Rescue JVC DR-MH20SE harddisk

[Anamon]

Hello

I have bought a JVC DR-MH20SE HDD/DVD-Recorder a bit more than a year ago. Two weeks ago, I started having the "Loading" problem you can read a lot about all over the Internet, but in a very aggressive form. I was preparing playlists for burning a DVD when suddenly, everything disappeared and the device switched to the blinking/loading thing. After reading on the Internet about it, I have tried everything from letting the device "load" for 2 days straight, and disconnecting and reconnecting the power hundreds of times. I can't get the "loading" to disappear.

Finally, I decided to send the box in to JVC. After reading on these forums that JVC seems to be repairing devices that have this bug for free in the US, even without warranty, I was quite baffled when I received the letter telling me that they would ask for almost $800 for the repair (the device cost me $600 when it was new). They wanted to exchange the whole motherboard and power supply (~$300 each). I now decided to let the junker rest in peace and get a new recorder (Sony). I even had to pay $100 just to get the box back unrepaired, which I wanted to because there's much material still on its harddrive that I wanted to burn to DVD.

Now here's my question, I haven't got the harddisk back yet, but I wondered if anybody has already made experiences with connecting the harddisk to a computer and trying to rescue the data. Is it much trouble, or even possible? I.e., what filesystem does JVC use for its DR-MH DVD recorders?

Thanks for any help!
Daniel

[tangerine]

Don't waste your time. I tried but no success. It has a special (unknown) data storage system.

[Anamon]

Thanks for your reply!
That's bad news lots of stuff I still wanted to burn to DVD on that drive. I'll keep the harddisk here, maybe I'll find somebody with a similar recorder someday, so I could build it in and burn the stuff that's still on it...

[tangerine]

I'm not that sure. Your HDD might be faulty. That can cause the loading error.

[lordsmurf]

Specialized or not, you should still be able to clone the drive. I don't know that Ghost will work for you, but some others should, especially anything that is good at handling non-standard (non-Windows) file systems, like Unix.

I do not believe the hard drive is hardware locked.

[tangerine]

Specialized or not, you should still be able to clone the drive. I don't know that Ghost will work for you, but some others should, especially anything that is good at handling non-standard (non-Windows) file systems, like Unix.

I do not believe the hard drive is hardware locked.

Ghost does not work (I tried) linux's 'dd' command is ok for cloning as that does not care what is on the HDD just copies bytes to bytes.
The HDD is not hardware locked as I cloned my HDD to another (using dd command) and that worked.

I don't know what can be wrong with Anamon's recorder. There are 3 possibilities I can imagine.

1. No problem with the HDD but the recorder is damaged. -> The content of the HDD can be rescued in another (same type) device.

2. HDD damaged and the recorder is ok. -> Recorder can be repaired by buying a new 80 GB (or bigger) HDD and that has to be cloned from a working device's HDD. If this is the case then no chance to rescue the HDD content, but the device can be alive again at quite a low price.
2a. HDD may contains logical/filesystem errors only (i.e. blackout during recording, etc.) then no need replacing it, just cloning.

3. Both HDD and device is faulty -> you can do nothing.

[lordsmurf]

As I understand it (I'm helping somebody else with this same problem), much like the die-happy Panasonic HDD recorders, this model of JVC opted for a Maxtor drives. Of course, Maxtor has fairly earned the nickname MAXTRASH. They put a Maxtor in refurbs and repairs too, hence the temporary nature of the fixes.

I suggest putting a Seagate or Western Digital drive inside of it. If you want to push your luck, you may want to try a larger drive while you're at it. I don't know how the recorder will react, or what the max size will be allowed by the BIOS, but it's worth a shot.

For example, you can take out the hard drive in an XBOX, which is about 10GB or so from OEM, and then put in a larger one. Mine has a 40GB or 60GB in it (I forget), and some people have been known to put up to 300GB drive in it just fine. And yes, all space can be used. It's great for putting games on, make them load up to 10x faster than off the disc.

There has been reported success with replacing hard drives and DVD burners in various DVD recorders, Tivos, and DVD players. So there is hope, it can happen.

[tangerine]

As I understand it (I'm helping somebody else with this same problem), much like the die-happy Panasonic HDD recorders, this model of JVC opted for a Maxtor drives. Of course, Maxtor has fairly earned the nickname MAXTRASH. They put a Maxtor in refurbs and repairs too, hence the temporary nature of the fixes.

I have the same type and it has Seagate HDD.

I suggest putting a Seagate or Western Digital drive inside of it. If you want to push your luck, you may want to try a larger drive while you're at it. I don't know how the recorder will react, or what the max size will be allowed by the BIOS, but it's worth a shot.
For example, you can take out the hard drive in an XBOX, which is about 10GB or so from OEM, and then put in a larger one. Mine has a 40GB or 60GB in it (I forget), and some people have been known to put up to 300GB drive in it just fine. And yes, all space can be used. It's great for putting games on, make them load up to 10x faster than off the disc.

There has been reported success with replacing hard drives and DVD burners in various DVD recorders, Tivos, and DVD players. So there is hope, it can happen.

No worth putting larger HDD (I tried). I put a 160 GB Samsung HDD in my recorder (after cloning the 80 GB Seagate to the Samsung). No difference. It behaved as it was a 80 GB HDD. The same space not the double as one might expect.

Mod:
I guess if I could obtain a HDD of a DR-MH30 and clone to a new 160 GB HDD then that could be used in my DR-MH20 device and would behave as it was DR-MH30 and there would be 160 GB diskspace for recordings.

[Anamon]

Well, it's most likely the harddisk that crashed. I got the device back now (almost 1 month for returning an un-repaired device, and they asked 130$ for the return), opened it and connected the harddisk to my PC. The harddisk didn't even start rotating. Bad luck for my movies.

The last thing I want to do is trying to build in a different harddisk - I'm through with JVC and their funny repair partners. Who by the way wanted to replace the power supply and the mainboard, while obviously the harddisk was the problem. (No wonder they added it up to 800$). I have bought a Panasonic DMR-EH65 now - which you also called die-happy now but I always made good experiences with Panasonic and Technics, especially their support, and I don't intend to ever again keep stuff I want to burn to DVD on the hard-drive for too long. I even saved 200$ by ordering the EH-55 but receiving the EH-65 8)

Thanks for all your help - but I guess my case is hopeless

[jstraub]

Had the sameProblem with JVC DR-MH30 in Germany. After Loadig Bug the Service send the Device back and it has a new HDD inside. They snd me the old back, an I tested ist with al lot of tools. The HDD was complete correct readable. But thefilesystem is a propriatary one. No Microsoft- or *nix-Derivat can mount it, No Partiton-Table was on it, no MPEG-Filestructeres were detectable...and so on. I wonder, why JVC creates a Device with no Possibilities to save the Videos on external Devices. My old VHS-Cassettes lay warm and cozy if the VHS-Recorder dies! Geetz from Berlin! Jochen

[gazamonk]

I bought a JVC DRMH30 in December 04.

The delivered unit had no audio. Retailer replaced it.

After a few months the loading error, the retailer said to phone JVC they would replace it with or without warranty no questions asked. They were right JVC replaced it next day and the delivery courier took a away the faulty unit (good serveice but made me a little suspicious that they knew the unit had major problems) BTW replacement units are repaired refurbs.

Replacement unit failed after another couple of months (just locked up and wouldnt boot) phoned JVC again and as before unit was promptly replaced no questions asked)

November this year. Yeah you guessed it loading error back (remember the original sale is now almost a year out of warranty) phoned JVC who replaced it again without a problem (boy do these guys know this unit sucks)

17 days later OH OH you guessed again this time I went berserk at JVC who said they would send a brand new sealed boxed unit. Got it yesterday and after an hour it tried to shut down with the PLEASE WAIT message but just hung there (remember this is a brand new unit manufactured over 2 years on from release and still displaying problems) On this occassion I unplugged and left it 10 mins and restarted, it went into loading cycle for a considerable time and eventually worked. I am not optimistic about this new unit either but what can I do.

Most annoying thing about all this is the hundreds of hours of programming on these units which have been lost, how can you compensate for that JVC.

So in summary 5 units in less than 2 years ( 2 in the space of 17 days)

My recommendation - dont waste your time or money.
I have bought a lot of JVC kit over the years but they just lost a good customer.

[SmokeytheCat]

Can someone detail the steps involved to clone the JVC HDD? According to JVC, it appears I have faulty HDD, which is cause for my Loading issue. Seems tangerine had some success with this method. I have XP on my PC. I am not familiar with using Linux dd command[/quote]

[tangerine]

mod: corrections

Can someone detail the steps involved to clone the JVC HDD? According to JVC, it appears I have faulty HDD, which is cause for my Loading issue. Seems tangerine had some success with this method. I have XP on my PC. I am not familiar with using Linux dd command

Well if you don't know linux, I suggest you find someone who does.

You will not be able to rescue/clone a bad HDD. If your HDD is physically bad, you will not be able to clone(read) it. If there are logical errors on it, then you can clone it, but the target HDD will contain the same errors. The only way is that you find someone with a working device and borrow his recorder (or its HDD) for cloning. That HDD will be the "donor". Buy an 80 GB (at least) HDD. Watch out, 80 GB is an aproxx. so the "acceptor" HDD should contain the same (or) more sectors as the donor does. If the acceptor has less sectors than the donor, the the end of the donor will be missing. You'd better buy a 100 GB. So be sure about the number of sectors.

Get a Linux for the cloning. I.e. install Suse, or use a Linux live CD (I used Knoppix). Let's suppose you have an IDE HDD (XP on it) and an IDE DVD writer in your PC. The HDD is connected to primary IDE controller and jumpered to be master (will be /dev/hda in Linux). The DVD writer is on the same controller and jumpered to be slave (/dev/hdb). Jumper the JVC "donor" HDD to master and connect it to the secondary IDE controller (/dev/hdc). Jumper the brand new "acceptor" HDD to slave and connect it to the secondary IDE controller (/dev/hdd).

Start your linux an be sure if you did everything right, before start cloning. Or you might ruin the donor or your XP.
use dd command like this: dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd

this means: if - input file (the donor hd) ; of - output file (the new acceptor hd) so /dev/hdc will be cloned to /dev/hdd from byte to byte. If /dev/hdd bigger than /dev/hdc then the end of the /dev/hdd will be empty (no problem) But if /dev/hdc bigger then its end will not fit to /dev/hdd.
That's all. The most important thing that you do not confuse the hdd-s. Linux(Unix) like system will not bother you with 'Are you sure to do this and that?' questions. It will silently overwrite your most important data if you command it to.

[tangerine]

corr:

SmokeytheCat, if you have DR-MH30 then you will need a 160 GB HDD (not 80 GB).

[SmokeytheCat]

Big thanks tangerine for putting that together I'll give it a whirl and post results

[tangerine]

Big thanks tangerine for putting that together I'll give it a whirl and post results

You're welcome. One more thing: don't forget to set the jumpers of the HDDs to their original position (can't remember if it is master or slave) when you finished with the cloning.

[mycroft]

Hello,

Search image file (HDD) for my JVC DR-MH20

Who can help me?

[itclicks]

My harddisk is also totally dead... Does anyone have working HDD image for JVC DR-MH20SE ???

I hope it is enough to clone something like first 20MB...

[RFZ]

Hello,
I had my third "LOADING" error with my JVC DR-MH 20 SE few weeks ago and had it repaired (HDD replaced). So, Yes, I do have a complete image of its HDD
The problem is, the HDD they charged me 150 Euros for was not new - actually, referring to its SMART values, it's been powered on for more than 36800 hours - and was full of data. I cannot determine which parts of the image belong to the firmware and which don't. So I can't just put it online
However, just ask me, and I'll send you the first 10/50/100MB of the Image, maybe it's enough...

[themadkiller]

Hello to all . I am a technic and just now recieved a JVC DR-MH20SE with the loading problem flashing and do not want to start.

So i found a solution to the problem after a little time . The problem is with the power board . For some reason the 5V are missing to the right part of the power supply . So check your DVD's if the HDD is working and the DVD is not opening, and get the message loading flashing probably you don't have the 5Voltage for some reason.

The solution is very simple. give the dvd 5 Voltage from the HDD and start the DR-MH20SE . for the first 20-30 seconds it will flash loading till the power suppy gets the missing 5V. then it will shutdown and gets to the ready. power on the dvd from the remote control and your dvd is alive.

if you don't know what to do mail me at thekiller@dir.bg

[dvd4met]

Hello,
I had my third "LOADING" error with my JVC DR-MH 20 SE few weeks ago and had it repaired (HDD replaced). So, Yes, I do have a complete image of its HDD
The problem is, the HDD they charged me 150 Euros for was not new - actually, referring to its SMART values, it's been powered on for more than 36800 hours - and was full of data. I cannot determine which parts of the image belong to the firmware and which don't. So I can't just put it online
However, just ask me, and I'll send you the first 10/50/100MB of the Image, maybe it's enough...

Hi,
It is possible to save the last 100 mb at the most, from the TOP of the HDD, the high number sectors?
Use please something like winhex to extract the raw image( make a rar after) , under windows HDD should be fine just thru USB adaptor.
Very much appreciated if you can do this!

Thanks!

[RFZ]

http://rapidshare.com/files/386124038/jvc_drmh20_full_to_first_mpeg_header.zip.html
The ZIP contains a binary image of my HDD from byte 0x0 to 0x10600E00, which was the position of the first MPEG Video Stream Header I found on the disk.

[dvd4met]

The info was old and inaccurate.

Please look at the next post

[dvd4met]

http://rapidshare.com/files/386124038/jvc_drmh20_full_to_first_mpeg_header.zip.html
The ZIP contains a binary image of my HDD from byte 0x0 to 0x10600E00, which was the position of the first MPEG Video Stream Header I found on the disk.

I'm starting again my struggle to restore my JVC-DVM70.
I'm trying to rebuild the JVC DVM-70 file system,
after reloading the initial firmware image on another new HDD! (same model)

Seems I was on a wrong track until now, that part of file system HDD image is not really needed( is located at the end of HDD).
There is a software able to rebuild the file system, is called Jvc Adviser Pro cd.

Well, I'm looking for that piece of software, the jvc adviser pro cd
or the BOOTUP1.BLX file to burn-it on cd. Anybody can help?

Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

If you do find that, let me have a copy of it, and I'll archive it for others.
But I don't think it's going to be easy to locate. Only service centers had access to these.

The better solution is to clone a drive from a working model.

It has to be an EXACT match of your machine, too, from what I've read.
PAL machine must be cloned from PAL match. NTSC from NTSC.

[dvd4met]

http://rapidshare.com/files/386124038/jvc_drmh20_full_to_first_mpeg_header.zip.html
The ZIP contains a binary image of my HDD from byte 0x0 to 0x10600E00, which was the position of the first MPEG Video Stream Header I found on the disk.

I have tried your image, the unit is opening the DVD drive at one point and then reboots.

I am missing the file allocation table to complete the process.
( that is the info I was looking at the end of the HDD that I have erased by mistake and made no backup)

I'm looking for the software able to rebuild that on the HDD.

Thanks