Can a Tivo die and come back to life?

[dumbusername]

OK all you Tivo Guru's I have learned so much from.....this one is for you. :)

In January my Tivo Series 2 (lifetime) died. It would turn off and reboot every 10 minutes and then it was frozen in the "Just a few minutes longer" screen forever. Of course I came to the forums and read up on everything and pretty much concluded the Tivo needed a new HD.

I unplugged it and about once a month would plug it back it just to see what I'd get. Mostly it was blue screen and every once in a while it would make it to the "just a few more minutes" screen and then keep rebooting.

Since the price of the replacement drives from the third party suppliers are way too expensive (teachers are poor) I finally decided to be brave and take the instant cake route. (Trust me when I tell you I'm a nervous wreck about even opening the Tivo!) So tonight I plugged in the Tivo just to see what would happened....and you guessed it..........it has risen from the dead!!! It's been working fine all night.

My instinct tells me it's going to die again! And, since it took me almost a year to convince myself I could do the HD replacement myself and get some MAJOR record time while I'm at it - I want to continue with my plan for an upgrade. (recommendations for new HD appreciated)

What are the odds of my original HD making a permanent comeback? The reason I ask is that I have another Series 2 (Lifetime) with only 40 hours, can I use my 80 hour HD in that one? Will I need to buy another image?

As you can see, I'm not that comfortable or confident with the whole process. handholding appreciated!:o

[gastrof]

I wonder if it finally reached the end of the "just a few more minutes"?

[ggieseke]

TiVo updated the Series 2 software recently. They actually keep two operating system partitions and when a new version is released it goes on the one not in use, preserving the old one. That process might explain its resurrection.

I have swapped drives between identical models, and I think that it would work in most cases as long as the series and mfgr are the same - but no promises. I have had more Maxtor drives failures over the years than every other brand put together, so you might want to avoid them.

If the original problem really was caused by a failing hard disk it's only going to come back eventually. Drives are so cheap now that I wouldn't wouldn't risk the possiblility for an 80GB drive, but that's just me.

[txporter]

TiVo updated the Series 2 software recently. They actually keep two operating system partitions and when a new version is released it goes on the one not in use, preserving the old one. That process might explain its resurrection.

I doubt that his tivo was able to call in. It wasn't booting up before and it now is. Did you open the case and THEN plug it in and it was "resurrected"? Did you blow out the dust or reseat the connections? The drive might be failing instead of failed, I suppose.

If it is working now, you might want to get a SATA/IDE to USB adapter (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002) along with a copy of WinMFS (http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/) and get a truncated backup of the drive. Then you can buy a new drive (for Series 2, I have had good luck with Seagate DB35 (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/consumer_electronics/db35_series/) drives) and restore the image from your old drive to the new one. You can use a larger drive than the original.

Things to keep in mind, to use WinMFS make sure you are using Windows XP SP2 or later or Vista. Earlier versions of the OS would automount tivo drives and wipe out the bootpage. If you purchase a new drive to upgrade, make sure you get an IDE drive not an SATA drive. Series2 used the older interface.