Maxtor/Quantum sending me a new drive

[captain_video]

I did something really stupid today. I was installing the software for my new TurboNet on my DSR6000 hard drive and everything seemed to be going fine. I installed the flash utility on the drive while it was in my PC and then put it back in the DTiVo and let it boot and reflash the PROM. I had previously installed Kraven's 2.5xtreme upgrade so I'm not sure if this was even necessary. Anyway, I reinstalled the drive in my PC to finish installing the TurboNet software but I kep getting error messages when attempting to run kill_initrd. It kept telling me that the file could not be found. I rebooted and discovered that the drive was no longer recognized by the PC. I played around with it for awhile until I noticed that one of the ICs on the HD controller was charred. I put it back in the TiVo and it stayed on the Powering Up screen forever. I had fried my drive!!! Somehow I must have accidentally touched the chip on the controller against bare metal on either the TiVo or the PC while moving it about.

I looked around on the Maxtor website for info on the drive to see about getting a replacement for the Quantum drive. Unfortunately, there wasn't much there as far as doing a search on model No's and SN's for Quantum drives to see about a warranty replacement. I did find out that the Quantum lct20 series drives only spin at 4500 rpm so upgrading with a 7200 rpm drive is definitely overkill.

I relented and dialed Maxtor customer support, fully expecting to be told that the drive was not under warranty by Maxtor but that I had to contact the manufacturer of the DTiVo. I had read in another thread that someone else ran into the same issue on their TiVo HD. I was actually hoping that I could perhaps get a replacement controller card for the drive so I could salvage the data on the drive.

I talked to the Maxtor rep and told her my sad story. I explained that the drive came from a DirecTiVo and she apparently had no clue what that was. She took down the pertinent info about the drive as well as my name, etc. The bottom line is that they are sending me a new drive within 3-5 business days. I'm hoping that the new drive will be a direct replacement so I can swap out the controller card, finish the TurboNet setup, and transfer the remaining data from the DTiVo to my PC. At that point I intend to make a backup of the drive to my PC, swap the controller card back to the new drive, and load my backed up image to the new drive.

The only issue might be whether or not the firmware on the controller card is compatible with the drive. I already removed the controller card to see if such a swap would be possible and it's really pretty simple. The card is only held with about 7 or 8 screws and connections are made via two sets of pins on the drive that mate with connectors on the card.

I think I have something like 30 days to return the defective drive. I only hope that they don't realize that the drive is not supposed to covered under their warranty and end up charging me retail for the new drive. I'll keep you posted as things progress.

[captain_video]

I received the replacement drive today. It appears to be a new exact replacement for the original drive rather that a comparable refurbished model that they sometimes ship for warranty replacements. All of the paperwork seems to indicate that it's a direct warranty replacement with no strings attached or any mention of it coming out of a DirecTivo so it looks like I'm home free.

I swapped out the controller card with the fried drive and reinstalled it in the DSR6000. Everything booted up fine and all of my programs showed up in the Now Playing list. I plan on watching the ones I don't intend to archive and then make a backup copy of the drive containing the shows I want to save. I can then swap the controller card back to the new drive and return my old one to Maxtor. I believe I have 30 days to return the old drive or I get charged for the new one.

I already went ahead an bought a replacement 40GB Maxtor 5400 rpm drive to use while waiting for the new drive to arrive. I'm currently having a problem using jdiner's TyTool application for extracting and splitting the recorded programs on my PC. Once I have purged all of the excess programs from the old Quantum drive, I plan on copying the backup to the new drive until such time as I can extract and split the files correctly. I'll probably continue to use the Maxtor in the DTivo since it's working just fine at the moment.

I guess the key to getting a new drive is just finding a Maxtor rep that doesn't know what a DirecTivo is! So far this looks like it's going to have a happy ending.

[poppagene]

In my experience. maxtor/quantum warranties are based on the particular hard drive rather thatn on the computer/tivo it is installed in. Often, you can find the date the drive is in warranty on the the drive itself. Their return procedures are pretty much standarrdized and they couldn't care less if the drive was in a tivo or an eMachine as long as the warranty was still in effect.

[BubbaJ]

I attempted an exchange of a drive for a fellow in Canada who had already called in with the drive and told them it was from a tivo. when I called maxtor with the serial number they referred me to tivo, as that drive was from a custom manufactured batch, and was not supported by maxtor.