TiVo Community Forums Archives - Upgrading from 2x80 to 2x160 ... can I save my recordings?

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Upgrading from 2x80 to 2x160 ... can I save my recordings?
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Posted by: redrhino

I am considering upgrading from my current setup with 2 80G HDs to a setup with 2 160G HDs.

I gather that it would not be too hard to simply add the TiVo OS to one of the new drives then bless the other and put the new drives in the TiVo.

However, I probably only want to do this if I can somehow save my recordings. I figure this is possible, but would like some confirmation from those of you who know better.

Thanks ...

Redrhino

Posted by: Deja-vue

why don't you use the DD command to copy the entire content to the new Drives, then expand?

Posted by: Robert S

What sort of TiVo is it?

My guess is you'll have to do a pipe transfer:

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

(booting from floppy, of course).

Posted by: redrhino

quote:
Originally posted by Robert S
What sort of TiVo is it?

Good question. I neglected to mention that I've got a series 2 ... TCD240080.

quote:

My guess is you'll have to do a pipe transfer:

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

(booting from floppy, of course).

Thanks!

Redrhino

Posted by: BlankMan

I second Robert's suggestion, from my past experience that works well and automagically uses the additional space right away as opposed to dd. With dd you have to do an mfsadd and in my experience with DTiVo's if you're already at the 15 partition limit due to previous expansion you can't use the additional space on the A drive.

Posted by: Robert S

if you're already at the 15 partition limit due to previous expansion you can't use the additional space on the A drive.

That's the problem here. dd is not an option if he wants to expand the A drive again. MFS Tools will copy some partitions from the current A drive to the new B drive to make room for further expansion of both drives.

Let's just hope there aren't any bad blocks on those drives. MFS Tools doesn't cope well with those.

Posted by: BlankMan

I wasn't sure so I didn't want to assume, I'm not familiar with that model. I thought the 15 partition problem was only prevalent in DTiVo's, is that a DTiVo? Or is it all?

Posted by: Robert S

The problem first appeared in the late run of Sony T-60's, but all the subsequent models have 13-partition A drives.

So everything except the Series 1 stand alones, and the Series 1 DTiVoes other than the late T-60's have this problem.