# MFS Tools 2.0! An upgrade revolution!



## Tiger

Announcing the release of MFS Tools 2.0!

MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.

Key features:


*Seamless support for AT&T and Series 2 TiVo*
When restoring a backup of an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo made with MFS Tools 2.0, no longer will it be necessary to give a flag to restore for it to get the byte order right. All Series 2 and AT&T TiVos can be worked on with the same ease afforded Series 1 TiVos, all completely seamlessly.
*Upgrade a second time without losing recordings*
It's all over the hack FAQ and the underground. You can only have TiVo upgrade with a blessed drive once. It is set in stone, if you want to upgrade again you lose recordings. Not anymore. Due to research into the workings of TiVo, MFS Tools is now able to upgrade a drive without having to bless it and rely on the TiVo software to upgrade it correctly. In fact, with MFS Tools 2.0, you can upgrade again and again, upgrading one drive up to 5 times (3 for some models)
*Upgrade both drives on AT&T and Series 2 TiVo*
Have an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo, and getting jealous of your friend with 344 hours, while you are stuck with a mere 200? Not anymore! Now Series 2 TiVos can be as large as Series 1! As far as MFS Tools treats them for upgrading, all TiVos are basically the same. There is no need to have a separate tool for standalone, DirecTiVo, and Series 2. One tool does it all.
*Increase performance without sacrificing space*
When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts) - MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap.

Download it directly ot as an ISO bootable image HERE! (Or from a mirror)


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## dsmdriver

Wow. Let me be the first to say thanks for all the hard work Tiger!

I do have a question though: I already have a Series 1 with a 60+80Gb setup. The menus are a bit slow when going into now playing. Is there any way for me to take advantage of the reduced RAM usage MFS model without loosing my recordings or would I need to start from scratch?


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## DCIFRTHS

Looking forward to using it. Thanks !!!


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## David Platt

I'm glad I followed my instincts and heeded the rumors that this was on tht horizon. I got my Outpost $109 120GB drive last week, but decided to hold off for a few weeks. Glad I waited!! Thanks for all the hard work, guys.


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## zaknafein

Tiger, you really do amazing work. Thanks again.


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## bdub

Drat! I should have waited just one more day! Now I've got a 300-hour TiVo with nothing to watch.

Oh, well. It's just TV.  

Thanks, Tiger. You've made life great for tinkering couch potatoes everywhere!


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## David Platt

And, as an addendum to my previous post--

I've just complete the first (to my knowledge) non-beta upgrade using the new software. It was on a Philips DirecTivo running 2.5.2. I went from a 40GB/80GB config to a 120GB/80GB without a hitch, and still have all my shows. The whole process took about 3 1/2 hours; the majority of that time was wating on dd, as to be expected. I'm sure my upgrade time would have been much longer if I hadn't gone through and deleted all my suggestions first!


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## stormsweeper

> _Originally posted by dplatt _
> *And, as an addendum to my previous post--
> 
> I've just complete the first (to my knowledge) non-beta upgrade using the new software. It was on a Philips DirecTivo running 2.5.2. I went from a 40GB/80GB config to a 120GB/80GB without a hitch, and still have all my shows. The whole process took about 3 1/2 hours; the majority of that time was wating on dd, as to be expected. I'm sure my upgrade time would have been much longer if I hadn't gone through and deleted all my suggestions first! *


Nah, dd copies the whole drive no matter what.

MFSTools 2.0 rocks, guys. Oh yeah, and people w/ Sonys you don't need an 11 partition image anymore. Let my dual 80GB setup stand witness to that.


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## philhu

take it from a beta user!

It really! ROCKS!

I did a 30/60 to a 120/120 upgrade without losing programs!!!!!!

It is bulletproof!!!

phil


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## Mars

Will MFS Tools 2.0 work with TiVo's 3.0 software?


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## stormsweeper

> _Originally posted by Mars _
> *Will MFS Tools 2.0 work with TiVo's 3.0 software? *


Yep.


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## idlepaw

Hi, just used this to upgrade by AT&T Tivo2. Noticed two mistakes though. First, in step 7, when mounting my windows c drive, I had to type "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" to get it to mount. Second, in step 8, you wrote, "Take (one of) your new drive(s) and set its jumpers to Master. Connect the drive to your secondary IDE channel to make it Secondary Slave." I think it should be "Secondary Master", not slave. Except for these two minor mistakes, everything worked great! Thanks!!!
Ben


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## David Platt

> _Originally posted by stormsweeper _
> *
> 
> Nah, dd copies the whole drive no matter what.
> 
> *


Aaah... I had never paid much attention to how dd works, as I've never needed to use it before. I assumed the time of the backup was directly correlated to how many programs you have, not the size of the drive. Thanks for the info-- I won't bother deleting anything when I upgrade my Hughes!


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## Craftsman

You Da MAN !!!

One week ago I upgraded from a 1 drive TiVo series 2 60Gb, to a 60 + 120. The 60Gb A drive is really a 120Gb (using 60). I put in 2 120's. I was looking towards the future.

Well, guess what?

THE FUTURE IS HERE !



Thanks to you.

Very generous.


THANK YOU !


Now I just can't wait to 'swell' my A drive.


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## Worf

Wow, now that's cool. Now I can stop worrying what to do when my 90-hour TiVo (single 80GB drive) is full . I wanted to use a 120GB drive, but had problems... now I guess I can easily add it to my TiVo if I need to. yay!.


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## kenr

I have a DSR6000 with 2 80 GB drives.

The A drive is a mirror image of the original A drive (only 40 GB of it is used), the B drive was blessed and is used entirely.

Can the new mfstools expand my A drive to use the entire 80 GB and retain all recordings?

(I did this upgrade originally before TiVoMad supported the DTiVo)


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## DCIFRTHS

The FAQ says: 

Q. How confident can I be in the backup made?

A. As confident as you want. Feel free to test the backup before doing anything to your source drive. In fact, I encourage you to test your backup. There are a few instances I am still a little uncertain about. Besides, it only takes a few minutes to test.

My Question: Can you please be more specific when you say: "There are a few instances I am still a little uncertain about".

The FAQ says: 

When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts)  MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap. 

My questions:

1) When I run MFS Tools 2, is there a way to specify more swap space, or is this handled automatically by the tools?

2) If Ithere is a way topo add more swap space, and I don't do it, what will the downside be? For example, will TiVo still be able to do a repair if necessary?

Thanks


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## stormsweeper

> _Originally posted by DCIFRTHS _
> *
> 1) When I run MFS Tools 2, is there a way to specify more swap space, or is this handled automatically by the tools? *


During a restore, there is a flag you can pass to set the size of your swap space. Check the restore options in the readme. This is NOT a new option to MFS Tools, btw.


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## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by stormsweeper _
> *
> 
> During a restore, there is a flag you can pass to set the size of your swap space. Check the restore options in the readme. This is NOT a new option to MFS Tools, btw. *


I should have asked if it is *advisable* (a good idea) to add more swap space with the new set of tools. I will be using two 120 GIG drives in a series 2, and I am unclear as to whether the default restore (not specifying a swap size) will actually create a sufficient swap file to run a self repair.

I want to set it up so that there is enough room to do the self repair. In addition, I'm not confident as to what size swap I should choose if I am "required" to specify this value.

I _thought_ it was a new feature because one of the readme states:

MFS Tools 2.0 New Features
MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.

-	Increase performance without sacrificing space
When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts)  MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap.


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## NeZorf

> _Originally posted by dsmdriver _
> *I do have a question though: I already have a Series 1 with a 60+80Gb setup. The menus are a bit slow when going into now playing. Is there any way for me to take advantage of the reduced RAM usage MFS model without loosing my recordings or would I need to start from scratch? *


Does anyone have any insight if using MFS 2.0 improves the menu speed when there are lots of programs in NP?

Any tips for dual 120+giggers?


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## Tiger

Wow, my very own pinned topic! 

To answer a few questions...

dsmdriver,
You would need to start over. I do not, however, know if it really makes a difference in the menu speed and such. The only 100% known difference is if it has a green screen, without reducing RAM usage or increasing RAM or swap, it would not be able to complete.

dplatt,
Sorry to disappoint you. To test the floppy image on the final release version of the CD, I upgraded my live TiVo (DirecTV) from 80+80 to 120+120. So depending on how you look at it, that could be considered non-beta.  And if you want me to get really technical, I upgraded it to 80+80 in the first place a year ago using the same code that is in the new software, long before it was beta. (The upgrade code has actually been in there since way before even 1.0.. I just needed to make an interface for it)

Idlepaw, thanks.  I'd be amazed if thats the only mistake though.

kenr,
It can do that without even breaking a sweat. Just pop the drives into your PC on the primary IDE channel, boot off the CD, and run


Code:


mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb

 and less than a second later when it finishes, shutdown and pop em back into your TiVo. Total time: 5-10 minutes, most of which spent taking the drives out and putting them back.

DCIFRTHT,
I should probably change that FAQ item. The few instances referred to are from 1.0 - I had one report of the reboot loop problem back then (Since 2.5 is the one with the problem and it was only in beta) so figured it was an isolated thing. But because I was not sure, I left that comment in. It turned out not to be an isolated problem, and with the release of 2.5, I got sent a problemed backup, figured it out, and released MFS Tools 1.1 to fix it.

It is never a bad idea to add more swap space. However, I am using 2x120 in my combo without increasing the swap. But I upgraded it to 80x80 with the memory saving feature originally. If I you are upgrading a system that was upgraded with bless or with TiVoMad, it would be advisable to make swap something more like 128 megs. You don't need to specify the value, it assumes 64 megs if you do not.

As to the readme, it has nothing to do with the swap size creation, it just says it is not required for making the larger upgrades safer.


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## Agent86

For anyone wondering, I upgraded a 40/120 Series2 AT&TiVo to 120/120. No loss of recordings, and I've got 306 hours now!

Though, one word of warning, it did take 2-3 hours to dd the old A drive to the new one.

I didn't do anything with my swap file, and it seems to be running fine.

Tiger, should I be worried about the swap at all?

- Agent 86


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## Tiger

Probably not. The big problem comes with Series 1, which only had 16mb of RAM. The problem occurred somewhere between 120 and 160gb. With what you have, you have the same memory requirements as 180gb w/o the extra savings MFS Tools does. (That is 120+40 for the original, then an additional 80 / 4 for the new stuff) With the extra RAM of the series 2, I don't think you will have to worry.


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## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *Wow, my very own pinned topic!
> 
> If I you are upgrading a system that was upgraded with bless or with TiVoMad, it would be advisable to make swap something more like 128 megs. You don't need to specify the value, it assumes 64 megs if you do not. *


I am upgrading a unmodified factory fresh Series 2 using 2x120 GIG drives . What would you suggest for the swap size so the self repair will run with no problems?


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## Tiger

In that case, as the head post says "No change in swap size needed if you use MFS Tools for all your upgrade needs". You don't need to worry about extra swap at all.


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## Tiger

BTW, if anyone wants to mirror this and post a link, feel free, I'll add it to the main post as a mirror.


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## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *In that case, as the head post says "No change in swap size needed if you use MFS Tools for all your upgrade needs". You don't need to worry about extra swap at all. *


I think it's the "(Though it never hurts)" after the line above that has made me paranoid....

If I do add swap, do you have a suggestion as to the size I should use with 2x120 GIG drives?

Thanks!


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## Tiger

Though it never hurts means exactly that.. Nothing ill will come from using more swap. I would not worry about increasing the swap size with that config. I am using 2x120 in my combo now with no extra swap.


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## bidger

Well, I downloaded the .iso image for the boot CD, burned it per instructions, then printed out the instructions. I was looking at doing the upgrade yesterday, but I noticed my SA took a long time during it's daily call. Sure enough I checked SI and saw "Pending Restart", so I put the upgrade off til today. Everything went smoothly and when I added the 80G Maxtor it said I'd added 88hrs at basic. Cool! Only problem is when I hook it up it does the "Starting Up...almost there" loop. I've tried every jumper config. & I'm at a loss. Do I need to add a jumper to the original drive for "Master enabled" as opposed to "Master". I'm not buying another Maxtor. They make this whole jumper situation too complicated.


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## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *Though it never hurts means exactly that.. Nothing ill will come from using more swap. I would not worry about increasing the swap size with that config. I am using 2x120 in my combo now with no extra swap. *


Cool. Thanks again.


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## Tiger

bidger,

Hmm, first report I have heard of something like that. Care to give a little more information? (IE if you were adding a B drive, replacing a drive with a larger one, what commands you used, etc)


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## bidger

Sure Tiger, appreciate your help. I'm adding a drive to the original A in a Philips SA 14hr. As far as commands through the process, I followed your guide, had no problem copying the original drive to my C: drive, was able to
restore that image to the upgrade drive, and saw a report of 88 hrs. when I used the add command. As I said it's stuck on the "power up" loop and the unit doesn't respond to the remote. Hope that helps round things out for you. Thanks.


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## Tiger

Hmm, in that case I'm not sure.. If you can mount partition 9 on the A drive and get the logs off of the log directory there, could you PM them to me? Perhaps someone else will have to answer about the Maxtor jumper issue. But looking at the logs will show if the second drive was at least seen.


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## bidger

I'd tried several times to upgrade w/ the previous version of mfstools and
could never get the second drive recognized, but it always came back to the original drive & rebooted. I see other folks (some who've upgraded &
some who haven't) having problems w/ their remotes & reboots after 3.0.
I'd like to give you the log you've requested, but I'm not that tech-savvy.
Do I boot from the upgrade CD? Do I connect the TiVo A as secondary master & what commands do I use to bring up & save that log. Thanks, Tiger.


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## Tiger

If you have your CD-ROM as secondary slave, and your DOS/Windows drive is primary master, you can connect the TiVo drive to secondary master position and boot off the upgrade CD- instead of hitting enter to accept defaults, select the byte swapped boot option - and issue the following commands:



Code:


mkdir /mnt/dos
mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mkdir /mnt/dos/tivologs
mount /dev/hda9 /mnt/var
cp /mnt/var/log/* /mnt/dos/tivologs/
umount /mnt/var
umount /mnt/dos

Then your logs should be in C:\tivologs


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## bidger

OK, thanks Tiger I printed out the directions & I'll log off now and see what happens.


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## ddunham

Wow. I hadn't been keeping up with the state of the tools. So when Tiger came by the TiVo picnic on Saturday and dropped off some CDs, I didn't realize that this was hot-off-the-presses stuff.

I'd tried to burn a boot CD the night before and failed, so having a working CD in hand was great. Since I don't have a series 2, I could have done it with the older tools, but I'm happy to use the new one.

I upgraded my Phillips SA (3.0) today with the new Fry's/Outpost 120G drive. All is well.

Thanks for all the work, and for the CD at the picnic.  

I get to record one of the College World Series ball games on "best" while I'm at work tomorrow. Yee-haw!

P.S. Anyone else with that new Outpost drive have a problem with the diag disk? Every time I booted from it, the utility complained that it wasn't a Western Digital drive and wouldn't do diags on it.  Everything's working so far, but I wish I could have run them once.


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## Tiger

I didn't bother with the diags.. I just popped the drive in and went.

And yep, hot off the press. People at the picnic were getting them only an hour later than you could have downloaded it.


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## mike

Tiger,

Thanks for the new release. I have been trying to upgrade my TiVo for some time now, but because of Sony's 13 partitions, I couldn't replace the A drive and utilize the extra space. I even went with an 11-partition image, but it wouldn't expand. With the new release, I was able to upgrade my old upgrade - two 30 GB drives to one 120 GB drive.

When they drop in price, I'll add a second 120 GB.

Thanks again! 

Mike


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## ALanJay

Tiger,

In your instructions you talk about ising the -l32 for the "UK Dual Drive TiVo" is that exclusively for ones that were ORIGINALLY 2 drives or also for UK models that were one drive and upgraded to 2 (or equally 2 drives then upgraded to 2 bigger drives if you see what I mean).

In my case I upgraded from a single drive UK model to 2x80Gb and now with you cool new version am thinking about a couple of 120Gb drives 

I reckon 10C should do me (in your help) assuming there are no oddites due to using a UK model in this case...


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## kukrer

(Bowing to the master) Great work Tiger.

Can't help but wonder if the TiVo folks have utilities this advanced  Chalk up another one for open source.

(Too bad I already upgraded my drives the old way, still trying to finish off stuff on the old drives, swapping drives is a hassle).


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## Tiger

Actually I asked one of the TiVo engineers about that, kukrer.. The answer is that yes they do have utilities this advanced.. It's called MFS Tools.  I think TiVo employees accounts for about half the CDs picked up at the BBQ.

ALanJay,
I honestly don't know. I would assume any TiVo that had 2 drives when it got 2.5.5 and the new background animation. If you already have a working backup, you can skip the making a backup step.. The steps for saving your recordings don't have a difference.


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## Ken Yeh

Tiger,

on your new MSF TOOLS 2.0, do I still need to type NOSWAP instead of press ENTER for AT&TIVO 2?


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## zaknafein

I suspect I know the answer to this question, but I might as well ask.

If you have an added B drive, then later use mfsadd to add a larger A drive, can you revert back to your original A without restoring from backup? Is there anything changed on the old B drive that would prevent it from working with the old A drive? Clearly you would lose some recordings, I'm just wondering if it would work.

Edit: I thought about this a little harder, and realized at least one reason why it wouldn't work: the old drive wouldn't have the propper index of all the shows on the new B drive. Duh.


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## klyde

Is there any advantage to re-do the drives with the new mfstools.2? 

I have an original 30gb SA tivo. I upgraded it to 60gb then added an 80Gb some time ago. I now have 38hrs Best and 141hrs Standard . Is that the correct times I should have? Seems a little low acording to other posts. Both Samsung 5400 RPM drives. 

I do get several recordings that start off stuttering for the first 10 minuits or so then clear up. The picture and audio freezes, sometimes the picture gets out of sink with the audio on the stutter. I do have a 60GB IBM 7200 RPM drive I could put in place of one of them. 

thanks



Report


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## kenr

I've just read all of the MFS Tools 2.0 documentation and noticed the -p option for restore described as:


> Attempt to optimize the partition layout for TiVo's access patterns. This will imitate the partition layout of DirecTV TiVo receivers and newer standalone receivers. The partition layout of the first drive will be such that the application data will be in the middle of the drive and the video on the outside, causing the head to have to seek less.


I don't know if this is new in MFS Tools 2.0, but I know I never used this option nor did I ever see it mentioned in the Hinsdale tome.

Is there any reason that I should re-restore a drive on a DTiVo that was restored originally without the -p option? Would this have an observable effect to the user of the TiVo?


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## Tiger

klyde, are you saying that you upgraded the A drive to 60gb with TiVoMad, then later blessed and added a B drive? If so then definately re-do it.. Upgrading a second time with a blessed drive never works. Sometimes it looks like it does, but it doesn't really.

kenr, no idea if it makes a difference. TiVo started themselves doing something similar on new systems, and so I made guesses about why and made code to act in a similar manner.


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## daylate

Tiger,

Just last week (Thursday - Saturday, to be exact) I performed a "copy/merge" of my 80GB/40GB DirectTivo upgrade disks to a new 120GB disk using mfstools 1.0 and kept all of my recordings. No one seemed to have been aware of this possibility before (although I'm sure you were). I used the following command line:

mfstool backup -a -o - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd | mfstool restore -s 128 -i - /dev/hdb

where my old (upgraded disks) were on /dev/hdc (old master, 40gb) and /dev/hdd (old slave, 80gb) and my new disk was on /dev/hdb (I booted off of the cd on /dev/hda)

After waiting for 34.25 hours for the transfer to complete, I now have a single disk with all of my settings and recordings that seems to work just fine.

My question is, is there any reason that you know of that this disk would give me problems in the future? It seems to be structured like an original factory disk, but it reported 108 hours off the bat. All of the recordings that I've checked (I've played about 10 or so at random) work just fine. Also, it seems like I could now just bless another disk and add it in, does that sound right to you? (in which case I could have just copied the old disks to two new ones and used the new mfsadd feature in 2.0, but I digress).

Anyway, one reason I wanted to get back to one disk is to see its effect on the heat of my unit (the directivo's seem to run hot). This, in combination with a new fan, reduced my average temp from ~50c to ~42c (big improvement); I also wanted to replace my A disk which was starting to whine (it was closest to the power-supply; I think it got cooked).


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## Tiger

I seemed to miss Ken Yeh's question.. The answer is no.. Default boot is actually no swap.

daylate,
There is absolutely no reason it will give problems. That is why MFS Tools lets you do it. However, just because you now only have one drive doesn't mean you can just bless and add a B drive. The limitation in not being able to do it has nothing to do with the lack of space or a new disk, it has to do with weather you have upgraded already. In your case, even with just the A drive (Which is the same effect BTW as if you had copied your old A to the 120 directly and used TiVoMad) you have upgraded already, and can not just bless and add a new drive. But that is what MFS Tools 2.0 is for.


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## dan

Tiger thanks for the new utils and documentation!

I have just upgraded a Sony SA running 3.0 from 2x30GB drives to an 80 (A) and a 120 (B) using the new version of MFS Tools. I used the procedure in 10C to copy all of my data to the new drives. 

My question is now how would I (and should I) enlarge my swap file space?

Thanks, Dan


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## happygolucky

I need help! I don't understand exactly how the new mfs tools 2.0 fits in with the Hinsdale how to faq....

I do not have a cdrw burner and so I am using the floppy disk method. I had already downloaded mfs tools 1.1 and copied it to my c: drive, along with TiVoMad v.3.2 on a floppy and qunlock on another floppy.

When looking at the link to download mfs tools 2.0, there was a link for CD burners with a large file size, and a 500KB file "mfstools 2.0."

Here is my stupid question, what files do I need to download and how does this fit in with the intructions on the Hinsdale faq?

Thanks,

David


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## hinsdale

> _Originally posted by happygolucky _
> *I need help! I don't understand exactly how the new mfs tools 2.0 fits in with the Hinsdale how to faq....
> 
> I do not have a cdrw burner and so I am using the floppy disk method. I had already downloaded mfs tools 1.1 and copied it to my c: drive, along with TiVoMad v.3.2 on a floppy and qunlock on another floppy.
> 
> When looking at the link to download mfs tools 2.0, there was a link for CD burners with a large file size, and a 500KB file "mfstools 2.0."
> 
> Here is my stupid question, what files do I need to download and how does this fit in with the intructions on the Hinsdale faq?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David *


The Hinsdale How-To with instruction and links using Mfs Tools 2.0 is here:

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html

You will just require the Mfs Tools 2.0 Boot Floppy and there is a link and a batch file for easy creation listed at Step 4


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## klyde

Tiger:
Yes. I first upgraded the 30gb to a 60gb then later blessed a 2nd 80gb drive. I got 149 hours and 38hours best. INobody will tell me if this is what a 60 and 80gb should get. It seems to be working ok. Has been for more than 6 months.


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## Tiger

I get 146 out of 60+60, so 149 for 60+80 is a bit low..

If it is working then you got lucky.. But you are not using all the space you could be.


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## StanSimmons

Going from a DTiVo 40+40 to 80+40, using the Hinsdale instructions, I get a "Cannot boot kernel" message....

With the original 40G A on Primary Master, a previously added 40G B on Primary Slave, and a new 80G A on Secondary Master. I did the following steps:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k

mfsadd x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb


Any idea what I did wrong?


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## Eskimo Pie

Ok, I upgraded my Series 2 60 hour last night with a new 120GB B drive... my only problem was when I booted from the CD, I got the menu, then pressed enter, and it started unpacking some stuff or something and I got an error saying "CRC Error, System Halted"... I tried burning a new disc thinking I had a bad disk and got the same error, so I tried making a floppy using the instructions in the floppy folder on the CD and when I booted to that it went into some loop with repeating numbers scrolling up the screen... The above disks were made on my Athalon XP machine running Win XP, while the drives were in my PII 400 machine running win ME... So I tried using the CD in my ME machine to create another floppy and that floppy worked. After that, the upgrade went as planned... I can understand the boot floppy that I made on an XP machine not working on an ME machine, but I don't understand why 2 seperate CD's I burned didn't work. I used Nero and burned from an image file using the wizard. Strange... 

I Know this is kinda long allready, but another question, I bought my $109 120GB drive before the MFStools 2.0 were out and now I'll want to upgrade to 2x120's in the near future... will this be an easy upgrade and will I be able to keep all my recordings? Again, that'll be keeping my new B 120GB and replacing the 60GB A drive with a 120GB one. That will work fine right?


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## philhu

hi

I have an svr-2000, with 120/120 now, thanks to mfstools 2.0 (beta!).

I think I'd like to, for piece of mind, increase my swap space

Can I do it without the entire mfstools backup/restore? To backup/restore saving programs took 16+ hours.

Can I just increase swap space from a cmd prompt on the tivo?

failing that:
Can I take my drives and put them back in the pc to accomplish ONLY this
using the -S option in any manner?

Thanks


----------



## HTH

Hmm, the unit I want to upgrade has two drives: 60 GB and 45 GB, with only 30hrs used on the 45 GB master drive. I am uncertain whether or not I applied a non-standard hack to make the rest of the 45 GB drive ext2 space (/hack), but I'm fairly confident that I did. (At the time of that marriage, TiVoMad was not an option.)

I have the drives to go 120-120, and want to keep my recordings. Can I do it while getting rid of the hack partition, or do I have to keep it?


----------



## Tiger

Unless your old space + 1/4 your new space is greater than 140, then you don't need to worry about swap. IE if you had 30+60 then went to 120+120 that would be 90 + 150 / 4 or 90 + 32 = 122, so swap would not be needed. But if you had 60+60 and went to 120+120 that would be 120 + 120 / 4 = 120 + 30 = 150, so more swap would be recommended.

That said, once you use the space, you can't add swap.

HTH,
The extra partitions (/hack) is ignored by MFS Tools. You can actually copy all recordings to a new pair of drives and fill them in a single command. Just follow the instructions for going from dual drive to new larger dual drive.


----------



## tkevink

Tiger:
I hope you, or somebody else, can shed some light on my upgrade problem...(This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a while)

3 weeks ago, I upgraded my Dtivo to (1) 100 Gb drive, preserving recordings.
last week I bought a 120 Gb for less than the 100Gb. My original plan was to just dd from the 100 to the 120, and until I cleared my programs I was going to give up the extra 20gb.

then I read about your marvelous MFStools2.0. I thought my problems were solved! But, it didn't go so well...

I followed the instructions and tried to do the Step 10, Upgrade config. #3. It returned an error "Restore failed:Backup target not large enough for the entire backup by itself" even though my hda was a blank 120Gb and the hdc was the once upgraded 100Gb. ( The drive size were correctly reported during the os boot) I tried this from two different computers, and both with the bios autodetect on and off.

So then I tried to dd from the 100 to the 120. no problem. it boots my dtivo just like I expected it to. Then I tried to "mfsadd -x /dev/hda"

No Joy. it told me that there was no more room for partitions ( or something like that) So I did a "mfsinfo /dev/hda" it listed partitions through hda15, and said I could expand it 3 more times, but mfsadd wouldn't do it...

So then to make sure that my 120Gb drive was ok, I restored my compressed backup to it, and did a "mfsadd -x /dev/hda" and it was successful, expanding out to 126 hrs like I would expect. ( but without my recordings.) 


Hopefully I have given you enough details without being confusing that you can find the path to lead me down! 

Thank you in advance for your assistance,
Kevin
(Whew! I just double checked, and with all the swapping, copying, etc my 100Gb still boots my dtivo with all my recordings intact)


----------



## Gomer Pyle

To Tiger and hinsdale (or other experienced Linux users):

OK, I admit I am Linux clueless, but I am PC hardware/user competent.

I successfully upgraded to a 40/80 setup last May, and am thrilled to see MFS 2.0 will allow me to go to 120/80 now without losing recordings (and 120/120 down the road a little).

As stated above, I want to ugrade just my A drive from 40 to 120 GB - which I am now able to do thanks to Tiger's tools. What concerns me some is my lack of Linux prowess, and the fact the the two statements in the upgrade guides from Tiger and hinsdale that say *don't screw this part up *are indeed different. I believe that this is due to the fact the the HDs are not in the same IDE ports in the two methods - is it 100% true and typo free, and that both command lines are correct when used with the respective drive locations?


----------



## hinsdale

The commands are the same and will work either method, just different IDE connections were used.

I am about to add a note after performing this single drive copy to pull the new drive and existing drive after making the copy and test the pair in your TiVo first (will still show same hours as originals) before performing the mfsadd expansion. This will verify you had a good dd copy before permanantly marrying/expanding the drives.


----------



## Gomer Pyle

Thanks for the confirmation, and the new suggestion. Sounds like I have another project to do this weekend...


----------



## brott

Tiger,

Thanks for the CD. I've been looking for this capability for a while. I can finally upgrade a 35-hour system with programs I can't lose.

Cheers


----------



## gardavis

I started an upgrade this morning 30-120 to 120-120.

I started with the step to create and test a backup of my Sony SVR2000 3.0 system. 

I mounted the restored A drive (not the B) backup to verify the backup was OK. It booted up. The first thing I did was to click the List on the remote and it took a long time to display the list of recordings (I am aware that the recordings list is there but the actual recordings are not).

All remote commands and even the displays were very slow, like some process was using up the CPU time. Otherwise, the Tivo did respond OK.

Any ideas on this slowness of the backup?

I am now in the long dd copy step.

Thanks,
Gary


----------



## tivoscooter

I upgraded my single-drive 30G Tivo to a 30/80 with MFS2.0 last week. Today I'm upgrading to 30/120. I dd'ed the 80 to the 120 to save my recordings. Everything went well except for expansion...

mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb

reports...

Nothing to add
111hrs

Any ideas why mfsadd does not see the additional space?


----------



## stormsweeper

> _Originally posted by tivoscooter _
> *I upgraded my single-drive 30G Tivo to a 30/80 with MFS2.0 last week. Today I'm upgrading to 30/120. I dd'ed the 80 to the 120 to save my recordings. Everything went well except for expansion...
> 
> mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb
> 
> reports...
> 
> Nothing to add
> 111hrs
> 
> Any ideas why mfsadd does not see the additional space? *


are you sure you have the right device names? you had Tivo A (the 30GB) on primary master, and Tivo B (the 120GB) as primary slave?


----------



## adavidw

Okay, here's a stupid question.

How do I find out if I used TiVoMad in my last upgrade?

I upgraded my DirecTiVo maybe 10 months to a year ago by adding an 80 gig B drive to it. To accomplish this, I downloaded the boot disk referenced in Hinsdale's how-to at the time, and then divorced the 80 gig drive from my standalone. Then, I made the small backup of the combo A drive as specified. Then, blessed the 80 gig and put it in the TiVo.

I'm concerned because it appears that if I had used MFS Tools, I would be in a better position for future upgrades, since the memory usage would be smaller, right?

So how can I tell?

-Aaron


----------



## ADent

If had a single drive unit from the factory you probably just blessed the second drive.

MFSTools 2.0 only reduces the memory required if you get a GSOD (Green Screen of Death) and the DTiVo already come with more memory than a standalone (where the lack of memory/VM will cause the GSOD to fail at around 140GB unless swap is added).


----------



## saboyce

When I download the static binaries, it seems that I am getting the previous version of MFS Tools...
-it displays "MFSTools 1.0" when it is run
-I am unable to use the "mfstool mfsadd..." command
-when running "mfstools restore..." the -x flag is not a valid flag.

What in the heck am I doing wrong? I upgraded my previous Sony SVR2000 a couple of times, so I'm not a complete newb. HELP!


----------



## TheCatcher

GREAT WORK!!!!

This worked fantastic! I just upgraded my 14GB (original Quantum drive) / 60GB (Maxtor Drive) to 120GB / 120GB (both Western Digital Drives) without any problems at all! All my programs and settings are still intact and the menus are radically faster. The instructions were very clear and easy to follow. And at one point when one of the source drive's IRQ timed out - the MFSBackup software perforemed a drive reset and everything continued just fine.

My available time went from 22 / 71 hours to 89 / 298 hours.

A note for others attempting a similar upgrade - allow enough time to do the copy. the copy took 8 1/2 hours on my Dragonn Ultra AMD 1900+. But well worth the time!

GREAT WORK!!! and THANK YOU!!!!!


----------



## Sparks666

do I understand that menus's are faster using 2.0?


----------



## massimj

After downloading 2.0 from the author's site and having that fail to boot on my PC, I then took the 2.0 floppy maker. The floppy maker worked and the MFSadd went with one hitch. I was following the instructions for one drive, and the /dev/hdc had to be changed to /dev/hdb because with one drive, the large drive is the secondary on the primary. When I changed the command, it reported the gained space and I knew that it was susccessful.

I then set the new drive to master again and reinstalled it in my Tivo. After boot-up I noticed that I had 88 hours at basic, but only 23 or so at Best. I use to have about 9 at best, so why wasn't the gain at best as good as the gain at basic?

I tried to play some things that I had recorded on the old drive and they started playing. Then a scheduled season pass started to record. That is when I lost the sound that came from buttons being pushed on the remote. I then tried to play what was being recorded and the screen went black. This iswhere I did a complete reset to start back at square one with programming. Did I follow the right path here? I won't know how well it works until the reset is completed and I program some new season passes.

So, I have no idea why I could repeatedly make 1.0 CDROM's and get them to boot, but no matter how many times I downloaded and recorded 2.0, I could never get it to boot. Thank god for the floppy being so easy to use.

I don't know if I want to add the new 120 GB Western digiatl to the 80, I might upgrade the A: drive to the 120 after a little while and keep it a single drive unit. Less noise, less power being drawn, and less chance for something to go wrong. 

I still don't see any benefit to the added memory I installed this afternoon.

Thanks to anyone who sheds light on the problem I had with the 2.0 CDrom not booting.

Joe


----------



## saboyce

I, too, went ahead and went the floppy route (since I ran out of CDs over the weekend) and everything went through without a hitch. Evidently, the static images on Tyger's site (and www.9thtee.com) are only partially updated, as the README is for 2.0, but the mfstool is still 1.0. I am not sure about the ISO.

SO, after spending a long night of swapping drives and cussing, I am finally back in the TiVo-action with a possible 306 hours of recording.

SABoyce
Series2 w/ dual Maxtor 120GBs


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *HTH,
> The extra partitions (/hack) is ignored by MFS Tools. You can actually copy all recordings to a new pair of drives and fill them in a single command. Just follow the instructions for going from dual drive to new larger dual drive. *


I think I need a two-stage method, as the CD is booted as secondary slave and I don't have four interfaces to hook up all four drives at once. I've already disconnected my Windows drive. Are the instructions you refer to the README on the CD?

Would I make a backup piped to a restore of the two drives (60 & 30 of a 45) as primary master and slave to a single 120 GB drive as secondary master (with optimized layout), then shutdown, disconnect the drives, hook up the new 120 as primary master and the second 120 GB drive as primary slave, then expand both drives?

I fear if I go the floppy route I might make a mistake and wipe a wrong drive. Plus the inconvenience of having to boot into Windows to make the floppy.


----------



## kazymyr

Tiger,

IIRC you stated at some time in the past (correct me if I'm wrong) that mfstools would be able to run on the TiVo itself... Is it still true? Would it be too much to ask for a cross-compiled binary...?


----------



## TheCatcher

Sparks666, 

I'm not 100% certain that the HD upgrade with MFSTools 2.0 is what increased the speed of my menus. Apparently the evening before I did the HD upgrade my TiVo 2.5 software was updated to TiVo 3.0 software but I didn't notice it till after I did the HD upgrade.

But the initial post in this thread indicates that performance may be increased by the doing an upgrade with the MFSTools 2.0.

All I know is I was expecting a major slowdown when I increased the HD space form 75GB to 240GB. I am VERY happy to find out I was wrong and it is so much faster.


----------



## Tiger

HTH,
Who says you need to boot Windows to make the floppy? From Linux:
dd if=floppy.img of=/dev/fd0 (Or whatever the image is called)

As to overwriting the wrong device, if you do the backup to restore method, it is virtually impossible to do so, as long as you do not repeat the same device name for both. The backup will not even start if either device is wrong.

Kazymyr,
It is actually just 2 commands away to make such a thing.. But it is completely untested.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *HTH,
> Who says you need to boot Windows to make the floppy? From Linux:
> dd if=floppy.img of=/dev/fd0 (Or whatever the image is called) *


Could it be because the floppy image isn't included on the CD image? At least, I couldn't find it on the CD. To get a floppy image to the PC, I'll have to either boot into Windows for network connectivity there or burn the image as a file on another CD with my Mac. I'd be a shame to waste a whole CD just to store a single 1440 KiB file. (My Windows installation is buggy and likes to spontaneously restart if the HDTV acting as my monitor is on, and I don't have a Linux installation on it yet..)

I'll try booting up one of my older Macs which still have a 3.5" drive to see if Disk Copy can create a floppy. I'm in the stages of reworking my LAN topology so I can get my TiVos doing updates over ADSL, which means my PC is off-line.

I'd recommend future CD images include the floppy image as a file for creation of a boot floppy under the CD in addition to it being available as a separate download. Even on a 3" CD, storing a 10.3 MiB image on a 185 MiB CD is already an awful waste of space. Unless you have one of those new Yamaha drives that can burn images onto the unused portion of the data side of the CD. "Chevron one encoded."


----------



## TheCatcher

The CD image that I downloaded included a sub-directory called floppy and the floppy image (called mfstools.img) was in it. I created the floppy from it and performed the upgrade.


----------



## kazymyr

BTW, you don't even have to burn the CD to extract the floppy image from the ISO image. Here's how:

In Windows, use Winimage to open the .iso and extract files from it.

In Linux, assuming you have the mfstools.iso in your home directory, do this:


Code:


cd ~
mkdir iso
su
(enter root password)
mount -o loop mfstools2.iso iso
cp iso/floppy/mfstools.img .
umount iso
exit
dd if=mfstools.img of=/dev/hda bs=18k

and you end-up with the mfstools floppy.


----------



## JPriller

> _Originally posted by massimj _
> *Thanks to anyone who sheds light on the problem I had with the 2.0 CDrom not booting.*


I've no light to shed, but it's happening to me too, and I also had no problems burning the 1.0 CD last fall. I downloaded the image okay and burned two CDs, but neither will boot on any of my three PCs. I can see the CD directory contents fine from Win2000, but all I get trying to boot from the CDs is a "boot failure" message.

I'm using Ahead Nero 5.5, and "Burn Image" off the file menu. The data mode defaults to 1 and block size to 2048, as desired. I've got a PC with Adaptec software at work, maybe I'll try that.

[edit: found some answers on this thread.]


----------



## JPriller

> _Originally posted by JPriller _
> *[edit: found some answers on this thread.] *


I downloaded the non-Joliet version of the boot CD image mentioned on the above thread, located here, and that boots up fine.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by TheCatcher _
> *The CD image that I downloaded included a sub-directory called floppy and the floppy image (called mfstools.img) was in it. I created the floppy from it and performed the upgrade. *


I checked mine. My /floppy directory (on the noJ image at least) was empty.

Turns out Disk Tools for the Mac will recognize the floppy image and create the disk. This was on a Mac running Mac OS 9 and with a built-in floppy drive. Upgraded to 298 hours and change, more than doubling my existing capacity on my primary TiVo. Now I have a bunch of movies scheduled to record.

But for some reason it worked only once, and I had to make the disk a second time with the Mac to get it working again. I made a point to write protect it the second time.


----------



## charled

Another happy customer! Last night I upgraded my two DirecTiVos with MFSTools 2.0!

When there were 80GB drives for $90 a couple of weeks ago, I thought about purchasing. But I decided to wait, because I really wanted 120GB drives so that I had room for 50 movies and 50 hours of regular programming on each TiVo (the 50/50 rule). So I waited, and got in on the 120GB for $109 deal at outpost. What a great deal! 4 hours after starting, MFSTools 2.0 got me to two TiVos with 146 hours each! Now I have room for about 100 hours of regular programming and 100 movies. My own personal TV server.mmmmmmm.

One weird thing, probably not related to the upgrade, I have the two TiVos on two remote addresses (TiVo1 on 1 and TiVo2 on 2). However, last night in the middle of the night, TiVo1 got jealous and changed its remote address to 2. Hmmmm.

I bought two Sony learning remotes for $110 from CC. I also jumped on the Minidishes.com deal for the Sony MRD-D1 video distribution for $90. What a steal, I bought 2 of them. And, you get the IR targets with them! So, now my system is two TiVos with about 300 hours total and the ability to watch them anywhere in the house (and control them in my family room and my bedroom). Im in TV heaven! All I need is time to watch. I only watch about 5 hours a week, so maybe a little overkill.but now I get to choose what, when, and where!


----------



## massimj

I thought I was happy with one 80 GB drive , that added 4X of time for me, and the memory upgrade was worth while too. I am not going to put the new 120 GB drive I got from Outpost to my current Tivo, but I might put it in my second unit.
I did order the new Blue remote that controls two Tivo's, and has a TV/Input button so I can change the input port on the TV without picking up another remote.
The bad news was when I tried to get my Sony AV2000 to control my Tivo, or my Go Video DVD, or even a new Panasonic TV. I could get none of them to work with it. I found a remote for $17 that will do it all, but I don't like the layout of the buttons, and it will only control both Tivo's together, it can't distinguish between the two. I got fed up wit hthe AV-2000, and the new $17 remote. That's when I broke down and sent Tivo the money to send me one the the new Blue remote.


----------



## NeZorf

When upgrading to a new drive while preserving recordings, is there a rule that says how much bigger the new drive has to be for all the -xxxx options to work? (ie, -xzpi)

Most here are talking about upgrading that 30hr to a 120gb, so that is no challenge, but I want to know if upgrading that 13gb to a 15gb drive will work. Or what about from a drive that has (ie) LBA 100,000 to a new drive that has (ie) LBA 100,500, will that work? Not that I am upgrading from a 13gb to a 15gb myself, but I didn't see any mention of this in the MFSTOOL 2.0 hinsdale guide.

The reason I ask is because of the slow menu speed I am experiencing and that I want to use the -p option to see if restructuring the partitions will help me out on my SA Tivo|1. So can I use the option 10#5 with the same exact HD models or does it have to be a little bigger, and how much bigger?


----------



## xiaoyu

Hi Tager,

Can your Mfs Tools 2.0 do all the things that Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i does and more? I have Philips HDR-112 (software version 1.2.1 ?). Can I use your bootable cd to make backup and restoring?
I have CD-RW. Can you explain the relationship in between Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i, Tiger's Tools 1.1 and Tiger's bootable Cd 2.0?

Xiaoyu,


----------



## Andy in NYC

Massimj

got www.remotecentral.com and pick up the ccf/programming files for your AV2000. The codes for these devices may not be currently available to you, but with a download (free) they are available.

Andrew



> _Originally posted by massimj _
> *I thought I was happy with one 80 GB drive , that added 4X of time for me, and the memory upgrade was worth while too. I am not going to put the new 120 GB drive I got from Outpost to my current Tivo, but I might put it in my second unit.
> I did order the new Blue remote that controls two Tivo's, and has a TV/Input button so I can change the input port on the TV without picking up another remote.
> The bad news was when I tried to get my Sony AV2000 to control my Tivo, or my Go Video DVD, or even a new Panasonic TV. I could get none of them to work with it. I found a remote for $17 that will do it all, but I don't like the layout of the buttons, and it will only control both Tivo's together, it can't distinguish between the two. I got fed up wit hthe AV-2000, and the new $17 remote. That's when I broke down and sent Tivo the money to send me one the the new Blue remote. *


----------



## massimj

The files I found at remote central were just a copy of what I got with my AV2000. I even went to Sony to find codes with no luck. Sonly has the worst support in the industry, but I love their products.


----------



## NeZorf

A question about mfsbackup | mfsrestore while saving recordings.

Would deleting the suggestions make the process faster?
Or does mfs 2.0 just copy every sectore anyways like dd in this backup/restore case?

Kind of late for me as I have started this process already and it estimates it will take me a couple of days for it to finish.  I have a whole bunch of suggestions that I don't care for, would be a good idea to CRT-C the process and go back into Tivo to delete the suggestions and rerun the command??

If it would be faster, we should update the hinsdale guide to note this to delete suggestions to make it faster....


----------



## massimj

I'm not saying I can answer your question, but I want to share an observation I had when I did my first system.
The first time I did the dd I deleted my suggestions and and everything except for a few recordings. The dd ran faster than when I ran the disk back in my Tivo for about four days and did another dd.

If the dd was a bit for bit copy of the drive, then why would it matter what was on the disk in the first place. Why would the time change to do the same task the second time?

I did learn (from the Tivo guru's) that I didn't need my BIOS to handle the drives in order to use MFStools, or do the dd of the disks. You only need the Bios if you are going to boot from the hard drive. booting from the CDrom requires the BIOS, but once you get past that, the BIOS is not needed to handle any of the hard drive tasks.

In any case, I didn't care about how long it took, it's just nice to know when to come back if you are waiting on it.

Joe


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by massimj _
> *If the dd was a bit for bit copy of the drive, then why would it matter what was on the disk in the first place. Why would the time change to do the same task the second time? *


It is a sector-for-sector copy of the drive, and what you delete shouldn't matter. My guess is that, on the second copy, you had DMA enabled, or the drives were on separate buses (primary and secondary) the second time but were master and slave on the same bus the first time.

Deletion should only affect backup & restore time with MFS Tools if you're copying all recordings.


----------



## KoG

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> 
> [*]*Upgrade both drives on AT&T and Series 2 TiVo*
> Have an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo, and getting jealous of your friend with 344 hours, while you are stuck with a mere 200? Not anymore! Now Series 2 TiVos can be as large as Series 1! As far as MFS Tools treats them for upgrading, all TiVos are basically the same. There is no need to have a separate tool for standalone, DirecTiVo, and Series 2. One tool does it all.


Tiger,

Thank you for releasing such a wonderful tool for upgrading Tivos. I was able to upgrade my friend's Tivo to dual 120GB while preserving the previously recorded shows. Worked without a hitch.

My question to you is, since this utility will work with Series 2 Tivo's, can it handle those >137GB drives? I believe the Series2 units have kernel support for those drives. I don't have a Series2 or any 160GB drives but was curious if you've tried it or have heard from anyone who has tried making a dual 160GB Series2 Tivo.

-KoG


----------



## DrBunsen

Woohoo!! This (early) morning I went from 60GB+80GB to 100GB+100GB (and went from 7200RPM drives to cooler 5400RPM drives in the process). This was for a Sony SAT-T60 DTivo. The copy took almost exactly 4 hours for my almost-full drives, but from what I can tell all recordings came across fine. I went from 124 hours to 180 hours.

<edit>
I got a message from someone saying that he'd done a double-drive upgrade and that it took (or was looking to take) 2 days to complete and that he'd heard that others had the same problem. So, in case this helps or doesn't help, here's 'zactly what I did:

0) Read Hinsdale's instructions for MFS Tools v2. Decided to try section 10's option 5 (upgrading 2 drives at the same time).
1) Pulled 60GB+80GB drives from DTiVo.
2) Set them up as master & slave (not cable select) on primary IDE channel.
3) Set up destination drives as master and slave on secondary IDE channel.
4) Turned on PC (with Abit BE6-II motherboard, 1GHz Celeron, 512MB RAM).
5) Checked to make sure all drives were recognized properly by the BIOS. BIOS reported correct size and that they were all running at 33MHz UDMA speeds.
6) Since I'd set the original drives' acoustic management setting to 128, which sacrifices some performance for quietness during head seeks, I booted with a DOS floppy and used ATAAC.EXE to check settings (original drives (Seagate ATA IV drives) were still set to 128, and I was surprised to find that the new drives (CompUSA's boxed Maxtor drives) were set to 192), then set all acoustic dampening to OFF for all drives to maximize performance. (I wrote a long post about ATAAC.EXE about 8 to 10 months ago, do a search for it if you're not familiar with the utility.)
7) Booted with the MFStools2 floppy, and checked to make sure that it reported the correct drive sizes.
8) Did this command line (I changed the command that's in Hinsdale's instructions only slightly, by making taking out the extra space in the places where there were two spaces - I don't think that that should make any difference):

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

9) Did my estimates and saw that it was going to take about 4 hours. Set my alarm and woke up 4.5 hours later (after multiple snoozes <grin>) and it was done. Did CTRL-ALT-DEL to shut down.
10) Booted with DOS disk and used ATAAC.EXE to set acoustic management on the new drives to 128 (quietest level).
11) Installed new drives in DTiVo and it came up beautifully, with my tons of recordings and suggestions intact.
</edit>

Thanks guys!

Bunsen out....


----------



## xiaoyu

Hi,

I used Tiger's Mfs Tools 2.0 to convert dual drive TiVo(upgraded from single) to a large single drive. Everything looked OK, until I tested the backup. The TiVo went to Re-Boot loop between "recorder is starting up..." and "almost there...".
According to "How-To", it seams to me there is a potential Re-Boot Loop problem with Mfs Tools 1.0 and it suggested to use Mfs Toos 1.1. I am using Mfs Tools 2.0 now, why does it still appear the problem? My TiVo software version is 1.3.1.

Xiaoyu,


----------



## kenr

Your problem is that your using old 1.3.1 software doesn't support non-Quantum drives unless you add runideturbo=false to the rc.sysinit file.


----------



## xiaoyu

Hi kenr,

I did performed the step that you mentioned. Without doing so, TiVo was stalled at the point "Recording is starting up...". I used Kazymyr's Boot Cd to perform that step due to I couldn't download the TiVOMad v3.2 (web site is not available). I think that is OK, since I did use Kazymyr's Boot Cd to practise once and worked for software 1.2.1 with non-Quantum drive.

Xiaoyu,


----------



## StuRothrock

Well. I read the complete thread and ws surprised not to find my problem addresses. I screwed up my partition 4 (3.0 installed) rc.sysinit so I had to remove the drive and use the boot cd with mfstools 2.0. The root partitions were not recognized. Tried booting with byteswap and kernel paniced. 

Soooo. Hmmm. Booted with boot cd with mfstools 1.2 and chose noswap and partition 4 was mountable. Partition 7 was never mountable after 2.5 to 3.0 upgrade. Don't attempt without runmyworld=false and handcraft=false!! Been there, did that, only once. >

hda fat32
hdb
hdc single drive restore from combined dual drive 2.5
hdd cdrom

Don't know if anyone can shed some light on this. Anyway, I hope it helps someone else out. Thanks for everyone's help.

BTW It was insmod -f nfs-2.0.1 or mount ip.ip.ip.ip:/tivo1 /var/nfs that caused rc.sysinit not to complete the exec bash command. #>#?


----------



## HTH

Well, I'm getting fed up with my second TiVo that was expanded with MFS Tools 1.x from a 14hr image. As disk utilization grew through the recording of suggestions, stuttering has again increased to intolerable levels. Next upgrade, I'm taking my other TiVo's older configuration and imaging it with MFS Tools 2.0 to my problematic TiVo, rerunning Guided Setup to change source, and reprogramming all my Season Passes and Wishlists. That image is based upon an image of my mother's 30hr TiVo.

And I'll probably end up enabling italic mode as the different TiVo Central backgrounds will no longer be the distinguishing characteristic (14hr has "PHILIPS Presents TiVo Central" in the animation, 30hr has "TiVo Central TiVo Central"). That, and no SUID "Welcome to the TiVolution" recording.

It's like there's just something _wrong_ with expanded 14hr TiVo images that 3.0 just doesn't like.

Could MFS Tools 2.0 run a backup and restore to the same drives simultaneously, potentially repairing whatever problems I currently have? Running mfsfix on the PC? Note that previous attempts using earlier versions failed.


----------



## alan

I'm using Tiger's 2.0 Mfs Tools Boot Floppy and noticed something that I didn't notice on the older versions of the Boot CDs.

When I boot from the boot floppy, I see the hd[a-d] partitions fly by, but when I use SHIFT+PAGE-UP to go back and look for those lines they are missing from the output. The only size information I can see is the box left over from the initial BIOS configuration dump.

Am I doing something wrong or does the floppy boot work differently from the CD boot?

I would test the new CD boot, but I blew away my NT partition and either my CD burner is so old (Phillips 2000) or my Windows 95 system is so unstable that I can't reliably burn any CD's in Windows 95 anymore. My older Boot CD's were burnt with Nero on my NT partition.

Oh, and by the way. You guys are gods!

I pulled my A drive out of my DTiVo.
Backed it up to my C: drive.
Popped in my 80G Maxtor.
Restored to the new Maxtor.
Popped it in my DTiVo, Tested, it worked.

Now I'm trying out the "dd" route. Seeing how saving everything works.

Can I say it again? You guys are gods!


----------



## gardavis

I noticed that problem too. I had to watch the screen closely to see that the drive's size was correct because after it scrolled off the screen, I was not able to back up to it. The last "x" lines of the scroll buffer were cleared.


----------



## alan

> _Originally posted by gardavis _
> *I noticed that problem too. I had to watch the screen closely to see that the drive's size was correct because after it scrolled off the screen, I was not able to back up to it. The last "x" lines of the scroll buffer were cleared. *


It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one seeing it. 

Nothing comes out after the last: PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later

Unfortunately, right after that line is where the ide probing output begins.

Anyway, I dd'd my 40G DTiVo A drive onto a 80G drive overnight (I went to bed). This morning I popped it in and tested it. Then mfsadd'ed it and finished up. Now I have 69 hours instead of 35 hours showing in the DTiVo status screen. I'm a happy man! 

Thanks Tiger! I used your 2.0 Mfs Tools Boot Floppy.

Thanks Hinsdale! I followed your "new" instructions.


----------



## alan

> _Originally posted by HTH _
> *...My guess is that, on the second copy, you had DMA enabled, or the drives were on separate buses (primary and secondary) the second time but were master and slave on the same bus the first time....*


HTH,

Does having DMA enabled slow transfers down?

Or does this mean that a dd from Master to/from Slave is faster than going between Primary and Secondary drives? If so, why does that happen?

I would have thought going between Primary and Secondary controllers would be faster because I thought Primary and Secondary were two separate controllers. I also thought that piping two dd's together would have gotten the controllers going full speed. Something like this:

dd if=/dev/hda bs=1024k | dd of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k

that is assuming that the pipe could take a 1024k write without causing an I/O block.


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by alan _
> *Does having DMA enabled slow transfers down?
> 
> Or does this mean that a dd from Master to/from Slave is faster than going between Primary and Secondary drives? If so, why does that happen? *


Actually, I got your first and second times reversed. I thought you said the second time was faster than the first. I see now that I misread it.


----------



## bidger

Well, I can finally celebrate. I'm a little hurt that the Staples rebate for
the hd came before I finished the project, but I'll take it. I checked the jumpers and four had gotten smooshed somewhere along the process(on 
the original hd). I straightened them out, connected everything, powered up, and *ping* GSOD! I didn't panic & it rebooted and I know have 30+ hrs.
at Best and 109 at Basic! Finally!! I tried to remove my previous post. but
for some reason I'm not being allowed, so please ignore it.


----------



## cameronj

Edit - found it


----------



## springtyme

Hi!

I have an SA 3.0 w/ a 15+60. I have another SA for hacking. Can I make an unmarried 15mb (image) or prefer direct copy with out divorcing my 15/60?

I have video on my 15/60 I'd like to be able to access on the other SA 15 gig drive.

But i don't want to effect the original 15/60.

Thanks

Jerry


----------



## Savard

I backed up both of my 2x60GB TiVos and noticed a very large difference in backup file size between the Sony and Philips. The Philips backup was about 415MB and the Sony backup was around 170MB. In each case I used the same backup command and used level 6 compression.

I also did a backup of the original A drives from each unit (which were stored on a shelf since I upgraded quite a while back) and got basically the same results: Philips backup around 415MB and the Sony around 170MB.

Anyone else notice something similar? Why such a large difference? The Philips was originally a 14Hr unit that my wife won in the TiVo essay contest a couple years back. The Sony of course was a retail 30Hr unit.


----------



## NeZorf

I just posted this on the "upgraded tivo very slow" thread. (some points in the post below refers to stuff said in that thread, but thought it might be here as well as it relates to MFSTOOLS 2.0. Hope to hear your thoughts on this)
======================================

After experimenting with the MFSTOOLS 2.0 utility for my upgrade and reading the threads, I think I might have a connection to the source of some of these problems.

But first I just want to say that Tiger did a really awesome job to come up with the MFSTOOLS 2.0. and that his program has help a lot of people get on board.

The command I used for upgrading from two drives to two new larger drives:
mfsbackup -Tao ..... .... | mfsrestore -s 128 -xzpi ... ...

All shows seems to be playback ok on the new drives.
All seems fine until I would notice it would sometimes hang and crash. Sometimes crashing and rebooting by itself. Sometimes going through the menu and then a hard crash, requiring a reboot by me. And then the problem of the listing of programs in the search by name would generate a random list of repeating shows, and sometimes no shows at all. The wishlist searching also produced no shows for wishlists. My indexing after a call took a long time. I have since blown away that setup, I didn't see this thread to check the swap partition logs. But I have no doubt that was it, from what you guys are saying.

I believe that the other threads of:
1 the slow menus,
2 search by name coming up empty/messed,
3 wishlists producing no results, 
4 indexing after a call taking an enormous amount of time (days, not the usual ~1hr)

are all related to the MFSTOOLS 2.0 use of the switches involved in the backup/restore command process: -xzpi

Especially on the -p switch.

Here is a post from the main 2.0 thread on what the -p switch does. That it attempts to reorganize the partition layout of series 1 systems to be similar to what the layout of series 2 systems.

I think it is possible that there is a bug in this part of the program where it messes up the swap partition (it could mess up more partitions that we don't know yet)

So that is why there are all there threads poping up after the MFSTOOLS 2.0 came out. The fact that v3.0 came out at the same time and the weird dial-up failed/interrupted error we experienced a few weeks ago only continues to dilute the source of the these problems.

Back to my experiment, after all the problems that I was having, I redid the upgrade with the "dd" linux copying utility and then used the "mfsadd -x" expand command. and so far the systems has been as stable as it was before the upgrade, and all the functions reported above are operating normally.

Of course there are probably many more people with perfectly working Tivos after using the MFSTOOLS 2.0 commands, and every Tivo system is a little different, so it would be best to use MFSTOOLS 1.1/dd when possible, after Tiger has looked more into this.


----------



## bidger

Please pardon my manners. I now realise after seeing my previous post re
upgrade success that I neglected to thank all those who helped make it
possible. I was pretty tired when I posted ( I can see I wrote "know" when
I meant "now") and wanted to correct that oversite.


----------



## cmoidel

> _Originally posted by NeZorf _
> *After experimenting with the MFSTOOLS 2.0 utility for my upgrade and reading the threads, I think I might have a connection to the source of some of these problems.
> 
> The command I used for upgrading from two drives to two new larger drives:
> mfsbackup -Tao ..... .... | mfsrestore -s 128 -xzpi ... ...
> 
> I believe that the other threads of: the slow menus, search by name coming up empty/messed, wishlists producing no results, indexing after a call taking an enormous amount of time (days, not the usual ~1hr) are all related to the MFSTOOLS 2.0 use of the switches involved in the backup/restore command process: -xzpi
> *


 Last week I upgraded my 14hr Philips Series 1 Tivo (running 3.0) using MFSTools 2.0. I replaced the original A drive with a 120 MB Western Digital drive. I didn't have any problems doing the upgrade and at first my tivo seemed to be working wonderfully. I used the same command line options that NeZorf used. I grew the swap to 128 MB and used the -p option.

However, this week my Tivo has been flakey. It has been rebooting for no reason at least once a day and almost every time I try to search by name I come up with no results. Something is definitely wrong, but I don't know what. (My season passes seem to be working just fine though. Also, I have never seen the GSOD after my Tivo reboots.)

Should I give up on MFSTools 2.0 and go back to 1.1? Please help!


----------



## HTH

I've found my 14hr image doesn't like being upgraded under 2.5.1 and 3.0. Even when rebuilt with MFS Tools 1.1. I ended up having to use a 30hr base image.


----------



## embeem

Based on my experience mfstools 2.0 seems to have a few flaws in the way it rebuilds MFS. It seems that the rebuilt partitions fail fsfix, infact it crashed fsfix when I tried. This means that if anything causes the tivo to go GSOD it'll fail to repair itself and get stuck in a reboot loop misleading people to think that the drive had gone bad.

I don't have enough resources to really test this and make sure it's an mfstools 2.0 problem so I need people to verify.

After upgrading with mfstools 2.0 run mfsassert to force a green screen and then wait to see if it recovers or gets stuck in a loop of 'reboot, gsod'. As there's a chance you'll get stuck on a green screen I wouldn't suggest doing this unless you're willing to take the risk and recover the system without using mfstools 2.0

(I've tried emailing tiger but he has yet to comment on the issues after a week)


----------



## cmoidel

After reading a post by stormsweeper on TiVo Upgrade Center > upgraded TiVo very sloooow I checked the logs on my Tivo (using the backdoors) and found that there is a problem with my swap partition.

I see:
Activating swap space
Unable to find swap-space signature
swapon: Invalid argument

I'm assuming that the lack of swap space is screwing up indexing on my Tivo. 

Does everyone using MFSTools 2.0 experience this? OR does it only happen to people that tried to grow their swap space from 64 to 128MB??


----------



## tacohell36

Restore has been going for abot 2-1/ hours.
How long does it take?

I am using a virgin image backup from a "single drive unit" and want to restore to a dual drive unit.

This is my setup:
I have a backup image store in my dos drive "hda" about 230 megs.

hda: dos drive setup as Master with backed up image
hdb: 120 gig drive setup as Slave
hdc: 120 gig drive new "A" drive setup as Master
hdd: cdrom setup as Slave

After I booted up using the MFS tool 2.0 CD, and pressed enter a couple of times, I issued the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

then the commands to restore the backup

mfsrestore -s 128 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo25.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

now the screen reads: 

Starting restore
Uncompressed backup size: 816 megabytes
Restoring 9 of 816 megabytes (1.12%) 
(1060.53% Compression) this numbers keep going up and down every second.

Does these all look correct and how long should it take?


----------



## totaltech

I finally upgraded my Sony SAT-T60 and don't see any of the issues you have seen.

I was originally going to just add a 100GB 5400 RPM Maxtor drive (got it for $99 at CompUSA) to the 40GB that was already in the TIVO but when I saw MFS Tools 2.0 was available and offered a single step one to two drive upgrade I figured I would pick up a Maxtor 80GB 5400 RPM drive at Office Depot for $70 (on sale this week - $119 - $50 rebate).

I wanted to preserve my recordings so MFS Tools 2.0 was the answer for me.

I put an ATA-66 IDE controller in the PC so I would have an extra 4 IDE ports so I could not have an issue with the CD-ROM drive and the 3 hard drives.

I put the original drive on one channel and the other two on the other channel on the ATA-66 card. The original drive was hdg and the two new drives were hde and hdf. Used the command listed in the Hinsdale drive and increased the swap to 512MB.

mfsbackup/mfsrestore as a single command line command took 62 minutes for 38MB. Shutdown, put the drives back in the TiVo, reconnected everything and powered up.

Now says up to 168 hours and tried playing back several of the shows in Now Playing that were on the unit. All that I tried worked fine. Also enabled backdoors and looked at the log file - no problems noted with swap.

I will obviously monitor it over the next couply of weeks (have the 40GB on the shelf if I need it and need to recopy to the two new drives).

Thank you Tiger and Hinsdale! What an easy upgrade! Only took an hour and twenty minutes. Ten minutes to remove the drives, an hour for the backup and ten minutes to put everything back. And most of the time, I was ignoring the TiVo completely. I checked the clock when I started the backup/restore, waited until it was 10% done, checked the clock again (6 minutes) and then figured I would check it at about an hour. When I went back to the unit, it was 98% done at 1 hour and I waited for it to completed (a couple of minutes). Did an mfsinfo to check the capacity, rebooted with byte swapping, checked with pdisk to make sure there was 512MB of swap and then shut down. Put the drives back in the TiVo, put the cover on and reconnected. Worked like a charm!

Now I have one TiVo with up to 230 hours and another with up to 168 hours. Fantastic!


----------



## cameronj

I've got another thread addressing this, but this thread seems to be very popular and I'm praying someone else who has had a similar experience will read this and be able to help... Here's the issue:

Followed Hinsdale's instructions for my Sony SVR2000. 30 hour unit, adding a second drive (80 gigs). Throughout the install process the drive was reporting 33 gigs in the bios. I ignored it (since I didnt see anywhere in the instructions showing how to fix it) and just went along with the install. 

Sure enough, on install in the Tivo all I had was 63 gigs! Aieee! Can anyone give me help with this? I did have to qunlock, but I presume that had nothing to do with it. I'm going to go back into the bios and check things out, but I dont really expect to find anything. I have a maxtor 80 gig drive. 

(((((THEN....))))))

Get a load of what I just found: 

"The Maxtor Diamond Max drives 4K080H4, 4K060H3, 4K040H2 (aka D540X-4K) are identical to the drives 4D080H4, 4D060H3, 4D040H2 (aka D540X-4D), except that the jumper settings differ. A Maxtor FAQ specifies the Master/Slave/CableSelect settings for them, but the capacity clip jumper for the "4K" drives seems to be undocumented. Nils Ohlmeier reports that he experimentally finds that it is the J42 jumper ("reserved for factory use") closest to the power connector. (The "4D" drives use the J46 jumper, like all other Maxtor drives.) 

However, it may be that this undocumented jumper acts like the IBM jumper: the machine boots correctly, but the disk has been clipped to 33 GB and setmax -d 0 does not help to get full capacity back. And the IBM solution works: do not use any disk-clipping jumpers, but first put the disk in a machine with non-broken BIOS, soft-clip it with setmax -m 66055248 /dev/hdX, then put it back in the first machine, and after booting run setmax -d 0 /dev/hdX to get full capacity again. " 

The drive I have IS one of the ones in the list above, and it DOES 'clip' the drive at 33 gigs. 


AIEEEE! Help!


----------



## DBordello

I upgraded my DTivo a month ago. I added a 80gb to the stock 40gb. I believe i used MFSTools 1.0 to create a backup (and test it) and then just blessed the new drive (does that sound correct?). I did not add any swap or anything? Should I? Will the new version improve menu performence?

Great work, keep up the good work. We'd be lost without you.

db


----------



## davork

I've got the MFS 2.0 stuff mirrored at: -

http://www.barkingmadsoftware.com/Tivo/MFS/

Hope it's of some use...


----------



## altobeeper

MFS Tools 2.0 worked w/o a hitch on my upgrade of a Sony SVR-2000.
I made a backup of my original drive then used in it another PC. Tested the backup on new drive 1st. When b/u tested okay I used the Linux DD command to copy all recordings then expanded the new A drive. Put it in and all worked great. 

The drived unlocked correctly. No partition problems. Everything went great!


Thanks again for the "tools" to do the job right.


----------



## jamus

> _Originally posted by embeem _
> *Based on my experience mfstools 2.0 seems to have a few flaws in the way it rebuilds MFS. It seems that the rebuilt partitions fail fsfix, infact it crashed fsfix when I tried. This means that if anything causes the tivo to go GSOD it'll fail to repair itself and get stuck in a reboot loop misleading people to think that the drive had gone bad.
> 
> I don't have enough resources to really test this and make sure it's an mfstools 2.0 problem so I need people to verify.
> 
> After upgrading with mfstools 2.0 run mfsassert to force a green screen and then wait to see if it recovers or gets stuck in a loop of 'reboot, gsod'. As there's a chance you'll get stuck on a green screen I wouldn't suggest doing this unless you're willing to take the risk and recover the system without using mfstools 2.0
> 
> (I've tried emailing tiger but he has yet to comment on the issues after a week) *


Well, I can't verify by running "mfsassert", my system that was upgraded with mfstools 2.0 went GSOD this weekend. It has been in a constant reboot cycle. I mounted the drives in my system and checked the logs. Sure enough, fsfix dies with sig 11.


----------



## HotFix

My TiVo died due to what I think was a faulty A drive.

Can I use a 145MB TiVo image (of my HDR112 v3.0 with a 14 hour drive) made with mfs 1.0 and reconstruct a dual drive unit using the new MFS tools 2.0?

Is my backup made with mfs 1.0 usable with mfs 2.0?


----------



## mvandam

Thanks to all who created these great tools I am now the proud owner of a simple 67 hour DSR6000. Process went very smooth just took forever to backup my recordings from the old drive. Thanks again for the excellent tools and guide.


----------



## philhu

Hi

Mine went GSOD today.

Upgraded with MFSTools 2.0 a month ago.

And yes, in a reboot cycle forever, fsfix died, signal 11

Any fixes other that restoring an empty backup?


----------



## massimj

Define GSOD please. My recently modified Tivo was getting stck at the reboot screen at some point during the period of nightly use. I powered it down and it came up fine each time. This last time was the first 24 hour period where it didn't do it, now it is on the second day of not doing it. How frequent would it die if I had the same GSOD problem you are all talking about?


----------



## philhu

GSOD - system problem

First time it EVER happenned to me....

Now, it reboots, says ' A few minutes more', then reboots

Logs show fsfix is dying with signal 11

I think this is the mfstools problem defined above


----------



## massimj

I will wait for the big guy to say his software is the cause, then follow his advice on how to deal with it. 
Watching and waiting........


----------



## Craftsman

Excellent Information, however.. I am still somewhat confused:

All I want to do is expand my A drive.

I had a new 60hr single drive series2 standalone TiVo.
I upgraded to 2 x 120Gb Maxtor drives 3 weeks ago using MFStools1.13.
Everything works perfectly.

The A drive I assume is only using 60Gb.
The B drive I assume is using its full capacity.
The reason I am assuming this is that my basic total capacity is 233 hrs.

Now... All I want to do is expand my A drive so that I have full capacity.

It would also be nice to save the movies I currently have.

Do I just pop both of the drives into my computer and then run:

"mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb" ?

What about my swap size?
What's this about "editparms"?
Anything else that I am missing?

I have Tiger's new MFStools2.0 & the new Hinsdale/MFStools 2.0 how-to...but I'm still a little confused.

I know there is a ton of info in here, but I just want to do this right.
I don't want to mess up a perfectly functioning 233 hr TiVo.

I would appreciate any help or enlightenment on this issue.

Thank You All.


----------



## Robert S

> _Originally posted by Craftsman _
> *Excellent Information, however.. I am still somewhat confused:
> 
> All I want to do is expand my A drive.
> The A drive I assume is only using 60Gb.
> *
> 
> You should be able to verify this with pdisk. MFSTools 2 adds mfsinfo which should give you a more comprehensible answer.
> 
> *
> It would also be nice to save the movies I currently have.
> 
> Do I just pop both of the drives into my computer and then run:
> 
> "mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb" ?
> *
> 
> Yes.
> 
> *
> What about my swap size?
> *
> 
> Don't worry about it.
> 
> *
> What's this about "editparms"?
> *
> 
> Don't worry about that either.
> 
> *
> I would appreciate any help or enlightenment on this issue.
> *
> 
> Given that you already have a really big TiVo I would advise you to wait until the questions over mfsfix and GSOD's are resolved. If you use MFSTools 2 now, you might end up having to wipe everything to resolve the problems MFST2 may cause.


----------



## Craftsman

Hmmmm... So it looks like I should not be too anxious to squeeze every last byte I can out of my HD's, Huh?

Well... I guess I'll wait then.

I just got my hands on a digital temperature probe and air flow sensor (gotta give it back sometime though...).

So I guess I'll do my cooling test thing I had planned.

Ok, Thanks Robert S.


----------



## Avenger

I'd like to upgrade my previously-upgraded Tivo. My wife has a month worth of soaps stored on there, and I'll be sleeping on the couch if they're lost. Does MFSTools 2.0 produce a stable enough work product in this kind of an upgrade for me to go ahead and do it? Or will I run into GSOD problems? (Yeah, I know -- no guarantees in this business. But if it is known to be problematic, I don't want to run the risk.)


----------



## Robert S

A GSOD is not a normal part of the upgrade process, so you'll probably be fine. A GSOD probably indicates a failing drive, but there could be other causes. To be absolutely safe, you'll have to wait for a new version of MFSTools.


----------



## ursapooh

Tiger,

I have a Sony DTV. While it was a virgin I replaced the first drive with 120GB and added a 2nd 120GB. I used BlessTivo not MFSTools 1. My menus are a tad slow and so many people are asking about swap space that I am wondering what I could do now to take advantage of the new features in 2. Saving my recordings is important. 

Suggestions?

Shawn


----------



## deek_man

My story for those who are holding back on upgrading...

I waited for at least a year before buying a box because the hours available in even the most expensive boxes were just not enough for me to junk the VCR(s). I closely monitored this forum and other forums and finally bought a refurbished Philips HDR112. Unfortunately, it arrived with a bad modem so I had to return it under warranty for a replacement box. (Because of foul-ups by Tivo/Philips representatives not correctly authorizing shipment of a new box, it took me a month to get a replacement. They did give me two months free service, though. What a headache...but that's for another thread.)

I used the 14-hour box with Tivo service for a week and couldn't wait any longer for an upgrade. I had already purchased two 100GB Maxtor hard drives for $100 each at CompUSA so, with some trepidation, I booted up my old Dell with MFS Tools 2.0 in the CD drive. Since my primary/secondary master/slave cables were configured slightly differently than in the Hinsdale directions, I had to make some minor drive letter changes in the command lines for backup, etc., but...the bottom line...everything went without a hitch. I now have a 252 hour machine and am really enjoying the Tivo service.

Tiger, Hinsdale and all the other folks who put the software and documentation together all deserve a big thank you and a big round of applause. I've never purchased software that worked as perfectly as MFS Tools 2.0 and I've never had documentation that was so thoroughly and well written as the Hinsdale documentation. I, for one, would like to thank all of you for the work you put into this. It has made my TV watching much more enjoyable.


----------



## stark_rayvyn

Man, I was screwed till I found this Tiger... I have a DirecTV Tivo and used the Dtivomad 4.0 and while it all worked great, at the point to expand it and gain the additional drive space, it failed... I tried it up down and around... The mfs tools 2.0 looked too easy so only tried it as a last ditch effort... I ran the mfsbackup // | mfsrestore // and it ran through in 3 hours... It ended at 126 hours for my new 120 and it is running fine in my Tivo as we speak...

In the Tivo however, it is only showing as 106 hours... Any suggestions?? I never reformatted or erased the stuff I had put on the drive with the Dtivomad software... I guess it might still be there but not knowing how to format the drive and start from scratch, I figured it was best to leave it like that for now... If you get a chance, let me know what you think and thanks again for the great software!!


----------



## Robert S

You don't have to erase drives before you restore to them. MFS Tools doesn't read anything from the drives and erases everything as it writes.

At a guess I'd say that it's just that MFS Tools method of calculating drive capacities is slightly different to TiVo's. 

I think mfsinfo will tell you what state your drive is currently in, including if there's any unused space.


----------



## stark_rayvyn

Is 106 correct for a 120GB drive?? I am running a Western Digital 5400 8.5MS 120... Seems fast now but from what I have read, I fear it will soon slow down... Any word on that?? 

As it stands however, this program is simply the best... It worked like a charm and I could not be happier...


----------



## Robert S

I have started a thread dealing specifically with swap partition problems with MFS Tools 2.0 as posts on that topic are getting rather lost amonst the general queries on this thread.


----------



## russg

I have been considering upgrading my bedroom TIVO for a while since we record so much on it. My wife will be out of town next week and I had gotten concerned that saving all that she records may fill up the disk and leave me stuck sleeping in the entertainment room. 

I picked up a 125GB Maxtor 5400 drive, and came home to figure the whole thing out. I had told my wife the system would be out of service for some time while I read up and do the upgrade. To my surprise mfstools2.0 had been released and folks were saying great things.

So I figured I'd give it a try. I'm a Unix Systems Administrator so how hard could it be? Well all I can say is 30 minutes later the system was back in the bedroom and already recording a season pass program. 

This is awesome, and while I still wouldn't recommend it to everyone (my father), I would say anyone with two computer literate brain cells to rub together can do this with little to no trouble. 

Great job to all!! Best community since the old days of BBS's.

--russ


----------



## fansa5

I upgraded my AT&T Series2 from 40+100 to 100+100 by using the floppy Mfstools 2.0. The new A drive only showed 77GB instead of 100GB. Also, my old A drive can not boot up. a green screen appeared. Please advise action. Though all of the recordings and setup are transferred to the new setup.

Also, I have forgotten to unplugged the C drive, after the upgrade my system drive could not be booted up. I am sure I followed all of the instructions. That took me the whole afternoon to reinstalled the whole system drive.


----------



## gps

> _Originally posted by philhu _
> *Mine went GSOD today.
> Upgraded with MFSTools 2.0 a month ago.
> And yes, in a reboot cycle forever, fsfix died, signal 11
> Any fixes other that restoring an empty backup? *


same story here apparently. my philips dsr6000 that i upgraded from its original 30+15 to 30+120 (western digital 5400rpm 120gb) is now dead. I was out of town last thursday when it happened but my s.o. reports symptoms (frequent reboots followed by finally failing to boot at all) that match other people's problem descriptions.

is there anything useful i could do with my current drives before restoring that would help debug the problem?

i have an uneasy feeling that restoring my backup made with mfstools 2.0 using mfstools 2.0 may just lead to the problem reoccurring again in a month...


----------



## gps

I take that back. It looks like my failure isn't mfstools 2.0 related. My dsr6000 appears completely dead. no video (not even the grey "please wait" screen); it never spins up the hard drives. Time to call philips and see if they'll replace/fix it.


----------



## CaptainTiVO

In the original posting on MFStools 2.0 Tiger says:
"# Upgrade a second time without losing recordings"

But I can't seem to find out how to do this in Hinsdales Howto. In fact the note under option #1 that mentioned that it might be possible is gone. I have a single drive SA Phillips that I have upgraded by replacing the drive with a large one and TivoMadding it. It now has a full 80 Gbyte of stuff that I wish to keep but I want to add another drive to increase the capacity. Can someone tell me how to just add a B drive without losing the recordings on A? Thanks.

Hunter


----------



## gps

> _Originally posted by gps _
> *My dsr6000 appears completely dead. no video (not even the grey "please wait" screen); it never spins up the drives. *


As it turned out that el-cheapo 120gig western digital drive I bought as a frys special died after three weeks of use such that no machine with it plugged into the ide bus will boot. I've RMAed it and put the original 15gig B drive back for now.


----------



## Ivor

Hunter/ CaptainTiVO

If you are simply adding a second drive, you still want Option #1.

i.e. (shortened version):

With your normal boot disk on IDE 1 Master
Connect NEW TiVo *B* disk on IDE1 Slave
connect TiVo *A* disk on IDE2 Master

Boot using MFST2
verify drive sizes are correct
run _mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb_ to incorporate your second drive.

Shutdown cleanly and transfer your disks to the TiVo.

Since you are simply adding a drive you will not lose your recordings, and you should not be succeptible to the MSFT2 swap partition problems, as the swap partition laid down by TiVoMad during the previous upgrade will remain unchanged.

Ivor.


----------



## neilhand

Hi All,

I have only just started hacking my tivo. and so fave have a working TurboNet, and now want to move onto backing up my drive before adding a few extra survices, and adding a drive.

Unfortunately, when i try to boot with MFSTOOLS 2.0, i get a panic message just after the "Promise IDE Raid" controller is recognized on the main board. THis is a controller that is currently unused, but there is now way to disable/disconnect it.

Is there a way to provide boot parameters to the kernel to prevent probing the device? 

Or, is the crash due to something completely different. 

I should point out, incase it is important, that i am attempting to boot without the tive drive attached at this time. I wanted to go through a dry run before attaching the drive (i would hate to have XP screw up the drive header if i made a mistake).

All help appriciated.

Thanks


----------



## philhu

Tiger......Is there a newer MFSTools out there soon?

You've been pretty quiet about the know bugs now!


----------



## Robert S

neil, adamz had very similar problems with his Promise controllers. He posted in two separate threads about it.

He found that Dylan's Boot Disk worked correctly. You might also find that Tom's Root and Boot Disk will work if you're using MFS Tools 2.0.

Do read the posts in this thread about the problems with MFST2.0, though.


----------



## neilhand

Thanks for the pointers Robert. 

In the end i took a simular approach to adamz, and used a old machine to merge the drives together. I now have successfully expanded the drive, but i was not able to add the BASH shell.

Now i understand it was the byteswap issue, so hopefully i can now get that working.

I am not able to boot Dylans disk as i have an IDE floppy which confuses it. My next step is to burn the CD image to a boot CD and try again.

Thanks again, and thanks to everyone for there very detailed and informative postings. Once i have it all sorted out i will pay it back by posting a summary of my experiances.


----------



## Robert S

Well, after my repeatedly saying that the problems MFS Tools 2.0 aren't related to the swap problem, it appears that they are. As a result of experiments by Merle Corey (documented in MFS Tools 2 fixes thread) a TiVo that was stuck in a green screen loop was saved by increasing swap.

It looks like you need a lot of swap, so we're suggesting temporarily turning your inactive root partition into a swap partition to allow mfsfix to complete. This is a fairly heavy Unix hack, but 192Mb swap (64Mb original + 128 additional) was enough for a 240Gb TiVo, so it should work for any Series 1 standalone. (DTiVo users would have to do the PROM hack, which greatly complicates things.)

We're still working out the details of the best way to explain how to do it, but MFS Tools 2.0 users can relax a bit.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *
> 
> ....We're still working out the details of the best way to explain how to do it, but MFS Tools 2.0 users can relax a bit. *


This is good news. Your explanations are very helpful. Thanks to you and everyone else who has contributed.

Has anyone heard from Tiger?


----------



## Merle Corey

To add on to what Robert said:

It's documented in moderately excruciating detail in the Fixes for MFSTools 2.0 swap problems thread, but the important point is that the swap requirements for fsfix appear not to have changed - neither with more recent TiVo software versions, nor with MFSTools 2.0. The ">140GB requires 128MB of swap" rule appears to still be in effect.

As Robert mentioned, greenscreen loops (caused by swap, anyway) are fixable. The invalid swap created by restoring with -s 128 is fixable. The most important thing at this stage, though, would probably be to put a warning about this in Hinsdale's How-To. I've pm'd Hinsdale to alert him to this.

And still no word from Tiger - it certainly would have made this entire troubleshooting process much simpler, but we seem to have it pretty much figured out anyway.

MC


----------



## horwitz

I used Hinsdale's MSFTools 2.0 instructions (and, thus, presumably have a 64Mb swap) to up a 13.6+13.6 HDR312 to 120. Particularly since I plan on going to 120+120 sometime in the not-too-distant future, what should I do to make it so my 120 -> 120+120 upgrade won't require wiping the drive? TIA


----------



## Merle Corey

horwitz:

It may not be possible to do this as you've outlined.(*) If it is, the easiest way to do it while recordings would probably be to replace your current A drive with the new drive. Use the piped transfer (upgrade configuration #3 in Hinsdale's MFST2.0 based How-To) to migrate the data from your current A drive to the new drive. Use the -s 128 flag in the restore side of the pipe, and be sure to use one of the swap fixes specified in the swap fix thread.

In other words:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -xzp -s 128 -i - /dev/hda

(hdc is the old A drive, hda is the new one.) Then fix your new 128MB swap.

After that completes, follow the "Adding a new B drive" (upgrade configuration #1), with your old A drive as the new B drive.

MC

(* Thanks to Ivor and Robert for pointing this out.)


----------



## Ivor

I don't think that would work unless the new '120Gb' drive is at least slightly larger than the existing one. i.e. same size +64Mb.

AFAIK MFST2 is not capable of copying recordings into smaller partitions than the ones on the original disk, i.e. it copies the entire partitions rather than just the data. If this is the case you would probably need to use a 160Gb drive to be sure of saving the recordings.

[Editied to correct drive/file sizes!]


----------



## Robert S

I was thinking the same thing, but it might be worth a try. The real question is if MFS Tools 2.0 can detect deleted streams (and thus make room for the extra swap). If not, perhaps you should make a huge recording and then fiddle with the -l option to take all the recordings except the really big one.

If you do this, of course, it'll take hours, so you'll definitely want to get your DMA settings right before you start the transfer.


----------



## Merle Corey

Robert and Ivor raise good points - so much so that I've reworded the original solution to a definite maybe.

If I have the opportunity, I'll test this out.

(And this is yet another something we could use a definitive answer from Tiger on... We miss you Tiger, come home!)

MC


----------



## CaptainTiVO

I finally got around to adding a B disk to my SA Tivo today and I couldn't burn an MFS tools CD that would boot. The ISO file burns fine. I can read it under windows and see the directories, including the isolinux dir. But it will not boot.

To make sure that something wasn't farkled with my CD burner, I downloaded and burned the Turbonet iso image. Booted just fine.

I finally resorted to the floppy method to do the upgrade, but I would really like to know why I cant get the MFST CD to boot. Anybody?

Hunter


----------



## borg1of2

Upgrading SAT-T60 with two Maxtor 120's. Everything went fine except after six hours of dd copy I was one block off on results. When I tried to expand both drives message read "mfs add" not found. Where to from here? Should I start over? Where do I find mfs add? I'm new at this and using brand new equipment.


----------



## kenr

The command is "mfsadd" not "mfs add", i.e., no space between the 's' and the 'a'.


----------



## Ivor

Hunter/CaptainTiVo

Several people have had problems booting the MFST2 disk. There are two versions Joilet, which seems to be causing some problems, and NonJoilet which seems to boot OK. Go here http://hellcat.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/ download the file mfstools2noJ.iso and try that.


----------



## Robert S

borg, don't do it that way, you need to expand your swap. Do

*mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdx | mfsrestore -s 127 -xpi - /dev/hdy /dev/hdz*

Will take hours again, I'm afraid, so do make sure your DMA settings are correct before you start.

Your current configuration will die horribly if you get any filesystem corruption and although we have a sort of work around, it ain't ever going to be pretty.


----------



## massimj

Here is the update on my last upgrade. I replaced a 20 hour Phillips with a 80 Gb Maxtor drive. I also installed the memory upgrade at the same time. When I was done, everything appeared to work fine, same for the next day or so; then I got the reboot screen (if that's what you call it), and all I could do was remove power and let it reboot. This happened a few times over the next week, maybe 6 or 7 in a two week period. As I got more recordings on my Tivo, it happened less and less. It now has not happened in over a month. I don't know if it was a drive failure, but for now it is working fine. Joe


----------



## muchmore44

I just want to say thanks to Hinsdale and Tiger for giving us TiVo users a way to maximize a terrific technology, as well as to Robert S. and Merle C. for refining the swap expansion/correction process. 

Last night, I upgraded my Hughes DirectTiVo from 35 hours to 106 hours (went from 40 GB to 120 GB) and it couldn't have gone better! It took approximately 1 hour, 30 min, mostly because I was very, very careful - I could have done it faster, but I didn't want to take any chances. MFSTools 2.0 are the best! 

I am the happiest guy in the world right now (at least until the next person upgrades a Tivo!) and wanted to thank you guys for all that you have done. 

You guys are Saints! 

Thanks, 
Muchmore44


----------



## keithrj

thanks to all on the thread Hinsdale, Tiger, Robert etc - yesterday upgraded my Sony DirectTivo T-60 dual drive (30Gb +15Gb) to 2 x 100 Gb.

Now have 190 hours - and the new season just about to start 

thanks again


----------



## jonhp

Thanks to everyone, especially tyger.
Just finished upgrading my tivo replacing the original 13GB drive with a new maxtor 120GB drive. great tools and documentation!


----------



## noone001

I am trying to make a MFS tools CD and the only CDR writer software I have access to is HP RecordNow (from Veritas). I can't figure out how to write the iso image file to the disk. I tried writing the image file as a file, but it would not boot. I can't find any options to create a disc from an image.

Any thoughts?


----------



## Robert S

Writing an ISO to a CD as a file is not the way to make a bootable disk. If your software doesn't have an option to write an ISO image there's no way around it.

Use the boot floppy instead. If you're just upgrading the hard drive, you won't miss the CD.

You will need a DOS floppy with a copy of qunlock on it, but manually unlocking the drive only takes a minute (you have to switch the PC OFF after running qunlock).


----------



## philhu

Record Now that comes with hp products is a lite version.

RecordNow MAX for $30 from veritas is what you want!


----------



## darksaber

Just finished my upgrade to add a 120gb maxtor to a 30gb Phillips Series 1, and feeling stupid that I waited soooo long.

It really was outstandingly easy, despite my total and complete ignorance of Linux. 

Couldn't be easier, and I'm happy to have a tested backup of my system


----------



## UncaAndoo

Okay, I'm wondering if the wonderful 2.0 can do this momentous task.

I bought my DSR-6000, and used it until I got my 2 120GB drives. Back in those days, there wasn't any MFSTools way to save the shows I had recorded. 

But is there now? I probably still have the backup image on a CD. And even if I don't have that, I still have the two original drives sitting in their ESD bags.

Can I somehow get the shows on those 2 original drives onto my 2 120GB drives, while keeping the shows that are currently on them?

Not to mention that there has been a software upgrade since then...

Never mind -- I realize it's just a dream. A beautiful, wonderful dream.


----------



## entropy

> _Originally posted by Ivor _
> *
> Several people have had problems booting the MFST2 disk. There are two versions Joilet, which seems to be causing some problems, and NonJoilet which seems to boot OK. Go here http://hellcat.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/ download the file mfstools2noJ.iso and try that.  *


My friend Geoff and I tried booting from both of these images, with no luck. We had to use the floppy.

~ Kiran <[email protected]>


----------



## bodosom

I tried and failed to add a pair of partitions by using:

&nbsp;mfsadd /dev/hda /dev/hdb4 /dev/hdb5

The result was an error message about hdb4+hdb5.

Has anyone suceeded in doing this?


----------



## Robert S

At the very least you need to report the partition tables from the two drives and the exact error message you got.

You'll need to boot byteswapping or type the following at the MFS Tools 2.0 boot: prompt - *vmlnodma hda=bswap,hdb=bswap*. You should see the partition tables printed out at boot.

If you have a normal hard drive mounted on /mnt/dos (as Hinsdale describes), you can capture the partition tables with:

*pdisk -l /dev/hda >/mnt/dos/tivotbl.txt
pdisk -l /dev/hdb >>/mnt/dos/tivotbl.txt*

(note the double chevron on the second line). Which should give you a file you can paste into a post.

It would also be useful to see the output of mfsinfo, which can probably be captured in a similar way.

Tiger is back, by the way, so if you put the effort into reporting this properly you stand a chance of getting a fix.


----------



## bodosom

Well I said a bit more over in:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77862

Sadly I still have but a single TiVo and my last excursion into upgrade resulted in losing all my shows so I'm hesitant to repeat these steps until I get a second unit.

As I wrote earlier I used pdisk to make four partitions, marked two as MFS (one smallish, the other most of the disk), booted in DMA mode, checked with mfsinfo and then ran mfsadd. Then I went back to dataswap mode, set the media bit and tried mfsadd again. Still no luck.

I was hoping someone who actually used MFSTools V2.0 to add a partition pair might report the steps since I struggled to find clear instructions regarding pdisk and I suspect I may have a made a subtle error.

However if the only answer is for me to run the steps again I will (but not for a while).

PS - I'm reasonably conversant in at least some of this stuff. I have an hdr-112 with a 100G drive and a turbo-net card. I run Linux on most of my computers.


----------



## Robert S

I'm not really sure that adds much to what you've said before. Without seeing the partition tables, I don't think Tiger will have enough to work from.

If you just want to get working, why don't you do this the other way round? Define a partition big enough for whatever it is you want to put on the B drive other than the MFS partitions and let mfsadd create the new partitions itself.


----------



## bodosom

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Define a partition big enough for whatever it is you want to put on the B drive other than the MFS partitions and let mfsadd create the new partitions itself. *


The documentation and my experience suggests that if you don't do a pair add mfsadd will repartition the entire disk.

While I realize I'm being a ``bad'' customer if someone -- anyone -- would say that ``I've done this'' I'd feel properly chastened and go away until I can get some transcripts but at the moment I don't even know if this feature has been tested and shown to work in multiple environments. E.g. it took me some time to get a bootable image because of the joliet problem and even more time to figure out how to get byte-swapping working since the on-cd instructions don't work for me. The document suggests that all this stuff just works for some people so I'm starting to wonder if there are some bios/hardware issues associated with my difficulties.

BTW, mfsinfo just shows the partition pair while pdisk shows the MFS label area, the ext2 partition that I made and the two MFS (application and media) partitions.


----------



## Robert S

I haven't personally run mfsadd on a two-disk config, but people do seem to be successfully upgrading their B drives by using dd to copy their recordings and then mfsadd to expand into the unused space. So clearly mfsadd doesn't always repartition.

Byteswapping is broken on the MFS Tools 2.0 CD, that's why I gave you that magic incantation to use. You'll find any of the earlier boot disks (Dylan's Boot Floppy, Kazymyr's CD) will byteswap just fine (hda is left unswapped on those disks).

Is it worth bothering to repeat my assertion that Tiger will very probably be unable to do anything for you you without seeing the output of pdisk -l on both drives? Do say if you want further clarification on how to capture that.


----------



## bodosom

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I haven't personally run mfsadd on a two-disk config, but people do seem to be successfully upgrading their B drives by using dd to copy their recordings and then mfsadd to expand into the unused space. So clearly mfsadd doesn't always repartition.*


I'm particularly concerned about testing this sort of stuff because if mfstools binds the two drives together it's not clear to me how to get them apart while preserving the recordings since I'll have 180G at that point.


> *
> Byteswapping is broken on the MFS Tools 2.0 CD*


Well I prefer to think of as it's not clearly documented. After some fiddling with Kazymyr's CD and reviewing the IDE boot flags I figured it out.


> *
> Is it worth bothering to repeat my assertion that Tiger will very probably be unable to do anything for you you without seeing the output of pdisk -l on both drives? *


I should have another TiVo in about a week. If there's been no answer forthcoming in the interim I'll do the steps on the _new_ unit.

I do appreciate your time and patience in this. Thank you.


----------



## Robert S

In principle you can split the A drive from a two drive set by restoring a 'divorced' backup to it - if the partition boundaries line up your recordings should survive. 

With the various additional options in MFS Tools 2.0 (notably -p) that can move the partitions around, this is easier said than done.

The MFS Tools 2.0 CD is supposed to boot byteswapping if you type 'swap' at the boot prompt. That bit is definitely broken. However, it's only broken because byteswapping and DMA are incompatible, so if you manually boot the vmlnodma kernel it does work.


----------



## Jorossian

Forgive me if this question has already been posed......

What's the difference between the 2 boot cd downloads:

- Bootable CD ISO(10878k)
- Bootable CD (non Joliet) ISO(10878k)

I already made the "noJ" disk as it was the one linked in Hinsdale's guide, but now I'm seeing the other version and am unsure if I've made the correct disk.

Hope this isn't as dumb a question as it sounds...... =D


----------



## Robert S

Some PC's can't boot off the original ISO. Tiger traced the problem to a the MS Joliet extensions and produced a non-Joliet version that seems to be more reliable.

Apart from this minor formatting change, everything else is the same - if the noJ disk boots, you're fine.


----------



## Glen Graham

Thanks Tiger, Robert S and all...

In the last couple months, my TiVo (30 + added 80 GB) started having random hiccups and then lockups (got bad in the last month). I figured one drive was dying. I was so glad to find MFS Tools 2.0 would solve my issues!

I got a new 120 GB drive to move my previous images onto (Upgrade Configuration #6). At first, I could not boot off CD, so had to use the floppy. After about 10-11 hours of chugging, I came in to find my PC was OFF. I tried the new drive (thinking maybe it did an auto-shutdown?).

No luck. Back to the Underground. Found the Non-Joliet version, made a CD and it booted. Restarted and it took only about 2 hours (I think DMA was not on with the floppy).

New drive works fine! No lockups/freezes/hiccups in the last week. Now, I am going to run PowerMax to try to figure out which old drive is bad...

If is is the original 30 GB, I throw it away and put the 80 in as a 2nd drive.

If it is the 80, it should still be under 3-year warranty, I get it replaced and put it in.

One question:
I am a bit unclear; it appears that with Option 6, merging the 30 & 80 (110 GB) onto the 120 GB will also automatically use the entire new drive - so added the 10 GB, right? If so, I wish I would have checked the hours before since I'm pretty sure it is about the same total hours that it was before....

Second question:
Since I used the -127 (swap file) already when creating this new 120 GB drive, I can add the old 80 (via MFS Add) without worrying about my swap file, right (Upgrade Config #1)?

****

Now that my upgrade has been successful, my parents bought a 120 GB drive and when I visit for Christmas, will merge their 30/80 onto the 120 and add the 80 as their 2nd drive 

Funny thing; My parents had never heard of TiVo before November 2000, when I ordered mine via a Mercata Power Buy. Due to reasons unknown, they gave me a 2nd one (then went out of business). Not knowing what to do with it, I mentioned it to my parents; they thought it sounded cool and wanted it -- but they wanted it upgraded before they ever saw it! "More is better!" (so I added an 80-GB drive that had just come out for a mere $250).

Now they can't imagine life without their TiVo


----------



## Robert S

It would only expand to fill the unused space if you included an x in the restore options or used mfsadd to expand.

127Mb of swap is enough for a 274Gb TiVo (the largest currently possible) to recover from a green screen of death without running out of memory. You'll be fine at 200Gb.

You may find your 'failed' drive works OK in a PC, although it may be progressively failing, so don't put anything too valuable on it.


----------



## Glen Graham

Thanks, Robert. The command in Hinsdale's guide for Option #10 did have the 'x' (it just did not explain what each switch did 

I did a quick-test of the 2 old drives yesterday, and the Quantum failed. I then did the advanced test on the Maxtor (80 GB), and then last night did the low-level format -- it seems just fine.

So, I am going to add it to the TiVo today


----------



## philhu

He is fine, just 'out of the tivo change business' for now since it is all working.....


----------



## Sbmocp

> _Originally posted by philhu _
> *He is fine, just 'out of the tivo change business' for now since it is all working..... *


I'd been following this thread for a while...but am a little confused. Is there still a problem with MFS 2.0 causing failures after a while, or does the 'swap file size' fix actually take care of the problem? If it does, is TIger going to integrate that change as part of the process?

Just a little confused. I've been waiting to add a couple of 80 GB drives to my TiVos because of this issue...


----------



## paxton

Just a quick post from across the pond to report a successful upgrade of my twin-drive 40Gb machine to a single-drive 120Gb today.  

I guess a few more days of regular use will confirm this, but many, many thanks to Tiger for MFSTools2.0, and more thanks to Robert S and Woody (UK) for their prompt assistance during the process. :up:


----------



## Jorossian

Sbmocp

As the swap issues were solved - the original post at the top of the thread was updated to reflect the findings. I was also confused with this for a day or two and was hesitant to go through with my upcoming upgrade - but I think I've got it straight now.

Also - if you have an old copy of Hinsdales instructions for mfstools 2.0 make sure to reprint them from the website again as they include the new code that avoids most problems.

basically (at least the way I read it) if you see the number "-s 128" in your restore process replace it with "-s 127" and you're OK. (unless you're restoring back to your smaller A drive again in which you'd leave out the -s 127 altogether.


----------



## Jerry_K

Thank you Tiger, I just upgraded my Phillips DirecTiVo from 30 and 15 to 80 and 60. I used Hinsdales how to for your software and it went without a hitch. Took me quite a while because I wanted a small backup, which I tested and I wanted to retain all my recordings which took a long time to transfer. That certainly presented no problem. Every single step worked perfectly first time through. The original drives had some weird jumper settings. I used the settings for master and slave that were correct for the new drives and installed jumpers correctly for the old drives when making the total transfer and the new install.


----------



## letterten

seen talk about dual 120gigers -- will all of this work with dual 250GB drives?


----------



## Robert S

With the current stock kernels, TiVo can only see the first 137Gb of a drive, so 2x250Gb = 274Gb 

However, there is a patched kernel available that would let your TiVo use the whole of the drives and get you a 500Gb TiVo.

Post in that thread if you want to give it a go as it's not an MFS Tools 2.0 issue.


----------



## Wolfman

Thanks to all who answered my questions here ansd especially to Tiger for MFSTools and Hindsale for his guide..

I have now replaced my 40gb A drive with an 80gb drive and doubled the capacity of my Tivo.

:up: :up:


----------



## BlankMan

*THANKS TIGER!*

Used mfsbackup -Tao piped to mfsrestore to replace the two 80G drives in my T60 with a 120/160G combination and it went perfect! Fired right up and all the recordings are there! Now both my T60's are at 230 hours. I was at first going to dd and use mfsadd until I discovered my A drive already had 15 partitions, so I had to invoke Plan B.

Thanks for taking the time to do this stuff so the rest of us can do it easily.


----------



## stevel

I have an interesting situation that I haven't seen covered so far. My DSR6000 has two drives, the factory 40GB A drive and a Maxtor 120GB B drive. The Maxtor is going bad and I want to replace it with a Seagate Barracuda V 120GB drive. Well, as some of you know, 120GB != 120GB, and the Seagate is actually a bit smaller than the Maxtor.

I want to preserve recordings, so what I THINK I have to do is create a divorced backup with the recordings preserved, then restore that backup to the two new drives (really one old and one new). Am I right so far? 

What I haven't quite figured out is what combination of switches to use on the save and restore, so that's what I'm asking for - or if there's an easier way, please let me know. Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

To divorce the drives, MFS Tools has to drop the recordings.

MFS Tools can't resize partitions, it has to copy the whole partition to carry over even one recording fragement in it, although it does zero out recordings it doesn't carry over, so the backup compresses properly.


----------



## stevel

Grumble.. Oh well, there goes THAT idea!


----------



## TiVoDeRene

> _Originally posted by idlepaw _
> *Hi, just used this to upgrade by AT&T Tivo2. Noticed two mistakes though. First, in step 7, when mounting my windows c drive, I had to type "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" to get it to mount. Second, in step 8, you wrote, "Take (one of) your new drive(s) and set its jumpers to Master. Connect the drive to your secondary IDE channel to make it Secondary Slave." I think it should be "Secondary Master", not slave. Except for these two minor mistakes, everything worked great! Thanks!!!
> Ben *


I used that "mount" command without the "1" like I was shown and was getting a somewhat frustrated  because, besides the fact that I am new at this TiVo upgrading, it looked like I had to really dig into the Linux commands. I have been testing the "mount" command(and others) for the past few(being modest) hours and was getting nowhere. I kept getting errors like "wrong filesystem" and everyone I used(by adding the -t option) did not work but just another error I could not shake down.

Thank you for the "1". It's amaizing to know that just a simple character could make such a difference  .

Your second error, I thought the same thing when I read it. So now I feel I am on the correct page to go through this "upgrade". Again, thank you!!!!


----------



## remster

More praise to Tiger et al. for some awesome work!

My upgrade: Sony SVR-2000 version 3.0, 30h to 180h (120G+30G).
The highlights: 
- I used allen wrenches (hexagones with flat sides) instead of Torx... works great
- burned the ISO file using Windows Adaptec Easy CD creator
- used MFStools 2.0
- I backed up the original A drive 30G to a skinny 816MB on my c:\ dos drive.
- restored to a 120G drive, tested it, worked fine.
- slow copied 30G to 120G because total is over 150MB and there is the swap problem (-s 127) ... this took about 1h40m
- improvised a msftadd -x to tack on the 30G as a B drive for the big one.
- found the quantum fireball jumper settings at http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/STORAGE/5962R/Jumpers.htm then realized they are printed on the drive... duh.
- switched the super duper rubber drive harness from the 30G drive to the 120G drive, and improvised a new harness out of some recycled PC parts.
- used a u-shaped drive craddle (looks like the mounting bracket for some 3.5 floppy drives). It has a wide flat bottom with holes and a steel spring underneath (asymetrical pointing to one side), and the sides are about 1.5 inch high and have 2+2 holes to secure the sides of the drive. The drive is sitting tall in there so it will have good air flow.
- used some thick double side sticky foam tape to affix the |___|-shape harness onto the edges of the tivo's drive B mounting hole/area. Feels really secure, and a bit cushy, and I am not shipping the unit anywhere so it does not need the super duper rubber mounted stuff of the A drive.
- I was lucky that the ATA cable of the tivo was already shreded/elongated... power cable was long enough as well.
- fired up the tivo, all good.

Well, only thing weird is the Tivo Suggestions menu gives me something like "If your tivo is new you should click thumbs up/down during some programs and this will make stuff appear here" (I paraphrased). My tivo is not new and was full of thumb data, So this seems to indicate that the thumbs are not completely restored. No biggie as far as I'm concerned.

Edit: oh, and I forgot to say my 120G is a 7200 rpm WD1200JB western digital, paid about $200 because it seems they were all sold out when I had to have my drive . Very quiet, 8MB of cache and it looks like operating power is less than the quantum fireball (milli amps were less for 5/12v rating). So I'd think it won't be too hot. I'll check the internal temp of the tivo later on.
The tivo feels slightly more spiffy, despite the fact that now I'm cranking on best video quality instead of medium... that's a good thing.

Update: the thumbs in the Tivo Suggestions finally showed up. They must have been dormant and got awaken somehow. All's well!


----------



## massimj

I guess I wasn't alone doing my Tivo upgrades yesterday. I replaced a faulty A drive in a Phillips unit that was under warranty. Phiilips wanted $100 to do a swap with me, so I used the $100 to buy a 80GB Maxtor and upgraded at the same time as repairing the unit.

I also took my other 80GB Phillips and upgraded to a 120 GB WD, then moved the 80 GB Maxtor that was in it to my third Phiilips.

I also had to use hda1 instead of hda, and I also got confused by reading some of the text, so I backed up and used my brain to sort it out and finish.

Everything appears to be working. I'm going to take the backup, which I tested, and write it to a CDR and file it with my notes for the next time. You never know when that tivo.bak will save mine, or somone elses butt.


Thanks to everyone who posts the outcome of their upgrades, it sure helps when you find that others have the same issues as you when you are searching for help.



:up:


----------



## Eccles

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *In fact, with MFS Tools 2.0, you can upgrade again and again, upgrading one drive up to 5 times (3 for some models)*


Could somebody please expand on this point? What causes some models to be less-upgradeable than others? Is this somehow related to the Sony 13-partition image thing?

After I added an 80GB B drive to my SVR-2000, I bought another 80 with the intention of upgrading the 40GB A drive, but I shelved the idea because at the time there was no way to do so without losing my recordings.

I've been out of the loop for a while, so it was a pleasant surprise to find this thread, and I'm thinking it's time to dig the second 80GB out of mothballs and open up the TiVo once again.

Now where did I hide my Torx drivers...


----------



## Robert S

Yes, you're limited to 16 partitions per drive and 6 MFS partition pairs in total. So a single-drive stand alone can be upgraded 5 times (twice on the A drive plus three times by adding/upgrading a B drive).

If you have 13 partitions on your A drive you can only upgrade it once, although there are ways round this is you move to a two-drive configuration.

MFS Tools 2.0 can do your upgrade for you, anyway.


----------



## massimj

Ok, I am the ignorant one. Please explain after I tell you what I understand.

What I understand is that a dd of drives, will put an exact copy of one drive on another of equal or greater size. Then you run MFSadd to add the increased space that is not part of the original configuration.

So what keeps me from doing this over and over? What about dd to the same size drive, over and over? I fail to understand how anything can stop this from occurring. 

So, say we keep the original backup in tact. Each time we upgrade, we take that original backup and restore it to a bigger drive. What would make the fist time you do it, any different from the sixth, or tenth time you do it?

I'm sure I am not the only one that would like this explained in detail. If these situations do not yield the same results in the end, then treat them as separate questions and explain how they differ in the end.

Thanks to the Tivo Guru who educates us on this. 

Joe


----------



## GBL

I'm not a Guru but I think I can answer this one.

You are right; if you go back to the *original* backup (i.e. remove prior expansions) you can do unlimited expansions (but you lose recordings).

However, you can also expand an already expanded drive (repeatedly, up to a limit) by dd'ing an expanded (full) drive to a larger drive (without losing any recordings).


----------



## sfuller

I thought I'd post a thank you here to Hinsdale for his upgrade FAQ. I upgraded my DirecTivo unit today by replacing the 15GB B drive with a new 40GB B drive. Using MFS Tools 2.0, I kept all of my recordings and had everything expanded and put back together in about an hour (including pulling the only Win98 PC I have in the house down to my computer room to do the upgrade). Only up to 57 hours, but I had the drive laying around and I now have room for recording other things since my wife had most of the unit filled up with X-files episodes.


----------



## genebaker

Tiger, thanks for an awesome utility!

I am trying to save a bunch of recorded shows from an upgraded Hughes DirecTivo that was upgraded by Hinsdale to a dual 120 GB system. My A drive has failed, yields error codes G60S57 and G60SY2 at PowerMax Quick and Advanced tests, respectively. The B drive is fine as far as PowerMax can determine. However, the bad drive still spins up OK and does not make any unusual clacking noises that would be suggestive of mechanical problems. MFS Backup (2.0) is unable to perform a backup.

My question: Given that MFS Backup won't work, is there any chance that dd copy (or another utility) would allow me to move everything from the failing drive to a new drive??

I am a complete Linux newbie but was able to plod through Hinsdale's instructions well enough to restore a Hughes.bak image to a spare 40 gb hard drive until I get my 120s back in action.

Thanks. Gene


----------



## Robert S

Er, possibly.

The problem is that dd tends to crash in the same places as mfsbackup. Hinsdale has a variation on dd that may get it past the errors (he adds somthing like conv=noerror,sync). People seem to be getting mixed results with it, but I think it's your only hope to save your recordings.


----------



## paulb444

I upgraded about a year ago using the tools available at the time. I upgrade a one drive DirecTivo to two 120 gig drives. 

The menu's are slow, sometimes freezing for a few seconds, then continuing. Now Playing list takes 15 seconds or more to display.

Are there any performance related tweaks I can make to my Tivo? I have read that the new tivo upgrade utilities are suppose to help w/ performance--can I use these tools to fix my upgrade?

Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

The anecdotal evidence - this turns out to be /very/ difficult to quantify - suggests that repeating your upgrade with MFS Toold 2.0 will give you a noticably faster TiVo.

However, there is no way to do this and keep your recordings - you have to start from an original A drive image.


----------



## massimj

Just for the record. I have upgraded three Philips Tivo's, one using MFS 1.0, and the other two MFS 2.0.

I have one unit with 32b MB that does not appear to be any faster than the others, but if I get big lists in Now Playing, maybe then I will see a difference.

I run the two main units on a APC UPS. Even with the UPS I have gotten some strange things to happen. Last night was the first time I saw my main unit, 120 GB WD, and 32 MB or ram, start stuttering, and get very large pixels running through the screen. Every so often the screen would go normal for a few seconds. The Sopranos was starting and I couldn't't wait to see if it would ever go back to normal, so I did a system reset. It has worked normal since the reset.

Every so often, either unit may freeze for a few seconds, to many seconds, then resume. I don't know what is doing that. Is it normal? I will consider it normal if many of you experience the same sort of behavior from your upgraded Tivo's.

Joe


----------



## netdude

Trying to upgrade my DSR6000 from a 60 to a 120, I have the same issue: it returns an error "Restore failed:Backup target not large enough for the entire backup by itself".

hdb is a new Seagate 120Gig, hda is the existing Maxtor 60Gig. I am issuing the command:
mfsbackup -aqo - /dev/hda | mfsrestore -xpi - /dev/hdb

I boot on cdrom on hdc. When looking at the boot with shift-pgup it does show hda and hdb with the correct sizes.

Ideas welcomed...


----------



## gadgetgrrll

I just upgraded my HDVR2 and used the MFS Tools for the first time. I had done two previous upgrades using other tools. IT ROCKED! Thanks!

Kathy


----------



## Robert S

netdude, you may be out of partitions. Try restoring with -pi instead of -xpi.


----------



## Mister_B

Help. I've been wading through messages for over a week and can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I have a Hughes HDVR2, no recordings. I want to shelve the original 40 gig and put in 2- 120 gig's. 
Do I just use MFS tools 2.0 and follow exactly or do I need to somehow enable a larger swap file? Are the new instructions residing in one document somewhere or do I need to piece them together from the "Fixes for MFS tools" thread. I've upgraded over a dozen series 1 DirecTivos but I'm getting lost in the linux discussions. Thanks.


----------



## massimj

Maybe I had to make my swap file bigger, could that be the reason I have some of the crazy things happening that I have? I have just one 20 GB drive, does the swap file have to increase in size, or does it happen automatically?


----------



## Robert S

Mr.B, yes, in principle you just do an MFS Tools backup and restore to prepare the new drive set. The thread you need to read is weaknees HDVR2 upgrade thread. I think you just use -s 127 to expand your swap.

MFS Tools 2.0 isn't broken, exactly, it's more that the documentation is misleading. Follow New Hinsdale instead. The Fixes thread documents how we figured this out and, more importantly, includes several things you can do to get out of trouble if you followed the MFS Tools 2.0 docs rather than Hinsdale.

massimj, swap is only really important when your TiVo green screens. For most normal operations you'd be fine with no swap at all. See the Fixes thread for a way to read your boot log and check how much swap you've got.

If you didn't explicitly increase your swap with mfsrestore -s 127 then you'll have 64Mb of swap, which is fine for everything /except/ when your TiVo green screens if it has more than 150Gb of disk space.


----------



## massimj

Robert, Thanks for the clearification. I never saw a green screen on any of my Tivo units. 
Maybe what I need is a little more horse power under the hood. Has anyone investigate a boost to CPU speed? I know they do it to TI calculators, so what's stopping anyone from the same sort of thing on Tivo?

Maybe a Tivo reset, every once in a while is needed to keep everythng running smooth? I know that a reset has cleared two situations that were yielding poor performence from my Tivo's.

Now that I reread your comments, I may have found my problem. The instructions I followed were from a document by Steven "Tiger" Lang. It Says MFS Tools 2.0 at the top, and a quote that says " What a Tivo engineer might have said" under that.

I used the dd commands, and MFSadd following this document.

Is this a problem?

Joe


----------



## Robert S

No. As I keep saying, swap is only important when really big TiVoes green screen. The MFS Tools 2.0 docs suggest that extra swap is not needed for TiVoes upgraded with MFST2 and that MFST2 can create 128Mb swap partitions. Neither of those things is true.

However, by copying your disk with dd you cloned the original, 64Mb, swap partition, so you're fine.


----------



## Mister_B

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *.... Follow New Hinsdale instead.... *


Thanks Robert, one more question and I think I've got it: According to new Hinsdale I use:
"mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb (restore/expand to new A and new B)"
Does this take the place of "blessing" the new B drive?


----------



## Robert S

Yes, that will give you a fully utilised two-drive set ready to go in your TiVo.


----------



## Mister_B

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Yes, that will give you a fully utilised two-drive set ready to go in your TiVo. *


Great, thanks again Robert.


----------



## bhudgens

I attempted to upgrade using mfstools 2.0 and it didn't get off the ground. I have upgraded three TiVos previously. I created the bootable CD. I performed the following steps.

1) hit return at root:
2) at the prompt (#) I reviewed the linux generated responses confirming the size of my drives. 
3) entered mkdir /mnt/dos
4) entered mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos
I received the following message: mount: you must specify the filesystem type.

Has anyone had this problem? How do I specify the filesystem type. The computer is running Win98 using FAT32.

Any help that anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated!


----------



## Robert S

You must mount /dev/hda*1*.

You're working from an old (and faulty) document. Download the latest New Hinsdale and use that instead. (See Hinsdale's thread in this Forum).


----------



## Guest

I successfully upgraded my Philips HDR112 with a Samsung 120, thanks to Hinsdale, Tiger and this community !

The scrollable info after booting with mfs just didnt have the sizes of the drives (hda, hdb, etc)..the sizes appear for a few seconds and after that disappear when we do Shift+PageUp. ( I can only see the names of the drives against the hda,hdb info.)

Anyone know why ? (I am just starting on Linux)


Also,


----------



## Robert S

It's probably a BIOS issue.

The important thing is that Linux sees the drives as the correct size - whether the BIOS does or not is irrelevent.

Use *dmesg* or *dmesg | more* to review the boot log and check what Linux is seeing.

You may need to set the BIOS to 'None' or 'Auto' on the relevent channels in order to get your drives recognised correctly.


----------



## ronsch

I had the exact problem rrau is describing using the boot floppy. The sizes were visible as the output went by but some of it was no longer on the screen when going back to view with shift+pageup. However, if booting from the cd the drive size info was recoverable with shift+pageup....


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## Jim Hughes

I now have 107 hours of recordable space (up from 35) on the Direct Tivo

Used instructions at http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html (THANK YOU!)

Performed OPTION #1: BACKING UP A SINGLE DRIVE TiVo, then did drive copy preserving all existing recordings using UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3

Replaced Maxtor D540X-4K with Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB ATA/133 HDD

I belive that I can still add another drive for even more capacity if I so desire... (Got a factory refurbished (i believe!) Sony T60 from DirectTV two weeks ago, mounting location and power cable available - even though it came with a SN of 5xxxxxxx, it had a single 40GB drive instead of two as I thought it might from the FAQ)

Now onto MNF! (Monday Night Football)


----------



## Mikegia5

To Tiger and Hinsdale - Thanks for doing a great job. I upgraded my HDVR2 yesterday to a WD1600 (160gb) and your part of it was very smooth. They only problems I had were trying to configure my CD as a slave, but once that was done, it was fast and painless.

Mike


----------



## yotta

I upgraded my HDR212 to a 120GB Friday. Seemless. You rock.


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## BrianGoetz

I've got a DSR6000 DirectTivo. I added an 80G Seagate drive to the 40G Quantum it came with, giving me 120G. I've been having problems which I identified as thermal (playback was fine when drives were cooled, problems when they were not.) I decided to combine the two drives back into a single 120G drive to reduce the total heat (and noise.) I bought a Samsung 1204 for the target drive.

When running mfsbackup like this:

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

it reported that the target drive was not big enough for the entire backup. Same was true without the '-s 127', and same was true with backing up with -tao. (I didn't try -tao and omitting -s 127 because I was getting frustrated.) 

Any advice on what I can do to restore my current A+B drives, including recordings, onto a new A which is sized to theoretically be as big as the two? Would deleting recordings help? 

Help please!


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## Robert S

Unfortunately there's no way to shrink a TiVo image and keep recordings. What are the exact drive sizes? (The BIOS should declare the drive sizes in Mb on boot - the Quantum is 40026Mb, for example). 

If the difference is just a few Mb you could use -s with a number lower than its default (64) to shrink the image slightly. I estimate you need about 40Mb of swap for your TiVo to recover from a GSOD, so don't dial it down more than you absolutely have to.


----------



## BrianGoetz

Here's what I did to make it work:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -zpi - /dev/hdc 

I dropped the -x (as recommended by several troubleshooting posts here) and the -s 127 (relying on the default, which I didn't know what it was, but do now), and it worked. Neither by themselves did it, but together they did.

The drive sizes added up almost exactly, so I guess it was the extra swap that pushed me over the edge. 

Have I hosed myself, or am I good to go here? 

Thanks!


(btw, to fuel the "my hard drive is quieter than yours" debate, the Samsung 120G (model 1204) HD seems much quieter than the Quantum HD that came with Tivo.)


----------



## ghazib

To Tiger and Hinsdale -- A sincere thank you for making it possible to so seamlessly upgrade my Tivo.

I went from a dead (harddrive) Sony SVR2000 w/ 30GB to an alive and kicking 140GB Tivo box.

The whole upgrade took 45 mins -- 30 mins of that was getting my old win98 PC to boot.

Thanks and keep up the good work

Another satisfied customer


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## Weez

Is there a way to backup the /var/hack partition while using mfstools 2.0?


----------



## Robert S

*dd if=/dev/hdc14 of=/mnt/dos/hack.bak* ?


----------



## Weez

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *dd if=/dev/hdc14 of=/mnt/dos/hack.bak ? *


Ok lemme ask it a different way 

Is there a way using mfsbackup (or any other tool for that matter) to create a compressed image of my tivo drive? Been playing with my s2 dtivo quite abit lately and would like to be able to restore images with all of the stable hacks in place rather then doing them manually over and over...


----------



## Robert S

How does what I suggested fail to achieve that?


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## boomboom69

Ok I need help. when I download MSFtools and try to burn it to CD I use easy cd creator and copy of cd image and burn it. It burns it all but the disk isn't bootable. I'm getting a little confused cause I've never used linux always been a windows man. Any help would be great.


----------



## Robert S

Are you using the non-Joliet version linked in Hinsdale? The original MFS Tools 2.0 CD has known issues booting in most PC's.


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## boomboom69

I was trying the non juliet version but when I look at the files in windows there is no boot up files just four folders and two html files


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## nlaredo

I successfully upgraded my Sony T60 from an 80GB
single drive to a 120GB single drive setup without
losing a single setting or program. This is awesome!

System Information now shows 109 hours...

The unfortunate part was that it took 5 hours to
do the mfsbackup | mfsrestore, but in the end it was
well worth the wait to have an extra 30 hours and
and still keep a bay free for another 120GB drive
later that should be able to take me to 218 hours.

Before I found this I was afraid I was going to have
to use my virgin 2.5 backup and re-setup all my
season passes and lose all my recordings. Things
have gotten a LOT better in the year between
buying the 120GB drive and actually getting around
to finally installing it!

-- Nathan Laredo


----------



## Freakeao

My B drive died and I getting a replacement sent to me.

In the mean time, can I backup my A drive and restore it back to itself to preserve my season passes?

I know that I would lose all recordings and that is fine.

TIA


----------



## boomboom69

I still can't figure out what is wrong with burning this damn linux boot cd. I'm using the files linked from hinsdales guides and it burns a bunch of stuff but it doesn't boot. What's the difference anyway from the floppy and the cd?


----------



## Robert S

Freakeao: Your system is hosed! You'll have to start from a backup file, I'm afraid. None of the current tools can help you recover anything from the A drive.

boomboom: MFS Tools is the same on the CD and floppy. The only extra you need if you use the floppy is qunlock.


----------



## weaknees

boomboom69 -

Did you try the "NoJ" or non-Joliet version of the CD image? Many people have better luck with that. It's here:

http://hellcat.tyger.org/MFS/2.0/

Michael


----------



## boomboom69

Yeah I have tried the non Juliet and like I said it burns and I can even look at the 4 folders and such in windows from the cd, but when I boot it says cd boot fail like it does if I don't have a bootable cd in and it goes to windows. the floppy however will boot no problem but in windows I can't even look at anything on it just says I need to format disk. I've never used linux so I'm not sure if that's weird or not. It's just frustrating. I'm wondering though. if the cd mfs tools is the same as the floppy then why is it so recomended and it is a 10.3mb download compared to the floppy.


----------



## dbfoxnh

Hi Tiger!

Was wondering if you were able to put fsck and fdisk on the CD as well. 

My TiVo is dead at the moment because the partition table got corrupted apparently. I followed the Hinsdale instructions to the letter. I'm hoping that fsck can resurrect the partition table so I can continue with the upgrade and mfsbackup.

Another question... I burned a CD with the kit on it and found that I was unable to boot it on my PC. I set the boot order for the CD first. It apparently tried but continued on to boot Windows 98. I've burned another CD and will try that next. I'm not sure why it couldn't read the boot block and continue on. I recopied your kit today. Any ideas?

Thanks!

David


----------



## Robert S

fdisk is on the disk, it's called pdisk.

fsck repairs filing systems, not partition tables.

Windows 98 will not corrupt your TiVo drive, only Windows NT (2000, XP) does that.


----------



## dbfoxnh

Glad to hear that fdisk, is on the CD as pdisk. In my experience with UNIX systems it still would be worthwhile to check the file system with fsck. If it isn't there it could rebuild it looking for the i-nodes.

So is fsck on the CD too or do I need to find a friend with a Linux system to run fsck on the TiVo drive?

Thanks!

David


----------



## Robert S

I think e2fsck is on the disk (I don't have one handy to check this). However, you have to run it against a partition - e2fsck /dev/hdc4 - so if your partition table is corrupt, it doesn't help you very much.

I'd be /very/ surprised if your problem relates to corruption of you root partition.


----------



## dbfoxnh

Thanks Robert. I'll at least give it a try. If e2fsck doesn't help, any suggestions on how to proceed? Do I just restore a previously saved 3.0 image and start all over again?

Regards,

David


----------



## Robert S

I don't know of any tools that would help you recover - even to rebuild the partition table with pdisk would mean you'd have to know the numbers to type in.

I would think restoring from a backup is your only option.


----------



## boomboom69

hey dbfox I'm having the same problem with burning the cd. It burns but doesn't boot. The floppy disk works fine though.


----------



## rtaheri

This may be a dumb question, but better ask ahead of time than make a mistake and be sorry!

I upgraded my HDVR2 to a 160GB WD 1600BB disk. It went without a hitch. Loved the how-to notes; thank you Hinsdale and Tiger.

But now I find that the WD disk is way too noisy. I am going to try to return the disk to Fry's and switch to a Samsung, or perhaps a Seagate. I still have the original 40GB Maxtor. Can I re-restore the original disk to a new disk? I have seen references to "you didn't used to be able to copy a second time" and " you can now copy 5 times, 3 times in some case", etc. So, since copying a second time seems to be a non-trivial procedure, I want to make sure I can do it. Can I?

Any changes to the instructions when I am restoring the original disk a second time to a different disk?

Paranoid,
Reza Taheri


----------



## stormsweeper

It's not copying that has a limit, but adding space. You can do the new upgrade exactly as you did the first.


----------



## neophyte

Maybe I'm missing something (wouldn't be the first time ;-),,,)
I burned the ISO image and it appears to be complete and error-free. The problem is, my system will not recognize it as a "system disk". Of course, I changed my BIOS to force a CD-ROM boot, still wouldn't accept it.

My question may be as simple as this - what should the boot disk look like? Shouldn't I be able to see some sort of executable linux file in the root directory of the new CD? Did I mis-understand the directions for the ISO? Should I have made the boot CD from the "isolinux" directory? Any other thoughts on settings necessary to get my system to boot with the MFS ISO?

My system:
AMD XP1800 - CPU
Win XP Pro -- O/S
Soyo Dragon+ -- motherboard (tons of IDE capability, on-board RAID)
Plextor 16/10/40 CD-RW

Any other components or configurations I should list to help ID the problem?


----------



## Jorossian

Are you burning it as a disk image or are you just burning the ISO file as a data file?

What burning application are you using?

I used Nero and it worked fine. If you're really having a hard time I believe you can purchase the MFS tools 2.0 boot disk from 9th tee for like 2 bucks.


----------



## CyberTiVo

I just added a second drive to my 30 hour TiVo. When I turn it on it continually reboots at the "grey Almost there" screen. I followed the directions and everything seemed to work. I used "mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb". Any ideas?


----------



## alienmeatsack

I am considering using MFS Tools 2 to try and fix my problems with my TiVo stuttering. About a year ago, I added a second 45gig drive to my 30hour unit and recently it started stuttering.

I don't mind losing the recordings I already have, esp if it saves me space and time when doing the MFS Tools thing, but I cannot live without my several years of thumbs up/downs, season passes etc.

However, what I am planning on doing is removing the 2 drives and trying to figure which one is the one that is dying... then redo the good drive and get rid of the bad one.

How much drive space will I need to back this up on my PC to retore my settings? I am very low on space and can only maybe make 10 gig worth of room to work with. Is this enough?

Can I use MFS Tools to do this? Am I asking silly questions?

r


----------



## Robert S

If you make a compressed backup you save /everything/ except the recordings. A compressed backup typically takes 150 to 500Mb.

You'll find drive diagnostic utilities on the drive manufacturers' web sites (support section). If the diagnostics don't give a clear result, put an A drive image on both of the drives and see which one stutters when run on its own.


----------



## alienmeatsack

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *If you make a compressed backup you save /everything/ except the recordings. A compressed backup typically takes 150 to 500Mb.*


*

I can handle that size most definately. I am just not too excited aboot losing my existing info (minus the recordings).




You'll find drive diagnostic utilities on the drive manufacturers' web sites (support section). If the diagnostics don't give a clear result, put an A drive image on both of the drives and see which one stutters when run on its own.

Click to expand...

*I need to just shut it down and pull the drives and go run utils on them to see which one, if any, is bad. (let it be my smaller drive pleeease)

thanks for the ifno

r


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## Onibroc42

Tiger and Hinsdale - Thank you for making a quick and simple upgrade possible. Upgraded a 40 hr AT&T Tivo to 141 hours (BarracudaV 120) in under an hour with all programs and everything else intact. Very sweet.

Now I have to decide if I want a 40 GB B drive or another 120 <grin>

Thanks, guys.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by Onibroc42 _
> *Tiger and Hinsdale - Thank you for making a quick and simple upgrade possible. Upgraded a 40 hr AT&T Tivo to 141 hours (BarracudaV 120) in under an hour with all programs and everything else intact. Very sweet.
> 
> Now I have to decide if I want a 40 GB B drive or another 120 <grin>
> 
> Thanks, guys. *


How quiet is the Barracuda V? Does it vibrate at all?

Thanks


----------



## Onibroc42

> _Originally posted by DCIFRTHS _
> *How quiet is the Barracuda V? Does it vibrate at all?
> 
> Thanks *


The 'cuda is actually quieter than the fan in my unit, you can only hear the seek when you put your ear on the Tivo. My Tivo is right outside my bedroom door, so it is about 10 feet from me, and I can't hear it at all. Besides, the drive tray is mounted on rubber grommets that absorb the bulk of any vibration.

Word of warning - don't forget to plug the fan back in, my Tivo was up to 61C by the time I realized that I forgot to plug the fan in (three hours)! Plugged the fan in, back to 37C this morning (which is where it was with just the Maxtor).

I got the drive from New Egg (www.newegg.com) for $139 and free shipping, in case anyone cares.


----------



## weaknees

Yeah - leaving the fan unplugged is a common mistake - we have it in bold on our instructions that we send.

Just so you know, you can't really damage the unit through overheating it like that - the TiVo will simply shut itself down if it reads a temperature out of its normal operating range.

Michael


----------



## gjustice

Thanks to Tiger and all the rest for your EXCELLENT information on upgrading, what in my estimation, is one of the most remarkable "power toys" I've seen in years.

I've been listening to the radio ads all week, and scrounging the web learning as much as I could about Tivos.

I bought a Series 2 60hr at BestBuy and based on messages earlier, will be waiting for the 90 day warranty to wear off, and in the meantime search for a bargain on 120GB drives to upgrade it. Does the 60 have a power tap for the second drive?

I got the updated software on the first forced daily call I made, took FOREVER. Can't wait for WiFi support!

Now, for the stupid question....

How much CPU is required to run MFS Tools? I have an old Pentium 266/MMX w/128MB of RAM and a 1GB Win98 drive that's more or less idle that I can use for this. I also have a Dell 1.8GHz machine, but it's running W2K and is kind of a pain to get into, and cabling's a real chore. Even if it had to run overnight, would the 266 cut it????

Thanks again for any guidance.


----------



## Robert S

It doesn't need any computing power - you're just copying data around. The concern is the BIOS. If you can get the drives recognised correctly the old PC will be fine.


----------



## HellBent

Does MFS Tools 2.0 work on series 1 unit?


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## ThreeSoFar

yup.


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## Paul_PDX

Thanks to Tiger and Hinsdale for another success.

My Sat-t60 is now at 179 hours with fully preserved programming and setup copied and expended onto a Maxtor 120 combined with a Seagate 80.

Temperature is actually cooler by one degree (48) than with the original single maxtor 40.

Thanks again!!


----------



## cojonesdetoro

I'm trying to upgrade from a 30GB quantum fireball+ 120 Maxtor to a pair of Samsung 120s. I also want to increase swap while I do this. I'm following the "add new A and add new B" part of the instructions. 

It seems that the samsung 120s are a little smaller than the maxtor drive. I do know that I don't have the maxtor full because I erased some recordings before starting the upgrade. Is there a way to make it work with 'used' space only so I can go to a slightly smaller drive?

this command:

mfsback -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

gives me a message that it can't restore to a smaller drive.

My main goal is to upgrade to 30+120 to 120+120 while preserving ALL and increasing swap as well. Any constructive suggestions are welcome.

Thanks to all.


----------



## weaknees

Sorry - no way to do this. For this type of upgrade will all (or any) recordings intact, you'd need two new drives exactly equal to or larger than the originals.

Does the Maxtor still work? Why not just upgrade the 30 to the Samsung and leave the Maxtor?

Michael


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## cojonesdetoro

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *Sorry - no way to do this. For this type of upgrade will all (or any) recordings intact, you'd need two new drives exactly equal to or larger than the originals.
> 
> Does the Maxtor still work? Why not just upgrade the 30 to the Samsung and leave the Maxtor?
> 
> Michael *


The maxtor still works but I also want to increase swap space and you can't do that with the 'dd'... can you?


----------



## weaknees

Nope - but you can with a:

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

That should work.

Michael


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## mrtickle

Er, that's exactly what he tried and it didn't! Did you read his post?


----------



## weaknees

Right - sorry. I just read the last reply, about using a 'dd' to increase swap, and my brain said "no, but there is a way to preserve recordings AND increase swap" but I totally forgot the context.

As far as I know, there is no way at all to preserve recordings when going to a smaller drive - no matter how small the difference.

Michael


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## Matt_G

I'm poised to perform an upgrade to my unmodified GXCEBOT DirecTivo. I intend to add a new 120 GB Maxtor and reuse the existing 40GB A drive. I have a question about what seems to be a missing or implied step in the excellent Hinsdale new How-to doc.

From following the intense swap file discussion and this thread it seems the best approach is to perform upgrade option #2 or #3 depending on if you want to keep your old recordings. 

These options have you turn your new large drive into the new A drive and then the original drive can be re-used as the new B drive. The new large drive will have a image that has a 127 MB swap built in. And the old drive will be wiped clean as it becomes the new B drive.

But in Option #3 (for preserving your recordings) to add the old drive back on as a new B drive I believe I would need amend the directions to:

follow up this command: 
mfsbackup -TAO - /dev/hdc |mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
(backup old tivo drive "hdc" and restore it to the new large drive "hda")

with this command:
mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdc
(marry the old tivo drive "hdc" as a new B drive)

The alternate command under Config #3 assumes that you are copying from the old drive and marying to two OTHER new drives with no reuse of the old drive:

mfsbackup -TAO - /dev/hdc |mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb
(backup old tivo drive "hdc" and restore to new large drive "hda")
(marry on a new drive "hdb")


Am I right on this?
THANKS!


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## Robert S

Be careful about case. -TAO may not be the same as -Tao !


----------



## un33k

Just upgraded my HDVR2 with a 120G DiamondMax Plus 9......Many thanks to Tiger for the tools and Hinsdale for the terrific How-to! Hope everyone has a nice rest of the weekend.


----------



## triopha

(Please see "Not a linux user - need link to mfs command set" in this forum)


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## Davin

Many thanks to Tiger and Hinsdale for the tools and directions.
And to Robert S for answering some questions.

I now have a SVR3000 that reports 228 hours!
(Took a std 80hr SVR3000, copied the 80GB to a new 120GB with the -s 127 option; and then re-added the original 80GB as second drive.)


One side question: is there a good man page for the mfstools, or web page with full options descriptions?

Thanks again to all!

Davin.


----------



## Robert S

I think the README file is as good as it gets. Be aware that where the README and Hinsdale differ (on issues relating to swap and GSOD's), Hinsdale is correct.


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## bjcleaver

Davin - any particular reason for re-ading the original 80GB as second drive rather than the new 120GB. I'm in a similar boat - just bought a Samsung 120GB and wondering which way to go with it and my SVR-3000. Saving my current recordings would be nice, but definitely not critical.


----------



## bjcleaver

Davin - what was your reasoning for re-adding the original 80GB drive as the 2nd drive, rather than the new 120GB? I'm in a similar situation - just bought a Samsung 120GB drive and wondering which way to go with my SVR-3000. Saving current recordings would be nice, but isn't critical.


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## weaknees

I think I replied to this same question in another thread, but using the larger drive as the A drive allows you to increase the swap space (-s 127 in the commands). You can't do this with the existing drive since the partitions use it all. But if you use the 120 as the A and increase the swap, then you can just add back the 80 as the B.

Michael


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## Ohu2

I used mfstool 2.0 to bring tivo back alive. NOw if I could only get a bash. 
How ever I have some questions with a 2.0 I can not mount the drive protions when I boot using the 1. iso I can mount 4 & 9. Am I overlooking something?

thanks


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## Robert S

You need to boot byteswapping. MFS Tools 2.0 does not byteswap by default (see the first post in the Fixes thread).


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## tidal

any reason to fear upgrading my SA HDR114 40+40 Tivo to a 120+120 setup?

Whats the recommendation on swap space for a setup like this?


----------



## weaknees

That unit (probably an HDR112) will be just fine with a dual 120 setup - just use "127" for your swap value.

Michael


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## Ordinant

Checking, just to be safe: the MFS Tools 2.0 have no problem upgrading Series 2 machines that have version 4.0 of the Tivo software and home media option?

Anybody try it yet?

Thanks!


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## jlkirk

Ok, as I understand it I should be able to use the MFS tools to access my Tivo Drive. However, I have been unable to find any kind of directions for using the MFS tools for something other than upgrading. As it is, I typed something wrong in my rc.sysint file and now my Tivo will not boot. What do I need to do to get access to my Tivo filesystem to correct my mistake?

I have a dual drive S1 Tivo with v 3.0 of the Tivo system software. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
JK


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## SEC55

I haven't had my Tivo running for a long time and I'm backing it up before sending out for repair. A friend has been helping me use MFS Tools to back up to a second drive, a 160 gb Maxtor I got at Staples for $99 after rebate. 

Anyway, in step 8 of Hinsdale it says that if you're restoring a backup image running Tivo software v. 2.0 or below to a non-Quantum drive, you need to add runideturbo=false to the rc.sysinit file for the drive to boot in the Tivo. 

The problem: I don't remember what version of system software my Tivo has, so the question is: when did v. 2.0.1 come out? By chance does anybody remember? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot,

Ed


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## ThreeSoFar

SEC55: you don't give much detail. Is it a new TiVo? A series 1? 2? 

Was it plugged in for long? If so, you most likely do not hvae 2.0 or below.

One easy way: If it's a series two, and you have folders, you've definitely got version 4.


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## weaknees

I'm pretty sure that every TiVo has received 2.5 or newer in the last 12 months - hope that helps.

You can always just try restoring the image and seeing if it works - if not, change the boot parms.

Michael


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## SEC55

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *SEC55: you don't give much detail. Is it a new TiVo? A series 1? 2?
> 
> Was it plugged in for long? If so, you most likely do not hvae 2.0 or below.
> *


Sorry about that. It's a series 1 Sony SVR-2000. It's been down for about 10 months or more (don't know how I lived without it that long!). I think you and Weaknees are probably right, that I don't have 2.0 or below. Thanks a lot,

Ed


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## Robert S

I think 3.0 was rolling out about a year ago, so you might have 2.5, you'll probably have 3.0, but you definitely don't need to worry about runideturbo.


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## powernexus

This is sure awesome! Thanks!

I'm having some problems with it being able to mount my TiVo drive, though. MFS Tools was able to make a backup image of my TiVo drive, but I couldn't get some of the other packages to work due to the system not being able to mount the mfs disk.

Could this be due to mfs support not being compiled into the kernel of the MFS Tools CD? I've been working from several different angles trying to get the other networking programs installed, but haven't had any luck.

Could you please take a minute or two and look at my other post to see if I'm missing something?

click here

Thanks for your time and cool software!


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## Cletus

To mount the partitions on the TiVo disk, you need to boot in byteswapped mode (_and_ the TiVo drive must not be /dev/hda).The mfstools CD won't byteswap the drives. Your best bet is to use the kazymyr boot CD, which will boot correctly in byteswapped mode.


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## stamasd

Hi all,

I hate to sound like a newbie... I've been into TiVo for the past 3 years, but it's the first time I use MFStools, and it seems I've hit a problem. I have searched the forum and RT(F)M, but have found no definitive answers, so here goes.

I have a HDR112, originally a 14h SA. I upgraded it using BlessTiVo in 2000, to a 15G+80GB dual configuration. (for the record, drive A has 11 partitions). Worked flawlessly for almost 3 years, 107h at basic.

I recently decided to upgrade again. I am a Unix sysadmin, and tend to plan any disk upgrades ahead of time, before the drives start to fail.  There was nothing wrong with my TiVo, but the drives were both ~3 years old, and I wanted to upgrade before a GSOD happened. Besides, disk space is much cheaper now (in 2000, I paid ~$3/GB for the 80GB drive, and now it was only $0.5/GB for a 120GB).

So I decided to upgrade again from the 15+80GB to a single 120GB. I chose to keep my recordings, so according to hinsdale I used step 10 configuration #6. Of course, first I made a small backup and tested it, so I know I can go back to first base if I need to. 

I connected the drives as follows:

/dev/hda: TiVo A drive (15GB)
/dev/hdb: TiVo B drive (80GB)
/dev/hdc: new drive (120GB)

I used:


Code:


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

...in order to copy the drives _and_ expand the 120GB to max capacity (an extra 25GB). Notice the *x*.

It worked for about 3 hours, reached 100%, then said it added a new pair, /dev/hdc14 and /dev/hdc15, and that I should have 33h extra now. That sounds correct, 11 partitions on A plus 2 from B is 13, follows 14 and 15. The total capacity should have been (107+33) around 140h.

I put the new drive in the TiVo, and it booted fine - but in the system information it still showed 107h. So adding the extra space failed. I rebooted the TiVo, then on an impulse redid the guided setup, but of course neither solved my problem. Still 107h. Because I had redone the GS, I could now not access "search by title" to turn on backdoors and look at the logs - at least not until I had to leave for work this morning.

So what are my options now (assuming I don't find anything relevant in the logs)? I found in this forum various postings about issues similar to mine (for instance http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=745370#post745370 - but he never came back to his question #1), but not a definitive answer.

Assuming partitions 14 and 15 were in fact created but not "blessed" correctly so that the TiVo could not see or use them, could I just put the drive back in the PC and run

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc 

Is mfsadd supposed to work on partitions that are already there, or just on empty space? If that wouldn't work, what could I do? Remove hdc14 and hdc14 with pdisk, then try mfsadd again? I would really like to avoid having to do the 2>1 drive copy again, as 3 hours are a lot of time for me. Any other suggestions I may not have thought of?

Thanks all.


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## Robert S

mfsadd should be exactly equivalent to running mfsrestore with -x, so it's not obvious what's wrong. It certainly couldn't hurt to run it again.

Try mfsinfo to see what it thinks the MFS partition set is.

This is not a problem I've seen before, so I don't have a ready answer, but 120Gb A drive should give you 140 Hours, so there definitely is something wrong.


----------



## stamasd

Thanks for the reply, Robert S.



> *mfsadd should be exactly equivalent to running mfsrestore with -x, so it's not obvious what's wrong. *


Umm.. yeah. I knew that. 


> *It certainly couldn't hurt to run it again.*


Will do tonight.


> *Try mfsinfo to see what it thinks the MFS partition set is.
> This is not a problem I've seen before, so I don't have a ready answer, but 120Gb A drive should give you 140 Hours, so there definitely is something wrong. *


I'll see what mfsinfo says. It will probably tell me either that:

1. I have 2 MFS pairs, hdc10+11 and hdc12+13, in which case the "x" failed altogether, or
2. I have 3 MFS pairs, hdc10+11, 12+13 and 14+15, in which case I have no clue what the problem is and what to do. 

In the first case, I'll look at the partition table with pdisk. If I see 15 partitions, it means hdc14 and 15 were created but not correctly initialized - I will then remove them and try mfsadd again. If I see only 13 partitions, it means that the last 2 were never created, and I'll run mfsadd directly. See what happens then.

Does that look like a good course of action?


----------



## Robert S

You can also give mfsadd partition names as targets rather than just the name of the drive. This might be safer than deleting the extra partitions. See the README for the syntax.


----------



## stamasd

So according to the readme, I would use:

mfsadd -X /dev/hdc

if hdc14 and 15 don't exist, or:

mfsadd /dev/hdc14 /dev/hdc15

if partitions 14 and 15 are already created, right? 
But what do I do if mfsinfo shows 3 pairs? Guess I'd have to redo the disk copying.


----------



## stamasd

Okay, mfsinfo /dev/hdc shows as follows:


Code:


The MFS volume set contains 6 partitions
/dev/hdc10 MFS Partition size: 512MiB
/dev/hdc11 MFS Partition size: 12098MiB
/dev/hdc12 MFS Partition size: 4MiB
/dev/hdc13 MFS Partition size: 78163MiB
/dev/hdc14 MFS Partition size: 0MiB
/dev/hdc15 MFS Partition size: 25948 MiB

Total MFS volume size: 116726 MiB
estimated hours on a SA TiVo: 130
This MFS volume may be expanded 3 more times.

So, mfsinfo thinks everything's all right, but the TiVo still won't see the extra space.

Now what do I do?

Edit: pdisk confrms this info. And /dev/hdc14 is in fact 1024 sectors of 512 bytes (=0.5M), not 0. There's also a 1.9M of free space at the end of the drive.


----------



## Robert S

I don't know. Tiger's probably the only person outside TiVo who understands MFS, so unless he chips in, you might never get an answer.


----------



## stamasd

Thanks for your help anway.It's much appreciated.

I'll keep trying though. An interesting tidbit: when I run mfsinfo on the original pair of drives, it says that the estimated capacity in a SA TiVo would be 97 hours, but in fact it's 107. After the upgrade, it says there shouls be 130h, but I show still 107. Hmm....


----------



## stamasd

I have solved the mistery of the missing hours.  

The short explanation: the upgrade worked as advertised, I just didn't realize it.

The long one: Of course, there was a factor which I didn't consider when I calculated the space. I had completely forgotten about this. Let me put it this way: 3 years ago, I was a Unix sysadmin who purchased this cool box that recorded TV and was running Linux... kid in a candy store...  I just couldn't keep my hands off it. As a result the poor TiVo was hacked back and forth for 3 years. One of the things I did (about 1 year ago) was use TiVoWeb to adjust the bitrates at basic, so they become more compatible with certain things that shouldn't be mentioned here *cough*video extraction*cough*.  So... increase bitrates -> the number of hours decreases.

So where did the confusion start? I keep notes of everything. When I started this upgrade, I pulled out my notes from the previous one. The last thing I had noted was "upgraded capacity=107 hours". Flash forward to last year, I increased the bitrate at basic, so now the 107 hours weren't 107 any more, and of course I didn't check the system info screen.

When I realized that, I put the original 2 drives back and looked at the system info - lo and behold, it showed 81h! And the new drive shows 107h, that is 26h extra plus some reserved space I guess. It was just a coincidence, but 107h !=107h. 

So the take home lesson is: mfstools works. It's our memory that fails us.


----------



## powernexus

> _Originally posted by Cletus _
> *To mount the partitions on the TiVo disk, you need to boot in byteswapped mode (_and_ the TiVo drive must not be /dev/hda).The mfstools CD won't byteswap the drives. Your best bet is to use the kazymyr boot CD, which will boot correctly in byteswapped mode. *


Thanks Cletus! The Kazymyr Boot CD let me mount the TiVo partitions just like you said. I only wish I had seen that before trying only the MFS Tools 2 CD. Hopefully, Tiger will make the next version of the MFS Tools CD to allow mounting of TiVo drive partitions like the Kazymyr one does!


----------



## Cletus

> _Originally posted by powernexus _
> *Thanks Cletus! The Kazymyr Boot CD let me mount the TiVo partitions just like you said. I only wish I had seen that before trying only the MFS Tools 2 CD. Hopefully, Tiger will make the next version of the MFS Tools CD to allow mounting of TiVo drive partitions like the Kazymyr one does! *


If you haven't noticed, Tiger is MIA since about this time last year. I guess we can't count on him anymore for any updates. OTOH, I'm pretty good with Linux - let me see what I can do.


----------



## powernexus

Bummer! I was thinking about trying something similar also.... thinking!! 
I guess Tiger never released his source code?


----------



## Cletus

> _Originally posted by powernexus _
> *Bummer! I was thinking about trying something similar also.... thinking!!
> I guess Tiger never released his source code? *


No. He was asked by TiVo, Inc. not to.

But making the CD byteswap correctly has nothing to do with mfstools source code.


----------



## powernexus

Oh, I know. I was just wondering if he had released the source code since you said he had been MIA. I was hoping someone else could pick up from where he left off rather than re-inventing what he had done. 
However, there's always more than one way to skin a Tiger. (Sorry, bad one, I know!)


----------



## Sbmocp

So, does anyone know what happened with Tiger? New job, new interests, etc.? Just curious--I noticed the absence and lost a lot of sleep over it during the last year...


----------



## AddictedToTV

Why can't MFSTools2.0 access HD's hooked up to IDE connectors on an ATA adapter card?

Ok, I'm stumped... I'm using a 1998 pc to setup larger hard drives for a new TiVo (using MFSTools2.0).
This old PC just doesn't know what to do with large hard drives, at power up the BIOS just hangs when it gets to the large HD's, so I'm using the ATA adapter card that came bundled with the HD's. It boots fine, but MFSTools2.0 doesn't seem to see the HD's (even though it just booted from there)!?!

The technical details...
PC is a Packard Bell 955, AMD K6-2/333 processor, 192mb RAM, 1998 Award BIOS.
For this TiVo surgery, I replaced the Win XP Pro HD with a 3GB FAT32 HD with DOS/Win98SE.
This PC has primary/secondary IDE controllers on the MB, but the 1998 Award BIOS hangs on large HD's.

I'm trying to setup 2 new Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB ATA/133 hard drives for a TiVo TCD24004A.
Luckily, these new HD's came bundled with a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card.
Now I'm not using the IDE connectors on the PC's motherboard, but instead using the primary&secondary IDE connectors on the Maxtor adapter card.
I hooked up everything meticulously as in the Hinsdale How-To and MFSTools2.0 instructions (including master/slave jumpers).

primary master: 3GB FAT32 DOS/Windows HDD
primary slave: 160GB new Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 ATA/133 HDD
secondary master: 40GB TiVo Western Digital Performer WD400
secondary slave: CD-RW drive containing MFSTools2.0 CD

The system can boot from my 3GB harddisk (master on primary IDE) and also from MfsTools2.0 CD (slave on secondary IDE), so I assume everything is OK. However, once MFSTools2.0 boots (default boot option), it does not seem to see the hard drives attached to the adapter card...

/# mkdir /mnt/dos
/# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mount: /dev/hda1: unknown device
/#
/# dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k
dd: opening '/dev/hdc': No such device or address
/#

Since, I'm booting off the adapter, it must be hooked up correctly. I'm assuming that Linux is probably assigning the hda-hdc devices still to the now unused IDE connectors on the motherboard. I tried swapping device ID's hde-hdh in the commands, but that didn't work. How do I find out what device IDs Linux is using for the IDE connectors on the adapter card? I later went into the PC's BIOS and selected 'none' for the type of HD hooked up for all 4 primary/secondary master/slave positions on the motherboard. The system still boots fine with the HD's connected to the adpater card, but MFSTools2.0 still doesn't see these HD's as hda-hdd.

I also tried swapping a new 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus HDD for the new 160GB drive, just to rule out the 160GB HDD as the problem. No difference, same error messages.

Is there a Linux command to display what device ID's it has assigned here?
Is there a Linux command to re-map these device ID's to hda-hdd?
Is there something else I should try?

 Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!


----------



## AddictedToTV

I don't believe this... I got the MfsTools2.0 CD downloaded, burned, and booting properly. But my poor old PC BIOS just didn't know what to do with these large harddisks. I borrowed a brand new PC which correctly recognizes large hardisks. So, problem solved, right? Wrong!

For some reason the BIOS in this brand spankin' new PC doesn't think the MfsTools2.0 CD is a valid boot disk! It has no problem booting off Kazymyr's All-In-One boot CD, just not off MfsTools2.0!!! It tries to boot off it, then decides it's not a valid boot image, and then boots off the next device. I even tried swapping in the CD-RW drive that it did boot from successfully on the other PC (the one I used to burn the MfsTools2.0 and Kazymyr's discs). I tried burning another MfsTools2.0 disc with the same result... Boots everywhere else, just not on this new PC.

Anyway, my question is... What would be better?
1. To boot off the MfsTools2.0 floppy and use mfsbackup and dd from that.
2. To boot off the Kazymyr CD, then swap it with the MfsTools2.0 CD, and somehow access the tools off of it. (I'm not sure what Linux command(s) are needed to acomplish this.)
3. To boot of the MfsTools2.0 floppy, and somehow access the tools off of the MfsTools2.0 CD. (I'm not sure what Linux command(s) are needed to acomplish this.)

I did note, that when Kazymyr's CD boots up, it does recognize all of the connected TiVo harddrives (old and new) at their correct size. However, when the MfsTools2.0 floppy boots, it does show the names of the harddrives (old and new), and shows they are assigned to hda-hdd correctly; HOWEVER, IT DOES NOT INDICATE ANY SIZE FOR THE HARDDRIVES WHATSOEVER! Is this normal?

I'm so close, I can smell success! Any advice, on the best way to boot up here? Or, does it matter? Why is everyone using the MfsTools2.0 CD, when the floppy seems to be much simpler? The CD obviously contains extra goodies, but are they necessary?


----------



## AddictedToTV

The floppy worked like a charm!  By the way, the floppy WAS displaying the disk sizes right after it displayed the disk names. Problem was that just after that it does a 'clearscreen' before displaying the # prompt. Somehow that 'clearscreen' erases the last page of boot messages. Pressing SHIFT-PGUP does not display these last boot messages, they have been zapped! The boot messages appear so fast, that I didn't see the disk size messages the first few times as they whizzed by. Since, the SHIFT-PGUP didn't bring back the last few boot messages, it appeared the disk sizes were never displayed.


----------



## Cletus

There are 2 versions of the mfstools CD: the first version, with Joliet extensions turned on, which does not boot properly; and a second version, without Joliet (therefore called "NoJ"). You must have mistakenly used the first one.


----------



## cubcake1

Will MFS Tools 2.0 work with TiVo's 4.0 + software?


----------



## Robert S

Yes.


----------



## HTH

It's been awhile since I've upgraded a TiVo, so I need a quick refresher.

I have a Series1 with one 120 GB drive (fully utilized) to which I'm going to add a second 120 GB. I also have two unopened Series2 80hr TiVos I'm going to add a 120 GB drive to each.

I know I'll need to buy new mounting hardware for the Series2 (I'm set for Series1 parts), but is it wise for me to do a simple bless-and-add for the Series2 or should I really use the MFS Tools 2.0? I expect to have to use it for the Series1 to increase swap.


----------



## Robert S

Yes, both TiVoes will need more swap to recover from a GSOD in their expanded configuration. Do you want to keep your recordings? If not I'd make both new drives A drives and run them for a few weeks before mfsadd-ing the old A drives as B drive.

You're looking at /hours/ of copying to move 200Gb of data if you want to keep your recordings. In that case I would run the new drives for a week or so in my computer and then just add them as B drives. If they did GSOD I'd then do the 'rescue' from the third post of the Fixes thread.

Of course, you might consider buying one 250Gb drive for the Series 1 TiVo (see the end of the 160Gb thread in the Underground) and move that TiVo's A drive into the Series 2.


----------



## HTH

Well, the "new" drives have been running in the computer for months if not at least a year, so I'm confident in them.

I'll probably just do the bless-and-add for the Series2s and live dangerously until I get another pair of matching manufacture (never had good experience mixing Maxtor and WD).

I do actually want to keep the recordings on all the units. I have shows on there that will never be shown again and some that are hedges until they come out on DVD. I'd better upgrade the Series1 this weekend during the longest period where I have nothing scheduled to record and/or move what pending recordings I have to another TiVo. (At least with HMO, I could possibly shift recordings between the Series2s before upgrading.)

As to >128 GiB drives, I need them more in the Mac (for editing video) than I need more recording space on TiVos. And the one that is the tightest on space (due to lots of KUIDs--mostly _Odyssey 5_ and _Max Headroom_) is the one that already has two-120 GB drives.


----------



## jmathey

Hi,
I've never upgraded a Tivo before, but I feel pretty comfortable trying it thanks to all your hard work and all the intelligent posts and replies here. I just purchased a hdvr2 hughes directivo. I am also purchasing two 120 GB 5400 hard drives to go ahead with the upgrade, I have a couple of questions before I start;

1: Would it be better to go with 7200 RPM drives instead? I've heard they do make a slight difference? 

2: Is there a brand name drive that has a better track record with these upgrades? I've used Maxtor's for all my computer upgrades so I was going to go with it for the Tivo, but if a Western Digital or some other brand is better, I'd appreciate a heads up. 

3: Does it make any sense at all to go with 160 GB drives instead of 120? I've heard that Tivo will only use 137 of each drive anyway, just wanting to confirm. 

Well that's it for now, I'll wait for a few replies to this then it's off to the upgrade. I'll post my hopefully successful result when it's complete.

Thanks in advance

John

PS: Way to go Tiger, you made this process much simpler than in the "old days"


----------



## Robert S

7200 drives don't seem to add a great deal to the performance of a TiVo (the original drives were 4500 RPM!) and if you're putting two drives in an HDVR2 the extra heat won't help.

Current Maxtor drives seem to be suffering from a firmware locking issue. This doesn't stop them working in the TiVo, but does prevent access from a PC once they've been put in a TiVo. This problem does not affect other brands.

Yes, you can only use 137Gb of a hard drive, so you can't fully utilise a 160Gb drive. This is a limitation of the TiVo kernel. We have a replacement kernel for Series 1 TiVoes, but Series 2 users will probably have to wait for TiVo to release an official kernel that supports larger drives.


----------



## haardwire

Upgraded yesterday in about 2 hours from basic single quantum 40Gb drive to Smasung 120Gb drive. MFS did the job briliantly. Popped the new drive back into the TIVO and booted first time. All progs and settings intact. Superb. 

Only issue I still have is that I want to back up the old drive, but only have Win XP and NTFS partitions. Any ideas please:

Regards

Nick


----------



## Robert S

Yes, you put a small FAT partition on your upgrade drive and put the backup file on that before copying the file to your C: drive and proceeding with the upgrade.


----------



## haardwire

Thanx robert, but I already did the upgrade!!

Eventually, I want to use the old 40Gb drive in my PC, but I would like to do the backup first.

Any other ideas out there??

Thanks again for the response Robert. Much appreciated.

Nick


----------



## lpwcomp

What will happen if someone has one or two 160GB drives in a series 2 and TiVo finally updates the kernal?


----------



## Robert S

haardwire, you need a small FAT partition. You could use Partition Magic to resize your C: drive to make room for a new partition on your Windows drive, but that's probably not a good idea. If you're going to reformat your old A drive, then why not backup your new drive to that at that time? A compressed backup drops the upgraded partitions, so you'll have a backup you can restore to the original A drive if necessary.

lpwcomp, nothing. LBA-48 adds the adds the ability to access larger disks. Access to the lower part of the disk is not affected and you won't automatically get to use the extra space on the disks either.


----------



## haardwire

Robert, it's an idea, but I have the Tivo all back together and dont realy want to take it apart again. Maybe I'll try the partition magic thing, unless MFS will allow me to backup to a CDR!! Anyone know if this can be done ?

If so, a command line would be very helpful.

Regards and thanks again for your reply Robert.

Nick


----------



## Robert S

No, MFS Tools does not include CD-R support!


----------



## haardwire

Damn & double damn


----------



## haardwire

Hmmm, Partition magic time I think. Tripple damn!!

Thanks again Robert

Nick


----------



## Robert S

Would downloading a backup be a better option, then?


----------



## haardwire

Robert,

Definitely for me, as I have broadband, the file size is not an issue. Any ideas where I can get one??

Cheers, and thanks for all the help and ideas so far.

Nick


----------



## jmathey

Before I start, will this work with direcTivo's with 3.1 Software? 

I have a DSR7000 (single 40GB drive), 

I want to upgrade it to dual 160 GB ( I know it will only use 137). 

If yes, will the 9th tee bracket work with these new DirecTivo's? 

Thanks
John


----------



## clherv

I have read the instructions about how to use MFStools for various upgrades. Then I saw someone mention an MFStools command that was not in that document. I did look in several places for this request before posting.

So, my question:

Is there some place on the web, or in this forum that would list all the MFSTools commands, and their structure??

I would appreciate reading it.

Kent


----------



## wavemaster

I feel kind of dumb asking this....

Well anyway, I downloaded the tools and burned the image to a CDR.

Does the linux folder need to be burned as another image for booting?

Last time I did this on my T-60 I used Hinsdale's (thank you Mr. Hinsdale) walk-through with all the associated tools.

Is the new MFS2 a complete solution for a Hughes HDVR2? How do I get the boot CD created?

Basically, now what?

Thanks,

Wavemaster


----------



## Robert S

The .ISO file (make sure you get mfstool2noJ.iso) is a container that holds the full structure of a CD-ROM. Your CD burning software should have a special mode for creating CD's from ISO files.


----------



## wavemaster

"what next?"

Put it in the drive and boot you moron.


Worked great and now has 130 hours.

Thanks,

Brain dead, 

wavemaster


----------



## lbrewer

I just (today) downloaded the mfstoolsnoj.iso and burned yet another cd. As in the other version, this will not boot either. Why is this such a problem? I had no problems at all with the 1.1 download, iso burning, and booting.


----------



## haardwire

Have you looked at the disk to see what is on it?

Have you set your PC to boot from CD?

Did you burn the disk as a data disk or as an image?

These are the first 3 things I would check.

Hope this helps

Nick


----------



## lbrewer

Yes, the previous version was burned in the same way and it works fine on the same pc. I had to revert to that version to add the second drive. MFSTOO~1 is the only file that is listed on the cd.


----------



## Robert S

_MFSTOO~1 is the only file that is listed on the cd._

So you burned a data CD. You need to create a disk from the ISO image, quite a different function.


----------



## lbrewer

You are right. I went back and looked at options and found the record option under "file" that I had not seen. Why was the old version so easy to burn? Or were the specific instructions spelled out? I used a different cd writing program before, but thought I was doing it the right way with this program. Thank you so much for your help. This was really bugging me.
One thing I did notice though. There is no "burn" option for iso when you just go to record. There is on data cd creation. I guess that is what threw me.


----------



## haardwire

lbrewer

good luck with it. U dont mention what burning software u r using.

Regards

Nick


----------



## ManOfSteele

Is there an updated set of upgrade instructions specific to MFS 2.0?


----------



## haardwire

pwsteel,

if you have burned a cd from the iso image file, you will find a word doc with full info and instructions on it. 

It's in the root directory "mfstools.doc"

good luck.

Nick


----------



## mickyw

Will MFS tools 2.0 work with 4.0 software?


----------



## Robert S

Yes, no problems there.


----------



## DaTester

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You must mount /dev/hda1.
> 
> You're working from an old (and faulty) document. Download the latest New Hinsdale and use that instead. (See Hinsdale's thread in this Forum). *


I found this old post and it refers to the problem I am having.

When I type:
*mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos* 
I get: 
*/dev/hda1: Success
mount: you must specify the filesystem type.*

It says "success" so I try to do a backup:
*mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc* 
It scans the source and says the drive size, image size and uncompressed backup size and starts chugging and then gives me the error:
*Backup failed: /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: Success*

I am using an extended dos partition (fat32) on an old drive for my hda. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks


----------



## Robert S

The first logical partition is hda5


----------



## dwynne

> _Originally posted by Tiger _
> *Announcing the release of MFS Tools 2.0!
> 
> MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.
> *


Thanks for the tools!

I had used the boot floppy method 2 1/2 years ago to upgrade my SA Tivo - it worked but lost all the recordings, wish lists, etc.

My added drive failed a couple of weeks ago, using the new tools was a snap to restore a downloaded 3.0 image and expand it to work on a new drive.

With such an easy to use tool, I upgraded my DirecTivos as well (with no loss of anything) and even upgraded a friend's 30 hour SA box as well - also with no loss.

Thanks again for all the hard work! It sure makes it a snap to do upgrades now.

Dennis


----------



## DaTester

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> The first logical partition is *hda5*


Aaah. So few words yet so much has been learned...

I was finally able to back-up the original drives in my TiVos. Since I was on a roll I also backed up the upgrade drives.

Thanks Robert!

Dan


----------



## thelinuxdude

Thank's to Tiger, Hindsdale and the this forum. I upgraded my DirecTivo Series 2 with the new MFStools 2.0. My version of software was 3.0. I'm pleased to see 120 hours of space available. 

I also updated on my linux box. No DOS partition. I would like to see a section in the online manuals from MFSTools and Hindsdale for using a linux only box. I booted with the MFStools CD and mounted my linux paritition (reiserfs) and backup to my home directory. Restored from the backup to my 120gig. Appears to work, I did not backup my recorded programs, because I wanted to get this done fast. (started at 2am finished at 2:45am, first ever upgrade). I also burned a copy of my tivo.bak file to a CD. 

This was easy. Thanks again to all the great information on this site. Also when more info on HMO for DirecTivo is available I would be interested. Where is the best place for this information?


----------



## Robert S

If you're a regular Linux user it should be pretty obvious what to do, although you MUST work from the current Hinsdale and not the MFS Tools 2.0 documentation.

MFS Tools will run under your ordinary Linux install, it doesn't need any of the TiVo-specific patches on the boot CD.

If you do run it under a normal Linux, you need to watch out for drive locking and large drive support. If you are using a 160Gb drive or larger, the standard TiVo kernel will only see the first 137Gb of each of the hard drives. Modern Linux kernels (2.4.18 and later) will see the whole drive, therefore you must not expand the image (the -x option) under your normal Linux. Do the restore without -x and then reboot to the MFS Tools CD to run mfsadd.

Are you claiming that the kernel on the MFS Tools 2.0 CD mounted a ReiserFS partition?


----------



## mattack

Is the source to these tools available? I tried PMing Tiger but got no response.

I'd like to look at it and see how feasible it is to get it running under Mac OS X. (I know there's some kind of Carbon Tivo Blesser program, but I mean the shell utils.. including the ability to increase the swap).


----------



## jboy

Hi,

I want to add a second drive to my Tivo. The drive I plane on using was removed from a unix system and has several partitions defined. 

According to the MFS version of the HowTo all I have to do is msfadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb. 
Does this command update the partitions on second drive (/dev/hdb)? Or do I delete the partition information first?

Thanks,

Jerry


----------



## Robert S

Yes, mfsadd requires no help from you to prepare the new drive.


----------



## donaudio

I am a newbie and want to upgrade my Tivo. My current CD-ROM drive is jumpered to CS and is on the end of the secondary IDE cable. To do the backup and upgrade should I change this to correspond to hdd as described in Hinsdale step 7? Thanks for any help. Don


----------



## Robert S

If you know what you're doing it should be obvious what to change in Hinsdale's instructions. If you don't then it would be a good idea to configure your hardware so that you can follow Hinsdale precisely.


----------



## FredThompson

The floppy version of MFS Tools doesn't like the nvidia2 chipset and will hang after looking at the hard drives. It reports they exist but doens't like the controller.

I've got 2 source drives and 2 new destination drives, was planning to do the one-step upgrade for both as detailed on the Hinsdale site.

Is there a version of the floppy which DOES support the nvidia2 chipset? If so, where is it? If not, does the CD for 2.0 "play nice" with the nvidia2 chipset?


----------



## Robert S

You can run MFS Tools from any Linux (I rather like Tom's Root and Boot Disk), not just the TiVo boot disks.

Running it from this environment is a little different. See the 6th page of the 160Gb thread at the top of the Underground. das Monkey posted a guide to running MFS Tools under Knoppix.

You have to be a bit careful if you're using a 160Gb drive as if you use a really current Linux then you're into LBA-48 territory - you want a Linux that will see the drive as 137Gb and no more.


----------



## FredThompson

Great! Thanks.

I've been Googling and Copernicing trying to find a boot disc which will work wiht the nVidia. Not such an easy task.

Yeah, I thought about 160 drives but the LBA48 thing has me a little spooked. These are going in my T60 and they're just 120s. I picked up a couple of S2 units during the recent DirecTV promo and closeout at CIrcuit City. Never understood why people had more than 1 until I'd been using it for a while. Thought the standard 40G was more than enouhg, also.

Well, things change. When this is all done, I'll be able to go on business trips (2-3 weeks/month) and not "lose" anything while I'm gone. These things are awesome.


----------



## FredThompson

Bah!!! The floppy creation routine for a non-Linux machine requires real mode. Therefore, it can't be run on a non-FAT system.

I'm going to make a disc on a Win98 system and will sent the author a copy of the little IBM utility to compress and decompress floppy drives.


----------



## dbrower

> _Originally posted by weaknees _
> *
> As far as I know, there is no way at all to preserve recordings when going to a smaller drive - no matter how small the difference.
> Michael *


Does anyone know why this is? I have a similar scenario - replacing
my single maxtor with a samsung, because the seek noise on the maxtor
is making me crazy (even with audible patching).

I have deleted a bunch of big recordings; the actual backup would be 80M
worth. I don't see why anything but the very last partition in the restore
would need to be smaller than the originals, and if it is not filled, why its
shortage should matter. I do disk/file system management stuff for a living,
so I'm aware of some of the complexity. There must be something deeper 
going on that is not obvious.

Can someone explain?

thanks,
-dB


----------



## FredThompson

Why don't you just get a new drive. Your Maztor is probably old using metal bearings, not the new quieter ones.

That's a serious suggestion.


----------



## Robert S

MFS is a proprietary, closed format. I don't doubt that if enough resources were available a technique for resizing MFS partitions could be developed, but TiVo have no interest in doing so.

No extant tool can resize MFS partitions. This is not likely to change in the forseeable future.


----------



## dbrower

I'll accept that MFS is close and proprietary. I am wondering what would happen if a 'shrink' case just lost the last partition, and provided a new one of appripriate size that
fit. Certainly you would lose the things present in the last partition; but you might keep most everything else. I might imagine the tivo software is able to somehow tolerate a corrupted partition, which is what the replacement shorter last one would appear to be.

Since I obviously can't run such a test myself, I pose the question to those who might
have access to mfstool source to experiment.

(And yes, I can use the two samsungs in my other hdvr2's, and I didn't look close
enough when I ordered them. The maxtor isn't that old, it just resonates with
seek operations.).

thanks,
-dB


----------



## FredThompson

Does the Maxtor drive _itself_ make noise or is its movement causing a rattle? IOW, what if you use some shock-absorbing material between the drive and mounting plate?


----------



## Robert S

From posts from people trying to save recordings, it appears that it's a little more complex.

If you have an 11-partition A drive, take a backup and then add a B drive, you might want to remove the B drive (eg, the TiVo starts stuttering). In that instance, if you restore that backup to the A drive, the recordings that were on the A drive at the time the backup was made will survive.


----------



## Joe Schmuck

> _Originally posted by FredThompson _
> *Bah!!! The floppy creation routine for a non-Linux machine requires real mode. Therefore, it can't be run on a non-FAT system.
> 
> I'm going to make a disc on a Win98 system and will sent the author a copy of the little IBM utility to compress and decompress floppy drives. *


Were you able to get the nvidia2 motherboard to work with MFS Tools CDROM?

I will be trying it out tonight and I expect it to work fine but seeing your post makes me wonder. I did hear that if you have the Serial ATA enabled it could (did in one persons computer) make it not work. I'm not using the Serial ATA and have mine disabled in the BIOS.

Joe


----------



## FredThompson

Worked fine with the CDROM. I hadn't thought of disabling serial ATA.


----------



## Snoozer

Tiger,

Could you kindly post a link to the Mfstools source code which is using GPL code.

Thanks in advance for not violating the license agrement.


----------



## Robert S

If you read the README on the CD you'll discover that 

1) MFS Tools is not derived from any GPL'd work

and 

2) TiVo Inc. has asked Tiger not to release the source code or details of the workings of MFS Tools as this would reveal how proprietary TiVo technology works.


----------



## Robert S

If the A drive is not byteswapped and the B drive is byteswapped, mfsinfo (mfstool info) will not give an accurate report on the B drive, giving the impression that the drive set is corrupt.

mfsadd works just fine like this, though.


----------



## Snoozer

_Originally posted by Robert S _
*If you read the README on the CD you'll discover that

1) MFS Tools is not derived from any GPL'd work*

With all due respect, since you are not the author what basis do you have to refute this? The fact that it says that on the disk means nothing. You cannot back that up unless you have seen the source code.

Also, Tiger's silence in the matter speaks for itself.

*2) TiVo Inc. has asked Tiger not to release the source code or details of the workings of MFS Tools as this would reveal how proprietary TiVo technology works. *

That I can understand. However it's no secret. The fact remains that the tool needs some improvement.


----------



## Robert S

But, conversely, there's no evidence at all the MFS Tools derives from any GPL'd work. Your assumption that any work derives from a GPL'd work unless the source code is released and analysed to demonstrate otherwise is flawed.

The file called COPYING in the MFS Tools archive asserts that the work is Copyrighted by Tiger. No further statements on the matter are required. Microsoft and, indeed, TiVo Inc, sell software based on no stronger claims than that.

Surely the duty is on the plaintiff to present evidence to support his claims of a license violation? Volumes could also be read into your silence on that matter.

I wouldn't disagree that there's room for improvement in MFS Tools, although, once you know what to avoid doing, there's only one TiVo (Pioneer 810H) that can not be upgraded with MFS Tools. However, your perception of a flaw in a product has no bearing on whether you are entitled to access to its source code (which, of course, is where Free Software started).


----------



## AlphaWolf

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *2) TiVo Inc. has asked Tiger not to release the source code or details of the workings of MFS Tools as this would reveal how proprietary TiVo technology works. *


Pfft....We can already do anything we want with MFS these days. Tiger just spends too much time under the tivo guys desk, much like david bott does. This is why most of the more advanced tivo hackers have left this forum. 99% of the members of this forum haven't even seen half of all of the hacks available.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by AlphaWolf _
> *Pfft....We can already do anything we want with MFS these days. Tiger just spends too much time under the tivo guys desk, much like david bott does. This is why most of the more advanced tivo hackers have left this forum. *


Seems like you have a real knack for public relations  

Edit: _Stoopid_ spelling mistake...


----------



## AlphaWolf

> _Originally posted by DCIFRTHS _
> *Seems like you have a real knack for public relations
> 
> Edit: Stoopid spelling mistake... *


Public relations? You mean to say that it should only be considered acceptable if you kiss david botts ass? All I am doing here is showing you guys the light, its up to you to go to it.

And BTW, none of the hacks I speak of involve theft of service or anything even remotely illegal. If it was illegal, then the other forums would have been long gone by now, because believe me, tivo knows very well of their existence as well as what they do. In fact, there was one site that was barely even heard of that did do something illegal, and tivo DID shut it down.


----------



## DCIFRTHS

> _Originally posted by AlphaWolf _
> *Public relations? You mean to say that it should only be considered acceptable if you kiss david botts ass? *


No. I don't think it's necessary to kiss anyone's ass to participate in this forum. Additionally, I think your initial comments are rude, intrusive and out of place in this thread.



> _Originally posted by AlphaWolf _ *
> 
> All I am doing here is showing you guys the light, its up to you to go to it. *


It sounds like you are either envious of Tiger's work or have a personal grudge to settle. Either way, I am not going to hijack this thread to discuss it with you. I guess I just don't want to see the light.....


----------



## georgejetson

Using MFSBACKUP/MFSRESTORE does not work....

1. Combat Medic took a 80G hard drive (upgrading the original 40G) and got it to work with my USB Ethernet card. 

2. Just in case, I did a backup image:
mfsbackup -f 4138 -6so /mnt/c/tivo2-cm.mfs /dev/hdc

3. Installed it in my machine... worked great then got overwritten with new software.

4. Restored the image:
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/c/disk2/tivo2-cm.mfs /dev/hdc

5. Added a command to keep my software and not allow new upgrades:
bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda7 upgradesoftware=false BASH_ENV=\`mount\$IFS-n\$IFS/dev/hda16\$IFS/mnt;echo\$IFS/mnt/hacks\`" -C /dev/hdc (this is all one line)

6. Did an MFS backup like step 2 with a new file name. Deleted the old MFS backup (without the bootpage command) to get space. STUPID...STUPID...STUPID...

7. Installed in one of my 4 DirecTivo2s. Works great. Have Ethernet. TyTool works. Etc... Smiles everywhere.

8. Get another matching 80G drive (Same brand and everything). Do the restore. System comes up on the TV, but no ethernet (used 2nd TIVO and even the original TIVO). The first 80G upgraded drive still works fine.

9. Deleted all recorded shows (not the season passes) and did an MFS backup from the working drive again (see step 2)

10. Did a restore like step 4. NO JOY  Still no ethernet


11. I did a backup image with -f 9999
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/c/tivo2-cm2.mfs /dev/hdc

12. Did a restore like step 4. Still NO JOY (no ethernet)

OK...

1. What the hell?
2. How do I fix this?
3. I would like to get this image on to 2 40G drives in the future. What do I change in the MFS command to allow that?

BTW: If you ask 'What version of MFSBACKUP are you using', how do I check?

George Jetson


----------



## NutKase

You can't fully backup a monte'd drive with mfstools. You'll need to dd'out each partition into an image then dd them back onto your new drive.

NutKase


----------



## georgejetson

After the DirecTivo did an automatic upgrade, I was able to restore the original image that Combat Medic made for me (the one I deleted) and then run the bootpage command. This worked and gives me my one and only working drive (so MFSTOOLS worked on to backup and restore the drive before the bootpage command). Now, after the bootpage command and the mfsbackup of that slightly changed image (which was only supposed to prevent the automatic software update), I don't get the usb ethernet port to light up.

Why would the bootpage command cause the mfstools to stop working?

I know I don't have ethernet, but it appears that my season passes made it over, so I assume I get most of the load. Why, as it appears, is it just the ethernet port?


----------



## Combat Medic

> _Originally posted by NutKase _
> *You can't fully backup a monte'd drive with mfstools. You'll need to dd'out each partition into an image then dd them back onto your new drive.
> 
> NutKase *


 Just checking in here. This drive wasn't Monte'd it's using the original bash_env hack for u151. I'm guessing that there is a problem with the bootpage that he's doing. Then again the other option is to do a full system dd.

-Mike


----------



## Pab Sungenis

Sorry if I missed this. If so, feel free to yell at me.

I have a SAT-T60 with the original stock 40gig and a 120gig B drive. I've resisted replacing the 40gig because I didn't want to lose programs (we have a LOT stored) because we would be over 137gig total. (According to the "Hacking the TiVo book, it 'couldn't be done.')

Will MFStools 2.0 allow me to replace the 40gig and keep my programs?


----------



## weaknees

Sure - you can do that very easily. The best way is to do a "Tao" backup, but you'd need a new 120 GB drive to go to also.

Short of that, your best bet is to "dd" the 40 to the new drive and then expand with "mfsadd." You probably will hit the swap ceiling and thus run the (fairly remote) risk of an uncorrectable green screen, but Robert S's fixes in the other sticky post can help you if that ever happens.

Michael


----------



## phoenix_one

I upgraded my SAT-T60 from a 120GB master and 40GB slave to a two 120 GB drives. (146 hours)

I followed Hindsdale instructions.

I backed up with mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Replaced the 40GB with the new 120GB.

Restored with mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Installed drives in the TiVo to test backup.

Booted fine. System info shows up to 225 hours. 

I am finished or do I need to follow Step 10 configuration #4?

I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks


----------



## weaknees

Sounds like you are done. 

Michael


----------



## phoenix_one

Thank you!!!!! 

Enjoying new capacity now!


----------



## jalex9

I have an 80 + 20 that I am trying to put on a single 120, when I used
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

It reported that "Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself"

this thread notes that taking the -x off sometimes works. What is this parameter and what happens when I remove it? 

Is it that I will end up with 100 on my 120 and no way to expand it?


----------



## Robert S

You're out of partitions on the A drive. You can only have three pairs of MFS partition on the A drive, and you already have 2 pairs on there, plus another pair from the B drive.

If you make a compressed backup then you can use the full capacity of the new drive, but, of course, that means losing all your recordings (well, they're still on the original drive set, but they won't be on the new one).

Your only other option would be to use the new drive to replace just one of the current ones.

-x tells MFS Tools to expand the drive image, which it knows it doesn't have enough partitions for. The 'target too small' is a bit confusing, though.


----------



## ether

I ran into troubles this weekend trying to do an upgrade. Any insights won't help me, as I have completed the upgrade now via a different path (as described), but they may help others and I would love to know what went wrong.

I have a Phillips HDR212 (standalone series 1, v3.0) which previously had a single 80 gig drive, which was filled to capacity with saved shows. I just bought a second 80 gig drive for the tivo. As I don't have a PC at home handy where I can run linux, I plopped the new 80 gig into my powermac G4 and ran MacTivo Blesser for OSX. (The command I ran was "sudo ./OSXv4Blesser /dev/disk0 156299656"). The program reported success, so I installed the drive in the tivo...

I got a green screen of death (GSOD/mfsfix) for about five minutes, then it rebooted and got another GSOD for about 10 minutes. Then on the second reboot, the menus came up, and I discovered that all but about 10 of my shows were gone, and System Info reported a very small figure (I didn't write it down, but it was about 90-110 hours), which is way under what it should be (about 150-160 hours I figured).

I took the drives to a house with a linux system, and ran the mfstools 2.0 CD I had saved from when I installed the OS on the first drive (note: swap had already been set to 127 megs, as I anticipated future upgrades such as this). mfsinfo reported that the drives were married, and confirmed the 95 hour figure:
6 partitions
/dev/hdc10 512 MiB
/dev/hdc11 12098 MiB
/dev/hdc12 0 MiB
/dev/hdc13 65036 MiB
/dev/hdb2 4 MiB
/dev/hdb3 76314 MiB
Total: 153965 MiB
estimated hours: 95
May be expanded 3 more times

The full capacity of both drives was being seen, so it wasn't a QUNLOCK issue. And swap is big enough too.

I tried running mfsadd -x hoping that it would repartition the B drive, but it reported that it was already as expanded as it needed to be.

I happened to have a spare 120 gig drive available that I had also just bought, so I decided to try to make a full backup onto it (saving my shows) and restoring back onto the A+B pair:

mfsbackup -ta6so <file> /dev/hdc /dev/hdb
This reported that the uncompressed backup size would be 4667 megabytes, which would be about 10 shows worth. Unfortunately, it kept aborting at 57% progress, even when I tried to back up to another drive.

Then I tried to move the entire contents to the 120 gig drive:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
..but it reported "not enough space". I see from posts above that this is because there were too many partitions between the two drives to put onto one single drive, so the shows would not be salvagable in this way.

Finally, I gave up and made a small backup (-6so option), which successfully produced a 816 megabyte file. I restored this to A+B successfully, and finally mfsinfo reports 177 hours. The tivo boots fine with this drive set and system info reports 196 hrs 12 min basic, 53 hrs 56 minutes best.

This generates the following questions:
- what went wrong with the bless process?
- why does mfsinfo say 177 hours but system info says 196?


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by ether _
> *I have a Phillips HDR212 (standalone series 1, v3.0) which previously had a single 80 gig drive, which was filled to capacity with saved shows. I just bought a second 80 gig drive for the tivo. As I don't have a PC at home handy where I can run linux, I plopped the new 80 gig into my powermac G4 and ran MacTivo Blesser for OSX.
> 
> I got a green screen of death (GSOD/mfsfix) for about five minutes, then it rebooted and got another GSOD for about 10 minutes. Then on the second reboot, the menus came up, and I discovered that all but about 10 of my shows were gone, and System Info reported a very small figure (I didn't write it down, but it was about 90-110 hours), which is way under what it should be (about 150-160 hours I figured).
> 
> This generates the following questions:
> - what went wrong with the bless process? *


 My guess: trying to do a blessed marriage with a system that already had an expanded bride. That sets off alerts for me. If the original system was still at 20hrs, I have no doubt it would have worked.

The capacities sound like the GSOD managed to divorce your earlier expansion on the master 80 GB drive back to 20hrs, then married the slave to that. Only those recordings entirely in the original partition survived. The extra space that was used on the original drive became divorced.

This is just a theory without data to back it up.


----------



## ether

> My guess: trying to do a blessed marriage with a system that already had an expanded bride. That sets off alerts for me. If the original system was still at 20hrs, I have no doubt it would have worked.


That sounds right. I only realized yesterday after reading lots of archives that *the TivoBlesser should not be used for drives that have already been expanded (mfsrestore -x) already*. Since I bought my tivo without a drive and had to install my own, naturally the drive I used is not the same size as a "factory direct" version. The sad thing is that I am generally very very careful about reading all the instructions, and I would not have used this utility had I thought there was a realistic chance it wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't have killed me to pull the drives and find a linux system (and mfsadd only takes seconds to run -- climbing out of this mess took hours).

Would it have been possible (with just the mfstools) to have recovered the divorced partitions in the A drive and so recover some of the shows that were stored there? Or did mfsfix delete enough information that it wouldn't be feasible?

I would recommend to weaknees that he put this caveat in bold at the top of the instructions at the same time as the other limitations (i.e. no series2 systems)!!!!


----------



## paulfi781

I'm sure you hear this all the time, but perhaps this will be the first in '04. *Thank you* for writing and sharing these tools. They worked flawlessly and made my Series1 SA upgrade a complete snap.

Thanks!

-Paul


----------



## HTH

> _Originally posted by ether _
> *Would it have been possible (with just the mfstools) to have recovered the divorced partitions in the A drive and so recover some of the shows that were stored there? Or did mfsfix delete enough information that it wouldn't be feasible?*


 That would be like performing a divorce and remarrying the first wife. It is possible the expanded partitions were intact, but the GSODs likely messed up the links between it and the original. I pretty sure it would take a specialized tool that doesn't yet exist, like a Norton Utilities for MFS.

I'd really like to see a version of MFS Tools for Mac OS X. If Tiger is unable due to lack of hardware (and/or communication), perhaps someone has the skills to disassemble and re-engineer MFS Tools 2.0 back to new source that could then be compiled for Mac OS X. (While keeping the derived source as secret as possible of course to protect TiVo's IP.)


----------



## pheffner

> _Originally posted by NutKase _
> *You can't fully backup a monte'd drive with mfstools. You'll need to dd'out each partition into an image then dd them back onto your new drive.
> 
> NutKase *


What does "a monte'd drive" refer to? Is that a drive that was already the
target of an mfsrestore from a previous upgrade?

As far as dd'ing each image in and out, do you need to do any preparation
of the target disk's VTOC with something like fdisk or does just dd'ing to the
raw device populate the VTOC?

Thanks!


----------



## Robert S

'Monte' refers to a hack to break the lock-down on the Series 2 TiVoes.

We use dd to copy the raw device that contains the entire disk, partition table and all.


----------



## pakmule

Thanks Tiger!

I just finished upgrading my 30 hour Sony to 247 hours. Beginning to end took me less than two hours. Great work!


----------



## musictoo

Let me add my thanks to all the others. With Hinsdale in my hands it took me about 2 hours to upgrade my 40GB 40A SA2 box with 2 120GB Seagate's yesterday without a hitch. These guys have made it pretty simple, I have to say. The only catch I ran into was trying to use my nForce2 based PC for the upgrade. It would not let me mount the disks. Used my trusty old 1Ghz Dell once I found that out and it was all smooth sailing. Thanks!


----------



## Orcus

Prior to my experimenting with the latest driver for the CacheCard in my Sony SA Tivo,
I decided it would be prudent to back it up - especially now that smaller backups are
possible.
(I have a humungous one (5gig?) from when I first got the Tivo)

The TiVo currently has the original 40gig drive, and a 120gig second drive.

I followed the instructions in the mfstools documentation, and created a dual drive backup - which I then tested by restoring to a 160gig drive I have slated for my new DirecTiVo unit.

With just the 160gig drive in my SA TiVo, it appeared to boot up fine - complete with all of the recordings listed - but not actually present.

Now - if down the road my SA TiVo suffers a failure of both hard drives, and I
do a similar restore to a single drive - can I simply delete the recordings?

10D in the MFS2 HowTo deals with transferring the recordings to the new drive - but in my hypothetical case of both drives failing - this would not be possible.

10F seems to be targeted for my hypothetical scenario - but it does not mention what to do with the now "dead" recording entries.

I just want to make sure it is safe to manually delete them from the now showing list.

Also - would this be ok:
Follow step 10F, manually purge all dead recording entries, and then create
ANOTHER backup - this time of the new single drive system?
This would be the one I'd keep around as my rainy day backup.

Jim


----------



## Robert S

It's a harmless (and, infact, rather useful) side-effect of the way the TiVo stores recordings.

The recordings are stored in the MFS Media partitions as a lot of fairly small files. The list in NP connects to a list showing which media files make up each recording. This list is in the MFS App partition, along with the Guide DB, etc.

When you make a compressed backup, MFS Tools takes everything except the user recording streams. That includes the lists that make up NP.

When you restore a backup, the NP lists are restored, but the files they refer to are not present, so you get an error. (This is where the 'useful' bit comes in - if the media files are there, for example, if you're restoring a backup to a drive that already has a working TiVo image on it, your recordings can survive restoring the backup. Handy if you're hacking and break something!)

I wouldn't think there's any advantage to making a fresh backup after deleting the entries NP, unless you feel deleting them again is too onerous.

Ob admonition: You are working from the current Hinsdale How-to and not some old documentation you found on Tiger's site, aren't you?


----------



## scH

The mfstools boot CD seems to be hanging at the drive detection stage on my new machine.

It's a i875p based motherboard and I have two hard drives attached to the SATA controllers, DVD/CD-RW on secondary PATA master, and my two tivo drives on the primary PATA channel.

It starts to boot, and even tells me models of all the attached drives, but then has issues when assigning IRQs or something.

Anyone had any success with SATA drives as your PC backups? My new 250GB SATA is the only drive I currently have that is formatted FAT32 (well at least 32GB of it is)


----------



## scH

Just an update on this. mfs 2.0 seems to work fine with my motherboard if I don't have any of the SATA drives plugged in.


----------



## Robert S

In that case, put a small FAT partition on your upgrade drive and use that to make the backup. Once the backup is safe you can either restore it from a CD-R or just copy directly from the original disk to the new one.


----------



## crwalter2003

Orcus,

If you skip down to 11, the second to last paragraph, it says that you can just delete the entries in NP...

I am not aware of any other way than to select the program and from the menu, instead of [play], select [delete].

Hope this helps...


----------



## scH

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *In that case, put a small FAT partition on your upgrade drive and use that to make the backup. Once the backup is safe you can either restore it from a CD-R or just copy directly from the original disk to the new one. *


Already taken care of. I found an old 3GB drive at work. It's going to keep a permanent copy of my backup image from now on. Unless of course mfstools 3 comes out with more hardware support .


----------



## Robert S

It's not MFS Tools that doesn't support your hardware, it's the kernel on the boot disk that's the problem. As the kernels are open source, this is a more tractable problem than modifying MFS Tools, but for the time being it's easier to use a non-SATA systme than to run MFS Tools under a newer kernel.


----------



## crwalter2003

I just upgraded my 35hr DTiVo HDVR2 to 107 hrs... only took about 6 - 8hrs... it helps if you pick as fast a pc as possible. The one I used was well below 1gig in speed.

I made the mistake of picking a no longer used pc that had WMe on it after seeing the warnings regarding W2k/WXP...

It also helps to watch out for power cords, as I _usually_ am. It was just over 50% when I kicked the power, and that's all she wrote!

Back to square 1.

The MFS tools worked great, had no trouble booting from CD, saw no mention regarding joliet format when I dl'd the iso & burned the iso to disc using Nero.

I _did_ notice that when I ran my compressed backup, that the restored image on the new drive wasn't quite right. There were no backround animations and when I switched from menu to menu, the live tv was still playing in the background, making it difficult to see the menus.

I was, however, happy to see that the regular mfsbackup | mfsrestore worked normally. When it completed, it stated a capacity of 130hrs, which differs from my DTiVo, which states 107hrs.

I guess it did not know I was backing up a DTiVo and not an SA.

Does anyone know why this is? Does the DTiVo store the animated backgrounds in the same location as the programs recorded?

This week I had ordered a twinbreese kit from WeaKnees, however, I got impatient and could not wait 'til next week to upgrade. So, I ran out and purchased a single Maxtor 120GB drive that I installed last night.

BTW, the new Maxtor makes a series of repetiive noises, like a drive seek, over and over. It has a pattern to it, and it just keeps going. Does not matter it DTivo is in standby or on. The old Maxtor did not do this.

I will pick up another drive after the install kit is delivered. I'm not sure I'll get another Maxtor. I chose that one because of the comments about noise from WD.

With the exception of those glitches mentioned, all went well!
Can't wait to get kit to add a second drive to pump up the hrs some more!


----------



## crwalter2003

Oops! Forgot to thank Tiger and Hinsdale... The program and instructions are great!:up: :up: :up:


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## Robert S

You forgot the -f 9999 option when you made the backup.


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## weldon

> _Originally posted by crwalter2003 _
> *I did notice that when I ran my compressed backup, that the restored image on the new drive wasn't quite right. There were no backround animations and when I switched from menu to menu, the live tv was still playing in the background, making it difficult to see the menus. *


Some people have been asking for that behavior as a feature  Particularly the UltimateTV folks that are used to seeing the little window while navigating through windows.

Maybe somebody could come up with a hack to make high contrast menus that work well with LiveTV in the background


----------



## crwalter2003

Thanks for the quick replies.

RobertS,

Where does that go... the instructions I downloaded and printed out make no mention of it. I looked at them again after you posted your relpy, and I still don't see it.

I won't worry about it for now, however, when my twinbreese kit arrives, I'll make a new backup before adding the second drive.


----------



## crwalter2003

Robert S, disregard my last post. I checked prior postings, and one mentioned _not_ to use the documentation on the MFS tools cd. _That_ was my problem.

I just need to read Hinsdale's instructions.


----------



## kperrier

Anyone had a problem with mfstools booting and none of the utilities being executable?

Kent


----------



## bricklayer86

just bought a used svr2000 that would not get past the welcome screen, replaced the ribbon cable, now get to "use power button to turn on" but then goes blank and will not turn on. I'm assuming the image is corrupt. Would appreciate an image to use. thanks guys


----------



## Robert S

That sounds like the TiVo has booted correctly and gone into standby mode. Probably not a hard drive issue.


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## atcdan

I want to thank Tiger and everyone else who worked on the Hinsdale How-to TiVo upgrade. I download the new Tiger's Mfs Tools Boot Cd ISO file and off I went. Everything was easy to follow and worked like a charm. I upgraded from a single 40gb to 2 120gb hard drives and now have 240 hours of TiVo instead of 35 hours.

I copied my old drive and it only took a couple of hours. My wife had a few moves that she could not do without. But everything copied over great and it is working like a champ.

Thanks again,

Dan Olsen
240 hours of TiVo


----------



## CaptainBadAss

I wish they could give a Nobel Prize to all those who worked on the Hinsdale How-To and MFSTOOLS.

Upgraded my Series 2 60hr TiVo over the Easter weekend, despite my wife's misgivings. We love our TiVo even more now!

Threw in two 120 gig Seagate hard drives, giving me a 296 hr TiVo!

Only two issues:

1. It took almost 10 hours to copy my original drive over to the new drives. But I expected a long copy-over due to the fact that I wanted to keep my original recordings.

2. Almost had a heart attack when the TiVo stuck on the "Powering Up" screen. It turned out that the TiVo did not like the IDE ribbon cable that came with my Seagate drives. Luckily, I had a box with some old cables in it, and one of them played nice with my TiVo.

Thanks again to MSFTOOLS/Hinsdale How-To folks and everyone in this forum.


----------



## allan1137

Tiger,

First, thank you for all your effort to make all of our lives easier.

Now the question... I have a Pioneer 810H Tivo Series 2 / DVR. There are several references that the Pioneer 57H image is needed to upgrade the drive as version 1.0 of MFS tools don't work for this model.

Is that still the case with version 2.0, or will I be able to perform the upgrade. I am simply trying to replace the existing 80GB drive with a 160GB drive.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Allan.


----------



## Robert S

/Some/ 810H images are incompatible with all versions of MFS Tools. So if mfsadd doesn't expand your image, you're going to have to find a 57H image.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Where are the docs/howto for monte'ing?


----------



## allan1137

I have Pioneer 810H, running Tivo version 2. I ran the mfsbackup/mfsrestore of the MFS2 CD, and at the end of the restore it told me I had 147 hours of recording time.

I put the new drive into my Tivo and powered it up, everything is working as before, but Tivo still thinks I have 82 hours.

Does this mean I need to get the 57H image and put it on the new disk? If so, does anyone know where there's a copy of the 57H image?

Thanks.


----------



## weaknees

Yes - you do need a 57H image. Full info is here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143213

Certain 810H images around have shown to work, but to be sure, find one from a 57H.

Michael


----------



## beachkeefes

Thanks Tiger - your software is great!!...I upgraded my Hughes SD-DVR-40 from 40 hrs to 130 hrs without any problem . One small question - MFSADD told me I now had 130 hrs and I believe it, but is there anyway to get TIVO to verify that?
I'm running 3.1.1c-01-2-351.


----------



## weaknees

You won't actually get that many hours on a DirecTV TiVo. Those numbers work for S2 standalone units.

Anyway, you can see how many hours you have in your System Information screen - page down to find it.

Michael


----------



## beachkeefes

Thanks, Michael! I'm so happy that the upgrade worked so easily that I don't even feel stupid about missing the down arrow. Jim


----------



## clark steward

> _Originally posted by ThreeSoFar _
> *Where are the docs/howto for monte'ing? *


I know there are detailed instructions for monte'ing including networking of both s1 and s2 tivo's and Directivos on another forum. deal data base (remove the spaces) is the name. You may need to do a google search for Tivo Hacking.

GoodLuck


----------



## Rcrew

Just another grateful user of MFS tools, and direct help from Robert S.

Over the last few days, I re-upgraded my original S1 DTiVo, taking it from a A+B 40+80 to a single A 160. Then I re-used the 80 to upgrade my other S1 DTiVo to a single A of 80, including copying over all the recordings on that box.


----------



## DropIt

If I want to upgrade my B drive, can I simply do a MFSADD with the existing A drive and the new B drive and still keep all of my recordings? Or do I need to restore the A drive from the backup then do the MFSADD?

-DropIt


----------



## Robert S

To upgrade the B drive, you dd the old B drive on to the new one and then mfsadd.

To add a B drive to a lone A drive, you just mfsadd.


----------



## odiej34

O.K first off I am very green.  What brings me here to your great forum is my dead tivo. I got the blue screen of death out of the blue followed buy just a few more minutes.... My directivo is a hughes dvr2 only eight months old and has never been tampered with. I downloaded mfstools2 and I am having trouble making an iso cd. Do I just need to make a bootable cd? If so which files from mfstools2 do I put on the cd? I have four folders in the file, FLOPPY which has an iso image in it and a folder titled ISOLINUX that has an img file titled INITRD. The other folders are other and MFSTOOLS.2. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
On a side note I just got an image of a Phillips_HDVR2_3_1b. and was wondering if it will work with my Hughes HDVR?
Thjanks!!
Odie


----------



## Robert S

You're supposed to burn the ISO as an image, not open it and try to work with the files inside.

If you're lucky, double-clicking the ISO file will open your burning software in the right mode automatically.


----------



## odiej34

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *You're supposed to burn the ISO as an image, not open it and try to work with the files inside.
> 
> If you're lucky, double-clicking the ISO file will open your burning software in the right mode automatically. *


 O.K So I am a dumb ass... I burned the disk and I am good to go. What I want to do is put my new image (40 Gig) On the same size hard drive. All of the guides that I have seen so far deal with expanding to a bigger drive. Is thier direction for going from a 40 gig to a 40 gig? I have my image on one cd and my mfstools on another. Will it ask me to insert my image at some point?
Thanks!
Odie


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Kudos, again, to Tiger and Hinsdale. This stuff is so easy. My first DTV unit (for a friend--sadly no DTiVo's here). Backup, restore/test, then backup via -Tao to preserve shows. That last is only 32% done as of now.

Kudos also to Weaknees et al for making over $100 a pop doing this. Making a living off of the fact that 70% of the people out there are morons. Quite the American Way! Seriously! You guys rock.


----------



## SteveUK

I've got a series 1 Tivo with a 120GB A drive and I wish to add a second 120GB drive. Is there a simple way to determine the current swap file size (bought a pre-configured A drive so don't know what the swap file size is) and increase it if it's not 127MB? I have attempted to do a mfsbackup/mfsrestore from my current 120GB A drive to the new Drive using the -s 127 option (and then use the old A drive as a B drive once complete) but it says the destination drive is not big enough (weird since they are both 120GB) so I need a way to change the swap file size without going through that process.

Edit: Hang on. Just read a bit more about MFS Tools 2.0. So can I just use the command to add a second drive (given in the Hindsdale guide) and not worry about increasing the swap file as this will be done by these new magic tools?


----------



## Robert S

You want to read the first page of the Fixes thread (so close, and yet, so far...). There's a post from Cpen there that describes how to use the backdoors to read the logs and check the size of the swap partition.

There's not much you can do either way. I assume you do have 127Mb of swap as it's been standard practice for well over two years now. That's enough to go to at least 274Gb of storage with no concerns.

Even if you only have 64Mb of swap, there's no good way to fix that now. You should just add the second drive and hope you never get a GSOD. If you do, you'll have to use the 'rescue' procedure from the third post of the Fixes thread to recover.


----------



## SteveUK

OK. Thanks for the feedback. I did just go ahead with the upgrade and once tivoweb was installed I was able to see the swap file was in fact 127MB as required so 

One final question. When you bless the B drive does it grab all the space available regardless of how the disc was originally formatted? Tivo reported 82hrs of space but I wasn't sure if this was based on real disc space available or wether this was based on drive size.


----------



## AxelSchmidt

Does anybody have experience with just cloning drives with Easymigrate from Acronis? (for just replacing drives)


----------



## Robert S

Did you really bless the drive? As you're in the MFS Tools 2.0 thread, perhaps you used mfsadd?

I don't think BlessTiVo is particularly bright - I think it just allocates all the space it can see. 

You would expect a 120Gb drive to add about 140 Hours, so your result is a bit odd.

mfsinfo (run it on both drives, naturally) will give you a better idea of what's going on. 

If there's any unallocated space, mfsadd will recover the unused space. You will need to make sure that the drive detects as the correct size (but you should be doing that anyway!).


----------



## Robert S

Axel: Have you heard of this concept of a 'topic'? You know, where the posts in a thread have some vague connection to the thread title? How does a disk duplicator relate to MFS Tools 2.0?

Anyway, yes, anything that will make an exact copy of a drive is fine. Remember that Series 1 TiVoes lock their drives, which would fool the duplicator into copying just the first 10Mb!


----------



## SteveUK

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *Did you really bless the drive? As you're in the MFS Tools 2.0 thread, perhaps you used mfsadd?
> 
> I don't think BlessTiVo is particularly bright - I think it just allocates all the space it can see.
> 
> You would expect a 120Gb drive to add about 140 Hours, so your result is a bit odd.*


Yes, I used mfsadd but thought that was classed as blessing. So it sounds like it will have allocated all available space from the drive. Sorry for the confusion but I was thinking in terms of best quality since that's what I usually work in. Tivo reports 286 hours at basic quality now with the two 120GB drives.


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## Robert S

'Blessing' has a more specific meaning. It means marking a drive so that the TiVo's internal upgrade mechanism will be triggered. As you've already upgraded the A drive, blessing would have blown up in your face!

For stand alone TiVoes, capacities are always quoted at Basic (you'll notice your TiVo was sold as a '40 Hour' unit), so you don't say what quality you mean, people will assume you mean Basic.


----------



## gadgetgrrll

Big Thanks to Tiger and to whoever worked on the Hinsdale How-to Guide. I now have an HR10-250 with 64HD and 427SD hours of record time, just in time for all the Olympics coverage in HD!

 

Kathy


----------



## C Hogg

MFSRestore question please.....

My hard drive is NTFS so when making my backup, I backed up to my larger FAT 32 target drive and then copied this to my hard drive.

I have managed to corrupt the original target drive and would like to restore my backup image but not sure how to grab it off of the NTFS drive.

Do I need to reverse the process I used to back it up? In other words, copy the backup to a larger FAT 32 drive and then mfsrestore from that drive to the original TIVO drive? Or is there a way to somehow grab the backup file off of the NTFS drive and restore without the intermediate step? NFTS hard drive is reporting as had, FAT 32 drive is hdd and original Tivo drive is hdb. 

I have tried booting up with the bootable MFSTools CD but cannot find the backup file in either my NTFS or FAT 32 drive. Can anyone assist this Linux newbie with the command sequence?

Thanks.


----------



## Robert S

NTFS partitions do mount, but they're read only, which is a problem when you're creating a backup, but not when you're restoring one.

Is the problem that the partitions won't mount, or that you can't find the file inside the mounted partition?


----------



## C Hogg

The problem was that I could not find the location of the backup file. Stepped back for a while, got a coke and took another look and figured it out. Problem was that the file was on hda2 instead of hda1. Never used Linux before but I learn more every day and am slowly picking it up.

Once I found the backup file, mfsrestore seemed to restore without error. However, when I booted up TIVO I hung up on the Powering Up menu. Have tried with jumpers set to Master and also to cable select but the same result both ways. 

I tried to restore the file to a Maxtor 120gb drive instead of the original 40gb drive. It would appear that my backup is corrupt somehow or that something in my hardware setup is just not quite right. Back to the drawing boards.....


----------



## weaknees

If the mfsrestore works and shows that it was successful, then you really might have a cabling or jumper issue. I'd check there a little more before you give up.

Michael


----------



## bILLH97

Upgraded Hughes HDVR2 from 35 to 105 hours with a 120 gb WD drive.Did upgrade 2 days ago. Works great. No problems. Kept all the recordings. Took ! !/2 hours with 1.2 ghz cpu. TIGER RULES!!!


----------



## HTH

I've lost the CD that came with Keegan's book.


----------



## hande

Has anyone had a CSC error come up after trying to boot from the MFS Tools CD boot disk. Everything looked like it was working fine until it uncompressed linux. Then it had the error and ended with system halted.

Thanks


----------



## Robert S

You may have a bad burn, but it's more likely that the PC is incompatible with the version of Linux on the CD.

Can you boot other versions of Linux (eg: Knoppix (or RIP, if you don't fancy a 700Mb D/L!) or Tom's Root and Boot Disk)?


----------



## bryanb

I'm replacing a 40GB + 80GB setup in a DSR6000 with a single 120GB drive. In order to restore, I had to use mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdd. If I used -xzpi, I'd get "Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself"

Since I dropped the x, do I need to do anything once the restore is complete?

Thanks,
Bryan


----------



## Jim Kidd

I bought a new TCD540080 TiVo that I understand breaks the 128 GiB barrier so I bought a 250 GB drive for it. I have a TCD24004A that I have upgraded to a 120 GB drive. Can I use the 120 GB drive from the upgraded TCD24004A to prepare the 250 GB drive or do I need to use the 80 GB drive that came in the TCD40080? The reason I want to do this is to preserve my recordings.

Also, is there any way to extract the recordings from my Series 2 TiVos to my PC to record them to DVDs?

Jim Kidd
----------
1) Series 2 - 80 hour original
2) Series 2 - 137 hour upgraded
3) Series 2 - on it's way to >250 hours


----------



## Robert S

You can't use the software from the older TiVo on the new one. The recordings are encrypted and wouldn't play on any other TiVo anyway, although you might be able to use MRV to transfer them.

There are big red signs everywhere pointing out that discussing video extraction is a banned topic on this site.


----------



## Ed Dixon

Trying to add a new 120 GB drive to a Hughes SD-DRV40 Dtivo unit. Using Weeknees bracket and floppy version of Mfstools. Using a new Dell PC for the process.

First phase seemed to go ok where a backup of the existing Tivo was saved to a third FAT32 drive. Have confirmed that the backup file exists and is about 300 MB.

Second phase went bad as the mfsadd failed due to a problem with the new 120 GB drive. The drive was locked (from another source). Have since fixed the drive problem, but now the original Dtivo drive wont go through the cycle.

I have also tried to restore (using the backup) to the Dtivo drive, but that fails with a Backup target not large enough error message. Restoring to the new 120 GB drive seems to work, but that was supposed to be the new second added drive.

Not sure what to try next.

Ed


----------



## weaknees

> _Originally posted by Ed Dixon_
> I have also tried to restore (using the backup) to the Dtivo drive, but that fails with a Backup target not large enough error message. Restoring to the new 120 GB drive seems to work, but that was supposed to be the new second added drive.
> [/B]


You should restore to the 40gb drive and do NOT use a -x in your restore command. Then, presuming that works and your 120 is not locked, you can mfsadd the second drive to the first.



> _Originally posted by bryanb_
> I'm replacing a 40GB + 80GB setup in a DSR6000 with a single 120GB drive. In order to restore, I had to use mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hdd. If I used -xzpi, I'd get "Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself"
> 
> Since I dropped the x, do I need to do anything once the restore is complete?[/B]


You might need a drive larger than 120gb. The 40+80gb might be slightly larger than your 120gb drive, especially if one of the smaller drives is a Maxtor.

Michael


----------



## Ed Dixon

I am having some trouble finding a consoladated list of mfs commands to use and when they should be used.

I have tried a number of mfsrestore versions for the original drive, but all yield some error message.

There is also the question of what recorded show data now remains.

Ed


----------



## Ed Dixon

I have confirmed that the restored 120 drive will boot DTivo and that the settings have been retained. Trying to play any of the NPL results in a error as the data files are likely missing.

Have also tried to boot the original drive, but that never gets past the gray powering up screens.

Ed


----------



## Ed Dixon

All versions of the mfsrestore command are failing with the same "not large enough" error message. What should I try next?

Ed


----------



## Robert S

Typically, there are two causes for that message, triggered by the use of -x (which is why your restored backup works): Either the drive really is too small or, more likely, the partition table is full and the two additional partitions required for the expand can not be created.


----------



## bigjohn

Ok, so I'm ready to attempt my first backup/upgrade. I have an Intel D865PERL mobo with a primary and secondary IDE. My windows C: drive is on a serial ata drive though. 

So in the sequence of drives, I have hda as the DVDRW, hdb is free, hdc and hdd also are free. Where in the chain does my SATA with fat32 partition fall? 

It's either hda and everything comes after or it's hde 
OR
can I reset it's position in the bios and this is all irrelevant anyway


----------



## bigjohn

> _Originally posted by bigjohn _
> *Ok, so I'm ready to attempt my first backup/upgrade. I have an Intel D865PERL mobo with a primary and secondary IDE. My windows C: drive is on a serial ata drive though.
> 
> So in the sequence of drives, I have hda as the DVDRW, hdb is free, hdc and hdd also are free. Where in the chain does my SATA with fat32 partition fall?
> 
> It's either hda and everything comes after or it's hde
> OR
> can I reset it's position in the bios and this is all irrelevant anyway *


it'd be great to know for the future, but for now i think i'll just get a plain ol 80GB IDE drive ($40) for upgrading and simply unplug my serial ata "regular use" drives.


----------



## Robert S

I don't know if the kernel on that disk can access a SATA volume.

You could use your new upgrade drive to hold the backup temporarily and then either copy directly from the original drive or restore the backup onto the same drive (which sounds daft, but does work).


----------



## stinga

Holiday crazy sale at Office max = 200 GIG for $50

Thanks to Weeknees and a LINUX boot CD...

went from 40 hours to 220 in less than an hour total time.


----------



## JofCoRe

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *To upgrade the B drive, you dd the old B drive on to the new one and then mfsadd.
> 
> To add a B drive to a lone A drive, you just mfsadd. *


I have attempted to upgrade my B drive from an 80GB to 120GB drive, using dd and then mfsadd.

However, when I use mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb, I get a message that tells me:

_Current estimated standalone size: 225 hours
Nothing to add!_

When I put the drives back into the DirecTiVo, it says I have 179 hours, which is what I had with a 120 (A drive) and 80 (B drive).

When I dd'd the old drive, it copied the partition table of the 80GB drive too, so now it looks like it thinks my 120GB B drive is a 80GB drive still.....

I've tried manually modifying the partition table on the B drive using pdisk, but it just tells me "_pdisk: No valid block 1 on '/dev/hdb'_", and I can't view/edit/create partitions...

There's gotta be a way to get my 120 fully recognized, right??

what am I missing....?


----------



## sickal

JofCoRe,

Did you get an answer to this question? I had a similar problem with I tried to upgrade my previously upgraded HDVR2 (120+40) a second time to 120+120 and got the "Nothing to add" message. (see post #1491 below)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2405683#post2405683


----------



## Robert S

_I've tried manually modifying the partition table on the B drive
using pdisk, but it just tells me "pdisk: No valid block 1 on
'/dev/hdb'", and I can't view/edit/create partitions..._

Presumable following the procedure in the 7th post of the Fixes thread?

It sounds like you haven't got byteswapping set up correctly. That depends on the model of the TiVo and which boot disc you use.

Series 1 TiVoes are byteswapped, Series 2's aren't. The MFS Tools 2.0 CD doesn't byteswap, the others byteswap all drives except primary master.

You should see the TiVo partition table printed in the boot log if you get it right. dmesg | grep hd if you miss it at boot.


----------



## JofCoRe

> It sounds like you haven't got byteswapping set up correctly. That depends on the model of the TiVo and which boot disc you use.


Yep, that's the conclusion that I've reached since. After reading a few more fixes, I've found out that the MFS Tools CD that I'm using boots w/byteswapping turned off by default. I found another thread (might be the fixes thread) that tells the command u need to use to make the MFS Tools CD boot byteswapped.

That's what I'm going to try next, I just haven't gotten around to doing anything else w/it since my post..

Thanx!


----------



## lloydjs

JofCoRe,

I think I am having a byteswapping problem using MFS Tools 2.0 disk and a Tivo series 1 SVR2000. Could you tell me how to turn byteswapping on with MFS Tools? I read in another thread that you can get around this problem by using another boot disk, such as TivoMad or Dylan's disk, but I would like to try your fix first. 

Below is a detail description of my problem.

I note in the boot sequence (MFS tools diskette), after reporting the sizes of hda and hdc, it says
Partition Check:
hda: hda1
hdc: unknown partition table

and when I run the sequence:
mkdir /mnt/7
mkdir /mnt/4
mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt/7

I get
hdc7: bad access: block=0, count=1
end request: I/O error, dev 16:07 (hdc), sector 0
FAT: unable to read boot sector
Mount: you must specify the file system type


----------



## JofCoRe

> _Originally posted by lloydjs _
> *JofCoRe,
> 
> I think I am having a byteswapping problem using MFS Tools 2.0 disk and a Tivo series 1 SVR2000. Could you tell me how to turn byteswapping on with MFS Tools? I read in another thread that you can get around this problem by using another boot disk, such as TivoMad or Dylan's disk, but I would like to try your fix first.
> 
> *


I haven't tried this myself yet to verify that it works, but here's what I was going to try. I found this in the 3rd post of the "fixes" thread in this same forum. (I added the bold on the part that specifically talks about the MFS Tools CD)



> A. Booting so we can read the TiVo disk
> 
> Connect your TiVo's A drive as primary master.
> 
> TiVo disks can not be read by a PC because the bytes are written in a different order to that expected by the PC's processor. TiVo boot disks are patched to boot in a 'byteswapped' mode that allows the TiVo data to be read.
> 
> *Most people these days seem to be using the MFS Tools 2.0 CD. MFS Tools 2.0 has internal support for byteswapping so that CD boots in non-byteswapped mode by default. It offers you the option to boot byteswapped, but this doesn't work. To boot the MFS Tools 2.0 CD byteswapped at the 'boot:' prompt you must type
> 
> vmlnodma hda=bswap*
> 
> If you can't get this to work, try Kazymyr's boot CD or TiVoMad's boot CD. If use a different boot disk, hda will be left unswapped. Use one of the other connectors and adjust the commands below accordingly. (We don't currently know how to do this from a floppy, one of the tools we need is only on the CDs).
> 
> Series|2 TiVoes are NOT byteswapped. You should be able to boot the MFS Tools 2.0 as normal.


As I said, I haven't tried it yet myself to verify, so let me know how it works out if you get a chance before I do


----------



## Robert S

vmlnodma hda=bswap

Tells the CD to boot with byteswapping activated on primary master. hda was a convenient choice for that How-to, but you can tell it swap other device(s) if necessary.


----------



## lloydjs

I get "vmlnodma not found"
I have MFS Tools disk and Dylan disk now...neither will mount
Dylan disk mount replies "FAT bread failed"
MFS Tools replies "FAT: unable to read boot sector"
what new?


----------



## Robert S

_vmlnodma not found_

Well, yes, that's because you type it at the boot: prompt, not the shell prompt. The floppies don't give a boot prompt, so you're a bit stuck with those.

Dylan should swap primary slave and both secondary drives automatically and you should see the TiVo partition table printed in the boot log.


----------



## lloydjs

Robert S,

Thank you for your replies and suggestions. 
After reading other threads describing similar problems ("unkown partition" and mounting problems), I decided that it might be best if I give up using the boot disks (Dylan and MFS Tools) and get a Kazymyr boot CD. Individuals experiencing similar mounting problems resolved the problems simply by using the KAzymyr boot CD. I ordered a Kazymyr CD from 9th tree so I will try it this weekend. I will let you know if Kazymyr works for me. 

Since you have been so helpful, I thought it would be nice to give you the entire background of why and what I am trying to do.
About a year ago, I installed a turbonet card from 9th Tree and connected my Tivo to a Lynksys router which was connected to a cable modem (broadband). I was already using broadband for my PC and wanted to get rid of my home phone, because I was only using my home phone for Tivo. The only hacking requiring was for me to make an access hole in Tivo's cover so I could connect the RJ45 cable to the turbonet card. This worked great for about a year. Then I moved to a new house and did not have broadband initially, so I tried to go back to the modem and use the phone line for Tivo's daily call. This did not work. The call would never complete - usually freezes at importing data 64%. I planned on getting broadband soon, so I figured I would just wait until then and use the turbonet card again, like I did at my previous house. Now, I have broadband and trying to use the turbonet card connected to the Lynksys router (just like before), but the none of the calls (test call or daily call) will complete - always freezes at "hanging up". I read in a couple of threads that you can solve the problem by disabling Tivo's modem. This means I have to remove Tivo's hard drive, connect it to my PC, and start hacking - something I have not needed to do up to now. A posting explained how to disable the modem using the following commands:

#mount /dev/hda4 /mnt
#mount /dev/hda7 /mnt
#mv /dev/cua1 /dev/cua1.disabled

Can you confirm this?
This is where I am at now. I can't get the drive to mount.  I have tried MFS Tools 2.0 and Dylan's boot disk - both to no avail.

I have a standalone Series 1 Sony SVR2000.


----------



## lloydjs

Success!
I suspect the following solution will fix a lot of Series 1 mounting problems.

Configuration: I have a Series 1 SVR2000. The internal phone modem is bad, so I am attempting to use turbonet (PPP) to make the daily call. The turbonet is connected to a Lynksys router and I set the dialing prefix to ",#401" ; Lynksys works great with Tivo. 

Problem: When making a daily call or test call, Tivo would freeze at "hanging up" and would never complete the call. I found a thread that described this problem and suggested disabling Tivo's modem (described later). However, disabling the modem will require me to uninstall Tivo's hard drive and connect it to a PC via an IDE cable. 

After reading various threads, downloading different boot disks, trying several hard drive cable connections, and receiving many "UNKNOW PARTITION" errors, here is what finally worked:

1 - Disconnect all drives except floppy.
2 - Connect Tivo hard drive to secondary master (hdc).
3 - Set the jumper cables on the HD accordingly - to "master". 
4 - Boot with Dylan's Boot Disk - you should see the partitions on hdc listed during the boot process.
5 - At the prompt. type the following commands:
# mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt
If this doesn't work, try:
# mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt
Now, the Tivo drive should be mounted, but you still need to disable the modem.
6 - Unfortunately, Dylan's Boot Disk does not have the proper command, at least as far as I know, so I removed Dylan's disk and put in TivoMad boot disk; finding the downloads for these boot disks should not be too hard.
7 - Mount the new floppy by using the following command:
# mkdir /mnt/floppy
# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
8- Change to the floppy drive using the command:
# cd /mnt/floppy
9 - Use commands "cd" and "ls" to find the directory containing file "mv" (move). Sorry, I forget the exact dir name.
10 - In that directory, enter command:
# mv /mnt/hdc7/dev/cua1 /mnt/hdc7/dev/cua1.disabled
Use whatever partition worked in step #5.
11 - Done, power down and put the Tivo drive back in the Tivo

Note: I heard that you can avoid the disk swapping if you use the Kazymyr Boot CD instead of the floppies.


----------



## Jolly-Roger-52

Tiger,

I just wanted to thank you for the work you did on the TIVO upgrade CD's and MFStools 2.0. I just thanked Hinsdale for his guide. 

I'm now the proud owner of a 120HR SAT-T60. 

I did have a bit of a head scratcher when I started. I have a AMD Athalon 2500+ CPU on a K7VTA3 mother board. I created the CD using NERO Express 2.0.1.15, Burning ROM 6.0.0.28. using a Toshiba DVD burner. 

For some unknown reason The system would not boot to the TIVO Upgrade disk using the DVD burner. I've booted to other Boot CDROMS with the same setup in the past (including Mandrake 10, which I created from an image file. The work around was to replace it with a CD reader for the upgrade process.

Well enough on that. Thanks again

Jolly-Roger-52
newbee but not virgin

Save the smileys


----------



## digarcia

I need some help.

I am a newbie attempting a drive replacedment, my original dtivo went bad.

New drive is a 160GB Seagate

1. I download mfs image to cd = hdvr2 3.1b-1.
2. I creatd a mfs boot cd - confirms it works.
3. My new tivo drive is @ hdb, cdrom @ hdc. Nothing in hda or hdd
4. I execute:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /cdrom/<image>.mfs /dev/hdb

ERROR RETURNED:
I get a input/output error message and my cdrom just goes crazy.

I checked the partition, using mfstool cd, on new drive and there isn't any.

1. Should there be a partition int eh new drive?
2. Should it be formatted?
3. OR will mfsrestore do this for me?

HELP!!

I am lost and not sure if HDD is bad.

David


----------



## Robert S

Did you mount the CD?

Unless you know Unix, it's probably easier to copy the backup to a hard drive (simply because that's better documented). 

NTFS partitions do mount (but read-only, so no good for making backups), so you should be able to do this even if you run XP.


----------



## Jolly-Roger-52

digarcia,

I agree with Robert S. I accomplished something similar without anything strange happening. I created a backup image using mfsbackup to my windows C: drive. You can do the same by copying the image while under windows from your cdrom to the root directory of your c: drive

Then the following syntax will get you through

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos

You can verify that all is well by reading the directory of your windows drive
ls /mnt/dos

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/<image>.mfs /dev/hdb

I didn't see any partitions using fdisk but it worked just the same.

finally unmount everything

umount -f -a -r

CTL alt del
turn of computer when all process are complete

Jolly_Roger-52


----------



## digarcia

Jolly and Roger,

Thanks for the advice. The problem was the PC i was using.

Got to work and we had a spare HP vectra that I performed the above.

STEPS I TOOK TO UPGRADE
##################################################
1. Copied MFS tools to CD. (bootable image)
2. Coped HDVR2 image 3.1b-1 to CD
3. Connected New Drive to Primary Slave (hdb).
4. Booted From CD Secondary Master (hdc).
5. After MFS booted and at "/#" prompt. I Took out MFS CD and inserted CD with image
6. At this point I perforemed the following (there was already a cdrom dir):

/# mount /dev/hdc /cdrom 
/# mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /cdrom/<image>.mfs /dev/hdb
Starting Restore
Uncompressed backup size: 1449 megabytes
Restoring 1449 of 1449 (100.00%) (84.30% compression)
Cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment.
Restore Done!
Adding pair /dev/hdb14-/dev/hdb15
new estimated standalone size: 147 hours (107 more)
/#

7. Popped Drive into Hughes - HDVR2 and it powered on just fine.
8. Although MFS reported 147 hours, Direct Tivo says 120. Which is right?
##################################################

New issue. Since I have VOIP as a phone service, I cannot make a call in. DirecTv doesn't support Dial ins from VOIP system. I had this problem even before the upgrade and I just avoided the callin.

BUT, the box is warniing me that I cannot record until I make a call.

1. Any way to override this problem?

Thanks for all the help everyone.

David


----------



## Robert S

Did you do a 'clear and delete everything' reset yet?


----------



## lloydjs

The maximum hours you can get out of any single drive is 120. I think I read that in another post.


----------



## digarcia

I cleared everything already and it still won't let me record until i make daily call. Which i can't because of my VoIP service with CalllVantage. 

Gues i just have to go to my neighbors house


----------



## digarcia

okay,

I know i am just adding here, but I launched the daily call and it worked for the 1st time in 3 months. I am not complaining, I am just happy that it records.

Thanks everyone for the help.

David


----------



## Jolly-Roger-52

David,


Good there are some other threads that you might want to look at

For the VOIP search for VOIP that will find you a wealth of info.

Are you using Vondage?

I think that is the one everyone is using 
You have to tweek your VOIP box for best voice quality and maybe change your setup string for the internal modem to drop the baud rate.

About the 120HRS
I beleve his calculation is based on a standalone TIVO where you can reduce the playback quality. Since our DirecTV Signal is already MPEG, we cant tweek the MPEG encoder like they do in the standalones.

If you're real adventurous you can recompile the kernel to cross the 137 GB limit.

Search for LBA48

Without that you can't use the full 160GB and are limited to 120hrs on a DirectTivo Series 1 The Series 2 have LBA48 support.

JOE AKA Jolly-Roger-52


----------



## digarcia

AT&T CallVantage now supports TiVo Daily Call.

For those with AT&T callvantage, Check your CallVantage account online. It seems that within the Last 36 hours AT&T has a enabled "Fax and MOdem feature" , which specifically says it supports Calls made by "Personal Video Recorders (TiVo)".

I realized something was up when I upgraded the HDD on my HDVR2 TiVo on Wed and the daily went through. Also, I got a Phillips DSR708 yesterday and Call went through as well.

Decided to go to CallVantage site and whoe look changed w/ the added feature.

David


----------



## sync

I have several NTFS partitions on my boot drive. I created another FAT partition for backing up my Tivo and put the file tivo.txt in it for identification purposes. How can I figure out which partition number Linux is using for the FAT partition?


----------



## sync

> _Originally posted by sync _
> *I have several NTFS partitions on my boot drive. I created another FAT partition for backing up my Tivo and put the file tivo.txt in it for identification purposes. How can I figure out which partition number Linux is using for the FAT partition? *


I found the partition using 'fdisk -l'


----------



## Paulson

So you mean to tell me I can take a DirecTivo (Hughes sdr40) which has a 120 gig drive in it now, and place a 250 gig drive in it without any problems?

If so, that'd be absolutely awesome (I just filled up my DirecTivo tonight, and I'm kind of sad )


----------



## Jolly-Roger-52

Paulson,

If it is a series 2, it should work.

Jolly-Roger52

 
X


----------



## Paulson

It's a series 2 D* TiVo...

On weaknees they only have 160 gig hard drive upgrades (whereas other ones they have 300 gig upgrades)

I'm wondering if there's a limit or if MFS 2.0 will take care of it anyways.


----------



## Robert S

I'm skeptical too.

Got a link to a source for that, JR52?

AFAIK all DTiVoes need major hacking to get LBA-48 support.


The only native LBA-48 kernels are on the v5.x models: the DVD comboes, the 540xxx stand alones and the HDTV unit.


----------



## Paulson

I wish they'd just update the damn Tivo's with D*

It's pissing me off because on my tivo it's only at version 3.1.1e


----------



## ThreeSoFar

D* blows.

I'm REALLY hoping TiVo is in back room talks with Voom, or Dish, or anyone, so that when D* dumps TiVo, TiVo can immediately announce the new partnership and D* will lose 1/3 of its subs to the new TiVo provider, which will be a better deal than they had with D*, so TiVo will make a lot of bucks with it.

Hoping. I'd give it maybe 5:1 against, but still hoping.


----------



## Blurayfan

> _Originally posted by Robert S _
> *I'm skeptical too.
> 
> Got a link to a source for that, JR52?
> 
> AFAIK all DTiVoes need major hacking to get LBA-48 support.
> 
> The only native LBA-48 kernels are on the v5.x models: the DVD comboes, the 540xxx stand alones and the HDTV unit. *


The newly released DirecTV DVR (R10) unit has native LBA48 support. The TiVo OS R10's ship with is 6.1. Dan Collins of DBSForums posted that his sources say DirecTV will release 6.1 to all series2 DirecTV DVRs in January.


----------



## Jolly-Roger-52

Hey Guys ,

First thing I gotta get out there is DTV is not in the business of updating the kernel for every hack that somebody thinks up. Lets not forget that when you broke the seal in the back of your set that nobody can guarantee that it will ever work again. DirecTIVO software updates are to fix bugs and to implement anticipated features Like the 2 tuner support whis wasn't implemented initially and the wishlist crash stuff.

When I bought my tivo it said on the box 35 hrs, not expandable to 240 hrs and beyond. I got what I paid for and more. Now it's 120 hours and still works with the standard software 3.1.0c2-01-1-011 The other versions are for later products, Series 2 and Tivo w/ DVD burner.

And No! I don't work for DTV just a happy customer.

There is lots of info out there on hacking on the underground playground Just use the search forum grey box. I can't find the "how to" on the hack that I saw about 2 months ago that I referred to. I never planed on doing it I just saw it has ben done and mentioned as a coment.

As I said LBA48 And LBA48 HACK for a search criteria will return a wealth of info. If you're interested spend your time and do a little research

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-0b/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83342&highlight=lba48
http://www.alt.org/wiki/index.php/TivoHackingLinks

Jolly-Roger=52


----------



## bkirk

Just wanted to say thanks to Tiger. I upgraded my AT&T TiVo with no problems, went from 40 hour to 142 hour for only a $50 120GB HD. Great for us newbies.  :up: :up: :up:

(oh yeah...and D* blows too). Drop D*, get cable and then you can use TivoToGo, HomeMedia, etc....it rocks. D* won't ever allow that.


----------



## RabidLamb

> _Originally posted by bkirk _
> (oh yeah...and D* blows too). Drop D*, get cable and then you can use TivoToGo, HomeMedia, etc....it rocks. D* won't ever allow that. [/B]


I'd agree were it not for dual tuners. That's the ONLY important feature. If I could get that w/ cable then I would. But untill I can get dual tuners in an SA TiVo, i'm sticking w/ my DirecTiVo, and suffering through not having ToGo and HMO.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Well you can get it, you just need multiple SAs.

Not what you meant, I know. But it's what I do. Initially because we couldn't see the sats through trees in our old house, and now because of D* being essentially anti-TiVo.


----------



## zeph

I used MFS tools 2.0 to add a 160Maxtor HDD to my Series 2 SA Tivo. My Original Tivo is a Western Digital 80 hour. I have have reported 243hours on my Tivo. The upgrade went smooth, however now I am seeing breakup in my AV with playing back and when I hit the record. Any suggestions?


----------



## Robert S

That might be over heating.

But it probably means your new drive is faulty.


----------



## JEJ

This caught me by surprise and I suspect that it may be due to the fact that mount cannot determine the fileystem type of my FAT32 disk.

I took a 40GB disk and attached it to my W2K system and created a 20GB partition, which I then formatted in FAT32. Then, while booted off of the CDROM, I attempted

# mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/c
mount: you must specify the file systemt type.

What is the best way to create a FAT32 disk so I can backup my Tivo disk?

Thank you,
Jerald


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Are you sure hdc1 is the right partition? Keep trying other numbers, hdc2, 3, 4...see if any of them work.

A "dmesg | grep hd" may show the valid partitions on that drive.


----------



## CableNinja

I just recieved my Tivo box from Tivo. I am not sure of the model but is has series 2 on the fron left. It is suppose to be the 40 hour model. I have downloaded the tools and am reading the the FAQs. What drive combination shoud I use? Replace the existing one or add a second unit? What brand and size will give me the best performance? Sounds like I need to do a backup first, should I hook it up and register first or after the backup? Sorry for being the dummy but I jsut got mine!

JJ


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Replace with a Samsung 160G. Newegg.com has great prices, no rebate hassle. That should be plenty of space. Read Hinsdale's HOWTO. Carefully.

If your TiVo has a white panel on front that lights up, you can use the LBA48 boot CD to use all 160G of your drive.


----------



## Raymond Day

I have MFS tools 2.0 it works real good to back up and restore you TiVo and do hacks to it.

One thing would be good if it could mount a network samba type file system. I did this command but it did not work.

mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t smbfs "//winserver/My Storage" /nt/windows

It gave a error. Could MFS tools 2.0 or maybe next one 2.1 do this type of thing? I guess it have to have a lot of network drives to work with a lot of network cards and some type of network file sharing in it.

Thank you for MFS Tools 2.0

-Raymond Day


----------



## Robert S

Mount is a Linux command. It's not part of MFS Tools.

The boot CD probably doesn't have smbfs installed.

MFS Tools will run under any version of Linux, so if you can find one with the SMB stuff - Knoppix would be worth trying - you can use that instead.


----------



## bike2020

Has anyone noticed how fast the menus come up when you upgrade the hard drive ? And with the TIVo To GO update the menus are even faster now.


----------



## dtebbe

Does MFStools 2.0 have support for drives over 137gb? Or does that take some other special version? I am getting ready to buy an R10, and want to know how big I can go on the hard drive (want to install a single big drive) and which version of MFStools I need to do the upgrade.

Your help will be appreciated!

DT


----------



## ThreeSoFar

It does as long as it is running in a kernel that recognizes it. Hinsdale's guide has a link to one that recognizes LBA48 drives. There may be a max of 300G though?


----------



## KevinG

I have 2 dsr6000 dtivos, both have an extra 80 gig drive that I added to the 40's via the old hinsdale how-to guide.

Yesterday night, one of the dtivios started rebooting itself. When it was done, it would work for a few minutes, then reboot again. I took the cover off, and that made it last a bit longer between reboots. So, I'm thinking bad disk.

I pulled both drives out and ran them through the maxtor tests, and they both came up as "fine". So, I went out and bought a 120 gig drive anyway.

I figured I would use MFSTools 2.0 to combine them onto the new 120 gig drive. It quickly informed me that they wouldn't fit. I checked the math, and it was right. 

So, here's my thinking. 
1) copy the 40 to the 120, but don't do anything to it...put it all back together and the system should be as before (no extra space, recordings intact, but no reboots).
2) If that is true, wait a while, and then expand it.
3) If that doesn't work out, my 80 gig was probably at fault... Copy that onto the 120 gig, and put the old 40 with the new 120 in and see if all is well.

Sound like a good plan?

Here's one other question. Is there any truth that cpu speed drastically affects the time it takes to do the dd from one drive to another? I'm currently doing it on a 333 Mhz old spare machine. If this is confirmed, I may very well move the whole process to my 3 Ghz machine.

Thanks.
-Kevin


----------



## Bombsheal

bike2020 said:


> Has anyone noticed how fast the menus come up when you upgrade the hard drive ? And with the TIVo To GO update the menus are even faster now.


lol. nice sarcasm. I hope they can fix the 7 software so it doesn't take the 10 seconds or so for menus to load. it is seriously annoying.


----------



## Lotharius

OK, I got two 200Gig MAXTOR Diamondmax 10 hard drives. Using the Weaknees guide I used MFSTOOLS2 to move over all my shows to the new hard drive in my HDR31202 Phillips Series One 30hr Tivo. I reinstalled these in the Tivo and everything runs fine, but it says I have 94hrs best quality, and 344hrs Basic quality. From everything Ive read here, shouldn't I have over 400hrs basic quality? Where did I go wrong, and what do I have to do to fix it??? (please provide links)


----------



## ThurstonX

RabidLamb said:


> I'd agree were it not for dual tuners. That's the ONLY important feature. If I could get that w/ cable then I would. But untill I can get dual tuners in an SA TiVo, i'm sticking w/ my DirecTiVo, and suffering through not having ToGo and HMO.


It is possible to "upgrade" a DTiVo to 4.0x so you get HMO, etc. And it's all somewhere on this Web site ;-)


----------



## alan

I was upgrading my Series 1 Sony SAT-T60 last night using a CD image of mfstools 2.0 from the http://mfstools.sourceforge.net/ link and ran into the problem where the TiVo drives were complaining about the 1492/9214 byte-swap probem. My configuration was:

*hda: DOS
hdb: new drive
hdc: single TiVo drive
hdd: cdrom drive with mfs boot cd image*

I saw the reported byte-swap complaint about



Code:


hdb: Signature 1492, be16 Signature 9214
03:00: block 0 has signature 9214 rather then 1492
unknown partition table

hdc: Signature 1492, be16 Signature 9214
03:00: block 0 has signature 9214 rather then 1492
unknown partition table

I tried booting with the swap option, but got a kernel failure (NULL pointer or something).

Anyway, I couldnt seem to get around this and so I got the floppy version from the link in hinsdales how-to and was able to boot, I didnt even see the partition tables in the initial boot output, so I assumed that it was happy and I backed up the original TiVo drive to DOS, and restored from DOS to my new TiVo drive. I tested it out in the TiVo and things seemed to be okay. So, I reconfigured the drives (pulling the DOS drive and putting the new TiVo drives in Primary Master and Primary Slave for the new TiVo drive A and B respectively) and started to do the restore (saving recordings) via the specified command:



Code:


Mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

My disk config looked like this:

hda: new TiVo disk A (80GB)
hdb: new TiVo disk B (80GB)
hdc: old TiVo Disk (40GB)

During the copy I got an error saying:

*Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address *

The error can be seen here: screen image

I only saw one of these errors, but the backup/restore continued and it seemed to not care that this paging request failed.

After the copy finished, I put the two new drives in the TiVo and it seemed to work fine. I moved around the menus and played several of the recordings in the Now Playing List and things seemed to be fine.

*Should I be concerned about the kernel error or redo my drives?*

Im wondering if I should go back to the mfstools 2.0 cdrom and try booting with the vmlnodma option and list bswap on some of the drives like this (I dont know if this is the right format):



Code:


Boot: vmlnodma hdb=bswap hdc=bswap

I havent found the information for the vmlnodma option and if it even takes args like above. I did see this option on someone elses boot CDROM, but they only had one of the disks named. Im not sure thats supported on the mfstools 2.0 cdrom image. Anyone know?

Right now Im just using the new drives, which brought my old TiVo up to 140 hours. I havent had a problem (Much thanks Guys for working on this software and instructions)

I just wasnt sure what to do with the byte-swap problem on the drives. *Is there another way around this?*

Thanks!


----------



## ineedcolor

digarcia said:


> Jolly and Roger,
> 
> STEPS I TOOK TO UPGRADE
> 
> 1. Copied MFS tools to CD. (bootable image)
> 2. Coped HDVR2 image 3.1b-1 to CD
> 3. Connected New Drive to Primary Slave (hdb).
> 4. Booted From CD Secondary Master (hdc).
> 5. After MFS booted and at "/#" prompt. I Took out MFS CD and inserted CD with image
> 6. At this point I perforemed the following (there was already a cdrom dir):
> 
> /# mount /dev/hdc /cdrom
> /# mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /cdrom/<image>.mfs /dev/hdb
> Starting Restore
> Uncompressed backup size: 1449 megabytes
> Restoring 1449 of 1449 (100.00%) (84.30% compression)
> Cleaning up restore. Please wait a moment.
> Restore Done!
> Adding pair /dev/hdb14-/dev/hdb15
> new estimated standalone size: 147 hours (107 more)
> /#
> 
> 7. Popped Drive into Hughes - HDVR2 and it powered on just fine.
> Thanks for all the help everyone.
> 
> David


And thanks to David for posting these instructions, this is exactly how I needed to do my drive replacement and it worked perfectly for me this afternoon....

Cheers,


----------



## RabidLamb

ThurstonX said:


> It is possible to "upgrade" a DTiVo to 4.0x so you get HMO, etc. And it's all somewhere on this Web site ;-)


And it's now done and works great  Thanks a whole lot to the brilliant people here and at the "Other Forums."


----------



## MtEverest

Doing a one drive upgrade using MfsTools 2.0, get to step 7 where you have to issue Mkdir and Mount command i get ' mount: you must specify the file system type

entered commands as such,

mkdir /mnt/dos

mount /dev/hda /mnt/dos

went back and did a search of thread and found the answer i needed, figured some one had run into it before just did not see it when i browsed through thread.

thanks to all that put up so much great info.

Update : Just finished moving backup to new hard drive, hooked back into Standalone unit to test, first gray screen comes up no prob, second sreen no prob and then i get green screen of death.(UGHHHH) Says to leave plugged up for next 3 hrs will it runs some tests, if after that time need to call an 800 number. Any ideas? Will be stranding by to hear.

Mt Everest


----------



## philwatson

I recently purchased a TiVo S2 40gb unit. I ran it for a few days and decided to upgrade it to a 160gb drive. Using MFS tools I noticed that the backup for the original drive was 31191mb (even though I had deleted all movies from the TiVo menu). Is it still wanting copy all of the video even though I deleted it? If so, how do I erase it so I a minimal backup image? Thanks.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

What exactly was the command you backed up with Phil?

Following is from Hinsdale's HOWTO. The /dev/hdX letters are yours to choose. Be careful.

For your backup, you want something from section 7). Probably:


Code:


mfsbackup  -f 9999  -6so  /mnt/dos/tivo.bak  /dev/hdc

That should be no more than 600M or so. Then you can use section 10), Upgrade Configuration #3 to dupe your entire drive, shows and all, to the new one:


Code:


mfsbackup  -Tao  -  /dev/hdc | mfsrestore  -s 127 -xzpi  -  /dev/hda


----------



## philwatson

ThreeSoFar:

I used the following command since I was upgrading the original TiVo drive to the 160gb drive (I'm using the original as my backup):

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Should I have issued another command before the above in order to get the file size down to 600m as you mentioned? Thanks.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

This does not create any backup file on any filesystem, so you needn't worry about the file size. This essentially backs up one drive, the output from that is "piped" into the restore command, which writes it (en toto) to the new drive. The end result here is two working TiVo drives, same content, one bigger than the other.

In other words, boot the one that's in /dev/hda in your TiVo and it should work as-is.


----------



## tivofun

I am having an issue with mfsbackup or mfsrestore. 

I have a SA TCD540040 (nightlight) ruining software 7.1a-02-2-540 and am replacing the factory drive with a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 200GB drive using Hindsdale's guide (Feb 8th 2005) and mfstools 2.0 with LBA48. 

Hda is fat32, hdb is new 200G drive, hdc is original tivo 40G, and hdd is cdrom. 

I did the mkdir and mount (no errors)
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc (no errors)
mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb (no errors)
umount -f -a -r (no errors)
ctl-alt-del and power down.

I put the drive in the Tivo, got the welcome screen and it went blank after around 28 seconds and nothing else. Tried it again to make sure I did not typo. 

Same thing. Tried the restore without the -s 127 and got the same thing. 
One time when I was booting up mfstools I noticed that the original drive had a bunch of partitions but the new hdb drive just showed "hdb: unknown partition type"

My final attempt was to do a:
"mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb" 
(I did not move the new drive from hdb to hda)

This worked. I watched a few seconds of a show that I had recorded. 

My issue is that I would like a good backup that I can burn to a CD and I don't know if it was the backup or restore that went wrong.

I assume that I did something wrong. Just not sure what.

Thanks.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

How big is the .bak file? 

Any chance it was a slave/master thing?

What do you mean by "(I did not move the new drive from hdb to hda)"? Only part I didn't understand.


----------



## tivofun

The .bak file is somewhat larger than 500Meg. I am not in front if that computer right now.

Possible on the slave/master question, but I am fairly sure it wasn't. 

For the "I didn't move ...", in Hinsdale's guide, section 7&8, for the backup and restore it recommends the fat32 be hda, the new drive be hdb, and the orig tivo be hdc. For section 10, option 3, it recommends the new large drive be hda, and the original tivo drive be hdc.
I did not want to disconnect the fat32 drive so I left the new one at hdb and adjusted the command. (I had to move the jumper every time I tested it back to master, and slave when in my PC) 

Is there any way to test the backup to see if it is good (other than a mfsrestore)?

Thanks.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

The Hinsdale hdX entries aren't recommendations. He just picked some and went with those. Just adjust what you type to where the drives end up in your PC.

I don't know of a way to test a backup image other than restore and fire it up.


----------



## sandi94533

I recently tried to use MFS 2.0 and forgot to unplug my windows and booted to windows disk with the tivo original plugged into secondary master needless to say windows wrote some junk to my original tivo disk rendering it useless. Is there some kind of software that will clean the original tivo up?


----------



## ksv666

This may be an odd case, but I could really use the help:

Original: 30hour TiVo (312)
Upgraded to a single 160GB drive and all is working.

However, now I need to change the configuration to 2 - 120GB drives. I need to preserve all recordings and it looks like there is around 140GB of content.

I restored my original TiVo image to the drives and grew them with the CD, so now I have a dual-drive setup (no content). I now want to take all the video content from the 160GB drive and move it to the new drives. None of the scenerios work when I try to restore (or copy) the content from the existing 160GB drive to the now expanded 2 - 120GB drives. 

Can anyone offer a suggestion? I am stumped.

Thanks,

-Kirk


----------



## trainedmonkey

I'm a little confused about the following scenario and I apologize up front if this question has been asked and answered a thousand times.

I have 2 DTIVOs one Hughes and one Philips 704.

Both had 40 gig drives originally. Using MFSTools I upgraded. Lifecycle of boxes were:

Hughes
3.1.1c on 40gig to 3.1.1c on 2 120gig drives to 3.1.1d to 3.1.1e
Philips
3.1.1c on 40gig to 3.1.1e to 2 160gig drives to 6.2

Now that 6.2 is out I want to upgrade to 2 300gig drives on the Philips

Can I do this and still save my recordings?

I've seen some posts that talk about upgrading multiple times without losing recordings and others talking about it and saying it can't be done.

Am I confusing upgrading drives with expanding existing drives? (my understanding is that it is possible to expand the 160s from their original limit of 137g to their full capcity of 160g. I think this can only be done on drive B but not sure about that).

Thanks in advance for your feedback.


----------



## bnm81002

Tiger,
when will MFS Tools 3.0 be available? any links? thanks


----------



## earnric

tivofun said:


> The .bak file is somewhat larger than 500Meg. I am not in front if that computer right now.
> 
> Possible on the slave/master question, but I am fairly sure it wasn't.
> 
> For the "I didn't move ...", in Hinsdale's guide, section 7&8, for the backup and restore it recommends the fat32 be hda, the new drive be hdb, and the orig tivo be hdc. For section 10, option 3, it recommends the new large drive be hda, and the original tivo drive be hdc.
> I did not want to disconnect the fat32 drive so I left the new one at hdb and adjusted the command. (I had to move the jumper every time I tested it back to master, and slave when in my PC)
> 
> Is there any way to test the backup to see if it is good (other than a mfsrestore)?
> 
> Thanks.


I also tried to add a small drive (30 GB) to my 40 gb series 1 Philips (6000)... I used MFSTools 2.0 to "mfsadd", but i had my Tivo A drive jumpered to slave... as well as the "new" drive.

After reinstalling in the Tivo, it wouldn't boot. I had to mfsrestore the image on the A drive.

So, 1 - do you have to jumper the orig tivo A drive as a "Master"... and 2 - can you have a smaller B drive than A drive?

The old "B" drive was used on a windows system... I didn't format it -- I thought mfs would handle that... Maybe that's my problem?

Thanks


----------



## earnric

Ok,

I've tried to use MFSTools and Hinsdale to add a second 30GB drive to my Philips 6000 series 1 twice now... I can't get past the boot screen.

I put the old A drive as secondary master, the new (actually an old drive from my linux box) as primary slave... Backup'd the A drive and then ran 

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

No go -- I continually boot and re-boot when I plug the tivo in.

Do I need to reformat the new 30gb drive and try again?

Rick


----------



## earnric

I tried again... using

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/linux/home/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

to restore my good backup image across both drives... My philips still continually goes between the two boot screens:

Powering Up

&

Almost there...

If I restore to the orig 40gb drive, the tivo boots just fine.

What can be going wrong??

Signed -- starting to drive me nuts!


----------



## bnm81002

still no word when MFS Tools 3.0 will be available yet?


----------



## hantousha

I heard of the LBA48 support e.t.c.. I need to know what utility I need to use to upgrade the 40GB to 400GB. I tried MFSTOOLs2.0 and it only give me a total of 147hours? What I am doing wrong. I tried mfsadd -x /dev/hdb , mfsadd -r 4 /dev/hdb e.t.c.. Any hints would be appreciated. or I am I stuck at 147 Hours? I have a TIVO 240040A. Currently running Software version 7.1. (TivoToGo).


----------



## ThreeSoFar

same command, just boot a Linux that is new enough to recognize the larger drives. There's a LBA48 bootable CD image on Hinsdale's HOWTO page. Hinsdale's post here used to be a sticky but isn't anymore since he isn't a paid sponsor of this site.

One way would be to boot the CD you have, copy the mfsbackup and mfsrestore binaries (and mfsinfo is useful) onto your DOS/vfat/windows drive. Then boot some other new cd (Knoppix works great), mount the DOS drive and run it from there (or copy it to /bin, which is a RAMdrive at that point.

(I know, mfsrestore and mfsbackup and mfsinfo are all links to mfstools. Copy it just once and make links after booting Knoppix if you know how to do that.)


----------



## Gojira69

hantousha said:


> I heard of the LBA48 support e.t.c.. I need to know what utility I need to use to upgrade the 40GB to 400GB. I tried MFSTOOLs2.0 and it only give me a total of 147hours? What I am doing wrong. I tried mfsadd -x /dev/hdb , mfsadd -r 4 /dev/hdb e.t.c.. Any hints would be appreciated. or I am I stuck at 147 Hours? I have a TIVO 240040A. Currently running Software version 7.1. (TivoToGo).


Hantousha and I are both using the mfstools 2.0 disk. I get the same result too, 147 hours. Using mfsadd returns message "nothing to add"

*Addenda 6/29:* I have solved my problem. The boot media I was using did NOT include LBA48 support. I had wrongly assumed ALL "2.0" versions of MFSTools had LBA48 support.

*Addenda 6/30:* I've got telnet bash!!! How weird the seemingly easiest part of this process was the hardest and the seemingly hardest, the easiest!


----------



## emarsh

Will moving from 2.0 to 2.0.1 get me around the problems I'm experiencing? They are described in the thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=246548


----------



## mr_fusion_512

I asked this question earlier on the underground forum:

*snip*
I've got a question... I have what was originally a 40 gb series 2 (240-0000-xxxx-xxxx, model # TCD24004A) and I upgraded it to dual 160's a couple years ago. At the time, the various tools around could only see 128 GB of the 160's but oh well...

Now, I hear that the software used on these series 2 40 gb's can go up to 250 GB per drive?

If so, which software do you recommend and will it automatically handle the larger drives, etc.?

Also, from what I heard, the software on the 140 GB's and higher can take 400 gb drives, but the 40's can only go up to 250GB per drive?
*end snip*

and had an answer that 400 GB drives were supported since I was running 7.1 and I used an LBA48 boot disk, but I was told that I couldn't upgrade the A, just the B drive, if I wanted to preserve recordings...

Well, after poking around the two 160's, I do notice that there are 16 partitions (and therefore no more room) to Re-Expand... so if I follow the suggestion for a single B drive upgrade, it should just be a matter of DD'ing my B to the new B... and then presuming my A is on hda and my New B is hdc, then I just need to remarry the drives with: mfsadd x /dev/hda /dev/hdc

Right?

Anyway, while flipping through the different posts on MFS tools 2.0, I'm under the impression that with that command:

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

I should theoretically be able to put my two 160's on hda/hdb and my new 200's on hdc/hdd (I would actually gain 160 GB because I'm only using 128 GB from the first two 160's) but I run across an error...

My first problem was (and is) that I couldn't find a boot floppy that supports >128 GB... (was using http://www.upgrade-instructions.com/downloads/mfs2floppy.zip)
so I worked around it with the weaknees cd and a spare pci ide controller which started adding in hdg and hdh and was a general pain... but as the boot disk never saw any partitions on the new blank drives, it errored out and although it got the "read" part of the command down, it would never start the "write" part of it...

So, can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong or should I just abandon the whole thing and go for switching out the B drive for a 300?

Thanks!


----------



## blarg

hey kids, I've been struggling with this all day and can't seem to get it to work...maybe someone here knows what I'm doing wrong.

about a 2 years ago I bought a 40 hour tivo (model 240). I immediately put in a 160 gig drive and upgraded it. At the time, it was only supposed to see 128 MBs of the 160, but the drive was so cheap, I didn't care. I got 155 hours.

now, I have os ver. 7.1 and would like to "re-expand" the HD. From what I've read on these forums I should expect about 170 hours, but after copying the original backup to the drive and re-expanding, I STILL only get 155 hours. In a way this makes sense because I went back to the original 4.1 kernel, but MFStools2 should see the extra space shouldn't it?

I've got the backup problem sorted out now so I backed up my ver 7.1 image...MFStools said it was originally a 40 gig image, and made the backup a 40 hour image). Still, when I try to expand the HD, I still only get the same capacity I had before.

Do I have to somehow remove the existing partitons from the 160 gig drive before I re-expand it? What am I missing here?


----------



## winders

blarg,

You have to boot with an LBA48 kernel when using MFSTools. You also need to have an LBA48 kernel on the TiVo drive too. Does your MFSTools boot CD or floppy have an LBA48 kernel?

Scott


----------



## mr_fusion_512

If you're trying to preserve your recordings, then according to what I've heard, the first upgrade brought your A drive to it's partition limit of 16 (starts with 14, upgrades add 2), thereby not allowing any more re-upgrades to that drive. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong). So what I've been told is that to get the full use of the drive, I've got to start with the original 40 gb image (by whatever means) and use an LBA 48 boot cd and that should give you that 25% boost in space. The only way to retain your recordings in this case that I know of is to transfer your shows onto another tivo on the network and then transfer them back...

Anyways You can find the Weaknees LBA 48 Cd here:
http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso

I had a slightly similar problem (with 2*160's recognized as 2*128's) and I'm awaiting a response from someone on why my B drive upgrade won't work (based on the theory that it can be upgraded a half dozen times unlike the A drive).

-Jason


----------



## blarg

I couldn't care less about my recorded shows. Everything I really wanted to keep got transfered to my PC using ToGo already. I just used my original 40 GB image (with ver 4.0) that the tivo originally came with, but when I expanded, I STILL only got 155 hours. Do I have to somehow WIPE the drive and delete the partitons on it before I can make NEW partitions with more space?

right now, I'm re-downloading all my software updates. from what I can see, I can use MFStools2 to backup my 160 gig drive to a 40 gig image so I don't have to go all the way back to OS 4.0 again, but I STILL can't get it to use the FULL 160 gig drive.

I'm using the MFStools CD that I got by following the link in the begining of this thread. its MFStools2.iso I assumed it had the LBA48 kernel

I also have PVRLBA48-4.01.iso I didn't try it because I thought they were basically the same.

guess I'll try that weaknees CD after I get my 7.1 software back.


----------



## mr_fusion_512

You may try doing what I did, which is to stick the 40 back in there and run as many "calls" as necessary to get the software updated to 7.x. And THEN do the expansion. I did this successfully with a 540 series 40 hour and will try one tonight with an older 240 series 40 hour model and I'll let you know...

And while you're waiting, you can find some software to wipe your drive completely. If you have a maxtor, I'd recommend their diag disk and choose the quick low-level format option which takes out partitions, mbr, etc. only or just load it into a windows pc and fdisk it (win9x) or use Disk Management in Computer Management (start, run "compmgmt.msc") to wipe it "clean" (or at least unrecognizable as far as Linux/Tivo is concerned)

-Jason


----------



## blarg

mr_fusion_512 said:


> You may try doing what I did, which is to stick the 40 back in there and run as many "calls" as necessary to get the software updated to 7.x. And THEN do the expansion. I did this successfully with a 540 series 40 hour and will try one tonight with an older 240 series 40 hour model and I'll let you know...
> 
> And while you're waiting, you can find some software to wipe your drive completely. If you have a maxtor, I'd recommend their diag disk and choose the quick low-level format option which takes out partitions, mbr, etc. only or just load it into a windows pc and fdisk it (win9x) or use Disk Management in Computer Management (start, run "compmgmt.msc") to wipe it "clean" (or at least unrecognizable as far as Linux/Tivo is concerned)
> 
> -Jason


well apparently when you use MFSbackup it de-expands your diskimage back to its original size...so I updated my tivo to 7.1b, THEN did a backup, and MFSbackup said it was making a 39-hour image from a 147-hour upgrade. Now I just put in the HD with my windows XP disc and told it to do a complete (not the fast option) NTFS format. Then I'll try to use the LBA48 disc from weaknees.com and see what happens. wish me luck. at least now I know you can backup an upgraded drive back to its original size, and you don't have to lose your preferences, network settings, list of shows that have already been recorded etc....good to know for NEXT time


----------



## blarg

ok the stuff I did in the post above WORKED!! the utility reported 175 hours.

so basically

1) use the weaknees LBA48 CD
2) backup your 7.1b hd
3) if the drive was already used in a Tivo, boot up some OS installer and do a LONG format of the HD...I didn't actually finish mine. I just let it go until about 20% and reset the computer.
4) restore your 7.1b image
5) expand the drive.

note - 

I didn't care about my recordings...you DO lose them in this method...but you also gain about 30 hours of recording time.


----------



## mr_fusion_512

btw, my upgrade was successful... Using the Weaknees LBA 48 boot disk mentioned above, I managed to get a 17% increase (using the full 160 rather than only 137). Now my newly upgraded tivo has 370 (from 2-160's) and the old one (same drives) has only 317. Both of these are the first Series 2 models (starts with 240-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx) coming stock with 40 gb drives.

Although MFS tools should not require a DD, I did it out of habit before I remembered that I (theorectically) didn't have to...

None the less, I took the stock drive which sat in the Tivo long enough to update itself to 7.1, then DD'd it to my new A drive (incidentally, both the A and B drives I used were in the Tivo before so I ran the Seagate Disk setup cd and did a "quick" "write 0's" to both drives).

After the DD, I ran the following command (with my new DD'd A drive as primary master and my second blank drive as primary slave and 40 gb stock drive upgraded to 7.1 as secondary master):

mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

and this kept all the recordings and settings from that 40 gb...

Hope this helps 
-Jason *Smile*


----------



## tivo_newbee

I admit that I'm a novice when it comes to UNIX/Linux, however the commands used for Mfs Tools 2.0 look fairly basic to me.

Here's what I can do: mkdir /mnt/dos

Here's what I am unable to do: mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
everytime I enter this command, I receive an error that reads, " Mount: you must specify the filesystem type" Filesystem type? What???

Any suggestions?


----------



## blarg

are you sure you only have one partition on that drive, that its a fat32 partition, and that you have it attatched to the right IDE channel and Master/Slave position?


----------



## HomeUser

I am assuming that the partition you are trying to mount is Fatxx, Are you sure that the hard drive is primary master? 

Or you may have more than one partition on the hard drive. check the partitions with "cat /proc/partitions" or just try mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/dos


----------



## tivo_newbee

I am not 100% positive that I only have one partition on the drive nor am I 100% positive that it is a FAT32 partition. I am 100% positive that I do have it attached to the primary IDE and the jumper on the drive is set to master. (I am borrowing a spare drive from a friend as the pc box I am using for the TiVo upgrade is brand new with the Win XP OS, etc. Therefore I'm using a drive other than what came with the box as my primary C drive.) Now I'm thinking that the spare drive is not formatted as FAT32 with only 1 partition....


----------



## blarg

I'm not sure that MFSTools will mount NTFS.

the Weakneees CD worked better for me. I couldn't get LBA to work with MFSTools, but the weaknees CD worked like a charm.


----------



## tivo_newbee

Are you sure that the hard drive is primary master? YES!! Have checked that numerous times.

Or you may have more than one partition on the hard drive. check the partitions with "cat /proc/partitions" or just try mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/dos

The result from "cat /proc/partitions" is as follows:
major minor #blocks name
33 0 4226040 hde (windows "C" drive)
33 1 4225063 hde1 (windows "C" drive)
33 64 117220824 hdef (new Western Digital 120GB drive for TiVo upgrade)


The result from "mount /dev/hde2 /mnt/dos" is as follows:

/dev/hde2: Success
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

So I'm suspicious that the drive I'm trying to mount, which is borrowed from a friend and is "supposed" to be FAT32 formatted with just 1 partition, ain't so.... therefore off I search for a utility to format that drive as FAT32 with 1 sole partition.....any suggestions on freeware???


----------



## tivo_newbee

Blarg - thanks for responding again.

I was under the impression that the "borrowed" drive I am failing to mount is not NTFS. Here's my dilemma. I have a brand new pc box which I am using to perform the TiVo hack/drive upgrade. This new pc has absolutely no floppy drive, however does have a fully functional CD/DVD ROM drive that also burns CDs. What I'm gathering is that I'll need to create a bootable CD ROM (ISO image) that has an OS that will allow me to format that "borrowed" drive as FAT32 and with just 1 partition. Any suggestions on how to make this work with what I have? I've successfully created bootable CD ROMs using Nero....


----------



## azitnay

You can reformat the "borrowed" drive from within Windows XP... I believe you can right click on the drive in My Computer and click Format, or use the format utility from the command prompt.

BTW, your friend knows that you're going to format this drive, thereby losing any data that might be on it, right?

Drew


----------



## sholleran

I love the guide, want to contribute to its improvement.

It appears step 4 has a redundant section titled
Boot the PC from the Linux media that you marked "Weaknees CD"

Verify Drive Sizes 

which is followed by

Boot the PC from the Linux media

Verify Drive Sizes 

Also, there are 2 important warnings on the page. Don't dislodge the white faceplate ribbon, and don't boot to XP\2000 with TIVO drive installed. Could Weaknees please box that with a yellow background or something so morons like me notice that we may be about to do a bad thing?


----------



## tivo_newbee

Drew,
Thanks for responding. I successfully reformatted the borrowed drive as FAT32 using my win XP box and then was able to perform the TiVo hack with 100% success. Also, my friend had formatted the drive before letting me borrow it so there was no concern of losing any data. I just have to believe that the drive wasn't formatted at all as my win XP box noticed the drive but prompted me to format it when I tried to access it.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Ryan


----------



## pgorbas

I have asked this question in other threads, but my advisors are not sure what I should do - it really boils down to the inner workings if the mfsbackup command.

Here is the story.

Two years ago i started with a stock dTiVo with a 40gb drive. I added a second 120 gb drive - great I now have 141 hours recording time.

Amazingly I have been running out of disk space a lot lately, and I see advertised some great deals on 300gb drives.

I will explain what I think I should do in a moment, but so you are thinking along the right lines I will post upfront where the tricky part of the process could be. I am wanting to go from this setup (40gb + 120gb) to this setup ( the SAME 120gb + new 300gb). As you see the tricky part is that the same hard drive is BOTH a source and a target.

Now here was my full blown plan. 
I will have to use a boot floppy instead of a boot CD since I can only have 4 IDE drives. My IDE drives will get set like so in my PC: 
Primary master ........ = fat32 PC drive (hdW set to hda) 
Primary slave ......... = Original TiVo drive (hdX set to hdb) 
*2ndary master ......... = Second Original TiVo drive (hdY set to hdc) 
...this drive is also . = Target (New) TiVo drive (hdZ is ALSO set to hdc)* 
Secondary slave ....... = Second Target (New) TiVo drive (hdzz set to hdd)

I am somewhat nervous that I will be using the SAME ide slot and hard drive as both the Second Original TiVo drive=hdY AND the Target (New) TiVo drive=hdZ

This would my mount command: 
mount /dev/hda /mnt

My comand for the safty net backup would be: 
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

and my final mfsbackup command to complete the swap is like this: 
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Does this look right? In order for it to work msfbackup must be smart enough to buffer the data from the 120gb hard drive so that the orginal data is not over written before it is read. In essence it would be shoving the data from the old 40gb drive into the front of the 120gb drive , then allowing the excess to go onto the new 300gb hard drive.

If someone is sure this will not work, or if it sounds riskky would this alternative plan work:

Make a backup of both my original hard drives ( my 40 gb and 120 gb ) to my PC's hard drive like so: 
mfsbackup -f 9999 -1so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdb /dev/hdc 
Restore this image to both target drives (my 120 gb and the new 300 gb) IN A SINGLE PASS: 
mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdd. 
_I have the notion that keeping a smaller HD as the primary would give me a slight performance increase - that is if the index is kept there.)_ 
Or would I need a even more involved procedure like this: 

Make a backup of both my original hard drives ( my 40 gb and 120 gb ) to my PC's hard drive as above. 
Restore the backup image to a single hard drive ( the new 300 gb hd since the 120 gb would be too small): 
mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zxpi /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdd 
Follow the standard instructions for adding a second hard drive to a single hard drive tivo. Would I need to re-format the 120gb drive or something ?


----------



## blarg

I'm guessing that you're doing this because you want to keep your recordings?

how about using ToGo to dump all your recordings you a PC, performing the upgrade and then you can move them back to the tivo using the latest Tivo desktop or Galleon and tivo 7.2?

I'm also guessing that you don't have access to another HD for temp image?


----------



## pgorbas

blarg said:


> I'm guessing that you're doing this because you want to keep your recordings?
> 
> how about using ToGo to dump all your recordings you a PC, performing the upgrade and then you can move them back to the tivo using the latest Tivo desktop or Galleon and tivo 7.2?
> 
> I'm also guessing that you don't have access to another HD for temp image?


 Yes - you are correct - I do want to retain my recordings. Also my DSR704 is a direct tv tivo - a DTiVo. It is my understanding that the most recent software for DTiVo's is 6.2. I also think the "ToGo" and "Galleon" utilities are also only regular TiVo utilities - I have never heard about them before.


----------



## azitnay

Yes, Galleon/ToGo is standalone-only at the current time.

There are "other" ways of getting video off a TiVo, but we can't discuss them here.

Drew


----------



## davera98

Thanks to all who have contributed knowledge and tips.

I tried an older version of the Hinsdale instruction on my series 2 Tivo (14000 series) which has os 7.5. the upgrade kept failing on a step that mentioned edit params (??). so i aborted my upgrade efforts for the interim. I have since downloaded newer instructions and files off the weaknees site. i will check if there is a newer Hinsdale set. 

The issue i have right now is after the repeated failings, somehow my boot disk on my pc got set to boot to the tivo boot (Linux). The tivo boot cd is not in the cd drive. the only way i can boot to windows is if i force a boot menu and then i choose hard drive c instead of normal.

any ideas?

ps. i truly hope that this post is to the right thread. apologies if it is wrong


----------



## HomeUser

Floppy?


----------



## blarg

1) pretty sure there's no OS 7.5 for Tivo...the LATEST version is 7.2...and older models don't get it.

2) your linux disk somehow overwrote your boot sector.

if you're running windows 2000/XP boot to the windows CD, exit to the recovery console, and type "FIXMBR" and "FIXBOOT" (two different commands). That should repair the boot sector and your boot menu.

also, the older howtos have some omissions in the intructions that do things like tell you to use "HDA" for HD designations rather than "HDA1" which would cause the process to fail.

check out weaknees.com. they ask you a few questions and link you to a CD image based on your setup. it worked like a charm for me. I had some problems with the older howtos as well.


----------



## blarg

pgorbas said:


> Yes - you are correct - I do want to retain my recordings. Also my DSR704 is a direct tv tivo - a DTiVo. It is my understanding that the most recent software for DTiVo's is 6.2. I also think the "ToGo" and "Galleon" utilities are also only regular TiVo utilities - I have never heard about them before.


I should really learn to pay more attention.


----------



## bmatson

I have read many times that I should be very careful not to boot a Tivo drive into windows. What about using a former windows drive as a new Tivo drive (i.e. as a target of an mfsrestore, to become a new Tivo A drive).

I have a 300 Gb Seagate drive that has a single NTFS partition on (bootable XP) that I want to install in my series 1 DTivo (sat t-60). I want to use my backup (thus no recordings), booting off an LBA48 CD, and restore, etc...

Is the edict against booting into windows simply that it will hose the Tivo formatting, and require another mfsrestore to be done? Or does windows do something to the MBR or partition table that MFSTools cannot undo? 

Thanks.


----------



## blarg

bmatson said:


> I have read many times that I should be very careful not to boot a Tivo drive into windows. What about using a former windows drive as a new Tivo drive (i.e. as a target of an mfsrestore, to become a new Tivo A drive).
> 
> I have a 300 Gb Seagate drive that has a single NTFS partition on (bootable XP) that I want to install in my series 1 DTivo (sat t-60). I want to use my backup (thus no recordings), booting off an LBA48 CD, and restore, etc...
> 
> Is the edict against booting into windows simply that it will hose the Tivo formatting, and require another mfsrestore to be done? Or does windows do something to the MBR or partition table that MFSTools cannot undo?
> 
> Thanks.


you are corect. Its the OS that screws it up, not the actual drive. If you use an NTFS-formatted drive as your "target" drive MFSTools will simply overwrite the formatting.


----------



## bmatson

> you are corect. Its the OS that screws it up, not the actual drive. If you use an NTFS-formatted drive as your "target" drive MFSTools will simply overwrite the formatting.


Thank you for easing my mind. I remember hearing that you could literally trash a hard drive permanently by using "qunlock" incorrectly.


----------



## blarg

bmatson said:


> Thank you for easing my mind. I remember hearing that you could literally trash a hard drive permanently by using "qunlock" incorrectly. I was afraid this might be similar, or at least make a drive permanently into a "windows" drive (Bill's fondest dream). Hard drive technology gets more mysterious every day - its hard to cull the myth from the fact. Thanks.


its just that XP tags the boot sector somehow that interferes with tivo. it doesn't seem to cause problems for other OS's...just tivo.


----------



## bmatson

I've just upgraded without saving my programs (all I wanted was the seasons passes). The programs are gone, but the "now playing" list wasn't deleted along with the programs they refer to. I don't want to delete each program listing separately (over 300 of them) unless I have to. 

This is how I "upgraded" (from 2 x 200 Gb drives - lba48, to a single 300 Gb drive - also lba48) (all work done with PTV-LBA48 boot CD with MFSTools 2.0):

mfsbackup -6so ...
mfsrestore -s 300 -xzpi ....
copykern (Said "tpip: Unknown boot block signature: 0x0" then "Kernel Updated")

Is this behavior normal (a restore from "quick" backup leaving the "now playing list" intact, referring to non-existant programs)?

Is there a better way to clean this up while still keeping my seasons passes (over 100 of them)? "Clear Program Data and To-Do list" apparently doesn't clear out recorded programs, and it MAY delete my seasons pass. If someone can assure me it is not SUPPOSED to kill my seasons passes, I might give it a try. I presume that "clear and delete everything" WILL kill my seasons passes.

Is there a better way? If there is some advantage to doing the "Clear and Delete everything" (like defragging and/or cleaning up crap on the drive?), than maybe I will just redo 107 seasons passes. Suggestions and/or comments? Thanks.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

bmatson said:


> I've just upgraded without saving my programs (all I wanted was the seasons passes). The programs are gone, but the "now playing" list wasn't deleted along with the programs they refer to. I don't want to delete each program listing separately (over 300 of them) unless I have to.
> 
> This is how I "upgraded" (from 2 x 200 Gb drives - lba48, to a single 300 Gb drive - also lba48) (all work done with PTV-LBA48 boot CD with MFSTools 2.0):
> 
> mfsbackup -6so ...
> mfsrestore -s 300 -xzpi ....
> copykern (Said "tpip: Unknown boot block signature: 0x0" then "Kernel Updated")
> 
> Is this behavior normal (a restore from "quick" backup leaving the "now playing list" intact, referring to non-existant programs)?
> 
> Is there a better way to clean this up while still keeping my seasons passes (over 100 of them)? "Clear Program Data and To-Do list" apparently doesn't clear out recorded programs, and it MAY delete my seasons pass. If someone can assure me it is not SUPPOSED to kill my seasons passes, I might give it a try. I presume that "clear and delete everything" WILL kill my seasons passes.
> 
> Is there a better way? If there is some advantage to doing the "Clear and Delete everything" (like defragging and/or cleaning up crap on the drive?), than maybe I will just redo 107 seasons passes. Suggestions and/or comments? Thanks.


It is normal. Don't know another way to clean them up than delete the (broken) entries after the restore. No advantage I know of to CADE. Takes forever to run, too.


----------



## meyerweb

Hi all: 

First off, I admit to NOT reading all 20 pages of this thread. I probably will, at some point, but I have another question first:

I've got an early series 2, model 24004A. Software version 7.2 something. Is this unit still limited to 137 GB drives, or can it now support larger drives? I've got a 250 GB drive, but if the Tivo will only recognize about half of it I'm not going to use it here.

Thanks for the help.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

meyerweb said:


> Hi all:
> 
> First off, I admit to NOT reading all 20 pages of this thread. I probably will, at some point, but I have another question first:
> 
> I've got an early series 2, model 24004A. Software version 7.2 something. Is this unit still limited to 137 GB drives, or can it now support larger drives? I've got a 250 GB drive, but if the Tivo will only recognize about half of it I'm not going to use it here.
> 
> Thanks for the help.


As of 7.x, the 137G limitation is gone. If you do the upgrade yourself, just be sure to use a LBA48 capable boot CD (or floppy).

I use the Hinsdale HOWTO myself:

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/

FYI, my last upgrade was to a Samsung 200G drive ( I highly recommend Samsung. ), and it made it a 224 hour unit.


----------



## meyerweb

Thanks. I'm printing that how-to right now.


----------



## azitnay

bmatson said:


> The programs are gone, but the "now playing" list wasn't deleted along with the programs they refer to. I don't want to delete each program listing separately (over 300 of them) unless I have to.


As TSF said, no great way... But if you turn off folders, and get yourself into a good CLEAR - SELECT rhythm, you can probably finish off all 300 in 5 minutes or so (albeit with slightly cramped fingers).

Drew


----------



## anilgupte

I got MFS_FTP and WinRar and opened the former and all that. Question is, how do I get it on my TiVo. I know very little Linux, and when the instructions say "requires a working copy of tar in your path" I have no idea what to do. How do I get the MFS_FTP on to the TiVo at all?

I have upgraded my TiVo to a larger capacity drive by following Hinsdale's instructions, so I can be a trained monkey, but that's about it.

Thanx for any help.

AG


----------



## Capricorn

My question is at the end if you want to skip the details. Thanks to everyone for the great tools and pointers!

I purchased Instant Cake in February and very happily used it to create a 250GB drive for my HUMAX DVD-Burning DRT800 (Hats off to PTVUpgrade). I kept the original disk. 

In August my HUMAX was updated by Tivo to 7.2 and I started to have frequent "Internal Errors" burn errors  and it was suggested that those errors were caused by 7.2's greater need for swap space. Another suggested cause was that my disk might be going. So I decided to move to a new disk and to allocate more swap space on it.

Yesterday I used Tiger's MFS 2.0 to try to a backup and restore to a 400GB disk starting with the following command (hdb is the 250GB w/ recordings and hda is the blank new 400GB):

A) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda_

and got a "target too small" error so I dropped the "x" option on the restore:

B) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hda_

and that worked (took about 7 hours).

Reading more on this forum today I realized I might be headed for trouble in the future (like the GSOD) if I didn't allow for even more swap space, so I did another backup and restore:

C) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 250 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hda_

and that worked too (another 7 hours).

*My question is:* Do I now need to use tpip to fix my 250MB of swap space, like this:

D) _tpip --swapped -s /dev/hda_

from the PTVupgrade CD (LBA48 CD v4.0) *or* am I OK because I was upgrading with a 7.2 system? Or have I created other problems for myself with the procedures above?

Sorry to be so clueless, I've done a lot of reading on this forum but I'm not confident about my understanding.

*UPDATE: I think my TPIP question was answered by this reply from azitnay in another thread, so I'm proceeding with the above TPIP command.*


----------



## ThreeSoFar

I had thought -s250, or any number not 127, would fail. Is this saying that you can do -s250 as long as you then follow up with the tpip command?

I've had my Humax DVD DRT800 freeze up a couple times lately. I upgraded it long ago with -s127, and it upgraded to 7.2 recently.



Capricorn said:


> My question is at the end if you want to skip the details. Thanks to everyone for the great tools and pointers!
> 
> I purchased Instant Cake in February and very happily used it to create a 250GB drive for my HUMAX DVD-Burning DRT800 (Hats off to PTVUpgrade). I kept the original disk.
> 
> In August my HUMAX was updated by Tivo to 7.2 and I started to have frequent "Internal Errors" burn errors  and it was suggested that those errors were caused by 7.2's greater need for swap space. Another suggested cause was that my disk might be going. So I decided to move to a new disk and to allocate more swap space on it.
> 
> Yesterday I used Tiger's MFS 2.0 to try to a backup and restore to a 400GB disk starting with the following command (hdb is the 250GB w/ recordings and hda is the blank new 400GB):
> 
> A) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda_
> 
> and got a "target too small" error so I dropped the "x" option on the restore:
> 
> B) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -zpi - /dev/hda_
> 
> and that worked (took about 7 hours).
> 
> Reading more on this forum today I realized I might be headed for trouble in the future (like the GSOD) if I didn't allow for even more swap space, so I did another backup and restore:
> 
> C) _mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 250 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda_
> 
> and that worked too (another 7 hours).
> 
> *My question is:* Do I now need to use tpip to fix my 250MB of swap space, like this:
> 
> D) _tpip --swapped -s /dev/hda_
> 
> from the PTVupgrade CD (LBA48 CD v4.0) *or* am I OK because I was upgrading with a 7.2 system? Or have I created other problems for myself with the procedures above?
> 
> Sorry to be so clueless, I've done a lot of reading on this forum but I'm not confident about my understanding.
> 
> *UPDATE: I think my TPIP question was answered by this reply from azitnay in another thread, so I'm proceeding with the above TPIP command.*


----------



## azitnay

Yes, tpip fixes the swap header that MFS Tools is unable to create correctly when you try to give it more than 127MB of swap.

Drew


----------



## Capricorn

Hmmm, my new disk /dev/hda shows the same size as the 250GB disk I was copying from, that is 274 hours, instead of the 400+ hours I was expecting. Is that because on command "C" above I used the options "-zpi" (not options "-xzpi" as I mistakenly showed above)? I dropped the "x" option because I was getting the "target too small" error.


----------



## Capricorn

Another question, once you start using a disk is it too late to run TPIP on it? That is, will running TPIP blow away the shows that have been recorded or configuration info in the Tivo?

Thanks.


----------



## miadlor

Capricorn said:


> Hmmm, my new disk /dev/hda shows the same size as the 250GB disk I was copying from, that is 274 hours, instead of the 400+ hours I was expecting. Is that because on command "C" above I used the options "-zpi" (not options "-xzpi" as I mistakenly showed above)? I dropped the "x" option because I was getting the "target too small" error.


Correct.........the drive didn't expand (X).
As far as too small.....Someone will know.


----------



## Capricorn

Thanks miadlor! I thought maybe the space caching data for the pipe was too small? If could change my setup so I could use the "x" option it sounds that would help. I have some 5-30GB drives around that I could use if that would work better than booting off a CD. Is there as CD image available that I could use to install Linux and the MFS and TPIP tools onto a scratch hard drive?

*UPDATE: I'm downloading Fedora i386 version 4 to try a pipe running MFS from a hard disk. If it doesn't work, at least I'll have learned some Linux.*


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Capricorn said:


> Thanks miadlor! I thought maybe the space caching data for the pipe was too small? If could change my setup so I could use the "x" option it sounds that would help. I have some 5-30GB drives around that I could use if that would work better than booting off a CD. Is there as CD image available that I could use to install Linux and the MFS and TPIP tools onto a scratch hard drive?
> 
> *UPDATE: I'm downloading Fedora i386 version 4 to try a pipe running MFS from a hard disk. If it doesn't work, at least I'll have learned some Linux.*


Capricorn, I just ran into this same problem, destination too small. Dropping the x is allowing the backup/restore to proceed.

Did you try mfsadd to then expand the resulting system? That's what mfsadd does, right?

I'm about to try that after the mfsbackup|mfsrestore finishes in a few hours.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

mfsadd failed.

But this worked, preserving season passes and wishlists but losing all recorded content:


Code:


mfsbackup -f9999 -so - /dev/hdaX| mfsrestore -s 250 -xzpi - /dev/hdaY

followed by:


Code:


tpip -s --swapped /dev/hdaY

to enable the swap size > 127.

Seems like if this combination worked that the usual mfsbackup -Tao - should have worked, but it didn't.



ThreeSoFar said:


> Capricorn, I just ran into this same problem, destination too small. Dropping the x is allowing the backup/restore to proceed.
> 
> Did you try mfsadd to then expand the resulting system? That's what mfsadd does, right?
> 
> I'm about to try that after the mfsbackup|mfsrestore finishes in a few hours.


----------



## jinatera

please help me I need to made 10,000 clones of one tivo 250 gb I see to copy sector per sector on a copier machine but takes soo much time 2 gb per minut so I need to find a faster option the hd are brand new and are exactly the same that the original please help me I sure we can do if I make the partition and only copy the files that I need


----------



## azitnay

I don't even want to try to guess what you're doing with 10,000 clones of a TiVo drive, but if you're just trying to image the drives without copying recordings, I'd recommend first making a small backup image using mfsbackup with the -f 9999 and -s options, and then restoring that image to each drive using mfsrestore.

Drew


----------



## Luv2DrvFst

I have an S2 DTiVo (Hughes) that was previously upgraded to 2 drives (120GB each). MFSTools tells me I can't compress this back to one drive anymore and save recordings, so I want to create 2 new larger drives (320GB and 250GB). However, to use mfsbackup | mfsrestore I need all four of my IDE ports, therefore requiring a TiVo boot floppy. I can't find a boot floppy with LBA48 support -- does one exist? Or, I do have a PCI-card ATA controller installed that the WeaKnees LBA48 boot CD recognizes at startup and properly reads the new drives attached to it. However, I can't get MFSTools to recognize any drives connected to the PCI-card ATA controller (hdg and hdh). I know if I give up on my recordings this is easy, I've done it. But I really want to keep my recordings. Any ideas how this can be done (and I need to increase swap to 127 at the same time).

I've tried everything I've read and researched on all the TiVo forums and can't seem to get this solved. Any ideas?


----------



## HomeUser

You can use almost any version of Linux to run MFSTools with. Some of the run from CD versions if your system supports it will boot from a SATA or USB drives.

For running the cd you currently have with your ADD-ON IDE card see http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3055744&&#post3055744


----------



## blarg

I believe weaknees has one.


----------



## Luv2DrvFst

Thanks HomeUser for the lightning fast reply! That link has gotten the backup|restore successfully started -- I've got about 230GB to move so whenever it finishes I'll let you know if it worked. It seems to be going much faster than when I used the boot floppy (that took about 22 hours). It looks like it will only take about 3 hours this time. I hope that's just a function of using a faster ATA controller and the boot CD...

Thanks again.


----------



## Athome17

I just upgraded my series2 6.2 directv tivo DVR40 to 160GB drive using mfstoos2. It seems to have worked mostly, didnt save my recorded programs. The tivo backup was 1GB so I restored this to my 160GB drive and started my tivo. It booted and I see programs. However, when I push my list or directv button the menu is overlayed on the screen so I see the live TV at the same time I am trying to select from my play list. Is this a common problem? Does the mfstool change basic setups of some kind to change my display on the tivo?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

Common problem, yes. If you still have your original drive, redo the backup, adding the "-f 9999" option. See the "Hinsdale HOWTO".


----------



## Athome17

"Common problem, yes. If you still have your original drive, redo the backup, adding the "-f 9999" option. See the "Hinsdale HOWTO". "

The document I had didnt reflect that and the tools that I had may have been old. The hinsdale guide was great so I started over and did a complet copy 2hrs to complete but very easy. Thank you.


----------



## dragonslayer

I used the hinsdale guide for a larger hard drive, but when I plug in my new larger hard drive into the tivo it shows the new hard drive recording space of 37hours only how do I fix that, can some help me please.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

dragonslayer said:


> I used the hinsdale guide for a larger hard drive, but when I plug in my new larger hard drive into the tivo it shows the new hard drive recording space of 37hours only how do I fix that, can some help me please.


37h or 137h?

If you mean 137h, you should use the LBA48 boot CD instead of the one you did, which only recognized the first 137G of your new drive.

If you mean 37h, did you skip the mfsadd step?

Before doing anything once the CD boots, it's always nice to run this to see what drive is where:


Code:


dmesg | grep hd


----------



## dragonslayer

ThreeSoFar said:


> 37h or 137h?
> 
> If you mean 137h, you should use the LBA48 boot CD instead of the one you did, which only recognized the first 137G of your new drive.
> 
> If you mean 37h, did you skip the mfsadd step?
> 
> Before doing anything once the CD boots, it's always nice to run this to see what drive is where:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> dmesg | grep hd


I installed a 80G hard drive total recording time is 127hrs, you are correct "ThreeSoFar" I did miss that step, once I plug it back in my PC & finally finished that step, now I facing another problem it is stuck at " Powering up" screen what should I do.......can you please help.


----------



## ThreeSoFar

dragonslayer said:


> I installed a 80G hard drive total recording time is 127hrs, you are correct "ThreeSoFar" I did miss that step, once I plug it back in my PC & finally finished that step, now I facing another problem it is stuck at " Powering up" screen what should I do.......can you please help.


Usually that's a jumper problem. Is it still jumpered to slave? All cables snugly fit?


----------



## dragonslayer

I really do appreciate all you help........Thank you very much


----------



## sheetbird

Hi List,

I'm attempting to add a 300 GB drive while keeping the orig 80 GB drive to a previously unmod'd S2 (TCD24008A) using the Hinsdale HowTo Upgrade Config #1 and Weakness bracket. I did the back up with the test restore fine. However when I put the orig Drive and new drive in shortly after the TiVo splash screen (yellow/black ... few minutes more) I get a green screen (GSOD) which leads to a reset after about 15-20 seconds. I have some shows on the 80GB I'd like to keep.

The only command affecting my original drive was:
./mfstool add -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdY
where X is the orig and Y is the new drive to be added on.

Any suggestions

Thanks,

Paul


----------



## JamieP

sheetbird said:


> I'm attempting to add a 300 GB drive while keeping the orig 80 GB drive to a previously unmod'd S2 (TCD24008A) using the Hinsdale HowTo Upgrade Config #1 and Weakness bracket. I did the back up with the test restore fine. However when I put the orig Drive and new drive in shortly after the TiVo splash screen (yellow/black ... few minutes more) I get a green screen (GSOD) which leads to a reset after about 15-20 seconds. I have some shows on the 80GB I'd like to keep.


You should have used "-r 4" in the mfsadd command line since you are created a partition > 274GB. This is covered in the Weaknees guide. The Hinsdale guide has never been updated to reflect changes required for large drives, so I no longer recommend it.

You are now in a bit of a pickle, since you've married the two drives together incorrectly. To recover from this, you'll need to make a divorced backup, then restore it back to the drives. Normally you'd lose your recordings when you do this. It might be possible to save your recordings, but you'll need a scratch drive large enough to hold them. You'll probably need something as larger or larger than your current tivo A drive.


----------



## subslug

After some power outages from a storm that rolled through our area my 40 hour tivo's hard drive had began to make a noisey high pitched sound. Not wanting to risk anything I went and got a new 120gb hard drive, downloaded the MFS tools and followed the how-to and in no-time I have a quieter, not to mention larger Tivo now!
Thanks for the excellent tools to repair these devices with. I wouldn't even want to think about what we'd do if it wasn't for them.


----------



## charlestwaters

Here's a ?.. Can you use the MFS tools program to access and read/write MFS directly!? For instance... changing channel logos, adding channel logos, etc., since the import doesn't work on the TWP!?

--- Charles!

HR10-250


----------



## ymichael12

I recently was trying to upgrade my 24004A tivo from a 40GB to the 300GB drive I just got. 

I was initally lazy and not going to run a backup but now I think I should have.

I had the "A" tivo drive and new "B" dive connected to my computer, boot with a mfs disk i got from weaknees and did mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb, my tivo is only recognizing 200 hrs of time when it should be much more right? No errors when starting up, just the incorrect drive space (also tivo has not been running for more than 5 minutes with this error)

How do I expand the 300 drive now? Once it is fixed to see all 300 I will then make a backup (which I think I can do).


----------



## kev-mc

I have a Hughes HDVR2 that I had previously added a second 40gb drive to. When I did this, the capacity with the two 40gb drives increased from 35hrs to 71hrs. I just recently wanted to replace the two 40gb drives with one 160gb drive, but I wanted to keep my recordings. After trying and failing, and then doing a little searching, I found that I could not do this because of a partition limit. I decided to use two 60gb drives instead. I used the PTV-LBA48 boot CD with MFSTools 2.0 and just did a dd drive copy from each 40gb drive to the new 60gb drives. After verifying that everything went correctly I expanded both drives at the same time with the 'mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb' command. At the end it reported that I had previously had 89hrs and that I would know have 105hrs. Well I originally had 71hrs not 89hrs. I then put the drives back into the Directivo and they only show 89hr capacity, not 105hrs as reported by MFS Tools 2.0.

Did I miss something? The drives work fine and all the recordings are still there. I just need to know why I'm not getting the 105hrs. I have another Directivo that I removed a 40gb drive from and replaced witha 120gb drive. This unit shows a 107hr recording capacity. I assumed that having two 60gb drives would give me the same amount of time. What do I need to do? I would have preferred to use the 160gb drive and keep my recordings but since that doesn't look like its going to work. I figured that the two 40gigs were my best bet.

Both units have 6.2 software version on them, just in case that matters.


----------



## azitnay

It sounds to me like the mfsadd only expanded one of the two 60GB drives (i.e. one of them is now utilizing 40GB and the other is utilizing 60GB). This works out mathematically, since 71 * 100 / 80 = 88.75 (around 89).

As to why, I don't know for sure, but this may simply be a limitation of mfsadd (or quite possibly, a limitation on number of partitions).

Drew


----------



## mmulet

OK, I'm stumped. 

I've tried 3 different computers, and both the Weaknees as well as MFSTools with LBA, and can't seem to get any of the computers to recognize more than 137G on the new drive.

The setup is:

Original computer drive as Primary Master, 300G Maxtor as Primary Slave, Original Tivo 40 G drive as Secondary Master, and CD-ROM drive as Secondary slave.

All drives are correctly recognized EXCEPT the 300G Maxtor (only recognizing 137G). I am using an LBA Kernel. I've tried with all BIOS settings on NONE & Auto, with LBA turned on and off.

I thought the kernal ignored the BIOS settings; and that by using the LBA kernal it would recognize the 300 G drive. Am I missing something here? Tried the Diskunlock but received the error - disk already unlocked.

I'm pulling my hair out here! Any and all help is greatly appreciated!


mmulet


----------



## ThreeSoFar

mmulet said:


> OK, I'm stumped.
> 
> I've tried 3 different computers, and both the Weaknees as well as MFSTools with LBA, and can't seem to get any of the computers to recognize more than 137G on the new drive.
> 
> The setup is:
> 
> Original computer drive as Primary Master, 300G Maxtor as Primary Slave, Original Tivo 40 G drive as Secondary Master, and CD-ROM drive as Secondary slave.
> 
> All drives are correctly recognized EXCEPT the 300G Maxtor (only recognizing 137G). I am using an LBA Kernel. I've tried with all BIOS settings on NONE & Auto, with LBA turned on and off.
> 
> I thought the kernal ignored the BIOS settings; and that by using the LBA kernal it would recognize the 300 G drive. Am I missing something here? Tried the Diskunlock but received the error - disk already unlocked.
> 
> I'm pulling my hair out here! Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
> 
> mmulet


You are almost certainly NOT using an LBA48 kernel. That's the only thing that would cause this.

What are you booting, one of the TiVo bootable CDs? What was the URL to that .iso that you burned?


----------



## mmulet

I think it was a bad hard drive.

I went out and purchased a 300G Seagate drive, and it was recognized without any difficulty.

So, it looks like I have a faulty Maxtor 300G drive.

Thanks!


mmulet


----------



## mmulet

OK, so the Seagate HD is recognized, but now I get a green screen of death.

I restored the backup image to a NEW 80g Seagate drive (original remains untouched other than backing it up).

I put the new 80G drive back into the Tivo, everything works fine (reported 39 hours, but I hadn't added the additional space, so I wasn't concerned).

So, I hooked up the new 80G drive and the new 300G drive, and did the mfsadd according to the info in Hinsdale's guide. (no -r 4 command, though). Now I get a GSOD.

How do I recover? I still have the original 40g drive, and the 40g's backup image.

Do I just start over, but use -r 4 when doing the msadd? Specifically, what should I do to msadd both drives?

Do I need to do anything to the drives before trying again (ie, like divorce them, reinitialize, etc.)? 

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

mmulet


----------



## mmulet

OK, got it all working. 

I did an MFSbackup/restore from the original drive to the new 80 g drive, and then did an MFSADD with -r 4 with the the new 300 g drive, and all is working for now.

Thank you everyone for your help.

mmulet


----------



## DarkWingDW

I inadvertantly started WinXP with my original Tivo drive connected to PC. During a back-up of a new and larger HD, will MFS Tools automatically correct the corrupt boot sectors during the back-up or will the corrupt boot sectors be copied to the new drive? I'm asking because I'm not sure if I need to run the MakeTivoBootable on the new hard drive to make it bootable in the Tivo.

Any information would be appreciated.


----------



## eatcarrotsnow

I downloaded the bootable iso file from the link on the first page. When I click to record the image in Nero, it says unexpected file format. It does this for both the floppy and the ISOLINUX image. What program is this image designed for? What folders also need to be on the cd to use mfstools?

Thanks!


----------



## HomeUser

The .iso image is complete by its self don't add anything. Just open nero burning rom, cancel the wizard, select file, open, select the .iso file click the open button and burn. I don't know if that image is LBA48 bootable. Instead you might download the PTV or Weaknees LBA48 versions.


----------



## eatcarrotsnow

I tried it that way too, it still says unexpected file format. I don't have a floppy drive on my computer, so I can't use that one either. I'm using Nero 7, so it should work. Anyway, thanks for the help.


----------



## HomeUser

I never up-graded from Nero 6 I suspect that the downloaded image may be corrupted you might try downloading and burning a different one PTVupgrade LBA48 CD v4.02.


----------



## eatcarrotsnow

Nope, I've downloaded one from weaknees, your link, and the one from the original site. Nero gives the same exception every time. I burned it in Alcohol 120 under the data mode 1, block size 2048, and the disc burns blank. I don't know what to do at this point.


----------



## HomeUser

I just tried it a different way right click on the mfstools2.iso, select "Open With" then "Nero Burning ROM" then Burn no problem the CD booted just fine. 

The selections in the burn tab all but Write speed were left at the defaults 
"Write" checked 
"Finalize CD" not checked 
"Write speed:" I did change this to 8X (1,200 KB/S) I have slow computer. 
"Track-at-once" 
"Number of copies:" 1 
"SMART-BURN" checked 
"Use multiple recorder" is not checked 

Which OS and what kind of CD burner are you using?


----------



## johnmsch

First and foremost, thanks for all your hard work. I added a second drive to my Series 2 (24004A) a couple of years ago. Bought the kit from Weaknees, used MFStools and the Hinsdale guide, and it went smooth as silk.

Now I'm wanting to replace the original 40GB hard drive with something larger, like 250GB. I'm on version 7 of the TiVo software, so I'm assuming that the 137GB limit does not exist any more?

I've read through most of the posts in this thread, and noticed somewhere it was mentioned that the Hinsdale guide is not current with regards to the new drive sizes and/or the new MFStools?

Will MFStools make all of the >137GB drive available? What about my current "B" drive (160GB) - will the extra space above 137GB be used after the upgrade?

Just when I thought I had all this figured out, I'm getting confused again!

Thanks again for your efforts!
John


----------



## chrispitude

Hi all,

So I've read the last several pages, and I see some people have run into the "target too small" problem when doing a second upgrade. I can join that club. 

I've upgraded my Series 2 540040 once a year ago, from the factory 40GB to a 200GB drive. This first upgrade with MFSTools was quite easy and uneventful! Now I would like to upgrade the 200GB to a 400GB drive, and keep all my recordings and season passes. It's this upgrade that is giving me the "target too small" error:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

The source (200GB) and destination (400GB) drives are definitely correct. I see some people trying some different switches, removing the x, something about swap space, etc.

Given that I haven't actually done anything which has written to the new drive yet, what's the right set of commands to move from an upgraded drive to a new larger upgraded drive?

_Edit: I think what I am really asking is, is 127MB enough swap space for a Series 2 with a 400GB drive? I just reissued the command with -s 127 and without -x and we'll see what happens.  I'll report back..._

_Edit: After more reading, I got paranoid and increased the swap to -s 200..._

Thanks all!

- Chris


----------



## ThreeSoFar

chrispitude said:


> _Edit: After more reading, I got paranoid and increased the swap to -s 200..._
> 
> Thanks all!
> 
> - Chris


Don't forget the tpip step...


----------



## chrispitude

ThreeSoFar said:


> Don't forget the tpip step...


Well, I'm almost there! The copy completed and I downloaded tpip. Unfortunately I don't see the --swapped flag that people are using. tpip v1.2 has the following usage:



Code:


usage: tpip [-12abpsVv] [-k kernel] [-o old_kernel] [-P "boot params"]
            [-S {0,1}] device
       tpip [--alternate] [--bootpage] [--flipboot] [--kernel=kernel]
            [--mkswap] [--old_kernel=old_kernel] [--parameters="boot params"]
            [--partitions] [--series1] [--series2] [--swaptype={0,1}]
            [--verbose] [--version] device

Any thoughts?

_Edit: I found a post on the MFSTools swap topic which suggested "./tpip -1 -s /dev/hdY" so I tried that and put the drive back in my TiVo. The good news is, it boots up! The bad news is, System Information says it's 224 hours and I'm not sure if that's right for a 400GB drive or not._

- Chris


----------



## chrispitude

Suddenly, now that I've finally hit all the same problems, the previous posts make sense to me.  I'm stuck again, and hopefully Tiger (or someone else) can help.

I originally upgraded my factory 40GB drive to 200GB. I am now trying to upgrade from 200GB to 400GB. When I attempted to do an "mfsrestore -xzpi" when copying the 200GB to the 400GB, I got the message about the target drive being too small. I left out the -x option and the copy succeeded. However, the new drive only shows 224 hours, which is consistent with an unexpanded partition.

So, I hooked up the 400GB drive to my linux box and tried mfsadd:



Code:


# ./mfstool add -x /dev/hdc
Expand of /dev/hdc would result in too many partitions.

Here's the partition list:



Code:


# ./mfstool info /dev/hdc
MFS volume set for /dev/hdc
The MFS volume set contains 6 partitions
  /dev/hdc10
    MFS Partition Size: 256MiB
  /dev/hdc11
    MFS Partition Size: 16354MiB
  /dev/hdc12
    MFS Partition Size: 256MiB
  /dev/hdc13
    MFS Partition Size: 21563MiB
  /dev/hdc14
    MFS Partition Size: 0MiB
  /dev/hdc15
    MFS Partition Size: 151832MiB
Total MFS volume size: 190262MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 222
This MFS volume may be expanded 3 more times

I am lost...

- Chris


----------



## chrispitude

After doing some more reading, I guess I am trying to figure out the real deal with the partition limit. The first post in this topic says:



> Upgrade a second time without losing recordings
> It's all over the hack FAQ and the underground. You can only have TiVo upgrade with a blessed drive once. It is set in stone, if you want to upgrade again you lose recordings. Not anymore. Due to research into the workings of TiVo, MFS Tools is now able to upgrade a drive without having to bless it and rely on the TiVo software to upgrade it correctly. In fact, with MFS Tools 2.0, you can upgrade again and again, upgrading one drive up to 5 times (3 for some models)


I've only upgraded once so far, so according to the above, I should have at least one or two more upgrades left. mfsinfo clearly says "This MFS volume may be expanded 3 more times", but mfsadd tells me I have no more partitions left. According to mfsinfo, there are indeed three matched MFS pairs on my drive.

Does anyone have any insight into MFS partition limits, and how to reconcile it with the statements above?

- Chris


----------



## JamieP

chrispitude said:


> Does anyone have any insight into MFS partition limits, and how to reconcile it with the statements above?


There is a limit on the number of mfs partitions on a single A drive (3 partition pairs) and a limit on the total number of mfs partitions over all drives -- 128 characters total in the device list. This overall limit basically boils down to 6 pairs: the longest possible device list string is: "/dev/hda10 /dev/hda11 /dev/hda12 /dev/hda13 /dev/hda14 /dev/hda15 /dev/hdb2 /dev/hdb3 /dev/hdb4 /dev/hdb5 /dev/hdb6 /dev/hdb7".

mfstools is reporting the combined limit, not the single A drive limit.

The easiest solution to your problem is to copy/expand sans recordings. You can save any recordings you really want to keep to your PC and restore them later.


----------



## chrispitude

Hi Jamie,

Thank you! Now I think it makes sense. The three additional expansions would be three new pairs onto a new drive then.

I have lots of recordings I want to save, but I can put the old drive back in and begin copying those over to my PC. Now the big question is, if I copy things over and lose the recordings:



Code:


mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 200 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

will that reduce my partition count so that I can expand again in the future?

Also, here's a twist... The linux box I am using to do all of this has a 900GB RAID array on it. Is there some way I can use that to store recordings temporarily from the old drive, and somehow combine them together and put them on the new 400GB drive with fewer partitions?

Sorry to answer your kindness with yet more questions...

- Chris


----------



## JamieP

chrispitude said:


> Now the big question is, if I copy things over and lose the recordings:
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 200 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
> 
> will that reduce my partition count so that I can expand again in the future?


The "-s" in the mfsbackup will shrink your mfs volume back down to the original two partition pairs. The -x in the restore will expand to fill the target drive, adding another partition pair. So you'll have a single expanded drive, but it will have a full partition table.


> Also, here's a twist... The linux box I am using to do all of this has a 900GB RAID array on it. Is there some way I can use that to store recordings temporarily from the old drive, and somehow combine them together and put them on the new 400GB drive with fewer partitions?


On a hacked tivo, yes, using extraction methods that can't be discussed here. In that case, you can use tivoserver to put the shows back on the tivo. On an unhacked tivo, you can use the TTG/GoBack options in Galleon to pull your shows on to the raid and serve them back to the tivo. The main disadvantage of this approach is that TTG is really, really slow compared to the techniques we can't talk about. 5-10 times slower.

There is another option that I hesitate to recommend, 'cause it is ugly, but if you like to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty in the bits, you can look at this partition coalesce approach to solve the original full partition table problem. The main disadvantage of this approach is that the result is a non-standard tivo drive layout that mfsbackup won't be able to correctly back up.


----------



## chrispitude

JamieP said:


> The "-s" in the mfsbackup will shrink your mfs volume back down to the original two partition pairs. The -x in the restore will expand to fill the target drive, adding another partition pair. So you'll have a single expanded drive, but it will have a full partition table.


Jamie, thanks for all your help. Over the weekend, I finally got this done using the following commands:



Code:


mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 200 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
./tpip -1 -s /dev/hdd

The TiVo saw the new drive and confirmed over 400 hours of storage space. I then did a "Delete All Shows/To-Do" which I figured would be a good way to clear out the current programs. Unfortunately, this seemed to put my TiVo into la-la land. None of the programs were removed; I had to delete them all manually. Even stranger, every season pass entry showed no upcoming episodes ("This show has no upcoming episodes."), yet the guide worked perfectly and I could see the upcoming episodes . I finally gave up and did a full reset, and it's been working great ever since. My season pass list needed some housecleaning anyway. 

Thanks to everyone for their help!

- Chris


----------



## mike55btz

If I am going to go to a 500gb single on my series 2 is there a general rule of thumb to make the swap size...


I was thinking a swap of 200 then tpip it when done.


----------



## ZeoTiVo

so where can I get a boot floppy of MFStools with lba48 support ?
aslo where can I get tpip ?


----------



## azitnay

Do you specifically want a floppy in lieu of a CD for some reason, Zeo? I don't know that anyone's ever made an LBA48-compatible floppy, but the following CD-ROM supports LBA48:

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/index.html

I believe it also contains tpip.

Drew


----------



## ZeoTiVo

azitnay said:


> Do you specifically want a floppy in lieu of a CD for some reason, Zeo? I don't know that anyone's ever made an LBA48-compatible floppy, but the following CD-ROM supports LBA48:
> 
> http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/software/lba48/index.html
> 
> I believe it also contains tpip.
> 
> Drew


Thanks all. The TiVo is up an running with 225 hours at best quality.
This was a DT series 2 going from stock 80 hour drive to single 500GiG drive

I thought the PTV link would cost money. Happy to see it had a free option for the opne source stuff I needed :up: Including tpip 1.2.

once the CD-ROM is booted you can do


> dmesg | grep hd


to be sure the Hard drives are seen as the right size.

so also armed with weakness interactive instructions on how setup the hard drives in the PC and what that means to the command (I was upgrading a new TiVo so no need to copy over the shows)


> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hd? | mfsrestore -s xxx -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hd?


 I knew how to replace ? with the right drive letter and in reading here I found the rule of thumb to replace '-s xxx" with a swap file size of 1 meg for every 2 GIG. "-s 300" is what I used for my 500Gig to be sure it would have plenty of room.

after that it is just a matter of using the TPIP 1.2 from the PTV CD-Rom to set up the swap file header


> TPIP -1 -s /dev/hd?


 again replace the ? with the correct drive designation you did the mfsrestore to per weakness instructions.

*A big thanks to all who posted here and made finding this info easier and an great big thank you to those who made these tools that made this upgrade a lot less of a command line fest :up: *


----------



## Jeremybme

Hi,

First let me thank everyone who has helped in the past and who might help this time.

I have upgraded my series 1's
and eventually replaced with Series 2's and upgraded those as well

Here are some general questions.

I want to buy a new Tivo one of the dual tuner ones. does anyone have the following answers


1... is it possible to upgrade hard drives like previous Series 2?
2... If so what guide should i use now for large hard drives, in the past i have used hinsdale, but it still talks about 137gb limitation
3... is it true that the dual tuner will not work at all with over the air TV it always has to be cable?
4... will i be able to transfer shows to my older series 2's (right now i transfer between them)


Thanks Again. any help is appreciated.


----------



## azitnay

1) Yes.

2) http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php works well.

3) Yes (I won't go into why; I'm sure there are several threads somewhere on these forums discussing it). Further details on what each tuner can record can be found at http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-dual-tuner.php.

4) Yes.

Drew


----------



## Jeremybme

Thank You Drew! 

Now that i know its possible, and have the link for guide. Im on my way to buy a new Tivo from the store..

-Jeremy


----------



## sjmaye

Probaby a simple question for the veterans here-

I have been running my Zippered single drive (250GB) HD D*Tivo HR10-250 for about a week now. Everything is working great. I want to add a second drive (400GB).

Here is an excerpt the Hinsdale How-to that is a bit confusing to me.

_UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #1:

From: Any Single Drive TiVo

To: Adding a New B Drive

(Fast option  preserves setup, season passes, etc. and recordings)

If you are simply adding a new large B drive *to your existing (unmodified or expanded) * TiVo A drive from your single drive unit, then your season passes, setup, and recordings will be preserved. After creating and testing your Mfs Tools backup image, all that is remaining to do for this upgrade configuration is to run Mfsadd to make your existing A drive aware of the added space provided by your new large upgrade B drive

* Swap File*: When increasing your total recording capacity (A+B drives) to over ~140GB (actual threshold number is likely just over 150GB for Series 1 Standalones and over 180GB for DirecTiVos and Series 2 units) the preferable method for upgrade should include a means to increase the swap file so that the built-in TiVo repair utility (GSOD) can complete if ever triggered (rare). Those upgrading to these larger capacities should consider using the Mfs Tools restore option (-s 127 command line parameter increases the swap) outlined in Upgrade Configuration #2 (test image has increased swap already - does not preserve recordings) or Upgrade Configuration #3 (preserves recordings - time consuming) in preference to simply using mfsadd described below to increase recording capacity.

At the # prompt both Boot Cd and Floppy users type the following command:

(The following command assumes your existing TiVo A drive is connected as Secondary Master and your new large upgrade B drive is connected to the Primary Slave)

mfsadd * -x * /dev/hdc /dev/hdb (Boot CD and Floppy users command)_

*
MFSTools is supposed to be on my LBA48 CD I bought from PTVnet

Can I still use the MFSADD since my drive has been modified via the Zipper?

I have read of the GSOD if you do not increase your swap file size when doing something like this. Where/Who is this done?

Do I use the -x or -r parameter. I have read about both.
*


----------



## sjmaye

ZeoTiVo said:


> Thanks all. The TiVo is up an running with 225 hours at best quality.
> 
> I thought the PTV link would cost money. Happy to see it had a free option for the opne source stuff I needed :up: Including tpip 1.2.
> 
> once the CD-ROM is booted you can doto be sure the Hard drives are seen as the right size.
> 
> so also armed with weakness interactive instructions on how setup the hard drives in the PC and what that means to the command (I was upgrading a new TiVo so no need to copy over the shows) I knew how to replace ? with the right drive letter and in reading here I found the rule of thumb to replace '-s xxx" with a swap file size of 1 meg for every 2 GIG. "-s 300" is what I used for my 500Gig to be sure it would have plenty of room.
> 
> after that it is just a matter of using the TPIP 1.2 from the PTV CD-Rom to set up the swap file header again replace the ? with the correct drive designation you did the mfsrestore to per weakness instructions.
> 
> *A big thanks to all who posted here and made finding this info easier and an great big thank you to those who made these tools that made this upgrade a lot less of a command line fest :up: *


You seem to have had success. Could you give me a hand? I had posted this over in the Zipper section. Probably the wrong place, but they have been great at getting me up and running with a Zippered drive.

I have a Zippered 250GB that was working perfectly. I wanted to add a 400GB drive. I read the best way to do this was to use the MFSADD command. Following the Weaknees instructions I did this:

*First try-*
hda - cd drive
hdc- 250GB Zippered drive (jumper on Master)
hdd- 400GB New drive (Jumper on Slave)

_mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdd_

After I struck enter it took a bit, but it showed about 761 hours. Sounded about right.

Installed in to HR10-250. Boot cycle all worked like usual. I still had my Zippered drive enhancements. I checked System Info. Recording capacity did not change 30hrs HD, 200hrs SD.

I read a post where two other people had the exact same problem. They said the drives had to be on different IDE channels and did not use the "-r 4" option.

*Second try-*
hda - 250GB Zippered drive (jumper on Master)
hdc- cd drive
hdd- 400GB New drive (Jumper on Slave)

ran:

_mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdd_

After I hit return response was pretty quick- "added 480 hours" for a total of 761hrs.

Looked good.

Put drives in the HD D*Tivo and booted. Got past the Tivo unleashed splash, rebooted waited a while, then GSOD. After a few seconds on GSOD it rebooted again. This process kept repeating.

*Third try-*
I thought I might have needed the "-r 4" after all and went to try it. Took the drives back out and put them in the PC. The response was "nothing to add".

Now I am stuck. I could probably start from scratch, reapply the drive image, and rezipper with both drives from the start, but I hate to add back all my season passes etc.

Based on everything I have read I _think _ I married the drive together correctly. Looks like I have to change my swap file size.

Since the TIVO was down with little chance of me fixing it soon I put the factory drive back in so I bought some time.

*My dilemma- *

I would like to save my Season Passes and settings. If possible I would like to save the recordings.

I had hoped it would be as simple as mfsadd to marry the drives and everything would work fine. NOT.

I did not make a backup of drive before marrying the two together.

I would definitely like to save all my settings​

I would prefer to save my recordings, but not a must​

I think I need to increase my swap file size, but the only way I can see to do this is to do a backup and then restore it and I am not really sure how with these two drives

No matter how carefully I approached this thing I screwed it up and can not figure a way back out of it.

Can someone help?


----------



## ZeoTiVo

sjmaye said:


> You seem to have had success. Could you give me a hand? I had posted this over in the Zipper section. Probably the wrong place, but they have been great at getting me up and running with a Zippered drive.


sorry I did my upgrade on a Series 2 DT unit and am not well versed in two drives. I did not see what the problem was from reading your post.


----------



## JamieP

sjmaye said:


> Can someone help?


You *do* need -r 4 when adding partitions > 274 GB. By marrying your drive to a B drive _without_ -r 4, you've made a mess that will be difficult to clean up without dropping your recordings.


----------



## Brillian1080p

If you have recordings that are important to you and you can't seem to access them, you might want to try this program.

Winhex.

You'll have to see if it would work for the Linux/Tivo.

I had a crash and thought I had lost a couple years of my Twin Grandbabies pictures. I tried this program and it saved my rearend.

I was considering paying one of those data salvage companies.

They have a trial version.


----------



## sjmaye

JamieP said:


> You *do* need -r 4 when adding partitions > 274 GB. By marrying your drive to a B drive _without_ -r 4, you've made a mess that will be difficult to clean up without dropping your recordings.


I can do without the recordings, but would like to avoid redoing the Zippering of the drive all over again.

Is there a way to do that?


----------



## sjmaye

sjmaye said:


> I can do without the recordings, but would like to avoid redoing the Zippering of the drive all over again.
> 
> Is there a way to do that?


I did some over night reading. It looked like I needed to create a backup of my drives.

Following the Hinsdale guide I created a 2GB FAT32 partition on my project PC C:/ drive.

I then performed the backup as specified. There was one instruction I was sure of:

At # prompt both Boot Cd and Floppy users type the following commands to mount your C: drive:

_mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos_

This is what I actually typed:

_mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda*2* /mnt/dos_

I entered hda2 as when in linux I performed fdisk -l and that the FAT32 partition showed "hda2".

The whole backup operation went well and I can see it on the drive, but I am not sure if I am looking at hda1 or hda2.

I am ready to restore the backup and expand, but do not want to screw it up again. *Can someone give me some pointers where to go from here?*

Configuration I am trying to get to a dual drive Zipper:
Tivo A 250GB (currently located on hdc)
Tivo B 400GB (currently located on hdb)


----------



## sjmaye

ZeoTiVo said:


> so also armed with weakness interactive instructions on how setup the hard drives in the PC and what that means to the command (I was upgrading a new TiVo so no need to copy over the shows)
> 
> 
> 
> mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hd? | mfsrestore -s xxx -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hd?
> 
> 
> 
> I knew how to replace ? with the right drive letter and in reading here I found the rule of thumb to replace '-s xxx" with a swap file size of 1 meg for every 2 GIG. "-s 300" is what I used for my 500Gig to be sure it would have plenty of room.
> 
> after that it is just a matter of using the TPIP 1.2 from the PTV CD-Rom to set up the swap file header
> 
> 
> 
> TPIP -1 -s /dev/hd?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> again replace the ? with the correct drive designation you did the mfsrestore to per weakness instructions.
> 
> A big thanks to all who posted here and made finding this info easier and an great big thank you to those who made these tools that made this upgrade a lot less of a command line fest
Click to expand...

Guys- I am sorry to be such a pain, but I have just about worn the threads bare on the tivo taking drives in and out. Just trying to get it right this time. I appreciate your help AND patience 

If I understand this correctly, in my situation:

hd? would be hda*2* since mybackup image is there? It doesn't need to know exactly what directory?

the xxx should be about 325? for a 325MB swap file for my combined hd total of 650GB

the hd? in mfsrestore would be hd*c*? since this is where my "Tivo A" drive is?


then I issue a mfsadd command with the "-r 4"? to marry the drives correctly?


----------



## ThreeSoFar

sjmaye said:


> Guys- I am sorry to be such a pain, but I have just about worn the threads bare on the tivo taking drives in and out. Just trying to get it right this time. I appreciate your help AND patience
> 
> If I understand this correctly, in my situation:
> 
> hd? would be hda*2* since mybackup image is there? It doesn't need to know exactly what directory?
> 
> the xxx should be about 325? for a 325MB swap file for my combined hd total of 650GB
> 
> the hd? in mfsrestore would be hd*c*? since this is where my "Tivo A" drive is?
> 
> 
> then I issue a mfsadd command with the "-r 4"? to marry the drives correctly?


Sounds like your first hd? was fine for the FAT32 partition. If booted to windows your PC sees the .bak file where you expect it to, then you're fine. Also, it should be pretty big.

The xxx of 325 for your swap size should be fine. NOTE THOUGH: "tpip" should be in all lowercase.

hd? in mfsrestore---that should be where your new TiVo A drive is. A "dmesg | grep hd" command will help you clarify (by size/brand of drive) that that is the case.

Finally, if you're doing this command:


Code:


mfsbackup -f 9999 -so - /dev/hd? | mfsrestore -s xxx -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hd?

Then you DO NOT need the mfsadd command. The "x" argument to mfsrestore takes care of that (expand to fill the drive).

Good luck!


----------



## JamieP

sjmaye said:


> Guys- I am sorry to be such a pain, but I have just about worn the threads bare on the tivo taking drives in and out. Just trying to get it right this time. I appreciate your help AND patience
> 
> If I understand this correctly, in my situation:
> 
> hd? would be hda*2* since mybackup image is there? It doesn't need to know exactly what directory?
> 
> the xxx should be about 325? for a 325MB swap file for my combined hd total of 650GB
> 
> the hd? in mfsrestore would be hd*c*? since this is where my "Tivo A" drive is?
> 
> 
> then I issue a mfsadd command with the "-r 4"? to marry the drives correctly?


You want to restore from the backup, not copy from one disk to another. This is necessary since you are going from a dual disk setup (A+B) and overwriting one of your drives (I'd do the 400GB B drive).

Go lookup the Weaknees instructions for restoring from a backup on your model. Hinsdale is no longer a good reference, since it leaves out little critical details like *-r 4* for large drives.

If you really want to be safe, buy a third drive and restore to that instead, so you don't overwrite either of your drives until you know the backup worked.


----------



## sjmaye

OK, if I don't get it working it's not for a lack of trying! 

Thanks for all the input, however, after reading and re-reading I finally came to the conclusion I would just start over.

On the Tivo A drive I redid the process I did before that had my single drive working right with the Zipper.


Installed a fresh Instantcake HR10-250 drive image

Ran the Zipper

Reported SUCCESS at the end

With Tivo A on hdc and Tivo B on hdb I performed the following:

_mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb_

Now I am hoping all this is correct. I want to make this the last time I install the drives in the HD D*Tivo.

There is one last thing I read about when adding a second large drive (my total capacity will be 250gb + 400GB = 650GB)



> tpip -1 -s /dev/hd? [/I]



Should I do this in my case?

If so, should the statement be _"tpip -1 -s /dev/hdc /dev/hdb"_ for my dual drive setup?


----------



## JamieP

sjmaye said:


> ...
> There is one last thing I read about when adding a second large drive (my total capacity will be 250gb + 400GB = 650GB)
> 
> 
> Should I do this in my case?
> If so, should the statement be _"tpip -1 -s /dev/hdc /dev/hdb"_ for my dual drive setup?


If you restored from instantcake, you have a standard size swap and you don't need the tpip step. There are two schools of thought on the need for additional swap on a Series2.


----------



## sjmaye

JamieP said:


> If you restored from instantcake, you have a standard size swap and you don't need the tpip step. There are two schools of thought on the need for additional swap on a Series2.


Yes, I did restore from instantcake, but I Zippered it immediately thereafter. Does that make a difference?

Something occurred to me while I was out today. Right after Zippering the Tivo A drive without doing any sort of prep to the Tivo B drive I did the mfsadd. I worried that I might have some sort of partition problems. Or is the adding and expanding overwriting any partitions that were on it?

Is there something I should be looking for in partition info to show everything is OK?

So, if all is good and no need for "tpip" then all these problems happened just because I did not use the "-r 4" in the mfsadd?


----------



## sjmaye

This is a repost of info on the Zipper thread. I thought MFSTools could help.

I did a successful mfsadd on my dual drives using:

_mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb_

After mounting in the HD D*Tivo I got no GSOD. 

Everything looked good. After about 2 hours the video started stuttering and locking up. I tried rebooting a few times and got no where.

I thought I had maybe done something along the way to mess things up so I decided to start all over (again).

*I tried applying the drive image to the 400GB drive*. After it completed the restore and was cleaning up it said *unsuccessful*.

*I then tried applying the drive image to the 250GB drive(which was successfully imaged twice before) * . Image went on fine, but came back with *"not enough space to expand on A drive".*

I thought applying a drive image overwrote everything. Seems like when the drives are brand new imaging and everything else works fine.

*Is there something I can or should do to prep these drives for imaging?*


----------



## Pearldiver

I'm having issues. I have a Series 2 that I had upgraded to two 120GB drives. After a new channel lineup and perhaps software version had been installed the system was giving me an incorrect channel line up, so I went in to correct it and when I was done it wanted to download the guide info again. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to finish the process (it would fail after loading just under half the new info) and after talking with a couple of techs at Tivo we did a repair. Now that system is stuck in the Green screen repair loop. I saw on the fourm that this could be caused be a swap partition that is too small. I was able to stick in my old original drive to get back up and running for now in for now.

When I did the original upgrade, I had a friend who is familiar with linux help me, so I'm not sure how to fix this. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to enlarge the swap partition so that it may be able to repair itself? If so can you please give me the command to do it? Or is there something else that may fix the issue?

I'm hoping to get this fixed so that I can recover my recordings. If not I guess I can just start over on the upgraded drives from the original drive that is currently running in the Tivo. Thanks.


----------



## TiVoJimmy

Can I copy or 'install' the PTV ISO on a spare hard drive to dedicate an old PC to upgrading TIVOs? Does anyone have instructions on how to do so, I am Linux impaired. 

Thanks, 

Jim


----------



## grins

Hi folks! Having some trouble with my zippered HR10-250. 

I'm going from a single 250 GB to a single 500 GB. I used the weaknees interactive guide to get a backup command, and it told me to use

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 300 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

I'm quite sure of the device letters, even though they're not the norm.

At boot time, the console log shows hda with 500108 MB and 1 partition, and hdb with 251000MB and lots of partitions.

I issue the backup | restore command, and get
Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment
Source drive size is 281 hours
- Upgraded to 283 hours
Uncompressed backup size 211018 megabytes
Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

Any ideas? aTdHvAaNnKcSe 

p.s. Sorry for the double post, I also put this in the weaknees thread.


----------



## frankrizzo

Just want to give props to the Mfs Tools 2.0 programmers and also the Hinsdale-How-To. The process was easy and simple following the How-To...no problems or hiccups at all. I did a nice modest upgrade of my Series 1 DirectTivo (Sony T-60)...originally had 40GB (35hrs) and I added an 80GB drive I had lying around here for a total of 105 hours. I'm a happy camper, especially now that my wife has learned how to record programs! 

I love my Tivo - it's been going strong for 4 years now...eventually I'll go HD but for now, it's perfect!


----------



## ThreeSoFar

grins said:


> Hi folks! Having some trouble with my zippered HR10-250.
> 
> I'm going from a single 250 GB to a single 500 GB. I used the weaknees interactive guide to get a backup command, and it told me to use
> 
> mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 300 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda
> 
> I'm quite sure of the device letters, even though they're not the norm.
> 
> At boot time, the console log shows hda with 500108 MB and 1 partition, and hdb with 251000MB and lots of partitions.
> 
> I issue the backup | restore command, and get
> Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment
> Source drive size is 281 hours
> - Upgraded to 283 hours
> Uncompressed backup size 211018 megabytes
> Restore failed: Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.
> 
> Any ideas? aTdHvAaNnKcSe
> 
> p.s. Sorry for the double post, I also put this in the weaknees thread.


You used a swap greater than 127, but I don't see tpip--probably because you didn't get that far, but don't forget it.

I have seen this error before, but given your command and drives' sizes, I'm not sure why this error would come up. Maybe run "fdisk /dev/hda" and use that to delete the one partition on hda, but really that shouldn't matter.

Google "Restore failed: Backup target not large enough"

Some of those links go into it in a bit of detail, not sure if they're helpful. ANd I'd post the URL's except for some reason a lot of those sites show up as "****" instead of a real domain. TCF.com must be broken (or perhaps it is just rude).


----------



## what the!?

Ok. I'm at about wits end now.

So i'm trying to upgrade my Humax DRT400 from a 40GB to a 400GB drive.

I followed the Hinsdale drive and used the msftools boot cd. My configuration is:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda.

After a couple of hours I put it back (i need to save my wife's recordings) into my Tivo and I booted up. I got to the "Almost there..." and it GSOD'd on me and went through an endless loop. Then I read I needed to use the -r 4 switch and a larger swap file.

I then used: 

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdb | mfsrestore -s 512 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hda

Then I get the same result after placing the drive back into the Humax. 

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to reduce the swap file back to 127 or 200? Do I need to use that thing called tpip? If so, what is the command. 

Help! My wife is about to kill me!


----------



## azitnay

-s 512 definitely won't work without tpip... Either use tpip as well, or just so -s 127.

Drew


----------



## what the!?

azitnay said:


> -s 512 definitely won't work without tpip... Either use tpip as well, or just so -s 127.
> 
> Drew


Hi Drew,

Thanks for the quick response. I'm running through it again with this command:

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

Hopefully this works! My wife just told me, "get it to work by the time Days of Our Lives is on tomorrow, or you're dead meat!" 

*I'm keeping my fingers crossed*


----------



## azitnay

If that fails (which it shouldn't), just throw the old drive back in there... No reason to risk bodily harm .

Drew


----------



## what the!?

Awesome Drew! It worked for my Humax DRT400! Now...

So I did the same exact thing for my TCD540040 with the same command:

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

upgrading from a 40gb drive to a 400gb seagate drive and I get the rebooting and GSOD.

Any thoughts?

The Humax DRT400 was a 40gb Seagate drive, and the Tivo TCD540040 drive is a Maxtor (drive wasn't locked as it showed the correct size)

I don't get why it would work for one, but not the other?



azitnay said:


> If that fails (which it shouldn't), just throw the old drive back in there... No reason to risk bodily harm .
> 
> Drew


----------



## Brillian1080p

I had an existing 500gb drive and used MFStools 2.0 to add a second 750gb drive. It only took a second and it reported a large amount of recording time. 

I put the drives back in the box, it boots up fine, didn't loose any recordings, passes or settings, but info shows only 1 hour available for sd and hd, and here is what TWP info says:

Expired Invisible 4 2960 MB -0.3% 1:13:58
Expired Suggestion 33 68302 MB -7.5% 37:46:07
Expired Season Pass 1 5024 MB -0.6% 0:52:03
Expired Single 1 11760 MB -1.3% 2:02:04
Single 24 150910 MB -16.7% 33:04:31
Season Pass 25 89962 MB -9.9% 18:32:05
Suggestion 23 26639 MB -2.9% 25:43:46
Live Cache 2 1808 MB -0.2% 0:42:24
Used User Space 113 357365 MB -39.5% 119:56:58
Reserved Space
Expired Tivo Clips 3 272 MB 0.0% 0:58:06
Used Reserved Space 3 272 MB 0.0% 0:58:06
Space Summary
Total Space - -905844 MB 100.0% -308:58:02
Total Used 116 357637 MB -39.5% 120:55:04
Total Free - -1263481 MB 139.5% -429:44:50
Deleted** 30 113522 MB -12.5% 38:52:26

Should there be negative numbers? How do I fix this?


----------



## vegaspl

Brillian1080p said:


> I had an existing 500gb drive and used MFStools 2.0 to add a second 750gb drive. It only took a second and it reported a large amount of recording time.
> 
> I put the drives back in the box, it boots up fine, didn't loose any recordings, passes or settings, but info shows only 1 hour available for sd and hd, and here is what TWP info says:
> 
> Expired Invisible 4 2960 MB -0.3% 1:13:58
> Expired Suggestion 33 68302 MB -7.5% 37:46:07
> Expired Season Pass 1 5024 MB -0.6% 0:52:03
> Expired Single 1 11760 MB -1.3% 2:02:04
> Single 24 150910 MB -16.7% 33:04:31
> Season Pass 25 89962 MB -9.9% 18:32:05
> Suggestion 23 26639 MB -2.9% 25:43:46
> Live Cache 2 1808 MB -0.2% 0:42:24
> Used User Space 113 357365 MB -39.5% 119:56:58
> Reserved Space
> Expired Tivo Clips 3 272 MB 0.0% 0:58:06
> Used Reserved Space 3 272 MB 0.0% 0:58:06
> Space Summary
> Total Space - -905844 MB 100.0% -308:58:02
> Total Used 116 357637 MB -39.5% 120:55:04
> Total Free - -1263481 MB 139.5% -429:44:50
> Deleted** 30 113522 MB -12.5% 38:52:26
> 
> Should there be negative numbers? How do I fix this?


I'm not sure if this is where I respond (kinda) to your thread, but I noticed in your signature you mentioned you had an HR20. I assume that's the same as the
3 HR20 DVR's I'm getting This Saturday from DTV. Is your's upgraded and if so could you direct me and my Tech Friend to the proper site(s). He upgraded all my many Tivo's and I hope he will do the three HR20's coming.
As far as the info you displayed..WOW!!!!. I and many others had been pushing TiVo since way back when I was a Beta Tester for ANY kind of a "Time remaining indicator. I was pleased when I downloaded the HR20's Manual and found that low and Behold it showed a gauge for that, but yours "Tremendous"
If I'm not asking too much could you also send info on how I can get even 1/2 of what you displayed


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## Brillian1080p

The display was from tivowebplus running on the HR10-250. With TWP you open a browser on a PC and type in the network address of your box.

But my problem is I don't think the new 750gb drive is being recognized properly. Everything went smoothly during the add, but I'm not sure these numbers are correct.


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## vegaspl

Thanks for the info but tell me about your HR20 ... DTV DVR? Upgraded? even if No, then any info on Upgrading HR20's would be gratefully received


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## Brillian1080p

My HR20 is stock. There are threads that talk about using Esata drives to increase recording time.


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## gary80920

Hi,

I asked this question over in the " PTVupgrade TiVo Upgrade CD with LBA48 support for Series1 and Select Series2 Units" thread. But was told that I should ask my question here.

I currently have a Series1 running v3.0-01-1-000 with a 120gB drive. I am getting ready to add a 160gB drive to it. And, I have a couple of questions:

If I use one of the traditional non-LBA48 boot CDs, I can just proceed along and the 160gB will only be expanded to the 137gB limit. Correct? I already have the swap file set at 127mB.
If I want to use all of the 160gB, I need to do the following:
boot using a LBA48 compliant CD/kernel
use mfsadd to add/marry the 160gB drive to my existing 120gB drive
use the copykern utility to update the Tivo kernel to be LBA48 compliant

Thanks!


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## aaronburro

how long should it take to get to the # prompt?


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