DVD Hard Drive

[terryn]

Hi, I'm new to this forum so here goes......
I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder (DMR-EX87) The dvd player section has failed, but the Hard Disk is OK! - Plays to TV Good!
I need to retrieve home video off this drive, I have taken the hard drive out of the player and connected it to the PC however the PC does not recognize this Panasonic hard drive, I have put it back into the DVD player and it goes well.
Is it possibly to retrieve the video from this HHD ?
It's important to me as the video is of my grandchildren when they were small.....
Thanks to all who try to help

[hech54]

You are better off "capturing" the content, either to another DVD recorder, or to your computer via a capture card/usb device. VERY few DVD recorder HDDs can be removed and hooked to a computer to do a straight data transfer.
I've also read that if you remove a Panny HDD, then replace it back in the unit, the only option is to format the HDD, then your stuff is REALLY gone.

[DB83]

Read this topic for possible solutions:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/355904-Recover-philips-dvd-recorder-harddrive

[Baldrick]

And I'm moving you to our dvd recorder section.

[Bjs]

for panasonic unit try this link ... so long as bios can see drive don't worry if windows explorer cannot, that wont matter for the recovery process.

[orsetto]

The first thing to try when a Panasonic DVD drive fails is to open it up and clean the disc clamp. From the first Panasonic DVD recorder up to the latest, they've all been afflicted with the "drive plays dead" bug when they get dirty. The materials used for the disc gripping surfaces is unusually prone to accumulating dust, smoke and fingerprints which eventually makes the drive lose control of a loaded disc. When this happens, the unit fails to load, play or burn until it is cleaned. Detailed instructions for Panasonic DVD drive cleaning can be found here.

If that doesn't work, the laser may be failing, and you'll need to get the videos off the HDD by playing them out to another recorder/PC, or trying one of the several software hacks that allow PCs to read and recover recorder hard drives. There are several threads on VideoHelp, and another comprehensive Panasonic-specific thread here.