Series 2 HD recovery

Hello, all,

My TiVo series 2 box just bit the dust. It's been stuck in 'Pending
Restart' now for a few weeks, and so has not been able to download
program information. After calling TiVo, they told me that the hard
drive was bad, and so now I've got a replacement box on the way.
However, I have a dilemna; I've been saving about 20 episodes of a
serial on my box, and I'd like to be able to dump them. TTG isn't
working, so I'm wondering if I can mount the TiVo HD in one of my Linux
machines and retrieve the episodes. Can anyone tell me if this is
possible?

Much thanks,
Kevin

My apologies; please allow me to clarify:

TiVo said specifically that my box is caught in 'pending restart' limbo
because the sectors that the update was written to are bad. Why fsck
couldn't write off these bad sectors and continue normally is beyond
me, but it's all moot as a new TiVo is on its way. The old TiVo still
functions, except that some sectors are apparently botched and, as a
result, it cannot download new program information. My goal is to mount
the hard drive in one of my Linux machines (the TiVo drive uses Extfs2,
yes?) and recover whatever recordings I can (they still play, but TTG
will not download them). After that, though, I'll need to know how to
decode them from whatever format they're in (.ty?) to MPG. Any
information that anyone can provide on how to solve this issue would be
appreciated.

Cheers,
Kevin

Howard wrote:
" wrote in
oups.com:

Hello, all,

My TiVo series 2 box just bit the dust. It's been stuck in 'Pending
Restart' now for a few weeks, and so has not been able to download
program information. After calling TiVo, they told me that the hard
drive was bad, and so now I've got a replacement box on the way.
However, I have a dilemna; I've been saving about 20 episodes of a
serial on my box, and I'd like to be able to dump them. TTG isn't
working, so I'm wondering if I can mount the TiVo HD in one of my Linux
machines and retrieve the episodes. Can anyone tell me if this is
possible?

You want to take a non-working HDD from one box and place it into another
box to remove the data from the non-working HDD? Is the destination a
magic box that will remove the "non-" from non-working?

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On 2006-07-31, wrote:

(the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?)

No, it does not.

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This is my .sig

wrote in message
oups.com
My apologies; please allow me to clarify:

TiVo said specifically that my box is caught in 'pending
restart'
limbo because the sectors that the update was written to are
bad.
Why fsck couldn't write off these bad sectors and continue
normally
is beyond me, but it's all moot as a new TiVo is on its way.
The
old TiVo still functions, except that some sectors are
apparently
botched and, as a result, it cannot download new program
information. My goal is to mount the hard drive in one of my
Linux
machines (the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?) and recover
whatever
recordings I can (they still play, but TTG will not download
them).
After that, though, I'll need to know how to decode them from
whatever format they're in (.ty?) to MPG. Any information that
anyone can provide on how to solve this issue would be
appreciated.

They are in .tivo format.

--


Travis in Shoreline Washington

Really? It's not Ext2?

This says it is:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...xw01LidOffTivo


Mike Hunt wrote:
On 2006-07-31, wrote:

(the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?)

No, it does not.

--
This is my .sig

So I can actually just grab the .tivo files off of the hard drive and
run them through DirectShow Dump per normal?

Travis M. wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com
My apologies; please allow me to clarify:

TiVo said specifically that my box is caught in 'pending
restart'
limbo because the sectors that the update was written to are
bad.
Why fsck couldn't write off these bad sectors and continue
normally
is beyond me, but it's all moot as a new TiVo is on its way.
The
old TiVo still functions, except that some sectors are
apparently
botched and, as a result, it cannot download new program
information. My goal is to mount the hard drive in one of my
Linux
machines (the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?) and recover
whatever
recordings I can (they still play, but TTG will not download
them).
After that, though, I'll need to know how to decode them from
whatever format they're in (.ty?) to MPG. Any information that
anyone can provide on how to solve this issue would be
appreciated.

They are in .tivo format.

--


Travis in Shoreline Washington

wrote:
Really? It's not Ext2?

This says it is:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...xw01LidOffTivo

Read that link a bit more closely. The base OS may be on an Ext2
partition, but note the MFS areas. Those are where the shows are
stored, and they're not simply accessible by any linux system. But
you're welcome to give it a shot.

Randy S.

Ah, okay. So, what are my options, then? Hack it to install mfsftp?

Randy S. wrote:
wrote:
Really? It's not Ext2?

This says it is:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...xw01LidOffTivo

Read that link a bit more closely. The base OS may be on an Ext2
partition, but note the MFS areas. Those are where the shows are
stored, and they're not simply accessible by any linux system. But
you're welcome to give it a shot.

Randy S.

On 2006-08-01, wrote:
So I can actually just grab the .tivo files off of the hard drive and
run them through DirectShow Dump per normal?

..tivo files are from TTG. .ty files are from mfsftp

There are NO files to just "grab" - you need a software package which
understands the TiVo filesystems in order for it to get you your shows.
You can't just mount the filesystem and copy them off.

Travis M. wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com
My apologies; please allow me to clarify:

TiVo said specifically that my box is caught in 'pending
restart'
limbo because the sectors that the update was written to are
bad.
Why fsck couldn't write off these bad sectors and continue
normally
is beyond me, but it's all moot as a new TiVo is on its way.
The
old TiVo still functions, except that some sectors are
apparently
botched and, as a result, it cannot download new program
information. My goal is to mount the hard drive in one of my
Linux
machines (the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?) and recover
whatever
recordings I can (they still play, but TTG will not download
them).
After that, though, I'll need to know how to decode them from
whatever format they're in (.ty?) to MPG. Any information that
anyone can provide on how to solve this issue would be
appreciated.

They are in .tivo format.

--


Travis in Shoreline Washington



--
This is my .sig

Per my last message, I understand now. You guys sure are persnickety.

Can anyone offer any advice or useful links on getting mfsftp
installed? Googling and trawling dealdatabase turns up information on
how to use it, but not on how to get it installed. Or is this the wrong
forum for that type of question?

Thanks again,
K

Mike Hunt wrote:
On 2006-08-01, wrote:
So I can actually just grab the .tivo files off of the hard drive and
run them through DirectShow Dump per normal?

.tivo files are from TTG. .ty files are from mfsftp

There are NO files to just "grab" - you need a software package which
understands the TiVo filesystems in order for it to get you your shows.
You can't just mount the filesystem and copy them off.

Travis M. wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com
My apologies; please allow me to clarify:

TiVo said specifically that my box is caught in 'pending
restart'
limbo because the sectors that the update was written to are
bad.
Why fsck couldn't write off these bad sectors and continue
normally
is beyond me, but it's all moot as a new TiVo is on its way.
The
old TiVo still functions, except that some sectors are
apparently
botched and, as a result, it cannot download new program
information. My goal is to mount the hard drive in one of my
Linux
machines (the TiVo drive uses Extfs2, yes?) and recover
whatever
recordings I can (they still play, but TTG will not download
them).
After that, though, I'll need to know how to decode them from
whatever format they're in (.ty?) to MPG. Any information that
anyone can provide on how to solve this issue would be
appreciated.

They are in .tivo format.

--


Travis in Shoreline Washington



--
This is my .sig