Replacing hard disk in 721

[Faw]

My 721 died a few days ago with the "Hard disk failure" message and I'm out of warranty. I was going to wait until Feb 1 to see if I can upgrade (or downgrade) to a 522 but I was told that since I was in PR the offer wasn't available (same as Alaska). Why can't they just ship the receiver? Is there anything I can do?

Anyway, since my 721 is out of warranty I decided to test another hard disk that I had lying around but it seems that the drive must be 120GB because the 60GB Maxtor I installed gave me another failure. The only good thing is that I went to Maxtor site and the drive that was in the 721 was still under warranty so I'm sending it. If it doesn't work at least I get a new hd. Has anyone replaced the hard disk on their 721? Does it work?

 

[David_Levin]

I've never done it, but word is you'll need to clone the new drive from a working one (so your probably SOL).

 

[GaryPen]

Doesn't the unit reformat the drive, and write the OS to it, when it sees a damaged or blank hdd?

Faw - Couldn't you sign up for theit $5.99/mo warranty plan, and get a refurb 721 that way? You can always cancel it, after you receive the new one.

 

[David_Levin]

From my personal experience:
The only E* box for sure that could ever easily format a hard drive was the Legacy Dishplayer.

The 501/508/510 will only format/marry a hard drive if loaded with a special firmware load.

Word in these forums and at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishmod/ is that the 721 and 921 no longer require a special hard drive mating process (like the 501), but need a preloaded drive. Remember, these are Linux boxes - they need a hard drive to boot up.

People have reported that the 522 will format a blank hard drive when installed, but installing a larger drive does NOT provide extra space.

I guess we'll find out when Faw gets his new drive.

 

[GaryPen]

Word in these forums and at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishmod/ is that the 721 and 921 no longer require a special hard drive mating process (like the 501), but need a preloaded drive. Remember, these are Linux boxes - they need a hard drive to boot up.

If true about the 721/921, couldn't one just copy files to a larger drive, and drop it in there? I don't think anyone has had any luck with that.

 

[Smith P.]

I heard different - Ghost copy all partitons works fine.

 

[David_Levin]

Smith:

Have you herd anything about people putting in larger hard drives?

 

[phat_bastard]

.... the 721 and 921 no longer require a special hard drive mating process (like the 501), but need a preloaded drive. Remember, these are Linux boxes - they need a hard drive to boot up.

People have reported that the 522 will format a blank hard drive when installed, but installing a larger drive does NOT provide extra space.

If the 921 and 721 are anything like the 522, I seriously doubt that they execute anything from the HDD. Putting executables on the hard drive would have made these devices a hacker's playground (huge security no-no).

From what other's have reported, putting a drive in the 522 with a partition table that doesn't match what the firmware expects to see will cause the unit to re-partition and format. I suspect it uses fixed values for the partition sizes (in sectors), so going to a different geometry / smaller drive would likely cause problems.

Faw: keep us posted on what happens with yours.

 

[Faw]

When I tried to install the 60GB hard drive it displayed a message saying "Installing System Image, Stage 1...", then rebooted and displayed another saying "Installing System Image, Stage 2..." and then it gave me the "hard disk failure" message. So I'm guessing that it does repartitions the hard disk, but since it was a 60GB instead of a 120GB it didn't worked (I hope). I guess I'll find out...

 

[Smith P.]

Smith:
Have you herd anything about people putting in larger hard drives?

Yes, I saw a reports about using 160 and 250 GB disks, but the DVR721 will show only 100 hrs and total size of data still maxed at 137 GB - I think Dish using old Linux kernel what doesn't support LBA-48 addressing scheme.

 

[Smith P.]

When I tried to install the 60GB hard drive it displayed a message saying "Installing System Image, Stage 1...", then rebooted and displayed another saying "Installing System Image, Stage 2..." and then it gave me the "hard disk failure" message. So I'm guessing that it does repartitions the hard disk, but since it was a 60GB instead of a 120GB it didn't worked (I hope). I guess I'll find out...

I've seen posts out there when 4 GB disk used (!). Perhaps you did copy wrong ? What software you used, Ghost ?

 

[Faw]

Didn't copied anything...

I've seen posts out there when 4 GB disk used (!). Perhaps you did copy wrong ? What software you used, Ghost ?

I didn't copy anything. I could try to read the 120GB hd and see if I can copy the partitions. I'll try that today. I know it has 5 partitions (250MB, 1GB,1GB,128MB, 114GB). I guess the 1st is for the LINUX, the 3rd is the SWAPFILE, 2nd and 3rd who knows, 5th for the recorded programs.

 

[David_Levin]

Yes, I saw a reports about using 160 and 250 GB disks, but the DVR721 will show only 100 hrs and total size of data still maxed at 137 GB - I think Dish using old Linux kernel what doesn't support LBA-48 addressing scheme.

Hmm, I'm more thinking of the 921. It obviously supports LBA-48, and desparately could use more space.

So the 721 would attempt to format a blank drive?

(PS I don't think the 721/921 is anything like the 522 - I'm not even sure the 522 is Linux based).

 

[phat_bastard]

(PS I don't think the 721/921 is anything like the 522 - I'm not even sure the 522 is Linux based).

The 522 uses an ext3 filesystem, so it almost surely running some flavor of *nix. I wonder if anyone has requested E* comply with GPL guidelines on one of these boxes and heard back from them. I know they've published GPL compliance for the 721, but???

Another completely trivial fact that I'd like to point out is that all the newer models have an "L" prefix for their firmware versions here:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/customerCare/technical/software_versions/index.asp

However this doesn't necessarily mean anything.

 

[Smith P.]

Well, 322/522/942 using embedded DishLinux and freeing space on disk for recordings; rather 721/921 running DishLinux from disk, what will waist only 0.25+1+1+0.128 = 2.378 GB.
Funny, 522 and 721 have same 100 hrs limit and share same model HDD - 120 GB.

David, a subj of the thread mentioned 721, ne's pa ? BTW, 721 can't handle corrupted disk as we can see from some posts. Reports pointed to mandatory copiing of all partitions from good one.

 

[David_Levin]

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack a 721 thread. Since the 921 and 721 use the same code base, I'm hoping we can share some knowledge here.

 

[Smith P.]

NP, we have huge barrier for upgrade 721 - LBA-28, so tricks for 921 couldn't help 721's owners.

 

[Faw]

721 hard disk replacement - complete

I sucessfully replaced the hard disk in my 721 receiver. I did some test before closing the box to try to figure out what it actually does. This is the procedure with the messages it shows and next to it my educated guess of what it is doing.

1. Testing... - here it checks if the disk is partition correctly
2. System install stage 1... - found wrong partitions, or no partitions at all. It will automatically partition the disk with the 5 partitions: 256MB with linux os, 1GB, 1GB, 128MB with linux swapfile, remaining of disk (right know I have a 120GB again but it partitioned a 60GB correctly, maybe it will work with a bigger disk). After partitioning, it will reboot.
3. System install stage 2... - try to boot from partition 1, since it is empty it fails.

After this I restored the first partition with the Linux OS from a Ghost Image I created from the bad disk. I was lucky the bad sectors where in the other partitions. I installed the disk back in the 721.

4. System install stage 2... - It finds linux now so it moves to the next step
5. Installing new drive image... - I guess it initializes the other partitions to the factory settings
6. Installation complete , please reset your receiver - After the reset, just be happy

 

[shadowman11]

I sucessfully replaced the hard disk in my 721 receiver. I did some test before closing the box to try to figure out what it actually does. This is the procedure with the messages it shows and next to it my educated guess of what it is doing.

1. Testing... - here it checks if the disk is partition correctly
2. System install stage 1... - found wrong partitions, or no partitions at all. It will automatically partition the disk with the 5 partitions: 256MB with linux os, 1GB, 1GB, 128MB with linux swapfile, remaining of disk (right know I have a 120GB again but it partitioned a 60GB correctly, maybe it will work with a bigger disk). After partitioning, it will reboot.
3. System install stage 2... - try to boot from partition 1, since it is empty it fails.

After this I restored the first partition with the Linux OS from a Ghost Image I created from the bad disk. I was lucky the bad sectors where in the other partitions. I installed the disk back in the 721.

4. System install stage 2... - It finds linux now so it moves to the next step
5. Installing new drive image... - I guess it initializes the other partitions to the factory settings
6. Installation complete , please reset your receiver - After the reset, just be happy

WOW!! This is great news because the HD is the week link in the DVR. Mine is working fine, but its nice to know that I can swap drives if needed.

Faw, do you have pictures? What brand of HD did you install?

 

[Faw]

WOW!! This is great news because the HD is the week link in the DVR. Mine is working fine, but its nice to know that I can swap drives if needed.

Faw, do you have pictures? What brand of HD did you install?

Nope, no pictures but the replacement is actually very easy. The cover is just 4 screws in the back and the HD is in its own enclosure using normal IDE and power cables.

The original disk is a Maxtor 5400RPM 2MB cache 120GB (model 4G120J6), when I removed it it was still under warranty, so I called Maxtor to have it replaced. The problem is that I was without a receiver, I'm kind of impatient and I saw a Maxtor 7200RPM 8MB cache 120GB HD at CompUSA for $79. (http://www.compusa.com.pr/products/product_info.asp?product_code=298702&pfp=BROWSE) So I bought that one and that is the one in the 721 right now. Only problem is that I don't like Maxtor disks, but the price was too good. Right now I have 3 dead Maxtors on my desk (2 60GB and the one from the 721).

BTW, some settings are saved in the primary partition, like preferences (guide sorting order) and PPV history. It seems the timers and search history are saved in another partition.