read linux partition for DCT6412 DVR

I have a Motorola DCT6412 DVR. That's for watching cable TV. It pauses real time TV, records shows, etc. I read somewhere that it has a hard disk with linux, so I took it out and plugged in to my PC running XP. It has a serial ATA Seagate 120gig drive. PartitionManager saw the partition but didn't recognize the format. I downloaded and installed explore2fs-1.08beta9 and Ext2IFS. Neither of these allowed me to view the drive. I think I read somwhere that it's a linux 3 partition. I'm a windows/MSDOS guy and know that real well. Done very limited linux stuff. Can someone tell me three things: 1) does the Motorola DC6412 have linux, 2) how can I mount the drive, and 3) what program will convert the files.

I saved five programs about the history of trains from steam through diesel-electric. They're for a friend. I've had them over a year. I don't want to hook up a VCR and all that mess. Please help. Thanks

I don't know the answer to questions 1&3. You could try the PartedMagic CD - it will mount a number of file systems including Windows so you will be able to copy the files across to a Windows partition.

Boot up from PartedMagic LiveCD, as suggested by Jonathan183. Open Terminal and execute this

Code:

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fdisk -l

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Post output here. Lets check what type of Filesystem/partitions Motorola DC6412 have.

It's been awhile since I started this thread. For the DCT6412 DVR, I connected the hard disk to Windows XP and used Partition Manager 9 to copy the first 128 sectors to a file. Please view the file and see what type file system you think it is. Thanks