# Techies - Help please!



## evilcheese (Nov 24, 2003)

Hey everybody. I'll try and word this better than my post yesterday which I was told was not within discussion boundaries. I lost the harddrive on my DVR 510 with DishNetwork. This happened exactly 21 days after starting my service. (When I try accessing my harddrive, I get: Error - Cannot access this feature... or something to that effect. I also can't record, rewind, or access the channel guides.) I'm having a new unit shipped this week, but when I ask the representative about recovering the recorded materials, he said they did not offer that option. My question is - is there any way to recover my lost recordings - thru Dishnetwork or otherwise, or is that material really lost forever?
Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brad


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## Karl Foster (Mar 23, 2002)

Moved to Dish Network PVR forum...


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## Pete K. (Apr 23, 2002)

If the hard drive fails...the recordings are gone forever.
The only way to recover them would be to find others
who recorded the same programs. Perhaps a friend who
recorded the same program(s) would be willing to make
a VHS or DVD-R dub. A long shot...but the only solution
I know.


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## retiredTech (Oct 27, 2003)

I assume that you have tried all the reboots, since you are being shipped a new 510.

If rebooting, did not bring back your pvr feature, then the hard drive is corrupted.

It's a bummer when a hard drive crashes and loses data, 
had that happen on several home pcs but not on my pvr.

Not much consolation, but almost all tv programs are repeated
later.


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## frankctx (Nov 21, 2003)

evilcheese said:


> Hey everybody. I'll try and word this better than my post yesterday which I was told was not within discussion boundaries. I lost the harddrive on my DVR 510 with DishNetwork. This happened exactly 21 days after starting my service. (When I try accessing my harddrive, I get: Error - Cannot access this feature... or something to that effect. I also can't record, rewind, or access the channel guides.) I'm having a new unit shipped this week, but when I ask the representative about recovering the recorded materials, he said they did not offer that option. My question is - is there any way to recover my lost recordings - thru Dishnetwork or otherwise, or is that material really lost forever?
> Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Brad


well.. in the office world.. there are hard drive recovery companies...but and this is big......if ya crack the case to remove hd you will void the warranty...and in your case when you ship back the bad unit dish will charge probably full price for it,which will be on the next bill or auto pay(depending on acct. setup)..that in turn will probably get you po'd and you'll begin a nasty contract hassle.. in short i wouldn't


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## factory (Nov 10, 2002)

evilcheese said:


> Hey everybody. I'll try and word this better than my post yesterday which I was told was not within discussion boundaries. I lost the harddrive on my DVR 510 with DishNetwork. This happened exactly 21 days after starting my service. (When I try accessing my harddrive, I get: Error - Cannot access this feature... or something to that effect. I also can't record, rewind, or access the channel guides.) I'm having a new unit shipped this week, but when I ask the representative about recovering the recorded materials, he said they did not offer that option. My question is - is there any way to recover my lost recordings - thru Dishnetwork or otherwise, or is that material really lost forever?
> Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Brad


Brad - you may be able to find sources for your lost recordings. Someone mentioned other people; this is an option. If you are looking for fairly recent programming, you might try the USENET newsgroups.


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

Make sure you have tried actually unplugging your unit from the wall, then plug it back in ... then remove smart card and reinsert and try it ...

this recovered my 501 3-4 times in the past, when nothing else worked and DISH told me it was dead. I finally RMA(d) the unit, but the procedure/work around worked for me and would possibly allow you to recover your shows to record them before you new unit arrives.


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## Kagato (Jul 1, 2002)

Companies that do data recovery (like Ontrack Data) usually have agreements with various vendors stating that they don't void the warranty when they crack the case. Even if Dish allowed this the cost would be huge to recover the data. 

You could try going to the Dishrip yahoo group and see about ripping the content, but you still need to return the box to Dish at the end of the day to get a new one. Voiding the warranty is bad.


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## Bill Simonsen (Oct 4, 2002)

evilcheese said:


> Hey everybody. I'll try and word this better than my post yesterday which I was told was not within discussion boundaries. I lost the harddrive on my DVR 510 with DishNetwork. This happened exactly 21 days after starting my service. (When I try accessing my harddrive, I get: Error - Cannot access this feature... or something to that effect. I also can't record, rewind, or access the channel guides.) I'm having a new unit shipped this week, but when I ask the representative about recovering the recorded materials, he said they did not offer that option. My question is - is there any way to recover my lost recordings - thru Dishnetwork or otherwise, or is that material really lost forever?
> Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Brad


____________________________________________________
There are several diffo levels of attempts you can put into this, probably none that Dish would like....and all assume you have no fear of opening up your unit, (killing the warranty), as well as access to places online where they talk about how to fiddle with the software on your Echo* receiver. ATTENTION!!! If the info is crucial, don't touch the drive, you might only hurt the software. Go right to final step below!!!!

-First (and easiest) would to be to try and put a good copy of the operating system onto your old HD. If *that* worked by some minor miracle, you should be right back in business.
-Next. you might try, after installing and using the mew unit, putting your old data files onto the new drive. (This all requires a good working knowledge of a lot of weird stuff.)

-There are other steps, with the final one assuming that data absolutely crucial to you is on the drive. (Looney Tunes? A Shannon Tweed flick? But, not to me to judge you!)
In that case, there are commercial enterprises that make a living out of getting back 'lost' data. Find the one with the best reputation in your area and put yourself (and a chunk of your wallet) into their hands.
Good luck!

-Bill


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## mattyro (Nov 26, 2002)

I know this is the wrong question but..... what could possibly be that important?? and--what could possibly be that important AND IS NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE??? If this was videotape we could have anything on that drive but THE ONLY STUFF ON THAT DRIVE IS DIRECTLY FROM DISH NETWORK--whats up???


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## Bill Simonsen (Oct 4, 2002)

I don't know what could be that important, and my first thought before replying was 'nothing'- but it is his data, he's asking for help, and I figured I'd provide that before editorializing. Who knows?

-"Dearie, you save that movie that my boss wanted, or I'm gonna want that D-I-V-O-R-C-E, I'm tired of wasting money on your electronics crap."

- "Achmed- encrypted instructions for next attack are in that video he released this morning. Be sure and bring copy with you so I can run it against encryption device."

(I seriously doubt it also, but what the hell, somebody asks for help, why not give it to them?)


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2003)

-- That material is really lost forever. They will simply swap hardware with you and refurbish your old unit, probably discarding the hard drive. Sorry.



evilcheese said:


> Hey everybody. I'll try and word this better than my post yesterday which I was told was not within discussion boundaries. I lost the harddrive on my DVR 510 with DishNetwork. This happened exactly 21 days after starting my service. (When I try accessing my harddrive, I get: Error - Cannot access this feature... or something to that effect. I also can't record, rewind, or access the channel guides.) I'm having a new unit shipped this week, but when I ask the representative about recovering the recorded materials, he said they did not offer that option. My question is - is there any way to recover my lost recordings - thru Dishnetwork or otherwise, or is that material really lost forever?
> Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Brad


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2003)

You're missing the point. Before you get a NEW drive, you will have to send Echostar your OLD drive, unless you plan on keeping the old and buying a new unit.



Bill Simonsen said:


> ____________________________________________________
> There are several diffo levels of attempts you can put into this, probably none that Dish would like....and all assume you have no fear of opening up your unit, (killing the warranty), as well as access to places online where they talk about how to fiddle with the software on your Echo* receiver. ATTENTION!!! If the info is crucial, don't touch the drive, you might only hurt the software. Go right to final step below!!!!
> 
> -First (and easiest) would to be to try and put a good copy of the operating system onto your old HD. If *that* worked by some minor miracle, you should be right back in business.
> ...


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