# Any way to get a copy of WinMFS?



## Morocco Mole (Jul 12, 2002)

Any way to get a copy of WinMFS?

With mfslive.org down, any way to get a copy of WinMFS? I have to replace a dying 1 TB hard drive on my life-timed Tivo HD. That was the last tool I used way back in 2010 and I'm more familiar with it.

Thanks in advance,

MMole


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Morocco Mole said:


> Any way to get a copy of WinMFS?
> 
> With mfslive.org down, any way to get a copy of WinMFS? I have to replace a dying 1 TB hard drive on my life-timed Tivo HD. That was the last tool I used way back in 2010 and I'm more familiar with it.
> 
> ...


PM sent from original PM request.


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## thumper300zx (Dec 2, 2015)

ThAbtO said:


> PM sent from original PM request.


Can you PM me a link, also?

(edit -- I think I found a working dropbox link -- I will use:
mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
)

(PREVIOUS) 
I followed this guide to copy my drive to a new drive (search 'tivo ddrescue expand' on Google, 1st hit -- though my original drive is fine and not in need of repair).

Maybe someone can just instruct me on how to expand? Should I start a new thread to ask how to expand a drive after DDRESCUE or perhaps someone already knows where I can find that info?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

thumper300zx said:


> Can you PM me a link, also?
> 
> I followed this guide to copy my drive to a new drive (search 'tivo ddrescue expand' on Google -- though my original drive is fine and not in need of repair).
> 
> Maybe someone can just instruct me on how to expand? Should I start a new thread to ask how to expand a drive after DDRESCUE or perhaps someone already knows where I can find that info?


It depends on which Tivo model. All I have is WinMFS and that does not work on Premiere and newer Tivos.


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## thumper300zx (Dec 2, 2015)

ThAbtO said:


> It depends on which Tivo model. All I have is WinMFS and that does not work on Premiere and newer Tivos.


I found MFS tools 3.2. That should work for Roamio, correct?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

thumper300zx said:


> I found MFS tools 3.2. That should work for Roamio, correct?


Either that or MSFR. MFS Tools is command line based like Linux, although some had issues.

If you just want to get a upgrade to 4-6 TB without recordings, or copied to a PC/ another Tivo, MSFR works without entering command lines, although its Windows Only. Also the Roamio needs to have the Tivo software updated prior for this to work.


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## thumper300zx (Dec 2, 2015)

ThAbtO said:


> Either that or MSFR. MFS Tools is command line based like Linux, although some had issues.
> 
> If you just want to get a upgrade to 4-6 TB without recordings, or copied to a PC/ another Tivo, MSFR works without entering command lines, although its Windows Only. Also the Roamio needs to have the Tivo software updated prior for this to work.


I have a Cable/OTA Roamio with a 500gb drive -- I bought this last week -- price was $71 at that time. 2GB Drive.

Western Digital 2 TB WD AV-GP SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive WD20EURX

I decided to just run MFS Tools overnight (created disk with .iso) -- took about three hours. Plugged it in this morning and just had to get my air channels and guide back. Up and running! Just ran the line:

mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb

Copied and expanded. Guide still doesn't seem to have loaded -- read one guy that said he had to try four times before that worked.

[EDIT] worked on 2nd attempt. Didn't have to restart system. All up and running...all recordings, OnePass, etc, there.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

thumper300zx said:


> Can you PM me a link, also?
> 
> (edit -- I think I found a working dropbox link -- I will use:
> mfstool copy -a /dev/sdX /dev/sdY
> ...


If you are using WinMFS, it's easy, just select the drive to be expanded and click on

mfsadd

If you are using the MFS Live cd v1.4 (and probably the previous versions as well) you can't click anything 'cause it's all command line, but it's still

mfsadd

In this case, once you've booted to the command line, run

fdisk -l

to see which hard drive is which. The possibilities are basically

/dev/hd*

where * is replaced by a letter from a to z, or

/dev/sd*

Generally if the drive is connected to an IDE/PATA header, even if it's a SATA drive using an IDE/PATA adapter, the MFS Live cd will see it as an "h", whereas if it's connected to a SATA port or via a USB adapter (even if the drive itself is IDE/PATA) it'll be seen as an "s".

(I'm pretty sure the "s" originally stood for SCSI)

So for purposes of illustration, let's say that

fdisk -l

shows the drive you want to expand to be

/dev/sdc

because you have at least 2 other drives hooked up and you're living dangerously by not disconnecting them before starting this and you think you know everything and won't make any mistakes (in other words, you're like me).

Then you'd run

mfsadd /dev/sdc

and if that drive only had 2 MFS partition pairs (MFS Application/MFS Media) then

mfsadd

will add a 3rd pair, using the rest of the space on the drive.

fdisk

is, in this case, a command that's part of the version of Linux upon which the MFS Live cd is built and not a part of MFS Tools, on which the TiVo-specific part of the cd is built.

It doesn't know how to recognize the Apple Partition Map found on TiVo drives, and will report them as unformatted.

pdisk

does read Apple Partition Maps.

pdisk /dev/sdc

(again using the drive designation of sdc chosen for the sake of discussion)

will show you the Apple Partition Map on the drive. Partitions 10, 11, 12, and 13 should be the 2 MFS pairs, and the extra space beyond that will be labeled as an Apple Free partition, which is how the Apple Partition Map designates non-partitioned space.

When

mfsadd

adds that 3rd MFS Pair, it will go where the Apple Free partition is and the Partition Map will be re-written to reflect that partition 14 is now partition 14 and 15.

All of this assumes you copied the original TiVo drive, or an unmodified copy of it, to the new, larger drive, but did not previously expand at any time.

If you did, you'll already have that 3rd MFS pair.

WinMFS's version of

mfsadd

can enlarge the 3rd MFS Media partition to use the rest of the space, but I don't know if the version on the MFS Live cd can or not. I suspect it cannot, and will return an error message if it finds a 3rd MFS pair already in existence.

Another one of the TiVo-specific utilities on the MFS Live cd is

mfsinfo

which you would invoke with

mfsinfo /dev/xdy

where x is an h or an s, and y is a through z, whichever is the drive you want to check.

In the example used above it would be

mfsinfo /dev/sdc

Generally if it returns information without any error message, then the TiVo software on the drive is okay.

In WinMFS,

mfsinfo

incorporates the same function as

pdisk


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## Ratamacue (Dec 12, 2002)

Can someone be so kind as to point me to or PM a link to WinMFS? Like the OP, I have a Tivo HD that with a 1 TB hard drive that I'd like to upgrade. It could use a little more breathing room.

TIA...

edit: Disregard. Found a link here:


worachj said:


> I haven't used WinMFS in a long time. The only copy I can find is the Beta 9.3f version which I used without any problems on my S3 model 648 TiVo. It's in my dropbox if you want it.
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/anlboptp509jr6l/winmfs_beta9_3f.zip?dl=0


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Ratamacue said:


> Can someone be so kind as to point me to or PM a link to WinMFS? Like the OP, I have a Tivo HD that with a 1 TB hard drive that I'd like to upgrade. It could use a little more breathing room.
> 
> TIA...
> 
> edit: Disregard. Found a link here:


That's the latest, and I suppose, last ever, version.

But with what brand and model number of drive were you thinking of replacing that 1TB, and on which version of Windows were you planning to run WinMFS?

There seems to be a problem with recently manufactured WD20EURX drives.


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## Ratamacue (Dec 12, 2002)

unitron said:


> That's the latest, and I suppose, last ever, version.
> 
> But with what brand and model number of drive were you thinking of replacing that 1TB, and on which version of Windows were you planning to run WinMFS?
> 
> There seems to be a problem with recently manufactured WD20EURX drives.


I've got a lifetime 652160 box that I'd like to upgrade. The original hard drive got corrupted when the (ridiculously expensive) DVR expander drive enclosure failed a few years ago. I used Instant Cake to resurrect that drive, and I believe I used WinMFS to copy everything over to the 1 TB drive currently in the box.

After reading about the problems with the WD20EURX drives I was thinking about trying a WD Red WD20EFRX drive with a Windows 10 machine running WinMFS. Have you heard of any issues with that combo?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Ratamacue said:


> I've got a lifetime 652160 box that I'd like to upgrade. The original hard drive got corrupted when the (ridiculously expensive) DVR expander drive enclosure failed a few years ago. I used Instant Cake to resurrect that drive, and I believe I used WinMFS to copy everything over to the 1 TB drive currently in the box.
> 
> After reading about the problems with the WD20EURX drives I was thinking about trying a WD Red WD20EFRX drive with a Windows 10 machine running WinMFS. Have you heard of any issues with that combo?


I personally haven't heard anything one way or the other, but then I was so sure I could keep buying and using the WD20EURX A/V Green (based on my sucess last year with one purchased in June 2014) that I haven't really been following discussions about TiVo'ing other models.


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## itpfreak (May 6, 2020)

ThAbtO said:


> PM sent from original PM request.


Can you pleas send me the link for winMFS as well?

I have a series 3 HD with a backup of my TBK file but I cant seem to find software to restore the image to the drive. Is there a newer version of software that works on windows 10 that could restore a TBK to an old series 3 drive? (new hard drive I mean)


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## itpfreak (May 6, 2020)

Do you have a copy of the program?

how do I restore the TBK with MFS ?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

itpfreak said:


> I cant seem to find software to restore the image to the drive.


Sent.


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