Can't make Old Drive, New PogoPlug work

[10k]

I've been using my PogoPlug B01 as a music server with Twonkyvision for a few years. The old unit was plugged into a 1.5TB drive formatted for Linux. The Arch Linux boot files were on the hard drive. I did not have a flash drive in the unit.

It's always worked fine, until recently. I started having network problems among my various computers, and I found that if I turned off the PogoPlug, the problems went away. I also found that I could not see the PogoPlug's IP on the network. It looked like it was trying to boot, but eventually the green light went out and stayed out.

The hard drive tested OK, so I figured that the problem was in the PogoPlug hardware. I bought a new (old stock) PogoPlug B01. I installed ArchLinux on the new PogoPlug on a flash drive. The new system boots, I get an IP on the network, and I can SSH into it. Of course, the whole configuration for Twonky, Samba, and whatever else I tweaked is not on the new system.

What I'd like to do now is to not use the flash drive, and to plug in the old hard drive to recreate my original system. I tried that. The unit seems to boot, the green light comes on steady, but it never shows up in the list of IPs on my network.

I also tried using the new thumb drive I made with the new unit on the old PogoPlug. That does not work, either, and again, I don't have an IP on the network.

I tried (with an Ubuntu computer) editing the mac_addr file in /usr/local so that the MAC addresses matched the unit being tested, but that gave the same results.

Is there something I need to do to make this swap? I couldn't find instructions here. All I could find was how to do the opposite - using an existing PogoPlug with new drive.

Thanks!

[WarheadsSE]

I would definitely be checking the serial output. There may be a kernel package vs modules conflict going on at boot time. But, overall, you should be able to make the old drive work.

[10k]

I got it working! I ordered a serial cable, but since I won't get it for a week or so, I kept messing with the two PogoPlugs. Eventually, one of the things I looked at was the amount of free space on my 1.5TB disk. I've been backing up my computer to the PogoPlug weekly, and there was still empty drive space a few weeks ago when I checked last time. This time, when I checked it with another Linux machine, the free space was -0-. I deleted some old files. I plugged it back into the PogoPlug, and it all worked!

So, having a full hard drive:
1) caused a lot of network traffic (probably generated by my big computer trying to back itself up)
2) caused the PogoPlug to not register on the network
3) kept the PogoPlug green light from coming on

Another thing I discovered - having the right MAC address is not required. It'll boot fine with any address. Of course, it'll report that address to the server, not the one stamped on the bottom.