I few months ago I wrote to this forum and asked if anyone had a
suggestion on how to fix a TiVo (TiVo branded model TCD540080) that
would become unresponsive every few weeks and need to have the power
cord unplugged and then plugged in again. A few people on this and other
forums suggested that this might be a hard drive issue. The freezing
started occurring more and more frequently until it froze a few times a
week so I needed to do something.
I downloaded the instructions on how to replace the hard drive from
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html. All it took
was the instructions, a new EIDE hard drive, the MFS utility from
http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/MFSLBA48.zip and two
Torx screwdrivers (Torx 10 and Torx 15).
I removed the old hard drive from my TiVo, put it into a PC and copied
it to the new hard drive using the MFS utility (I also expanded the
drive from a 80 GB to 160 GB). I put the new drive into my TiVo and it
worked perfectly, it had my setup information, season passes, wish lists
and all of the programs from my old hard drive.
I did this two weeks ago and my TiVo has performed flawlessly ever
since, it has not frozen once.
For all of you who suggested replacing the hard drive thank you for
your advice.
For anyone with a TiVo that freezes or wanting to expand the capacity
of your TiVo this is an easy inexpensive way to do it, the only cost is
the the new hard drive and a CD to burn the MFS utility onto.
Happy TiVoing,
Ken G.
