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View Full Version : Just about to give up...


dshinnick
06-17-2004, 08:14 PM
Hey gang, thanks in advance for some help.

I have a SA S2 which was working fine; it was a restore from a previous drive, so I figured I couldn't use it for the Sleeper hack, but it was working fine and I have a backup of it.

I got a new, unhacked 40-hour SA S2 and backed up/restored it (with Sleeper) to another 40-gig drive as a test. It worked. I then applied the Sleeper hacks to it. It freezes at the "Powering..." screen. I then went to restore the original backup to it again, and it says there isn't enough space to hold the image! I low-level formatted the drive with the manufacturer's utility, and I still cannot restore the image to it; lack of space, it reports. This is the same drive which held the image, and worked, until I applied the hacks.

I have another drive, 120G Seagate Barracuda, which, after restoring the image to it, gets to the Powering... screen, then after about 30 seconds. "reboots", back to the Powering.... screen, waits awhile, then reboots. Loops constantly. I have low-leveled the drive with the manufacturer's utility, restored the image, and same results.

The fact that low-leveling the drive does not restore it to its absolutely original state blows me away! What don't I understand about low-leveling a drive; writing zeroes to the whole thing? And what might be causing this constant rebooting at the Powering screen?

As of now, I have no functioning Tivo at all. I'd still like to do the hacks, but at least I'd love to get my Tivo back! I do have a backup which has proven to work. Any ideas?

Dave

dshinnick
06-17-2004, 11:01 PM
A followup. I put the Master drive on the middle IDE cable connector, and it came right up. I can't believe it. IDE drives aren't *supposed* to be sensitive to that! But, it's working right now. More later.

malfunct
06-18-2004, 02:25 AM
A followup. I put the Master drive on the middle IDE cable connector, and it came right up. I can't believe it. IDE drives aren't *supposed* to be sensitive to that! But, it's working right now. More later.

I'd replace that cable, sort of sounds like one of the lines for the master drive is broken between the middle and end connector.

Lowcarb
06-18-2004, 10:26 AM
A followup. I put the Master drive on the middle IDE cable connector, and it came right up. I can't believe it. IDE drives aren't *supposed* to be sensitive to that! But, it's working right now. More later.

I think that is how they are suposed to work if you have the jumper set at CABLE SELECT. But usually the end connector is the one that selects MASTER so Malfunct might be right about the cable having a bad trace.

For those who don't know:
With the jumper set at CS the drive is master or slave depending on which connector it is connected to. (assuming it is a modern cable select cable)

If you are using CS then you should have all drives on the cable set to CS.
If not you could wind up with 2 masters or two slaves on the channel depending on how you plug them in.

Waruwaru
06-18-2004, 02:23 PM
Personally, I try to avoid using Cable Select as much as possible... Always jumper the drive to either Master or Slave yourself. I can never remember which location on the cable is which. :)

BTUx9
06-20-2004, 03:48 AM
Personally, I try to avoid using Cable Select as much as possible... Always jumper the drive to either Master or Slave yourself. I can never remember which location on the cable is which. :)
master is always at the end, and if you have a single drive, it should ALWAYS use the end connector.

Not only is it easier to use CS with modern cables, there is evidence that the xfer speed is actually better than when setting master/slave by jumpers.

Waruwaru
06-20-2004, 03:52 AM
master is always at the end, and if you have a single drive, it should ALWAYS use the end connector.

Not only is it easier to use CS with modern cables, there is evidence that the xfer speed is actually better than when setting master/slave by jumpers.

Hmmm, interesting, I didn't know about the speed difference. Thanks for the tips. :)