Hard Drive Failure?

[lgb0250]

Wife said she couldn't get any of her recorded shows to play. Checked it out and all of them had red dots next to them as if they were currently recording, which they weren't.

Did a menu reset. No help. Did a power cord reset and after what seemed like a long time, a screen came up saying the hard drive was being reformatted and she would lose all her recordings but retain her timers. That's exactly what happened. She still has the icons of her recorded show but no recordings to watch when selected.

We've only been back with Dish for a year and this particular receiver has already died and been replaced once. Guess the question is, is this one now fried? It seems to work ok right now but will it go out again soon and lose all her recordings again? This is just a regular hopper w/sling adapter. Haven't had any problems with our Hopper w/sling. I know nobody has a crystal ball but was this HD failure just a glitch or is it an indication of larger problems to come soon. Thanks

 

[ChadT41]

Could be either. If you had two go down in that short period of time, what are the details of where your boxes are setup

 

[lgb0250]

No special location at all. Just sitting out on top of a dresser in the bedroom!

Called Dish and naturally they couldn't tell me much. They didn't have me run anymore test. Said that if it had a hard drive reformat it should have fixed itself! They said I could wait a few days and see if it did it again and when I asked what good that would do if I continued to lose recordings every time it reformatted they agreed to send a replacement out. So now it looks like I will be on the third hopper in a year at that location.

I've still got a year left on my commitment but DTV is looking like they will get my business back again when it comes time. I really returned to Dish because of the auto hop feature and it's basically been decimated by network agreements. Also liked the sling feature but I can buy one off of eBay if need be. My HR34 was buggy but never crapped out on me. Had one HR23 go out over eight years.

 

[Jim S.]

My first Hopper didn't make it two years before the drive died. Its replacement was defective right out of the box, albeit not the hard drive this time. The third one is OK, but it hasn't even been a year yet, so time will tell.

 

[dishrich]

BOTH of my brand new HWS's (HDD's) didn't make it two years either; BOTH of them died within a month of each other...pretty pathetic IMO.

 

[ChadT41]

I have had the same ones since inception. Without any real major errors.

 

[lgb0250]

BOTH of my brand new HWS's (HDD's) didn't make it two years either; BOTH of them died within a month of each other...pretty pathetic IMO.

Funny. Haven't had any problems with my HWS even though it's in an enclosed entertainment unit that gets warm. My problem has been with the basic Hopper that's sitting out in the open with no air circulation issues!

My loyalty goes to my wallet so I have no compunction with switching back to DTV again when the time comes. In a month I could take an early termination hit of $200 and still break even after receiving the $200 VISA card from Dish for coming back. But, I will probably wait until the new HR54 is in full distribution. DTV was much easier to deal with as far as price breaks went after you are out of contract. Actually now that I put the numbers to it, it makes much more sense to switch back earlier rather than later. But I really would want the HR54 and it hasn't been released yet but I guess I could live with an HR44. Since I just went to my regular pricing with Dish, which is an additional $40 a month or $480 for a year, the $200 hit for early termination looks miniscule.

 

[dishrich]

Funny. Haven't had any problems with my HWS even though it's in an enclosed entertainment unit that gets warm. My problem has been with the basic Hopper that's sitting out in the open with no air circulation issues!

Even funnier, I have (1) basic Hopper as well...& haven't had a SINGLE prob with it - & IT was refurbed or previously used...go figure!

My loyalty goes to my wallet so I have no compunction with switching back to DTV again when the time comes.

(no, I am NOT going to start continuously posting this like a certain person does...particularly since it doesn't do any good...HOWEVER, with it almost being 2016...)

Quite honestly, I'm kind of disgusted with either of them, mostly because NEITHER one has added much, if any new HD in ages! I understand about only so much bandwidth, etc. etc...but E* just finished up doing that big 8PSK conversion on WA, so they should now have plenty of room to be adding at least SOME new HD. (they already have the room on EA...) Also, the signal level on the 129 x-ponder for our (HD) locals is MUCH lower than the rest of the national beams...so my locals always go out at the lightest of rains. (before anyone asks, no it's NOT a dish issue at my home; it's very low at any E*'s subs home I've ever been to...) But along those lines, the national beams on 129 here aren't exactly wonderful...& never have been.

As far as D*, they have 1 new bird floating up there, that doesn't appear they're going to be using for ANYTHING but possibly 4K stuff, that only a fraction of the sub base will even be able to watch! Then they have another bird D15 that is getting into orbit/testing as we speak...again, is AT&T going to actually have it transmit anything (new HD) in the near future, or is (also) going to sit up there flying around doing nothing???

So my only other pay TV choices here are either Comcrap or U-worse. Comcast, like most of their other systems, is a complete HD joke, so not even worth considering. I would actually consider trying U-verse, as they have one of the best HD lineups (channel-wise) that I can get in my area, but I already know about it's own picture quality issues, plus you can only watch/record 4 shows simultaneously...not to mention the highest internet speed I've been told I qualify for, is a staggering 18mg. (I get 125mg now on Comcast) I'm actually considering getting JUST the U-verse TV alongside my current providers & seeing if I could tolerate it's shortcomings. Problem is, you pay AT&T much more for TV, (after the promos run out) if that is the ONLY thing you get from them.

If I was in either a Charter or Brighthouse area, I'd switch to them in heartbeat, as they seem to be some of the ONLY systems that have a "robust" HD lineup; I would definitely use Tivo's for my DVR's, though. (just bought 2 cable/OTA Roamios at their summer blowout sale, so actually I'd be all set there)

 

[Rey]

Just had to replace the HWS in the bedroom due to a Hard drive failure. The one in the Family room is still going.

 

[KAB]

Just had to replace the HWS in the bedroom due to a Hard drive failure. The one in the Family room is still going.

Hopefully they have flushed out most of the bad Seagates by now.