Hi - can anyone tell me if reformatting the hard drive of my 8000HD actually reformats the drive, or does it simply wipe off all the recorded programs. I decided to reformat because I was getting odd frames from other shows popping up in my recordings, as well as many audio glitches. I followed the instructions I found here, but I felt that the whole process happened very quickly and I didn't hear any noise coming from the unit. When it rebooted everything was gone, however, I recorded a couple of shows tonight and sure enough, the flash frames were still there. This is not a broadcast problem as the frames are from other shows recorded on the drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I bought this unit, so returning it to Rogers is not an option (I did try it once and almost got away with it - I had the 8300HD in my hands, when the CSR noticed it was purchased!!).

Thanks very much.

I believe that the formatting only lays down some sort of directory structure or FAT. Wipe the disk would take a lot longer.

Your problem is very strange and suggests some type of corruption. Two suggestions:

1. Do a hard reboot by unplugging the unit, then hold the power button and plug in the unt, and keep holding the power button for 30 seconds. This will force a download of the software. Do not use the unit for 30 minutes.

2. If the problem still exists you could try an extreme measure. Open up the unit, remove the hard drive, and format it on a PC forcing a wipe. Then reinstall. It may need a PVR reformat. I did say it is extreme.

Thanks for the advice Bplayer: I have tried option 1 - not sure if it did anything but I'll keep an eye on it. As for option 2: as you say - it's a bit extreme!

I know this is an old thread, but I have a question. Does the "hard boot" described above erase the recorded programs? I have a very strange problem where one of the shows in the list actually plays another recorded program! When I select it, it has the options (play, block, erase, etc.) for the correct name. But if I choose "play", then another program starts playing (recorded last July) and if I press "stop", all the info on the window points to the older program. When I choose "show recorded programs" the pointer is on the older program. I would like to try to fix this without having to format the drive -- ie I would like to keep all the recorded programs. (This problem only happens on the one program, as far asI can tell.)

No, a cold reboot or hard reboot as described above does not erase the recorded programs.

Rick, if you can't solve the pointer problem with a cold reboot, then the trick is to delete the wrongly linked program (after viewing it) while still in the viewing mode (i.e. don't delete it using the list mode). Also see this thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=69781&highlight=link%2A