prob. upgrading to 200G drive

[gpontis]

I am having some problems using mfstools-2 to copy a 120G drive to a 200G drive. The 120G drive was already expanded once from the original 40G in a HDVR2 DTivo. I tried booting off the PTV lba48 upgrade disk to do this without success.

./mfstools backup -o - /dev/hdb | ./mfsrestore restore -xi - /dev/hdc

After scanning the source drive, it reports failure on restore, saying that "the backup target is not large enough for the entire backup by itself". And this even though the uncompressed backup was only 1.2G.

I also tried running mfstool under a current version of Fedora3 where fdisk recognized the new drive as 200G and no partitions. The result was the same. For grins I tried a statically linked development snapshot of the latest mfstool but that bombed with a seg fault. The drive configuration is:

pri master -> hda - Fedora
pri slave -> hdc - 200G target
sec master -> hdb 120G source
sec slave -> hdd CDROM


What I would _really_ like to do is to create a new drive with all the old recordings copied over. (So much the better if I can consolidate the MFS partitions at the same time, which mfstool does not do.) Perhaps create the partitions manually and copy them with dd ? I suspect that I need something that understands the database format to get recordings transfered. I'm sure that I am not the first to ask, but I have not been able to find a working procedure by searching the forums. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

[Thinkdiff]

You can't expand an already expanded drive, yet.

[gpontis]

You can't expand an already expanded drive, yet.

According to "./mfstool info /dev/hdb", I can expand this drive three more times.

[PlainBill]

According to "./mfstool info /dev/hdb", I can expand this drive three more times.
Only on another disk.

The Apple partition table has a maximum of 16 partitions. MFS partitions are added in pairs. If you have expanded the drive once you have a total of 15 partitions. Since 15 + 2 > 16, you can't do it.

PlainBill

[gpontis]

Only on another disk.

The Apple partition table has a maximum of 16 partitions. MFS partitions are added in pairs. If you have expanded the drive once you have a total of 15 partitions. Since 15 + 2 > 16, you can't do it.

PlainBill

Is this procedure workable:

1) Build new system on 200G drive with a single pair of MFS partitions.
2) Using Linux system, transfer files from both pairs of MFS partitions on old drive to new drive using linux versions of mfs_export and mfs_import.

George

[Jamie]

2) Using Linux system, transfer files from both pairs of MFS partitions on old drive to new drive using linux versions of mfs_export and mfs_import.You can't allocate space for new recordings on the linux side. You could import with mfs_ftp. If your recordings are scrambled you will have to play some games with your DiskConfigurationKey to be able to play them. See scramble_utils/readme.txt in the mfs_ftp distribution.

If you are up to it: another approach (http://alt.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=769&rid=0&S=e214841baa2543a6c770d8cb7162686f#msg_769).

[gpontis]

You can't allocate space for new recordings on the linux side.

I hope I am not getting mixed up with semantics. My understanding is that is that I could create a new, large drive with a two pairs of MFS partitions using something like this:

mfstool restore -x -s 127 -i 62small.mfs /dev/hdx

That's doable on the Linux side. Not quite as cool as a single large partition, but roomy and usable.

You could import with mfs_ftp. If your recordings are scrambled you will have to play some games with your DiskConfigurationKey to be able to play them. See scramble_utils/readme.txt in the mfs_ftp distribution.

I have been trying to avoid mfs_ftp since it is so slow and requires an intermediate drive for storage. Assuming that I preserve and restore the key (thanks for pointing that out), would mfs_import/export on Linux work at this point to transfer recordings ?

If you are up to it: another approach (http://alt.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=769&rid=0&S=e214841baa2543a6c770d8cb7162686f#msg_769).

Wow, directly editing the superblock, that would be a first for me. I wouldn't have had a clue without your description. Would one need to coalesce MFS zones to have the perfect MFS layout, indistinguishable from stock but bigger ?