HD Problems in Dual-HD setup

[rhitee05]

I upgraded my Series 2 a while back by adding a 160 GB drive in addition to the 40 GB stock drive. NowI'm getting random reboots and I'm guessing it's a HD failure. I'm not sure yet which drive is failing (my next step), but I'm wondering what my options are for recovery.

I'm guessing if the primary drive (the original) fails, I'm pretty much screwed even if the secondary is okay. What do I need to do to get it back up and running with only the surviving 160 GB drive? Will any of my data survive?

What about the case if the secondary drive fails? Will the TiVo keep working if I simply remove it and keep going with the primary? I would obviously lose some shows, but do I need to do anything to the primary to recover?

Many thanks in advance. I'm probably going to open it up tonight and see which drive is going south on me.

Eric

[rhitee05]

After a little troubleshooting, I have more info on the problem. Turns out my 'B' drive was having issues. I ran manufacturer's diagnostics, found corrupt sectors, and repaired them.

Now, when I put the drive back into the TiVo, on bootup I get the "Welcome..." screen for a few seconds, and then it goes to solid grey and does nothing. Is that a normal symptom, or is something else going on?

What are my options for recovery? I'm wondering if I should try to divorce the 'B' drive, but I don't want to erase my recordings if there's a better option. Can I save the data if I replace both drives with a single larger drive?

[HomeUser]

No, you can not simply remove the 'B' drive the drives now have to work in tandem. In order to remove the 'B' drive you will loose recordings. Good news because your 'A' drive is un-expanded MFSLive (beta) had/has the option to combine both drives to a single larger drive and keep recordings.

If I understand correctly you get the "Welcome Powering Up screen" then the blank Gray screen. Does the TiVo re-cycle back to the Power Up or is it locked on the Gray Screen with all the lights off?

Check the drive's jumper(s), cable and power connections.

If you happened to boot Windows with one of the TiVo drives in the PC look for "MAKETIVOBOOTABLE"

Use DD_RESCUE to copy the failing 'B' drive to an new drive of the same or larger size. Most modern drives automatically hide bad sectors by swapping them out with a block of spare sectors so once a drive has visible bad sectors all the spare sectors have been used up.