S3 w/ 1 TB in reboot loop

[bmgoodman]

Almost short version: Tivo S3 had been running great since replacing the stock drive with a 1 TB WD10EVCS in June. On Wednesday night, I found the To Do list was essentially empty and suggestions had stopped recording on 11/10. There were no other indicators of problems. I moved a SP and the To Do list began to repopulate instantly. On Thursday morning, I saw that suggestions still were not recording, so I rebooted. And hit a boot loop.

I've run all the Tivo diagnostics and tried the various Kickstarts in the order recommended by RichSAdams (thanks, Rich). Actually, I've tried each several times. Everything shows OK, but I've read of others in the same boat and it's almost always the hard drive.

I've pulled the drive and I'm running WD diagnostics under XP, extended test. I suppose I could put the original drive back in, but that one previously tested as problematic.

I went ahead and asked WD to ship me an advance replacement drive, cause I really need to have this thing working before the family comes for Thanksgiving (and football)!

So I am now wondering about the easiest way to transfer the current 1 TB drive to the replacement drive, which I assume will be the same model. When I originally upgraded in June, MFSLive CD worked great for me, after I had some issues getting the WinMFS to work. I don't recall those issues now, though.

Anyway, I'm looking for some constructive advice. Thanks!

[richsadams]

Bummer! It does sound like the hard drive is failing...first WD10EVCS that's gone south that I know of. :(

You should be able to use the MFSCopy command in winMFS (http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/) to make a full copy of your current drive (programs and all) providing the boot partitions aren't corrupted...and even then it might work. I haven't used dd or the MFSLive program in years so I'm afraid I can't be much help there.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes. :up:

[bmgoodman]

So I put the original drive back in--the one that had failed diagnostics--and the Tivo has booted up and is currently connecting to Tivo and downloading data. It sure seems like the 1 TB drive has the problem despite the fact that it has twice passed the WD extended diagnostics. I'm still awaiting the refurb from WD and I'll post back here for anyone that this might benefit.

Thanks again, Rich.

[richsadams]

Sounds good. At least (hopefully) you'll have a working TiVo to get you by until the replacement drive arrives. A world without TiVo?! :eek:

[Stylin]

pls keep us posted, as am about to buy the same drive for my S3...

[bmgoodman]

So I used WinMFS to copy the original 1 TB (WD10EVCS) drive to the replacement 1 TB drive. The drive specs are identical. I've now put the new drive in and I'm back to the boot loop. :( I was not seeing this constant rebooting with the original drive, which I know is failing because it failed the WD diagnostics.

I've run the extended read tests on both 1 TB drives and both passed.

Now I am not sure what to do next.

[richsadams]

So I used WinMFS to copy the original 1 TB (WD10EVCS) drive to the replacement 1 TB drive. The drive specs are identical. I've now put the new drive in and I'm back to the boot loop. Bummer (still!). It sounds like the boot partition is corrupted, quite possibly it was corrupted on your other drive and copied to the new one. No real harm done IMO.

You might try Kickstart 52. My guess is that it probably won't work, but it's worth a try.

Kickstart 52 – Reinstalling TiVo Software:

1. Go to TiVo Central
2. Select Messages & Setup
3. Select System Reset
4. Select Restart Receiver
5. Press Thumbs Down three times
6. Press Enter
7. While the system is restarting, during the initial screen, press and hold the PAUSE button until only the yellow light(s) (http://i29.tinypic.com/v8j19j.jpg) illuminates.
8. Release the pause button and immediately type in the numbers 5 and 2 on the remote (you have about 10 seconds to do this step).
9. After a time (generally a few minutes) TiVo will automatically reboot.

If that doesn't work you'll probably just need to get a clean image for your new drive and start anew. You could use your OEM drive again with winMFS or Instant Cake (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm) will do the trick. Unfortunately with IC you'll probably need to get your cable cards re-initialized, run Guided Setup again, etc.

That's my take on it...others might have more suggestions.

Good luck and let us know how you resolved it when you have time.

[txporter]

What about trying the fix boot option in winMFS? I want to say that I have had to use them before when I upgraded one of my TivoHDs to 1TB...but then again my memory is not always the best...

Jason

[richsadams]

What about trying the fix boot option in winMFS? I want to say that I have had to use them before when I upgraded one of my TivoHDs to 1TB...but then again my memory is not always the best...

JasonI completely forgot about that...never used it myself, but an excellent suggestion. :up:

[bmgoodman]

FixBoot didn't help. The drive boots all the way up to Tivo Central each time, and in seconds reboots. I think I'm going to try copying the original drive to the new 1 TB drive with WinMFS using MFSCopy. Do I need a custom linux swap size?

Could my original upgrade have an issue because the swap size was too small and now the drive is nearly full? Yes, I am grasping at straws!

[greg_burns]

I too have been using the WD10EVCS since June internally in my S3. Used WinMFS and didn't have to mess with custom swap file sizes. My Tivo is always full. Not problems yet, knock on wood.

It is possible your first WD10EVCS isn't defective at all, but just got corrupted data somehow. A fresh image, or copying from your original 250GB, should solve your problems I would tend to think.

[bmgoodman]

Thanks, Greg. Now if someone could tell me how to save the shows from the old 1 TB directly onto the new 1 TB after I restore the old 250 GB image? (I posted this in the Underground already.) I want to be clear that I'm not talking about decryption/extraction. I just want to move the existing files over to the new 1 TB drive and somehow tell Tivo they are there. Any thoughts?

[greg_burns]

Never heard of anyone doing that before. I think they are a goner if it won't stay up long enough to off load using Tivo2Go.

[madneon]

FixBoot didn't help. The drive boots all the way up to Tivo Central each time, and in seconds reboots. I think I'm going to try copying the original drive to the new 1 TB drive with WinMFS using MFSCopy. Do I need a custom linux swap size?

Could my original upgrade have an issue because the swap size was too small and now the drive is nearly full? Yes, I am grasping at straws!

I dont think you need to even mess with the swap file I think its default size is 128 right ( atleast I didnt change it) anyways, copy the OEM drive to the one TB drive to get the tivo software on there then ( you might loose all of your saved shows ) but you would keep your season passes if I am not mistaken....not sure if you either got a bum drive or a bum install of the tivo OS.....either way if you take your working tivo OS from the 250 and slap it on to your new one TB you might be good to go...( at the risk of loosing your save shows) cause I think when your backup and restore the tivo bkup. it totally rewrites the new drive with what ever was backedup.....ok I am rambling.....

[bmgoodman]

Restoring the original 250 GB drive's image onto the replacement 1 TB drive seems to have fixed the rebooting issue. Of course, at the cost of all the shows I had recorded previously. Entire season of Heroes and Numb3rs, plus a number of movies, etc. I'm guessing something went awry in the OS itself, but you would think that switching the active OS partition would have gotten around that. I am still wondering if I can boot MFSTools and look at some logs to see what might be causing the error. Perhaps I could figure out if there is a corrupt file that I could copy over from the original drive?

Yes, this is a bit of a pain to try to save existing shows, but I'm also concerned that this could happen again. The "comfort" factor of a huge hard drive isn't quite there if I have to worry about the OS getting corrupted. I've dealt with lots of failing hard drives in Tivos over the years, but this is the first time that a SW issue has sunk me.

[richsadams]

Restoring the original 250 GB drive's image onto the replacement 1 TB drive seems to have fixed the rebooting issue. That's too bad about the lost recordings...very frustrating. At least things are up and running again. FWIW lots of other folks here (including yours truly) have had 1TB drives in their Series3s' for over a year now without any trouble. Luck of the (OS) draw I suppose.

Curious...what software version does your TiVo show at the moment? Did your OEM drive update before you restored the image to the new drive? v9.4 has been out for months, but there are a number of posts on the forum by people that have started receiving v9.4b (although we haven't seen it on our TiVo's). I'm just wondering if yours received the the update and that's when things went south...which is not unheard of. TIA.