# Successful recovery of data with dd_rescue...



## Robmorrow (Feb 18, 2006)

Hi,

I just wanted to share my experience with replacing my drive on my Tivo. Originally, I had an 80 gig drive in the machine, and I was planning to purchase a larger drive, but I was able to get it replaced under warranty with another 80 gig refurbished drive. Let's see how long it lasts. I was able to get an image from StanSimmons who graciously hosts it. Before using that image, and after reading PortlandPaw's post, I thought I would try to rescue my old data before using the fresh image as a last resort. Aftering reading the Hinsdale guide and WeaKnees guide, I downloaded the WeaKnees BootCD image and was going to follow that guide as it was more simple. Then I actually started to follow the Hinsdale guide as it was more detailed and had more options available. As background, I am very familiar with building computers, and Dos/Windows but not Linux. I followed the suggested setup exactly by setting the old Tivo drive as Secondary Master, and new drive as Primary slave. I didn't need to do a standard image backup because I already had Stan's backup and my old drive was already corrupted. I ran the command for copying the drive from Hinsdale after booting the CD, "dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k" and it ran for about an hour with no progress and then it completed and returned back to the Linux prompt. Then I tested the newly copied drive back to the TIVO and hoped for the best. It booted up the regular way with the "powering up" message, "almost there" message, and then bam GSOD. It kept rebooting like that indefinitely. This time, I went back to PortlandPaw's post and wanted to try Blankman's strategy and maybe even using the dd_help script. It seemed too complicated so I just tried Portlandpaw's command of, "dd_rescue -B 1b -b 2M -A -v -l /var/dd_rescue.log /dev/hdc /dev/hdb" aftering booting up with Weaknees CD. That didn't work and returned an error about wrong syntax or something and to type a command for help so dd_rescue was on the CD as well so that was not the problem. I removed each syntax one at a time until all the errors were gone and ended up running only, "dd_rescue /dev/hdc /dev/hdb". Using dd_rescue is better than just "dd" as it shows the progress. It ran at a current speed of about 11,000 k/b/sec. When it hit errors, it slowed down and finished in about 4 hours with 600 something errors, at an average speed of 8,000 something k/b/sec. This time, I installed it into the Tivo and powered it up. First, regular bootup sequence with the "powering up", and "almost there" message, then it went to the zip code entry screen. At this time, I didn't have my cable connection plugged in so I was trying to plug in the cable line, and after I did that, the machine rebooted. I am not sure if that caused the reboot. Am I not supposed to plug in the cable line while the machine is on. In any case, after the reboot, GSOD again, and then it rebooted again. I was hoping it won't just be in the endless GSOD cycle again. This time, after it rebooted, it went to GSOD and stayed that way. Left it on over night, and in the morning, got the zip code screen back, then I dialed into the 800 #, then my local pop #, and everything works now with all my programs intact. I am so greatful for all the help and just wanted to share my experience.

Any insight on why the full dd_rescue command that PortlandPaw posted didn't work? Do you need a special version of Linux to run that? However, if just the basic dd_rescue works like I ran with no syntax, then there's probably no need to I guess.

BTW: I just used an old P2 400 mhz machine with onboard IDE controllers to run the copying.

Rob


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## Robmorrow (Feb 18, 2006)

bump


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## Robmorrow (Feb 18, 2006)

bump again.

Does anyone have any suggestions/answers to my above post?

It would be greatly appreciated.

Rob


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## Barryrod (Mar 17, 2006)

Robmorrow said:


> bump again.
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions/answers to my above post?
> 
> ...


I think the version that comes with Weaknees Boot Dick does not support all those options.

run dd_rescue --help

it will give you all the avainable options..I did and a bunch that PortlandPaw used were not there

I am trying the straight command as you did


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