TiVo Community Forums Archives - Why do I need mfsadd utility?

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Why do I need mfsadd utility?
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Posted by: tivsrkf

I'm missing something very basic here; forgive me for being so dense, but...

I want to add a large drive (B drive) to supplement the original A drive in a series 2 (tcd24008a) tivo. I understand the Hinsdale How-to in how to do this. It includes the step of my running the mfsadd utility against both the original A drive and the add-on B drive - apparently so each knows about the other - or whatever.

What I don't understand is how so many businesses sell add-on B drives which only require me to "plug in the new drive, and you're done" without removing my original A drive from the tivo.

What magic are they performing that I can't? Why didn't they (or I) have to run mfsadd against my original A drive? Why can't I prep my new add-on drive like they do and just plug it in without ever removing my original A drive?

Thanks for any light you can shed on my confusion.

Posted by: kdmorse

There are many ways to get the job done. mfstools/mfsadd is often the tool of choice, because it can add drives, *and* do soo much more. If you can get mfstools running, you can also backup, reastore, replace, upgrade, and query your existing tivo drives, and of course add a new one.

The older way takes advantage of the fact that Tivo made adding a second drive very, very easy. Put a special signature on a drive, and when the tivo sees it on boot, it will 'grow' it's MFS partitions to include the second drive. You will find putting the right signature on the drive referred to as "Blessing" the drive, and the original blesstivo utility floating around.

MFSTools is *much* more powerfull, and much handier for general use. BlessTivo only does one thing, but it does it well...

These ready add on drives simply have been 'blessed', nothing more.

-Ken

Posted by: tivsrkf

All is clear now - very lucid explanation - much appreciated!