My 9200T is not starting. It gets through the loader messages on the TV screen, and up to STING on the front panel. After that the panel shows - - - - and the unit is unresponsive. Switching off all power has not helped.

Take the lid off; disconnect the hard drive, temporarily replace lid and see if it will now start. If it will then try doing a reset to default settings, power off and reconnect the drive; if it hangs again then there is a problem with the file system that can often be fixed by connecting the drive to a PC; come back and ask for further instructions.

Okay so far. I could start the 9200T with the HDD disconnected. Now I am doing a reset to defaults and it is searching for channels.

I've now restarted with the HDD reconnected and it is still unresponsive with the display stuck on - - - -. From the feel of it the disk is spinning.

OK, try reading this thread http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1223714

The Hummy drive is installed on a PC and I can see its contents. This is the result of humaxcheck 1: -d -c -w.

humaxcheck version 0.09W (c) xyz321
WARNING this may corrupt your Humax hard disk - do you wish to continue? [no]: yes

PARTITION 0
===========
36.av : Err Frag: 8, size: 3047937536 Alloc fat 1854432, dir 4618032
Allocation error: (fat blocks allocated != sizea)
File End error
Warning - File size error
768 cross-linked blocks found in file 36.av

271.av : Err Frag: 6, size: 349508096 Alloc fat 682816, dir 682816
768 cross-linked blocks found in file 271.av

345.av : Err Frag: 3, size: 1736613888 Alloc fat 655744, dir 656496
Allocation error: (fat blocks allocated != sizea)
File End error
Warning - File size error
Improper file termination in FAT

489.av : Err Frag: 4, size: 716747776 Alloc fat 462480, dir 1400224
Allocation error: (fat blocks allocated != sizea)
File End error
Warning - File size error
Improper file termination in FAT

0.av : Buf Frag: 69, size: 118202368 Alloc fat 7896752, dir 7896000

Humax calculated free space count: 24273068032 bytes

PARTITION 1
===========
Humax calculated free space count: 250839040 bytes

PARTITION 2
===========
Humax calculated free space count: 5366808576 bytes

That sounds plausible. What happens when you replace the disk in the 9200?

I've used HumaxRW to copy all the programmes from the Hummy HDD.

Unfortunately when I replace the disk the symptoms remain the same. Should I try using humaxcheck -t now?

I don't think that will help. I suggest downloading Seatools for Dos from http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD and see what that has to say about the disk. I have seen cases where the block that is stopping the 9200 from booting has been a bad block. Using the option to fix errors after the long test may get things going again or it might show that the disk has reached the end of its life.

The SeaTools for DOS short test has passed without problems. I've started the long test.

The long test passed too.

Not sure why it won't work in the Humax. As you have taken everything off then I would try formatting it in the PC. If that doesn't help then use a disk wiping utility.

I chose Full Erase in SeaTools and it looks as if the reformat will take 15 hours. I'll put the drive back in the Hummy tomorrow evening.

My Hummy is working again.

The wiped HDD gave me the option to format and it seems to be okay. Some time later I may use HumaxRW to put some programmes back on.

Thanks for your help, Martin.

Glad it is working; still not sure why the straightforward solution failed.