# Need boot sector, or MakeTivoBootable (booted to XP!)



## LordMcD

I just got a TurboNet after 3 years of loving my Tivo (HDR31201, 30GB+60GB), and didn't know that XP would kill my drive until *after* I accidentally booted to it with my A drive attatched. Of course the backup I made 3 years ago is long gone.

Now my Tivo is unbootable (and unreadable). MakeTivoBootable (TiVo Partition Tools) looks like it's what I need, but I've only found it on http://pvrhack.sonnik.com which doesn't seem to exist anymore.

My second options is to re-write my boot sector with a known-good copy.

Questions:
1) Does anyone have MakeTivoBootable? I'm willing to host it to make it available to others.
2) Can someone with my model tivo (or one with matching partition table) and either a backup or telnet access *please* help me send me the boot sector? I can help you if need be.

Thanks!

PS: I don't think that TiVo Inc owns the copyright to the HFS partition table of an IDE disk, so this seems within both the spirit and letter of the forum rules. If a moderator feels differently, please let me know.


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## Cletus

Enjoy!

Here are the author's comments (dmprantz):


> MakeTiVoBootbale	-This is a dangerous program! If you're not careful,
> you can really break things with this. Basically, it writes a fresh TiVo
> block 0 (boot sector) over a hard drive. YOU CANNOT CHANGE THINGS WITH THIS,
> ONLY OVERWRITE WHAT'S THERE. Lots of W2K users will need this one. The
> syntax is the following:
> 
> -d <device> REQUIRED. Device to make bootable
> --pk <Partition> Primary Boot Partition
> --ak <Partition> Alternate Boot Partition
> --bp <Params> Boot Parameters
> --host <hostname> Hostname
> --ip IP Address
> --mac MAC Address
> 
> If you wanna create a new boot sector that's supposed to boot from a kernel
> on partition 3 and a root that's on partition 4, you would use the following
> command:
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4
> 
> if that doesn't work, try this:
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 6 --ak 3 --bp root=/dev/hda7
> 
> contrary to the online help, this program will not automatically swap bytes,
> so you must enable that yourself.
> 
> HINT: You can (and should) backup your existing block 0 with dd before you
> use this program. You can also direct output to a file and verify that it
> looks good before you dd that to the hard drive (You can even use dd's swab
> option).


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## LordMcD

MakeTivoBootable (and the rest of Tivo Partition Tools) are now available at http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/~will/tivo/ .

I'll post a follow-up detailing it success.


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## Cletus

I have all of the partition tools, but the archive is too big for posting as attachment.

Oh wait.. let me try to recompress it.

Okay, it's smaller now. Remove the extra ".zip" extension, and decompress it with 'tar jxvf rtpt.tar.bz2'. I had to add the extra ".zip" because of the forum software.


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## LordMcD

Success!... mostly.

MakeTiVoBootable worked (once I read the --bswap option from the command that didn't exist in the documentation), and Tivo boots and works now.

BUT... I can no longer read my partition table using pdisk, or mount any of the partitions (can't read superblock). Any suggestions? Otherwise I might still be able to dd a valid boot sector. Does anyone want to send me a very specific 512 bytes so I can test this theory?


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## Cletus

If the TiVo works, that means you have a valid partition table. If you can't read it, you're doing something wrong... like booting in non-byteswapped mode. Which is probably why you needed to use -bswap in the first place (you shouldn't have to, normally). Check again your booting process with the TiVo drive attached to the PC. Make sure it's not on the primary master channel, and that you're not disabling byteswapping when booting the CD.


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## LordMcD

Understood and agreed that I'm booting into non-byteswapped mode; I don't know why I didn't approach it from this angle first. As I said it's been a while (2.5 years) since I've done any Tivo hacking. I tried both an old copy of Dylan's BD that I had around and the floppy image from the MFSTools 2.0 CD (the bootable CD wasn't, which is what caused this problem in the first place. I haven't tried burning it again).

Perhaps I should get Dylan's BD again, and I can check the howto's again, but how do I boot into byte-swapped mode? I don't remember LILO waiting for me... Also, wasn't this part of the point of "slightly hacked" HFS support, so you could access both types of disks at the same time? Thanks for you help, BTW.


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## Cletus

Use kazymyr's bootable CD v2.6i. It just works. The byteswapped mode is the default.

Or else, use the NoJ version of the MFStools2 CD. The original version was imaged with Joliet extensions on, which caused problems for a LOT of people. Tiger later made available a version with no Joliet ("NoJ"), which is much better, in that it actually boots. For some reason, the correct NoJ version wasn't circulated much, instead the bad first version is what's available all over the place.


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## LordMcD

I used kazymyr's CD and as you said, it just worked. Much nicer than DBD (tab completion! command history! decent ramdisk!).

I'm a happy camper now - thanks much.


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## rbachelor

So I did the same thing (conveniently forgot that I was running ME the last time I was doing this stuff) and had both my A and B drives attached. I've tried using the MakeTiVoBootable (had to dig up an old DBD -- new Kazy disk has libc.so.6 "issues") however it doesn't appear to have made a difference for me.

So, two questions:

1) Is there something I need to do for my B drive as well?
2) Is there some way to verify that the boot sector is indeed now what it's supposed to be?

Thanks for any help.

Rod Bachelor


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## rbachelor

Just re-read my last post and realized that I wasn't clear as to the state my Tivo is in. It doesn't appear to boot off the disk at all, just sits at the "Please wait..." screen.

Rod


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## Robert S

I don't think this problem affects to B drive (it affects the boot sector, not the partition table), but if it did, your TiVo would stick at 'almost there'.

Did you have your TiVo drive on primary master when you ran MTB?


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## rbachelor

Nope. I was using the original DBD which byteswaps everything but the primary master. The TiVo A disk was on primary slave. Also tried MTB with and without the --bswap mode but it didn't appear to make a difference.

After the last time I tried it (non-byteswapped), I dd'd the first 1024 bytes of the disk. Here's the first 32 bytes:

14 92 03 06 72 6F 6F 74 3D 2F 64 65 76 2F 68 64 
61 34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

After the first 4 bytes, it translates to "root=/dev/hda4". The rest are all 00's until it gets to byte 512 where it looks like the partition table starts. I can also read the partition table with no problems with pdisk.


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## Robert S

I'm not sure what a TiVo boot block looks like, but I'd agree it probably doesn't look like that!

There are some images in the - ahem - usual place that are gzipped copies of empty TiVo drives. If you got one of those you could unzip the first 512 bytes, which might give you the missing code (you might need to copy partitions 2,3 & 4 to 5, 6 & 7, or vice-versa to get it to boot of the right partitions).


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## rbachelor

Hey Robert

I looked back in the previous postings but can't find the one with the ftp site for the images. I've got an old backup, but thought a fresh image might be better. Can you post the location here again or private message it to me?

thanks


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## Robert S

Well, linking directly to that site is forbidden on this Forum, so one has to be a little circumspect.

I was thinking of the SVR 1.3 image, which is not an MFS Tools backup, but was produced by piping the output from dd into gzip.

Therefore, the first few bytes of this file are the boot block. I would be surprised if the boot block has changed much between the various versions of the TiVo software - all it does is pull the OS off the disk - so you should be OK if you can figure out how to decompress it.

Look at some of the older TiVo hacking guides for instructions on how to make and restore this type of backup.

I would think that dd with count=1 might do the trick for you.


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## rbachelor

Well, the SVR image is quite a bit different than mine. (Phillips 312) so instead, I went ahead and restored an old backup to an old disk and dd'd the first 1024 bytes off and it actually seemed pretty similar. coupla minor changes like a space after the /dev/hda4 and it had the hostname and MAC and IP address but otherwise the same.

So, tried that disk out and it booted. Then, I copied the first 1024 bytes from that disk to my problem disk but still no joy. Same symptoms as before.

I'm really confused here... Any other ideas on what could be preventing the tivo from booting? Any troubleshooting tips? I'm out of ideas...


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## Robert S

You seem to have narrowed the problem to the drive itself. Have you run diagnostics on it? Perhaps the XP sig is not the problem?


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## rbachelor

Yup. Downloaded the Maxtor diagnostics and it works fine. Very strange. I also went ahead and did a mfstools backup of both drives. I mounted the root and /var partitions as well and they both appear functional. My next step will be to copy the kernel partion from the disk I restored a backup to to the Tivo A disk and see what happens. dd is my new best friend right now...

BTW. copying the 1024 bytes from the working test disk to the A disk screwed up the partition table but I recovered the 1024 bytes I dd'd from the A disk before and the partition table is back and happy again.

Sigh. I'm going to know more about TiVo partitions and such than I ever really wanted to by the time I'm done here...


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## rbachelor

Another update. I've tried copying the first 512 bytes of of the boot sector and the partition containing the kernel from the recovered backup disk to my non-booting disk but it still behaves the same (no boot).

Does anyone have any info on the boot sequence of the TiVo and what other differences I could look for between the two disks?

One thing I noticed was that the boot, kernel, root etc. partitions in the disk that works are all contiguous at the beginning of the disk. In the disk that doesn't, the kernel (hda3) and other relevant partitions are about 30GB into the disk. I wouldn't imagine that this would matter considering that the disk used to work and the partition layout hasn't changed but I thought it would be worth mentioning.

Thanks
Rod


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## Robert S

That's the optimised layout (MFS Tools 2.0 will create this for you if you use -p) that puts the system partitions and Guide DB in the middle of the disk.


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## rbachelor

Hmmm... So that's not the problem. Well, I used MFSTools to make a backup of my disks as they exist so barring any sudden inspiration on anyone's behalf, I think I'm going to have to give that a shot. That will obviously kill the recordings (probably 75+) but may save the seasons passes etc. If that fails, it's back to the old backups...

Please let me know if you think of anything else I might try...

cheers
Rod


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## rbachelor

Well, finally gave up. I did narrow the problem down to something screwy on the root partition though. It worked when I recovered an old backup but stopped booting when I dd'd a copy of the root partition from the disk I was trying to save. Thanks for the help though...

cheers
Rod


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## faceoff

How did you use the make tivo bootable file? I destroyed my TiVo hard drive trying the upgrade process and now it is stuck on the "starting up" screen.


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## rbachelor

Well, I needed an old Dylan's Boot Disk (floppy) because of some library issues in the MakeTivoBootable code, but it's pretty easy to use and includes some instructions in the zip file.

Your mileage may vary though -- in the end, my problems were more than just the boot sector so I ended up having to reinstall from a (very) old backup.

Rod


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## Fanatix

i don't understand how you can get this program to work. Do you have to copy it to a boot disk or something. I'm totally lost. if so, how do you create a bootdisk, cause i have Win XP and i've tried making some but noe work.


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## rbachelor

It's been a while but I think I actually made a boot floppy and put the boot disk and MakeTivoBootable software on there.


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## Fanatix

how would you create a bootdisk in WinXP with MakeTivoBootable on it? I made on through XP by right clicking on the A: drive and selecting format, then making a Bootdisk. then i copied the MakeTivoBootable file to it. It didn't load right away when i put it in my computer, it just went to the A: prompt. So how would i get this to work?


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## rbachelor

You need to get Dylan's boot disk and make a Linux boot floppy with that. Try http://themurrays.homeip.net/downloads/tivo/boot_floppy/ and get the tivoboot_v3.zip file. MakeTivoBootable is a Linux program, not MS-DOS.

Sorry I didn't make that clear.


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## Fanatix

wow, thank you very much, thanks for making that clear cause i was in the dark


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## Fanatix

uh oh, when i put the bootdisk in, it says LILO Loading Tivo_bootdisk
then it says Error 0x04. how can i fix this. Right now i'm stuck with a Tivo that will not boot and i'm missing a lot of good TV lol. But seriously, i would appreciate any help.


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## rbachelor

I'm more of a user than a coder these days but when I do a google search on "error 0x04 lilo linux" it seems that it's a drive status error. One possible explanation may be that you have a bad floppy disk (not unusual) or something like that. I'd try using a fresh floppy and if that doesn't work, try starting a new thread with the question -- this one is really old and may not be seen by many people.


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## pug

I was able to use maketivobootable via the following process:

My hardware was...
series 2
Philips 35hr DSR7000 DirecTiVo Single 40GB A drive

1. Downloaded a copy of MAKETIVOBOOTABLE to a FAT32 formatted hard drive (I placed directly on C:, not in a sub-folder)

2. Attach your drives in the following way...
My FAT32 hd with MAKETIVOBOOTABLE saved on it -- PRIMARY MASTER
My TiVo drive with corrupted boot sector -- SECONDARY MASTER
My CD-ROM drive -- SECONDARY SLAVE

3. Set the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM.

4. Place the Mfs Tools Boot CD (11.5MB) downloaded available on the Hinsdale how to website (you can run into trouble with the MAKETIVOBOOTABLE tool if you don't have a recent enough version of tivo boot cd-rom)

5. Start the computer with the bootable cd-rom disk.

6. Hit return and you will eventually get to a # prompt

7. Just to be sure that you attached your drives properly, you can use SHIFT + PAGE-UP to check that the unix os detected three drives: HDA, HDC, HDD. The drive sizes should be displayed as well, this should help you determine if the right drives are attached in the right place.

8. Type the following command to mount your FAT32 drive, so that you can run MAKETIVOBOOTABLE:
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

9. Type the following command to change to the directory on which maketivobootable is mounted:
cd /mnt

10. Type one of the following commands to reset the boot sector of your TiVo drive (mine was the first command).

MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4

if that doesn't work, try this:

MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 6 --ak 3 --bp root=/dev/hda7

11. That's it. Hit CNTL + ALT + DELETE and turn off your computer's power after unix backs out.

12. Unhook your TiVo drive from your PC. Reinstall it in your TiVo and it should now boot.

GOOD LUCK!!!


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## dzzy

i have the same problem. i did not back up the tivo drive
i brough a new drive 40 gb. format with dos and fat 32
insert flopy maketivoboot. loading..........
at the the screen show ( none) login
instruction said enter root and i did come out
# ( key)
can any help? what am i doing wrong?
thanks in advance
dzzy


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## Robert S

MTB just rebuilds the boot block. If the whole drive has failed, you need an MFS Tools backup.

What sort of TiVo is it?

It sounds like you've successfully got to step 6 on pug's list above. It's not apparent that you have a problem.


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## dzzy

sony t60 and hard drive quantum 40 gb.


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## pug

Did you reformat your TiVo 40 gb drive? If so, Robert is right, you will have to get a good MRS tools backup. 

If you didn't reformat the tivo drive, you should be able to follow the instructions above to restore the boot sector. Note that I didn't use a bootable floppy, but instead used the bootable cd-rom.

Maketivobootable was placed on a FAT32 drive set up as the primary master.

Good luck!


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## firehawk302

> _Originally posted by pug _
> *I was able to use maketivobootable via the following process:
> 
> My hardware was...
> series 2
> Philips 35hr DSR7000 DirecTiVo Single 40GB A drive
> 
> 1. Downloaded a copy of MAKETIVOBOOTABLE to a FAT32 formatted hard drive (I placed directly on C:, not in a sub-folder)
> 
> 2. Attach your drives in the following way...
> My FAT32 hd with MAKETIVOBOOTABLE saved on it -- PRIMARY MASTER
> My TiVo drive with corrupted boot sector -- SECONDARY MASTER
> My CD-ROM drive -- SECONDARY SLAVE
> 
> 3. Set the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM.
> 
> 4. Place the Mfs Tools Boot CD (11.5MB) downloaded available on the Hinsdale how to website (you can run into trouble with the MAKETIVOBOOTABLE tool if you don't have a recent enough version of tivo boot cd-rom)
> 
> 5. Start the computer with the bootable cd-rom disk.
> 
> 6. Hit return and you will eventually get to a # prompt
> 
> 7. Just to be sure that you attached your drives properly, you can use SHIFT + PAGE-UP to check that the unix os detected three drives: HDA, HDC, HDD. The drive sizes should be displayed as well, this should help you determine if the right drives are attached in the right place.
> 
> 8. Type the following command to mount your FAT32 drive, so that you can run MAKETIVOBOOTABLE:
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
> 
> 9. Type the following command to change to the directory on which maketivobootable is mounted:
> cd /mnt
> 
> 10. Type one of the following commands to reset the boot sector of your TiVo drive (mine was the first command).
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4
> 
> if that doesn't work, try this:
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 6 --ak 3 --bp root=/dev/hda7
> 
> 11. That's it. Hit CNTL + ALT + DELETE and turn off your computer's power after unix backs out.
> 
> 12. Unhook your TiVo drive from your PC. Reinstall it in your TiVo and it should now boot.
> 
> GOOD LUCK!!! *


For those of you using a Series 1 and the MFS Tools 2.0 CD, be sure to enter the following at the # prompt. 
vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap hdd=bswap

It took me 5 hours to get my drive working again and I was just about to give up when finally this last switch (and lots of research) took care of it...


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## wlspoon

I tried to expand and failed (I think because my HD is not FAT32 - tho I don't know how to check this). After this attempt, I rebooted my computer with my TiVo drive attached. I am trying to restore my Tivo using MakeTivoBootable. I have placed the folder directly on my C: drive but when I try to run the program off of the boot disk it says the file is not found. Is this because my HD is not FAT partitioned? Can anyone help??


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## Robert S

You should find NTFS partitions mount normally. You just can't write to them (which is probably a good thing here).

Obviously you need to unpack MTB from its archive and place it in the root directory on the C: drive. After you do mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos, MTB should be /mnt/dos/maketivobootable.

It's possible that hda1 is not your C: drive. If you do ls /mnt/dos (that's LS), you should see the files and directories from your C: drive. If you see a different set of files, try mounting hda2 or hda5 instead of hda1.


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## DiRN

When I try Step 10 I get the following error:

sh: ./MakeTiVoBootable: Permission denied

My C: drive is hda (NTFS C:\MakeTiVoBootable)
My TiVo A Drive is hdc
My CDROM is hdd

Any thoughts?


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## Robert S

cp /mnt/dos/maketivobootable /mtb
chmod +x /mtb
/mtb <options>


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## DiRN

Thanks, that worked like a champ. Now let's see if my TiVo boots. *fingers crossed*


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## DiRN

Thanks to *pug* for the walk-through and to *Robert S* for the copy tip. Both of you were extremely helpful. Thanks again.


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## NeWcS

> _Originally posted by pug _
> *I was able to use maketivobootable via the following process:
> 
> My hardware was...
> series 2
> Philips 35hr DSR7000 DirecTiVo Single 40GB A drive
> 
> 1. Downloaded a copy of MAKETIVOBOOTABLE to a FAT32 formatted hard drive (I placed directly on C:, not in a sub-folder)
> 
> 2. Attach your drives in the following way...
> My FAT32 hd with MAKETIVOBOOTABLE saved on it -- PRIMARY MASTER
> My TiVo drive with corrupted boot sector -- SECONDARY MASTER
> My CD-ROM drive -- SECONDARY SLAVE
> 
> 3. Set the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM.
> 
> 4. Place the Mfs Tools Boot CD (11.5MB) downloaded available on the Hinsdale how to website (you can run into trouble with the MAKETIVOBOOTABLE tool if you don't have a recent enough version of tivo boot cd-rom)
> 
> 5. Start the computer with the bootable cd-rom disk.
> 
> 6. Hit return and you will eventually get to a # prompt
> 
> 7. Just to be sure that you attached your drives properly, you can use SHIFT + PAGE-UP to check that the unix os detected three drives: HDA, HDC, HDD. The drive sizes should be displayed as well, this should help you determine if the right drives are attached in the right place.
> 
> 8. Type the following command to mount your FAT32 drive, so that you can run MAKETIVOBOOTABLE:
> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
> 
> 9. Type the following command to change to the directory on which maketivobootable is mounted:
> cd /mnt
> 
> 10. Type one of the following commands to reset the boot sector of your TiVo drive (mine was the first command).
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4
> 
> if that doesn't work, try this:
> 
> MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 6 --ak 3 --bp root=/dev/hda7
> 
> 11. That's it. Hit CNTL + ALT + DELETE and turn off your computer's power after unix backs out.
> 
> 12. Unhook your TiVo drive from your PC. Reinstall it in your TiVo and it should now boot.
> 
> GOOD LUCK!!! *


THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

I needed to use MTB but could'nt find anywhere that explained how to use it.

-Jay


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## B33K34

Series 1 UK Tivo running 2.5.5a
Two drives (120/40)

I had a jumper set incorrectly on my cdrom and booted into windows xp with my tivo drives attached. Now, of course, Tivo wont boot.

I've downloaded maketivobootable but have no documentation for it and cant get it to work. mtb is on the root of C. I'm using mfstools 2.0.

I've connected my Tivo 'A' drive as Secondary Master. My reading of the instructions around the place is that i dont need to do anything to drive 'b'.

I've tried running the command:

maketivobootable -d /dev/hdX --pk3 --ak6 --bp root/dev/hda4

However, i get no indication that this has worked - it just responds with the warning that mtb can damage your drives and lists the valid options. 

I then replaced X with c (/dev/hdc) figuring the X was intended to be replaced with the correct drive but get the same message.

I saw a comment elsewhere about enabling byteswapping using the command:
vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap hdd=bswap
but get the response 'vmlnodma: command not found'

I've tried running mfstools with the options with byteswapping enabled but get an error (lots of 'out of range messages then hangs'). 

Can someone give me some clear instructions on the process - i'm a Unix newbie so please dont assume any knowledge.


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## Robert S

You will need byteswapping. Try using Dylan or TiVoMad's boot floppy or Kazmyr's CD.


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## B33K34

Creating CDs is easier than floppys but i can't find downloads for any of those on the 9thtee site. Searching here for Kazmyr doesnt get me anything useful either (there are a lot of dead links in old threads). Can you point me in the right direction?


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## Robert S

Sorry, I misspelled Kazymyr.

http://www.9thtee.com/tbdv2_6i.iso


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## B33K34

Ok. Update. Kazymyr boot cd lacks the libraries needed by mtb. However, using mfstools 2.0 and with the vmlnodma byteswap commandlisted further up the thread command at the boot prompt rather than # doesnt throw up any errors.

I've had a good look at the info that comes up on boot and have identified hdc3 as being "root1" and hdc6 as being "root2" so i presume that's my primary and back up boot partitions and the first command applies. Since there are no boot partitions on the second disc i'm assuming i only need to do this to Tivo Disc A.

I've now tried running the command 
maketivobootable -d /dev/hdc --pk3 --ak6 --bp root=/dev/hda4 --bswap

and prior to that i'd tried it without the --bswap value. maketivobootable doens't give any indication that it has done anything however - it just gives it's warning and parameters in the same as if you type maketivobootable without any parameters at all.

What is the '4' on the end of hda meant to do? my FAT32 drive is only showing up as hda1, 2 (5) in the partitiion check as linux booots. 

Frustrated now. I really want to get this working again.


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## Robert S

Perhaps '--pk3' and '--pk 3' are different?

'hda' refers to primary master _in the TiVo_, not the PC.


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## B33K34

Robert, a good point and well made. mtb is actually doing something now (Warning appears that you are about to modify a drive and requires a response of y) but neither of the two mtb commands suggested, or the same commands with --bswap added to the end, have got my Tivo to boot. It did get to 'almost there' once but then rebooted and didnt get past "powering up"

Thanks for your help but i starting to think i'm out of things to try.


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## Robert S

Did you try both variations? Most UK TiVoes will have their root partition on hda4, but if you took 1.5.2 or 2.5.5a (but not both), your root partition will be hda7.

I've never actually run MTB, but I don't think --bswap is a good idea - byteswapping needs to be provided by the OS, not MTB (I believe that feature is broken).


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## osteon.618

I booted into WinXP when tring to back-up my dual drive Tivo. I have followed pugs instructions (exactly I think) twice. I also get to the warning and input "Y" return. It just goes back to the #prompt. It doesn't really give any feedback - no error nor congrats. I assume that worked. I push CNTRL+ ALT+ DEL and power down during the reboot.

However, my TIVO still will not boot. I am stuck at the "Your recorder is starting up...."

I am wondering if I should run MakeTivoBootable for my Tivo B drive also?

Any help is appreciated.

Scott


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## Robert S

No, the boot block on the B drive is not used for anything.

Did you get the right byte-order? Byteswapped for a Series 1, but not for a Series 2.


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## osteon.618

No, I did not. Another important detail that I have overlooked!

I assume you are referring to the command 
vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap hdd=bswap

If this is the case, do I enter it before step 8 of Pug's instructions? Also, if I set my drives up exactly as Pug did, I would only have an a, c, d. Then the command would be? 
vmlnodma hda=bswap hdc=bswap hdd=bswap

I am trying hard but don't really know what I am doing in Linux.

Thanks for all your help.


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## Robert S

You enter that command at the boot: prompt so Linux activates the byteswapping module. You only need to swap the TiVo A drive, you don't need to swap all three.


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## marcoval

I had a similar problem and couldn't fix it.


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## cybergal24

why boot from cd rom? can I just do this with a floppy?


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## antalo

I may have the same problem. I have an upgraded SA S2 240040 model and 2x 250 Gig drives. The B drive developed a bad sector or two. and would not boot up anymore. The green screen with do not unplug for 3 hrs, etc came up but it could not repaire itself. I pulled the drives and found B drive nad some problems, it got cleared uup and ran the long diagnostics on both and checked out good. Installed them in the Tivo and would not boot. Has the gray screen with one minute or something like it.
Can I just reload the boot section ? I have both drives almost full and don't want to loose the contents.
I appreciate any and all help. I know nothing about Linux programming. I have upgraded 5 Tivos, all in the family. 
I read postings all day and the more I read, the more confused I get. I would need detailed instructions, not just add this or that to here or there. I also would appreciate email [email protected]

Antalo


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## Robert S

There shouldn't be any problem running MTB from a floppy, but you'll have to read it off a separate disk similar to the antics at the top of this page.

Antalo, when you see 'almost there', then the TiVo has booted. Unfortunately, the TiVo application has failed to start. Your boot sector is fine, but you are probably going to have to reimage your drive(s) from a backup.


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## antalo

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> Antalo, when you see 'almost there', then the TiVo has booted. Unfortunately, the TiVo application has failed to start. Your boot sector is fine, but you are probably going to have to reimage your drive(s) from a backup. [/B]


I guess I screwed it up, because now it doesn't go behind the first screen, which is "rebooting" or something like this. No problem to reimage, but is there a way I can save the recordings ?? Is there a reason for me to back up the drives ?? I guess not, because there is no reason to save it, except the recordings. ? 
Is there a way to get the boot record file from somebody ? I got a program which makes it easy to copy a file in any folder. 
It is so neet and easy to use, I don't know why the Tivo community doesn't use it. I have a satellite receiver "Dreambox 7000" which uses Linux and there are programs to copy files into it.
My Tivo had a problem for a long time. After every "daily call" it had to reboot. If I didn't do it manually, at 2 AM it would reboot regardless if it was playing or recording. All of a sudden it would no longer boot up.
Thanks for your help.
Antalo


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## Robert S

I'd be very surprised if you can save your recordings. Like I said, before you broke it, the system was fine. That means the problem was in the MFS system, which is very hard to fix.


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## antalo

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I'd be very surprised if you can save your recordings. Like I said, before you broke it, the system was fine. That means the problem was in the MFS system, which is very hard to fix. *


Thank You for your reply. I don't get bryond the forst screen. I keep forgetting what it says. I would like to try to save the recordings. At this point I don't think I could hurt it more. Could you point me in the direction I would need to go ? I have been reading and reading and getting more cand more confused. You also posted the problem may have been the swap size. I tried that too, but not knowing what the result should be when I do one thing. You mention several ways to do it and it looks like I do them all. Not knowing whether I succeeded in extending the swap size or not. 
Do I have add the "vmlnodma" every time I boot the "A" drive in the PC ?
Do I have to use "vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap hdc=bswap hdd=bswap" ? I connect the "A" drive in the secondary slave (hdd) position. If I have to specify the drive, than it should be only "hdd=bswap" no ? 
Antalo


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## Robert S

I thought you said you were getting 'almost there' before you ran MTB? If so, you probably want to keep trying MTB until you get back to that point.

The only possibility I'm aware of is to get the GSOD to run. If you can get to 'almost there', you might be able to trigger a GSOD with diagnostic mode.

For the GSOD to complete with 500Gb of disk space you would require 250Mb of swap. If you didn't allocate this when you created the A drive, then you're stuck because there isn't 250Mb free on the drive to be reallocated to swap.

Series 2 TiVoes are not byteswapped so the normal boot options for the MFS Tools 2.0 CD are fine.


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## yano arias

hey guys hope yall can help me ,I tried upgrading my old tivo with an 80 gig hard drive i had extra. I copied over the tivo drive to it when i instaled it in the tivo the screen popped up with the channel i was viewing in the background. I tried going to my recording and the thing got stuck, so i put the original drive back in and it kept saying almost ready then turned off then on agin saying the same thing, it kept doing this over and over none stop. is there a way to fix the original drive to then copy it to the 80 gig thanks


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## dwood

Ok my pride taken into consideration ill say that i too have fallen into the xp boot syndrome. I have an rca dvr 40 and was in the process of upgrading to a 160gb hard drive - never quite finished though....
I must say thank you all for providing quite knowledgeable reading and the 2 day linux crash course. I have the kazimir boot disk and have executed the commands until 
/mnt/dos# ./MakeTivoBootable -d /dev/hda --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4

the response i get 

./MakeTivoBootable: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.1.3`not found (required by ./MakeTivoBootable

someone help me get over this hump please.


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## S-Merrell

So, Did you get an answer yet?
I ran into the same problem.
I have a RCA dvr40 Direc TV TIVO/tuner
Was Trying to clone the 40 to a 160gig, and started copying over the 40.
OOPS wrong direction.


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## mskusa

Hi. Can anyone please help me? I can't believe my absolutely stupid mistake, but I accidentally let windows XP load up while my Tivo Hard Drive was still attached to my pc. I've been trying to find a copy the "MakeTivoBootable" to download, and have had no luck. The zip file provided by "Cletus" is not working and the other two links provided in this thread don't exist anymore. Can someone please help me? I am desperate to get this Tivo hard drive restored....


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## HomeUser

mskusa said:


> Hi. Can anyone please help me? I can't believe my absolutely stupid mistake, but I accidentally let windows XP load up while my Tivo Hard Drive was still attached to my pc. I've been trying to find a copy the "MakeTivoBootable" to download, and have had no luck. The zip file provided by "Cletus" is not working and the other two links provided in this thread don't exist anymore. Can someone please help me? I am desperate to get this Tivo hard drive restored....


WinMFS http://mfslive.org/winmfs/index.html should be able to fix it.


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## mskusa

HomeUser said:


> WinMFS http://mfslive.org/winmfs/index.html should be able to fix it.


Hi. Thank you for your suggestion, but could you please tell me if I am supposed to use the mfstools iso image I've burned onto a cd to restore the boot sector? I was trying to learn to backup the TiVo image when I made this stupid mistake.. I'm very new to this, so I'd be deeply grateful for any detailed steps you can give me.


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## mskusa

HomeUser said:


> WinMFS http://mfslive.org/winmfs/index.html should be able to fix it.


Hello again. Sorry for sounding so stupid & for being so ignorant! I managed to download winmfs_beta9_3F (winmfs.exe) onto my desktop. Do I run this program on my windows xp with the TiVo hard drive with the corrupted boot sector connected to my pc, in order to restore the boot sector using the "Fix Bootpage"? Thank you SO much for your help!


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## dwit

mskusa said:


> Hello again. Sorry for sounding so stupid & for being so ignorant! I managed to download winmfs_beta9_3F (winmfs.exe) onto my desktop. Do I run this program on my windows xp with the TiVo hard drive with the corrupted boot sector connected to my pc, in order to restore the boot sector using the "Fix Bootpage"? Thank you SO much for your help!


No offense, but did you reinstall the "corrupted" drive back into the Tivo to check that it will indeed not boot?

Anyhow, yes, the Tivo drive should be attached. After the pc boots to Windows, just open the Winmfs program. Don't go to disk management or try to find the Tivo drive with windows or anything.

Good luck.


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## mskusa

Thanks a million HomeUser & Dwit! I ran the TiVo hard drive in winmfs and it fixed the boot sector, but I also noticed, thanks to HomeUser pointing it out that another possible reason the TiVo hard drive was not booting up is because I forgot to reset the jumper setting back to Master (or cable select) when I tried to boot up the TiVo box! So, I am not sure if the boot sector had been corrupted in the first place because I never went into disk management when I accidentally let Windows XP start loading, but I thought it had corrupted the boot sector after seeing a message in the Windows XP taskbar that Windows XP had detected the TiVo hard drive, which I thought may have allowed Windows XP to put a signature on the boot drive. And then when the TiVo hard drive didn't boot up (most likely because of the incorrect jumper settings I'd left it on) I assumed that it wouldn't boot because of boot sector corruption. So, thank you both so very much!! I'm SO relieved that the TiVo booted back up. Sorry to have troubled you, especially HomeUser.


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## lessd

mskusa said:


> Thanks a million HomeUser & Dwit! I ran the TiVo hard drive in winmfs and it fixed the boot sector, but I also noticed, thanks to HomeUser pointing it out that another possible reason the TiVo hard drive was not booting up is because I forgot to reset the jumper setting back to Master (or cable select) when I tried to boot up the TiVo box! So, I am not sure if the boot sector had been corrupted in the first place because I never went into disk management when I accidentally let Windows XP start loading, but I thought it had corrupted the boot sector after seeing a message in the Windows XP taskbar that Windows XP had detected the TiVo hard drive, which I thought may have allowed Windows XP to put a signature on the boot drive. And then when the TiVo hard drive didn't boot up (most likely because of the incorrect jumper settings I'd left it on) I assumed that it wouldn't boot because of boot sector corruption. So, thank you both so very much!! I'm SO relieved that the TiVo booted back up. Sorry to have troubled you, especially HomeUser.


Unless you go into Windows disk management you will not destroy any TiVo drive, even if windows boots up. The master /slave jumper is the biggest problem if your computer can't use CS, the TiVo will work on CS or Master jumper settings.


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## mskusa

lessd said:


> Unless you go into Windows disk management you will not destroy any TiVo drive, even if windows boots up. The master /slave jumper is the biggest problem if your computer can't use CS, the TiVo will work on CS or Master jumper settings.


Thanks, Les! That's good to know. What a relief and a good lesson to learn! It's easy to forget these little steps when one is a newbie like me.;D I am SO grateful to HomeUser and all of you for your tremendous generosity with your time & knowledge! Thank you for helping a novice like me! You are all my heroes next to our men & women in the Armed Forces! God bless!


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