Gubins

Hi Mike, I'm no expert on these machines - see gubins above - but I have an IT background too. I have formated in FAT32 for this purpose. There are several sites that have instructions or free small utilities for this job. Once installed in your machine you need to allow it to configure the second drive itself. Here is something that explains all you need to know about changing drives and setting them up. See Do At Your Own Risk at the bottom of this page - http://scorpiontheater.com/dm.aspx Formatting FAT32: A DOS version is - http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/ formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/ A utility is - http://www.downloadatoz.com/utility_directory/ fat32formatter/ There are many other sites with utilities for free but read each carefully to see it does what you want and check each screen as you install to make sure you do not agree to junk mail etc. Just google Format32 and read each site carefully. I use the word "carefully" a lot because I mean it! Barry (gubins)

Hi, I'm new here. I have posted this under another topic for a D4 but I'm not getting any response so I have opened a new Topic for this issue. I have read this forum and have been working on a DS2A DX16C with the two original 160GB Maxtor drives. It has firmware 3.1 (169). The owner wants me to upgrade it to two 500GB drives since the 160s are begining to play up, probably from old age. I bought two 500GB WD drives designed for this purpose with 8MB cache etc. Having followed all the instructions I found in this forum the new 500Gb drives would not work and it got stuck at the boot loader. I had to reformat the old drives as they were causing problems and tried them again from the backup I had made of the main drive earlier. That worked OK. I tried two 250Gb hard drives and they worked OK too. My questions are; Is there a limit on size? I suspect a limit might be 320Gb each drive, is that true? I have read where some people have installed 500Gb drives, a total of 1Tb, and even 750Gb drives, a 1.5Tb total. I think it was the same model. Can this really be done? Do I need to make any other changes to have larger drives? Does it need any motherboard changes? I hope someone can throw some light on this as the claims for larger drives led me to buy the 500Gb drives. I probably won't get my money back on those if it won't work at that size. HELP Please?? thanks to anyone who can help. cheers Barry

Thanks again. I will call DM but the previous time I did I found what I have seen everyone else report. They can be rude, are expensive, are not keen on giving out information and prefer to do the work. Although this is straight forward information about the external function so I should be OK. I see it can handle up to 1TB on the external SCSI as non-RAID drives. Will it work with SCSI/IDE adaptors is another thing. I will ask. I'll post the result once I get it. I am currently laid up with extreme sciatica so I'll call DM next week. Thanks for your quick in depth replies. Always a pleasure dealing with friendly professional people. " title="Applause" /> All the best. Barry

Gee it's not easy writing this with Koalas and Kangaroos climbing all over the place and messing with the furniture!! Just kidding. Funny how such misconceptions develop. Anyway Hi. I joined this forum as I am trying to fix a DM DS2A for a friend who runs a really great bakery - Yum, but easy to get fat! I normally work in IT and Electronic Engineering and because of these skills I find myself working on all sorts of things and designing all sorts of things. I have worked on a couple of other brands in this area of security too. I found there was excellent information available here although having posted a request for help I have not had a single response yet. Anyone out there??

Yeah to all your points. I have been in IT since the 70s, starting by using them as tools in R&D. Yes I know all about drive sizing and memory constraints etc. But those restrictions were progressively overcome and I don't know the age of the equipment in this field and DM may have chosen to limit sizes as well as they seem to do some things differently you might say! I don't know so I was just making gross assumptions which I got wrong. Oh well. As an excuse I am operating on low right now with busted disks L5/S1, L4/L5, L3/L4 so I forgive myself. It isn't a CD model and DVDs won't work if it’s like anything else. I agree it wouldn't take a HD on that channel for your reasons. I assumed that channel was backup as you wouldn't record for long on a single CD. I did try formatting the 500 as a 160 just to try it but that failed as I expected it would. I tried because you just never know with some equipment unless you're already experienced on it. I could use the drives elsewhere but they are dearer than normal drives and most IT customers would be looking for competitive results. Might be good on a server though with the 24/7 quality. I do have one client needing a larger RAID set soon. I looked at external use using a SCSI to IDE converter (not cheap) but I think external drives are only used for backup. I'm still checking on that, nothing has been 100% clear. If you know about that could you let me know? Firmware updates aren't likely as they made clear statements about the new models being more flexible but not older DS2 models. I really appreciate your help. Barry

Hi, thanks Soundy for the prompt reply! I had googled before and not found that specific brochure but at least it confirms my suspicions. Anyway it may be that the 600 is rounded and that 320Gb x 2 might be OK as 300Gb are not available, anyway I have no intention of paying to find out. I'm stuck with two 500Gb drives unless there is an update in the firmware. I'll chase that up. That link went to a brochure which says that the DS2 with CD has 600Gb limit. Given my past experience with model variations I probably saw that as only applying to the CD model - my mistake but plausible. There is also a table on Disk use to Days of recording and it goes as high as 825 Gb suggesting this may apply to a model in the range. It certainly was not commented against. My point being this info leads me to think it would take larger drives. An easy mistake to make when you come from the IT world I guess. I'll also look at external drives with a SCSI-IDE converter. I can add these as external drives I guess, not RAID though since it wastes 500Gb and it isn't that critical. If you have any advice on my points then I look forward to hearing from you. Otherwise thanks again, I appreciate your help and clarifictaion. cheers Barry

Hi, I'm new here. I have read this thread and have been working on a DS2A DX16C with the two original 160GB Maxtor drives. It has firmware 3.1 (169). The owner wants me to upgrade it to two 500GB drives since the 160s are playing up, probably from old age. I bought two 500GB WD drives designed for this purpose with 8MB cache etc. Having followed all the instructions I found it would not work and stuck on the boot loader. I had to reformat the old drives as they were causing problems and tried them again from the backup I had made of the main drive. It worked OK. I tried two 250Gb hard drives and they worked OK too. Is there a limit on size? Like maybe 320Gb each drive? I have read where some people have installed 500Gb drives, total 1Tb, and even 750Gb drives, 1.5Tb total in the same model (I think). Can this really be done? Do I need to make any other changes to have larger drives? Any motherboard changes? I hope someone can throw some light on this as the claims for larger drives led me to buy the 500Gb drives. I probably won't get my money back.