[hehateme]

I have a 5 year old DVR model HR21-700. In the past 2 weeks it has become very slow and freezes randomly. It takes minutes to change channels.
I do have an external drive connected to it.
I ran the diagnostics on the internal drive.
The SMART Short Test passed.
File System Verification shows "Fail - 0x70"

I do have the protection plan. What should I tell them when I call them?
I have had mixed luck in getting technical support.
It seems to me that my internal hard drive is failing.

Should I remove the external drive?
Let me know if you have any suggestions for me to get the DVR replaced or repaired.

Thanks

 

[jimmie57]

Call DirecTV for a replacement. The hard drive is dying.
You might have to be persistant as some of the CSRs do not know what that error code is.

Your recordings on the external drive will only play on this DVR. You might want to watch them before calling.

Now after rereading your post it is a little bit more complicated.
I don't think the hard drive that is built in is relavent if you are using an external drive. The machine uses one or the other but not both at the same time.

Did you run this test on the external drive also ?

 

[hehateme]

I did try to run the short smart test on the external drive and it said that external drive not found. So perhaps my external drive is the one that has failed.
I disconnected the hard drive and restarted the DVR. Everything is back to normal. No more poor performance while changing channels.

Interesting part is that I did not lose my recordings. So in the past few weeks my external hard drive failed and my DVR switched to using internal drive. Since the external drive was still connected and not functional it was somehow affected the DVR performance.

Now I have look for a new external drive. Anybody has any recommendations for a reliable external hard drive that is compatible with HR21-700.