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Unlock DVR Hard Drives for Services

Normal Use: A Guide

January 11, 2016

We recently came across something we hadnt seen before with Categories

a couple hard drives, both from DirecTV DVR/receiver systems.
When put into a normal computer, they would not spin up or COMPUTER

power on.However, the drives owner told us that they still FORENSICS

worked fine in their original DirecTV DVR.There was some DAMAGE

aspectof the drives that required the host to be the DVR for
DATA LOSS
them to work. The owner just wanted to reclaim or re-purpose
PREVENTION
them for anotheruse since he no longer used the DVRs (he had
DATA RECOVERY
since upgraded to a fancy new DirecTV box). Curious, we had an
KNOWLEDGE
engineer investigate ways to unlock DVR hard drives.
DATA RECOVERY
Our engineer NEWS
found the drives
DATA RECOVERY
had the Power-up SERVICE
in Standby (PUIS),
DATA TYPES
or power
management 4 DATABASE

mode (PM4), EMAIL

enabled in the
HARD DISK
hard disk
configuration. When this mode is enabled, the disk will not MAC/APPLE

automatically spin up when power is applied. It wouldonlyspin MEDIA

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up later, when issued an ATA command. This made sense, as

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MOBILE DEVICE
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how else would the drive know if it were in a DirecTV DVR NAS
a

system? It would need to be powered on in some way to allow

OFFICE f 800.237.4200
for communication.
DOCUMENTS

This feature can be used

RAID byRecovery
Data equipment manufacturers
About as a
Contact ClientsOUTREACH
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power management method to save a little energy and to avoid
PHOTOS & IMAGES
power spikes when multiple componentsare powered on at
RAID
once. You can read more about it here in the working draft of Services
the ATA standard(see section 4.16 on page 38). RANSOMWARE
RECOVERY
This document describes interactions with a device that
REMOVABLE MEDIA
implements Power-up in Standby and the related commands.
SAN
Most importantly for us, it details how the PUIS feature can be
disabled using the SET FEATURES command. SECURE DELETION

SERVER
The
relevant SERVICES

ATA SSD

STORAGE
Commands for PUIS feature set include: INDUSTRY

Feature: 0x06 (Enable PUIS) TAPE

Feature: 0x86 (Disable PUIS) UNCATEGORIZED

Feature: 0x07 (Spin up drive after power on)

Tag Cloud
Command: 0xEF (Set feature)

The key to allowing regular usage of these hard drives is to

Apple backup

bitcoin
disable Power-up in Standby. The tricky part is gaining access to
issue commands on the drive. There are two ways to do this. breach

One includes using the original DirecTV or Dish Network box to clean room clone
allow for the drive to power on and spin up. The other method computer forensics data

does not require the DVR box. Thats the method well focus on recovery software

here, since our engineer did not have access to the original DVR data recovery tips decision

email
hardware. Plus, yknow,its more MacGuyver-y that way.
tree

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encryption
To keep things as simple
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as possible, and to allow for others to
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make the same changes, ourengineer developed a workaround
a e

method using open source software. The steps below outline the
exploit financial records

fire damage flood

800.237.4200
process to disable the Power-up in Standby behavior of a hard
f

hard drive data

drive, thereby enabling its use in a general purpose computer.
guide

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R&Dhard drive
News

Unlock DVR Hard Drives Without failure hard drive

Using the Original DVR

manufacturers how to
hurricane iOS leak Mac
Services
Mac OS Midwest music
Please note that, to complete this process, the hard drive needs data recovery operating
to remain powered on at all times, as the actual device system OS X Phoenix
configuration change occurs in the last step in the sequence. power surge

Youve probably already guessed this, but you should alsonote RAID
ransomware
that completing this process will make it so that the drive in
question willno longer work in your DirecTV or Dish Network
DVR, or whichever device it was originally in. rebuilt SaveMyFiles SSD
storms
You will need to create these two bootable CDs:
statistics

tornadoes TRIM

GParted Live bootable CD virus water

HDAT2 bootable CD
damage
Steps to Disable PUIS on your DirecTV DVR Hard windows 10
Drive: windows 10 guide

1. Insert the GParted CD in the computer youll use and

power off the computer.
2. Connect the DVR hard drive to your computer with power
and SATA data cables (you may use a SATA to USB
adapter).
3. Start the computer and boot to the GParted CD (you may
need to change the boot device order in BIOS, or you
could just make sure your OS drive is unplugged).
4. In GParted, select the first option. Select the second
option to avoid loading keyboard options. Enter your

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language info. Use the first option for graphics info. Then
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hit Enter through three screens.
a b t e

5. You should be at a screen showing hard drive info.

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Double-click the red X at top left. Select reboot. Then the
f

GParted CD will be ejected when it begins to shut down.

RAID
Immediately Data Recovery
replace About
the CD with the Contact
HDAT2 CD. Clients R&D News

6. Boot to the HDAT2 CD.

7. Select the first option.
8. In the command prompt, type HDAT2. Services

9. After HDAT2 starts, select the drive you are working on

and hit Enter.
10. Select Device Configuration Overlay (DCO) menu. Then,
at the bottom, select Restore. Hit Y to continue and it
will provide some output.
11. Hit Escape to return to the original menu where you see
Commands Menu, and select that. Choose
commands/feature sets. Find the Power-Up In Standby
(PUIS) item and highlight it. Hit the right arrow key, then
the S key. Type Y at the prompt. Assure the process
completes without any errors, and the PUIS item should
change to disabled.

The drive should now be unlocked, ready to be partitioned

and used as a regular hard drive. It will spin up just fine next
time its powered on.

Alternate Method: Using the Original

DVR toUnlock The Drive
If you do have your original DVR device, that can be used
instead. The drive is powered up using the DVR device, allowing
the spin up ATA command to besent by the DVR. Now, its ready
to have the configuration changed. After that, swap the SATA
data cable from the DVR to your computer (while it is running,

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called hot swap), SEARCH

where you cantoggle the PUIS setting of the
b LET'S CHAT t START DATA RECOVERY CASE STATUS
drive.
a e

We found thisYoutube video which describes the process pretty

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well:
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This page cant be displayed

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Make sure the web address https://www.youtube.com is correct.

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Summary

Article Name How to

Description Learn how to take the hard drive from an

old DVR and use it however you want.

Author Datarecovery.com

Edwardsville, IL | Pleasanton, CA | Phoenix, AZ | Toronto, ON Canada

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