Disk failure

My 30-hour TiVo with a 30GB Quantum Fireball started to behave
strangely and the disk started making noise. Sure enough, when I went
through the "upgrade" process and tried to dd the Quantum disk to my
new Seagate 5400 RPM ultra-quiet (yes, it's nice!) 80GB disk I got
read errors on the Quantum.

When I finish the upgrade process I get the green screen of death --
"A severe error has occurred." My Quantum disk still boots the TiVo
fine, but I get the same disk noise and inability to watch anything.

I'm wondering if there's something easy to do, or where I would look
for documentation on this. I'm a UNIX hacker, PhD candidate in
computer science, so I'm not afraid of filesystems or Linux -- I just
want to get this new disk to work, and I know that the data on the
original disk are sufficient for some recovery.

"Chris" wrote
My 30-hour TiVo with a 30GB Quantum Fireball started to behave
strangely and the disk started making noise. Sure enough, when I went
through the "upgrade" process and tried to dd the Quantum disk to my
new Seagate 5400 RPM ultra-quiet (yes, it's nice!) 80GB disk I got
read errors on the Quantum.
When I finish the upgrade process I get the green screen of death --
"A severe error has occurred." My Quantum disk still boots the TiVo
fine, but I get the same disk noise and inability to watch anything.
I'm wondering if there's something easy to do, or where I would look
for documentation on this. I'm a UNIX hacker, PhD candidate in
computer science, so I'm not afraid of filesystems or Linux -- I just
want to get this new disk to work, and I know that the data on the
original disk are sufficient for some recovery.

I have no idea how one would go about repairing this setup, or
even if it is possible without tearing out one's hair. Most people
in this situation who want to "raise the dead" find a compatible
drive image, which they load onto a new IDE drive using the
appropriate tools written by the TiVo "underground." -- or else
they buy drop-in replacement drives that have the images loaded
already. I believe weaknees.com sells the latter. For the right
price, I might be compelled to sell your or anyone who needs the
former. I have a "14 hour" drive from a Philips HDR112 that
I don't need. I don't recommend actually using it since the space
is so small, but it can be the basis for a TiVo drive upgrade
using the Hinsdale FAQ. (Search Google for Hinsdale if you
are not familiar with it.) Then put it back in storage for the
next time your drive(s) fail.

What's the right price? I really don't know. Remember that you
shouldn't use a Philips image in a Sony machine or vice versa.
At least I remember hearing that...anyway, I will entertain offers
via email.

HTH,
Bao

I had a very similar problem just yesterday. I used the mfsbackup,
mfsrestore, and mfsadd "upgrade" path as detailed in the hinsdale page.
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hins...to/index9.html. I did not have
any read errors during the backup step. When I went to test the backup in
step 9 I also got the GSOD. I did what the screen said and left the unit
alone for nearly 3 hours and the unit fixed the error on its own. The unit
is a Sony SRV-2000 with a new 120GB drive.

steps you may want to try to get the unit back up and running. First try a
different method to move the data to the new drive. ( backup, restore, add)
let the Tivo sit for up to 24 Hours on the GSOD.

order a new drive with the correct image on the drive from a etailer such as
www.9thtee.com

search the internet for the correct image for your machine. This will be
difficult because Tivo is going after people who post the images.

try a restore on the old drive from within the Tivo software and then
backup/restore to the new drive. I would think that this is a very risky
step because it will change the information on the source drive and it can
not be undone. You could destroy the image that it contains.

good luck..




"Chris" wrote in message
om...
My 30-hour TiVo with a 30GB Quantum Fireball started to behave
strangely and the disk started making noise. Sure enough, when I went
through the "upgrade" process and tried to dd the Quantum disk to my
new Seagate 5400 RPM ultra-quiet (yes, it's nice!) 80GB disk I got
read errors on the Quantum.

When I finish the upgrade process I get the green screen of death --
"A severe error has occurred." My Quantum disk still boots the TiVo
fine, but I get the same disk noise and inability to watch anything.

I'm wondering if there's something easy to do, or where I would look
for documentation on this. I'm a UNIX hacker, PhD candidate in
computer science, so I'm not afraid of filesystems or Linux -- I just
want to get this new disk to work, and I know that the data on the
original disk are sufficient for some recovery.

thoranw wrote:

I had a very similar problem just yesterday. I used the mfsbackup,
mfsrestore, and mfsadd "upgrade" path as detailed in the hinsdale page.
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hins...to/index9.html. I did not have
any read errors during the backup step. When I went to test the backup in
step 9 I also got the GSOD. I did what the screen said and left the unit
alone for nearly 3 hours and the unit fixed the error on its own. The unit
is a Sony SRV-2000 with a new 120GB drive.

I'd like to chime in, "Me too!"

In my case, the disk had been making tick-tock, tick-tock sounds in the
TiVo. While performing mfsbackup, it made the same noise two times, but
the backup continued. The end result was that mfsbackup + mfsrestore
were able to copy the OS to a new disk, minus any recordings.
-Joe

--
I love my TiVo - http://www.inwap.com/u/joe/tivo/

In article caQQb.17520$U%[email protected]_s03, Joe Smith
wrote:

thoranw wrote:

I had a very similar problem just yesterday. I used the mfsbackup,
mfsrestore, and mfsadd "upgrade" path as detailed in the hinsdale page.
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hins...to/index9.html. I did not have
any read errors during the backup step. When I went to test the backup in
step 9 I also got the GSOD. I did what the screen said and left the unit
alone for nearly 3 hours and the unit fixed the error on its own. The unit
is a Sony SRV-2000 with a new 120GB drive.

I'd like to chime in, "Me too!"

In my case, the disk had been making tick-tock, tick-tock sounds in the
TiVo. While performing mfsbackup, it made the same noise two times, but
the backup continued. The end result was that mfsbackup + mfsrestore
were able to copy the OS to a new disk, minus any recordings.


I recently (last November) had a disk failure. It was the A drive in
one of my SAT-T60s. Although the drive would not function correctly, I
took a chance and dd copied its contents to a new drive, because I was
determined to preserve my recordings if I possibly could. The dd copy
worked fine, and I kept all my recordings.