Well, watching an HD channel means the TiVo is buffering (i.e. writing to the hard drive) HD content, which is pretty data-heavy. So it does makes sense that the hard drive could be the culprit if you only have the problems when the TiVo is viewing HD (or recording it while you're watching pre-recorded content).

I wouldn't say it's a slam-dunk that this is a drive, but it's definitely the first thing to try swapping out, given the symptoms.

Find your exact model here:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-upgrade.php

OK, this is weird

Thanks Michael

I did go ahead and order a new hard drive from WeaKnees. I moved everything I wanted to keep to my computer.

Here's the weird part. On the System Information screen the TiVo box was not displaying the drive capacities for either drive, which futher reinforced my feeling that there was something wrong with the hard drive. After I moved everything, I deleted everything from the Recently Deleted folder, then deleted all the shows from the Now Playing List. When I went back to the TV, it seems to be working fine. So then I went to the System Information screens and the drive capacities popped right up.

There were 45 shows to delete in the Recently Deleted folder, many of them HD, and it seemed to be deleting them as it needed to, but is it possible that the drive was just too full? I thought that the drive would never actually get full if it had shows to delete from the Recently Deleted folder.

I'm still going to install the new drive when it arrives, but for the limited amount of time I had to check it out after I deleted everything, it seemed to be back to it's old awesome self. I'll have more time to check it out when I get home from work.

Any thoughts on this?

Thank you.

Invex

P.S. When I replaced the hard drive in my old Series 2 TiVo using a drive I bought from Weaknees, the process was flawless, mostly due to the awesome documentation provided by Weaknees. I always meant to write you guys a kudos for that, but it couldn't have been easier thanks to your excellent documentation.

If/when the TiVo needs to delete programs to free space, it starts with the Recently Deleted folder. If you have programs in that folder, then it means your Now Playing list is not full.

Good to know

Thanks Jeff. That is good information to know.

Success!!!...kinda

I got my new 1 TB replacement drive on Friday and installed it right away. Once I went through the Guided Setup again, everything appears to be back to normal.

The "kinda" part is because no matter what I do, I cannot get my Western Digital 500 GB external hard drive to work. The TiVo keeps telling me that it's detected and asks if I want to set it up, I tell it yes, it goes to a "wait please" screen, then resets the TiVo box. The external instructions say that after the reset, "follow the onscreen instructions". There are none. If I go to a settings screen and then back out the TiVo box tells me that it's detected an external drive, do I want to set it up. If I go into settings and look at external devices there, it tells me that an external drive has been detected and asks me if I want to set it up. Same thing, tell it yes, it resets after only about 30 seconds and still doesn't seem to find it after the lengthy reset.

I swear, if I have to listen to that kid say "lets see what's on TiVo" one more time, I'm gonna snap!!!

I've tried every possible way to get it to recognize it. When I first brought the TiVo on after the HD install, I did it according to the instructions in the external drive's manual. That is, plug in the external drive and power it up first, then power up the TiVo. I've tried it "warm", with the TiVo and the external both on. I've unplugged them both for a period of time and tried it again, nothing seems to work.

Is it because that external drive was set up on the old drive? Do I need to plug it into my PC and reformat the drive? Was the external drive the bad drive all along causing the TiVo to freeze up?

In the end, I decided to just unplug the TiVo and the external and remove the external altogether pending the widsdom and knowledge that will surely spring forth from WeaKnees.com

Thank you for the excellent service you provide.

Invex

If you have an upgraded internal drive, we need the internal and external at our shop to pair the two together and make them work. It's not an automatic process.

A couple of questions

First of all, thank you Jeff for your response.

I know these are going to sound like stupid questions, please bear with me, I just want to completely understand. I'm not really intentionally trying to annoy you, though I probably am.

Stupid question #1: By "upgraded internal drive", do you mean any drive other than the one that came with the TiVo box? For instance the Western Digital 1 TB hard drive that I got and installed from WeaKnees.com last Friday would be an "upgraded internal drive"?

Stupid question #2: Are the external drives sold on WeaKnees.com considered "upgraded" drives? Would that process be automatic since they are both "upgraded" drives?

Question #2 goes more towards the fact that with the new television season and football about to start I'm really not too in love with the idea of shipping my TiVo off so that the drives can be paired. I'd rather find another use for the external I have and just replace it with a new "upgraded" one from WeaKnees.com. On the other hand, the TiVo reports that with the new WD 1TB drive that I now have 157 hours of HD or 1367 hours of SD, so I'm wondering if I even need the external anymore at all.

Thank you for your patience.

Invex

1. Any drive larger in capacity than the factory drive.
2. We don't sell upgraded external drives by themselves if the internal drive has been upgraded. The process (as you'll see on our website) requires the purchaser to send in the TiVo. There is no external that will pair itself to an upgraded internal drive automatically.