Ok, it seems I've been bit by the "stuck at powering up..." bug. The unit will power up and the HD spins up, but does not go any further. Here are the details:

Tivo = Philips HDR 112
HD = Maxtor 200 GB
PC = P4, 1GB Ram, used for multiple (3) HDVR2 instant cakes in the past with no issues.

I've tried this particular cake burn 3 times now, and one of those times I followed the instructions for byte-swapping (i.e. the "Possible fix for post-bake boot troubles" thread -- which I had to find cached on Google because it doesn't exist on this forum any more.).

I have verified (using MaxBlast software) that the HD is in working order -- in fact, I ran the quick tests, the read tests, and the burn in tests with no failures.

I have verified multiple times that (A) I'm setup correctly when doing the instantcake (i.e. jumpers & connections verify correctly in the bios), (B) I'm properly jumpered when putting the drive in the Tivo, and (C) that the cables are correct & functioning (I've used 3 known/good cables).

Here are some anomolies that I noticed.

1) The file which I downloaded from PTVUpgrade had what I would call a 'wierd' filename. It was "instantcake-hdr-1[1].1-NR.iso" -- I found this an odd name. The MD5 has for this file is c3105301e971d1a5ad50b1a4d6577cf0 -- can anyone with a similar InstantCake image verify?

2) When running InstantCake, the process stalls a number of times -- 4 times between 278 MBs & 316 MBs, and 3 times between 695 & 702. Each 'stall' lasts between 45-60 seconds, yet the HD light is solid. I don't seem to remember these 'stalls' the last 3 times I've burnt a cake. BTW, this cake states that the image is 816 MBs.

3) Once the process is completed, I get the following errors on the command line: "umount 2: Device or resource busy" and "umount : /dev/hdb busy - remounted read only". (NOTE: When doing the 'byteswap' fix mentioned above, I did not get these error messages.)

I'm kinda at the end of my rope here & was hoping that someone could provide some help? (and I don't mean help using the rope to hang myself! ;->)

Any help appreciated -- Thanks,

- CrashNBurns

P.S. I'm doing this because the unit started 'skipping' in the recordings so I assumed that my originally upgraded drives (orig 20GB & 80GB -- upgraded 5 YEARS AGO!) were beginning to show their age.

P.P.S. I've just completed the process again using the 80 GB drive which was in the Tivo with the same result -- this leads me to believe that I can eliminate the HD as the issue -- now it's down to image, CD burn, cables, or process! Oh goodie....