Pioneer DVR 533H HDD replacement

[Michele31415]

I know there's already threads on this topic but they're very old. Please forgive me for starting afresh. I have a Pioneer DVR-533H, Type 1. Its 80 GB hard disk died. When powering up it would just go "Please wait a moment..." and then after a few seconds it would reboot, forever. I cloned the failed HD to my PC and the bit copier reported four uncorrectible read errors, two of them near the beginning of the disk. I replaced the hard disk with a brand new WD 160 GB drive and got a service remote clone.

When I powered up, I got the "HDD error" message. I followed the Pioneer FAQ and pressed ESC-Stereo, entered my 9 digit magic number and got to the point where it says "Insert ID disc". I had downloaded a copy of the GGV1179.nrg Type 1 file from archive.org and burned it at 4X using Nero Burn to a DVD-R. I put that disc in the DVD drive of the 533H, pressed the Close button and ... nothing. It never displays the ROM write message. I assume the DVD drive is working because I can play commercial DVD movies just fine. I also tried the GGV1256 Type 1 file from archive.org but got the same result.

I extracted this from the Setup screen:

VERSION: 1.27
SYSCON:RELEASE_239
TVFLCON: 849.000 *
DRIVE: 1.54a *
DEVICE:PRISM2 ES2
REGION: 1

I'm about out of ideas. Any hope of getting my new HD initialized?

[Subtitles]

I have a Pioneer DVR-540H with 160GB and DVD Drive. Both are working fine
I didn't use it for many years and last year I managed to copy all the files on the HDD to a hard disk on my PC.
The HDD replacement is not easy because Pioneer encrypt it using a special software. I was told that if the HDD fails then I should take it to a Pioneer service lab, but that is not available anymore unfortunately. So I decided to stop using the HDD and use only the DVD Drive to record.
I hope that you will be able to get the HDD initialized in the end but it will take you a lot of time searching for solution and trying and it is waste of time IMHO.
In the meantime I would suggest to record only to the drive using DVD-RW disks, and when it is nearly full, close it and rip the files to a HDD on your computer. Then reformat the DVD-RW disc and use it as many times as you want.

[Sharc]

You may want to try IsoBuster. Apparently it supports (some) Pioneer recorder HDDs.
https://www.isobuster.com/isobuster.php

[Michele31415]

Thanks for the reply. I did manage to copy my failed HD to an img file on my PC. The problem is initializing the new HD. I've tried several versions of the Pioneer GGV-nnnn service disc but the 533H refuses to read them. I can hear the DVD drive do a couple of seeks and then it goes quiet.

So does anyone have a known-working Type 1 GGV-1179 (or compatible) service disc that I could borrow? Or upload a copy I could grab? Or at least an explanation of what it means if the service disc never get to the "ROM write" message. I'm really close to getting this device working again if I could just get past this spot. It would be a shame to give up on it because it has some really nice features you can't find anywhere else today. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Michele31415]

You may want to try IsoBuster. Apparently it supports (some) Pioneer recorder HDDs.
https://www.isobuster.com/isobuster.php

Huh? I've already gotten an image file of the failed drive using HDD Raw Copy Tool. And I was able to extract the mpeg data from the .img file using the extract Python script on github.

What I need is the service disc. Right now I don't know if the .nrg file I downloaded from the Wayback Machine is corrupted, or if there's a problem with my DVD writer (which does support DVD-R) or if it doesn't like my DVD-R discs (HP Lightscribe 16X) or if there's some issue with the 533H's DVD unit that's keeping it from reading the service disc, or if it's reading the disc and there's some communication problem with the new HDD I put in. Too many moving parts!

[btwarden]

I did manage to copy my failed HD to an img file on my PC. The problem is initializing the new HD. I've tried several versions of the Pioneer GGV-nnnn service disc but the 533H refuses to read them.

In my pioneer (not the same model) I have replaced the HD with a ssd. Connected the SSD drive with an ide to sata adapter.
To get the SSD working you have to copy the first 200mb of the old drive to the SSD. In windows you can do this with HXD
(https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/).
On startup the pioneer should ask you to format the drive.

[Michele31415]

Yeah, unfortunately my old HDD has two uncorrectable read errors in the first 200 MB. The old drive just goes "Please wait a moment..." trying to boot, then boot-loops forever. Would you happen to have a file of the OS block you could share?