Time for new drive/reinstall?

[Hoaryzontal]

Hi guys. My Tivo won't boot beyond the "Waiting" load screen. Looks like it's time for a new drive or a re-image?
Any suggestions that might fix it without the latter?
Anyone know the current price/size sweet spot or have specific suggestions for a 750GB replacement?
Apologies if this is the wrong thread (coudln't see where better to put it). Cheers. Rob.

[petestrash]

This is the right place for your post.

How old is your current drive? some have 3 and 5 year warranties.

Large IDE drives are getting rarer (and pricier), especially in the 750Gb size.

I don't know of any reputable online dealers that have stock of any 750's (though there are some overseas ones on eBay).

There are quite a few 500Gb ones around though.

Beware the Western Digital Caviar Blue Drives do not work in S1 TiVo's.

I have not bought any replacement S1 drives for a while now, so unsure what else may be incompatible in the current range. Assuming you are installing only a single drive; Seagate, Hitachi (Cinemastar), and Samsung have been good in the past.

Peter.

[Hoaryzontal]

Thanks for your reply, Peter.
The 500GB WD Cavier Blue model listed as now being incompatible is actually the same one I had in there. It is black in colour, however (don't know if that makes a difference).
I've reformatted and reimaged it while waiting for its replacment to arrive (today, hopefully). Now I'm stuck in guided set-up at daily call page.
I'm thinking perhaps I need to more closely examine the networking options during the image (and that's what's said in the guide).
Perhaps I can leave another post to that effect If I have no joy.
Thanks again for your reply. Appreciated. Rob.

[petestrash]

Yeah WD changed the firmware on the Caviar Blue drives middle of last year, which has made all drives made since that date incompatible with TiVo. Early models work fine.

Did you follow all the steps in the prepare disk instructions?

Peter.

[Hoaryzontal]

G'day. Thinking that I'd rule out any compatible replacment disks, I ordered another WD5000AAKB (before seeing that the new ones don't work). This one came back as a WD Cavier Blue and had blue (not black) livery. Build date 25 Feb build date 2010.
I couldn't get it to boot past the welcome screen (Your receiver is starting up. please wait a moment...). Actually, that was the problem I was having in the first place with the old drive. Now when I reimage the old drive it fails, saying "The first target drive is too small".
Reimaged a little 120GB Seagate that came with the Tivo when I first bought it and that is working (up to Importing), as we speak.
Only difference between the two was that I had failed to correctly connect the S-Video input cable before booting. I don't think that was what was preventing the Blue drive from booting properly.
Got as far as calling the mother ship this morning but it said the call failed. I've backtracked a bit to try and find the phone options but went back too far and had to redo first call setup, which subsequently failed!
Will keep on trucking.
Thanks again. Rob.

[Hoaryzontal]

Got there with the little drive install. Nothing different, just perisistance until it went through. Wicked. Thanks.
Would still be interested in any suggestions as to why the old (black WD5000AAKB WD drive, not the new Caviar BlueWD5000AAKB) give sthe "The first target drive is too small" error message. Wouldn't surprise me if it's just because it's been flogged so hard and how its, erm, rooted.
I'm going to swap the Caviar BlueWD5000AAKB for a 500GB Seagate. Will report.
Thanks to all you guys who provide the Series One Tivo magic.
Rob.

[Hoaryzontal]

And even happier. Tweaking things a bit, now.
I've had this Tivo for ages but have relied on a mate to handle tricky bits. He's moved cities now so I've had to 'man up'. It's been a challenging but very rewarding time.
Thanks again do the crew who make this work. I pretty much took it for granted, previously. Rob.

[petestrash]

Assuming you haven't done any firmware upgrades to the drive itself, I think your assumption about being flogged to death may be fairly accurate.

If your curious, you could try running Seatools (also works with WD) or some other drive diagnostics over it.

Peter.