# Does anyone know how to "shrink" a drive?



## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

My apologies if this subject has been covered. I've searched, but haven't found.

I have a Series 2 TCD240080, with a 160GB drive, that was an upgrade from the original.

I want to copy the drive to a smaller one, either a 30GB or 15GB, and reuse the 160GB in a different model Tivo.

I've replaced and expanded drives before, but I don't find any information on copying to a smaller drive.

I did a "clear and delete everything" first, then did a backup using MFSLive, but when doing the restore I'm told that the drive is too small.

I'm thinking that I need to delete some of the partitions on the 160GB drive, so that it would fit on the smaller drive?

Or maybe just dd the first 15GB or 30GB to another drive?

I know that I could just buy the CD and install that onto the smaller drive, but that wouldn't be as much fun, and I wouldn't learn much!

Again, sorry if this has been covered.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You cannot.

The drive needs to be at least as big as the original capacity, and that would be 80GB. You can though, get a 40GB drive and image; the smallest used for a Series 2.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

There is a method whereby you can reduce the size of the image so that it will fit on a smaller drive, but it requires a great deal of Linux expertise. The amount of time and effort involved would not be worth the trouble, IMHO. You'd be better off getting a cheap 40GB drive to install in your S2 Tivo.


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## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

Hi guys:

Thanks for your replies!

As I understand it, the MFS filesystem occupies one partition initially, and additional partitions are added when expanding a drive to a larger size.

So then, in theory, the reverse ought to be true. There ought to be a way to delete those extra partitions, and reduce the required drive size. I would expect that it would be easiest to reduce the drive back at least to the original size, and that there'd also be a way to reduce the MFS partition even further, so that there'd be a minimum of space allocated to it on the drive.

Now, since the "clear and delete" has been done, there should actually be a very minimal amount of video left on the drive. So, again in theory, there is no "need" for a large MFS partition.

So, where do I find information on the "...method whereby you can reduce the size of the image so that it will fit on a smaller drive, but it requires a great deal of Linux expertise?"

It just so happens that I do have a great deal of Linux expertise! 

This is more of a learning experience than a practical one, so regardless of the cost of a 40GB or 80GB drive, I'd like to explore it.

Otherwise, I'd just be getting another 160GB drive instead of going through any of this!

I suppose I could just back up the drive, and save the backup image on another drive, CD or DVD, and then use the 160GB drive.

But then I wouldn't learn as much!

Thanks again for your replies!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You have it almost right. On a Series 2 or a DirecTV TiVo., two sets of partitions are used.

You can remove the partitions added for an upgrade and end with an original capacity drive (which as said, is no smaller than 40GB), but nothing further, without deep hacking of the MFS.

The "other" place might help.


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## AlleyAndy (Feb 2, 2009)

Thanks!

Good to know I was at least conceptually on the right track.

I haven't seen enough Tivo drives to know how MFS expands, so I don't yet have the info I'd need to make it contract.

I suppose it makes sense that 40GB would be the smallest Series 2 drive configuration, since I believe that's the smallest drive they were equipped with.

I was thinking that the Series 1 was as small as 13GB, I believe, so in theory the MFS understands a drive that small.

I don't know if there's much, if any, difference in the MFS layout for Series 1 or 2, other than the ability to have larger storage...

Anyway, this is just an intellectual exercise, so I'll keep poking around. It'd be interesting to know more about how MFS works.

There must be some detail about that somewhere, since people have been able to build apps that deal directly with MFS...


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## Leadership (Jul 3, 2009)

I'm not totally sure why you'd want to switch to a smaller drive in the first place?


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