Hi videodrome,
Doesn't this machine have an ethernet port
Edit: Never mind. Just found out it only has a modem connection.
What about hacking that machine and installing a DVD-RAM IDE drive, and then after you finish recording, you can eject the DVD-RAM disk and take it to your PC
This way, you don't need to be moving the hard drive around.
A DVD-RAM behaves just like a hard drive, so you could format it on your PC (of course, you need a DVD-RAM drive on your PC too), but will make your machine work like a Panasonic DMR model, which does exactly that
-kwag