Nope - not without reformatting.

Maybe your real problem is a power supply? We have replacements here:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-power-supply.php

Also, if you have lifetime service on your Series3, you probably don't want to get rid of it.

I sent a service inquiry to the weaknees repair crew and got this reply:

"Are you using CableCARDs? If so, you might try removing them and going through setup without them to see if that changes anything. If it does, you might need new cards. Otherwise, you probably need to talk to TiVo about replacement options."

Seems like a power supply might be throwing good money after bad.

Two questions: is the reformat something that I can do myself?

Is there any better instructions on the kickstart procedure? I have only gotten it to work one time out of eight. Do you hold the pause until the lights blink or until you see the single amber light? The light remains lit for less than a second, doesn't seem like the correct signal for receiving code input. Thanks.

Here is some advice from a different forum

When you see "welcome! Powering up" screen, point your TiVo remote towards S3 with pause button pressed.

You don't have to point right away. As a matter of fact, you can wait until 2 red LED lights on the front left panel goes out. But it's hard to time that, so my suggestion is to keep pointing as soon as you see welcome powering up with pause button pressed until you see a single orange LED light on the front panel. (bottom right picture)

No - you can't really do the reformat yourself. You need a Linux PC and some custom tools.

The kickstart is really all there is, and if you have the problem with both drives, it's unlikely to help since it can only test drive issues.