# MFS Tools 3.2



## jkozee

Announcing the release of MFS Tools 3.2!

"MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary." I'll let you can choose your own adjective for MFS Tools 3.2.

*Highlights*

Supports Series 1 through Roamio (and perhaps beyond).
Backwards compatible with MFS Tools v1 and v2.
Supports 8 TB on Premiere (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
Supports 8 TB on Roamio (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
Backup and restore (or drive-drive using mfscopy) single or dual drive setups, and preserve recordings if you choose.
Supersize the drive, which can be reversed even after GSOD.
You can include the alternate boot/kernel/root partitions (useful for customized partition layouts).
Automatically includes required loopset files (you no longer need to use the -f flags during backup) when not including recordings (truncated backup)
Automatically prunes recordings when a truncated backup is done (sets the MFS flags to cleanup, so the unit will scan objects on startup)
Works on drives that have been marked for cleanup (GSOD).
Creates a new MFS structure, so drives that have been expanded by adding pairs can be consolidated to just two pairs, just like the original.
Restore to drives smaller than the original.

*Overview*
MFS Tools v3.2 is a set of utilities that allow one to backup/restore/copy/supersize a TiVo drive, without losing recordings, and to expand recording space to take advantage of larger drives. Additionally, there are options that allow more advanced features and finer grain control over the TiVo drive. For example, there are options to revalidate the drive to the Linux kernel, so the partitions can be mounted or copied. The ability to increase/decrease swap, var, SQLite partition sizes on restore. Limit the amount of used space of the drive, limit media partition size, add app/media partition sets, convert between 32-bit and 64-bit MFS layouts, etc, etc, etc. Please take the time to review all of the utilities and their options to fully appreciate what the tools have to offer.

*Thanks*
A special thanks to Tiger, the original pioneer of MFS. And to all those that contribute here and on other sites that have helped me get the most out of my TiVo units.

*History* (unverified)
Tiger released the original closed source project in 2001, followed by 2.0 in 2002. In 2004, he released the source code under GPL, and made it available on sourceforge, and announced that he had no plans to continue work on it. He hen returned for a three month period in 2005 and a two month period in 2008 to work on a major update to version 3, with some ambitious new functionality and 64-bit MFS support for the TiVo HD. It has remained in this untested, almost functional, but overlooked state since then.

I received a some anonymous patches that fixed a few bugs, added Premier handling, and got things mostly working one. Since then, I've refined the Premiere support, added Roamio support, added some new utilities, deprecated a few options and added a few more, and cleaned up and debugged the code a bit.

Although there are several new tools, features, options, etc., available in 3.2, there was a fundamental change in the the way the MFS is handled. A simplified explanation is that in v1, the MFS is treated as a whole, and the entire structure is duplicated based on the used blocks. In v3, the inodes and data is copied individually, and during restore the MFS structure is recreated, the inodes and data blocks are allocated, and the inode and data is copied to the new locations.

The downside is that v3 backup/restore is not quite as fast as v1. The upside is that the MFS Media Partitions can now be re-sized, which is a pretty big advantage. Because v1 copied all MFS pairs, the number of times a drive could be backed/restored and then expanded to take advantage of additional disk space was limited. With v3, the restore process creates a drive with only two MFS app/data pairs, just like the original drive, no matter how many pairs the original drive had. And yes, you can now restore to a smaller drive than the original drive (provided the smaller drive has enough space for the recordings or you truncate it).

*Notes*
Every effort has been made to keep these tools as robust as possible. I have done limited testing (confirmed boot/operation, but not filled drives to capacity) on units from Series 1 through Roamio. The tools can still backup/restore using the original v1 backup format, and should work with existing backups.

I have deprecated several options, and will probably deprecate more to reduce the number of options for novice users. Some of the deprecated options (and additional debug options) will still be available with custom builds.

I have only tested with drives up to 4 TB, but there's been mention of Roamios supporting larger drives with 20.4.6 or later. I was able to setup a Premiere with 8 TB (dual 4 TB drives), but had to limit the media partitions to 2 TB max. This unit passed a forced MFS fsfix scan (GSOD) without issue.

*Todo*
I still have a few things I would like to add, such as adding SW version, original swap/var/db size to the backup header (extrainfo). I would also like to do some testing with larger drives and additional units.

*Known Limitations*
Currently, the largest boot drive supported is 4TB (Premiere and newer, 2TB for THD). Backups of drives with the either of the first two app/media partitions is not supported.

*Attachment*
The iso image has been removed from sourceforge temporarily to address some of the issues reported in this thread regarding large drives.
Please go to sourceforge for the latest release.


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## jkozee

*mfstool*


Code:


Usage: ./mfstool <function> <args> or <function> <args>
Available functions:
  backup    Backup TiVo drive fast and small.
  restore   Restore mfstool backups to TiVo drive.
  copy      Copy TiVo drive to a new drive.
  add       Add partitions to your TiVo MFS volume.
  ck        Perform a simple consistency check on MFS.
  mls       List files in the MFS volume.
  supersize Supersize a TiVo drive.
  d         Dump raw data from MFS volume.
  info      Display information about MFS volume.
For help on a particular function: ./mfstool <function> -h

*backup*


Code:


Usage: ./backup [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -o file   Output to file, - for stdout
 -1 .. -9  Compress backup, quick (-1) through best (-9)
 -v        Do not include /var in backup
 -d        Do not include /db (SQLite) in backup (Premiere and newer)
 -s        Shrink MFS in backup (implied for v3 backups without -a flag)
 -F format Backup using a specific backup format (v1, v3, winmfs)
 -q        Do not display progress
 -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
 -t        Use total length of stream in calculations
 -T        Backup total length of stream instead of used length
 -a        Backup all streams
 -i        Include all non-mfs partitions from Adrive (alternate, custom, etc.) 
Available in deprecated/debug build only
 -f max    Backup only fsids below max
 -L max    Backup only streams less than max MiB
 -D        Do not force loopset and demo files to be added

*restore*


Code:


Usage: ./restore [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -i file   Input from file, - for stdin
 -k        Optimize partition layout with kernels first
 -r scale  Override v3 media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
 -q        Do not display progress
 -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
 -v size   Recreate /var as size MiB (Only if not in backup)
 -d size   Recreate /db (SQLite in source) as size MiB (if not in backup)
 -S size   Recreate swap as size MiB
 -l        Leave at least 2 partitions free
 -b        Force no byte swapping on restore
 -B        Force byte swapping on restore
 -w 32/64  Write MFS structures as 32 or 64 bit
 -c size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on drive A
 -C size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on Drive B
 -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB for v3 restore
 -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
Available in deprecated/debug build only
 -P        Do NOT optimize the partition layout
 -z        Zero out partitions not backed up

*mfscopy*


Code:


Usage: ./mfscopy [options] SourceA[:SourceB] DestA[:DestB]
General options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -q        Do not display progress
 -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
Source options:
 -t        Use total length of stream in calculations
 -T        Copy total length of stream instead of used length
 -a        Copy all streams
 -i        Include all non-mfs partitions from Adrive (alternate, custom, etc.)
Available in deprecated/debug build only
 -f max    Copy only fsids below max
 -L max    Copy only streams less than max MiB
 -D        Do not force loopset and demo files to be added
Target options:
 -s        Shrink MFS whily copying (implied for v3 copies)
 -k        Optimize partition layout with kernels first
 -r scale  Override v3 media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
 -v size   Recreate /var as size MiB and don't copy /var
 -d size   Recreate /db (SQLite in source) as size MiB and don't copy /db
 -S size   Recreate swap as size MiB
 -l        Leave at least 2 partitions free
 -b        Force no byte swapping on target
 -B        Force byte swapping on target
 -R        Just copy raw blocks (v1) instead of rebuilding data structures (v3)
 -w 32/64  Write MFS structures as 32 or 64 bit
 -c size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on drive A
 -C size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on Drive B
 -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB for v3 restore
 -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
Available in deprecated/debug build only
 -P        Do NOT optimize the partition layout
 -z        Zero out partitions not copied

*supersize*


Code:


Usage: ./supersize [Adrive [Bdrive]] [options values]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -m        MaxDiskSize in KB (Default is 2147483647)
 -u        User SizeInKb in KB (Default is -1)
 -c        TivoClips SizeInKb in KB (Default is -1)

*mfsadd*


Code:


Usage: ./mfsadd [options] Adrive [Bdrive] [NewApp NewMedia]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -r scale  Override media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
 -x        Create partition(s) on all drives
 -X drive  Create partition(s) on a specific drive
 -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB
 -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
 -f        Use with -m to fill the drive multiple media partitions
NewApp / NewMedia
  Existing partitions (Such as /dev/hda13 /dev/hda14) to add to
  the MFS volume set

*mfsinfo*


Code:


Usage: ./mfsinfo Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message

*mfsck*


Code:


Usage: ./mfsck [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -r        Revalidate TiVo partitions on Adrive [Bdrive]
Available in deprecated/debug build only
 -m [1-5]  Set volume header magic to OK, FS_CHK, LOG_CHK, DB_CHK, or CLEAN
 -e [1-3]  Set vol_hdr.v64.off0c to 0x00000010, TiVo, or Dish

*mfsd*


Code:


Usage: ./mfsd [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -f FSID  Dump a single FSID
 -F        Dump ALL FSIDs
 -i indoe  Dump a single inode
 -l log    Dump a single transaction log
 -s sector Read from sector, or from offset into file
 -c count  Read count sectors, where applicable
 -C        Perform consistency checkpoint before displaying data
 -H        Display in hex, no matter the format
 -b        Display in binary, no matter the format
 -x        Display formatted values in hex
 -z zone   Read from a single zonemap
 -Z        Dump ALL zonemap info

*mls*


Code:


Usage: ./mls [options] Adrive [Bdrive] <path|fsid>
Options:
 -h        Display this help message
 -l        long list (with size)
 -R        recurse


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## jkozee

(reserved for usage examples)


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## jkozee

(reserved for no good reason, pictures perhaps?)


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## Keen

Holy crap, the day is upon us! A tool to upgrade a Roamio drive without losing recordings?! Huzzah!

I look forward to upgrading my Roamio to a 6TB drive down the road.


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## unitron

Will this work with .bak files created by spike's MFS Live cd?

Will this create .bak files that can be used by spike's MFS Live cd?


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## jkozee

unitron said:


> Will this work with .bak files created by spike's MFS Live cd?


Yes. The mfslive cd is a MFS Tools v2 variant. It will NOT work on WinMFS backups, as those backups use a different file format.


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## jmbach

Cool beans.

EDIT: 9/29/2015

Since the developer's ISO has been pulled, I created an ISO and other images that can be used. They can be found here until such time someone with better Linux skills creates a better ISO.

EDIT: 11/15 2021

For those who want to skip right to the source,  equinoxe has a github repository of the latest MFSTool which can be found here.


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## jmbach

Does this 4k align the zones and inodes.


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## jkozee

jmbach said:


> Does this 4k align the zones and inodes.


No, or least probably not. The partitions are aligned on 4k sectors, but I haven't had time to investigate alignment of the internal mfs structures.

My initial impression was that 4k alignment of zones more involved than just aligning the mfs partition to 4k boundaries. There are other tools that offer this feature, so porting it to MFS Tools v3.2 is a matter of collaboration or reverse engineering.

I made a quick attempt at investigating other tools, but I was not able to use them as my test unit is not running 20.4.6 yet.


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## jkozee

FYI, I have had some PM's that I cannot reply to directly, because I have not met the minimum number of posts yet. I will address them in this thread, provided they are not personal and seem appropriate to the general discussion of MFS Tools. Otherwise, I will respond to PM's when I am "allowed" to. I will not release any names, and if I offend anyone, please let me know and I will remove the post(s).


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## jmbach

Sourceforge seems to only have the original MFSTools documentation. Is there supplemental documentation on your iso for the new changes?


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## jkozee

> If your tool creates a 14 partition image for 4TB, then you can easily take a premiere to 6TB by adding a 2TB coalesced partition at the end of the last partition and adding a 64bit entry to the APM to describe that partition. I think I am going to try that out.


A few things to address, and it will be from memory, so don't be surprised if I get it wrong and need to update this post later, or add some clarifications.

A coalesced partition is a single partition that masquerades itself as a app/media pair. It's been my experience that although this appears to work during the expansion, there is no guarantee that fsfix (GSOD) will complete, and from experience it will fail. So, from my experience, adding a coalesced partition is asking for trouble.

Additionally, adding a partition (or app/media pair) is not required for the initial restore. The entire drive will be used, and contain only 2 pairs, just like the original.

However, an unknown at this point is the 6TB drive. Indications are that the latest SW does not have limitations, but previous versions would not access a drive with partitions > 2TB, or at least did not begin above the 2TB mark.

MFS Tools 3.2 is aware of this issue, and will not create a media partition that begins above the 2 TB mark.

So, for example, with a 6TB drive will contain two pairs of app/media partions, but the first media partition will be < 2 TB to make sure that that second partition does not start above 2TB.


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## jkozee

jmbach said:


> Sourceforge seems to only have the original MFSTools documentation. Is there supplemental documentation on your iso for the new changes?


Nope, hence my request for help. However, all of the tools will report an accurate list of options, with at least some indication of what they do.


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## ThAbtO

Space! The final frontier! These are the voyages of MFSTools. To go boldly where no Tivo has gone before!


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## telemark

SourceForge is starting to die off. 
http://www.itworld.com/article/2930...nder-fire-again-for-seizing-nmap-account.html
I'd suggest moving to a newer hosting company, perhaps github.

Welcome to the Roamio party.


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## jmbach

Having an issue with the iso reading my 4TB correctly. It is seeing it as a 2TB. The drive is sitting in a USB dock connected to my laptop. My Linux Mint installation on the same computer reads it just fine. And it will not detect my 6TB drive at all whereas my Linux Mint installation does as well.


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## telemark

I'm hitting some bugs too, mostly around Roamio or large disk support.
Is there somewhere you want them reported, or somehow patched?


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## jkozee

jmbach said:


> Having an issue with the iso reading my 4TB correctly. It is seeing it as a 2TB. The drive is sitting in a USB dock connected to my laptop. My Linux Mint installation on the same computer reads it just fine. And it will not detect my 6TB drive at all whereas my Linux Mint installation does as well.


The boot cd is based on this distro. Perhaps there is an issue with th 32-bit build. Please try th 64-bit version there to see if it handles your drives correctly.

Also, you can copy the binaries off of the cd and try them on your Mint installation. Let me know the outcome.


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## jkozee

telemark said:


> I'm hitting some bugs too, mostly around Roamio or large disk support.


What issues are you seeing? Accessing the drive from the boot cd or the Roamio using the restored image?

What size drive are you using?


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## telemark

Well I have a HDD library for development purposes so can test almost anything. 
500GB, 1, 2, 4, 6TB. 

I was testing a 4TB to 6TB internal Roamio expansion, but I guess that one is not supported out of the gate.

The other things are more minor:
Roamio formatted large disks are being rejected as invalid.
Roamio APM is being rewritten with deprecated fields.
pdisk* is overflowing 32bit values
segfault on missing args


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## jkozee

telemark said:


> I was testing a 4TB to 6TB internal Roamio expansion, but I guess that one is not supported out of the gate.


Restoring to a 4TB drive should work out of the gate, but I don't have a 6TB drive to test with. I've been told that it requires that the media partition not exceed 2TB, which would mean that it would take 3 app/media pairs to fill the drive. You would then need to coalesce the last pair to reduce the partition count to 15.

You could try limiting the restore to 2TB, then using mfsadd to add an aditional pair:
restore -m 2000 -i roamio.bak /dev/sdb
mfsadd -x -f -m 2000 /dev/sdb

You would then need to use pdisk to delete 15/16 and recreate 15 to include both partitions.


telemark said:


> Roamio formatted large disks are being rejected as invalid.


I've tested with 4TB drives, so I assume you mean that it is not recognizing drives created using mfsr. I'll have to update my Roamio to 20.4.7, so that I can take a look at the drives it creates. The first thing that comes to mind is that perhaps the inode/zone alignment is giving it troubles. Or perhaps I have wrong in the APM logic.


telemark said:


> Roamio APM is being rewritten with deprecated fields.


I'll have to take a look at this. I was mucking around with MAC_PARTITION vs TIVO_BIGPARTITION, so I may have gotten some things screwed up. What deprecated fields are baing written?


telemark said:


> pdisk* is overflowing 32bit values


I assume you're using pdisk_roamio for the drives. That comes from the TiVo pdisk64 source code. I'll take a look.


telemark said:


> segfault on missing args


Can you provide an example?


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## Keen

jkozee said:


> Nope, hence my request for help. However, all of the tools will report an accurate list of options, with at least some indication of what they do.


Is the current source uploaded anywhere? I haven't touched SF in forever, but it looks like it only has the source for MFS Tools v2.


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## jkozee

The HEAD branch on SF is still the 3.0 branch. I need to cleanup my patches a bit, then I will update the repo. Pretty busy this weekend, but I hope to have updated soon.


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## telemark

Long boring data here.


Spoiler



I was trying mfsadd but didn't think it was 4k alignment:
Nevermind, that is 4k aligned. I assumed the wrong unit.


Code:


  /dev/sdb15          1024            0 MiB
  /dev/sdb16    3907006464      1907718 MiB

I'll give it a go then.

This 4TB disk is the result of an automatic Roamio 20.4.5c formatting within the Tivo:


Code:


$ mfstool mfsinfo /dev/sdb
mfsinfo: Volume size (3510156288) mismatch with reported size (1).
$ mfstool mls /dev/sdb
mls: Volume size (3510156288) mismatch with reported size (1).

There is a mismatch due to Tivo's bug, but the Roamio still operates with it. Open question whether it make sense to ignore the mismatch.

Same disk under pdisk:


Code:


$ pdisk_roamio /dev/sdb
stat: mode = 060660, type=Block, size = 0, blocks = 0
BLKGETSIZE: size in blocks = 3519069872
HDIO_GETGEO: heads=255, sectors=63, cylinders=27649, start=0,  total=444181185
_llseek: pos = 4000787030016, blocks=7814037168
/dev/sdb
Command (? for help): p
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/sdb'
 #:                type name                         length   base       ( size )
 1: Apple_partition_map Apple                            63 @ 1         
 2:               Image Bootstrap 1                       8 @ 4297720304
 3:               Image Kernel 1                          8 @ 4297720312
 4:                Ext2 Root 1                            8 @ 4297720320
 5:               Image Bootstrap 2                       8 @ 4297720328
 6:               Image Kernel 2                          8 @ 4297720336
 7:                Ext2 Root 2                            8 @ 4297720344
 8:                Swap Linux swap                  1048576 @ 4297720352 (512.0M)
 9:                Ext2 /var                        1572864 @ 4298768928 (768.0M)
10:                 MFS MFS application region      1638400 @ 4306633248 (800.0M)
11:                 MFS MFS media region         3504127120 @ 4309910048 (  1.6T)
12:                 MFS MFS application region 2    1638400 @ 4308271648 (800.0M)
13:                 MFS MFS media region 2       4297720240 @ 64         (  1.3G)
14:                Ext2 SQLite                      6291456 @ 4300341792 (  3.0G)
Command (? for help): quit

Is size field getting overflowed?

I'm not sure what some fields are, but I noted they were zero before being modified during mfsadd.


Code:


00001a00  4d 50 00 00 10 00 00 00  40 00 00 00 00 70 83 e8  |[email protected]|
00001a10  4d 46 53 20 6d 65 64 69  61 20 72 65 67 69 6f 6e  |MFS media region|
00001a20  20 32 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  | 2..............|
00001a30  4d 46 53 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |MFS.............|
00001a40  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00001a50  00 00 00 00 00 70 83 e8  33 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.....p..3.......|
00001a60  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

00001a00  4d 50 00 00 0e 00 00 00  40 00 00 00 00 70 83 e8  |[email protected]|
00001a10  4d 46 53 20 6d 65 64 69  61 20 72 65 67 69 6f 6e  |MFS media region|
00001a20  20 32 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  | 2..............|
00001a30  4d 46 53 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |MFS.............|
00001a40  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00001a50  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00001a60  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|




Code:


$ export MFS_HDA=/dev/sdb
$ mfstool mls 
Segmentation fault (core dumped)


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## ggieseke

jkozee said:


> Restoring to a 4TB drive should work out of the gate, but I don't have a 6TB drive to test with. I've been told that it requires that the media partition not exceed 2TB, which would mean that it would take 3 app/media pairs to fill the drive. You would then need to coalesce the last pair to reduce the partition count to 15.


Make that 14 partitions unless you know something that I missed. Premieres should be more flexible since AFAIK the eBay 4TB drives with 16 partitions still work, but Roamios are finicky. They seem to want 14 - no more, no less.

Cool project!


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## telemark

Ya no go.

Taking a non-expanded 4TB Roamio drive, copied to a 6TB drive, mfsadd for #15 + #16, and a custom mod of the APM to combine the two to #15. 
Roamio OTA on 20.4.5c just erases the drive and starts over.

Was I suppose to mod the MFS partition list at the same time?

Very powerful toolkit though. Impressive.


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## aaronwt

hmmm... I might try this out my Premiere. With a larger hard drive it could be a viable replacement for my GFs OLED S3 TiVos. Those 1TB drives I put in them have been running for over eight years now and it's only a matter of time until something happens.


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## HomeUser

THANKS! Will I be able to replace the expanded 2 drives back to one large drive in my old DVR's


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## jmbach

Does the Copy command copy the image to the new drive while resizing to fit the new drive or does it do a straight copy of the image to the new drive.


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## unitron

jmbach said:


> Does the Copy command copy the image to the new drive while resizing to fit the new drive or does it do a straight copy of the image to the new drive.


Is there a copy command, or is it still the old backup pipe restore?

To be on the safe side, I'd recommend doing the expansion separately with

mfsadd

after making sure everything else worked.


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## jkozee

telemark,
Sorry, ggieseke is correct, the Roamio will recognize a drive without 14 partitions, so the manual coalescing I suggested will not work.

I have not had a chance to look through the issuse you reported, but pdisk64 (pdisk_roamio) definately has the size wrong, and probably some other things as well. The included version is pretty much straight from TiVo's website, but I'm pretty sure they've stopped development on it in favor of the tdisk utility (which does not have the source released). IIRC, pdisk64 also allowed for mixing legacy and BIG partitions, depending on if they exceed the 32-bit barrier. I allowed for this in MFS Tools, as I was not able to confirm, but now that the unit will self-format a 4TB drive, it looks like all of the partitions are BIG, so I need to change this as well.

jmbach,
mfscopy has same operation as a backup/resoter. It will resize the media partitions to fill the drive it is copying to, unless you use the "-F v1" flag, which reverts to a v1/v2 block style copy.

unitron,
There is an mfscopy command, which negates the need of piping backup to restore. There really is no way to prevent the auto expansion of the media partitions during restore, except to force a v1 backup format or to use the -m/-M/-c flags to limit the size of the media partitions. Basically, v3 takes all of the partitions and restores to two pairs of app/media partitions. It should also be noted, that the mfsadd has to be done separately now, unlike v2, where could tell restore to use two drives and add additional pairs as neeeded.


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## lpwcomp

The portions in bold have me confused.



jkozee said:


> ...*There really is no way to prevent the auto expansion of the media partitions during restore*, except to force a v1 backup format or to use the -m/-M/-c flags to limit the size of the media partitions. Basically, v3 takes all of the partitions and restores to two pairs of app/media partitions. *It should also be noted, that the mfsadd has to be done separately now*, unlike v2, where could tell restore to use two drives and add additional pairs as neeeded.


unless mfsadd is only for adding an external.


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## jkozee

Let me try to clarify:

In v1/v2, a backup/restore would copy all of the app/media partitions and recreate them, using their original size. You can force this behavior in v3 by using the "-F v1" flag.

You could then used mfsadd (or in th v2 case, you could use the -x during restore) to add additional pairs, to either driveA (if it still had free space) or driveB.

In v3, the restore/mfscopy will create all of the non-mfs and two MFS App partitions, and then take the rest of the free space and split them between the two media partitions it creates.

You can then use mfsadd to create partitions on second drive.

Additionally, there are flags tell restore to leave free blocks (-c), limit the size of the media partitions (-m) or treat the drive as a smaller drive (-M). This would mean that mfsadd could then be used to create additional pairs using the free space on driveA.

Does that help? I'll try to get some usage examples posted above soon.


----------



## jmbach

What values does - M take. So if I want to copy my 2TB image to my 6TB drive but want to make the program think it is 4TB would the command be mfstool -M 4000 copy /dev/sda /dev/sdb?


----------



## jkozee

hmm, did I neglect to include the sym links in the iso?

you should be able to do:
mfscopy -M 4000 -i backup.bak /dev/sdX

or:
mfstool copy -M 4000 -i backup.bak /dev/sdX

There *should* be symlinks to mfstool for all of the commands.


----------



## telemark

There were symlinks on the iso when I tried it.
jmbach had that driver problem with the official iso so is probably on a 3rd party boot disk.

This is a command to recreate them.


Code:


cd PATH_TO_MFSTOOL
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]backup[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]restore[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mfscopy[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]supersize[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mfsadd[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mfsinfo[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mfsck[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mfsd[/B]
ln -s `pwd`/mfstool [B]mls[/B]


----------



## jkozee

ggieseke,

How does mfsr layout a 6 TB drive? If we can only have 14 partitions on a Roamio drive, then two options would be to coalesces the existing app/media pairs or re-purpose the lower, unused partitions?


----------



## jmbach

When I run the MFSTools ISO and the prebuilt Minimal Linux ISO, x64 fdisk gives me an error that "there are more than 2^32 sectors and cannot use them all" and displays 2199 GB drive size. 
I can successfully run MFSTools on my Linux Mint x64 installation. Not sure if this is just an issue with my setup. If not, then Might need to use the Minimal Linux scripts to create an ISO from an installation that sees large drives.


----------



## jmbach

Would be interesting if some one will run "mfstool info" on a weaknees 6TB drive to see how they laid it out


----------



## ggieseke

jkozee said:


> ggieseke,
> 
> How does mfsr layout a 6 TB drive? If we can only have 14 partitions on a Roamio drive, then two options would be to coalesces the existing app/media pairs or re-purpose the lower, unused partitions?


1 app, 3 media.


----------



## jmbach

On a slightly different note, since this can shrink the image a little depending on how full of recordings the image is, this solves the S2 restoring issue using the old Maxtor "large" drives.


----------



## unitron

jmbach said:


> On a slightly different note, since this can shrink the image a little depending on how full of recordings the image is, this solves the S2 restoring issue using the old Maxtor "large" drives.


So can it take a truncated .bak made with the MFS Live cd from a Maxtor and restore it to a WD or Seagate with the slightly lower LBA count, or do you have to start with a backup made with this program?


----------



## jmbach

The OP states backward compatibility. The only way to find out is to try it and confirm it.


----------



## jkozee

unitron said:


> So can it take a truncated .bak made with the MFS Live cd from a Maxtor and restore it to a WD or Seagate with the slightly lower LBA count, or do you have to start with a backup made with this program?


The program is backwards compatible with v1 backups, however the v1 backup file is not forward compatible with the v3 format. If you restore a v1 backup it, the v3 MFS Tools will behave the same as the v1/v2 MFS Tools do. You would need to restore the v1 backup to a drive, then create a backup or copy the drive to a smaller drive using the v3 format.

However, if your just short a little space on the drive for your v1 restore, you can try to gain space by using the -S switch to use a smaller swap. And the -v switch to create a smaller /var (provided you created the backup with the -v switch to excluded it in the first place). Then create a v3 backup/restore or copy to partition it as you desire.

Let me know if this makes sense and if it works for you.


----------



## dougdingle

jkozee said:


> now that the unit will self-format a 4TB drive


When did that happen? A week ago, 3 TB was maximum (I thought) without using special tools...


----------



## jmbach

The Roamio will self format any drive placed into it now. Only 3TB and less will be formatted correctly. Anything larger only a small fraction of the total space is usable. This is a change from before when the unit would boot loop if presented with a drive larger than 3TB.

At this time, a computer is still needed to prep a drive larger than 3TB to be used in a Roamio.


----------



## jlin

Hey guys.. I currently have a Base unit of Roamio with 3TB. If I get a 6TB drive now, can I:

1. Copy all the existing shows over from the 3TB to be used in the same unit?
2. Format the 6TB and then copy all the existing shows over from the 3TB to be used in a NEW unused Roamio?


----------



## jmbach

Until jkozee responds this is my understanding of your questions. 
1. Yes up to a 4TB drive. 6TB is a work in progress. 
2. Not at this time.


----------



## dougdingle

jlin said:


> Hey guys.. I currently have a Base unit of Roamio with 3TB. If I get a 6TB drive now, can I:
> 
> 2. Format the 6TB and then copy all the existing shows over from the 3TB to be used in a NEW unused Roamio?


Unless things have radically changed, you can't take a drive with shows recorded on one TiVo and play them back on another.

For purposes of DRM, the drive is married to the box it's in. Move it (or a clone of it) to another box, and all you can do is format it (in the case of a Roamio), or do a full Clear And Delete in the case of other models.


----------



## jlin

Thank you for the quick response guys!

I did not realize recorded shows are married to the box which they're recorded on (unless they're not protected and can be copied over using the network).

So when say the software can 'preserve' the existing recording on the larger hard drive, it means the larger drive to be used on the same Tivo... not a different one.


----------



## jmbach

Yes.


----------



## dougdingle

jlin said:


> I did not realize recorded shows are married to the box which they're recorded on (unless they're not protected and can be copied over using the network).
> 
> So when say the software can 'preserve' the existing recording on the larger hard drive, it means the larger drive to be used on the same Tivo... not a different one.


Technically, it's the drive that's married to the TiVo, not the shows.

And yes, if you copy contents to a bigger drive, that new drive can only be used in the same TiVo from which the source drive came.


----------



## ThAbtO

What you can do is to copy the shows to another Tivo or PC, then upgrade the drive. After its done, copy them back over. albeit, it has to be done one at a time, but you can copy 1 after another after another, etc.


----------



## lpwcomp

dougdingle said:


> Technically, it's the drive that's married to the TiVo, not the shows.


Technically, the problem is the recordings are encrypted with a key unique to a specific TiVo.


----------



## dougdingle

ThAbtO said:


> What you can do is to copy the shows to another Tivo or PC, then upgrade the drive. After its done, copy them back over. albeit, it has to be done one at a time, but you can copy 1 after another after another, etc.


And as long as all your shows are from CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, FOX and the CW, stations that broadcast over the air, that's not a problem.

Any other source off cable, and the content is copy protected and can't be copied anywhere.

It's a protection system that's *beyond *stupid, punishing only legitimate users, but there you go.


----------



## jlin

Luckily on Verizon FIOS doesn't protect its content except the Premium movie channels


----------



## lpwcomp

jlin said:


> Luckily on Verizon FIOS doesn't protect its content except the Premium movie channels


Neither does Comcast


----------



## dougdingle

lpwcomp said:


> Neither does Comcast


Time Warner copy protects everything they're allowed to.

There were a few days there where they even flipped the bit on broadcast channels, but half a dozen calls the the FCC cleared that up in a hurry.

It both annoys and amuses me that the idiots in charge think 'Rizzoli and Isles' and 'The Slutty Housewives of Beverly Hills' are such incredibly valuable pieces of television drama that they need to be protected from random copying by thieving home users.


----------



## lpwcomp

dougdingle said:


> Time Warner copy protects everything they're allowed to.
> 
> There were a few days there where they even flipped the bit on broadcast channels, but half a dozen calls the the FCC cleared that up in a hurry.
> 
> It both annoys and amuses me that the idiots in charge think 'Rizzoli and Isles' and 'The Slutty Housewives of Beverly Hills' are such incredibly valuable pieces of television drama that they need to be protected from random copying by thieving home users.


I think TWC does it that way because it's easier for them.


----------



## lessd

lpwcomp said:


> Neither does Comcast


In 2007 I get to a Comcast VP and told him that unless the channel told Comcast to protect that channel that it was making things hard for his customers using TiVo if most channels were protected, he said he would look into this and within a few months all channels were in the clear except channels like HBO etc.


----------



## emp

lpwcomp said:


> jlin said:
> 
> 
> 
> Luckily on Verizon FIOS doesn't protect its content except the Premium movie channels
> 
> 
> 
> Neither does Comcast
Click to expand...

When I had FIOS (a little over a year ago) none of my channels were copy-protected, even premium channels . Now that I moved and FIOS isn't available on my street I'm stuck with Comcast and many (not all but a lot) are copy-protected, even non premium channels. I wish I could get FIOS, Comcast is SOOOO bad (and nothing to do with this), I've begged FIOS to install on my street but they said no, even though its available 1 block over.

Sorry for the rant, I just hate Comcast.


----------



## aaronwt

jlin said:


> Luckily on Verizon FIOS doesn't protect its content except the Premium movie channels


And then only HBO and Cinemax. There is no issue with the other premium channels on FiOS.


----------



## unitron

lessd said:


> In 2007 I get to a Comcast VP and told him that unless the channel told Comcast to protect that channel that it was making things hard for his customers using TiVo if most channels were protected, he said he would look into this and within a few months all channels were in the clear except channels like HBO etc.


Any way you could have a word with TWC?


----------



## HerronScott

emp said:


> When I had FIOS (a little over a year ago) none of my channels were copy-protected, even premium channels . Now that I moved and FIOS isn't available on my street I'm stuck with Comcast and many (not all but a lot) are copy-protected, even non premium channels. I wish I could get FIOS, Comcast is SOOOO bad (and nothing to do with this), I've begged FIOS to install on my street but they said no, even though its available 1 block over.
> 
> Sorry for the rant, I just hate Comcast.


This isn't true for most Comcast franchises. Just the premium movie channels like HBO and Showtime and I've noticed that Encore is also copy-protected.

Where are you located?

Scott


----------



## jmbach

Something more on topic. Has anybody used the program yet to copy their drive to a larger drive?

I am encountering some issues copying a 4TB expanded premiere drive (1TB XL expanded to 2TB then coalesced and expanded again to 4TB) to another 4TB drive.


----------



## unitron

jmbach said:


> Something more on topic. Has anybody used the program yet to copy their drive to a larger drive?
> 
> I am encountering some issues copying a 4TB expanded premiere drive (1TB XL expanded to 2TB then coalesced and expanded again to 4TB) to another 4TB drive.


If you just want to "Xerox" a 4TB to a 4TB, then

ddrescue

or

dd_rescue

on a boot cd would be the simplest way, I'd think.


----------



## jmbach

True. But the purpose for using this program to do it would be to return the image to a native layout and not just "xeroxing" the image.


----------



## rhg84

Any idea when this might go up again? Would love to try it even if it is buggy.


----------



## dougdingle

This was one of the results in an attempt to have a TiVo HD use all of a 3TB drive...


----------



## jkozee

rhg84,

Only the bootable iso was pulled. The sourceforge git repo has been updated with the 3.2 updates.

dougdingle,

IIRC, THD is limited to 2TiB of MFS storage. mfstools will not remove any limitations in the TiVo OS.


----------



## dougdingle

jkozee said:


> IIRC, THD is limited to 2TiB of MFS storage. mfstools will not remove any limitations in the TiVo OS.


Yeah, that became obvious . We thought the later series 3, because it had more of a 64 bit architecture, might be coerced into supporting a 3TB drive.

I posted the picture for a laugh, although in fact the TiVo did think it had an hour of total storage and behaved accordingly, refusing to record anything...


----------



## mattack

jmbach said:


> At this time, a computer is still needed to prep a drive larger than 3TB to be used in a Roamio.


So this still doesn't mean 6TB is viable, does it? (I mean even with tools OTHER than the ones in this thread.)

If so, is there a link there? Mostly for curiosity. Even though I will admittedly fill up any drive I put in there, and I'm now living near the high 90% full on a 3 TB drive (even with a lot of SD recordings -- yes, I record a LOT of stuff, admittedly a lot of stuff I don't even end up watching -- but lots of stuff I skim through EVENTUALLY like late night talk shows)... one or two more doublings would give me HUGE storage with most if not everything HD.. (mostly I record in SD for things I want to transfer to my iPad to watch in VLC faster than realtime).

anyway.. mostly curious since 6 TB drives are starting to come out of the stratosphere.


----------



## jmbach

What you can do at this time is copy your 3TB to a 4TB drive. That will buy you some time until a 6TB option is available.


----------



## dougdingle

mattack said:


> So this still doesn't mean 6TB is viable, does it? (I mean even with tools OTHER than the ones in this thread.)


6 TB drives are viable for the Roamio. Several people have reported success. Look for a thread on MFS Reformatter.

Just think of the amount of shows you can lose when *that *drive fails...


----------



## TiVoJimmy

I am by no means versed in Linux. Where do I get a copy of MFS Tools 3.2 to boot on Win 7 PC? Is SourceForge still trustworthy?


----------



## telemark

MFSr formats a blank drive for Roamio that's 4TB-6TB, on a Windows PC.
No Data is preserved.

MFS Toos, is Linux only, that migrates data for all models of Tivo.
It lives on source forge. You'll need Linux and a compiler to test the latest version.

There are some bugs we're discussing now how to handle in this thread before we release a friendly CD version.


----------



## krkaufman

TiVoJimmy said:


> Is SourceForge still trustworthy?


You need to be very careful downloading and installing anything from Sourceforge. They've become infamous for loading-up their hosted installers w/ malware.

See: 
SourceFAIL? SourceForge accused of shady practices (again) -- Jun 2015

SourceForge now a source of malware --Mar 2015​


----------



## TiVoJimmy

telemark said:


> MFSr formats a blank drive for Roamio that's 4TB-6TB, on a Windows PC.
> No Data is preserved.
> 
> MFS Tools, is Linux only, that migrates data for all models of Tivo.
> It lives on source forge. You'll need Linux and a compiler to test the latest version.
> 
> There are some bugs we're discussing now how to handle in this thread before we release a friendly CD version.


Totally understood. I'll wait until an ISO is available as I have never compiled anything before. Although good time to learn. 

I told my Dad to buy a WD A/V Green 3TB for his Premiere BEFORE I actually read this entire thread, oops.



krkaufman said:


> You need to be very careful downloading and installing anything from Sourceforge. They've become infamous for loading-up their hosted installers w/ malware.
> 
> See:
> SourceFAIL? SourceForge accused of shady practices (again) -- Jun 2015
> 
> SourceForge now a source of malware --Mar 2015​


I read that too. That's why I asked the question. I guess the better question is, it safe to download the binaries from SourceForge?

Thanks,

Jim


----------



## dougdingle

krkaufman said:


> You need to be very careful downloading and installing anything from Sourceforge. They've become infamous for loading-up their hosted installers w/ malware.
> 
> See:
> SourceFAIL? SourceForge accused of shady practices (again) -- Jun 2015
> 
> SourceForge now a source of malware --Mar 2015​


Really! Is nothing sacred anymore? *Very *disappointing...


----------



## telemark

3TB Premiere, you probably can use JMFS which is cross platform.
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=512153&highlight=jmfs


----------



## ThAbtO

TiVoJimmy said:


> I am by no means versed in Linux. Where do I get a copy of MFS Tools 3.2 to boot on Win 7 PC? Is SourceForge still trustworthy?


MFS Tools is only Linuz based using command lines. There is no Windows version. 
There are other programs, WinMFS, DVRBars, and the newly developed MFSR are Windows programs that work on Windows XP and up.


----------



## gespears

WD Green 6 TB on sale at Newegg for 220 using code ESCAVAP28 but only for 4 days. I just wish it had the 3 year warranty.


----------



## dougdingle

gespears said:


> WD Green 6 TB on sale at Newegg for 220 using code ESCAVAP28 but only for 4 days. I just wish it had the 3 year warranty.


Be aware you have to subscribe to NewEgg's daily eblast newsletter to use any of the codes they supply.


----------



## gespears

dougdingle said:


> Be aware you have to subscribe to NewEgg's daily eblast newsletter to use any of the codes they supply.


That's true, but I don't mind. Their newsletter helps me keep track of the pricing on a lot of computer related items, including TiVo hard drives!


----------



## krkaufman

gespears said:


> That's true, but I don't mind. Their newsletter helps me keep track of the pricing on a lot of computer related items, including TiVo hard drives!


Heh, I think the warning was more for everyone else for whom the code you supplied would NOT work, since they are likely NOT subscribers to the NewEgg mailing list.


----------



## dougdingle

krkaufman said:


> Heh, I think the warning was more for everyone else for whom the code you supplied would NOT work, since they are likely NOT subscribers to the NewEgg mailing list.


Exactly, although if the time limit on a coupon is not heavily limited (like, only good for use in the next 2 hours), you can sign up for the eblasts easily, then use the code once you get the confirming email.

And of course, once you've bought what you need, you can always opt back out of getting the eblast. Newegg is really good about honoring those requests.

Quite worthwhile, I've found. Bought a pair of MOCA-type adapters a couple of weeks ago for $35 shipped that worked out well for me, as well as endless drives, motherboards, CPUs, memory, and on and on.

I do prefer TigerDirect, though, because so far they don't charge me sales tax, and so they're automatically 10% cheaper than those sites, like NewEgg, that do.


----------



## gespears

dougdingle said:


> I do prefer TigerDirect, though, because so far they don't charge me sales tax, and so they're automatically 10% cheaper than those sites, like NewEgg, that do.


Interesting. Newegg doesn't charge me tax although Amazon does.


----------



## unitron

dougdingle said:


> Exactly, although if the time limit on a coupon is not heavily limited (like, only good for use in the next 2 hours), you can sign up for the eblasts easily, then use the code once you get the confirming email.
> 
> And of course, once you've bought what you need, you can always opt back out of getting the eblast. Newegg is really good about honoring those requests.
> 
> Quite worthwhile, I've found. Bought a pair of MOCA-type adapters a couple of weeks ago for $35 shipped that worked out well for me, as well as endless drives, motherboards, CPUs, memory, and on and on.
> 
> I do prefer TigerDirect, though, because so far they don't charge me sales tax, and so they're automatically 10% cheaper than those sites, like NewEgg, that do.


But for me, it's the other way 'round, since there's what was a CompUSA in Raleigh I'd have to pay TigerDirect NC sales tax, but there's no newegg or Amazon outlet or warehouse here in The Old North State, so I don't have to pay it to them.


----------



## amccarron

I didn't see many syntax references on using the mfstool copy command.

I downloaded and compiled the source from sourceforge on a Ubuntu machine. That looks like it worked - it tossed some warnings about 32/64 bit type usage but the binaries built. 

Tried copying a 1TB Roamio plus drive to a 6TB WD Green drive using the command "mfstool copy /dev/sdd /dev/sde". That looks like it ran but it ran very quickly - maybe 4-5 minutes tops for a full drive - should have realized there was a problem then since I think it is literally impossible to copy 1TB that quickly - probably more like +4 hours. 

Are there additional options needed? I'm trying to create a replacement drive and maximize available storage. 

Is there a problem with the source? I noticed some comments in the dev thread about incorrect partition sizes. Any idea when a ISO image might be available again?

Is there a problem using a 6tb drive? I kind of expected the drive to be limited to 4tb but I thought extra partitions could be added to utilize the 6tb.

When I placed the drive into my TiVo it performed a guided installation and everything was lost (recordings, season passes, ...). I did this once just to see what would happen. Ended up copying everything again and it still


----------



## jmbach

amccarron said:


> I didn't see many syntax references on using the mfstool copy command.
> 
> I downloaded and compiled the source from sourceforge on a Ubuntu machine. That looks like it worked - it tossed some warnings about 32/64 bit type usage but the binaries built.
> 
> Tried copying a 1TB Roamio plus drive to a 6TB WD Green drive using the command "mfstool copy /dev/sdd /dev/sde". That looks like it ran but it ran very quickly - maybe 4-5 minutes tops for a full drive - should have realized there was a problem then since I think it is literally impossible to copy 1TB that quickly - probably more like +4 hours.
> 
> Are there additional options needed? I'm trying to create a replacement drive and maximize available storage.
> 
> Is there a problem with the source? I noticed some comments in the dev thread about incorrect partition sizes. Any idea when a ISO image might be available again?
> 
> Is there a problem using a 6tb drive? I kind of expected the drive to be limited to 4tb but I thought extra partitions could be added to utilize the 6tb.
> 
> When I placed the drive into my TiVo it performed a guided installation and everything was lost (recordings, season passes, ...). I did this once just to see what would happen. Ended up copying everything again and it still


A couple of things. One the syntax for the copy command is found in post #2 in this thread. You will have to use the "-a" switch to copy all the recordings. Two, the maximum single internal drive MFSTools can create and copy is 4TB. You can add either -M or -m switch to limit the creation to a 4TB image on a 6TB drive. If you are wanting to go to 6TB at this time, you will have to use MFSR to create the 6TB image but it does not transfer any recordings or settings currently.


----------



## amccarron

Thanks jmback!

Sorry - should have said examples rather than syntax. I saw the -h output in post 2 and was going to try again with a -a once I had an answer about capacity. I thought the copy command would have copied everything by default - not really sure what a copy without recordings is useful for.

I'll try again when I can find time to take my TiVo down for 4-6 hours.


----------



## videobruce

*jkozee (or anyone);*

Is there a way to print out the info embedded in the program so to be able to read it over before hand and write notes when needed?


----------



## jmbach

Essentially post #2 contains the info embedded in the program.


----------



## jmbach

jkozee said:


> A few things to address, and it will be from memory, so don't be surprised if I get it wrong and need to update this post later, or add some clarifications.
> 
> A coalesced partition is a single partition that masquerades itself as a app/media pair. It's been my experience that although this appears to work during the expansion, there is no guarantee that fsfix (GSOD) will complete, and from experience it will fail. So, from my experience, adding a coalesced partition is asking for trouble.
> 
> Additionally, adding a partition (or app/media pair) is not required for the initial restore. The entire drive will be used, and contain only 2 pairs, just like the original.
> 
> However, an unknown at this point is the 6TB drive. Indications are that the latest SW does not have limitations, but previous versions would not access a drive with partitions > 2TB, or at least did not begin above the 2TB mark.
> 
> MFS Tools 3.2 is aware of this issue, and will not create a media partition that begins above the 2 TB mark.
> 
> So, for example, with a 6TB drive will contain two pairs of app/media partions, but the first media partition will be < 2 TB to make sure that that second partition does not start above 2TB.


I have used MFSTool copy command with the -M 4000 switch to copy my current Premiere image to a 6TB drive followed by using MFSTool add command to extend out the recording space 2TB so that the whole 6TB drive will be used for recording space. Then I coalesced manually partition sda15 and sda16 into sda15 followed by converting the APM to 64bit. The resulting image booted in my TiVo and after divorcing gave me 6TB of reported recording space. Now I have not verified that the recording space is all usable but I believe it is.

Looking at my logs I have seen evidence that fsfix fails to complete. Don't know if it completes enough to fix any issues but I believe it does. Also not sure why it fails to complete. Certainly with all the JMFS expanded Premieres out, there does not seem to be a lot of issues as a result of this.


----------



## videobruce

jmbach said:


> Essentially post #2 contains the info embedded in the program.


But, that implies one would be well versed with Linux command lines. Not everyone is.


----------



## jmbach

You are wanting usage examples then.


----------



## videobruce

Yes. I was trying to find example from how to's from the series 3 (652) procedure using non-windows (Live) programs, but couldn't.


----------



## jmbach

If you give specifics of what you are wanting to do perhaps some examples can be posted. .


----------



## videobruce

Can a unallocated (unformatted) HDD be used with any of these programs? It can't be with DvrBARS.
How do you 'run' a program when you are at a prompt? Just typing the name of the program didn't work (with or without the ext.)
Any other questions I won't know untill I'm actually in the program (depending on how it is presented).


----------



## ThAbtO

videobruce said:


> Can a unallocated (unformatted) HDD be used with any of these programs? It can't be with DvrBARS.
> How do you 'run' a program when you are at a prompt? Just typing the name of the program didn't work (with or without the ext.)
> Any other questions I won't know untill I'm actually in the program (depending on how it is presented).


DVRBars is a Windows program which backups and restores a TiVo drive. The new intended TiVo drive needs to be unformatted, not even touched by Windows drive manager.


----------



## jmbach

videobruce said:


> Can a unallocated (unformatted) HDD be used with any of these programs? It can't be with DvrBARS.


Yes to all (including DvrBARS) except for MFSR as long at it is the target drive. MSFR needs to see a valid Roamio drive in order for it to work.



videobruce said:


> How do you 'run' a program when you are at a prompt? Just typing the name of the program didn't work (with or without the ext.)


Main caveat: I can use Linux but I am no expert. 
You will have to compile and install the program from source at this time. Once that is done, typing the program name at the prompt will work.

That being said here are some brief examples.

There are more than one way to do things but I am choosing one way for simplicity. For instance to copy from a TiVo source drive (dev/sda) to a target drive (/dev/sdb) along with all the recordings and alternate partitions you could type :

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

If you wanted help on the command:

mfstool copy -h

To get MFS information on the drives:

mfstool info /dev/sda

On your system the drives might not be labeled sda or sdb depending on how many drives are in your system so be careful. You can run a command that can help you identify the drives if running mfstool info command does not help. That is:

fdisk -l

This lists the drives along with other information about the drives. For TiVo drives it will not list any partitions and tell you it has no valid partition tables. I use this to help identify my TiVo drive by the drive size and by not having a valid partition table.

To avoid a lot of issues, run these programs as admin (root). Hopefully when an ISO comes out, it will default you to root.


----------



## NYHeel

So my 3 TB drive in my Roamio Plus is getting a bit full and I was thinking of upgrading to a larger drive (probably 4 TB) but need the ability to maintain my recordings (and preferably settings/cable card info as well). Is this the correct tool to use to do what I want? 

Also, while I used this once before I've forgotten everything about it. Is there a link somewhere to instructions on upgrading a 3TB drive to 4 TB?

Lastly, I have 2 old SATA to USB 2.0 adapters in my house from about 4 years ago. Would something that old still work with this version? I'll check the model when I get home.


----------



## jmbach

Yes to both questions. Upgrading from 3TB to 4TB is as easy as copying from one drive to the other. Examples are 2 posts up. 

If your 3TB is almost full, plan on several days to do the copy and expand with the USB 2 adapters. I copied my 4TB that was 26% full to another 4TB with USB3 adapter and it took me 50 hours. 

One last thing, when it was done, I booted in my TiVo and now the drive stated it was 37% full. I ran a KS 57 and after it was done it was back to 26% full.


----------



## NYHeel

jmbach said:


> Yes to both questions. Upgrading from 3TB to 4TB is as easy as copying from one drive to the other. Examples are 2 posts up.
> 
> If your 3TB is almost full, plan on several days to do the copy and expand with the USB 2 adapters. I copied my 4TB that was 26% full to another 4TB with USB3 adapter and it took me 50 hours.
> 
> One last thing, when it was done, I booted in my TiVo and now the drive stated it was 37% full. I ran a KS 57 and after it was done it was back to 26% full.


Thanks. Do you think it would be significantly faster if I used the internal SATA connections in my desktop? It looks my 3 TB drive is a SATA II drive.


----------



## mattack

dougdingle said:


> Just think of the amount of shows you can lose when *that *drive fails...


The number will be less because they'll be in HD!


----------



## jmbach

NYHeel said:


> Thanks. Do you think it would be significantly faster if I used the internal SATA connections in my desktop? It looks my 3 TB drive is a SATA II drive.


Over USB2, yes significantly. USB2 theoretical speed is 480Mbps which about 1/3 SATA I speed. So SATA II is about 6x faster than USB2.


----------



## ThAbtO

NYHeel said:


> So my 3 TB drive in my Roamio Plus is getting a bit full and I was thinking of upgrading to a larger drive (probably 4 TB) but need the ability to maintain my recordings (and preferably settings/cable card info as well). Is this the correct tool to use to do what I want?
> 
> Also, while I used this once before I've forgotten everything about it. Is there a link somewhere to instructions on upgrading a 3TB drive to 4 TB?
> 
> Lastly, I have 2 old SATA to USB 2.0 adapters in my house from about 4 years ago. Would something that old still work with this version? I'll check the model when I get home.


With exception to the copy protected shows, you could copy them to a computer, an external HD connected to a computer or network, etc. If you keep them on the Tivo and the drive fails, then you can lose them without a back up to reload them. Tivo is not really meant for long term video storage (more than a couple years.)

You can use KMTTG to download those videos and decrypt them. If ever, your Media Access Key should change, you can still load it back to the Tivo and still watch it.


----------



## videobruce

I've tried running this from a USB drive, but all I get is the boot screen of the Linix version that is chosen using Live USB Install V259 to load it to a USB stick. That screen only repeats a countdown over and over no matter what is chosen. (see attachments)

1. Does this run by itself or do you need a Linux 'distro'?
2. What USB program is recommended to prepare a USB stick to run this?
3. Is there any kind of graphic interface or is this only command lines?

If it is only done with command lines, where are specific, typed out lines to preform the save, copy, expand etc. from a 320GB to a 2TB drive on a 746? *IOW's a step by step set of instructions to eliminate any easy to make mistakes.*
As opposed to just a list of individual commands which is of no help if you have little idea how to compose them.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Hexdump

Is there any way I can get a copy of the bootable iso?

I have to try clone my 500gb drive to a 4tb today if possible.


----------



## calvinko

I am trying to clone my 2tb (expanded already) to a 4tb if possible. But I heard there is a 2.2 tb limit? Which is true?


----------



## lpwcomp

calvinko said:


> I am trying to clone my 2tb (expanded already) to a 4tb if possible. But I heard there is a 2.2 tb limit? Which is true?


What model TiVo?


----------



## calvinko

lpwcomp said:


> What model TiVo?


Premier


----------



## lpwcomp

calvinko said:


> Premier


Then that limit does not apply.


----------



## 21364guy

In the next 1-2 weeks I'll be upgrading my Roamio Plus with a 2TB drive. At that time I'd very much like to copy over my existing shows (esp. copy-protected HBO ones) and season passes. Could someone give me a tip as to the sequence of MFS commands to use to accomplish this? I can figure out the device names of the attached drives, so it's really just the MFS commands and options I need to understand. Also I need to know if I can start with a bare, unformatted drive, or if I should first place it into the TiVo for initial formatting, software installation, etc.

Lastly, based on other posts here it seems like no live ISO is available? If so what is the best way to proceed? I've got a 2008 mac pro (w/vmware fusion) and also a compact win7 box (for gaming). I could potentially install ubuntu or something like that under vmware fusion if I really need to build from source. Or is it possible to do this with a standard linux package manager (apt, rpm)?


----------



## jmbach

Why 2TB? You can go to 4TB with MFSTools 3.2. 
You will need to build from source. 
The command is simple. mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. The 'a' switch copies all your recorded streams.


----------



## CrashHD

Any chance it's going to 6TB anytime soon?

I've got a nearly full 3TB, and facing the possibility of having to transfer off to other DVRs to go back to a 6TB afterwards (very slow).


----------



## jmbach

Going to 6TB in a Roamio with MFSTools 3.2 is limited to 4TB unless a major rewrite of the code is done or TiVo fixes the 2TB partition size limit. 
Best bet is support ggieseke with his MFSR utility as that could be modified to copy the recordings over to the new drive. Especially since the thought has crossed his mind to attempt this.


----------



## 21364guy

Just wanted to confirm that I can use USB3 to connect both drives to my system when using 'mfstool copy'? In particular I'm thinking about picking up one of these to support this:

http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Duplicator-Function-EC-HDD2/dp/B00IKC14OG

The description says that both drives will be seen by the OS. In my case I want to go from an existing 1TB drive to a new 2TB one, and to keep my recordings and such.

As my only PC (used just for gaming) is mini-ITX based, adding two drives internally, even temporarily, would be a bit of a nightmare. But live booting linux with MFS tools 3.2 from USB should be easy; and I can avoid recabling if USB3 will work in this situation.


----------



## CrashHD

jmbach said:


> Going to 6TB in a Roamio with MFSTools 3.2 is limited to 4TB unless a major rewrite of the code is done or TiVo fixes the 2TB partition size limit.
> Best bet is support ggieseke with his MFSR utility as that could be modified to copy the recordings over to the new drive. Especially since the thought has crossed his mind to attempt this.


Does anyone know how he or weaknees are doing it? I'm tempted to pay weaknees gouged price just to get a look at the partition table on that drive.


----------



## ggieseke

CrashHD said:


> Does anyone know how he or weaknees are doing it? I'm tempted to pay weaknees gouged price just to get a look at the partition table on that drive.


If you do, I'd like to see it too. 

Up to 4TB, mfsr uses a fairly standard layout (two app partitions and two media partitions), but adjusted to keep the media partitions under 2TiB. For larger drives it creates one combined app partition and three media partitions.

Either way, I scrap the MFS zones and start over from ground zero to properly align the app and inode zones for 4K drives.


----------



## 21364guy

Fingers crossed... I have MFS Tools 3.2 running now to copy stuff from my current 500GB drive (Roamio) onto a new 3TB WD drive. It's 3% done now and claims just under 4 hours to complete. I am wondering if HBO is still going to work, or if I need verizon to reinitialize the cable card in some way.


----------



## Tweak42

Can anyone clue me in where to find the MFS Tools 3.2 iso image? 

mfslive.org is down, and that's the only site where all google search keep linking back to. Sourceforge only has the old mfstools2 iso.


----------



## 21364guy

Tweak42 said:


> Can anyone clue me in where to find the MFS Tools 3.2 iso image?
> 
> mfslive.org is down, and that's the only site where all google search keep linking back to. Sourceforge only has the old mfstools2 iso.


In the end I built it from source myself, though I believe some forum members have unofficial ISOs.


----------



## 21364guy

So I had mixed success with 3.2 and trying to move from a 500GB disk (Roamio Plus) to a 3TB drive. The command I used was:

sudo mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
[for me X=a and Y=b]

My recordings seem to have made it, which is great. Also the cable card, incl. HBO is still working. But the box seems confused in other ways. My channel list is gone and in menus the box refers to itself as "UNKNOWN." At first it said it had run out of show data and needed to connect. But that didn't resolve anything and now it's redoing guided setup.

Hopefully that will clear things up. But I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if folks typically need to rerun guided setup? I still have the 500GB drive if it's a question of rerunning mfstool with some additional arguments...


----------



## ggieseke

21364guy said:


> So I had mixed success with 3.2 and trying to move from a 500GB disk (Roamio Plus) to a 3TB drive. The command I used was:
> 
> sudo mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> [for me X=a and Y=b]
> 
> My recordings seem to have made it, which is great. Also the cable card, incl. HBO is still working. But the box seems confused in other ways. My channel list is gone and in menus the box refers to itself as "UNKNOWN." At first it said it had run out of show data and needed to connect. But that didn't resolve anything and now it's redoing guided setup.
> 
> Hopefully that will clear things up. But I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if folks typically need to rerun guided setup? I still have the 500GB drive if it's a question of rerunning mfstool with some additional arguments...


Confused. 

A Plus should have come with a 1TB drive.


----------



## jmbach

21364guy said:


> So I had mixed success with 3.2 and trying to move from a 500GB disk (Roamio Plus) to a 3TB drive. The command I used was:
> 
> sudo mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> [for me X=a and Y=b]
> 
> My recordings seem to have made it, which is great. Also the cable card, incl. HBO is still working. But the box seems confused in other ways. My channel list is gone and in menus the box refers to itself as "UNKNOWN." At first it said it had run out of show data and needed to connect. But that didn't resolve anything and now it's redoing guided setup.
> 
> Hopefully that will clear things up. But I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if folks typically need to rerun guided setup? I still have the 500GB drive if it's a question of rerunning mfstool with some additional arguments...


I am not sure but this sounds like you are trying to install an image from another TiVo. In the system information section is the TiVo serial number correct?


----------



## 21364guy

My mistake, the original drive was 1TB. I had never really used it since I immediately upgraded to a 2TB WD drive. But that just failed under warranty so I pressed the 1TB drive into service while waiting for the replacement. WD sent me a 3TB replacement which is what I ran as the target for mfstool copy. 

Any thoughts on why mfstool copy -a had trouble?


----------



## jmbach

Is the serial number in the system information section correct?


----------



## 21364guy

jmbach said:


> Is the serial number in the system information section correct?


I believe so. After repeating guided setup everything is fine as near as I can tell. But I'm not sure what went wrong in the copy operation. Recordings are there, season passes too. But immediately after installing the 3TB drive I had no channels, listings, etc. plus that odd UNKNOWN behavior as noted here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=490126

Also the cable card is still working fine, including protected content.


----------



## jmbach

equinoxe has a GitHub repo for the latest version of MFSTools found here. He has done some cleanup work an added new features. Login is a little different and you now use sudo before the command to allow the command to run as root. There is the standard ISO plus Debian install packages for 32 and 64 bit OSes and a raspberry Pi install package.

*Please read the complete post before downloading and using these images. It might answer some questions.*
11/04/2021 Fixed MFSTools so that it can make partitions greater than 2 TiB when copying. There was no need for this until TiVo fixed the 2 TiB bug in TE4 which they have. So for those running TE4, you no longer have to limit the size of the initial copy and use mfsadd with mfsaddfix to expand your storage space.

1/26/2020 Modified mfsaddfix to coalesce added partitions if able. This would allow the max size of a MFSTools created drive of 16TB and the max size of an MFSR created drive of 20TB.

5/8/2019 With the help of TCF member angra, the modifications to mfsadd to add partitions to Bolt drives has been successful. Other mod that angra work on was adding a switch to mfsinfo to display partition information of the drive(s). Other mods for this version include two new switches added to mfsadd. One switch forces the ordering of the added partitions to always be added so they may be coalesced later and the other switch will allow lower numbered partitions that were previously added to the drive but not added to the MFS header to be added to the MFS header. The version has now been bumped up to 3.32-devel.

12/29/2018 Looks like the modifications to copy Bolt drives has been successful in the small number of people who have tested it. So it will be released to the general public and version is now 3.3-devel. Will also add a tool called mfsaddfix to be used on Roamio and newer TiVos to create drives larger than 4TB using MFSTools.

8/23/18 Good news so far. I have had a couple people test the Beta on their bolts and it has successfully copied and expanded the original drive to a new larger drive. There are a few more who are testing this and if also successful, will make the Beta public.

01/14/18 So I believe I have fixed MFSTools 3.2 to work on copying Bolts up to 4TB drive without breaking any previous functionality.

10/7/2017 It appears the UAS issue is fixed. More testing on different systems will be the telltale sign. Also I think the image is now bootable under EFI as well.

9/2/2017 You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt successfully. You still cannot use it to copy/backup/restore Bolt images.

4/5/2017 It seems that on a Roamio with the OS 20.7.x, if you copy the image to another drive, you may experience the RSoD stating that the OS could not be installed. The fix is to do a cold restart of the Roamio and run a Kickstart 58. It will tell you it is installing an update, followed by rebooting to the green screen telling you that a serious error has occurred and it is trying to fix it, then will reboot up normally. If you do a Kickstart 57 instead of a 58, you may be stuck in a green screen loop.

03/26/2017 It seems that Linux distros have a problem with using USB3 attached drives as USB Attached SCSI (uas) devices including the Linux Distro that this ISO is made from. It appears to be more of a write issue than a read issue with large amounts of data. Looking into a way to prevent the distro from using uas until this bug has been fixed. There are some reports that this is fixed but I have issues with writes when using USB3 that do not happen when I use the same dock but with eSata connection. This is not an issue if the USB3 dock is connected to an USB2 port.

11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images.

_*Notes on use:*_
Remember all commands have to have 'sudo' in front of the command. Example would be 'sudo mfscopy &#8230;.'

Please note, the image should support UEFI booting but if not it will require you to boot in legacy BIOS mode via CSM (Compatibility Support Module) which would need to be activated in your BIOS settings.

Easy way to identify connected drives (thanks to 192bowler showing me this) - lsblk -o name,size,vendor

For most people who just want to copy their old image to a new drive (max 4 TB in size except no limit if running TE4) the command is as follows:

Premier and earlier models - mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
Roamio and later models - mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

Where sdX is the source drive and sdY is the target drive.

If you get an error from MFSTools that states something like "_*Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector*_" then read all the way to the end.

Premiere models can be copied to a larger drive up to 8 TB if the ancillary tools are used and the instructions in the 8TB Premiere thread is followed.

Roamio and newer models running TE3 can be copied over to drives larger than 4 TB with MFSTools if the instructions in the DIY 10 TB Roamio thread.

*There are no warranties or guarantees with these images and I take no responsibility for anything that happens using these images. You are logged in as root so you could do dangerous things to your system if you are not careful. TiVo, in the future, could modify their OS in such a way that it could make drives manipulated by these tools no longer functional and loss of recordings could happen. 
If there are any issues with these files let me know and I will see what I can do.*

Modifications from SourceForge source code as of 12/5/2015 download which has not been incorporated into the SourceForge code as of yet.
- Made modifications to handle images with a coalesced partition 12 with the original partition 12 at the beginning of the coalesced partition in restore.c. (Will not handle a coalesced partition 10. Other coalesced combinations should be okay. Will need further testing and confirmation to be sure.)
- corrected declaration of variable skipdb in copy.c
- Added missing declaration in macpart.h to prevent 64 bit integer being converted to 32 bit.
- Added missing declarations in several .h files to correct implicit declarations of functions during compile.
- Added missing include statements in several .c files to resolve compiler warnings about implicit function declarations.
- Added ddrescue to the image so you should not need another disc to try to recover your image if it is damaged.

Added a couple of tools should only be run on a Premiere image.
-*apmfix* - Its purpose is to take the partition pair MFSAdd placed on the drive and coalesce them into one partition so that the Premiere will have the added recording space. If you do not coalesce the partition pair, the TiVo will divorce the media partition but keep the application partition. This will give the appearance of having the full recording space but will error if it tries to access that space because it no longer exists. This program will convert the APM from 32 bit to 64 bit, prune off any Apple_Free partitions at the end of the drive, and then coalesce partition 15 and 16 if present and meets criteria.

-*8TBprep* - Its purpose is to prepare a 6TB image on an 8TB drive to accept another expansion by MFSAdd in order to use the full 8TB recording space. For this program to work, partitions 12 and 13 must be contiguous and in order and the image currently has 15 partitions. (Which it should since it currently has a 6TB image on it.) This program will convert a 32 bit APM to 64 bit, prune off any Apple_Free partitions located at the end of the drive, and then coalesce partitions 12 and 13 if they meet criteria.

Of course these tools would not be needed for MFSTools to be able to use drives larger than 4TB if TiVo would fix their code that causes a 64 bit number to be saved as a 32 bit number when it is adding up the MFS partitions. This is the reason why MFS partitions are limited to 2TiB.

Added a couple of tools to be run on a Series 5 and later TiVo.
-*bootsectorfix* - If you run MFSTools on a Series 5 or later TiVo and get an error that states something like "Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector", then running this program on that drive will attempt to fix the boot sector to resolve that error.

-*mfsaddfix* - Its purpose is to relocate mfsadd added partitions in Roamio and later TiVos to the lower "placeholder" partitions. These partitions used to hold the OS in the Premier and earlier TiVos but are no longer needed as the Roamio and later TiVos have those partitions in the internal flash drive. If you try to boot a Roamio and later TiVo with partitions that were added by mfsadd without moving them, the TiVo will promptly reformat your drive and you will lose all recordings. Will have to give a big thanks to ggeseike for helping getting the CRC checksum calculations correct for the MFS header for this program.

This  post maybe helpful if you are trying to mount a location to save a backup of your image.
If you want to save recordings as well, add 'a' to the command line.


----------



## HerronScott

jmbach said:


> Since no working ISO has not been posted yet, I will post what I have made temporarily until the developer posts his version. I am not a Linux expert so the ISO is not nice and small but it works for me. It uses an openSUSE x86 base and I have an ISO, USB, and VHD version.


Thank you!

Scott


----------



## Johnny1138

thanks jmbach!

what issues (if any) have you run into with your builds? 

if anyone would like some feedback, i have a roamio and a few 4TB and 6TB drives that I can use for testing/debugging.


----------



## Anotherpyr

Is 3.2 source even available?


----------



## Anotherpyr

jmbach said:


> It should automatically log you in as root user "tivo" with password "tivo." I find that the first time logon may take a long time for the non ISO files.


Actually you're just user tivo (uid 1000) not root (uid 0).
You're in the root group, but you're not root and thus lack those privileges.


----------



## jmbach

Perhaps that is a good thing. Thanks for the clarification.


----------



## jmbach

Anotherpyr said:


> Is 3.2 source even available?


Yes. The OP has a link. The only modification I made was to handle images that have been modified by coalescing partition 12 and 13 together since that was a method to expand a premiere image to 4TB before MFSTools 3.2 came out.


----------



## jmbach

Anotherpyr said:


> Actually you're just user tivo (uid 1000) not root (uid 0).
> You're in the root group, but you're not root and thus lack those privileges.


If you need root. Password is still tivo.


----------



## Anotherpyr

jmbach said:


> If you need root. Password is still tivo.


Didn't work for me.

So the issue I'm having is that it appends the number 10 to the drive device, but since it doesn't recognize the partition table on the TiVo drive, it doesn't create the partition entries, just the disk entry. So all mfstool commands fail. I thought I'd try creating the entries with mknod and see if I could list the TiVo drive, but I get authorization denied when I try su - root and the password tivo.

I'm using an Acer laptop with 2 USB to SATA adapters with a 320GB Premiere drive as the source and a 3TB WD drive as the destination.


----------



## Anotherpyr

jmbach said:


> Yes. The OP has a link. The only modification I made was to handle images that have been modified by coalescing partition 12 and 13 together since that was a method to expand a premiere image to 4TB before MFSTools 3.2 came out.


Thanks. I was looking under files. Didn't notice the code tab (doh). Built it on Ubuntu and it appears to work. Doing the copy right now. Still added 10 to the device, but now it works. Also required I run it as root. What could possibly go wrong? 😀 It isn't an important laptop so as long as it doesn't wipe the original TiVo drive I won't be upset.


----------



## jmbach

It will overwrite any drive you pick so as long as you pick the right drive, there will be no problem. 

What you are seeing I think is the fact it looks for partition 10 as the MFS header resides there. 

I am not sure why the ISO did not work for you. It was my first attempt at using SUSEStudio to make an ISO and perhaps some drivers were left out. 

I will look into it more. Thanks for the feedback.


----------



## Anotherpyr

Thanks for all your help. First attempt failed. So I swapped the drives around. I was getting this bizarre behavior with the idsonix adapter where it would start to error and then reappear on another drive letter i.e. It would move from /dev/sdb to /dev/sdd. So I put the original drive in the pluggable adapter and the destination in the idsonix and that worked.

Not sure what was going on with the iso. I couldn't even get mfstool info to work with the TiVo drive in either adapter.

Follow up: it finished and I put the 3TB drive in the premiere. It booted and updated without any issues. I now have 476 HD hours of recording capability on original two tuner premiere. Decided to replace the noisy fan next.


----------



## egable

I just tried cloning my 1.8 TB original TiVo drive from my TiVo Premier XL 4 onto a 4 TB WD Green drive and while the TiVo boots the drive and shows all the shows and recordings, I cannot get it to expand to the full 4 TB.

I originally used JMFS tools live USB to copy the drive. I tried the Extend option from there, but it failed. Then, I tried the MFS Tools 3.2 Live USB image from jmbach to try to copy and/or extend the drive. However, MFS Tools keeps reporting an invalid MFS header and no /dev/sdb10 or /dev/sdc10. They both show as (null). MFS Tools seems incapable of doing anything with either the source drive or the 4 TB destination drive (even though TiVo boots both drives just fine). 

On a side note, I cannot get root access on the MFS Tools Live USB image. The password is not 'tivo'. 

Any suggestions on what to try next to expand the 2TB image into the full 4TB of space would be appreciated.

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

Try 'Linux' for the root password then. I may not have changed the default root. What do you get when you run 'fdisk -l' command.


----------



## egable

The password was indeed "Linux". I unplugged the other hard drive I had in the system which made the source TiVo drive be /dev/sda and the destination drive be /dev/sdb. Then, MFS Tools started reading both drives just fine. I did:

mfsadd -x /dev/sdb

And it completed without any errors, creating partition 15 and 16. However, when I then put the drive back in the TiVo and started it up, it said something about removing an external storage device. Then it got stuck in a reboot loop. I tried using Kickstart codes, but none of them would work at all. Any suggestions?


----------



## jmbach

You cannot add a pair of partitions with MFSTools 3.2 to a premiere image. That is the result you will get. If you add a pair of partitions, you will have to coalesce the pair manually for it to work in a Premiere. A better option is to use MFSTools to copy and expand the drive from the source to the target. The target drive will have a similar partition layout as a native TiVo drive. (2 app and 2 media partitions with the OS located in the middle of the drive)


----------



## egable

How do I expand it? I know mfscopy will copy it over, but does it also expand it?


----------



## jmbach

It will now copy and expand in one command. Use mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY as your command.


----------



## egable

After about 18 hours of copying, it completed, and the box now boots with all the expected available space. Thanks for the assistance.


----------



## nelem

Does any one have experience of this TiVo? I had a hard drive failure and managed to rescue virtually all data to 1 3TB drive using ddrescue so I have a 1TB image on a 3TB drive which I want to expand but not having any joy.

JMFS-rev104 (from rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade) says No TiVo drives
MFSLive 1.4 sees the partitions on the drive but I have been advised not to use it.
MFS Tools 3.2 mfsinfo gives "ERROR Unexpected values for state/magic c1b2bdfd/00000000"

Any suggestions?

Cheers


----------



## jmbach

Looks like the MFS header is corrupt. If the backup header is intact you might be able to use that to fix it.


----------



## chalooch101

i would like to copy my shows form an already expanded 2TB premier drive to a new 4TB premier drive....which command do i use?

mfstool copy -a /dev/sdA /dev/sdB.
or
mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdA /dev/sdB.


does the new drive then need to be expanded?


----------



## jmbach

It will expand while it copies. 

Either command will work. The latter copies the alternate root and kernel partitions and only adds a few minutes to the copy. What will take a while is copying the recording streams. If the drive is almost full it will take a couple of days. So use USB3 or SATA/eSata connection.


----------



## nelem

jmbach said:


> Looks like the MFS header is corrupt. If the backup header is intact you might be able to use that to fix it.


Where will I find the back up header? Is there thread about this I can read up on?

Is it possible, then, that MFSLive is using a different copy of the header than JMFS and MFS Tools are? The TiVo still boots and runs fine.


----------



## jmbach

nelem said:


> Where will I find the back up header? Is there thread about this I can read up on?
> 
> Is it possible, then, that MFSLive is using a different copy of the header than JMFS and MFS Tools are? The TiVo still boots and runs fine.


If the TiVo boots and runs fine with the current recovered image on the 3TB drive, then it is more than likely that there is something else other than a corrupted header. Since it is a Cisco box and not a standard TiVo box, the header information could be different than a normal TiVo made box. However, looking at rosswalker's site, looks like JMFS and probably MFSTools 3.2 should work. The header is the first block of partition 10 and the back up header is the last block of partition 10.

If you could post or the header and back up header, perhaps the forum members cold help more. Might want to create a new thread to work on this.


----------



## nelem

When you say first and last blocks, can I read first and last sectors? Or is the block size some multiple of sectors?

I will start a new thread when I get the data but I have to use this PC for it.

Continued on thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10663347#post10663347


----------



## jmbach

First and last sector.


----------



## locksmythe

How are you attaching the second drive to the roamio? Is it a direct attach port multiplier on the internal sata connector?


----------



## JimWall

I just upgraded my Roamio from factory 1 TB green to 3 TB green.
It took 5.5 hours to copy over.
Everything went well except after reboot there are two issues:
No channels
No program guide information.
No One Passes
Roamio right away downloaded the channels
Then sent a message it did so.
I made a connection and downloaded the program information.
One Passes now appear but not to do or guide information
I guess the Garbage collector has to run a very large update which will take hours then program information will be there.


----------



## JimWall

GC completed at 8:16 PM and all is good.
To Do list is there.
Program info present


----------



## jmbach

What command and switches did you use to make the copy?


----------



## ack_ping

I have a Premier XL, with an internal 1TB and external 1TB drive. Trying to expand the internal to 4. Pulled out current drive and connected, ran mfscopy -a old new, "Volume header corrupt", ran mfsinfo on the old drive same error. I put the old drive back in the Tivo and it boots fine, I tested playing random shows and no issues.

Do I need the external drive also connected to just expand the internal? I wouldn't think so. Outside that what is the next step. Is there a simple way to fix the volume header?

Cheers

Edit: I did notice Nelem had similar issues, but different device and no resolve. I also wanted to see if I'm just missing a command before starting a new thread.


----------



## jmbach

Several things for which I am not sure of. I am not sure you can just copy and expand the internal drive by itself with or without the external drive attached. Mainly because the way it expands a drive is by creating larger media partitions and not be adding a partition. (Like JMFS does) . I do not know if you have to have the external drive attached but my suspicions are that you do. Since I am not the developer and only a user and have not attempted to use the program in that way, I cannot give you accurate information on that. Now you should be able to have all three drives attached and copy both your internal and external to one 4TB drive. That would free your external up to reuse it for external storage again.

If it still has volume header corruption with both drives attached, see if you can post the header so I can examine it.


----------



## ack_ping

Thanks. I think you're right about both needing to be plugged in. I went back and re-read the instructions on tyger.org about expanding just 1 hard drive. Granted they are old instructions from 2012. Re-reading them though, after I dd from old a to new add I have to do an mfsadd -r 4 -x newA oldB


----------



## jmbach

I don't think that will work because of the limitations of the TiVo OS. One, the Premiere internal drive can only have 15 partitions. It comes natively with 14 so adding a partition pair will not work. Two, TiVo partition sizes cannot exceed 2TB. 

So the way you are expanding the drive would violate both principles. 

I think it would be better to allow the program to combine both drives into one.


----------



## JimWall

My steps:
Hooked both drives up internally and booted from CD using SUSE ISO from jmbach
I got the volume header error running mfsinfo
Then I ran su and password is Linux (case sensitive)
ran hwinfo --disk to see which disks are which
verified with mfsinfo
Then rest was smooth.
mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb
poweroff
waited 10 minutes before pulling drive to put back in Roamio


----------



## ack_ping

jmbach said:


> I don't think that will work because of the limitations of the TiVo OS. One, the Premiere internal drive can only have 15 partitions. It comes natively with 14 so adding a partition pair will not work. Two, TiVo partition sizes cannot exceed 2TB.
> 
> So the way you are expanding the drive would violate both principles.
> 
> I think it would be better to allow the program to combine both drives into one.


Darn, was hoping to save myself 6 hours of coping 2TBs, but that makes since. So reading the command syntax on the first it would be something like this. Assuming /dev/sda (old internal), /dev/sdb (old external), and /dev/sdc (new 4TB), "mfscopy -a /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc"


----------



## jmbach

That looks correct to me. Might want to use the -ai switch instead of -a. I think it would prevent you from having to connect to the TiVo servers to update your 1p and channel list.


----------



## ack_ping

EDIT: Nevermind found it.facepalm


----------



## drhendrix

Hello,

I'm planning to upgrade the 500 GB drive in my Roamio Basic to a WD10EURX, and I have a few questions about using MFSTools 3.2 to do a drive to drive copy to prepare the EURX drive.

1. If I use the following procedure will the copy process include the cable card paring and guided channel setup information?

2. If so, will the new drive be good to go without any additional configuration?

Procedure:

- Connect the original Roamio and new WD drives to PC SATA ports,

- Boot PC with MFSTools 3.2 USB Flash drive,

- Obtain drive ID information,

- run: su and login as Linux
- run: fdisk -l
or: hwinfo --disk
and then: mfsinfo

- Copy Roamio drive information to new WD drive,

- run: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdx /dev/sdy

where x = original Roamio drive, and
y = new unformatted WD10EURX drive

Also, can mfstools 3.2 be used to make a backup of the Roamio drive to a resident NTFS drive in the PC? If so, what would be the commands?

Thanks for any comments or advice for my upgrade process.

Dennis


----------



## videobruce

> waited 10 minutes before pulling drive to put back in Roamio


Why??


----------



## jmbach

drhendrix said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm planning to upgrade the 500 GB drive in my Roamio Basic to a WD10EURX, and I have a few questions about using MFSTools 3.2 to do a drive to drive copy to prepare the EURX drive.
> 
> 1. If I use the following procedure will the copy process include the cable card paring and guided channel setup information?
> 
> 2. If so, will the new drive be good to go without any additional configuration?
> 
> Procedure:
> 
> - Connect the original Roamio and new WD drives to PC SATA ports,
> 
> - Boot PC with MFSTools 3.2 USB Flash drive,
> 
> - Obtain drive ID information,
> 
> - run: su and login as Linux
> - run: fdisk -l
> or: hwinfo --disk
> and then: mfsinfo
> 
> - Copy Roamio drive information to new WD drive,
> 
> - run: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdx /dev/sdy
> 
> where x = original Roamio drive, and
> y = new unformatted WD10EURX drive
> 
> Also, can mfstools 3.2 be used to make a backup of the Roamio drive to a resident NTFS drive in the PC? If so, what would be the commands?
> 
> Thanks for any comments or advice for my upgrade process.
> 
> Dennis


1. It should

2. It should

It can make a backup. However the exact command I cannot remember but look at the commands at the beginning of this thread.


----------



## ThAbtO

drhendrix said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm planning to upgrade the 500 GB drive in my Roamio Basic to a WD10EURX, and I have a few questions about using MFSTools 3.2 to do a drive to drive copy to prepare the EURX drive.
> 
> 1. If I use the following procedure will the copy process include the cable card paring and guided channel setup information?
> 
> 2. If so, will the new drive be good to go without any additional configuration?
> 
> Procedure:
> 
> - Connect the original Roamio and new WD drives to PC SATA ports,
> 
> - Boot PC with MFSTools 3.2 USB Flash drive,
> 
> - Obtain drive ID information,
> 
> - run: su and login as Linux
> - run: fdisk -l
> or: hwinfo --disk
> and then: mfsinfo
> 
> - Copy Roamio drive information to new WD drive,
> 
> - run: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdx /dev/sdy
> 
> where x = original Roamio drive, and
> y = new unformatted WD10EURX drive
> 
> Also, can mfstools 3.2 be used to make a backup of the Roamio drive to a resident NTFS drive in the PC? If so, what would be the commands?
> 
> Thanks for any comments or advice for my upgrade process.
> 
> Dennis


Technically, you can go to 3TB, just swap out the drive for the new one without any PC involved. For unprotected shows, you can transfer them to the PC or another Tivo and transfer back afterwards. Cable card may beed to be re-paired.


----------



## JimWall

videobruce said:


> Why??


I always wait after shutting down PC before pulling drive.
Just to make sure the drive is no longer spinning and data is drive's cache is written to disk.

I once pulled a drive right away and Tivo didn't boot.
I redid the same steps with same drive and waited a while before pulling.
Tivo S3 then booted up perfectly.


----------



## controlio

I'm trying to copy a Roamio 1TB to a 2TB. I used the ISO build.

A quick note on the ISO and the error reporting on MFSCopy 3.2... When I tried to login using "root/linux" on the ISO, it automatically changed me to user "tivo". I didn't see this happen, and the first two or three times I tried to run MFSCopy I was met with a generic error about being unable to read the drive header. It wasn't until I started prodding around and trying to list the partitions in Linux that I realized it was failing due to a permissions error (i.e. I wasn't root and needed to su). It would be far more user friendly if the program either checked for su permissions or gave a more clear error message that delineated between "access denied" and "error reading header", because the two are very different issues.

So anyways, I ran *mfscopy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda* (because my drives came up backwards). The program ran 5.5 hours successfully overnight. I popped the 2TB in the Roamio and booted. The open animation did not run, and I was immediately greeted with an "out of guide data" message with all of the details missing (Guide data for Unknown has run out. Contact Unknown at Unknown etc). I hit skip for the moment so I could check to see if all of my recordings copied. They did. I was very happy about this, but bummed that parts of the system didn't transfer over.

I connected to TiVo, but got an *S03* error when it got to loading the data. It complained that I should rerun guided setup. Surprised about this, I did. It ran to the "Getting Setup Info" page, got to 65% through "Loading info", and failed again with an *S03*. It asked me to pull the plug so the box could reboot and run guided setup from scratch. I did this. Same result, errored out at 65% of loading info with an *S03* error.

Any thoughts? I think I'm going to see if there's any kickstarts I can attempt before I put the old drive back in for the moment, but this really bums me out because the whole point of using 3.2 over just tossing the new drive into the TiVo was to not only keep my recordings but also to not have to go back through GS and repairing and whatnot. But now it's clear something was missed in the copy, and my TiVo is braindead for the moment.

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

The ISO automatically boots to tivo user when the boot process completes. Once you are booted into TiVo user, then you can use su to get to root user. I guess I can redo the ISO to leave you the login prompt instead. 

As far as the other issue. I am not sure. It is more of a developer question.


----------



## controlio

As an update to my previous post, I ran a *57* kickstart, and about 20 seconds after the GSOD it would immediately reboot. I let it go about 10 times then pulled the plug. So it's clear something in the copy didn't go well - whether it be a missing or corrupt partition or something else.

Any other Roamio users run into this issue, or am I the unlucky one? Should I try a different command? Start over? Any thoughts?

Also, jmbach: If you want it to auto-login, I would just add a login message that says something to the effect of "You are not logged in as root. Make sure you "su" before you run MFSTools." or something like that. That way if someone does what I did, they get an extra nudge.


----------



## drhendrix

Thanks for the replies jmbach and controlio.

I'm just going to install the new drive in the Roamio and go through the guided setup and cable card paring again. I would like to do the copy, but it seems like it's possible that could lead to time consuming problems.

Dennis


----------



## unitron

controlio said:


> I'm trying to copy a Roamio 1TB to a 2TB. I used the ISO build.
> 
> A quick note on the ISO and the error reporting on MFSCopy 3.2... When I tried to login using "root/linux" on the ISO, it automatically changed me to user "tivo". I didn't see this happen, and the first two or three times I tried to run MFSCopy I was met with a generic error about being unable to read the drive header. It wasn't until I started prodding around and trying to list the partitions in Linux that I realized it was failing due to a permissions error (i.e. I wasn't root and needed to su). It would be far more user friendly if the program either checked for su permissions or gave a more clear error message that delineated between "access denied" and "error reading header", because the two are very different issues.
> 
> So anyways, I ran *mfscopy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda* (because my drives came up backwards). The program ran 5.5 hours successfully overnight. I popped the 2TB in the Roamio and booted. The open animation did not run, and I was immediately greeted with an "out of guide data" message with all of the details missing (Guide data for Unknown has run out. Contact Unknown at Unknown etc). I hit skip for the moment so I could check to see if all of my recordings copied. They did. I was very happy about this, but bummed that parts of the system didn't transfer over.
> 
> I connected to TiVo, but got an *S03* error when it got to loading the data. It complained that I should rerun guided setup. Surprised about this, I did. It ran to the "Getting Setup Info" page, got to 65% through "Loading info", and failed again with an *S03*. It asked me to pull the plug so the box could reboot and run guided setup from scratch. I did this. Same result, errored out at 65% of loading info with an *S03* error.
> 
> Any thoughts? I think I'm going to see if there's any kickstarts I can attempt before I put the old drive back in for the moment, but this really bums me out because the whole point of using 3.2 over just tossing the new drive into the TiVo was to not only keep my recordings but also to not have to go back through GS and repairing and whatnot. But now it's clear something was missed in the copy, and my TiVo is braindead for the moment.
> 
> Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.


If you get an S03, don't run Guided Setup, you might never get out of it.

Instead, do

Clear program information & To Do List


----------



## controlio

unitron said:


> If you get an S03, don't run Guided Setup, you might never get out of it.
> 
> Instead, do
> 
> Clear program information & To Do List


Ok. I'll re-run it tonight with *-ai* and do a clear program info.

Is there another (and/or better) way to do this? Should I just do a straight copy (v1 style) and expand the drive? Or is the 3.2 mfscopy still the better way to go about it?


----------



## jmbach

If you are working on a Roamio you will have to use MFSTools 3.2.


----------



## controlio

So I blanked the new drive, re-copied, put the 2tb in, and got the same results. This time, as recommended, instead of redoing guided setup, I did a C&D Guide Data.

I'm currently past hour two of being stuck at the C&D Guide Data screen, and I don't hear any hard drive thrashing. I'm going to give it a little bit more time, but I'm guessing that this is a bust as well.

I very purposefully waited for the new tools to be used on several Roamios before my own, so I knew they were mature and that I would have a good chance of making this work. I'm really disheartened here. Copying shows through the GUI is going to be a monster PITA if that's my only option now.

Does the ISO contain the stuff to mount partitions and look at the logs to see what's going on? Any advice on which partitions to mount AFTER a 3.2 mfscopy?


----------



## jmbach

The ISO has whatever comes with a standard SUSEStudio ISO with compiled MFSTools 3.2. Since the \var partition is an ext3 (I think) partition, you should be able to mount it. Telemark probably can give you much better guidance than I can. 

Does MFSTools read the drive you create okay? Might use MFSTools to check the image as well. Perhaps try the copy without the 'i' switch. Not sure why it is not working for you. This would be more of a jkozee question.


----------



## controlio

So unfortunately I completely screwed up, and instead of copying 6 log files out of /var, to a directory on my USB stick, I wrote over the same file on my USB drive 6 times. After that, I zeroed the header and let Roamio format it as a test for my backup plan. Today has not been my day.

All I can tell you is that in the tverr log, it repeatedly referenced a missing mfs file number that it was trying to delete, and 5 other file numbers indented under the first that it was also failing to find and delete. It repeated this for the 4 hours I let the C&D Guide Data run before I pulled the plug.

jmbach: The Linux ISO doesn't even acknowledge the partitions (they don't show up in /dev) unless I run a *mfsck -r* on the drive. Then they list. That was the only way I could mount the tivo /var partition - I had to run mfsck first for the partitions to pop up.

I'm currently investigating my backup plan, which was to get pyTiVo running and start backing everything up. If I can't figure out a working MFSCopy method, I'll have to zero the drive header, have the Roamio format the drive, redo GS and pairing all over again, and transfer everything back through pyTiVo. I'm really not looking forward to that, and my confidence that the metadata from some of my years-old shows will actually copy over is extremely low.

If anyone thinks the log files will help figure out my MFSCopy nightmare, I'll go through the 6-hour copy process again and pull the logs properly this time. If anyone has any other ideas (I know I'm running out), please let me know.


----------



## jkozee

controlio,

I can look through the logs. If you just want to do a quick copy, you can omit the -a to create a 'truncated' copy. This *should* include the minimum mfs data without the recording streams and should be rather quick.


----------



## jkozee

Couple of other notes.

The -i flag incudes the 'alternate' boot/kernel/root set. Not required on the Roamio as the primary and alternate boot/kernel/root partitions live on the mmca. But, very useful for 'customized' partition layouts on hacked units.

The linux kernel is not aware of the TiVo modified Apple Partition format, so 'mfsk -r /dev/sdaX' is required to revalidate the drive to the kernel before you can mount it. This is similar to the 'tivopart r /dev/hdX' previously required.

TiVo migrates more items from the MFS to the SQLite partitions with each new SW version, so the -d option should be used with caution.


----------



## jkozee

I don't think I've personally tested on anything later than 20.4.5c, but I do have a unit running 20.5.2b.RC1-USA-6, which is what you appear to be running, so I can see if I can reproduce your issue.

I don't mind trying to help troubleshoot, but I'd need some additional info and access to some of your files. I'll PM you.


----------



## jkozee

Check your PM.


----------



## txdmts

My sincere congratulations to all the MFSTOOLS developers for a job very well done. I've now successfully used MFS Tools 3.2 to
migrate two Roamio Basics to larger (2TB) hard drives, with no loss of recorded shows and no adverse impact to existing Cablecard 
activation. It was relatively painless.
In both cases I used jmbach's posted 3.2 LiveCD ISO, which makes it quick and easy. 
Both copies took ~3:15 to complete,using internal SATA-SATA.

The only adverse consequence I saw was the complete loss of Guide data in both cases, which was ultimately restored 
with 3-4 trips to the mothership.
I haven't yet deduced why the Guide info is lost, as MFSTools seems to result in a complete bit-bit copy of the data on the hard disk. 
...Perhaps someone wiser than I will enlighten me.


----------



## drhendrix

Hey txdmts, thanks for the info. Would you mind showing all of the command text of the code you used to do the drive to drive copy?

Also, how did you restore the Guide data?

Thanks,
Dennis


----------



## txdmts

As discussed, MFSTOOLS was used to migrate two Roamio Basics to larger drives. 
In both cases, I zeroed the dest drives first (via WD Data Lifeguard 5.22).
Then:
On the first Roamio, choosing to err on the side of caution, I used the more generic command: 
"mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
where (in my case) sdb-> source, and sdc->destination.
This worked great, but took two trips to the mothership to get guide data back.

On the 2nd Roamio, in light of jkozee's 11/16 comments in post #186, I chose
"mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
This worked just as well, but it took 4 trips to the mothership to restore all the 
guide data properly. We can speculate about the significance (or lack thereof) 
of that result.

Whichever of the two copy commands you use, upon bootup the Roamio takes 
awhile to sort things out, but it eventually does, then it asks to access Tivo,
which I let it do.

As for restoring the guide data, I chose the simple route. I just kept sending
it back to the mothership until the guide data was restored:
Settings>Network>Connect to Tivo Service Now
Eventually, this works.

Had that not worked, I'd have probably done this:
Settings & Messages>Settings>HELP>RESTART OR RESET->
->"Clear program information & To Do List"

As a last resort, I'd probably have repeated Guided Setup, which 
supposedly doesn't affect existing cablecards/Tuning Adapters or recordings.
Settings & Messages>Help>Restart or Reset>-> Repeat Guided Setup

Good Luck -
May the Force Be With You


----------



## drhendrix

Thanks for the detailed drive copy info txdmts.

I'm going to try method one. My main objective is to avoid having to repair the cable card after the drive upgrade. It seems that both of your upgrades kept the cable card pairing data.


----------



## singit

Apologies for this newbie question, but my home computer's a macbook pro. Can MFS Tools run in OS X?

Thanks!


----------



## HomeUser

singit said:


> Apologies for this newbie question, but my home computer's a macbook pro. Can MFS Tools run in OS X?
> 
> Thanks!


 MFS Tools runs in Linux from a boot CD or USB stick. It is OS independent the Question is can your Macbook boot from the Linux CD.


----------



## dougdingle

HomeUser said:


> MFS Tools runs in Linux from a boot CD or USB stick. It is OS independent the Question is can your Macbook boot from the Linux CD.


The MBP hardware can boot from a Win7 CD/DVD, so it's kinda 'universal' in that respect. Also, OSX is, essentially, a type of Linux; I suggest it's likely MFS Tools can boot. Easy enough to find out. Burn the disk, load it, hold down the Option key during boot, select the MFS Tools CD as the boot device. It either boots or it doesn't. There's no downside to trying it.

The bigger issue is, how are you going to hook two drives to it? Assuming it boots, you'll have to go USB since it's a certainty it won't support the Thunderbolt port. The newer MBP's have USB3 and that should be pretty fast, but it will take FOREVER if you have an older device that has USB2.


----------



## thumper300zx

txdmts said:


> On the 2nd Roamio, in light of jkozee's 11/16 comments in post #186, I chose
> "mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
> This worked just as well, but it took 4 trips to the mothership to restore all the
> guide data properly. We can speculate about the significance (or lack thereof)
> of that result.


Same -- back up and running on a 2GB drive. Great forum. I might suggest modifying the original post in this thread to include the most common commands for quick cloning, and a valid link to the .iso if that is permitted.


----------



## jkozee

Seems that the SQLite partition (/dev/sdx14) is not being included during a copy because I declared skipdb incorrectly in copy.c. It should be:


Code:


unsigned int skipdb = 0;


----------



## sleepdragon

jkozee said:


> Seems that the SQLite partition (/dev/sdx14) is not being included during a copy because I declared skipdb incorrectly in copy.c. It should be:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> unsigned int skipdb = 0;


Does it mean we should hold off on using MFS Tools for now until the bug is fixed??


----------



## HerronScott

sleepdragon said:


> Does it mean we should hold off on using MFS Tools for now until the bug is fixed??


jmbach,

Can you update your ISO?

Scott


----------



## jmbach

Yes I can. Won't be able to do it until tomorrow at the earliest. jkozee may have some other updates to incorporate as well.


----------



## jmbach

Updated links, information, and instructions in my original post.


----------



## SailnJ

I am attempting to copy data from a 1TB WD Green Roamio drive to a 3TB WD Green drive. 

Initially attempted to use the WinMFS Back Up / Restore to move the data which did but did not allow access to the full drive capacity. Reformatted the drive with the other tool available plugged into the TIvo and went thru guided setup then brought to desktop Dell XPS to do the copy. 

Downloaded a copy of the MFS Tools 3.2 on Sun 12/6. 
Ran it today and it is not seeing the harddrives. Verified Bios sees the drives as SATA 3 and SATA 4. 
"fdisk -l" does not show any data as to sdX.

Tried booting with DMA off no go. 
Any ideas?

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

Interesting that WinMFS even operated on the drive. Does the original drive still work in the Roamio? 
Are logged in as root on the MFSTools 3.2 ISO?
Also download it again to make sure you did not download the prior release as I uploaded new ones yesterday.


----------



## SailnJ

So apparently I had downloaded the wrong ISO. Found the post showing the ISO, build and USB drive links vice the link from Sourceforge (I beleive).
It was evident the moment the splash screen appeared. 

All is well. She is back up with showing 30% full on a 3 TB drive. I did have to re-pair the cable card.

Thanks


----------



## controlio

I finally had time to run my copy with the new ISO last night. My roamio, which upgraded to 20.5.6.RC14 since working with jkozee, copied properly with -ai invoked. All guide data, channel logos, ratings, recordings, everything copied properly. A forced call completed properly, and my cablecard did not need to be re-paired.

Fantastic. I'm incredibly happy. Thanks so much to jkozee for the time he spent working with me to solve this issue, and to jmbach for the updated ISO.


----------



## caryah

I purchased a used 3 GB WD Red drive to upgrade my Roamio Plus. The drive checked out using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.
I downloaded MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.12.iso from the link in post #131 and burned it to a DVD. I booted the DVD on my Dell Dimension XPS410 with the default: MFS Tools 3.2 i586

Boot Messages are error free (OK) until the following sequence:

Started System Logging Service
Started Wait for Plymouth Boot Screen to Quit
Starting Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen
[ 3.323821] nouveau E[ DISPLAY][0000:01:00.0] 01:0130: func 08 lookup failed, -2

Welcome to openSUSE 13.2 "Harlequin" - Kernel 3.16.7-29-default (tty1).

linux login:

Logins fail with: Login incorrect

I tried user: tivo & password: tivo 
I also tried user: tivo & password: Linux and user: root & password: root

I re-downloaded the iso and burned it using a different DVD burner. It still fails.

I booted the iso and selected Failsafe -- MFSTools 3.2 i586

It fails as before without displaying the "[ 3.323821] nouveau E[ DISPLAY][0000:01:00.0] 01:0130: func 08 lookup failed, -2" error message

Any ideas what might be wrong?


----------



## ThAbtO

caryah said:


> I purchased a used 3 GB WD Red drive to upgrade my Roamio Plus. The drive checked out using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.
> I downloaded MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.12.iso from the link in post #131 and burned it to a DVD. I booted the DVD on my Dell Dimension XPS410 with the default: MFS Tools 3.2 i586
> 
> Boot Messages are error free (OK) until the following sequence:
> 
> Started System Logging Service
> Started Wait for Plymouth Boot Screen to Quit
> Starting Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen
> [ 3.323821] nouveau E[ DISPLAY][0000:01:00.0] 01:0130: func 08 lookup failed, -2
> 
> Welcome to openSUSE 13.2 "Harlequin" - Kernel 3.16.7-29-default (tty1).
> 
> linux login:
> 
> Logins fail with: Login incorrect
> 
> I tried user: tivo & password: tivo
> I also tried user: tivo & password: Linux and user: root & password: root
> 
> I re-downloaded the iso and burned it using a different DVD burner. It still fails.
> 
> I booted the iso and selected Failsafe -- MFSTools 3.2 i586
> 
> It fails as before without displaying the "[ 3.323821] nouveau E[ DISPLAY][0000:01:00.0] 01:0130: func 08 lookup failed, -2" error message
> 
> Any ideas what might be wrong?


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10645578#post10645578


----------



## jmbach

In the post you downloaded the updated ISO there are new log in instructions. Here is what you need to know.

Username 'root' 
Password 'tivo'


----------



## JimWall

Can mfs 3.2 be used to copy an S3 with two 1 TB drives to a single drive 2 TB?


----------



## jmbach

Should be able to but I have not tested that functionality so I cannot be sure.


----------



## Pilot20

I would like to upgrade my Tivo Roamio Basic which has the original hard drive, to a larger drive.

Is there a step-by-step on how to do this using the new MFS Tools 3.2 ISO? I obviously want to copy everything from the original to the new drive if possible including season passes and cable card pairing.

I've done this with my S3 several times, but I've never tried it with the Roamio.

Thanks,


----------



## sleepdragon

Pilot20 said:


> I would like to upgrade my Tivo Roamio Basic which has the original hard drive, to a larger drive.
> 
> Is there a step-by-step on how to do this using the new MFS Tools 3.2 ISO? I obviously want to copy everything from the original to the new drive if possible including season passes and cable card pairing.
> 
> I've done this with my S3 several times, but I've never tried it with the Roamio.
> 
> Thanks,


Check out post #131, #170 & #206, which should give you all the step you needed
(a few post following both #170 and #206 also is helpful)

I had no problem copying a 500GB drive from Premiere 4 to a 3TB WD Red

Speaking of copying, does anyone know if MFS Tools 3.2 now fully support Bolt?
I want to copy a 1TB bolt drive into a 4TB Samsung/Seagate drive but want to make sure there isn't any known bugs for using MSF tools with bolt


----------



## jmbach

It should work but I do not have a Bolt so I cannot confirm this. If you want to try a quick copy, just do not use the -a switch with the copy command. It will only take a few minutes to copy the basic information over and create new media partitions. If that drive works in the Bolt, then it should not be an issue when you do the copy with the -a switch to copy the recordings.


----------



## jkozee

It is unlikely that mfstools will work on the Bolt drive as-is. The stock format of the drive no longer includes the bootpage which mfstools expects. This is also true with self formatted drives on Roamios with the latest TiVo SW. I will look at updating the sources as I find time. 

Another option would be to add the bootpage to drive. I included a version of the bootpage executable that works with Roamio drives, but I'm not sure if jmbach included it on his iso.


----------



## plazman30

How do I get a copy of the mfs-tools binary? I don't need a bootable ISO. I already run Linux full time.


----------



## HerronScott

plazman30 said:


> How do I get a copy of the mfs-tools binary? I don't need a bootable ISO. I already run Linux full time.


Can't you extract them from the ISO (or copy them from a burnt CD of the ISO)?

Scott


----------



## plazman30

HerronScott said:


> Can't you extract them from the ISO (or copy them from a burnt CD of the ISO)?
> 
> Scott


Booted the ISO up in Virtualbox. If I type mfstool it loads right up, but so far I have checked the following directory on the booted ISO:

/bin
/sbin
/usr/bin
/usr/sbin
/opt
/home/root/bin

None of those directories contain mfstool executable.


----------



## plazman30

plazman30 said:


> Booted the ISO up in Virtualbox. If I type mfstool it loads right up, but so far I have checked the following directory on the booted ISO:
> 
> /bin
> /sbin
> /usr/bin
> /usr/sbin
> /opt
> /home/root/bin
> 
> None of those directories contain mfstool executable.


Found it in /usr/local/bin and copied it off. Doing a backup and restore now.


----------



## HerronScott

plazman30 said:


> Found it in /usr/local/bin and copied it off. Doing a backup and restore now.


I was about to say check for an alias. 

Scott


----------



## jmbach

You can go to the link in the first post and download the source and compile it yourself if the extracted binaries don't work for you.


----------



## plazman30

jmbach said:


> You can go to the link in the first post and download the source and compile it yourself if the extracted binaries don't work for you.


They worked.


----------



## zekeman

sleepdragon said:


> Check out post #131, #170 & #206, which should give you all the step you needed
> (a few post following both #170 and #206 also is helpful)
> 
> I had no problem copying a 500GB drive from Premiere 4 to a 3TB WD Red
> 
> Speaking of copying, does anyone know if MFS Tools 3.2 now fully support Bolt?
> I want to copy a 1TB bolt drive into a 4TB Samsung/Seagate drive but want to make sure there isn't any known bugs for using MSF tools with bolt


Will this process also work to upgrade a stock Premier to 4GB or do I need to do something different. If I need to repair the cable card is this automagic?

Many thanks in advance.


----------



## jmbach

Yes it will in one step. I did not have to re-pair the cableCARD when I did mine.


----------



## kbdpa410

What command line variable should i use to supersize a premiere 2TB upgrade?


----------



## kbdpa410

Do I have to do anything to the new hard drive if I have a failed attempt and want to try again?


----------



## kbdpa410

So I have a Tivo Premiere 320GB the existing drive is a WD3200AVVS. I want to upgrade with new WD20EURX 2TB drive. So I ran the MFS Tools 3.2 and the copy completed no errors then powered off PC. When I Swapped the hard drives the TIVo doesn't boot. The green power light is lit but four other lights just flash on and off. I lifted the hard drive in hand to check if drive was spinning but didn't feel any centrifugal force so I assume not. I can put the original hard drive back in and the Tivo works fine. Also when a connect the new drive to PC the drive spins fine and MFS tools recognizes it. Is the power supply not compatible with new drive? Did I buy the wrong model upgrade drive? Do i do something wrong in the copy process that won't allow the new drive to boot in the Tivo box? Do I have to unformat the drive to try again? Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.


----------



## jmbach

There have been some reports of recent EURX drives not being seen/working by TiVos and some PCs. 

Some older PC place an HPA on the drive when connected to one of the internal SATA ports. 

I had a similar issue one time when I bought 'new' drives from a 3rd party vendor that were apparently destined for another type of DVR that had a special firmware installed. 

I have not seen this in a Premiere but a power supply that cannot provide reliable power to the drive will give you a similar look. 

MFSTools will overwrite the drive so no prep work is needed. 

If you have another drive around for testing, you could use that drive to copy to and see if the result functions in your system. 

If it does, the the culprit is most likely the EURX. If not, then either the copy process or the power supply. 

Or use another tried and true method like JMFS to do the copy and expand. If that works, then your copy process did not work. 

Use MFSInfo to see if the drive is readable with a good copy on it.


----------



## kbdpa410

What Hard Drive would You buy for 2TB?


----------



## ThAbtO

Red EFRX drives is my alternate choice.


----------



## notting

Had a drive go bad on my Roamio Plus.

Did a ddrescue copy of the 1TB stock drive to a new 2TB drive (only about 4MB worth of errors). Put it in Tivo, booted fine, but obviously only was using 1TB. Decided to move it to 2TB.

Checked 3.2 source out, built it, and:



Code:


-bash-4.3# ./mfsinfo  /dev/sdb
---------------------------------------------------------------------
MFS Volume Header (64-bit)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
	state=0 magic=ebbafeed
	devlist=/dev/sda10 /dev/sda11 /dev/sda12 /dev/sda13
	zonemap_ptr=1121 total_secs=1944610816 next_fsid=968119

---------------------------------------------------------------------
MFS volume set for /dev/sdb
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The MFS volume set contains 4 partitions
   Partition       Sectors         Size
  /dev/sdb10       1638400          800 MiB
  /dev/sdb11     866895872       423289 MiB
  /dev/sdb12       1638400          800 MiB
  /dev/sdb13    1074438144       524628 MiB
Total MFS sectors: 1944610816
Total MFS volume size: 949517 MiB
Total Inodes: 524288

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Zone Maps 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 0: type=0 logstamp=6323743 checksum=2331327587 first=1122 last=525409
	sector=1121 sbackup=1638398 length=1
	size=524288 min=524288 free=524288 zero=0 num=1
	next_sector=525410 next_sbackup=1638364 next_length=34
	next_size=866877440 next_min=20480
Zone 1: type=2 logstamp=6324202 checksum=864291740 first=1638400 last=868515839
	sector=525410 sbackup=1638364 length=34
	size=866877440 min=20480 free=26501120 zero=0 num=17
	next_sector=525444 next_sbackup=1638234 next_length=130
	next_size=1112656 next_min=8
Zone 2: type=1 logstamp=6324202 checksum=618839686 first=525574 last=1638229
	sector=525444 sbackup=1638234 length=130
	size=1112656 min=8 free=675584 zero=0 num=19
	next_sector=868534272 next_sbackup=870172671 next_length=1
	next_size=524288 next_min=524288
Zone 3: type=0 logstamp=6323743 checksum=722726960 first=868534273 last=869058560
	sector=868534272 sbackup=870172671 length=1
	size=524288 min=524288 free=524288 zero=0 num=1
	next_sector=869058561 next_sbackup=870172637 next_length=34
	next_size=1074421760 next_min=20480
Zone 4: type=2 logstamp=6324202 checksum=3663350418 first=870172672 last=1944594431
	sector=869058561 sbackup=870172637 length=34
	size=1074421760 min=20480 free=26951680 zero=0 num=17
	next_sector=869058595 next_sbackup=870172507 next_length=130
	next_size=1113776 next_min=8
Zone 5: type=1 logstamp=6324045 checksum=3594060735 first=869058725 last=870172500
	sector=869058595 sbackup=870172507 length=130
	size=1113776 min=8 free=1025680 zero=0 num=19
	next_sector=0 next_sbackup=0 next_length=0
	next_size=0 next_min=0

Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 1175
This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times
-bash-4.3# cd ..
-bash-4.3# cd mfsadd/
-bash-4.3# ./mfsadd -x /dev/sdb
Current estimated standalone size: 1175 hours
Adding pair /dev/sdb15-/dev/sdb16...
New estimated standalone size: 2373 hours (1198 more)
Done!  Estimated standalone gain: 1198 hours
Revalidating partion table on /dev/sdb...  Success!
-bash-4.3# sync
-bash-4.3# shutdown -h now

All seemed good, plugged it back into the Roamio.... which promptly nuked it and went back to Guided Setup.

Did I do something wrong? Is there a good way to figure out what went wrong before I try again?


----------



## rkrenicki

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured out the issue. Apparently I needed to re-pair the cablecard first, since I had done a C&DE on the source.. I am not really sure what that was needed, but it is copying fine now.


----------



## jmbach

notting said:


> Had a drive go bad on my Roamio Plus.
> 
> Did a ddrescue copy of the 1TB stock drive to a new 2TB drive (only about 4MB worth of errors). Put it in Tivo, booted fine, but obviously only was using 1TB. Decided to move it to 2TB.
> 
> Checked 3.2 source out, built it, and:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> -bash-4.3# ./mfsinfo  /dev/sdb
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> MFS Volume Header (64-bit)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> state=0 magic=ebbafeed
> devlist=/dev/sda10 /dev/sda11 /dev/sda12 /dev/sda13
> zonemap_ptr=1121 total_secs=1944610816 next_fsid=968119
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> MFS volume set for /dev/sdb
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> The MFS volume set contains 4 partitions
> Partition       Sectors         Size
> /dev/sdb10       1638400          800 MiB
> /dev/sdb11     866895872       423289 MiB
> /dev/sdb12       1638400          800 MiB
> /dev/sdb13    1074438144       524628 MiB
> Total MFS sectors: 1944610816
> Total MFS volume size: 949517 MiB
> Total Inodes: 524288
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Zone Maps
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Zone 0: type=0 logstamp=6323743 checksum=2331327587 first=1122 last=525409
> sector=1121 sbackup=1638398 length=1
> size=524288 min=524288 free=524288 zero=0 num=1
> next_sector=525410 next_sbackup=1638364 next_length=34
> next_size=866877440 next_min=20480
> Zone 1: type=2 logstamp=6324202 checksum=864291740 first=1638400 last=868515839
> sector=525410 sbackup=1638364 length=34
> size=866877440 min=20480 free=26501120 zero=0 num=17
> next_sector=525444 next_sbackup=1638234 next_length=130
> next_size=1112656 next_min=8
> Zone 2: type=1 logstamp=6324202 checksum=618839686 first=525574 last=1638229
> sector=525444 sbackup=1638234 length=130
> size=1112656 min=8 free=675584 zero=0 num=19
> next_sector=868534272 next_sbackup=870172671 next_length=1
> next_size=524288 next_min=524288
> Zone 3: type=0 logstamp=6323743 checksum=722726960 first=868534273 last=869058560
> sector=868534272 sbackup=870172671 length=1
> size=524288 min=524288 free=524288 zero=0 num=1
> next_sector=869058561 next_sbackup=870172637 next_length=34
> next_size=1074421760 next_min=20480
> Zone 4: type=2 logstamp=6324202 checksum=3663350418 first=870172672 last=1944594431
> sector=869058561 sbackup=870172637 length=34
> size=1074421760 min=20480 free=26951680 zero=0 num=17
> next_sector=869058595 next_sbackup=870172507 next_length=130
> next_size=1113776 next_min=8
> Zone 5: type=1 logstamp=6324045 checksum=3594060735 first=869058725 last=870172500
> sector=869058595 sbackup=870172507 length=130
> size=1113776 min=8 free=1025680 zero=0 num=19
> next_sector=0 next_sbackup=0 next_length=0
> next_size=0 next_min=0
> 
> Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 1175
> This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times
> -bash-4.3# cd ..
> -bash-4.3# cd mfsadd/
> -bash-4.3# ./mfsadd -x /dev/sdb
> Current estimated standalone size: 1175 hours
> Adding pair /dev/sdb15-/dev/sdb16...
> New estimated standalone size: 2373 hours (1198 more)
> Done!  Estimated standalone gain: 1198 hours
> Revalidating partion table on /dev/sdb...  Success!
> -bash-4.3# sync
> -bash-4.3# shutdown -h now
> 
> All seemed good, plugged it back into the Roamio.... which promptly nuked it and went back to Guided Setup.
> 
> Did I do something wrong? Is there a good way to figure out what went wrong before I try again?


Problem is that you added a pair of partitions to a Roamio image. Roamios can only have 14 partitions. Any more and it reformats the drive. What you need to do is use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the original drive to the target drive. MFSTools 3.2 will then expand the media partitions to fill the drive instead of adding a pair of partitions.


----------



## notting

jmbach said:


> Problem is that you added a pair of partitions to a Roamio image. Roamios can only have 14 partitions. Any more and it reformats the drive. What you need to do is use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the original drive to the target drive. MFSTools 3.2 will then expand the media partitions to fill the drive instead of adding a pair of partitions.


Would it be worth adding a Roamio check to mfsadd so that it refuses to act in that case? Or is the byte-swapped header used in a different model that doesn't have this limitation?

I did try mfscopy overnight... it segfaulted 10% of the way through. My initial guess would be that it's due to the errors on the source drive - I'll do some experimenting once I get a clone onto a good drive.


----------



## jmbach

Copy the original source to a temporary good drive. Put it in the Roamio and make sure it boots okay. Then use MFSTools 3.2 to copy to the production drive. 

There are several checks that could be considered. Hard to take care of all the possibilities. Ones I can think of would be a Roamio and Bolt check to prevent adding partitions above 14 to an internal image, a Premiere check so that if adding a pair of partitions to the internal image they would be coalesced in the end, and a S3 check to limit total recording space to 2TiB (internal + external) These would be more in jkozee realm as he is the principle developer on this project. 

However, if TiVo eventually fixes the 64bit MFS, then probably not adding any partitions to an internal image of a S4 or above would be more appropriate.


----------



## notting

There didn't appear to be easy markers for Premiere or S3 to key off of for checks, but we can do it for Roamio/Bolt.


----------



## notting

jmbach said:


> Copy the original source to a temporary good drive. Put it in the Roamio and make sure it boots okay. Then use MFSTools 3.2 to copy to the production drive.


That worked, thanks - it somehow lost cablecard pairing (because of the one boot where it went to guided setup? dunno), but otherwise worked perfectly.


----------



## drhendrix

Today I used the latest version of MFS Tools 3.2 to upgrade my Roamio Basic from the stock 500 GB drive to a WD10EURX.

I connected the two drives to SATA ports on my desktop PC, booted up the MFS Tools 3.2 CD, and logged in as root using the password "tivo".

Then I used the following commands:



Code:


fdisk -l

 (to reveal drive identities)



Code:


mfstool info /dev/sdx

 (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)



Code:


mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

 (sda was the original drive and sdb was the target WD10EURX)

The copy process completed without issues in about 20 minutes, and the new drive contained all guide data, recorded programs and the cable card paring data.

I'd like to pass on a word of thanks to jkozee, jmbach, txdmts, controlio, and all the other helpful posters for providing all the information necessary to successfully upgrade my Raomio drive.

Dennis


----------



## rbendorf

drhendrix said:


> Today I used the latest version of MFS Tools 3.2 to upgrade my Roamio Basic from the stock 500 GB drive to a WD10EURX.
> 
> I connected the two drives to SATA ports on my desktop PC, booted up the MFS Tools 3.2 CD, and logged in as root using the password "tivo".
> 
> Then I used the following commands:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> disk -l
> 
> (to reveal drive identities)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sdx
> 
> (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> (sda was the original drive and sdb was the target WD10EURX)
> 
> The copy process completed without issues in about 20 minutes, and the new drive contained all guide data, recorded programs and the cable card paring data.
> 
> I'd like to pass on a word of thanks to jkozee, jmbach, txdmts, controlio, and all the other helpful posters for providing all the information necessary to successfully upgrade my Raomio drive.
> 
> Dennis


I also just upgraded my Tivo Premiere from a stock 320GB drive to the new WD30PURX (purple) 3TB HDD. I originally ordered the WD30EURS, but they shipped the newer (purple) drive. I also set it up with the MFS Tools 3.2. The copy process went well and with the above copy code it also expanded automatically. The one thing I initially forgot was to reset the Tivo and once that I figured that out, it worked. The upgrades took some time, but now it is working flawlessly. It will be interesting to see how the new WD Purple works out. Also I would like to thank the guys that worked or this project. Peace and blessings. Rich


----------



## jericko

drhendrix said:


> Today I used the latest version of MFS Tools 3.2 to upgrade my Roamio Basic from the stock 500 GB drive to a WD10EURX.
> 
> I connected the two drives to SATA ports on my desktop PC, booted up the MFS Tools 3.2 CD, and logged in as root using the password "tivo".
> 
> Then I used the following commands:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> disk -l
> 
> (to reveal drive identities)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sdx
> 
> (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> (sda was the original drive and sdb was the target WD10EURX)
> 
> The copy process completed without issues in about 20 minutes, and the new drive contained all guide data, recorded programs and the cable card paring data.
> 
> I'd like to pass on a word of thanks to jkozee, jmbach, txdmts, controlio, and all the other helpful posters for providing all the information necessary to successfully upgrade my Raomio drive.
> 
> Dennis


Thanks Dennis for the post. Are these all the commands you had to type to complete the upgrade? Did it copy over settings/onepasses/all shows?

I am bit overwhelmed by this thread, maybe I am making more out it than needed.


----------



## philhu

ok, my tivoHD had the infamous power problem. Tivo wouldn't power up. I had upgraded it previously to 2tb disk.

I replaced the power supply, and it powers up, but gets to 'a few minutes more', for 2-3 minutes then reboots

Tried sata smart disk check, passed tests.
Tried the gsod kickstart, ran 30 minutes, then 'a few minutes more', reboot.

BTW, plugged disk power into another computer, in case power supply was flaky, does same thing.

Tried mfsfix, which copied the old 2tb to a new 2tb (Took 2.5 days!). I assumed and was greeted by the same 'a few minutes more' and reboot.

I want to try to keep my recordings, so I plan to:

run mfsck to verify the disk structure is good
then mfscopy -ai old 2tb to new 2tb

Does this seem a reasonable plan?

Also, I know the OS partitions are 4 and 7, correct?
1) How do I know which is the booting partition....and...
2) Is it possible to copy 4 over 7 or 7 over 4 if their is a corrupted boot partition?


----------



## unitron

philhu said:


> ok, my tivoHD had the infamous power problem. Tivo wouldn't power up. I had upgraded it previously to 2tb disk.
> 
> I replaced the power supply, and it powers up, but gets to 'a few minutes more', for 2-3 minutes then reboots
> 
> Tried sata smart disk check, passed tests.
> Tried the gsod kickstart, ran 30 minutes, then 'a few minutes more', reboot.
> 
> BTW, plugged disk power into another computer, in case power supply was flaky, does same thing.
> 
> Tried mfsfix, which copied the old 2tb to a new 2tb (Took 2.5 days!). I assumed and was greeted by the same 'a few minutes more' and reboot.
> 
> I want to try to keep my recordings, so I plan to:
> 
> run mfsck to verify the disk structure is good
> then mfscopy -ai old 2tb to new 2tb
> 
> Does this seem a reasonable plan?
> 
> Also, I know the OS partitions are 4 and 7, correct?
> 1) How do I know which is the booting partition....and...
> 2) Is it possible to copy 4 over 7 or 7 over 4 if their is a corrupted boot partition?


On a Series 1, 2, or 3 (and an HD is an S3 for purposes of saying it ain't a 1, 2, 4, 5, or 6), WinMFS will, if you run

mfsinfo

tell you whether the drive is currently using 2, 3, and 4 or 5, 6, and 7 from which to boot.

Then you can use a tool in WinMFS call fixboot or bootfix or something like that to change which set it uses.

Option 1 sets it to use 2, 3, and 4, and option 2 sets it to use 5, 6, and 7, whether it's already on what you choose or on the other set.


----------



## drhendrix

jericko said:


> Thanks Dennis for the post. Are these all the commands you had to type to complete the upgrade? Did it copy over settings/onepasses/all shows?


Yes, that's exactly how I did it. It seems like everything was copied including the cable card paring data. It is simpler to do if you temporarily disconnect any other SATA drives in your PC so that your original Tivo drive and the new upgrade drive are the only two connected to the PC's SATA ports. Leave the CD Rom drive connected even if it is SATA, so you can boot the PC with the MFS Tools 3.2 CD.

I'll try to answer any additional questions you have. All the info I used came from the helpful posts in this thread though.

Dennis


----------



## Random2k

First - Thank you to @jkozee for creating the MFS tool suite. A another thank you goes to @jmbach for creating the ISOs linked in this thread. 

For anyone that is looking for MFS tools on sourceforge, be warned that the main project page links you to an version 2.x, not not version 3.5. In other words, if you are pulling the bits from mfstools.sourceforge.net, then you are not going to get what you are looking for.

After failing to build MFS tools on my Ubuntu box, I finally gave up and grabbed the excellent ISOs provided in this thread. Absolutely zero issues with upgrading my original 500 GB Roamio to a much larger drive and preserving all my recordings.


----------



## tv9

I have a Premier XL TCD748000 with a dead HDD. I received a TCD748000 image (thanks Greg!) on this site. 

1. Can I use MFS3.2 (instead of DvrBARS) to restore that image to a brand new 3TB or 4TB drive in a single step? 

2. Can I copy the image directly to the new drive without first copying it to a separate HDD? 

3. Is the process the same for a 4TB and 3TB drive?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## jmbach

If you can mount the VHD image in the Linux distribution, then you can use MFSTools 3.2 to copy it to another drive. The issue is that if it is the image from ggieseke, that image only will boot up to a 2TB drive. That image needs to be updated before it can be transferred to a larger drive.


----------



## cokyq

My TiVO S3 OLED died. Reading in the forum learned about the problems with power supply capacitors. Got lucky and was able to buy a working used S3 for $15. Seller was near me so we met and I picked up the unit. Took out the PS and now my TiVO booted. It worked fine until I plugged the antenna cable, when it started freezing and rebooting.

Took out the $15 TiVO drive (unfortunately it is a 250Gb drive, mine was 500Gb) and installed it. Worked great but it would not play recorded programs, even new ones! Read its because you have to marry the HD to the MB. Did the Clear and Delete, and now the TiVO works fine. But...

I have two 1Tb drives (one Samsung and 1 Hitachi) sitting in my desk not in use. I would like to clone my working TiVo HD to one of the bigger drives. So I found WinMFS, but with Windows 10, my SSD drive configured as an AHCI drive (not IDE) the software does not recognize any drive! 

I tried changing my BIOS settings to IDE, but that screws up windows. What are my alternatives? I do not want to buy a 1Tb formatted drive when I have 2 unused drives.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.


----------



## HerronScott

Are you right-clicking on WinMFS and selecting "Run as Administrator"?

Scott


----------



## cokyq

Thanks! Wow... that was simple. BIG THANKS!


----------



## tv9

jmbach said:


> If you can mount the VHD image in the Linux distribution, then you can use MFSTools 3.2 to copy it to another drive. The issue is that if it is the image from ggieseke, that image only will boot up to a 2TB drive. That image needs to be updated before it can be transferred to a larger drive.


jmbach, thanks, appreciate they very prompt response!

1. Can you advise or point me to another post on how to upgrade ggieseke's Tivo Premiere XL TCD748000 image to allow it to be expanded to a 4 TB HDD (would settle for 3 TB if significantly easier) per your above comment.

I am trying to avoid buying 2 HDDs just to use one for an interim copy.

2. If I really do need two hard drives, what is the easiest way to use ggieseke's image to eventually end up on 3TB or 4TB HDD?


----------



## cokyq

I was able to backup the TiVo drive to my desktop. When I try to copy the drive to the 1Tb Samsung drive, the new drive does not show up. It is drive E on the PC. If I go to select drive on WinMFS it only appears if I click on show mounted drives. What do I need to do to make the new drive show up on WinMFS?

UPDATE: I took the drive out, put it on my MAC and erased the drive as a MAC OSX journaled. Put it back on the PC and fixed problem.

UPDATE 2: Cloning is in progress, states it will take almost 5 hours. Does this sound right?


----------



## ThAbtO

cokyq said:


> I was able to backup the TiVo drive to my desktop. When I try to copy the drive to the 1Tb Samsung drive, the new drive does not show up. It is drive E on the PC. If I go to select drive on WinMFS it only appears if I click on show mounted drives. What do I need to do to make the new drive show up on WinMFS?
> 
> UPDATE: I took the drive out, put it on my MAC and erased the drive as a MAC OSX journaled. Put it back on the PC and fixed problem.
> 
> UPDATE 2: Cloning is in progress, states it will take almost 5 hours. Does this sound right?


The replacement/new drive needs to be unformatted/unmounted and no assigned drive allocation for Tivo. WinMFS will only show drives which are Tivo and unformatted. This helps prevent writing to drives already in use.

WinMFS only takes a minute or less for backup, restore, MFSAdd, Supersize.


----------



## cokyq

I think my 500Gb Original TiVo drive is bad, although it plays recorded programs fine if the antenna is disconnected, when I plug the antenna, the screen starts to freeze and the TiVo reboots. I have another 250Gb drive which is paired to the My TiVO so I cancelled the 5 hour copy, and started a copy from the 250. Said it would take an hour, now 50% done and 30 minutes to go.

UPDATE: Good News. The copy completed. Drive installed on the TiVO and everything is working fine! 137 hours of HD recording!


----------



## ggieseke

tv9 said:


> jmbach, thanks, appreciate they very prompt response!
> 
> 1. Can you advise or point me to another post on how to upgrade ggieseke's Tivo Premiere XL TCD748000 image to allow it to be expanded to a 4 TB HDD (would settle for 3 TB if significantly easier) per your above comment.
> 
> I am trying to avoid buying 2 HDDs just to use one for an interim copy.
> 
> 2. If I really do need two hard drives, what is the easiest way to use ggieseke's image to eventually end up on 3TB or 4TB HDD?


I sent you a new 748 image that's running 20.4.1. It should work.

All my other images are too old to boot on a drive over 2TB.


----------



## cokyq

Does the backups done with WinMFS tool save the drive configuration as well as the contents of the recorded programs? Or does it just allow you to create a new disk that is paired to your MB?

Thanks in advance for your help.

User since FEB 2000!


----------



## cokyq

Found that the blank drive can be formatted to FAT32. I just has to be unmounted.
CokyQ


----------



## ThAbtO

cokyq said:


> Does the backups done with WinMFS tool save the drive configuration as well as the contents of the recorded programs? Or does it just allow you to create a new disk that is paired to your MB?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help.
> 
> User since FEB 2000!


It can.



cokyq said:


> Found that the blank drive can be formatted to FAT32. I just has to be unmounted.
> CokyQ


Unmounted.. Totally blank..... as in no drive specification (EX: e. FAT, FAT32, NTFS are windows formats. Tivo is different.


----------



## tv9

ggieseke said:


> I sent you a new 748 image that's running 20.4.1. It should work.
> 
> All my other images are too old to boot on a drive over 2TB.


Thanks! Unfortunately I reread this and the DVRBars thread and could not figure out what the new image allowed me to do in regards to filling a 3 or 4 TB HDD.

1. Now that I have a 20.4.1 image can I use MFS Tools by itself to expand to a 3 or 4TB hard drive?

2. If not, what is the procedure? An outline the steps or linking me to another thread greatly appreciated!

If I need more than one drive to get to either 3 or 4 TB I will probably just buy a 2TB drive.

Thanks in advance, to the amazing folks on this site, your karmas must all be sky high!


----------



## ggieseke

tv9 said:


> Thanks! Unfortunately I reread this and the DVRBars thread and could not figure out what the new image allowed me to do in regards to filling a 3 or 4 TB HDD.
> 
> 1. Now that I have a 20.4.1 image can I use MFS Tools by itself to expand to a 3 or 4TB hard drive?
> 
> 2. If not, what is the procedure? An outline the steps or linking me to another thread greatly appreciated!
> 
> If I need more than one drive to get to either 3 or 4 TB I will probably just buy a 2TB drive.
> 
> Thanks in advance, to the amazing folks on this site, your karmas must all be sky high!


1. Yes.


----------



## jmbach

tv9 said:


> Thanks! Unfortunately I reread this and the DVRBars thread and could not figure out what the new image allowed me to do in regards to filling a 3 or 4 TB HDD.
> 
> 1. Now that I have a 20.4.1 image can I use MFS Tools by itself to expand to a 3 or 4TB hard drive?
> 
> 2. If not, what is the procedure? An outline the steps or linking me to another thread greatly appreciated!
> 
> If I need more than one drive to get to either 3 or 4 TB I will probably just buy a 2TB drive.
> 
> Thanks in advance, to the amazing folks on this site, your karmas must all be sky high!


Essentially you mount the VHD ggieseke gave you so that MFSTools sees it as a source drive. (For me the easiest way is to run MFSTools in a virtual machine and attach the VHD to the VM and the target drive is in my dock also attached the the VM.) Then use the command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where sdX is the VHD mounted drive and sdY is the target drive.


----------



## alyssa

i've got a roamio pro arriving shortly- being an upgrader i can't resist the urge & I like lots of space. it replaces a premierxl with (i think) 4TB 
(XL4 LT + external w/2TB)

- what's the max single drive upgrade we laypeople can to a roamio ? 

---I saw something abt a duel 4tb drives, what are duel drives? are they both mounted in the tivo? or is there an external?

--I'm assuming the way to go is using mfs 3.2?


----------



## ggieseke

alyssa said:


> i've got a roamio pro arriving shortly- being an upgrader i can't resist the urge & I like lots of space. it replaces a premierxl with (i think) 4TB
> (XL4 LT + external w/2TB)
> 
> - what's the max single drive upgrade we laypeople can to a roamio ?
> 
> ---I saw something abt a duel 4tb drives, what are duel drives? are they both mounted in the tivo? or is there an external?
> 
> --I'm assuming the way to go is using mfs 3.2?


The max single-drive setup is 6TB if you use MFS Reformatter. I think MFS Tools 3.2 is still limited to 4TB, but since it's a new Roamio there's no point in trying to copy it.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528428


----------



## lpwcomp

alyssa said:


> i've got a roamio pro arriving shortly- being an upgrader i can't resist the urge & I like lots of space. it replaces a premierxl with (i think) 4TB
> (XL4 LT + external w/2TB)
> 
> - what's the max single drive upgrade we laypeople can to a roamio ?


If you are going to immediately replace the internal drive, why did you get a Pro rather than a Plus?


----------



## jmbach

ggieseke said:


> the max single-drive setup is 6tb if you use mfs reformatter. I think mfs tools 3.2 is still limited to 4tb, but since it's a new roamio there's no point in trying to copy it.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528428


+1


----------



## HerronScott

lpwcomp said:


> If you are going to immediately replace the internal drive, why did you get a Pro rather than a Plus?


Plus models have not been available for a while now and I believe she got the Pro with the loyalty deal so only $99 for All-in/Lifetime.

Scott


----------



## alyssa

ggieseke said:


> The max single-drive setup is 6TB if you use MFS Reformatter. I think MFS Tools 3.2 is still limited to 4TB, but since it's a new Roamio there's no point in trying to copy it.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528428


thx, for the link!

yes, i couldn't get a plus & found myself in a bit of a crunch due to failing hardware on my premiere.

6tb using mfs reformater sounds like 6K hrs of recording goodness- it means i won't lose any space since my premiere had abt 5TB total


----------



## lpwcomp

alyssa said:


> thx, for the link!
> 
> yes, i couldn't get a plus & found myself in a bit of a crunch due to failing hardware on my premiere.
> 
> 6tb using mfs reformater sounds like 6K hrs of recording goodness- it means i won't lose any space since my premiere had abt 5TB total


You're recording SD?


----------



## cokyq

Where do you find, how do you find about the loyalty discounts. I have been a user since Feb 2000! Sure would not mind getting another Roamio with lifetime for a decent price.


----------



## HerronScott

cokyq said:


> Where do you find, how do you find about the loyalty discounts. I have been a user since Feb 2000! Sure would not mind getting another Roamio with lifetime for a decent price.


$600 dollars for a Roamio Pro with lifetime if it's still available and you have to call.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=532395

Scott


----------



## tv9

jmbach said:


> Essentially you mount the VHD ggieseke gave you so that MFSTools sees it as a source drive. (For me the easiest way is to run MFSTools in a virtual machine and attach the VHD to the VM and the target drive is in my dock also attached the the VM.) Then use the command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where sdX is the VHD mounted drive and sdY is the target drive.


I was having trouble figuring out to use a virtual machine or how to mount a DVD disk image in MFSTools so I changed course and scrounged an old Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB HDD that I had formatted some time ago under Windows 7. It had no files on it after the format but I don't recall whether the format (FAT32, NFTS etc) used in the format.

I then copied the decompressed Tivo HDD image (about 2.5 GB) to the Seagate drive in Windows 10. Windows did not give me the option to mount the decompressed image (as it did not appear to recognize the format) so I did a straight copy.

*Q1.* Should I have used another Windows command to copy the image to the Seagate? 
*Q2.* If I can't use Windows 10, how else should I get the Tivo image onto the Seagate?

I then rebooted with the MFS Tools 3.2 under id "root" and password "tivo" and (after verifying the drive identities) executed the command:

_*mfstool copy -i /dev/sda /dev/sdb 
*_

where sda is the Segate with the 2.5GB image and sdb is the new 4TB Western Digital WD40EURX HDD.

I received following error message:

_*Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
Copy source: /dev/sda10: (null).
To attempt to copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E.
*
_

*Q3.* Any idea what went wrong and what is the exact syntax if I am to retry with the "-E" is it:

mfstool copy -ie /dev/sda /dev/sdb

(that is just append the "e" to the existing i)

*4.* As an alternative, I do have a blank DVD that I burned the expanded 2.5GB Tivo Drive image to that I abandoned due to my inexperience with mounting the drive if that is easier to execute. I was booting from a USB DVD Drive and had another separate SATA DVD drive with the Tivo image on the same PC. So two DVD drives and two HDDs on the same PC.

Sorry for the long post, trying to list all relevant details. Thanks in advance for any help.


----------



## ggieseke

tv9 said:


> I was having trouble figuring out to use a virtual machine or how to mount a DVD disk image in MFSTools so I changed course and scrounged an old Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB HDD that I had formatted some time ago under Windows 7. It had no files on it after the format but I don't recall whether the format (FAT32, NFTS etc) used in the format.
> 
> I then copied the decompressed Tivo HDD image (about 2.5 GB) to the Seagate drive in Windows 10. Windows did not give me the option to mount the decompressed image (as it did not appear to recognize the format) so I did a straight copy.
> 
> *Q1.* Should I have used another Windows command to copy the image to the Seagate?
> *Q2.* If I can't use Windows 10, how else should I get the Tivo image onto the Seagate?
> 
> I then rebooted with the MFS Tools 3.2 under id "root" and password "tivo" and (after verifying the drive identities) executed the command:
> 
> _*mfstool copy -i /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> *_
> 
> where sda is the Segate with the 2.5GB image and sdb is the new 4TB Western Digital WD40EURX HDD.
> 
> I received following error message:
> 
> _*Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
> Copy source: /dev/sda10: (null).
> To attempt to copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E.
> *
> _
> 
> *Q3.* Any idea what went wrong and what is the exact syntax if I am to retry with the "-E" is it:
> 
> mfstool copy -ie /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> (that is just append the "e" to the existing i)
> 
> *4.* As an alternative, I do have a blank DVD that I burned the expanded 2.5GB Tivo Drive image to that I abandoned due to my inexperience with mounting the drive if that is easier to execute. I was booting from a USB DVD Drive and had another separate SATA DVD drive with the Tivo image on the same PC. So two DVD drives and two HDDs on the same PC.
> 
> Sorry for the long post, trying to list all relevant details. Thanks in advance for any help.


Use DvrBARS to restore the image to the Seagate drive, then reboot to MFSTools 3.2 and proceed from there.


----------



## jmbach

1. Use DvrBARS to place the image on your 1.5TB drive. 

2. Boot the image in your TiVo and allow it to update the OS to the latest version. 

3. Remove drive and use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the image on the 1.5TB drive to the 4TB drive with the initial command you tried. 

The problem with your initial attempt is that a VHD is not a direct bit for bit copy of a drive. It contains a header to describe the drive and many times compresses the null space of the drive. So when you copied the VHD onto the drive, it was not a true TiVo image and so the error when you used MFSTools.


----------



## tv9

After doing a quick format on my Seagate, I was able to use DvrBARS to load the Tivo VHD image to the Seagate. I restored and expanded it to a 4TB WD40EURX using MFSTools 3.2.

I then placed the 4TB drive in my Premier XL and after 2 or 3 hours it had downloaded a week or so of OTA program guides (ITA only, no cable) I have 640 hours of available space.

Thanks ggieseke and jmbach - you both rock!


----------



## notting

(Yes, this is in the weeds and it's probably simpler to dump the drive and restart from scratch. But where's the fun in that?)

Tivo: Roamio 
Drive: WD20EURX

Drive was populated via a copy of a 1TB drive with some minor errors (see a few pages back in this thread)

Recently, the Tivo popped up that it had not made a successful service connection since mid-January. Sure enough, updates have failed with: 'Error (S03) when updating series info'. However, guide info is updated with each service connection, and GC appears to succeed. Main functional issue is that a couple of OnePasses don't appear to choose to record anything (and cannot be deleted or edited - attempts to change them do nothing).

My initial guess: something fubar in the database somewhere.

Initial attempt to fix: ran kickstart 57. Tivo started a reboot loop where it would reboot ~30 seconds after starting FS check. Doh!

Yanked power, removed drive, set the fs header to clean with mfsck. Tivo continued to operate as normal, but with the above S03 error.

Next attempt to fix: Ran 'Clear Thumb Ratings and Suggestions'. Ran successfully, no change to S03 error.

Next attempt to fix: Ran 'Clear Program Data and To Do List'.... appears to be stuck and will not finish. (Waited 6 hours once, and 9 hours once).

Drive has consistently tested with no errors with SMART test. Haven't tried `cat /dev/sdb > /dev/null` to just read the whole thing... might do that next.

Questions:

- Is it possible to reset the 'Clear Program Data' flag with mfsck (or another tool) such that the Tivo stops trying to do it on boot?

- Is it possible to clear the data outside of the Tivo with some other tool? (Is this data the sqlite partition? Something else?)

- Is "Inode XYZ requires chained flag, but not set" an error that mfsck can be made to fix (and is it even a relevant error?


----------



## JimWall

When I had the S03 problem I tried similar steps. Could get temporary fix by unplugging the video input. I finally "solved" it by using mfstools to copy to a new drive. New drive worked fine. Theory is heat or errors forcing drive to drop to a lower sata speed. The drive is always working hard because it is continuously recording the 30 minute video streams for each channel which puts a lot of stress on the drive. Roamio plus always records 6 streams at once. I have moved "bad" drives to a PC and after many months I eventually gets errors there as they continue to degrade.


----------



## mattack

So this is the latest one, right?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mfstools/files/mfstools-v3.2-20150531.iso/download

I see mention of fixes 8 months ago, but it looks like the latest full disc is 9 months ago?

No, that's not downloadable.. So how do I get something that's not source I have to build?


----------



## notting

JimWall said:


> When I had the S03 problem I tried similar steps. Could get temporary fix by unplugging the video input. I finally "solved" it by using mfstools to copy to a new drive. New drive worked fine. Theory is heat or errors forcing drive to drop to a lower sata speed. The drive is always working hard because it is continuously recording the 30 minute video streams for each channel which puts a lot of stress on the drive. Roamio plus always records 6 streams at once. I have moved "bad" drives to a PC and after many months I eventually gets errors there as they continue to degrade.


That might be it, but... it's a brand new drive, shows no errors in either SMART or in a full copy, and doing a mfscopy didn't work (still hangs in Clearing Guide Data - it's looping doing GC before the actual Zap).

So... still trying to dig up how to clear the Zap flag. No luck so far.


----------



## lpwcomp

notting said:


> That might be it, but... it's a brand new drive, shows no errors in either SMART or in a full copy, and doing a mfscopy didn't work (still hangs in Clearing Guide Data - it's looping doing GC before the actual Zap).
> 
> So... still trying to dig up how to clear the Zap flag. No luck so far.


Have you tried zeroing out the entire drive? It sounds like the file system is probably hosed so you've lost everything anyway.

Also - what model Roamio?


----------



## notting

lpwcomp said:


> Have you tried zeroing out the entire drive? It sounds like the file system is probably hosed so you've lost everything anyway.
> 
> Also - what model Roamio?


No, the whole point of digging was to avoid losing the data, given that it was more or less 98% functional beforehand.

Model/software:

Mar 4 05:28:27 527840/16 kernel: Found active SwSystem 20.5.6.RC21-USA-6-848
Mar 4 05:28:27 529820/16 kernel: Found active model TCD848000


----------



## jmbach

Perhaps a KS 50 which wipes the db or a 67 which is a SQLite integrity check.


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> So this is the latest one, right?
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/mfstools/files/mfstools-v3.2-20150531.iso/download
> 
> I see mention of fixes 8 months ago, but it looks like the latest full disc is 9 months ago?
> 
> No, that's not downloadable.. So how do I get something that's not source I have to build?


You could use the images found in my original post.


----------



## notting

jmbach said:


> Perhaps a KS 50 which wipes the db or a 67 which is a SQLite integrity check.


Tried the poor man's KS50 already (zeroed out partition 14), and then tried KS67... neither made any difference.

Somewhere on the drive is the flag that sets "Clear..."... I'll be damned if I can find it, though.

Eh, because some other crazy person might pick this up at some point...

Places where the flag that tells Tivo to 'Clear Guide data & To Do List' is *NOT* set:
- in the partition header (does not change)
- at the end of the disk (all zeros)
- anywhere on /db partition (although it does change the 'sticky' file from '0' to '5')
- anywhere on /var partition
- in the MFS header
- as a hardcoded flag in the flash/OS (it does not clear other Tivo drives you put in)


----------



## Soapm

I have a premier with a 2tb drive. Anyway to copy my existing drive to a new 4tb drive? I don't know how many partitions I have but I imagine it's maxed since I have a 2tb drive.

What is the max drive I can put in my premier?


----------



## jmbach

4TB with a simple MFSTools 3.2 copy command. 6TB I am still working on developing a simplified procedure of accomplishing that.


----------



## Soapm

jmbach said:


> 4TB with a simple MFSTools 3.2 copy command. 6TB I am still working on developing a simplified procedure of accomplishing that.


Would that be copying my existing 2Tb drive to 4TB or would I have to use a virgin image?


----------



## ThAbtO

Soapm said:


> Would that be copying my existing 2Tb drive to 4TB or would I have to use a virgin image?


Expanding may be limited to only once and using a "non-expanded" image may be your only option.


----------



## mattack

jmbach said:


> 4TB with a simple MFSTools 3.2 copy command. 6TB I am still working on developing a simplified procedure of accomplishing that.


You mean with these tools, right? (Not the other tool, MFS reformatter, which needs Windows, and is only for Roamio and above, IIRC.)

any idea if/when you're likely to have that done? I think 4 TB is still at about the sweet spot for drive prices nowadays, but 5 & 6 are sometimes reasonably priced.

I did the drop in replacement for my Roamio to 3 TB, but never upgraded my Premiere 4 that's also still online..


----------



## jmbach

Soapm said:


> Would that be copying my existing 2Tb drive to 4TB or would I have to use a virgin image?


You would be using your existing drive that has the latest OS. The virgin image from ggieseke does not support drives over 2TB and will boot loop on you if you tried to take it to 4TB.


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> Expanding may be limited to only once and using a "non-expanded" image may be your only option.


MFSTools 3.2 will take (at least Premiere and later TiVos that I have tested) the expanded drive and create the new image with just 2 pairs of partitions (app and media) like an original TiVo image.


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> You mean with these tools, right? (Not the other tool, MFS reformatter, which needs Windows, and is only for Roamio and above, IIRC.)
> 
> any idea if/when you're likely to have that done? I think 4 TB is still at about the sweet spot for drive prices nowadays, but 5 & 6 are sometimes reasonably priced.
> 
> I did the drop in replacement for my Roamio to 3 TB, but never upgraded my Premiere 4 that's also still online..


Well my development computer went down and I am in the process of getting it replaced. Plus work has been busy and not allowing for free time. So it will be a little bit. You could get a 6TB and copy the image limiting the expansion space to 4TB with a switch in MFSTools which is the first step. Then later when I have the program done expand to the full 6TB.

Currently when MFSTools expands to 4TB, it places all the partitions such that they each start in the 32bit address space (under 2TB) because initially the TiVo OS could not address anything beyond a 32bit address space. TiVo soon rectified that and now we have a 64bit APM structure. Problem is that you cannot mix 32bit and 64bit entries as you will cause a boot loop. Unfortunately when MFSTools adds the extra pair of partitions after the 4TB mark, it does add it as a 64bit APM entry but does not convert the whole APM to 64bit. So I have to create a program that will do just that or modify MFSTools to do that. The second thing I need to do is coalesce the pair of partitions the MFSTools added. Once those two steps are completed, we have 6TB.


----------



## mattack

jmbach said:


> Once those two steps are completed, we have 6TB.


Which is ironic, since now 8 TB drives are available! Not cheap yet, but will be..

so ok, last question for now I hope.. You do mean that in theory I could buy a 4 TB drive, copy my ORIG Premiere 4 drive to it (including shows/OP).. and use that as a 4 TB drive, then later if you ever finish the upgrade, *IN PLACE* (in a computer obviously) upgrade the Tivo partition stuff to know it's 6 TB.. with no loss in data?


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> Which is ironic, since now 8 TB drives are available! Not cheap yet, but will be..
> 
> so ok, last question for now I hope.. You do mean that in theory I could buy a 4 TB drive, copy my ORIG Premiere 4 drive to it (including shows/OP).. and use that as a 4 TB drive, then later if you ever finish the upgrade, *IN PLACE* (in a computer obviously) upgrade the Tivo partition stuff to know it's 6 TB.. with no loss in data?


Yes.

As a side note, unless TiVo corrects the small issue in the OS that reads a 64bit number as 32bit, the max size for the premiere and above is 6TB unless more extreme modifications are done, then in theory 8TB would be possible for a single internal drive. Currently with MFSTools, adding a 8TB external is possible.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## mattack

OK, so skimming the whole thread, I get that the basic syntax is:
*mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb*
to copy a drive to another drive and include EVERYTHING, and it automatically supersizes during the process.

Looking at post #2, not knowing all of the gory details about Tivo partitions, is still very complex.

What is the analogous command to the above except _don't_ copy the actual shows? (Another post mentioned that a full drive can take "days".)

(This would be for a Premiere 4, but I don't think that's relevant.. Oh, and in my post a few previous, I typoed, my hypothetical was buying a 6 TB and using it "for now" as 4 TB.. Still might do that, with the hope that the extra 2 TB eventually become useful.)


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> OK, so skimming the whole thread, I get that the basic syntax is:
> *mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb*
> to copy a drive to another drive and include EVERYTHING, and it automatically supersizes during the process.
> 
> Looking at post #2, not knowing all of the gory details about Tivo partitions, is still very complex.
> 
> What is the analogous command to the above except _don't_ copy the actual shows? (Another post mentioned that a full drive can take "days".)
> 
> (This would be for a Premiere 4, but I don't think that's relevant.. Oh, and in my post a few previous, I typoed, my hypothetical was buying a 6 TB and using it "for now" as 4 TB.. Still might do that, with the hope that the extra 2 TB eventually become useful.)


The command to copy everything but the recordings is mfstool copy - i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. To limit the expansion to 4TB if you are going to copy to a 6TB drive everything but the recordings would be mfstool copy - iM 4000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY.


----------



## rbstuartjr

Hey guys I'm having a bit of an issue with the new HDD in the Tivo Premiere 2 tuner. The original hard drive seemed to be flaky, the Tivo would reboot to the Starting up blue screen the green light would be on then amber lights flash and the screen would go black (no video signal). this same behavior would happen regardless of input, ie hdmi, rca jacks. I figured it was HD issue. so ordered WD Green 2tb EURx version. So i used DVRBARS and recieved new image from that thread, Thank you ggieseke. Put in the new HD in tivo and i get exactly same behavior. i then used an older 320gb drive and put the image on that and used MFSTools to copy and upgrade to the WD Green 2TB drive. Was confirmed of successful copy and then put the 2TB drive in Premiere and get the same behavior. Using the Kickstart codes after the amber light starts flashing and i am rewarded with a solid green and solid blue light. i left it like that for 24hrs and nothing changed. This is the same behavior i got with the kickstart codes with the original drive as well. I checked power supple and am getting 12 volts and 5 volts respecrtively at the HDD. the disk is spinning up i can hear and feel the vibration. Any ideas what could be going on here? thanks for your help


----------



## jmbach

Might need to disable PUIS on the drive. Looks at this thread here.


----------



## rbstuartjr

I tried to check Puis on the drive but couldn't get my pc to recognize the drive while running hdat2. The thing is, I get the exact same behavior from the TiVo regardless of which drive I use. I used dvrbars to install the new image on the original 329gb disk as well as an older 320gb desktop disk. So I'm at a loss at what could be the issue.


----------



## jmbach

rbstuartjr said:


> I tried to check Puis on the drive but couldn't get my pc to recognize the drive while running hdat2. The thing is, I get the exact same behavior from the TiVo regardless of which drive I use. I used dvrbars to install the new image on the original 329gb disk as well as an older 320gb desktop disk. So I'm at a loss at what could be the issue.


To be clear, you have placed ggieseke's image on two different 320GB drives and each drive was booted in the TiVo with the same result. Initial boot screen with green light to flashing amber light and then to black screen. Is the green light still on with the black screen? And you have tried all different outputs and still a black screen.


----------



## rbstuartjr

jmbach said:


> To be clear, you have placed ggieseke's image on two different 320GB drives and each drive was booted in the TiVo with the same result. Initial boot screen with green light to flashing amber light and then to black screen. Is the green light still on with the black screen? And you have tried all different outputs and still a black screen.


Yes, I put the new image on both 320GB drives and got the same result. Initial boot screen with solid green light, then solid green with amber flashing to black screen(no video stream detected by tv) with a solid green light. I have only tried the hdmi output and the composite cable output. With same results. I can hear and feel each hard drive spin up. 
I was able to get to guided setup only once and that was with composite cable and power cord only connected. Thinking it might be the power supply I disconnected the fan to. I went through guard setup, phoned home twice. But when I had to restart the drive to do the clear and delet, it never booted back up past starting screen. 
So basically I have 3 HD's responding the exact same way in this TiVo. Could it be power supply? I did test the voltage at motherboard and HD and did get 5.13 and 12.30 volts, with the fan plugged in. With fan unplugged I got 5.13 and 12.45 at HD and motherboard connector.


----------



## jmbach

Try downloading the image again. And retry the process. If you are getting to the KS portal then it is booting of the hard drive. Perhaps the image for corrupted when you downloaded it the first time.


----------



## rbstuartjr

Ok I just finished downloading the image again and will give it another try, thanks for your help.


----------



## rbstuartjr

I have been running kickstart 57 on the original TiVo drive with the downloaded image for about 3 hrs. After looking at the steady blue and green light on the Premiere, I pulled the plug to reboot it. I was able to get through guided set up, phoned home twice for guide data. Got to the point where you have to do Clear and delete everything and it had to be restarted. 

Of course it would not get past the Starting up screen and then went to black screen. So I pulled the plug again and went to put it back in Kickstart 57. So i figure I'm let that run all night and see what happens. Anyway I go to my other TiVo and get into My Shows list, and my "dead Premiere" is listed as if there was nothing wrong with it. When I click on it I get the My Shows menu on the Premiere, but of course there is nothing on it. 

I have not been able to see that TiVo on the network in over a week, even when it was plugged in and running. 

I still have my other 320GB drive being fully restored with another downloaded copy of the image in DVRBars at the moment.


----------



## rbstuartjr

So I was able to borrow a friends Premiere for testing.

All the drives I had been using were able to boot up into the borrowed Preiniere, even the new 2tb one.

I then swapped the borrowed Premieres power supply into my TiVo, the result being the Premeire would not boot up.

So with this, I believe the mother board has died, this Premiere did have a lifetime sub on it.


----------



## jmbach

rbstuartjr said:


> So I was able to borrow a friends Premiere for testing.
> 
> All the drives I had been using were able to boot up into the borrowed Preiniere, even the new 2tb one.
> 
> I then swapped the borrowed Premieres power supply into my TiVo, the result being the Premeire would not boot up.
> 
> So with this, I believe the mother board has died, this Premiere did have a lifetime sub on it.


Put the original drive back in and call TiVo. Go through any diagnostic procedure they ask you and then see if they will give you a deal on repair or a refurb/new unit since this is a lifetime unit.


----------



## rbstuartjr

If a TiVo Premiere has the TiVo Extender attached, can you still upgrade the internal drive to larger one using Mfstools. Since I have a new working 2TB drive, I would like to upgrade my Dad's Premiere internal drive, but he has an extender attached to it?


----------



## jmbach

Should be able to. Will have to have both attached to the computer at the same time.


----------



## rbstuartjr

Thanks, that's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure before I start pulling everything apart.


----------



## toricred

I tried to use both the USB bootable image and the ISO to try to boot and copy a 4TB drive to another 4TB drive, but it hangs when it says that /dev/sdc won't tell what kind of cache it has so it assumes write through and then hangs. It turns out that /dev/sdc is the USB drive itself so that kind of makes sense, but I never did get it working.

Then I made an Ubuntu 15.10 Live USB device, downloaded the SourceForge source for mfstools, ran ./configure which worked fine, and tried to run make. It had all kinds of errors and just wouldn't complete For now I'm using dd, but I'd like to figure out what I was doing wrong.


----------



## jmbach

What computer are you using it on.


----------



## toricred

It's a home built system that belongs to my son. I tried another computer and it didn't work either (same problems). The system is less than a year old with a Z170A Gaming Pro by MSI.


----------



## toricred

Well dd ran into an error at 2.2TB finished. I guess I am going to have to use ddrescue and give it a couple of days unless I can get mfstools to work so I can run mfsck.

EDIT: Would it make more sense to try to build it on Ubuntu 14.10 instead of 15.10?


----------



## jmbach

Does fdisk -l command show you the correct drive sizes?


----------



## toricred

I had already taken down the linux system by the time I saw your post, but I decided to try connecting the new drive to the Bolt. I expected to see that the available space was low or that it wouldn't boot at all, but it actually boots and shows the correct amount of space available. I ran a KS57 on boot just to make sure and, fingers crossed, it seems to be working well now. Since I only had the drive about 20% filled before, maybe I got lucky and it copied everything I needed. It was a completely blank drive so the space that wasn't copied should already be blank.


----------



## toricred

Apparently I spoke too soon. The recordings show in the list, but I can't actually play them. Back to the drawing board.


----------



## mattack

jmbach said:


> The command to copy everything but the recordings is mfstool copy - i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. To limit the expansion to 4TB if you are going to copy to a 6TB drive everything but the recordings would be mfstool copy - iM 4000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY.


Is there something in this process, especially at the end, that has known pauses? I watched it for a bit, saw it counting up fairly quickly.. then noticed it had paused a few times, then went back to counting up quickly..

Now it's near the end (probably will finish before I finish typing this), but has been going VERY slowly near the end..

e.g. in the 4xyz of 4573, sometimes it was going VERY slowly and seemed paused. Never got any errors. It estimated 8 seconds the first time I saw it seemingly hung at least near the end..

Is this indicative of a bad drive (either source or dest)?

I won't be home to plug it back in for several more hours..


----------



## jmbach

This also happened to me when I copied a 4TB drive to another 4TB drive with all recordings.


----------



## mattack

OK, thanks.. Then I guess it's really "doing something" and just the estimate is bad. Not a serious complaint, I was just afraid it was having to do retries on reading or writing.

I don't think I ever saw it pause for multiple minutes, but maybe sometimes a minute or so without making any noticeable progress.. and also sometimes I was seeing the percentage slightly tick up without the actual # of megabytes go up (so it was a roundoff issue).


----------



## BitbyBlit

Thanks to jkozee for the tools and jmbach for the ISO.

I copied a 2 TB Roamio drive to a 4 TB. The copy process ran without any errors, but some of the programs in my Now Playing list could no longer be played. I attributed this to my old drive starting to go bad, which is what led me to replace it in the first place, and just cut my losses. However, after about a week, my TiVo could no longer download new guide information, giving me an S03 error.

I tried doing a Kickstart 57, but that put my TiVo into an endless reboot cycle. Then I tried doing a Kickstart 58 instead, which worked. I'm guessing that something in the MFS check had an issue, but going straight to the cleanup bypassed that problem.

Not only did that fix the TiVo's ability to download new guide information, but it also repaired all the links in my Now Playing list, so I could now watch the programs that I thought had been lost.


----------



## shamilian

jkozee said:


> Seems that the SQLite partition (/dev/sdx14) is not being included during a copy because I declared skipdb incorrectly in copy.c. It should be:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> unsigned int skipdb = 0;


Are the bug fixes being added to the git repo ?

git://git.code.sf.net/p/mfstools/mfstools mfstools-mfstools

I don't see anything past

Commit	Date 
[880cc8] (HEAD, master) by jkozee jkozee
Initial update to v3.2 as of 20150531
2015-06-09 01:53:37	Tree


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## jmbach

I don't believe so. They have been applied to the ISO I posted.


----------



## DarthSudo

So, I'm putting a 4 TB into my Premiere. The mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb from the original 320 GB drive fails with a bunch of I/O read errors. Most likely I have some dead sectors, but I haven't verified yet.

I am able to get a backup using DvrBARS, but I do get 1 read error at the very end.

Is it possible to do the restore to the 4 TB using DvrBARS, then expand and supersize using MFSTools 3.2? I'm seeing some posts that state I need to mount the VHD file from the backup and use mfscopy, but I'm trying to avoid that (it is looking like a bit of a pain to get it mounted).


----------



## redhaute

I remember reading somewhere that a soon to be released update will allow 8TB drives, (currently only 6TB of space usable) to be used ib Romios. (Can't find the link)

Does that mean that WD 8TB Red drives would be worth the extra $100 bucks?

Anyone recall where that link is for when the update will be coming?

If its in the reasonable future, it seems to be worth the extra $100 bucks for another 50% size increase.

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

DarthSudo said:


> So, I'm putting a 4 TB into my Premiere. The mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb from the original 320 GB drive fails with a bunch of I/O read errors. Most likely I have some dead sectors, but I haven't verified yet.
> 
> I am able to get a backup using DvrBARS, but I do get 1 read error at the very end.
> 
> Is it possible to do the restore to the 4 TB using DvrBARS, then expand and supersize using MFSTools 3.2? I'm seeing some posts that state I need to mount the VHD file from the backup and use mfscopy, but I'm trying to avoid that (it is looking like a bit of a pain to get it mounted).


It won't work. What about restoring the VHD to any spare good drive and then using MFSTools to copy and expand.


----------



## ggieseke

redhaute said:


> I remember reading somewhere that a soon to be released update will allow 8TB drives, (currently only 6TB of space usable) to be used ib Romios. (Can't find the link)
> 
> Does that mean that WD 8TB Red drives would be worth the extra $100 bucks?
> 
> Anyone recall where that link is for when the update will be coming?
> 
> If its in the reasonable future, it seems to be worth the extra $100 bucks for another 50% size increase.
> 
> Thanks!


6TB is still the hard limit on Roamios and Bolts. No one knows if that will ever change, and TiVo isn't talking.


----------



## DarthSudo

jmbach said:


> It won't work. What about restoring the VHD to any spare good drive and then using MFSTools to copy and expand.


I forgot how freaking easy VirtualBox was... I've got the VHD mounted up and the destination disk as raw and am using the MFSTools VM for mfscopy. Humming along at 37% w/ a 2 hour ETA.

All of my open browser tabs are starting to blur together. I believe the next step is supersize it, then boot up the TiVo. Would I normally use any parameters with supersize, or is it just `./supersize /dev/sdb`?


----------



## DarthSudo

Is supersize even necessary after expanding with mfscopy? I'm seeing some conflicting posts and just looking for clarification.


----------



## jmbach

If your original image has not been super-sized yet then it is still an option. It is never necessary. You just get to tweak a little more recording space out of your disk.


----------



## DarthSudo

jmbach said:


> If your original image has not been super-sized yet then it is still an option. It is never necessary. You just get to tweak a little more recording space out of your disk.


Thanks. I did the supersize after copying from my VHD but I wound up in a boot loop... I'm trying my fresh image (factory reset) from a few weeks ago. It looks like my source disk may have some bad sectors and that might be causing me some issues. I may need a clean image from someone to start fresh with. TCD746320. That might be easier and quicker than trying to remap the bad sectors and I don't think I had much recorded on there that I can't live without.


----------



## jmbach

DarthSudo said:


> Thanks. I did the supersize after copying from my VHD but I wound up in a boot loop... I'm trying my fresh image (factory reset) from a few weeks ago. It looks like my source disk may have some bad sectors and that might be causing me some issues. I may need a clean image from someone to start fresh with. TCD746320. That might be easier and quicker than trying to remap the bad sectors and I don't think I had much recorded on there that I can't live without.


Just make sure that the OS of the image you are placing on the 4TB drive is minimum version 20.3.8 otherwise it will boot loop as well.


----------



## LFH0

So I thought I did everything correctly to upgrade the hard drive on TiVo HD, but I am not able to have the TiVo boot completely. What have I done incompletely or wrong?

This is a TCD652160, a previously-acquired already-upgraded with a 1TB Western Digital WD10FALS Black Caviar hard drive. Seeking to upgrade to a newly-acquired (from New Egg) 2TB Western Digital WD20EURX AV-GP hard drive. Booted computer with MFSTools v. 3.2, and executed the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdf, where sda was the old drive (with recorded programs) and sdf was the new drive (blank). Ran 7.0 hours overnight. Placed new drive in TiVo, and got only so far as "Welcome! Powering up . . . ," with the sunrise but no TiVo icon. This screen, I assume, is generated from the motherboard, not from anything on the hard drive.

Did I do something incorrectly? Or is there something more I need to do? Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

Is it in a boot loop or just sitting there staring at you


----------



## ThAbtO

LFH0 said:


> So I thought I did everything correctly to upgrade the hard drive on TiVo HD, but I am not able to have the TiVo boot completely. What have I done incompletely or wrong?
> 
> This is a TCD652160, a previously-acquired already-upgraded with a 1TB Western Digital WD10FALS Black Caviar hard drive. Seeking to upgrade to a newly-acquired (from New Egg) 2TB Western Digital WD20EURX AV-GP hard drive. Booted computer with MFSTools v. 3.2, and executed the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdf, where sda was the old drive (with recorded programs) and sdf was the new drive (blank). Ran 7.0 hours overnight. Placed new drive in TiVo, and got only so far as "Welcome! Powering up . . . ," with the sunrise but no TiVo icon. This screen, I assume, is generated from the motherboard, not from anything on the hard drive.
> 
> Did I do something incorrectly? Or is there something more I need to do? Thanks.


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10796016#post10796016


----------



## LFH0

jmbach said:


> Is it in a boot loop or just sitting there staring at you


It has just been staring at me, as if the motherboard did not know what to do next.

But good news. With some additional online research, I seem to have found the cause of the problem. Apparently, the hard drive was shipped from the factory with the power-up in standby (PUIS) setting enabled, when it needs to be set as disabled. To fix the problem, I used UBCD version 5.3.5, and used the HDAT2 utility. It accessed from the UBCD main menu as HDD> Diagnosis > HDAT2. The utility refused to start with the naked hdat2.exe command, but a helpful error message admonished me to use the "w" switch, that is, hdta.exe /w, to get the drive spinning. Apparently, that switch alone, just to start up the utility, was sufficient to set PUIS to disabled. Otherwise, command menu > command feature would get one to the PUIS setting portion, where I saw that the setting had already been marked as "disabled," presumably by having used the "w" switch. Everything was then shut down, the hard drive moved back into the TiVo unit, and the TiVo started up perfectly, with all recorded programs saved, and 2TB of storage now visible in the TiVo's own settings.

I am not knowledgeable of the bigger picture here, or how hard drives, in general, are shipped from the factory. But if this is a common trait of new hard drives (or even particular hard drives), then perhaps there might be a means of including the HDTA2 utility, or some substitute, with the MFStools.

Thanks to jmbach for having the interest in looking into my difficulty; and also to ThAbtO for pointing me to a thread leading to this solution.


----------



## carlosr

I have downloaded the file. how do i use it? do i need to make a disk? what software do i need to make the disk? My laptop does not have a disk drive. will it run without a disk?


----------



## jmbach

You could download the version to load on a usb drive and run it off that as long as your computer can boot off a usb drive.


----------



## crak

I was able to copy the drive of my Roamio 500gb to a new 2tb eurx drive but most of the recordings won't play. Can anybody help?


----------



## jmbach

What command did you use


----------



## crak

jmbach said:


> What command did you use


mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb, but let me give you some history.

At first mfstools wouldn't see the drive. After some reading I found out that my drive came with PUIS enabled, so I used HDAT2 to disable it. I went ahead and ran mfstools and did a Fdisk -l and both drives came up as a and b. I went ahead and ran mfstool info /dev/sda and it gave me the info on the original tivo drive, then I ran mfstool info /dev/sdb but no info on the drive. I decided to run mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb since it had showed up on Fdisk-1. It ran for about 3 hours and finished without any errors. I dropped it in the tivo and all recorded shows were there, had the tivo call home for the guide and that was it. When I tried to play some of the shows it only play some of them but not all.


----------



## crak

To redo this hard drive do I need reformat it or do I just overwrite it in mfstools? What is the procedure in this case?


----------



## jmbach

Does the original drive play all the recorded shows in that TiVo? Is the drive you copied from the original drive of that TiVo?


----------



## crak

jmbach said:


> Does the original drive play all the recorded shows in that TiVo? Is the drive you copied from the original drive of that TiVo?


Yes, it's back in the Tivo and it works perfect. As far as the new drive I'm blanking it using Darik's Boot and Nuke. It's around 42%. Whenever it finishes I'll try it again.


----------



## jmbach

I would do a long diagnostic test and a write 0's test on your target drive before trying the copy again. Make sure there are no bad spots. Use the WD diagnostic utility.


----------



## crak

jmbach said:


> I would do a long diagnostic test and a write 0's test on your target drive before trying the copy again. Make sure there are no bad spots. Use the WD diagnostic utility.


I did that test when I first got it and it passed. It took around 20 hours to complete. The next day is when I tried to copy the hard drive.


----------



## crak

jmbach said:


> I would do a long diagnostic test and a write 0's test on your target drive before trying the copy again. Make sure there are no bad spots. Use the WD diagnostic utility.


I believe the Darik's Boot and nuke it does write 1 and 0 on the entire drive, so far no errors.


----------



## dianebrat

Ok I'm really stumped by this and I'm usually smarter than this.
So I have a small Zotac box and a 2-bay USB duplicator dock, my goal is copy the 1TB Roamio Plus drive onto a 3TB blank WDBlue keeping the recordings.

I'm not overly Linux savvy but I can usually flail about in it successfully, so I downloaded jmbach's nifty ISO image, burned it to a USB stick, booted off of it, chose MFStools 3.2 and I wind up with this screen, blinking cursor and I get nothing more.










If I use failsafe I eventually see something about SDC and a blinking cursor which I can enter commands, but they do nothing, I never get any login prompts, ideas?


----------



## dianebrat

Went for the RAW/HDD/USB image and it booted off the stick and responded properly, it's running the copy now, the ISO loaded to USB with Rufus was not happy at all.


----------



## jmbach

Hmm. Try downloading the usb/HDD version and copy it to the USB stick via Linux dd or HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool.


----------



## jmbach

Try disabling the WiFi card before booting. Either remove the card or try toggling the WiFi switch if it is a laptop that has that switch.


----------



## dianebrat

jmbach said:


> Hmm. Try downloading the usb/HDD version and copy it to the USB stick via Linux dd or HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool.


Yep, that was what resolved it, still not sure why since from what you've said they're the same image base.


----------



## jmbach

dianebrat said:


> Yep, that was what resolved it, still not sure why since from what you've said they're the same image base.


I am not sure either. The images are made with SUSEStudio. It is quite possible that it optimizes each image for that particular format which could be the issue.


----------



## dianebrat

jmbach said:


> I am not sure either. The images are made with SUSEStudio. It is quite possible that it optimizes each image for that particular format which could be the issue.


BTW.. once I got the image on the USB stick that ran, the process was flawless, worked exactly as clean and simple as MFStools in the old day and I have a shiny 3TB drive in my Roamio Plus with all my prior shows on it, awesome job guys!


----------



## dantrevan

Having spent a few very frustrating weeks reading thousands of posts and dozens of attempts to upgrade a 500 GB drive to a 1 or 2 TB, I'm finally ready to cry uncle and ask for help.

I have a Premiere 746500 and original disk which I have copied over to both 1TB Hitachi and 2TB Seagate AV drives using two external usb enclosures (yes, it takes forever!). Both have the same problem with not showing the upgraded capacity after following what i thought were the right steps to expand. They still show the same 76 hour capacity.

It's been simple enough to copy the original disk and get new disks that play and record correctly on the Tivo, but must be doing something wrong to have the capacity issue. 

The copies were made in MFS 3.2, then mfsadd followed by supersize. Both commands seem to go correctly, but system still reports estimated hours as 576 (I'm assuming that's SD). What is the exact command for a copy I should use, or does this need to be done as a restore, in case I did that first step wrong? Also, do I need to first do a "chmod u+w" which I read somewhere makes the disk writeable?

The msfinfo says volume contains 4 partitions (10-13) and total volume size is 472699 MiB. A kickstart 57/58 didn't help. It seems like the drive is just not being recognized as the appropriate size. Could this be some kind of header issue or ?

This command line stuff is all new to me, so don't really have a clue where to begin. Feel like I'm getting in way over my head for what seemed like a simple process. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

Also, for some reason when I do an fdisk -l, I now have something called /dev/loop0 at 2.8 GiB appearing. I haven't changed or added any devices, so is that the internal CD that's decided to start showing up for some reason?


----------



## jmbach

dantrevan said:


> Having spent a few very frustrating weeks reading thousands of posts and dozens of attempts to upgrade a 500 GB drive to a 1 or 2 TB, I'm finally ready to cry uncle and ask for help.
> 
> I have a Premiere 746500 and original disk which I have copied over to both 1TB Hitachi and 2TB Seagate AV drives using two external usb enclosures (yes, it takes forever!). Both have the same problem with not showing the upgraded capacity after following what i thought were the right steps to expand. They still show the same 76 hour capacity.
> 
> It's been simple enough to copy the original disk and get new disks that play and record correctly on the Tivo, but must be doing something wrong to have the capacity issue.
> 
> The copies were made in MFS 3.2, then mfsadd followed by supersize. Both commands seem to go correctly, but system still reports estimated hours as 576 (I'm assuming that's SD). What is the exact command for a copy I should use, or does this need to be done as a restore, in case I did that first step wrong? Also, do I need to first do a "chmod u+w" which I read somewhere makes the disk writeable?
> 
> The msfinfo says volume contains 4 partitions (10-13) and total volume size is 472699 MiB. A kickstart 57/58 didn't help. It seems like the drive is just not being recognized as the appropriate size. Could this be some kind of header issue or ?
> 
> This command line stuff is all new to me, so don't really have a clue where to begin. Feel like I'm getting in way over my head for what seemed like a simple process. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Dan
> 
> Also, for some reason when I do an fdisk -l, I now have something called /dev/loop0 at 2.8 GiB appearing. I haven't changed or added any devices, so is that the internal CD that's decided to start showing up for some reason?


Use the command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY.

You cannot use MFSAdd to increase space on Premiere and later TiVos.


----------



## dantrevan

I'll give it a try. Should be copied by Christmas via USB. 

Thanks!


----------



## dantrevan

OMG, the hours upon hours of time I've spent on this solved in one post reply and a 10 minute file transfer. That'll teach me to think I can do this stuff on my own. I'm now the proud owner of a 318-hour capacity Premiere.

Thanks so much jmbach. I really appreciate the help- You rock!

- Dan


----------



## jmbach

dantrevan said:


> OMG, the hours upon hours of time I've spent on this solved in one post reply and a 10 minute file transfer. That'll teach me to think I can do this stuff on my own. I'm now the proud owner of a 318-hour capacity Premiere.
> 
> Thanks so much jmbach. I really appreciate the help- You rock!
> 
> - Dan


You are welcome. I should qualify my statement better. You cannot expand a premiere and later by copying the current image intact to a larger hard drive and then use MFSAdd to expand that image to use the whole drive. You can use MFSAdd to add an external hard drive to the current image to make a dual drive system.


----------



## dianebrat

notting said:


> Tried the poor man's KS50 already (zeroed out partition 14), and then tried KS67... neither made any difference.
> 
> Somewhere on the drive is the flag that sets "Clear..."... I'll be damned if I can find it, though.
> 
> Eh, because some other crazy person might pick this up at some point...
> 
> Places where the flag that tells Tivo to 'Clear Guide data & To Do List' is *NOT* set:
> - in the partition header (does not change)
> - at the end of the disk (all zeros)
> - anywhere on /db partition (although it does change the 'sticky' file from '0' to '5')
> - anywhere on /var partition
> - in the MFS header
> - as a hardcoded flag in the flash/OS (it does not clear other Tivo drives you put in)


FWIW I noticed I wasn't updating guide data and had an S03 on my recently copied and expanded 3TB in my Roamio Plus, went for the "clear guide data and todo" and now it's stuck there, I have a feeling from this thread that I'm not going to get past this one unless someone has any more ideas, if not I'll put my old drive back, copy everything off it, and then blank the 3TB before putting it back in the Roamio


----------



## jmbach

KS 50, 67, 57, 58, and 59. These would be my first go around. Would check booting after each KS code and not stack them.


----------



## dianebrat

jmbach said:


> KS 50, 67, 57, 58, and 59. These would be my first go around. Would check booting after each KS code and not stack them.


Thanks for the pointers, I'll give them a shot this weekend and see if I'm ok, the worst part? it just got 20.6.1 successfully


----------



## dianebrat

dianebrat said:


> Thanks for the pointers, I'll give them a shot this weekend and see if I'm ok, the worst part? it just got 20.6.1 successfully


KS50 is wipe the DB and I saw it accept, hen go back to "clearing guide data, etc" but it never fully booted overnight, since there wasn't that much new on the drive and I was still leery of using it after the upgrade so I put the old 1TB drive in and I'm backing it up, I'll wipe the 3TB then let the Roamio reformat it on its own, it was a valiant attempt but in this case it was easier to just start over.


----------



## jmbach

Did you try KS 59?


----------



## dianebrat

jmbach said:


> Did you try KS 59?


Never made it that far, I figured I'd cut my losses and have what's left on the 1TB drive copying over to the ReadyNAS thanks to it's archive function and I'm almost done with the long disk test on the blanked 3TB to be sure it's healthy.

After years of being a technical lead I've learned the value in giving up and restarting over spending days troubleshooting


----------



## jmbach

dianebrat said:


> After years of being a technical lead I've learned the value in giving up and restarting over spending days troubleshooting


True.

For me, it is more of a hobby trying to beat the machine.


----------



## dianebrat

jmbach said:


> True.
> 
> For me, it is more of a hobby trying to beat the machine.


I totally understand and respect that, I have no need to win, the faster I get the Tivo back the better, it's booting up now with it's clean and wiped drive, only took overnight for the ReadyNAS to copy everything off the 1TB.


----------



## theitguy

I just wanted to say thank you for all that have contributed to this forum and thread. 

I work in IT so it was easy to follow but i read thru every post 1st to see what other people might be having issues with so that i knew what to possibly expect. For those that are not tech savy i am going to post the steps for what i did for upgrading my Roamio from a 1tb drive to a 3 tb drive.

1st i downloaded the MFSTools 3.2 ISO from post #131 and burned it to a cd. 

Then i shut down the tivo and pulled the 1 TB drive out.

I happen to have a spare desktop computer that i built with 2 sata drives already in it so i opened it up, disconnected the old drives and connected the new drives and booted to the CD. and logged in with the username and password (root - tivo) (put the cd in the cdrom before you shut down the computer!)


I ran fdisk -l command to identify the source and target drives

it was easy to identify the source being only 1 TB was listed around 930 Gib and the target listed at 2.7 Tib. 

I ran this command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY x being source Y being target

For me it took 5 1/2 hours to run. I currently had around 65% full HD. 

I put the new hard drive back into the Tivo Roamio and everything booted up instantly. 

Now i have a 22% full hard drive!

The drive i used was a WD WD30EFRX

I also have comcast and the activation for the M card was fine!


----------



## unitron

theitguy said:


> I just wanted to say thank you for all that have contributed to this forum and thread.
> 
> I work in IT so it was easy to follow but i read thru every post 1st to see what other people might be having issues with so that i knew what to possibly expect. For those that are not tech savy i am going to post the steps for what i did for upgrading my Roamio from a 1tb drive to a 3 tb drive.
> 
> 1st i downloaded the MFSTools 3.2 ISO from post #131 and burned it to a cd.
> 
> Then i shut down the tivo and pulled the 1 TB drive out.
> 
> I happen to have a spare desktop computer that i built with 2 sata drives already in it so i opened it up, disconnected the old drives and connected the new drives and booted to the CD. and logged in with the username and password (root - tivo) (put the cd in the cdrom before you shut down the computer!)
> 
> I ran fdisk -l command to identify the source and target drives
> 
> it was easy to identify the source being only 1 TB was listed around 930 Gib and the target listed at 2.7 Tib.
> 
> I ran this command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY x being source Y being target
> 
> For me it took 5 1/2 hours to run. I currently had around 65% full HD.
> 
> I put the new hard drive back into the Tivo Roamio and everything booted up instantly.
> 
> Now i have a 22% full hard drive!
> 
> The drive i used was a WD WD30EFRX
> 
> I also have comcast and the activation for the M card was fine!


After the copy, how did you expand into the rest of the new drive?


----------



## jmbach

unitron said:


> After the copy, how did you expand into the rest of the new drive?


MFSTools 3.2 will expand automatically to fill the drive. It does so by increasing the media partition size and not by adding partitions.


----------



## unitron

jmbach said:


> MFSTools 3.2 will expand automatically to fill the drive. It does so by increasing the media partition size and not by adding partitions.


Can that be defeated?

Is there like a copy no expand switch or option?


----------



## jmbach

Not sure. Looks like the -R switch might do it. If we are just copying, dd command in Linux would work.


----------



## yoheidiho

Using MFSTools 3.2, I cannot add partitions with the command:

"mfstool add -x /dev/sda" 

I receive the response "Nothing to add!"

Any suggestions?

I'm trying to expand a 4TB Premiere to 6TB.


----------



## rtoledo

telemark said:


> SourceForge is starting to die off.
> http://www.itworld.com/article/2930...nder-fire-again-for-seizing-nmap-account.html
> I'd suggest moving to a newer hosting company, perhaps github.
> 
> Welcome to the Roamio party.


they got me good recently , even with eset set to kill on contact all, it still got through. ended up re-installing a 5 year old win7 installation. burning mad still

I hate getting taken . don't we all ?


----------



## rtoledo

TiVoJimmy said:


> Totally understood. I'll wait until an ISO is available as I have never compiled anything before. Although good time to learn.
> 
> I told my Dad to buy a WD A/V Green 3TB for his Premiere BEFORE I actually read this entire thread, oops.
> 
> I read that too. That's why I asked the question. I guess the better question is, it safe to download the binaries from SourceForge?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jim


I started reading this thread from beginning, did I miss a comment against A/V hardrives ? I thought those are the *only* ones totally safe for DVRs ?


----------



## rtoledo

gespears said:


> Interesting. Newegg doesn't charge me tax although Amazon does.


newegg is in California , probably why they don't charge you ? Phoenix right ?

I live near them . so i pay .


----------



## gespears

rtoledo said:


> newegg is in California , probably why they don't charge you ? Phoenix right ?
> 
> I live near them . so i pay .


You are completely correct. Sorry about that. We have almost 10 percent tax here so I try to avoid it if possible. What's your tax rate? I'm almost afraid to ask!


----------



## rtoledo

gespears said:


> You are completely correct. Sorry about that. We have almost 10 percent tax here so I try to avoid it if possible. What's your tax rate? I'm almost afraid to ask!


 8.25% last time I checked.


----------



## ThAbtO

rtoledo said:


> 8.25% last time I checked.


Oakland, CA 9.5%
Next town over, San Leandro, Ca, 10%. How know is we go to Costco there.

Whups, this is getting off-topic.


----------



## gespears

Sorry, didn't mean to derail the thread.


----------



## BWV

This tool ROCKS !!! no issues at all... BOOOM!!!!!

Thank you so much to you all !!!

Roamio 500gb to 1TB 
2 reasons I only went with 1TB... 
1) I'm frugal... 2)I have yet to exceed 90% full...
(but it does make me nervous when it gets that full)

Used my old Dell Dimension 8300 from the attic... booted from CD ISO
Not a single issue... 
 :up:


----------



## Keen

At this point, what's the largest size drive for a Roamio that you can copy and expand to? Is it 4TB?


----------



## jmbach

The largest drive you can copy and expand to is a 4TB drive for an internal drive. You can add up to an 8TB external drive.


----------



## rtoledo

jmbach said:


> The largest drive you can copy and expand to is a 4TB drive for an internal drive. You can add up to an 8TB external drive.


Was this answer only for a Romiao ?

or does it apply to a Bolt also ?

is there a good thread dealing with external enclosures and drives ?

I want to have a external on the front room Bolt, besides the 4 tb internal

I keep seeing only references to the WD expander, is that it ?

thank you


----------



## jmbach

rtoledo said:


> Was this answer only for a Romiao ?
> 
> or does it apply to a Bolt also ?
> 
> is there a good thread dealing with external enclosures and drives ?
> 
> I want to have a external on the front room Bolt, besides the 4 tb internal
> 
> I keep seeing only references to the WD expander, is that it ?
> 
> thank you


That applies to a Bolt as well. With MFSTools 3.2 you can add any eSata drive to the TiVo, not just the approved DVR expanders.


----------



## jmbach

Just as an example, here is an 8TB drive added to my 1TB Premiere with MFSTools 3.2. The command used to do this is "mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" where sdX is the internal drive and sdY is the external drive.


----------



## jwort93

jmbach said:


> Just as an example, here is an 8TB drive added to my 1TB Premiere with MFSTools 3.2. The command used to do this is "mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" where sdX is the internal drive and sdY is the external drive.
> 
> View attachment 25690
> View attachment 25691


So this is the tool that weaKnees uses to add unsupported external drives to the Bolt, correct? Also, if you don't mind, what 8TB WD model did you add to your premiere?


----------



## jmbach

jwort93 said:


> So this is the tool that weaKnees uses to add unsupported external drives to the Bolt, correct? Also, if you don't mind, what 8TB WD model did you add to your premiere?


I have no clue if WK uses this tool or not. This is the tool available to us.

The drive is from a WD 8TB external enclosure. My only concern about using drives that come from external enclosures is that they usually have encryption enabled without a password. This does add a little overhead to read/writes. Not sure how much it affects the TiVo's performance.


----------



## lpwcomp

jwort93 said:


> So this is the tool that weaKnees uses to add unsupported external drives to the Bolt, correct? Also, if you don't mind, what 8TB WD model did you add to your premiere?


There's no way that weaKnees is using this tool.


----------



## brimimc

I'm running into an error when running

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb:/dev/sdc /dev/sdd:/dev/sde​Copy source: Sector 3515305984 size 0 not aligned with zone map.​I'm trying to upgrade a previously expanded series 3 from a dual 1TB to a dual 2TB preserving recordings.

Anyone have any advice on getting past this?

I didn't see anything helpful in the code indicating how to get around this type of issue.

I'm attaching screen shots of msfinfo and the copy command.

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

I am not sure if you can have dual 2TB in a series 3. It has been a while since I worked with a series 3 but if memory serves, you can only have a total of 2 TiB of recording space combined.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach said:


> I am not sure if you can have dual 2TB in a series 3. It has been a while since I worked with a series 3 but if memory serves, you can only have a total of 2 TiB of recording space combined.


Pretty certain (based on stuff we've done before) that 2TB is the limit on S3 boxes. With a 2TB internal, you can plug an external drive in, it will say it sees it and is enabling it, but nothing actually happens in terms of expanding storage time.


----------



## jmbach

brimimc said:


> I'm running into an error when running
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb:/dev/sdc /dev/sdd:/dev/sde​Copy source: Sector 3515305984 size 0 not aligned with zone map.​I'm trying to upgrade a previously expanded series 3 from a dual 1TB to a dual 2TB preserving recordings.
> 
> Anyone have any advice on getting past this?
> 
> I didn't see anything helpful in the code indicating how to get around this type of issue.
> 
> I'm attaching screen shots of msfinfo and the copy command.
> 
> Thanks


I would suggest running a KS 57 on your unit to see if it will correct the problem. However, I would recommend doing it on backups of your drives as some people run into the GSOD when running a KS 57.


----------



## richfife

(Never mind. Found it.)


----------



## brimimc

jmbach said:


> I am not sure if you can have dual 2TB in a series 3. It has been a while since I worked with a series 3 but if memory serves, you can only have a total of 2 TiB of recording space combined.


Your added support for 6TB drives for Premieres clouded my memory of the 2.2TB total limit on Series 3. Unfortunately my attempts to do a single 2TB drive (this time using WD20EZRZ) continue to be thwarted.

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

brimimc said:


> Your added support for 6TB drives for Premieres clouded my memory of the 2.2TB total limit on Series 3. Unfortunately my attempts to do a single 2TB drive (this time using WD20EZRZ) continue to be thwarted.
> 
> Thanks


That should be a very doable thing. What methodology have you used to try to achieve your quest.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## brimimc

I've created a post for the issue - http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=541509 - it does not include the mfstool details as I don't _think_ the issue is with my use of mfstool (I was sucessful with the same commands using a different drive). Let me know if any other details would be useful.


----------



## TinCanFury

am I missing something? I can't find anywhere to download version 3.2 everything I find is for the 2.0 ISO or the release from 2005. can someone help me?


----------



## brimimc

TinCanFury said:


> am I missing something? I can't find anywhere to download version 3.2 everything I find is for the 2.0 ISO or the release from 2005. can someone help me?


Here is the post

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10640798#post10640798


----------



## TinCanFury

brimimc said:


> Here is the post


thanks! for whatever reason a combination of google and the forum search did not find that for me.


----------



## TinCanFury

jmbach said:


> MFSTools 3.2 USB/HD[/URL]
> Use dd in Linux or something like HDD Raw copy tool in windows to copy the uncompressed file to a USB or hard drive.


using this version copied to a USB drive with HDD Raw Copy it gets to booting and then freezes at an error:
EXT4-ds error (device sda1): ext4_mb_generate_buddy:757: group5, block bitmap and bg descriptor inconsistent: 4370 vs 4388 free clusters

anyone else run into this?


----------



## jmbach

Try downloading again and copy it over to the USB drive with any Antivirus disabled would be my first guess. When I get home I will download and test the file.


----------



## elborak

I downloaded MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.oem.tar.gz (md5sum f5c62cba34ca390e1d8e8b5c501fef55) last week, used HDDRawCopy on Windows to write to a 16GB flash drive and successfully upgraded a base Roamio.

To check, I just downloaded again and the MD5 matches.


----------



## TinCanFury

jmbach said:


> Try downloading again and copy it over to the USB drive with any Antivirus disabled would be my first guess. When I get home I will download and test the file.


copied to a different USB drive and I did not get the error, it did however sit for a good 15minutes before getting to the prompt, something unexpected on a i7 w/ 8GB or RAM, especially when my linux mate boot usb drive boots in under 30seconds...

but looks like I'm in. now I just need to read up on the commands to backup my original drive and expand the new one.

thanks!


----------



## jmbach

I have never had it wait that long but depending on which computer I use, I get varying times. Mainly it is because it is waiting on some subsystems to come ready or trying to identify and install the correct drivers. I find that if I trim down what is connected and tap the enter key when it looks hung it speeds up the process.


----------



## TinCanFury

jmbach said:


> I have never had it wait that long but depending on which computer I use, I get varying times. Mainly it is because it is waiting on some subsystems to come ready or trying to identify and install the correct drivers. I find that if I trim down what is connected and tap the enter key when it looks hung it speeds up the process.


good to know. I'm having buffer errors with one of my SATA to USB devices so I haven't been able to do a full copy of my recordings and it took 4 tries to just get a system copy over but it finally worked and I don't have any recordings I need to keep. So I just installed the copied drive to my Tivo and it booted up fine and I'm able to watch TV so the cablecard looks to be working properly. my season passes are all there and the upcoming recordings list look good.

What I don't know is if there is a way to "mass" delete all the recordings in the list that don't have existing files?

Also is there a way to view total space?

thanks to those involved with giving us the great program and the great bootable live drive!


----------



## ThAbtO

TinCanFury said:


> What I don't know is if there is a way to "mass" delete all the recordings in the list that don't have existing files?


You could do Clear & Delete Everything. It would delete everything and you might have to do it anyway if there are errors like 51, or If System Information does not show the Tivo Service Number (all zeros.)



TinCanFury said:


> Also is there a way to view total space?
> 
> thanks to those involved with giving us the great program and the great bootable live drive!


Its in the System Information screen (Settings/System Information).


----------



## ovitevol

I would appreciate anyone who could point me to a more specific instructions (step-by-step) using this MFS tool to upgrade a 2TB premiere drive (upgraded using jmfs many years ago). I am not a computer professional and need some help to which MFS tool command to use first and what sequence of commands i should do? Thanks a lot in advance.


----------



## jmbach

What are you planning to upgrade to?


----------



## ovitevol

jmbach said:


> What are you planning to upgrade to?


I am planning to upgrade to a 3TB drive. Thanks !


----------



## jmbach

Login to the ISO as per the instructions in the post you downloaded it from. 

Using the command 'fdisk -l' (small L) identify which drive is the source and target. 

You can use the command 'mfstool info /dev/sdX' to verify your source drive you determined from the proceeding step. (sdX would be sda, sdb, sdc, etc depending on how many drives you have attached to your computer) 

Use the command 'mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY' to copy and expand all in one step. (sdX is the source drive (2TB) and sdY is the target drive(3TB) ) 

Once that is done, put the 3TB drive in your TiVo and let it boot.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> I have no clue if WK uses this tool or not. This is the tool available to us.
> 
> The drive is from a WD 8TB external enclosure. My only concern about using drives that come from external enclosures is that they usually have encryption enabled without a password. This does add a little overhead to read/writes. Not sure how much it affects the TiVo's performance.


jmbach,

I am a brand new 1TB Bolt owner and I am curious about how stable the upgrade is for the external drive. I am considering keeping the factory drive intact. Particularly with the issues I have read on other threads about the 4TB internal drive upgrade.

Have you or anyone else on this thread been running an external drive like this for a Bolt, for any significant period of time?

I would appreciate any feedback offered. If there is thread about this already a gentle nudge in that direction would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.


----------



## jmbach

I don't have a Bolt and I generally do not run external drives other than for testing and the longest I have had one connected is a month. I have a Premiere and Roamio. It is as stable as running an external drive on any other TiVo unit. You do introduce more points of potential failure but if you can live with that, then you should be okay. However, I only have limited teating/usage of external drives.


----------



## manderson96

Thanks for the quick response.

If anyone else following this string is using this method, please let me know.


----------



## manderson96

rtoledo said:


> Was this answer only for a Romiao ?
> 
> or does it apply to a Bolt also ?
> 
> is there a good thread dealing with external enclosures and drives ?
> 
> I want to have a external on the front room Bolt, besides the 4 tb internal
> 
> I keep seeing only references to the WD expander, is that it ?
> 
> thank you


rtoledo,

I am a very new 1TB Bolt owner and I am looking at adding the external drive as well. 
I followed your discussion with jmbach starting on the MFS Reformatter (mfsr) thread to this thread.
I am curious if you ever completed the upgrade to your bolt and how both the internal and external drives are performing.
Thanks in advance for your response.


----------



## TerpBE

jmbach said:


> Login to the ISO as per the instructions in the post you downloaded it from.
> 
> Using the command 'fdisk -l' (small L) identify which drive is the source and target.
> 
> You can use the command 'mfstool info /dev/sdX' to verify your source drive you determined from the proceeding step. (sdX would be sda, sdb, sdc, etc depending on how many drives you have attached to your computer)
> 
> Use the command 'mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY' to copy and expand all in one step. (sdX is the source drive (2TB) and sdY is the target drive(3TB) )
> 
> Once that is done, put the 3TB drive in your TiVo and let it boot.


My 2TB Premiere has been acting strange (goes from ~99% to ~70% full randomly - has happened 3 times). I want to replace the hard drive before a catastrophic failure, so I figured I might as well upgrade the drive in the process (probably to 4TB).

Are these the only steps I need to do for the upgrade process, or am I missing anything?
- Burn ISO to CD, hook the drives to the computer, and boot the disc using root:tivo.
- Use 'fdisk -l' to identify source/target
- Use 'mfstool info /dev/sdX' to verify that.
- Use 'mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY' to copy/expand drive. 
(replacing all Xs and Ys with appropriate letters)

Is that everything? Am I missing any steps?

The ISO references the tool "apmfix" for premieres. Is that something I should be doing? If so, when in the process do I do it, and what is the format of the command?

Thanks so much for all you do on here! You're awesome!

(p.s. Anybody have a ballpark figure on about how long it'll take to copy an ~80% full 2TB drive to a 4TB drive? Have to plan my TV watching appropriately, and hopefully be up and running by the Olympics)


----------



## jmbach

Yes


----------



## TerpBE

What about apmfix? Do I need to run that? If so, when/how does that fit in the process? Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

You need to run apmfix only when making a 6TB drive. You can run it on the 4TB and it convert the APM to 64bit. It won't hurt anything.


----------



## JoJetSki

So I have read the whole thread. My goal is to copy my drive and keep everything. I want to upgrade to a 6 or 8 tb drive. I have a brand new 6 and will have an 8tb soon. It looks like however only a 4tb will work with this process of using mfstools 3.2. Is that correct or has it just not been tested? Yes I saw that I can do a 4tb internal and a 4tb external but I don't like to use external drives and I am willing to wait to get at least a 6tb working and just live with my 3tb until then. I have used mfstools to upgrade my series one back in the day and mfstools and winmfs to upgrade my series 3. I am comfortable with the process however I don't want to pull my drive if it won't work for sure.

I have the roamio that came with the 3tb drive so this is a stock image.

Thoughts?


----------



## ThAbtO

JoJetSki said:


> So I have read the whole thread. My goal is to copy my drive and keep everything. I want to upgrade to a 6 or 8 tb drive. I have a brand new 6 and will have an 8tb soon. It looks like however only a 4tb will work with this process of using mfstools 3.2. Is that correct or has it just not been tested? Yes I saw that I can do a 4tb internal and a 4tb external but I don't like to use external drives and I am willing to wait to get at least a 6tb working and just live with my 3tb until then. I have used mfstools to upgrade my series one back in the day and mfstools and winmfs to upgrade my series 3. I am comfortable with the process however I don't want to pull my drive if it won't work for sure.
> 
> I have the roamio that came with the 3tb drive so this is a stock image.
> 
> Thoughts?


You can do things before upgrading, such as copying your shows to a PC or Tivo that has the space available, except for copy-protected ones.

I know MSFR can go up to 8TB, but that is another thread, and it would be treating the upgrade as if its new, no shows. You can then copy the shows back. The time used to upgrade is under 30 minutes using MSFR method.

Copying shows with MSFTools is not always perfect, but the transferred shows is a backup if something goes wrong.


----------



## jmbach

JoJetSki said:


> So I have read the whole thread. My goal is to copy my drive and keep everything. I want to upgrade to a 6 or 8 tb drive. I have a brand new 6 and will have an 8tb soon. It looks like however only a 4tb will work with this process of using mfstools 3.2. Is that correct or has it just not been tested? Yes I saw that I can do a 4tb internal and a 4tb external but I don't like to use external drives and I am willing to wait to get at least a 6tb working and just live with my 3tb until then. I have used mfstools to upgrade my series one back in the day and mfstools and winmfs to upgrade my series 3. I am comfortable with the process however I don't want to pull my drive if it won't work for sure.
> 
> I have the roamio that came with the 3tb drive so this is a stock image.
> 
> Thoughts?


Currently there is no process that allows a Roamio or Bolt to copy and expand to a larger drive over 4TB.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## JoJetSki

ThAbtO said:


> You can do things before upgrading, such as copying your shows to a PC or Tivo that has the space available, except for copy-protected ones.
> 
> I know MSFR can go up to 8TB, but that is another thread, and it would be treating the upgrade as if its new, no shows. You can then copy the shows back. The time used to upgrade is under 30 minutes using MSFR method.
> 
> Copying shows with MSFTools is not always perfect, but the transferred shows is a backup if something goes wrong.


Thanks for the reply I am aware of all of that. I figure the 3tb would be my backup...unless I <deleted word> the pooch and get my source and target backwards. If that happened I would just format the 8tb as a fresh drive using the methods and get my cable card re-activated and take it as fate that I needed to re-record all 20 seasons of law and order. The good news it only take about 3 days because of the law and word binge athons (lol).


----------



## langod

jmbach said:


> Login to the ISO as per the instructions in the post you downloaded it from.
> 
> Using the command 'fdisk -l' (small L) identify which drive is the source and target.
> 
> You can use the command 'mfstool info /dev/sdX' to verify your source drive you determined from the proceeding step. (sdX would be sda, sdb, sdc, etc depending on how many drives you have attached to your computer)
> 
> Use the command 'mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY' to copy and expand all in one step. (sdX is the source drive (2TB) and sdY is the target drive(3TB) )
> 
> Once that is done, put the 3TB drive in your TiVo and let it boot.


Hi,
I'm doing nearly the same thing on my Premiere XL, but going from the original drive to a 3TB WD Red.
The above instructions look like what I need to do, but if I want to save my recordings, I think I have to use a different switch on the mfstool command, right?

Also, will I need to re-pair my cable card, or does it copy over all the correct settings?

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

langod said:


> Hi,
> I'm doing nearly the same thing on my Premiere XL, but going from the original drive to a 3TB WD Red.
> The above instructions look like what I need to do, but if I want to save my recordings, I think I have to use a different switch on the mfstool command, right?
> 
> Also, will I need to re-pair my cable card, or does it copy over all the correct settings?
> 
> Thanks!


Use -ai switch. You should not need to re-pair your cableCARD.


----------



## langod

Excellent! Thanks very much.


----------



## langod

Just wanted to say, I did the upgrade over the weekend. Installed a 3TB WD Red drive into my Tivo Premiere XL. MFSTools took abut 8 hours to copy everything over.
Used space dropped from 60% to 12%. Total capacity increased from 150 HD hours to 480 HD hours.

MFS Tools works like a charm!


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Currently there is no process that allows a Roamio or Bolt to copy and expand to a larger drive over 4TB.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


jmbach

After reading through this thread twice, I feel ready to give this a shot.

I just wanted to confirm that I can copy and expand my bolt 1 TB internal drive to a 4 TB drive using MFS Tools 3.2 with the commands I have seen people successfully use for the Roamio.

My impression is that it will work based on your comments and all that I have read.

My only hesitation is that there were earlier posts in this thread that posed doubts that it would work.

Forgive my cautiousness, but it does mean cracking open the bolt so I am a little nervous.

Any feedback is appreciated.


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> jmbach
> 
> After reading through this thread twice, I feel ready to give this a shot.
> 
> I just wanted to confirm that I can copy and expand my bolt 1 TB internal drive to a 4 TB drive using MFS Tools 3.2 with the commands I have seen people successfully use for the Roamio.
> 
> My impression is that it will work based on your comments and all that I have read.
> 
> My only hesitation is that there were earlier posts in this thread that posed doubts that it would work.
> 
> Forgive my cautiousness, but it does mean cracking open the bolt so I am a little nervous.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated.


The commands are all the same for everything. For a Roamio and a Bolt you can copy and expand up to 4TB.


----------



## mcmnky

I did the upgrade this past weekend with the -ai switches and no troubles. 4TB/638 HD hours from 2TB/316.

MFStools took a little over 26 hours with both the source and target drives on USB2SATA adapters and a computer with USB2. It also copied _everything_ over. Tip for anyone else doing the upgrade, clean out your deleted programs and suggestions first, unless you want to take the extra time to copy them over.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> The commands are all the same for everything. For a Roamio and a Bolt you can copy and expand up to 4TB.


jmbach

Thanks for the quick response.

If I also wanted to add an external disk what is the procedure?

I would imagine I should reinstall the new drive to make sure it's working first.

Do I then connect both drives to the computer running MFS Tools at the same time and expand across the 2 drives?

What would be proper command for this?

Thanks in advance for your response.


----------



## jmbach

You would have to have both the internal and external drives hooked up for you to add the external drive. 

What size external drive are you thinking about adding. 

And yes, make sure the newly expanded internal drive works first.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> You would have to have both the internal and external drives hooked up for you to add the external drive.
> 
> What size external drive are you thinking about adding.
> 
> And yes, make sure the newly expanded internal drive works first.


Thanks again for your help.

I was think about 4TB internal and a 4TB external.


----------



## jmbach

With both drives hooked up and sdX is your internal drive and sdY is your external drive, the command should be mfstool copy -xfm 2048 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> With both drives hooked up and sdX is your internal drive and sdY is your external drive, the command should be mfstool copy -xfm 2048 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


jmbach

Thanks. I may be working on it this weekend.


----------



## timckelley

Hello, I'm trying to run these tools right now, and have a prompt that says "linux login:" Do I have to log in with a user name or something, or is the normal prompt where I start entering commands to copy data?

Also, is there a command that will scan connected hard drives, indentifying them by a, b, etc, and also maybe how big each one is? (I currently an trying to move data from my 500 GB roamio HD to a 4 TB HD I bought. I read earlier in this thread that the command I need to use is:

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

But I need to know what values to plug in for X and Y.

Edit: I just found this post that partially answers my question:



jmbach said:


> You will login with username 'root' and with password 'tivo'.


But I guess I'd like to find out how to identify the drive letters of the drives. Also, when I first booted the computer, I wasn't fast enough to get into the BIOS to change the boot order to CD, and it attempted to boot to one my drives (possibly the old/existing Roamio drive). It of course didn't succeed, and the screen gave me the option of going into BIOS and I switched to CD, but I'm hoping that didn't damage the data on the drive. It seems like I remember reading that used to be a problem, but maybe still isn't one?


----------



## timckelley

I found that fdisk -l seems to have identified sda as being 4TB, so that's my new drive. That that's the only drive it's giving info on, so I guess I still don't know which is the original Roamio drive.

By the way, I'm doing this on a Dell optiplex 780 mini tower. I saw the primary hard drive and CD are using a pair of SATA slots on the motherboard, but I could see any others, but I watch a youtube video of somebody installing a second hard drive on the exact same computer, and he pointed me to another pair of slots, one black and one white, and he stressed to use the white slot, so that's where I have the original Roamio hard drive. Hopefully I'm doing that right.

I guess this resolves my worry about the accidental booting attempt to HD. It was the new HD, not the original that is on the primary HD slot, so I think no harm was done.


----------



## telemark

I use:


Code:


dmesg | grep sd
dmesg | grep hd

If you're short a drive, you can either move it to another port and/or go into the bios and confirm it's not somehow disabled.


----------



## timckelley

telemark said:


> I use:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> dmesg | grep sd
> dmesg | grep hd
> 
> If you're short a drive, you can either move it to another port and/or go into the bios and confirm it's not somehow disabled.


Great suggestion. I just went into the bios, and two sata ports were indeed disabled. I reenabled one of them, rebooted to the MFS Tools / linux, and it now detects it.  (the youtube video I watched regarding adding a second hard drive didn't mention this step.)

I'll now hook up both drives again, reboot again, and hopefully I'll be in business to start copying the data.

ETA: copy in progress, projected to finish in 20-30 minutes from now.
ETA: misread the progress meter. More like almost 3 hours from now.


----------



## timckelley

Done. Recording capacity is now 638 HD hours, or 4397 SD hours, all our shows and One Pass info is still there, intact. I owe thanks to the people of this thread.


----------



## rtoledo

manderson96 said:


> rtoledo,
> 
> I am a very new 1TB Bolt owner and I am looking at adding the external drive as well.
> I followed your discussion with jmbach starting on the MFS Reformatter (mfsr) thread to this thread.
> I am curious if you ever completed the upgrade to your bolt and how both the internal and external drives are performing.
> Thanks in advance for your response.


I may not be very helpful. I have 2 Bolts one is stock and has no problems, they both have brand new 017 Cablecards , the new cards took care of the previous problems.

I took my bedroom Bolt, ripped it open , took out the stock hard drive and put it away and hooked up a 2 TB AV drive , about a week after this , the cablecard lost ? authentication , so now I'm back to not being able to watch some channels that Frontier/ Verizon see fit to turn on the encryption flaf like FOX yuk channels . the weird thisg is the cable card error pops up as I watch NETFLIX ?? WTF ???.

so I put aside all notions of buying a external WD approved external and maybe upgrading it to a 2TB drive. since I read 3TB and 4TB drives can cause problems, I never bought any. I got in touch with the VP of Frontier and she wants to roll out a tech . guess that will wait till hell freezes over or 6-17-17 when my contract is up.

so sorry for not being too helpful , but the externeal is on hold until I figure out why this TIVO is so touchy and why Cablecards loose auth. I realize the hard drive change did it , but the fact they can not re-authorize just kills me.

mt TV's all do Netflix , so come next year when the TIVO expire IU may just put them up for sale too.

life's too short for these hassles and maybe next year they will introduce new boxes that do not need the cablecards as per the FCC new rules concerning them .

good luck and if you do get a external working let us all know

good luck


----------



## jmbach

rtoledo said:


> I may not be very helpful. I have 2 Bolts one is stock and has no problems, they both have brand new 017 Cablecards , the new cards took care of the previous problems.
> 
> I took my bedroom Bolt, ripped it open , took out the stock hard drive and put it away and hooked up a 2 TB AV drive , about a week after this , the cablecard lost ? authentication , so now I'm back to not being able to watch some channels that Frontier/ Verizon see fit to turn on the encryption flaf like FOX yuk channels . the weird thisg is the cable card error pops up as I watch NETFLIX ?? WTF ???.
> 
> so I put aside all notions of buying a external WD approved external and maybe upgrading it to a 2TB drive. since I read 3TB and 4TB drives can cause problems, I never bought any. I got in touch with the VP of Frontier and she wants to roll out a tech . guess that will wait till hell freezes over or 6-17-17 when my contract is up.
> 
> so sorry for not being too helpful , but the externeal is on hold until I figure out why this TIVO is so touchy and why Cablecards loose auth. I realize the hard drive change did it , but the fact they can not re-authorize just kills me.
> 
> mt TV's all do Netflix , so come next year when the TIVO expire IU may just put them up for sale too.
> 
> life's too short for these hassles and maybe next year they will introduce new boxes that do not need the cablecards as per the FCC new rules concerning them .
> 
> good luck and if you do get a external working let us all know
> 
> good luck


Did you use MFSTools to copy the original drive to the 2TB or did you just drop the 2TB in the Bolt and let it auto format.


----------



## Motty99

A bit of help here please...Tivo Bolt...took out drive...brand new drive...placed and MFSTools 3.2 loaded...when trying to mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb, I get the following error...
copy target: internal error opening partition /dev/sdb38654705664 for writing
placed the new drive into Bolt and it saw it and came up...tried to copy again with same results...

Thank for all the fish....

It would seem that something happened to the original drive, because now Bolt sees it with no programs...placed the new drive in and starting from scratch...Breathe....just breathe....


----------



## rtoledo

jmbach said:


> Did you use MFSTools to copy the original drive to the 2TB or did you just drop the 2TB in the Bolt and let it auto format.


i JUST DROPPED IT IN. last night funny , I got a black screen , rebooted it , and all I get is the tivo icon for 5 seconds , it drops to black screen and then all the lights on the tivo are all on.

sounds bad. I unplugged it . just using the TV's built in Netflix app. going for motorcycle ride with wife . will see later if it really is dead or what.


----------



## jmbach

rtoledo said:


> i JUST DROPPED IT IN. last night funny , I got a black screen , rebooted it , and all I get is the tivo icon for 5 seconds , it drops to black screen and then all the lights on the tivo are all on.
> 
> sounds bad. I unplugged it . just using the TV's built in Netflix app. going for motorcycle ride with wife . will see later if it really is dead or what.


If you just dropped in a new drive and let the Bolt auto format it, then you lost the pairing from the previous drive in the Bolt. 
You will have to call your service provider to re pair the card. 
You might want to run manufacturer diagnostics on the drive.


----------



## jmbach

Motty99 said:


> A bit of help here please...Tivo Bolt...took out drive...brand new drive...placed and MFSTools 3.2 loaded...when trying to mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb, I get the following error...
> copy target: internal error opening partition /dev/sdb38654705664 for writing
> placed the new drive into Bolt and it saw it and came up...tried to copy again with same results...
> 
> Thank for all the fish....
> 
> It would seem that something happened to the original drive, because now Bolt sees it with no programs...placed the new drive in and starting from scratch...Breathe....just breathe....


Did you verify which drive was your original and which drive was your new drive before using starting the copy process. 
Did you run manufacturer diagnostics on the new drive before using it. 
Just to clarify, when placing the original drive back in the Bolt, it booted up normal (it did not auto format the drive and make you run through guided setup again) and it has none of your recorded shows listed.


----------



## manderson96

I finally got around to downloading MFSTools and cracking open my bolt.

Tools have loaded fine.

However when I try to copy my original 1TB over to my new 4TB drive I get the following back:

"copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."

I used the the following command for the copy:

"mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdc

I am using my laptop so drive B is my internal drive.

When I run "mfstool info /dev/sdc"

I get:

"info: Input/output error reading volume header.
info: /dev/sdc10: (null)."

When I run the same command on my original 1TB drive everything looks fine.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

Mike


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> I finally got around to downloading MFSTools and cracking open my bolt.
> 
> Tools have loaded fine.
> 
> However when I try to copy my original 1TB over to my new 4TB drive I get the following back:
> 
> "copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."
> 
> I used the the following command for the copy:
> 
> "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdc
> 
> I am using my laptop so drive B is my internal drive.
> 
> When I run "mfstool info /dev/sdc"
> 
> I get:
> 
> "info: Input/output error reading volume header.
> info: /dev/sdc10: (null)."
> 
> When I run the same command on my original 1TB drive everything looks fine.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any advice or help.
> 
> Mike


How are the drives hooked up to your laptop. 
It seems you know the label on your original drive. Have you verified the label of your 4TB drive and that it is reading the size of the drive correctly. 
Have you run the manufacturer diagnostic on the 4TB drive.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> How are the drives hooked up to your laptop.
> It seems you know the label on your original drive. Have you verified the label of your 4TB drive and that it is reading the size of the drive correctly.
> Have you run the manufacturer diagnostic on the 4TB drive.


I will try the diagnostic.

I made the mistake of formatting it for windows.

I then wiped it to all zeros, which I thought was how raw drives come from the factory.

The drives are in a dual bay Vantec NexStar unit.

It has USB 3.0 or eSata connection. It is hooked up to a 3.0 port on my HP ProBook.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> I will try the diagnostic.
> 
> I made the mistake of formatting it for windows.
> 
> I then wiped it to all zeros, which I thought was how raw drives come from the factory.
> 
> The drives are in a dual bay Vantec NexStar unit.
> 
> It has USB 3.0 or eSata connection. It is hooked up to a 3.0 port on my HP ProBook.
> 
> Mike


Is there a better way, perhaps faster, to unformat the disk. I think that may be my problem?


----------



## jmbach

The wipe to all zeros is sufficient.


----------



## jmbach

You can use the quick wipe which just does zeros at the beginning and ending of the drive.


----------



## manderson96

My disk checked out OK according to the WD diagnostics.

I used the utility to zero the drive again.

And I still have the same problem.

For grins and giggles I dropped a 1.5T drive in that is ntsf for matted and it shows the same error, unable to read the header.

Thoughts anyone?


----------



## jmbach

Swap the drives in your dual dock. Reverify how each drive is labeled and adjust your CLI accordingly. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Swap the drives in your dual dock. Reverify how each drive is labeled and adjust your CLI accordingly.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


jmbach,

I am going to try that now.

Am I using the correct version of MFStools 3.2?

I am using the ISO that you posted in Post #131 in this thread.

Thanks again for all of the coaching and help.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

jmbach -

swapped the drives in the bays and rebooted mfstools 3.2.

Original 1TB drive is now /dev/sdb and target 4TB drive is now /dev/sda.

Same problem when I run mfstool info, trouble reading volume header on target drive.

I removed the 1TB drive from the bay and the problem persists on the 4TB drive.

Is it possible that the disk has a remnant of formatting?

Should I try initializing the drive with bolt?

I am open to any ideas.

Mike


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> jmbach -
> 
> swapped the drives in the bays and rebooted mfstools 3.2.
> 
> Original 1TB drive is now /dev/sdb and target 4TB drive is now /dev/sda.
> 
> Same problem when I run mfstool info, trouble reading volume header on target drive.
> 
> I removed the 1TB drive from the bay and the problem persists on the 4TB drive.
> 
> Is it possible that the disk has a remnant of formatting?
> 
> Should I try initializing the drive with bolt?
> 
> I am open to any ideas.
> 
> Mike


Let's do some checking. 
First the original drive boots okay I'm the Bolt. 
Next, so it won't take long, use the command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Where sdX is your original drive and sdY is the 4TB drive. 
When that is done use the command mfstool info /dev/sdY to check the 4TB drive.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Let's do some checking.
> First the original drive boots okay I'm the Bolt.
> Next, so it won't take long, use the command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Where sdX is your original drive and sdY is the 4TB drive.
> When that is done use the command mfstool info /dev/sdY to check the 4TB drive.


jmbach,

I will give it a shot and let you know what happens.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> jmbach,
> 
> I will give it a shot and let you know what happens.
> 
> Mike


jmbach,

I gave it a shot and I got the same error as the earlier copy attempt.

copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing.

Mike


----------



## jmbach

Can you try a different computer? 
Since the same problem happened when you tried a 1.5TB drive my guess is either to re-download the ISO and burn it again or use the USB version or possibly something with your computer and dock combination.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Can you try a different computer?
> Since the same problem happened when you tried a 1.5TB drive my guess is either to re-download the ISO and burn it again or use the USB version or possibly something with your computer and dock combination.


I believe I can use my Mac Mini, so I will try that.

FYI, I tried a different dock and same problem.


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> I believe I can use my Mac Mini, so I will try that.
> 
> FYI, I tried a different dock and same problem.


Can you hook up both Docks and put one drive in each?


----------



## lpwcomp

This may seem like a silly question, but are you sure that the dock supports 4TB drives?


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Can you hook up both Docks and put one drive in each?


Yes, I tried that and still the same response.

I am setting up the USB for the Mac Mini.

I'll report back what happens.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

lpwcomp said:


> This may seem like a silly question, but are you sure that the dock supports 4TB drives?


Both docks purportedly support 6TB drives.


----------



## manderson96

Motty99 said:


> A bit of help here please...Tivo Bolt...took out drive...brand new drive...placed and MFSTools 3.2 loaded...when trying to mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb, I get the following error...
> copy target: internal error opening partition /dev/sdb38654705664 for writing
> placed the new drive into Bolt and it saw it and came up...tried to copy again with same results...
> 
> Thank for all the fish....
> 
> It would seem that something happened to the original drive, because now Bolt sees it with no programs...placed the new drive in and starting from scratch...Breathe....just breathe....


Motty99 -

I get same error except for the drive designation.

"copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."

Notice the number after the drive is the same as your error.

I used the the following command for the copy:

"mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdc

I am using my mac so drive c is my target drive.

What is your set up?

I have used 2 different computers. The only commonality is I am using USB 3.0 ports.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Can you try a different computer?
> Since the same problem happened when you tried a 1.5TB drive my guess is either to re-download the ISO and burn it again or use the USB version or possibly something with your computer and dock combination.


Well it was a learning experience, but I was able to get MFSTools 3.2 running on my Mac Mini.

Bad news is the errors are the same for the target drive.

MFSTools cannot read the header.

When I run "mfstool info /dev/sdd"

I get:

"info: Input/output error reading volume header.
info: /dev/sdc10: (null)."

By the way I get the same error when I try "mfstool info" on the boot drive.

I tried the copy anyway and got the same error as I got on my laptop.

"copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."

I used the the following command for the copy:

"mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc

I am using my mac mini so drive A is my internal drive and drive B is the USB stick and drive C is my target 4TB.

The only commonality is the USB 3.0 ports, could that be the source of the problem?

When I use "mfstool info /dev/sdd on the source 1TB drive, I get the standard zone information, estimated hours and that I can expand the volume 4 more times.

Also, I noticed that just before I posted my difficulty that Motty99 posted that he had the exact same error, except for drive designation.

I posted a response to Motty99 asking about his set up.

I may try initializing the drive with the Tivo, I think that it will then be recognized by the mfstools.

Any thoughts?

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> Well it was a learning experience, but I was able to get MFSTools 3.2 running on my Mac Mini.
> 
> Bad news is the errors are the same for the target drive.
> 
> MFSTools cannot read the header.
> 
> When I run "mfstool info /dev/sdd"
> 
> I get:
> 
> "info: Input/output error reading volume header.
> info: /dev/sdc10: (null)."
> 
> By the way I get the same error when I try "mfstool info" on the boot drive.
> 
> I tried the copy anyway and got the same error as I got on my laptop.
> 
> "copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."
> 
> I used the the following command for the copy:
> 
> "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc
> 
> I am using my mac mini so drive A is my internal drive and drive B is the USB stick and drive C is my target 4TB.
> 
> The only commonality is the USB 3.0 ports, could that be the source of the problem?
> 
> When I use "mfstool info /dev/sdd on the source 1TB drive, I get the standard zone information, estimated hours and that I can expand the volume 4 more times.
> 
> Also, I noticed that just before I posted my difficulty that Motty99 posted that he had the exact same error, except for drive designation.
> 
> I posted a response to Motty99 asking about his set up.
> 
> I may try initializing the drive with the Tivo, I think that it will then be recognized by the mfstools.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Mike


OK, I just got a virgin out of the box 4TB Toshiba drive.

And all of the exact same errors.

Since I have changed everything else I begining to believe that it may be the USB 3.0 ports


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> Well it was a learning experience, but I was able to get MFSTools 3.2 running on my Mac Mini.
> 
> Bad news is the errors are the same for the target drive.
> 
> MFSTools cannot read the header.
> 
> When I run "mfstool info /dev/sdd"
> 
> I get:
> 
> "info: Input/output error reading volume header.
> info: /dev/sdc10: (null)."
> 
> By the way I get the same error when I try "mfstool info" on the boot drive.
> 
> I tried the copy anyway and got the same error as I got on my laptop.
> 
> "copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."
> 
> I used the the following command for the copy:
> 
> "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc
> 
> I am using my mac mini so drive A is my internal drive and drive B is the USB stick and drive C is my target 4TB.
> 
> The only commonality is the USB 3.0 ports, could that be the source of the problem?
> 
> When I use "mfstool info /dev/sdd on the source 1TB drive, I get the standard zone information, estimated hours and that I can expand the volume 4 more times.
> 
> Also, I noticed that just before I posted my difficulty that Motty99 posted that he had the exact same error, except for drive designation.
> 
> I posted a response to Motty99 asking about his set up.
> 
> I may try initializing the drive with the Tivo, I think that it will then be recognized by the mfstools.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Mike


MFSInfo will give you that error if the drive does not have an MFS image on it.



manderson96 said:


> OK, I just got a virgin out of the box 4TB Toshiba drive.
> 
> And all of the exact same errors.
> 
> Since I have changed everything else I begining to believe that it may be the USB 3.0 ports


I am not sure why you are having a write error on the drive.

Remind me again what is the original image you are working with.

Try a copy to a sub 2TB drive and see if you get the same error.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> MFSInfo will give you that error if the drive does not have an MFS image on it.
> 
> I am not sure why you are having a write error on the drive.
> 
> Remind me again what is the original image you are working with.
> 
> Try a copy to a sub 2TB drive and see if you get the same error.


jmbach,

I have 1TB Bolt drive as the source.

I can try a copy to 1.5T and let you know what happens.

Any thought on letting Tivo format my drive so MFStools can recognize it?

Mike


----------



## jmbach

The target drive should be blank. However, if you let the Bolt self format the drive and MFSInfo cannot read it, then something is amiss. My first guess would be that the dock does not support large drives. However if you have the same issue with the copy command on sub 2TB drives then I will recheck the images to make sure they are not corrupt. 
Are you using the ISO or the USB version of MFSTools image. 
I don't think it is USB3 issue as I use that myself.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> The target drive should be blank. However, if you let the Bolt self format the drive and MFSInfo cannot read it, then something is amiss. My first guess would be that the dock does not support large drives. However if you have the same issue with the copy command on sub 2TB drives then I will recheck the images to make sure they are not corrupt.
> Are you using the ISO or the USB version of MFSTools image.
> I don't think it is USB3 issue as I use that myself.


jmbach,

I have used both the iso (laptop) and the usb (mac mini) and had the same problem.

The "fdisk - l" command correctly identifies the sizes of the drives each time.

Not sure that means anything though.

Before I try the Tivo I will try the 1.5 TB drive.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> jmbach,
> 
> I have used both the iso (laptop) and the usb (mac mini) and had the same problem.
> 
> The "fdisk - l" command correctly identifies the sizes of the drives each time.
> 
> Not sure that means anything though.
> 
> Before I try the Tivo I will try the 1.5 TB drive.
> 
> Mike


jmbach,

OK I tried yet another USB 3.0 drive bay with the 4TB same error on copy.

Also, I zeroed out my 1.5TB drive and tried it and got the same error on copy.

Mike


----------



## jmbach

Same numbers with the error message?


----------



## jmbach

Can you run this copy command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

Also try running the dd command to see if you can copy the source image to the 4TB with your setup. 

I have not experienced that issue before. I am not the developer of the program but I will look at the source code to see if it gives me my clues as to why it is not working. 

One thought is that you can run the ISO in a virtual box inside Windows and see if you still get the errors. I have use VirtualBox with this ISO without issue.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Same numbers with the error message?


Yes, all the same except drive designation.


----------



## rtoledo

jmbach said:


> If you just dropped in a new drive and let the Bolt auto format it, then you lost the pairing from the previous drive in the Bolt.
> You will have to call your service provider to re pair the card.
> You might want to run manufacturer diagnostics on the drive.


Jim thank you for your answers to us newbies. Frontier seems to be a sad little company. I tried re-pairing the card and it did not work.

after coming back relaxed from my motorcycle ride with my wife, I climbed up on the closet and re-hooked the 2tb external drive , put the plug back in and it's back working.

I think I wil wait a couple of weeks and order a 2.5" drive , copy the original drive into the new one and start this process all over again, when I do it, I will post back in here and let all of you know , how it went for me.

thank you again for your dedication


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Can you run this copy command mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Also try running the dd command to see if you can copy the source image to the 4TB with your setup.
> 
> I have not experienced that issue before. I am not the developer of the program but I will look at the source code to see if it gives me my clues as to why it is not working.
> 
> One thought is that you can run the ISO in a virtual box inside Windows and see if you still get the errors. I have use VirtualBox with this ISO without issue.


jmbach,

I tried "mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" and got the same error on the copy as with "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY"

I am running dd now:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sdd bs=2048

I tried the Virtual Box on my laptop but I abandoned it before it got anywhere. If dd doesn't work I will give it a shot.

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> jmbach,
> 
> I tried "mfstool copy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" and got the same error on the copy as with "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY"
> 
> I am running dd now:
> 
> dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sdd bs=2048
> 
> I tried the Virtual Box on my laptop but I abandoned it before it got anywhere. If dd doesn't work I will give it a shot.
> 
> Mike


I meant to ask on my last post, when this dd copy finishes, will this drive be done, such that I can put it in my Bolt?


----------



## jmbach

You can put it in your Bolt but it will be only have the same recording space as the original. 

The purpose of running dd is to make sure the OS can copy and write to the drive when both the source and target are present. 

The error is something I have not seen and using dd to try to isolate the problem and rule out an OS, USB, Dock issue. So if the drive boots in your Bolt without causing it to auto format the drive, then it isolates it to the MFSTool program or the dependencies used to compile and run the program with your hardware. 

I would try to run it inside a virtual machine and see if it works that way. It will insulate the program from the hardware. If it runs in the virtual machine, the the program and its dependencies have issue with the hardware.


----------



## Motty99

I tried to run this on three different MBs (I have a barebones setup for testing) and it gave me that error...i had my drives hooked up directly to the SATA ports...

but somehow my original drive got clobbered, so I lost everything and just placed the new drive into the Bolt...other than having to rebuild passes, etc, it is running well...



manderson96 said:


> Motty99 -
> 
> I get same error except for the drive designation.
> 
> "copy target: Internal error opening partition /dev/sdc38654705664 for writing."
> 
> Notice the number after the drive is the same as your error.
> 
> I used the the following command for the copy:
> 
> "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdc
> 
> I am using my mac so drive c is my target drive.
> 
> What is your set up?
> 
> I have used 2 different computers. The only commonality is I am using USB 3.0 ports.
> 
> Mike


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> You can put it in your Bolt but it will be only have the same recording space as the original.
> 
> The purpose of running dd is to make sure the OS can copy and write to the drive when both the source and target are present.
> 
> The error is something I have not seen and using dd to try to isolate the problem and rule out an OS, USB, Dock issue. So if the drive boots in your Bolt without causing it to auto format the drive, then it isolates it to the MFSTool program or the dependencies used to compile and run the program with your hardware.
> 
> I would try to run it inside a virtual machine and see if it works that way. It will insulate the program from the hardware. If it runs in the virtual machine, the the program and its dependencies have issue with the hardware.


The copy is still running on dd.

I will let you know if it boots the bolt when it finishes.

Regarding HW, I have seen this in my laptop and my mac mini.


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> The copy is still running on dd.
> 
> I will let you know if it boots the bolt when it finishes.
> 
> Regarding HW, I have seen this in my laptop and my mac mini.


jmbach,

The dd copy on the 4TB drive successfully booted my tivo.

I made the copy on my mac mini.

I again tried to mfstool copy from the 1TB to the now nearly identical 4TB drive.

I got the same error as my previous attempts.

I plan on trying the virtual box you suggested.

Can you tell me how you configured your VB?

Memory allotments etc.

Thanks,

Mike


----------



## manderson96

manderson96 said:


> jmbach,
> 
> The dd copy on the 4TB drive successfully booted my tivo.
> 
> I made the copy on my mac mini.
> 
> I again tried to mfstool copy from the 1TB to the now nearly identical 4TB drive.
> 
> I got the same error as my previous attempts.
> 
> I plan on trying the virtual box you suggested.
> 
> Can you tell me how you configured your VB?
> 
> Memory allotments etc.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mike


jmbach,

I have installed VirtualBox on my Mac Mini and I successfully installed MFStools 3.2.

I can see all of the drives, however I still get exactly the same error when I try "mfstool copy".

I am not sure how to proceed from here.

Is there anyway I can expand the 4TB drive now that I have the 1TB disk image copied?

Mike


----------



## jmbach

manderson96 said:


> jmbach,
> 
> The dd copy on the 4TB drive successfully booted my tivo.
> 
> I made the copy on my mac mini.
> 
> I again tried to mfstool copy from the 1TB to the now nearly identical 4TB drive.
> 
> I got the same error as my previous attempts.
> 
> I plan on trying the virtual box you suggested.
> 
> Can you tell me how you configured your VB?
> 
> Memory allotments etc.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mike


Not sure what is happening. Let me download the ISO and do some testing. Might not get to it until this weekend.

You cannot expand the dd copy on your 4TB. Roamio and above will not allow any more partitions on the drive.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Not sure what is happening. Let me download the ISO and do some testing. Might not get to it until this weekend.
> 
> You cannot expand the dd copy on your 4TB. Roamio and above will not allow any more partitions on the drive.


Is there an earlier version of the iso or other compiled version that I could test as a control.


----------



## jmbach

jmbach said:


> Not sure what is happening. Let me download the ISO and do some testing. Might not get to it until this weekend.
> 
> You cannot expand the dd copy on your 4TB. Roamio and above will not allow any more partitions on the drive.


Sent you a PM with a link. Let me know how it goes.


----------



## manderson96

jmbach said:


> Sent you a PM with a link. Let me know how it goes.


i will give it a shot and let you know.


----------



## jgickler

Hopefully a quick question.

I have a Roamio with a 1Tb drive. I bought a 4Tb drive to upgrade. I had problems getting the boot CD to work correctly, I finally did, and started the copy but if failed at some point when I had left it unattended. I think the problem was probably more to do with the PC it was running on, and I want to reattempt copying to the larger drive this weekend on a different PC.

Do I need to erase or reformat the drive before attempting the copy? If so, what is the best way to do this?


----------



## manderson96

jgickler said:


> Hopefully a quick question.
> 
> I have a Roamio with a 1Tb drive. I bought a 4Tb drive to upgrade. I had problems getting the boot CD to work correctly, I finally did, and started the copy but if failed at some point when I had left it unattended. I think the problem was probably more to do with the PC it was running on, and I want to reattempt copying to the larger drive this weekend on a different PC.
> 
> Do I need to erase or reformat the drive before attempting the copy? If so, what is the best way to do this?


I have been advised that zeroing the drive is probably best. The WD Diagnostic tool has a quick way to do this by writing zeros to the beginning and end of the disk.

Works on all disks as far as I can tell not just WD, I have used it on a seagate drive successfully.


----------



## jgickler

manderson96 said:


> I have been advised that zeroing the drive is probably best. The WD Diagnostic tool has a quick way to do this by writing zeros to the beginning and end of the disk.
> 
> Works on all disks as far as I can tell not just WD, I have used it on a seagate drive successfully.


Thank you


----------



## Niel

JMBACH,

Thank you so much for creating and distributing the ISO, and helping lots of people to use it. I think you are a saint for spending your time to help others so much. If you haven't yet, I'd like to suggest that you set up a way for people to donate to you for the fantastic help they are receiving--help that there's really no where else to get it. I'd like to be one of your contributors.

I'd love some advice to solve the following problem on my TivoHD, upgraded to 176 (i think) HD hours with a WD20-EURS 2TB drive using MFS tools and Hindsdale's instructions I'm guessing about four years ago. The upgrade went smoothly went smoothly at that time as I remember, and I still have the old original 20HR drive.

The only problem I've had from this unit in the past is the failing of the PS Caps, which I corrected a couple years ago. (I'm an EE)

About a week ago, I noticed that the unit was acting quite sluggish. I suppose it could have been doing a big background operation at that time, but I assumed that it just needed a little maintenance of Defraging. So I Kickstarted it, intending to key in 58, but accidentally moved my finger the wrong way and keyed in 52. I got a screen that said "Installing a service update" for a short period, and then it rebooted. From then on, it is stuck in a reboot loop of "Powering UP" for a few minutes, "Almost there" for about 30 seconds, and then Green screen of death saying a serious error has occurred, staying on this screen for about three seconds, and then it reboots and repeats.

Things I've done to try and solve the problem:

1. Check the drive using WD's DOS-based utility. It passed the short and long test with no (zero) errors.

2. Checked all the power supply voltages. All are in-spec. adjusted the pot to get the +5 and +3.3 even closer to the targets.

3. Tried Kickstart codes 58, 57m and 56--no effect. Tried Kickstart 0--it picks up the phone and does something for about 30 seconds, and then goes to Almost there and then to GSOD for three seconds and back to repeating this.

4. Tried WinMFS FixBoot Option1, made the problem worse, wouldn't get to te Almost There page. Bootfix #2 returns it to getting to the Almost there and the GSOD loop.

5. Burned MSFTools 3.2 ISO onto CD. Looked at MFSInfo, Says MFS filesystem marked as inconsistent.

6. Put the original 20hr drive in the unit and it boots and runs fine.

I suspect that there is a file sytem problem somewhere. What's the best way to go about fixing this? I'd really like to save all the recordings.

Thanks,

Niel


----------



## jmbach

Niel said:


> JMBACH,
> 
> Thank you so much for creating and distributing the ISO, and helping lots of people to use it. I think you are a saint for spending your time to help others so much. If you haven't yet, I'd like to suggest that you set up a way for people to donate to you for the fantastic help they are receiving--help that there's really no where else to get it. I'd like to be one of your contributors.
> 
> I'd love some advice to solve the following problem on my TivoHD, upgraded to 176 (i think) HD hours with a WD20-EURS 2TB drive using MFS tools and Hindsdale's instructions I'm guessing about four years ago. The upgrade went smoothly went smoothly at that time as I remember, and I still have the old original 20HR drive.
> 
> The only problem I've had from this unit in the past is the failing of the PS Caps, which I corrected a couple years ago. (I'm an EE)
> 
> About a week ago, I noticed that the unit was acting quite sluggish. I suppose it could have been doing a big background operation at that time, but I assumed that it just needed a little maintenance of Defraging. So I Kickstarted it, intending to key in 58, but accidentally moved my finger the wrong way and keyed in 52. I got a screen that said "Installing a service update" for a short period, and then it rebooted. From then on, it is stuck in a reboot loop of "Powering UP" for a few minutes, "Almost there" for about 30 seconds, and then Green screen of death saying a serious error has occurred, staying on this screen for about three seconds, and then it reboots and repeats.
> 
> Things I've done to try and solve the problem:
> 
> 1. Check the drive using WD's DOS-based utility. It passed the short and long test with no (zero) errors.
> 
> 2. Checked all the power supply voltages. All are in-spec. adjusted the pot to get the +5 and +3.3 even closer to the targets.
> 
> 3. Tried Kickstart codes 58, 57m and 56--no effect. Tried Kickstart 0--it picks up the phone and does something for about 30 seconds, and then goes to Almost there and then to GSOD for three seconds and back to repeating this.
> 
> 4. Tried WinMFS FixBoot Option1, made the problem worse, wouldn't get to te Almost There page. Bootfix #2 returns it to getting to the Almost there and the GSOD loop.
> 
> 5. Burned MSFTools 3.2 ISO onto CD. Looked at MFSInfo, Says MFS filesystem marked as inconsistent.
> 
> 6. Put the original 20hr drive in the unit and it boots and runs fine.
> 
> I suspect that there is a file sytem problem somewhere. What's the best way to go about fixing this? I'd really like to save all the recordings.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Niel


Only thought at this time is to manually mark the file system as consistent and see if it boots.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Niel

Thank you. Can you let me know how to do this? Thanks again.

Niel


----------



## JimWall

When my old Tivos get very slow it can be a warning of disk failure. Remember it is always writing video to the disk for what ever channel its tuner(s) is tuned to. So it is always working hard. I suggest a dd rescue to a new disk and try the new disk in Tivo. It will skip blocks that cannot be read. Every time I have done this DD Resuce reports errors and the new drive worked fine.


----------



## jdmy77

I was wondering if anyone has had success marrying an 8tb external drive with the 3tb drive on the Tivo Bolt Plus using MFS Tools 3.2 ? Just want to make sure it doesn't make the 3tb useless after the add.

I tried to use Winmfs and it recognized the 3tb tivo drive as a tivo format just like it should and it recognized the 8tb drive correctly but when I tried to select the 3tb drive it gave an error saying it wasn't a tivo format, so I am concerned that something changed with the bolt plus drives.


----------



## ThAbtO

jdmy77 said:


> I was wondering if anyone has had success marrying an 8tb external drive with the 3tb drive on the Tivo Bolt Plus using MFS Tools 3.2 ? Just want to make sure it doesn't make the 3tb useless after the add.
> 
> I tried to use Winmfs and it recognized the 3tb tivo drive as a tivo format just like it should and it recognized the 8tb drive correctly but when I tried to select the 3tb drive it gave an error saying it wasn't a tivo format, so I am concerned that something changed with the bolt plus drives.


WinMFS does not work with any Tivo newer than Series 3 (Premiere, Roamio, or Bolt).


----------



## jdmy77

jdmy77 said:


> I was wondering if anyone has had success marrying an 8tb external drive with the 3tb drive on the Tivo Bolt Plus using MFS Tools 3.2 ? Just want to make sure it doesn't make the 3tb useless after the add.
> 
> I tried to use Winmfs and it recognized the 3tb tivo drive as a tivo format just like it should and it recognized the 8tb drive correctly but when I tried to select the 3tb drive it gave an error saying it wasn't a tivo format, so I am concerned that something changed with the bolt plus drives.


Update:
Well today I used MFSTools 3.2 to add -x an external 8tb drive to the existing 3tb drive on my new Bolt Plus. It seemed to work in MFSTools, no errors or anything abnormal, it said Done! Estimated gain 9500 hrs
Revalidating partion table on sda and sdb

However when I put the drive back in the Tivo Bolt Plus and connected the 8tb esata drive, powered up the esata first, then the Bolt, its booted, all the lights were blinking, looked pretty good then.. The green screen of death, serious problem detected, this will take 3 hrs, do not power off until the tivo restarts blah blah. It sat there for a few seconds then rebooted, same error and just kept rebooting. Finally powered everything down. Disconnected the eSata drive, got the message confirming to remove the external storage. My Tivo Bolt Plus is back and working fine, all the shows are still there. But adding the 8tb drive was a fail.

If anybody has any suggestions it would be appreciated


----------



## jmbach

jdmy77 said:


> Update:
> Well today I used MFSTools 3.2 to add -x an external 8tb drive to the existing 3tb drive on my new Bolt Plus. It seemed to work in MFSTools, no errors or anything abnormal, it said Done! Estimated gain 9500 hrs
> Revalidating partion table on sda and sdb
> 
> However when I put the drive back in the Tivo Bolt Plus and connected the 8tb esata drive, powered up the esata first, then the Bolt, its booted, all the lights were blinking, looked pretty good then.. The green screen of death, serious problem detected, this will take 3 hrs, do not power off until the tivo restarts blah blah. It sat there for a few seconds then rebooted, same error and just kept rebooting. Finally powered everything down. Disconnected the eSata drive, got the message confirming to remove the external storage. My Tivo Bolt Plus is back and working fine, all the shows are still there. But adding the 8tb drive was a fail.
> 
> If anybody has any suggestions it would be appreciated


You have to limit the partition size to 2TiB with and extra switch. Use mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sdX /dec/sdY
It will add multiple pairs of partitions to fill up the drive.


----------



## jdmy77

jmbach said:


> You have to limit the partition size to 2TiB with and extra switch. Use mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sdX /dec/sdY
> It will add multiple pairs of partitions to fill up the drive.


That worked! The Bolt is up and running perfect. Thank you so much!


----------



## Luke M

I used mfscopy to go from a 1tb (originally 160gb) to 2tb on my TivoHD. Worked perfectly. I now want to "supersize" the drive to get an extra 30 hours. What are the proper options to use? Thanks.


----------



## jdmy77

Just wanted to post in case anybody is wondering. Used MFSTools 3.2 to add a 10TB external drive to the Tivo Bolt Plus's internal 3tb drive. Works fine, no issues.


----------



## jmbach

jdmy77 said:


> Just wanted to post in case anybody is wondering. Used MFSTools 3.2 to add a 10TB external drive to the Tivo Bolt Plus's internal 3tb drive. Works fine, no issues.


What command did you use to accomplish it?
What is the total recording hours you ended up with.


----------



## jmbach

Unless TiVo fixed the bug in the OS, you used most of the 10TB but not all.


----------



## jdmy77

jmbach said:


> What command did you use to accomplish it?
> What is the total recording hours you ended up with.


I used mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sda /dev/sdb

New estimated standalone size 13869 hours
Done! Estimated standalone gain: 10293

It added four pairs

sb2-sb3
sb4-sb5
sb6-sb7
sb8-sb9

I don't know what the pairs mean. I have used the add command before and it didn't make so many pairs before, but it seems to be working


----------



## jmbach

The pairs are the MFS app and media partitions. You can add at most 4 pairs of partitions to the MFS header. So you got most of your 10TB drive used. We can use slightly different to get more space. Probably another 200GB. You are probably not using about 1.5TB of your drive.


----------



## jdmy77

jmbach said:


> The pairs are the MFS app and media partitions. You can add at most 4 pairs of partitions to the MFS header. So you got most of your 10TB drive used. We can use slightly different to get more space. Probably another 200GB. You are probably not using about 1.5TB of your drive.


Yes I believe you are correct. I've added a 8tb drive before and it gained 9,500 hours and this one only gained an additional 800hrs, strange thing was it only made one pair, sdb2-sdb3 when I added the 8tb drive but it worked fine. I am perfectly happy with the space I have now. Thank you for all your help.


----------



## jmbach

jdmy77 said:


> Yes I believe you are correct. I've added a 8tb drive before and it gained 9,500 hours and this one only gained an additional 800hrs, strange thing was it only made one pair, sdb2-sdb3 when I added the 8tb drive but it worked fine. I am perfectly happy with the space I have now. Thank you for all your help.


Now that is interesting. So MFSTools created a two partition recording space 8TB in size on your external drive and the TiVo OS accepted it and gave you the full recording capacity. What version number is your Bolt running of the TiVo OS? 
Just for kicks, just in case TiVo fixed the 2TB bug, I let my Roamio format an 8TB drive but only gave me a little over 200 hours.
Maybe it is an external thing only. When I get time, I will try it as an external drive to my Roamio and see if it gives me the whole 8TB in 2 partitions.


----------



## jdmy77

jmbach said:


> Now that is interesting. So MFSTools created a two partition recording space 8TB in size on your external drive and the TiVo OS accepted it and gave you the full recording capacity. What version number is your Bolt running of the TiVo OS?
> Just for kicks, just in case TiVo fixed the 2TB bug, I let my Roamio format an 8TB drive but only gave me a little over 200 hours.
> Maybe it is an external thing only. When I get time, I will try it as an external drive to my Roamio and see if it gives me the whole 8TB in 2 partitions.


The Bolt Plus OS Version is Series 6
20.6.1.5.RC7-USC-11-849


----------



## jmbach

That is certainly a different version than on my Roamio. I have 20.6.1aRC10. Perhaps in your version the bug is fixed. That would be encouraging.


----------



## Ancalagon

Hi. I'm trying to help a friend upgrade the hdd in his TiVo TCD540040.

I found these instructions to do this (I can't post links yet).

www . newreleasesvideo . com /hinsdale-how-to/index9 . html

All we want to do is copy what's on the original hdd to the new hdd he bought, so we were trying to use UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3: (from step 10).

However, there's some sort of driver issue when I try to boot up with that older version of MFS Tools (MFSLBA48.iso) that prevents me from getting to a command prompt.

I can boot up with MFS Tools 3.2, but the syntax doesn't seem to be the same. The original article said to use the following command.

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

Can anyone here tell me what the command would be in 3.2?

I tried the following but the arguments weren't recognized.

mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfstool restore -r 4 -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Thanks for any help!!!


P.S. - If there's a better way to move the contents of his original TiVo hdd to a new bigger hdd and get that hdd working in his TiVo, please let me know.


----------



## jmbach

Ancalagon said:


> Hi. I'm trying to help a friend upgrade the hdd in his TiVo TCD540040.
> 
> I found these instructions to do this (I can't post links yet).
> 
> www . newreleasesvideo . com /hinsdale-how-to/index9 . html
> 
> All we want to do is copy what's on the original hdd to the new hdd he bought, so we were trying to use UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3: (from step 10).
> 
> However, there's some sort of driver issue when I try to boot up with that older version of MFS Tools (MFSLBA48.iso) that prevents me from getting to a command prompt.
> 
> I can boot up with MFS Tools 3.2, but the syntax doesn't seem to be the same. The original article said to use the following command.
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -r 4 -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
> 
> Can anyone here tell me what the command would be in 3.2?
> 
> I tried the following but the arguments weren't recognized.
> 
> mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfstool restore -r 4 -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
> 
> Thanks for any help!!!
> 
> P.S. - If there's a better way to move the contents of his original TiVo hdd to a new bigger hdd and get that hdd working in his TiVo, please let me know.


first to fdisk -l and check whether they are connected as hda or sda.

Next use the command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to copy and expand all at the same time. Or use hdX and hdY depending on the output of fdisk.


----------



## Luke M

jmbach said:


> first to fdisk -l and check whether they are connected as hda or sda.
> 
> Next use the command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to copy and expand all at the same time. Or use hdX and hdY depending on the output of fdisk.


Is there any difference between "mfstool copy" and "mfscopy"?


----------



## Ancalagon

jmbach said:


> first to fdisk -l and check whether they are connected as hda or sda.
> 
> Next use the command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to copy and expand all at the same time. Or use hdX and hdY depending on the output of fdisk.


Thanks jmbach!

They show up as sda and sdb.

Do you think it will matter that the original hdd is an IDE and the new one is an SATA?

I know that once we copy the data to the new hdd, we'll need to use an adapter to connect it to the TiVo, but was curious if MFS Tools will be able to deal with this difference in the hdds.

Thanks again!


----------



## jmbach

Ancalagon said:


> Thanks jmbach!
> 
> They show up as sda and sdb.
> 
> Do you think it will matter that the original hdd is an IDE and the new one is an SATA?
> 
> I know that once we copy the data to the new hdd, we'll need to use an adapter to connect it to the TiVo, but was curious if MFS Tools will be able to deal with this difference in the hdds.
> 
> Thanks again!


Should not be a problem.


----------



## markis

jmbach said:


> first to fdisk -l and check whether they are connected as hda or sda.
> 
> Next use the command mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to copy and expand all at the same time. Or use hdX and hdY depending on the output of fdisk.


I have a new 4TB WD Red on the way for my Premiere. Do I need to prepare the WD Red in any way with wdidle or Intellipark settings or anything else before running this MFS Tools command? Also, is the procedure exactly the same for a 4TB Roamio Plus upgrade?

Thanks for your help.


----------



## jmbach

I would run a diagnostic on it first. Other than that no prep should be needed. Some of the older Reds needed their wdidle3 timer set to 5 minutes. As far as I know, the newer ones don't. WD has a utility on their site that will adjust the timer.


----------



## markis

jmbach said:


> I would run a diagnostic on it first. Other than that no prep should be needed. Some of the older Reds needed their wdidle3 timer set to 5 minutes. As far as I know, the newer ones don't. WD has a utility on their site that will adjust the timer.


Great, thank you. I will run a disk test on it before starting MFS Tools.


----------



## joerowan

I have had numerous tivos and bought commercially upgraded drives when I needed more capacity. I am now trying to replace a Premiere 1 tb drive with a 2 tb drive. I am skilled with a mac, functional with Windows and have never used Linux. 

I downloaded and burned an ISO of MFS tools 3.2. Booted with it on a PC. Get a green screen and select MFS Tools 3.2 i586. Linux kernal loads.
Get a linux login: . Used root and password tivo and get "Have a lot of fun..." So is this good or programmer sarcasm? 
I get an orange/salmon colored "Linux:~ #". I typed fdisk -l and found the 2 drives are sdb and sda. So it appears to be working. 
I type: -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda and hit enter and receive: " -bash: -a: command not found. Same result when a put an i after the first a.

I would really like to get this to work, then move up to doing a Roamio. Seems simple. What am I missing? Appreciating any help!


----------



## jmbach

joerowan said:


> I have had numerous tivos and bought commercially upgraded drives when I needed more capacity. I am now trying to replace a Premiere 1 tb drive with a 2 tb drive. I am skilled with a mac, functional with Windows and have never used Linux.
> 
> I downloaded and burned an ISO of MFS tools 3.2. Booted with it on a PC. Get a green screen and select MFS Tools 3.2 i586. Linux kernal loads.
> Get a linux login: . Used root and password tivo and get "Have a lot of fun..." So is this good or programmer sarcasm?
> I get an orange/salmon colored "Linux:~ #". I typed fdisk -l and found the 2 drives are sdb and sda. So it appears to be working.
> I type: -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda and hit enter and receive: " -bash: -a: command not found. Same result when a put an i after the first a.
> 
> I would really like to get this to work, then move up to doing a Roamio. Seems simple. What am I missing? Appreciating any help!


Type: fdisk -l (lower case L) to get a listing of drive labels and sizes. This will help you decide which drive is your source and target.


----------



## ej42137

jmbach said:


> Type: fdisk -l (lower case L) to get a listing of drive labels and sizes. This will help you decide which drive is your source and target.





joerowan said:


> I have had numerous tivos and bought commercially upgraded drives when I needed more capacity. I am now trying to replace a Premiere 1 tb drive with a 2 tb drive. I am skilled with a mac, functional with Windows and have never used Linux.
> 
> I downloaded and burned an ISO of MFS tools 3.2. Booted with it on a PC. Get a green screen and select MFS Tools 3.2 i586. Linux kernal loads.
> Get a linux login: . Used root and password tivo and get "Have a lot of fun..." So is this good or programmer sarcasm?
> I get an orange/salmon colored "Linux:~ #". I typed fdisk -l and found the 2 drives are sdb and sda. So it appears to be working.
> I type: -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda and hit enter and receive: " -bash: -a: command not found. Same result when a put an i after the first a.
> 
> I would really like to get this to work, then move up to doing a Roamio. Seems simple. What am I missing? Appreciating any help!


You have to enter a command such as *mfscopy*; all you have entered was the options for one.

That you are in a Linux command line environment is perhaps what you are missing.


----------



## jmbach

ej42137 said:


> You have to enter a command such as *mfscopy*; all you have entered was the options for one.
> 
> That you are in a Linux command line environment is perhaps what you are missing.


Sorry, I needed to read the whole message and now I see what you did. What I get reading and writing during a conference. The command would be mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


----------



## joerowan

jmbach said:


> Sorry, I needed to read the whole message and now I see what you did. What I get reading and writing during a conference. The command would be mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


Better, I used the full command. It said it copied. I put the new HD in the Premiere. It is formatted for tivo and is expanded which is good. 
Bad was it did not copy any of the shows from the original drive.
Worse, I put the original drive back in the Premiere and all the shows are gone and it wants to do a guided setup. 
Not sure why this was such a failure?


----------



## jmbach

joerowan said:


> Better, I used the full command. It said it copied. I put the new HD in the Premiere. It is formatted for tivo and is expanded which is good.
> Bad was it did not copy any of the shows from the original drive.
> Worse, I put the original drive back in the Premiere and all the shows are gone and it wants to do a guided setup.
> Not sure why this was such a failure?


Anything going on with the drive before you took it out of the TiVo?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## markis

Just wanted to say thanks to jkozee, jmbach and everyone involved with MFS Tools. My Premiere upgrade to 3TB worked perfectly. I did run extended drive tests and a full erase without seeing any issues. I also checked wdidle3 just in case and it was already set to 300 seconds from the factory, so I didn't change it.


----------



## PDXScud

I could use some pointer on debugging backup/copy problems. This is on a TiVo HD and I want to make a copy of the working drive, which is 1TB. I have tried both the CD ISO and USB images but both yielded the same results.

If I try to copy (mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda) I get a consistent error: "Copy source: Out of space for application content." It always fails at the same point (1078 of 1462 MiB and 73.73%).

If I try to backup my drive (backup -ai -o /mnt/stick1/tivobkup /dev/sdb) it works fine. "1462 of 1462 MiB 100.00% and Backup done!" But then when I go to restore (restore -i /mnt/stick1/tivobkup /dev/sda) it always fails with the same error message at the same point.

One thing I noticed is the partitions sizes don't match. The source drive (sdb) is a new drive from WeaKnees. After the failed copy or restore, the target's partitions are slightly different sizes but shouldn't the copy/backup/restore tools match the partitions sizes from the source to the target?

Source
/dev/sdb10 589824 288MiB
/dev/sdb11 975377488 476258MiB
/dev/sdb12 589824 288MiB
/dev/sdb13 975377488 476258MiB

Target
/dev/sda10 589824 288MiB
/dev/sdb11 974984192 476066MiB
/dev/sdb12 589824 288MiB
/dev/sdb13 974984192 476066MiB

Any suggestions on how to debug?


----------



## jmbach

PDXScud said:


> I could use some pointer on debugging backup/copy problems. This is on a TiVo HD and I want to make a copy of the working drive, which is 1TB. I have tried both the CD ISO and USB images but both yielded the same results.
> 
> If I try to copy (mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda) I get a consistent error: "Copy source: Out of space for application content." It always fails at the same point (1078 of 1462 MiB and 73.73%).
> 
> If I try to backup my drive (backup -ai -o /mnt/stick1/tivobkup /dev/sdb) it works fine. "1462 of 1462 MiB 100.00% and Backup done!" But then when I go to restore (restore -i /mnt/stick1/tivobkup /dev/sda) it always fails with the same error message at the same point.
> 
> One thing I noticed is the partitions sizes don't match. The source drive (sdb) is a new drive from WeaKnees. After the failed copy or restore, the target's partitions are slightly different sizes but shouldn't the copy/backup/restore tools match the partitions sizes from the source to the target?
> 
> Source
> /dev/sdb10 589824 288MiB
> /dev/sdb11 975377488 476258MiB
> /dev/sdb12 589824 288MiB
> /dev/sdb13 975377488 476258MiB
> 
> Target
> /dev/sda10 589824 288MiB
> /dev/sdb11 974984192 476066MiB
> /dev/sdb12 589824 288MiB
> /dev/sdb13 974984192 476066MiB
> 
> Any suggestions on how to debug?


Can you post the partition map for both drives.

MFSTools 3.2 copies two different ways. One is like the original MFSTools and the other is the new way that adjusts the recording space and swap space based on the size of the target drive.


----------



## PDXScud

I've attached jpg's of the source (sdb) and the target (sda) with all the partition and zone information. I also tried to mount and look at the partitions but failed. Does 3.2 include the tivopart pieces so that the partitions can be mounted?


----------



## jmbach

Tivopart is not included. If I can find the source, I can incorporate it in. 
I am fairly sure MFSTools 3.2 is making a larger swap partition. 
Use "F v1" switch in backup or "R" switch with copy to force version 1 backup / copy to make a mirror of the drive(I thought no. I never have tried that myself but I think it will work)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## PDXScud

I tried both going the backup route with -F v1 but when I go to restore I get the error: "Restore: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself." This is confusing to me. Shouldn't it be the restore target? I thought the restore would wipe the drive. So I used dd and nuked the MBR. Same error.

Then I tried the copy route. Same error. In both cases, I tried mfsinfo and it found no partitions. I then tried a regular copy. The partition tables made were the same ones I attached earlier.

I found a copy of tivopart (attached). I don't know if there is a more current one. I think this one works.


----------



## DefaultLocation

There is a note in the post on this megathread with the MFSTools 3.2 links stating that Bolt images don't work and not to use it with them: "11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images. "

But then there's a few posts where someone used MFSTools to setup an external drive for a Bolt that worked. I want to add an external 3TB drive to my Bolt, can I use the MFSTools 3.2 ISO linked earlier in this thread to run mfstools add and marry the drives?


----------



## jmbach

DefaultLocation said:


> There is a note in the post on this megathread with the MFSTools 3.2 links stating that Bolt images don't work and not to use it with them: "11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images. "
> 
> But then there's a few posts where someone used MFSTools to setup an external drive for a Bolt that worked. I want to add an external 3TB drive to my Bolt, can I use the MFSTools 3.2 ISO linked earlier in this thread to run mfstools add and marry the drives?


The experience with MFSTools 3.2 and Bolts is very limited. It does appear that adding a drive to a Bolt seems to work. Copying and backing up Bolt images does not work.


----------



## PDXScud

Has anyone successful made a backup or a copy of an HD drive purchased from WeaKnees? I am unable to do this with the tools so I am wondering if anyone has had success and knows the secret.


----------



## jmbach

PDXScud said:


> Has anyone successful made a backup or a copy of an HD drive purchased from WeaKnees? I am unable to do this with the tools so I am wondering if anyone has had success and knows the secret.


Have you tried DvrBARS?


----------



## DefaultLocation

jmbach said:


> The experience with MFSTools 3.2 and Bolts is very limited. It does appear that adding a drive to a Bolt seems to work. Copying and backing up Bolt images does not work.


Just following up to confirm that I was indeed able to marry an external 3TB drive to my 1TB Bolt using the MFSTools 3.2 ISO and using "mfstool add -xfm 2000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY". It's been several days now and it appears to be working perfectly fine.


----------



## joerowan

jmbach said:


> Anything going on with the drive before you took it out of the TiVo?
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


No the drive was good. Just wanted a larger drive. So I put the larger drive in, re paired the cable card and it is working fine. Just didn't copy anything over. I was going to put a larger drive in my a Roamio but will hold off for now.


----------



## wintermute824

jmbach said:


> Well it depends on how savvy you are with Linux. In theory, you can ask for an image from ggieseke in the DvrBARS thread and use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the image to your 2TB drive. You would have to be able to mount a VHD as a drive within Linux as that is the format the image from ggieseke will come as. Then attach your 2TB drive and run the copy command from MFSTools. I have have not attempted it this way myself. I run MFSTools in a VirtualBox box on my computer and the VirtualBox program allows me to attach the VHD.


Could use some help.

I used Virtualbox to create a (Ubuntu) Linux machine, and used it to run MFStools to copy the TCD46320 image (received from ggieseke, thanks!) to a brand new 2TB WD purple drive. I'm not 100% sure, but I beleive it failed, and I'd like to ask for suggestions.

I put the MFSTools 3.2 live CD iso in the optical drive (virtual) slot of the VB machine, and attached the TCD46320 vhd as a HDD. Connected the new 2TB drive via a USB/SATA dock (connected, ignored, mounted to VB machine via the menu bar). 







Once the MFStools terminal was running, used "fdisk -l" to identify the drives, pretty easy, as the TCD46320 image was the only thing showing at ~320gb, and the new HDD was the same ~2TB. 
Used "mfstool copy /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"

It ran for a good while, but it showed a lot of apparent errors, and when it got into the mid-70s% complete, it kicked out more errors and failed.

I tried to run it again with the -a feature, since the errors/hangups spoke about streams (thinking maybe a more dirrect copy would have better success). 
It did about the same, kicked a lot of errors, halted for a bit in the 70s, resumed and then failed.

After it failed, the (target) HDD did not appear to be mounted anymore. I had to disconnect/reconnect the USB for it recognize it again. 
But this time I took some screen captures.

























My MacbookPro's OS still can't read the drive (probably a good thing), but the disk utility does now show that drive as having 13 partitions (labeled 2-14), so I'm not sure how close it got. 







I have not tried installing it in the Tivo box yet (which is still functional on it's already C&DE (possibly failing) drive).

Looking for suggestions as to what to do next.

Am I using the MFStools correctly with the right setup?
Should I abandon and try using DVRBARS (a friend lent me a Windows10 laptop, but I was trying to do in with MFST rather than restore and then have to try to expand the drive.
If I need to start over, do I have to do anything to prep the new HDD now that the first try has failed?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## jmbach

wintermute824 said:


> Could use some help.
> 
> I used Virtualbox to create a (Ubuntu) Linux machine, and used it to run MFStools to copy the TCD46320 image (received from ggieseke, thanks!) to a brand new 2TB WD purple drive. I'm not 100% sure, but I beleive it failed, and I'd like to ask for suggestions.
> 
> I put the MFSTools 3.2 live CD iso in the optical drive (virtual) slot of the VB machine, and attached the TCD46320 vhd as a HDD. Connected the new 2TB drive via a USB/SATA dock (connected, ignored, mounted to VB machine via the menu bar).
> View attachment 27124
> 
> Once the MFStools terminal was running, used "fdisk -l" to identify the drives, pretty easy, as the TCD46320 image was the only thing showing at ~320gb, and the new HDD was the same ~2TB.
> Used "mfstool copy /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
> 
> It ran for a good while, but it showed a lot of apparent errors, and when it got into the mid-70s% complete, it kicked out more errors and failed.
> 
> I tried to run it again with the -a feature, since the errors/hangups spoke about streams (thinking maybe a more dirrect copy would have better success).
> It did about the same, kicked a lot of errors, halted for a bit in the 70s, resumed and then failed.
> 
> After it failed, the (target) HDD did not appear to be mounted anymore. I had to disconnect/reconnect the USB for it recognize it again.
> But this time I took some screen captures.
> View attachment 27125
> View attachment 27126
> View attachment 27127
> View attachment 27128
> 
> My MacbookPro's OS still can't read the drive (probably a good thing), but the disk utility does now show that drive as having 13 partitions (labeled 2-14), so I'm not sure how close it got.
> View attachment 27129
> 
> I have not tried installing it in the Tivo box yet (which is still functional on it's already C&DE (possibly failing) drive).
> 
> Looking for suggestions as to what to do next.
> 
> Am I using the MFStools correctly with the right setup?
> Should I abandon and try using DVRBARS (a friend lent me a Windows10 laptop, but I was trying to do in with MFST rather than restore and then have to try to expand the drive.
> If I need to start over, do I have to do anything to prep the new HDD now that the first try has failed?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


Not sure if this matters much but I would create the virtual machine with the MFSTools iso running as a live CD. Also this was made on openSUSE 32 bit.

Attach the VHD to the virtual machine like you have done.

Run the virtual machine and attach your USB drive.

I would just run mfstool copy /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. This will just copy the basics over. Since the image is from ggieseke, all you need is the basics anyway.


----------



## andy_hd

Thanks to all for the updated MFS tool suite. I just upgraded a flaky premiere 2TB WD Green (previously upgraded) disk to a 3TB WD Red. For those interested the copy (all recordings) using a direct, internal SATA connection took about 10 hours.


----------



## dmark1867

This post has so much information! Thank you to everyone that has contributed.

For my own sanity I am breaking down what I am about to do.
If you see anything I am missing or do not need to do, please let me know.

I have stock tivo premier 320gb drive, never been upgraded, running software 20.6.1a.RC10
I would like to preserve all settings and I have new a wd red 3tb drive

Here is what I am planning on doing:

Get MFSTools 3.2 ISO from here
MFS Tools 3.2

burn image to CD, put cd in pc and power off

temporarily disconnect any other SATA drives in your PC so that your original Tivo drive and the new upgrade drive are the only two connected to the PC's SATA ports. Leave the CD Rom drive connected even if it is SATA, so you can boot the PC with the MFS Tools 3.2 CD.

Boot using CD

login using username root and password tivo

disk -l (to reveal drive identities)

mfstool info /dev/sdx
(on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
(sda was the original drive and sdb is the target drive)

When complete power off pc and connect new drive to tivo and power on
Check recording capacity

Do a kick start 57
If Kickstart 57 puts TiVo into an endless reboot cycle try doing a Kickstart 58

Kickstart info
Please Help! Tivo Keeps Restarting!

manually initiate a connection to the TiVo service
Settings & Messages > Settings > Network > Connect to the TiVo service now

check guide data (might need to repeat connection to Tivo service)


----------



## jmbach

dmark1867 said:


> This post has so much information! Thank you to everyone that has contributed.
> 
> For my own sanity I am breaking down what I am about to do.
> If you see anything I am missing or do not need to do, please let me know.
> 
> I have stock tivo premier 320gb drive, never been upgraded, running software 20.6.1a.RC10
> I would like to preserve all settings and I have new a wd red 3tb drive
> 
> Here is what I am planning on doing:
> 
> Get MFSTools 3.2 ISO from here
> MFS Tools 3.2
> 
> burn image to CD, put cd in pc and power off
> 
> temporarily disconnect any other SATA drives in your PC so that your original Tivo drive and the new upgrade drive are the only two connected to the PC's SATA ports. Leave the CD Rom drive connected even if it is SATA, so you can boot the PC with the MFS Tools 3.2 CD.
> 
> Boot using CD
> 
> login using username root and password tivo
> 
> disk -l (to reveal drive identities)
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sdx
> (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> (sda was the original drive and sdb is the target drive)
> 
> When complete power off pc and connect new drive to tivo and power on
> Check recording capacity
> 
> Do a kick start 57
> If Kickstart 57 puts TiVo into an endless reboot cycle try doing a Kickstart 58
> 
> Kickstart info
> Please Help! Tivo Keeps Restarting!
> 
> manually initiate a connection to the TiVo service
> Settings & Messages > Settings > Network > Connect to the TiVo service now
> 
> check guide data (might need to repeat connection to Tivo service)


I don't think the Kickstart codes are needed if you ran the target drive through diagnostics before doing the copy.


----------



## dmark1867

jmbach said:


> I don't think the Kickstart codes are needed if you ran the target drive through diagnostics before doing the copy.


Great, I would rather not worry about the kick start commands, I thought I saw you post somewhere and stated that your available space was not showing up until you did a KS 57

Just to clarify, when you say to do diagnostics are you referring to testing a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows outlined here: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows | WD Support

If so should I do a quick test, an extended test or both?
Should I use erase the disc prior?

Sorry for all the basic questions and I greatly appreciate your help


----------



## jmbach

dmark1867 said:


> Great, I would rather not worry about the kick start commands, I thought I saw you post somewhere and stated that your available space was not showing up until you did a KS 57
> 
> Just to clarify, when you say to do diagnostics are you referring to testing a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows outlined here: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows | WD Support
> 
> If so should I do a quick test, an extended test or both?
> Should I use erase the disc prior?
> 
> Sorry for all the basic questions and I greatly appreciate your help


Would do an extended test.


----------



## Sbmocp

Can any of these be loaded on the TiVo itself?

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

Sbmocp said:


> Can any of these be loaded on the TiVo itself?
> 
> Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


I don't understand the question.


----------



## wintermute824

jmbach said:


> Not sure if this matters much but I would create the virtual machine with the MFSTools iso running as a live CD. Also this was made on openSUSE 32 bit.
> 
> Attach the VHD to the virtual machine like you have done.
> 
> Run the virtual machine and attach your USB drive.
> 
> I would just run mfstool copy /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. This will just copy the basics over. Since the image is from ggieseke, all you need is the basics anyway.


Updated the settings per recommendation.
Created new Virtual box with the MFSTools iso marked as a Live CD, changed OS type to SUSE-32bit. Mounted ggieseke's Tivo HDD image, started the machine, attached the USB dock/new drive. Identified drive names.
Running mfstool copy /dev/sdb /dev/sdc
Still hitting the same error types as before:
percentage ticks up, then pauses for a while, then kicks out the following text before repeating the pattern:
[####.###...] usb 1-1: stat urb: killed, stream 0
Copying ### of m235 MiB (X.xx%) 1MiB/sec (ETA X:xx:xx)









Continuing to allow it to run, at just north of 9% now. Will update when it's done. Any ideas/help is appreciated.

Thanks,
-TJ


----------



## jmbach

wintermute824 said:


> Updated the settings per recommendation.
> Created new Virtual box with the MFSTools iso marked as a Live CD, changed OS type to SUSE-32bit. Mounted ggieseke's Tivo HDD image, started the machine, attached the USB dock/new drive. Identified drive names.
> Running mfstool copy /dev/sdb /dev/sdc
> Still hitting the same error types as before:
> percentage ticks up, then pauses for a while, then kicks out the following text before repeating the pattern:
> [####.###...] usb 1-1: stat urb: killed, stream 0
> Copying ### of m235 MiB (X.xx%) 1MiB/sec (ETA X:xx:xx)
> 
> View attachment 27154
> 
> 
> Continuing to allow it to run, at just north of 9% now. Will update when it's done. Any ideas/help is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> -TJ


That is apparently a Linux kernel error with the uas module and some chipsets when connected to a USB3 port commonly. (Although some USB2 can apparently have this issue.) Is the USB drive connected to a USB3 or a USB2.


----------



## wintermute824

It did, sadly, fail again.

The dock is sold as USB3.0, but my MacBookPro is only 2.0. 
Micro Center - Computers and Electronics
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) - Technical Specifications

So, it's at best a 2.0 connection, but it definitely could be an issue if the USB3 technology is not supported.
I'm not sure what would be the best next step. I'm not a hardware expert. Casual browsing shows the majority of available SATA/USB docks are now 3.0. I could try to rebuild another similar setup on my Mac mini, or the (loaned to me) Windows 10 laptop, but they are also USB2 max. Is it just a perfect storm of USB3 dock, my MBP chip, and another machine might fare better? Suggestions welcome.


----------



## jmbach

wintermute824 said:


> It did, sadly, fail again.
> 
> The dock is sold as USB3.0, but my MacBookPro is only 2.0.
> Micro Center - Computers and Electronics
> MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) - Technical Specifications
> 
> So, it's at best a 2.0 connection, but it definitely could be an issue if the USB3 technology is not supported.
> I'm not sure what would be the best next step. I'm not a hardware expert. Casual browsing shows the majority of available SATA/USB docks are now 3.0. I could try to rebuild another similar setup on my Mac mini, or the (loaned to me) Windows 10 laptop, but they are also USB2 max. Is it just a perfect storm of USB3 dock, my MBP chip, and another machine might fare better? Suggestions welcome.


Can you use a different computer? 
There is a way of "turning" that module off. Let me do some research on that.


----------



## dmark1867

jmbach said:


> Would do an extended test.


jmbach, things worked out great, thank you
I followed everything I had mentioned in post
MFS Tools 3.2
The only thing I had wrong was disk, it is fdisk
Took about 2.5 hours for the copy to complete
Thank you so much!


----------



## wintermute824

jmbach said:


> Can you use a different computer?
> There is a way of "turning" that module off. Let me do some research on that.


Yep. It's worth a try. I have a Mac (mini) running same OS, but a little older. Should have a slightly faster, and different processor (2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo, over 2.2 Intel Core i7); and a loaned Dell (running Windows 10). Can see if either of them have better luck/forgiveness with the USB3. Will probably get to try one of them tonight, but not both if unsuccessful.

The owner of my loaner PC also has a dock, allegedly both with USB3 and eSata. If I can borrow that, i think his laptop has eSata too, but may not be able to retrieve the hardware immediately.

If that doesn't work, my next ideas would be to try A) move over to DVRBARS software and try to restore the image using that instead. B)Use the dual-bay drive to try and clone the old (questionable) 320GB drive to the new 2TB one. (if I'm reading the forums right, there are other tools available to expand the drive afterwards), or C)try to find an older USB2.0-IDE/SATA adapter cable at retail.


----------



## jmbach

If the different computers or Docks do not work, then we can try to disable the uas module. 

I will have to work on updating the kernel it is compiled on as the issue is supposedly fixed on newer kernels.


----------



## wintermute824

Success!

Two changes to my setup:
re-created the same Virtual Box machine on the borrowed Windows 10 laptop, with one additional change, updated the Virtual machine's USB adapter settings for USB 3 (even though the computer doesn't have 3, i figured nothing to lose).
Ran copy the exact same way as before, and.... zoom. That counter went up like a rocket compared to prior attempts. None of those stream kill errors. It did take a long pause around the mid 70s % (right about where the prior attempts failed) but resumed and appears to have completed cleanly. 

The new drive is installed in the Tivo, and so far so good. It wouldn't let me bypass Guided Setup or network selection, so it took a few hours to update, Clear & Delete, re-update, but aside from calling Verizon to re-pair the CableCard (to get premiums back) all was working as of late last night.

Urgency isn't really an issue for me at the moment, but I sincerely appreciate the offer to dig into the kernel and module. Considering all the help I got, I'd still like help figure out if it was the Mac, the USB setting, the dock, etc, but I will have to pick up another new drive for that. Long term plan is to upgrade my XL4 as well, so I'll probably give this another go in a couple of weeks. The fan in the (now working) box is old and noisy, so that'll be replaced soon too.


----------



## Soapm

How do you decompress the USB/HD file in Linux. I use the command tar -zxvf  MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.oem.tar.gz and it left me with a file named MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.raw.

What the heck is a .raw file and where do I go from here?


----------



## jmbach

Soapm said:


> How do you decompress the USB/HD file in Linux. I use the command tar -zxvf  MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.oem.tar.gz and it left me with a file named MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.raw.
> 
> What the heck is a .raw file and where do I go from here?


Use dd to copy the raw file to a USB or hard drive. The raw image is the actual drive image.


----------



## Soapm

jmbach said:


> Use dd to copy the raw file to a USB or hard drive. The raw image is the actual drive image.


Sorry to be so dumb, but what is the command?

I tried dd if=/video/6tb/MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.raw of=/dev/usb and it seems to copy but the usb drive doesn't work. By don't work I mean I can't boot to the USB drive.

The image is in /video/6tb and I have mounted the usb drive on /dev/usb


----------



## jmbach

Soapm said:


> Sorry to be so dumb, but what is the command?
> 
> I tried dd if=/video/6tb/MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.33.raw of=/dev/usb and it seems to copy but the usb drive doesn't work. By don't work I mean I can't boot to the USB drive.
> 
> The image is in /video/6tb and I have mounted the usb drive on /dev/usb


That should do it. Do you need to change BIOS settings to boot off of a USB drive?
Also you may have to allow legacy booting.


----------



## Soapm

jmbach said:


> That should do it. Do you need to change BIOS settings to boot off of a USB drive?
> Also you may have to allow legacy booting.


Looks like it was how I formatted and mounted the SD card. I ended up using Windows and all is working now.


----------



## wwu123

I upgraded my Roamio Pro with a 6TB drive with msfr when it first came out, and the drive is now about 60% full since I use my Roamio as my main media server for movies. I'm interested to upgrade to a 8TB but don't want to lose all my recordings. Just so I correctly understand what MFS Tools 3.2 can do:
-I can back up my 6TB image to a new 8TB drive?
-I can then expand the 8TB backup to be able to use the full 8TB capacity when put in the Roamio Pro?

And on the Roamio side:
-If something goes wrong with the 8TB drive, I can still put original 6TB back in and all my recordings there will still be preserved?
-I won't need to re-pair my cable card when swapping between the 8TB and 6TB drives?
-The images are tied to that specific Roamio Pro, so I won't be able to put them in another Roamio if I have a hardware failure?


----------



## jmbach

wwu123 said:


> I upgraded my Roamio Pro with a 6TB drive with msfr when it first came out, and the drive is now about 60% full since I use my Roamio as my main media server for movies. I'm interested to upgrade to a 8TB but don't want to lose all my recordings. Just so I correctly understand what MFS Tools 3.2 can do:
> -I can back up my 6TB image to a new 8TB drive?
> -I can then expand the 8TB backup to be able to use the full 8TB capacity when put in the Roamio Pro?


Until TiVo fixes the 64 bit bug in their OS, none of that can be done by MFSTools. The max it can go is 4TB. ggieseke is developing a program that will be able to do what you are wanting.



wwu123 said:


> And on the Roamio side:
> -If something goes wrong with the 8TB drive, I can still put original 6TB back in and all my recordings there will still be preserved?
> -I won't need to re-pair my cable card when swapping between the 8TB and 6TB drives?
> -The images are tied to that specific Roamio Pro, so I won't be able to put them in another Roamio if I have a hardware failure?


Yes you will be able to put back the 6TB and still have all your recordings. The cableCARD pairing should remain as long as you have not re paired it with another drive or booted the TiVo without the cableCARD inserted.

Since the Roamio auto formats the drive, you can reuse the drive in another Roamio, you will loose all recordings when you do.


----------



## macromorgan

Does anyone know how to set the file system so that it no longer triggers a GSOD at boot?

I had copied a 2TB to a 4TB back in September, however I just noticed that the guide data was not downloading at all. I tried a series of fixes and eventually did the old kickstart 57 which put me into a reboot loop. I still have the drive from September, but am attempting to preserve as much as I can. So far I don't see the disk as being bad based on the diagnostics.


----------



## sfhub

On the MS OneDrive host for the ISO image is there a hard 30min timeout to finish the download? I was downloading on a slower connection and it consistently hung at around 94% (as in the server stopped responding). I ended up downloading the ISO from a faster connection remotely, then retrieving it from there.


----------



## jmbach

sfhub said:


> On the MS OneDrive host for the ISO image is there a hard 30min timeout to finish the download? I was downloading on a slower connection and it consistently hung at around 94% (as in the server stopped responding). I ended up downloading the ISO from a faster connection remotely, then retrieving it from there.


Not that I am aware of.


----------



## politicks

I am trying to help a friend repair a Premiere with a failing 320GB HDD. I have purchased a WD Green 2TB drive for him. I was able to create a backup using dvrbars. I restored the backup to the new 2TB HDD. Can someone help me with the MFS Tools command to supersize the drive to use all of the 2TB? The only info I have found is how to do a copy from the source to a target (which I will do if this doesn't work). I was worried that the bad sectors on the 320GB HDD would fail the copy.


----------



## jmbach

politicks said:


> I am trying to help a friend repair a Premiere with a failing 320GB HDD. I have purchased a WD Green 2TB drive for him. I was able to create a backup using dvrbars. I restored the backup to the new 2TB HDD. Can someone help me with the MFS Tools command to supersize the drive to use all of the 2TB? The only info I have found is how to do a copy from the source to a target (which I will do if this doesn't work). I was worried that the bad sectors on the 320GB HDD would fail the copy.


You can follow the 6TB Premiere instructions to use MFSTools 3.2 or just use JMFS.


----------



## Lussie

Hi,

I'm in the process of copying my Premiere's previously upgraded 2TB drive to a 6TB drive.

I've been getting 28 MiB/sec on one machine with USB 3.0 (New MacBook Pro Using Parallels VM USB 3.0 enabled)
on another I've gotten 25 MiB/sec. (Dell Laptop with USB 3.0)

These speeds seem very USB 2.0-ish.

Has anyone validated that this ISO has USB 3.0 enabled on it?


----------



## ojfl

Lussie said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm in the process of copying my Premiere's previously upgraded 2TB drive to a 6TB drive.
> 
> I've been getting 28 MiB/sec on one machine with USB 3.0 (New MacBook Pro Using Parallels VM USB 3.0 enabled)
> on another I've gotten 25 MiB/sec. (Dell Laptop with USB 3.0)
> 
> These speeds seem very USB 2.0-ish.
> 
> Has anyone validated that this ISO has USB 3.0 enabled on it?


What macOS version are you using? Are you using MFSTools of JMFSTools? I have been trying to get the drives recognized on JMFSTools under El Capitan inside of a VM but no luck so far.


----------



## Lussie

ojfl said:


> What macOS version are you using? Are you using MFSTools of JMFSTools? I have been trying to get the drives recognized on JMFSTools under El Capitan inside of a VM but no luck so far.


I'm using the Same OS. I booted Parallels with the ISO from here: MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## ojfl

Lussie said:


> I'm using the Same OS. I booted Parallels with the ISO from here: MFS Tools 3.2


Thank you. I will try MFS Tools as JMFS 1.04 is not helping at all.


----------



## jmbach

Lussie said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm in the process of copying my Premiere's previously upgraded 2TB drive to a 6TB drive.
> 
> I've been getting 28 MiB/sec on one machine with USB 3.0 (New MacBook Pro Using Parallels VM USB 3.0 enabled)
> on another I've gotten 25 MiB/sec. (Dell Laptop with USB 3.0)
> 
> These speeds seem very USB 2.0-ish.
> 
> Has anyone validated that this ISO has USB 3.0 enabled on it?


It is inherently slower because it rebuilds the inodes when it copies because it expands the two original MFS media partitions. So if you started out with a 2TB Premiere image that was previously expanded using JMFS resulting in 15 partitions, the new image after an MFSTools copy would be 14 partitions.... as long as you stay at 4TB or less. When creating a 6TB Premiere image, you will end up with 15 partitions again.

I am not sure about the speeds, I know that it took 3 to 4 days to copy a completely full 2TB image to a 4TB drive via a USB3 dock.

I am pretty sure USB3 drivers are on that iso. Will have to check to be sure.


----------



## ojfl

Lussie said:


> I'm using the Same OS. I booted Parallels with the ISO from here: MFS Tools 3.2


Ok, so anyone else having the same experience can know what I did. Turns out that we were using a Thermaltake USB 3 dock for our SATA drives as we wanted to have just one port used. It happens that particular device is not supported by the Linux distribution on the ISO image. Only one of the drives shows up as active at a time. The solution was to install a later version of Linux, in our case we decided on Ubuntu 16.10, and both drives then show up. Compile MFS Tools 3.2 from source and presto, the system works. We can now see both drives on a virtual machine, Parallels, Fusion or even VirtualBox running inside of macOS, no matter the version, even Sierra works. We are peaking at 33MiB/s . We are upgrading a Premiere 4 from the original 500 GB drive to a 4 TB drive.


----------



## fddjr1

jmbach said:


> Would do an extended test.


Just a follow up as I was hoping to do a similar upgrade to my Roamio plus (500GB drive) to a larger drive. Had a couple follow up questions:

1) With the step by step copy commads described by dmark1867 on November 14, 2016 and confirmed by jmbach, will my recordings be copied from the original drive to the new drive?
2) What is the largest drive I can put into the Roamio while still keeping my existing recordings?
Thanks so much!!


----------



## jmbach

fddjr1 said:


> Just a follow up as I was hoping to do a similar upgrade to my Roamio plus (500GB drive) to a larger drive. Had a couple follow up questions:
> 
> 1) With the step by step copy commads described by dmark1867 on November 14, 2016 and confirmed by jmbach, will my recordings be copied from the original drive to the new drive?
> 2) What is the largest drive I can put into the Roamio while still keeping my existing recordings?
> Thanks so much!!


As long as you use the -a switch your recordings will be copied.

The largest drive you can use in the Roamio using this method is 4TB.


----------



## fddjr1

Thanks for the response. Just to be clear for me as a noob with the tool. On the syntax I saw in the post I was referring to, he had an '-ai' switch. Is that really an 'a' and an 'i' as separate switches stacked up or is 'ai' a completely different switch than the 'a' and i should use just the 'a' you mention?


----------



## jmbach

fddjr1 said:


> Thanks for the response. Just to be clear for me as a noob with the tool. On the syntax I saw in the post I was referring to, he had an '-ai' switch. Is that really an 'a' and an 'i' as separate switches stacked up or is 'ai' a completely different switch than the 'a' and i should use just the 'a' you mention?


The switches are stacked. I use -ai because it includes everything. The -a is for all your recordings. The -i copies all non MFS partitions not just the necessary ones.


----------



## fddjr1

Thanks again jmbach. I hope last questions...
1) Will the syntax I saw earlier from dmark1867 that we have discussed the 'a' vs 'ai' switch also serve to let me use the full 4TB capacity of the new drive if I went with 4TB? (syntax I'm referring to: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb)
2) What is the consensus on the best WD drive these days as I have seen both the purples and reds mentioned here in the forum and online?


----------



## jmbach

fddjr1 said:


> Thanks again jmbach. I hope last questions...
> 1) Will the syntax I saw earlier from dmark1867 that we have discussed the 'a' vs 'ai switch also serve to let me use the full 4TB capacity of the new drive if I went with 4TB? (syntax I'm referring to: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb)
> 2) What is the consensus on the best WD drive these days as I have seen both the purples and reds mentioned here in the forum and online?


Either switch would work to let you use the full 4TB capacity. The only difference is that you include all non MFS partitions in the copy process with the -i switch which adds maybe 10 minutes to the copy.

I use only WD Red drives and have not had any issues in the 4 units I have.


----------



## fddjr1

jmbach, do I need to copy these non MFS partitions over for some purpose, or can I stick with the -a switch and call it a day? Appreciate the detailed responses so far!!


----------



## jmbach

fddjr1 said:


> jmbach, do I need to copy these non MFS partitions over for some purpose, or can I stick with the -a switch and call it a day? Appreciate the detailed responses so far!!


I am not sure. Some people has had some issues with guide data after a copy. I don't know if it is because they did or did not use the -i switch. I have used it for all my copies and had no issues. The issue clears up after deleting guide data and connecting to the TiVo servers a couple of times.


----------



## sfhub

Curious, when I have mfsinfo print out the partition table on the stock 3TB drive it is able to do it.

When I try it on a 6TB drive that is formatted by the roamio pro (prior to mfsr reformatting), it comes back with a checksum error.

Is that expected behavior?


----------



## jmbach

sfhub said:


> Curious, when I have mfsinfo print out the partition table on the stock 3TB drive it is able to do it.
> 
> When I try it on a 6TB drive that is formatted by the roamio pro (prior to mfsr reformatting), it comes back with a checksum error.
> 
> Is that expected behavior?


Yes. It is because of the bug in the OS. I hope I get this correct as it has been a while since I had discussed it with ggieseke, but when the TiVo boots, it calculates some values of the MFS and stores them. In a 6TB these should be all 64bit numbers but one of these are saved as a 32bit number. This is why you get a small recording space displayed on the System Information screen. Consequently, when MFSTools checks everything, it does not add up correctly and why MFSR is needed.


----------



## fddjr1

jmbach said:


> I am not sure. Some people has had some issues with guide data after a copy. I don't know if it is because they did or did not use the -i switch. I have used it for all my copies and had no issues. The issue clears up after deleting guide data and connecting to the TiVo servers a couple of times.


jmbach, I received my 4TB Red in the mail today and am performing the extended test on the WD Data Lifeguard software (which has 8 hours to go...joy). When I was looking on the WD support page for this drive, they also have this WD5741 utility as a firmware update that has the following description:

"This utility modifies the behavior of the drive to wait longer before positioning the heads in their park position and turning off unnecessary electronics. This utility is designed to upgrade the following hard drives: WD RED 3.5" Drive"

Is this something I need to run before doing the MFS Tools drive copy or is this not necessary for Tivo drive purposes?


----------



## ggieseke

Most Red drives don't need WD5741 these days, but I did get a 4TB Red several years ago that was set to 8 seconds. It was running NASWare 2.0 and I haven't seen any 3.0 drives that need it.


----------



## fddjr1

Ok. Thanks for getting back to me. 

So if this is a recently manufactured drive and I've completed the extended data lifeguard test with no issues, I can just proceed with the copy process?


----------



## jmbach

fddjr1 said:


> Ok. Thanks for getting back to me.
> 
> So if this is a recently manufactured drive and I've completed the extended data lifeguard test with no issues, I can just proceed with the copy process?


+1 on ggieseke post.

Yes you can proceed with the copy.


----------



## fddjr1

dmark1867 said:


> This post has so much information! Thank you to everyone that has contributed.
> 
> For my own sanity I am breaking down what I am about to do.
> If you see anything I am missing or do not need to do, please let me know.
> 
> I have stock tivo premier 320gb drive, never been upgraded, running software 20.6.1a.RC10
> I would like to preserve all settings and I have new a wd red 3tb drive
> 
> Here is what I am planning on doing:
> 
> Get MFSTools 3.2 ISO from here
> MFS Tools 3.2
> 
> burn image to CD, put cd in pc and power off
> 
> temporarily disconnect any other SATA drives in your PC so that your original Tivo drive and the new upgrade drive are the only two connected to the PC's SATA ports. Leave the CD Rom drive connected even if it is SATA, so you can boot the PC with the MFS Tools 3.2 CD.
> 
> Boot using CD
> 
> login using username root and password tivo
> 
> disk -l (to reveal drive identities)
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sdx
> (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> (sda was the original drive and sdb is the target drive)
> 
> When complete power off pc and connect new drive to tivo and power on
> Check recording capacity
> 
> Do a kick start 57
> If Kickstart 57 puts TiVo into an endless reboot cycle try doing a Kickstart 58
> 
> Kickstart info
> Please Help! Tivo Keeps Restarting!
> 
> manually initiate a connection to the TiVo service
> Settings & Messages > Settings > Network > Connect to the TiVo service now
> 
> check guide data (might need to repeat connection to Tivo service)


All, I wanted to thank you for the detailed information and responses to my questions. I was able to do the copy overnight, put it back into the Tivo and connected to the service to refresh the guide. I have the correct reported hours available. Had a few issues in the process: 1) I ended up having to copy the ISO several times, before lowering the copy speed to get the ISO to load properly (kept getting buffer I/O error on sr0, which other posts noted a bad disc burn), and 2) the only extra thing I noticed in the instructions that dmark posted is that I couldn't do the 'disk -l' command at the prompt. I could get info on the old Tivo drive by using the 'mfstool info /dev/sdx' command, but if I did that to the new empty drive, I would get an error about no drive headers. After futzing with it some more, I tried the copy command (worried it wouldn't work since I couldn't see the new empty drive), and it just started copying. I guess I overthought the commands too much, but jmark did say you should confirm you know which drive was which. Thanks to all for your help and support!!!!


----------



## cnewsgrp

Apologies if this question has been answered earlier. I will take time to read this whole thread later tonight however I would like to ask question in case someone knows answer on top of head

I have Tivo Roamio with Verizon Cable Service. I want to upgrade by HDD (I have WD Red 3TB ready). 
I understand that easiest option for upgrade is to put drive in and Tivo will do the rest via guided setup, but my understanding is that by doing do I will lose Cable Card Pairing. I dread the call to Verizon to get that fixed. My primary goal is to avoid a call to Verizon to Re-pair my cable card (I don't care if I lose by current recordings or one pass). 

I am hoping I can use MFS Tools to clone 500 GB to 3 TB

- Do I still need to do cable card pairing if I use MFS Tools to clone everything from my current 500GB drive to 3 TB drive?
- After I clone I will see 3 TB of storage? Right?


----------



## jmbach

No to the first. Your cableCARD pairing should be maintained 

Yes to the second.


----------



## Mikeguy

jmbach said:


> No to the first. Your cableCARD pairing should be maintained
> 
> Yes to the second.


I think you just made cnewsgrp's day.


----------



## cnewsgrp

jmbach said:


> No to the first. Your cableCARD pairing should be maintained
> 
> Yes to the second.


I just put the 3TB drive in and did Tivo setup. Call to Verizon or re-pairing was not needed. Did not need to do MFS Clone at all. I believe pairing is stored in Motherboard for Roamio (link)
Thanks all


----------



## cnewsgrp

Mikeguy said:


> I think you just made cnewsgrp's day.


Yup. I just put the 3TB drive in and did Tivo setup. Did not need to do MFS Clone at all. Call to Verizon or re-pairing was not needed. Pairing is stored in Motherboard (Link)
Thanks all.


----------



## jmbach

cnewsgrp said:


> Yup. I just put the 3TB drive in and did Tivo setup. Did not need to do MFS Clone at all. Call to Verizon or re-pairing was not needed. Pairing is stored in Motherboard (Link)
> Thanks all.


I am not so sure about that.  Check the cableCARD values in the diagnostic menu to see if it is appropriately paired. 

I am fairly certain the cableCARD pairing info is contained in the MFS partitions on the hard drive.

With an unpaired card, I can get all channels except certain premium channels. I would make sure you check all your premium channels.


----------



## rbronco21

Successfully(?) copied a Roamio drive to a 2TB drive and now I am not getting guide data (s03 error). I tried the kickstart 57 to fix the error and ended up in a reboot loop with the green screen. The original drive still boots, and is only a couple weeks behind the new drive. Do I just need to redo the copy? I ran it using this command:
mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb


----------



## jmbach

rbronco21 said:


> Successfully(?) copied a Roamio drive to a 2TB drive and now I am not getting guide data (s03 error). I tried the kickstart 57 to fix the error and ended up in a reboot loop with the green screen. The original drive still boots, and is only a couple weeks behind the new drive. Do I just need to redo the copy? I ran it using this command:
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb


Would redo the copy. The command is correct. If you get the error again, you might have to clear program information.


----------



## cnewsgrp

jmbach said:


> I am not so sure about that.  Check the cableCARD values in the diagnostic menu to see if it is appropriately paired.
> 
> I am fairly certain the cableCARD pairing info is contained in the MFS partitions on the hard drive.
> 
> With an unpaired card, I can get all channels except certain premium channels. I would make sure you check all your premium channels.


I am not subscribed to any premium channels. What should I look for in cable card pairing screen?


----------



## jmbach

Click on the link in my post


----------



## Ceodil

I am having a problem with a 1TB roamio drive upgrade using mfstools 3.2. The drive is a WD10EZRX 1TB and it seems to work fine, I used mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb to copy shows from the old 500GB drive to the new 1TB and they showed up just fine with all the guide info there. I ran into a problem when trying to supersize the drive using mfstool supersize /dev/sdb I get this error, "Unable to locate /Config/DiskConfigurations/Active No changes were made." am I missing something simple, and is there a way I can get around this error and expand the drive? Thanks in advance for any help .


----------



## jmbach

Ceodil said:


> I am having a problem with a 1TB roamio drive upgrade using mfstools 3.2. The drive is a WD10EZRX 1TB and it seems to work fine, I used mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb to copy shows from the old 500GB drive to the new 1TB and they showed up just fine with all the guide info there. I ran into a problem when trying to supersize the drive using mfstool supersize /dev/sdb I get this error, "Unable to locate /Config/DiskConfigurations/Active No changes were made." am I missing something simple, and is there a way I can get around this error and expand the drive? Thanks in advance for any help .


I don't believe I have ever supersized a Roamio drive. It is quite possible that TiVo changed that parameter in one of their updates and will not work anymore. This is something the developer jkozee will have to comment on.


----------



## Ceodil

Thank you for the quick reply I thought I had done something wrong.


----------



## cnewsgrp

jmbach said:


> Click on the link in my post


Everything looks good for me except "Val" I have ? instead of V. I guess that if I subscribe to premium channels I will see issues.


----------



## jmbach

cnewsgrp said:


> Everything looks good for me except "Val" I have ? instead of V. I guess that if I subscribe to premium channels I will see issues.


Probably. The card is not is technically not paired. If they decide to change how they deliver your programming, you may run into problems in the future.


----------



## lessd

jmbach said:


> Probably. The card is not is technically not paired. If they decide to change how they deliver your programming, you may run into problems in the future.


With Comcast in CT after 30 to 45 days with* VAL ?* the card shut down to just local stations


----------



## cnewsgrp

jmbach said:


> Probably. The card is not is technically not paired. If they decide to change how they deliver your programming, you may run into problems in the future.


Would a phone call to Verizon resolve this?


----------



## jmbach

It would but Verizon also has online self install. CableCard installation and removal | FiOS TV | Residential Support | Verizon


----------



## fcfc2

cnewsgrp said:


> Everything looks good for me except "Val" I have ? instead of V. I guess that if I subscribe to premium channels I will see issues.


Your cable card is not paired properly, anything other than a "V" code is not good, even if you seem to be getting all of your channels, you will eventually find that your cable card eventually becomes "unauthorized" and you will get nada. Calling their cable card line may or may not get you someone to help, if you call the regular tech folks....you are wasting your time. Another option if you don't want to hang on the line is to try the Direct forum, Verizon Direct forum | DSLReports, ISP Information
I have had good results there, double check your Data ID number as failed hits will sometimes change that one. You might also want to mention "manual validation" as this especially helps when missing just some of your channels.


----------



## cnewsgrp

jmbach said:


> It would but Verizon also has online self install. CableCard installation and removal | FiOS TV | Residential Support | Verizon


Thanks ... The problem is that "Online Activation" requires activation code which I don't have. VzHomeAgent is strange, I downloaded and installed it and all it does is take me to their support page.

Wish they had a online link where we can enter all three IDs

I called their Agent and provided all three values ... no luck
Then I tried their automated activation via phone. It asked and I entered all three values.

The system says cable card is activated, I see all the channels, but "V" is still ?

At this point I will just stay on like this and see what happens


----------



## rbronco21

rbronco21 said:


> Successfully(?) copied a Roamio drive to a 2TB drive and now I am not getting guide data (s03 error). I tried the kickstart 57 to fix the error and ended up in a reboot loop with the green screen. The original drive still boots, and is only a couple weeks behind the new drive. Do I just need to redo the copy? I ran it using this command:
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb





jmbach said:


> Would redo the copy. The command is correct. If you get the error again, you might have to clear program information.


Thanks for all your help on this thread. Recopied and got a few days of successful connections again before getting a S303 error this time. I cleared program info and am still getting S303. Do I need to give it some time before reconnecting? Anything else I can try?


----------



## jmbach

Did you clear program info followed by a restart?

The other thing to try is to disconnect the TiVo from the network and if you have a tuning adapter, disconnect it from the TiVo and power the tuning adapter down. Now wait and check the GC (Garbage Collection) date and when it is equal to the current date, then connect the TiVo to the network and force a connection to the TiVo servers. If that works, reconnect your tuning adapter.


----------



## rbronco21

I cleared program data, the option for suggestions, and restarted a couple times. I don't have a tuning adapter, but my GC time was 30min after my post. I am not sure if that would fulfill your suggestion about the GC date. I tried to force garbage collection by hitting enter on the channel list, and it started guided setup. Not sure if I should have backed out and it still would have done GC anyway, but I continued and now I'm stuck on guided setup with an S03 error. Back to the original drive for a few days until I have a break in recordings to try another copy.

Force Garbage Collection & Guide Indexing

This page talks about swap space being an issue. Is there an option to increase it with mfstools? After I make another copy, should I leave the network disconnected for a certain amount of time and check my GC date, or does that need to be done after the errors start popping up, or is that only an issue with a tuning adapter?


----------



## jmbach

rbronco21 said:


> I cleared program data, the option for suggestions, and restarted a couple times. I don't have a tuning adapter, but my GC time was 30min after my post. I am not sure if that would fulfill your suggestion about the GC date. I tried to force garbage collection by hitting enter on the channel list, and it started guided setup. Not sure if I should have backed out and it still would have done GC anyway, but I continued and now I'm stuck on guided setup with an S03 error. Back to the original drive for a few days until I have a break in recordings to try another copy.
> 
> Force Garbage Collection & Guide Indexing
> 
> This page talks about swap space being an issue. Is there an option to increase it with mfstools? After I make another copy, should I leave the network disconnected for a certain amount of time and check my GC date, or does that need to be done after the errors start popping up, or is that only an issue with a tuning adapter?


MFSTools automatically increases the Swap drive based on the size of the recorded space. I would check on the size it has created on your 4TB drive. Also if you haven't, I would run the manufacturer diagnostic on the drive. Don't want it to be a bad spot for n the drug be issue. To answer your original question, add the switch -S with the size in MiB you want the swap size the be.

Consider trying to run mfstool ck on the drive and then let it boot the n the TiVo to see if it cleans up things.

You seem to indicate that this last copy ran ok for a while before the s03 error started popping up. Is that right?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## rbronco21

Yeah, both times it worked for a few days, then stopped connecting. I ran the WD util on it and it seemed ok. I will run it again to be sure. Thanks for the help.


----------



## jmbach

I wonder if running a KS 57 when the copy boots up the first time would help. That would ensure that the MFS is in good shape.


----------



## videobruce

The software links for MFS Tools are in German and it's not even MFS Tools as far as I can tell. What's up with that? Some program with the letters WMBU or similar.


----------



## jmbach

videobruce said:


> The software links for MFS Tools are in German and it's not even MFS Tools as far as I can tell. What's up with that? Some program with the letters WMBU or similar.


Which links. I just checked the link in my post and they are correct.


----------



## videobruce

I was using BurnAware to create the bootable CD. Is that a problem?
After the disc loads, it brings me to a DOS prompt. The only .exe in the directory is WWBMU.exe. that appears seems to be some German disc copying program.


----------



## videobruce

Ok, I used ImageBurn and it loaded ok. Why that worked and the other didn't is beyond me. WWBMU is what is used to do the copying within MFSTools?


----------



## jmbach

Not sure what happened there.


----------



## Dulanic

OK I am pulling my hair out. I "somewhat" know linux but not great at it. So I managed to copy the original drive over (before I found mfstool) using ubuntu rescue CD. However, when I put it in my TIVO it seems to still think it's a 500GB drive instead of the 3TB it actually is. Is there an easy way to correct this? 

I was going to recopy the data between the 2 drives, but I can't seem to be able to figure out the right command. I searched through here and tried mfstool copy -ai /dev/hda /dev/hdb as I thought that might be right...but that doesnt work and says unable to read volume header. Where am I going wrong?


----------



## videobruce

Dulanic said:


> Where am I going wrong?


By thinking there would be a *detailed, step by step* guide here. 
Some time ago at least one member admitted to the lack of such and the disorganized structure of these threads.

There are a couple of other steps depending on which program you use, but it isn't clear to me either.


----------



## Dulanic

videobruce said:


> By thinking there would be a *detailed, step by step* guide here.
> Some time ago at least one member admitted to the lack of such and the disorganized structure of these threads.
> 
> There are a couple of other steps depending on which program you use, but it isn't clear to me either.


Yeah, I've tried like 4 detailed guides but they all seem to be for different ISO's etc... because the commands don't work as intended etc... I'm using MFSTools_3.2_i586.i686-0.0.34.iso so really just trying to figure out how the copy works properly from the 500GB drive to a 3TB drive with it showing up properly as 3TB.

I also tried Hinsdale How-to TiVo upgrade and following step 10 upgrade option 3. I can't figure out how to run this as I don't seem to have mfsbackup and mfsrestore, just mfstool which has backup and restore build in. I tried altering to use mfstool backup and mfstool restore and it just threw up a list of options and didn't run.

Update: So it seems that some of the options changed. -s became -S, -p became -P and has been deprecated, and -x isn't listed at all anymore. It says use mfsadd instead of -x ... How do I determine the -m size to use for mfsadd? I mean it's a 3TB drive, so can I just put 3000? So can I just use disk destroyer and then mfsadd /dev/dha -m 3000?

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


----------



## videobruce

That's eight years old. Of course anything that required Idiot Exploiter to display properly belongs in the toilet anyway.


----------



## Dulanic

videobruce said:


> That's eight years old. Of course anything that required Idiot Exploiter to display properly belongs in the toilet anyway.


Well it's the only detailed guide I could find, so I figured I could adapt it at the least which I was wrong about. I also didn't look at the date lol. I am doing a dd and will just screw around until I get it all to work. For now, I'll just try disk destroyer and mfsadd /w -m 3000 and see if it works. If it works great, if not I'll keep playing around.

I also tried mfscopy but that kept saying unable to find primary partition :/


----------



## jmbach

Your original command was almost correct. Use mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Replace X with the letter of your source drive (ie if a is the source drive then it would be sda) and Y with the letter of the target drive.


----------



## videobruce

This is continuously updated;
rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade/
Also try here;
logicsector.com/tivo/how-to-clone-your-failing-tivo-drive-with-ddrescue/
dealdatabase.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?60-Series-3-Support

(C&P, then add prefix for each address)
.


----------



## Dulanic

videobruce said:


> This is continuously updated;
> rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade/
> Also try here;
> logicsector.com/tivo/how-to-clone-your-failing-tivo-drive-with-ddrescue/
> dealdatabase.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?60-Series-3-Support
> 
> (C&P, then add prefix for each address)
> .


I originally followed that 2nd link, and it works but my 3TB drive still shows as a 500GB drive to the tivo.



jmbach said:


> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Replace X with the letter of your source drive (ie if a is the source drive then it would be sda) and You with the letter of the target drive.


I did try that but it said not able to find a valid primary partition on the source? Which is odd since it works if I put the drive into my tivo.

I verified with fdisk that I had the right drives.


----------



## Dulanic

So I did another dd to copy the data. It works in the tivo again. However still shows the old size. No mfstool commands work at all, they all say no valid boot partition on that device but yet they work in the tivo. I just don't get it....


----------



## Dulanic

Just wanted to follow this up that jmbach was awesome and worked with me. I wasn't crazy, there seems to be something wrong with the boot record on my tivo drive even though it was working in the tivo.


----------



## lessd

jmbach said:


> It would but Verizon also has online self install. CableCard installation and removal | FiOS TV | Residential Support | Verizon


Comcast has the same thing but will not work for moving an existing cable card, only a new card from Comcast.


----------



## djwilso

First off, I wanted to thank all of the people that have posted in this thread, especially jmbach for creating the ISO and for providing so much incredible support to so many people.

I attempted to copy my TiVo Premiere XL 2TiB WD20EURS Green AV drive to a new 4TiB WD40EFRX Red drive and have run into problems.

I used the following command to perform the copy:

*mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda*

My original drive was /dev/sdb and the new drive was /dev/sda, as determined using the *fdisk -l* command. The disk sizes were reported correctly by fdisk. Additionally, I had tested the new WD Red drive using the WD diagnostic tool using the extended test and it passed with no errors. The new drive has only been booted under Linux or DOS boot CDs and has never been marked by Windows Disk Management. It's definitely blank, so no issues there.

The copy started and almost immediately started reporting read errors from the source disk. This wasn't completely unexpected since the whole reason I am doing this is that for about the past month my TiVo Premiere XL has started rebooting itself randomly. At this point, it is rebooting randomly about once every other day.

I have included an image showing all of the output from the mfstool copy command. Can anyone look at this output and tell me what your recommendation is on how I should proceed? Is there anything I can do to copy the original drive, or am I out of luck? I'm a complete novice when it comes to Linux so I do not understand everything I'm seeing in the output.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## HerronScott

djwilso said:


> The copy started and almost immediately started reporting read errors from the source disk. This wasn't completely unexpected since the whole reason I am doing this is that for about the past month my TiVo Premiere XL has started rebooting itself randomly. At this point, it is rebooting randomly about once every other day.


Do you have a spare 2TB drive that you could try using ddrescue to copy the current drive to temporarily to see if it can get past the errors?

While not a TiVo drive, I used ddrescue for the first time recently to copy my nephew's hard drive that wouldn't boot (BCD issue) to a new drive which managed to recover almost everything according to the log (missed 340KB) and which booted successfully afterwards. I was actually only hoping to get to a point where I could do a repair reinstall (which kept failing as it checks the status of the drive) and was pleasantly surprised that it was so successful.

Scott


----------



## djwilso

HerronScott said:


> Do you have a spare 2TB drive that you could try using ddrescue to copy the current drive to temporarily to see if it can get past the errors?
> 
> While not a TiVo drive, I used ddrescue for the first time recently to copy my nephew's hard drive that wouldn't boot (BCD issue) to a new drive which managed to recover almost everything according to the log (missed 340KB) and which booted successfully afterwards. I was actually only hoping to get to a point where I could do a repair reinstall (which kept failing as it checks the status of the drive) and was pleasantly surprised that it was so successful.
> 
> Scott


Unfortunately, I don't have a spare 2TB drive. Right now the only spare drive I have is the new 4TB WD Red drive.


----------



## jmbach

djwilso said:


> Unfortunately, I don't have a spare 2TB drive. Right now the only spare drive I have is the new 4TB WD Red drive.


MFSTools does not do well with bad images. Your best bet is to do what HerronScott said and use ddrescue to another drive. You can always ddrescue to the 4TB drive. If it works and the 4TB boots up in the TiVo, you can then be happy that you saved your recordings but only have 2TB of recording space or go borrow or buy a 2TB drive and copy that image to it and then use MFSTools copy it back to the 4TB to get 4TB of recording space.


----------



## djwilso

jmbach said:


> MFSTools does not do well with bad images. Your best bet is to do what HerronScott said and use ddrescue to another drive. You can always ddrescue to the 4TB drive. If it works and the 4TB boots up in the TiVo, you can then be happy that you saved your recordings but only have 2TB of recording space or go borrow or buy a 2TB drive and copy that image to it and then use MFSTools copy it back to the 4TB to get 4TB of recording space.


I would definitely be willing to give ddrescue an attempt. I can always get another 2TB drive if this works.

Could you assist in telling me what the exact ddrescue command syntax would be?

I see some examples from Google like this:

*ddrescue -f /dev/sda /dev/sdb /home/users/knoppix/Desktop/log1.log*

Would it be similar to this? Where would I be able to specify the location of the log file since I realize that this knoppix example would not be applicable? I am using the CD-booted ISO version that you provided and the only physical hard drives I will have connected are the TiVo original drive and the new WD Red drive.

EDIT: I did some searching and found the following link in an earlier post in this thread, so I will try following the information there and see how things turn out.

How To Clone Your Failing TiVo Drive With ddrescue


----------



## jmbach

That is a good start. To recover as much as possible with ddrescue, you use some additional commands on recursive attempts using the log to focus on the bad spots. In my experience very time consuming and unproductive.


----------



## HerronScott

djwilso said:


> I would definitely be willing to give ddrescue an attempt. I can always get another 2TB drive if this works.
> 
> Could you assist in telling me what the exact ddrescue command syntax would be?
> 
> I see some examples from Google like this:
> 
> *ddrescue -f /dev/sda /dev/sdb /home/users/knoppix/Desktop/log1.log*
> 
> Would it be similar to this? Where would I be able to specify the location of the log file since I realize that this knoppix example would not be applicable? I am using the CD-booted ISO version that you provided and the only physical hard drives I will have connected are the TiVo original drive and the new WD Red drive.
> 
> EDIT: I did some searching and found the following link in an earlier post in this thread, so I will try following the information there and see how things turn out.
> 
> How To Clone Your Failing TiVo Drive With ddrescue


I believe I used the following when I recovered the Windows drive I mentioned.

ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb /media/PNY_usb/rescue.logfile

Note that if you are booting from a CD that you'll need to use a USB flash drive if you want to keep the log file or try to use it for further attempts at recovery (which I did not do).

I was using information from the following 2 webpages.

Guide to Using DDRescue to Recover Data - Technibble

How to Clone Hard Disks with ddrescue | Datarecovery.com

I did use the SystemRescueCD mentioned in the second site but I'm pretty sure that I used the command from the first site.

Scott


----------



## djwilso

I wanted to write an update to my upgrade saga. I had previously posted having issues upgrading my stock 2TB TiVo Premiere XL WD Green AV drive to a new WD Red 4TB drive.

I determined that the computer that I initially attempted to use MFS Tools 3.2 on had some bad RAM and that it was causing the copy to fail.

Fortunately I had another computer to use and everything worked perfectly there.

So, I now have 638 HD hours after completing an error-free mfstool copy, which took 11 hours.

However, the main reason I had started down this road at all was that my TiVo had been randomly restarting itself every day or two, so I thought that the hard drive was failing. As it turns out, even after the new 4TB drive has been installed, I am still seeing the box reboot every couple days. I did make sure to run the Western Digital extended test when I had first received the drive. That completed with no errors.

I'm not really sure what to check for next. Maybe the power supply? Just from a visual standpoint, the capacitors look okay. I'm not sure if I should try replacing it and seeing if it helps.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice on things I might try to track down the root cause of these random reboots, I'd love to hear ideas.

This thread is simply amazing and I want to thank everyone that has contributed to it. I have learned so much.


----------



## jmbach

djwilso said:


> I wanted to write an update to my upgrade saga. I had previously posted having issues upgrading my stock 2TB TiVo Premiere XL WD Green AV drive to a new WD Red 4TB drive.
> 
> I determined that the computer that I initially attempted to use MFS Tools 3.2 on had some bad RAM and that it was causing the copy to fail.
> 
> Fortunately I had another computer to use and everything worked perfectly there.
> 
> So, I now have 638 HD hours after completing an error-free mfstool copy, which took 11 hours.
> 
> However, the main reason I had started down this road at all was that my TiVo had been randomly restarting itself every day or two, so I thought that the hard drive was failing. As it turns out, even after the new 4TB drive has been installed, I am still seeing the box reboot every couple days. I did make sure to run the Western Digital extended test when I had first received the drive. That completed with no errors.
> 
> I'm not really sure what to check for next. Maybe the power supply? Just from a visual standpoint, the capacitors look okay. I'm not sure if I should try replacing it and seeing if it helps.
> 
> If anyone has any suggestions or advice on things I might try to track down the root cause of these random reboots, I'd love to hear ideas.
> 
> This thread is simply amazing and I want to thank everyone that has contributed to it. I have learned so much.


Please clarify a few things for me. My understanding from scanning through your posts is that you used ddrescue to make a copy of a failing image. Then used that copy and MFSTools to copy to a 4TB drive. If that is correct, you might have just transferred the issue to the 4TB drive. The only way to correct that is to get a clean image from ggieseke and use that on a good drive in your TiVo. If you still are getting reboot issues, then it is something else like power supply, cabling, motherboard. I have seen some talk about reboots when scanning for open ports within the home network.


----------



## djwilso

jmbach said:


> Please clarify a few things for me. My understanding from scanning through your posts is that you used ddrescue to make a copy of a failing image. Then used that copy and MFSTools to copy to a 4TB drive. If that is correct, you might have just transferred the issue to the 4TB drive. The only way to correct that is to get a clean image from ggieseke and use that on a good drive in your TiVo. If you still are getting reboot issues, then it is something else like power supply, cabling, motherboard. I have seen some talk about reboots when scanning for open ports within the home network.


I had initially thought that my original 2TB drive was failing, but I don't think that is the case at this point. I think that the bad RAM on the original computer I used to perform the copy using MFS Tools 3.2 caused the errors in the original picture I had attached in one of my posts.

I had used a universal boot disk with a program called MemTest86+ to test the RAM and that's how I had determined the problem with the original computer. At that point, I stopped using the original computer and started using another one that tested with no RAM issues.

On the new computer, I actually did use ddrescue to copy the 2TB drive to the 4TB drive, but when that was completely successful with 0 errors on the first pass, I figured I would go ahead and reattempt my "Plan A" and use MFS Tools 3.2 to try doing the copy again.

And this time, the copy using MFS Tools 3.2 went perfectly with 0 errors.

The ggieseke image sounds like it would be a good next step to attempt if the reboots continue. I'm not sure what all is involved in using such an image, but I'm sure it would be another learning experience. :blush:


----------



## ggieseke

If you have to go that route you would basically be building a factory XL drive from an image that I made in 2013 using your 2TB drive and DvrBARS. It would still show a 1TB capacity at that point. After putting it back in the TiVo and letting it update to the latest OS you would have to pull it again and use MFSTools 3.2 to expand copy and expand it to the 4TB drive.

All of your settings and recordings would be lost. Let me know if you need the image, but hopefully the reboots don't come back.


----------



## djwilso

ggieseke said:


> If you have to go that route you would basically be building a factory XL drive from an image that I made in 2013 using your 2TB drive and DvrBARS. It would still show a 1TB capacity at that point. After putting it back in the TiVo and letting it update to the latest OS you would have to pull it again and use MFSTools 3.2 to expand copy and expand it to the 4TB drive.
> 
> All of your settings and recordings would be lost. Let me know if you need the image, but hopefully the reboots don't come back.


Thanks for this; I appreciate it. It has been up for 1.5 days at this point so I am tentatively optimistic. I will let you know if I need to attempt going this route.


----------



## MediaWiz

jkozee said:


> Announcing the release of MFS Tools 3.2!
> 
> "MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary." I'll let you can choose your own adjective for MFS Tools 3.2.
> 
> *Highlights*
> 
> Supports Series 1 through Roamio (and perhaps beyond).
> Backwards compatible with MFS Tools v1 and v2.
> Supports 8 TB on Premiere (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
> Supports 8 TB on Roamio (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
> Backup and restore (or drive-drive using mfscopy) single or dual drive setups, and preserve recordings if you choose.
> Supersize the drive, which can be reversed even after GSOD.
> You can include the alternate boot/kernel/root partitions (useful for customized partition layouts).
> Automatically includes required loopset files (you no longer need to use the -f flags during backup) when not including recordings (truncated backup)
> Automatically prunes recordings when a truncated backup is done (sets the MFS flags to cleanup, so the unit will scan objects on startup)
> Works on drives that have been marked for cleanup (GSOD).
> Creates a new MFS structure, so drives that have been expanded by adding pairs can be consolidated to just two pairs, just like the original.
> Restore to drives smaller than the original.
> 
> *Overview*
> MFS Tools v3.2 is a set of utilities that allow one to backup/restore/copy/supersize a TiVo drive, without losing recordings, and to expand recording space to take advantage of larger drives. Additionally, there are options that allow more advanced features and finer grain control over the TiVo drive. For example, there are options to revalidate the drive to the Linux kernel, so the partitions can be mounted or copied. The ability to increase/decrease swap, var, SQLite partition sizes on restore. Limit the amount of used space of the drive, limit media partition size, add app/media partition sets, convert between 32-bit and 64-bit MFS layouts, etc, etc, etc. Please take the time to review all of the utilities and their options to fully appreciate what the tools have to offer.
> 
> *Thanks*
> A special thanks to Tiger, the original pioneer of MFS. And to all those that contribute here and on other sites that have helped me get the most out of my TiVo units.
> 
> *History* (unverified)
> Tiger released the original closed source project in 2001, followed by 2.0 in 2002. In 2004, he released the source code under GPL, and made it available on sourceforge, and announced that he had no plans to continue work on it. He hen returned for a three month period in 2005 and a two month period in 2008 to work on a major update to version 3, with some ambitious new functionality and 64-bit MFS support for the TiVo HD. It has remained in this untested, almost functional, but overlooked state since then.
> 
> I received a some anonymous patches that fixed a few bugs, added Premier handling, and got things mostly working one. Since then, I've refined the Premiere support, added Roamio support, added some new utilities, deprecated a few options and added a few more, and cleaned up and debugged the code a bit.
> 
> Although there are several new tools, features, options, etc., available in 3.2, there was a fundamental change in the the way the MFS is handled. A simplified explanation is that in v1, the MFS is treated as a whole, and the entire structure is duplicated based on the used blocks. In v3, the inodes and data is copied individually, and during restore the MFS structure is recreated, the inodes and data blocks are allocated, and the inode and data is copied to the new locations.
> 
> The downside is that v3 backup/restore is not quite as fast as v1. The upside is that the MFS Media Partitions can now be re-sized, which is a pretty big advantage. Because v1 copied all MFS pairs, the number of times a drive could be backed/restored and then expanded to take advantage of additional disk space was limited. With v3, the restore process creates a drive with only two MFS app/data pairs, just like the original drive, no matter how many pairs the original drive had. And yes, you can now restore to a smaller drive than the original drive (provided the smaller drive has enough space for the recordings or you truncate it).
> 
> *Notes*
> Every effort has been made to keep these tools as robust as possible. I have done limited testing (confirmed boot/operation, but not filled drives to capacity) on units from Series 1 through Roamio. The tools can still backup/restore using the original v1 backup format, and should work with existing backups.
> 
> I have deprecated several options, and will probably deprecate more to reduce the number of options for novice users. Some of the deprecated options (and additional debug options) will still be available with custom builds.
> 
> I have only tested with drives up to 4 TB, but there's been mention of Roamios supporting larger drives with 20.4.6 or later. I was able to setup a Premiere with 8 TB (dual 4 TB drives), but had to limit the media partitions to 2 TB max. This unit passed a forced MFS fsfix scan (GSOD) without issue.
> 
> *Todo*
> I still have a few things I would like to add, such as adding SW version, original swap/var/db size to the backup header (extrainfo). I would also like to do some testing with larger drives and additional units.
> 
> *Known Limitations*
> Currently, the largest boot drive supported is 4TB (Premiere and newer, 2TB for THD). Backups of drives with the either of the first two app/media partitions is not supported.
> 
> *Attachment*
> The iso image has been removed from sourceforge temporarily to address some of the issues reported in this thread regarding large drives.
> Please go to sourceforge for the latest release.


Where can I download a binary (ISO) of MFS Tools 3.2? I tried going to the link above on SourceForge, but it only seems to contain the source. I also tried following the link on the SourceForge page to the "MSF Tools" web page, but the only ISO file contains version 2.


----------



## PrimeRisk

MediaWiz said:


> Where can I download a binary (ISO) of MFS Tools 3.2? I tried going to the link above on SourceForge, but it only seems to contain the source. I also tried following the link on the SourceForge page to the "MSF Tools" web page, but the only ISO file contains version 2.


jmbach put it in post #131 of this thread...link is below to his post with his images.

MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## internetsoncomps

PrimeRisk said:


> jmbach put it in post #131 of this thread...link is below to his post with his images.
> 
> MFS Tools 3.2


Has anyone used a wd re drive in a tivo? Is that overkill? I have a 4tb re laying around (although it's technically a spare for my nas-I haven't needed to replace a drive in the raid in quite some time so may want to hold on to it). I was going to use a couple wd 3tb reds for my 2 premiere xls whose hard drive are on the fritz but also remembered I had that one.


----------



## ggieseke

The Reds (not the 7200RPM Red Pros) are probably the most recommended drive here since WD killed the AV-rated Green (EURX) line. There are LOTS of them in TiVos, all the way up to 8TB.


----------



## internetsoncomps

ggieseke said:


> The Reds (not the 7200RPM Red Pros) are probably the most recommended drive here since WD killed the AV-rated Green (EURX) line. There are LOTS of them in TiVos, all the way up to 8TB.


I did one copy to 3tb from a 1tb new image you gave me that I then updated to new version and then did the mfstools on (I think it worked although haven't checked much yet-just that the tivo boots up and shows up in my devices again). Thanks much!

If I am going to put a 3tb in another of the same model Premiere XL do I have to start from scratch with the original image or can I just do the mfstools again on the updated 1tb to another 3tb drive? Would the updating process and connecting to tivo servers when I put the 1tb back in the box be specific to that serial number or anything? I do have a lot of shows on the not-yet-upgraded premiere xl but the hard drive or expander or both are really giving me problems, so not sure if I would even be able to back them all up and copy them to the 3tb.


----------



## jmbach

If you use that recently updated image you just used for upgrading the last TiVo for this other TiVo, you will have to run a clear and delete everything on the image once it boots up to be functional on that TiVo. 

However, it will take a little time but if the total recorders shows are under 3TB and you hook up the TiVo drive, the extender drive, and the 3TB drive up at the same time, you could use MFSTools 3.2 to copy all your recorded shows to the 3TB drive.


----------



## JimWall

I have a series 3 HD rebooting randomly so I want to copy over to new drives. It has two 1 TB drives and I want to copy to a single internal 2 TB drive. mfs 3.2 shows command line 
Usage: ./mfscopy [options] SourceA[:SourceB] DestA[estB] so is the correct command line mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc where sda and sdb are the 2 source drives and sdc is the new single target drive?


----------



## jmbach

JimWall said:


> I have a series 3 HD rebooting randomly so I want to copy over to new drives. It has two 1 TB drives and I want to copy to a single internal 2 TB drive. mfs 3.2 shows command line
> Usage: ./mfscopy [options] SourceA[:SourceB] DestA[estB] so is the correct command line mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc where sda and sdb are the 2 source drives and sdc is the new single target drive?


I believe the command should be mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc. There is a distinct possibility that when you copy the drive, you may be copying the booting issue as well.


----------



## JimWall

jmbach said:


> I believe the command should be mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc. There is a distinct possibility that when you copy the drive, you may be copying the booting issue as well.


Thanks! I wondered about the :. I will give it a try. Right now I waiting on a dd_rescue of the external drive. dd_rescue is getting DMA retries reading the drive at 700 MB transferred. I yesterday I did get an error on the TIVO that the external storage is missing. I did a cold boot and the TIVO booted fine. I watched 2 hours of shows with no issues. Then I shut it down and moved the external drive to a PC to do the dd_rescue. I did check drive with HD sentinal which reported the drive surface is excellent. But things can go bad due to heat after running the dd_rescue for hours with the drive and/or estata case.


----------



## JimWall

JimWall said:


> Thanks! I wondered about the :. I will give it a try. Right now I waiting on a dd_rescue of the external drive. dd_rescue is getting DMA retries reading the drive at 700 MB transferred. I yesterday I did get an error on the TIVO that the external storage is missing. I did a cold boot and the TIVO booted fine. I watched 2 hours of shows with no issues. Then I shut it down and moved the external drive to a PC to do the dd_rescue. I did check drive with HD sentinal which reported the drive surface is excellent. But things can go bad due to heat after running the dd_rescue for hours with the drive and/or estata case.


dd_rescue slowed to a crawl so I stopped it. Removed drive from esata case and hooked it up directly. dd_rescue ran with no errors. I have started mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc using the A and B 1 TB drives pulled from the Series 3 HD to a 2 TB drive.


----------



## ClearToLand

JimWall said:


> *dd_rescue slowed to a crawl so I stopped it. Removed drive from esata case and hooked it up directly.* dd_rescue ran with no errors. I have started mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc using the A and B 1 TB drives pulled from the Series 3 HD to a 2 TB drive.


Just out of curiosity, what was the eSATA case plugged into:
eSATA port ADDED to your desktop?
plugged into existing motherboard SATA port
- just a bracket added to extend internal ports to external
plugged into add-on SATA card port
with external eSATA port(s)
using a bracket to extend internal ports to external


eSATA port included with desktop?
Other?
- Did the external eSATA socket on the external HDD case connect DIRECTLY to the HDD?
Since my Win7 desktop *AND* laptop both have 'bad' HDDs, I'm using my 'trusty ole' Vista 32-bit 3GB RAM desktop for EVERYTHING while I assemble / build / repair / setup both OLD and NEW Win7 64-bit Home and Pro desktops and laptops.

While I was afraid to touch ANYTHING on it initially, I've since gotten some courage and added:
Intel Gigabit NIC
SYBA 4-Port USB3.0
Monoprice (sIl 3132) 2-Port SATA II
along with discovering, and using, HWinfo32.

The point that I'm leading up to, in my old-fashioned, storytelling, OCD way, is that HWinfo32 made me aware of which devices were on which buses, whether or not these devices / buses were operating at their full capacity (i.e. my motherboard's 6 SATA ports are rated @ 300 / II but HWinfo32 says that they're only operating at @ 150 / I) or if I was saturating them, and finally if I could possibly move things around to 'spread the load'.

I also keep a 'Resource Monitor' window open 24x7 with the drop-downs for both CPU and DISK expanded. My poor little Intel e2200 is ALWAYS @ 100% and Process Explorer shows me that over 50% of that is 'Interrupts' so, as I inferred earlier, this 'trusty ole' desktop (Passmark = 1201) is working its little heart out. My NEW desktop is a HP Z230 Workstation with an i5-4590 (Passmark = 7220) with Win7 Pro 64-bit and 16GB RAM.

Would you mind describing your hardware in more detail?

Thanks!

An ENTIRE post *WITHOUT* one Smilie - can you believe it?!?


----------



## JimWall

The drive enclosure is about 10 years old so it has been working for a long time.
Sabrent USB 2.0 TO SATA/SATA II Aluminum Enclosure With Cooling Fan | EC-UEIS7
Enclosure accepts estata and usb 2.0. Inside there are sata and IDE connectors for the internal drive so the circuit board between must have some logic in it.
I connected the enclosure using a esata bracket with its cable connected to one internal sata port.
I built the desktop with a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 MB with 6 internal sata ports. Manual date is 2014. It refers to the the sata ports as the same even though 4 are in one location on the MB and 2 are in another.
It has an 8 core AMD CPU. During dd_rescue the CPU peaked at a little more than 10%
I used linux/mfs 1.4 boot cd to run dd_rescue.
I have done several dd_rescues in the past with this machine and new drive always worked in TIVO.
I did the rescues after TIVO got very slow with pixelation and/or random rebooting.
mfs 3.2 copy from two 1 TB drives to one 2 TB drive has a few more hours to run. Appears to have no issues so far.
I looked for dd_rescue on the 3.2 boot cd and could not find it.


----------



## ClearToLand

Attachment #1:


JimWall said:


> The drive enclosure is...



Attachment #2:


JimWall said:


> The drive enclosure is about 10 years old so it has been working for a long time.
> Sabrent USB 2.0 TO SATA/SATA II Aluminum Enclosure With Cooling Fan | EC-UEIS7
> I built the desktop with a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 MB with 6 internal sata ports. Manual date is 2014. It refers to the the sata ports as the same even though 4 are in one location on the MB and 2 are in another...



What did you mean to attach?


JimWall said:


> ...I have done several dd_rescues in the past with this machine and new drive always worked in TIVO.
> I did the rescues after TIVO got very slow with pixelation and/or random rebooting.
> mfs 3.2 copy from two 1 TB drives to one 2 TB drive has a few more hours to run. Appears to have no issues so far.
> I looked for dd_rescue on the 3.2 boot cd and could not find it.


I'm trying to understand / figure out why dd_rescue slowed to a crawl when the new HDD was in the Sabrent eSATA / USB2 case. I've seen my 'antique' system slow down while using the 'built-in' USB2 connections and also when transferring USB3-to-USB3 (both devices plugged into the one 4-Port USB3 PCIe card) limits their speed. But copying from a 2nd SATA II HDD plugged into the Monoprice SATA II controller PCIe card to an external USB3 HDD on the 4-port USB3 card is (usually) really fast (limited only by the CPU). The transfer speeds indicated by Windows Explorer don't match those in 'Resource Monitor', but that's Microsoft for ya...

If you're curious too, after you're done with your TiVo project, pop another SATA HDD drive into the Sabrent external HDD enclosure and run *CrystalDiskMark Portable*.

Congrats on your FIRST 'Like' in 15 years!


----------



## JimWall

JimWall said:


> dd_rescue slowed to a crawl so I stopped it. Removed drive from esata case and hooked it up directly. dd_rescue ran with no errors. I have started mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc using the A and B 1 TB drives pulled from the Series 3 HD to a 2 TB drive.


copy finished. But with an ETA of 14 seconds there was an error like Source: out of space on video stream. Sorry I didn't write it down. I pulled the 2 TB drive anyway and put it in the Tivo series 3 HD. It booted to the almost there screen and after several minutes a blank screen and rebooted. After a couple times of doing that I did a kickstart 58. After reboot I got the installing service update screen. Then it rebooted. After the almost there screen it went blank and rebooted again.
I then did a dd_rescue of the 1 TB A drive to a new 1 TB drive.
I did some errands and when I returned it was finished. I used a 2 MB soft block size and it did get an error and fell back to the hard block size to finish the copy.
I put the new A drive and current B drive (back in its enclosure) into the Tivo and it booted fine.
It has now been 4 days and no reboot issues so dd_rescue of A drive seemed to fix the issue.


----------



## JimWall

I did a backup to a USB drive before putting the drives back into the Tivo.
I had to try different usb ports to find one recognized by suse linux.
I didn't find an example with mfs 3.2 so here is what I did
mkdir /dos
mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /dos
backup -6sio /dos/hd2.bak /dev/sda /dev/sdb
backup file is almost 2 GB


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## jmbach

Will see what I can do about getting ddrescue on the iso. 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

Added dd_rescue and ddrescue to the ISO and links are updated.


----------



## jlt822

Hello all. New to the TiVo
Community. I'm trying to upgrade my roamio plus from 1tb to a 3tb wd av gp drive. I've run into an issue that I don't think anyone else has had or maybe I overlooked someone posting. I've tried to copy the source drive with both the live CD iso and the USB raw file. MFSTools boots and I am able
To login and check the locations of the drives. I used mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb. The copy process starts and continues for somewhere around an hour (eta 7 hrs to copy 900gb) and then MFStools seems to just restart without completing the copy. I didn't format the target drive before attempting the copy. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong? Bad copy of mfstools? Thanks for any help


----------



## jmbach

jlt822 said:


> Hello all. New to the TiVo
> Community. I'm trying to upgrade my roamio plus from 1tb to a 3tb wd av gp drive. I've run into an issue that I don't think anyone else has had or maybe I overlooked someone posting. I've tried to copy the source drive with both the live CD iso and the USB raw file. MFSTools boots and I am able
> To login and check the locations of the drives. I used mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb. The copy process starts and continues for somewhere around an hour (eta 7 hrs to copy 900gb) and then MFStools seems to just restart without completing the copy. I didn't format the target drive before attempting the copy. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong? Bad copy of mfstools? Thanks for any help


Hmm. Does your BIOS have a power saving setting? 
How are the drives connected to your computer.


----------



## lpwcomp

Did you test the new drive?


----------



## jlt822

jmbach said:


> Hmm. Does your BIOS have a power saving setting?
> How are the drives connected to your computer.


Thanks for your quick reply jmbach! I had initially thought it was a power saving issue also and checked the bios and didn't see any setting that would put anything to sleep after a given amount of time. Maybe I missed it. It's a gigabyte mb (h61n-USB 3). The drives are connected to the internal sata ports. I re downloaded the live CD and burned a new copy of it. It's working now and seems to have gotten further than the previous four attempts. I'm at 30% so maybe it will go through.


----------



## jlt822

lpwcomp said:


> Did you test the new drive?


I didn't. What's the best way to test? I thought I read somewhere that the new drive shouldn't be touched prior to the copy so I didn't. Thanks for your help!


----------



## lpwcomp

Gigabyte MBs have a bad habit of putting a BIOS backup into an HPA of the first connected HD.


----------



## lpwcomp

jlt822 said:


> I didn't. What's the best way to test? I thought I read somewhere that the new drive shouldn't be touched prior to the copy so I didn't. Thanks for your help!


New drives should always be tested before using them. In your case. you should use the WD tests. I don't know if the tests are on the MFS tools 3.2 boot disk or not. I believe they _*are*_ on the Ultimate Boot CD.


----------



## jlt822

lpwcomp said:


> New drives should always be tested before using them. In your case. you should use the WD tests. I don't know if the tests are on the MFS tools 3.2 boot disk or not. I believe they _*are*_ on the Ultimate Boot CD.


Thanks. Latest run just failed again at 40% and MFStools restarted. I guess I'll test the drive and see what I can do about using another computer if the gigabyte board is causing trouble. The one I'm using is my only PC, I have a Mac mini.


----------



## jmbach

jlt822 said:


> Thanks. Latest run just failed again at 40% and MFStools restarted. I guess I'll test the drive and see what I can do about using another computer if the gigabyte board is causing trouble. The one I'm using is my only PC, I have a Mac mini.


Test the drive. Usually the manufacturer diagnostic is sufficient if you run all the tests. Especially the extended read and write tests.

MFSTools should be able to work on a Mac mini as well.


----------



## jlt822

jmbach said:


> Test the drive. Usually the manufacturer diagnostic is sufficient if you run all the tests. Especially the extended read and write tests.
> 
> MFSTools should be able to work on a Mac mini as well.


Thanks. I'll test the drive and try to run MFStools through the Mac mini and connect the drives through USB externally. I will report back. Thanks again for everyone's help. I appreciate it.


----------



## jlt822

jmbach said:


> Test the drive. Usually the manufacturer diagnostic is sufficient if you run all the tests. Especially the extended read and write tests.
> 
> MFSTools should be able to work on a Mac mini as well.


Drive was/is good. Copy went through fine last night using MFSTools with the Mac mini. The gigabyte board must have interfered in some way. I never did see what the actual error code was or if there even was one. MFSTools would just restart itself at random times. Hope this helps someone down the line.

New drive works great. No restarts, kickstarts or missing guide data. Everything was there and working flawlessly. Thanks for the help in getting this done!


----------



## JimWall

the attaches were errors due to laptop I was using was doing a screen shot instead of paste text. 
I did do the dd_rescue using one of the 2 internal sata ports and one of the other internal 4 sata ports located elsewhere on the MB. It appears the two sata come up as hdc, hdd like old ide drives using udma etc. The 4 sata ports come up sda, sdb etc. So the DMA error may be an issue with the linux drivers loaded with the OLD mfs 1.4 cd. The later dd_rescue I did with my A drive that worked fine and very fast was with the 4 sata port group which were sda, sdb and no udma etc.


----------



## airauto

I downloaded MFSTools 3.2 ISO Live ISO and burnt it to disk. When I boot up it gives me a message this is a 32 bit machine. Cannot use 64 bit software, then my only option is to reboot. I thought the iso was for both 32 and 64 machines. I am using a laptop 32 bit machine because my 64 has only usb3 connections and I read here there are problems with a usb3 docking station plugged into usb3 ports. I'm not familiar with linux. I only know windows. I have a Premier series 4 TCD750500. I want to upgrade the hard drive to 2 TB. Any help?


----------



## jmbach

airauto said:


> I downloaded MFSTools 3.2 ISO Live ISO and burnt it to disk. When I boot up it gives me a message this is a 32 bit machine. Cannot use 64 bit software, then my only option is to reboot. I thought the iso was for both 32 and 64 machines. I am using a laptop 32 bit machine because my 64 has only usb3 connections and I read here there are problems with a usb3 docking station plugged into usb3 ports. I'm not familiar with linux. I only know windows. I have a Premier series 4 TCD750500. I want to upgrade the hard drive to 2 TB. Any help?


I will see what I can do get it to boot on both 64 bit and 32 bit computers. It used to be a 32 bit platform but openSUSE has EOL the 32 bit platform.

In the mean time, consider running MFSTools through VirtualBox on your Windows computer. That is the way I currently run it. You may or may not run into problems with USB3. It depends on the drive and dock you are using. You can try it while I am trying to figure out how to get the ISO to boot in both 32bit and 64bit computers.


----------



## airauto

Thanks, I'll play around with it. See what happens.


----------



## BillofSpfld

Trying to backup a 1TB premiere drive. The program terminates in error with the error message that the backup file does not exist. That occurs after copying some 3700 Mbytes or so. The backup file that is written indicates a size of 2.1GB. I have been able to get it terminate correctly by using -6svdo options (1.6TB file size), but I would prefer a complete backup. It appears that I am running up against a maximum file size problem but I am using an ext4 formatted hard drive. Anyone with any ideas?? thanks


----------



## jmbach

BillofSpfld said:


> Trying to backup a 1TB premiere drive. The program terminates in error with the error message that the backup file does not exist. That occurs after copying some 3700 Mbytes or so. The backup file that is written indicates a size of 2.1GB. I have been able to get it terminate correctly by using -6svdo options (1.6TB file size), but I would prefer a complete backup. It appears that I am running up against a maximum file size problem but I am using an ext4 formatted hard drive. Anyone with any ideas?? thanks


Is the MFSTools image you are using recently downloaded as I have fixed a few things. 
How did you mount the drive inside the MFSTools image.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## BillofSpfld

I am not sure how old the image was. Where can I get the most recent? 

I copied the tools from the image to a computer that is running SuSE Linux and ran the backup tool on that machine using a USB port to connect to the TIVO drive. I used fdisk to tell me the /dev/ name of the TIVO drive which I entered as a parameter of the backup program. 

I don't understand what you mean by how I mounted the drive inside the MFSTools image.


----------



## jmbach

Was not sure if you just booted the ISO and ran MFSTools from there. If you did, then you would need to mount the drive you are saving on. Since you copied the tools to a computer already running OpenSuSE. then that is no longer an issue.
I update my post with the latest images last week. If you download the tools from my post, transfer them to your computer running openSuSE and if you still have that problem, then I will need to look closer as to why the backup fails.


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## BillofSpfld

I will download the latest from 4/19/17 when I get back in town and try again. Thanks for your continued interest, it sure is a big help.


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## BillofSpfld

Every utility works well with the latest download. Thanks so much jmbach...


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## airauto

How do you load the MFSTools tar.gz file into Open SuSE?
Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

If you are using the Thumb drive/ HDD image you unpack the image completely and then copy the raw file to a hard drive / USB Thumb drive using dd in Linux or HDD raw Copy tool in windows. 

Alternatively you can just extract the executables out of the /usr/local/bin directory on the image and place them in the directory of choice in your Linux OS.


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## TheCryptkeeper

Thank you for sharing all this valuable information. I've read through this entire thread taking notes. I'm not well versed in Linux. I've been experimenting with MFSTools 3.2 both booting off the ISO CD in Legacy and in Virtual Box on a Windows 10 PC and on a MacBook Pro running OS Sierra. It seems like there's less of a learning curve booting in Legacy mode. 

I can't recall if this situation was already covered in this thread. What specific syntax would I use to copy an existing 3TB drive with an external 1 TB DVR expander to a 4 TB Drive and a new 8 TB External drive for a TiVo Roamio? Is the syntax the same for Bolts? I have both a Roamio and Bolt with expander drives I'd like to upgrade.


----------



## jmbach

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Thank you for sharing all this valuable information. I've read through this entire thread taking notes. I'm not well versed in Linux. I've been experimenting with MFSTools 3.2 both booting off the ISO CD in Legacy and in Virtual Box on a Windows 10 PC and on a MacBook Pro running OS Sierra. It seems like there's less of a learning curve booting in Legacy mode.
> 
> I can't recall if this situation was already covered in this thread. What specific syntax would I use to copy an existing 3TB drive with an external 1 TB DVR expander to a 4 TB Drive and a new 8 TB External drive for a TiVo Roamio? Is the syntax the same for Bolts? I have both a Roamio and Bolt with expander drives I'd like to upgrade.


Syntax is the same across all TiVos. Assuming sdX is your 3TB, sdY is your 1TB external, and sdZ is you 4TB target drive the syntax is mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX:/dev/sdY /dev/sdZ.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

jmbach said:


> Syntax is the same across all TiVos. Assuming sdX is your 3TB, sdY is your 1TB external, and sdZ is you 4TB target drive the syntax is mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX:/dev/sdY /dev/sdZ.


Yes, but can a new 8 TB external also be added, copying from the two original disks (the 3 TB internal and 1 TB external) and upgrading to two larger target disks (4TB internal and 8TB external)?

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## TheCryptkeeper

Would this be the correct syntax: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda/dev/sdb:/dev/sdc /dev/sdd?

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

You have to do the copy in one stage and then adding the expansion drive in the second stage. 

My example command will get the two drives into one drive. When that is done you boot it in your TiVo. If you get a red screen, then power cycle the TiVo and run a Kickstart 58 on boot up. It will say installing an update followed by a reboot and green screen and finally will reboot and boot normally. Once you get to that stage, we can add the 8TB drive.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

jmbach said:


> You have to do the copy in one stage and then adding the expansion drive in the second stage.
> 
> My example command will get the two drives into one drive. When that is done you boot it in your TiVo. If you get a red screen, then power cycle the TiVo and run a Kickstart 58 on boot up. It will say installing an update followed by a reboot and green screen and finally will reboot and boot normally. Once you get to that stage, we can add the 8TB drive.


Great. That makes sense. I'll update you on the results. Thank you for your help.


----------



## airauto

jmbach said:


> If you are using the Thumb drive/ HDD image you unpack the image completely and then copy the raw file to a hard drive / USB Thumb drive using dd in Linux or HDD raw Copy tool in windows.
> 
> Alternatively you can just extract the executables out of the /usr/local/bin directory on the image and place them in the directory of choice in your Linux OS.


I'm not familiar with Linux, so I don't know what to do with the image file in order to get to the /usr/local/bin directory. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

airauto said:


> I'm not familiar with Linux, so I don't know what to do with the image file in order to get to the /usr/local/bin directory. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks.


If you are not familiar with Linux, just burn the ISO to a CD and run MFSTools off of there.


----------



## airauto

I've already done this, but it won't run on a 32 bit machine.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Can MFSTools 3.2 and MFSR be used together?


----------



## ClearToLand

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Can MFSTools 3.2 and MFSR be used together?


Good Question! :thumbsup:

I have WD 3TB and 4TB Red HDDs waiting for the summer doldrums so that I can replace the existing 500GB HDDs in my Roamio Basic and OTA. I haven't spent much time researching 'Advanced Format' but aligning the sectors *AND* copying the existing drives *IS* something that I've been thinking about for a few months now.

Thanks for asking the question - now let's see what the answer turns out to be...


----------



## jmbach

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Can MFSTools 3.2 and MFSR be used together?


You can use MFSTools 3.2 to add an external drive to a MFSR formatted drive.


----------



## ClearToLand

ClearToLand said:


> Good Question! :thumbsup:
> 
> I have WD 3TB and 4TB Red HDDs waiting for the summer doldrums so that I can replace the existing 500GB HDDs in my Roamio Basic and OTA. I haven't spent much time researching 'Advanced Format' but *aligning the sectors *AND* copying the existing drives *IS* something that I've been thinking about for a few months now*.
> 
> Thanks for asking the question - now let's see what the answer turns out to be...





jmbach said:


> You can use MFSTools 3.2 to *add an external drive* to a MFSR formatted drive.


I don't believe that that is the question @TheCryptkeeper and I are asking (since he 'Liked' my post, I'm assuming...).

What I / we would like to do is:
Take a brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and run WD DLG diagnostics on it.
- If it passes....
Load up MFSR and 'align the sectors'.
- once the brand-new EMPTY HDD is 'aligned'...
Load up MFSTools 3.2 and copy the contents of an original (500GB) TiVo HDD (currently residing inside my Roamio Basic and OTA) onto the 'aligned' brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and then 'expand' the drive that TiVo will see from the current (500GB) to the full (?TB) capacity of the brand-new HDD.
- if the copy / 'expand' operation is successful...
Install the brand-new HDD into our TiVo(s) and pickup from right where we left off when the original (500GB) HDD was in there.
I'm fairly confident that @TheCryptkeeper will either refute this or 'Like' it. :handok:


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

ClearToLand said:


> I don't believe that that is the question @TheCryptkeeper and I are asking (since he 'Liked' my post, I'm assuming...).
> 
> What I / we would like to do is:
> 
> Take a brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and run WD DLG diagnostics on it.
> - If it passes....
> Load up MFSR and 'align the sectors'.
> - once the brand-new EMPTY HDD is 'aligned'...
> Load up MFSTools 3.2 and copy the contents of an original (500GB) TiVo HDD (currently residing inside my Roamio Basic and OTA) onto the 'aligned' brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and then 'expand' the drive that TiVo will see from the current (500GB) to the full (?TB) capacity of the brand-new HDD.
> - if the copy / 'expand' operation is successful...
> Install the brand-new HDD into our TiVo(s) and pickup from right where we left off when the original (500GB) HDD was in there.
> I'm fairly confident that @TheCryptkeeper will either refute this or 'Like' it. :handok:


I have a Roamio Basic I'd like to upgrade this way. But I also have a new 500 GB Bolt coming on Friday. After I replace the factory HD in that with a 3TB one, I'd like to run MFSR on it and then add an 8TB external drive using MFSTools 3.2.


----------



## ClearToLand

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I have a Roamio Basic I'd like to upgrade this way. But I also have a new 500 GB Bolt coming on Friday. *After I replace the factory HD in that with a 3TB one, I'd like to run MFSR on it and then add an 8TB external drive using MFSTools 3.2*.


*OUCH!* 

Are you *SURE* that you want to "marry" an external HDD to an internal HDD? 
.
Are you aware of the ramifications? (If *EITHER* one "_craps its pants_", you lose *EVERYTHING*!) 
.
How about a nice:
NAS running off a PC? :thumbsup:
External HDD running off (let's say) a Netgear router w/ ReadyNAS? :handok:
*ANYTHING* besides 'marrying' the HDDs. 

Looks like it's "Fun With Smilies" night - just trying to dissuade someone from a potential future disaster...


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> I don't believe that that is the question @TheCryptkeeper and I are asking (since he 'Liked' my post, I'm assuming...).
> 
> What I / we would like to do is:
> Take a brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and run WD DLG diagnostics on it.
> - If it passes....
> Load up MFSR and 'align the sectors'.
> - once the brand-new EMPTY HDD is 'aligned'...
> Load up MFSTools 3.2 and copy the contents of an original (500GB) TiVo HDD (currently residing inside my Roamio Basic and OTA) onto the 'aligned' brand-new (WD ?TB Red NAS) HDD and then 'expand' the drive that TiVo will see from the current (500GB) to the full (?TB) capacity of the brand-new HDD.
> - if the copy / 'expand' operation is successful...
> Install the brand-new HDD into our TiVo(s) and pickup from right where we left off when the original (500GB) HDD was in there.
> I'm fairly confident that @TheCryptkeeper will either refute this or 'Like' it. :handok:


Unfortunately that is the only answer I can give you at this time.

To clarify the procedure you outlined.

After you certify the drive, you begin the process of using MFSR. When you use MFSR you are not only aligning the inodes but also expanding the drive at the same time. You are wanting to use MFSTools to copy recordings, CableCARD pairings, and other miscellaneous data from the source drive to the already expanded and aligned target drive and use it in the TiVo.

Currently MFSTools does not have the capability to copy without overwriting the target drive. That capability you are wanting is something I have thought about since MFSR came out. Just have not had a large enough block of time to look into it.


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> *OUCH!*
> 
> Are you *SURE* that you want to "marry" an external HDD to an internal HDD?
> .
> Are you aware of the ramifications? (If *EITHER* one "_craps its pants_", you lose *EVERYTHING*!)
> .
> How about a nice:
> NAS running off a PC?
> External HDD running off (let's say) a Netgear router w/ ReadyNAS? :handok:
> *ANYTHING* besides 'marrying' the HDDs.
> 
> Looks like it's "Fun With Smilies" night - just trying to dissuade someone from a potential future disaster...


Actually that is exactly what I have done. Yes it is another point of failure and I have for years avoided that kind of setup. However with the paucity of large mobile hard drives and not wanting to modify my case to add an externalized internal hard drive, I made my choice. I do back up my shows on my NAS in case something does go wrong. Unfortunately because of the copy protection not all shows can be backed up. If TiVo ever fixes the bug in their OS that limits MFS partitions to 2TiB, I would consider externalizing the internal drive with a large RAID. But that is only a dream at this time.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> Unfortunately that is the only answer I can give you at this time.
> 
> To clarify the procedure you outlined.
> 
> After you certify the drive, you begin the process of using MFSR. When you use MFSR you are not only aligning the inodes but also expanding the drive at the same time. *You are wanting to use MFSTools to copy recordings, CableCARD pairings, and other miscellaneous data from the source drive to the already expanded and aligned target drive and use it in the TiVo*.
> 
> Currently MFSTools does not have the capability to copy without overwriting the target drive. *That capability you are wanting is something I have thought about since MFSR came out*. Just have not had a large enough block of time to look into it.


Yep, as highlighted above in the QUOTE, we are both on the same page. :thumbsup:

Up until just recently, *ALL* of my recordings were '_Unprotected_ ' and I could freely move them either between Roamios, or offload them onto a PC. Now, in kmttg, certain shows are '*brown*' and cannot be moved from the '_originally-recorded-on _' TiVo so I can't copy them, along with my Season Passes, etc... to a PC, 'align' the HDD, change / upgrade the HDD, and restore things back to the '_way they were_ '.

Thanks for the reply! Maybe you'll find a block of time BEFORE the '_summer doldrums _', when I plan to do my HDD upgrades X 2 (Basic and OTA).


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> Actually that is exactly what I have done. Yes it is another point of failure and I have for years avoided that kind of setup. However with the paucity of large mobile hard drives and not wanting to modify my case to add an externalized internal hard drive, I made my choice. I do back up my shows on my NAS in case something does go wrong. *Unfortunately because of the copy protection not all shows can be backed up*. If TiVo ever fixes the bug in their OS that limits MFS partitions to 2TiB, I would consider externalizing the internal drive with a large RAID. But that is only a dream at this time.


I have two series, one on HBO, the other on FX, that, due to my improved mental attitude regarding my serious health problem, I no longer can keep up with viewing (I went from depressed 'Couch Potato' @ 18+ hours / day back to Wild-and-Crazy 'Tinkerer / Nerd' @ ~2 hours / day; the mind is indeed a strange organ).

I started off just buying the Refurbished 500GB Roamio OTA w/ Lifetime (replaced the Mini v1 in the BR) to use as both a 'Mini' (I hardly NEVER watch LIVE TV) and to offload shows from my LR Refurbished 500GB Roamio Basic w/ Lifetime. This QUICKLY filled up so I was forced to use 'HTTPS://TiVo_IP' to PS / 'Slow' Format transfer files (I learned my lesson about TS / 'Fast' Format transfers  ) from the Basic and OTA to an external Toshiba Canvio 3TB USB 3.0 HDD that I added (along with the USB 3.0 card) to my '_ancient _' HP a6528p (Vista 32-bit, 3GB RAM). That one-by-one process soon became a tedious DAILY task so, using a Linux Boot CD, I was able to access my previous kmttg / pyTiVo setup on my currently dead HP G7-1310US laptop (2nd HDD failed), pull it over to the HP a6528p via my LAN and be back up-and-running in a few minutes. :thumbsup:

Somehow, though, the Toshiba 3TB is now reporting only 1TB free?!?  So, more and more 'UNprotected _stuff _' from the LR Basic keeps getting moved to either the BR OTA or the Toshiba 3TB. I look forward to upgrading them both to either 3TB or 4TB (I have several HDDs of both '_flavors _' now '_in stock _' since I've been catching every 'Hot Deal' since last Thanksgiving.  )

Well, enough for now - 'Chatty Cathy' here now needs to find an old (yet still UNanswered  ) question that I posed to @moyekj regarding the 'Web Server' in kmttg and how a solution '_magically _' presented itself to me today...


----------



## ClearToLand

ClearToLand said:


> TheCryptkeeper said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have a Roamio Basic I'd like to upgrade this way. But I also have a new 500 GB Bolt coming on Friday. After I replace the factory HD in that with a 3TB one, I'd like to run MFSR on it and then add an 8TB external drive using MFSTools 3.2.
> 
> 
> 
> *OUCH!*
> 
> Are you *SURE* that you want to "marry" an external HDD to an internal HDD?
> .
> Are you aware of the ramifications? (If *EITHER* one "_craps its pants_", you lose *EVERYTHING*!)
> .
> How about a nice:
> NAS running off a PC? :thumbsup:
> External HDD running off (let's say) a Netgear router w/ ReadyNAS? :handok:
> *ANYTHING* besides 'marrying' the HDDs.
> 
> Looks like it's "Fun With Smilies" night - just trying to dissuade someone from a potential future disaster...
Click to expand...

@TheCryptkeeper ,

Did I say something to offend? 
i.e. You've logged onto TCF since my post (re:'Marrying HDDs') but haven't replied...


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

ClearToLand said:


> @TheCryptkeeper ,
> 
> Did I say something to offend?
> i.e. You've logged onto TCF since my post (re:'Marrying HDDs') but haven't replied...


Nope, not at all. But Bolts are a unique beast because of their small size and the limitation in internal hard drive size. I see advantages and disadvantages to both methods and I've been undecided as to whether I want to alter the case or just utilize the eSATA and use two drives. With altering the case and utilizing an externalized internal hard drive, cloning the hard drive and keeping a backup would be easy. But I don't know if I want to cut into a brand new Bolt. It's a difficult decision.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

My Bolt 500 GB is arriving this evening and I want to verify the sequence of procedures I should use.

Place 3TB Toshiba drive inside the Bolt and let it format until it gets to Guided Setup. Remove the 3TB hard drive from Bolt and use MFSR to align. Place hard drive back in Bolt, complete setup and make sure everything works. Remove hard drive from Bolt and use MFSTools 3.2 to add 8TB WD Red external drive to 3TB drive. Reinstall/reconnect drives to Bolt. Install new cable card, tuning adapter and pair.


----------



## dougdingle

I have a general question about 'aligning' the drive with MFSR...

Has it actually been shown beyond the theory that doing this improves things, and if so, what things? 

I've never done it on my 3TB Roamio drives, and in several years of use I haven't see any performance issues.


----------



## jmbach

TheCryptkeeper said:


> My Bolt 500 GB is arriving this evening and I want to verify the sequence of procedures I should use.
> 
> Place 3TB Toshiba drive inside the Bolt and let it format until it gets to Guided Setup. Remove the 3TB hard drive from Bolt and use MFSR to align. Place hard drive back in Bolt, complete setup and make sure everything works. Remove hard drive from Bolt and use MFSTools 3.2 to add 8TB WD Red external drive to 3TB drive. Reinstall/reconnect drives to Bolt. Install new cable card, tuning adapter and pair.


Yes that is exactly the procedure you need to follow.


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> I have a general question about 'aligning' the drive with MFSR...
> 
> Has it actually been shown beyond the theory that doing this improves things, and if so, what things?
> 
> I've never done it on my 3TB Roamio drives, and in several years of use I haven't see any performance issues.


As far as I know, the only information available is theoretical. I think I saw some real world data on drives used in PCs that showed alignment improved throughput. But nothing specific to TiVos.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach said:


> As far as I know, the only information available is theoretical. I think I saw some real world data on drives used in PCs that showed alignment improved throughput. But nothing specific to TiVos.


I can see where data rates for sequential reads might improve somewhat with the alignment, but also point out that over the last several years, my 6 tuner Roamio Pro hasn't had any discernible issues that I can attribute to my unaligned WD Green and Red drives (I rotate drives every 90 days or so to spread out the wear and also to ensure that in case of a drive failure, I don't lose _*everything*_).


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

TheCryptkeeper said:


> My Bolt 500 GB is arriving this evening and I want to verify the sequence of procedures I should use.
> 
> Place 3TB Toshiba drive inside the Bolt and let it format until it gets to Guided Setup. Remove the 3TB hard drive from Bolt and use MFSR to align. Place hard drive back in Bolt, complete setup and make sure everything works. Remove hard drive from Bolt and use MFSTools 3.2 to add 8TB WD Red external drive to 3TB drive. Reinstall/reconnect drives to Bolt. Install new cable card, tuning adapter and pair.





jmbach said:


> Yes that is exactly the procedure you need to follow.


Thanks Jmbach, Ggieseke, et al. This worked without a hiccup. I now have something like 1749 HD recording hours on my new Bolt. Tomorrow morning Spectrum will bring the cable card and tuning adaptor and hopeful get them paired with the TiVo just as easily.


----------



## jsjurek

Hi need some advice on hard drive options to do an upgrade of an original Tivo Premiere (320GB). I really only need 2TB, so the 318 or so hours of HD that would give me is enough. Posts in this thread, the JMFS thread, and others indicate that the WD drives are best to use in a Tivo, and until recently the EURS and EURX (AV-GP) lines would have been my choice. I can still find a EURX on Amazon for about $75 but although it's Prime Eligible, it's fulfilled by a 3rd party vendor. I have read that these "green" lines have been discontinued so and others on these forums have said to never buy from 3rd party sellers on Amazon. 

Given that the green line seems to have been discontinued, can somebody provide a recommendation for what I should use now? Red or Purple? All the Red's seem to be for NAS and I'm not sure what that means as far as whether or not it would be a good choice for a Tivo. On Amazon & WD's site, these Red NAS drives are not even available to ship until May 31st so I'm hesitant to use a brand new product offering.

But what other choice do I have? I still would like to go with WD because of their wide usage in Tivo upgrades to date. 
Can anybody recommend a good WD drive (specific model)? I know oftentimes it's a matter of personal preference. I'm looking for something that will give me longevity, require minimal tweaking (eg: PUIS, Intellipark etc), already optimized for DVR use (so doesn't run too hot, not too loud, etc). Ideally would like to purchase on Amazon or Newegg. The AV-GP line seemed so perfect, why would they discontinue it?


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## jmbach

I think the general consensus that the WD Red line is most preferred (not the Red pro line) as it has the better warranty and durability ratings than other WD drives.


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## jsjurek

jmbach said:


> I think the general consensus that the WD Red line is most preferred (not the Red pro line) as it has the better warranty and durability ratings than other WD drives.


Thank you. Is it OK if it's a "NAS" drive? Thinking of getting this one: Amazon.com: WD Red 2TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD20EFRX: Electronics


----------



## dougdingle

Yes, that's the one. It's fine if it's a NAS drive.


----------



## ClearToLand

jsjurek said:


> Thank you. Is it OK if it's a "NAS" drive? Thinking of getting this one: Amazon.com: WD Red 2TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD20EFRX: Electronics


IMO, you're paying a premium $$$/TB ($42.50) for the 2TB due to its lack of popularity.
The 3TB (WD30EFRX) regularly goes on sale for $100 and less frequently for $85 (4 times @ BestBuy in 2017 - but the last 2 included $25 GCs, which I then 'recirculated').
The 4TB (WD40EFRX) regularly goes on sale for $120 and less frequently for $105 (same story - BestBuy).
Unless you need it 'yesterday', the 3TB or 4TB are a better deal - IIRC (and I don't really pay any attention to anything besides the 3TB and 4TB), $85 is a 'Daily' price for the 2TB and I've never see it advertised on sale.

Put the part number plus the word price into GOOGLE and check Amazon, BestBuy, Newegg daily - subscribe to the Newegg E-Mail to get extra 'Bonus Codes' for members to save more $$$.

The EURS and EURX are history.


----------



## jsjurek

ClearToLand said:


> IMO, you're paying a premium $$$/TB ($42.50) for the 2TB due to its lack of popularity.


ClearToLand: Thank you for the feedback. In fact I am considering the 3TB for reasons you mention, plus the fact that the 2TB is not even available for 2 weeks yet anyway. I will take your advice and monitor pricing to see if I can get a good deal -- I won't be able to actually perform my Tivo Premiere upgrade for about a month anyway, so I've got the benefit of time on my side here.

In addition, several members on this forum have advised me that JMFS 1.04 wouldn't be the best procedure to use in my upgrade (which is what I was originally going to do, and which would limit me to a 2TB drive unless I used a more complicated process w/ modified JMFS). Since I'm now leaning towards MFS Tools 3.2, I am more likely to use a bigger drive (still think 4TB would be wasted on me, but 3TB looks more and more like a good cost/benefit combination).

Thanks for the post.


----------



## dougdingle

You might want to check pricing/availability on other sites as well, like B&H. Strangely, their pricing is slightly lower on the 'full retail kit' than it is on the bare OEM drive. Identical drive, warranty, etc.


----------



## jsjurek

Ebay actually has a new WD30EFRX for $99.99 w/ free shipping. Next best price I can find today is $106 (and the B&H site only a buck more - thanks for the tip dougdingle). The title page says 7200 RPM but I know that model number is actually the 5400 RPM. The eBay seller has 14k reviews and 99.8% positive feedback... but I'm not sure I would trust that I was actually getting a truly "new" drive.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

jmbach said:


> Syntax is the same across all TiVos. Assuming sdX is your 3TB, sdY is your 1TB external, and sdZ is you 4TB target drive the syntax is mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX:/dev/sdY /dev/sdZ.


In my setup, /dev/sdc is my source internal drive, /dev/sdb is my external source and /dev/sda is my new 4TB drive. I'm using the following command. mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda

I receive the following message, "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment. Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector."

What am I doing wrong?


----------



## jmbach

TheCryptkeeper said:


> In my setup, /dev/sdc is my source internal drive, /dev/sdb is my external source and /dev/sda is my new 4TB drive. I'm using the following command. mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda
> 
> I receive the following message, "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment. Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector."
> 
> What am I doing wrong?


run mfsinfo /dev/sdc /dev/sdb and post the results.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Here is a picture of the results









Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Here is a picture of the results
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


It looks okay. Run the command again mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda


----------



## jmbach

Wait a second. I re-read your error, this is an issue with block 0. I am going to send you a pm to work this out.


----------



## jmbach

Post your results after everything is done.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

jmbach said:


> Post your results after everything is done.


You're a genius. THANK YOU!

The process is now apparently underway after the corrections you made to the first few blocks on my old drive. Sometime later today (it's now just after midnight) everything will be on my new drive. While the internal drive is not that old, I've been using that external one for around 10 years, so I'm glad to transfer over everything before it started giving me trouble.

I'll post how it goes once everything is completed. Again, thank you.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach is one of the unsung heroes of the TiVo community. He has helped me several times with drive issues, and is a large part of the reason the process you're doing (two drives to single, shows preserved) is available.


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## TheCryptkeeper

My initial setup was a Roamio Basic with a 3TB WD30EURX internal drive that the DVR had auto-formatted and an External 1TB TiVo Expander. The internal drive was only two years old, and while the TiVo Expander had over eight years of use, there was no sign of imminent failure yet. Nevertheless, I chose to be preemptive and decided to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy and combine both drives to a new 4TB WD40EZRZ. This was a Blue drive shucked from an Easystore External Enclosure that was on sale from Best Buy with a $25 gift card for $109. Net cost = $85 plus tax.

I carefully removed the drive from its enclosure by using four old credit cards, and I avoided breaking any of the enclosure's plastic tabs, so if the drive fails, I can put it back in its case and return it.

To simplify things, I disconnected all the hard drives from my computer and hooked up all three TiVo drives directly to the motherboard's SATA ports, the external drive via eSATA to SATA cable. I turned on my PC, pressed F12 and booted from a CD of MFSTools 3.2.

Logged in as "root", password "tivo".

Typed "fdisk -l" then pressed shift and page up to find and identify appropriate disks.

/dev/sdc was my source internal drive, /dev/sdb was my external source and /dev/sda was my new 4TB drive. I used the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda

I received the following message, "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment. Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector."

Jmbach identified this as an issue with block 0. Using a program called iBored, by Thomas Templeton, I copied the first 20 blocks of the TiVo's internal source drive and sent them to Jmbach to see what was needed to fix the error. I did this by asking the program to write blocks to file, starting with block 0, block size 512, number of blocks 20.

On the left side is the defective file, on the right side the repaired blocks.











According to Jmbach, normally the TiVo block 0 has either 0x03 0x06 or 0x06 0x03 at offset 2 in block 0. That is supposed to let the TiVo know the boot block. This has been the case up to Series 4. Series 5, especially the later OS, does not make a normal block 0 on the drive because all the software is on the flash drive.

To write the block Jmbach corrected back to the drive, I marked the TiVo's internal source drive as writable, and wrote file to blocks starting at block 0 size 512.

iBored is run as a Windows or iOS program. I used the iOS version on my MacBook Pro and connected the drive with a Sabrent USB 2.0 adapter. The MacBook wanted to initialize my drive when I connected it, but I told it to ignore the drive.

In iBored I needed to go to file and run as root to find the drive. After fixing the drive, I moved the drive back to my PC and rebooted MFSTools 3.2

This time, the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda worked, and 19 hours later I had a single 4TB drive with all my movies, shows, and settings intact. My Roamio started perfectly, like the drive had never been changed. MFSTools 3.2 worked flawlessly.

I couldn't have done this without Jmbach's help. Jmbach supports ggieseke's software development and I made another contribution to support their further efforts here.

Thus far the 4TB WD40EZRZ (Western Digital Blue drive) has worked perfectly and is quiet. I will keep you posted on its performance.


----------



## ggieseke

Awesome work,and thanks so much for the donation.

I look forward to your Blue reviews.


----------



## dougdingle

So I did an upgrade from 3TB to 4TB, preserving shows, CC pairing, etc., and it went without a hitch. Now something slightly peculiar has come up.

I did a little housekeeping to get rid of some shows we just don't watch anymore, and deleted one folder which had 36 episodes of a show. When the TiVo was done, there were two shows left in the folder. They would not play (the error message says something about they didn't record and maybe I don't get that channel), and they won't delete. The dark grey "X" shows up next to the titles when I hit "Delete", but when I go back to the main listing, there they are.

It's not really a problem, but I'm wondering what the heck is going on. Anyone have an idea? How do I get rid of the two remaining entries in that folder?


----------



## ClearToLand

dougdingle said:


> So I did an upgrade from 3TB to 4TB, preserving shows, CC pairing, etc., and it went without a hitch. Now something slightly peculiar has come up.
> 
> I did a little housekeeping to get rid of some shows we just don't watch anymore, and *deleted one folder which had 36 episodes of a show. When the TiVo was done, there were two shows left in the folder.* They would not play (the error message says something about they didn't record and maybe I don't get that channel), and they won't delete. The dark grey "X" shows up next to the titles when I hit "Delete", but when I go back to the main listing, there they are.
> 
> It's not really a problem, but I'm wondering what the heck is going on. Anyone have an idea? *How do I get rind of the two remaining entries in that folder?*



*Power Cycle:*
Put TiVo into Standby
Pull power plug
Wait 10 seconds
Insert power plug


----------



## Eric R.

Hello,

I'm hoping one of you can help me. I am working on a new drive for my Premier XL TCD748000 that the main internal drive just failed on.  Lost so much from so many years. Part of my issue is I am running out of time to get it up and running. I am going on a vacation for a week and my in-laws are going to be here. So I need it up and running at least temporarily till I get back. I have the original drive in the freezer and would love to attempt to recover the data off of it if possible (perhaps along with the external drive which I will remove for now). 

I ended up getting the WD40PURX and I was able to get an image of 20.4.1 from ggieseke. Last night I used DvrBARS to restore the image to the new drive. I am looking at using MFSTools 3.2 to expand to the full capacity. I am not sure of the next step after downloading MFSTools (burn CD?, doesn't seem to be an image or at least not an ISO file).

I'm thinking maybe I can take the new drive with the restored 20.4.1 image and set it up as is for now so they can at least watch TV while we are gone. Then when I get back perhaps I can remove it and try to copy from the two drives to the one large drive and not have an external drive. Is this possible? If it is and it fails (can't read original drive) could I simply expand the drive with the current image? 

Any recommendations, instructions or advice would be appreciated. 

Thank you in advance!


----------



## jmbach

For your drive in cold storage, run ddrescue to transfer data to a working drive of the same size in hopes there is enough data recoverable to end up with a working image.

In the mean time, I would put ggieseke's image on a temporary drive and then use MFSTools to copy that image to the 4TB drive.

Look here for the ISO.


----------



## dougdingle

ClearToLand said:


> *Power Cycle:*
> Put TiVo into Standby
> Pull power plug
> Wait 10 seconds
> Insert power plug


Just tried that. No difference. The two entries are still there in the list, and won't delete.


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> Just tried that. No difference. The two entries are still there in the list, and won't delete.


I am afraid to say it but perhaps a KS 58. I take no credit if something bad happens, but will take all the credit if it fixes it. :smiley:


----------



## ggieseke

Try deleting them with the app or kmttg.


----------



## jsjurek

Looking for suggestions with an upgrade of an original 320GB Premiere. Perfect scenario is I will use MFSTools 3.2 to copy/expand to a 3 or 4TB WD Red drive. 

Here is my issue -- my original 320GB drive is starting to fail. It failed KS 54 (only the initial state test passed; all others failed). 

I feel like I read here that MFSTool Copy doesn't do very well for source drives with errors. 

I have done research and I understand I can attempt to use ddrescue to clone my original drive, hoping that the ddrescue process (with multiple passes, etc) will capture enough "good" from the original image to get a working image on the new drive.

Here is my issue -- ddrescue only clones. What if I want an expanded/supersized new drive too? Obviously if MFSTool Copy works, then it will expand at the same time. But if not, then what? Does anybody have any suggestions on expanding after performing a ddrescue? Do I need to buy ANOTHER drive, do the ddrescue from original to intermediate drive, then do MFSTool Copy from intermediate to destination drive if I want to have, say a 3TB fully expanded drive with all my original settings, cableCard pairing, recordings, etc?

PS -- does anybody know if MFSTool Supersize still works? I have heard that due to changes in the Tivo OS structure recently, it might not work anymore. If not, does that mean we have no Supersize options anymore?


----------



## dougdingle

ggieseke said:


> Try deleting them with the app or kmttg.


Using either says the shows/folder is deleted, but a refresh brings them right back like the zombies they are.

I think jmbach's KS 58 might possibly work, it just makes me a bit nervous to use it. The next time I clone the drive in about a month, I'll test it it on the old drive.

It's not like it's a problem, it's just slightly irritating seeing it there.


----------



## jmbach

jsjurek said:


> Looking for suggestions with an upgrade of an original 320GB Premiere. Perfect scenario is I will use MFSTools 3.2 to copy/expand to a 3 or 4TB WD Red drive.
> 
> Here is my issue -- my original 320GB drive is starting to fail. It failed KS 54 (only the initial state test passed; all others failed).
> 
> I feel like I read here that MFSTool Copy doesn't do very well for source drives with errors.
> 
> I have done research and I understand I can attempt to use ddrescue to clone my original drive, hoping that the ddrescue process (with multiple passes, etc) will capture enough "good" from the original image to get a working image on the new drive.
> 
> Here is my issue -- ddrescue only clones. What if I want an expanded/supersized new drive too? Obviously if MFSTool Copy works, then it will expand at the same time. But if not, then what? Does anybody have any suggestions on expanding after performing a ddrescue? Do I need to buy ANOTHER drive, do the ddrescue from original to intermediate drive, then do MFSTool Copy from intermediate to destination drive if I want to have, say a 3TB fully expanded drive with all my original settings, cableCard pairing, recordings, etc?
> 
> PS -- does anybody know if MFSTool Supersize still works? I have heard that due to changes in the Tivo OS structure recently, it might not work anymore. If not, does that mean we have no Supersize options anymore?


Overall it just depends on how tech savvy you are. You can use ddrescue with multiple passes to clone it to your destination drive. If the destination drive boots in your TiVo and you have verified that all aspects are functional, you can take that image and use DvrBARS to back that up on your computer's drive using a full backup process. As long as your computer's drive you are backing up on has about 320GB free, you will be okay. Now I do not know if you are primarily a windows user or Linux user but the idea is the same. You can load MFSTools 3.2 ISO into a virtual box on your computer and attach the DvrBARS backup VHD to the virtual box as well as attaching your destination drive to it as well. (Easiest way is through a USB Drive Dock.) Then after verifying which drive is the source and which drive is the destination, use mfscopy.


----------



## ThAbtO

dougdingle said:


> I did a little housekeeping to get rid of some shows we just don't watch anymore, and deleted one folder which had 36 episodes of a show. When the TiVo was done, there were two shows left in the folder. They would not play (the error message says something about they didn't record and maybe I don't get that channel), and they won't delete. The dark grey "X" shows up next to the titles when I hit "Delete", but when I go back to the main listing, there they are.


Have you tried going into the Recently Deleted folder and recovering those (problem) shows and Delete them again from the original folder?

Another thing to try is, recover those shows, then empty out the Recently Deleted folder (Delete Permanently), then Delete the shows again and permanently.


----------



## dougdingle

ThAbtO said:


> Have you tried going into the Recently Deleted folder and recovering those (problem) shows and Delete them again from the original folder?
> 
> Another thing to try is, recover those shows, then empty out the Recently Deleted folder (Delete Permanently), then Delete the shows again and permanently.


I tried to see if I could recover them, but they're not in the Recently Deleted folder. I believe as long as the titles are in the main area, they won't show up in Deleted Folders.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> jsjurek said:
> 
> 
> 
> Looking for suggestions with an upgrade of an original 320GB Premiere. Perfect scenario is I will use MFSTools 3.2 to copy/expand to a 3 or 4TB WD Red drive.
> 
> Here is my issue -- my original 320GB drive is starting to fail. It failed KS 54 (only the initial state test passed; all others failed).
> 
> I feel like I read here that MFSTool Copy doesn't do very well for source drives with errors.
> 
> *I have done research and I understand I can attempt to use ddrescue to clone my original drive, hoping that the ddrescue process (with multiple passes, etc) will capture enough "good" from the original image to get a working image on the new drive.
> 
> ddrescue is an excellent idea - MULTIPLE passes is not! (more below)*
> 
> Here is my issue -- ddrescue only clones. What if I want an expanded/supersized new drive too? Obviously if MFSTool Copy works, then it will expand at the same time. But if not, then what? Does anybody have any suggestions on expanding after performing a ddrescue? Do I need to buy ANOTHER drive, do the ddrescue from original to intermediate drive, then do MFSTool Copy from intermediate to destination drive if I want to have, say a 3TB fully expanded drive with all my original settings, cableCard pairing, recordings, etc?
> 
> PS -- does anybody know if MFSTool Supersize still works? I have heard that due to changes in the Tivo OS structure recently, it might not work anymore. If not, does that mean we have no Supersize options anymore?
> 
> 
> 
> Overall it just depends on how tech savvy you are. *You can use ddrescue with multiple passes to clone it to your destination drive.* If the destination drive boots in your TiVo and you have verified that all aspects are functional, you can take that image and use DvrBARS to back that up on your computer's drive using a full backup process. As long as your computer's drive you are backing up on has about 320GB free, you will be okay. Now I do not know if you are primarily a windows user or Linux user but the idea is the same. You can load MFSTools 3.2 ISO into a virtual box on your computer and attach the DvrBARS backup VHD to the virtual box as well as attaching your destination drive to it as well. (Easiest way is through a USB Drive Dock.) Then after verifying which drive is the source and which drive is the destination, use mfscopy.
Click to expand...

*CLICK to Expand* above QUOTE - highlights and comments were added...

Personally, I believe that you should view *EVERY* Power On, *EVERY* Read / Write / Re-seek as your failing HDDs '_last breath _' and treat it accordingly.

Here's my reply to another TCF member back in April:


ClearToLand said:


> *TechNibble: Guide to using ddrescue*
> Don't need any more information.
> A couple of '*Rules to Follow*' when dealing with a failing / failed HDD:
> 
> *STOP USING IT IMMEDIATELY!!! *
> - *EVERY* Power On, *EVERY* Read / Write / Re-seek could be its last
> .
> *CLONE THE CONTENTS TO ANOTHER (equal or larger) HDD*
> - and then use the CLONE for all of your DATA RECOVERY efforts.
> NOTE: Error on the 'larger' side; an error of 'Target too small' at the end will not be good.
> Read the tutorial carefully - where it talks about retries, set that to ZERO. You want to get whatever data you can OFF that HDD before it FINALLY goes to 'Hard Drive Heaven'. If the failing HDD is still working after the first pass, you can try again, with a different target, with retries.
> Keep in mind that 'Professional Data Recovery' services cost THOUSANDS of dollars per HDD, so buying one, or two 300GB or bigger HDDs is getting away cheap.
> 
> If you need to do the 'Freezer Thing', when you remove it from the freezer, wrap it in a towel to prevent 'sweating' and having the moisture short out anything.
> 
> Good Luck!
> 
> P.S. I *NEVER* visit this forum - I just happen to see the last reply to this thread go by on the right side of my screen under 'Latest Replies'.


----------



## jmbach

I agree that you should treat every read or write as your drives last breath when you have a failing drive. However, there is a difference between multiple retries and multiple passes. Using ddrescue with a log file and multiple passes is a way to save the maximal amount of usable data before the drive gives up its ghost. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jsjurek

Thanks jmbach & ClearToLand for your invaluable guidance/feedback. I'm going to take both your advice. First, given the dying drive factor, I'm not going to stress it out by first attempting the MFSCopy (because if it fails, I could kill the drive). So instead I'll just start with the ddrescue (thanks for that additional guide you linked to ClearToLand, very informative). That said, during the ddrescue process, I will do as jmbach states; ie use ddrescue with a log file & multiple passes to save the maximum amount of usable data. 

Based on the advice in the article ClearToLand linked to, it advises to not invoke the -r3 switch the first time around. I'm not clear on this -- if I omit it and perform the ddrescue as:

ddrescue -d -f -n -v /dev/sda /dev/sdb tivo-rescue.log
(going straight from original Tivo drive to new HDD)

Presumably, this just skips over bad sectors if they are encountered? If, after completion of the first pass, the copy was otherwise successful, do I just re-issue the command in Linux but now invoke the -r3 switch in addition to all the stuff above? How does that work exactly? I assume it doesn't start all over from scratch (otherwise I would not try it for fear of losing data already copied), but it somehow uses the data in the log file to re-attempt only the failed sectors that it missed on the first pass. Is that right? Want to make sure that even if (on 2nd try) the -r3 fails miserably and kills the drive while in process, that I've still got the "best possible" clone from the first pass without risk of losing anything on subsequent ddrescue attempts.


----------



## firepowr

I've been lurking on these forums for the longest time. I have a Roamio Plus with the original 1TB drive for the last 3 years. 80% of all the shows are recorded children's programing and cartoons. Now that our (Wife and I) shows are done for the season I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and upgrading the drive to a 3TB WD Red.

I've been in IT for over 18 years, this type of upgrade typically straight forward. I've been hesitant (scared) about this upgrade because I hate to make a mistake or run into an issue and lose or can't access our kids' shows (I know I can just put the old drive back in). I'll never hear the end of it from my wife.

Anyhow, I have the 3TB drive ordered from Amazon. It should be here tomorrow or the day after. I have VMWare Workstation 12 and planning to use the MFSTool 3.2 ISO to perform the msfcopy using USB3 connections (both drives will be using USB3 adapters that would be passthru to the VM of the ISO). I know its been said a dozen times on these forums but I just to reiterate for the sake of my exact situation.

1. login as root/tivo
2. run fdisk -l (to detect drives ex: SDA=OldDrive, SDB=NewDrive)
3. Run the following command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
4. Pop the new drive back into the Tivo.
5. Wife won't know the difference.
6. Drink 3 Coors Lights and call it a day.


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.


----------



## ThAbtO

firepowr said:


> I've been lurking on these forums for the longest time. I have a Roamio Plus with the original 1TB drive for the last 3 years. 80% of all the shows are recorded children's programing and cartoons. Now that our (Wife and I) shows are done for the season I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and upgrading the drive to a 3TB WD Red.
> 
> I've been in IT for over 18 years, this type of upgrade typically straight forward. I've been hesitant (scared) about this upgrade because I hate to make a mistake or run into an issue and lose or can't access our kids' shows (I know I can just put the old drive back in). I'll never hear the end of it from my wife.
> 
> Anyhow, I have the 3TB drive ordered from Amazon. It should be here tomorrow or the day after. I have VMWare Workstation 12 and planning to use the MFSTool 3.2 ISO to perform the msfcopy using USB3 connections (both drives will be using USB3 adapters that would be passthru to the VM of the ISO). I know its been said a dozen times on these forums but I just to reiterate for the sake of my exact situation.
> 
> 1. login as root/tivo
> 2. run fdisk -l (to detect drives ex: SDA=OldDrive, SDB=NewDrive)
> 3. Run the following command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 4. Pop the new drive back into the Tivo.
> 5. Wife won't know the difference.
> 6. Drink 3 Coors Lights and call it a day.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.


Some thing you can do now is to back up the shows by downloading them, just in case, with KMTTG.


----------



## jmbach

firepowr said:


> I've been lurking on these forums for the longest time. I have a Roamio Plus with the original 1TB drive for the last 3 years. 80% of all the shows are recorded children's programing and cartoons. Now that our (Wife and I) shows are done for the season I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and upgrading the drive to a 3TB WD Red.
> 
> I've been in IT for over 18 years, this type of upgrade typically straight forward. I've been hesitant (scared) about this upgrade because I hate to make a mistake or run into an issue and lose or can't access our kids' shows (I know I can just put the old drive back in). I'll never hear the end of it from my wife.
> 
> Anyhow, I have the 3TB drive ordered from Amazon. It should be here tomorrow or the day after. I have VMWare Workstation 12 and planning to use the MFSTool 3.2 ISO to perform the msfcopy using USB3 connections (both drives will be using USB3 adapters that would be passthru to the VM of the ISO). I know its been said a dozen times on these forums but I just to reiterate for the sake of my exact situation.
> 
> 1. login as root/tivo
> 2. run fdisk -l (to detect drives ex: SDA=OldDrive, SDB=NewDrive)
> 3. Run the following command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 4. Pop the new drive back into the Tivo.
> 5. Wife won't know the difference.
> 6. Drink 3 Coors Lights and call it a day.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.


That should do it. However it might be 4 Coors. The only caveat I have is that sometimes depending on hardware, you might get USB write errors because of using uas on USB3 ports. Not sure what that is all about. If it does you can connect as USB 2.0 or use SATA/eSata.


----------



## dougdingle

firepowr said:


> Anyhow, I have the 3TB drive ordered from Amazon. It should be here tomorrow or the day after. I have VMWare Workstation 12 and planning to use the MFSTool 3.2 ISO to perform the msfcopy using USB3 connections (both drives will be using USB3 adapters that would be passthru to the VM of the ISO). I know its been said a dozen times on these forums but I just to reiterate for the sake of my exact situation.
> 
> 1. login as root/tivo
> 2. run fdisk -l (to detect drives ex: SDA=OldDrive, SDB=NewDrive)
> 3. Run the following command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 4. Pop the new drive back into the Tivo.
> 5. Wife won't know the difference.
> 6. Drink 3 Coors Lights and call it a day.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.


I did something very similar about a week ago, going from a 3TB to a 4TB drive. I used an old machine and booted the CD I made from the ISO with the two drives hooked to internal SATA ports, used the exact steps you outlined, and off it went.

The only minor issue I had was that since this was an older and somewhat underpowered machine, linux decided to downshift some







parameters (three times) near the beginning. The messages were displayed onscreen not as errors but as informational. After the third one, the copy continued.

There have been some issues reported with USB3 as jmbach has mentioned. If it starts to throw write errors, cancel out and regroup using something other than USB3.

Also, if you have station icons turned on the guide, they won't be there initially, but will reappear the next time the box connects to mom.


----------



## firepowr

Thanks guys. You don't know how much I really appreciate your help and support. I'll likely start this upgrade tonight while everyone's asleep. I'll keep you guys updated.


----------



## firepowr

I'm going on 9.5 hours. 3 hours to go. I hooked the drives up to USB2 and started the mfscopy. I think I should have gone with USB3 first to see if it had errors. Oh well.


----------



## dougdingle

firepowr said:


> I'm going on 9.5 hours. 3 hours to go. I hooked the drives up to USB2 and started the mfscopy. I think I should have gone with USB3 first to see if it had errors. Oh well.


Took 17.5 hours to do the copy from a 3TB WD Red to a 4TB WD Red using SATA2 on an older machine, for reference.

I have a second 4TB WD Red, and I clone the two 4TB drives back and forth every 60-90 days in a standalone dock as a backup and to cut drive wear in half. That takes about 8 hours.

I've taken to doing these things overnight - it's less annoying.


----------



## firepowr

The upgrade is a complete Success!

Thanks guys.

I ran into different and unrelated issue. After the upgrade I decided to make another clone of my original drive. I went ahead a set everything up a again with a 2TB backup drive. On my Windows system a popup showed up to set the drive to GPT, and I accidentally hit OK. I had inadvertently initialize the original drive to GPT. Now I can't use msf copy as I get an error as seen in the images.

I converted it to MBR and still get the same error. Anyone know how to get out of this bind? I made a successful drive upgrade, so I'm very happy, so this issue isn't a big concern, but it would be nice to get another backup.


----------



## dougdingle

firepowr said:


> The upgrade is a complete Success!
> 
> Thanks guys.
> 
> I ran into different and unrelated issue. After the upgrade I decided to make another clone of my original drive. I went ahead a set everything up a again with a 2TB backup drive. On my Windows system a popup showed up to set the drive to GPT, and I accidentally hit OK. I had inadvertently initialize the original drive to GPT. Now I can't use msf copy as I get an error as seen in the images.
> 
> I converted it to MBR and still get the same error. Anyone know how to get out of this bind? I made a successful drive upgrade, so I'm very happy, so this issue isn't a big concern, but it would be nice to get another backup.


Yeah. Once you let Windows initialize a drive, neither TiVo nor software will recognize it as being a TiVo drive.

Perhaps jmbach has a way to write the appropriate sectors back to the drive...


----------



## firepowr

dougdingle said:


> Yeah. Once you let Windows initialize a drive, neither TiVo nor software will recognize it as being a TiVo drive.
> 
> Perhaps jmbach has a way to write the appropriate sectors back to the drive...


That's such a bummer.


----------



## ClearToLand

dougdingle said:


> Took 17.5 hours to do the copy from a 3TB WD Red to a 4TB WD Red using SATA2 on an older machine, for reference.
> 
> I have a second 4TB WD Red, and *I clone the two 4TB drives back and forth every 60-90 days* in a standalone dock as a backup and to cut drive wear in half. That takes about 8 hours.
> 
> I've taken to doing these things overnight - it's less annoying.


Seems like a lot of work, plus the extra 'wear-and-tear' on the TiVo Data and Power connectors (and case tabs). You do have the advantage of having a backup of your copy-protected shows though...


----------



## dougdingle

ClearToLand said:


> Seems like a lot of work, plus the extra 'wear-and-tear' on the TiVo Data and Power connectors (and case tabs). You do have the advantage of having a backup of your copy-protected shows though...


Yeah, that's the idea - a full backup of *everything*, including CC pairing, guide, season passes (or whatever the hell they're called now), everything. A full clone of the system as it exists at that moment.

I've been doing it for years, so it's easy now. I don't have screws in the case cover, and only use two to secure the drive brackets to the chassis. I pull the drive at night after the last show I need records, before going to bed, hook up the drives to the standalone cloning dock, push a button, and when I get up in the morning, I have a clone of the drive. Takes a few minutes to swap the brackets, install the clone, close the case, and boot up.

I've thought several times about just moving the drive to an external enclosure with a custom made interface cable, but inertia takes over, and I think "OK, next time..."


----------



## ClearToLand

firepowr said:


> The upgrade is a complete Success!
> 
> Thanks guys.
> 
> I ran into different and unrelated issue. After the upgrade I decided to make another clone of my original drive. I went ahead a set everything up a again with a 2TB backup drive. *On my Windows system a popup showed up to set the drive to GPT, and I accidentally hit OK. I had inadvertently initialize the original drive to GPT. Now I can't use msf copy as I get an error as seen in the images.*
> 
> I converted it to MBR and still get the same error. Anyone know how to get out of this bind? I made a successful drive upgrade, so I'm very happy, so this issue isn't a big concern, but it would be nice to get another backup.


[Thinking Out Loud...]

Until someone who knows Linux better than I replies, here's a thought:

WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics has the ability to write zeros to the whole HDD. You can get a copy on the Ultimate Boot CD .ISO (boots into Linux) so you don't even need to have any other HDD than the target connected. Write ZEROes for a minute or so and try the HDD again w/ MFS Tools.

RE: USB2x vs USB3x vs SATA - I would *ALWAYS* choose SATA for a task like this. That's why I have spare PCs and plug-in SATA controller cards. 

Good Luck!


----------



## dougdingle

ClearToLand said:


> [Thinking Out Loud...]
> 
> Until someone who knows Linux better than I replies, here's a thought:
> 
> WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics has the ability to write zeros to the whole HDD. You can get a copy on the Ultimate Boot CD .ISO (boots into Linux) so you don't even need to have any other HDD than the target connected. Write ZEROes for a minute or so and try the HDD again w/ MFS Tools.


He overwrote the original tivo drive in Windows. If he does as you suggest to the drive, he will have a new, bare, empty, unformatted drive with everything tivo-related on it lost forever.


----------



## jmbach

firepowr said:


> The upgrade is a complete Success!
> 
> Thanks guys.
> 
> I ran into different and unrelated issue. After the upgrade I decided to make another clone of my original drive. I went ahead a set everything up a again with a 2TB backup drive. On my Windows system a popup showed up to set the drive to GPT, and I accidentally hit OK. I had inadvertently initialize the original drive to GPT. Now I can't use msf copy as I get an error as seen in the images.
> 
> I converted it to MBR and still get the same error. Anyone know how to get out of this bind? I made a successful drive upgrade, so I'm very happy, so this issue isn't a big concern, but it would be nice to get another backup.


I know own of no way of recovering from this. Since you already have a working TiVo drive, your best bet is do as dougdingle and clone it with a drive duplicator / dock. Just make sure you do not get the source and target mixed up.


----------



## ClearToLand

dougdingle said:


> ...*Takes a few minutes to swap the brackets*, install the clone, close the case, and boot up...


Too bad you missed out on the Woot $25 Refurbished Roamio OTA deal - LOTs of spare parts there! 


dougdingle said:


> ...*I've thought several times about just moving the drive to an external enclosure* with a custom made interface cable, but inertia takes over, and I think "OK, next time..."


I'm *REALLY* behind schedule now with the 'Honey Dos' but I just spent a good 30 minutes trying to find this LINK - best I could do is the post, since the LINK to the internal label that used to work appears to be broken. 

*AVS Forum: Post #38*​
*EDIT:* DUH! Now I find it... (I was looking 'too hard'  )

*AVS Forum: Magnavox DVR: External Dock-and-Play System*
*Photos*
For when you find your 'Round Tuit'.


----------



## ClearToLand

dougdingle said:


> *He overwrote the original tivo drive* in Windows. If he does as you suggest to the drive, he will have a new, bare, empty, unformatted drive with everything tivo-related on it lost forever.


Oops!  Didn't pick up on that - in too much of a rush to get going on the 'Honey Dos' - I thought he messed up the target, not the source.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> I know own of no way of recovering from this. Since you already have a working TiVo drive, *your best bet is do* as dougdingle and clone *it with a drive duplicator / dock*. Just make sure you do not get the source and target mixed up.


Why not use *ddrescue* in a PC (booting from a Linux CD)?


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> Why not use *ddrescue* in a PC (booting from a Linux CD)?


Pressing a single button to copy is much simpler than loading up Linux and typing a command. And still simpler than using a Windows program (like HDD raw copy) to copy the drive.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach said:


> Pressing a single button to copy is much simpler than loading up Linux and typing a command. And still simpler than using a Windows program (like HDD raw copy) to copy the drive.


And a lot faster unless you have a modern very fast machine. And it doesn't tie up a computer.

If you keep an eye on Newegg and wait for deals and/or rebates, you can buy a cloning dock that supports very large drives for less than $30. I just got the $15 rebate for the last Mediasonic HUR2-SU3 dock I bought for $31. So net cost - $16+$3 tax, free shipping.

Once I got over my initial fear of the things, I won't think of doing it any other way to make an exact copy.


----------



## jsjurek

Stupid question guys - sorry if this is obvious but as a first timer it's not intuitive to me. Going to upgrade an original premiere 320gb to a wd red 3tb (got the wd30efrx for 99.99 from Best Buy today). The drive is OEM. AFTER doing the upgrade process and once I'm ready to install the new drive back into my Tivo, can I just reuse the SATA data cable that's already in there (from the original drive)? Or do I need a new SATA3 cable?


----------



## jmbach

jsjurek said:


> Stupid question guys - sorry if this is obvious but as a first timer it's not intuitive to me. Going to upgrade an original premiere 320gb to a wd red 3tb (got the wd30efrx for 99.99 from Best Buy today). The drive is OEM. AFTER doing the upgrade process and once I'm ready to install the new drive back into my Tivo, can I just reuse the SATA data cable that's already in there (from the original drive)? Or do I need a new SATA3 cable?


No new cables are needed. Just plug the new drive to the cables in the TiVo


----------



## ClearToLand

ClearToLand said:


> dougdingle said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ClearToLand said:
> 
> 
> 
> [Thinking Out Loud...]
> 
> Until someone who knows Linux better than I replies, here's a thought:
> 
> WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics has the ability to write zeros to the whole HDD. You can get a copy on the Ultimate Boot CD .ISO (boots into Linux) so you don't even need to have any other HDD than the target connected. Write ZEROes for a minute or so and try the HDD again w/ MFS Tools.
> 
> RE: USB2x vs USB3x vs SATA - I would *ALWAYS* choose SATA for a task like this. That's why I have spare PCs and plug-in SATA controller cards.
> 
> Good Luck!
> 
> 
> 
> *He overwrote the original tivo drive in Windows.* If he does as you suggest to the drive, he will have a new, bare, empty, unformatted drive with everything tivo-related on it lost forever.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Oops!  Didn't pick up on that - in too much of a rush to get going on the 'Honey Dos' - I thought he messed up the target, not the source.
Click to expand...

I was in a hurry to get working on my 'Honey Dos' so I took what you posted as the truth and admitted to my error *BUT* I've been starring at those two .PNG files for a while now and I believe YOU have it reversed:
*Source:* /dev/sdb: 931.5GiB, disklabel type: dos
- I believe THIS is the original 1TB HDD from his Roamio Plus
*Target:* /dev/sdc: 1.8TiB, disklabel type: gpt
- I believe THIS is the 2TB HDD he wanted to put another copy on
There's NO data on /dev/sdc so writing ZEROes w/ WD DLG, or changing the disklabel type with parted on the Ultimate Boot CD would BOTH fix the problem.


----------



## firepowr

jmbach said:


> I know own of no way of recovering from this. Since you already have a working TiVo drive, your best bet is do as dougdingle and clone it with a drive duplicator / dock. Just make sure you do not get the source and target mixed up.


Thanks for the help. Big lesson learned on my part. One of these days I'll find some time to duplicate the drive. With this upgrade I'll probably won't have the need to increase the drive space in the near future.

dougdingle. How long does it take for you to do a drive duplication with your setup?


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> I was in a hurry to get working on my 'Honey Dos' so I took what you posted as the truth and admitted to my error *BUT* I've been starring at those two .PNG files for a while now and I believe YOU have it reversed:
> *Source:* /dev/sdb: 931.5GiB, disklabel type: dos
> - I believe THIS is the original 1TB HDD from his Roamio Plus
> *Target:* /dev/sdc: 1.8TiB, disklabel type: gpt
> - I believe THIS is the 2TB HDD he wanted to put another copy on
> There's NO data on /dev/sdc so writing ZEROes w/ WD DLG, or changing the disklabel type with parted on the Ultimate Boot CD would BOTH fix the problem.


His main issue is that his source drive is hosed. He initialized it initially to GPT and then converted it to DOS. You are correct he could write zeros to the 2 TB.


----------



## dougdingle

Takes about 8 hours to clone 4TB with two WD Reds. Used to take longer when I was using WD Greens.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> *I know own of no way of recovering from this*. Since you already have a working TiVo drive, your best bet is do as dougdingle and clone it with a drive duplicator / dock. Just make sure you do not get the source and target mixed up.


RE: MFS Tools no longer recognizing the HDD (because of the GPT disklabel type), someone else's experiments on a similar topic (i.e. reversed situation):

*Can we change disk label from msdos or linux to GPT without losing data?*​
As someone with experience with the command line in both CP/M and MS-DOS, I find these linux discussions interesting. Decades ago, we had a CP/M Group that met monthly at a local community college. There was also a very unique CP/M magazine (~24 pages) published monthly that I subscribed to. In one issue, there was an article on how to get 354K from a standard 241k 8" SSSD floppy disk - the author was from Central Jersey! <jumping up and down in glee>

I contacted him and he invited me over for coffee and to talk about his discovery. A CP/M 8" SSSD floppy had 26 sectors, and each had a preamble and a postamble. By reducing that to 2 sectors, the recovered space allowed the data area to grow from 241K to 354K. That was my introduction into 'Disk Structure' (or whatever you wish to call it). I went on to learn (teaching myself Z-80 ASM) how the Xerox 820 PC wrote to a Shugart 10MB 8" HDD and then, since Quantum 2020 (20MB) and 2040 (40MB) 8" HDDs were hitting the surplus market, re-wrote the BIOS section and burned new EEPROMs for myself and a few interested folks.

Using a RAW Disk Editor, there probably *IS* a way to change the disklabel type WITHOUT losing data, but, AFAICT, either no one has publicly posted it yet, or I didn't use the '_right _' GOOGLE SEARCH parameters.


----------



## firepowr

ClearToLand said:


> I was in a hurry to get working on my 'Honey Dos' so I took what you posted as the truth and admitted to my error *BUT* I've been starring at those two .PNG files for a while now and I believe YOU have it reversed:
> 
> *Source:* /dev/sdb: 931.5GiB, disklabel type: dos
> - I believe THIS is the original 1TB HDD from his Roamio Plus
> *Target:* /dev/sdc: 1.8TiB, disklabel type: gpt
> - I believe THIS is the 2TB HDD he wanted to put another copy on
> There's NO data on /dev/sdc so writing ZEROes w/ WD DLG, or changing the disklabel type with parted on the Ultimate Boot CD would BOTH fix the problem.


Cleartoland, my apologies for not adding more context to the images. The "Source" drive is the original Tivo drive which I accidentally initialize to GPT. Then I re-initialized back to MBR that is why your see the label type as dos. As for the Target drive it was originally used as an old Windows drive backup network target which I had performed a Windows format hence you see the label type as GPT.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> *Pressing a single button to copy is much simpler* than loading up Linux and typing a command. And still simpler than using a Windows program (like HDD raw copy) to copy the drive.


*IF* you already own the duplicating dock - old-timer here thinking old-school, i.e. make do with what you have available. 

If he *DOESN'T* already own the duplicating dock, IMO, *ddrescue*, with the two HDDs connected to a PC via SATA, would be the way I would clone a drive.

We'll all find out what eventually happened when @firepowr signs back in...


----------



## firepowr

dougdingle said:


> Takes about 8 hours to clone 4TB with two WD Reds. Used to take longer when I was using WD Greens.


Not bad. I actually have MediaSonic HDD enclosures and they're great stuff. I'm booking marking your recommended duplicator on Amazon. Don't you ever go to sleep?


----------



## ClearToLand

dougdingle said:


> And a lot faster unless you have a modern very fast machine. And it doesn't tie up a computer.
> 
> If you keep an eye on Newegg and wait for deals and/or rebates, *you can buy a cloning dock that supports very large drives for less than $30. I just got the $15 rebate for the last Mediasonic HUR2-SU3 dock I bought for $31. So net cost - $16+$3 tax, free shipping.*
> 
> Once I got over my initial fear of the things, I won't think of doing it any other way to make an exact copy.


I just checked my Newegg Purchase History and I too am the proud owner of that Mediasonic HUR2-SU3 Duplicating Dock. And, I too received (*3*) rebates in the mail today (I guess that was one of them - hard to tell with these my4rebates since they all look the same and none have any amount printed on them; have to logon to active and create an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of).

Thanks for the "Proof of Concept"! 

P.S. I bought a new dock even though I already had a few old, NOS docks (i.e. never used) because you never know the TB limit until you hit it.


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> RE: MFS Tools no longer recognizing the HDD (because of the GPT disklabel type), someone else's experiments on a similar topic (i.e. reversed situation):
> 
> *Can we change disk label from msdos or linux to GPT without losing data?*​
> As someone with experience with the command line in both CP/M and MS-DOS, I find these linux discussions interesting. Decades ago, we had a CP/M Group that met monthly at a local community college. There was also a very unique CP/M magazine (~24 pages) published monthly that I subscribed to. In one issue, there was an article on how to get 354K from a standard 241k 8" SSSD floppy disk - the author was from Central Jersey! <jumping up and down in glee>
> 
> I contacted him and he invited me over for coffee and to talk about his discovery. A CP/M 8" SSSD floppy had 26 sectors, and each had a preamble and a postamble. By reducing that to 2 sectors, the recovered space allowed the data area to grow from 241K to 354K. That was my introduction into 'Disk Structure' (or whatever you wish to call it). I went on to learn (teaching myself Z-80 ASM) how the Xerox 820 PC wrote to a Shugart 10MB 8" HDD and then, since Quantum 2020 (20MB) and 2040 (40MB) 8" HDDs were hitting the surplus market, re-wrote the BIOS section and burned new EEPROMs for myself and a few interested folks.
> 
> Using a RAW Disk Editor, there probably *IS* a way to change the disklabel type WITHOUT losing data, but, AFAICT, either no one has publicly posted it yet, or I didn't use the '_right _' GOOGLE SEARCH parameters.


I see we have similar experiences.

The issue is when he initialized the drive to GPT, the primary and backup GPT partition tables were created and written to the disk. This affects multiple sectors across the drive and not just the first sector. If it was just the first sector, then we could copy it back from the working drive.


----------



## ClearToLand

firepowr said:


> The upgrade is a complete Success!
> 
> Thanks guys.
> 
> I ran into different and unrelated issue. After the upgrade I decided to make another clone of my original drive. I went ahead a set everything up a again with a 2TB backup drive. On my Windows system a popup showed up to set the drive to GPT, and I accidentally hit OK. *I had inadvertently initialize the original drive to GPT. Now I can't use msf copy as I get an error as seen in the images.
> 
> I converted it to MBR and still get the same error.* Anyone know how to get out of this bind? I made a successful drive upgrade, so I'm very happy, so this issue isn't a big concern, but it would be nice to get another backup.






jmbach said:


> *I know own of no way of recovering from this*. Since you already have a working TiVo drive, your best bet is do as dougdingle and clone it with a drive duplicator / dock. Just make sure you do not get the source and target mixed up.






jmbach said:


> *His main issue is that his source drive is hosed. He initialized it initially to GPT and then converted it to DOS*. You are correct he could write zeros to the 2 TB.






firepowr said:


> Cleartoland, *my apologies for not adding more context to the images. The "Source" drive is the original Tivo drive which I accidentally initialize to GPT. Then I re-initialized back to MBR that is why your see the label type as dos*. As for the Target drive it was originally used as an old Windows drive backup network target which I had performed a Windows format hence you see the label type as GPT.



Well THAT clears up everything!  

So, clone the 1st clone onto the 2TB, using either ddrescue or a Duplicating Dock, and then, at your leisure, GOOGLE how to re-write the disklabel type. But, "*Measure Twice, Cut Once*" this time...  

If you have the time, and curiosity, put that original 1TB Roamio Plus drive aside (after the 2nd clone) and read the "Interesting LINK" I posted above (reversed situation).


----------



## jmbach

BTW you can convert from MBR to GPT and back without data loss with some currently available tools.
That is different than initializing a drive as GPT or MBR when data is already on it.


----------



## firepowr

For those who wants to know the full results of my upgrade here's how it went:

Prior to pulling the drive out of my Tivo Roamio Plus I deleted all the shows I didn't care about. Then i went into the deleted shows folder and permanently deleted everything in hopes to reduce the amount of copying that needed to be done.

I download the MFSTools iso. Using VMware Workstation I created a blank VM using the Suse 10. x64 Linux template. The VM specs was 1 Cpu (dual core), 2GB Ram, CDROM, 1 NIC, 20GB hard disk (Really not needed).

I powered the VM with MFSTools iso mounted. The VM booted up straight to the MFStools linux login. I logged in with username: root and password: tivo

At this time I plugged in my two HDD (SourceDrive and NewDrive) via a USB3 HDD toaster adapters. I plugged them into the USB2 ports in the back of the computer (Not USB3 ports). After plugging them in I used the VMware Workstation option to passthru the USB to the VM. (Basically the host system disconnects them and logically plugs them directly to the VM).

On the VM it started mounting the drives immediately (I didn't have to do anything). After a few seconds I pressed enter and I was back at the prompt.

I typed in: fdisk -l

I identified my 1TB (SDB=SourceDrive) and my 3TB (SDC=NewDrive)

Then I typed in: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

The copying process started and I left it at that and watched a movie on netflix and then went to bed. 14:23 hours later it completed with the prompt "Copy done!"

Then I powered off the adapter. I pulled out my new drive, and I reinstalled it back in my Tivo Roamio Plus. I plugged everything in and the Tivo started up. Once the Tivo was up and running everything seems as though nothing has happened. Other than the increased disk space. Nothing else has changed.

I'm not sure if its just a placebo effect but I feel that my Tivo operates smoother when I stop and start a show. Skip forward or backward seems to work with less delay. Overall, the process for me was painless and really simple. I hope my my story helps others who are on the fence on deciding if they should upgrade or not.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> *I see we have similar experiences.*
> 
> The issue is when he initialized the drive to GPT, the primary and backup GPT partition tables were created and written to the disk. This affects multiple sectors across the drive and not just the first sector. If it was just the first sector, then we could copy it back from the working drive.


You see mine - I'm still looking where to see your's. 

Conversing solely via text, it takes a great amount of time, and cooperation between parties, to learn and understand one another. I believe that's why many of my posts (on ALL forums) turn into little, short stories.

"Snipes" tell me nothing about the author, but with special apps for Android, iPad and iPhone '_everywhere _', IMO, it only encourages them more.  I find Millennials very difficult to have logical conversations with.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> BTW you can convert from MBR to GPT and back *without data loss* with some currently available tools...


Would you mind please LINKing to one or two so that I can read and learn?


jmbach said:


> That is different than initializing a drive as GPT or MBR when *data is already on it*.


On my first take, this sounds like a contradiction to your first statement - I hope to understand this more after reading about a few of this tools you speak of.
What disklabel type does a TiVo unit set the HDD to?
.
Attempting to relate this back to something that I can understand, for example, when Windows DELETEs a file (Normal DELETE, not SHIFT-DELETE if that makes a difference), it doesn't actually ERASE that file. It just marks the space that file was using as now free in the FAT, IIRC. Currently, I'm picturing what @firepowr did as a similar action - the data is still there but he can't access it because...

So, if one were able to find all of the occurrences of where 'GPT' was written, one could then, theoretically, return the HDD to a state where TiVo (and MFS Tools) would recognize it again.


----------



## ClearToLand

firepowr said:


> For those who wants to know the full results of my upgrade here's how it went:
> ---SNIP---
> I download the MFSTools iso. *Using VMware Workstation I created a blank VM using the Suse 10. x64 Linux template. The VM specs was 1 Cpu (dual core), 2GB Ram, CDROM, 1 NIC, 20GB hard disk* (Really not needed).
> 
> I powered the VM with MFSTools iso mounted. The VM booted up straight to the MFStools linux login. I logged in with username: root and password: tivo
> 
> At this time I plugged in my two HDD (SourceDrive and NewDrive) via a USB3 HDD toaster adapters. I plugged them into the USB2 ports in the back of the computer (Not USB3 ports). After plugging them in I used the VMware Workstation option to passthru the USB to the VM. (Basically the host system disconnects them and logically plugs them directly to the VM).
> 
> On the VM it started mounting the drives immediately (I didn't have to do anything). After a few seconds I pressed enter and I was back at the prompt...


While I'm glad that your MFS Tools 'Experiment' was successful, I'm *VERY* interested in learning more about VMware Workstation (is it FREE?). I don't wish to highjack this thread, but if you could please post more details, or LINKs '_somewhere _' or in a PM, I would be very appreciative. VM is a subject on my 'Round Tuit' list.


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> You see mine - I'm still looking where to see your's.
> 
> Conversing solely via text, it takes a great amount of time, and cooperation between parties, to learn and understand one another. I believe that's why many of my posts (on ALL forums) turn into little, short stories.
> 
> "Snipes" tell me nothing about the author, but with special apps for Android, iPad and iPhone '_everywhere _', IMO, it only encourages them more.  I find Millennials very difficult to have logical conversations with.


I am not very loquacious. I find that being terse gets more to the point without getting lost.

I started out on PDP-11 before going to VAX-11. Started programming punch cards before using terminals. I have programmed in over 6 computer languages including assembler.

Started with breadboard personal computer and rewrote the ROM to improve functionality. When I graduated to the IBM PC, modified its ROM to add newer drives that came out.

We can discuss more, but we are getting off topic. If you want to have more of a discussion on our experiences, we will need to go elsewhere.


----------



## jmbach

ClearToLand said:


> Would you mind please LINKing to one or two so that I can read and learn?On my first take, this sounds like a contradiction to your first statement - I hope to understand this more after reading about a few of this tools you speak of.
> 
> What disklabel type does a TiVo unit set the HDD to?
> .
> Attempting to relate this back to something that I can understand, for example, when Windows DELETEs a file (Normal DELETE, not SHIFT-DELETE if that makes a difference), it doesn't actually ERASE that file. It just marks the space that file was using as now free in the FAT, IIRC. Currently, I'm picturing what @firepowr did as a similar action - the data is still there but he can't access it because...
> 
> So, if one were able to find all of the occurrences of where 'GPT' was written, one could then, theoretically, return the HDD to a state where TiVo (and MFS Tools) would recognize it again.


TiVo uses their own disk label that is not recognized by the average OS or disk utilities.

The link you posted, the author just changed the disk ID. Because he changed the disk ID, the OS expected a different structure that was not present and as such could not access the data.

This is not detailed info but this is information to convert GPT to MBR and from MBR to GPT.
And here is some basic info on GPT and MBR.

Initializing a drive is more than just changing the disk ID, it is also putting the structure in place that is consistent with the disk ID chosen. This requires writing to a few key sectors. The problem is knowing what was on those sectors prior to being written on in order to restore the information. MBR is more likely recoverable than GPT. Here is some more information on recovery of information.


----------



## avpman2

I need help from someone who would be kind enough to dumb this down for me. I've read thru almost 39 pages of posts going back to 2015, watched numerous YouTube videos, and I'm more confused than ever.

I have a Roamio TCD848000 with a stock OEM 154hr/HD drive. I want to upgrade it, and not loose any settings, season passes, recorded programs, or cable card pairing to a WD WD30EURS 3TB drive. Also, if you have a suggestion for a 4TB, or different HD, I'm all ears.

I'm familiar with the old mfstools and have done upgrades to older Tivos before (hooking the drives to another PC, running a boot disk and mfstools commands.) But things seems to be different now. I've read about green screens, cold boots, kickstart 58, duplicating docking stations, ISOs missing from SourceForge, etc. Can someone please tell me step by step the easiest way to upgrade the OEM drive? For example, put the OEM and the new drive in a PC and boot from [this] and do [this] ?

I apologize for asking a question which may be so simple for most of you. But I really have tried hard on my own to figure it out what's current and I just can't. I don't want to send my unit to Weaknees and be without it for 10 days. I'm disabled and I can't be without my Tivo buddy for that long!

Thank you kindly in advance.


----------



## jmbach

avpman2 said:


> I need help from someone who would be kind enough to dumb this down for me. I've read thru almost 39 pages of posts going back to 2015, watched numerous YouTube videos, and I'm more confused than ever.
> 
> I have a Roamio TCD848000 with a stock OEM 154hr/HD drive. I want to upgrade it, and not loose any settings, season passes, recorded programs, or cable card pairing to a WD WD30EURS 3TB drive. Also, if you have a suggestion for a 4TB, or different HD, I'm all ears.
> 
> I'm familiar with the old mfstools and have done upgrades to older Tivos before (hooking the drives to another PC, running a boot disk and mfstools commands.) But things seems to be different now. I've read about green screens, cold boots, kickstart 58, duplicating docking stations, ISOs missing from SourceForge, etc. Can someone please tell me step by step the easiest way to upgrade the OEM drive? For example, put the OEM and the new drive in a PC and boot from [this] and do [this] ?
> 
> I apologize for asking a question which may be so simple for most of you. But I really have tried hard on my own to figure it out what's current and I just can't. I don't want to send my unit to Weaknees and be without it for 10 days. I'm disabled and I can't be without my Tivo buddy for that long!
> 
> Thank you kindly in advance.


Very well. The short version. Everything is still hooked up the "old way" to run MFSTools. No change there.
WD Red drive (not WD Red Pro) 4 TB drive.
Recommend using diagnostic program for full read, full write, followed by full read to catch any potential bad sectors before putting it into service.
Download the MFSTools iso from my post which I believe is post 131 in this thread. Read info in that post for logging in and using MFSTools.
Use fdisk -l (Little L) to identify your source and target drives. If sdX is your source and sdY is your target then...
Command for the copy is mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


----------



## locksmythe

jmbach said:


> Very well. The short version. Everything is still hooked up the "old way" to run MFSTools. No change there.
> WD Red drive (not WD Red Pro) 4 TB drive.
> Recommend using diagnostic program for full read, full write, followed by full read to catch any potential bad sectors before putting it into service.
> Download the MFSTools iso from my post which I believe is post 131 in this thread. Read info in that post for logging in and using MFSTools.
> Use fdisk -l (Little L) to identify your source and target drives. If sdX is your source and sdY is your target then...
> Command for the copy is mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


I did not check for bad sectors when I added an external disk. Can I go back and do that after the fact? the disk is already added and the TiVo has been put back in service but I don't think any new recordings have been made.


----------



## jmbach

You would not want to do a write but you can do a read. Power down the TiVo completely. Remove the drive and run the diagnostic read test. Reattach the drive and power everything back up. 

If you want to do a read, write, and read on the drive, then you will have to divorce the drive from the TiVo, do the testing, then add the drive back. If there any recordings on the drive, you would lose them.


----------



## avpman2

jmbach said:


> Very well. The short version. Everything is still hooked up the "old way" to run MFSTools. No change there.
> WD Red drive (not WD Red Pro) 4 TB drive.
> Recommend using diagnostic program for full read, full write, followed by full read to catch any potential bad sectors before putting it into service.
> Download the MFSTools iso from my post which I believe is post 131 in this thread. Read info in that post for logging in and using MFSTools.
> Use fdisk -l (Little L) to identify your source and target drives. If sdX is your source and sdY is your target then...
> Command for the copy is mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


Awesome! Thank you very kindly. Is this also an acceptable 4TB drive? Seagate's website said it's specifically designed for DVR use: 
Seagate ST4000VM000 4TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5


----------



## jmbach

avpman2 said:


> Awesome! Thank you very kindly. Is this also an acceptable 4TB drive? Seagate's website said it's specifically designed for DVR use:
> Seagate ST4000VM000 4TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5


I would think so. I do have a 2TB version of that drive I have used in my OLED S3 for years. 
Majority of people seem to use the WD Reds and not have problems. YMMV


----------



## avpman2

jmbach said:


> Very well. The short version. Everything is still hooked up the "old way" to run MFSTools. No change there.
> WD Red drive (not WD Red Pro) 4 TB drive.
> Recommend using diagnostic program for full read, full write, followed by full read to catch any potential bad sectors before putting it into service.
> Download the MFSTools iso from my post which I believe is post 131 in this thread. Read info in that post for logging in and using MFSTools.
> Use fdisk -l (Little L) to identify your source and target drives. If sdX is your source and sdY is your target then...
> Command for the copy is mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


Got my drive today and ready to copy. Is there any advantage/difference to using mfscopy -a as opposed to mfscopy -ai ? I can't find documentation on the mfscopy command line switches to determine myself.
Thanks again!


----------



## jmbach

avpman2 said:


> Got my drive today and ready to copy. Is there any advantage/difference to using mfscopy -a as opposed to mfscopy -ai ? I can't find documentation on the mfscopy command line switches to determine myself.
> Thanks again!


For Roamio, the -i switch is not needed.


----------



## ClearToLand

jmbach said:


> avpman2 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Got my drive today and ready to copy. Is there any advantage/difference to using mfscopy -a as opposed to mfscopy -ai ? *I can't find documentation on the mfscopy command line switches to determine myself*.
> Thanks again!
> 
> 
> 
> For Roamio, the -i switch is not needed.
Click to expand...

I haven't yet run msfcopy but plan to soon now that my TiVos aren't recording much.

Isn't there a mfscopy /? or mfscopy /help command?


----------



## jmbach

There is a help command "-h" or could go to the first post of this thread.


----------



## avpman2

jmbach said:


> For Roamio, the -i switch is not needed.


Sincere thanks. Worked like a champ! For others reading this thread, the Linux boot screen went by so fast, and Shift-PgUp wouldn't go back far enough for me to identify which drives were which. So I ran the Linux command "lsblk" and it showed me all drives connected. From that I could identify the original 1tb drive and the new 4tb drive. I also disconnected all other drives in the PC to avoid confusion.

Awesome group here! Is it possible to contribute to the poster of MFSTOOLS 3.2?


----------



## jmbach

You can pipe the fdisk command through more or grep.
I use fdisk -l | more
As far as contributions to jkozee, I know of no way donating or contributing to him.
I personally support ggieseke's work with DvrBARS and MFSR and hopefully a DvrCopy which will do functions similar to MFSTools.


----------



## bungi43

Thoughts on this hard drive for a Tivo Roamio OTA?

Seagate BarraCuda ST3000DM008 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive-Newegg.com


----------



## tivoreno

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for posting your actions! I had this exact problem attempting to copy my Roamio OTA original 1TB drive to a 2TB drive. Using this description I was able to use the same software to edit the 3 bytes on the original drive directly and produce the same results. Copy went well and Tivo is up and running at double the capacity.



TheCryptkeeper said:


> My initial setup was a Roamio Basic with a 3TB WD30EURX internal drive that the DVR had auto-formatted and an External 1TB TiVo Expander. The internal drive was only two years old, and while the TiVo Expander had over eight years of use, there was no sign of imminent failure yet. Nevertheless, I chose to be preemptive and decided to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy and combine both drives to a new 4TB WD40EZRZ. This was a Blue drive shucked from an Easystore External Enclosure that was on sale from Best Buy with a $25 gift card for $109. Net cost = $85 plus tax.
> 
> I carefully removed the drive from its enclosure by using four old credit cards, and I avoided breaking any of the enclosure's plastic tabs, so if the drive fails, I can put it back in its case and return it.
> 
> To simplify things, I disconnected all the hard drives from my computer and hooked up all three TiVo drives directly to the motherboard's SATA ports, the external drive via eSATA to SATA cable. I turned on my PC, pressed F12 and booted from a CD of MFSTools 3.2.
> 
> Logged in as "root", password "tivo".
> 
> Typed "fdisk -l" then pressed shift and page up to find and identify appropriate disks.
> 
> /dev/sdc was my source internal drive, /dev/sdb was my external source and /dev/sda was my new 4TB drive. I used the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda
> 
> I received the following message, "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment. Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector."
> 
> Jmbach identified this as an issue with block 0. Using a program called iBored, by Thomas Templeton, I copied the first 20 blocks of the TiVo's internal source drive and sent them to Jmbach to see what was needed to fix the error. I did this by asking the program to write blocks to file, starting with block 0, block size 512, number of blocks 20.
> 
> On the left side is the defective file, on the right side the repaired blocks.
> 
> View attachment 29090
> 
> 
> 
> According to Jmbach, normally the TiVo block 0 has either 0x03 0x06 or 0x06 0x03 at offset 2 in block 0. That is supposed to let the TiVo know the boot block. This has been the case up to Series 4. Series 5, especially the later OS, does not make a normal block 0 on the drive because all the software is on the flash drive.
> 
> To write the block Jmbach corrected back to the drive, I marked the TiVo's internal source drive as writable, and wrote file to blocks starting at block 0 size 512.
> 
> iBored is run as a Windows or iOS program. I used the iOS version on my MacBook Pro and connected the drive with a Sabrent USB 2.0 adapter. The MacBook wanted to initialize my drive when I connected it, but I told it to ignore the drive.
> 
> In iBored I needed to go to file and run as root to find the drive. After fixing the drive, I moved the drive back to my PC and rebooted MFSTools 3.2
> 
> This time, the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc:/dev/sdb /dev/sda worked, and 19 hours later I had a single 4TB drive with all my movies, shows, and settings intact. My Roamio started perfectly, like the drive had never been changed. MFSTools 3.2 worked flawlessly.
> 
> I couldn't have done this without Jmbach's help. Jmbach supports ggieseke's software development and I made another contribution to support their further efforts here.
> 
> Thus far the 4TB WD40EZRZ (Western Digital Blue drive) has worked perfectly and is quiet. I will keep you posted on its performance.


----------



## jmbach

tivoreno said:


> Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for posting your actions! I had this exact problem attempting to copy my Roamio OTA original 1TB drive to a 2TB drive. Using this description I was able to use the same software to edit the 3 bytes on the original drive directly and produce the same results. Copy went well and Tivo is up and running at double the capacity.


FYI there is a new utility on the ISO that can be downloaded in my post that fixes that problem without having to manually edit it. It is called bootsectorfix.


----------



## jsjurek

I'm writing this post to detail the process I used to *successfully?* upgrade an original Tivo Premiere 320GB drive that was starting to fail to an expanded 3TB WD Red (WD30EFRX) drive. I want to thank especially jmbach for responding to my PM's and guiding/confirming my process. I'm detailing my steps in case they could be useful to anybody else (esp. Mac users).

Note I have a 2016 MacBook Pro (with USB 3 ports) and a 2008 Mac Pro tower (with USB 2 ports). I do NOT have access to a windows computer so this presented a unique challenge (and hence why I used an intermediate drive instead of DVRBars).

My 320GB drive had been on the fritz for awhile and it was freezing a lot when watching recorded programs. KS 54 and it failed every test except the initial state test. So it was time to replace my drive (and if I'm going to replace, might as well upsize right?)

I downloaded GNU ddrescue and compiled via homebrew to both of my macs. Unlike windows PC's, on a mac you can use ddrescue when booted into the OS (no limitation with the windows host controller which prevents base-level drive access needed for ddrescue). I hooked the Tivo's original drive and an intermediate (spare) 1TB drive to USB 3 docks and connected them to my mac book pro. Fired up ddrescue, checked the path to my drives, hit "IGNORE" when the Mac warned me that the drives were unrecognizable to my computer (Note: DO NOT HIT "INITIALIZE" or you've just hosed your original Tivo drive). I ran ddrescue with the following command in the Terminal: ddrescue -f -n -v /dev/disk2 /dev/disk 3 tivo-rescue.log. (Note, on a mac, /dev/diskN is the equivalent of /dev/sdX if using fdisk within Linux).

I waited about 17 hours for ddrescue to finish -- there were about 300 read errors on my original drive and about 20MB of errors, so I was not hopeful... Instead of trying to run ddrescue again in an effort to recover more data from the failed areas (eg: -r 3 switch), I just shut down the machine and decided to see if it would work in the tivo based on the image it did recover in the 1st pass of ddrescue.

Put the intermediate drive into my tivo and started it up. It booted perfectly (to my surprise) on the first attempt. All my shows, cable card pairing, etc, were the same as before. Same amount of disk usage as before (~30% used) and in system settings I had the same 47 HD hours as before.

Next, removed intermediate drive from Tivo and went back to my computers. Booted to the MFSTools 3.2 ISO that was linked to back on page 3 of this thread on my macbook pro. When I used the fdisk command I got a bunch of scrolling text about UAS errors. (Basically, this is the USB 3.0 problem with the MFS Tools ISO -- this was noted in other posts on this thread). Expecting this might happen, I simply moved over to my 2008 Mac Pro tower with the USB 2 ports. This time, no errors when the 2 docks were connected to the machine after booting from the MFS Tools ISO. So, after logging in as "root" and with password "tivo", I proceeded to run 

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

The source drive was my intermediate drive (noted above) and my target was the 3TB WD Red drive. MFS Tools expands as it copies, and the process completed in about 6.5 hours (using 2 USB docks connected via USB 2.0).

Put the finished/final WD Red drive into the Tivo. Booted up. Welcome... powering up. Almost there... just a few more minutes. The boot sequence finished and I was expecting to be taken to Tivo Central. When suddenly the Tivo rebooted on me. Same thing happened the 2nd time through, got all the way until I was expecting to see Tivo Central and then it rebooted again. Figuring I was in a boot loop, I decided to pull the plug and see if I could run a kickstart 57 (or 58). When I plugged it in, I missed my window for doing the kickstart (or else it just didn't take for whatever reason), but I was holding down the pause key trying to get my Tivo to do something. Except, this time, it finished booting and NOW it worked! So I think I'm done and up and running. Except I don't understand what happened with the 3 reboots. Is this normal/expected behavior? Was this an example of Tivo "fixing itself"? I'm afraid to reboot it again wondering if I'm going to continue to have this boot problem or if it was a just a one-time thing. In system settings I now have 479 HD hours and only 3% usage from recorded shows. Very excited about that -- I'll never get close to filling up my drive  

Thanks again to everyone in these forums who have been so helpful throughout this process. Just curious if anybody else has experienced the 2 to 3 reboots issue I mentioned above and if that's normal (note -- I never did run any kickstarts).

Thanks again!


----------



## kdavis508

Thanks everyone for being so helpful on this thread, I've made a lot of progress but have hit a wall. A couple years ago, I upgraded my Premiere 320gb to a 1TB WD Green using JFMS. The drive functions well most of the time, but glitches during recordings and transfers lead me to believe the drive is starting to die. So, I purchased a 2TB Seagate SkyHawk surveillance disk to replace the ailing 1TB.

Turns out JFMS only works well when using the original hard drive from Tivo as the source. I was able to copy the 1TB image to the 2TB, but not supersize it to maximize the drive's capacity. Now I am trying the MFS Tools 3.2 route.

When I use command:

mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

Where sda is the "source" 1TB WD Green and sdb is the "target" Seagate 2TB, I get an error I have not seen before: "Copy source: Inode 262144 corrupt." Is it not possible for me to use the tool with the 1TB WD Green as the source? Or is the error misleading and a result of something else?


----------



## jmbach

You have bad spots on the drive. The best thing to do is to copy the drive to another drive and use MFSTools on that drive to copy to the 2TB. MFSTools does not have any error correction capabilities for drives with bad spots.


----------



## jmbach

Remember, when you copy garbage you get garbage. You might be better off using an image off of a drive without issues.


----------



## kdavis508

jmbach said:


> You have bad spots on the drive. The best thing to do is to copy the drive to another drive and use MFSTools on that drive to copy to the 2TB. MFSTools does not have any error correction capabilities for drives with bad spots.


That's a thought. Another idea I had was to copy using JFMS and supersize with MFS Tools. I'll post a status update when I get a chance to finish all the steps.

As for garbage in, garbage out, maybe I should just dig up the original drive and give that a shot. Would suck to lose recordings, but maybe I can just transfer the important ones over to PC or a different box.

PS, thank you so much for the quick reply.


----------



## jmbach

kdavis508 said:


> That's a thought. Another idea I had was to copy using JFMS and supersize with MFS Tools. I'll post a status update when I get a chance to finish all the steps.
> 
> As for garbage in, garbage out, maybe I should just dig up the original drive and give that a shot. Would suck to lose recordings, but maybe I can just transfer the important ones over to PC or a different box.
> 
> PS, thank you so much for the quick reply.


You cannot re-expand an image that has been expanded once via the JMFS method with JMFS again. You can copy (not add a partition to) that image to expand it with MFSTools because that method does not add any more partitions to the unit.


----------



## jmbach

If that drive boots, use kmttg to offload any non copy protected recordings from the drive.


----------



## Shagger

So my Premiere's 2TB HD appears to be failing, freezing up, pixelations, glitching, jumping ahead, etc... So I am thinking to buy a new HD and copy the old 2TB drive into the new drive. It's been a while since I did this, I used JMFS last time. Doing some reading about the MFS tools, and had a few questions:

1) Drive recommendations, what's a good one these days?
2) Can I easily upgrade from my 2TB JMFS drive to a 4TB drive without too much effort using MFS Tools 3.2?
3) I have an external USB 3.0 dock that I plan on using to copy the data over, will the MFS Tools be able to copy between drives in the same dock, or do I need 2 docks?


----------



## ggieseke

1. I would recommend the 4TB WD Red (WD40EFRX).
2. Just copy the old drive to the new drive. It's a one-step process.
3. A dual-drive dock should work fine.


----------



## Shagger

ggieseke said:


> 1. I would recommend the 4TB WD Red (WD40EFRX).
> 2. Just copy the old drive to the new drive. It's a one-step process.
> 3. A dual-drive dock should work fine.


1) Looks like the WD40EFRX is $140 at Newegg - Does anyone like the Seagate Iron Wolf drive?

2) I was concerned because some posts talked about doing a direct copy and how MFS Tools didn't handle copying from bad drives well. Should I use the drive clone feature of my dock OR use the copy command of MFS Tools?


----------



## ggieseke

Use MFSTools 3.2 (a clone won't use the additional drive space).


----------



## Shagger

ggieseke said:


> Use MFSTools 3.2 (a clone won't use the additional drive space).


Excellent! OK, 4TB WD40EFRX is enroute to me... We'll see if Newegg does their usual stellar job with shipping and gets it here for the weekend. After rereading the thread I wonder if its better to use the SATA ports on my desktop for best speed vs. the USB 3.0 dock. That 2TB drive is roughly 80% full


----------



## ggieseke

Shagger said:


> Excellent! OK, 4TB WD40EFRX is enroute to me... We'll see if Newegg does their usual stellar job with shipping and gets it here for the weekend. After rereading the thread I wonder if its better to use the SATA ports on my desktop for best speed vs. the USB 3.0 dock. That 2TB drive is roughly 80% full


If memory serves there have been a few reports of USB3 driver issues, but I think jmbach has those fairly well ironed out. These days there are only two USB3 drivers that you really need (Intel & NEC). If it recognizes your dock at all you're probably good to go and it beats cracking the case open, finding extra SATA cables, etc. I would expect 4-5 hours either way for a 2TB drive.

P.S. Love the Unforgiven quote.


----------



## jmbach

If you have an issue with USB3 it is with writing. If you get actual errors and not warnings, use SATA for writes. 
If MFSTools had read errors, then try cloning the drive and see if it will copy. If you still have read errors, let the TiVo do a KS 57 and/or 58 on the clone and then see if it will copy. 
If you still have read errors, would off load all the recordings you have to your computer and ask ggieseke for a fresh image to work with. If you have a problem with your TiVo and that drive, you are just going to copy over your problems.


----------



## Shagger

Thank you gentlemen, once I get the drive I run a few tests on it to make sure it's ok then start the copy. I've copied over my Cubs World Series recordings to my computer so that's the only thing that is irreplaceable on there.


----------



## Shagger

Just to clarify, I think someone mentioned their drive header getting overwritten as a Windows drive and I wanted to avoid that. Can I run the disk diagnostics in Windows to make sure the drive is good? My plan is to boot into windows, turn on the dock with the new 4TB drive in it and start running the diagnostic tests. Anyone see a problem with that?


----------



## jmbach

Shagger said:


> Just to clarify, I think someone mentioned their drive header getting overwritten as a Windows drive and I wanted to avoid that. Can I run the disk diagnostics in Windows to make sure the drive is good? My plan is to boot into windows, turn on the dock with the new 4TB drive in it and start running the diagnostic tests. Anyone see a problem with that?


If you are running Windows later than XP, Windows may ask you to initialize the drive. Just say no. Windows XP can be made not to auto initialize the drive.

Run the manufacturer diagnostic on the drive rather than Windows diagnostic. If the drive is not Windows formatted I am not sure if you can run Windows diagnostic on it


----------



## Shagger

Wow - this thing is taking a LONG time. ETA 23 more hours... Is this really going to take a whole day? Using the USB3.0 dock instead of my internal SATA ports may be a problem 

Would it be better to delete old shows, then purge them out of the deleted items folder, then duplicate the drives with them plugged into my internal SATA ports?


----------



## jmbach

USB3 and SATA speeds are fairly close so there would not be that much difference in time. 

If you're USB3 dock is plugged into USB 2.0 ports, we'll that would make a big difference. 

The more recordings the more time it takes because it is re-writing the inodes. It is always faster to clone a drive in windows that has a large number of files than use windows to copy file by file.


----------



## Shagger

Hmm, ok so I have LOTS of Read errors from the source Tivo drive. It was at 20% this morning after 7 hours of copying. I haven't tried to clone the drive yet, using my Sabrent EC-HDD2 dock. But if I do, since I am going up a size from 2TB to 4TB, I won't be able to have the Tivo access all 4TB will I?

I still have my original 320GB drive, made after I had paired my cablecard so I can still use that one. What if I copy the 320GB drive to the 4TB drive. Then use ddrescue or something to go from the 2TB with recordings to the new 4TB that has been cloned and expanded from the original 320GB image?


----------



## jmbach

Your best bet is to transfer whatever recordings you want to save to your computer and then use the 320GB image to create a 4TB image with mfscopy. Then transfer the recordings back to the 4TB drive. 

If you are wanting to use your original drive, clone it to another drive, run the clone in your TiVo and do a KS57 and KS58. Then use that drive to copy the recordings to your 4TB drive with mfscopy.


----------



## jmbach

Shagger said:


> View attachment 29630
> 
> Hmm, ok so I have LOTS of Read errors from the source Tivo drive. It was at 20% this morning after 7 hours of copying. I haven't tried to clone the drive yet, using my Sabrent EC-HDD2 dock. But if I do, since I am going up a size from 2TB to 4TB, I won't be able to have the Tivo access all 4TB will I?
> 
> I still have my original 320GB drive, made after I had paired my cablecard so I can still use that one. What if I copy the 320GB drive to the 4TB drive. Then use ddrescue or something to go from the 2TB with recordings to the new 4TB that has been cloned and expanded from the original 320GB image?


Using ddrescue is a form of cloning the drive. If you clone the drive to your 4TB drive, you only have the recording space of the drive you clone from.


----------



## Shagger

OK so, I used MFS to copy the original 320GB image to my 4TB drive to see if it would copy successfully and it did. Feeling good, I decided to clean up recordings on my current 2TB Tivo drive and permanently delete the recordings. 320 permanently deleted shows later I pulled the drive from the Tivo, planted it in my dock and rebooted into MFSTools. Weirdly, now MFS doesn't see either my 2TB or 4TB drives mounted in the dock? What am I doing wrong?


----------



## jmbach

Make sure both drives still boot up in the TiVo successfully. 

If they do, then run mfsinfo on the drives and post the results.


----------



## cbrrider

Is there a way to run mfstools 3.2 on an old 32bit Pentium 4 system? The iso on post #131 is not working, presumably because it's 64 bit.


----------



## HomeUser

cbrrider said:


> Is there a way to run mfstools 3.2 on an old 32bit Pentium 4 system? The iso on post #131 is not working, presumably because it's 64 bit.


Go to the source MFS Tools I downloaded the .iso and checked with "uname -m" which returned "i686" that should be the 32 bit version


----------



## jmbach

HomeUser said:


> Go to the source MFS Tools I downloaded the .iso and checked with "uname -m" which returned "i686" that should be the 32 bit version


Only issue is the ISO you linked to is MFSTools 2.0 which does not support series 4 TiVos or greater.

The ISO I created is 64 bit only. I may have a copy of a 32 bit version I made a while ago, but it is basically a compiled version of the original source found on sourceforge without any of my modifications/corrections made.


----------



## cbrrider

jmbach said:


> Only issue is the ISO you linked to is MFSTools 2.0 which does not support series 4 TiVos or greater.
> 
> The ISO I created is 64 bit only. I may have a copy of a 32 bit version I made a while ago, but it is basically a compiled version of the original source found on sourceforge without any of my modifications/corrections made.


Would that 32 bit version work to copy a Roamio disk?


----------



## HomeUser

cbrrider said:


> Would that 32 bit version work to copy a Roamio disk?


If you don't need to save existing recordings just drop in the new drive and the Roamio will initialize the new drive then boot up to the guided setup.

Jmbach
Thanks for noticing. I overlooked the version when looking to see if it was 32 or 64 bit


----------



## jmbach

cbrrider said:


> Would that 32 bit version work to copy a Roamio disk?


It will. I don't think the fixes I made to the source affects the basic copy command.


----------



## cbrrider

jmbach said:


> It will. I don't think the fixes I made to the source affects the basic copy command.


Cool. I just wanted to copy the disk to preserve the cable card pairing. How would I go about obtaining a copy of the 32 bit mfstools 3.2?


----------



## jmbach

I would PM you a link but apparently I am not allowed to start a conversation with you.


----------



## jlin

Bestbuy currently has an 8TB external WD drive for $159. It's has the 8TB Red drive inside.

I currently have a 6TB drive running on the Roamio Plus Pro. Can I do a disk clone using my dual cloner dock and put the 8TB back to the Tivo for increased recording space?


----------



## jmbach

Unfortunately not at this time. If you disk clone you still will have 6 TB recording space.


----------



## cbrrider

jmbach said:


> I would PM you a link but apparently I am not allowed to start a conversation with you.


I've updated the privacy settings. I think it should work now.


----------



## Shagger

jmbach said:


> Make sure both drives still boot up in the TiVo successfully.


So I had to take a break in the upgrade process, my wife had some health issues. But this week I finally did get to test the 4TB Red drive and it booted up just fine using the original 320GB Premier image. I was able to get my 2TB green drive and 4TB to be recognized in my dock so I decided to take another shot at copying the 2TB drive to my new 4TB drive. One thing I did do was delete everything not wanted to be saved, then deleted the Tivo recommendations folder, then I went ahead and methodically, one by one, deleted everything from the deleted items folder. 400+ recordings one by one! It made a big difference though in that the 42% full 2TB was really just 42%. I started Tuesday night at 11PM and it took until this afternoon at approximately 1PM. Took about 39 hours! There was a TON of read errors. The copy speed went down to about 5MiB transfer rate. Craziness! But, it looks like all my recordings are there, as well as all the One passes and account information. Thanks for ALL the help guys, especially you jmbach! Its nice to have a great community like this to fix our Tivo's when they malfunction.

Before:








During:








After:


----------



## 11274

I'm trying to test my 2TB drive from a Tivo HD. I down loaded the static MFSTools snapshot from sourceforge. I'm running on Ubuntu and have the drive connected using a SATA usb hub, which presents it as /dev/sde.

mfstool info /dev/sde

gives "info: Volume header corrupt." Am I setting this up correctly and it really is corrupt? If I strace mfstools, it seems to be reading relevant data

read(3, "\24\222\3\6root=/dev/hda4 upgradesoftwa"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 512, SEEK_SET) = 512
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\1\0\0\0?Apple\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 1024, SEEK_SET) = 1024
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\n?J\266\0\0\0\1Bootstrap 1\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 1536, SEEK_SET) = 1536
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\n?J\267\0\0 \0Kernel 1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 2048, SEEK_SET) = 2048
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\n?j\267\0\10\0\0Root 1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 2560, SEEK_SET) = 2560
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nGj\267\0\0\0\1Bootstrap 2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 3072, SEEK_SET) = 3072
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nGj\270\0\0 \0Kernel 2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 3584, SEEK_SET) = 3584
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nG\212\270\0\10\0\0Root 2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 4096, SEEK_SET) = 4096
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nO\212\270\0\4\0\0Linux swap\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 4608, SEEK_SET) = 4608
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nS\212\270\0\10\0\0/var\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 5120, SEEK_SET) = 5120
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\n[\212\270\0\t\0\0MFS application "..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 5632, SEEK_SET) = 5632
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nm\212\270\0104\23\370MFS media region"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 6144, SEEK_SET) = 6144
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\nd\212\270\0\t\0\0MFS application "..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 6656, SEEK_SET) = 6656
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\0\0\[email protected]\n?JvMFS media region"..., 512) = 512
lseek(3, 7168, SEEK_SET) = 7168
read(3, "PM\0\0\0\0\0\16\22\241\236\260\326>\352\0MFS media region"..., 512) = 512
_llseek(3, 88970981376, [88970981376], SEEK_SET) = 0
read(3, "\0\0\0\0\353\272\376\355\204\t\261\266\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\1\0\0\[email protected]\0\0\[email protected]\0\0\0\1"..., 512) = 512
_llseek(3, 89272970752, [89272970752], SEEK_SET) = 0
read(3, "\0\0\0\0\353\272\376\355\204\t\261\266\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\1\0\0\[email protected]\0\0\[email protected]\0\0\0\1"..., 512) = 512
write(2, "info: ", 6info: ) = 6
write(2, "Volume header corrupt", 21Volume header corrupt) = 21


----------



## 11274

km said:


> I'm trying to test my 2TB drive from a Tivo HD. I down loaded the static MFSTools snapshot from sourceforge. I'm running on Ubuntu and have the drive connected using a SATA usb hub, which presents it as /dev/sde.
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sde
> 
> gives "info: Volume header corrupt." Am I setting this up correctly and it really is corrupt?


I'm pretty convinced I'm being misled. I tried my original 160GB TivoHD SATA drive in the same USB Dock, and got the same error message.

Beyond that the Tivo shows different behavior depending which disk is plugged in. With the 2TB the green light stays on for a couple seconds then off, with the powering up screen usually (but not always) up for that time. With the 160GB disk the green light just blinks forever, no display. With no disk it gets beyond powering up to sit on the next screen.

Pretty clearly a power supply problem.


----------



## kpeters59

Wow!
You got springs in your shoes to jump to that conclusion?

No question the HD's were in the time frame for Power Supply Capacitor issues. Have you done a visual inspection of the caps? The tops should be flat. Especially the big ones.

-KP


----------



## jmbach

Did you download MFSTools 2.0 or MFSTools 3.2. If you have a newer computer then 3.2 version iso that is in an earlier post of mine is based off of a newer Linux kernel. That may make a difference. 

However, the header may be corrupt. If you can post the contents of the first sector of partition 10 that will help. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## syd81

Can someone help me understand: Using a MacBook Pro: Can I use MFSTools copy an old drive to a new one where: 1) I am using an external drive enclosure and USB3; 2) I only have one drive enclosure.


----------



## ramatsu

Hmm... I'm in the same boat (MBP), and have been told I can. I plan to create a boot USB drive from the iso, if I can only find it!

The only version I've been able to even find is 2.0, including from the sourceforge link in the OP on this thread about 3.2. 

Anyone have the secret handshake to acquire 3.2?


----------



## jmbach

ramatsu said:


> Hmm... I'm in the same boat (MBP), and have been told I can. I plan to create a boot USB drive from the iso, if I can only find it!
> 
> The only version I've been able to even find is 2.0, including from the sourceforge link in the OP on this thread about 3.2.
> 
> Anyone have the secret handshake to acquire 3.2?


Start at post number 8 in this thread.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

syd81 said:


> Can someone help me understand: Using a MacBook Pro: Can I use MFSTools copy an old drive to a new one where: 1) I am using an external drive enclosure and USB3; 2) I only have one drive enclosure.


It's a definite maybe. Depends on how savvy you are with Linux and how you plan to boot MFSTools. If you have 2 USB ports available you can create a MFSTools USB bootable thumb drive. Boot the USB thumb drive with the operational TiVo drive connected. Depending on where you have enough space and if you know how to mount that space, backup that TiVo drive to that space. Shut down, change your operational TiVo drive out with your new drive and boot the MFSTools thumb drive with the new drive connected. Remount the space where the backup was saved and restore the backup to the new drive.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## ramatsu

jmbach said:


> It's a definite maybe. Depends on how savvy you are with Linux and how you plan to boot MFSTools.
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Alas, I'm comfortable doing CLI stuff in Terminal, as long as I'm following explicit directions, but have zero Linux savviness, and in this case, can't even get the MFSTools 3.2 iso to burn to my thumb drive, either through Disk Utility or through Terminal.

So, I think I'm going to take my 2TB Red drive, with it's 500GB Tivo partition and 1.5TB of unused space, and just drop it in and use it as a 67 hour device. AKA, "I give up." 

My main goal was to replace a failing 500GB drive, so by using a hardware cloner to image that to the Red, I've accomplished my primary goal. (1 TB was the smallest they make that in, so I originally set off to waste .5TB of space, but spent an extra $20 on the 2TB thinking that it would be a good deal if I *was* able to expand the Tivo partition...)

But before I give up and live with that:

- Does it matter what format the flash drive has when creating a boot drive from an ISO image? I assumed the ISO was a sector copy that would essentially format the drive as part of that process, but that's based on no information, maybe just wishful thinking. I can't get this drive formatted to anything but Mac OS extended anyway, but if that format is what's making it fail in taking the ISO image, I'd keep plugging for a while.

- I've tried both the Terminal technique that's out there on multiple sites, as well as Restore from Image in Disk Utility, but the Terminal method fails with "Permission denied" and the Disk Utility method says the source ISO ..."is not valid for restoring"

If I can get a boot disk going from this ISO, I'm willing to keep digging to find the magical partition expansion command.


----------



## ClearToLand

ramatsu said:


> Alas, I'm comfortable doing CLI stuff in Terminal, as long as I'm following explicit directions, but have zero Linux savviness, and in this case, *can't even get the MFSTools 3.2 iso to burn to my thumb drive*, either through Disk Utility or through Terminal...
> 
> ... - *Does it matter what format the flash drive has when creating a boot drive from an ISO image?* I assumed the ISO was a sector copy that would essentially format the drive as part of that process, but that's based on no information, maybe just wishful thinking. I can't get this drive formatted to anything but Mac OS extended anyway, but if that format is what's making it fail in taking the ISO image, I'd keep plugging for a while.
> 
> - I've tried both the Terminal technique that's out there on multiple sites, as well as Restore from Image in Disk Utility, but the Terminal method fails with "Permission denied" and the Disk Utility method says the source ISO ..."is not valid for restoring"
> 
> *If I can get a boot disk going from this ISO, I'm willing to keep digging to find the magical partition expansion command*.


I don't have the answers to your questions, but, as an Old Tinkerer / Experimenter that *HAS* gotten .ISOs to run from flash drives (i.e. MULTIPLE .ISOs on ONE drive with a MENU!), here are some 'thoughts' / things that I've recently learned:
If the flash drive is 32GB or smaller, format it as FAT32.
- I started out using an old 4GB drive and am currently using a 16GB drive with about a dozen .ISOs on it. MUCH better than carrying around a stack of CDs / DVDs.
*GOOGLE:* "YUMI OR RUFUS"
- I'm using YUMI now on my 10 year old Vista 32-bit PC w/ 'Standard, Old-Fashioned BIOS, my 5 year old HP Laptop Win7 64-bit, and my two new PCs (one with UEFI BIOS). AFAICT, RUFUS is for the newer UEFI BIOS (only?). I'm not sure because I've only read about it and haven't actually used it yet.
You can use DISKPART in Windows to make a flash drive bootable; I found the instructions, printed them out and they're here 'somewhere'. YUMI, IMO, was just more 'efficient' - why 'waste' an entire flash drive for one .ISO when you can load up a dozen and then choose what you want from a menu?
*WAG:* I've read, in my travels, that some flash drives just aren't 'built' for booting from (this was during my Linux research). Do you have another drive that you can try?
List some details in your reply, i.e.:
- Manufacturer / Model of the PC you're using
- Manufacturer / Model of the flash drive you're using
- Just copying the .ISO file to a flash drive isn't going to work; you have to partition it and set an active partition, yada, yada, yada...


----------



## jmbach

ramatsu said:


> Alas, I'm comfortable doing CLI stuff in Terminal, as long as I'm following explicit directions, but have zero Linux savviness, and in this case, can't even get the MFSTools 3.2 iso to burn to my thumb drive, either through Disk Utility or through Terminal.
> 
> So, I think I'm going to take my 2TB Red drive, with it's 500GB Tivo partition and 1.5TB of unused space, and just drop it in and use it as a 67 hour device. AKA, "I give up."
> 
> My main goal was to replace a failing 500GB drive, so by using a hardware cloner to image that to the Red, I've accomplished my primary goal. (1 TB was the smallest they make that in, so I originally set off to waste .5TB of space, but spent an extra $20 on the 2TB thinking that it would be a good deal if I *was* able to expand the Tivo partition...)
> 
> But before I give up and live with that:
> 
> - Does it matter what format the flash drive has when creating a boot drive from an ISO image? I assumed the ISO was a sector copy that would essentially format the drive as part of that process, but that's based on no information, maybe just wishful thinking. I can't get this drive formatted to anything but Mac OS extended anyway, but if that format is what's making it fail in taking the ISO image, I'd keep plugging for a while.
> 
> - I've tried both the Terminal technique that's out there on multiple sites, as well as Restore from Image in Disk Utility, but the Terminal method fails with "Permission denied" and the Disk Utility method says the source ISO ..."is not valid for restoring"
> 
> If I can get a boot disk going from this ISO, I'm willing to keep digging to find the magical partition expansion command.


There is a USB/HDD version on that same page you found MFSTools 3.2 that you can use dd to copy it over to your USB thumb drive. Just make sure you unpack it all the way so you have the raw file.

If you have a dual drive USB dock, you can just use the copy command to copy and expand your original drive to your new drive.

BTW you cannot expand a Roamio or above image like you could previous TiVo models by just adding a partition. If you do that, the Roamio and above models will reformat the drive. You will either have to use MFSTools to copy the image to another drive or do a backup and restore in order to expand the image.

There is somewhere I believe in this thread a guide to mount a location to save and restore a backup file. If I find it, I will put a link to it on the post that has the MFSTools images.


----------



## jim tressler

I have been out of the tivo game for many years but recently cut the cord. I got a roamio ota 500gb that I have been using for the past few months and the time has come to expand it and was able to get a WD Red 3tb for a great price. I want to keep everything from the old 500gb drive (recordings / one pass, etc) and after reading this whole thread I think I know what to do - can someone check my math please 

Run WD diagnostics on the 3tb drive to make sure its good.
As long as the drive is good, run MSFR
Load mfs tools to copy the drive - command line "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb" (assuming thats what my drives are named)
put new drive in tivo and boot up and rock on

Question: Do I need to put the 3tb in the tivo to let it format and then pull it after the guided setup screen and then run MSFR or can I run MSFR right after the diagnostics

thanks!

jim


----------



## jmbach

jim tressler said:


> I have been out of the tivo game for many years but recently cut the cord. I got a roamio ota 500gb that I have been using for the past few months and the time has come to expand it and was able to get a WD Red 3tb for a great price. I want to keep everything from the old 500gb drive (recordings / one pass, etc) and after reading this whole thread I think I know what to do - can someone check my math please
> 
> Run WD diagnostics on the 3tb drive to make sure its good.
> As long as the drive is good, run MSFR
> Load mfs tools to copy the drive - command line "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb" (assuming thats what my drives are named)
> put new drive in tivo and boot up and rock on
> 
> Question: Do I need to put the 3tb in the tivo to let it format and then pull it after the guided setup screen and then run MSFR or can I run MSFR right after the diagnostics
> 
> thanks!
> 
> jim


There is no need to run MFSR on the drive after running the diagnostic. MFSTools will just overwrite what ever is on the drive.

So you just have 3 steps. Diagnostic, Copy, Boot the new drive.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## 11274

km said:


> I'm pretty convinced I'm being misled. I tried my original 160GB TivoHD SATA drive in the same USB Dock, and got the same error message.
> 
> Beyond that the Tivo shows different behavior depending which disk is plugged in. With the 2TB the green light stays on for a couple seconds then off, with the powering up screen usually (but not always) up for that time. With the 160GB disk the green light just blinks forever, no display. With no disk it gets beyond powering up to sit on the next screen.
> 
> Pretty clearly a power supply problem.


Update: I replaced the power supply with a used one off Ebay and that fixed the problem. Nothing wrong with the disk. There was sign of swollen capacitors on mine, I had not originally understood that the slight upward tilt of the metal disk at the top of the capacitor was the sign.

I still don't know why mfstools failed. with "volume header corrupt". From the straces it seems to be reading the partition table. The version I'm running is the tar file off sourceforge, which is a 2.0 version. I am not running an ISO. I'm just running the binary from the tar on my Ubuntu 16.04 system with the tivo disk connected via a USB dock. Is 2.0 too old for a Tivo HD disk.


----------



## johnmsch

Hello All,

Looking to upgrade the 2tb drive in my Premiere Elite to a 4tb drive. After spending the last week researching this and using JMFS 104, which didn't work in my case, I'm going to try again with MFS Tools 3.2. I just have a few questions.

Do I only need to do the copy (mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb)? From what I can see, this does the expand automatically to use all of the 4tb drive, correct? Is that really all there is to it? Nothing to run before or after the copy?

After having run JMFS 104, the 4tb drive now has the image from the 2tb drive. Will mfstool just overwrite it, or do I need to somehow reinitialize that destination drive before doing the copy?

Lastly, once I boot to the ISO, how do I identify which drive is which? Somewhere back in this thread I saw mention of using lsblk. Is that appropriate?

Thanks!


----------



## ThAbtO

johnmsch said:


> Hello All,
> 
> Looking to upgrade the 2tb drive in my Premiere Elite to a 4tb drive. After spending the last week researching this and using JMFS 104, which didn't work in my case, I'm going to try again with MFS Tools 3.2. I just have a few questions.
> 
> Do I only need to do the copy (mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb)? From what I can see, this does the expand automatically to use all of the 4tb drive, correct? Is that really all there is to it? Nothing to run before or after the copy?
> 
> After having run JMFS 104, the 4tb drive now has the image from the 2tb drive. Will mfstool just overwrite it, or do I need to somehow reinitialize that destination drive before doing the copy?
> 
> Lastly, once I boot to the ISO, how do I identify which drive is which? Somewhere back in this thread I saw mention of using lsblk. Is that appropriate?
> 
> Thanks!


I believe the command line "mfstool copy -aiX /dev/sda /dev/sdb" copies and expands.

fdisk -l (lower case L) to determine drive specs.


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## jmbach

What ThAbtO posted but without the X in the command line. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## ThAbtO

jmbach said:


> What ThAbtO posted but without the X in the command line.


I wasn't 100% sure if the X was the expand switch or not.


----------



## jmbach

X or x is used in the mfsadd command line to add partitions on a specific drive or all available drives. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## ClearToLand

jim tressler said:


> ...I got a roamio ota 500gb that I have been using for the past few months and *the time has come to expand it* and was able to get a WD Red 3tb for a great price. *I want to keep everything from the old 500gb drive (recordings / one pass, etc)* and after reading this whole thread I think I know what to do - can someone check my math please
> 
> Run WD diagnostics on the 3tb drive to make sure its good.
> As long as the drive is good, *run MSFR
> Load mfs tools* to copy the drive - command line "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb" (assuming thats what my drives are named)
> put new drive in tivo and boot up and rock on...





jmbach said:


> There is no *need* to run MFSR on the drive after running the diagnostic. *MFSTools will just overwrite what ever is on the drive*.
> 
> So you just have 3 steps. Diagnostic, Copy, Boot the new drive...


I don't know if '_need_' is the correct word here. Thus the reason behind my reply. If MFS Tools is going to begin by 'cloning' the original / 'Source' HDD, isn't the MSFR 'Alignment' going to be overwritten?

When I first began researching upgrading the HDD in my Roamio(s), I too thought *"What a great combo! Run MSFR to 'Align the clusters' and then run MFS Tools to copy the existing data AND expand the new HDD to its full size."*

Nope. 

AFAICT, since both programs operate at the lowest level of communicating with a HDD [i.e. ignoring (most in the case of MSFR; all in the case of MFS Tools - Yes, I imagine that I'm taking some 'liberties' here...) previous formatting, OS, etc... on the 'Target'] each program will "Initialize" the HDD the way IT wants:

Thus, after letting a TiVo bless / 'partially initialize' a HDD with some crucial information that it needs, *MSFR* will then proceed to 'Align' it, writing ZEROs to each ("User Data" - i.e. settings and programs) byte in the process. If you're starting out with a new TiVo (i.e. you don't have existing programs and / or settings that you wish to copy over), this is the program to use.
.
On the other hand, *MFS Tools* *IS* aware of existing "User Data". It will carefully COPY all of your cherished programs and settings into a "Mirror Image" on your new HDD (i.e. 500GB to 500GB). Then, through magic, it will '_adjust_' the HDD size parameters so that your TiVo unit now sees ITS size (i.e. 3TB, 4TB, ...8TB) and not the size of your original HDD (i.e. 500GB). Like I said, magic. 
Thank you @ggieseke and @jmbach ! :thumbsup:


----------



## johnmsch

Success! Upgrade complete (WD20EURS 2tb original drive to a WD40EURX 4tb) and everything is working as before, except for all the extra disk space. There was one "interrupt took too long" error during the copy, but I don't see that it caused any problem.

A big thanks to everyone involved. A real nice touch that I don't remember seeing in the old MFSTools 2.0 that I used to upgrade my old Series 2, is the percentage/ETA counter that shows during the copy. Turned out is was pretty accurate.


----------



## ramatsu

jmbach said:


> There is a USB/HDD version on that same page you found MFSTools 3.2 that you can use dd to copy it over to your USB thumb drive. Just make sure you unpack it all the way so you have the raw file.


I finally got the thumb drive built (*ahem* sudo, dummy), but it appears that the MacBook Pro will not recognize that drive format, it does not appear on restart-[option]. Someone on a thread here claimed it would, but it looks like I need to borrow/scrounge a PC to try this. Assuming it is some BIOS thing, not even going to try the VM route


----------



## jmbach

ramatsu said:


> I finally got the thumb drive built (*ahem* sudo, dummy), but it appears that the MacBook Pro will not recognize that drive format, it does not appear on restart-[option]. Someone on a thread here claimed it would, but it looks like I need to borrow/scrounge a PC to try this. Assuming it is some BIOS thing, not even going to try the VM route


What steps did you use to make the USB drive?


----------



## johnmsch

FWIW, I've been using RMPrepUSB (https://www.rmprepusb.com/) along with Easy2Boot ( Easy2Boot) for years. I have a 32gb USB stick that contains all the ISOs I'd ever need. When I get a new ISO, as is the case with my Tivo upgrade, I just copied the MSFTools ISO to the proper folder on the stick, create a corresponding txt file with the same name as the ISO (to display a title in the boot menu), boot with the stick, then select the item from the menu. RMPrepUSB is really an incredible piece of software. And no, I have no connection to that site. Just a HUGE fan.


----------



## ramatsu

jmbach said:


> What steps did you use to make the USB drive?


I downloaded the MFSTools ISO file, and used Terminal to execute the following steps:

diskutil list [to determine the thumb drive disk ID, which was disk2s1]
diskutil unmount disk2s1 [unmount the thumb drive]
sudo dd if=/Users/ramatsu/Downloads/mfslive-1.4.iso of=/dev/disk2s1 bs=1m [create the bootable drive from the ISO file]
Results:
9+1 records in
9+1 records out
10172416 bytes transferred in 5.231523 secs (1944446 bytes/sec)​
Since I don't have a machine I can boot from it, I'm taking it on faith that the process was successful, and that the ISO I downloaded is valid in the first place.

But I have since read somewhere that the Mac's BIOS, which I don't think can be modified or that I would go there if it could, only recognizes the formats that are available in Disk Utility: Mac OS Extended (2 flavors); ExFAT; and MS-DOS (FAT). If so, it would seem to imply that I need a PC that I can tweak the BIOS on if it doesn't boot right out of the gate.

PS - Since I've already got the 500GB partition moved to my 2TB drive successfully, I'm hoping that the Help in MSFTools will list the command to expand an existing partition, vs the combined copy & expand. It sounds like it's actually two separate processes that they provided a single command to execute sequentially, and would be nice not to have to pull drives and do the whole copy part over again.

----

Edit: Re-reading this, it occurs to me that was actually the second ISO I tried, which is for MSFTools Live. I had previously done the same process using MFSTools_3.2_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-1.0.3.iso instead, with similar results.


----------



## jmbach

ramatsu said:


> I downloaded the MFSTools ISO file, and used Terminal to execute the following steps:
> 
> diskutil list [to determine the thumb drive disk ID, which was disk2s1]
> diskutil unmount disk2s1 [unmount the thumb drive]
> sudo dd if=/Users/ramatsu/Downloads/mfslive-1.4.iso of=/dev/disk2s1 bs=1m [create the bootable drive from the ISO file]
> Results:
> 9+1 records in
> 9+1 records out
> 10172416 bytes transferred in 5.231523 secs (1944446 bytes/sec)​
> Since I don't have a machine I can boot from it, I'm taking it on faith that the process was successful, and that the ISO I downloaded is valid in the first place.
> 
> But I have since read somewhere that the Mac's BIOS, which I don't think can be modified or that I would go there if it could, only recognizes the formats that are available in Disk Utility: Mac OS Extended (2 flavors); ExFAT; and MS-DOS (FAT). If so, it would seem to imply that I need a PC that I can tweak the BIOS on if it doesn't boot right out of the gate.
> 
> PS - Since I've already got the 500GB partition moved to my 2TB drive successfully, I'm hoping that the Help in MSFTools will list the command to expand an existing partition, vs the combined copy & expand. It sounds like it's actually two separate processes that they provided a single command to execute sequentially, and would be nice not to have to pull drives and do the whole copy part over again.
> 
> ----
> 
> Edit: Re-reading this, it occurs to me that was actually the second ISO I tried, which is for MSFTools Live. I had previously done the same process using MFSTools_3.2_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-1.0.3.iso instead, with similar results.


I would download the USB/HDD version and unpack it all the way and use dd to place it on the thumb drive. The link to that version is in the same post of mine that has the ISO linked.

MFSTools will not do an inplace expansion of the media partitions. It will expand them only with a copy or restore. You can only do an inplace expansion on Series 4 or older TiVo by adding partitions.


----------



## ramatsu

jmbach said:


> I would download the USB/HDD version and unpack it all the way and use dd to place it on the thumb drive. The link to that version is in the same post of mine that has the ISO linked.


Tried that; same results :-( Interestingly, diskutil lists it as Apple_HFS, though it's not mountable under MacOS (which would make sense if the TiVo image really did a sector copy format; just weird that it shows up as Apple_HFS.) There's even weirder Mac-specific behavior not relevant to a TiVo thread that happens after that, but suffice it to say: Not a Mac-friendly operation in the end.



jmbach said:


> MFSTools will not do an inplace expansion of the media partitions. It will expand them only with a copy or restore. You can only do an inplace expansion on Series 4 or older TiVo by adding partitions.


Thanks; good to know what to expect and shoot for once I get a machine I can boot with this thumb drive.

In conclusion, unless someone here can confirm that they have *personally* managed to boot a Mac with an MSFTools startup disk and perform operations on a Tivo drive successfully, the bottom line is: It's not made for that, and some Unix or Wintel box is required.

Hopefully, if no one can confirm that they have used a Mac for this, this thread may serve to save some other poor soul all the time I spent chasing this rainbow!


----------



## Psychoakustik

Dear jmbach, all, I really appreciate all the great help you have contributed for MFSTools upgrades. My situation:

I have a TiVo Premiere that started rebooting randomly. My original 320GB drive had some bad sectors. I purchased a new 2TB WD20EURX. I used (Ubuntu Rescue Remix) ddrescue with logfile and multiple -r3 scraping attempts until I achieved errsize: 2048 B and errors: 4. Now I have a 320GB clone on a 2TB drive with minimized errors, and I'd like to use the remaining space for recording.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I have an available intermediate hard drive to use with (MFSTools 3.2) mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Is mfscopy the best (most recommended) approach and why?

If not, would you recommend JMFS v105 or MFSTools 3.2 with specific commands? Can I check the number of partitions using mfsinfo, then use mfsadd and apmfix to reduce the number of partitions to no more than 15? If so, what would be the correct syntax?


----------



## jmbach

Psychoakustik said:


> Dear jmbach, all, I really appreciate all the great help you have contributed for MFSTools upgrades. My situation:
> 
> I have a TiVo Premiere that started rebooting randomly. My original 320GB drive had some bad sectors. I purchased a new 2TB WD20EURX. I used (Ubuntu Rescue Remix) ddrescue with logfile and multiple -r3 scraping attempts until I achieved errsize: 2048 B and errors: 4. Now I have a 320GB clone on a 2TB drive with minimized errors, and I'd like to use the remaining space for recording.
> 
> Unfortunately, I'm not sure I have an available intermediate hard drive to use with (MFSTools 3.2) mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY. Is mfscopy the best (most recommended) approach and why?
> 
> If not, would you recommend JMFS v105 or MFSTools 3.2 with specific commands? Can I check the number of partitions using mfsinfo, then use mfsadd and apmfix to reduce the number of partitions to no more than 15? If so, what would be the correct syntax?


Although I believe that the image created using the copy command or the restore command has an ideal TiVo layout, you can expand your current drive to use the full 2 TB recording space. I would make sure the current image you have is fully operational before expanding. Even though you minimized the errors, you may have still copied over the problems you have been having to the new image.

You can follow the instructions in the 8 TB premiere expansion thread however, you can stop after running apmfix the first time. That will get you what you need.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

ramatsu said:


> Tried that; same results :-( Interestingly, diskutil lists it as Apple_HFS, though it's not mountable under MacOS (which would make sense if the TiVo image really did a sector copy format; just weird that it shows up as Apple_HFS.) There's even weirder Mac-specific behavior not relevant to a TiVo thread that happens after that, but suffice it to say: Not a Mac-friendly operation in the end.
> 
> Thanks; good to know what to expect and shoot for once I get a machine I can boot with this thumb drive.
> 
> In conclusion, unless someone here can confirm that they have *personally* managed to boot a Mac with an MSFTools startup disk and perform operations on a Tivo drive successfully, the bottom line is: It's not made for that, and some Unix or Wintel box is required.
> 
> Hopefully, if no one can confirm that they have used a Mac for this, this thread may serve to save some other poor soul all the time I spent chasing this rainbow!


If I have time and if the wife lets me use her MacBook (circa 2009) to run some tests, I'll see if I can get it working.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jim tressler

many thanks to all here.. had 0 problems going from 500gb stock drive to 3tb WD RED. Process took about 3 hours and all is well. Went from 75 hd hours to over 400!

Here were my steps -
Pre - Ran WD Diags on the 3tb REDand all sectors checked out clean.. took about 2 hours I believe.
1. Burned mfstools to a cd on a win 7 machine using imgburn. (tried USB but would get into a boot loop)
2. Motherboard is a newer Asus; booted into the CD in legacy mode with only DVD drive, 500gb and 3Tb hooked up
3. Ran "fdisk -l |more" to find out which disk was which. Had to use "|more" to page it since fdisk listed a bunch of 500mb ram partitions and it scrolled by too quick
4. ran "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda" since my source was b and target was a according to fdisk
5. took about 3 hours give or take.. installed new drive and it works like a champ!


----------



## Psychoakustik

jmbach said:


> Although I believe that the image created using the copy command or the restore command has an ideal TiVo layout, you can expand your current drive to use the full 2 TB recording space. I would make sure the current image you have is fully operational before expanding. Even though you minimized the errors, you may have still copied over the problems you have been having to the new image.
> 
> You can follow the instructions in the 8 TB premiere expansion thread however, you can stop after running apmfix the first time. That will get you what you need.


Thanks jmbach! Your advice was extremely helpful-- much appreciated.

As you suggested, my current image did have issues when I put it in my TiVo Premiere. Even after I tried a kickstart 57 and 54, I kept getting repeated GSODs and reboots. Finally, after a kickstart 58, I got an update installing message and then an extended 30-60 min GSOD until the TiVo rebooted successfully with my recordings intact.

Now, I hope to use the MFSTools backup and restore command to get full use of my 2TB WD20EURX drive space. Do the following commands look correct with respect to mfstool arguments?

mfstool backup -6 -aio /media/usb0/file.bak /dev/sda
mfstool restore -i /media/usb0/file.bak -M 1863 /dev/sda

If I don't specify a -M size in GiB, does the restore command detect and use the entire drive space by default like the copy command?

I have seen some posts with references to restore -M 4000. Unless my conversions to GiB are in error, the WD20EURX datasheet indicates my drive has 2 TB = 2,000,398 MB = 1863 GiB (not 2000). I would be grateful for feedback if anyone sees errors.


----------



## jmbach

Psychoakustik said:


> Thanks jmbach! Your advice was extremely helpful-- much appreciated.
> 
> As you suggested, my current image did have issues when I put it in my TiVo Premiere. Even after I tried a kickstart 57 and 54, I kept getting repeated GSODs and reboots. Finally, after a kickstart 58, I got an update installing message and then an extended 30-60 min GSOD until the TiVo rebooted successfully with my recordings intact.
> 
> Now, I hope to use the MFSTools backup and restore command to get full use of my 2TB WD20EURX drive space. Do the following commands look correct with respect to mfstool arguments?
> 
> mfstool backup -6 -aio /media/usb0/file.bak /dev/sda
> mfstool restore -i /media/usb0/file.bak -M 1863 /dev/sda
> 
> If I don't specify a -M size in GiB, does the restore command detect and use the entire drive space by default like the copy command?
> 
> I have seen some posts with references to restore -M 4000. Unless my conversions to GiB are in error, the WD20EURX datasheet indicates my drive has 2 TB = 2,000,398 MB = 1863 GiB (not 2000). I would be grateful for feedback if anyone sees errors.


The backup command looks okay. For the restore command, leave off the -M switch. Restore will use all available space for recording.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Psychoakustik

jmbach said:


> The backup command looks okay. For the restore command, leave off the -M switch. Restore will use all available space for recording.


Fantastic-- success! I used the MFSTools restore process without -M, and restore automatically expanded to fill the remaining space. The installed drive seems to be working well in my Premiere. I will document my steps in a new post soon. However, after the restore and before I installed the drive, I rebooted under Ubuntu Rescue Remix, and I got the following warning: Partition does not end on cylinder boundary.

Is this normal for the mfstool restore or copy operation? Should I be concerned?


----------



## jcondon

I just wanted to thank jmbach and mfs tools 3.2. 

I used jmfs 1.05 to upgrade my original Tivo Premiere drive to 3TB. Wrong tool (didn't get the full 3TB). Over in that thread he mentioned how to fix it using MTS Tools 3.2 if I had another large drive. Finally did that this week and got both my Tivo Premieres properly upgrades.

Thanks again jmbach!


----------



## jmbach

Psychoakustik said:


> ... However, after the restore and before I installed the drive, I rebooted under Ubuntu Rescue Remix, and I got the following warning: Partition does not end on cylinder boundary.
> 
> Is this normal for the mfstool restore or copy operation? Should I be concerned?


Since MFSTools does not do any alignment, that is a potential outcome. As far as I know, it does not affect how the TiVo operates.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## archbishop

I have a TiVo premiere which I recovered from a damaged hard drive, but it's still acting a bit flaky (see details here: Tivo Premiere XL locking up and rebooting - already kickstarted, installed new HD). My current thinking is to get a fresh SW image, install it on a new drive, make sure this works stably, and then try to copy just my settings and content from the old drive to the new. Is this something I can do with mfscopy or backup/restore? I've read the docs, and I can't really tell. If anybody has any other suggestions, that would be great. Thanks.


----------



## ThAbtO

archbishop said:


> I have a TiVo premiere which I recovered from a damaged hard drive, but it's still acting a bit flaky (see details here: Tivo Premiere XL locking up and rebooting - already kickstarted, installed new HD). My current thinking is to get a fresh SW image, install it on a new drive, make sure this works stably, and then try to copy just my settings and content from the old drive to the new. Is this something I can do with mfscopy or backup/restore? I've read the docs, and I can't really tell. If anybody has any other suggestions, that would be great. Thanks.


When you copy a damaged hard drive, the data on it is already damaged and that would copy over to the new drive. The backup/restore utility (such as MFSTools 3.2) would backup and restore the entire hard drive, not in specific parts. Its not known yet as to which partition contains what data.

For settings, they would need to be recreated. For Cable card, the DATA ID (and/or HOST ID) would have been changed on the new drive.

For Season/One Passes, you could back them up using KMTTG and restore to the unit with the new drive once its set back up.


----------



## forum1

Has a solution to the USB 3 write issue been discovered? I haven’t yet started the copy but would prefer to not waste a bunch of downtime on a failed USB 3 copy.

My situation is such that I either have an Intel NUC6i7KYK with no traditional SATA ports (just M.2 slots) which boots the MFS Tools SUSE image off a flash drive just fine, or an old Dell GX270 which has SATA ports but for some reason hangs at the RAM disk creation. To even get that far with the GX270 I had to remove the AGP video card and move to the lowly on-board video because with AGP there was no video appearing after GRUB. My next attempt might be to throw an old CD drive in the GX270, burn the MFS Tools ISO to disc (who still does that? I’m lucky I still have a burner kicking around too), and see if for some reason that works better than the USB flash drive. Man, this is turning out to be an awful lot of gymnastics to get to a Linux prompt!

I suspect I could go into the BIOS of the NUC6 and dumb down the USB ports to 2.0 (maybe), but that of course would mean a painfully slow copy. Also, technically on the NUC6 I’ll be using USB 3.1 Gen 2 via its USB-C port and an external drive enclosure that also supports USB 3.1 Gen 2. This setup has worked great for all my other HDD rescue/transfer related projects.

I just need MFS Tools to work with one machine or the other, hopefully without going at a snail’s pace.

UPDATE: With the ISO burned to a physical disc I get the message that SUSE needs a 64-bit system and is unimpressed with the old 32-bit Dell. So there goes that. I suppose I should consider making my own Linux boot disc (time not budgeted right now). Or just take my chances with the the existing SUSE image and USB 3.

UPDATE 2: Apparently nothing wants to work right. With the NUC6 and the SUSE image I can only seem to access whatever drive is connected to the sole USB-C port. An HDD connected to any of the multiple USB-A ports is not seen, although the bootable USB flash drive on a USB-A port is shown in fdisk. I can swap drives and they all work when they get their turn on the USB-C port. This is a problem for copying as I of course need to access both drives simultaneously and the external HDD enclosures I have on hand are single drive chassis so one drive is going to have to be on USB-A. I also don't have any sort of USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 hub to play with on the chance that maybe, just maybe that would work (I do have USB-A 3.0 hubs but they're useless here). Windows has no problems with the setup and can have multiple HDDs, CD/DVD drives, etc. connected up the wazoo. I guess it's time to call it quits for now and chalk this night up as a long way around to dusting out the TiVo (it was quite filthy inside). Hopefully the original drive that I suspect might be dying can hold on a bit longer. If anyone can provide suggestions to actually using the new drives I bought that doesn't require me buying even more hardware that would be great.


----------



## fishkorp

Apologies if this has been addressed somewhere. I looked quick but didn’t see it. I’m doing my first copy using mfstools and was wondering if there’s a graceful way to quit the copy if I needed? Like if someone wanted to watch tv? Can I cancel the copy and then start over when no ones around (or overnight)? We only have a single Tivo with 3 Minis, so it’s our only source of tv. Thanks so much.


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## jmbach

There is no way to pause the copy and resume where you left off.


Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## ThAbtO

fishkorp said:


> Apologies if this has been addressed somewhere. I looked quick but didn't see it. I'm doing my first copy using mfstools and was wondering if there's a graceful way to quit the copy if I needed? Like if someone wanted to watch tv? Can I cancel the copy and then start over when no ones around (or overnight)? We only have a single Tivo with 3 Minis, so it's our only source of tv. Thanks so much.


If you want to be able to watch TV while the Tivo is out of service, you can still just connect the coax to the TV, but it may require a cable box. Sounds like you need one as a standby/backup to watch TV. You can split the coax between the Tivo and TV/Box.


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## fishkorp

jmbach said:


> There is no way to pause the copy and resume where you left off.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Oh, I know I can't resume. I just wanted to make sure if I quit the copy it won't corrupt the source drive.


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## FROD

jmbach, wish I could buy you a beer. Just finished upgrading my Roamio Plus to 4TB after doing many post readings through this forum. My 1TB drive was just about full. I read many postings before buying a 4TB WD Purple. I downloaded the ISO from post #131. Created a bootable disc.

A couple of things I wanted to pass along. After booting to the disc, I used the root user and tivo as the password. I ran the _fdisk -l _(lowercase L). Unfortunately, this torrent of information flew by. I just didn't know how to page up to see the important info. So I used my phones camera to create a slow motion video and watched the video back to determine which drive was which. Glad I did. The 4TB drive ended up being the A drive and the 1TB ended up being the B drive.

I then used the _mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda_. Thank you for clarifying there was no need to use the -ai switch on Roamio models in a previous post.

Suffice it to say, 5 hours later, at about 38MiB/sec. Everything worked out. I did NOT lose any guide data, One Passes or shows (and Superbowls). Thank you very much!


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## forum1

FROD said:


> I ran the _fdisk -l _(lowercase L). Unfortunately, this torrent of information flew by. I just didn't know how to page up to see the important info.


A pipe to more should work. So:
fdisk -l | more


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## jmbach

FROD said:


> jmbach, wish I could buy you a beer. Just finished upgrading my Roamio Plus to 4TB after doing many post readings through this forum. My 1TB drive was just about full. I read many postings before buying a 4TB WD Purple. I downloaded the ISO from post #131. Created a bootable disc.
> 
> A couple of things I wanted to pass along. After booting to the disc, I used the root user and tivo as the password. I ran the _fdisk -l _(lowercase L). Unfortunately, this torrent of information flew by. I just didn't know how to page up to see the important info. So I used my phones camera to create a slow motion video and watched the video back to determine which drive was which. Glad I did. The 4TB drive ended up being the A drive and the 1TB ended up being the B drive.
> 
> I then used the _mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda_. Thank you for clarifying there was no need to use the -ai switch on Roamio models in a previous post.
> 
> Suffice it to say, 5 hours later, at about 38MiB/sec. Everything worked out. I did NOT lose any guide data, One Passes or shows (and Superbowls). Thank you very much!


If you want to help the overall cause, buy ggieseke a beer. (look in MFSR or DvrBARS thread) Hopefully someday in the near future he will have a Windows based program that would copy, backup, and expand TiVo drives.



forum1 said:


> A pipe to more should work. So:
> fdisk -l | more


That does work quite well.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## FROD

Again, thanks for all.

Quick question, reading through the postings, seems 4TB is an easy upgrade, but how big could I have gone using the simple copy command? 

Perhaps when the 6TB or 8TB drop in price or a shuckable external drive deal comes around I will upgrade again.


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## jmbach

4 TB is the biggest you can go at this time with the simple copy command. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## alvincool

Like others before me I need to upgrade my series 3 HD using WinMFS. I bought it a few weeks ago and just found time today to transfer the Tivo system over from the original HD to the 1TB western digital red. That's when I booted to the only copy of WinMFS I could find, and it doesn't work.

As the thousand people before me, I bow and scrape asking yet again "Anybody have a working ISO of WinMFS?"


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## jmbach

alvincool said:


> Like others before me I need to upgrade my series 3 HD using WinMFS. I bought it a few weeks ago and just found time today to transfer the Tivo system over from the original HD to the 1TB western digital red. That's when I booted to the only copy of WinMFS I could find, and it doesn't work.
> 
> As the thousand people before me, I bow and scrape asking yet again "Anybody have a working ISO of WinMFS?"


You can use MFSTools 3.2 to copy your current image to a new drive. If you want WinMFS, I think either ThAbtO or Scott can direct you to a copy.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## alvincool

jmbach said:


> You can use MFSTools 3.2 to copy your current image to a new drive. If you want WinMFS, I think either ThAbtO or Scott can direct you to a copy.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Thanks but I looked for a working ISO of MFSTools 3.2 first. I'd be happy to have that! Can't find one to download


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## jmbach

alvincool said:


> Thanks but I looked for a working ISO of MFSTools 3.2 first. I'd be happy to have that! Can't find one to download


Well if you go to the first page of this thread and look at the eighth post you will find a link.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## alvincool

jmbach said:


> Well if you go to the first page of this thread and look at the eighth post you will find a link.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Thanks I had downloaded the ISO at that location previously and it didn't work for me. On you advice I downloaded it again and this time it came up to the prompt for the tools. There are so many bad links to previous downloads over so many sites for this I assumed it didn't work, but I think it just got corrupted on the download. Regardless I have a working copy now!

Many thanks!

After I clone the drive from the 160GB to a 1TB I will see how I can back up the image itself. Maybe to a flash drive.


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## ThAbtO

alvincool said:


> As the thousand people before me, I bow and scrape asking yet again "Anybody have a working ISO of WinMFS?"


There is no such ISO for WinMFS, its just an EXEcutable file for Windows.

WinMFS 9.3f


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## alvincool

ThAbtO said:


> There is no such ISO for WinMFS, its just an EXEcutable file for Windows.
> 
> WinMFS 9.3f


Thanks so much!!!


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## alvincool

Well I guess I, for the first time ever, know how computer illiterate people feel. I know everything about windows but it really doesn’t translate to Linux. In my mind I pictured it differently.

So I booted the MFSTools 3.2 disk
Logged in with root and TiVo 
Ran lsblk so I can see that sda is my new 931.5GB WDRed and sdb is my original drive at 149.1GB

At this point I am not sure what to do so I make sure the correct drive is copied, and copied correctly, in Linux


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## ThAbtO

Read back in a few pages of this thread and you will see a few posts of the command lines.

Your target would be /dev/sda
Source /dev/sdb

in those previous posts, it would be in the same style as [source] [target].


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## alvincool

ThAbtO said:


> Read back in a few pages of this thread and you will see a few posts of the command lines.
> 
> Your target would be /dev/sda
> Source /dev/sdb
> 
> in those previous posts, it would be in the same style as [source] [target].


Ok, got it copy is running. So Linux is all argument driven like DOS. Appreciate the insight


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## jmbach

alvincool said:


> Thanks I had downloaded the ISO at that location previously and it didn't work for me. On you advice I downloaded it again and this time it came up to the prompt for the tools. There are so many bad links to previous downloads over so many sites for this I assumed it didn't work, but I think it just got corrupted on the download. Regardless I have a working copy now!
> 
> Many thanks!
> 
> After I clone the drive from the 160GB to a 1TB I will see how I can back up the image itself. Maybe to a flash drive.


Consider using DvrBARS to backup the image. It is a windows based program.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## FROD

Good morning.

Since last upgrading my TiVo Roamio Plus to 4TB using MFSTools, I have run into an issue. The TiVo was running out of programming data, which was kind of weird, so I ran it again and noticed it ran into an error on the loading part. Got an S303 error. I called TiVo to make sure it was talking to the mothership. They confirmed it was. They suggested the "kick start" code 57 fix. I ran it this morning. Now my TiVo is in a green screen loop; the TiVo green screen (you have a serious issue with your TiVo diag screen) stays up for about a minute and it reboot loops. Thankfully, I saved the original drive, which was fine. I popped that back into the system just to get the main TV up and running.

I'm trying to confirm the drive is good or bad. I downloaded WD Lifeguard Tools 5.27 and ran the quick test, which checked out. I'm now running the Extended test. It should be done in six hours. I want to ensure the drive is fine before attempting another copy of the original drive.

BUT, if the drive checks out...do you folks have any suggestions as to what I should do before attempting another copy? Do I need to zero out the drive?

Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

FROD said:


> Good morning.
> 
> Since last upgrading my TiVo Roamio Plus to 4TB using MFSTools, I have run into an issue. The TiVo was running out of programming data, which was kind of weird, so I ran it again and noticed it ran into an error on the loading part. Got an S303 error. I called TiVo to make sure it was talking to the mothership. They confirmed it was. They suggested the "kick start" code 57 fix. I ran it this morning. Now my TiVo is in a green screen loop; the TiVo green screen (you have a serious issue with your TiVo diag screen) stays up for about a minute and it reboot loops. Thankfully, I saved the original drive, which was fine. I popped that back into the system just to get the main TV up and running.
> 
> I'm trying to confirm the drive is good or bad. I downloaded WD Lifeguard Tools 5.27 and ran the quick test, which checked out. I'm now running the Extended test. It should be done in six hours. I want to ensure the drive is fine before attempting another copy of the original drive.
> 
> BUT, if the drive checks out...do you folks have any suggestions as to what I should do before attempting another copy? Do I need to zero out the drive?
> 
> Thank you.


Run mfsck -m1 /dev/sdX on your drive and reboot it in your TiVo and see if you still have the problem.


----------



## FROD

jmbach said:


> Run mfsck -m1 /dev/sdX on your drive and reboot it in your TiVo and see if you still have the problem.


Wow, your fast!

I am currently running Data Lifeguard's extended test here at work. I won't be home till later this evening. BUT, in the meantime, I will burn MFSTools 3.2 to a disc and run your command on the drive at work before bringing it home. Crossing my fingers it works.

My biggest concern is that the Kickstart 57 code is burned into the drive and I will never be able to get around it.


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## gespears

What does a kickstart 57 do?


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## FROD

jmbach said:


> Run mfsck -m1 /dev/sdX on your drive and reboot it in your TiVo and see if you still have the problem.


OK. I had a chance to run:
_mfsck -m1 /dev/sda
_
This was the output:
_WARNING: mfs filesystem marked as inconsistent (0x77353135)

Setting volume magic to magic to MFS_MAGIC_OK(0xebbafeed)
_
I have no idea what it means, might you be able to interpret? Is it good, is it bad? As always, thank you for your time and knowledge sharing.


----------



## FROD

gespears said:


> What does a kickstart 57 do?


code 57 - Media File System (MFS) check - Causes a GSOD (green screen of death) to appear while it checks and attempts to repair any file system problems.

Source: TiVo Kickstart Codes


----------



## gespears

FROD said:


> code 57 - Media File System (MFS) check - Causes a GSOD (green screen of death) to appear while it checks and attempts to repair any file system problems.
> 
> Source: TiVo Kickstart Codes


Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

FROD said:


> OK. I had a chance to run:
> _mfsck -m1 /dev/sda
> _
> This was the output:
> _WARNING: mfs filesystem marked as inconsistent (0x77353135)
> 
> Setting volume magic to magic to MFS_MAGIC_OK(0xebbafeed)
> _
> I have no idea what it means, might you be able to interpret? Is it good, is it bad? As always, thank you for your time and knowledge sharing.


It means it will bypass the Kickstart command unless something is grossly wrong with the system.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## FROD

jmbach said:


> It means it will bypass the Kickstart command unless something is grossly wrong with the system.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


OK, great. I will boot this evening in my Roamio. Hopefully, it will boot to the main screen. I will then attempt to run an update and communicate my findings to you and forum. Thank you very much!


----------



## FROD

jmbach said:


> It means it will bypass the Kickstart command unless something is grossly wrong with the system.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


I put the drive back and was able to get around the GSOD. Thank you. I'm now able to get to the home screen and see my recordings. But, still having a problem loading info after a connection to the mothership. Gives me the S303 error. I'm thinking of running the Kickstart 58 code. I read in a previous post that it worked for someone else in the same situation. Thoughts?


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## jmbach

I think it is reasonable. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## FROD

jmbach said:


> I think it is reasonable.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


No dice. After running Kickstart 58, system booted back to main. I ran the update and it still bombed out with S303. I'm running Kickstart 54 now and running some of the drive tests.


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## FROD

jmbach said:


> I think it is reasonable.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


UPDATE: after being unsuccessful using Kickstart 58, I ran two of the shorter SMART drive tests with Kickstart 54. The third test was going to be 467 minutes. I didn't have time for that. I suspected the drive was fine. I reran Kickstart 58 for ****s and giggles. Big difference this time, there was a splash screen that stated it was updating system software or something to that effect. I ran the TiVo Service Connection. This time loading info did NOT bomb out and is currently at 29% loading. I believe this is a good sign. Will update when complete. THANK YOU!!!


----------



## FROD

jmbach said:


> I think it is reasonable.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


All went well last night. Guide info finally updated and the To Do list is completely full of shows. Can't thank you enough for getting me past the GSOD. No disprespect to TiVo CSR's but, next time I run into a problem, I'm coming here first. This thread has been a treasure trove of knowledge and information. Thank you again!


----------



## grendell

The links to download the ISO for MFStools 3.2 listed in post 131 don't appear to work anymore. Does anyone know where else I can find the ISO or the files to make a bootable usb drive from?

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

grendell said:


> The links to download the ISO for MFStools 3.2 listed in post 131 don't appear to work anymore. Does anyone know where else I can find the ISO or the files to make a bootable usb drive from?
> 
> Thanks


I will check on the links when I get to a real computer

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

Checked it on my phone and the ISO will download. Which one are you trying to access. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## FROD

grendell said:


> The links to download the ISO for MFStools 3.2 listed in post 131 don't appear to work anymore. Does anyone know where else I can find the ISO or the files to make a bootable usb drive from?
> 
> Thanks





jmbach said:


> Checked it on my phone and the ISO will download. Which one are you trying to access.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Worked fine for me. No issues. Tried the ISO. It's the only one I use.


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## JonMikelV

FROD said:


> Suffice it to say, 5 hours later, at about 38MiB/sec. Everything worked out. I did NOT lose any guide data, One Passes or shows.


So if it took you 5 hours (at 38MB/sec) to clone a 1TB HDD, do you think it's safe to interpolate/extrapolate APPROXIMATE source size clone times as follows?
- ~3 hrs to clone a 500G source drive (est)
- ~5 hrs to clone a 1TB source drive (actual)
- ~10 hrs to clone a 2TB source drive (est)
- ~15 hrs to clone a 3TB source drive (est)
- ~20 hrs to clone a 4TB source drive (est)


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## jmbach

It will depend on how full the drive is as well. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## FROD

JonMikelV said:


> So if it took you 5 hours (at 38MB/sec) to clone a 1TB HDD, do you think it's safe to interpolate/extrapolate APPROXIMATE source size clone times as follows?
> - ~3 hrs to clone a 500G source drive (est)
> - ~5 hrs to clone a 1TB source drive (actual)
> - ~10 hrs to clone a 2TB source drive (est)
> - ~15 hrs to clone a 3TB source drive (est)
> - ~20 hrs to clone a 4TB source drive (est)


I can't say for sure because I don't have enough experience copying to different sizes of drives. I only had that single 1TB to 4TB drive copy job. If I had to guess, I would say yes, extrapolating it out would make sense. One thing I must posit, I had connected both drives directly to the SATA connectors on my motherboard. No USB (2.0 or 3.0) enclosures were used. I would assume that would extend the time even further.


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## weeglos

I'm trying to upgrade my Bolt from a 1TB to a 4TB drive. I bought and shucked a Seagate external for this.

However, I'm trying to see about copying all the shows off of the 1TB and onto the 4TB. Last time I did this was with my old Premiere with MFS Tools, and that was flawless. I'm reading though that the Bolt is a bit more problematic.

My question is, are we able to now use MFS Tools or some other utility to copy the shows and such from the old drive onto the the new one on the Bolt or is that not possible?


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## jmbach

Not yet. Have not fixed the issue with zero byte partitions which causes a faulty APM to be written to the drive. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## edfuller

I am upgrading a Roamio OTA series 5 from a 1tb to 3tb hard drive. The issue I am having is using MFS Tools 3.2 to copy. When I enter the command line mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb I get an error. The response is "can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector." Can any one tell me what I am doing wrong? The original drive is a WD green the new drive is a WD red. When I use the *info* command MFS recognizes both drives and their size but it will not copy. Both drives work with no issues in the Tivo. I am just trying to copy the recordings over to the larger drive.


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## jmbach

edfuller said:


> I am upgrading a Roamio OTA series 5 from a 1tb to 3tb hard drive. The issue I am having is using MFS Tools 3.2 to copy. When I enter the command line mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb I get an error. The response is "can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector." Can any one tell me what I am doing wrong? The original drive is a WD green the new drive is a WD red. When I use the *info* command MFS recognizes both drives and their size but it will not copy. Both drives work with no issues in the Tivo. I am just trying to copy the recordings over to the larger drive.


If you read near the end of my post that has the link to download the ISO I made, you will see it reference a program the will attempt to fix the issue you are having.


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## edfuller

jmbach said:


> If you read near the end of my post that has the link to download the ISO I made, you will see it reference a program the will attempt to fix the issue you are having.


Thank you so much for the reply and for the hours and hours you have put into improving MFS Tools. I will run the fix. The ISO worked great. I don't know how I missed your advice at the end.


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## Mgnyc11

I've been searching an apologize if this has been asked. I want to upgrade my Tivo Roamio pro to an 8 TB drive and copy all the info. Is the proper steps to 1st run MSFR and the proper steps to set up the 8TB drive, and then use MFST to copy everything over? If theres a post or guide you can direct me to, I would appreciate it. Thanks.


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## jmbach

Mgnyc11 said:


> I've been searching an apologize if this has been asked. I want to upgrade my Tivo Roamio pro to an 8 TB drive and copy all the info. Is the proper steps to 1st run MSFR and the proper steps to set up the 8TB drive, and then use MFST to copy everything over? If theres a post or guide you can direct me to, I would appreciate it. Thanks.


That unfortunately will not work. You will need to use pytivo and kmttg to offload your recordings to a computer drive the move them back to the new 8 TB drive you had set up.

MFSTools 3.2 will only be able to copy over to a 4TB drive.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## Mahty

I have an old TiVo Series 3 OLED (648) whose hard drive may be failing. So, I'm trying to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the S3's current drive (a 1.5 TB WD15EVDS) to a new drive (a 2.0 TB WD20EFRX), preserving all recordings (the drive is only about half full), etc., while, at the same time, bumping up the S3's available recording space to the now maximum 2.0 TB. (MFSTools does that automagically, doesn't it?)

My first attempt at an msftool copy failed at about the 53% mark, with a series of "end_request: critical target error" and "Buffer I/O error" reports. I assume this is probably due to the suspected issues with the W15EVDS since a WD DLGDIAG extended test on the new WD20EFRX completed successfully with no issues.

So, I think I'll give ddrescue a try.

I assume that I can't just do the ddrescue with the WD20EFRX as the target since that would not bump me up to 2.0 TB of recording space. For that, I think I still need to use MFSTools 3.2 so that it can rework the partitioning to get me the S3-maximum space.

My question: Do I need to ddrescue the W15EVDS to a same-sized drive (i.e., a 1.5 TB drive) or can I just "clone" to a 3 TB or larger drive and then use that drive as the source for the mfstools copy back to the intended 2.0 TB WD20EFRX drive? Post #1 in this MFSTools 3.2 forum says the MFSTools 3.2 can restore to drives smaller than the original. (And again, used space on the failing drive is not an issue since it contains less than 1 TB of recorded programming.)


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## jmbach

Mahty said:


> I have an old TiVo Series 3 OLED (648) whose hard drive may be failing. So, I'm trying to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the S3's current drive (a 1.5 TB WD15EVDS) to a new drive (a 2.0 TB WD20EFRX), preserving all recordings (the drive is only about half full), etc., while, at the same time, bumping up the S3's available recording space to the now maximum 2.0 TB. (MFSTools does that automagically, doesn't it?)
> 
> My first attempt at an msftool copy failed at about the 53% mark, with a series of "end_request: critical target error" and "Buffer I/O error" reports. I assume this is probably due to the suspected issues with the W15EVDS since a WD DLGDIAG extended test on the new WD20EFRX completed successfully with no issues.
> 
> So, I think I'll give ddrescue a try.
> 
> I assume that I can't just do the ddrescue with the WD20EFRX as the target since that would not bump me up to 2.0 TB of recording space. For that, I think I still need to use MFSTools 3.2 so that it can rework the partitioning to get me the S3-maximum space.
> 
> My question: Do I need to ddrescue the W15EVDS to a same-sized drive (i.e., a 1.5 TB drive) or can I just "clone" to a 3 TB or larger drive and then use that drive as the source for the mfstools copy back to the intended 2.0 TB WD20EFRX drive? Post #1 in this MFSTools 3.2 forum says the MFSTools 3.2 can restore to drives smaller than the original. (And again, used space on the failing drive is not an issue since it contains less than 1 TB of recorded programming.)


Several things.
One: I would do a complete erase (write) in the new drive with WD Diagnostics followed by a complete read. That should get rid of any flakey areas. The extended test is just a read test.
Two: How do you have the drives connected to the computer (eSata, USB2, USB3, ...)
Three: You can clone the drive using ddrescue to any drive the same size or larger than the source drive. After getting the copy as good as you can get, then use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the drive to your target drive.

MFSTools is concerned about the size of the image of the source drive and not the source drive size itself. It can reduce the image to a smaller image to fit on a smaller drive or it can expand the image to fit on a larger drive.


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## Mahty

jmbach said:


> Several things.
> One: I would do a complete erase (write) in the new drive with WD Diagnostics followed by a complete read. That should get rid of any flakey areas. The extended test is just a read test.
> Two: How do you have the drives connected to the computer (eSata, USB2, USB3, ...)
> Three: You can clone the drive using ddrescue to any drive the same size or larger than the source drive. After getting the copy as good as you can get, then use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the drive to your target drive.
> 
> MFSTools is concerned about the size of the image of the source drive and not the source drive size itself. It can reduce the image to a smaller image to fit on a smaller drive or it can expand the image to fit on a larger drive.


One: Thanks for the suggestion regarding doing a full write-of-zeroes to a new drive. I'll make that part of my routine checkout of any new drive.

Two: Tragically, I'm doing all of my hard drive work with a dual-bay docking station connected via USB2 to a Windows XP machine.

Three: Thanks for the additional info regarding ddrescue and MFSTools.

Unfortunately, I did something stupid. Out of curiosity I decided to do a WD DLGDIAG extended test on my original WD15EVDS drive and, after well over 12 hours (see Two above), DLGDIAG reported that it had found some bad sectors and offered to try to fix them. It was very late and I was very tired and I blindly said OK/OK. Moments later, after realizing what I had just done, I was wide awake. I immediately put the sector-repaired WD15EVDS back into my TiVo S3 and it booted up just fine (whew!), but I'm now missing higher-numbered HD channels. Might this be a Comcast-fixable issue resolved perhaps by simply having them send a signal to my S3 or maybe even repairing the S3 CableCARDs? (Probably not the latter since I still get HBO SD, but not HBO HD?) I'll double-check my coax cable connection and such in the light of day, but my fear is that the sector repair might have clobbered something crucial. Any additional suggestions on how to proceed?

If I can resolve the missing channels issue (fingers crossed), I'll then give mfstool copy another shot - now with a healthier source drive and a fully-erased target drive.


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## jmbach

Can you physically tune to those channels. Also you can check your cableCARD via the diagnostic screen. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## Mahty

jmbach said:


> Can you physically tune to those channels. Also you can check your cableCARD via the diagnostic screen.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


I can get to the missing channels and see the TiVo-overlaid programming information, but there is no picture or sound - just a black screen.

I'll play with the CableCARD diagnostics and check that the cards are seated properly, etc. I didn't spend much time last night trouble-shooting the issue, so I haven't even confirmed yet whether the problem is associated with both CableCARDs.


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## jmbach

Mahty said:


> I can get to the missing channels and see the TiVo-overlaid programming information, but there is no picture or sound - just a black screen.
> 
> I'll play with the CableCARD diagnostics and check that the cards are seated properly, etc. I didn't spend much time last night trouble-shooting the issue, so I haven't even confirmed yet whether the problem is associated with both CableCARDs.


Were you able to sort thing out and get the issue fixed?


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## thefritz

I assume the answer is yes, but does MFS tools work after an upgrade to the new TiVo experience (Hydra)?


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## jmbach

thefritz said:


> I assume the answer is yes, but does MFS tools work after an upgrade to the new TiVo experience (Hydra)?


I have no personal experience with Hydra yet so I cannot provide any input on that.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## Mahty

jmbach said:


> Were you able to sort thing out and get the issue fixed?


Not yet.

I've verified that the block of missing high-numbered (copy-protected?) channels is common to both S3 tuners/CableCARDs. I've also verified that all of my cable connections are OK and that both CableCARDs are properly seated and paired. And as far as I can tell, it looks like the TiVo/CableCARD diagnostics always indicates that it successfully tunes to each of my now-missing channels, even though I get no picture or sound on the channel (-- but I do/can get the program info overlaid on the blank screen).

Since the S3 still boots just fine, I'm in the process of off-loading to my other TiVos some of the programs I have saved on my S3. After that, I thought I would try exercising some Kickstart codes.

My missing-block-of-channels problem is almost certainly due to the fact that I effectively clobbered some memory location(s) or broke some link(s) on the TiVo hard drive when I stupidly allowed WD's DLGDIAG diagnostic tool to fix some bad sectors it had detected. But how to possibly recover from this situation so as to return my missing channels? If the clobbered memory is in the current boot partition (even though the S3 still boots just fine?), perhaps a Kickstart 52 can fix my issue by switching me to the other boot partition with a freshly-downloaded and -installed build. But if the clobbered memory is elsewhere, well then perhaps some other Kickstart code might be useful.

In any case, if all of this troubleshooting fails, I always have the option of starting from scratch by using either my 10+-year-old original S3 hard drive (that I have stored somewhere) or a more recent image as the source for an mfstool copy to my new WD20EFRX.


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## ggieseke

You might try "Clear Program Info & To Do List".


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## angra

I'd like to run MFSTools on a linux server I have already running that has several open hotswap bays. Can I just grab the executables out of the ISO images, or does it require a specialized boot environment to run properly? Is the source code online somewhere? The sourceforge link appears pretty out of date, but I may be using it wrongly.


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## jmbach

You can probably just grab the executables. It based on openSUSE x64. 

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## JLV03

Greetings everyone! I'd like to take a moment and thank everyone in this thread for the tips, hints, and most importantly - the software!

The other day I was finally able to copy a 320GB Premiere drive to a new WD Red 2TB. I say finally as it took a lot of trial and error on my part. The big thing I messed up was that I tried creating a bootable USB stick by taking the ISO image from jmbach's post and using a Universal USB installer (Universal USB Installer - Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux) however this resulted in MBR errors and continous rebooting. When I took the ISO image and just burned a CD my troubles went away.

My steps.
a) Download the ISO image from post 131
b) Burn ISO image to a blank CD
c) Take an old Dell Optiplex 755 computer and remove all drives except for the CD-ROM
d) Attach old TiVo drive to the first SATA port and then new TiVo drive to the second SATA port
e) Boot up to the CD-ROM, log into the program using "root" and "tivo"
f) Type fdisk -l to figure out which disk is which SDx. To scroll up use Shift + Page Up buttons on your keyboard. In my case the old TiVo drive was SDA and the new drive was SDB
g) Type in the command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
h) Wait a few minutes to let the program do its thing and complete. I say only a few minutes because this was a used TiVo that was completely cleared of all shows (0% usage), so not much to copy.
i) Type in the command mfsinfo to compare the drives.

I have a 4TB WD Red on the way to try this all over again in a few days with a Roamio. I hope it works out just as well.


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## ch421

I used the standalone clone function of this https://www.amazon.com/Support-Alxu...usb+3.0+to+sata+external+hard+disk+drive&th=1 external USB dock to copy a TiVo Series3 1TB WD Green to a 2TB WD Purple. The cloned 2TB WD Purple seems to be working fine in the Series3. The 1TB was full of programs and about 35 deleted programs. Everything seems to be there on the 2TB. It took about 2.5 hours for the standalone clone to complete. I tried running MFSADD on the new 2TB WD Purple to expand the storage with the dock connected to a laptop via USB. It didn't work. Can anyone confirm that MFSADD doesn't work on a drive connected via USB? MFSINFO seemed to work, at least it displayed information that seemed correct. I used MFSTOOLS booted from a CD burned from ISO image from post 131. Thanks.


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## jmbach

ch421 said:


> I used the standalone clone function of this https://www.amazon.com/Support-Alxu...usb+3.0+to+sata+external+hard+disk+drive&th=1 external USB dock to copy a TiVo Series3 1TB WD Green to a 2TB WD Purple. The cloned 2TB WD Purple seems to be working fine in the Series3. The 1TB was full of programs and about 35 deleted programs. Everything seems to be there on the 2TB. It took about 2.5 hours for the standalone clone to complete. I tried running MFSADD on the new 2TB WD Purple to expand the storage with the dock connected to a laptop via USB. It didn't work. Can anyone confirm that MFSADD doesn't work on a drive connected via USB? MFSINFO seemed to work, at least it displayed information that seemed correct. I used MFSTOOLS booted from a CD burned from ISO image from post 131. Thanks.


Can you post the MFSInfo results and what command you used with mfsadd. If might fail if there is not enough room to expand in the MFS header.

Personally I would have used mfscopy to copy the original image to the new drive.


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## ch421

jmbach said:


> Can you post the MFSInfo results and what command you used with mfsadd. If might fail if there is not enough room to expand in the MFS header.
> 
> Personally I would have used mfscopy to copy the original image to the new drive.


Sorry, I didn't capture the MFSInfo output. For mfsadd it didn't seem to matter what options I entered, it just came back like I had typed -h (it displayed the list Usage options/parameters).

I believe I tried (not necessarily in this order):
mfsadd -f -m 500 -X /dev/sdb
mfsadd -f -m 1000 -X /dev/sdb

I tried leaving off -f and -m, using -f but not -m, -m but not -f. I accidentally typed a -x once and that threw an error message about drive b which of course I had not entered. I know I sound like an idiot, guilty as charged. Every other attempt at mfsadd just came back displaying the list Usage options/parameters but not an error message. I was completely sober. Maybe that was the problem! I tend to use a shotgun approach.

The Series3 is buttoned up and seems to be working. I haven't seen any screen pauses/freezing (yet) which had become common. The old drive was put in Sept 2012. The caps on the power supply look good (_weakness_ [sic] rebuilt power supply 2012) and 3 bulging caps I replaced in 2014 (because they apparently don't replace all poor quality caps). I only replaced the 3 caps I had to because of A lack of confidence in my soldering skills of which I have none.

Would I have been able to tweak/expand the 2TB drive if I had used mfscopy? I'm not sure I want to tempt fate by opening the thing up again. 3 of the rubber feet on the unit have flaked apart. I have it sitting on upside-down orange plastic Gatorade bottle tops. The rubber sound insulation grommets on the hard drive screws are dry and more solid than they probably should be. But all-in-all it _seems_ more quiet now. I'll work up the courage to remove the finger from my left ear. Baby steps. Where to go from here? I'd like to tweak the 2TB into submission rather than re-copy. I guess I could play trying to take an image of the old 1TB in case it dies. This is really a bad time to be without any beer in the house.


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## jmbach

ch421 said:


> Sorry, I didn't capture the MFSInfo output. For mfsadd it didn't seem to matter what options I entered, it just came back like I had typed -h (it displayed the list Usage options/parameters).
> 
> I believe I tried (not necessarily in this order):
> mfsadd -f -m 500 -X /dev/sdb
> mfsadd -f -m 1000 -X /dev/sdb
> 
> I tried leaving off -f and -m, using -f but not -m, -m but not -f. I accidentally typed a -x once and that threw an error message about drive b which of course I had not entered. I know I sound like an idiot, guilty as charged. Every other attempt at mfsadd just came back displaying the list Usage options/parameters but not an error message. I was completely sober. Maybe that was the problem! I tend to use a shotgun approach.
> 
> The Series3 is buttoned up and seems to be working. I haven't seen any screen pauses/freezing (yet) which had become common. The old drive was put in Sept 2012. The caps on the power supply look good (_weakness_ [sic] rebuilt power supply 2012) and 3 bulging caps I replaced in 2014 (because they apparently don't replace all poor quality caps). I only replaced the 3 caps I had to because of A lack of confidence in my soldering skills of which I have none.
> 
> Would I have been able to tweak/expand the 2TB drive if I had used mfscopy? I'm not sure I want to tempt fate by opening the thing up again. 3 of the rubber feet on the unit have flaked apart. I have it sitting on upside-down orange plastic Gatorade bottle tops. The rubber sound insulation grommets on the hard drive screws are dry and more solid than they probably should be. But all-in-all it _seems_ more quiet now. I'll work up the courage to remove the finger from my left ear. Baby steps. Where to go from here? I'd like to tweak the 2TB into submission rather than re-copy. I guess I could play trying to take an image of the old 1TB in case it dies. This is really a bad time to be without any beer in the house.


What kind of tweaking are you looking for

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## ch421

jmbach said:


> What kind of tweaking are you looking for
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


You mentioned that you would have used mfscopy instead the dock standalone cloning. Does mfscopy automatically expand the target drive or adjust MFS headers or whatever on the fly (a tweak I'm missing)? Or does mfscopy simply make an exact duplicate which is essentially what I should already have by cloning the old TiVo drive using the drive dock clone function. The MfsInfo mentioned that expand could be used 3 more times on the new cloned drive before I installed it into the TiVo. For some reason I think an mfsadd would still be needed to "expand" the drive to use the additional 1TB for recordings even if had used mfscopy. Perhaps that is a misunderstanding on my part. Is it possible to telnet or otherwise connect into a Series3 and run an mfsadd right on the TiVo against the new drive? Thus tweaking it to use the extra 1TB. And finally, back to my original question, does mfsadd generally work on an usb externally connected drive dock? I think every write up I've found mentions connecting the drive internally inside a PC case. Unfortunately that isn't an option for me at the present. Thanks.


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## jmbach

ch421 said:


> You mentioned that you would have used mfscopy instead the dock standalone cloning. Does mfscopy automatically expand the target drive or adjust MFS headers or whatever on the fly (a tweak I'm missing)? Or does mfscopy simply make an exact duplicate which is essentially what I should already have by cloning the old TiVo drive using the drive dock clone function. The MfsInfo mentioned that expand could be used 3 more times on the new cloned drive before I installed it into the TiVo. For some reason I think an mfsadd would still be needed to "expand" the drive to use the additional 1TB for recordings even if had used mfscopy. Perhaps that is a misunderstanding on my part. Is it possible to telnet or otherwise connect into a Series3 and run an mfsadd right on the TiVo against the new drive? Thus tweaking it to use the extra 1TB. And finally, back to my original question, does mfsadd generally work on an usb externally connected drive dock? I think every write up I've found mentions connecting the drive internally inside a PC case. Unfortunately that isn't an option for me at the present. Thanks.


The mfscopy command copies and expands at the same time. If there are multiple MFS partitions for the source image, it will rewrite the MFS structure so that it will result in two partition pairs on the target drive in a layout similar to a native TiVo image.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## JLV03

Success!

I was able to take a 500GB Roamio and move it to a 4TB drive. The 500GB drive was about 79% full and the new 4TB, after the copy, was sitting at about 9% full. Talk about room for activities!

To copy from one drive to the other took a bit over 2 hours. Not too bad, started the process on my lunch break and it was done and ready to roll by the time I got home from work.


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## tommage1

Is the limitation for MFStool copy and expand still 4TB? If so is there a way to copy and expand to a larger drive (Roamio Plus, want to copy and expand a 4TB to a 5TB or maybe larger). Without backing up to computer first then copying back. How can you tell if a drive uses SMR, anything in Windows 7 that shows that or some third party software? Oh, while I'm asking questions, is the limitation on an S3 still 2TB? Which is best to copy and expand an S3 drive, MFStools or WinMFS? Thanks.


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## jmbach

Since MFSTools creates a standard TiVo layout when it copies and current TiVo OS is unable to correctly handle partitions greater than 2TB, the limit is 4TB. When TiVo OS starts handling partitions greater than 2TB correctly, the limit will no longer exist.
Series 3 TiVos size limit remains at 2TB.
You will need to look at the manufacturer's documentation concerning the drive to see if it is SMR or not. Lately it seems to be harder and harder to find that information. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


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## tommage1

jmbach said:


> Since MFSTools creates a standard TiVo layout when it copies and current TiVo OS is unable to correctly handle partitions greater than 2TB, the limit is 4TB. When TiVo OS starts handling partitions greater than 2TB correctly, the limit will no longer exist.
> Series 3 TiVos size limit remains at 2TB.
> You will need to look at the manufacturer's documentation concerning the drive to see if it is SMR or not. Lately it seems to be harder and harder to find that information.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Thank you very much for reply. One more question, since 4TB is the limit based on Tivo OS I may just copy my 4TB drive to another 4TB (my current 4TB is starting to have some audio dropout and tiling). Is the command the same to just copy with no expand, mfstool copy -ai /dev/sdx /dev/sdy? Current drive is almost full. Yes, the SMR data/info seems hard to find in many cases...................


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## jmbach

Yes the command is the same but it would be quicker to get a duplicating dock. 

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## tommage1

jmbach said:


> Yes the command is the same but it would be quicker to get a duplicating dock.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Hmm, I have one of those "toaster" type docks with two bays. I will have to check to see if it duplicates, thanks.


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## pmjc101

TheCryptKeeper:
Thank you so much for sharing this! I had the same problem with my Roamio OTA 1TB HDD and was able to fix my boot sector problem with these instructions.

I copied the drive using MFS Tools 3.2 and the following command:

mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

This command successfully copied all of my recordings and settings from my 1TB drive to my 3 TB drive..
It took about 7 hours to complete the process with both drives being connected internally with SATA cables

Edit:
This comment is in reference to the fix described in post #720
MFS Tools 3.2


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## fishkorp

Apologies if covered already and I missed it. But MFSTools won't correctly clone a Bolt drive, right?

Anyone know if a duplicator like this will work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XYL599P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YZQMAb3C34PF0

I'm upgrading the stock 500gb in a Bomt Vox to 3tb. I'd really rather not have to deal with Verizon to pair the card again when I'd lose premium channels swapping in the new drive. From prior experience with an MFSTools clone, no repairing was needed. So hoping a hardware duplicator would give me the same results. Thanks.


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## jmbach

fishkorp said:


> Apologies if covered already and I missed it. But MFSTools won't correctly clone a Bolt drive, right?
> 
> Anyone know if a duplicator like this will work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XYL599P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YZQMAb3C34PF0
> 
> I'm upgrading the stock 500gb in a Bomt Vox to 3tb. I'd really rather not have to deal with Verizon to pair the card again when I'd lose premium channels swapping in the new drive. From prior experience with an MFSTools clone, no repairing was needed. So hoping a hardware duplicator would give me the same results. Thanks.


I have a beta version of MFSTools that should copy and expand the drive. It has not been tested on anything else other than virtual images so there is no guarantee that it will work. Need more people to beta test it.
There are several issues that we do not know about the Bolt and its behavior. One thing we noticed when people used the original MFSTools is that when you boot a failed copy in your Bolt, the Bolt will reformat it like it is supposed to. The issue is when you put your original drive back in, the Bolt loses/deletes all your recordings. Not sure why. But then this begs the question, if you do make a successful copy and expansion, will it do the same or will it work. I do not know of any other programs out there that will do what you are wanting.

So my suggestion is to offload all your recordings to your computer or network drive with a program like kmttg. You can save everything that is not copy protected. Then try the beta MFSTools. If it works, great. If it doesn't, all you lost is your copy protected recordings and your cableCARD pairings. PM me if you want to try the beta.

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## jmbach

You can use a cloning dock but you will be stuck with a 500 GB image on a 3 TB drive. 

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## fishkorp

jmbach said:


> You can use a cloning dock but you will be stuck with a 500 GB image on a 3 TB drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Crap, you're right. Didn't see your first post. Was without internet for a couple days. It I tried the clone dock. It worked, but my 3TB drive says I only have up to 75 HD hours. That sucks. Now I'm not sure how to back out of the image and make it look like a fresh 3TB drive. Would your beta do it? I can try it. The only tho k I'm trying to preserve is the CC pairing so I don't have to deal with Verizon


----------



## jmbach

fishkorp said:


> Crap, you're right. Didn't see your first post. Was without internet for a couple days. It I tried the clone dock. It worked, but my 3TB drive says I only have up to 75 HD hours. That sucks. Now I'm not sure how to back out of the image and make it look like a fresh 3TB drive. Would your beta do it? I can try it. The only tho k I'm trying to preserve is the CC pairing so I don't have to deal with Verizon


Sent you a PM with a link. If you decide to use the beta, post back here your results and for help in troubleshooting if problems.


----------



## meingraham

I recently successfully restored my TiVo from a failing HDD to a new HDD using MFSTools (summary here).

The old, failing drive was a 1TB WD and the new drive is also a 1TB WD HDD. I performed an mfsinfo on both the original HDD and the ghosted copy. After listing the zones, it provided the estimated number of recording hours.

At the end of the output, it states "This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times". What does this mean?


----------



## jmbach

It means s that there is room in the MFS header for 4 more partition pairs for expansion. But there are other limitations to expansion other than that depending in the model and series of the TiVo you are expanding. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## meingraham

jmbach said:


> It means s that there is room in the MFS header for 4 more partition pairs for expansion. But there are other limitations to expansion other than that depending in the model and series of the TiVo you are expanding.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


The new drive is a mfscopy of the old drive. I never modified the old drive storage in any way so whatever size it was is what the new drive is. It appears that all of the available storage is usable and that now further expansion is possible. But I just don't know how to read the information to know definitively. Attached is the mfsinfo output. Is there a wiki somewhere that can help me navigate what it's telling me (e.g., is there any unused storage to expand into)?

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

meingraham said:


> The new drive is a mfscopy of the old drive. I never modified the old drive storage in any way so whatever size it was is what the new drive is. It appears that all of the available storage is usable and that now further expansion is possible. But I just don't know how to read the information to know definitively. Attached is the mfsinfo output. Is there a wiki somewhere that can help me navigate what it's telling me (e.g., is there any unused storage to expand into)?
> 
> Thanks.


All the recording space on your drive is used. In order for you to expand your recording space, you either add an external drive or copy it to a larger drive. For series 3 TiVos, the maximum recording space is 2 TB combined internal and external. 
For Series 4 you can copy up to 4TB drive without doing some modification to the drive. With modifications you can go up to 8 TB internally. You can add up to an 8TB drive externally. 
Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## meingraham

jmbach said:


> All the recording space on your drive is used. In order for you to expand your recording space, you either add an external drive or copy it to a larger drive. For series 3 TiVos, the maximum recording space is 2 TB combined internal and external.
> For Series 4 you can copy up to 4TB drive without doing some modification to the drive. With modifications you can go up to 8 TB internally. You can add up to an 8TB drive externally.
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Thanks, that helps. Basically, if I got a larger device I could extend storage it up to four more times.


----------



## supasta

I just completed an upgrade of my Roamio Pro to a 4TB Red Drive.
Big thanks to all in this thread for the help! Big thanks to jkozee for the tools and help posts and to JLV03 for the help through PM.

Of note, I used the _exact _process JLV03 outlines in post #927.

Here are other details for those interested (and answering some of the questions I asked others through the process): 

I bought a used Dell 960 desktop on LetGo. It did not have an open SATA power connection, so I had to buy an adapter on Amazon (StarTech.com 4x SATA Power Splitter Adapter Cable (PYO4SATA)). 
The Dell had 2 open SATA connections. I purchased a $3 SATA3 cable at MicroCenter. 
I had to turn on the third SATA connection in the PC BIOS (Press F12 as startup. Select the radio button, restart). 
Login as root/tivo (Have some fun...)
Enter the command fdisk -l to identify the drive positions. In my case, the TiVo drive was hdb and my new drive was hda.
Enter the command mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY (Where X=TiVo drive and Y=new drive. So, my command was mfscopy -ai /dev/sdb /dev/sda).


The copy took just under 16 hours to complete.
My stock drive was 77% full. The new drive now shows 52% full. System Information displays up to 637 HD hours (I forgot to look at this screen with the stock drive before removing). 
All of my shows, recordings, settings, SPs, etc...EVERYTHING is intact. This is including the CC settings. 

It was a process I was fearful of not getting completed, but was far easier than the old S2 and S3 upgrades I used to do.
Amazing Community here! Thanks all!


----------



## AlinuxDude

jmbach said:


> I have a beta version of MFSTools that should copy and expand the drive. It has not been tested on anything else other than virtual images so there is no guarantee that it will work. Need more people to beta test it.
> There are several issues that we do not know about the Bolt and its behavior. One thing we noticed when people used the original MFSTools is that when you boot a failed copy in your Bolt, the Bolt will reformat it like it is supposed to. The issue is when you put your original drive back in, the Bolt loses/deletes all your recordings. Not sure why. But then this begs the question, if you do make a successful copy and expansion, will it do the same or will it work. I do not know of any other programs out there that will do what you are wanting.
> 
> So my suggestion is to offload all your recordings to your computer or network drive with a program like kmttg. You can save everything that is not copy protected. Then try the beta MFSTools. If it works, great. If it doesn't, all you lost is your copy protected recordings and your cableCARD pairings. PM me if you want to try the beta.


Hey, I've got a Roamio (1TB original HDD) and would be willing to test your new Beta code as my plan is to swap out the 1TB with a 3TB. Have you built an ISO? If not, where do you recommend I install/run as it looks like a tarball and I'm currently running Windows on my PC?


----------



## bfaz18

I've got both a Roamio Plus and and a Premiere I'd like to copy onto 8TB WD Red Drives and would be glad to try out the beta version.
Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

bfaz18 said:


> I've got both a Roamio Plus and and a Premiere I'd like to copy onto 8TB WD Red Drives and would be glad to try out the beta version.
> Thanks.


You can use MFSTools to copy a Premiere image up to an 8TB drive. Look at this post for more information. Roamios can only go up to 4TB with MFSTools. Will send you a PM with the Beta version. Post any results back here. At this point for a Roamio to go to 8TB, you will have to format the drive with MFSR to create an 8TB structure. You can use pytivo/kmttg to offload your recordings from your current drive and then use pytivo to transfer them back to the 8TB. However, there might be issues using those programs with the new Hydra interface.


----------



## AlinuxDude

AlinuxDude said:


> Hey, I've got a Roamio (1TB original HDD) and would be willing to test your new Beta code as my plan is to swap out the 1TB with a 3TB. Have you built an ISO? If not, where do you recommend I install/run as it looks like a tarball and I'm currently running Windows on my PC?


Thanks for the PM jmbach. I grabbed the beta MFStools ISO from your Google Drive and away I went. The task was to swap out the old, failing drive in my Roamio with a new drive, preserving all OnePasses, Recordings (71% full), and my Comcast CableCard settings. Here's the overview.
Equipment Used:
Dell Optiplex Desktop PC, Win-10 
TiVo Roamio w/1TB WD HDD WD10EURX (w/occasional write errors)
New WD 3TB WD AV-GP SATA III HDD WD30EURX
Plugable USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock (to connect new 3-TB HDD to PC)
Fantom USB 3.0 External 2TB-HDD (for backup, plus enclosure for connecting TiVo 1TB-HDD to PC)
Torx screwdrivers
Bootable (suse) MFStools CD
Kmttg (software for copying TiVo content)

First, I used Kmttg to save a copy of my OnePasses to the Fantom External USB HDD just in case something went wrong. I also downloaded a dozen select recordings from the TiVo (so my wife wouldn't kill me) onto the Fantom as well. Once that was done, I disconnected the TiVo, opened the case and removed the 1TB-HDD. Here are the steps that followed (the order matters):
1) Inserted Bootable MFStools CD into the PC.
2) Turned on the PC and when the Dell Logo came up, hit <F12> to boot from CD
3) Removed the HDD from the Fantom enclosure and replaced it with the 1TB-HDD from the Roamio.
4) Unwrapped the new, shiny 3TB-HDD from the package and inserted it into the Plugable Dock.
5) Now that the PC is running, logged in as root:tivo
6) Plugged in Fantom (w/Roamio HDD) into USB3 port and noted the added SCSI-id: /dev/sdd
**It is wonderful that the linux image jmbach used supports hot-pluggable devices!**
7) Plugged in Plugable Dock into secondary USB3 port and noted the added SCSI-id: /dev/sde
8) 23:14:55 root> fdisk -l (not necessary but double-checking device names to be used)
9) 23:19:00 root> mfscopy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sde
10) 08:28:18 root> mfsinfo /dev/sde
11) 08:28:30 root> mfsinfo /dev/sdd
12) 08:29:47 root> parted -l (not necessary, but just for the heck of it....)
13) 08:32:17 root> shutdown -h now
14) Unplugged the Plugable Dock, removed the 3TB-HDD and installed in Roamio.
15) Closed up Roamio and connected Ethernet, HDMI, Coax and power cord.
16) TiVo OS booted up perfectly and all recordings, OnePasses, and CableCard gorp were maintained. The file-systems were automatically expanded by MFStools so my recording space is now less than 24%.
The whole process with a complete success without any hiccups (and this was the Beta version of MFStools)!! Not including the backup, the whole process took about 10 hours, mostly while I was sleeping. I would recommend following a similar process, especially if you wish to maintain your recordings. The only inefficiency was using Kmttg as it is network intensive which is going to be slow (even on my Gigabit network). Next time, the backup method I will use is Active-DiskImage to make a sector-by-sector copy of the TiVo HDD beforehand. It would have taken days to copy all 236 recordings via Kmttg (and equally long to upload them back onto the TiVo if catastrophe had struck during the disk upgrade process).
Good luck to y'all attempting a drive replace/upgrade and I hope this helps clear up any uncertainty you have have with which steps you should take.


----------



## dfarnsworth

I succesfully used jmbach's iso to upgrade a (previously expanded) Premiere XL 1TB drive to a new 2TB drive. JMbach, thank you very much. Also thanks to all who have gone before. I've upgraded drives in over a dozen tivos over the years for myself and my family. This latest Premiere XL will go to my sister-in-law who is dropping directv, but needs a dvr.

Jmbach, do you plan to make the source code to your changes available soon? (Just a gentle reminder that you agreed to do that when you released the binaries.)

Thanks again.


----------



## jmbach

dfarnsworth said:


> Jmbach, do you plan to make the source code to your changes available soon? (Just a gentle reminder that you agreed to do that when you released the binaries.


I do not have a way to update the public release of MFSTools 3.2 source code which would be the ideal way of doing that. jkozee is the main contributor/developer of MFSTools 3.2 off of the original MFSTools and as such should have his blessing to be added to his work. If I get people test beta MFSTools on Bolts to see if my modifications will work, I will see about forking the original and publishing it that way.


----------



## dfarnsworth

jmbach said:


> I do not have a way to update the public release of MFSTools 3.2 source code which would be the ideal way of doing that. jkozee is the main contributor/developer of MFSTools 3.2 off of the original MFSTools and as such should have his blessing to be added to his work. If I get people test beta MFSTools on Bolts to see if my modifications will work, I will see about forking the original and publishing it that way.


Thanks for replying.

You should hurry, since the license requires you to release the source before or simultaneous to releasing the binaries. 
You've already forked the code. Now, it's just a matter of making it available to others.

I'd help with that if I had a Bolt. I think the roamio is the current sweet spot; I have two of those.


----------



## jmbach

I have never denied anyone the source code who asked for it which I believe is complient with the GNU license.


----------



## dfarnsworth

jmbach said:


> I have never denied anyone the source code who asked for it which I believe is complient with the GNU license.


I am glad your intentions are good. However, GPL compliance requires more. Version 2 of the GPL requires the source code to be made available with the executable software in one of the three following ways: (quoting)

_ a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)_

Most people choose _option a_, which I think is the easiest. It can be satisfied by placing a link to the source code everywhere you publish a link to the executables. _Option b_ requires you to provide a written offer to supply the source code to anyone on request for at least three years. _Option c_ only applies if you distribute unmodified executables.

I've said far more on this than I intended and I expect this post to be my last on licensing. I encourage you to comply with the GPL, but in the end, it's up to you.


----------



## jmbach

dfarnsworth said:


> I am glad your intentions are good. However, GPL compliance requires more. Version 2 of the GPL requires the source code to be made available with the executable software in one of the three following ways: (quoting)
> 
> _ a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
> 
> b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
> 
> c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)_
> 
> Most people choose _option a_, which I think is the easiest. It can be satisfied by placing a link to the source code everywhere you publish a link to the executables. _Option b_ requires you to provide a written offer to supply the source code to anyone on request for at least three years. _Option c_ only applies if you distribute unmodified executables.
> 
> I've said far more on this than I intended and I expect this post to be my last on licensing. I encourage you to comply with the GPL, but in the end, it's up to you.


Thank you for info. So for right now, if I read this correctly, I can add a line to my post with the ISO that states anybody can PM me for the source code which would qualify as a written offer


----------



## dfarnsworth

jmbach said:


> Thank you for info. So for right now, if I read this correctly, I can add a line to my post with the ISO that states anybody can PM me for the source code which would qualify as a written offer


Sounds right to me. I think with this option you're supposed to keep the source available for 3 years after you last make the iso available.


----------



## ggieseke

dfarnsworth said:


> You should hurry, since the license requires you to release the source before or simultaneous to releasing the binaries.
> You've already forked the code. Now, it's just a matter of making it available to others.


Which would you rather have - a working (free) program that jmbach managed to patch from the code that jcozee took from the actual author, or a working TiVo? Nobody is making any money here, so I think your demand to release the source code is BS. If you don't like it, feel free to buy a drive from Weaknees.

GNU Nazis make me sick.


----------



## dfarnsworth

ggieseke said:


> Which would you rather have - a working (free) program that jmbach managed to patch from the code that jcozee took from the actual author, or a working TiVo? Nobody is making any money here, so I think your demand to release the source code is BS. If you don't like it, feel free to buy a drive from Weaknees.
> 
> GNU Nazis make me sick.


I made no demand. I am thrilled that jcozee complied with the license and am impressed by the software. I benefitted from this GPL-licensed software as we all have. When I looked for jmbach's source, I was surprised by the license violation and was glad to find out it was out of ignorance. Freedom is not about money.


----------



## Jeremybme

jmbach said:


> I have a beta version of MFSTools that should copy and expand the drive. It has not been tested on anything else other than virtual images so there is no guarantee that it will work. Need more people to beta test it.
> There are several issues that we do not know about the Bolt and its behavior. One thing we noticed when people used the original MFSTools is that when you boot a failed copy in your Bolt, the Bolt will reformat it like it is supposed to. The issue is when you put your original drive back in, the Bolt loses/deletes all your recordings. Not sure why. But then this begs the question, if you do make a successful copy and expansion, will it do the same or will it work. I do not know of any other programs out there that will do what you are wanting.
> 
> So my suggestion is to offload all your recordings to your computer or network drive with a program like kmttg. You can save everything that is not copy protected. Then try the beta MFSTools. If it works, great. If it doesn't, all you lost is your copy protected recordings and your cableCARD pairings. PM me if you want to try the beta.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


I am going to swap a 4tb drive into my roamio OTA tomorrow, i'd love to test your beta version.

Thanks!


----------



## Jeremybme

Well i swapped out my 1tb for a 4tb, and used the beta tools. Afterwards booted the tivo and it reran guided setup, but all the recordings are there and the season passes. It did seem to lose all the SKIP info, none of my shows have the SKIP option anymore. 

Thank you Jmbach for the tools!


----------



## pilsnick

I'm running into an issue using mfscopy. I have a OTA Roamio 500GB HDD that I'm trying transfer my existing recordings to a 4TB HDD. I'm using virtualbox 5.2.10 to run the ISO file on a CD. I'm using a USB 3.0 dual bay docking station for the HDD, because I only have a laptop and do not have a desktop. I'm able to run the "mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" command (sdX being the 500GB TIVO HDD and sdY being the 4TB HDD). As mfscopy is running, it gets stuck at exactly "3840 MiB". I thought maybe it is an issue with the USB connection through virtualbox, so I've switched from USB 3.0 to USB2.0 with the same result, stuck at "3840 MiB". The 4TB HDD has been cloned from the 500GB TIVO HDD previously. Could this be the problem? I confirmed a cloned copy to the 4TB HDD worked correctly in my OTA Roamio, but I really want the extra space the 4tB HDD will provide. Any recommendations to help me get mfscopy to work would be appreciated?

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

Sometimes it will hang for a long time before it completes.

Might want to run a diagnostic complete write and read 9n the 4TB and a read on your 500 GB drive to make sure there are not bad spots it is trying to overcome.


----------



## pilsnick

What is 9n? Any recommendations on which sw tool for the read/write?

Thanks,


----------



## jmbach

*on

WD diagnostic is a good start.


----------



## ej42137

My guess is your dock is the problem; it's very common for USB docks to have an unadvertised size limitation. You might test it by using the dd command of Linux to write zeros to the target disk and see how far it gets. I have used this command for that purpose:


Code:


sudo dd bs=512 status=progress if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX

(Some versions of Linux might not support the status keyword.)


----------



## CentralValley209

Can someone help me out with the Msf tool 3.2 software cd?

When I get to the login part I am able to type in "root" but not able to type in anything for the password part. 

I type “root” for login and the words appear. Then I hit Enter and get to the password. I type anything and nothing appears, let alone the actual “tivo” password.It’s just a blank space.

Has this happened to anyone?

I have rebooted the cd many times and nothing changes

As a matter of fact, the same exact thing happened to me with the jmfs v105 cd too.

Background info:
- I burned the cd using Imgburn 
-using Dell Inspiron 545s w/ wireless 
Logitech keyboard
- I have only a blank 3Tb WD red hd
connected( for hd diagnosis
purposes for right now; Will also
connect the original TiVo 1tb hd 
eventually)

Any help will greatly be appreciated!


----------



## jmbach

The Linux distros I use do not display anything when you type the password. Just type it in and press the enter key.


----------



## CentralValley209

jmbach said:


> The Linux distros I use do not display anything when you type the password. Just type it in and press the enter key.


You're right, that fixed it.

Now, I will like to see all the drives connected. I type in the command line
Fdisk -l

but I don't see any /dev/sda or /dev/sdb 
etc ....
Shouldn't the hd show up as one of those those?

I mostly see /dev/ram 6,7,8 etc

I only have a blank WD 3Tb connected..

Maybe the command line is wrong?


----------



## jmbach

Try piping the command through grep.

fdisk -l | grep "sd"


----------



## CentralValley209

jmbach said:


> Try piping the command through grep.
> 
> fdisk -l | grep "sd"


I don't know what grep is.

Just type that command line?
If so, what is the letter/character after the l.


----------



## ThAbtO

Shift \ (back-slash) key
not the forward slash key which is the question mark (?)


----------



## jmbach

grep is a command line program. So just type the command line as I posted and it will display all the lines that have "sd" as part of the line.


----------



## CentralValley209

ThAbtO said:


> Shift \ (back-slash) key
> not the forward slash key which is the question mark (?)


Thanks. Got it to display a hard drive that was connected

Pretty much done testing the Mfs tools 3.2 software to see if everything works.

I am planning on returning the WD 3Tb and thinking about getting a 4tb instead.

I tested the 3Tb and it failed a diagnostic testing w/ S.M.A.R.T on a (seemingly) new hd.

Would there be any issues with a 4tb? Is it the same command line?
"mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb"

Note: I have a TiVo 7480000 that's not working as it keeps rebooting itself and showing a green screen.


----------



## jmbach

That is why I always run WD Diagnostic with a full read, full write, and a full read on my new drives before using them. I am unfortunately seeing more OOB failures. It seems that I see more failures from the China made drives than ones mad in Malaysia or Japan. (Across all drive manufacturers)

Run the WD diagnostic full read test on the TiVo drive and see if you get any errors. Once that is done, then run mfsinfo on the drive to see if MFSTools can read it okay. If it does, we might be able to get it to boot past the green screen but none of the errors causing the green screen would be fixed. Might let you save any recordings prior to replacing the drive.

A 4 TB drive will work just fine with the same command line.

You might need a new image for your TiVo since the old one is green screening, go to the DvrBARS thread and ask for an image there. His image can only be restored on a drive that is between 1 and 2 TB in size. Once the TiVo upgrades the OS, you can then use MFSTools to copy it to your 4 TB drive.


----------



## CentralValley209

jmbach said:


> Run the WD diagnostic full read test on the TiVo drive and see if you get any errors.


Will using SMART diagnosis be sufficient?
I am actually testing the hard drive using a Linux Ubuntu boot(live cd) and using the SMART software in it to test it. Very convoluted but I am pretty paranoid about using my windows hard for this type of stuff and risking damaging or erasing the data.



jmbach said:


> Once that is done, then run mfsinfo on the drive to see if MFSTools can read it okay.


How would I run mfsinfo on the MFS Tools 3.2 software?



jmbach said:


> If it does, we might be able to get it to boot past the green screen but none of the errors causing the green screen would be fixed. Might let you save any recordings prior to replacing the drive.


How would I be able to get past the green screen if I would only be running a diagnostic test on the TiVo hard drive?

Would it fix the hard drive sectors that are causing the problem?

Also, is having the green screen problem the thing holding me back from being able to save my recordings/content?
If the box only reboots itself constantly w/out the green screen I'm good?

Thanks for all your help by the way.


----------



## jmbach

CentralValley209 said:


> Will using SMART diagnosis be sufficient?
> I am actually testing the hard drive using a Linux Ubuntu boot(live cd) and using the SMART software in it to test it. Very convoluted but I am pretty paranoid about using my windows hard for this type of stuff and risking damaging or erasing the data.


No. Smart is not enough. I think WD Diagnostic comes in a Linux flavor but you can use Spinrite to test as well.



CentralValley209 said:


> How would I run mfsinfo on the MFS Tools 3.2 software?


mfsinfo /dev/sdX



CentralValley209 said:


> How would I be able to get past the green screen if I would only be running a diagnostic test on the TiVo hard drive?
> 
> Would it fix the hard drive sectors that are causing the problem?


Essentially we will be changing the "flag" that starts the green screen. So no, nothing would be fixed.



CentralValley209 said:


> Also, is having the green screen problem the thing holding me back from being able to save my recordings/content?
> If the box only reboots itself constantly w/out the green screen I'm good?


Only if the TiVo completely boots up and operational can we even be thinking about saving recordings.


----------



## bwong1039

Help! I was able to restore a image. Looks like everything is up, but I went under systems and it only shows 315 hours of HD which should be 2TB. I have a 4TB and did the supersize(mfstool supersize /dev/sda). I dont think that did it, what command should it have been? What do you think i did wrong? Thanks in advance.


----------



## jmbach

What commands did you do to restore the image. And where did you get the image to restore.


----------



## bwong1039

I used dvrbar to restore an image(TCD758250), for hdd over 2TB, to a 4TB drive. After that I put it in MFSTools and ran mfstool supersize /dev/sda. The drive size stayed at 1.8TB so i didn't think it worked but I booted it up and it was still showing like 300 hours.


----------



## jmbach

bwong1039 said:


> I used dvrbar to restore an image(TCD758250), for hdd over 2TB, to a 4TB drive. After that I put it in MFSTools and ran mfstool supersize /dev/sda. The drive size stayed at 1.8TB so i didn't think it worked but I booted it up and it was still showing like 300 hours.


If you are wanting the full 4 TB drive space, you will have to put the original image on a drive that it can be restored to (2TB) and then use MFSTools 3.2 to copy that image to your 4 TB drive with the command found in the post you retrieved the MFSTools ISO from.

If you know how to mount VHD drives in linux you can use the MFSTools copy command and copy right from the mounted VHD to the 4 TB drive.


----------



## bwong1039

thanks.....good news and bad...i did the whole setup process already on the 4TB and I'll have to start from scratch :/ but that shouldn't be to bad I guess, my project continues.


----------



## jmbach

You can use DvrBARS to backup the image on the 4TB since it is still a 2TB image and restore it on a 2TB drive. Then you won't lose anything. Then use MFSTools to copy from the 2TB to the 4TB drive.


----------



## ej42137

jmbach said:


> Try piping the command through grep.
> 
> fdisk -l | grep "sd"





CentralValley209 said:


> I don't know what grep is.
> 
> Just type that command line?
> If so, what is the letter/character after the l.


I think you've figured it out, but just in case, the character between "-l" and "grep" is the or-bar, which is the shift of the backslash. It pipes the output of first command to the input of the next command. The command <grep "sd"> prints only input lines which contain "sd", for example lines that include "/dev/*sd*a".


----------



## ggieseke

jmbach said:


> You can use DvrBARS to backup the image on the 4TB since it is still a 2TB image and restore it on a 2TB drive. Then you won't lose anything. Then use MFSTools to copy from the 2TB to the 4TB drive.


Better to use the clean 758 image. DvrBARS uses the physical disk size to create the VHD file, but the file format doesn't support drives over 2TB.


----------



## bwong1039

I tried to backup my newly imaged hdd and it had a write error so I just did the 758 image, but if it doesn't support over 2TB then I'm in the same boat. I might restore the over 4TB image to the 4TB drive, back up and restore to the 2TB and mfstool copy to the 4TB? It would be like a 2 day thing now.


----------



## ggieseke

bwong1039 said:


> I tried to backup my newly imaged hdd and it had a write error so I just did the 758 image, but if it doesn't support over 2TB then I'm in the same boat. I might restore the over 4TB image to the 4TB drive, back up and restore to the 2TB and mfstool copy to the 4TB? It would be like a 2 day thing now.


The second image running 20.4.1 that I sent you supports drives over 2TB. The ideal would be to create a virtual PC with VMware or VirtualBox, and use that to copy and expand the image to the new 4TB drive in one step with MFSTools. The virtual PC would have 3 drives: the VHD image fileand the new 4TB drive as "physical" drives & the MFSTools 3.2 ISO as the boot CD drive.


----------



## bwong1039

thanks for the support! I did the restore 2tb to expand 4tb with the clean image.....works fantastic and i just got the commercial skip feature today too. I think it might be time to upgrade the HD now.


----------



## bwong1039

does mfstool copy work for tivo 3's as well? I get unkown mfs partition device


----------



## jmbach

It should. Can you post a mfsinfo output


----------



## bwong1039

i hear it can't upgrade to a 2tb? is there a drive limit for series 3 hd?


----------



## ThAbtO

bwong1039 said:


> i hear it can't upgrade to a 2tb? is there a drive limit for series 3 hd?


The limit is 2TB, unless its still on the older Tivo software versions, before v11.0h?)

Edit: the limit is 1.3TB on the older (pre-11.0h) software.


----------



## bwong1039

oh....i'll try to upgrade the software then. is there a command to force the software upgrade? I have 11.0n


----------



## jmbach

That is the latest. Is the unit modded in any way?


----------



## bwong1039

its is not modded....it has a 160gb drive in now.


----------



## jmbach

How about a mfsinfo printout of the drive.


----------



## bwong1039

i put everything back in so i could watch tv....i'll try again later. could it be because i have a external drive attached?


----------



## jmbach

Yes. You would have to have both drives attached when you run the copy command. It will combine both drives into one drive when it runs.


----------



## bwong1039

@jmbach what so both drives have to be connected? what command would that be? i think i'll just disconnect my external....and try to copy 1 drive.


----------



## jmbach

bwong1039 said:


> @jmbach what so both drives have to be connected? what command would that be? i think i'll just disconnect my external....and try to copy 1 drive.


If you are only going to do one drive, then you have to divorce it from the external drive first.

Command is simple. mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX:/dev/sdZ /dev/sdY where sdX is your internal source, sdZ is your external source, and sdY is your target drive.

Sent from my SM-T827V using Tapatalk


----------



## TheDrift

Hi all, I have a basic Roamio and bought a WD Red 4TB drive to copy my 500g drive onto. Using the MFS TOOL 3.2 disk I created I copied everything over and installed the drive into the TiVo. After the starting up and just a few more minutes screens I got the error message "error creating swsystem".

I went back through the commands I used and saw on page 7 "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb" is used for Premier and earlier models. The Roamio models command is - mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb

I used the correct command to overwrite the the drive and still got the same error message. 

I thought I could just format it in Windows 10 and pop it in the TiVo to start from a fresh drive but windows doesn't recognize it. 

With the MFS TOOLS disk running the pc I can see the drive and get the info from it. 

Can I format the drive with the MFS TOOL disk and install as a new drive into the TiVo? Or is there a way I can format the drive and put a fresh copy of my TiVo drive on to it.

Thank you for any help you can give me!


----------



## jmbach

Try a Kickstart 58 on that drive when it boots up


----------



## jmbach

TheDrift said:


> Hi all, I have a basic Roamio and bought a WD Red 4TB drive to copy my 500g drive onto. Using the MFS TOOL 3.2 disk I created I copied everything over and installed the drive into the TiVo. After the starting up and just a few more minutes screens I got the error message "error creating swsystem".
> 
> I went back through the commands I used and saw on page 7 "mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb" is used for Premier and earlier models. The Roamio models command is - mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> I used the correct command to overwrite the the drive and still got the same error message.
> 
> I thought I could just format it in Windows 10 and pop it in the TiVo to start from a fresh drive but windows doesn't recognize it.
> 
> With the MFS TOOLS disk running the pc I can see the drive and get the info from it.
> 
> Can I format the drive with the MFS TOOL disk and install as a new drive into the TiVo? Or is there a way I can format the drive and put a fresh copy of my TiVo drive on to it.
> 
> Thank you for any help you can give me!


You don't want to format the drive with windows. Use WD diagnostic and run a complete erase followed by a complete read on your 4TB. Once that is done, copy you 500GB drive over to the 4TB. Then let it boot in the TiVo. If you get that error, run a Kickstart 58 on it.

BTW are you running Hydra or Encore interface on your TiVo.


----------



## TheDrift

jmbach said:


> You don't want to format the drive with windows. Use WD diagnostic and run a complete erase followed by a complete read on your 4TB. Once that is done, copy you 500GB drive over to the 4TB. Then let it boot in the TiVo. If you get that error, run a Kickstart 58 on it.
> 
> BTW are you running Hydra or Encore interface on your TiVo.


Thanks jmbach! I have not upgraded to Hydra.

I found this on WD website - Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for windows.

I assume this is what I need to use. Can I do the erase and read in Windows?


----------



## jmbach

Yes that is the program and yes you can do that in windows.


----------



## TheDrift

jmbach said:


> Yes that is the program and yes you can do that in windows.


Much appreciated! The WD program is working it's magic now.

One more question, what is a complete read?


----------



## jmbach

Long drive test.


----------



## TheDrift

jmbach said:


> Long drive test.


Gotcha, I just looked up the other functions. The extended test.


----------



## bwong1039

jmbach said:


> If you are only going to do one drive, then you have to divorce it from the external drive first.
> 
> Command is simple. mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX:/dev/sdZ /dev/sdY where sdX is your internal source, sdZ is your external source, and sdY is your target drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-T827V using Tapatalk


Wow, thanks! Everything is up and running....it just took 6+ hours to copy everything over. Again thanks for the help and quick response times.


----------



## TheDrift

jmbach said:


> You don't want to format the drive with windows. Use WD diagnostic and run a complete erase followed by a complete read on your 4TB. Once that is done, copy you 500GB drive over to the 4TB. Then let it boot in the TiVo. If you get that error, run a Kickstart 58 on it.
> 
> BTW are you running Hydra or Encore interface on your TiVo.


Success!! Thank you jmbach!! I did the complete erase, complete read and redid the copy but still got the error message. Kickstart 58 fixed it and got everything running. I went from a recording capacity of 75HD hours to 638!! HA!

Thank you again!!


----------



## jmbach

Excellent. Not sure why that error happens. On one of my Roamios it happened but not on the other one. At least there is a way of fixing that. Enjoy the extra space.


----------



## enki

Hey Everyone. I've been reading up on replacing Tivo drives and wanted to verify something before starting to mess with stuff.

I have a Tivo Premier and a brand new Tivo Roamio OTA. The Premier has been in service for like 6 years with the original (320GB I believe) drive. The Roamio is the newer 1GB VOX model.

What I was planning on doing is replacing the HDD in the Roamio with a WD 3TB Red drive, and then using that drive (1TB) in my Premier. I'll end up getting 3x the space give or take, but mainly I just figured the HDD in the Premier is going to fail sooner than later. I don't really need more space as the Roamio will be my main OTA box, so my main concern is putting in something that will last longer.

From what I read, I can do this all using MFSTools 3.2 to automatically copy/expand in the process, correct? I know the Roamio HDD can just be swapped out and it will automatically reformat/etc, but I figured I would do it the copy way to ensure my settings/recordings/etc. are moved over since I have the time.

So some clarification questions:

1) It looks like I just need to run mfscopy -ai (source) (destination) and it will automatically copy and expand to the bigger drive without any need for advanced or secondary steps, correct?

2) I assume the Roamio's native 1TB drive will work fine in the Premier, and I understand that the Premier drive replacement does require a cloning type process. Do I need to wipe the old Roamio data (part table, etc.) off first, or will msfcopy do that? Any special run parameters besides -ai on that one too for it to work?

3) So basically, just take out Roamio drive, msfcopy it to new drive, verify it works, take out Premier drive, msfcopy it to old Roamio drive, verify it works, done; right?

4) I have this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KT3BEAS/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza which I believe supports mounting both drives to a host OS, but haven't tried it before. Anyone else use this to accomplish a host-controlled read/write before for Tivo drives?

5) Anything else I'm missing or should be aware of?

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

enki said:


> Hey Everyone. I've been reading up on replacing Tivo drives and wanted to verify something before starting to mess with stuff.
> 
> I have a Tivo Premier and a brand new Tivo Roamio OTA. The Premier has been in service for like 6 years with the original (320GB I believe) drive. The Roamio is the newer 1GB VOX model.
> 
> What I was planning on doing is replacing the HDD in the Roamio with a WD 3TB Red drive, and then using that drive (1TB) in my Premier. I'll end up getting 3x the space give or take, but mainly I just figured the HDD in the Premier is going to fail sooner than later. I don't really need more space as the Roamio will be my main OTA box, so my main concern is putting in something that will last longer.
> 
> From what I read, I can do this all using MFSTools 3.2 to automatically copy/expand in the process, correct? I know the Roamio HDD can just be swapped out and it will automatically reformat/etc, but I figured I would do it the copy way to ensure my settings/recordings/etc. are moved over since I have the time.
> 
> So some clarification questions:
> 
> 1) It looks like I just need to run mfscopy -ai (source) (destination) and it will automatically copy and expand to the bigger drive without any need for advanced or secondary steps, correct?
> 
> 2) I assume the Roamio's native 1TB drive will work fine in the Premier, and I understand that the Premier drive replacement does require a cloning type process. Do I need to wipe the old Roamio data (part table, etc.) off first, or will msfcopy do that? Any special run parameters besides -ai on that one too for it to work?
> 
> 3) So basically, just take out Roamio drive, msfcopy it to new drive, verify it works, take out Premier drive, msfcopy it to old Roamio drive, verify it works, done; right?
> 
> 4) I have this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KT3BEAS/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza which I believe supports mounting both drives to a host OS, but haven't tried it before. Anyone else use this to accomplish a host-controlled read/write before for Tivo drives?
> 
> 5) Anything else I'm missing or should be aware of?
> 
> Thanks!


That is the main dock I use but I use eSata connection instead of USB3. At one time I had write issues when running MFSTools ISO because of UAS when connected to USB3. I think that was a Linux issue that has been corrected but I have not had to work on any TiVo drives since then. So at that time my options were to connect as eSata or USB 2.0.

Overall what you outlined is the correct process. The only thing I would do in addition is run WD diagnostic full write followed be a full read on each drive going to be placed into a TiVo.


----------



## ThAbtO

enki said:


> Hey Everyone. I've been reading up on replacing Tivo drives and wanted to verify something before starting to mess with stuff.
> 
> I have a Tivo Premier and a brand new Tivo Roamio OTA. The Premier has been in service for like 6 years with the original (320GB I believe) drive. The Roamio is the newer 1GB VOX model.
> 
> What I was planning on doing is replacing the HDD in the Roamio with a WD 3TB Red drive, and then using that drive (1TB) in my Premier. I'll end up getting 3x the space give or take, but mainly I just figured the HDD in the Premier is going to fail sooner than later. I don't really need more space as the Roamio will be my main OTA box, so my main concern is putting in something that will last longer.
> 
> From what I read, I can do this all using MFSTools 3.2 to automatically copy/expand in the process, correct? I know the Roamio HDD can just be swapped out and it will automatically reformat/etc, but I figured I would do it the copy way to ensure my settings/recordings/etc. are moved over since I have the time.
> 
> So some clarification questions:
> 
> 1) It looks like I just need to run mfscopy -ai (source) (destination) and it will automatically copy and expand to the bigger drive without any need for advanced or secondary steps, correct?
> 
> 2) I assume the Roamio's native 1TB drive will work fine in the Premier, and I understand that the Premier drive replacement does require a cloning type process. Do I need to wipe the old Roamio data (part table, etc.) off first, or will msfcopy do that? Any special run parameters besides -ai on that one too for it to work?
> 
> 3) So basically, just take out Roamio drive, msfcopy it to new drive, verify it works, take out Premier drive, msfcopy it to old Roamio drive, verify it works, done; right?
> 
> 4) I have this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KT3BEAS/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza which I believe supports mounting both drives to a host OS, but haven't tried it before. Anyone else use this to accomplish a host-controlled read/write before for Tivo drives?
> 
> 5) Anything else I'm missing or should be aware of?
> 
> Thanks!


All this may be worthwhile, but I would not recommend doing any copying just yet on the Roamio, because the drive is just blank and has not been prepared until its installed and running.

I would install and run it for a few weeks/months to be sure it not only runs properly, but the software/everything gets updated.


----------



## enki

jmbach said:


> That is the main dock I use but I use eSata connection instead of USB3. At one time I had write issues when running MFSTools ISO because of UAS when connected to USB3. I think that was a Linux issue that has been corrected but I have not had to work on any TiVo drives since then. So at that time my options were to connect as eSata or USB 2.0.
> 
> Overall what you outlined is the correct process. The only thing I would do in addition is run WD diagnostic full write followed be a full read on each drive going to be placed into a TiVo.


Awesome, thanks! I'm not sure if I have any eSata options on computers since everything I have right now are laptops. I guess if I run into an issue I can try finding that. I read that I should force USB2 since USB3 can have issues. I did try booting the MFS Tools 3.2 ISO on a thumb drive, but it kept crashing with some MBR error. I read somewhere that USB drives can cause issues and to try with a CD instead. I did also download the VMX file and booted it up in VM Workstation successfully, so I guess that would work too, albeit with some overhead. In any case, my new Red drive won't be here for a few more days, so I just wanted to get things prepped and make sure I fully understand the process.

I did plan on running the drive tests first, but thanks for reminding me. 

Final bit of clarification -- the mfscopy command -- do I use -ai for the Premier and just -a for the Roamio, with it automatically copying and resizing, or is it -ai for both? I though the latter, but found a guide buried somewhere in this thread that the Roamio just needed -a.

Thanks again!


----------



## enki

ThAbtO said:


> All this may be worthwhile, but I would not recommend doing any copying just yet on the Roamio, because the drive is just blank and has not been prepared until its installed and running.
> 
> I would install and run it for a few weeks/months to be sure it not only runs properly, but the software/everything gets updated.


Just to clarify regarding the Roamio, when I said "brand new" I meant I just got it a few days ago and have it setup, running, etc., not that it was still mint in box. So the drive itself has been installed and activated and (for better or worse) upgraded to Hydra. Sorry for the confusion if my earlier post made it look like that wasn't done.

No issues so far, and I don't plan on making the HDD change until this weekend at the earliest. Also, while I do want to reuse the 1TB drive in my Premier, I was planning on waiting a week or so in between just in case I ran into any issues. I *assume* I don't need to make a backup of the Roamio image that is on it since I plan on keeping my Premier drive onhand for a while. I figured absolute worst case scenario resulting in some warranty issue with the Roamio, I could always just swap the drives back and have the Roamio reformat/reinstall itself there (right?) before sending it back.

Thanks!


----------



## enki

Oh, sorry, last question (I think!). Regarding the drive copy, is it bit for bit or dependent on size of data written to disk. Since I'm only using both for OTA and recently wiped the Premier and just setup the Roamio, both only have ~50-75GB of recordings on them. Assuming this stays the same, should this cut down on the copying process time, or does it not matter and will image/copy the entire drive empty or not?


----------



## ThAbtO

Alternatively, you can simply swap the Roamio drive with the Red blank drive and the Roamio will prep it by itself. Albeit, any shows on there would still be with the original. You can copy the shows to a PC, or Premiere prior to swapping (unless copy-protected) and back afterwards.


----------



## enki

ThAbtO said:


> Alternatively, you can simply swap the Roamio drive with the Red blank drive and the Roamio will prep it by itself. Albeit, any shows on there would still be with the original. You can copy the shows to a PC, or Premiere prior to swapping (unless copy-protected) and back afterwards.


Yeah, I was debating doing that. All in all, even if I had to rebuild the Season Passes and config by hand, it might still be less time vs trying to copy all the data over. I installed kmttg to see if that would work in backing up some data, but while it finds my Premier and Roamio, and I can see recordings and other data on both, I can only see the Premier under the Remote tab, which appears to be where I need to export/import the SP data. Unless I'm missing something. Also, while my Premier and Mini show up with their names, the Roamio is labeled as DVR-D408, so I'm not sure if there is a compatibility issue or not.


----------



## ThAbtO

KMTTG will show Tivos by their DVR name set in your tivo.com account preferences. Be sure RPC is enabled for EACH of the Premiere and Roamio in the config/Tivos tab. You need to click OK/save on each of them. Restart KMTTG and it should show on those Remote pull-down device selections.


----------



## jmbach

enki said:


> Oh, sorry, last question (I think!). Regarding the drive copy, is it bit for bit or dependent on size of data written to disk. Since I'm only using both for OTA and recently wiped the Premier and just setup the Roamio, both only have ~50-75GB of recordings on them. Assuming this stays the same, should this cut down on the copying process time, or does it not matter and will image/copy the entire drive empty or not?


It only copies over the recording streams and settings.

So to clarify the mfscopy command -- use -ai for the Premier and just -a for the Roamio. There may be a time where the -i is needed for the Roamio but not at this time. The -i just copies over all the core partitions (bootstrap, kernel, root, bootstrap2, kernel2, and root2) but since on a Roamio, all those partitions are small and empty, no need to fool with it. Albeit it won't take but a second or two extra time if you included -i. Copy and resize is something mfscopy does automatically unless specifically told not to do so.


----------



## enki

So I seem to have run into a weird issue. Tried using mfscopy to copy my Roamio drive to a new Red. Originally tried using the live mfstools as a virtual machine but it wouldn't recognize my dock. So I burned the iso to a cd and booted that up. It worked fine and I didn't have the issue I did when I tried booting from usb so that was good.

Anyway, it recognized my dock and the drives so I tried running mfscopy but kept getting a weird error. Picture attached. Didn't want to waste too much time troubleshooting since I already backed up my stuff so just popped the red drive into the Roamio blank and did a fresh setup. Seems to be working well. I then tried the same process with my Premier drive copying to the old Roamio one and it started up fine. Both had no partition tables according to fdisk. Picture attached for that as well.

So did I do something wrong on the Roamio to Red copy or is this a known issue? In the end, assuming my Premier copy completes successfully, I should be good to go. But I was a bit worried when it kept erroring out even tried a fresh reboot with drives attached but no dice.
















Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

enki said:


> So I seem to have run into a weird issue. Tried using mfscopy to copy my Roamio drive to a new Red. Originally tried using the live mfstools as a virtual machine but it wouldn't recognize my dock. So I burned the iso to a cd and booted that up. It worked fine and I didn't have the issue I did when I tried booting from usb so that was good.
> 
> Anyway, it recognized my dock and the drives so I tried running mfscopy but kept getting a weird error. Picture attached. Didn't want to waste too much time troubleshooting since I already backed up my stuff so just popped the red drive into the Roamio blank and did a fresh setup. Seems to be working well. I then tried the same process with my Premier drive copying to the old Roamio one and it started up fine. Both had no partition tables according to fdisk. Picture attached for that as well.
> 
> So did I do something wrong on the Roamio to Red copy or is this a known issue? In the end, assuming my Premier copy completes successfully, I should be good to go. But I was a bit worried when it kept erroring out even tried a fresh reboot with drives attached but no dice.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


So for that issue., if you would have read the whole post that had the download links for the MFSTools images, you would have found your answer.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## enki

jmbach said:


> So for that issue., if you would have read the whole post that had the download links for the MFSTools images, you would have found your answer.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


Ah I see it now, thanks. I did actually read the whole thing but didn't remember that part for some reason or didn't think it applied. Oh well. In the end I'm probably happier I just initialized the drive from scratch since it seems to be copying all the data blocks on the premier even though there is only a couple of hours of recordings and the Roamio would have taken three times as long.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## enki

Woohoo! Got them both working. Premier, with full restore, now up to 154 HD Hours (320GB->1TB) and Roamio OTA, with new init, at 477 HD Hours (1TB->3TB). Was able to use kmttg to restore all my SPs, channels and TU data to the Roamio. Only lost a couple of new recordings of PBS shows that I can just watch online anyway.

Everything seems to be working great. Was also able to get 6 years of dust out of the Premier while I was at it. 

Thanks again for your assistance!


----------



## JonMikelV

For those that might be interested, with MUCH help from @jmbach, I was able to use the MFSTools 3.2 beta ISO (burned to a CD) to copy+expand an original Bolt 500GB drive (~90% full) to a 2TB drive in about 6 hours using a USB 3 dual bay docking station with the following results:
- total recording space went from 75 HD hours to something like 315 hours
- channel lists were still there
- season passes were still there
- recorded shows were still there
- transferred (both from another TiVo and pyTiVo) were still there
- thumbs were still there (as far as I could tell, why did they get rid of that useful thumbs summary page???)

The way I did it was to:
- boot to the MFSTools 3.2 CD
- log in with root / tivo
- use "lsblk -o name,size,vendor" to confirm the /dev/sdX letters
- use "mfscopy -a -d 0 -v 0 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc" to actually perform the copy
Note that I DID get a "Can not determine primary boot partition" message on first mfscopy attempt, but running "bootsectorfix /dev/sdb" cleared that up in about 30 seconds and the second attempt ran without issue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the REALLY curious among you, I was lucky enough to be able to test on a second 500GB machine that was only about 2% used and the same commands above took all of 10 minutes. 

I was also able to:
- put the copy+expanded drive in and it worked fine (space went from 75 HD hours to 156 with a 1TB destination drive)
- record some new shows on the new 1TB drive
- put the original 500GB drive back in and boot just fine (again, channels, passes, & thumbs all appeared as normal)
- HOWEVER, the shows I recorded on the 1TB drive appeared in the 500GB drive Now Playing list. Attempting to play them caused a "This should could not be recorded" type message, but I was able to delete them without trouble

So swapping drives back and forth seems to work (in the sense that they won't get reformatted and stuff isn't lost) HOWEVER, since the SQLite partition (where the "Now Playing" stuff is stored) is located in onboard flash, you may get some odd Now Playing lists.

If anybody else feels like continuing the testing, I did NOT think to test:
- delete an NPL item from one drive & see what happens on the other (is the space on the disk freed since the SQLite database doesn't know about it?)
- change season pass, thumbs, or channels between drives (does it do the same thing as NPL changes?)


----------



## Cybernut

This thread is too long to read completely through. I read the first few posts on page 1 and then jmbach's post on page 7 (where he's posted the latest iso link). I have upgraded my Premiere several times thanks to jmbach's help...but now is my first attempt at a Roamio upgrade.

I am attempting to do an upgrade from a 500 GB Roamio (TCD846500) to an 8TB WD Red.

Couple quick questions (apologies if they have been answered already on this thread):
1. I can use the MFS Tools 3.2 iso to do that, right? Are the tools on this live CD able to directly copy to a 8TB drive, or do I need smaller sized drive intermediaries?

2. I do not need to save any recording (there are no recordings on the tivo) - the post on page 7 (MFS Tools 3.2) lists the commands to copy the old image to the new drive. But what commands should I use when I simply need the TiVo OS and nothing else on the new 8TB drives. I remember reading up on this board that with Roamios you don't need to do anything for up to 4TB drives, you could just plonk it in and Tivo will take care of formatting it for you. But what to do with 8TB drives? Should I format the 8TB drive first before using any commands from the iso? @jmbach or anyone else, please help!


----------



## jmbach

Cybernut said:


> This thread is too long to read completely through. I read the first few posts on page 1 and then jmbach's post on page 7 (where he's posted the latest iso link). I have upgraded my Premiere several times thanks to jmbach's help...but now is my first attempt at a Roamio upgrade.
> 
> I am attempting to do an upgrade from a 500 GB Roamio (TCD846500) to an 8TB WD Red.
> 
> Couple quick questions (apologies if they have been answered already on this thread):
> 1. I can use the MFS Tools 3.2 iso to do that, right? Are the tools on this live CD able to directly copy to a 8TB drive, or do I need smaller sized drive intermediaries?
> 
> 2. I do not need to save any recording (there are no recordings on the tivo) - the post on page 7 (MFS Tools 3.2) lists the commands to copy the old image to the new drive. But what commands should I use when I simply need the TiVo OS and nothing else on the new 8TB drives. I remember reading up on this board that with Roamios you don't need to do anything for up to 4TB drives, you could just plonk it in and Tivo will take care of formatting it for you. But what to do with 8TB drives? Should I format the 8TB drive first before using any commands from the iso? @jmbach or anyone else, please help!


What you need to do is use MFSR for what you are trying to accomplish.


----------



## mattack

It's 3 TB drives that are supported 'natively'.


----------



## ThAbtO

Cybernut said:


> This thread is too long to read completely through. I read the first few posts on page 1 and then jmbach's post on page 7 (where he's posted the latest iso link). I have upgraded my Premiere several times thanks to jmbach's help...but now is my first attempt at a Roamio upgrade.
> 
> I am attempting to do an upgrade from a 500 GB Roamio (TCD846500) to an 8TB WD Red.
> 
> Couple quick questions (apologies if they have been answered already on this thread):
> 1. I can use the MFS Tools 3.2 iso to do that, right? Are the tools on this live CD able to directly copy to a 8TB drive, or do I need smaller sized drive intermediaries?
> 
> 2. I do not need to save any recording (there are no recordings on the tivo) - the post on page 7 (MFS Tools 3.2) lists the commands to copy the old image to the new drive. But what commands should I use when I simply need the TiVo OS and nothing else on the new 8TB drives. I remember reading up on this board that with Roamios you don't need to do anything for up to 4TB drives, you could just plonk it in and Tivo will take care of formatting it for you. But what to do with 8TB drives? Should I format the 8TB drive first before using any commands from the iso? @jmbach or anyone else, please help!


Roamio does not have the OS directly on the drive. Its kept elsewhere. You do not need to image it either.

Just make sure the Tivo software is up to date (at least 20.7.x) and put that 8TB red (recommended). Power it up, and wait until the setup shows with your country screen. Power off. Connect to PC/Windows 7> and just run under administrator, MSFR. Put drive back in Tivo. Done. Work time: estimated 30 minutes.


----------



## mattack

Totally wish there were a non-Windows (or "bootable CD/DVD" that would run on Apple hardware) way to do this. I have a 6 TB drive in my Premiere 4 that just 'thinks' it's a 3 TB drive since I never bothered finding/setting up a windows machine to do it..


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> Totally wish there were a non-Windows (or "bootable CD/DVD" that would run on Apple hardware) way to do this. I have a 6 TB drive in my Premiere 4 that just 'thinks' it's a 3 TB drive since I never bothered finding/setting up a windows machine to do it..


The MFSTools ISO does not boot in your apple?


----------



## mattack

I thought MFStools only supports up to "only" (cough!) a few TB, and the NEWER tool (MFSR) was Windows only..???


----------



## HerronScott

mattack said:


> I thought MFStools only supports up to "only" (cough!) a few TB, and the NEWER tool (MFSR) was Windows only..???


MFSR is for Roamio and Bolt where the OS is in Flash and not the Premiere where it's on the hard drive (and you would use MFSTools).

MFS Reformatter (mfsr)

Scott


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> I thought MFStools only supports up to "only" (cough!) a few TB, and the NEWER tool (MFSR) was Windows only..???


You can certainly copy a premier image and expand it up to 8TB with MFStools. (See the 8TB premiere thread)

Can only copy and expand a Roamio image up to 4TB directly with MFSTools. (I have a beta version that works on Bolt images and as soon as I have enough people to test it, will post it publically)


----------



## mattack

I admit I'm tangenting.. and maybe a pointer to another thread would be appropriate too, or a direct answer..

I'm actually somewhat afraid of removing the drive from my Premiere or Roamio since I thought people said there are cases where it will reformat it -- i.e. a drive that was already in that particular Tivo? Obviously I don't want to lose my recordings.


----------



## HerronScott

mattack said:


> I admit I'm tangenting.. and maybe a pointer to another thread would be appropriate too, or a direct answer..
> 
> I'm actually somewhat afraid of removing the drive from my Premiere or Roamio since I thought people said there are cases where it will reformat it -- i.e. a drive that was already in that particular Tivo? Obviously I don't want to lose my recordings


That's the Bolt where users are seeing that.

Scot


----------



## mattack

OK, thanks.. So Roamio Pro & Premiere 4 are safe.. even though Roamio does do the "reformat blank drive" thing..


----------



## ThAbtO

mattack said:


> I admit I'm tangenting.. and maybe a pointer to another thread would be appropriate too, or a direct answer..
> 
> I'm actually somewhat afraid of removing the drive from my Premiere or Roamio since I thought people said there are cases where it will reformat it -- i.e. a drive that was already in that particular Tivo? Obviously I don't want to lose my recordings.


Normally, it wouldn't. I try not to go open device manager, and that is where it can erase the data it thinks is a new drive.

All Tivo drives will appear blank or new in a Windows, or mac. Linux might be able to read it partially.


----------



## jmbach

mattack said:


> OK, thanks.. So Roamio Pro & Premiere 4 are safe.. even though Roamio does do the "reformat blank drive" thing..


Yes.


----------



## mattack

ThAbtO said:


> Normally, it wouldn't. I try not to go open device manager, and that is where it can erase the data it thinks is a new drive.
> 
> All Tivo drives will appear blank or new in a Windows, or mac. Linux might be able to read it partially.


No, I didn't mean connected to a computer (I mean, not anything besides existing Tivo tools writing to the drive).. I have obviously SINCE BEEN INFORMED I was wrong and that it's Bolt only, but I had thought somehow Tivos would detect a drive had been modified (obviously if you're trying to upgrade a drive you're modifying it), and would just wipe it.


----------



## ThAbtO

If you mean "drop in and initalize" then Roamio and Bolts can do that.
Pre-Roamio (Premiere and earlier) cannot and requires an image planted.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

At the request of jmbach, I'm moving my questions here. I haven't tried to upgrade a TIVO in nearly a decade so pardon me if I sound like an idiot. 

I now have an ISO disc of MFS 3.2, a blank 4TB red drive, and my stock 2TB Premiere drive (which is 100% full). I'd like to fully copy my 2TB drive to the new drive as well as have the expanded drive space. I have a PC that I can take all the hard drives out of and use the SATA ports to do the upgrade. 

Once I plug all the drives in and boot from the cd, what steps should I take to copy and expand the 2TB -> 4TB?


----------



## dougdingle

Hardcore Legend said:


> At the request of jmbach, I'm moving my questions here. I haven't tried to upgrade a TIVO in nearly a decade so pardon me if I sound like an idiot.
> 
> I now have an ISO disc of MFS 3.2, a blank 4TB red drive, and my stock 2TB Premiere drive (which is 100% full). I'd like to fully copy my 2TB drive to the new drive as well as have the expanded drive space. I have a PC that I can take all the hard drives out of and use the SATA ports to do the upgrade.
> 
> Once I plug all the drives in and boot from the cd, what steps should I take to copy and expand the 2TB -> 4TB?


Login is root, and password (which won't display) is tivo.

Then run parted -l (lower case "L") which will show you the connected drives and their system designations as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Note the system designators for the 2TB and 4TB drives.

For the sake of argument, let's say the source drive (2TB) is sda, and the destination drive (4TB) is sdb.

In that case, type mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb where sda is the source drive designation, and sdb is the destination drive designation.

It's important to get the drive designators right so you don't wind up copying the empty drive over the full one...

This was the procedure I followed on my Roamio; I assume the Premiere is the same.

You can see help for the command line switches by typing mfscopy -h.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

'mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb' will both copy and then expand the new drive?


----------



## jmbach

Hardcore Legend said:


> 'mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb' will both copy and then expand the new drive?


Yes


----------



## Hardcore Legend

dougdingle said:


> Login is root, and password (which won't display) is tivo.
> 
> Then run parted -l (lower case "L") which will show you the connected drives and their system designations as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Note the system designators for the 2TB and 4TB drives.
> 
> For the sake of argument, let's say the source drive (2TB) is sda, and the destination drive (4TB) is sdb.
> 
> In that case, type mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb where sda is the source drive designation, and sdb is the destination drive designation.
> 
> It's important to get the drive designators right so you don't wind up copying the empty drive over the full one...
> 
> This was the procedure I followed on my Roamio; I assume the Premiere is the same.
> 
> You can see help for the command line switches by typing mfscopy -h.


Ok, set everything up so that source was sda and new drive was sdb.

Ran command line: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

Drive is currently copying to new drive.

When this finishes, do I need to take any additional steps or simply put new drive into the TIVO and boot it up? Do I need to go through guided setup at all or should it be as if I am rebooting my TIVO after a power outage?

Want to make sure I don't lose data on either disk.

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

Hardcore Legend said:


> Ok, set everything up so that source was sda and new drive was sdb.
> 
> Ran command line: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> Drive is currently copying to new drive.
> 
> When this finishes, do I need to take any additional steps or simply put new drive into the TIVO and boot it up? Do I need to go through guided setup at all or should it be as if I am rebooting my TIVO after a power outage?
> 
> Want to make sure I don't lose data on either disk.
> 
> Thanks


Just put the new drive in the TiVo. It should boot up like the original drive. The only thing different is that you have more recording space.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

jmbach said:


> Just put the new drive in the TiVo. It should boot up like the original drive. The only thing different is that you have more recording space.


You guys really are the best. Pretty excited to see how this thing runs in 12 hours!

These really was painless and I'll be looking to upgrade all my Premieres now.

Thanks so much!


----------



## liamr

I've got a Roamio Plus with the WD DVR Expander. I've just ordered a WD40EFRX
Does MFS Tools support copying existing content / programming when your internal drive is paired with an expander?


----------



## ThAbtO

If you are on Tivo software v20.7.4x, you should transfer all your shows you want to keep to a computer before you do anything. V21.x is Hydra and transfers are not possible from computer.

You will lose all the shows when you remove the expander, and you must remove the expander before you can swap out the internal drive.

After you got the new drive in, you can use PyTivo to transfer back.

Consider this, Tivo is not meant for long term storage. You would be better to save your shows into a hard drive for long term and only transfer back to the Tivo when you want to watch. (Backup is advised.)
If there are any copy-protected shows, they can't be copied/transferred. So either watch them or lose them.


----------



## jmbach

liamr said:


> I've got a Roamio Plus with the WD DVR Expander. I've just ordered a WD40EFRX
> Does MFS Tools support copying existing content / programming when your internal drive is paired with an expander?


What I would recommend is using MFSTools 3.2 to copy both the internal and external drive to your 4 TB. If you still want to use the expander, you can add it back later.

However I would recommend just using the 4 TB drive internally.


----------



## liamr

ThAbtO said:


> You will lose all the shows when you remove the expander, and you must remove the expander before you can swap out the internal drive.


I'm currently backing up my recordings used pyTivo, so I guess I'm ok loosing my shows.
More importantly, will I loose my "one passes" when I decouple the drives? Having to reschedule all my shows will be much more annoying..


----------



## liamr

jmbach said:


> What I would recommend is using MFSTools 3.2 to copy both the internal and external drive to your 4 TB. If you still want to use the expander, you can add it back later.


Can MFSTools combine the data from the two drives into a single usable drive?



> However I would recommend just using the 4 TB drive internally.


That's my plan. One less thing to plug in, one less drive to worry about.


----------



## dougdingle

liamr said:


> Can MFSTools combine the data from the two drives into a single usable drive?


Yes.

*Be sure the TiVo is powered off before disconnecting the external drive.* Then remove the internal drive, and connect internal, external, and new 4TB drives to the machine you're going to use to do the copying. Boot from the MFSTools CD or USB stick you've made.

Login is root, and password (which won't display) is tivo.

Then run parted -l (lower case "L") which will show you the connected drives and their system designations as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Carefully note the system designators for all three of the drives.

Then use mfscopy with the appropriate command line switches (see post #2 in this thread) to copy both drives to the new 4TB. When done, the 4TB should boot in the TiVo, with everything intact and all 4TB usable.


----------



## jmbach

liamr said:


> Can MFSTools combine the data from the two drives into a single usable drive?
> 
> That's my plan. One less thing to plug in, one less drive to worry about.


Yes. What dougdingle said.

The command would be mfscopy -a /dev/sdX:/dev/sdY /dev/sdZ. Where sdX is you original internal drive, sdY is your original external drive and sdZ is your target 4 TB drive.


----------



## ggieseke

liamr said:


> More importantly, will I loose my "one passes" when I decouple the drives? Having to reschedule all my shows will be much more annoying..


Your One Passes should copy over just fine, but I would use kmttg to back them up just in case.


----------



## liamr

jmbach said:


> Yes. What dougdingle said.
> 
> The command would be mfscopy -a /dev/sdX:/dev/sdY /dev/sdZ. Where sdX is you original internal drive, sdY is your original external drive and sdZ is your target 4 TB drive.


Does it matter whether it's an actual DVR Extender vs an external drive that's been paired using MFS Tools?


----------



## dougdingle

liamr said:


> Does it matter whether it's an actual DVR Extender vs an external drive that's been paired using MFS Tools?


Only in this way: Unless you're willing to break open the DVR Extender case and remove the drive, it will have to interface as an eSATA device, which needs the host computer to support it.


----------



## jmbach

liamr said:


> Does it matter whether it's an actual DVR Extender vs an external drive that's been paired using MFS Tools?


No it does not.


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> Only in this way: Unless you're willing to break open the DVR Extender case and remove the drive, it will have to interface as an eSATA device, which needs the host computer to support it.


As long as OS on the MFSTools ISO can see the drive it can be connected via USB, eSata, or SATA. (Have not tried firewire, but it ought to work if the OS sees it)
So you don't necessarily have to extract the drive.


----------



## ThAbtO

liamr said:


> I'm currently backing up my recordings used pyTivo, so I guess I'm ok loosing my shows.
> More importantly, will I loose my "one passes" when I decouple the drives? Having to reschedule all my shows will be much more annoying..


You can use KMTTG, a program that not only download shows, but more, such as copy passes.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

Hardcore Legend said:


> You guys really are the best. Pretty excited to see how this thing runs in 12 hours!
> 
> These really was painless and I'll be looking to upgrade all my Premieres now.
> 
> Thanks so much!


So, I hooked this TIVO up and everything seemed great. Unfortunately, it appears the TIVO (now 4TB) will only record until it is 58% full and then it just makes whatever it is recording disappear. I didn't realize it until tonight and have lost every recording since Saturday.

What can I do to get it to break past that barrier? Did I do something wrong in the copying? I followed the instructions above exactly.


----------



## jmbach

Hardcore Legend said:


> So, I hooked this TIVO up and everything seemed great. Unfortunately, it appears the TIVO (now 4TB) will only record until it is 58% full and then it just makes whatever it is recording disappear. I didn't realize it until tonight and have lost every recording since Saturday.
> 
> What can I do to get it to break past that barrier? Did I do something wrong in the copying? I followed the instructions above exactly.


It does not sound like you did anything wrong and the command looks correct.

Thoughts. Mark everything KUID (including new recordings) and keep on recording and see what happens. 
Try KS 57 or 58.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

jmbach said:


> It does not sound like you did anything wrong and the command looks correct.
> 
> Thoughts. Mark everything KUID (including new recordings) and keep on recording and see what happens.
> Try KS 57 or 58.


 As far as KUID (including new recordings) the new barrier is 57% and it will record new things. The percent won't go up but older recordings that are tagged KUID are now vanishing. However, if I record one specific program that I have a season pass set for, it will record and then vanish .

I'm not sure what is going on. Has anyone else had this problem where an upgraded TIVO created an artificial barrier?


----------



## jmbach

Hardcore Legend said:


> As far as KUID (including new recordings) the new barrier is 57% and it will record new things. The percent won't go up but older recordings that are tagged KUID are now vanishing. However, if I record one specific program that I have a season pass set for, it will record and then vanish .
> 
> I'm not sure what is going on. Has anyone else had this problem where an upgraded TIVO created an artificial barrier?


The other Kickstart code to try is 67 which checks the Database integrity.

If the kickstart codes do not resolve the issue, then post a MFSInfo screenshot.


----------



## Hardcore Legend

jmbach said:


> The other Kickstart code to try is 67 which checks the Database integrity.
> 
> If the kickstart codes do not resolve the issue, then post a MFSInfo screenshot.


I finally was able to break passed that barrier. It appears there is some sort of error with a OnePass that is recording episodes and then deleting them seconds after they are completed .

I've recorded 27 programs in the last 24 hours and finally pushed the % used up to 61. So, it seems the drive is working fine. There is some sort of software error with TIVO .

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

Hardcore Legend said:


> I finally was able to break passed that barrier. It appears there is some sort of error with a OnePass that is recording episodes and then deleting them seconds after they are completed .
> 
> I've recorded 27 programs in the last 24 hours and finally pushed the % used up to 61. So, it seems the drive is working fine. There is some sort of software error with TIVO .
> 
> Thanks!


Perhaps delete and remake your OnePass


----------



## Kintaro

My Roamio Pro is stuck at the "Welcome! Starting Up" screen and apparently this is most commonly due to a bad hard drive. I'm getting a 4TB drive today. I wanted to swap my hard drive out and try to copy it over. Would this be wise or would it be best to start fresh? I'd rather not lose all my recordings, however if this would cause problems I'd rather try. I guess this is assuming I can even copy it due to the bad hard drive. Also is the link in the original post still the latest version of the software.


----------



## jmbach

Kintaro said:


> My Roamio Pro is stuck at the "Welcome! Starting Up" screen and apparently this is most commonly due to a bad hard drive. I'm getting a 4TB drive today. I wanted to swap my hard drive out and try to copy it over. Would this be wise or would it be best to start fresh? I'd rather not lose all my recordings, however if this would cause problems I'd rather try. I guess this is assuming I can even copy it due to the bad hard drive. Also is the link in the original post still the latest version of the software.


I would try the copy. You have nothing to lose at this point. If it does not boot, then try a KS 58.


----------



## Kintaro

jmbach said:


> I would try the copy. You have nothing to lose at this point. If it does not boot, then try a KS 58.


Sounds good. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong HD (dangers of ordering at 2am), I wanted to know if I plugged in a smaller drive (250gb) just to test would the Roamio format it fine? Or are smaller drives an issue?

I went ahead and tried with a 250gb hard drive to to see what would happen. It still stays on the "Welcome! Starting Up..." Should it stay on this screen a long time? It's been a few minutes I'm not sure if it's being formatted and will take a while?


----------



## jmbach

Kintaro said:


> Sounds good. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong HD (dangers of ordering at 2am), I wanted to know if I plugged in a smaller drive (250gb) just to test would the Roamio format it fine? Or are smaller drives an issue?
> 
> I went ahead and tried with a 250gb hard drive to to see what would happen. It still stays on the "Welcome! Starting Up..." Should it stay on this screen a long time? It's been a few minutes I'm not sure if it's being formatted and will take a while?


You could pull the drive and see if mfsinfo gives you any information about either drive.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

Alternatively, you could run MFSR on the 250GB drive and see if it runs successfully. 

Do t run it on your original drive as it will delete everything recorded on your drive. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Kintaro

jmbach said:


> Alternatively, you could run MFSR on the 250GB drive and see if it runs successfully.
> 
> Do t run it on your original drive as it will delete everything recorded on your drive.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I tried this on the 250 GB drive, it was not recognized as a Roamio drive. In fact it was still formatted in NTFS, so the Tivo didn't format it. I left it at the Welcome! screen for over 40 mins too. Is there a Windows equivalent to mfsinfo or do I need to run it from a Linux image?

I tried two different 250gb drives, although they were old and who knows how healthy they are.


----------



## jmbach

Kintaro said:


> I tried this on the 250 GB drive, it was not recognized as a Roamio drive. In fact it was still formatted in NTFS, so the Tivo didn't format it. I left it at the Welcome! screen for over 40 mins too. Is there a Windows equivalent to mfsinfo or do I need to run it from a Linux image?
> 
> I tried two different 250gb drives, although they were old and who knows how healthy they are.


I think you need to wait for the correct drive.


----------



## Kintaro

jmbach said:


> I think you need to wait for the correct drive.


Yeah going to order a WD Red drive, that should just be plug in and let the Roamio do its thing correct? Does it take a while once plugged in for the drive to be properly setup?


----------



## ggieseke

Kintaro said:


> Yeah going to order a WD Red drive, that should just be plug in and let the Roamio do its thing correct? Does it take a while once plugged in for the drive to be properly setup?


If the MFSTools copy fails and it's over 3TB let the Roamio format it up the the first screen in Guided Setup, then hook the drive up to a Windows computer and run MFSR to utilize the entire drive.


----------



## Kintaro

ggieseke said:


> If the MFSTools copy fails and it's over 3TB let the Roamio format it up the the first screen in Guided Setup, then hook the drive up to a Windows computer and run MFSR to utilize the entire drive.


Unfortunately the new Hard Drive didn't work either. Still stuck at the "Welcome! Starting up..." screen. I'm starting to think that there is a problem with the flash drive containing the Tivo software. Might just have to call Tivo and see if there is anything that can be done. I've only had the Roamio Pro for 2 years and just got All In just over a year ago. :\


----------



## jmbach

Kintaro said:


> Unfortunately the new Hard Drive didn't work either. Still stuck at the "Welcome! Starting up..." screen. I'm starting to think that there is a problem with the flash drive containing the Tivo software. Might just have to call Tivo and see if there is anything that can be done. I've only had the Roamio Pro for 2 years and just got All In just over a year ago. :\


How was the drive prepped before you let it boot in that state?

How many "welcome" screens do you go through before it reboots?

Does it boot through the Kickstart portal?


----------



## mr.cello

FROD said:


> All went well last night. Guide info finally updated and the To Do list is completely full of shows. Can't thank you enough for getting me past the GSOD. No disprespect to TiVo CSR's but, next time I run into a problem, I'm coming here first. This thread has been a treasure trove of knowledge and information. Thank you again!


Does anyone know why this happens? I am having the same issue, though haven't tried the kickstart solutions. Is kickstart 58 similar to running mfschk -m1, or some other incantation?


----------



## jmbach

Not sure why it happens. What series TiVo are you experiencing this on. How many times has it been upgraded and what programs were used to do each upgrade.


----------



## Telicha

Please help I cannot find the source code or iso distribution of mfstools 3.2


----------



## ThAbtO

Telicha said:


> Please help I cannot find the source code or iso distribution of mfstools 3.2


MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## mr.cello

jmbach said:


> Not sure why it happens. What series TiVo are you experiencing this on. How many times has it been upgraded and what programs were used to do each upgrade.


First upgrade for this Roamio (original UI), and I am using the MFSTools 3.2 ISO you point to (which I believe you put together). I am trying to go from the original 500GB to a 2GB drive (WD EURX). When I run


Code:


mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb
  (also tried -ai)

 the image boots and have extra space, however, it consistently fails to load program info with S303 (sometimes it works for a couple of connections, but eventually fails). I have done this several times with two different, recently purchased, drives.

Another data point is: if I do a raw copy (-aiR) I don't have this problem. However, it doesn't expand the drive, and running supersize on the copied drive results in supersize throwing and error that it cannot find some file (which I am guessing is a temp file created by mfscopy?).

My next attempt will be do another copy followed by


Code:


mfschk -m4 /dev/sdb

 and see if that works (4 rather than 1 as indicated above as my understanding is that this is a db issue, not a general fs issue). If not guess I will try the kickstart 58 path.

Any insight from the guru's here will be welcomed.


----------



## mr.cello

mr.cello said:


> My next attempt will be do another copy followed by
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfschk -m4 /dev/sdb
> 
> and see if that works (4 rather than 1 as indicated above as my understanding is that this is a db issue, not a general fs issue). If not guess I will try the kickstart 58 path.


Well after sticking the hard drive in to boot had the GSoD for 6+ hours, I power cycled and it is GSoD still. Will see what state it is later. Seems like for some reason the mfscopy is corrupting the show database, but doing a raw copy it seems to be fine. Does anyone know how to expand after a raw copy? As I indicated in my previous post raw copy didn't break the show database (or at least I was able to load new program information), but I couldn't get the supersize program to work.


----------



## ThAbtO

mr.cello said:


> I am trying to go from the original 500GB to a 2GB drive (WD EURX).





mr.cello said:


> Well after sticking the hard drive in to boot had the GSoD for 6+ hours, I power cycled and it is GSoD still.


Although WD20EURX is a green AV drive, which is not made any more and warranty is/about to expire, It has issues with Intellipark (WDidle3 to disable) and Power-Up In Standby (PUIS, HDAT2 to disable) is the main roadblock for Tivos to be able to read/access these drives.

For this, my recommendation is the WD red (not pro line), IE: WD10EFRX. WD20EFRX, etc. and not any of the green models.


----------



## jmbach

mr.cello said:


> First upgrade for this Roamio (original UI), and I am using the MFSTools 3.2 ISO you point to (which I believe you put together). I am trying to go from the original 500GB to a 2GB drive (WD EURX). When I run
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> (also tried -ai)
> 
> the image boots and have extra space, however, it consistently fails to load program info with S303 (sometimes it works for a couple of connections, but eventually fails). I have done this several times with two different, recently purchased, drives.
> 
> Another data point is: if I do a raw copy (-aiR) I don't have this problem. However, it doesn't expand the drive, and running supersize on the copied drive results in supersize throwing and error that it cannot find some file (which I am guessing is a temp file created by mfscopy?).
> 
> My next attempt will be do another copy followed by
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfschk -m4 /dev/sdb
> 
> and see if that works (4 rather than 1 as indicated above as my understanding is that this is a db issue, not a general fs issue). If not guess I will try the kickstart 58 path.
> 
> Any insight from the guru's here will be welcomed.


After you copy the drive using mfscooy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb, run a KS 58 on the new drive as it boots in the roamio for the first time.

If that does not work, do a KS 58 on the original drive before you try the copy.


----------



## mr.cello

ThAbtO said:


> Although WD20EURX is a green AV drive, which is not made any more and warranty is/about to expire, It has issues with Intellipark (WDidle3 to disable) and Power-Up In Standby (PUIS, HDAT2 to disable) is the main roadblock for Tivos to be able to read/access these drives.
> 
> For this, my recommendation is the WD red (not pro line), IE: WD10EFRX. WD20EFRX, etc. and not any of the green models.


Clearly I should have done more research before buying not one but two of these drives!


----------



## mr.cello

jmbach said:


> After you copy the drive using mfscooy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb, run a KS 58 on the new drive as it boots in the roamio for the first time.
> 
> If that does not work, do a KS 58 on the original drive before you try the copy.


I will give that a try, as the GSoD didn't resolve the issue. I don't think there is any issue with the original drive as is i do a raw copy (-aiR) it works, it is only when I do a v3 copy that I have this problem. Will follow up once I do the kickstart 58. I suppose if that doesn't work I might want to get a WD Red...


----------



## jmbach

The current issue you have is not drive related. If it was, I would expect that you would have the same issue no matter how you copied the drive. But I do agree with ThAbt0 on drive choice.


----------



## mr.cello

jmbach said:


> The current issue you have is not drive related. If it was, I would expect that you would have the same issue no matter how you copied the drive. But I did agree with ThAbt0 on drive choice.


Thanks @jmbach I might be able to return one of the two drives - will go with the red as a replacement. Will follow up as indicated earlier.


----------



## ThAbtO

mr.cello said:


> Clearly I should have done more research before buying not one but two of these drives!


You also paid too much, the Red would be much less than that green for the same size.


----------



## mr.cello

ThAbtO said:


> You also paid too much, the Red would be much less than that green for the same size.


Actually not - i got both drives for about $20 less than the price I am currently seeing for the reds. if you have pointers to places to get those drives at a better discount I am all eyes


----------



## ThAbtO

It most likely is used.

I mostly use Amazon and with prime, its within 2 day's reach.
2TB Red is like $85 and your EURX, if still listed is around $135.


----------



## mr.cello

ThAbtO said:


> It most likely is used.
> 
> I mostly use Amazon and with prime, its within 2 day's reach.
> 2TB Red is like $85 and your EURX, if still listed is around $135.


I think you are right about them being used - perhaps refurbished and sold as new? However, I was able to get the drives for between $65-70.

A couple of follow on questions: 
1) on the WD green drive I have: should I disable the WD idle3?
2) Not that I object for paying less , but is there a reason beyond cost not to get the WD Red Pro drives, like some 'pro' feature that doesn't play well with TiVos or DVRs in general?


----------



## mr.cello

mr.cello said:


> I will give that a try, as the GSoD didn't resolve the issue. I don't think there is any issue with the original drive as is i do a raw copy (-aiR) it works, it is only when I do a v3 copy that I have this problem. Will follow up once I do the kickstart 58. I suppose if that doesn't work I might want to get a WD Red...


Success! (at least so far). The kickstart 58 worked (on the drive/image where I tried the `mfsck -m4`), I have had two successful service connections - will keep an eye on it just to make sure it continues beyond a handful (which was the best I had previously had) and update if things cease to work. Thanks @jmbach for the pointers.

I am curious however: is kickstart 58 equivalent to running `mfsck -m1` on the drive?


----------



## jmbach

mr.cello said:


> Success! (at least so far). The kickstart 58 worked (on the image where I tried the `mfsck -m4`), I have had two successful connections - will keep an eye on it just to make sure it continues beyond a handful (which was the best I had previously had). Thanks @jmbach for the pointers.
> 
> Seems to imply that the tool doesn't always work when rebuilding the data structures (rather than doing the raw copy) does it not?


I think what happens is that if there is an issue with the original image, when it rewrites the image to copy and expand, it tries it's best to handle it but doesn't. What that issue is, I do not know. The error handling of the MFS by the TiVo and by MFSTools is definitely not robust.


----------



## ThAbtO

mr.cello said:


> 1) on the WD green drive I have: should I disable the WD idle3?


Yes, but if the Tivo software is at least v20.7.2, it would not matter.


mr.cello said:


> 2) Not that I object for paying less , but is there a reason beyond cost not to get the WD Red Pro drives, like some 'pro' feature that doesn't play well with TiVos or DVRs in general?


Red Pro line are 7200 RPM drives which are not recommended, more heat, power that the power supply may not handle.
The regular Red line of drives is what is recommended, 5400 RPM, less power needed.


----------



## mr.cello

mr.cello said:


> Success! (at least so far). The kickstart 58 worked (on the drive/image where I tried the `mfsck -m4`), I have had two successful service connections - will keep an eye on it just to make sure it continues beyond a handful (which was the best I had previously had) and update if things cease to work.


Well about a week in and all appears well. So thanks!


----------



## jerrythea

Another data point:

I have confirmed that the provided images, either the VMDK, or the ISO, do not work with real drives, on a physical system connected via a USB3 port, or with USB drives connected in a virtual machine using virtual USB3 (xhci).

Would get constant I/O errors very shortly after start, and then failure after about 30 minutes.

I ended up using USB2 on a physical system, and everything worked ok. I did just have to do a KS58 to get the device to properly connect to TiVo online and maintain the product lifetime subscription.

I was upgrading a 500 GB drive that was about 25% full, to a 3 TB drive.

It took over 12 hours, which was a real bad surprise.

Has anyone looked into recompiling the MFSTools source on a more modern Linux kernel and then building a new ISO/VMDK?

I am sure that this 12 hour time could be cut way down.

Alternatively, does anyone have a data point using the drives physically connected, internally, via SATA 3?


----------



## dougdingle

jerrythea said:


> Another data point:
> 
> I have confirmed that the provided images, either the VMDK, or the ISO, do not work with real drives, on a physical system connected via a USB3 port, or with USB drives connected in a virtual machine using virtual USB3 (xhci).
> 
> Would get constant I/O errors very shortly after start, and then failure after about 30 minutes.
> 
> I ended up using USB2 on a physical system, and everything worked ok. I did just have to do a KS58 to get the device to properly connect to TiVo online and maintain the product lifetime subscription.
> 
> I was upgrading a 500 GB drive that was about 25% full, to a 3 TB drive.
> 
> It took over 12 hours, which was a real bad surprise.
> 
> Has anyone looked into recompiling the MFSTools source on a more modern Linux kernel and then building a new ISO/VMDK?
> 
> I am sure that this 12 hour time could be cut way down.
> 
> Alternatively, does anyone have a data point using the drives physically connected, internally, via SATA 3?


It's the USB2 connection that killed you for 12 hours.

Using internal SATA3, I have moved from a 3TB to a 4TB drive with mfstools in about 8-9 hours. Significantly faster.

I also rotate two 4TB drives in/out of my Roamio every 60-90 days, and use a standalone cloning dock to make the clones, and that takes roughly 7 hours using WD Red drives.


----------



## jmbach

jerrythea said:


> Another data point:
> 
> I have confirmed that the provided images, either the VMDK, or the ISO, do not work with real drives, on a physical system connected via a USB3 port, or with USB drives connected in a virtual machine using virtual USB3 (xhci).
> 
> Would get constant I/O errors very shortly after start, and then failure after about 30 minutes.
> 
> I ended up using USB2 on a physical system, and everything worked ok. I did just have to do a KS58 to get the device to properly connect to TiVo online and maintain the product lifetime subscription.
> 
> I was upgrading a 500 GB drive that was about 25% full, to a 3 TB drive.
> 
> It took over 12 hours, which was a real bad surprise.
> 
> Has anyone looked into recompiling the MFSTools source on a more modern Linux kernel and then building a new ISO/VMDK?
> 
> I am sure that this 12 hour time could be cut way down.
> 
> Alternatively, does anyone have a data point using the drives physically connected, internally, via SATA 3?


I have no issue using either images on my computer in a virtual machine.

I have two laptops I use when running MFSTools. One does not give me any issues with USB3 and the other does. They have different USB chipsets.

Also it seems to be related to UAS rather than USB3 itself.


----------



## Chards

I have a Bolt+ with a dying hard drive. It tripped SMART, having exceeded its reallocated sectors threshold and the Bolt+ flashes all its lights at me. TiVo is going to send a replacement (for $80, not too bad) but I'm attempting to retrieve my programs. I pulled the dying 3TB drive and ran it through two passes of ddrescue on an Ubuntu box to a 4TB drive (what I had around). I only saw read errors/bad blocks at the very end of that process. I grabbed the MFS Tools ISO (from Oct 2017) and ran mfsinfo info on both the dying drive and the 4 TB drive and the output was nearly identical (just some sda vs sdb in a few places). Now I'm at a decision point.

Option 1. Just plug the 4 TB drive into the Bolt+, go through the kickstarts recommended, and hope it is recovered enough to boot properly with my programs. Recover these programs with either kmttg to a computer or get TiVo to cross-ship me the new box and do a box-to-box transfer. This, I understand, will render the dying drive "dead" to the TiVo as far as program data is concerned.

Option 2. Zero format the dying drive and hope the reallocated sector count drops below threshold (I've read a few instances where this happened). If it can clear a SMART test after formatting, use mfscopy from the recovery 4 TB drive to the reformatted 3 TB drive and put that in my current Bolt. Recover programs with kmttg or box-to-box. If this option fails for any reason, option 1 is still available. 

Thoughts on these options are appreciated. If I chase option 2, is the ISO from Oct 2017 the "beta" talked about for the Bolt/Bolt+ or do I need something else?


----------



## jmbach

I would plug in the 4TB drive and see if it boots up. If you need to do a kickstart, do a KS 58. Once you know everything is functional then find another 3TB drive and dd it back to the new drive. I would not trust that original drive again.


----------



## Chards

Thanks, I'll likely do that. TiVo is going to replace the unit for $80, which is probably cheaper and easier than finding a 3TB drive and going through the dd or mfscopy process.


----------



## Chards

Update: I connected the 4TB drive to the Bolt+, which took some effort as the 4TB drive is a 3.5" NAS unit. I needed to source some power from a computer as I wasn't sure the Bolt+ could safely power it. It booted up without any issue and did not require any new pairing with cable service (Comcast). Recordings seem to be OK. I ran a KS 58 as recommended after the initial startup.

I've transferred a few dozen programs to a computer using kmttg and a few of them ended fairly early into the transfer (PS, not TS) process (10 to 25% or so done). I checked some of the incomplete transfers on the Bolt+ and they seemed intact and complete. This could be a kmttg issue, I'll try to transfer one of these to a Premiere I have. If there are other kickstarts I should try that may clear up the transfer process, please advise.


----------



## jmbach

No other kickstart codes that I would try. Mightvtryvthe kmttg thread and see if they have any advise.


----------



## mattack

Just to be clear, you're sure there isn't a video glitch at the exact spot of the transfer interruption?

if playing on the Tivo, you see even a brief video/audio glitch, that will cause a transfer to stop.. (due to a bug on the Tivo)


----------



## Chards

I'm not aware of any glitches, mostly because I haven't checked. I decided to transfer the programs I want to save through TiVo's web interface to a Premiere I have rather than via kmttg. I'm still going to get a backup plan in place to a NAS, either with kmttg's auto transfers or pytivo. If I can get one of these working on a Raspberry Pi to a Synology, that would be ideal.


----------



## mattack

You said "I checked some of the incomplete transfers on the Bolt+ and they seemed intact and complete."

If there's a glitch, that's not intact as far as this is concerned.


----------



## Chards

To be clear, my "checking" involved fast forwarding through the source programs with some combination of triple speed fast forward and interval skip forwards until reaching the end. My use of intact meant that the program was there from beginning to end (not truncated). My review would not necessarily reveal any glitches or loss of content. As you suggest, a glitch could interrupt a kmttg transfer. I've encountered this in the past when I used to do kmttg downloads (and encodes) more regularly. Thanks for the feedback.


----------



## politicks

I have a TCD746320 that had a bad hard drive. I replaced the drive with a 500GB and restored the image using DVRBars. Can anyone help me out with how to expand the image using MFS Tools? I have done this previously using the copy and expand but never just expanding after an image restore. Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

politicks said:


> I have a TCD746320 that had a bad hard drive. I replaced the drive with a 500GB and restored the image using DVRBars. Can anyone help me out with how to expand the image using MFS Tools? I have done this previously using the copy and expand but never just expanding after an image restore. Thanks!


What size is the new drive?


----------



## ThAbtO

politicks said:


> I have a TCD746320 that had a bad hard drive. I replaced the drive with a 500GB and restored the image using DVRBars. Can anyone help me out with how to expand the image using MFS Tools? I have done this previously using the copy and expand but never just expanding after an image restore. Thanks!





jmbach said:


> What size is the new drive?


----------



## jmbach

@ThAbtO Thanks for pointing out the obvious. My bad, thought he was using 500GB image.

@politicks Just follow the instructions in the 6TB premiere thread starting at step 7.


----------



## politicks

jmbach said:


> @ThAbtO Thanks for pointing out the obvious. My bad, thought he was using 500GB image.
> 
> @politicks Just follow the instructions in the 6TB premiere thread starting at step 7.


I did exactly this before reading your replies not knowing if it was correct or not. When it asked me to divorce I assumed I had not done it correctly even though it gave me the proper size when finished. Glad to know I did it correctly. Thanks for your help!


----------



## jmbach

politicks said:


> I did exactly this before reading your replies not knowing if it was correct or not. When it asked me to divorce I assumed I had not done it correctly even though it gave me the proper size when finished. Glad to know I did it correctly. Thanks for your help!


As long as you ran the program apmfix after using mfsadd everything should be good.


----------



## leesweet

Hope this is an easy/stupid question. I have a 4 year old Roamio Pro and just want to duplicate the 3 TB drive as some content shows signs of failing. If something doesn’t copy I’ll start over with guided setup, not even trying to expand the space here!

Here’s the issue. I downloaded what looked like the final public mfstools 3.2 (2017) ISO, put it on a USB stick, attached my two 3 TB drives to my PC and mfstools won’t successfully finish booting. It comes up, complains about can’t find MBR and goes into ‘rebooting in 120 seconds’ and that’s it. Note it does find the USB and runs, it just doesn’t come ‘up’ to any sort of login prompt.

Am I wrong in assuming that mfstools is a stand-alone Linux distro that should run off USB? Else what is the best method? Thanks!

(Posting from my phone as PC has drives hanging out of it...  )

Edit: note the only USB involved is where the ISO is booting from. The drives are attached by normal SATA (and the PC does see them, as I notice as the hardware boots. Just mfstools is the issue). Saw some note of using USB for copies and wanted to be sure that was clear.


----------



## dougdingle

What's the proper command line for backing up a 3TB Roamio drive without backing up the recordings, but preserving cablecard, Season Passes, cable supplier, etc. data?

What size should the resulting file be if I use, say, the best compression available?

And the proper command line for restoring that image to a different (smaller) drive?

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

leesweet said:


> Hope this is an easy/stupid question. I have a 4 year old Roamio Pro and just want to duplicate the 3 TB drive as some content shows signs of failing. If something doesn't copy I'll start over with guided setup, not even trying to expand the space here!
> 
> Here's the issue. I downloaded what looked like the final public mfstools 3.2 (2017) ISO, put it on a USB stick, attached my two 3 TB drives to my PC and mfstools won't successfully finish booting. It comes up, complains about can't find MBR and goes into 'rebooting in 120 seconds' and that's it. Note it does find the USB and runs, it just doesn't come 'up' to any sort of login prompt.
> 
> Am I wrong in assuming that mfstools is a stand-alone Linux distro that should run off USB? Else what is the best method? Thanks!
> 
> (Posting from my phone as PC has drives hanging out of it...  )
> 
> Edit: note the only USB involved is where the ISO is booting from. The drives are attached by normal SATA (and the PC does see them, as I notice as the hardware boots. Just mfstools is the issue). Saw some note of using USB for copies and wanted to be sure that was clear.


It is a standalone linux platform; it is just finicky.

Look further down on the image list and you will see a version that you can copy onto a USB and boot off of it.

You may need to turn compatibility on in your BIOS to boot off of it.


----------



## leesweet

jmbach said:


> It is a standalone linux platform; it is just finicky.
> 
> Look further down on the image list and you will see a version that you can copy onto a USB and boot off of it.
> 
> You may need to turn compatibility on in your BIOS to boot off of it.


Crap, I do remember that now. Don't know what I was thinking. <D'oh!>

Thanks for the quick answer, was reading back about 20 pages... if anyone wants a (quick?) project, a read-only summary thread of how to do this (ideally) would be great as going through this monster thread is getting wild! 

Then questions when we f up would come here... yeah, I know... what's the difference.


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> What's the proper command line for backing up a 3TB Roamio drive without backing up the recordings, but preserving cablecard, Season Passes, cable supplier, etc. data?
> 
> What size should the resulting file be if I use, say, the best compression available?
> 
> And the proper command line for restoring that image to a different (smaller) drive?
> 
> Thanks.


backup -9so <filename> /dev/sdX

restore -i <filename> /dev/sdX

Where <filename> includes the complete path and filename.


----------



## jmbach

leesweet said:


> Crap, I do remember that now. Don't know what I was thinking. <D'oh!>
> 
> Thanks for the quick answer, was reading back about 20 pages... if anyone wants a (quick?) project, a read-only summary thread of how to do this (ideally) would be great as going through this monster thread is getting wild!
> 
> Then questions when we f up would come here... yeah, I know... what's the difference.


Well.... the post with the images has a fair bit of information along with the first few posts in this thread.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach said:


> backup -9so <filename> /dev/sdX
> 
> restore -i <filename> /dev/sdX
> 
> Where <filename> includes the complete path and filename.


Thanks.

Is <filename> designated as "/dev/sdA/foldername/filename.bin"? Or is it "c:\folder\filename.bin"?


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Is <filename> designated as "/dev/sdA/foldername/filename.bin"? Or is it "c:\folder\filename.bin"?


More the former rather than the latter. Linux is case sensitive. Here is a post that may give you some guidance. Or you can look here for some help.


----------



## dougdingle

jmbach said:


> More the former rather than the latter. Linux is case sensitive. Here is a post that may give you some guidance. Or you can look here for some help.


I was thinking more about using one of the internal drives in the machine as the backup destination, not a USB stick.


----------



## jmbach

dougdingle said:


> I was thinking more about using one of the internal drives in the machine as the backup destination, not a USB stick.


I am not sure if the ISO will automatically mount the attached hard drives. Will have to do a little testing first.

The mounting process of an internal hard drive is similar to the USB stick. You need to know how the hard drive is formatted to pass that information to the system. I will see if I can find a few tutorials for you.


----------



## net lander

I currently have roamio ota with 3 tb and 80% full, planning to upgrade to 8tb. Will this tool migrate and upgrade to the bigger storage? It'll reformat, and move over all my settings, OnePass, as well as previous recording, right? How long to migrate about 3tb of data?

Thanks from newbie. 
A youtube pointer is much appreciated


----------



## jmbach

You can upgrade to an 8TB and keep all your recordings will MFSTools. However it is not a straight copy. And until I finish writing an ancillary program to automate the APM mods, you will need to hex edit the drive via a tool like iBored or at least be able to copy blocks to a file and write a file back to the drive with an utility like iBored.


----------



## Beradon

I was wondering if anyone ran into this, I tried searching the thread but either I'm using the wrong search terms or no one has posted about it.

I was replacing my 1TB Roamio Plus drive with a 3TB and used mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb and the copy appeared to go well. There were a couple of bad sectors, but not a lot.

When I completed the copy I was able to boot the TIVO on the new drive but that's where things got a bit strange. Despite the fact all my shows copied properly and the Tivo booted properly, It was missing a bunch of random channels from the guide, and while the tuning adapter could tune them, I could not get them to load in the guide data. 

I talked to Spectrum who had me run through the guided setup again, which actually made things much worse. During guided setup when I put in my zip, it continually said there were no cable providers in my area. After the no providers thing, the tuning adapter couldn't tune to any channels.

I swapped back in the old drive and it came up properly, guide worked, everything functioned as expected. So I re-ran the copy and experienced the exact same problem.

So instead I cleared the new drive and put it in, and ran guided setup. Now it works, guide and everything, but of course I lost all my shows because I wasn't able to copy them over.

Has anyone experienced this? If so, does anyone know of a way to make it work? Or am I just unlucky enough that the bad sectors happened to be right where the guide and location data was.

Thanks


----------



## ChuckH

Could you tell me what the User ID and Password are to logon to the root dir?



jkozee said:


> Announcing the release of MFS Tools 3.2!
> 
> "MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary." I'll let you can choose your own adjective for MFS Tools 3.2.
> 
> *Highlights*
> 
> Supports Series 1 through Roamio (and perhaps beyond).
> Backwards compatible with MFS Tools v1 and v2.
> Supports 8 TB on Premiere (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
> Supports 8 TB on Roamio (perhaps more, tested with dual 4 TB drives).
> Backup and restore (or drive-drive using mfscopy) single or dual drive setups, and preserve recordings if you choose.
> Supersize the drive, which can be reversed even after GSOD.
> You can include the alternate boot/kernel/root partitions (useful for customized partition layouts).
> Automatically includes required loopset files (you no longer need to use the -f flags during backup) when not including recordings (truncated backup)
> Automatically prunes recordings when a truncated backup is done (sets the MFS flags to cleanup, so the unit will scan objects on startup)
> Works on drives that have been marked for cleanup (GSOD).
> Creates a new MFS structure, so drives that have been expanded by adding pairs can be consolidated to just two pairs, just like the original.
> Restore to drives smaller than the original.
> 
> *Overview*
> MFS Tools v3.2 is a set of utilities that allow one to backup/restore/copy/supersize a TiVo drive, without losing recordings, and to expand recording space to take advantage of larger drives. Additionally, there are options that allow more advanced features and finer grain control over the TiVo drive. For example, there are options to revalidate the drive to the Linux kernel, so the partitions can be mounted or copied. The ability to increase/decrease swap, var, SQLite partition sizes on restore. Limit the amount of used space of the drive, limit media partition size, add app/media partition sets, convert between 32-bit and 64-bit MFS layouts, etc, etc, etc. Please take the time to review all of the utilities and their options to fully appreciate what the tools have to offer.
> 
> *Thanks*
> A special thanks to Tiger, the original pioneer of MFS. And to all those that contribute here and on other sites that have helped me get the most out of my TiVo units.
> 
> *History* (unverified)
> Tiger released the original closed source project in 2001, followed by 2.0 in 2002. In 2004, he released the source code under GPL, and made it available on sourceforge, and announced that he had no plans to continue work on it. He hen returned for a three month period in 2005 and a two month period in 2008 to work on a major update to version 3, with some ambitious new functionality and 64-bit MFS support for the TiVo HD. It has remained in this untested, almost functional, but overlooked state since then.
> 
> I received a some anonymous patches that fixed a few bugs, added Premier handling, and got things mostly working one. Since then, I've refined the Premiere support, added Roamio support, added some new utilities, deprecated a few options and added a few more, and cleaned up and debugged the code a bit.
> 
> Although there are several new tools, features, options, etc., available in 3.2, there was a fundamental change in the the way the MFS is handled. A simplified explanation is that in v1, the MFS is treated as a whole, and the entire structure is duplicated based on the used blocks. In v3, the inodes and data is copied individually, and during restore the MFS structure is recreated, the inodes and data blocks are allocated, and the inode and data is copied to the new locations.
> 
> The downside is that v3 backup/restore is not quite as fast as v1. The upside is that the MFS Media Partitions can now be re-sized, which is a pretty big advantage. Because v1 copied all MFS pairs, the number of times a drive could be backed/restored and then expanded to take advantage of additional disk space was limited. With v3, the restore process creates a drive with only two MFS app/data pairs, just like the original drive, no matter how many pairs the original drive had. And yes, you can now restore to a smaller drive than the original drive (provided the smaller drive has enough space for the recordings or you truncate it).
> 
> *Notes*
> Every effort has been made to keep these tools as robust as possible. I have done limited testing (confirmed boot/operation, but not filled drives to capacity) on units from Series 1 through Roamio. The tools can still backup/restore using the original v1 backup format, and should work with existing backups.
> 
> I have deprecated several options, and will probably deprecate more to reduce the number of options for novice users. Some of the deprecated options (and additional debug options) will still be available with custom builds.
> 
> I have only tested with drives up to 4 TB, but there's been mention of Roamios supporting larger drives with 20.4.6 or later. I was able to setup a Premiere with 8 TB (dual 4 TB drives), but had to limit the media partitions to 2 TB max. This unit passed a forced MFS fsfix scan (GSOD) without issue.
> 
> *Todo*
> I still have a few things I would like to add, such as adding SW version, original swap/var/db size to the backup header (extrainfo). I would also like to do some testing with larger drives and additional units.
> 
> *Known Limitations*
> Currently, the largest boot drive supported is 4TB (Premiere and newer, 2TB for THD). Backups of drives with the either of the first two app/media partitions is not supported.
> 
> *Attachment*
> The iso image has been removed from sourceforge temporarily to address some of the issues reported in this thread regarding large drives.
> Please go to sourceforge for the latest release.


----------



## jmbach

ChuckH said:


> Could you tell me what the User ID and Password are to logon to the root dir?


All the information is in this post.


----------



## jmbach

Beradon said:


> I was wondering if anyone ran into this, I tried searching the thread but either I'm using the wrong search terms or no one has posted about it.
> 
> I was replacing my 1TB Roamio Plus drive with a 3TB and used mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb and the copy appeared to go well. There were a couple of bad sectors, but not a lot.
> 
> When I completed the copy I was able to boot the TIVO on the new drive but that's where things got a bit strange. Despite the fact all my shows copied properly and the Tivo booted properly, It was missing a bunch of random channels from the guide, and while the tuning adapter could tune them, I could not get them to load in the guide data.
> 
> I talked to Spectrum who had me run through the guided setup again, which actually made things much worse. During guided setup when I put in my zip, it continually said there were no cable providers in my area. After the no providers thing, the tuning adapter couldn't tune to any channels.
> 
> I swapped back in the old drive and it came up properly, guide worked, everything functioned as expected. So I re-ran the copy and experienced the exact same problem.
> 
> So instead I cleared the new drive and put it in, and ran guided setup. Now it works, guide and everything, but of course I lost all my shows because I wasn't able to copy them over.
> 
> Has anyone experienced this? If so, does anyone know of a way to make it work? Or am I just unlucky enough that the bad sectors happened to be right where the guide and location data was.
> 
> Thanks


I have not had this exact issue however, I would run a KS58 on first boot after the copy. I would then force connection several times.

I did have an issue with a new Bolt Vox that gave me a no provider message for my zip code when I first tried to set it up. Rebooted it several times until it finally got providers for my zip.


----------



## Beradon

jmbach said:


> I have not had this exact issue however, I would run a KS58 on first boot after the copy. I would then force connection several times.
> 
> I did have an issue with a new Bolt Vox that gave me a no provider message for my zip code when I first tried to set it up. Rebooted it several times until it finally got providers for my zip.


I appreciate the suggestion, unfortunately since I made that post my wife has decided I've made her go without TV for long enough and she wants me to leave it alone. Having come from the realm of a Windows machine with an InfiniTV with Windows Media Center to the TiVo environment, the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) is real.


----------



## donnoh

I need some help creating a bootable USB drive. Using the link in post 131 I downloaded the file for USB/Hard drive and then used 7zip to uncompress the file. I then used HDD Raw Copy Tool to write the .Tar file to a 16 GB USB stick. I've tried it in 2 different computers and each of them either boots into windows or just hangs if I disconnect the bootable hard drive.

Any Ideas what I'm doing wrong?


----------



## jmbach

donnoh said:


> I need some help creating a bootable USB drive. Using the link in post 131 I downloaded the file for USB/Hard drive and then used 7zip to uncompress the file. I then used HDD Raw Copy Tool to write the .Tar file to a 16 GB USB stick. I've tried it in 2 different computers and each of them either boots into windows or just hangs if I disconnect the bootable hard drive.
> 
> Any Ideas what I'm doing wrong?


You have to unpack it one more time before transferring it to the USB drive.


----------



## donnoh

jmbach said:


> You have to unpack it one more time before transferring it to the USB drive.


Yeah I figured that out after I made my post, but after trying it on 3 different computers and 2 different USB sticks I finally gave up and made a CD image and got that to work. Now all I have to do is buy another hard drive dock since the one I have is so old it only supports 2GB drives and USB 2.x. I assume there isn't a problem with any particular USB docking station that you know of?


----------



## jmbach

From my experience it is more the chipset on the computer than the dock.


----------



## ggieseke

Older docks are a problem too. I have several that don't support drives over 2TB, but in general if it has a USB 3.0 or eSATA port it should work fine.


----------



## ThAbtO

Don't forget Windows 7+. older versions (ie. XP) do not support drives larger than 2TB. Unless its partitioned to under 2TB, but Tivo does its own thing.


----------



## jeffw_00

So best I can tell - the latest versions are here:

MFS tools 
OneDrive
This is an ISO you burn and boot from (this is the link from #131, dated Oct 2017)

WinMFS
The Windows executable version of MFSTools (?)

I plan to "copy" my 500GB Roamio drive onto a new 2TB WD RED drive - is one option above better than the other? Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

jeffw_00 said:


> So best I can tell - the latest versions are here:
> 
> MFS tools
> OneDrive
> This is an ISO you burn and boot from (this is the link from #131, dated Oct 2017)
> 
> WinMFS
> The Windows executable version of MFSTools (?)
> 
> I plan to "copy" my 500GB Roamio drive onto a new 2TB WD RED drive - is one option above better than the other? Thanks!


WinMFS only works on Series 1 through 3 TiVos. It does not work on Premiere, Roamios, or Bolts.


----------



## jeffw_00

That narrows my options - thanks


----------



## jeffw_00

Well - thanks to these forums - I just upgraded my 500GB Roamio from 500GB to 2TB. Here's my "idiot's guide"

(make sure you're well-grounded at all times. Place drives on anti-static bags).

1) I bought a WD Red drive (not Pro)
2) I downloaded the MFStools 3.2 ISO and burned it to CD.
3) I acquiredTorx wrenches to remove the #8 and #10 Torx screws on the back, and then carefully popped open the clamshell.
4) I removed the #10 Torx screws holding down the drive, and moved the drive brackets to the new drive (also #10 Torx).
5) I took a clean desktop PC, powered it down, disconnected the power and hard disk, and connected my old and new Tivo disks to the first 2 SATA sockets.
6) I booted the PC off the MFSTools CD (U/P: root/tivo).
7) I typed fdisk -l to identify the old/new drives as sda/sdb (post #237 erroneously says "disk" rather than "fdisk")
8) I typed mfstool info /dev/sd<x> to look at the drives (x= {a,b})
9) I typed mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
10) I waited 4 hours
11) repeat #8
12) Power down & disconnect PC, disconnect drives
13) Put new drive into Roamio, reverse disassembly procedure.
14) Power up the Roamio and enjoy! (instead of 100% full it was 22% full)


----------



## ThAbtO

jeffw_00 said:


> Well - thanks to these forums - I just upgraded my 500GB Roamio from 500GB to 2TB. Here's my "idiot's guide"
> 
> (make sure you're well-grounded at all times. Place drives on anti-static bags).
> 
> 1) I bought a WD Red drive (not Pro)
> 2) I downloaded the MFStools 3.2 ISO and burned it to CD.
> 3) I acquiredTorx wrenches to remove the #8 and #10 Torx screws on the back, and then carefully popped open the clamshell.
> 4) I removed the #10 Torx screws holding down the drive, and moved the drive brackets to the new drive (also #10 Torx).
> 5) I took a clean desktop PC, powered it down, disconnected the power and hard disk, and connected my old and new Tivo disks to the first 2 SATA sockets.
> 6) I booted the PC off the MFSTools CD (U/P: root/tivo).
> 7) I typed fdisk -l to identify the old/new drives as sda/sdb (post #237 erroneously says "disk" rather than "fdisk")
> 8) I typed mfstool info /dev/sd<x> to look at the drives (x= {a,b})
> 9) I typed mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 10) I waited 4 hours
> 11) repeat #8
> 12) Power down & disconnect PC, disconnect drives
> 13) Put new drive into Roamio, reverse disassembly procedure.
> 14) Power up the Roamio and enjoy! (instead of 100% full it was 22% full)


That is fine, but if you do not want to save the settings/card/passes/shows, the faster way is simply to swap the drives. (FYI)


----------



## jeffw_00

yes - but it is really nice not to have to re-program anything - and, I'm told your approach runs the risk of getting the new GUI


----------



## ThAbtO

jeffw_00 said:


> yes - but it is really nice not to have to re-program anything - and, I'm told your approach runs the risk of getting the new GUI


I doubt that, but its reversible.


----------



## Mike K

Hello all. In process of upgrading a Series 4 from the stock HD to a 2 TB drive. Don't need or want to deal with the old drive as part of this upgrade. I used DVRBars to get the image on the new drive, then used MFSTools 3.2 to "expand" the drive from 500 GB to 2 TB (mfsadd). Put it in the Tivo, first comment it gave me was about removing the external drive. Never had an external drive. Heard that warning is typical when upgrading, so proceeded. Then it said it's starting up and that the process may take a few hours. Now, it just goes back and forth between the "...just a few minutes" screen and the "Welcome" screen (can't remember exactly what that second screen says, but you know what I mean). So, what did I screw up and how do I fix it?  Ready.....go! All help VERY much appreciated.


----------



## jmbach

Mike K said:


> Hello all. In process of upgrading a Series 4 from the stock HD to a 2 TB drive. Don't need or want to deal with the old drive as part of this upgrade. I used DVRBars to get the image on the new drive, then used MFSTools 3.2 to "expand" the drive from 500 GB to 2 TB (mfsadd). Put it in the Tivo, first comment it gave me was about removing the external drive. Never had an external drive. Heard that warning is typical when upgrading, so proceeded. Then it said it's starting up and that the process may take a few hours. Now, it just goes back and forth between the "...just a few minutes" screen and the "Welcome" screen (can't remember exactly what that second screen says, but you know what I mean). So, what did I screw up and how do I fix it?  Ready.....go! All help VERY much appreciated.


You only did half the process.

Run WD diagnostic on the drive. Full read and write to make sure you have a good drive.

Then restore the DvrBARS image to the drive. Boot it up to make sure the image if functional.

Once you verify that the image boots up completely, remove the drive from the TiVo. Run the mfsadd command followed by the apmfix command. (See info on post where you downloaded the ISO for more info)

Put it back in the TiVo, boot it up and allow it to divorce the external drive. Once it completes you should be operational.


----------



## ThAbtO

Mike K said:


> Hello all. In process of upgrading a Series 4 from the stock HD to a 2 TB drive. Don't need or want to deal with the old drive as part of this upgrade. I used DVRBars to get the image on the new drive, then used MFSTools 3.2 to "expand" the drive from 500 GB to 2 TB (mfsadd). Put it in the Tivo, first comment it gave me was about removing the external drive. Never had an external drive. Heard that warning is typical when upgrading, so proceeded. Then it said it's starting up and that the process may take a few hours. Now, it just goes back and forth between the "...just a few minutes" screen and the "Welcome" screen (can't remember exactly what that second screen says, but you know what I mean). So, what did I screw up and how do I fix it?  Ready.....go! All help VERY much appreciated.


What drive model?


----------



## donnoh

I just thought I'd share my upgrade experience. I just upgraded my 5+ year old Roamio Pro with the original 3TB hard drive to a 4TB WD NAS hard drive. The entire process took approximately one full day to complete from removing the original hard drive and copying it to the new drive (20 hours) and some hair pulling getting everything working properly.

First problem I had was I had no picture of any kind when I powered on the Tivo for the first time. After some troubleshooting I discovered that I needed to plug the correct HDMI cable into the Tivo and not a leftover cable that used to be connected to a DVD player that I had removed and left the cable in the cabinet.

After I got the video working the Tivo powered up no problem and I had all of my shows and the info screen showed 637 hours of recording capacity, yay! I then noticed that the service connection was failing and after trying it a couple of times and also rebooting it and trying it again I saw that it was failing on error S303 when it got to 96% in the loading step. After a search on here, it appears that other people had this problem after an upgrade and a kickstart 58 fixed the problem. I ran the kickstart 58 and tried another service connection and everything is working as it should.

I'd like to say thanks to jmbach for all of his hard work and support to this forum. It sure is nice to be able to upgrade this easily.


----------



## Mike K

ThAbtO said:


> What drive model?


It is a 2 TB WD Blue. WD20EZRZ


----------



## Mike K

Mike K said:


> It is a 2 TB WD Blue. WD20EZRZ


Thabto,
Can you help me in reference to the guy who responded to me earlier relative to the issues I'm having? I don't where to go to find the instructions relative to the .iso that he's talking about because I just got it from you. .....

_You only did half the process.

Run WD diagnostic on the drive. Full read and write to make sure you have a good drive.

Then restore the DvrBARS image to the drive. Boot it up to make sure the image if functional.

Once you verify that the image boots up completely, remove the drive from the TiVo. Run the mfsadd command followed by the apmfix command. (See info on post where you downloaded the ISO for more info)

Put it back in the TiVo, boot it up and allow it to divorce the external drive. Once it completes you should be operational._


----------



## jmbach

Mike K said:


> Thabto,
> Can you help me in reference to the guy who responded to me earlier relative to the issues I'm having? I don't where to go to find the instructions relative to the .iso that he's talking about because I just got it from you. .....
> 
> _You only did half the process.
> 
> Run WD diagnostic on the drive. Full read and write to make sure you have a good drive.
> 
> Then restore the DvrBARS image to the drive. Boot it up to make sure the image if functional.
> 
> Once you verify that the image boots up completely, remove the drive from the TiVo. Run the mfsadd command followed by the apmfix command. (See info on post where you downloaded the ISO for more info)
> 
> Put it back in the TiVo, boot it up and allow it to divorce the external drive. Once it completes you should be operational._


Look here.


----------



## donnoh

I have a followup that maybe someone might run across. I noticed that my guide data wasn't being extended and when I went to the system info screen it would show that the service connection was successful but the VCM connection had failed. Multiple connections and reboots later it still didn't work. To correct it I had to do a clear guide data and to do list.
The only anomaly that I see after this is whatever "GC: date" is showing Wed Dec. 31, 1969, 7:00 PM as is Indexing right below it. I'll let it play out for a few days and see if it self corrects.


----------



## craig arnold

I have a TiVo HD (Series 3) that started giving me error #86 and refused to record a few months ago. The power supply and disk were replaced a little over a year ago (Weaknees 1TB HD - couldn't find the backup I had made when I originally upgraded to 1TB) and everything was fine until it started doing this.

I did make a backup of the Weaknees drive, so I bought another drive and restored that backup to it with an older version of MFS Tools. I don't recall all of the issues that I had between then and now, mostly because I had forgotten that I had a VM with MFS Tools 3.2, but I finally got it to record after backing up and restoring with the 3.2 version. The problem I have now is that after about 12 hours it goes back to Error #86 and won't record anything. If I restore from the backup, it all works for 12 hours.

I tried a bunch of the options available in the backup and restoration processes, but nothing seems to make any difference.

The System Information screen doesn't indicate any errors, and GC date is current as of today. The Cable Card diagnostics indicate the tuners are both working (single M-card). My cable provider is Frontier FIOS.

Any suggestions as to what could be causing the problem and how to fix it?


----------



## jmbach

Did you run a diagnostic on the new drive to make sure there were no bad sectors before you restored the image?


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> Did you run a diagnostic on the new drive to make sure there were no bad sectors before you restored the image?


Yes. I also ran the diagnostic on the old drive and it didn't show any problems. I ran several diagnostics but the most thorough one was probably the SMART test from the TiVo itself.


----------



## jmbach

Would at least run the ones from the drive manufacturer.


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> Would at least run the ones from the drive manufacturer.


OK, I'll try that and let you know the result.


----------



## HomeUser

craigarnold did you run the *C*lear and *D*elete *E*verything after installing the drive with the new image?

A quick search for Error 86 turned up this https://support.tivo.com/articles/Troubleshooting/Error-86-DB-Not-Found-Troubleshooting


----------



## craig arnold

HomeUser said:


> craigarnold did you run the *C*lear and *D*elete *E*verything after installing the drive with the new image?
> 
> A quick search for Error 86 turned up this https://support.tivo.com/articles/Troubleshooting/Error-86-DB-Not-Found-Troubleshooting


Yes, I did that both before and after installing the drive. The only thing that seems to work is restoring the image, which eliminates the error #86 for about 12 hours. I spoke with someone at TiVo today who was not the least bit helpful and he was in denial about the existence of Error #86.

I also just ran the WD diagnostics Extended Test on both drives and they didn't find any problems. Both drives (The Weaknees and the new one that I bought for testing) are WD Purple 1.0TB drives. The Weaknees is WD10PURX and the new one is WD10PURZ, although I doubt that means anything. I ran the diagnostics on both drives and I've restored images saved using WinMFS and MFSTools 2, as well as the MFSTools 3.2 backup and restore that actually seems to work for a while.


----------



## jmbach

craig arnold said:


> Yes, I did that both before and after installing the drive. The only thing that seems to work is restoring the image, which eliminates the error #86 for about 12 hours. I spoke with someone at TiVo today who was not the least bit helpful and he was in denial about the existence of Error #86.
> 
> I also just ran the WD diagnostics Extended Test on both drives and they didn't find any problems. Both drives (The Weaknees and the new one that I bought for testing) are WD Purple 1.0TB drives. The Weaknees is WD10PURX and the new one is WD10PURZ, although I doubt that means anything. I ran the diagnostics on both drives and I've restored images saved using WinMFS and MFSTools 2, as well as the MFSTools 3.2 backup and restore that actually seems to work for a while.


Try a kickstart 58 and see if it cleans up anything.


----------



## HerronScott

I can't see how this would fix it after doing a C&DE but try Clear Program and ToDo List when you get the 86 error (12 hours later?).

Scott


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> Try a kickstart 58 and see if it cleans up anything.


OK, result of the kickstart 58 is the same - first attempt to record after it restarts gives error #86. It only took about 5 minutes or less and said something about installing a media update.


----------



## jmbach

craig arnold said:


> OK, result of the kickstart 58 is the same - first attempt to record after it restarts gives error #86. It only took about 5 minutes or less and said something about installing a media update.


A couple of suggestions. If you have a tuning adapter, unplug it for several minutes and plug it back in. The other thing would be to disconnect it from the internet for 3 to 5 days and stop recording anything for that time period and see if the OS can fix the issue as long as it has nothing else to do.


----------



## jmbach

And what is the exact message.


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> A couple of suggestions. If you have a tuning adapter, unplug it for several minutes and plug it back in. The other thing would be to disconnect it from the internet for 3 to 5 days and stop recording anything for that time period and see if the OS can fix the issue as long as it has nothing else to do.


I'm currently running the Clear Program and To Do List as suggested by HerronScott so it will be a while before I can re-do the Kickstart 58 again to get the exact message. I have tried these things several times, but I don't mind trying again so everybody knows exactly what has been tried and what the results are. I greatly appreciate the help! 

The current setup uses a cable card without a tuning adapter (FIOS), although it did have a tuning adapter at some point (Spectrum). I don't recall when the service was switched. I initially had trouble getting the cable card to work but that was all resolved before the power supply failure which caused the hard drive failure. That was all a little more than a year ago.

I'll post the results of the Clear Programs and To Do List whenever that's ready. After that I'll do the Kickstart 58 to get the exact message. After that I can disconnect the ethernet (hard-wired to a gigabit switch) for a week and see what that does.


----------



## jmbach

craig arnold said:


> I'm currently running the Clear Program and To Do List as suggested by HerronScott so it will be a while before I can re-do the Kickstart 58 again to get the exact message. I have tried these things several times, but I don't mind trying again so everybody knows exactly what has been tried and what the results are. I greatly appreciate the help!
> 
> The current setup uses a cable card without a tuning adapter (FIOS), although it did have a tuning adapter at some point (Spectrum). I don't recall when the service was switched. I initially had trouble getting the cable card to work but that was all resolved before the power supply failure which caused the hard drive failure. That was all a little more than a year ago.
> 
> I'll post the results of the Clear Programs and To Do List whenever that's ready. After that I'll do the Kickstart 58 to get the exact message. After that I can disconnect the ethernet (hard-wired to a gigabit switch) for a week and see what that does.


Actually, was looking for the exact message you get when you try to record. There are a couple of TiVo error messages with that number.


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> Actually, was looking for the exact message you get when you try to record. There are a couple of TiVo error messages with that number.


I'll have to verify later, but I'm pretty sure it was "Your request cannot be processed (Error #86)." It was definitely not "DB Not Found."


----------



## jmbach

craig arnold said:


> I'll have to verify later, but I'm pretty sure it was "Your request cannot be processed (Error #86)." It was definitely not "DB Not Found."


Oh okay. Try a kickstart 57. Other option is to use a different image to see if we can get past this.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> Oh okay. Try a kickstart 57. Other option is to use a different image to see if we can get past this.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


OK - I'm going to let the Clear operation to complete before I do this step - will let you know.

I found 2 backups that I made in November of 2017. They're both truncated copies using DVRBars and I think they're just before I bought the Weaknees drive so I don't know what sort of shape they're in.


----------



## craig arnold

craig arnold said:


> OK - I'm going to let the Clear operation to complete before I do this step - will let you know.


OK, after the Clear Program and To Do List process completed, it is now recording. I'll check back tomorrow to see if this fixed it or if it's back to its old tricks. Fingers crossed!


----------



## HomeUser

Do I have this correct? The DVR was working over a year before the 86 error, Replaced the hard drive using an image made long before the errors, now it's getting the error after 12 hours of running.
I suggest disconnecting from the Network after making connections to get the updates then see if the DVR lasts more then 12hrs. If that does not work remove the Cable cards.

Anyone recall what the symptoms were if the swap file was set to 0?


----------



## craig arnold

craig arnold said:


> OK, after the Clear Program and To Do List process completed, it is now recording. I'll check back tomorrow to see if this fixed it or if it's back to its old tricks. Fingers crossed!


Looks like my guess about 12 hours was more related to how long I waited to check, along with the assumption that when the recording light is on that it's actually recording.

Here's where I am now... After the Clear process was completed, the channels all displayed on the screen and it looked like I could record, but there was nothing in the recordings. It turns out that I needed to reconnect to get the programming information.

After connecting and downloading some of the information (currently at about 32%), it was able to display info about the current channel, but when I try to record it I get the error message, "Your request could not be processed. Please try again. (Message #86).

Trying Kickstart 57 now...


----------



## craig arnold

HomeUser said:


> Do I have this correct? The DVR was working over a year before the 86 error, Replaced the hard drive using an image made long before the errors, now it's getting the error after 12 hours of running.
> I suggest disconnecting from the Network after making connections to get the updates then see if the DVR lasts more then 12hrs. If that does not work remove the Cable cards.
> 
> Anyone recall what the symptoms were if the swap file was set to 0?


Partially correct... The Weaknees drive worked for a little less than a year before the error showed up. The backup that I'm currently running is from the Weaknees drive that has the error, made with MFS Tools 3.2 last week. I haven't tried restoring the old backups yet, mostly because I forgot where I had them and only found them yesterday. The other thing I misstated is the 12 hours - it actually pretends to be recording when it first starts up, but the recordings are blank. After program information is downloaded the error #86 shows up.

Current status - KS 57 seems to be in a loop. I get the GSOD for about 10 seconds, then restart welcome screen, then back to GSOD.

I'm going to try restoring the old backups and see what happens. They may be corrupted because this was about the time that the original hard drive failed, which is what prompted me to get the Weaknees drive in the first place.


----------



## jmbach

craig arnold said:


> Partially correct... The Weaknees drive worked for a little less than a year before the error showed up. The backup that I'm currently running is from the Weaknees drive that has the error, made with MFS Tools 3.2 last week. I haven't tried restoring the old backups yet, mostly because I forgot where I had them and only found them yesterday. The other thing I misstated is the 12 hours - it actually pretends to be recording when it first starts up, but the recordings are blank. After program information is downloaded the error #86 shows up.
> 
> Current status - KS 57 seems to be in a loop. I get the GSOD for about 10 seconds, then restart welcome screen, then back to GSOD.
> 
> I'm going to try restoring the old backups and see what happens. They may be corrupted because this was about the time that the original hard drive failed, which is what prompted me to get the Weaknees drive in the first place.


You could see if ggeseike or ThAtbO has an image.


----------



## Roger Storz

I have a Premier XL4 with the original 2TB hard drive that I want to replace/copy to a new WD Red 4TB hard drive. Unfortunately, my current PC lacks a CD/DVD drive, so I am hoping someone can point me to a step by step set of instructions to set up MFS Tools 3.2 on a bootable USB stick.


----------



## jmbach

Roger Storz said:


> I have a Premier XL4 with the original 2TB hard drive that I want to replace/copy to a new WD Red 4TB hard drive. Unfortunately, my current PC lacks a CD/DVD drive, so I am hoping someone can point me to a step by step set of instructions to set up MFS Tools 3.2 on a bootable USB stick.


Are you working on a Linux or windows computer


----------



## Roger Storz

It is a Windows 10 64 bit PC. I can connect the hard drives to the internal SATA ports, but no DVD/CD drive in the system. Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

Download the USB/HDD image from my much earlier post in this thread. 

Then get a program called HDD Raw Copy Tool (Google it. Comes from HDD Guru site)

Using 7zip unzip the USB image you downloaded until you have the raw extension. 

Put in your USB drive. I believe a 1 gig drive should be fine. 

Use HDD Raw Copy Tool to copy the file with the raw extension to the use drive. (You might have to rename the raw extension to img for the program to see it.)

If all goes well, you should be able to boot off of the USB drive. You might have to disable UEFI booting in the bios of your computer if it does not boot the first time.


----------



## Roger Storz

Thank you, I will give that a try.


----------



## Roger Storz

I could only find a link to the USB/HD version of MFS Tools 3.3 in post #131. I could not find a link to the USB/HD version of 3.2. Should I use version 3.3?


----------



## jmbach

Roger Storz said:


> I could only find a link to the USB/HD version of MFS Tools 3.3 in post #131. I could not find a link to the USB/HD version of 3.2. Should I use version 3.3?


Yes


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> You could see if ggeseike or ThAtbO has an image.


I restored one of the images that I have using DvrBARS. The system boots up, but it gets an S03 error when it tries to download the programming information. When I run mfsck it reports an interesting error:
Checking zone maps...
Total: 1929269304 free sectors in 27 chunks across 6 zone maps
Replaying transaction log...
Re-scanning zone maps...
Total: 1929269304 free sectors in 27 chunks across 6 zone maps
Scanning inodes...
*Inode 71441 claims to be 32 bit in 64 bit volume*
134513/262144 inodes used
8677 fsids in chained inodes, 6 max inode chain length, 1 average length
18598 inodes unnecessarily chained, 0 not chained need to be
Checking for unclaimed blocks...
Done!​I think this is the image that I backed up with MFSTool and restored, which got rid of the S03 error but still had the Error #86 problem.

I have one other image to try before I contact the others... will let you know how that works out.


----------



## craig arnold

jmbach said:


> You could see if ggeseike or ThAtbO has an image.


Finally some good news - I found a very old backup that I had done before I upgraded the original hard drive. It was a full backup for the original Spectrum connection with the tuning adapter and an external drive. I restored it as-is to the new 1TB drive and let it go. First it had to update to a single-drive configuration. When it rebooted after that it did some software updates. That whole process took over 12 hours. Then I had to reconfigure it for FIOS, which went smoothly. It actually records now!

I still need to re-do the backup of the current configuration, then supersize it to get the extra space, but so far it looks like it's going to work.

Many thanks for your help, and especially for maintaining MFS Tools!


----------



## craig arnold

Final update - the original backup was a good one. It took a long time (over 12 hours) to reconfigure from a 2-drive system to a single drive (original external drive was missing), then update the software because the backup was from early 2016. When it was done I had a functioning TiVo! After that, I backed up the new image and then used mfsadd to use the whole 1TB drive. Everything is working normally now. Many thanks again for everyone's help!


----------



## tommage1

Roger Storz said:


> I have a Premier XL4 with the original 2TB hard drive that I want to replace/copy to a new WD Red 4TB hard drive. Unfortunately, my current PC lacks a CD/DVD drive, so I am hoping someone can point me to a step by step set of instructions to set up MFS Tools 3.2 on a bootable USB stick.


Though you seem to be done in the future you can add ISOs to USB using YUMI.


----------



## tkrotchko

I just wanted to report success upgrading a Series 5 Romio Pro with a 1TB HD with a 4TB hard drive. A couple things for posterity:


First thank you to the author(s) of MFSCopy
I specifically stayed at 4TB to avoid any complexity (at least perceived) with the upgrade
I decided on a WD Purple drive because based on specs it seemed like a better fit to the Tivo. After 5-6 hours of copying, the drive was cold, so that seems like a good thing. Amazon sells this drive for under $120
I disconnected my internal drives and plugged the Tivo drives into two SATA ports, booted from a DVD that I burned, and went from there
the* MFSCopy -a* command doesn't just copy the content, it expands the drive at the same time. I wasn't sure if it would do both, the answer is yes
I could not make a working USB drive. I got the USB drive to boot using RUFUS 3.4, and it would indeed boot, but when I selected the first option (MFSCopy 3.3) Suse linux would crash for reasons that I didn't feel like debugging
Whoever owns the ISO, it would probably be a good idea to remove the network drivers. It adds a good two minutes to boot-up for no particular reason since you can't really use networking anyway
I plugged the new drive back into my Tivo and it just recognized the drive and showed the additional space. My last drive was 80% filled, and the new one is 11% filled.


----------



## Roger Storz

jmbach said:


> Download the USB/HDD image from my much earlier post in this thread.
> 
> Then get a program called HDD Raw Copy Tool (Google it. Comes from HDD Guru site)
> 
> Using 7zip unzip the USB image you downloaded until you have the raw extension.
> 
> Put in your USB drive. I believe a 1 gig drive should be fine.
> 
> Use HDD Raw Copy Tool to copy the file with the raw extension to the use drive. (You might have to rename the raw extension to img for the program to see it.)
> 
> If all goes well, you should be able to boot off of the USB drive. You might have to disable UEFI booting in the bios of your computer if it does not boot the first time.


I got the raw file copied onto a USB stick, and it stars booting off the stick, but about 3 seconds into the boot up process it freezes with the last line stating "switching to nouveaufb from vesa vga". Could it be having an issue with my nvidia GTX1070 video card?


----------



## jmbach

Roger Storz said:


> I got the raw file copied onto a USB stick, and it stars booting off the stick, but about 3 seconds into the boot up process it freezes with the last line stating "switching to nouveaufb from vesa vga". Could it be having an issue with my nvidia GTX1070 video card?


I believe so. Two options. One use a different system it boots off of and install the nvidia drivers. Then boot it in your system. Two, pick one of the alternative boot selections when booting up.


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## dcstager

I have a 2TB Premiere and I and I want to use MFS Tools to create a new SMALLER 1TB drive that will work in the system. The machine I have is actually a TiVo Elite which was the first version of the Premiere before it was rebranded. It’s been operating well since 2011 I think but I can’t expect the hard drive will last much longer. While it’s still,working, I want to make a working backup I can install when it inevitably fails.

Can someone help me with the correct MFSTool command line to accomplish this? My best guess is:

mfstool copy -iM 1000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

Do I have this right? Not sure about the 1000 part. Don’t need to copy recordings, just get a drive that for sure will work when the original drive eventually dies.


----------



## jmbach

dcstager said:


> I have a 2TB Premiere and I and I want to use MFS Tools to create a new SMALLER 1TB drive that will work in the system. The machine I have is actually a TiVo Elite which was the first version of the Premiere before it was rebranded. It's been operating well since 2011 I think but I can't expect the hard drive will last much longer. While it's still,working, I want to make a working backup I can install when it inevitably fails.
> 
> Can someone help me with the correct MFSTool command line to accomplish this? My best guess is:
> 
> mfstool copy -iM 1000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Do I have this right? Not sure about the 1000 part. Don't need to copy recordings, just get a drive that for sure will work when the original drive eventually dies.


mfscopy -is /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

No recordings will be copied over.


----------



## dcstager

jmbach said:


> mfscopy -is /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> No recordings will be copied over.


Thank you. It worked.


----------



## dcstager

I have one more easy question. The drives are so cheap I may as well have a full size backup working backup. What's the command line to just copy my original 2TB Premiere drive to a new drive of the exact same 2TB size and preserve all the recordings? I'm just going to put the brand new drive in the Tivo and keep the 7 year old original as the backup if everything works.


----------



## jmbach

dcstager said:


> I have one more easy question. The drives are so cheap I may as well have a full size backup working backup. What's the command line to just copy my original 2TB Premiere drive to a new drive of the exact same 2TB size and preserve all the recordings? I'm just going to put the brand new drive in the Tivo and keep the 7 year old original as the backup if everything works.


mfscopy -ia /dev/sdX /dev/sdY if you want the recordings. Leave the 'a' off the command line if you just want the cablecard paring without the recordings.


----------



## dcstager

jmbach said:


> mfscopy -ia /dev/sdX /dev/sdY if you want the recordings. Leave the 'a' off the command line if you just want the cablecard paring without the recordings.


Thank you again. The program works really well. I have an old 2007 PC I'm using for this and I noticed that the program adjusts and slows down the copy speed when the old hardware can't keep up. "Interrupt too slow" message was a little concerning until I figured out it was a good thing. Everything has worked beautifully and it settles at about 30 mbps copy speed. Great job. The entire community of Tivo users are certainly grateful for this fine work.


----------



## dcstager

I have a small tip for MFSTools users I discovered while experimenting most of last week. It's probably an obvious observation to many, but it was important to me. Maybe this is old news.

Windows 10 has some security features that can sometimes prevent booting from the CDROM drive even if you specify to look there first. So, obviously I could not risk having my original Tivo drive getting altered by Windows 10 should it start up and my system not boot from the CDROM. So I did some experimenting with my older laptop I was planning on using since the copy process on my drive takes 18 hours to complete. Two out of three times, my laptop would just not boot from the CDROM. Even when I went into the CMOS and made sure, it just kept booting to Windows 10 anyway. Finally, I got it to boot from the CDROM and got to the linux prompt on MFSTools 3.3.

I tried fdisk -l | more to see how the program would identify the existing drives. I had to use the more pipe because there were a lot of RAM drives that scrolled the main hard drive off the screen so I could not see how it was identified, i.e., /sda

Here's my tip (finally). I put my original Tivo drive into an enclosure and connected it to the laptop via USB and it was immediately detected by the running Linux system. Running fdisk -l again it was detected on the last page after all the RAM drives as /sdb - I put my target drive into a separate enclosure and connected it via USB and it too was detected properly as /sdc

So in this way you can avoid any risk that a Windows system will corrupt a working Tivo hard drive. Boot from the MFSTools disc, THEN plug in the original drive and target drive. They will be detected and MFSTools will work on them.


----------



## jmbach

dcstager said:


> I have a small tip for MFSTools users I discovered while experimenting most of last week. It's probably an obvious observation to many, but it was important to me. Maybe this is old news.
> 
> Windows 10 has some security features that can sometimes prevent booting from the CDROM drive even if you specify to look there first. So, obviously I could not risk having my original Tivo drive getting altered by Windows 10 should it start up and my system not boot from the CDROM. So I did some experimenting with my older laptop I was planning on using since the copy process on my drive takes 18 hours to complete. Two out of three times, my laptop would just not boot from the CDROM. Even when I went into the CMOS and made sure, it just kept booting to Windows 10 anyway. Finally, I got it to boot from the CDROM and got to the linux prompt on MFSTools 3.3.
> 
> I tried fdisk -l | more to see how the program would identify the existing drives. I had to use the more pipe because there were a lot of RAM drives that scrolled the main hard drive off the screen so I could not see how it was identified, i.e., /sda
> 
> Here's my tip (finally). I put my original Tivo drive into an enclosure and connected it to the laptop via USB and it was immediately detected by the running Linux system. Running fdisk -l again it was detected on the last page after all the RAM drives as /sdb - I put my target drive into a separate enclosure and connected it via USB and it too was detected properly as /sdc
> 
> So in this way you can avoid any risk that a Windows system will corrupt a working Tivo hard drive. Boot from the MFSTools disc, THEN plug in the original drive and target drive. They will be detected and MFSTools will work on them.


I attempted to get the ISO to boot when bvb the BIOS is in UEFI mode but it seems to have issues with that. So you have to change the boot process to boot in legacy mode. So when you are changing the bios to boot off the CDROM first, you also have to change the BIOS to boot legacy mode.

Easier way to look for drives.
lsblk -o name,size,vendor


----------



## Dheltzel

How does "mfstool supersize" work?
I bought a 3 TB drive for my Bolt and used a 2 bay docking station to copy everything from the 500GB drive to the 3 TB drive and installed it in the Bolt to test. It works great, but of course the space is the same as before. Can I use the supersize option to expand the partitions, or will I need to copy everything back to the 500GB drive (I want to save the recorded programs) and then copy back to the 3 TB drive?


----------



## jmbach

Dheltzel said:


> How does "mfstool supersize" work?
> I bought a 3 TB drive for my Bolt and used a 2 bay docking station to copy everything from the 500GB drive to the 3 TB drive and installed it in the Bolt to test. It works great, but of course the space is the same as before. Can I use the supersize option to expand the partitions, or will I need to copy everything back to the 500GB drive (I want to save the recorded programs) and then copy back to the 3 TB drive?


Copy everything back to the 500 GB and use mfscopy to copy the 500 GB to the 3 TB.


----------



## Dheltzel

jmbach said:


> Copy everything back to the 500 GB and use mfscopy to copy the 500 GB to the 3 TB.


OK. Does "supersize" do something different ?


----------



## dcstager

jmbach said:


> I attempted to get the ISO to boot when bvb the BIOS is in UEFI mode but it seems to have issues with that. So you have to change the boot process to boot in legacy mode. So when you are changing the bios to boot off the CDROM first, you also have to change the BIOS to boot legacy mode.
> 
> Easier way to look for drives.
> lsblk -o name,size,vendor


The laptop I was using was an actual legacy laptop with old style CMOS so it's always legacy mode. However, the latest build 1809 of Windows 10 actually works on the old laptop (about 2007) and it runs faster than Windows 7, but there is some kind of security built into Windows 10 that circumvents booting from USB drives or the CDROM. Maybe 1 out of 3 attempts immediately after changing the CMOS settings will actually boot from the CDROM but most of the time the setting is ignored and it boots directly to Windows 10.

But as I say, MFSTools immediately recognizes the drives when you hot plug them in. You've done something right! I just didn't want to remove the internal drive in the laptop that has Windows on it, and I didn't want to risk booting to Windows with my original Tivo drive attached and risk corrupting it with a Windows signature. So, just letting people know this can be done and it does work. Once you've got the old computer booted up to the Linux prompt, you can plug in the drive and mfstools away. Your program works great and I had complete success.

I have an old Series 3 with the original drive from 2006 still running. I can't imagine that drive can possibly keep going and I'm going to try this on that too.

I want to copy the original Series 3 drive to a 2TB drive. Can it be done in one step to copy the image, recorded programs, and expand the target drive to use all space available? What's the correct command line to do that?


----------



## jmbach

dcstager said:


> ...I have an old Series 3 with the original drive from 2006 still running. I can't imagine that drive can possibly keep going and I'm going to try this on that too.
> 
> I want to copy the original Series 3 drive to a 2TB drive. Can it be done in one step to copy the image, recorded programs, and expand the target drive to use all space available? What's the correct command line to do that?


It will be the same command you used on the premiere.


----------



## jmbach

Dheltzel said:


> OK. Does "supersize" do something different ?


Supersize shrinks some reserved recording space the TiVo used and makes it available for general recordings. Not sure it does much for Roamios and Bolts.


----------



## KnightWinters

I am going to upgrade my Roamio OTA 1TB to 3TB. Is the correct command line that I use mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb also I read about logging in where do I do that.

I believe I found my answers on page 7. Now I need to find the nerve to pull the trigger.


----------



## ThAbtO

KnightWinters said:


> I am going to upgrade my Roamio OTA 1TB to 3TB. Is the correct command line that I use mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb also I read about logging in where do I do that.
> 
> I believe I found my answers on page 7. Now I need to find the nerve to pull the trigger.


If you do not care about recordings, passes, cable card pairing, etc. on the drive..... then just swap out the 1TB with the 3TB and start fresh.

What model drive will you be using? Hope its a WD Red WD30EFRX. This is the recommended drive.


----------



## KnightWinters

Yes I could do that but I am going to try and keep the recording. I will be using the WD Red 3tb.


----------



## ThAbtO

KnightWinters said:


> Yes I could do that but I am going to try and keep the recording.


If they are not copy protected, you can transfer to another Tivo or computer, then transfer back on the new drive (as long as its not running Hydra/v21.7+)

Use KMTTG to copy shows and passes off/on, but for shows, use PyTivo.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

Hey folks,
In attempting this copy to new drive we keep getting a persistent error message. Command used

mfscopy -ia /dev/sdB /dev/sdC

"Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
"Copy source: /dev/sdB10: No such file or directory."
To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"

When I type in this command:
mfscopy -ia -E /dev/sdB /dev/sdC

I get this message:
"WARNING: Input/output error volume header."
"WARNING: /dev/sdB10: No such file or directory."
"Attempting copy anyway
[ 439.017698} mfscopy[6480]: segfault at 30 ip 000000000040f1d0 sp 00007ffc1f5f7a38 error 4 in mfscopy[400000+1e000] Segmentation fault"

No idea what any of that means, but can't seem to get a copy going here. Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## HomeUser

Use the command cat /proc/partitions 
device sdb should have more then 10 partitions.

next check the proper drive with mfsinfo /dev/sdb

I am assuming that you are using the uppercase letters just to highlight which device your are using in the message. If not Linux is case sensitive and the devices most likely are lower case IE: /dev/sd*b* Not /dev/sd*B*


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

HomeUser said:


> Use the command cat /proc/partitions
> device sdb should have more then 10 partitions.
> 
> next check the proper drive with mfsinfo /dev/sdb
> 
> I am assuming that you are using the uppercase letters just to highlight which device your are using in the message. If not Linux is case sensitive and the devices most likely are lower case IE: /dev/sd*b* Not /dev/sd*B*


Thank you.

cat /proc/partitions gives a lot of info that scrolls too fast to see, but basically I see the existing Tivo drive having 8 major and 32 minor partitions. The new 2TB drive shows 8 major and 16 minor. Is that correct or what I should see?

How can we slow down the down load of the command results to see what it is showing further up the page??


----------



## HomeUser

What drives do you have connected? are they both out of a DVR?

Use the less command then you can page / scroll up or down ie cat /proc/partition | less 

or just try the mfsinfo /dev/sdb or mfsinfo /dev/sdc command.
should return something like


> Mfsinfo (Drive 1)
> 
> Boot Page
> Boot Page: root=/dev/hda7
> Active Boot Partition: 6 Active Root Partition: 7
> Backup Boot Partition: 3 Backup Root Partition: 4
> 
> MFS Super Header
> state=0 magic=abbafeed
> devlist=/dev/hda10 /dev/hda11 /dev/hda12 /dev/hda13 /dev/hda14 /dev/hda15
> zonemap_ptr=1121 total_secs=1464080384
> 
> Zone Maps
> Z0: type=0
> map_start=1121 map_size=1 backup_map_start=524286
> next_map_start=132194 next_map_size=9 next_backup_map_start=524277
> zone_first=1122 zone_last=132193 zone_size=131072 min(chunk)=131072
> free=131072 checksum=3b225ba5 logstamp=37907825 num_bitmap=1
> Z1: type=2
> map_start=132194 map_size=9 backup_map_start=524277
> next_map_start=132203 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=524243
> zone_first=524288 zone_last=33714175 zone_size=33189888 min(chunk)=2048
> free=194560 checksum=30bbf669 logstamp=37945825 num_bitmap=15
> Z2: type=1
> map_start=132203 map_size=34 backup_map_start=524243
> next_map_start=33715200 next_map_size=1 next_backup_map_start=34239487
> zone_first=132237 zone_last=524236 zone_size=392000 min(chunk)=8
> free=16 checksum=a228d650 logstamp=37945825 num_bitmap=17
> Z3: type=0
> map_start=33715200 map_size=1 backup_map_start=34239487
> next_map_start=33846273 next_map_size=18 next_backup_map_start=34239469
> zone_first=33715201 zone_last=33846272 zone_size=131072 min(chunk)=131072
> free=131072 checksum=66b2b191 logstamp=37907825 num_bitmap=1
> Z4: type=2
> map_start=33846273 map_size=18 backup_map_start=34239469
> next_map_start=33846291 next_map_size=34 next_backup_map_start=34239435
> zone_first=34239488 zone_last=77229055 zone_size=42989568 min(chunk)=2048
> free=284672 checksum=5b51cd67 logstamp=37945825 num_bitmap=16
> Z5: type=1
> map_start=33846291 map_size=34 backup_map_start=34239435
> next_map_start=77230081 next_map_size=130 next_backup_map_start=77231997
> zone_first=33846325 zone_last=34239428 zone_size=393104 min(chunk)=8
> free=273488 checksum=f955dfec logstamp=37945825 num_bitmap=17
> Z6: type=2
> map_start=77230081 map_size=130 backup_map_start=77231997
> next_map_start=0 next_map_size=0 next_backup_map_start=3735928559
> zone_first=77232128 zone_last=1464080383 zone_size=1386848256 min(chunk)=8192
> free=42352640 checksum=45471029 logstamp=37945825 num_bitmap=19
> 
> Partition Maps
> #: type name length base ( size )
> 1 Apple_partition_map Apple [email protected] ( 31.5K)
> 2 Image Bootstrap 1 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
> 3 Image Kernel 1 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
> 4 Ext2 Root 1 [email protected] ( 128.0M)
> 5 Image Bootstrap 2 [email protected] ( 512.0 )
> 6 Image Kernel 2 [email protected] ( 4.0M)
> 7 Ext2 Root 2 [email protected] ( 128.0M)
> 8 Swap Linux swap [email protected] ( 128.0M)
> 9 Ext2 /var [email protected] ( 128.0M)
> 10 MFS MFS application region [email protected] ( 256.0M)
> 11 MFS MFS media region [email protected] ( 15.8G)
> 12 MFS Second MFS application region [email protected] ( 256.0M)
> 13 MFS Second MFS media region [email protected] ( 20.5G)
> 14 MFS New MFS Application [email protected] ( 1.0M)
> 15 MFS New MFS Media [email protected] ( 661.3G)
> 16 Apple_Free Extra [email protected]( 1.8M)
> 
> Total SA SD Hours: 780 Total DTV SD Hours: 681 3 % Free
> Software: 9.3.2c-01-2-140 Tivo Model: not set in MFS


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

HomeUser said:


> What drives do you have connected? are they both out of a DVR?
> 
> Use the less command then you can page / scroll up or down ie cat /proc/partition | less
> 
> or just try the mfsinfo /dev/sdb or mfsinfo /dev/sdc command.
> should return something like


Well your idea about the case sensitivity seemed to have worked. I saw where original command lines showed upper case X and Y and others had repeated the command lines that way. So I assumed to do the same. That said, it started to copy and seemed to be working for about an hour, then............

Read failure at sector and gives numbers flying by so fast scrolling and cant see what it is, of 512(0x200): Input/output error; zeroing sector" 
and then it stopped scrolling and the last lines says
"[ 5601.088107] mfscopy[6490]: segfault at 34 ip 0000000000412d94 sp 00007ffec54d4700 error 4 in mfscopy[400000+1e000] Segmentation fault"

any thoughts?

Thank you for the help thus far.


----------



## HomeUser

Are you trying to recover a failing drive? The Input/Output error would be read or write error(s) the Segmentation is a program trap is the program mfscopy still running? 

If you are attempting to clone a failing HD then dd_rescue would be a better tool to use it should be on the same CD as MFSTools.
Tripple check your commands dd_rescue does not do any sanity checks where mfscopy at least checks that the source drive is a TiVo drive.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

HomeUser said:


> Are you trying to recover a failing drive? The Input/Output error would be read or write error(s) the Segmentation is a program trap is the program mfscopy still running?
> 
> If you are attempting to clone a failing HD then dd_rescue would be a better tool to use it should be on the same CD as MFSTools.
> Tripple check your commands dd_rescue does not do any sanity checks where mfscopy at least checks that the source drive is a TiVo drive.


The Tivo is a series 3 with a few recorded programs on it. The drive was functioning without any indication of a problem. I just wanted to expand the drive to a two Terabyte NAS drive. How would I know if it was failing without any symtoms? The msfcopy ended with the "segmentation" statement, after the screen scrolling for about 3 to five minutes of Input/output error message. 
Thanks for the interest and the help.


----------



## jmbach

Keith A Heikkinen said:


> The Tivo is a series 3 with a few recorded programs on it. The drive was functioning without any indication of a problem. I just wanted to expand the drive to a two Terabyte NAS drive. How would I know if it was failing without any symtoms? The msfcopy ended with the "segmentation" statement, after the screen scrolling for about 3 to five minutes of Input/output error message.
> Thanks for the interest and the help.


More than likely a bad spot developed in a non-sensitive spot in the disk. These are usually recordings where you might see a slight glitch or something but MFSTools copies all. What I would suggest is copy the image to a spare drive with ddrescue. Then use mfscopy.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

HomeUser said:


> Are you trying to recover a failing drive? The Input/Output error would be read or write error(s) the Segmentation is a program trap is the program mfscopy still running?
> 
> If you are attempting to clone a failing HD then dd_rescue would be a better tool to use it should be on the same CD as MFSTools.
> Tripple check your commands dd_rescue does not do any sanity checks where mfscopy at least checks that the source drive is a TiVo drive.


It seemed as though something had happened and perhaps drive was copied, although time it took seemed quite short at perhaps 1-1/2 hours. Decided to plug in new drive and see what happened.
To my surprise the "Welcome, Powering Up" yellow and balck screen showed up, and after a while the "Almost There. Just a few Minutes" screen. But, it then goes dark screen and starts again with the Welcome screen, Rinse, lather,repeat. I'm afraid this is in a loop.

Has done the above now for about 20 minutes, and not sure where to go from here. No error messages, but never get past the initial boot screens. Clearly at least something got copied over, but not enough to make it work.

Any ideas? Has this happened to others?


----------



## jmbach

Keith A Heikkinen said:


> It seemed as though something had happened and perhaps drive was copied, although time it took seemed quite short at perhaps 1-1/2 hours. Decided to plug in new drive and see what happened.
> To my surprise the "Welcome, Powering Up" yellow and balck screen showed up, and after a while the "Almost There. Just a few Minutes" screen. But, it then goes dark screen and starts again with the Welcome screen, Rinse, lather,repeat. I'm afraid this is in a loop.
> 
> Has done the above now for about 20 minutes, and not sure where to go from here. No error messages, but never get past the initial boot screens. Clearly at least something got copied over, but not enough to make it work.
> 
> Any ideas? Has this happened to others?


As a test, copy the drive using only -i in the mfscopy command. That copy should only take about 5 to 10 minutes. It won't copy recordings but if it copies without an error, then the issue is in the recording section of the drive.

To be able to copy the recordings, the corrupt/bad area of the drive needs repair.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

jmbach said:


> As a test, copy the drive using only -i in the mfscopy command. That copy should only take about 5 to 10 minutes. It won't copy recordings but if it copies without an error, then the issue is in the recording section of the drive.
> 
> To be able to copy the recordings, the corrupt/bad area of the drive needs repair.


Based on what was advise earlier this evening, I ran dd_rescue to a new WD black 1TB drive I had (brand new, never used). It seems to be copying the drive over at 7% right now and about 11 hours to go. showing 0 errors right now.

I have no idea what the dd_rescue even is supposed to do? Its doing something. If this finishes, am I supposed to then try to MSFcopy this to the new WD red drive destined for the TIVO? No idea.

Thanks for all the advise. Feeling like I have no idea what is happening or what to expect next.


----------



## jmbach

Keith A Heikkinen said:


> Based on what was advise earlier this evening, I ran dd_rescue to a new WD black 1TB drive I had (brand new, never used). It seems to be copying the drive over at 7% right now and about 11 hours to go. showing 0 errors right now.
> 
> I have no idea what the dd_rescue even is supposed to do? Its doing something. If this finishes, am I supposed to then try to MSFcopy this to the new WD red drive destined for the TIVO? No idea.
> 
> Thanks for all the advise. Feeling like I have no idea what is happening or what to expect next.


ddrescue will try to recover a bad spot on the disk.

MFSTools has no error correction/recovery code. It just blindly reads and the writers the data it sees. If it cannot make any sense of it, it scraps out.

If mfscopy still craps out on your ddrescue copy, put that copy in your tivo and run a Kickstart 58. Tryvthe copy again. If it craps out, put it back in the TiVo and run a kickstart 57 and try the copy again.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

jmbach said:


> ddrescue will try to recover a bad spot on the disk.
> 
> MFSTools has no error correction/recovery code. It just blindly reads and the writers the data it sees. If it cannot make any sense of it, it scraps out.
> 
> If mfscopy still craps out on your ddrescue copy, put that copy in your tivo and run a Kickstart 58. Tryvthe copy again. If it craps out, put it back in the TiVo and run a kickstart 57 and try the copy again.


Thank you JM,

The ddrescue has run through the night and has about 4 hours to go. Think it will make it.

I'm curious, if the dd_rescue successfully copies disk, wouldn't it have made sense to just run that to the new drive, and skip the second step, or am I missing something? As I have no idea, I will follow the very good advise here, but interested to know.

As for kickstarters, the only ones I'm familiar with concern motorcycles and I have honestly considered dragging the TIVO down the street, with a motorcycle, car or truck.
I've seen the 58 and 57 referred to here from time to time, but not certain what either are, and now will need to at look around for what they are, do and if there are any related command lines I need to know.

Thanks again, to any and all who have helped, to date. Really never imagined this was going to be quite this complicated.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

jmbach said:


> ddrescue will try to recover a bad spot on the disk.
> 
> MFSTools has no error correction/recovery code. It just blindly reads and the writers the data it sees. If it cannot make any sense of it, it scraps out.
> 
> If mfscopy still craps out on your ddrescue copy, put that copy in your tivo and run a Kickstart 58. Tryvthe copy again. If it craps out, put it back in the TiVo and run a kickstart 57 and try the copy again.


OK,
The dd rescue finished with no errors. I went ahead and tried to run that in the TIVO, out of curiosity, but stuck at "Powering Up" and never even got to "Almost There......"

So, now doing the dd rescue spare to the new WD Red again, via MFScopy. Don't have high hopes.

I also put the original drive in the TIVO and it still works normally, so it is still viable.

As I don't really need any programs on this box, is there an image file that can load to the new drive and bypass all this copy stuff, or am I still missing something??

Thanks


----------



## ggieseke

TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information


----------



## jmbach

Keith A Heikkinen said:


> OK,
> The dd rescue finished with no errors. I went ahead and tried to run that in the TIVO, out of curiosity, but stuck at "Powering Up" and never even got to "Almost There......"
> 
> So, now doing the dd rescue spare to the new WD Red again, via MFScopy. Don't have high hopes.
> 
> I also put the original drive in the TIVO and it still works normally, so it is still viable.
> 
> As I don't really need any programs on this box, is there an image file that can load to the new drive and bypass all this copy stuff, or am I still missing something??
> 
> Thanks


If you do now need the recordings, run the mfscopy command without the 'a' in the command line (mfscopy -i /dev......) off your original drive to the new drive.

Might want to run WD diagnostic quick erase/write on the new drive before running another copy to it.

BTW did you run WD Diagnostic full read and write on the drive to "certify" it for use before running mfscopy?


----------



## HomeUser

Keith A Heikkinen said:


> As I don't really need any programs on this box, is there an image file that can load to the new drive and bypass all this copy stuff, or am I still missing something??


Drive images can be found Image for TiVo Series 3 you need the first 3 digits of the *T*iVo *S*ervice *N*umber to identify the DVR model it should be 648, 652 or 658 for the Series 3 TiVo DVRs the TSN can be found on the back of the DVR.

Strange that the copied drive would not boot what model revision level is the drive?
dd_rescue makes an direct image copy of the source drive if it finished without error the copy should not be any different than the original.


----------



## Keith A Heikkinen

Thanks JM, I have to run out for a bunch of hours, but will get back to you on this later.

Thank you again, I appreciate the support


----------



## TSR

I have probably messed up the MBR on my tivo premiere drive - this is my fault

Have an aging, full lifetime premiere that was starting to show hard drive issues. Discussed with a friend to make a copy through linux and suggested I setup a vm using hyper v in Windows 10 and connect the drives via USB dock. I did not format the drive but as I'm sure you can see where this is going, I've initialized them.

Been reading through the forums today looking for the best fix. Googling often brought up so many old threads that I think my info is not correct.

It looks like at one point you couldn't use MFStools on Premieres but with 3.2/3.3 it's backwards compatible.
I can find instructions on how to do a bootfix using the older, outdated MFStools and Tivo versions 1-3

I'm am not Linux knowledgeable and it's starting to show.

I read about the bootsectorfix:

-*bootsectorfix* - If you run MFSTools on a Series 5 or later TiVo and get an error that states something like "Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector", then running this program on that drive will attempt to fix the boot sector to resolve that error.

but since that's 5 and later, I don't want to run that as I assume I'll mess up my drive further. So I'm in a weird spot. I know with old MFStools I could address Tivo 1-3. And with the newer MFSTools I can address 5 and later.

Is there anything for Premiere?

PS - how can I verify MFStools is even seeing the connected drive. I saw this
"Easy way to identify connected drives (thanks to 192bowler showing me this) - lsblk -o name,size,vendor"
But it just brings up the CD-ROM drive

thank you all!


----------



## jmbach

TSR said:


> I have probably messed up the MBR on my tivo premiere drive - this is my fault
> 
> Have an aging, full lifetime premiere that was starting to show hard drive issues. Discussed with a friend to make a copy through linux and suggested I setup a vm using hyper v in Windows 10 and connect the drives via USB dock. I did not format the drive but as I'm sure you can see where this is going, I've initialized them.
> 
> Been reading through the forums today looking for the best fix. Googling often brought up so many old threads that I think my info is not correct.
> 
> It looks like at one point you couldn't use MFStools on Premieres but with 3.2/3.3 it's backwards compatible.
> I can find instructions on how to do a bootfix using the older, outdated MFStools and Tivo versions 1-3
> 
> I'm am not Linux knowledgeable and it's starting to show.
> 
> I read about the bootsectorfix:
> 
> -*bootsectorfix* - If you run MFSTools on a Series 5 or later TiVo and get an error that states something like "Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector", then running this program on that drive will attempt to fix the boot sector to resolve that error.
> 
> but since that's 5 and later, I don't want to run that as I assume I'll mess up my drive further. So I'm in a weird spot. I know with old MFStools I could address Tivo 1-3. And with the newer MFSTools I can address 5 and later.
> 
> Is there anything for Premiere?
> 
> PS - how can I verify MFStools is even seeing the connected drive. I saw this
> "Easy way to identify connected drives (thanks to 192bowler showing me this) - lsblk -o name,size,vendor"
> But it just brings up the CD-ROM drive
> 
> thank you all!


Have you put in the original drive back in the TiVo to see if it boots? If it boots to any screen past the first boot logo before boot looping then windows probably did nothing to the drive.

Was the drive original to the TiVo or was it replaced in any way shape or form?

MFSTools 3.2/3.3 will work on Premiere images, just some of the ancillary tools do not.

If 'lsblk -o name,size,vendor' only sees the CDROM, then MFSTools will only see the CDROM. Chances are you did not connect the drives to your VM.


----------



## TSR

1) no, I will try that next

2) not original drive, a friend replaced it a few years ago and only recently started to lock up

3) is there a boot fix for premier on the cd?

4) poor explanation on my part. I abandoned the VM idea, I completely neglected to mention that.

I could not get the VM to see the docked drives. So I put the old TiVo drive and new blank drive into a tower (removed the Windows OS drive, so there were just the two aforementioned drives and a cdrom) and copied old to new using these steps

A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo.

That Linux CD saw the drives and it took many hours for the copy to complete.

Today I only tested the new copied drive in the tivo but I only get all the lights on the front of the TiVo flashing and it quickly resetting.

Putting the hard drives back in the tower and using the mfstool CD, it mentioned it only saw the cdrom. So I don't understand what went wrong there when the other CD said it saw both drives just fine.

Hope this all made sense


----------



## unitron

TSR said:


> 1) no, I will try that next
> 
> 2) not original drive, a friend replaced it a few years ago and only recently started to lock up
> 
> 3) is there a boot fix for premier on the cd?
> 
> 4) poor explanation on my part. I abandoned the VM idea, I completely neglected to mention that.
> 
> I could not get the VM to see the docked drives. So I put the old TiVo drive and new blank drive into a tower (removed the Windows OS drive, so there were just the two aforementioned drives and a cdrom) and copied old to new using these steps
> 
> A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo.
> 
> That Linux CD saw the drives and it took many hours for the copy to complete.
> 
> Today I only tested the new copied drive in the tivo but I only get all the lights on the front of the TiVo flashing and it quickly resetting.
> 
> Putting the hard drives back in the tower and using the mfstool CD, it mentioned it only saw the cdrom. So I don't understand what went wrong there when the other CD said it saw both drives just fine.
> 
> Hope this all made sense


The motherboard from which you disconnected the Windows drive, is it a Gigabyte brand board by chance?


----------



## mstrbill

jmbach said:


> Copy everything back to the 500 GB and use mfscopy to copy the 500 GB to the 3 TB.


I would like to move the recording from my Bolt's 4TB 2.5in WD blue drive to a 8TB 3.5in Red drive. The blue drive is starting to fail at just short of a year. 

Will mfscopy copy and expand to 8TB for a Bolt? Or can I clone and expand somehow?(I have actually done the clone, and msinfo gives the same info both drives)
Is there something I should run to stabilize the 4TB drive before copying?
If I can use mfscopy and what options should be used?
Thanks


----------



## jmbach

mstrbill said:


> I would like to move the recording from my Bolt's 4TB 2.5in WD blue drive to a 8TB 3.5in Red drive. The blue drive is starting to fail at just short of a year.
> 
> Will mfscopy copy and expand to 8TB for a Bolt? Or can I clone and expand somehow?(I have actually done the clone, and msinfo gives the same info both drives)
> Is there something I should run to stabilize the 4TB drive before copying?
> If I can use mfscopy and what options should be used?
> Thanks


TiVo still has not fixed the bug in their OS that allows larger than 2 TB partition sizes so you cannot use MFSTools to go to 8 TB directly.

Follow the info in the 10 TB Roamio thread. Although it has not been tested, the method should work since Roamios and Bolts are very similar in most ways.


----------



## tkrotchko

For a speed comparison, I finished my 4th Tivo upgrade to 4TB from 2&3 TB drives. That is copying all content and expanding the drive

In generally, I was seeing about 51-53 MiB/Sec using an i7 CPU, booted from the JeOS/Suse MFSCopy 3.3 DVD. Both drives were connected to independent SATA ports

To copy a 2TB->4TB drive, it generally took 9-10 hours The 3TB->4TB transfer took about 12 hours.


----------



## stringham

I was able to successfully upgrade my Bolt from a 500GB to a 4TB drive and copy over my existing recordings and content. I'm really new to this and thought it might help someone else to know the steps I took in order to achieve this.

First I tried cloning the 500GB drive content to the 4TB drive and then use *mfsadd* but that said that there was no more space to add, and the Tivo did not recognize that it was a larger drive.

1. Made a backup of the 500GB drive that was in my Bolt (this step was not necessary, but I wanted to be careful)
2. Downloaded MFSTools 3.3-devel USB/HD and saved to a usb drive and booted from it (I had to use the failsafe option when booting). Logged in with *username:* 'root' and *password:* 'tivo'
3. Plugged in the (backup) 500GB and 4TB drives with USB adapters
4. Determined the names of the drives with *lsblk -o name,size,vendor* (/dev/sdX is the source drive and /dev/sdY is the destination drive)
5. Running *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* gave the error: _*"Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector"*_
6. Ran *bootsectorfix /dev/sdX*
7. Ran *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* and waited for it to finish copying
8. Ran *mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdY *and* mfsaddfix /dev/sdY *(I'm not sure if these were necessary)
9. Put the new drive in the bolt and booted up. All content was successfully copied and there is now 639 HD hours.

Thanks jmbach for your work on MFSTools!


----------



## TSR

unitron said:


> The motherboard from which you disconnected the Windows drive, is it a Gigabyte brand board by chance?


I doubt it but am uncertain on how to verify for you.

My personal laptop is a MSI ge72vr 6rf and the tower that I placed the tivo drives into is an Asus M32BF.

I apologize for the delay in responding - just been slammed with work and it's easier for me to have the time on the weekends. Thank you for reaching out to me!


----------



## jmbach

stringham said:


> I was able to successfully upgrade my Bolt from a 500GB to a 4TB drive and copy over my existing recordings and content. I'm really new to this and thought it might help someone else to know the steps I took in order to achieve this.
> 
> First I tried cloning the 500GB drive content to the 4TB drive and then use *mfsadd* but that said that there was no more space to add, and the Tivo did not recognize that it was a larger drive.
> 
> 1. Made a backup of the 500GB drive that was in my Bolt (this step was not necessary, but I wanted to be careful)
> 2. Downloaded MFSTools 3.3-devel USB/HD and saved to a usb drive and booted from it (I had to use the failsafe option when booting). Logged in with *username:* 'root' and *password:* 'tivo'
> 3. Plugged in the (backup) 500GB and 4TB drives with USB adapters
> 4. Determined the names of the drives with *lsblk -o name,size,vendor* (/dev/sdX is the source drive and /dev/sdY is the destination drive)
> 5. Running *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* gave the error: _*"Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector"*_
> 6. Ran *bootsectorfix /dev/sdX*
> 7. Ran *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* and waited for it to finish copying
> 8. Ran *mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdY *and* mfsaddfix /dev/sdY *(I'm not sure if these were necessary)
> 9. Put the new drive in the bolt and booted up. All content was successfully copied and there is now 639 HD hours.
> 
> Thanks jmbach for your work on MFSTools!


Glad you got it work.

Step 8 was not needed.


----------



## TSR

My premier is back up and operational thanks to jmbach! 
I sent him the captures from iBored and he determined that just block 0 needed to be rewritten. I very thankful for his assistance!


----------



## jmbach

TSR said:


> My premier is back up and operational thanks to jmbach!
> I sent him the captures from iBored and he determined that just block 0 needed to be rewritten. I very thankful for his assistance!


If you are still planning to upgrade your drive, use MFSTools to copy it to the new drive.


----------



## TSR

I did the copy initially. I used your data to write to both the drives. Note I sent two data sets, one called 15 (as in 1.5 tb drive) and one called 20 (as in 2 tb drive).

I think I missed any option for expanding the drive as I didn't see an increase in free space, but beggars can't be choosers, I think it's best I stop while I'm ahead.

thank you again!


----------



## jmbach

TSR said:


> I did the copy initially. I used your data to write to both the drives. Note I sent two data sets, one called 15 (as in 1.5 tb drive) and one called 20 (as in 2 tb drive).
> 
> I think I missed any option for expanding the drive as I didn't see an increase in free space, but beggars can't be choosers, I think it's best I stop while I'm ahead.
> 
> thank you again!


I understand. If you ever want to upgrade st sometime, I can help you through it. It is relatively painless.

I have not used windows hyper-v but I have used virtualbox running the MFSTools ISO on a windows machine.


----------



## dadrepus

So, I'm going to try something different. I'm going to use my Mac. I will be booting the iso from a usb stick. I have purchased a $4.99 application to GUI everything so I don't have to use command line. It is called Mac Linux USB loader. I am making my drive now and it is asking what family this iso is from. Options are: Ubuntu, Debian, Tails, kali, Other. Which to choose, please. And while I m at it do I need other software for a 2GB drive for my Premiere I am about to upgrade?


----------



## dadrepus

Never mind it says in the file, DUH!


----------



## dadrepus

So the little $5 worked and created a bootable usb stick. Mounted it and got into the iso and got this from the device: '/boot/grub/x86_64 refi/minicmd.mod' not found. There was no ability to escape, no "exit" command. I had to reboot into OS X, for now. did I choose the wrong distribution "other" when making my startup disk SUSE_Leap was not an option. Almost there, though.

Followed these directions:How to Boot a Linux Live USB Drive on Your Mac


----------



## dadrepus

Upon rebooting into the usb I got this : 1) Boot Linux from iso file, 2)Modify Linux kernel boot options (advanced). I chose 1) and gets me here: could not boot the Lixux distribution. Perhaps your drive could not be read by Grub. Or, maybe the distribution organizes its files in a way that is not supported yet. Please call developer.
Then it goes into a command shell that I cannot get out of and have to reboot. It says GRUB and any typical commands just do not work.
Any ideas?


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> Upon rebooting into the usb I got this : 1) Boot Linux from iso file, 2)Modify Linux kernel boot options (advanced). I chose 1) and gets me here: could not boot the Lixux distribution. Perhaps your drive could not be read by Grub. Or, maybe the distribution organizes its files in a way that is not supported yet. Please call developer.
> Then it goes into a command shell that I cannot get out of and have to reboot. It says GRUB and any typical commands just do not work.
> Any ideas?


Have you tied Etcher from Balena to write the hdd/USB version of the image. It is free, cross platformed, and open sourced.


----------



## Rapt0r

stringham said:


> I was able to successfully upgrade my Bolt from a 500GB to a 4TB drive and copy over my existing recordings and content. I'm really new to this and thought it might help someone else to know the steps I took in order to achieve this.
> 
> First I tried cloning the 500GB drive content to the 4TB drive and then use *mfsadd* but that said that there was no more space to add, and the Tivo did not recognize that it was a larger drive.
> 
> 1. Made a backup of the 500GB drive that was in my Bolt (this step was not necessary, but I wanted to be careful)
> 2. Downloaded MFSTools 3.3-devel USB/HD and saved to a usb drive and booted from it (I had to use the failsafe option when booting). Logged in with *username:* 'root' and *password:* 'tivo'
> 3. Plugged in the (backup) 500GB and 4TB drives with USB adapters
> 4. Determined the names of the drives with *lsblk -o name,size,vendor* (/dev/sdX is the source drive and /dev/sdY is the destination drive)
> 5. Running *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* gave the error: _*"Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector"*_
> 6. Ran *bootsectorfix /dev/sdX*
> 7. Ran *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* and waited for it to finish copying
> 8. Ran *mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdY *and* mfsaddfix /dev/sdY *(I'm not sure if these were necessary)
> 9. Put the new drive in the bolt and booted up. All content was successfully copied and there is now 639 HD hours.
> 
> Thanks jmbach for your work on MFSTools!


Just wanted to say I appreciate that you've posted the instructions you followed to upgrade your TiVo. And also to jmbach for MFS Tools! In fact, I registered on this forum specifically to express my appreciation.

I've just successfully upgraded my Bolt 1TB to a 2TB drive. I bought the drive several months ago and just got around to upgrading. After figuring out how to setup and use MFS Tools 3.3 (though the software once launched stated 3.2), which IMO needs more concise instructions on how to get installed (sorry)  I was able to get the upgrade completed. The toughest things were getting the Bolt box open, figuring out how to get MFS Tools installed and working, and most difficult of all, waiting for the cloning to complete, which took about 9.5 hours.  Not really difficult at all, and was actually an interesting experience to go through. I was pleasantly surprised how well the cloned drive worked after the upgrade.

Any way, just wanted to say Thanks to both, and also I appreciate that TiVo Community exists. Now just trying to decide if I want to upgrade to Hydra or not.


----------



## dadrepus

jmbach said:


> Have you tied Etcher from Balena to write the hdd/USB version of the image. It is free, cross platformed, and open sourced.


Yes I tried that as well and have not had any success on a mac. I have an old PC that I had linux on that got corrupt so I hadn't done anything with it so I thought I'd try that. So I burned CD's with an ISO. Could not mount them. Checked bios and CD was the 1st boot drive but no go. Spent the better part of a day, good thing i am retired, but still I am frustrated.


----------



## Rapt0r

dadrepus said:


> Upon rebooting into the usb I got this : 1) Boot Linux from iso file, 2)Modify Linux kernel boot options (advanced). I chose 1) and gets me here: could not boot the Lixux distribution. Perhaps your drive could not be read by Grub. Or, maybe the distribution organizes its files in a way that is not supported yet. Please call developer.
> Then it goes into a command shell that I cannot get out of and have to reboot. It says GRUB and any typical commands just do not work.
> Any ideas?


I've just performed my upgrade today from my Win 10 PC using MFS Tools 3.3. I d/l MFS USB/HDD version and had to unzip it on my Raspberry Pi given the zip format used. I then used Etcher to transfer that image to a USB key drive. Then booted into the key drive on my PC, after attaching the source and destination drives to my SATA connectors. I selected the safe mode option, which eventually got me to a prompt to enter the MFS clone commands.

Initially, not being sure which startup menu options to pick upon boot it appears to have hosed the USB key image when I chose poorly. I had to go back and re-flash the MFS image onto the USB key drive and try again. Once I got to pick safe mode (as described above) it booted correctly and I was able to proceed. During cloning I received some 'error' messages indicating it was modifying the transfer speed (as I interpreted) but as far as I can tell the cloning worked and I'm now watching my TiVo. It does work. Good luck!

You might try using a USB key drive. Though your mileage may vary on a Mac.


----------



## dadrepus

So, I booted up with a newer Mac mini and with using safe mode I am in the log in screen. I'm stuck cause I don't remember what you guys said for username and password. Anybody remember. I'm doing it now so a fast response would be nice


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> So, I booted up with a newer Mac mini and with using safe mode I am in the log in screen. I'm stuck cause I don't remember what you guys said for username and password. Anybody remember. I'm doing it now so a fast response would be nice


root for username
tivo for password


----------



## dadrepus

Now it says: Have a lot of fun...
Llinux:~ #


Now what?


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> Now it says: Have a lot of fun...
> Llinux:~ #
> 
> Now what?


Got to here and the first 2 posts in this thread for the information you need


----------



## dadrepus

Is there command that will tell me what drives are what before I use the copy command. I have my 2 tivo drives on a USb carrier that fits 2 drives. Don't want to format internal drive by mistake.


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> Is there command that will tell me what drives are what before I use the copy command. I have my 2 tivo drives on a USb carrier that fits 2 drives. Don't want to format internal drive by mistake.


Did you read the post I directed you to or just scan it.


----------



## dadrepus

OK, I deserve that. sorry. 
The only external drive that says WDC is sdc 298.1G. All other listings are for the internal SSD and The Stick.
Should i try remounting the second drive?


----------



## dadrepus

I remounted the second drive. It shows up YAY. Now the fun begins.


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> OK, I deserve that. sorry.
> The only external drive that says WDC is sdc 298.1G. All other listings are for the internal SSD and The Stick.
> Should i try remounting the second drive?


If the OS cannot see it, MFSTools cannot see it.


----------



## dadrepus

so I tried mfscopy -ai/dev/sdc/dev/sdd and it just brings me to the list of commands. But does not start any process. I tried with and without spaces, with and without the i. No luck so far to start anything. Any advice?


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> so I tried mfscopy -ai/dev/sdc/dev/sdd and it just brings me to the list of commands. But does not start any process. I tried with and without spaces, with and without the i. No luck so far to start anything. Any advice?


Does the OS see the drive


----------



## dadrepus

Yes, as soon as i mounted it, it ran through the process and gave it a number of sdd. the 4 drives being a, b, c, d.


----------



## dadrepus

it should be mfscopy -ai/dev/sdd/dev/sdc as the bigger one got the "c" designation. but still nothing.


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> it should be mfscopy -ai/dev/sdd/dev/sdc as the bigger one got the "c" designation. but still nothing.


try mfscopy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc
I think you are missing spaces in critical areas.


----------



## dadrepus

jmbach said:


> try mfscopy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc
> I think you are missing spaces in critical areas.


Still brings me back to the options page that lists all the stuff you can do with mfscopy. Is there a space between ssd and /?


----------



## dadrepus

well that was it. That spac now it is zooming along. thanks so much for your help. This means one can do it on a mac as long as you format the stick properly.


----------



## dadrepus

Just stopped at 19.91% hope it continues. 

Back again......YAHOO!


----------



## dadrepus

dadrepus said:


> well that was it. That spac now it is zooming along. thanks so much for your help. This means one can do it on a mac as long as you format the stick properly.


 And have the help of the Tivo community. You don't know how grateful this old man is. I thought I had bought 2 drives that were going to be useless to me and 2 Tivos that I would have to toss. As Hannibal Smith use to say "I love it when a plan comes together."


----------



## dadrepus

New question. Says: Copy done! (0:29:46) and it brings me back to the linux prompt, not the additional tasks screen. How do _ get to the expansion screen?
_


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> New question. Says: Copy done! (0:29:46) and it brings me back to the linux prompt, not the additional tasks screen. How do _ get to the expansion screen?
> _


It is already expanded. You might want to supersize it. Type supersize /dev/sdc


----------



## dadrepus

so I'm done then? I can just exit? "x" and shut down, remove the new drive and try it out in my tivo?


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> so I'm done then? I can just exit? "x" and shut down, remove the new drive and try it out in my tivo?


Turn off the computer, power down the drives ,and put the new drive in.

If you want to see what size the new drive is, type mfsinfo /dev/sdc


----------



## dadrepus

there is a message that says " This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times. Should i do this

It says the estimated hours in a standalone tivo: 2373. Is this what I want in a 2 TB drive?


----------



## jmbach

dadrepus said:


> there is a message that says " This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times. Should i do this
> 
> It says the estimated hours in a standalone tivo: 2373. Is this what I want in a 2 TB drive?


No. Put the drive in your TiVo call it a day.


----------



## dadrepus

Yay. I should have no problem doing the second drive. Thanks all.


----------



## cannonz

dadrepus said:


> there is a message that says " This MFS volume may be expanded 4 more times. Should i do this
> 
> It says the estimated hours in a standalone tivo: 2373. Is this what I want in a 2 TB drive?


 I know very little about computer stuff so imagine how confused I was. Like he said my S3 with 2TB says 318 HD, 2777 SD so it's done.


----------



## dadrepus

So, I thought I'd do a little writeup of my Mac procedure.
Used my Mac mini 2011 running osx 11.6. Usb keyboard and mouse (no wireless), usb stick, used this info Tutorials: Create a bootable Ubuntu USB stick on macOS (thanks cannonz for the link)
Use something like this to mount the drives Amazon.com: Inateck USB 3.0 Dual Bay Hard Drive Docking Station With Offline Clone Function
Used the ISO from this forum and the massive amount of help on this forum to complete the task. Not really hard if you know what you are doing. I only know enough to be dangerous.
Thanks All for your help. I now have 2 Lifetime Premieres with 2TB drives.


----------



## Rapt0r

dadrepus said:


> So, I thought I'd do a little writeup of my Mac procedure.
> Used my Mac mini 2011 running osx 11.6. Usb keyboard and mouse (no wireless), usb stick, used this info Tutorials: Create a bootable Ubuntu USB stick on macOS (thanks cannonz for the link)
> Use something like this to mount the drives Amazon.com: Inateck USB 3.0 Dual Bay Hard Drive Docking Station With Offline Clone Function
> Used the ISO from this forum and the massive amount of help on this forum to complete the task. Not really hard if you know what you are doing. I only know enough to be dangerous.
> Thanks All for your help. I now have 2 Lifetime Premieres with 2TB drives.


Congrats! And nice that you came back with your process. Someone else may be where you were and benefits from your experience.


----------



## Rapt0r

Rapt0r said:


> Just wanted to say I appreciate that you've posted the instructions you followed to upgrade your TiVo. And also to jmbach for MFS Tools! In fact, I registered on this forum specifically to express my appreciation.
> 
> I've just successfully upgraded my Bolt 1TB to a 2TB drive. I bought the drive several months ago and just got around to upgrading. After figuring out how to setup and use MFS Tools 3.3 (though the software once launched stated 3.2), which IMO needs more concise instructions on how to get installed (sorry)  I was able to get the upgrade completed. The toughest things were getting the Bolt box open, figuring out how to get MFS Tools installed and working, and most difficult of all, waiting for the cloning to complete, which took about 9.5 hours.  Not really difficult at all, and was actually an interesting experience to go through. I was pleasantly surprised how well the cloned drive worked after the upgrade.
> 
> Any way, just wanted to say Thanks to both, and also I appreciate that TiVo Community exists. Now just trying to decide if I want to upgrade to Hydra or not.


And so ... I 'upgraded' to Hydra today. I have been expecting to fully dislike it and spent some time previously trying to determine if I'd still be able to rollback. I'm not actually disliking it quite as much as I had assumed. Though still not sure about the whole picture ribbon that seems to dominate the main screen. Guess I will keep it.

My hope is that it helps solve an irritating issue I've been experiencing receiving an "HDMI connection not permitted" message most every time I switched back from using other devices on different inputs. Often times I'd have to finally restart the TiVo to get it to work. I'd seen some comments that this update might fix the issue. Fingers crossed.


----------



## dadrepus

Rapt0r said:


> Congrats! And nice that you came back with your process. Someone else may be where you were and benefits from your experience.


I should probably add that I chose "safe mode" in order to boot into the Linux distribution on the usb stick and booting up the Mac using the option key "Alt" is a must. Thanks for your kind words.

Also, this was pretty fast. I was done in less than 1/2 hour for both drives. I assume because they were wiped of any shows beforehand.


----------



## Rapt0r

Rapt0r said:


> And so ... I 'upgraded' to Hydra today. I have been expecting to fully dislike it and spent some time previously trying to determine if I'd still be able to rollback. I'm not actually disliking it quite as much as I had assumed. Though still not sure about the whole picture ribbon that seems to dominate the main screen. Guess I will keep it.
> 
> My hope is that it helps solve an irritating issue I've been experiencing receiving an "HDMI connection not permitted" message most every time I switched back from using other devices on different inputs. Often times I'd have to finally restart the TiVo to get it to work. I'd seen some comments that this update might fix the issue. Fingers crossed.


Following up after a few days of Hydra use. Other than the aforementioned dislike of the picture ribbon on the main screen I tend to think I generally like, or at least not totally dislike, Hydra. Though you sure do use the Back button a lot now.

And, one of the main reasons I chose to try Hydra, so far I have not experienced the "HDMI connection not permitted" when switching between my different media sources, TiVo, Apple TV, etc. I hope this is permanent, but this alone was worth moving to Hydra for me.


----------



## Rapt0r

Rapt0r said:


> Following up after a few days of Hydra use. Other than the aforementioned dislike of the picture ribbon on the main screen I tend to think I generally like, or at least not totally dislike, Hydra. Though you sure do use the Back button a lot now.
> 
> And, one of the main reasons I chose to try Hydra, so far I have not experienced the "HDMI connection not permitted" when switching between my different media sources, TiVo, Apple TV, etc. I hope this is permanent, but this alone was worth moving to Hydra for me.


Update: Sadly, I've had a couple of occurrences of the HDMI connection problem after installing Hydra. It has not occurred as frequently as before, but the issue still exists. As I understand, it's some HDCP issue, which IMO TiVo mishandles. TiVo needs to understand that their equipment is not the only media device people connect to their TVs.


----------



## ravingfans

jkozee said:


> *Known Limitations*
> Currently, the largest boot drive supported is 4TB (Premiere and newer, 2TB for THD). Backups of drives with the either of the first two app/media partitions is not supported.


Hi Folks, I'm at a crossroads. I would like to get my 2 drive set up on a single 10TB drive (I have a shucked EasyStore with the WD100EMAZ) but keep my recordings intact and in their respective folders.

It seems the MFS Tools are limited to 4TB total--is this correct? I've experimented with backup and it dies after several hours backing up my drives.

If I was able to backup my 8TB configuration, then to restore I assume I would face the same limitation.

Is tinkering with and recompiling the source code the only viable option? (Seems like a daunting task!)

Forgot to mention: My environment is a Roamio 6 Tuner (Pro? Plus? can't recall), and I have a 4TB Internal and 4TB eSATA External Drive from WK installed.


----------



## jmbach

ravingfans said:


> Hi Folks, I'm at a crossroads. I would like to get my 2 drive set up on a single 10TB drive (I have a shucked EasyStore with the WD100EMAZ) but keep my recordings intact and in their respective folders.
> 
> It seems the MFS Tools are limited to 4TB total--is this correct? I've experimented with backup and it dies after several hours backing up my drives.
> 
> If I was able to backup my 8TB configuration, then to restore I assume I would face the same limitation.
> 
> Is tinkering with and recompiling the source code the only viable option? (Seems like a daunting task!)
> 
> Forgot to mention: My environment is a Roamio 6 Tuner (Pro? Plus? can't recall), and I have a 4TB Internal and 4TB eSATA External Drive from WK installed.


Unfortunately with that configuration you are severely limited in your options to expand.

You would need to offload all your recordings, create your new drive and transfer the recordings back.


----------



## RyanL

jmbach said:


> Unfortunately with that configuration you are severely limited in your options to expand.
> 
> You would need to offload all your recordings, create your new drive and transfer the recordings back.


Does this work with a Bolt? I saw there was a mention of using your own cloning software if the drive is larger than 4tb, but I'm not seeing anything available to use with Windows. I'm trying to upgrade my 500GB to 5TB and keep the recordings on the 500GB drive. Also, do all the one pass settings reside in a folder somewhere too? TIA for any tips to lead me in the right direction.


----------



## jmbach

Are you on TE3 or TE4. With the Bolts on TE4 there have been issues where certain drives cause the Bolt to be stuck on startup screen, consequently if that happens, you may lose your recordings.

The initial step would be to use MFSTools to copy the 500GB drive to a 4 TB image on your 5 TB drive. You can then put the drive in your TiVo and use it (if it boots) until I update MFSTools ISO with the updated mfsadd to add partitions to the Bolt.


----------



## ThAbtO

Would MSFR work to expand in this case?


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> Would MSFR work to expand in this case?


No, MFSR takes the drive geometry information that the TiVo places on the drive and reformats the whole drive accordingly. Consequently, you lose your recordings.


----------



## RyanL

jmbach said:


> Are you on TE3 or TE4. With the Bolts on TE4 there have been issues where certain drives cause the Bolt to be stuck on startup screen, consequently if that happens, you may lose your recordings.
> 
> The initial step would be to use MFSTools to copy the 500GB drive to a 4 TB image on your 5 TB drive. You can then put the drive in your TiVo and use it (if it boots) until I update MFSTools ISO with the updated mfsadd to add partitions to the Bolt.


Not sure which I'm running, TE3 or TE4 but I booted up the Tivo Bolt yesterday with the 5TB drive and everything seemed to work fine (installed the drive initially in the TiVo to "bless it" and then removed it and used MSFR1004 then installed it back into the TiVo). No hang ups or anything. But, after further research I think I may have screwed up because now the last drive used in the TiVo was an empty 5tb one so even if I clone everything from the 500GB one it will simply erase what's on there since it wasn't the last one installed. I should've started with MSF tools to begin with. Now, could I use the 500GB drive as an external and then just transfer shows to my PC with pyTiVo or TiVo Desktop and then back to the internal? If this even works I'm sure it will take a million years and I'm not sure it's worth it. Maybe I could just do a few that I really wanted to keep and trash the rest. What I really wanted to keep was my one pass and channel settings. I thought that I read somewhere that this stuff was backed up to your Tivo account. Guess that's not true. Thanks for all your help anyway.


----------



## rooobosmith

I have an odd problem with a newly acquired refurb 500GB Bolt. My experience goes way back to Tivo HD so it seems the Bolt is a very different animal. I bought a WD Red 1TB drive, and pulled the 500GB. Plugged in the 1TB and got to the Setup screen. Powered down and just to see what would happen, I put the 500GB back in, but no joy; just a boot loop. I put the 1TB back in to see if anything was broken and got the setup screen again. So I backed up the 500GB with MFS 3.3 and then copied it to the 1TB drive with MFSCopy -ia which took 6.5 hours. Now of course the 1TB drive does the same boot loop as the 500GB.

1. Don't know why booting the 1TB would disable booting the 500GB unless the internal SSD got corrupted somehow. Is that typical?
2. Any way to recover the contents of the 500GB? I am trying to run KS 58 on the 1TB, but got no green screen.


----------



## jmbach

RyanL said:


> Not sure which I'm running, TE3 or TE4 but I booted up the Tivo Bolt yesterday with the 5TB drive and everything seemed to work fine (installed the drive initially in the TiVo to "bless it" and then removed it and used MSFR1004 then installed it back into the TiVo). No hang ups or anything. But, after further research I think I may have screwed up because now the last drive used in the TiVo was an empty 5tb one so even if I clone everything from the 500GB one it will simply erase what's on there since it wasn't the last one installed. I should've started with MSF tools to begin with. Now, could I use the 500GB drive as an external and then just transfer shows to my PC with pyTiVo or TiVo Desktop and then back to the internal? If this even works I'm sure it will take a million years and I'm not sure it's worth it. Maybe I could just do a few that I really wanted to keep and trash the rest. What I really wanted to keep was my one pass and channel settings. I thought that I read somewhere that this stuff was backed up to your Tivo account. Guess that's not true. Thanks for all your help anyway.


You have lost access to your recordings. When you put the 5TB in to bless it for MFSR, the blessing process wiped out the database on the internal flash drive that tracks the recordings that were recorded on the drive. There is no way to recover that information at this time.


----------



## jmbach

rooobosmith said:


> I have an odd problem with a newly acquired refurb 500GB Bolt. My experience goes way back to Tivo HD so it seems the Bolt is a very different animal. I bought a WD Red 1TB drive, and pulled the 500GB. Plugged in the 1TB and got to the Setup screen. Powered down and just to see what would happen, I put the 500GB back in, but no joy; just a boot loop. I put the 1TB back in to see if anything was broken and got the setup screen again. So I backed up the 500GB with MFS 3.3 and then copied it to the 1TB drive with MFSCopy -ia which took 6.5 hours. Now of course the 1TB drive does the same boot loop as the 500GB.
> 
> 1. Don't know why booting the 1TB would disable booting the 500GB unless the internal SSD got corrupted somehow. Is that typical?
> 2. Any way to recover the contents of the 500GB? I am trying to run KS 58 on the 1TB, but got no green screen.


There is no way to recover from that. When the new drive is formatted by the Bolt, it also wipes out the database on the internal flash that tracks the recordings.

Not sure why the boot loop. Usually you just get to boot to an empty drive.

Was there an update that took place when you booted the 1 TB for the first time?


----------



## rooobosmith

jmbach said:


> There is no way to recover from that. When the new drive is formatted by the Bolt, it also wipes out the database on the internal flash that tracks the recordings.
> 
> Not sure why the boot loop. Usually you just get to boot to an empty drive.
> 
> Was there an update that took place when you booted the 1 TB for the first time?


Thanks for your response AND for the MFS Tools 3.3. I don't believe there was an update; I had been using the 500GB for a couple of weeks.

I thought the procedure said to initialize the new drive in the Tivo before copying. Maybe I was confused by instructions for a Tivo other than the Bolt?


----------



## jmbach

rooobosmith said:


> Thanks for your response AND for the MFS Tools 3.3. I don't believe there was an update; I had been using the 500GB for a couple of weeks.
> 
> I thought the procedure said to initialize the new drive in the Tivo before copying. Maybe I was confused by instructions for a Tivo other than the Bolt?


There are two programs. One is MFSR which needs the new drive initialized before you can run the program on it. After running the program and putting back in the TiVo, the TiVo will finish preparing the drive for use. You get a new clean drive void of any data.

MFSTools will copy and expand drives retaining the recordings. If you use MFSR first like you did, all MFSTools will do is overwrite what MFSR did on the drive. (Unless you are adding partitions, then it will not)


----------



## rooobosmith

jmbach said:


> There are two programs. One is MFSR which needs the new drive initialized before you can run the program on it. After running the program and putting back in the TiVo, the TiVo will finish preparing the drive for use. You get a new clean drive void of any data.
> 
> MFSTools will copy and expand drives retaining the recordings. If you use MFSR first like you did, all MFSTools will do is overwrite what MFSR did on the drive. (Unless you are adding partitions, their will not)


You are right. I mistakenly used the prep instructions for using MFSR with those for using MFSCopy. Bolt is def new animal.


----------



## RyanL

jmbach said:


> You have lost access to your recordings. When you put the 5TB in to bless it for MFSR, the blessing process wiped out the database on the internal flash drive that tracks the recordings that were recorded on the drive. There is no way to recover that information at this time.


Damn, didn't realize there was a directory of the recordings on the internal flash that ties it to them. Oh well, thanks for the help anyway.


----------



## RyanL

rooobosmith said:


> You are right. I mistakenly used the prep instructions for using MFSR with those for using MFSCopy. Bolt is def new animal.


Souns like you borked it up in similar fashion as me; you messed up your original drive once you installed the new drive and then put the old one back in. I would just re-format the new drive and then put it back into the bolt. See what you have then.


----------



## rooobosmith

RyanL said:


> Souns like you borked it up in similar fashion as me; you messed up your original drive once you installed the new drive and then put the old one back in. I would just re-format the new drive and then put it back into the bolt. See what you have then.


From what I now understand, it is the internal ssd that gets wiped when a new drive is booted, and there is nothing that can restore that. Seems like a really dumb design, or one designed to make more money by making it harder to put in a larger drive. Anyway, too much reading and not enough prompt action while the info is fresh.


----------



## RyanL

rooobosmith said:


> From what I now understand, it is the internal ssd that gets wiped when a new drive is booted, and there is nothing that can restore that. Seems like a really dumb design, or one designed to make more money by making it harder to put in a larger drive. Anyway, too much reading and not enough prompt action while the info is fresh.


Guess there's no practical way to backup what you have either. Seems like a bad design which creates more points of failure. Another thing I came across doing a little reading which is also just as wonky is how an external hard drive connected to a Tivo works. I looked into this first because I thought it may be less hassle/easier to backup, restore, upgrade, etc. etc. and it seems like a PITA. Sounds like part of the recordings are on the internal and part or them are placed on the external. Not either or like I thought it would be. Again, just seems to make more points of failure in my eyes because if either drive goes then you are screwed and lose everything. Just my 2 cents.


----------



## jmbach

Maybe somebody will develop a way to backup the internal flash and the drive. That would solve the issue. 

It would be simpler if TiVo would include a way of backing up and restoring the internal flash data via the cloud with the TiVo servers.


----------



## mattack

RyanL said:


> Sounds like part of the recordings are on the internal and part or them are placed on the external.


Multi-drive Tivos (e.g. 2 hard drives in a series 1) have always worked this way. I'm not saying I like it, but if you required an entire recording to be on one drive, then you'd end up with some unusable space on either drive.. plus you'd have to show it as if it were two separate drives to the user (way too confusing), and be able to move reocrdings back and forth..

Even though I admit it took me a while to get into it (and I still wish there were some of the editing capabilities on a Tivo that my Toshiba XS32 hard drive/DVD recorder has), just using a computer to download (non copy protected recordings) is really the best way overall to "easily" expand total usable storage.. even if it's not "live" storage for the Tivo.


----------



## krkaufman

thefritz said:


> I assume the answer is yes, but does MFS tools work after an upgrade to the new TiVo experience (Hydra)?


Any confirmation since this was posted? Can MFS Tools 3.2 be used on a drive from a Roamio running Hydra (TE4, 21.*) to migrate to an equal or larger drive (up to 4TB)?


----------



## jmbach

krkaufman said:


> Any confirmation since this was posted? Can MFS Tools 3.2 be used on a drive from a Roamio running Hydra (TE4, 21.*) to migrate to an equal or larger drive (up to 4TB)?


I have personally tried it on a Bolt with TE4 and it works....barring certain drives that cause a TE4 Bolt to get stuck on the starting up screen.


----------



## jmbach

So for those interested, the new version of MFSTools that support adding partitions to Bolts has been released.

This release was made possible with the help of @angra who helped with the modifications and did extensive testing to make sure they worked.


----------



## Richard Mixon

I now it's an old post, but wanted to say thank you to Stringham for his succinct writeup and of course to jmbach for MFS Tools and for noting that step 8 was not needed.

With that info I was able to upgrade my Roamio Plus with 1TB with factory WD10EURX to 4TB WD40EURX with no issues at all. The 1TB drive was about 90% full and woudl stutter several times each show, so a new drive seemed in order before all was lost.

It took about 6-1/2 hours for the mfscopy to run - but after that the Tivo just booted up clean, all my shows are there and the drive is 21% used.

I'm still seeing an occasional stutter but not as often - hope it's just the cable delivery issues I'm seeing and not the motherboard or power supply.

Thanks again - Richard



stringham said:


> I was able to successfully upgrade my Bolt from a 500GB to a 4TB drive and copy over my existing recordings and content. I'm really new to this and thought it might help someone else to know the steps I took in order to achieve this.
> 
> First I tried cloning the 500GB drive content to the 4TB drive and then use *mfsadd* but that said that there was no more space to add, and the Tivo did not recognize that it was a larger drive.
> 
> 1. Made a backup of the 500GB drive that was in my Bolt (this step was not necessary, but I wanted to be careful)
> 2. Downloaded MFSTools 3.3-devel USB/HD and saved to a usb drive and booted from it (I had to use the failsafe option when booting). Logged in with *username:* 'root' and *password:* 'tivo'
> 3. Plugged in the (backup) 500GB and 4TB drives with USB adapters
> 4. Determined the names of the drives with *lsblk -o name,size,vendor* (/dev/sdX is the source drive and /dev/sdY is the destination drive)
> 5. Running *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* gave the error: _*"Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector"*_
> 6. Ran *bootsectorfix /dev/sdX*
> 7. Ran *mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY* and waited for it to finish copying
> 8. Ran *mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdY *and* mfsaddfix /dev/sdY *(I'm not sure if these were necessary)
> 9. Put the new drive in the bolt and booted up. All content was successfully copied and there is now 639 HD hours.
> 
> Thanks jmbach for your work on MFSTools!


----------



## mattack

Richard Mixon said:


> I'm still seeing an occasional stutter but not as often - hope it's just the cable delivery issues I'm seeing and not the motherboard or power supply.


On new recordings? If it's only on old recordings, it COULD be glitches due to I/O errors from the original drive (replaced by 0s during the copy)...?


----------



## dougdingle

mattack said:


> On new recordings? If it's only on old recordings, it COULD be glitches due to I/O errors from the original drive (replaced by 0s during the copy)...?


It could also be, as he said, the source. Cable companies send out a lot of trash. Spectrum in Los Angeles was torturing CBS really badly for about a month a while back. I must have called then ten times until they finally looked and fixed it. Mostly stuttering, but also freezing, half the image disappearing, blasts of audio noise, it was a mess.

Their initial reaction was of course that it was the tivo at fault until I pointed out that my mom was having the same issues and she had one of their boxes, and that it wasn't possible for any piece of hardware in the home to cause that on a single channel.


----------



## mattack

I guess I'm lucky, I seem to see a *noticeable* glitch maybe once or twice a week? maybe even less than that.


----------



## dougdingle

It seems to vary, and may be based here on how conscientious the Spectrum techs are who do system maintenance. I have found that once I get an issue escalated and talk to someone who actually believes me when I say I'm a video engineer and know what I'm looking at, we are most of the way to a solution.


----------



## DonC6306

HELP! 6 years after an upgrade to a 2T drive on my TIVO HDXL, the HDD is failing. I have been searching high and low for a copy of WinMFS and cannot find one. I still have my original HDD so I don't need a copy of the image, just the WinMFS program. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.


----------



## dougdingle

Not sure if this will come through, but let's try it...


----------



## DonC6306

Thanks for the copy of WinMFS, now the issue is it keeps failing. It allows me to select the drives, but when I select mfscopy, the program quits. The last time I used WinMFS, I think I was using Win XP Sp 3. I now have Win Pro 10 64bit running, has anyone run into any issues or do I need to run with the MFS cd?


----------



## V7Goose

DonC6306 said:


> HELP! 6 years after an upgrade to a 2T drive on my TIVO HDXL, the HDD is failing. I have been searching high and low for a copy of WinMFS and cannot find one. I still have my original HDD so I don't need a copy of the image, just the WinMFS program. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.


You may want to check out my post here:
2019 TiVo HD Step-by-Step Drive Expansion

I also used WinMFS long ago, but when I recently had to replace one of those expanded drives, the new MFSTools was super easy.

And since you are using an old drive/image as a starting point, be sure NOT to run Guided setup with the new drive until the S3 has had a chance to update the software after that first boot, otherwise your box will have some real heartburn trying to interface with the Rovi database format! For extra safety, after you think it has downloaded the software update, make sure you do a power-off reboot before you try any Guided Setup.


----------



## DonC6306

Where can I get the MFSTools 3.3 .iso disc image? I have replaced the original Tivo drive (1T) and it has done all the updates and appears to be working without any problems, just still waiting for the complete guide download. Hoping to copy the failing current drive (2T) and recover the recorded shows. WinMFS starts, can select the drives, load the initial copy program and as soon as I select start, the program quits. I am wanting to try MFSTools in case there is a compatibility issue with Windows.


----------



## jmbach

DonC6306 said:


> Where can I get the MFSTools 3.3 .iso disc image? I have replaced the original Tivo drive (1T) and it has done all the updates and appears to be working without any problems, just still waiting for the complete guide download. Hoping to copy the failing current drive (2T) and recover the recorded shows. WinMFS starts, can select the drives, load the initial copy program and as soon as I select start, the program quits. I am wanting to try MFSTools in case there is a compatibility issue with Windows.


Start at post 8 of this thread.


----------



## Intrepid-NY

June 4, 2019
*Just thought I would post reporting my successful TiVo Roamio Clone & Exactly What I did.*
One TiVo was sporadically not booting (would not get past almost there). WeaKnees.com said it was most likely the hard drive. Since it was 5 years old, I agreed. I did the other TiVo because it was just as old. I probably won't be back to answer any questions - just wanted to post what I did and that it worked on two Roamio Plus TiVos. Some were reporting issues - I had none.

I cloned two Roamio TiVos:
TiVo Roamio Plus TCD848000 1TB Hard Drive

*Read this post carefully*: MFS Tools 3.2

*New Hard Drive* (sold on Amazon for $48): WD 2 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD20EURX
Note: This was the same drive used in the TiVo, only 2TB instead of 1TB.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DXOJJQQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

*New Drive Diagnostics*: I ran Western Digital "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic" for windows on the new drives first to make sure they were in good working order.
Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support

*MFSTools ISO Image Download:*
I used this ISO: MFSTools 3.32-devel ISO Live ISO
Found in this post: MFS Tools 3.2

*Burning Image: *I "burned" the ISO to a usb flash drive using RuFus 3.5 Portable. *Important*: When you click start in RuFus you MUST select "Write in DD Image Mode" - the second non-recommended option - or it will not boot properly!
Rufus

*MSFTools / Linux Login* - The correct MFSTools login is:
user: root
pass: tivo

*Determine Source and Target:* I used these commands to determine the source and target drives - this is _*critical*_. They will be listed as sd and a letter (for example: sdc). Your target will be the larger drive (obviously) - the size reported was 1.8T for the new Target Drive:

lsblk -d
lsblk -o name,size,vendor

*Clone Commands*: Double check your source and target designations (above).
This is the correct Command to clone a drive on a _Roamio _Tivo:
mfscopy -a /dev/sd*X* /dev/sd*Y*
Where sd*X *is the old source drive and sd*Y* is the new target drive.
(Premier and earlier models: mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY )

*Time Required to Clone*: Using SATA or e-SATA, it will take 4 to 12 hours (for a TiVo Roamio Plus) depending on your hardware and how many shows are on your drive. The mfscopy will give an estimated time of completion - and it was accurate.

*Diagnostics*: After starting the TiVos with the new drive I later ran these 2 Kickstart Diagnostic Codes which perform an mfs check and cleanup. Run them in this order after a clone:
First: 58 - perform mfs cleanup
Second: 57 - mfs check
This is how you run Kickstart Codes:
TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information

*Remember to read this post carefully:*
MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## ThAbtO

Intrepid-NY said:


> TiVo Roamio Plus TCD848000 1TB Hard Drive
> New Hard Drive (sold on Amazon for $48): WD 2 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD20EURX


Are you sure 2 TB is enough for you? Have you checked on the warranty with Western Digital (wdc.com)? It may have expired long ago, and they do not make these anymore. If you are not worried about the content on the older drive, just swap out the old drive for the new and it would be a newer Tivo. You would need to re-pair the cable card though.

I have used a WD Red 4TB WD40EFRX in my Roamio basic about 4 years ago and is still running strong. It is also more quiet then the Green drives.


----------



## Intrepid-NY

Yes, 2TB is plenty. $48 was a bargain. The drive was just as quiet as the original - can't hear it in my bedroom. The acoustic specs are the same (23 dBA idle / 24 dBA seek).
The AV-GP are designed for streaming DVRs/surveillance. The Reds are great and will work fine - but they are designed for NAS systems not DVRs.
I wanted to keep my shows. No cable card repairing was needed with Comcast/Xfinity.


----------



## dennisondik

I need help. I had my Tivo Premiere XL power adapter burn up on my 1TB hard drive. I decided to get a new power board and adapter. I cleaned up my HD. It melted a bit of the connector but It appears functional. BUT I decided that I should replace the HW with a new 1TB WD Red. I wanted to clone my existing HD. I downloaded MFSTOOLS 3.3 and booted it OK. I don't have any PC with SATA drives in it since my main pcs are laptops. I did have two Sata USB to SATA adapters. OK I thought I was set to go.... I saw both the old HD with multiple partitions (/dev/sdg) I see the new drive with no partitions. (/dev/sdh). (I used fdisk -l to see these). 
I used the following command...
*mfscopy -ai /dev/sdg /dev/sdh*
I immediately get Input/Output error reading volume header... try using -E.....

20 yrs ago I was a unix administrator and have forgotten almost everything.. I have spent hours looking over the forum. Am I forgetting something? did I Miss a step?


----------



## ThAbtO

dennisondik said:


> I need help. I had my Tivo Premiere XL power adapter burn up on my 1TB hard drive. I decided to get a new power board and adapter. I cleaned up my HD. It melted a bit of the connector but It appears functional. BUT I decided that I should replace the HW with a new 1TB WD Red. I wanted to clone my existing HD. I downloaded MFSTOOLS 3.3 and booted it OK. I don't have any PC with SATA drives in it since my main pcs are laptops. I did have two Sata USB to SATA adapters. OK I thought I was set to go.... I saw both the old HD with multiple partitions (/dev/sdg) I see the new drive with no partitions. (/dev/sdh). (I used fdisk -l to see these).
> I used the following command...
> *mfscopy -ai /dev/sdg /dev/sdh*
> I immediately get Input/Output error reading volume header... try using -E.....
> 
> 20 yrs ago I was a unix administrator and have forgotten almost everything.. I have spent hours looking over the forum. Am I forgetting something? did I Miss a step?


First of all, Premiere does not have a power adapter (AKA Power brick, wall wart).... It has a power supply/board.. I doubt the HD is salvageable. so, without knowing the proper model number, it would be hard to provide an image, though it would be DVRBars since there are none for MFSTools. available.


----------



## unitron

dennisondik said:


> I need help. I had my Tivo Premiere XL power adapter burn up on my 1TB hard drive. I decided to get a new power board and adapter. I cleaned up my HD. It melted a bit of the connector but It appears functional. BUT I decided that I should replace the HW with a new 1TB WD Red. I wanted to clone my existing HD. I downloaded MFSTOOLS 3.3 and booted it OK. I don't have any PC with SATA drives in it since my main pcs are laptops. I did have two Sata USB to SATA adapters. OK I thought I was set to go.... I saw both the old HD with multiple partitions (/dev/sdg) I see the new drive with no partitions. (/dev/sdh). (I used fdisk -l to see these).
> I used the following command...
> *mfscopy -ai /dev/sdg /dev/sdh*
> I immediately get Input/Output error reading volume header... try using -E.....
> 
> 20 yrs ago I was a unix administrator and have forgotten almost everything.. I have spent hours looking over the forum. Am I forgetting something? did I Miss a step?


You're looking for an IBM/PC/DOS style partition table, and there isn't one there.

TiVo uses a version of the old Apple Partition Map, and you need

pdisk

to see it.

pdisk

is on the MFSTools cd.

But since we're talking about a TiVo newer than the Series 3 models, the only thing you can do with MFSTools is to "Xerox" the old drive to the new one with

dd

or

ddrescue


----------



## dennisondik

dennisondik said:


> I need help. I had my Tivo Premiere XL power adapter burn up on my 1TB hard drive. I decided to get a new power board and adapter. I cleaned up my HD. It melted a bit of the connector but It appears functional. BUT I decided that I should replace the HW with a new 1TB WD Red. I wanted to clone my existing HD. I downloaded MFSTOOLS 3.3 and booted it OK. I don't have any PC with SATA drives in it since my main pcs are laptops. I did have two Sata USB to SATA adapters. OK I thought I was set to go.... I saw both the old HD with multiple partitions (/dev/sdg) I see the new drive with no partitions. (/dev/sdh). (I used fdisk -l to see these).
> I used the following command...
> *mfscopy -ai /dev/sdg /dev/sdh*
> I immediately get Input/Output error reading volume header... try using -E.....
> 
> 20 yrs ago I was a unix administrator and have forgotten almost everything.. I have spent hours looking over the forum. Am I forgetting something? did I Miss a step?


UPDATE....

even though my old HD spins up.. It appears it is toast. SO... It looks like I will need to down load and rebuild the TIVO Disk... ;-(


----------



## mattack

Do you mean it doesn't show on the computer at all? you MIGHT be able to recover it if it spins up with a new drive controller.. though I admit I never ended up bothering doing that for my OLED S3 which died and killed a drive.. (Even bought another used S3 to hopefully have someone do the encryption chip transfer to.. but then never bothered.) If I knew it'd work, I'd still pay someone to do it (since I know I have at least a season of shows that don't re-air due to music issues).


----------



## dennisondik

dennisondik said:


> UPDATE....
> 
> even though my old HD spins up.. It appears it is toast. SO... It looks like I will need to down load and rebuild the TIVO Disk... ;-(


Update again.&#8230;. 
I decided to take the printed circuit board off the old hard drive. I found out during manufacture of the board, they somehow did not solder the pins totally on the power part of the connector board interface. Evidently the pins were touching the board but not soldered. Even though the drive worked for over 5 years, the bad connection got worst until it totally melted the connector. I took the time to clean up the board and bad pins and resoldered it. NOW.... the MFSCOPY is working as it should... Thanks for letting me comment..


----------



## dougdingle

dennisondik said:


> Update again.&#8230;.
> I decided to take the printed circuit board off the old hard drive. I found out during manufacture of the board, they somehow did not solder the pins totally on the power part of the connector board interface. Evidently the pins were touching the board but not soldered. Even though the drive worked for over 5 years, the bad connection got worst until it totally melted the connector. I took the time to clean up the board and bad pins and resoldered it. NOW.... the MFSCOPY is working as it should... Thanks for letting me comment..


Nicely done.


----------



## mattack

You want to try to fix my WD drive too?? (the one from my dead OLED S3)

(mostly joking)


----------



## multiple

I have a new drive that does not seem to want to get past the starting up screen. I know others have this same drive working on TE4, so I doubt it is TE4 that is blocking it. The only difference I think might be an issue...

This was originally a 500GB Bolt, where I replaced the original drive with a Toshiba 3TB. So I used mfscopy from the 3TB to the new larger drive. Under msfinfo the new drive shows 4 partitions, sdb 10 - 13. 2 @ 800MiB and 2 @ 1564361MiB. There are 6 zones, zones 0 - 5 and the partition table shows 15 partitions and a comment that the drive can be expanded 4 more times. One MFS media region, partition 11, starts @ 64 and has 3203811640 sectors. Another media region 2, partition 13 starts @ 32091855656, and has 3201811640 sectors. There is an extra partition 15, which is 8589934592 sectors. I haven't run msfadd yet to expand it further. I put the drive back into the Bolt and ran into this issue. I tried a kickstart 58 without any change.

Is there anything I need to try first before retrying the mfscopy procedure? If I have to restart the procedure, do I need to prep the new drive first, by erasing all partitions before going forward?

After checking around some more I'm not 100% certain that the Micron Ion 5210 drive works under TE4. If this turns out to be a TE4 issue I hope TiVo fixes it soon. I don't want to downgrade the drive and lose the shows.


----------



## jmbach

multiple said:


> I have a new drive that does not seem to want to get past the starting up screen. I know others have this same drive working on TE4, so I doubt it is TE4 that is blocking it. The only difference I think might be an issue...
> 
> This was originally a 500GB Bolt, where I replaced the original drive with a Toshiba 3TB. So I used mfscopy from the 3TB to the new larger drive. Under msfinfo the new drive shows 4 partitions, sdb 10 - 13. 2 @ 800MiB and 2 @ 1564361MiB. There are 6 zones, zones 0 - 5 and the partition table shows 15 partitions and a comment that the drive can be expanded 4 more times. One MFS media region, partition 11, starts @ 64 and has 3203811640 sectors. Another media region 2, partition 13 starts @ 32091855656, and has 3201811640 sectors. There is an extra partition 15, which is 8589934592 sectors. I haven't run msfadd yet to expand it further. I put the drive back into the Bolt and ran into this issue. I tried a kickstart 58 without any change.
> 
> Is there anything I need to try first before retrying the miscopy procedure? If I have to restart the procedure, do I need to prep the new drive first, by erasing all partitions before going forward?
> 
> After checking around some more I'm not 100% certain that the Micron Ion 5210 drive works under TE4. If this turns out to be a TE4 issue I hope TiVo fixes it soon. I don't want to downgrade the drive and lose the the shows.


At this point, no one knows why certain drives will work or not work in a Bolt with TE4. It appears to only affect the 2.5 inch drives and not 3.5 inch drives. My suggestion would be to try another drive.


----------



## multiple

Thanks for the reply. If I see a comment from mfsinfo that I can still expand the drive then it successfully copied the old to the new drive? Or are there extra steps I need to take to make sure mfscopy was correctly done?


----------



## jmbach

multiple said:


> Thanks for the reply. If I see a comment from mfsinfo that I can still expand the drive then it successfully copied the old to the new drive? Or are there extra steps I need to take to make sure mfscopy was correctly done?


mfscopy will copy and expand at the same time. Use -a in the command line to include recordings.

mfsinfo is letting you know how much space is the the MFS header to expand. It is not indicating how much space on the drive there is to expand.


----------



## multiple

jmbach said:


> mfscopy will copy and expand at the same time. Use -a in the command line to include recordings.
> 
> mfsinfo is letting you know how much space is the the MFS header to expand. It is not indicating how much space on the drive there is to expand.


Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. I'm expecting if mfsinfo shows something meaningful then the mfscopy was successful and the boot up failure is likely not due to a botched mfscopy. I thought the -a command expanded the drive to 4TB, then you needed MFSAdd for any remainder. I just want to check if there might be other steps to take using MFStools which might address the stuck at Starting Up screen.


----------



## jmbach

multiple said:


> Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. I'm expecting if mfsinfo shows something meaningful then the mfscopy was successful and the boot up failure is likely not due to a botched mfscopy. I thought the -a command expanded the drive to 4TB, then you needed MFSAdd for any remainder. I just want to check if there might be other steps to take using MFStools which might address the stuck at Starting Up screen.


I guess I did. mfscopy will expand while copying up to the max size of the drive using a standard TiVo layout. Unfortunately, TiVo will not correctly recognize the recording space correctly for any image created over 4 TB. That is why you need to add the -m or - M switch to limit the copy to 4TB when you copy to a drive larger than 4 TB. -a just includes the recordings when it copies.

mfsadd adds partitions beyond the standard TiVo layout to add recording space or used to attach a non TiVo approved external drive to the unit.

You would not need to use mfsadd if you used mfscopy on a 4TB or smaller drive.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## multiple

jmbach said:


> I guess I did. mfscopy will expand while copying up to the max size of the drive using a standard TiVo layout. Unfortunately, TiVo will not correctly recognize the recording space correctly for any image created over 4 TB. That is why you need to add the -m or - M switch to limit the copy to 4TB when you copy to a drive larger than 4 TB. -a just includes the recordings when it copies.
> 
> mfsadd adds partitions beyond the standard TiVo layout to add recording space or used to attach a non TiVo approved external drive to the unit.
> 
> You would not need to use mfsadd if you used mfscopy on a 4TB or smaller drive.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


The original drive was 500GB, then replaced with a 3TB Toshiba back before MFStools supported Bolts. The latest drive is a 7.68TB 2.5in SSD. So I was aware I needed to use MFSAdd to expand it to full capacity, but I wanted to try testing the drive first before the full expansion. This seems to be the procedure I see everyone trying. Now that I think of it, during my other Bolt upgrades, I expect the Bolt would have at a minimum reformatted the drive down to 3TB and then make it to the initial set up screen. That did not happen and that is what happened with my 4TB and 5TB drives when I used MFSR to do the expansion.


----------



## jmbach

multiple said:


> The original drive was 500GB, then replaced with a 3TB Toshiba back before MFStools supported Bolts. The latest drive is a 7.68TB 2.5in SSD. So I was aware I needed to use MFSAdd to expand it to full capacity, but I wanted to try testing the drive first before the full expansion. This seems to be the procedure I see everyone trying. Now that I think of it, during my other Bolt upgrades, I expect the Bolt would have at a minimum reformatted the drive down to 3TB and then make it to the initial set up screen. That did not happen and that is what happened with my 4TB and 5TB drives when I used MFSR to do the expansion.


Does your 3 TB work in the Bolt with TE 4?


----------



## multiple

jmbach said:


> Does your 3 TB work in the Bolt with TE 4?


Yes, reinstalling the 3TB drive works with no shows lost.


----------



## jmbach

So, if you use a drive cloner (dock or software) to clone the 3 TB to the new drive and then put the new drive in the TiVo, if the drive will work, it will boot up to be operational. Then you could use the 10 TB DIY Roamio thread instructions to use the whole drive for recordings. 

Before I do that, I would make sure the drive passes diagnostic testing first.


----------



## multiple

jmbach said:


> So, if you use a drive cloner (dock or software) to clone the 3 TB to the new drive and then put the new drive in the TiVo, if the drive will work, it will boot up to be operational. Then you could use the 10 TB DIY Roamio thread instructions to use the whole drive for recordings.
> 
> Before I do that, I would make sure the drive passes diagnostic testing first.


Is using dd under MFStools sufficient for doing this? I don't have a docking station that dupes and I don't think I have any software apps that can do this. I'll have to do some research.


----------



## jmbach

multiple said:


> Is using dd under MFStools sufficient for doing this? I don't have a docking station that dupes and I don't think I have any software apps that can do this. I'll have to do some research.


dd will work just fine.


----------



## brichter

So, I have followed a few threads in this topic (no time to read all 1342 posts), and searched, but can't find an answer to my question:

I have a failed 2TB drive out of my Tivo Premiere, it lasted 6 years so I guess that was pretty good. I already cloned, expanded, and supersized a new 2TB drive from the original 320GB drive which only spent <1 hour in the Tivo before the 2TB upgrade to get the Tivo up and running, but the old drive contains many recordings I'd rather not lose.

I made a dd copy of the failed Tivo drive (dd [if=failed drive] [of=new drive] conv=sync,noerror), and this new drive won't boot, all lights except power are blinking. Not sure if the OS partition is hosed or some other issue. Is there a way to use the new mfstools to verify the recordings are still intact, and if so, copy just the OS partition to the drive I copied with dd? Or maybe copy the media to the new 2TB drive already up and running in the Tivo? Or is the better route to use ddrescue and pray to the Tivo gods for a miracle?

Thanks in advance for all the great info here!


----------



## ThAbtO

Since the drive failed, all your precious recordings are toast. You would need to start over with a new image.
You could have saved those (not copy-protected) shows while the drive still worked by transferring to the computer with KMTTG/PyTivo,


----------



## JimWall

Did you use DD or DD_rescue to copy "bad" drive to a new one? 
If DD worked I would think drive is not dead.
I have replaced "bad" drives that won't boot using 
dd_rescue -A -v -b 128M /dev/sda /dev/sdb
It will tell you error rate, amount rescued. If none then "bad" drive is good.
If drive not bad or new drive doesn't work then maybe you have a power supply issue. Check to see if any capacitors are bulging.


----------



## brichter

JimWall said:


> Did you use DD or DD_rescue to copy "bad" drive to a new one?
> If DD worked I would think drive is not dead.
> I have replaced "bad" drives that won't boot using
> dd_rescue -A -v -b 128M /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> It will tell you error rate, amount rescued. If none then "bad" drive is good.
> If drive not bad or new drive doesn't work then maybe you have a power supply issue. Check to see if any capacitors are bulging.


No bulging capacitors.
2TB drive I removed from the Tivo won't boot the Tivo.
2TB drive I cloned from the removed drive using dd will not boot the Tivo.
New drive imaged from the original 320GB drive will boot the Tivo.
Original 320GB drive will boot the Tivo.

Pretty sure given the above data points the issue is drive-related. As per my post, I used dd with conv=sync,noerror, which will replace the missing input data caused by errors on the source drive with NUL bytes on the destination drive. I used dd with these switches to ensure I preserved as much data as possible from the failed drive, since I knew the failed drive will only get worse as it continues to be read.

Is there a way to use the new mfstools to verify the recordings are still intact, and if so, copy just the OS partition to the drive I copied with dd? Or maybe copy the media to the new 2TB drive already up and running in the Tivo? Or is the better route to use ddrescue and pray to the Tivo gods for a miracle?


----------



## JimWall

brichter said:


> No bulging capacitors.
> 2TB drive I removed from the Tivo won't boot the Tivo.
> 2TB drive I cloned from the removed drive using dd will not boot the Tivo.
> New drive imaged from the original 320GB drive will boot the Tivo.
> Original 320GB drive will boot the Tivo.
> 
> Pretty sure given the above data points the issue is drive-related. As per my post, I used dd with conv=sync,noerror, which will replace the missing input data caused by errors on the source drive with NUL bytes on the destination drive. I used dd with these switches to ensure I preserved as much data as possible from the failed drive, since I knew the failed drive will only get worse as it continues to be read.
> 
> Is there a way to use the new mfstools to verify the recordings are still intact, and if so, copy just the OS partition to the drive I copied with dd? Or maybe copy the media to the new 2TB drive already up and running in the Tivo? Or is the better route to use ddrescue and pray to the Tivo gods for a miracle?


If you used old dd then try dd_rescue.

You can also try to copy recordings with 
Usage: ./mfscopy [options] SourceA[:SourceB] DestA[estB]
mfscopy -ai /dev/sda:/dev/sdb /dev/sdc
If it fails with read errors then I use dd_rescue
Better at handling bad sectors than dd


----------



## brichter

Thanks, I'll give that a try.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> 9/2/2017 You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt successfully. You still cannot use it to copy/backup/restore Bolt images.


Are you saying that MFSTools can be used to make a large (4TB) drive work with the eSATA port on the Bolt? Or, are you referring to the mod where one must cut a hole in the Bolt and plug the external drive into the internal SATA port?

If I can make a 3.5" 4TB external drive work with the eSATA port, I prefer to go that route. If MFSTools can do this, what is the command syntax for that? I read through a bunch of this thread starting at 9/2/2017, but I couldn't find any reference to doing this.

Thanks.


----------



## mattack

I don't know the answer BUT unless something has changed (and I don't think it has), if you have two drives and ONE drive goes bad, you end up losing shows on BOTH drives. So it's not like an external drive as 'extra' storage on a computer.


----------



## jmbach

barnabas1969 said:


> Are you saying that MFSTools can be used to make a large (4TB) drive work with the eSATA port on the Bolt? Or, are you referring to the mod where one must cut a hole in the Bolt and plug the external drive into the internal SATA port?
> 
> If I can make a 3.5" 4TB external drive work with the eSATA port, I prefer to go that route. If MFSTools can do this, what is the command syntax for that? I read through a bunch of this thread starting at 9/2/2017, but I couldn't find any reference to doing this.
> 
> Thanks.


You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt. By an external drive is one that is attached to the eSata port of the Bolt. Now if the external drive ever goes bad, you will lose all the shows recorded after the date you attached it to your Bolt.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt. By an external drive is one that is attached to the eSata port of the Bolt. Now if the external drive ever goes bad, you will lose all the shows recorded after the date you attached it to your Bolt.


I'm willing to take that risk. What is the command syntax to do this?


----------



## barnabas1969

ThAbtO said:


> Are you sure its warranty and not for Tivo service? If its a warranty, you still need to pay Tivo for Tivo service, without it, you cannot record, get guide data, show transfers, and everything else. (unless the Tivo includes All-in Service.)


It's kind of muddy. There are some terms for the first year, and different terms for the second year.

But, I don't want to deviate from my main question in this thread.

My main question is... How can I use MFSTools to attach a 4TB external drive to the eSATA port on a Tivo Bolt?


----------



## barnabas1969

ThAbtO said:


> Are you sure its warranty and not for Tivo service? If its a warranty, you still need to pay Tivo for Tivo service, without it, you cannot record, get guide data, show transfers, and everything else. (unless the Tivo includes All-in Service.)


BTW, you replied to those posts before I deleted them. I decided to delete them because I didn't want to confuse anyone.

I bought the Bolt with a 24 month plan because I don't trust that the hardware will last a full 24 months. The 24 month plan gives me reassurance that Tivo will fix the hardware if it fails within the 24 month period.

Thus, I don't want to drill holes in the thing before the 24 months have passed. And, so, I would like an option to connect an external 4TB drive via the eSATA port on the back of the Bolt.


----------



## barnabas1969

ThAbtO said:


> It might have been mentioned, but you need to research back over the last 15-20 pages in this thread.


I have read more pages of this thread than I wanted to.

I will wait for jmbach to respond to this post: MFS Tools 3.2

I only want to know the syntax that will cause MFSTools to allow me to connect a 4TB external HDD to my Bolt. Period.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt. By an external drive is one that is attached to the eSata port of the Bolt. Now if the external drive ever goes bad, you will lose all the shows recorded after the date you attached it to your Bolt.


If you can tell me how to make a 4TB external eSATA drive work with a 1TB Bolt VOX, I will happily donate money to you.


----------



## barnabas1969

ThAbtO said:


> The Tivo's eSata port does not work the same way as one on a PC. It merges a compatible drive (namely the Tivo Expander, no longer made) to the internal. To use MFSTools, you must remove the internal drive and connect with the intended external drive to the PC.


I understand that eSATA on a Tivo (and every MSO DVR) does not work like an eSATA port on a PC.

Please refer to my post above, which references a post from jmbach.

I am waiting for a response from jmbach.

Posts from other people are NOT helpful.


----------



## jmbach

barnabas1969 said:


> I'm willing to take that risk. What is the command syntax to do this?


You will have to remove the internal drive from the TiVo and attach it to to your computer along with the drive you are going to use for the external drive. The command would be mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where sdX is the name of the internal drive and sdY is the name of the external drive. (ie sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, ...)


----------



## barnabas1969

Please refer to this post...

MFS Tools 3.2

I am waiting for jmbach to respond.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> You will have to remove the internal drive from the TiVo and attach it to to your computer along with the drive you are going to use for the external drive. The command would be mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where sdX is the name of the internal drive and sdY is the name of the external drive. (ie sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, ...)


Thank you so much!

If I get this working, I will be happy to donate to you. Do you have a "donate" link?


----------



## jmbach

I refer anyone who wants to donate to me to ggieseke MFS Reformatter (mfsr) as he develops windows based TiVo software.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> You will have to remove the internal drive from the TiVo and attach it to to your computer along with the drive you are going to use for the external drive. The command would be mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where sdX is the name of the internal drive and sdY is the name of the external drive. (ie sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, ...)


I have already made a bootable USB flash drive with your software. I have verified that I can boot it on one of my PC's.

I received my WD "red" 4TB drive and the external enclosure today.
I will receive my brand new Bolt tomorrow.

As I understand, I should go through the set-up process on the Bolt...

Then, remove the Bolt's internal 1TB drive...

Connect the 1TB drive AND the 4TB external drive to my PC...

Boot from the MFSTools USB flash drive...

And execute the following command...

mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

(where sdX is the name of the internal drive and sdY is the name of the external drive)

Correct?


----------



## jmbach

barnabas1969 said:


> I have already made a bootable USB flash drive with your software. I have verified that I can boot it on one of my PC's.
> 
> I received my WD "red" 4TB drive and the external enclosure today.
> I will receive my brand new Bolt tomorrow.
> 
> As I understand, I should go through the set-up process on the Bolt...
> 
> Then, remove the Bolt's internal 1TB drive...
> 
> Connect the 1TB drive AND the 4TB external drive to my PC...
> 
> Boot from the MFSTools USB flash drive...
> 
> And execute the following command...
> 
> mfsadd -xfm 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> (where sdX is the name of the internal drive and sdY is the name of the external drive)
> 
> Correct?


That is correct. What enclosure are you using for the external drive?


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> That is correct. What enclosure are you using for the external drive?


I bought this enclosure:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1Q2M6A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this drive:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EHBERSE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> That is correct. What enclosure are you using for the external drive?


Does my hardware choice affect the commands and options?


----------



## jmbach

barnabas1969 said:


> Does my hardware choice affect the commands and options?


No. TiVo does not play well with enclosures that encrypt the drive. You should be fine.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> No. TiVo does not play well with enclosures that encrypt the drive. You should be fine.


Thank you. I will donate when I am able to make it all work correctly.

I don't want to drill holes in my brand new device until after the 24 month warrantee period. I hope you understand.


----------



## jmbach

barnabas1969 said:


> Thank you. I will donate when I am able to make it all work correctly.
> 
> I don't want to drill holes in my brand new device until after the 24 month warrantee period. I hope you understand.


I understand. I have an almost 2 year old Bolt+ that I attached an external 8 TB drive to it that is still going strong.


----------



## barnabas1969

jmbach said:


> I refer anyone who wants to donate to me to ggieseke MFS Reformatter (mfsr) as he develops windows based TiVo software.


That was unbelievably simple! Donation sent. Thank you very much!


----------



## chip2004

I am in the middle of an attempt to upgrade a Bolt+ to a 6TB drive in an external enclosure. I have run into a wall and would appreciate any advice on how to proceed.

My original Bolt+ was a 3TB model. That WD drive failed a couple of months ago. To get things going again I replaced it with a 1TB Toshiba drive. The Bolt formatted the new drive successfully. I re-entered season passes, etc., and began recording again. I am using TE3.

In the meantime, following the hardware upgrade advice gleaned from @Tivogre's work in this post, I bought a 6TB WD Red WD60EFAX drive and the Rosewill 304 enclosure. I made the necessary mods to the Bolt and Rosewill cases to allow direct connection of the SATA cable.

Today I booted MFSTools in my desktop with both the Toshiba and WD drives connected via SATA. I established which drive was which via lsblk. I was able to run MFSCopy (mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY) after running bootsectorfix. It took 83 minutes to copy 300 GB.

I installed the WD Red in the enclosure, hooked up power, SATA, etc. Attempted to boot. Got a brief "Tivo" display on the screen, then it went blank. Tivo showing green light. Nothing happening for more than 10 minutes. Powered down and switched out SATA cables. No joy. Initiated KS 58 -- lights indicated the command was accepted but nothing appeared on the screen. Also tried KS 54 -- command accepted but nothing appeared on screen.

Shut down and connected the WD drive (still in the enclosure) to desktop. Ran WD diagnostics (short); drive passed.

Reinstalled the Toshiba 1 TB drive in the Tivo. It booted successfully. Recordings, season passes, etc. are all intact.

So I am wondering what to try next:

1. Retry MFSCopy? Write zeroes to WD drive first?
2. Clone the Toshiba drive to the WD Red and then use MFSadd to expand?
3. ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.



jmbach said:


> So for those interested, the new version of MFSTools that support adding partitions to Bolts has been released.
> 
> This release was made possible with the help of @angra who helped with the modifications and did extensive testing to make sure they worked.


----------



## chip2004

Update to the above post:

Using the same connections on my desktop I tried MFSCopy again, though this time used the command mfscopy -am2000 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY . This completed in 84 minutes.

Connected this drive, in the enclosure, to the Bolt+ and it booted! Tivo indicated 685 HD hours. I figured this indicated a 4 TB image.

Disconnected the drive from the Bolt+ and ran mfsadd, followed by mfsaddfix. Reconnected to the Bolt+, which booted up and now shows 960 HD hours. All recordings, season passes, etc. have been preserved. Success!

Thanks to @jmbach for this wonderful set of tools and the many posts about how to use them.

I'm curious if anyone has any ideas why the first copy failed but the second succeeded.


----------



## Idealsol

I am trying to upgrade a Roamio Plus with a WD 4 tb red drive. Using a boot cd
Both drives connected with internal SATA. Both drives can be identified with MFStool info /dev/sdX
But when I try to copy , after it scans the source drive ( drive B ) I get the following error- “unable to open dev/sda for writing”
Can anyone help
Thanks


----------



## jmbach

Idealsol said:


> I am trying to upgrade a Roamio Plus with a WD 4 tb red drive. Using a boot cd
> Both drives connected with internal SATA. Both drives can be identified with MFStool info /dev/sdX
> But when I try to copy , after it scans the source drive ( drive B ) I get the following error- "unable to open dev/sda for writing"
> Can anyone help
> Thanks


Can you post screen shots of the commands and screen messages you are getting starting after you logon to the MFSTools ISO.


----------



## Idealsol

jmbach said:


> Can you post screen shots of the commands and screen messages you are getting starting after you logon to the MFSTools ISO.


In frustration, I decided to zero out the new drive ( Quick zero method, the WD diagnostic wouldn't work in Windows, used dos )
After that on 3 different host computers I get the following with only the new WD red 4tb drive attached
Linux: mfstool info /dev/sda
That returns:
Info: input/output error reading volume header 
Info:/dev/sda10: success


----------



## jmbach

Idealsol said:


> In frustration, I decided to zero out the new drive ( Quick zero method, the WD diagnostic wouldn't work in Windows, used dos )
> After that on 3 different host computers I get the following with only the new WD red 4tb drive attached
> Linux: mfstool info /dev/sda
> That returns:
> Info: input/output error reading volume header
> Info:/dev/sda10: success


That is the correct message from mfsinfo when it examines a non TiVo drive. Since you erased the drive. That is an expected message.


----------



## Idealsol

jmbach said:


> That is the correct message from mfsinfo when it examines a non TiVo drive. Since you erased the drive. That is an expected message.


Thank you, much appreciated
Finally got the copy going on a laptop using a esata drive dock for the old drive, and usb for the new
Now just hoping it copies the drive which is failing , as intermittent clicks indicate. But it was still working when I pulled it. All the way to 0.95 %, just 99% more to go


----------



## SOGLAD

Can someone please assist me?

I have a* TiVo TCD652180*, 
I am trying to install a NEW* WESTERN DIGITAL 1 TB Drive,* *WD20EURX *"Green" (WD AV), USING *DVRBARS 1.0.0.7*
I did _not _take the option to format with Windows.

*DVRBARS *appeared to *"Backup"* and capture my original *160 GB *drive just fine (Truncated). 
*
DVRBARS "sees"* my 1 TB Drive *with no apparent problems*. It *"Restores"* to my new WD Drive *and "**SEES**" the new/additional hard drive "space" too! I accept the offer to expand to full 1 TB size... the problem is ~ DVRBARS appears to get "lost" after that and never authorizes the full 1 TB media?*

I've tried 2 'fresh' downloads of *DVRBARS, *but even after leaving *DVRBARS *churning for hours (overnight), the rest of the hard drive is never accessible? *DVRBARS * does ask if I am _*"sure you want to stop now?"*_, but I fear I could wait a full week and still have the same results? My TiVo insists that my *1 TB is just 160 GB?*... *sigh. _ SO frustrating _because I can't fathom what I may be missing or doing wrong? I must add that I tried a SECOND NEW *WD20EURX *"Green" WD AV, and got the same results! Please let me assure you that I opened the shipping bags myself so I know both drives were virgin.

Just to be clear, my TiVo _does _boot and function _with _the 1TB Drive... *it just can't "see" the additional new space?*
Any ideas will be VERY welcome!

Thank you Team!
SOGLAD


----------



## ThAbtO

You are using the wrong program. DVRBars doesn't expand. Use WinMFS or Mfstools.


----------



## jmbach

SOGLAD said:


> Can someone please assist me?
> 
> I have a* TiVo TCD652180*,
> I am trying to install a NEW* WESTERN DIGITAL 1 TB Drive,* *WD20EURX *"Green" (WD AV), USING *DVRBARS 1.0.0.7*
> I did _not _take the option to format with Windows.
> 
> *DVRBARS *appeared to *"Backup"* and capture my original *160 GB *drive just fine (Truncated).
> *
> DVRBARS "sees"* my 1 TB Drive *with no apparent problems*. It *"Restores"* to my new WD Drive *and "**SEES**" the new/additional hard drive "space" too! I accept the offer to expand to full 1 TB size... the problem is ~ DVRBARS appears to get "lost" after that and never authorizes the full 1 TB media?*
> 
> I've tried 2 'fresh' downloads of *DVRBARS, *but even after leaving *DVRBARS *churning for hours (overnight), the rest of the hard drive is never accessible? *DVRBARS * does ask if I am _*"sure you want to stop now?"*_, but I fear I could wait a full week and still have the same results? My TiVo insists that my *1 TB is just 160 GB?*... *sigh. _ SO frustrating _because I can't fathom what I may be missing or doing wrong? I must add that I tried a SECOND NEW *WD20EURX *"Green" WD AV, and got the same results! Please let me assure you that I opened the shipping bags myself so I know both drives were virgin.
> 
> Just to be clear, my TiVo _does _boot and function _with _the 1TB Drive... *it just can't "see" the additional new space?*
> Any ideas will be VERY welcome!
> 
> Thank you Team!
> SOGLAD


Restore the DvrBARS image to one of your drives. Then use MFSTools to copy it to your final drive. The largest drive you can use is 2 TB.


----------



## jmbach

BTW, the WD20EURX is a 2TB drive.


----------



## SOGLAD

jmbach said:


> Restore the DvrBARS image to one of your drives. Then use MFSTools to copy it to your final drive. The largest drive you can use is 2 TB.


Thank you for your reply!

I didn't realize *DvrBARS *could not do it alone? Hummm... My DvrBARS "Backup" is saved and it appears that part was good? I think I tried something similar but my saved *DvrBARS *'backup' was in a _different_ format that *MFSTools* could not recognize?

Your reply is very inspiring and I will try your approach in the AM... *Again, THANK YOU!*

SOGLAD


----------



## SOGLAD

OH WOW! So it *IS *a 2 TB drive, but I was willing to settle for whatever I could get! Honestly, I've spent so many hours on this project that my eyes are blurred. Thank you for reminding me... I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel...

SOGLAD


----------



## jmbach

SOGLAD said:


> Thank you for your reply!
> 
> I didn't realize *DvrBARS *could not do it alone? Hummm... My DvrBARS "Backup" is saved and it appears that part was good? I think I tried something similar but my saved *DvrBARS *'backup' was in a _different_ format that *MFSTools* could not recognize?
> 
> Your reply is very inspiring and I will try your approach in the AM... *Again, THANK YOU!*
> 
> SOGLAD


I would recommend that after you restore your backup to the intermediate drive, that you let it boot in the TiVo once to make sure it connects to the TiVo servers before you copy it to your final drive.

However, if your original drive is fully functional and the drive has no defects, you could copy the original drive to your final drive and skip the intermediate drive.

I do recommend that you run WD diagnostic on your final drive (both a full read and write) to make sure any flakey sectors are remapped before you copy anything to it.


----------



## SOGLAD

jmbach... _ "run WD diagnostic "_ is a very good idea and I don't mind investing the extra time now. The original drive appears to be just fine with no apparent errors... it's just that the 'playground' is too small (he said with a sad smile).

I did comment that the 'new' 2TB WD _does _boot, update and record OK too ~ it's just "missing" a whole bunch of media. It sure was EXCITING until I saw the TiVo Specs screen. 
Now since this 2TB has been installed with data and updates (etc)... can "it" be considered my* "intermediate drive"? *I do have the original Truncated Hard Drive data salted away elsewhere (fyi).

SOGLAD


----------



## SOGLAD

jmbach said:


> However, if your original drive is fully functional and the drive has no defects, *"you could copy the original drive to your final drive and skip the intermediate drive."*
> 
> YO, jmbach, *YES*, this is *exactly *what I would like to accomplish! Please tell me what program/Tools do you use or recommend ~ please?
> 
> SOGLAD


----------



## ThAbtO

SOGLAD said:


> I did comment that the 'new' 2TB WD _does _boot, update and record OK too ~ it's just "missing" a whole bunch of media. It sure was EXCITING until I saw the TiVo Specs screen.


Didn't you notice my reply to use MFSTools or WinMFS to expand (MFSAdd?) You would not need to start over again.


----------



## jmbach

SOGLAD said:


> Now since this 2TB has been installed with data and updates (etc)... can "it" be considered my* "intermediate drive"? *I do have the original Truncated Hard Drive data salted away elsewhere (fyi).
> 
> SOGLAD


Yes it can


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> Didn't you notice my reply to use MFSTools or WinMFS to expand (MFSAdd?) You would not need to start over again.


The advantage of using mfscopy to copy the drive to a larger drive rather than use mfsadd is that the swap space is enlarged as well.


----------



## SOGLAD

ThAbtO said:


> Didn't you notice my reply to use MFSTools or WinMFS to expand (MFSAdd?) You would not need to start over again.


YES, indeed I did read it and I did see _and *use *_the WinMFS option to _"expand"_, but WinMFS appears to get "lost" and (apparently) never completed that part of the procedure? I left WinMFS running all night and in the AM I got a message (similar to)_ 'are your sure you want to quit now'? 
_
I had _no _idea _how long a 2TB drive would take to 'expand'_ so I did quit and got the disappointing results. And again, this was many hours after the my original _expand _request.

*Thank you Team for your replies... I greatly appreciate your help and insight!*

SOGLAD


----------



## ggieseke

If you have any experience with virtualization software like VMware or VirtualBox you could create a virtual machine that uses your DvrBARS backup file as the source drive, the new 2TB drive as the destination drive, and the MFS Tools .ISO file as the CD boot drive. Then the mfscopy command in MFS Tools should be able to copy & expand it in one step.

DvrBARS uses the Microsoft VHD file format for several reasons, and one of them is that most virtualization software understands it. I also just like sticking to published standards in case it comes in handy someday, which it has. I've even used it in the Full Backup (dumb) mode to backup Windows drives.


----------



## SOGLAD

FANTASTIC! I will checkout both VMware and VirtualBox later today after some Sunday family obligations and traditions. Hopefully YOUTUBE has a few how to's to offer? I'll check that out first!

I THANK YOU all, thank you for the life-rings!

SOGLAD


----------



## M Willis

I'm having a tough time finding the MFS Tools 3.2 iso download. Did it get pulled from SourceForge? Can't seem to find a downloadable .iso file anywhere. I'm finally getting around to upgrading my Roamio with a new drive and wanted to copy my old drive to the new 3TB while it's still good but it's been *years*. Last version I have is MFS Tools 2.0 and the WinMFS both of which I know won't work. Thanks!


----------



## ggieseke

M Willis said:


> I'm having a tough time finding the MFS Tools 3.2 iso download. Did it get pulled from SourceForge? Can't seem to find a downloadable .iso file anywhere. I'm finally getting around to upgrading my Roamio with a new drive and wanted to copy my old drive to the new 3TB while it's still good but it's been *years*. Last version I have is MFS Tools 2.0 and the WinMFS both of which I know won't work. Thanks!


MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## leres

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I received the following message, "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment. Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector."


It's been a decade or more since the last time I upgraded a TiVo (anybody familiar with the DirecTV+TiVo aka Sony T60?) I bought a refurbished Tivo Roamio Plus (OTA/1TB) last year and decided to upgrade. When I got the "Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector" error I ended up here.

My first few bytes were identical to what TheCryptkeeper reported in post #720:

linux:/tmp # dd if=/dev/sda of=a bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes copied, 4.811e-05 s, 10.6 MB/s
linux:/tmp # od -t x1 a
0000000 92 14 *00 00 00* 6f 6f 74 3d 2f 64 65 76 2f 73 64​
My os of choice is FreeBSD so I built/installed hexedit and patched 3 bytes (03, 06, and 'r') ending up with:

linux:/tmp # od -t x1 a
0000000 92 14* 03 06 72* 6f 6f 74 3d 2f 64 65 76 2f 73 64​
I wrote block zero back to the drive:

linux:/tmp # dd if=a.new of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes copied, 0.000360646 s, 1.4 MB/s​
and was able to start mfscopy. I used -ai but I suspect -i is a noop for the Roamio. Also I've never attached an external drive so I suspect the zero'ed bytes are an artifact of the series 5?

Thanks for all the good info!


----------



## leres

leres said:


> D'oh! I just found that *bootsectorfix* is the modern way of dealing with series 5 disks...


----------



## RGrizzzz

Where can I find some directions for these tools? Trying to upgrade my Roamio from the stock drive to a 3TB WD Red, and keep my recordings/OnePass settings? I have the CD-R ready to go and it's bootable. Just need some directions for a beginner! This thread is long, and haven't had great luck searching for clear directions.

1. Pull drive from TiVo
2. Connect old and new drive to PC
3. Boot MSF Tools CD-R
4. Clone drive - HOW?!?!?!
5. Anything else?
6. Put new drive in TiVo
7. WIN!


----------



## jmbach

RGrizzzz said:


> Where can I find some directions for these tools? Trying to upgrade my Roamio from the stock drive to a 3TB WD Red, and keep my recordings/OnePass settings? I have the CD-R ready to go and it's bootable. Just need some directions for a beginner! This thread is long, and haven't had great luck searching for clear directions.
> 
> 1. Pull drive from TiVo
> 2. Connect old and new drive to PC
> 3. Boot MSF Tools CD-R
> 4. Clone drive - HOW?!?!?!
> 5. Anything else?
> 6. Put new drive in TiVo
> 7. WIN!


For what you want to do, the instructions found in the post that contains the ISO is all you need.


----------



## RGrizzzz

The first few posts in this thread show commands, but not clear directions for copying to a large drive. (Or how to mount/address drives) Can someone give me a quick idea on what I need to do? Or a link to a clear example, that I can't seem to find. Thanks!


----------



## dougdingle

RGrizzzz said:


> The first few posts in this thread show commands, but not clear directions for copying to a large drive. (Or how to mount/address drives) Can someone give me a quick idea on what I need to do? Or a link to a clear example, that I can't seem to find. Thanks!


Connect source and destination drives to your computer.
Power up while booting from the MFSTools .ISO
-Login: root
-Password: tivo
-parted -l (lower case L) shows drive assignments as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Carefully note which is assigned to your source and destination drives.
-copy with shows/expand to bigger dive: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
-copy, no shows: mfscopy -s /dev/sda /dev/sdb

where sda is the source drive, and sdb is the destination (new) drive.

sda and sdb are assigned by your BIOS at boot. So the source drive can be, say, sdf and the destination sdc. Write down the actual assignment by looking at the screen output from parted -l, then use those for sda and sdb in the command line.


----------



## RGrizzzz

Thanks! MSFcopy handles the consideration of the bigger drive?


----------



## dougdingle

RGrizzzz said:


> Makes sense. Msfcopy handles the consideration of the bigger drive?


Up to 4 TB, yes. I've done this successfully half a dozen times, at least. The new drive will have everything the old one did and should boot right up. BE SURE you don't accidentally swap drive assignments and wind up copying the new empty drive to the old full one (although I think there are some safeguards built into mfscopy to prevent that, but be careful anyway).


----------



## ggieseke

RGrizzzz said:


> Thanks! MSFcopy handles the consideration of the bigger drive?


Yes, up to 4TB.


----------



## richsadams

Well, tried upgrading our TiVo Premiere XL4 to the WD Red 4TB drive today and it looks like I've fowled it up, I used MFSTools 3.32 to copy just the info over using the "mfscopy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" where "sdX" is the original 2TB drive and "sdY" is the new 4TB drive. I double, triple and quadruple checked to be sure I had the correct drive letters before proceeding.

Everything appeared to go well with "Copy done!" and a return to the Linux command prompt as the last entry. However when I installed the new 4TB drive the Premiere goes into a loop: Welcome... starting up screen, then blank, all front lights illuminate then go out and back to the welcome screen, repeat.

There were several error lines before it completed as seen in the attached images. (It took so long - over an hour - due to having to use a dual USB dock rather than direct SATA connections.)

Welcome any thoughts.

TIA!

P.S. I ran a disk health check on the new HDD which wrote content. Should I have prepared the drive for copy (if so, how? dd?) or does MFSTools automatically wipe existing data?

EDIT: Initially I thought I'd done something to the original 2TB drive but after waiting a while I plugged TiVo back in and it's working normally. Phew!


----------



## ThAbtO

I think it should be -ai not -i?


----------



## richsadams

ThAbtO said:


> I think it should be -ai not -i?


Thanks for the speedy reply! I was only wanting to copy the essentials including cableCARD pairing and expand the drive to use the whole drive space for recordings. I didn't want to copy any existing recordings.


----------



## richsadams

ThAbtO said:


> I think it should be -ai not -i?


Looks like there's something wrong with the WD Red HDD so I'm going to go ahead and get a replacement. I'll post back with results.

Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

richsadams said:


> Well, tried upgrading our TiVo Premiere XL4 to the WD Red 4TB drive today and it looks like I've fowled it up, I used MFSTools 3.32 to copy just the info over using the "mfscopy -i /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" where "sdX" is the original 2TB drive and "sdY" is the new 4TB drive. I double, triple and quadruple checked to be sure I had the correct drive letters before proceeding.
> 
> Everything appeared to go well with "Copy done!" and a return to the Linux command prompt as the last entry. However when I installed the new 4TB drive the Premiere goes into a loop: Welcome... starting up screen, then blank, all front lights illuminate then go out and back to the welcome screen, repeat.
> 
> There were several error lines before it completed as seen in the attached images. (It took so long - over an hour - due to having to use a dual USB dock rather than direct SATA connections.)
> 
> Welcome any thoughts.
> 
> TIA!
> 
> P.S. I ran a disk health check on the new HDD which wrote content. Should I have prepared the drive for copy (if so, how? dd?) or does MFSTools automatically wipe existing data?
> 
> EDIT: Initially I thought I'd done something to the original 2TB drive but after waiting a while I plugged TiVo back in and it's working normally. Phew!


What drive was /dev/sdb? The source or the target?

The other issue could be the dock itself. If it is too old, it may not support drives 4TB in size.


----------



## richsadams

jmbach said:


> What drive was /dev/sdb? The source or the target?
> 
> The other issue could be the dock itself. If it is too old, it may not support drives 4TB in size.


In those screenshots "/dev/sdb" was the target drive. It's on it's way back to Amazon as we speak. Hopefully it's crossing paths with its replacement.

I was using a Unitek USB 3.0 dual dock that's about a year or so old. I also tried the same thing with separate docks, the Unitek and a Voyager USB 3.0 single dock with about the same results. (The HP PC has USB 2.0 ports.)

Going forward I've set up the HP all-in-one PC with two dedicated SATA HDD connections. I was also able to get it to boot JMFS without any issues now. So when the new WD Red arrives I think I'll use that to follow the path of least resistance to ideally get everything running as intended.

Thanks so much for the support, enjoy the holidays and I'll keep you posted!


----------



## jmbach

richsadams said:


> In those screenshots "/dev/sdb" was the target drive. It's on it's way back to Amazon as we speak. Hopefully it's crossing paths with its replacement.
> 
> I was using a Unitek USB 3.0 dual dock that's about a year or so old. I also tried the same thing with separate docks, the Unitek and a Voyager USB 3.0 single dock with about the same results. (The HP PC has USB 2.0 ports.)
> 
> Going forward I've set up the HP all-in-one PC with two dedicated SATA HDD connections. I was also able to get it to boot JMFS without any issues now. So when the new WD Red arrives I think I'll use that to follow the path of least resistance to ideally get everything running as intended.
> 
> Thanks so much for the support, enjoy the holidays and I'll keep you posted!


You will need JMFS "1.05" as the original JMFS has a 32 bit limitation on expansion and depending on how the numbers land may not expand or give you full expansion.

MFSTools expansion is cleaner overall.


----------



## richsadams

jmbach said:


> You will need JMFS "1.05" as the original JMFS has a 32 bit limitation on expansion and depending on how the numbers land may not expand or give you full expansion.
> 
> MFSTools expansion is cleaner overall.


Ah, got it. MFSTools will be the plan then.

So if I go ahead and and use the "mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" command, that should copy recordings, etc. as well as expand the new drive?

TIA!


----------



## jmbach

richsadams said:


> Ah, got it. MFSTools will be the plan then.
> 
> So if I go ahead and and use the "mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY" command, that should copy recordings, etc. as well as expand the new drive?
> 
> TIA!


That would do it

Also before I put a drive in a TiVo, I will do a full read followed by a full write and then a full read. Then I check smart status of the drive.


----------



## richsadams

jmbach said:


> That would do it
> 
> Also before I put a drive in a TiVo, I will do a full read followed by a full write and then a full read. Then I check smart status of the drive.


Thanks and I will certainly test the new drive out as well. :up:


----------



## Wojo2019

Hello forum members. Sorry for the newb question but my Tivo Bolt+ 3TB died this morning. I tested the drive and it has bad sectors. I currently have a spare 1TB drive. I can also pick up a 4TB drive tomorrow at Best Buy. UHHGG.. Definitely not looking forward to that experience. Can someone direct me to the basic steps to install a new drive? Again, sorry for the newb question but I'm out of time and need to have this running by tomorrow late morning. I've looked but I'm starting to go crosseyed reading through everything regarding so many different steps for some AWESOME upgrades which I will definitely play with after the holiday's but right now I just need to get a drive installed and my Bolt running for the holidays.

Can I use the 1TB to get me through the holidays?
Should I just brave the madness of Best Buy tomorrow and grab a 4TB?

Thanks for your help. Great forum.


----------



## jmbach

Wojo2019 said:


> Hello forum members. Sorry for the newb question but my Tivo Bolt+ 3TB died this morning. I tested the drive and it has bad sectors. I currently have a spare 1TB drive. I can also pick up a 4TB drive tomorrow at Best Buy. UHHGG.. Definitely not looking forward to that experience. Can someone direct me to the basic steps to install a new drive? Again, sorry for the newb question but I'm out of time and need to have this running by tomorrow late morning. I've looked but I'm starting to go crosseyed reading through everything regarding so many different steps for some AWESOME upgrades which I will definitely play with after the holiday's but right now I just need to get a drive installed and my Bolt running for the holidays.
> 
> Can I use the 1TB to get me through the holidays?
> Should I just brave the madness of Best Buy tomorrow and grab a 4TB?
> 
> Thanks for your help. Great forum.


You can drop up to a 3 TB into the Bolt and it will auto format the drive. Use the 1 TB for now. You can use MFSTools to upgrade later.

The bigger question is what version of the interface the Bolt was running before it went down. TE3 and any drive will work. TE4 is very particular on what drive will work. If it does not work, you will be stuck on a starting up screen.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Itsme22333

Can anyone tell me what the current known drive size limits are for copies to a new drive. I have a TIVO premiere that I upgraded to a 6 TB drive a few years ago. I'd like to upgrade again. I just saw a good deal on a 14TB WD hard disk. I want to be able to keep my current recordings. I read through the first few pages of this thread and the last several pages but I did not see a good answer for this question.


----------



## jmbach

Itsme22333 said:


> Can anyone tell me what the current known drive size limits are for copies to a new drive. I have a TIVO premiere that I upgraded to a 6 TB drive a few years ago. I'd like to upgrade again. I just saw a good deal on a 14TB WD hard disk. I want to be able to keep my current recordings. I read through the first few pages of this thread and the last several pages but I did not see a good answer for this question.


Max on a Premiere is 8 TB internal.


----------



## Wojo2019

Thank you so much jmbach... Didn't think it was that easy.. Installed the drive and things are updating now. Just out of curiosity should it be taking over an hour to update everything? Is this like the initial setup when you get a new Tivo? It's also stuck at 89% on acquiring channel information for over an hour.

I was on TE3 when this happened. I honestly hate the new interface. I do like some of the features but the GUI sucks and they destroyed the guide. It's just like every other cable box now. View an hour and half at a time.


----------



## Itsme22333

jmbach said:


> Max on a Premiere is 8 TB internal.


 Thanks. We also have a Roamio downstairs. It has 4TB and is about half full. We could upgrade the HD in it, and then transfer archival things from the premiere to the Roamio (assuming that they are not copy protected) and free up space on the Premiere that way. Is 8TB also the max for the Roamio, or is it higher?


----------



## jmbach

Itsme22333 said:


> Thanks. We also have a Roamio downstairs. It has 4TB and is about half full. We could upgrade the HD in it, and then transfer archival things from the premiere to the Roamio (assuming that they are not copy protected) and free up space on the Premiere that way. Is 8TB also the max for the Roamio, or is it higher?


Roamio can go higher. With current tools, 10 TB. With future tools higher. Currently have mine at 12 TB but could go to 16 TB.


----------



## Itsme22333

jmbach said:


> Roamio can go higher. With current tools, 10 TB. With future tools higher. Currently have mine at 12 TB but could go to 16 TB.


Does the way that the drive was previously upgraded have an impact on the ultimate size that it can be expanded to? Looking through these threads it looks like it does, but I'm not sure.


----------



## jmbach

Itsme22333 said:


> Does the way that the drive was previously upgraded have an impact on the ultimate size that it can be expanded to? Looking through these threads it looks like it does, but I'm not sure.


Roamio and Bolt drives that start out 4 TB or less can be expanded to 16 TB. MFSR created drives of 6 TB and 8 TB can be expanded to 18 TB and 20 TB respectively. That is with future tools. Current tools those sizes are 10 TB, 12 TB, and 14 TB respectively.


----------



## KT88

I want to clone my Premiere from 500GB to 6GB. We have post #2 in the 6TB Premiere thread, using MFSTools 3.2. However post #131 in this thread (referencing the newer ver. 3.32) states Premiere models can be copied to a larger drive **up to** 8 TB if the ancillary tools are used and the instructions in the 8TB Premiere thread is followed. This seems to imply I could accomplish this via the newer ver. 3.32. *My question: Which method is recommended at this point and time?* Thanks much!


----------



## KT88

KT88 said:


> I want to clone my Premiere from 500GB to 6TB. We have post #2 in the 6TB Premiere thread, using MFSTools 3.2. However post #131 in this thread (referencing the newer ver. 3.32) states Premiere models can be copied to a larger drive **up to** 8 TB if the ancillary tools are used and the instructions in the 8TB Premiere thread is followed. This seems to imply I could accomplish this via the newer ver. 3.32. *My question: Which method is recommended at this point and time?* Thanks much!


...I've corrected my first sentence to read "6TB", not "6GB".


----------



## jmbach

KT88 said:


> I want to clone my Premiere from 500GB to 6GB. We have post #2 in the 6TB Premiere thread, using MFSTools 3.2. However post #131 in this thread (referencing the newer ver. 3.32) states Premiere models can be copied to a larger drive **up to** 8 TB if the ancillary tools are used and the instructions in the 8TB Premiere thread is followed. This seems to imply I could accomplish this via the newer ver. 3.32. *My question: Which method is recommended at this point and time?* Thanks much!


Use the newer ISO. All the tools you will need are on it.


----------



## KT88

jmbach, your post #2 in the 6TB Premiere thread worked perfectly. I'm now showing 962 HD hours on my 6TB drive. I used the newer MFSTools 3.32, per your suggestion. Thanks!


----------



## richsadams

jmbach said:


> Use the newer ISO. All the tools you will need are on it.


Curious, is there a brief explanation about the difference(s) between MFSTools 3.2 and 3.32? If it's too involved, no problem, just wondering about when to use either going forward.

TIA!


----------



## jmbach

richsadams said:


> Curious, is there a brief explanation about the difference(s) between MFSTools 3.2 and 3.32? If it's too involved, no problem, just wondering about when to use either going forward.
> 
> TIA!


MFSTools 3.32 supports copying Bolt drives.


----------



## richsadams

jmbach said:


> MFSTools 3.32 supports copying Bolt drives.


Excellent! Another tool in the arsenal.

BTW, just received the replacement WD40EFRX 4TB HDD for the Premiere today. Running read-write-read tests on it. Should be able to use MFSTools 3.2 to copy the existing 2TB over in the next few days.

Also received a new Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3TB 2.5" drive from the eBay seller yesterday and fully tested it overnight - no errors. Since I still have our Bolt+ I'm going to slip it in and see how it does, then put it on the shelf as a backup for our new Bolt Vox.

Thanks again!


----------



## Johnny Danger

Does this software support the BOLT also or just Roamio? 

What is the largest hard drive it will support? For example, will it support 14TB drive? 

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

Johnny Danger said:


> Does this software support the BOLT also or just Roamio?
> 
> What is the largest hard drive it will support? For example, will it support 14TB drive?
> 
> Thanks.


It supports TiVo models up through the Bolts.

As far as size it will support, it depends on how the existing drive is made (native format or MFSR format) and if I extend the ancillary tools.


----------



## Johnny Danger

jmbach said:


> It supports TiVo models up through the Bolts.
> 
> As far as size it will support, it depends on how the existing drive is made (native format or MFSR format) and if I extend the ancillary tools.


The front page for this post does not mention bolt under the supported models. If it supports the bolt, it should really be updated to say that so there is no confusion. I am glad to hear that it does support BOLT.

Secondly, what do you mean by " existing drive"? The drive that came with my BOLT was completely dead.

I am trying to create a new drive for it. I have, 1TB SSD, 8TB,10TB,12TB and 14TB drives available to me. Obviously, I would like the biggest drive I can get in there.

Should I put in the 14TB drive inside the BOLT, run setup until complete then remove hard drive and place in a PC using the MFS tools 3.2 to expand the partition or something like that? Is that pretty much the profess?

Can you explain what you mean by native format, ancillary tools,etc.....?

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

Johnny Danger said:


> The front page for this post does not mention bolt under the supported models. If it supports the bolt, it should really be updated to say that so there is no confusion. I am glad to hear that it does support BOLT.
> 
> Secondly, what do you mean by " existing drive"? The drive that came with my BOLT was completely dead.
> 
> I am trying to create a new drive for it. I have, 1TB SSD, 8TB,10TB,12TB and 14TB drives available to me. Obviously, I would like the biggest drive I can get in there.
> 
> Should I put in the 14TB drive inside the BOLT, run setup until complete then remove hard drive and place in a PC using the MFS tools 3.2 to expand the partition or something like that? Is that pretty much the profess?
> 
> Can you explain what you mean by native format, ancillary tools,etc.....?
> 
> Thanks.


Since I am not the OP for the thread I cannot update the post, however the post where I have made the ISOs available does have the updated information.

Existing drive means the drive currently in the TiVo.

You can use the 14TB but you will not be able to go there directly.

You would have to put the 8 TB in the TiVo first, let it self format, then use MFSR on it to get to use the whole 8 TB. Let the TiVo boot up and make several connections to the TiVo servers.

Then clone the 8 TB to the 14 TB. Boot it in the TiVo and make sure it connects to the TiVo servers and downloads successfully. Run a KS 58 and make sure it finishes successfully.

Then follow the 10 TB DIY Roamio instructions to get it to 14 TB.


----------



## bam1220

I really need some help here please. I bought a stand alone HDD cloning hub. I want to clone my 1.5TB HDD to a new 4TB HDD. My problem comes in using MFSTools 3.32. I downloaded the ISO and burned a bootable DVD. I can boot up the disc but I get as far as the screen right after the welcome screen. The program loads only with the first selection but shows a fatal error while trying to load something with the NIC. It does a whole bunch of counting but never makes it past fatal error. If I reboot the computer and try to select any other option after the welcome screen on the disk then the program locks up. I can not do anything at all. What am I doing wrong? All I want to do is clone my old Roamio OTA HDD and use MFSTools 3.32 to expand the new drive so the Roamio sees all 4TB. But I can't get the program to even load properly.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I really need some help here please. I bought a stand alone HDD cloning hub. I want to clone my 1.5TB HDD to a new 4TB HDD. My problem comes in using MFSTools 3.32. I downloaded the ISO and burned a bootable DVD. I can boot up the disc but I get as far as the screen right after the welcome screen. The program loads only with the first selection but shows a fatal error while trying to load something with the NIC. It does a whole bunch of counting but never makes it past fatal error. If I reboot the computer and try to select any other option after the welcome screen on the disk then the program locks up. I can not do anything at all. What am I doing wrong? All I want to do is clone my old Roamio OTA HDD and use MFSTools 3.32 to expand the new drive so the Roamio sees all 4TB. But I can't get the program to even load properly.


Can you post a screen shot of the error.


----------



## bam1220

I'm trying. I keep getting a forum error message saying the file is too big. Trying to figure out how to shrink it.


----------



## bam1220

I can't get it to load. I have shrunk the pic but the forum keeps telling me it's too large. I am extremely frustrated at this point and am going to walk away for a while. MFSTool 3.2 just locks up and I can't post the error pic.


----------



## richsadams

bam1220 said:


> I'm trying. I keep getting a forum error message saying the file is too big. Trying to figure out how to shrink it.


Upload it to tinypng.com, download the compressed copy and try uploading it to the forum again:

TinyPNG - Compress PNG images while preserving transparency

Although it's called "TinyPNG" it works with .jpg and most other image formats.


----------



## bam1220

Thank you for the suggestion. That page gives me an error that the image is too large.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I can't get it to load. I have shrunk the pic but the forum keeps telling me it's too large. I am extremely frustrated at this point and am going to walk away for a while. MFSTool 3.2 just locks up and I can't post the error pic.


You can try to email the picture to yourself. Some email programs will 'shrink' the picture when they are sent.

Other option is to use a lower resolution when you take the picture.


----------



## bam1220

Does anyone know of another way to expand the drive once it's cloned so that my Roamio will see all 4TB? Is there a link to an older version of MFSTools? I can't seem to find one. Honestly I am not an idiot. I build and repair computers for a living. I know my way around one. I also upgraded my original HDD in my Roamio OTA a few years ago. But I didn't so it this way. This really has me stumped.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> Does anyone know of another way to expand the drive once it's cloned so that my Roamio will see all 4TB? Is there a link to an older version of MFSTools? I can't seem to find one. Honestly I am not an idiot. I build and repair computers for a living. I know my way around one. I also upgraded my original HDD in my Roamio OTA a few years ago. But I didn't so it this way. This really has me stumped.


You can try the USB version of MFSTools and see of it boots all the way.

If it is stalling on the NIC, disable in BIOS of it embedded or pull it out of the computer.


----------



## jmbach

Check the md5 hash between the ISO you downloaded and what is posted in the post you downloaded it from. 

Try burning another CD. Occasionally there is a hiccup in the burning process that can introduce errors.


----------



## bam1220

Tried sending it to myself from Yahoo Mail to Hotmail and no luck. Still too large.. I took a screen shot with my phone and made sure it was smaller. Forum still won't let me post it. I give up on the picture. I will try the other suggestions. I will disable the NIC (it's onboard). I did try burning another disk and I get the same thing. I'll try and redownload the entire file again if disabling the NIC doesn't work. Going to walk away from it for now. Been at this all day and need a break. Thanks for the help.


----------



## bam1220

Finally!


----------



## Johnny Danger

jmbach said:


> Since I am not the OP for the thread I cannot update the post, however the post where I have made the ISOs available does have the updated information.
> 
> Existing drive means the drive currently in the TiVo.
> 
> You can use the 14TB but you will not be able to go there directly.
> 
> You would have to put the 8 TB in the TiVo first, let it self format, then use MFSR on it to get to use the whole 8 TB. Let the TiVo boot up and make several connections to the TiVo servers.
> 
> Then clone the 8 TB to the 14 TB. Boot it in the TiVo and make sure it connects to the TiVo servers and downloads successfully. Run a KS 58 and make sure it finishes successfully.
> 
> Then follow the 10 TB DIY Roamio instructions to get it to 14 TB.


MFSR is software that runs from a USB drive on your PC right?

You have to remove all the hard drives in your computer and plug in only the TIVO drive and run the MFSR software from a USB thumb drive?

There is not a version that you can run from Windows right as far as you know.

If you are forced to use a bootable thumb drive, can you tell me what software you used to create the MFSR thumb drive? Like to write the file to the bootable USB drive?

I am receiving an error message using that method so that is why I am asking which software you use to make the bootable USB drive with MFSR software.

Thanks.


----------



## bam1220

I used Rufus to burn the ISO to a thumb drive and I am getting an error message also. The thumb drive is not bootable. This is all so frustrating.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I used Rufus to burn the ISO to a thumb drive and I am getting an error message also. The thumb drive is not bootable. This is all so frustrating.


Use etcher to copy the USB/HDD file to the USB drive and DO NOT use the ISO.


----------



## ThAbtO

If saving settings/shows is not crucial, wipe the 4TB drive, put it back in the Roamio to boot to Country selection. Return it to the PC, boot to Windows, run WinMFS MSFR. Roamio would default the format to 3TB max and WinMFS MSFR would expand it the rest.

I have done this on my own Roamio.


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> If saving settings/shows is not crucial, wipe the 4TB drive, put it back in the Roamio to boot to Country selection. Return it to the PC, boot to Windows, run WinMFS. Roamio would default the format to 3TB max and WinMFS would expand it the rest.
> 
> I have done this on my own Roamio.


WinMFS?


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> Use etcher to copy the USB/HDD file to the USB drive and DO NOT use the ISO.


Ok I think my download of MFSTools 3.32 is corrupt. Because when I try what you suggested I get "The file is corrupt" when I try putting the downloaded file into Etcher. I can load the ISO into Etcher but when I boot into it I get the freeze ups again. But now for the life of me I can not find the site where I downloaded MFSTools 3.32 from. All I get is the file can not be found when I do a search for it. Can anyone point me to where I can download the program again? Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> Ok I think my download of MFSTools 3.32 is corrupt. Because when I try what you suggested I get "The file is corrupt" when I try putting the downloaded file into Etcher. I can load the ISO into Etcher but when I boot into it I get the freeze ups again. But now for the life of me I can not find the site where I downloaded MFSTools 3.32 from. All I get is the file can not be found when I do a search for it. Can anyone point me to where I can download the program again? Thank you.


MFSTools is found here.

Read the whole post.

If you downloaded the USB/HDD file, unpack it before writing it to the USB drive.


----------



## ThAbtO

jmbach said:


> WinMFS?


Typo, meant to say MSFR but WinMFS stuck in my mind.


----------



## ThAbtO

Johnny Danger said:


> MFSR is software that runs from a USB drive on your PC right?
> 
> You have to remove all the hard drives in your computer and plug in only the TIVO drive and run the MFSR software from a USB thumb drive?
> 
> There is not a version that you can run from Windows right as far as you know.


MSFR is a windows program, and it can detect from USB. You would need to boot into Windows. There is nothing boot-able.

Other Windows programs are DVRBars, WinMFS. MFSTools needs to be booted from CD or other drive.


----------



## HerronScott

bam1220 said:


> Tried sending it to myself from Yahoo Mail to Hotmail and no luck. Still too large.. I took a screen shot with my phone and made sure it was smaller. Forum still won't let me post it. I give up on the picture.


Note that you could also view the picture on your PC and then using the Snipping Tool to cut and paste a copy of it into the forum here.

Scott


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> MFSTools is found here.
> 
> Read the whole post.
> 
> If you downloaded the USB/HDD file, unpack it before writing it to the USB drive.


I have tried both files on a thumb drive from your links you posted. I absolutely can not get the program to work. When the thumb drive boots up I get a menu screen with two choices. The first which is highlighted upon boot says "Beta MFSTools 3.32 open Suse Leap 42.3 jeOs [OEM]. If I wait and let this option boot up I get an error message that says "Failed To Find Boot Device." It stalls right here and that's it. The only drive I have hooked up in the PC at this time other than the thumb drive is my old Tivo Roamio OTA HDD that I want to clone.
When I first boot up the thumb drive I am unable to choose the second option which is "Failsafe**Beta MFSTools 3.32 openSuse Leap 42.3, jeOS" Any arrow down to try and select this option or any other keyboard press will lock the program up tight. A reboot of the PC is the only way to get out.
I have downloaded these files over and over. I have made the thumb drive over and over again using both files and the results are the same. I can not get the program to work. Do you please have a link to an older version of MSFTools that might work for my Roamio OTA? I am giving up on trying to get this version working. Thank you.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I have tried both files on a thumb drive from your links you posted. I absolutely can not get the program to work. When the thumb drive boots up I get a menu screen with two choices. The first which is highlighted upon boot says "Beta MFSTools 3.32 open Suse Leap 42.3 jeOs [OEM]. If I wait and let this option boot up I get an error message that says "Failed To Find Boot Device." It stalls right here and that's it. The only drive I have hooked up in the PC at this time other than the thumb drive is my old Tivo Roamio OTA HDD that I want to clone.
> When I first boot up the thumb drive I am unable to choose the second option which is "Failsafe**Beta MFSTools 3.32 openSuse Leap 42.3, jeOS" Any arrow down to try and select this option or any other keyboard press will lock the program up tight. A reboot of the PC is the only way to get out.
> I have downloaded these files over and over. I have made the thumb drive over and over again using both files and the results are the same. I can not get the program to work. Do you please have a link to an older version of MSFTools that might work for my Roamio OTA? I am giving up on trying to get this version working. Thank you.


Did you go into you BIOS and turn off secure boot and boot in legacy or compatibility mode.


----------



## Agebt6ee

Johnny Danger said:


> Does this software support the BOLT also or just Roamio?
> 
> What is the largest hard drive it will support? For example, will it support 14TB drive?
> 
> Thanks.


FYI, if you haven't seen it and you are running TE4, TE4 updates have rendered the Bolt unable to boot for a lot of drives, and you will have to go to TE3. I had this happen on a drive that previously listed as compatible, before the updates. Basically if it takes more than 10 minutes to get to the guided setup screen it, won't work on TE4


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> Did you go into you BIOS and turn off secure boot and boot in legacy or compatibility mode.


Yes sir. Secure boot is turned off and I set my BIOS to Legacy only. I have also tried Legacy and UEFI and I get the same results.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> Yes sir. Secure boot is turned off and I set my BIOS to Legacy only. I have also tried Legacy and UEFI and I get the same results.


So what program did you use to make the USB boot drive.

What computer are you using to boot it up.


----------



## bam1220

Is there any other software out there that will allow me to expand my HDD out to the full 4TB once cloned? Or is MFSTools 3.32 the only one?


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> So what program did you use to make the USB boot drive.
> 
> What computer are you using to boot it up.


I used the Etcher software that you suggested. I am using a Windows 10 desktop that I built about a year ago. If you want the specs I can give you those. Shouldn't I be able to at least make a selection once the thumb drive boots up into MFSTools screen without the program locking up?


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> Is there any other software out there that will allow me to expand my HDD out to the full 4TB once cloned? Or is MFSTools 3.32 the only one?


If you want to save recordings and cableCARD settings, yes. If not, then use MFSR.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I used the Etcher software that you suggested. I am using a Windows 10 desktop that I built about a year ago. If you want the specs I can give you those. Shouldn't I be able to at least make a selection once the thumb drive boots up into MFSTools screen without the program locking up?


You should. I'll download the software and make a USB stick and see if I can replicate your problem and get back with you. Having to work now so it will be a bit.


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> You should. I'll download the software and make a USB stick and see if I can replicate your problem and get back with you. Having to work now so it will be a bit.


Thank you very much. At least I'll know if the problem lies with my system or something I am doing wrong.


----------



## Agebt6ee

ThAbtO said:


> MSFR is a windows program, and it can detect from USB. You would need to boot into Windows. There is nothing boot-able.
> 
> Other Windows programs are DVRBars, WinMFS. MFSTools needs to be booted from CD or other drive.





bam1220 said:


> Is there any other software out there that will allow me to expand my HDD out to the full 4TB once cloned? Or is MFSTools 3.32 the only one?


----------



## bam1220

From what I am reading DVRBars will erase all of my shows. I found a very old version of WinMFS in a forum and I was told I had to register to receive a download link. Nothing yet. And MSFR just leads me to the MFSTools download. This is really getting all too frustrating. It shouldn't be this difficult. I am honestly about to just keep my old HDD in my Roamio OTA and just start deleting shows. I have never had this much trouble doing anything.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> View attachment 45522
> 
> 
> Finally!


Can you remove the NIC card from.your computer to see if it will boot to completion?


----------



## ThAbtO

bam1220 said:


> From what I am reading DVRBars will erase all of my shows. I found a very old version of WinMFS in a forum and I was told I had to register to receive a download link. Nothing yet. And MSFR just leads me to the MFSTools download. This is really getting all too frustrating. It shouldn't be this difficult. I am honestly about to just keep my old HDD in my Roamio OTA and just start deleting shows. I have never had this much trouble doing anything.


WinMFS does not work on any Tivo newer than a Series 3. DVRBars is just a program to backup and restore images, it does not expand.

Your best approach is to use MFSR with the posted procedure in the thread.
MFSR is only an expanding program, but it needs an image provided by the Roamio.

Direct link to the post with MFSR file:

MFS Reformatter (mfsr)


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> Can you remove the NIC card from.your computer to see if it will boot to completion?


I remade the thumb drive last night using Etcher and the file links you gave me. I no longer get that error message. I am now getting "Failed To Find Boot Device". This is while MFSTools 3.32 is loading from the thumb drive. I get past the menu screen if I don't touch the keyboard. I then get that error message when the program is loading. If I reboot and get the menu screen in MFSTools 3.32 and try to select any option with my keyboard the program locks up tight.


----------



## bam1220

ThAbtO said:


> WinMFS does not work on any Tivo newer than a Series 3. DVRBars is just a program to backup and restore images, it does not expand.
> 
> Your best approach is to use MFSR with the posted procedure in the thread.
> MFSR is only an expanding program, but it needs an image provided by the Roamio.
> 
> Direct link to the post with MFSR file:
> 
> MFS Reformatter (mfsr)


Thank you. I will try this


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I remade the thumb drive last night using Etcher and the file links you gave me. I no longer get that error message. I am now getting "Failed To Find Boot Device". This is while MFSTools 3.32 is loading from the thumb drive. I get past the menu screen if I don't touch the keyboard. I then get that error message when the program is loading. If I reboot and get the menu screen in MFSTools 3.32 and try to select any option with my keyboard the program locks up tight.


One other option would be to run the ISO in a virtual machine inside windows. I use Virtualbox for this and am able to use MFSTools to work on TuVo drives. I use a USB dock and enable USB3 in the Virtualbox setting.


----------



## bam1220

ThAbtO said:


> WinMFS does not work on any Tivo newer than a Series 3. DVRBars is just a program to backup and restore images, it does not expand.
> 
> Your best approach is to use MFSR with the posted procedure in the thread.
> MFSR is only an expanding program, but it needs an image provided by the Roamio.
> 
> Direct link to the post with MFSR file:
> 
> MFS Reformatter (mfsr)


This won't work either. It says in the instructions that I will lose all of my recordings. I have cloned my old HDD to this new 4TB. If I try to use MFSR to expand the new drive I will lose all my stuff on the drive. At least that is what I am reading.


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> One other option would be to run the ISO in a virtual machine inside windows. I use Virtualbox for this and am able to use MFSTools to work on TuVo drives. I use a USB dock and enable USB3 in the Virtualbox setting.


I am giving up at this point. I appreciate all the help. Just wasn't meant to be. Thanks again.


----------



## ThAbtO

bam1220 said:


> If I try to use MFSR to expand the new drive I will lose all my stuff on the drive. At least that is what I am reading.


Yes, it would, in which, it is a fresh image. No shows, settings, etc.

However the drive it was replacing still has that data. KMTTG is a program for saving shows while the drive is still running in Tivo. It also saves passes. That would mean, you would put back the old drive, boot up, download the numerous shows and would take hours. Replace drive with your newer one, use PyTivo to send shows back (as long as its not running Hydra/TE4/v21+.) KMTTG does not send shows back, but can restore passes.


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> One other option would be to run the ISO in a virtual machine inside windows. I use Virtualbox for this and am able to use MFSTools to work on TuVo drives. I use a USB dock and enable USB3 in the Virtualbox setting.


Hey I just wanted to follow up and say I got the program working. I got to thinking about the lockups and I replaced my keyboard with an old PS/2 one I had laying around. I usually have a Corsair K70 USB keyboard that I use. As soon as I switched out the keyboard I was able to boot MFSTools 3.32 with the thumb drive and change selections in the menu. I selected the Fail safe option and it appeared to boot correctly. I am out of time for today as I have a full day planned away from computers for a change. But I will be back at it tomorrow and I hope I can expand my new 4TB drive so my Roamio OTA can use the whole drive. Again I just wanted to report back in case anyone else has a similar issue that I had. This one had me stumped for days. Thanks again!


----------



## HerronScott

bam1220 said:


> Hey I just wanted to follow up and say I got the program working. I got to thinking about the lockups and I replaced my keyboard with an old PS/2 one I had laying around. I usually have a Corsair K70 USB keyboard that I use. As soon as I switched out the keyboard I was able to boot MFSTools 3.32 with the thumb drive and change selections in the menu. I selected the Fail safe option and it appeared to boot correctly.


Glad to hear that you figured out the issue, I was about to post asking if you had checked the keyboard since that seemed to be where it was locking up.

Scott


----------



## nuraman00

bam1220 said:


> I used the Etcher software that you suggested. I am using a Windows 10 desktop that I built about a year ago. If you want the specs I can give you those. Shouldn't I be able to at least make a selection once the thumb drive boots up into MFSTools screen without the program locking up?


Funny, I too have a Windows 10 desktop I built a year ago.

I downloaded MFS Tools from here:

MFS Tools

How do I know which version this is? I can't find where it says what version this is.

How do I run it on a Windows 10 PC? I see different recommendations in different posts, so not sure what to do.

Can someone give instructions of what I need to download to run MFS Tools, and how I can do that? Do I make a boot CD? Copy it to a USB drive?

I want to copy my 2 TB Premiere XL4 onto a 4 TB drive, and be able to use the full 4 TB capacity.


----------



## nuraman00

Let's say I am able to create a boot CD. So that means that I have to restart my PC with the CD in, and it will then take me to the CD's boot screen, right?


----------



## jmbach

nuraman00 said:


> Let's say I am able to create a boot CD. So that means that I have to restart my PC with the CD in, and it will then take me to the CD's boot screen, right?


Yes. Your options are to either boot the ISO (which will require disabling secure boot in your BIOS) or booting the ISO in a Virtual Machine inside Windows 10.

And read the full post where you downloaded the ISO for basic instructions and caveats.


----------



## nuraman00

jmbach said:


> Yes. Your options are to either boot the ISO (which will require disabling secure boot in your BIOS) or booting the ISO in a Virtual Machine inside Windows 10.


Why do I have to disable secure boot?

What do you think is easier or better, launching a boot CD, or launching it in a Linux virtual machine on Windows 10?

To make the boot CD, can I use Nero 9?

Download Nero 9 Free


----------



## nuraman00

jmbach said:


> One other option would be to run the ISO in a virtual machine inside windows. I use Virtualbox for this and am able to use MFSTools to work on TuVo drives. I use a USB dock and enable USB3 in the Virtualbox setting.


Once I launch Virtual Box, how do I run the ISO? (I haven't created the ISO yet, just wanted to make sure I understood how to do it.)


----------



## nuraman00

dougdingle said:


> It's the USB2 connection that killed you for 12 hours.
> 
> Using internal SATA3, I have moved from a 3TB to a 4TB drive with mfstools in about 8-9 hours. Significantly faster.
> 
> I also rotate two 4TB drives in/out of my Roamio every 60-90 days, and use a standalone cloning dock to make the clones, and that takes roughly 7 hours using WD Red drives.


If I use USB 3, how much time do you think it would take to go from a 2 TB to a 4 TB, that's about 10% full? It will be between 9-11% full when I actually do it, if I can do it by January 17.

If I can't do it by then, then I'll wait until after February 02, as I'll be recording tennis during those 2 weeks and don't want to do it in the middle of that.

I will try to use my USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, but if that doesn't work, then I'll be using a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port.


----------



## jmbach

nuraman00 said:


> Why do I have to disable secure boot?
> 
> What do you think is easier or better, launching a boot CD, or launching it in a Linux virtual machine on Windows 10?
> 
> To make the boot CD, can I use Nero 9?
> 
> Download Nero 9 Free


Because secure boot prevents booting from other sources.

I run MFSTools from a virtual machine under Windows 10 routinely.


----------



## jmbach

nuraman00 said:


> Once I launch Virtual Box, how do I run the ISO? (I haven't created the ISO yet, just wanted to make sure I understood how to do it.)


You have to create a VM that boots off the ISO (as a file) then connect your USB dock and add it to the VM.


----------



## bam1220

Guys I'm still having issues getting MFSTools to work. I have verified that my new 4TB HDD is cloned properly. I put it into my Roamio OTA and everything works. I am still trying to expand the drive. I boot into MFSTools and I am asked for a password for emergency maintenance. I have tried root and tivo but nothing works. What am I doing wrong? All I need to do is expand the drive. It really can't be this hard is it?


----------



## ThAbtO

bam1220 said:


> Guys I'm still having issues getting MFSTools to work. I have verified that my new 4TB HDD is cloned properly. I put it into my Roamio OTA and everything works. I am still trying to expand the drive. I boot into MFSTools and I am asked for a password for emergency maintenance. I have tried root and tivo but nothing works. What am I doing wrong? All I need to do is expand the drive. It really can't be this hard is it?


If you used MFSTools 3.x to clone the drive, it may already have been expanded. Put it back in the Tivo, wait for it to complete booting, then go the Settings / Help / System Information to check the space... If you see about 640 HD Hrs, then you are using the full 4TB.


----------



## bam1220

I didn't use MFSTools to clone. I used a seperate device. When I boot into MFSTools via thumb drive I get a prompt to give a password to enter emergency maintenance. Is that even normal? I put in "tivo" and it looks like I am in "root". However no matter what command I use I get a "bad command" error. I have rebooted numerous times and MFSTools still wants me to enter emergency maint. The only drives connected to my desktop are the thumb drive and my new 4TB HDD. If emergency maint is not normal how do I get out of it? If it is normal what is the command I use to expand my 4TB drive from 2TB? Something doesn't seem right. Help please.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I didn't use MFSTools to clone. I used a seperate device. When I boot into MFSTools via thumb drive I get a prompt to give a password to enter emergency maintenance. Is that even normal? I put in "tivo" and it looks like I am in "root". However no matter what command I use I get a "bad command" error. I have rebooted numerous times and MFSTools still wants me to enter emergency maint. The only drives connected to my desktop are the thumb drive and my new 4TB HDD. If emergency maint is not normal how do I get out of it? If it is normal what is the command I use to expand my 4TB drive from 2TB? Something doesn't seem right. Help please.


Hmmm. Maybe remake the MFSTools thumb drive.

Since you cloned the drive and did not use mfscopy to make the 4TB drive from your original 2TB drive, you will need to do mfsadd followed by mfsaddfix which is outlined in the 10TB DIY thread.


----------



## bam1220

yea that's what I am trying to do. I remade another thumb drive. Getting the same. Program seems to boot me into an emergency maintenance section. It's like I am stuck i wrong area. I'm not a Linux guy but after putting in tivo as a password I get what looks like an old DOS prompt that says root. But I have no idea what command to put in here. No matter what I try I get a bad command error. Honestly I don't think I'm in the proper area I should be upon booting the thumb drive. I just put the 4TB HDD back into my Tivo and all looks good except it still shows 2TB of space. I am at a loss.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> yea that's what I am trying to do. I remade another thumb drive. Getting the same. Program seems to boot me into an emergency maintenance section. It's like I am stuck i wrong area. I'm not a Linux guy but after putting in tivo as a password I get what looks like an old DOS prompt that says root. But I have no idea what command to put in here. No matter what I try I get a bad command error. Honestly I don't think I'm in the proper area I should be upon booting the thumb drive. I just put the 4TB HDD back into my Tivo and all looks good except it still shows 2TB of space. I am at a loss.


Can you post a couple of pictures of the login process?

What computer are you booting this up on?


----------



## bam1220

jmbach said:


> Can you post a couple of pictures of the login process?
> 
> What computer are you booting this up on?


I am using the same homebuilt computer. AMD FX 8350, Gigabyte 990FX Gaming MB, 16GB Corsair Vengence DDR3, XFX R9 390X 8GB GPU, Windows 10 Pro 64. The rest doesn't matter since everything else is disconnected while trying to use MFSTools 3. Yesterday I was able to boot MFSTools with my thumb drive however during boot up I got the same Gigabyte LAN error loop that wrote about in this thread a few weeks ago. I remembered you told me to disable the LAN. I turned the desktop off, rebooted into BIOS and disabled the onboard LAN chip. Rebooted into MFSTools and then was greeted with the emergency maintenance mess.
Over night I cloned my old 2TB HDD from my Tivo Roamio OTA to my 4TB HDD again using the stand alone clone box. I put the 4TB drive into my Roamio and once again all is well except that Tivo only sees 2TB on the HDD. So I do not think the issue is with my clone.
I will yet again make a new thumb drive today and try this all again one more time.
Do you know why the program would enter emergency maint mode? If it happens again how do I get out of it? Could it have happened because I shut the system down in the middle of MFSTools in order to disable the LAN? I will also post pictures if I run into the same problem today.


----------



## jmbach

bam1220 said:


> I am using the same homebuilt computer. AMD FX 8350, Gigabyte 990FX Gaming MB, 16GB Corsair Vengence DDR3, XFX R9 390X 8GB GPU, Windows 10 Pro 64. The rest doesn't matter since everything else is disconnected while trying to use MFSTools 3. Yesterday I was able to boot MFSTools with my thumb drive however during boot up I got the same Gigabyte LAN error loop that wrote about in this thread a few weeks ago. I remembered you told me to disable the LAN. I turned the desktop off, rebooted into BIOS and disabled the onboard LAN chip. Rebooted into MFSTools and then was greeted with the emergency maintenance mess.
> Over night I cloned my old 2TB HDD from my Tivo Roamio OTA to my 4TB HDD again using the stand alone clone box. I put the 4TB drive into my Roamio and once again all is well except that Tivo only sees 2TB on the HDD. So I do not think the issue is with my clone.
> I will yet again make a new thumb drive today and try this all again one more time.
> Do you know why the program would enter emergency maint mode? If it happens again how do I get out of it? Could it have happened because I shut the system down in the middle of MFSTools in order to disable the LAN? I will also post pictures if I run into the same problem today.


Since you made a thumb drive, it very well could be as it is a writable medium. You do not have to worry about it with the ISO on CDROM.


----------



## bam1220

SUCCESS!! Once I created the thumb drive for the 5th or 6th time it finally did what it was supposed to do. I used Etcher and have no idea why it didn't work the first few times. But this time I booted into MFSTools 3 and the program loaded up exactly like it was designed to. There was nothing else I did different this time other than make the thumb drive again. Once in the program I gave it the command to expand as well as the fix command. I got a confirmation that all went well. Put the new 4TB drive into my Roamio OTA and viola! Everything was there including all my shows, guide, and best of all my new increased space. It's amazing how easy this process was once the thumb drive was made properly. 
I thank everyone for sticking with me over the past few weeks to help out. Was frustrating at times but I knew if I stayed with it I would eventually get it. Thanks again to all from a very happy Roamio OTA user.


----------



## nuraman00

nuraman00 said:


> If I use USB 3, how much time do you think it would take to go from a 2 TB to a 4 TB, that's about 10% full? It will be between 9-11% full when I actually do it, if I can do it by January 17.
> 
> If I can't do it by then, then I'll wait until after February 02, as I'll be recording tennis during those 2 weeks and don't want to do it in the middle of that.
> 
> I will try to use my USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, but if that doesn't work, then I'll be using a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port.


I started the copy. Is there any idea about the estimated time? It's taken 5 or 6 minutes to get to 1.00%. OK now I see ETA, 13 hours 18 minutes.


----------



## nuraman00

I finished.

It took a little over 12 hours.

My USB 3.1 Gen 2 port didn't work, I don't think it's ever worked. So I had to use USB 3.1 Gen 1.

Is there a way to make the copy go faster? My old hard drive was only 10% full. But it seemed like it would have taken the same amount of time to copy, whether it was more or less full.

New 4TB hard drive has 636 HD hours, 5587 SD hours. Now only 4% full, after copying the shows.

I'm glad this worked. Thanks for creating the tool.

I hope I don't have to go through this again.

Is it possible to do a copy onto a smaller hard drive? Like say I now have this 4TB hard drive, but it's 4% full. And I later get a 3TB hard drive. Can I copy only the amount of data that's on the 4TB, onto the 3TB?

It's been a long day, of anxiety, hoping that this would work, on the first try.

My Tivo is a few weeks more than 7 years old, so I'm glad I replaced the hard drive now.


----------



## nuraman00

How do I make the USB drive usable now? I tried formatting it with Partition Manager as a FAT 32.

But Windows 10 still can't recognize it in Windows Explorer. I hear the noise when I insert the drive, but it doesn't come up in Explorer.

Windows does detect it if I go to Manage-->Computer-->Disk Management.

But I want to be able to see it in Explorer, so I can use it in the future.


----------



## nuraman00

I tried following these steps, I still can't make it visible in Windows Explorer anymore.

I tried using both Disk Partition, and Partition Manager.

How to Delete a Partition on a USB Drive in Windows 10? - EaseUS


----------



## kpeters59

Use Diskpart to 'clean' it and then re-format it again and make sure you give it a Drive Letter.

-KP


----------



## nuraman00

kpeters59 said:


> Use Diskpart to 'clean' it and then re-format it again and make sure you give it a Drive Letter.
> 
> -KP


Thanks. Giving it a label helped. I followed these steps:

How to Assign and Remove Drive Letter with Diskpart?

One more issue.

Now that the drive comes up in Windows Explorer, if I try ejecting it directly from Windows explorer, it doesn't remove it. I have to use the "Eject Device" icon that comes up in the system tray.

How can I make it so that it ejects from Windows Explorer, like it used to?

It seems like any device I now connect via USB, doesn't get ejected from Windows Explorer properly anymore. I have to use that aforementioned system tray icon.

If anyone has some ideas, that would be great. Thanks again.


----------



## nuraman00

nuraman00 said:


> I finished.
> 
> It took a little over 12 hours.
> 
> My USB 3.1 Gen 2 port didn't work, I don't think it's ever worked. So I had to use USB 3.1 Gen 1.
> 
> Is there a way to make the copy go faster? My old hard drive was only 10% full. But it seemed like it would have taken the same amount of time to copy, whether it was more or less full.
> 
> New 4TB hard drive has 636 HD hours, 5587 SD hours. Now only 4% full, after copying the shows.
> 
> I'm glad this worked. Thanks for creating the tool.
> 
> I hope I don't have to go through this again.
> 
> Is it possible to do a copy onto a smaller hard drive? Like say I now have this 4TB hard drive, but it's 4% full. And I later get a 3TB hard drive. Can I copy only the amount of data that's on the 4TB, onto the 3TB?
> 
> It's been a long day, of anxiety, hoping that this would work, on the first try.
> 
> My Tivo is a few weeks more than 7 years old, so I'm glad I replaced the hard drive now.


One more question about this. So was it normal for it to take 12-13 hours to copy a 2 TB hard drive that was 10% full? I would have thought it would have been faster, since most of the drive was empty.

So now I have a 4 TB hard drive. If in the future, I copied this hard drive onto a new 4 TB hard drive, would it take about 25 hours then? Even if the hard drive was barely full, like it was before?

It just seems a like a long time to have a process continuously running for 12-25 hours. Something could error or stop working in between.

Also, how was I supposed to quit the MFS Tools? I logged out of Linux, but didn't see what else I could do. So I eventually restarted the PC, and removed the boot CD. (I decided to to use the USB).


----------



## jmbach

The command "shutdown now" should close it down safely. 

I would not copy it to another 4 TB drive but clone it. Because you are correct, it takes a longer time than expected to copy over the recordings.


----------



## richsadams

Success! I finally found time to replace the 2TB HDD in our Premiere XL4 Elite with a WD40EFRX 4TB HDD using MFS Tools 3.2. The OEM drive wasn't acting up or causing any issues, but it was getting pretty long in the tooth, so this was just a bit of preventative maintenance.

Both drives were connected via SATA to an HP All-In-One PC I have for testing website development. This was a full copy/expand. It took about 11 hours total.

Initially when it booted up everything looked normal, moving from the TiVo "Welcome "screen to the "Almost there...", but then all of the lights lit up for a moment and it went back to the "Welcome" screen.  My heart sank. After a few minutes it continued on to the "Almost there..." screen again and eventually to the TiVo home screen. Phew! 

Tested live, recording playback, connection to our Bolt Vox, etc. and everything works normally. :clapping:

Put the OEM drive on the shelf for a little insurance.

My first TiVo "hack" was installing a second HDD in our first TiVo Series1. But it's been quite a while since I upgraded any of our more recent boxes. I think the last one I worked on in fact was a TiVo HD. Some things have changed, some remain the same, but I was so thankful to have some hand holding along the way.

Many, many thanks to @jmbach, @jkozee and everyone else here for the great software, ongoing support and all-around goodness that can still be found in the TiVo Community. :up:


----------



## BizzyMarks

Hey all, I need a little help. I've got a Premiere 500GB that I tried clearing Guide Data and it won't leave that screen. It's been days. I tried Kickstart codes with no luck. I decided to replace the HD from 500GB to 2TB (WD Red). I downloaded and burned MFSTools 3.32 (from Page 7 or this thread) to a DVD and booted. After it loads the kernel, it goes into a search for every /dev/ and ends with "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and reboots after 120 seconds. The only thing attached to the PC are the old and new HDs and optical drive. I tried searching for the phrase "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and it seems to be specific to the Linux distro used for MFSTools 3.32.

What do I do now?


----------



## shenders

BizzyMarks: 
I'll just throw in some additional information: I had the same experience with 3.32, which I downloaded on Jan 27'th. I've used MFSTools successfully several times over the years and never had a problem, so this was a surprise. I do appreciate all the work the developers and maintainers of this great software put in - thanks so much!

I got the "Failed to find MBR Identifier" booting from DVD burned from the ISO, and a slightly different error booting from USB burned from the img file: "Failed to find boot device, No devices matches MBR ID 0x399183dc". I saw that other people had success with MFSTools 3.32, so I attributed my problem to having an 8-year old PC and looked for another solution. I did see lots of Google search results about the MBR errors, but didn't see any obvious solutions - I didn't spend much time investigating.

So here's what I did: I have a server running Centos 7 linux, and on that box I mounted the MFSTools ISO file and extracted it's main filesystem file - it's a squashed filesystem, so you can run unsquashfs to unpack it. From there you can get to all the mfstools executables under /usr/local/bin.
I then downloaded a fresh copy of openSuse Leap 15.1 Live KDE, and burned it to a USB stick using Etcher. I booted from that USB (on my 8-year old PC), and copied the mfstools files in. The mfstools stuff ran fine in that environment and I was able to accomplish what I set out to do:
expand my (previously expanded) 4TB Premiere to an 8TB disk. The only hitch I had was that with KDE running the mfscopy would hang after a few minutes, but when I booted in runlevel 3 (terminal only), it ran to completion in a little over 17 hours.

If you have some familiarity with Linux you could try this approach. I doubt I could convey the steps so that a novice could do it, however, without a bunch of iterations. My reason to post this is to confirm that you're not the only one to have a problem with 3.32. 

I do agree with your feeling that the problem has to do with the specific version of Suse linux, or maybe there's something odd about how the ISO was built.


----------



## jmbach

BizzyMarks said:


> Hey all, I need a little help. I've got a Premiere 500GB that I tried clearing Guide Data and it won't leave that screen. It's been days. I tried Kickstart codes with no luck. I decided to replace the HD from 500GB to 2TB (WD Red). I downloaded and burned MFSTools 3.32 (from Page 7 or this thread) to a DVD and booted. After it loads the kernel, it goes into a search for every /dev/ and ends with "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and reboots after 120 seconds. The only thing attached to the PC are the old and new HDs and optical drive. I tried searching for the phrase "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and it seems to be specific to the Linux distro used for MFSTools 3.32.
> 
> What do I do now?


Perhaps downloaded the usb version and write it to a USB drive.

I will try to look into it but it boots fine for me so it may be difficult.


----------



## BizzyMarks

jmbach said:


> Perhaps downloaded the usb version and write it to a USB drive.
> 
> I will try to look into it but it boots fine for me so it may be difficult.


I ended up using JMFSTools 2.0 and it worked just fine. Since I was only going to a 2TB drive, I figured older tools should work fine and it did. 
Except, it still boots to the Clearing Guide Data and doesn't proceed. Should I start a separate thread for that??


----------



## jmbach

BizzyMarks said:


> I ended up using JMFSTools 2.0 and it worked just fine. Since I was only going to a 2TB drive, I figured older tools should work fine and it did.
> Except, it still boots to the Clearing Guide Data and doesn't proceed. Should I start a separate thread for that??


Have you tried any kickstart codes on boot up?


----------



## BizzyMarks

jmbach said:


> Have you tried any kickstart codes on boot up?


I have and they don't appear to work. Take a look and tell me if I'm doing something wrong.

I power on and wait for the yellow to flash, hit pause, yellow goes solid, type in 2 digit code on remote (Like, 59), green and yellow flash back and forth then solid green. Tivo continues to boot into "Almost there", then "Clearing Guide Data" as if nothing happened.


----------



## BizzyMarks

shenders said:


> BizzyMarks:
> I'll just throw in some additional information: I had the same experience with 3.32, which I downloaded on Jan 27'th. I've used MFSTools successfully several times over the years and never had a problem, so this was a surprise. I do appreciate all the work the developers and maintainers of this great software put in - thanks so much!
> 
> I got the "Failed to find MBR Identifier" booting from DVD burned from the ISO, and a slightly different error booting from USB burned from the img file: "Failed to find boot device, No devices matches MBR ID 0x399183dc". I saw that other people had success with MFSTools 3.32, so I attributed my problem to having an 8-year old PC and looked for another solution. I did see lots of Google search results about the MBR errors, but didn't see any obvious solutions - I didn't spend much time investigating.
> 
> So here's what I did: I have a server running Centos 7 linux, and on that box I mounted the MFSTools ISO file and extracted it's main filesystem file - it's a squashed filesystem, so you can run unsquashfs to unpack it. From there you can get to all the mfstools executables under /usr/local/bin.
> I then downloaded a fresh copy of openSuse Leap 15.1 Live KDE, and burned it to a USB stick using Etcher. I booted from that USB (on my 8-year old PC), and copied the mfstools files in. The mfstools stuff ran fine in that environment and I was able to accomplish what I set out to do:
> expand my (previously expanded) 4TB Premiere to an 8TB disk. The only hitch I had was that with KDE running the mfscopy would hang after a few minutes, but when I booted in runlevel 3 (terminal only), it ran to completion in a little over 17 hours.
> 
> If you have some familiarity with Linux you could try this approach. I doubt I could convey the steps so that a novice could do it, however, without a bunch of iterations. My reason to post this is to confirm that you're not the only one to have a problem with 3.32.
> 
> I do agree with your feeling that the problem has to do with the specific version of Suse linux, or maybe there's something odd about how the ISO was built.


Thanks for the detailed reply. If it were 15 years ago, I'd be all over trying to play around with Linux and tinkering with it to get it to work. Nowadays, I've got too much going on to mess with. About the only tinkering I've done recently is getting a hacked BIOS for my 10 year old Dell Inspiron (2nd Gen Core i5) so I can use an SSD properly.

I found an old copy (2010) of JMFSTools 2.0 that worked to copy my 500GB to the 2TB. I'm not in need of a lot of recording capacity, so I went with 2TB instead of larger and doing so benefits me with using older tools that don't have to worry about 32bit vs 64bit memory addresses and whatnot. JMFS worked, but now I'm having the same problem that I thought copying the drive would have solved.


----------



## BizzyMarks

jmbach said:


> Perhaps downloaded the usb version and write it to a USB drive.
> 
> I will try to look into it but it boots fine for me so it may be difficult.


Also, Shenders right above your post mentioned the same issues and we're both using older PCs.


----------



## jmbach

BizzyMarks said:


> I have and they don't appear to work. Take a look and tell me if I'm doing something wrong.
> 
> I power on and wait for the yellow to flash, hit pause, yellow goes solid, type in 2 digit code on remote (Like, 59), green and yellow flash back and forth then solid green. Tivo continues to boot into "Almost there", then "Clearing Guide Data" as if nothing happened.


Looks correct. I would try KS 58. All else fails KS 76543210 which I initiates a clear and delete everything on a Premiere.


----------



## BizzyMarks

jmbach said:


> Looks correct. I would try KS 58. All else fails KS 76543210 which I initiates a clear and delete everything on a Premiere.


Someone else mentioned that and I tried. I paused, got the solid yellow, typed in "76" and it started flashing green and yellow and kept booting like normal and got stuck on "Clearing Guide Data".


----------



## jmbach

Did you type in the rest of the digits?


----------



## BizzyMarks

jmbach said:


> Did you type in the rest of the digits?


Yeah, tried that to. I hope in "76" and yellow and green start flashing. I continue typing "54321" while it's still flashing and it still doesn't do anything other than boot to "Clearing Guide Data".


----------



## kpeters59

76543210 

-KP


----------



## TivoJD

BizzyMarks said:


> Yeah, tried that to. I hope in "76" and yellow and green start flashing. I continue typing "54321" while it's still flashing and it still doesn't do anything other than boot to "Clearing Guide Data".


I had the same issue stuck on clearing program information and to do list. The KS 76543210 did work for me on a Roamio. Don't forget the zero and don't stop when it starts flashing. I lost everything on it, but at least I was able to do guided setup and get the box back to working order.


----------



## jmbach

BizzyMarks said:


> Hey all, I need a little help. I've got a Premiere 500GB that I tried clearing Guide Data and it won't leave that screen. It's been days. I tried Kickstart codes with no luck. I decided to replace the HD from 500GB to 2TB (WD Red). I downloaded and burned MFSTools 3.32 (from Page 7 or this thread) to a DVD and booted. After it loads the kernel, it goes into a search for every /dev/ and ends with "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and reboots after 120 seconds. The only thing attached to the PC are the old and new HDs and optical drive. I tried searching for the phrase "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and it seems to be specific to the Linux distro used for MFSTools 3.32.
> 
> What do I do now?


I was able to replicate your issue booting the ISO on my virtual machine and now work on fixing it.


----------



## jmbach

BizzyMarks said:


> Hey all, I need a little help. I've got a Premiere 500GB that I tried clearing Guide Data and it won't leave that screen. It's been days. I tried Kickstart codes with no luck. I decided to replace the HD from 500GB to 2TB (WD Red). I downloaded and burned MFSTools 3.32 (from Page 7 or this thread) to a DVD and booted. After it loads the kernel, it goes into a search for every /dev/ and ends with "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and reboots after 120 seconds. The only thing attached to the PC are the old and new HDs and optical drive. I tried searching for the phrase "Failed to find MBR Identifier" and it seems to be specific to the Linux distro used for MFSTools 3.32.
> 
> What do I do now?


@BizzyMarks I fixed the boot issue for the ISO. Please download it and try it out and let me know the results.


----------



## Kelly7777

I have a Tivo Bolt 1TB and want to upgrade it to 3TB. I want to preserve my recordings. I downloaded the MFS Tools 3.32. Can someone please walk me through this process?


----------



## jmbach

Kelly7777 said:


> I have a Tivo Bolt 1TB and want to upgrade it to 3TB. I want to preserve my recordings. I downloaded the MFS Tools 3.32. Can someone please walk me through this process?


So which UI are you on with your Bolt. TE3 or TE4. What drive are you going to use for the 3TB drive?


----------



## ThAbtO

jmbach said:


> TE3 or TE4.


To Clarify, TE3 = v20+, TE4 = v21+ (Tivo software its running.)


----------



## Kelly7777

jmbach said:


> So which UI are you on with your Bolt. TE3 or TE4. What drive are you going to use for the 3TB drive?


I'm not sure about the ui version. The drive I'm going to use is wd30nprz.


----------



## ThAbtO

Kelly7777 said:


> I'm not sure about the ui version. The drive I'm going to use is wd30nprz.
> 
> View attachment 46083


TE4.

DISK FULL.... Don't record the SuperBowl!


----------



## Kelly7777

ThAbtO said:


> TE4.
> 
> DISK FULL.... Don't record the SuperBowl!


Ok. TE4? It's a bolt vox. What's the step by step process? Commands, etc.


----------



## ThAbtO

Kelly7777 said:


> Ok. TE4? It's a bolt vox. What's the step by step process? Commands, etc.


TE4 (or TE3) refers to the Software version... and your picture shows it as 21.9.6.v7-USC-11-849. Its also called Hydra. It added the VOX feature to the Bolt.

The steps? Download the MFSTools (CD version, in this case) and make a CD (it would be a bootable CD) ... With the CD and only the Tivo and new drives connected, start up (boot) the computer with the CD in your CD/DVD drive. Use Username: root and pword: tivo....

ldisk -l (lower L, I think this is the command to determine the drive designations) For example: Tivo drive (sda) and new drive (sdb)

mfscopy -ai [source] [target]
For above example: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb (your devices may vary)


----------



## Kelly7777

ThAbtO said:


> TE4 (or TE3) refers to the Software version... and your picture shows it as 21.9.6.v7-USC-11-849. Its also called Hydra. It added the VOX feature to the Bolt.
> 
> The steps? Download the MFSTools (CD version, in this case) and make a CD (it would be a bootable CD) ... With the CD and only the Tivo and new drives connected, start up (boot) the computer with the CD in your CD/DVD drive. Use Username: root and pword: tivo....
> 
> ldisk -l (lower L, I think this is the command to determine the drive designations) For example: Tivo drive (sda) and new drive (sdb)
> 
> mfscopy -ai [source] [target]
> For above example: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb (your devices may vary)


Thank you very much! I'm waiting on the drive to get here. Will let you know how it goes. Many thanks


----------



## ThAbtO

jmbach said:


> Premier and earlier models - mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> Roamio and later models - mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


From post 131 on this thread.


----------



## jmbach

Kelly7777 said:


> Thank you very much! I'm waiting on the drive to get here. Will let you know how it goes. Many thanks


You might want to read the full post where you downloaded the ISO from.


----------



## Kelly7777

ThAbtO said:


> From post 131 on this thread.


So leave out the i? What's the impact if you don't include it?


----------



## ThAbtO

Correction: From post 1399...



dougdingle said:


> Connect source and destination drives to your computer.
> Power up while booting from the MFSTools .ISO
> -Login: root
> -Password: tivo
> -parted -l (lower case L) shows drive assignments as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Carefully note which is assigned to your source and destination drives.
> -copy with shows/expand to bigger dive: mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> -copy, no shows: mfscopy -s /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> where sda is the source drive, and sdb is the destination (new) drive.
> 
> sda and sdb are assigned by your BIOS at boot. So the source drive can be, say, sdf and the destination sdc. Write down the actual assignment by looking at the screen output from parted -l, then use those for sda and sdb in the command line.


Its "parted" not ldisk as I had mentioned.


----------



## ThAbtO

It would most certainly help if you read through this thread about it. (since you have time, and waiting for the drive.)


----------



## Kelly7777

ThAbtO said:


> Correction: From post 1399...
> 
> Its "parted" not ldisk as I had mentioned.





ThAbtO said:


> Correction: From post 1399...
> 
> Its "parted" not ldisk as I had mentioned.


So to expand to a bigger drive use mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb right?

So is it -a or -ai ? jmbach said Roamio and later use -a

Thx


----------



## ThAbtO

The first couple of post should explain what those modifiers do.

I am not going to be your researcher... (not trying to be rude.)


----------



## jmbach

Kelly7777 said:


> So leave out the i? What's the impact if you don't include it?


mfscopy copies the MFS partitions, sqlite, /var, and swap partitions along with the primary booting partitions (bootstrap, kernel, and root). There is a secondary booting partitions. The 'i' copies the secondary booting partition set as well. In Roamio and Bolts, the primary and secondary booting partitions are empty since they are on the internal flash. So it really makes no difference.


----------



## Kelly7777

jmbach said:


> mfscopy copies the MFS partitions, sqlite, /var, and swap partitions along with the primary booting partitions (bootstrap, kernel, and root). There is a secondary booting partitions. The 'i' copies the secondary booting partition set as well. In Roamio and Bolts, the primary and secondary booting partitions are empty since they are on the internal flash. So it really makes no difference.


I see. Does this process expand the drive? I remember years ago when I did a tivo hd and also a premier that I had to issue another command after the copy was finished to expand the drive.


----------



## ThAbtO

Unlike the earlier programs, MFST does the copy and expand with the single command.


----------



## Kelly7777

ThAbtO said:


> Unlike the earlier programs, MFST does the copy and expand with the single command.


Ok good. Thx


----------



## jmbach

Kelly7777 said:


> I'm not sure about the ui version. The drive I'm going to use is wd30nprz.
> 
> View attachment 46083


BTW generally recommend masking your TSN ans Netflix ESN if you are posting screen shots.


----------



## jmbach

Keep in mind with the TE4 UI, some 2 1/2" hard drives do not boot in TE4 where they do in TE3. It is possible that you may run into that. No one has figured out why as of yet. Does not seem to be an issue with 3 1/2" hard drives. You just cannot fit them in a Bolt.


----------



## Kelly7777

jmbach said:


> BTW generally recommend masking your TSN ans Netflix ESN if you are posting screen shots.


Thx


----------



## Kelly7777

jmbach said:


> Keep in mind with the TE4 UI, some 2 1/2" hard drives do not boot in TE4 where they do in TE3. It is possible that you may run into that. No one has figured out why as of yet. Does not seem to be an issue with 3 1/2" hard drives. You just cannot fit them in a Bolt.


So are you saying that nobody has been able to copy a drive when using TE4?


----------



## jmbach

Kelly7777 said:


> So are you saying that nobody has been able to copy a drive when using TE4?


Not at all. It depends on the drive. People who had replaced their drives with larger drives running TE3 and had the TiVo self format the drive who then elected to have their TiVos upgrade to TE4 had the same issue.

So it is not a copy issue but a drive issue.


----------



## Kelly7777

jmbach said:


> Not at all. It depends on the drive. People who had replaced their drives with larger drives running TE3 and had the TiVo self format the drive who then elected to have their TiVos upgrade to TE4 had the same issue.
> 
> So it is not a copy issue but a drive issue.


Is the issue certain model numbers of drives?


----------



## jmbach

There are various models. Best for you to do some searching on these forums.


----------



## m_jonis

Stupid question, but I'm apparently not phrasing the search correctly for this thread:

What's the difference between the:
mfstool command (to copy)
vs.
mfscopy command (to copy)


----------



## jmbach

m_jonis said:


> Stupid question, but I'm apparently not phrasing the search correctly for this thread:
> 
> What's the difference between the:
> mfstool command (to copy)
> vs.
> mfscopy command (to copy)


"mfstool copy" calls the mfscopy command


----------



## vaquero

I downloaded the ISO and made a boot disk. Booted up and it asks for "login". Is there a login?


----------



## jmbach

vaquero said:


> I downloaded the ISO and made a boot disk. Booted up and it asks for "login". Is there a login?


Have you read the whole post you downloaded the ISO from?


----------



## vaquero

jmbach said:


> Have you read the whole post you downloaded the ISO from?


Thanks for responding. I did not download the ISO from a post. I found it from this link in the first post, which I've read multiple times MFS Tools

To be truthful, I'm cross-eyed from reading this thread and probably overlooked something in one of the posts. I did find the login and password eventually on about my third search.

Thanks again.


----------



## jmbach

vaquero said:


> Thanks for responding. I did not download the ISO from a post. I found it from this link in the first post, which I've read multiple times MFS Tools
> 
> To be truthful, I'm cross-eyed from reading this thread and probably overlooked something in one of the posts. I did find the login and password eventually on about my third search.
> 
> Thanks again.


I am not sure you downloaded the correct version then.

Post 8 of this thread will point you to another post which has the instructions and download links.


----------



## vaquero

jmbach said:


> I am not sure you downloaded the correct version then.
> 
> Post 8 of this thread will point you to another post which has the instructions and download links.


Oh, okay. I got that link off of the OP, which I figured would have the most up to date info. I did read post 8, but evidently it didn't register on me.

Thanks again.


----------



## ThAbtO

Post #131
Post #1399 with instructions.


----------



## MPSAN

So I booted MFS Tools 3.32 but how can I just put ONE Premiere drive in and do an expand ONLY without a copy?
TIA


----------



## jmbach

MPSAN said:


> So I booted MFS Tools 3.32 but how can I just put ONE Premiere drive in and do an expand ONLY without a copy?
> TIA


Depends on how big of a drive and your starting image but for most situations where the added recording time is 2 TB or less, run mfsadd followed by apmfix.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## MPSAN

jmbach said:


> Depends on how big of a drive and your starting image but for most situations where the added recording time is 2 TB or less, run mfsadd followed by apmfix.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thank you! So, I guess from the root, I can do a df to see the mounted drives including the TIVO drive. I am only going from 320GB to 500GB!

I am sure that the mfsadd and the apmfix take parameters so do I just do a mfsadd -h to see them? I did google mfsadd and there is an extensive list from a hinsdale how to! It is for MFSTOOLS 2.0 but should be OK, correct?
I do want to thank you for your response. Is there a current how to as I just do not see one. To bad there is no GUI version!


----------



## jmbach

MPSAN said:


> Thank you! So, I guess from the root, I can do a df to see the mounted drives including the TIVO drive. I am only going from 320GB to 500GB!
> 
> I am sure that the mfsadd and the apmfix take parameters so do I just do a mfsadd -h to see them? I did google mfsadd and there is an extensive list from a hinsdale how to! It is for MFSTOOLS 2.0 but should be OK, correct?
> I do want to thank you for your response. Is there a current how to as I just do not see one. To bad there is no GUI version!


mfsadd -x /dev/sdX

apmfix /dev/sdX

Where sdX is your Premiere drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## MPSAN

Thank you. OH, is 1.05 Ok I do have v1.04. Great, if script comes up, I guess I can get to root. Should do fdisk -l to see the drive.


----------



## jmbach

MPSAN said:


> Thank you. OH, is 1.05 Ok I do have v1.04. Great, if script comes up, I guess I can get to root. Should do fdisk -l to see the drive.


1.05 or 1.04 what

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## MPSAN

jmbach said:


> 1.05 or 1.04 what
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


It is JMFS-rev 1.04 and JMFS-rev 1.05. I burned both to cd's.


----------



## jmbach

MPSAN said:


> It is JMFS-rev 1.04 and JMFS-rev 1.05. I burned both to cd's.


For what you want to do, JMFS 1.04 will do everything for you. You do not need MFSTools.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## MPSAN

Great. I guess that JMFS 1.04 will just start a script and walk me thru it. I hope it does let me just go to mfsadd and then apmfix. If not, will ^C get me out of the script and back to root?


----------



## chapati

Hi, 

I am using MFSTOOLS 3.3 and having trouble copying my 3Tb to a new 6Tb. 

using mfscopy I got two errors

first one was perf: interrupt took too long, lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 79750

Second one occurred 54% into the copy and said 

Copy source: out of space for video content 


Tried it a few times and got same result. 

Not sure what to do now and haven’t found any answers in my searching. 

any help would be appreciated. 

Bhavesh


----------



## ThAbtO

chapati said:


> I am using MFSTOOLS 3.3 and having trouble copying my 3Tb to a new 6Tb.


What commands are you using? 
What model Tivo is it for?


----------



## jmbach

chapati said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am using MFSTOOLS 3.3 and having trouble copying my 3Tb to a new 6Tb.
> 
> using mfscopy I got two errors
> 
> first one was perf: interrupt took too long, lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 79750
> 
> Second one occurred 54% into the copy and said
> 
> Copy source: out of space for video content
> 
> Tried it a few times and got same result.
> 
> Not sure what to do now and haven't found any answers in my searching.
> 
> any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Bhavesh


Ditto ThAbtO questions and how are the drives connected to the computer running MFSTools.


----------



## chapati

ThAbtO said:


> What commands are you using?
> What model Tivo is it for?


i used mfscopy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sde

The source drive is from Roamio


----------



## chapati

jmbach said:


> Ditto ThAbtO questions and how are the drives connected to the computer running MFSTools.


I have the drives connected to the computer via USB 3.0 SATA connectors/adapters. They have power going to them from external supply.

the destination drive is 6Tb WD Blue


----------



## ThAbtO

MFStools limits to 4TB for Roamio.


----------



## jmbach

chapati said:


> I have the drives connected to the computer via USB 3.0 SATA connectors/adapters. They have power going to them from external supply.
> 
> the destination drive is 6Tb WD Blue


The first warning is not an issue.

The second could be a problem. Has there been any issues with the drive? You may need to run a KS58 before it will copy correctly. But before doing that, follow the directions in the 10 TB Roamio thread to create your 6 TB drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## chapati

ThAbtO said:


> MFStools limits to 4TB for Roamio.


ahhhh.... I thought I had read it can do up to 10 now. Or 8?

Does WinMFS go to 6Tb?


----------



## chapati

jmbach said:


> The first warning is not an issue.
> 
> The second could be a problem. Has there been any issues with the drive? You may need to run a KS58 before it will copy correctly. But before doing that, follow the directions in the 10 TB Roamio thread to create your 6 TB drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I'd been having some random restarts and slowness with the Roamio so I figured drive might be failing so decided to replace and upgrade.

I don't know what KS58 is but I'll look it up and give that a try. Thx!


----------



## jmbach

chapati said:


> ahhhh.... I thought I had read it can do up to 10 now. Or 8?
> 
> Does WinMFS go to 6Tb?


WinMFS is only for series 3 and earlier TiVos.

The TiVo OS limits MFS partition sizes to 2 TB. MFSTools will copy the drive to as large as a dive you show it. Problem is the TiVo will reject it because the MFS partition sizes are over 2 TB. So you have to create the drive in such a way to limit the MFS partitions to 2 TB. Follow the 10 TB Roamio thread to make your 6 TB drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## ThAbtO

chapati said:


> Does WinMFS go to 6Tb?


It will not work for any models series 4 and above.


----------



## ThAbtO

chapati said:


> the destination drive is 6Tb WD Blue





jmbach said:


> Follow the 10 TB Roamio thread to make your 6 TB drive.


DIY 10TB Roamio


----------



## chapati

ThAbtO said:


> DIY 10TB Roamio


Thanks! I restarted the copy using the -am 2040 switches. Will report back in the morning.


----------



## chapati

jmbach said:


> WinMFS is only for series 3 and earlier TiVos.
> 
> The TiVo OS limits MFS partition sizes to 2 TB. MFSTools will copy the drive to as large as a dive you show it. Problem is the TiVo will reject it because the MFS partition sizes are over 2 TB. So you have to create the drive in such a way to limit the MFS partitions to 2 TB. Follow the 10 TB Roamio thread to make your 6 TB drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


thank you. I have restarted the copy using those instructions using the -am 2040 switch. will report back to the thread


----------



## chapati

Hey everyone, it looks like changing the command to what is recommended in the 10tb thread (using the -am 2040 switch) was the right way to go! 

I'm at about 67% so far, well past the point I was having the failures before so it must have had to to do with the MFS partition sizes as described. 

I'll finish out the upgrade when I get home tonight and post results.

Thanks ThAbtO and jmbach!


----------



## MPSAN

jmbach said:


> mfsadd -x /dev/sdX
> 
> apmfix /dev/sdX
> 
> Where sdX is your Premiere drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Well!! All this was great but not needed after all! I burned jmfs rev 1.04 iso and guess what? It actually walked me thru it like 3.3x did not! It said I had only one TIVO drive and asked if I wanted to expand it. Then it asked if I wanted to Supersize it. With the correct ISO booted this took less than a minute and the SI screen shows 75 hours again. Sorry for all of my posts that made it seem like a big deal. Actually the other versions were a big deal. OH, this was a stock, sort of, Premiere 4 with a 500 GB drive.

Thank You!


----------



## chapati

chapati said:


> Hey everyone, it looks like changing the command to what is recommended in the 10tb thread (using the -am 2040 switch) was the right way to go!
> 
> I'm at about 67% so far, well past the point I was having the failures before so it must have had to to do with the MFS partition sizes as described.
> 
> I'll finish out the upgrade when I get home tonight and post results.
> 
> Thanks ThAbtO and jmbach!


Following the 10tb Instructions worked and I'm up and running! Thanks! Of course... now I want to try to go for 10tb lol!

Thanks Everyone!


----------



## chapati

Ugh...spoke a little too soon. Getting a "There was an error loading series data" after connecting to Tivo service, so guide data not updating.

Is this a KS58 thing? or KS57? Something different?

* [UPDATE] * - DID a KS58 and it appears to be loading. So a KS58 solved the issue

Thanks


----------



## jmbach

chapati said:


> Ugh...spoke a little too soon. Getting a "There was an error loading series data" after connecting to Tivo service, so guide data not updating.
> 
> Is this a KS58 thing? or KS57? Something different?
> 
> Thanks


Would try a KS58.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## schwinn

I appear to be having issues with my already-expanded Premiere drive (a very old 1TB that has served me well, but is starting to make screeching noises and has crashed the Tivo a few times in the past 2 days). That drive was expanded with jmfs IIRC.

I mistakenly bought a larger 2TB EURX drive (thinking I had 2TB in there already)... but I'm hoping I can still use it?

I'm thinking I may need to ddrescue to the 2TB, but I was hoping I could simply expand the ddrescued-drive up to the 2TB size. Is this possible?

I know I can theoretically mfscopy -ai to the new drive, but I don't want to risk running the old drive any longer than I have to, so I'm hoping I can ddrescue to the new drive, test it in the Tivo, then expand it later. Is this possible? (My fear is that if the mfscopy fails, then I have to start over with ddrescue which may be the last straw for the old drive...)

I do want to save the old recordings (some are copy protected)... hence the battle to try to save it all.

TIA


----------



## jmbach

schwinn said:


> I appear to be having issues with my already-expanded Premiere drive (a very old 1TB that has served me well, but is starting to make screeching noises and has crashed the Tivo a few times in the past 2 days). That drive was expanded with jmfs IIRC.
> 
> I mistakenly bought a larger 2TB EURX drive (thinking I had 2TB in there already)... but I'm hoping I can still use it?
> 
> I'm thinking I may need to ddrescue to the 2TB, but I was hoping I could simply expand the ddrescued-drive up to the 2TB size. Is this possible?
> 
> I know I can theoretically mfscopy -ai to the new drive, but I don't want to risk running the old drive any longer than I have to, so I'm hoping I can ddrescue to the new drive, test it in the Tivo, then expand it later. Is this possible? (My fear is that if the mfscopy fails, then I have to start over with ddrescue which may be the last straw for the old drive...)
> 
> I do want to save the old recordings (some are copy protected)... hence the battle to try to save it all.
> 
> TIA


Since this drive was already expanded, you cannot expand it further. Best bet is to ddrescue the drive to a temporary drive and then use mfscopy to copy it from the temp drive to your 2 TB.

I would make sure the temp drive boots in the TiVo okay before doing a mfscopy.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## ThAbtO

schwinn said:


> I mistakenly bought a larger 2TB EURX drive (thinking I had 2TB in there already)... but I'm hoping I can still use it?


You would be better with another model-matched image, as your current one is failing and expanded. JMFS is an older program.
You could use the 2TB EURX, but there may be a setting or 2 that could prevent it from running. Intellipark and PUIS (jumper disabled, but its also internally enabled)

Using MFSTools, you could go has much as 8TB. Recommended is WD Red (not Red Pro or 7200+RPM)


----------



## schwinn

ThAbtO said:


> You would be better with another model-matched image, as your current one is failing and expanded. JMFS is an older program.
> You could use the 2TB EURX, but there may be a setting or 2 that could prevent it from running. Intellipark and PUIS (jumper disabled, but its also internally enabled)
> 
> Using MFSTools, you could go has much as 8TB. Recommended is WD Red (not Red Pro or 7200+RPM)


I didn't realize EURX had these annoying features. Are you saying I cannot turn them off and that this drive won't work at all? I'm hoping I can run the 2TB with just the ddrescue image for now... then I can decide if I want to mfscopy to another drive later. Does that make sense/work?


----------



## ThAbtO

schwinn said:


> didn't realize EURX had these annoying features.


Intellipark is just an annoyance and the latest software could bypass it. PUIS is the only major issue, it can be turned off, but the drive needs to be connected to SATA and run HDAT2 from the UBCD boot cd.


----------



## schwinn

ThAbtO said:


> Intellipark is just an annoyance and the latest software could bypass it. PUIS is the only major issue, it can be turned off, but the drive needs to be connected to SATA and run HDAT2 from the UBCD boot cd.


I am connected by SATA, so I can do HDAT2 - what exactly am I looking to do there?

Also, wasn't there a utility to disable Intellipark? wdidle, or maybe that was something else?

EDIT: I think I found some info here on what I need to do: success with WD20EURX-57T0FY0 man date 21 Jun 2015 in TCD652160
I'll give that a shot, thanks!


----------



## ThAbtO

WDidle3 and its also available on the UBCD.


----------



## RGrizzzz

What's the right way to just wipe a drive? I have two replacement drives (1TB WD10SPZX and 5TB ST5000LM000) that both had issues my parents Bolt. I just want to wipe them, and let the Tivo Bolt rebuild them.

The first drive that went in was the 1T WD. After a two weeks, it just slowed to a crawl, and will just get stuck on the "starting" screen. WD diagnostics say the drive is fine. (It was a local same day pickup/install. They ordered the 5TB to go in for the extra space)

After the new 1TB drive had issues, my dad put in the 5TB Seagate drive. All was well until this week, when the Tivo threw a green screen. I'm testing this drive now. The goal would be to have the 5TB setup for them. What's the right way to do this?
1. Wipe drive
2. Put in Tivo and have it formatted
3. Run MSFTools to expand the drive

EDIT: Also, I'm seeing some different comments about the "right" drives for different Tivo models, due to drive features. Are the ones I have problematic? My current thought is to get an external enclosure, and put a WD Red drive in. Then the heat problems go away.


----------



## schwinn

ThAbtO said:


> WDidle3 and its also available on the UBCD.


Thanks - turns out Intellipark was already disabled, and so was PUIS... but I know how to check it, so that's good.

My wife and I decided to "risk it" and see if I can get a direct mfscopy (mfscopy -ai... is the correct command, yes?) to work anyway, so I started that process now... crossing our fingers to hope that it runs through (the drive is clicking around a bit, but we're hoping!)


----------



## ThAbtO

If noise is a factor, these green AV drives are noisier than the WD Red while its operating.


----------



## jmbach

schwinn said:


> Thanks - turns out Intellipark was already disabled, and so was PUIS... but I know how to check it, so that's good.
> 
> My wife and I decided to "risk it" and see if I can get a direct mfscopy (mfscopy -ai... is the correct command, yes?) to work anyway, so I started that process now... crossing our fingers to hope that it runs through (the drive is clicking around a bit, but we're hoping!)


That is the correct command. I hope you ran the target drive through a series of read and write diagnostic tests before you started. If the bad spots are not in any of the critical OS areas you will only notice a glitch in the recordings.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## schwinn

jmbach said:


> That is the correct command. I hope you ran the target drive through a series of read and write diagnostic tests before you started. If the bad spots are not in any of the critical OS areas you will only notice a glitch in the recordings.


Yes, I did a full scan with WDDiags through the entire drive. No issues.

The mfscopy completed late last night, and I only ran into one block/sector/whatever that had an issue that popped a warning. The rest went through without message, but the drive did make plenty of bad clicks at various places. I forget what the message was, but something about decreasing the wait time or something. That happened at about 51% of the drive.

Next step is to install the drive into the Premiere and see what happens. Per other threads, I may need to run a KS58 (or 57?) before considering it a done-deal... is that correct?


----------



## jmbach

schwinn said:


> Yes, I did a full scan with WDDiags through the entire drive. No issues.
> 
> The mfscopy completed late last night, and I only ran into one block/sector/whatever that had an issue that popped a warning. The rest went through without message, but the drive did make plenty of bad clicks at various places. I forget what the message was, but something about decreasing the wait time or something. That happened at about 51% of the drive.
> 
> Next step is to install the drive into the Premiere and see what happens. Per other threads, I may need to run a KS58 (or 57?) before considering it a done-deal... is that correct?


Just boot it up and see if it connects to the TiVo servers okay. Don't run any KS unless you are having problems.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## schwinn

jmbach said:


> Just boot it up and see if it connects to the TiVo servers okay. Don't run any KS unless you are having problems.


Drive appears to have come right up without issues. I see double the capacity as well. I did not run a KS, as suggested. It's connecting fine to Tivo and loading data now.

Thanks for all your help jmbach and ThAbtO! Looks like I'm all set. For the record, the dying drive was a "blue" 1TB WD10EZEX drive that has served us well. The new drive is likely quieter, so we're happy (WD20EURX).

I would still recommend the MFS developers create a way to ddrescue and then expand from there (without needing a separate drive)... but this worked out well enough for me.

Speaking of which, is there someone I can donate to for this help and the excellent tools?


----------



## ThAbtO

schwinn said:


> is there someone I can donate to for this help


I have one, just not publiccally addressed. You can do paypal dot me slash thabto.


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## jmbach

schwinn said:


> Drive appears to have come right up without issues. I see double the capacity as well. I did not run a KS, as suggested. It's connecting fine to Tivo and loading data now.
> 
> Thanks for all your help jmbach and ThAbtO! Looks like I'm all set. For the record, the dying drive was a "blue" 1TB WD10EZEX drive that has served us well. The new drive is likely quieter, so we're happy (WD20EURX).
> 
> I would still recommend the MFS developers create a way to ddrescue and then expand from there (without needing a separate drive)... but this worked out well enough for me.
> 
> Speaking of which, is there someone I can donate to for this help and the excellent tools?


Since you have a good image, use DvrBARS to make a backup.

For me, just donate to the DvrBARS author.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## paradisenb

Bolt 500 GB Cable Card. So, I swapped the 500gb HD that came with the Bolt for a 3T WD. I just added the 3T (external enclosure) and booted the machine. This is all I thought was necessary if I wasn't trying to go beyond 3T. Everything seemed fine, but I find the machine thinks the drive is only 500gb. Did I skip a drive formatting step that would tell the Bolt that the drive is 3T? What is the procedure to allow full usage of the new HD's capacity?


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## V7Goose

paradisenb said:


> Bolt 500 GB Cable Card. So, I swapped the 500gb HD that came with the Bolt for a 3T WD. I just added the 3T (external enclosure) and booted the machine. This is all I thought was necessary if I wasn't trying to go beyond 3T. Everything seemed fine, but I find the machine thinks the drive is only 500gb. Did I skip a drive formatting step that would tell the Bolt that the drive is 3T? What is the procedure to allow full usage of the new HD's capacity?


I do not know what procedure you used to switch drives, but it is actually dead simple:

First, DISCONNECT your existing 500 G drive (all recordings will be lost).

Second, connect your external drive DIRECTLY between the Bolt motherboard and the SATA connection on the drive itself (do not use the TiVo eSATA connection, and you must bypass any eSATA or USB connections that might be available on the external enclosure).

Third, start the Bolt normally (with the external drive already powered), and it will format the new 3 TB drive with no further action needed.
If you were trying to save your recordings by copying the original drive instead of just swapping them, you will need to tell us more about what you did.


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## jmbach

paradisenb said:


> Bolt 500 GB Cable Card. So, I swapped the 500gb HD that came with the Bolt for a 3T WD. I just added the 3T (external enclosure) and booted the machine. This is all I thought was necessary if I wasn't trying to go beyond 3T. Everything seemed fine, but I find the machine thinks the drive is only 500gb. Did I skip a drive formatting step that would tell the Bolt that the drive is 3T? What is the procedure to allow full usage of the new HD's capacity?


If I understand correctly, you took out your 500 GB drive and hooked a blank external 3 TB drive to the internal SATA connector on the Bolt. You booted the Bolt. At that point it should have taken you through guided setup again. If not, I am not sure what is going on.


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## paradisenb

I followed the process described by jmbach and V7Goose. The only other possibility is that after the Guided Setup process, I used the Tivo online app to transfer recordings from my old 3T unit to the newly upgraded 3T Bolt. What I am finding is with the Use Meter shown in the - My Shows - screen shows I have used 18%, but the unit deletes ALL Recently Deleted shows believing I have limited space available. The old unit had/has a 3T HD and never deleted any shows even when I reached 50% use. Is it possible the Bolt has a Rev-Limiter in the firmware that needs resetting to 3T. Just wondering if Tivo tries to limit our upgrade path.


----------



## jmbach

paradisenb said:


> I followed the process described by jmbach and V7Goose. The only other possibility is that after the Guided Setup process, I used the Tivo online app to transfer recordings from my old 3T unit to the newly upgraded 3T Bolt. What I am finding is with the Use Meter shown in the - My Shows - screen shows I have used 18%, but the unit deletes ALL Recently Deleted shows believing I have limited space available. The old unit had/has a 3T HD and never deleted any shows even when I reached 50% use. Is it possible the Bolt has a Rev-Limiter in the firmware that needs resetting to 3T. Just wondering if Tivo tries to limit our upgrade path.


See if running a KS58 on boot up corrects the issue.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## paradisenb

Okay, but I need a little help. I don't know what a KS58 is.

Well, I found this site with info on Kickstart. Weakness Is this what you are talking about?


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## jmbach

paradisenb said:


> Okay, but I need a little help. I don't know what a KS58 is.
> 
> Well, I found this site with info on Kickstart. Weakness Is this what you are talking about?


Yes

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## paradisenb

Will defragging the file system erase the recordings?


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## jmbach

paradisenb said:


> Will defragging the file system erase the recordings?


KS 58 will not erase your recordings.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## xmetalloid

I have a couple of Series 2 Tivos I bought as spares about 8 years ago, as a safety net / spare parts, since the wife has been addicted to Tivo for over 10 years. These units only had the original 40GB drives. I came across this thread and thought I would install a new "build environment" for them and upgrade them to 500GB and 1TB units, ready for a swap should one "smoke-out".

My old build environment was Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in a Virtual Machine with MFSTools 2.0, but it's getting a little long in the tooth. I built a Linux Mint 19.3 Xfce 64 bit VM, and copied the MFSTools (3.2) binaries off the boot CD. I ran the backup (./backup -6 -aio /mnt/usb/masterMFS3.mfs /dev/sdb), since I want to base my builds off a "golden master" image that's rock solid stable with backported ethernet drivers, lba48, TWP+, etc.

Everything seemed to go well. Then I attached a 200GB test disk and attempted a restore (./restore -S 127 -i /mnt/usb/masterMFS3.mfs /dev/sdb), and again, all looked good. In fact, it even mounted partition 4, 7, & 9 (/mnt/media/<long-alpha-numeric-hyphenated-string>) and I could easily browse all three partitions. I even umounted them and remounted them to a more standard mount location under /mnt. Sounds good so far. At this point, I'm both surprised and excited. Then it went downhill.

Once I disconnect the drive (after umounting the three partitions), I can no longer remount them. It's almost like the restore executable loaded Apple partition drivers, then unloaded them when the drive was disconnected(?). Also, when I attach the drive to the Tivo, it won't boot. No amber power light sequence, nothing, just "Welcome. Powering up..." forever.

Next I tried using restore to write a known-good MFS2.0 image made and used years ago and again, it looked good. Automatic mounting, all files look good, but still no boot. I performed a restore with MFS2.0 tools and the same 2.0 image and it boots fine. All that said, I have 2 questions: 1) What's with the automount? Can I somehow do this again after reconnecting the drive? and 2) Any insight into the "no boot"?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.


----------



## xmetalloid

Well, do I feel silly? It turns out my test bed Tivo seems to have either a power supply with an intermittent issue, or a drive power cable with an intermittent connection at the molex connector or at the power supply board. It just always seemed to work with MFS2.0 tools and always fail with MFS3.2 tools - until it started failing with MFS2.0 tools - so I tried powering the drive with a separate 12v/5v power supply while in the Tivo - and then it worked - even with the MFS3.2 image! 

So, now that that perplexing problem is solved, what's up with the automount at the end of a restore? I'd really like to do this whenever I feel like it, so that I can edit a pre-imaged drive off the shelf whenever I go to use it (change hostname, update cron, you know, stuff that could be scripted from my build environment, not by telneting into my Tivo after it's all back together).

Thanks in advance, and thanks jkozee for the updated tools and thanks to jmbach for his tireless support to others - as well as the others who often answer questions, just to be, well, helpful :clapping:. Time to heat up the soldering iron and tackle my power issue...


----------



## jmbach

xmetalloid said:


> Well, do I feel silly? It turns out my test bed Tivo seems to have either a power supply with an intermittent issue, or a drive power cable with an intermittent connection at the molex connector or at the power supply board. It just always seemed to work with MFS2.0 tools and always fail with MFS3.2 tools - until it started failing with MFS2.0 tools - so I tried powering the drive with a separate 12v/5v power supply while in the Tivo - and then it worked - even with the MFS3.2 image!
> 
> So, now that that perplexing problem is solved, what's up with the automount at the end of a restore? I'd really like to do this whenever I feel like it, so that I can edit a pre-imaged drive off the shelf whenever I go to use it (change hostname, update cron, you know, stuff that could be scripted from my build environment, not by telneting into my Tivo after it's all back together).
> 
> Thanks in advance, and thanks jkozee for the updated tools and thanks to jmbach for his tireless support to others - as well as the others who often answer questions, just to be, well, helpful :clapping:. Time to heat up the soldering iron and tackle my power issue...


Not sure about the automount issue with your Mint image. You could download the VHD image of MFSTools and virtualize that. You could then update that image to full openSuse.


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## rainbow

i bought a 4 tuner premiere a couple of months ago and have a new 12tb hard drive to use with it. since i am home how and have the time to do the upgrading, i came here to check if there were any new updates before doing the mfstools cd. i have read halfway thru the diy 10tb roamo thread so far. i am assuming that info will also apply to premieres.

i am trying to download the new mfstools 3.32 iso and am getting a response that it is no longer there/accessible. i am using my windows 10 laptop to do that in case that info would be helpful.
can you point me in the right direction to get the download?

update= the link opens a onedrive.live page and i got a message that my account was frozen. i clicked unfreeze and iit says it can take up to 24hrs to do that. 
as of right now i will assume that this is the issue as to why i have been currently unable to download it. i will post an update once i am unfrozen.

U*PDATE i was able to download the iso file. forgot that i am using chrome instead of iexplorer but all is well re download*


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## xmetalloid

jmbach said:


> Not sure about the automount issue with your Mint image. You could download the VHD image of MFSTools and virtualize that. You could then update that image to full openSuse.


Will doing this permit me to mount the Tivo partitions without performing a restore first? I have good familiarity with Suse, so it would make for a good option.

I like the fact that the partitions automount under Mint, I just wish I could manually mount again after a restart - without re-imaging first. This would allow for incremental changes and adding Tivo utilities without ftp'ing them, etc. If Suse will allow for this, I'm all-in.


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## JJC4545

Hey y'all. I'm in need of MFS Tools 3.2 and sourceforge doesn't seem to be up. I checked Google and no luck there. Anyone got a copy?


----------



## ggieseke

See post #131 in this thread.
MFS Tools 3.2


----------



## rainbow

Looks like Mfstools 3.32 works for series 5 or later (I tried it on a 12tb for a recently acquired premiere xl4 four tuner).

I have a cd for Mfstools 3.2 version 1586.i686.0.034
Is this one earlier than the version 3.2-20150531?

From other threads it appears I could use 3.2 to expand up to 8tb..Would I be able to expand that to 12tb using the 3.32, or is 8tb the max for premieres?


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## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Looks like Mfstools 3.32 works for series 5 or later (I tried it on a 12tb for a recently acquired premiere xl4 four tuner).
> 
> I have a cd for Mfstools 3.2 version 1586.i686.0.034
> Is this one earlier than the version 3.2-20150531?
> 
> From other threads it appears I could use 3.2 to expand up to 8tb..Would I be able to expand that to 12tb using the 3.32, or is 8tb the max for premieres?


For Premieres, 8 TB is the max for a single drive expansion.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## rainbow

jmbach said:


> For Premieres, 8 TB is the max for a single drive expansion.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Well that sucks. Thanks for the quick reply. I also have a shucked 8t and have the instructions for upgrading the premiere to 8t. Per my previously posting, do I have the latest 3.2 or is the 20150135 the later one?

I also have a 4t that I used the 3.32 to add 1 set of partitions for the premiere xl4. Should I start over for the 4t with the 3.2 tool?
Or start over with the original 2tb using 3.2 to expand to 8tb?


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Well that sucks. Thanks for the quick reply. I also have a shucked 8t and have the instructions for upgrading the premiere to 8t. Per my previously posting, do I have the latest 3.2 or is the 20150135 the later one?
> 
> I also have a 4t that I used the 3.32 to add 1 set of partitions for the premiere xl4. Should I start over for the 4t with the 3.2 tool?
> Or start over with the original 2tb using 3.2 to expand to 8tb?


Do you need to keep any recordings?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Do you need to keep any recordings?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


No, I don't have any recordings on the 4 tuner, it was a recent purchase and has not been used yet as I was waiting to upgrade the hd before using. I just have it hooked up and getting regular updates but no recordings.

*Added*: The 4tb would just be a backup. I now want to use the shucked 8tb for this one. Was going to use the 12tb for the 4 tuner and was planning on upgrading one of the 2 tuner 6tbs to the 8tb, but not an option now

*Added*: When I expanded with 3.32, the response was adding partitions 15 and 16. Thinking that might be a problem on the 4tb since the instructions mentioned there are only up to 15 partitions for premieres?

The other premieres I have are 2 tuners with almost full 6tbs. I guess I will leave those alone.
Which ISO is the latest one for 3.2?

I may have to start looking for series 5 at some point. I have vox but don't like the limited hard drive issues, and don't really trust having external drives attached.


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## jmbach

rainbow said:


> No, I don't have any recordings on the 4 tuner, it was a recent purchase and has not been used yet as I was waiting to upgrade the hd before using. I just have it hooked up and getting regular updates but no recordings.
> 
> *Added*: The 4tb would just be a backup. I now want to use the shucked 8tb for this one. Was going to use the 12tb for the 4 tuner and was planning on upgrading one of the 2 tuner 6tbs to the 8tb, but not an option now
> 
> *Added*: When I expanded with 3.32, the response was adding partitions 15 and 16. Thinking that might be a problem on the 4tb since the instructions mentioned there are only up to 15 partitions for premieres?
> 
> The other premieres I have are 2 tuners with almost full 6tbs. I guess I will leave those alone.
> Which ISO is the latest one for 3.2?
> 
> I may have to start looking for series 5 at some point. I have vox but don't like the limited hard drive issues, and don't really trust having external drives attached.


I cannot remember what version of the MFSTools ISO I added the ancillary tools. So download the latest and that will take care of the question.

So when you add a pair of partitions on a series 4, you have to run apmfix to combine partitions 15 and 16 into 15.

I would make sure the 2 TB is updated to the latest OS. The follow the 8TB thread. You can leave out the 'a' in the copy command line and the creation of your 8 TB would take less than 30 minutes top.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> I cannot remember what version of the MFSTools ISO I added the ancillary tools. So download the latest and that will take care of the question.
> 
> So when you add a pair of partitions on a series 4, you have to run apmfix to combine partitions 15 and 16 into 15.
> 
> I would make sure the 2 TB is updated to the latest OS. The follow the 8TB thread. You can leave out the 'a' in the copy command line and the creation of your 8 TB would take less than 30 minutes top.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


original 2tb has been updated, so I will use that one for the 8tb upgrade.
Thanks for your guidance with this!


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## rainbow

Just as an FYI. Re. Mfstools 3.2 ISO download.

Not sure if I was doing anything wrong, but that link eventually took mope to sourceforge page which had the following listed. Released /Mfstools-version3.2-20150531.iso

When I clicked on it, I got a page that said. " File could not be found or is not available. Please select another file."

Only other file listed was Mfstools unstable snapshot, which is listed as. Gz archive type. I downloaded it. Shows up as. Mfstools-snapshot050221-arc.tar. Size is 165 Kb.
Not sure what to do with that.

I will try to get it done with the mfstools 3.2 one I have and we will see. I hope it will work for the 8tb; I had put a not on the cd up to 6tb


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## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Just as an FYI. Re. Mfstools 3.2 ISO download.
> 
> Not sure if I was doing anything wrong, but that link eventually took mope to sourceforge page which had the following listed. Released /Mfstools-version3.2-20150531.iso
> 
> When I clicked on it, I got a page that said. " File could not be found or is not available. Please select another file."
> 
> Only other file listed was Mfstools unstable snapshot, which is listed as. Gz archive type. I downloaded it. Shows up as. Mfstools-snapshot050221-arc.tar. Size is 165 Kb.
> Not sure what to do with that.
> 
> I will try to get it done with the mfstools 3.2 one I have and we will see. I hope it will work for the 8tb; I had put a not on the cd up to 6tb


Look for it here

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Look for it here
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


ahh yes. That is what I had done. That takes me to page 7; post 131.
I clicked on the highlighted Link for -8tb premiere thread-

*Edited* . That is where I found the link for sourceforge where I got that remark when I tried to download it from there - that it could *not* be found - said. " File could not be found or is not available. Please select another file."

MFS Tools

the other issue is that I have to figure out how to actually remove the 8tb hard drive from the external enclosure (wd easystore) that I bought last year.
Just opened it up and it dies not look as simple as I thought it would be.
I thought there would be screws or something, but it looks like I may have to pry it open.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> ahh yes. That is what I had done. That takes me to page 7; post 131.
> I clicked on the highlighted Link for -8tb premiere thread-. That is where I found the link for sourceforge where I got that remark when I tried to download it from there - that it could be it be found.
> MFS Tools
> 
> the other issue is that I have to figure out how to actually remove the 8tb hard drive from the external enclosure (wd easystore) that I bought last year.
> Just opened it up and it dies not look as simple as I thought it would be.
> I thought there would be screws or something, but it looks like I may have to pry it open.


Credit cards work well. About 1/2 to 1 inch from the corners from the back side and it will slide off.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Credit cards work well. About 1/2 to 1 inch from the corners from the back side and it will slide off.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I will give that a try. I always think when I decide to do these upgrades that it will be easy, but it ends up taking me days. One reason why I have waited to do this.. I am a furloughed travel agent so I have a whole lot of time on my hands now for these projects.


----------



## rainbow

I might not have the correct Mfstools 3.2 cd. I could not find the ISO to download from sourceforge.

Using the premiere to 8tb instructions, I Did the mfscopy -iM 4000, then the 2nd step mfsadd -xM 6000.

It is the next step apmfix that does not seem to work. I did get the. ...this program is only meant to work on a series 4 etc. and to press y to continue. When I pressed y and then enter, I got 
Open: no such file or directory.

So I did not proceed to the next steps. Should I skip that step and proceed to boot the 8tb drive in Tivo, then per the instructions try the 5th step (if it works with the 3.2 cd I have) 8tbprep, and onward?

I have a feeling I don't have the latest 3.2 one.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> I might not have the correct Mfstools 3.2 cd. I could not find the ISO to download from sourceforge.
> 
> Using the premiere to 8tb instructions, I Did the mfscopy -iM 4000, then the 2nd step mfsadd -xM 6000.
> 
> It is the next step apmfix that does not seem to work. I did get the. ...this program is only meant to work on a series 4 etc. and to press y to continue. When I pressed y and then enter, I got
> Open: no such file or directory.
> 
> So I did not proceed to the next steps. Should I skip that step and proceed to boot the 8tb drive in Tivo, then per the instructions try the 5th step (if it works with the 3.2 cd I have) 8tbprep, and onward?
> 
> I have a feeling I don't have the latest 3.2 one.


In the post I directed you to, there is a direct link to download the ISO.

If you got no file or directory, you inputted the drive name wrong.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

not sure i am missing something (i don't need to be a pain), but that link is for mfstools 3.32, not 3.2.

11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images.

MFSTools 3.32-devel ISO
Live ISO
md5 hash for ISO: 378e9d1b439d221ba4aafb2b9074d556

further down that post is info for premiere 8tb, which also takes me back to page 7.

in the meantime i will try it again with the 3.2 cd i have to see if i input incorrect drive name.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> not sure i am missing something (i don't need to be a pain), but that link is for mfstools 3.32, not 3.2.
> 
> 11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images.
> 
> MFSTools 3.32-devel ISO
> Live ISO
> md5 hash for ISO: 378e9d1b439d221ba4aafb2b9074d556
> 
> further down that post is info for premiere 8tb, which also takes me back to page 7.
> 
> in the meantime i will try it again with the 3.2 cd i have to see if i input incorrect drive name.


Version 3.32 has the latest ancillary tools for what you are wanting to do.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Version 3.32 has the latest ancillary tools for what you are wanting to do.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


3.32 previously stopped me when I tried the apmfix entry, saying it was for series 5 (or higher). Premiere is series 4. I'll try again.


----------



## rainbow

Ok, well I gave it a rest last night, and now trying it again.
after a couple of tries, I decided to launch it in failsafe mode, and i was able to get the apmfix entry to work.

I put the hd back in the Tivo in oder to divorce the phantom external storage device. However, it is now rebooting each time when I get to the. ...a few minutes more.. screen, and goes crack to 'external storage missing' screen.

*Edit*. starting over with the original 2t and 8t again.

Also, does it matter which mfscopy entry to use ... -iM 4000, or im 2000.
*Edit*. I am assuming. iM 4000 means tl 4tb, and im 2000 means add 2t.

(Using 3.2 cd I for premieres, instructions listed on premiere to 8tb thread).

Either way this is progress.

*Edit*: re-did the process but it still seems to be caught in that loop, going back to message to divorce external drive.

Thought maybe doing kickstart 58 would help with this but it just keeps rebooting with no option to start kickstart. Thinking that I should wipe that drive with wd diagnostics and start over.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> 3.32 previously stopped me when I tried the apmfix entry, saying it was for series 5 (or higher). Premiere is series 4. I'll try again.


Hmmmm. apmfix is for Series 4 only and so is 8TBPrep. The only ones for series 5 and newer is bootsectorfix and mfsaddfix.

If you get that error again, take a screenshot and post it.

The latest iteration of the ancillary tools on the latest ISO may not require you to divorce the drive anymore.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Ok, well I gave it a rest last night, and now trying it again.
> after a couple of tries, I decided to launch it in failsafe mode, and i was able to get the apmfix entry to work.
> 
> I put the hd back in the Tivo in oder to divorce the phantom external storage device. However, it is now rebooting each time when I get to the. ...a few minutes more.. screen, and goes crack to 'external storage missing' screen.
> 
> *Edit*. starting over with the original 2t and 8t again.
> 
> Also, does it matter which mfscopy entry to use ... -iM 4000, or im 2000.
> *Edit*. I am assuming. iM 4000 means tl 4tb, and im 2000 means add 2t.
> 
> (Using 3.2 cd I for premieres, instructions listed on premiere to 8tb thread).
> 
> Either way this is progress.
> 
> *Edit*: re-did the process but it still seems to be caught in that loop, going back to message to divorce external drive.
> 
> Thought maybe doing kickstart 58 would help with this but it just keeps rebooting with no option to start kickstart. Thinking that I should wipe that drive with wd diagnostics and start over.


I would run the drive through a full write and read with the diagnostic before trying again.

iM 4000 means treat the drive as an approximately 4 TB drive and im 2000 means only add MFS media partitions that are approximately 2 TB in size.

And I edited the instructions slightly in the 8 TB Premiere thread.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> I would run the drive through a full write and read with the diagnostic before trying again.
> 
> iM 4000 means treat the drive as an approximately 4 TB drive and im 2000 means only add MFS media partitions that are approximately 2 TB in size.
> 
> And I edited the instructions slightly in the 8 TB Premiere thread.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I am in the process of zeroing out that 8tb wd hard drive using WinDig Now. Looks like it will take a Really long time, but that is ok.

I have not looked at the edited instructions yet but from 2t orig to 8tb, should I do the iM4000, or im2000? Or does it matter?

This is for a premiere series 4, 4-tuner that I got from eBay last December, waiting until I had time to deal with replacing the hard drive.

The 2 main ones I use are 2-Tuner premieres with 6tb hard drives and are almost full.

I also have bolt and vox (series 3 trade-ins), but size of hd is too limiting for me with those.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> I am in the process of zeroing out that 8tb wd hard drive using WinDig Now. Looks like it will take a Really long time, but that is ok.
> 
> I have not looked at the edited instructions yet but from 2t orig to 8tb, should I do the iM4000, or im2000? Or does it matter?
> 
> This is for a premiere series 4, 4-tuner that I got from eBay last December, waiting until I had time to deal with replacing the hard drive.
> 
> The 2 main ones I use are 2-Tuner premieres with 6tb hard drives and are almost full.
> 
> I also have bolt and vox (series 3 trade-ins), but size of hd is too limiting for me with those.


It does take time but it is worth it in the end.

It does not matter which one you use, iM 4000 or im 2000 as then end result we want is the same.

If you can run mfsinfo -d on the 6 TB drives, we can see if we can take them up to 8 TB.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

Zeroing out the 8tb hard drive finished late last night.

I followed the steps but unfortunately I ended up with the same incorrect result, rebooting and going back to external drive issue.

The 1st part worked well i.e. *mfscopy -iM 4000 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc *With b the original 2tb drive and c being the wiped 8tb drive. After that competed, I think the Linux program showed it now had 4417. It booted up fine in Tivo, showing I think about 686hd hours.

Did the next step after doing fdisk entry again entering *mfsadd -xM 6000 /dev/sdb* (had disconnected the orig 2tb drive via USB, so 8tb was now b). With this entry the Linux program stated new estimated size 9563 hrs, approx 4441 more. I took a pic of that screen but I am using an iPad and have no idea how I could add it via iPad).

Then did *apmfix /dev/sdb*, then rebooted Tivo with the 8tb drive. Can't get past the page stating it does not see external drive but won't divorce it' it just reboots back to that page. 

I am assuming I might need to zero out that 8tb again if I can't get the phantom drive removed.


----------



## xmetalloid

jmbach said:


> Not sure about the automount issue with your Mint image. You could download the VHD image of MFSTools and virtualize that. You could then update that image to full openSuse.


So I downloaded the VHD image and tried it in VMWare Workstation 15 Player. I can't seem to get it to boot. The message I get is: "A start job is running for dev-disk-by\x2did-ata-x2dVBOX_HARDDISK_V...5min 44s / no limit)"

I went back to working with my Mint image, and the best I can get in completing a restore, is a repeating GSOD. I then went back to the Boot CD (running under a VM), and I get the same results (GSOD), which is odd because the backups seem correct, the restores also seem correct - although it recognizes the source drive as a "1 hour drive -Upgraded to 282 hours". 282 hours would be correct, but a 1 hour original?

For backups, I'm using the command:
backup -6 -sio /mnt/usb/tivo/MasterImage.mfs /dev/sdc
Where I have a 64GB USB stick mounted under /mnt/usb and a tivo folder holds my images - and the source drive is on a USB to IDE converter, connected as sdc

For restores, I'm using the command:
restore -w 32 -S127 -i /mnt/usb/tivo/MasterImage.mfs /dev/sdc
Where I have disconnected the 250GB source drive and connected a test 200GB destination drive.

At this point, I'm at my wits end and I'm about to revert back to my MFS 2.0 build environment. Any suggestions, tips, pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks.


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## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Zeroing out the 8tb hard drive finished late last night.
> 
> I followed the steps but unfortunately I ended up with the same incorrect result, rebooting and going back to external drive issue.
> 
> The 1st part worked well i.e. *mfscopy -iM 4000 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc *With b the original 2tb drive and c being the wiped 8tb drive. After that competed, I think the Linux program showed it now had 4417. It booted up fine in Tivo, showing I think about 686hd hours.
> 
> Did the next step after doing fdisk entry again entering *mfsadd -xM 6000 /dev/sdb* (had disconnected the orig 2tb drive via USB, so 8tb was now b). With this entry the Linux program stated new estimated size 9563 hrs, approx 4441 more. I took a pic of that screen but I am using an iPad and have no idea how I could add it via iPad).
> 
> Then did *apmfix /dev/sdb*, then rebooted Tivo with the 8tb drive. Can't get past the page stating it does not see external drive but won't divorce it' it just reboots back to that page.
> 
> I am assuming I might need to zero out that 8tb again if I can't get the phantom drive removed.


Seeing the mfsinfo -d output would help to see what is happening with it.

You are using the latest ISO, correct?

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## jmbach

xmetalloid said:


> So I downloaded the VHD image and tried it in VMWare Workstation 15 Player. I can't seem to get it to boot. The message I get is: "A start job is running for dev-disk-by\x2did-ata-x2dVBOX_HARDDISK_V...5min 44s / no limit)"
> 
> I went back to working with my Mint image, and the best I can get in completing a restore, is a repeating GSOD. I then went back to the Boot CD (running under a VM), and I get the same results (GSOD), which is odd because the backups seem correct, the restores also seem correct - although it recognizes the source drive as a "1 hour drive -Upgraded to 282 hours". 282 hours would be correct, but a 1 hour original?
> 
> For backups, I'm using the command:
> backup -6 -sio /mnt/usb/tivo/MasterImage.mfs /dev/sdc
> Where I have a 64GB USB stick mounted under /mnt/usb and a tivo folder holds my images - and the source drive is on a USB to IDE converter, connected as sdc
> 
> For restores, I'm using the command:
> restore -w 32 -S127 -i /mnt/usb/tivo/MasterImage.mfs /dev/sdc
> Where I have disconnected the 250GB source drive and connected a test 200GB destination drive.
> 
> At this point, I'm at my wits end and I'm about to revert back to my MFS 2.0 build environment. Any suggestions, tips, pointers would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.


Do you want to build from source in your mint environment? Let me know ow and I will PM you a link.

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## xmetalloid

jmbach said:


> Do you want to build from source in your mint environment? Let me know ow and I will PM you a link.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I'm tempted, though I'm not an expert by any means at building from source, but it might be worth a shot. Yes, please PM me the link and I'll check it out.

Thanks.


----------



## digpower

I have a Roamio Pro that I upgraded to an 8 TB hard drive about a year ago. Unfortunately, I have been having reboot issues since and I'm thinking of downgrading to a smaller drive in hopes that that may resolve the issues. I would like to confirm the command below is what I will need to run in order to copy everything including recordings from the 8 TB drive (not even close to being full) to a 4 TB drive.

mfscopy -ia /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> I have a Roamio Pro that I upgraded to an 8 TB hard drive about a year ago. Unfortunately, I have been having reboot issues since and I'm thinking of downgrading to a smaller drive in hopes that that may resolve the issues. I would like to confirm the command below is what I will need to run in order to copy everything including recordings from the 8 TB drive (not even close to being full) to a 4 TB drive.
> 
> mfscopy -ia /dev/sdX /dev/sdY


If it will work mfscopy -ias /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> If it will work mfscopy -ias /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks! Does it not typically work when going to a smaller drive?


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> Thanks! Does it not typically work when going to a smaller drive?


Not necessarily when retaining recordings

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## digpower

digpower said:


> Thanks! Does it not typically work when going to a smaller drive?


I don't necessarily want to downsize, but I'm having an issue with my box rebooting when using the TiVo mobile app. I opened up a support case with TiVo and they pointed to the fact it was an 8 TB hard drive that is causing it. If there is a way to fix it and keep the 8 TB drive I'm all ears. I'm also skeptical that going to a smaller drive will fix it either but I'm not sure what else to try.


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> I don't necessarily want to downsize, but I'm having an issue with my box rebooting when using the TiVo mobile app. I opened up a support case with TiVo and they pointed to the fact it was an 8 TB hard drive that is causing it. If there is a way to fix it and keep the 8 TB drive I'm all ears. I'm also skeptical that going to a smaller drive will fix it either but I'm not sure what else to try.


Try a KS 58?

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## digpower

jmbach said:


> Try a KS 58?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I think so, but don't remember. I will try one again and see if it helps.


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## digpower

jmbach said:


> Try a KS 58?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


You're thinking the file check will help with the issue when using the mobile app? It's the strangest thing, the box does not have reboot issues other than when actively using the mobile app. It's like clockwork though. I can be sitting in front of my TiVo, launch the mobile app, start navigating the app and a few seconds later the box reboots.


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> You're thinking the file check will help with the issue when using the mobile app? It's the strangest thing, the box does not have reboot issues other than when actively using the mobile app. It's like clockwork though. I can be sitting in front of my TiVo, launch the mobile app, start navigating the app and a few seconds later the box reboots.


KS 58 is a little more than a file check. It can fix some system issues as well.

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## digpower

jmbach said:


> KS 58 is a little more than a file check. It can fix some system issues as well.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


 Unfortunately, KS 58 didn't help. Any other suggestions or should I try downsizing the hard drive next?


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## ThAbtO

digpower said:


> You're thinking the file check will help with the issue when using the mobile app? It's the strangest thing, the box does not have reboot issues other than when actively using the mobile app. It's like clockwork though. I can be sitting in front of my TiVo, launch the mobile app, start navigating the app and a few seconds later the box reboots.


I would think the app is causing it to reboot and there is nothing wrong with the Tivo itself.


----------



## digpower

ThAbtO said:


> I would think the app is causing it to reboot and there is nothing wrong with the Tivo itself.


I completely agree. I don't think there is anything wrong with the box. Also, the app never caused issues until recent revisions. I wish support would actually look at the issue and try to fix it. Their soliton is to replace the box with a new one. But the box works great as long as you don't use the app. That being said, the app is not great but does at give me the ability to set recordings.


----------



## xmetalloid

jmbach said:


> Do you want to build from source in your mint environment? Let me know ow and I will PM you a link.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Which link are you referring to - the one that points to the source files on Sourceforge?


----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> If it will work mfscopy -ias /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Just attempted to copy to the 4 TB drive and I'm getting - "Can not determine primary boot partition from the boot sector" error message.


----------



## jmbach

digpower said:


> Just attempted to copy to the 4 TB drive and I'm getting - "Can not determine primary boot partition from the boot sector" error message.


Run bootsectorfix on the source drive.

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> Run bootsectorfix on the source drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Will that do anything to the 8 TB one to stop it from working in the TiVo box? Just in case I decide to put that one back in.


----------



## jmbach

digpower said:


> Will that do anything to the 8 TB one to stop it from working in the TiVo box? Just in case I decide to put that one back in.


No

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## digpower

jmbach said:


> No
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Okay. What is the command I should run?


----------



## jmbach

digpower said:


> Okay. What is the command I should run?


bootsectorfix /dev/sdX

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## digpower

jmbach said:


> bootsectorfix /dev/sdX
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Got it. Now I'm getting a message that says the "backup target is not large enough for entire backup by itself"


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> Got it. Now I'm getting a message that says the "backup target is not large enough for entire backup by itself"


Post a screenshot of mfsinfo -d of the 8 TB drive

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## digpower

jmbach said:


> Post a screenshot of mfsinfo -d of the 8 TB drive
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

So the issue is that mfstools does not resize partitions 10 and 12. It copies them over intact. So since they are 2 TB each, you really cannot shrink that image.

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> So the issue is that mfstools does not resize partitions 10 and 12. It copies them over intact. So since they are 2 TB each, you really cannot shrink that image.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I figured that may be the case. Is there a different tool that will resize the partitions? What about a disk clone utility like Macrium Reflect?


----------



## jmbach

digpower said:


> I figured that may be the case. Is there a different tool that will resize the partitions? What about a disk clone utility like Macrium Reflect?


Problem is the MFS structure is not a recognized files system.

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> Problem is the MFS structure is not a recognized files system.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Makes sense. Are there any other commands I should run on the 8 TB before putting in back in the box that may help the issue I have been having?


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> Makes sense. Are there any other commands I should run on the 8 TB before putting in back in the box that may help the issue I have been having?


Could run mfsck on it and see what it reports.

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> Could run mfsck on it and see what it reports.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


It completed almost instantly. Is there another argument that needs to be added besides specifying the drive?


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## jmbach

digpower said:


> It completed almost instantly. Is there another argument that needs to be added besides specifying the drive?


Add -r to the command line to revalidate the MFS system.

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## jmbach

xmetalloid said:


> Which link are you referring to - the one that points to the source files on Sourceforge?


No. Unfortunately I am unable to update that. I PMed you the download link.

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----------



## digpower

jmbach said:


> Add -r to the command line to revalidate the MFS system.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Could I run the command to copy everything over with the exception of the recordings to the 4 TB?


----------



## jmbach

digpower said:


> Could I run the command to copy everything over with the exception of the recordings to the 4 TB?


You can try but I think you will have the same error.

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## jmbach

If you want to test it. Pull the cableCARD and put in a 3TB drive or less and let it self format. This way your pairing with the 8TB is not lost. (As long as you reinsert the cableCARD before booting the 8TB drive). Then see if it reboots with the app. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Seeing the mfsinfo -d output would help to see what is happening with it.
> 
> You are using the latest ISO, correct?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I got delayed in getting back to this as I got called back to work, at least for the time being.

I am using mfstools 3.2 for premieres that I got back in 2015 which I used to upgrade the 2-tuner premieres I have to 6tb. There might have been an more updated one that the one I have.

This new-to-me-premiere (series 758) that I am trying to upgrade is a 4-tuner; the 2 premieres I currently use are both 2-tuners (series 748).

I am In the process of zeroing out the 8tb hard drive again which will take a couple more days to complete. Figured I would try the process again over the weekend.

*23May update *

To answer your question when I enter mfsinfo -d, the response I get is

Mfsinfo: invalid option -- 'd'
Mfstools v3.2-devel
Usage: mfsinfo Adrive. (Bdrive)
Options:
-h Display this help message

I zeroed out the drive and went thru the process again. I have the same issue as before, it won't get past the divorcing part. I get the screen to do the divorcing, and the screen indicating the start of that process, but then all the lights on the front flash and it reboots, going thru the same cycle again.

Question, I am assuming the 758 is not compatible with the 748 Tivo image.
One thought was that the image might be corrupt, but I don't think that is the issue as the 4tb I did with the 758 clone is working.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> I got delayed in getting back to this as I got called back to work, at least for the time being.
> 
> I am using mfstools 3.2 for premieres that I got back in 2015 which I used to upgrade the 2-tuner premieres I have to 6tb. There might have been an more updated one that the one I have.
> 
> This new-to-me-premiere (series 758) that I am trying to upgrade is a 4-tuner; the 2 premieres I currently use are both 2-tuners (series 748).
> 
> I am In the process of zeroing out the 8tb hard drive again which will take a couple more days to complete. Figured I would try the process again over the weekend.
> 
> *23May update *
> 
> To answer your question when I enter mfsinfo -d, the response I get is
> 
> Mfsinfo: invalid option -- 'd'
> Mfstools v3.2-devel
> Usage: mfsinfo Adrive. (Bdrive)
> Options:
> -h Display this help message
> 
> I zeroed out the drive and went thru the process again. I have the same issue as before, it won't get past the divorcing part. I get the screen to do the divorcing, and the screen indicating the start of that process, but then all the lights on the front flash and it reboots, going thru the same cycle again.
> 
> Question, I am assuming the 758 is not compatible with the 748 Tivo image.
> One thought was that the image might be corrupt, but I don't think that is the issue as the 4tb I did with the 758 clone is working.


That is because that option was added with the latest ISO and not in the older one you are using.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## rainbow

jmbach said:


> That is because that option was added with the latest ISO and not in the older one you are using.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thank you for the clarification.

If someone could make the later 3.2 tool available for download, possibly via Dropbox, it woul be greatly appreciated.

note. The previous links all take one to 3.32, not 3.2. 3.32 Dow's not work for premieres, which it what I am working with.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Thank you for the clarification.
> 
> If someone could make the later 3.2 tool available for download, possibly via Dropbox, it woul be greatly appreciated.
> 
> note. The previous links all take one to 3.32, not 3.2. 3.32 Dow's not work for premieres, which it what I am working with.


The latest ISO works with all TiVo models.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> Thank you for the clarification.
> 
> If someone could make the later 3.2 tool available for download, possibly via Dropbox, it woul be greatly appreciated.
> 
> note. The previous links all take one to 3.32, not 3.2. 3.32 Dow's not work for premieres, which it what I am working with.


The latest ISO works with all TiVo models.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## rainbow

jmbach said:


> The latest ISO works with all TiVo models.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I do appreciate your help with this, but...Am I going crazy; am I missing something?

. I used 3.2 I had initially (around 26april20)
. It did not work; worked ok with step 1. Rebooted fine in Tivo, but not after doing step 2,3. It would go into loop tryin to divorce drive.

. So on 30april I downloaded 3.32
. I got to a certain point and it stated that it *does not work with series 4/premieres.* 
. would only work for series 5 and higher

. I am trying to upgrade a series 4/758 premiere so tried again with 3.2

I am zeroing out the drive again, which will take 4-5 days.


----------



## jmbach

rainbow said:


> I do appreciate your help with this, but...Am I going crazy; am I missing something?
> 
> . I used 3.2 I had initially (around 26april20)
> . It did not work; worked ok with step 1. Rebooted fine in Tivo, but not after doing step 2,3. It would go into loop tryin to divorce drive.
> 
> . So on 30april I downloaded 3.32
> . I got to a certain point and it stated that it *does not work with series 4/premieres.*
> . would only work for series 5 and higher
> 
> . I am trying to upgrade a series 4/758 premiere so tried again with 3.2
> 
> I am zeroing out the drive again, which will take 4-5 days.


Certain tools on the ISO work only for series 5 and above and others for series 4. 
For series 4 - apmfix and 8TBPrep
For series 5 and above - mfsaddfix and bootsectorfix

MFSTools itself works on all TiVos.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## rainbow

jmbach said:


> Certain tools on the ISO work only for series 5 and above and others for series 4.
> For series 4 - apmfix and 8TBPrep
> For series 5 and above - mfsaddfix and bootsectorfix
> 
> MFSTools itself works on all TiVos.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Ok, thanks for the clarification. 
I will try it again next wknd with the 3.32 with the instructions posted in the 8tb thread. 
Keeping my fingers crossed!


----------



## VinceJP

jmbach Thanks for taking the time to develop and share. Just upgraded drive on Roamio from 500gb to 3tb and it was a breeze with your utilities. Other than a couple of recordings not working, (V111 errors) everything else is perfect. Plus I'm not totally sure the shows worked before upgrade as I didn't verify all recordings prior to upgrade. Awesome job and much appreciated.


----------



## mv916

I took the latest version of mfstools 3.32-devel usb/hd from post 131. I copied over to a usb using hdd raw copy, booted to usb and logged in. I am trying to copy recordings from a 3tb roamio pro to a new 4tb hd. I ran the command:

mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb

At about the 10% mark I started getting the error below. I tried 2x. I think the copy process stopped when the error occured but now that I think of it, I'm not 100% sure as the first time I ran, I came back to a screen full of errors and didn't double check the second time. Any ideas? As a backup, I ordered a clone station as I understand another option to retain shows is to clone the drive and then use mfstools to expand the partition to the full 4tb? 

INFO: rcu_preempt detected stalls on CPUs/Tasks: {0}


----------



## 21364guy

I am trying to boot MFS Tools from USB using an 8GB thumb drive. I imaged the device twice, once from my Mac using 'dd' and, when that failed to boot on my PC, I instead used my PC and the recommended etcher utility. In neither case does the USB drive show up in the boot options on my PC (gigabyte B450 board). I even enabled CSM but it made no difference. Any suggestions on what may have gone wrong? I did check the md5 of the .xz file and it's correct. Here's the size and checksums I get for the decompressed image:

1416626176 MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw

% shasum MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw
41cde577a31ec2c8e5d0b1414c38945cf4ebb8fa MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw

% md5 MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw 
MD5 (MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw) = 324d4c13106ac92b40c255ba131e9f4e

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on resolving this. I don't have a built-in optical drive so was really hoping to boot from USB as I did when installing Win 10.


----------



## 21364guy

21364guy said:


> I am trying to boot MFS Tools from USB using an 8GB thumb drive. I imaged the device twice, once from my Mac using 'dd' and, when that failed to boot on my PC, I instead used my PC and the recommended etcher utility. In neither case does the USB drive show up in the boot options on my PC (gigabyte B450 board). I even enabled CSM but it made no difference. Any suggestions on what may have gone wrong? I did check the md5 of the .xz file and it's correct. Here's the size and checksums I get for the decompressed image:
> 
> 1416626176 MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw
> 
> % shasum MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw
> 41cde577a31ec2c8e5d0b1414c38945cf4ebb8fa MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw
> 
> % md5 MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw
> MD5 (MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-0.0.2-Build4.1.raw) = 324d4c13106ac92b40c255ba131e9f4e
> 
> I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on resolving this. I don't have a built-in optical drive so was really hoping to boot from USB as I did when installing Win 10.


Glad to say this is resolved. I had to turn on some USB legacy settings in the BIOS as well.

Unfortunately it hangs while booting Linux. Is it possibly my box is too new? It's B450 chipset with Ryzen 3700X and RTX 2060 super. It hangs right after "fb: switching to..."

My son's box is an older intel platform so I could give that a try instead...


----------



## mv916

21364guy said:


> Glad to say this is resolved. I had to turn on some USB legacy settings in the BIOS as well.
> 
> Unfortunately it hangs while booting Linux. Is it possibly my box is too new? It's B450 chipset with Ryzen 3700X and RTX 2060 super. It hangs right after "fb: switching to..."
> 
> My son's box is an older intel platform so I could give that a try instead...


I have a x470 chipset with Ryzen 2700x and was able to boot without issue. I have a generic graphics card though as the box is only for axis surveillance recording.


----------



## jmbach

21364guy said:


> Glad to say this is resolved. I had to turn on some USB legacy settings in the BIOS as well.
> 
> Unfortunately it hangs while booting Linux. Is it possibly my box is too new? It's B450 chipset with Ryzen 3700X and RTX 2060 super. It hangs right after "fb: switching to..."
> 
> My son's box is an older intel platform so I could give that a try instead...


Can you post a screenshot of where it stalls?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## 21364guy

jmbach said:


> Can you post a screenshot of where it stalls?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Yes, I'll try to post a screenshot tomorrow.

I just tried the VHD running under VMware fusion on my Mac (2018 Mac mini). It says "loading initial Ramdisk" then I just get a black screen.

So I'm failing two different ways... I'll try my son's computer tomorrow (with the USB thumb drive) to see if I have better luck.


----------



## 21364guy

Today when I tried booting from USB thumb drive I got:

"... core perfctr but no constraints; unknown hardware!"

Previously it had made it further, to "fb: switching to..."

Possibly this has to do with which menu option I selected when booting (e.g. advanced or not). But none of them worked.


----------



## 21364guy

I guess I'm finally on the right track. I used VMware fusion and the ISO to build and boot a VM (the .VHD file doesn't work for me). Then after setting USB compatibility in the VM to "3.0" I'm able to mount disks using a couple of USB 3.0 docks I have. I haven't pulled my active TiVo drive yet, but I inserted my original Roamio 1TB drive into the dock and was able to run "mfsinfo" on it.

I'm planning to do the upgrade from existing 2TB to new 3TB drive tomorrow. Once the drives are visible in Linux, is this all I need to do:


Code:


mfstool copy -ai <orig drive> <new drive>

This will copy my recordings, maintain cablecard pairing, and let me use the 3TB of capacity on the new drive? And is running "supersize" still relevant on the new drive?

Thanks


----------



## 21364guy

Can anyone send me a pointer to the latest source for MFS Tools? Using VMware I was able to do my copying, but an OS X build would have been really handy. As I have some time on my hand these days I'd at least like to investigate the possibility and maybe save some other folks time in the future.

I took a quick look on sourceforge but everything I saw there seemed to be from ~2005. So I'd be quite interested in the source for the very latest version that folks are using, 3.32 or better(?)


----------



## jmbach

21364guy said:


> Can anyone send me a pointer to the latest source for MFS Tools? Using VMware I was able to do my copying, but an OS X build would have been really handy. As I have some time on my hand these days I'd at least like to investigate the possibility and maybe save some other folks time in the future.
> 
> I took a quick look on sourceforge but everything I saw there seemed to be from ~2005. So I'd be quite interested in the source for the very latest version that folks are using, 3.32 or better(?)


PMed you a link to the latest source code

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

21364guy said:


> I guess I'm finally on the right track. I used VMware fusion and the ISO to build and boot a VM (the .VHD file doesn't work for me). Then after setting USB compatibility in the VM to "3.0" I'm able to mount disks using a couple of USB 3.0 docks I have. I haven't pulled my active TiVo drive yet, but I inserted my original Roamio 1TB drive into the dock and was able to run "mfsinfo" on it.
> 
> I'm planning to do the upgrade from existing 2TB to new 3TB drive tomorrow. Once the drives are visible in Linux, is this all I need to do:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool copy -ai <orig drive> <new drive>
> 
> This will copy my recordings, maintain cablecard pairing, and let me use the 3TB of capacity on the new drive? And is running "supersize" still relevant on the new drive?
> 
> Thanks


Yes that will copy, expand, and save your recordings.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## mv916

After 3 attempts to us mfstools to copy 3tb to 4tb (3rd attempt failed at 30%), I thought I would try a direct clone (using a clone dock). I was able to clone and boot and verify all recordings. Am I able to use mfstools to get the remaining 1tb? would I use the supersize command, another command...or will this route not work? I want to retain recordings.


----------



## jmbach

mv916 said:


> After 3 attempts to us mfstools to copy 3tb to 4tb (3rd attempt failed at 30%), I thought I would try a direct clone (using a clone dock). I was able to clone and boot and verify all recordings. Am I able to use mfstools to get the remaining 1tb? would I use the supersize command, another command...or will this route not work? I want to retain recordings.


You can follow the instructions in the 10 TB Roamio thread with one iteration.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## mv916

jmbach said:


> You can follow the instructions in the 10 TB Roamio thread with one iteration.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Great. that worked like a charm. thanks for your help. It says that I can do the expansion 3 additional times. Is that because I have other drives in the same computer? @jmbach Do you have a donation link?


----------



## Inventionroom

Hi... I'm looking for MFSTools assistance for a TCD746320 image put onto a new 4tb WD40EFRX red drive.

I've searched and searched but can't find the solution to my issue.

My TiVo premiere 4 drive died. From research here, I ordered a new WD40EFRX (WD Red 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5"). Member and DVRBars author @ggieseke was kind enough to send me a link to the latest TCD746320 image. I'm using a laptop and external USB HD dock (Wavlink USB 3.0 Dual Bay Docking Station).

I used DVRBars to restore the image to my new HD. This worked flawlessly. Now it was time to use MFSTools 3.32 to expand.

Booting from MFSTools boot CD, entering user name (root) and PW (tivo), I was ready to "have a lot of fun." :wink:

[EDIT: The steps below did not work for me. I'm leaving the post up so anyone curious can see what happened in my case. For the steps that ended up working for me, view my update post.]

I then entered the commands: mfsadd -x /dev/sdX

Then apmfix /dev/sdX. (sdX represents my DVRBars restored image TiVo drive).

During ampfix "contemplating if coalescing makes sense," it says "Coalesced size is too large. Actual size is 7188894720 bytes but should not exceed 4294967295 bytes. The MFS media partition needs to shrink by at least 2893927425 bytes. Unable to coalesce. Processing of drive in incomplete."

I decided to see what would happen if I put it in the TiVo. What happens is it brings me to a screen asking me to remove external storage (I am not using external storage). It instructs me to press thumbs down 3 times and enter (to permanently remove external storage) and it reboots to the same screen. Tried multiple times and it's stuck in this endless loop.

I started all over again doing DVRbars and restoring the image to the drive again. Worked great.

Booted into MFSTools and was ready to have a lot of fun.

This time I tried the command mfsadd -xM 2000 /dev/sdX

Followed by apmfix /dev/sdX

It completed, but when I install into TiVo and go through setup then look at the system storage it showed 341 HD hours, so around half of the storage space was still unused (around 640 HD hours was what I was expecting... based on research).

A few other notes-DVRBars says my 4tb HD is 3.64TB (seems like a lot of reserved/unused spaces). Based on this I thought I would start the entire process again and try: mfsadd -xM 1820 /dev/sdX

1820 was picked because it's half of 3640 (it was late and I was just trying stuff at this point)- I then did the same ampfix command and it worked... but now when I finally get to the TiVo system info it showed 310 HD hours. So, TiVo seems to be only seeing one partition?.. and 1820 was just limiting it to less than 2tb (2000 gave me 2tb/341 HD hours)?

I also repeated everything and tried mfsadd -xM 4000 /dev/sdX - but when I do the ampfix I get the "Coalesced size is too large" and then when installed in TiVo I get the same (remove external drive) endless boot loop. Same thing when I tried 3000 (at this point I was just hoping to get lucky)... so while I am trying to have a lot of fun, I'm stuck... lol

Pardon the length of this, but I wanted to document everything to help others seeking similar help.

I'm hoping @jmbach or one of the experts here can review this and tell me what I should try? I also want to thank all who contribute here, it has been an amazing resource and great community. I also pledge to follow up and report the outcome (too often I search and find a post related to my issue that they abandoned without updating their progress... I will update my progress).

-------
EDIT UPDATE: Anyone interested, please view my update post to see the exact steps that appear to have been successful for me.


----------



## mv916

@Inventionroom 
I'm not a pro. I was reading the 10tb roamio and used to expand my 3tb clone to 4tb drive for my roamio. I think you do the of add/fix and any overage gets taken care of when you boot. At the remove external drive, did you select "yes" to delete the external drive that doesn't exist? 
DIY 10TB Roamio


----------



## Inventionroom

mv916 said:


> @Inventionroom
> I'm not a pro. I was reading the 10tb roamio and used to expand my 3tb clone to 4tb drive for my roamio. I think you do the of add/fix and any overage gets taken care of when you boot. At the remove external drive, did you select "yes" to delete the external drive that doesn't exist?
> DIY 10TB Roamio


@mv916 i did choose to remove/delete the external drive that doesn't exist, but the same screen returns when the system reboots itself, I repeat and it happens again (endless loop).

As for the add/fix, I think you are referring to the mfsaddfix command, but that is for Roamio or later versions of TiVo. Mine is a TiVo Premiere, series 4. The MFSTools write up says "*mfsaddfix* - Its purpose is to relocate mfsadd added partitions in Roamio and later TiVos" so I don't think it applies to my hardware. I thank you for the reply though!


----------



## jmbach

Inventionroom said:


> Hi... I'm looking for MFSTools assistance for a TCD746320 image put onto a new 4tb WD40EFRX red drive.
> 
> I've searched and searched but can't find the solution to my issue.
> 
> My TiVo premiere 4 drive died. From research here, I ordered a new WD40EFRX (WD Red 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5"). Member and DVRBars author @ggieseke was kind enough to send me a link to the latest TCD746320 image. I'm using a laptop and external USB HD dock (Wavlink USB 3.0 Dual Bay Docking Station).
> 
> I used DVRBars to restore the image to my new HD. This worked flawlessly. Now it was time to use @jmbach authored MFSTools 3.32 to expand.
> 
> Booting from MFSTools boot CD, entering user name (root) and PW (tivo), I was ready to "have a lot of fun." :wink:
> 
> I then entered the commands: mfsadd -x /dev/sdX
> 
> Then apmfix /dev/sdX. (sdX represents my DVRBars restored image TiVo drive).
> 
> During ampfix "contemplating if coalescing makes sense," it says "Coalesced size is too large. Actual size is 7188894720 bytes but should not exceed 4294967295 bytes. The MFS media partition needs to shrink by at least 2893927425 bytes. Unable to coalesce. Processing of drive in incomplete."
> 
> I decided to see what would happen if I put it in the TiVo. What happens is it brings me to a screen asking me to remove external storage (I am not using external storage). It instructs me to press thumbs down 3 times and enter (to permanently remove external storage) and it reboots to the same screen. Tried multiple times and it's stuck in this endless loop.
> 
> I started all over again doing DVRbars and restoring the image to the drive again. Worked great.
> 
> Booted into MFSTools and was ready to have a lot of fun.
> 
> This time I tried the command mfsadd -xM 2000 /dev/sdX
> 
> Followed by apmfix /dev/sdX
> 
> It completed, but when I install into TiVo and go through setup then look at the system storage it showed 341 HD hours, so around half of the storage space was still unused (around 640 HD hours was what I was expecting... based on research).
> 
> A few other notes-DVRBars says my 4tb HD is 3.64TB (seems like a lot of reserved/unused spaces). Based on this I thought I would start the entire process again and try: mfsadd -xM 1820 /dev/sdX
> 
> 1820 was picked because it's half of 3640 (it was late and I was just trying stuff at this point)- I then did the same ampfix command and it worked... but now when I finally get to the TiVo system info it showed 310 HD hours. So, TiVo seems to be only seeing one partition?.. and 1820 was just limiting it to less than 2tb (2000 gave me 2tb/341 HD hours)?
> 
> I also repeated everything and tried mfsadd -xM 4000 /dev/sdX - but when I do the ampfix I get the "Coalesced size is too large" and then when installed in TiVo I get the same (remove external drive) endless boot loop. Same thing when I tried 3000 (at this point I was just hoping to get lucky)... so while I am trying to have a lot of fun, I'm stuck... lol
> 
> Pardon the length of this, but I wanted to document everything to help others seeking similar help.
> 
> I'm hoping @jmbach or one of the experts here can review this and tell me what I should try? I also want to thank all who contribute here, it has been an amazing resource and great community. I also pledge to follow up and report the outcome (too often I search and find a post related to my issue that they abandoned without updating their progress... I will update my progress).


Several things. So the issue is that you will not be able to expand the 320GB image to use the whole 4TB drive. This is because partition restrictions in the TiVo OS.

The other thing is that ggieseke now has a 4 TB image you can restore to that drive directly.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Inventionroom

jmbach said:


> Several things. So the issue is that you will not be able to expand the 320GB image to use the whole 4TB drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Oh wow. I couldn't find that info anywhere when searching for hours on the forum.

if I had an additional hard drive, with the 320GB image on it.. and married it to my TiVo, would MFSCopy be able to copy and expand the drive?

If not are there any other solutions or am I stuck with a 2tb limit? I see a vendor on eBay sells a 4TB drop in drive, so there must be a way... thanks for any info.


----------



## jmbach

Inventionroom said:


> Oh wow. I couldn't find that info anywhere when searching for hours on the forum.
> 
> if I had an additional hard drive, with the 320GB image on it.. and married it to my TiVo, would MFSCopy be able to copy and expand the drive?
> 
> If not are there any other solutions or am I stuck with a 2tb limit? I see a vendor on eBay sells a 4TB drop in drive, so there must be a way... thanks for any info.


If you had a spare drive that you can put that 320GB i.age on, then yes, with MFSTools you can copy the drive over to the 4 TB drive and use the whole image.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Inventionroom

jmbach said:


> If you had a spare drive that you can put that 320GB i.age on, then yes, with MFSTools you can copy the drive over to the 4 TB drive and use the whole image.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Ok. Thanks for the info! While I have your ear, is it necessary to boot extra drive with the 320gb image and set it up on my TiVo before pulling it back out and doing the MFScopy to the 4tb drive?... or can I MFSCopy the extra drive with image to the 4tb without installing and setting it up on my TiVo first? (And then set up the 4tb of course).


----------



## jmbach

Inventionroom said:


> Ok. Thanks for the info! While I have your ear, is it necessary to boot extra drive with the 320gb image and set it up on my TiVo before pulling it back out and doing the MFScopy to the 4tb drive?... or can I MFSCopy the extra drive with image to the 4tb without installing and setting it up on my TiVo first? (And then set up the 4tb of course).


It depends on the state of the image. Likely you will not need to boot the original image first. 
Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Inventionroom

Inventionroom said:


> Hi... I'm looking for MFSTools assistance for a TCD746320 image put onto a new 4tb WD40EFRX red drive.
> 
> I've searched and searched but can't find the solution to my issue.
> 
> My TiVo premiere 4 drive died. From research here, I ordered a new WD40EFRX (WD Red 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5"). Member and DVRBars author @ggieseke was kind enough to send me a link to the latest TCD746320 image. I'm using a laptop and external USB HD dock (Wavlink USB 3.0 Dual Bay Docking Station).
> 
> I used DVRBars to restore the image to my new HD. This worked flawlessly. Now it was time to use @jmbach authored MFSTools 3.32 to expand.
> 
> Booting from MFSTools boot CD, entering user name (root) and PW (tivo), I was ready to "have a lot of fun." :wink:
> 
> I then entered the commands: mfsadd -x /dev/sdX
> 
> Then apmfix /dev/sdX. (sdX represents my DVRBars restored image TiVo drive).
> 
> During ampfix "contemplating if coalescing makes sense," it says "Coalesced size is too large. Actual size is 7188894720 bytes but should not exceed 4294967295 bytes. The MFS media partition needs to shrink by at least 2893927425 bytes. Unable to coalesce. Processing of drive in incomplete."
> 
> I decided to see what would happen if I put it in the TiVo. What happens is it brings me to a screen asking me to remove external storage (I am not using external storage). It instructs me to press thumbs down 3 times and enter (to permanently remove external storage) and it reboots to the same screen. Tried multiple times and it's stuck in this endless loop.
> 
> I started all over again doing DVRbars and restoring the image to the drive again. Worked great.
> 
> Booted into MFSTools and was ready to have a lot of fun.
> 
> This time I tried the command mfsadd -xM 2000 /dev/sdX
> 
> Followed by apmfix /dev/sdX
> 
> It completed, but when I install into TiVo and go through setup then look at the system storage it showed 341 HD hours, so around half of the storage space was still unused (around 640 HD hours was what I was expecting... based on research).
> 
> A few other notes-DVRBars says my 4tb HD is 3.64TB (seems like a lot of reserved/unused spaces). Based on this I thought I would start the entire process again and try: mfsadd -xM 1820 /dev/sdX
> 
> 1820 was picked because it's half of 3640 (it was late and I was just trying stuff at this point)- I then did the same ampfix command and it worked... but now when I finally get to the TiVo system info it showed 310 HD hours. So, TiVo seems to be only seeing one partition?.. and 1820 was just limiting it to less than 2tb (2000 gave me 2tb/341 HD hours)?
> 
> I also repeated everything and tried mfsadd -xM 4000 /dev/sdX - but when I do the ampfix I get the "Coalesced size is too large" and then when installed in TiVo I get the same (remove external drive) endless boot loop. Same thing when I tried 3000 (at this point I was just hoping to get lucky)... so while I am trying to have a lot of fun, I'm stuck... lol
> 
> Pardon the length of this, but I wanted to document everything to help others seeking similar help.
> 
> I'm hoping @jmbach or one of the experts here can review this and tell me what I should try? I also want to thank all who contribute here, it has been an amazing resource and great community. I also pledge to follow up and report the outcome (too often I search and find a post related to my issue that they abandoned without updating their progress... I will update my progress).


Update:

[EDIT: After I had done All of this, I was given a link to a 4TB image. Thanks @ggieseke! I would suggest anyone in my Exact situation to try and use the 4TB image in DVRBars and save themselves all of the other steps.]

This is what appears to have worked for me, using a laptop, USB portable drive, USB hard drive docking station (for new upgrade 4TB drive), Clean TiVo 350GB image [for my TCD746320], DVRBars and MFSTools:

I used an extra 500GB portable USB drive. In Windows 7, I zeroed it out with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. I was then able to use DVRBars to put the 350GB TiVo image on this USB drive. Of course, this USB drive will not install into my TiVo, so I'm glad I didn't have to boot and set up a 350GB imaged drive on TiVo before pulling it out to copy and expand with MFSTools.

I rebooted with the Linux boot disc (created from the latest MFSTools ISO download that has MFSTools 3.32). The laptop had the 500GB USB drive (with restored 350GB image) and a USB docking station plugged in (with new 4TB destination drive docked). I then did the command: mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

(sdX represents the source drive and sdY represents the destination drive).

It worked.

I saw posts where other users followed this with: apmfix /dev/sdY

[EDIT: it has been confirmed that this step was not needed. It is intended to be used with mfsadd command, not mfscopy. So, if you are following this as a guide, skip the apmfix command. Luckily it did not hurt anything.]

I was unsure if this was necessary but thought I'd try it (this may have been a mistake, I'm not sure). It reported:

Conversion to 64 bit APM complete

Pruning Apple_Free partition complete.

Unable to coalesce. Processing of drive is incomplete.

I went ahead and put the 4TB drive into the TiVo.. and it booted up (no reboot loops). I checked the system info and it reported 640 HD hours. So, it appears to have worked.

My concern is that "processing of drive is incomplete" message. I hope that the reported 640 HD hours is true and the additional space is available for use, as I don't know what "unable to coalesce" might mean. Does anyone think this is an issue that will hurt anything? [EDIT: it was confirmed that this didn't hurt anything but was unnecessary.]

Next I called the cable company and had them re-pair the TiVo to the cable card (host ID had changed).

So, as far as I know, my dead TCD746320 with lifetime service is working again and now has 4TB of storage. I hope that documenting all these steps will provide a potential guide for anyone in the same situation I was in - especially for someone trying to do this with a laptop. See my original post for more context and information. Big thanks to forum members @ggieseke (creator of DVRBars) and @jmbach (contributor to MFSTools)!


----------



## jmbach

Inventionroom said:


> Update:
> 
> This is what appears to have worked for me, using a laptop, USB portable drive, USB docking station (for new upgrade 4TB drive), Clean TiVo 350GB image [for my TCD746320], DVRBars and MFSTools:
> 
> I used an extra 500GB portable USB drive. In Windows 7, I zeroed it out with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. I was then able to use DVRBars to put the 350GB TiVo image on this USB drive. Of course, this USB drive will not install into my TiVo, so I'm glad I didn't have to boot and set up a 350GB imaged drive on TiVo before pulling it out to copy and expand with MFSTools.
> 
> I rebooted with the Linux boot disc (created from the latest MFSTools ISO download that has MFSTools 3.32). The laptop had the 500GB USB drive (with restored 350GB image) and a USB docking station plugged in (with new 4TB destination drive docked). I then did the command: mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> (sdX represents the source drive and sdY represents the destination drive).
> 
> It worked.
> 
> I saw posts where other users followed this with: apmfix /dev/sdY
> 
> I was unsure if this was necessary but thought I'd try it (this may have been a mistake, I'm not sure). It reported:
> 
> Conversion to 64 bit APM complete
> 
> Pruning Apple_Free partition complete.
> 
> Unable to coalesce. Processing of drive is incomplete.
> 
> I went ahead and put the 4TB drive into the TiVo.. and it booted up (no reboot loops). I checked the system info and it reported 640 HD hours. So, it appears to have worked.
> 
> My concern is that "processing of drive is incomplete" message. I hope that the reported 640 HD hours is true and the additional space is available for use, as I don't know what "unable to coalesce" might mean. Does anyone think this is an issue that will hurt anything?
> 
> Next I called the cable company and had them re-pair the TiVo to the cable card (host ID had changed).
> 
> So, as far as I know, my dead TCD746320 with lifetime service is working again and now has 4TB of storage. I hope that documenting all these steps will provide a potential guide for anyone in the same situation I was in - especially for someone trying to do this with a laptop. See my original post for more context and information. Big thanks to forum members @ggieseke (creator of DVRBars) and @jmbach (creator of MFSTools)!


You did not need to run apmfix on the copy that you did. It did not hurt anything. It was expecting an added partition pair which was not present since you did not run mfsadd on the drive. (You do not need to run it since you used mfscopy to copy and expand your image to the wbole 4 TB.)

BTW I did not create MFSTools. All I have done is to make a few modifications for it to work on Bolts.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Inventionroom

jmbach said:


> You did not need to run apmfix on the copy that you did. It did not hurt anything. It was expecting an added partition pair which was not present since you did not run mfsadd on the drive. (You do not need to run it since you used mfscopy to copy and expand your image to the wbole 4 TB.)
> 
> BTW I did not create MFSTools. All I have done is to make a few modifications for it to work on Bolts.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks for the info on apmfix. Also, I've edited my post to say "contributor to MFSTools." :smile:


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## MJedi

Hello all,

I got the recommended Toshiba drive (2TB) to upgrade my 1TB Bolt (White). I used mfscopy -a because I wanted to preserve my recordings. The process completed successfully, but when I plugged the new drive back into the Bolt, I got a red screen with the message "error creating swsystem." I did a kickstart 58, and it went to "Installing an update." I left on that screen overnight, and it did not change the next day. So I erased the new drive and installed it without any copying. The TiVo booted fine. I put the old drive back and it booted fine. I did the mfscopy -a again. Same result. I did the msfcopy without recordings. Same result.

So now I'm at a loss on what to do.


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## jmbach

MJedi said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I got the recommended Toshiba drive (2TB) to upgrade my 1TB Bolt (White). I used mfscopy -a because I wanted to preserve my recordings. The process completed successfully, but when I plugged the new drive back into the Bolt, I got a red screen with the message "error creating swsystem." I did a kickstart 58, and it went to "Installing an update." I left on that screen overnight, and it did not change the next day. So I erased the new drive and installed it without any copying. The TiVo booted fine. I put the old drive back and it booted fine. I did the mfscopy -a again. Same result. I did the msfcopy without recordings. Same result.
> 
> So now I'm at a loss on what to do.


Unfortunately when you erased the new drive and let the Bolt format it, you lost all references to the recordings on your 1 TB drive and consequently and ability to see them anymore. The recordings are still on the 1 TB drive but the map that tells the Bolt where they are has been erased.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## MJedi

jmbach said:


> Unfortunately when you erased the new drive and let the Bolt format it, you lost all references to the recordings on your 1 TB drive and consequently and ability to see them anymore. The recordings are still on the 1 TB drive but the map that tells the Bolt where they are has been erased.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Are you serious? That is terrible news. So the references for the recordings are on the TiVo itself in firmware, and not on the drive?

Is that why I'm getting these errors and messages on the new drive? Even the first time before I did all of this troubleshooting?

:rage:


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## jmbach

MJedi said:


> Are you serious? That is terrible news. So the references for the recordings are on the TiVo itself in firmware, and not on the drive?
> 
> Is that why I'm getting these errors and messages on the new drive? Even the first time before I did all of this troubleshooting?
> 
> :rage:


Yes. The map to the recordings is on the sqlite partition that on the Bolt is on the internal flash drive. Now ggieseke can correct me here, the sqlite partition has the list of recordings on the drive. The drive has the map itself but without the list, the recordings are lost. At this point there is no recovery from this. When the Bolt formats a new drive, it erases the sqlite and /var partitions located in the flash drive. As long as the Bolt does not format a drive, those partitions remain intact.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

Did you put the new drive through a series of diagnostic tests both read and write before copying the old drive to it?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## MJedi

jmbach said:


> Yes. The map to the recordings is on the sqlite partition that on the Bolt is on the internal flash drive. Now ggieseke can correct me here, the sqlite partition has the list of recordings on the drive. The drive has the map itself but without the list, the recordings are lost. At this point there is no recovery from this. When the Bolt formats a new drive, it erases the sqlite and /var partitions located in the flash drive. As long as the Bolt does not format a drive, those partitions remain intact.


Wow. This is what TiVo is doing now to its long-time and most enthusiastic customers? I am very disappointed. Guess I have to accept this loss. I would stop using TiVo because of this. This is a very anti-consumer move IMO. But there isn't a better option that I know of. X1 boxes are slow and have recording limits.

I would highly recommend a sticky or some warning for people who will do this in the future.



jmbach said:


> Did you put the new drive through a series of diagnostic tests both read and write before copying the old drive to it?


Yes I did.

EDIT: So even if I made a backup image of the old drive with all recordings, it won't do me any good to restore it since those references will be gone when I insert the new drive with recordings. Am I right?


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## ThAbtO

I stopped at Roamio. Avoided the Bolt for the drive size (2.5") and all that jazz.
Avoided TE4 (v21) as well.


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## MJedi

ThAbtO said:


> I stopped at Roamio. Avoided the Bolt for the drive size (2.5") and all that jazz.
> Avoided TE4 (v21) as well.


If I had known, I would've gotten the Roamio back then.


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## jmbach

MJedi said:


> EDIT: So even if I made a backup image of the old drive with all recordings, it won't do me any good to restore it since those references will be gone when I insert the new drive with recordings. Am I right?


Yes

It is interesting since they have the list and the recordings on two different drives you can get some interesting issues swapping drive copies that were made at different times.


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## MJedi

jmbach said:


> Yes
> 
> It is interesting since they have the list and the recordings on two different drives you can get some interesting issues swapping drive copies that were made at different times.


Do Roamios have a similar issue?


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## jmbach

No. Those partitions are on the internal hard drive.


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## MJedi

jmbach said:


> No. Those partitions are on the internal hard drive.


Thanks. Guess I'll be looking at getting a Roamio then. Save myself future pain.


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## gabrielstern

I am in the process of working on my tivo premier and rebuilding the file structure I have 3 previosely copied drives that were copied from the original 500 gig drive 2 3tb drives 1 3tb green drive and 1 4tb green drive where I expanded the drives using jmfs revision 4 from 2010, my question is can I put my 4tb green drive in mffs 3.2 and expand the partition to actually use the 4tb of recording time instead of the 2.45 tb that shows with a total recording time of 429 hd hours, and do this without deleting the recordings if I download the software and burn to disk, the second question is I just used an image ggsieki sent me to restore the 500 gig drive as it was stuck in the guided setup loop and would not update the software so I had to rebuild the image to the drive, the next question is since their was one copyrighted program that is stored on the other 3 drives that were copied before the image on the 500 gig drive became corrupted, is their a way using mffs 3.2 to copy all the recordings from one of the drives and then merge it somehow using mffs 3.2 or dvr barz with the image file ggsieki sent me in the tivo stuck in guided setup loop forum as despite frustrations especially with how tivo has treated their best custumers like us especially with their disatrous rollout of the hydra system with not making sure they retianed all the features of the classic platform, which made me get an additional tivo each time a new model came out and put in bigger hard drive, also tivo online works like junk when you are trying to transfer recordings especially from a premier over to a bolt when you had transfered those same recordings back when your bolt ran the classic platform and only had trouble with with one recording, but regardless ggsieki has been really helpful in that forum and has provided me with about 3 different images for my tivo premier I just need help with if possible merging one copyrighted recording from my other copied drives if possible back to the 500 gig drive that it was on it in the first place, before I had to clear that drive and use a fresh image on that drive to fix the software issues with that drive. then if that is possible somehow I would like to expand to copy that 500 gig drive to a 4tb or even 6tb as I am now worried the 4tb green drive I have the software on that drive might become corrupted like on my original hard drive and have to start all over agian on that drive which was the first drive that was copied from the original 500 gig drive back in 2015 and seems to have the most complete software updates on it vs the other 3 3tb drives.


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## jmbach

gabrielstern said:


> I am in the process of working on my tivo premier and rebuilding the file structure I have 3 previosely copied drives that were copied from the original 500 gig drive 2 3tb drives 1 3tb green drive and 1 4tb green drive where I expanded the drives using jmfs revision 4 from 2010, my question is can I put my 4tb green drive in mffs 3.2 and expand the partition to actually use the 4tb of recording time instead of the 2.45 tb that shows with a total recording time of 429 hd hours, and do this without deleting the recordings if I download the software and burn to disk, the second question is I just used an image ggsieki sent me to restore the 500 gig drive as it was stuck in the guided setup loop and would not update the software so I had to rebuild the image to the drive, the next question is since their was one copyrighted program that is stored on the other 3 drives that were copied before the image on the 500 gig drive became corrupted, is their a way using mffs 3.2 to copy all the recordings from one of the drives and then merge it somehow using mffs 3.2 or dvr barz with the image file ggsieki sent me in the tivo stuck in guided setup loop forum as despite frustrations especially with how tivo has treated their best custumers like us especially with their disatrous rollout of the hydra system with not making sure they retianed all the features of the classic platform, which made me get an additional tivo each time a new model came out and put in bigger hard drive, also tivo online works like junk when you are trying to transfer recordings especially from a premier over to a bolt when you had transfered those same recordings back when your bolt ran the classic platform and only had trouble with with one recording, but regardless ggsieki has been really helpful in that forum and has provided me with about 3 different images for my tivo premier I just need help with if possible merging one copyrighted recording from my other copied drives if possible back to the 500 gig drive that it was on it in the first place, before I had to clear that drive and use a fresh image on that drive to fix the software issues with that drive. then if that is possible somehow I would like to expand to copy that 500 gig drive to a 4tb or even 6tb as I am now worried the 4tb green drive I have the software on that drive might become corrupted like on my original hard drive and have to start all over agian on that drive which was the first drive that was copied from the original 500 gig drive back in 2015 and seems to have the most complete software updates on it vs the other 3 3tb drives.


If I understand you correctly. You copied the 500GB drive to 3 other drives one being a 4TB that you want to use in your TiVo. At this point all the drives have the same recordings on them. You expanded the 4TB with JMFS but you did not get the full drive for recordings space. (That is because you can add only 2 TB of recording space with JMFS so you have 2.5 TB of recording space)

If the above is the case, I would recommend reading the post that you downloaded MFSTools ISO dor the information to copy your 500 GB to the 4TB. MFSTools copy command will expand the drive while copying it. So when it is done you will have the full drive for your recordings.

Your "copy-protected" recordings are locked to the TiVo they were recorded on. So if the you are copying the 500GB with recordings to the 4TB, that drive would have to go back to the same TiVo the 500GB came out of in order to use the TiVo and see all the recordings.

You could put that drive in another TiVo, but to get the TiVo functioning, you would have to do a clear and delete everything which would wipe out the recordings on that drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## gabrielstern

jmbach said:


> If I understand you correctly. You copied the 500GB drive to 3 other drives one being a 4TB that you want to use in your TiVo. At this point all the drives have the same recordings on them. You expanded the 4TB with JMFS but you did not get the full drive for recordings space. (That is because you can add only 2 TB of recording space with JMFS so you have 2.5 TB of recording space)
> 
> If the above is the case, I would recommend reading the post that you downloaded MFSTools ISO dor the information to copy your 500 GB to the 4TB. MFSTools copy command will expand the drive while copying it. So when it is done you will have the full drive for your recordings.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Does that mean I could put the 4tb drive in mffs.3.2 and just expand the drive to use the full 4tb without losing any recordings as that has my one copyrighted program on it that I do not think I can merge with my original 500 gig drive as the software became corrupted on that drive if you were to read the help my series 4 tivo is stuck in guided setup thread, thats what happened with my original 500 gig drive,it would not update the software on that drive so I had to wipe the drive and use an image ggsieki sent me and restore it to that drive using dvr barz, right now, I am in the process of restoring all the other original recordings to that drive, you may see and hear from through this thread a lot of others who are experiencing the same issue with the original hard drives, my one saving grace was i copied that drive once in 2015 to a 4tb green drive, then last year I copied the 500 gig drive again to a 3tb green drive that was my romio pros original drive, again using the jmfs iso but all to create backups of other programs in addition to the original programs on that drive, so i could free up space on my bolt and romio that now runs the hydra platform as that was the only way i could back anything up reliably but about a month ago I bought 2 3tb red drives and when I copied the original drive to one of the of the 3tb drives and then plugged that drive into the tivo unlike before before where it would update the software it became stuck so i put that drive in guided setup and that drive became stuck so I then ended up unplugging the drive and putting the original drive in to test it and when it connected to get guide information it kept failing to download any updates and guide information and kicking the tivo into restart i then wiped the 3tb red drive and then utilized jmfs iso to copy my 3tb green drive to the 3tb red drive which was the most recent drive I had used although the software updates are not perfect, and that worked although it took 3 days to complete on my laptop running usb 2.00 connections after that I decided to build my own custom built desktop which I have up and running but I want to merge all the original recordings back to my now reimaged 500 gig drive if possible first including trying to extract one copyrighted program that was on the 500 gig drive originally from the 4tb copied drive then copy the 500 gig to a bigger drive as even though the 4tb green drive seems to have the software working perfectly i am not sure it is as good as the image ggseiki sent me which I used to restore an uncorupted image to my 500 gig drive. I know I might sound a little nuts and went about things in an unconventional way and creative way but but these long replies and posts are from someone who is extremely frustrated with how tivo has treated their custumer base, they seem to have forgotten that thanks to guys like you and ggseiki,and your innovations from within these forums and the tivo comunity forum as whole, that thats what made me want to go out and buy the latest tivo model and then do things like stick a 6tb green drive in my romio and then affix a a 6tb red drive on top of my 4 tuner white bolt in 2017 and then use tivo desktop plus to back up my recordings but after I upgraded the romio and bolt to hydra a week or 2 later I regretted it and that's when after 6 months of retirement I started using my premier again, just to get recordings off of my other tivos as at the time tivo python was not out yet so I could even transfer recordings back to the premiere than 7 months ago my laptop i was using the hard drive failed when I was getting ready to download tivo python or py to work with my desktop plus so I coukd transfer recordings back, so now I am just starting to get the things working the way I like again with my new desktop and hopefully soon I will have my recovered data from my laptop drive so I can pull those tivo recordings from that drive into my e drive where I am now storing tivo recordings, I know it is a long reply but that is the situation I am dealing with and if mffs.3.2 can help me in any way as well as dvr barz I will be most grateful with getting things how they should be.


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## ThAbtO

That is 1 long winded sentence that was hard to understand properly. No punctuation to separate each line or meaning. I got lost trying to read it.


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## gabrielstern

ThAbtO said:


> That is 1 long winded sentence that was hard to understand properly. No punctuation to separate each line or meaning. I got lost trying to read it.


Sorry I forgot to put the comas in due to being exhausted,as I have been at it all day with configuring, the 500 gig drive,ggseiki guided me through with restoring the image,to the drive and backing up all the recordings I could and testing and making sure all the settings are correct on the drive, now in the process of restoring all the recordings, I could back up from one of the 3tb red drives to tivo desktop plus which took 6hrs to due, now in the process of restoring those recordings, then have to test to see if tivo online will work this time with trying to then deploy some of the recordings from the 500 gig drive over to my bolt without leaving an incomplete file structure, the joys of tivos crappy tivo online service which is all I can use on my bolt or romio now. Also that long reply was due to all the frustration with this tivo nonsense with the series 4 model going repeatedly to restart on and the problem seems to be with the original hard drives and the software, that is what is frustrating so many of us. That is the issue. So any assistance and fixes that could preserve the recordings would be greatly appreciated


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## gabrielstern

ThAbtO said:


> That is 1 long winded sentence that was hard to understand properly. No punctuation to separate each line or meaning. I got lost trying to read it.


Yes I used jmfs iso revision 4, 3 times from the original 500 gig drive once to a 4 tb and then once to a 3tb green drive the other 2 times using jmfs iso revision 4 I copied the 3tb green drive to 2 other red 3tb drives all to back up recordings from my other 2 tivos, but since my 4tb green drive seems to have the most complete and non corrupted software structure, of the copied drives I mentioned, can i use mffs 3.2 tools to add the 1 and a half terabytes missing from that drive without corrupting or messing up the recordings already on that drive, so the HD recording hours read what they should instead of 429 HD hours considering that drive was already expanded and super-sized, in the jmfs environment. That is my question.


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## ThAbtO

That makes like 5 posts that was harder to understand. It just seems you were just rambling on and on. Its not the commas that properly separate sentences, periods, and question marks do it.

In your last post, about the only thing that made sense was 'That was my question.'

In proper english, for example, I see oranges and apples and grapes and bananas, should be
I see oranges, apples, grapes and bananas.
Do you see oranges, apples, grapes or bananas?



gabrielstern said:


> Yes, I used jmfs iso revision 4, 3 times from the original 500 gig drive once to a 4 tb, then once to a 3tb green drive. The other 2 times using jmfs iso revision 4, I copied the 3tb green drive to 2 other red 3tb drives. All to back up recordings from my other 2 tivos, but since my 4tb green drive seems to have the most complete and non corrupted software structure. Of the copied drives I mentioned, Can i use MFSTools 3.2 to add the 1 and a half terabytes missing from that drive without corrupting or messing up the recordings already on that drive? So the HD recording hours read what they should instead of 429 HD hours considering that drive was already expanded and super-sized, in the jmfs environment? That is my question.


Best I can do of adding proper english grammar for better understanding.


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## gabrielstern

ThAbtO said:


> That makes like 5 posts that was harder to understand. It just seems you were just rambling on and on. Its not the commas that properly separate sentences, periods, and question marks do it.
> 
> In your last post, about the only thing that made sense was 'That was my question.'
> 
> In proper english, for example, I see oranges and apples and grapes and bananas, should be
> I see oranges, apples, grapes and bananas.
> Do you see oranges, apples, grapes or bananas?
> 
> Best I can do of adding proper english grammar for better understanding.


I think it is best, if I revisit the issue of using mffs 3.2, to copy my 4tb green drive, that was expanded using jmffs and perhaps, I should copy that to a western digital red 4tb efrx drive, which i am able to get easily from a place, I use near me since it sounds like from what you were saying, it will automatically copy and expand the space at the same time, just need to finish the cleaning up the 5 other issues, I am dealing with such as geting the recordings and the structures restored properly to my 500 gig drive, then move some recordings temporarly to my romio, get some of the recordings back on the 4tb green drive and looking corectly, and then I will revisit with you, how to go about using mffs.3.2 to finish doing what I need to do with the 4tb drive again ggsieki was a big help with getting the image file on the 500 gig drive, and you have also been trying to help, but I now relize I am not at that point yet, with how to acheive, what I want to acheive with the 4tb green drive, which was the first and non corupted copy from the original 500 gig drive before the software began to get corrupted, but please understand, their will be a lot more frustated tivo users with the series 4 and the original hard drives and the software going bad, and it getting stuck in guided setup or constantly restarting every 5 minutes without downloading the program guide information, or updating the software, and may have 10 different issues going on at the same time. like me, which makes it more complicated and frustrating with trying to resolve them.


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## ThAbtO

gabrielstern said:


> I think it is best,....


I am getting a headache trying to read and understand you. From now on, I will ignore your posts.


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## 11274

What I need to do is just mount partitions 4 and 7 so I can copy some files from one to the other. I thought mfstools would allow me do that, but I don't see how those tools would. The Tivo drive just looks like one big device to the OS, although mfsinfo can see the slices.

Is there some way to do what I want with mfstools 3.2?


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## jmbach

km said:


> What I need to do is just mount partitions 4 and 7 so I can copy some files from one to the other. I thought mfstools would allow me do that, but I don't see how those tools would. The Tivo drive just looks like one big device to the OS, although mfsinfo can see the slices.
> 
> Is there some way to do what I want with mfstools 3.2?


What are you trying to do and for what purpose.

What model TiVo are you performing this on.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## 11274

jmbach said:


> What are you trying to do and for what purpose.
> 
> What model TiVo are you performing this on.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I have a series 3 TivoHD. It was hacked to the extent that I could run telnet and Tivowebplus. I'm not interested in anything other than remote scheduling which is not available any other way for the series 3.

I lost access on an upgrade, so I need to copy a few files from the old root to the new root.


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## jmbach

km said:


> I have a series 3 TivoHD. It was hacked to the extent that I could run telnet and Tivowebplus. I'm not interested in anything other than remote scheduling which is not available any other way for the series 3.
> 
> I lost access on an upgrade, so I need to copy a few files from the old root to the new root.


You would have to manually mount the partitions.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## 11274

jmbach said:


> You would have to manually mount the partitions.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thats the point, I can't mount the partitions. all I see is the raw drive. Presumably it has a label Linux doesn't understand and possibly a byte ordering issuing. Series 3 is MIPS, Bolt is ARM, either of which can be configured in either byte order. Intel is big-endian.

I was hoping there was a tool in mfstools to get around this.

UPDATE:

After a while I realized that it was MfsTools 2.0 that had the byte switching kernel that also understood the Apple label that Tivo used. I had thought 3.2 was an enhanced version, but its really a different animal.

I actually managed to find an old CD with 2.0 on it, and now I have my tivowebplus working again. It took a little doing, Tivo is being tricky in their old age.


----------



## Keatah

I'm in the process of trying to upgrade a ROAMIO|OTA from 1TB to 3TB. I want to keep the original programming & shows. And have the original 1TB and replacement 3TB HDDs hooked to my PC.

Seem to be getting stuck after the mfscopy command, like so:

Typing *lsblk -o name,size,vendor*
IDs my disks as
sda 2.7T ATA
sdb 931.5G WD10
Good.

Then typing *mfscopy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda*
..results in..
Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment.
Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector.

And typing *bootsectorfix /dev/sda*
..results in..
Little endian computer detected
Error not a Series 5 and later TiVo drive. Signature expected to be 9214 but is 00
Unable to process drive.

I've not written to anything to the original TiVo 1TB drive with the PC yet.

So what am I missing? Is there some sort of prep I need to do on the new drive? It's fresh-out-of-the-box so I presume it's zero-filled from the factory.

I'm certain the drive assignments are correct *sda *and *sdb*. And the original 1TB drive seems to work just fine in the TiVo box.

Using CD image:
MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-1.0.5-Build6.1.iso


----------



## jmbach

Keatah said:


> I'm in the process of trying to upgrade a ROAMIO|OTA from 1TB to 3TB. I want to keep the original programming & shows. And have the original 1TB and replacement 3TB HDDs hooked to my PC.
> 
> Seem to be getting stuck after the mfscopy command, like so:
> 
> Typing *lsblk -o name,size,vendor*
> IDs my disks as
> sda 2.7T ATA
> sdb 931.5G WD10
> Good.
> 
> Then typing *mfscopy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda*
> ..results in..
> Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment.
> Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector.
> 
> And typing *bootsectorfix /dev/sda*
> ..results in..
> Little endian computer detected
> Error not a Series 5 and later TiVo drive. Signature expected to be 9214 but is 00
> Unable to process drive.
> 
> I've not written to anything to the original TiVo 1TB drive with the PC yet.
> 
> So what am I missing? Is there some sort of prep I need to do on the new drive? It's fresh-out-of-the-box so I presume it's zero-filled from the factory.
> 
> I'm certain the drive assignments are correct *sda *and *sdb*. And the original 1TB drive seems to work just fine in the TiVo box.
> 
> Using CD image:
> MFSTools_3.32-devel_openSUSE_Leap_42.1_JeOS.x86_64-1.0.5-Build6.1.iso


You are using bootsectorfix on the wrong drive. It needs to be used on the source drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Keatah

jmbach said:


> You are using bootsectorfix on the wrong drive. It needs to be used on the source drive.


I sort of thought that that was the problem. Will running bootsectorfix cause the original 1TB to not work in the TiVo box?

I just need to be able to go back to it if the upgrade fails in any other way, that's all.


----------



## jmbach

Keatah said:


> I sort of thought that that was the problem. Will running bootsectorfix cause the original 1TB to not work in the TiVo box?
> 
> I just need to be able to go back to it if the upgrade fails in any other way, that's all.


No. It does not affect the functioning of the drive at all. At some point the TiVo OS stopped updating all the information on the boot sector of the drive. Probably because the information that was important to the TiVo OS now resides on the internal flash drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Keatah

Alright thanks for the explanation. Disk is copying 1TB -=> 3TB.

I'll check in later.


----------



## Comicboy

Can someone help make sure I do a drive to drive Copy and/or Backup and Restore by making sure I use all the right options? I literally haven't used Linux in like 15 years. I'm going from a 3TB to a 4TB for a Bolt+ so if someone has the exact lines I need to type..


----------



## jmbach

Comicboy said:


> Can someone help make sure I do a drive to drive Copy and/or Backup and Restore by making sure I use all the right options? I literally haven't used Linux in like 15 years. I'm going from a 3TB to a 4TB for a Bolt+ so if someone has the exact lines I need to type..


What 4TB drive are you using?

Are you on TE3 or TE4?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Comicboy

Ok, so total newbie to this, but I am a technologist so hopefully I can learn. So sorry for the ignorance, but what is TE3 versus TE4? AKA how do I determine? I bought this Seagate to pull the drive from the enclosure.


----------



## jmbach

Comicboy said:


> Ok, so total newbie to this, but I am a technologist so hopefully I can learn. So sorry for the ignorance, but what is TE3 versus TE4? AKA how do I determine? I bought this Seagate to pull the drive from the enclosure.
> View attachment 51725


I am not sure about that hard drive. Mainly because many of the portable hard drives with an external USB 3.0 connector, the connector is actually part of the motherboard of the hard drive and not an adapter card.

To find out what interface you are on, fo to the system information screen and scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen. You will see a listing for the HD me u software version. If it says hydra-mira it is TE4. If it states encore it is TE3.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Comicboy

jmbach said:


> I am not sure about that hard drive. Mainly because many of the portable hard drives with an external USB 3.0 connector, the connector is actually part of the motherboard of the hard drive and not an adapter card.
> 
> To find out what interface you are on, fo to the system information screen and scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen. You will see a listing for the HD me u software version. If it says hydra-mira it is TE4. If it states encore it is TE3.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Its TE4 for sure.


----------



## jmbach

So I can confirm that a Bolt on TE4 21.9.7v10 can self format drives as large as 10 TB.
Unfortunately, MFSTools at this time cannot create a native partition layout of that size. It can do it for a drive that is over 4 TB, but I am not sure how large at this time without further testing. Also it will not at this time convert a drive that was expanded using the lowered numbered partitions to a native partition layout.


----------



## Comicboy

jmbach said:


> So I can confirm that a Bolt on TE4 21.9.7v10 can self format drives as large as 10 TB.
> Unfortunately, MFSTools at this time cannot create a native partition layout of that size. It can do it for a drive that is over 4 TB, but I am not sure how large at this time without further testing. Also it will not at this time convert a drive that was expanded using the lowered numbered partitions to a native partition layout.


Can I make my 4TB operate as a 3TB, leaving the extra 1TB out there? I don't care about losing part of the use of it. I mainly want to copy my existing shows over before the drive dies.. 
And if the 3TB drive is dead dead, sound like I can out the And I am really new to this. I have read and am about to go through pages of instruction looking for the exact instruction to:
1) Backup a 3TB
2) restore a 3TB (maybe restore to a 4TB)
3) or copy from 3TB to 4TB (although I think you said that won't work)
4) alternatively copy from a 3TB to 4TB only partitioning 3TB..


----------



## jmbach

Comicboy said:


> Can I make my 4TB operate as a 3TB, leaving the extra 1TB out there? I don't care about losing part of the use of it. I mainly want to copy my existing shows over before the drive dies..
> And if the 3TB drive is dead dead, sound like I can out the And I am really new to this. I have read and am about to go through pages of instruction looking for the exact instruction to:
> 1) Backup a 3TB
> 2) restore a 3TB (maybe restore to a 4TB)
> 3) or copy from 3TB to 4TB (although I think you said that won't work)
> 4) alternatively copy from a 3TB to 4TB only partitioning 3TB..


You can use mfscopy to copy your current drive to your 4TB drive and have the full 4TB for recordings.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Comicboy

jmbach said:


> You can use mfscopy to copy your current drive to your 4TB drive and have the full 4TB for recordings.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I understand that, can you tell me the exact syntax


----------



## jmbach

Comicboy said:


> I understand that, can you tell me the exact syntax


It is in the post where you downloaded the program.

mfscopy -a source target

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## tivodude007

I have a recently purchased (past year) Bolt Vox with 500GB hard drive. I have purchased a cloning usb drop in ext USB dual drive to get a perfect clone. I now read that the cloning won't work because MFSTools or some other program fixes a sabotage by the Bolt which looks to see if the drive is the same drive that last booted. The message in the thread indicated a perfect result so I jumped on the Inateck Cloning USB drop in and a 2TB SSD which I thought would solve the issue with CMR/SMR. The SSD tried to boot with the HDD led flickering a few times, then it stopped flickering. The TV screen says Starting Up. I has yet to complete the boot process. I read after installing the SSD into the Bolt, that it will trash all my recordings because I inserted the new drive into it. I guess the old/original drive will not work now? I am in the process of buying a 1TB 2.5 WD Red (CMR) HDD so my incompatibilities will go away. The WD site did not show any 2.5 HDDs that were CMR so I bought the 1TB. There is lots of confusion in the newbies myself included, on what works and what doesn't. I bought the 1TB to avoid the CMR and potential to not work due to size above 1TB. Does the Cloning Process work at all for the Bolt? I am thinking that I need MFSTools to do the job. Could someone PM me the program?


----------



## jmbach

tivodude007 said:


> I have a recently purchased (past year) Bolt Vox with 500GB hard drive. I have purchased a cloning usb drop in ext USB dual drive to get a perfect clone. I now read that the cloning won't work because MFSTools or some other program fixes a sabotage by the Bolt which looks to see if the drive is the same drive that last booted. The message in the thread indicated a perfect result so I jumped on the Inateck Cloning USB drop in and a 2TB SSD which I thought would solve the issue with CMR/SMR. The SSD tried to boot with the HDD led flickering a few times, then it stopped flickering. The TV screen says Starting Up. I has yet to complete the boot process. I read after installing the SSD into the Bolt, that it will trash all my recordings because I inserted the new drive into it. I guess the old/original drive will not work now? I am in the process of buying a 1TB 2.5 WD Red (CMR) HDD so my incompatibilities will go away. The WD site did not show any 2.5 HDDs that were CMR so I bought the 1TB. There is lots of confusion in the newbies myself included, on what works and what doesn't. I bought the 1TB to avoid the CMR and potential to not work due to size above 1TB. Does the Cloning Process work at all for the Bolt? I am thinking that I need MFSTools to do the job. Could someone PM me the program?


Where to start.

Since you cloned the original drive to your ssd and it was stuck in the starting screen, put your old drive back in for now. All your old recordings should be just fine. The only time you lose access to your recordings is if the Bolt formats a drive. We are not sure why the Bolt on TE4 stalls on boot with some drives.

You can use mfscopy in MFSTools to copy your original drive up to 4TB without an issue. Although the Bolt on the latest TE4 can use any drive size (tested up to 14TB) MFSTools cannot directly copy to that size as of yet. You can build a drive that big with MFSTools but you cannot simply use the copy command. That is something I hope to fix at some time.

The clone of your original drive will have the exact same recording space of the original drive. You can build it out to use the whole drive for recording space.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## C Hakkarinen

Comicboy said:


> Ok, so total newbie to this, but I am a technologist so hopefully I can learn. So sorry for the ignorance, but what is TE3 versus TE4? AKA how do I determine? I bought this Seagate to pull the drive from the enclosure.
> View attachment 51725


TE3 (Tivo Experience 3) and TE4 (Tivo Experience 4) are two different visual menu formats that can be installed on Roamios, Bolts and perhaps newer models. TE4 (aka "hydra") is considered to be an "upgrade" to TE3, but some (many?) owners of Bolts that were initially supplied with TE4 have chosen to "downgrade" to the menu format TE3. There are instructions on how to do this in another forum. The instructions on page 1 of that thread worked for me.


----------



## tivodude007

jmbach said:


> Where to start.
> 
> Since you cloned the original drive to your ssd and it was stuck in the starting screen, put your old drive back in for now. All your old recordings should be just fine. The only time you lose access to your recordings is if the Bolt formats a drive. We are not sure why the Bolt on TE4 stalls on boot with some drives.
> 
> You can use mfscopy in MFSTools to copy your original drive up to 4TB without an issue. Although the Bolt on the latest TE4 can use any drive size (tested up to 14TB) MFSTools cannot directly copy to that size as of yet. You can build a drive that big with MFSTools but you can simply use the copy command. That is something I hope to fix at some time.
> 
> The clone of your original drive will have the exact same recording space of the original drive. You can build it out to use the whole drive for recording space.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Can you PM me the MFSTools to use to copy/clone the original drive to a new drive. I bought a WD-Red 1TB because I could not find a WD 2TB CMR drive. Do you know who builds a good 2-3TB CMR drive that can be used in a Bolt?


----------



## jmbach

tivodude007 said:


> Can you PM me the MFSTools to use to copy/clone the original drive to a new drive. I bought a WD-Red 1TB because I could not find a WD 2TB CMR drive. Do you know who builds a good 2-3TB CMR drive that can be used in a Bolt?


Are you wanting to compile the code yourself or are you looking for an ISO.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## tivodude007

jmbach said:


> I am not a Linux expert so the ISO is not nice and small but it works for me. It is made with open build service using openSUSE x64 LEAP 42.1 base.
> 
> *Please read the complete post before downloading and using these images. It might answer some questions.*
> 
> 1/26/2020 Modified mfsaddfix to coalesce added partitions if able. This would allow the max size of a MFSTools created drive of 16TB and the max size of an MFSR created drive of 20TB.
> 
> 5/8/2019 With the help of TCF member angra, the modifications to mfsadd to add partitions to Bolt drives has been successful. Other mod that angra work on was adding a switch to mfsinfo to display partition information of the drive(s). Other mods for this version include two new switches added to mfsadd. One switch forces the ordering of the added partitions to always be added so they may be coalesced later and the other switch will allow lower numbered partitions that were previously added to the drive but not added to the MFS header to be added to the MFS header. The version has now been bumped up to 3.32-devel.
> 
> 12/29/2018 Looks like the modifications to copy Bolt drives has been successful in the small number of people who have tested it. So it will be released to the general public and version is now 3.3-devel. Will also add a tool called mfsaddfix to be used on Roamio and newer TiVos to create drives larger than 4TB using MFSTools.
> 
> 8/23/18 Good news so far. I have had a couple people test the Beta on their bolts and it has successfully copied and expanded the original drive to a new larger drive. There are a few more who are testing this and if also successful, will make the Beta public.
> 
> 01/14/18 So I believe I have fixed MFSTools 3.2 to work on copying Bolts up to 4TB drive without breaking any previous functionality.
> 
> 10/7/2017 It appears the UAS issue is fixed. More testing on different systems will be the telltale sign. Also I think the image is now bootable under EFI as well.
> 
> 9/2/2017 You can use MFSTools to add an external drive to a Bolt successfully. You still cannot use it to copy/backup/restore Bolt images.
> 
> 4/5/2017 It seems that on a Roamio with the OS 20.7.x, if you copy the image to another drive, you may experience the RSoD stating that the OS could not be installed. The fix is to do a cold restart of the Roamio and run a Kickstart 58. It will tell you it is installing an update, followed by rebooting to the green screen telling you that a serious error has occurred and it is trying to fix it, then will reboot up normally. If you do a Kickstart 57 instead of a 58, you may be stuck in a green screen loop.
> 
> 03/26/2017 It seems that Linux distros have a problem with using USB3 attached drives as USB Attached SCSI (uas) devices including the Linux Distro that this ISO is made from. It appears to be more of a write issue than a read issue with large amounts of data. Looking into a way to prevent the distro from using uas until this bug has been fixed. There are some reports that this is fixed but I have issues with writes when using USB3 that do not happen when I use the same dock but with eSata connection. This is not an issue if the USB3 dock is connected to an USB2 port.
> 
> 11/5/16 MFSTools 3.2 has issues working with Bolt images and is not recommended to be used on any Bolt images.
> 
> MFSTools 3.32-devel ISO
> Live ISO
> md5 hash for ISO: 378e9d1b439d221ba4aafb2b9074d556
> 
> MFSTools 3.32-devel VHD
> VHD for Virtual Machines
> md5 hash for compressed VHD file: 420dd7989933c7e5ffc322be597158a9
> 
> MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD
> RAW image file to make bootable USB drives requires direct copy of file contents to USB drive.
> md5 hash for compressed raw file: 2a25613140dfa835b5b41a184ba54ac1
> 
> Use a program like Etcher from Balena to write the uncompressed raw file. It is free, cross platformed, and open sourced. Or use dd in Linux or something like HDD Raw Copy Tool in Windows to copy the uncompressed file to a USB or hard drive.
> 
> If anybody would like my modified source code, send me a PM.
> 
> Please note, these images should support UEFI booting but if not it will require you to boot in legacy BIOS mode via CSM (Compatibility Support Module) which would need to be activated in your BIOS settings.
> 
> You will login with username 'root' and with password 'tivo'. Logins from previous versions of the images have been deleted as well as auto login function.
> 
> Easy way to identify connected drives (thanks to 192bowler showing me this) - lsblk -o name,size,vendor
> 
> For most people who just want to copy their old image to a new drive (max 4 TB in size) the command is as follows:
> 
> Premier and earlier models - mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> Roamio and later models - mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> 
> Where sdX is the source drive and sdY is the target drive.
> 
> If you get an error from MFSTools that states something like "_*Cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector*_" then read all the way to the end.
> 
> Premiere models can be copied to a larger drive up to 8 TB if the ancillary tools are used and the instructions in the 8TB Premiere thread is followed.
> 
> Roamio and new models can be copied over to drives larger than 4 TB with MFSTools if the instructions in the DIY 10 TB Roamio thread.
> 
> *There are no warranties or guarantees with these images and I take no responsibility for anything that happens using these images. You are logged in as root so you could do dangerous things to your system if you are not careful. TiVo, in the future, could modify their OS in such a way that it could make drives manipulated by these tools no longer functional and loss of recordings could happen.
> If there are any issues with these files let me know and I will see what I can do.*
> 
> Modifications from SourceForge source code as of 12/5/2015 download which has not been incorporated into the SourceForge code as of yet.
> - Made modifications to handle images with a coalesced partition 12 with the original partition 12 at the beginning of the coalesced partition in restore.c. (Will not handle a coalesced partition 10. Other coalesced combinations should be okay. Will need further testing and confirmation to be sure.)
> - corrected declaration of variable skipdb in copy.c
> - Added missing declaration in macpart.h to prevent 64 bit integer being converted to 32 bit.
> - Added missing declarations in several .h files to correct implicit declarations of functions during compile.
> - Added missing include statements in several .c files to resolve compiler warnings about implicit function declarations.
> - Added ddrescue to the image so you should not need another disc to try to recover your image if it is damaged.
> 
> Added a couple of tools should only be run on a Premiere image.
> -*apmfix* - Its purpose is to take the partition pair MFSAdd placed on the drive and coalesce them into one partition so that the Premiere will have the added recording space. If you do not coalesce the partition pair, the TiVo will divorce the media partition but keep the application partition. This will give the appearance of having the full recording space but will error if it tries to access that space because it no longer exists. This program will convert the APM from 32 bit to 64 bit, prune off any Apple_Free partitions at the end of the drive, and then coalesce partition 15 and 16 if present and meets criteria.
> 
> -*8TBprep* - Its purpose is to prepare a 6TB image on an 8TB drive to accept another expansion by MFSAdd in order to use the full 8TB recording space. For this program to work, partitions 12 and 13 must be contiguous and in order and the image currently has 15 partitions. (Which it should since it currently has a 6TB image on it.) This program will convert a 32 bit APM to 64 bit, prune off any Apple_Free partitions located at the end of the drive, and then coalesce partitions 12 and 13 if they meet criteria.
> 
> Of course these tools would not be needed for MFSTools to be able to use drives larger than 4TB if TiVo would fix their code that causes a 64 bit number to be saved as a 32 bit number when it is adding up the MFS partitions. This is the reason why MFS partitions are limited to 2TiB.
> 
> Added a couple of tools to be run on a Series 5 and later TiVo.
> -*bootsectorfix* - If you run MFSTools on a Series 5 or later TiVo and get an error that states something like "Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector", then running this program on that drive will attempt to fix the boot sector to resolve that error.
> 
> -*mfsaddfix* - Its purpose is to relocate mfsadd added partitions in Roamio and later TiVos to the lower "placeholder" partitions. These partitions used to hold the OS in the Premier and earlier TiVos but are no longer needed as the Roamio and later TiVos have those partitions in the internal flash drive. If you try to boot a Roamio and later TiVo with partitions that were added by mfsadd without moving them, the TiVo will promptly reformat your drive and you will lose all recordings. Will have to give a big thanks to ggeseike for helping getting the CRC checksum calculations correct for the MFS header for this program.
> 
> This  post maybe helpful if you are trying to mount a location to save a backup of your image.
> If you want to save recordings as well, add 'a' to the command line.


----------



## tivodude007

I am trying to copy and expand my 500gb to 1TB WD Red and I find the command interface to be more than a little daunting. I can handle the GUI apps like DV-Bars? and would like to get something that is easier to use if possible. I am getting error about no such file or directory. I am using my NUC with Win10 to load the thumb drive with the 3.32 iso file set up to boot from the TD. I typed the command in exactly as shown above and still get the errors. I don't see how MFSTools could figure out the proper device since that could be different depending on the computer I am using with various HDD configurations. Is JMFS a GUI program?


----------



## jmbach

tivodude007 said:


> I am trying to copy and expand my 500gb to 1TB WD Red and I find the command interface to be more than a little daunting. I can handle the GUI apps like DV-Bars? and would like to get something that is easier to use if possible. I am getting error about no such file or directory. I am using my NUC with Win10 to load the thumb drive with the 3.32 iso file set up to boot from the TD. I typed the command in exactly as shown above and still get the errors. I don't see how MFSTools could figure out the proper device since that could be different depending on the computer I am using with various HDD configurations. Is JMFS a GUI program?


You have to identify the drives first using the lsblk command. Then use the mfscopy command to copy one to the other.

Can you post a picture of the error you are getting

JMFS is used on Premiere units only and is more of a hand held process.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## tivodude007

egable said:


> The password was indeed "Linux". I unplugged the other hard drive I had in the system which made the source TiVo drive be /dev/sda and the destination drive be /dev/sdb. Then, MFS Tools started reading both drives just fine. I did:
> 
> mfsadd -x /dev/sdb
> 
> And it completed without any errors, creating partition 15 and 16. However, when I then put the drive back in the TiVo and started it up, it said something about removing an external storage device. Then it got stuck in a reboot loop. I tried using Kickstart codes, but none of them would work at all. Any suggestions?


I was concerned about which drive is /dev/sda and sdb. Did you start with only the two tivo drives? What about the ThumbDrive? Wouldn 't it be sda? I am used to having a GUI and this is a lot tougher than past upgrades that I have done. MFSAdd will expand also 1TB to 2TB or 4TB?


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## jmbach

tivodude007 said:


> I was concerned about which drive is /dev/sda and sdb. Did you start with only the two tivo drives? What about the ThumbDrive? Wouldn 't it be sda? I am used to having a GUI and this is a lot tougher than past upgrades that I have done. MFSAdd will expand also 1TB to 2TB or 4TB?


The lsblk command will help you identify the different drives that are attached.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## cardinals41

Tried to copy a 2TB Premiere drive to a 3TB drive with MFSTools 3.3. It did not work. Used JMFS 1.04 to copy the drive and shows. Is it possible to expand the drive for 3 TB?


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## jmbach

cardinals41 said:


> Tried to copy a 2TB Premiere drive to a 3TB drive with MFSTools 3.3. It did not work. Used JMFS 1.04 to copy the drive and shows. Is it possible to expand the drive for 3 TB?


What errors were you getting with MFSTools.

JMFS 1.04 has a size limitation. So I cannot remember how large of a drive you can expand. If you search well enough, there is a patched version (1.05) that fixes that issue and should work for your 3 TB drive. That is assuming the 2TB drive has not already been expanded. With JMFS, you get only one expansion.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## cardinals41

Can MFSTools be used now to expand? The error message I received was error reading voume header.


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## jmbach

cardinals41 said:


> Can MFSTools be used now to expand? The error message I received was error reading voume header.


The copy process copies and expands at the same time.

You might have gotten the target and source drives reversed. If b you get the error again, post a screenshot so I can see what led up to the error.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Herb EN

I guess this is the best thread to put this in as it is an MFSTools 3.32 problem, I think. I apologize if I clogged up the other Bolt Upgrade thread with an MFSTools question.

I am trying to upgrade my Bolt 1TB to 6TB. I downloaded
MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD
RAW image file to make bootable USB drives requires direct copy of file contents to USB drive.
md5 hash for compressed raw file: 2a25613140dfa835b5b41a184ba54ac1

I used the HDD Raw Copy Tool in Win10 to copy MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD to a 16 GB flash drive.

I disconnected all my HDs from my PC, connected the TiVo Bolt 1 TB drive to the 0 MB SATA connector, and booted off the MFSTools FD. I did not connect the new target drive yet. Baby steps. Before the login I am getting error messages, I login in anyway, which works, and then try the "lsblk -o,name,size,vendor" command to verify where my TiVo original drive is and it does not work. See the screen shot.








Did not go further without verifying the drive location. Can someone let me know what is happening and what to do?
Hoping to make another attempt tomorrow night. I know zip about linux so I would really appreciate some input. Thanks in advance


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> I guess this is the best thread to put this in as it is an MFSTools 3.32 problem, I think. I apologize if I clogged up the other Bolt Upgrade thread with an MFSTools question.
> 
> I am trying to upgrade my Bolt 1TB to 6TB. I downloaded
> MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD
> RAW image file to make bootable USB drives requires direct copy of file contents to USB drive.
> md5 hash for compressed raw file: 2a25613140dfa835b5b41a184ba54ac1
> 
> I used the HDD Raw Copy Tool in Win10 to copy MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD to a 16 GB flash drive.
> 
> I disconnected all my HDs from my PC, connected the TiVo Bolt 1 TB drive to the 0 MB SATA connector, and booted off the MFSTools FD. I did not connect the new target drive yet. Baby steps. Before the login I am getting error messages, I login in anyway, which works, and then try the "lsblk -o,name,size,vendor" command to verify where my TiVo original drive is and it does not work. See the screen shot.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Did not go further without verifying the drive location. Can someone let me know what is happening and what to do?
> Hoping to make another attempt tomorrow night. I know zip about linux so I would really appreciate some input. Thanks in advance


Syntaxes looks wrong. Should be:
lsblk -o name,size,vendor

Does not look like what you typed (although it is a little blurry to me)

Linux is very particular about syntax

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Herb EN

Thanks. Yes syntax. Put a comma after the "-o" should be a space. My bad. Will try again tomorrow night. Really appreciate the quick reply! Sorry about the blurry image. It looked clearer on a bigger screen. What about the error messages above it. The "read/64, error -110" error three lines, and the "device not accepting address 9, error -71" What do these mean? or Does it matter?


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> Thanks. Yes syntax. Put a comma after the "-o" should be a space. My bad. Will try again tomorrow night. Really appreciate the quick reply! Sorry about the blurry image. It looked clearer on a bigger screen. What about the error messages above it. The "read/64, error -110" error three lines, and the "device not accepting address 9, error -71" What do these mean? or Does it matter?


What USB devices are plugged into the computer

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## ClearToLand

Sizze?


----------



## cardinals41

jmbach, thank you for your prior responses.

I've been trying to copy a 2TB drive to a new 3TB drive. I have not been able to get mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to work. I get the volume header error. When I use mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb it started to copy. Does that work the same and if not how do I get the same results as if I used sdX and sdY? Thanks


----------



## jmbach

jmbach said:


> What USB devices are plugged into the computer
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk





cardinals41 said:


> jmbach, thank you for your prior responses.
> 
> I've been trying to copy a 2TB drive to a new 3TB drive. I have not been able to get mfscopy -ai /dev/sdX /dev/sdY to work. I get the volume header error. When I use mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb it started to copy. Does that work the same and if not how do I get the same results as if I used sdX and sdY? Thanks


X and Y are just placeholders. You have to figure out your drive names and replace those with the correct drive name like you did with 'a' and 'b'

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## ThAbtO

cardinals41 said:


> Does that work the same and if not how do I get the same results as if I used sdX and sdY?


Using sdX and sdY will not work as these are just examples for the source and target drives. Since you would not have drives specified as sdx or sdy.(Hence the capitals.)


----------



## Herb EN

MFSTOOLS COMMAND QUESTION
I am upgrading my 1TB Bolt to 6TB.
I have successfully copied the 1TB drive to the 6TB drive using the command "mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb". The space went from 90% filled to 56%.
I know I have to add 2 TB partitions using mfsadd and mfsaddfix.
Please confirm that I add the partitions one at a time, i.e.
mfsadd
mfsaddfix
mfsadd
mfsaddfix​I have now again read the other thread "Bolt with 3TB, want to upgrade to 8TB or more" and in that thread the command to use was "_*mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY*"_
What is the difference?
Should I re-copy the 1TB drive to the 6TB drive using "am 2040" version of the command before trying to add 2 TB partitions.
Should I use the "*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*" command where b is the 6TB target command, or simply "mfsadd /dev/sdb"?
I am in the dark here. Also where can I get a _complete_ set of _current_ commands for the mfstools 3.32 I have downloaded from

MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD
RAW image file to make bootable USB drives requires direct copy of file contents to USB drive.
md5 hash for compressed raw file: 2a25613140dfa835b5b41a184ba54ac1

AS always, thanks in advance, really appreciate the assistance.


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> MFSTOOLS COMMAND QUESTION
> I am upgrading my 1TB Bolt to 6TB.
> I have successfully copied the 1TB drive to the 6TB drive using the command "mfscopy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb". The space went from 90% filled to 56%.
> I know I have to add 2 TB partitions using mfsadd and mfsaddfix.
> Please confirm that I add the partitions one at a time, i.e.
> mfsadd
> mfsaddfix
> mfsadd
> mfsaddfix​I have now again read the other thread "Bolt with 3TB, want to upgrade to 8TB or more" and in that thread the command to use was "_*mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY*"_
> What is the difference?
> Should I re-copy the 1TB drive to the 6TB drive using "am 2040" version of the command before trying to add 2 TB partitions.
> Should I use the "*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*" command where b is the 6TB target command, or simply "mfsadd /dev/sdb"?
> I am in the dark here. Also where can I get a _complete_ set of _current_ commands for the mfstools 3.32 I have downloaded from
> 
> MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD
> RAW image file to make bootable USB drives requires direct copy of file contents to USB drive.
> md5 hash for compressed raw file: 2a25613140dfa835b5b41a184ba54ac1
> 
> AS always, thanks in advance, really appreciate the assistance.


Can you post the mfsinfo -d on the drive.

Generally speaking you should use am 2040 when doing the copy process. As mfstools does not copy correctly to anything over 4 TB so we have to limit the initial copy to 4 TB which is what the command does.

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----------



## Herb EN

jmbach said:


> Can you post the mfsinfo -d on the drive.
> 
> Generally speaking you should use am 2040 when doing the copy process. As mfstools does not copy correctly to anything over 4 TB so we have to limit the initial copy to 4 TB which is what the command does.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks again jmbach! I will just redo the copy using the "mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" command where "a" is the source, "b" is target. I copy overnight anyway so as not to interfere with normal use, it takes about 4 hours, no problem. I would rather not throw more variables into the equation than needed.

Is there any need to wipe the target drive before redoing the copy? If so, how?

Also, please confirm the command sequence for adding two 2TB partitions (to bring total up to 6TB) as:

"*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*"
"*mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"
"mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb"
"mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"
*
I thank you in advance. Herb


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> Thanks again jmbach! I will just redo the copy using the "mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" command where "a" is the source, "b" is target. I copy overnight anyway so as not to interfere with normal use, it takes about 4 hours, no problem. I would rather not throw more variables into the equation than needed.
> 
> Is there any need to wipe the target drive before redoing the copy? If so, how?
> 
> Also, please confirm the command sequence for adding two 2TB partitions (to bring total up to 6TB) as:
> 
> "*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*"
> "*mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"
> "mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb"
> "mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"
> *
> I thank you in advance. Herb


You can use the manufacturer diagnostic program to wipe the drive. A quick erase/wipe would be fine.

Since the copy creates a 4TB image, you just need one iteration of the mfsadd/mfsaddfix. You can use 2040 parameter for the mfsadd command.

Are you on TE3 or TE4?

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## Herb EN

I am running TE4. I am just going to run the "mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" and then run
*"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb"
"mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"

as you have instructed.*

If MFSTools is writing an image it should overwrite everything that previously been written. Correct me if I am wrong

What difference does the TE4 vs TE3 version make?
Thanks for all your help.


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> I am running TE4. I am just going to run the "mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" and then run
> *"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb"
> "mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"
> 
> as you have instructed.*
> 
> If MFSTools is writing an image it should overwrite everything that previously been written. Correct me if I am wrong
> 
> What difference does the TE4 vs TE3 version make?
> Thanks for all your help.


It should overwrite the drive. It is always better to erase it first.

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----------



## Herb EN

jmbach said:


> It should overwrite the drive. It is always better to erase it first.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Hi again jmbach,
Ok, so I ran, without cleaning the 4TB drive,
"mfstools -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb"
*"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb"
"mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"*

I then put the drive back in the Bolt TE4, and got this death screen









So, I then "cleaned" the 6TB drive using "diskpart"
Ran
"mfstools -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" again (sda being the original 1TB drive)
Re-installed the newly copied 6TB drive in the Bolt TE4 and all is well except, as expected, only 4TB storage shows up on the Bolt TE4.
Now I want to add the next 2TB partition.
Since I ran the *"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb" *last time and got the red death screen, should I run
"*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*" followed by"msfaddfix"
instead or try the 2040 again? What is the difference, or is too technical which I get.


----------



## Herb EN

further to my above post, with the 6TB drive (without runing the "mfsadd...") the Bolt TE4 says capacity is 701 HD, with the original 1TB drive it was 156 HD. 701 HD is more than 4 times as much but less than 6 times as much. I presume there it would not be exact as there is overhead data on the original drive which does not expand. What is the expected capacity with a 6TB drive?


----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> Hi again jmbach,
> Ok, so I ran, without cleaning the 4TB drive,
> "mfstools -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb"
> *"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb"
> "mfsaddfix /dev/sdb"*
> 
> I then put the drive back in the Bolt TE4, and got this death screen
> View attachment 52560
> 
> 
> So, I then "cleaned" the 6TB drive using "diskpart"
> Ran
> "mfstools -am 2040 /dev/sda /dev/sdb" again (sda being the original 1TB drive)
> Re-installed the newly copied 6TB drive in the Bolt TE4 and all is well except, as expected, only 4TB storage shows up on the Bolt TE4.
> Now I want to add the next 2TB partition.
> Since I ran the *"mfsadd -xm 2040 /dev/sdb" *last time and got the red death screen, should I run
> "*mfsadd -xm 2000 /dev/sdb*" followed by"msfaddfix"
> instead or try the 2040 again? What is the difference, or is too technical which I get.


I have on occasions got the Red screen of death. So far, every time I got one, a Kickstart 58 fixes it.

Since you are doing 6 TB, you can run mfsadd -x /dev/sdb and not use the m 2040 or the m 2000 flags.

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----------



## jmbach

Herb EN said:


> further to my above post, with the 6TB drive (without runing the "mfsadd...") the Bolt TE4 says capacity is 701 HD, with the original 1TB drive it was 156 HD. 701 HD is more than 4 times as much but less than 6 times as much. I presume there it would not be exact as there is overhead data on the original drive which does not expand. What is the expected capacity with a 6TB drive?


So when you use m 2040, it will create recording partitions that are larger than what would be created on a normal 4TB drive but still respects the 32 bit limit of the partition size ( which is 4294967295 blocks per partition).


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## Herb EN

jmbach said:


> I have on occasions got the Red screen of death. So far, every time I got one, a Kickstart 58 fixes it.
> 
> Since you are doing 6 TB, you can run mfsadd -x /dev/sdb and not use the m 2040 or the m 2000 flags.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I cannot thank you enough, jmbach! used the"mfsadd -x /dev/sdb" and "mfsaddfix /dev/sdb" and all is UP AND RUNNING! Went from 90% full on the 1TB drive to 15% on the 6TB as is expected.

Also, looked up the Kickstart codes since you mentioned "Kickstart 58," something I was unaware of. Interesting. Hope I never need to use them. Never want to see that Red screen of death. Scared me!

I will now transfer everything to the Bolt, retire my Roamio (save it for someday when Bolt actually dies), and pay only one service fee. My wife also hated switching between boxes, even with an IR remote HDMI switch.
Stay well, and thanks again Herb EN


----------



## aaronwt

Anyone know how get the vhd file to work? I can attach it in the Disc management section but then I see no way to assign a drive letter to it. That is grayed out.

I Might have to try and go old school and try using the bootable flash drive method or worse use the CD ISO. With an old machine I have from 2009.


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## ThAbtO

You need to use DVRBars to restore this backup file.


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## jmbach

aaronwt said:


> Anyone know how get the vhd file to work? I can attach it in the Disc management section but then I see no way to assign a drive letter to it. That is grayed out.
> 
> I Might have to try and go old school and try using the bootable flash drive method or worse use the CD ISO. With an old machine I have from 2009.


The VHD file of MFSTools needs to be attached to a windows virtual machine like Hyper-V and ran. It does not get attached to Windows itself.

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## aaronwt

I'm copying my 1TB Bolt Drive to a 2TB Toshiba drive right now.
I guess it's going to take seven or eight hours?

I ended up going with the bootable USB flash drive method. I realized I only had one desktop machine with Windows Pro on it for Hyper-V. A 2013 HP machine that I only use for my email. And I am not familiar with using VMs.

I did have to use *bootsectorfix *to get to work with the TiVo drive.
I had to use one of my old unRAID machines from 2011 for the bootable flash drive to work. I could not get it to work with the old 2013 Dell machine I have. And I did not want to use any of my newer, 2018 Dell machines with it.


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## aaronwt

Sweet!!! It automatically expanded the Toshiba MQ03ABB200 drive to use the 2TB. Everything came back up fine with Bolt. All the settings and recordings are still in place. And the cable card is still paired.
Thanks!!


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## gsutkin

I have been reading this thread and the 10 TB Roamio thread and have an initial question before I start:
Can I clone a drive from my 4-blinking-lights Bolt drive, or is it unusable? In other words, is it possible I can still access and clone the bad drive?


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> I have been reading this thread and the 10 TB Roamio thread and have an initial question before I start:
> Can I clone a drive from my 4-blinking-lights Bolt drive, or is it unusable? In other words, is it possible I can still access and clone the bad drive?


You don't know until you try. However if you have already had that bolt format a new drive, you have lost access to the recordings on that drive.

What size is the drive in question?

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## gsutkin

The potentially bad drive is an original 3TB drive from a Bolt+ I purchased new in 2017. I wish I had copied it when it was still working.

My goal is to copy it to a new WD Purple 8TB drive.

I need a way to access the drives. Will this work to connect to my laptop? It's a Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...p/B0759567JT/ref=psdc_160354011_t1_B07WS59SP4


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> The potentially bad drive is an original 3TB drive from a Bolt+ I purchased new in 2017. I wish I had copied it when it was still working.
> 
> My goal is to copy it to a new WD Purple 8TB drive.
> 
> I need a way to access the drives. Will this work to connect to my laptop? It's a Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station:
> https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...p/B0759567JT/ref=psdc_160354011_t1_B07WS59SP4


That should work just fine.

I recommend that you first copy it to a spare drive that is 3TB or more. I would first try to use the cloning feature of the dock. If it clones successfully, then boot that drive in your Bolt. Make sure you can see your shows and it connects to the TiVo servers successfully. If it does, then use that drive to copy to your 8 TB drive.

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## gsutkin

can I copy it to the new 8TB drive and boot that in the Bolt? or does it need to be copied first to a separate (>3TB) drive?


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> can I copy it to the new 8TB drive and boot that in the Bolt? or does it need to be copied first to a separate (>3TB) drive?


You can. It is just my preference to use temporary drives to try to recover drives with bad spots. If cloning does not work, then you will need to use ddrescue to try to save the information on the drive.

I would run the 8 TB through a diagnostic read-write-read before doing any copying to it.

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## gsutkin

Is the diagnostic read and write tool in windows?


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## jmbach

Get it from the drive manufacturer website. 

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## V7Goose

gsutkin said:


> I have been reading this thread and the 10 TB Roamio thread and have an initial question before I start:
> Can I clone a drive from my 4-blinking-lights Bolt drive, or is it unusable? In other words, is it possible I can still access and clone the bad drive?


 As jmbach already responded, there IS a possibility that your drive might still be readable by a computer, even after the TiVo rejected it - this has actually been fairly common with the Bolt. No way to know without trying it. I was able to save programs from a bad 3TB drive using ddrescue to clone the drive.

But I wanted to add emphasis to something else that jmbach told you - you MUST NOT let your Bolt boot with ANY OTHER DRIVE except a clone or MFScopy of the original one, or else all content on that original drive will be lost, even if your PC can read it. This means that you cannot just test another drive in the dead Bolt to see if it will work, and THEN try to copy the bad drive - too late.

I also agree with the suggestion to first clone the old drive to an intermediate temporary drive to test - just safer to not keep trying to read anything from the "bad" drive any longer than necessary, since a failing drive can quickly go from damaged to toast if you keep it running.


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## gsutkin

I have started the cloning process: from my bad Bolt+ drive to a new WD30EFAX. For the offline cloning I am using a Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA dual bay hard drive docking station.









am I correct that the goal of the cloning process is to copy the good sectors onto a drive that will work when attached to the bolt?


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## V7Goose

You are wasting your time - you bought an SMR garbage drive that will not work with a Bolt. Whatever drive you choose, it must NOT be SMR technology. Those drives have appallingly slow sequential write speeds (among other problems). Most SMR drives will not even boot in a Bolt, and of the ones that do work initially, just about all fail relatively quickly.

But otherwise, Yes, the point of cloning the original drive is so that you could plug the new drive directly into the TiVo and it would boot up and find all the old recordings and settings. If it works, then you could use the new clone as the baseline to use for the next attempt to copy data to a larger drive without fear of the old failing drive getting worse while you are working with it.

Your WD30EFAX junk SMR drive might work as a temporary copy of the old drive if your intent is to do an MFScopy to a larger target drive for use with the Bolt. But you may be defeating the whole purpose of trying to clone the drive: if the Bolt fails to boot with that drive because it is SMR instead of having bad content - how will you know?


----------



## jmbach

V7Goose said:


> You are wasting your time - you bought an SMR garbage drive that will not work with a Bolt. Whatever drive you choose, it must NOT be SMR technology. Those drives have appallingly slow sequential write speeds (among other problems). Most SMR drives will not even boot in a Bolt, and of the ones that do work initially, just about all fail relatively quickly.
> 
> But otherwise, Yes, the point of cloning the original drive is so that you could plug the new drive directly into the TiVo and it would boot up and find all the old recordings and settings. If it works, then you could use the new clone as the baseline to use for the next attempt to copy data to a larger drive without fear of the old failing drive getting worse while you are working with it.
> 
> Your WD30EFAX junk SMR drive might work as a temporary copy of the old drive if your intent is to do an MFScopy to a larger target drive for use with the Bolt. But you may be defeating the whole purpose of trying to clone the drive: if the Bolt fails to boot with that drive because it is SMR instead of having bad content - how will you know?


I think from a previous post he is planning to us an 8 TB drive. I believe he is using this as a temporary drive for which this should be just fine.

I would add that I hope he ran the 3 TB drive through a diagnostic read and write to shake out any potential bad spots before using.

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## V7Goose

I am assuming that anyone who clones a TiVo drive is going to want to test it by booting the TiVo with it to see if it is a good usable copy. And as I said at the end of my first post - if the Bolt does not boot because it will not accept an SMR drive, how will he ever know if the clone is actually a good usable copy or not?


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## jmbach

V7Goose said:


> I am assuming that anyone who clones a TiVo drive is going to want to test it by booting the TiVo with it to see if it is a good usable copy. And as I said at the end of my first post - if the Bolt does not boot because it will not accept an SMR drive, how will he ever know if the clone is actually a good usable copy or not?


Testing the drive should be fine. SMR drives are problematic in the long term. Short term testing is okay.

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## dougdingle

V7Goose said:


> You are wasting your time - you bought an SMR garbage drive that will not work with a Bolt. Whatever drive you choose, it must NOT be SMR technology. Those drives have appallingly slow sequential write speeds (among other problems). Most SMR drives will not even boot in a Bolt, and of the ones that do work initially, just about all fail relatively quickly.
> 
> But otherwise, Yes, the point of cloning the original drive is so that you could plug the new drive directly into the TiVo and it would boot up and find all the old recordings and settings. If it works, then you could use the new clone as the baseline to use for the next attempt to copy data to a larger drive without fear of the old failing drive getting worse while you are working with it.
> 
> Your WD30EFAX junk SMR drive might work as a temporary copy of the old drive if your intent is to do an MFScopy to a larger target drive for use with the Bolt. But you may be defeating the whole purpose of trying to clone the drive: if the Bolt fails to boot with that drive because it is SMR instead of having bad content - how will you know?


A bit harshly worded, but generally correct. For some unknown reason, WD decided to split their two best RED models into three. Previously, there was a RED drive at 5400 RPM, and a RED PRO drive at 7200 RPM. Both were excellent drives for NAS and RAID use because they used CMR technology. The plain RED line was more than sufficient for TiVo use - fast, quiet, ran cool, rated for 24/7. The RED PRO was for, well, faster access professional use.

Then they switched the RED line to SMR, and their reviews on many retail sites justifiably went into the toilet. So they quickly introduced the RED PLUS line which once again used 5400 RPM CMR recording technology. It's pretty much the old RED line with a new name and label on the drive. That's the series you want for use in a TiVo or NAS or RAID setup.


----------



## gsutkin

Thanks. I’m hoping jmbach is correct and I can use this WD30EFAX as a temporary drive to test in the TiVo and copy to the larger purple drive. If it doesn’t boot in the TiVo, then I will exchange it for a red plus drive and clone again. 

Btw, cloning has been going for 18 hours now, and is not complete (the 4th blue LED light has been flashing since this morning). I need to be patient, right?


----------



## gsutkin

Update: cloning still not complete this morning (after 32 hours). what is the next step to recover the bolt drive? ddrescue?


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Update: cloning still not complete this morning (after 32 hours). what is the next step to recover the bolt drive? ddrescue?


ddrescue is the next step. The clone got stuck at a bad spot.

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## gsutkin

This youtube tutorial recommends using Ubuntu (made bootable by Rufus) to perform ddrescue:





Is that what you would recommend?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> This youtube tutorial recommends using Ubuntu (made bootable by Rufus) to perform ddrescue:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Is that what you would recommend?


That would be fine.


----------



## gsutkin

What am I doing wrong with Ubuntu? I used Linux Live to create a USB boot drive. I used the recommended Ubuntu Iso file. Chose 500 MB of persistence. (My USB key is 8gb) but it won't fully boot. Here is a screenshot:








thanks for any help!


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> What am I doing wrong with Ubuntu? I used Linux Live to create a USB boot drive. I used the recommended Ubuntu Iso file. Chose 500 MB of persistence. (My USB key is 8gb) but it won't fully boot. Here is a screenshot:
> View attachment 54256
> 
> thanks for any help!


It looks like it does not like your ethernet port. Can it be disabled?

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## gsutkin

Thanks. I did that and rebooted from the USB drive. It gave me a quick "Welcome to Ubuntu" and then showed me this screen







Should I try running Linux Live in Windows?


----------



## gsutkin

One other thought: when I reboot, I hit F12 on my Dell and get this screen and select "Legacy Boot: USB storage device" but I also have my Bolt+ WD 3TB drive connected by USB. Should I disconnect that?
Thanks again jmbach


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> One other thought: when I reboot, I hit F12 on my Dell and get this screen and select "Legacy Boot: USB storage device" but I also have my Bolt+ WD 3TB drive connected by USB. Should I disconnect that?
> Thanks again jmbach
> View attachment 54260


That may work. What co.puter are you booting this on. Try creating a USB using this method. Create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu

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## gsutkin

A Dell Latitude E7270, 64-bit OS, Running Windows 10. I'll try that method. Thanks

update: the Ubuntu site is giving me a more recent iso image


----------



## gsutkin

It's running!








Thanks again - I'll post an update soon (2+ days according to ddrescue)


----------



## tommage1

gsutkin said:


> Thanks again - I'll post an update soon (2+ days according to ddrescue)


So did the enclosure arrive? You could probably test the upgrade to the 6TB or 8TB with fresh install. Just put the Purple in the enclosure, connect everything up and let the Bolt format it. When it gets to guided setup shut down the Bolt, pull the drive, then run MFSR on it on computer. Put drive back in enclosure and see how it went. Keep in mind when powering up/down using external enclosure, when powering up turn on enclosure/drive first. Then power up Bolt. When powering down just the opposite, power down Bolt first and unplug. Then power down enclosure.

OOPS, if you are going to try to save those recordings using the DDrescue DO NOT test the new drive (the purple) in the Bolt first. If you do as others have mentioned you will lose access to those recordings you are trying to recover. So I guess just continue as you are doing. If the rescue does not work can just start fresh with the external/purple.


----------



## gsutkin

Thanks Tommage1. Currently Ubuntu/ddrescue is placing the image on a WD My Passport external drive. My plan is to transfer that image to the WD30EFAX internal drive, then test boot that using the new enclosure connected to the Bolt. I am keeping in mind V7goose’s warning that the WD30EFAX may not boot in the bolt, and I will have to try again with a different spare drive. 

question: how do I move the image created by ddrescue to the WD30EFAX? Is it just a drag and drop? Or do I need to use MSCopy?Can I assume since my old bolt drive is 3TB, so will be the image? should I have asked ddrescue to create the image directly on the WD30EFAX?

thanks! 

Btw, ddrescue is currently 13.8% through the Bolt drive. So far no bad areas.


----------



## tommage1

gsutkin said:


> Thanks Tommage1. Currently Ubuntu/ddrescue is placing the image on a WD My Passport external drive. My plan is to transfer that image to the WD30EFAX internal drive, then test boot that using the new enclosure connected to the Bolt. I am keeping in mind V7goose's warning that the WD30EFAX may not boot in the bolt, and I will have to try again with a different spare drive.
> 
> question: how do I move the image created by ddrescue to the WD30EFAX? Is it just a drag and drop? Or do I need to use MSCopy?Can I assume since my old bolt drive is 3TB, so will be the image? should I have asked ddrescue to create the image directly on the WD30EFAX?
> 
> thanks!
> 
> Btw, ddrescue is currently 13.8% through the Bolt drive. So far no bad areas.


I'll leave the answer to transferring the image to the 3TB to the experts as I have never done it. I will say this though, is it possible for you to return/exchange the WD30EFAX for a WD30EFRX? The SMR EFAX MAY boot for you since you are running TE3. But definitely would be better to have the EFRX. Even if your test does work out, still might want to exchange the EFAX if possible once you are up and running with the Purple. Good luck with the rescue.


----------



## gsutkin

tommage1 said:


> I'll leave the answer to transferring the image to the 3TB to the experts as I have never done it. I will say this though, is it possible for you to return/exchange the WD30EFAX for a WD30EFRX? The SMR EFAX MAY boot for you since you are running TE3. But definitely would be better to have the EFRX. Even if your test does work out, still might want to exchange the EFAX if possible once you are up and running with the Purple. Good luck with the rescue.


ok. I ordered the WD30EFRX and will use that one instead of the EFAX


----------



## gsutkin

I returned to my computer after a few more hours and saw this message: "initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed"

I don't seem to be in Ubuntu any more - the rest of the screen is just black. But it sounds like the Bolt disc is still spinning.

A qucik google search revelas that this is a known Ubuntu bug: 
Bug #1835660 "initramfs unpacking failed" : Bugs : linux package : Ubuntu

Has ddrescue stopped? Should I reboot?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> I returned to my computer after a few more hours and saw this message: "initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed"
> 
> I don't seem to be in Ubuntu any more - the rest of the screen is just black. But it sounds like the Bolt disc is still spinning.
> 
> A qucik google search revelas that this is a known Ubuntu bug:
> Bug #1835660 "initramfs unpacking failed" : Bugs : linux package : Ubuntu
> 
> Has ddrescue stopped? Should I reboot?


I do not know. It seems from your bug report you found, it should be okay. You just do not know how far in the process you are in and when it will end.
You can try pressing the shift key or even the return key to see if the screen comes back.


----------



## gsutkin

I could not get the screen to come back, and the Bolt HD did not seem to be spinning, so I rebooted into windows. Here is the log:









Could the problem be the external drive I'm using to store the image? I ran benchmark on it:








would my results be different if I ran ddrescue storing the image on the WD30EFAX?

thanks again.


----------



## dougdingle

The benchmarks indicate you're running a USB3 drive on a USB2 port, hence the poor performance. Do you have a USB3 port on that machine?

Operations can time out if the destination drive is too slow.


----------



## gsutkin

Yes I do! I will do that and rerun ddrescue


----------



## gsutkin

17% into ddrescue over USB 3.0. Should I be concerned that the average rate hasn't increased?


----------



## dougdingle

gsutkin said:


> 17% into ddrescue over USB 3.0. Should I be concerned that the average rate hasn't increased?
> View attachment 54330


I don't know. As long as it's moving forward, I'd let it continue. Keep in mind that the program works by issuing multiple retries on questionable (or bad) sectors, and time to completion will be far longer than a straight clone copy.


----------



## gsutkin

ddrescue is at 90% this morning after 60 hours. Interesting: no errors so far

Once it is complete, how do I move the image created by ddrescue to the WD30EFRX? It will be approx 3TB. Do I use MSCopy? Should I have asked ddrescue to create the image directly on the WD30EFRX?

(Add: I have looked through this thread and DIY 10TB Roamio but can' find an answer)


----------



## jmbach

What you have created is a file that is an image of the drive. (while I am thinking about this, I hope the drive you are copying it to is larger than 3 TB because there might not be enough room on the drive as the file space takes up some room on the drive which might not give enough room for a 3 TB image and the file space to exist)

You can use ddrescue again or just plain dd to copy the image to your final drive.


----------



## gsutkin

jmbach said:


> What you have created is a file that is an image of the drive. (while I am thinking about this, I hope the drive you are copying it to is larger than 3 TB because there might not be enough room on the drive as the file space takes up some room on the drive which might not give enough room for a 3 TB image and the file space to exist)
> 
> You can use ddrescue again or just plain dd to copy the image to your final drive.


If I use dd, can I do it through a windows command prompt, or do I need to use Ubuntu again?

And is the command dd dev/sda dev/sdb?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> If I use dd, can I do it through a windows command prompt, or do I need to use Ubuntu again?
> 
> And is the command dd dev/sda dev/sdb?


Actually there is a windows program from hddguru called hdd raw copy tool that will do that.

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## gsutkin

After that, do I need to restore the image. Something like mfsrestore?


----------



## gsutkin

Can I get your advice on how to respond to ddrescue? What is an unaligned read error?


----------



## gsutkin

I logged out of UBuntu, opened windows and started HDD Raw Copy, copying the HDD image from the external USB drive to the new WD30EFRX.








At this rate should be finished in about 42 hours


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> I logged out of UBuntu, opened windows and started HDD Raw Copy, copying the HDD image from the external USB drive to the new WD30EFRX.
> View attachment 54495
> 
> At this rate should be finished in about 42 hours


You are copying drive to drive. You need to copy from file to drive.

I am not sure about the error you got with ddrescue.

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## gsutkin

Once it's done, do I need to do anything to the WD30EFRX, or can I plug it in to the Bolt?

btw, I caught that last night:


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Once it's done, do I need to do anything to the WD30EFRX, or can I plug it in to the Bolt?
> 
> btw, I caught that last night:
> View attachment 54500


Once copied, I would run mfsinfo on it to make sure it can be recognized and if so, then boot it in the bolt.

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## gsutkin

I am having trouble completing HDD Raw Copy - it freezes partway through the copy. Could it have something to do with the program listing the new WD30EFRX (K drive, in Sabrent enclosure) as only 375GB capacity?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> I am having trouble completing HDD Raw Copy - it freezes partway through the copy. Could it have something to do with the program listing the new WD30EFRX (K drive, in Sabrent enclosure) as only 375GB capacity?
> View attachment 54586


I believe so. Are you running hdd raw copy with admin privileges?

Might try powering down the computer and the sabrent. Power up the Sabrina, then the computer.

It is connected via eSata?

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## gsutkin

Yes for admin privileges 
The drive is connected by USB3.0

I restarted in the order you suggested. One thing I note is every time I connect the WD30EFRX, Windows Disk Manager asks me to initialize and format it, even though I've done that before 








could there be something wrong with the new drive?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Yes for admin privileges
> The drive is connected by USB3.0
> 
> I restarted in the order you suggested. One thing I note is every time I connect the WD30EFRX, Windows Disk Manager asks me to initialize and format it, even though I've done that before
> View attachment 54606
> 
> could there be something wrong with the new drive?


Never let windows initialize a TiVo drive. It will lose everything.

If you have, then you will need to copy it over.

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## gsutkin

jmbach said:


> Never let windows initialize a TiVo drive. It will lose everything.
> 
> If you have, then you will need to copy it over.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I let windows initialize the blank target drive: the one I will test in the Bolt after copying the image. Is that ok, or should I use another method to initialize it?


----------



## ThAbtO

No, it shouldn't be initialized.


----------



## gsutkin

ThAbtO said:


> No, it shouldn't be initialized.


So use it as an unallocated drive?
Is there a way to un-initialize it?


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## ThAbtO

Tivo has their own formats, allocations, etc.


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## dougdingle

gsutkin said:


> So use it as an unallocated drive?
> Is there a way to un-initialize it?


All TiVo drives need to look like they've never been initialized by Windows. This has been the case from the very beginning.

In the past, I have corrected the same mistake I made as you did by running the WD Disk Diagnostic program (available on the WD site) on the drive and selecting Erase from the Test Menu. It takes a long time to run, but I found that if I interrupted (cancelled) it about 10 minutes in, Windows stopped believing the drive was initialized (offering to initialize it again), and then I could use it in a TiVo.


----------



## jmbach

My concern in all of this is that if your Bolt went through guided setup with the new drive, it is likely all the recordings are lost because the Bolt erased the database that holds the information to where the recordings are located on the drive. (That database is in flash memory])

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## gsutkin

Am I still on my way to rescuing my recordings? I rebooted and Windows Disc Management sees the WD30EFRX as unallocated. So I restarted HDD Raw Copy. When I plug it into the Bolt, it will be the first time the Bolt sees a new drive (with the ddrescued image). In other words, it has not gone through guided setup since the 4 flashing lights.








Still strange that HDD Raw Copy sees the WD30EFRX as only 375GB.


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Am I still on my way to rescuing my recordings? I rebooted and Windows Disc Management sees the WD30EFRX as unallocated. So I restarted HDD Raw Copy. When I plug it into the Bolt, it will be the first time the Bolt sees a new drive (with the ddrescued image). In other words, it has not gone through guided setup since the 4 flashing lights.
> View attachment 54648
> 
> Still strange that HDD Raw Copy sees the WD30EFRX as only 375GB.


As long as the unit did not reformat a drive, you should be okay.

You might need to connect the drive differently for his raw copy to see the whole drive. It may not copy correctly otherwise. I would consider erasing the whole drive with wd diagnostic to see if the program detects the whole drive. Wondering of there is an HPA or DCO on the drive. I doubt it, but it is odd that hdd raw copy does not see the whole drive.

Otherwise might need tobus dd in Linux

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## gsutkin

Should I try plugging in the new drive (after HDD Raw Copy finishes copying the full image) into the Bolt to see if it will boot, before erasing the whole drive and starting again?


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Should I try plugging in the new drive (after HDD Raw Copy finishes copying the full image) into the Bolt to see if it will boot, before erasing the whole drive and starting again?


If hdd raw copy copies the whole image to the drive, run mfsinfo on the drive to make sure it can be recognized before putting in the bolt.

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## ThAbtO

It will not see the entire 3TB as you never expanded it. You should make sure its boots up prior to expanding it with MFSTools.


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## gsutkin

jmbach said:


> If hdd raw copy copies the whole image to the drive, run mfsinfo on the drive to make sure it can be recognized before putting in the bolt.


For msfinfo I will use Ubuntu on the USB boot drive and the MFSTOOLS image MFSTools 3.32-devel USB/HD from Post 131.
How do I boot into MFSTOOLS? I know this should be obvious, and I have read through this and other threads and done google searches, but I need some help. Thanks


----------



## gsutkin

Help! I am in Ubuntu, but I can’t figure out how to start MFSTools. I tried accessing the folder I had unpacked in windows. I tried searching for it in Software & Updates. What am I missing?

HDD Raw Copy ran successfully, and I want to run MSINFO. 
Thanks


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Help! I am in Ubuntu, but I can't figure out how to start MFSTools. I tried accessing the folder I had unpacked in windows. I tried searching for it in Software & Updates. What am I missing?
> 
> HDD Raw Copy ran successfully, and I want to run MSINFO.
> Thanks


Ideally, you boot the mfstools iso directly. Otherwise you will need to extract the executables from the iso to your Ubuntu installation.

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## gsutkin

How do I boot directly from an iso? I tried VM virtual box. I see a YouTube tutorial that uses RMPrepUSB. My apologies - I'm sure this step is obvious to most.


----------



## ThAbtO

One way is to burn a DVD/CD and then boot from it, instead of from the hard drive, it would be set in the BIOS. as "First boot" would seek from the device set and when that fails, it rotates to the next drive.


----------



## gsutkin

I burned the image to a DVD and booted from it, but I am not asked for a username & Password (root & TiVo). When I boot, I get this:








When I choose the top line, it ends up:








When I choose the 2nd option, it says I have a bad USB cable - to the DVD drive?


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## gsutkin

I figured out what I was doing wrong: my Dell laptop was connected to a docking station. Once I disconnected and hooked the DVD drive directly to the laptop, mfstool booted up. Very exciting!


----------



## gsutkin

Jmbach, here is mfsinfo on the WD30EFRX. Am I ready to connect it to the Bolt+? (Reminder: it contains an image, copied from an external drive using HDD Raw Copy. That image was made from the original Bolt+ WD30NPRZ using ddrescue)


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Jmbach, here is mfsinfo on the WD30EFRX. Am I ready to connect it to the Bolt+? (Reminder: it contains an image, copied from an external drive using HDD Raw Copy. That image was made from the original Bolt+ WD30NPRZ using ddrescue)
> 
> View attachment 54714


Yes.

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## gsutkin

I just have to wait for the Sabrent enclosure to arrive. I ordered it 2 weeks ago, USPS says still in transit. I ordered another one just in case.

Thanks, JMBach and Tommage1 and others for all of your help. I'll let you know what happens with the WD30EFRX in the Bolt +.


----------



## dougdingle

gsutkin said:


> I just have to wait for the Sabrent enclosure to arrive. I ordered it 2 weeks ago, USPS says still in transit. I ordered another one just in case.
> 
> Thanks, JMBach and Tommage1 and others for all of your help. I'll let you know what happens with the WD30EFRX in the Bolt +.


You did great, sticking with it despite the numerous obstacles. Hope it finally boots in your Bolt+ with all your shows intact.

TiVo does not make things easy for tinkerers, although the various tools available do work far better (and faster) when the source and target drives are all able to connect to real SATA ports in the machine booting the Linux tools instead of USB. In the past when I've done these procedures, I used an old mothballed machine where I disconnected the Windows boot drive and booted the tools from a CD. With only the source and target drives connected to the motherboard's SATA ports, things went somewhat more smoothly than your experience.


----------



## gsutkin

jmbach, you once recommended performing a diagnostic read/write/read on new drives. Is this an example?
Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows
Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support


----------



## dougdingle

gsutkin said:


> jmbach, you once recommended performing a diagnostic read/write/read on new drives. Is this an example?
> Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows
> Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support


That's the one I use here.

I let the drive run for about 15 minutes to warm up, then I run the Short Test (about 2 minutes), and if that passes without issue, I run the Extended Test to completion.

On a 3TB drive, the Extended Test can take 7-9 hours in my USB3 dock. If that comes back with no errors, I deploy the drive.


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> jmbach, you once recommended performing a diagnostic read/write/read on new drives. Is this an example?
> Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows
> Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support


That is what I use for my WD drives.

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## gsutkin

Hooray! The WD30EFRX went into the Sabrent enclosure. Power. SATA connection. Boom: able to see all of my recordings, todo list, settings etc from the failed Bolt+ drive. Thank you everyone for your help. 

one question: when I ran KS58, it only took about 5 seconds. (5 seconds of alternating amber and green lights), then it booted up. Is that ok? Shouldn’t it have taken longer?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Hooray! The WD30EFRX went into the Sabrent enclosure. Power. SATA connection. Boom: able to see all of my recordings, todo list, settings etc from the failed Bolt+ drive. Thank you everyone for your help.
> 
> one question: when I ran KS58, it only took about 5 seconds. (5 seconds of alternating amber and green lights), then it booted up. Is that ok? Shouldn't it have taken longer?


Not if it does not find anything

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## gsutkin

Now I'm running WD DLGDIAG for Windows on the Purple 6TB drive. Should take about 10 hours. (it passed the quick test)

Next I will:

Run lsblk -o name,size,vendor
in MFSTOOLS to identify sdX and sdY

Run mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY and wait for 3 TB of data to copy from 3TB to the 6TB HDD

put the 6 TB drive into the TiVo, run KS58

Let it boot up, connect etc.

Then I need to only run mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sdY once, right?

Is that correct?


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Now I'm running WD DLGDIAG for Windows on the Purple 6TB drive. Should take about 10 hours. (it passed the quick test)
> 
> Next I will:
> 
> Run lsblk -o name,size,vendor
> in MFSTOOLS to identify sdX and sdY
> 
> Run mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY and wait for 3 TB of data to copy from 3TB to the 6TB HDD
> 
> put the 6 TB drive into the TiVo, run KS58
> 
> Let it boot up, connect etc.
> 
> Then I need to only run mfsadd -xcm 2040 /dev/sdY once, right?
> 
> Is that correct?


Yes
Make sure you run mfsaddfix as well

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----------



## shaferandrew

Hey all,

I just want to say a big thank you for all of your contributions to this forum and specifically to this thread. Yesterday I was able to upgrade my TiVo Roamio from its 1TB drive to a 3TB drive (a WD green that I bought 5 years ago for this task for $100) with no upgrade problems.
My steps:
1) I downloaded the raw image from the earlier post in this thread (#131?).
2) I used balenaEtcher to burn it to a USB stick.
3) I removed the CD drive and HDD from my PC and attached the 1TB drive and 3TB drive to the SATA connections.
4) I booted the USB stick. (This was slightly tough. I thought my images were bad or burned incorrectly but I needed to shift the BIOS to legacy boot (vs UEFI) to enable the USB stick to boot.)
5) I tried to run mfstools but couldn't find it--I then realized that it is mfstool. (TAB command completion is your friend)
6) I used lsblk to verify the locations of my drives (old on /dev/sda, new on /dev/sdb).
7) I executed "mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb". To transfer 1TB it took 6 hours 40 minutes (roughly 40MB/sec), the listed transfer rate ranged from 33MB/sec to 40MB/sec.
8) I executed "mfstool info /dev/sdb" and everything looked good, it was fully transferred and expanded.
9) I replaced the HDD in the TiVo and it booted properly right away. Full programs, full guide data/passes/schedule/etc, no re-pairing the cable card.
10) I put my computer guts back in and it booted properly too.

The only thing I would do different would be to actually delete my deleted items folder before starting. My drive was only about 75% full but it transferred over all of the deleted items too which means it transferred nearly a full TB.

Thanks!
-Andrew


----------



## dougdingle

shaferandrew said:


> The only thing I would do different would be to actually delete my deleted items folder before starting. My drive was only about 75% full but it transferred over all of the deleted items too which means it transferred nearly a full TB.
> 
> Thanks!
> -Andrew


I don't think that would have made any difference. The software is not aware of 'shows' content as such, and so shows are not transferred as 'shows', the copy is sector by sector from the first one to the last one on the source drive, and an empty sector takes just as much time as a full one.


----------



## gsutkin

mfscopy did not start. What should I do differently?


----------



## gsutkin

Mfsinfo on the source drive:


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> mfscopy did not start. What should I do differently?
> View attachment 54815


You need to run bootsectorfix. Instructions are in the post you downloaded the mfstools image.

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## gsutkin

Thank you. It identified partition 3 as the booting partition. mfscopy now running. I estimate about 5.5 hours to transfer 2.7TB


----------



## gsutkin

What is little endian computer? 

Found more than I could understand! 
Endianness - Wikipedia

also, I was too optimistic in my calculations. 15 hours.


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> What is little endian computer?
> 
> Found more than I could understand!
> Endianness - Wikipedia
> 
> also, I was too optimistic in my calculations. 15 hours.


Or for lighter reading Lilliput and Blefuscu - Wikipedia


----------



## V7Goose

shaferandrew said:


> Yesterday I was able to upgrade my TiVo Roamio from its 1TB drive to a 3TB drive (a WD green that I bought 5 years ago for this task for $100) with no upgrade problems.


I did not see where you ran wdidle to change the default idle time - this was a problem with old WD Green drives in a DVR - the default short idle time puts a lot of wear and tear on the drive that is in constant use. Look for older threads for more info (since the Green drives have been out of production for so long). This is not an issue with Red or Purple drives.


----------



## shaferandrew

V7Goose said:


> I did not see where you ran wdidle to change the default idle time - this was a problem with old WD Green drives in a DVR - the default short idle time puts a lot of wear and tear on the drive that is in constant use. Look for older threads for more info (since the Green drives have been out of production for so long). This is not an issue with Red or Purple drives.


Doh. I have not run wdidle. I have been researching it just now and I have prepared my resources (I have a bootable USB stick with UBCD). My drive is the "WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache - WD30EURS" purchased Nov 2015. My initial research has seen some indication that the AV-GP drives are not affected? Unless anyone knows otherwise, I will plan on pulling it this weekend to run wdidle and I will check the SMART status.


----------



## ggieseke

shaferandrew said:


> Doh. I have not run wdidle. I have been researching it just now and I have prepared my resources (I have a bootable USB stick with UBCD). My drive is the "WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache - WD30EURS" purchased Nov 2015. My initial research has seen some indication that the AV-GP drives are not affected? Unless anyone knows otherwise, I will plan on pulling it this weekend to run wdidle and I will check the SMART status.


EURS drives are not affected.


----------



## V7Goose

ggieseke said:


> EURS drives are not affected.


Well, I have no desire to argue, and I certainly do not remember details for specific drive models from way back, but I DID find information posted recently by another member that the EURS drives DID have intelipark issues. That doesn't say he is right, just that there is a different opinion.

I have used both EARS and EURS Green drives. I know for a fact that the most recent old EARS drive that I took off the shelf and installed DID have the problem, but I have not checked my notes from the last EURS drive I used (more than 10 years ago).

So I strongly advise that anyone using any old WD Green drive still test it with WDIDLE3 to see how it is set. You have nothing to loose.


----------



## gsutkin

Good news: mfscopy did well, copying 3TB in 15.5 hours. The WD60PURZ booted (ks58 again lasted only a few seconds), the TiVo connected, everything is running well. I think I’ll watch this for another day before expanding with mfsadd and msaddfix.

Recording capacity at this moment is 699 HD hours. I didn’t check what it was in the 3TB drive, but my other 3TB bolt is 478, and my 6TB Roamio is 959.

thanks to everyone!

I should add: I had to re-pair the cable card to the TA. I am Spectrum in KC and was lucky to get a cable card specialist in Buffalo on the phone to help me


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Good news: mfscopy did well, copying 3TB in 15.5 hours. The WD60PURZ booted (ks58 again lasted only a few seconds), the TiVo connected, everything is running well. I think I'll watch this for another day before expanding with mfsadd and msaddfix.
> 
> Recording capacity at this moment is 699 HD hours. I didn't check what it was in the 3TB drive, but my other 3TB bolt is 478, and my 6TB Roamio is 959.
> 
> thanks to everyone!
> 
> I should add: I had to re-pair the cable card to the TA. I am Spectrum in KC and was lucky to get a cable card specialist in Buffalo on the phone to help me


Usually cableCARD pairing is intact when copying unless that section somehow got corrupt. Have you tested your recordings.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## tommage1

gsutkin said:


> Good news: mfscopy did well, copying 3TB in 15.5 hours. The WD60PURZ booted (ks58 again lasted only a few seconds), the TiVo connected, everything is running well. I think I'll watch this for another day before expanding with mfsadd and msaddfix.
> 
> Recording capacity at this moment is 699 HD hours. I didn't check what it was in the 3TB drive, but my other 3TB bolt is 478, and my 6TB Roamio is 959.
> 
> thanks to everyone!
> 
> I should add: I had to re-pair the cable card to the TA. I am Spectrum in KC and was lucky to get a cable card specialist in Buffalo on the phone to help me


So did you end up with the drive in the Sabrent enclosure, connected Sata to Sata to the Bolt? I would like to see a picture of how your upgrade ended up. The actual Tivo, enclosure and how they are connected. All sounds great.


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## shaferandrew

ggieseke said:


> EURS drives are not affected.


So today I pulled the drive and learned:
1) While my Amazon order was for a "EURS", the hardware identifier (and sticker) show that it is a EURX drive.
2) I checked the drive with wdidle and found that the idle timer was disabled.
3) My LCC for the drive was only 3 (after being run since Wednesday) -- so it's definitely not parking it.
4) I can open my Tivo, pull the drive, swap it into my PC, do the inspection, and return everything to normal in <25 minutes. 

Thanks all!
-Andrew


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## gsutkin

tommage1 said:


> So did you end up with the drive in the Sabrent enclosure, connected Sata to Sata to the Bolt? I would like to see a picture of how your upgrade ended up. The actual Tivo, enclosure and how they are connected. All sounds great.


Almost there. Just did mfsadd and mfsaddfix, and now have 960 hours of HD. 
Thank you, thank you all!
Here is an initial photo. I'll post more on the TiVo Bolt DVR/streamer thread as I put the covers on


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## tommage1

gsutkin said:


> Almost there. Just did mfsadd and mfsaddfix, and now have 960 hours of HD.
> Thank you, thank you all!
> Here is an initial photo. I'll post more on the TiVo Bolt DVR/streamer thread as I put the covers on
> View attachment 54904


Glad it worked out. Only things I notice is one, when putting the cover back on the enclosure be sure to run cable out the front of the enclosure, not the back. Will keep cable from getting stressed/pinched when cover put on. Also hard to see but I don't see two cables, one coming out of enclosure, one out of Bolt. That connect in the middle so can separate Bolt from enclosure. Maybe I'm not seeing right or maybe you just decided to do slightly differently. Here are pictures of how mine looks. Pretty clean, did not have to cut Bolt case or anything on enclosure.


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## gsutkin

tommage1 said:


> Glad it worked out. Only things I notice is one, when putting the cover back on the enclosure be sure to run cable out the front of the enclosure, not the back. Will keep cable from getting stressed/pinched when cover put on. Also hard to see but I don't see two cables, one coming out of enclosure, one out of Bolt. That connect in the middle so can separate Bolt from enclosure. Maybe I'm not seeing right or maybe you just decided to do slightly differently. Here are pictures of how mine looks. Pretty clean, did not have to cut Bolt case or anything on enclosure.


Very helpful - today I'm going to enclose everything and will follow these pictures for the cords. I think mine is going to mirror yours exactly. I'll take photos.


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## gsutkin

jmbach said:


> Usually cableCARD pairing is intact when copying unless that section somehow got corrupt. Have you tested your recordings.


I too was surprised about the cable card pairing. A couple of other possibilities:

1. Maybe I was impatient while waiting for live TV to work while guide data was uploading (it's been unconnected more than 2 weeks). I booted the Cisco TA and only the network channels were coming in. Spectrum in KC is mostly SDV, and I couldn't view any of them. Plus, the TiVo was asking me to run guided setup (which I didn't do). I called Spectrum and the technician sent a reset to the TA then started the pairing process when our call was dropped (which was maddening, because even when I call the Spectrum Buffalo office that specializes in cable cards, I often get a technician somewhere else who doesn't know anything about CCs). While I was trying to dial back in, the SDV channels started coming in, and I'm unsure if that was because he had enough information to do the pairing without me on the phone, or the TA just needed more time to connect to Spectrum.

2. When I booted the intermediate WD30EFRX, I did so without the cable card. Maybe that had an effect on the booting with the WD60PURZ?

Regardless, recordings I've tested are working well. Makes me wonder where the corruption was. For laughs, I plugged in the original 2.5" drive and got 4 flashing lights. Might use it for a coaster.


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> I too was surprised about the cable card pairing. A couple of other possibilities:
> 
> 1. Maybe I was impatient while waiting for live TV to work while guide data was uploading (it's been unconnected more than 2 weeks). I booted the Cisco TA and only the network channels were coming in. Spectrum in KC is mostly SDV, and I couldn't view any of them. Plus, the TiVo was asking me to run guided setup (which I didn't do). I called Spectrum and the technician sent a reset to the TA then started the pairing process when our call was dropped (which was maddening, because even when I call the Spectrum Buffalo office that specializes in cable cards, I often get a technician somewhere else who doesn't know anything about CCs). While I was trying to dial back in, the SDV channels started coming in, and I'm unsure if that was because he had enough information to do the pairing without me on the phone, or the TA just needed more time to connect to Spectrum.
> 
> 2. When I booted the intermediate WD30EFRX, I did so without the cable card. Maybe that had an effect on the booting with the WD60PURZ?
> 
> Regardless, recordings I've tested are working well. Makes me wonder where the corruption was. For laughs, I plugged in the original 2.5" drive and got 4 flashing lights. Might use it for a coaster.


If you booted the drive without the cableCARD, then you lost the pairing.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## WVZR1

A question - will a Roamio Pro/Plus create 3TB on an 8TB HDD that only needs 'expanded' later using tools? The Roamio has had a 3TB for a few years.

I bought a Bolt VOX on the last 'Summer Sale'. I've no good answer for the why but I did have a 'Lifetime' Premiere and thought it might be a last chance. I've ordered an External Drive housing and I imagine I'll do something maybe 6TB or 8TB with it. I'd probably prefer a sale of it.

I dusted off an older P4 MediaPC and I'll assume that if the OS drive is disconnected and both Tivo HDD are mounted the Tools will do well?


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## ThAbtO

WVZR1 said:


> will a Roamio Pro/Plus create 3TB on an 8TB HDD that only needs 'expanded' later using tools?


Yes.


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## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> A question - will a Roamio Pro/Plus create 3TB on an 8TB HDD that only needs 'expanded' later using tools?


Unless something has changed in the OS of late, the answer is no. The Roamio will format the whole drive and will report something that is much less and not stable to run for the long term. You can copy your current 3 TB to your 8 TB via a cloning dock or you can use MFSTools and have mfscopy copy the 3 TB to a 4 TB image on your 8 TB drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## gsutkin

Jmbach, I am going to expand my other Bolt. It contains a 3TB 2.5" drive that is working well, and I am upgrading to a 10TB WD100PURZ, and wanting to keep my recordings, settings, etc. Do I start with mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY and wait for 3 TB of data to copy to the new 10TB HDD, then expand? Or should I clone to an intermediate 3TB drive (I still have the WD30EFRX)?

Thanks!


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## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Jmbach, I am going to expand my other Bolt. It contains a 3TB 2.5" drive that is working well, and I am upgrading to a 10TB WD100PURZ, and wanting to keep my recordings, settings, etc. Do I start with mfscopy -am 2040 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY and wait for 3 TB of data to copy to the new 10TB HDD, then expand? Or should I clone to an intermediate 3TB drive (I still have the WD30EFRX)?
> 
> Thanks!


The former.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## WVZR1

jmbach said:


> Unless something has changed in the OS of late, the answer is no. The Roamio will format the whole drive and will report something that is much less and not stable to run for the long term. You can copy your current 3 TB to your 8 TB via a cloning dock or you can use MFSTools and have mfscopy copy the 3 TB to a 4 TB image on your 8 TB drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


So this is the more desirable approach to the Roamio - I believe I 'get it'!


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## Jon Kranes

Hi!
I have a Premiere XL 748000 with what seems to be a failing drive. It started when I tried to Clear & Delete Everthing in order to sell or give it away, and it stuck on the C&DE screen. I then tried Kickstart 54 which diagnosed a disk failure. Then ran Kickstart 57 which seemed to get it back to booting into setup. Ran through setup and it seems OK but I still suspect the disk, so I want to replace it.

I just want to run through my plan before I spend money on a new disk:
(1) Run MFSTools (have done this using Virtualbox on my Mac and confirmed I can get it running)
(2) Remove the drive from the TiVo, put it in an enclosure with USB attachment and mount it to the MFSTools VM so it can be seen.
(3) Attach a spare 1TB USB drive to serve as backup
(4) Backup the TiVo drive to the spare drive
(5) Restore the backup to a new 4TB 3.5" WD Red Plus drive that I will buy.
(6) expand the drive (??) to use full 4TB.
(7) Put the new drive in the TiVo and ... hopefully it boots up!

Do I have the process basically right? I wanted to make sure this all seems feasible before I invest in the new drive.

My plan is to then sell the TiVo (with lifetime) to at least cover the cost of the replacement disk. As to why bother doing any of this ... well, I'm just kind of geeky that way and it sounds like a fun project.


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## jmbach

Jon Kranes said:


> Hi!
> I have a Premiere XL 748000 with what seems to be a failing drive. It started when I tried to Clear & Delete Everthing in order to sell or give it away, and it stuck on the C&DE screen. I then tried Kickstart 54 which diagnosed a disk failure. Then ran Kickstart 57 which seemed to get it back to booting into setup. Ran through setup and it seems OK but I still suspect the disk, so I want to replace it.
> 
> I just want to run through my plan before I spend money on a new disk:
> (1) Run MFSTools (have done this using Virtualbox on my Mac and confirmed I can get it running)
> (2) Remove the drive from the TiVo, put it in an enclosure with USB attachment and mount it to the MFSTools VM so it can be seen.
> (3) Attach a spare 1TB USB drive to serve as backup
> (4) Backup the TiVo drive to the spare drive
> (5) Restore the backup to a new 4TB 3.5" WD Red Plus drive that I will buy.
> (6) expand the drive (??) to use full 4TB.
> (7) Put the new drive in the TiVo and ... hopefully it boots up!
> 
> Do I have the process basically right? I wanted to make sure this all seems feasible before I invest in the new drive.
> 
> My plan is to then sell the TiVo (with lifetime) to at least cover the cost of the replacement disk. As to why bother doing any of this ... well, I'm just kind of geeky that way and it sounds like a fun project.


You can. I would use mfscopy if both drives are attached at the same time. However you can just put it in a cloning dock and do it that way.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Jon Kranes

jmbach said:


> You can. I would use mfscopy if both drives are attached at the same time. However you can just put it in a cloning dock and do it that way.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


I only have one SATA enclosure and also have a spare 1 TB USB external drive, hence the reason for using an intermediate drive for backup/restore rather than directly copying from source to target. I suppose could buy a second enclosure to do a direct copy if there is some advantage to this approach, but otherwise I don't mind the time it takes for an extra process step.


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## tommage1

Jon Kranes said:


> Hi!
> I have a Premiere XL 748000 with what seems to be a failing drive. It started when I tried to Clear & Delete Everthing in order to sell or give it away, and it stuck on the C&DE screen. I then tried Kickstart 54 which diagnosed a disk failure. Then ran Kickstart 57 which seemed to get it back to booting into setup. Ran through setup and it seems OK but I still suspect the disk, so I want to replace it.
> 
> I just want to run through my plan before I spend money on a new disk:
> (1) Run MFSTools (have done this using Virtualbox on my Mac and confirmed I can get it running)
> (2) Remove the drive from the TiVo, put it in an enclosure with USB attachment and mount it to the MFSTools VM so it can be seen.
> (3) Attach a spare 1TB USB drive to serve as backup
> (4) Backup the TiVo drive to the spare drive
> (5) Restore the backup to a new 4TB 3.5" WD Red Plus drive that I will buy.
> (6) expand the drive (??) to use full 4TB.
> (7) Put the new drive in the TiVo and ... hopefully it boots up!
> 
> Do I have the process basically right? I wanted to make sure this all seems feasible before I invest in the new drive.
> 
> My plan is to then sell the TiVo (with lifetime) to at least cover the cost of the replacement disk. As to why bother doing any of this ... well, I'm just kind of geeky that way and it sounds like a fun project.


It does sound like fun, something I would do. However I don't think a Premiere will net you nearly enough to cover the cost of a 4TB Red Plus. Maybe buy a cheap 1TB drive (a 1TB Blue 3.5 would do. 3/5 1TB is CMR), even then would be iffy.


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## Jon Kranes

tommage1 said:


> It does sound like fun, something I would do. However I don't think a Premiere will net you nearly enough to cover the cost of a 4TB Red Plus. Maybe buy a cheap 1TB drive (a 1TB Blue 3.5 would do. 3/5 1TB is CMR), even then would be iffy.


Yeah, you might be right on justifying the 4TB. But looking at eBay sales I think $100 with lifetime would be an attractive price. With 2TB it would at least stand above the typical 1TB models for sale.


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## tommage1

Jon Kranes said:


> Yeah, you might be right on justifying the 4TB. But looking at eBay sales I think $100 with lifetime would be an attractive price. With 2TB it would at least stand above the typical 1TB models for sale.


True enough, plus the fun of the project is the main thing  Good luck with it, have fun.


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## WVZR1

I have a TCD746320 and a 1TB removed from my Roamio a very long time ago. Does it make sense to use the 1TB and the TCD746320 as a 'learning tool'? If doing something like this would I solicit a TCD746320 image file that's already been done for a 1TB or just use tools to copy and expand?

I thought it maybe advisable to start with something that I've very little investment to lose.

I've a Bolt 6-tuner and I'll soon have an Enclosure to consider a recent buy of a 8TB Red+ or a different external for it and the 8TB to my Roamio.


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## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> I have a TCD746320 and a 1TB removed from my Roamio a very long time ago. Does it make sense to use the 1TB and the TCD746320 as a 'learning tool'? If doing something like this would I solicit a TCD746320 image file that's already been done for a 1TB or just use tools to copy and expand?
> 
> I thought it maybe advisable to start with something that I've very little investment to lose.
> 
> I've a Bolt 6-tuner and I'll soon have an Enclosure to consider a recent buy of a 8TB Red+ or a different external for it and the 8TB to my Roamio.


It depends on what you want your learning experience to be.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## ggieseke

WVZR1 said:


> I have a TCD746320 and a 1TB removed from my Roamio a very long time ago. Does it make sense to use the 1TB and the TCD746320 as a 'learning tool'? If doing something like this would I solicit a TCD746320 image file that's already been done for a 1TB or just use tools to copy and expand?
> 
> I thought it maybe advisable to start with something that I've very little investment to lose.
> 
> I've a Bolt 6-tuner and I'll soon have an Enclosure to consider a recent buy of a 8TB Red+ or a different external for it and the 8TB to my Roamio.


1TB image sent.


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## WVZR1

It would be good if it were successful. I've sent some content to the Premiere, it connects to Tivo and shows the 'Lifetime' still in tact, it has never had my current CableCARD paired so I'm not concerned about saving anything. It's at 20.7.4b RC43 and last connected 5:49 EST this AM.

@ggieseke - Thank you I walked to the Premiere to confirm, posted, then saw your response. Now I just need to sort the 'How to"


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## njweb

Hopefully someone can figure out what is going on. Having issues booting off the USB version of MFSTools.
Ironically my oldest computer boots off it! The two newer ones do not...

Background and purpose:
My laptops do not have INternal DVD/CD drives, so I am trying to boot off the USB image (I followed these instructions in italics to create the image).
"_Download the USB/HDD image from my much earlier post in this thread. Then get a program called HDD Raw Copy Tool (Google it. Comes from HDD Guru site). Using 7zip unzip the USB image you downloaded until you have the raw extension. Put in your USB drive. I believe a 1 gig drive should be fine.Use HDD Raw Copy Tool to copy the file with the raw extension to the use drive. (You might have to rename the raw extension to img for the program to see it.)"
_
I do not have any small (< 64 GB) flash drives around the house, so I used a 64 GB USB flash drive for above steps.
I then did a trial run of the MFS Tools Linux image (with no USB HDDs attached) on an older Acer 18.4" mega laptop (8943G) which I have not used in years - figured this way I can let it run and still use my other two laptops (one big Predator for work use which I cannot move easily and one I use in the evenings for personal use) while the mfscopy copy runs for a long time on the older one.
Linux booted on the above *OLD* Acer 8943G laptop (I saw some likely expected errors while it finished booting) and eventually stopped at the Linux cmd prompt.

However then I decided mfscopy might run really slowly on the old one since it is USB 2.0 and my new laptop is USB 3/USB C. So I tried it on the personal use laptop (later realized it is short one USB 3 port anyway). But the same USB drive would not boot (on this Samsung Galaxy Flex).
Tried with an Acer Predator; same result it would not boot.
Both are Win 10 fully updated and both boot fine off Macrium Reflect 'rescue media' created on 16GB USB drives, so I know these 2 laptops both have the ability boot from USB flash drives.

I then realized on my own that the Linux boot issue might be because it is 64GB and hence *ExFat* (but then why did the same 64GB USB drive boot MFSTools on the old Acer? all 3 laptops are Windows OS)...
Anyway, to get the drive to FAT32, I used SD Card Formatter to clear the flash drive and then as the 2nd format step I used guiformat.exe to force format it to FAT32 since Win 10 does not support FAT32 on 64GB drives (I had successfully used this format approach for my Linux-based emulator SD card and it worked flawlessly for that).
But even after formatting the 64GB flash drive as FAT32 and rerunning the HDD Raw Copy, the USB drive still would not boot off the Galaxy Flex. In fact I do not even see a USB boot option in the Galaxy Flex BIOS (puzzling since the SAME laptop boots off my USB rescue media just fine). I turned off Secure boot and Fast Boot. (Third option is USB/PEX which is off by default).

I also tried a new flash drive (also 64GB unfort) and had the same problems), so the drive itself is not at fault.

*Questions:*

Any other ideas why the 64GB FAT32 flash drive with MFSTools image is not booting on both of my newer Windows 10 laptops? The ame drive boots fine into MFS Tools on older laptop to boot into MFS Tools, [even as ExFAT] so the image is fine. The old laptop might also be on Windows 10 like the other 2 laptops (will have to check later).
Also odd that the Galaxy Flex (American Megatrends) BIOS does not show any USB boot options. As noted above, tt does boot Macrium rescue media fine off 16GB flash drives. Any reason the option would not show even after disabling both 'Secure' Boot and 'Fast Boot'?
Side question (on the 1 laptop where MFSTools did boot) - the umount command (in bold) gave a syntax error? *umount -f -a -r*
*
Update / edit:
The good news, is the Predator worked fine with MFS Tools once I changed from UEFI to Legacy boot in BIOS.
The bad news, is that the big laptop hooked up to my dual monitors etc. for work.
Still cannot get the USB drive to boot the Galaxy Flex laptop, which is the one I was hoping to run MFS Tools on. 
There is no boot option for USB drive on that laptop in BIOS; the only option is 'Windows Boot Manager'.
*


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> Hopefully someone can figure out what is going on. Having issues booting off the USB version of MFSTools.
> Ironically my oldest computer boots off it! The two newer ones do not...
> 
> Background and purpose:
> My laptops do not have INternal DVD/CD drives, so I am trying to boot off the USB image (I followed these instructions in italics to create the image).
> "_Download the USB/HDD image from my much earlier post in this thread. Then get a program called HDD Raw Copy Tool (Google it. Comes from HDD Guru site). Using 7zip unzip the USB image you downloaded until you have the raw extension. Put in your USB drive. I believe a 1 gig drive should be fine.Use HDD Raw Copy Tool to copy the file with the raw extension to the use drive. (You might have to rename the raw extension to img for the program to see it.)"
> _
> I do not have any small (< 64 GB) flash drives around the house, so I used a 64 GB USB flash drive for above steps.
> I then did a trial run of the MFS Tools Linux image (with no USB HDDs attached) on an older Acer 18.4" mega laptop (8943G) which I have not used in years - figured this way I can let it run and still use my other two laptops (one big Predator for work use which I cannot move easily and one I use in the evenings for personal use) while the mfscopy copy runs for a long time on the older one.
> Linux booted on the above *OLD* Acer 8943G laptop (I saw some likely expected errors while it finished booting) and eventually stopped at the Linux cmd prompt.
> 
> However then I decided mfscopy might run really slowly on the old one since it is USB 2.0 and my new laptop is USB 3/USB C. So I tried it on the personal use laptop (later realized it is short one USB 3 port anyway). But the same USB drive would not boot (on this Samsung Galaxy Flex).
> Tried with an Acer Predator; same result it would not boot.
> Both are Win 10 fully updated and both boot fine off Macrium Reflect 'rescue media' created on 16GB USB drives, so I know these 2 laptops both have the ability boot from USB flash drives.
> 
> I then realized on my own that the Linux boot issue might be because it is 64GB and hence *ExFat* (but then why did the same 64GB USB drive boot MFSTools on the old Acer? all 3 laptops are Windows OS)...
> Anyway, to get the drive to FAT32, I used SD Card Formatter to clear the flash drive and then as the 2nd format step I used guiformat.exe to force format it to FAT32 since Win 10 does not support FAT32 on 64GB drives (I had successfully used this format approach for my Linux-based emulator SD card and it worked flawlessly for that).
> But even after formatting the 64GB flash drive as FAT32 and rerunning the HDD Raw Copy, the USB drive still would not boot off the Galaxy Flex. In fact I do not even see a USB boot option in the Galaxy Flex BIOS (puzzling since the SAME laptop boots off my USB rescue media just fine). I turned off Secure boot and Fast Boot. (Third option is USB/PEX which is off by default).
> 
> I also tried a new flash drive (also 64GB unfort) and had the same problems), so the drive itself is not at fault.
> 
> *Questions:*
> 
> Any other ideas why the 64GB FAT32 flash drive with MFSTools image is not booting on both of my newer Windows 10 laptops? The ame drive boots fine into MFS Tools on older laptop to boot into MFS Tools, [even as ExFAT] so the image is fine. The old laptop might also be on Windows 10 like the other 2 laptops (will have to check later).
> Also odd that the Galaxy Flex (American Megatrends) BIOS does not show any USB boot options. As noted above, tt does boot Macrium rescue media fine off 16GB flash drives. Any reason the option would not show even after disabling both 'Secure' Boot and 'Fast Boot'?
> Side question (on the 1 laptop where MFSTools did boot) - the umount command (in bold) gave a syntax error? *umount -f -a -r*
> *
> Update / edit:
> The good news, is the Predator worked fine with MFS Tools once I changed from UEFI to Legacy boot in BIOS.
> The bad news, is that the big laptop hooked up to my dual monitors etc. for work.
> Still cannot get the USB drive to boot the Galaxy Flex laptop, which is the one I was hoping to run MFS Tools on.
> There is no boot option for USB drive on that laptop in BIOS; the only option is 'Windows Boot Manager'.
> *


Although I tried to make the image boot UEFI, it does not do that very well.

On your laptop that it does not boot off of, does it have an option to disable secure boot? I'll see if I can Google the bios options of that laptop.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## jmbach

Not a lot that i can find right now. If you press the F2 key to get into the BIOS, can you post some screenshots of the BIOS screens?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## njweb

jmbach said:


> Although I tried to make the image boot UEFI, it does not do that very well.
> 
> On your laptop that it does not boot off of, does it have an option to disable secure boot? I'll see if I can Google the bios options of that laptop.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks.
On the one that it does not boot off (Galaxy Book Flex laptop with dedicated nVidia graphics - Korean version graphics option which is not available on US version), I had already tried booting with both 'Secure Boot' and 'Fast Boot' options simultaneously disabled, but that did not help.
There is one more option called ' USB LAN PXE OPROM' on that BIOS screen (see attached photo)... Tried with it changed to 'On'; did not help. 
*If I can get it working on this laptop, that would be perfect.*
-------------------------------------
Also on the Predator laptop, it boots off the same USB drive with MFS Tools image, but after a little while it gets stuck on / after the following step (see attached screen):
_"new full speed usb device number 3 using xhci_........"_ (<< which I think is my flash drive).
-----------------------------------------
Ironically my oldest laptop works best of the 3 laptops with this image - despite that version being ExFAT, it gets to the command prompt after loading MFS Tools / Linuex image, but the umount command fails with a syntax error.
*umount -f -a -r*
Is there a way to exit MFS Tools / end session gracefully (to avoid HDD corruption) after I finish running all the mfs commands?


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> Thanks.
> On the one that it does not boot off (Galaxy Book Flex laptop with dedicated nVidia graphics - Korean version graphics option which is not available on US version), I had already tried booting with both 'Secure Boot' and 'Fast Boot' options simultaneously disabled, but that did not help.
> There is one more option called ' USB LAN PXE OPROM' on that BIOS screen (see attached photo)... Tried with it changed to 'On'; did not help.
> *If I can get it working on this laptop, that would be perfect.*
> -------------------------------------
> Also on the Predator laptop, it boots off the same USB drive with MFS Tools image, but after a little while it gets stuck on / after the following step (see attached screen):
> _"new full speed usb device number 3 using xhci_........"_ (<< which I think is my flash drive).
> -----------------------------------------
> Ironically my oldest laptop works best of the 3 laptops with this image - despite that version being ExFAT, it gets to the command prompt after loading MFS Tools / Linuex image, but the umount command fails with a syntax error.
> *umount -f -a -r*
> Is there a way to exit MFS Tools / end session gracefully (to avoid HDD corruption) after I finish running all the mfs commands?


If you disable secure boot and fast boot then press F10 on startup, dobson get a boot screen with legacy option?

On the Predator, are there any other USB devices attached to include Bluetooth devices. If there are disconnect them on boot up.

Try "shutdown now" command.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> If you disable secure boot and fast boot then press F10 on startup, dobson get a boot screen with legacy option?
> 
> On the Predator, are there any other USB devices attached to include Bluetooth devices. If there are disconnect them on boot up.
> 
> Try "shutdown now" command.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks.

On the Flex, using F10 there is no option for Legacy, even when Secure Boot and Fast Boot are Off / Disabled.

On the Predator, there are no devices attached except the flash drive with MFS Tools image. I just burned it using Balena Etcher this time (brother suggested it), but (like with Guru's HDD raw copy tool) it still gets stuck while starting up Linux - now at a different point though, some Vesa VGA related command line (see attached screenshot).
To shut down when it is hanging, I guess I have to power down laptop by holding the power button, since ctrl-alt-delete will keep trying to boot the flash drive.


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> Not a lot that i can find right now. If you press the F2 key to get into the BIOS, can you post some screenshots of the BIOS screens?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Sorry missed the above message. Thanks.
Ironically I already attached one screenshot of the Flex BIOS.

Attached a bunch of photos from Flex (the one that won't boot from non UEFI - seems many newer laptops do not by design, brother's new laptop also does not).


----------



## jmbach

What is in the boot priority section of the boot menu?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> What is in the boot priority section of the boot menu?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


The boot priority dropdown just shows 'Windows Boot Manager' (no other options, just one 'choice' of Windows Boot Manager).
So it looks like the Flex only supports UEFI boot devices.  (It does boot off a USB flash drive with Macrium Reflect rescue media on it).


----------



## njweb

Oh well.
I am probably just going to use the old Acer 8943 laptop for this since it works fine with the MFSTools 3.32 USB drive (no errors on boot up to Linux login as a test run - see attached photo, no external HDDs were attached); too bad it is *USB 2.0 though - *with USB 2.0 it will take forever to copy the recordings from almost full 3 TB Roamio HDD to the new 8TB HDD...

I assume I can run mfscopy with the new 8 TB HDD attached to laptop while still in the external HDD enclosure? (I will shuck it after completing the mfscopy and mfsaddfix).


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> I assume I can run mfscopy with the new 8 TB HDD attached to laptop while still in the external HDD enclosure? (I will shuck it after completing the mfscopy and mfsaddfix).
> View attachment 55731


Maybe. Depends if it does encryption or not. As long as it not encrypted when it writes, it will be fine.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## gsutkin

Starting my next copy: 3TB to 10TB. Will do it the same way you taught me and keep you posted.


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> Maybe. Depends if it does encryption or not. As long as it not encrypted when it writes, it will be fine.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks.
Okay, let me play it safe then - I will shuck it first and then hook it up using my UGreen SATA to USB adapter before running the mfscopy...


----------



## njweb

njweb said:


> Thanks.
> Okay, let me play it safe then - I will shuck it first and then hook it up using my UGreen SATA to USB adapter before running the mfscopy...


Update:
Shucked the 8TB WD Easystore easily enough.
Plugged in my UGreen SATA-to-USB adapters for both TiVO drives (current 3TB drive with my recordings and new destination 8TB shucked WD Easystore HDD).
Both drives detected fine. Screenshot attached.

So glad I kept this old Acer 8943 laptop!!! The battery may have little life left in case of a power outage, but hopefully we will not have any major power outages during the snowstorm tomorrow...

Now time to run mfscopy and let it run and then the mfsaddfix twice.








Fingers crossed...

Update: The mfscopy is running now. 
Darn slow 2.0 USB speeds though (which is why I wanted to run it on one of the faster USB 3.0 laptops).
Anyway, so long as we have no power outage tomorrow, I'll be happy.

Dumb question:
In case I were to I decide the speed on USB 2.0 is just too slow for me (based on % complete by the time I wake up tomorrow) and want to use the Galaxy Flex for work and use the much faster *USB 3.0 *Predator for MFSTools mfscopy (assuming I can get that VGA...VESA... error to be ignored; I would hook up 1 of my external monitors etc. to the Flex temporarily for work purposes):
*Can I safely interrupt the mfscopy midstream (like an old fashioned CTRL-break?), followed by a 'shutdown now' command and reformat the 8TB and then start the mfscopy over?*


----------



## gsutkin

The new WD102PURZ checked out on an extended wrote/read test. Before running mfscopy, I had to do a bootsectorfix. Now we are copying from the 3TB to the 10TB


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> Dumb question:
> In case I were to I decide the speed on USB 2.0 is just too slow for me (based on % complete by the time I wake up tomorrow) and want to use the Galaxy Flex for work and use the much faster *USB 3.0 *Predator for MFSTools mfscopy (assuming I can get that VGA...VESA... error to be ignored; I would hook up 1 of my external monitors etc. to the Flex temporarily for work purposes):
> *Can I safely interrupt the mfscopy midstream (like an old fashioned CTRL-break?), followed by a 'shutdown now' command and reformat the 8TB and then start the mfscopy over?*


Not dumb. The answer is yes.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> Not dumb. The answer is yes.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thanks! In case of a power outage tonight (even for a split second would shut down the laptop / drives since my UPS battery backup is dead) during the snowstorm event, I may try the USB 3.0 Predator laptop again, rather than wait another 50 hours after restarting!
However the Predator gave the error during MFSTools drive bootup on / or right after the 'VESA VGA' line I posted a few days ago, so I would need to try to figure out why (had nothing plugged in other than the USB flash drive with MFSTools).
Not sure if I tried the Balena Etcher burned flash drive on that laptop though... Using the Predator for work (but can use the Flex for work if necessary).

So far (on the old Acer 8943G) the mfscopy is at about *20% complete* and right on track to complete by Friday early AM (just after midnight). ~50 hours total.
My screen keeps going off (screen saver), so I use the up arrow key to 'wake' the laptop to check mfscopy progress periodically...

I got some help regarding the VGA / VESA error when booting MFSTools on the faster Predator (so I can use that laptop after if a power outage occurs or if I get impatient with the long and want to kill the mfscopy on the slow (in terms of having only USB 2.0 I mean) 8943G laptop and start mfscopy over on this USB 3.0 Predator):

"_The vesa error is because you have an nvidia gpu.
You need to modify GRUB on bootup of the USB and add kernel boot parameter *nouveau.modeset=0* which disables the driver from trying to load.
To temporarily add a boot parameter to a kernel:_

_Start your system and wait for the GRUB menu to show (if you don't see a GRUB menu, press and hold the left Shift key right after starting the system)._
_Now highlight the kernel you want to use, and press the e key. You should be able to see and edit the commands associated with the highlighted kernel._
_Go down to the line starting with "linux" and add parameter nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the line_
_Now press Ctrl + x to boot."_


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> Not dumb. The answer is yes.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thanks.
Putting a separate reply to ask one crucial question I forgot to ask in my reply above:
If I decide to run on Predator to save time:* How do I interrupt (i.e. what command to stop) the running 'mfscopy' command*, so I can then run 'umount -f- a- r', followed finally by a 'shutdown now' command?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## gsutkin

Mfscopy successfully transferred 3TB in 11.5 hours. I plugged everything in, ran KS58 (lasted about 5 seconds). I can see my recordings and settings and I am connected to the internet. (This time I left cable card in and did not have any pairing issues). My recording capacity has increased from 478 HD hours to 701. 

Am I correct that I can run mfsadd 3 more times, since my new drive is 10TB? 

also confirming that I run msfaddfix following each mfsadd. 
Thanks!


----------



## jmbach

gsutkin said:


> Mfscopy successfully transferred 3TB in 11.5 hours. I plugged everything in, ran KS58 (lasted about 5 seconds). I can see my recordings and settings and I am connected to the internet. (This time I left cable card in and did not have any pairing issues). My recording capacity has increased from 478 HD hours to 701.
> 
> Am I correct that I can run mfsadd 3 more times, since my new drive is 10TB?
> 
> also confirming that I run msfaddfix following each mfsadd.
> Thanks!


Yes.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> Thanks.
> Putting a separate reply to ask one crucial question I forgot to ask in my reply above:
> If I decide to run on Predator to save time:* How do I interrupt (i.e. what command to stop) the running 'mfscopy' command*, so I can then run 'umount -f- a- r', followed finally by a 'shutdown now' command?
> 
> Thanks in advance!


What I do is hit the "ctrl c" combo to abort mfscopy and the run the shutdown command. Everything gets unmounted on shutdown.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> What I do is hit the "ctrl c" combo to abort mfscopy and the run the shutdown command. Everything gets unmounted on shutdown.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Great, thanks.
Got busy with a few calls earlier, but was going to edit my question saying I assume CTRL-C. 

The good news is that the power stayed on during the snowstorm and based on current progress, the mfscopy should be done by about 10 PM ET.
In parallel, I am still going to test booting the MFSTools image on the USB 3.0-equipped Predator laptop by "_modifying_ _GRUB on bootup of the USB and add kernel boot parameter *nouveau.modeset=0* which disables the driver from trying to load." _This way I can use that next time.

I assume the mfsadd and mfsaddfix run very quickly...


----------



## njweb

FINAL update:

All software steps (mfscopy and 'mfsadd & mfsaddfix' twice) completed on the new 8TB drive late last night (assume around 10:30 PM ET - was watching a movie in another room and fell asleep).

*Just put the 8TB HDD into my TiVO Roamio a little while ago and hooked it all up again and everything is perfect!*
Went from 99% full on my prior 3TB TiVO hard drive to the expected 36% full on new 8TB drive, so all 8TB are recognized.
Live TV works fine.
Recordings are still there.

Now that I confirmed it works fine, I just need to pop the top case back on and screw in the final Torx screw at the center back. (Did not want to have to remove the Roamio top cover again if something did not work, especially given that the tabs are plastic).

jmbach - Thanks a lot jmbach for your help!

MFS Tools is a great utility.


----------



## jmbach

njweb said:


> FINAL update:
> 
> All software steps (mfscopy and 'mfsadd & mfsaddfix' twice) completed on the new 8TB drive late last night (assume around 10:30 PM ET - was watching a movie in another room and fell asleep).
> 
> *Just put the 8TB HDD into my TiVO Roamio a little while ago and hooked it all up again and everything is perfect!*
> Went from 99% full on my prior 3TB TiVO hard drive to the expected 36% full on new 8TB drive, so all 8TB are recognized.
> Live TV works fine.
> Recordings are still there.
> 
> Now that I confirmed it works fine, I just need to pop the top case back on and screw in the final Torx screw at the center back. (Did not want to have to remove the Roamio top cover again if something did not work, especially given that the tabs are plastic).
> 
> jmbach - Thanks a lot jmbach for your help!
> 
> MFS Tools is a great utility.


The only other recommendation before buttoning it up is run a KS 58 on it.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> The only other recommendation before buttoning it up is run a KS 58 on it.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks, I had read about the kickstart codes.
I know kickstart code '58' in short checks and attempts to repair any file system problems as noted on weakness' site.
Will do one later today, thanks!


----------



## Finalrinse

I have a 500GB drive out of my Roamio (works fine, just want to increase size and preserve my cable pairing).
I hooked up this drive and a WD 2TB drive inside my PC and disconnected the other drives.
Both drives are recognized OK. sda and sdb with sda being the source drive.
I keep getting this error.

mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb

"Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"

I've noticed a few others in this thread having had similar error messages but I haven't found a fix.

Any ideas to please help me?
Thanks,
Tom


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> I have a 500GB drive out of my Roamio (works fine, just want to increase size and preserve my cable pairing).
> I hooked up this drive and a WD 2TB drive inside my PC and disconnected the other drives.
> Both drives are recognized OK. sda and sdb with sda being the source drive.
> I keep getting this error.
> 
> mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> "Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
> To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"
> 
> I've noticed a few others in this thread having had similar error messages but I haven't found a fix.
> 
> Any ideas to please help me?
> Thanks,
> Tom


Post the output of lsblk -o name,size

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## Finalrinse

Thanks, I will hook it back up and report the output.


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## Finalrinse

jmbach said:


> Post the output of lsblk -o name,size
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


OK, thanks for helping me!
sda 465.8G
sdb 1.8T
`-sdb1 1.8T
sr0 343M
loop0 230.4M

When I run the copy command "mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb" I get
"Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
Copy source: /dev/sda10: Success
To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> OK, thanks for helping me!
> sda 465.8G
> sdb 1.8T
> `-sdb1 1.8T
> sr0 343M
> loop0 230.4M
> 
> When I run the copy command "mfscopy -ia /dev/sda /dev/sdb" I get
> "Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
> Copy source: /dev/sda10: Success
> To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"


500 GB is working just fine in the TiVo correct?
Looks like the 2 TB has a partition on it. Probably should wipe it. 
What computer are you using for the copy?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Finalrinse

jmbach said:


> 500 GB is working just fine in the TiVo correct?
> Looks like the 2 TB has a partition on it. Probably should wipe it.
> What computer are you using for the copy?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


1) When the Roamio Basic was new, in 2015, I configured it, used it for one week, and then pulled the HD and popped a larger one in. I stored the HD in the TiVo box sealed up. So this 500GB has about one week's of use in the TiVo.
2) I just wiped the partition. (I use MiniTool Partition Pro)
It now shows. (Extra partition is gone). 
sda 465.8G
sdb 1.8T
sr0 343M
loop0 230.4M
3) I build computers, so I don't have store bought computers. This computer is an older one, seems to be a good workhorse for tasks like this.
Gigabyte MB, Intel i7 960, 24GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro, etc... I can give more specifics if needed?

I still get the same error when running the copy command. The HD that is in the TiVo now is 3TB, but is starting to reboot... I don't really need 3TB, that's why I have the 2TB. Can I try to copy the 3TB to a 2TB? If so I could try that? Or do you have something else I could try? Again, thanks for helping me! I appreciate it!

"Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
Copy source: /dev/sda10: Success
To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> 1) When the Roamio Basic was new, in 2015, I configured it, used it for one week, and then pulled the HD and popped a larger one in. I stored the HD in the TiVo box sealed up. So this 500GB has about one week's of use in the TiVo.
> 2) I just wiped the partition. (I use MiniTool Partition Pro)
> It now shows. (Extra partition is gone).
> sda 465.8G
> sdb 1.8T
> sr0 343M
> loop0 230.4M
> 3) I build computers, so I don't have store bought computers. This computer is an older one, seems to be a good workhorse for tasks like this.
> Gigabyte MB, Intel i7 960, 24GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro, etc... I can give more specifics if needed?
> 
> I still get the same error when running the copy command. The HD that is in the TiVo now is 3TB, but is starting to reboot... I don't really need 3TB, that's why I have the 2TB. Can I try to copy the 3TB to a 2TB? If so I could try that? Or do you have something else I could try? Again, thanks for helping me! I appreciate it!
> 
> "Copy source: Input/output error reading volume header.
> Copy source: /dev/sda10: Success
> To attempt copy anyway, try again with -E. -s is implied by -E"


If you want to keep the pairing and no recordings then use the 3 TB and run mfscopy -s /dev/source /dev/target

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Finalrinse

jmbach said:


> If you want to keep the pairing and no recordings then use the 3 TB and run mfscopy -s /dev/source /dev/target
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Thanks, that's what I will do. I'm going to buy a new 3TB. I know there are many threads about which drive is better Red/Purple (I know we need CMR). If you were buying a new 3TB HD today, what would you get?


----------



## ThAbtO

WD Red Plus WD30EFRX
Purple WD30PURZ


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> Thanks, that's what I will do. I'm going to buy a new 3TB. I know there are many threads about which drive is better Red/Purple (I know we need CMR). If you were buying a new 3TB HD today, what would you get?


If you are going to from 3TB to 3TB then run mfscopy /dev/source /dev/target. The other command was to copy it to a smaller drive.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Finalrinse

jmbach said:


> If you are going to from 3TB to 3TB then run mfscopy /dev/source /dev/target. The other command was to copy it to a smaller drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Great! Thanks! I just don't want to loose my pairing. So no -a or -i


----------



## Finalrinse

ThAbtO said:


> WD Red Plus WD30EFRX
> Purple WD30PURZ


Neither one is preferred over the other?


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> Great! Thanks! I just don't want to loose my pairing. So no -a or -i


-a is for recordings
-i is for the alternate partitions. Since both primary and alternative partitions are blank in a standard Roamio image, it is not needed.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> Neither one is preferred over the other?


I prefer red over purple. 
But people have great success with both.

There are theoretical reasons to choose red over purple and there are reasons to choose purple over red. 
Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Finalrinse

Thanks again for all your help! Greatly appreciated!!


----------



## Finalrinse

I just ordered a WD30EFRX, should get it Tuesday. If for some strange reason I get the same error when running the copy command, I read at least one or two people having success using a clone dock, is this for real? They are fairly cheap, but don't even want to go there if it's a hoax with TiVo drives?


----------



## jmbach

Finalrinse said:


> I just ordered a WD30EFRX, should get it Tuesday. If for some strange reason I get the same error when running the copy command, I read at least one or two people having success using a clone dock, is this for real? They are fairly cheap, but don't even want to go there if it's a hoax with TiVo drives?


Cloning drives work as long as you go to the same size or larger drive. Issue is that you will likely copy and corrupted blocks and it may hang of the source drive itself is bad.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Finalrinse

jmbach said:


> Cloning drives work as long as you go to the same size or larger drive. Issue is that you will likely copy and corrupted blocks and it may hang of the source drive itself is bad.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Ok, I understand. I will try mfscopy first, and hope I don't get the error.
Thanks


----------



## Sixto

ThAbtO said:


> WD Red Plus WD30EFRX
> Purple WD30PURZ


I recently went with 3 WD30PURZ drives. I also have a WD60PURZ for the surveillance system. Only drives I'd use.


----------



## njweb

jmbach said:


> The only other recommendation before buttoning it up is run a KS 58 on it.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk





njweb said:


> Thanks, I had read about the kickstart codes.
> I know kickstart code '58' in short checks and attempts to repair any file system problems as noted on weakness' site.
> Will do one later today, thanks!


Well, after 6 days of everything working fine, yesterday I ran into an issue with my TiVO Roamio (now has the new 8TB HDD with the recordings from my 3TB HDD - discussed in my mfscopy posts last week above).

Guide was fine for first 5 days or so, but then the guide data ran out - i.e. all channels in the guide grid now show "to be announced".
I tried the 'connect to TiVO service' multiple times, but it always fails on the final ('loading data') step.
I tried to initiate kickstart codes *ks 58 specifically) 3 times, but it did not work - I hit and held 'pause' button for 2 seconds after the yellow/amber light started to flash per the following instructions from the _weaknees site):
"3. When you see the yellow/amber light begin to flash, wait a second and then press and hold the Pause button on the remote for two seconds, then release it.
4. Within 5 seconds, press the kickstart code (see below) on the remote control.
5. If you are successful, the green and amber lights will blink in alternating patterns to indicate the code has been accepted.[end quote from weakness site]"_

So I am now going through the 'Reset to Defaults, Clear Guide Data and To Do List.'
Hope I will not get a bricked unit (like some reddit posts linked below) and have to redo everything. 
It has been on the 'clearing guide data and to do list; this may take up to an hour" screen for about 1 hour 20 minutes and counting...

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tivo/comments/f89kn7

Edit - Well I knew based on posts that most likely since the 'CPG and TDL' was still running after almost 2 hours, based on other posts, it was stuck and not going to end.
So I did some additional research and found this is a KNOWN bug and bricking issue on TE3 units with 'CGD and TPL' that TiVO is aware of).
Thread: Premiere Stuck on "Clearing Guide Data"
Was able to get kickstart to run (also did a 58 once earlier and did not do anything) and, per solution * on page 6 of above thread, used a KS 57 based on a recommendation in above thread that will hopefully help solve the issues...
Got the forced GSOD (expected behavior) that should take about 3 hours, followed by a likely / potential (albeit hopefully quicker) CGD and TPL and then the issue will hopefully be solved per above thread.
FINGERS CROSSED! Assume my recordings will also remain intact (KS 57 should not impact those)...

* SOLUTION from above link: _bricco said: ↑
"Hey Guys, good news on my Tivo Premiere. It was stuck on Clearing and Deleting Everything since February 22. Tivo customer support finally sent me the Roamio solution (not a Roamio). However, the KS57 did work. Unplug Tivo for 15 seconds, wait for yellow light press pause, enter 5-7, watch lights blink. Screen continues to power up until you get the green screen (indication that something was working). Green screen for about an hour and start up screen appears. I had given up on this unit but now it is back, lifetime intact. Good luck with your unit."
_
So based on that I am cautiously optimistic...

UPDATE - 
The good news is that it took less than an hour to perform the KS 57 and the TiVO was back on Live TV, so it is not bricked; all my recordings are in tact.
The bad news is I still have 'to be announced' in the program guide on all channels...
Any way to fix it (since Clearing Guide Data won't work since I am on TE3)?
Does 'repeat guided setup' delete the cable card pairing?
I did the M-Card / cable card pairing 5 years ago and it has been fine ever since... I prefer not to have to go through it again with my cable provider and / or TiVo phone support.

*EDIT - NEVER MIND:*
*The guide came back by itself (about an hour or so after the kickstart 57 completed). *


----------



## gsutkin

Today I ran the 3 additional mfsadd/mfsaddfix's. Posting an image of my new system info. My 10TB WD102PURZ took me from 478 HD hours to 1606 HD hours. Thanks to everyone here, especially jmbach. You guys taught a "tinkerer" how to do this!
I will post my setup in the Bolt hard drive upgrade thread.


----------



## Jon Kranes

I am trying to backup up an old TiVo Premier drive with mfs backup in order to restore it to a brand new drive. If I am getting several "critical target error" messages during the backup, am I correct in assuming that means the resulting backup is unlikely to restore successfully to the new target drive? If I don't really care about preserving anything, would I be better off initializing the new drive from a new disk image? How would I request an image for model 748000? Thanks!

[edit: trying the backup a second time, it completed without errors. I'm speculating that means the source disk has unreliable reads -- sometimes works, sometimes does not?]


----------



## jmbach

Jon Kranes said:


> I am trying to backup up an old TiVo Premier drive with mfs backup in order to restore it to a brand new drive. If I am getting several "critical target error" messages during the backup, am I correct in assuming that means the resulting backup is unlikely to restore successfully to the new target drive? If I don't really care about preserving anything, would I be better off initializing the new drive from a new disk image? How would I request an image for model 748000? Thanks!


First, I would use DvrBARS to backup and restore a premier image. If you do not want to save any recordings you can use the truncated backup. Won't take long to back it up. If you use the standard backup it will save your recordings but the drive you store the file on should be larger than the drive you are backing up.

Second, run any drive that you are going to back into the premier through manufacturer diagnostic both a full read and write before restoring an image on it.

Third, in the DvrBARS thread you can ask for an image. (Or if you wait around a little ggieseke might see the request here and send you one)

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## Jon Kranes

jmbach said:


> First, I would use DvrBARS to backup and restore a premier image. If you do not want to save any recordings you can use the truncated backup. Won't take long to back it up. If you use the standard backup it will save your recordings but the drive you store the file on should be larger than the drive you are backing up.
> 
> Second, run any drive that you are going to back into the premier through manufacturer diagnostic both a full read and write before restoring an image on it.
> 
> Third, in the DvrBARS thread you can ask for an image. (Or if you wait around a little ggieseke might see the request here and send you one)


Thanks. I tried backup using DvrBARS and got similar disk read errors, even with truncated backup. I'm going to give up on saving anything and just restore a new image, which I asked for on that thread.


----------



## jmbach

Jon Kranes said:


> Thanks. I tried backup using DvrBARS and got similar disk read errors. I'm going to give up on saving anything and just restore a new image, which I asked for on that thread.


If DvrBARS does not work, then it is less likely MFSTools would work.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## WVZR1

Doing MFSCOPY in a PC - 3TB - Roamio to new 8TB RED+

Used Command: mfscopy -am 2040 dev/sda /dev/sdb. It copied .60% and the screen went to sleep, I assumed it was still running - is it? After a short while I just hit enter and it ran another line to 1.47% - screen sleep - enter key - runs again to 2.19%. Is the process actually continuing to run or is it 'timing out' as well'? I don't know that I used correct terminology but ......

3TB was something close to 85% - how long will this run approx? Can I ignore the 'screen sleep' and walk away? Can I do a key command while it's running to keep screen awake?

I used a USB to boot PC and the 2 drives are the only HDD connected.


----------



## ThAbtO

WVZR1 said:


> 3TB was something close to 85% - how long will this run approx?


Most likely, overnight.


----------



## WVZR1

ThAbtO said:


> Most likely, overnight.


Thanks for checking on me!!

I assumed much longer than that - it's a very old PC but main concern is the 'maybe the screen sleeping' isn't interrupting the task. When this completes do I just do a 'Control C' and then a 'shutdown -now' or just what?

Do I need to do any of the extensions/adds before removing it back to the Roamio for a 'test'?


----------



## ThAbtO

When it completes, it should just return to the prompt.


----------



## WVZR1

ThAbtO said:


> When it completes, it should just return to the prompt.


Got the message 'copy done' - I 'shutdown' the machine. I believe I was told that now I install back to the Roamio run it and let it connect, acquire current guide etc then plan on removing it back to the PC to be expanded. Is that correct?

I believe I need to be reminded of the 'kickstart code' that should/maybe be done after the HDD is put back to the Roamio this time.

Is the correct KS 58?


----------



## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> Got the message 'copy done' - I 'shutdown' the machine. I believe I was told that now I install back to the Roamio run it and let it connect, acquire current guide etc then plan on removing it back to the PC to be expanded. Is that correct?
> 
> I believe I need to be reminded of the 'kickstart code' that should/maybe be done after the HDD is put back to the Roamio this time.
> 
> Is the correct KS 58?


Yes. KS 58

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## ThAbtO

WVZR1 said:


> I was told that now I install back to the Roamio run it and let it connect, acquire current guide etc then plan on removing it back to the PC to be expanded.


It should already be expanded.


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> It should already be expanded.


Not completely. The expansion was to 4 TB. Now he has to expand twice to use the whole 8 TB.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## WVZR1

ThAbtO said:


> It should already be expanded.


I'm looking at 699 HOURS HD with 58% populated, 268 available. I certainly thought I needed to go back to do expansion. See POST #1954 that's the command I used and let it run until done. It's called home 2 times, the guide is out there 13 days. All looks good except I was expecting something 1200+



jmbach said:


> Not completely. The expansion was to 4 TB. Now he has to expand twice to use the whole 8 TB.


The KS 58 took as expected. Start to picture something around 15 minutes.

How long can I wait or now that it's 'sorta done' it's a do over?

How about a refresher !!!


----------



## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> I'm looking at 699 HOURS HD with 58% populated, 268 available. I certainly thought I needed to go back to do expansion. See POST #1954 that's the command I used and let it run until done. It's called home 2 times, the guide is out there 13 days. All looks good except I was expecting something 1200+
> 
> The KS 58 took as expected. Start to picture something around 15 minutes.
> 
> How long can I wait or now that it's 'sorta done' it's a do over?
> 
> How about a refresher !!!


Make sure the unit can connect to the TiVo servers and download successfully. Just force a couple of connections. If they are successful, then go do the expansion. After the expansion would do the KS 58 again and a couple more foecws connections to make sure they complete before calling it done.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## WVZR1

jmbach said:


> Make sure the unit can connect to the TiVo servers and download successfully. Just force a couple of connections. If they are successful, then go do the expansion. After the expansion would do the KS 58 again and a couple more foecws connections to make sure they complete before calling it done.


 Can it be a Wed/Thurs thing or do soon/now? Is there a link directly to just the expansion task?


----------



## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> Can it be a Wed/Thurs thing or do soon/now? Is there a link directly to just the expansion task?


You can expand at anytime. 
The instructions in the 10 TB thread will get you through the expansion.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Have a Premiere TCD746320 that had a bad drive. I was able to make a backup using DvrBARS and restore that to a donor 500 G drive. Tivo worked and showed 408 hr SD capacity.

I only have the single internal drive.

Since the smaller image is on a larger drive, I ran the MFSTools iso using:
mfsadd /dev/sdb -x
and it completed almost instantaneously.

Just started the TiVo and got something about external storage not connected. I gave it the three thumbs down so it will remove external storage. Its still working on that.

Was this an error?

I did see an example where someone used the apmfix command. I wasn't sure what that did and did not use it.

Thanks

Rob


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Have a Premiere TCD746320 that had a bad drive. I was able to make a backup using DvrBARS and restore that to a donor 500 G drive. Tivo worked and showed 408 hr SD capacity.
> 
> I only have the single internal drive.
> 
> Since the smaller image is on a larger drive, I ran the MFSTools iso using:
> mfsadd /dev/sdb -x
> and it completed almost instantaneously.
> 
> Just started the TiVo and got something about external storage not connected. I gave it the three thumbs down so it will remove external storage. Its still working on that.
> 
> Was this an error?
> 
> I did see an example where someone used the apmfix command. I wasn't sure what that did and did not use it.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob


If you did not use apmfix, then you divorced the recording space but kept the app partition that described the space. When you get to that point where you need that space, it will go wonky.

Stop the whole process. Restore that DvrBARS image to the drive again. Boot it up and connect several times to the TiVo servers and make sure it is successful each time. Reboot and run KS 57. And see if it successfully completes. Connect to the TiVo servers again to make sure every connection is successful. This is to make sure you have a good image on the drive since you rescued it from a bad drive.

Once that is done, you can use mfsadd and apmfix to add the extra space.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Its in endless reboot. Thanks jm, will follow the steps.

I haven't done a kick start before. I see where I'm supposed to "hold the pause button on the remote" but "not continuously hold down the pause button."

So how long do I hold it for, or is it just press / release the hold button?

Thanks!

Rob


----------



## Johnny Danger

Does the hard drive need to be connected via SATA cable to your PC to run this software or can it be attached using a USB Docking station? 

The reason I ask is because I have one of those newer drives that won't work on a computer unless you modify the drive pin with tape or something. 

It will work on the TIVO and on an external docking station but not connected directly to my computer. 

Please let me know if SATA PC connection is required or if the docking station connection should work. 

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Its in endless reboot. Thanks jm, will follow the steps.
> 
> I haven't done a kick start before. I see where I'm supposed to "hold the pause button on the remote" but "not continuously hold down the pause button."
> 
> So how long do I hold it for, or is it just press / release the hold button?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Rob


The weaknees site has a good page on the kickstart commands.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

Johnny Danger said:


> Does the hard drive need to be connected via SATA cable to your PC to run this software or can it be attached using a USB Docking station?
> 
> The reason I ask is because I have one of those newer drives that won't work on a computer unless you modify the drive pin with tape or something.
> 
> It will work on the TIVO and on an external docking station but not connected directly to my computer.
> 
> Please let me know if SATA PC connection is required or if the docking station connection should work.
> 
> Thanks.


You can use a USB docking station.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Did the restore then re-boot / connect three times successfully.

Just tried the KS 57. I got the amber / green alternating and after about 3 sec it changed to the "almost there" screen, then GSOD saying it has a serious problem and will take about 3 hours to fix.

I take it this is normal for KS57?

Is the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics a better test (or faster)?

Thanks

Rob


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Did the restore then re-boot / connect three times successfully.
> 
> Just tried the KS 57. I got the amber / green alternating and after about 3 sec it changed to the "almost there" screen, then GSOD saying it has a serious problem and will take about 3 hours to fix.
> 
> I take it this is normal for KS57?
> 
> Is the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics a better test (or faster)?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob


That is expected for a KS 57. However, it should not take long her than 3 hours. If it does, then there is usually something in the MFS it cannot fix. KS 57 is very rudimentary so it cannot fix much.

If it does not boot up after 3 hours, power cycle it and see if it boots up. If it does, you can proceed. You may have an issue later, but in my experience I have not had an issue.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

I just check and it appears to have booted after about an hour.

Guess that means I'm good to proceed with the expansion and apmfix.

Thanks

Rob


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> I just check and it appears to have booted after about an hour.
> 
> Guess that means I'm good to proceed with the expansion and apmfix.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob


Looks like a go.

You may have some recordings that may have some bad spots. If there is anything that is slightly off in the OS, the next update will take care of it.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

It worked! Shows the increased storage space.

BTW: Ran the MFS Tools Linux iso under Parallels on a Mac!

As an fyi to other newbies since I had to look it up, I used the lsblk command to find the hard drive mount point.

Thanks for assist jm!


----------



## CR500

Maybe all is not so good. Weird, one channel (FX) on FIOS is out. I get the black screen instructing to call your cable provider.

Guess I get to do it all over again, reinstall the backup and make sure that channel is working.


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Maybe all is not so good. Weird, one channel (FX) on FIOS is out. I get the black screen instructing to call your cable provider.
> 
> Guess I get to do it all over again, reinstall the backup and make sure that channel is working.


Make sure your cableCARD is paired correctly. You can check it in the through the diagnostic menu.

Is the channel present on another TV/TiVo/Cablebox?
Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Unfortunately, its a one TV household. This screen is different than if it wasn't being broadcast.

Could the pairing knock out one channel?


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Unfortunately, its a one TV household. This screen is different than if it wasn't being broadcast.
> 
> Could the pairing knock out one channel?


Difficult to say. You did get the image from a dying drive so anything is possible. Consider a KS 58. It does a little more than a KS 57 and it might fix the issue.

What is the error you are getting on that channel?

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Thats why I'm thinking about going to back to restoring the image and see if that channel works before doing the expand.

This is the screen:







I deleted the missing info.

Rob


----------



## ThAbtO

It looks like you masked/deleted the vital information and cannot tell if its paired or anything else.


----------



## jmbach

CR500 said:


> Thats why I'm thinking about going to back to restoring the image and see if that channel works before doing the expand.
> 
> This is the screen:
> View attachment 57137
> 
> I deleted the missing info.
> 
> Rob


There is another screen that will tell you if it is paired or not. The screen you posted is the information needed to give the CableCO to pair the card.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## CR500

Found a page on the TiVo site about card pairing. I have Val = ? which means the card is not paired. Looks like I'll need to call the cable co tomorrow.


----------



## WVZR1

jmbach said:


> You can expand at anytime.
> The instructions in the 10 TB thread will get you through the expansion.


I'd like to expand my 8TB today. It's run nearly a full month with 'no issues'. Is there advantages to maybe parking the 'tuners' on the same channel OR just pull the plug and carry on?


----------



## jmbach

WVZR1 said:


> I'd like to expand my 8TB today. It's run nearly a full month with 'no issues'. Is there advantages to maybe parking the 'tuners' on the same channel OR just pull the plug and carry on?


Usually what I do is go through the menu and restart the system. When the lights come back on after restarting (right before the first starting up screen or right when I see it) I pull the power.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## WVZR1

jmbach said:


> Usually what I do is go through the menu and restart the system. When the lights come back on after restarting (right before the first starting up screen or right when I see it) I pull the power.


I pulled the plug at 'restarting' !

The 'expansion' went well - I appreciate your help. I didn't realize that the ADD and FIX procedures were as responsive/fast as they are. I had maybe put off my 'expansion' just because I didn't know. I went from 699HD HOURS to 1281HD and 59% to 30% pretty damn quick. KS58 went as expected and all seems well!


----------



## CinciDVR

drhendrix said:


> Today I used the latest version of MFS Tools 3.2 to upgrade my Roamio Basic from the stock 500 GB drive to a WD10EURX.
> 
> I connected the two drives to SATA ports on my desktop PC, booted up the MFS Tools 3.2 CD, and logged in as root using the password "tivo".
> 
> Then I used the following commands:
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> fdisk -l
> 
> (to reveal drive identities)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool info /dev/sdx
> 
> (on each drive to make sure I knew which drive was which)
> 
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> (sda was the original drive and sdb was the target WD10EURX)
> 
> The copy process completed without issues in about 20 minutes, and the new drive contained all guide data, recorded programs and the cable card paring data.
> 
> I'd like to pass on a word of thanks to jkozee, jmbach, txdmts, controlio, and all the other helpful posters for providing all the information necessary to successfully upgrade my Raomio drive.
> 
> Dennis


Thanks @drhendrix, your instructions worked perfectly. Although it took 2-1/2 hours to copy everything from my original Tivo 500GB drive to my new WD Purple 3TB drive, it couldn't have been easier. Plus it gave me time to replace the noisy fan with a new fan. Honestly, if I knew how easy the drive swap and data copy & expansion was, I'd have done this years ago. A big thank you to everyone that made the MFSTOOL image available.


----------



## andrewc2

Tivo Premiere 4, Having some issues with copying my old drive over, but it can't seem to find either drive. Connected directly via SATA. One drive I've already got a DVRBARS image of the stock 500gb if necessary. I had restored that to my new 4TB WD40EFRX and used JMFS before I realized that wouldn't be able to expand to the full drive. So I was going to use MFS Tools to copy it over but ran into this "failed to find mbr identifier" issue.

Okay figured it out, used Etcher to "burn" the usb/hdd image to the flash drive rather than using the ISO, loading now.


----------



## gabrielstern

andrewc2 said:


> Tivo Premiere 4, Having some issues with copying my old drive over, but it can't seem to find either drive. Connected directly via SATA. One drive I've already got a DVRBARS image of the stock 500gb if necessary. I had restored that to my new 4TB WD40EFRX and used JMFS before I realized that wouldn't be able to expand to the full drive. So I was going to use MFS Tools to copy it over but ran into this "failed to find mbr identifier" issue.
> 
> Okay figured it out, used Etcher to "burn" the usb/hdd image to the flash drive rather than using the ISO, loading now.
> 
> View attachment 58698
> View attachment 58699
> [/QSunday.
> 
> Correct jmmfs limits to 2 and a half tbs but I just discovered and have been doing an experiment that if you copy an original 500 gig image using dvr barz to a wd laptop 500 gig size blue drive go through the marrying it to the motherboard by running a cd and e once than copy the image to a 1 or 2tb drive using jmfs and making sure you supersize the image in jmfs after expanding.
> 
> Then use the jmfs created image and then copy it using mfs tools 3.2 using the aiM 3000 or 4000 for a 3tb or 4tb drive the images come out for graphics, and video, and recordings, even better and cleaner than if you just copy the factory size image and expand it by only using mffs tools 3.2 by itself.
> 
> The reason for this I think is because in jmfs it is much easier to supersize vs
> 
> Trying to supersize in mffs tools 3.2.
> 
> Anyway sometimes using an older program first to improve an image especially with series4 tivos than using a program like mffs tools 3.2 to reach your ultimate target size an produce better results.
> 
> And don't forget 320 and 500 gig drives are becoming more difficult to find
> 
> So creating a 1 or 2tb image using jmfs then backing it up using dvr barz might also be a good idea, so if something goes wrong you will have an easier time, if you need to do an expansion using mffs tools again in the future.


----------



## gabrielstern

One other thing I forgot to mention to you

if you go through the steps I outlined above on a 4tb if you use jmfs first and supersize the image in jmfs and then copy and expand to a 4tb drive with mffs tools 3.2.

You should get 686 HD recording hours vs 626 HD recording hours if you copy and expand from the factory image straight to a 4tb drive only using mffs tools 3.2.

That's why I recomend using a 1 or 2 tb jmfs image to use for expansion to a 3tb or 4tb drive using mffs tools 3.2.


----------



## jmbach

gabrielstern said:


> One other thing I forgot to mention to you
> 
> if you go through the steps I outlined above on a 4tb if you use jmfs first and supersize the image in jmfs and then copy and expand to a 4tb drive with mffs tools 3.2.
> 
> You should get 686 HD recording hours vs 626 HD recording hours if you copy and expand from the factory image straight to a 4tb drive only using mffs tools 3.2.
> 
> That's why I recomend using a 1 or 2 tb jmfs image to use for expansion to a 3tb or 4tb drive using mffs tools 3.2.


You can easily run JMFS supersize on a drive without copying it before using MFSTools.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


----------



## gabrielstern

jmbach said:


> You can easily run JMFS supersize on a drive without copying it before using MFSTools.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


Yes you can, but I just discovered that if you copy expand and supersize on drives that are either 1tb or 2tb in size then use that as a source copy with just the jmfs created image.

I can copy and expand in mffs tools 3.2 in around 2 minutes and get better and cleaner images when running aiM 3000 or 4000 command vs just copying the factory drive image and just expanding just using mffs tools 3.2.

Right now I am testing a 4tb drive as when I copied a 2tb jmfs supersize image, I only was able to get 636 hours vs when I used a 1tb jmfs supersized image and ran the aiM 4000 command as the starting point on a 6tb drive it read 686 total HD hours each time.

So I will test to see, if I get 686 total HD hours on the 4tb drive if I use the 1 tb as a source image.


----------



## gabrielstern

gabrielstern said:


> Yes you can, but I just discovered that if you copy expand and supersize on drives that are either 1tb or 2tb in size then use that as a source copy with just the jmfs created image.
> 
> I can copy and expand in mffs tools 3.2 in around 2 minutes and get better and cleaner images when running aiM 3000 or 4000 command vs just copying the factory drive image and just expanding just using mffs tools 3.2.
> 
> Right now I am testing a 4tb drive as when I copied a 2tb jmfs supersize image, I only was able to get 636 hours vs when I used a 1tb jmfs supersized image and ran the aiM 4000 command as the starting point on a 6tb drive it read 686 total HD hours each time.
> 
> So I will test to see, if I get 686 total HD hours on the 4tb drive if I use the 1 tb as a source image.


Just taking longer than I would like, but anything to get the desired results.

I am also figuring out, that if you cd and e on the image that is expanded in mffs tools 3.2 than try and back it up using dvr barz, it then says the image file is corrupted.

So my next test will be to see after I verify the image file to just utilize in my series 4 ,the repeat guided setup command instead and the try backing up the image in dvr barz.

I know the jmfs image files I created easily back ups in dvr barz, after running cd and e once, without issues.

Just trying to get to a point where I can simplify the process and get in my computer for myself my own 3 tb 4tb 6tb and 8tb backed up in dvr barz for my series 4.

So I do not have to constantly disconnect hard drives just to run mffs tools 3.2.

I would like to be able to just restore images in those sizes straight to the hard drive using dvr barz. Without having to go through the marrying the image to the motherboard by c d and e ING constantly.


----------



## Michael Niehaus

Just went through the MFS Copy steps with version 3.32-devel on a UEFI PC and wrote up the process, in case anyone tries to do such a thing:

Replacing the hard drive in a Tivo


----------



## wkearney99

Fwiw, just did a drive replacement on a Premiere XL4. Went from a failing 2tb to a fresh 3tb WD Red WD30EFZX NAS drive. 

The command I used was:
mfscopy -ai /dev/sdc /dev/sdd 

This in a USB2 dual drive tray for SATA drives. I've had mixed results with a USB3 unit I've got, which is faster. I think the connector on the USB3 unit is failing, so I didn't use it. The USB2 copying took literally 24 hours to complete. But everything moved across without problems, all season passes, recordings, everything.

Though I wish I'd checked the fan, as it made an awful racket when firing back up. At boot it runs full speed and then eventually settles back down again. Now I just have to find the right fan replacement for it.

Anyway, mfstools to the rescue, again. Thanks!


----------



## real_goose

I used mfscopy on my TiVo Roamio OTA TCD846510 to copy my existing programs to a 4TB WD40EFRX. The resulting disk looked good but the TiVo would not boot up. It just alternated between "Welcome, Powering Up" and "Almost There, a Few More Minutes" over and over again. Kickstart code 58 fixed the problem for me. 

Thanks for keeping this tool working and accessible.


----------



## iXod

Hello,
Without reading all 100 pages of this thread, I did find the download links for “MFSTools 3.32-Devel USB/HD” on page 7. Has this download been updated and is there a new link?

My goal: I want to either replace the internal drive in my Bolt 500 GB dvr with a larger one or add an external drive (I think I read that the MFSTools will allow an external eSATA drive?).

Can I run MFSTools on a Ubuntu laptop? Or must it be a booted MFSTools ISO disk?

Any other pointers (or corrections) for a noob at this (but not a complete computer noob)?

Thanks,
Dave


----------



## ThAbtO

iXod said:


> I want to either replace the internal drive in my Bolt 500 GB dvr with a larger one or add an external drive (I think I read that the MFSTools will allow an external eSATA drive?).


Adding an external drive (with an internal one) is frowned upon as that creates many points for failures and losing of shows. You can use either an internal OR external SINGLE large drive (connected to the SATA inside) as a better solution.


----------



## iXod

Thanks for your reply. No problem, external 1 TB 3.5" hard disk connected to the internal SATA connector and external power supply.

I want to copy the recordings from the old 500 GB drive to the new drive. Will MFSTools do this? I have a Win7 Pro and Ubuntu laptops to use.

Does MFSTools run under Linux? Or...? How to install it (pointer to directions?)?

Sorry if these question have been answered before, but 100 pages is a long read! 

Thanks.


----------



## ThAbtO

The MFSTools (CD version ISO) needs to be burned to a CD and then boot from it. The files from post #131 has a version where it can be on a memory stick and boot from it.

Easier to disconnect the Windows drive and only connect the Tivo and Tivo-to-be drives up only. MFSTools will copy and expand at the same time, so the 500GB copied to the 1TB will be expanded to use the full 1TB.


----------



## iXod

ThAbtO said:


> Easier to disconnect the Windows drive and only connect the Tivo and Tivo-to-be drives up only. MFSTools will copy and expand at the same time, so the 500GB copied to the 1TB will be expanded to use the full 1TB.


Are there limitations to the replacement drive? Maximum capacity? Only certain models or series?

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Are there limitations to the replacement drive? Maximum capacity? Only certain models or series?
> 
> Thanks.


Depends on what version of TiVo you are talking about as well as which version of the UI you are using.


----------



## ThAbtO

iXod said:


> Are there limitations to the replacement drive? Maximum capacity? Only certain models or series?
> 
> Thanks.


Internally, only 5400 RPM drives that also use less power, like a NAS drive. The Tivo power supply is small and cannot support any of those power hungry drives.


----------



## jamoses

Global warming killed 1 of my 5 Premiere 746320 which had a WD 2TB drive!  

Over the years I have always successfully used MFSTOOLs bootable CDROM to copy an original 320GB genuine TIVO drive onto a replacement drive. The image on that drive is REALLY old! I have never restored from an image and would like to figure it out now, so I need some help with unix commands. So, now that I have a TCD746320-20.7.4.RC42.zip image on a USB drive, how do I use the MFSTOOL cdrom to mount and restore the image to a new drive?
Do I need to unzip the .zip file and put the .vhd file on the drive first?
Do I need to mount the flash first? How? What command(s)?
Can the image be restored to a smaller drive like 500GB or 1TB? 
Is the correct mfstool's command >restore /dev/src-drive/filename /dev/sda ??

Thanks! 
-James Moses, Ventura, CA


----------



## ThAbtO

jamoses said:


> Do I need to unzip the .zip file and put the .vhd file on the drive first?


You need to unzip it and use DVRBars to restore the image to a blank unformatted/unpartitioned drive. Then use MFSTools 3.3 to expand to the larger space.


----------



## jamoses

ThAbtO said:


> You need to unzip it and use DVRBars to restore the image to a blank unformatted/unpartitioned drive. Then use MFSTools 3.3 to expand to the larger space.


 Thanks for the response. So no way to restore it using Linux-based MFSTools? Don't have windows anymore other than a laptop with no SATA connector.


----------



## ThAbtO

No laptop has SATA ports. Use USB2/3.


----------



## jmbach

jamoses said:


> Thanks for the response. So no way to restore it using Linux-based MFSTools? Don't have windows anymore other than a laptop with no SATA connector.


Where did you get the image from? It is likely a zip of a VHD. If it is you have 2 options.

1) use DvrBARS. As far as your windows laptop, all you need is a USB drive dock to use DvrBARS to restore that image.

2) use MFSTools. Here you have to be adept enough to mount the VHD as a drive and then use MFSTools to copy from drive (VHD) to drive (physical hard-drive)

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> No laptop has SATA ports. Use USB2/3.


If it is old enough many laptops came with a combo eSata/USB port. All laptops, unless very old, have internal SATA ports. You can externalize the port, but it is not easy as the correct parts are hard to find.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jamoses

jmbach said:


> If it is old enough many laptops came with a combo eSata/USB port. All laptops, unless very old, have internal SATA ports. You can externalize the port, but it is not easy as the correct parts are hard to find.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Tivo image came from a dropbox link;I believe it's a ggieseke image. I managed to get DvrBars to put it on a 1TG drive an hour ago--so, barring any problems when I get connected it to Tivo, marry the cablecard, etc, it should be good. It's working updating with Tivo now.

Anyway, you kind of confirmed that I can use SUSE Linux to get the job done without using MSWindows. I suspected this, but I'm just a bit uncertain of the specific additional unix commands. Probably need to mount the dos formatted USB, then write the image to the new disk. Not sure of the specific required options or flags required. I was hoping someone here knew what might be required. Perhaps something like 
root#>dd if=file.img of=/dev/sda; sync

-Jim


----------



## jmbach

jamoses said:


> Tivo image came from a dropbox link;I believe it's a ggieseke image. I managed to get DvrBars to put it on a 1TG drive an hour ago--so, barring any problems when I get connected it to Tivo, marry the cablecard, etc, it should be good. It's working updating with Tivo now.
> 
> Anyway, you kind of confirmed that I can use SUSE Linux to get the job done without using MSWindows. I suspected this, but I'm just a bit uncertain of the specific additional unix commands. Probably need to mount the dos formatted USB, then write the image to the new disk. Not sure of the specific required options or flags required. I was hoping someone here knew what might be required. Perhaps something like
> root#>dd if=file.img of=/dev/sda; sync
> 
> -Jim


Essentially the steps are

Mount the USB drive

Mount the VHD as a block device

Hard link the block device to a standard drive name like /dev/sdg

Then run the MFSTools command for copying an image.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jamoses

jmbach said:


> Essentially the steps are
> 
> Mount the USB drive
> 
> Mount the VHD as a block device
> 
> Hard link the block device to a standard drive name like /dev/sdg
> 
> Then run the MFSTools command for copying an image.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Thanks jmbach. I can handle the linux mount commands to mount the USB and the and the vhd. I just didn't know if the standard dd command needed any special sector size or other "copy all the partitions" switches. If I get board, I might try a few commands as well as the MFSTools copy command and see what works. There are a lot of options that are available with the MFTools build and I'm uncertain which might be required/optional/not-required which is why I posted to the site. 
My 1TB (typoed the 1TG above) drive clone worked out perfectly. Now gotta go call Spectrum to re-pair the cable card. Always difficult with them after they shut down their Cablecard team. Anyways, nice to start with a recent 20.7 Tivo image rather than relying on my years-old original 320GB Tivo drive. That was always a PITA to get it up to current. 
-JM


----------



## ThAbtO

*Spectrum (Charter, Insight, and Time Warner Cable)*

Support: 833-267-6094
Support Site
Self-Install Guide


----------



## jmbach

jamoses said:


> Thanks jmbach. I can handle the linux mount commands to mount the USB and the and the vhd. I just didn't know if the standard dd command needed any special sector size or other "copy all the partitions" switches. If I get board, I might try a few commands as well as the MFSTools copy command and see what works. There are a lot of options that are available with the MFTools build and I'm uncertain which might be required/optional/not-required which is why I posted to the site.
> My 1TB (typoed the 1TG above) drive clone worked out perfectly. Now gotta go call Spectrum to re-pair the cable card. Always difficult with them after they shut down their Cablecard team. Anyways, nice to start with a recent 20.7 Tivo image rather than relying on my years-old original 320GB Tivo drive. That was always a PITA to get it up to current.
> -JM


You would have to mount the VHD with qemu as a block device. Then hard link it to a valid but not used drive name. 
You can then use MFSTools copy command to copy and expand (or shrink)the image to the new drive. 
Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jamoses

ThAbtO said:


> *Spectrum (Charter, Insight, and Time Warner Cable)*
> 
> Support: 833-267-6094
> Support Site
> Self-Install Guide


Sigh. Well aware. It's Spectrum's people on the other end of that phone number that are usually clueless when I give them HOST and DATA values. What should take 5min or less usually takes 30min+ and more than 1 call to get a knowledgeable representative. Years ago they had a dedicated team that knew exactly how to repair. Today was easy: 5min to re-pair the card. (This rep knew what he was doing for a change)


----------



## iXod

Original OTA TiVo Bolt 500 GB dvr
I'm in the process of replacing the internal 500 GB 2.5" drive with 2 TB 3.5" drive mounted & powered externally, connected to the Bolt's internal SATA motherboard connector.

Downloaded and "burned" MFStools 3.32 image to a USB thumb drive. The PC boots from the thumb drive, I can log in and get the linux prompt.

I have listed and identified each of the drives connect to the PC. When I attempt backup or restore, I get "mfsbackup: command not found" and "mfsrestore: command not found".

I'm sure I'm missing a really basic step. What am I doing wrong?

I've been using this as a guide to use mfstools:

Backup, Upgrade, Add, or Replace TiVo drive using MFSTools - DVRpedia

Is there a better guide?

Thanks,
iX


----------



## ThAbtO

MFS Tools 3.2

With both drives connected, use mfscopy. It would copy and expand all at the same operation using -ai.


----------



## iXod

ThAbtO said:


> MFS Tools 3.2
> With both drives connected, use mfscopy. It would copy and expand all at the same operation using -ai.


Many options to that command. Are any recommended? Or just the bare
"mfscopy inputDrive outputDrive" command?
Or do you mean "using -ai" means option -a and option -i ?

Thanks,
iX


----------



## ThAbtO

As example:
mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb

the -ai is both -a and -i but I think Bolts don't need one of them, but forget which.

You would need to also find out what drive spec your drives are. ldisk, i believe. They would be sda, sdb, etc. but if you see sd1, sd2, etc, these might be partitions.


----------



## iXod

ThAbtO said:


> the -ai is both -a and -i but I think Bolts don't need one of them, but forget which.


Any risk to use both a and i ?


----------



## ThAbtO

one is not needed for Bolts.


----------



## iXod

I used:
mfscopy -ai /dev/sdd /dev/sdc

I got this response:
- - -
Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment.
Copy source: Can not determine primary boot partition from boot sector.
- - -
I tried the command with just -a option, then just -i option. Same result.

Might be related...? ::
When I list the PC's drives, unlike the destination drive and the other connected drives in the PC, the TiVo source drive doesn't have any Device/Start/End/Sectors/Size/Type data or partition data listed. (See screen capture, uploaded.)

Thanks,
iX


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## ThAbtO

Careful you do not overwrite other attached drives. sdc looks like a windows drive. use ldisk -l (small L) to determine what drives are assigned to what drive spec.


----------



## iXod

I think you mean "fdisk -l" . That returns the same listing (see previously uploaded listing) and disk data.

Yes the destination drive is /dev/sdc . But the mfscopy command doesn't care about the destination's format, yes? It does a sector copy. And besides, the mfscopy command is giving errors about the SOURCE drive (/sev/sdd), not the destination drive. 

Thanks,
iX


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> I think you mean "fdisk -l" . That returns the same listing (see previously uploaded listing) and disk data.
> 
> Yes the destination drive is /dev/sdc . But the mfscopy command doesn't care about the destination's format, yes? It does a sector copy. And besides, the mfscopy command is giving errors about the SOURCE drive (/sev/sdd), not the destination drive.
> 
> Thanks,
> iX


Did you read the full post in this thread where the MFSTools ISO can be downloaded. It explains the error you are getting.

Also are you sure about your target drive. It is the same size as your source drive.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

I read the whole thread. I'm confused.

Searching more threads that contain "Bolt" I see this: 
Help using/building MFS Tools 3.2 for Bolt??
which says that MFSTools can be used to add an external drive to a bolt. But no mention of how MFStools can do it.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
iX


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> I read the whole thread. I'm confused.
> 
> Searching more threads that contain "Bolt" I see this:
> Help using/building MFS Tools 3.2 for Bolt??
> which says that MFSTools can be used to add an external drive to a bolt. But no mention of how MFStools can do it.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
> iX


Did you read the first couple of posts in this thread and read the post where you can download the ISO?

What are you trying to do. Add an external drive to am internal drive or replace the internal drive.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

Either replace the one internal 2.5" with a larger capacity 3.5" (mounted & powered externally) connected to the internal SATA connector, or add an external drive via eSATA connector. The link
Help using/building MFS Tools 3.2 for Bolt??
says MFSTools 3.32 can provide an external Bolt drive, but no details how to do this.

Re. the ISO, yes. Created a USB flash drive which boots and gives Linux prompt. Gives errors when trying to use it (see previous posts).

Thanks,
iX


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Either replace the one internal 2.5" with a larger capacity 3.5" (mounted & powered externally) connected to the internal SATA connector, or add an external drive via eSATA connector. The link
> Help using/building MFS Tools 3.2 for Bolt??
> says MFSTools 3.32 can provide an external Bolt drive, but no details how to do this.
> 
> Re. the ISO, yes. Created a USB flash drive which boots and gives Linux prompt. Gives errors when trying to use it (see previous posts).
> 
> Thanks,
> iX


So the error about not finding the primary partition is addressed in that post and how to fix it.

So which direction are you leaning towards, a larger internal drive or adding a large external drive.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

jmbach said:


> So the error about not finding the primary partition is addressed in that post and how to fix it.


MFS Tools 3.2 , page 7
^^^^^^^^ Ah, you must mean the -*bootsectorfix* command. I'm really hesitant to do any writing to the source drive, my one-and-only copy of the Bolt's OS (or whatever the correct name for it is). Is this the only way to get to my goal of installing an expanded drive?

I think the best hardware (least complicated) is an external 4TB 3.5" with external power supply with a SATA cable connecting to the internal SATA connector. (But I'm not married to this option--open to suggestions.) This means no use for the original internal 2.5" drive--I'd like to keep this drive as a backup of the TiVo OS; so it can be booted if anything happens to the 4TB drive.

But as I mentioned, I'm really nervous about subjecting the source drive to any writing. Is there any other path forward that doesn't involve writing to the source drive?

Thanks very much for your help. So appreciated.

iX


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> MFS Tools 3.2 , page 7
> ^^^^^^^^ Ah, you must mean the -*bootsectorfix* command. I'm really hesitant to do any writing to the source drive, my one-and-only copy of the Bolt's OS (or whatever the correct name for it is). Is this the only way to get to my goal of installing an expanded drive?
> 
> I think the best hardware (least complicated) is an external 4TB 3.5" with external power supply with a SATA cable connecting to the internal SATA connector. (But I'm not married to this option--open to suggestions.) This means no use for the original internal 2.5" drive--I'd like to keep this drive as a backup of the TiVo OS; so it can be booted if anything happens to the 4TB drive.
> 
> But as I mentioned, I'm really nervous about subjecting the source drive to any writing. Is there any other path forward that doesn't involve writing to the source drive?
> 
> Thanks very much for your help. So appreciated.
> 
> iX


Unfortunately no. Bootsectorfix writes about 5 or 6 bytes to the beginning of the bootsector. It appears that the newer TiVos that have internal flash don't require that info on the drive as it is now on the internal flash. MFSTools unfortunately requires that info.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

OK. Boot sectors fixed.

Next step: backup the TiVo image from the original 500 GB disk to a FAT32 flash drive.

The syntax of the msfbackup command is ambiguous if you're using external (USB) connected drives. I have no "Master/Slave" drives, just USB-attached ones (the descriptions of the MFSTools written for Windows/PCs use the Master/Slave nomenclature--I use /dev/sda or /sdb or /sdc, etc. nomenclature). The "hda" reference is not clarified in any documentation that I've been able to find.

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/*hda*

Is /dev/hda the destination for the backup image? Or is it the TiVo source drive from which the backup will be created?

It's a critical question (so I don't erase my only TiVo drive). Clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your assistance.

iX


----------



## iXod

iXod said:


> Next step: backup the TiVo image from the original 500 GB disk to a FAT32 flash drive.
> iX


Bumping this request&#8230;


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> OK. Boot sectors fixed.
> 
> Next step: backup the TiVo image from the original 500 GB disk to a FAT32 flash drive.
> 
> The syntax of the msfbackup command is ambiguous if you're using external (USB) connected drives. I have no "Master/Slave" drives, just USB-attached ones (the descriptions of the MFSTools written for Windows/PCs use the Master/Slave nomenclature--I use /dev/sda or /sdb or /sdc, etc. nomenclature). The "hda" reference is not clarified in any documentation that I've been able to find.
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/*hda*
> 
> Is /dev/hda the destination for the backup image? Or is it the TiVo source drive from which the backup will be created?
> 
> It's a critical question (so I don't erase my only TiVo drive). Clarification would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks again for your assistance.
> 
> iX


Assuming the mount is correct for your system and that your original TiVo drive is sda, then it would be 
backup -9aio /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/sda

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

Thanks JM. I started the backup. The destination drive for the backup is 32 GB flash drive. Backup command says uncompressed backup size is 442358 MiB. That backs up the whole 500 GB drive! Isn't the TiVo backup (no recordings) supposed to be only 1.5 GB?

The backup ran for a few minutes then failed. See attached screen capture.










Please advise.
- - - 
Step by step I get somewhere...?


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Thanks JM. I started the backup. The destination drive for the backup is 32 GB flash drive. Backup command says uncompressed backup size is 442358 MiB. That backs up the whole 500 GB drive! Isn't the TiVo backup (no recordings) supposed to be only 1.5 GB?


Yes but then drop the 'a' in the command line. The 'a' tells MFSTools to backup all recordings.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> The backup ran for a few minutes then failed. See attached screen capture.
> 
> View attachment 60817
> 
> 
> Please advise.
> - - -
> Step by step I get somewhere...?


Try:

mount -t vfat /dev/sdf1 /dos
backup -9sio /dos/tivo.bak /dev/sda

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

Thanks JM.

Oops…
“mount point /dos does not exist”


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Thanks JM.
> 
> Oops&#8230;
> "mount point /dos does not exist"


Then make it /mnt/dos

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

Forgot to use /mnt/dos/tivo.bak
"Backup done!"


----------



## Larsenv

I just bought a RCA DVR40 DirecTiVo from Goodwill for $10. It has some recordings that I want to get off of it.

Can MFS Tools help me extract the .ty files, or are they encrypted to the motherboard?


----------



## jmbach

Larsenv said:


> I just bought a RCA DVR40 DirecTiVo from Goodwill for $10. It has some recordings that I want to get off of it.
> 
> Can MFS Tools help me extract the .ty files, or are they encrypted to the motherboard?


I can't say that it will.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Forgot to use /mnt/dos/tivo.bak
> "Backup done!"


How large was your backup?

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

tivo.bak is 28.6 MB


----------



## iXod

The next steps I see are to clone the original drive and proceed with expansion.

I cloned the original 500 GB drive to an identical drive (removed from another identical Bolt that is now removed from service). I used a PC app, "AOMEI Partition Assistant". ** See EDIT below for more information about AOMEI apps ** 

Being a cautious guy, I first connected the original TiVo drive to the Bolt to confirm that I hadn't damaged it in any way. The Bolt booted the drive and I had access to my recordings and ToDo schedule.

I then removed power to the Bolt, disconnected the original drive and connected the clone drive to the Bolt and plugged in power. The Bolt booted the clone drive and showed me the "Welcome" screen. I immediately removed power from the Bolt.

I then disconnected the clone drive and connected the original TiVo drive and connected power. The Bolt booted the drive. I have lost all my recordings and the ToDo schedule. I immediately removed power from the Bolt and disconnected the drive.

Is there any way to recover my recordings?

What in this process did I do wrong?
- - - 
EDIT:
Do NOT use AOMEI apps to clone your drive. The TiVo will not recognize a drive cloned with these apps and will result in the TiVo initializing the drive. You will lose all your recordings EVEN ON YOUR ORIGINAL TiVo DRIVE.


----------



## ThAbtO

iXod said:


> Is there any way to recover my recordings?


No.

Bolt keeps a sort of catalog of shows on its internal flash memory and when it sees the drive has a different catalog, it deletes the flash memory version, and what was on the drive. Earlier models, like Roamio doesn't do that.


----------



## jmbach

ThAbtO is correct. 

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

What of this procedure did I do wrong?


----------



## ThAbtO

Just by swapping in another drive.


----------



## iXod

It was a clone. As instructed in the steps in this thread for the Bolt to expand to a larger (4TB) drive.


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> It was a clone. As instructed in the steps in this thread for the Bolt to expand to a larger (4TB) drive.


If it was an exact clone, it would not do this. Something must not have gone right with your cloning process.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

And there was nothing I could have done after cloning to confirm proper cloning other than trying the drive, as I did?


----------



## ThAbtO

No, you would not have known until its tried.


----------



## iXod

And with this outcome, I could have achieved the same result and avoided spending all this time by simply plugging in a new bare drive into the bolt and powering it on and performing the setup process?


----------



## ThAbtO

Yes. and by replacing the original drive, its essentially wiped it as well.


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> And with this outcome, I could have achieved the same result and avoided spending all this time by simply plugging in a new bare drive into the bolt and powering it on and performing the setup process?


More or less. It depends on the size of the drive and the version of the OS on your Bolt. Some combinations require 3rd party tools as well.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## iXod

So where do I go from here? Do I plug in the new 4TB drive and see if the Bolt will accept it and allow me to set it up? Or some other steps first?

I’m using TE3.


----------



## ggieseke

iXod said:


> So where do I go from here? Do I plug in the new 4TB drive and see if the Bolt will accept it and allow me to set it up? Or some other steps first?
> 
> I'm using TE3.


If it's running TE3 you will need MFS Reformatter to use a drive over 3TB. Plug in the new 4TB drive and let it boot up to the first Guided Setup screen where it asks you to select a country. At that point it will appear to be working but only a fraction of the drive space will actually be available. Unplug the Bolt, connect the drive to a Windows computer, and run MFSR to properly format the full 4TB.

Note: Recent versions of TE4 can properly format drives up to something like 14TB without any help.

MFS Reformatter (mfsr)


----------



## pj1983

nelem said:


> Does any one have experience of this TiVo? I had a hard drive failure and managed to rescue virtually all data to 1 3TB drive using ddrescue so I have a 1TB image on a 3TB drive which I want to expand but not having any joy.
> 
> JMFS-rev104 (from rosswalker.co.uk/tivo_upgrade) says No TiVo drives
> MFSLive 1.4 sees the partitions on the drive but I have been advised not to use it.
> MFS Tools 3.2 mfsinfo gives "ERROR Unexpected values for state/magic c1b2bdfd/00000000"
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> Cheers





jmbach said:


> Looks like the MFS header is corrupt. If the backup header is intact you might be able to use that to fix it.


Nothing like quoting a nearly 6 year old post  but this is the only result that came up when I did a search for "Unexpected values for state/magic".

I have a 1TB drive that I zeroed out and am trying to install into a Roamio Pro that had a bad 3TB drive. I've tried pretty much every MFSTools command that would seem to fix the problem but I keep getting the above error. Installing the drive into the Roamio as it sits right now results in getting stuck at the "Starting Up" screen.

Should I try to wipe the drive (again) to see if MFSTools can bring it back to life? Is there some Linux command I could use to get the drive to a known good state, then try MFSTools again?


----------



## jmbach

pj1983 said:


> Nothing like quoting a nearly 6 year old post  but this is the only result that came up when I did a search for "Unexpected values for state/magic".
> 
> I have a 1TB drive that I zeroed out and am trying to install into a Roamio Pro that had a bad 3TB drive. I've tried pretty much every MFSTools command that would seem to fix the problem but I keep getting the above error. Installing the drive into the Roamio as it sits right now results in getting stuck at the "Starting Up" screen.
> 
> Should I try to wipe the drive (again) to see if MFSTools can bring it back to life? Is there some Linux command I could use to get the drive to a known good state, then try MFSTools again?


Use WD diagnostic to do a complete write and read on the drive. Then put it in your Roamio and it should format it to a usable state.

MFSTools is not needed. 
Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## pj1983

jmbach said:


> Use WD diagnostic to do a complete write and read on the drive. Then put it in your Roamio and it should format it to a usable state.
> 
> MFSTools is not needed.
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


That worked. I'm not sure why the previous erase using WD Diagnostics didn't work. Perhaps it's the difference between the DOS version I used the first time and the Windows version for this attempt. Thank you!


----------



## jmbach

pj1983 said:


> That worked. I'm not sure why the previous erase using WD Diagnostics didn't work. Perhaps it's the difference between the DOS version I used the first time and the Windows version for this attempt. Thank you!


Sometimes there are flaky sectors on the drive a complete write and read clears them out. I do a full read-write-read before I put any drive in a TiVo or for that matter any time I put a drive in use in any equipment.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## pl1

ThAbtO said:


> No.
> 
> Bolt keeps a sort of catalog of shows on its internal flash memory and when it sees the drive has a different catalog, it deletes the flash memory version, and what was on the drive. Earlier models, like Roamio doesn't do that.


I have a question for you (if you know). I made a copy of my Bolt drive with some recordings and cableCARD settings to a new 2TB drive with the assumptioon that I could use it in the event of a failure.

But, reading your statement, I'm concerned that the Bolt will see a different catalog, and delete the flash memory version.

If it DOES blow out the recordings, will it also blow out the cableCARD settings? That is my main goal, to have a cableCARD backup that I can use in the event of a failure.

Would having a bare minimum "settings only" backup work months or years later? Or do you have to do a backup/restore at the time you replace a drive?

Testing this out may mean losing my cableCARD settings which is why I ask if you know.


----------



## jmbach

pl1 said:


> I have a question for you (if you know). I made a copy of my Bolt drive with some recordings and cableCARD settings to a new 2TB drive with the assumptioon that I could use it in the event of a failure.
> 
> But, reading your statement, I'm concerned that the Bolt will see a different catalog, and delete the flash memory version.
> 
> If it DOES blow out the recordings, will it also blow out the cableCARD settings? That is my main goal, to have a cableCARD backup that I can use in the event of a failure.
> 
> Would having a bare minimum "settings only" backup work months or years later? Or do you have to do a backup/restore at the time you replace a drive?
> 
> Testing this out may mean losing my cableCARD settings which is why I ask if you know.


So the database for the recordings is now kept on the internal flash drives on Bolts and I assume the Edge (I do not have one to work on so it is just a guess from reading other posts) The database no longer follows the drive so wierd things can happen when using a backup image in the future.

So if the shows on your backup are not deleted anytime in the future on your new drive, then those recordings are still available to watch if you use your backup if you new drive goes bad. You will also see all the recordings listed that was on the new drive that went bad but have no access to them. Unpredictable things can happen when you then try to use the backup image if on the new drive old recordings that were on the backup were deleted and then other things were recorded in that area.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## pl1

jmbach said:


> So the database for the recordings is now kept on the internal flash drives on Bolts and I assume the Edge (I do not have one to work on so it is just a guess from reading other posts) The database no longer follows the drive so wierd things can happen when using a backup image in the future.
> 
> So if the shows on your backup are not deleted anytime in the future on your new drive, then those recordings are still available to watch if you use your backup if you new drive goes bad. You will also see all the recordings listed that was on the new drive that went bad but have no access to them. Unpredictable things can happen when you then try to use the backup image if on the new drive old recordings that were on the backup were deleted and then other things were recorded in that area.


Ok, thank-you very much for your explanation. I think I'm good with that!


----------



## iXod

jmbach said:


> Sometimes there are flaky sectors on the drive a complete write and read clears them out. I do a full read-write-read before I put any drive in a TiVo or for that matter any time I put a drive in use in any equipment.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Sounds like prudent advice. Can you please recommend software to Read-Write-Read a complete drive?

Thanks.


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Sounds like prudent advice. Can you please recommend software to Read-Write-Read a complete drive?
> 
> Thanks.


I have used both WD and Seagate diagnostic programs to do that. Alternatively you can use Spinrite.

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## iXod

jmbach said:


> I have used both WD and Seagate diagnostic programs to do that. Alternatively you can use Spinrite.


Thanks JM. Do the WD and Seagate apps care if it's not their brand (eg, Toshiba)?

Do these do Read-Write-Read all in one pass? Or does it take 3 passes?


----------



## jmbach

iXod said:


> Thanks JM. Do the WD and Seagate apps care if it's not their brand (eg, Toshiba)?
> 
> Do these do Read-Write-Read all in one pass? Or does it take 3 passes?


Spinrite can don't in one pass. The others it take three passes and for these functions they do not care about the drive manufacturer.

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## brycepowell

jmbach said:


> Essentially the steps are
> 
> Mount the USB drive
> 
> Mount the VHD as a block device
> 
> Hard link the block device to a standard drive name like /dev/sdg
> 
> Then run the MFSTools command for copying an image.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


What are the detailed steps for doing this? I am also trying to restore a VHD image without using DvrBARS.


----------



## jmbach

brycepowell said:


> What are the detailed steps for doing this? I am also trying to restore a VHD image without using DvrBARS.


How familiar are you with Linux commands?

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## brycepowell

jmbach said:


> How familiar are you with Linux commands?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Very familiar.


----------



## jmbach

brycepowell said:


> Very familiar.


Do you know how to mount a USB drive partition so that Linux can see the VHD?

Also are you using MFSTools ISO or USB/HDD image or your native Linux OS.

You will be using qemu-nbd so that will need to be installed. I am not sure if the MFSTools ISO or USB/HDD images has that installed. And I am not in a place to check this weekend.

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## brycepowell

jmbach said:


> Do you know how to mount a USB drive partition so that Linux can see the VHD?
> 
> Also are you using MFSTools ISO or USB/HDD image or your native Linux OS.
> 
> You will be using qemu-nbd so that will need to be installed. I am not sure if the MFSTools ISO or USB/HDD images has that installed. And I am not in a place to check this weekend.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Yes, I love the MFSLive/MFSTools Boot CDs, but also happen to enjoy Ubuntu installed on my same computer. One thing I will say is I'm very familiar with the MFSLive/MFSTools skeleton and have much experience in creating restore images and backups using either CD. However, I chose not to use them this time because they lack the programs and scripts that help build a real Linux distro, such as what's on my laptop. Therefore, I attempted the following with Ubuntu. The first thing I had to do was look for a guide on how to mount virtual hard disk images. Then I installed qemu-nbd on my distro as the article had stated. Finally, I tried to link the VHD backup file to a virtual device and mount it, but was unsuccessful at doing so. It specifically gave me a "no such device or directory" error while mounting the image. I'm stuck right now at this error, but still able to wait for your help. I don't need to know how to fix it right away because I'm working on other stuff for TiVo drives.


----------



## jmbach

brycepowell said:


> Yes, I love the MFSLive/MFSTools Boot CDs, but also happen to enjoy Ubuntu installed on my same computer. One thing I will say is I'm very familiar with the MFSLive/MFSTools skeleton and have much experience in creating restore images and backups using either CD. However, I chose not to use them this time because they lack the programs and scripts that help build a real Linux distro, such as what's on my laptop. Therefore, I attempted the following with Ubuntu. The first thing I had to do was look for a guide on how to mount virtual hard disk images. Then I installed qemu-nbd on my distro as the article had stated. Finally, I tried to link the VHD backup file to a virtual device and mount it, but was unsuccessful at doing so. It specifically gave me a "no such device or directory" error while mounting the image. I'm stuck right now at this error, but still able to wait for your help. I don't need to know how to fix it right away because I'm working on other stuff for TiVo drives.


Don't actually mount the VHD but use qemu to load it as a block device.

The command should be something like qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 "path"/tivo.vhd.

Next hard link it to a non existing drive name like - ln /dev/nbd0 /dev/sdf assuming you do not already have a drive sdf.

Then use /dev/sdf as the source image for MFSTools to do your copy.

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## bbddpp

Hi everyone. Using one of the ISOs from this forum and thanks so much for all the great help so far. 

I’m replacing a bad OTA Roamio 2TB and looking to move all the contents of it to a new drive before doing so. The old drive is 2tb, the new drive is 5TB. During the first step of the copy I was moving along nicely at 50 percent before bed, this morning expecting it to be done but instead seeing DRDY and unrecoverable read errors on the source. Doesn’t surprise me since the drive was giving me issues and that’s why I am pulling it. Question is, is there a way to modify the copy command to get these errors ignored so I can at least complete the operation? I realize that this may cause some show data to not move over properly and that’s fine. Just want to salvage what I can.


----------



## jmbach

bbddpp said:


> Hi everyone. Using one of the ISOs from this forum and thanks so much for all the great help so far.
> 
> I'm replacing a bad OTA Roamio 2TB and looking to move all the contents of it to a new drive before doing so. The old drive is 2tb, the new drive is 5TB. During the first step of the copy I was moving along nicely at 50 percent before bed, this morning expecting it to be done but instead seeing DRDY and unrecoverable read errors on the source. Doesn't surprise me since the drive was giving me issues and that's why I am pulling it. Question is, is there a way to modify the copy command to get these errors ignored so I can at least complete the operation? I realize that this may cause some show data to not move over properly and that's fine. Just want to salvage what I can.


No not with any of the MFSTools. I would recommend using ddrescue to copy the drive with multiple passes to another good drive and then use MFSTools on that drive.

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## bbddpp

jmbach said:


> No not with any of the MFSTools. I would recommend using ddrescue to copy the drive with multiple passes to another good drive and then use MFSTools on that drive.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


I decided to be super patient and let it finish errors and all. 24 hours later, booted up my Roamio with my 5 TB drive and it is showing all my content, plus diagnostics indicates 42% free now and 4827 SD and 701 HD hours even with just running the copy command (have not even run the mfsadd or mfsaddfix yet and unsure if I even need to!)

Wow. Pretty impressive. Not even sure if I want to take the drive out and run those add and addfix commands. It's just working! I just need to see if 701 HD = full 5TB capacity and if the drive will actually use it without the fix commands.


----------



## jmbach

bbddpp said:


> I decided to be super patient and let it finish errors and all. 24 hours later, booted up my Roamio with my 5 TB drive and it is showing all my content, plus diagnostics indicates 42% free now and 4827 SD and 701 HD hours even with just running the copy command (have not even run the mfsadd or mfsaddfix yet and unsure if I even need to!)
> 
> Wow. Pretty impressive. Not even sure if I want to take the drive out and run those add and addfix commands. It's just working! I just need to see if 701 HD = full 5TB capacity and if the drive will actually use it without the fix commands.


Interesting........
Are you on TE3 or TE4?
What command did you use to copy?

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## bguild

Hi guys, faulty Bolt+ drive. Can you look at the following screens and tell me if you can tell if any of the recordings are still intact? What is a "Zone"?

Thanks @jmbach the new MFSTools are working well!


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## jmbach

bguild said:


> Hi guys, faulty Bolt+ drive. Can you look at the following screens and tell me if you can tell if any of the recordings are still intact? What is a "Zone"?
> 
> Thanks @jmbach the new MFSTools are working well!
> View attachment 64185
> View attachment 64187


The MFS looks okay but you can have bad blocks in the recordings area causing problems. Also with a Bolt the database of the recordings are in flash. If that gets erased or goes bad, you lost access to your recordings even though they are intact on the hard drive. Unfortunately that cannot be recovered.

What kind of problems are you having?

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## bguild

jmbach said:


> The MFS looks okay but you can have bad blocks in the recordings area causing problems. Also with a Bolt the database of the recordings are in flash. If that gets erased or goes bad, you lost access to your recordings even though they are intact on the hard drive. Unfortunately that cannot be recovered.
> 
> What kind of problems are you having?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Cloned drive is now booting, but not showing any recordings.

I didn't know that about the database in flash! That must be the issue. I suspect when I originally put a brand new drive in the Bolt+ after the original died, it would have erased the recordings DB.

Man, I am so bummed. I was hopeful there would be some way to recover these, but alas perhaps the database is toast.

Positive there is no way to rebuild the DB based on the drive content? I feel like I saw a Kickstart command for this... if not someone should built a utility!

So sad!


----------



## jmbach

bguild said:


> ..... I suspect when I originally put a brand new drive in the Bolt+ after the original died, it would have erased the recordings DB.....


You are correct.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## gabrielstern

jmbach said:


> You are correct.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


I have a Question for jm.

In some of the earlier posts I hear you saying to check for a read write error on a hard drive to perform a full read write test I use wd data lifegaurd utilities.

And my options are perform quick test or full test.

For doing a hard drive test

For erasing a drive it gives quick erase or full drive erase.

So when you are saying do a full read write test,

To check for sector drop outs are you saying perform the full drive test vs quick quick drive test.

And not to select the full erase option.

Just want to make sure I am understanding you corectly.


----------



## jmbach

Using WD Diagnostic to prepare a drive for first use my routine is a full read followed by a full write (erase) followed by a full read again. 



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## gabrielstern

jmbach said:


> Using WD Diagnostic to prepare a drive for first use my routine is a full read followed by a full write (erase) followed by a full read again.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Thanks jm. I normally if a drive is brand new, just do a full erase.

But to check for bad sectors or sectors dropping out then just do a full drive check or full read write test and not the quick test.


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## jmbach

To check for bad sectors, every sector needs to be touched so at least a full read. I will check the SMART data before hand on the current sector count and compare after the full read. If the number changes, will do a full write and read (after I copy the current data to another drive temporarily) and then restore the data. 

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## gabrielstern

Thanks again 


jmbach said:


> To check for bad sectors, every sector needs to be touched so at least a full read. I will check the SMART data before hand on the current sector count and compare after the full read. If the number changes, will do a full write and read (after I copy the current data to another drive temporarily) and then restore the data.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


Thanks again currently I am not having issues.

But now I know for sure the process.

And to make sure to copy it first to another drive as a backup.

before proceeding

Thanks again


----------



## gabrielstern

jmbach said:


> You are correct.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


The best way to prevent losing your recordings permanently in a bolt is to use pytivo or kttmg and back them up to a computer before removing any hard drive from a bolt or to transfer the recordings to another tivo if possible.

Even if the hard drive is failing

And that tivo is not running te4 or hydra

And yes even if the bolt is running te4 you can still back them up with pytivo vs tivo desktop.

Then you can proceed with removing and copying a hard drive in case of a failure.


----------



## dougdingle

That only works if your cableco hasn't tagged 90% of your recordings with the 'do not copy flag'.


----------



## gabrielstern

dougdingle said:


> That only works if your cableco hasn't tagged 90% of your recordings with the 'do not copy flag'.


Depends on the cable company usually it is premium only channels that do that.

I have Comcast or xfinity but I am about to ditch them for cable TV.

And go with Verizon fios for the cable TV portion.

If they still provide cable card support and will provide me with all my channels.

Without starting to tag them as iptv only channels on the HD side like Comcast is doing.

As I hate x1 boxes and while I could view them on a roku I can't record from a roku.

Either way extracting or backing up your recordings Is the way to go.

Or have one romio or series 4 tivo.

With romio as my first choice as I can just slap a 3 tb in let it auto format and then move my recordings.

Back ups is always the way to go especially with bolts. And newer tivos before removing a hard drive.

And especially if you are running hydra.

Which I no longer like.

But I can safely say I did not lose any recordings when I downgraded my 2 bolts and romio device.and to be honest I could not be happier. As I backed everything up and transfered the recordings around.

Before downgrading my devices back to te3 or quatro.


----------



## bqbauer

I hope this is the right place to ask--I had watched the video and decided to try "User Experience 4" on my Roamio Plus, and the "experience" is garbage and super buggy. Tivo tells me I can go back to v3, but will lose everything. Can I copy just the recordings from my 4TB hard drive to another drive (space isn't an issue), revert, then copy just the recordings back to the drive? Also--it may be worth noting that I'm a Spectrum customer, so the vast majority of recordings are copy protected, so I can't use Tivo's web site in any fashion if I had a second Tivo.

I'm am UNIX and Linux savvy and a sysadmin of 30 years, and I have the resources, but I don't have enough knowledge specific to Tivo or msftools. I've also contacted Weaknees to see if they can accomplish this task.

Thanks for any help.


----------



## ThAbtO

No, you cannot just copy shows with MFSTools. It falls into the category of extraction. Its the whole drive or nothing.


----------



## gabrielstern

bqbauer said:


> I hope this is the right place to ask--I had watched the video and decided to try "User Experience 4" on my Roamio Plus, and the "experience" is garbage and super buggy. Tivo tells me I can go back to v3, but will lose everything. Can I copy just the recordings from my 4TB hard drive to another drive (space isn't an issue), revert, then copy just the recordings back to the drive? Also--it may be worth noting that I'm a Spectrum customer, so the vast majority of recordings are copy protected, so I can't use Tivo's web site in any fashion if I had a second Tivo.
> 
> I'm am UNIX and Linux savvy and a sysadmin of 30 years, and I have the resources, but I don't have enough knowledge specific to Tivo or msftools. I've also contacted Weaknees to see if they can accomplish this task.
> 
> Thanks for any help.


As the user just posted you cannot copy just your shows using mffs tools 3.2.

But here is the good news for your romio plus you can do what I did and if you have an older tivo such as a series 4 you could transfer your recordings to that device. First.

Or you can use pytivo to copy your recordings and download the software from the forum py tivo.

See also the forum how to rollback a romio from hydra back to te3. There in that forum is the link to download pytivo.

Now if on the stock 1tb hard drive which is what I assume you are still using will not let you roll it back after you have used pytivo to back up all your recordings to a computer.

Then mffs tools might be of use to at least let you copy the hard drive to another drive.

But to prevent and avoid that from happening I recomend running the stock hard drive through a clear and delete everything cycle first after backing up your recordings using pytivo first and then you can perform the rollback procedure as provided in the forum on how to rollback romios and bolts running hydra unless the drive is over 3tbs. Then it gets more complicated.

I hope this info helps and good luck then using mffs tools 3.2 will be of better use for you without the junky hydra system on your tivo


----------



## ThAbtO

gabrielstern said:


> But here is the good news for your romio plus you can do what I did and if you have an older tivo such as a series 4 you could transfer your recordings to that device. First.
> 
> Or you can use pytivo to copy your recordings and download the software from the forum py tivo.


You can't if they are copy-protected.



gabrielstern said:


> mffs tools


You keep saying mffs tools which is incorrect and a search will yield nothing. its MFSTools. (this thread)


----------



## gabrielstern

ThAbtO said:


> You can't if they are copy-protected.


That's true. But the question would be does he have any copy protected shows but yes as I stated you are correct mffs tools is not going to let you just copy the recordings.

So if he wants to preserve as much recordings as he can or all of them he needs pytivo or kttmg but I have not used kttmg.

Only tivo desktop plus and pytivo.


----------



## ThAbtO

gabrielstern said:


> he needs pytivo or kttmg but I have not used kttmg.


The same applies for copy-protected recordings. PyTivo cannot transfer those either. Same with KMTTG.

He is SOL if ALL the shows are copy-protected. All there is do is to stream them across other Tivos (Premiere and later.)


----------



## gabrielstern

ThAbtO said:


> The same applies for copy-protected recordings. PyTivo cannot transfer those either. Same with KMTTG.
> 
> He is SOL if ALL the shows are copy-protected. All there is do is to stream them across other Tivos (Premiere and later.)


I know let's hope he has zero copy protected shows in my case i had maybe one or 2 from 2013 and 2014..

From mgm channel but I replaced those with a DVD or 2 and found one on vudu.

My screw up was on my series 4 I should have plugged in my original 500 gig series 4 drive back in 2019 before I copied it off for a second time just to update the software from the 2015 version.

Then I could have used the recordings from the original drive let pytivo clean them up vs trying to clean up the recordings from a copied drive.

And would have avoided needing a fresh image, as once, I had copied off the recordings from the original drive I could have just c d and Ed that drive and used that as my image drive but I am where I need to be right now. And have a good fresh 500 gig series 4 image

And have my system of jmfs for drives 2tbs and under then back the images up using dvr barz.

Then use mffs tools 3.2 to expand my jmfs images to anything 3tbs up to 8tbs for my series 4 and I could not be happier.

Next up is to get my mffs tools images backed up.

But I think to get mffs tools 3.2to take unlike with jmfs I just need to set the drive to repeat guided set up vs cd and e .

So I can back them up in dvr barz.


----------



## ggieseke

bqbauer said:


> Also--it may be worth noting that I'm a Spectrum customer, so the vast majority of recordings are copy protected, so I can't use Tivo's web site in any fashion if I had a second Tivo.





gabrielstern said:


> But here is the good news for your romio plus you can do what I did and if you have an older tivo such as a series 4 you could transfer your recordings to that device. First.
> 
> Or you can use pytivo to copy your recordings and download the software from the forum py tivo.


You can't copy or transfer copy protected recordings.



gabrielstern said:


> So I can back them up in dvr barz.


It's DvrBARS.


----------



## gabrielstern

ggieseke said:


> You can't copy or transfer copy protected recordings.
> 
> It's DvrBARS.


Dvrbarz only works for series 4 tivos and earlier.

You can still use pytivo for the non copy protected recordings.

And with most cable companies it's the premium channels such as HBO that copy protect programs.

So what I am saying is get what you can backed up using pytivo. Which is 10 times more reliable vs tivo online. Which often only transfers Part of the recording.

But the bottom line is mffs tools can transfer everything but it's going to also transfer hydra as well.

Trust me I tried an experiment last year after getting my recordings out by performing an experiment on my romio pro. Where after downgrading it on another hard drive putting the old hard drive back in that was running on Hydra.

And while the recordings were there they still were not accessible.

I am sorry if you have a bunch of copy protected programs.

But unless someone knows something I don't know about whether mffs tools 3.2 can copy a drive and the recordings from a drive that was running on Hydra from a romio.

After a the downgrade procedure is performed on a romio using a different drive than the stock drive.

And have those recordings be viewable.

In te3.

They are just not going to be viewable.

Again once you downgrade.


----------



## bqbauer

Thanks everyone for the replies. I guess I didn't have alerts enabled to notify me of responses to my question.

I did mention in the original post that as a Spectrum customer, nearly all recordings are copy protected. That's what they do, and what Time Warner before them did. I also mentioned that I'm using a 4TB drive, so not the original drive for whatever that's worth.

Shows don't seem to be accessible with any of these tools, including kmttg. This new "experience" is such garbage and I can't believe how many bugs it has. I'll see if I can find the thread about going back to the old--even if I do lose everything, it's better than keeping this very frustrating interface. It's enough to drive me from Tivo and cable TV.


----------



## bqbauer

Could someone maybe point me to that downgrade thread? I'm having trouble finding it.


----------



## jmbach

bqbauer said:


> Could someone maybe point me to that downgrade thread? I'm having trouble finding it.


Try here.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## gabrielstern

bqbauer said:


> Thanks everyone for the replies. I guess I didn't have alerts enabled to notify me of responses to my question.
> 
> I did mention in the original post that as a Spectrum customer, nearly all recordings are copy protected. That's what they do, and what Time Warner before them did. I also mentioned that I'm using a 4TB drive, so not the original drive for whatever that's worth.
> 
> Shows don't seem to be accessible with any of these tools, including kmttg. This new "experience" is such garbage and I can't believe how many bugs it has. I'll see if I can find the thread about going back to the old--even if I do lose everything, it's better than keeping this very frustrating interface. It's enough to drive me from Tivo and cable TV.


So I assuming you used mffs reformator to be able to use your 4tb drive.

If that's the case you need to put the original stock hard drive in let hydra upgrade it then go to the forum how to rollback a romio or tivo mini from hydra to te3.

Then you will need to download western digital data lifegaurd utilities and use the functions of that to do a full read write test.

Or to make things simpler and easier after you sucessfully complete the rollback just install a brand new 4tb hard drive either a western digital red plus or purple will work.

And you can then if you wish just copy the original hard drive after downgrading it using mffs tools. 3.2 which is this forum or use mffs reformator and follow the instructions from that forum.

Just so you know I am still cleaning up some messes from some recordings that I got out of a before downgrading a romio from hydra and a bolt.

With getting them to transfer back due to stuff hydra did to some of my recordings back I am slowly getting them back and out of my computer.

Onto my target tivo device.

What I am saying is get the romio rolled back first then you can use mffs tools 3.2 to copy and expand at the same time.


----------



## gabrielstern

Thanks jm while I know the thread names I still have not figured out how to get the shortcuts directly to the link posted.

When someone asks.


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## permanentpress

Help me oh Tivo Linux cloning gurus. I am hoping to save recordings and passes and everything of a very failing (flashing lights and bad sectors) Bolt Vox 3 tb drive. Been reading up last few days and finding utilities but hitting a failure point. Either I am missing something or the Bolt drive is missing Too many sectors :/ 
(CAPS and asterisks flag my important questions if you care to help but quickly. But my story is included...) Photos as well if you see anything you need to tell me about.
I've had Tivos since 2001, and I am great with computers and such but never took the time to really learn Linux (I know, for some of you that's a non-correlation  
I've cloned, copied, put a hard drive in a freezer once (actually got it to copy!) DirectTV, etc. then I got to the Bolt - one died in 3 months, another in 9 months and there wasn't a good way to clone it so I gave up trying. But this last (warranty replacement) upgraded to a Bolt Vox (but no voice remote as consolation  held on a couple years - 'til last week. Have a 3TB external/fake internal Weaknees drive ready to go (first-time customer! Bye, Frys).
Found latest MFSTools v3.34-2 at Release MFSTools v3.34-2 · thess/mfstools (good thing my older copy won't start and is incompatible!)
read page 1-7 etc, and very helpful post 247 (I think that's the number?) and many others. I have so many web pages open I am not sure where things are now.
And I can't get my old drive to copy. Can you tell me what I am missing or give me an alternate clone path, DDrescue maybe (can I run that from inside MFStools ?)

**Note: I am determined to try to recover first and won't swap in drives out of order, Ideally I can clone it, then Thinking about to trying to boot Old drive and copy passes or maybe a few more shows (or just watch some It's been over a week!) THEN will pull and switch to the new Weaknees clone.) I know you cannot do this in the opposite order  - Please warn me if I should go straight to the clone because watching recording or an auto update would screw over my copy and kill recordings.... My thought is if I can copy passes and photograph the recordings pages I have a record, so if the clone doesn't work and I have to reformat, I have a record to recover with.*****

I ran SpinRite on the bad drive and it's bad, 1500 sectors moved successfully and seven chunks that stayed red, which may very well be my boot sectors... (plus SpinRite craps out after 2 terabytes - programming limitation) yet it has ttwice managed to keep my Premiere running because it fixes "enough" stuff at the beginning. 
SO then I get to MFS tools. Using an old PC with nothing connected but the optical drive, old Bolt and new Weeknees.
MFS does auto-login as tivo (regular user). 
I typed in sudo -s to enable privs to access drives in raw mode.
*IS THIS STICKY TILL REBOOT so I don't need to add Sudo before other commands? I think the switch S makes it sticky. Getting same errors with or with so far.

command lsblk to identify Tivo drive(s). SDA old and SDB new. sda has no folders, makes sense
command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
Scanning source drive then:
error that it cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector.
Found forum reference and ran
-bootsectorfix sda
warning everything bad could happen! etc,... did it anyway...
says: little endian computer detected
open: No such file or directory

got that a few times and then created this post.
*** SO is there an alternate command I can run here, perhaps something along ddcopy lines to make it try to clone all the sectors it can regardless of file system and then see what happens? I don't know that command and can I run it inside of MFStools? IF it completes even with errors
- then I would look at the CLONED drive inside MFS tools and tell if it sees a tivo filesystem, and then 
- boot the BAD drive in the Tivo (or TRY to!) to copy passes and make notes,
- THEN try to to boot the clone and go on with my TV life. 
If that fails because the copy is too flaky, I give up and just format the new drive and start all over. But man I will lose a lot of curated things from channels I wasn't allowed to pyTIvo off for my NAS over the years. And I often get lucky with persistence, learning cool things along the way.

Thank you thank to any helpful information and this forum over the years. And I hope some of this story is an example for others attempts in the future -- and expect to see it myself again if/when this drive fails, because I saw my last one searching this issue. (The replies weren't helpful though)

stray thought from my reading * do I need -mfsaddfix (probably not if i didn't add partitions with mfstools, and the two drives are both 3TB anyway).


----------



## tommage1

I think you were right about needing DDrescue. And yes, it's on late releases of MFST. But that drive is SO BAD. And what are you trying to copy it to, if another 2.5" 3TB drive what is the model number? And what OS are you running, TE3 or TE4? If you end up having to start fresh, the model number of the new drive is very important (and very important for the rescue attempt), you don't want an SMR drive and it's VERY difficult and expensive to find a 2.5" 3TB CMR drive. Finally you do realize you cannot swap drives around in a Bolt unless an EXACT clone? And once something/anything changes on the new drive you will not be able to access anything on the old drive (map to recordings/settings is on flash drive, whenever you swap in another drive the map to the recordings/settings on the old drive is lost).


----------



## permanentpress

permanentpress said:


> Help me oh Tivo Linux cloning gurus.
> 
> Forward progress, maybe not success yet, but syntax is everything in Linux right?
> Was still researching while waiting, realized maybe I had the commands wrong. Uh huh.
> *bootsectorfix /dev/sda*
> oh there's a path, sure. I knew that....What it determined the booting partition is partition 3.
> Thanks! Also thank you OS for remembering commands with an arrow up so I can both see my errors and repeats my more careful typing.
> /mfscopy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> 
> It's copying! it's lowered the copy rate twice because interrupts are taking too long, but it's 0.56 percent farther than the Nothing I had before.
> There's no way it will work, but it could work....
> and now I can go to sleep and go to work in the morning....sigh.


----------



## tommage1

Oh, you say you have an external 3TB weakness drive for the new drive? If so, I'm pretty sure they would have used a CMR 3.5" drive. So should be ok. But again, if you hook it up (the new drive) you will lose access to all recordings/settings on the old drive unless the clone to the the 3TB worked.

Your second post came out funny for some reason. But I see you are copying. If original is so bad it probably won't work. If not try DDrescue. But don't hook up to the Bolt until you are sure you have a good copy/clone or will lose everything on original drive too (it will still be on there but will never be able to access again as the new drive will update the map on the flash drive)


----------



## permanentpress

tommage1 said:


> I think you were right about needing DDrescue. And yes, it's on late releases of MFST. But that drive is SO BAD. */I Love an Underdog/ *
> And what are you trying to copy it to, if another 2.5" 3TB ...?
> */Weeknees-supplied 3.5" external drive enclosure with Internal connector cable - don't know model but it is CMR/ *
> ...TE3 or TE4?
> */TE4 - never wanted to lose things by going back, If this fails though I get to be on TE3 again  / *
> If you end up having to start fresh, the model number of the new drive is very important (and very important for the rescue attempt), you don't want an SMR drive and it's VERY difficult and expensive to find a 2.5" 3TB CMR drive.* /YES Saw the SMR info last week drive shopping -- terrible time to need a drive, hence finally using Weaknees after So Many Tivos - Shout from the rooftops NO SMR drives for ANYTHING VIDEO! - terrible idea /*
> ..you cannot swap drives around in a Bolt unless an EXACT clone? And once something/anything changes on the new drive you will not be able to access anything on the old drive (map to recordings/settings is on flash drive, whenever you swap in another drive the map to the recordings/settings on the old drive is lost).


*/*Losing it all is my biggest fear in this process! Finally have chance to save Bolt data - by anything does that includes deletions or new recordings? - quite the tightrope -
but if New drive doesn't boot I kill my shot at copying season passes, wishlist data and maybe a recording. IF I try, it's without ethernet or cable in.... BUT is a copy with bad sectors still an exact clone? I don't know! I appreciate your feedback and support, your concerns align with mine and what I have been learning, hopefully that means we didn't miss any  
2.06% complete...


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> */*Losing it all is my biggest fear in this process! Finally have chance to save Bolt data - by anything does that includes deletions or new recordings? - quite the tightrope -
> but if New drive doesn't boot I kill my shot at copying season passes, wishlist data and maybe a recording. IF I try, it's without ethernet or cable in.... BUT is a copy with bad sectors still an exact clone? I don't know! I appreciate your feedback and support, your concerns align with mine and what I have been learning, hopefully that means we didn't miss any
> 2.06% complete...


I will give you a summary of what I think is going on. First, I assume you have not hooked up the new drive or any other drive to the Bolt other than the original "bad" drive? Second, does the "bad" drive boot at all or are you getting flashing lights? If flashing lights your only hope is probably the clone. I doubt the regular copy will work, too many errors on original. But see what it looks like in the morning. I would have started with DDrescue myself with a drive that bad. If the copy seems "iffy", I would just forget about it and start fresh with DDrescue. Make sure you read up on the parameters for DDrescue, there are some you won't want to use as they can damage the original by trying "too much" to recover bad data (and it seems you have a LOT of that). Good luck.


----------



## ThAbtO

You do realize that Bolts keeps a record of the drive (like the unique drive ID number) internally that is different on every drive. Clone the old drive to a new one and install in Bolt and on boot up, it compares that ID with the internally stored one. When its different, it will erase the drive and update the ID stored. Put the original back in, and the same happens.


----------



## tommage1

ThAbtO said:


> You do realize that Bolts keeps a record of the drive (like the unique drive ID number) internally that is different on every drive. Clone the old drive to a new one and install in Bolt and on boot up, it compares that ID with the internally stored one. When its different, it will erase the drive and update the ID stored. Put the original back in, and the same happens.


I don't know about that? I think as long as you put in an exact clone on the same size drive you are ok. As long as you do not do ANYTHING new with the new drive, ie do any recordings etc. If you have internet disconnected and do nothing, should be able to go back and forth. Assuming the clone worked. Perhaps I am wrong, but if so you could NEVER copy/clone a Bolt drive because of what you say about Drive ID. The problem can be the map to the recordings/settings on the flash drive. When you put in a new drive if it's not the exact same as the old drive it WILL update the map and/or format the drive. But I don't think it has anything to do with a drive ID number?


----------



## permanentpress

I had four flashing lights, for the third time in three Bolts (Um my Premiere is still going, wth, in a 2nd drive older than all three Bolts). Unplugged. Waited. Tried again, NO go. Drive shopping online, went Weaknees because hey, nice external enclosure and finally a 3.5" drive for heavy work, but also 3 terabytes.
Ran Spinrite to repair sectors it could (it ignores the filesystem and remaps under the hood). Got a lot but not everything. Haven't put it in the Bolt to see, not enough spins left on the drive, right?
Finally new drive arrived, spent a day reading up. And here we are. 3.47 percent, it's going to be a while, IF it makes it.
The only order I will try is old drive once (to screenshot), and then the clone. Unless you really think I should jump to straight to the clone. I know I may have to kickstart it (the NEW drive) if it hits an error, but if the copy is adequate it should act like it's on the "same" drive but software-fix any boot issues, maybe by switching the primary boot location just like it does when you get a patch right? But no going back to the other drive... one way trip! 4.26%


----------



## tommage1

Oh, one more thing, if the original still boots you could backup season passes with Tivo Online.


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> I had four flashing lights, for the third time in three Bolts (Um my Premiere is still going, wth, in a 2nd drive older than all three Bolts). Unplugged. Waited. Tried again, NO go. Drive shopping online, went Weaknees because hey, nice external enclosure and finally a 3.5" drive for heavy work, but also 3 terabytes.
> Ran Spinrite to repair sectors it could (it ignores the filesystem and remaps under the hood). Got a lot but not everything. Haven't put it in the Bolt to see, not enough spins left on the drive, right?
> Finally new drive arrived, spent a day reading up. And here we are. 3.47 percent, it's going to be a while, IF it makes it.
> The only order I will try is old drive once (to screenshot), and then the clone. Unless you really think I should jump to straight to the clone. I know I may have to kickstart it, but if the copy is adequate it should act like it's on the "same" drive but software-fix any boot issues, maybe by switching the primary boot location just like it does when you get a patch right? But no going back to the other drive... one way trip!


Check everything that happened during the copy. Will probably have to scroll up a lot. I mean you can TRY to old drive first, but if you were getting flashing lights I don't see what could have changed (unless some fixes you tried fixed enough for it to boot?) Myself, I would do a DDrescue, best chance of getting a working copy since it actually tries to fix errors (hopefully the ones causing the boot to fail, ie flashing lights). You are correct, once you hook up new drive most likely all will gone on original if it doesn't work, at least the access to it). You do seem to know more about switching boot locations etc, Jmbach knows a lot more than me about MFST and Linux etc since he is the one who programmed it mostly, he's an "expert", I'm just a user with quite a bit of experience fixing/upgrading Tivos. Bolts are the worst (probably Edge too but have not tried one yet), for upgrades/fixes etc.


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> I had four flashing lights, for the third time in three Bolts (Um my Premiere is still going, wth, in a 2nd drive older than all three Bolts). Unplugged. Waited. Tried again, NO go. Drive shopping online, went Weaknees because hey, nice external enclosure and finally a 3.5" drive for heavy work, but also 3 terabytes.


Well even the best 2.5" CMR drives usually last no more than 2-3 years in a 24/7 Tivo. Premiere uses 3.5 CMR originally (I don't think SMR even existed back then), and if you put in a CMR drive for your second drive could last over 5 years, easily, some older Tivos with 3.5" CMR drives still going 5-10 years. You should get good service from the WK external, I think they use WD purples in their externals.


----------



## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> Help me oh Tivo Linux cloning gurus. I am hoping to save recordings and passes and everything of a very failing (flashing lights and bad sectors) Bolt Vox 3 tb drive. Been reading up last few days and finding utilities but hitting a failure point. Either I am missing something or the Bolt drive is missing Too many sectors :/
> (CAPS and asterisks flag my important questions if you care to help but quickly. But my story is included...) Photos as well if you see anything you need to tell me about.
> I've had Tivos since 2001, and I am great with computers and such but never took the time to really learn Linux (I know, for some of you that's a non-correlation
> I've cloned, copied, put a hard drive in a freezer once (actually got it to copy!) DirectTV, etc. then I got to the Bolt - one died in 3 months, another in 9 months and there wasn't a good way to clone it so I gave up trying. But this last (warranty replacement) upgraded to a Bolt Vox (but no voice remote as consolation  held on a couple years - 'til last week. Have a 3TB external/fake internal Weaknees drive ready to go (first-time customer! Bye, Frys).
> Found latest MFSTools v3.34-2 at Release MFSTools v3.34-2 · thess/mfstools (good thing my older copy won't start and is incompatible!)
> read page 1-7 etc, and very helpful post 247 (I think that's the number?) and many others. I have so many web pages open I am not sure where things are now.
> And I can't get my old drive to copy. Can you tell me what I am missing or give me an alternate clone path, DDrescue maybe (can I run that from inside MFStools ?)
> 
> **Note: I am determined to try to recover first and won't swap in drives out of order, Ideally I can clone it, then Thinking about to trying to boot Old drive and copy passes or maybe a few more shows (or just watch some It's been over a week!) THEN will pull and switch to the new Weaknees clone.) I know you cannot do this in the opposite order  - Please warn me if I should go straight to the clone because watching recording or an auto update would screw over my copy and kill recordings.... My thought is if I can copy passes and photograph the recordings pages I have a record, so if the clone doesn't work and I have to reformat, I have a record to recover with.*****
> 
> I ran SpinRite on the bad drive and it's bad, 1500 sectors moved successfully and seven chunks that stayed red, which may very well be my boot sectors... (plus SpinRite craps out after 2 terabytes - programming limitation) yet it has ttwice managed to keep my Premiere running because it fixes "enough" stuff at the beginning.
> SO then I get to MFS tools. Using an old PC with nothing connected but the optical drive, old Bolt and new Weeknees.
> MFS does auto-login as tivo (regular user).
> I typed in sudo -s to enable privs to access drives in raw mode.
> *IS THIS STICKY TILL REBOOT so I don't need to add Sudo before other commands? I think the switch S makes it sticky. Getting same errors with or with so far.
> 
> command lsblk to identify Tivo drive(s). SDA old and SDB new. sda has no folders, makes sense
> command: mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> Scanning source drive then:
> error that it cannot determine primary boot partition from boot sector.
> Found forum reference and ran
> -bootsectorfix sda
> warning everything bad could happen! etc,... did it anyway...
> says: little endian computer detected
> open: No such file or directory
> 
> got that a few times and then created this post.
> *** SO is there an alternate command I can run here, perhaps something along ddcopy lines to make it try to clone all the sectors it can regardless of file system and then see what happens? I don't know that command and can I run it inside of MFStools? IF it completes even with errors
> - then I would look at the CLONED drive inside MFS tools and tell if it sees a tivo filesystem, and then
> - boot the BAD drive in the Tivo (or TRY to!) to copy passes and make notes,
> - THEN try to to boot the clone and go on with my TV life.
> If that fails because the copy is too flaky, I give up and just format the new drive and start all over. But man I will lose a lot of curated things from channels I wasn't allowed to pyTIvo off for my NAS over the years. And I often get lucky with persistence, learning cool things along the way.
> 
> Thank you thank to any helpful information and this forum over the years. And I hope some of this story is an example for others attempts in the future -- and expect to see it myself again if/when this drive fails, because I saw my last one searching this issue. (The replies weren't helpful though)
> 
> stray thought from my reading * do I need -mfsaddfix (probably not if i didn't add partitions with mfstools, and the two drives are both 3TB anyway).


Sorry I am late to the party. Several things here.

First thing I would do is use ddrescue to copy the original drive to any good drive that will hold the data. I would use a logfile with ddrescue and copy with a single pass forward and then backwards. Then have ddrescue scrub the bad spots to see if it can rescue anything. Using the logfile allows ddrescue to do focus on what it could not copy previously to try to get those bad spots to successfully copy if possible.

Once I have that copy made, I would hook the drive up to see if the TiVo would boot up. This is a critical step. If enough of the drive was rescued, the TiVo will boot up successfully, otherwise it will reformat the drive and all access to the recordings are lost. If it is successful, then I would reboot the TiVo and run a Kickstart 58 on the image before going any further. Once that is complete, I would use MFSTools to copy that image to the final drive. Then I would put that image in the TiVo and let it boot up followed by rebooting the TiVo and running another Kickstart 58.

Your error when using bootsectorfix is that you are not using the correct drive labels. It should be /dev/sda and not sda. Same for the other commands you ran and it did not work.

The latest MFSTools ISO also requires you to type sudo before the command to have it run successfully.

Since both drives are 3 TB, you can just use ddrescue to copy one to the other and skip MFSTools all together.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## permanentpress

Thank you all for weighing in. I haven't gotten to ddrescue yet as last night I did figure out the stupid syntax and started the copy which completed in the last hour -without copy errors- what? Now granted it was a copy from a failing drive that had errors and had to slow down the transfer a few times early in, but wow&#8230;. Attached image is the entire log. So what should I try&#8230;. 
1) The original to backup data, if it boots. Extra careful route? Shouldn't hurt anything unless my drive scan or mfstools setting the boot drive as 3 if it wasn't makes tivo think it is a Different drive. Of course if that then the copy will also be screwed.
2) Go for it, I have a copy on a good drive. It will work or not, right? If it doesn't, maybe neither does the old drive.
3) DDrescue copy it. Is that a better image (If the drive doesn't fail on the copy)? Of can I trust the fabulous mfttools since it completed without reported errors?


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## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> Thank you all for weighing in. I haven't gotten to ddrescue yet as last night I did figure out the stupid syntax and started the copy which completed in the last hour -without copy errors- what? Now granted it was a copy from a failing drive that had errors and had to slow down the transfer a few times early in, but wow&#8230;. Attached image is the entire log. So what should I try&#8230;.
> 1) The original to backup data, if it boots. Extra careful route? Shouldn't hurt anything unless my drive scan or mfstools setting the boot drive as 3 if it wasn't makes tivo think it is a Different drive. Of course if that then the copy will also be screwed.
> 2) Go for it, I have a copy on a good drive. It will work or not, right? If it doesn't, maybe neither does the old drive.
> 3) DDrescue copy it. Is that a better image (If the drive doesn't fail on the copy)? Of can I trust the fabulous mfttools since it completed without reported errors?
> 
> View attachment 67375


It looks like it copied okay. You can run mfsinfo on the new drive to verify the structure. If it checks out, then I would boot it up. I do recommend rebooting it and running a Kickstart 58 on it.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## permanentpress

mfsinfo is a good idea. 
So of course the result it worries me, in a nutshell, the four partitions are copied, but not the same size. Does the Bolt care about that, count partitions, rely on the two '800 MiB" are the same as they are likely the boot partitions vs Data, and that the total MFS sectors, volume size and lnodes are the same? To a human it's not exact, but am I looking at things that maybe the TiVo doesn't care about.
(Yes this is the bargaining stage of denial....)

But if someone has experience on this, that would be helpful. It's unlikely but possible ... really weird that the sector pairs are the same in the copy, maybe the data is already broken.

















Otherwise if someone can point me at a post or site with the precise DDcopy commands I should try another copy with, and how to reach that inside MFStools ? 

Slow but steady.


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## ggieseke

permanentpress said:


> So of course the result it worries me, in a nutshell, the four partitions are copied, but not the same size. Does the Bolt care about that, count partitions, rely on the two '800 MiB" are the same as they are likely the boot partitions vs Data, and that the total MFS sectors, volume size and lnodes are the same?


That looks like a good copy. The two 800 MiB partitions are MFS Application partitions that have a fairly typical file system with folders, sub-folders and smaller files. The other two partitions are MFS Media partitions that contain the actual recordings. TiVo still uses an old algorithm that allocates approximately 65% of the drive to partition 13, which is actually located near the beginning of the disk. That's followed by the application partitions and whatever's left is allocated to partition 11 at the end of the disk. It made a certain amount of sense back in the Series 1/2 days.

MFS Tools uses a more evenly balanced layout for the media partitions, but it makes no difference to the TiVo once it's booted and the file system is mounted.


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> Thank you all for weighing in. I haven't gotten to ddrescue yet as last night I did figure out the stupid syntax and started the copy which completed in the last hour -without copy errors- what? Now granted it was a copy from a failing drive that had errors and had to slow down the transfer a few times early in, but wow&#8230;. Attached image is the entire log. So what should I try&#8230;.
> 1) The original to backup data, if it boots. Extra careful route? Shouldn't hurt anything unless my drive scan or mfstools setting the boot drive as 3 if it wasn't makes tivo think it is a Different drive. Of course if that then the copy will also be screwed.
> 2) Go for it, I have a copy on a good drive. It will work or not, right? If it doesn't, maybe neither does the old drive.
> 3) DDrescue copy it. Is that a better image (If the drive doesn't fail on the copy)? Of can I trust the fabulous mfttools since it completed without reported errors?
> 
> View attachment 67375


Well this is pretty exciting, can't wait to see how it works out. I'd have more confidence in the "copy" if you had used DDrescue to make it, since DDRescue will try to actually fix errors (you don't have another 3TB 3.5" CMR drive sitting around do you?). Extra safe would be to redo the copy with DDrescue before hooking up IMO but that is up to you. As you know it's a one time shot, if this copy does not boot you're probably done trying to save the recordings..............


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## tommage1

When hooking up the "copy" might be a good idea to NOT have internet connected. Do nothing with the new drive, like trying to record something, delete anything etc. Not sure if it would help but if net not connected perhaps could be ok if it does not boot, and it does not format the new drive.


----------



## permanentpress

I had a moment and plugged in the drive but left the case open for the moment, and got a mystery I fixed and one I can:
It's now stuck in a kickstart loop that I triggered.
The happy part:
Green light, yellow flashes then goes to green. No picture.
Plugged in digital audio and it bloops, hit play and heard a show. Sounds like it copied and booted!
WHERE THE HELL IS MY PICTURE! Do Not tell me this HDMI port failed like my XL, because THAT I could still watch with the Component cables and this thing doesn't Do that....
-Went straight into a monitor, Got sound and picture but inverted colors...Shows there and playable (except one, ironically, "The Big Sleep" would not, but "Staying Alive" did. Carefully disconnected and reconnected HDMI at the box, direct to tivo . Colors and picture good.
So the copy worked to a large percentage, saved my shows, saved my lists, and plays things. Hurrah! I have photographed all the pages.
HDMI Won't handshake through the receiver, will troubleshoot cables later.
Called that a huge victory and will troubleshoot HDMI later.
Thanks everybody!
The sad part:
Someone had recommended I do a kickstart 58 so it could sort out and take ownership of the file system. Good plan, and I couldn't get 58 to start. Fine, 57 does that too. Mind you I have not connected anything yet, no internet or coax, just power and HDMI.
Got 57 to start, it says hey, problem, going to check might be 3 hours, don't reboot ... it reboots itself, repeat repeat repeat....
SO, is there a way to knock it out of the loop?
Or do have I go back and copy again, maybe this time with a DD copy....
Point me to a page, thanks everybody.


----------



## permanentpress

I think this thread will tell me what to do with DDRescue DDRescue off MFSTools CD

Assuming the command ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb 
/media/PNY_usb/rescue.logfile

will call the program and I have typed -sudo earlier to for rights (or is it sudo- )
also I'd change the end to my usb name and logfile.

again unless someone knows how to kill a 57 loop because I copied a flaky image onto a good new drive but TiVo doesn't know that


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> I think this thread will tell me what to do with DDRescue DDRescue off MFSTools CD
> 
> Assuming the command ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> /media/PNY_usb/rescue.logfile
> 
> will call the program and I have typed -sudo earlier to for rights (or is it sudo- )
> also I'd change the end to my usb name and logfile.
> 
> again unless someone knows how to kill a 57 loop because I copied a flaky image onto a good new drive but TiVo doesn't know that


\
Actually there is an MFST command that should get it out of the loop. I can't think of it off the top of my head but Jmbach will know. And the Ddrescue thread was mine, I tried it with a drive going bad. Got a working copy, however it was unable to fix everything so I have errors on the copy, in fact some items in my season passes actually say "corrupt, please delete" Over 2000 recordings, I'll guess some of those bad too but will not know until I try to play. Amazingly the "bad" drive still mostly works in the Tivo. I use a library of drives on that Roamio, all different, won't get into that here.

I don't think you want to use the -r3 parameter. That's the one I talked about earlier, tries TOO hard to fix some errors to the point where can damage the original. My first run went ok, copy complete, some errors not fixed. It then ran backwards, took a long time and was unable to fix some errors. If you read the thread fully I think I posted the command and parameters I used and a summary of the results.


----------



## tommage1

Oh, since you hooked up the "copy" the Bolt probably now expects to see THAT drive. So if you are going to run DDrescue, are you planning on running it on the original or the copy? Since you seem to have access to your recordings/settings make sure you backup everything you want to keep before you start swapping drives again (non copy protected off course, won't do those). Can do some things with Tivo Online. Shows should be able to do direct if you have a TE3 Tivo hooked up on same acct.


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> I think this thread will tell me what to do with DDRescue DDRescue off MFSTools CD
> 
> Assuming the command ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
> /media/PNY_usb/rescue.logfile
> 
> will call the program and I have typed -sudo earlier to for rights (or is it sudo- )
> also I'd change the end to my usb name and logfile.
> 
> again unless someone knows how to kill a 57 loop because I copied a flaky image onto a good new drive but TiVo doesn't know that


Be careful with those kickstarts. They work differently with different model Tivos and OS. If someone says use a 58 that does not mean you can use a 57. In fact on a certain Roamio the 58 will work but the 57 puts it into a boot loop.


----------



## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> I had a moment and plugged in the drive but left the case open for the moment, and got a mystery I fixed and one I can:
> It's now stuck in a kickstart loop that I triggered.
> The happy part:
> Green light, yellow flashes then goes to green. No picture.
> Plugged in digital audio and it bloops, hit play and heard a show. Sounds like it copied and booted!
> WHERE THE HELL IS MY PICTURE! Do Not tell me this HDMI port failed like my XL, because THAT I could still watch with the Component cables and this thing doesn't Do that....
> -Went straight into a monitor, Got sound and picture but inverted colors...Shows there and playable (except one, ironically, "The Big Sleep" would not, but "Staying Alive" did. Carefully disconnected and reconnected HDMI at the box, direct to tivo . Colors and picture good.
> So the copy worked to a large percentage, saved my shows, saved my lists, and plays things. Hurrah! I have photographed all the pages.
> HDMI Won't handshake through the receiver, will troubleshoot cables later.
> Called that a huge victory and will troubleshoot HDMI later.
> Thanks everybody!
> The sad part:
> Someone had recommended I do a kickstart 58 so it could sort out and take ownership of the file system. Good plan, and I couldn't get 58 to start. Fine, 57 does that too. Mind you I have not connected anything yet, no internet or coax, just power and HDMI.
> Got 57 to start, it says hey, problem, going to check might be 3 hours, don't reboot ... it reboots itself, repeat repeat repeat....
> SO, is there a way to knock it out of the loop?
> Or do have I go back and copy again, maybe this time with a DD copy....
> Point me to a page, thanks everybody.


I do not recommend a Kickstart 57 as it always boot loops for me afterwards in Roamios and Bolts. You can correct this by using mfsck and mark the system good.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## permanentpress

*TLDR: I need to know how to page/scroll up in DDrescue under MFSTools*



jmbach said:


> I do not recommend a Kickstart 57 as it always boot loops for me afterwards in Roamios and Bolts. You can correct this by using mfsck and mark the system good.


So I should have been patient ?!  Good to know there is a recovery trick for Boot loop kickstart 57, using the keywords here so someday someone else (or me ) might find it, couldn't last night. But i figured I would just try the other recommended method.

So I spent much time educating myself on ddrescue and ran
ddrescue -d -f -r1 -v /dev/sda /dev/sdb 

which completed recently. Would love to scroll up and see what's just above the last screen but all page shift ctrl arrow etc. command combinations I find didn't work in MFStools. I will leave it all hooked up for the moment in case someone gets back but I really want to try this in the tivo again 

Checked in overnight a lot and there were no errors but about 7 times near the start it slowed down for "too long to read" (like mfstools report) and I know there were 6-7 bright red spots toward the front in my spinrite scan, but everything else seemed golden. Now that it reversed at the end all I see is a page of errors which I think is just those few at the start.

Would like to prove it before I pull the drive but I will end up going for it if I can't since it seems the same result as last time. The old drive has issues I know and didn't crash. So I'm confident it will boot and some things will have a few errors, it literally says 99.99 percent recovered. Great odds.


----------



## permanentpress

DDrescue midway progress (over 7 hours in) also showing my start command (and my fail at saving a logfile to a usb, didn't know the syntax and wasn't going to use it to restart the job.
and the last screen it's more than one error line at the end because it's every miniscule sector, but I know this is about 7 bad spots all next to each other from SpinRite display


----------



## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> DDrescue midway progress (over 7 hours in) also showing my start command (and my fail at saving a logfile to a usb, didn't know the syntax and wasn't going to use it to restart the job.
> and the last screen it's more than one error line at the end because it's every miniscule sector, but I know this is about 7 bad spots all next to each other from SpinRite display


Hopefully the bad spots are located within a recording and nothing critical.

Kickstart 58 can repair some of the critical losses which is why I perform one after every copy I do since it is usually rescuing a bad drive.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


----------



## permanentpress

I could not for the life of me get the Kickstart 58 to start on the Bolt Vox which is why I foolishly branched out to 57  Maybe I have a model where it's just not available? 
But that at least confirmed I knew how to do time the kickstart presses. Going to plug in my re-done drive copy shortly, and fingers crossed...


----------



## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> I could not for the life of me get the Kickstart 58 to start on the Bolt Vox which is why I foolishly branched out to 57  Maybe I have a model where it's just not available?
> But that at least confirmed I knew how to do time the kickstart presses. Going to plug in my re-done drive copy shortly, and fingers crossed...


As long as the lights verified you entered a working number you have done the Kickstart correctly. A 58 may only show a brief screen and that is it. Depending if it detects anything it may just reboot or take 3 hours.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## permanentpress

Yeah that's the weird thing I didn't see the confirmation lights (as I recall, been through a lot!). But if you say it may run and not have any feedback I will run it now, because my copy is up and running again, yes! (I've have three bolts this is the first one I got to rescue successfully, Happy New Year!)


----------



## tommage1

permanentpress said:


> Yeah that's the weird thing I didn't see the confirmation lights (as I recall, been through a lot!). But if you say it may run and not have any feedback I will run it now, because my copy is up and running again, yes! (I've have three bolts this is the first one I got to rescue successfully, Happy New Year!)


Congratulations!! You were fortunate the errors were in a place where the copy would work.

As for Bolts and Edge in general, since you can easily lose everything if/when there is a drive failure, this is what I recommend.

1. If using an internal 2.5" drive at best they usually only last 2-3 years. SO, after maybe 2 years (before the current drive starts to fail), buy a new drive of the same size (make SURE it is a CMR drive, not SMR) and clone to the new drive. Then use the new drive and repeat every two years. Probably $60 or less for the drive (if 2TB or less, CMR 3TB difficult to find and expensive and there are no CMR 2.5 over 3TB). Then just repurpose the current drive since cannot keep as a backup. If doing every two years would cost about $30 per year to prevent failures and loss of everything.

2. If using external with 3.5" CMR drive should last 4-5 years or more. So maybe do the clone every 4-5 years. 3.5" CMR drives can easily be found, current models too (unlike CMR 2.5s), and reasonable prices. So if you clone every 4 years probably only $15-20 a year or less to prevent failures (if 4TB or under). If you purchased an expensive external like WK, don't have to buy another external, just remove the current drive from the enclosure, clone it to the new drive, then put the new drive in the enclosure. And repurpose the old drive.

Pretty much with Bolt and Edge which are difficult to repair without losing everything a clone every 2 years for 2.5" or 4 years for 3.5" (again, CMR drives only for the clones) should keep you up and running for a long time for reasonable cost, $15-30 a year or so depending on if 2.5 or 3.5.


----------



## minidanas

Another success Roamio story. Most of it has likely been already covered, but the information is so old, and the threads are so long. Those who are just starting might find useful stuff here.

I bought mine in 2015, and lately both my previously recorded shows and live TV have developed occasional "stumbles", where there is a one second glitch. I thought my HDD must be dying.

- so I bought a Red Plus 4TB drive (WD40EFZX-OEM). It goes on sale for $70 from time to time at newegg. Because my existing drive might be damaged, I wanted to keep it simple and stay below 4TB.

- tested it with WD Data LifeGuard _Diagnostics for DOS, wrote zeroes, and tested again. I'm spending three days of my life on this; might as well make sure I don't have to do it again in several months. For that reason I would also suggest getting the largest possible drive and be worry-free for several years._

_- used kmttg to back up my thumbs up/down etc setting and pytivo-d my most important recordings in case things go wrong. This might not have really been necessary because if something goes wrong, as long your original drive doesn't fall in the toilet, you can start over (or just put it back in and abandon the project)._

_- some have had trouble opening the case. Search youtube, it's easy. Just make sure you have Torx-8 and 10 drivers._

_- go here_, download the 492 MB file named "live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso". On that page there is a warning about "AMD64 only" that might confused with AMD/Intel processor distinction, but no. Pretty much all 64-bit processors will work. burn that image to a disk.

- Now hook up your old and new drive to a same computer and boot from the disc. There are several options; run the top kernel (tivo partitions, not the failsafe)

- when it runs and the command prompt is ready, type (without quotes) "sudo lsblk -o name,size,vendor" and ENTER, which will tell you which drive is which. If both your drives are similar and it's hard to tell them apart, the source drive will have something like 13 sub-partitions.

- now run "sudo mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY", where X is the source and Y is the target. Now it starts the copying. I had about 2TBs of recordings, and it took roughly 10 hours. Along the route, you may get a couple messages saying something took too long to respond, and the speed is downgraded to XYZ. It's normal, it's merely adjusting the copying speed to a sustainable level.

That's it. The funny thing is, I tested the old drive with WD data lifeguard a couple times, and it says fine (I didn't erase and test because I'm haven't decided what to do with the drive yet). Even if the drive was still healthy, it had spun non-stop for 6 years, so I'll consider it a preventive maintenance, I guess.

Maybe I can use the old drive for some kind of RAID configuration where it merely serves as a temporary backup.


----------



## permanentpress

Just reading the forum while watching old and new recordings on my now working again TiVo Bolt, thanks forum!

The only issue I have to report is that even though it is recording fine and seems to get all my Cox PHX channels, it doesn’t seem entirely convinced there’s a cable card on the diagnostic screens. Boy it cries out if you unplug the TA though, and comes back when the tuning adapter powers up, so I’m just going to wait for the next firmware and hope that changes it. Also not going to try a re-pair just for diagnostics since it works. Maybe that’s the bad sectors that I couldn’t copy. Strangeness. 
And someday I may try to get my old TiVo HD XL out of the boot loop I started trying to switch it to antennae on guided setup. Should have tried phoning home since it hadn’t been plugged in for at least a year, huh? Well, Internetting, no land line for me. 
heh just remembered my first tivo in 2001 being so far from the phone jack I just bought a 25 for cord and hooked it up overnight every few days…..that was much easier to troubleshoot.


----------



## jmbach

permanentpress said:


> Just reading the forum while watching old and new recordings on my now working again TiVo Bolt, thanks forum!
> 
> The only issue I have to report is that even though it is recording fine and seems to get all my Cox PHX channels, it doesn’t seem entirely convinced there’s a cable card on the diagnostic screens. Boy it cries out if you unplug the TA though, and comes back when the tuning adapter powers up, so I’m just going to wait for the next firmware and hope that changes it. Also not going to try a re-pair just for diagnostics since it works. Maybe that’s the bad sectors that I couldn’t copy. Strangeness.
> And someday I may try to get my old TiVo HD XL out of the boot loop I started trying to switch it to antennae on guided setup. Should have tried phoning home since it hadn’t been plugged in for at least a year, huh? Well, Internetting, no land line for me.
> heh just remembered my first tivo in 2001 being so far from the phone jack I just bought a 25 for cord and hooked it up overnight every few days…..that was much easier to troubleshoot.


Power off the unit. Remove and insert the cableCARD several times. Insert the card one last time and power the unit back on. Sometimes dirty contacts can cause problems. 

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk


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## Hickoryw

First, thanks to everyone for the tools and helpful info in these forums. I've been reading and researching this for the last week, and I believe I have a handle on it.

I've got a WD40EFZX 4TB Red Plus to replace the original 3TB drive in my Roamio Pro which is working fine, just an upgrade/preventative maintenance.

I used WD Data Lifeguard to run the extended test, full erase, then extended test again. Each took right at 8 hours and passed.

I have the latest MFS Tools, 3.34-3, on a USB drive to boot from as my PC only has 2 SATA ports. Boot with secure boot disabled.

Type sudo lsblk -o name,size,vendor to identify the drives.

Then type sudo mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where X is source and Y is target.

Then wait...lol

If there is an issue with the new drive when I put it in the Roamio the first thing to try is a kickstart 58.

Did I miss anything?

I do have a couple of quick questions:

1. Because I'm using a 4TB drive and not larger there are no additional steps needed to get the full capacity available. Correct?

2. Would permanently deleting the shows in recently deleted speed up the copy process, or does it not matter because it's essentially cloning the entire disk?

3 How long, approximately, should I expect it to take?


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> First, thanks to everyone for the tools and helpful info in these forums. I've been reading and researching this for the last week, and I believe I have a handle on it.
> 
> I've got a WD40EFZX 4TB Red Plus to replace the original 3TB drive in my Roamio Pro which is working fine, just an upgrade/preventative maintenance.
> 
> I used WD Data Lifeguard to run the extended test, full erase, then extended test again. Each took right at 8 hours and passed.
> 
> I have the latest MFS Tools, 3.34-3, on a USB drive to boot from as my PC only has 2 SATA ports. Boot with secure boot disabled.
> 
> Type sudo lsblk -o name,size,vendor to identify the drives.
> 
> Then type sudo mfscopy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY where X is source and Y is target.
> 
> Then wait...lol
> 
> If there is an issue with the new drive when I put it in the Roamio the first thing to try is a kickstart 58.
> 
> Did I miss anything?
> 
> I do have a couple of quick questions:
> 
> 1. Because I'm using a 4TB drive and not larger there are no additional steps needed to get the full capacity available. Correct?
> 
> 2. Would permanently deleting the shows in recently deleted speed up the copy process, or does it not matter because it's essentially cloning the entire disk?
> 
> 3 How long, approximately, should I expect it to take?


I think you are spot on. 

Nothing special to do for a 4 TB drive copy.

Not sure if permanently deleting speeds up the copy process. I would think it would since it copies recorded streams and if you delete there is no stream to copy. 

Not sure about copy times. Has been a while since I have copied a drive. Some others here would have more recent info. 

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk


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## Hickoryw

Thanks alot for the fast response. I'll go with permanently deleting since kmttg makes it so much less of a hassle. I'll report back tomorrow with my results. Thanks again.


----------



## Hickoryw

Well, complete disaster. Started the process and watched until it was at like 11.5% then went to bed. When I got up to check it was giving repeated errors like this:









So I aborted then decided to put the original drive back in the Roamio to check that it was OK. When I plug it in all I get is the black screen with TiVo guy for a minute then all of the lights flash rapidly. Before the lights start flashing I can hear (with the cover of the Roamio off) the drive spin up and make a few normal sounding hdd noises then spin down then repeat. It does that a few times then the lights. 

Kind of gutted as there were no apparent issues with the drive before I started. Didn't think anything would happen to it just by reading it.

Is there any hope? Suggestions for next steps welcome and appreciated.
Thanks


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> Well, complete disaster. Started the process and watched until it was at like 11.5% then went to bed. When I got up to check it was giving repeated errors like this:
> View attachment 70123
> 
> 
> So I aborted then decided to put the original drive back in the Roamio to check that it was OK. When I plug it in all I get is the black screen with TiVo guy for a minute then all of the lights flash rapidly. Before the lights start flashing I can hear (with the cover of the Roamio off) the drive spin up and make a few normal sounding hdd noises then spin down then repeat. It does that a few times then the lights.
> 
> Kind of gutted as there were no apparent issues with the drive before I started. Didn't think anything would happen to it just by reading it.
> 
> Is there any hope? Suggestions for next steps welcome and appreciated.
> Thanks


Try to use ddrescue and copy the original drive to your 4 TB for now. 

After you copy the drive check it with WD diagnostic 

It was likely dying and the copy pushed it over the edge. 
Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk


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## Hickoryw

Hiw do I use ddrescue? Linux illiterate.


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> Hiw do I use ddrescue? Linux illiterate.


Well look here and here for some info and examples. ddscue should be on the MFSTools ISO. Just not sure how you would use the logfile with the iso. 

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk


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## Hickoryw

When I boot mfs tools now the drive spins up makes a few noises then stops. Repeats a few times then just stops. Then when I type lsblk -o name,size,vendor it doesn't list the drive, just the new drive and the USB drive I'm booting from. So without even being able to access the drive, I'm guessing there's nothing I can do?

Any harm in trying the new drive in the TiVo? It shows the same partitions as the old drive.


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> When I boot mfs tools now the drive spins up makes a few noises then stops. Repeats a few times then just stops. Then when I type lsblk -o name,size,vendor it doesn't list the drive, just the new drive and the USB drive I'm booting from. So without even being able to access the drive, I'm guessing there's nothing I can do?
> 
> Any harm in trying the new drive in the TiVo? It shows the same partitions as the old drive.


Not sure how much copying it did. No harm overall. Worse case scenario it reformats the drive. If it does, use MFSR to modify the partition structure to avoid partitions over 2 TiB (unless you are on TE4 then it does not matter)


----------



## Hickoryw

Tried the new drive in the Roamio but goes to a red screen telling me to call support and says error loading slices.

Guessing I'll need to use data lifeguard to erase (hopefully quick will be enough) then the Roamio will format it. Then use MFSR (need to look into that). Assuming that all works I think I'll need the re-pair my cable card.

Does that sound right? Any other thoughts or ideas welcome. Thanks again.


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> Tried the new drive in the Roamio but goes to a red screen telling me to call support and says error loading slices.
> 
> Guessing I'll need to use data lifeguard to erase (hopefully quick will be enough) then the Roamio will format it. Then use MFSR (need to look into that). Assuming that all works I think I'll need the re-pair my cable card.
> 
> Does that sound right? Any other thoughts or ideas welcome. Thanks again.


Try running a KS58 on the drive as it boots

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk


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## Hickoryw

I actually did. Just ended up back at the red screen with error loading slices.


----------



## jmbach

Hickoryw said:


> I actually did. Just ended up back at the red screen with error loading slices.


You might be able to run MFSR on the drive without erasing it but I would recommend a quick erase of the drive with WD Diagnostic and then let the TiVo put a new image on it.

Lucky thing you got your towel with you.


----------



## Hickoryw

jmbach said:


> Lucky thing you got your towel with you.


You've really got to know where your towel is.


----------



## Andy_Bantly

jkozee said:


> *mfstool*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfstool <function> <args> or <function> <args>
> Available functions:
> backup    Backup TiVo drive fast and small.
> restore   Restore mfstool backups to TiVo drive.
> copy      Copy TiVo drive to a new drive.
> add       Add partitions to your TiVo MFS volume.
> ck        Perform a simple consistency check on MFS.
> mls       List files in the MFS volume.
> supersize Supersize a TiVo drive.
> d         Dump raw data from MFS volume.
> info      Display information about MFS volume.
> For help on a particular function: ./mfstool <function> -h
> 
> *backup*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./backup [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -o file   Output to file, - for stdout
> -1 .. -9  Compress backup, quick (-1) through best (-9)
> -v        Do not include /var in backup
> -d        Do not include /db (SQLite) in backup (Premiere and newer)
> -s        Shrink MFS in backup (implied for v3 backups without -a flag)
> -F format Backup using a specific backup format (v1, v3, winmfs)
> -q        Do not display progress
> -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
> -t        Use total length of stream in calculations
> -T        Backup total length of stream instead of used length
> -a        Backup all streams
> -i        Include all non-mfs partitions from Adrive (alternate, custom, etc.)
> Available in deprecated/debug build only
> -f max    Backup only fsids below max
> -L max    Backup only streams less than max MiB
> -D        Do not force loopset and demo files to be added
> 
> *restore*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./restore [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -i file   Input from file, - for stdin
> -k        Optimize partition layout with kernels first
> -r scale  Override v3 media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
> -q        Do not display progress
> -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
> -v size   Recreate /var as size MiB (Only if not in backup)
> -d size   Recreate /db (SQLite in source) as size MiB (if not in backup)
> -S size   Recreate swap as size MiB
> -l        Leave at least 2 partitions free
> -b        Force no byte swapping on restore
> -B        Force byte swapping on restore
> -w 32/64  Write MFS structures as 32 or 64 bit
> -c size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on drive A
> -C size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on Drive B
> -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB for v3 restore
> -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
> Available in deprecated/debug build only
> -P        Do NOT optimize the partition layout
> -z        Zero out partitions not backed up
> 
> *mfscopy*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfscopy [options] SourceA[:SourceB] DestA[:DestB]
> General options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -q        Do not display progress
> -qq       Do not display anything but error messages
> Source options:
> -t        Use total length of stream in calculations
> -T        Copy total length of stream instead of used length
> -a        Copy all streams
> -i        Include all non-mfs partitions from Adrive (alternate, custom, etc.)
> Available in deprecated/debug build only
> -f max    Copy only fsids below max
> -L max    Copy only streams less than max MiB
> -D        Do not force loopset and demo files to be added
> Target options:
> -s        Shrink MFS whily copying (implied for v3 copies)
> -k        Optimize partition layout with kernels first
> -r scale  Override v3 media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
> -v size   Recreate /var as size MiB and don't copy /var
> -d size   Recreate /db (SQLite in source) as size MiB and don't copy /db
> -S size   Recreate swap as size MiB
> -l        Leave at least 2 partitions free
> -b        Force no byte swapping on target
> -B        Force byte swapping on target
> -R        Just copy raw blocks (v1) instead of rebuilding data structures (v3)
> -w 32/64  Write MFS structures as 32 or 64 bit
> -c size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on drive A
> -C size   Carve (leave free) in blocks on Drive B
> -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB for v3 restore
> -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
> Available in deprecated/debug build only
> -P        Do NOT optimize the partition layout
> -z        Zero out partitions not copied
> 
> *supersize*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./supersize [Adrive [Bdrive]] [options values]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -m        MaxDiskSize in KB (Default is 2147483647)
> -u        User SizeInKb in KB (Default is -1)
> -c        TivoClips SizeInKb in KB (Default is -1)
> 
> *mfsadd*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfsadd [options] Adrive [Bdrive] [NewApp NewMedia]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -r scale  Override media blocksize of 20480 with 2048<<scale (scale=0 to 4)
> -x        Create partition(s) on all drives
> -X drive  Create partition(s) on a specific drive
> -m size   Maximum media partition size in GiB
> -M size   Maximum drive size in GiB (ie lba28 would be 128)
> -f        Use with -m to fill the drive multiple media partitions
> NewApp / NewMedia
> Existing partitions (Such as /dev/hda13 /dev/hda14) to add to
> the MFS volume set
> 
> *mfsinfo*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfsinfo Adrive [Bdrive]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> 
> *mfsck*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfsck [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -r        Revalidate TiVo partitions on Adrive [Bdrive]
> Available in deprecated/debug build only
> -m [1-5]  Set volume header magic to OK, FS_CHK, LOG_CHK, DB_CHK, or CLEAN
> -e [1-3]  Set vol_hdr.v64.off0c to 0x00000010, TiVo, or Dish
> 
> *mfsd*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mfsd [options] Adrive [Bdrive]
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -f FSID  Dump a single FSID
> -F        Dump ALL FSIDs
> -i indoe  Dump a single inode
> -l log    Dump a single transaction log
> -s sector Read from sector, or from offset into file
> -c count  Read count sectors, where applicable
> -C        Perform consistency checkpoint before displaying data
> -H        Display in hex, no matter the format
> -b        Display in binary, no matter the format
> -x        Display formatted values in hex
> -z zone   Read from a single zonemap
> -Z        Dump ALL zonemap info
> 
> *mls*
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> Usage: ./mls [options] Adrive [Bdrive] <path|fsid>
> Options:
> -h        Display this help message
> -l        long list (with size)
> -R        recurse


----------



## Andy_Bantly

Booting to Linux via USB or DVD, etc... is no longer needed. MFS Tools can now be run in the Windows subsystem for Linux. I built MFSTools 3.3 from source via Source Forge in Ubuntu running in W10. I brought up an old TiVo SSD that I'm going to play with in Linux.
Note: The Linux file system is browsable via file explorer in Windows.

I documented it on the TiVo subreddit:

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tivo/comments/u1g70j


----------



## jmbach

Andy_Bantly said:


> Booting to Linux via USB or DVD, etc... is no longer needed. MFS Tools can now be run in the Windows subsystem for Linux. I built MFSTools 3.3 from source via Source Forge in Ubuntu running in W10. I brought up an old TiVo SSD that I'm going to play with in Linux.
> Note: The Linux file system is browsable via file explorer in Windows.
> 
> I documented it on the TiVo subreddit:
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Tivo/comments/u1g70j


That is cool. Just looked at the link. Was concerned that you used the sourceforge code but you used the latest github code. All is good. 


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## jmbach

Andy_Bantly said:


> Booting to Linux via USB or DVD, etc... is no longer needed. MFS Tools can now be run in the Windows subsystem for Linux. I built MFSTools 3.3 from source via Source Forge in Ubuntu running in W10. I brought up an old TiVo SSD that I'm going to play with in Linux.
> Note: The Linux file system is browsable via file explorer in Windows.
> 
> I documented it on the TiVo subreddit:
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Tivo/comments/u1g70j


Have you used it to examine or copy a TiVo drive. Just wondering if the naming convention for drives survives compiling.

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## jmbach

So I tested out @Andy_Bantly instructions on compiling MFSTools in WSL. Before starting, however, you need a CPU that supports virtualization and that the support for that is turned on in the BIOS. WSL2 needs to be installed. So if you have installed WSL a while ago, you will need to update it. 

I followed his instructions with the only change that I had to do is change the command line from "sudo ./autogen.sh" to "sudo sh ./autogen.sh".

The important thing is to be able to mount drives to the ubuntu virtual machine otherwise what is the use. You will need to be on Windows 11 Build 22000 in order to run these commands. After attaching the drives to your computer and within an administrator power shell box run these commands:
GET-CimInstance -query "SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive" - this identifies the drives connected to the computer. The disk paths are under Device ID
wsl --mount <DiskPath> - <DiskPath> would be replaced with \\.\PhysicalDrive* and replace * with the drive number identified in the previous command with the drive you want to mount to the Ubuntu Virtual Machine.

To unmount a drive 
wsl --unmount <DiskPath>

Once the drives are mounted start the Ubuntu Virtual Machine and type lsblk to list the attached drives. Remember when you run mfstools you need to type sudo prior to the commands.


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## Jeff Jackson

I have a Tivo Premier, and I had preserved (supposedly) upgraded the drive a few years ago from 2 TB to 3TB. All the recordings, Passes, etc were indeed preserved, but it seems it didn't expand to use all the 3TB space. I have to keep the recordings at 65% or less because after it gets 73+ full, we start having delays, intermittent playback problems, and so on.
So I'm thinking of doing it again, this time with a larger 4TB drive. I'm pretty sure I used the. MFSTools 1 to do it, this version sounds great. At the time, I had done lots of reading about what kinds of things to watch out for, and how the Tivo software works, but honestly I've forgotten all that! What I'm wondering is, what quirks of Tivo SW do I need to be careful about, and will it work? (moving to a 4TB drive, this time, that is).
Thanks in advance for any advice, and Thank You for providing this new software!


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## Jeff Jackson

BTW, I should mention that I'm wanting to clone/expand the 2nd gen drive that I created the first time. I had saved the original HDD but I'm not sure that I can find it now!


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## jmbach

Jeff Jackson said:


> BTW, I should mention that I'm wanting to clone/expand the 2nd gen drive that I created the first time. I had saved the original HDD but I'm not sure that I can find it now!


Instructions found here.

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## lemur21

Before I even try to understand this ......

Presuming I have a hard drive that is still good; but a motherboard that is bad. Would this tool work to get the recordings _off_ the existing hard drive?

Some of the programs cannot be transferred -- I know that. Others can be (in terms of copyright). Before I toss everything in the trash, I'd want to know.

In general, each week, I would use PyTivo to transfer my shows to an external server. This box failed before I could transfer those shows.

So, if I have the drive now moved to an external drive box; is there any tool (this one seems the most likely, thus far) that would allow me to access those shows? Even to transfer them to a different Tivo?


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## ThAbtO

lemur21 said:


> is there any tool (this one seems the most likely, thus far) that would allow me to access those shows? Even to transfer them to a different Tivo?


No, shows are encrypted to the original Tivo that recorded them. Transferring the drive to another Tivo would *NOT *be able to access them and might possible erase them all. (as in the Bolt when it detects another drive).


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## Hickoryw

ThAbtO said:


> Transferring the drive to another Tivo would be able to access them


* wouldn't


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## geoffwalker

jmbach said:


> equinoxe has a GitHub repo for the latest version of MFSTools found here. He has done some cleanup work an added new features. Login is a little different and you now use sudo before the command to allow the command to run as root. There is the standard ISO plus Debian install packages for 32 and 64 bit OSes and a raspberry Pi install package.


JM, the MSFTools 3.34 ISOs at equinoxe that you referenced are "AMD64 only". Does this mean that they can only be run on machines with an AMD processor, not with an Intel processor?


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## jmbach

geoffwalker said:


> JM, the MSFTools 3.34 ISOs at equinoxe that you referenced are "AMD64 only". Does this mean that they can only be run on machines with an AMD processor, not with an Intel processor?


No. AMD64 just indicates it has to be a 64 bit processor that can be Intel or AMD. 

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## Soapm

My TivoHD is hacked and I would like to increase the size of my VAR partition since I store tools there.

I see this option but don't know how to use it. How about mfscopy -ai /dev/sdh -kv 512 /dev/sdg ? Where would the extra 256mb be taken from? Is there a way to expand /var but still copy the current contents into the new partition?



Code:


 -v size   Recreate /var as size MiB and don't copy /var

Also, how does the supersize command work? What would be the cli command?


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## Soapm

Check this out all, I used this command to copy my old drive to my new drive. And look what mfscopy did. Notice partitions 14 and 15 are missing and the sizes of 11 and 13 have been increased. I don't know what else it did but I hope it got me past those S03 error i've been getting since I know nothing is wrong with the hard drive.



Code:


mfscopy -ai /dev/sdh -k /dev/sdg

Old Partition map...



Code:


stat: mode = 060660, type=Block
size = 0, blocks = 0
HDIO_GETGEO: heads=255, sectors=63, cylinders=46593, start=0,  total=748516545
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/hda'
 #:                type name                         length   base       ( size )
 1: Apple_partition_map Apple                            63 @ 1          (  31.5K)
 2:               Image Bootstrap 1                       1 @ 309549120
 3:               Image Kernel 1                       8192 @ 309549121  (   4.0M)
 4:                Ext2 Root 1                       524288 @ 309557313  ( 256.0M)
 5:               Image Bootstrap 2                       1 @ 310081601
 6:               Image Kernel 2                       8192 @ 310081602  (   4.0M)
 7:                Ext2 Root 2                       524288 @ 310089794  ( 256.0M)
 8:                Swap Linux swap                   262144 @ 310614082  ( 128.0M)
 9:                Ext2 /var                         524288 @ 310876226  ( 256.0M)
10:                 MFS MFS application region       589824 @ 311400514  ( 288.0M)
11:                 MFS MFS media region          137629696 @ 171919424  (  65.6G)
12:                 MFS MFS application region 2     589824 @ 311990338  ( 288.0M)
13:                 MFS MFS media region 2        171919360 @ 64         (  81.9G)
14:          Apple_Free Extra                          1645 @ 312580162  ( 822.5K)
15:                 MFS MFS media region 3       3594447361 @ 312581807  (   1.6T)

New Partition Map...



Code:


stat: mode = 060660, type=Block
size = 0, blocks = 0
HDIO_GETGEO: heads=255, sectors=63, cylinders=46593, start=0,  total=748516545
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/hda'
 #:                type name                         length   base       ( size )
 1: Apple_partition_map Apple                            63 @ 1          (  31.5K)
 2:               Image Bootstrap 1                       1 @ 1951097968
 3:               Image Kernel 1                       8192 @ 64         (   4.0M)
 4:                Ext2 Root 1                       524288 @ 1951097976 ( 256.0M)
 5:               Image Bootstrap 2                       1 @ 1951622264
 6:               Image Kernel 2                       8192 @ 8256       (   4.0M)
 7:                Ext2 Root 2                       524288 @ 1951622272 ( 256.0M)
 8:                Swap Linux swap                  2097152 @ 1952146560 (   1.0G)
 9:                Ext2 /var                         524288 @ 1954243712 ( 256.0M)
10:                 MFS MFS application region       589824 @ 1954768000 ( 288.0M)
11:                 MFS MFS media region         1951081520 @ 16448      ( 930.3G)
12:                 MFS MFS application region 2     589824 @ 1955357824 ( 288.0M)
13:                 MFS MFS media region 2       1951081520 @ 1955947648 ( 930.3G)


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## ThAbtO

8, 11 & 12 increased and 13 decreased. 12 was also AppleFree, now application region.


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## Soapm

ThAbtO said:


> 8, 11 & 12 increased and 13 decreased. 12 was also AppleFree, now application region.


I didn't notice the swap (8) increased to 1G, but I think you mean 14 was the Apple Free. I just thought it was interesting how it got rid of two partitions.

However, so far I'm not able to set any season passes. I downloaded new guide data and let it completely index but I get a blank when I search shows and if I try to set a season pass for a common show like say MASH it doesn't show any future showings. This was the problem I was having when the S03 would come so I'm trying to clear and delete (the one above clear and delete everything) again to see if the second time is a charm? Looks like a late nighter for me.


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## Soapm

Clear and delete worked, got season passes loaded and recordings being recorded. Now to see if I get freezes with the S03 error in about 30 days. Fingers crossed.


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## Soapm

According to cat /dev/meminfo my system is only seeing the original 128mb of swap. From my reading, I have to tell the kernel that there's more (1G) before it will use it. Anyone know the command to program 1G swap on partition 8 into the kernal? I think it's cool mfscopy gave me a larger swap but it doesn't seem my system is using it.


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## tommage1

Soapm said:


> Clear and delete worked, got season passes loaded and recordings being recorded. Now to see if I get freezes with the S03 error in about 30 days. Fingers crossed.


Usually you won't if the Tivo is hooked up and connecting the entire time. It's when you go a couple weeks to over a month you start getting S03, usually if cable, not OTA. Because the cable guide download is very large due to all the channels now. S03 will usually go away if you just leave hooked up awhile, gets a little further each time (don't force connections, just let it run, can take up to a few days to work itself out.) As long as you are not stuck in guided setup and getting it for the INITIAL download, not the second one. Since you know enough to be manipulating the partitions you know a lot more than me though..........

I think the Tivo holds about 12 days of guide data. And connects once a day. So if constantly connected it is doing small downloads. If you get over the 12 days it does a larger download since it has to get the full 12 days. That's when you can start getting the S03s. Same thing happens with S2 Tivos.


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## Soapm

tommage1 said:


> Since you know enough to be manipulating the partitions you know a lot more than me though..........


Small correction, I didn't manipulate the partitions, mfscopy did that automatically.

But I get the S03 error about once a month with the Tivo hooked up continually. There's someone else who's been getting on their TivoHD also. I'm doing all I can to stop that annoyance, they won't get rid of me and my lifetime HD that easy.


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## Soapm

Well, none of what I did made a difference, I got the error again today. I wished I could figure this puzzle out, it's to the point of very annoying.


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## Soapm

tommage1 said:


> Usually you won't if the Tivo is hooked up and connecting the entire time. It's when you go a couple weeks to over a month you start getting S03, usually if cable, not OTA. Because the cable guide download is very large due to all the channels now. S03 will usually go away if you just leave hooked up awhile, gets a little further each time (don't force connections, just let it run, can take up to a few days to work itself out.)


I'm going to try your advice and let it go for a few days to see if it fixes itself. But right now it keeps freezing on certain channels so I keep having to reboot it.


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## Soapm

It's been a couple of days and it's still getting the error but it made me remember something, when I first noticed the problem I had completely ran out of guide data and the Tivo wasn't recording anything. I'm going to let it go another day because I don't feel like farting with it but I think you might be wrong with this assumption.



> S03 will usually go away if you just leave hooked up awhile, gets a little further each time (don't force connections, just let it run, can take up to a few days to work itself out.)


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## tommage1

Soapm said:


> It's been a couple of days and it's still getting the error but it made me remember something, when I first noticed the problem I had completely ran out of guide data and the Tivo wasn't recording anything. I'm going to let it go another day because I don't feel like farting with it but I think you might be wrong with this assumption.


Well I'm not wrong and it's not an assumption, I have had it happen with numerous S2/3 on cable that have run out of guide data (over 12 days). Your situation may be different, ie you have another problem, you are mentioning freezing channels, I did not have that problem. It would download, then start loading, shows %, then after awhile get a noise and the S03. If I actually watch the % loading it would get a bit further each time, higher %, then let it sit before doing another connection, maybe a day, to let the BACKGROUND loading finish. Even if % gets to 100% it's not really done, still loading in background, you may even see a message like "you now have enough data for xx hours, within xx hours you will have full data". You also mention you would get the S03 once a month even if hooked up and connecting constantly. That I never got, only when had not connected in over 12 days, usually months really. I don't know what is happening to you, perhaps get a current image for your exact model and try it (different drive also?) S03 can probably be caused by more than one scenario, mine strictly over 12 days, no guide data, yours maybe something else or a combination of things?


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## Soapm

Ok, I'll let it set a few more days but I found this link while googling and it basically agrees with you so maybe I'll unhook the network cable so it can't call home for a few days.









TiVo Support Center


Get instant answers to common questions and learn to experience the most from TiVo products.




tivoidp.tivo.com


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## Soapm

I stand corrected and apologize for my assumptions, I looked today and the last connection succeeded. 

To be fair, I don't know if it was from letting it sit or because I ran these two commands on it. But either way she's back to working without doing a clear and delete.









database index failing...troubleshoot?


One of my S3 tivos has guide data, but the indexing is failing, resulting in SPs no longer working, and guide filtering showing no matches. Examining SPs finds no upcoming showings of the series despite there being showings of the series present in the guide. in /var/log/tverr, I see the...




www.tivocommunity.com


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## Soapm

I got the dreaded S03 error again so I ran these two commands and it succeeded with connecting last night.

dbgc-mcp -fg-gc
dbgc-mcp -fg-index


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## dougg3

Thanks for this amazing set of tools! My Premiere XL's original 1 TB drive started making rapid clicking noises after a power outage and the TiVo was boot cycling. I had mixed results getting the failing drive to show up properly in my computer, but I was able to get it to work long enough to use the latest MFS Tools ISO from GitHub and ddrescue to copy 60% of its contents to a "new" WD20EURX from a seller on Amazon. I don't think it was actually new, but whatever -- it passed WD's extended test and it was cheap. The original drive gave up the ghost before ddrescue could finish imaging it, but I figured there was a good chance I'd be able to recover using what I had been able to copy over. I opted to not worry about trying to rescue any of my old recordings.

To finish the process and expand to use the full 2 TB, I mounted an ext4-formatted 8 GB flash drive and saved a backup of the new drive to a file on the flash drive, and then restored it back to the new drive:



Code:


mkdir /tmp/flashdrive
sudo mount /dev/sdd1 /tmp/flashdrive
sudo backup -o /tmp/flashdrive/backup -i /dev/sdb
sudo restore -i /tmp/flashdrive/backup /dev/sdb

Maybe this was a silly way to do it but I thought it might be safer than trying to expand the 60% copied drive directly. Finally I put the drive in the TiVo and booted it up, and everything works great. CableCARD is still paired (Conditional Access screen says "Val: V") and it had no trouble downloading the latest guide data. It still showed my old recordings even though I know they're not really there so I deleted them all.

_Here's where I'm confused:_ I read on this forum that on a Premiere I would need to do a "Clear & Delete Everything" afterward in order for the new hard drive to be married to the motherboard, or else recordings won't persist. And this process would reset my CableCARD pairing. I don't want to deal with Spectrum's support if I can avoid it, so I haven't performed a C&DE. I've recorded things on the new hard drive and rebooted afterward, and they are still there and play back just fine. Am I super lucky? Is that advice about doing a C&DE no longer correct? Is the backup/restore process fancy enough to bypass that requirement or something? Did I misinterpret the information I was reading? I'm not complaining, because it all seems to work fine...I'm just wondering!

BTW, a random idea: it would be cool to add idle3ctl to the next version of the ISO. It's a Linux alternative to wdidle3 that can check/disable the Intellipark feature. I compiled it on another computer and scp'd it over and it works fine booted from the ISO and was able to confirm that Intellipark was already disabled on the new drive I got.


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## pl1

dougg3 said:


> _Here's where I'm confused:_ I read on this forum that on a Premiere I would need to do a "Clear & Delete Everything" afterward in order for the new hard drive to be married to the motherboard, or else recordings won't persist. And this process would reset my CableCARD pairing. I don't want to deal with Spectrum's support if I can avoid it, so I haven't performed a C&DE.


That is true when you use an image from a different TiVo. Since you restored an image from the same machine, you are all set and good to go.


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## dougg3

pl1 said:


> That is true when you use an image from a different TiVo. Since you restored an image from the same machine, you are all set and good to go.


Ahhh, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks!


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## dbrightside

Hello Friends, I am in the middle of doing a Tivo Bolt hard drive upgrade. I got the Bolt 3 years ago. The first thing i did when I got it was to upgrade to a 4TB Seagate 2.5" internal drive. That has been working great. I'm now trying to move to an external hard drive. I have WD Red 5TB WD50EFRX (CMR drive). I followed all the directions on copying the old drive to the new. 
1. I took out the internal 2.5 Seagate out of the Bolt.
2. I ran the 5TB WD RED through a full test/erase/full test using WD Diagnostics Data Lifeguard.
3. I put the WD Red into the Bolt and booted until the guided setup screen, then pulled the WD Red from the Bolt.
4. I used the latest MFS tools from a usb stick and ran mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda. (sdb-old Seagate drive----sda-new WD Red) At first it did not work, but after running the *bootsectorfix* through MFS tools, it then copied the seagate drive to the WD Red. 
5. After copy, I ran mfstool info on the WD Red and everything looked ok.(Not that I know what to look for).
6. I put the WD Red in the Bolt and started it up. I keep getting the loop of the startup screen, just a few minutes, then GREEN SCREEN OF DEATH. This loop continued. After looking around on this thread, I read about MS Tools 'mfsck'.
7. I put the WD Red back into MFS Tools and ran MFSTools _mfsck_ to change the MFS header magic to 'OK .
8. I started up the Tivo with the WD Red connected and still am getting the GSOD Start up screen loop. 
I have also tried to KS 58, and I also tried KS 57. 
I am at a dead end. Here's a look at my MSF Tools info on the new WD Red drive. Any help would be appreciated....
Thanks


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## pl1

I'm having trouble finding that drive. It appears to be discontinued. From what I can tell, it may very well be labeled a cmr drive, but this chart seems to imply all of the WD RED drives are smr. For sure, the WD RED *PLUS* drives are cmr.


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## jmbach

dbrightside said:


> Hello Friends, I am in the middle of doing a Tivo Bolt hard drive upgrade. I got the Bolt 3 years ago. The first thing i did when I got it was to upgrade to a 4TB Seagate 2.5" internal drive. That has been working great. I'm now trying to move to an external hard drive. I have WD Red 5TB WD50EFRX (CMR drive). I followed all the directions on copying the old drive to the new.
> 1. I took out the internal 2.5 Seagate out of the Bolt.
> 2. I ran the 5TB WD RED through a full test/erase/full test using WD Diagnostics Data Lifeguard.
> 3. I put the WD Red into the Bolt and booted until the guided setup screen, then pulled the WD Red from the Bolt.
> 4. I used the latest MFS tools from a usb stick and ran mfstool copy -a /dev/sdb /dev/sda. (sdb-old Seagate drive----sda-new WD Red) At first it did not work, but after running the *bootsectorfix* through MFS tools, it then copied the seagate drive to the WD Red.
> 5. After copy, I ran mfstool info on the WD Red and everything looked ok.(Not that I know what to look for).
> 6. I put the WD Red in the Bolt and started it up. I keep getting the loop of the startup screen, just a few minutes, then GREEN SCREEN OF DEATH. This loop continued. After looking around on this thread, I read about MS Tools 'mfsck'.
> 7. I put the WD Red back into MFS Tools and ran MFSTools _mfsck_ to change the MFS header magic to 'OK .
> 8. I started up the Tivo with the WD Red connected and still am getting the GSOD Start up screen loop.
> I have also tried to KS 58, and I also tried KS 57.
> I am at a dead end. Here's a look at my MSF Tools info on the new WD Red drive. Any help would be appreciated....
> Thanks
> View attachment 76991


If the steps you took are exactly as you outlined in your post, then step 3 made your recordings on your original drive inaccessible. Even copying the old drive to the new drive will not recover them. They are still on the drive but the map (located on the internal flash drive) to where they are on the drive has been wiped. 

Since you have lost your recordings, if you are on TE4 the TiVo will format the whole 5 TB drive and all the space is usable for recordings. If you are on TE3, then you need MFSR.

The oy way not to have lost your recordings would be to one the 4 TB to the 5 TB or use MFSTools to copy the 4 TB to the 5 TB and if you are on TE3, limiting the initial copy size to 4 TB before expanding it to the full 5 TB. 

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## dbrightside

Well ****, that's what i was afraid of. When I booted up the Tivo with the WD Red, I got a different startup screen than I'm used to seeing. It looked like Hydra..... I thought I read somewhere that you wanted to put your new fresh drive in the Tivo first so it could mind meld with the Tivo or whatever before performing MFS Tools copy. Is there a chance of doing another MFS Copy with the original Seagate drive that is still good, or could i put the original seagate 4tb back into the Bolt and would it recognize it?
I have been a Tivo enthusiast since we had our first DVR in 2000. I love it so much. The overall layout of it all has been perfect since day 1. Until Hydra(just like in the Marvel Universe), Hydra is the worst. When I first got my Bolt 3 years ago I "upgraded" to Hydra, and after 5 min with Hydra, I came back to Lovely, simple TE3. This is going to be way off track but I am so bummed to hear about cablecards soon to become extinct. I don't care if I lose all my recordings because of my error, I will continue to use our amazing Tivo Bolt 6 tuner with the 3 MIni's around the house until the wheels fall off.


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## ThAbtO

The thing with Bolts is they can detect, perhaps the Drive ID, and will erase the drive if its different, then reset the Drive ID to the current drive. If you put the old drive back in, it will do the same thing, erase, reset Drive ID.


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## jmbach

ThAbtO said:


> The thing with Bolts is they can detect, perhaps the Drive ID, and will erase the drive if its different, then reset the Drive ID to the current drive. If you put the old drive back in, it will do the same thing, erase, reset Drive ID.


What happens with the Bolt and Edges is that when it formats a drive it also formats part of the flash drive that stores the sqlite database that has the information concerning the recordings as well where they are located on the HDD. So when you return an old drive to the system, it shows no recordings present. 

Because there is this disconnect between the recordings on that HDD and the recording information on the flash drive, swapping HDDs back and forth as some TCF members do with the Roamios will case unpredictable results long-term with the Bolts and Edges 

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