I have a Pioneer DVR520 which I upgraded from the standard 80GB to a 300GB drive. It's worked fine until recently. I switched it on one night from standby and it won't do anything at all. The timer icon in the display flashing all the time. I checked the manual and it indicates that the disk in the drive is not recordable or that the HDD is not recordable. There isn't anything in the drive, so that points the finger at the HDD. From what I remember, there were only about 36-42 titles, so I hadn't reached the limit. There was also tons of space available.

I still have the service remote and DVD, and was wondering if anyone knows how I can check out the HDD to see if it has gone. I ideally don't want to lose everything on it.

Any help would be appreciated. My last resort is to get a new HDD which will ultimately cost money, and I can't claim the failure off the house insurance as the excess I have to pay would account for the major cost of the player.