PVR501 Drive replacement

[Ebeneezerfixanothing]

I have two PVR501 units. The drive on one of the units failed the other day. The warranty expired 2 months ago. I called Dishnetwork and the lady verified I had a bad drive. She offered to exchange my unit with a refurbished unit at a "reduced" price. I said, no thanks, I don't want to pay good money for somebody else's problems. Since I own the unit, I told her I would check the hard drive myself. Sure enough, the IDE cable needed to be reseated and now everything works fine. Hopefully this is a permanent fix. In case it isn't I would like to be prepared with a ready drive to swap out should the drive really crap out. I have 2 PVR501's. Having a spare may be smart. These PVR's are running all the time even when they are off and they do get hot. Are there any system files on the drive that need to be transfered to the new drive? What operating system? Can you install a bigger drive and would the PVR recogise the full capacity of the drive? Are there drive compatibility issues to worry about. Mine had a Seagate inside. Is changing out the drive illegal? I can't see how it could be illegal. I am sure Dish would like to make it illegal!

Thanks for any answer. Forgive any stupid questions I may have asked. I am new at this, borne out of necessity.

Thanks again

[Mark Lamutt]

It actually may be technically illegal under DCMA, but in this case, that's besides the point. The problem that you will run into is that the hard drive is married to the receiver through hardware controls, and can't be changed. There's only been 1 report ever of a user (Claude Greiner) changing out a drive and being successful, and that was in a brand new box that had never been activated. Once the unit is activated, it's all over, and there's nothing that you can do. Or at the very least, nothing that we've ever seen.

What I would suggest is for you to sign up for the extended warrenty coverage for $1.99 a month. That way, if it does fail again, Dish will replace it for the cost of shipping ($14.99). It's a good deal.

[UpOnTheMountain]

If you were to purchase an identical drive and use a hardware based drive clone .. shouldn't that work pretty well?

And ... Has anyone tried a clone using a different size drive?

[UpOnTheMountain]

I have a hardware based drive cloner that I use frequently at work.

As long as the drives are fairly new/modern and you use a similar drive ... it works pretty darn well.

The unit I use is :
http://www.logicube.com/products/hd_duplication/echo.asp

Does anyone think this would work for a 501 ... or a 721 ?

[P Smith]

I think for exactly same model of HDD it will works ( Ghost or disk dublicator ). But you still to use in same IRD.

[Jacob S]

Can you purchase the extended warranty after your original manufacturer's one year warranty is up or do you have to get it right before the original warranty ended?

[Ebeneezerfixanothing]

Thanks for your answers guys. I don't think I will buy a clone device though. They seem pricey. Norton ghost might do the job a lot more cheaper. As for the Dish $1.99/mo insurance, it is a good deal. The lady did offer it. However, that would mean no larger drive for me in the PVR.

Anybody know how I can contact "Claude Greiner" to find out how he did it?

Thanks

[Steve Mehs]

Claude is a mod at dbsforums.com and he runs dishretailer.com, he also stops by here every so often.

[Tony S]

Ebeneezerfixanothing, this has been done. There is information on the internet describing how to put a larger hard drive in a 501; if you search I am sure you can find it. The bad news is that the procedure is so complicated, that even though I am an Engineer with 30 years experience, I did not want to attempt it. If I remember correctly, it involves re-programming your firmware.

BTW, E* has already made sure that you cannot upgrade the hard drive by using the method that Claude Greiner used. Shortly after he posted his method, a lot of other people tried to reproduce it and failed. The only method that works is the extremely complicated one.

[Mark Lamutt]

And just a reminder, we don't talk about reprogramming firmware here because that delves into the hacking realm, and hack talk isn't allowed. So, if the discussion goes beyond where it is now, we'll have to close the thread.

[Ebeneezefixanothing]

It sounds too difficult so I will give it up and buy the $2/mo insurance for the unit with Dish. Thanks everybody for your inputs.

[P Smith]

Hmm, using a Ghost is too difficult ? Any teenager will do that :).

[Mark Lamutt]

Ghost won't work - it doesn't recognize the 501 drive as a valid drive because it's not formatted in a standard manner. Neither will any of the other software imaging programs available.

[P Smith]

Mark, have you try it ? Or just speculate ? FYI, the Ghost HAVE an option for copy ANY disk regardless file system, i.e. sector-by-sector. Just need take a short look into readme. If it hard to do, I'll post the parameter late. ;)

[Mark Lamutt]

Personally, I have not tried it. But, I have read many, many reports of people that have tried it with Ghost, using the sector by sector option, and Ghost does not even recognize that the drive exists. Just passing along what I've read from others. :)

[P Smith]

It could be done by HDDUtil by D.Pashkov, if you can't use Ghost.

[maddawg]

Originally posted by Ebeneezefixanothing
It sounds too difficult so I will give it up and buy the $2/mo insurance for the unit with Dish. Thanks everybody for your inputs.
If you are interested in selling it, let me know. I would be interested in fooling around with it.

[wwind]

I had no problem by formating (in NTSF) the existing HD and getting it stream updated again.
I works like new !

On another machine I replaced the 40gig DH with a new 80gig like this:
Newegg.com - MAXTOR 4R080L0-QV Hard Drives
Worked fine as well.

I think you only have to stick with the same brand (Maxtor or Seagate).
Make sure you purchase a drive made for DVRs.

[P Smith]

wwind, seems to me you found that yahoo group, hehe.