Keep losing my recordings!

[ajiva]

This has happened twice for me already. I'll have about 30-40 hours recorded on my PVR-510 and the next day I'll wake up and my PVR claims there is 99 or 100 hours free. I'll check and all my recordings are blank (nothing plays). This has happened twice already. I've done the "press the front button for a few seconds" and that didn't seem to fix it the first time. Help!

[Jacob S]

Sounds like your hard drive could be failing. You need to call Dish to send you a replacement.

[poeppe]

I had this same problem on my 501 over a year ago. I lost all of my recordings three times, I called Dish each time and complained. They had me do soft resets and hard resets (pull the plug and the card) but the failures kept occurring. The third time they told me my harddrive must be failing and gave me an RA# but instead of leaving it at that I asked the tech support guy if there was some way to tell the receiver to re-format the hard drive. He checked and found a hidden command that would force a re-format. It was a little tricky to get it to take the codes but once it did, it re-formatted the disk and I haven't lost a recording since.

I would recommend calling Dish and asking for tech support, then explain your problem and ask them if they can give you the codes to force a re-format of your hard drive.

If that doesn't work, then ask for a replacement.

HTH,
Denis

[retiredTech]

You need to report this to tech support,
this is NOT normal or acceptable,
call to report this EACH time it happens,
they will try some "tech checks",
after Enough reports of the same failure
then if it continues to have trouble,
you will get a replacement.

[ajiva]

So I called, and the first tech guy sounded like really didn't have a strong grasp of the english language. But eventually I got transfered to someone in "Advance Technical Support" and she said that it sounds like my receiver is dying. So I guess I'll have to get it replaced.

[poeppe]

Ask for the codes to re-format the hard drive. You may be able to save yourself from the hassle of getting a replacement. When I asked Tech support stayed on the line and walked me through the entire re-format process.

It saved me shipping costs and I didn't end up with a re-furbished unit.

[Bob Haller]

Ahh bad advice, if the HDs truly bad he will loose all his recordings again.

[poeppe]

Yes we all know that if he gets a replacement that there is no way he will ever lose his recordings again :rolleyes:

Its pretty easy to test after re-formatting, just record a bunch of stuff that you don't care about, fill up the drive then remove several programs and record some more. After a day or two of that and no problems your probably just as safe with the original receiver as with the replacement. Of course if you lose all your programs during testing then by all means get it replaced.

[Jacob S]

One should not have to reformat to fix the problem, the problem should not have been there in the first place. The only way I could see that a reformat would fix the problem if there was a corruption of software on the hard drive causing the events to be erasing repeatedly, but if it is not a widespread problem then it must just be in that receiver. I would think it would happen again even if you reformat it.

It does not hurt to try it to see what the result may be but it may be more of an aggervation than anything.

[TomCat]

Well, it could, of course, but its not any more likely than it would be to have it happen to any other DISH PVR. The problem with programs disappearing is a cataloging problem, which appears to be because the cataloging routines used for DISH PVR's are not as robust or bullet-proof as those for Replay or Tivo.

The cataloging part of the software that keeps track of what's on the HD gets confused and begins writing new files to existing locations, overwriting parts of old files. When the unit reboots is does a sanity check and upon seeing parts of files or two files referencing the same location on the HD, it deletes them both. The problem will continue until the confusion is cleared up.

Fixing it with the reset commands is not really formatting, but it has the same effect because it discards all media files and starts from scratch, ending the confusion, at least for a time. Its not all that different from what a good session with Norton Disk Doctor might do with your PC or Mac, other than there are no recovery options for corrupted files. Deleting all media files will essentially do the same thing (maybe not quite as thoroughly).

While very impractical, its not a bad idea to clear the HD every once in a while for this very reason. If you begin to see the odd file disappear, you will likely continue to see this behavior until you do something drastic such as this. That is a good time to get a DVD recorder and off-load everything important to you before you lose those files.

[P Smith]

I had this same problem on my 501 over a year ago. I lost all of my recordings three times, I called Dish each time and complained. They had me do soft resets and hard resets (pull the plug and the card) but the failures kept occurring. The third time they told me my harddrive must be failing and gave me an RA# but instead of leaving it at that I asked the tech support guy if there was some way to tell the receiver to re-format the hard drive. He checked and found a hidden command that would force a re-format. It was a little tricky to get it to take the codes but once it did, it re-formatted the disk and I haven't lost a recording since.

I would recommend calling Dish and asking for tech support, then explain your problem and ask them if they can give you the codes to force a re-format of your hard drive.

If that doesn't work, then ask for a replacement.

HTH,
DenisBTW, the codes was posted here; also the PVR501 or 508 or 510 have couple other test routines - search for DST-1 and DST-2 tests.

[poeppe]

At the time that I called the codes that were posted here no longer worked, they had been wiped out by one of the software upgrades.

I am guessing that my harddrive problems were being caused by a few bad sectors that were found and marked during the re-format process.

I also agree with TomCat that it is a good idea to remove all recordings from the harddrive once in a while, that should help to keep the drive de-fragmented.

[DarrellP]

Do you reset your PVR weekly? You must hold in the Power button for 5 seconds and let it reboot or it will continue to fail. These machines are computers and never get turned off and, just like Windows, they eventually crash. One of these days Dish will make this a standard procedure in the manual so they could eliminate 90% of their tech support calls. It would be even better if they could do an auto-reset after the guide download each night.

[Bob Haller]

darrell the 500 series reboot nightly if allowed. still things flake out now and then.

[DarrellP]

Mine does not reboot. I turn it off every night and if I do a lot of watching while recording, mine will flake out big time so I reset it weekly to keep it running smooth.

[Wolffpack]

Hey guys, I have DirecTV and DTivo, do you own your units or rent/lease them from Charlie?

[TomCat]

...I also agree with TomCat that it is a good idea to remove all recordings from the harddrive once in a while, that should help to keep the drive de-fragmented.

While I'm glad we agree, I don't think fragmentation is the issue. Most PVR's use routines that completely prevent fragmentation. My suggestion was to remove all files occasionally because a single corrupted file (or confusion by the cataloging system) can continue to cause other files to "disappear" (actually, to be deleted automatically in the sanity-check routine at boot-up) until that file itself is deleted. Deleting all files ensures that there are no such "confused" locations left and prevents such files from causing data loss in subsequent recordings. Its a little like removing a latent virus, in that it can continue to rear up and bite you until you clean things out.

Of course nothing can prevent the problem from reoccuring when new files are recorded, but since the cataloging routines are comparatively weak in the DISH PVR's making them prone to data loss, this workaround helps to minimize the problem.

Also, reboots will do nothing to help this problem. In fact, if you have a program that plays but you can't fast forward or rewind, it is likely corrupted. In such a case DO NOT reboot, as the program will disappear. Instead, limp along until you can either watch or offload/archive the entire program, and then reboot. Otherwise, the reboot will delete it automatically.

[P Smith]

Did someone with the symptoms the DST-1 and DST-2 diags ?