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Need help saving recordings from dying drive.

Discussion in 'TiVo Underground' started by fredload, Aug 1, 2007.

  1. Aug 1, 2007 #1 of 7
    fredload

    fredload New Member

    29
    0
    Nov 2, 2003
    Arizona
    Ok, here is the situation. I have a Hughes HDVR2 running 6.2 with HMO. It recently froze, like it has done a few times over the years. I unplugged the unit, like I always do to reboot. But this time it hangs at the powering up screen and never progresses to the DirecTv blue screen that says almost there. I opened the unit, and the hard drive (Maxtor DiamondMax 300GB) was making some strange noises. And, no I don't have a copy of the image, stupid me! So, I ran SpinRite on the drive, and it can see the drive and the program ran with no major issues showing up. So, I put the drive back in the Tivo, and it hangs at powering up still. So, I decided to run MaxBlaster to check the drive for failure. But when I plug the drive in and try and boot from the CD my computer just sits there, it will not boot from CD. I checked all my settings and it will boot from the CD when the drive is unplugged. GO FIGURE!!!! It does boot to SpinRite on a floppy but not with MaxBlaster on CD. I have allot of programs I really would like to save from this drive. I have searched the forums and can't seem to find a similar problem. Assuming the drive is still good, what is the best way to try and recover the recordings? Since I can't seem to boot with the drive attached, can I hook it up via USB to a windows machine? Any help would truly be appreciated. Thanks.
     
  2. Aug 1, 2007 #2 of 7
    fredload

    fredload New Member

    29
    0
    Nov 2, 2003
    Arizona
    Ok, new info. I don't think it is the hard drive now. I created a new drive and it was also hanging at the powering up screen. I think something on the board or god knows what has gone bad in the unit itself. If this is the case, is it possible to use the hard drive from the broken unit in another receiver? I have a spare HDVR2. Any help is appreciated.
     
  3. Aug 1, 2007 #3 of 7
    BTUx9

    BTUx9 back?

    1,596
    0
    Nov 13, 2003
    Rockport, MA
    unless the unit was previously hacked, the recordings on the drive are encrypted, so, barring some creative soldering, they aren't xferrable to another unit

    what did spinrite say about the drive?
     
  4. Aug 1, 2007 #4 of 7
    fredload

    fredload New Member

    29
    0
    Nov 2, 2003
    Arizona
    Spinrite said the drive was fine. Thats why I was so confused. But after I imaged a different hard drive and tried it in the unit and got the same result, thats when I realized it wasn't the drive after all. There is a clicking noise that I thought was coming from the drive, it is actually coming from around the power supply. I put the new drive I made into a spare unit I have and it worked fine. My original drive was hacked, but how would I know if my recordings are encrypted or not??? Thanks for the help.
     
  5. Aug 1, 2007 #5 of 7
    BTUx9

    BTUx9 back?

    1,596
    0
    Nov 13, 2003
    Rockport, MA
    re: encryption, depends on how and when it was hacked... if nocso or superpatch was applied, then any recordings made since it was hacked should NOT be encrypted.

    You may want to put the old drive in your spare unit (don't try to view recordings, yet), then telnet into the unit and run ciphercheck.tcl... that'll tell you the status of the recordings.

    If the recordings are marked as NOT encrypted, then you should be able to run 51killer.tcl, and then just use your spare unit to access your recordings (including pulling them off, which can't be discussed here because of the rules against extraction talk)
     
  6. Aug 2, 2007 #6 of 7
    fredload

    fredload New Member

    29
    0
    Nov 2, 2003
    Arizona
    BTUx9, thanks so much for the info. I am in the process of trying that now. I will update when done. Thanks
     
  7. Aug 2, 2007 #7 of 7
    fredload

    fredload New Member

    29
    0
    Nov 2, 2003
    Arizona
    Well just thought I would share the success!! I moved the drive into the spare unit and ran 51killer.tcl. And after getting some great advice on my settings via telnet I was able to get all of my recordings back. Now I just need to call DirecTv to switch receivers and access cards. Thanks for all of the help. It was a true learning experience. My next job is to back up my drive before this happens again.
     

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