Can't see the HDD I've just installed

[dortmunder]

Hi. I've just thrown away my old PVR but kept the HDD as there are some telly programmes on it I want to keep. It's a Hitachi ATA/IDE 3.5" drive which uses a 'flat' cable. The only flat cable in my PC belongs to the DVD RW so I simply took the cables off the DVD RW and connected them to the Hitachi.

On bootup, I was pleased to glimpse a balloon saying something like 'Hitachi device installed successfully'. However, in My Computer there's just no sign of the Hitachi.

Can anyone suggest where I've gone wrong?

[Alrock]

You'll need to assign it a drive letter.
There should be a way of doing it from within windows, but not sure how, just Google it.

Alternatively, I use Paragon Partition Manager for such operations, you can get a trial version here... http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-personal/download.html

[Shaggy]

first need to check its not conflicting with your main drive. on the back of the drive there will be 1 or 2 jumpers and a corresponding diagram on a label next to it. the original drive (if IDE) will be set as master and the "new" drive should be set as slave. If the drive you fitted is on its own cable from the mainboard, then make sure its set as master (or cable select) via the jumpers. If still no show, let me know your OS and i'll take you through it. only take a couple of mins

[dx100uk]

nope wont work
the HDD will be 'seen' by the system [bios]

the drive will not be formatted to work on a pc

there are ways to get the info off

try popping along to one of the digital sites
like www.world-of-digital.com (http://www.world-of-digital.com)

and asking there

or just type your question onto a search engine

you'll need a USB cradle [maplins or CPC etc]

then run a translator prog/util

dx

[RecQuery]

I'll need the exact model of the PVR to check but I suspect the drive is formatted using the EXT2 or EXT3 filesystem - they also use the XFS filesystem - I really hopy you didn't format the drive or anything from other advice.

If the drive is EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 try:

http://www.ext2fsd.com/ - Should be pretty straight forward, it's what I use.

If that doesn't work try - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/

Guides at http://www.howtogeek.com/112888/3-ways-to-access-your-linux-partitions-from-windows/ if you need one.

If it's XFS it's a bit more convoluted but still possible.

[dortmunder]

Thanks, all. RecQuery, the PVR (which I no longer have, just it's HDD) was a Techwood AEDTR80S7. Bought from Tesco and based, I believe, on a Vestel PVR. I tried searching for the format system but with no luck. If you can tell me what it is I'll look further at your suggestions. Thanks again.

[dortmunder]

Well, I took a gamble that the PVR HDD was ext2/ext3/ext4 as RecQuery suggested and installed Ext2Fsd. After a couple of minutes fumbling, I found the recorded programmes in .trp format (which is just a wrapper for an mpeg file). By using VideReDo I can easily edit these files for normal use.

RecQuery - you're a star. Many, many thanks to you.

[RecQuery]

Good to know, sorry for not getting back sooner but I was busier than usual last week.

As an aside VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html) or Media Player Classic after installing the Combined Community Codec Pack (http://www.cccp-project.net/) can play TRP files without any conversion or remuxing. I'm assuming VideReDo is demuxing the files as opposed to converting them if not, or you're not happy with it try:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TSSplitter - For joining files
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TsRemux - For remuxing
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TSSniper - For cutting streams
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/tsMuxeR - For general file manipulation

[dortmunder]

Thanks. My usual PC media player - KMP - played the files OK but I still needed to edit them. Few tools beat VideoReDo...