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Dvr Backup And Restore Software for Windows (DvrBARS)

403K views 2K replies 435 participants last post by  ggieseke 
#1 · (Edited)
2013/04/14: Version 1.0.0.2 Patched for DeviceIoControl error reading SD cards.
2013/04/15: Version 1.0.0.3 Patched for yet another DeviceIoControl error during restore on some computers.
2014/11/27: Version 1.0.0.6 Added the ability to restore VHD images that it doesn't recognize.
2017/11/09: Version 1.0.0.7 patched for SquashFS partitions.

**WARNING**

1. This software is provided "as is" with absolutely no warranty of any kind.
2. Opening your TiVo will void the manufacturer's warranty.
3. While every effort has been made to prevent data loss, the ultimate responsibility is yours.

OVERVIEW:

This is a Windows program designed to backup and restore TiVo DVRs. It will run on XP or later, and it should work on anything from a Series 1 to a Premiere. It is not intended as a recovery tool for corrupt or failing drives, and it will not expand or "supersize" your drive (yet).

THE BASICS:

1. Download DvrBARS and unzip it to somewhere on your drive.
2. Connect a TiVo drive to your computer. USB adapters will work, but are generally much slower than a SATA or PATA direct connection.
3. Read step 2 again. DvrBARS only scans the drives once when it first starts up. If you add, remove or change your drive configuration while it's running you will confuse the poor thing. I also strongly recommend that you do not run Windows Disk Manager while a TiVo drive is connected, because it will try to "initialize" it, which will damage the boot sector.
4. Run DvrBARS with an account that's a member of the Administrators group or right-click it and choose Run as Administrator.
5. If you like it and want to help support future development, find the donate option in the System Information screen.

NOW WHAT?

There are three backup options (Full, Modified Full, and Truncated).

Full is perfect if you have a drive that's straight from the factory because most of the drive is all zeroes. A Full backup "xeroxes" the entire drive, but due to the way dynamic VHD files work you'll get a byte-for-byte copy of the entire drive in a relatively small file. For Premieres that's usually about 2.5GB and you can zip it down even further.

Modified Full backups selectively copy all of the sectors that are in use, including your recordings. You'll need a lot of disk space if you have a lot of recordings.

Truncated backups are like Modified backups, but your recordings are excluded. The final backup file will be about the same size as a Full backup of a factory drive that has never been booted, especially if you exclude the alternate Root partition (see the Settings screen).

All three backup methods will preserve your settings, CableCARD pairing, Season Passes, guide data etc.

There are two restore options (Full and Quick).

Full restores write all of the information in the backup image to the target drive, including the sectors that weren't backed up. They get zeroes.

Quick restores only write the sectors that contain data. The rest of the target drive is untouched.

NOTES:

There's a roughly 2.2TB limit inherent in the VHD file format. If you try to do a Full backup of a 2TB drive that has been in use for a while it will probably run for about 10 hours and die.

You cannot make a Modified or Truncated backup of a dual drive TiVo unless both drives are connected. It has to be able to scan the entire MFS file system to figure out what sectors to include.

For adventurous souls, you can use the VHD files with VMWare or Windows Virtual PC. Use the VHD as the source drive, boot the virtual computer with the mfstools or jmfs ISO file and you can expand, supersize, etc to another drive.

If you have Vista or later you can also mount a VHD file in Disk Manager and use it as the source drive for further operations like turning a Full or Modified backup into a Truncated backup, but be careful to check the Read Only box.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

I have a perfect image of a TCD748000 Premiere XL straight from the factory. I also have a nearly pristine TCD746320 Premiere image, but it's larger because it came from a drive that had already been through one upgrade. If you have a "virgin" drive laying around somewhere, run a full backup and send me a PM. Someday I hope to have clean images of every recent model available to the community.

Donate if you can. An awful lot of time and money has gone into this project so far, and the 100GB Dropbox account I set up for the images wasn't free either.

KUDOS:

Two members here (retiredqwest and jmbach) deserve a LOT of thanks and a big chunk of the credit. Their support and patience made it possible.

The pioneers who developed mfstools and jmfs also have my deepest thanks. DvrBARS is an entirely new work, but the basic knowledge of the MFS file system came from them.

AND FINALLY:

I'll shut up now. If you have any problems (and there are bound to be some) post the details here.

Enjoy!
Greg
 

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#577 ·
I have done this a few times before. After you delete the program, you need to also remove it from "Recently Deleted". Once the Tivo syncs again with Amazon, the download counter should increment. In any case, Amazon has great customer service and if there is any issue, they can adjust it manually.
Interesting, I made the assumption that once downloaded there was no further synchronization. I understand what you are describing I just assumed there wasn't any further communications to Amazon once it confirmed the content had been loaded on a particular device. I will see check that later with a free download to see if such works, in fact I will try that on my PC as I had recently reload it so the downloads on it were removed.

It would make sense that there would be some type of assurance that content you purchase remains viable in situations were it can be lost once it's on your Tivo.
 
#578 ·
...

It would make sense that there would be some type of assurance that content you purchase remains viable in situations were it can be lost once it's on your Tivo.
So I think the lesson from this is that if you are upgrading your drive, it is best to manually remove all Amazon purchases BEFORE replacing the drive. However, that may not always work as in the case of a TiVo drive failure when you cannot access the drive any more.

...In any case, Amazon has great customer service and if there is any issue, they can adjust it manually.
I completely agree about Amazon's legendary customer service on situations like this. An example was around the past Holidays, I had purchased a movie on Amazon using a free credit value I had accrued from other Amazon digital purchases. But after I made the purchase (I hadn't downloaded it to my device yet but it had been purchased) I called them when I realized that it was not the HD version of the movie and asked how I can cancel the purchase and re-purchase the HD movie. They manually cancelled the purchase for me and then asked me to re-purchase it again. I did and expected to pay $2 out-of-pocket since my free Amazon credit was only for $10, but to my pleasant surprise Amazon covered the additional $2 or $3 the HD version cost - so I got the HD movie for completely free :)

I have no doubt if one's movie's download count needed adjustment manually in the event of a TiVo drive failure, a quick call to Amazon's customer service would resolve the issue - they'll be able to remove the download from the Tivo device allowing you re-download again. I know for Amazon mp3's you don't even need to make a call - you can simply re-download the song from the Amazon digital library after logging into your account and going to your digital orders section of your account.
 
#580 ·
I have a 746320 with a WD 1 TB external esata hooked up. If I use dvrBARS to clone the internal drive and install it will it recognize the external with all the recordings?
To run a Modified Full backup you'll have to have both drives connected to your PC since it needs to read the entire MFS filesystem. If you use the Full backup method you could just backup the internal drive.

Either way, the external and all of the recordings should be intact.
 
#581 ·
To run a Modified Full backup you'll have to have both drives connected to your PC since it needs to read the entire MFS filesystem. If you use the Full backup method you could just backup the internal drive.

Either way, the external and all of the recordings should be intact.
OK, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

Can I get a link to an image file in case I need it?
Thanks, again.
 
#584 ·
Dumb question perhaps but I'm getting ready to reload a Premiere 746320 which I have a good image file, when I restore the image with dvrBARS, it doesn't have to be the orginal size 320 Gb or will a larger drive work and be able to use the full capacity of the larger drive once restored?

If it expands the 320gb image to full larger capacity, what is the largest drive it can handle, 2tb? I have a couple 320gb drives but since I'm going to sell them if they check out ok, i'm hoping to put something larger in them. Kick me for not reading the instructions but it's been a long day and I'm about to call it a day.!

I haven't used dvrBARS hardly at all except for a bad drive that I tried to backup but it was too far gone to save. Tomorrow I'm planning on finally getting around to fixing a couple TCD746320's that I have have laying around that are missing drives.
 
#585 ·
You can restore the image to any size drive that is at least as large as the image. The limiting factor on the maximum size of the drive is the OS version on the image you are restoring. All the images support 2TB but only the latest images support drives larger than 2TB. DvrBARS does not expand. You will have to use JMFS for that. You can take a premiere up to 4TB if you wish but it is not as straight forward as taking it up to 2TB.
 
#588 ·
Hi folks.

I've got a TiVo Premiere XL (TCD748000) that has some bad sectors. I was seeing some freezing and stuttering during playback so I ran kickstart 54. It shows "Fail 7" next to the short S.M.A.R.T. result. This unit has the original 1GB hard drive. I just ordered a new WD20EURX hard drive. I want to make a backup of the settings first (truncated backup), then copy all settings AND recordings to the new drive, expand, and finally, supersize.

I've upgraded TiVo hard drives previously, but it's been a while. I looked at some of the older tools and found that they probably won't work with drives from newer TiVos. I've been spending the day searching for the most notable tools to use that will work with my TiVo.

It seems as though JMFS, WinMFS, and DvrBARS can all work with my TiVo's hard drive, at least to some extent.

I've done lots of reading in many forums but it takes forever to see if a specific upgrade (such as mine, WITH SECTOR ERRORS) has been done successfully, which software was used to copy, which was used to expand (hopefully by making partitions larger instead of adding new partitions), and which was used to supersize.

Which tools do you folks suggest that I use for my upgrade? Do I need to mix/match some of the above tools with ddrescue to perform my drive copy/upgrade?

Has anybody figured out if transferring all the data from the original drive to the new WD20EURX (a 4K Advanced Format drive) will cause any slowdown if partitions aren't properly aligned?

For the tools that run under Windows, is it okay to use Windows 8.1 Update? I could easily set up one of my older PCs with XP SP3 or Windows 7 if that's safer. (I managed to hose an XP laptop drive a few months ago by connecting it to my Windows 8 system. It added many new attributes to just about every file on the drive. That's why I'm a bit scared about connecting "any drive" to a Windows 8 system.)

Thank you VERY MUCH,
Bill in MA US
 
#589 ·
Hi folks.

I've got a TiVo Premiere XL (TCD748000) that has some bad sectors. I was seeing some freezing and stuttering during playback so I ran kickstart 54. It shows "Fail 7" next to the short S.M.A.R.T. result. This unit has the original 1GB hard drive. I just ordered a new WD20EURX hard drive. I want to make a backup of the settings first (truncated backup), then copy all settings AND recordings to the new drive, expand, and finally, supersize.

I've upgraded TiVo hard drives previously, but it's been a while. I looked at some of the older tools and found that they probably won't work with drives from newer TiVos. I've been spending the day searching for the most notable tools to use that will work with my TiVo.

It seems as though JMFS, WinMFS, and DvrBARS can all work with my TiVo's hard drive, at least to some extent.

I've done lots of reading in many forums but it takes forever to see if a specific upgrade (such as mine, WITH SECTOR ERRORS) has been done successfully, which software was used to copy, which was used to expand (hopefully by making partitions larger instead of adding new partitions), and which was used to supersize.

Which tools do you folks suggest that I use for my upgrade? Do I need to mix/match some of the above tools with ddrescue to perform my drive copy/upgrade?

Has anybody figured out if transferring all the data from the original drive to the new WD20EURX (a 4K Advanced Format drive) will cause any slowdown if partitions aren't properly aligned?

For the tools that run under Windows, is it okay to use Windows 8.1 Update? I could easily set up one of my older PCs with XP SP3 or Windows 7 if that's safer. (I managed to hose an XP laptop drive a few months ago by connecting it to my Windows 8 system. It added many new attributes to just about every file on the drive. That's why I'm a bit scared about connecting "any drive" to a Windows 8 system.)

Thank you VERY MUCH,
Bill in MA US
Beginning with the first Series 4, the original Premiere, (746320), you can't actually "do" anything with WinMFS or the MFS Live cd (or anything else based on MFS Tools) because of changes TiVo made in the partition layout and file system.

I vote in favor of a separate TiVo wrangling PC running XP SP3 or 7, and plugged into a UPS.
 
#590 ·
You can't use WinMFS on a Premiere. DvrBARS will handle the truncated backup but it can't expand or supersize. You have to use jmfs for that.

Since you will have to use jmfs for the expansion anyway I would use it for the full copy too. You could do it with DvrBARS but it would take two steps (backup and restore).

DvrBARS is fine with Windows 8 and jmfs is a linux boot disk. Just stay out of Disk Manager while Windows is running.

The factory partitions on a 748 aren't 4K aligned, but I doubt that you will notice any performance issues. The expansion works by adding a partition, not resizing the existing ones. If you really want 4K alignment and larger partitions I could probably walk you through putting an Elite image on the new drive. That's what I did on my 748 and it has been stable for almost a year now. Of course, you would lose any recordings that you can't copy to your PC.
 
#591 ·
So ... don't bother with ddrescue, just use jmfs? What will jmfs do as it comes across each "bad sector"?

Once I install the new drive (with copied data) into my TiVo, should I initiate a kickstart 57 and/or 58? Anything else?

(It took me a while to figure out how to kickstart my TiVo Premiere XL -- many sources said to press and HOLD the pause button, but I finally found one site that said "But for the Premiere, just press and release the pause button; don't hold it.")

Thank you!
Bill
 
#592 ·
A short time ago I got my little XP SP3 system set up. It's got a smallish hard drive, but figured it would be good enough to store the Truncated Backup. I started DvrBARS and chose Truncated Backup. After a while a pop-up popped up saying "Backing up 362.26GB of 931.51GB. Press the right arrow or double-click Begin Backup to continue."

That's a lot bigger than I expected. The drive on this little PC isn't big enough to hold it. Is there anything I can do to ensmallen the Truncated Backup?

The "Confirm Source Drive" screen showed:

WDC WD10EVVS-63M5B0

Name: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Size: 931.51GB
Sectors: 1953525168
Format: TiVo (R)
Volumes:

Thanks,
Bill
 
#593 ·
I have a 746320 with a WD 1 TB external esata hooked up. If I use dvrBARS to clone the internal drive and install it will it recognize the external with all the recordings?

Thanks
I followed ggieseke's advice and ran a full backup on the internal 320 gb drive. I then did a full restore to a WD blue 500gb drive and put it back to test and all seems well. External drive hooked up and all recordings seem intact. Thanks for the help.

One more question: If I take the 500gb out and expand and supersize with jmfs will all the recordings (external drive too) still work?
 
#595 ·
A short time ago I got my little XP SP3 system set up. It's got a smallish hard drive, but figured it would be good enough to store the Truncated Backup. I started DvrBARS and chose Truncated Backup. After a while a pop-up popped up saying "Backing up 362.26GB of 931.51GB. Press the right arrow or double-click Begin Backup to continue."

That's a lot bigger than I expected. The drive on this little PC isn't big enough to hold it. Is there anything I can do to ensmallen the Truncated Backup?

The "Confirm Source Drive" screen showed:

WDC WD10EVVS-63M5B0

Name: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Size: 931.51GB
Sectors: 1953525168
Format: TiVo (R)
Volumes:

Thanks,
Bill
They have changed something recently that seems to throw off the Truncated backup. Normally it should only take about 1.5-2GB.

It's a moving target as they transition from the old tyDb database to the new SQLite database. I hope to patch it soon - sorry about that.
 
#596 ·
ggieseke,

Just for the fun of i, I tried running DvrBARS on my Windows 8.1 Update system. I don't use Metro -- I only use the desktop. I put the program on my desktop. I used right-click to run as administrator. I got a prompt for UAC and allowed it. My mouse pointer briefly turned from an arrow to a swirl, indicating that something was happening, but that only lasted for a few seconds. The program never started.

The event log shows:

Event ID: 1000
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Faulting application name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Faulting module name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Exception code: 0xc000000d
Fault offset: 0x00002ce2

Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing any additional details from the event log.

- Bill
 
#597 ·
ggieseke,

Just for the fun of i, I tried running DvrBARS on my Windows 8.1 Update system. I don't use Metro -- I only use the desktop. I put the program on my desktop. I used right-click to run as administrator. I got a prompt for UAC and allowed it. My mouse pointer briefly turned from an arrow to a swirl, indicating that something was happening, but that only lasted for a few seconds. The program never started.

The event log shows:

Event ID: 1000
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Faulting application name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Faulting module name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Exception code: 0xc000000d
Fault offset: 0x00002ce2

Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing any additional details from the event log.

- Bill
That why I have an old P4 HP computer with XP and the internet turned off as MS is not supporting XP anymore. I load new programs using a USB stick. The side cover is off and I have two SATA ports coming out, and one ATA port. Does all TiVo work I need doing, and the computer has no value if I tried to sell it.
 
#598 ·
ggieseke,

Just for the fun of i, I tried running DvrBARS on my Windows 8.1 Update system. I don't use Metro -- I only use the desktop. I put the program on my desktop. I used right-click to run as administrator. I got a prompt for UAC and allowed it. My mouse pointer briefly turned from an arrow to a swirl, indicating that something was happening, but that only lasted for a few seconds. The program never started.

The event log shows:

Event ID: 1000
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Faulting application name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Faulting module name: DvrBARS.exe, version: 1.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x516bd007
Exception code: 0xc000000d
Fault offset: 0x00002ce2

Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing any additional details from the event log.

- Bill
Is the account you're using a member of the Administrators group? Even when using Run as administrator it needs a certain set of rights to elevate them the rest of the way. You might also try decreasing or disabling UAC altogether.
 
#599 ·
I'm showing 57 downloads on the 748 image since I posted it a year ago. The 746 image is at 108 for comparison. Requests do seem to have spiked a bit lately but I don't know if it's hardware related. Most of them are just people stuck in boot loop hell.
Greg,

Could you please PM me the link for the TCD748000 image? We just got bitten with the Kickstart 57 bug and are stuck in boot loop hell.

Thanks!
 
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