Samsung SMT-C7140 harddisk access

[Ennio]

Hello everybody,

A friend of mine has a Samsung SMT-C7140 digital TV decoder/harddisk recorder. We want to access the videostreams that are on it. We don't succeed to access the disk via the LAN connection.

We took out the harddisk. It's a Seagate Pipeline HD 2, 320 GB size. Connected it via a (cheap) sata-to-usb converter to the pc. I first assumed the disk would be in ext2/3/4 format so I loaded the ext-driver. No luck in windows.

In Ubuntu we saw the harddisk and the 2 partitions. They are in "RAW" format, Ubuntu says. First partition is about 965 MB. Second one is 297 GB.
The folders, files and everything were visible, but we came across this "access denied" popup when we wanted to open them. Is this a Samsung thang? Or has it something to do with the RAW format? I do not know anything about that.

Does anyone have an idea how to handle this? My guess is that we need some kind of "cue"-files to access the videostreams themselves. (Something like I have to load so-called CRID-files on my Siemens PVR harddisk in VideoRedo to access and process the right videostream)

I think the first partition is a kind of system partition for the PVR and the second one holds the video-data. Does anyone of you have an idea how to get around this "access denied" thang and retrieve the videostreams?

And - first of all - it's important that I first create a total back-up/image of the physical disk before I start messing around with it.

Hence my 2nd question: what software do I need to create an image of the RAW harddisk, preferably one that I can read/access back later (or restore if necessary). Must I do this in windows or Ubuntu? Have I connected the drive properly or must I connect it to a SATA-connector on the motherboard?


Any help would be appreciated. There are some important (to us, anyways) concert recordings on the disk we wanna keep, without the need for this PVR.



Thanks in advance all

Ennio

[jman98]

You said "thang" twice. Stop trying to be "too cool for school". It's really hard to take you seriously. If you are really Dutch then that you know how to speak English properly and you don't need to act like some kind of dumbass poser here.

Disk recorders encrypt their files to prevent exactly what you want to do - access the recordings directly via a PC. You'll have to play the recordings and send the output to some kind of device capable of recording it in a useful way such as a PC with a video capture card or a DVD recorder.

[Ennio]

Thanks AeroQ_Tech, I'll look into it and get back.

@ jman98

I don't agree fully. There are harddisk recorders that you'll be able to retrieve the videostreams from. Like my Siemens Gigaset for instance. I do have to load the CRID files and let VideoRedo output the stream.
With several Humax HDD recorders you can access .ts streams directly with your pc via LAN, so is there encryption then?

Anyways, encrypted or not, there are machines that allow you to do this without having to play video and record.


This "thang" thing is a habit, sorry. Been doing it for years, we speak this way among friends and often forget to spell properly. It's a funk thang to us. If you find it hard to take me seriously, then please, with all respect, don't take me seriously. It says more about you than me

By the way, it's spelled "too kool fo' skool"

Thanks for your reply though.

Cheers

Ennio

[fzabkar]

"RAW" means that there is no recognisable file system structure, in which case the data are treated as just a bunch of bytes.

Could we see the partition table in sector 0?

In Windows you could use either of the following freeware disc editors:

HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor:
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery):
http://softdm.com/download.html

Alternatively you could capture the partition table and boot sector(s) with Microsoft's Sector Inspector:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/SecInspect.zip

Extract the above archive to the one folder and execute the SIrun.bat file. The procedure will generate a report file named SIout.txt.

[Ennio]

Thanks fzabker. I will get into those appz.

In Ubuntu I just see the RAW partitions and can see the files and folders. If there is no recognizable filestructure, as you say, how come that Ubuntu can show me these files/folders? And why do I get this access denied message? Is this encryption or password protection by Samsung? Or doesn't Ubuntu know fully how to deal with this RAW system (e.g. like it can show me files and all but doesn't know how to access)?

I am in the process now to write back an image I took on a second drive. I have to wait for that drive my friend will bring me, of which he knows it works in the Samsung. We first have to be sure we have a working back-up in case of something going wrong with the original drive.

I will get back if I know more. Thanks.

@ AeroQ_Tech: thanks for the info. I am hopelessly lost when it comes to command line interfacing. I am trying something different now to create a raw image with other software, with gui. Will keep it in mind though if nothing other will help me out and I will be bound to cli.

Cheers all

Ennio

[fzabkar]

Windows will treat a file system as RAW if an important component, eg boot sector, is damaged or inconsistent. In such cases people can often gain access by booting from a Ubuntu Live CD. I suspect that Ubuntu is more tolerant of errors. In fact I had a case where Win XP saw a particular drive as RAW but Windows 98SE was able to mount it and access every file. In that particular case the actual boot sector was missing altogether, but Win98SE reverted to the backup boot sector.

I can't imagine that password protection is active in your case. I would think that such protection would prevent access to the file system altogether. You may want to check the permissions for each file. Have you confirmed which file system is in use?

[Ennio]

Have to learn about file permission in Ubuntu. Have some good links already and reading about it.

Having trouble right now getting a dual boot Ubuntu/WinXP getting to run properly (d*mn)... Did it earlier and it went good but now it just won't work. PC won't do what I want. Will manage though. I will get back if I have Ubuntu up & running again. Please have some patience...

Thanks fzabkar


Ennio

[Ennio]

Okay, I'm lost now.

I installed the DMDE software in Windows XP and loaded the disc into it. The 2 partitions in the filesystem column are listed as "Ext2/3/4 (83)". Remembering the partitions were listed as RAW in Ubuntu, I started up Ubuntu again. How do I know what filesystem the partitions are? I don't remember anymore how I got into thinking they were RAW? Can someone tell me how to check in Ubuntu? I managed to get around the access denied error. I had something to do with so-called "root" user access permissions. So I could open the folders. There were only some small files visible. I searched every folder but saw no video-data.

Why, if I install an ext driver in windows, can't I access the partitions? When I do this with my USB drive from my Siemens PVR - which is also ext formatted - I can assign a drive letter and access it.

Anyways, I created an image in dmde to be sure. I am affraid to go "edit" the drive because I don't know what I am doing. Now I will try to load the image in DMDE and try to recover the data. I read DMDE can do that.

Any suggestions? Thanks for the help in advance.

Ennio


@ fzabkar: I ran the secinspect. What does the outputted SIout.txt file tell me? Don't understand fully. You want me to copy/paste the part from the specific drive here? It is rather long...

Thanks
Ennio


Edit: No luck to recover files from the image in DMDE. Also tried other ext drivers, no luck. Still believe the partitions are RAW.