Well, well well. I guess I should have known better, but I put my girlfriend's XS-34 DVR on a shelf about three inches above her microwave. About two popcorn sessions later, surprise! ALERT on the front, and a message about needing to reformat the hard drive.

Now, this wasn't such a big deal, as she had just moved into college and had no recordings on the DVR. When it belonged to her parents, they had gotten this error before, and a simple reformat fixed it. But then...

"Unable to initialise this DVD disc".

Hmm... interesting, considering it's the hard drive, but still troubling. But then, error 71xx (can't remember the last two numbers), indicating a bad hard drive. Pulled the hard drive, connected it to my desktop, and it can't be recognized. Wonderful.

Now we have a replacement coming, but I pose the following question:

How close is too close? I would have expected the microwave to perhaps corrupt the information on the hard drive, but not render it useless.

She can put it about 18 inches above the microwave, which would be almost 1000 times less radiation (electromagnetic radiation decreases at a rate of the distance cubed), but is that far enough?

When you say replacement, do you mean the HDD or the recorder? If you replace the HDD and still have the problem, could be the DigiPC board may have been damaged. Not sure how though.

I guess most recorder manufacturers assume a HDD recorder won't be placed in a kitchen :), so normally it's not an issue. Your desktop computer won't recognize the HDD in DVRs anyway. Not positive about the old Toshibas, but this is what's been said about other manufacturers.

Radiofrequency radiation drops off tremendously in a short distance so I would think 18" would be fine. The best way to check is use an RF meter however the frequency must be known. In this case it would be 60 Hz. RadioShack used to carry one but it's been discontinued.

The above assumes your microwave is in good condition and not leaking RF radiation though.

A vintage Toshiba XS has got to be the all-time worst possible choice to use in a dorm situation. While capable of superb recordings, they are also the most fragile temperamental machines ever made. Everything bothers them, from humidity to electrical surges to astrological omens. Will 18" from the microwave be enough? Maybe, maybe not. Could be the microwave itself isn't even the problem. Its entirely possible the HDD and the optical drive blew at the same time, these units can be a total trainwreck when they break: if the motherboard detects a fault in the optical drive, it may require that be repaired before it will allow the machine to reformat the HDD. A PC won't be able to read or repair the HDD, its formatted in a proprietary Unix file system locked to video recorders. You could try installing a brand new HDD, but it has to be compatible: read the Toshiba XS repair threads here on AVS for details. Replacing the optical drive is also possible although more difficult and often results in a dysfunctional unit.

Its understandable your GF wants to "re-purpose" her parents old recorder so she can avoid the expense of a new one, but seriously the vintage Toshiba XS at this point is only for the dedicated die-hard video hobbyist who needs a couple of its exclusive editing features, and knows how to repair it. For casual use in a casual crowded environment like a dorm, you're asking for trouble: try to keep it as far away from other electrical appliances as possible, and make sure its plugged into a good surge suppressor like an IsoBar. Avoid placing it on top of a CRT television set, this can cause problems similar to her microwave issue.

Well, the new hard drive arrived yesterday (an exact replacement), and worked great in the recorder. It's now about 20 inches from the microwave, and a quick test with recorder and microwave running (and fingers crossed) went well.

The RF interference by the microwave is at 2.4 GHz, and testers for this type of signal are expensive, so testing is not an option. Trial and error will have to be used here.

The original hard drive was completely destroyed. When I say the computer couldn't recognize it, I mean that the BIOS would not even recognize the device as a hard drive, but simply reported no devices connected on the channel after searching for about 30 seconds or so. Hard drives from DVRs will be recognized by the BIOS always, but their format may not be readable from an operating system.

Anyway, the DVR is fixed (at least for now), and I'm hoping 20 inches of distance is enough

You may want to install a sheet of metal between your Tosh and microwave to help reduce any EMR. Lead would probably be best, but not everybody carries sheets of lead. I've got a roll of lead used for soundproofing or wall lining in x-ray rooms but sheet metal would probably be better than nothing, the thicker the better.

You may want to install a sheet of metal between your Tosh and microwave to help reduce any EMR. Lead would probably be best, but not everybody carries sheets of lead. I've got a roll of lead used for soundproofing or wall lining in x-ray rooms but sheet metal would probably be better than nothing, the thicker the better.

No! You do not want to use metal! This is non-ionizing radiation. It does not generate gamma or beta rays. The best shielding material would be chicken wire, something with a screen mesh, but the optimal mesh size varies.

Gnnash, if you have a friend who is an industrial hygienist he may know how to deal with non-ionizing radiation and he may have an rf meter. The frequency is now known so measuring it would be straightforward. Many lack the training and practical experience in this area.

But 18-20" should be enough. I've seen rf radiation that is 5X the PEL at 12" and drops off to nil when you move back 10". But as Citibear mentioned, while used RD-XS units can be often found on Ebay, they are no longer manufactured and a limited number exists. Editing and authoring capabilities are peerless, and compared to something like a Maggie 2160, it can do things 10X faster. If it was me, I would keep it out of the kitchen. Fortunately, it appears just the HDD was damaged.

Well, the new hard drive arrived yesterday (an exact replacement), and worked great in the recorder. It's now about 20 inches from the microwave, and a quick test with recorder and microwave running (and fingers crossed) went well.


Interesting story and I now know to keep my XS34 far away when I am microwaving popcorn! About the Hard-Drive....

I didn't know an "exact replacement" was available. If you don't mind what model is this and where did you get it?

Sorry for the big delay. Part number is ST3160022ACE

It's a seagate drive, and I got it on ebay for $35 with free shipping, and the guy has tons more. Just search the part number on ebay.