I'm still running version R5.5 (according to my signature so I'm not sure but I know it is pre version 6). I have a couple of mythbackups saved off. Can't read reliably from the disk at this point. System has been turned off for a while because I just haven't had time to get to it. Tomorrow hopefully, I will pick up a new HD and my intention is to install the most current version available. I know the recordings I had are gone and that's not a big deal.

My question is this, will I be able to use the backups to recover things like my settings, recording schedule, shows I've previously recorded, and such after I reinstall the system with the newer version?

Actually, while I'm here, I think I have the connections in the box for a SATA disk. If I'm only getting 1 dIsk, should I go IDE or SATA? Are there any really big advantages to 2 disks that I should consider.

Thanks for any info

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AMD 3000+ MSI K8MM-V
512MB PC3200, 2TB SATA HD,
GeForce 256MB 6200, DVD-RW,
Hauppauage WinTV-PVR 150 (flakey with terrible video?) & 250
-- R7.4 (rdt) --

I'm not sure about the upgrade process from your backups, but certainly go with a large SATA drive. If you've an HD tv and a pci-express slot I'd invest in a new gpu so you can use VDPAU for silky smooth video decoding. A cheap, recent generation nvidia card would sort you out.

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

try to run spinrite on the drive to save it and make the most recent backup

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My System

I've managed to recover most of the data (>99%) from at least a couple drives now using the ddrescue utility on the PartEdMagic CD. The related web pages include a bunch of data recovery technique, including things like the freezer trick.

After allowing spinrite to run for a long time (days), I had to declare the disk dead. Got a new one and started from scratch. Would be nice to figure out someway to use my backups to get my old recording rules back but not much hope in that now. Thanks for all the suggestions.

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AMD 3000+ MSI K8MM-V
512MB PC3200, 2TB SATA HD,
GeForce 256MB 6200, DVD-RW,
Hauppauage WinTV-PVR 150 (flakey with terrible video?) & 250
-- R7.4 (rdt) --

In theory you should be able to do a restore of your 5.5 DB into a clean database and then when you restart with the latest sw it will go through the database upgrade process. In practice, it may not work but likely will. Since you have the back up, you can give it a try. Failing that there may be a 5.5 ISO lying around if you don't have it and then try upgrading from there.

Note though while the database is intact I expect your recordings are trashed. Once you get things upgraded you can run a script to clean up the discrepancies between what the DB thinks it has for recordings and the stark reality that none exist.


SATA for sure. It is much more modern and faster throughput.

For my front ends, I only use a single disk and make a backup when I make major changes to the scripts. For my backend (which has the DB), I have two disks in RAID1 and the recordings are also on a separate RAID1 disk pair. RAID gives you high availability so that if a disk fails you can keep running while you repair the failed disk. Mind you, you will need to learn a little about linux raid. Note RAID is not a backup strategy it is an availability strategy. You should still conduct regular backups of your database.

Alternatively you can use a second disk for extra storage. If you use storage groups this will allow you to not only add capacity but optimize disk usage and performance by distributing the load between the two disks.

Hope that helps.