# bootcd w/ updated mfstools and more



## spike2k5

*Update: September 14, 2007*
Checkout MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3b. 
Added xfs filesystem support so you can explore Directv non-Tivo HD DVR HR20-100, HR20-700

*Update: August 18, 2007*
Checkout MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3a. 
Fixed mfsadd that was broken in the previous release.

*Update: August 13, 2007*
Checkout MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3. 
This version includes TivoHD support and fixes for Mfstools restore -r 2 and mfsadd -r 2 for a paritition greater than 274GB.

*Update: June 01, 2007*
MFSLive v1.2 is out.

- Added more IDE / SATA device drivers 
- Fixed AAM tuning for SATA drive. 
- Added joe text editor
- Added support for Series 3 TiVo with eSATA port 
- Added fixdivorce tool.

Checkout ICG (Interactive command generator if you have not)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

*Update: 03/09/2007*
MFSLive v1.1 is out.
New linux kernel 2.6, intramfs, dd_rescue, dd_rhelp and all the tools from v1.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------

*Original post*
it's been beta tested by few and worked well. So I want to open it up for more people to test.

What's included:

mfstools:
w/ bug fixes (linux swap bigger that 127MB, alternate root/kernel partition size)
added experimental options for restore:
-n Limit the hard drive size to 137GB for series 1

mfsinfo:
improved

sd-h400_unlock
we know all about this one.

diskutil (ported to linux)
unlock series 1 drives if locked.

hdparm:
has aam support

blesstivo:
I included SATA support for this one.

bootcd:
LBA48 support built in but you can use it Series 1 with -n option and not go over 137GB limit
USB and SATA support so you can use usb drives or serial ATA drives.

It's still being beta tested so report any errors and use it at your own risk.	
It's hosted here:

http://www.mfslive.org


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## mjn

I'll try that on a disk that i want to divorce! I'll be a ginuea pig!


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## spike2k5

mjn said:


> I'll try that on a disk that i want to divorce! I'll be a ginuea pig!


How was your divorce? 

If you do this, recordings on your "B" drive if there's any will be trimmed.
After that you can marry another "B" drive if you want to.


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## mjn

spike2k5 said:


> How was your divorce?
> 
> If you do this, recordings on your "B" drive if there's any will be trimmed.
> After that you can marry another "B" drive if you want to.


didn't have any effect i'm afraid, Tivo still constantly reboots


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## Pauli

Are you saying that, with the -f option, recordings can be saved on drives that had already been upgraded?

Edit: I just went to your linked site and this seems to be what the -f option is for. Dude, that is HUGE! If that works correctly, YOU ARE THE MAN! Maybe I'll try it this weekend.


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## spike2k5

mjn said:


> didn't have any effect i'm afraid, Tivo still constantly reboots


I read your thread. So you had rebooting problem before you divorced drive right?

Do me a favor and do

mfsinfo /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

(where your A drive is on /dev/hdc b drive is on /dev/hdd)

also do

pdisk -l /dev/hdc

pdisk -l /dev/hdd

email the output and let me take a look at what you got.


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## mjn

spike2k5 said:


> I read your thread. So you had rebooting problem before you divorced drive right?
> 
> Do me a favor and do
> 
> mfsinfo /dev/hdc /dev/hdd
> 
> (where your A drive is on /dev/hdc b drive is on /dev/hdd)
> 
> also do
> 
> pdisk -l /dev/hdc
> 
> pdisk -l /dev/hdd
> 
> email the output and let me take a look at what you got.


Unfortunately, the B drive has already been re-imaged, so i've only got the A drive.

But yeah, when i only had a 160gb A drive all was fine, thought i'd add a 300gb B drive, but i didn't use the -r 4 command, and then i get constant rebooting with a bit of green screen errors.

But i'll do those reports, and get them over to you. Thanks


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## spike2k5

Pauli said:


> Are you saying that, with the -f option, recordings can be saved on drives that had already been upgraded?
> 
> Edit: I just went to your linked site and this seems to be what the -f option is for. Dude, that is HUGE! If that works correctly, YOU ARE THE MAN! Maybe I'll try it this weekend.


Yes, it will let you keep the recording and also maintain mfstools compatibility.

In my test case, I went from 
40GB -> 80GB using restore -x option
80GB -> 160GB using restore -f option 
160GB -> 250GB using restore -f option again.

Didn't have bigger hard drive to test further.

Then I did backup -f 9999 -6so /dos/filename.bak /dev/hdc
and shrunk the size to 40GB again.
Restored the 40GB image to a drive and worked fine. 
(backup -s option trims recordings as we know)


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## Pauli

spike2k5 said:


> Yes, it will let you keep the recording and also maintain mfstools compatibility.
> 
> In my test case, I went from
> 40GB -> 80GB using restore -x option
> 80GB -> 160GB using restore -f option
> 160GB -> 250GB using restore -f option again.
> 
> Didn't have bigger hard drive to test further.
> 
> Then I did backup -f 9999 -6so /dos/filename.bak /dev/hdc
> and shrunk the size to 40GB again.
> Restored the 40GB image to a drive and worked fine.
> (backup -s option trims recordings as we know)


Fantastic. Much thanks for your efforts -- I've been avoiding upgrading my 120GB drive for this very reason (wife would NOT be happy). I'll probably try it within a few days.

One question - I noticed that your instructions don't mention enabling DMA mode prior to running your commands for the copy. I believe copy times will be MUCH faster when the hard drives are running in DMA mode. Does your mfstools CD support these DMA commands and is there any reason you don't mention them in your instructions?


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## spike2k5

Pauli said:


> Fantastic. Much thanks for your efforts -- I've been avoiding upgrading my 120GB drive for this very reason (wife would NOT be happy). I'll probably try it within a few days.
> 
> One question - I noticed that your instructions don't mention enabling DMA mode prior to running your commands for the copy. I believe copy times will be MUCH faster when the hard drives are running in DMA mode. Does your mfstools CD support these DMA commands and is there any reason you don't mention them in your instructions?


I tried on few computers and dma was enabled by default. I used the latest 2.4 kernel so maybe that's the reason. If you use the boot option w/ byte swapping on, I turn it off to enable it. It comes in handy if you want to access Series 1 ext2 partitions.


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## mjn

spike2k5 said:


> I read your thread. So you had rebooting problem before you divorced drive right?
> 
> Do me a favor and do
> 
> mfsinfo /dev/hdc /dev/hdd
> 
> (where your A drive is on /dev/hdc b drive is on /dev/hdd)
> 
> also do
> 
> pdisk -l /dev/hdc
> 
> pdisk -l /dev/hdd
> 
> email the output and let me take a look at what you got.


mfsinfo /dev/hdc results

"Unknown MFS Partition device /dev/hdb2"

pdisk -l /dev/hdc results

see the attached picture


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## spike2k5

mjn said:


> mfsinfo /dev/hdc results
> 
> "Unknown MFS Partition device /dev/hdb2"
> 
> pdisk -l /dev/hdc results
> 
> see the attached picture


I thought you had dual drive setup.

mfsinfo /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

is the correct command if you do.

New improved mfsinfo scans mfs (Tivo file system), does some error checking and dumps some useful info about the mfs.


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## mjn

I did have a dual setup, but the B drive had to be used elsewhere, so unfortunately only have the A drive left, which probably why the mssplit didn't work.


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## thechachman

Is there a way to predetermine/view what recordings are on the B drive that will be lost if one does a split ?


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## spike2k5

thechachman said:


> Is there a way to predetermine/view what recordings are on the B drive that will be lost if one does a split ?


When TiVo records, it saves all over the place and it might go back & forth from A to B drive. So It might be hard to determine what recordings will be lost.

mfssplit does few other things to divorce a drive but one of the step is to look at every inode and trim any reference to "B" drive. So any video store on B drive will be trimmed and you might end up with partial recording.

Alternative is loosing all recordings so at least it's little better than that.

It comes in handy in the situation where you married a new B drive but made a mistake in r values. You can quickly divorce "B" drive and add new "B" drive.


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## thechachman

Ah, thinking moreso of downsizing a dual 180gb machine to a single drive and reusing the B drive elsewhere, maybe I need to write myself something to parse/locate all refs to the B drive then ...


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## spike2k5

thechachman said:


> Ah, thinking moreso of downsizing a dual 180gb machine to a single drive and reusing the B drive elsewhere, maybe I need to write myself something to parse/locate all refs to the B drive then ...


There is a tool called mfs_streams from unified mfs_ toolset over at another forum that starts with deal.... 
That will list all the fsid off records.
You can reference those fsid to mfs inodes and that will give you all the datablocks of a recordings. 
That would be a cool project. Go for it.


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## thechachman

Yep that's exactly what I figured on doing ...

Been brushing up with my tcl lately, just suggested a mod to the twp info.itcl module 'elsewhere' which I'd always wanted to have in there, so will start on this now.


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## monoto

I gave it a shot. I transfered a 160GB Hitachi HD to a 160GB Maxtor. I couldn't transfer the recordings because 160GB Hitachi's are really 164GB. I used the command:

backup -f 9999 -qso - /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -r4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

All went well, but I am having one interresting quirk. My to do list and TiVo suggestions are recording fine and I can stop and rewind live TV. But, if I try to record a show that I am currently watching I get the following error:

"Your request could not be processed. Please try again (Message #86)."

Could this have anything to do with the upgrade?


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## spike2k5

monoto said:


> I gave it a shot. I transfered a 160GB Hitachi HD to a 160GB Maxtor. I couldn't transfer the recordings because 160GB Hitachi's are really 164GB. I used the command:
> 
> backup -f 9999 -qso - /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -r4 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
> 
> All went well, but I am having one interresting quirk. My to do list and TiVo suggestions are recording fine and I can stop and rewind live TV. But, if I try to record a show that I am currently watching I get the following error:
> 
> "Your request could not be processed. Please try again (Message #86)."
> 
> Could this have anything to do with the upgrade?


I would use

backup -f 9999 -qso - /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -zpi - /dev/hdd

You don't need -x b/c you are not expanding, -r4 is not needed for 160GB.
You are not using experimental options like -f, -F, -n so that part of the code has been tested very well. 
Quick search for that error message on TiVo suggests that you should reboot your TiVo and it's related to guide data problem.
How full is your hard drive, what software are you running, when was the last time your tivo dialed out to get the guided data?


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## monoto

Thanks Spike2k5!

I tried alternating between rebooting and synching with the service. The 3rd reboot did the trick!


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## sahurd

Used the beta backup/restore (with the -f option). Worked like a champ! 

Thanks for creating & improving this wonderful tool!

Best Regards, Steve Hurd


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## gpegues

I just found your CD and website, looks great! Thanks!

I'm trying to upgrade an existing DirectTivo (SD-DVR80) that already has two 160GB drives (only sees 243 hours) that I purchased from Weaknees some time ago. (System Information screen lists it has a SD-DVR40).

After much fussing with controllers so that I can put all four drives plus a CD drive in my system at once, I got your CD to boot (worked great after installing latest BIOS on the SiI0680 controller!).

Now I'm ready to copy my old drives to new larger drives (250GB) and after re-reading your instructions, I'm not sure that it will work because of partition limitations. I was planning to use the command(s):

backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xFzpi - /dev/hdc
/dev/hdd 

expandroot /dev/hdc

But now I'm not sure if it will work because the option "To copy from expanded dual drives is not yet supported in this release".

Will it work? If not, what do I need to do to replace my drives with larger drives and be able to utilize the larger capacities?

Thanks,
Guy


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## spike2k5

gpegues said:


> I just found your CD and website, looks great! Thanks!
> 
> I'm trying to upgrade an existing DirectTivo (SD-DVR80) that already has two 160GB drives (only sees 243 hours) that I purchased from Weaknees some time ago. (System Information screen lists it has a SD-DVR40).
> 
> After much fussing with controllers so that I can put all four drives plus a CD drive in my system at once, I got your CD to boot (worked great after installing latest BIOS on the SiI0680 controller!).
> 
> Now I'm ready to copy my old drives to new larger drives (250GB) and after re-reading your instructions, I'm not sure that it will work because of partition limitations. I was planning to use the command(s):
> 
> backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xFzpi - /dev/hdc
> /dev/hdd
> 
> expandroot /dev/hdc
> 
> But now I'm not sure if it will work because the option "To copy from expanded dual drives is not yet supported in this release".
> 
> Will it work? If not, what do I need to do to replace my drives with larger drives and be able to utilize the larger capacities?
> 
> Thanks,
> Guy


Hi,
copying two expanded drive to two will not work if you want to save recording and expand again.

You can either copy 2 to 2 drives and keep the same capacity w/ saved rcordings,
by doing

backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -zpi - /dev/hdc
/dev/hdd

or

loose recordings but expand capacity on the new two drives by

backup -f 9999 -qso - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Sounds like you bought Weakness Drives when software on it was old and not lba48 aware so it only sees 137GB each. Make sure you currently have 6.2 which is lba48 (large drive support built in)


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## gpegues

Thanks for replying. OK, if I can't do 2 to 2 and expand again, can I do 2 to 1 (really big) and save recordings?

Thanks again,
Guy


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## spike2k5

gpegues said:


> Thanks for replying. OK, if I can't do 2 to 2 and expand again, can I do 2 to 1 (really big) and save recordings?
> 
> Thanks again,
> Guy


2 to 1 and save recording doesn't seem to work well currently. I need to go back and revisit it again. Right now it works on 1 to 1.
I may need to change mfsbackup format to do 2 to 1 or 2 to 2 and save recording correctly I think.


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## thechachman

Spike - do I take the 'updated kernel' in v0.4 to mean my suggestion was taken on board?


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## TydalForce

spike2k5 said:


> -F my attempt to fix older mfstools bug and set both paris of root/kernel partition size to 256/4MB.
> Use this only if your active root/kernel has shrung to 128MB/2MB.


I've only done one upgrade of my Series2, so I'm relatively inexperienced in upgradeland. Can someone elaborate the above point? In other words, what does that mean and how can you tell if that's happened?

Looks like a great release though! I'll probably use it to upgrade my new Series3 in a few months when I recover from holidays and MacWorld trip and can afford the bigger drive ;-)


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## dropper

I just used the latest beta to upgrade my HR120-250 (2x250 drives) to 2x400GB drives. Worked like a champ. Took 5:15 to copy everything. Went from 63 hours HD, to 107 hours HD, and something like 700 hours SD.

Thanks again for the tool. I ported it to a USB key (syslinux boot, overwrote with the isolinux stuff) so that I didn't have to mess with a USB CD or dig up convertors for SATA ports.

Keith


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## spike2k5

thechachman said:


> Spike - do I take the 'updated kernel' in v0.4 to mean my suggestion was taken on board?


It was just a cosmetic fix. I may work on some more after the holidays.


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## spike2k5

TydalForce said:


> I've only done one upgrade of my Series2, so I'm relatively inexperienced in upgradeland. Can someone elaborate the above point? In other words, what does that mean and how can you tell if that's happened?
> 
> Looks like a great release though! I'll probably use it to upgrade my new Series3 in a few months when I recover from holidays and MacWorld trip and can afford the bigger drive ;-)


If you have used older MFSTools on newer Series 2 or 3, your alternative kernel/root partitions size shrinks to 128/2MB due to a bug. So, if you do pdisk -l /dev/hdc 
you can see that partitions 3 and 4 or 6 and 7 strunk to 2MB and 128MB.
At this point, it's still ok since my new mfstools will fix this and you will get 256MB/ 4MB again on both active and alternate pairs when you restore w/ just standard options.

Now, If you happen to take software upgrade, your active paris will switch to 128MB/2MB pairs.

If you happened to backup & restore at this point, both your active & alternate pairs will shrink to 128/2MB.

At this point you use -F option w/ backup and restore to fix the size back to 256/4MB.

Again, this only applies to newer TiVos like TCD540 series, or R10, HR10-250 etc.


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## thechachman

spike2k5 said:


> It was just a cosmetic fix. I may work on some more after the holidays.


 Ah ok ... :up:


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## TydalForce

spike2k5 said:


> If you have used older MFSTools on newer Series 2 or 3, your alternative kernel/root partitions size shrinks to 128/2MB due to a bug. So, if you do pdisk -l /dev/hdc
> you can see that partitions 3 and 4 or 6 and 7 strunk to 2MB and 128MB.
> At this point, it's still ok since my new mfstools will fix this and you will get 256MB/ 4MB again on both active and alternate pairs when you restore w/ just standard options.
> 
> Now, If you happen to take software upgrade, your active paris will switch to 128MB/2MB pairs.
> 
> If you happened to backup & restore at this point, both your active & alternate pairs will shrink to 128/2MB.
> 
> At this point you use -F option w/ backup and restore to fix the size back to 256/4MB.
> 
> Again, this only applies to newer TiVos like TCD540 series, or R10, HR10-250 etc.


So if I understand this correctly, having used MFSTools on my DRT-800 a few months back shrunk 2 partitions from 4MB/256MB to 2MB/128MB. 
I can confirm this by booting off the new CD and running
pdisk -l /dev/hdc (or whatever drive it is)

This problem only happens on some models, and mine may not be included, so I may not even have to worry

If that's the case, and I use this new CD to upgrade the drive again, using -F will put those partitions back to their original intended 4MB/256MB

Upgrading a stock TiVo drive with the new CD will leave these partitions at their original 4MB/256MB, so -F is unnecessary.

Am I correct in my understanding?

Also, is there a particular problem with the smaller partitions?

Forgive my basic questions, I'm just trying to better understand the problems, process, and overall architecture of the TiVo. Thank you !! (c:


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## spike2k5

TydalForce said:


> So if I understand this correctly, having used MFSTools on my DRT-800 a few months back shrunk 2 partitions from 4MB/256MB to 2MB/128MB.
> I can confirm this by booting off the new CD and running
> pdisk -l /dev/hdc (or whatever drive it is)
> 
> This problem only happens on some models, and mine may not be included, so I may not even have to worry
> 
> If that's the case, and I use this new CD to upgrade the drive again, using -F will put those partitions back to their original intended 4MB/256MB
> 
> Upgrading a stock TiVo drive with the new CD will leave these partitions at their original 4MB/256MB, so -F is unnecessary.
> 
> Am I correct in my understanding?
> 
> Also, is there a particular problem with the smaller partitions?
> 
> Forgive my basic questions, I'm just trying to better understand the problems, process, and overall architecture of the TiVo. Thank you !! (c:


You are correct. 
No problems w/ smaller root paritition size as of yet but newer software keeps getting bigger so who knows. 
Someone mentioned having problems buring DVD on Humax DRT w/ 128MB root but not sure it was due to the partition size.


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## TydalForce

spike2k5 said:


> You are correct.
> No problems w/ smaller root paritition size as of yet but newer software keeps getting bigger so who knows.
> Someone mentioned having problems buring DVD on Humax DRT w/ 128MB root but not sure it was due to the partition size.


I've got a DRT-800 that I upgraded a few months back; I don't burn a lot of DVDs but I've burned a few and never had a problem. But I don't know that I burned a completely full DVD

Thanks everyone for the info


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## spike2k5

Another Release is out to address SATA problem on sdb. (beta5)
Tested upgrading dual expanded drive to new bigger dual drives and save recording seems to work for me. 

Only upgrade option not working is dual expanded drives to a new single drive and save recordings. (I might have to play around with backup format to get this thing working)


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## spike2k5

New release, beta6a, is out to fix few bugs and problems.


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## gpegues

Using your CD and following your directions above worked great for replacing the drives in my DirectTivo (SD-DVR80) using a SiI0680 controller in my computer. Thanks!

Because my drives were failing, I had to go ahead and replace the drives before several of your latest updates. Is it possible with any of your recent updates to expand the drives a second time after they're already installed? If so, what command?

A new question, can I use your tools to replace the existing original drive in a R10 DirectTivo with a larger drive?

Thanks again,
Guy


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## spike2k5

gpegues said:


> Using your CD and following your directions above worked great for replacing the drives in my DirectTivo (SD-DVR80) using a SiI0680 controller in my computer. Thanks!
> 
> Because my drives were failing, I had to go ahead and replace the drives before several of your latest updates. Is it possible with any of your recent updates to expand the drives a second time after they're already installed? If so, what command?
> 
> A new question, can I use your tools to replace the existing original drive in a R10 DirectTivo with a larger drive?
> 
> Thanks again,
> Guy


Try the following link for the commands for both TiVos:

http://www.mfslive.org/cgen.php

Select your TiVo models, drive size and it will display commands on the bottom.


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## tharper

spike2k5 said:


> Only upgrade option not working is dual expanded drives to a new single drive and save recordings. (I might have to play around with backup format to get this thing working)


This would be a great option! (beta7 hint). We could then marry a larger B drive down the road... Will this option work now without saving recordings?


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## tharper

spike2k5 said:


> Another Release is out to address SATA problem on sdb. (beta5)
> Tested upgrading dual expanded drive to new bigger dual drives and save recording seems to work for me.


Can we use the tools to copy duel pata drives to larger duel pata drives?
I guess I would also need a pci ide card so I could connect 4 ide drives and a ide cd-rom drive. Are there "generic" ide card drivers on this boot iso? Or are we only talking external usb connections? Maybe usb cd-rom drive and connect the four drives to prim/sec internal ide0 ide1...


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## spike2k5

tharper said:


> This would be a great option! (beta7 hint). We could then marry a larger B drive down the road... Will this option work now without saving recordings?


If you don't mind loosing recordings you can do any setup.
Try the following link to get the commands:

http://www.mfslive.org/cgen.php


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## spike2k5

tharper said:


> Can we use the tools to copy duel pata drives to larger duel pata drives?
> I guess I would also need a pci ide card so I could connect 4 ide drives and a ide cd-rom drive. Are there "generic" ide card drivers on this boot iso? Or are we only talking external usb connections? Maybe usb cd-rom drive and connect the four drives to prim/sec internal ide0 ide1...


You can do dual to dual copy and save recording.
Refer to the links on the previous post.

You can use any combiation of ide, sata, usb drives.


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## cc0n01

Spike - thanks for the new upgrade tools. I tried to upgrade my already upgraded S2 Tivo from a 120gb drive to a 320gb drive following Hinsdale's instructions that I used the first time. I didn't realize that I couldn't upgrade an already expanded drive and copy my existing recordings.

I used the following commands to do the backup and restore:

backup -qTao - /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -r 4 -fFzpi - /dev/hdd

expandroot /dev/hdd

So far the new drive is working fine.

Keep up the great work!


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## spike2k5

beta6b is out.

If you want to expand to dual 750GB and save recording, this version will do it properly.

backup -qTao - /dev/hda /devhdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

If you have series 1 and want to expand previously upgrade drive, save recording, limit the size to 137GB:

backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 127 -nfzpi - /dev/hdc

The following link will show you the full command options:

http://www.mfslive.org/cgen.php


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## wscannell

Just used your tools to do a re-upgrade on a single drive series 2. All went well. Thanks for your effort in updating the tools.


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## hoyty

I was reading http://mfslive.org/softwareguidep4.htm and it uses hdc twice in the setup description. I want to go from dual (non-expanded just BlessTivo add) to larger dual on a HDVR2 and HR10-250. I just can't figure out the best way to have 4 hard drives and still boot the machine. I have a SCSI card and CD, does the boot CD support that? Is there a floppy version? Thanks for great tools.


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## spike2k5

hoyty said:


> I was reading http://mfslive.org/softwareguidep4.htm and it uses hdc twice in the setup description. I want to go from dual (non-expanded just BlessTivo add) to larger dual on a HDVR2 and HR10-250. I just can't figure out the best way to have 4 hard drives and still boot the machine. I have a SCSI card and CD, does the boot CD support that? Is there a floppy version? Thanks for great tools.


Boot from scsi should work if your computer bios supports it.
Other options are to use usb to ide adapter or pci IDE card.

Try the following link for commands:

http://www.mfslive.org/cgen.php


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## hoyty

I am trying to troubleshoot why my upgrade didn't work. I was originally going from a 40 + 137 (160) to 320 + 320. I would like to try expanding just the 40 to 320 and maintain the 160. Can I simply expand the 40 and reconnect the 320 with the 160? I just want to make sure there isn't anything in the expansion process that would break the mating? Thanks.


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## spike2k5

hoyty said:


> I am trying to troubleshoot why my upgrade didn't work. I was originally going from a 40 + 137 (160) to 320 + 320. I would like to try expanding just the 40 to 320 and maintain the 160. Can I simply expand the 40 and reconnect the 320 with the 160? I just want to make sure there isn't anything in the expansion process that would break the mating? Thanks.


If you have dual drive setup, any kind of expansion has to be done is pair because they are married together.


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## hoyty

Just to try something for my own testing would this possibly work?

hda - 40 GB (original drive A)
hdb - 137 GB (160) added via BlessTivo
hdc - 320 GB new
hdd - 320 GB new

run


Code:


backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Put hdc + hdb back into TiVo? Would that work? The reason I am doing this is that after running the above command and placing the hdc + hdd into TiVo it won't boot. I am trying to determine if it is a problem having two Seagate DB35 or something else. Thanks.


----------



## spike2k5

That's the correct command.

I think using dual db35 have problem if they are identical model & size for older TiVo.
Try using 320GB & another size and see if it work. 

Newer TiVo like hr10-250 is ok though.


----------



## hoyty

Well I ran the process on my HR10 last night going from 250+400 to 750+750 and everything seems to have worked fine. Thanks for your help. I guess I will try the left over 250+400 in the HDVR2 instead of the dual 320 and see what happens.

Update on HDVR2: I am doing something wrong it seems. I have now failed again with the 250+400 to get the HDVR2 to boot properly. Here are the two scenarios I have tried and failed with, in both cases the tivo doesn't move beyond the grey welcome screen.
Attempt 1
hda - Original 40 GB
hdb - Added (BlessTiVo) 137 (160) GB
hdc - New Seagate DB35.3 320 GB
hdd - New Seagate DB35.3 320 GB

Command - backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

Attempt 2
hda - Original 40 GB
hdb - Added (BlessTiVo) 137 (160) GB
hdc - Recycled 250 GB original HR10 drive
hdd - Recycled 400 GB drive B added to HR10

Command - backup -qTao - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

As I was typing this I realized that the difference between 160 and 137 might be enough to cross the threshold of needing -r 4. I guess I will try a third time with that. I know I am doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what. The HDVR2 is running 6.2 so it supports over 137 GB drives natively correct? Thanks for any pointers.


----------



## spike2k5

You need -r 4 since hdd will create partition greater than 274GB.
Are your jumpers set correctly?
master(hdc) slave (hdd)

send me output of 

mfsinfo /dev/hda /dev/hdb
mfsinfo /dev/hdc /dev/hdd 

pdisk -l /dev/hda
pdisk -l /dev/hdb
pdisk -l /dev/hdc
pdisk -l /dev/hdd

and I can take a look.


----------



## hoyty

Just wanted to say a public thanks to spike2k5 and add another recommendation for the mfslive CD. We exchanged a few PM on my problems noted above. He was able to give me a workaround and it is working great. I now have all my TiVo's re-upgraded.


----------



## Agent86

I haven't had the pleasure of using the new software yet, but I wanted to drop a quick "thank you" to spike2k5 for his excellent work.

Its really nice to have our main problems fixed, some additional goodies added, and an active maintainer.

Thanks again!


----------



## spike2k5

hoyty said:


> Just wanted to say a public thanks to spike2k5 and add another recommendation for the mfslive CD. We exchanged a few PM on my problems noted above. He was able to give me a workaround and it is working great. I now have all my TiVo's re-upgraded.


Thank you for send me the outputs. Documentation and interactive command gengerator is udpated to reflect the work around.


----------



## sbourgeo

spike2k5 said:


> If you have series 1 and want to expand previously upgrade drive, save recording, limit the size to 137GB:
> 
> backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 127 -nfzpi - /dev/hdc


I want to replace the previously-expanded 80 GB drive that I currently have in a Series 1 standalone with a single 320 GB drive.

The MFSLive command generator gives me the following command:



Code:


backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 127 -fzpi - /dev/hdc

This seems pretty straight forward, but I have a couple of questions about this command:


Do I need to specify "-r 4" for the restore command since my target drive is 320 GB?
What is the current consensus on swap size and GSOD recovery? Is the above value sufficient to recover a 320 GB drive loaded with recordings from a GSOD?

Thanks,

Steve


----------



## spike2k5

1. -r 4 is not needed since you are not creating a partition larger than 274GB.
FYI, command generator does simple partition calculation and issues the correct command.

2. There's 
custom linux swap size? 
optional check box to select custom size. So for 320GB use 160MB. 

Personally, I customized swap size for my series 1. Others would say 127MB is good enough. So choice is up to you.

Don't forget to use linux kernel that is lba48 aware for series 1 since you are using 320GB drive. 

Also, -f option is not available in stable release v1.0 so you would have to use beta6b version.


----------



## sbourgeo

Thanks for the reply spike2k5.

It probably wouldn't hurt to use the custom swap size since it's such a small amount of space anyway.

Considering that the non-MFS partitions on my disk take up less than 1 GB, I had figured that the MFS partition would be large enough to require "-r 4" since a 320 GB drive would really be about 298 GB once you throw out the bogus math that hard drive manufacturers use. 

Why is that? Does the mfstools restore create multiple MFS partitions that are all smaller than 274 GB or something?


----------



## spike2k5

From what I can tell, 274GB problem is due to TiVo software not liking r 2 (mfstools default size of 4MB) if any one mfs parition is greater than 274GB. (not total size)
I can't recall the exact error message, but mfs file system assertion occurs while trying to boot.

r value applies to only new partitions that restore or mfsadd create using -x option. mfstools does not change what's setup already by Tivo.

I heard JamieP first suggested the work around which was to use -r 4 for this bug.
Setting r value to 4 makes min. block of data mfs file system can access to 16MB or 32768 sectors and scales bitmap size to smaller value. In mfs file system, one bit gets assigned to each data block and bitmap keeps track of bit fields.

So why not just assign r 4 for all disk sizes. Setting min. block size to 16MB would waste disk space because 16MB block cannot be broken down into smaller chunks to be shared.


----------



## lazarus000

msflive.org is down ... dead?


----------



## spike2k5

lazarus000 said:


> msflive.org is down ... dead?


Bad hosting company.  Down for almost all day. It is up now.
Anyone know of a good hosting company?


----------



## gpegues

Just wanted to make sure, does your latest version now work for expanding already expanded drives? I sucessfully used your tools in December to replace my dual 160s with dual 300s in my series 2, but did not get the additional space. If the tool does expand already expanded drives, I plan to redo my DTiVo again. (Keeping recordings) 

Thanks again for a great tool,
Guy


----------



## spike2k5

gpegues said:


> Just wanted to make sure, does your latest version now work for expanding already expanded drives? I sucessfully used your tools in December to replace my dual 160s with dual 300s in my series 2, but did not get the additional space. If the tool does expand already expanded drives, I plan to redo my DTiVo again. (Keeping recordings)
> 
> Thanks again for a great tool,
> Guy


To expand dual to dual and save recordings, you use -x option. Refer to the full guide or ICG
It works for all versions mfslive releases.
There is a bug in mfstools so depending on your model, you might have to drop "p" option as documented in the full guide. 
ICG does this correctly so use that if you are not sure.

Server has been going up and down for past few days now due to what hosting company calls it "hardware failure" So I might have to find a new home.


----------



## sbourgeo

spike2k5 said:


> Bad hosting company.  Down for almost all day. It is up now.
> Anyone know of a good hosting company?





spike2k5 said:


> Also, -f option is not available in stable release v1.0 so you would have to use beta6b version.


Crud, my new drive arrived today and I can't grab beta6b because mfslive.org is down again. Is beta6b available anywhere else?


----------



## sbourgeo

mfslive.org is back up, will give it a shot. :up:


----------



## sbourgeo

I copied my 80 GB drive to my new 320 GB drive with MFSLive beta6b last night.

The weird thing was that I got a message complaining that I needed the "-x" option when I used the following command from the MFSLive command generator:



Code:


backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 160 -fzpi - /dev/hdc

I put in a "-x" and the backup/restore completed in about 1 hour:



Code:


backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 160 -[COLOR=Red]x[/COLOR]fzpi - /dev/hdc

After that, I installed the LBA48 kernel and my S1 now reports 403 hours of space. Many thanks to spike2k5 for the MFSLive distro and feedback!


----------



## tsanga

Couple of quick questions:
1. What does the -q option mean in backup (new from MFSTools)?
2. Is there a command to figure out what the alternate boot and root partition sizes are without pulling the drive and running pdisk? I can serial cable connect or telnet to my TiVo. I'm worried about the MFSTools bug.

Thank you much for this update! Wish I had discovered it 2 weeks ago, so I could have used the -f option. I just went through the shenanigans of trying to upgraded an expanded drive; ended up with the whole process of extracting all my recordings, expanding with a virgin image, and re-inserting all those shows. Time consuming to say the least.


----------



## spike2k5

tsanga said:


> Couple of quick questions:
> 1. What does the -q option mean in backup (new from MFSTools)?
> 2. Is there a command to figure out what the alternate boot and root partition sizes are without pulling the drive and running pdisk? I can serial cable connect or telnet to my TiVo. I'm worried about the MFSTools bug.
> 
> Thank you much for this update! Wish I had discovered it 2 weeks ago, so I could have used the -f option. I just went through the shenanigans of trying to upgraded an expanded drive; ended up with the whole process of extracting all my recordings, expanding with a virgin image, and re-inserting all those shows. Time consuming to say the least.


1. q option supresses backup output message so instead of seeing many lines, all you see is single line w/ % complete and ETA

2. If you have not used mfslive or new weakness cd /w SATA, alternate root/boot 
size have shrunk. It's ok as long as you use updated bootcd next time you want to upgrade. If you get a software update though, it will use the alternate root/boot partitions. As far as TiVo functions, it won't matter. But if you have a hacked TiVo and want to patch tivoapp, you might run out of disk space.
If your Tivo is hacked, you can do 
df -h
and should tell you what the current root partiton and size are.

root/boot pairs are hda4 hda3 or hda7 hda6

you can mount hda4 or hda7


----------



## tsanga

Thanks Spike.

I won't be getting any software updates since mine is hacked, so I won't have to worry about that. But I was considering putting different kernels in the alternate partition or dd'ing my current kernel in there so I can mess around while I have a backup. Guess I have to be careful there.

I suppose fixing my shrunken partitions while keeping my current recordings would have to involve "backing up" all my recordings, re-doing the upgrade with MFSLive, and re-inserting all the recordings, huh? This wasn't that much fun the first time around.

I've run df (but without -h) and all it does is tell me the current root/boot usage. Does -h also provide sizes for the alternates? Also, just so I understand correctly, the bug in MFSTools only shrinks the alternate partitions, so my current ones may be full size?


----------



## spike2k5

tsanga said:


> Thanks Spike.
> 
> I won't be getting any software updates since mine is hacked, so I won't have to worry about that. But I was considering putting different kernels in the alternate partition or dd'ing my current kernel in there so I can mess around while I have a backup. Guess I have to be careful there.
> 
> I suppose fixing my shrunken partitions while keeping my current recordings would have to involve "backing up" all my recordings, re-doing the upgrade with MFSLive, and re-inserting all the recordings, huh? This wasn't that much fun the first time around.
> 
> I've run df (but without -h) and all it does is tell me the current root/boot usage. Does -h also provide sizes for the alternates? Also, just so I understand correctly, the bug in MFSTools only shrinks the alternate partitions, so my current ones may be full size?


You can use -F option to fix shrunk partition pairs. (beta6b version)
You don't have to extract and reinsert if you use backup -qTao option
Use that command and pipe it to restore in the same command line and all your recordings will be save.
try ICG for the full command.

use df -h or df -k


----------



## tsanga

spike2k5 said:


> You can use -F option to fix shrunk partition pairs. (beta6b version)
> You don't have to extract and reinsert if you use backup -qTao option
> Use that command and pipe it to restore in the same command line and all your recordings will be save.
> try ICG for the full command.
> 
> use df -h or df -k


So if I understand this correctly, I will need a second drive to run the backup | restore, i.e. I can't fix it in place on the current drive (with the saved recordings) without maybe using pdisk to redefine partition sizes. In other words, I can't run backup ... -qTao /dev/hda | restore ... -fF /dev/hda.

BTW, where do I find the beta? I couldn't find it on the website.

Thanks for all the clarification.

EDIT: OK, I checked the tables with pdisk that I just ftp'ed onto the TiVo. Are the pairs always supposed to be 4MB/256MB, or 2MB/128MB? How come I have a 4MB/128MB pair?


> Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/hda'
> #: type name length base ( size )
> 1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
> 2: Image Bootstrap 1 4096 @ 77261888 ( 2.0M)
> 3: Image Kernel 1 4096 @ 77265984 ( 2.0M)
> 4: Ext2 Root 1 262144 @ 77270080 (128.0M)
> 5: Image Bootstrap 2 1 @ 77532224
> 6: Image Kernel 2 8192 @ 77532225 ( 4.0M)
> 7: Ext2 Root 2 262144 @ 77540417 (128.0M)
> 8: Swap Linux swap 260096 @ 77802561 (127.0M)
> 9: Ext2 /var 262144 @ 78062657 (128.0M)
> 10: MFS MFS application region 1048576 @ 78324801 (512.0M)
> 11: MFS MFS media region 33100800 @ 44161088 ( 15.8G)
> 12: MFS Second MFS application region 1048576 @ 79373377 (512.0M)
> 13: MFS Second MFS media region 44161024 @ 64 ( 21.1G)
> 14: MFS New MFS Application 1024 @ 80421953
> 15: MFS New MFS Media 232153088 @ 80422977 (110.7G)
> 16: Apple_Free Extra 5743 @ 312576065 ( 2.8M)
> 
> Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=312581808 (149.1G)
> DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0


----------



## spike2k5

Only your kernel backup kernel partition has shrunk so you don't have to worry about it b/c I don't think kernel ever goes over 2MB
Really old TiVo has 128MB / 2MB as default
Some older TiVo has 128MB as root and 4MB as default.
All the newer TiVo I've seen has 256MB and 4MB as default.


----------



## tsanga

Thanks Spike, good to know.


----------



## gpegues

Help!!! I'm trying to use your tools again to expand my drives, but the cd is hanging during startup. (This is version 1.0) The last screen message is:

hda: host protected area => 1

While trying to figure out what's wrong, I tried the beta 4 disk I still have, starts up just fine, get to prompt and all. I've now tried several ways, with disks attached, without disks, etc, version 1 still hangs at the same place.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? As I said the beta 4 cd starts up just fine, and I successfully used it in December to upgrade my D*.

Thanks,
Guy


----------



## spike2k5

gpegues said:


> Help!!! I'm trying to use your tools again to expand my drives, but the cd is hanging during startup. (This is version 1.0) The last screen message is:
> 
> hda: host protected area => 1
> 
> While trying to figure out what's wrong, I tried the beta 4 disk I still have, starts up just fine, get to prompt and all. I've now tried several ways, with disks attached, without disks, etc, version 1 still hangs at the same place.
> 
> Any idea what I'm doing wrong? As I said the beta 4 cd starts up just fine, and I successfully used it in December to upgrade my D*.
> 
> Thanks,
> Guy


What motherboard and processor are you using?


----------



## gpegues

An ASUS motherboard, model P4C800-E Deluxe with a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor, and a SIL0680 IDE card to be able to load 4 drives plus a CD drive. The beta 4 worked/works on on this system.


----------



## hopefulboydy

Spike2k5,

In the opening message you said that MFSlive 1.0 had aam support:

"hdparm:
has aam support"

Is this for acoustic management? As i can seem to get hdparm to work with the -M option.
hopefulboydy


----------



## spike2k5

hopefulboydy said:


> Spike2k5,
> 
> In the opening message you said that MFSlive 1.0 had aam support:
> 
> "hdparm:
> has aam support"
> 
> Is this for acoustic management? As i can seem to get hdparm to work with the -M option.
> hopefulboydy


hdparm -M 128 -K 1 /dev/hdd
where hdd is your tivo drive on secondary slave

It doesn't work on SATA or USB mounted on /dev/sda as of yet.


----------



## jp233

ok I'm trying to upgrade my tivo for the 2nd time. its a DTivo Hughes SD-DVR40. I already upgraded the oem 40gb drive to a seagate 160. Now I have a Maxtor 500gb drive I want to put in (and since i finally wired up cat5 in my house, enable all the networking suff etc).

bu before i get to that stuff, I want to be able to save all recordings since i have a lot on there we havent watched yet. i also figure i might as well use the custom swap size (250)

since MFSLive v1.0 doesnt have the -f option, where can I get beta6b?

I am assuming the command I will need to use is :

*backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 250 -r 4 -fzpi - /dev/hdb*

am I right? if so, where can i get the beta release?

i am a noobie and not very familiar with linux/etc so if there is something i'm forgetting please let me know!

BTW Spike --- the ICG on the msflive.org website tells me to use that command line, but the -f option isnt in v1.0...

thanks


----------



## spike2k5

Beta testing got out of hands and thousands of copies were downloaded.
There was a reason why it was beta version.
Send me your email and see what I can do.
New version maybe 



jp233 said:


> ok I'm trying to upgrade my tivo for the 2nd time. its a DTivo Hughes SD-DVR40. I already upgraded the oem 40gb drive to a seagate 160. Now I have a Maxtor 500gb drive I want to put in (and since i finally wired up cat5 in my house, enable all the networking suff etc).
> 
> bu before i get to that stuff, I want to be able to save all recordings since i have a lot on there we havent watched yet. i also figure i might as well use the custom swap size (250)
> 
> since MFSLive v1.0 doesnt have the -f option, where can I get beta6b?
> 
> I am assuming the command I will need to use is :
> 
> *backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 250 -r 4 -fzpi - /dev/hdb*
> 
> am I right? if so, where can i get the beta release?
> 
> i am a noobie and not very familiar with linux/etc so if there is something i'm forgetting please let me know!
> 
> BTW Spike --- the ICG on the msflive.org website tells me to use that command line, but the -f option isnt in v1.0...
> 
> thanks


----------



## jp233

thanks - in case you didnt get my PM, my email is jp233 AT yahoo DOT com :up:


----------



## mwillford

Any chance of the beta being a release candidate soon? I have already upgraded my original S1 Hughes from 40 GB to 60 GB and trying to go again to a 200 GB and it looks like the -f switch may be my savior. Wife has been gone since Thurs and I have turned our dining room into upgrade central (including cannibalizing her desktop)... <g>
Spike - thanks for the hard work


----------



## jp233

i'm in the same boat, better-half is out of town and there isnt anything worth recording on this weekend so i figured i'd delve into the tivo. although my cannibalized computer for doing tivo stuff is my own, i leave her machine alone!

for lack of anything better to do i made a backup and put it onto a FAT32 drive i made, restored that to the 500gb and tried it out in the tivo box. it hangs on the "almost there. just a few minutes more..." screen. oh well, guess i'll try again


----------



## Pauli

spike2k5 said:


> hdparm -M 128 -K 1 /dev/hdd
> where hdd is your tivo drive on secondary slave
> 
> It doesn't work on SATA or USB mounted on /dev/sda as of yet.


The -M option does not seem to be supported on either the beta6b image or the 1.0 image.

BTW, I finally got around to updating my previously expanded disk using the Restore -f parameter. Worked like a charm --- huge, huge timesaver. I'm not surprised the beta6b was downloaded thousands of times. There is a great need for this functionality. Thanks for your efforts...


----------



## spike2k5

try giving the full path.
/usr/sbin/hdparm ....


----------



## alk3997

gpegues said:


> Help!!! I'm trying to use your tools again to expand my drives, but the cd is hanging during startup. (This is version 1.0) The last screen message is:
> 
> hda: host protected area => 1
> 
> While trying to figure out what's wrong, I tried the beta 4 disk I still have, starts up just fine, get to prompt and all. I've now tried several ways, with disks attached, without disks, etc, version 1 still hangs at the same place.
> 
> Any idea what I'm doing wrong? As I said the beta 4 cd starts up just fine, and I successfully used it in December to upgrade my D*.
> 
> Thanks,
> Guy


I'm hanging up, too with the version 1.0 I just downloaded off the web site. The hang-up occurs later than gpegues but same result with flashing cursor and nothing happens. Tried keyboard inputs with no effect.


----------



## spike2k5

What motherboard and cpu combo are you using?
Using any pci ide card?


----------



## alk3997

spike2k5 said:


> What motherboard and cpu combo are you using?
> Using any pci ide card?


No PCI IDE Card. However, I am using a relatively old PC-Chips motherboard (rebranded but still a PC Chips). It works with the weaknees disk but hangs with the MFSLive disc.

Andy


----------



## spike2k5

If it's using AMD K-2 processor, MFSLive doesn't work currently.


----------



## chris22

I own one. I have a semi-dedicated server. I PMed you.


spike2k5 said:


> Bad hosting company.  Down for almost all day. It is up now.
> Anyone know of a good hosting company?


----------



## Kit_C

I just upgraded my Series 3 with a 500AK WD drive and MSLive. Zero problems.

Thanks to spike2k5 for the MFSLive distro!

KIt


----------



## Thos19

I did the same this weekend. Same drive as well. 

MFSLive is great ! Spike is a giant amongst mere men. 

Thos.


----------



## khom

Just upgraded mine this weekend to the Seagate 750GB db35 drive using MSLive. Kudos to Spike for this distro !!!

Mindlessly simple and super duper fast: ALL UNDER 2 MINUTES! :up: :up: :up: 

Cloned from a virgin TiVo3 drive (not setup) with about 5GB on it.

I must say, however, the Seagate 750gb clicks a bit loudly, given it is supposed to be made quieter for DVR systems.


----------



## gquiring

How long should it take to copy a 250gb to 250gb using MSLive? I am currently running v1.1 and it's going to take 8 hours! Is that right? Can't the blocking factor be tweaked for a faster copy from IDE to IDE?


----------



## bnm81002

is there a way that I can use your boot CD to copy an image(6.2 OS) to my 250GB drive while saving the recordings on the 250GB drive? I need to restore the 6.2 image to my upgraded 250GB drive that has recordings stored in it


----------



## HomeUser

gquiring said:


> How long should it take to copy a 250gb to 250gb using MSLive? I am currently running v1.1 and it's going to take 8 hours! Is that right? Can't the blocking factor be tweaked for a faster copy from IDE to IDE?


8 Hrs seems about right if the drives are on the same cable and/or DMA is disabled. How long did it take?


----------



## markis

(I tried to register to post on mfslive.org, but I have not received an activation email.)

With my HR10-250, I used mfslive 1.1 to transfer and expand the stock 250gb drive to a new 400gb drive (fast method without recordings). After hacking the 400gb, I made a file backup (to DOS drive) of the hacked system. When I did that, I saw the following message:



Code:


Source drive size is 281 hours
- upgraded to 461 hours
Backup image will be 281 hours

This is an image of the 400gb drive. My question is, if I ever need to restore this backup to the same 400gb drive, should I use the restore "x" (-xzpi) flag or not (just -zpi)?

Since the backup is an image of the 400gb drive, I thought I could do a straight one-to-one restore. However, since this 400gb image is of a drive that had previously been expanded and I saw the "Backup image will be 281 hours" message, I wonder if I do need to use the "x" expand flag to restore the 400gb drive backup to the same 400gb drive?


----------



## spike2k5

Site is having email problem I think.

PM me the name you used and I can manually register.

Since you made truncated backup you need to include -x to expand.
Truncated backup shrinks your backup to original 250GB.


----------



## markis

spike2k5 said:


> PM me the name you used and I can manually register.
> 
> Since you made truncated backup you need to include -x to expand.
> Truncated backup shrinks your backup to original 250GB.


Ok, I see. Thanks very much. I just sent you a PM about your forum.


----------



## luder

Hey spike i see your busy on this forum too..
I have a quick one I notice in your new iso there's a new feature and was wondering if there any info on dd_rescue. I have a feeling it's how it sounds but, quite unsure how it works or when to use it..

-Thanks


----------



## jdmaxell

Anyone know why MFSLive site is down?


----------



## spike2k5

Check out the latest mfslive boot cd v 1.2.


----------



## tsanga

spike,

Just got some glimpses of the new Windows upgrade software you have cooking. Looks great - I love all the partition info all in one place. I might be jumping the gun, but what happened to "whatever you do, don't boot the drive into Windows"?


----------



## spike2k5

tsanga said:


> spike,
> 
> Just got some glimpses of the new Windows upgrade software you have cooking. Looks great - I love all the partition info all in one place. I might be jumping the gun, but what happened to "whatever you do, don't boot the drive into Windows"?


Older versions of Windows auto mounted a new drive and messed up tivo bootpage w/ windows version of MBR.

Newer windows do not have that problem unless you use disk manager to mount the drive.


----------



## tsanga

Is the -F option still only on the beta? I tried to download it but it appears I'm restricted (I'm registered).


----------



## tsanga

Been experimenting.

I have a truncated image from an original 40GB drive with a boot/root map of:


> 5: Image Bootstrap 2 1
> 6: Image Kernel 2 8192 ( 4.0M)
> 7: Ext2 Root 2 262144 (128.0M)


When I restored it to another drive, I noticed that it wrote partitions like this:


> 2: Image Bootstrap 1 4096 ( 2.0M)
> 3: Image Kernel 1 4096 ( 2.0M)
> 4: Ext2 Root 1 262144 (128.0M)


I understand that MFSLive only copies the active partition - in this case, bootpage on the original drive was set root=/dev/hda7, which was the one backed up. Does MFSLive automatically write 2/128 boot/root partitions, and 4/256 with the -F flag? Why didn't it keep the original structure?

Also, when I restored the image to a 40GB drive, I couldn't get it to fit unless I reset the swap back to its original 64MB. However, after this, the drive gets stuck on the "Almost there" screen. The same image restored to anything bigger with a 128MB swap has no problems.

I'm about to run disc diagnostics on the 40GB, but can the smaller swap affect the boot?


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## spike2k5

It matches whatever is in the backup. That's new mfslive mfstools default unless you tell it to make 4/256MB with restore -F option found in beta release.

FYI, older series 2 tivo has 4/128MB partition pairs. 

Also, old mfstools 2.0 that is widely used has a alternate boot/root size shinking bug. So it sets alternate kernel to 2 and root to 128MB.


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## tsanga

spike2k5 said:


> It matches whatever is in the backup. That's new mfslive mfstools default unless you tell it to make 4/256MB with restore -F option found in beta release.
> 
> FYI, older series 2 tivo has 4/128MB partition pairs.


That's what I thought I had based on the first pdisk output - a 4/128 pair. So if the restore wrote 2/128, that means I didn't back it up with the original structure? My image would have 2/128 then?

It doesn't matter much to me since the kernel would never exceed 2MB. But just trying to iron this out, or maybe help you out in case there's a bug.

EDIT: OK, I finally got it. MFSTools copies the primary partition structure (whatever bootpage -b says) but the kernel and root pair that is active (whatever bootpage -p says). In my case, bootpage -b was 3 but bootpage -p was root=/dev/hda7, which is why it made an image that didn't match the pdisk output of the boot/root pair that I was backing up.


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## tsanga

tsanga said:


> Also, when I restored the image to a 40GB drive, I couldn't get it to fit unless I reset the swap back to its original 64MB. However, after this, the drive gets stuck on the "Almost there" screen. The same image restored to anything bigger with a 128MB swap has no problems.
> 
> I'm about to run disc diagnostics on the 40GB, but can the smaller swap affect the boot?


Figured this one out too. For some reason, when I did the restore, the right kernel didn't end up in the right place. I think it had something to do with my mismatched bootpage -b and bootpage -p settings. They weren't paired - one was 3 and the other was 7, instead of 3/4 and 6/7.

I dd'ed a good kernel into the right place and no more problems.


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## naiLS1

My Humax T800 Tivo just started having problems with rebooting itself among other things. I figured the HD was slowing degrading, so I decided to upgrade. I found this thread--it's exactly what I needed. I was able to upgrade using the Tivo drive in the PC with the new Tivo drive in a USB enclosure. Once I booted up and started the copy it took less than 2 minutes!

Thanks for the wonderful program--it's working great so far!


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## spike2k5

Checkout MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3. 
This version includes TivoHD support and fixes for Mfstools restore -r 2 and mfsadd -r 2 for a paritition greater than 274GB.


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## scoombs

Spike2k5,

I notice the ICG on the MFSLive site no longer complains about expanded 2-drive source copy to new larger 2-drive target, with saved recordings...so it looks like you have overcome the final hurdle. Very nicely done overall by the way.

I am considering doing this on my Sony series 1, but am unclear on the steps I should take prior to mounting the four drives and typing the command from the ICG. If I want to take advantage of the larger than 137GB volumes, how best to go about getting the LBA48 support in place? Is this something I do prior to doing the copy, or is it something I can do while I am doing the copy, which then places the new kernel before I mount the drives back in the Tivo and start the unit back up?


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## spike2k5

scoombs said:


> Spike2k5,
> I notice the ICG on the MFSLive site no longer complains about expanded 2-drive source copy to new larger 2-drive target, with saved recordings...so it looks like you have overcome the final hurdle. Very nicely done overall by the way.


That might have been a bug in ICG.



scoombs said:


> If I want to take advantage of the larger than 137GB volumes, how best to go about getting the LBA48 support in place? Is this something I do prior to doing the copy, or is it something I can do while I am doing the copy, which then places the new kernel before I mount the drives back in the Tivo and start the unit back up?


Copy first,
then copykern hacked linux kernel before you boot your Tivo w/ the new drives.


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## spike2k5

MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3a is release.
This version will fix mfsadd that was broken in the 1.3 release.


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## spike2k5

MFSLive Linux Boot CD v1.3b is release.


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## rgr

Just upped my series3 to 65 hrs on a WD500.
Easy, copied all my existing data like a charm! Including the deleteds!

Thanks spike2k5!


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## mmcclure

MFSLive is great. But one thing that I could really use is a working dd_rescue. Is there any chance you'll be fixing that soon? I hate having to swap disks when one of my 3 series 1's gets flaky.


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## HomeUser

mmcclure said:


> MFSLive is great. But one thing that I could really use is a working dd_rescue. Is there any chance you'll be fixing that soon? I hate having to swap disks when one of my 3 series 1's gets flaky.


 Is there something broken in dd_rescue?


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## spike2k5

mmcclure said:


> MFSLive is great. But one thing that I could really use is a working dd_rescue. Is there any chance you'll be fixing that soon? I hate having to swap disks when one of my 3 series 1's gets flaky.


dd_rescue works on that cd.
dd_rhelp is broken though.


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## SaintC

On a series 1, I did a simple upgrade without needing recordings...but I also increased the swap size.

Is there a command I can use to verify the swap size?

I tried cat /porc/meminfo but the readings I am getting dont seem right including it saying swaptotal 0 - swapfree 0
If this is the right command? If so, could I have zero swap?

I used the normal command within mfsrestore -s 250, and I also used the command again with -s 127. I get the same zero reading using that meminfo command.

UPDATE: I think the command is telling me my pc physical memory. I get the same reading with my windows hard drive as well. 

So, how do I verify my swap size 

Thanks


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## mmcclure

It errors out. See the release notes -- under "Known Issues"


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## mrogers

I've got a problem I really hope someone can help me with. I've upgraded several TiVos in the past and things have gone smoothly. This situation is a little different though.

Tonight I was working on a friend's Humax 80GB TiVo that I added a 200GB drive to a few years ago. One of the drives started failing (the 200GB, I've determined), so she sent it to me to fix. She wasn't using all her space, so I decided to just replace the 80GB and 200GB with a spare 160GB I had laying around...one drive is less prone to failure than two. So I did

backup -qf 9999 -so - /dev/hda | restore -s 128 -zpi - /dev/hdd

but it complained about an unknown MFS partition device on /dev/hdb2...since that was the dead drive, it wasn't connected to the PC. It suggested using the -E switch in place of -s to force the backup anyway, so I did that. mfsinfo then reported that I had a valid 80GB TiVo drive on my new 160GB, so I did mfsadd -X /dev/hdd /dev/hdd to expand the recording space to the rest of the drive. The tool claimed to have worked, and reported the proper space and recording time.

All seems to be going well at this point. So I pop the 160GB into the TiVo by itself, plug in the power cable, and sit through the usual "Starting up" screens. Then, right when it should start playing the little TiVo animation, it reboots. I tried again, with the same result. It always reboots when it finishes the startup sequence.

I'm at a loss. This newer mfstools CD is great, thank you Spike...it helped me upgrade my TiVo HD tonight too. I'm sure I missed something, or I'm sure there's some tool on it to help me figure out what's going wrong, but I don't know what that might be. Any suggestions?


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## hoyty

I think your problem is the A drive you copied and expanded was married to a B drive. It is still expecting to see that B drive even after the move. You need to unmarry the drive. I am not sure if you can do that and keep the recordings though. You didn't used to be able to but Spike's tool may have gotten around it.


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## mrogers

OK thanks for the reply...I don't care about preserving the recordings so that's not an issue. Looks like I just missed that step. Can I just perform the "unmarry" operation on the 160GB drive that has the TiVo OS on it already, even though it was originally the 80GB drive that was married to the 200GB?


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## spike2k5

You will need to hook up both A and B drive.

backup -qf 9999 -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

where /dev/hda is your A /dev/hdc is your B, /dev/hdd is your new drive.
Don't for get to include "x" to expand.


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## mrogers

spike2k5 said:


> You will need to hook up both A and B drive.
> 
> backup -qf 9999 -so - /dev/hda /dev/hdc | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdd
> 
> where /dev/hda is your A /dev/hdc is your B, /dev/hdd is your new drive.
> Don't for get to include "x" to expand.


Thanks for the tip...that appeared to work, it generated no error messages and reported the correct size on the new drive, but when I installed the drive back in the TiVo it still reboots after getting through the "Almost there..." screen.

Any ideas? I'd hate to declare this thing dead.

EDIT: I don't want to pollute this discussion any more with my problem, so I've created my own thread.


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## TexasAg

The 500gb internal drive in my S3 is dying, and the 500gb Esata drive is fine. I wanted to combine them into a single 1tb drive.

Does anybody know if WinMFS or other tool can combine 2 S3 disks into a single larger disk and preserve recordings (note that the S3 internal disk was expanded previously)? I know it's been noted earlier that this couldn't be done, but it's been some time since that was posted.

If WinMFS can't do it, is there any possible way? I don't care if I have to do command line stuff manually to get it to work.

Edit: Spike confirmed that WinMFS can't do it. Anybody have any suggestions of how this could possibly be done?


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## bnm81002

is it possible to upgrade my DTivo drive which I used MFSTools to expand from the original drive to a 250GB drive to a 400GB drive using the MFSLive Boot CD? would there be any problems? thanks


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