What's more doable, connect an old hard disk recorder directly to a Win10 pc or to take the HDD out and use an enclosure?

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What's more doable, connect an old hard disk recorder directly to a Win10 pc (and HOW do I do that?) or to take the HDD out and use an enclosure? (and I've got some idea how to that, but I don't know how to do that exactly? )

I have an old hard disk recorder (cisco hd dvr 8485dvb) which is not used any more because, reasons. I know there's a 320 GB HDD inside, which I want to use. Now, I kind of know that I can take the hdd out and use and enclosure, but that's a lot of hassle, costs time and money. So, my alternative is to connect the whole device to a laptop, (Lenovo G50-80 with Win10/Win81 dual boot) But I don't know HOW to the second option.

EDIT: There's nothing on the HDD that I wanted to keep, so I'd opt for immediate format.

GwenKillerby

Posted 2016-07-11T02:52:00.660

Reputation: 286

laptop? does it have a second 2.5" hdd slot? presuming that your recorder uses a 2.5" hdd instead of a 3.5" one... – Tom Yan – 2016-07-11T10:33:40.713

well it might have one there's a cd player thing there. but my question wasn't about adding the hdd to the laptop (as in built in) but merely connecting to it. It's moot because a. it's a 3.5 not a 2.5 and I've opted to use the enclosure option. Still feel using an USB to Sata cable and leaving the hdd inside the hdd recorder would have worked too, but yah. – GwenKillerby – 2016-07-20T17:59:57.433

Answers

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This is hard to say. I dont know anything about that Cisco device. You could take the drive out and put it in an enclosure and then connect it to a laptop. The issue is whether or not videos are encrypted. Some of these recording devices would encrypt flagged copyrighted material at the request of the cable provider. The other issue would be if the hard drive in the recorder is not in a Windows readable format, meaning its using a Linux file system. This is surmountable, however I get the impression dont have the technical skills, or desire to do this.

If you wanted to go this route, even if just to try, all you need is an IDE/SATA to USB adapter. They are cheap and are very useful tools. All you would need to do is open the recorder up, remove the drive, attach it to the adapter, and finally plug it into your computer.

The easier route would be a USB based video capture card. Obviously, you will have to select the one that matches the video output of your recorder. You would connect the recorder's video output to the USB capture card and plug it into your computer. The video capture card will have software allowing you to view and record the output. There may be a small chance that if the content if flagged as copyrighted, the video capture card might not allow playback, or reduce it from HD quality. I have heard this can happen, but have no experienced it myself.

Keltari

Posted 2016-07-11T02:52:00.660

Reputation: 57 019

I want to format the hdd right away, there's nothing on it, and even if there was, nothing I'd want to keep. I've edited my original question to reflect this.

The usb card, while sympathetic, defeats my purpose, which was to get an extra disk for no money and little effort. Even spending 20 EU, on an enclosure almost makes spending 50 EU, on a new ext HDD with thrice the size the better option. But my time's worth nothing, so yeah. – GwenKillerby – 2016-07-11T07:46:15.627

Asked: 2016-07-11T02:52:00.660

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Active: 2016-07-11T07:43:59.037