[ExtractStream] What is most likely a FAQ...

[Mark Jeffcoat]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 11:26:48AM -0800, Stealth Dave wrote:
> Another extremely DANGEROUS option would be to create an additional
> partition on one of the Tivo hard drives (if there is any unformatted
> space, which there probably isn't), mount that partition on the Tivo
> using the BASH prompt on your Tivo, and dump the program to that
> partition. Then you can put that hard drive into a standard linux box,
> mount that extra partition and copy the extracted file from there. You
> could even transfer the file over the serial port using Zmodem, but then
> you're back to 1-3 days of transfer time per hour of video. Again, this
> option is EXTREMELY DANGERSOUS (you're formatting part of your Tivo's
> hard drive), UNTESTED (it would take a lot of tinkering to get it to
> work), and definitely NOT RECOMMENDED. But it's an option, and an
> interesting one at that. :)
> 

Sanity check this idea as a way to make it safe:

I have a two-drive Tivo; I divorce them, and turn the second
drive into one big ext2 partition. (The original poster
requested that he not lose the stuff already on the drive, so
this might not help him.) Extract to that second drive, and 
keep a background transfer over the serial port running pretty
well continuously. 

The disadvantage, of course, is losing the second drive, but
if I can archive to my PC, losing that extra space is not too
big a deal.

I'll give this a try next week, unless somebody spots an obvious
flaw. The only potential problem I can see is that the transfer
might suck up so much CPU that I'd be cursed with a 24-hour a 
day stutter during normal use.

-- 
Mark Jeffcoat