but I might be upgrading the 2 virgin Tivos I own. Thanks!


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

HomeUser said:


> Exactly.
> 
> Just in case you want to access backup file on a different CD you can unmount the auto-mounted Weaknees CD with. unmount /cdrom change the CD in the drive then re-mount with mount /cdrom.


I'm assuming the mfstools has been loaded into system memory and the boot cd is no longer required--it's running in system memory at that point?


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

naiLS1 said:


> I'm assuming the mfstools has been loaded into system memory and the boot cd is no longer required--it's running in system memory at that point?


 Good point, I just checked and the mfstool executables are located in /cdrom/bin and would not be accessible after the cdrom is unmounted. There is enough room on the ram drive to hold all files contained in the /cdrom/bin directory. To test if this would work I copied all files from /cdrom/bin to the /bin directory then un-mounted cdrom. Mfsbackup, mfsrestore and mfsinfo worked on my system at least as far as displaying the options when run which is all I can do without a TiVo or test drive installed.

Before the first time you unmount the cdrom copy mfstools to the ram drive with the command cp /cdrom/bin/* /bin


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

I'll give that a try--thanks!

Homeuser, I had one more question. What is byteswapping? The reason I ask is because I just upgraded one of my Tivos to a 250 gig HD and since then I keep seeing the word byteswapped in the forums. I'd just like to be aware of what it is and what I need to do--if anything at all.


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

> What is byteswapping?


 Some CPU's access data in order 12,34 others (Intel) swap the bytes 34,12. The series 1 TiVos use a processor that stores the data on the hard drive Byte Reversed from the Intel(or compatable) processor that you use to access the TiVo drive with. The ver 2 of Mfstools checks the drives ID for a TiVo drive it should be 1492 if it is 9214 then Mfstools adjusts it operations accordingly.


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

Since I only have Series 2 Tivos this shouldn't affect me, right?


----------



## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

I don't think you need to bother copying the bins to the ramdrive, they are there somewhere. 

You don't really need to worry about byteswapping for backing up/restoring.


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

naiLS1 said:


> Since I only have Series 2 Tivos this shouldn't affect me, right?


 *Correct*.


----------



## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

Thanks guys!


----------

