Think your tivo hard drive is dead? Here's how to find out...

[WK-Michael]

Rebooting like that is generally a drive, but you can't remove one drive from a two-drive TiVo. If you do, it won't boot.

[mikef65]

ok, next big question. when i ordered the drive replacement for my main drive, did i need to tell WK that it was for a dual drive configuration, cause i'm pretty sure that could've slipped through the cracks.

i'm just wondering what my next step is before buying more hardware...

[WK-Michael]

Not sure what the overall plan is, but you can't replace one drive in a two-drive setup without having both the new replacement, and the reused drive in a PC at the same time . . .

[sosb]

Hi guys,

The other night my DirecTiVo froze up, so I unplugged it for a minute and plugged it back in and after booting it was running fine again. The next day we had the same problem, only this time after booting, it just sat at the initial welcome screen forever. This is with a 2-drive upgrade I bought from you guys about 2 years ago.

I figured it was a hard drive problem and ordered a single replacement drive from you which arrived today. After installing the replacement drive today, it got to the first screen where is asks you to press Select to begin set-up, but it was frozen and did not respond to input from either the remote or front panel. Rebooted it and this time got as far as choosing the dish type and again it froze. All subsequent reboots have not gone past the initial gray welcome screen, just as with the drives I just took out.

Is there any problem in replacing a dual drive set-up with a single drive? I didn't want to buy large capacity again as after we move we'll be going HD and this TiVo will be secondary in another room. If there should not be a problem moving to one drive, do you have advice on what to try next?

Thanks.
Living in an area with no arial reception sure stinks when your sat and dvr are killed in one stroke.

[WK-Jeff]

There really is no problem at all going from two drives to one.

The problems you are having are pretty odd. Have you checked all of the cables inside the unit, especially the cables running from the front panel to the motherboard and the cables from the power supply?

It is possible that you have a power supply issue, but without seeing it, it's pretty tough to diagnose.

[sosb]

All of the cabling seems secure, but there is one area on the motherboard that looks like it may have been excessively hot at some point. I don't recall if it was like this previously. I did notice that the secondary fan on the bracket that came with the upgrade does not spin when powered up, it tries and creeps, but hardly moves. The fan at the back of the unit still works fine, and that's the side with the area where it looks like possible overheating took place, see attached.



Thanks for helping.

[WK-Jason]

I try both a replacement bracket fan and a replacement power supply:

https://www.weaknees.com/tivo-fans.php

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

[sosb]

I try both a replacement bracket fan and a replacement power supply:

https://www.weaknees.com/tivo-fans.php

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

I'll give that a try. If it turns out to be the power supply and the old HDs are fine, I hope there's a decent return policy for the replacement drive I won't need. If the power supply killed my HDs, I'll be bummed.

[WK-Jason]

Yes, you'd be able to return the drive, as well as the power supply. Our (reasonable) return policy is available here:

https://www.weaknees.com/payment.php

[sosb]

Just got home from work and popped in the new power supply. It's alive! The old HDs work, so I'm going to give it a couple of days to make sure they are truly okay, and then I'll make use of that (reasonable) return policy for the new HD I started with. Days of frustration are now in the past.

Thanks for your assistance Jason and Jeff. Cheers.