I have a 250 gig hard drive from a 9200 pvr that I would like to uses as an external drive but I can't Initialize the drive. Are these drives locked and unusable in a pc? This drive will show up in disk management only but I am unable to do anything with it. What is up with this.
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Hard drive from a pvr
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
I can't believe there is no discussion on this. I am sure there are others who wanted to use these drives rather than throw them out. I know there are a lot of smart people out there who know how. I do own the unit bought and paid for, just not supported by the service provider anymore.
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
I looked around. Here's another thread on this forum:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18402
(I did not know there was an ATA locking mechanism in any official standard. Wow.)
Apparently, "Bell", "Humax" and "Pansat" come up in google results, so this was sold under multiple brands. I think your chances of finding a solution are very good.
My first guess was "maybe there is NO partition table at all" like older Apple stuff (maybe OSX finally started requiring a partition table, I don't know). A proprietary file system would also make sense (Windows wouldn't recognize it).
Let us know how it turns out, and good luck!Last edited by Hondaman; 09-23-2012, 12:01 PM.
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Unless you want to recover some of the recordings on the drive, I would try a stand-alone disk utility. I would recommend the GParted Live CD, just delete all partitions, create a new partition table, and create new partitions:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
Make sure you are working on the correct drive. Maybe even go as far as unplugging all other hard drives before you boot the Live CD.
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by Time2Retire View PostUnless you want to recover some of the recordings on the drive, I would try a stand-alone disk utility. I would recommend the GParted Live CD, just delete all partitions, create a new partition table, and create new partitions:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
Make sure you are working on the correct drive. Maybe even go as far as unplugging all other hard drives before you boot the Live CD.
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
If the drive is locked with ATA password none of such tools will work.
Any command will be aborted by the drive.
Try to look at the drive with MHDD, it will tell you if
it's locked or not.
If you don't need data you can try a secure erase with MHDD.
Brand / Model of HD?
Take a look at this http://www.hddunlock.com/
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by noppa View PostIf the drive is locked with ATA password none of such tools will work.
Any command will be aborted by the drive.
Try to look at the drive with MHDD, it will tell you if
it's locked or not.
If you don't need data you can try a secure erase with MHDD.
Brand / Model of HD?
Take a look at this http://www.hddunlock.com/
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
If it's not locked try to zerofill at least some megabytes
from LBA 0, i had some drives with corrupted MBR / partition
table that didn't initialize from windows and solved this way.
Also some drive with bad sector at the very beginning of the
disk may cause this.
I presume it's a seagate since you used Seatools,
does it pass quick test?
Can you show smart parameters?
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by t.j. View Posti scalp drives from pvr's all the time! if visible in disk management, just repartition it!
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by noppa View PostIf it's not locked try to zerofill at least some megabytes
from LBA 0, i had some drives with corrupted MBR / partition
table that didn't initialize from windows and solved this way.
Also some drive with bad sector at the very beginning of the
disk may cause this.
I presume it's a seagate since you used Seatools,
does it pass quick test?
Can you show smart parameters?
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Some PVRs (mainly from providers) password protect the hard drive, and it is a possibility that some can keep the recordings in the host protected area.My first choice in quality Japanese electrolytics is Nippon Chemi-Con, which has been in business since 1931... the quality of electronics is dependent on the quality of the electrolytics.
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
You can use Seatools to zerofill the drive, and i think you already did it
with the erase function.
I don't like seatools, if i remember correctly it doesn't tell you
if a drive is simply locked and fail any test.
I suggest you a quick way to point out if your drive is locked (and possibly healthy) or bad in some way.
Download MHDD from this site
http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/
and burn the iso to a CD-ROM (or use the floppy image)
Connect to your pc just the hard drive to test and a CD-DVD Rom
and then boot from it.
The drive MUST be connected to a true IDE channel, not RAID or
AHCI.
It will boot in plain DOS and will load MHDD in few seconds,
MHDD will scan all ATA channel and show you any drive connected.
Select the right drive by the number MHDD assigned to it and if
it is locked MHDD will show you it immediately with a warning
message.
Then press F8 and you will get the SMART information of the drive,
look for "reallocated sector count" and for "current pending sectors"
values that give a quick info if the drive is degrading.
Then press twice F4 and MHDD will start to scan the disk and
show you any bad or slow zone of your disk.
You can also use Hiren's Boot CD 15.1 from here
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
it's a live cd that contains MHDD and a lots of free tools.
Good Luck!
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by noppa View PostYou can use Seatools to zerofill the drive, and i think you already did it
with the erase function.
I don't like seatools, if i remember correctly it doesn't tell you
if a drive is simply locked and fail any test.
I suggest you a quick way to point out if your drive is locked (and possibly healthy) or bad in some way.
Download MHDD from this site
http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/
and burn the iso to a CD-ROM (or use the floppy image)
Connect to your pc just the hard drive to test and a CD-DVD Rom
and then boot from it.
The drive MUST be connected to a true IDE channel, not RAID or
AHCI.
It will boot in plain DOS and will load MHDD in few seconds,
MHDD will scan all ATA channel and show you any drive connected.
Select the right drive by the number MHDD assigned to it and if
it is locked MHDD will show you it immediately with a warning
message.
Then press F8 and you will get the SMART information of the drive,
look for "reallocated sector count" and for "current pending sectors"
values that give a quick info if the drive is degrading.
Then press twice F4 and MHDD will start to scan the disk and
show you any bad or slow zone of your disk.
You can also use Hiren's Boot CD 15.1 from here
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
it's a live cd that contains MHDD and a lots of free tools.
Good Luck!
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Re: Hard drive from a pvr
Originally posted by OniJon View PostTry Killdisk
http://how-to-erase-hard-drive.com/
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