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Hard Drive Issue
Name: Po'Boy (by Johnny D) Date: February 8, 2009 at 11:12:01 Pacific OS: Win XP SP3 CPU/Ram: P4/2GH 1GB Product: Dell / Gx240 Subcategory: Hardware Problems
Comment:
I have Western Digital HDD out of a DVR that has video data on it. I have it attached to the computer via an external case (USB 2.0). When I turn on power to the drive then look in "My Computer" the drive is not there. When I look in the "Device Manager" the drive is there. When I look in "Administrative Tools/Disk Management" the drive shows up as "Unallocated" and the Initialize and Convert wizard comes up. I know that there is video data on the drive, nearly 74GB's worth only Windows XP does not see it because the drive is not initialized. If I initialize the disk will I lose the data that is on the drive? Once initialized can I uninitialize it?
Name: Analyst Date: February 8, 2009 at 11:19:21 Pacific
Reply:
Most DVRs employ a proprietary file system or video format to prevent you from doing what you are doing. Initializing should not delete the data, and you may have to manually assign it a drive letter- just so that you don't choose any format options. Good luck, but chances are it won't work.
What brand DVR is it?
Assume that I already did an Internet search.
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Response Number 2
Name: aegis1 Date: February 8, 2009 at 11:19:48 Pacific
Reply:
The problem is probably because the drive is in a special format used by the DVR, and is not recognized by windows.
If I initialize the disk will I lose the data that is on the drive? Yes
Once initialized can I uninitialize it? No
Look into finding a way to hook up the DVR video output to your PC and copy the videos that way. You probably will need a video input adapter for the PC.
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Response Number 3
Name: Po'Boy (by Johnny D) Date: February 8, 2009 at 12:20:28 Pacific
Reply:
Thanks. That's what I was afraid of.
Software gives me a headache.
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Response Number 4
Name: Analyst Date: February 8, 2009 at 12:40:31 Pacific
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