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Second single-drive upgrade
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Posted by: Bob_Collins

About 9 months ago I upgraded my Hughes GXCEBOT DirecTiVo from the original 40GB drive, to a new Seagate 80GB drive. I used the DTiVoMad Boot CD. I used dd to copy the drive to the new one, and then used TiVoMad to expand the drive (see the below commands).

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hda bs=32k
(Copied drive and recordings to new drive)

maddtb4/setupcd.sh
(expanded the drive to use new space)

Well, here I am trying to use the new MFSTools 2.0 boot CD and the new procedure to upgrade again, this time to a 120GB drive, and it keeps failing!

The command I am using is:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

The message I get back once it finishes scanning the Source is:

Restore Failed: The target drive is not large enough for entire backup by itself.

I'm going from 80GB to 120GB, how can an additional 40GB not be enough?

Any clues as to why this might be failing?

Right now I am trying to run the following command, and it appears to be working:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hda

Once this completes, I will use the following (after removing the original source drive from the system):

mfsadd -x

I'm hoping this will add in the extra 40GB of drive space finally, but am afraid it might error out since this drive was already expanded once.

I need to save my current recordings, and I want to remain a single drive unit. These both are pretty stringent requirements on my part.

Again, any information or suggestions you guys can provide, would be welcome!

Posted by: AmblerTech

It would help to know your IDE device setup, but I'll take a shot.

Is your 120GB drive installed as the primary master IDE device? That is what you are currently trying to restore to. If that drive happens to be your existing PC system drive and it's less than 120GB, then that would explain the problem. Try toggling through the bootup logs <Shift> <PgUp> to see the device assignment for your 120GB drive. Of course, if this is off track disregard!

Sam

AmblerTech

Posted by: Robert S

Perhaps your partition table is full?

Posted by: Bob_Collins

Yes, when I tried the restore, I had removed my PC drive, and the only drives connected were the TiVo A drive (OLD 80GB), and the new drive i was upgrading to (120GB).

I tried the mfsadd /dev/hdc -x command (after moving the drive to Secondary Master and removing the source drive, and as expected I received The folowing error:

Expand of /dev/hdc would result in too many partitions.

So now what do I do to continue on with the upgrade? How can I work around this?

Posted by: Bob_Collins

bump

Posted by: weaknees

Yup - Robert S got it - no more available partitions on the new drive. Since you've already expanded it once, it looks like you can't go any further.

Just a thought - why not use the 120 as a B drive instead of as a replacement A drive?

In any event, the only way to get the extra space out of the 120 is probably to lose the extra partitions (and therefore the recordings) and then start from scratch with new partitions, so you'll be able to make a bigger set on the drive and capture the extra space.

Michael

Posted by: Bob_Collins

The issue is, that I want to remain a single drive system. I do not want the added "pull/strain" on the power supply for a second drive, nor the added heat it will produce.

I know I can start over and lose my current recordings, but that is not how I wish to proceed. I need a way to maintain the recordings, and hopefully expand to use the full size of the 120GB.

Is there no way around this? I mean, the How-to says that you can expand more than once, and even states that if you previously used TiVoMad to expand, you can expand again using mfstools, or am I reading this wrong?

There has to be a way to make this work!

Further info: I hooked the new 120GB drive up as secondary master this morning and ran the following commands with the following results:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/tmp/hdcpt count=64 conv=swab
pdisk -l /tmp/hdcpt

Which produced this output:

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/mnt/dos/hdcpt'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Image Bootstrap 1 4096 @ 75145280 ( 2.0M)
3: Image Kernel 1 4096 @ 75149376 ( 2.0M)
4: Ext2 Root 1 262144 @ 75153472 (128.0M)
5: Image Bootstrap 2 4096 @ 75415616 ( 2.0M)
6: Image Kernel 2 4096 @ 75419712 ( 2.0M)
7: Ext2 Root 2 262144 @ 75423808 (128.0M)
8: Swap Linux swap 260096 @ 75685952 (127.0M)
9: Ext2 /var 262144 @ 75946048 (128.0M)
10: MFS MFS application region 1048576 @ 76208192 (512.0M)
11: MFS MFS media region 32148480 @ 42996800 ( 15.3G)
12: MFS Second MFS application region 1048576 @ 77256768 (512.0M)
13: MFS Second MFS media region 42996736 @ 64 ( 20.5G)
14: MFS Third MFS application region 8192 @ 78305344 ( 4.0M)
15: MFS Third MFS media region 78114816 @ 78313536 ( 37.2G)
16: Apple_Free Extra 83693376 @ 156428352 ( 39.9G)

I then ran mfsinfo /dev/hdc, which reports the following:

The MFS volume set contains 6 partitions

/dev/hdc10 MFS Partition Size: 512 MiB
/dev/hdc11 MFS Partition Size: 15679 MiB
/dev/hdc12 MFS Partition Size: 512 MiB
/dev/hdc13 MFS Partition Size: 20994 MiB
/dev/hdc14 MFS Partition Size: 4 MiB
/dev/hdc15 MFS Partition Size: 38142 MiB

Total MFS volume size: 75862 MiB
Estimated hours in a standalone TiVo: 78
This MFS volume may be expanded 3 more times

Again, I am new, but it even states here that it can be expanded, so there has to be some way around this to be able to increase capacity and maintain recordings all on one drive.

Is there any way possible to use a second small drive in conjunction with the 80GB drive and move them back to a single 80 GB drive? I ask because it seemed to be hinted at in this thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64256 in the message posted by Tiger

quote:
The A drive is limited to 16 partitions, or 3 MFS pairs. A DirecTV TiVo that has a larger A drive has reached this limit. To upgrade further you need to use MFS Tools to copy your existing drive(s) to new drive(s) using -l or -x on the restore command line, so it will move one of the partitions off the A drive, allowing you to expand again.

Sorry to be such a pain, and so thick headed, but there has to be a way to do this!

Posted by: Robert S

Try adding -s to the backup side of your pipe.

Posted by: Bob_Collins

quote:
Originally posted by Robert S
Try adding -s to the backup side of your pipe.

Wouldn't that simply compress the entire stream (the partitions containing the recordings are already compressed, I believe), which would result in no difference on the number of partitions or their sizes, leaving me with the same results I currently have (or am I missing something?).

Here is what I thought of trying to see if this will work.

First, copy the existing 80GB drive to a 40GB and 40GB (or a 60GB and 40GB) drive configuration using either (from step 10 of the How To UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #3: From: Any Single Drive TiVo To: New A and New B Drive |or| New Single Larger A Drive (Slow option – preserves setup, season passes, etc. and recordings):

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -xzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb
OR
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -lzpi - /dev/hda /dev/hdb

This would give me a dual drive configuration of less than the 120GB drive size that I want to end up with, and according to the quote from Tiger "The A drive is limited to 16 partitions, or 3 MFS pairs. A DirecTV TiVo that has a larger A drive has reached this limit. To upgrade further you need to use MFS Tools to copy your existing drive(s) to new drive(s) using -l or -x on the restore command line, so it will move one of the partitions off the A drive, allowing you to expand again." One of the above commands should result in at least 1 of the partition sets being moved off the A drive and placed onto the B drive, thus giving me room to expand the A drive again (according to the quote from Tiger).

Once this completes, I would pull the source 80GB drive from the system, place the destination 120GB drive in its place, and then use (from step 10 of the How To UPGRADE CONFIGURATION #6: From: Any Dual Drive TiVo (limited) To: New Single Large A Drive (Slow option – preserves setup, season passes, etc. and recordings):

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

This command should put the data from both drives onto the 120GB drive, increase the swap size to 127MB, and expand to use the entire drive space of 120GB.

Does this seem to make sense? Will this work?

Tiger, are you still out there, what are your thoughts?

Posted by: Robert S

Did you read the linked thread? (And the thread linked in its first post)?

Upgrading 'from any dual drive to a larger single drive' assumes you have enough partitions (you would with the original twins as they had 11 partitions on their A drives). You don't.

Try BlankMan's trick - the worst that can happen is that you'll get an error message.

Posted by: mainecooncat

Hello,
I appear to be in the same situation as you. I upgraded from a dual-drive DSR6000 to a single 80 GB drive (Maxtor). The Maxtor has started making a significant whine so I bought a new Seagate 120 GB drive that is supposed to be very quiet.

I used the command:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

and got the error message "Backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself" even though the new drive is 120 GB and the old one is 80 GB.

Did you ever find a solution that worked and allowed you to keep all your recordings?

Thanks,
Peter Neumann

Posted by: Bob_Collins

No, I was unable to get it to work. Looks like the -s only will remove extra partitions IF they are empty, so I am continuing to run the 80GB drive until such time as I can clear it off and then upgrade it to the 120GB drive.

Posted by: mainecooncat

Is it possible just to move the current partitions on my 80 GB drive to the 120 GB drive without expanding them? My current drive is a Maxtor that is making an annoying whine and I'd really like to get the quieter Seagate in use.

I haven't run out of space on the 80 GB drive so I doubt I would miss the extra space on the 120 GB Seagate. However I do want to keep the recordings on the drive so it would have to move everything.

I am also running Windows XP on both PCs in the house so I don't have an easy way to make a backup image and then restore to the new 120 GB drive.

Peter

Posted by: Bob_Collins

Yes, you can move it without expanding by leaving the -x option out of the mfsfrestore command.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi - /dev/hda

Adjust the drive letters to your system, and that should move you onto the 120 GB drive, but still leave you with 80GB max usable size.

Hope this helps!

Posted by: kaether

I just posted a thread with this exact problem --

I have 15 partitions on my A from a previous upgrade. I'd like to upgrade from 100GB to 137GB without losing content. (actually, there are 16, the 16th is called 'Hack' -- I must have created it as a scratch space)

What is the partition limit? pdisk lets me create another partition -- could I just manually create it and add it?

Could I just try rewriting the last partition a little bigger?

What is 'Blankman's trick' referred to above? I couldn't find it in this thread.

Posted by: mainecooncat

I believe you are up against a hard limit on the number of partitions. Unless the partitions are empty (i.e., no recorded content) there doesn't appear to be a way to move to a larger drive once you've hit the limit on partitions (15 I believe is correct).

Blankman's trick used a flag in the mfsbackup to tell it to compress the streams. I think this will work if the partitions are empty. I tried it when I wanted to move from an 80 GB Maxtor to a 120 GB Seagate and it gave the same error.

I ended up only using 80 GB of the 120 GB Seagate but got rid of the noisy Maxtor. The Seagates are incredibly quiet. All I can hear is the fan now which is much less annoying that the whine of the Maxtor drive.

If I can ever get down to no recordings on the drive, I'll make a backup and then I'll be able to use all 120 GB on the Seagate.

Best of luck