Hi all new to this forum but thought i'd give it a try in the hope that somebody might be able to help.

I have a Vista Smartdisk recorder as stated but it came with no hard drives, the problem is that the drives when bought from suppliers like Norbain must have a file or something on it to tell the unit that it is the right type of drive. I have installed a 120gig drive in it and got the unit to format it but it says it is missing this security file.

So if anyone out their has one of these units could you possibly check to see if there are any other files on the drive other than the video data files that could be the ones to enable a drive to work in the unit, also if anyone has one of these drives lying aroung could they please let me know if it is possible to buy it of you. Ben.

Hi Ben

had a quick look at the files but can olny see archive files ?

It might be part of the file system or boot sector

It could be possible that the files may be hidden, you could check in your explorer settings and make sure you can see all files including hidden ones.

Also just thought that if a ghost was taken of a clean drive with no images on (ie one that has just been wiped by the unit and is ready for use) then that should surely capture everything that is stored in the disk and would hopefuly contain the files i need. Ben