Kwamster, your original problem is the exact problem I'm experiencing. Although I have a 500GB internal replacement drive from WK coming in the mail today, I am wondering if you or someone could describe how you "divorced" your WD Expander from your internal drive. I just want to know the true cause of my problems .

Kevin

Basically, you just power down, disconnect the Expander, and boot. The TiVo will ask if you want to remove the Expander, and you agree.

I have had my TiVO HD for a little more than a year now and have just begun to experience very frequent and seemingly random restart issues.

It doesn't seem to follow any pattern, I don't have any pixelization or audio problems that might indicate a hard drive problem. I have tried the Kickstart programs suggested over at the TiVo Community forums with no luck. I have 2 Cable Cards installed from Cablevision and I'm going to try reinstalling them as suggested here. I am really hoping for some success because it's no good having an unreliable and often unusable TiVo.

Damn I came home from work, turned on my TV, and saw the "Welcome" screen frozen on my screen. Who knows how long it was stuck there? The restarts continue!

This is crazy, my Series2 TiVo is hooked up to another TV and has been working fine for over 5 years now, and my TiVo HD seems to have died in little over a year. I can't help but feel ripped off here .

Any more ideas how to get this thing fixed?

MookieNJ -

That really sounds like just a failed hard drive. They generally last longer, but, like anything, some last much longer than average, and some fail much sooner.

Too many coincidences

I know that Weaknees sells HDDs and upgrade kits, and I'm willing to buy one, but there are too many recent stories of frequent reboots that "look like bad drives" since the Dec 6th software update, which makes me think something else is afoot.
My S3 was perfectly happy with its TiVo-blessed WD DVR expander for over a year, but now suddenly it will reboot and/or lose the external drive, sometimes even when watching live TV (of course I realize it is still buffering). Any attempt to fast-forward, especially past the 1/3 point of the recorded program will cause freeze/hang/reboot. No GSOD.
I have powercycled the TiVo and the external drive, verified that the eSATA connectors are the "long" variety (properly seated), moved the ext drive from horizontal to vertical, tried fitting it with feet to get more air under it....
I don't want to trash all my wife's programs, and I'd be perfectly happy to transfer everything to a 1TB internal (A) drive if that would fix it, but a nagging doubt about the SW update remains. Can anyone confirm that the SW update is good, and that I should really be blaming the HW?

An S3/HD question - if I make an exact drive image of the external drive, and reconnect it (without having "divorced" the original), will TiVo still think it is "married", or does it have some other method of detecting a drive change?

Here's the deal with hard drive failures after OS updates:

The OS is stored on a certain partition of the hard drive. There are two such partitions, and new OS version load to the other partition, then they switch which one is active. So, sometimes, problems in that other partition, which were dormant, show up after that partition houses the new OS copy.

Unlike a computer hard drive, problems in video storage areas are largely ignored, since the video is so data-heavy that a minute bad area doesn't affect what the viewer sees on-screen.

Yes, if you make an exact copy (dd) of the external drive, you can swap it and use that.

Apparent bad drive after OS upgrade..

Thanks Michael.

Actually, if I read your answer correctly, even though the S3 is now frequently "losing" the external drive, you are more inclined to blame a bad OS partition on the internal drive?

(Because you said that minor video errors on the [external] drive would have minimal effect.)

Thus, copying the external drive might help, but most likely won't.
Therefore, combining the pair onto a single 750GB or 1TB drive would seem the best solution. I see that you sell 1TB drives as part of upgrades or kits with software installed, but they are not in the list of bare drives - can I buy one bare, or should I buy the upgrade internal drive and make a backup of its image before messing with it?

Thanks again,

Mike

Well, I don't know what's causing the problem in your case, but I'm just shedding some light on the connection between OS updates and TiVo problems. Many people assume, as you did, that it's related to buggy software in the update, and while that can happen, it's very, very rare, and much more common is the situation I described above.

But, in any event, certainly a one-drive solution is prone to fewer problems, and it's something we recommend. You could remove both of your drives and just install one new, larger drive, and run that like, and it should fix any problems.

Well, after a couple of weeks with pixelization and random rebooting problems on my Tivo Series 3 HD DVR, I am pretty convinced it is time to buy a replacement internal hard drive. Less than a year old, too.

What convinced me was attempting your cable card trouble shooting described at the top of this thread and not even being able to get the Tivo to reboot once he cards were out. It would come up to the main Tivo screen, and, after a while and much hesitation, allow me to select "Messages and Settings". Then, no matter what I picked under M&S, the box eventually rebooted again. So, I don't think it is the cable cards, but more likely the hard drive.

Now that I have reached that conclusion (and the corresponding action - buy a replacement internal drive from weaknees), I have a couple of questions.

1. I already have an external (from weaknees) hard drive. Once I replace the internal drive, will my unit need to be put through any special paces to re-recognize the external drive? I assume I will loose all of my recorded stuff (internal and external), but will the external drive have to somehow be cleaned so that is doesn't start out with pieces of stuff on it?

2. Are there any special gotchas when I bring the unit back up after installing the new internal drive? Should I have the cable cards in at that point or out?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.


Floyd

1. If you get a 250gb replacement, then the external will work as it did when you first got it, but you will lose everything that was on it. If you get a larger internal, then we would have to get the external to pair it with the new internal.

2. You can leave the cards in.

It's the My DVR Expander...

Michael, Thanks for all the help and advice so far. I've continued my research, and discovered the kickstart codes - TiVo reported "failed to start" for the external drive a minute or so into the SMART test.

I'm now trying to copy the data from the DVR expander onto a new drive to see if it will "stay married", as hoped.

I'd still like to get a 1TB internal drive replacement and attempt the copy/combine of the original pair, but I can't find 1TB drives for sale on your site, other than preprogrammed (and I plan to overwrite it). I fell into the trap of buying the WD10EACS, which apparently cannot be used as an S3 internal drive, so I am still hopeful of learning how to buy the 1TB bare drive from "the TiVo experts".

Jeff,

Thanks for the info - one last question (I think). I was thinking of going to the 500GB internal drive, so your statement "we would have to get the external to pair it with the new internal" comes into play. Does that statement mean I would need to send the external to weaknees, or is the pairing of the external with the new (larger) internal drive something I could do?

Floyd

You'd need to send the external in before we shipped out the new internal.

Michael,

Thanks. I think I'll just stay with the 250GB replacement to avoid the pairing you would have to do. My external is plenty big enough.

Floyd