Is it always the disk failing?

[Tim N.]

My TivoHD is acting up. Channels freeze, but, a tuning change and return usually gets the program back. Some of the recordings are shortened from their 2 hour length. Last night when a channel (ABC-HD) appeared as blank (black screen) and I hit REWIND, the resulting video playback was from another channel earlier in the evening.

How does someone diagnose what is failing? Is it always the disk? I have a My DVR Expander. How does one know which disk is failing? Do I have to replace both?

[rbtravis]

get hard disk sentenal (windows version) from http://www.hdsentinel.com/index.php and use it to check the SMART status. that will tell you if the disk is failing. :)

[Tim N.]

I ran the TIVO SMART test suite; and both drives passed the multi-hour long tests. Is that usually a good reason to believe the drives are good? Is that the same test you are talking about?

[rbtravis]

Sounds like the drives are OK

[Tim N.]

I think I have solved this. I had TWC initialize and hit each of the cablecards and the symptoms seem to have gone away.
So, TIVO is good and TWC is flakey... I should have started my analysis with this premise and I would have solved it much earlier.