# Can't mount drive in PC



## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

I'm trying to mount my TiVo's Hard Drive in a PC to repair some disk corruption that seems to have creeped into my hack directory.

I put it into a PC as Primary Master (/dev/hda) and boot from a tools CD, just as I did when I created the hack, but for some reason (memory) I can't remember how I got it mounted last time. I do remember that it didn't match any of the hack info I had read online (like tivo.stevejenkins)

I remember that the partition wasn't 9, but when I try now (I've tried all from 1-9) all I get is "you must specify the filesystem type"

I've tied ext2, ext and vfat; none of them seem to work.

Any ideas?

P.S. Sorry for the cross post, I can't figure out how to delete/move the other post.


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

if this is from a series1, you need to enable byteswapping.


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## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

It is. Would I find the "how do you do that" in an FAQ somewhere? I'm just trying to mount the /var partition.


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

most tivo boot CDs have the option of enabling byteswapping, but you need to check the docs for your boot CD to see how to enable it


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## Krosis (May 10, 2004)

Some boot CDs meant exclusively for series one turn it on by default.


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## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

O.K. I downloaded a fresh copy of MFStools booted it with "vmlnodma hda=swap" and I'm still having trouble mounting the drive! If I try to load linux using the swap command at the boot: prompt I end with a kernal panic.

Obviously I'm still missing something, but what I don't know...

P.S. I tried *every* partition from 1-9


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Only 4,6, and 9 are valid to mount in ext2.


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## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

Yes, I understand that, but none of them mounted, so I tried everything out of desperation. 

Do I need to use "-t ext2" to mount the /var partition?


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## Krosis (May 10, 2004)

dragonfire said:


> Yes, I understand that, but none of them mounted, so I tried everything out of desperation.
> 
> Do I need to use "-t ext2" to mount the /var partition?


It shouldn't be necessary, and I don't think I've ever seen it help, but it also won't hurt it to try. It still sounds like a byteswapping issue. Do you have any other boot CDs you can try? Preferably one made for a series 1.

I just noted your boot option, it should be:

vmlnodma hda=bswap

Note the b in front of the word swap. Try that and see if it helps.


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## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

I've tried two. One I got from the guy I bought the TiVo from awhile ago, the other I downloaded from mfstools.sourceforge.net. I downloaded the bootable ISO image, but it doesn't say anything about which series it is for. Do you know of a site I can find a series 1 only image?

When I tried the "vmlnodma hda=bswap" on the first version I got some message about image not found (or something like that!). I'll try the boot again, since I don't know which time I made the typo... ;-)

Thanks for the help
Arana


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## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

You could try downloading the boot CD from MFSLive.org. It says it can do byteswapping, but it only works on /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd. Maybe that is the same with the other boot disks you're trying as well. I don't know for sure, but you'd probably be better off using mfslive anyway, as they actually keep it current and have fixed a number of errors in mfstools.


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## Krosis (May 10, 2004)

It's been a little while since I played with a series one, but now that you mention it I do seem to remember a restriction on what drives could be byte swapped with some boot CDs. It explained it on the startup page I believe, but I'm afraid I don't remember which particular CD it was. I used so many


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## PortlandPaw (Jan 11, 2004)

I think one of the prime directives is to use anything BUT Primary Master (/dev/hda). Why, I don't know, but I've always put it on the secondary bus with no problem.


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## dragonfire (Sep 21, 2006)

Well, case solved! The typo was in both places (embarrased grin), I left the 'b' off the bswap, and I have disposed of the original CD since it won't allow booting with byte swapping. I've now got the TiVo working again, the TiVoTool works great, TivoWebPlus 2.0 works well (except that display text and access from the internet don't work) and I've got Hackman working too!

So, I can now get all of those programs (easily) off the TiVo and down to DVD.

Thanks all for the help

Oh yea, I always use the Primary channel, since the CDROM is on the Secondary. It saves me from having to reconfigure the CDROM drive, I just unlug the Hard Drive(s) and replace with the TiVo drive.


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