Panasonic DMR-E85H I use this unit primarily to record and play back TV broadcasts, but on occasion, I create a DVD from a recorded broadcast. This device has been working flawlessly for quite a while. I have several broadcasts currently on the hard drive, but one is unusual. It will not play and it will not erase. In fact, when I attempt either of these actions, the unit hangs up requiring that it be unplugged. Sometimes I can pass by it on my way to a previously recorded broadcast, but at other times the unit hangs when I get to that recording. The unit displays NAVI. Oddly, if left alone for about five minutes with that program's thumbnail selected on the Direct Navigator screen, it will begin playing within the Direct Navigator window. Incidentally, I can play/delete other recordings on this unit. Can anyone suggest a way to delete this rogue recording? Thanks EdP
Sounds like your hard drive is failing. If you have everything backed up that you want to keep you can take the drive out and format it and run checkdisk in windows. If it tests ok, when you put it back in the recorder it will see that the drive has "changed" and will run an install on it again.
Thanks, gdoggy .... I had sent a similar request to Panasonic support who said they will be sending me a DVD that is supposed to do something, but I don't know what. I bet it'll probably simply be an update. I'll see how that works out and then try your suggestion. Incidentally, are you positive that the E85 and Windows XP format an HD the same way? My concern is that the E85 won't even recognize the HD if it's formatted using Windows. EdP
The recorder will recognize any drive - formatted or not. I just figured that by formatting it in windows you could then run checkdisk or other drive checking software. I used my dvd recorder hard drive in my computer for a few months and put a 40 gigabyte drive in my recorder during that time. The recorder detected a new drive and the cool thing was that it even shortened the available recording time displayed on the screen. Then when I put my original recorder drive back in it just formatted it automatically and I am back to factory.
I also forgot to mention that you don't have to purchase the same size drive as what iss in your recorder (120 gigabyte I believe.) You can purchase a bigger PATA drive but it will only format it to the original size. Seems like a waste of hard drive space, but it seems now that the bigger drives are cheaper and the low capacity drive are getting limited thus raising the prices of them.
Thanks again, gdoggy .... I figured the reason you suggested formatting it using windows was because you could run checkdisk against it. The E85 has the capability to format the drive itself, but I doubt if it can do a checkdisk. I hope whatever Panasonic sends me works because I have a lot of movies on that drive that'll take me a long time to write to DVDs. I'm kicking myself for not doing it a little at a time over the past months. I appreciate all the extra information you provided and for the quick responses. EdP
