not sure what's wrong

[gifted1 0]

hi there, new to this forum and having some serious issues.

two years ago i bought a dvr combo from maplin. it is a lcd screen with a built in hard drive and takes four cameras. (wired). maplin still sell these, and they are made by panacom.

 

anyhoo, i need to back up a time frame to a usb stick. so i put the stick in the side of the dvr and it formats it. then i select the time and back it up, which according to the dvr it has done. i then put the stick into the pc and try to explore the usb and it says that it needs to be formated. so i do this then back up again but when i put the stick back into the pc there is nothing there!!!

i got onto maplin who sent me a upgraded chip for inside the system but this has made no difference. i have tried various usb sticks and every combination of format/backup known to man.

 

i have now taken the hard drive from the dvr and connected it directly to the pc and even with the pc viewer software that they supplied me today, i still cant view anything.

 

in "my computer" it does not show a drive being there but in device manager it does.

 

i presume that there is some sort of security/encoding going on but i would at least expect my pc to recognise there as being a drive.

i have even tried another drive that came originaly with the dvr in the pc but it's the same. (i upgraded the drive to a 500gb shortly after buying it)

 

maplin are pretty useless (lesson learnt!) and the makers are even less help.

 

any ideas??? please???

[gifted1 0]

just a bit extra info- i can select the time frames and play back on the dvr but nothing else

[Bean00 0]

Probably uses a proprietory player for their video clips.

 

Try using that PC viewer software with the exported video clips on the thumb drive. DO NOT format when you put the thumb drive into the PC.

 

I don't see a combo monitor/DVR from panacom. Do you have a part number?

[Soundy 1]

The DVR is probably Linux-based and its hard drive formatted with the ext3 filesystem, which Windows won't recognize (Windows only supports FAT/FAT32 and NTFS without add-ons). I wouldn't be surprised if it's formatting the USB drive with ext3 as well. This means you'll only be able to view/playback the saved video ON the DVR (unless you have a PC with Linux sitting around).

 

The "PC Viewer" software is probably meant only for network viewing... in which case, you'll need to hook both up to the network, access the DVR from your PC using that software, and export the video from there.

Edited October 27, 2010 by Guest

[gifted1 0]

hi beanoo, it's an n89fq, or if you do a search for dvr combo it should come up.

i've tried to play the usb using the pc viewer but the pc says that the stick needs to be formated and the viewer wont recognise the stick.

[Bean00 0]

The "PC Viewer" software is probably meant only for network viewing... in which case, you'll need to hook both up to the network, access the DVR from your PC using that software, and export the video from there.

 

I was thinking it might be the DVR playback software... many dvrs require it. But apparently this isn't the case.

 

To gifted1:

 

n89fq is the item code from maplin... I was hoping for the part number from the manufacturer. Should be on the back of the unit somewhere.

 

Soundy may be correct though. It may only be viewable on the DVR.

[gifted1 0]

ok, the linux thing makes sense, unfortunately the dvr does not have a network port so i am buggerd there.

is there an emulator for linux or something that might help to recognise the stick???

 

also, there are no parts no's of any description anywhere

[tomcctv 190]

just a bit extra info- i can select the time frames and play back on the dvr but nothing else

 

 

Hi. maplins sell 80% re-worked cctv systems from many companies like cnm and panacom. the bad new is it has taken you two years to find a problem.

 

when the dvr formats your pen .....what does it show up under properties as fat or fat32. but the other problem is it should not format your drive from the usb anyway.

[rory 0]

the DVR should NOT format your USB Drive.

What file system do you have it formatted as originally?

if its NTFS then it wont see it, then it will NEED to format it to copy data to it.

if it IS NTFS, format it as FAT32. If it is FAT32 then format it is FAT and try that.

 

As soundy mentioned its being formatted with a file system not recognized by Windows. Windows will see the drive but cannot assign it a letter as it cannot work with that file system.

 

As to emulate, you could load Linux in Virtual Box, but then trying to get that to recognize the USB drive is another thing - if Windows cant recognize it then Virtual Box wont be able to virtualize it either. You may need to grab an old PC and load native Linux on that.

[Soundy 1]

the DVR should NOT format your USB Drive.

If it's not already formatted with a filesystem supported by the DVR, it would have to.

 

That said, even a Linux system should recognize FAT32... SHOULD (the DVR may not actually be Linux-based either). The Windows machine should also default to FAT32 when formatting the drive; it would have to be specifically told to use NTFS.

 

There are a number of Windows utilities out there that will show you what the filesystem is on the drive, even if Windows itself won't recognize it. Try UFS Explorer, for example: http://www.ufsexplorer.com/

 

Edit: in fact, UFS Explorer Standard Access may allow you to actually access and copy the files: http://www.ufsexplorer.com/download_std.php

 

That said, even if you do manage to access the flash drive and get the files off it, you still may not be able to play them.

[rory 0]

If it's not already formatted with a filesystem supported by the DVR, it would have to.

 

That said, even a Linux system should recognize FAT32... SHOULD (the DVR may not actually be Linux-based either). The Windows machine should also default to FAT32 when formatting the drive; it would have to be specifically told to use NTFS.

 

Yep thats why I mentioned it wont recognize it if its NTFS, which although is not done through Windows default format, there are other tools that do it for you. Have to put that option out there as we dont know what it was formatted as prior to installing in the DVR. Most will recognize FAT32 also, though there were a couple I used in the past that only worked with FAT.

 

Ive used UFS to try to access AvTech DVRs in the past and it wont recognize those file systems.

[gifted1 0]

ok, lots to look at. i'm going to try using ufs explorer today. see how things go with that.

as for the file structure when formated, i've tried every type. sometimes when i format in the pc the dvr says that it needs to be re-formated, sometimes not. but when ever i back up to the stick, and then put it in the pc, there is nothing on it, no files what so ever. but if i put the usb back in the dvr, it says that the usb stick is x% used.

 

also going to see what hapens today with maplin and panacom. hopefully i'm going to be sending this p o s back and i'll do what i should have done in the first place and build a dedicated pc box.

 

i'll post the results

[rory 0]

another thing to try is see if you can image the drive.

there is a free image program called Drivesnapshot, well its a trial but it works full for a certain amount of days.

if it doesnt recognise the file system it could still image it but then its the full size.

if it recognizes the filesystem then it will may be a small enough file size that you could upload it somewhere for us to download and check out further. We can also use drivesnapshot to explore an image file created by it.

Just another option to try.

[gifted1 0]

here's the latest.

i've tried ufs explorer but no help.

i've recieved an email to day from panacom giving me instructions on how to open the files. unfortunately they are for different software to the one they gave me. (silly arses)

the software i need is called pdvr4 player 2.32

has anyone ever heard of this?

cheers

brad

[gifted1 0]

hello again.

i haven't had a reply from maplin or panacom regarding this player software.

i think they have washed their hands of this now.

does anyone know where i can get a copy of pdvr4 player 2.32?

[Soundy 1]

here's the latest.

i've tried ufs explorer but no help.

If you can't access the file in Windows, then no software will help you - Windows still has to be able to see the file before the Windows software can do anything with it (caveat: unless the software itself has the ability to read the unknown filesystem, which I wouldn't expect to find in a low-end system like this).