# Problem accessing Tivo partitions



## eam587 (Aug 17, 2006)

I was just trying to add some abilities (ftp/telnet) to my Tivo. A few years ago I upgraded my SA Sony SVR-2000 from the standard HD to a Western Digital 100gig. Copied the drive over with dd, used the appropriate tools to expand it, and it's been running like a charm ever since. Now when I put it in my computer, it doesn't seem to have a partition at all. Partition Magic says it's all unallocated, Linux boot can't recognise the partition at all. My Tivo doesn't seem to care about it...running great. Any suggestions as to getting this thing to mount?

Thanks in advance,
Eric


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

Tivos use their own partition scheme. The 2 ways most people access the tivo partitions are either a tivo-specific linux boot cd, or a program like tivopart which will let linux access them. (when trying to mount a series-1 tivo drive, you have to remember to turn on byteswap for that device)


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

BTUx9 said:


> (when trying to mount a series-1 tivo drive, you have to remember to turn on byteswap for that device)


FYI, I think tivopart does internal byteswapping automagically (assuming you use the tivopart method).


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## rpdre1 (Feb 20, 2005)

Here's a link to the free PTV BootCD: http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/lba_4.04_license.html


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## gadzuchz (Nov 9, 2004)

I have a very similar situation. My Tivo drive won't mount. _Mount_ command yields "*mount: you must specify the filesystem type*"

I put a WD120Gb drive in my HDR212. I got the thing busted and was able to get a 3.0 OS ver of TiVo software to restore. I think I used MFSTools 2.0 to boot from to do all work. It's been working fine for 6 months. A week ago I put in a turbonet card and am trying to put stuff into the drive to use telnet and TivoWeb. I've booted from MFSTools 2.0, Jenkins, and PTVLBA48-4.04 and keep getting the same error. Sometimes I get pseudo success

*mkdir /mnt4
mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt4
/dev/hdb4: Success
mount: you must specify the filesystem type.*

just before the mount error but it doesn't mount. I am at a lss.  Any thoughts?

Zed


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

try hdb7


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## gadzuchz (Nov 9, 2004)

Same for hdb4 hdb7 and hdb9


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

gadzuchz said:


> I have a very similar situation. My Tivo drive won't mount. _Mount_ command yields "*mount: you must specify the filesystem type*"
> 
> I put a WD120Gb drive in my HDR212. I got the thing busted and was able to get a 3.0 OS ver of TiVo software to restore. I think I used MFSTools 2.0 to boot from to do all work. It's been working fine for 6 months. A week ago I put in a turbonet card and am trying to put stuff into the drive to use telnet and TivoWeb. I've booted from MFSTools 2.0, Jenkins, and PTVLBA48-4.04 and keep getting the same error. Sometimes I get pseudo success
> 
> ...


did you boot with byteswapping turned on?


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## eam587 (Aug 17, 2006)

One word, byteswapping....

realized with the bootcd that I had that it would only enable byteswapping on hdb/c/d, but not hda (which is where I had mine hooked up)....

Thanks a bunch!

eric


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

glad I was able to assist.


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## gadzuchz (Nov 9, 2004)

Gunnyman said:


> did you boot with byteswapping turned on?


Most of the Tivo/linux boot disks default to byteswapping so yes. Same with _noswap_. I connected my drive to 4 different machines (PCs) thinking the cmos recognition might be different but it show up in the linux boot (more like flies by) every time and _fdisk_ shows the geometery but always the same error.

Zed

I did noice something odd though. When I took the drive out of my Tivo it was set as master of a pair and not a single drive in the chain (I only have one drive in my Tivo). Don't know if this means anything.


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## tivo dave (Sep 1, 2006)

gadzuchz said:


> *mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt4
> /dev/hdb4: Success
> mount: you must specify the filesystem type.*


Hi, I am getting same error as this on restored Tivo Disk on HDC. Using MFSTOOLS 2.0 I have tried to follow advice of byteswapping by trying option "swap" & "dmaswap", but end up with :-

*VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 03:02
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic : VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:02*

Like I said I managed to restore virgin image to drive OK, but can't then mount drive to rename modem bin file (yep, another storm damaged TiVo)

Can anyone help please, as Linux is not my strong point


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## tivo dave (Sep 1, 2006)

Fixed here :- http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4342776


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