I'm making this post on behalf of my parents as they don't know how to use the community board.
They've had an issue for several months with their 360 box. They've contacted VM over the phone many times and worked through the diagnostics and fixes. Initially it was an issue with the hard drive not recording. Then they lost all their recording and then the box stopped working completely. They've tried to get the box returned and a new one sent out but they are constantly sent round in circles about trying fixes when the box is dead.
They've been managing with a mini 360 box but obviously this doesn't offer any recording or pausing of live-TV.
It will take a couple of days for a VM Mod to respond here, as this is a Community based forum and not a direct line for faults. The VM Mods will only correspond with the account holder for security reasons, so your parents will need to discuss with VM directly via PM.
It definitely sounds like a faulty hard drive due to it not recording and then all recordings having being lost.
Whilst waiting for a member of the forum team to respond to this thread, and you saying that the box is dead, it would save time if you could confirm they've tried the following, and if not give them a try. (It might be something that they haven't attempted, or hasn't been suggested by phone support)
I'm not saying this will fix the hard drive issue, but it might be possible to get two boxes working whilst waiting for the one with the faulty drive to be swapped out.
Are there any lights showing on the 360 box? Have they tried swapping over the power supply and plug from the mini box just in case that's the issue.
Have they tried swapping the main box over with the mini box to make sure the issue follows the box (sometimes swapping the boxes across gets them both working)
Is there anything at all showing on the screen such as an error code/message, or an icon like the one pictured below (it's like an animated down arrow/floppy disk) ?
If there is a screen like that showing it's possible to get it up and running again by turning off the 360 at switch; then on the 360 box hold down both the power button and the - (minus) button which is on the front of the box at the same time. Then turn on the 360 again whilst keeping hold of those buttons for a further 30 seconds. The box should reboot, the power button will turn blue, and it should reset and boot up normally as a 360. Again if it's showing that screen and the above doesn't work then use the same method but substitute the minus button for the + (plus) button
