Dead... again...

2295 Views 36 Replies 6 Participants Last post by kcarlile, Aug 9, 2007

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · Aug 6, 2007

Hey guys, I know I've posted about this before, but I'm hoping for new info. Occasionally (every few months or so), my upgraded S2 (original, 60 GB version), now updated with 2 120 GB drives starts rebooting over and over and over again. The only way I've found to get it back is to power it off for about 24 hours or so, then enter pause 57 and pause 58 until it magically finishes booting. It always gets past the Welcome...starting up screen, but reboots after a little while on the Just a few minutes more screen.

I did replace the power supply with one from weaknees about a year ago, so I'm pretty sure it's not that. It's also behind a UPS, and I know the fan's working. I don't hear any funny noises from the drives.

Any ideas? I'm getting kinda tired of this, but I don't have the cash to drop on a new box, and I also like my lifetime sub a whole lot.

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BTUx9

· #2 · Aug 6, 2007

if you pull the drive, enable console logging, and monitor the serial port, you could at least find out what message is accompanying the reboot loop.

HomeUser

· #3 · Aug 6, 2007

Pull the drives and check them in a PC with the drives manufactures diagnostics (normally free).

You might want to go back to a large single drive using MFSLive It has fixed a couple of problems that were in MFSTools.

When you setup your dual drive was the size of the swap partition increased?
Hows the cooling?

HomeUser

· #4 · Aug 6, 2007

BTUx9 said:
if you pull the drive, enable console logging, and monitor the serial port, you could at least find out what message is accompanying the reboot loop.

Good Idea, how do you do that on a Series 2? The only way I know to look at the log files is using a PC booted with one of the MFSTools boot CD then mount the var partition.

BTUx9

· #5 · Aug 6, 2007

HomeUser said:
Good Idea, how do you do that on a Series 2? The only way I know to look at the log files is using a PC booted with one of the MFSTools boot CD then mount the var partition.

most hacking sites give instructions on changing boot params, and that works even on machines that normally require a prom replacement to hack

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 6, 2007

HomeUser said:
Pull the drives and check them in a PC with the drives manufactures diagnostics (normally free).

You might want to go back to a large single drive using MFSLive It has fixed a couple of problems that were in MFSTools.

When you setup your dual drive was the size of the swap partition increased?
Hows the cooling?

I would love to put the drives back to a single large drive, but when I tried that, and looked on these forums, I found out that because I had already increased the primary size once (from 60 to 120) I was out of luck. I'm not sure if that's all together, or just with keeping the programs. I'd like to do that--there's this Indycar race I'd love to watch.

I did not increase the size of the swap, as far as I remember. Cooling is stock; it does get quite warm in there, but I don't think I've seen internal temps much in excess of 50 deg C.

There's no issue with running manufacturer diagnostics on either A or B drive? They're different brands (Maxtor and Western Digital, I think).

I must say, it's something of a relief to hear that it might be a drive issue.

HomeUser

· #7 · Aug 6, 2007

kcarlile: You can go back to a single drive without keeping recordings if it is only a few recordings that you want to keep use TiVo desktop to save them on a PC then move them back to the TiVo after the drive change.

BTUx9: Thanks for the link checking it out now.

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 6, 2007

Yeah, if I can scare up a large ATA/100 drive, I may just try that, in case it is a software/hard drive problem. Bye bye, recordings! If I can get the thing up, I'll probably start transferring recordings. Unfortunately, I have about 4 seasons of West Wing I haven't watched on there. That's what Netflix is for, innit?

That would probably solve my cooling issues (if that's what's going on). I think I have a few backups of the OS on CD somewhere.

Here's a question: If I have backups of the 120+120, can I put the OS on a 160 GB just for testing, or will that fail because of the smaller/different drive size?

HomeUser

· #9 · Aug 7, 2007

kcarlile said:
Here's a question: If I have backups of the 120+120, can I put the OS on a 160 GB just for testing, or will that fail because of the smaller/different drive size?

Yes, The MFSLive Interactive Command Generator came up with this command for the MFSLive CD
backup -f 9999 -qso - /dev/hda /dev/hdb | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/hdc

The setup I selected
TiVo 'A' is Primary Master
TIVo 'B' is Primary Slave
New 160G is Secondary Master

kcarlile said:
Unfortunately, I have about 4 seasons of West Wing I haven't watched on there. That's what Netflix is for, innit?

You could use Amazon Unbox to download West Wing but at $1.99 per episode

I did the same with 24 recorded all 6 seasons currently I have only the last 2 seasons to watch before I can go back to a single drive with weakened marathons I just might get it done before the new season starts only 48 hrs togo

BTUx9

· #10 · Aug 7, 2007

IF you can hack your tivo, you could pull the shows you want to save that way (but that's extraction, so I can't discuss details here)

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #11 · Aug 7, 2007

Yeah, I got the thing up (kinda) by using the pause-58, but it was really jerky, and didn't want to play at all. When I rebooted it, it was back to the same old story. I'm going to try checking the hard drives today at work (PC at home isn't exactly stable...)

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 7, 2007

OK, definitely a bad hard drive. It's an older Maxtor, so I'm not sure I can find the same one again. Can I replace it with a different brand? (especially since the Western Digital was older than that...)

Actually, it looks like it died a heat death. It's the farthest from the fan. Can I replace it with a laptop drive?

Finnstang

· #13 · Aug 7, 2007

Yes, you can replace it with a different brand.

No idea about using a laptop HDD.

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #14 · Aug 7, 2007

Finnstang said:
Yes, you can replace it with a different brand.

No idea about using a laptop HDD.

The trick will be getting one with exactly the right size. The Maxtor that's bad is actually 122 GB, which will make finding a replacement difficult.

HomeUser

· #15 · Aug 7, 2007

kcarlile said:
OK, definitely a bad hard drive. It's an older Maxtor, so I'm not sure I can find the same one again. Can I replace it with a different brand? (especially since the Western Digital was older than that...)

Actually, it looks like it died a heat death. It's the farthest from the fan. Can I replace it with a laptop drive?

Yes you can use a Laptop drive with an Laptop to IDE adapter.

You can use almost any IDE drive as long as the drive is the same size or larger any extra space will just not be used.

Use dd_rescue to binary copy the failing drive.

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #16 · Aug 7, 2007

I'd love to use a 120 GB laptop drive, but I have the feeling the copy will show up as too small, thanks to Maxtor's non-standard size (despite saying 120 GB on the drive itself.) I'm guessing I'll have to use a 160 GB 3.5" drive. Any tips on cooling? This drive is on the left side of the TiVo (from the front), so it's a long way from the fan, but right over the vents. Since this is a TCD140060, there's only an internal fan.

HomeUser

· #17 · Aug 7, 2007

No idea, is there any room for a drive cooler above or below the bracket? You will want to replace the fan if it does not turn freely.

BTUx9

· #18 · Aug 7, 2007

re: cooling - get rid of the 2 drives and replace with a single, larger one.

If you want a REAL challenge, you could probably copy the drives a partition at a time, then use info on the other forum to coalesce the last 2 or 3 MFS partition sets (I haven't done this, so can't say more than that it is theoretically possible)

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #19 · Aug 7, 2007

BTUx9 said:
re: cooling - get rid of the 2 drives and replace with a single, larger one.

If you want a REAL challenge, you could probably copy the drives a partition at a time, then use info on the other forum to coalesce the last 2 or 3 MFS partition sets (I haven't done this, so can't say more than that it is theoretically possible)

I don't know that I really want that kind of a challenge... I just got a 160 GB drive. I know that switching to a bigger drive would work, but I want to keep my recordings on the TiVo.

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · #20 · Aug 7, 2007

going to give it a shot with dd_rhelp. I've done it before, but this time I'll document it to share around here. Requires a USB drive and Knoppix CD. Hopefully nothing else, since I don't remember what I did...

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