[Pikachuusb]

Hi Im hoping someone can help me out, Im COMPLETELY clueless so I will ask a couple questions and if they seem obvious please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject.

We have had a Tivo Premiere XL4 unplugged and unworking for awhile, we replaced it with other Tivo's but I really want to see if it can be repaired etc. I cant remember if it was Tivo or our cable company doing updates, however once it happened, the Tivo started this loop of doing the Starting Up page and would reboot again

We have a Western Digital Tivo expander still plugged into it, I think we read somewhere that if you unplug it, you will lose the shows on it. So until we figured out what to do, we just left it plugged in.

We previously contacted Tivo support & they gave us some instructions to try, however they were fruitless.

1) Im wondering if there is a way for me to fix the Tivo at home
2) Is there a way to save the shows that are/were currently on the Tivo? Its not a big deal, but it would be nice to salvage them
3) could it be the WD Expander causing the issue?
4) If we unplug the Western Digital Expander, will we lose ALL the shows on the Tivo or just some of the shows(hopefully none)?
5) If it doesnt seem like something I can fix on my own, is there a place I can take/send it to to see if they can fix it?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to look at this question. Take care and have a great day

 

[ThAbtO]

Either both of the drives (expander, and the internal) or either failed. Drives can fail from being unused for many years, perhaps lubrication solidified. The shows on there are gone if it will not boot up. Removing the expander will delete shows that was recorded since this drive was connected. It is because Tivo saves shows on both drives, partly on one and partly on the other randomly.

You can disconnect the expander (unplug both first) and see if the Tivo will boot up. If it does, the image is still viable, otherwise you will need a working image from a like model. It would be better to use a single drive (internally) than to risk loss with a combo of 2 drives. Expander drives are no longer made and they only came in 500GB and 1TB storage sizes.

Premiere can handle up to 8TB, but it needs to be connected to the computer, (See DVRBars, MFSTools 3.x threads) A 8TB can yield 1200 HD hrs of storage.

 

[Pikachuusb]

Thank you for responding, I greatly appreciate it
The drive will probably fail now, since we left it for awhile after it started having the issue. Up until that point, we were using it every day.
Shame about the shows, but it makes sense.
Im not sure what a working image is or how I use one, so I will have to look into that.
Once again, thank you for the response have a great day

 

[ThAbtO]

An image is what we call a backup file for the Tivo system. If it is not a working image, say from a failing Tivo, It will not boot up.

 

[JoeKustra]

Im not sure what a working image is or how I use one, so I will have to look into that.
Once again, thank you for the response have a great day

If you feel you would rather have the work done for you, there is an alternative. You'll have to decide if the time is more than the money.

TiVo Repair Service for High Definition TiVos

But nothing will save your recordings. If you wish to pursue this path, let me know.