# How do I format my internal hard drive?



## BrianG (Jul 9, 2006)

I have a ViP-622 which seems to have lost at least two sectors. I can keep the bad sectors tied up on recorded programs that don't play, but once I erase them, the errors move to two other (future) recorded programs.

Can someone tell me how to perform a low level format of the internal hard drive? This should detect and spare out the bad sectors.

BTW, I am also a victim of the HDMI port going bad after more than a year of working fine. I never touch the receiver or the cable/connector so I believe that this is an active component problem, not a passive component problem (connector soldering issue) like some are talking about in other posts.

Thanks for any help.


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## RickDee (May 23, 2006)

Why not just get a replacement 622?


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

As mentioned above your only option is a replacement 622. There are no disk utilities an end user can run to recover bad sectors on the internal drive. Besides with a new box you'll most likely get a newer firmware, bootstrap, DNASP etc.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

EXTACAMO said:


> As mentioned above your only option is a replacement 622. There are no disk utilities an end user can run to recover bad sectors on the internal drive. Besides with a new box you'll most likely get a newer firmware, bootstrap, DNASP etc.


If you search around the instructions for having the receiver reformat the drive exist. Not sure if a lower level format will be done that detects and marks the bad sectors so they will not be used.


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## ImBack234 (Aug 26, 2008)

1. Menu
2. 6
3. 3 (the Diagnostic screen should appear)
4. Info
5. Right button
6. Left button (screen filled with hexadecimal figures should
appear)
7. Play
8. Play
9. Recall (message saying that the hard drive will be
re-initialized)


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## RickDee (May 23, 2006)

ImBack234 said:


> 1. Menu
> 2. 6
> 3. 3 (the Diagnostic screen should appear)
> 4. Info
> ...


Having just doing this last week, I can assure you it does not do a low level format at all. It is done so quickly that about all it has time to do is to zero out the initial tracks and make it look like it's empty. Besides, this procedure comes from a post about initializing the drive, not formatting the drive.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

BrianG said:


> I have a ViP-622 which seems to have lost at least two sectors.


How did you determine the loss of "at least two sectors"?


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## ZBoomer (Feb 21, 2008)

I had a wierd experience with my 622; when I first got it, over two years ago, I got a few errors over the first few months with disk errors, saying I should re-initialize, etc.

Not wanting to lose all my recorded programs, I blew off the message, rebooted, and went on with life. This probably happened 4-5 times over the first month or two.

Strangly I haven't had an error since then, ran perfect ever since. Never lost anything. (fingers crossed)


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## BrianG (Jul 9, 2006)

TulsaOK said:


> How did you determine the loss of "at least two sectors"?


I received an error when trying to play a recorded program. I deleted the program and found the error in another (future) recording. After a few time of this, I left the bad recording and I stopped getting the errors. A few months later, it happened again. If I delete the two bad programs, I get two new bad programs later. This is how I determined there must be at least two bad sectors.

Now, if there were only a way to perform a low-level format I could fix this and save myself and Dish some time and money.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

BrianG said:


> I received an error when trying to play a recorded program. I deleted the program and found the error in another (future) recording. After a few time of this, I left the bad recording and I stopped getting the errors. A few months later, it happened again. If I delete the two bad programs, I get two new bad programs later. This is how I determined there must be at least two bad sectors.
> 
> Now, if there were only a way to perform a low-level format I could fix this and save myself and Dish some time and money.


That's some pretty good troubleshooting. You might call Advanced Tech Support. They know several tips and tricks when it comes to things like this. Have you tried that?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

BrianG said:


> ...
> 
> Now, if there were only a way to perform a low-level format I could fix this and save myself and Dish some time and money.


Only if you open a cover and after hot-swap SATA cable, will connect to your PC and will run from bootable CD/floppy a program MHDD with ReMap=ON.


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