# Wish me luck



## Eccles (Dec 27, 2001)

My refurb TiVo HD (652) started displaying some odd behavior a few weeks ago, and this week it started failing to connect with an Error S03. Foolishly I fired off a Kickstart 57, and now I'm stuck in a reboot loop. 

So I just got back from Fry's with a shiny new 1TB drive, and this afternoon's project is to see how much I can salvage from the OEM internal A drive and the My DVR Expander B drive. I'm _hoping_ that I'll be able to retain my SP's and programs, though I do realize that may be wishful thinking. I have a fresh 652 software image in case I need it, too.

So here goes... If you hear a scream, it's probably me!


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## Eccles (Dec 27, 2001)

Well that didn't go well. Although the partition structure on both drives appears intact, it seems that something is corrupted in the TiVo software partition on the A drive - all the available tools failed to let me copy anything, giving me some error about bad header information.

I obtained a software image, blew it to my new 1TB drive, and after a Clear and Delete All reset my THD is back up and running with 142 HD hours but no programs, SP's, or WL's.

But before it starts to fill up, I thought I'd throw out one last cry for help and see if there's any way to recover the recorded content from my old A and B drives, perhaps combining them with the software image I downloaded. I'm guessing the answer is going to be "no" because it's going to insist on a Clear and Delete reset due to the TSN mismatch between my motherboard and the downloaded image, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask!


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Eccles said:


> But before it starts to fill up, I thought I'd throw out one last cry for help and see if there's any way to recover the recorded content from my old A and B drives, perhaps combining them with the software image I downloaded. I'm guessing the answer is going to be "no" because it's going to insist on a Clear and Delete reset due to the TSN mismatch between my motherboard and the downloaded image, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask!


You could possibly -
Use MFSLive 1.4 which includes dd_rhelp to recover the drive
Extract the shows from the TiVo
Put the new image back on the drive
Insert the extracted shows using PyTiVo.

http://vaab.free.fr/utilities/dd_rhelp/index.en.html


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## Eccles (Dec 27, 2001)

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll see what I can manage this weekend.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

If you can locate a copy of SpinRite you may be able to repair any surface defects that could be causing the corruption. I've had luck recovering data from Tivo drives using it in the past. Know that it can take a very long time to repair a single drive (as much as 50 hours for a 250GB drive) so it's best if you have an extra PC that you won't need to use for a couple of days.


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## Eccles (Dec 27, 2001)

mr.unnatural said:


> If you can locate a copy of SpinRite you may be able to repair any surface defects that could be causing the corruption.


Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into it.


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