# Dead Tivo HD w/ DVR Expander - Best Option???



## rz1224 (Jun 5, 2003)

Hi all! Bad news for my tivo hd today...It's got the original internal drive w/ the WD DVR Expander. After freezing up and rebooting often it has finally got itself stuck on the 'powering up' screen and will do no more... I'm assuming the hard drive is the problem. I've upgraded/repaired a half dozen series 2's but it's been awhile and the DVR Expander complicates things for me... Just wondering what you all think my best option should be..

I guess first of all, I don't know which drive is the problem--any way to find out without deleting everything? 

Assuming my internal drive is the problem is there any way for me to copy my internal drive to a new one & successfully marry it to the External without losing shows?

Barring that--perhaps move them all to a new larger internal drive?

Or would I just be better off buying a new drive & trying to marry the external to it afterward w/o saving any shows...

Thanks for the opinions guys...


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

Check the connection on the eSATA drive cable and make sure that its seated. If you boot without the eSATA drive, does it get to the screen saying it can't find the external storage? If not, then the problem is likely inside the TiVo. If you do get to that screen, you can decide whether to bite the bullet and divorce the drive, losing most of your recordings. If the external drive is bad, you'll likely lose them anyway.

Good luck!


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## rz1224 (Jun 5, 2003)

Thanks for the reply Lafos. I do not get the external storage message--only the 'powering up' screen and there it stays. So can I assume that the internal drive is probably bad & the external one is fine?

That being the case I would think my best option would be to get a new internal drive, format it using InstantCake & then marry the external drive to it again using the WINMFS/MFSAdd. Don't think there is any way to avoid losing my recordings though is there?...

If I bought a 1TB drive for the internal can I still add the DVR Expander's 500GB for a total of 1.5TB? I would assume that the instantcake drive would be considered 'modified' and I would have to use the "What is the method to add an eSATA drive if I previously upgraded my TiVo?" section of the how-to below even though it is a Tivo Supported External ESATA correct?

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

Well, if the TiVo won't boot, then your recordings are not accessible. I put a 1TB in my S3 and got 157 HD hours. If you want to use the DVR expander, then you'll have to use the process you described.


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## tjbx (Nov 4, 2007)

I'm in nearly the same boat though not quite as bad off. My tivohd has recently been behaving badly, slow menus, live tv freezing, shows not recording fully, etc. I know one of the disks is going bad. My system still boots fine and complains if I unplug the external drive so it's not clear which disk is the bad one. 

Is there anyway to save the recordings I have from the two disks onto the new 1TB disk? If not, is the best way to proceed to unmarry the two disks, then try to copy the internal drive to the new drive and expand it, then possibly re-add the external again?


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