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Drives are fine, but WK couldn't retrieve data??

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  • Drives are fine, but WK couldn't retrieve data??

    I have a Series 3 TiVo. A couple of months ago, it was stuck in a reboot loop. I tried replacing the internal hard disk, but it turned out that the unit had a bad power supply. As long as I used only one Cable Card, the unit worked fine, and in fact the original drives (internal 250 GB plus external 1 TB) were working fine, displaying all my saved shows, and passed every test I threw at them from the Kickstart-54 menu, including the full overnight suite. I sent the whole system (TiVo, old and new internal drives, and external drive) to WeaKnees to replace the power supply and copy the data from the old drives to the new internal drive.

    WeaKnees said that both the old internal drive and the external drive failed their testing, and they were unable to retrieve the data from the old drives. When WeaKnees e-mailed me, telling me that the drives had failed, I told them I found that surprising, since both drives had passed extensive tests immediately before I shipped them. I was told, "Sorry to say, the data from the old drives is gone."

    I got the TiVo back from WeaKnees with the new power supply and the new drive installed, but without the data transfer. I swapped back to the old internal drive and the external drive, and guess what! The data on the old drives is most certainly NOT gone, I can replay all my old shows and record new ones, and once again both drives pass every single test I throw at them.

    My question is, if both old drives are working well enough to pass every KS-54 test and operate the TiVo with no discernible issues, WHY on earth was it not possible to transfer the data? To be blunt, it really seems like you didn't really even test the drives and I wasted $100 plus shipping to have you do work I could've done myself. I have had several good experiences with WeaKnees in the past, both with my own TiVos and my parents' TiVo, but I am at the moment a very dissatisfied customer.

  • #2
    Well, I can only guess your identity based on your screen name...and I'm happy to discuss this offline or publicly if you'd prefer. Here are the notes, copied directly from your record:

    "3/27/2013 2:48:37 PM Blown caps on power supply. Unit rebooting at Welcome. Took out cable cards, unit boots to Main Menu and plays saved shows. Changed power supply SA204640623001852, unit boots to Main Menu with cable cards inserted. Testing internal hard drive - FAILED. Testing external hard drive - FAILED."

    It appears that you sent a previously-purchased drive, so you obviously aren't accusing us of failing your hard drives in order to sell you one of ours...which we would never do, so I'm glad we don't have to establish that.

    I unfortunately cannot tell you why your drives failed the Western Digital diagnostic tests, but we don't fail drives unless they actually fail. I'm not sure what "extensive tests" you're referring to, but we use drive testing software provided to us by WD, and that's what we go by. KS54 tests, unfortunately, are good parameters when they fail a drive, but not so great when the drive passes.

    I apologize for any miscommunication regarding your data; the drive tests we use are not destructive, but when drives fail, we don't presume the data will be there long term.

    As for your "wasted" $100, I apologize you feel that way. We spent considerable time testing your unit and the drives. Included in the price was return shipping of not only your TiVo, but an additional internal and external drive. At $99 for diagnosis, labor of installing the power supply and hard drive, drive testing and shipping back a TiVo and two hard drives, we don't think the price was unreasonable, and the repair is warranted for 90-days as well.

    I would also add that copying from two drives to one is never guaranteed even when drives are fully-functional. The way TiVo drive partitions work, it is not an easy feat by any stretch. I cannot tell from the record why your copy failed, but it did fail, as did the two drives.

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