[lawnmowerdeth]

Thought I'd give an update. Even with the problems with the command options, the dd_rescue worked fine, with all recordings intact.

Now here's the freaky part: Afterward, the MFSinfo command resulted in this:

Primary volume header corrupt, trying backup.
Secondary volume header corrupt, giving up.
mfs_load_volume_header: bad checksum
segmentation fault.

So I was just assuming it wasn't going to boot at all again. But somehow it did! Something on my failing drive must have been really messed up.

Sean

 

[bobotech]

I am trying to copy my flakey 30 gig drive to a 40 gig drive from my series 1 philips unit.

The comptuer I am using only has the orginal tivo 30 gig drive and my spare 40 gig drive. I don't know if it matters, but my 40 gig drive was used in windows with an ntfs partition.

I then deleted the partition from within windows and then removed the exisiting drive.

I then plugged in the orginal 30 gigger as the primary master and the new ex-windows drive as the primary slave drive.

I then booted to the rip cd and followed the instructions.

It doesn't appear to do anything but it says this:

I copied the log file to one of my window's shares, i will post it at the end of this post.

As soon as I hit enter after I type in the command I get a bunch of stuff then it drops me back to the # prompt.

I am not really sure what is going on.

This is the log file i get: (copied and pasted from it):

dd_rescue: (warning): setting hardbs from -512 to softbs -2097152!
dd_rescue: (fatal): you're crazy to set you block size to -2097152!
dd_rescue: (info): about to transfer 0.0 kBytes from /dev/hda to /dev/hdb
dd_rescue: (info): blocksizes: soft 2097152, hard 512
dd_rescue: (info): starting positions: in 0.0k, out 0.0k
dd_rescue: (info): Logfile: /var/dd_rescue.log, Maxerr: 0
dd_rescue: (info): Reverse: no , Trunc: no , interactive: no 
dd_rescue: (info): abort on Write errs: no , spArse write: never
dd_rescue: (info): about to transfer 0.0 kBytes from /dev/hda to /dev/hdb
dd_rescue: (info): about to transfer 0.0 kBytes from /dev/hda to /dev/hdb
dd_rescue: (info): blocksizes: soft 2097152, hard 512
dd_rescue: (info): blocksizes: soft 2097152, hard 512
dd_rescue: (info): starting positions: in 0.0k, out 0.0k
dd_rescue: (info): starting positions: in 0.0k, out 0.0k
dd_rescue: (info): Logfile: /var/dd_rescue.log, Maxerr: 0
dd_rescue: (info): Logfile: /var/dd_rescue.log, Maxerr: 0
dd_rescue: (info): Reverse: no , Trunc: no , interactive: no 
dd_rescue: (info): Reverse: no , Trunc: no , interactive: no 
dd_rescue: (info): abort on Write errs: no , spArse write: never
dd_rescue: (info): abort on Write errs: no , spArse write: never
dd_rescue: (info): ipos:      8192.0k, opos:      8192.0k, xferd:      8192.0k
                   errs:      0, errxfer:         0.0k, succxfer:      8192.0k
             +curr.rate:    12201kB/s, avg.rate:    12201kB/s, avg.load: 11.9%
dd_rescue: (info): /dev/hda (10000.0k): EOF
Summary for /dev/hda -> /dev/hdb:
dd_rescue: (info): ipos:     10000.0k, opos:     10000.0k, xferd:     10000.0k
                   errs:      0, errxfer:         0.0k, succxfer:     10000.0k
             +curr.rate:    30497kB/s, avg.rate:    13686kB/s, avg.load: 12.3%

Any help would be greatly appreicated. (the drives are being recognized properly by the bios.) I'm getting quite fustrated with this whole process, LOL. Also I do have a spare 4 gig drive that I would not mind using as a backup for my Tivo drive if I can make use of that.

Thanks...

 

[Robert S]

10000.0k, xferd

Is it just me, or is that a locked drive?

I asked Lou to put dd_rescue on his LBA-48 upgrade CD. That one should unlock the drive (as long as it's a Quantum), which might make things easier.

 

[bobotech]

Well you are right, its a locked drive. I didn't bother to actually go into the bios and see what it showed. I then went into the bios and sure enough, it detects it as a 10megabyte drive. How the heck does tivo fit 30 hours worth of recording into a 10 meg drive? (just kidding).

<later>

I unlocked the drive (found the utilitiy someplace).

I then went ahead and did the copy. It worked perfectly this time. It found 16 errors on the orginal drive.

I then put the 40 into my tivo and booted it up.

It booted perfectly and smoothly.

But (always a but), it only shows 32 hours in the system information. Did I forget to do something?

I am going to now make a backup of the tivo drive to a spare 4 gig fat32 drive I have.

I hate being such a nag with all these questions but I really dont' want to mess anything up.

 

[Robert S]

Did I forget to do something?

mfsadd?

 

[bobotech]

Well I went ahead and did the mfsadd -x /dev/hda (it was the only drive in my test computer) and that went fine.

I then put the drive back into the tivo and powered it up. I got the GSOD. Hmmmm.

Well anyway, i'm going to let it sit til morning and see if it recovers (if i put my ear up to the tivo, i can hear the drive chugging away).

One more thing, since my 30 gig drive only came up with 16 errors, what test do I use with the powermax utility that I downloaded from Maxtor's website to hopefully map out those bad sectors? I am currently doing the advanced test but I'm not sure if I am supposed to do the full low level format.

 

[bobotech]

Well it is working fine. I have tested everything and it all seems to be working fine.

No more stuttering or freeezing that occured with the old drive. A full 40 gigs is now available.

I'm happy and I am now going to go ahead and setup a tivo acct for real.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Jnegri]

Hi,
I have a 2 year old TIVO that was working fine and then one night it turned itself off. After 5 - 10 minutes I turned it back on and after several attempts to restart it finally started. Two days later it went off again and has not regained conciousness. The green light is on in the front and it flickers when the buttons on the remote are pushed but I get no video output whatsoever. I broke down and bought a new TIVO. Now I want to get all of the recorded stuff off of the old hard drive and I am looking for someone to do it for me. Anybody good at repairing or retreiving saved programs?

John

 

[tdogboy]

I used the OP's corrected (third post) instructions to get the data off the failing drive out of my Sony SVR-2000 (Quantum 30GB drive) and my TiVo is working great now!

I thought the drive was going bad, so in early September, I did the mfsrestore/mfsbackup to two new 200 GB drives and everything worked OK. The TiVo would occasionally freeze (meaning I'd turn on the TV and the picture would be frozen on a TV show and nothing I pushed on the remote would do anything on the TiVo), but cycling the power would bring it back up. Well, we got to the point where after cycling the power, we would just get the "Powering up . . ." screen and nothing else.

dd_restore read the drive and we're up and running now! I'm keeping a reliable copy of the 30GB drive around for a few months until I'm sure it's working properly. Then it's going in wifey's computer as a Christmas present.

 

[PortlandPaw]

Originally posted by tdogboy
Then it's going in wifey's computer as a Christmas present.

That will thrill her.

Trust me, do that as a weekend favor and get her something she really wants for Christmas. Your marriage will be far more secure. Trust me.

You get more than technical assistance in the TiVo Community Forum!

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
That will thrill her.

Trust me, do that as a weekend favor and get her something she really wants for Christmas. Your marriage will be far more secure. Trust me.

You get more than technical assistance in the TiVo Community Forum!

Perhaps a bowling ball with your name on it? (Homer Simpson tried that and it didn't work...)

 

[mbkall]

Originally posted by tivoupgrade
Folks,

At the suggestion of Robert S, I've looked into, and made an attempt, to incorporate dd_rescue and dd_rhelp. Not as trivial as it initially seemed, there were a bunch of libraries that appeared to be missing.

In any case, I think I've identified and located the missing libraries, and dd_* binaries and incorporated them into a test version of the CD discussed here but before I release it to the general public, those who play with these tools, please give things a test and let me know what is broken, and hopefully what needs to be done to fix it.

Thanks!

Lou

PTVupgrade LBA48 3.01 (beta)

I had the same troubles as "lawnmowerdeth" had with dd_rescue. I used the PTVupgrade beta CD-Rom mentioned above. (For whatever reason, I could not get my computer to recognize the RIP iso CD-Rom...)

dd_rescue did not recognize "-B", "-A", or "-l". It gave a segmentation fault with "-b 2M". I don't know if this means the CD is missing information, or if I'm doing something wrong. (Which is a distict possibility.)

I ended up using: "dd_rescue -v /dev/hdb /dev/hdd". It's slowwwwly copying, about 10,000 kiB/s / second.

Trying to get the programs from my old Tivo B drive, which has some bad sectors, onto the new Maxtor warranty replacement drive, for my SVR-2000.

 

[gwgw45]

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
{This is an updated version of my first post to indicate a more efficient way to do this}

Am currently trying this (thanks for taking to trouble to publish and update the guide) it has been running for 5 hours and is 35% through a 120 gig HDD. However, apart from the first 5 minutes when there was activity on ther PC HDD light, it now no longer flashes.

What I have is contantly scrolling text with details of transfer etc but it is also saying

"(warning): /dev/hda xxxxxxxx.xk input/output error? (xxxxxxxx.x being an updating figure reprenenting gig processed) Am I wasting my time and should I stop it, or is this normal?

Thakns again
Gareth

 

[paulfitz]

I can't believe how easy it was to use the RIP CD and dd_rescue. I started having the freezing and rebooting issues about 2 weeks ago. After an exhausted search here, I figured the only way to fix it was replace the less than 6 mo old Matrox 160 with a new WD 160.

I ran dd_rescue and came back after 18 hours and it had finished. I put the new drive back into the Tivo and it booted right up, all programs were there, all season passes, what a miracle!!!

I used Hinsdale's How-To with MFSTools 2 to originally upgrade from the 40 to the 160 and I couldn't believe how easy that was also!

Just wanted to say thanks to all who contributed here with such great information.

:aul

 

[PortlandPaw]

Originally posted by gwgw45
Am I wasting my time and should I stop it, or is this normal?

Thakns again
Gareth

I had a similar situation. Different error but similar situation. You're probably wasting your time, but on the off chance you aren't I would say that the ten hours you'll have to wait to find out is worth the cost saved on a new drive.

 

[gwgw45]

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
I had a similar situation. Different error but similar situation. You're probably wasting your time, but on the off chance you aren't I would say that the ten hours you'll have to wait to find out is worth the cost saved on a new drive.

As it happens, it was a waste of time. However, thanks for the reply, it was worth a try

Gareth

 

[Jeffb]

First, let me thank all who have contributed to this thread, I've gone from hopeless to somewhat hopeful.

I have an HDVR2 with Maxtor 40GB A drive (original) and added 120GB Samsung B drive from Weakness.
This weekend it became unresponsive, I pulled the plug and then got the GSOD. I would like to rescue the programming so I got a new Segate 120GB drive and proceeded to follow PortlandPaw's steps using dd_rescue.

Using the Maxtor utility, errors were found on the A drive. I used dd_rescue on the Maxtor along with new 120GB Seagate. dd_rescue finished and I reinstalled both drives (new Seagate 'A' and old Samsung 'B') into TiVo, powered up and GSOD. I unplugged and sighed. Then I remembered bobotech's post where he initally got the GSOD and then the unit recovered.

It's been about 4 hours and still on GSOD.

- How long should I let it attempt to repair itself?

- Is it possible that there is also a problem on the Samsung 'B' drive?

- Anything else to try?

- At what point do I cut my losses and do image restore?

 

[Z'Loth]

I just copied the my "A" drive in my DirecTiVo to another hard drive using Knoppix. Here are a few hints (mind you, the Knoppix CD I had available was Knoppix 3.04-May 17, 2004):

• At the knoppix boot prompt, enter knoppix 2 vga=ext dma nousb nodhcp. This will start knoppix in text-only mode, use the text display rather than graphic (faster), use dma for faster drive access, and skip the checks for network and usb.
• Once dd_rescue hits a bad block, it ended up resetting the IDE Bus, so that when it went back to large block copying, it was much slower. Note the location, then Control-C out. Shutdown and restart the computer. Then, add the following to the dd_rescue line: -s xxxxxxxk. This will restart the drive copying at that particular location.
• Another option is -r. This will copy the drive from the end back to the beginning instead of beginning to end. I didn't find out about this until I finished copying. My scan of the hard drive indicated a problem at the 25% point, so if I applied the -r, it would have gone high-speed for most of the way, then slower speed if I wasn't around to reset the computer.

Hope that helps. I'm posting this up at DBSTalk with appropriate credit to TiVo Community.

 

[Z'Loth]

Just as an update... the replacement 160GB Samsung drive arrived last Monday second day air. It took about 75 minutes to do a dd_rescue copy from the 250GB drive back to the 160GB hard drive. I was using the latest version of the knoppix disk. Some notes:

1. There is no need to do a "cd /usr/bin".
2. dma is automatically activated.
3. I got a "average" transfer rate of 35,000 Kb/s. Actual speed was faster, however, the occassional timeouts.

 

[chernas]

I'm not sure if I'm stirring up old issues, but I never saw this answered from the original post:

{later edit -- turned out this was a problem -- the geometry of the drives should be identical (or at least the target drive larger) or TiVo is going to have trouble finding blocks of data}

I'm probably going to end up replacing my 2 120GB drives (with new ones) this week, and I'm expecting to run into this issue. Does anyone have any ideas to get around this and possibly still keep recordings?

C