DishPVR/501: Hard Drive maintenance?

[dtcarson]

This is perhaps a stupid question, but basically the PVR/501 etc is an always-on hard drive, right?  The reason you can 'pause live tv' is because it's always recording the current channel, up to thirty minutes, which can also affect how much space/time you have left to record [in addition to the audio/video intensity of what you have recorded.]

PVR's crash sometimes, or the whole house has a power outage, etc.  If the PVR is a hard drive, shouldn't it occasionally have maintenance done to it, like a computer hard drive, which should intermittently be scandisked/defragged? 

[HTguy]

You are correct.

With a PVR the program is always written to the HD. In fact, if you have a basic rcvr in the house tuned to the same ch you can hear the delay. The buffer memory in the PVR 508/501 is 60 minutes.

Defragging the HD is called "Hard Drive Reinitionalization". When the 501 1st shipped there was a little known way to force it but SW "upgrades" removed that feature. Now it is supposed to be automatic if required during a power reset or firmware upgrade.

[Adrian_R]

Originally posted by HTguy
Defragging the HD is called "Hard Drive Reinitionalization". When the 501 1st shipped there was a little known way to force it but SW "upgrades" removed that feature. Now it is supposed to be automatic if required during a power reset or firmware upgrade.

Can anyone confirm this?

[P Smith]

Yes, it's true.

It's named Recovery process and you can see detail in a file "hdd_log_5.log". A program for obtain the file was post in dishrip group.

[Pat A]

The hard drive reinitialization feature is still accessible in the current software. My 501 drive started making clunking noises about a month ago. Playback from recorded programs was freezing intermittently about every 10 seconds. After half a dozen calls to tech support, I finally got someone to confirm that the drive was corrupted and give me the procedure for the drive reformat. After reformatting the drive and doing a power button reset, my 501 is working like new (minus the 30 hrs of programs I lost). If anyone is interested, I can dig up my notes and post the process later.

[Matt]

Pat A

Please post your notes. After about 8 months of flawless performance I am starting to have issues on my 501.

Thanks in advance.

[HTguy]

Yes, Pat A, I would be very interested to know the procedure they gave you a month ago.

The original procedure was similar to a Memory Dump .

When that stopped forcing the HDR (I know because I tried it on my own unit when I had problems last year) I contacted the service dept and was advised of the SW change.

But if there really is a new, unpublished procedure I would love to know it. I have a feeling, though, that they had you do a Memory Dump which isn't quite the same thing altho it is conceivable that doing that & a reboot could promt the HDR if it in fact determined automatically that it was necessary.

Here's the procedure for the MD but don't do it willy nilly because as the name implies it erases memory settings such as guide preferences & favorite lists. It also resets the reboot count to 0 (zero). A real HDR is likely to erase stored PVR events.

MENU, 6, 3 to get Diagnostics Screen.
Then INFO, >, < to get Memory Dump Screen.
Hit REC & do a power reboot.

(The old HDR procedure was to hit STOP when on the Diagnostics Screen & pull the AC cord.)

You could try the above (either way) and see if it solves HD problems. If you lose recorded events you probably did a HDR.)

[Pat A]

OK, I found my notes. The procedure that they gave me was similar to the procedure in HTguy's post.

A word of caution: This erased everything on the hard drive, including programs, timers, favorites, etc.

MENU, 6, 3 (to get Diagnostics screen)
INFO, >, < (to get to Memory Dump Screen)
TV/VIDEO
PLAY, PLAY, then hold down RECALL
then unplug and replug in the receiver

I followed this up with a power button reset, and my 501 has been working great since.

I am not sure if this actually reformats the drive or if it is just dumping all data, but it definitely corrected the problems I was having.

[HTguy]

Thanks, Pat A.

It looks like there is a new HDR procedure they've been keeping under wraps. I'll give it a try some time if there's ever a problem & I don't mind losing any recorded events.

[mike1002]

Pat A you are a genious or at least a nice guy ;o)
I tried the recommended procedure for my freezing picture and dropped audio and it appears to have fixed it. I did not lose recordings in the process but it did reset my remote address back to default and I did lose timers and my favorites. But what makes me happy is it was an easy fix. I wonder why my tech didn't do that when he came out here. Dish is now wasting money to ship me a new PVR508 and I guess I will have to pay the $15 to ship the new one back. I'm not sure you have to go through the whole procedure but I did it anyway. I got to the memory dump screen and it said very clearly the "NVM memory is corrupt." So probably hitting select on the OK button and then powering off will clear it. I followed the directions and it did work. It is now in my collection of little 508 tricks. I guess bad power could cause the NVM to get corrupted so I probably should look at getting a UPS. Anyway, thanks Pat A. You are a life saver.

Mike

[mike1002]

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. After battling some other issues with the unit it appears it only went into temporary remission. So, it looks like when the new unit gets here I'll swap it out and hope it doesn't come with its own set of problems. Thanks for the suggestion Pat A.

Mike

[Rharper]

Does anyone know if you can simply replace the hard drive with a larger one for more record time or is it limited by the software, formatting, or space issues? Isn't it just a standard hard drive like you'd see in any computer?

[davhol]

It's a standard IDE drive, but it is "married" to the receiver. If you attempt to swap the drive, you'll probably end up with a non-functioning receiver. Your warranty will have been voided and you'll be stuck with an expensive door stop or boat anchor. :) Really, it is "theoretically" possible to swap hard drives, but Echostar has made this a factory-only function. There are plenty of discussion threads that attempt to cover this on this forum. Use the search feature and read what other's have attempted.