Upgrading using a Mac ?

[ebonovic]

A co-worker of mine wants to upgrade his Tivo via a single drive replacement.

However, he owns a Mac. (And I don't keep track of the Mac threads)

He is also in a remote office (so I can't do it for him), and the office is 100% laptop (he supports telecommuters).

I have found a few posts stating MFSTools 2.0 is avilable for the Mac and Series 2 systems.

Is there a bootable ISO yet for the Mac platform?
So he could follow Hinsdale Instructions?

Or is he just better off somehow getting ahold of a PC to do the upgrade.

Thanks

[classicsat]

Get a PC.

[ChrisNylen]

I would think that the MFSTools binaries would have to able to be compiled on a version of PPC Linux. I run Gentoo on my Powerbook and I'll see if I can get MFSTools to compile on there (although I doubt it), I'll get back to you on it.

[ChrisNylen]

Well I tried to find the source for MFSTools, on the MFSTools site, they only have the binaries, and I can't seem to connect to their CVS server to get the source that way. Does anyone know where I can get the sources? If I can get these going, I can make a Gentoo PPC boot disk with MFSTools on it.

[rb5505]

would this help for series2 and mac?

http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~aedelman/

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by classicsat
Get a PC.

As a Mac user, I find your reply totally useless and uncalled for. Go back under your bridge, Troll. He was asking for help from Mac users, not PC Zealots.

[apollo8fan]

Originally posted by classicsat
Get a PC.

Right, I'd get right on that if I wanted to have a computer that was a crudely-designed, ill-conceived, virus-infected, trojan-hijacked zombie that required so much add-on software to prevent that stuff and correct the deficiencies that the system becomes useless. On second thought, I'll just stay with my PowerBook G4 and grin at the problems people have with their PC's.

Comments like that will get you flamed 99 times out of a 100.

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by apollo8fan
Comments like that will get you flamed 99 times out of a 100.

Which is something I was trying to avoid with my post. We don't need this to turn into a big argument between ignorant PC users and Mac users. Let's drop it here.

[Montaño]

no tools for upgrading on a Mac, Earl
I guess that why I have a G4 and a PC
It's called the best of BOTH worlds!!

[Fofer]

Originally posted by apollo8fan
Right, I'd get right on that if I wanted to have a computer that was a crudely-designed, ill-conceived, virus-infected, trojan-hijacked zombie that required so much add-on software to prevent that stuff and correct the deficiencies that the system becomes useless. On second thought, I'll just stay with my PowerBook G4 and grin at the problems people have with their PC's.

Comments like that will get you flamed 99 times out of a 100.

I am as big of a Mac zealot that you'll find, and I've made no secret of that here. However, I don't think classicsat's advice was trollish. I think it was spot-on. (Even ebonovic suggesting that getting a PC for the job wasn't out of the question...)

The fact is, the bulk of TiVo hacking tools are available for PC. For hobbyists that just want to get the job done, tinkering for hours and trying to be the first to force a Mac to get the job done, is clearly not an efficient use of time.

I'll go one step further and suggest the best path of them all: just get a preconfigured, preupgraded drive ready to go from Weaknees or PTVUpgrade.com:
http://partners.ptvupgrade.com/z/30/CD11/

[Ladd Morse]

Originally posted by Fofer
I am as big of a Mac zealot that you'll find, and I've made no secret of that here. However, I don't think classicsat's advice was trollish. I think it was spot-on. (Even ebonovic suggesting that getting a PC for the job wasn't out of the question...)

Along with many other members here, my house has been Mac-only for decades. Last Spring I finally admitted that "you just can't get there from here" when it comes to tinkering with TiVo hard drives and picked up a basic PC when it came time to upgrade the Series One TiVo to the current 250GB drive.

The kicker is that you don't have to actually purchase a PC. You simply need one that will turn on without emitting smoke and has the very basic requirement that it has (or can be updated) to a BIOS that understands hard drives larger than 120GB.

I guarantee that you know (or can easily find) someone who has one of these PCs gathering dust in a closet in their basement. They'll be right next to the unused exercise equipment.

The PC I was given is a Dell mini-tower with a whompin' 166MHz CPU (not a mis-type - 166MHz). Extra bonus was a working CD drive. Booted from the PTVUpgrade CD-ROM, followed the instructions and it worked fabulously for formatting a 250GB hard drive to better-than-TiVo specs and copying over all the programs on the previous 120GB drive.

Ask your friends, stick a note up on the bulletin board at work or your local grocery store.

No, you can't do it from your Mac. But it's easy to work around.

[ebonovic]

Okay Okay Okay...

This isn't a Mac VS PC debate... both sides have their pros and cons, and uses...

I was simply trying to find out if there was an ISO or tools out there, as searches came up with: yes there is MFSTOOLS for MAC, but none of them refered to a download site.

Getting a PC is possible, just not very practical... So he will be holding off on his upgrade, until he comes up here for a meeting or training or something and I can do it with one of our office's work PCs.

[cab1024]

Originally Posted by Ladd Morse

The kicker is that you don't have to actually purchase a PC. You simply need one that will turn on without emitting smoke and has the very basic requirement that it has (or can be updated) to a BIOS that understands hard drives larger than 120GB.

I guarantee that you know (or can easily find) someone who has one of these PCs gathering dust in a closet in their basement.

Well I took your advice, emailed the IT dept and by the time I got back from lunch there was a P3 with 512MB RAM, a 10GB HD, and no OS sitting in my cubicle when I returned.

So what's the best free OS, preferably with a GUI, I can download and install on this 10GB HD? I don't know the processor speed. It is Dell Optiplex GX110, but I have a feeling that comes in a variety of speeds.

[Jasoco]

If someone could come up with a foolproof way for me to take an off the shelf (Or ordered off a site) HD, connect it up to my Mac mini and clone whatever I need over to it, then put it in my TiVo, I'd do it. I've been stuck with 40GB forever. And I'm tired of waiting for Series 3. (Which is the only time I'll buy a new TiVo.)

[ADent]

There were reports of MFSTools running on a Mac.

I use my Mac to surf the web while MFStools runs on a cheap PC. I originally used a free PC the neighbors gave me, but bought a $299 (no rebate!) machine a couple of years ago to do this type of stuff.

[JohnTivo]

Over at soureforge.net there is a snapshot of the latest and greatest MFS TOOLS which includes the preliminary mac OS X support. I do not have a mac, so I cannot say if it works.

http://sourceforge.net/project/shown...ease_id=307354

[qdemn7]

Rather than buy a whole PC, all you need is a motherboard, cpu, heatsink, PSU, memory and optical drive. You don't need a case or any HD for the PC components. Check if there's a Fry's Electronics near you or got to one of the online retailers. You can get a combo consisting of motherboard, (it should have integrated video) CPU and HS for under a $100. Get a cheap PSU, cheap memory, and optical drive and you're good to go. The whole thing should set you back no more than $200 if you get the cheapest stuff you can. Most people have extra KB and Mice laying around, but if not there are cheap ones of each for under $10 each.

This way Mac purists won't be violating their ethics, since they don't actually "own" a PC, just some parts.

[SteveInNC]

Originally Posted by cab1024

Well I took your advice, emailed the IT dept and by the time I got back from lunch there was a P3 with 512MB RAM, a 10GB HD, and no OS sitting in my cubicle when I returned.

So what's the best free OS, preferably with a GUI, I can download and install on this 10GB HD? I don't know the processor speed. It is Dell Optiplex GX110, but I have a feeling that comes in a variety of speeds.

For purposes of doing a Tivo upgrade, you don't need to load an OS. The typical MFSTOOLS ISO images out there are based around a bootable Linux CD, and typically install themselves into a ram disk. You can run the required tools with no OS disk (other than the CD) even connnected to the drive chain. I just did exactly that last night.

If you just want to put an OS on there, do a web search for both Debian and Knoppix. ISO images should be easy to find on the net.

As to the Mac debate, I've been a Mac owner since the Plus, and have a dual G5 and iMac G5 now. I also have an ancient Emachine I keep around for stuff like this. You can download the required ISOs to a Mac and burn them from there - they'll work fine in the x86 box.

[dylanemcgregor]

Originally Posted by JohnTivo

Over at soureforge.net there is a snapshot of the latest and greatest MFS TOOLS which includes the preliminary mac OS X support. I do not have a mac, so I cannot say if it works.

http://sourceforge.net/project/shown...ease_id=307354

Thanks for the link. If anyone gets this working on a mac, could you post here?

I am in a similar situation as the OP's coworker. I have a Mac G4 and a PC laptop and I have been on the lookout for a cheap hard drive deal so that I can upgrade my DRT800. I have done TiVo upgrades on a PC before, but I do not feel proficient enough on the Mac side of things to attempt this until I have solid confirmation that it works and is easy. If I screw up my girlfriend's Mac in anyway I will not be a happy camper.

[apollo8fan]

OK, folks, I successfully upgraded my SD-DVR40 from it's 40GB Western Digital drive to a 120GB Maxtor using my Powerbook G4 with OS X 10.4 (aka: Tiger).

To do so required TWO USB drive enclosures and MFSTOOL for the Mac, which I had to compile myself after downloading the source code.

I'm going to keep this brief, 'cuz there is tons of info about these commands already. Essentially, I used three commands for the job:

1. mfstool backup (for saving the drive info)
2. dd (for duplicating the drive)
3. mfstool add (for adding the additional partition)

Yes, the command is "mfstool" in all instances. This is a result of the Mac port.

Take the Tivo drive, put it into its USB enclosure and plug it into the Mac FIRST; this drive will be "/dev/disk1" in the Mac filesystem. Take the new drive, put it into its USB enclosure and plug it into the Mac SECOND; this drive will be "/dev/disk2". Other configurations MAY result in different device addresses (Apple's Disk Utility is your friend).

Use "dd" to copy the drive. This took about 13 hours for a 40GB drive on my G4; be patient.

Then use "mfstool add" to add the new, large partition.

Unmount the drives with Disk Utility.

Be warned, I couldn't get the command "mfstool restore" to work when I played with it, so save your backup file to a CD or something. Sorry, but this is the only thing I did and nothing else...any deviation from this would be speculation.

[escaport]

Originally Posted by apollo8fan

OK, folks, I successfully upgraded my SD-DVR40 from it's 40GB Western Digital drive to a 120GB Maxtor using my Powerbook G4 with OS X 10.4 (aka: Tiger).

To do so required TWO USB drive enclosures and MFSTOOL for the Mac, which I had to compile myself after downloading the source code.

I'm going to keep this brief, 'cuz there is tons of info about these commands already. Essentially, I used three commands for the job:

1. mfstool backup (for saving the drive info)
2. dd (for duplicating the drive)
3. mfstool add (for adding the additional partition)

Yes, the command is "mfstool" in all instances. This is a result of the Mac port.

Take the Tivo drive, put it into its USB enclosure and plug it into the Mac FIRST; this drive will be "/dev/disk1" in the Mac filesystem. Take the new drive, put it into its USB enclosure and plug it into the Mac SECOND; this drive will be "/dev/disk2". Other configurations MAY result in different device addresses (Apple's Disk Utility is your friend).

Use "dd" to copy the drive. This took about 13 hours for a 40GB drive on my G4; be patient.

Then use "mfstool add" to add the new, large partition.

Unmount the drives with Disk Utility.

Be warned, I couldn't get the command "mfstool restore" to work when I played with it, so save your backup file to a CD or something. Sorry, but this is the only thing I did and nothing else...any deviation from this would be speculation.

I'm not all that sure of how to go about this. I have the newest source code from sourceforge, and I'm in the middle of the annoyingly large (823mb) download of Xcode, but where do I go from there? I've never compiled anything in my life, or at least not since I was a kid messing around with TurboPascal on my old amiga 64 (long time ago).

I can see that on my system, they are "disk1" and "disk2" accourding to Disk Uttility.

Do I have to install MfsTools in a particular directory? Nightmares of my PHP5/MySQL install are coming back as we speak, because I know next to nothing about Linux or Unix or any other 'nix.

If I compile the MfsTools and just type mfstool dd in terminal, will terminal know to do what I want it to?

My goal is very simple. I have a DirectTivo Hughes HDVR2. The original drive is failling (cutouts, constant restarts, ect.) and I bought a Western Digital 80gb 7200 drive to replace the original. I don't have any need for backups, hacks, or large disk support. I just want to copy my old drive to the new drive, make the partitions right, and move on with my watching. Just a simple swap, I don't even care about what is recorded on the original drive.

The catch is that I only have three Mac to work with. They are all 10.4.4 machines. I installed ExtFSmanager (sourceforge/projects/ext2fsx) to be able to just plain mount the drives as Mac readable FS drive volumes, but Apple changed something in 10.4 that broke ExtFSmanager, so the volumes won't mount. So I'm left with what you did. With, what it seems like quite a bit less knowledge of how to do it.

[apollo8fan]

escaport:

You have to read the Hinsdale How-to to understand the basic concept of what's being done.

The Mac port of mfstools is different only in the command set and the drive identifiers. In Linux, where Hinsdale says "mfsbackup ....." you use "mfstool backup ....." to backup your software.

To backup the software only, I used Option #1 of Step 7. This is where the "mfstool backup" comes in.

To duplicate the drive, I used Option #3 of Step 7. This is where the "dd" command comes in.

To expand the drive, I used Upgrade Configuration #2 of Step 10. This is where the "mfstool add" command comes in.

IMPORTANT: In all of these steps, it's necessary to substitute the Macintosh mount points for the Linux mount points.

It's too difficult to get into instructions on compiling source code and projects. Suffice it to say, the Sourceforge package has contained within it the X-Code project for the compile. Then following the compile, the mfstool will be located on the hard drive in the package's directory. Since this won't be in the command path anywhere, you'll need to move it or call it directly by prepending the directory structure to the command. There might have even been a chmod command required to make the program executable.

As I recall, there's a bug in the source code that I had to fiddle with just to get the package to compile, which is probably why "mfstool restore" didn't ever work for me.

I'm going from memory on a lot of this this since it has been something like three months ago when I did it.

[escaport]

Well, I aprecitate the reply. I downloaded MFSTools-snapshot050221.tar.gz. There wasn't a Xcode project in it unfortunatly.

I ran through a bunch of terminal "configure" and "make" commands, but I'm not skilled enough to continue with it. After configure and make install and such, it still wouldn't recognise the mfstool as a command. So, I've thrown in the towel on this project. I also don't want to do something stupid and mess up my Mac by using commands that I really don't have a clue about why and how they work.


So, in the end I am borrowing an old PC from my cousin and just doing it from a boot CD, like all of the walkthroughs use. Oh well.

Thanks again.

[jimphillips224]

I'm used a PowerMac G3 Blue and White with 10.4.1.

I pulled the drive from my Tivo (Pioneer 810H-S), and removed the jumper. I installed it in my mac on the same chain as my primary hard drive. I downloaded mfstool for mac os x from http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tiv...postid=1969708 and I downloaded disk mappering utility from here http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tiv...postid=1969715.

Inside of the terminal application I entered the following commands:

"sudo Desktop/devMapper1.1"

"sudo Desktop/mfstool restore -s 127 -xzpi Desktop/pioneer_tivo_back.bak /dev/disk1"

"umount -f -a"

And then I reinstalled it into my Tivo and it works. Then I needed to run a Clear and Delete everything, but that is because the backup file is from another machine.

[entropy]

Does devMapper do anything more than print out the info for disks?

(That's a fairly useful thing on Macs, because things don't always mount where you expect them to mount.)

In a few days I hope to be able to try to upgrade my AT&TiVo using the software posted and a couple of bare drive-to-USB2 adapters. We'll see if it works.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

[ding]

so let me see if I got this...

mounting a tivo drive on a mac doesnt harm it. So if I wanted to back up and restore to a larger drive on a standalone series2 540040 I would do this.

1. download a copy of Mac OS X Ext2 Filesystem from sourceforge
2. download a copy of mfstool for os x from the link above
3. install Ext2 Filesystem
4. install tivo drive in a FW inclosure or internally and new drive.
5. using disk utility or devmapper or whatever find the disk # of the disks
or type: mfstool info /dev/diskX
Where X is the letter of the drive you think it is. It should give you valid information about your drive.
This is where I get a little lost........

6. unmount tivo drive from desktop and run mfstool from terminal
7. type: mfstool backup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/diskX
X being the tivo drive disk number
or type: sudo ./mfstool backup -1 -o tivo4.x /dev/diskX
X being the tivo drive disk number
or type: dd if=/path/to/tivo/hardrive of=tivodrive.img

I dont know which one will work or if they all work but this will back up your original tivo drive. I dont know to where but I guess I can always do a search.

Then....
8. unmount drive if it got mounted due to copying
9. type: mfstool restore -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/diskY
Y being the new drive.
or type: dd of=/path/to/new/hardrive if=tivodrive.img - Im really not too sure about this one.-
this will copy the tivo backup onto the new drive

Then.....
10. type: mfstool add -x /dev/diskY
Y being the new drive
11. remove drives from mac. save original drive in safe place. copy backup to a CD or DVD. install new drive in tivo. reset Tivo and you are done.

There is also this command:
mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/diskX | mfstool restore -s 127 -pxi - /dev/diskY
which I think backs up and restores all at once, Im not sure.

I'm sure Im F***ing up somewhere or everywhere so if someone can show me where I'm messing up I would appreciate that.

[ding]

according to disk utility and devmapper 1.1 my tivo disk is disk3. I type the following:
./mfstool backup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/disk3
Terminal tells me this:
/mnt/dos/tivo.bak: No such file or directory
what am I doing wrong. I typed this in order to make a new drive and it works:
./mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/disk3 | mfstool restore -s 127 -pxi - /dev/disk2
but I would like to have a backup of my original tivo disk.
please help.

[ding]

I figured it out.

first you:
1. download a copy of mfstool for os x from the link above
2. install tivo drive in a FW inclosure or internally and new drive.
3. using disk utility or devmapper or whatever find the disk # of the disks
or type: mfstool info /dev/diskX
Where X is the letter of the drive you think it is. It should give you valid information about your drive.
4. type:
./mfstool backup -f 9999 -6so tivo.bak /dev/diskX
X being the tivo drive disk number (. is the location of the mfstool app)
this will give you a backup file on your home directory
5. type:
./mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/diskX | mfstool restore -s 127 -pxi - /dev/diskY
X being the tivo drive disk number and Y being the target drive
this will copy the entire contents of your tivo drive to the new drive
6. type:
./mfstool add -x /dev/diskY
Y being the new drive.
this is to expand the new drive just in case.
7. remove drives from mac, save original drive in safe place. copy backup to a CD or DVD. install new drive in tivo.

did it last night. worked for me.

[atlynch]

This is a really great thread. I am considering buying two diskless Tivos from weaknees, I have plenty of hard drives laying around. But, this means I have no disk to clone from. Have any of you tried extracting the image from one of the ptvupgrade CD's and installing it without having the original disk?

-Drew

[ding]

there's got to be a way to extract the tivo image from the disk. I just dont know the command or the directory. maybe if i had a copy I could mount it and find it but im not forking over $20 for that.