# Safely backup and restore?



## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

This will likely be a silly question, but my head is spinning from all of he different guides, faqs, etc on how to upgrade or otherwise "hack" your Tivo.

Some quick background: I have a standalone Series 2 Tivo, model 24004A, with software 7.2.2. I have in the past used MFSTools to upgrade it to a dual-drive 80GB/120GB (total 200GB for 234 hours) setup.

Before I embark on my maiden hacking voyage (trying to set things up so I can use tivoserver to watch my anime collection on the TV), I want to make a foolproof backup of everything - settings, recordings, etc. The equipment I have available is a PC server with a SCSI CD-ROM and PCI IDE card (dual-channel). I also have a nice blank 200GB drive handy. So, given my three drives (hda=Tivo A, hdb=Tivo B, hdc=Backup; CD will be at sda most likely), what is the correct incantation of mfstools commands to properly back everything up, *AND* restore it if all else fails (that's the bit I find disturbingly absent in most guides)?

I was going to start with something like this:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

And restore (if needed) with:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

My main concern is since the drives are likely not identically sized (there's probably a few megabytes difference due to platter sizes and formatting), will I run into problems going either direction? Would I be better off backing up to a file instead of to the whole device? Any pros/cons/you're-nuts?

Thanks!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Get a big HDD and TTG transfer to it.
You cannot do what you want and keep recordings, as your A drive partitions are full.


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## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

classicsat said:


> Get a big HDD and TTG transfer to it.
> You cannot do what you want and keep recordings, as your A drive partitions are full.


I have no interest in a larger drive, and I can't use TTG anyway as Tivo still doesn't support it on the Mac.

I guess I'll just "dd" the drives and hope it all fits. I wasn't aware I'd have partition issues doing this (I shouldn't be adding any really - just trying to back up what's there and restore it if needed).


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## TydalForce (Feb 9, 2006)

Couldn't hurt to delete a few programs first, if there's any you don't mind dropping in the process. Free up a little space maybe? Would help with the potential "not enough space" issue, and certainly speed up the process


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## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

TydalForce said:


> Couldn't hurt to delete a few programs first, if there's any you don't mind dropping in the process. Free up a little space maybe? Would help with the potential "not enough space" issue, and certainly speed up the process


Yup, I deleted probably a good 20-30GB off of it today (and made sure it was really deleted, not just in the "Recently Deleted" folder). Will it work, though? Can I backup two drives to a single drive, then later restore from that single drive back to two drives? Should I backup to a file rather than a device, or not worry about that? From a certain vantage, it makes sense, but the Tivo disk format and use of partitions is just so ODD.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess. I'll be trying later tonight, but I still appreciate anyone posting info here that might help! I'll definitelybe checking this thread as I go.


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## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

Since I deleted 30GB or so before starting this, would this work?

mfsbackup -Taso /mnt/tivo/tivo-full.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Specifically, the "s" option that shrinks the volume - will it shrink out those 30GB I deleted earlier, or am I misunderstanding it?

(Urgent - I'm in the midst of doing it, as I finally got the server to recognize my IDE channels)


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## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

Guess it doesn't matter since it failed about 400MB in. Even so, I realized later it would fail anyway, since FAT32 only supports up to a 4GB file...

Guess I'll have to move on without my recordings should anything happen.


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## diamondsw (Sep 16, 2004)

And now my Tivo is dead.


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## MungoJerrie (Mar 30, 2006)

You shouldn't have used the "s" option; you had it right the first time.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

This will preserve all your recordings but take a LOT of time...it copies the hda & hdb to hdc and expands; it's just a "piped" backup, no image for future use.

For security purposes just backup an image...this is where you use the "s"

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

or 

mfsbackup -l 64 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

Either one should make a smaller compressed image (no recordings) for your future sanity...


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