# How to clone a failing TiVo drive to another drive



## ShinySteelRobot (Apr 2, 2010)

Hi all,

Not long ago my TiVo drive started to fail, so I replaced the 2TB EARX drive with a 2TB EURS drive. I wanted to keep all my programs, season passes, etc, and I wanted to perform limited error recovery at the same time. Some posts here at TiVo Community led me to dd_rescue, which led me to ddrescue, but the details were a bit sparse until I figured it all out.

Long story short, I wrote a concise but fairly detailed article article about how I copied the failing drive to the new drive and performed error recovery. Here's the article link:

http://www.logicsector.com/tivo/how-to-clone-your-failing-tivo-drive-with-ddrescue/

I hope it helps in case others face the same problem

Note the replacement drive must be the same size or larger.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

ShinySteelRobot said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Not long ago my TiVo drive started to fail, so I replaced the 2TB EARX drive with a 2TB EURS drive. I wanted to keep all my programs, season passes, etc, and I wanted to perform limited error recovery at the same time. Some posts here at TiVo Community led me to dd_rescue, which led me to ddrescue, but the details were a bit sparse until I figured it all out.
> 
> ...


I skimmed through it and bookmarked it. Interesting. Thanks.


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## Wammer (Jun 4, 2007)

I also have a 2TB EARS which is failing (recorded and live TV randomly freeze, random reboots, etc.) and just received a 2TB EURS today. Your timing couldn't be better. I plan to follow your guide. Thanks much!


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Can't one just use the *jmfs boot disk *and do a copy, no add space or expand ? I never tried this but it should work.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

lessd said:


> Can't one just use the *jmfs boot disk *and do a copy, no add space or expand ? I never tried this but it should work.


I suppose you could, but the MFS Live cd with

dd_rescue

gives you control of various parameters that can increase your chances of success.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

ShinySteelRobot said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Not long ago my TiVo drive started to fail, so I replaced the 2TB EARX drive with a 2TB EURS drive. I wanted to keep all my programs, season passes, etc, and I wanted to perform limited error recovery at the same time. Some posts here at TiVo Community led me to dd_rescue, which led me to ddrescue, but the details were a bit sparse until I figured it all out.
> 
> ...


logicsector.com appears to be down. Hope SSR is okay.


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## subVert (Aug 1, 2004)

lessd said:


> Can't one just use the *jmfs boot disk *and do a copy, no add space or expand ? I never tried this but it should work.


I just did that to rescue my perpetually rebooting 2TB TiVo. Worked like a charm.


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## sigocpt (Sep 15, 2012)

My Series 2 took a drive a few weeks ago. I am going to have to read this guide to see if I can copy off my failed drive.

Otherwise, I have a line on a backup image for my unit.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

sigocpt said:


> My Series 2 took a drive a few weeks ago. I am going to have to read this guide to see if I can copy off my failed drive.
> 
> Otherwise, I have a line on a backup image for my unit.


If you're going to need to use MFS Live with that image, then the MFS Live cd already has

dd_rescue

on it, which will do the job just fine.

I recommend using the

-v

and

-r

options if going to a target drive with the same LBA number as the source.

If you're using the WinMFS version of the image (ends in .tbk), you should still have a copy of the MFS Live cd on hand for the times when it comes in handy.


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