# ViP722 fails on reboot: can recordings be salvaged?



## swlee (Mar 15, 2008)

Hi,
Long time lurker - first time poster ... I apologize if this has been addressed previously - I did try searching but found nothing that really addressed my issue. I'll also apologize in advance for being wordy ....

I've had a ViP722 since early Dec. 07, and it's been mostly trouble-free during that time. It's well-ventilated (sitting on top of my TV riser by itself ...), and it gets turned off every night at bedtime. However, early on 3/11/08, I heard the 722's fan running very loudly. When I turned on my TV, there was a *Warning 061 / boot recovery* message. The progress bar was about 75% complete, but after leaving it for about an hour, it hadn't moved. I called Dish Tech Support, and they had me try resetting by holding in the power button (no response to that or any button pushes on the front panel or the remote) then reset by unplugging the power cord. That seemed to restart the 722; it came up with the same warning screen, and the progress bar slowly began to advance. After about 30 minutes it froze in the same spot as before. Called Tech Support again, and they had me go through the same procedure. We also tried disconnecting the satellite feed and power cycling again to see if it would come up with the *acquiring signal* screen; it seemed to go straight to the *Warning 061* screen. I left it running overnight, but it was frozen again the next morning. So, my third call to Tech Support resulted in them sending a replacement 722. That arrived yesterday, and seems to be operating normally.

I had about 30 hours of prime-time HD shows recorded on the internal drive. I am using an external USB drive as well, but had not moved everything from the internal drive off to the "archive". Tech Support said that there was no way to recover the contents of the internal hard drive - I just have to send the old 722 back. They could not tell me if this problem resulted from a failed hard drive (if so - I understand the recordings are lost) or some other failure (in which case, it would seem that the programs are still on the HD). Since the 722 does support external hard drives, my hope was that the drive from the failed unit could be attached to the new 722 (perhaps using a standard external HD "enclosure", as you would to reuse a laptop's HD...) to recover the programs. The Tech Support people I talked with (I went through a couple) admitted they weren't really familiar with the internal details of the 722 hardware, but that Dish's policy was just to replace the 722 with another one. They said it was impossible to actually talk with a tech who worked on these units and was familiar with the details of the hardware.

So, before I give up and admit three months of recordings are lost, I'd like to ask you folks for your insights:
1) If the hard drive is intact, is there any way to recover the recordings (either to another 722 or an external drive)? Or, 
2) Is there any way to get Dish to just repair the old 722, then return it to me with the contents of the HD intact? I understand that'd be way out of the ordinary, but I'm nothing if not an optimist!

Thanks for any ideas any of you might have!

Steve


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