Two drives to one

[aleks]

Is is possible to upgrade my 2x120MB drives to a single 400MB while retaining all my programmes, setup, SPs etc. or even just keeping the setup and SPs?

I've looked throuigh Hinsdale and it says that "UK Thompson TiVo will not have enough available partitions" - is that right?

Thanks

Aleks

[blindlemon]

You won't be able to retain your recordings if you wish to use more than 240gb of your 400gb drive as there is no configuration for 2x120gb drives that uses less than 3 partitions.

However, if you make a minimal divorced backup using mfstools then you can not only configure a 400gb drive with it, but you could upgrade again to a larger A drive at a later stage AND keep your recordings :)

[wscannell]

You also might take a look at mfslive.org. This update to mfstools 2 lets you expand multiple times by extending partitions.

[Pete77]

You also might take a look at mfslive.org. This update to mfstools 2 lets you expand multiple times by extending partitions.

I wonder if even blindlemon knew about that and can say whether this looks like a viable technique for upgrading large hard drives while retaining all recordings?

I really would like to upgrade my current 2 x 250Gb Samsung HA 250JCs to 2 x 500Gb drives in say another 6 months time (by which point they will be 2 years old and so getting near to at least a reasonably high and increasing chance of them at that point turning up their toes given the heat issues involved with running 2 larger drives) as and when Samsung release a cost effectively priced 500Gb drive (Hitachi and Maxtor already have one but noise and reliability issues rule Hitachi out).

[Pete77]

From www.mfslive.org

MFSLive is a new Linux Live boot CD just for TiVo users. Most of the basic tools are included in the release to make adding, upgrading and replacing your TiVo hard drive a snap. Full guide contains the latest techniques in working with your TiVo drives.

This boot CD was created from scratch and is very small in size. It was created to address issues with older mfstools release and support for new hardware. With this CD, you can manage Series1, Series2, Series3 TiVos. This CD is lba48 aware but you can still use it for Series 1 TiVos.

As many of you know, previous stable release of mfstools has few bugs:

1. Alternate root/kernel size bug
2. Swap greater than 127GB will fail due to bad signature for linux swap v1.

Mfstools included in this release address those two bugs.
In addition, few new features have been added:

restore

-f option: This is used after you use -x option to expand the drive. Previous version did not allow to expand after first expand. This is because linux version that TiVo uses allows only upto16 partitions in a drive. By using -x to expand the drive, it gets full. This option will allow you to expand beyond that without adding more partitions. This is for single drive that was expanded previously with restore -x or dual drive setup with original "A" drive and expanded "B" drive with restore -x option.

-F option: This option will fix the previous bug that mfstools has created. By using this option, partition 3,6 will be set to 4MB and 4,7 will be set to 256MB. After that, you have to use other tool to expand the ext2 file system. You don't need to use this option unless your Active root/kernel has shunk to 128/2MB. Alternate root/kernel will be matched to the active pair by default. Refer to the guide for detail.

-n option: This disc is lba48 aware. That means if you use a hard drive greater than 137GB and use -x to expand, Series 1 TiVo will not boot. So use this option to limit the size of the expanded partition to 137GB.

No need to reboot after restore or mfsadd.

mfssplit

Use this tool to divorce "B" drive.

Download it, burn it, upgrade your drive and enjoy your TiVo even more.

©2006 mfslive.org

Not sure whether this is helpful or not. For instance hey still seem to think there is a 137GB hard drive limit on the Tivo Series 1.

[wscannell]

On most series 1s, unless you upgrade the kernel, the limit does remain.

At the moment, I do not believe it supports repeated expansions when you are going from dual drives to dual drives.

[Pete77]

On most series 1s, unless you upgrade the kernel, the limit does remain.

At the moment, I do not believe it supports repeated expansions when you are going from dual drives to dual drives.

Yes but surely they know the kernel can be upgraded so it seems odd to mention the 137Gb limit as though it still exists and you have to prevent yourself exceeding it.

A pity that repeated expansions for dual drives are not yet supported. That makes me more inclined to soldier on until this 2 x 250Gb pair dies on me then. For all I know that may not be for another 3 years or so although it could happen tomorrow of course............

wscannell are you UK or a USA based TivoCommunity member?

[wscannell]

USA

[blindlemon]

I wonder if even blindlemon knew about that and can say whether this looks like a viable technique for upgrading large hard drives while retaining all recordings?I have seen the CD and played with it a little but I've not tried the -f option yet.

AFAIK it works by coalescing adjacent partitions which used to be a method only available to those willing to edit the MFS partition map with a hex editor :eek:

Maybe when I get a few moments free after Xmas I'll give it a try.