Dual dirve S1Phillips, 2nd drive dead, suggestions on how to proceed

[RockDog]

Not a newbie per see, just had to get a new login since the old one was through the AVS forum, plus I couldn't remember the dang thing :confused:

I've searched his forum up and down. I had been a member (actually through the AVSforum) back in the day, for a long time. I originally upgraded the machine from (1) 30 gig, to a 30 gig and a 60 Gig. I kept the original 30 Gig, and still have it. The 60 gig (drive B) is clacking, and is dead, so I need to get this thing back to running order. I've downloaded and read all the MFSTools and related material. I've tried several time to do a floppy copy from Drive A and Drive B, but it fails each time.

So I would greatly appreciate any suggestion you fine folks have. Just looking for a point or nod in the right direction, either here or elsewhere.

Thanks,
The Dog of Rock

[funtoupgrade]

Is saving the recordings important? If not just use original drive and restore to new drive(s). Consider using one larger drive instead for more reliability, less heat, and easier install. Big new hard drives are cheap.

[supasta]

Is saving the recordings important? If not just use original drive and restore to new drive(s). Consider using one larger drive instead for more reliability, less heat, and easier install. Big new hard drives are cheap.
Or better yet, a single large drive and a copy of InstantCake and you are all set.

[mjs111]

If you don't need the recordings Instant Cake works extremely well. I was in the same boat last week and purchased 2 - 250gb hard drives and after hooking up the drives to a spare machine in a matter of minutes was able to convert the 2 new drives to 640 hours basic quality.

[RockDog]

WOW! 640 hours... There was only one recording that I needed to save, one of my kids in a local news piece about helping out in the community. He's going to be a bit bummed that it's gone, but maybe the TV station will have a copy of the report I can get.

Anyway, I think it just might be easier to unpack the original 30Gig Drive A, put it in the box, and force an update or 2 to make sure the firmware/software are up to date, and then copy it, and marry a Drive B to the copy.

MFSTOOLS, or Instant Cake I assume are worth reading up on. I did these original drives in '02 or something like that, I have to refresh my memory a bit on what's out there. As well as read up on the process' here.

Any other suggestions given the new road it looks like I'll take?

[supasta]

You can always output that recording to a VCR or DVD recorder ;)

If you still have the original drive you can just use the WeaKnees instructions. That would be much easier and save you the unnecessary $20 that InstantCake would be in your case. (WeaKnees instructions is basically MFSTOOLS)

www.upgrade-instructions.com

[MaxG]

I'm in basically the same boat, but I have a lot of recordings that I would like to save. How would I proceed to save the recordings.

My Tivo2 has two 160GB drives. Drive A (the primary) is OK, but drive B is dead.

I have a second Tivo that I could grab an image from.

Is there any way to save the recordings on Drive A?

Is there a way to replace drive B and make it work with Drive A?