# Linux Operating System



## Tivo II Jack (Aug 10, 2003)

What Linux Operating System does Tivo use. Specifically a Toshiba Series 2 with DVR.

With the right Linux OS installed on a FAT32 formatted HD, would I be able to connect a HD removed from a Tivo and formatted as a slave drive and then view it's partitions, folders, files, etc., as I view HD's in Windows Explorer?


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

TiVo - GNU/Linux Source Code

I don't think you can do what you are asking. At least I've never heard of anyone doing it.


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## djl25 (May 26, 2005)

Toward what end? If all you want is to view the hd in Explorer you don't need to pull it (assuming it's already hacked) - install samba and access it as a network drive. Search DDB for the thread title " smbd for tivo rootfs".



Tivo II Jack said:


> What Linux Operating System does Tivo use. Specifically a Toshiba Series 2 with DVR.
> 
> With the right Linux OS installed on a FAT32 formatted HD, would I be able to connect a HD removed from a Tivo and formatted as a slave drive and then view it's partitions, folders, files, etc., as I view HD's in Windows Explorer?


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

They use an almost proprietary OS and partitioning scheme. Typical PC OSes won't recognize it, so a TiVo drive will appear as unpartitioned.

They use EXT2 for the system partitions, and TiVo's proprietary "Media File System" for the database and recordings. If you want to play around with them, it is best to leave it in the TiVo and access it from telnet/FTP/TiVoWebPlus.


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## Tivo II Jack (Aug 10, 2003)

Basically, all three of you have given me the same answer; I am like a dog chasing its tail.<g>

I was hoping to find a way to install my two newly formatted (Instant Cake) HDs as masters and my replaced HDs as slaves and copy the older recordings to the newer HDs. I thought that if I installed Linux OS on my computer I could do that, but it appears it cant be done.

I had already transferred all the recordings from one Tivo to the new HD in the other. I will just replace the other old HD to its Tivo and then transfer them to the other new HD. Thank you all for saving me the time I probably would have wasted on this quest.


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

If all you're looking to do is make a copy of your old HD to your new HD, you can use the MFSlive boot cd found at www.mfslive.org. I used it a few weeks ago to make a copy of a 40 gig HD and put all my recording onto a new 160 gig drive. Worked like a charm. The guides & "MFSLive Linux Boot CD ICG" found on the site made it as easy as entering one command from a prompt.


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## Tivo II Jack (Aug 10, 2003)

HellFish said:


> If all you're looking to do is make a copy of your old HD to your new HD, you can use the MFSlive boot cd found at www.mfslive.org. I used it a few weeks ago to make a copy of a 40 gig HD and put all my recording onto a new 160 gig drive. Worked like a charm. The guides & "MFSLive Linux Boot CD ICG" found on the site made it as easy as entering one command from a prompt.


That is exctly what I am trying to do. I have a Tivo S2 and a Toshiba S2 DVD. I bought 2 500GB HD's and Instant Caked one for each S2. I did the Toshiba first and it was easy, but I still have the old drive with recordings I want to save.

Before I installed the new HD in the Tivo S2, I transferred all recordings from the original HD to the Toshiba with the new HD. I was planning to re-install the old HD into the Toshiba and transfer the recordings to the Tivo S2, but that would probably take about two days to do.

Once I burn the Linux boot CD and boot with it, would I be able to copy the recordings from the old Toshiba S2 DVD HD to the new Tivo S2 HD and also preserve new recordings that are already on the Tivo S2?

This is what I downloaded from MSLive:

http://www.mfslive.org/download.htm

Latest Linux Boot CD: mfslive-1.3b.iso
This is the latest release based on linux kernel 2.6. Read the release note here.
This version has support for Tivo HD.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

With mfstools (which MFSLive and most copy CDs use), you cannot mount the media partitons can copy individual recordings (that is not easy to do, and not supported here, as that is considered extraction).

The minimum you could do is copy individual partitions.

Those upgrade CDs are meant to copy whole drives.

To copy from one DVRs drive to the drive belonging to a separate DVR, you install both drives in their respective DVR and use MRV to copy recordings.

What you should have done was install the original drive with recordings with the intended large drive and use mfslive to directly copy.


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## Tivo II Jack (Aug 10, 2003)

classicsat said:


> To copy from one DVRs drive to the drive belonging to a separate DVR, you install both drives in their respective DVR and use MRV to copy recordings.


That is pretty much what I said I intended to do, but it takes a long time to do, 2 or 3 days. I guess I will just leave the unit cover off and the HD out of the frame and just install the old HD for transerring overnight each day until all is done.

I really did not understand anything you posted other than what is quoted above.


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

Let me see if I can clarify what classicsat said. 

When you use the MFSlive CD, it copies everything (software, programs, hacks, everything) from one HD to another. ANY information that was on the new HD will be lost. So if you copy HD#1 to HD#2, you will lose all information that was on HD#2 (this includes your programs). 

Are you aware you can queue stuff with TiVo's MRV? I don't know what the limit to the queueing is, but I've set at least 8 programs to be recorded over night before. This might be the easiest way to do what you want, without a lot of additional reading.

That said, there are programs out there that may make what you want to do possible. (hint: you have to do it more indirectly) But since that would be extraction, we would not be allowed to talk about it here.


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