[TomC]

I have a fatal ReplayTV problem which I hope you can help with.


While watching a playback, the picture started getting choppy and then did not resond to any remote commands. I held down the reset button on the unit (Panasonic Showstopper) and when the reset was finished, to my horror, all the recorded programs were gone. What happened? My hope is that they are still there but not recognized. Is there any hope of retrieving them?


Thanks in advance.


TomC

 

[tarl_cabot]

Tom,


Mine did the exact same thing recently ( posted problem ). I had over 20 hours or recorded shows that were snuffed when I held down the power button to soft boot after the system locked up. I also have a Panasonic HS2000 by the way.


I have the drive connected to my Win2k PC right now, and I'm trying to recover the programs from the drive with extract_rtv, but I'm not having much luck. I posted a request for help ( extract_rtv, huh? ) with the extract_rtv results, but no one has responded yet.


If I ever get a response from people "in the know" with regard to the results from that program, I'll post the information here. In the meantime, all I can tell you is, from the SS's perspective, your FAT is wiped, and your programs are gone (the system has no "record" of your programs and reports nothing recorded). This is like deleting a file from your PC. The file itself isn't "gone", but the record of it has been altered so the system no longer "sees" it. If you do not record anything new to the drive, I think your likelihood for recovering your programs will be greater, but until I get more help myself, I can't say much else.


Regardless, recovery will require removing the drive from the box, and if you are still under warrantee, you might want to think twice about this. Perhaps, if it still under warrantee, you could get assistance from Panasonic? I wouldn't count on it in this case, though. When I spoke with them on Friday, they said anything software related was handled by ReplayTV, and they couldn't assist, and I don't know what Replay will suggest with regard to recovering "deleted" shows.


Short answer: in the future, if the system should lock up again, I'd suggest pulling the plug. I have only heard of the mass wipe thing happening when the power button was held down. Other than that, I'm in the same boat you are, and if I can get someone to pass me an oar, I'll let you know how it goes.


David.

 

[l8er]

Quote:

Originally posted by tarl_cabot Short answer: in the future, if the system should lock up again, I'd suggest pulling the plug.

Pulling the plug would not be a good idea if the drive has not cycled off. That's almost a sure way to scramble the drive's contents. (Sorry I don't have any suggestions on retrieving those lost shows, haven't used extract_rtv.)


-Gary

 

[TomC]

I found out a little more info regarding my situation. All items on my scheduled recording list are gone also. Some were guaranteed. When I tried to set new recordings, also guaranteed, I got the conflict notice.


So it knows the request is there but I can't see it in the channel guide. I wonder if it will record tomorrow. It says 31 hours guaranteed at medium record level (it previously said 11), so I don't know what to think.


Should I just reset it completely and forget the whole thing? How do I reset it back to factory new?


TomC

 

[lizard_boy]

Quote:

Originally posted by TomC I found out a little more info regarding my situation. All items on my scheduled recording list are gone also. Some were guaranteed. When I tried to set new recordings, also guaranteed, I got the conflict notice. So it knows the request is there but I can't see it in the channel guide. I wonder if it will record tomorrow. It says 31 hours guaranteed at medium record level (it previously said 11), so I don't know what to think. Should I just reset it completely and forget the whole thing? How do I reset it back to factory new? TomC

if you're not going to try & recover your shows a factory reset would not be a bad idea...hit 7-7-7 then the 'replay zones' button on your remote...should bring you to a menu where you can choose to restore to factory defaults