Recover deleted shows from Pioneer 510H

[huggeeze]

Hi guys,

My dad owns a Pioneer 510H. He came home the other day and while editing something on the hard drive, accidentally hit "Erase all" to his hard drive. (thought he was just erasing one portion of a show).

I told him the material is most likely still there, I just don't know of any way of getting access to it. He called Pioneer, who said there was no official way to get the material back, but that maybe he should call a Linux guru. I really have no experience on Linux, and he definitely does not.

Has anyone had this happen to them on this particular model, or does anyone know of any businesses or people who might be able to help? For now, he's completely unplugged the unit, so that he doesn't overwrite any material on the hard drive.

I'm going to post this same topic on AVS Forum also.

Thanks for your help!

-Kevin
huggies1108@NO-MAILyahoo.com

(remove NO-MAIL in email address above)

[haloblack]

I have zero Linux experience, but Slashdot is packed with *nix geeks who love a challenge. Definitely worth poking around there a little.

[piano632]

Can't you take the hard drive out of the Pioneer, put it in a PC and use any one of a number of file recovery programs to get it back? Just a thought.

[cchang]

Linux uses ex2 file system. You have to boot the disk up in Linux and do the linux file recovery. Simply hook the hard disk to a windows PC will not work. Windows uses either NTFS or FAT file system, not compatible wih ex2.

[Board Room]

Hi Kevin

Sorry to read about your fathers predicament.

And I'm sorry that I dont have an answer for you either but did just want to say that if you do find out anything please do let us know. This would be very useful for all 510/5100 owners

I think the erase all is function is far too easily accessible and IMHO think there should be a second prompt like "are you sure you want to erase the entire disc?"

Hope you get some good news soon.

B R

[houtx67]

In particular, I would love to know how to do this with a corrupted Panasonic DVD recorder harddrive. The only post I have found so far didn't indicate that they were able to recover any data, only salvage the harddrive.

It's under warranty, so I'll get the repair free, but I highly doubt the repair shop will try that hard to save the programs (probably just replace the HD, or reformat it some way).

[Lucien]

I don't own a 510H but the manual says there's an UNDO for the last made change. Provided he didn't make more changes that might be an option

[Board Room]

I don't own a 510H but the manual says there's an UNDO for the last made change. Provided he didn't make more changes that might be an option

Unfortunately it doesnt apply to the HDD. AFAIK UNDO is only available for recordings on DVD-RW - at least on my DVR-5100 (UK) model.

I really wish it did work on the HDD as I have mistakenly deleted chapters on several occasions while editing a title

B R

[huggeeze]

Just a quick update.

Another user had suggested contacting a data recovery service...but they gave my dad a ballpark of several grand (!!!) because of linux. Seemed pretty high to me... as I would hope someone with limited linux abilities could figure out relatively easy (or at least easier than several grand worth of work)

cchang, sounded like you might know a little linux...do you have any ideas on who I might be able to contact?

[cchang]

Hi,

I use Linux. But I have never done a Linux data recovery. So I do not know enough to help you in Linux. There is a web site http://www.data-recovery-software.net/Linux_Recovery.shtml offering a free Linux data recovery software called "R-Linux". It seems to be a windows software able to recover Linux files. You can give a try. I used their windows data recovery software before and it did work. Since your situation is just an "undelete", not crashed system. The chance of recovery is quite high IMO.

The only other way I think you can try now is hooking up your hard disk in question to a working windows system as slave dive. If BIOS can pick up the drive, then it is OK for data recovery even windows would not recognize it. Download "Virtualab Data Recovery" from BinaryBiz. They can scan your disk remotely via internet connection. Scanning is free. Recovery fee is $100 for 1st GB and $10 for each additional GB last time I checked. But the problem for Linux partition recovery under windows is windows can not read or write Linux partition or file. So even the remote computer can read your data binary, I do not know they can write and save them to your disk remotely. You can ask them. Good luck!