Ever take a DVR apart?

[SargeW]

So I had to replace my Direct DVR as it was starting to fail. They sent me another one (refurbished) and all is well again. The problem is that the old one had a bunch of old TV shows on the hard drive that I had recorded. Once they activated the new one,  the old one was deactivated.

The question is, is it possible to pull the hard drive out of the old one and salvage the programs on it?  They don't want the old one back, and told me just to dispose of it. 

 

[camperAL]

Hi Sarge,

Assuming that the old drive was intact and not the problem, and you can find someone to work on this (perhaps you are handy enough), you might be able to take the old drive out and put it in the new refurbish unit (swap drives). I have a bit of working knowledge on small electronics but don't know if the old drive could be read (with the new head or not) or with the newer unit but it might be worth a try to find your treasured programs. Wishing you good luck!

 

[Corky]

Sarge
I imagine with one email that contained several key phrases the FBI would be downloading all of the content for you.

Sorry couldn't resist.

Wonder if the company's service department would have any insight to the problem, chances are this isn't the first time this issue has come aroud.

Corky

 

[Back2PA]

Years ago I replaced the HDD on a laptop with a larger one, had Data Doctors do it. Didn?t want to throw away the old drive. DD put it in an external drive enclosure, works great and I still use it for backup. Possibly they could do the same. I would pull the drive and take the bare drive in and see if they can read it first. This plan only works if there?s a way to get the shows off the drive without doing the swap camperAL suggested. I don?t have a DVR anymore but seems I recall USB ports on them. If so, might be able to plug in the now external drive via the USB port, the Direct tech guys would certainly know.

 

[blw2]

these folks might be able to help
www.weaknees.com
I dealt with them a couple times buying parts for our Tivo DVR

 

[SargeW]

Thanks all. When I asked the Direct TV agent on the phone about it, she replied "yes, there is a way, we just don't do it right now". Well, at least she was honest.  Just a thought, I may tinker with it later.

 

[John From Detroit]

I had to Re-Cap the power supply in one of mine, and I've dusted them out several times.

I run dual, soon to be tripple DVR's cause there is so much Over the Air Television.. I can not watch it all.. Though I did clean off one hard drive today.. Tons of fun  I have softwart that tracks it all .

Oh and for you 100/month or thereabout Sat Vieweres.. I pay 25/year. Just for the ELectronic Program guide.

 

[xrated]

I had to Re-Cap the power supply in one of mine, and I've dusted them out several times.

I run dual, soon to be tripple DVR's cause there is so much Over the Air Television.. I can not watch it all.. Though I did clean off one hard drive today.. Tons of fun  I have softwart that tracks it all .

Oh and for you 100/month or thereabout Sat Vieweres.. I pay 25/year. Just for the ELectronic Program guide.

Can you explain to me....even in some small way.....what this has to do with the original question?

 

[xrated]

So I had to replace my Direct DVR as it was starting to fail. They sent me another one (refurbished) and all is well again. The problem is that the old one had a bunch of old TV shows on the hard drive that I had recorded. Once they activated the new one,  the old one was deactivated.

The question is, is it possible to pull the hard drive out of the old one and salvage the programs on it?  They don't want the old one back, and told me just to dispose of it.

Sarge, I had the same issue a couple years ago before I ditched DirecTV.  They told me to just dispose of the old one and I took it apart and grabbed the Hard Drive out of it...hoping for the same thing.  I had a bunch of MotoGP motorcycle races recorded on it.  If I remember correctly, and don't hold me to this, their recorded stuff is encoded in some way that makes it very difficult, if not impossible to watch by just hooking up the hard drive to a computer and using a video viewing software.  You might research it a bit, but I wasn't successful......other than getting a spare hard drive that could be used for a backup.....after refromatting it of course.

 

[Jim18655]

I'd be surprised if it wasn't a hard drive failure causing the trouble. Does it play at all? You might be able to blow the dust out to keep it cool long enough to play the shows into a different recorder. Wrapping the DVR in a sealed bag and placing the DVR in the freezer might help the HDD run long enough to recover the data. Google freezer data recovery.

 

[SargeW]

I think that they have indeed encoded it so that it can not be easily viewed. I considered taking it apart to salvage the hard drive, but more than likely it will be a futile endeavor.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Is is DIRECTV?  If so you can try smart search to find those programs online.

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/please-help-transfer-from-hard-drive-of-failing-directv-dvr-363796/

 

[SargeW]

Oh yeah, it's not that they are non-recoverable.  It just trying to recover 178 episodes of Star Trek TNG that is daunting!  OK, I admit that I am a closet Trekkie......

 

[8Muddypaws]

Do you have a fast internet connection?

 

[Lou Schneider]

Yeah, Netflix has Star Trek pretty much covered ... all of TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and TAS (The Animated Series).  William Shatner's 2014 look behind the scenes of TNG is good, too.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Have you dismantled it yet? 

Does the hard drive use Sata connectors or IDE connectors?

 

[jackiemac]

Oh yeah, it's not that they are non-recoverable.  It just trying to recover 178 episodes of Star Trek TNG that is daunting!  OK, I admit that I am a closet Trekkie......

We watched all of Voyager on Amazon Prime and I thi k TNG is on there too. I download episodes to my tablet when we have wifi and then cast to TV.

Live long and prosper ?

 

[8Muddypaws]

Won't make any difference.  Programs on the disk are licensed only that DVR.  Move it to another DVR and you will get an 'Unauthorized content' message.  AFAIK there is no way to circumvent the DRM, digital rights management.

The gotcha is that even if you download all those episodes again they will each have an expiration date.

If you download them from Netflix, Hulu etc. they will be available only as long as you pay for those services.

Would you like to have them on a computer or thumb drive?  In a format that's playable on any computer and most smart TVs?  It will take a fast internet connection and a fair amount of your time though.

 

[SargeW]

Yeah, I have a decent speed internet connection, depending where I am at.  But from all the input, it seems as though it would be way more trouble than it's worth. A lot of the content is available on Amazon Prime as well.  I have not started to take it apart yet, spent the day hooking up the Wii.  I  may just hold onto it for a bit and see if I can think of anything else.

 

[xrated]

If nothing else, buy a case to put it in, and reformat it completely and use it for a spare hard drive/backup for important stuff......financial records, pictures that you don't ever want to lose, etc., then store it in a safe place like a fireproof box.  Although I have to admit, with the low cost of SD cards and MicroSD cards being what they are, you can buy a 256 gig MicroSD card, store everything that you want/need on that and store it away in a safe place with a lot less hassle......and a lot less storage space taken up.