# DirecTV hard drive



## Bob Z. (Mar 2, 2021)

I have discontinued my DirecTV service. They don't want my HR44-700 and told me to just recycle it. I have pulled out the hard rive. Can it be read/re-formatted, and/or used as a regular hard drive?


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## b4pjoe (Nov 20, 2010)

Yes it can.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Sure.

But! I would check its health before reusing - get GsmartControl program for that, pull SMART data [text form] and post it here - we will dissect it


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Bob Z. said:


> I have discontinued my DirecTV service. They don't want my HR44-700 and told me to just recycle it. I have pulled out the hard rive. Can it be read/re-formatted, and/or used as a regular hard drive?


Think of how old that HDD is. Think of the low prices of HDDs these days, like this Seagate 2TB drive: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barr...keywords=2tb+hard+drive&qid=1614713321&sr=8-3
Why use an old HDD when you can have of these?

Rich


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

it depend on its working hours and number of errors on the drive; could be good enough for next five years inside PC


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## Claude A Greiner (Dec 8, 2018)

Rich said:


> Think of how old that HDD is. Think of the low prices of HDDs these days, like this Seagate 2TB drive: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barr...keywords=2tb+hard+drive&qid=1614713321&sr=8-3
> Why use an old HDD when you can have of these?
> 
> Rich


I tend to agree. Especially in the case of an HR24 your talking about a drive which is 10 years old.

I am only putting solid state drives in my computers these days

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Claude A Greiner said:


> I tend to agree. Especially in the case of an HR24 your talking about a drive which is 10 years old.
> 
> I am only putting solid state drives in my computers these days
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I have SSDs on all my HRs. No more HDDs. I think if you get 3 or 4 years out of an HDD without problems, you've done well. Every replacement I've received in the last few years has had a problematic HDD in it; the HDDs don't last long in DVRs. They don't "fail"; they keep running no matter how degraded they are.

Rich


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## studechip (Apr 16, 2012)

Rich said:


> I have SSDs on all my HRs. No more HDDs. I think if you get 3 or 4 years out of an HDD without problems, you've done well. Every replacement I've received in the last few years has had a problematic HDD in it; the HDDs don't last long in DVRs. They don't "fail"; they keep running no matter how degraded they are.
> 
> Rich


I've never had a hard drive failure in a dvr. YMMV


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## codespy (Mar 30, 2006)

studechip said:


> I've never had a hard drive failure in a dvr. YMMV


DirecTV sent me a free HR24-500 for my PP upgrade last June. It would only run about 5 days and lock up- had to RBR every time. 2 months later I replaced the hard drive and never had a problem since.

So yes, they will even send out recovered DVR's with faulty drives to customers.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Perhaps the reason they do that is because --They no longer make New equipment --ya think?


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## codespy (Mar 30, 2006)

WestDC said:


> Perhaps the reason they do that is because --They no longer make New equipment --ya think?


Everyone knows that, but when the date stamp on a HDD is 10 years old, they could easily toss a new 500G drive in it before shipping it out. It would save another round of calls, headaches and returns thru the CSR's.

Unless of course they have no one qualified there to do the task.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

codespy said:


> Everyone knows that, but when the date stamp on a HDD is 10 years old, they could easily toss a new 500G drive in it before shipping it out. It would save another round of calls, headaches and returns thru the CSR's.
> 
> Unless of course they have no one qualified there to do the task.


As if they could care


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## codespy (Mar 30, 2006)

WestDC said:


> As if they could care


Everyone knows that too.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

codespy said:


> Everyone knows that, but when the date stamp on a HDD is 10 years old, they could easily toss a new 500G drive in it before shipping it out.


It may be folly to assume that suitable new drives are readily available.


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## Claude A Greiner (Dec 8, 2018)

Put an 8Tb In an HR44 yesterday. Works great!

What’s the largest in an HR24?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Claude A Greiner said:


> Put an 8Tb In an HR44 yesterday. Works great!
> 
> What's the largest in an HR24?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


2TB


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## codespy (Mar 30, 2006)

Claude A Greiner said:


> Put an 8Tb In an HR44 yesterday. Works great!
> 
> What's the largest in an HR24?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Like WestDC said a 2TB is the max. I would strongly suggest not using a 2 TB HDD, but a SSD to keep things speedy. I just picked up another WD Blue 1TB SSD last week from BB- they had a sale for around $90 with free shipping. Every DirecTV DVR except for the 54 series gets bogged down with HDD's (IMHO), especially when you increase the size compared to the stock drives they were shipped with.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

codespy said:


> Like WestDC said a 2TB is the max. I would strongly suggest not using a 2 TB HDD, but a SSD to keep things speedy. I just picked up another WD Blue 1TB SSD last week from BB- they had a sale for around $90 with free shipping. Every DirecTV DVR except for the 54 series gets bogged down with HDD's (IMHO), especially when you increase the size compared to the stock drives they were shipped with.


I am not thrilled with my new 54. That thing is as batty as a 24-500.

Rich


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Rich said:


> I am not thrilled with my new 54. That thing is as batty as a 24-500.


Describe batty. I've had my HR54-200 since 2015. Free space on hard drive never went below 70%. It's received dozens of CE software as well as national release software and has been a rock solid performer.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Rich said:


> I am not thrilled with my new 54. That thing is as batty as a 24-500.
> 
> Rich


I also have had a HR54-200 since 2015 and it's rock solid

TRY a Search on CLEARMYBOX and see if that clears batty


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

MysteryMan said:


> Describe batty.


I second this request. One man's "batty" may be a "business decision" and neither DIRECTV nor AT&T are immune to seemingly ill-conceived business decisions.

I don't mean to suggest that the software is anywhere near flawless but it is a complex system that has been made much more complicated by some of the aforementioned business decisions as well as marketroids that promise more than might be consistently delivered.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

My HR54 has been just about flawless.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

WestDC said:


> I also have had a HR54-200 since 2015 and it's rock solid
> 
> TRY a Search on CLEARMYBOX and see if that clears batty


Assume I did the obvious things.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Okay, here's what happened: I got the 54 a couple of months ago, and it stopped working several times; a reboot brought it back each time. I have no idea what caused that. A few days ago, I tried to watch a game I had recorded on one of my 24s, and I could not see any of the shows recorded on the 54. The 54 was running, and I could play all the content that was recorded on it. A reboot cured that problem.

I left the 24 and went to the family room, where the 54 is, and started watching a Yankees game. The 54 would not accept remote commands. I tried a few, and nothing happened. This has happened several times on 24-500s. The DVR refused to accept remote commands. I had replaced every 24-500 when that happened. I like the 24-500s, but they can be wacky. I rebooted the 54.

The reboot did nothing. I could watch live TV, but I still had no luck with the remote commands. I sat there watching the news and finally gave up. I started to watch a program online, but I wondered if the SSD on the 54 was causing the problem. So, I took the SSD out of the equation and used the internal drive. I had to reboot again to do that. Nothing changed. Switched back to the SSD, another reboot. Nothing changed.

Once again, I'm sitting there watching the news, and the remote commands are still ignored (I did change the batteries in the remote when all this began). I tried a new remote; it had to be the remote. Nope, the same thing happened. Time for a replacement? I made the call. Suddenly, I see what looks like a 30-second click happen, and then a cascade of remote commands happened. All the commands I had put in came down at one time. That is something I've never seen on a 24-500. 

Now, I have the CSR on the line, and I'm talking to her and trying the remote, and it's working. I apologized and hung up. The 54 has worked correctly since that day. I was told the 54 was new; it's actually a refurb. If this happens again, it's going back. As soon as I could use the remote, I did the CLEARMYBOX thing; I have no idea if that helped. I can't think of anything else I could have done.

I'm sure the HDD is not to blame, and the SSD certainly didn't cause it. A refurb is a refurb; it was returned for a reason. I don't have a lot of faith in the refurbishing process; in this case, it has to be the box itself, I think.

Rich


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Rich said:


> A refurb is a refurb; it was returned for a reason.


A functional returned unit comes back with most HR54 account terminations. It isn't reasonable to assume that a significant number of those returns were defective.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Rich said:


> Okay, here's what happened: I got the 54 a couple of months ago, and it stopped working several times; a reboot brought it back each time. I have no idea what caused that. A few days ago, I tried to watch a game I had recorded on one of my 24s, and I could not see any of the shows recorded on the 54. The 54 was running, and I could play all the content that was recorded on it. A reboot cured that problem.
> 
> I left the 24 and went to the family room, where the 54 is, and started watching a Yankees game. The 54 would not accept remote commands. I tried a few, and nothing happened. This has happened several times on 24-500s. The DVR refused to accept remote commands. I had replaced every 24-500 when that happened. I like the 24-500s, but they can be wacky. I rebooted the 54.
> 
> ...


Back in 2010 When I installed D* at that time the HR24-500 Were problems (seams the MFJ of 500 series) has always had an issue --DID you do the clearmybox thine before you called?


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

Rich said:


> Okay, here's what happened: I got the 54 a couple of months ago, and it stopped working several times; a reboot brought it back each time. I have no idea what caused that. A few days ago, I tried to watch a game I had recorded on one of my 24s, and I could not see any of the shows recorded on the 54. The 54 was running, and I could play all the content that was recorded on it. A reboot cured that problem.
> 
> I left the 24 and went to the family room, where the 54 is, and started watching a Yankees game. The 54 would not accept remote commands. I tried a few, and nothing happened. This has happened several times on 24-500s. The DVR refused to accept remote commands. I had replaced every 24-500 when that happened. I like the 24-500s, but they can be wacky. I rebooted the 54.
> 
> ...


The "doesn't respond to remote commands happens to my HR44 on a regular basis (every few weeks or so for the past year or two). Typically it happens for about 5 minutes or so and then all commands that had been ignored occur back to back to back. Restarting or running a Clearmybox doesn't seem to alter the timeframe between "remote rejection" occurrences.


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## codespy (Mar 30, 2006)

Bill Broderick said:


> The "doesn't respond to remote commands happens to my HR44 on a regular basis (every few weeks or so for the past year or two). Typically it happens for about 5 minutes or so and then all commands that had been ignored occur back to back to back. Restarting or running a Clearmybox doesn't seem to alter the timeframe between "remote rejection" occurrences.


Just to clarify something here- Rich recently this week indicated his replacement was not a HR54, but another HR44 which he had before the switch. He regretted the error.

The 'doesn't respond to commands' statement using my remote control rings absolutely true for me when I used the stock HDD's with any of the HR2x series IRD's, including the HR34 and HR44 that I've had now and in the past.

My life changed when I switched to SSD's on most of my receivers. I now see the light, and the stars have now all aligned after the change. Life is now beautiful.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

It could be a result of new FW, nor SSD


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Bill Broderick said:


> The "doesn't respond to remote commands happens to my HR44 on a regular basis (every few weeks or so for the past year or two). Typically it happens for about 5 minutes or so and then all commands that had been ignored occur back to back to back. Restarting or running a Clearmybox doesn't seem to alter the timeframe between "remote rejection" occurrences.


I see that on one of my 24s from time to time. Codespy has explained my error on the 54, sorry for the confusion. I did have the same thing that happens to you happen to me. It hasn't happened again on the "new" 44 but I have seen it on a 24 that I use regularly. That's an HR24-500 and it does have an SSD on it. Doesn't seem to help and nothing else I have done helps, certainly not reboots of any kind or CLEARMYBOX. That 24 refuses remote commands and skips to the end of recordings randomly. It's clearly shot and I should call and get it replaced. I don't think this is a firmware issue in the sense that an update will fix it. It keeps happening with the 24-500s for some reason.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

codespy said:


> Just to clarify something here- Rich recently this week indicated his replacement was not a HR54, but another HR44 which he had before the switch. He regretted the error.
> 
> The 'doesn't respond to commands' statement using my remote control rings absolutely true for me when I used the stock HDD's with any of the HR2x series IRD's, including the HR34 and HR44 that I've had now and in the past.
> 
> My life changed when I switched to SSD's on most of my receivers. I now see the light, and the stars have now all aligned after the change. Life is now beautiful.


I have SSDs on the HRs that I have that problem with. It just happened once with the "new" 44 but I see one of my 24-500s refuse remote commands from time to time. It takes two clicks to do anything when it happens. It's not constant, that's kinda disturbing.

Rich


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

FWIW, I've used an external hard drive (not SSD) with my HR44 ever since it was installed. The "remote control freezes" have been occurring once or twice a month for the past 2 years or so.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Bill Broderick said:


> FWIW, I've used an external hard drive (not SSD) with my HR44 ever since it was installed. The "remote control freezes" have been occurring once or twice a month for the past 2 years or so.


Bill, in my experience, if you get three years out of an HDD without problems, you're a lucky man. I'm convinced that most of the problems we see on any HRs are caused by old HDDs. I have no idea how long an SSD will work properly, but in August, it will be three years since I started using SSDs. Most, if not all of my HRs, have degraded HDDs mounted internally, and if I had to rely on the HRs without SSDs on them, I wouldn't have any properly functioning HRs.

But, I do have one 24-500 with an SSD mounted externally that randomly refuses remote commands, and that is a problem within the 24, not the SSD. Simply put, I don't know if a new HDD or an SSD would help; it might be the 44 itself. The 44 I just got rid of had that problem, and I put the same SSD on the "new" 44, and that one has no remote problems. Obviously, the first 44 was the problem.

With all that in mind, I would suggest trying an SSD on your 44. A Samsung 1TB EVO SSD should give you about the same _actual_ capacity as a 2TB HDD, and the difference in performance will blow your mind.

Rich


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## Delroy E Walleye (Jun 9, 2012)

One thing I'm curious about, with the HRs that are "not accepting" or "stacking and then releasing commands all at once" problems:

Are those particular DVRs net-connected?

(Don't know if it makes any difference or not, just curious.)


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Delroy E Walleye said:


> One thing I'm curious about, with the HRs that are "not accepting" or "stacking and then releasing commands all at once" problems:
> 
> Are those particular DVRs net-connected?
> 
> (Don't know if it makes any difference or not, just curious.)


My 24 has never been connected and it was doing that.
It all stopped when I added the 1tv EVO SSD about 10 days ago.
Every remote button press gets a response.
I know, that is really weird.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Delroy E Walleye said:


> One thing I'm curious about, with the HRs that are "not accepting" or "stacking and then releasing commands all at once" problems:
> 
> Are those particular DVRs net-connected?
> 
> (Don't know if it makes any difference or not, just curious.)


Yes, all my HRs are on MRV. Not sure if it makes a difference but I have no easy way to tell.

Rich


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## Delroy E Walleye (Jun 9, 2012)

Rich said:


> Yes, *all my HRs are on MRV*. Not sure if it makes a difference but I have no easy way to tell.
> 
> Rich


I was thinking more in terms of internet-connected (which I should've specified). But I suppose whole-home could make a difference, too.

We have three whole-home connected units (HR44, H25 and an HR21) that are _not_ connected to internet. Then there's an HR20 that's not whole-home connected, but _is_ on the internet for OD.

Haven't noticed any remote command acceptance problems with any of these units. (The 20 and 21 have SSD, and the 44 does not.) But the 44 has started to become a little "sluggish" with its HDD filling back up. Sluggish, but not refusing commands,... yet.

(There are more units that are neither net or MRV which I'm not the direct user of so I can't comment on those for the purposes of remote-response problems.)


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Delroy E Walleye said:


> I was thinking more in terms of internet-connected (which I should've specified). But I suppose whole-home could make a difference, too.
> 
> We have three whole-home connected units (HR44, H25 and an HR21) that are _not_ connected to internet. Then there's an HR20 that's not whole-home connected, but _is_ on the internet for OD.
> 
> ...


All of my HRs have internet connections. The problem I had with the "new" 44 has stopped, but the 24 that randomly refuses remote commands is still doing it. I know it's not caused by the drive. I know there's nothing wrong with the remote. The damn thing refuses to take some commands. This has happened with HR24-500s time and time again.

Rich


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

there is a simple rule - if RC commands are "stacking" eg delayed and executed in same order later, then FW is the culprit, as RC or IR/RF sensor have no buffers to store them;

highly likely FW RC cmd processing task have low priority on a scheduler's list of tasks and/or other task(s) tightly occupy CPU cycles


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