Pioneer DVR-660h-s Hard drive replacement

[Oldschoolanalog]

I recently purchased a 2009 660h dvr without a hard drive. I have read that Pioneer DVRs you need the service remote and dvd. www.pioneerfaq.info does not work anymore.

Does anybody know if www.pioneerfaq.info still exists? What is their email address?

I have a working 660h and I was wondering if I can just clone this drive and it will work in the other 660h or do I have to change serial numbers on the drive?

If somebody could give me a link to the service dvd and I have read that you can use a universal remote for the service remote if programmed correctly.

[Oldschoolanalog]

I was able to find out that www.pioneerfaq.info is gone. However, the wayback machine has the pages archived here

https://web.archive.org/web/20200219215301/http://pioneerfaq.info/index.php

[pr0tte]

https://archive.org/details/@phunxd?and[]=subject%3A%22Pioneer+GGV%22

[Oldschoolanalog]

I have tried the archive.org link to the Pioneer Service disk Pioneer_GGV1321_Type2.iso. I have tried to burn it and Pioneer_GGV1305_Type2.rng but they don't seem to be working. I have the service remote and gone through the HD reset procedure. When it says "load service data id disk", I have tried both disks and it just says "loading" but never finishes. I have let it sit for over 30 minutes. Does the 1321 disk work for the 660H? Or am I burning it wrong?

[october262]

I have tried the archive.org link to the Pioneer Service disk Pioneer_GGV1321_Type2.iso. I have tried to burn it and Pioneer_GGV1305_Type2.rng but they don't seem to be working. I have the service remote and gone through the HD reset procedure. When it says "load service data id disk", I have tried both disks and it just says "loading" but never finishes. I have let it sit for over 30 minutes. Does the 1321 disk work for the 660H? Or am I burning it wrong?

see this thread - https://www.avsforum.com/threads/pioneer-dvr-640h-hdd-error.1474061/

[Oldschoolanalog]

That is an interesting thread. When my 660h says "Input the ID Data Disc", i push open/close on the device and put in the GGV1321 disc. It immediately says "Loading ID data disc" and then hangs. I let it sit 30 minutes and just sits there. I initially used HDMI but after the first failure, i u plugged power and repeated the procedure but found HDMI is no longer working but analog rca jacks are. I repeated the procedure again and the same being stuck at "Loading ID data disc". I do not receive any kind of error message thats why I am wondering if I have burned the ISO image correctly. I read that the disc should be a DVD-R and burn at 8x or less. I used IMG software. I saw one thread that Joliet should be turned off but could not find an option for that.

I have also read where this procedure should take about 2 minutes. I repeated the procedure again this morning with the same results. On the pioneerfaq webpage, it has an image of the DVD->HD light coming on during this procedure. Mine is not

I believe my image is not correct. Anyone know where I can get a working Service Disc GGV-1321-Type2?

[Oldschoolanalog]

The HD is used. I installed it in my Win10 and deleted all partitions. I then ran diskpart and selected "clean". Windows then saw the drive as "unknown". I think the drive is restored back to "factory" status.

[Oldschoolanalog]

https://archive.org/details/@phunxd?and[]=subject%3A%22Pioneer+GGV%22

Can anyone tell me how to burn this disc correctly?

[Moody_Blues]

Read this:

https://manuals.plus/pioneer/dvr-540hx-s-typical-pioneer-dvr-hdd-repair-manual#axzz81n...ntent=cmp-true

Is that an SATA or an IDE hard disk? If IDE make sure to set the jumper on the hard dsik to CS (cable select).

The sevice disc is an ISO image. Just use Imgburn and load it to burn to a 4,7GB DVD.

[october262]

https://archive.org/details/@phunxd?and[]=subject%3A%22Pioneer+GGV%22

Can anyone tell me how to burn this disc correctly?

did you try unplugging the unit from the wall outlet plugin and leave it set for a few
minutes and then retry your disc again ??

[Oldschoolanalog]

Yes. I let it sit over night. It doesnt appear to
Be reading the disc at all. The DVD plays movies just fine. I would think I would get some kind of read error or spit out the disc after a few minutes.

Is there anyway to check the disc? If I put the disc in the player without using the service remote, it will read the disc for maybe a minute and open the disc tray.

[Moody_Blues]

Follow the procedure in the link I provided.

[Oldschoolanalog]

Read this:

https://manuals.plus/pioneer/dvr-540hx-s-typical-pioneer-dvr-hdd-repair-manual#axzz81n...ntent=cmp-true

Is that an SATA or an IDE hard disk? If IDE make sure to set the jumper on the hard dsik to CS (cable select).

The sevice disc is an ISO image. Just use Imgburn and load it to burn to a 4,7GB DVD.

This is SATA. I used IMGburn. I burned it to a DVD-R.

[Oldschoolanalog]

Follow the procedure in the link I provided.

I followed your procedure. And I get to the point it asks for the service disc. I open the drawer and put the service disc from the ISO link from archive.org. Immediately it says Loading data ID disc. A couple seconds later, i hear the disc drive give a little chirp noise and then just sits there. I have tried it several times. I have let it sit unplugged from a few minutes to over night and still the same result. It gets stuck. The only way I can get out of it is to u plug the unit or hold the power button for several seconds u til it turns off.

The harddrive I replaced it with is a SATA Seagate 500GB. As I said in my previous post, i used Windows diskpart to "clean" the drive back to its factory status of no partitions or formatting.

[Oldschoolanalog]

Well I got it to work. On a hunch, I burned the image off archive.org to DVD+R this time with IMGBurn and it worked. It didnt like the DVD-R.

[Moody_Blues]

How stupid! I thougt about the plus / minus discs but this would have been the last resort. Hope you are a happy camper now!

[Oldschoolanalog]

Yes I am happy now. I have been testing and everything working ok. It appears that it formatted the 500GB to 250GB because I have 329hrs on EP. How do you get it to format to the 500GB? I bought a 550H that was modified from a 160GB to 500GB and it works great. The only issue with my 550 is the laser in the DVD is getting weak and is very finicky on DVDs it will play.

I don't think this DVR has many hours on it as the display is very bright.

[Moody_Blues]

Call yourself lucky! Try with the Pioneer firmware if you can bump up the capacity.

[Oldschoolanalog]

My 550 has version 1.50 and both my 660s have version 1.16

I found this thread. It involves using my 550 to let the 660 see full capacity.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/196949-Hard-Drive-upgrade-for-Pioneer-DVR-520H/page30

[Oldschoolanalog]

So reading about using oversized drives, my 550 must have the correct firmware version to do this. If I follow this procedure and marry a new 500GB or even a 1TB drive to my 550 and format it, will I lose everything that I currently have on the drive in the 550 when I marry the old drive back to the 550? I would put the newly formatted 500GB or 1TB into my 660. The way the procedure goes, it looks like it writes the drive information into a ROM in the DVR.

I don't want to lose what I have currently on my 550. Most is backed up to DVD.

[Oldschoolanalog]

I just ran tests on my 660H that I just paired the HD to. I had recorded content on the HD. I successfully replaced that HD with a new blank one and paired it using the procedure and service ID disc. When I re-installed the old HD, the DVR recognized it and the content was fine. I did not have to re-pair it again as I thought. So it looks like once I pair and format my HD at the full size in the 550, I can just reconnect the 550s drive and I will be ok and not risk losing content of the HD.

[Oldschoolanalog]

I successfully installed a 1TB WD Blue in my 550, initialized it to 1TB @ 437hrs on SP. I then swapped the old recorded drive back into the 550 without doing anything. Then I put the initialized 1TB in my 660H and ran the procedure with the service remote and service ID DVD. I did a test movie and recorded and played fine. So it is possible to do it without issues as long as you have the 550H with the correct firmware.

Note: When I installed and paired the 1TB drive in the 550H, it was already initialized by my 660H and was seen as 250GB. I had to install the 1TB drive back in my Win10 machine and uses diskpart to clean the drive back to factory. After that, I had to run the service remote/service ID data disc procedure and then initialize it in the 550H. It then initialized the whole 1TB.