Genie hard drive died

[Claude Greiner]

Do I swap the unit or try to put in a bigger drive?

It’s a showroom unit, so no warranty from Directv. Pretty much buying a new genie or trying to swap the drive

 

[Athlon646464]

Save some bucks and go with a new drive. It will rejuvenate your Genie to like new.

 

[CycloneSat]

Go with the new drive.

 

[arlo]

I've scrounged up a few receivers from friends. Both death star and dish to grab the 2tb drives from them.
As configured they don't spin up in a Windows PC. "Power-up in Standby (PUIS)". So not sure how a new out of box drive will work in your Genie w/o a little pre-config.
You may have to refer to the link to reverse your new drive PUIS settings to work in the Genie. That I'm not 100% on though.
I'd be interested in how it works though.

Unlock DVR Hard Drives for Normal Use: A Guide |

 

[Athlon646464]

I've scrounged up a few receivers from friends. Both death star and dish to grab the 2tb drives from them.
As configured they don't spin up in a Windows PC. "Power-up in Standby (PUIS)". So not sure how a new out of box drive will work in your Genie w/o a little pre-config.
You may have to refer to the link to reverse your new drive PUIS settings to work in the Genie. That I'm not 100% on though.
I'd be interested in how it works though.

Unlock DVR Hard Drives for Normal Use: A Guide |

Unnecessary - the Genie will format the drive when it starts up.

 

[arlo]

Perhaps. And if swapping a drive out has worked glitch free, cool. The PUIS is at firmware level I believe, so formatting has nothing to do with it.
Wondering if not setting it up would leave one spinning all of the time. Just saying....

 

[Athlon646464]

Perhaps. And if swapping a drive out has worked glitch free, cool. The PUIS is at firmware level I believe, so formatting has nothing to do with it.
Wondering if not setting it up would leave one spinning all of the time. Just saying....

Nope - it shouldn't. Many, many have been installed without issue.

What happens if I put a 1TB SSD in my HR44-700?

 

[arlo]

It's all good. SSD not having platters spinning shouldn't have anything to do with it.
I was just pointing to the fact that nothing in a salvaged DVR drive installed in a PC will spin it up w/o a firmware command in the link I gave. Windows or Linux. In the DVR world it's different.
It's also been mentioned that SSD's aren't really happy with sequential read/writes such as in DVR's. I don't know. But I'd trust WD and Seagate in their explanation why.
Hey, if it works, it works and no worries here.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Any suggestions on a specific drive?

Can I connect an external drive?

 

[jcrandall]

I used to use these, 2TB and had the firmware programmed for AV use from the factory. Probably only used ones out there now, but I imagine you can pickup for $50 range used, $80 new:
WD20EURS

 

[jcrandall]

You can use external but only supports e-sata, probably not worth the cost to find one or the external interface.

To open the Genie, use 4 credit cards to hold each pin on the sides (two on each side left and right), then release final clip from the bottom about an inch back from the front panel (that's from memory of a few years ago but it should be close to right).

 

[CycloneSat]

It depends. How much storage do you want? Seagate Barracudas seem to more reliable, at least from my experience, though I haven't had trouble with Western Digital either.

 

[Jimbo]

Any suggestions on a specific drive?

Can I connect an external drive?

I would go with an External drive.

 

[Athlon646464]

Any suggestions on a specific drive?

Can I connect an external drive?

Yes - See the link in my post above (#7). Start reading at about post #446 over there in that thread.

 

[CycloneSat]

I generally recommend avoiding external hard drives.

 

[arlo]

It depends. How much storage do you want? Seagate Barracudas seem to more reliable, at least from my experience, though I haven't had trouble with Western Digital either.

There was a time when I swore by Seagate. Then 1, then the other 1tb SATA on my RAID died a slow but certain clickety-click death.
Another used for storage puked. All 3 just out of warranty. All I remember is I lost a lot of stuff then.
I went WD. Couldn't be happier.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I remember when Maxtor drives where the thing

 

[zcarguy]

So I am running an hr54-500 with an external 2tb drive. Would prefer to install the drive internally. Saw a video on youtube and it looks fairly straight forward. Its a leased unit like most here. Almost 2 years old. I know opening the hr54 is against the tos. Just wondering if there any tamper seals I might encounter like the HR2X's had. Thanks

 

[Claude Greiner]

So I am running an hr54-500 with an external 2tb drive. Would prefer to install the drive internally. Saw a video on youtube and it looks fairly straight forward. Its a leased unit like most here. Almost 2 years old. I know opening the hr54 is against the tos. Just wondering if there any tamper seals I might encounter like the HR2X's had. Thanks

I doubt they even care if you broke the tamper seals If there was any

 

[Jimbo]

There was a time when I swore by Seagate. Then 1, then the other 1tb SATA on my RAID died a slow but certain clickety-click death.
Another used for storage puked. All 3 just out of warranty. All I remember is I lost a lot of stuff then.
I went WD. Couldn't be happier.

In warranty or out, you would have still lost your content.

I'll never understand people that fill up HD's that large ... they are sure to complain if something goes wrong and they lose it.
They are not meant for permanent storage.