# I lost thirty hours of content overnight...please help



## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

I've got a 510, and up to now I haven't had any problems. Last night, I realized I was getting down to around 30 hours left of recording time, so I went in and erased some older stuff like I usually do. After I got up to around 70 hours left, I stopped. I also went in and protected a few programs that I plan on keeping indefinitely just in case it ever got low and started erasing stuff automatically. I went to bed last night, and I had over thirty hours of recorded content, a majority of it new season stuff that I haven't watched yet, along with stuff I was saving. I just cut on the unit a few minutes ago, and now I have over 100 hours of recording time left, and almost all of my stuff is just gone. Other than a few random programs, the only things that are left are the few programs I protected. It feels like somebody just kicked me in the stomach. It just sucks. What could have caused this, and is there any way to restore any of this stuff? Any help on this would be very, very appreciated. Thanks.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

There is nothing TO do. Call in to let them know it happened once, if this gets to be a regular occurance, ask for a replacement DVR510.


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## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

Thanks. I had a feeling I was out of luck on this one. I emailed customer service and *****ed out. I doubt they'll be very upset. But at least they'll have a record of it. I just hope they don't come back with some canned answer instructing me to use a VCR.

I did a search, and I found that this happened to a few other people in the past, so I'm hoping it's just an isolated glitch. It still sucks, though.

EDIT:

I just tried to access some of the programs that are showing up as still present on there. When I do try to play them, the whole system just hangs for a few seconds, and then it defaults back to live programming. Whatever screwed up really, really screwed up. There is nothing left on there. Double suck!


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

No arguing that. I've had it happen once as well, but so far, that has been an isolated incident.


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

Have you tried a hard reset? My 510 has acted flaky before and a hard reset seemed to clear it up. I wouldn't hold much hope in getting back your recordinds, but it might make the future a little better.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

CDRU might be on to something. I recently tried plugging in all of my equipment to an Uninerruptible Power Supply. Unfortunately, it wasn't big enough to handle the load. When I fired up my audio receiver, it caused my 721 to spontaneously reboot. When it finally came back up ALL of my saved recordings were gone.

Well...I decided to hard reboot, just for the helluvit, and ...voila! All of the recording were back! I don't know if that will work for you and your 510. But, it apparently works for both the 510 and 721 in some situations for some people.


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## Snafu (Mar 1, 2004)

The exact same thing happened recently to me on my 510:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=33191

I didn't mention it in the prior thread, but I had also went thru a process of deleting a bunch of old content prior to the loss of programs.

The only thing I thought it might be related to was the software upgrade.


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## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

Thank you all for the replies. I've calmed down a little now, and it's nice to know that this is pretty rare. I'm interested in trying a reboot. I'm hoping that's not simply unplugging it for awhile. If so, I'm out of luck because I left it unplugged all night last night. Would someone please tell me how to do this? I tried a search, but I can't find instructions, only references to it. And what all is lost in a hard reboot? Thanks.


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

wastedyouth said:


> Thank you all for the replies. I've calmed down a little now, and it's nice to know that this is pretty rare. I'm interested in trying a reboot. I'm hoping that's not simply unplugging it for awhile. If so, I'm out of luck because I left it unplugged all night last night. Would someone please tell me how to do this? I tried a search, but I can't find instructions, only references to it. And what all is lost in a hard reboot? Thanks.


Sorry but you've already done it.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

Unfortunately, E* in no way shape or form guarrentees that the DVR will not loose your records, nor will they do anything to replace them.....That's why they say to back it up to tape if you want to save it. Sucks, but oh well. TiVo is the same way.


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## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

boba said:


> Sorry but you've already done it.


Well, $&*#. But, again, thanks to all of you for the help. I'm just going to hope and pray it doesn't happen again.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

larrystotler said:


> Unfortunately, E* in no way shape or form guarrentees that the DVR will not loose your records, nor will they do anything to replace them.....That's why they say to back it up to tape if you want to save it. Sucks, but oh well. TiVo is the same way.


It sure would be nice to have a port that you could hook up an external HD so that you could back up data. You wouldn't think that this would be that hard to do. You could probably charge more for it too. I'd pay extra for the receiver to have this feature.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

finniganps said:


> It sure would be nice to have a port that you could hook up an external HD so that you could back up data. You wouldn't think that this would be that hard to do. You could probably charge more for it too. I'd pay extra for the receiver to have this feature.


It's trivial to do, but they don't want to let precious recorded content get traded all over the internet, so there's no way to archive/back up the bits.

Fortunately for those who, like me, don't like losing stuff they've recorded until they're ready to delete it, there are other providers to choose from. Tivo gear has fewer bugs (plus unsupported ways to save content), and Comcast has receivers with IEEE1394 connectors (that work) that allow you to record onto a hard drive or a DVHS recorder.

But for most folks who don't mind the occasional order to pick up the soap, E* is a dandy provider. And they're almost competitively priced.

x


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## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

Well, my nice tantrum email got a canned response instructing me to call tech support. I explained what happened, and the nice tech guy did make me feel better about the whole thing. A lot of times, tech support at places will run you through a bunch of hoops only to leave you hanging with a "sorry that happened."

This guy actually explained to me things that could conceivably lead to loss of recording such as power loss during updates and recordings, static buildup, excessive heat, etc. I explained to him that I had the receiver hooked up to a UPS, thus negating the power loss possibility, and he conceded that point rather than trying to give me an excuse of possible UPS failure or whatever, which was refreshing.

He said he had personally never heard of this happening in a 510, not that it couldn't happen; only that he had never experienced one. He filed a report so that I could get a replacement if it happened again and so that they could be alerted if this started happening to other people. And I was satisfied. I guess that's all I was looking for, some reassurance and acknowledgement.

I checked my recording for today, and Smallville recorded just fine. As long as I can watch Kristin Kreuk, I'll be happy. So I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Thanks again for all the replies and help.


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## Unthinkable (Sep 13, 2002)

Make it a habit to protect every recording and timer you setup in the future. Its just one extra checkbox to check and is a no-brainer.


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## wastedyouth (Nov 8, 2003)

Unthinkable said:


> Make it a habit to protect every recording and timer you setup in the future. Its just one extra checkbox to check and is a no-brainer.


Unfortunately, even the stuff I protected got wiped. Granted it showed up as a recorded event after everything got erased, but when I tried to play it, it just locked up the DVR screen and went back to live programming.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

I bought a DVR recorder just for this type of situation. I certainly do not record everything onto DVD, but something that is very important I do. There was a very rarely shown episode of Andy Griffith that I have been trying to get recorded for over two years shown finally about a month ago. I recorded it on my 508 and my DVD recorder just in case of something happening as described in this thread. I actually have a triple backup as the DVD recorder has a hard drive where I also put the important program.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

Actually, with the 510, you can remove the HD and rip the contents to a DVD. It's a complicated process, but it is doable. Check out the DishRip forum over a Yahoo.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

I say kick it in the hard drive and give it a good ole' stonecold stunner


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

cdru said:


> Have you tried a hard reset? My 510 has acted flaky before and a hard reset seemed to clear it up. I wouldn't hold much hope in getting back your recordinds, but it might make the future a little better.


Never underestimated the bug killing power of a hard reset. 90% of my problems go away this way.........


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

garypen said:


> I recently tried plugging in all of my equipment to an Uninerruptible Power Supply.


Bet you don't try that again. It generally isn't a good idea to put high current stuff on a UPS unless said UPS is specifically designed for it. Given the choice between going into low voltage and shutting down, any good UPS should shut down.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

I have an APC Smart-UPS 700, and I have my Dell Precision Workstation 610 w/ Dual P-III Xeon, my 721, and my power inserter for my SW64 plugged into it and I am at about 40-50% load. So far the 721 has been working better. My next step is to get a better surge for the coax wires going into the 721, since I don't know what the current 1 is rated at.


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