A lot of the DVR settop boxes were based on some form of Linux. The
file system is probably ext2 or ext3, but it could be JFS, or XFS, or
even ReiserFS. I have not used Linux systems with USB drives. Normally
with Linux you have to run the "mount" command to mount the file system
from the external drive to a local mount point. The external drive
should have some path in the /dev branch. You would so something like this:
% mkdir /mnt/test
% mount /mnt/test /dev/sda....
% cd /mnt/test
The commands means "mount to the directory /mnt/test the device at
/dev/sda..."
I think your best bet is to get a copy of a Live-CD from a full Linux
distributions (like Ubuntu). A Live-CD will boot from the CD and run in
memory (not affecting any OS on your original hard drive). Ubuntu
should have something that works like "plug-n-play" for USB hard drives.
The software might even discover the format of the drive and mount it
properly.
Linux understands Windows file systems (NTFS, FAT) and the Live-CD
should allow you to browse to your old hard disk. Ubuntu should have a
file manager like Windows that will let you browse the external drive
and your old hard drive. This will let you copy files from one to the
other. Hopefully you will have enough room on the old hard drive to fit
the files. You might need a second external drive to copy files to.
Once you have the files onto an NTFS (Windows) file system, then there
is the issue of reading the files and converting them to something
playable (avi, mpeg, etc). That would need a good Google search.
There is an Open Source (aka free) video player, VLC, which is available
for Windows, Linux and MacOS, that handles quite a number of formats.
It might be able to play the files without conversion.
I don't know about any phone support as there is 8 hours difference
between us.
Tim Swenson
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
