TiVo Community Forums Archives - Will mfsrestore overwrite recordings?

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Will mfsrestore overwrite recordings?
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Posted by: lorne

Hi,

My Phillips DTivo DSR6000 is hanging at the "Almost there" screen after an attempt to install the "CacheCard" and then reverting back to the "TurboNet" card.

Prior to this, I had successfully upgraded to dual drives and a TurboNet card and using it for about 1 year now.

Before it hung, It was stuck at the "Updating Database. This will take a long time screen". At least it appeared stuck there, it was there for about 2 hours, before I decided to reboot. After rebooting, it's now stuck at the "Almost there" screen.

I've tried several things including reruning the nic_install with the TurboNet reinstalled and also run the "tivoflash" utility to no avail. Unless anyone has any other suggestions, I think I need to restore from my backup, but I don't want to lose my recordings.

I made a backup of my dual drive DTivo before starting using:

mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

which doesn't backup recordings.

If I restore using this backup, will I lose my recordings? (I've used the unit since doing the backup) If I can do this restoration without losing my recordings, can someone please tell me what the restore command is?

Thanks for any help!

lj

Posted by: weaknees

Yes, you'll lose your recordings, and get the settings back from when you made the backup.

Michael

Posted by: lorne

That's what I was afraid of!

So now I need to see if I can get this system up and running. Any ideas on what could have gone wrong and how to fix this hanging problem?

lj

Posted by: weaknees

It actually sounds like you could be stuck with a bad modem. Do you have another hard drive around that you can use? If so, restore the backup to it and give it a shot.

Michael

Posted by: lorne

Good idea! I have the original hard drive from before my upgrade. I guess if that boots up and works, then it's something with the upgrade drive...

Thanks...

lj

Posted by: Robert S

Actually, your recordings might survive this, as long as you use exactly the same options as when you originally created the drives. (Obviously any recordings made or overwritten after the backup was made will be lost).

mfsrestore only overwrites the bits of the disk it needs to to make a working TiVo. Therefore, as long as the partition boundaries don't move, the recordings survive. (In most instances, the boundaries will move, so don't get your hopes up too much).

Posted by: lorne

Okay this is promising/encouraging news.

So if I don't change drives and just try to restore from my backup image, then I might be able to recover... If I'm not not replacing the drive (and use the original drive that I backed up) and I haven't recorded any new shows (since I've not been able to boot up anyway) then is there any reason that the boundaries would have changed?

This is the backup command I used:

mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

do you know what the restore command would be? Is it this:

mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

And then would I need to do a mfsadd afterwards?

mfsadd -x /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

Thanks...

lj

Posted by: Robert S

The boundaries are of the partitions, not the individual recordings, so the idea is to replicate the mfsrestore command(s) you used when you created the drive(s). The really critical one would be the p, which changes the order of the partitions. I would expect that restoring with -x and running mfsadd would have the same restult.

Did your old drive boot?

Posted by: lorne

I just got home from work and am about to try the old drive now...

Edit: Just successfully booted up the old drive and everything was like the day I bought it! :D

I'm also planning on creating full backup using:

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

of the current state of the system to save the recordings in case the restore blows away the recordings, then I'll still have them in case someone has an idea on how to fix this hanging problem without starting from scratch.

I followed the "hinsdale-how-to" instructions to create this dual disk system, so this is probably what I did orginally (from the current web instructions):

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

Where "/dev/hdc" was my original disk that came with the Tivo and the /dev/hda and /dev/hdb were the new A & B drives...That's where I guessed on the restore command (removing the "x" flag so as not to change the partitions...

What do you think? Seem correct?

Thanks...

lj

Posted by: Robert S

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdb would just spit the entire contents of both drives out to the screen. It's not really practical to backup with recordings. Given that the TiVo is unbootable, it's not obvious to me that having a 'backup' of your recordings is useful at this point.

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/<backup> /dev/hda /dev/hdb

Has at least some chance of success.

Posted by: lorne

Oops, you're right! I meant:

mfsbackup -Tao /mnt/dos/tivo_full.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

The reason for doing a full backup at this point was to have the recordings saved in hopes that if I lost the recordings doing a restore that maybe someone would have a solution to my booting problem and I'd be able to get my recordings back.

The ones I really want to get back are the last seaon of Enterprise and Stargate SG-1. The rest I could stand to lose, but I haven't been able to watch these two...

lj

Posted by: lorne

Well, the first attempt at salvaging my recordings didn't work. I was able to get back up and running using the restore, but none of the recordings could be found from my now playing list.

What I've done and where I'm at:

- Created a backup using:
mfsbackup -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

- Somehow screwed up my system so that it hangs at the "Amost there" screen.

- Tried to restore using:
mfsrestore -s 127 -zpi /mnt/<backup> /dev/hda /dev/hdb

What if I created a restore onto another disk (from my good backup) and then used "cpio" to copy over the root partition to the disk that had the recordings? Would this work?

lj

Posted by: Robert S

'Almost there' is printed by Linux, so it's your MFS partitions, not the Linux ones that are messed up :( (Could be as simple as a missing B drive, though).

Posted by: lorne

quote:
'Almost there' is printed by Linux, so it's your MFS partitions, not the Linux ones that are messed up

Bummer!:(

What do you mean by a missing B drive? My B drive is installed. The initial problem came after it was hung for several hours at the ""Updating Database. This will take a long time" screen.

I did a power cycle during that (thinking it was hung and not doing anything). After that, it never got passed the "Amost there" screen.

I even tried forcing a GSOD and it went through it's repair cycle and still hung at the "Almost there" screen.

Does it sound like I'm really out of luck and no chance to recover my recordings and should be giving up?

lj

Posted by: Robert S

If the B drive isn't detected by the TiVo, then it won't get past 'almost there'. However, it can't run the GSOD without the B drive, so it doesn't look like it's that.

If you restore the backup to a fresh disk, I suppose you could try dd'ing the MFS App partitions across, but I'd be very surprised if you could save this TiVo image.

Posted by: lorne

Okay, I'll give it one more try. Can you tell me which partition are the MFS App partitions? (Or how I can determine that?)

Wait, I think I figured out how to determine the App partitions... Just boot up in linux and look at the descriptions! :o

I take it the "App" partitions are the ones that know where in the "Media" partitions to look for the recordings?

Thanks...

lj

Posted by: lorne

Well, I gave up! :( After several unsuccesful attempts, I was not able to figure out how to save my recordings... Time to wait for reruns...

I'm back up and running thanks to my backup! Anybody contemplating skipping that step - don't! Anything can go wrong and having the backup is a lifesaver!

Of course, now that I'm back up without my recordings, I saw something that made me wonder if a simple:

mfsrestore /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /mnt/hdc /mnt/hdb

(where hdc = Tivo A, hdb = Tivo B)

would have saved my recordings...

lj

Posted by: Robert S

You forgot the -i before the filename, but I get the idea.

Remember what I said about the partitions moving. The default for -s is 64 (TiVoes ship with 64Mb of swap), so if you're restoring to the original A drive or you didn't use -s when you upgraded, you shouldn't use it here. However, as you created the drive with -s 127, you would be moving the partitions if you omitted -s.

Similarly with -p - the default is the original layout with the system at the bottom and the MFS partitions at the top. If you use -p then the system partitions and the MFS App partitions go in the middle with the first MFS Media partition at the bottom and the rest of the Media partitions at the top. Again, if you used -p when you created the drive, you'd need to use it here or the partitions would move.

Condolences on the loss of your data, but at least the TiVo still works.

Posted by: ncitro

I have had this exact same problem. I need to restore a backup as well, but do not have one. Can anyone help me out with a backup for a stock DSR 6000r01, the two hard drive version? Any help would be great.