New hard drives for HDR 24/96

[Al Rude]

Just a thought, is there any reason that the HDR/MDR/SDR could not be adapted to Compact Flash memory? I've seen someone here that used a Compact Flash memory to replace the internal drive on a d8b, why not the internal drive for the HDR/MDR/SDR? I've been looking at Compact Flash to PATA adapters and I have found some that could be used internally but I thought that I found one in 5.25" size that could replace the external drive for the recorders. Anybody got any ideas on the subject?

Found this on line: http://www.daniel-boehmer.de/thinkpad-cf/

[SirFerrisDuke]

Thanks for the forum catchup. Seems like old friends are always here to help.

I bought some small sata-2 ssd's and also interfaces (ide to sata). I found several 16 or 30gb around for sale and bought them.
The problems I ran into were knowing sector size when formatting, and once I got that far and used the mackie format;the sata -ssd failed the drive test!!!!
SO, It would seem easily fast enough to pass, but it fails. So I can use the ssd-converted m-90 as an archive drive only.
Anyone have drive settings, bios perhaps, that I need to double check to make mine pass the drive test for recording?
I wonder if I need to have the drive upgrade rom installed to even use the sata drive?...

Also of note, I currently use FTP to transfer 1 file at a time, which works--but I have to duplicate the file to internal blah blah---Did that "HRD Pro" thing that exported broadcast wave really exist, or was it a software upgrade? I've never even seen a picture or details if it was hardware or what.

[jalden3]

What size solid state drives are you using and how did you get them talking to the IDE interface on the HDR motherboard? I assume you used a SATA-IDE adapter. Which one?

I've thought about putting a modern SATA drive in the HDR using one of those adapters, but these days you can hardly buy one smaller than about 500 GB and the operating system is only able to address 130 GB. That's a lot of drive to waste, unless there's a new trick I haven't heard about. I've kind of let my HDRs coast lately. They work fine and I have a pile of IDE drives that work in them so I haven't felt the need to mess with them in the past couple of years.

Hey Mike... can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading the "Last Mackie Hard Disk Recorder Manual". Well written, chock fulla details n time savers...

Regarding the SSD's, I got a 160GB SATA II drive locally (for the external) and a 128GB on eBay. It formats the boot media (internal) to a bit less than the 128GB max that the Mackie OS can utilize - the external has somewhere ~ 3-4GB more space allocated to it due to the overhead on the boot media. You can use any SSD that has support for the SATA II interface (3.0GBs) and you'll have drive space left over, but with the cost of storage as it is and the fact that SSD's have a MTF rating of over 1,000,000 hours we'll both be decaying nicely when those drives fail...

I used the following hardware for mounting:

These adapt the SSD's nicely - uniform fit with the footprint the same as a hard disk:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1DS0P64909

Here's the adapters for IDE->SATA II conversion - important because this particular has the drive id jumpers, set it to 'master' and proceed with the install:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812240012

I also got some nice, inexpensive ide-sata power cables for interfacing the power handling requirements. You'll see why these are important if you go to assemble the external M90 to fit the SSD...

Where I'd agree with you regarding your current hard drives where you 'don't fix what ain't broken', the SSD upside of no heat and ZERO moving parts is more than convincing for me - it's as close as it gets to actually having full journaling on the file system without the operating system code being open sourced and tweaked (winks-grins widely)...

Hope this was helpful...

You knew it was coming, so here it is:
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

Thanks for the info on this Doc. Would like to give this a shot. I'm ordering the BIOS/firmware upgrade from Eric Russ. Any reason this shouldn't work for the SSD, mounting bracket adapter, SATA-IDE adapter and power adapter?

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital- ... Bundle+Kit

[doktor1360]

Thanks for the info on this Doc. Would like to give this a shot. I'm ordering the BIOS/firmware upgrade from Eric Russ. Any reason this shouldn't work for the SSD, mounting bracket adapter, SATA-IDE adapter and power adapter?

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital- ... Bundle+Kit

jalden3... that drive should install seamlessly, as long as the interface adapter is correct and you're using that BIOS upgrade. Post if you have any issues, this upgrade should go without a hitch, man...

Oh... you knew it was coming, so here it is:
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

Peace

[motophiliac]

So, would it be fair to say that from stock, in order to get a Mackie HDR24/96 to work with external/internal SSD, the following are needed:

• The BIOS upgrade linked earlier in the thread

• A SATA-IDE adaptor linked earlier in the thread

• A SSD (natch) available from, well, loads of places.

If this is the case, I might go down this route. Just had a hard disk fail, and would love something a bit more reliable and up to date.

[garyjdobbins]

HDR 24/96; When replacing the internal hard drive I notice a Molex connector that is just hanging at the bottom of the unit. what is this connector for? Is it just left at the bottom of the machine as it was found of was it pulled off from somewhere. It is 4-5 wire. It is next to the mother board just hanging at the end of a transparent tube that is keeping a group of wires organized. I cannot add an image of it for some reason.

[garyjdobbins]

or was it pulled off from somewhere?

[doktor1360]

HDR 24/96; When replacing the internal hard drive I notice a Molex connector that is just hanging at the bottom of the unit. what is this connector for? Is it just left at the bottom of the machine as it was found of was it pulled off from somewhere. It is 4-5 wire. It is next to the mother board just hanging at the end of a transparent tube that is keeping a group of wires organized. I cannot add an image of it for some reason.

Molex +5V power connector... secondary IDE drive, most likely. Considering there isn't one in use on the primary IDE chain, it's most likely hanging there unused for obvious reasons. I wouldn't get overly concerned about it...

Of course, you knew it was coming so here it is:
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your Actual Mileage May Vary..."

Peace