Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 w/ DSR6000

[Alaparos]

I've killed about 4 hours trying to get a successful restore of a single-drive backup to a dual drive configuration involving a pair of ST3120213A drives. These are Seagate Barracuda 120GB drives. I can't get past the initial power up screen. I have the jumpers configured correctly: A master and B slave. The mfsrestore responded normally with a successful restore followed by successful expands (using the one-shot command mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi etc etc).

Is there something about these drives and a DSR6000 that I should have known prior to buying the drives? I see a couple posts talking about the power supply. Has anyone gotten a Seagate 7200.9 dual drive configuration working with a series 1 DSR6000?

This is probably my 8th TiVo drive job on various DSR6000s but the first time I've been totally stymied! And I haven't even had a margarita yet :)

Thanks,

Gary

[HomeUser]

Try the WeaKnees "Power Trip" method unplug the power to the 'A' drive. Power on the TiVo give the 'B' drive a chance to spin up. Then plug the power into the 'A' drive if that works get a "Power Trip". Or you could try and power the drives from the PC power supply.
Warning: both methods could have unpleasant results. You should verify the drives are really married in the pc with mfsinfo first before chancing it with the hot plug in.

[Alaparos]

Try the WeaKnees "Power Trip" method unplug the power to the 'A' drive. Power on the TiVo give the 'B' drive a chance to spin up. Then plug the power into the 'A' drive if that works get a "Power Trip". Or you could try and power the drives from the PC power supply.
Warning: both methods could have unpleasant results. You should verify the drives are really married in the pc with mfsinfo first before chancing it with the hot plug in.

I tried the staged power-on as you suggested. It made no difference. I'm starting to wonder whether I'm screwing up the restore. I'm sure the backup was made using mfstools 1, not 2. Are there any issues using mfstools 2.0 on a version 1 backup?

Since I wasn't sure whether the backup was 2.0.1 or 1.3, I tried both without and then with the runideturbo=false setting. Same result.

I'm attempting to use Hinsdale's instructions, step 8, as follows:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdc /dev/hdb

I have tivo A on hdc (sec master) and tivo B on hdb (primary slave). TIVO A is connected to the end connector on the IDE cable and TIVO B to the middle connector. Both are jumped correctly: A/master, B/slave.

The mfsrestore claims to have succeeded and is then followed by several lines of info that indicate that first the A drive was expanded and then B was added for a total of 240 hrs as an estimated size. All looked ok to me, though I have never used this specific method of mfsrestore. Again, tivo.bak in this case is an mfstools version 1 backup. Near as I can tell, I restored a backup and expanded it to a full pair of 120GB drives.

If the actual backup data was corrupted (on a CD/R for several years), would mfsrestore be clever enough to notice?

Thanks,

Gary

[HomeUser]

Normally there is an error if the backup file is corrupted. Test the backup restore it to a single drive first, test in the TiVo if the single drive works add the second drive with MFSadd.

[Alaparos]

Normally there is an error if the backup file is corrupted. Test the backup restore it to a single drive first, test in the TiVo if the single drive works add the second drive with MFSadd.

Thanks. That is the next thing I will try.

FWIW here are the mfsinfo details on what I've been trying to get working. hdc is the A drive and hdb is the B drive.

hdc10 512MB
hdc11 11403MB
hdc12 512MB
hdc13 15746MB
hdc14 0MB
hdc15 85780MB

hdb2 0MB
hdb3 114472MB

Total MFS volume 114472MB (???????)
Estimated standalone hours 270
Can expand 2 more times

I'm not sure what I should expect on these numbers with a pair of 120GB drives. The total volume at the bottom seems to be only half of what is configured. But hdb3 itself looks right (about 120GB) and the sum of hdc is also about 120GB, and the total hours would appear to reflect 240GB of space. I'm puzzled.

I tried an mfsinfo on only the A drive. It complained bitterly about the lack of a B drive, etc. So the drives are married.

[Alaparos]

Now I'm really puzzled. I restored to a single drive configuration and the single drive works.

Still can't determine why the dual drive config doesn't.

[mr.unnatural]

Check your IDE cable.

[HomeUser]

The single drive works ok in the TiVo. Both drives still do not work after mfsadd?

There is another program BlessTiVo run it on just the 'B' drive it is supposed to configure the 'B' drive to be auto married to the 'A' drive when both drives are in the TiVo.

[BL]

I went through almost all of the same steps with two 120gb 7200.9 Seagate drives and could not get them both to work at the same time. Independently they both would boot fine, but once they were married and put in the Tivo, they would not work.

There are other posts on this as well.

[HomeUser]

Another common problem is the drive jumper some drives have two master settings master single drive and master with slave.

[Alaparos]

Thanks for all the suggestions. So far I'm just making do with a successful restore to the single 120GB drive, leaving the 2nd drive disconnected.

If anyone figures out a way to use these Seagate 7200.9 drives, PLEASE let me know.

Gary

[bob61]

Thanks for all the suggestions. So far I'm just making do with a successful restore to the single 120GB drive, leaving the 2nd drive disconnected.

If anyone figures out a way to use these Seagate 7200.9 drives, PLEASE let me know.

GaryMight be a problem with the additional power requirements that the 7200.9 drives have vs. the 7200.7. There's been a couple of other posts with people experiencing issues with putting a pair of 7200.9's in a S2 Tivo.

[Alaparos]

Might be a problem with the additional power requirements that the 7200.9 drives have vs. the 7200.7. There's been a couple of other posts with people experiencing issues with putting a pair of 7200.9's in a S2 Tivo.

Thanks. Yes, I read those posts. I tried the trick of staggering the power-up of the drives with the same results. According to the drive specs they draw a relatively large 2.8 amps the instant they are powered on, but at steady state they are under an amp each. The spinup current draw is higher than other drives, but the steady state draw is fine.

I certainly recommend anyone considering new drives to AVOID the Seagate 7200.9 series based on my experience - at least if there is a plan for a dual drive system.

Gary