Trouble cloning H15 DVR hard drive

[xrilander]

Hi. I have a 2007 H15 DVR. The hard drive seemed to be failing, so I decided to replace it. I Googled the procedure and found holding down the rec and down arrow while booting would format the hard drive. I purchased an exact same size 160gb drive. The original was Seagate, I bought a Western Digital, brand new. Jumpers were set correctly, nothing. I get the welcome screen, almost there, and the diagnostics screen. Then it goes grey, nothing further happens. Funny thing is, I tried an old 40gb drive I had lying around, and it starts formatting every time! WTF? So I figure I`d clone the Seagate drive to the WD on my computer, sector by sector. It was successful. Installed it again, still nothing. I then put back the original, and it started formatting without any button holding. What gives? Why will any other hard drive work except the WD I just bought??? It tested good, and will work fine on any computer?

[litzdog911]

Welcome to DBSTalk!

Please verify your DVR model number. There is no "H15" model.

[xrilander]

r15-500

[P Smith]

time to dump it

[carl6]

Interesting problem. I've done some limited drive shuffling on an R15-500 (but it's been a few years) without any issues. You might have a power supply problem on the R15 that is manifesting itself with the hard drive. Or maybe a poor solder joint on the main circuit board, or some other similarly unique problem that is manifesting itself as a drive problem.

If that's the case, then perhaps P Smith's advice is good. If you can wipe the new drive, then return it and get an exact match replacement, you might try that. But I'm not sure it would get you any further.

Oh, and this thread really should be in the SD section rather than the HD section. Perhaps one of the mods will move it for us.

[Scott Kocourek]

Moving this to the SD Forum.

[damondlt]

Don't these Drives have to be formatted first?
Like with the D* software.

[xrilander]

Yes, the drive is going back. I put the old one back in, formatted it, seems to be working fine now. Thanks everyone.

[xrilander]

Don't these Drives have to be formatted first?
Like with the D* software.

The DVR`s keep the operating system on a chip. You can install an unformatted hard drive, and the DVR automatically format it.

[ThomasM]

Rather than letting the DVR try to figure out what's going on with the HDD, put your replacement drive in and start it up. When the message "running receiver diagnostic check" appears onscreen, press the SELECT button on the remote control. Be sure it is set to address 1 (the default) or the DVR will not recognize it. Pay attention-it doesn't last long!

You should get a special diagnostics menu which will allow you to test all aspects of the DVR including internal memory and the HDD. You can also choose to do a "quick format" (which won't work with a native drive) or a complete reformat which is what you want.

Let us know what happens!

PS: I did a complete reformat on my R15-300 last fall using this procedure and a bunch of problems (like the guide cache not working when the power failed) were mysteriously fixed. Plus, the unit was faster and much more reliable!