# 1st Time upgrader... Can't backup to NTFS.



## rlister16 (Apr 8, 2006)

I have tried searching on this but have only found a few things.

I would like to upgrade my friends DVR6000. It has a 30gb and 15gb drive that sounds like it is about to crash and I want to transfer everything over to a 120gb and a 70gb drive.

I have gotten the MFSTools and am trying to follow the directions but I see I can't backup to an NTFS drive which is what is in his PC.

I thought, from what I have read that I could DD the data from the old drives onto the new. When I boot on the floppy for MFS, it is only showing hda and hdb (the two original drives). I see it can see the others on ide1, the only difference I could see is that they both say pio and the ones on ide0 show DMA.

Any hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am also a first time linux user.

Thanks.
Ross.


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## texster (Mar 11, 2005)

If you haven't already, google for hinsdale.

I'm not sure you can back up from dual drives directly to dual drives.

A better option might be something like Partion Magic which will allow you to repartion your NTFS drive and a Fat32 partition.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

You must have a FAT32 partition with a name (like TiVo) to back up into. If its the 2nd partition of drive C you would refer to it as HDA2. You have to mount this partition using this command after booting Mfstool 

mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 /mnt/tivo Assuming a formatted FAT32 2nd partition on drive C.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

As the others have mentioned, NTFS partitions are read-only to the Linux kernel, so you can't back up to them. The Ultimate Boot CD has a few free partition utilities on it. You'll need to create a FAT32 partition large enough to hold the backup image from your source drive (assuming you're backing up the entire thing, including recordings).


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## rlister16 (Apr 8, 2006)

Thanks for all the quick help guys. I'll try this tomorrow. 

How much space will I need for the backup based on my hard drives and programs saved? Is there a way to figure that out? Does this compress the image or data on the backup drive?

Thanks for command, Les. Will that just mount the drive or will that create an image or backup? 

I see from MSTOOLS.HTM that they mention the following:

At this point you should type the following commands to make your C: drive available:

# mkdir /mnt/dos
# mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos
___________

Then they have backup commands. Just trying to figure out the syntax... I assume when no HD is specified it figures you mean c:

Hope these aren't stupid ?'s. Thanks again for the help.
RL


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## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

Recordings are not saved as part of the backup.

Less' command will just mount the drive althouh I've never actually seen that particular command string used. All that I've seen and used is what you just posted _# mkdir /mnt/dos
# mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos_

A drive must always be specified.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

mick66 said:


> Recordings are not saved as part of the backup.


That's not necessarily true.

Most people probably use the -f 9999 flag on mfstools to just create a working image of the TiVo drive (system software, background animations, Season Passes, To Do List, WishLists, etc.) but you can use mfstools to create an image of the _entire_ source drive, which would include your recordings.

It sounds like you want to follow the steps in Upgrade Configuration #5 in Hinsdale.


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## rlister16 (Apr 8, 2006)

I think I may have found what I was looking for in Weaknees interactive upgrade, thanks guys.

I'm still a little confused on the drive sizes and any limitations. It says in the MFSTOOLS.HTM that any drive larger than 137gb will be seen as a 137gb drive. Does that mean you only get that amount of space regardless if you put a 200gb drive in or a 137gb drive?

Thanks again.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Prior to the 7.x software, that was true. The 7.x codeline introduced LBA48 support, which will recognize drives larger than 137gb.

Re-reading your OP, I see you've got a DVR6000. Not sure what software version that has, but if you don't have 7.x, the TiVo will only see 137gb.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

mick66 said:


> Recordings are not saved as part of the backup.
> 
> Less' command will just mount the drive althouh I've never actually seen that particular command string used. All that I've seen and used is what you just posted _# mkdir /mnt/dos
> # mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos_
> ...


You must already have the FAT32 partition on your system before you use that command, that where I keep the backups of my different TiVos


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## rlister16 (Apr 8, 2006)

Okay, everything seemed to work with the following command:

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

It finished and reported back increased drive sizes and times.

I hooked it all back up in the TIVO and am getting stuck on the Welcome. Powering up screen.

Any suggestions?


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Some TiVos are not able to use drives that have the jumpers set to CS.


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## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

windracer said:


> That's not necessarily true.
> 
> Most people probably use the -f 9999 flag on mfstools to just create a working image of the TiVo drive (system software, background animations, Season Passes, To Do List, WishLists, etc.) but you can use mfstools to create an image of the _entire_ source drive, which would include your recordings.


Yeah, but most people don't really want a xxGB backup.


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## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

windracer said:


> As the others have mentioned, NTFS partitions are read-only to the Linux kernel, so you can't back up to them. The Ultimate Boot CD has a few free partition utilities on it. You'll need to create a FAT32 partition large enough to hold the backup image from your source drive (assuming you're backing up the entire thing, including recordings).


I've already upgraded my Tivo with a bigger drive, but I'd still like to make a backup of the Tivo OS.

1: Going by what you said, I could back it up to a FAT32 partition, then move it to a NTFS partition once in Windows(or burn it to DVD/CD for that matter), is this correct?

2: In the future the MFStools could READ it from an NTFS partition? (in case I decided to upgrade to a bigger drive.)


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## rlister16 (Apr 8, 2006)

HomeUser said:


> Some TiVos are not able to use drives that have the jumpers set to CS.


My jumpers are set to Master and Slave, so I don't think that is it. I may just get a new image and start from scratch. I don't have any recordings that I will lose sleep over losing.

Thanks.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

naiLS1 said:


> I've already upgraded my Tivo with a bigger drive, but I'd still like to make a backup of the Tivo OS.
> 
> 1: Going by what you said, I could back it up to a FAT32 partition, then move it to a NTFS partition once in Windows(or burn it to DVD/CD for that matter), is this correct?
> 
> 2: In the future the MFStools could READ it from an NTFS partition? (in case I decided to upgrade to a bigger drive.)


I do that with all my TiVos, that why you must first have a FAT32 partition on a HD, then you can boot to windows and Xfer the image to your NTFS partition. If you need it again just transfer it back, I do this all the time, works great. The image can get to about 1.8G if you don't use any compress factor. The 540 is 1.4G with 7.2 software on it. The newer 40 TiVos that report 39 hours instead of 40 hours are up to 1.8G image size, don't know why. I reported the 1 hour difference to TiVo and they are on the case as its true with all new TiVo refurbish 40 TiVos.

With my MFStools I can't read NTFS partitions.


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## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

lessd said:


> I do that with all my TiVos, that why you must first have a FAT32 partition on a HD, then you can boot to windows and Xfer the image to your NTFS partition. If you need it again just transfer it back, I do this all the time, works great. The image can get to about 1.8G if you don't use any compress factor. The 540 is 1.4G with 7.2 software on it. The newer 40 TiVos that report 39 hours instead of 40 hours are up to 1.8G image size, don't know why. I reported the 1 hour difference to TiVo and they are on the case as its true with all new TiVo refurbish 40 TiVos.
> 
> With my MFStools I can't read NTFS partitions.


Thanks for all the info!

I was wondering about the OS sizes as well. I guess I can put it on a DVD and then when needed transfer it to a FAT32 drive. I have some old drives that should work fine for that.

The 540 thing is interesting because I have one that's a year old and just bought a new one and what you said is true. It never occured to me that the OS size would be different. I wonder why? I wonder if that newer 540 image could actually be used on an older 540 machine if necessary? I was only going to back up the newer one and assuming it could be used on the older one if the HD died, but maybe I should back them both up.

Anyway, sorry OP for hijacking your thread!


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

naiLS1 said:


> Thanks for all the info!
> 
> I was wondering about the OS sizes as well. I guess I can put it on a DVD and then when needed transfer it to a FAT32 drive. I have some old drives that should work fine for that.
> 
> ...


I tried and the ether image can be used on any TiVo of the same model I can't see any difference except the new image gives about 1.5 hours less record time on any drive you put it on. The partitions are on the disks are exactly the same so I don't what the answer is.


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## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

lessd, I just backed up all 3 of my Tivos onto a FAT32 drive today. The files sizes were just as you said when creating the backups: new 540 1.8gig, old 540 1.4 gig, & 590 1.2 gig. 

I put the FAT32 in my WinXP computer and they all show much smaller file sizes---does mfstools automatically use compression on them--is that why they are smaller than it reported they were earlier?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

naiLS1 said:


> lessd, I just backed up all 3 of my Tivos onto a FAT32 drive today. The files sizes were just as you said when creating the backups: new 540 1.8gig, old 540 1.4 gig, & 590 1.2 gig.
> 
> I put the FAT32 in my WinXP computer and they all show much smaller file sizes---does mfstools automatically use compression on them--is that why they are smaller than it reported they were earlier?


MFStools does have a compress number that I don't use because it takes longer to make a backup and I have a large amount of HD space. You can use like from 1 to 9 with 6 being the recommended one to use, using that your files will be smaller


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## naiLS1 (Aug 19, 2005)

lessd said:


> MFStools does have a compress number that I don't use because it takes longer to make a backup and I have a large amount of HD space. You can use like from 1 to 9 with 6 being the recommended one to use, using that your files will be smaller


But does it automatically compress? I used the weakness instructions with these commands:

mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt

mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

Of course I changed the drive letters to match my setup and they all completed successfully. Is this command automatically compressing the backups?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

naiLS1 said:


> But does it automatically compress? I used the weakness instructions with these commands:
> 
> mount /dev/hdW1 /mnt
> 
> ...


The s is to shrink the size of the backup to the original number of hours that the original drive was, its the number 1 that causes the file size to get smaller on your computer, as I have never used it I don't know how much reduction you get with 1 vs 6 vs 9.


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