# Is my Hopper hard drive failing?



## BamaATL (Jan 1, 2015)

Although my Hopper is not giving me any error messages, it appears that my hard drive is failing. Can anyone confirm my symptoms point to a hard drive problem.

Everything was working fine until this morning. 
I first noticed the guide would freeze for no reason and stay frozen for 8-10 seconds. 
I then noticed that playback of a "delayed/paused" broadcast would freeze for 8-10 seconds.
Live TV works fine.
I noticed I have the same freezing problem on all recordings.
It is very strange. The freeze occurs almost exactly every 60 seconds.
I have had a few random reboots.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## thomasjk (Jan 10, 2006)

Its possible that the Hopper is failing. Pull the plug and reboot. if the issue persists contact Dish.


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## BamaATL (Jan 1, 2015)

Sorry, I should have noted the resets.

I have reset numerous times including pulling the power.


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## RBA (Apr 14, 2013)

thomasjk said:


> Its possible that the Hopper is failing. Pull the plug and reboot. if the issue persists contact Dish.


I think you have your answer.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Run diagnostics for the drive, it been posted how to do that, by special remote buttons sequences


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## Llamaguy (Oct 7, 2012)

What is the remote sequence to run hard drive diagnostics? I'd like to re-initialize/re-format my internal drive - is that possible? Due to, I think, software glitches, my drive shows 70% full even after I delete all recordings. I don't think there has been a hardware error (actual disk problem) to cause this.


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## thomasjk (Jan 10, 2006)

Reboot the Hopper by pulling the plug. Note that PTAT recordings do not delete for 8 days(default). You can change this to as little as 2 days if so desired. You can't by normal procedures reformat the drive. If the issue persists contact Dish support.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

If it is preforming normally in al other respects, leave it alone.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Search and read here for the diag or reformat hidden cmds, keywords : browse, info, memory dump


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## Llamaguy (Oct 7, 2012)

P Smith said:


> Search and read here for the diag or reformat hidden cmds, keywords : browse, info, memory dump


I've searched for diag/hidden command menus, but don't find anything that works on Hopper -- what I found seems to be for earlier receivers. Does anyone know how to get a *Hopper* to reformat its internal drive? If so, could you please post here?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

did you *try* OLD cmds ?


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

If push came to shove, I guess I would try pulling the drive, connecting it to my PC and running Disk Manager, delete the partitions and then reinstalling it in the Hopper.
I have no idea what the outcome would be but might be an interesting exercise to see if it would cure the problem.

Probably not a good idea if the Hopper is leased.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

forget it - the drive will no spin up in your PC - MHDD could send separate cmd to do that


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

P Smith said:


> forget it - the drive will no spin up in your PC - MHDD could send separate cmd to do that


I would be surprised if that happened. If so, must be Hopper specific drives, as I have pulled drives from older Dish receivers and reformatted them on my PC. If my memory is correct, it was from a Dish 721 and Dish 921.


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## Llamaguy (Oct 7, 2012)

P Smith said:


> did you *try* OLD cmds ?


Yes, I did try what I could find. But on the Hopper, you just get into the graphical tiled menu screen when you hit Menu, 6, 3, and Info do nothing, and right/left just highlights the tile to the right, and then back to the left....


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Darn ! Tthey changed the sequence .... need to wait when someone got knowledgeable tech online who will reveal new cmds;
would you call tech support and be persistent to get the buttons? Actually, do insist on making tests and reformat your drive by your reasons and pull their knowledge out !
I'm 100% sure, the SMART tests (perhaps reformat too) are still there, inside of H's FW.


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## hasbeen29650 (Mar 25, 2012)

One of my HWS started to have freezes and screen breakup when replaying recorded shows including shows that were recorded months ago when everything was working fine. Replacement is on the way after spending some time with tech support. Hard drive seems to be failing. Ugh. Lost a bunch of recordings but nothing I can do about it now.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Unlike SSDs, mechanical hard drives are sensitive to vibration and movement, but are especially sensitive to heat. Ideally, you want a hard drive to have a temperature no greater than 30°C (86°F). If the information from one of my Hoppers can be believed, the internal hard drive is running:

HDD High Temp...: 118°F (47.7°C)
HDD Low Temp....: 64°F (17.7°C)
HDD Average Temp: 109°F (42.7°C) 
Which, from a hard drive longevity standpoint isn't good. Likewise, the heat doesn't help the PCB components. There just isn't adequate airflow. But, from a 'we'll have a new receiver out in a couple of years' and 'most won't fail right away' standpoint, I guess it is an acceptable risk DISH is willing to take.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

If you'll read some of my old posts dedicated to small research of H's air flow and my personal solution (owned H that time) you will know why is that temp is high, why the model sometimes (hot summers) freezing, etc

BTW, HDD could give up int temp, but mechanically could be broken; it's matter of FW of DVR and/or the HDD model


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## icmoney (Jul 29, 2006)

Here is some info I can share. I own all my Dish equipment, by my choice. A couple of weeks ago I started getting the HDD failure notice on my HWS. I opened the case and got the HDD info and ordered an exact model for $65.(Seagate 2TB Pipeline HD) I installed new HDD and hooked Hopper back up and it recognized and formated new HDD and works good as new. When first powered up, a little window pops up near bottom of screen with progress bar showing it is formatting unit.

When I first got the 311 error I copied everything off to my EHD, so I was fortunate not to lose anything. Also, I learned the HWS will function as a Non-DVR unit without the internal HDD even installed with guide info still available. I don't know if that would still be the case after the nightly update/reboot, as I had to install my spare Hopper to use while I waited on part.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Afterwards, did you test the old hard drive on a computer to see if it was really going bad?


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## icmoney (Jul 29, 2006)

Blowgun said:


> Afterwards, did you test the old hard drive on a computer to see if it was really going bad?


Not yet, but I will this next week when I have my Server opened up for some hardware upgrade. The only thing I have for external testing is an old BlacX dock and it can not handle HDD over 1TB. I will give feedback on what I find.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Best SW to test is MHDD booted from CD or USB stick, get SMART then run Scan with Remap ON, then other SMART, use SATA port in your PC.


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## hasbeen29650 (Mar 25, 2012)

Well my other HWS failed this week Tuesday. Same issue, screen freezing every minute or two for about 10 seconds. This happens on previously recorded stuff. On new recordings it freezes and pixilates. Exact same as the one that failed last week (I have two HWS). Live TV looks fine. I can watch a live show and it is fine, the recording made of the show at the same time has all the issues. The replacement for the first failing unit started showing a couple of pauses last night while watching a recorded show, just one or two and they did not last as long but we are hyper sensitive now. 

Anyway, having lost all of my recordings of both DVRs I have given up. I called the local cable company and signed up for the bundle. I already use there internet. I also ordered a TiVo pro and a couple of minis since the local cable company has awful DVRs. I will save over $100 for month for more HD channels, plus get landline phone service. That will pay back the TiVos the first year. The second year I save $80 a month and that is pure savings. After that it is only $50 a month cheaper. I knew I could save money all along but stuck with Dish to keep my catalog of saved programs, Hopper being better, etc. The constant price increases (I am up over $40 a month from where I started 6 years ago) and now the hardware failures just made me bite the bullet and leave. I really did not want this hassle with the change but....


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## icmoney (Jul 29, 2006)

icmoney said:


> Not yet, but I will this next week when I have my Server opened up for some hardware upgrade. The only thing I have for external testing is an old BlacX dock and it can not handle HDD over 1TB. I will give feedback on what I find.


OK, I tried the "Bad" HWS HDD in Windows just using Drive Management. HDD did not show on list. Next I ran Seagate Seatools and it recognised the HDD with unidentified partition. I was able to delete partition and reformat to NTFS and I ran several test from Seatools and all passed without errors. I guess it could have been just corrupted file system that caused HDD failure error. If I had know how to initiate HDD reformat before I swapped HDD, it may have fixed it. Anyway, I don't care to delve to deep into it. Even though old drive seems to be OK, I don't think I would trust it to reinstall into a HWS at this point. Anyway all is well now.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

I'm starting to think that there is something else going on. I have two HWS receivers and first the one I primarily use to record and watch started having the pixelation problem randomly while watching recorded programs. Note: It seems like it is only the picture and yet the sound continues OK.
I have switched and am now using the second HWS and it is starting to do the same thing. So far it only has happened a couple of times but does make me nervous.
Seems like it is in the realm of possibility that something in the software/firmware in the receivers is causing this and not an actual failure of the hard drives.

I have a spare Seagate drive which I am going to install in one of my receivers but am hoping, and wishing, that we would find, or hear from Dish on this subject. Seems like too many people are having this problem now.


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