# Your Disk Has Failed



## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

Unsure about allot of things in life but I am sure this cannot be a good sign.
After a lockup I tried to reboot from the front switch but all I got was this in reddish purple letters," Checking to see if ATE is present, ATE was not present or could not be run. " Then I get a pale blue screen that tells me that disk has failed, you still have some services available. It says to call Dishnet service. 

Can you help me out with this Mark?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Tom, email me you contact info along with this, and I'll send it to the 921 team. But you have to get it to be before early Friday morning, as after that I'll be on vacation for a week.


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## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

Thanks much!

Info on the way


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

This happened to me. The 921 can "fix" the problem by doing a power cord reboot. After pulling the power cord out for a minute or two (don't rush it) plug it back in and watch the light show! The 3 LED's (Red, Blue, and Amber) will start flashing one at a time over and over for about 4 minutes, then the 921 will do an automatic reboot. You'll see the "HDTV" logo for awhile and then finally the "acquiring data from satellite" screen. You will loose all your preferences and all scanned OTA's, however you should still have all your recordings!

This happened to me 4 times, twice in 215 and twice in 218. I just got a replacement 921 (my second refurb replacement for a total of 3 different 921's since November '04).

The last time happened back-to-back (I was still in the process of restoring my preference settings). I called the "magic number" for the 921 team (sorry I'm not allowed to post it) and #3 was on it's way. (BTW I'm still backing up recordings off #2 - I was able to restore it after the 4th crash. This is the most work my VCR has seen since the 921 first came into my life).


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## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

Appreciate the info amigo but unfortunately I have tried rebooting in many ways, even standing on my head but it continues to say in the end disk failure, although at least the few channels I do still get are the Voom ones and the other HD channels along with a couple SD channels and all the audio ones.





Update--

Thought I would do several more reboots just because I can and viola it is working for the moment.......

THX again Mike for the fight corner coaching 


Update #2 

It seemed to reboot correctly but now it turns on but with no audio or video which is what we look for in TV eh. I'm thinking this unit is fried but if I can at least get my recordings off of it that it would be nice.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

If you see the "acquiring data from satellite" screen but then get a blank screen try hitting the menu button and then 1, 1 (DVR menu). If you are lucky your recordings will be there, intact. I have been running my "fried" unit all week backing up recordings using this approach.


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## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

Yep I got that screen so I checked the menu and it was available soooo I went ahead with a check switch and found them manually which the unit wouldn't do on it's own for some reason. After finding the switches I was able to manually have it acquire the Sat's and now it is working fine for the time being.

I guess I will play the game for a bit at least untill the support team contacts me which they have not as yet. :nono:


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## borfhead (Feb 2, 2004)

Well, I wasn't so lucky...my drive did fail, as I could hear it clunking away...tried the reboot several times to no avail...called Dish and they sent me a replacement. Lost all my recordings though...big bummer.


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## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

Yeah I got the clicking/clunking sound myself and the disk has gone to the disk place in the sky. I just wish they would call me so I can swap this box out.


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## Rodney (Aug 22, 2003)

Just think how easy it would be to resolve this issue if E* was forward thinking enough to have resolved applicable security issues and made hard drives user replacable. I know there are those that are not technically competent to swap hard drives but for those that are, geeks like us, give us the option.

Hey E*, how about including this concept in future DVRs.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Actually, you can replace the drive in a 921.

But, you need a working drive to copy from, and a program that can clone Linux partitions (new versions of ghost).

Don't bother with the program storage area - they are encoded to the box.

I haven't tried this personally, but there are some threads that discuss it.  Might have to go visit the "other" satellite forum (where the "guys" hang out).


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