Subscribe to AfterDawn's weekly newsletter.
Reformat DVR hard drive for PC use
#26
16 Sep 2011 @ 23:07
Vejeta77
Visit user's personal pageSend private message to this user
Junior Member
Originally posted by eireireland:I tried today, and it did not show up for me. Different I guess. What OS did you use? Man I've been at this for over a year. Even made it a prize for any of my classmates who could do it. They fail too. Anything else guys?
[]I have spent weeks and countless hours trying to hack into the two 500GB HDDs that I removed from two HR22s. Sadly, I have not ..............................SOLVED... EASEUS PARTITION MASTER HOME EDT...drive should show up there,,right click on it and change it from logical to primary..the highlight drive and format.press apply on top tool bar and that should be it,close program and it should b there..worked on a maxtor,,hope it helps,,,,,,maxtor sata drive connected to pc using a external hardrive hub into usb port,,,,,,,,slan
AfterDawn
Advertisement
#27
21 Sep 2011 @ 18:42
Originally posted by Vejeta77:..........................................................................................................Hmmm,i had spent some time trying to figure it out also,,was it connected using usb hub? i was using xp pro on an old desktop, did it not show up in the easeus program? i have another hardrive currently in use in the dvr and when i get time il try it step by step again, il let you know how it goes anyways,,,, dont give up:)
Originally posted by eireireland:I tried today, and it did not show up for me. Different I guess. What OS did you use? Man I've been at this for over a year. Even made it a prize for any of my classmates who could do it. They fail too. Anything else guys?
[]I have spent weeks and countless hours trying to hack into the two 500GB HDDs that I removed from two HR22s. Sadly, I have not ..............................SOLVED... EASEUS PARTITION MASTER HOME EDT...drive should show up there,,right click on it and change it from logical to primary..the highlight drive and format.press apply on top tool bar and that should be it,close program and it should b there..worked on a maxtor,,hope it helps,,,,,,maxtor sata drive connected to pc using a external hardrive hub into usb port,,,,,,,,slan
#28
23 Sep 2011 @ 8:33
Wondering if using a x360 usb pro could help gain control of the drive? it is a hard drive hacking tool.
team-xecuter.com if you wanna read and decide.. maybe ask on the forums from that website
team-xecuter.com if you wanna read and decide.. maybe ask on the forums from that website
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 23 Sep 2011 @ 8:37
#29
03 Nov 2011 @ 0:46
I just did the DVR-to-PC reformat! However - The drive was one I'd originally supplied as an external, and it had been originally formatted for PC use.
I used Seagate's "DiscWizard for PC" (just because it was laying around), but the hard drive in question is a Western 500 GB! I got the boilerplate warning that the software only works with Seagate drives, etc.
But it did see the Western drive (SATA Drive 1). When I asked it to reformat, it took only a few seconds (quick format), and the drive is alive and useable. However, there is a small partition (~500MB) that sits there useless - the Seagate SW didn't offer any partition options. But I now have nearly all the original capacity of the drive back - I tried a few test files in and out with good results.
No idea whether this would help with a drive originally supplied with the DVR. Oh, the DVR is a Scientific-Atlanta 8340, and my OS is Windows XP.
I used Seagate's "DiscWizard for PC" (just because it was laying around), but the hard drive in question is a Western 500 GB! I got the boilerplate warning that the software only works with Seagate drives, etc.
But it did see the Western drive (SATA Drive 1). When I asked it to reformat, it took only a few seconds (quick format), and the drive is alive and useable. However, there is a small partition (~500MB) that sits there useless - the Seagate SW didn't offer any partition options. But I now have nearly all the original capacity of the drive back - I tried a few test files in and out with good results.
No idea whether this would help with a drive originally supplied with the DVR. Oh, the DVR is a Scientific-Atlanta 8340, and my OS is Windows XP.
#30
20 Nov 2011 @ 17:21
Originally posted by KillerBug:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Try this; it should wipe out whatever is on there and give you a nice clean space to put a NTFS partition:
Open the command prompt as administrator
type diskpart[enter]
type list disk[enter]
type select disk X[enter] (where X is replaced with the number of that disk).
type clean[enter]
type create partition primary[enter]
type exit[enter]exit[enter]
Also, there might be a new firmware file for the drive...I would check the seagate website...even if it is just the first firmware, you never know what the DVR maker might have done to the firmware on the drive.
This is right all the way up till the Exit command
after creaing the partition primary you need to select the partition by typing
(select partition 1)
After getting the prompt that partition 1 in now the selected partition you neeed to make it active by typing
(active)
you'll get a prompt that says that the partition is now active once you get that you'll wat to type
(format fs=fat32)
That process will take a little while but oec its done your disk will pop up in the computer as a local disk or removeable disk if connected by usb.
I've been doin this now for a few friends of mine and I've been able to do direct TV, time warner and personal DVRs with no problem hope this helps ALso I use an IDE/SATA to USB adapter for all of my jobs which makes it a lot easier than having to take your pc apart. about 15 dollars at most computer stores like frys and Micro Center
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Try this; it should wipe out whatever is on there and give you a nice clean space to put a NTFS partition:
Open the command prompt as administrator
type diskpart[enter]
type list disk[enter]
type select disk X[enter] (where X is replaced with the number of that disk).
type clean[enter]
type create partition primary[enter]
type exit[enter]exit[enter]
Also, there might be a new firmware file for the drive...I would check the seagate website...even if it is just the first firmware, you never know what the DVR maker might have done to the firmware on the drive.
This is right all the way up till the Exit command
after creaing the partition primary you need to select the partition by typing
(select partition 1)
After getting the prompt that partition 1 in now the selected partition you neeed to make it active by typing
(active)
you'll get a prompt that says that the partition is now active once you get that you'll wat to type
(format fs=fat32)
That process will take a little while but oec its done your disk will pop up in the computer as a local disk or removeable disk if connected by usb.
I've been doin this now for a few friends of mine and I've been able to do direct TV, time warner and personal DVRs with no problem hope this helps ALso I use an IDE/SATA to USB adapter for all of my jobs which makes it a lot easier than having to take your pc apart. about 15 dollars at most computer stores like frys and Micro Center
#32
27 Feb 2012 @ 20:13
If you gave up on this project I certainly understand but, if not, I solved the problem using a piece of software named hdat2.com and it was a breeze. I can walk you through it if you'd like. That is, of course, if your drive isn't with Davy Jones!
#33
27 Feb 2012 @ 20:33
Originally posted by binsy1:Unfortunately I left the drive back at the class I was taking for computers. No idea where it ended up at. I moved on from it though. I made it a prize for who ever could get it to work. Hopefully someone made use of it.
If you gave up on this project I certainly understand but, if not, I solved the problem using a piece of software named hdat2.com and it was a breeze. I can walk you through it if you'd like. That is, of course, if your drive isn't with Davy Jones!
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Feb 2012 @ 20:34
#34
28 Feb 2012 @ 14:39
smoggie66
Junior Member
u could try with parted magic if u havnt already google it its a free download and a handy tool.
#35
13 Apr 2012 @ 13:35
I have a WD5000AVVS-63ZWB0 hdd out of a direct tv hr22 box and tried hooking it up and windows xp will not see it(it is a good hdd working in the dvr, I was if anybody ever figured out this drive to work in a pc
#36
13 Apr 2012 @ 20:45
ddp
Moderator
does the bios see the drive? have you gone into control panel\administrative tools\computer management\disk management?
#37
13 Apr 2012 @ 21:28
Originally posted by ddp:It does not show in any of these,It doesn't spin up it just acts like it don't have power.
does the bios see the drive? have you gone into control panel\administrative tools\computer management\disk management?
#39
13 Apr 2012 @ 22:10
Originally posted by ddp:yes both plugs are plugged in I hooked up another hdd to the plugs and it was found
do you got 2 cables plugged into the drive?
#41
13 Apr 2012 @ 22:33
#43
13 Apr 2012 @ 22:48
Originally posted by ddp:yea it works just fine.
does it still work in that box?
#44
14 Apr 2012 @ 4:45
you have to use the box to start the drive. DVR's use a weird hardware call to spin up, and shut down the drive. to get the drive to spin up all you have to do is record something using the DVR. the drive will then initialize and you can hot swap it from the box to the PC. the fun doesn't stop there, you then have to modify the drive's firmware to turn hardware calls off. the drive's firmware interface looks allot like what you would find on a SCSI/SAS drive.
if you managed to get this far you have 2 out comes
1.) if your lucky you now have a drive that cant handle day to day PC activity's.(("these drives have variable motors they may say they operate at 5200RPMS on the tin but more like than not the drive will probably only cap out at about 3200RPMs, even worse is the 1990's cache size of 2mb if your lucky."))
2.) if your not so lucky you now have a paperweight(("some DVR drives only respond to those commands even if you bybassed the drive's calls properly the drive will never respond to the hardware calls required to operate again....ever."))
if you managed to get this far you have 2 out comes
1.) if your lucky you now have a drive that cant handle day to day PC activity's.(("these drives have variable motors they may say they operate at 5200RPMS on the tin but more like than not the drive will probably only cap out at about 3200RPMs, even worse is the 1990's cache size of 2mb if your lucky."))
2.) if your not so lucky you now have a paperweight(("some DVR drives only respond to those commands even if you bybassed the drive's calls properly the drive will never respond to the hardware calls required to operate again....ever."))
Powered By
