# Another HD-Tivo bites the dust



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Well, I may have to amend my "glowing" review of the HD-Tivo. As some of you may know, one year ago this month I purchased my HD-Tivo. Due to a hard drive problem, it was replaced last September.

Last night when I got home from work, the box was making a loud clicking noise. Being a computer geek, I knew exactly what it was right off the bat. The hard drive had gone bad. The unit would not even boot up.

I called DirecTV and they said that a technician would be at my house the next day. I pointed out that I am just outside of the 1 year warranty period. Then I asked would it be easier if I took my HD-Tivo back to the store where I bought it (Circuit City). They said yes. If CC finds something wrong, they will replace it under the extended warranty. 

Then I called CC and they told me to simply take the unit (no box, cables or access card) to the store to get it exchanged. Fair enough.

I got to the store and after a few phone calls by the customer service rep, I was walking out the door with a new unit.

This whole process only took about an hour. I just thank the stars that I purchased an extended warranty. It definitely saved me some money. I encourage everyone reading this to either purchase the extended warranty (if possible) or go on DirecTV's protection plan. 

Now that I'm on my third unit after 1 year, I'm starting to wonder about the quality issues with the HD-Tivo. The hard drives should be lasting much longer than 8 months. I have to admit though, software wise, the unit has worked flawlessly. Now if the hardware would measure up to the software, it would be excellent receiver.


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## Capmeister (Sep 16, 2003)

I've had mine since Feb. Maybe I should think about the D* coverage plan?


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Chris- You should consider using multiple hard drives.

If I begin to experience HD problems with my HR10-250, the first thing I will be doing is swapping out the hard drive. Hey, it's mechanical and bound to fail.

Additionally, I have removed my hard drives from the case itself. This allows the HR10-250 to operate much cooler, protecting other components. I then have a fan on the external drives.










see the dual hard drives on the right of the HR10-250


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Hi Don,

Thanks for posting the pic! I thought about doing that very thing but I didn't want to void the warranty. My extended warranty runs through 2007. Even though I did lose a couple of shows this time around, there was nothing really important. I usually keep my hard drive relatively clean with no more than 2 or 3 unwatched shows. 

It is very tempting to "exteriorize" the hard drive but as long as I can have anything replaced for free, I'm going to take it. 

Cap,

You still have several more months on your 1 year warranty from DirecTV so getting the coverage plan would be a waste unless you want your entire system covered.


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## Capmeister (Sep 16, 2003)

Chris Blount said:


> Hi Don,
> 
> Thanks for posting the pic! I thought about doing that very thing but I didn't want to void the warranty. My extended warranty runs through 2007. Even though I did lose a couple of shows this time around, there was nothing really important. I usually keep my hard drive relatively clean with no more than 2 or 3 unwatches shows.
> 
> ...


Yeah, true. And I don't want it all covered.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

I guess I'm lucky, no HDMI/DVI or other problems with my 12 month old HR10-250.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

RAD said:


> I guess I'm lucky, no HDMI/DVI or other problems with my 12 month old HR10-250.


That's great! Good for you. The only thing that really screwed me up this time was that I didn't write down my season passes. The last time the hard drive failed, I had some warning signals (pixelation etc.) so I went in and wrote all of them down. This time, no warning. The hard drive died quickly.

My season pass list doesn't change too much over time so I think from now on I'm going to keep a written list handy.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Speaking of warranty, one always has to weigh the convenience and performance advantages against warranty issues.










So what I did was make sure the original hard drive was put away in a safe place and then made sure nothing was permanently ruined or modified. I can put everything back the way it was. I made sure I didn't disturb any painted screws or other stickers that say warranty voided if broken. Also, I have a complete set of photos showing how the box looked before removal of the drive.

I only ever lost my DVI connection once and was able to recover it with reseating the DVI daughter board and fixing the copper spring clip the way it was supposed to be. I think many of the HDTIVO's with this problem are because the daughter card wasn't installed properly.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Good stuff Don. Thanks! If I lose the hard drive again, I may just try that. Like I said, this time I didn't lose much but the next time may be different.


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## gglockner (Mar 25, 2004)

Except that this won't solve your season pass problems, Chris.


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## Tusk (Nov 14, 2002)

Sorry to hear about all your problems Chris. I'm still on my first HDTivo that I bought last June. It's working great so hopefully I'm not setting myself up for problems by posting this.  I too have the Circuit City warranty so glad to hear getting a replacement is easy.


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## hxl7 (Nov 10, 2005)

Hello Chris,

I am about to go with either Dish and the 942 or Directv and their HD DVR.
Having used both, do you have any recommendations ?

Thank you!



Chris Blount said:


> Well, I may have to amend my "glowing" review of the HD-Tivo. As some of you may know, one year ago this month I purchased my HD-Tivo. Due to a hard drive problem, it was replaced last September.
> 
> Last night when I got home from work, the box was making a loud clicking noise. Being a computer geek, I knew exactly what it was right off the bat. The hard drive had gone bad. The unit would not even boot up.
> 
> ...


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## DaveTinNY (Nov 8, 2004)

so changing/adding a hard drive appears to be about as easy as it is on a home PC, no? Do you just Master/Slave the multiple drives?


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

DaveTinNY said:


> so changing/adding a hard drive appears to be about as easy as it is on a home PC, no? Do you just Master/Slave the multiple drives?


Replacing the HDD is very easy, either MFS restore or DD the old drive onto the new drive and then run MFSadd.

Adding another drive requires that you "bless" the second drive - use some software that I have no real experience with. You can find a lot of info on the internet about this subject or from a few of the "fellas" in here.


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## newsposter (Nov 13, 2003)

Chris Blount said:


> That's great! Good for you. The only thing that really screwed me up this time was that I didn't write down my season passes. The last time the hard drive failed, I had some warning signals (pixelation etc.) so I went in and wrote all of them down. This time, no warning. The hard drive died quickly.
> 
> My season pass list doesn't change too much over time so I think from now on I'm going to keep a written list handy.


Do you have a DVD burner with a hard drive? Or even without? Every once in a while I record my NP and WL and SP lists to my E80 in case something happens. Much easier than writing it down


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## Steved (Jan 18, 2006)

n8dagr8 said:


> Replacing the HDD is very easy, either MFS restore or DD the old drive onto the new drive and then run MFSadd.
> 
> Adding another drive requires that you "bless" the second drive - use some software that I have no real experience with. You can find a lot of info on the internet about this subject or from a few of the "fellas" in here.


What can I do if the HDD has already failed. I cannot get the machine to boot past the "Welcome...Powering Up" screen. Any suggestions?


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## Marino13 (Jan 16, 2006)

What is the process to get the upgrade/dual hard drive option to work? I was not aware that you could do it with this unit.


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## bpratt (Nov 24, 2005)

> What is the process to get the upgrade/dual hard drive option to work? I was not aware that you could do it with this unit.


The most simple way is to purchase an upgrade from: http://www.weaknees.com/hughes_hr10_250.php
With these upgrades, all you do is add the new drive. Weaknees has done all the UNIX commands to prepare the new drive. I added one of their 300G additional drives 14 months ago and the unit has worked perfectly since. I have about 72 hours of HD record time.


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## GunnySpook (Nov 17, 2005)

bpratt said:


> The most simple way is to purchase an upgrade from: http://www.weaknees.com/hughes_hr10_250.php


But watch out for Weaknees. Everything is fine if there's nothing off track from their documented install process, but if *anything* burps, they'll sting you. When you buy anything from them, you're equally committing to their policies and practices.

"Anything" refers to problems with D* (my locals wouldn't come up after an exchange of the HDD), or "anything" else whether it's Weaknees fault or not.

Then they'll try and get you for a restocking charge (20% as I recall) even if there is nothing wrong with their disk.

Very "That's our *Policy*, and we don't discuss it" kind of thing.

I won't ever do business with them again, but with D* moving to a lease policy, I wonder how long they'll be around anyway.


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## Danny R (Jul 5, 2002)

_Now that I'm on my third unit after 1 year, I'm starting to wonder about the quality issues with the HD-Tivo. The hard drives should be lasting much longer than 8 months._

They should, but I don't see how you can blame DirecTV or Tivo for this problem. THey aren't exactly making the drives themselves, but using standard drives from major manufactorers. I've yet to come across any major drive company that guarantees a drive that will NEVER fail, and have seen every brand bite the dust at one point or another.


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