TiVo Community Forums Archives - Adding new B drive and Swap issues

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Adding new B drive and Swap issues
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Posted by: fredr1

OK, I admit it, I'm confused. I have a standalone Sony SVR2000 30hr TiVo to which I want to add a 120GB as a B drive, giving me roughly 150GB of space. Step 10 of Hinsdale's instructions caution that I should use the Mfs Tools restore option (-s 127) to increase the swap. However, I am not a Linux user so I am confused about the "exact" command or steps I should use. Hinsdale's instructions mention Option #3, but that is if I am replacing the A drive, which I am not.

Assuming I have completed the backup and restore test and that all the drives are connected on the pc as explained in the Hinsdale instructions, can someone please let me know the precise Linux command I should use, complete with appropriate options?

TIA

Fredr1

Posted by: weaknees

We've got it all here:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

This will give you the exact code for your upgrade only.

Michael

Posted by: fredr1

Well, then again, there are some inconsistencies. For example, during the backup step, the Weaknees instructions say to use the following command for all Tivos:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -9 so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

Whereas the Hinsdale instructions say to use the following for Series 1 TiVos:

mfsbackup -6 so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

and this one for Series 2:

mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/backup.bak /dev/hdX

So, should I use -6so or -9so, and is there a difference between the -f 9999 instruction set and Hinsdales?

Then, when time to expand the recording capacity, Weaknees says to:

mfsadd -x /dev/hdX /dev/hdY

Note that there is no adjustment to the Swap file, when Hinsdale's instructions say that >140MB upgrades should adjust this. My new setup will be 150MB. Which instructions do I follow? Sorry to ask such newbie-esk questions, but I don't want to total my TiVo!

Fredr1

Posted by: Robert S

The single digit controls the compression level. -1 makes a huge difference (roughly halves the file size). Further compression is questionable. Someone did all ten compression levels a couple of weeks back. The difference between -1 and -9 was about 3%, but -9 is very much slower.

140Gb is a rather vague estimate of the limit before the problem was fully characterised. The true limits are about 155Gb for Series 1 stand alone TiVoes and about 180Gb for all other models.

My standard advice is that you should increase swap on your first upgrade if possible as it's usually fairly painless on the first upgrade, but if you want to upgrade further, increasing swap at that point can be tricky.

However, all the swap is on the A drive, so there's no way to affect the swap size if all you do is use BlessTiVo or mfsadd to add a B drive. If you did this, you would not have any problems related to swap in that configuration.

I would reconsider whether continuing to use your current A drive is a good idea. How many years has it been running continuously? There are advantages to making the new drive the lone A drive. You can copy the recordings to the new drive if you wish (Hinsdale or Michael's infernal machine will tell you how).

Posted by: fredr1

I would reconsider whether continuing to use your current A drive is a good idea. How many years has it been running continuously? There are advantages to making the new drive the lone A drive. You can copy the recordings to the new drive if you wish (Hinsdale or Michael's infernal machine will tell you how).

The machine is 2 years old - pretty young, no? I could just put the 120GB drive in the A slot and be done with it, but what specific advantages would there be? If the old drive A dies, and I have the backup, is it much effort to add a new A drive? I might lose my recordings, but I would probably live.

Posted by: Robert S

It's more that it's easier for me to talk people through fixing one-drive TiVoes :)

For a start you have to identify which drive is failing.

It's also safer in that if something goes wrong, you can just put the original back in.

But, as I said, there's no actual /problem/ going to be caused by just adding the drive as a B drive.