# Need help - upgraded Series3 and now it locks up periodically



## Alphi (Dec 11, 2004)

Recently I (finally) upgraded my old Series 3 TiVo by replacing the stock drive with a 1Tb drive (WD AV-GP WD10EURS), and using WinMFS to copy everything from the original drive to it, and it seemed like it worked - except for one thing: now the TiVo (which has always been very reliable) is now locking up occasionally (about once every week or two).

I can fix the problem by simply unplugging the TiVo and plugging it back in, and it's good for awhile.


Any ideas what I can do? Could it be a bad hard drive (that I'd need to look into doing a return/exchange)? Or just bad sectors that I could do something so that TiVo doesn't attempt to read/write those sectors?


Thanks!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Alphi said:


> Recently I (finally) upgraded my old Series 3 TiVo by replacing the stock drive with a 1Tb drive (WD AV-GP WD10EURS), and using WinMFS to copy everything from the original drive to it, and it seemed like it worked - except for one thing: now the TiVo (which has always been very reliable) is now locking up occasionally (about once every week or two).
> 
> I can fix the problem by simply unplugging the TiVo and plugging it back in, and it's good for awhile.
> 
> ...


A. You should have gone with the 2TB version of that drive, for a better GB/$ ratio

B. Before putting the drive (or any drive) into service you should have run the drive manufacturer's own long test.

You can still do that. The WD software can test it without erasing any of the stuff already written to the drive.

C. Since that's an S3, there's a good chance you need to replace about $10 worth of capacitors on the power supply circuit board.

end of lettered sections

When you used WinMFS to copy what I'm assuming was the 250GB original to the 1TB, when it finished did it say there was extra space and ask if you wanted to expand into it?

If so, did you say yes, or do something else first and come back and do the expansion later with

mfsadd

?


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## Alphi (Dec 11, 2004)

unitron said:


> A. You should have gone with the 2TB version of that drive, for a better GB/$ ratio
> 
> B. Before putting the drive (or any drive) into service you should have run the drive manufacturer's own long test.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I thought about going with the 2Tb drive, but this is the TiVo that has had just 250Gb for several years now and never come close to filling, so even 1Tb is more than we'll ever need (this isn't our main TiVo - but rather it's the one in our bedroom).

Yes, when I ran WinMFS it did ask about expanding, and I did. I also made sure to do the supersize option on it.

I'll see about taking it back apart so I can run the WD test. Do you know - if the WD test finds bad sectors does it map them so that the Tivo won't even try to use those? Or does it just report the bad sectors?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Alphi said:


> Yeah, I thought about going with the 2Tb drive, but this is the TiVo that has had just 250Gb for several years now and never come close to filling, so even 1Tb is more than we'll ever need (this isn't our main TiVo - but rather it's the one in our bedroom).
> 
> Yes, when I ran WinMFS it did ask about expanding, and I did. I also made sure to do the supersize option on it.
> 
> I'll see about taking it back apart so I can run the WD test. Do you know - if the WD test finds bad sectors does it map them so that the Tivo won't even try to use those? Or does it just report the bad sectors?


I do not know for absolute certain the answer to the question about the WD long test re-allocating sectors, but I suspect it does not.

Generally hard drives have more sectors than they admit to having, so that they have some "spares" that they can substitute for bad ones if necessary.

I think there's another program/utility that's part of that WD set that will do the re-allocating, not sure which one, but it might be the full erase.

However, if you get any bad sectors reported on a drive that new, you need to talk to WD about replacement under warranty.


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## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

In theory the write zero test will "recertify" the drive. I still would not trust it. In my experience, when sectors start failing it is a domino effect.


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