# MFSTools and The Grey Screen of Death



## JohnPreston (Feb 14, 2006)

I have a series 2 tivo manufactured in sep 2005, model 5400 40GB HD. Using MFSTools lba48 upgrade utility failed - upgrade attempted to a WD 200GB HD. I get a power up screen on the tivo but then the tv screen goes grey or white - is this common with MFSTools? Any suggestions on how I can work this problem?

John


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## rsnaider (Apr 25, 2002)

Verify you have set the jumpers correctly on the new drive.


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## JohnPreston (Feb 14, 2006)

I tried the jumper set to master and then later to cable select - no difference. Still got the grey/white screen.


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## arctanstevo (Mar 28, 2003)

Does your Tivo still work with the old drive? 
If you hit the ribbon cable by mistake - see http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=105719 you could mess up your system.

If the old drive works, try doing a backup and restore to the new drive again. Something may have gone wrong.


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## JohnPreston (Feb 14, 2006)

Yes, the original drive still works fine. I backed up the image twice already. This has been very frustrating! Anyone use TrueImage to clone the TiVo drive?

John


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## slaponte (Apr 6, 2005)

Post the process and commands you use so we can see whats going on...


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## JohnPreston (Feb 14, 2006)

Okay...

My configuration is -

Primary Master: 1st attempt - DOS 7.1; 2nd attempt - Win98; jumper set to master.
Primary Slave: 200GB WD HD; jumper set to slave.
Secondary Master: TiVo Maxtor 40GB drive; jumper set to master.
Secondary Slave: CDROM drive; jumper set to slave.

I booted from the MFSTools CDROM and selected the large disk support option (pressed enter).

At the # prompt I proceeded to mount the C: drive by typing:

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

I then typed:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

to make the backup. (The tivo.bak file is there on the C: drive)

I type:

mfsrestore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

to restore the image to the new HD (the second time around) but used:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

to restore and expand the image on the 1st attempt

I then umounted the drive by typing:

umount -f -a -r

and then pressed Ctrl-Alt-Delete to exit, removed the new drive, switched the jumper to master (and then later to cable select) and then tested the new drive in the TiVo - no luck both times


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## arctanstevo (Mar 28, 2003)

Any messages from either the backup or restore steps?
How big is the tivo.bak file?


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## slaponte (Apr 6, 2005)

Never mind... I read wrong...


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

The TiVo WAS running release 7.X right? 

If so, try:

mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc


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## arctanstevo (Mar 28, 2003)

Good catch Dan. Yeah, software version before 7.x won't support large drives.

One other thing to try as well is not to do the restore and expand in the same step. Do the restore - plug it in and see if it boots saying it is whatever small image it was, then do the expand as a second step.


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

arctanstevo said:


> Good catch Dan. Yeah, software version before 7.x won't support large drives.


Actually, 5.3 (what was originally shipped on a 540) did.


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## JohnPreston (Feb 14, 2006)

Okay, I'm Back!

I tried using a Maxtor 300GB HD this time - same thing happened - grey/white screen. This time I used Dan Collins suggestion of "mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc"

My uncompressed backup size is 1408 MB. Software says Backup done! and Restore done!

It also says: "Not enough extra space to expand on A drive"

Anyone know what this means?

John


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