Apple TV Stuck in Recovery Mode Loop/Factory Restore Fails

[GoogleCodeExporter]

1. Restart Apple TV - I'm asked for a language, then resolution of TV. After 
entering these in, I'm 
brought to the Apple TV Recovery menu with options 'Restart', 'Run Diagnostics' 
and 'Factory 
Restore'. 'Restart' shuts down and reboots ATV and loops me back to same 'Apple 
TV Recovery' 
menu. 'Run Diagnostics' indicates that there is nothing wrong. 'Factory 
Restore' fails almost 
instantly.

2. I'm unsure what ATV update I'm running on but I was trying to upgrade Boxee 
to it's Beta version 
when all of this happened. It's been a few months since I've turned on or 
opened up ATV.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ryanpla...@gmail.com on 18 May 2010 at 1:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

If when you try and restart it goes back to the diagnostics menu, something is 
wrong 
enough to prevent booting. This is why you got this menu in the first place. As 
for 
the 'Run Diagnostics' feature not returning any errors, in my experience it 
never 
has. I don't know what exavtly it checks but it doesn't seem to do it 
thoroughly.

The fact that your Apple TV has been off for a few months suggests the HDD 
might be 
damaged. I get this impression from the fact that factory restore fails 
immediately.

If I were you, I would create a bootup stick and run telnetd. I'd then check 
what 
partitions Apple TV is reading (you should see OSBoot, Recovery, Media, and the 
EFI 
partition as well as the USB device). If aTV is not seeing the internal drive, 
you 
should install another and repartition it. There are many guides for this. You 
mention that you have not opened aTV up for a few months so I presume that you 
have 
experience with swapping out the HDD. 

Good luck

Original comment by Sam.Nazarko on 18 May 2010 at 5:19