Hi

I have a panasonic dvd recorder which has a fault and the authorised panasonic repairer can no longer get the parts. I have removed the hard drive which is a Western Digital WD1600BB WD Caviar 160GB internal hard drive - 3.5inch. The connections are 1 set of 40pins, 1 set of 10 pins (with a jumper on the two on the right I think) and 1 set of 4 pins( which I think are for power).

I would like to connect it to my home PC (windows 7), download the files then get software to extract the files and see if I can recover any.

I wondered if anyone could help please wit this and the following the question ?
- can I get a sata cable (or should that be pata ?) to connect to connect it to the PC, eg would a 40pin to usb be suitable ?
- does it also NEED external power ?
- do I need to do ANYTHING with the jumpers ?
- could I get an enclosure instead to put the drive into and then connect to the PC
- any recommendations for software to extract the files ?

or am I wasting my time and should I just give up ? (I know a wee bit about PCs, eg have added memory in the past but don't really know anything about the technicalities)

ThanksAccording to the Western Digital website, the WD1600BB hard drive is an IDE drive, sometimes called PATA. You can probably find an USB IDE enclosure to buy online or at an electronics store. One with its own power supply would be best, I think. The problems you are likely to FACE are 1. the file system on the drive will most likely not be FAT or NTFS, but some other Linux type or even a proprietary Panasonic-only file system, which Windows cannot read. 2. Even if Windows can see the files, they may be encrypted and 3. Even if not, the files may have cryptic names, (i.e. not the names of the shows you recorded).

THREADS like this on specialised AV forums may be informative:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=34&topicid=105123

Try a Google search for "recover files from Panasonic DVD recorder", and you will see LOTS of discussions. Try mentioning your Panasonic model number in the search.

Hi Salmon Trout

Thanks for your reply - think I'll get an enclosure and see how I get on from there - cheers