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9241 Internal hard drive replacement

208K views 174 replies 61 participants last post by  Notdeadyet55 
#1 ·
Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I can't find it.

The 9242 hard drive replacement thread at http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=103462 has been invaluable, with its list of valid replacement drive numbers, etc. However, it doesn't specifically address the 9241 (altho some 9241 owners have posted there). The 9241 owners thread makes some references to hard-drive replacement, but I can't find concrete details.

Does someone have a list of drive models that make suitable models for replacement in a 9241? Or have any experience with this?

I've seen ebay postings for 9242 drives, saying they will work in 9241s also - but I'm suspicious of that - esp after reading the 9242 thread. I've also seen lots of 9241s that can't be activated going on ebay, and was thinking of buying one of those so I can cannibalize the hard-drive when needed.... but I also recall reading somewhere (not sure where now) that a 9241 can only have its hard drive replaced by the EXACT same model that it already has. ie, even a different model drive from a different 9241 may not work in my unit.

Does anyone know if there is any truth in either of these statements?

For the record, my 9241 is humming along nicely in the 6 months six I got it (from ebay - who knows what it did before then!). But I know these drives get harder to find and would like to have an "insurance" drive around, as I hope to keep the receiver for a long time! (Changing receivers down "south" is a pain, and my 5100/5900 only lasted two years!)

Thanks
 
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#151 ·
Bonjour! I have remplacer disque dur recepteur 9241+il me donne code 33 je déconnecte et reconnecte toujour pareil. Le disque du récepteur estDT01ABA100V de Toshiba.1to. Jai essayer un autre disque seagate ST1000VM002 firware sc11. Toujour code 33 mais pas satellite et essayer effacer mémoire mais je ne la voie pas. Version de Bell V 373 et tout changer mes capuchons. Merci pour votre aide.. Je vous écrit en français car mon anglais pas bon
 
#152 ·
Hello All! Thanks for the helpful posts in here. Has anyone been trying currently available drives? I've tried the Seagate Pipeline (Optimized for PVR) ST2000VM003 HDD which appears to be a newer iteration of their optimized for PVR drive, for which the 1TB version was reported working at an old firmware level. I've also tried a 1TB WD10EACS as I have a few of them. Neither will work.

My procedure is:
1. Connect HD to windows computer
2. Delete All partitions
3. Use software like Micronit Data Wiper Free or Sea Tools for Windows (Seagate drives) to do an "Erase Overwrite" to fill the drive iwth 0s.
4. Clear NVRAM (Menu, 6, 3, Info, Browse, Themes, TV/Video)
5. Pull power plug on receiver and install drive
6. Boot up (Unfortunately, I do not get the drive format prompt and force formatting or waiting overnight do not make a difference.)

I can get another Toshiba 1TB from another Bell receiver to work. To eliminate any file system issue, I tried cloning the Toshiba into a 2TB as above, but my working Toshiba has bad sectors I need to deal with.

I am doing this with a 9400, but I have not found a list of compatible drives for it like I have here, so hoping they are the same. (Or perhaps not through trial)
If anyone knows any modern drives, even 2TB drives that can work, I'll appreciate a heads up.

Thanks,
Mike
 
#158 ·
Hello,
I have a 9241 with a dead HD. I have a 9242 that does not work but the HD seems to be working. The drive is a Western Digital WD2500JD-57HBC0. Its capacity is expected to be 250 GB. However, using WD Diagnostic tools, it is presented as a 2 TB drive. When I try to install it into my 9241 and I turn the power on, I can hear the HD being accessed but nothing else happens. I have tried to clear Nvram but it does not change anything. The 9241 keeps accessing the drive for hours and, on occasion, the unit restart by itself. If I try to obtain system info, nothing happens. Nothing is showing on the TV.
I thought that moving an HD from a 9242 to a 9241 would be an easy way of fixing the problem with the dead HD of the 9241.
Any suggestion?
 
#160 ·
I have tried to quick erase the drive using WD Dlgdiag and the result is: delete partitions error. I have downloaded WD Dashboard but it can't find the drive. I have tried HDDguru low level format and the only thing I can see are 1117 device i/o errors.
I/O errors can be due to various causes; bad drive, incompatible drive with operating system, protected drive. How to figure out that the drive is a bad drive effectively?
 
#162 ·
Even though I was hearing the drive being accessed by the 9241, I think there is something wrong with it as you've said. I have made another unsuccessfull attempt by using the drive as an external drive connected to a 6131. The unit has recognized the presence of the external drive but came back quickly with a message stating an unknown error and the fact that the external HD cannot be used for recording. I think this drive is unrecoverable.
As far as I am concerned, this case is closed.

Thanks 17671 and ExDilbert for your support
 
#163 ·
Windows can sometimes be the cause of errors due to unrecognized disk layouts. I often use Linux to do things like erasing and testing a drive if it fails to work with Windows. One very useful Windows tool I use to test drives is called GSmartControl. It can read the drive's SMART information and perform surface tests. It's based on the Linux smartctl tool. The WD tools may do similar things but tend to hide some of the functionality. Erasing the disk under Linux goes something like 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskname' where /dev/diskname is the name of the actual disk device. It's fast and thorough and should only return one error when the end of the disk is reached. With a 2TB drive it may take several hours.
 
#164 ·
I have used WD tools, Seagate tools and HDDguru. I have been through loading Linux Mint on a separate desktop but I am not knowledgeable enough. None of the tools were able to provide me with SMART data. On top of this, I have a hard time understanding that the tools show me a 2 TB drive, which is supposed to be 250 GB. I know that you can compress a drive but what is the point of compressing 250 GB when you can get a 1 TB for roughly 50$. Maybe this drive came from China where you can get that kind of drive according to what I have read on the net. I just don't know the origin of the drive because the 9242 was given to me for parts.
I have installed GSmartControl on Linux Mint but I can't get any information other than for the system drive. The WD drive shows as 1e40 on the desktop but that's all; no properties, nothing.
 
#165 ·
GSmartControl is available for Windows 10. It's based on an out of date version of smartctl but it works well with mechanical drives, not so well with SSDs. The discrepancy in disk sizes could be due to corrupted disk data, or a bug in Windows or the software. Most likely the latter.
 
#168 ·
I doubt. If I attach the drive to the motherboard, the disk led stays on solid as if the Bios was having a problem with the drive. If I shut down the computer and have the drive attached through USB, then the computer boots normally.
I have installed a Windows version of GSmartControl while the drive is connected through USB and here are the results:

smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-b19043] (sf-6.6-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor:
Product:
Revision: 3.00
User Capacity: 2 199 023 255 040 bytes [2,19 TB]
Logical block size: 512 bytes
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
> Terminate command early due to bad response to IEC mode page
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.


I have rerun GSC with the suggested '-T permissive' option and I have obtained the same results.
In conclusion, it looks to me that the drive is bad. All results obtained from WD tools, Seagate tools, HDDguru and now GSmartControl are consistent.
 
#169 ·
I sounds like the drive controller might be bad. It could be replaced with a controller from an identical drive to see if that's the issue. Most hard drives fail due to platter issue so a controller from another failed drive might work. Then it becomes an issue of finding another drive. I wouldn't spend any money on it though.
 
#175 ·
I read this whole thread to fix my 9241 that I tried formatting the HDD and it got stuck on the flashing red light. After MANY attempts to clear the Nvram, waiting the 4hrs for it to recover each time, I finally got it to reboot properly when I had plugged in an external Bell HDD I have, and even though I got a message telling me an unknown device was plugged in (see below formatted for 9242), the 9241 had recovered and the HDD had formatted, but all my settings where still the same. Now in my many tries to fix the flashing red light issue, I tried using another drive from a 9142 I had replaced before with one from a donor 9241 (read below), and it wouldn't recognize that HDD at all. So once I put the original HDD back in and went through all the red light resets and such, it's working again, which left me with 2 FYIs to tell from what I "think" I've found during the whole process with my 9242, 9241, 6131 and it's external Lacie HDD.

First FYI (stay with me:)), when I was trying to fix my 9242, before I switched the HDD from my donor 9241 to the 9242, I tried the external Lacie HDD I had been using on my 6131 to see if that might improve the 9242 rebooting (replaced all the caps, and still a couple times a week, so figured maybe the HDD). In doing so, I saw that I could transfer/archive my present recordings to it once it was reformatted and did so. It accomplished nothing improving the reboots though, so I swapped in the 9242 original HDD into the working 9241, which then started the red light 4hr reset issue. But now my external Lacie won't work with anything, including the 6131 or be recognized on my W11 PC, and the same for the original HDD with the same results. From reading, apparently they can only be recovered using a Linux system.

So I ordered an exact replacement HDD (HDP725050GLA360) for my Lacie external box, but it wouldn't show up either on my W11 PC. Once I did get it recognized through another connection, I could only see it in Disk Management where it now wanted to convert to either Dynamic or MBR disk first, but wasn't sure that was what I needed to do. So looking for an answer to that, I then I found an answer online that said once an HDD was Bell formatted, it WOULD NOT show up on a PC, and then I "believe" it was also suggested that an HDD from a 9242 wouldn't work with a 9241 either, and also that a new HDD did NOT need anything done to it for a Bell format, and that the Bell receiver would do it all itself.

With this info, I then installed the new HDD into the original Lacie case, hooked it up to the 6131 which formatted it, and now all is good again with my external and the 6131 :)

So all this would explain why neither of these 2 HDDs I've had formatted by my 9242 both seamed dead and gone, to the point I had actually put them in the garbage until I found all this info reading online. When it comes to 6131s, the Lacie HDD works as a PVR, but after reading and UNDERSTANDING, with a 9242 or 9241, it's only meant to archive existing recordings, so the HDD is formatted in a different way it seems and does NOT act as a PVR as it does with the 6131. And it also appears from my results that an HDD from a 9241 can go into a 9242, but not the other way around for some reason within the different formatting or ??????.

Second FYI, when I swapped my original 9242 HDD with the one from my donor 9241, it booted right up, NOTHING special was done, AND ALL the RECORDINGS that had been on it where still there and playable....I thought that wasn't possible??? I actually reformatted the HDD myself with the remote codes above to clean it for my use.

If my conclusions are or seem to be inaccurate, please feel free to correct me or expand on this info as I welcome it!
 
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