Changing disks between TiVos

[David Stott]

Anybody out there changed a disk from one TiVo to another? Because one of my two existing TiVos appears to be having a power problem (and I live in the sticks so will take a while to get it somewhere they can look at it), I decided I should be able to simply swap the disk into a spare TiVo I have and simply boot it up. I did that and the TiVo started the boot process and got to the point where it asks you wait for a few minutes, but then it came up with the suggestion that I press TiVo or Live TV to continue. Doing that didn't seem to work and after a short while it simply went to a blue screen instead (signalling no video input). Several reboots (including both pulling the power cord and initiating via network) had the same result. The only anomaly is that the green power light doesn't come on at all but I was assuming that was just a blown bulb as there clearly is power getting to it in order to start the reboot and I can still hear the disk whirring away.

I can't think of what else to try since surely all the start-up software is in the hard disk isn't it?

Any comments/suggestions would be welcomed, especially anyone else who has done this without problems. That might suggest I have a hardware problem with the spare TiVo as well. Bugger, I really don't want to give in and go Sky with its horrendous fees and crappy FFWD. NB Being in the whoops means I don't have speedy broadband either so going to the web isn't an option.

Thanks in advance

David

[Islander]

I have swapped drives between S1 TiVos many times with no problems. As long as they are both UK or US and have the same ethernet device and tuner config they will work seamlessly.
If you put a UK drive into a US or vice versa they will playback existing recordings but may not record as the input devices are different.
You can try swapping the IR receiver board between TiVos to prove a fault. If you remove the Turbonet / Wireless card the TiVo should run without these equipped. You can also try swapping the power supplies to remove this from the equation. If TiVoweb runs have you tried looking in the log files for any hints Look in the Kernel.log and compare between good and faulty TiVos.
If you contact Darren King via PM or email he will be able to provide more suggestions to fault find your device.

[David Stott]

Many thanks for those great suggestions, Islander.

David