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TiVo A drive cloning by Northon Ghost
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Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

I have two PTV-100. One of them which had been modified to digital vcr and, another is new unit with software 1.2.1 Can I use Northon Ghost 2002 to clone them, if both A drives are identical size?

Xiaoyu

Posted by: worms

I would certainly expect so.

Posted by: stevel

No, you cannot. Norton Ghost doesn't understand the partitions used by TiVo. Use the "dd" command provided on kazymyr's TiVo bootable CD, or Dylan's Boot Floppy Disk.

Posted by: Otto

Ghost don't like Tivo. Ghost tries to be smart and change the image in certain ways, even if you do it in "raw" mode. For windows, Ghost is great. For anything else, Ghost sucks.

Posted by: ADent

Several people have had success with Ghost. But you have to mess around with the settings because the default ones do not work. Downloading the DBD floppy and running dd is so easy, why bother with Ghost?

The CD Rom is quicker (if you pick non byte swapped).

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

Thanks all of you for the advices. I already download Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i last night. I am going to try it. I have couple of questions:

1. The backup image of the PTV-100 is an upgrade (a 80 GB hard drive was added for B drive) unit. Should I follow the instruction of two drive system on the How-To manual?

2. Should I choose Windows 98SE vs. Windows 2000Pro if I have choice?
Is one more easies than other?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

I read the Footnote of How-To and, try to understand what should I do with Windows 2000 OS. I came with following conclusion: Since I have multple hard drives in my computer and, one of them is empty, I can reformat it to fat32, then swap it to be the primary boot drive. On the Footnote he suggested to buy small hard drive to do so. I understand that Windows OS itself has nothing to do with this process. Am I right?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: stormsweeper

quote:
Originally posted by xiaoyu
Hi,

I read the Footnote of How-To and, try to understand what should I do with Windows 2000 OS. I came with following conclusion: Since I have multple hard drives in my computer and, one of them is empty, I can reformat it to fat32, then swap it to be the primary boot drive. On the Footnote he suggested to buy small hard drive to do so. I understand that Windows OS itself has nothing to do with this process. Am I right?

Xiaoyu,

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...&threadid=64717

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi Stormsweeper,

Thank you for the information. Two more questions:

1. My C drive has three partitions. When I copy the FAT32 file back to C drive, Can I put it in any partition? Do I have to copy it into the first partition which holds the OS?

2. Can I store the backup on the CD?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: jroysdon

quote:
Originally posted by xiaoyu
Hi Stormsweeper,

Thank you for the information. Two more questions:

1. My C drive has three partitions. When I copy the FAT32 file back to C drive, Can I put it in any partition? Do I have to copy it into the first partition which holds the OS?

2. Can I store the backup on the CD?

Xiaoyu,

1. "C" drive would be the first partition on your first disk. Typically "D" would be the second partition and "E" would be the third. Of course it starts getting messy when you have multiple drives and have the "Set Active" set on more than one. Yes, you can store the image on any fat32 partition.

Controller / Physical Drive / linux nomenclature
Primary / Master / hda
Primary / Slave / hdb
Secondary / Master / hdc
Secondary / Slave / hdd

Each can have multiple partitions which screw with DOS/Win32's native drive lettering, but typically they are lettered with "C" through "Z" starting with the first physical drives going through all of it's partitions, and then to the next physical drive. Although "Active" partitions get bumped up on top.

Linux doesn't care and uses the above nomenclature (hda, hdb) and adds a number (hda3, hdb1, etc.).

2. Yes, you can burn it to a CD after, but you'll probably have to split it up (if it's not 700mb or less. Mine was 2gb or so).

Posted by: ADent

MFStools backup not saving the programming (say -s option) will almost always fit on a CD, unless you are backing up a Virgin unit.

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

I already posted another thread, but I thought I may be better stick with this one to get the expert advice.
I am following :"How-To" practising backup my TiVo. I found an old 5.1 gb ATA33 hd. I put it on my Windows 2K computer and formated to FAT32, but there is no files on it.
Primary Master: 5.1 gb new drive
Primary Slave: New 30 gb WD drive
Secondary Master: Original TiVi A (single drive TiVo)
CD-ROM was connected to Maxtor PCI/IDE card
I am on Step7 and Option#1. After I got /#, I typed mkdir/mnt/dos, then I got a message thet said: No such file or directory. Do I miss something? Please help!

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: steven

Yes you forgot the space between mkdir /mnt/dos.
Linix is very picky upper case lower case and spaces

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi Steven,

Thank you very much. You had really rescued me!
I have finished backup step. After "Backup done!" I started step 8. After I typed in the command for Boot Cd user, I received some unexpected message that is not on the Bible:
Usage: restore [option] Adrive [Bdrive]
Options:
-i file Input from file, -for Stdin
-q .........
-qq .......
-V size .......
-s size ......
-z .......
First I don't understand. Second anything I type in, I will get "command not found"
after I read the instruction again, I found I need special command due to restoring to non-Quanturm A drive. I try this command, but I got the following message: Invalid signature 0X33c0 on/dev/hdb
I don't have any idea now. Please help!

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

I read the instruction again this morning. It seams like I need to copy Mfs Tools 1.1 to my C: drive in order to restoring backup image. It stated clearly to copy Mfs Tools to C: drive for TiVoMad floppy users. Is this rule also for Cd Boot user as well? Is Mfs Tools 1.1 already included in the Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i ? I confused for what's the relationship between Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i and Mfs Tools 1.1? Now there is another one called Tiger's Mfs Tools Boot Cd. What is Tiger related to two I mentioned above?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: stormsweeper

Tiger wrote MFS Tools. His new CD has MFS Tools 2.0, and has the other commands you need (dd, mainly) to do your upgrade. I *highly* recommend using that CD.

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi Stormsweeper,

Thank you for your help. Can you tell me is Kazymyr's Boot Cd v2.6i a bootable Tiger Mfs Tools 1.1 (Now Tiger released his own bootable Cd 2.0)? Do I need to copy Tigar's Tools 2.0 on my C: drive in order to restoring the image?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: steven

Don't forget to mount your drive
mkdir /mnt/dos
mount /dev/hdx1 /mnt/dos
where x is your fat32 drive containing backup image.
hda primary master
hdb primary slave
hdc secondary master
hdd secondary slave

This command will restore the original size drive assuming tivo.bak was the name you used
# mfsrestore –i /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx

This comand will restore and expand to a larger drive

# mfsrestore -xpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx
where hdx is your new "A" drive

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi Steven,

Thanks again!
Questions:
1. Do I need to do anything for new non-Quantum A driver with original A running software 1.2.1?
2. My original A drive is 13.6 Gb and new A is 30 Gb, I think I should use the second command that you give to me. Can you explain -xpi, is x means something(hard drive number?)?
3. Why is your command different with the instruction?

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: ADent

mfsrestore is for MFStool 2.x

If you are using 1.1 then it would be something like mfstool restore /dev/hdc -i /mnt/dos/tivo.bak

You should be able to run mfstools directly from the CD. On the floppy version you have to give the full path - I ususually just copy it to the C drive because it is easier to run from there.

If you are running a non-Quantum on 1.x you need to add something like runideturbo = false in the boot file. Take a look at the TiVo Hack FAQ section 3.19 and 4.10 (in the Forum pull down at the top of most pages here).

Posted by: steven

1) if you are using mfstools 2.0 this one command should do everything
2) mfsrestore is the command
-x is a command line switch witch tells mfstools to expand to the full capacity of the new drive
-p tells mfstools to optimize the partitions
-i tells mfstools to restore from a file
I did a copy and paste from the mfstools 2.0 readme step 10A
I've upgraded 2 direct tivos one had 1 45gig drive upgraded with 2 60 gig drives and the other had 1 15gig and 1 30gig upgraded to 1 80gig and 1 60gig drive without any problems. the new drives are all non quantum drives(Maxtor) . At least you have a good backup.

This the command from mfstool 10A to copy from 1 drive to another drive with all the recording.

The command above is to restore from a file(tivo.bak)

# mfsbackup -aqo /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -xpi /dev/hda

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi ADent,

Finally I got the job done! I went home at lunch time and first tried the command that Steven recommend, but it did not work. After several tests, I finally realized the Option (message from computer) is -i, instead of zi (on the How-To). I got your message after I finished it, but it still tell me You are exactly correct. Thank you.
I am going to pratice MFStool 2.x , just for fun

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi Steven,

I am sorry I didn't see your post on page2. Thanks for your reply. I am using MFStool 1.1 for the job I finished. Next thing I am going to try is 2.0, then your common shall be definetly helpful.

Xiaoyu,

Posted by: xiaoyu

Hi,

I tried Tiger's MFStools 2.0 this evening, everything went smoothly like silk. It might be due to the experience that I got from using the previous version, but I really like the new release.

Xiaoyu,