Greetings!

...and, yes, I read the FAQ and the warnings...

I am looking to upgrade the 2 x 20GB hard drives that are in my empeg to 2 x the new IBM 48GB drives. My questions are:

1) Has anyone used, or have seen any problems with these drives?

2) Does the drive formatting utility work to wipe / stress test both drives simultaneously (i.e., any drive plugged in), or would I need to do each drive individually? The FAQ refers to making certain to unplug any drive you want to save the data from, but it does not state if both the wipe and stress test will span the two drives.

3) Has anyone had problems copying music data from two source drives (i.e., /drive0/fids and /drive1/fids) and merging them onto a new single drive as the target (i.e., /drive0/fids on the new high capacity drive)? I fully expect to loose my loaded collection anyway, and will need to load the rest, but this will get me through that painful transition period if it works.

Any thoughts or comments welcome. I will let everyone know how the upgrade goes when complete.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB soon to be 96GB Smoke)

Good questions.

I've never tried wiping two drive simultaneously. I recommend doing them one at a time anyway, so you can be sure which one is being stress tested.

In theory, combining the two FIDS directories should work. Anyone ever actually do that?

___________
Tony Fabris

combining the two FIDS directories should work. Anyone ever actually do that?

Yes, I upgraded the player I use here at Empeg Towers from wonky old 6G and 14G drives that Hugo found lying around, to a single nice new 20G Fujitsu and just copied the contents of each "fids" directory into the new one.

Peter

There are problems with partitioning >32G drives with the version of fdisk on the player, I believe. You may need a newer one. Once partitioned, it should be fine.

Hugo

There are problems with partitioning >32G drives with the version of fdisk on the player, I believe. You may need a newer one.

He was planning on using Mike's Builder Image, not the Fdisk on the player. Does that statement still count for Mike's Builder Image?

___________
Tony Fabris

Greetings!

Indeed. I plan on using the diskbuilder image. If that is a problem, let me know.

I will do them one at a time. Probably for the best... They arrived today, so the fun is about to begin...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB soon to be 96GB Smoke)

If it works, you might have the honor of being the first 96gb empeg owner.

Hope the builder image works for you.

___________
Tony Fabris

Oh no, I will loose my crown

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341 2xDell RioReceiver

Yes, it applies to that image too. We've fixed it for another product, but the carplayer wasn't urgent as we didn't ship any single drives over 30gb...

Hugo

Greetings!

Hmm... What kind of problems? I received a block count that looks suspiciously correct for a drive of this size...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB soon to be 96GB Smoke)

Greetings!

OK. I could not wait. The deed is done!

I did not notice any problems at all in generating the file systems on the new drives. If there is a known problem, please let me know. Everything seemed to go very smoothly, however.

I know that I should have stress tested the drives more, but I was impatient, and wanted to see this...



and this...


empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!
:
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hdb: IC25T048ATDA05-0, ATA DISK drive
hda: IC25T048ATDA05-0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IC25T048ATDA05-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IC25T048ATDA05-0, 45780MB w/1806kB Cache, CHS=5836/255/63
hdb: IC25T048ATDA05-0, 45780MB w/1806kB Cache, CHS=5836/255/63
:
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
:
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
:
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply...
Starting player
empeg-car 1.03.


Damn roundoff and funny disk drive math!!! Plus, I already loaded a few essential utilities on the disk (displayserver, network utilities, a zip of the full debian distribution, etc.).

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Nice to see it working Paul, I have no excuse now

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341 2xDell RioReceiver

Greetings!

The install went very smoothly. As far as I know so far, I only made one minor mistake, which I will go into detail later...

I did not try to use the disk builder image one two drives at the same time, but I did find that it would not work on two brand new drives in a row. Basically, the first went fine. I powered down, changed drives and restarted the player. It was unable to decompress the kernel onto the new (blank) drive, so I had to upload the builder software again. That software primed and pumped all of the partitions, so it must be run on any new drive. It would have blown away a used drive, but not a new one.

I began loading material from my old drives, but I found it was taking too long for my taste, and I was going to clean up and reload most of it anyway. I wanted to start fresh, so I stopped the disk to disk copy, and started with a clean empeg and emplode.

My mistake was in the hot glue. I needed to repair my unit when it arrived with a loose cable (the connection to the mainboard, not the drives), and I saw that it had no hot glue on the top of the drive or on the mainboard. I assumed I had no hot glue at all. Wrong! The underside of the drives was glued. I did not realize this until it was too late. I damaged the ribbon wire connector for the slave drive - popped off the back plate, so the ribbon was exposed on the back. I was able to fix it (more hot glue), and the drives test fine. I would, however, like to replace it in the long term. If anyone out there has a part number I should be looking for, please let me know. I know there is a part number for the Mark I in the FAQ.

[Additional: I have since checked out Videk and ordered part number 3018 - a dual drive model of the 3017 from the FAQ. I will soon find out if they ship to the US. Their site seems to allow international orders, but...]

Meanwhile, I am dumping my collection onto the empeg right now. Thanks to everyone for the help, to Tony for the FAQ and to everyone at empeg for the support and for a great product!!!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Edited by pgrzelak on 26/07/01 04:57 PM.

Ordered and received a 48 gb IBM HD yesterday. It installed flawlessly with my 30 gb. Now I can fit my whole collection! Install was simple and both drives seem to function great together. It took a few tries to run upgrade program on it but once it "took" everything went smoothly.

I assumed I had no hot glue at all. Wrong! The underside of the drives was glued. I did not realize this until it was too late.

OOPS.

Okay, time to make another edit to that FAQ...

___________
Tony Fabris

Greetings!

I should have been watching more carefully. My unit was shipped just as the hot glue was started. There was none on the main board or on the tops of the drives. Those ribbon cable connectors are very easy to dislodge. Fortunately, they are also easy to repair. It should hold, but I intend to replace it anyway.

The IBM 48GB drives are very nice so far. I continue to pour MP3s into it. I will be at this for a little while...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

The videk dual drive cable is no good for the mk2, it's very short.

The cable in the empeg is custom, but I don't think we have any stock of it I'm afraid...

Hugo

Greetings!

Well, the videk was worth a shot. I am certain I will be able to use it for another project.

As to the custom cable, I should be able to make one myself, but there is something nice about having the real thing. If any become available, let me know.

By the way, what was the issue with using the existing fdisk and upgrade utility on large drives? This drive did not seem to have any problems at all. Any symptoms I should watch for?

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

ISTR it just got everything a bit wrong. It may be that v1.03 had the later version in it magically, such is the wonder of autobuild systems...

Mike/John?

Hugo

would you guys mind posting where you are getting the 48GB drives from, and how much you paid for them?? pricewatch.com still isn't listing them. My warranty is up in a month and i plan on cracking it open the day it's up...heheh.


|| loren.cox ||

It may be that v1.03 had the later version in it magically, such is the wonder of autobuild systems...

Except that I don't think Mike's builder-image on the download site has been touched since around 1.0...

___________
Tony Fabris

I got mine at http://www.megahaus.com/ibm/ for $495 US dollars. As it becomes more available I'm sure you will be able to get it cheaper. I got to this site from the IBM site (how to order). Good luck

Greetings!

Mine were from harddrive.com, and they were listed at $479 there. And they were in stock!!! Solutions4Sure (from the IBM page) has them backordered at $440, and Dirt Cheap Drives (one that I have used a bit) has them at $495. Have fun!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Greetings!

Actually, when I put the autobuilder image in the upgrade utility, the comment field read 1.02 - if I remember correctly... Perhaps it was modified...

In any event, it seems healthy so far!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

combining the two FIDS directories should work. Anyone ever actually do that?

Yep, I did, when I moved all music contents of the Mk1 to my Mk2 by transplanting the second drive. This works fine as the player looks on /drive1if it cannot find music files on /drive0. It goes as follows:

a) add all music files from disk1 onto whatever music files already are on the second disk:
mount -n -o remount,rw /drive1
cd /drive1/fids
cp /drive0/fids/* . (star space dot!)
mount -n -o remount,ro /drive1
sync

b) drop the disk into the Mk2, and remove all music files on it:
mount -n -o remount,rw /drive0
cd /drive0/var
rm database
rm playlists
rm tags
cd /drive0/fids
rm *
mount -n -o remount,ro /drive0

start the player, connect to it via emplode and let it rebuild the database, and voila: all music recovered! According to Mike (who authored this procedure) the player now uses the music from the second disk in addition to that on the first disk (which is nothing). The wonderful thing is that any *new* music is shared between the two disks depending on available space in that emplode puts music on the disk with the most space, first .

(like rubbing a lamp . . . )

Henno
mk2 6 nr 6

Paul, please could you keep us posted with how things turn out. I was considering the upgrade as only have 2gig free space now. However my Empeg runs a little hot IMHO, and thought I might be pushing my luck going for bigger capacity drives. Or at least that I should consider installing a fan.

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341 2xDell RioReceiver

To all you guys wrapped up in the largest empeg title, I want to help fund your project...sort of...do any of you want to sell an old drive? I was looking for a 20GB but I would be interested in any at the right price. Just a thought, -Doug

-Doug
Mk2-12G Blue (Now A/R Green)

Yeah, me too.

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

Update:

I have been dumping music into the player over the past two days, pretty much non-stop. Unfortunately, I have to do the syncs in small bursts (very little available hard drive space, or dual CD), so I have been performing lots of small syncs. I have just hit my first FSCK.

WOW! That took a while! Got me very nervous for a moment there, until I finally saw a touch of blue in the progress bar.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Greetings!

Well, I have finished uploading my CDs to the empeg, and I have almost filled it. I now have about 9GB to spare.

Some random thoughts on the drives:

1) The IBM 48GBs seem louder. Noticably so. But it is not loud enough to be of any problem in a listening environment.

2) The drives seem to run at about the same temperature, or maybe a little hotter. I have not noticed any significant problems from that. As a comparison, 2 IBM 20s gave me a temperature of around 26-30C. The 2 48s are about 33C. Your milage may vary, and the temperatures are based on the displayserver readings as running in my cube at work.

3) I had only one sync problem in total. This was a stage 10 error, and I attribute it to load on my computer as opposed to the empeg. I did another sync and everything was fine. No other sync problems at all.

4) Database load time is noticable at startup. I guess that is to be expected... :)

5) I hope this becomes an option at Rio / empeg as the high end disk configuration soon. Sourcing may still be an issue, but the drives are becoming more common.

6) Physically, the drives are a little higher (12.5mm) than the 20s that were originally installed (9.5mm), but well within the range of the player.

7) I have not noticed any problems with the spindle requiring washers.

If I notice any problems, I will post them here. Thanks!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Yeah Mike!

Any hope of getting an updated builder image soon? I have a 48G on the way to add to my shiny new RioCar.*

As usual, pints on me when I get there in October.

*For those who don't know the story, Mk.II #39 was sent on a personal mission to find Amelia Earhart by my friends at American Airlines... I just got a RioCar to replace it.

-Zandr
Mk.I #0150 10GB
RioCar #010101243 10GB (96GB here I come...)

Greetings!

As an update, I have not had any problems since. I resynced manually, and I have not had any more problems. Today, I verified the uploaded files with my local list, and there were only a few albums that were off - all of them from CDRs that had errors in them. I am recopying them to local disk and I will try a sync in a few minutes. It might have just been bad source files. I hope...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Greetings!

The videk cables arrived yesterday. I had already ordered them before I read your post. You were not kidding! They are SHORT!. Time for me to re-learn metric measurements again. Maybe I can ask NASA for help...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

So I decided to do the upgrade as well (keeping my original 12GB disk and adding a 48GB disk). The best price I found was with Outpost.com (around $430), which claimed 3-5 day availability, vs. much longer lead times elsewhere.

Guess what arrived in today's e-mail?

Dear DAN :

Thank you for your order! We apologize but the item(s) you
ordered is currently out of stock and we are unable to provide a
definite ship date at this time. However, we continually receive
new merchandise in our warehouse and we hope to fulfill your
order within the next thirty days or sooner if possible.

Brilliant, huh?

Greetings!

I got mine from Harddrive.com, and they had them available then. No delay. Granted, they were $30-40 more than what you found listed, but they were in stock.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Harddrive.com listed "6-13 day availability" whereas Outpost.com said "3-5 day availability". Fool that I was, I believed them.

Hi.

You could just go ahead and cancel that order, If they said 3-5 day availability, and now change this to "30 days, may be less", this obviously makes your decision to order the disk from them invalid. I am not sure about american laws about this, but according to german law, you can just quit a contract (each order is a contract), if your contractor changes the conditions to your disadvantage.
However, I would only cancel that order after confirming that harddrive.com really has them available within 6-13 days.

cu,
sven

proud MkII owner (12GB blue/green/smoked, was #080000113 is #090001010)

Greetings!

Uh, maybe I have it cached or something, but I have www.harddrive.com having it available for same day shipping at $449... This is going to the actual site, not using outpost or anything like that.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Harddrive.com turns out to be in Texas, as am I, so I'd also be paying them state sales tax in addition to the premium they charge over Outpost.com. Also interesting, Outpost.com has raised their price by $10 relative to yesterday but is still listing "5-7 day availability". I called them on the phone about this, and it means, roughly, that they've ordered the equipment and the vendor (IBM) isn't promising them a ship date, but the vendor typically come through in under a week.

If I want, I can back out of the contract, but I'm going to give them another week to see if they're right. If I don't have the hard drive in hand next week, then I suck it up and pay the extra bucks to HardDrive.com.

*sigh*