Hi all,
It's been a while but I have successfully copied ALL the data from a Panasonic HDD to another HDD!!
>>>PLEASE BE CAREFULL AS YOU COULD LOSE ALL YOUR RECORDINGS AND/OR END UP WITH NO WORKING HDD<<<
>>> You should make a backup of your recordings to DVD/Bluray before continuing. <<<
What I did was to purchase a HDD that was the same model as the one already used in the Panasonic. Luckely some eventually came up for auction on e**y for £20
In this case it was an Hitachi HCS5C1025CLA382 You could try another make/model but it needs to be the same size and I cannot say if another model would work. Also you cannot convert the 250GB to a larger sized HDD.
Next thing I needed was to setup a PC that had Linux installed or in my case Ubuntu.
You need Linux as a windows pc will not recognise the Panasonic format.
You will also need a SATA interface to allow the Panasonic HDD and the new HDD to be connected to the Linux PC.
Now you will NOT be able to view the HDD data or copy the TV recordings onto a PC HDD to view/play on a PC
All you are doing is to make another whole HDD copy so that if your original Panasonic HDD goes dead you will have a cheaper way to replace it instead of paying £140 plus to Panasonic !!!
Now remove the Panasonic HDD and connect it to the SATA interface on the Linux PC. Also connect the new HDD to the PC.
Boot up the PC into the Ubuntu desktop.
Select 'system settings' then select 'hardware' then select 'disk utility'
This will show various items and also the 2 SATA HDD's. Click on one of the HDD's. One should show '250GB unknown format'
this should be the Panasonic HDD. To check you are looking at the correct one ensure the serial number matches the Panasonic one. Note the HDD designator ie sdb the s stands for SATA. ( hda should be the Ubuntu Hdd )
The other one may also show '250GB unknown format'but check the serial number. Note HDD designator ie sdc
Now this is the most critical part. You must be 100% certain that you know which HDD is the original Panasonic HDD and which one is the new one. Do NOT guess as you will end up with a non working PVR !!!
Now select 'Applications' then select 'accessories' then select 'terminal' Repeat this again so you end up with 2 terminal windows.
In one window type
sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc bs=32M ( it will ask you for the Ubuntu user password )
if means input file. sdb should be the Panasonic HDD <<<<< ensure this is the correct HDD
of means output file. sdc should be the new HDD
bs=32M will use a block size of 32meg.
( if you suspect your Panasonic HDD is a bit flakey then 'noerror' could be added. This means dd will not stop if it finds a bad sector )
So you are copying from the 'if=' to the 'of=' so ensure you have the HDD correct.
dd is the command to do a disk to disk copy. It will not display any information as it copies but
In the 2nd terminal window type
sudo pkill -USR1 dd ( you can repeat this as many times as you like while dd is still copying )
This will make the dd command in the other terminal window display information on how far it has copied. It may take a little while to show some info.
The dd command will take about 3-6 hours to finish the disk to disk copy!!
When finished you will have 2 HDD's that are both exact copies of each other. Put the new HDD into the Panasonic PVR and re-connect the power. 'Please wait' will be displayed on the PVR display for a while. You should then be able to use this drive.
It has been stated on various forums that if you change the HDD the Panasonic PVR will see this as a new HDD and will request you to format the HDD. I did not see this. The HDD worked straight away no format was done.
I then re-connected the original Panasonic HDD and still no format was requested by the PVR.
If your PVR does ask you to format the HDD I think it would only format the area on the HDD where the TV recordings are stored. Therefore you would still have a working HDD and a backup but you will lose your recordings!!
Hope this helps you and saves you buying a new expensive HDD from Panasonic.