It is most likely a hard drive, and you can absolutely purchase a self-install kit. We require units to be in working condition to order the $49 installation service, but this does not apply to a self-install kit.

Alternatively, we offer a flat-fee TiVo repair service if you want to offload the problem onto our laps.

OK...cool. I also meant to ask, based on my symptoms, is there any hope of recovering the programs on the hard drive? If so, is that something that I would be able to do if I just order the kit, or would I definitely have to send it to Weaknees to recover the recorded shows?

The kit really won't give you any shot at recovering the shows.

If you order the kit plus the $79 service, we'll try to copy the shows to the new drive, but, to be honest, your chances of success are pretty slim, given the symptoms.

Yeah, I was thinking anyone may have a hard time recovering the shows if the hard drive is completely dead. Especially after Humax tech support walked me through a kick start code 57 that apparently wasn't able to do anything...time to order the hard drive upgrade!

Thanks for the help, guys!

You're not the first who wants their shows back off a dead drive. Sorry there's no good way.

Tivo Freezes during Powering Up, green blinking light

I've had my Tivo HD for a little over a year. I have no cable cards but do have the WD 500Mb expander disk. Up until recently everything worked pretty well. Since the beginning though, the video would occasionally freeze. Annoying, but not the end of the world. I would reboot, or simply change the channel a few times until it unfroze. Haven't changed anything before the new problem happened. We have had a few power outages lately, but not one that I know of between when it was working fine and now.

The new problem is that the unit will no longer go through the power up sequence. When I discovered the problem, the TV screen was blank and only the green light was showing on the front of the unit. I rebooted and it went to the Powering Up screen then to the Just a Few Minutes More screen then stopped there for a couple of hours. I tried to boot again, and this time it just hung at the Powering Up screen. It would occasionally blink off then come back to the Powering Up screen but wouldn't go any further. Additional tries at rebooting resulted in the same thing. I read about the kickstart option, but I couldn't get it to go into the kickstart mode by using the Pause button on the remote...so I can't test the hard drive with kickstart code 54. I read in one of the other threads that after some updates or problems, the power up sequence could last several hours (if not overnight), so I left it in the Powering Up mode overnight. In the morning, the unit had a blinking green light (no other lights) and the TV was blank. Tried the kickstart code 54, but nothing happened. Tried rebooting, but so far nothing.

From what I've gathered after reading various threads, the hard drive might be gone and will need to be replaced. If that's the case, is anything recoverable from the expander disk, or is that gone too? Another probability is that the power supply is shot. Is there any way to check that this is the problem (vs. a bad hard drive). In either case I suspect it's a good idea to plug the unit into a surge supressor. All the equipment is plugged into a surge supressor power strip, but it wasn't very expensive so it may not have been sufficient for the recent power outages. If I can ever resurrect the unit, I'll be sure to upgrade to a better one.

Anything you can suggest would be helpful. Thanks.

Follow-up question

If I do end up needing a new internal hard drive, will I be able to still use the WD 500Mb extender drive I currently have? If not, it will affect my decision on which upgrade to buy.

I'd first try just removing the expander and seeing if the unit will boot.

If not, you probably have a bad internal drive, but you could have other problems.

If you get a replacement internal drive, you'll need a 160 GB drive if you want it to see the external still. Otherwise, just get a larger internal and don't reuse the external. That's always best - one drive instead of two.

Newbie follow-up questions

Tried unplugging the 500GB external drive and rebooting. Still hangs up on the Powering Up. Looks like the internal drive is fried. Good to know it probably isn't the power supply.

Here's one of my newbie questions. If I did get the 160 GB internal to replace the one that's fried, and then reused the 500GB external drive I already have, will there be anything left on the 500GB external drive to retrieve (even if it isn't fried too)? If not, your suggestion of one drive rather than two makes lots of sense.

I also saw an option on your Store website about external storage with backup. Part of the description said, "Replace your internal drive with our dual-drive external solution. If one drive fails, you have an automatic backup. Warning lights provide notice of any drive failure." Here are the other newbie questions. Does this external drive work even if the internal drive is fried? Do you simply unhook the fried drive and then the TiVo unit will work on the external drive?

Decisions, decisions. Thanks for the help.

Nope - a new 160 will reformat the external. Nothing will be left.

Yes, for the external backup solution, you disconnect the internal drive entirely - you don't even need to replace it.