DVR turned FW-Drive?

okay I am not sure if any one else has tried to do this but here it goes... i picked up a dvr2160 - RCA firewire dvr unit.... msrp 549$ for 5$ from work..... inside is a standard ide133 160gb hd. My thought was to turn this into a standard fw hd by just reformatting the thing. i also figure that if it didnt work i only spent 5$. when i plug the thing in it recognizes the model number and the fact that it is a dvr and a av/c disc recorder/player. i went through admin tools and it only seems to recognize the 1gb mbr.... my thinking is to just rip the drive out of the enclosure... hook it up to an ide channel and format the living crap out of it... any suggestions out there?