Think my S1 is kaput Ack!!!

[ck42]

Let me start by saying that I love my little S1. It has served me faithfully for MANY MANY years now. I've wondered when it would finally fail me.

I come home today and find it in a continuously rebooting cycle. It gets to the point that it's about 50-60% getting data...and then the screen goes crazy for a split second, and then it shows that it's powering up.

Failing power supply? I've even removed the cover and let it cool off for a while to see if that would help.

There shouldn't have been any software updates for this old thing that would cause this, right?

If it is dead, I'd still like to get it fixed because there's some recorded shows on there that I can't replace and REALLY want to keep.
So would I be better off trying to diagnose this or just find a used S1 and drop my hard drive into it?

If I decide to go with a new receiver (I've been holding off on going to HD because I just CAN'T give up the DLB!!!) should I just go with the newest HD DVR D* has right now?

[litzdog911]

Most likely a dead hard drive. You can replace/upgrade the drive yourself ....

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.mfslive.org/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

http://www.9thtee.com/

[ck42]

Hmm...I've actually done a hard drive upgrade about a year ago. I still have the original (was still working at the time). I guess I could just swap back in the original drive and see.

[rock_doctor]

Yea my vote would be the drive. I would also take the time to replace or at least clean the fan. The series 1 units are so much more stable then the series 2 units. You really want to hold onto it if you can. My three series 2 units are driving me crazy but my series 1 unit is still trucking along.

[ck42]

Well...I've got the original drive back in and it's running :(
How likely am I to be able to retrieve ANY of the recorded programs on the drive that is not booting?

I may try to mount the drive and see if anything is even viewable...just to verify that it's spinning up and readable. If I can't even do that, it's a actual failed drive and I know I'm screwed at that point.

[unclemoosh]

Well...I've got the original drive back in and it's running :(
How likely am I to be able to retrieve ANY of the recorded programs on the drive that is not booting?

I may try to mount the drive and see if anything is even viewable...just to verify that it's spinning up and readable. If I can't even do that, it's a actual failed drive and I know I'm screwed at that point.

You could try a dd copy and pray.

[ck42]

Are the recorded programs stored as just a bunch of flat files somewhere in a directory? Could it be just a matter of copying these video files (whatever format they're in) into the matching directory on the other drive?

Otherwise, I may just try ghosting the drive. But, if it turns out to be a corruption issue, ghosting obviously won't get me anywhere.

[Da Goon]

Are the recorded programs stored as just a bunch of flat files somewhere in a directory? Could it be just a matter of copying these video files (whatever format they're in) into the matching directory on the other drive?
Not at all. They're stored in a database in a proprietary format. It can be accessed with certain tools, but unless you've hacked the software in the past, the shows are encrypted and therefor somewhat useless at this point.

Otherwise, I may just try ghosting the drive. But, if it turns out to be a corruption issue, ghosting obviously won't get me anywhere.

Don't bother with ghost, it won't get you anywhere. The tivo uses a non-standard partition layout that ghost won't understand, and besides if the drive is failing, then it's unlikely to have any helpful affect anyways. Your best bet if you want to save the shows is to use dd_rescue to copy the whole drive contents to another.

See here (http://mfslive.org/softwareguidep6.htm#ddrescue).

[ck42]

Thanks for answers, Da Goon.
I'll take a look at the dd_rescue tool too. Looks promising.