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Partition settings on new drive?

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  • #1

    Partition settings on new drive?

    I have a Tivo140060 that is 8.5 years old. The drive has been threatening to fail for a while now and I'm tired of playing 'chicken' with it.

    I want to do all the pre-work and testing I can, so that once I open the Tivo, I can get through the process and be back up and running that same day.

    Thus I've downloaded the weaKnees bootCD and gotten it to where it will boot and see my new drive as the proper size (It's hdi of all letters) (the Mfs Tools Boot CD from the Hinsdale instructions wouldn't even book to the Linux prompt, so I'm a bit scared of the process failing).

    One thing I can't tell from the DIY instructions is whether I should create any partitions on the new drive before executing the command:
    mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdX | mfsrestore -s 127 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/hdZ

    or if I should leave it partition-less. If I do create a partition, does it matter what settings, cluster size, etc I use?

    I was trying to test this further by mounting the new drive, but keep getting the error 'special device /dev/hdi does not exist'. Not sure it that is expected since there isn't a formatted partition on it or not...

    am I being overly cautious by testing too much?
    Tags: None
  • #2
    No - you don't need to create any partitions on the drive. A completely blank drive will be formatted by these tools, and anything on a drive will be totally overwritten.

    But if your drive completely dies, then you can run this command. You should be making an OS backup ahead of time, so that if/when the drive dies, you'll have an image to put onto the replacement drive.
    Been here a long time . . .

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    • #3
      Thanks. Unfortunately, when I try to run the backup command the program mfsbackup is not found...

      the only thing that looked strange during the bootup process is that it was unable to mount the cdrom.

      so It appears I haven't booted into Linux properly... I got the image from here.
      http://www.weaknees.com/weaknees_lba_boot_cd.iso

      I can not dir or ls the filesystem, so I'm not sure if its just a path problem or is missing from the image.

      thoughts?

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      • #4
        Hmm. Haven't seen that. So other commands work?

        Have you tried "mfstool backup"?
        Been here a long time . . .

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        • #5
          yup, its an unrecognized command. Its almost like I have the shell loaded, but nothing else.

          I moved on and got one of the other linux bootcd's that are floating around the net to load and it is running a backup|restore command now.

          I'll let you know my results in about 2 hours.

          I'm not weak-kneed, but I'm also not confident I will gave success.

          Does it matter if the new drive is set as Master or Cable Select? There is a lot of conflicting information on the net.

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          • #6
            fyi - no love.

            the backup|restore looked good and it has all the same partitions as my original drive, but the tivo won't get past the 'welcome powering up' on either Cable Select or Master. (at least it didn't in the 10 minutes I waited)

            I've replaced the original drive and am trying to boot it up now, just to see it work before my nightly shows come on.

            one note, I can hear the old drive spin up, but can't hear the new one. (this may just be because its newer and quieter than the fan.

            thoughts? anyway to check why the new drive gets stuck on the powering up screen, or do i need to wait longer than 10min?

            I saw somewhere that your drives come with a new ribbon cable. could my new drive not be working with the old ribbon cable?

            update: the original drive took longer than 10 minutes to get past the welcome screen (and later froze at the end of the animation), so I'm going to try my new drive again and let it boot longer.
            Last edited by cliffwiggs; 10-05-2011, 02:59 PM.

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            • #7
              FYI - I've given up.

              it has progressed to giving an overheating error message during every boot (yes the fan is plugged in and it is spinning, but still overheating message)

              at this point it could be one or multiple things...

              so I want to transfer this thread to a question about your flat repair service.

              if there are multiple issues with a machine, will your testing process be able to uncover all of them and the flat fee handle all replacements?

              i.e. this is 140060 which is know to have power supply problems, it is also having hard drive problems (reboots and lots of pixelation) and now apparently has either fan or heat sensor issues. It is all stock parts. its just an old grandmother of a machine that is falling apart like dominoes all at once.

              I'd hate to get one issue fixed to have another popup a few days after getting it back.

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              • #8
                Sure - our flat fee repair will cover all of those problems. Just be sure to make them all clear so there's no chance that we won't see something while the unit is here.
                Been here a long time . . .

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