im not an expert, but my dad was an electrician (fixing tvs, hifis etc), for a while and my freeview box did a pop and a blue flash and cut the electrics, turned out a capacitor had blown up like a bomb inside, (the thing was litterally inside out).

best thing to do is ring sky, then ask for a replacement and tell them you want to save the stuff on the box if possible (your recordings).
not sure how sky boxes work, but would think the basics are much like that of a pc and you can swop and change the hard drives within but dont do it yourself due to warranties etc. Knowing sky it will save them money to swap your box and give you a new or what yours will become, a re-furb one. When the bloke/woman comes remind them that you want to save your stuff off the hard drive but dont get fobbed off (unless the drives whats gone).
Hope this helps out a little.

gf is there still but not wcc. also you can only have one at once on your planner from the anytime +

Virginmedia - free repairs, always.

Mind, you can't flog the boxes on eBay, they do tend to get a bit narky if you try that.

I quite often download a fea programmes from anytime and store them for later.

I believe that Sky use nagra 3 encryption which is about as 'uncrackable' as it gets.

I still have a now redundant DBox thanks to Virgin switching to nagra 3.

I Believe both Matches are available at reasonable cost on DVD Not quite the same but not a bad alternative.