The little that I actually watch TV I want to enjoy it. Since I absolute despise watching commercials, the best thing for me is a DVR. With the exception of porn, this is the best invention ever in the history of television. I’m not sure, but I think Tivo started the whole digital video recording thing.

I subscribe to Dish Network. The DVR I have is from them and since I lease it, they’ll replace it for free when it messes up. A few days before Thanksgiving tragedy struck. I noticed the DVR had a message on the screen stating that there was a fatal hard disk error. I could no longer record, pause, etc. and it was repeatedly making an annoying clicking sound. I called Dish Network immediately and they sent out a replacement.

It took about four days to get my replacement DVR. I got it the day before Thanksgiving. I hooked everything up and called them to activate it. Ack! The damn replacement was jacked up too. The remote had no effect and pushing any buttons on the front did nothing either. Useless. They said they’d send another one. Fun.

After repeatedly cursing and saying things that, to some, might be considered immoral, I decided that I could not wait four more days. I was fairly certain that I could fix it. I thought if it was a hard drive failure, well, there was one in the crappy replacement that I could swap out.

Replacing the failed hard drive in a Dish Network DVR

I pulled the case off. See that metal plate on the left? The hard drive is under it. I removed the screws holding the plate down, disconnected the power cable and ribbon cable, then took the hard drive off of the metal plate. It was a 250gb Western Digital.

I put the good one in my old unit and stuck old hard drive back in the replacement to send back. I hooked my DVR back up, got it reactivated and had TV for Thanksgiving. Sweet! I’m a goddamn genius!

Incidentally, I got the second replacement DVR today, four days later. Ha!

Caveman Conclusion: Spilling your beer on your DVR is bad.

More gnarly posts by the Caveman:
• CaffiNation Assimilation
• The Future Of Information Technology
• How I Wired A Home Network, Cable TV, Phone
• Caveman’s First Video, My 1997 Honda Valkyrie
• Gym Jerk Or Goofy Grandma?