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View Full Version : Made Use of R15 Hard Drive

saxon2000
08-31-07, 02:12 PM
So, D* and me finally reached an agreement on upgrading one of my R15's to the high def HR20 (**it was FREE** :) ) and there was my old R15 500, which I had purchased for $99 ( and had received a $100 rebate from D* at that time ) and was not on lease from D*.
So, what to do? Out of my four R15 receivers, this was the one that had given me the most trouble. Red button resets, clear everything resets, d/load code again and again and again, interspersed with periods of perfect performance. I think most of you know what I am talking about.
So, I thought I would take it's hard drive. It is a Seagate160GB with a 8MB buffer. My PC at the time had a Western Digital 80GB with a 4MB buffer.
The fact that I was using less than 40GB on my current drive did nothing to dissuade me. So I ripped that sucker out, copied my original drive and cloned it onto the Seagate from my R15.
It went very well, and I have noticed a little improvement in speed on my PC.
I am monitoring the SMART status of the Seagate hourly, and all is well.
I know that this is relatively easy stuff for a lot of members, but I hope that some may benefit from this post.

:preach:
ThomasM
09-10-07, 07:44 PM
So, I thought I would take it's hard drive. It is a Seagate160GB with a 8MB buffer. My PC at the time had a Western Digital 80GB with a 4MB buffer.

:preach:

Being in IT Desktop support, this is very interesting info!! I'm amazed that the HDD in the DTV DVR is a standard off-the-shelf unit considering how proprietary everything else seems to be.

Since the HDD is probably the most likely candidate for a failure, I wonder if you can swap drives BETWEEN DVR's? (of the same type, of course)
carl6
09-10-07, 08:42 PM
Since the HDD is probably the most likely candidate for a failure, I wonder if you can swap drives BETWEEN DVR's? (of the same type, of course)

Yes and no. You can swap the drives, but you won't be able to watch anything recorded on it. The recordings are encrypted and are only able to be decrypted on the original DVR they were encrypted on.

Carl
ThomasM
09-11-07, 08:06 AM
Yes and no. You can swap the drives, but you won't be able to watch anything recorded on it. The recordings are encrypted and are only able to be decrypted on the original DVR they were encrypted on.

Carl

Hmm. How about this scenario....

You have an R15 that you got brand new and took excellent care of but it's HDD finally is dying so you call *D and they send you a clunker "reconditioned" unit.

You swap the HDD, and send the clunker back saying your unit magically seems to be working OK again. Possible? What would you need to do-reformat the HDD after it moves to it's new box?
carl6
09-11-07, 09:25 AM
Easier than that - go buy a 160 Gig hard drive, drop it in your old R15 and do a reformat. (Reformat = reset then when first blue screen goes away push and hold down arrow and record buttons on front of DVR for 5 seconds.)

But yes, you can also do what you suggested (including the reformat).

Carl
Stuart Sweet
09-11-07, 09:39 AM
Assuming the reconditioned one was leased, wouldn't you be voiding the warranty if you opened it?
qwerty
09-11-07, 10:09 AM
Assuming the reconditioned one was leased, wouldn't you be voiding the warranty if you opened it?

Probably, but they'd only know if you volunteered the info.
ThomasM
09-12-07, 09:09 AM
Assuming the reconditioned one was leased, wouldn't you be voiding the warranty if you opened it?

Warranty? That only lasts 90 days anyway and hopefully the HDD (and the rest of it) will last longer than that.

As for opening it, I was so nosy when I got my first R15 I opened it up and peeked around minutes after the installer left!! If they don't want techies snooping around, they should take a tip from cable TV and use goofy "security" screws to secure the case. In fact, in my old days of dealing with cable TV, I learned that Jerrold (General Instrument-now a division of Microsoft) boxes even had a TAMPER SWITCH that would zero out the memory if you opened it-and it would no longer work unless you called the cable company!

I miss cable TV.....NOT!! :D
ThomasM
09-12-07, 09:13 AM
Easier than that - go buy a 160 Gig hard drive, drop it in your old R15 and do a reformat. (Reformat = reset then when first blue screen goes away push and hold down arrow and record buttons on front of DVR for 5 seconds.)

But yes, you can also do what you suggested (including the reformat).

Carl

Pretty tough to find a 160 Gb HDD for 20 bucks....(What DirecTV charges you to replace your unit with a reconditioned clunker). ;)
qwerty
09-12-07, 04:03 PM
Warranty? That only lasts 90 days anyway and hopefully the HDD (and the rest of it) will last longer than that.

As for opening it, I was so nosy when I got my first R15 I opened it up and peeked around minutes after the installer left!! If they don't want techies snooping around, they should take a tip from cable TV and use goofy "security" screws to secure the case. In fact, in my old days of dealing with cable TV, I learned that Jerrold (General Instrument-now a division of Microsoft) boxes even had a TAMPER SWITCH that would zero out the memory if you opened it-and it would no longer work unless you called the cable company!

I miss cable TV.....NOT!! :D

Some even go the simple route of a sticker you must break to open it.