if there's nothing i can do to recover the contents of the drive, i then wonder, like ekemps, if there might be a way to download a backup file from somewhere that i could use to restore onto my new 200GB drive? i really feel like an idiot for leaving the Tivo drive attached when i booted the PC into Windows. if i didnt have to use this PC for work, i probably never would have done it. i had started this whole backup/restore process one night real late, got only far enough to run mfstool and see that there are contents on the TiVo drive, and then next morning had to boot back up to Windows for work. i wish i had thought to disconnect the damn drive first.

Before you give up hope of getting your recordings and salvaging the image you have, check out the utility called MakeTiVoBootable. This was created expressly for this reason.

We haven't used it in years, and it's not exactly simple to do, but it's worth a shot if you haven't overwritten your data with a new image already. On that subject, TiVo really doesn't like having images online, so we don't know of any at this point.

Another idea...

Thanks Michael. I tried the MakeTiVoBootable idea, but actually, i think this drive is hosed anyway. keeps clicking when linux tries to get system info on it, just while booting up. in the shift-pageup info, it says "hdc: hdc1 hdc2 hdc3" and then hangs there for a while as the drive clicks, and then finally linux gets errors on the drive and gives up. i think this drive is a lost cause, however, i have an idea.

The TiVo that this drive came from was a Humax T800 series 2 stand alone machine, however, i also have a TiVo series 2 model 240- machine that is still working. My question is, can I take the drive from THAT machine, make a backup with mfstools, and then restore this backup to my new 200 GB machine and use the new drive in the Humax? If I can do this, that would be GREAT. While there might have been shows on the crashed drive that we wanted, we can live without those, as long as we can actually boot up the darn thing. heh. a working TiVo with no shows is better than staring at a crashed HD with shows i can't get to.

Thanks again for all your help.

Actually, no, that image won't work. The Humax is much more like the 540040 units, but even those images wouldn't work perfectly on there.

am i screwed?

ok, so does that mean i'm screwed? i mean, no matter what i do, i cant get linux to even read the old drive from the Humax T800. upon boot up, it constantly clicks while linux is verifying partitions. and it always stops after "hda1 hda2 hda3" (assuming i have it connected as primary master, of coz)

do you have any suggestions for a way to get this Humax back up and running? btw, i _am_ able to backup and restore my "working" TiVo 240 series from the original 80GB drive to a new 200GB drive without problems, when booting up in the TiVo 240, of coz, so at least i can have a larger drive in the TiVo box, but i was trying to get the Humax working, cuz we got really used to having 2 boxes in the house.

If you want, we can prepare the new drive for you. We have pricing for that here.