Thanks for the replies, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with the MZ-RH1, I was doing heavy ammounts of recordings in intensely hot and humid conditions (brazillian amazon) and after two weeks of flawless functioning I got a disk read error, and that was repeated on changing the disk. There seems to be a mechanical misfire somewhere - the unit will go into record mode, but cannot then write nor can it read. If anyone has DIY repair suggestions (I am not very knowledgeable in these matters) let me know. Best, David