Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy

Posted by: Heather

Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 08/12/2016 01:23

Last time I needed to do this, I followed the empeg FAQ and pulled it off, so I know it isn't beyond me. That is down, so, of course, I need it. I remember nothing of how I did it, and anyone who remembers me around here knows I have the computer knowledge of a small child, so I need a how-to for a simpleton. What I have:

One player running hijack v508 and player software 2.01

One borrowed 80GB PATA 2.5 inch hard drive, so I can be sure it's not a dry solder joint before buying something bigger, there is no visual evidence of one.

emplode 2.0 and jemplode 69

a crossover cable, and the original serial cable attached to a usb to serial adapter.

The car builder 2.00 zip file (do I need the big disk builder? Where is it now?)

A windows 10 64 bit laptop, and an old windows 7 one if I need it.

Do I have all the pieces I need? How do I put the pieces together?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 08/12/2016 08:05

Yes, you need the bigdisk builder. It's at this site (I had to dig it out of my memory because I too usually depended on riocar.org for this)

http://rtr.ca/bigdisk/

From that page you want:
- builder_bigdisk_v3.upgrade (the builder)
- car2_v2b13_hijack.upgrade (the player)

With Emplode 2.0 installed, use it to install the builder, let it format the disk, then use it to install the player.

Then Emplode 2.0 should be good to get you loading songs on there via Ethernet.

Good luck! I am not sure I'd attempt it without the guide, and I *wrote* the damn guide. Let us know how you do!
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 08/12/2016 12:35

Or even simpler so long as the original drive is no larger than the (temporary) 80GB replacement drive:

Connect both drives to a machine running Linux, figure out which drive is which in Linux (either "lsscsi" or "blkid" command), and then clone the original to the new one:

sudo cat /dev/sdX > /dev/sdY ## Takes a very long time

Then just plug the new drive into the empeg and see what happens.
Posted by: Heather

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 08/12/2016 16:52

Figured out using the emplode upgrade wizard by myself when I woke up this morning. Started without big disk builder using the other builder file, running it with big disk builder now. I cancelled in the middle, did I just mess everything up? Do I apply the hijack upgrade after using the builder?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 08/12/2016 21:09

Originally Posted By: Heather
I cancelled in the middle, did I just mess everything up?


I don't know if the new BigDisk builder will stop you with the "Disk looks like it was already built" prompt on the serial port. Mark?

Quote:
Do I apply the hijack upgrade after using the builder?


Yes. But only if the builder completed fully.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 09/12/2016 02:57

Originally Posted By: tfabris
I don't know if the new BigDisk builder will stop you with the "Disk looks like it was already built" prompt on the serial port. Mark?


Quote:
Note that this v6 builder will unconditionally destroy any existing files that it finds. USE WITH CAUTION.


So, the v6 builder at least appears to just overwrite anything that's already there, which is what we want it to do in this situation. The serial output that Heather sees should say what it does/did.

The v3 builder on the other hand.. may refuse to run if it sees a half-built drive.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 09/12/2016 07:22

So, to be certain that the bigdisk builder gets used and that it runs to completion, then use the V6 builder instead of the V3 builder I had earlier suggested.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 09/12/2016 13:08

Or just pay attention to the serial output. smile
Posted by: Heather

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 11/12/2016 18:07

Windows 10 does not play well with the Radio Shack USB to serial adapter. Worked fine on the old Windows 7 laptop. It was as simple as running the upgrader using the big disk builder first, then hijack. Never watched the serial output, but after using the big disk builder but before adding hijack, the player screen told me it looks like the disk has already been built.

Next question: Am I correct in thinking this PATA SSD is a suitable replacement for the hard drive?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 11/12/2016 23:12

I would love to know that too. I'm interested in putting an SSD into my player too.

I'm also thinking of replacing the shock mount assembly with a simpler, more solid mount for an SSD (since SSDs don't care about vibraion). Reason: Sometimes the IDE cable rubs up against stuff on the backside of the display board and gets frayed and has other troubles. I'm hoping that switching to a solid-mount SSD would get rid of that problem.
Posted by: Roger

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 12/12/2016 12:12

I've got a Transcend SSD in my empeg. Works fine. I don't see any reason why the Kingspec ones wouldn't work just as well.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 12/12/2016 13:28

Originally Posted By: Heather
Am I correct in thinking this PATA SSD is a suitable replacement for the hard drive?


Yes, looks near perfect. Any larger could be troublesome (memory), but that 128GB model does look ideal. I have the 64GB version of it here, but have not yet installed it.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 12/12/2016 18:47

As long as it's not a 128gb USB stick hidden inside a PATA disk enclosure. smile

I can't find pics of that now, but I've heard of it happening in the past and remember seeing pics.
Posted by: Shonky

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 02:20

Originally Posted By: tfabris
As long as it's not a 128gb USB stick hidden inside a PATA disk enclosure. smile

I can't find pics of that now, but I've heard of it happening in the past and remember seeing pics.


This one?

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-...able-hard-drive

Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 13:08

That's a USB stick inside a USB drive enclosure.
But yeah, probably what he meant. smile
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 17:49

Wow, is most of that stuff just for weight?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 20:49

Yes. A couple of bolts, and machine nuts, all hot melt glued in place to give it the feel of something other than a nearly empty shell.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 22:14

How different is the BIOS/OS or whatever in a Flash Drive compared to an SSD? Clearly it's more than just the number of gigabytes. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if we could just plug a thumb drive into a SATA slot and have it work...

tanstaafl.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 13/12/2016 22:34

Usually, the firmware in a USB flash drive isn't as good at wear leveling as a full fledged SSD. Many flash drives are also "optimized" to work only with MS-DOS, MS-Win, and OS/X filesystems; they can perform rather poorly when used for anything else. They also tend to be much, MUCH slower at writing than a real SSD, and usually slower at reading as well.

A lot of that comes from the grade and quantity of flash chips used. An SSD has a lot more space for chips, and so normally implements many parallel channels from which higher speeds can be derived. USB sticks usually have as few chips as possible, to keep the form factor small, and often use a very low grade of chip that wears out 10-1000X faster than an SSD.

Cheers
Posted by: andy

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 14/12/2016 09:32

Also real SSDs have an awful lot of computing power on them nowadays. Recent ones include multiple ARM CPU cores. One Samsung one has 5 ARM cores in its controller.

SSDs have far more ARM computing power in them then a stack of empegs wink
Posted by: gbeer

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 20/12/2016 03:47

I presume CF cards still work well?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Hard Drive Replacement - for a dummy - 20/12/2016 20:47

CF cards still work for empeg storage. The ones I have tried (older 16/32GB cards) were considerably slower "syncing" with emplode than a mechanical drive. Much faster in regular operation though. Newer, faster-writing cards should be quicker all around.