DVD-SH897M - Accessing the HDD via an external source

[Galway West]

Hi Samsung Community,

Little bit of a long shot here.  I have an old DVD-SH897M DVD/HDD recorder.  The DVD drive stopped working on it a number of years ago but the hard drive is perfectly in tact.  I have spent some time copying up old VCR tapes from another device to the DVD recorders HDD but of course it saves them as "Titles" (think they are mpeg2) instead of "DivX" files (Mpeg4). 

My intention was to copy the uploaded VCR tapes to the HDD of the DVD and then copy them to an external drive or memory stick via the USB port on the device.  ( as the DVD writer / player is not working).  But the USB only allows copying to/from the HDD in Divx format (rather than "Title" format).    

So! My query is... can the HDD of this old DVD recorder/player be removed and attached to a windows device in order to access / save the content via a home computer/laptop??   Or do Samsung have some bespoke S/W that only allows access via the product itself to the HDD?    Alternatively is there another way (outside of replacing the DVD read/writer) to access the HDD and move "Titles" to USB or other source

Thanks a million and I hope someone can help 

PS - I took the DVD player apart this evening, cleaned the DVD player/writer in the hope that it would work again, but alas,  still the same problem where I can't load DVD's - If I could, I can transfer VCR -> HDD -> DVD writer, but not any more

[Sean03]

In theory it should be possible to take it out, take it to an independent repair store and they could put a USB adapter on the end of the HDD connector where it draws power from, so that it can be used as an external HD drive when hooked up via USB to a Windows machine.

But I don't know this model nor how it draws power from the main HDD/DVD board so that's just a speculation from me.

The other risk of going down that route is if the HDD right now stores those files in anything other than NTFS filing system then, as soon as you hook it up to a Windows machine all Windows will do is insist you format your drive and wipe all the videos.

My gut tells me it's a better bet to try going the second route you mentioned for now. where you try copying over the files in their mpeg2 state.

It could be something as simple as the HDD stores the current saved videos in read-only mode. Something which often stops files from being moved to a USB flash stick, but if its possible to copy and paste those files somehow (I don't know what kind of interface this player has and if it gives you those commands) then try that and it might copy over the files to the USB flash drive instead. I'd really exhaust all options on this route before taking the drive out.