Dish DVR Hard Drive in Mac Pro

So I have this Seagate DB35.3 500GB HD from my old Dish DVR. I took it out and placed it in my Mac Pro but I cant get it to recognize the drive. DUtility doesn't see it nor does TTP. I have read that Dish uses Linux to run there systems and the HD are formatted using a Linux format, called Ext?

How do I reformat this drive? There has got to be a way. I just hope it doesn't involve a PC because I don't have one.

Any thoughts?

Download a Linux "live ISO", burn it to a CD, boot the Pro from it and then reformat the drive to FAT-32. You need the GParted live CD ISO.

However, one thing of note: That drive should have been seen by Disk Utility regardless of its format. The Ext-2 and Ext-3 format should be recognized by DU. That suggests there may be something wrong with the drive.

Regards.

You know I thought that it was weird that Disk Utility did see anything either. So I took the drive out of the MP and put it BACK in the DVR and checked my recordings. They were all still there! I played a few of them to make sure it was working and you could hear the drive being accessed.

Someone else was telling me about "hardware locking" DVRs, PS3s, Xbox 360's have some hardware lock, that when the drive boots up if its not connected to that device it just doesn't work.

I found a HD unlocking program for windows but It cost $$ and I don't have a PC nor a working copy of Windows. I guess now Im at a point that if I really wanted to go out and buy a new 500GB drive I could probably get one for $50.

Im starting to question if this is even worth it.

If it's a hardware lock, it's burned into the drive firmware. And if you have to pay $$ for a program that "might" work to unlock it, it's not worth the effort. A new 1 TB drive from Seagate or WD is very affordable.

Regards.