Hdd from a dvr cctv

[bill daniels]

hi new here, just need some step by step instructions !!!

here goes, i have a hdd from a cctv system its a magnetic data tchnologies 250 gig 7200rpm ata 300 8meg buf 5vdc 12vdc model num mdo2500-bjdw-ro now i want to be able to format this to reinstall the software for the cctv, the reason for this i forgot the damn password, (scuse me)

i only have a laptop available, now, i have an ata, sata, usb bridge when i connect this to the hdd using the power from the cctv i see it in device manager and it shows in disc management on the laptop, but cannot access anything on it, what it will let me do is delete partitions, which there are 5 of 4 @ 58.2 or something and 1 @ something else. if i delete these partitions will i then be able to see it as another drive or will i just kill it altogether thnks in advance bill

 

[CaedenV]

always be careful with drive management.

A HDD has several layers of managing data. You start with the physical drive itself. On the drive you then set up partitions. Each partition is seen as a separate drive by software, and can be assigned a different drive letter. There may be a reason the partitions are the size they are, so I would leave them alone, or at least make note to be able to remake said partitions.
Within each partition you have a format, which is like the language of the drive. These can be FAT, NTFS, or any number of other formats. reformatting each partition is probably the direction you would want to go with this. Specifically you probably want to only format whichever partition holds the master software and such on it, that way there is a chance that the other partitions will still retain data after re-installing the software.
Note: making changes to a drives' partition or format will most definitely make you lose all data on the drive.

After everything is formatted you will need a copy of whatever software was installed on the device. Some devices simply run under Windows, so you just re-install, no big deal. Some devices (especially security systems) tend to run some proprietary linux distro which you may not be able to find a copy of. Some security boxes are hardware keyed, so even if you find a copy of the software, it will be tied to a specific box, which can cause you all sorts of grief.


In the long run, you should probably call the company who manufacturers the box, and work from there. If you can prove your identity as the owner of the box they may even have a work-around for you.

At any rate. It is generally good policy to keep a written copy of the password near the box it is associated with. Personally I like to keep a copy taped to the inside of the case (in a non-obvious place). Most of my customers get set up with a master acct which I password, and then give them a limited user acct to use for their day-to-day stuff. I put one copy of the master password on their receipt, and tape a 2nd copy inside the case. Most of them throw away the receipts, and I do not keep record of everyone's password, but when they inevitably forget their password I can at least tell them where to go for it.