HR24-500 external drive replacement advice, please

Hey guys. I'm a long term member that doesn't hang out much here, but I always appreciate the knowledge and info. I could use a little help from the experts.

I have a HR24-500 that was a replacement from AT&T for my previous box that died about a year ago. I think the hard drive is starting to fail on this refurbed box. Recordings will freeze up, and at the same time the drive is making these weird high pitched electronic sounds ......... similar to what an old school modem sounded like when transmitting. Unplugging/rebooting the unit corrects the problem for a time, but it always returns. I took the unit apart and cleaned the dust off the fan, which IS working properly, as far as I can tell, and is not responsible for the noise I'm hearing.

I've read quite a few threads here concerning an external replacement drive. From what I can gather the max storage supported is 2TB. Is this correct? Additionally, a SSD should allow for faster menu times, correct? Finally, I will need a drive that connects via eSATA, yes? I have also read where someone stated that AT&T may have had new updated firmware for these Receivers that messes with the eSATA connectivity ..... is this true or not? Lastly, if I go to a 2TB external drive the Receiver will recognize it and the internal drive will stop being recognized, so while I won't be able to access those recordings, the issues I'm now having should stop, yes?

Is there anything else I am missing?

I'd prefer to do this without breaking the bank, so any recommendations on specific drives that would work while being economical would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any and all help/advice with this request.

John

 

Typo on my part, heading is correct, body should say it is the HR24-500. Thanks.

 

When I took it apart I removed the 4 screws holding down the drive and lifted it up so I could easily clean the dust off the fan blades with a Q-Tip. I plugged it in with the drive still unscrewed and I verified the noise was coming from the drive itself and not the fan. I put it all back together and when I got it reconnected to my AV set-up and powered it on, it made the noises for about 5 seconds and stopped. The unit re-booted and has worked fine for the last 24 hours, noise free as well. I could be wrong, but I've been guessing that since recorded shows freeze, as if paused on a scene, the problem might be the drive failing to spin freely.

All this discussion of whether or not the receiver will work with the internal drive unplugged, or shot, now has me concerned, especially since my initial thoughts were to unplug it if I added an external drive, to eliminate the noise from the internal drive. Since the receiver recognizes and uses the external drive once attached, I'm surprised they still spin up the internal drive. You'd think they would just power it down. Is there software stored on that drive, other than just recordings?

I guess I'm going to limp along until it gets worse, then bite the bullet and try an external drive and see what happens. Thanks for all the responses and advice.

John

 

Thanks guys. It's only briefly made the noises twice now since I opened it up. I'll limp along here until it goes wacky again and probably go the 2TB external HDD route. "If" I could be positive that connecting the external drive would stop any more internal drive noise, I'd possibly spring for the SSD. There seems to be conflicting opinions on whether the issue would stop once I went external. Maybe I'll end up being a guinea pig on this one If the noise continued, it would be cheap enough to then replace the internal Pipeline Seagate 500 GB drive.

 

Good point. I could try the external drive with the internal disconnected. If it doesn't work, but works after reconnecting the internal drive then there is the answer. Of course there is still the issue of whether or not the internal HDD will drive me crazy with the noise, or be silent