HELP!! SOS When Mfsbackup started, ALL these crazy characters like Hyrogriffics came

[Tjkreed]

HELP!!! SOS! I did the backup mfsbackup -Tao- /dev/hdc and
then the message as usual:
Checking Source drive (something to that affect) and when it started
the backup -- ALL these crazy characters like Hyrogriffics(however you spell it)
and the screen is filled with character with a crazy noise, as it scrolls
down with info and in the mix of this I see files and names of files then it scrolls down
with crazy characters!!!!! HELP!

[wscannell]

Your problem is that you are not using the proper command to do a backup. You have taken the first half of a direct disk to disk copy command. The data you see going to your screen is the backup data that was supposed to be sent to the new TiVo drive via mfsrestore.

You cannot make a backup file to a FAT32 drive that includes the programs. The maximum file size for that drive is 4GB. The backup will exceed the limit. You can only back up the OS and settings to a FAT32 drive.

What is your goal? What exactly do you want to do?

[Tjkreed]

Two things:
(1)I want to backup everything from my Tivo drive, including the 78 hours of recordings.
(2) convert the files/recordings to a different type of file to burn on CD and
temporarily store on a different hardrive.
So what backup command does this?

[ttodd1]

It might help if you would stay with one thread and actually read what was suggested:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4503163&&#post4503163

[wscannell]

The problem is that mfsbackup is made for making a backup of the TiVo OS and settings for archival purposes or to restore onto a new larger drive. You will not be able to easily extract the programs from the backup.

Are you trying to archive the entire TiVo drive with programs to restore onto the TiVo later? Your best bet would be to dedicate a hard drive to this process and make a new TiVo drive. That way either drive will work in the TiVo.

If you want to save programs that are on your TiVo to a PC, then TiVoToGo is the way to do that. You need to network your TiVo. Then you can download all the programs to a PC with a large enough hard drive. You can burn the individual programs to DVD if you wish.

In any case, a backup of an 80GB TiVo drive would require a lot of CDs as the CDs only hold 700MB and the recordings will not compress much if at all since they already started out compressed. That is about 100 CDs to back the drive up.

[ttodd1]

He can't use T2G because he is trying this on a DTivo - which brings me back to staying in one thread.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=321804
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=322725

And it seems he has done this once???:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=322261

[Tjkreed]

I used the following commands:
mfsbackup -Tao- /mnt/dos/backupfile.bak /dev/hdc
mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda
mfsbackup –6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc

So what or which command does the backup for everything including all the recordings?

[wscannell]

None of the above. You CANNOT make a backup of everything including recordings.

You CAN make a copy of a TiVo drive to a blank drive and save recordings. The resultant drive will be prepared to put in the TiVo to replace the older drive.