Help needed - TCD748000 - odd failure

Hi all. I've got a strange problem (or maybe problems) with my Premiere XL.

Original drive died about 18 months ago, replaced with a weaknees 2gb drive.

Earlier this month, started to get random reboots & freezes, increasing in frequency. Kickstarts were unsuccessful in resolving and overnight and automatic disk tests all passed.

When I received the upgraded drive, I took a DRVBARS backup of it before installing. Dug that up and restored to a new 2GB drive....and we have liftoff! Back to guided setup.

...but can't seem to make it through the software update. Keeps freezing on "loading info" - somewhere between 1% and 57%.

A few other observations:

1. Each of the drives passes mfr diagnostics and smart tests
2. The process seems to inch closer to completion each time...with great advances being made when the cable card and TA are not connected

Questions for the experts:

1. My experience tells me that the drive is most prone to failure. I would have thought replacing the drive would have cured all problems. How likely is it that a bad TA or CableCard is contributing to this?

2. How likely is it that my image is bad? Should I try again with a fresh TCD748000 image?

3. Am I just SOL?

Thanks in advance,
Msilano