OK. A front panel reset did nothing. I unplugged it to stop the clicking noise, and plugged it back in. This time, it did not come up with a message about a hard disk failure and to call Dish. It said installation step 1, then step 2, then "installing drive image."
It did. Hard disk is completely empty, every recording is gone. It downloaded from the satellite. I can enter a channel number, and it will go there, but there is no guide data, and channel up and down do nothing. I assume this will work itself out. But this is probably fair warning that this 721 is not long for this world. And to think, we hardly ever use it since we got the ViP622.
Wonderful receiver, the 721. When it works.
And more directly on topic- do they still have 721s to ship out under the DHPP? I don't want to give up my "grandfathered" status if they want to ship out a 625 in it's place. That's $5 a month I see no benefit from. Anybody get any offer other than a direct model replacement? That day is no doubt coming, I just hope it's not here yet. I really like the 721.