# PVR 721 Hard Drive Failure



## alanek (Apr 22, 2002)

Last week I turned on my TV( my 721 is always on) to see Hard Drive Failure on the screen. I re-booted and called tech support while it was re-formatting my disk.
The tech said it is actually a software problem and they are aware of this. Meanwhile I lost all stored programs and settings, however it seems to be working fine now.
I'm a little leery specially with all the new shows starting next week,and I'm worried it will happen again. 

Has anyone else had this problem and should I wait for it to happen again or exchange out now?

Thanks in advance
Alan


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

Time for you to meet our special guest...Bob Haller !


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## chris_h (Mar 19, 2003)

Been there. I chose to exchange mine since it was still under warranty.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

MikeW said:


> Time for you to meet our special guest...Bob Haller !


I recommend you request a replacement box because it will occur again.

Unfortunately I am the local poster boy for wierd 721 problems, having led the way discovering them....


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## gwynnebaer (Jan 20, 2003)

Ask them to replace it. It will fail again. Mine took about 72 hours, which was just enough time to spend a weekend re-programming all of my timers...Lost them again...!

(bought a wireless keyboard after that to make input easier)


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## pjmrt (Jul 17, 2003)

ditto, been there/done that - I chose to wait a little, had drive failure again within the week. Under warantee - so did the exchange thing


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I have done the ''see the failure and wait" plan hoping the problem would go away and it will just keep on agitating you so bad that you will eventually wonder why you never did the advance exchange when it first started happening. This pertains to a hard drive failure or pixellation issues.


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## treiher (Oct 24, 2002)

Well, I am now on my 3rd 721. Week before last, my 721 got real slow and sluggish. So I did a soft reboot. It hung up with validating hard drive . . . please wait . . .

It sat there for about an hour, so then I did a hard reset, and same thing. I let it sit there for about 5 hours, and then called Dish. Once again, though, I am happy to report they processed a no charge RMA immediately and I got the replacement unit last week. In the meantime, we got up the next morning, and the 721 was working!! I guess it just took all night to validate the drive. It worked fine for a while, but if I tried to do another reboot, it would hang-up all night again. I believe there was some kind of problem with the hard drive, but I never got the dreaded "hard drive failure" screen. 

Anyway, the new 721 is installed and working and no problems. I am very greatful to Dish Support for taking care of the situation quickly and very politely, but it is a little concerning that I am on my 3rd unit now!


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Are you using dishpro system?


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## treiher (Oct 24, 2002)

I'm using a DishPro Quad LNB. Two outputs go to the 721, and then the other two go to my other two receivers. Why? Do you think the DishPro equipment could be causing a problem?


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I asked because the first sign of my trouble was SLOW operation, then added non repetive skips, then pixeling, then lost tuner 2 and finally lost tuner one and two/

Changing the LNB fixed it all, although my signal strength was near 100 and a 508 ran fine on the same coax that caused the 721 problems.

I dont understand whats the root cause but I am wondering if most 721 multi box failures are dishpro?

Mine was the dishpro rather than the receiver, or so it seems...


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## treiher (Oct 24, 2002)

OK. I see your point. And I guess just because the 301 and the 501 are working o.k., that still doesn't rule out a DishPro problem, because of what you experienced. But, replacing the 721 seems to have fixed it! It boots right up with out any trouble now. Also, something else I noticed . . . the caller ID stopped working some time ago. I had forgotten about that, until it popped up when someone called last night. So it too is working on the new box. Who knows for sure what the problem was? So many things in there that can go wrong. A fixable DishPro problem would have been nice since I would have avoided losing all my recorded programs, but then I guess i would have had to climb up on the roof and replace the LNB!


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Hope that does it for you. Replacing the receiver fixed mine too, for a week or less. I am just pointing out the possiblity, in case it effects you


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## treiher (Oct 24, 2002)

Thanks! I'll probably try a few soft resets this week just to make sure!


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## mikey11 (Feb 7, 2004)

my hard drive just died too. I ded the reset routine and now it is working but lost all the 60 plus hours of saved shows. I replaced the hard drive with a 60 gig while I am trying to recover the lost mpeg files. I have my drive hooked up to my Linxu box and can see the partitions and data but have not got the data recovered yet. Will keep everybody posted onmy progress


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

My 721 that I have had for all most two years, had a hard drive failure as well. I lost all my recordings ,over 65 hours and all my timers guide favorites etc. I unplugged it and then did a smart card reset and power button reset and the hard drive reformated and the 721 is working fine again. Of course I had about an hour recreating all my weekly series timers again. I called Dish tech and they said there was no way they could tell if it would do it again . Just to wait and see. If it happens again I will be replacing it with the extended warrenty.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I have been having problems with my receiver working slowly at times, but perhaps thats at 3 am when the reciever is downloading new EPG data. Other than that it works pretty good. I am on my second 721. The first one had a second tuner fail.

If I lost all my recordings I would expect Dish to make up for it in a HUGE way or I would really have to consider DirecTv because I keep a lot of shows stored of my favorite shows and if I lost them it would totally irate me. With the bad customer service I have received in the past year or so I wonder why I am still with them sometimes but they do have their advantages.

If it did it once it will do it again, I can tell you that based upon past experience I have had with a 501 when I lost my recordings.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Recently my 721 has experienced major slowdowns. I am not generally awake at 3am and besides I doubt thats a download time like the old dishplayers were.

Dish CSRs are powerless to compensate people who have had serious troubles like us


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