Using a known "good" Tivo hard drive...

[johntfoster]

I have two Series 2 Tivo's, both Hughes, one about 3 years old, the other less than one year. About 2 weeks ago my older Tivo quit working. After reading many threads I decided it was a hard drive issue and decided to buy a new hard drive and upgrade per Hinsdale using an image from my new Tivo.

Using the newer Tivo hard drive I made a backup and successfully installed the image on a larger disk and got it running on my new Tivo. I took the hard disk from the new Tivo and placed it in my old Tivo and now I am stuck at the "Welcome, Powing up..." screen. I know for a fact that this hard drive is good as it just came out of my working new Tivo.

I noticed that the motherboards are slightly different on the two Tivo's. Could this be a problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[funtoupgrade]

What are the model numbers of the two TiVos? Try downloading the hard drive manufacturer's drive test utility to test your suspect drive. If it is ok then you probably just need to get a fresh image downloaded from somebody on the forum since the image from your other TiVo does not work. If it's bad you're going to need the image also. You send a private message to Stan Simmons asking for a link to the image you need.

[johntfoster]

I figured out that the first three digits in the Tivo Service number have to be the same. Once I figured this out I found a friend that had a Tivo with the right service number, imaged his drive, and everything works great! Thanks for the help.