I have a thompson sky hd box,in the past i have had the odd failed recording but lately getting more frequent failed recordings or if any haven't failed on playback the image breaks up and sound drop outs sometimes frequent throughout a recording or every now again during playback it depends.
One thing i have noticed the hard drives noisier lately (my hard drive in my thompson from day one was never as quite as the hard drive in my standard definition pace sky+ box!).Now common sense says it could be the hard disk is past it's best.But i am sure i have heard that if you go into the installer menu with key presses from the services menu there is something about planner rebuild and system reset.Would any of these help my above problems?.I suppose it's like when you are constantly saving on a PC you need to do some maintenance with your hard drive?Thanks.
You don't need to de-frag a Sky disk like a PC one, but a Planner Rebuild (PR) will do no harm.
On the new EPG press :
Services
0
0
1
Select
And you will get to the Installer menu. PR is option 7.
PR - think of it as rebuilding an index after looking at all of the recordings on the disk.
A forced software download (FSD) isn't a bad idea either.
Disable IR and put into standby. Wait for disk to stop. Power off at the mains. Hold down Backup (on the box, not remote). Keeping this held, put power on again. Wait until all LEDs light up - then release the backup button.
The box will then spend about ten minutes completely downloading the operating system (this doesn't affect your recordings).
The "Final Solution" is a Full System Reset (FSR) - also on the installers menu. This will delete all of your recordings and, for me at least, is a "step too far".
Your problems remind me of the failing disk in our Sky+. It made some pretty horrible noises now and again for a couple of weeks and then one day reported "no programmes in the planner". There should have been over a hundred on this 250 gig disk ! I got a new disk and used the excellent Copy+ software to transfer everything across (as Copy+ could "see" all of the "non existent" recordings).
I suggest that you don't wait so long. If a PR and a FSD don't fix you up, then I would buy a larger disk and transfer everything across. you won't regret it !
I have done similar things on a couple of boxes a few times over the years. I also hang on to the "questionable" disks for a few months (or a year or so) as they provide a reassuring back up of older programmes.
Regards
