HR10-250 IC upgrade stuck forever on "Almost there."

[drcheezie]

I am trying to upgrade an HR10-250 with a 500 GB Seagate drive (ST3500641A).

I have used both IC images of 6.3b as well as 6.3c, with and without PTVnet 6.3x. There have been no errors or obvious issues during the restore process.

When I return the drive to the TiVo, it hangs forever (well, for days at least) on the DVRUpgrade-customized "Almost there. Just a few more minutes..."

If I put an original HR10-250 WD drive into the unit (which has 6.3a on it), I can get past the initial screens and get to Guided Setup no problem. However, if I use my PTVnet 6.3x disk as a boot disk and do a backup | restore from the WD drive to the Seagate I get same result.

I've also tried using an MFSLive boot disk to create a backup image from my other TiVo (another HR10-250, 750 GB Seagate disk, 6.3c, PTVnet) and also get the same problem.

I'm assuming there is some boot flag set that is wrong / broken or there's some other configuration problem with the image I'm copying over. Can you please provide some suggestions or troubleshooting steps? I want to get my second unit up and running!

Thanks-

-jonathan-

[Lou Jacob]

I am trying to upgrade an HR10-250 with a 500 GB Seagate drive (ST3500641A).

I have used both IC images of 6.3b as well as 6.3c, with and without PTVnet 6.3x. There have been no errors or obvious issues during the restore process.

When I return the drive to the TiVo, it hangs forever (well, for days at least) on the DVRUpgrade-customized "Almost there. Just a few more minutes..."

If I put an original HR10-250 WD drive into the unit (which has 6.3a on it), I can get past the initial screens and get to Guided Setup no problem. However, if I use my PTVnet 6.3x disk as a boot disk and do a backup | restore from the WD drive to the Seagate I get same result.

I've also tried using an MFSLive boot disk to create a backup image from my other TiVo (another HR10-250, 750 GB Seagate disk, 6.3c, PTVnet) and also get the same problem.

I'm assuming there is some boot flag set that is wrong / broken or there's some other configuration problem with the image I'm copying over. Can you please provide some suggestions or troubleshooting steps? I want to get my second unit up and running!

Thanks-

-jonathan-

It is sounding like the problem may be related to the Seagate drive you are using -- have you run the manufacturer's diagnostics on it? Have you tried replacing the IDE cable or at least trying a different connector on the cable?

To assume a software at this point does not seem logical - you've tried several different CD products and even tried manually, but unless you've left out some information here, there is still the matter of the hardware as a variable - what are you doing to eliminate those possibilities?

[drcheezie]

I've actually tried several things to eliminate hardware as a possible root cause:

I have two identical Seagate drives. I've tried them both.
I've run drive diagnostics (from the Seagate CD and others) on the drives; they pass SMART and surface scans
I've replaced the IDE drive cable with a brand new cable, and have tried both Seagate drives on both connector positions on the new cable
I can backup / restore an image from my original WD hard disk to a Seagate drive and it boots / runs Guided Setup fine once I've done a Clear and Delete


Especially given the fact that I can restore a 6.3a image from my WD hard drive onto the Seagate drive and it works normally when placed into the TiVo, I think it's reasonable to suspect a software issue of some sort. Is it possible that there's some artifact of a previous installation attempt causing trouble? Some boot flag setting that might be causing a problem?

I'm assuming that if I boot my PC with a PTVnet CD and with the IC-imaged PTV-netted Seagate drive installed there's some way to examine logs to try to find out what's going on. Might that be a reasonable next step?

Thanks-

-j-

[Lou Jacob]

Is it possible that there's some artifact of a previous installation attempt causing trouble? Some boot flag setting that might be causing a problem?

No, I'd rule that out. Re-imaging the drive is essentially the same as erasing it, initially.

Its something else...

[drcheezie]

Is there a way to retrieve log info and configuration data from the TiVo to see if there is some parameter setting causing the system to get stuck?

-j-

[Lou Jacob]

Is there a way to retrieve log info and configuration data from the TiVo to see if there is some parameter setting causing the system to get stuck?

-j-

You can mount the TiVo drive, boot up with the utility CD and view the bootpage with the "bootpage" command. Log information is in /dev/hdx9 (in /var/logs).

With that said, I don't think you are going to find the answer to the problem in there - its unlikely to be the boot parameters because there isn't much that can be adjusted. Remember, this problem isn't happening for anyone else (that I know of) so I'm still thinking its something hardware-related in your environment (perhaps even an issue with the particular type of Seagate drive you have, although that would be very odd, as well).