I got a Panasonic DMR-EH59 and the HDD broke (it clicks) so I thought if I bought a new HDD of the same model it would work but I've found that it needs to be formatted to work in the DMR-EH59 (and Panasonic won't do it for me) so now I have the HDD but no way to get it to work in the DMR-EH59, anyone know a solution for this problem (as Panasonic is no help). Panasonic Hong Kong said they could help but only if I take it to Hong Kong personally (not by mail) to get it repaired.
I can't find out what file format the device uses.. or it's partition table type.. no info anywhere (as bloody usual) .. sooo.. heres what I would do.. I would make one big partition on a replacement hdd.. then using cfdisk (and reading the instructions) I would go through all the "likely suspects" .. fat32, ntfs (doubtful) ext2/3, solaris.. and the many others trying it each time to see if it's recognised.. obviously being a native linux user this stuff is second nature to me.. but it's going to be guesswork UNLESS the old drive is working enough to plug into a linux box and find out what the filesystem/partitioning scheme is..
I have a 140GB image file of the Hard Drive before it broke (I used Winhex) is there some way to figure out the format and partition table from the HDD image file I have? I once erased some video off of the DMR-EH59 that I didnt really want to erase so I made an image file (140GB) of the HDD, and I was able to get the video I accidentally erased back, and I still have the image file of 140GB of the HDD (not the full 250GB).
Ok I got the info from Panasonic themselves and they tell me the only way to install a new HDD is to get one from them for over $100 b.c their HDD has special Firmware that's different from the off the shelf HDDs you can buy (their HDD Firmware has some special code in it that the DMR-EH59 looks for before it will format it, and also it does something with the heads to make the drive last longer). My question now is there some cheaper way to copy the firmware from the clicking HDD onto the Working HDD?, so the working HDD will work in the Panny?, without me having to spend over $100 for their replacement HDD.
Go to the AVS forum at the link below, set up a user account and send a private message to mickinct -- he can probably undertake the necessary replacement for you on this model (he recently replaced a faulty disc drive which refused to open and close on my DMR-E85). He'll reply back via p.m. pretty quickly and should arrange for a telephone call to discuss the symptoms, probable repair approach and costs, and logistics. He does good work, and I'll recommend his services highly. Good luck! http://www.avsforum.com/f/106/dvd-recorders
I finally got this to work again, I had to get a working HDD from a DMR-EH59 and clone it to one of the stock Hitachi HDDs of the same model and when I put the Cloned HDD into the broken DMR-EH59 it formatted the HDD and now it works. Panasonic told me there was some special firmware on the HDD but I think it's probably just the formatting that's different (b.c the DMR-EH59 did accept it).
