Won't Boot, Options?

[bmgoodman]

Short version:

Four year old S2 (140 line) with a Maxtor hard drive quits booting last July. I was able to use "maketivobootable" and get it working again. I promptly cloned and replaced the hard drive (mfstools as I recall). Tivo quits again in November. Replaced power supply. It works fine until Saturday when it again won't boot. (Welcome, powering up).

I have tried kickstart 52, 57, 58 without success. Option 52 did give me the message about installing a new service update, but still would not boot. I put the drive into PC and I'm able to see that partition info, which I *think* looks OK. I did try maketivobootable again, but this time without success.

I am now wondering about my options. Could I "dd" all the non-video partitions from the old Maxtor hard drive? Would that preserve the existing recordings? Or am I better off going back to the original Tivo drive and doing a fresh upgrade? I'd really like to preserve recodings, unless that means I'm running a greater risk of future problems. My mother is a bit of a technophobe, but she has loved her Tivo. Now that it has had 4 problems in 4 years, she's wondering if she wants to keep trying to use it (it has lifetime service!). I would really like to get this Tivo to run for at least a year without another issue!

Thanks!

[bmgoodman]

OK, my mother really wants to save her shows if possible. I mean really wants to save them.

I want to go back to the original 60 GB drive and use mfslive to do a new upgrade to the 160 GB Seagate (the drive that currently won't boot, but must be an MFS issue because MaxBlast verified it OK).

Is it possible to somehow save the shows from the current 160 GB Seagate onto a 3rd HD, do the upgrade from the original 60 GB drive, and then copy the programs back onto the 160 GB Seagate?

I am NOT really talking about "extraction" because I don't want to remove the copy protection. I don't want to play them in another Tivo or on a PC. I was hoping to somehow do a "cp" or something to copy them to a 3rd drive and then "cp" them back into the data area once the drive is upgraded. The shows will end up on the same HD in the same Tivo when I am done. Or at least that would be my goal.

Can someone help me do this, please?

Thanks.

[bmgoodman]

Thank you SO much for your offer to help. I have read what you want me to do, but I am a bit confused, so I need to clarify a few points:

* I have the original 60 GB Tivo HD that was replaced in 2003. It probably has version 4 of the Tivo software.
* I have a 200 GB Maxtor where the partition table somehow got screwed up in July 2006. I think it had version 6 or 7 of the Tivo software. I got this drive operational again by using MakeTivoBootable. I can unfortunately no longer remember how I went from the 200 GB Maxtor to the new Seagate 160 GB. I don't believe I went back to the 60 GB HD, because the 160 GB HD is still recognized as 137 GB, which I don't think would have happened had I simply used MFSTools to go from the 60 GB to the 160 GB. Perhaps I used 'dd' to copy the non-content partitions, but I do not recall.

So, I now have a 160 GB Seagate (seen as 137 GB) that won't boot. MakeTivoBootable did not work. I also tried to dd partitions 2-7 and 9 from the 200 GB Maxtor, but it only got to "Almost there". (I used your MFSLive CD and I tried booting both options 1 and 2. Doing the dd under option 2 puts me into a rapid boot loop.

Do you want me to use your CD to copy from the Seagate 160 GB (no longer boots, but has the TV shows) to the old Maxtor 200 GB? When I am done, I want to still be using the Seagate 160 GB in the Tivo. I checked it out thoroughly with MaxBlast and it shows no errors. It is only 6 months old. I think the Tivo software might have developed an issue late last year when the power supply began to fail.

Anyway, I'm willing to do whatever you think is best, but I didn't want to end up with the 3 year old Maxtor back in the Tivo, which I think is where I might be unless I can do this as a multi-step process.

The Tivo is a Tivo-branded Series 2 TCD140060. At the time of the crash, I think it was running version 8.1, but I am not certain.

Thanks again for your time and advice!