[HomeUser]

Just a thought, From what you describe if the drive is spinning up and down you might of discovered a pending power supply failure the original drive may work ok because it is drawing less power.

Just to cover all bases what is the command syntax that you used to copy/expand the drive.

 

[HomeUser]

If the drive and the fan are cycling up and down it has to be a Power Supply problem. The power specs on the drive look fine and should work in the TiVo that is why I think the power supply is about to fail or possibly the drive could be out of tolerance. You are not even getting the first screen you get that even if the drive is missing.
Check the Power supply for bulging or leaking caps (the tall cylinders).

Oh and for the -r 4 that option is only needed for drives larger then 200G

 

[HomeUser]

The caps sometimes show signs of failure they may leak a white or gray powder or the tops may bulge most of the electronic caps have a grove cut in the top allowing for some expansion any way if you are not familiar with the Power Supply you probably don't want to get too involved there can be in excess of 600V charge on some of the caps even when the AC cord is unplugged.

Check the drive for heat usually the excessive power gets converted into heat.
I don't know of any easy way to verify the PS other then try a different drive.

You can get a replacement Power Supply form WeakNees

 

[HomeUser]

You could support the sponsors of this forum they even have preloaded drives you can drop in. I will recommend WeakNees http://www.weaknees.com/upgrades.php Or check the sunday ads, BestBuy, Campus, CircuitCity There seems to always be one on sale 250G or 300G seems to be the price break point ($/Gig) ... There are many online stores NewEGG.com TigerDirect.com Do you know about http://www.pricewatch.com/ ?

The most basic EIDE (PATA) Drive will do buffer size is not a concern.