# TiVo Premiere 2TB (WD20EURX) Upgrade Failed - Please Help



## d_bondi

OK, I used jmfs to upgrade from stock 320GB to a new 2TB WD20EURX on my TiVo Premiere. You guys were great and it worked fine, or so I thought....

This all transpired 3 weeks or so ago. After a seemingly smooth day 1 and maybe 2, the unit got very sluggish, and eventually got to where it was rebooting, and wouldn't complete a connection to the TiVo Service. It would take a VERY long time, and then hang forever on the Loading Info step. It seemed to try to function during this, but all of the recordings were cut short. Some by a few minutes, some by half an hour.

So.... I opened up the unit, removed the new 2TB WD20EURX, and re-installed the stock 320GB drive. It booted up, connected to the TiVo Service, and loaded pretty quickly. It has been acting just fine.

As a note: Before I installed the 2TB WD20EURX I did run the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, long test on it, and it passed.

Now what?

Do you think I just got a bad transfer/copy and need to try again? I used jmfs and two USB/SATA cables on an old Windows XP box.

Any help will be appreciated.


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## unitron

d_bondi said:


> OK, I used jmfs to upgrade from stock 320GB to a new 2TB WD20EURX on my TiVo Premiere. You guys were great and it worked fine, or so I thought....
> 
> This all transpired 3 weeks or so ago. After a seemingly smooth day 1 and maybe 2, the unit got very sluggish, and eventually got to where it was rebooting, and wouldn't complete a connection to the TiVo Service. It would take a VERY long time, and then hang forever on the Loading Info step. It seemed to try to function during this, but all of the recordings were cut short. Some by a few minutes, some by half an hour.
> 
> So.... I opened up the unit, removed the new 2TB WD20EURX, and re-installed the stock 320GB drive. It booted up, connected to the TiVo Service, and loaded pretty quickly. It has been acting just fine.
> 
> As a note: Before I installed the 2TB WD20EURX I did run the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, long test on it, and it passed.
> 
> Now what?
> 
> Do you think I just got a bad transfer/copy and need to try again? I used jmfs and two USB/SATA cables on an old Windows XP box.
> 
> Any help will be appreciated.


At this point, from this distance, I'd say re-run the long test on the 2TB and see if it still passes.

If it does, re-install and see this

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-kickstart-codes.php

for the Premiere specific procedure, and run KS 58 on it.

Do you have a tuning adapter for Switched Digital Video in addition to your cable card?


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## d_bondi

PL, I'll re-run the long test on the WD20EURX.

*Are you saying that if it passes, just re-install it "As Is", and don't re-run jmfs?*

As for the tuning adapter for Switched Digital Video, I'm not sure what that is, so I'll say "No" I don't have one. Just a Comcast/Xfinity M-Card.

I'm traveling (son's spring break) and will do the test, etc.. in a few days.

Thanks again, unitron!


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## unitron

d_bondi said:


> PL, I'll re-run the long test on the WD20EURX.
> 
> *Are you saying that if it passes, just re-install it "As Is", and don't re-run jmfs?*
> 
> As for the tuning adapter for Switched Digital Video, I'm not sure what that is, so I'll say "No" I don't have one. Just a Comcast/Xfinity M-Card.
> 
> I'm traveling (son's spring break) and will do the test, etc.. in a few days.
> 
> Thanks again, unitron!


The WD test is for the drive itself, so if the drive is still physically fine, then the working assumption is that something's wrong with the TiVo software on it, and KS 58 will give the TiVo a chance to fix that. We hope.


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## d_bondi

OK, I connected the WD20EURX (via USB/SATA adaptor) and ran the diagnostics. _It failed both Quick and Extended._

*QUICK*
Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete!
Status Code-7 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97 (Unknown Test)
SMART self-test did not complete on drive2!

*EXTENDED:
*Too many bad sectors detected.​
Fortunately, it was still within the 30 day return window at Amazon, and it is going back tomorrow. Replacement being overnighted to me. Gotta love Amazon customer service. :up::up::up:

I ran these tests and they both passed before completing the jfms procedure and installing in the TiVo Premiere. Any ideas on why it is now having problems?


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## jrtroo

because it is broken. No way to know why.


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## lpwcomp

d_bondi said:


> I ran these tests and they both passed before completing the jfms procedure and installing in the TiVo Premiere. Any ideas on why it is now having problems?


Infant mortality. Is the TiVo on a UPS? If not, did you have any power flickers? Did you check the MBT to see if it was running hot?


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## unitron

d_bondi said:


> ... Any ideas on why it is now having problems?


Gremlins.

Or it hates you.

Or both.

You'll notice I have not included any sort of graphic to indicate that I'm merely being humorous.


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## d_bondi

unitron - you are likely right, "both" 

lpwcomp - MBT was in the 36 to 39 range. No I don't have my TiVo on a UPS and I don't recall any power issues.

If a UPS is recommended, is something small like the APC BE350G ($40 @ Amazon) OK? I assume we're just trying to protect from brown-outs.


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## lpwcomp

d_bondi said:


> unitron - you are likely right, "both"
> 
> lpwcomp - MBT was in the 36 to 39 range. No I don't have my TiVo on a UPS and I don't recall any power issues.
> 
> If a UPS is recommended, is something small like the APC BE350G ($40 @ Amazon) OK? I assume we're just trying to protect from brown-outs.


And momentary flickers, where the disk doesn't have a chance to spin down and soft land the heads before it starts spinning up again, although modern drives seem to be less susceptible to damage that way. Yes, that UPS should be fine. Even if it isn't needed to protect the disk, it does keep you from missing part of a recording while the TiVo reboots following a brief outage.


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## philt56

Has anyone successfully installed a wd20eurx drive in a premiere? Waiting for a replacement drive, my first attempt continuously reboots on the welcome screen. So not sure if I got a bad drive or not?


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## lessd

philt56 said:


> Has anyone successfully installed a wd20eurx drive in a premiere? Waiting for a replacement drive, my first attempt continuously reboots on the welcome screen. So not sure if I got a bad drive or not?


To know for sure you must test the drive with the free diag from WD before installing the drive into the TiVo, or after if things don't work.


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## philt56

lessd said:


> To know for sure you must test the drive with the free diag from WD before installing the drive into the TiVo, or after if things don't work.


 Yes I ran full diagnostics on the drive and it passed with no errors. But someone else said the same thing happened to them.


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## lessd

philt56 said:


> Yes I ran full diagnostics on the drive and it passed with no errors. But someone else said the same thing happened to them.


Make sure you have a good image to start with, and some motherboards put crap on a new hard drive when first formatting (I think the gigabyte motherboard is one of the bad motherboards for TiVo use)


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## lpwcomp

lessd said:


> Make sure you have a good image to start with, and some motherboards put crap on a new hard drive when first formatting (I think the gigabyte motherboard is one of the bad motherboards for TiVo use)


The HPA problem with some motherboards should only come into play when the drive is directly connected to a SATA controller, which isn't the case here.

You might want to ensure all of the internal connections in the TiVo are good.


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## philt56

Thanks all. I got a good image from one of the main contributors to the forum. I also tried doing a backup from my original drive as well. Did the restore over usb sata on a vaio laptop as well as direct Sata on a desktop which has an Intel mb. 

The original drive boots up fine if I put it back in. So I'm at a lost. 
That's why I want to be sure this eurx drive has worked fir someone else. 

I have a replacement drive coming tomorrow so we will see how that goes.

The only I haven't tried is use jmfs to do the restore. I've only been using dvrbars. 

Thanks again


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## lpwcomp

philt56 said:


> Thanks all. I got a good image from one of the main contributors to the forum. I also tried doing a backup from my original drive as well. Did the restore over usb sata on a vaio laptop as well as direct Sata on a desktop which has an Intel mb.
> 
> The original drive boots up fine if I put it back in. So I'm at a lost.
> That's why I want to be sure this eurx drive has worked fir someone else.
> 
> I have a replacement drive coming tomorrow so we will see how that goes.
> 
> The only I haven't tried is use jmfs to do the restore. I've only been using dvrbars.
> 
> Thanks again


JMFS can neither create nor restore an image. You could use it to do a direct copy of the original to the new disk. You just have to have both of them connected to the same computer at the same time. Why not use your desktop and direct connect one and connect the other via the USB-Sata adapter?


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## philt56

Thanks good idea!


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## philt56

At first Jmfs didn't detect the drive on the usb sata cable. Tried a couple different usb ports , one on the mb back and another on a usb expansion board. Ok, found a usb that worked on an expansion card, noticed jmfs was showing an external drive on that card. Note jmfs shows the drive manufacturer on the sata ports but shows unknown on the USB port

The copy is grinding along. 1 TB may take awhile&#55357;&#56842;

I'll report back tomorrow on the results.


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## bikegeek

philt56 said:


> Thanks all. I got a good image from one of the main contributors to the forum. I also tried doing a backup from my original drive as well. Did the restore over usb sata on a vaio laptop as well as direct Sata on a desktop which has an Intel mb.
> 
> The original drive boots up fine if I put it back in. So I'm at a lost.
> That's why I want to be sure this eurx drive has worked fir someone else.
> 
> I have a replacement drive coming tomorrow so we will see how that goes.
> 
> The only I haven't tried is use jmfs to do the restore. I've only been using dvrbars.
> 
> Thanks again


I just replaced my drive in a Premier Elite with a wd20eurx last night and it is running fine. I used jmfs to copy my old drive to this new one.


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## philt56

bikegeek said:


> I just replaced my drive in a Premier Elite with a wd20eurx last night and it is running fine. I used jmfs to copy my old drive to this new one.


Thanks good to know. Jmfs is still running and about halfway done after 12 hours! Copying 1tb is slow. Maybe if no usb might be faster.

Just curious did you try any other method before jmfs?


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## lpwcomp

philt56 said:


> Thanks good to know. Jmfs is still running and about halfway done after 12 hours! Copying 1tb is slow. Maybe if no usb might be faster.


Definitely would have been. I only suggested using it because I assumed that you only had one free Sata port.



philt56 said:


> Just curious did you try any other method before jmfs?


Why would he? JMFS is the only way to expand.


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## bikegeek

philt56 said:


> Thanks good to know. Jmfs is still running and about halfway done after 12 hours! Copying 1tb is slow. Maybe if no usb might be faster.
> 
> Just curious did you try any other method before jmfs?


I used jmfs sata to sata, 2T to 2T and it took 10-12 hours (I wasn't home).


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## philt56

lpwcomp said:


> Definitely would have been. I only suggested using it because I assumed that you only had one free Sata port.
> 
> Why would he? JMFS is the only way to expand.


youre right I only had 1 free sata accessible from the outside. It's one of those antec drive bays you can slide a drive into. Otherwise I would have had to take the case out and open up to get at an internal sata.

I was thinking he might have done the backup and restore like I tried with dvrbars. Seems it's faster than jmfs depending how full the original drive was and if he didn't want to keep the recordings. I already transfered my shows to a new roamio so I had no need for shows to be copied. I know jmfs only takes seconds to do the expand.

Just trying to see if there's some bug or incompatibility with dvrbars that others may have encountered also to help figure the problem. The developers have been great trying to help me. I also appreciate all the replies in this thread!


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## lpwcomp

bikegeek said:


> I used jmfs sata to sata, 2T to 2T and it took 10-12 hours (I wasn't home).


 Sata I, II, or III? Although that seems excessive even for Sata I.


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## jrtroo

I had it take over 24 hours once as I kept all of my current programs. Much much faster to skip copying over the content...


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## philt56

I forgot I also had an esata port on the back so I restarted and going much faster


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## philt56

Well I guess the drive was bad. I got my desktop setup so I could hook up both drives via sata and ran jmfs. Still failed. Got the replacement drive from Amazon this afternoon, loaded Gregs pristine image. Booted up fine.

Go figure, especially with no WD diagnostic failures.

Doing a restore of my original drive image now.

Thanks again for the support.


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## bikegeek

lpwcomp said:


> Sata I, II, or III? Although that seems excessive even for Sata I.


Sata II, it seemed slow to me too.


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## philt56

bikegeek said:


> Sata II, it seemed slow to me too.


I think it was about 6 hrs for 1 TB copy so similar time on sata ii


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## rainbow

I have the original dvrbars, and am wondering if that might have been the problem. i have spent the last 2 wknds over at my sister's trying to upgrade her HD to 2T on her Premiere which has the original drive.
With the 1st HD (both hard drives are WD2TEURS) her TiVo would go to the start up page. then the lights on the front would light up and it would go back to the start up page, never going further than that. 

so, she bought a new HD from Amazon, that arrived this past Thursday. This past Saturday, I used the dvrbars program to restore from the saved file i had. same thing happened. i did a wdidle3 check in case there might be some problem w/that. both drives had the response -configure idle 3-. (i am assuming that means there is no pblm with that issue).

I just downloaded the latest dvrbars version. am wondering if i do a 'restore' again, will that work. would i have to wipe those 2 HD.s from the original restore? and if so, how would i accomplish that since the TiVo programs are in Linux - my windows computer does not recognize those drives (attached w/usb).


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## ggieseke

What model number is the Premiere, and where did the image come from?

DvrBARS will overwrite the drive so you really don't need to worry about that.


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## jmbach

There are several boot up screens that flash before the unit finally boots. If it reboots after the first one, either the drive is not seen by the motherboard or it cannot find the OS on the drive for various reasons. 

Where did the images come from that you are using with DvrBARS. Did the unit the images come from have any issues or problems prior to making a back up? Could be a GIGO problem.


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## rainbow

if I can remember correctly, it would go to the initial start up screen, then the next start up screen, then the lights would flash and it would start that sequence again. 

the image came from her dvr. it was bought 2nd hand, and I saved the image before I got the machine over to her. I also have another image of my Premiere saved just in case. I am not 100pc sure but I believe her model is 746 series. it is the regular Premiere (like mine).

I spent most of yesterday reading thru the 32pg thread re dvrbars, and I am glad that you have verified that the info will overwrite. 

What I might try to do is re-do one of them with just a truncated backup; and the other with either the full back-up or modified backup. fyi - I had originally done the modified back-up of her drive. so would it be best to do the restore the same way as modified restore, or full restore? or would it make any difference. 

if I have the energy, I might test those 2 HDs in my own Premiere after doing that to test if my premiere would get past the start up screen.


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## jmbach

Have you tested the drives you are putting in the TiVo with any manufacturer diagnostic programs? That would be a good first step. 

Does the original drive boot in her Premiere just fine?


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## rainbow

I did not test the drives. her TiVo boots up fine when I put back the original drive (both times!)
I know I would prob find the answer to this question somewhere else (or have already read it but don't remember it) if I do the wd diagnostics, should I use the wd lifeguard for wndws, or dos?


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## ggieseke

I usually use the Windows version, but it's a personal choice. They both work.

If her Premiere boots fine I would do a modified full or full backup of it assuming that you have enough disk space. If you use your image or one of mine you will have to do a Clear & Delete Everything to "marry" it to the motherboard.

Since you will need a jmfs CD to expand it anyway I would hook up both drives at the same time if possible and use jmfs for everything. First, copy the working drive to the new 2TB drive. Once that's done check it out with mfsinfo, then expand it.

If you're not sure of the model number just have her look at the System Info screen. The first 3 digits of the TiVo Service Number will tell you what model it is (746, 748, 750, 758 etc).


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## rainbow

last night I did a quick restore using DvrBARS on one of her new hard drives using an image I had from my premiere. I had stored that from dvrBARS back in 2013. will test that new HD in mypremiere this weekend. if it works, that will tell me that my original backup of her TiVo was corrupted. will let you know on Monday if that works.

(I did verify she and I have the same series TiVo 746)

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13MAY - just as a follow up. I tested the hard drives and the 4T my book external HD that I had gotten specifically to be able to transfer 2T TiVo HD data may well be the culprit. I did a WD Diagnostic and it failed. I am in the process of getting it replaced by WD (it is still under warranty). The diagnostic pgrm is so much easier these days than it was a number of years ago. it seemed pretty confusing during my last experience using it a long long time ago. pretty much a piece of cake now.

I still have not been able to get to my sisters place to replace her HD, but I do believe it will be fine now.

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another update - Sep 8, 2015 - finally we were able to connect to get this done. used dvrbars to save her unwatched prgms, settings etc (only 16G) to a different, smaller external harddrive. then restored it to one of the new 2T hds. Argh - same thing happened. her TiVo kept rebooting.

ultimately, we did a virgin TiVo program on to the HD, and that worked. 
she must have had something corrupted on her original TiVo hd program.


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