Can I downgrade a 2-drive TiVo to 1 drive?

[ManOfSteele]

I have an upgraded DTiVo with a 160GB drive plus the original 40GB drive as drive b. The 40GB drive has developed bad sectors and the TiVo will no longer boot. As a first quick fix using what I had on hand, I did an image copy of the 40GB drive onto an 80 GB drive (filling only half of the drive of course) but the 160+80 TiVo wouldn't boot (just got the Welcome screen). I wasn't surprized. First of all, when I did the copy there were about half a dozen read errors so clearly the data on the 80GB drive is suspect. On top of that, I really should have copied the 40GB drive to another 40 GB drive--I just didn't have one on hand. Is it worthwhile to buy a new 40GB drive and give this a try, or will the bad data be my ultimate downfall?

So my second option is to issue a mfs command to remove the second drive from the 160+40 configuration leaving just the 160GB. Can this be done and if so what is the command that I need to use?

Does anyone have any other suggestions. I still have the backup of the original 40GB drive that came with the DTiVo (two years old) so if worse comes to worse, I can rebuild the system from scratch and lose my current programming. I'd like to try other recovery options first though if there is a chance I could get the system running again.

If I do have to rebuild from scratch, I have a second DTiVo that is still working fine. I was thinking I might back that system up and use its image to rebuild my broken system. One way of doing this would be to do a straight disk-to-disk copy of the 160GB and 40GB drives in that system onto the 160GB and (new) 40 GB drives in the dead system. Again, does anyone have any other suggestions here?

[funtoupgrade]

Programming is tied to motherboard serial number so preserving your recordings are not possible in any of the scenarios you propose. To get it up and running again you will need to work from your original backup image. If the two Tivo units are identical then you can use the drives from one in the other (but not mix and match), but again you will not be able to view the recordings even though they will be listed in the Now Playing List.

[ManOfSteele]

Would I be able to do a quick backup of my working TiVo and restore it to my broken TiVo (they are identical units)? I *could* use my original backup image for this TiVo, but it's an old pre-folder version image and I'd like avoid going through the over-the-air upgrade process that would take place to bring the OS up to the current version.

And what about my suggestion to get a new 40 GB drive and copy the data on the bad drive to the new drive? I know the data would be corrupt due to the bad sectors but I thought I might get lucky and still get the TiVo to boot.

[funtoupgrade]

There would be no harm in trying to dd copy your bad drive to a new one - if it does not pan out like you hope it will then you can image the new drive with your old backup and go through the tedious process of downloading all the new updates and getting everything set on it like you want then backing it up for use should this scenario repeat itself in the future.

You cannot backup and restore from an already upgraded drive, but I guess you could dd copy from the drives in one machine to the drives in the other if they are the same size. Never had any experience trying what you want to do.

[ManOfSteele]

Okay, maybe I'll try the dd copy to see how it goes...

You say that I cannot backup and restore from an already upgraded drive. So what you're saying is I could put in an original 40GB drive, restore from my original backup, hook up the TiVo and let it download any new OS updates, create a new backup of the updated drive, and only then can I add the 160GB drive to expand my capacity?

[Dan Collins]

You CAN backup from a WORKING 2 drive TiVo and restore to a single drive, but not while preserving recordings.

If a straight dd copy of the bad 40GB drive to a new drive (even the 80GB) does not boot, then you could try dd_rescue. That is your only hope of preserving your recordings.

If that doesn't work, you can backup your working Tivo and restore it to a new drive for use in the busted TiVo, but you'll have to do a "Clear & Delete Everything" and then walk through guided setup again.

[ManOfSteele]

Okay, thanks for the suggestions. Preserving my recordings is ultimately less of a concern than preserving the OS upgrades and my seasons passes and wishlists. If I can save the recordings, great, but if not then my goal is to at least get back to the current OS level.