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Help with frozen Replay

393 Views 20 Replies 3 Participants Last post by brucku, Feb 25, 2005

brucku

Discussion Starter · Feb 24, 2005

Last night girlfriend was watching a show on the replay while i was asleep. Wakes me up to say "screen flashed" and then box turned off. Turned box on and it says Please wait. It's been saying that non stop no matter how long I let it sit since last night, no sign of the menu. Is there something I can try to fix it? Do i need to replace the HD?

If so is it easy to do?

I have (*had) a 5160.

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icecow

· #2 · Feb 24, 2005

Thats not too much history on the situation, but statistically and typically it is the hard drive.

Replacing one is eaasy to do. look at the little video in this link.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=416831

I recommend using RTVpatch version 2.4. Some people seem to have probem with the newest RTVpatch program and the steps in my little video doesn't quite match the newest version.

I recommend seagate drives, then maxtor. If you plan to use a different brand snoop around here to make sure it is compatible first.

You can get the best HD deals using rebates. HD deals are often posted here, particularly around weekends when the ads come out.

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brucku

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 24, 2005

Well I have a few questions....

1) will I lose any features that I rightfully had (like commercial advance)

2) whats the easiest way to get my shows back, can i just copy mpgs off the hd if it will boot in my pc?

3) will I have to re-schedule all my shows after I do this

4) what is the best suggestion for atype of drive to get. Thanks.

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icecow

· #4 · Feb 24, 2005

1>You will not lose your commercial advance or your lifetime subscription(if you had one)

2>Member 'l8er' has a site that will show you how to do that. The site also has instructions on how to replace a drive with pictures. L8er has his link listed in his signature line.

4>My preference if you only own one replay is a 200-250 gig seagate drive using a rebate. Seagate offers a 5 year warrenty, a heck of a deal for a PVR owner.

brucku

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 24, 2005

Is there a particular seagate model that is better than the other? or one that is quieter? I'm probably gonna get a 250gb seagate drive at BestBuy in a few min and check this out. I work in IT for 5 years now, So i may just open up the box and see what's in there.

any idea on getting old shows off?

icecow

· #6 · Feb 24, 2005

http://www.grandallusion.com/

icecow

· #7 · Feb 24, 2005

I went to l8er's site and didn't readily see how to copy shows, it's got to be their somewhere. I don't have much interest in coping shows off partitions so I'll leave that question for others.

brucku

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 24, 2005

In parking lot of best buy.... They don't have any seagates over 160.... They have a maxtor and a WD... the WD tops out at 300.

Purchase Advice?

icecow

· #9 · Feb 24, 2005

WD work fine but are louder and 1 year warrenty

Maxtors are great, but 1 year warrenty

It's up to you.

I'd personally wait for the weekend, but I'm cheap.

You can make your own choice. Leaving BB has the downside of involving more time and wait.

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icecow

· #10 · Feb 25, 2005

More afterthoughts

Don't get a newer drive that has 16 megs of cache. People have been having problems with them (Maxtor).

You can expect to get a 200gig drive for $80-$90 after rebate and tax if you bargain hunt (check frys, here, ************** on weekends) 250 drives tend to jump $35 in price.

here's a thread that discusses HD deals:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=511430

the ended 200 gig HD for $60 is a very good deal but not completely unheard of either. Don't expect to find a 200gig for $60 when bargain hunting.

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l8er

· #11 · Feb 25, 2005

FWIW, copying or recovering recorded shows is covered under "ReplayTV stuck at Please wait..." . There's also all the info you need to get a ReplayTV that won't boot up and running again at www.replaytvupgrade.com .

brucku

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 25, 2005

got original hd hooked up to winxp pc, what types of diagnostics can i run on it, windows shows no file structure, should it? extract_rtv finds no device... i think....

any tips, ill re-image the drive as a test if i can be sure that all shows are totally lost, (if it could potentially get the box working again witout buying a new hd.)

Thanks.

icecow

· #13 · Feb 25, 2005

Windows is unaware of the file structure used by ReplayTVs, that is normal.

I personally never needed extract_rtv

Replay uses Maxtor HDs (as you found out). You can use the tools at maxtor's website to diagnose the drive, also to 'write zeros'

*I think that's like a low level format. I'm not real sure how low level HD maintaince consists of now adays.

brucku

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 25, 2005

Booting pc with only 2 drives in it now (to be sure nothing is odd)..... 1 drive is a scsi 20gb drive. The other is the maxtor I got out of my replay. PC has seen the drive everytime but for some odd reason it's calling it a scsi drive, and also the patch program says its not a replaytv drive and says its a 137gig.

Rebooting... any ideas?

Hmm drive is showing up as 137, but pc has a Promise TX2 controller card in it.

? ideas?

This is the card it's attached to

http://www.directron.com/ultra133tx2.html

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icecow

· #15 · Feb 25, 2005

reboot in a computer that doesnt' use a scsi drive?

use a controler card that works? or might it be a driver problem with your Promise controler?

this is getting messy

brucku

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 25, 2005

apparently I have a promise Ultra 100TX2card, bios detects drive a 152gig but windows sees it as 137.

Jeez this is starting to be such a pain.

icecow

· #17 · Feb 25, 2005

it could go from pain to simple again if you have access to a different computer.

Or you could just reimage it at 137.

brucku

Discussion Starter · #18 · Feb 25, 2005

updated windows drivers, got it to see wholle thing, formatting NTFS, running disk check on it, if it passes, ill proceed with instructions and put back in replay unit, whats teh chances that the HD is not dead? and will no t have anohter problem.

icecow

· #19 · Feb 25, 2005

I don't know. You haven't even told me how long the drive has been in there. Even if it's been in there for a few years I don't know your pvr usage, and if I did it's still very hard to say because HDs can last varing lengths.

If you know the bad drive has been in their for a few years, just order a cheap rebate drive online and wait a few days. That is the way to minimize your own labor, money spent, maximize the amount of time the ReplayTV case is closed.

Formating NTFS isn't getting you anywhere. You should be using maxtor's tools (use this):
http://www.grandallusion.com/download/powermax.zip

icecow

· #20 · Feb 25, 2005

Also, you have to image the drive using RTVpatch and get the correct image (2 files needed).

If you haven't read the directions on how to do this whole thing, you should stop and read them now (or after you start powermax working on the drive).

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