TiVo Community Forums Archives - Backup fails on "Scanning source drive."

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Backup fails on "Scanning source drive."
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Posted by: Kaokulk

OK, here's the deal:

I'm upgrading my Series 2 DirecTiVo HDR2

hda - Windows98
hdb - CD-ROM
hdc - TiVo 40 GB
hdd - new 120 GB

I ran this:

mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
mfsbackup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

I get "Scanning source drive. Please wait a moment."

The hard drive flashes for about 5 minutes, then all activity stops. I've let it sit 5-10 minutes like that.

I then realized that the C: drive had a diag partition on it. So I changed the hda1 to hda2. Same problem.

Any clues? I searched the forum, and no one described a problem where it stopped on this line.

HELP!

Posted by: weaknees

Sounds like a bad hdc drive, but try this to see if it's the destination (hda) drive instead:

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi - /dev/hdd

This should move the data (minus recordings) to the 120. If it works, the problem is in writing the partition to the hda drive.

Michael

Posted by: Kaokulk

1 a.m. - Too tired to go on. Hooked back up the DirecTiVo (which works great). I'll try it again tomorrow.

(BTW, got my WeakNees bracket today. Hopefully I can get past this so I can actually use it! :-)

Posted by: Robert S

Try dialling the compression down - use -1so instead of -6so - as high compression settings seem more accident prone than lower ones (the difference between level 1 and 6 is about 10Mb!).

If you mount the wrong partition, MFS Tools will give you an error message, not just freeze.

Try running mfsinfo.

If all else fails, you should be able to dd and mfsadd even if you can't backup.

Posted by: Kaokulk

OK. now I'm really getting frustrated...

I tried the

mfsbackup -so - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -zxpi - /dev/hdd

command, nothing. I also did a msfinfo, and it looked OK. I have NO clue about Linux, but I know enough about DOS partitions, it looked OK as far as I can tell.

I could probably just add the drive, but if this is a sign of impending doom for my TiVo A drive, I don't want to make the restore process even more complicated.

I'd gladly replace my A drive with the new 120GB drive, if I could figure out how. Every time I do the mfsbackup command, it locks up.

I tried two different PCs, (both same model [Compaq Deskpro 4000]), different FAT32 drives to back up to.

PLEASE HELP! I did an upgrade a year ago to a stand-alone, and it went real smooth. Nothing like this frustarting experience!

Posted by: Robert S

I'd agree there's something odd happening. Usually backups are painless, although some people struggle to get the right partition mounted (particularly on Compaq's where hda1 is a hidden partition).

You can clone the drive with dd and then expand the copy with mfsadd. That would allow you to keep the original drive as a backup. Less than ideal, but perhaps good enough.

Posted by: Kaokulk

Was up until 3 a.m. this morning, but I finally got it to work. It was one or a combination of three things:

1. The DeskPro 4000 was unable to handle large hard drives, even with the latest BIOS upgrade;

2. The ribbon cable that WeakNees provided was a problem in my computer (unlikely, since it seems to work great in the DirecTiVo);

3. The order of the drives mattered. I could not put the 120GB as hdb, it would cause that whole primary controller to fail.

I finally used a different computer, different hard drive, different cable, and it worked. Had to switch hdb with hdc in the instructions for all 4 drives to be recognized, but, hey, it worked!

Now I have a backup image, and a 141 hour DirecTiVo! Cool!

Frustrated no more. :D