Nope - it's really pretty complicated for a lot of reasons, but there's really no way to copy selected shows from one drive to another, without the OS.

Thanks for the heads up - doesn't sound promising. I'm still really curious about how the TiVo works.

Instead of dealing with what I thought might be individual "files" of recordings - would full partitions make a difference?

Are any parts of the recordings "database" anywhere but the mfs application region and mfs media region partitions? Could restoring the four mfs partitions over those same partitions of a working _experimental_ TiVo drive do the job?

Reversing things, could restoring some or all of the Bootstrap and Kernel and Root partitions from a working drive to a clone of the original non-booting drive allow it to boot up all the way into the GUI and allow access to the programming?

Or maybe in my ignorance, I'm still oversimplifying the complexities of the TiVo system. Thanks.

The files are all encrypted and you're really fighting a battle that is not meant to be fought.

I get the message. Thanks.