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Calling MFS Tools experts: Do I have a chance?
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Posted by: bsnelson

OK, I've searched, but I couldn't find a situation that's close enough to mine, so here goes:

I have a Series 1 DTivo that, through various events, ended up with a 100GB A drive that has all 16 partitions used and a 80GB B drive with all of the space added as 1 MFS pair. The A drive actually has three MFS pairs amongst it's 16 partitions.

The A drive conked out, and Maxtor sent me a 120GB to replace it. My question is (and I fear I know the answer): Is there any way to liberate that extra 20GB of space?

What I've tried so far: I have two spares, a 160GB and 120GB. I used dd to copy the drives to these spares (thus making the spares appear to be 120GB and 80GB), then I tried a mfstools backup/restore as thus:

code:
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

where the spares are on the secondary IDE, and the originals are on the primary.

This fails immediately, saying that the backup can't fit onto the target drives. I then tried adding the "s" switch to the backup (with little hope, after reading the doc), but that just caused mfsbackup to print the usage text (?).

So, I guess what I really need is a way to "grow" one of the existing pairs on the A drive (since I can't add another pair), or to "merge" some or all of the existing pairs to make room for another partition pair.

Go ahead, tell me I'm screwed. I'm pretty sure that the only way to liberate that space is to lose the recordings, but I just want to make sure.

Thanks in advance

Brad

Posted by: bsnelson

Just to clarify: The 100GB drive mentioned above had started showing errors, but I was able to dd enough of it to the 120GB such that the 120GB (partitioned as a 100GB) and the existing 80GB drive have been running for over a month.

So, the starting point is a 120GB that thinks it's a 100GB with all 16 partitions used, and a 80GB with all space used in one MFS pair.

Brad

Posted by: bsnelson

One last shameless bump - I'll give up if no one responds this time.

Brad

Posted by: Robert S

I don't think it's possible, Brad.

Perhaps if you could get MFS Tools to shuffle the partitions around so some of the small partitions from the A drive end up on the B drive it might work, but I don't know how to force that.

Did you try copying to 120+160 instead of 160+120?

Rob

Posted by: bsnelson

Thanks for the response, Robert. I'm actually just using the 160+120 "spares" as temporary workspaces; my destination is to get it back to the 120+80 that are currently in the unit.

Alas, I agree that it probably can't be done. I think I'll just leave it be, and if I ever want to sacrifice the recordings, I can do it then.

Thanks for listening, all!

Brad