Help with the SD-DVR80

[SirJudley]

I have a Hughes SD-DVR80 DirecTivo. I was in the middle of watching a recorded show tonight when the unit rebooted on it's own. After the Welcome screen, and the almost there screen, it goes to a Green Screen telling me not to power it off and to keep the phone plugged in. It stays on that for about 20 seconds, then reboots back to the welcome screen again. Any suggestions, or is my unit fried? And is there anything I can do with it to fix it? I have another unit that basically started stuttering during playback or live tv, and I've always wondered if I could have that one fixed too, as backup. Please help, from what I hear the dual recorders that Directv are offering now are no good at all.

[Dkerr24]

Your hard drive is most likely dead or dying. You can either replace the hard drive and install a new image, buy a pre-imaged drive from Weaknees, or check eBay for a replacement DTivo unit.

[SirJudley]

Thanks for the info. Is there a step by step somewhere to replacing the hard drive? and where do i get a new image?

[OLdDog]

well they seem to have changed their name but PTV Upgrade's InstantCake product is the simplest way to get and install a new image.
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

[SirJudley]

Thanks, I will give it a shot. Kinda new to this so I hope I don't screw it up. I already miss my Tivo! I'll but the cd today and I guess go to Best Buy to buy a hard drive. Is there anything I should know about what kind of hard drive to buy? Will any work?

[ForrestB]

Any 3.5 inch, ATA drive will work - buy big.

A SATA drive won't work.

[goony]

... I guess go to Best Buy to buy a hard drive. Check out local store "sales" at http://www.salescircular.com

[SirJudley]

So, will this one work? It is ATA, but it doesn't say anything about 3.5 inches.

Western Digital Caviar 160GB Internal Hard Drive

Model: WD1600JBRT


This one is high capacity too but says it is 4 inches...
Seagate 120GB Internal Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive

Model: ST3120026A-RK

Sorry if I am being a nuisance, I am as newbie as you can get around here....

[ForrestB]

Yep, both of those drives will work.

FYI 3.5 inch refers to the size of the hard drive platters inside the enclosure. 3.5 inch hard drives have been the standard size used in desktop computers since 1990.

Laptop's use 2.5 inch hard drives and MP3 players use 1.8 inch or smaller.

[SirJudley]

Oh, ok. THanks for the info....All of this is a little overwhelming but I think I am starting to understand it more and more.
I called Directv and got a credit towards going and buying one of their crappy dual DVR's so I will get that to use while repairing the old one (cause I figure it is going to be a few days....)
And I just got off the phone with my boss and she says she has a 300 GB hard drive new in the box at the office that I can have. Is that going to be too big to use?

[ForrestB]

300 GB too big? Nah - there's no such thing as a hard drive that's too big ;)