[Tubaman-Z]

I have an HR20 with a 2TB external hard drive attached. I noticed yesterday that the internal drive seemed to be making ominous clicking noises. I did a controlled power down (reset, wait for blue ring to go off, pull power), waited 45 mins or so and then re-powered. On power-up the DVR gets stuck in a loop of "Welcome to DirecTV"->"Almost there, just a few more seconds"->"Welcome to DirecTV". While it would appear that the internal drive is no longer working additional, specific diagnostic suggestions would be appreciated if you have them.

I really don't care about recovering the contents of the internal drive but I would hate to lose all of the recordings that I have on the external drive. I also make use of the OTA tuner in the HR20. For these reasons I would prefer not to have to call D* for a replacement. If I were to replace the internal drive with a blank one, would the system manage the formatting and such to the point that the box would boot up and the external drive would be accessible? I'm aware of the helpful docs on this site explaining such disk replacement.

Thanks.

 

[RunnerFL]

Just pull the internal drive, if it's an owned unit. You don't need it for the external to work. In fact once you plugged the external in the HR20 stopped using the internal completely.

 

[peds48]

When you did the "controlled power down" was the external drive connected to the HR20?

 

[Tubaman-Z]

When you did the "controlled power down" was the external drive connected to the HR20?

Yes. it was (and still is). Was that a mistake?

 

[Tubaman-Z]

Just pull the internal drive, if it's an owned unit. You don't need it for the external to work. In fact once you plugged the external in the HR20 stopped using the internal completely.

If the internal drive is no longer used, why would the box fail to boot? (I'm not questioning your assertion, just trying to understand).

 

[unixguru]

If the internal drive is no longer used, why would the box fail to boot? (I'm not questioning your assertion, just trying to understand).

Its probably just probing all attached hardware. You could try disconnecting the internal drive.

 

[Tubaman-Z]

Its probably just probing all attached hardware. You could try disconnecting the internal drive.

Fair assumption. I'll give it a try to disconnect the internal drive and report back. I'm currently rebooting with the external drive powered off but don't expect any different results. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[RunnerFL]

If the internal drive is no longer used, why would the box fail to boot? (I'm not questioning your assertion, just trying to understand).

When it boots it checks all hardware. Any hardware failure will stop the boot and give you an error. The internal drive is still there so it is being checked on boot.

 

[Tubaman-Z]

After finding my Torx security bits I opened the (vintage 2007) HR20, unplugged the internal drive, gently vacuumed up the dust bunnies as long as the box was open, reconnected everything, powered up the external drive, and after a bit powered up the DVR. Boot up went fine, rebuilt the scheduler list, and now all is well.

Thanks so much for the quick and useful help. And also the education about the check for, but complete uselessness of the internal drive.

 

[peds48]

Awesome. Thanks for the update.

 

[inkahauts]

After finding my Torx security bits I opened the (vintage 2007) HR20, unplugged the internal drive, gently vacuumed up the dust bunnies as long as the box was open, reconnected everything, powered up the external drive, and after a bit powered up the DVR. Boot up went fine, rebuilt the scheduler list, and now all is well.

Thanks so much for the quick and useful help. And also the education about the check for, but complete uselessness of the internal drive.

Um, if you bothered to unplug the internal, Id have just swapped the internal for the external and made it all cleaner...

 

[P Smith]

nay, don't bother ... it's cooler, than use internal

 

[inkahauts]

uh, it cuts down on electricity and potential points of failure. and its cleaner to install.

 

[RunnerFL]

uh, it cuts down on electricity and potential points of failure. and its cleaner to install.

Let him dream.

 

[Tubaman-Z]

Um, if you bothered to unplug the internal, Id have just swapped the internal for the external and made it all cleaner...

Thanks - good thought. If I ever find the need to open the DVR again I may install the external drive. As for cleaner - the cabling and external drive is all within a well ventilated cabinet, so aesthetics are not an issue. And it was frankly simpler to just plug back in the eSATA cable. (admittedly not simpler from a wiring diagram perspective)

Again - I appreciate all of the help on this thread - thanks folks!