# Drive replacement in Humax DRT800 (S2 w/DVD) fails to boot



## ElJefe (Mar 9, 2002)

Greetings,

I have a Humax DRT800 and I could hear the drive making noises that were not good so I figured I'd replace it. I have done several series 2 and a series3HD upgrade in the past and I am a Linux developer so I figured this would be no big deal. 

It didn't work and I think there is something special about Humax units that I didn't know and have not been able to find doing searches here and via Google.

I pulled the orig Seagate 80GB PATA drive and purchased a new WD3200BEVE (2.5" 5400rpm, PATA). I wasn't going for super-size and figured the 2.5 would be a quieter, lower power option. (maybe mistake #1?)

I used the latest MFSTools v2 CD downloaded from Hinsdale's page, placed both drives on a Intel Core2 system and booted the CD. I ran mfsinfo on the original drive and it looked fine. I did the mfsbackup piped to mfsrestore method and I upped the swap space on the new drive to 300MB (-s 300). I maintained the recordings in the copy over to the new drive and it all went fine. I ran mfsinfo on the new drive after the copy and it properly saw the partitions, drive size and recordings.

I put the new drive in the DRT800 and powered up. Nothing. The HDD light on the front of the DRT800 stays red for hours and nothing ever happens. I have tried leaving the new drive at Master and setting to CS (cable select) and neither setting works. The DRT800 never wakes up.

I put the old drive back in and after several mniutes I finally get a Welcome on the LCD/clock of the DRT800. New problem, now the DRT800 only gives me audio. No video output. I can use the remote, fumble for a recording and start it and I receive audio out, no picture. I have tried on component and CATV outputs and no video.

So I guess I have two problems now. 1) Why wont the WD3200BEVE boot? and 2) Dude, where's my video?

note: No panel cables were removed or dislodged in the Tivo. Just the drive bracket/IDE cable. I did blow it out with a can of compressed air to remove the dust build up. Maybe the dust was holding this Tivo together?


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## ElJefe (Mar 9, 2002)

The software level is: 9.3.2b-01-2-595
Model: HUMAX DRT800

I got video back on the component output after removing/reinserting the motherboard battery.

Still unable to get the new WD drive to boot. Is there a step that must be done to the WD drive prior to pushing the mfsrestore data to it?


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## ElJefe (Mar 9, 2002)

Now I'm confused...

I decided to erase all shows, thumbs and settings on the original 80GB drive so there would be very little data to transfer to the new drive.

I then attached the original and new WD3200BEVE to a P4 box and booted the latest MFS v2.0 CD (Linux version) from Hinsdale's webpage.

I used the dd method 'dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hda bs=1024k'
(hdc is original drive, hda is new drive)

The process did a full 80GB block level copy with no errors to the new drive. Mfsinfo properly described the new drive with partitions, sizes, etc.

I installed the new drive in the HUMAX DRT800 and the Tivo never gets past "Powering Up".

Is there something about the WD 3200BEVE drive that Tivo's don't like? It is native PATA, at 320GB not a massive drive. Not using a PATA/SATA converter.

The sizes show correctly in Linux (no locked drive).

What gives? Any ideas? The original drive boots fine. New drive, no dice.


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## robomeister (Feb 4, 2005)

I would suggest looking at mfslive.org. That site contains the latest and greatest tools for upgrading any TiVo. This Hinsdale guides, while excellent, are out of date and the tools have been superseded by the tools found on the mfslive.org site.

robomeister


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## ElJefe (Mar 9, 2002)

robomeister said:


> I would suggest looking at mfslive.org. That site contains the latest and greatest tools for upgrading any TiVo. This Hinsdale guides, while excellent, are out of date and the tools have been superseded by the tools found on the mfslive.org site.
> 
> robomeister


Thanks! I'll try that iso and report back my results either way.


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## ElJefe (Mar 9, 2002)

No dice, MFSLive 1.4 Linux CD did not work. I did the copy from orig to new with no problem using:
backup -qso - /dev/hdc | restore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdb
(hdc=original, hdb=new)

Restore goes fine, even expands the drive to the new size and reports info correctly.

Install and power up of Tivo with new drive is stuck on "Welcome! Powering Up..."

Is there something magic about HUMAX DRT800 units or WD drives?


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

If a dd copy doesn't get past the "Welcome! Powering Up..." stage, it sounds like the tivo just doesn't like your drive. Serial console output would be helpful to debug further, but lacking that, try a different model drive.


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## robomeister (Feb 4, 2005)

Just a guess here, but it might be the hard drive. Or more specifically, the jumper settings. I'll have to check one of my DRT800s internally to be sure, but I think the drive has to be set to Cable Select or Master in order to work. Most 2.5" drives don't come with jumpers, so you might have to find one somewhere. Or you might have to put it on the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter. Assuming you have the documentation for the adapter (and it is in English).

Have you tried restoring the image to a normal sized (3.5") drive, just to see if your image works?

Another question. Does the original drive still work? If it doesn't, I can provide you a drive image. Send me a PM with your email address if you want a drive image for your DRT800.

Good luck,
robomeister


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