Recover access to my old PVR Hard Drive's contents

[Rollo]

My PVR recently had hard drive problems to the extent that I couldn't even use the PVR to reformat it. So I replaced the HD. I want to recover the 400gb of shows and movies that I had on the unit.

But when I took the old HD and put it in an external HD enclosure I noticed that while Windows7 pro couldn't read or even see it, yet Windows Disk Management Utility could, and described it as 'Healthy".

So I used various file and partition utilities either from inside Windows or from a boot disk, but for one thing, I can't get a File recovery utility ("Recuva" or "Active File Recovery") to recover the files (movies) nor can I find a way to repair the MBR or whatever is needed to recover my integrity of the hard drive's setup structure.

I include to 5 screen shots of the various utilities and their assessment of the drive, as a picture may be worth a thousand words - http://imgur.com/a/Q7gGG

Windows Disk Management Utility looks like it could reformat the drive from EXT3 to NTFS but I would lose all my movies.

Is there some utility which can repair the EXT3 drive and make it readable again, or just allow me to access the lost files?

Thank you for your time and knowledge!
Rollo

[fzabkar]

Try Linux Reader for Windows (freeware):
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Otherwise ...

http://www.r-tt.com/free_linux_recovery/
http://www.ufsexplorer.com/

[Rollo]

thanks for that . Linux Reader for Windows (DiskInternals) just reported that the partition with 450 gb is empty (I guess maybe it is at this point, I have no way to tell.) The R-Studio doesn't seem to offer a trial and the cost of $80 is more than I am willing to pay under these circumstances.
Rollo

[fzabkar]

Is it really an ext3 volume?
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1132

[Rollo]

I got that from the 2nd screenshot from "Active Data Recovery" which lists it as such.

[fzabkar]

My understanding is that a partition ID of 0x83 can be used by Reiser FS as well as ext3 file systems.

[Rollo]

fzabkar, I don't know what all this means-

a partition ID of 0x83 can be used by Reiser FS as well as ext3 file systems

[HaQue]

it means that it may not be ext3 filesystem just because that was what was reported

[Rollo]

OK, thanks for your replies
Rollo

[fzabkar]

Try PhotoRec:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

BTW, what is the PVR model?

[Rollo]

Thanks again. The PVR is a HUMAX HDR-7500T. I will try that softwre tomorrow when I get time.
Cheers
Rollo

[HaQue]

you could try looking for file headers in a hex editor. how to explain.. ah, search for blocks of data looking stuff followed by some amount of 0000 then random looking data. if you get the header narrowed down, you should be able to find similar headers. there may be some hints there. even searching for strings in the image should put you inside a header as a rough starting point. maybe post a 100 lines or so of hex containing something like a file header.

I am sure there was some custom software, or info for recovering such filesystems in the forum already. IIRC the filesystems either were similar to conventional ones, but not exact, or something along those lines.

[Rollo]

THanks Haque but your ideas are way beyond me!

[fzabkar]

PhotoRec searches for files based on their headers.

Can you see the files on your replacement HDD?

[Rollo]

@ fzabkar - unfortunately this utility could not see the drive in question

Try PhotoRec:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

BTW, what is the PVR model?

[HaQue]

THanks Haque but your ideas are way beyond me!

seeing as you are in AU, maybe I could have a look or a look at the disk image.

BTW, make sure you don't muck around with the original - take a disk image that is saved on a different disk and work on the image. I can image it to a drive if you aren't confident.

[Rollo]

If I can't get any other way to access the files, I wonder if I let Windows Disk Management format the first partition, then Windows would recognize the disk enough that I could access the 3rd or 4th partition where my files are located. Possible?

[HaQue]

I would not do that. take a disk image as your first priority. You should only do operations on the disk where you are sure you understand the process and probable outcome, not just hope
alternatively, get DMDE or Partition Find and mount. image each partition to another disk. each tool makes it easy to do this and both are free.

you are at risk of losing everything if something goes south

[fzabkar]

If I can't get any other way to access the files, I wonder if I let Windows Disk Management format the first partition, then Windows would recognize the disk enough that I could access the 3rd or 4th partition where my files are located. Possible?

Formatting will only make things much worse. In any case, Windows will never recognise an ext3 partition.

Can you show us a SMART report? You could use a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. This will tell us if the drive has physical problems.

[Rollo]

OK I do so. Thanks

I would not do that. take a disk image as your first priority. You should only do operations on the disk where you are sure you understand the process and probable outcome, not just hope
alternatively, get DMDE or Partition Find and mount. image each partition to another disk. each tool makes it easy to do this and both are free.

you are at risk of losing everything if something goes south