# Scanning/reformatiing a DirecTV HR20/700 Hard Drive - How to?



## rpgibbs (Sep 15, 2007)

We have an older HR20/700 that is increasingly halting (the picture) and getting very frequent pixalations. Is there a way to Scan/reformat the hard drive to start over with a fresh hard drive?

[email protected]


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

rpgibbs said:


> We have an older HR20/700 that is increasingly halting (the picture) and getting very frequent pixalations. Is there a way to Scan/reformat the hard drive to start over with a fresh hard drive?
> 
> [email protected]


Select MENU *>* Parental, FAV's, & SETUP *>* System Setup *>* Reset *>* Rest Everything


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Select MENU *>* Parental, FAV's, & SETUP *>* System Setup *>* Reset *>* Rest Everything


The next step I'd take is to do the major disk scan. Reboot again and press the record button & down arrow on the front panel. Hold them both down until you see the record light come on and see the disk scan screen.
On a 300 GB drive this scan will take at least 2.5 hours.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> The next step I'd take is to do the major disk scan. Reboot again and press the record button & down arrow on the front panel. Hold them both down until you see the record light come on and see the disk scan screen.
> On a 300 GB drive this scan will take at least 2.5 hours.


Ahhhh yes...that added step will get them to the promised land of a "clean slate".


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Ahhhh yes...that added step will get them to the promised land of a "clean slate".


The reset everything deletes the files, while the disk scan [doesn't] gives one the confidence that the drive is in good shape.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

rpgibbs said:


> We have an older HR20/700 that is increasingly halting (the picture) and getting very frequent pixalations. Is there a way to Scan/reformat the hard drive to start over with a fresh hard drive?
> 
> [email protected]


If the drive going south, you cant make it fresh again, like face-lifting ?

Better take it out (for owned DVR) and use MHDD [DOS] or Victoria [Windows] to obtain initial SMART log, then do Scan/Remap bad sectors ( ~1 hour) and finally get pull second SMART log, then you will have some real info for final decision.

Using the button's combination it like making voodoo ritual .


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

Run the Built in Self-test (BIST) to try and repair your hard drive. To run the hard drive checks, please follow these steps:

* Reboot DVR via Menu -> Parental, Fav's & Setup -> System Setup -> Reset -> Restart Receiver
* When they see "Running receiver self-check" press select
* You will see "Entering Diagnostics Mode..."
* Select Advanced Tests Menu -> Hard Drive utilities -> Surface Test
* Warning: This process could take several hours to complete. You may want to run it overnight.

The good news is that every attempt is made to save programming. This is less destructive than a reformat all and could provide you with a more stable system if you are having problems that appear to be related to the hard drive.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Highly inefficient code to scan drives, while right specialized programs required 1-2 hrs - the code spending nights and days.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

rpgibbs said:


> We have an older HR20/700 that is increasingly halting (the picture) and getting very frequent pixalations. Is there a way to Scan/reformat the hard drive to start over with a fresh hard drive?





P Smith said:


> If the drive going south, you cant make it fresh again, like face-lifting ?
> 
> Better take it out (for owned DVR) and use MHDD [DOS] or Victoria [Windows] to obtain initial SMART log, then do Scan/Remap bad sectors ( ~1 hour) and finally get pull second SMART log, then you will have some real info for final decision.
> 
> Using the button's combination it like making voodoo ritual .





P Smith said:


> Highly inefficient code to scan drives, while right specialized programs required 1-2 hrs - the code spending nights and days.


I'm sure going through all the effort you're suggesting would work, at the same time, is it really needed?
The OP may only need to use the features in the DVR software to achieved the desired results. I've used the longer scan [the one I posted earlier] and had good results.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

litzdog911 said:


> The good news is that every attempt is made to save programming. This is less destructive than a reformat all and could provide you with a more stable system if you are having problems that appear to be related to the hard drive.


The OP indicated he wanted to reformat with a "fresh drive"...so now he has 3 ways to get there...


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> The OP indicated he wanted to reformat with a "fresh drive"...so now he has 3 ways to get there...


"The only problem is..." you can no longer reformat the drive. The front panel buttons that used to reformat have been changed to do the extensive disk scan I posted.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> "The only problem is..." you can no longer reformat the drive. The front panel buttons that used to reformat have been changed to do the extensive disk scan I posted.


OK...2 paths.... :lol:


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