Error restoring partition

[ebr2]

I just bought InstantCake to replace a failed hard drive in my kids HDVR2. Am trying to now use a spare 80gig drive I took out of an old PC. Its a WD800 and appears to be working fine (Windows can see it, partition it, format it, etc). I've got my PC configured as per the instructions (CD/DVD drive is primary slave, new hard drive is secondary master) and this is confirmed in the bios report.

The InstantCake boots fine from the CD and goes into its thing (I run it in novice mode for one drive) but at 11% restoring I get the error above: Error Restoring partitions - cannot continue and it craps out. I've re-burned the CD with the same result.

I searched out here and couldn't even find reference to "partition". Any ideas what is wrong...?

[Lou Jacob]

I just bought InstantCake to replace a failed hard drive in my kids HDVR2. Am trying to now use a spare 80gig drive I took out of an old PC. Its a WD800 and appears to be working fine (Windows can see it, partition it, format it, etc). I've got my PC configured as per the instructions (CD/DVD drive is primary slave, new hard drive is secondary master) and this is confirmed in the bios report.

The InstantCake boots fine from the CD and goes into its thing (I run it in novice mode for one drive) but at 11% restoring I get the error above: Error Restoring partitions - cannot continue and it craps out. I've re-burned the CD with the same result.

I searched out here and couldn't even find reference to "partition". Any ideas what is wrong...?

Could be any number of things:

1) bad hard drive -- did you run diags on it?
2) bad media -- did you try reburning at a slower speed, or using a different brand of CD?
3) bad CD-ROM drive -- believe it or not, it happens
4) bad IDE cable -- if you have an extra, try it
5) PC problems; we've seen that, too

[ebr2]

Could be any number of things:

1) bad hard drive -- did you run diags on it?
2) bad media -- did you try reburning at a slower speed, or using a different brand of CD?
3) bad CD-ROM drive -- believe it or not, it happens
4) bad IDE cable -- if you have an extra, try it
5) PC problems; we've seen that, too

The hard drive appears to be fine to Windows. Are there some deeper diagnostics readily available that I can try?

I've burned two different types of media at the slowest possible speed (4x) with identical results. Craps out at exactly the same spot.

CD-ROM drive is fine as this is my last attempt. I've booted with MFSTools a number of times with no problems. (tried a dd_rescue on the old drive).

IDE cable is fine as all works in normal setup.

What state does the new hard drive need to be in - partitioned, formatted, nothing? I've initialized and partitioned it under windows but its not currently formatted (as I figured that would be pointless).

Is it possible my download is corrupted?

Thanks for your help.

[ebr2]

I found diagnostics for my drive and will run them now but I'm not optomistic on that option as the drive appears to function fine in Windows but dies very quickly in the copy process. You never know, though...

[ebr2]

[open mouth]
[insert foot]

Well, of course its always the most obvious thing. Diagnostics reports bad sectors on the drive so clearly that's the problem. I guess I'm gonna have to go find a cheap IDE drive. Thanks for the help.

[Lou Jacob]

Glad you got it working.

Just to summarize (with the hopes that others may be reading this) because it seems all to often that my repeated pleas for people to run diags on their hard drives often falls on deaf ears...

Just because it works in your PC, or even in your TiVo doesn't mean the hard drive is good. Just because the hard drive is new, doesn't mean its good, either. In ANY situation, you should always run diags on the drive; these can be found on the manufacturer's web site -- every manufacturer has them; they are all slightly different, but they all achieve the same things.

Most every one of them has a "basic" and "advanced" mode -- basic only takes a few minutes to run, and advanced will take a few hours, at the most. Neither are destructive, so they can be run without destroying any of the data on your hard drive.

If you have the time, especially with a brand new drive, low-level format it. It can take awhile, but sometimes you'll find a problem with a drive that basic and advanced won't catch. Remember, its always better to fully test a drive BEFORE you put it in your TiVo and start filling it up with your data...

As for the other things on my list, lots of reasons to assume that there could be problems there, too - it is almost one of those of things. (remember a corrupt download won't unzip, so if you can't unzip the file, then redownload).

Thx,
Lou

[ebr2]

Well the cake process worked fine with another drive but my Tivo is still dead :(. I know the original drive was bad as even dd_rescue couldn't salvage it but I guess there is more wrong with the unit than that. Now it just continually re-boots itself on the "powering up" screen.